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Attacks and Defenses
Published April 8th 2013 by Auerbach Publications – 280 pages
Android Security: Attacks and Defenses is for anyone interested in learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the Android platform from a security perspective. Starting with an introduction to Android OS architecture and application programming, it will help readers get up to speed on the basics of the Android platform and its security issues.
Explaining the Android security model and architecture, the book describes Android permissions, including Manifest permissions, to help readers analyze applications and understand permission requirements. It also rates the Android permissions based on security implications and covers JEB Decompiler.
The authors describe how to write Android bots in JAVA and how to use reversing tools to decompile any Android application. They also cover the Android file system, including import directories and files, so readers can perform basic forensic analysis on file system and SD cards. The book includes access to a wealth of resources on its website: www.androidinsecurity.com. It explains how to crack SecureApp.apk discussed in the text and also makes the application available on its site.
The book includes coverage of advanced topics such as reverse engineering and forensics, mobile device pen-testing methodology, malware analysis, secure coding, and hardening guidelines for Android. It also explains how to analyze security implications for Android mobile devices/applications and incorporate them into enterprise SDLC processes.
The book’s site includes a resource section where readers can access downloads for applications, tools created by users, and sample applications created by the authors under the Resource section. Readers can easily download the files and use them in conjunction with the text, wherever needed. Visit www.androidinsecurity.com for more information.
… a must-have for security architects and consultants as well as enterprise security managers who are working with mobile devices and applications.
—Dr. Dena Haritos Tsamitis, Director of the Information Networking Institute; and Director of Education, CyLab, Carnegie Mellon University
If you are facing the complex challenge of securing data and applications for Android, this book provides valuable insight into the security architecture and practical guidance for safeguarding this modern platform.
—Gerhard Eschelbeck, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Sophos
… a great introduction to Android security, both from a platform and applications standpoint. … provides the groundwork for anybody interested in mobile malware analysis … a great starting point for anybody interested in cracking the nitty-gritty of most Android apps.
—Nicholas Falliere, Founder of JEB Decompiler
… Dubey and Misra have filled a critical gap in software security literature by providing a unique and holistic approach to addressing this critical and often misunderstood topic. They have captured the essential threats and countermeasures that are necessary to understand and effectively implement secure Android-driven mobile environments.
—James Ransome, Senior Director of Product Security, McAfee, An Intel Company
Good book for Android security enthusiasts and developers that also covers advanced topics like reverse engineering of Android applications. A must have book for all security professionals.
—Sanjay Kartkar, Cofounder of Quick Heal Technologies
… an excellent book for professional businesses that are trying to move their corporate applications on mobile/Android platforms. It helped me understand the threats foreseen in Android applications and how to protect against them.
—Jagmeet Malhotra, Vice President of Markets & International Banking, Royal Bank of Scotland
The book gives security professionals and executives a practical guide to the security implications and best practices for deploying Android platforms and applications in the (corporate) environment.
—Steve Martino, VP Information Security, Cisco
Evolution of Mobile Threats
Android ArchitectureAndroid Architecture Overview
Android Start Up and Zygote
Android SDK and Tools
Downloading and Installing the Android SDK
Developing with Eclipse and ADT
Anatomy of the "Hello World" Application
Understanding Hello World
Android Application Architecture
Android (in)SecurityAndroid Security Model
Android’s Manifest Permissions
Putting It All Together
Mobile Security Issues
Recent Android Attacks—A Walkthrough
Analysis of DroidDream Variant
Analysis of Zsone
Analysis of Zitmo Trojan
Pen Testing Android
Penetration Testing Methodology
External Penetration Test
Internal Penetration Test
Penetration Test Methodologies
Steps to Pen Test Android OS and Devices
Tools for Penetration Testing Android
Vulnerabilities in the Android OS
Penetration Testing—Android Applications
Reverse Engineering Android ApplicationsIntroduction
What is Malware?
Identifying Android Malware
Reverse Engineering Methodology for Android Applications
Modifying the Behavior of Android Applications without Source CodeIntroduction
To Add Malicious Behavior
To Eliminate Malicious Behavior
To Bypass Intended Functionality
DEX File Format
Case Study: Modifying the Behavior of an Application
Real World Example 1—Google Wallet Vulnerability
Real World Example 2—Skype Vulnerability (CVE-2011-1717)
Perform Code Obfuscation
Perform Server Side Processing
Perform Iterative Hashing and Use Salt
Choose the Right Location for Sensitive Information
Android File System
Android Application Data
Rooting Android Devices
Accessing Application Databases
Extracting Data from Android Devices
Securing Android for the Enterprise EnvironmentAndroid in Enterprise
Security Concerns for Android in Enterprise
Recommended Security Practices for Mobile Devices
Deploying Android Securely
Browser Security and Future Threat LandscapeMobile HTML Security
Cross-Site Request Forgery
Mobile Browser Security
The Future Landscape
The Phone as a Spying/Tracking Device
Controlling Corporate Networks and Other Devices through Mobile Devices
Mobile Wallets and NFC
B.2 Code Views
B.3 Keyboard Shortcuts
Anmol Misra is a contributing author of the book Defending the Cloud: Waging War in Cyberspace(Infinity Publishing, December 2011). His expertise includes mobile and application security, vulnerability management, application and infrastructure security assessments, and security code reviews.
He is currently Program Manager of the Critical Business Security External (CBSE) team at Cisco. The CBSE team is part of the Information Security Team (InfoSec) at Cisco and is responsible for the security of Cisco’s Cloud Hosted Services. Prior to joining Cisco, Anmol was a Senior Consultant with Ernst & Young LLP. In his role, he advised Fortune 500 clients on defining and improving Information Security programs and practices. He helped large corporations to reduce IT security risk and achieve regulatory compliance by improving their security posture.
Anmol holds a master’s degree in Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering. He served as Vice President of Alumni Relations for the Bay Area chapter of the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association.In his free time, Anmol enjoys long walks on the beaches of San Francisco. He is a voracious reader of nonfiction books—especially, history and economics—and is an aspiring photographer.
Abhishek Dubey has a wide variety of experience in information security, including reverse engineering, malware analysis, and vulnerability detection. He is currently working as a Lead/Senior Engineer of the Security Services and Cloud Operations team at Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, Abhishek was Senior Researcher in the Advanced Threat Research Group at Webroot Software.
Abhishek holds a master’s degree in Information Security and Technology Management from Carnegie Mellon University and also holds a B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He is currently pursuing studies in Strategic Decisions and Risk Management at Stanford University. He has served as Vice President of Operations and Alliances for the Bay Area chapter of the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association. This alumni chapter is 5,000 students strong. In his free time, Abhishek is an avid distance runner and photographer. He also enjoys rock climbing and being a foodie. |
Sony Patents Reveal the Fascinating Moves That Never Were
Posted by James Newton
Analogue sticks and more
Move's a simple beast, really: glowing sphere, gyrometers, accelerometers and that's about it. But what if it could be more? Recently revealed patents filed by Sony show the different avenues the controller could have taken in its route to market, including analogue sticks, twistable balls and a pressure-sensitive sphere enabling the controller to function like a traditional joystick.
Essentially the controller would be changeable, allowing you to use its different configurations depending on its orientation: want to use it like a joystick? Push it against a table. Want to use the ball on top to navigate? Hold it upright and navigate away.
Probably the patent we'd most like to see is the controller featuring an analogue stick built-in, which could bring new life to first-person shooters and horror titles: imagine navigating a Project Zero title using just one controller.
Of course, as always these are granted patent applications and not necessarily any indication of what Sony is planning to bring to market, but they're still fascinating insights into goes on behind the scenes at Sony. |
|1.||Present new material in small steps to that the working memory does not become overloaded.|
|2.||Help students develop an organization for the new material.|
|3.||Guide student practice by (a) supporting students during initial practice, and (b) providing for extensive student processing.|
|4.||When teaching higher level tasks, support students by providing them with cognitive strategies.|
|5.||Help students learn to use the cognitive strategies by providing them with procedural prompts and modeling the use of these procedural prompts.|
|6.||Provide for extensive student practice.|
Thirty years ago, particularly with the publication of the first Handbook of Research on Teaching ( Gage, 1963) and the investment of public and private funds into research, we began an extensive program of research and development in education. This chapter is an attempt to highlight some of the major results that have been obtained in the area of instruction, results which have relevance for today's teachers and students.
Alvermann D. E. ( 1981). "The compensatory effect of graphic organizers on descriptive text". Journal of Educational Research, 75, 44-48.
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Book title: Issues in Educating Students with Disabilities. Contributors: Edward J. Kameenui - Editor, David Chard - Editor, John Wills Lloyd - Editor. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of publication: Mahwah, NJ. Publication year: 1997. Page number: 217.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means. |
GUIDE TO VOTING: Voting is simple – there are just a few guidelines you must follow. Here is the basic information that you need to know for Election Day.
Nevada law requires that you:
1. Must be 18 years of age or over 2. A U.S. citizen 3. Be a resident of Nevada for 30 days preceding any election 4. Cannot be convicted of certain felonies unless civil rights have been restored
(Ask your County Clerk or Registrar for more information) 5. Cannot be declared by a court to be mentally incompetent
In order to vote, you must first register. Simply fill out a voter registration application form. Application forms can be completes and submitted online, a Nevada issued ID is required. Ifyou are submitting your voter registration form by mail and are registering for the first time in Nevada, verification of your identification and residency is required in order to avoid the additional identification requirements upon voting for
the first time. Voter registration applicationsare available at the following locations:
· (Business to insert contact info of staff member in charge of voter registration forms) · Online at www.RegisterToVoteNV.gov · Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles · County Clerk/Registrar of Voters’ Office
· Secretary of State’s Office · Any City Clerk’s Office · United States Post Offices · Political party offices
· Voter Registration Agencies
Submit your application online or return via mail or in person to:
· Your County Clerk or Registrar of Voters’ Office · Your City Clerk’s Office
You will need to submit a new voter registration form if you have changed your physical address, your name or your party affiliation.
DeADLiNes FOR RegisteRiNg tO VOte
General Election Online & Mail in - October 6, 2012 In Person - October 16, 2012 Election Day - November 6, 2012
If you are a first-time voter, you may need to provide a copy of an acceptable form of identification with your Absent Ballot Request Form in order to vote via absent ballot. Acceptable forms of identification include:
Forms of ID may include:
a. Current Nevada Drivers’ License*;
b. Current Nevada State Identification Card*;
c. Current and valid identification card issued by a branch of the Armed Forces of the United States;
d. A current and valid identification card issued by a sheriff of a Nevada county to an employee as a condition of his employment by certain business enterprises;
e. A current and valid identification card issued by an agency of the State of Nevada or political subdivision thereof or the United States, including, without limitation, a public school, college or university;
f. A current and valid student identification card from an accredited private school, college or university;
g. A current and valid United States passport; h. A current and valid insurance plan identification card which the county clerk determines,
in his discretion, to be a reliable indication of the true name and identity of the person;
i. A current and valid tribal identification card;
j. A current and valid employee identification card which the county clerk determines, in his discretion, to be a reliable indication of the true name and identity of the person; or
k. Any other official article which the county clerk determines, in his discretion, to be a reliable indication of the true name and identity of the person, including, without limitation, an expired article listed in paragraphs (a) to (j), inclusive, if that article has been expired for 30 calendar days or less and is otherwise valid.
* Provide one of these forms of ID for online registration.
For more information go to www.lvchamber.com |
A newspaper report says up to 70 per cent of funding for the $A672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program, which has yet to result in a completed house, was being spent on indirect costs such as administration and contractors' fees.
Canberra says houses are being built using other money, but Indigenous issues are big political testing grounds for the government that delivered an apology for past wrongs to the first Australians. One former Aboriginal affairs minister has admonished both sides of politics for their failures on Indigenous issues, but it's not entirely hopeless.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speaker: Paul Pholeros, director Healthabitat; Jenny Macklin, Australian Minister for Indigenous Affairs; Mal Brough, former Australian Minister for Indigenous Affairs
MOTTRAM: Drains that don't drain, toilets not connected to water, unsafe electricity, no shade over tin shacks in the harshest of Australia's hot climate. The conditions in some Australian indigenous communities are reminiscent of the most impoverished anywhere but these are in one of the world's wealthiest countries. Indigenous housing, especially in Australia's remote areas, has long been in crisis.
PHOLEROS: I think it's been in crisis for the 20 years that I've been involved in this work. I think it's a national disgrace.
MOTTRAM: Paul Pholeros is an architect by training who runs Healthabitat. Since the mid-1980s he's taken a very hands on approach to the problems, on the basis that Aboriginal people are often promised much but see little delivered.
PHOLEROS: So on day one the work we started in central Australia tried to improve really basic things in their houses and the surrounding living environment, the yards and the bits around the house. So for example in the early days we'd take in tap washers and a screwdriver and simple gear to fix a tap from working, we'd try and coerce a plumber or an electrician to get a hot water system working.
MOTTRAM: The philosophy he says is to make sure people see physical improvement from day one. Healthabitat's work has grown over the years to take on much bigger works over six months to a year, also grounded in the knowledge that poor housing and sanitation are a key cause of many of Indigenous Australia's equally disastrous health troubles. Paul Pholeros is also wedded to maximum indigenous involvement.
PHOLEROS: And it's through fixing things also you engage differently with indigenous people and about 80 per cent, as of yesterday 80 per cent of our teams nationally over the last ten years have been local indigenous people.
MOTTRAM: Healthabitat's work has proceeded without fanfare over the years. Government's though tend to favour big announcements. So for a government that delivered an historic and long-awaited apology to the Aboriginal people and which has spoken loudly of its commitment to making a real difference in Aboriginal people's lives, the news that its big indigenous housing fund hasn't delivered a single new dwelling sits uncomfortably.
Quick to point to houses being built using other funding, and upgrades to existing houses, Australia's Indigenous Affairs minister, Jenny Macklin, also portrayed a government not rushing to make the same old mistakes.
MACKLIN: We're getting on with the job of building and upgrading homes, in many parts of the northern territory and making sure that we don't make the mistakes of the past, that we don't just build a house here build a house there, that we don't get the Aboriginal employment that we need to get.
MOTTRAM: And while not losing a chance to score a political point against the Rudd Labor government, the Aboriginal affairs minister in the previous Liberal government, Mal Brough, delivered up one of the more frank assessments of the debate.
BROUGH: And I'm disappointed that the Opposition today is not asking serious questions on a regular basis in question time, and keeping this issue in the forefront of Australian society and Australia's consciousness, it's absolutely necessary, if we're going to continue to make headway.
MOTTRAM: The government is accutely aware of past criticisms about money wasted on consultants and projects badly delivered, criticisms that are eerily similar to those levelled at international development assistance. And some of these matters are currently under review. Paul Pholeros says the Billions of dollars government's promise are needed. But he says without a careful method of delivery, the money will be wasted.
PHOLEROS: That's been one of our greatest learnings over the years. Start small, develop local teams, develop knowledge, develop skill and then expand almost virally. So that one team, leads to two, leads to four, leads to eight.
MOTTRAM: How Australia is progressing will also shortly be scored, when the United Nations special raporteur on indigenous affairs visits Australia in August. |
January 23 2012
All week we’ve be talking about Dixieland Jazz on the Mardi Gras Moments, a quintessential style of music from New Orleans and the old-timey sound of Mardi Gras. Wednesday, we had Jack Teagarden, often regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone" on the Moment.
He is often mentioned as one of the best white male jazz vocalists of the era; his singing style is quite like his trombone playing, in terms of improvisation (in the same way that Louis Armstrong sang quite like he played trumpet). His singing is best remembered for duets with Louis Armstrong and Johnny Mercer. We heard him on his own on Wednesday however on the excellent "Sheik Of Araby"
Jack Teagarden "The Sheik Of Araby"
Speaking of the early days of Jazz and ragtime. Another way to think about that early jazz though, is as ragtime with a bit of swing. A few performers at the turn of the century helped that transition with advances in their respective techniques. One such artist was Ferdinand Joseph La Mothe AKA Ferd “Jelly Roll” Morton.
Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz. He was among the first to put swing into ragtime piano, adapting the emerging sound of early jazz to the piano. A style called Stride Piano, where one hand played a walking bassline while the other carried the melody in a rhythmic way. Morton’s style was different than other Stride Piano players, and is identified as having that New Orleans flavor due to the way his right hand played the melody. He was also jazz's first arranger, putting jazz to paper. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition, in 1915 and what we hear for Thursday’s Mardi Gras Moment…
Jelly Roll Morton "Jelly Roll Blues"
If you like these Moments, or just like a good party, you bet 88Nine's throwin down at our Fat Tuesday shindig at Turner Hall in the 21st of February. Mama Digdown's Brass Band and Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound will be playing and we hope to see you there... |
For the calculation of the correct frame size we need your inseam and your body height. Furthermore you should indicate if you prefer to sit on your bike rather comfortably or rather sportingly. If you are not sure, we can advise you by phone if you call +49-2225-8888-222!
The inseam is the length of inner side of your leg. It is best to measure your inseam by using a water-level and a measuring tape. If you do not have a water-level at hand, you can also use a book or something similar. Now stand bare-footed (!) on a flat ground, clamp the water-level (or the book) preferably horizontally between your legs and pull it as far upwards as possible until it slowly gets unpleasant. Now measure the distance of the upper edge of the water-level down to the ground. The read data corresponds to your inseam.
For a racing bike:
Multiply your inseam by the factor 0,665.
The calculated value is the theoretical frame size in cm.
For a mountain bike:
Multiply your inseam by the factor 0,226.
The calculated value is the theoretical frame size in inch.
We call it "theoretical" frame sizes, because as also mentioned before, personal preferences can sometimes put this value ad acta. Thus many cross country-racers will e. g. choose a smaller frame size than calculated. This modification of the frame size should only be done by experienced bikers, beginners are better off with the "theoretical" frame size or with the expert advice of our hotline. |
When it comes to staying connected in the trucking industry, younger people tend to use the internet frequently. And they tend to use smart phones for purposes other than making phone calls and to use social media – no matter what industry segment they work in. Those are just some of the conclusions drawn from the Trucking Connectivity Study, produced by Randall-Reilly Market Intelligence.
“This is the most comprehensive study available on the trends and behaviors affecting how members of the trucking industry communicate and stay informed,” says Avery Vise, executive director, trucking research, Randall-Reilly Business Media & Information. “It is must-have information for anyone who markets products and services within trucking.”
The study also found that age appeared to correlate more with adoption of smart phones and use of social media than with use of the internet in general. Instead, frequency of internet use appears to vary more by occupation. Mobile trucking professionals – owner-operators and company drivers – are not as likely to be constantly connected as are office-based professionals. Similarly, radio/satellite radio is a frequent source of trucking information for drivers and owner-operators but almost irrelevant for other audiences.
In all but one audience – company drivers – a majority of respondents did not use any of the major social media networks. Facebook was the most widely used social media network in all audiences, both in terms of percentage that use it at all and in the frequency of use. Although not as popular as Facebook, LinkedIn is used by a significant number of dealer and fleet executives. But Twitter is used by a very small percentage in all audiences.
Other Key Findings:
- Printed magazines remain the most important source of trucking information for all audiences.
- Nearly half of fleet executives are connected to the Internet at all times and more than 60% of those 50 and under are constantly connected.
- More than 70% of owner-operators use the Internet at least once a day.
- A majority of company drivers use Facebook, including 60% of those 50 and younger.
- Dealers use supplier websites more frequently than any other source of information on trucking, although e-mail newsletters are very close behind.
- A majority of parts distributor/repair facility executives/managers do not use any of the major social media networks, and there was no significant difference between older and younger respondents.
The study was conducted over a series of weeks over Randall-Reilly’s extensive audiences in the fleet, owner-operator, company driver, dealer, distributor and repair garage segments. A total of 2,167 online and telephone surveys were completed.
To request a copy of the full report, please contact us. |
We provide extraordinary care for fine
garments & household textiles
While most of the USA has been digging out from
under snowdrifts and shielding against the driving rain, we've had
a relatively mild winter so far in Arizona (yesterday, I was
outdoors in a T-shirt and shorts!)
But it'll turn colder soon and you'll be finally digging out
your woolen sweaters, coats and scarves. Hopefully you won't be
greeted with little holes in any of those woolen garments.
Now you're thinking, here we go again. The vicious cycle of
storage, reweaving, wearing, and storage, reweaving, wearing.
So what can you do to break the cycle?
with most issues, before you can formulate a solution, you
need to first understand the problem.
Here's what you need to know (at a minimum) ...
The female adult moth can lay up to 200 eggs in a cycle, up to 5
cycles a year. When the female adult moth is searching for the
"ideal" egg laying location, she's looking for a source of
nutrition for the larvae to feed on when they hatch. The larvae
must feed in order to survive and grow.
Unfortunately, garments stored without first being
cleaned contain all the nutrients necessary to sustain
life for those larvae. These nutrients include proteins, mineral
salts, vitamin B complex and cholesterol that accumulate on your
garments from perspiration, body oil, food or beverage simply by
virtue of the fact that the garment has been worn.
The problem is complicated by the fact that the larvae will
often feast on the inside of a garment, on the surface of a
garment, or on certain threads in a garment. This reduces the
thickness or strength of the fibers in those places. So when the
garment is either worn, hand washed or dry cleaned, the possibility
exists that holes that were not previously visible to the naked eye
could open up.
So you need to look for areas where the cloth has been eaten
through (the fabric will show a hole with the fibers around the
edge of the hole partially eaten away). And look for areas where
the cloth has been eaten on the surface (the fabric will appear to
be "cratered" with the cloth partially eaten away). Lighter colors
are easier to detect; darker colors more difficult to detect. But,
with careful examination, you should be able to see moth damage
with the naked eye.
Now that you know what the problem is, the solution is really
quite simple: the only way to "guarantee" that you won't
have a moth problem is to hand wash and/or dry clean your fine
woolens before you store.
Even if you think your items are
clean, you ought to clean them anyway. Why? Because there are many
different kinds of stains that you may not have seen and that will
leave a layer of organic material for the moth larvae to feed
Remember the mantra: clean before you store because no
source of nutrition means no moth problem.
Notice that I've said nothing about cedar blocks, cedar chests,
cedar lined closets, herbal sachets, moth balls, polypropylene
boxes, zip lock bags or nylon or vinyl zip up bags supplied by your
favorite clothing store.
Why? Because these solutions don't
eliminate the problem, they only
contain the problem.
That having been said, you can enhance the protection of your
fine woolens while in storage in two ways:
In tomorrow's post, I'll examine what you can do about woolens
that have developed moth holes.
Here are two examples of moth eaten textiles.
Huntsman wool bespoke suit jacket
Frette cashmere throw
How can I help you?
Print, share or save this blog post
Subscribe to our rss feed.
Copyright 2009, Rave Fabricare. All Rights ReservedInternet Marketing Agency |
Activist Jacob Reitan and his parents gave moving testimony on a marriage equality bill the Minnesota state House committee passed on Tuesday.
“We love Jacob so very much,” said Randi, his mother. “We come here today as a family with dreams, dreams that someday soon Minnesota will grant our son Jacob the freedom to marry. We want for Jacob what has been so precious to us for 40 years.”
Jacob’s father Phillip said that when his son came out of the closet 15 years ago, the family didn’t really have any idea what he was telling them. They had no LGBT friends and knew no other families with LGBT children.
“Jacob was patient with us,” said his father. “He led us.”
“We have been on a journey as a family ever since, working to see the day of equality,” he continued. “Our family longs to rejoice at Jacob’s wedding.”
Jacob Reitan, who organized the 2006 Soulforce Ride, a bus tour of activists to university campuses and communities across the country in favor of LGBT rights, spoke about his three siblings’ weddings.
“During these ceremonies I wiped away tears as my siblings exchanged vows and forged new families with their beloveds,” he said. “As a gay man, I should have the same opportunity to marry as my three siblings. My desire to love is no less valid and no less worthy of recognition by our state than theirs.”
The family’s testimony was in sharp contrast to a statement at the same hearing by “concerned Minnesotan and father and husband” Mike Fry, who presented his rambling, semi-coherent thoughts about the biological process of HIV infection and butt enzymes.
The two bills legalizing same sex marriage passed out of their respective committees on Tuesday, and will now go before the full state House and Senate. If they pass, the bills will then go to the desk of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, who has pledged to sign the bill into law.
Watch the video, embedded via UpTake Video, below:
(hat-tip to Towleroad.com) |
Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels Edinburgh
R.B. Grant Electrical Contractors (MCS approved) are a family run business who design, supply and install solar panels in Edinburgh and surrounding areas. We are an experienced local Edinburgh solar panels installers working from our city centre office. Our 4KW system start from £4500 fully installed. Our clients benefit from the feed in tarriff which is only available from MCS accredited contractors. All work is carried out by our fully qualified staff. We do not use subcontractors for Edinburgh solar panels installations.
Our company have extensive knowledge in the design and installation of PV panel systems. We provide a free PV design service provided by our fully qualified solar surveyor to provide the most efficient solar system. We provide help with planning issues in listed buildings or conservation areas which can be common in Edinburgh.
Solar Panel Edinburgh Review
Mrs Martin ” We decided to get a price from RB Grant for a solar panel installation in Edinburgh because of a recommendation from a friend. We were very happy with the survey which was carried out and at no point did they use pushy sales tactics which other solar panel companies had tried. The installation was completed in a day and both inside and outside kept clean and tidy. The solar panels have generated very well in the last 3 months since installed. We would recommend the services of RB Grant for solar panel installation in Edinburgh ”
We have many examples of solar PV systems in Edinburgh and many of our happy customers are happy to grant a visit. We do on-roof, in-roof, wall mounted and ground solar PV systems, so whatever your property type, we have a PV solution for you. We use a range of solar PV panels to suit our clients’ needs. From top quality high yielding arrays to more cost effective solar panels, we specify our systems to meet our clients needs specifically.
Solar photovoltaic systems (solar panels) use energy from the sun to create electricity used to run household appliances and lighting. Using a renewable energy system can save you money and help reduce climate change. Gain free electricity for your household, get paid for the electricity you generate and sell the left over energy back to the supplier. We are a registered MCS installer for photovoltaic solar panel installation and design in Edinburgh.
If you are looking for a solar panel installer in Edinburgh, you can trust us to provide a quality service at a competitive cost.
See an example of the payback period for various solar panel systems.
At R.B. Grant we can find which solar panels are best for you.
Is your home in a suitable location for Solar Panels Edinburgh ?
Ensure your home is not over-shadowed by trees or buildings. This can reduce the output of the system.
Do you need a building warrant for solar panels?
You may require a building warrant from Edinburgh Council but as certifiers of construction we can apply for the warrant and approve the installation.
Do you need planning permission?
Always obtain planning permission from your local government authority in case the property is a listed building or in a conservation area in Edinburgh. We can help with this.
Is your roof strong enough?
Solar panels and the mounting can be heavy. The roof must be strong enough to take their weight. We can arrange a structural engineer report where required.
Zero-interest loans of up to £2,000 are available for Scottish householders to help them install heat and electricity generating renewable systems – Energy Savings Trust, Home Renewables Loan Scheme.
- Reduce your carbon footprint
- Store electricity
- Reduce electricity bills
- Obtain a solar panel grant or loan
- Sell electricity back to the grid via the feed in tarriff at 43.3p
- Renewable and reliable solar energy
- Low maintenance solar
- Silent – no noise pollution |
VOLUME 21 , NUMBER 42 (April 1819)Notes | Contents, Identification of Contributors, and Historical Notes | Key to Abbreviations | Permissions
- This Number was published 10 Sept. 1819 [Courier advertisement, 10 Sept. 1819] The date on the original wrappers is 'September 1819' [Bookseller's online booklist: Barrow's Books, Country Carlow, Ireland, Nov. 2003]
- The so-called Peterloo Massacre occurred on 16 August 1819
- Important or otherwise interesting articles in this Number include: #504, #505, #507, #510, #512
- Number of definite attributions for this issue: 9 out of 9 articles
CONTENTS, IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRIBUTORS, AND HISTORICAL NOTES
504 Article 1. Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern, from the German of Frederick Schlegel, 271-320. Author: Thomas Mitchell, possibly with William Richard Hamilton and John Hookham Frere.
Running Title: View of Grecian Philosophy.—The Clouds, &c.
Notes: In attributing the article to Mitchell, Shine cites JM III's Register and the DNB article on Mitchell.
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Murray MS., Thomas Mitchell to JM, 1 Dec. 1818 and Murray MS., Mitchell to JM, 21 Jan. 1819, Mitchell says he does not mind if Hamilton and Frere look at his manuscript article on Schlegel. On the article's first page, the review's author refers back to #316, an article by Hare-Naylor. (Though the reviewer mistakenly cites Number XVII instead of Number XXIII.)
JM III's Register: attribution to Mitchell, but without evidence.
505 Article 2. Humboldt and Bonpland, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799-1804. vol. iv, 320-52. Author: John Barrow.
Running Title: De Humboldt's Travels.
Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites JM III's Register and Gentleman's Magazine XXI 578.
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Gentleman's Magazine (Mar. 1844), 246-47. The article's author refers back to Barrow's other reviews of Humboldt, #368, #394, #446. This article, #505, is alluded to in #590, an article by Barrow. In his QR articles, it was Barrow's signature practice to refer to his own works.
JM III's Register: attribution to Barrow, but without evidence.
506 Article 3. Hawkins, Dissertation on the Use and Importance of Unauthoritative Tradition, 352-59. Author: Richard Whately.
Running Title: Hawkins's Dissertation on Tradition.
Notes: In attributing the article to Whately, Shine cites only JM III's Register.
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Newcastle Society of Antiquaries MS., ZAN M12 /D5 pg. 138, WG to Edward Copleston, n.d. [but between 2 Feb. and 4 June 1819], WG will gladly receive Whately's article.
JM III's Register: attribution to Whately, but without evidence.
507 Article 4. St. A., Promenade aux Cimetières de Paris, aux Sépultures Royales de Saint Denis, et aux Catacombes, &c; Thury, Description des Catacombes de Paris, précédée d'un Précis Historique sur les Catacombes de tous les Peuples de l'ancien et du nouveau Continent, 359-98. Author: Robert Southey.
Running Title: Cemeteries and Catacombs of Paris.
Notes: In attributing the article to Southey, Shine cites JM III's Register; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 578; Cottle 242-43; Warter III 145-46; and Surtees 291n. Shine says to see also Warter III 96 and Southey 368. Shine also quotes from the following letters. Murray MS., WG to JM, postmarked Ramsgate, 6 Aug. : 'I expect most from his [Southey's] Churches & Catacombs—This is just the subject for his peculiar powers.' Murray MS., WG to JM, : 'Hayti [#509] I will set about immediately.—I like Southey very well; as I read him from end to end in the Revise. I could not make it shorter.'
JM III's Register: attribution to Southey, but without evidence.
508 Article 5. The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 58 Geo. III. Vol. VII. Part II; Analytical Digest of the Reports of Cases decided in the Courts of Common Law and Equity, of Appeal and Nisi Prius, in the Year 1817. To be continued Annually. By a Barrister, 398-430. Author: John Miller, with George Canning and John Backhouse, and with materials from Sir Charles Stuart and Henry Addington, Lord Sidmouth.
Running Title: State of the Laws of Great Britain.
Notes: In attributing the article to Miller alone, Shine cites JM III's Register and quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, 6 July 1819: 'I think ... we agreed that Miller should follow [Southey and Humboldt]—if so let him be set up from the revise which he has sent, & which I will correct in the proper paging—though I corrected the ms.'
