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- CoStar has a fascinating piece examining the potential impact of new accounting rules on commercial real estate. The rules will change how leases are accounted. According to one chilling estimate, this could cost U.S. companies up to $1 trillion. The report is based on a new white paper by CBRE.
- Calculated Risk looks at the latest cap rate trends based on data from CBRE. According to the latest quarterly data, "ending at 8.71%, cap rates were up again. The 59 basis point gain is the largest quarterly increase we have ever measured, even trumping last quarter's previous record."
- Disney is talking to Apple in trying to figure out how to revamp its stores.
- A Reuters report looks at how troubles in commercial real estate could drive a string of bank failures.
- A major commercial real estate lender, Capmark Financial, is said to be near bankruptcy.
- In a more lighthearted piece, the popularity of chicken wings has made their wholesale prices more expensive than chicken breasts in recent months.
Here are someand notes about retail and retail real estate from around the Web. |
Can you work out how to balance this equaliser? You can put more
than one weight on a hook.
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be
removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to
remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
Here are some rods that are different colours. How could I make a dark green rod using yellow and white rods?
How many trains can you make which are the same length as Matt's,
using rods that are identical?
Ben and his mum are planting garlic. Use the interactivity to help
you find out how many cloves of garlic they might have had.
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be
placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals
have an even number of red counters?
Can you put the 25 coloured tiles into the 5 x 5 square so that no
column, no row and no diagonal line have tiles of the same colour
A game for 2 people. Take turns placing a counter on the star. You
win when you have completed a line of 3 in your colour.
Use the interactivity to help get a feel for this problem and to find out all the possible ways the balls could land.
What happens when you try and fit the triomino pieces into these
How many different rhythms can you make by putting two drums on the
Can you cover the camel with these pieces?
Cut four triangles from a square as shown in the picture. How many
different shapes can you make by fitting the four triangles back
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can
this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover
an eight by eight chessboard?
Use the clues to colour each square.
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these
mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no
consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
In the planet system of Octa the planets are arranged in the shape
of an octahedron. How many different routes could be taken to get
from Planet A to Planet Zargon?
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
Can you find all the different ways of lining up these Cuisenaire
Take 5 cubes of one colour and 2 of another colour. How many
different ways can you join them if the 5 must touch the table and
the 2 must not touch the table?
Investigate the different ways you could split up these rooms so
that you have double the number.
In how many ways can you fit two of these yellow triangles
together? Can you predict the number of ways two blue triangles can
be fitted together?
Place the numbers 1 to 8 in the circles so that no consecutive
numbers are joined by a line.
Place eight queens on an chessboard (an 8 by 8 grid) so that none
can capture any of the others.
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2
litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to
another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and
the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you
measure and how?
How many DIFFERENT quadrilaterals can be made by joining the dots
on the 8-point circle?
Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the
difference between the two numbers just below it.
A magician took a suit of thirteen cards and held them in his hand
face down. Every card he revealed had the same value as the one he
had just finished spelling. How did this work?
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three
biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with
two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is
between each super-eclipse?
In this challenge, buckets come in five different sizes. If you choose some buckets, can you investigate the different ways in which they can be filled?
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube.
Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the
shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a
chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There
are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where
are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to
make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons
together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The
clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall
of the prison block. How did he do it?
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the
difference between the two numbers just below it.
In a bowl there are 4 Chocolates, 3 Jellies and 5 Mints. Find a way
to share the sweets between the three children so they each get the
kind they like. Is there more than one way to do it?
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four
calculations are correct?
How many different triangles can you draw on the dotty grid which each have one dot in the middle?
Imagine that the puzzle pieces of a jigsaw are roughly a
rectangular shape and all the same size. How many different puzzle
pieces could there be?
This problem focuses on Dienes' Logiblocs. What is the same and
what is different about these pairs of shapes? Can you describe the
shapes in the picture?
A merchant brings four bars of gold to a jeweller. How can the
jeweller use the scales just twice to identify the lighter, fake
There are nine teddies in Teddy Town - three red, three blue and three yellow. There are also nine houses, three of each colour. Can you put them on the map of Teddy Town according to the rules?
My briefcase has a three-number combination lock, but I have
forgotten the combination. I remember that there's a 3, a 5 and an
8. How many possible combinations are there to try? |
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
Which pairs of cogs let the coloured tooth touch every tooth on the
other cog? Which pairs do not let this happen? Why?
Becky created a number plumber which multiplies by 5 and subtracts
4. What do you notice about the numbers that it produces? Can you
explain your findings?
Can you find any perfect numbers? Read this article to find out more...
Four of these clues are needed to find the chosen number on this
grid and four are true but do nothing to help in finding the
number. Can you sort out the clues and find the number?
Norrie sees two lights flash at the same time, then one of them
flashes every 4th second, and the other flashes every 5th second.
How many times do they flash together during a whole minute?
In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10
are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the
largest possible number of houses in the square?
This big box multiplies anything that goes inside it by the same number. If you know the numbers that come out, what multiplication might be going on in the box?
A game that tests your understanding of remainders.
Is it possible to draw a 5-pointed star without taking your pencil
off the paper? Is it possible to draw a 6-pointed star in the same
way without taking your pen off?
Can you find the chosen number from the grid using the clues?
Can you see how these factor-multiple chains work? Find the chain
which contains the smallest possible numbers. How about the largest
What is the lowest number which always leaves a remainder of 1 when
divided by each of the numbers from 2 to 10?
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
This article for teachers describes how number arrays can be a
useful reprentation for many number concepts.
Find the words hidden inside each of the circles by counting around
a certain number of spaces to find each letter in turn.
Can you work out what a ziffle is on the planet Zargon?
Work out Tom's number from the answers he gives his friend. He will
only answer 'yes' or 'no'.
Help share out the biscuits the children have made.
"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position
yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three
Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?
Factor track is not a race but a game of skill. The idea is to go
round the track in as few moves as possible, keeping to the rules.
For this challenge, you'll need to play Got It! Can you explain the
strategy for winning this game with any target?
56 406 is the product of two consecutive numbers. What are these
Follow the clues to find the mystery number.
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
Can you work out some different ways to balance this equation?
Have a go at balancing this equation. Can you find different ways of doing it?
Pat counts her sweets in different groups and both times she has
some left over. How many sweets could she have had?
Ben’s class were making cutting up number tracks. First they
cut them into twos and added up the numbers on each piece. What
patterns could they see?
In this maze of hexagons, you start in the centre at 0. The next
hexagon must be a multiple of 2 and the next a multiple of 5. What
are the possible paths you could take?
This activity focuses on doubling multiples of five.
Frances and Rishi were given a bag of lollies. They shared them out evenly and had one left over. How many lollies could there have been in the bag?
Can you place the numbers from 1 to 10 in the grid?
A game for 2 people using a pack of cards Turn over 2 cards and try
to make an odd number or a multiple of 3.
How can you use just one weighing to find out which box contains
the lighter ten coins out of the ten boxes?
A game for 2 or more people. Starting with 100, subratct a number from 1 to 9 from the total. You score for making an odd number, a number ending in 0 or a multiple of 6.
Are these domino games fair? Can you explain why or why not?
Nearly all of us have made table patterns on hundred squares, that
is 10 by 10 grids. This problem looks at the patterns on
differently sized square grids.
Each light in this interactivity turns on according to a rule. What
happens when you enter different numbers? Can you find the smallest
number that lights up all four lights?
Nine squares with side lengths 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, and 18 cm can be fitted together to form a rectangle. What are the dimensions of the rectangle?
I am thinking of three sets of numbers less than 101. They are the
red set, the green set and the blue set. Can you find all the
numbers in the sets from these clues?
I am thinking of three sets of numbers less than 101. Can you find
all the numbers in each set from these clues?
When Charlie asked his grandmother how old she is, he didn't get a
straightforward reply! Can you work out how old she is?
Investigate which numbers make these lights come on. What is the smallest number you can find that lights up all the lights?
Mr Gilderdale is playing a game with his class. What rule might he have chosen? How would you test your idea?
Investigate the sum of the numbers on the top and bottom faces of a line of three dice. What do you notice?
If you have only four weights, where could you place them in order
to balance this equaliser?
How many trains can you make which are the same length as Matt's,
using rods that are identical?
Use cubes to continue making the numbers from 7 to 20. Are they sticks, rectangles or squares? |
Healthy Doubt Versus Unhealthy Doubt
I’ve previously written about how I used to scrutinize my son Dan, trying to decipher which of his behaviors were OCD related. I finally realized my intense involvement in his life was doing us both more harm than good, and I was able to let go and just trust my son.
What I wasn’t aware of at the time is that sometimes those who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder aren’t sure themselves if they’re thoughts and behaviors are related to their disorder. Because sufferers often have such insight into their OCD, I just assumed they knew when what they were thinking or how they were acting was OCD based. However, from reading blogs and connecting with people, I realize this isn’t always the case.
So how do we know if certain feelings and/or actions are related to OCD?
In his book When in Doubt, Make Belief, author Jeff Bell discusses healthy (intellect-based) doubt vs. unhealthy (fear-based) doubt. I highly recommend reading this book, if you haven’t already. While theoretically it might be easy to distinguish between the two, Jeff, by using an example of a man deciding whether or not to cross a busy New York street, shows us how complicated it can be. As he says, “…the same fear-based doubt that can distort our thinking is also quite adept at masquerading as intellect-based doubt.” (When in Doubt, Make Belief, page 9).
In his book, as well as in this interview, Jeff talks about the five questions he asks himself to help determine the source of his doubt:
- Does this doubt evoke far more anxiety than either curiosity or prudent caution?
- Does this doubt pose a series of increasingly distressing “what if” questions?
- Does this doubt rely on logic-defying and/or black-and-white assumptions?
- Does this doubt prompt a strong urge to act — or avoid acting — in a fashion others might perceive as excessive, in order to reduce the anxiety it creates?
- Would you be embarrassed or frightened to explain your “what if” questions to a police officer or work supervisor?
If you answer “yes” to these questions, there’s a strong chance you are dealing with unhealthy doubt.
As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and the more aware OCD sufferers are of their disorder, the better position they’ll be in to fight it. Of course, a competent therapist can go a long way toward helping those with OCD understand their disorder. I’d love to hear how others figure out what’s OCD related, and what isn’t.
Entry filed under: Mental Health, OCD. Tags: fear-based doubt, fighting OCD, Healthy Doubt, insight into OCD, intellect-based doubt, Jeff Bell, Make Belief, questions to determine source of doubt, understanding OCD, Unhealthy Doubt, When in Doubt. |
Bentley Motors today showed the diversity of career paths on offer in the automotive manufacturing sector. Children from surrounding schools were invited to the Company’s Crewe headquarters to experience some of the skills and craftsmanship necessary in the creation of the world’s finest motor cars. The event formed part of a combined Government-industry initiative, ‘See Inside Manufacturing’, which aims to inspire and encourage young people to consider careers in manufacturing, especially within the automotive sector.
Business Secretary, Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, said:
“For too many young people the word manufacturing is a turn off. A worrying poll out last week found that only one out of ten children aged 11 to 14 thought that engineering was an important job and even ranked being a politician as a better choice of career!
“We are determined to shake up old fashioned views of manufacturing. Through the Government’s See Inside Manufacturing campaign and Bentley’s event at Crewe, we will give young people the chance to see the exciting face of modern manufacturing which is highly skilled, high tech and highly paid.”
110 pupils aged between 10 and 15 tried their hand at different skills used by Bentley. Five ‘Have a Go’ areas were created where children could try activities such as stitching a steering wheel, assembling a Bentley V8 engine rocker shaft, CAD drawing and clay modeling an alloy wheel in the same fashion as Bentley’s own design team.
Together with their teachers, the pupils were then given a tour of the facilities where they were able to see for themselves how cars such as the new Continental GT and the unique Mulsanne are created, with their unparalleled levels of quality, craftsmanship and engineering excellence. The children were also able to see how technology has evolved in the automotive sector by comparing the latest products from the luxury British marque with two heritage cars – including W. O. Bentley’s own 8 Litre – all of which were on display in front of the main entrance.
Speaking about the event, Member of the Board for Personnel, Christine Gaskell, said:
“The automotive sector is a fantastic industry in which to pursue a career. The diversity of job opportunities is incredible and the support available to young people considering this option is now significant. The UK is home to most of the world’s high luxury car manufacturers as the skill levels we demand are unmatched. We want to ensure those skills are passed on to a new generation and hope initiatives such as “See Inside” will help inspire the young people we will need”. |
Historic volcanology document reprinted
Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011
©1987. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
Volume 68, Issue 23, page 570, 9 June 1987
How to Cite
1987), Historic volcanology document reprinted, Eos Trans. AGU, 68(23), 570–570, doi:10.1029/EO068i023p00570-01.(
- Issue published online: 3 JUN 2011
- Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011
- Cited By
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.) has reprinted an historic, hard-to-find reference on volcanic activity in Hawaii and around the world that was published at the observatory from 1925 to 1955. The Volcano Letter contains the definitive reports of many Hawaiian eruptions, such as activity in Halemaumau at Kilauea from the late 1920s to 1934 and the Mauna Loa eruptions of 1935 and the 1940s; accounts of the development of volcano-monitoring techniques at HVO; scholarly reports on historic activity at volcanos in Hawaii and around the world; and reports of seismicity in Hawaii and elsewhere. |
On 15 May 2008, at 06:14, Barry Naujok wrote:
On Thu, 15 May 2008 14:57:00 +1000, Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 05:55:45PM +1000, Barry Naujok wrote:
Not quite sure if this is the right test, but I did 1000 creates on
a brand new filesystem with and without ci on my SATA drive, both
sustained almost 600 creates per second.
I believe creates would be the worst case scenario for not adding
No, negative dentries shouldn't have any effect on that. negative
entries help to optimize away lookups. E.g. thing of the PATH
and say your shell is not in the first directory listed there.
a negative dentry for it means that you don't have to do a lookup in
the first directories everytime someone wants to use the shell.
Ah, that makes more sense. I did a test of a million lookups to a
non-existant file in a short-form directory (dual 1.6G opteron):
CI = 4.6s
non-CI = 3.7s
And a directory with 10000 files:
CI = 10.3s
non-CI = 3.9s
Yes, and you can get the performance back if you allow negative
dentries to be created. You just have to make sure that every time a
directory entry is created in directory X, all negative dentries which
are children of directory X are thrown away.
Failure to do so will result in lookups returning ENOENT even though a
file now exists that matches case insensitively. This happens because
the VFS will find the negative dentry and return ENOENT without
calling the file system lookup method thus the file system does not
get a chance to discover the new matching directory entry...
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @)
Unix Support, Computing Service, University of Cambridge, CB2 3QH, UK
Linux NTFS maintainer, http://www.linux-ntfs.org/ |
School enchantment (compulsion) [language-dependent, mind-affecting]; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 round
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one living creature with 7 HD or less
Duration 1 day/level or until discharged (D)
A lesser geas places a magical command on a creature to carry out some service or to refrain from some action or course of activity, as desired by you. The creature must have 7 or fewer HD and be able to understand you. While a geas cannot compel a creature to kill itself or perform acts that would result in certain death, it can cause almost any other course of activity.
The geased creature must follow the given instructions until the geas is completed, no matter how long it takes.
If the instructions involve some open-ended task that the recipient cannot complete through his own actions, the spell remains in effect for a maximum of 1 day per caster level. A clever recipient can subvert some instructions.
If the subject is prevented from obeying the lesser geas for 24 hours, it takes a –2 penalty to each of its ability scores. Each day, another –2 penalty accumulates, up to a total of –8. No ability score can be reduced to less than 1 by this effect. The ability score penalties are removed 24 hours after the subject resumes obeying the lesser geas.
School enchantment (compulsion) [language-dependent, mind-affecting]; Level bard 6, cleric 6, sorcerer/wizard 6
Casting Time 10 minutes
Target one living creature
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
This spell functions similarly to lesser geas, except that it affects a creature of any HD and allows no saving throw.
If the subject is prevented from obeying the geas/quest for 24 hours, it takes a –3 penalty to each of its ability scores. Each day, another –3 penalty accumulates, up to a total of –12. No ability score can be reduced to less than 1 by this effect. The ability score penalties are removed 24 hours after the subject resumes obeying the geas/quest.
A remove curse spell ends a geas/quest spell only if its caster level is at least two higher than your caster level. Break enchantment does not end a geas/quest, but limited wish, miracle, and wish do.
Bards, sorcerers, and wizards usually refer to this spell as geas, while clerics call the same spell quest. |
The House of Lords Debates Soft PowerJuly 2, 2011
I’m beginning to find that whenever I see anything written on soft power my brain switches off. I’m really not sure whether it’s worth the effort to try and process the information into something that makes any sense. I think that the basic problem I have with the idea is that leads to endless debates about categories: is that soft power or is it something else? Is soft power really hard power or is hard power really soft power? (I’m also fed up with the influence vs power discussion). I will eventually get around to posting my argument that we’re better off thinking in terms of influence.
BUT….because soft power is so well entrenched in policy circles it looks like I’m going to have to carry on jabbing myself in the leg with a fork to make myself pay attention.. what triggered this is that I’ve just noticed that the House of Lords actually had a debate on the coordination of UK soft power at the beginning of May. It’s all quite sensible. There’s a link to the transcript and a briefing note here.*
There’s actually been a review of UK soft power strategy which has apparently now been completed but I’ve yet to see anything published about it. The monthly updates on the FCO business plan reports that the development of a soft power strategy for Afghanistan is running behind schedule.
*One pedantic academic point: Lord Howell claims credit for introducing ‘cultural diplomacy’ into UK discourse when he was on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the mid 1980s. From looking at the records of parliamentary debates and parliamentary papers – which include budgetary issues you can see that cultural diplomacy has never been that common a term in the UK. There was a flurry of usage in the late 197os (it was very rare before this) and at the time of the FAC Cultural Diplomacy report in 1986 but because the FCO talks about information work or public diplomacy and the British Council does cultural relations cultural diplomacy has never really caught on as an idea in the UK |
- first published 19 December 2011
- Globe and Mail
- By Lawrence Martin
The Conservatives have always been deeply suspicious – and it’s a suspicion shared by many Canadians – that vast amounts of public money going to Indian bands is squandered. It goes down a black hole, as the saying goes.
Liberals held the suspicion, too. I recall one of prime minister Jean Chrétien’s top advisers saying he’d heard lots of stories of band chiefs lining their pockets. The government didn’t wish to pursue the matter, he said, for fear of being labelled racist.
Leaders of the Attawapiskat First Nation are turning to the UN to ensure the government helps out with the reserve’s housing crisis. They’re angry that Ottawa responded by removing the band’s power over its finances.
Did you know that Peacemakers Trust work has no paid staff? This means our overhead is low and your donor dollars go a long way. In 2012, Peacemakers Trust would like to expand its work in three major ways all of which require funding for additional expenses or honoraria for students, interns, educators or researchers: Peacemakers Trust online bibliographic resources, education, and research on peacebuilding. We would welcome your partnership as a donor or funder. Peacemakers Trust is pleased to announce its registration with CanadaHelps for secure online donations by individual or institutional subscribers. Here is some more information about donating to Peacemakers Trust and more information about CanadaHelps.
Enlarge the word cloud. See the Bibliography.
This is to let you know that Canadian law requires charitable organizations to receipt donations in the year they are received. Cheques and money orders sent by mail must be:
• dated in the current year,
• the envelope both metered (if a stamp is not used) and postmarked prior to December 31 of the current year,
• and delivered within one week of New Year’s Day in order for an official receipt for tax purposes to be issued for the current year.
- 27 December 2011
- Foreign Policy
- By Louise Arbour
What conflict situations are most at risk of deteriorating further in 2012? When Foreign Policy asked the International Crisis Group to evaluate which manmade disasters could explode in the coming year, we put our heads together and came up with 10 crisis areas that warrant particular concern. |
Heart Worm Disease – What You Need to Know
Yes, heartworm disease in Canada is real. Yes, heartworm disease can kill your dog. Yes, cats can develop heartworm disease too. No, not all dogs and cats in Canada are at risk. Let’s talk about heartworm disease and how you and your veterinarian decide if your pet requires regular testing and prevention.
The Ontario Veterinary College published a paper in 2010 which showed that 564 dogs tested positive for heartworm in Canada. Over 75 percent (431 in total) of these dogs lived in Ontario. There are also pockets of heartworm disease in southern Manitoba, southern Quebec, and southern mainland British Columbia. This study showed the presence of heartworm infection in dogs increased by nearly 60% since the last study of its kind in 2002. Researchers speculate that one factor may be the adoption of heartworm-positive rescue dogs from the southern United States after Hurricane Katrina or through other rescue programs from American states where there is a higher prevalence of heartworm disease. Other studies suggest that cats may be infected at approximately 1/10 the rate of dogs in heartworm prevalent areas.
Let’s look at the life cycle of heartworms in the dog. Dogs become infected with heartworms through mosquito bites. Mosquitoes “suck up” microfilariae, microscopic larvae, when they bite and feed from dogs, coyotes, and foxes who already have contracted heartworm disease. The larvae mature in the salivary glands of the mosquitoes who then feed from an uninfected dog. The larvae are then transferred into the tissues of the new dog and go through a maturation process in the dog’s body. The larvae eventually become adult worms who travel through the lungs and bloodstream and end up in the pulmonary blood vessels and the heart. Once they arrive here, they can mate and produce thousands of the tiny microfilariae. It takes between 5 to 7 months for one female heartworm to mature and begin producing these tiny larvae. The microfilariae travel through the bloodstream where they are available for the next mosquito to come along and feed. Thus the cycle repeats itself.
The adult heartworms can grow to be 15 to 30 centimetres in length. Severely affected dogs may carry 30 to 100 worms within their hearts and lungs. The presence of these parasites over time can lead to lung and liver disease and heart failure. While the worms themselves don’t necessarily kill a dog, these conditions can certainly be fatal. Treatment often involves the killing of the adult worms with an arsenic-based compound which can result in severe complications. Prevention on the other hand is quite easy and with minimal adverse effects. Preventive medication is aimed at killing the microscopic larvae in the dog’s system before they have a chance to reach the heart and the lungs. Prevention may come in the form of a tablet, a chew treat, or a spot-on product that you apply over your dog’s shoulders and back. Normally these medications are prescribed on a monthly basis and are given during the summer months, according to a local area’s “mosquito season”.
The American Heartworm Society recommends annual testing and preventive medication for dogs that live in heartworm prevalent areas of the country. While we pet parents who routinely give our dogs heartworm medication may wonder why we need to re-test annually, there are a couple of very good reasons. Some studies suggest that 1 in 10 positive dogs may have been given a preventive in the year prior to having a positive test. While the medications themselves are very effective, some of us may forget to give the pill on time or may miss a month or two at the end of the mosquito season. Some dogs are quite wily and will appear to have swallowed their tablet but may spit it out in the backyard or behind the sofa. A dog who eats grass “just because she likes it” may accidentally vomit the pill in the backyard without your ever realizing it. These dogs may be unprotected for a whole month of heartworm-infecting mosquito bites.
Mosquitoes do not discriminate against small dogs and dogs who spend much of their time indoors. These dogs may be at risk for heartworm disease depending on where you live and will benefit from preventive medication. Your veterinarian will be able to offer you the specific statistics for heartworm prevalence in your area to help you determine if prevention is a good idea for your dog and how often your dog should be tested. Also remember that dogs who travel to the United States or areas of Canada with a higher prevalence for heartworm disease should be prescribed a preventive medication during travel and in the month afterward. These dogs will need to be re-tested 6 to 12 months after they return home.
Cats are not considered a natural reservoir host for heartworms, but we can still see the disease in this species. While the life cycle is similar, cats tend to develop infections with smaller numbers of worms and are as likely to develop breathing problems or an asthma-like condition as true heart failure. Cats most at risk are those who spend time outdoors at dusk and dawn. Heartworm testing is more complicated in feline patients but preventive medication is available. Please ask your veterinarian if your cat would benefit from a heartworm prevention program.
Article by Petsecure Pet Health Insurance
Dr. Colleen Skavinsky
Chief Veterinary Officer
Petsecure pet health insurance
To learn more, visit: www.petsecure.com |
Reporting John Ostapkovich
By John Ostapkovich
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – One of the provisions of the federal health care reform law extends a parent’s coverage of dependent children to age 26. But if the federal law is struck down, what then?
Neither Pennsylvania nor New Jersey officials would speculate on the big picture of health reform’s fate, but that each state addresses uninsured young adults on its own.
Pennsylvania passed a pre-health reform law extending possible coverage to age 30, says the Insurance Department’s Melissa Fox.
But, she says, “The way the Pennsylvania law is written, it’s up to the discretion of the policy-holder, meaning the employer.”
New Jersey actually has three paths to coverage: COBRA, New Jersey’s Small Group Continuation and one more: “We call it the New Jersey Dependant Under 31, the DU 31 election,” says Marshall McKnight, of the Department of Banking and Insurance.
“If a young adult’s parent becomes covered under a group health benefits plan sometime after the young adult reaches age 26, but before the 31st birthday, the young adult may be eligible to enroll as an over-age child of the parent.” |
Southwest Philosophy Review 26 (1):71-79 (2010)
|Abstract||This paper defends a broadly Aristotelean account of character friendship that maintains that the impersonal value of acquiring a virtuous character is the ultimate basis for our reasons for caring about friends. This view of friendship appears to conflict with the entrenched intuition that viewing our connections to particular friends as merely contingent occasions for the cultivation of virtue is alienating and undesirable. I argue that far from being an alienating feature of character friendships, a focused appreciation of the contingent nature of friendships represents a morally sound attitude of honest self-acceptance. On my account, honest selfacceptance is an impersonal value—an ideal that anyone has a reason to cultivate. Although the ideal is impersonal, its content specifi es that we appreciatively acknowledge the particular contributions that friends make to the development of virtue|
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Joyce L. Jenkins (1999). The Advantages of Civic Friendship. Journal of Philosophical Research 24:459-471.
Jeremiah Conway (2011). Friendship and Philosophy. Teaching Philosophy 34 (4):411-421.
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The Leibniz Review 17:31-60 (2007)
|Abstract||In this paper I argue that the hoary theological doctrine of divine concurrence poses no deep threat to Leibniz’s views on theodicy and creaturely activity even as those views have been traditionally understood. The first three sections examine respectively Leibniz’s views on creation, conservation and concurrence, with an eye towards showing their systematic compatibility with Leibniz’s theodicy and metaphysics. The fourth section takes up remaining worries arising from the bridging principle that conservation is a continued or continuous creation, and argues that they can be allayed once two readings of the principle are distinguished. What emerges from the discussion as a whole is, I hope, a clearer picture of Leibniz’s views on the nature of monadic causation, his understanding of the relationship between divine and creaturely activity, and his position with respect to later medieval and early modern debates over secondary causation|
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Laurence Carlin (2006). Leibniz on Final Causes. Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (2):217-233.
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Helen Hattab (2007). Concurrence or Divergence? Reconciling Descartes's Physics with His Metaphysics. Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1):49-78.
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Francisco Suárez (2002). On Creation, Conservation, and Concurrence: Metaphysical Disputations 20, 21, and 22. St. Augustine's Press.
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Jeffrey K. McDonough (2007). Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence. The Leibniz Review 17:31-60.
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COLCHESTER, Vt., Mar 14, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Green Mountain Power Corporation (NYSE:GMP) announced
today that its customers now have the choice of buying all or a
portion of their power from renewable resources. The Vermont Public
Service Board has given its final approval to the program, effective
"Our customers have expressed interest in being able to choose
renewable resources and I'm pleased that we will now be able to offer
them that choice. Green Mountain Power's overall power mix is already
low in fossil fuels, but under our new program, customers can choose
100 percent renewable resources," said Chris Dutton, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Green Mountain Power. "We've called the
program 'Greener Mountain Power' to reflect that greener choice."
Green Mountain Power will purchase certified renewable resources
on the New England power grid equal to the portion of electricity
customers designate to purchase through Greener Mountain Power. The
price of those resources will be locked in for five years, which will
help stabilize the Greener Mountain Power rate. When Vermont projects
are available, they will receive a priority. Likely candidates for
inclusion would include wind, biomass and biogas.
Green Mountain Power worked closely with the Vermont Department of
Public Service and Renewable Energy Vermont in developing the program.
David O'Brien, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public
Service, said, "We are very pleased that Green Mountain Power is
implementing a "green" rate. This is an ideal way to offer consumers a
choice of what energy sources they wish to support."
Andrew Perchlik, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont,
said, "We were pleased to work with Green Mountain Power to develop
this new renewable rate. We think it is important that Green Mountain
Power customers now have the option of a 'green' rate to support
renewable energy in Vermont and New England."
The program is available to residential, commercial and industrial
customers. Residential and small commercial customers can choose to
have 25 percent, 50 percent or 100 percent of their power come from
renewable resources. Large industrial customers may choose a ten
percent level, but greater amounts require permission from the
Customers pay a premium for the renewable resources of just over
four cents per kilowatthour. For residential customers using 750
kilowatthours a month, signing up for 25 percent of their use under
Greener Mountain Power would add $7.88 to their $97.55 monthly bill,
for a total of $105.43.
Due to the laws of physics, actual electrons flow to the nearest
need and cannot be directed to specific locations. Through Greener
Mountain Power, customers will be financially supporting qualifying
new renewable energy sources connected to the New England electric
grid but that power will not necessarily flow to their home.
Customers interested in signing up for Greener Mountain Power can
go to www.greenmountainpower.biz or call Green Mountain Power at
1-888-TEL-GMPC (1-888-835-4672.) Greener Mountain Power is a five-year
commitment, by calendar year. Customers may withdraw at any time, but
cannot sign up again until the end of the original five-year period.
Green Mountain Power Corporation (www.greenmountainpower.biz) is a
Vermont-based energy services company serving 90,000 electric
For further information, please contact Dorothy Schnure, Manager
of Corporate Communications, at 802-655-8418, David O'Brien,
Commissioner of Vermont Department of Public Service at (802)
828-2321, or Andrew Perchlik, Executive Director of Renewable Energy
Vermont at (802) 229-0099.
SOURCE: Green Mountain Power Corporation
Green Mountain Power Corporation
Dorothy Schnure, 802-655-8418
Manager of Corporate Communications
David O'Brien, 802-828-2321
Commissioner of Vermont Department of Public Service
Andrew Perchlik, 802-229-0099
Executive Director of Renewable Energy Vermont |
A European research consortium hopes to make it much easier to find audio/visual content online. The new search approach will be driven by content or example rather than relying on key words and tags.
Led by IBM Research, partners from academia and industry have launched the Search on Audio-visual content using Peer-to-peer Information Retrieval (SAPIR). SAPIR aims to find new ways to analyze, index, and retrieve the vast amounts of speech, image, video, and music filling the digital universe.
"Today's popular search engines work within defined boundaries," explained Yosi Mass, project leader for SAPIR at the IBM Research Lab, Haifa. "Sapir's goal is to establish a giant peer-to-peer network, where users are peers that produce audio-visual content using multiple devices and service providers are super-peers that maintain indexes and provide search capabilities.”
SAPIR will incorporate such technologies as voice recognition, image processing, indexing algorithms, sophisticated ranking mechanisms, and real search in audio-visual content. Searching by example rather than text-based queries will allow users to say a word out loud and have the engine look for a similar speech pattern. Another scenario would mean participants could input a picture of a saxophone and have the engine search for similar shapes.