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Duke MS. (Backhouse collection), WG to John Backhouse, 28 Jan. : 'I return the Report which you were so good as to leave with me yesterday. I could not find the quotation .... by dint of stripping the machinery &c managed to bring in all the material part. Bowles [courier?] was gone too far, & could not be caught by any means. I am in hopes that Mr Canning will have a copy before he goes to the House today.' Duke MS. (Backhouse collection), WG to Backhouse, Thursday morn., 11 Mar. 1819 [which cannot be right, the 11th is a Tuesday, so if the letter was not written on Tuesday, then Thursday the 8th or 15th]: 'I thank you for the remr of the Note—Mr Canning spoke to me of adding a transcript of the Bill to a former Note,—will you have the goodness to get a copy of it for me?—Would it not be best to refer to this Note (which you have now sent) at the bottom of the proper page, & then to print it in the best type at the end of the Article? It would thus be easier to read.' (Cf. p. 425). Murray MS., John Miller to JM, 21 Aug. 1819, he sends the review [he speaks in the letter of a Mr Collins, 227 Strand]. Harewood MS., WG to George Canning, 25 Sept. 1822, passes on a request from John Miller, who is contacting not only Canning, but Lord Sidmouth and Sir Charles Stuart also, for documents on criminal law.
JM III's Register: attribution to Miller, but without evidence.
509 Article 6. De Lacroix, Mémoires pour servir à Histoire de la Révolution de Saint Dominque; History of the Island of St. Domingo, from its first Discovery by Columbus to the present period; De Vastey, Réflexions sur les Noirs et les Blancs, la Civilization de l'Afrique, la Royaume d'Hayti, &c. Relation de la Fête de S. M. la Reine d'Hayti, &c.; Almanach Royal d'Hayti, 430-60. Author: John Barrow, probably with William Gifford.
Running Title: Past and Present state of Hayti.
Notes: In attributing the article to Barrow, Shine cites JM III's Register. Shine quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, 6 July 1819: 'Mr B. has sent me his Hayti. It makes 20 pages I see—I have not yet opened, or looked at the contents.' (Shine's misquotation of the letter is hereby corrected.) Shine also quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, : 'Hayti I will set about immediately.'
JM III's Register: attribution to Barrow, and note: 'Wm. Gifford (mainly)'.
510 Article 7. Shelley, Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City. A Vision of the Nineteenth Century, in the Stanza of Spenser; Shelley, The Revolt of Islam. A Poem, in Twelve Cantos, 460-71. Author: John Taylor Coleridge.
Running Title: Shelley's Revolt of Islam.
Notes: In attributing the article to Coleridge, Shine cites JM III's Register; Byron II 178, 178n; Graham 22, 41; Graham in SP XXII 504; and White 125, 133, 364, 393. Shine says to see also Clark 232, 276n; Smiles II 324; Southey 390-91, 391n; Simmons 165-66; Bowles 356-66; and Milman 80-81. Shine quotes from the following letters. Iowa MS., JM to [Croker], n.d.: 'I send you a most extraordinary Poem by Godwin[']s now Son-in-law—pray keep it under Lock & Key—it is an avowed defence of Incest—the author is the vilest wretch in existence—living with Leigh Hunt—The Book was published & he is now endeavouring to suppress it.' Murray MS., WG to JM, Ramsgate, postmarked 4 Aug. 1818: 'By all means, let Mr Coleridge give us a few pages on Shelley.' Murray MS., WG to JM, Ryde, 6 July 1819: '... Coleridge's two mss which he has revised at my desire ... should be set up as Rowarth [the printer] has types ....' In suggesting Reginald Heber as an alternative attribution, Shine cites Clark 276 and says to see also Clark 232.
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Murray MS., WG to John Taylor Coleridge, 7 June 1819, says that Shelley deserves the severe treatment Coleridge has given him in his article. Concerning the two manuscripts WG mentions in his letter to JM of 6 July quoted above, it is possible that two separate reviews, of Laon and Revolt of Islam, were combined into one.
[Bookseller's note: 'In 1817 Shelley visited London to find a publisher for Laon and Cythna. Ollier agreed to publish this work with Sherwood, Neely and Jones. Shelley's father in law, William Godwin, recommended B. M'Millan, a master printer, who altered some of the text, spelling, and punctuation. Shelley wrote to Ollier complaining about M'Millan, where upon Ollier read the work for the first time, and found it distasteful. In this original version, the lovers were brother and sister. Shelley was later forced to recast the lovers as childhood friends. Rumours had been circulating of an incestuous relationship between Shelley, Mary, and Claire, and the changes were intended to quash the stories (St. Clair: The Godwins and the Shelleys, p.432.) Shelley's alterations to the text resulted in 26 cancelled leaves when the work was eventually republished as The Revolt of Islam. Forman suggests that Laon and Cythna is rare because wherever possible the sheets were reused for The Revolt of Islam. The first issue, distinguished by the flyleaf with a quotation from Pindar is thought to have been of only 12 copies.']
JM III's Register: attribution to Coleridge, but without evidence.
511 Article 8. Parnell, Maurice and Berghetta; or the Priest of Rahery. A Tale, 471-86. Author: John Wilson Croker.
Running Title: Parnell's Maurice and Berghetta.
Notes: In attributing the article to Croker, Shine cites JM III's Register and Brightfield 455. Shine also quotes from Murray MS., WG to JM, 19 July 1819: 'Our friend Croker grows sick of L. Hunt. ... he will say something on Parnel.' In suggesting as an alternative attribution Croker and Gifford as co-authors, Shine cites Clark 199-200.
The following evidence and information is published here for the first time. Claimed by Croker in five of his Clements Library MS. lists and included in the Cambridge University bound volumes of Croker's articles. The article was answered in William Parnell, A Letter to the Editor of the Quarterly Review (1820). That volume was in turn reviewed by Croker in #548.
JM III's Register: attribution to Croker, but without evidence.
512 Article 9. Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, Harness and Collar Makers, intended to comprise the most interesting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table; Rose, The Court of Beasts, freely translated from the Animali Parlanti of Giambattista Casti, a Poem, in seven Cantos, 486-556. Author: Ugo Foscolo, probably translated by Francis Cohen.
Running Title: Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italian.
Notes: In attributing the article to Foscolo, Shine cites JM III's Register; Smiles II 52; Eichler 114, 114n, 164, 164n; Gentleman's Magazine XXI 578; and Graham 41. Shine says to see also Smiles II 8, 113; Grierson V 168, 168n; XII 433-34; and Lockhart V 100-101, 101n. Shine quotes from the following two letters. Murray MS., WG to JM, 6 July 1819, '... the great question is what we shall do with Foscolo. He has written ... 90 pages—if I could even reduce it to 75 or 80 ....' Murray MS., WG to JM, : 'I send a little of Foscolo to break up into pages .... He must, I suppose, have a copy, which may then be given to Cohen ....' [Quarterly Review Archive editor's note: It is probable that Cohen (Palgrave) translated Foscolo's manuscript from the Italian.]
The following evidence is published here for the first time. Murray MS., Cash Day Book 1818-20, p. 113: '13 May 1819 To Cash Paid to U. Foscolo Esq as per cheque in Q.R. Book. £115'; Murray MS., Copies Ledger B, May 13 , 'Cash to Mr. Foscolo Esq. 115.8 -'. John Murray published the Whistlecraft volume under review (Whistlecraft is a pseudonym of John Hookham Frere).
JM III's Register: attribution to Foscolo, but without evidence. |
The Science Journal of the American Association for Respiratory Care
Background: Siemens Servo Ventilator 300A has a closed loop ventilation feature called Automode. Automode allows the ventilator to automatically switch between a control mode of ventilation and a spontaneous mode when certain parameters are met. Two consecutive triggering efforts from a patient will change the ventilator from a control mode to a spontaneous mode. If the patient stops breathing for a pre-determined period of time, the ventilator automatically switches back to a control mode (5sec for neonate; 8sec for pediatric; 12sec for adult).
Discussion: We report a patient who was managed initially with PRVC/VS Automode. The patient is a 10yr, 41kg male who was intubated and admitted to the PICU with the diagnosis of pneumonia. The patient was placed on the SV 300A ventilator with the following settings: PRVC 20/Vt 300/35%/+10. The patient selector had to be placed in the adult mode secondary to the flow limitation of 33 lpm in the pediatric setting. The Automode function was initiated at the beginning of Day 2. During the patient's stay on the ventilator, the ventilator settings often had to be manipulated in the attempt to manage Automode effectively. When the patient's RR was below the CMV rate, the Vt and PIPs increased substantially. The CMV rate was reduced to combat this. However, when the patient automatically switched back into PRVC, the lower rate was not sufficient to maintain adequate blood gases. After many manipulations, the Automode function was finally turned off and the patient successfully weaned and extubated utilizing PRVC and VS managed more conventionally.
|Day 2 @ 0030||7.25||81||80||12||255||390||36||Auto-VS|
|Automode turned OFF (Day 2 @ 0100)|
|Day 2 @ 0600||7.36||59||92||20||300||300||29||PRVC|
|Automode turned ON (Day 2 @ 0830)|
|Day 2 @ 1200||7.30||64||87||20||300||300||32||Auto-PRVC|
|Day 2 @ 1500||12||300||440||40||Auto-VS|
|Day 2 @ 1630||20||300||300||30||Auto-PRVC|
|Day 2 @ 1800||7.32||61||104||14||300||450||42||Auto-VS|
Conclusions: The simplistic mechanism used to switch patients between control and spontaneous modes of ventilation and the multiple functions of the CMV rate knob may increase difficulty in the ventilator management of sick children with Automode on. |
6 Tricks for Better Breakfasts
Simple strategies for making your breakfast healthier.
from Forbidden Advice
1. Sprinkle blueberries on your cereal.
Studies show that these tiny purple berries are loaded with valuable antioxidants that can slow down brain aging and enhance your memory. Not into cereal? Try baking blueberries into oatmeal to create your own oatmeal-blueberry granola bar, or mixing them into whole-wheat pancake or waffle batter.
2. Eat half a grapefruit twice a week
Grapefruits are loaded with folate, which has been found to significantly reduce the risk of stroke. But be cautious if you're taking medications: Grapefruit and its juice can interact with medications that have to be processed through the liver. Check with your doctor about any possible interactions between grapefruit and any medications you are taking.
3. Drink tomato juice for breakfast
Instead of orange juice, have a glass of low-salt tomato juice. It's more filling, less likely to raise your blood sugar and supplies more nutrients and fiber.
© Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock
4. Mix your cereals half and half
Eating some high-fiber whole grain cereals can seem like munching on cardboard. So try this: mix 1/3rd cup of those hearty grains with your favorite cereal. Choose a high-fiber cereal such as All-Bran, with 8.5 grams of fiber, and you're more than one-third of the way toward the recommended 25 grams of fiber a day.
© James Woodson/Photodisc/Thinkstock
5. Drink a fruit smoothie
What about drinking your fruit instead of eating it? No, not in fruit juice - which is often high in sugar and stripped of the fruit's fiber - but in a smoothie. Just toss a cup of berries - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries - and a sliced (but not peeled) apple, peach, or pear into your blender. Add 1/2 cup skim milk and a frozen banana, maybe a cup of ice if you like it thicker, and blend. Mmmmm good!
6. Eat an Israeli-style breakfast
Instead of the sugary cereals, starchy breads, and greasy meat and eggs that make up the typical North American breakfast, do what Robyn Frankel of St. Louis, Missouri, did after visiting Israel. She switched to Israeli breakfasts: hummus, cottage cheese, tomatoes, or fruit, plus sometimes a slice of raisin bread. For the first time in her life, she's eating breakfast regularly, which studies find is critical if you're going to lose weight and keep it off. The 57-year-old public relations consultant carries just 128 pounds on her 5-foot, 2-inch frame.
More About Healthy Eating |
Guide to Living and Teaching English in China
So you’re thinking of going to teach English in China, but you’re not quite sure where to start. Luckily for you the helpful staff at Reach To Teach has compiled a list of useful resources for teachers considering teaching abroad in Mainland China.
Administrative Tools for Living in China
When you come to China, you will make a very nice salary, depending on whether you want to work full- or part-time. Most of our part-time teachers work 20 hours per week and make around $1,400USD per month. With the lower cost of living in China compared to other destinations, teachers should be able to save even more every year. Teaching English in China is become more lucrative for ESL teachers every year. Full time teaching positions that combine teaching hours and office hours will add up to around 40 hours a week. Teachers will make between $1,600USD and $2,400USD per month, with many schools throwing in added perks such as free housing, free flights and contract completion bonuses.
Tips for Living in China
At the end of a China day, you may come to feel a bit bonkers. The food’s different, the people are different, the language is different. There’s no harm in being frustrated by your situation, but we encourage you to rise above it. Embrace the challenges and learn from them!
- Escape Artist – A quick list of unwritten rules for surviving life in China – read for a quick laugh and remember you’re not alone!
- Lost Laowai – The expat section of this website is especially useful, as you can offer advice, rant, and learn the behavior of both “good” and “bad” laowai.
- Cultural China – This website attempts to explain in laymen’s terms China’s 5000+ year history.
- The Beijing Reviewer – Practical advice from a long-term ESL teacher’s perspective. If you’re considering working while studying, check this out!
- @tbjTeachEnglish – Follow this Twitter account for real-time job opportunities for English teachers in Beijing.
Things to do in China
As a teacher in China, you’ll inevitably have some free time in need of filling. Whether you prefer to take in more cultural activities, taste local cuisine, or check out the local nightlife, these websites will point you in the right direction for upcoming events and activities.
- City Weekend – No matter what Chinese city you are studying in, City Weekend is your go-to resource for what’s happening nearby.
- The Beijinger – This website is always the first to know what’s happening in and around the capital city.
- Shanghaiist – For students in Shanghai, check out this website to make your weekend plans.
- Heyrobics – If you’re packing on the pounds from too many helpings of dumplings, check out this fun and colorful exercise club in Beijing.
- Shanghai Highlights – A great resource for finding day/weekend trips outside the city – including nearby Hangzhou and Nanjing.
There are loads of online resources and language tools for learning Chinese.
|‘…China is such an immense country that there is no simple way to define it’s Culture within a neat frame. It has evolved and changed over thousands of years into what it is today, a beast that dominates the Asian continent…’|
|‘…the History of China is as long as it is interesting. No other country in the world can boast such a continued and sustained presence in world affairs, and one that still continues to grow today…’|
|‘…Learning another Language is a challenge for everyone, and Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn…’|
|‘…China is a huge country with many different Climates and types of landscape…’|
|Here you will find useful Maps about China and where it is in relation to the rest of Asia.|
Cost of Living in China
|‘…as China is a geographically huge country, it is diverse in climate, ethnicity and subcultures. Not surprisingly therefore, there are many distinctive styles of Cuisine…’|
|‘…Housing will be provided free of charge, but you might have to pay a small fee for the utilities you use…’|
|‘…China currently has a comprehensive system of modern Transportation, which includes civil aviation, railway, road traffic, and water transportation…’|
|‘…Telephone service is available everywhere in China and works quite well…’|
|‘…Internet access in China is nowadays more advanced than in many Western countries, at least in the major cities…’|
Services in China
|‘…One of the first things you will need to do as an English teacher living in China is open a local Bank account…’|
|‘…Health care is widely available in China with clinics being found in every village, but in many areas the local facilities are very basic and not generally used by expatriates…’|
|Should you need Embassy services in China we have listed here the offices and contact information for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.|
Misc. Information for China
|China has many Holidays throughout the year that are worth noting, particularly if you are planning other travel destinations during your time off.|
|China has a lot to offer when in comes to getting involved in outdoor activities and Sports. Baseball, soccer, and rugby are particularly popular among the ex-pat community and it is never difficult to jump on a team and meet new friends and start having some fun!| |
Blogs About Reading
Sound It Out
Along with her background as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
Free online children's books
I recently came across a very long (600+!) list of free children's books online, compiled by Gizmo's Freeware. I'm frequently asked about resources like this, so I decided to take a closer look at a few of the offerings.
Aaron Shephard's World of Stories caught my attention first; I've used his Reader's Theater (RT) resources for years, and recommend the site frequently to teachers or parents looking for scripts. In the World of Stories, Shephard provides the theme, age level, and length for books across 11 genre. Stories are text only, no illustrations. Some stories have extras like posters and audio files. These resources are great for RT, as well as for when you need text to use for running records or other assessment. No readability information provided.
Children's Books Forever is a quirky collection of free picture books written (mostly) by Hans Wilhelm that you can use on a Smartboard, PPT, or a computer monitor. The illustrations are charming and seem just right for beginning readers. If you decide to browse the collection, I particularly liked the Waldo book and the Ten Little Bunnies story. There's a series about Tyrone the bully that I didn't like much at all — the solution to a bully was a hot pepper sandwich! However, the Waldo humor books is a series of illustrations-only books. These illustrations could be used as story starters for children's own writing.
Kindersite has a collection of stories of various sites — the BBC, Starfall, Sesame Workshop, and others. The book experience depends on which title you choose. Mox's Shop from Starfall provides a very explicit reading (phoneme by phoneme) of the words in a very simple story. Julia and the Big Wave from RIF is a longer story accompanied by Flash illustrations. All books are for the younger set (age 2-8).
Story Time For Me includes three series of original, interactive stories. Users can choose to have a story read with individual words or phrases highlighted, or no highlighting at all. Animation can be turned on and off, which is a handy option. Designed for young kids (the site says ages 1-5), with running times under 3 minutes per book.
As with all material to be used with young readers, I recommend previewing a site and the stories carefully before using it with kids. |
The school’s Careers Education and Guidance programme helps our pupils develop knowledge and skills that will enable them to achieve their potential in learning and work throughout their lives.
A Careers Education programme runs from Year 7 to Year 11 and is delivered through the PSHCE programme. The programme is designed to help our pupils understand themselves and the influences on them, investigate Career and Learning Opportunities, and to make and adjust Action Plans to manage change and transition.
In Years 7 to 9 the programme focuses on understanding themselves and the influences on them and includes the use of the ‘Real Game’.
The careers programme continues in Years 10 and 11 during which time action planning and making choices for the future becomes the emphasis. During Year 10 and 11 pupils will have the opportunity to receive independent careers advice from the local North Yorkshire careers advisor. They also have interviews with the Assistant Head (Curriculum) and the Deputy Head as well as making use of careers based software accessible through the school’s intranet.
During the Sixth Form most of the Lower Sixth fill in the Centigrade questionnaire that helps them focus on suitable University courses. There are also visits to the school from relevant experts who may talk to the Lower Sixth and/or their parents. Topics include university funding and UCAS. There is also the opportunity to seek advice from North Yorkshire careers service. Plenty of individualised support throughout the Higher Education application process is offered by academic departments, sixth form tutors and the Head of Sixth Form. Pupils applying to the professions of Medicine, Vetnary Science or Law are individually mentored through the process and those making applications to Oxford or Cambridge are guided and supported by our Oxbridge Coordinator.
There is a small but dedicated section of Careers information in the Memorial Library. The section is open every day for all pupils and staff to use and contains information about various careers. However most information regarding Careers is now carried on-line and is accessible using the internet. All University prospectuses are now published on line. |
It's not so simple
I read the short article on school redistricting as if affects the Glenaire neighborhood in the June 16 edition of the Hook ["Not Meriwether: The neighborhood that didn't want to go"].
Unfortunately, the article was far too short to give the subject of Albemarle County school redistricting a full investigation. Apparently some of the people interviewed, as well as your reporter, believe that there is a legally binding requirement that the County allow people to drive their children to the school of their choice regardless of the school district they live in.
This idea is commonly referred to as "grandfathering" in the case of the current redistricting plan.
It is my understanding that the County has not yet been committed to allowing grandfathering in this sense. It seems to me that this "grandfathering" clause is a mechanism by which many families have been co-opted from participating in the redistricting process because of its palliative effect. I have voiced my opinion on this in at least two public meetings.
The short quote from Diane Behrens justifying the rationale of redistricting as a relief from school overcrowding is by no means completely true. Earlier in this process, the Country proposed to build an entire elementary school to relieve overcrowding. Suddenly, in the last couple of months, it turns out that a new school is not actually necessary, but that a handful of children in our neighborhood are now causing overcrowding.
There is something wrong with a process where the numbers of children cause so many problems. With the county's 20-plus percent increase in property taxes, I believe that we would all rather have the new teacher at Murray than several new bus rivers to drive these and other affected kids all around the country.
The issue of school redistricting is complicated and involved, worthy of sustained investigative reporting. |
Julio Fuentes is the president of the Florida-based Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, which was founded in 2001 to promote school choice as a way to help Latino students get a better education.
Reason.tv sat down with Fuentes to talk about whether school choice is a popular issue in the Hispanic community.
This interview is part of National School Choice Week, a non-partisan initiative to raise awareness of how competition and choice can transform K-12 education.
Approximately 1 minute. Filmed by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg, and edited by Epstein. Interview by Nick Gillespie.
Scroll down for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.
For Reason.tv's education videos, go here.
For Reason.com's coverage of education, go here |
Three dimensional Visualization of Jupiter's Equatorial Region
March 19, 2003
This frame is a view to the west, from between the cloud layers and over the patchy white clouds to the east of the hotspot. This is probably an area where moist convection is occuring over large horizontal distances, similar to the atmosphere over the equatorial ocean on Earth. The clouds are high and thick, and are observed to change rapidly over short time scales. |
Researchers Use Underwater Robot To Track Tagged Sharks
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Researchers from University of Delaware are in the midst of a multiyear study with Delaware State University researchers to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of sand tiger sharks. In the latest phase of the study, an underwater robot is being unleashed to hunt down and follow these seemingly placid predators.
The Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor (OTIS) is a remote-controlled underwater device that looks very much like a yellow torpedo. Normally used for testing water conditions, the researchers have outfitted OTIS with acoustic receivers that can recognize signals given off by transmitters. OTIS will track sharks that have been previously tagged with these transmitters as they travel through their coastal habitat.
Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, said OTIS has, “in the past week…detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years.”
“This is the first time that a glider has found tagged sharks and reported their location in real time,” he said in a news release, reported by Teresa Messmore, a Communications Specialist for UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.
The technology implemented allows the course of OTIS to be changed, enabling it to follow the sharks and test the water around them. Using OTIS to track these sharks will allow scientists to follow where the sharks are going more efficiently than using conventional tracking methods.
OTIS will be tracking sharks with three different types of tags.
One is an acoustic transmitter that “pings” receivers while passing by a set of 70 devices situated around Delaware Bay. DSU’s Dewayne Fox maintains these receivers, and has tagged more than 500 sharks since 2006.
Another tracking mechanism implemented is the pop-off satellite archival tag. The team is using 34 of these tags, which store data on the sharks’ journeys for up to a year then automatically release from the animal to dispatch a location signal for retrieval.
A third type of tag, also the newest, is called a VEMCO mobile transceiver (VMT). This tag is larger than the others, but also transmits and receives information to communicate its location and listen for the pings of other marine animals outfitted with acoustic tags.
The VMT tag “will tell us not only where it is, but who it’s with,” said Oliver. “It’s like a social network for sharks.”
Oliver, Fox and students from both universities, spent the summer catching sand tiger sharks, carefully pulling them into stretchers alongside their boat, and inserted transmitters through a quick surgery.
Sand tiger sharks are the largest commonly occurring shark in Delaware’s bay and coastal region. Although these marine animals are generally slow-moving and seem relatively placid, they are apex predators in their habitat and play a key role in the ecological balance of the region.
“Sand tigers have suffered from a number of threats that ultimately led to population declines,” said DSU’s Fox. “In 1997 sand tigers were listed as a ‘species of concern’ by the National Marine Fisheries Service, although very little is known of their migrations and habitat requirements.”
Scientists have suspected that these sharks migrate widely along the Eastern Seaboard, and using newly collected information, the university teams plan to map these habitats, cross-referencing shark data with satellite and remotely sensed environmental conditions to create a comprehensive picture of the animals’ habitats.
Oliver told Messmore the teams are integrating two areas of biotelemetry to get a better understanding of the behaviors of migration patterns of these apex predators.
Fox is part of the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network (ACT), which tracks thousands of animals up and down the coast; Oliver participates in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS), which uses satellites, underwater robots and models to study the coastal ocean.
By combining the two unique data sets, Oliver and Fox hope they will assist natural resource managers in predicting where sand tiger sharks live and how best to handle conservation efforts.
OTIS will be a big part of this, helping researchers find out which water conditions sharks prefer to swim in during their migrations. OTIS is capable of traveling much further out than what the static receivers’ can pick up, and can also collect information on a wide array of conditions, including water temperature, quality, clarity and oxygen levels.
The team hopes the data will give scientists a little more understanding as to why these sharks head to certain places, explained Oliver.
Oliver said the team took an educated guess as to where these sharks were currently hanging out last week when it launched OTIS for the first time. They launched it off the coast of Delaware’s Indian River Inlet and heading south. After five days, they began receiving transmissions from sharks about 4 to 9 miles off the coast of Assateague Island, Maryland.
Their next goal is to direct the glider to stay near the sharks, unless they move south of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. OTIS can last up to four weeks without recharging.
“We have at least another two weeks of battery,” Oliver said. “We’ll see how it develops.” |
Study Rewrites The Evolutionary History Of C4 Grasses
According to a popular hypothesis, grasses such as maize, sugar cane, millet and sorghum got their evolutionary start as a result of a steep drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the Oligocene epoch, more than 23 million years ago. A new study overturns that hypothesis, presenting the first geological evidence that the ancestors of these and other C4 grasses emerged millions of years earlier than previously established.
The findings are published in the journal Geology.
C4 plants are more efficient than C3 plants at taking up atmospheric carbon dioxide and converting it into the starches and sugars vital to plant growth. (C3 and C4 refer to the number of carbon atoms in the first molecular product of photosynthesis.) Having evolved relatively recently, C4 plants make up 3 percent of all living species of flowering plants. But they account for about 25 percent of global plant productivity on land. They dominate grasslands in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate areas. They also are a vital food source and an important feedstock for the production of biofuels.
"C4 plants are very successful, they’re economically very important, but we actually don’t know when they originated in the geological history," said University of Illinois plant biology professor Feng Sheng Hu, who led the new analysis. "To me, it’s one of the most profound geological and ecological questions as a paleoecologist I can tackle."
A previous study dated the oldest C4 plant remnant found, a tiny fragment called a phytolith, to about 19 million years ago. Other studies analyzed the ratios of carbon isotopes in bulk soil samples to determine the ratio of C3 to C4 plant remains at different soil horizons, which correspond to different geological time periods. (C3 and C4 plants differ in their proportions of two carbon isotopes, C-12 and C-13.) Those studies indicated that C4 grasses were present as early as the Early Micocene, about 18 million years ago.
Rather than analyzing plant matter in bulk sediment samples, David Nelson, a postdoctoral researcher in Hu’s lab at the time of the study (now a professor at the University of Maryland), analyzed the carbon isotope ratios of individual grains of grass pollen, a technique he pioneered while working with Hu in the lab of biogeochemistry professor Ann Pearson at Harvard University.
Using a spooling-wire micro-combustion device to combust the grains, and an isotope mass spectrometer to determine the relative ratio of C-12 and C-13 in the sample, Nelson and Illinois graduate student Michael Urban analyzed hundreds of individual grains of grass pollen collected from study sites in Spain and France.
"Because we analyze carbon isotopes in a material unique to grasses (pollen) we were able to detect C4 grasses at lower abundances than previous studies," Nelson said.
This analysis found "unequivocal evidence for C4 grasses in southwestern Europe by the Early Oligocene," the authors wrote. This means these grasses were present 32 to 34 million years ago, well before studies indicate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels made their precipitous decline.
"The evidence refutes the idea that low (atmospheric) CO2 was an important driver and/or precondition for the development of C4 photosynthesis," the authors wrote.
"This study challenges that hypothesis and basically says that something else was responsible for the evolution of C4 plants, probably higher temperature or drier conditions," Hu said. With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels now on the increase, he said, "there are also implications about how C3 and C4 plants will fare in the future."
On the Net: |
SpaceX Founder Dreams Of A Manned Mars Mission
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Musk told Nightline in an interview that he was confident this task could be completed. His words come just a few days after NASA landed its Curiosity rover successfully on the Red Planet this past Sunday night.
SpaceX became the first commercial company to send a spacecraft up to the International Space Station for docking. Its Dragon capsule successfully docked with the orbiting laboratory earlier this year, kick-starting a new form of space industry.
The company’s Dragon capsule is capable of transforming from just a supply ship, to taking astronauts to and from space.
“The rockets we’re building right now could certainly send probes to Mars, like the Mars rovers and that kind of thing,” he told Nightline. “But the rockets we hope to build in the future are the ones that could take people and cargo to Mars and establish a Martian base.”
He said that he hopes one day SpaceX could make it possible for people to thrive there, and establish businesses there.
“Mars is the only place in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetarian,” Musk said. “We could make Mars like Earth…it’s more than our life raft, it’s like backing up the biosphere.”
As much as Musk was a visionary in the interview, he still admitted that making a trip to Mars affordable for the average American was difficult.
“We know it’s possible to get there,” he said. “You would be moving to Mars, so a round trip ticket, it has to be no more than half a million dollars, so roughly, a middle-class house in California, and at this point, I would say, I know it’s possible.”
“I think it would be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever tried to do,” Musk told Nightline. “The Earth has been around for four billion years and in all that time, it’s been confined to one planet. That’s a long time.”
Musk isn’t the only one who has dreams of astronauts landing on the surface of Mars. President Barack Obama set out a goal for NASA to have man step foot on the Red Planet by the 2030s.
The latest Curiosity mission has made that goal seem more achievable, by showing a complicated landing on another planet is doable.
Whether NASA and SpaceX have official plans to collaborate on sending man to Mars remains unclear, but what is clear is there is a successful relationship that has been established between the two organizations.
After the success of the Dragon capsule docking, NASA has awarded SpaceX with even more contracts to send cargo to the space station. It could be only a matter of time before contracts start being drawn up to send astronauts on deeper space missions aboard a converted Dragon capsule. |
Most countries have statutes and laws that regulate the registration of births. In all countries, it is the responsibility of the mother's physician, midwife, hospital administrator, or the parents of the child to see that the birth is properly registered with the appropriate government agency.
The actual record of birth is stored with a government agency. That agency will issue certified copies or representations of the original birth record upon request, which can be used to apply for government benefits, such as passports. The certification is signed and/or sealed by the registrar or other custodian of birth records, who is commissioned by the government.
The registration of births, marriages and deaths in the United Kingdom started in 1837, but at first there was no penalty for failing to register a birth. In the British system, all births are recorded in "registers", which have columns for various particulars of the birth, usually including the name of the child, sex, the names of the parents, the date of the birth, the location of the birth, and sometimes additional information such as the name of the attending physician, the race of the child, or the occupation of the parents. These birth registers are maintained by some government agency, who will issue certified copies or representations of the entry upon request.
In addition, one can obtain a "short" birth certificate, which is an abstract of the original entry and only includes the surname, forename(s), date of birth, sex, registration district and sub-district in which the birth took place. No fee is chargeable for this certificate at the time of registration.
In the U.S., the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics creates standard forms that are recommended for use by the individual states to document births. However, states are free to create their own forms. These "forms" are completed by the attendant at birth or a hospital administrator, which are then forwarded to a local or state registrar, who stores the record and issues certified copies when requested .