Backed by the European Commission, researchers from the IBM Haifa Lab are leading a consortium of nine partners on the $5.8 million project. Participating institutions include IBM Research (Israel) Max-Planck-Institut (Germany), University of Padova (Italy), CNR (Italy), Eurix (Italy), Xerox (France), Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic), Telefónica I+D (Spain), and Telenor (Norway).
Explore further: Explained: Matrices |
If your company is like most you have problems with customer service. Those problems may emanate from poor products, over-sold capabilities or legitimately bad service itself. Despite our efforts to get service right we all inevitably have problems. It makes sense to plan what to do when things look darkest.
- Apologize – Start with thank you. It changes the tone of the conversation. Be brief and to the point. You’ve already messed up… and the customer knows it. Nonetheless, and honest thank you followed by an honest apology is the beginning. A Complaint is a Gift is a good book to help change your point of view.
- Use Empathy, Not Sympathy – I see this mistake a lot. People have been trained to be sympathetic when a customer complains to understand their pain. (And it sure beats the alternative of being uncaring!) People servicing customers view the issue as “the other guy’s” problem. A more appropriate reaction would be empathy because, in fact, you own it too. The difference is in sympathy you take the point of view that “I feel bad for you” whereas in empathy the point of view is “I feel bad with you.” Conveying this sense that you share their pain makes you collaborators in the solution and this translates to better support. Anthony Tjan mentions empathy as an advantage for small companies, but there is no reason a large company can’t deliver the goods too.
- Communicate – If the problem will take some time to resolve, gather the necessary information, let the customer go – then get busy. It’s important to over-communicate time lines and actions. At my company we have a mantra we live by – under promise and over deliver. Be better than your commitment! This is a good time to ask your customer which way to rectify a problem – that is, of several options, does one work better for them?
- Follow-Up – Eventually, they will want to know what you’re going to do about it. Depending on the severity of the problem/complaint, the customer may have several stages of emotion to pass through. Even if your customer called to vent, they still expect you to do something. And in the previous step you said what you would do and when. Make it happen.
- Surprise Your Customer – Disney presents the model for recovery. Kids invariably get separated from their parents at Disney resorts. These events make a BIG impression on parents and children alike. When parent and child are reunited, the child is invited to lead the parade down Main Street. Disney turns getting lost, which is traumatic, into a memorable event.
Think about it, if your company makes a mistake and you can recover so well that the customer speaks only about what you did to make things more than right, you’ll have a customer for life – and an advocate who will sing your praises.
The pivot point is that customers are willing to accept honest mistakes provided you take a common sense approach to resolving their issue. But let’s face it, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat you have to actively transform common sense into common practice. |
Gazipur Programme Unit
Area: 465.24 sq. km
Sponsored children: Around 6,000
Plan started work in Gazipur in 1996. Parts of the area are still covered by woods but they have been increasingly cleared by the growing population for cultivating rice and erecting houses.
In the past decade, Sreepur sub-district has seen a tremendous increase in the value of its land and more and more rich developers are buying these lands to establish small industries or family ranches. This has resulted in severe deforestation.
Strengthening community relationships
Plan is creating environments that respect child rights and enable meaningful and effective development in communities. We are building on the capacities of community-based organisations and children’s organisations, and working with and influencing local government institutions.
Learning and education
Plan provides opportunities for children’s interactive and reflective learning. We work with primary schools and alternative education systems to promote quality education and community participation in issues that affect them.Part of our work on education is to influence the national processes of educational policy and the methods in which the curriculum is formulated, revised and executed.
Plan emphasises children’s rights to survival, growth and development. We work with formal and informal health providers to promote health and nutrition at home and increase coverage of quality services.
We are expanding our services for adolescents and children with disabilities. HIV and AIDS is an important area, considering the wide population living abroad, the proximity to industrial zones and the semi-urban development of the area. We are also working to establish total sanitation and eradicate open defecation.
Family economic security
Plan addresses the survival and development issues of children by enhancing families’ disposable income, developing skills and increasing access to savings and credit.
We are expanding a system of flexible savings, with an aim to reach the poorest section of the population. We are also promoting scientific agriculture which has enhanced the economic and health security of families and increased communities' livelihoods.
Disaster Risk Management (DRM)
Plan works in Gazipuar to build the capacity of teachers and students in 157 schools. Participants learn about how to prepare for an earthquake and deal with one if and when it happens.
Protection of Vulnerable Children (POVC) Programme
Plan has established functional child-protection-reporting and responding mechanisms in 157 primary schools. Plan’s work has contributed to an increase in the average age girl’s marry from 16 to 18 years old. This was achieved by raising awareness among parents and promoting birth registration, as well as stepping up children’s participation with the setting up of children’s groups. The Gazipur Programme Unit also facilitates online birth registration throughout the district. |
Common name: White Tamarind
Elattostachys xylocarpa (F.Muell.) Radlk. APNI*
Synonyms: Cupania xylocarpa F.Muell. APNI*
Elattostachys bidwillii (Benth.) Radlk. APNI*
Description: Tree to 10 m high, young leaves often reddish; new growth rusty-pubescent.
Leaves 6–15 cm long, rachis extended beyond last leaflet; leaflets 2–6, elliptic to obovate, 3–8 cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide, apex obtuse to acute, base obtuse to acute, margins usually irregularly toothed or sometimes ± entire, upper surface shiny and glabrous or finely hairy, lower surface ± rusty hairy; secondary veins 8–12 pairs; domatia prominent, as hair-tufts in vein angles; petiole 1–4 cm long, petiolules 1–2 mm long.
Inflorescences 1–5 cm long. Petals c. 4 mm long.
Capsule ± obovoid, 15–20 mm long, woody, outer surface yellowish, sutures pink; seeds black, aril white to purplish.
Distribution and occurrence: in dry rainforest, north from Orara R.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Other Australian states: Qld
Text by G.J. Harden
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 2 (1991)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project. |
22-23 June 2004: The Second Plenary Session of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage of Iraq took place at UNESCO Headquarters, in the presence of the Iraqi Minister of Culture and the Iraqi Minister of State for Tourism and Antiquities. It was followed by a Special Session on the archaeological site of Babylon (24 June).
18-19 May 2005: The first meeting of the ICC Sub-Committee for Libraries and Archives took place in Amman.
22 February 2005: UNESCO participated in the second meeting of the Interpol Expert Group (IEG) on Stolen Cultural Property at Interpol Headquarters, Lyon.
4 February 2005: UNESCO contirbuted to the information session for the Latvian military troops leaving to Iraq (Military Camp of Babylon), organized by the Ministry of ,Defense of Latvia and the Museum of Foreign Art, in order to raise awareness on the importance of Iraqi cultural heritage, its specificity and the damages which may occur for military operations.2004
October 2004: Dr Saad Eskander, Director-General of the National Library and Archives of Iraq and Mr Mohsen, Director-General of the National Center for Manuscripts in Baghdad visit UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. more
11-13 October 2004: Visit of the Minister of Higher Education of Iraq. Discussion of review of university curiccula in regard to cultural heritage management and conservation issues.
26-30 September 2004: The Jordanian Department of Antiquities (DOA) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in cooperation with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) and UNESCO organize a workshop in Amman on Cultural Heritage and Museum Management in Iraq.
1-2 June 2004: UNESCOís Cultural Heritage Division participates in the Regional Meeting to Fight Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property Stolen from Iraq organized by Interpol at Amman, Jordan. Minutes and final recommendations of the meeting can be downloaded from Interpolís website.
24-25 May 2004: The First Plenary Session of the International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage of Iraq takes place at UNESCO Headquarters, in the presence of the Minister of Culture of Iraq.
25-26 May 2004: Donor Committee Meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, at Doha.
26-27 May 2004: The First Cultural Forum for Iraq takes place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (Appeal - Motion).
3 May 2004: Panel of ICOM experts at UNESCO Headquarters to oversee the preparation of the UNESCO-Interpol database for Iraqi stolen cultural property, before the achievement of the software completion.
April 2004: A second joint UNESCO-Interpol action is launched in Doha to seize Iraqi artefacts illicitly exported from Iraq.
March 2004: A joint UNESCO- Interpol action seizes 19 archaeological objects in Dubai, presumably originating from Iraq. These objects include 5 small statues and 14 cuneiform tablets.
17 February 2004: UNESCO participates in the meeting of the Interpol Expert Group (IEG) on Stolen Culture Property, at Interpol Headquarters, Lyon, in order to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against illicit traffic of Iraqi cultural property.
February 2004: Donor Committee Meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, at Abu Dhabi.
23-24 October 2003: International Donors Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq at Madrid.
21-24 September 2003: UNESCO participates in the working meeting of the UNDG/WB drafting group for the finalization of the Iraq Needs Assessment in Dubai. This is in view of preparing the agenda of the UNDG/WB donors meeting.
24 September 2003: The UNESCO Executive Board at its 167th session approves the establishment of an International Coordination Committee for the Safeguarding of Iraqi Cultural Heritage (ICC).
August 2003: UNESCO launches two fund-raising campaigns: one addressed to the private industries, foundations, institutions around the world and one specifically targeting private donors in Switzerland.
31 July-2 August 2003: A third UNESCO expert meeting on the Safeguarding of Iraqi cultural heritage takes place in Tokyo.
16 July 2003: UNESCO organizes a coordination meeting of all its member states at Paris.
July 2003: In view of the opening of a UNESCO Office in Iraq, a liaison expert in Baghdad is appointed by the UNESCO Director-General.
28 June to 6 July 2003: A second UNESCO expert mission visits Iraq.
15 to 20 May 2003: A first UNESCO expert mission under UNESCO coordination visits Baghdad.
5 to 6 May 2003: UNESCO is invited to co-chair a meeting held at Interpol's Headquarters in Lyon. The meeting, attended by about seventy experts, antiquities dealers, representatives of museums and customs agents, results in the agreement to set-up a database of Iraqi stolen cultural properties.
22 April 2003: UNESCO establishes contacts with ORHA in Iraq in order to work out the details of the proposed UNESCO mission.
29 April 2003: Second expert meeting on Iraqi cultural heritage jointly organized by the British Museum and UNESCO at London.
17 April 2003: UNESCOís Director-General convenes the first meeting of high-level international experts on the cultural heritage of Iraq.
16 April 2003: The matter of a UNESCO fact-finding mission to Iraq is discussed by UNESCOís Director-General Mr KoichÔro Matsuura and the US Envoy Ms Bonnie Magness-Gardiner.
14 April 2003: UNESCO sends official letters to the Ministries of Culture of countries neighbouring Iraq (namely Kuwait, Turkey, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan) as well as to the American and British authorities in order to request assistance to ensure surveillance of heritage sites and historic buildings to prevent further looting.
11 March 2003: The Directory of Museums in Iraq compiled by ICOM in 1995 is being transmitted to the US State Department. At the request of the US Observer to UNESCO, information is provided on UNESCO's mechanisms of protection in regard to objects in museums and archives. |
In medieval Europe parrots were known only as delicate household birds from the parched orient. Obviously, then, they could not be expected to stand rain: as was proved by the racket they made during a downpour. 'For the parrot swiftly dies,' decided Alexander Neckam (1157-1217, English scholar and teacher) 'when its skin is much moistened by water.'
To Neckam, therefore, it was plain that such a bird must live in an area of complete drought. Of these there were comparatively few; and Neckam himself plumps for Gilboa. Gilboa was forever dry because of David's curse after the death of Jonathan: 'Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you!'
But Neckam had overlooked Paradise. That mount too had no dew or rain upon it; and it was doubtless for this reason that English poetic tradition, at least, maintained the parrot's home to be Paradise.
Since no living thing could die in Paradise, the parrot was immortal. Parrot, in fact, was now qualified for the grander regions of mythology. But parrots have an inconvenient habit of actually existing. And a second layer of natural observation thus arose, which added its own curious flavour to the one above.
Long ago Aristotle noted that the bird had a weakness for wine; and an echo of the tradition lingers on, half consciously, as late as Othello: 'Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear?... oh thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!' But Shakespeare has named it already: Parrot, the spirit of bacchic enthusiasm The bird's aimless prattle had long linked it with the demented liberation of alcohol; with the frenzy of Dionysus - or the Devil. And side by side with this avatar, there was also the spoilt domestic clown of so many wealthy and aristocratic households. 'It's cleverness is amazing,' comments Neckam on this point, 'and it is better than a troupe of actors at raising a laugh.
John Skelton (1460–1529) was tutor to Henry VIII, priest and poet laureate. He is the first major Tudor poet, writing during the reigns of Edward IV, Richard III, and (for most of his career) Henry VII and Henry VIII. His poem Speke Parrot, written in 1521, is a satire narrated by a parrot who often makes crude remarks about Cardinal Wolsey. Many of the satirical hints have insinuation to Wolsey's political mission. Here is an extract from it:
My name is Parrot, a bird of Paradise,
By nature devised of a wonderous kind,
Deintily dieted with divers delicate spice,
Til Euphrates, that flod, driveth me into Inde,
Where men of that countrey by fortune me find
And send me to great ladies of estate:
Then Parot must have an almon or a date,
A cage curiously carven, with silver pin,
Properly painted, to be my covertour,
A mirror of glass, that I may toot therin.
These maidens full merily, with many a diverse flowere
Fleshly they dress and make swete my bowre,
With 'Speke, Parrot, I pray you!' full curtsey they say,
'Parrot is goodly bird, a prety popagey!'
With my beck bent, my litle wanton eye,
My fedders fresh as is the em'rawd grene,
About my neck a circulet like the rich ruby,
My little legges, my feet both fete and clene,
I am a minion to wait upon the queene.
'My proper parrot, my litel prety fole!'
With ladies I lern, and go with them to scole.'
John SkeltonSources: Skelton, H.L.R. Edwards. |
Zahir Ebrahim, Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
October 1, 2009
The article headlined “Boston launches flu shot tracking – City to pinpoint areas of low rates of vaccination” back in November 21, 2008, today one year later, appears to have been a bellwether of the incredible prescience of political science described by this scribe in “Swine Flu: The Digital Cacophony of Medical Experts, Public Relations”. More up to date details of flu shot tracking may be gleaned here and here.
Rational people might do well to ask themselves that if the H1N1 virus is (or may be) mutating rapidly into a vaccine resistant strain, then what's the purpose of a) the vaccine, b) vaccination tracking? Once one has acquired some reasoned perspective on that, one might further reflect that if the UN agencies are repeatedly stating that millions could die without vaccination scaring many a have-not into demanding it – beg, borrow or steal, the sheep pleads for its own sharpened knife from the butcher – and the vaccine is ineffective against a mutating vaccine-resistant viral strain, then what's the point of vaccination? Why is the WHO pitching vaccination so much, apart from Big-Pharma making mega-bucks that is? People will die anyway from the virus with or without vaccination – some directly or indirectly from the Pandemic, others with the side-effects of the vaccine.
So it would appear to a sensible logician to further ask that if the virus will eventually kill with or without the help of vaccines, or the vaccines themselves will kill, minimally due to toxic side-effects, and maximally due to mala fide content (see note on vaccination), why does the government appear so keen on tracking the vaccinated peoples? Could all this hullabaloo possibly be a pretext, by letting people get used to the concept of being tracked under the dire emergency situation, to enable tracking all the peoples all the time for all times to come?
If behind the boogieman of the pandemic, the real agenda is to implant RFID tracking devices into world's populations, that immediately explains the heavy-handed draconian measures to forcibly vaccinate everybody as noted in the Canadian article “Impending Mandatory Vaccinations Will Affect The Health, Jobs of Canadians”, and substantiated in the United States in the drill being enacted in Minnesota called “Operation Big Shot”. With Martial Law measures rapidly emerging worldwide to administer mass vaccination, people may not have any choice in the matter of refusing vaccination (as per Project Humanbeingsfirst's H1N1 Conclusion) as this frightening Fox News video clip portends:
Can RFID implants in human beings be avoided? Not if one is unwilling to live in the netherworld. Even if world-government in its final form is delayed indefinitely, the world systems are already in place in most developed nations which would make the normal daily routine of modern living almost impossible without it. Travel is already becoming its biggest sentinel. Even though many nations are grandfathering their existing passports, new passport issues are invariably micro-chipped worldwide by necessity of visa requirements! Many credit cards are already micro-chipped. While up to the present times, micro-chipping has primarily been of the instruments of life and living, such as for logistics tracking, implanting them into human beings directly – by pretext as during this pandemic, by existential necessity such as denying employment, or by force of law such as at birth much like birth-registering to get a birth certificate – points to the “ultimate revolution” prognosticated by Aldous Huxley.
Please listen carefully to this 44 minute audio recording of the frightening speech of the author of the famous 1931 book “Brave New World”, rather cavalierly made to students and faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962:
Fast forward to the present (if you haven't heard the Huxley speech, the connection spanning the two epochs will not make sense to you – do yourself a big favor, educate yourself to the mind-control based social engineering that your children will be subjected to – please hear the master who brought us “SOMA” describe the “ultimate revolution” before proceeding).
In his New Technologies and innovations show-and-tell in Toronto in April 2008, Dr. Patrick Redmond described the current state of tracking devices, the RFID chips:
“Hitachi a few years ago produced a chip (called the mu chip) that was the size of a pencil point; if you take a pencil and put it on a piece of paper you get a little dot. That’s how small they’re getting. In 2007 Hitachi came out with a chip that was even smaller, they call it RFID powder. They are just like the talcum powder you would put on a baby. Somark Innovations in Jan 10, 2007 announced an invisible RFID ink. This can be applied to cattle, prime cuts of meat, military personnel and it can be read through hair.”
And he observed its deployment trend that:
“... by 2011 you should be able to go on Google and find out where someone is at any time from chips on clothing, in cars, cell phones, and inside many people themselves.”
Dr. Redmond, 31 years with IBM before he retired, noted the recent staggering growth of the RFID industry:
“From 1955 to 2005, cumulative sales of radio tags totaled 2.4 billion; in 2007 alone, 2.24 billion tags were sold worldwide and analysts project that by 2017 cumulative sales will top 1 trillion–generating more than $25 billion in annual revenues for the industry.”
That was before the Pandemic of 2009! The ten page article-transcript of Dr. Redmond's talk is an absolute must-read (PDF here). He not only surveyed how RFIDs are being used today for commodity tracking, but also how they might be used in the near future for mind control, ominously concluding:
“If chips can disseminate medicine then they can disseminate other things too; anything put inside a microchip can be activated by a signal. And finally, with this technology, subliminal mind control becomes possible.”
We have come full circle from Aldous Huxley's 1931 mood-altering drug “SOMA”, to his 1962 predictions of the advancements in social engineering through direct behavior control whereby people will actually be made to love their own servitude thus creating the “ultimate revolution”, to its almost full realization within 50 years, in our own lifetime. Thanks to the bloody swines:
Only the kinds of tyrannical policing systems made possible by being able to scientifically track and mind-control anyone and everyone 24x7, would make one-world government sustainable for generations under its scientific dictatorship, barring a real global catastrophe that would make it infeasible to control every individual human being. Such as a mass revolt! It was mentioned, almost in passing, during the gibberish babble of constitutionalism-schmonstitutionalism in the Fox News video clip above... shhhhhhhhh........
Big Brother is watching, listening, observing, vaccinating, tracking, and since you are reading this, you are a terrorist; your name is on the no-fly, no-eat, no-shop, no-ATM, no-parenting list – before our freedom-loving Xe storm troopers forcibly haul you away that is. Drop dead!
The author, an ordinary researcher and writer on contemporary geopolitics, a minor justice activist, grew up in Pakistan, studied EECS at MIT, engineered for a while in high-tech Silicon Valley (patents here), and retired early to pursue other responsible interests. His maiden 2003 book was rejected by six publishers and can be read on the web at http://PrisonersoftheCave.org. He may be reached at http://Humanbeingsfirst.org. Verbatim reproduction license at http://www.humanbeingsfirst.org#Copyright.
Swine Flu: The Ultimate Revolution in the Making |
Hollywood depicts Africans poorly in "Blood Diamond"
December 20, 2006
Critics are touting the movie "Blood Diamond" as a part of a growing genre of socially conscious Hollywood productions. But the film's good message is drowned out by the many bad ones.
The good message is clear: Our frivolous attachment to the world's most expensive gem fuels violence in desperate and impoverished African countries like Sierra Leone.
The bad messages are not about the diamonds but about the people of Africa. In scene after scene, the African population serves as backdrop for the main story about love and ambition involving two white protagonists, a young reporter (Jennifer Connelly) and a tough, ruthless diamond smuggler and former mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio).
DiCaprio, the hero of the movie, plays Danny Archer, a bitter racist who clings to the good old days of pre-independence Zimbabwe, where he grew up. He calls himself Rhodesian, in defiance of the black majority rule that came with the end of the Apartheid-like system in Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe) in 1980.
In one scene, Archer lashes out at his reluctant black collaborator, calling the character played by Djimon Hounsou, a "kaffir," the African equivalent of the n-word.
Archer's goal in life is to steal, swindle or otherwise procure enough diamonds to buy his way out of Africa, a place he sees as God-forsaken and doomed. When there is no other way out, he finally redeems himself in a gesture of generosity at the end.
True, good fictional characters, like real people, are always complex. DiCaprio's character is no different, and the actor's performance is phenomenal.
What is absolutely indefensible, however, is the simplistic portrayal of almost every single black character. Each one is either a mindless killer and pillager or a childlike noble savage and feeble victim.
The talented Hounsou plays the latter. He is cast as hapless, helpless and clueless in the land of his birth. He is a big innocent good guy who would not know whether to run toward or away from gunfire if DiCaprio did not pull him in the right direction.
Moreover, according to the movie, there are no black women in Africa who utter more than two sentences -- either "help me, help me," as one is being kidnapped, or the solicitous proposition to offer sexual services by two women that DiCaprio's character passes on the street.
There is no black agency in this film, except for one schoolmaster who tries to rehabilitate child soldiers only to be shot by one of them five minutes after he appears on screen.
Viewers are left to embrace the age-old racist stereotype that Africa is lost without European sympathy, know-how and might.
Blacks make up more than 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa. And yet a movie like this shows more diversity among the handful of whites.
There are Africans who are tough and tender, savvy and sinister, and are as complex as the whole range of personalities and motivations that we see in any other group.
For every child soldier and bloodthirsty rebel there are compassionate social workers, reformers, intellectuals, writers and opposition politicians.
They are real people who have fought to save their countries from violence and internal chaos.
With the notable exception of "Hotel Rwanda," it appears that Hollywood is unable or unwilling to make a movie about Africa that acknowledges the full humanity of black African people.
Barbara Ransby is an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of the award-winning biography "Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision" (UNC Press, 2003). She can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.
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Published in the latest issue of Family Process, the study confirms that among the newest immigrants, transnationalism is replacing the "melting pot" dynamic of the United States. The study, conducted by a third-generation American Fordham University professor, whose grandparents came from Sicily, and three "transnational" undergraduate students whose parents came, respectively, from Cuba, Greece and Russia, describes how family stories told by new immigrants and their American-born children help retain affiliation with a country other than the United State, reinforcing this dual identity.
"Families have always told stories, but for those who work professionally with families, family stories seem to have become the DNA of family life," the authors state. Across cultures, the stories told share certain motifs including celebrating and idealizing the country of origin/ethnic group, denigrating past and present "enemies" of the country, and sharing detailed knowledge of the country.
American-born children of immigrant families have, in the past, been intensely assimilationist, and their family stories often reflected the ideology of "the Melting Pot." American-born children of the newer immigrants are more transnational, more likely to be proudly bilingual, and more likely to maintain ties with the family's country of origin themselves. After interviewing twenty men and women who were born in, or whose parents were born in, countries from around the globe, the authors note this development and theorize that is supported by the culture of the United States, which is more accepting than ever of cultural pluralism.
The December issue of Family Process includes a special section on transnationalism and family stories. Along with the article by Stone, Gomez, and Lipnitsky there is the theoretical and clinical commentaries of Celia Falicov, Emotional Transnationalism and Family Identities, and Janine Roberts, Migrating Across Literature, Stories, and Family Therapy. PDFs of all articles in this issue are available to the media. Media wishing to receive PDFs please contact JournalNews@bos.blackwellpublishing.com .
Elizabeth Stone is a professor of English, Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University. She teaches the literature course, "New Wave Immigrant Literature," in which she met her co-authors and has published more than 300 articles for newspapers and magazines. Dr. Stone is available for media questions and interviews.
Erica Gomez, who co-authored this paper as an undergraduate, received her B.A. from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in May 2004, and is now earning a law degree at Fordham Law School. She is the daughter of two Cuban émigrés.
Despina Hotoglou, who co-authored this paper as an undergraduate, received her B.S. from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in May 2004. Her father was born in Greece; her mother, also born in Greece, spent part of her childhood in Australia before returning to Greece, later emigrating to the United States.
Jane Y. Lipnitsky, who co-authored this paper as an undergraduate received her B.A. from Fordham College at Lincoln Cemter in May 2004. She is a Russian Jew whose family left the Soviet Union when she was seven.
Source: Eurekalert & othersLast reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Hope is a waking dream. |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
The method of differential diagnosis was first suggested for use in the diagnosis of mental disorders by Emil Kraepelin. It is more systematic than the old-fashioned method of diagnosis by gestalt (impression).
The term differential derives from the word difference: careful differential diagnosis involves first making a list of possible diagnoses, then attempting to remove diagnoses from the list until at most one diagnosis remains. In some cases, there will remain no diagnosis; this suggests the physician has made an error, or that the true diagnosis is unknown to medicine. Removing diagnoses from the list is done by making observations and using tests that should have different results, depending on which diagnosis is correct.
Differential diagnosis is the process whereby a given condition or circumstance, called the presenting problem or chief complaint, is examined in terms of underlying causal factors and concurrent phenomena as discerned by appropriate disciplinary perspectives and according to several theoretical paradigms or frames of reference, and compared to known categories of pathology or exceptionality. Differential diagnosis allows the physician to:
- more clearly understand the condition or circumstance
- assess reasonable prognosis
- eliminate any imminently life-threatening conditions
- plan treatment or intervention for the condition or circumstance
- enable the patient and the family to integrate the condition or circumstance into their lives, until the condition or circumstance may be ameliorated, if possible.
If the patient's condition does not improve as anticipated when the treatment or therapy for the disease or disorder has been applied, the diagnosis must be reassessed.
The method of differential diagnosis was first suggested for use in the diagnosis of mental disorders by Emil Kraepelin. It is more systematic than the old-fashioned method of diagnosis by gestalt (impression).[How to reference and link to summary or text]
The method of differential diagnosis is based on the idea that one begins by first considering the statistically more probable diagnoses. Medical students are taught the adage, "When you hear hoofbeats in Texas, think horses, not zebras"; only after more probable diagnoses are ruled out should the somewhat less likely ones be considered.
It used to be that doctors ordered only particular blood tests, but now a full blood-chemistry profile is standard, which can speed up the process of diagnosis as well as uncover sub-clinical conditions. With the advent of better radiological studies like MRI and the wider use of nuclear medicine, it has become more likely that there will be unexpected findings that will be further studied, though such findings may not be supported by further investigation. They are a valuable tool, but not infallible; it still often takes a physicians' or medical team to track down either a more common illness with a rare presentation, or a rare illness with symptoms suggestive of many other conditions. Sometimes a definitive diagnosis might take years.
Differential diagnosis also refers simply to a list of the most common causes of a given symptom, or a list of disorders similar to a given disorder, or to such lists when they are annotated with advice on how to narrow the list down (the book French's Index of Differential Diagnosis ISBN 0340810475 is an example). Thus, a differential diagnosis in this sense is medical information specially organized to aid in diagnosis.
The professional Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy has 11 index entries describing the topic as differential diagnosis. The topic is mentioned within the body of 125 other separate articles on various medical conditions.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
The Core Process of Differential DiagnosisEdit
The patient presents with symptoms A and B. The diagnosistician creates a list of diseases, disorders and syndromes that include symptoms A and B. Consider there are only three "disease processes" that feature both these symptoms. Let them be called Conditions 1, 2 and 3.
- Condition 1: A, B, C
- Condition 2: A, B, C, D
- Condition 3: A, B, E
The diagnostician now tests for the presence of symptom C. A positive result would support a diagnosis of Condition 1 or 2, and would rule out the possibility of Condition 3. If the client tested positive for C, a test for D could be used to differentiate between Condition 1 and Condition 2. If the client tested negative for C, a test for E would confirm the diagnosis of Condition 3.
The Practical Application of Differential DiagnosisEdit
Before a psychological or psychiatric condition can be treated, by one of the various psychological therapies and/or by psychotropic medications, a mental illness must first be identified correctly.
The diagnosing physician begins by observing the patient during an extended interview process. The patient is observed for signs and is asked for a list of symptoms. A detailed history is taken and questions are asked about the patient's present condition and circumstances. A thorough assessment of all possible supports and stressors and supports in the patient environment is made. When it is possible, a patient's family member might help in gathering the raw materials of a differential diagnosis of mental illness.
The term differential diagnosis refers a process of elimination that progressively weeds out the impossible and less probable, so a remaining list is created of the possible and the more probable.
All the raw materials have been elicited, recorded and evaluated. All the possible psychological and psychiatric conditions that might be suggested by the presenting constellation of signs and symptoms are considered. Then further questions and observations will attempt to narrow down the possibilities.
Eventually, the therapist will be reasonably satisfied that the single most likely cause has been identified. Once a provisional or working diagnosis is reached, a course of therapy is prescribed. If the patient's condition does not improve, the diagnosis and therapy must be reassessed. A change of diagnosis might be a wise step or perhaps a change in therapies will seem in order.
Differential Diagnosis in Mental IllnessEdit
With a sore throat or a tender abdomen, diagnosis is usually quickly reached. Symptoms elicited and recorded. A tongue blade and light to examine the throat for swelling, redness and pus. A manual palpation of the abdomen for guarding, rebound tenderness, auscultation for bowel sounds. A throat culture taken. A CBC and UA to test for the presence of infections. Soon pallitative measures, curative medications or a surgical consult will be decided upon.
But with mental conditions, whether psychological or psychiatric, there are very few diagnosistic exams or tests to rule in or rule out a given diagnosis. This will be less likely true in the decades to come what with all the current neuropsychiatric research, but for now, differential diagnosis of mental illness remains more art than science.
Because of this, the skill level of the diagnostician is a vital component of psychiatric diagnosis. So too is the process of differential diagnosis. One thing a differential diagnosis takes into account is how likely a particular diagnosis is. For instance, in a person under 65, one puts Alzheimer's further down on the list of possibilities and more closely pursues other possible sources of dementia and memory loss. Again, when a person presents with serious depression with no obvious causation, one still investigates for more common depressive triggers before ordering tests to rule out pancreatic cancer.
One of the most confusing tasks in psychiatric differential diagnosis is that of determing the presence of personality disorders. For instance, in determining whether the narcissistic personality disorder is present, the psychiatrist must first identify whether, among others, psychopathy, other personality disorders, bipolar disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD and/or addictions might be either the primary cause of the symptomatology, not present at all, or might exist as comorbid diagnoses.
With mental illness, psychological or psychiatric, differential diagnosis will, more often than in medicine, use the response to medications to rule in or rule out a given diagnosis. If a person presents with depression, antidepressants might help, but if that patient has Bipolar I and is presenting with depression, those same antidepressants might trigger an agitated, rageful or manic episode. This would immediately rule out simple depression and would strongly suggest bipolar illness. It would also indicate the urgent need for an immediate change in prescribed medications.
A person presenting with a great deal of nervousness, anxiety and feelings of dread might seem to need an anxiolytic (a tranquilizer). However, if that person is given diazepam, and then reports an overwhelming depression the next day, perhaps even with suicidal ideation, then what you have is not primarily anxiety, but a depression, masked by anxiety, that mandates treatment for depression, not anxiety.
A patient presenting with complaints of sleeping her life away and retreat from an outside life may suggest many things, but the diagnosis of another atypical depression might be missed. The right medication will have her actively engaged in life in little time. Gross obesity and lack of appetite and thinness must likewise be investigated from many directions to determine if an eating disorder exists or if depression, anxiety, a medication or a medical condition might be at fault.
The goal in treatment of all the various mental illnesses and conditions is to return the individual to maximum functionality. The goal is for the person to have stable working relationships within the family, wider social networks and at work. A good working diagnosis ensures that the best possible psychotherapy approach can be selected and that the proper medications can augment and reinforce that psychotherapy.
Machine differential diagnosisEdit
Many studies demonstrate improvement of quality of care and reduction of medical errors by using such decision support systems. Some of these systems are designed for a specific medical problem such as Schizophrenia , Lyme disease or Ventilator Associated Pneumonia . Others such as Iliad, QMR and DiagnosisPro are designed to cover all major clinical and diagnostic findings to assist physicians with faster and more accurate diagnosis.
However, these tools all still require advanced medical skills, in order to rate the symptoms and choose additional tests to deduce the probabilities of different diagnoses. Thus, non-professionals still need to see a health care provider in order to get a proper diagnosis.
- Dual diagnosis
- Educational diagnosis
- List of medical symptoms
- Medical diagnosis
- Medical sign
References & BibliographyEdit
- ↑ Decision support system for the diagnosis of schizophrenia disorders.. nih.gov. URL accessed on 2008-10-03.
- ↑ Decision support for diagnosis of lyme disease.. nih.gov. URL accessed on 2008-10-03.
- ↑ Evaluation of a Computer Assisted Decision Support System (DSS) for Diagnosis and Treatment of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) in Intensive Care Unit (ICU).. nih.gov. URL accessed on 2008-10-03.
- ↑ DiagnosisPro differential diagnosis reminder tool. diagnosispro.com. URL accessed on 2008-10-03.
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Description and Background
Between October 1963 and April 1964, excavators at Masada found scroll fragments hidden under the floor of what is believed to have been a synagogue. Some of these fragments contain portions of an Ezekiel scroll. This scroll, known as Mas1d Ezekiel, comprises four columns of text that correspond to Ezekiel 35:11–38:14. The largest fragment that can be read contains the first portion of Ezekiel 37, the vision of the dry bones.
Except for a few minor spelling differences and the manner in which the text is divided into sections, the Ezekiel fragments are identical to the Masoretic text.
Study of these fragments is yet preliminary. Professor Shemaryahu Talmon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been given the responsibility of preparing transcriptions of these and all other scroll fragments from Masada. According to Talmon, the formal Herodian script used on the parchment fragments of Mas1d Ezekiel dates the scroll to the second half of the first century B.C.
The following passage is from Ezekiel 37:1–14 in the King James Version of the Old Testament and sets forth Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones mentioned earlier:
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
The Jews at Masada were pious and had enough time to properly dispose of this scroll. According to Jewish law, sacred books, when worn out or being discarded, had to be buried or deposited in a genizah, a specially dedicated site for the storage of old sacred texts. In the case of the Zealots at Masada, their genizah was under the floor of their synagogue.
The only other texts that were found under the synagogue floor were fragments of a Deuteronomy scroll.
Any significance that can be ascribed to this text on the basis of what is known about the community at Masada is purely speculation. However, in light of our knowledge of the goals of the Zealots and the manner in which they eventually committed suicide, the allusions to resurrection in verses twelve and thirteen and to the restoration of their land, mentioned in verse fourteen, are quite poignant.
For Latter-day Saints, it is intriguing that in the verses immediately following this vision, Ezekiel is commanded by the Lord as follows:
16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
These verses evoke strong images of what the Latter-day Saints believe is the latter-day restoration and the importance that scripture, both ancient and modern, has played and continues to play in accomplishing the work of the Lord. |
There are two known histone acetyltransferase complexes that modify histone H4 at K16; the MSL (male-specific silencing) complex in humans and flies, and the SAS (something about silencing) complex in yeast cells (1
). The MSL complex specifically acetylates H4K16 in Drosophila
and humans. In human cells, knockdown of hMOF results in the loss of H4K16ac (12
). H4K16 acetylation has been shown to destabilize nucleosomes and correlates with regions of chromatin decondensation (39
). Here, we report the first extensive study showing that MOF is required for proliferation during embryogenesis and in oncogenesis. However, the exact role of MOF in these processes remains to be determined. An intriguing possibility is that MOF acetylation of histone H4 at K16 may have a regulatory role during transcription (1
), which is poorly understood in mammals, but well documented in yeast and Drosophila
). The significance of H4K16 acetylation lies in the fact that in budding yeast, most of the genome exists in a decondensed state with more than three fourths of histone H4 acetylated at lysine 16 (28
). In Drosophila
, the transcriptionally enhanced X chromosome of male flies, a site of ubiquitous H4K16ac, is also decondensed (1
). In human cell lines, decreased levels of hMOF correlate with loss of H4K16ac and is associated with defective DNA repair (12
). In this study, we found that the loss of H4K16ac correlated with the progressive depletion of maternal MOF during embryogenesis in mMof
null embryos. In wild-type mMof embryos, the rapidly proliferating ICM cells have convincingly higher levels of MOF protein than trophectoderm cells, which is consistent with previous results showing higher levels of acetylated H4K16 in ES cells than in trophectoderm cells. Thus, increased acetylation of H4K16 in ES cells is indicative of the significance of this chromatin modification for proliferation during development. Complete ablation of MOF and loss of H4K16ac results in a marked delay in developmental progression, sluggish hatching and implantation, proliferation arrest, and death.
The loss of cell proliferation could be due to cell cycle arrest specifically induced by p53 and by ATM as suggested by a previous report of G2
/M arrest in hMOF knockdown cells (46
). In addition, hMOF has been reported to acetylate p53 at lysine 120, and this acetylation may help distinguish between the cell cycle arrest and apoptotic functions of p53 (45
). If the mMof depletion-dependent cell cycle arrest were the cause of embryonic lethality or cellular death, then depletion of p53 or ATM should have rescued or at least partially ameliorated the observed embryonic lethality. However, our results do not support this hypothesis.
Inactivation of the mMof gene in ES cells caused depletion of Mof protein accompanied with loss of acetylated H4K16 and resulted in reduced proliferation and ultimately cell death. Taken together with the lack of success in deriving homozygous Mof mutant ES cells, these experiments strongly suggest that Mof function is indispensable for cellular proliferation and/or viability. These results also raised the question of whether tumor cells can survive in the absence of MOF and the associated loss of H4K16 acetylation.
Multiple assays were utilized previously to quantitate H4K16 monoacetylation at the global level and genome region/locus-specific level, and the data suggested that loss of monoacetylation at H4K16 occurs in tumors and tumor-derived cell lines (8
). Our results, however, demonstrate that tumors and tumor-derived cell lines have similar or higher levels of hMOF or H4K16ac compared to those of normal control cells (Fig. and and data not shown). Similar results were found in multiple different transformed cell lines (Fig. and data not shown). Moreover, we found that primary cells have lower levels of hMOF and H4K16ac than the corresponding isogenic hTERT immortalized cells do (Fig. ). These in vitro results were also supported by the in vivo hMOF expression analysis of 300 different tumors, which demonstrated no loss of hMOF expression. In addition, tumor cells with higher levels of hMOF had faster initial growth and immediate regrowth (recurrence) of tumors after irradiation exposure (Fig. ), suggesting that hMOF promotes cellular proliferation. Therefore, after examination of a large number of tumor-derived cell lines and tumor samples, we propose that hMOF and H4K16ac may be required for the process of transformation, either in vitro or in vivo.
Intriguingly, MOF overexpression was associated with both increased K16H4 acetylation and increased cell proliferation (12
; also the present study), while cells treated with SIRT1 inhibitors had increased K16H4 acetylation levels but a reduction in cell proliferation (29
). Thus, although MOF seems to be closely associated with cell proliferation, the relationship between the H4K16 acetylation status and cell proliferation requires further study.
The loss of MOF and H4K16ac correlates with increased genomic instability (Tables and and Fig. ) (12
), which is considered an important step in cancer development because it can greatly accelerate the genetic changes leading to tumor cell progression (14
). However, induction of genomic instability and increased radiosensitivity caused by depletion of MOF result in decreased oncogenic transformation, whereas overexpression of MOF resulted in increased oncogenic transformation (Fig. ); this suggests that the loss of MOF is probably not a marker of oncogenesis.
Collectively, our data suggest that the requirement for MOF during tumor cell proliferation is similar to that during embryogenesis prior to tissue differentiation. The role of MOF in cellular proliferation is supported by the following. (i) There is a strong correlation observed between the ectopic expression of the catalytic unit of telomerase (hTERT) and the levels of hMOF and H4K16ac seen in isogenic cell systems (Fig. ). (ii) Depletion of MOF results in cellular lethality. (iii) Overexpression of MOF results in enhanced oncogenic transformation and faster relapse of tumor growth after radiation treatment (Fig. and ). Thus, the results suggest that expression of hMOF and acetylation of H4K16 are linked with proliferation status and is supported by the fact that all the tumor-derived cell lines and immortalized cell lines examined have both hMOF and acetylated H4K16. These novel observations presented here provide a foundation for future molecular studies on the significance of epigenetic modifications in varied contexts of embryonic development, tumorigenesis, and DNA metabolism. |
Gibbs Technologies and Lockheed Martin are working on a new type of military vehicle that will work on both land and water. This is why they named it the Amphibious Combat Craft. On water the vehicle will be able to travel at 45MPH and on land it could travel at 100MPH.
The vehicles will come in three models:
1. The Amphibious Combat Craft Expeditionary (ACC-E) is a 20 foot sized vehicle with capabilities to go up to 45MPH on water and 80MPH on land. (8 occupants)
2. The Amphibious Combat Craft Expeditionary (ACC-R) is a 35 foot sized vehicle with capabilities to go up to 40MPH on water. (20 occupants)
3. The Terraquad is capable of over 55MPH on water and 50MPH on land. (2 occupants)
More pictures after the jump:
Continue reading → |
the master control and communication system of the body
the gathered information of the changes inside and outside the body; stimuli
a process in which the nervous system interprets the sensory input and decides what should be done at each moment
the response of the nervous system to integration by activating effector organs (muscle/glands)
central nervous system (CNS)
the integrating and command center of the nervous system; consists of the brain and spinal cord
peripheral nervous system (PNS)
the communication lines that link all parts of the body to the CNS; consists of cranial and spinal nerves
sensory (afferent) division
the subdivision of the PNS that consists of nerve fibers that convey impulses TO the CNS from sensory receptors
motor (efferent) division
the subdivision of the PNS that consists of nerve fibers that transmit impulses FROM the CNS to effector organs (muscles and glands)
somatic nervous system
voluntary nervous system; the subdivision of the motor division that is composed of somatic motor nerve fibers that conduct impulses from the CNS to skeletal muscles
autonomic nervous system
the subdivision of the motor division that consists of visceral motor nerve fibers that regulate the activity of smooth muscles, cardiac muscles and glands
the division of the ANS that activates the body to cope with some stressor (danger, excitement etc); the fight, fright, and flight subdivision
the division of the ANS that oversees digestion, elimination, and glandular function; the resting and digesting subdivision; feed and breed subdivision
glial cells; supporting cells in the nervous system
star-shaped supporting cells in the CNS that are the most abundant & versitile; assists in exchanges between blood in capillaries and neurons
small ovoid-shaped supporting cells in CNS that have long thorny processes; can transform into macrophages to destroy bacteria, viruses, and damaged cells
supporting cells in the CNS that line the cavities of the brain/spinal cord
supporting cells in the CNS that wrap their cytoplasmic extensions around the nerve fibers, producing insulating covering called myelin sheaths
supporting cells in the PNS that surround neuron cell bodies within ganglia; function still unkown
the suppporting cells in PNS that surround and form myelin sheaths around larger nerve fibers in the PNS
the structural units of the nervous system; also called nerve cells
soma; contains cell organelles and carries on cell functions of synthesis and metabolis
armlike extension from the cell body
short, tapering branching extensions of motor neurons that serve as receptive or input regions; transmit the nerve impulse towards the cell body
a process that carries nerve impulses away from the nerve cell body
a cone-shaped area of the cell body from which the nerve impulse is triggered to move down the nerve fiber
whitish, fatty, segmented sheath that protects and electically insulates fibers form one another and increases the speed of nerve transmission
axons with a myelin sheath that conduct nerve impulses rapidly
axon with myelin that conduct nerve impulses slowly
nodes of Ranvier
that gaps between adjacent Schwann cells along an axon
regions of the brain and spinal cord containing dense collection of myelinated fibers
regions of the brain and spinal cord containing mostly nerve cell bodies and unmyelinated fibers
neuron with many dendrites extending from the cell body and only one axon
neuron with two processes extend for the cell; one is the dendrite, the other is an axon
neuron with one process that extends from the body, an axon
afferent neruon; transmits impulses from sensory receptors in the skin or internal organs toward or into the central nervous system
efferent neuron; carry impulses away from the central nervous system to the effector organs (muscles or glands)
association neurons; lie between motor and sensory neurons in neural pathways and shuttle signals through CNS pathways where integration occurs
resting membrane potential
the difference in electrical charges on either side of a cell membrane when the cell is at rest, measured in millivolts, inside membrane is more negative than outside, difference in change is ions moving- K+ diffusing out of cell
the process during the action potential when sodium is rushing into the cell causing the interior to become more positive
outflow of positive ions from the nerve cell restores the electrical conditions at the membrane to the polarized, or resting state
when axon is repolarizing, more K+ ions leave the cell, causing the cell to become MORE polarized than before it started
the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse; -55 mV
All or None Principle
the law that the neuron either generates an action potential when the stimulation reaches threshold or it doesn't fire when stimulation is below threshold
pathway for a simple nervous reaction: knee jerk, sensory receptor, sensory neuron, motor neuron, and effector that are involved in a quick response to a stimulus
the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or cleft.
a chemical messenger that travels across the synapse from one neuron to the next and influences whether a neuron will generate an action potential(impulse)
a neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction
neurotransmitter that influences voluntary movement, attention, alertness; lack of dopamine linked with Parkinson's disease; too much is linked with schizophrenia
an excitatory neurotransmitter secreted by motor neurons innervating skeletal muscle
receptor, efferent neuron, integration center, afferent neuron, effector
What is the path of a simple spinal reflex?
Sensory receptors are part of which division of the nervous system?
What is the period after an initial stimulus when a neuron is not sensitive to another stimulus?
sympathetic and parasympathetic
The autonomic nervous system is divided into what subdivisions?
Schwann cells are functionally similar to what?
sensory, interneuron, motor
What neuron pathway is involved in a reflex arch?
dendrites, axon, soma
What are the primary components of a nerve cell?
What type of message crosses a synapse between two neurons?
The voluntary and non-voluntary divisions are part of which branch of the nervous system
What is the electrical wave that travels down a nerve cell axon?
Action potentials are moving too slowly to communicate
Why is nerve function impaired when myelin surrounding an axon is damaged?
What is the most common neurotransmitter in the body?
central nervous system
Which branch of the nervous system contains the major organs of the nervous system?
peripheral nervous system
Which branch of the nervous system connects the brain and spinal cord to other organs?
the spinal cord
What is the primary integration center of a spinal reflex?
nerve cell bodies and glial cell bodies
What is the gray matter of the central nervous system composed of?
True or False--The brain never recieves the message in a reflex response.
True or False--Bigger axons take longer to conduct impulses.
True or False--Electrical nerve stimulation is a more effective anesthesia than chemical inhibitors.
True or False--Neurons are mitotic and therefore are responsible for most brain neoplasms.
True or False--Ependymal cells show irritability and conductivity.
True or False--Nerve cells have a semi-permeable plasma membrane.
True or False--Astrocytes line the central cavities of the brain.
True or False--The intensity of light does not change the rate of the pupilary response.
What cells are phagocytic and clear away debris from dead cells?
What cells support and brace neurons and control the chemical environment?
What cells may be ciliated and line the cavities of the brain?
oligodendrocytes in CNS and Schwann cells in PNS
What cells produce the myelin sheath?
What reflex is conscious, voluntary and learned?
What reflex is involuntary, rapid and unconscious?
Peripheral Nervous System
The following are characteristics of which branch of the nervous system? carries messages to and from the brain and spinal cord, contain somatic and autonomic divisions, contain motor and sensory nerve cells.
Central Nervous System
The following are characteristics of which branch of the nervous system? the brain and spinal cord, integration, command center |
Things ain't always what they seem
If you look close you can see
What's your perception of me?
Is it good? I wish it was
People will always judge a book by it’s cover. If you look closer into a person, you will see past their appearance. Soul is asking, “Just because I look like this” or “Just because it’s looks like this” “What do you see in me?”. And Soul is explaining through the whole song that his exterior appearance is based on what he has done. So he should be looked at as a good guy, “I wish is was”. SOUL!!
To help improve the meaning of these lyrics, visit "Soul Cry" by Ab-Soul Lyrics and leave a comment on the lyrics box |
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Overview of NEI Rare Diseases in Children Research Activities, FY 2000FY 2005
NEI was created on August 16, 1968 by Public Law No. 90-489 for the purpose of supporting and
conducting research for improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases that affect the eye
and vision. Children are our nation's greatest resource, and protecting their visual health and preventing
eye diseases that afflict them with permanent visual impairment will help maintain our nation's prosperity
and security in the future. Over the years, vision researchers supported by NEI have conducted many pioneering studies that have greatly advanced our understanding of eye diseases, including those classified
as rare, and have provided eye-care professionals with new tools and methods to prevent or cure many sight-threatening conditions.
Recent Scientific Advances in Rare Diseases in Children Research
Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA)
In 1869, Theodor Leber described an early-onset recessive retinal degeneration that caused incurable
blindness in children. This disease became known as Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA). For many
childhood genetic diseases like LCA, no treatment is currently available; the necessary gene is either
missing or defective. With recent advances in our understanding of the basis for genetic diseases, scientists
have been able to identify defective genes that are associated with specific diseases. Once the gene is identified, however, the patient is still faced with the prospect of no immediate cure. Such was the case for
LCA, when in 1997 the disease-causing mutations in a gene known as
were linked to an estimated
10% of LCA cases. Recently, NEI scientists have produced mice lacking the
gene. The absence of the
gene produces a defect in the visual cycle, a series of biochemical events in the light-sensing
retina that initiate vision. The defect eventually results in impairment of photoreceptor cell function and retinal degeneration. In order to better understand the function of
scientists studied the individual
components of the visual cycle pathway and found that
is involved in a biochemical reaction called
an isomerization. Thus, the analysis of mice lacking
allowed scientists to focus on the possible function of this molecule. Next, a way was found to bypass the defect in the visual cycle. For this,
RPE-65-deficient mice were fed a form of vitamin A called 9-cis-retinal. This chemical is not normally found in
photoreceptor cells, but it forms part of the functional visual pigment isorhodopsin. The resulting improved photoreceptor physiology and function were dramatic.
Administration of compounds like 9-cis-retinal for LCA is an example of a pharmacological intervention
that could restore vision and relieve the suffering and burden caused by some blinding diseases. Animal
studies with 9-cis-retinal have opened the door to studies in humans that may contribute to the development
of improved treatments for retinal degenerative diseases such as LCA.
Dramatic progress toward finding a cure for LCA was recently reported by NEI-supported scientists.
These scientists conducted experiments in which they successfully restored vision in a naturally occurring
large animal model (dog) of LCA that suffers from visual impairment typical of that seen in children with
LCA. The researchers inserted a wild-type
gene into the retina of a dog using recombinant adenoassociated virus (AAV) as a vector. While this research shows great promise, there is still much work to be done before gene therapy can be used to treat human patients with LCA.
NEI has funded research on LCA from the Institute's inception and will continue to fund research on this
disorder through FY 2005.
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)
Many premature infants need supplemental oxygen soon after
birth because their lungs are not sufficiently mature to efficiently
bring oxygen into their bodies. Researchers have long known
that supplemental oxygen, while helping infants survive, might
increase cases of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP develops
in very premature infants when abnormal blood vessels grow
and spread throughout the retina. The scarring and bleeding
caused by the excess growth of these blood vessels can lead
to retinal detachment, resulting in vision loss. ROP develops
in 14,000-16,000 infants each year who weigh less than 2 3/4 pounds
(1,250 grams) at birth. In most cases (80%), the disease improves
and leaves no permanent damage. However, 1,100-1,500 infants
annually develop ROP that is severe enough to require surgical
treatment, which usually will stop the growth of abnormal
blood vessels and prevents retinal detachment. Even with these
therapies, about 400-600 infants with ROP become legally blind
Recent research had suggested that controlled amounts of supplemental oxygen keeps ROP from
progressing from moderate to severe. If controlled amounts of supplemental oxygen could help prevent the
progression of ROP, then infants could avoid this threat to their sight and consequently the invasive surgery
for severe ROP, with its possible long-term side effects. In order to test the safety and efficacy of providing infants supplemental oxygen, NEI supported the Supplemental Therapeutic Oxygen for Pre-threshold ROP (STOP-ROP) study. Researchers found that while modest supplemental oxygen given to premature infants with moderate cases of ROP may not improve ROP outcomes, it definitely does not worsen outcomes. Although the relative risk/benefit of supplemental oxygen for each infant must be individually considered, clinicians need no longer be concerned that supplemental oxygen, as used in this study, will worsen pre-threshold ROP.
NEI has funded research on ROP from the Institute's inception and will continue to fund research on this
disorder through FY 2005.
Early eye development of the vertebrate lens is controlled by specific genes that operate in a hierarchy of
expression. The first of these genes to be identified was
are responsible for causing aniridia, a congenital malformation of the eye in which the iris is not completely formed, resulting
in cataract formation and congenital glaucoma. Subsequent to this discovery,
expression was found
in other embryonic tissue, including the tissues destined to form the nose, suggesting its more general involvement in craniofacial development. The significance of
as a key developmental regulator has
been substantiated in a number of experimental systems, most notably mouse and
and its protein product is now characterized at the structural and functional levels. Researchers now view
as a "master gene" controlling the expression of downstream genes during development. Recent studies have described a number of genes downstream of
that may play a significant role in eye formation.
As these genes and their products are characterized, the developmental hierarchy controlling ocular and more generally craniofacial development will be pieced together to form a picture of the developmental process and enhance our understanding of the molecular basis of early eye developmental defects such as
NEI has funded research on aniridia from the Institute's inception and will continue to fund research on this
disorder through FY 2005.
X-linked Juvenile Retinoschisis
Juvenile retinoschisis is a degenerative X-linked recessive retinal disorder that gradually robs the patient of
useful vision. The disease is characterized by the formation of a cystlike structures on the retina. Though
not usually diagnosed until children start school, visual acuity is often reduced to 20/200 by the time the child reaches puberty. The disease symptoms are similar to those of macular degeneration, and in fact, most cases of juvenile macular degeneration are caused by retinoschisis. Peripheral vision is also affected
by retinoschisis. Other complications associated with juvenile retinoschisis are strabismus, nystagmus, retinal detachment, and massive vitreous hemorrhages.
Researchers funded by NEI have localized the molecular defect of retinoschisis to the
scientists have reported finding 23 different
gene mutations in 28 patients affected by this disorder.
Additionally, these researchers have demonstrated that molecular screening for retinoschisis is an effective
diagnostic tool in at-risk males.
NEI has funded research on X-linked juvenile retinoschisis from the Institute's inception and will continue
to fund research on this disorder through FY 2005.
RB is mainly a disease of childhood and is now one of the best understood of all solid tumors. Ninety
percent of individuals who inherit specific mutations in the RB gene will develop the tumor. Each year,
300 to 400 new cases of RB are diagnosed in the United States. Unfortunately, the most prevalent treatment for RB at this time is surgical removal of the affected eye. Scientists supported by NEI have recently published results of experiments that were undertaken to determine the toxicity and dose-response
of vitamin D3 for the treatment of retinoblastoma. An analogue of vitamin D3 has been shown to inhibit growth of RB tumors in transgenic mice. The results of this research showed that in transgenic mice, it was possible to achieve an effective dose of the vitamin D3 analog that had no systemic toxicity.
NEI has funded research on RB from the Institute's inception and will continue to fund research on this
disease through FY 2005.
Ongoing, New, and Planned Research Initiatives in Rare Diseases in Children
NEI will continue to fund high-quality investigator-initiated research on the prevention, etiology, pathology,
and clinical intervention of rare childhood diseases that cause visual impairment and disability.
Rare Diseases-Related Program Activities, FY 2003FY 2005
For more than 20 years, NEI and the National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC), through the Vision
Research Program Planning Subcommittee, have attempted to meet their stewardship responsibilities
through a comprehensive planning process. The process has resulted in the development and publication of
a series of strategic plans addressing the most pressing visual health needs of the nation. To this end,
the vision research community, the medical scientific research community at large, and NEI will pursue the
highest-quality research to attempt to achieve the established goals of this plan, including better prevention,
early diagnosis, and safe, effective treatments of rare diseases and disorders in children. NEI will continue,
with the advice and guidance of the NAEC, to invest in the very best investigator-initiated research through
FY 2005 and well beyond to protect our nation's children from the consequences of blinding rare diseases.
The NAEC and NEI have established the following goals for rare disease research in
Vision Research: A National Plan 1999 - 2003:
- Identify novel causes of inherited retinal degenerations; further examine the cellular and molecular
mechanisms whereby identified gene defects cause retinal degenerations.
- Further develop and critically evaluate therapies involving gene delivery, growth factors, and
transplantation for the treatment of retinal disease. |
Posted by Realsociology on November 4, 2010
The Nuclear family is not as common in British history as you may think according to this recent podcast of Radio Four’s ‘Thinking Allowed that looks at Research into the history of the family and social policy by Pat Thane. You can also find details of the research at this link
This research challenges the idea that the nuclear family and marriage have been common throughout British History. The picture this research paints is that family diversity was the norm up until world war two, then there was a brief period of thirty years from the 1940s -to the 1970s where nearly everyone got married and stayed in nuclear families, and now we are returning to greater family diversity.
Firslty, On Marriage and Divorce –
The decades after the end of the Second World War constituted a quite abnormal period, with much higher marriage rates and much lower rates of non-marriage than had previously been known. In the 1930s 15 percent of women and 9 percent of men did not marry. Similar numbers had long been normal. After 1945 marriage, at least once, became almost universal and most marriages produced children. Average age at marriage fell to historically low levels at the same time that life expectancy was rising and divorce remained difficult to obtain, so marriages tended to last longer.
Secondly, there is a longer history of lone parenthood than you may expect – In the late 1730s, 24 percent of marriages were ended by the death of a partner, more often the male, within ten years. For the same reason, complex families of step-parents and step-children were commonplace in Britain. As health and life expectancy improved in the twentieth century, so did the survival chances of marriage
There is more info in the podcast – check it out! |
Field Research and Conservation in Africa
Active forum topics
Written by Victoria Yu
You always knew that cheetahs were crafty...but who knew you'd love it so much?
Since 2005, we've been working on a side project with craftsmen and -women who live in wildlife areas. Our deal is that they will provide cheetah or wildlife-themed handicrafts, such as jewelry, baskets, handbags, and more, in exchange for 80% of the profits when ACK sells their goods abroad in the US. This partnership allows local craftspeople to benefit from a wider market, and it allows us to encourage wildlife appreciation and sustainable living practices among our neighbors. We're still getting the project off the ground, but keep on the lookout for Kenyan crafts when we visit the US!
Recent blog posts
Africa research news
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hits since 2008-01-01 |
Contact: Monica Allen, 301-734-1123
During the last 20 years, air quality regulations in the United States have reduced the emissions of air pollutants that lead to ground-level ozone pollution. Smaller and smaller amounts of these ozone-forming chemicals are emitted in the United States today. So, ozone pollution is going down everywhere, right?
Not quite. In a new study, academic and NOAA scientists examined 20 years of ozone data from rural sites across the United States, to better understand broad, regional trends in the pollutant. Ozone pollution is declining at the rural sites in the East, the team found, but it’s steady or even increasing at most sites in the rural West, with the strongest increases in spring.
"The differences we find are consistent with increased levels of pollution imported into the West from across the Pacific Ocean," said Owen Cooper, Ph.D., lead author of the new paper and a researcher with the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Cooper works in NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory.
Sunlight can "cook" chemical ingredients—emitted by cars, oil and gas operations, manufacturing and other sources—into ozone pollution. At high levels, ground-level ozone can cause severe respiratory effects in some people and damage crops, trees and other vegetation. The Environmental Protection Agency regulates levels of surface ozone in the United States.
Map of ozone monitoring sites
This topographic map of the United States shows the locations of the 53 rural ozone monitoring sites used in a new study comparing ground-level ozone in the eastern and western United States. Credit: CIRES
Many model analyses have indicated that decreasing U.S. emissions of those ingredients should reduce ozone from coast to coast. But if the U.S. West is "importing"ozone pollution, as previous studies have suggested, that changes the picture. Asian emissions of ozone precursors are known to have increased between 1990 and 2010, and with aircraft and satellites, scientists have observed plumes of ozone-rich air plumes from Asia reaching the U.S. West.
Cooper and his colleagues scrutinized data from rural sites in the United States where ozone was measured from at least 1990 to 2010. Instead of focusing only on averages or exceedances of regulated levels of ozone, the scientists looked at the highest, lowest and median levels of ozone during spring, summer and winter. This allowed them to determine if changes were occurring at the low end of the spectrum, which might indicate changes in background levels of the pollutant, or at the high end, which might be more indicative of effects of regulation.
Overall, the scientists found that the highest levels of ozone pollution dropped at many rural eastern sites and some western ones—probably a consequence of regulations. In the east, summertime's high readings dropped from an average of 80 parts per billion (ppb) in 1990-1994 to an average of 66 ppb. Highest ozone readings out west in summer only dropped from 70 to 69 ppb.
Ozone trends in the West are most surprising in spring, when no site shows decreasing ozone. Instead, half of all sites show increasing median ozone, despite reductions in ozone precursor emissions. These increased ozone levels might be explained by the observed increases in ozone detected in the baseline air that flows into the U.S. West from across the North Pacific Ocean.
The authors ruled out several other factors that might explain east-west differences, such as changing temperatures out west, wildfires and changes in anthropogenic emissions.
The finding may have implications for those attempting to improve air quality, especially in western states. "In the U.S. West, imported pollution from Asia could add to the challenge of reducing ozone pollution," Cooper said.
Coauthors of the new paper, "Long-term ozone trends at rural ozone monitoring sites across the United States, 1990-2010," are Ru-Shan Gao (NOAA), David Tarasick (Environment Canada), Thierry Leblanc (CalTech) and Colm Sweeney (CIRES).
NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at www.noaa.gov and join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels. |
The research for the variety of male contraception methods is actually the search for the holy grail of contraception. Scientists are trying hard to discover more contraception options that would allow men to share the burden of prevention of pregnancy. Certainly, contraception has commonly been the responsibility of the woman in the past, but there’s no reason that couldn’t change.
A study conducted in 2005 revealed that almost 50 percent of men in the United States were willing to try a new form of male contraception, and up to 72 percent of men in other countries are interested in new forms of birth control.
Researchers have adopted a multipronged strategy and are approaching male contraception from multiple angles, some of which are closer to reality while others are far-fetched ideas such as the male pill. Most of the research is being performed on tissue in petri dishes — not in animals or humans due to lack of funds. Here is an account of male contraception methods, including those in practice, those in experimental stages and just to be launched and also some dream methods which will be available in the distant future.
Spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases can be effectively stopped with condoms. But “typical method” of condom use has fail rates as high as 15 percent in the prevention of pregnancy although condoms are up to 98 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when used perfectly.
Vasectomy is a procedure in which surgeons cut the tube called the vas deferens that propels sperm out of the penis. Although this procedure has a 100% success rate in prevention of pregnancy if performed perfectly but it is usually irreversible. |
Jim Rogers: Trade Wars Always Lead to Real War
BY CRIS SHERIDAN
Successful investor and author, Jim Rogers, warns that a trade war could lead to a repeat of the Great Depression along with a war between the U.S. and China. He’s also bullish on the US dollar.
On ramifications of a US-China trade war:
“This could be terribly, terribly dangerous if we turn into a trade war. We had a trade war in the 1930s, it led to the Great Depression. We already have small signs of trade wars breaking out: Brazil, France, other places, now America. This could be very dangerous in the end.”
“If it turns into a trade war it is the most momentous thing of 2011. Trade wars always lead to wars.”
“If America does put on tariffs onto the Chinese, the Chinese have various weapons at their disposal. They could stop buying American government bonds. They could sell American government bonds. If they did that, interest rates in America would go through the roof. The value of the US Dollar would go down a lot (perhaps a lot or, at least, a little). This would not be good for anybody, including for China. But, what happens Lauren is whenever people get slapped in the face, they always have to slap back.”
Bullish on the US dollar: |
There has been much discussion on some web fora about the differences between different brands’ cassette equalization standards.
As I stated here in 2006, there is a 4 dB ambiguity at 16 kHz.
Many things conspire to make this 4 dB ambiguity essentially meaningless in a generally low-fi medium. The only reason I’m mentioning this now is that I’ve been bombarded with email from more than one participant in this discussion and apparently there may be some editorial judgment attached to what is posted.
Jay McKnight has graciously permitted my posting of his comments to me:
The problem, I think, is that people now-a-days are used to measuring digital equipment with digital measuring equipment, and think that precision measurements are always possible. As you well know, THIS JUST AIN’T SO WITH AN ANALOG MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDER! We try hard, and often come close, but there are just a lot of complicating factors, and most engineers are not aware of them.
For instance, there has NEVER been a measurement standard for tape flux vs frequency (“frequency response”) in ANY format. I have published on it (link here), but when we approached the IEC committee way back when, they said “we don’t write measurement standards like that”, which I think really meant “don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is already made up”.
There is also a problem revealed in the excessive spacing loss document, here . We suspect that this is the cause of the discrepancy in the wavelength-response of the Philips cassette calibration tapes, but they would never admit that. Note that the German Open Reel calibration tapes even at the higher speeds 15 in/s (380 mm/s) also show this problem.
Note also that the AES Standard for measuring the medium-wavelength fluxivity ( AES Standard AES7-2000 (r2005): AES standard for the preservation and restoration of audio recording — Method of measuring recorded fluxivity of magnetic sound records at medium wavelengths (Revision of AES7-1982)) does not exist as an IEC standard, and we think that the amplitude of the medium-wavelength fluxivity on the German Open Reel calibration tapes at the higher speeds are about 10 % in error (link here).
When we approached BASF with these problems on their Calibration Tapes circa 1978, they said something to the effect “Your measurements are probably right, but we’ve been doing it this way for years, and we’re not going to change it now.”
So between the technical problems and the political problems with the IEC Committee (which, to a great extent WAS Philips and BASF), plus the fact that this is OBSOLETE technology, I think that trying to solve the problem with a 4 dB error at a 3 um wavelength on a cassette tape is futile. Take it for what it is. If it sounds bad, fix it as best you can.
To this, I might add that a colleague (and former member of the Ampex Standard Tape Lab) who would prefer not to be mentioned by name (and I can understand why after this week’s barrage of emails) has noted in at least some high-end cassettes back in the 1980s and 1990s that, if put away in storage for a year, they would lose substantial amounts of high-end. Some might have lost close to 10 dB at 10 kHz.
This high-frequency loss due to aging has never been studied, but it is one potential explanation for the very poor Dolby tracking with older tapes.
The same colleague also noted that in his measurement of cassette calibration tapes all of them were hot at the high end. The ones prior to the Prague Compromise were hotter than the ones after, but all were hotter than what the standard states.
A hot calibration tape will cause the repro EQ to be turned down. Adjusting record EQ to match playback EQ will mean that the tapes recorded on a machine calibrated with a hot calibration tape will be hot. Tapes recorded on machines that meet the standard will play back sounding dull on machines calibrated with the hot calibration tapes.
Please note, according to IASA TC04 IEC Type I tape reached its final equalization curve in 1974, and that was 3180/120 µs, and the change was in the low end from 1590 to 3180 µs. IEC Type II and IV tape reached their final equalization in 1970, and that was 3180/70 µs. |
La Brea Tar Pits, an area in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, where there is a natural accumulation of sticky asphalt derived from an ancient petroleum seep. The asphalt contains the bones of thousands of Ice Age animals that became trapped in it. Excavations begun in 1906 have yielded bones of saber-toothed tigers, big wolves, mastodons, giant ground sloths, bisons, camels, elephants, and lions. At an observation pit visitors can see some remaining fossils. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art covers part of the tar pits. Specimens from the pits are in the George C. Page La Brea Discoveries Museum in the park.
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Turning night into day for a few moments while belching clouds of smoke and steam, Space Shuttle Discovery hurtles into the black sky on mission STS-103. The successful liftoff occurred at 7:50 p.m. EST from Launch Pad 39B. On board are Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr., Pilot Scott J. Kelly and Mission Specialists Steven L. Smith, C. Michael Foale (Ph.D.), John M. Grunsfeld (Ph.D.), Claude Nicollier of Switzerland and Jean-Frangois Clervoy of France. Nicollier and Clervoy are with the European Space Agency. STS-103 is a Hubble Servicing Mission, with three planned space walks designed to install new equipment and replace old. The primary objective is to replace the gyroscopes that make up the three Rate Sensor Units. Extravehicular activities include installing a new computer, changing out one of the Fine Guidance Sensors, replacing a tape recorder with a new solid state recorder, and installing a voltage/temperature improvement kit, and begin repairing the insulation on the telescope's outer surface. After the 7-day, 21-hour mission, Discovery is targeted to land at KSC Monday, Dec. 27, at about 5:24 p.m. EST. This is the 27th flight of Discovery and the 96th mission in the Space Shuttle Program. It is the third launch at Kennedy Space Center in 1999. (Photo Release Date: 12/19/1999 )
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If a recognizable person appears in this photograph, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA of a commercial product. These photographs are available for preview and download in electronic digital form ONLY. They may not be ordered from NASA in photograph form. (See NASA Copyright Notice) |
Too many people rely on stats that purport to measure “averages” to guide their search marketing campaigns, and they are all potentially harmful. I am the opposite—you could say that I am passionate about accuracy when it comes to analytics and when it comes to all forms of measuring your marketing campaigns. In this article I will outline scenarios where being a stickler for detail can have a large impact on the success of your campaign. The focus of the scenarios outlined will be on pay per click (PPC) campaigns, but the general concept of striving for the highest possible accuracy applies to any type of marketing effort.
Below, a look at common measures that can have a potentially harmful effect on a search marketing campaign if not used appropriately.
Cost per action (CPA) vs. return on ad spend (ROAS)
One of the popular methods for tracking results is to calculate the cost per action (CPA). Basically, with this method you calculate how much it costs you for each action generated on a per keyword, per ad group, or per ad campaign basis. This method works great when the value of each sale is exactly the same.
Many companies, or their agencies, use the CPA model even when the revenue event is not identical in every case. In principle, this concept can actually work for you. Let’s say you know that your average sale online is $50, and you are willing to spend half of that on a sale. You could set your CPA goals to $25 and manage to achieve those goals and probably be OK.
However, you are most likely leaving some money on the table in this scenario. We have seen clients that have great variability in the value of each sale who were running their campaign in a CPA model. They were, in fact, doing OK with this approach to their search engine marketing campaigns.
The problem is that the sales do not have equal value. You could have one product that sells for $200, and a bunch of products that sell at $25. If one of your key phrases is driving the $200 product sales in a big way, why handicap it with a CPA of $25? Clients of ours that have adjusted from CPA to ROAS have seen significant gains.
Revenue vs. margin (or ROAS vs. MOAS)
I’d venture to say that nearly every search marketer is in the habit of tracking revenue in PPC campaigns and using that as the basis of adjusting bid prices. In general this is OK, provided that you are setting your ROAS goals that provide enough return so that it provides you with the desired volume and profit from your campaign.
But, once again, the law of averages leaves money on the table. Even if all your products sell for $50, some of them may have 10% margin, and others may have 70% margin. For exactly the same reasons you want to focus on ROAS instead of CPA, you may want to focus on margin instead of revenue.
It’s actually usually quite easy to do. In any ROAS based system, you end up implementing some web application that plugs the correct revenue number into an analytics script at the completion of every transaction. Well, instead of plugging in the revenue number, try plugging in the actual margin on the sale. This is sweet fine tuning in action!
Cost Per Lead vs. Actual Revenue (again)
There are plenty of businesses that don’t complete their transactions on site. For example, in the financial services industry a phone conversation is almost always necessary to close a sale. Yet these types of businesses can develop lots of business from the web. They just need to use a cost per lead model, and this works reasonably well for people lacking other options for measurement.
However, like all estimating techniques, there are hidden lies in the cost per lead model. Recently, I was speaking to Adam Goldberg of ClearSaleing, and he provided me with 2 specific examples of this. The first one is an auto loan client of theirs:
As you can see in the example, the cost per lead of the two campaigns is almost identical, but the refinance campaign produces more than 20 times as much revenue as the new loan campaign. There is a clear reason to treat these differently. Of course, once you realize this, you can use a different cost per lead model for both campaigns. But let’s look at another example:
In this one a cost per lead model would be telling you to shut your Google campaign off and scale up your Yahoo campaign. This would actually be disastrous, and quite the opposite approach is what should be taken—bids on Yahoo should be tweaked to get it to be profitable, and the Google campaign should be scaled.
Clearsaleing is a tool that allows you to reconcile actual transaction data with your marketing spend online. As you can see, this can have quite a dramatic impact.
We do need to make best guesses in a lot of what we do. It’s a fact of life, and we should not shy away from it as long as the approach is mathematically sound. But, when you can, eliminate those sources of error and you will usually be well rewarded. Better still, since many of your competitors may not put in that extra effort, this could create a competitive advantage for you.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. |
Issue OverviewInformation Security magazine - June 2010
This month’s cover story is on useful and affordable encryption options for preventing data loss in your organization’s riskiest endpoints. Other articles in this issue cover cloud security, Symantec’s recent acquisitions, compliance management, and a debate over hiring convicted hackers. Read these great articles and more in this month’s issue. Access >>>
Premium Content for Free.
Cloud computing risks and how to manage them
by Tim Mather
Cloud computing alters enterprise risk. Here's what you need to know in order to safely navigate the cloud.
Use full disk or file/folder encryption for laptop data security
by Dave Shackleford
Learn about the options for protecting laptop data, including full disk encryption and file/folder encryption, and their associated deployment and management challenges.
- Cloud computing risks and how to manage them by Tim Mather
Symantec acquisitions cement encryption-as-a-feature
Symantec acquisitions of PGP and Guardian Edge future ensures that encryption is becoming less of a standalone security tool.
Demystifying governance, risk and compliance
by David Schneier
GRC aims to bring together disparate compliance efforts in the enterprise, but the concept has been stymied by a lack of clarity. Developing a GRC program requires three key steps.
- Symantec acquisitions cement encryption-as-a-feature
Don't keep quiet after a data security breach
by Kim Getgen and Kimberly Kiefer Peretti
Organizations who stay silent after a data security breach end up paying a higher price and helping cybercriminals.
Weighing the risk of hiring hackers
Bruce Schneier and Marcus Ranum debate the risks associated with hiring hackers.
Information security spending shouldn't be driven by compliance
If you're spending more to protect custodial data because of compliance than you are to protect company secrets, you're missing the big picture.
- Don't keep quiet after a data security breach by Kim Getgen and Kimberly Kiefer Peretti
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Cloud and mobility in the enterprise has caused a heightened need for organizations to take a closer look at next generation authentication ...
Virtualization and cloud computing are part and parcel of enterprise networks today. Virtualization security, however, is still a bolt-on affair ...
Mobile device security is one of the biggest nightmares InfoSec pros face in the era of bring your own everything (BYOE). Simply banning employees ... |
XML Developer Tip
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click Edit your Profile to subscribe.)
XML and Internationalization
In past tips, I've touched
To that end, readers interested in using alternate character sets will find Chase's discussion of Internationalization both useful and informative. So far, he's got a single piece on this topic available posted on 12/11/2003, entitled "Internationalization." This section of his XML Guide introduces the topics and terms involved in invoking character encodings in XML documents with examples and discussions of ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, and UTF-16. In future postings on this topic, he'll describe and show how to invoke other ISO-8859 character sets, as well as specific ranges of UTF-8 and UTF-16 character codes. For authors working in various foreign languages (especially those with character sets not already included in some ISO-8859-X character set) this should prove pretty darn helpful.
In the meantime, those interested in learning more about what's available in the ISO-8859 character encodings will find the following markup and information of great interest.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1">
This markup is an XML processing instruction (aka PI) that explains to the XML parser what version of XML is in use, along with the specific character encoding to apply. Those wishing to explore other items of the ISO-8859 specification should examine this table:
|ISO-8859-1||Latin-1||ASCII plus most Western European languages, including Albanian, Afrikaans, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Finnish, Flemish, Galician, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Scottish, Spanish, and Swedish. Omits certain Dutch, French, and German characters.|
|ISO-8859-2||Latin-2||ASCII plus most Central European languages, including Czech, English, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Croatian, Slovak, Slovene, and Serbian.|
|ISO-8859-3||Latin-3||ASCII plus characters required for English, Esperanto, German, Maltese, and Galician.|
|ISO-8859-4||Latin-4||ASCII plus most Baltic languages, including Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Greenlandic, and Lappish; now superseded by ISO-Latin-6.|
|ISO-8859-5||(none)||ASCII plus Cyrillic characters for Slavic languages, including Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian.|
|ISO-8859-6||(none)||ASCII plus Arabic characters.|
|ISO-8859-7||(none)||ASCII plus Greek characters.|
|ISO-8859-8||(none)||ASCII plus Hebrew.|
|ISO-8859-9||Latin-5||Latin-1 except that some Turkish symbols replace Icelandic ones.|
|ISO-8859-10||Latin-6||ASCII plus most Nordic languages, including Latvian, Lithuanian, Inuit, non-Skolt Sami, and Icelandic.|
|ISO-8859-11||(none)||ASCII plus Thai.|
|ISO-8859-12||Latin-7||ASCII plus Celtic.|
|ISO-8859-13||Latin-8||ASCII plus the Baltic Rim characters.|
|ISO-8859-14||Latin-9||ASCII plus Sami (Finnish).|
|ISO-8859-15||Latin-10||Variation on Latin-1 that includes Euro currency sign, plus extra accented Finnish and French characters.|
Some of you may be more familiar with the script names for these character sets, but you should use the ISO-8859-n notation in your XML processing instructions to make sure you invoke the correct character set. You may also find ISO-8859-15 interesting, because it represents the most useful alternate to ISO-8859-1 for European applications, given its support for most relevant languages and the Euro symbol. For more information on any given character set, visit your favorite search engine and search on its ISO standard number. Also be aware that various XML processors and parsers may or may not support ISO-8859 character sets numbered higher than 1; experimentation is urged to check compliance.
About the Author
Ed Tittel is a VP of Content Development & Delivery at CapStar LLC, an e-learning company based in Princeton, NJ. Ed runs a small team of content developers and project managers in Austin, TX, and writes regularly on XML and related vocabularies and applications. E-mail Ed at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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This was first published in December 2003 |
Olympic torches hot auction item as Summer Games near
CNN reported at least six torches have been sold on the major auction site eBay since the start of the relay May 19, with all going for at least $150,000,
The Yomiuri Shimbun
LONDON — As the July 27 opening of the London Olympic Games approaches, an increasing number of torchbearers are selling their used torches in Internet auctions for more than $100,000.
The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games has fueled the fire, with about 50 used torches up for auction on its official website.
The gold-colored torches, 31.5 inches long and weighing about 1.8 pounds, are made of aluminum. The Olympic flame will ultimately be carried by 8,000 torchbearers over an 8,000-mile relay.
Bearers were chosen from people recommended by sports organizations, local communities and others. Torchbearers can buy their torches for about $300 after they finish their run.
CNN reported at least six torches have been sold on the major auction site eBay since the start of the relay May 19, with all going for at least $150,000, it said. Most of the torches were auctioned to raise money for charity, but there have been reports of trouble involving the sales.
Horticultural expert Sarah Simonds, 39, tried to sell the torch she carried May 21 to raise money for children in impoverished communities. It attracted about 200,000 bids, the highest of which was about $238,260, but payment was not made.
Rick Clement, a 32-year-old former British Army sergeant who lost both legs to a mine in Afghanistan, put up for auction a torch he carried in a wheelchair, to raise money for the disabled.
Although the torch attracted many bids, Clement withdrew it from the auction Wednesday, saying he was sorry but had changed his mind.
He now plans to auction the torch at a charity event in November.
The Olympics initially distanced itself from torch sales, saying it was up to torchbearers whether to sell them.
But the organizer put some torches that bearers did not buy up for auction on its website June 20, to cover the Games' operating costs.
One of the torches put up for sale was carried by former England soccer captain David Beckham; it sold for more than $20,185. |
Since my initial article about Sony (SNE) in May '12, its common stock has returned about 60% compared to a gain of 26% for the S&P 500 (see graph). Despite these excellent numbers, investors in Sony should be wary and consider the underlying reasons for this rally, which may be short-lived. The main reason is that Sony continues to change its strategy every decade and, currently, the company is disposing of assets following a few years of building partnerships with other companies. Second, it had an unimpressive fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2013. Third, the company issued a convertible financing that is likely to cause significant dilution. And, finally, news that an influential hedge fund acquired a significant stake in Sony is not likely to change Sony's fundamentals or situation.
Sony's changing strategy
The 1980s and 1990s were the golden years for Sony. During that period, the company dominated the consumer electronics business and was the top company for TV sets and music players. Sony's decline in the 21st century is often given as an example what companies should not do. The early 2000s were the years of partnerships for Sony. During those years, Sony befriended such international companies as IBM (IBM), Samsung, Microsoft (MSFT), Sun Micro-systems, Philips (PHG), Texas Instruments (TI), General Motors (GM), Sandisk (SNDK), Ericsson (ERIC), Yahoo! (YHOO), Visteon (VC), Universal Display (PANL), Computer Associates (CA), Nokia (NOK), and Intel (INTC). The list of Japanese companies that partnered or collaborated with Sony during this period is also impressive.
In 2008, things started to change perhaps first with the sale of The Sony Center am Potsdamer Platz, an urban entertainment complex in Berlin, Germany with over 130 thousand square meters, to a group including Morgan Stanley (MS). In the next several years Sony disposed of other major real estate properties in Japan and New York City. Around 2009, its strategy shifted as Sony probably realized that collaborations can get a business only so far and disposed of a number of non-core businesses including Sony's measuring systems business, its retail operations, the surface-mount business (into a new company), its commercial digital photo business, and all of the chemical products businesses. At the same time, Sony bought back its partners' shares in its joint ventures with Toshiba, Epson, and Ericsson. It remains to be seen if Sony's recent reorganizations will payout for stakeholders in the company.
Following a few years without making any profit, Sony finally generated a profit of $458 million during the year ended March 31, 2013 on sales of $72.4 billion. The performance by segment during this period is as follow:
Imaging products & solutions - $7.8 billion in sales (down 4.1% year-over-year (YOY)) and $15 million operating income (down 92.3% YOY)
Game - $7.5 billion in sales (down 12.2% YOY) and $18 million operating income (down 94.1%)
Mobile products & communications - $13.4 billion in sales (up 18% YOY on a pro forma basis as the Ericsson part in this business was acquired the year before) and an operating loss of $1 billion, entirely due to a re-measurement gain in connection with buying out Ericsson the previous year.
Home entertainment & sound - $10.6 billion in sales (down 22.5% YOY) and an operating loss of $897 million, which was more than half the operating loss in the previous year.
Devices - $9 billion in revenues (down 17.3% YOY) and $467 million operating profit from an operating loss the year before.
Pictures - $7.8 billion in revenues (up 11.4% YOY) and $509 million in operating profit (up 40.1% YOY).
Music - sales of $4.7 billion (unchanged) and $396 million of operating profit (up 1% YOY)
Financial services - sales of $10.7 billion (up 15.6% YOY) and $1.6 billion in operating income (up 10.9% YOY)
While profitability is significantly better in the past fiscal year, Sony's cash inflow from operating activities decreased by 7.3% to $5.1 billion. Alarmingly, the company raised about $2 billion of zero-coupon convertible bonds that can be converted in five years into Sony shares at a price of 957 yens per share. Sony's stock price recently traded at around 2,000 yens per share. Assuming the stock price stays near that level in the next five years, investors in the convertible bonds could double their investment in five years. Sony finished the year with $8.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet and it seems like this expensive and potentially dilutive convertible offering could and should have been avoided.
Operationally, in the U.S. in the past few months Sony Pictures TV announced the Fall '13 launch of getTV, which will reach 44% of U.S. TV households and will digitally broadcast Hollywood movies from Sony's library. Also, it launched the first of its new concept in-Mall stores or pop-up ministores that will carry a limited number of inventory items. Internationally, Sony announced the launch of a water resistant tablet and Sony Pictures Television secured the rights to sell Netflix's (NFLX) political drama House of Cards internationally and acquired a 50% stake in a popular telenovela channel in Indonesia. While important, these are not major achievements that are likely to change Sony's fortunes.
What put Sony in the headlines in the past few months was the interest in the company by a hedge fund. Third Point, owned by Daniel Loeb, is known for acquiring stakes in companies and requesting major changes to boost share value and board seats. Loeb is well known for his interference with Yahoo! After revealing that Yahoo!'s CEO at the time, Scott Thompson, did not have a computer science degree he successfully placed himself and two of his nominees on Yahoo! Board of directors. However, it is not likely that he would be successful in gaining a seat on Sony's board as Sony is much more influential in Japan than Yahoo! is in the U.S. Most likely, the involvement of a hedge fund manager with Sony will have a short-term effect on Sony's stock price.
Sony's investment picture is not very clear. The company has made a number of restructurings which have brought profitability back. However, it still lacks a leadership position in any of the areas it operates in. In addition, the issuance of a $2 billion convertible bond when Sony's shares were clearly undervalued is a very questionable move. It seems like Sony is vulnerable of losing more market share in its electronics businesses (including games, mobile, and consumer electronics) while running its music and movie business without gaining any leverage from these highly coveted assets. At this time investors could be better served if they follow Sony from a distance. |
- The Governor's Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery
- The mission of the Governor's Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery is to aid Missourians' recovery plans by developing and implementing a holistic approach to disaster recovery, maximizing public and private resources to facilitate an efficient and effective integrated system addressing human services, housing, infrastructure, community and economic development issues.
- Missouri VOAD
- The main goal of Missouri Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster (Missouri VOAD) is to increase disaster recovery cooperation, coordination, communication, education, and to improve legislation dealing with disaster response, recovery and mitigation.
- Missouri Emergency Response Commission (MERC)
- The Missouri Emergency Response Commission’s (MERC) mission is to protect public health and the environment by assisting communities with chemical incident prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the important spatial data they contain can be critical tools in emergency management. During an emergency or disaster in Missouri, SEMA’s GIS Program harnesses GIS technology to better assess and visualize damage statewide, develop response priorities and logistics planning, and to track progress throughout the response. SEMA GIS also provides important geospatial services that aid in mitigation efforts.
Administrative & Fiscal
- Emergency Management Performance Grants
- The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) Program provides resources to the State Emergency Management Agency and local government emergency management agencies, for the sustainment and enhancement of all-hazard emergency management capabilities.
Logistics and Resources Management Branch
- Missouri Disaster Logistics Management Section Programs
- The Logistics Section is responsible for disaster logistics planning, training, preparedness, response and recovery operations. Learn more about these programs by visiting the Logistics and Resources Management Branch page.
- Missouri Disaster Resources Management Programs
- The Resources Section is responsible for disaster resources planning, training, preparedness, response and recovery operations. Learn more about these programs by visiting the Logistics and Resources Management Branch page.
- Mitigation Management
- The efforts of the Mitigation Section are designed to avoid or lessen the adverse impact that disasters have on people and property in Missouri.
- Missouri Floodplain Management/Floodplain Insurance Programs
- The Floodplain Management Section administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for the state of Missouri. Most homeowner insurance does not cover flood damage, so the purchase of specific flood insurance may be necessary. For those who live in a mapped high risk Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), federal law compels federally backed mortgage lenders to require the purchase of flood insurance. This section works with NFIP participating communities to ensure they comply with the requirements of the program, which provides nearly $4 billion in flood insurance coverage for homes and businesses in Missouri. SEMA also is a Cooperating Technical Partner (CTP) with FEMA in the production of Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRM) under the federal “Risk Map” modernization program. In addition, the section partners with the Missouri Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association (MFSMA) and others to offer NFIP training for local floodplain managers, planners, insurance agents, elected officials, engineers and surveyors, lenders and realtors.
Operations, Training & Exercise
- Training and Exercises
- The Emergency Management Training (EMT) curriculum delivered by SEMA offers an extensive array of training opportunities for Missouri state and local emergency managers, public officials, members of volunteer assistance organizations, and professionals in related fields. The EMT program has proven offers comprehensive courses in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Jurisdictions across Missouri have found that the best way to respond to a disaster is by preparing in advance with training activities and using the skills learned to build effective local teams and coalitions.
- Earthquake Program
- The Earthquake Program informs Missourians about the earthquake risk associated with the New Madrid Seismic Zone and recommends safety and mitigation steps that can be taken to prepare for earthquakes and their potential consequences.
- Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) Program
- The Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program (REP) develops plans, training, and exercises to assist jurisdictions surrounding commercial nuclear power plants respond to potential scenarios that might occur.
Planning & Disaster Recovery
- All-Hazard Planning Program
- The All-Hazard Planning Program has primary responsibility for providing planning guidance and assistance to state departments, agencies, and local governments so that they can develop and maintain all-hazard (e.g. tornadoes, severe weather, flooding) emergency operations plans (EOPs).
- SAVE Coalition
- The Missouri Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) Coalition
is a group of volunteer engineers, architects, building inspectors and other
trained professionals that assists the Missouri State Emergency Management
Agency with building damage inspections. After a disaster, SAVE volunteers
are trained to move quickly to determine which buildings are safe to use
and which should be evacuated.
- Statewide Area Coordinator Program
- SEMA’s Area Coordinator's (AC) are the state's liaisons to local jurisdictions for emergency management activities. They assist local jurisdictions in all aspects of emergency management, including emergency operations plan development and revision, training and exercises. The state of Missouri is divided into nine areas, A-I, that correspond with the Missouri State Highway Patrol troops. The nine area coordinators provide assistance to Missouri’s 114 counties and their associated jurisdictions, and the independent City of St. Louis.
- State Public Assistance Program
- The State Public Assistance program provides an organizational structure for the administration of federal grants to eligible public entities for the repair and restoration of damaged public facilities within a federally-declared disaster area. Such entities include state agencies, local governments, and certain private, non-profit organizations.
- Individuals and Households Program
- The Individuals and Households Program (IHP) program provides state-federal assistance to individuals and families for uninsured critical emergency needs when authorized in a federally-declared disaster. |
In addition to the info on Why do people tell me not to use VLANs for security? here are some more specific & general bits to consider:
General Thoughts on Security
The most secure system is one where each subnet's hosts are connected to a switch having exactly the number of ports that will be used by connected devices. In such a configuration you can't plug random machines into your secure networks, since doing so would require unplugging something (and theoretically your monitoring system would notice that).
VLANs give you something similar in terms of security, breaking your switch up into smaller virtual switches (virtual LANs: VLANs) that are isolated from each other logically, and with proper configuration can appear to all the systems connected to them as if they were physically isolated.
General Thoughts on relatively-secure VLAN Setups
My practice for VLAN-capable switches is that all traffic must be assigned to a VLAN, with the following basic configuration:
Assign all unused ports to an "unused" VLAN.
All ports connecting to a specific computer should be assigned natively to the VLAN that computer should be in. These ports should be in one and only one VLAN (barring certain exceptions that we'll ignore for now).
On these ports all incoming packets (to the switch) are tagged with the native VLAN, and outgoing packets (from the switch) will (a) only originate from the assigned vlan, and (b) be untagged and appear just like any regular ethernet packet.
The only ports that should be "VLAN trunks" (ports in more than one VLAN) are trunk ports -- those carrying traffic between switches, or connecting to a firewall that will split up the VLAN traffic on its own.
On the trunk ports the vlan tags coming in to the switch will be respected, and vlan tags will not be stripped from packets leaving the switch.
The configuration described above means that the only place you can easily inject "VLAN hopping" traffic is on a trunk port (barring a software problem in your switches' VLAN implementation), and much like in the "most secure" scenario this means unplugging something important and causing a monitoring alarm. Similarly if you unplug a host to connect to the VLAN it lives in your monitoring system should notice that host's mysterious disappearance and alert you.
In both of these cases we're talking about an attack involving physical access to the servers -- While it may not be completely impossible to break VLAN isolation it is at a minimum very difficult in an environment set up as described above.
Specific Thoughts on VMWare and VLAN Security
VMWare Virtual Switches can be assigned to a VLAN -- When these virtual switches are connected to a physical interface on the VMWare host any traffic emitted will have the appropriate VLAN Tag.
Your VMWare machine's physical interface would need to be connected to a VLAN trunk port (carrying the VLANs that it will need access to).
In cases like this it is doubly important to pay attention to VMWare Best Practices for separating the Management NIC from the Virtual Machine NIC: Your Management NIC should be connected to a native port in an appropriate VLAN, and your Virtual Machine NIC should connect to a trunk that has the VLANs the virtual machines need (which ideally shouldn't carry the VMWare Management VLAN).
In practice enforcing that separation, in concert with the items I mentioned and what I'm sure others will come up with, will yield a reasonably secure environment. |
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0634 Sunday, 9 November 2008
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: Sunday, November 09, 2008
Subject: First Folios in the News
Over the past week or so, two major stories about First Folios have been in the
news. I gathered my information for this report from various online resources
that I located primarily from Google News.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether
that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was
born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve
o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike,
and I began to cry, simultaneously.