Long forms, also known as certified photocopies, book copies, and photostat copies, are exact photocopies of the original birth record that was prepared by the hospital or attending physician at the time of the child's birth . The long form usually includes parents' information (address of residence, race, birth place, date of birth, etc.), additional information on the child's birthplace, and information on the doctors that assisted in the birth of the child. The long form also usually includes the signature of the doctor involved and at least one of the parents .
Long forms may become obsolete in years to come, as many states have begun to use Electronic Birth Registration systems . The use of these systems will enable information typically seen on certified copies (long forms) to be available in computer databases that typically issue short form certificates, thus eliminating the need for "hard copy" long form certificates and having all birth information stored in computer databases only. This benefits parents in many ways; registration can be completed via computer at the hospital, meaning that parents can stop by their Vital Statistics office on the way home from the hospital to purchase the birth certificate instantly . It also means that the extra cost for long form certificates will no longer be a factor.
Short forms, known sometimes as computer certifications, are not universally available, but are cheaper than photocopies and much more easily accessible. Limited information is taken from the original birth record (the long form) and stored in a database that can be accessed quickly when birth certificates are needed in a short amount of time. Whereas the long form is a copy of the actual birth certificate, a short form is a document that certifies the existence of such certificate, and is usually titled a "Certification of Birth" or "Certificate of Birth Registration". The short form typically includes the child's name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth, although some also include the names of the child's parents. When the certification does include the names of the parents, it can be used in lieu of a long form birth certificate in almost all circumstances . Nearly all states in the U.S. issue short forms certifications, on both state and local levels .
Most hospitals in the U.S. issue a souvenir birth certificate which typically includes the footprints of the newborn. However, these birth certificates are not legally accepted as proof of age or citizenship, and are frequently rejected by the Bureau of Consular Affairs during passport applications. Many Americans believe these souvenir records to be their official birth certificate, when in reality it holds little legal value . |
As of the census of 2000, there were 916 people, 362 households, and 263 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,027.0 people per square mile (785.9/km²). There were 390 housing units at an average density of 863.0/sq mi (334.6/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 98.91% White, 0.22% Native American, and 0.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.11% of the population.
There were 362 households out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.3% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.3% were non-families. 23.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 2.99.
In the village the population was spread out with 25.4% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 23.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.7 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $46,442, and the median income for a family was $52,898. Males had a median income of $36,250 versus $26,786 for females. The per capita income for the village was $19,473. About 2.7% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.
Borden, Inc constructed a PVC plant west of Illiopolis in 1962 in the industrial area that had been the Sangamon Ordnance Plant. It operated the plant until 1987 when it transferred to Borden Chemicals and Plastics Operating Limited Partnership. Following that company's bankruptcy, the facility was purchased by Formosa Plastics Corporation in 2002. On April 23, 2004, the Formosa Plastics plant (formerly Borden) in Illiopolis exploded, killing five people, injuring others and causing a portion of the town to be evacuated. The fire burned for several days and the plant had not reopened as of 2007. On March 6, 2007 the United States Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its final report on the incident indicating that an operator bypassed a safety interlock and drained a pressurized reactor instead of an empty one they were in the process of cleaning. The report listed as root causes, that Formosa-IL and Borden Chemical "did not adequately address the potential for human error." |
Many palaeochannels are arranged on old drainage patterns which are distinct from the current drainage system of a catchment. For example, palaeochannels may relate to a system of rivers and creeks which drained east-west and the current drainage direction is north-south.
Palaeochannels can be most easily identified as broad erosional channels into a basement which underlies a system of depositional sequences which may contain several episodes of deposition and represent meandering peneplains.
Thereafter, a palaeochannel may form part of the regolith of a region and, although it is unconsolidated or partly consolidated, is currently part of the erosional surface.
Palaeochannels can also be identified according to their age. For example, there are deposits of Tertiary lignites situated in Tertiary river systems which are preserved on top of Archaean basement in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. These river systems have laid in place for ~15 to 50 million years and would be considered palaeochannels.
For longer preservation, palaeochannels must have the source of river flows removed, either via a river changing course, climate change strangling inflows into the catchment, or perhaps faulting or tectonic movements altering the dynamics of a river system and/or its flow direction.
Palaeochannels are not necessarily permanent; it is possible for them to become eroded via reactivation of erosional activity or reactivation of the original river system.
Deep Yellow Limited (ASX:DYL) Identifies Significant Uranium Mineralisation In Basement Rocks Beneath The Tubas-Tumas Palaeochannel In Namibia
Dec 13, 2010; Deep Yellow Limited (ASX:DYL) (PINK:DYLLF) is pleased to announce that follow-up infill drilling at Tumas Zone 3 of the... |
As the days are getting shorter, our sleeves are getting longer. Less sun exposure means less natural production of Vitamin D in our skin. Vitamin D is needed for healthy bones and teeth. It also functions like a hormone in our bodies helping to regulate bone development, immune function, insulin activity, and calcium balance.
A severe deficiency of Vitamin D results in a skeletal deformity called Rickets. Although there are very few cases of Rickets in developed nations, the other common health issues associated with Vitamin D deficiency are widespread.
Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, congestive heart failure, and stroke. Elderly people with inadequate vitamin D levels show a greater incidence of falling and of fractures, and more muscle weakness. Current research is also linking low levels of vitamin D with senile dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in problems with maintaining blood sugar balance, in osteoporosis, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, PMS and inflammatory arthritis.
Depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue and even memory loss can be helped by Vitamin D. Many types of cancer are less frequent in patients who have high normal Vitamin D levels. So is MS.
Vitamin D is essential to healthy immune function. This is good to note as children return to school. In a review article called ‘Epidemic influenza and Vitamin
The majority of Americans are Vitamin D deficient. In Vermont, as far north as we are, the sun is only strong enough from late May until early September to support making Vitamin D--and even then, use of a sunscreen with an SPF factor of 8 reduces production of vitamin D by 95 percent. A simple blood test can help determine if your body has adequate vitamin D.
In the winter--and in the summer if we use sunscreen--we need to rely on diet and supplementation. Wild-caught, fatty fish (especially salmon and mackerel), sardines, shrimp, free-range eggs and cod are all good sources of Vitamin D, but it’s hard to eat enough of them to have an adequate amount in our diet.
It is important for most people to supplement their diets with Vitamin D. While the RDA for Vitamin D is 400 IU per day, recent perspectives suggest that this is a grossly underestimated. Supplementation of between 1000 and 5000 IU’s per day is safe and usually effective. Not all vitamin D supplements are created equal. Vitamin D3 is the best and most available to our body. Supplementation of between 1000 and 5000 IU’s per day is safe and usually effective. Since absorption can vary with skin type, digestive health, dietary variances, medications and supplementation, please consult your practitioner for a review of your current Vitamin D sources and an individualized assessment to see what dose is appropriate for you.
In closing, you may ask why Vitamin D deficiency is so prevalent. If we need it, shouldn’t we be able to get it without supplementation?? I would suggest that our shift to a predominantly indoor culture, air pollution, suboptimal diet and poor digestive assimilation capabilities are part of the problem. Interestingly, a worldwide assessment showed that only residents of Thailand have adequate Vitamin D stores year round. Vacation anyone?
Linda Haltinner, DC, is a Chiropractic Physician at Sojourns Community Health Clinic. For more information please contact Sojourns Community Health Clinic at 802-722-4023, 4923 US Route 5, Westminster, VT, www.sojourns.org. Find us on Facebook and check out our blog: http://www.reformer802.com/journey2wellness. |
Step back in time to the early 20th century at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Ore. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a member of Historic Hotels of America, the property opened in 1909 as the Seward Hotel, and was restored to its original grandeur and reopened as the Governor in 1992. It is considered one of America’s last handmade buildings, a term preservationists give turn-of-the-century buildings typically adorned with glazed terra-cotta facades. The 100-room hotel in downtown Portland features almost 23,000 square feet of function space, including a 10,000-sq.-ft. grand ballroom. The Pacific Northwest landmark combines historical ambiance with modern convenience in its guest rooms and penthouse suites with open-air rooftop terraces. Each room has complimentary wireless Internet access, there’s a Starbucks coffee shop in the lobby, and Jake’s Grill, one of the city’s most popular restaurants, is located on-site. The downtown streetcar stops outside the hotel entrance and transports guests to the Pearl district, with shopping, dining and art galleries, Portland State University and the South Waterfront. |
The International Bach Chamber Music Festival is focussed on the intimate, the soulful, the personal. It manifests the producers’ desire to reveal Bach from the "quiet side" and show that the relatively few sounds in a chamber music score can say just as much in the way of fundamental ideas, thoughts and content as Bach’s major vocal and symphonic compositions.
The concept of the Festival strives to embrace a wealth of aesthetic, cultural and historical values. For one thing, audiences at the festival hear seldom performed interpretations of Bach’s chamber music, including the compositions that were produced by the great artist’s sons and contemporaries, as well as the music inspired by Bach’s personality. The festival is also a cradle for new music - each year there are new works commissioned especially for the festival.
It is also true that the responsibility of interpreting music at the festival always rests with global authorities in the performance of authentic music. In the festival’s first year, it featured the Baroque violinist Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch of Finland and the viola da gamba master Anatoly Grindenko of Russia. In the second year the audience heard the distinguished organist and harpsichordist Jon Laukvik of Germany. One year later it was the turn of countertenor and Hilliard Ensemble participant David James of Britain, flutist Stephen Preston of Britain and oboist Tilmann Zahn of Germany. In the fourth year, there were the Baroque violinist Anne Katharina Schreiber of Germany, the flutist Charles Zebley of France, the Rīga-born cellist Iwan Monighetti, who lives in Switzerland, the pianist Thierry Mechler of France, the chamber orchestra Hermitage and oboist Alexei Utkin from Moscow, and the vocal trio Vox Silentii from Finland. Latvia’s own best interpreters of the ancient music also participate each year.
The concerts are always held in the venues which are entirely appropriate for them - historical buildings of Old Rīga. The Reutern’s House dates back to the 17th century, when two of the city’s more distinguished residents were merchants Danerstein and Reutern. Johan von Reutern (1635-1698) was enormously wealthy, and his home had to reflect this fact so as to attract the attentions of Rigensians. The building was completed in (what a coincidence !) 1685, the year of Bach’s birth. It had the highest ceilings in Rīga, the biggest windows and the most beautiful facade. People compared its grandeur to that of St Peter’s Church, which is nearby. The Reutern’s House was the most beautiful house in Rīga, and today it is appreciated as an outstanding example of Baroque architecture. Since restoration in 1985, the building has popularly been known as the Journalists’ House. It has several exhibition halls, and excellent acoustics for music performances.
Festival concerts are also performed in the Hall of Columns of the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation - a hall which is blessed with outstanding acoustics. The museum was established by the Rīga local government in 1773 on the basis of a private collection that had been donated to the city by a doctor called Himsel. He had collected items related to the natural sciences, history and arts. This is one of the largest and oldest museums in the Baltic States, and its collection holds more than 500,000 objects, many of them quite invaluable in cultural, historical and artistic terms. The Anglican Church, built in the 1850s for the needs of the English merchants, today holds services and concerts. The Vox Silentii trio from Finland dazzled the audience at the church during the fourth International Bach Chamber Music Festival. Latvian compositions got their world premiere there.
The fourth place where concerts are performed is very special indeed. The House of the Blackheads was the most important public building in Rīga in the 14th century, and it was, and is once again, located on one side of the City Hall Square. The building was put up by the city, and it was initially leased by the members of the Great Guild, as well as by a brotherhood of bachelor tradesmen who were known as the "blackheads". In 1713 they purchased the building. The "blackheads" were a typical organisation for the cities of the great European Hanseatic league - young and unmarried tradesmen and ship captains who chose St Mauritius, a black African, as their patron saint. The brotherhood survived as a guild of German tradesmen all the way up until 1939. The luxurious house was rebuilt several times, until World War II proved fateful to it. The building was destroyed, and the burnt-out shell was blown up by the Soviet authorities in 1948.
After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, the House of the Blackheads was rebuilt, and since 2000 it has been a pearl of Old Rīga. The concert hall has outstanding acoustics, and the concerts of the International Bach Chamber Music Festival attract huge crowds. The festival also finds a home at the Ave Sol concert hall, located in an ancient Russian orthodox church building. The sixth concert locale is the Latvian Academy of Music. Students who are learning to play organ and harpsichord these participate in the concerts, and that is another aspect of the festival - it encourages the the young people to perform the works of Bach and his contemporaries at very distinguished concerts thus giving fresh interpretations of well known Baroque music.
The ancient music of the Western Europe was never performed extensively under the censorship of the Soviet Union, and once Latvia regained its independence, the people could freely, study and play the music of the past. The Ancient Music Festival was born in the 1990s, and the International Bach Chamber Music Festival joins it in the effort to preserve the professional level of ancient music performance. Students from the Academy and professional musicians each year have a chance to improve their skills with internationally recognised Baroque music authorities. In the course of the four years, master classes have been delivered by the aforementioned Kaakinen-Pilch, Schreiber, Preston, Zebley, Zahn, Utkin, Laukvik, James and Mechler, as well as by the flutist Neeme Punder of Estonia and the Vox Silentii trio from Finland.
The International Bach Chamber Music Festival has gained an important place in the cultural calendar in Latvia. Its outstanding artistic level and the overall concept of the festival have won recognition in the business and finance circles in Germany. Permanent co-operation partners include Latvijas Gāze, Fundation of Culture Capital, Municipal of Riga, Representation of European Commission in Latvia e.c.
The festival is member of European Early Music Network REMA since 2006.
On 21 March 2011 Ms Aina Kalnciema in her capacity of the President of Bach Music Foundation and the Director of Bach Chamber Music Festival received the Annual Award of Riga City Council "the White Sparrow" for her significant contribution to the international cultural exchange through collaboration with outstanding and renowned artists worldwide.Retour haut de page
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Mne Kalnciema Aina
E-mail : email@example.com
Site Internet : http://www.music.lv/bachfestival
Ce projet a été financé avec le soutien de la Commission européenne. Cette communication n’engage que son auteur et la Commission n’est pas responsable de l’usage qui pourrait être fait des informations qui y sont contenues.
Le REMA est soutenu par le Ministère de la culture et de la communication. |
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Credit Trends: Stress In Corporate America: The Slowing Economy Poses Risks To Recovery For The Three Most Stressed Sectors Oct 11
Standard & Poors, October 2011
In Stress In Corporate America, we use three of our research publications--weakest links, potential bond downgrades, and the distressed report--to identify and spotlight U.S. sectors we believe are currently subject to the highest levels of credit stress. In light of sluggish consumer demand, a depressed construction market, and continued uncertainty about economic and credit market conditions, the media and entertainment, consumer products, and forest products/building materials sectors were, in Standard & Poor's opinion, the most troubled sectors as of Sept. 29, 2011. These sectors had the highest levels of risk among our lists of distressed companies (speculative-grade companies with securities trading in excess of 1,000 basis points, or bps, above U.S. Treasuries), weakest links (companies rated 'B-' or lower with...
Standard and Poors RatingsXpress Credit Research provides in-depth coverage of international corporates, financial institutions, insurance companies, utilities, sovereigns and structured finance programs. RatingsXpress Credit Research lets users determine the credit rating of holdings and identify key factors underlying an issuer's creditworthiness, distinguishes the different risk exposures for new and existing deals, and provides an understanding of how their analysts interpret key regulatory, political and environmental events and their economic impact.
Research Type: Commentary
Criteria articles describe the thought process and methodology Standard & Poor's analysts use in determining ratings. These commentary pieces discuss both the quantitative (economic and financial) and qualitative (business analysis and caliber of management) aspects of the analysis, as well as legal issues. |
Surgical decision making in tracheobronchial injuries on the basis of clinical evidences and the injury's anatomical setting: a retrospective analysis.
ABSTRACT Airway trauma is a life threatening condition requiring prompt diagnosis and management. We present our experience focusing on the diagnosis, airway management and treatment.
This is a retrospective analysis of 25 patients treated for tracheal or bronchial injury within a 12 year period. Data collected included: mechanism and sites of injury, associated injuries, clinical presentation, indications for surgical management, treatment and outcome.
There were 15 traumatic injuries (blunt/penetrating, 10/5 patients) and 10 post-intubation perforations. The most common findings included subcutaneous emphysema, pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax. Endotracheal intubation was carried out under bronchoscopic guidance. Tracheostomy was performed in one patient. Most injuries were located at the trachea/carina. Surgical treatment was undertaken in 22 patients. In 13 of them, all with traumatic injuries, the surgical treatment was decided on the basis of the clinical and radiological findings. The decision for surgery in post-intubation injuries was based on the proximity of the injuries to the carina (2 patients), the suspicion of an unsafe airway (1 patient) and the present of posterior tracheal wall perforations>2 cm (2 patients). The surgical approach for the repair was dictated by the location of the injury. There was a single case of perioperative mortality in the subgroup of patients with traumatic injuries.
Surgical primary repair represents the treatment of choice in airway injuries with the approach depending on the specific site of the lesion. Therefore we consider valuable the division of the tracheobronchial tree in 4 zones. |
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Found 19 articles for May 2013.
Answers to Sleep Disorder and new paradigm for treatment and mechanism of neurodegenerative disease17-May-2013
Ulsan, Republic of Korea, May 17, 2013 – Researchers have identified a novel role of ATAXIN-2 as a posttranscriptional coactivator crucial for circadian behaviors and molecular clocks. The work was carried out by Chunghun Lim and colleagues during his post-doctoral time at Northwestern University.Contact: Eunhee Song Institution: Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) Category: Medicine
New era of fisheries policy needed to secure nutrition for millions17-May-2013
16 May 2013 - A new study published in PNAS argues that for fisheries policies to be effective they must take in to account not just fish stock conservation and environmental issues, but also research data on the patterns and dynamics of fish trade, markets and user consumption.Contact: Administrator Account Institution: ResearchSEA Category: People
PolyU and Sichuan U jointly set up China's first Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction20-May-2013
Jointly established by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Sichuan University (Sichuan U), China's first Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) has recently been officially opened.Contact: Regina Yu Institution: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Category: People
Will Abenomics raise wages? Aggressive quantitative easing policy and the features of the Japanese labor market20-May-2013
Opinion article by Associate Professor Sachiko Kuroda of the Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda UniversityContact: waseda university Institution: Waseda University Category: Business
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Back when economist Alfred Kahn worked for the Carter administration he suggested that the high inflation of that period could end in a recession or even a depression.
The administration moved immediately to distance itself from Kahn's words and admonished him for his bluntness. He promised he would not use the words in public again.
Instead, Kahn, known for his cheeky sense of humor, began telling audiences that because he had been prohibited from using the words "recession" or "depression," he would substitute the word "banana" in their place.
When a banana company complained, he started using "kumquat" figuring that the kumquat lobby was too small to complain.
Of late we have been getting a similar (but less amusing) displacement of words from officials in the oil industry regarding the idea of peak oil. Very few are willing even to utter the words "peak oil," and when they do, they insist that the world is not near peak as construed by a misguided peak oil movement. Instead, they substitute words such as "plateau." A Chevron vice president has used that word to describe our oil future. And, it is fitting that he used the word at a Cambridge Energy Research Associates-sponsored confab since CERA was the first to coin the phrase. CERA, however, believes a plateau--which they further qualify as an "undulating plateau"--won't occur until the 2030s and then will go on for 20 to 30 years. Any constraints before then, they say, will be due to "above-ground factors."
On the other hand, Chevron's CEO, Dave O'Reilly, says, "The era of easy oil is over." Given O'Reilly's view perhaps we can assume that the Chevron vice president cited above believes that the plateau will be starting a lot sooner than 2030. And as for O'Reilly, he does use the word "peak", but makes clear he doesn't consider nearby peaking some kind of doomsday scenario.
Others speak of "limits" on production as detailed in a recent front-page article in The Wall Street Journal. The limits include lack of access to Middle Eastern oil fields (where much of the additional oil lies), lack of available manpower, and lack of oil service infrastructure such as rigs and pipelines. Another limit is that state-controlled oil companies lack incentives to develop additional production capacity since at current prices these companies are already producing all the revenue their government owners desire. All this adds up to a "ceiling" on production, but not peak oil as the authors of the article are at pains to point out. They say this even though some of their sources point to major constraints in newly discovered oil reservoirs and the expectation that these constraints will grow.
Beyond O'Reilly, only a few other oil company officials aren't afraid to say the word "peak." Thierry Desmarest, chairman and CEO of the French oil giant Total, has stated flatly, “If demand continues to grow at this pace, global production will peak sooner, not later, for geological reasons.” He pegs the peak at between 2020 and 2025. He has called for steps to curb demand to move the peak back and allow more time for a transition to a post-oil economy. A former Shell chairman believes oil could peak within 20 years. One understands why the majority of oil executives shy away from the term since it implies that oil companies as a group are now decaying assets without much of a future.
Limits, plateaus, the end of easy oil, above-ground factors, or constraints on exploration, infrastructure and personnel--call it what you like, but it all adds up to the same thing, namely, a peaking of daily world oil production. As everyone truly familiar with peak oil understands, it is the maximum rate of production which will determine the peak, not the total available resource in the ground. Whether the peak occurs for a variety of reasons--which now seems likely--or whether it occurs due solely to geologic constraints, peak still produces the same problem: There is not enough oil to go around at prices that people can afford. This is, of course, due to falling daily production.
One could argue that responses to any peak would depend on the precise nature of that peak. For instance, if people believe a peak is due to infrastructure constraints, more money could surely be spent on oil infrastructure to increase our daily production capacity. But what company will spend this money if it doesn't believe future oil volumes will justify it? One could also argue for forcibly opening oil fields in the Middle East to rapid development. I have often wondered whether those who say that above-ground factors are limiting our daily production tacitly advocate a military response to peak. If so--apart from any moral or philosophical objections--would such a response actually help? The current experiment in Iraq suggests it won't.
Perhaps the public would be better served if all those who are now under orders to use euphemisms when referring to peak oil were to follow Alfred Kahn's lead and use the word "banana" in their place. At least people would then know that the various terms really all amount to the same thing. They all really mean peak oil--oh, excuse me, I mean banana, or rather to be absolutely clear, peak banana. |
TEXT-S&P: high-yield ETFs, a growing slice of speculative-grade market
Nov 7 - As investors continue their quest for yield amidst low interest rates, high-yield exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been playing an increasingly important role in the market for speculative-grade bonds (those rated 'BB+' and lower), said an article published today by Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research, titled "High-Yield ETFs Represent A Narrow But Growing Slice Of The U.S. Speculative-Grade Market." "The demand for fixed-income ETFs has been brisk in recent years," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research. "High-yield ETFs attracted $1.6 billion of net new money in September 2012, according to data from Lipper." This net inflow was roughly equivalent to 4.5% of new speculative-grade bond issuance during the month. Although there has been a net withdrawal of investor funds from high-yield ETFs over the past few weeks, investments in high-yield ETFs increased by a net $9.1 billion this year through mid-October. "However, the ease with which investors can enter and exit ETF investments creates new and risky dynamics in the speculative-grade market with the potential flow of 'hot money,'" said Ms. Vazza. Speculative-grade companies have a higher default risk than investment-grade companies. Therefore, when the credit cycle turns against investors, losses from defaults can quickly outstrip the additional interest payments that high-yield investors receive. Since we are entering the stage of declining credit quality in the current credit cycle, the credit quality of an issuer or a portfolio has become paramount. Managers of high-yield ETFs aim to get returns that correspond to various high-yield indices, and, as a result, they invest in a narrower slice of the speculative-grade market than we analyze in our Global Fixed Income Research publications. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services rates 1,548 speculative-grade companies in the U.S., while the two largest high-yield ETFs hold bonds from fewer than 300 issuers each. Since high-yield ETFs are growing in importance to the speculative-grade market, we believe it is important that investors understand the differences between the funds' holdings and the total market of speculative-grade companies that Standard & Poor's rates. The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com.
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UPDATE 1-Colombia extends Votorantim contract, ups royalties
* New coal agreement increases royalties paid by PazdelRio
* Latest renegotiation to better terms for state
* Expects coal production to hit 2.5 mln tonnes in 2019
By Jack Kimball
BOGOTA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Thursday extended a contract to the metallurgical coal operations of Brazil's Votorantim local unit for two decades and raised royalties.
Colombia authorized Minas PazdelRio S.A, a local unit of Brazil's Votorantim, to continue mining metallurgical coal until 2039 from a previous date of 2019, and increased the royalties the company would pay, the National Mining Agency said.
Under the new deal, PazdelRio will pay 15 percent for production of 2.5 million tonnes or less, up from 10 percent previously, and 19 percent for volumes above that.
The company currently produces around 200,000 tonnes of coal annually from Boyaca province in the center of Colombia, which should grow to 2.5 million tonnes in 2019, according to the agency and PazdelRio.
The Colombia-based firm also said it would also work with the government in a public-private partnership to develop the long-delayed Carare railway project that looks to link central producers with the main rail line to the coast.
The government had said it would not support bills in Congress to raise royalties for the mining industry, but renegotiating contracts allows Bogota to raise royalties on a case-by-case basis.
At the end of 2012, Colombia agreed with Cerro Matoso, a unit of BHP Billiton, to update certain parts of its contract and increased royalties paid to the government.
Colombia has attracted record foreign investment in recent years as a U.S.-backed offensive against Marxist rebels and drug gangs made doing business in the oil and mineral-rich mountains much safer and easier.
The country is the world's fourth-largest exporter of thermal coal, but its metallurgical coal sector is fairly small given infrastructure restraints and lack of investment.
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It's safe to say that our youngsters will be more than ready to hit the streets later today for trick-or-treat hours. Mother Nature added a twist to the Halloween season this year in the form of a massive storm, better known as Hurricane Sandy. We were luckier than our fellow Americans along the Eastern Shore of the United States, as the remnants of Sandy didn't produce the the high winds and large rainfall, locally, as predicted.
The forecast did postpone the annual trick-or-treat hours - for most of our area - from Wednesday, Halloween day, to today.
So with that, we would like to offer a few tips in an effort to make it a safe holiday.
Costumes should be bright, perhaps reflective, so our youngsters can be seen. Have them carry flashlights or glow sticks.
Don't add accessories that hamper their ability to move, and if a mask is used make sure it's one in which the child can see through without any obstruction.
Parents actually need to plan a trick-or-treat route and supervision in advance. They should avoid areas with heavy traffic and look for well-lit streets, and an adult or responsible teen should accompany a child.
We suggest children, if possible, go house to house in groups, and in rural areas where there aren't sidewalks, children and adults accompanying them should walk on the left side of the road facing traffic. It also is important to note that children should stay in familiar neighborhoods and only visit homes where a porch light is on. And at the end of the evening when the children return home with bags of candy, parents should inspect the candy, and anything that looks suspicious should be thrown out.
Local police and law enforcement agencies will be patrolling, and fire departments also will be on hand to offer assistance, but they can't be everywhere.
Motorists, too, should exercise extreme caution during trick-or-treat hours. Drive slower to prevent accidents should you need to be on the streets during this time. Always err on the side of caution. Don't assume a child won't dart out into the street. Be on the lookout.
This could be a scary night for pedestrians and motorists if safety precautions aren't followed.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children are more likely to be injured or killed by traffic on Halloween than any other day of the year. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation show that between 2006-10, more pedestrians younger than 21 were killed by cars on Oct. 31 than on Oct. 30 or Nov. 1.
Our celebration may be on Nov. 3, but you get the point.
So this year, following some extra common sense rules should ensure a safe and happy Halloween for everyone. |
A DocHouse Thursdays Screening
Followed by a short screening of Republic of Soya
Official Selection International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2011
Rise up Los Campesinos! Rural farmers in Paraguay have been marginalized by the big-business monoculture of GM soy bean production. But now, as crops are poisoned and forests decimated, local farmer Geronimo begins the revolt.
Beautifully shot and interweaving interviews with scenes from soy fields in Paraguay, Raising Resistance explores Latin American farmers’ struggle against the expanding production of genetically modified soy in South America.
Biotechnology, mechanisation, and herbicides have radically changed the lives of small farmers in Latin America. For farmers in Paraguay this means displacement from their land, loss of basic food supplies, and a veritable fight for survival.
Geronimo Arevelos and a group of small farmers stand defiantly in a corporate-owned soy field adjacent to his own, blocking a tractor from spraying herbicides that will decimate his crops and expose nearby families to toxic chemicals. As corporate farms seize farmland and rapidly expand production of genetically modified soy, Geronimo and the campesinos find themselves in a life and death struggle.
Raising Resistance illustrates the mechanisms of a global economy that relies on ‘monocrop’ agriculture and corporate ownership of land. In telling the story of Paraguay, Raising Resistance poses the larger question of whether the global community wants to go on living with a system that allows one crop to prosper at the expense of all others.
(Bettina Borgfield & David Bernet / Germany-Swiss / 2011 / 84’)
Republic of Soya
Uncovers the new model of power that is taking hold of South America. Argentina has been at the helm of GM Soy production since the late 1990’s. Dubbed the new form of Western colonialism, Republic of Soya gets to the core of this destructive Agro-colonisation.
(Luca Lucarini & Jamie King / USA-UK / 2011 / 34’)
DocHouse Thursdays www.dochouse.org
DocHouse, supported by The Bertha Foundation, brings the best in cutting-edge international documentary to your local cinema.
Showcasing seasons of award-winning documentaries. Films that explore powerful personal stories, or offer independent insights into major global issues: from African Stories to Central America and the New Russia. There will also be supporting short films and special one-off events including illuminating panel discussions and Q&A’s with the filmmakers themselves.
So to see the best of the international festival circuit at your London cinema, join us for DocHouse Thursdays at Rich Mix, Tricycle, Riverside and Prince Charles. |
2011 RIDE FOR RENEWABLES: NO TAR SANDS OIL ON AMERICAN SOIL!
Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention to politics in America today can sense the decay of democracy stemming from politicians in both political parties who value holding onto power more than they value the future of our children, our nation, and our world. As the Wall Street bailout demonstrated in dramatic fashion, the game is rigged against the American people in favor of powerful corporate interests. Even foreign corporations get to play.
What if you learned a multinational energy company was plotting to ram a 1,700-mile pipeline through America’s breadbasket to pump nearly one million barrels a day of their strip-mined tar sands sludge to oil refineries in Texas? What if you discovered that tar sands pipelines are 16 times more likely to leak than conventional oil pipelines, due to the corrosive, acidic content of toxic tar sands sludge. What if you found out this foreign corporation was bullying U.S. citizens in six states with threats of eminent domain?
Imagine NASA’s top climate scientist, James Hansen, telling you this: “…if we burn all reserves of oil, gas and coal, there is a substantial chance we will initiate the runaway greenhouse [the Venus syndrome that Hansen warns could “destroy all life on the planet”].” Then this: “If we also burn the tar sands and tar shale, I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty.” Would this stir you to action?
What I have just described is not a scene out of the science fiction film Avatar. It’s real. The name of the foreign company is TransCanada and their $7 billion pipeline scheme is called “Keystone XL.” Completing this nightmare scenario is an Obama White House that is publicly on record saying they are “inclined” to grant TransCanada a presidential permit to build their pipeline on, get this, national interest grounds, with a decision expected by the end of this year.
Keystone XL is not in our national interest:
- It is expected to increase fuel prices in the Midwest.