I cannot be as sure as David Copperfield about the birth of the idea for the
collection of the plays of William Shakespeare, published in November of 1623 as
_Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies_. The established
London playwright died in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616.
Earlier, in January 1616, Shakespeare and his lawyer, Francis Collins, began
composing the latter's will, according to Peter Holland in his _ODNB_ biography
of Shakespeare, the writing of the will "probably provoked by the impending
marriage of his other daughter, Judith, to Thomas Quiney, son of Richard
Quiney," a neighbor with whom Shakespeare had had some financial dealings. In
late March after Judith and Thomas were married and Quiney's illegitimate child
was born and had died, Shakespeare made changes to the first page of the three
pages of his will. Many other changes were to follow, the best known being the
passage referring to his wife Anne: "Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed
with the furniture." Another addition, however, worth noting with regards to
this discussion of the origins of the First Folio is the interlineation in which
Shakespeare leaves bequeaths for the purchase of memorial rings "to my ffellowes
John Hemynges, Richard Burbage and Heny Cundell XXVIs VIIId A peece to buy them
Ringes." Richard died three years later, but Henry Condell and John Heminges
were to live on and publish in folio the collected works of their friend and
fellow, a book that has been called "incomparably the most important work in the
Peter Blayney, in the marvelous little catalog he wrote to accompany his 1991
Folger Library Exhibition on the First Folios in the Folger's collection,
address the importance of this book: "The book was a large folio (a format with
pages about as wide as those of a modern encyclopadia, but two or three inches
taller), and nothing quite like it had ever been published in folio before. The
folio format was usually reserved for works of reference (on such subjects as
theology, law, history, and heraldry) and for the collected writings of
important authors, both ancient (Homer, Tacitus, Saint Augustine) and modern
(Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Bishop Joseph Hall). / Plays written for the public
theatres, however, were generally viewed as fairly trivial works of popular
entertainment, unworthy of serious consideration as literature. In 1616 Ben
Jonson had included nine plays in a folio collection of his 'Workes', and
several of his contemporaries had jokingly suggested that he had forgotten the
difference between 'work' and 'play'. The First Folio of 1623 was not only the
first collected edition of Shakespeare-it was the first folio book ever
published in England that was devoted exclusively to plays."
On December 10, 1998, staff at Durham University who had been dismantling an
exhibition of English literature noticed that a First Folio and six other
valuable books/manuscripts were missing from a display case in the Bishop Cosin
Library. These cases were covered by cloths to protect the books from being
damaged by light, so the exact day of the theft could not be determined.
Some ten years later, on June 16, 2008, a 51-year-old Britain, John Scott,
brought a 17th-century book with him to the Folger Shakespeare Library, where he
met with head librarian Richard J. Kuhta. (Incidentally, for anyone who might
not know, Richard Kuhta, the Eric Weinmann Librarian at the Folger, will retire
in December: http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2766. When the time draws
nearer, I plan to share some of my stories about this wonderful man and will
invite others to do so.) Scott claimed that he had obtained the book from a
friend of his 21-year-old "fiancee," Heidy Garcia Rios, a nightclub dancer.
Scott's story was that his fiancee's friend, Odeiny Perez, a former bodyguard
for Castro, asked Scott to take the book, which had been in his family since
1877, out of Cuba to be authenticated. Kuhta told Scott that he wanted to have
Stephen Massey, an independent expert, examine the volume, so Scott left the
book at the Folger Library and returned to his home at Washington, Tyne and
Wear, in northeast England, (less than fifteen miles from Durham University).
Several weeks later, Massey informed Scott that he suspected that the book was
the First Folio that was stolen from Durham University: Scott was arrested,
released on bail, and scheduled to be arraigned on November 11, according to the
On Friday, 24 October 2008, a decade after it was taken from Durham University's
library, the recovered First Folio was flown from the US back to a secret
location in North East England, where it is being held in police custody as
On October 28, 2008, Raymond Scott launched a legal fight of his own to get the
First Folio back, demanding that Christopher Higgins, the Vice Chancellor of
Durham University turn over to him the First Folio so that he can prove that it
is not the copy that was stolen from the University ten years earlier.
On November 6, Scott, the prime suspect in the theft of the Durham University's
First Folio was re-arrested and brought in for more questioning after new
evidence was found.
On November 9, Scott was released again on bail.
A story in the Guardian Newspaper
reports that American collector John Wolfson has pledged to give his
multi-million pound collection of Shakespeare manuscripts to the Globe Theatre
upon his death. Wolfson is donating 450 texts to the theatre, including a First
Folio of Shakespeare's complete works, printed in 1616, a Second Folio (1632), a
second edition of the Third Folio (1664), and a Fourth Folio (1685). Wolfson has
pledged his collection to the Globe Theatre, the sole beneficiary of the more
than 450 works in the collection, which in addition to the Shakespeare texts
includes works by Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Thomas Middleton, and John
Ford, among others.
Wolfson said: "What happens to most collections, unfortunately, is that they get
broken up. Having witnessed the break up of many collections, I consider myself
fortunate to have found a place for my books at Shakespeare's Globe. Here it
will be possible for the collection, which I have put together, to remain
together, and to be used to great advantage by students, scholars, and educators
for generations to come."
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions
expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no
responsibility for them. |
2013 Savar building collapse
The 2013 Savar building collapse was an incident where an eight story building, the Rana Plaza, collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, Bangladesh. 1129 people died. Another one thousand or more received injuries of varying levels. The building contained clothing factories, other shops and a bank. It collapsed during the morning rush hour. Warnings to avoid using the building because of cracking appearing the day before were ignored, resulting in a tragedy. This was thought to be the worst industrial accident in the history of Bangladesh.
References[change | edit source]
- Edwards, Michael (26 April 2013). "Up to 1,000 feared dead after Bangladesh factory collapse". ABC News (Australia). http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-26/up-to-1000-feared-dead-after-bangladesh-factory-collapse/4652206. Retrieved 26 April 2013. |
Found a biker physicist blog and came across this little gem, basically it says for the amount of energy needed to spin up and maintain speed with lighter vs heavier wheels it makes little difference overall (except to your pocket).
The total mass of a light rider (60 kg) plus bike (8kg) plus associated gear like helmets and water bottles (2 kg) is roughly 70 kg. Of that mass, the wheels (including tires and tubes) account for roughly 2 kg of that number. The total kinetic energy of a cyclist is therefore:
KEtotal = KEwheels + KE bike =
Where v is the linear velocity, I is the moment of inertia and r is the radius of the wheels. Now let's say that we're moving at 10 m/s (36 km/hr).
KE wheels = (100 J + 20 J) = 120 J.
KE bike = 3400 J.
So you can see that the wheels account for about 3% of the total kinetic energy of a cyclist. The rest, 97%, is dedicated to overcoming the inertia of you and the rest of your gear. Therefore, a large change in your wheels is going to have a relatively small effect. However, a moderate change in body mass is going to have a huge effect. That said, small changes can add up to big ones.
My point is that changing your wheels will not dramatically change how fast you go. It will make a small, but significant change. You should also beware anyone who tells you that brand X wheels give you a 3 km/hr advantage. They probably don't. As shown above, a 10% change in wheels gives less than 1% change in total mass and kinetic energy.
The full text is on here: http://www.bikephysics.com/paper.htm#analysis |
Are clients logged in via a shell to the server? Rather than setting the DISPLAY variable to their IP address, I highly recommend using SSH and some sort of client (openssh on Linux, PuTTY on Windows) that will automagically set the DISPLAY variable when you login.
The procedure would look like this:
- Start an X server the client (eXceed, Xorg, etc)
- Use PuTTY/SSH to login to the server with X11 forwarding turned on (-X for openssh, Connection | SSH | X11 for PuTTY)
- Start the X11 program
The nice thing about this setup is that it's easy to tell if the client has an X server running - the DISPLAY variable will be set if so, but unset if not.
You say that you want to start a session on the Windows client when they login - do you want to see, for example, a login similar to what you would see if you were at the machine? In that case, you might want to use XDMCP. |
When selecting texts in HTML documents, one can start from within one DOM element to another element, possibly passing over several other elements on the way. Using DOM API, it is possible to get the range of the selection, the selected texts, and even the parent element of all those selected DOM elements (using commonAncestorContainer or parentElement() based on the used browser). However, there is no way I am aware of that can list all those containing elements of the selected texts other than getting the single parent element that contains them all. Using the parent and traversing the children nodes won't do it, as there might be other siblings which are not selected inside this parent.
So, is there is a way that I can get all these elements that contains the selected texts. I am mainly interested in getting the block elements (p, h1, h2, h3, ...etc) but I believe if there is a way to get all the elements, then I can go through them and filter them to get what I want. I welcome any ideas and suggestions. |
A straightforward way of writing a range of lines to file and deleting them
afterwards is to run the command
:$-9,$w path | '[,']d
However, it is inconvenient for frequent use if the file name is not constant.
Below is the function
MoveToFile() implementing the command with the same
name. The whole thing wraps the following two steps: write a range of lines
:write command (see
:help :w_a), then
delete that range.1
command! -nargs=* -complete=file -range=% -bang -bar MoveToFile
\ :<line1>,<line2>call MoveToFile(<q-args>, <bang>0)
function! MoveToFile(fname, overwrite) range
let r = a:firstline . ',' . a:lastline
exe r 'w' . ' !'[a:overwrite] . fnameescape(a:fname)
exe r 'd'
Now you can use the above command to cover all frequent use cases. For
example, to move visually selected range of lines to file use the mapping
:vnoremap <leader>m :MoveToFile
This mapping triggers semi-complete command calling
:MoveToFile for the
range of lines selected in Visual mode (
'<,'>). You need only to type
a file name and hit Enter.
If you frequently do this for the last ten lines of a buffer, create a similar
mapping just for this case:
:nnoremap <leader>m :$-9,$MoveToFile
1 Specified lines are deleted into the default register
overwriting its previous contents. To delete lines without affecting
registers change the last command in
exe r 'd_'
In this case
:delete uses the black hole register (see
:help :d and
"_) instead of the default one. |
Its scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias. We know it as a Great White Shark. But, this is no ordinary shark. The mature female Great White is a monster, measuring in a 16 feet long and weighing more than 34-hundred pounds! What's more: this huge fish is currently prowling off the Carolina Coastline near Myrtle Beach.
How do we know this? Because scientists are tracking it via satellite GPS technology. The scientists are from OCEARCH Research Group, all for the purpose of shark...
Top Local Stories
check photo URL display on WHIZ feed |
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance in which the participant's entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. Though stepping may be performed by an individual, it is generally performed by groups of three or more, often in arrangements that resemble military formations.
Stepping may also draw from elements of gymnastics, tap dance, march, or African and Caribbean dance, or include semi-dangerous stunts as a part of individual routines. Some forms of stepping include the use of props, such as canes, rhythm sticks and/or fire and blindfolds.
The tradition of African American stepping is rooted within the competitive schoolyard song and dance rituals practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, beginning in the mid-1900s From WIKIPEDIA
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wall O' Cereal
Candy and I love Glenn's Diner right down the street from us. Good steak and lots of seafood.
Huge box of cereal.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Chicago's Poverty-This Ain't New
Very good video of Brian Schodorf if you be patient through the ads...
"This film is an exploration of how the drug afflicted homeless population affects society as a whole with exclusive interviews with Chicago's top social and political leaders. Schodorf's relationship with the men allows the viewer to get a true inside look at what life is like as a permanent resident of the streets. Poverty in Chicago, also, investigates the devestating loss of over 150 lives in the winter of 2006 at the hand of a deadly heroin epidemic. "Ive told you. Now, I'm going to show you," says one homeless man who leads the crew through the most crime infested areas of Chicago's south and west sides, inside the drug trade itself"
Thursday, January 14, 2010
An Artist Friend Survives Haiti
Susan Frame, an artist and employee of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago went to Jacmel, Haiti a week ago. Sadfly, Sue's friend who she went to work with on an art project last week...did not survive the earthquake.
My friend Danny Mansmith is featured on page 59 of Modern Luxury magazine!!!! |
When the astronauts of Apollo 11 blasted into space 40 years ago, their Saturn 5 rocket stood more than 30 stories tall and weighed six and a half million pounds. When they returned to Earth eight days later, all that was left was a squat capsule just 10 feet tall and weighing a few thousand pounds.
Known as Columbia, that capsule is on display at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It's one of several Apollo-related exhibits around the country that's open to the public.
Full-size Saturn rockets are on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Apollo 11 was launched, and at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the home of Mission Control. And the control room where Gene Kranz and his team helped guide Apollo 11 to the Moon is one stop on the space center's public tours.
Bits of lunar rock and soil from several Apollo missions are on display at more than three dozen museums around the country.
Most of those samples are sealed behind glass. But three of them are "touchstones" -- you can rub your finger across them. They're at the National Air & Space Museum and the Johnson and Kennedy space centers.
The Apollo 11 astronauts left many other artifacts on the Moon -- from the descent stage of their lunar module to the backpacks from their spacesuits. Someday in the distant future, those artifacts may form a new tourist attraction -- for visitors to the Moon.
More about Apollo 11 tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2009
For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine. |
You've been into strength training for some time. And now you've decided to incorporate Olympic lifts. You want to Power Clean. But the problem is: you don't have bumper plates. You have normal rubber plates. What do you do?
Well you could buy a set of bumper plates. But this will cost you money. And you end up with twice the number of plates.
Better is to use 2 old tyres & wheels as bumper plates. Easy & cheap. Here's how to make your own bumper plates.
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Tyres & Wheels. Ask your local supplier for 2 old tyres & wheels. They'll often give you these for free. Choose tyres & wheels with these properties:
Diameter: 7,5cm (2,9") bigger than your plates.
Opening: 70mm (2,7") assuming you have 50mm Olympic barbells.
Flange. Next you'll need two flanges to fix the wheels on your barbell. These are the only things that will cost you money.
Barbell is 50mm thick. Wheels have a 70mm opening. 70-50 = 20. Divide that by 2. Flanges should be 10mm (0,39inch) thick to fit between barbell & wheels.
You can buy flanges or you can mold them yourself. Don't forget the 4 holes to attach them to your wheels.
If you've done the job right, the flanges will fit perfectly on your wheels.
Attach the flanges to your wheels using bolts.
Now you can put them on your barbell.
Outside collars to make sure they don't move. And you're ready to clean & snatch.
If you ever wake up with that 'just run over by a truck' feeling, you need a copy of Tim Hull's Functional Correction Manual. Not only will it help you to locate and repair the problem, it'll help prevent it happening in the future.
When it comes to body transformation - whether that's an increase in strength, packing on a bit of muscle or losing a bit of excess fat - this is the perfect place to start. Dr Berardi's Precision Nutrition.
If you've ever watched a Bruce Lee film and marveled at his strength, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility or muscularity, this book should take pride of place in your collection. Unlike many other writings covering everything from Lee's training methods to nutrition, this book is based not on the recollections of people around him; but on Lee's own notes. Brilliant.
For a full list of what we're reading and watching at the moment, just head over to the Recommended Books & DVDs page. See you there. |
- Distinct racial groups create a "culture": with that stated, Black people can assimilate to what is commonly known as "white culture" (though they will be shunned by their own community for 'acting white'); white people can assimilate to "Black culture" (though they will immediately be deemed 'wiggers'); Black people cannot create "white culture" and, in all cases, cannot sustain "white culture" when left on their own, but will revert back to "Black culture"; white people cannot create "Black culture," but, through gentrification, can remove negative elements of "Black culture" that blighted a city or neighborhood and depreciated property value. "Black Culture" follows Black people wherever they go, even if they attempt to assimilate to "white culture" (this is called the Black Undertow and it creates Climate Change).
|Black Undertow hospitals in America train our military for the horrors of war|
We already know that the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, University Hospital, and United States Air Force train emergency teams on how to evacuate wounded personnel in combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq by treating the cities Black gunshot and knife attack victims. The victims of the Black Undertow in Cincinnati provide the perfect opportunity and war zone atmosphere to prepare emergency crews for dealing with the horrors of war abroad. Here you can read how the Institute for Military Medicine brags about the partnership with the University of Cincinnati and how the Black Undertow in that city prepares emergency teams for horrors seen in war by proving a facsimile of a war zone on a daily basis.
Cincinnati isn't the only city with conditions - courtesy of the Black Undertow, a byproduct of "Black culture' - that resemble a war zone. The University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore also serves as training ground for military doctors, because the Black population of Baltimore engages in bellicose behavior on a daily basis that resembles the same conditions our troops will face overseas in hostile territory:
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reported this weekend on a program used to train military doctors for the fast-paced and bloody environment found in war zone hospitals — namely, America’s inner cities.
Starr follows a rotation of military doctors who are preparing for their deployment at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. The program director told Starr that the hospital is the closest to a war zone hospital he has seen:
No mention that Baltimore is a Black Undertow city, and that it is Black people and "Black culture" that makes the city unlivable and it is Black people (primarily Black homosexual males infecting each other and Black females) that give the city one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in America. But once again, the Black inhabitants of the Baltimore provide military doctors with real-life trauma experience that prepares them fully to psychologically survive the horrors of war and repair the bodies of our soldiers. After all, they have survived the horrors of Baltimore.COL. DAVID POWERS: The injuries that I’ve treated here and that I see here at this hospital are the closest thing to the injuries I saw in Iraq that I’ve experienced in the continental United States.Watch a clip:
While the program is no doubt useful for preparing doctors for the high-intensity environments overseas and likewise giving doctors broad sets of skills they can use at home, that doctors can train for war zones through the crush of patients with, among other injuries, stabbing and gunshot wounds serve as a powerful reminder that as the wars overseas wind down, problems at home remain.
The total spending on the U.S.’ wars now exceeds $1.2 trillion. The Pentagon budget passed by the House earlier this month allocated nearly $200 billion this year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Baltimore ranks as the eighth most dangerous city, second in its reported HIV/AIDS rate, and is the heroin capital of the country.
But it's not just Cincinnati and Baltimore. The United States Air Force also uses St. Louis, another of the cities in America that the Black Undertow helped earn the dubious honor of such accolades as 'worst' and 'most dangerous', to train surgeons and emergency personnel. The US Army? They use Miami, where the Black Undertow - mixed with a lethal and combustible cocktail of Haitian, Cuban, and other immigrants from less-developed (i.e, non-white) nations - presents horrors for trauma surgeons and emergency personnel that would scare even George Romero and John Carpenter:
MIAMI — The trauma center's radio crackles an alert: A 34-year-old woman injured in an auto wreck is being brought in by helicopter. Parts of her scalp have been torn back, exposing her skull. Broken bones may be sticking out through the skin of her left leg. Her injuries may help save the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Miami's Black population and "Black culture" provide excellent training for the Army doctors and surgeons, who prepare for the horrors of war by repairing the bullet-ridden bodies of Black people and sewing up knife victims from the war zone in The Capital of Latin America.For two weeks, 28 Army medics, nurses, doctors and nurse anesthetists have been learning trauma medicine and teamwork under pressure at the Ryder Trauma Center at downtown Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, a place that sees such carnage it often resembles a war zone.
Ryder is one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation, seeing an average of 11 trauma patients a day -- about as many as the biggest military hospital in Iraq.
Jackson Memorial serves some of the city's most crime-ridden sections, and patients arriving at the trauma center have been stabbed, injured in grisly auto accidents, wounded in shootouts with high-powered assault weapons, or hurt in falls and fights.
The Army sends 10 forward surgical teams a year through Ryder, which was selected six years ago because of the volume of bloodshed. It is the Army's only trauma training center. The Air Force has similar programs in Baltimore, St. Louis and Cincinnati; the Navy's trauma program is in Los Angeles.
This time, the professionals being trained are Ohio reservists with the Army's 848th Forward Surgical Team. In their civilian lives, some of them raise families, tend bar, go to college or work for the post office. The team leader is Col. Michael Oddi, a 59-year-old thoracic surgeon in Akron, Ohio.
"My practice consists of a lot of surgery, but we don't do a lot of trauma surgery. So a program like this, to prepare us for acute, multiple casualties, really helped us on our last deployment, and it will help us again," Oddi said. "It is extremely busy here."
Because of budget cuts, the military must use Black Undertow cities in America to prepare trauma surgeons and emergency personnel because "Black culture" provides a 'war-like environment' on a seemingly endless basis in the so-called "inner city" of St. Louis:
The partnership between the Air Force and the hospital came about because of, in part, the downsizing of the military medical system that began more than a decade ago. The cuts closed military hospitals. As a result, most Air Force medical personnel now tend to work in smaller clinics and treat few serious injuries.
"They typically don't get to see gunshot and stab wounds," said Capt. Scott Fallin, administrator of the St. Louis program. "Being here in the inner city prepares them for some of the blunt-trauma injuries they will see." |
To borrow from the Shakespeare’s Juliet: “What's in a name? That which we call milk by any other name would taste as great...”
Alas, if you’re the National Milk Producers Federation, you’d have quite a bone to pick with Juliet. It’s been the group’s long-standing position that terms like “milk” should refer exclusively to dairy products from animals — not soybeans, almonds or rice.
“The FDA has allowed the meaning of ‘milk’ to be watered down to the point where many products that use the term have never seen the inside of a barn,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, in a release announcing a new petition drive to get the Food and Drug Administration to correct the “misappropriation of dairy terminology on imitation milk products.”
The organization, which last appealed to federal regulators in 2000 (without success), is reviving its campaign because the alternative dairy industry has grown beyond milk, and is now using terms like yogurt, ice cream and cheese to describe their non-dairy products.
“You don’t got milk if it comes from a hemp plant, you can’t say cheese if it’s made from rice, and faux yogurt can’t be made from soy and still be called yogurt,” says Kozak. In its petition, the NMPF notes that some manufacturers have adopted wording such as “cheeze” in order to circumvent the controversy.
But the NMPF has noticed and is asking dairy fans to help prod the FDA into action. The group has set up a special Facebook page that allows people to comment and post photos of non-dairy products such as rice milk, coconut milk ice cream and soy cheese.
The crux of the NMPF argument is that, by using dairy terminology, non-dairy alternatives are positioning themselves as equivalents when, in fact, they contain vastly different ingredients and vary widely in nutritional value.
That might be true enough, but I think that the answer to the dispute lies more in the basics — that is, the wording itself. Milk is a commodity. It’s considered by the government, and the industry itself, as a primary agricultural product. If the product is a commodity, what of the word used to describe it?
On the consumer level, there’s additional guidance favoring this common perception. Studies have shown there’s very little loyalty to one brand of milk over another; purchases are very much driven by price. For the NMPF to stand up and try to “brand” the commodity will be difficult, and I suspect that’s what gave the FDA poise last time.
This time around, though, the group might be arguing from a stronger position. Consumers are more choosey when it comes to dairy-based products like ice cream and cheese and yogurt. They are brand-loyal and brands are much stronger at this level of the dairy case.
Or, the FDA could dismiss this claim, too, saying yet again that a word is a word is a word… Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get the scotch tape so I can post the notice I xeroxed on the wall, unless I get a paper cut and need a band-aid first.
(Photo credit: j_lai) |
You can install SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition or SQL
Server 2005 Standard Edition to support failover clustering. The following table compares the two different editions when you install Analysis Services on a failover cluster.
Collapse this tableExpand this table
Edition of SQL Server 2005
Supported instances of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition supports many nodes as the underlying operating system supports.
For example, if you install SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition on a failover cluster that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you can add 8 nodes to the cluster.
SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
Note All the SQL Server 64-bit editions support failover clustering.
When you install a SQL Server 2005 x64 edition, both failover clustering and
management tools are supported. When you install a SQL Server 2005 edition for
Itanium-based systems, management tools are not supported.
How to install Analysis Services on a failover cluster
You can install Analysis Services with or without SQL Server 2005 on a failover cluster. To add SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services to an existing SQL Server 2005 cluster, see the "To add components to an existing, SQL Server 2005 cluster from the command prompt" section of the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:
On the Microsoft SQL Server Installation
page, the SQL Server Installation Wizard prepares to install the software. The
Installation Wizard proceeds when the preparation is completed.
On the Registration Information page,
type information in the Name and Company
boxes, and then click Next.
On the Components to Install page, click to select the Analysis Services check box and
the Create an Analysis Server failover cluster check box to
install Analysis Services on a failover cluster, and then click
You can click to select any combination of check boxes. When you
click to select the SQL Server Database Services check box or the
Analysis Services check box, if the Setup program detects that
you are installing to a cluster node, the Create a SQL Server failover
cluster check box or the Create an Analysis Server failover cluster
check box is selected.
You can choose not to install administration tools to
shorten the installation time. If you choose to install the tools, the tools
are only installed on the current cluster node.
On the Instance Name page, select a
default or named instance for your installation. If a default or named instance
is already installed and you select the existing instance for your
installation, the Setup program upgrades the existing instance and lets you install
To install a new default instance, no default instance should exist on the computer.
To install a new
named instance, click Named Instance, and then type a unique
For more information about
instance naming rules, visit the following MSDN Web site:
On the Virtual SQL Server Name page, type
a unique name for the clustered Analysis Services. This name is used to identify the failover cluster on the network. The virtual SQL Server
name must be unique on the network and must have a name that differs from the
host cluster and cluster nodes. Click
On the Virtual SQL Server Configuration
page, enter one IP address for each network that is configured for client access. For example, enter one IP address for each network on which the virtual SQL Server is
available to clients on a public (or mixed) network. Only one IP address is
allowed on each subnet.
To avoid IP address conflicts, make sure that
the IP address that is assigned to a subnet is not shared by any other
Select the network for which you want to enter an IP
address, enter the IP address, and then click Add. The IP
address and the subnet appear. Continue to enter IP addresses for each
installed network until you have populated all desired networks by using an IP
address. Then, click Next.
The Cluster Group Selection page appears.
information about virtual server configuration, visit the following MSDN Web site:
In the Available Cluster Groups list, click the group that contains the drive that you want to use for Analysis Services. If you click the group
that contains the cluster quorum resource, you receive a warning message that recommends that you do not install to the cluster quorum resource. You can also specify a
custom path for data files in the Data Files box. To
continue, click Next.
Note You can specify a custom path for data files that are used by
Analysis Services. However, you cannot specify a path for the program files.
The program files are automatically installed in the following folder:
SystemDrive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
For more information about cluster group selection, visit the
following MSDN Web site:
On the Cluster Node Configuration page,
specify the nodes to include in the virtual SQL Server. To add a node to the
virtual SQL Server, click the computer name in the Available
Nodes list, and then click Add. To remove a node from
the virtual SQL Server, click the computer name in the Selected
Nodes list, and then click Remove. Any nodes that are
unavailable appear in the Unavailable Nodes list.
To create a one-node failover cluster, only the node that will be
installed with the virtual SQL server should be listed in the Required
Node list. To continue, click Next.
more information about cluster node configuration, visit the following
MSDN Web site:
On the Remote Account Information page, specify the remote logon information by typing a username and a password for an account that has administrator rights on all nodes of the cluster. This page only appears if you are installing Analysis Services to a remote node. The credentials that you provide are only used during SQL Server setup to configure SQL Server on each node in the virtual SQL Server. This account must be a valid administrator account on all nodes of the cluster. To continue, click Next.
information about remote account information, visit the following MSDN Web site:
On the Service Accounts (Clusters) page,
specify the username, the password, and the domain name for Analysis Services accounts.
You cannot use the same account that was assigned to the cluster
For more information about cluster service accounts, visit
the following MSDN Web site:
On the Authentication Mode page, select
the authentication mode to use for your SQL Server installation. You must also
type and confirm a strong password for the System Administrator (sa) login. To
continue, click Next.
On the Collation Settings page, specify
the sorting behavior for Analysis Services. You can use one collation for SQL
Server and Analysis Services, or you can specify collations for individual
To set separate collation settings for SQL Server and for
Analysis Services, click to select the check box to customize for each service account.
After you click to select the check box, a drop-down list appears. Select a
service from the drop-down list, and then assign the collation for the service. Repeat
this step for each service. To continue, click Next.
information about collation settings, visit the following MSDN Web site:
On the Error and Usage Report Settings
page, optionally click to clear the check boxes to disable error reporting or feature
usage reporting. To continue, click Next.
On the Ready to Install page, review the
summary of features and components for your SQL Server installation. To
continue, click Install.
On the Installation Progress page, you can
monitor installation progress on individual cluster nodes by selecting a node
from the Node drop-down list. Setup progress appears for the
selected node. To view the log file for a component during installation, click
the product or the status name on the Installation Progress
On the Completing the Microsoft SQL Server
Installation Wizard page, you can view the Setup summary log by
clicking the link that is provided. To exit the SQL Server Installation
Wizard, click Finish.
If you are instructed to restart the computer, restart the
computer now. When you complete the installation, we recommend that you read
the message from the Setup program. Failure to restart any one of the specified
nodes may cause failures when you run the Setup program again.
How to verify whether the installation is successful
To verify whether Analysis Services has been successfully
installed on each cluster node, verify that all the following conditions are true:
For each cluster node, open the Cluster Administrator tool,
and then click the cluster group that you selected in step 12 in the "How to install Analysis Services on a failover cluster" section. You must find
Analysis Services listed as a resource of the cluster
For each cluster node, you
find SQL Server Analysis Services listed in the services
list when you open the Services tool.
Note We do not recommend that you perform any operation
on this service at any cluster node. You can manage the clustered Analysis
Services by using the Cluster Administrator.
For each cluster node, the Analysis Services program files
were copied to the following
SystemDrive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
The Analysis Services data files must be copied to a folder
that is created on the shared drive. By default, if you did not specify a custom path for
the data files, the files are copied to the following
SharedDrive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
SQL Server Management Studio and SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio must be installed on the cluster node on which you run
the Setup program. SQL Server Management Studio and SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio must not be available in the other nodes.
You can connect to the clustered Analysis Services by using
the virtual server name that you specified step 10 in the "How to install Analysis Services on a failover cluster" section.
Note Even if you install the instance of SSAS as a named instance, you
must specify the named instance as the virtual server name. You cannot use
to connect to the instance.
How to remove Analysis Services from a failover cluster
To remove the clustered Analysis Services, follow these
Insert the SQL Server 2005 installation media in the disk drive.
Note <InstanceName> represents the name of the instance of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services that you want to remove.
You can also use Add or Remove Programs to remove an instance of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services on a failover cluster.
When you install Analysis Services in a cluster group, you
must make sure that the status of the group is
If you run the Setup program from a terminal session, you must
make sure that other users are logged off from cluster nodes.
If the installation source files are on a network share
location, you must make sure that all the cluster nodes can access the share
You must be either a member of the Domain Admin group or
the owner of the domain group of which you want the cluster service account to be a
member. Otherwise, you may receive the following error message:
You do not have privileges to add account to the domain
groups specified for this failover cluster. Ask your domain administrator for
privileges to add new accounts to the domain groups, or log on using an account
that does have permission. |
Saint Xavier University hosts exhibit by John Pitman Weber
Chicago artist to display paintings, ceramic reliefs and woodcuts
CHICAGO (Oct. 20, 2005) –Saint Xavier University will host a new art exhibit beginning Oct. 31. The work of John Pitman Weber, co-founder of the Chicago Public Art Group, will be featured.
The exhibit, titled Lamentations and Memories, will feature acrylic paintings, ceramic reliefs and woodcuts. In addition, an artist’s lecture and opening reception will be held in the gallery on Nov. 2 at 3:30 p.m.
Best known for his public displays, Weber has been producing artwork for over 30 years. His work has been displayed at several art galleries including A Shenere Velt Gallery in Los Angeles and the Koehnline Gallery of Oakton Community College. He has also created several mosaic works that are on display at Sabin School and the Beth-Anne Campus of Bethel New Life in Chicago.
Weber, who is also a professor of art at Elmhurst College, draws inspiration for his art from the connections he sees between his life and the world around him. “Each year, I see my artwork more clearly as Jewish commentary, a way to look at the big world and at my little world, full of anxiety and unresolved contradiction. We are haunted by the distant post-colonial world, the big river of humanity, crushed by violence, but bursting with irrepressible demand and affirmation. Since a recent visit to Israel/Palestine, voices of the dispossessed fill my waking dreams. I try to listen, to translate.”
The exhibit will run through Nov. 21. Both the exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the art department at (773) 298-3081.
The SXU Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Saint Xavier University Media Relations: 773-298-3325
3700 West 103rd Street, Chicago Ill. 60655 * 18230 Orland Parkway, Orland Park, Ill. 60467 |
14 November 2012
Digital technologies have made their way into all the aspects of our lives that, according to psychology, influence our wellbeing -- everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and meaning. As computers are gradually embedded into all the life experiences that shape us, isn’t it our responsibility to expect more from the way they impact our lives?
By bringing together research and methodologies well-established in psychology, education, neuroscience and human-computer interaction, we can begin to cultivate a new field dedicated to the design and development of technology that supports wellbeing and human potential.
In this seminar we will present an interdisciplinary framework for research and development in positive computing. We will provide examples of related work in e-therapy, positive psychology and Human-Computer-Interaction and look at the potential for including wellbeing considerations into the design of all technology. We will also look specifically at how this area can be informed by, and benefit, education research.
This seminar will be available live online at http://webconf.ucc.usyd.edu.au/seminar-room2
Please note the change of location to:
Education Building (A35), Room 230
T: 9351 2612
Rafael Calvo is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. He has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence applied to automatic document classification (e.g. web site classification).
He has taught at several Universities, high schools and professional training institutions. He worked at the Language Technology Institute in Carnegie Mellon University, Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina) and on sabbaticals at The University of Cambridge and University of Memphis.
Rafael also has worked as an Internet consultant for projects in Australia, Brasil, the US and Argentina. Rafael is the recipient of 5 teaching awards, and the author of two books and many publications in the fields of learning technologies, affective computing and computational intelligence.
Rafael is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies and of IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing and Senior Member of IEEE.
© 2002-12 The University of Sydney. Last updated: 25 Oct 2012
ABN: 15 211 513 464. CRICOS number: 00026A. Phone: +61 2 9351 2222.
Authorised by: Director, Marketing and Communications. |
Russia, Nigeria, Iran and Iraq have long faced criticism for gas flaring and now, thanks to new visuals from NASA, there’s another country to add to the list: the United States.
In just five years, the volume of gas flared in the United States has tripled due to the boom in shale oil. In North Dakota this has created shale oil fields so large their flares are visible from space.
The volume of flaring in North Dakota, the leading state in the shale oil revolution increased by a whopping 50 percent last year. The Bakken field in the state is now responsible for 10 percent of total U.S. output but, because the state is remote, pipeline connections have failed to keep pace.
Read more: Eco Watch >>
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Poor New Zealand. Nobody is quite sure exactly where it is. A favorite joke on tourists in Sydney, my Australian friends tell me, is to convince them that the Sydney Harbor Bridge is actually a bridge to New Zealand (it isn’t, New Zealand is about 1,400 miles away). And the HBO show Flight Of The Conchords has made ignorance of New Zealand a running theme.
But at the very least Google should get it right. But Barry Schwartz has noticed that the top result for a search for Google Ireland on Google itself returns a top result of not Google.ie, but Google.nz. As does a search for Google Egypt.
Neither Ireland nor Egypt are actually New Zealand. It’s in a totally different hemisphere.
Update: It’s Updated! |
The New Oxford American Dictionary has announced that 2009′s Word of the Year is unfriend. While it is perhaps not used as broadly as the newly-verbed friend, the latter is already in the dictionary, so they can’t very well call it new. The best they can do is run with unfriend, which implies and extends the other. A worthy choice, I think, with “currency and potential longevity,” as Oxford’s Senior Lexicographer puts it. It set me thinking, though: how prescient have Word of the Year choices been? Have they infallibly documented the rise of tech in mainstream language and culture? —or are they a dusty collection of buzzwords, a history of folly and haste? And really, which of those is the truer depiction of the world of technology?
I examined Oxford’s Word of the Year lists going back as far as their blog documents them, and consulted a few other word-tracking sources. Unsurprisingly, the popularity and continued pertinence of new words have been as unpredictable as the technologies they describe. Still, the world from a dictionary’s perspective makes for a unique retrospective.
Take hypermiling, for instance. 2008′s word, relevant and rich at the time, seems positively archaic now; as electrics and more efficient hybrids populate our roads more and more, the idea of hypermiling seems to be no longer a cool technique employed by savvy drivers, but a weird fuel-based cult obsessed with aging technology. It brings to mind a sentimental geek zealously maintaining a Windows 3.1 box. Websters’s 2008 word, more farsighted to be sure, was oversharing, certainly a symptom of the personal-broadcasting era that we’ve all observed. Hypermiling was chosen for its immediacy, which does not correlate well with longevity.
Yet podcasting, chosen in 2005, is going stronger than ever. A blog or website these days is incomplete without a podcast, though some question the practicality of adding yet another modality to the increasingly multi-tiered stream of information assaulting every webgoer. Still, no one would dispute that it is a meaningful and useful term, and one not likely to be replaced any time soon. Runners-up that year included rootkit, a surprisingly technical entry that has stayed with us, and lifehack, which, while an interesting blog, is a pretentious failure as a word.
2007 was a bit of a misfire for Oxford; although it was a big year for Apple and Facebook, their tech nominations were red herrings like bacn, an abortive attempt to brand “desired spam,” and cloudware, which at the time was (if you’ll forgive the expression) too hazy a concept to really get much traction among casual users. Locavore hasn’t gained much ground in the popularity contest, probably because people who use it tend to be selling it. It’s still a good app, though. Unfriend would have been a real win here, since the new politics of online relationships were being written by users at large. Cloud has remained but I think perhaps the term which may best have represented 2007 was iTouch. This common misnomer evokes both the rapid expansion of personal media devices and widespread mystification at their terminology and function. Unfortunately, those who use the word are by nature incapable of propagating it as a meme.
The ’97-’98-’99 series of WAP, to Google, and blogger have an almost causal connection, as if each must have necessarily followed the other. While WAP was never a term laypeople used, and Wi-Fi would have been a better choice, its import was clear. Increasingly secure, convenient, and popular, the internet began getting personal in 1997, and that wave gathered energy with Googling over the next year, finally crashing on the shores of the collective idiom as blogging. Laptop plus coffee shop plus being able to explore the internet efficiently was a sort of tech trifecta, and blogs started sprouting like weeds (sorry about that).
But back to this year’s words. Unfriend is, I think, one for the ages. But the others are groaners: intexticated? Funemployed? Sexting maybe, but we can’t nominate every clever portmanteau. If that were the case, half the words in the dictionary would be creations of my own (I have a talent for them). Better to collect them in a little bundle, as they’ve done with what I called the infernal bird-based jargon of Twitter: Tweeps, Tweetup, Twitt, Twitterati, Twitterature, Twitterverse/sphere, Retweet, Twibe, Sweeple, Tweepish, Tweetaholic, Twittermob, and Twitterhea (Twitterhead?).
These word clusters provide an interesting cross-section of the culture around a certain word (the other one they note is Obama) and its emergent phenomena — Twitterati is a good example of this, and a good word to keep around. The others I consign to the pit.
The level to which this invented jargon, or even something like the more practical unfriend, is actually used is unclear. I’m sure we’ve all seen freemium, and it has worth, but will it end up as widely used as paywall? It’s impossible to say, given the malleability of both new words and the people who use them. The environment for creating words is becoming more democratic, for better or for worse. Personally, I find my new words in old books, but even this cursory look at the new word market shows that those terms we may dismiss as fleeting or overly specific may be the most signal of the era.
Lastly, as many of you readers are specialists in tech, feel free to submit some of your more interesting or useful terms. For example, I like tentacular but rarely get to use it. Not really jargon, or a word even, but when it works, it works. Let’s populate this post with submissions for next year’s list; maybe someone from Oxford will find something they like.
[image: first recorded tweet; chemheritage's Flickr] |
Instructs SQL Server Agent to stop the execution of a job.
When SQL Server Agent receives the stop notification, it waits for the job step that is currently running to finish before it processes the cancel request. Some long-running Transact-SQL statements such as BACKUP, RESTORE, and some DBCC commands can take a long time to finish. When these are running, it may take awhile before the job is canceled. Stopping a job causes a "Job Canceled" entry to be recorded in the job history.
If a job is currently executing a step of type CmdExec or PowerShell, the process being run (for example, MyProgram.exe) is forced to end prematurely. Premature ending can result in unpredictable behavior such as files in use by the process being held open. Consequently, sp_stop_job should be used only in extreme circumstances if the job contains steps of type CmdExec or PowerShell.
By default, members of the sysadmin fixed server role can execute this stored procedure. Other users must be granted one of the following SQL Server Agent fixed database roles in the msdb database:
For details about the permissions of these roles, see SQL Server Agent Fixed Database Roles.
Members of SQLAgentUserRole and SQLAgentReaderRole can only stop jobs that they own. Members of SQLAgentOperatorRole can stop all local jobs including those that are owned by other users. Members of sysadmin can stop all local and multiserver jobs.
The following example stops a job named Weekly Sales Data Backup.
USE msdb ; GO EXEC dbo.sp_stop_job N'Weekly Sales Data Backup' ; GO |
Product: MapInfo Professional
Platform: Citrix; Windows 2003 Server Enterprise; Windows XP Home; Windows XP Home SP1A; Windows XP Home SP2; Windows XP Professional; Windows XP Professional 64 - 32 Bit Mode; Windows XP Professional SP 1A; Windows XP Professional SP 2; Windows 2000 Professional SP4
Category: Divetime - EOLS
Finding customers within 10 minutes or 10 miles/Routing Server setup (MapInfo Professional v8.5).
Finding customers within 10 minutes or 10 miles (MapInfo Professional v8.5).
Do you need to find out how many customers are within ten minutes drive of your stores? Do you want to find all of the suppliers within 15 to 30 miles of your warehouse location? If questions like these interest you, then the new Drivetime web service in this release is for you!
The Drivetime web service uses the latest road networks and fast search algorithms to show the buffer boundaries in time (isochrone) or distance (isodistance) from a specified location. These buffers are different from other MapInfo Professional object or table buffers because they are based on road networks and not straight line distances. Driving region time and distance buffers are calculated based on the speed limits of the individual roads and highways in the road network and the distance or time values you request. Isochrones and isodistances are collectively called isograms.
You can only access this Drivetime data and calculation functionality on an Envinsa 4.0 routing server. The Driving Regions web service helps you create isochrone and isodistance buffers using points in your own data.
An isochrone or a time buffer is a region that shows the area that a driver can reach from a starting point in a specific amount of time based on the speeds specified in the routing network. For example, if you wanted to put together an event and invite the customers who live within an hour’s drive of the event site, you could create a time buffer for known customers within an hour’s drive. The service would then use the average driving speeds defined in the road network to calculate the time buffer from your event. You can then display your data within those buffer regions using a Select or SQL Select statement.
An isodistance or a distance buffer is a region that shows the area that a driver can reach from the starting point in the same distance. For example, if you want to contact all of the customers who live within 50 miles of the event instead of one hour, you could calculate the distance using the Drivetime web service, using similar logic.
Effectively, you are creating buffers from a point or table of points based on the server’s road network for a specified times or distances. Using the Driving Region service options, you can control the way this information displays and the number of time and distance buffers you can create at a time.
How are Time and Distance Buffers Calculated?
This is a raster map of a portion of a major city, but it could just as easily be your community.
You can travel further on a limited access highway than a local road in the same amount of time due to the difference in speed limits.
In it, you can see limited access highways, major roads with buildings on them, and local streets with homes. The speed limits on these streets vary depending upon their size and use. The routing server manages the speeds for each road type and uses those speeds to calculate the distance a driver could travel in a specific amount of time. For example a driver could get further in an hour on a highway, than on a local road, due to the average speed limits on those roads.
If you think of these speed limits and distances in spatial terms, starting from a particular point, the region the web service could create along a highway would be longer and narrower than the region you would create using a more local road based on the same amount of time or distance request.
That is the concept behind the Driving Region functionality.
Setting up the Routing Server and Preferences
Before you can access an Envinsa Drivetime service, you need to show MapInfo Professional where to find the Routing server it is housed on. This process gives MapInfo Professional all the information it needs to access the server. You need to enter this information only once per server.
To set up a Routing server:
1. From the Options menu, choose the Preferences option and then select Web Services. Click the Routing tab to set the web service preference options.
2. In this tab, you set the server and Driving Region preferences:
Driving Region Batching (Number of start points to batch)
Use this field to indicate the number of points MapInfo Professional should send to the routing server at a time when calculating batch table isograms. The default number of points is 2.
For example: If you enter the number 2 in this field and the table you are processing contains six records, MapInfo Professional will send two records at a time in three batches. That is, MapInfo Professional will submit two records, wait for the process to return, insert the new records, and then submit the next two until all six records are processed. This prevents overloading the server.
Default Timeout Values
These timeout values affect communication with the routing server. You can override these defaults on a per server basis.
Note: When you set these time out values, keep in mind the size of your request. The more complicated your request, the more time may be required for connection/sending/receiving.
Connect Time Out
Indicates the time allowed to establish an Internet connection to the routing server. If request takes longer than this value, a timeout occurs. The default connect time out is 60 seconds.
Send Time Out
Indicates the time allowed to send an Internet request to the routing server. If the request takes longer than this value, a timeout occurs. The default send time out is 60 seconds.
Receive Time Out
Indicates the time allowed to begin to receive a response from a request to routing server. The download can take longer than the time out, but the response has to occur within the timeout setting. The default receive time out is 300 seconds.
3. To add a new routing server, click Servers to display the Routing Servers List dialog box.
4. Click Add. The Routing Server Information dialog box displays.
MapInfo Professional supports server-side and proxy server authentication. If you use a proxy server for Internet access and your routing server also requires user/password authentication, you authenticate with the proxy server first. As a result, the Connection dialog box displays twice -- once for the proxy server and once for the routing server.
5. Type the server URL, the server description, the default user name and password in the fields provided. Click the check box to remember the password when you enter the correct user name.
6. Consider whether the default timeout settings are appropriate for the server you are adding. The default settings display in each field. The options you select in this dialog box determine the Routing server’s default settings. To change these entries, select the Override Default Values check box and enter new timeout settings using the same definitions.
Note: When you have entered a server that you will use most frequently, highlight it in the list. Click Set Default. A check mark displays beside the server you selected.
7. When you have completed these entries, click Test URL to ensure that the connection is available. The Routing Server Details dialog box displays. If the URL is valid, the Routing Server Details dialog box displays and the Countries list displays the server’s available country data. Click Close to return to the Routing Server Information dialog box.
Note: If you select Test URL and no server connection is found, an error message displays.
8. When all of these fields and options are complete, click OK to save the new routing server. |
At last, something everyone can agree on: The federal website set up to enroll customers in the Affordable Care Act’s private insurance exchanges flat-out doesn’t work. It’s a debacle and an embarrassment to a president whose legacy will be defined largely by his signature law.
As usual, the rest of the story is divisive.
The law’s opponents see this as a chance to say they told us so. In their telling, the failed rollout of this key part of the law is a symptom of the larger effort’s overreach.
Its supporters are frustrated that the site wasn’t ready to accept applications on Oct. 1, but they still find the law sound.
They’ve got a point. A website, even one as important as this, is a tool. It’s not an idea. Enabling customers to sign up for insurance using the site is a process. It’s not a policy.
The idea behind the ACA, borrowed from a conservative think tank and first enacted by the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee in Massachusetts, is that everyone, regardless of employment status or preexisting conditions, should be able to buy insurance they can afford, in many cases with government subsidies.
The way to keep prices from skyrocketing, the argument goes, is to bring younger, healthier people into the pool by mandating that they get coverage or pay a penalty. Broader coverage, in turn, protects the system from having to absorb the cost of treating uninsured patients and protects individuals, including those young, healthy adults, from losing everything in case of catastrophe.
Now, obviously, the delay in signing people up affects the policy.
Sen, Mary Landrieu, D-La., an ACA supporter who faces a challenge next year from Obamacare critic Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is calling for the open enrollment period to be extended, an entirely reasonable request given the circumstances.
Far trickier for Democrats is the question of whether the mandate to buy should be delayed too, because the new system’s overall bottom line relies on getting those less expensive customers into the system to balance out those whose care costs more. Obama has already delayed a separate mandate on businesses, making his reluctance to extend the courtesy politically difficult.
Yet if Republicans hope to use this episode to torpedo the whole thing, there are some things they should keep in mind.
While initial reports that the website was merely plagued by too much traffic proved laughable, the fact is that millions of people tried to start shopping as soon as they could.
Although few have successfully signed up to date, the demand hasn’t gone away.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, told reporters this week that he spent two hours on the site, got kicked off repeatedly and couldn’t get to a price quote. So yes, he’s right that it’s a “national embarrassment.”
If Scalise was frustrated, imagine how much worse that experience would have been for someone who genuinely wants, and needs, the coverage Obamacare offers.
Actually, if Republicans had wanted to make a real partisan point, the insurance exchanges offered them a golden opportunity.
Patients in many states were forced to go through the national system — what GOP Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, has sneeringly referred to as “Louisiana’s Washington-run exchange” — because their own governors refused to set up state exchanges.
Of course, it’s an article of faith among Republicans that states are more functional than the federal government, and nobody touts that idea more aggressively than Gov. Bobby Jindal. But sadly, Jindal and like-minded GOP governors passed up the chance to show the feds how it’s done — as states that set up their own exchanges are already doing — all in the name of distancing themselves from the president’s agenda.
More sadly still, they blew their chance to help their constituents access better health coverage in the process.
Stephanie Grace can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org. |
By Seth Richardson
One of the better parts of the budget bill signed into law by President Obama last week is a provision that places wolves in Montana, Idaho and parts of Washington under the management of the states, but still subject to some federal supervision, rather than under the full protection of the Endangered Species Act.
It’s not a complete victory for the states, however. The rider by Sen. Jon Tester, Democrat Senator from Montana and Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson reinstates a 2009 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service decision to turn over management of wolves to the states that was thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in 2009 and affirmed in April of this year.
In 2008, the F&WS published a Decision and Final Rule in the Federal Register that wolves in the northern Rockies, including Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, had recovered sufficiently in numbers to justify removing them from the full protection of the ESA, and it turned over most of the management of wolves, including limited hunting seasons to control wolf populations, to the states. This Decision and Final Rule was immediately appealed in federal court by Defenders of Wildlife and a dozen other conservation groups.
In throwing out the Decision and Rule, Judge Molloy said that the F&WS could not delist wolves in Washington, Montana and Idaho while leaving wolves in Wyoming still under protection because the ESA does not expressly authorize delisting by state, but only by “discrete population segment,” which means a biological/geographical grouping not a legal state boundary.
The Congressional rider, now signed into law, directs the F&WS to reinstate the 2008 Decision and Final Rule, and it also prohibits anyone from challenging the Final Rule in court.
According to Defenders of Wildlife, “This provision sets a dangerous precedent for legislating on Endangered Species Act protections that could leave countless other species vulnerable to attack. And, by blocking any further judicial review of wolf delisting, this provision sends the message that complying with the law doesn’t matter.”
But this is mendacious nonsense, and it is Defenders of Wildlife, along with other so-called conservation groups who are falsely complaining about complying with the rule of law.
You see, the ESA is not intended to be a vehicle for perpetual federal management of state-owned wildlife or an expedient for radical environmentalists to be able to forever interfere with private property rights and frustrate development. It’s intended to protect truly endangered species until they have recovered sufficiently to survive on their own, at which point the law mandates that such species be delisted and management be turned over to the states.
Wolf proponents have been misusing the ESA for years now as a vehicle to, in part, eliminate public-lands ranching, which they and other environmental extremists believe is harmful to the environment. Ranchers in Idaho and Montana have been suffering massive losses of livestock due to wolf predation, and neither the F&WS nor the wolf advocacy organizations have been particularly sympathetic or helpful in dealing with wolf predation.
While Defenders of Wildlife has operated a wolf predation compensation program since 1987, and likes to tout its alleged success, saying, “Defenders’ livestock compensation program has been a resounding success in helping ranchers who live and work in wolf country,” the reality on the ground is much different.
Ranchers in wolf country complain about bureaucratic interference, delays, and outright refusals to compensate for stock losses. Generally, in order to qualify, the livestock kill has to be verified by the F&WS as being caused by wolves. If there is any question, and the F&WS is well-known for questioning every claim in detail, and if there is any excuse at all they can use, the claim is denied.
Because open-range livestock ranching means that a kill might not be discovered for days, or weeks, stockgrowers are denied compensation more often than not because the F&WS requires that the owner prove a wolf actually killed the animal, even if the carcass is surrounded by wolf tracks and covered with wolf hair. Since livestock die and can be killed by other predators, like coyotes and bears, a wolf-kill claim will be denied, practically speaking, unless the owner saw the wolves kill the animal.
Nor, under the ESA, can livestock owners shoot and kill a wolf that is actually attacking a cow or sheep. They must instead call the F&WS, who is supposed to, but often does not, send out someone to hunt down and kill the offending wolf.
So, for all the hoopla about livestock growers being compensated for wolf-caused losses, it’s just propaganda unrelated to the truth on the ground. Just go ask the ranchers themselves.
In 22 years, Defenders of Wildlife has only paid $1.3 million in compensation in 895 instances, which comes to about $1452 per incident. But they list 3,832 instances of predation on their own website. And this number is highly suspect, as they have motive to deny the source of predation.
In some cases the ESA and the F&WS have literally driven stockmen out of business by denying grazing permits and imposing draconian land-use rules that make it impossible for them to survive economically, in order to favor wolf recovery, often as the result of lawsuits filed by groups like Defenders of Wildlife.
What’s particularly galling to ranchers is that when the F&WS did the science as the law requires, and determined scientifically that wolves in Idaho and Montana had recovered sufficiently in numbers to justify removing full ESA protections, Defenders of Wildlife and numerous other organizations immediately filed suit to prevent the delisting. And they succeeded, but only through technical shenanigans involving the letter of the ESA law and the definition of “discreet population segment.”
And the ESA itself ignores the fact that wolves are not an endangered species at all. There are many thousands of wolves in self-sustaining populations roaming freely in Canada and Alaska, not to mention Siberia, so there is factually no danger that wolves will cease to exist as a species, even if they are eliminated from the lower 48 states.
But, live by Congressional law, die by Congressional law. That’s the way it works in the United States.
What the Congress did was to lawfully amend the ESA as regards wolves in the northern population segment of the Rocky Mountains. Contrary to what Defenders of Wildlife and other say, this amendment poses no danger to other species greater than they already face. Congress wrote and passed the ESA, and Congress has always had the plenary power to amend or even repeal the ESA, in part or in whole, at its discretion.
While Defenders of Wildlife and others would like for the ESA to be enshrined as a constitutional Amendment that cannot be changed by Congress alone, that’s not the case, nor will it ever be the case, we should all hope.
Congress did nothing more than examine the scientific evidence, which the F&WS itself says is compelling enough to justify delisting only parts of the population of wolves based on state boundaries, and it amended the law to provide that because that single species has recovered sufficiently to justify delisting within a particular state, it’s appropriate in this case to permit the state, under continuing federal supervision, to take over management of the wolf population.
In other words, Congress simply affirmed the scientific judgment of the F&WS and acted to preserve the intent of the ESA while resolving a legal conundrum created by radical environmental advocacy groups that was interfering with just and reasonable public policy decisions. It’s not, contrary to the assertions of Defenders of Wildlife, any threat to any other species.
Congress did what it is authorized to do, and as Judge Molloy wrote in his final decision in April of this year, “No matter how useful a course of conduct might be to achieve a certain end, no matter how beneficial or noble the end, the limit of power granted to the District Court must abide by the responsibilities that flow from …political decisions made by the Congress.”
Judge Molloy also quoted the United States Supreme Court, which said, “Our individual appraisal of the wisdom or unwisdom of a particular course consciously selected by the Congress is to be put aside in the process of interpreting a statute. Once the meaning of an enactment is discerned and its constitutionality determined, the judicial process comes to an end. We do not sit as a committee of review, nor are we vested with the power of veto.”
Congress has the power to amend the ESA, and that’s exactly what Congress did, and both the courts and everyone else, including Defenders of Wildlife, will just have to live with that decision, just as private landowners and stockgrowers have been forced to live with the consequences, intended and unintended, of the imposition of the Endangered Species Act on them.
What’s sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander.
© 2011 Altnews |
Caffeine & Alcohol = A Bad Combination
What happens when you combine alcohol, a central nervous system depressant, with caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant? The manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages, or CABS, and the young consumers who drink them believe that this blend is safe, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) thinks otherwise. The FDA has issued warnings to four of the companies that manufacture caffeinated alcoholic drinks, stating that caffeine is an unsafe additive when combined with alcohol.
But the FDA’s warning hasn’t stopped alcohol users from experimenting with beverages that contain a blend of caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants. These premixed drinks are still widely available at liquor stores and at some convenience stores. Before you indulge in CABs with catchy names like Four Loko, Joose or Core High Gravity, consider how this blend of chemicals affects your body and whether a caffeinated cocktail is worth the risks to your health.
- Motor coordination
What Happens When You Drink Alcohol?
When you drink an alcoholic beverage, a certain percentage of the ethanol — the active chemical in alcoholic drinks — is rapidly absorbed by your stomach and your small intestine. The rest of the alcohol is processed by your liver.
As a sedative drug, alcohol will eventually make you drowsy and may leave you unconscious if you consume too many drinks too quickly. Although you might feel a sense of energy and euphoria after your first drink, alcohol slows down vital functions like breathing and blood circulation. The more alcohol you consume at any given time, the more powerful the effects of this chemical will be.
If you drink more quickly than your liver can metabolize the alcohol, the level of ethanol in your bloodstream will continue to rise, and you may be at risk for alcohol poisoning, a potentially fatal condition. The University of California at Davishas identified four of the red flags of alcohol poisoning:
- Very slow breathing
- Cold, damp, bluish skin
- Uncontrollable vomiting
Alcohol poisoning requires immediate medical attention. If you are with someone who develops these symptoms after drinking too much, call 911. Never leave an unconscious person alone to sleep off the effects of alcohol.
How Does Caffeine Affect You When You’re Drinking?
Caffeine is a stimulant, meaning that it activates the central nervous system rather than sedating it. Caffeine can make you feel more alert, accelerate your heartbeat and speed up your metabolism. If you’re feeling drowsy, drinking a caffeinated beverage may give you the impression that you’re more focused and awake. But if you’ve been drinking alcohol, drinking caffeine won’t overcome alcohol’s effects on your judgment or motor coordination.
Caffeinated alcoholic beverages appeal to drinkers who want to stay alert so they can party longer. But while the caffeine and herbal stimulants in these beverages may make you feel superficially more alert, they have no effect on your blood alcohol levels and do not make you any less drunk. In fact, the added caffeine simply makes drinkers less aware of their level of intoxication; that’s why these products have been declared unsafe.
Who Is Most at Risk?
Most CABs consist of malt liquor or distilled spirits, which have a higher concentration of alcohol than beer. They are packaged in colorful containers with trendy names that appeal to the manufacturers’ target market: young adults. The beverages are marketed online in forums that young people are likely to frequent and are associated with extreme sports, automobile racing and other high-risk activities.
What makes CABs so dangerous to young drinkers? Young adults have a natural inclination to act impulsively and to take risks — tendencies that are worsened by alcohol. Adding caffeine to the mix only makes the impulsive behavior worse.
- Drinking alcohol combined with caffeinated energy drinks makes you three times more likely to binge drink (defined as consuming four or five alcoholic drinks within about an hour).
- People who consume caffeinated energy drinks are up to 50 percent more likely to get in the car with an intoxicated driver.
- People who drink CABs are about 50 percent more likely to have unwanted or unsafe sex.
- People who drink CABs are about twice as likely to force sexual attention on someone else.
CABs are popular at college parties, clubs and underground events that attract teenagers and young adults under the age of 25. For this age group, the risks of mixing alcohol and caffeine are especially severe.
What happens to drinkers who regularly consume caffeinated alcoholic beverages? Because alcohol is highly addictive, alcohol abuse may lead to alcohol dependence and addiction. Caffeine can also produce tolerance if you consume too much of it. If you drink a lot of CABs at parties or clubs, you’ll find that you need more of these beverages to get the same energized buzz. And because the caffeine content of these beverages often isn’t indicated on the packaging, there may be no way to tell how much caffeine you’re getting with each drink. The Mayo Clinic warns that heavy caffeine consumption (more than 500 mg per day, about the equivalent of 5 or more cups of coffee) may cause the following side effects:
- Chronic sleeplessness
- Rapid heartbeat
In addition to caffeine, many CABs contain “natural” herbal stimulants, like guarana, as well as synthetic chemical stimulants. Excessive use of these substances may cause nervousness, nausea, tremors, sweating and heart problems.
Long-term alcohol abuse can cause permanent changes in the structure and function of your brain. Heavy drinking can damage the frontal lobes of the brain, which are responsible for higher cognitive functions, and may actually cause the brain to shrink, according to the University of Washington. The adolescent brain is especially vulnerable to the effects of alcohol, as the capacity for judgment has not yet fully developed.
Over time, excessive alcohol consumption can damage many of the body’s vital organs, from the brain and heart to the liver, stomach, intestinal tract and kidneys. Healthy drinkers under the age of 25 may not feel an immediate concern about the threats of chronic conditions like heart disease, liver disease or cancer. But they may be more conscious of the risks of drunk driving, unsafe sex and accidental self-injury, all of which can occur when you abuse alcohol.
Getting Help for Alcohol Abuse
Experimenting with the latest alcoholic products might seem like a rite of passage for today’s youth. But while caffeinated alcoholic beverages may seem like a fun way to maintain a buzz, they’re actually very dangerous to your physical health and your emotional well-being. It’s easy to end up consuming more alcohol than your body can handle once you start drinking at a club or party where the liquor is flowing. If you’ve experienced any of these signs of alcohol abuse, you may be in danger of developing a dependence on alcohol:
- You can’t seem to stop drinking once you get started.
- You often feel guilty or sad about your drinking the next day.
- You’ve tried to quit on your own, but you always end up drinking again.
- You sometimes need a beer or shot to steady your nerves after a night out.
- You end up doing things that you regret or that get you in trouble when you’re drinking, yet you still can’t seem to stop getting drunk.