- It may cost more jobs than it would create and would undermine the green industrial revolution and the millions of permanent jobs that would create.
- It threatens to contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer — the drinking water supply of millions of Americans and source of one-third of America’s farmland irrigation water — with oil spills.
- It would expose families living near tar sands oil refineries to increased risks of cancer from toxic air emissions.
- It threatens Native American and Canadian First Nations communities and cultures.
So how again does this pipeline serve our national interests? Let’s see: TransCanada profits, and Americans pay with our wallets, our jobs, our water, our health, our sovereignty and our integrity. Which nation’s interests are we talking about here?
It is obvious why TransCanada and big oil companies want this pipeline built. It is less clear why the Obama White House would consider it. Keystone XL is expected to facilitate oil exports overseas, not the United States. But even if the costly fuel were sold to the U.S., it would only make America more, not less, addicted to foreign oil.
Ironically, the pipeline route runs through a region of the U.S. so rich in wind resource, it has the potential to supply several times our total national electricity usage. In the face of massive unemployment, it defies logic to be temporarily employing workers to lay pipe for Canada when we could be putting Americans permanently back to work building a national green grid for ourselves, along with the wind turbines and solar panels to power it.
We have reached a turning point in history where a major decision our government is about to make could destroy the ability of future generations to inhabit a livable planet. This is a defining moment for President Obama, who must now choose between our children and the oil lobby. Our job, as I see it, is to show the President the American people have his back in standing up to the oil industry. His job is to do right by us by rejecting Keystone XL and boldly championing a truly green industrial revolution.
To help bring this about, I am leading a “rocket trike” tour this fall – in partnership with a broad array of citizens and organizations working to block Keystone XL – along the 1,700-mile pipeline route to draw the nation’s attention to the perils of this project and to support the people in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas who are most directly threatened by this dangerous pipeline scheme.
The 2010 “Ride for Renewables: 100% by 2020” was launched to reenergize America with a modern day green energy moon shot. Our bold call for 100% renewable electricity by 2020 resonated not just on Main Street, but at the highest levels of government, as evidenced by President Obama’s January State of the Union address. The question now is whether the President’s “Sputnik moment” challenge to the nation will spark a genuine U.S.-led green industrial revolution, or be undermined by polluting corporations like TransCanada to accelerate our march towards global climate catastrophe.
If last year’s BP Gulf oil spill taught us anything, it’s that energy companies lie, and pipelines spill, with catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. When talking about actions that will make the planet uninhabitable for humanity, most reasonable people would agree we have passed the point of compromise. The American people are drawing a line in the tar sands, and TransCanada shall not pass.
2010 RIDE FOR RENEWABLES: 100% GREEN GRID BY 2020
Business as usual isn’t working. America is suffering from massive unemployment, an economy in meltdown mode and a climate that is spiraling out of control. It is clearly time for a new national conversation about America’s energy future. I believe the answer is an American-led, job-producing, economy-strengthening, climate-stabilizing green industrial revolution.
Convinced that 2010 was the critical year for America to set the agenda for the coming decade, I decided to take action. So on September 12, 2010, I began biking from Boulder, CO to Washington, DC, calling for a modern day, green energy moon shot for America: 100% renewable electricity for the U.S. by 2020. Over a span of 10 weeks, I traveled 2,500 miles to Washington, DC in my futuristic-looking, electric-assist “rocket trike.”
The purpose of the ride was to begin a new national conversation about America’s energy future. I rode to engage the American people in “taking back our power” by demanding a green industrial revolution that will put unemployed Americans back to work, reestablish our role as world economic leader, and help ensure future generations a livable planet. Almost everyone I met on Main Street, America supported this bold goal.
Along the way, I visited renewable energy and efficiency projects as motivating examples of the choices already being made by local communities to realize this homegrown green industrial revolution. I also highlighted the deficiencies of old, polluting technologies like coal and nuclear power, and called for an end to the destruction being visited upon Appalachian communities and ecosystems by mountaintop removal mining.
To build public interest in this 10-week trek, I posted a daily blog on this site, and uploaded videos to my Renewable Rider YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages. I also aggressively sought out media interviews with print, radio and television news outlets, many of which are posted on my blog. I pedaled through all or parts of the following 11 states on this 2,500-mile journey: CO, NE, KS, MO, IL, IN, OH, KY, WV, MD and DC.
Our political system in Washington, DC is clearly broken, with the two major political parties more interested in fighting each other than for the American people they were elected to represent. But the partisanship dividing our country today does not accurately reflect who we are as a nation. If anything, it reflects the degree to which unaccountable corporations have succeeded in diverting attention away from the real needs of the American people. The energy and climate challenges we face today are not Republican, or Democratic, issues. They are American, and human, issues that affect each of us, regardless of political persuasion. Everyone needs clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, healthy food to eat and a planet to live on. If there was ever a time to put party label aside, and put America first, that time is now.
I refuse to believe America’s best days are behind her, but we need to dispense with Washington’s timid “inside the beltway” mentality and start dreaming big dreams once again. Now is the time to reclaim our moral standing in the world by reaffirming our economic might as a force for good. This is the message I am working to convey – through the voices of Americans I met along the way – to our political leaders in Washington, DC.
While the task of revolutionizing our electricity grid pales in comparison to the revolutionary sacrifice that brought this great nation into being, realizing the “green dream” of a 100% renewable electricity grid in 10 years will nevertheless demand a level of courageous civic, business and political leadership rarely seen since America’s founding to overcome the inertia of the status quo and to convince a reluctant Congress and White House to radically reverse decades of regressive energy policies. But it is in our national character to take on such huge challenges, and prevail, just as it is a core American desire to leave our children a better world than the one we inherited.
I undertook the “Ride for Renewables” in 2010 as my personal stand for the future. 2011 is the year for all of us to stand together and take back our power. |
See what questions
a doctor would ask.
Plantar reflex: The plantar reflex involves running a key or the end of a blunt instrument along the bottom of the foot from the heel to big toe. The normal outcome is to curl the toes, whereas an abnormal result is extension and separation of the toes, the so-called Babinski sign.
Other names for Plantar reflex include:
These diseases or medical conditions may be diagnosed by, screened for, or associated with Plantar reflex:
Disease or Condition count: 0; see list of conditions below. These are the diseases or medical conditions in which the medical test 'Plantar reflex' may be involved.
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Map of CT Drainage Basins
Rivers Alliance of Connecticut is the only statewide nonprofit dedicated to protecting and enhancing Connecticut’s rivers, streams, and watersheds. We promote and support environmentally sound state policies, assist the state’s many watershed and river groups, and educate the public about the importance of water conservation and aquatic habitats. We are a membership-based nonprofit corporation founded in 1992.
Action Alert! Bill 1138, AAC (An Act Concerning) Connecticut's Clean Energy Goals, passed the Senate Wed., May 1 and was delivered to the House, where amendments and a vote are pending.
The most recent CT Watershed Conservation Network Conference was May 16, 2013. Click here for the agenda
Save the Farmington River! Click Here to Sign a Petition Regarding the MDC’s Proposal to Divert Water Across the State to UConn
The Council On Environmental Quality has released its Annual Report "Environmental Quality in Connecticut"
Rivers Alliance Names Environmental Champions at Annual Meeting
Presentations during Rivers Alliance's Fall Connecticut Watershed Conservation Network Conference are Available in the Conference Agenda
Manual Available: ON-SITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN CONNECTICUT
This text was written as part of
grant from the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation for education on alternate
sewage treatment systems (ATS). These controversial systems typically allow
for onsite treatment of sewage on properties too small for a traditional
Help provide Rivers Alliance with the resources to be at the table and shape
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Innovation and Technologies
Roche assesses emerging technologies and is quick to adopt the ones that can enhance the ability to select the right compounds for further development or that can be used to create new and better diagnostic tests. New technologies and areas of research are the basis for today's and tomorrows medicine. Some of these have emerged only recently.
Biomarkers are objective measures or indicators which are used to evaluate disease versus normal biological processes or responses to a drug or treatment. In the pharmaceutical R&D process, many different biomarker types are utilised for various purposes.
Biomarker types and applications span the broad spectrum of healthcare:
- Biomarkers for risk assessment permit the risk of an individual developing a particular disease to be estimated
- Biomarkers for earlier and more specific indication of a compound’s toxicity
- Biomarkers for prognosis provide information about the likely course of a disease
- Biomarkers for patient stratification according to likely drug response allow physicians to identify the best treatment choice for a person
- Biomarkers for therapy monitoring provide information at an early stage as to whether treatment is working or if the disease is coming back
- Blood pressure as a marker for hypertension.
- Herceptin, for example, was developed as effective treatment for breast cancer patients where the marker indicates if the tumour is HER2 positive, i.e., has a specific genetic trait.
- For HIV patients, monitoring the viral load, i.e. the number of viruses in the blood, is an effective biomarker. It is accepted by health authorities as a significant measurement in clinical trials for novel drugs such as Fuzeon which fights HIV before entering healthy cells in the first place. The combination of effective drug and biomarker is especially important for patients with limited therapeutic options.
Markers can be discovered, developed and validated through a variety of exciting new technologies ranging from genomics and proteomics to imaging tools. They have been widely installed and used across all divisions and functions within Roche.
It is the strategy of Roche to systematically pursue Personalised Healthcare (PHC) approaches for which biomarkers are essential. The most commonly cited example of PHC is the above mentioned Herceptin and its companion diagnostic tool, the Biomarker measuring HER2.
In modern drug discovery, a programme usually starts with the selection of a biological “target” – usually a protein – that is believed to be associated with the disease state. For targets where a small molecule therapeutic is preferred, medicinal chemists at Roche frequently use a technology called structure-based drug design (SBDD).
This technology uses the three-dimensional structure of the target protein to design and optimise small organic molecules that bind to and affect the function of the target protein in the desired way. The availability of the 3D structure of the protein greatly reduces the empirical nature of drug design by allowing medicinal chemists to more rationally optimise small molecule drugs. In essence, they are literally able to “see” where the best opportunities are to increase potency or modify other properties to make the drug more effective.
Roche was a pioneer in the area of structure-based design and has continually invested to maintain a technological advantage in this area. A critical first step in SBDD is obtaining the crystal structure of the protein. Through automation, miniaturization and parallel processing of all the steps required to create protein crystals, Roche is able to provide the protein crystal structure to medicinal chemists at a very early stage of the process for most programs. Medicinal chemists and computational chemists then apply a number of tools to predict which changes in the initial lead molecules will give the desired improvements. These tools – many of which have been developed at Roche – use both databases of experimental data and theoretical methods to more effectively design the drug with the optimal properties.
Roche has developed multi-user, real-time collaboration tools using Perceptive Pixel’s innovative multi-touch technology to support decision making within drug discovery project team.
This movie introduces the “Innovation Room” housing the 81’’ screen and demonstrates our first two multi-touch applications and their potential use for collaborative brainstorming.The first application allows for the visualization of chemical and biological data in novel ways facilitating real-time decision capture. A second proof-of-concept application enables multiple users to simultaneously visualize and interact with networks of semantically integrated data. Both applications represent a new way of working that can be best described as “Team Computing”.
Computational methods have become an integral component of small molecule drug discovery research at Roche. Research proceeds in many iterative cycles of creating and synthesising new molecules and testing them in relevant biological assays, with the aim to optimise multiple properties in parallel. The amount of data created in these cycles is rapidly increasing and calls for advanced data mining methods to create improved hypotheses for the next generation of molecules.
A large toolbox of in silico methods exists for this purpose, ranging from methods correlating chemical structures with their properties and biological effects to fully automated virtual screening methods that help researchers to select promising candidates out of millions of (real or virtual) molecular structures. In some areas, computational screens are already replacing experimental measurement.
Modern scientific assessment of drug safety is increasingly using cell-based assays. Recent development in automation and miniaturization allow high throughput safety testing with minimal compound requirements already early in the R&D process. Roche’s efforts to guide the medicinal chemist in his design of new drugs that have favourable efficacy and safety profiles are driven by the need to increase the success rate of new drug candidates by using highly predictive technologies.
Cell based assays to assess drug behavior in the body (pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism), genotoxic liabilities, developmental toxicity (teratogenicity), cardiac toxicities, potential drug-drug interactions and other distinct toxicological mechanisms reflect Roche’s sustained commitment to reduce animal experimentation whenever possible while securing the safety of new drugs for the patients. Therefore an important aspect of the work is the constant exploration of new emerging technologies (e.g., high-content screening) and new cell-based approaches such as multiple cell type or stem cell derived models.
Therapeutic Proteins (TP) have increased dramatically in number and frequency of use since the introduction of the first recombinant protein — human insulin — 25 years ago and Roche's Roferon-A in 1986. These drugs usually display excellent affinity and selectivity for the disease target. In conjunction with favourable molecule properties like stability, long biological half-life, negligible susceptibility to unwanted metabolic degradation and low off-target adverse side effects TP offer excellent opportunities for Roche's commitment to innovative targeted drug therapies.
The Roche Group has generated a rich biological discovery, development and market (e.g. Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin, NeoRecormon, Pegasys) pipeline based on cutting edge protein-engineering technologies as well as world-class manufacturing processes improving production, formulation and quality testing of protein drugs. The most recent example of this success story is ACTEMRA, the first humanised Interleukin-6 receptor-inhibiting monoclonal antibody representing a novel mode of action for treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Roche scientists are actively working on the next wave of therapeutic proteins focusing on rational design and engineering the drug with desired properties (like glyco-engineering of monoclonal antibodies to enhance antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, combining two functionalities in one drug or optimising targeted delivery).
One mechanism by which therapeutic monoclonal antibodies can perform target cell killing is antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The efficiency of ADCC is strictly dependent on the recruitment of immune effector cells, like NK cells, via FcμIIIa receptor binding. One possibility to enhance FcμIIIa binding is the engineering of N-linked oligosaccharide structures attached to the Fc region of monoclonal antibodies. This glycoengineering approach (GlycoMAb) generates novel antibody glycovariants with significantly enhanced FcμIIIa binding and improved tumour target cell killing.
Currently new glycoengineered monoclonal antibodies for treatment of different tumours are in development at Roche. One, a novel anti CD20 antibody directed against an epitope on malignant and normal human B-cells, already demonstrated superior efficacy in different preclinical non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) models. Roche also has generated a recombinant, glycoengineered monoclonal antibody that is directed against EGFR, an antigen expressed on many solid tumours such as lung, colon and head and neck cancer and it could be demonstrated clearly that glycoengineering also significantly enhanced ADCC activity of this antibody.
Discovery Technologies provide the critical platforms and technologies for the identification of active small molecules and their further optimization in the drug discovery process. Using state of the art robotics, molecular and cell biology, fermentation techniques, liquid handling devices, ultra-sensitive detectors, and sophisticated data processing software, we can manage and dispense over 1 million compounds on demand, generate biochemical and cellular assays and conduct High throughput screens where we can carry out millions of biochemical or pharmacological tests to rapidly identify compounds which modulate a particular biological pathway. X-Ray Crystallography and Protein NMR provide critical 3-dimensional structural data of these compounds bound to the target proteins allowing for triage of the leads and guidance for further optimisation of drug like properties.
Using Ambit Biosciences screening technology, KINOMEscan™, a high-throughput active-site dependent competition binding assay, Roche is able to identify the effects of drug candidates on kinases. This class of enzymes regulates cellular functions such as their proliferation, immune response or death and has been linked to numerous diseases including cancer, arthritis, and respiratory diseases. The challenge in kinase research is to create inhibitors that selectively alter the activity of specific kinases for therapeutic benefit while not indiscriminately inhibiting the 518 kinases in the human genome. At Roche, the fast screening of drug candidates versus more than 400 kinases is already possible. The resulting selectivity profiles guide the design of drug candidates to optimise for both efficacy and safety. In addition, with a multidisciplinary approach, Roche expects to utilise its kinase profiling data to reveal unforeseen benefits for our drug candidates across multiple diseases.
Here are three examples of Roche’s innovative research into formulation to ensure that novel compounds / medicines achieve their therapeutic effect:
Making compounds (bio)available
Solvent evaporation, or spray-drying, and anti-solvent precipitation techniques are based on dissolving the drug and polymer in a suitable solvent, and either flash-evaporating or precipitating the drug-polymer complex as an amorphous solid. The principle of hot melt extrusion is to form a co-melt of the drug and polymer (carrier), which is then rapidly cooled to yield an amorphous ‘glass.’
Since one technology doesn’t fit all, Roche formulation scientists have developed further expertise to deliver the poorly soluble compounds using nanoparticles or lipid formulations. There is also a continuous effort to screen external technologies for optimal delivery of poorly soluble drugs.
Delivery of RNAi Therapeutics
Ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) is a major scientific breakthrough and offers limitless opportunities for therapeutics. While the science of RNAi is fast developing, Roche scientists are looking into the major challenges to unravel the puzzle for successful intracellular delivery of siRNA an absolute requirement for developing effective siRNA based treatments. The current major challenges are attributed to their short in-vivo half life, rapid renal elimination from the body, achieving sufficient concentration of these molecules in the tissue of interest in the body and then traversing the natural cellular barriers to gain entry in the cell to activate the RNAi mechanism.
Roche researchers are working on a multi-faceted strategy to address these challenges. This strategy encompasses the target-driven optimisation of delivery systems by introducing unique chemical modifications to the siRNA molecule itself and also developing novel formulation vehicles to improve biodistribution and in-vivo sustenance. These vehicles range from liposomes to polymer-based nanoparticles that utilise natural and synthetic polymers and complexing agents. The siRNA drug delivery teams are tapping into the vast innovation networks within Roche and exploring external company and academic collaborations, such as the recently announced partnership with Tekmira.
Halozyme Enhanze™ Drug Delivery Technology
With a large portfolio of biologics on the market and in development finding ways to deliver these compounds safely and conveniently is a high priority at Roche. Applying s.c. administration instead of i.v. dosing offers a major safety and convenience advantage to doctors and patients allowing for example self-administration at home instead of receiving an infusion at the hospital.
In December 2006 Roche and Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. have entered into an agreement to apply Halozyme’s Enhanze™ Technology to Roche’s biological therapeutic compounds. This Drug Delivery Technology is based on the biological activity of a naturally occurring human enzyme (PH20 hyaluronidase), which is known to play a key role in the regeneration of the subcutaneous tissue by temporarily breaking down hyaluronic acid, the space-filling "gel"-like substance that is a major component of it. When injected subcutaneously, hyaluronidase acts as a spreading agent that accelerates the delivery of co-injected drugs and increases their systemic bioavailability. The enzyme is degraded within minutes making this process fully reversible. The use of this Delivery Technology further allows subcutaneous (sc) administration of larger volumes (e.g. to 5 to 20 mL) without causing discomfort for the patients. To exploit the full benefit of this technology Roche scientist are also exploring suitable injection devices for easy and safe patient use.
A large body of clinical experience supports the benefits and safety of using PH20 hyaluronidase as an adjuvant in drug product formulations. The use of recombinant human hyaluronidase is approved in the US.
To support excellence in decision making within Roche Research we invest significantly in information and informatics. Through the use of bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics, information science and knowledge engineering Roche enables innovation in drug discovery and development. Ensuring that we derive maximum value from the latest genomic data, for example, requires a sophisticated bioinformatics platform and skilled scientists. Using the large volumes of publicly available information, plus Roche internal information, Roche is able to construct genome and gene expression maps and biological pathway models from different organs, populations of patients, disease stages, and so on. Computational models enable us to compare these and generate hypotheses as to the causes of disease and where Roche can target its research efforts to develop drugs that are highly efficacious and safe for the patients who will receive them.
Medicinal Chemistry is a central and highly interdisciplinary science in Pharmaceutical Research. It combines organic chemistry, biochemistry, computational chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology as well as physical chemistry.
Roche Medicinal Chemistry is using different scientific methods and state-of-the art tools to search for chemical starting points. Being uniquely positioned at the interface to therapeutic proteins, small interfering RNA and Diagnostics, the medicinal chemists at Roche explore innovative approaches that go far beyond traditional methods. In doing so, they stay focused on the endgame – a drug for patients.
For a molecule to become a drug candidate, it must be selective and show high affinity to the target protein. However, medicinal chemists face many other demanding requirements. For example, the drug molecules need to be stable in biological fluids and dissolve in a controlled manner. Medicinal Chemistry also explores both what the drug does to the body and what the body does to the drug.
The molecules are characterised in a set of well defined and selected multidimensional optimisation assays, and medicinal chemists carefully analyse the results. The effects a molecule has are then put into context with its chemical structure to derive structure-effect-relationships. In a stepwise process, newly designed molecules are synthesised to improve their properties. Such iterative design and characterisation cycles are run multiple times in order to identify the best drug candidate molecules for further development.
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials on a scale 80,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. It offers important potential opportunities to improve healthcare.
As this is still a new field, the long-term impacts of nanoscale materials are not yet fully known. Unanswered questions remain about the potential effects on human safety and the environment. The benefits of nanotechnology have to be carefully evaluated against these possible risks, especially if it is to be used in medicines.
Nanoscale materials have been used for many years in certain Roche products, such as micelles for drugs and polymer particles in diagnostics. Potential new applications in our work include new ways of delivering drugs, miniaturised diagnostic tools, ultra high-strength materials and larger-scale, faster data storage and retrieval.
As with all new therapeutics, we will carefully evaluate the risk-benefit ratio of nanotechnology-based therapies before bringing any to market. We believe that existing laboratory tests can adequately evaluate most aspects of the safety of novel therapies and that, in principle, current regulations provide an adequate framework for assessing the safety of new nanotechnology-based compounds in the short- and medium-term. Longer periods of observation may be needed.
We encourage further study and promote informed dialogue about nanotechnology. We advocate research in the field that takes into account public concerns and expectations as well as all applicable laws and regulations.
Roche is a founding member of the Nano-Medicines and Nano-Devices Alliance, which aims to promote the development, approval, and use of medicines and medical devices based on nanotechnology.
Stem cells and their applications offer tremendous potential for relieving chronic pain and treating or even curing disease. We are highly interested in stem cells for use in research and as potential therapies.
Opinions vary on whether stem cells should be used for research and as potential treatments for diseases, and on how society should regulate such activities to accommodate these diverse views.
Stem cell research may eventually enable researchers to find treatments for severe diseases which today have few, if any, effective therapies. These include Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart failure, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia and Parkinson’s.
We believe that responsible research on human embryonic stem cells should be carried out, as long as it aims to advance the knowledge required to develop new and more effective therapies for diseases that cannot currently be adequately treated.
We plan to conduct embryonic stem cell research for discovery purposes and to develop potential therapies. We do not currently carry out such research, but have entered into several collaborations with others that do. We provide external partners with compounds from our drug library for testing on human embryonic stem cells. The aim is to improve drug development and avoid potential adverse reactions in humans, while reducing animal testing. We have funded and are on the steering body of the UK consortium Stem Cells for Safer Medicines (SC4SM), and are collaborating with Cellular Dynamics International Inc. to test whether potential new drugs damage heart tissue using stem cells. |
First American Woman in Space
Who was the first American woman in space?
In 1983, the hit song, "Mustang Sally," experienced a sudden burst of popularity nearly two decades after it was released. First recorded by Mack Rice in 1965 and made famous by Wilson Pickett the following year, the song had been largely relegated to classic rock stations.
The reason for this sudden revival? NASA was about to make Sally Ride the first American woman in space. Soon, a line from the song’s chorus, "Ride, Sally, ride" was on everyone’s lips.
Born on May 26, 1951 in Encino, Calif., Ride was awarded a scholarship to attend Westlake School for Girls. She excelled at science and athletics, becoming a nationally ranked tennis player. Ride went on to Stanford University, where she obtained bachelor's degree in English and a Ph.D in physics.
Ride watched the space program with great interest growing up, but with no chance of going herself. There were few scientists and no women in the astronaut corps.
That changed in 1978 when NASA recruited a new group of astronauts to fly the space shuttle. The larger shuttles could fly a crew of seven, meaning NASA needed scientists and engineers to run experiments, operate equipment, and perform other duties.
Ride applied and was selected as part of a class of 35 astronaut candidates. It was a diverse group that included six women, three African Americans, and one Japanese-American.
Ride trained hard and helped to develop the space shuttle's robotic arm. She was selected to be the first American woman in space when she was assigned as to the STS-7 crew. The media attention was intense for the historic flight. One reporter even asked her if she would cry during the flight. (She didn’t.)
Launch day came on June 18, 1983 -- 20 years and two days after Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Ride climbed aboard the space shuttle Challenger with Commander Bob Crippen, Pilot Frederick Hauck, and Mission Specialists Norman Thagard and John Fabian. They roared off the pad at 7:33 a.m. EDT as the largest crew ever to fly into space.
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the STS-7 space shuttle mission. Image Courtesy of NASA
Ride used the shuttle's robotic arm to deploy and retrieve a free-flying spacecraft full of experiments. The crew also conducted pharmaceutical experiments in microgravity during the successful six-day flight.
Ride flew into space again on Challenger the following year as a member of the STS 41-G crew. During the 8-day mission, the crew deployed a satellite, conducted scientific observations of Earth, and practiced refueling a satellite.
The first American woman in space was assigned to a future shuttle mission. However, that plan was put on hold after Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986. Ride served on a presidential commission that investigated the tragedy.
Ride left the space program in the following year to pursue an academic career. She later served on the board that investigated the loss of the Columbia, making her the only person to serve on both space shuttle investigative bodies.
The first American woman in space is an inspiration to young girls. Ride has written or co-authored five books on space aimed at encouraging children to study science and technology careers.
Links for First American Woman in Space |
Communication Sciences & Disorders Clinical Practicum Experiences
Clinical experiences in CSD are designed to enable students to complete their clinical practice at off-campus facilities affiliated with Rockhurst University. With over 90 clinical affiliations, there are ample opportunities for students to obtain experience with culturally and linguistically diverse populations while serving both pediatric and adult clients.
Pediatric sites include urban, suburban and rural school districts, preschools serving children with special needs, a children's hospital, an auditory-oral program for children with hearing loss, home-based services for families with infants and toddlers, private practices, outpatient pediatric facilities, and a public health department. Students have access to a wide variety of childhood communication disorders including problems of language, articulation/phonology, pre-literacy, fluency, voice, resonance, hearing, swallowing and social aspects of communication. Students also work with children in the areas of pre-literacy, literacy, and writing.
Clinical sites serving the adult population include acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, rehabilitation outpatient centers, voice disorders clinics, and skilled nursing facilities. Within these facilities, students have the opportunity to obtain clinical experience with patients who have a variety of disorders, including aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria, cognitive-communication disorders, dysphagia, right hemisphere dysfunction, and voice disorders, among others. Students may work with patients who have traumatic brain injuries and cerebrovascular injuries, such as strokes. Patients who have neurogenic disorders such as Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's, and dementia are served by the speech-language pathologists in these facilities, and are therefore part of the students' clinical experiences. Several of the sites provide access to assistive technology used for augmentative communication with a variety of patients.
For more information about clinical opportunities at Rockhurst, please contact our Clinical Instructor Kathy Ermgodts. |
As President Bush leads us toward what seems like an inevitable war with Iraq, many musicians are doing their best to resist. During a recent Pearl Jam show in Australia, Eddie Vedder ad-libbed, "I wish I was president. Keep us out of war -- that's what friends are for." In England, Coldplay's Chris Martin was even more blunt: "We are all going to die when George Bush gets his way." Here, six more of the biggest names in rock air their views on the possibility of war with Iraq.
"I'm very scared at this point in our history. There's this idea going on in our administration that one plus one equals ten. Or five times two equals one. I have no idea how they've come up with the concept that if we get into a conflict with Iraq that any of the results that they're anticipating will come to pass. I think, in fact, it's so obvious to me that I think they have to know that fighting Iraq will make al Qaeda stronger. And that turmoil is somehow, sinisterly something that they want. That unbalance. I don't see how you can look at the world right now and say destroying Iraq, what's left there to destroy, is going to in any way strengthen our position in the Middle East."
"We forget that bombs and missiles don't fall on top of cardboard dummies, they fall on people -- children and mothers. The leaders are lacking love, and love is lacking leaders . . . The values of the world are twisted and we need to go back to principles of love and forgiveness. That's the only way to survive. New leaders have to emerge, leaders who talk about love. Like Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Where are they? The thinkers, the journalists, the artists of this generation are the ones who determine the thoughts of a generation, and we have to pronounce those thoughts so people wake up, so we prevent future disasters . . . If we don't demand from our leaders a peaceful solution to the conflict, then we aren't even going to be alive to regret it."
Peter Buck of R.E.M.:
"It certainly seems that if we're gonna have a war, Vietnam would have taught us that you should figure out why you're having it and who you're fighting. And I haven't seen that anyone's figured that out yet. I especially don't want to see any young people die so that we can continue to have cheap oil."
"I don't think it's as clear cut as peace advocates -- who say war is automatically bad -- say it is. People are dying there because of [Hussein]. It's not only our interests, although that's why we're going in. I'm not saying for a minute we're going in to save Iraqi people. People have been tortured . . . It's not so easy to say we shouldn't be there."
"Thou shalt not kill. God said that, not me. It's hard for musicians to know where to they stand. We haven't dealt with the threat of war for a long time. Everybody was preoccupied with young girls in stretch dresses. There has to be more to music than that."
"Clearly, there is no credible reason to wage war and inflict tremendous civilian casualties, in the name of some empty canister shells -- which is all the inspectors have found so far. The aim of practical politics, and of this war on Iraq, is to keep the public alarmed. The Bush administration is carrying out an assault against the general population, and future generations, in the interests of narrow sectors of wealth and power. And Saddam Hussein's just the latest one in a long series of hobgoblins."
To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here
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Remove the inches of our body that we dislike using the latest scientific research is the main benefit provided to us by cavitation.
Cavitation is defined from the controlled generation and repeated micro-vacuum bubbles within a liquid, fluid or physiological material, followed by their own implosion. This method is characterized by achieving break the hard structures localized fat deposits. These areas are usually resistant to dieting, given its storage and are not easily removed, either through exercise or massage. Cavitation can act on these zones, freeing them from the fat. A firming muscle and shaping the body that get results in a few sessions.
The physical principle of cavitation had not been used for aesthetic medicine, until recently. Causes destruction of the fat cell with subsequent transformation of fat into a liquid substance (diglycerides) which is eliminated through the lymphatic system and urinary tract. Fat cells are exposed to overpressure, which breaks their membranes, triggering the destruction of adipocytes. The fat? Triglyceride-fragments into diglycerides and can be latter expelled through the urine. Through emulsification of the fat is able to change the state of the fatty deposits from solid to liquid, making a substance easily eliminated in the urine. We suggest a low calorie diet and intake of at least two liters of water before and after each treatment, as it is an indispensable part to eliminate fat.
Modalities of cavitation
There are several variations within the field of treatments comprising the cavitation in the process of action. We found stable cavitation, the cavitation and ultracavitación double. The first mode is called traditional operating according to the scheme described above. It is an alternative to surgical liposuction, less aggressive and more comfortable. This treatment reduces cellulite and fat pads with very good results.
The double cavitation, on the other hand, is the effect produced by two waves of different frequencies and combined, resulting in a controlled and repetitive micro gas bubbles. Alongside these waves interact generating a high internal temperature rise by the effect of vibration of the resonance molecular and cavitation. The bubble effect is the increase of temperature, since it accumulates energy, until they collapse and implode. The fat cells exposed to this energy, and therefore destroyed selectively fat with consequent transformation of this liquid substance, which is then eliminated through the lymphatic system and urinary. By combining this procedure with the endomasaje, it generates a suction on the cell and produces a stretching of the fabric, providing oxygen to the area as well as a better circulation.
This treatment allows the effect sonoforético penetration of the active ingredients and enzymes cosmetics, achieving a very important contribution of nutrients very beneficial for the body. It is highly recommended that a drain in the area just after the session to help eliminate. You do not need anesthesia and is equipped with maximum safety for the patient with a diagnosis and prior control performed by the apparatus. Allows visible results from the third session and with a lasting effect. It is a system which ensures effectiveness and stability over time. On the other hand the ultracavitación incorporates low-frequency ultrasound, which manage to break the fatty tissue without damaging the microcirculation. Through waves propagating ultrasonic vibration, generated a succession of bubbles creating a stable compression able to separate the fatty nodules, breaking the membrane of adipocytes and emulsify fat they contain.
Length of sessions of Cavitation
Treatments typically last 35 minutes, spread in a single workspace: abdomen, buttocks, outer zone or inside of the leg. In each session, there is a volume reduction of about 2cm. The sessions should be done every 72 hours, long enough for the body to remove the fat. It is recommended that between 6 and 12 sessions, depending on the area treated and the patient’s condition. The minimum number of sessions are recommended 6 to 10. |
Kitchen for safe house in Peru
Location: Piura, Peru
Project Type: Community Development, Education
People Served: 107 Children between 6 and 17 years old
Project Cost: USD $30,400
Timeline: September 15th to December 15th
Community Contribution: Materials, medicine, food, clothing, training of employees and maintenance for the home.
The Madre del Redentor home for abandoned and abused children provides a place to live and learn for 107 children.
Unfortunately, the home itself has fallen into disrepair due to neglected maintenance over the years, and many areas are unusable. To improve the condition of the house and the situation of the children living there, the organizations Tierra y Ser and Hijos de María Inmaculada y Corredentoras de Piura have partnered with Round the World with Us to renovate and improve the building and provide a new kitchen.
Not just a kitchen…a source of revenue and life skills
Tierra y Ser will not only build a kitchen suitable for preparing food for so many children, but they will use industrial equipment that will allow the girls and the nuns who take care of them to begin a catering business that will provide extra income to the home and job training for the girls.
The kitchen was made possible by an extremely generous donation made by the Gugelmann Family in honor of Lily Cuculiza de Schafer.
Lily has worked tirelessly throughout her life to improve conditions for people in Peru, especially children. She cares so much about the girls who live in this home and the kitchen will be named in her honor. |
Lab Report: The Rest is Up to You
The Art and Science of Tapering
This month’s Lab Report looks at the art and science of tapering to improve your racing performance. After months of hard training in preparation for a key race, there comes a time when your focus should switch from hard work to allowing your body to recover and adapt so you are totally prepared as you approach the starting line. Let’s look at why, when and how to taper.
The challenge in designing an effective taper is to find the optimal balance between continuing to train to improve your racing fitness and resting to eliminate the physical and mental fatigue of training. It takes discipline to appropriately cut back your training so you reap the full benefits of the hard miles that are already behind you. The benefits of tapering can be looked at as simply correcting the accumulated wear-and-tear of training. More specifically, it appears that tapering leads to improvements in running economy (how much oxygen you need to run at a given pace) and muscle strength. This is not surprising because the cumulative fatigue of training reduces both of those. Tapering also allows repair of the ongoing microcellular muscle damage from training and full replenishment of the glycogen stores in your muscles and liver, as well as bolstering your immune system.
How much tapering will improve your performance depends on how hard you have been training and how you go about your taper. A review of over 50 scientific studies across a variety of sports found that tapering leads to improvements in performance of between 2 and 8 percent. In studies with runners, the benefit is generally on the order of 2 to 4 percent, which equates to about 60 to 120 seconds for a 50-minute 10K, or 3.5 to 7 minutes for a 3-hour marathon. If you are still not convinced that tapering is worthwhile, think about how many workouts you have done in preparation for your goal race. How much more improvement will you realistically gain from another tough long run versus the potential performance gains from a well-designed taper?
You should only do a full taper before a few key races each year. If you race frequently and do a complete taper for each race you will lose fitness because there will not be much time left to put in the necessary hard workouts. For most races you can do a two- to-three day mini-taper, but for the ones you truly care about you need a thorough and well-planned taper.
The ideal number of days to taper depends on both the distance you will be racing and how hard you have been training. The harder you have been training, the greater the benefits of recovery. Too short a taper will provide less than the maximal improvement in performance, while tapering for too long eventually leads to detraining. The table below provides recommendations on how long to taper for various race distances.
|Race Distance||Taper Duration|
|15K to Half Marathon||11-14 days|
Art and science are of roughly equal value in designing your taper. According to the scientific evidence, the key to effective tapering is to substantially cut back the volume of your training (i.e., your mileage), but to maintain its intensity. Logically, reducing your mileage has the greatest impact on reducing accumulated fatigue to improve your racing performance. How much to reduce your mileage depends on your current training volume and the distance of your goal race. Guidelines for cutting back your mileage are presented in the table below. The art of the taper is using your judgment to optimize your taper based on your total training load, lifestyle and sense of how much recovery you need.
|Race Distance||3rd Week Pre-Race||2nd Week Pre-Race||Race Week|
|15K to Half Marathon||0%||30%||50%|
|5K to 10K||0%||20%||50%|
Some running articles recommend increasing the amount of speed work during the taper. I believe that this is risky due to the high lactate levels from these types of workouts and the relatively long recovery times required. An approach that leads to more consistent results is to maintain your interval speed but reduce the volume of intervals. For example, if a typical long interval workout for you is six repetitions of 1K in 3:45, during your taper you would run the same pace per lap, but would reduce the session to three or four repetitions of 1K or perhaps four or five repetitions of 800 meters. This maintains the training stimulus but with reduced fatigue. To retain endurance adaptations such as increased glycogen storage and blood volume, marathoners should include a long run of approximately 1 3/4 hours two weeks before the race and 75 to 90 minutes about 7 days before their marathon.
There is also a psychological component to an effective taper. Leading up to a big race, it is paramount to believe in your training. That is why it is vital to adjust your taper to fit your individual needs. Keep a record of your taper leading up to each goal race and how you felt during them. Over time you will be able to identify patterns that will allow you to fine-tune your taper. As you line up for the start, you will then be confident that your taper has given you the maximal edge in performance. The rest is up to you. |
"Spring break is on the way, or maybe summer vacation. Time to pack your swim suit, hit the beach, and perhaps indulge in a little harmless fun. What about getting a temporary tattoo to mark the occasion? Who could it hurt to get a temporary tatto"...
Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.
Clinical Studies Experience: Evaluation of Facial Use in Pediatric Subjects
An, open-label, study was conducted in 58 children with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (2 to 12 years old) to evaluate the safety of Derma-Smoothe/FS® (fluocinolone acetonide) when applied to the face twice daily for 4 weeks. The following adverse reactions were reported:
Incidence of Adverse Reactions (%)
|Adverse Reaction (AR)*|| # of subjects
|Day 14||Day 28**||Day 56***|
|Any AE||15 (26)||6 (10)||7 (12)||7 (12)|
|Telangiectasia||5 (9)||3 (5)||4 (7)||2 (4)|
|Erythema||3 (5)||3 (5)|
|Itching||3 (5)||3 (5)|
|Irritation||3 (5)||3 (5)|
|Burning||3 (5)||3 (5)|
|Hypopigmentation||2 (4)||2 (4)|
|Shiny skin||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Secondary atopic dermatitis||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Papules and pustules||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Keratosis pilaris||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Folliculitis||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Facial herpes simplex||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Acneiform eruption||1 (2)||1 (2)|
|Ear infection||1 (2)||1 (2)|
| *The number of individual adverse reactions reported does
not necessarily reflect the number of individual subjects, since one subject
could have multiple reporting of an adverse reaction.
**End of Treatment
***Four Weeks Post Treatment
Clinical Studies Experience: Evaluation in Pediatric Subjects 3 months to 2 years old
An open-label safety study was conducted in 29 children to assess the HPA axis by ACTH stimulation testing following use of Derma-Smoothe/FS (fluocinolone acetonide) twice daily for 4 weeks. The following adverse reactions were reported in the study [See Use in Specific Populations]:
Adverse Reactions (%)
|Adverse Reaction||# of subjects (%)|
|Otitis media||1 (3)|
|Atopic dermatitis||1 (3)|
|*Includes one subject who withdrew at Week 2|
Read the Derma-Smoothe/FS (fluocinolone acetonide) Side Effects Center for a complete guide to possible side effects »
No information provided.
Last reviewed on RxList: 1/3/2008
This monograph has been modified to include the generic and brand name in many instances.
Additional Derma-Smoothe/FS Information
Derma-Smoothe/FS - User Reviews
Derma-Smoothe/FS User Reviews
Now you can gain knowledge and insight about a drug treatment with Patient Discussions.
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
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Children lead cathedral service
TWO young cathedral choristers led an entire cathedral service as part of their final duties.
Thirteen-year-olds Rosanna Wicks and Finnbar Blakey, deputy head choristers of the girls’ and boys’ choirs, took on the role of precentor at Choral Evensong in Salisbury Cathedral earlier this month.
Canon Precentor Tom Clammer came up with the idea. “I thought this was a good way of recognising the important role played by the deputy head choristers, one of whom is actually called ‘Precentor’s Chorister’,” he said.
“Singing at Evensong and leading the congregation in their worship is part of a chorister’s daily work so the idea was to take that concept a step further and let them experience officiating at and leading the service.”
Salisbury Cathedral Choir can be heard singing Evensong daily during school term time, Monday to Saturday at 5.30pm and at 4.30pm on Sundays. |
SBIR Phase I: Dose Sensor for Proton Beam Cancer Therapy
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research project will develop dose sensors for use in ion beam and proton beam cancer therapy. The proposed technical approach will result in compact, low-cost dose sensors with high sensitivity, high accuracy and good long term stability. The sensors can be used for both ex-vivo applications (such as beam monitoring, calibration and control), as well as for in-vivo applications (implanted within the patient's body), to allow very precise treatment of small tumors and advanced tumors. Proton beam cancer therapy is fast becoming a mainstream technology in the US, offering the potential for successful cancer treatment, with minimal side effects and minimum damage to adjacent healthy tissue. For successful treatment, it is critical to achieve the proper dose, and to target the dose to a specific volume within the patient. The development of accurate, reliable dose sensors is critical to achieving the proper dose to cancerous tissue and minimizing the dose to healthy tissue. The use of in-vivo dose sensors will enable beam position accuracy to within small fractions of a millimeter, even with the inevitable organ movement due to patient respiration and cardiovascular action. This increased level of beam position accuracy will enable successful treatment of advanced tumors, small tumors and tumors intimately adjacent to healthy organs.
Small Business Information at Submission:
STRUCTURED MATERIALS INDUSTRIES, INC.
201 CIRCLE DRIVE NORTH SUITE 102/103 PISCATAWAY, NJ 08854
Number of Employees: |
Low-Cost Instrument for Long-Term Monitoring of Hazardous Contaminants in Drinking Water
The EPA has stated a need for technologies and instruments to monitor and warn of the presence of toxic contaminants in drinking water. An innovative device that could detect, identify and localize hazardous chemical contaminants in drinking water would be immensely valuable to water utility operators, emergency response personnel, and other decision-making officials charged with protecting the nations water supply from terrorist acts.
Radiation Monitoring Devices (RMD) proposes to design and build a miniature, permanent magnet-based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer that can be lowered into drinking water systems. NMR utilizes the same technologies as those used to scan the human body in clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, and uses no harmful radiation. NMR proton spectra will provide continuous, precise and specific monitoring of the water concentration of substances such as pesticides, toxic industrial chemicals, chemical warfare agents, and bioaccumulative metal-based and organic toxins, such as mercury and PCBs. NRM signal sensitivity will be enhanced several orders of magnitude by using nano-scale solid-state sensors rather than conventional wire radiofrequency coils.
A major advantage of the technical approach is that because it is NMR-based, any number of chemical compounds can be simultaneously monitored without modification to the hardware or software. A number of these low-cost systems, wirelessly connected to a central computer, can be deployed at various strategic sites within a drinking water facility. Time-sequenced maps of contaminant concentrations, overlaid on a facility map, can serve to pinpoint the source of contaminant release, affording timely information to alert emergency response personnel.
During Phase I, RMD will design and build a bench top spectrometer that will serve as a test bed to develop innovative solid state sensors that provide extraordinary sensitivity. The outcome of Phase I will be an optimized NMR sensor as well as the most advantageous NMR data collection parameters for measuring trace contaminants in water. The knowledge gained from the Phase I effort will lead to a Phase II prototype capable of unprecedented capabilities in long-term monitoring of drinking water contaminants at very low cost.
The Phase II prototype would find many applications within the commercial sector including the petroleum industry for oil well logging and for monitoring of contaminants in storage facilities. Likewise, it could be utilized in the manufacturing industry to monitor groundwater in or around manufacturing facilities. Finally, the instrument would find numerous screening and monitoring applications within the agricultural section and food industry.
Small Business Information at Submission:
Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc.
44 Hunt St. Watertown, MA 02472
Number of Employees: |
Naval Device Applications of Relaxor Piezoelectric Single Crystals
Agency / Branch:
DOD / NAVY
The overall intent of this project is to develop a series of vector sensors for thin-line submarine towed array applications and down-select one for full evaluation via a comprehensive test campaign. Once the sensor is perfected, a production run of eight sensors will be performed so that a thin-line towed array section can be fabricated and tested. Each vector sensor under consideration will contain an omni-directional hydrophone to measure the acoustic pressure, a multi-axis single crystal accelerometer to measure the acoustic pressure-gradient, and a suite of integrated electronics. Accelerometer concepts that were validated during Phase I will be expanded on during Phase II using detailed finite element models to predict performance. The models will be benchmarked using a laboratory experiments. The results of this Phase II effort will be leveraged to support other programs that require miniature high-performance vector sensors.
Small Business Information at Submission:
APPLIED PHYSICAL SCIENCES CORP.
475 Bridge Street Suite 100 Groton, CT 06340
Number of Employees: |
Critical Care Units
Types of Units and Location
Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU)
An eight-bed unit located on the northeast wing of the first floor
Coronary Care Unit (CCU)
A six-bed unit located on the southeast wing of the first floor
Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)
An eight-bed unit located on the west wing of the second floor
Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU)
A 10-bed unit located on the northeast wing of the first floor
All of the Critical Care Units contain:
- Specialized equipment to administer the latest procedures in coronary, cardiovascular, medical and surgical intensive care on a concentrated and continuous basis.
Critical Care Unit Waiting Rooms
- The waiting area is located on the intermediate level of the Heartcare Center with three private family waiting/consultation rooms.
- The secondary waiting room is on the second floor adjacent to MICU.
- Cardiovascular Surgery
- Major surgeries
- Medical Intensive Care
- Respiratory Care
- Stabilization of Multiple Trauma
- Critical care for burn patients in the acute stabilization phase only. These patients are then transferred to another facility.
- Donor management of organs for transplant; performed under the guidelines established by Mid-America Transplant Association. |
The burqa ban in France was in full force on April 11th, avidly supported by Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France. With many lauding the decision and others attacking it as a human rights violation, there is no consensus on whether the burqa/niqab ban is something that should be enforced. On one hand, supporters of the burqa/niqab ban state that if they were to travel to Saudi Arabia and its surrounding countries, they must adhere to the policies and rules of those nations - and that includes wearing gender-specific garments. Therefore, many feel that if they must respect culture in conservative Muslim countries, then the niqab/burqa (a symbol of backwardness for many French feminists) is unwelcome on French soil because it defies much of French culture. Of course, we must examine French history and realize the importance of the split between state and religion for its people.
Many police officers have reported that it is not their first priority to target burqa/niqab-wearing women, and that they have other priorities to attend to in regards to French security. Despite this, two arrests were made on Monday as Kenza Drider and another niqab-wearing woman were arrested in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in an attempt to protest the ban. The women could face fines of 150 Euros as a result.
In reality, the percentage of women who wear a full face veil in France is so small. Out of France's burgeoning population, there are less than 2,000 women who wear a full-face veil.
What about the burqa and niqab in Canada?
Last week, Schema's Michelle Da Silva interviewed Farzana Hassan, the past president of the Muslim Canadian Congress for the Georgia Straight.
An Ontario-based author, educator, and women's-rights activist thinks that there should be laws in Canada preventing teachers from wearing burqas in the classroom. "In a public-school environment, how is a woman going to teach in a burqa?" Farzana Hassan asked during a phone interview with the Georgia Straight.
"If there are young boys there, for example, she's not going to be taking her veil off. Don't they have the right to know who they're interacting with? And don't they have the right to even look at the face of the teacher?"
Farzana Hassan will be speaking at UBC's Chan Center as a part of the Laurier Institution's Speaker Series. Find out more details and ticket information by visiting the website at thelaurier.ca. |
10 Don'ts For Web Design
The longer it takes a page to load the less people will go to those pages. On the internet peoples attention span is calculated in seconds not minutes. Make sure all pages including images are under 50K unless absolutely necessary.
2. Watch the use of background images
If you have a busy background it takes away from the content and the purpose of the page itself. Unless the background is the purpose use suttle background images and colors.
3. Watch your color schemes
Even though yellow and black are said to be the most opposite in contrast I have yet to see a site that looks good with a black background and yellow lettering. In my opinion try to stick with what works, black on white(or light grey). You can play with this but look at other sites and see what they are doing. All in all make sure the conent is legible.
4. Use of animation
I see so many sites using extravagant animations, all this does is take away for the content of the page. If you use an animation keep it short and have it stop after the first time it runs.
5. Don't use the latest new browser features
That browser may have a kewl feature but if it is the only browser that has it a good portion of you viewers won't be able to use it. Normally new features can be quite glitchy which can turns customers off your site.
6. Watch the height of your pages
90% of pages don't get scrolled so if you do have to have a long page use inline links at the top so that it is easier for your customers to view what they are looking for.
7. Make it easy to find anything
Try to make it possible for your viewers to get anywhere in your site in 3 clicks or less. This is why people get lost on Microsofts site.
8. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
Most web surfers are normal people that aren't gurus on the internet. You need to make sure that you point them where they want to go. If you have 50 links on the front page they won't know where to start. Keep it simple for them, point them where to go.
9. Put your contact information everywhere
Sometimes the most annoying part of a site is trying to find out how to get ahold of them. if you want to los customer this is a quick way to do it, so don't. Make sure your customers can get ahold of you.
10. Check your Spelling
I will freely admit that I am a huge offender of this one. I never check my spelling and really need to get in the habit. Your spelling will show how profesional you are. I have no idea how many customers I've lost because of it, you don't want to do the same thing.
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About the author:
I am an all around big Geek with too much time on my hands. My main services are web design/development and PC repair. I've been doing both of these for the past 5 years and consider myself pretty good at what I do but, more importnantly, I love it. Webcyte Design |
Applying to career colleges in Canada should begin well before your chosen program starts. Career colleges are generally private, independent institutions, so application requirements will differ from college to college; some have limited-enrolment programs with competitive admission, others offer open admission on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore, applications can vary greatly depending on the school and the program.
How to apply
Step 1: find out what's required Start by contacting the school directly: read the school's website, request a catalog or brochure, email an admissions representative.
Requirements and supporting documents Canadian career colleges can range from "open admission" (requiring only a high school diploma or simply that you be over the age of 18) to more specific academic requirements, such as certain grades in particular subjects. Some vocational programs have additional course pre-requisites, and others may require a lower grade of educational completion (Grade 8 or 10, for example). Requirements are usually specified on a program-to-program basis. Additional requirements may include reference letters, current résumé, criminal record check, CPR certification, health and immunization record, portfolio, personal essay or letter of intent. Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) may be recognized by some schools.
The main required supporting documents are official high school transcripts (or any post-secondary transcripts, if relevant). Students applying directly to a second-language training program may not be required to submit educational documents.
International students are generally required to submit proof of English proficiency (or French, where relevant), which can be through standardized language test scores or a college's own admissions test. Different career colleges accept different tests and require different scores, so be sure to find out the specifics.
International students must also show that the quality of the education they received is comparable to that of Canadian institutions. Career colleges in Canada each have their own criteria for recognizing international student qualifications. Therefore, applicants should contact the college's admissions office to ask about assessing international qualifications. Certified translations into English or French (depending on the institution's language of operation) for all documents in other languages are usually requested, and the college admissions office can inform you about requirements for translation and exactly what qualifications they recognize. Applicants can also contact the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC) for information on recognition and portability of academic qualifications. Some international students choose to consult one of Canada's international credentials evaluation services (also known as international qualifications assessment services), listed below. These agencies charge a fee from around $100- $200 C$.
Alberta: International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)
British Columbia: International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)
Manitoba: Academic Credentials Assessment Service - Manitoba (ACAS)
Québec: Centre d'expertise sur les formations acquises hors du Québec (CEFAHQ)
Saskatchewan: International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)
Northwest Territories: International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)
Other provinces and territories: For credential evaluation services in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut or the Yukon contact any of the above-listed offices.
Step 2: know when to apply
Because the programs are so different--from health to hospitality, hydraulics to hairstyling--program duration and start dates also vary. Some career colleges offer continuous enrolment with programs starting every month, week or even every day; others operate on a more traditional semester system with a fall and/ or winter intake. Many career colleges therefore have no cut-off dates for admission and instead process applications all year round. Others have specific deadlines after which applications are no longer considered. Career colleges with internal scholarships and bursaries may encourage early application in order to qualify for these awards and financial assistance.
Step 3: submit your application The career college applications themselves generally consist of a downloaded form or a form completed and submitted electronically on the school's website. The application also usually includes a non-refundable application fee of anywhere between $25-$100, as specified by the institution. School transcripts can be asked for in two ways: you may be asked for official transcripts from your high school to be sent directly to the college, or you may simply be allowed to provide a photocopy. Often, international students are required to pay a tuition deposit (up to 50% of the fees for your first year), which can be paid by Visa, MasterCard, cheque, or wire transfer. Admission is considered confirmed when the college receives your signed acceptance of their admissions offer along with the tuition fee deposit. Be advised that most international student fees are non-refundable.
Because private career colleges are just that--private--they are run like a business and should be approached as though you are buying a product. This means: find out about tuition costs, equipment/ facilities, refund policy (should you decide not to complete the program) and reputation. Most career colleges publish a statement of student rights and responsibilities on their websites: be sure to read it carefully.
Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning Toronto, Ontario Humber is a recognized leader in postsecondary education in Canada. A public institution founded in 1967 and located in Toronto, ...
Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute Ottawa, Ontario Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute is Canada's only campus for the internationally renowned culinary institution, Le Cordon Bleu. ...
Sprott-Shaw Degree College Vancouver, British Columbia Sprott-Shaw Degree College (SSDC) is a degree-granting institution located in the city of Vancouver.
SSDC offers a Bachelors degree in Business ...
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Campus e-tours allow students to view the facilities and student life at featured Career Colleges in Canada, giving you the opportunity to see what the Career College looks like, as well as facts about the campus, courses, etc. Once you’ve completed your tour you can read the in-depth profile to get more detailed information, or click the Request FREE Info link to request specific information such as scholarships and financial aid directly from that institution.
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Rem: Revista Escola de Minas
Print version ISSN 0370-4467
ALVES, Gianni Ferreira; VIEIRA, Estéfano Aparecido and OLIVEIRA, José Roberto de. Influence of time and strain on the microstructure of recycled aluminum alloy for conditioned to thixoforming. Rem: Rev. Esc. Minas [online]. 2012, vol.65, n.1, pp. 107-112. ISSN 0370-4467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0370-44672012000100015.
One of the prerequisites for thixoforming processing of alloys is a globular microstructure. This study used a deformation followed by recrystallization methodology in order to determine the minimum deformation and time needed to complete particle globularization of two new aluminum alloys in semi solid state (SSS). The required deformation for a maximum microstructural refinement was also researched. The alloys were cast from aluminum can scraps, adding up to 3.5% Si (Al3,5Si) and the other alloy up to 4% Cu (Al4Cu). The new alloys were rolled with deformations ranging from 5 to 30% and taken to the semisolid state SSS with soaking time ranging from 10 to 60 minutes. The microstructures were characterized by optical microscopy. The results show that the minimum deformation to promote entire globularization is between 5 and 10%. The increase of the total strain refines the microstructure; however, from about 20% of strain, it is necessary to improve the conformation conditioning to prevent the formation of cracks.
Keywords : Thixoforming; conditioning; aluminum recycling. |
Jul 18, 2008
Intellectual property, copyright, creative commons, copyleft, open access… These are all terms high on the science and other agenda these days. For example, public-funded scientists the world over are calling for research results to be available free to them and their peers for the public good and for the good of scientific advancement itself. Librarians likewise are also interested in the fullest dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information, while user-creators and the new breed of citizen journalists that are the result of the Internet Age are also more liberal in their outlook regarding the proprietary nature of creative works.
On the other hand, traditional publishers, database disseminators, and the commercial creative industry consider the investment they put into the creation and distribution of works as a basis for the right to charge readers and users and for profit-making. Meanwhile, adventurous organisations that are not necessarily beholden to shareholders, to other commercial concerns, and to learned society memberships, are experimenting with alternative business models with varying degrees of success.
One aspect of copyright that arises repeatedly in any discussion is what is considered fair use and what kind of usage warrants a cease & desist order from the owner of copyright in their works.
Now, Warren Chik, an Assistant Professor of Law at Singapore Management University, is calling for a reinvention of the general and flexible fair use doctrine through the simple powerful elevation of its legal status from a legal exception to that of a legal right.
Writing in the International Journal of Private Law, 2008, 1, 157-210, Chik explains that it is the relatively recent emergence of information technology and its impact on the duplication and dissemination of creative works – whether it is a photograph, music file, digitised book, or other creative work – that has led to a strengthening of the copyright regime to the extent that it has introduced “a state of disequilibrium into the delicate equation of balance that underlies the international copyright regime”.
Copyright holders have lobbied for their interests and sought legal extension to the protection over “their” creative works. But, the law in several countries has undergone a knee-jerk reaction that is not necessarily to the benefit of the actual creator of the copyright work or of the user. Chik summarises the impact this has had quite succinctly:
The speedy, overzealous and untested manner in which the legal response has taken has resulted in overcompensation such that the interests of individuals and society have been compromised to an unacceptable degree.
For some forms of creative works, such as music and videos, there has emerged a protectionist climate that has led to the creation of double protection in law the form of the digital rights management (DRM) system and anti-circumvention laws that allows copyright owners to prosecute those that attempt to get around such restrictive devices. This, Chik affirms, has “inadvertently caused the displacement of the important fair use exemptions that many consider the last bastion for the protection of civil rights to works.”
Chik points out that this tightening of the laws run counter to the increasing penetration of electronic forms of storage and communication, the borderless nature of the Internet and the invention of enabling technologies such as the so-called “Web 2.0″. This in turn is apparently leading to a general social shift towards more open collaborative creativity, whether in the arts or the sciences, and what he describes as “the rise of a new global consciousness of sharing and participation across national, physical and jurisdictional borders.”
Whether that view is strictly true or not is a different matter. At what scale will those who like to share a few snapshots among strangers or a small-scale collaboration between laboratories realise the need for a more robust approach to their images and data? For example, if you are sharing a few dozen photos you may not see any point in protecting them beyond a creative commons licence, but what happens when you realise you have tens of thousands of saleable photos in storage? Similarly, a nifty chemical reagent that saves a few minutes in a small laboratory each week could take on global significance if it turns out to be relevant to cropping a synthesis in the pharmaceutical industry. Who would not wish to receive full credit and monetary compensation for their creative works in such cases?
Chik proposes not to destroy or even radically overhaul the present copyright regime, instead he endorses a no less significant reinvention of the general and flexible fair use doctrine through the simple powerful elevation of its legal status from a legal exception to that of a legal right, with all the benefits that a legal right entails. This change, he suggests could be widely and rapidly adopted.
Currently, he says, fair use exists formally only as a defence to an action of copyright infringement. But, DRM and other copyright protection threaten this defence and skew the playing field once more in favour of copyright holders. “Fair use should exist in the law as something that one should be able to assert and be protected from being sued for doing,” Chik says.
Such a change will render copyright law more accurately reflective of an electronically interconnected global society and also acknowledge the importance and benefits of enabling technologies and its role in human integration, progress and development.
Chik, W. (2008). Better a sword than a shield: the case for statutory fair use right in place of a defence. International Journal of Private Law, 1(1/2), 157. DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2008.019438 |
Legal loophole is blamed as smokers defy ban
What smoking ban? A year after the practice was outlawed in Hong Kong's entertainment venues, customers are still lighting up openly. Proprietors, free of any responsibility for enforcing the ban, ignore it or say there is little they can do.
Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world that does not fine venue operators as well as smokers, and academics say this is one reason smokers continue to break the rules.
But the government says prosecutions are not the objective - it wants to motivate smokers to quit.
James Middleton, chairman of Clear the Air's anti-tobacco committee, questioned the sincerity of the government in tobacco control. 'The government doesn't really want a smoking ban: it earns too much from tax on the sale of cigarettes,' he said.
Tobacco Control Office head Dr Ronald Lam Man-kin said in an earlier interview that tax earnings and prosecutions were not their main focus in stepping up anti-tobacco efforts. 'We just want to motivate more smokers to quit, for the benefit of themselves and others.'
The smoking ban was extended on July 1 last year to six types of entertainment establishments - bars, mahjong houses, private clubs, massage parlours, saunas and nightclubs.
The Tobacco Control Office, which has 99 officers enforcing the ban, has received 6,900 complaints this year and carried out 10,200 inspections so far this year.
By the end of May more than 3,000 smokers had been issued with fixed-penalty tickets for breaching the rules but none of these were in saunas or nightclubs. Of these, 937 cases were in amusement game centres, 478 in shopping malls, 237 in restaurants, 365 in mahjong parlours and 83 in bars.
Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, who heads the University of Hong Kong's School of Nursing and runs quit-smoking programmes, said it was a 'loophole' that owners were not punished.
'If you fine the owners, they will certainly make the most effort to stop customers from smoking on their properties. But under the current policy, they would not suffer any consequences,' she said.
British owners could face a fine of up to GBP2,500 (HK$29,100) if they fail to prevent people from smoking in their bars. Owners in New Zealand face a fine of up to NZ$4,000 (HK$21,500). In Queensland, Australia, restaurant owners must stop offering food and service if a customer fails to comply with the smoking ban.
But local owners say it is hard to stop customers from smoking.
Hong Kong Nightclub Association chairman Mak Heung said while his staff did their best to ask smokers to go outside, it did not always work. 'Some customers who are drunk may turn violent.'
A Department of Health spokesman said bar managers were already empowered to take quick action against smoking violations.
Apart from the Tobacco Control Office, other agencies empowered to prosecute smokers seem less than enthusiastic in doing so.
Some 3,330 officers of the departments of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Leisure and Cultural Services (LCSD) and Housing were given the power in September to prosecute smokers who broke the rules in premises under their management.
The three departments have issued only 83 fixed-penalty tickets so far this year. The LCSD, which has 2,200 officers, had just two prosecutions.