The Canyon’s alcohol treatment programs are designed to help you find purpose in a sober life and to get control over your future again. We encourage you to contact our intake counselors to talk about how you can get a fresh start through our individualized recovery plans. |
Main indicated that, while eight methane sensors have been collected from the UBB and sent to labs, many more tests remain before investigators can say the sensors weren't tampered with. Some of the sensors were damaged, Main noted, while others were older models not capable of being downloaded.
"We don't know what it means yet," he said of the data that's been retrieved already.
The methane monitors — dubbed "sniffers" in coal country — are devices designed to shut down mining equipment automatically when methane accumulates at dangerous levels. The UBB was known to be a gassy mine, and a number of former Massey miners — working in the UBB and elsewhere — have charged that company managers would sometimes ask workers to dismantle the sniffers for the sake of keeping the equipment running and harvesting more coal.
NPR reported last month that a UBB electrician in February was ordered to "bridge out" a sniffer because it was repeatedly shutting down a continuous mining machine.
Twenty-nine miners were killed April 5 when the UBB exploded in Montcoal, W.Va. MSHA officials Wednesday made it clear that they have yet to determine the cause of the accident — "We are still collecting evidence," Main said — but mine-safety experts say the sheer size of the blast suggests large amounts of methane, combined with combustible coal dust, were likely present.
In the months prior to the blast, the UBB had received hundreds of MSHA safety violations, with dozens indicating problems related to coal dust and the mine's ventilation system.
In response, Democrats in both the House and Senate are pushing legislation to bolster the work-safety protections of the nation's miners. The legislation would hike fines for safety violations, empower MSHA officials to close dangerous mines more easily and strengthen miner's whistleblower protections.
MSHA officials on Wednesday also indicated:
• While investigators have found cracks in the tunnel, they've seen nothing to support Massey's claim that a huge crack inundated the mine with methane just prior to the blast. "We have not seen any massive crack," said Kevin Sticklin, head of MSHA's coal safety division.
• Responding to complaints from miners' families, MSHA removed two Massey officials from inside the UBB immediately following the April 5 blast. MSHA officials didn't speculate about what the two were up to, but said they simply weren't trained for mine rescue.
• The agency has eight mapping teams, four electrical teams, three photography teams and an evidence collection team roaming the mine. Still, two sections affected by the blast have not yet been examined. "We're not going to speculate on what may or may not have caused this until we have all the facts," Main said.
• Investigators have interviewed 166 people related to the disaster, most of them rank-and-file Massey workers and their family members. Officials hope to begin interviews with upper-level Massey managers in the coming weeks.
• The transcripts of those interviews will be made public before the agency holds public hearings on the disaster, though the timeline surrounding the public hearings remains unknown.
• MSHA has provided technical assistance to lawmakers pushing for mine safety reforms in the wake of the UBB blast. But "it's going to be up to Congress to decide what's in the final legislation," Main said.
Finally, MSHA officials are confident, not only that they'll find the cause of the UBB disaster, but also that they'll find it was avoidable.
"Explosions at these coal mines are preventable," Main said. "I believe we're going to look back and say that this was a preventable occurrence." |
Coco Chanel always held the reins tightly on her public image. Towards the end of her life, she commissioned highly-engaged Hussard writer Michel Deon to follow her every move, absorb her acerbic bon mots and process her essence into a book. The manuscript was never published. Chanel had given Deon the version of her life that she had wanted told, but even that was far too truthful and by association, painful.
Deon, now in his nineties and living in Galway, summarily burned the manuscript. He saw no point in releasing it after her death. Why resurrect a ghost?
It’s a question that many Chanel biographers have tried (and failed) to answer. Was she a Nazi spy? A drug addict? Gay? Who was the real Chanel? What secrets did she hold close – what misdeeds does she still hide?
Lisa Chaney addresses these issues in her new biography, ‘Chanel: An Intimate Life’, just one in a slew of Chanel bios that are doing the rounds. They run the gamut of the laudatory (Justine Picardie’s ‘Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life’ includes many exclusive drawings by Karl Lagerfeld while ‘Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent’ by Hal Vaughan might as well posthumously shave Chanel’s head and daub a few mud swastikas here and there for dramatic effect).
There’s a Chanel out there for everyone. You want Chanel the genius? Go for Picardie. Chanel the collaborator? Vaughan’s effort should do the trick. Chanel the woman? No such book will ever exist – but Chaney’s effort may well be the closest we get to her. Your want a real biography? Go to the biographer.
The overall tone of the book is very placid and even-keeled. Chaney does not romanticise her subject’s upbringing or postulate too romantically on what is already a very romantic story. A young girl dumped in an orphanage, becomes first a courtesan (of sorts), a PR savvy milliner and, transformed by insurmountable heartbreak, evolves into a couturier with razor-sharp instinct and intuitive business acumen.
The picture built up of Chanel is not entirely pleasant. The latter half of her life includes almost certain Nazi collaboration (and definite ‘horizontal collaboration’), underhanded business tactics from all sides and the eventual degradation of a strong-willed woman into a ratchety, lonely one. Chaney remains analytical in her approach, filling it with as many first-hand accounts and definite documents as she can. Perhaps because of this, Chanel becomes more of a human being to the reader towards the end of her life – which is sad because we never really get to see Chanel the dynamo, the seductress, the inspiration in her entirety – very few people who are still alive can recollect her in this way.
A slight note of apologism creeps into the books when dealing with Chanel’s World War II years. Biographers betray the sympathy they hold for their subjects by not judging events through that events historical context. Chaney does do that, but wishes to define it further by what Chanel may have felt. This is something unproven and thus unjustifiable – much like the woman herself. |
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Blood, meat and hides marked the first day of Eid-ul-Azha in Pakistan. While most Muslims celebrated their holy festival by sacrificing animals, some decided to achieve new levels of faith by targeting Hindus in Shikarpur. Three doctors were shot dead in broad daylight in Chak Town, allegedly, after a conflict arose between the Bhayo tribe and the Hindu community over a dancing girl.
Prior to the murders, the issue had already captured the attention of the local elders and a jirga was to be convened after Eid. Threats were issued to the Hindu community and reported to the local police but to no avail. Why is it that the government machinery only comes into motion after a tragedy has unfolded? The president and prime minister have both condemned the murders and ordered an inquiry. The police have since been prompt in arresting many from the Bhayo tribe. As anybody in Pakistan will tell you, arrests don’t necessarily mean justice. This is not the only case of Hindus being discriminated against in Pakistan – Sindh, long known for the wisdom of renowned Sufis and saints, is now home to a whole new brand of faith.
This ghastly incident takes me back to another instance in Lahore last year, when two shrines of the minority Ahmadi sect were attacked, leaving more than 90 people dead. Threats to Ahmadis were ignored then too, and calls for greater government protection in the future fell on deaf ears.
A few months ago, Faisalabad was witness to brazen warnings on Ahmadis; pamphlets labelling members of the Ahmadi community “wajib-ul-qatal” were distributed comprising names and identities of Ahmadi industrialists, doctors and businessmen. Most recently, Ahmadi residents in Lahore’s Satellite Town have been asked to leave or face dire consequences. This because they have established their place of worship which is deemed ‘unconstitutional’ by some.
It surprises me that we have forgotten those very people who helped draft the resolution that gave us Pakistan. Mohammad Zafarullah Khan was an Ahmadi but it was he who drafted the Pakistan Resolution and represented the Muslim League’s view when it came to deciding the future boundaries between India and Pakistan. He also served as Pakistan’s first minister for foreign affairs. Jinnah with his liberal views chose men to represent his country on merit, not religion, caste or creed. Pakistan’s first law minister was a Hindu who had more faith in Jinnah’s liberal views than the Congress’ secular ones; hence he decided to stay in Pakistan. Mandal was supposed to draft the first constitution of Pakistan; however he never got around to staying here long enough to see that to fruition. He resigned from the cabinet due to the consistent persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and moved back to India shortly after Jinnah’s death.
Encouraging persecution of minorities in Pakistan allows intolerance to flourish and has created precisely the kind of second-class citizenry in Pakistan – with uncertain rights and prejudiced values – that the country’s democratic principles were expected to avoid. For 64 years the whole point has been to come to some sort of conclusion as to whether this Islamic Republic of Pakistan can accommodate minorities without threatening their person, faith and livelihood. The idea has been to remove ambiguities and knock off a predominant holier-than-thou attitude towards Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and Parsis. That clarity was in part, intended for the welfare of the existing minorities, so they could break free from their trap of uncertainty and insecurity. With a secular party at the helm, was this too much to ask for?
As religious historian Karen Armstrong stated recently: “like art, religion is difficult to do well and is often done badly.” The way to experiencing art is through an artist’s eyes. Similarly, religion is usually judged by how it is followed. The secular Pakistan Peoples Party distanced its views from those of Maulvi Nawaz Sharif’s – the alleged closet Taliban. However, it was “Maulvi Sahib” who made his way to Chak town and personally conveyed his condolences to the bereaved Hindu families. It was Sharif who pleaded to the Hindu community not to leave Pakistan, not our “secular” ruling party or its equally “secular” allies, the ANP or the MQM.
Pakistan’s minority dilemma is complex because secularism and conservatism don’t go their separate ways, but come together. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was considered Pakistan’s most secular and liberal leader, however by adopting the Objectives Resolution in the 1973 constitution, he ended up empowering conservative forces.
Similarly, the man who promised Pakistan “enlightened moderation” also gave way to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s regime gave more power to the maulvis than any other government in Pakistan. Claiming to be Pakistan’s ray of hope, Imran Khan too has disappointed his secular voters (and some party workers). In an interview with Indian journalist Karan Thapar, Khan said he realised the need to ban militant organisations however, when asked to take names, he refused. Khan said he knew the threat that looms large since the Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, was murdered and hence would not endanger his own life by taking names. And his motto is? You guessed it! Change.
However, it seems the most conservative leader has turned out to be the most secular. From his proposed policy of looking inward for a solution to the war on terror, to envisioning an open trade and better relations with India, Nawaz Sharif has ended up doing what the PPP has long promised. But there are still question marks on some of his party’s leaders harbouring relations with banned outfits and participating in their rallies. His own brother and chief minister of Punjab had previously pleaded with the Taliban not to attack Punjab because of their anti-US policy. As if the other three provinces are in complete disagreement with the views of the TTP and therefore deserve to die.
Persecution of minorities in Pakistan is on a steady rise. It’s not only non-Muslims who are under threat; the minority Muslim sects are also bearing its brunt. In the last two years, almost every important day in the Shiite calendar has been witness to attacks. There have also been attacks on religious shrines of Data Darbar, Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Baba Farid. Scholars who disavowed this form of brutal violence as un-Islamic were either martyred like Maulana Sarfaraz Naeemi and Maulana Hasan Jaan, or they had to flee the country.
Come to think of it, one way or the other, we are all minorities – Punjabis in Balochistan, Mohajirs in Punjab, Pashtuns in Sindh, Baloch in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – we are all victims of this prejudice. Will we realise, in time, what we don’t condemn today for others could very well be our fate tomorrow.
The writer works for Geo TV. |
halk up another PR coup for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The animal rights group is grabbing headlines once again — this time with a lawsuit naming five killer whales as plaintiffs, and arguing that the marine mammals deserve the same constitutional protection from "slavery" as people. Are whales really entitled to human rights? Here, a brief guide to this unusual civil rights case:
Who are PETA and the whales suing?
SeaWorld. The whales named in the lawsuit — Tilikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka, and Ulises — perform at SeaWorld's Orlando and San Diego locations. PETA says that by keeping orcas in captivity, the marine park is violating the U.S. Constitution's 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.
What does SeaWorld say?
Basically, that this is crazy. SeaWorld's attorney, Theodore Shaw, says if PETA were to prevail in what he says is a frivolous lawsuit, the ruling could be used to ruin other marine parks, zoos, and pet businesses. It could even be used to go after pet owners, or even police who use sniffer dogs to detect bombs and drugs. "We're talking about hell unleashed," Shaw says.
Does PETA have a case?
SeaWorld has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller held a one-hour hearing Monday to consider whether the lawsuit — filed by PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two former SeaWorld trainers — should go any further. Jeffrey Kerr, the lawyer representing the five whales, says even that was a victory. "For the first time in our nation's history," Kerr says, "a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human." Miller says he'll issue a ruling soon.
Will the judge buy it?
Probably not. During the hearing, Miller told Kerr that he couldn't find a legal precedent for letting humans file a lawsuit on behalf of the whales. The judge also suggested he didn't agree with PETA's argument that SeaWorld is being "hysterical" by saying the case, if successful, could lead to a barrage of lawsuits on behalf of pets and police dogs. "Call me hysterical," Judge Miller said, "but that's one of the first places I went in my thinking about this case."
Sources: BBC News, LA Times, Telegraph
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This week’s testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker seemed to ensure that President Bush would be able to fend off critics in Congress, and maintain current troop levels in Iraq through the November election. (Reuters)
What the commentators said
“A lot could happen between now and November,” said Rosa Brooks in the Los Angeles Times (free registration), “but at the moment, the Democrats appear poised to retake the White House and consolidate control over both houses of Congress.” And “the primary driver of Democratic good fortune has been the Iraq war.” Every day, more Americans regret the decision to go to war, President Bush’s approval ratings are plummeting, and, “as Petraeus acknowledged this week, there’s no end in sight.”
Most Americans indeed think it was a mistake to invade Iraq, said Michael Gerson in The Washington Post (free registration), but a candidate’s initial position on the war isn’t what matters in the presidential campaign. “Young” Barack Obama thinks Iraq will be a winner for him because he can focus on “the failures of the past.” But Americans are more likely to decide that “the older man,” John McCain, “by insisting on victory, is more responsible and realistic about the future.”
Actually, everyone has an Iraq problem, said Noam Scheiber in The New Republic’s The Stump blog. “McCain’s problem is obvious: The war has become spectacularly unpopular,” and his fortunes in November will be tied to the situation over there. But “Obama and Clinton have the converse problem: Politically, their Iraq position is a real advantage. But the position is substantively incoherent: They want to withdraw most of our troops” relatively soon, “and, as Obama suggested, leave behind the kind of messy but semi-functional status quo we have now.” But pulling out is hardly the way to maintain the status quo.
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On Thursday afternoon, an immigration reform bill that would affect millions of undocumented immigrants was approved by a final vote of 68 to 32 in the Senate. The bill puts up to 11 million undocumented immigrants on a pathway to citizenship and enforces tough border security measures. Vice President Joe Biden presided over the historic vote, in which all the senators were required to vote from their desks. The Senate gallery was packed with exuberant DREAMers, undocumented youths who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. The gallery chanted “Yes we can” after the bill was officially passed.
After the cloture vote occurred early Thursday afternoon, politicians on both sides of the aisle spoke emotionally about the need to pass the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) teared up as he spoke of his wife’s father, who immigrated from Russia, and reflected on the letters sent to him by undocumented individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children and raised in fear of deportation. He compared present-day immigrants to all the previous waves of immigrants, notably lauding the achievements that these new Americans could contribute:
It recognizes that today’s immigrants came for the very same reason as generations before them– to achieve a dream we take for granted, the right to live in the land of the free.
Across the aisle, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) invoked his immigrant parents as he argued passionately that immigration reform will help future generations to fulfill their dreams:
Here, immigrants will give their children the life they once wanted for themselves. Here generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass. Even with all our challenges, we remain the shining city on the hill. We are still the hope of the world. And in the end, that is why I support this reform. Yes, I believe in immigrants, but I believe in America even more.
The bill now faces an uphill battle in the House, where many Republican congressmen have vowed their opposition to any kind of an immigration deal that includes a pathway to citizenship. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has promised that he would not advance a reform bill without a majority agreement by House Republicans. |
Groovy Project Solving Cloudy Problem
While electron clouds presently pose little threat to the PEP-II beam, they are a major concern for the International Linear Collider (ILC) or a future B-factory project. In high energy storage rings, synchrotron radiation liberates electrons from the beam pipe walls. A positron or proton beam will accelerate the free electrons, and these electrons can then strike the chamber walls, releasing more electrons in a cascade effect until a cloud forms. Ultimately, scientists think the grooved chambers will be a good solution for certain sections of the ILC positron damping ring.
While PEP-II continued to provide beams for the BaBar experiment this summer, the ILC Group monitored the performance of four segments of beam pipe installed in a straight section of the accelerator where there are no magnets. Two sections have smooth interior walls, like normal beam pipes. Two sections have grooves cut into the interior walls that look like metal teeth on a comb. Data show that the beam pipes with grooves had 20 to 30 times less current from electron clouds than the two smooth segments. The grooves, or teeth, act as traps.
"The geometry of the grooves is important. We ran plenty of simulations to figure out the most effective grooves, and we tested two different designs in PEP-II," said Mauro Pivi of SLAC's ILC Accelerator Design group. Robert Kirby, Lanfa Wang, Tor Raubenheimer, Morrison Munro, Gennady Stupakov, Bobby McKee, Tom Markiewicz, Don Arnett, and Frederic Le Pimpec have also contributed to the project.
The teeth are far enough apart so that radiation strikes the interior wall rather than the top of the teeth. The incoming radiation frees electrons from the beam pipe walls, but the teeth are tall enough to trap electrons, which bounce between the teeth until they run out of energy.
The next step is to test a beam pipe in sections of the accelerator with magnetic fields. Under these conditions, researchers think triangular grooves, like shark teeth, will make the best trap. "Simulations say that it will also work very well to suppress electron clouds, but it's a lot trickier to design," Pivi said.
Both grooved and smooth pipe segments were coated with titanium nitride to suppress the number of electrons generated from synchrotron radiation. The grooved pipes have 100 times less current from electron clouds than PEP-II's regular stainless steel smooth chambers.
Heather Rock Woods, SLAC Today, September 6, 2007
Above image: Mauro Pivi holds a section of beam pipe with built-in grooves. (Image courtesy of Brad Plummer.) |
ARTICLES ABOUT EASTER AND HOLY WEEK
Translating a new Haggadah — the book from which the story of Exodus is retold — unlocked memories of Passovers past.April 08, 2009, Wednesday
Off-dry rieslings will accompany baked hams at dinners across Germany on Easter Sunday, April 12.March 22, 2009, Sunday
Spring and Easter arrived the same week. One woman celebrated the season's change with a chartreuse goat collar, top right. The Easter Parade along Fifth Avenue was more carnival than fashion show. Two dandies in pastel suits, top left, were among the amblers. The cold weather was great for hats decorated with fresh flowers.March 30, 2008, Sunday
At a performance-based art exhibition, part of this year’s Whitney Biennial, guests were entertained but mostly well fed.March 26, 2008, Wednesday
ABC edged past CBS in attracting viewers on Easter Sunday as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Oprah’s Big Give” drew the night’s top ratings among adults 18 to 49. According to Nielsen’s estimates, the two shows drew 11.1 million viewers and 9.9 million total viewers at 8 and 9, respectively. CBS nearly eclipsed ABC, however, thanks to an overrun of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament coverage in the 7 o’clock hour. CBS’s “60 Minutes” followed, netting more than 10 mill...March 25, 2008, Tuesday
Pope Benedict XVI singled out Darfur in Sudan, Somalia and the “tormented” Middle East in his prayer before thousands of pilgrims in Rome.March 24, 2008, Monday
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presented Haydn's "Seven Last Words of Christ" at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on Friday night.March 24, 2008, Monday
In dollar terms, Christmas trumped Easter as the holiday responsible for the most egg sales in 2007.March 24, 2008, Monday
A little church on the Upper West Side gets a big upgrade: a new pipe organ, ready for worship and concerts.March 23, 2008, Sunday
Inspired by Senator Barack Obama’s speech, some religious leaders plan to interweave race and resurrection.March 23, 2008, Sunday
SEARCH 694 ARTICLES ABOUT EASTER AND HOLY WEEK:
Colorful costumes and hats filled the street in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the event on Sunday.
Easter weekend is usually the year’s most festive for Syrian Christians, but this year, it is infused with grave uncertainty.
The Dining section tasting panel tried a variety of hams that were wet cured, smoked over wood and minimally processed. Here are the results.
The Fifth Avenue Easter promenade was blessed with glorious weather that brought out the throngs.
How the marshmallow chicks are hatched.
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In real life, inner monologue is often repetitive. Having conceived the idea "She's hot", we will happily continue to embroider this theme in our minds throughout a twenty-minute conversation with a bored flight attendant. If you render these thought loops directly in your fiction, however, your character can begin to sound uncannily like a malfunctioning computer in a movie made before anyone had a computer.
Give us the thought once. We will assume that the character's opinion remains the same until you tell us otherwise.
Live Action TV
Barbara: Is it frozen?
The Doctor: No, impossible at this temperature. Besides, it's too warm.
"Hey there's a naked lady in this movie, and she's nude! With no clothes on!"
— Crow, Mystery Science Theater 3000
Linda: It's like my mother always says-"getting to know people is the best way to get to know them."
Ted: Is this the same woman who said "You eat what you eat?"
"You know what they say: All toasters toast toast!"
— Mario, Hotel Mario
GLaDOS: Well. This is the part where he kills us.
Wheatley: Hello! This is the part where I kill you!
Chapter 9: The Part Where He Kills You
(Achievement Unlocked: The Part Where He Kills You (This is that part))
Soundtrack piece "The Part Where He Kills You" plays.
— Portal 2
Chie: First we save Kanji, then we crush the killer! Finally, we crush the killer and send him to hell!! Got it!?
Akihiko: You've got the build of a twelve year old! Let me teach you the secret to body building. Step 1: Protein. Step 2: Protein. Step 3, 4 and 5: MORE PROTEIN.
Naoto: That sounds incredibly imbalanced.
"This dampness is damp."
— Sazh entering the Sunleth Waterscape, Final Fantasy XIII
"Hello and greetings, Department of Redundancy Department? Aye, yes, I wish to announce, that is report, a single, yes, one, instance of unnecessary repetition, commonly referred to as redundancy. Farewell and goodbye."
— Agent Stormsong, Protectors of the Plot Continuum
"Funnily enough, I agonized forever over whether to call this story 'The Redundant Man' or 'The Man Who Was Redundant'…"
— Author's Note on the internet short story The Redundant Man Who Was Redundant
"Santa Christ, Santa Christ
We love Santa Christ!
Right here we have this map right here... "right here we have this map right here". Redundancy, thy middle name is Chugga.
"As you start playing you'll notice this horrendously horrendous music. It's driving me insane! Listen to it too much and it'll drive you to brink of insanity! This music is so bad that I'm about to go insane!"
"Futurama: From the makers of Futurama"
"Well, maybe it is stupid, but it's also dumb!"
— Patrick Star, Spongebob Squarepants
"Not only am I a genius, but I am very very smart too."
— Don Karnage, TaleSpin
"Sonic is trapped in there. And the rest of Mobius is out here! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! And it's mine! IT'S MINE! All mine! ALL MINE!!!"
"With Sonic trapped in the force field, Mobius is mine! MINE! ...Did I say that already?"
— Dr. Ivo Robotnik, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
"Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend."
— Po, Kung Fu Panda
"Putting clients first by putting employees firs, immediately after prioritizing fiscal responsibility and leveraging profitability toward exceeding by empowering our employees to put clients (and themselves) first, in a diverse and respectful environment of only those that come first, first."
— Sebben & Sebben Mission Statement, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you to DEATH!"Film
— Superboy Prime, Countdown to Final Crisis
"Titans will clash."Music
— Clash of the Titans' tagline
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love is all you need. Love is all you need. Love is all you need. Love is all you need. Love is all you need. Love is all you need...
—The Beatles, All You Need Is Love
You fuck birds
There are no words
—Grapes And Sunshine, Birdfucker
"A rose is a rose is a rose."
— Gertrude Stein
"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof! A proof is a proof and when you have a good proof it's because it's proven."
— Jean Chretien
"The offensive lineman are the biggest guys on the field. They're bigger than everyone else, that's why they're the biggest guys on the field."Web Comic
— John Madden
"I am the boss to surpass Big Boss, I will become the Biggest Boss Boss Boss Boss!"
Civilitey/ Liberby. Reason. Efidication. CiviltyOther
Rationality. Learning, Jutstice. Libersty. Hornor. Elucidution.. Civlity. Raison...
This are the virshues which emboby the magnificence that is Can Town.
—Rose Lalonde, Homestucknote
Secretary: Hello? This is the Department of Redundancy Department. Hello? Can I help you? Do you need help?
Writer: Yes. Serious professional help. But not from you. [hangs up phone]
— I Hate Myself and Want to Die
"To you and the other countless authors who refer to your books as 'fictional novels', will you please, for the love of all that’s holy and good in this world, stop it. Besides, I don’t represent fictional novels. I represent only poetic poetry, nonfictional true stories, how-to-cook-stuff cookbooks, and children’s books for children."
"... this made their respective children double first cousins. In addition, because Chang and Eng were identical twins, their children were genetically equivalent to half-siblings, thus making them genetically related in the same manner as half-siblings who are also first cousins." |
[Twisted-Python] adapt from more than one interface
glyph at divmod.com
glyph at divmod.com
Sat Apr 11 20:31:29 EDT 2009
On 11 Apr, 08:41 pm, esteve at sindominio.net wrote:
>factory = IFooFactory(myService)
>factory.bar = "some value"
>it works, but I'd rather use this:
>factory = IFooFactory(myService, configurationObject)
This is a long and terrible road you're about to start down. It's hard
for me to explain exactly why it's so painful, but trust me, it is.
What you're doing now, passing out-of-band arguments to the IFooFactory
adapter, whose concrete type you are *not supposed to know* at that
point in the control flow, is bad. But trying to force adaptation to
become full-fledged multimethods is worse. If you want multimethods, I
believe PEAK provides a package that implements them.
If you want to keep doing what you're doing, you should do this:
factory = MyServiceFooFactory(myService)
i.e. don't ask for an adaptation which might give you an object without
a "bar" attribute, just create the concrete type that does what you need
based on the type of myService and configure it with explicitly
documented methods. Although if I misunderstand the spec of
"IFooFactory" and it *does* include a bar attribute, nevermind.
If you want something more magical and adapter-ish, them maybe you want
IFooFactory(ConfigurationObject(myService, bar="some value"))
i.e. by the time you are getting around to the IFooFactory adaptation,
you should have an object that fully provides enough information that
the concrete FooFactory adapter type can be fully initialized when it is
>In order to implement this, registerAdapter would have to be able to
>tuple of interfaces, like this:
> (IFooService, IConfigurationDescriptor),
>would that feature make sense? If so, I'll file an issue right now :-)
Unfortunately, much as I've been encouraging people to file tickets
lately, no :). I don't think it makes sense.
More information about the Twisted-Python |
View Full Version : [Script Shell] How can i check for sudo
August 4th, 2005, 11:24 AM
I am doing a little install script for my work using shell, and I want to test wheter the script was started with or with sudo.
If it was without, and I need it I will put it in front of my command ..
But i cannot find a way to check for sudo ($USER only gives me the user).
Thanks for the tip
August 4th, 2005, 11:38 AM
#Check if run as root
if [ "$UID" -ne "$ROOT_UID" ] ; then
echo "You must be root to do that!"
August 4th, 2005, 04:42 PM
I will try this right now,
Thanks a lot :)
August 4th, 2005, 05:41 PM
Thanks it works flawlessly for my needs :)
Would you also happen to know how can I store 'file /usr/bin/java' in a variable in my script ?
August 4th, 2005, 10:30 PM
You need ` quotes to evaluate an expression.
August 4th, 2005, 10:58 PM
thank you very much for your help,
Do you happen to know a good website for learning shell script (so that I won't bother you too much :) ) ?
August 4th, 2005, 11:23 PM
Just Google for "bash tutorial (http://www.google.com/search?&q=bash%20tutorial)" and you'll find a lot of websites...
Here's some: Introduction to bash shell scripting (http://www.start-linux.com/articles/article_66.php), a good start
AWK, GRP, SED tutorial (http://linuxcourse.rutgers.edu/lessons/lesson9/shell_script_tutorial.html), useful for parsing command outputs
Introduction to Bash Programming pt. 1 (http://www.geocities.com/tipsforlinux/articles2/043.html), pt. 2 (http://www.geocities.com/tipsforlinux/articles2/044.html)
Ask if you have a question! Happy scripting :wink:
August 5th, 2005, 12:19 AM
I have looked at shell script and stuff like that, but I always found about the same stuff, that is why I asked here in fact :)
Thanks for your help,
August 5th, 2005, 12:58 AM
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As writers, you want your articles to be read by others. To achieve this, you must get your articles in places where people can find them and read them. The most strategic place to have your articles appear is to have them on search engine's first page. But to have this happen you must use effective keywords in your articles.
The reason you must use effective keywords in your articles is so that your articles can be easily found by search engines. You want to appear on search engines' first page ideally in the first position because being placed in the first position would make it more likely that searchers for your keywords will click on your article link instead of others.
There are basically two factors you need to take into consideration when choosing effective keywords for your articles.
The first factor is the number of searches made on your chosen keyword and the second is the competition that exists for that keyword. You must find a balance between these two factors to make your chosen keywords effective to bring the views to your articles.
For example, if you've chosen the keyword "golf" for your article, you'll find this keyword gets searched 185 million times monthly, according to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. To find the competition for this keyword, go to Google and enter "golf" in the search box. You'll find an equally large number of competition for that keyword with 283 million websites using "golf" as their keyword.
Remember if you still want to use the keyword "golf" for your article, you have to compete with 283 million other websites. Are you up to the challenge?
If you're an SEO expert and believe that you can rank well with this keyword, you may want to use it, as you'll get 185 million hits to your article. However, if you're just starting out, you might want to be less ambitious and choose some other, more effective keywords for your article.
You might want to use a keyword phrase instead of a one-word keyword. For example, you might want to use keyword phrases like "discount golf equipment" or "private golf courses," which probably will have less searches but you can rank well with these keyword phrases as the competition will also be not as much.
Once you've found the keyword phrase which has a substantial search with little to moderate competition, you can use that keyword phrase in your article and in the title of your article. This will help the search engines to understand your articles.
However to get on search engines' first page is not that simple. You need to consider the competition carefully. Look at a search engine's first page. For illustration purposes, let's use Google.
Look at the first four websites on Google's first page. Take a look at the page rank (PR) of the first four websites. Page rank is a ranking assigned by Google to web pages to estimate the value of a web page. It's a numerical value with ten being the highest possible number.The higher the number the more value Google considers the web page to be.
Google gives a page rank for every web page of a website. For example, ExpertsColumn.com has a page rank of three but the page rank of its other pages like the page rank of the web page of this article may be lower.
The significance of a page rank is that it will indicate how well your article can compete with other web pages. If the first four web pages on Google have page rank of more than PR3, the chances of your article competing with these web pages are very slim. You should target another keyword phrase.
Look for keyword phrases with competing web pages which have page rank of less than PR1and your article will rank very well in Google and other search engines.
Of course there are other factors to consider when looking at the competition but looking at the page rank is the simplest method.
Choosing effective keywords for your articles means you need to look for keywords that have a substantial search with moderate competition and the competition must be one that you can overcome in order to appear on a search engine's first page because that is where the traffic is.
Copyright © 2013 - uminoor.ExpertsColumn.Com · All Rights Reserved | Powered by: ExpertsColumn.com |
It is natural for a dolphin to attempt to hide an injury or illness, as an obvious injury or illness would
make it appear weak and more vulnerable to attack by a predator. Much skill and experience is required to diagnose a
dolphin's injury or problematic health issue. The term "husbandry" is used to describe the science and health management of
animals in captivity. Husbandry behaviors are "simulated" frequently (without actually performing them) in an effort to desensitize
the animal and provide for lower stress levels in the dolphin when their actual performance is required. There are many ways
in which husbandry behaviors are carried out to manage the care and conditioning of captive animals.