Additional reporting by Richard Macauley
The Tobacco Control Office has 99 officers enforcing the ban
The number of people issued with tickets for breaching the rules for the first five months of this year was about: 3,000
In Hong Kong
Aug 1 Limit on number of duty-free cigarettes cut from three packets to 19 sticks to take effect
July 1 Smoking ban in bars, private clubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong parlours
Feb 25 Tobacco tax raised by 50 per cent
Sep 1 Smoking ban extended to 48 covered transport interchanges
Nov 1 Total ban of all tobacco advertisements
Jan 1 Smoking ban in all indoor areas, except entertainment parlours
Oct 27 Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets
By comparison ... in Singapore
Smoking is prohibited in most indoor locations, including cinemas, shopping malls, offices, bus interchanges and shelters, swimming pools, sports stadiums
July 1 Ban extended to entertainment outlets, including pubs, bars, discos and nightclubs
July 1 Smoking banned in non air-conditioned places such as coffee shops, cafes, canteens, restaurants, hawker centres
Smoking prohibited in air-conditioned food shops
SOURCES: HONG KONG TOBACCO CONTROL OFFICE, NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY OF SINGAPORE |
World-first green technology has vast market potential
December 8, 2010
Carbonscape Cracks One-Step Production of Activated Carbon From Waste
World-first green technology has vast market
BLENHEIM, NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand charcoal technology company Carbonscape™ has become the first in the world to pioneer a new green technology - a one-step process to cheaply produce highly porous charcoal.
Known as Activated Carbon (often described as AC), this form of charcoal has a huge surface area, typically measuring more than 500 square metres per gram.
This large surface area gives AC a diverse range of uses, including cleaning contaminated soil and water, and capturing significant amounts of carbon dioxide emissions from power stations.
Throughout the world AC is used in such diverse industries as metallurgy, chemistry, agriculture, timber processing, gold extraction, nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medicine and food processing.
Traditionally, the method of production involves many stages of processing and uses relatively exotic materials to open up the tiny pores between carbon atoms. Using its patented continuous-flow microwave technology, Carbonscape™ has produced high-grade and highly-valuable AC in a single processing step using waste pine sawdust.
The company has now begun batch scale production at its South Island, New Zealand pilot site this month. Independent testing shows Carbonscape can produce surface areas of 800 square metres per gram from pine sawdust.
“We’re incredibly excited by this development,” says Carbonscape™ director and CEO Tim Langley, “We have replaced a slow and complex process using exotic materials with a fast, single process using pine sawdust and created a 60% improvement in quality. We have applied for patents. The potential world market for this technology is vast. Each year demand is rising by about 5%. It’s a whole new world.”
A benefit of Carbonscape’s solution is it can use wood and other waste that would otherwise be expensive to dispose of.
“Something that was a massive waste product can become a very valuable resource,” says Tim Langley.
Activated Carbon also has the potential to massively reduce the emissions from large, single sources of carbon dioxide, such as power stations. These sources currently produce some 60% of all carbon dioxide, providing the greatest near-term potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Activated Carbon may help in the in the fight against climate change. By placing AC in flue gases, it can absorb carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere.
“The is just the start”, explains Carbonscape™ director and University Professor Chris Turney, “We’re now exploring the potential of other waste types for producing Activated Carbon to identify whether they are best for absorbing carbon dioxide or for other applications. It’s an incredibly exciting time.”
“By combining waste wood streams and the dial-up capability of Carbonscape’s microwave technology, it is possible to generate different quantities of high-value charcoal, oil and gas byproducts”, comments Carbonscape™ director Nick Gerritsen, “This gives us remarkable flexibility, allowing us to optimise product generation.” |
Joyce McMillan: Victory offers chance to take risks
Barack Obama’s supporters expect liberal political action, and the rest of the world is watching too, writes Joyce McMillan.
A COUPLE of months ago, in the middle of the US presidential campaign, I went along to the Arches in Glasgow to see a show in which a young British artist, using a pseudonym, went online live as a member of a right-wing republican-supporting group in the United States. As we watched, he could be seen sending and receiving messages on the party’s Facebook page; while we were shown a series of screen-sized images of the organisation’s recent public rallies.
To say that these came as a shock to me is perhaps to confess my own naïvety. Here, though, were images of posters that openly portrayed Barack Obama as a monkey; ranks of handbills damning him as a gay Muslim traitor, born in Africa; and large burly men wearing T-shirts that said “Put The White Back In The White House”.
And it’s because this segment of American society suffered such a striking defeat, on Tuesday night, that the rest of the world can fairly be said to have breathed a sigh of relief, on the news of Barack Obama’s re-election. It is often argued, among the European Left, that in terms of foreign and military policy, one US presidential candidate is as right-wing as the other. Politics, though, is never that simple; and although Barack Obama certainly has plenty of first-term failures to answer for – above all in the continuing excesses of the “war on terror” – we can at least say this: that the US presidency will not, come January, be in the hands of a man who owes his victory, in part, to the votes of open racists, and to extreme social conservatives whose views of the world beyond US borders range from the arrogant to the downright delusional.
Beyond that, though, it’s worth asking what we on the centre-left can reasonably expect or ask for, from Barack Obama’s hard-won second term. For if it is to make a real difference, it will have to amount to more than a holding operation on the hard-won social rights of the last half century, for women, gay people and black Americans. Instead, he will have to use the relative freedom of his second term to try to change the terms of western political and economic debate, and to set it on a new and sustainable path, that might give us a chance of riding out the shocks of the coming half-century.
So the first challenge he must pick up – lightly hinted at, in his acceptance speech on Wednesday morning – is the impact of climate change, brought into fierce focus by the ravages of superstorm Sandy, which swept into New Jersey and New York in the week before the election. The reports from friends in New York – travelling down to Staten Island in busloads of volunteers, raking through the wrecked homes and six-foot-deep mud with distraught householders – tell a story of a world in which rising sea levels and greater climate instability have suddenly hit home, at the very heart of our western urban civilisation.
So now, if he wants to be remembered as a great president, Barack Obama must seize the moment, and face down the climate-change deniers. A coherent policy on the transition to a low-carbon economy would be one of the best legacies Barack Obama could leave to America and the world; and now, he is in a far stronger position than before his re-election to take the initially unpopular decisions that may be necessary to achieve it.
Then secondly – and perhaps even more ambitiously – a second-term President Obama could play a key role in resetting the global financial system that failed so catastrophically in 2008. In winning re-election, Barack Obama has in fact ventured a sharper critique of neo-liberal capitalism than has been heard from any mainstream UK political party in the last 30 years. He has acknowledged the dwindling real incomes of average American middle-class earners, as the rich pocket an ever-greater proportion of the national wealth; and he has specifically condemned low-tax, low-spend “trickle-down economics” as a system incapable of rebuilding their prosperity.
The question, though, is what Barack Obama is going to do, in his second term, to address this blight of extreme and growing economic inequality. As this week’s rumblings of protest over the modest British Living Wage movement show, most of the common-sense policy moves that might begin to address it are still effectively forbidden by markets addicted to the idea that stripping out costs, reducing wage bills, and trashing workers’ rights is always a smart move, even when those moves are visibly impoverishing hundreds of millions of middle-income consumers.
It therefore seems like time for western governments to call in the debt they are owed by a financial sector, following the massive bailouts of 2008; to institute a new Bretton Woods conference, on the future of the global financial system; and to restore a proper balance of power between markets and governments. And to do that, they will need the leadership of the US President, at his most commanding and persuasive.
Barack Obama may well decide, of course, that these challenges are so immense in scale, and so intractable, that he had better not approach them at all. Yet if he does not at least try to rise to these great global challenges, over the next vital couple of years, then it’s fair to ask what exactly, in the end, will have been the point of all his intelligence, all his grace, all his breadth of vision, all his epic journey from Hawaii to the heart of US political power.
From France, on Wednesday morning, came a little cartoon. “I am pleased about Obama’s re-election,” it says. “It will give him a chance to finish all the things he hasn’t started.”
And as Barack Obama begins to breathe the free-er air of a second presidential term, that little Gallic joke contains a vital truth: that this is a time for bold new beginnings, and for daring to propose the kind of deep structural change that would take the President’s mighty rhetoric of hope, freedom and justice, and begin to make it real, in our time.
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Weather for Edinburgh
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Temperature: 3 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: North west
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: North west |
An large area of parkland in Giffnock, Rouken Glen is one of the largest public parks in Scotland. Established in 1906 following a gift from Archibald Cameron Corbett (1853 - 1933), later Lord Rowallan, the size of the park was eventually increased to 227 acres (91.9 ha). It includes picnic facilities, a restaurant, lawns, a boating pond, walled garden, trails and a Highland Glen complete with falls, cliffs and crags.
Success came quickly because Glasgow Corporation had extended the city tram network to the gates. The park proved popular for family outings, works outings and Sunday school picnics.
Rouken Glen Mansion (also known as Thornliebank House) which once stood here was built by the Smith family as their home. Architect James Smith (1808 - 1863) probably extended the house and certainly lived at Birkenshaw Cottage, another residence in the park, with his family including the young Madeleine Smith (1835 - 1928), later notorious as a poisoner. The mansion and estate were later acquired by the Crum family and a daughter, Margaret, lived at Birkenshaw Cottage, with her husband William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin (1824 - 1907). The mansion was used by the army during World War II and, having fallen into disrepair, was demolished in 1963. |
Teen Foot Health
If you think about it your feet are so vital to so many things you do. You need them to play most sports, dance, ride a bike, skateboard, go shopping and walk anywhere. They are so important that to find them embarrassing and something to hide away is, at least to podiatrists, a bit strange. After all some famous teen idols including Lilly Allen, Joss Stone, Delta Goodrem, David Beckham, Hillary Duff, Will Smith, Ian Thorpe and Angelina Jolie are not shy about getting their feet out in public.
Participating in sports puts increased forces through joints in the legs
which can cause pain and injury. Runners for example can develop foot
or leg problems that may need treatment from a podiatrist.
treadmill, video equipment and their knowledge they can assess the
patient, diagnose the problem and potentially
provide custom made insoles that can alter the mechanics of the foot and reduce unwanted forces going through the foot. |
ISIMAT GmbH Siebdruckmaschinen
ISIMAT says one unique feature of its RS 6460 TP six-color screen-printing press is that it can measure the shape of a bottle's cross section within a printing area and use the data to automatically preset the printing stations for a new print job. The RS 6460 series is equipped with a rotary indexing table and individual servo motors for each screen and fixture. It uses data collected about the item's shape to synchronize the rotations of 30 or more servo motors when printing onto round, square, and oval glass or plastic hollowware. The press can print wrap-arounds onto slightly tapered oval bottles at speeds up to 60 items/min. Users can input the polar coordinates of points on a printing area cross section, or if data are not available, the press can measure the shape of a cross section by rotating a bottle under an optical sensor. In either case, the shape of the cross section can be displayed on the touch screen. Each printing station can print onto a different cross section of a bottle during one machine pass. The RS 6460 TP is configured to print with ceramic enamels onto glass bottles and tableware. The RS 6460 UV is equipped with a curing system for UV inks. The press can have either an ISIMAT Uvitro surface-treatment station for printing onto glass and plastic or a flame/corona pretreatment station for printing onto plastic only. ISIMAT GmbH Siebdruckmaschinen, Rindelbacherstr. 38 - 40, D-73479 Ellwangen, Germany, 49-7961-8860, 49-7961-8864-4, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org, Web: www.isimat.de.
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Vegetable Oil Car
Frequently Asked Questions
Can diesel be used in converted vehicles if SVO is unavailable?
Yes, these conversions enable the vehicle to run on multifuels which includes SVO or diesel or any mixture of the two fuels.
Will I have to inform my insurance company?
Yes, it is necessary to inform your insurance company, however most insurance companies will simply amendthe vehicle policy without any additional premium. Insurance companies that have given cover to convertedvehicles without any complications include: Frissel/Liverpool and Victoria, Norwich Union, Cornhill and NFU.
Will the conversion affect the servicing of the vehicle?
This depends on whether the engine of the vehicle is of direct or indirect injection design. With convertedindirect injection vehicles there is no change to the usual servicing routine however it is a good precautionarymove to have the components of the kit checked periodically to ensure that they are fully functional. Converteddirect injection vehicles generally require a different service regime with regard to the engine¶s lubricant. A plant oil based lubricant is used instead of the mineral lubricant and this needs to be changed at shorter intervals.
How does SVO compare with biodiesel?
SVO and Biodiesel are quite different fuels however they are often confused as biodiesel is produced fromSVO. Biodiesel is made when vegetable oil molecules are split four ways by a chemical reaction calledtransesterification. Since biodiesel is produced from SVO it also has low net CO2 emissions. However, sincethe transesterification reaction requires energy and some of the chemicals needed to carry out the reactiongenerally come from fossil fuels this means that biodiesel has higher net CO2 emissions than SVO. In short,SVO is the better of the two fuels for reducing CO2 emissions.
How many hectares would be required to grow the fuel for one car, and is there enough land available inthe world to grow our fuel?
A hectare of oil seed rape can produce roughly a 1000 litres of oil which if used through a reasonably economicconverted diesel car can provide 10,000 miles worth of motoring; a distance many drivers cover in a year. It isextremely unlikely that all the world¶s vehicles currently running on fossil fuels could instead be powered byvegetable oil. Like other renewables SVO is only part of the solution to meeting our energy requirementssustainably and needs to be combined with attempts to reduce current unsustainable levels of energyconsumption.
How is the performance and fuel efficiency of the engine affected?
Research has backed up anecdotal evidence that vegetable oil gives a slightly better power performance thandiesel in engines compared before and after conversion. Studies on fuel efficiency give conflicting results withsome studies showing higher miles per gallon (MPG) on SVO as compared to diesel and others showing less.Anecdotal experience has been that MPG on SVO is approximately the same as that on diesel.
What are emissions like with SVO?
Converted vehicles running on SVO generally clear the MOT emissions test well. The emissions of SVO areconsidered comparable to diesel with the exception that the CO2 produced from SVO is carbon neutral.
Is it possible just to blend vegetable oil with diesel and use this in an unconverted engine?
There is probably a blend of SVO and diesel that will function in diesel engines without causinglong termdamage. However it is difficult to say whether this is a 20% or a 2% blend of SVO to diesel, as few reliabletrials have been completed. Veg Oil Motoring cannot recommend a blend, and vehicle owners trying this |
"My husband's mother, sister and aunt all had breast cancer, and his mom unfortunately did not make anyone aware of it until it was quite advanced, so we lost her four months after we were married," Elaine Boland said. "When he discovered a lump he was very aware of the possibility "” although neither of us was aware that men could get it, and so we both believed that it was benign."
The Bolands have been chosen as the Honorary Breast Cancer Survivors for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's 10th annual Race for the Cure, which will take place on Sunday, Nov. 5, at Balboa Park.
"We were chosen by the foundation because we were unusual in that Bruce and I are a married couple who are breast cancer survivors. It is especially unusual for men to get the disease because only something like 1 percent of those who are diagnosed with it are men," Elaine said. "We agreed to serve as spokespersons for the race because we wanted to raise awareness, encourage people to get early detection and their annual mammograms and to do monthly, self breast exams."
The Bolands' story is just one of many that will be heard during the month of October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The month was launched 20 years ago to raise awareness, to recognize loss and to celebrate hope and progress in terms of breast cancer treatment.
The pink will be flying in full force during many local celebrations of the month, including the American Cancer Society's ninth annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Sunday, Oct. 22, at Balboa Park.
"We are trying raise awareness and a million dollars," said Mary Wendt, media relations director for the American Cancer Society. "We keep it short so more people can participate, and ours is kind of a family walk so mom, dad and the kids can all participate. Our walk continues to be a big hit and grows each year because it is easy, fun and friendly and everyone feels the camaraderie of participating together."
Those who want to participate and give money to a good cause are welcomed when the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation hosts the Breast Cancer Benefit Concert & Survivor Celebration on Sunday, Oct. 15, 4 p.m., at Humphrey's by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, SK Sanctuary will hold a free "spa night" for breast cancer survivors. The event, which runs from 4 to 8 p.m., will feature spa services, refreshments and discussion with Dr. Thomas Shiftan, oncologist and co-founder of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer center. Registration is required by calling (858) 459-3334. SK Sanctuary is located at 6919 La Jolla Blvd. For information visit www.skininstitute.org.
For those who want to try a longer walk for the cause, the Breast Cancer 3-Day takes place from Nov. 10-12.
"Two years ago we participated in the race for the first time, and they call this one a walk in the park "” and that is literally because they close off the 163 to traffic and you can walk that beautiful route, and they have all kinds of exhibits "” it is a very moving experience, with a lot of breast cancer survivors who share their stories," Elaine said. "The foundation has raised nearly $4 million to fund education and treatment programs for the uninsured and underinsured, and they have changed the way that people think about the disease and focus on survival and have put a positive light on it."
For additional information, see www.sdkomen.org. |
A security flaw in the binary NVidia graphics drivers used by many Linux systems could allow an attacker to compromise, through a malicious Web page, any computer using the company's driver, security firm Rapid7 stated on Monday.
The NVidia Binary Graphics Driver for Linux remains vulnerable, the company said in an advisory. However, the flaw has been publicly reported and may have been known about as early as December 2004, prompting the company to report the issue publicly.
"As of the publication date, the latest NVidia binary driver is still vulnerable," the company stated. "Furthermore, it is our opinion that NVidia's binary driver remains an unacceptable security risk based on the large numbers of reproducible, unfixed crashes that have been reported in public forums and bug databases."
Security researchers and flaw finders have increasingly focused on seeking out vulnerabilities in the device drivers that power, for example, wireless networking hardware and graphics adapters. This summer, two researchers found multiple flaws in the wireless device drivers used by many laptops, including a controversial bug in a driver for Apple MacBooks. Some discussions have suggested a connection between the NVidia issue a crash bug in the X Window system that affected Ubuntu Linux users in August.
Rapid7 advised Linux users with NVidia graphics cards to revert from using the closed-source binary drivers to the open-source "nv" drivers, even though those drivers do not have the 3-D functionality of NVidia's software.
Posted by: Robert Lemos |
We are delighted to announce to the workshop: “With the eye of the researcher and the nose of the bear”, which will be held on Saturday, May 18 at 4 p.m., at the conference hall of the Cantelmo Castle in Pettorano sul Gizio. This event has been organized by Salviamo l’Orso, Rewilding Apennines and the Reserve Monte Genzana Alto Gizio as part of the activities of the Bear Smart Community Genzana. Elisabetta Tosoni, PhD in Animal Biology and Ecology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and collaborator of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park will be the lecturer.
The event is public. Registration is recommended in order to prepare attendance certificates:
tel: +39 0864.487006 |
The Bass College is the premier learning destination for bass fishing. This produces a softer sound because the string is in direct contact with the musician’s finger and also allows you to slide up and down the neck with ease. Skaha Lake is a reasonably large lake on the south aspect of Penticton, mostly identified for it is recreational actions like boating, seashores and different watersports. Massive smallmouth find top water baits irresistible in these circumstances.
Bass typically have problems catching the bait. A companion to our common Vocal Rider plugin, Bass Rider delivers good bass levels, without changing the natural sound of your bass. Most individuals believe the Bass is far easier to play than the guitar. A live worm rigged on a set of gang hooks, and allowed to stream naturally with the current of a river or stream is a good smallmouth bass fishing tip.
By doing so, you’ll all the time know that your fishing at the most opportune occasions. You’ll be able to research a lake earlier than fishing it. You might learn all the pieces about it from massive coves and bays, river arms, and creek channels, to contours and structures that might yield large bass. Top Water Lures – Catching smallmouth bass on top water lures is amazing.
The bass that are cruising will often take a stay worm, minnow or leech in addition to a wide range of lures that mimic these baits. Strive fishing shallow and deep to see the place the perfect bite is coming from. All bass don’t spawn at the similar time so there will be “waves” of fish that transfer again. Basically the fish might be moving from deep to shallow.
In case you choose to bait fish, Smallmouth Bass enjoy a variety of baits, including; stay worms, crayfish, hellgrammites, leeches, and minnows. The bottom line is that minnow imitations, whether you are fishing in a river or lake, work nice. If you happen to reside far sufficient south, fishing will be good, however up north it’s time to sit inside and watch football or go ice fishing for perch, bluegill, crappie, walleye and pike. |
On Presidents Day, the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas released a recently discovered home movie showing John F. Kennedy's motorcade moments before the president's assassination. The footage was shot by George Jeffries and captures the presidential motorcade roughly 90 seconds before shots were fired. The silent footage * is not nearly as important as the famous Zapruder film, which shows the assassination itself, but the new film is still a must-see for any student of Nov. 22, 1963. *
Click the play button below to launch a Slate video about the new footage. It includes an interview with Slate contributor Ron Rosenbaum, who has written extensively about JFK conspiracy theories.
Send comments to firstname.lastname@example.org. (E-mailers may be quoted by name unless they request otherwise.) |
Wood'n'Fun: "The flying classroom"
Kaunertal (Tyrol/AUSTRIA): A dormant square before a school was transformed into a themed playground and educational area.
After a period of intense preparations, the municipality of Kaunertal set itself new goals as a part of an innovation process to renovate the village. During this phase, residents expressed their wish for a meeting place for the young and old, a wish which should come to life by making the village square a better place to live. The village square is located right next to the school and is divided into three parts made up of the school garden, children's playground and a front court.
The school garden which up till now had served as a fruit garden was adapted such that in the future it could be used by students as a recreation area and meeting place. The outdated playground was adapted to modern requirements and was then redesigned with the "Flying Classroom" theme in mind. It now includes a row of free-moving swings, along with slides, a small boulder wall, climbing tower and even an herb garden. To offer the possibility of having lessons outside from time to time, a pergola along with plenty of sitting place was additionally installed. |
#1: Identify Internal Stakeholders.
The first step to creating business business goals is to identify internal stakeholders. Figure out all the different internal departments & team members and their core function to your business.
Most companies are made up of the following departments:
When you understand the nuts and bolts of your business and how they work together, you’ll be on your way to creating business goals that matter. Knowing your team and how they work together is what matters.
T’s Tip: Remember, your team is your number one resource. Understand how your startup operates. Write down a list of the departments that make up your company, then figure out who’s responsible for what, and lastly, how teams work together.
#2: List The Things You’d Like To See
This one sounds tricky, but it isn’t. This part of creating Business Goals That Matter involves a little bit of day-dreaming.
Write down three things you’d like to see from your company within in the next 3 years.
Then, write down the three things you’d like to see in the next 3 months. Then, the next 3 weeks, then the next 3 days.
This is an old product management tip that has its roots in the LEAN start-up school of business development: taking things that might seem EPIC and breaking them down into increasingly smaller, manageable bites that you’re company is able to chew as a team.
Check out my 1 year goals for Food Tribe:
Profit — To be a profitable company by end of year.
Growth — To serve multiple clients, multiple users, serve more people, and to hire great team members.
Social Impact — To do our part to end hunger.
Provide a Service — To launch great products and services to our users and restaurant partners.
Next, you and your team need to work on prioritizing which goals are most important to your business, then divvying up the work by department.
Track your progress towards your goals. If you’re hitting your targets, pivot and see if you can hit your stretch goal. If not, scale down and make sure to hit your realisticgoal.
My recommendation is to allow managers and team members to use product management tools to assign tasks and track achievement.
Use these tools is to track individual team member contribution, contribution by department, inter-department goals, etc.
Business goals should be a combination of broad and specific. I recommend figuring out what the core areas of your business are, and then creating a “best case” scenario of the different things you want to see.
Feel free to be a little ambitious: your goals should explain your start-ups very reason for existing: your value proposition.
Your customers and your team team need to know why no one will ever be able to accomplish the things that your company will. |
Proposal to fund voting machines criticized
Gov. Tom Wolf’s announced proposal Tuesday to borrow funds from the Pennsylvania Economic Financing Authority to pay for voting machines has drawn fire from local lawmakers.
State Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy, said, “The governor does not have the authority to unilaterally decertify and require replacement of all voting machines, much less the authority to simply use his pen to borrow $90 million to pay for the machines without an appropriation or legislation from the General Assembly.”
Last week, the governor vetoed a different proposal for funding the machines that included a provision for abolishing straight-party ticket voting.
State Rep. Jeff Wheeland, R-Loyalsock Township, also spoke out against the governor’s plan.
Borrowing from the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority, he said, will hurt development across the state.
“That is like borrowing money for what is set aside to buy a car,” he said. “It’s not to be used for plugging an expense you vetoed.”
Wheeland said the veto was the governor’s response to abolishing straight party voting.
“Now, he’s out trying to find pots of money. I totally disagree with the governor’s move on that,” he said. “I see it going to court.”
Everett said that the governor has put politics above the rights of state’s citizens
“The first offense to our Commonwealth’s citizens was his executive decision that voting machines must be replaced before a presidential election in which a candidate highly disfavored by the governor’s party is up for re-election,” he said. “Now we know for certain that it is not enough for voting machine specifications to be dictated by his party, but that he believes voters are not smart enough to educate themselves on a candidate’s background and positions before they enter the most sacred place of participation in our political process for citizens — the voting booth.”
The Republican bill vetoed last week by Wolf would have authorized his administration to borrow up to $90 million to help counties underwrite a tab expected to exceed $100 million. It had passed with just seven Democrats voting for it. |
16 folios on paper, watermarks similar to Briquet no. 3390, Chapeau, Florence, 1487 and 1490, and to no. 3373, Chapeau, Florence, 1474/83, Florence, 1476, Fabriano, 1475, and Naples, 1468-1471, contemporary foliation in Arabic numerals, upper outer recto, 158, 145-157, 164, 163, and, on lower outer rectos on ff. 2-7, 1-6, modern foliation in pencil, upper outer recto, 1-16 (collation, i14 [+two leaves, a bifolium following 13]), faint ruling visible in hard point with full-length vertical bounding lines (justification 180-196 x 125-131 mm.), written in a rapid and somewhat variable mercantesca script on thirty-one to thirty-four long lines, one-line paraphs, pointing hand drawn in the margin of f. 14, some smudging on f. 2, damp-staining at the top of f. 14, but otherwise in very fine condition. Bound in pasteboards with slight tear along the top of the upper board. Dimensions 221-222 x 148-150 mm.
This practical collection of forty-seven medical recipes for the treatment of horses, oxen, and other animals is attributed to two otherwise unknown practitioners writing in a proto-humanist rather than strictly medieval tradition. Collections of veterinary recipes are uncommon; only seven of over four hundred compilations of recipes in the Schoenberg Database are for veterinary medicine. These recipes do not appear to be from the well-known Liber marescalciae equorum of Lorenzo Rusio, although the first practitioner, here identified as Tomma, may have been familiar with Rusio.
1. Evidence of watermarks indicates that this manuscript was copied in the late fifteenth-century, most likely c. 1470-1490, possibly in the vicinity of Florence. Since it was common for recipe books to draw heavily on ingredients that were more likely to be readily available to their intended users, further study of the text of these recipes may provide additional evidence as to where in Italy this booklet originated.
Contemporary foliation is evidence that this was once part of a longer manuscript and may have been compiled over a period of years. The present ff. 2-13 were formerly a complete quire of twelve leaves, then foliated ff. 145-156; this was followed by the four leaves, now ff. 1 and 14-16, which were the two outer bifolia of the next quire, then foliated ff. 157-158 and 163-164. This second quire was copied continuously with the first and in the same hand, but on different paper with a later watermark. It was not completed. The bottom of f. 14v (formerly f. 157v) and all of ff. 1rv (formerly f. 158rv) and 15-16v (formerly ff. 163-164v) are blank, suggesting that the scribe had space to spare when he had copied this manuscript’s contents, or that he intended to leave space for the addition of further recipes.
f. 1rv, blank;
ff. 2-9v, Ricette di frate Tomma de frati di santo[?] francesco obseruante[?] [with “Per Caualli” added in a sixteenth-century hand], incipit, “Bagnuolo a uoler cauare doglie di bestie dogni luogo facciendo vno lactio a pie della doglia [Bath for wishing to take away the pangs everywhere of beasts ...] ...”; f. 3, incipit, “A vno cauallo caualla o altra bestia che fussi bolsa o auero auessi il fiato grosso [For a horse, mare, or other beast that might be winded or panting] ...”; f. 5, incipit, “Rimedio a doglie di cauagli e di buoi nelle spalli [Remedy for pains of horses and oxen in the back/shoulders] ...”; f. 5v, incipit, “Rimedio al dolore de neruj [Remedy for the pain of nerves] ...”; f. 8v, incipit, “A chauagli spallati o altre bestie e doglie a percusse le doue fussino fa questo bagnuolo qui di sotto iscritto [For broken-backed horses or other animals and pangs where beatings might be, make this bath that is written below] ... Et se farai queste cose sanera questo e arare[?] honore[?]”;
Twenty-five recipes attributed to a friar Tomma, an Observant Franciscan. Many include extensive lists of ingredients, to be combined in equal measure. To take a relatively brief example, a recipe for a “Rimedio a doglie di cauagli e di buoi nelle spalli [Remedy for pains of horses and oxen in the back/shoulders]” (f. 5) calls for morca d’olio (oil scum), trementina (turpentine), vernice liquida (liquid varnish), grasso di volpe (fox fat), sevo di becco (tallow), and olio laurino fine (fine laurel oil) and specifies that two ounces of each be combined, heated, and applied to the area where the animal feels pain. At the other end of the spectrum, a recipe on f. 1rv contains twenty-four ingredients, listed down the page, all to be combined and dissolved over heat into an impiastro (poultice).
Many of the same ailments and recipe ingredients included among Friar Tomma’s recipes also appear in the Liber marescalciae equorum of Lorenzo Rusio, one of the principal medieval mascalcia treatises, written in Latin in the fourteenth century and translated into Italian twice in the early fifteenth century, once by a Dominican friar, Antonio Dapera. Rusio’s treatise discusses these ailments at greater length, and the cures for the ailments common to Rusio’s and Tomma’s texts are different in every instance we have examined, nonetheless, Tomma’s inclusion of ailments and ingredients found in Rusio’s treatise may indicate his familiarity with this important work.
ff. 10-14v, Ricette di guidaccio ho[?] darme, incipit, “A uoler guarire Jl palatino a uno chauallo o mulo [For wanting to heal the palatine bone/hard palate for a horse or mule] ...”; f. 10, incipit, “A uoler Jngrassare vno chauallo [For wanting to fatten a horse] ...”; f. 12, incipit, “Rimedio a uno chauallo restio che non uolesse alchuna uolta andare piu oltre [Remedy for a reluctant horse that did not want any time to go over more] ...”; f. 12v, incipit, “A uoler saldare con presteza vna ferita o altra malattia che la piaga fussi purgata bene [For wanting to join with rapidity a wound or other malady that the sore may be well purged] ...”; f. 13, incipit, “A saldare nervi tagliati duna bestia [To join severed nerves of an animal] ...”; f. 13v, incipit, “A vna bestia che gli fussi infiato il corpo chome vna palla grossa o piu o meno per vna percossa o altro [For a beast swollen in the body like a big ball or more or less through a blow or otherwise] ...”; f. 14v, incipit, “Item a uoler liberare vno chauallo da dolori [Likewise for wishing to liberate a horse from pain] ... et dagli 3 uoler per lato in sul fiancho da ciaschuno lato”;
Twenty-two recipes attributed to Guidaccio, possibly a soldier. Some also employ visually distinct lists of ingredients (generally shorter than those in the recipes attributed to Tomma), but most incorporate ingredients into their description of the procedure by which any given ailment is to be treated. For example, the first recipe in this section, “A voler guarire Jl palatino a uno chauallo o mulo [For wanting to heal the palatine bone/hard palate for a horse or mule] (f. 10), calls for heating una fetta di pane (a slice of bread) and then rubbing the animal’s palate, first with this hot bread and then with salvia (sage), all before washing its mouth.
ff. 15-16v, blank.
Although in the modern world we usually think of recipes as instructions for preparing food, in the Middle Ages and well into the early modern era a “recipe” was understood in a much broader sense as a how-to instruction, usually brief, related to various crafts (including disciplines such as alchemy and medicine), as well as guides to making various things related to the household and agriculture.
This booklet contains forty-seven recipes for the treatment of equine and bovine ailments. Veterinary recipe collections do not appear to be common; there are only seven collections of veterinary recipes out of a total of more than four hundred medical recipe books listed in the Schoenberg Database. It should be noted, however, that since collections of recipes were often included in volumes containing many additional texts – whether additional recipe collections, tables, or medical treatises (see Brunori Cianti and Cianti, 1993) – it can be difficult to assess exactly how common they were. The contemporary foliation in this manuscript suggests it was once part of a larger volume, possibly a more extensive collection of recipes or, more broadly, other texts related to the care and study of horses or other animals.
The recipes here are medical, dealing with different parts of the bodies of horses, oxen, and mules and treating a very wide range of maladies, from problems with the feet, ears, back, thighs, joints, neck, and head to specific ailments like bony growths, swelling, puncture wounds, worms, distemper, mange, and fever. There are also recipes to treat unspecified pain. In some recipes the recipient (say, an ox or a mare) is specified, while others do not appear to be intended for a particular species or gender. One recipe is specifically intended for an unwilling horse (“una chauallo restio,” f. 12). A number of recipes offer means of fattening animals or of treating them when they have sustained blows. There are recipes for baths, poultices, ointments, and so forth, using various vegetal and mineral ingredients, as well as some animal derivatives, like pork and goose fat. Some of the recipes conclude with affirmations that they are “prouato,” that they have been proven to work.
In her typology of mascalcia manuscripts (that is, veterinary manuscripts associated particularly with horse medicine), Lia Brunori Cianti (1993, p. 207) identifies three distinct types: practical, courtly, and didactic manuscripts. Treatises on the physical characteristics and medical treatment of horses did circulate in very luxurious copies produced for aristocratic owners, as well as in manuscripts intended for teaching or for practical use. Unlike other practical manuscripts identified by Brunori Cianti, this manuscript has virtually no annotation and it shows relatively little sign of wear. That said, the present manuscript was likely produced to be used. Its relatively unadorned pages and rapid cursive suggest its practical nature, as does its focus on recipes whose named sources cannot readily be identified with a known practitioner or writer of mascalcia. It may be that both sources were local and known to the producer or user of the book. As the discussion above suggests, most of these recipes address what were presumably fairly common ailments of horses and oxen. Moreover, the recipes largely draw on ingredients that would have been readily obtainable, like onions, honey, and olive oil. Indeed, in its concentration on recipes largely built on vegetal, and, in many cases, local, ingredients this collection fits most closely within the traditions of fifteenth- century and proto-Renaissance humanist veterinary recipe books, rather than on earlier medieval treatments.
Brunori Cianti, Lia and Luca Cianti. La pratica della veterinaria nei codici medievali di mascalcia, Bologna, 1993.
Coco, Alessandra. “Cortesi e cavalleria: la tradizione ippiatrica in volgare nelle corti italiane tra Trecento e Quattrocento,” Micrologus 16: I saperi nelle corti: The Knowledge at the Courts (2008), pp. 125-152.
Coco, Alessandra and Riccardo Gualdo.”Problemi di ricostruzione e di edizione del testo in un’opera di veterinaria medievale: il trattato di mascalcia dello Pseudo-Aristotele,” in Atti del III convegno nazionale di storia della medicina veterinaria: Lastra a Signa, 23-24 settembre 2000, ed. Alba Veggetti, Brescia, 2001, pp. 327-339.
Delprato, Pietro and Luigi Barbieri. La Mascalcia di Lorenzo Rusio, volgarizzamento del secolo XIV messo per la prima volta in luce ... aggiuntovi il testo latino ..., 2 vols., Bologna, Romagnoli, 1867-1870.
Rusio, Lorenzo. Liber marescalcie, Speyer, 1489 (Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel) |
The Wolf Pit by Will Cohu
|The Wolf Pit by Will Cohu|
|Reviewer: Sue Magee|
|Summary: An atmospheric look at the lives and landscape inhabited by his grandparents on the north Yorkshire moors. Recommended.|
|Buy? Yes||Borrow? Yes|
|Pages: 256||Date: July 2013|
|External links: Author's website|
Up on the north Yorkshire Moors there’s a feature of the landscape known as the Wolf Pit. It’s thought to be a medieval trap into which wolves were driven, but as you get close to it, it’s difficult to locate, marked only by a change in the light, a slope of the ground. Will Cohu doesn’t concentrate on the pit but rather on nearby Bramble Carr, the remote moorland cottage to which his grandparents moved in 1966, almost on a whim and certainly with insufficient thought. George Brook was a manager at ICI in Billingham and Dorothy was an artist and musician. They’d been brought together by a shared love of the arts but once installed at Bramble Carr and with little more than each other for company the marriage deteriorated into dark silence.
Cohu obviously has great affection for Bramble Carr and the area which surrounds it, even retreating there after his grandparents had left when he was in personal distress. The wolf pit is an elegant metaphor for the lives his family have led, but ‘’The Wolf Pit’’ is an exploration of the love he has for them - faults and all - and for the landscape which shaped them. Or did they retreat there because it suited their natures?
Cohu spent many summers and winters at Bramble Carr - his father was in the RAF and it was his grandparents who provided the closest semblance of a home live, although they did give him love and affection. He fitted into the family life there with ease - and into the close-knit community of nearby Danby. Winters are bitter and the weather can be extreme: he tells of the shepherd probing the head-high snow drifts for his sheep, only to find later that he was standing on top of twenty of them. The pub landlord was obsessed with militaria and would happily spend his time polishing his collection of over two thousand cap badges. The village doctor was most alive when he was out on his beloved moors.
The writing is atmospheric, both with regard to the people and the landscape. Cohu captures the nuances of the mind which is out of kilter - depression runs through the family like a crack in a wall. As he looked back through the family’s history he could run his fingers down a history of marriages which were less than rewarding to either party - and the fault lines in Cohu’s own marriage gave way in the course of writing the book. I’ll confess to finding some of this very difficult reading, but for personal reasons as it evoked - with shocking clarity - memories of my own family history. It’s not facts which do this - it’s intentions and the complete lack of care about someone else’s welfare.
On the landscape Cohu’s writing is exquisite. I was constantly surprised that he could bring to life such vivid images in so few words. He’s particularly good on the winter moorland and the way that snow changes it. I’d like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then we think that you might also enjoy The Ash and the Beech by Richard Mabey.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Wolf Pit by Will Cohu at Amazon.co.uk
You can read more book reviews or buy The Wolf Pit by Will Cohu at Amazon.com.
Like to comment on this review?
Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site. |
First of all did you know that the government issues permits allowing developers and individuals to collect plants on federal land? I suppose I am naive but I had no idea! Doesn't that seem just a little odd?
Secondly these developers reportedly trespassed on government land for years taking "thousands of vegetative resources!" Seriously? Who do they think they are? Imagine if everyone did this...why bother going to the nursery and paying for your landscaping? Just go to the park and dig up what you like! Crazy!
If you are interested here is a link the story as it appeared online and here is a link to the Pronghorn Resort website (it certainly looks fancy, just look at all those "vegetative resources" on the homepage picture)....the story:
Developers of high-desert resort to pay feds $200,000 in trespass dispute
By Bryan Denson, The Oregonian
December 21, 2009, 5:00PM
In the craggy buttes northeast of Bend, the Pronghorn resort features two world-class golf courses, swanky homes and an elegant clubhouse.
It also features a substantial number of plants, trees and grasses pilfered from federal land, according to a lawsuit filed last week by the U.S. government -- a complaint settled simultaneously by Pronghorn.
High Desert Development Partners LLC, part-owner of Pronghorn Resort and Golf Club, agreed to pay $200,000 to settle the suit but did not admit any liability, according to government attorneys who handled the case.
Pronghorn officials did not return a phone call today seeking comment.
The developer’s work crews were accused of repeatedly trespassing on 250 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management property and taking thousands of vegetative resources, including juniper trees, dead junipers often called “Ghost Trees,” Idaho fescue grasses and sagebrush.
The vegetation helped give a desert-like appearance to the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course and the Tom Fazio Golf Course, both of which opened in the last five years.
The complaint sought triple the fair market value of the natural resources that the government accused Pronghorn of taking as well as costs to rehabilitate and stabilize the high-desert land from which they were taken.
On Nov. 8, 2004, the BLM issued a permit allowing Pronghorn’s developers to collect 1,000 plants on its nearby land. The permit came with provisos: it expired on May 1, 2005, and there would be no extensions.
Five months after the permit expired, BLM officials learned that Pronghorn still collected vegetation off the federal land and they notified Pronghorn’s director of agronomy that he was violating federal law, according to the government complaint. Pronghorn was ordered to cease collecting plants.
In late October, 2005, Pronghorn requested a permit for 3,000 to 5,000 plants from BLM land. That request was denied, in part, because those permits are primarily intended for individuals to collect small amounts of landscaping materials and, according to the lawsuit, “removal of plants at that scale would subject the permit to National Environmental Policy Act requirements.”
The government accused Pronghorn of repeatedly trespassing on BLM land and collecting vegetation without a permit from May 2005 to June 2006.
“The manager who supervised the removal of vegetation from BLM land is no longer employed by Pronghorn,” government prosecutors wrote in a press statement. |
Yesterday Kissmetrics blogged A recipe of viral features used by the fastest growing startups. It’s a good read for anybody who wants to increase the number of free customers they are getting. Who wouldn’t want that? The list is written for software companies, but there’s something for everyone.
However, the paragraph that caught my eye though was about the nature of virality rather than how to generate it:
Virality is not a single feature. It’s a design principle. It’s not a result of good luck. It’s engineered. Forget about forcing users to use random share buttons. You must understand your audience and design a user flow that leads to sharing.
In other words virality is science not art. It comes by virtue of intelligence and hard work, not from luck (at least not usually).
Increasingly this is true for all areas of building a startup. The lean startup movement laid out an iterative process which uses customer feedback to minimise the role of chance in building a product people want, design thinking breaks down innovation into process steps, SEO is now well understood, as is enterprise software, and so on. Just on Monday I blogged about The Mom Test a book which makes it easy for anyone with discipline and a bit of get up and go to do great customer development.
My hope is that all great work I’ve listed will enable entrepreneurs (and their investors) to have lower failure rates, or at least lower the cost when failing. Here at Forward Partners we aim to be in the vanguard of that change, working with our entrepreneurs to bring practices to their companies which reduce the need for magic and luck and increase the chances of success. |
Using business gifts for clients are an important part of the effective marketing strategy of different companies and businesses. Although they are perceived by some bosses or managers as an expense, if they are well made and planned with a goal, the opposite is true. I will explain…
It is not the same to use business gifts to make branding than to try to close a sale or build customer loyalty. The main problem I find as a marketing specialist is that many times people do not know why and what to do business gifts.
And that’s what I’ll talk about in this article.
What will you find in this article?
- Why make business gifts?
- Benefits of using business gifts for clients and workers
- To whom to give business gifts?
- Types of business gifts for clients
- How to choose business gifts for clients?
Why make business gifts?
The first reason to make it, because they are part of the marketing of the company and if they are objectively oriented, they can be very beneficial.
The second reason is, they often help to specify stages, such as attracting new clients or being loyal to old clients.
Finally, the third reason is, many times people want to have memories and details of their favorite brands and what better idea than to use business gifts or promotional items.
Benefits of using business gifts for clients and workers
There are 3 main benefits of using business gifts, which I will comment below:
To attract new customers
The first benefit of using business gifts or promotional gifts is that they are an excellent tool to attract new customers.
For example, including a gift, as a reward or purchase incentive, can help the client end up choosing one or the other option.
For customer loyalty
Another benefit of business gifts is they can be very practical to retain loyal or old customers.
For example, recently my bank gave me a PowerBank, for being a loyal and technological customer, since I always help them with some advice or let them know if any cashier or their website is not working.
To keep the workers loyal
Finally, the third benefit of business gifts has to do with the use of loyalty and reward people in the company.
Obviously, it is not about giving a pen or a hat, but some workers really love the company’s products.
For example, recently at an event for programmers, they gave everyone a few cups of coffee and USB coffee heaters.
Iinteresting business plan of using business gifts for clients, right?
To whom to give business gifts?
In certain it could be said that there are different groups of people, some of which I mentioned earlier. However, I share with you some interesting ideas.
- Potential customers
- New clients
- Faithful clients
- Strategic allies
- Key institutions
- Media staff
As you can see, there are many people to which, strategically, they can make some kind of business gift and thus improve the image of the brand or achieve some type of objective.
Types of business gifts for clients
The truth is that there are countless business gifts to use, and new options appear every day.
For example, today you have large categories of gifts to choose from, such as:
- Pens (Plastic and Metallic)
- Jugs and Mugs
- Swiss Army Knives
- Backpacks or Bags
- Technology in general
As you can see there are many categories of products to make gifts and within each category, there are subcategories and infinite options.
It’s all about you clearly understanding why and what you want to give.
How to choose business gifts for clients?
If your company aims for this year to make some kind of corporate gift, I will give you 3 important tips to choose the ideal
# 1 – What is your goal?
As I said before, everything depends on the objective. It is not the same to choose a gift to attract customers than one to build loyalty.
So you have to be clear on the reason or objective.
# 2 – How is the receiver?
In the examples that I mentioned in the article, I commented on a bank that gave me a PowerBank, something ideal for me that I really like technology.
Without a doubt, they studied me, because if they gave me a hat or a pencil, I would have hated it!
Analyze very well who you want to reach with your promotional gifts, how is that person or client, what they have tastes or if it is something massive, something that many people like.
# 3 – What is your budget?
Finally, you have to understand that gifts will cost you money, so your budget is well analyzed.
It’s not about buying cheap things with your budget and ending up not liking anyone. It is about really INVESTING that money in good business gifts for clients. |
Caroline Adams Miller and Goal Setting
Caroline Adams Miller is a leading researcher and practitioner in the fields of grit, goal setting, happiness and success. She was also part of the first ever class of the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, meeting the leaders in the field of positive psychology, such as Martin Seligman, Christopher Peterson, Angela Duckworth, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Barbara Fredrickson.
In this short video, Caroline discusses the science of goal setting, connecting it with the science of happiness. She gives an overview of some of the key components of goal setting, whilst also talking about her upcoming book, Authentic Grit, which combines the latest research into how grit relates to thriving and provides a step-by step process to enable people to develop their grit.
Full video on goal setting
If you would like to learn more about goal setting and to see the full video, where Caroline goes into more detail on the science of goal setting, please head over to Positive Psychology Learning.
Authentic Grit FREE giveaway!
Caroline has been incredibly generous in allowing The Positive Psychology People the opportunity to offer a free PDF copy of the first chapter of her upcoming book, Authentic Grit, before it has even been released. To take advantage of this fantastic offer to read her inspiring work before anyone else, click here.
Michelle McQuaid – Strengths and Leadership
Michelle McQuaid is a best selling author, MAPP graduate and is currently completing her PhD in Appreciative Inquiry under the supervision of the renowned Professor David Cooperrider. She is also a leading positive psychology researcher and practitioner in the fields of strengths and workplace wellbeing.
In this video below, Michelle discusses how strengths and leadership can be important to help a workplace to thrive and for employees to consistently flourish. She talks about simple ways that leaders can help their employees to perform at their best on a more regular basis.
If you would like to discover more from Michelle about how she believes that strengths are key to flourishing, as well as how to create positive organisations, you can do so here.
Free Strengths Challenge!
Michelle is going to be running her successful Strengths Challenge, which is a one week challenge to spend just 11 minutes each day using your strengths, in order to make a difference in your life. This is an enlightening and enjoyable curse that can have many positive impacts on different areas of your life, for example at work, in relationships and your personal development. Are you up to the challenge? If so, you can sign up for free here. |
Why do Manitoban’s call the public holiday “Louis Riel Day” opposed from Ontarian’s who call it “Family Day”?
Sincerely, Traitor’s Over Family?
Louis Riel Day is an established day in Manitoba that represents the interdependent relationship that Manitoba has with the rest of Canada. Manitoba is a crucial piece of the diverse puzzle of Canada and an entity capable of making its own crucial developments on grand scales. Manitoba was the first province of the west and it seems proper that it is defined in subtle differences across language and traditions.
Ontarian’s, synonymous with fools, have this funny way of making everything about them. “Why would anyone change the name of Family Day? Do those backwards Manitobans not understand the value of family?” The province of Manitoba understands the need for diversity in challenging times, the idea that everything need not conform perfectly and that some ideals are worth fighting for.
The holiday did not even originate in Ontario! Alberta was the first to introduce the holiday and all the other provinces just jumped aboard with their own versions. Some kept the name, some found something more significant. You know what else Manitoba has that is different from Ontario? Socials for partying, Churchill for exploring the great north, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and a legendary bear named after its provincial capital!
Manitoba chose the name Louis Riel Day over the others because it was created by people who had a right to choose, to be pushed around or to defend its inhabitants cultures and ways of life. Louis Riel continues providing a meaningful vision and creating a historically respectful path for the future.
All Salute The Eternal City,
Quinitilius of Rome |
Village Medzibrod is situated to the east of Banská Bystrica on the right bank of the
Hron river 390m above sea level. Territory of village is extended on both banks of the
Hron. Terrier of village - 1 708ha. There live 1 325 inhabitants.
view of village Medzibrod
The first written information about village is from the year 1455 where name of village
is mentioned as Megywbrodye.
Village belonged to the Ľupča county in this time. Inhabitants delt in addition to
agriculture with production of knives and were very famous as raisers of hunt falcons
for the Ľupča county. Later they were famous as peddlers - makers of lace.
In the terrier of village gold and iron ore were being mined and to the year 1946 antimony.
Points of interest, remarkables and rarities
To the monuments of village belongs the Church from 1791 consecrated to patron of village
to St John Nepomucký.
Church of St.John Nepomucký
Two houses are preserved in the village which represent the original folk architecture.
Typical example is the House "U Zvonicov" where our village plans to establish a
Capacity of accomodation is limited. These services - accomodation and catering - offer a
recreational boarding-house "Hubert" - Cottage pod Sokolom and a restaurant - "Klub u raka".
Chapel of St.John Nepomucký
There is a sports area with football and tennis playgrounds and a swimming pool.
Supporters of winter sports use the Bánik ski centre with a skilift of 700m long.
In the terrier of village is located the nature reserve Mačková of extension 42,23ha. It
is a typical picture of beech and cedar trees on the lime-stone basis. Whole locality is
characterized by a rich occurence of protected and rare kinds of plants.
In valley of the Vyvieranica brook is a very interesting nature phenomenon. It is a
spring which flows out of the ground and with all its strenght goes into the brook of
the same name. |
Steelheads are something special to say the least, and if you have ever hooked into one then you already know that. However, taking one with a fly rod is an experience in and of itself, and is even better when done in the winter months. Steelheads are the biggest challenge and there are many anglers who have confidently stated that they cannot be taken on flies, but that just is not the case.
In fact, fly patterns have been used for steelheads for centuries and were successful long before fishers knew anything about graphite casting rods, spinning reels, or monofilament line. While it may not be easy, catching steelheads on fly gear is not nearly as daunting of a task as some experts would have you think.
If you don’t believe it then consider this. There are thousands of guides out there who find ways to put winter fish onto fly fishing lines on a regular basis. They do this by simply putting their clients into spots where the steelheads are located, provide them with the right tackle and teach them how to present their lures.
Does this mean you have to employ fly fishing guides in order to find success on the winter waters? Not necessarily. All you have to do is employ the techniques that they use and get into the right areas.
So let’s get into it.
Using the Wet Fly Swing for Winter Steelhead
When fishing for steelhead in waters that are deep and wide, the wet fly swing is one of the best techniques to use when searching for steelhead in winter. It consists of casting your fly at a downstream angle and letting it swing across the current. When utilized along with sink tip lines and heavy flies this technique allows you to get to the bottom quickly and work your fly right along the steelhead’s nose.
While many winter experts seem to have fallen in love with long, two handed rods, a 10 foot single hand 8-weight rod still remains as the best option for winter steelheads. It allows you to cast heavy flies while still having enough control over the fly to drift your fly properly.
Using Sink-Tips in Winter
There are basically two separate categories for sink-tips that can be used for winter steelheads. There are examples such as the type 3 or type 5 that are short and light and then there are heavier and longer types such as Teeny Lines. Type 3 to type 6 sink-tips are best suited for water that is waist deep while heavier water will require longer, heavier tips. On top of that, be sure to keep the leaders short when going after these trout and should range between 3 to 6 feet and be close to 10 to 12 pound test.
Fly Patterns for Steelheads
There are far fewer options in terms of fly patterns in these situations, but there are still more than enough to confuse beginners and keep experts entertained. What makes it easier for beginners is if they try to separate all the fly patterns into sub categories. Better yet, when you start out you can try just sticking to traditional patterns such as egg patterns. These traditional patterns are effective in all kinds of water and their heavy hooks allow them to sink quickly even in the heaviest of water.
Over time though, patterns such as rabbit strip leeches have become more popular than traditional patterns as they are incredible durable and have excellent motion in the water. Stick to egg patterns such as Glo-Bugs are great in cold water that has great visibility.
Reading the Water in Winter
Once you have your fly pattern selected, it is important to learn how to read the water and find out where the steelhead are holding.
Tail-outs near the downstream area of pools are usually where steelheads like to hang out and this is a spot that is easy to work utilizing the previously mentioned wet fly swing. Other than that, pocket waters can also be rewarding as well as any downstream that is covered by trees or near snags and boulders.
Presenting your Fly for Steelheads
The goal of swinging your fly is to show your fly right in front of the steelhead’s nose, and the best spot is right on the broadside of the current. In order to do this you want to hold an upstream position and cast at a downstream angle to the targeted area. Will your angle will change from cast to cast, your goal is to keep it at 45 degrees as much as you can when starting out.
When presenting your fly, try to feed the sink-tip with a few feet of line and let it hang for a while downstream. Depending upon how much line you want to shoot out when casting, gather all the line you need in the hand you do not use for casting. Roll your cast so the tip is at the surface, slowly lift it off the water and use a normal back cast as you send the slack forwards.
Do not forget that the sink tips need to be brought to the surface before you can cast them in a conventional manner. As soon as the line lands you need to toss out an upstream mend which will create slack to let the fly sink. Follow the line with your rod high until you feel a tug and then lower your rod slowly. This will let the leader and the fly sink deeply and stay in line.
At the end, swing the line through the holding water and wait for your steelhead to strike.
For an added effect, let the fly hang seamlessly in the water near an obstruction or slot then strip it back in upstream and roll cast it towards the surface. |
The following is the summary of a session that was part of the 2018 Annual Conference.
Ms. Kuniya began her speech by explaining that in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), rather than responding to them separately, understand that they are integrated. Many people claim to know about the SDGs, but most of them do not thoroughly understand them. So, clear and deep understanding of the goals is necessary in order to realize them.
The United Nations (UN) started the SDGs because they recognized that there were still unsolved sustainability issues, and in order to overcome those issues, the SDGs were created out of an urgency to save the Earth. Ms. Kuniya emphasized that the SDGs will be achieved through partnership and collaboration.
Mr. Arima agreed that few people in Japan recognize SDGs, but that knowledge about them is expanding. The majority of Japanese companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and they do not show much interest in the SDGs. Top management have ethics which they value even if there is not a direct link to sustaining society. Companies are interested in reporting positive activities because it enhances their branding and image. Japanese companies tend to do the same things as their competitors or peers. So, if some large Japanese companies start to pursue the SDGs, other players could follow suit.
Ms. Kuniya explained that Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investment is increasing in Japan. In addition, the SDGs are gaining attention because of investments, however, they have to be understood and approached in terms of business opportunities.
Mr. Arima considered why Japanese companies should be serious about the SDGs. The SDGs offer business opportunities, so entities and financial institutions are willing to take those business opportunities. To capture new business opportunities, ventures have to take risks and many Japanese SMEs are not willing to do that.
Ms. Kuniya asked what approach should Japanese companies take to pursue the SDGs. Mr. Arima answered that there are four important points in pursuing the SDGs. Those points are inside-out to outside-in, backcasting from the SDGs, business models of integrated values, and the SDGs’ integration into corporate processes and plans. To elaborate, inside-out to outside-in means to approach the goals from a point of view outside of the company looking in, instead of a point of view inside of the company looking out. From the outside-in approach, global and societal needs are prioritized by first dealing with social issues outside of the company and building a business model and company around them. Backcasting involves deciding on a future business model based on future issues and the SDGs, and working backwards to identify policies and programs that will connect that future to the present. The creation of business models not only based around economic values but also an integration of economic and social values which lead to the SDGs is effective for the pursuit of the SDGs. Finally, integrating the SDGs into corporate processes and plans correctly could lead to less resources being used and a smaller CO2 footprint which is aligned with the pursuit of the SDGs.
Ms. Kuniya explained that businesses in Japan want to continue with their current business models. If they do that, then cautious consumers may turn their backs on them. The Cabinet Office is trying to bring the SDGs to cities. Many organizations are encouraged to work together to create cities that are SDG friendly. The top 10 municipalities will be subsidized. Unfortunately, Japanese companies do not see the SDGs as business opportunities due to the non-risk-taking culture. The USJC is trying to work with Silicon Valley organizations, so, Ms. Kuniya asked, “How can Japan link with Silicon Valley companies in order to facilitate pursuit of the SDGs?”
Mr. Arima answered that by putting together collaborations and attempting to interact more, then there could be more cooperation between Silicon Valley and Japanese companies. In order to accelerate SDG movement, Mr. Arima suggested that there should be fusion of American and Japanese culture to work towards new solutions.
Click here to see the video of the session. |
"THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - 4TH JULY 1776"
by JOHN TRUMBULL
Open Edition Giclee Canvas: $295
31"w x 21"h
Recognized as one of Trumbull's best works, The Declaration of Independence July 4th, 1776 is an artistic and historical masterpiece, depicting a seminal moment in US History. The painting includes portraits of 48 of the 56 signers and five other patriots. Trumbull painted at least 36 members and the room from life.
The Declaration of Independence, July 4th 1776 was a labor of love for John Trumbull for over 30 years. He received support for the project from Thomas Jefferson himself. "I began the composition of the Declaration of Independence, with the assistance of [Jefferson's] information and advice." Trumbull once said
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by JOHN TRUMBULL(4th July 1776: Thomas Jefferson)@vbader.com |
Originally almost all of Massachusetts was covered with forests. Early colonists began clearing the land for farms and pasture as soon as they arrived. By the 1830s and 1840s only about one-fifth of the state was forested. Currently the share of the state once again covered by forest has climbed to 63 percent. Most of the forestland is privately owned. The forests of Massachusetts are in a transition zone.
Broadleaf deciduous forests predominate to the south and at lower elevations, but they gradually shift into mixed forests with more coniferous evergreens as latitude or elevation increases. The most dominant trees of the deciduous forests are beech, birch, and maple, but cherry, hickory, red cedar, and oak are also common. Coniferous trees such as white pine and hemlocks are found throughout the state, and spruce are found mainly to the north and at higher elevations, but some conifers may be found scattered throughout the deciduous forest. Pitch pines and scrub oaks are found in the southeast. The American elm, which is the state tree, was formerly a common shade tree in many towns but has been decimated by Dutch elm disease.
The forest floor in Massachusetts contains ferns, such as asmundas and maidenhair spleenworts. Areas near the sea have marsh grasses, sedges, and rushes. Marshy areas have such plants as the skunk cabbage, marsh marigold, white violet, and blue violet. Flowering shrubs on the forest floor or in open areas include the dogwood, azalea, rhodora, sweet fern, mountain laurel, wild cherry, and trailing arbutus, or mayflower, which is the state flower. Wildflowers include the violet, bloodroot, troutlilly, and goldenrod. "Massachusetts" © Emmanuel BUCHOT, Encarta, Wikipedia
Photos of European countries to visit
Photos of Asian countries to visit
Photos of America |
Stanley Heritage Trail
Hong Kong Island
Many people in Hong Kong, both residents and visitors alike, are surprised to learn that following their capture of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941, the victorious Japanese authorities had no plans in place with regard to British civilians and their allies in the colony. Following a hiatus of some 3 weeks duration, during which period these civilians were housed in squalid conditions in what were little more than low-class brothels on the Hong Kong island waterfront, they were moved to the more salubrious area of Stanley on the south side of the island.
Here some 3000 men, women and children of various nationalities were housed in what in more peaceful times had been the quarters for the European and Indian warders of the maximum security Stanley Prison, as well as the school buildings and accommodation quarters of Hong Kong’s first boarding school, the prestigious St. Stephen’s College and Preparatory school.
The Stanley peninsula, including the cemetery which dates back to the very early days of the British occupation of Hong Kong in the 1840’s, was also the scene of a bitter last stand between the British and their allied defenders and the invading Japanese forces in December 1941.
Although the area has been greatly developed since that period, many of these buildings which are so much a part of Hong Kong’s heritage still exist. In fact, a heritage trail has been created which incorporates much of this era. During your visit our expert guide will take you on this trail, pointing out the sites where so much of the fighting during the final hours of the 1941 battle occurred, as well as many parts of what became known shortly afterwards as the Stanley Civilian Internment Camp. |
A UFO researcher claims to have been given an authentic image of an alien, supposedly taken after an autopsy in the top-secret Area 51.
The photo, taken on film, was sent to Tom Carey and has been verified to date back to 1947 by Kodak, the same year of the infamous Roswell ‘crash’ in New Mexico.
Mr Carey has now contacted Kodak historians to seek further confirmation on the date the image was taken.
He said: “‘What’s interesting is, the film is dated 1947.
“We took it to the official historian of Kodak up in Rochester, New York, and he did his due diligence on it, and he said yes, this filmstrip, the slides are from 1947.
“It’s 1947 stock.
“And from the emulsions on the image, it’s not something that’s been Photoshopped like today.
“It’s original 1947 images, and it shows an alien who’s been partially dissected lying in a case.”
Spooky: New alien photo emerges of Area 51
Carey believes that the creatures are four feet tall, and added: “The head is almost insect-like.
“The head has been severed, and there’s been a partial autopsy; the innards have been removed, and we believe the cadaver has been embalmed, at least at the time this picture was taken.”
But not all are convinced by the photo.
Nigel Watson, author of the Haynes UFO Investigations Manual, said: “Usually when people make promises that they have the smoking gun of ufology – positive evidence of their existence – they come to nothing or they produce rather underwhelming evidence.
“However, if aliens were retrieved it would be a world changing event and I can’t imagine they could keep the lid on such an event throughout the 50s and 60s.” |
Kind-hearted students from Wiltshire College & University Centre are helping those less fortunate for Christmas.
Teenagers studying on the Foundation Studies course have been overwhelmed at the generosity of fellow students and staff at the Trowbridge campus after putting out an appeal for donations for their reverse advent calendar.
The idea was that instead of taking something out of a calendar each day, people could bring in items that are then taken to a foodbank in the town and given to those who are struggling in the run up to and during the festive season.
Storehouse Foodbank opened its doors in 2006 and supports families, couples and individuals in need of food and toiletries.
Ashleigh Powell, aged 16 from Warminster, sent an email to everyone at the Trowbridge campus, asking for support.
She said: “I’m really pleased at how well received this idea was and we are really excited at how many people have supported us by bringing in lots of different items.”
Foundation Studies lecturer Nicola Rudland has been working with the students to run the project.
She said: “The response to the reverse advent calendar has been phenomenal and we’ve had to empty the box every few days as it has been filled with so many fantastic items.
“I’m proud of all of those involved and think it is a lovely thing for them to have done.”
The foodbank in Trowbridge distributes a wide range of items such as pasta, rice, tinned vegetables, coffee, cereal, washing up liquid and shower gel, helping more than 1,700 people a year.
Cieran Hollern, 17, also from Warminster, said: “Quite a few of us know people who have used a foodbank and because we are quite lucky, we felt we wanted to give something back to those who are less fortunate.”
The box, decorated with wrapping paper and tinsel by the Foundation Studies group to make it stand out, is located at the campus reception and will remain there until the end of term. |
2017 – Tick Season
A tick check a day will help keep LYME away!
We are now heading toward the peak of Deer Tick and Lyme Disease season. We have seen a 27% increase in Lyme cases this year as compared to last year. Please come by and get a FREE laminated Tick Shower Card to put in your shower or on the bathroom mirror, to remind yourself to check for ticks! “When you brush your teeth, check for ticks.”
For more information, please see Dr. Hartman’s video on Ticks and Lyme Disease. This video is very helpful to understanding Lyme Disease.
URI’s TickEncounter is a helpful resource in identifying a tick and removing it. It is not uncommon for the head to remain in the skin. Once the abdomen has been removed there is no more risk of a Lyme infection.
Always feel free to give us a call!
All of Us at Westwood-Mansfield Pediatric Associates |
Botox for Chronic Daily Migraine Headaches and Facial Pain
As an expert in using Botox for the treatment of chronic daily migraine headaches, facial pain, and cervical dystonia Dr Kaplan also actively teaches Botox injection techniques to physicians across the country. This includes using ultrasound to help guide Botox injections. The ability to actually see the specific muscle being injected makes our Botox treatments more accurate and more effective. That expertise consistently translates into improved clinical results for you.
Over 25 Million Americans suffer from frequent and incapacitating chronic daily headaches, also defined as migraines. Amazingly it is estimated that about half of those Americans do not even know that they are suffering from migraines, instead attributing their headaches to sinus and other problems.
So, the question becomes, how do you define a chronic headache sufferer? According to American medical standards, it is an individual who endures up to six headaches per week. Unfortunately, 11% of the American population fits that chronic headache definition. To add to their pain, many have tried a multitude of medications that have either not worked or have caused intolerable side effects such as dizziness, nausea, weight gain and difficulty concentrating.
On the upside, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a breakthrough treatment designed to treat chronic migraine headaches minus the debilitating side effects. The treatment is botulinum toxins or, as it’s more commonly known, Botox.
While Botox has been primarily associated with cosmetic treatments, botulinum toxins have been highly effective in treating a multitude of neurological conditions such as cervical dystonia, blepharospasm and limb spasticity, with a safety and effective track record going back over 20 years. It has also been known that these toxins can be extremely effective in treatment of chronic daily headaches. So it is not surprising that the medical world has welcomed the FDA stamp of approval on this highly effective treatment.
In our medical experience they are few medical treatments that can so drastically change a person’s life as Botox for chronic headaches. Indeed, for many patients it is nothing short of miraculous. Patients respond to Botox treatments, even if they have been headache sufferers for decades, frequently experiencing a 90% reduction in their migraine attacks.
As stated, Botox has been shown to be clinically effective for the treatment of chronic migraine headaches. Studies have shown that patients receiving Botox for headaches have experienced up to 5 headaches less a month as compared to placebos. (Each headache can last several days, resulting in up to a 10-day head ache reduction). However, in our experience, these numbers are very conservative.
When combining injections of the neck with the head and facial muscles, the reduction of headache severity and frequency has proven to be as high as 90% effective.
OTHER BOTOX INFORMATION
- Clinical use of Botox nabotulinumtoxinA) is the result of more than 100 years of study into botulinum toxin type A. Millions of patients worldwide have been treated therapeutically with Botox over the course of nearly 20 years.
- Botox is currently approved in approximately 80 countries for 21 different indications to help patients worldwide suffering from such serious or debilitating conditions as cervical dystonia, blepharospasm, strabismus, increased muscle stiffness in elbow, wrist, and finger muscles in adults with upper limb spasticity and symptoms of severe primary axillary hyperhidrosis (excessive underarm sweating) when medicines on the skin (topical) do not work well enough and the preventative treatment of headaches in adult patients with Chronic Migraine (≥15 or more days per month with headaches lasting four hours a day or longer.)
- Botox is a purified protein that works by blocking overactive nerve impulses that trigger excessive muscle contractions or glandular activity. The effect is temporary and lasts from approximately one to six months, depending on the individual patient and indication. Botox therapy should only be administered by a trained and qualified physician.
- Although Chronic Migraine occurs in both men and women, women are three times more likely than men to suffer from migraines. Sufferers often experience depression and anxiety as part of the condition. Chronic Migraine also can be influenced by life stress, sleep habits, diet and overuse of acute medications that relieve pain associated with symptoms of headache.
- It is estimated that approximately 80 percent of those who meet the definition of chronic migraine have not received an accurate diagnosis and, as a result, may be unaware of their treatment options. This may be due to mischaracterization of chronic migraine as a less severe headache disorder. |
A Gritty Narrative on the Life of Legendary War Correspondent, Marie Colvin.
DIRECTED BY MATTHEW HEINEMAN/2018
Writer Marie Brenner wrote the article that inspired Eric Roth and Michael Mann to write 1999’s The Insider, a story Mann went on to direct about a whistle blower who exposed “Big Tobacco” on a 60 Minutes segment in the 1990’s. Her follow up, some 19 years later, is now a reversal of that as she is now the screenwriter for a film called A Private War, which is based on a Vanity Fair article entitled, “Marie Colvin’s Private War” by Arash Amel, which covers one of the most celebrated war correspondents of our modern day, Marie Colvin.
Directed by Matthew Heineman who has, until this film, primarily been a documentarian with Award-nominated films such as Cartel Land, City of Ghosts, and Escape Fire. Heineman’s previous documentary experience allows A Private War to truly capture the gritty feel of his previous work, albeit in the format of a proper narrative film. A Private War allows the audience to fully understand the effects that covering real-life events, such as war, truly has on the psyche of those who go into these areas to cover it.
If Spotlight and The Post were films that demonstrated the sanctimonious side of the press who are truly a needed entity to hold powerful institutions like the church and government to a high standard, then A Private War is all of that, and a lot more. Here, you don’t just get the thrill of uncovering a big story being covered up by the powerful like in the two previously mentioned films. Instead, you see the exacting price that is paid by reporters who put their very lives on the line in order to bring the truth of some of the worst of the world’s atrocities to light.
Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike) was an American reporter who worked for the British newspaper, The Sunday Times. She covered their international affairs stories, and often felt drawn to the war torn regions around the globe. While interviewing a rebel leader in Sri Lanka and exposing a humanitarian disaster there, she, and her party, were attacked by the Sri Lankan Army who shot a RPG towards her in April of 2001. The blast cost her the use of her left eye, but she continued to report and travel to war zones for years afterward, wearing a black eye-patch.
While in Iraq at the start of the 2003 invasion, we see how she meets a photo journalist named Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) and together they travel to Ramallah, exposing a mass grave that proved the cruelty of Saddam Hussein’s forces against his own people. It would be a professional relationship that would last her the rest of her life, as Conroy is with her on her fateful day in February of 2012.
Colvin’s editor and friend, Sean Ryan (Tom Hollander), often is seen pleading with her to get out of such areas, but isn’t upset to keep collecting awards for her reporting in such places, on behalf of The Sunday Times, either. It is this relationship that demonstrates the dual nature of the press which serves such a great purpose, but often functions with the same political and self-serving structures that corrupt other professional industries. For the war correspondent, however, there really must be a deeper calling from within in order to keep putting oneself in harms way to serve the greater good of being a voice for those who are powerless against such oppression. The political nature of the media, journalist awards and the like, might be a necessary evil that allows papers, magazines, and television journalism to be financed in order to function, but as we see with Colvin, those things are a means to an end, to accomplish the pure and selfless function of true journalism.
The real strength of this film is the performance by Pike, as A Private War goes to great lengths to show the physical and emotional toll these experiences have on Colvin, especially the reoccurring nightmares of the RPG attack she survived, along with every war victim she has seen. The reminder that there are real people, putting their lives on the line to bring to our attention to the horrific suffering that people around the world are enduring, is a sobering thing. We are also shown how many times reporters like Colvin suffer PTSD in similar ways as returning soldiers. Though for Colvin, who eventually did seek professional treatment to deal with some of this, much of her typical way of dealing with the trauma was to find solace in a bottle of alcohol and relationships that always seemed to fizzle out under the stress of her constant globe-travelling.
Matthew Heineman captures it all like a true documentarian, knowing which angles of the camera will help tell this story the best, especially the scenes from the front lines of war torn nations. It is a fantastic debut for him directing a scripted narrative. He starts the film, and flashes back in time before building back towards the climatic moment he started at, as Marie Colvin and Paul Conroy make their way into Homs, Syria. This would be where she broadcasted live to Anderson Cooper on CNN relaying how she had witnessed and had evidence that the Syrian government was shelling its own people, mostly defenseless women and children. This would be the final broadcast for Marie Colvin, in what she had described as the worst place she had ever seen.
A Private War will be worth consideration for awards season, especially as it pertains to Pike who delivers her strongest performance to date. Heineman should also see his directorial opportunities increase, and the gritty style he demonstrates here makes him worth a look to possibly be a candidate to be the director for the third film in the Sicario series when it is eventually green-lighted. Pacing is one issue that needed to be tightened up for this film, as it is a bit long, but the compelling performances and storyline make up for some of the film’s deficiencies.
A Private War opens to many markets this weekend and is a film that deserves to be seen. It is a reminder of, and a tribute to, all of the brave women and men who put themselves on the front lines of conflicts around the globe to bring the stories of people who are suffering to light so that evil, brutality, and totalitarianism are not allowed to run roughshod without being challenged. The toll this has on these individuals who experience so much so that we don’t have to, as Marie tells her editor in the film, is one not often thought about by the news consuming public. By remembering the human element behind the journalists who report to us, maybe it will remind us of why we cannot simply dismiss anything we don’t like, or that doesn’t fit our preconceptions, as “fake news” without examining the claims of truth being reported. These reporters aren’t willing to face death like this to score some quick political victory back home. They are hoping to make a difference in the world in the one way they know how: with their camera, their pen, and their voice. A Private War celebrates this aspect of journalism. |
Immanuel Kant expressed the motto of the Enlightenment well - "Aude Sapere" (Dare to Think!). In some societies, members were required to pay an annual fee to participate. 56 Barred from the universities and other institutionsRead more
Furthermore, she noted that a 50-per-ounce marijuana tax was not realistic, because it would represent a 100 percent tax on the cost of the product. At least one doctor writes prescriptions from a tiny hut besideRead more
Getting Intimate with Similarities
air in its vicinity with the Novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville the ruthless bullying of a dictator, forcing it through a combination of channels and scoops and ducts and wings, all upgrades on the original FXX that together create over 830kg of downforce at maximum speed. Any touching or intimate activity must have clear unambiguous consent and enthusiasm from your partner. Hatfield,., Rapson,.L. Try kissing or breathing together and then moving into a deep conversation.
The Similarities of UN and NATOs Goals
Differences and Similarities in Romeo And Juliet
You can build intimacy by knowing you can say whats on your pepsi Coke Antitrust Case heart and not feel criticized for your words. Show more answers Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Physical and emotional edit Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. 4, ask personal questions. "Psychology of Women Quarterly, 36 286-300. 1 Another current area of research into intimate relationships is conducted by Terri Orbuch and Joseph Veroff (2002). Isbn a b c d e f Perlman,. For example, touch each other, kiss each others bodies, and lick each other. You can also help care for the person and help them out with tasks they might have difficulty doing. Check out this article for more tips: 3 ways to make your boyfriend feel happy. Knowing you can rely on your partner for emotional support can help you feel close to them and trust them to be there for you. 17 better source needed However, according to an 800 or so participant strong study, in long distance relationships there are different determinants of success with respect to the ones associated with geographically close relationships. |
Christchurch Infrastructure Recovery
The 2011 earthquake activity in Christchurch cause widespread liquefaction
and seismic settlement resulting in considerable damage to the wastewater
network. One of the greatest resulting concerns was loss of reticulation grade
in the wastewater network (which in turn affects capacity of the pipe). In order
to answer the question of how much loss of grade can be accepted before renewal
of a gravity pipe is necessary; Christchurch City Council (CCC) implemented a
policy which compared the post-earthquake grades of the network with the
pre-earthquake grades and the pre-Infrastructure Design Standard grades.
Following the implementation of the CCC policy, it then became apparent that the
team needed to find a way of comparing the original grades of the network
“pre-earthquake” to the surveyed inverts and grade “post-earthquake”. Other
designers had done this comparison by using Excel spreadsheets, but they wanted
a visual means of representing the data which could easily be reviewed and form
part of the concept design report for a particular project area.
They decided to use 12d Model to build two wastewater networks for a particular
project area - one to represent the pre-earthquake network and the other the
post-earthquake network. The post wastewater network was built using manhole lid
and invert data provided by the survey team.
This model was then copied and
pre earthquake data taken from the Council GIS maps were inputted to form the
pre model. Using 12d Model’s exporting/importing functionality, pre-earthquake
grades and inverts were copied from the pre model and included as separate
attributes to the post model. Following this, pre and post long sections were
plotted using a 12d plot file.
The result was a quick and visual means to assess the loss of grade and
settlement within the wastewater network and assist in the design of the network
Download this Case Study as a PDF |
And the number of assaults targeting Jews doubled, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.
The states with the three highest incidents of anti-Semitism are New York, New Jersey and California.
The report came days after the deadly shooting at a San Diego area synagogue.
Joining us is Evan Bernstein, the Director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York and New Jersey.
Also, Americans may be weary of the Mueller report but its implications, and how it was handled, have not wearied some members of Congress.
With us to discuss it are political consultant Hank Sheinkopf and ABC News political director Rick Klein.
And, more than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, with the number quickly growing as baby boomers grow older.
So how do we deal with an epidemic that takes such a big toll on the victims and family members trying to care for them?
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He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Scripture Image
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. ... Scripture Image
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ... Share Your Faith Products Gifts
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” Scripture Images
"The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. "But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him? "Now send me a skilled man to work in gold, silver, brass and iron, and in purple, crimson and violet fabrics, and who knows how to make engravings, to work with the skilled men whom I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. Scripture Images
And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample. Share Your Faith Products Gifts
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ... Scripture Image
“Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. ... Christian Art and Gifts
"Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. Scripture Images
The Bible is full of encouraging scriptures that are such a blessing to read and memorize. Here are ten of my favorite scripture quotes for encouragement. Feel free to share these with others as these encouraging Bible verses will brighten anyone’s day. The Scriptures used are filled with hope, comfort and inspiration. These famous Bible quotes are from the Old and New Testament. Share Your Faith Products Gifts
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ...
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. Scripture Image
A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. ... Christian Art and Gifts
For the last 5 years, the in-house design team at the Faithlife Corporation has illustrated one Bible verse every day. This art has found its way onto t-shirts, magnets, and postcards—and now, a beautiful picture book. In print for the first time, art from Faithlife's Verse of the Day series paired with uplifting devotionals will encourage and inspire you. Share Your Faith Products Gifts
And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. And he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill for making any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his work. He cast two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference. It was hollow, and its thickness was four fingers. The second pillar was the same. He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were lattices of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals on the tops of the pillars, a lattice for the one capital and a lattice for the other capital. ...
Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the curses written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place and it shall not be quenched.’ Share Your Faith Products Gifts
As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. Scripture Image
Of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ... Scripture Image
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, ...
"Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. "She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. "I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.read more.
For the last 5 years, the in-house design team at the Faithlife Corporation has illustrated one Bible verse every day. This art has found its way onto t-shirts, magnets, and postcards—and now, a beautiful picture book. In print for the first time, art from Faithlife's Verse of the Day series paired with uplifting devotionals will encourage and inspire you. Scripture Image |
“Robert Motherwell: Abstract Expressionism” is at Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 16th september – 26th November 2016.
It’s a hard task to corral 40 odd years of painting history into a modest if well proportioned gallery space – especially if it’s the career history of an artist like Robert Motherwell. But what is lacking in breadth, here at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery, is more than made up for in focus. One is, of course, also very aware that this gallery is attempting to shine a bright light on Motherwell in the somewhat long shadows cast from across the road by the Royal Academy’s dizzying ‘Abstract Expressionism’ show. Here we have the likes of the portentous Clifford Still dominating the proceedings. It’s funny how so much verbal fire and brimstone can turn so quickly to miserly one-upmanship and tawdry painterly theatrics. But that’s Abstract Expressionism for you – well, a certain kind of it anyway – one that to my mind, Robert Motherwell, with his graphic flair and visceral clarity, has quietly eclipsed – a rogue moon leaving the orbit of a dying star.
In the smaller works on paper in the ground floor gallery we see how, over decades, Motherwell has been mining the valleys and hills of an internalised idea of the body. In ‘Black with No Way Out’, 1983, the lithographic process intensifies the weight of a heaving black form as it is sucked into the paper’s surface. Both monstrous and elegant, the crackle between blacks and whites are punctuated with a stinging red that’s been dug into the top edge breaking open the picture plane. The sun’s white hot light can blind to the same degree that it reveals all. A thick black shadow can harbour life as much as it intimates death. A certain kind of beauty and unease reside in Motherwell’s continuous play of opposites. In this relatively small selection of works on paper we are able to see how his refined instinct for that one off graphic hit is then transformed into prints, etchings and collages ranging right across his career.
And there are other scintillating paradoxes at work on Motherwell’s picture plane too. We are immediately confronted, on descending the stairs into the main gallery, with a sudden change of scale in a later Elegy painting. (Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 130. 1974-5). Here the pictorial and political are wrestled into some kind of pictogram of conscience and consciousness fused. Giant heavy black orbs strung up on black poles demarcate the picture space with an undulating rhythm akin to a kind of breathing – painful breathing – and the dark arcs swelling, spreading like the pooling of blood. A metallic greyish ground evokes a distanced and withheld sense of foreboding, like a sort of silvery moonlit sand. Stacked shards of colour, red, white and blue, break through shadowy straight lines and fragile arcs in the top left corner, twisting out the trembling black architecture from the skin of the painting. This trembling effect seems born of delicate, feathery edges, unsettled by sharp charcoal outlines. What seemed monumental and still suddenly becomes far more vulnerable. But somehow all this detail melts back into the denser blacks only to surge forward toward the picture edge again and again. Those tiny pulses of colour and the vertical pale white band to the right are always stopping the large and heavier repeated forms sinking into rhetorical echoes or flat signage. This famous image is a truly modern totem that speaks as much about the our modern-day wars and conflicts as it might of the blood soaked sand of a bull ring on the dusty yard where the firing squad waits for Lorca to cough up his last.
The Elegy works are a distillation from, not a dilution of, some original powerful historical moment. The so-called ‘Myth Makers’ currently skulking in the great halls of the Royal Academy based their rhetoric on supposed elemental human agonies like doom and tragedy. Motherwell was brave enough to try to find visual equivalents for actual events – real ‘tragedies’ and real ‘agonies’ experienced in the Spanish Civil War, not all lost in the mists of mythological no-time. He attempted to find some kind of visual equivalent for modernity’s psychotic fixation on tyrannies and mass murder. The 20th century saw the ‘march of progress’ melt so quickly into a primordial hell of world war. The ‘Elegies’ are a series of simplified motifs, yes, but refined and sharpened to intensify their assault on the eye. And the assault has precision and clarity – a coolness melded with the weight of something terrible. This image, re-visited by Motherwell throughout his career, never seems to empty out into a ‘signature style’ like so much other theatrical offal from the painterly carcass of art history. Suddenly this particular ‘Elegy’ painting seems to harbour and exude its own unique pressurised space, and I involuntarily hold my breath as I stare into it.
Collage has it playful side. It is at once, modern and elemental. In his collages Motherwell works with the materiality of the lived-in world. His subtle and brutal configurations of papers and paint gets us a little closer to our world – both its comforts and its agonies. It is interesting to see ‘Pierrot’s Hat’ 1943, a very early experiment with collage, that clearly shows Motherwell’s absorption of the Dadaist sense of play and brutal derangement of form. But also there is a real skill for subtle orchestration of colour and painted elements with stuck-on objects. The disorientating change of speed and mood suggests that collage might hold a particular visual key to the multifarious dynamism of human experience. Motherwell has a special way of taking what he has learned from collage and bringing it back into painting.
In ‘California’, 1959, we might feel that our viewpoints are always being stretched open or unhinged by the dizzying effect of looking down from high altitude, echoing his use of actual maps in early collages. A tattered and torn coastline is summoned up with earthy sun-bleached umbers, then all smashed against bright relentless blues and whites. See how the paint reacts to the rhythm that the charcoal lines are striking out against the canvas. The eye is brought to focus down on that point where the brush slaps the canvas as it snakes across to a coarse orange ridge-like edge on the right. In ‘The Mexican Window’ 1974 all is broken down in to charcoal scrawls and leaning shutters reduced to slaps of grey paint. This image of the window, the archetypical Renaissance device of ‘looking out on to the world’, is inscribed, if not ripped, into a floating cloud of dirty billowing browns- a dust storm held in perpetual stillness. The hard black vertical line at the window’s bottom centre is holding out against the stretcher’s edge and oblivion. That simple charcoal vertical locks our gaze like a gun sight on half suggested spaces, other times and places – a constant point of cool unwavering focus in an otherwise ethereal painterly chimeras.
Motherwell has a reputation for being the clever aesthete who was always too enamoured of the ‘Old World’ of Mediterranean sunshine, azure skies, Gauloises packets – and always with an eye for rare book wrappers too. But I don’t see him as some halfway house or a bridge between old world and new. He was the American who saw the raw potential in the destructive power of collage. Motherwell took the haptic magic of the best of dada/surrealism and the cool hedonism of late Matisse and mixed it up with the high velocity and headstrong lunge for originality that he had absorbed from his New York painter peers of the 1940s. In so doing he found a way of creating great abstract images invoking historical transformations and bodily sensation, at times, almost achieving a perfect union of frenzy and grace. |
Accurate rainfall measurements are invaluable to growers. That’s why our Rainfall product is such a cornerstone of Morning Farm Report, the online delivery infrastructure for all of our products. When we release Morning Farm Report in early 2015, we’re confident that growers will benefit from Rainfall and all the other data we provide. There are many companies out there that provide rainfall measurements, so what makes ours any different? Well, we’re a team of big data scientists, so we decided to go a bit bigger with our rainfall visualizations.
Over the next few weeks, we will be making a series of new products announcements all leading up to the launch of Morning Farm Report in early 2015. Before that begins, we wanted to share our views on data privacy.
We here at Morning Farm Report and Agrible, Inc. (the parent company of Ag Informatics) are always thinking about Big Agricultural Data and helping growers and agricultural businesses in everything they do. We know that feeding the world is going to be a tough challenge, and we want to help you the way we know how – with clear, concise, unbiased agronomic science and predictive analytics.
Elevation data plays a crucial role in the work we do here at Ag-Informatics. One dataset that we often turn to is the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM). Some background on the mission:
SRTM flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, mapping Earth’s topography between 56 degrees south and 60 degrees north of the equator.
Here at Ag-Informatics, we spend a lot of time thinking about soil. Soil is a crucial component in many of our products and analyses. Obviously soil characteristics are important for assessing the quality of a field and potential crop yields. However, there are numerous other applications as well, especially when combined with our weather products such as trafficability analysis. As a grower with this information, you will know when it’s appropriate to drive through your field based on a combination of environmental variables and the properties of the specific soils in your field. More on this and other soil topics to come, but for now let’s explore the soil data itself.
A few days ago we talked about weather and Micro-Agronomy, now we are going to look at a bigger scale.
Besides knowing how local weather affects their own yields, growers also want information that will help them optimally market their crop. For this we need to know how weather is affecting crops across the entire Corn-Belt, not just in our backyards. Is there predictive weather information that can help? Is it possible to correlate historic temperature or precipitation data with crop prices in a way that would help us know, perhaps a few weeks ahead, if crop prices are likely to go up or down? Of course we know that there are other factors besides weather that impact crop prices, such as foreign production, international demand, support prices, just to name a few. However, weather is the predominant factor affecting total US grain production which drives crop prices. So, it would therefore be of interest for us to know how seasonal weather variations might affect total corn or soybean production. Much controversy has been made of late regarding changes in the earth’s ambient surface temperature, so let’s start there. USDA yield data and weather data from the Midwest Regional Climate Center (MRCC) over the last 50 years or so have provided some insights. Here is what the data tells us. |
Free Inhabitants in “The Creek Nation” in the County “West of the” State of “Akansas” enumerated on the “16th” day of “August” 1860. While the census lists “free inhabitants” it is obvious that the list contains names of Native Americans, both of the Creek and Seminole tribes, and probably others. The “free inhabitants” is likely indicative that the family had given up their rights as Indians in treaties previous to 1860, drifted away from the tribe, or were never fully integrated. The black (B) and mulatto (M) status may indicate only the fact of the color of their skin, or whether one had a white ancestors, they may still be Native American.
John L. Gooding. This gentleman was born in St. Clair county, Illinois, July 21, 1839. His parents moved with him to Adams county when he was three years old, and there be grew up and acquired his education. He started in life as a farmer, and. has ever since been engaged in the same calling. In November, 1868, he came to Missouri and located in Lincoln township this county, where he has ever since resided, engaged in farming and stock-dealing. He has a well improved and well adapted farm of 162 acres of good land, on which he has a
Fred W. Gooding, ex-assessor and tax collector of Lincoln County and one of the most prominent and extensive sheep-raisers of this section of the state, was born in England, May 8, 1856, his parents, John and Elizabeth (Wyatte) Gooding being likewise natives of that country. Emigrating to the United States, they took up their residence in Paw Paw, Van Buren County, Michigan, where they still make their home, the father being a retired farmer of that locality. Both he and his wife are members of the Episcopal church. They had six sons and a daughter, and three of the sons
A gentleman to whom public attention has been directed by reason of his prominence in connection with the sheep-raising industry of the state and his leadership in political affairs is Frank R. Gooding, now an influential member of the state senate of Idaho. His service is characterized by a deep patriotism and fidelity to the general good and his devotion is all the more to be commended from the fact that he is of foreign birth, though of that nativity which ever begets the stanchest patriotism and the utmost integrity of character. He has passed the greater portion of his
Ephraim Gooding, the first of the family of whom we have detailed record, was born in Dighton, Massachusetts, and removed to Bristol, New York, in the early part of the nineteenth century. He made the entire journey on foot, and upon his arrival purchased a large tract of land. He married Corintha Spencer, who was born in Bristol, New York, daughter of Abijah Spencer, who came from Massachusetts, and one of the first settlers at Bristol, Ontario. and she was one of the first white children born in Bristol.
Edwin, son of Ephraim and Corintha (Spencer) Gooding, was born October, 1820, in Bristol, Ontario county, New- York. and was engaged in farming throughout his life. He was a staunch supporter of Republican principles, and at one time served as justice of the peace for the town of Bristol. He married Fidelia Crooker, also a native of Bristol. Children: Albert F.. died September 22, 1892; Eva C.; Sarah I.; Elias J., see elsewhere.
Elias J., son of Edwin and Fidelia (Crooker) Gooding, was born in Bristol, Ontario County, New York, April 9, 1862. His education, which was acquired at the district school and Canandaigua Academy. was an excellent one. From his early years he has assisted his father in the cultivation of the home farm and he was thus employed until 1894. when he purchased his father’s farm, which since that time has been under his sole management and is in a most flourishing condition. As an active member of the Republican party he has always taken a serious and beneficial interest in |
By SALVADOR GUTIERREZ, Staff Reporter ¦
The first session of the Student Leadership Institute (SLI) sponsored by the student life department and the honors and scholars program took place Aug. 31, 2018. The new series of workshops allows students to build and/or improve their leadership skills through interactive sessions.
The mission of the SLI is to build students as leaders. “We want an opportunity for students to have a better way to actually connect and build those leadership skills,” Amber Brookshire, student life director, said. The SLI is made up of 12 sessions, and students who attend at least nine sessions will receive a student leadership certificate.
Amarillo College has hosted overnight leadership retreats in previous semesters, but a quest for more options for students led to the creation of the SLI. “We have these great leadership retreats but some people can’t give up two full days,” Jill Gibson, co-coordinator of honors and scholars, said. “We wanted to make leadership training available for more students more often.”
Gibson led the first meeting and kept attendees engaged with group activities and multimedia content based on leadership and teamwork. “I hope students will learn the behaviors necessary to be a successful and effective leader,” Gibson said.
“I also hope they make new friends, meet new people and find different ways to get involved at AC.” Brookshire and Jenna Welch, student life specialist, along with other AC faculty and staff, will assist with and lead future sessions.
About 40 students from different clubs and organizations gathered around for the first session. “I think this is good for everybody,” said Jaxon Mizer, theater major and president of AC’s Delta Phi Omega chapter. “I think this will very much help me get my members together.”
Other students, such as secondary education major Lauren Tanner, said she believes these workshops will help them get better for the real world. “I’m expecting to learn how to put these tips into my daily life through classes and work,” Tanner said.
The sessions will be held from noon to 2 p.m. every other Friday during the fall and spring semesters in the Badger Corner, on the second floor of the College Union Building.
The next session will be held Sept. 14, and an overnight retreat will take place Nov. 2, at the Talon Point Retreat Center.
For more information contact student life at 806-371-5259 or visit the student life office in the Burrow. |
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today voted with a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives to ensure our troops have the time at home they need. The Ensuring Military Readiness Through Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act was approved by a vote of 229-194.
“Our local military families are under an enormous strain due to the length and number of deployments being required of them. This bill will give them a chance to recover, reconnect, rest and train before they return to the battlefield,” Smith said.
The legislation mandates minimum periods of rest and recuperation for units and members of regular and reserve components of our Armed Forces between deployments. The bill requires that units or members of a regular component of the Armed Forces be given an equivalent amount of time at home compared to the length of their deployment before returning to the theater. National Guard and reservists would be home for three times the length of the deployments.
The bill would allow the President to waive these requirements on an individual or unit-level basis if necessary to meet national security needs of the country, and would exempt special operations forces from the rest-time requirement.
The Administration’s failed policies in Iraq have depleted our military and put a tremendous strain on our troops. An estimated 250,000 soldiers in the Army and Marine Corps have served more than one tour in Iraq and each of the Army’s available active duty combat brigades served at least a 12-month tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. This spring, the Defense Secretary announced that all active duty Army soldiers would have their tours in Iraq extended from 12 to 15 months.
The legislation was backed by a bipartisan majority in Congress and was supported by Veterans for America and the Reserve Enlisted Association. |
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