Requesting the dolphin to "present flukes" allows the specialist to draw blood and to do a general assessment
of the health of these two fins. A request to present flukes also may be used as a "hold" or "stay"of the animal so that other
animals may be worked with or when the conditions are changing in the animal's environment. This holding of dolphins is called
DRI, or differential reinforcement for incompatible behavior. At the conclusion of DRI, the dolphin is rewarded for its compliance
with this request.
In the following video the trainer is teaching the dolphin to accept being handled in a "vertical up" position
with pressure applied to the flukes. This procedure would be necessary if a blood draw was required. Blood would be drawn
from the major vessel running along the underside of the flukes. The pressure being applied helps to simulate the needle
stick required for the blood draw.
The following video shows the urine collection procedure, providing an important sample used for a variety
of evaluations. The trainer first performs a "flukes haul out" by gently drawing the dolphin out onto a solid surface
with its ventral side exposed. A flukes haul out not only allows for urine collection. It is also used to collect
semen, blood, fecal, gastric, vaginal, respiratory and mammary milk samples for evaluation.
To begin the urine collection the trainer cleans the urogenital opening with an antiseptic gauze pad, places
the collection cup into position for the urine catch, and applies light pressure on the bladder with the palm of the hand.
The female dolphin then fills the cup. Voluntary urine collection was first accomplished when trainers noticed
predictable dolphin urination approximately 15 minutes after each feeding.The fact that the dolphin's bladder
is quite small and the animal must urinate frequently aids in the training of this behavior. Urine
collection is useful for monitoring hormone levels and is a less invasive method than blood collection. One important test
of urine collected from the female dolphin is to measure the level of LH (luteinizing hormone). Urine samples required for
LH testing are typically collected in 12 hour intervals. LH causes the release of an egg for potential fertilization. A significant
increase seen in LH levels is indicative of impending egg release and is important information used for timing mating
contact with males.
Another unique husbandry procedure is demonstrated below. The dolphin in this video spends its approximately
8 hours of rest each day with its melon (head) out of the water. Because, like man, a dolphin's skin may be
damaged by excessive exposure to the sun's rays, it is seen receiving an application of sunscreen (Zinc Oxide).
This is applied during days when the sun is intense. If this dolphin were to live in the wild, it would
most likely develop serious skin problems, perhaps even skin cancer, after years of exposure to the sun. Because of the husbandry
procedures practiced in captivity it is protected against this outcome.
In order to protect a captive dolphin from dehydration while it spends significant time with its melon
above the water surface, a sprinkler is provided to cool and dampen the exposed skin surface.
Here an Indianapolis Zoo dolphin specialist demonstrates a number of husbandry methods employed in caring for
the Bottlenose dolphin.
Semen is collected from male dolphins on a trainer's command. Blood is drawn using a needle stick of the major
vein located on the ventral surface of the flukes. Fecal samples are collected using a small rubber catheter placed into the
animal's rectum. Gastric samples are withdrawn using a flexible lubricated tube placed down the dolphin's esophagus and into
the stomach. Vaginal samples are collected by swabbing the vaginal interior. Respiratory samples are collected by requesting
the dolphin to "chuff" or blow air out of the blowhole onto an absorbent card held just above the blowhole. This card may
then be sent to the laboratory for analysis of micro-organisms and/or particulate present in the animal's respiratory tract.
In this flukes haul out, mammary milk is being obtained using a breast pump. Mammary milk may be examined for
hormone levels as well as for studying changes in the ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrate as the female rears her
nursing calf over the months following its birth.
"Blowhole desensitization" is the conditioning of the dolphin to having objects placed above and on the blowhole
area of the melon. This area of the dolphin is very sensitive, as it represents the locale from which vocalizations and
echolocations are produced and through which breaths are taken. A complex of nerves is located in this area to help the dolphin
recognize when it has cleared the surface of the water and it is safe to inhale. Desensitization of this area is also performed
for the purpose of medicating the dolphin. Medications targeted for the respiratory system (by way of blowhole inhalation)
are given using an inhaler. This device requires repeated, specific desensitization practice. The dolphin is conditioned to
inhale while this device is set on top of the blowhole. A mist of medicated vapor is released by the specialist into this
apparatus as the dolphin inhales.
A "slide out" is used for general assessment or to weigh the dolphin using a flat, low-lying electronic scale.
A "ventral up" request allows for general visual health assessment of the ventral side of the animal, or to
produce a sonogram using ultrasound equipment to monitor pregnancy or general health, or may be used as a DRI.
Understanddolphins.com contains information condensed from a number of reputable technical sources,
peer reviewed journal articles, and respected dolphin research facilities, as well as from my personal experiences and
observations as a dolphin VIP Tour Guide and Educator.
I have made every attempt to support the information presented in this site with video and still
photographic images. On a regular basis I plan to produce more of these images and will continue to update the site with these
as well as with any new and scientifically verified information which becomes available. |
|The 1993 SNA defines subsidies as follows: "Subsidies are current unrequited payments that government units, including non-resident government units, make to enterprises on the basis of the levels of their production activities or the quantities or values of the goods or services which they produce, sell or import. They are receivable by resident producers or importers. In the case of resident producers they may be designed to influence their levels of production, the prices at which their outputs are sold or the remuneration of the institutional units engaged in production" (para 7.71). |
The following paragraph then states: "Subsidies are not payable to final consumers, and current transfers that governments make directly to households as consumers are treated as social benefits. Subsidies also do not include grants that governments make to enterprises in order to finance their capital formation, or compensate them for damage to their capital assets, such grants being treated as capital transfers" (para 7.72).
On the basis of the definition quoted above and as the 1993 SNA also "defines an institutional unit engaged in production as an enterprise. An enterprise may be a corporation..., a non-profit institution, or an unincorporated enterprise" (para 5.1), some experts have pointed out that it is possible to interpret that non-market production units within the sectors of general government and non-profit institutions serving households may also receive other subsidies on production. This treatment would reduce their output and value added, but leave net operating surplus unchanged.
ISWGNA discussed this issue and agreed to adopt the ESA 1995 view that unrequited transfers to non-market producers could be classified as subsidies provided that those payments depend on general regulations applicable to market and non-market producers as well. A clear example was transfers to increase salaries of teachers in both market and non-market enterprises. It was recognized that this was not the explicit intent of the authors of the 1993 SNA, but that the SNA wording was consistent with this treatment.
By convention, subsidies on products can only pertain to market output or to output for own final uses. The ESA 1995 also clarifies further that payment by governments to market producers for goods and services should be treated as social benefits in kind and not subsidies on products if those market producers provide those products directly and individually to households in the context of social risks or needs and to which the households are legally entitled to. |
Sienna Project: Building Schools in Guatemala
Travel to the beautiful country of Guatemala, delve into an exploration of human rights, and build a school with the Sienna Project! This all-encompassing adventure will enable you to see Guatemala while gaining an in-depth understanding of issues affecting the country and the local indigenous culture. You will meet with local human-rights experts and work with both your hearts and your hands to build a school for children who otherwise may not have any educational opportunities.
- There are no currently scheduled Sienna Project trips.
$930 per person, not including airfare. Congregational groups of four or more are eligible for a five percent discount.
The Sienna Project builds schools in small indigenous mountain villages in the highlands of Guatemala, where a scarcity of classrooms impedes education. Offering a way to live UU values, the Sienna Project provides a platform to address poverty firsthand by helping build classrooms for Mayan children to transform their lives. Since 2007, the Sienna Project has successfully built eight schools.
Martin Lavanhar is the founder and president of the Sienna Project. Retired from his own medical and electronics company, he is an elder at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, N.J. He is an end-of-life doula and has been a hospice companion for 24 years.
Derek Lavanhar is one of the founders of the Sienna Project. An expatriate who has lived in Guatemala for over 15 years, he uses his construction skills, proficiency as a translator, and understanding of Mayan culture to make Sienna Project trips run smoothly. |
Learn more physics!
what is the % increase in volume when water changes from liquid to solid
- patrick struzynski (age 45)
East Aurora,n.y. USA
The answer to your question is that, in general, a given volume of liquid water at room temperature will increase in volume by about 9.05% after freezing. Most materials do the opposite, that is, the solid form of most substances is more dense than their liquid form.
University of Toronto) [Above] Before freezing, liquid water molecules are somewhat free to move around.
University of Wisconsin--Green Bay) [Above] When frozen, water molecules form crystal structures. This is the most common form of crystallized H2O, called "Ih". The "h" in Ih is from it's "hexagonal" structure which may or may not be easy to see here. It is less dense than the liquid form of water above since this crystal structure takes up more volume than the free-to-move-around liquid water molecules. (You can ignore the different colors--each ball represents a full water molecule.) Interesting note:
is not the only form of crystallized water. If the water is put in a high pressure environment, frozen quickly or put in extremely low temperatures, frozen water will have other crystal structures which are more dense than liquid water. There are about 15 kinds of ice crystal structures, but Ih
is the most commonly found crystal structure on Earth.
Hope that helps answer your question!
(published on 05/09/11)
Follow-up on this answer. |
I just returned to my hometown of Los Angeles, California from a two-week trip up the coast. I spent the majority of my time with some new friends from Direct Action Everywhere in Oakland, California. If you haven’t already heard of them, they’re an amazing group of committed animal rights activists whose goal is to inspire the world to pay attention, pick a side and take an active role in the animal rights movement. They believe in total animal liberation, creating and nurturing an inclusive community, telling stories from the animal’s perspective, non-violent direct action and confrontation. They believe that veganism is not enough and that activism is imperative. I completely agree.
Right now, the animal rights movement is incredibly pessimistic. Talk to different activists and you’re likely to hear things like “the planet is doomed”, “abolition is not possible right now, so we should fight for ‘humane’ treatment as a means to that end” and “we’ll never change people’s views on animals, but at least we’ll go down fighting”. This is the absolute wrong mindset to have. This is not a winning mindset. We need positivity in this movement not because we want to fool ourselves into thinking something impossible is possible (because it might be possible with far fewer numbers than you think), but because if we aren’t positive, the planet will be doomed, abolition won’t be possible and going down fighting is all we’ll achieve. The truth is, changing people’s views on animals is possible with the right mindset and determination, but it will take all of us inspiring others to take action if we ever hope to achieve it. We have to dream BIG. In a world telling us “no you can’t”, it is up to us to confidently and unapologetically counter “yes we can“.
Dreaming big is important, but meaningless if we lack the people-power to make the idea of total animal liberation a reality. As activists, we have to follow through on our words with actions beyond vegan consumerism. Making different shopping and entertainment choices is great, but we are fighting an uphill battle that can only be won if activists will actually get active.
Imagine if every time someone took a bite of a hamburger or picked a gallon of milk off the grocery store shelf they received looks of disapproval and words of truth earnestly telling them “this is wrong”. We need to hold people accountable for their actions. We need to wake people up. We need to bring the entire world into the animal rights conversation. The biggest social justice movement of our time is happening right now, but we’re too afraid and timid to talk about it. We are their voice and yet we are silent when it counts most.
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter From a Birmingham Jail)
Direct action is imperative. No longer can we allow other members of our species to live in the self-imposed darkness of willful ignorance. No longer can we be appeased by the “victories” of meatless mondays, “humane” murder, and bigger cages. No longer can we be contented by the illusion that change will happen because of how peacefully, respectfully and meekly we waited.
If this were any other social justice movement, would we be worried about appearing “pushy”, “rude” or “judgmental” by bringing people’s attention to the violence they are actively participating in by maintaining the mindset that a beings worth is based solely on their utility to humans? If humans were in the animal’s place wouldn’t our actions be different? Would we still be saying “wait”, “be patient” and “not yet”? How is this disparity not speciesist?
“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter From a Birmingham Jail)
Confrontation is the seed of change. Without it, the status quo will remain forever. We need to attack this issue with the same urgency we would have if these injustices were instead being dealt to humans.
Every time a person purchases or consumes a product of violence, we need to remind them that they are making a choice in support of the oppressors. Willful ignorance is not innocence — there is complicity in every action and inaction which supports oppressive acts. If you wouldn’t sit quietly beside a person slicing someone’s throat at the dinner table, then you should not sit quietly beside a person eating someone’s mutilated body — and if you would sit quietly beside a person eating someone’s mutilated body then you are complicit as well. As Erasmus Darwin famously said: “He who allows oppression shares the crime”.
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter From a Birmingham Jail)
It’s easy to point at people who are openly and unashamedly speaking out against injustice and say that they are creating problems, but the truth is that the problems were already there to begin with, and these outspoken people are simply forcing others to finally pay attention. Let’s not blame and shame the messenger for delivering truth to a willfully ignorant public. Rather, let’s join them and amplify that message so it can no longer be ignored.
We can’t force people to agree with us, but we can force people to listen to us. Revolution is necessary because we will not allow our moral obligation to stand up against tyranny and oppression to be outweighed by the opposition of a morally bankrupt majority. We need to bring the issue of animal rights out into the open so that it can be acknowledged and discussed, agreed with or disagreed with.
I’d rather have someone vehemently oppose the idea of animal rights than be neutral to it. I’d rather be jeered and laughed at by people on the street while I hold a sign asking them to question their current habits, because hostility trumps indifference when it comes to changing the status quo. Hostility is an emotional reaction to an emotional issue. Indifference is the lack of emotion — and that is much more disturbing to me.
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” ~ Frederick Douglass (West India Emancipation Speech)
So, when we chant:
“What do we want?”
“When do we want it?”
We have to mean it. We have to fight for it. Only then will we get it.
Actions > words. |
Video:Install a Video Cardwith Don Schechter
Wondering how you can output your video files to your television and other AV screens? Learn how you can install a video card into a desktop PC in just a few minutes.See Transcript
Transcript:Install a Video CardHi I'm Don Schechter for About.com Computing and today I'm going to show you how to install a video card in a desktop PC.
Before You Install a Video CardFirst, turn off the computer and unplug the power cord.
Next, open the computer. Some computers have a button or buttons that you press to open the box. Some have screws on the rear of the case which must be removed. I just need to remove the screws on the back of the case.
Slide the casing back. Now you have access to the inside of your computer.
Locate AGP Slot to Install a Video CardFirst, you must locate your AGP slot which is the special video card slot on your mother board. Sometimes these can be hidden below wires, so you may need to gently push those aside.
It is normally located at the top of all the slots on your motherboard and is slightly shifted to the right.
How to Install a Video CardRemove the PC card slot cover. Some computers have easy lift-off slot covers while most have screws. I'm just going to remove the screw and pull off the cover.
Let's take a look at the video card. As you can see there is a little hook at the end. This will either be hooked or clamped at the end of the slot.
Next, align the video card directly over the slot in the motherboard. First, hook or clamp the end of the card. Now, gently press down on both the front and back of the card into the slot until it is snug.
After You Install a Video CardOnce the card is seated in the slot, screw or fasten down the card to the case at the PC card slot.
Close up your computer and plug in all of your cables.
Attach your monitor cable to the new video card and boot up your computer.
When you start up the computer, the screen should function normally. If your computer came with any software, install it once your operating system has loaded to optimize the performance of your video card.
Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at Computing.About.com.
About videos are made available on an "as is" basis, subject to the User Agreement. |
Porsche (Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG) is a German manufacturer of sports cars, founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the engineer who created the first Volkswagen. The company is located in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart.
Porsche has a reputation for producing high-end sports vehicles that, despite their high performance, are reliable and tractable enough to be used for daily driving, and of high manufacturing quality and durability. In a May 2006 survey, Porsche was awarded first place as the most prestigious luxury automobile brand by Luxury Institute, New York; it questioned more than 500 households with a gross annual income of at least $200,000 and a net worth of at least $750,000. The current Porsche lineup includes everything from an entry-level roadster (the Boxster) to a supercar (the Carrera GT). Their most famous product is the 911. Future plans include a high performance luxury saloon, the Panamera. Also, Porsche is a leader in modern turbocharging technology, being the first to use a variable geometry turbocharger in a gasoline powered production automobile.
Category: Companies - Headquarters |
Photo courtesy: John Ansotegui
Photo courtesy: Corrie Hahn
Originally called 'Dornix', Big Timber was named by a railroad official in St. Paul who read William Clark's Journals. Clark was referring to the large cottonwood trees near the area called 'Rivers Across' in July 1806. The area became a large sheep ranching area, at one time shipping more wool than any other city in the US. It is now a successful agricultural area, with strong community bonds. The beautiful Crazy Mountains provide a perfect backdrop for all types of outdoor recreation, photography and scenic drives.
Big Timber is the gateway to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and has some of the best blue-ribbon trout fishing in the state. Big Timber and the surrounding communities of Melville, McLeod and Greycliff offer shopping, schools, medical facilities, building supplies, churches and peace and quiet. Big Timber is bordered on the north and east by prairie, and on the west and south by mountains. Granite Peak, located in the Absaroka Mountain Range, is the highest mountain in Montana at 12,799 feet. Activities and guided services for this area include ranch vacations, hiking, river floats, hunting, fishing, golf and the historical Big Timber Rodeo.
Area attractions include the Crazy Mountain Museum. On exhibit is the Cobblestone City, a detailed miniature of Big Timber in 1907. The permanent rodeo display features the Cremer Rodeo of the 1930s. Part of the museum complex is a Norwegian Stabbur, or stone house, with artifacts from Big Timber's Norwegian heritage, and a one-room schoolhouse, complete with black boards and chalk, shared desks and pictures of the presidents.
Sweet Grass Chamber |
Diane Cabe was one of the Washington Glass School's first Resident Artists - helping set up the main classroom in 2003 at the Half Street, DC location. Her glass studies included courses at The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, where she studied with Lucartha Kohler, author of Glass: An Artist’s Medium. She was a Bullseye E-merge Finalist in 2004 and has exhibited at many area fine art galleries including the Fraser Gallery ,Target Gallery, VisArts Gallery, and the Glenview Mansion. Diane's work was part of the seminal "Compelled by Content" exhibition of narrative glass held in 2005.
Diane's glass portfolio comprises both sculptural and functional pieces. She is a resident artist with the Art Glass Center at Glen Echo, where she now teaches casting and other forms of kilnformed glass.
Diane's cast glass purses are meant to evoke the bags, purses, satchels, backpacks that would sit with her wherever she would travel, holding her life. Diane sees the bags as how one holds treasured objects, secrets and the important items that define one's life, paradoxically rendering them in beautiful translucent glass.
Some of Diane's recent works expands on exploring items from the domestic life; La Bella Figura is about personal memories, reflections, sensations. Diane said of the work that it ..."is a tribute to my genetic inheritance that has compelled me to find beauty in mundane objects"…
La Bella Figura
Glass, Wood, Copper, Mica
DC's Longview Gallery juried invitational exhibition showcasing the people and work of the artists of the Washington Glass School. The show opens in May.Washington Glass School: The First 10 Years
1234 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC
May 19 - June 19, Opening Reception, May 19th, 6:30-8:30 PM
Click HERE to jump to Diane's artwork website.
For other glass artist profiles: |
From Ancient Moroccan Pottery to Contemporary Mexican Folk Art, Epcot is a World Showcase for Art Lovers
– Epcot World Showcase has been a "showplace" of nations since its grand opening in 1982. But beyond the pagodas in Japan and the longboats in Norway lies a whole other world, treating art lovers to museum-quality galleries. Since early galleries in Japan and Morocco the opportunities for art appreciation have grown with the addition of galleries in Norway, Mexico, and most recently, The American Adventure pavilion.
B-Roll: 19th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
– LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla (March 7, 2012) -The largest-ever Disney front-entrance topiary, a Haiti-themed garden and marketplace, children’s play areas and thirty million blooms bring the flower power at the 19th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival presented by HGTV March 7-May 20 at Walt Disney World Resort.
– EPCOT’S SHINING ICON – Spaceship Earth is the visual and thematic centerpiece of Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The geodesic dome weighs 16 million pounds and the outer “skin” of Spaceship Earth is made up of 11,324 aluminum and plastic-alloy triangles. The attraction inside Spaceship Earth presented by Siemens ...
B-Roll: Walt Disney World Resort – Overall
– General B-Roll of Downtown Disney, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida General B-Roll of Resorts at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida General B-Roll of Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida General B-Roll of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida General B-Roll of Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort in ... |
HTML Validator Firefox Add-On
First, let's look at why you need an HTML Validator in the first place. Ever wanted to see how many HTML “bugs” are on each page of your site at a glance? Now, while each page may be operating just fine, there are some issues with browser compatibility that have plagued developers ever since the days of Netscape versus Internet Explorer. Each company saw the standard HTML guidelines, developed a browser for it, and made their own neat additions to the development of HTML. That gave rise to many websites having some sort of statement along the lines of “This website is best viewed in” followed by either Netscape or Internet Explorer (or, in the case of a really die-hard nerd, Lynx). That's because the page could look very different and lose functionality if you use your preferred browser as opposed to theirs. Now with Safari, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, and every other browser out there with multiple versions, operating systems, and plug-ins, your website can look like a mess to the majority of users if you don't follow the W3C guidelines. If you didn't know already, now you know why you need an HTML Validator.
Why You Should Use the Firefox HTML Validator Add-On
To validate that your code is compliant with the W3C guidelines, you could always go to validator.w3.org and enter in the URL for each page manually, upload the files, or validate a piece of code by copy pasting it into a dialog box. That can be a big pain, obviously, and distract you from your work by having to go through hoops as you upload, check, and fix in a loop.
The HTML Validator Add-On uses the same algorithm as the W3C's web-based validator, and it also uses the Tidy algorithm which was also developed by the W3C. So, with the free add-on installed, you can quickly access your pages locally, validate your pages locally, and it will pop up an icon showing you how many there are on that page. It does it automatically and quickly, so you cut out the time consuming busy work.
Download HTML Validator |
The West Offaly Heritages project is a collaboration between Brown University's John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage and Sculpture in the Parklands and Offaly County Council. Funded by a grant from The Heritage Council and Offaly County Council, the project is bringing graduate students from Brown University's M.A. in Public Humanities programme into residence in West Co. Offaly, Ireland in Summer 2010. The students will be working with members of the local community in West Offaly to document, activate and creatively mediate the heritages and stories of West Offaly.
Organised by Dr Ian Russell (Brown University and UCD) and Kevin O'Dwyer (Sculpture in the Parklands) and supported by Amanda Pedlow and Ray Bell (Offaly County Council), the West Offaly Heritages project will be both a unique demonstration of the possibilities for new media to create new audiences for heritages in Ireland and a model for collaborative student research residencies as part of Heritage Council research programmes. |
Reaches the entire country
By Daniel Gutman (IPS)
HAVANA TIMES – The unprecedented growth of renewable energies in Argentina over the last three years has borne its greatest fruit: the Cauchari solar park, with nearly one million photovoltaic panels and 300 MW of installed power, which was connected to the national power grid on Sept. 26.
The solar park is located in the extreme northwest province of Jujuy some 1,700 km from Buenos Aires, near the borders with Chile and Bolivia, with whom it shares the Puna ecoregion of high Andean plains covered by grasses and shrubs.
The initiative cost 390 million dollars and is the latest reflection of China’s involvement in the Latin American economy: not only the two construction companies but also most of the financing came from the Asian giant.
“It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region…It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world.” — Guillermo Hoerth
An indigenous shepherd tending his llamas or a herd of wild vicuñas that flee as soon as they see a vehicle approaching are the only sights that attract the visitor’s attention – as IPS found on a recent visit to the area – in the solitude of the arid Cauchari environment, which covers some 800 hectares in the Argentine Puna, at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters.
Between September 2018 and October 2019, 2,664 trucks with containers loaded with Chinese components and technology arrived at this remote spot so far from the large centers of electricity consumption, where water is scarce and it is hard to breathe because of the altitude.
Previously they had disembarked in the Chilean port of Antofagasta, on the Pacific Ocean, or in the Argentinean port of Zarate, on the Atlantic.
“It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region,” Guillermo Hoerth, president of Cauchari Solar, a company owned by Jujuy province, told IPS by phone.
“It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world,” Hoerth added.
The president of the plant explained that the intense solar radiation throughout the year is combined with low temperatures, which help the panels retain heat and make the Puna an extraordinary place for this type of renewable energy.
Cauchari is the greatest success story of the Law of National Promotion of the use of Renewable Energies for the Production of Electric Power, passed by Congress in September 2015.
The new law modified the electric mix of this Southern Cone country, which is the third-largest economy in Latin America, built until then almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, large hydroelectric dams and, to a much lesser extent, nuclear energy.
According to official data, 135 new renewable energy projects, mostly solar and wind, have been launched in Argentina since 2016. The ones already in operation and those that are still under construction represent a combined total of 4,776 MW of installed power, with an estimated investment of close to 7.2 billion dollars.
The most graphic reflection of the rise in renewable sources, which under the law have priority over conventional sources, is that they accounted for 9.1 percent of the electricity consumed in Argentina in the first 10 months of 2020 and climbed to a record 11.9 percent in October. Although it must be kept in mind that this occurred in a context of falling electricity consumption due to the drop in economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, renewable sources, which until three years ago represented less than two percent of electricity generation in Argentina, reached – with a slight delay – the goal of contributing eight percent of electric power, which Law 27191 of 2015 had set for Dec. 31, 2017.
The law outlines a second stage of the plan, with a goal of reaching 20 percent by 2025. But experts believe this will be virtually impossible to achieve.
The global economic crisis and Argentina’s financing problems – this year the country restructured almost 66 billion dollars of debt with private creditors and still owes some 52 billion dollars to the IMF – are major obstacles.
But they are not the only ones.
“Argentina is a large country, with great potential for solar energy in the north and wind energy in the south,” economist Julián Rojo of the General Mosconi Argentine Institute of Energy, a non-governmental research organization, told IPS.
But “the problem is that for transporting electricity to the centres of consumption there is a lack of high voltage lines, which today are close to saturation. And there is no intention of investing in new ones,” he said in a telephone conversation.
In Rojo’s view, Argentina does not currently need additional electricity generation, because peak demand was reached in 2017 and, if necessary, the country has an important gas pipeline network that makes it more convenient to build thermal power plants near the centres of consumption.
Making an offering to Pacha Mama for the expansion of the solar park
Marcelo Nieder, director of renewable energy in Jujuy province, told IPS that such a remote location was chosen to build the Cauchari solar park not only because of the excellent solar radiation in the Puna ecoregion, but also because a high-voltage line built in 1999 to export electricity to Chile passes through the area.
“Chile used it to supply its mining industry, but since 2006 Argentina stopped selling to Chile, so there was a possibility to take advantage of the power line,” he explained by phone from Jujuy, also the name of the provincial capital.
Because this high voltage line still has transport capacity the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, visited Cauchari in October to make an offering to the Pacha Mama – Mother Earth for the indigenous people of the Andean region – and to ask for an expansion of the solar park, up to 500 MW of power.
“We have already designed the expansion and we are betting that China will finance it, as in the case of the park that was already inaugurated,” Felipe Albornoz, president of Jujuy Energía y Minería Sociedad del Estado (JEMSE), the state-run energy and mining company that manages Cauchari, told IPS by phone from the provincial capital.
China’s state-owned Eximbank financed most of the construction, with a 330 million dollar loan that the province of Jujuy must pay back over 30 years, at an annual interest rate of 2.9 percent.
The remaining 60 million dollars were obtained through a green bond issued in the United States, for which the province of Jujuy is trying to postpone the maturity date, according to Albornoz.
The president of JEMSE explained that Jujuy expects to sell power to the national electricity market for about 25 million dollars a year. The company projects that Cauchari will produce 840,000 MW/hour per year, which would save the emission of 325,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent into the atmosphere, thanks to the reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
Two percent of the net profits will go to Puesto Sey, a Kolla indigenous community that has collective rights over the land where there is now an endless expanse of solar panels.
The irony is that Puesto Sey, like the other communities in the area, do not receive electricity from Cauchari because they are not connected to the national grid.
Most of the villages and small towns in the Puna, mainly inhabited by Kolla indigenous people, are supplied with electricity from diesel-fueled generators, although in recent years some small local solar parks have been built.
Nor does Cauchari make a difference today in terms of local employment, because although the two-year construction process employed more than 1,500 people, the plant itself only needs 60 to 70 highly specialised technicians.
And perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether Argentina or any other Latin American country will ever be able to supply such large renewable energy projects with local technology.
Hoerth told IPS that the construction process brought about 100 million dollars to Jujuy’s domestic market, since 22.7 percent of the plant’s electromechanical components were domestically made.
However, the president of Cauchari said the local manufacture of technology for renewable energy sources is still a distant dream.
“I wish we could develop a national industry. But it is very complicated because China has reached such cheap costs that it has flooded the European market,” he said. |
Radiation therapy services in Virginia
The Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute at HCA Virginia hospitals has board-certified radiation oncologists how use advanced technology to provide you with faster, safer and more precise cancer treatment.
We offer radiation therapy and radiosurgery treatment in a safe and effective manner. Our team will create an individualized care plan, including recovery and follow-up care, tailored specifically to your needs.
For more information about cancer diagnostics, treatments and other services, call askSARAH at (804) 591-4152.
What is radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy is an advanced form of cancer treatment that uses beams of high-dose radiation to kill cancer cells in the body. Radiation therapy can also help shrink tumors. During radiation therapy, the beams are aimed at precise locations in the body, in order to target the cancerous area while sparing surrounding body tissue.
We offer various types of radiation therapy through our comprehensive oncology program. The type of radiation therapy that is best for you will depend on your health condition, cancer type and cancer location.
Types of radiation therapy we offer
We take a highly personalized approach to radiation therapy. When you first meet with our team of radiation therapy specialists, we will take the time to carefully review your case, talk to you about what you can expect from your treatment and map out an individualized treatment plan.
You and your physician typically choose from two general types of radiation therapy—brachytherapy or external bean radiation therapy. They may also suggest using a combination of both therapies to treat your specific type of cancer.
Brachytherapy involves the internal application of a radiation source. One of the most commonly prescribed forms of brachytherapy is high-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR).
HDR is a type of internal radiation therapy that delivers radiation from implants placed close to or inside of the tumor. This treatment involves inserting a source of radioactive material—often called a "seed"—into a body cavity. For treatment of gynecologic cancer or breast cancer, this sealed source is sent into the body through a catheter for a short period of time, usually just a few minutes.
External beam radiation
During external beam radiation, beams of high-energy X-rays are delivered to the patient externally (from outside of their body). We offer many types of external beam radiation services, including:
Conformal radiation therapy (CRT)
This cancer treatment shapes the radiation beams to match the shape of the tumor. This treatment drastically reduces the amount of healthy tissue that is damaged during the process.
Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT)
This therapy is used to treat tumors in areas of the body that move, such as the lungs. Radiation therapy machines come with imaging technology that allows our radiation oncologists to capture an image of the tumor before and during treatment. By comparing these images to the reference images, your position and/or the radiation beams can be adjusted to more precisely target the radiation to the tumor.
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)
IMRT technology uses linear accelerators to deliver precise radiation to a tumor while minimizing the radiation to surrounding healthy tissue.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT)
SBRT uses a coordinate system to precisely pinpoint tumors in the body. This therapy uses high doses of radiation over a shorter period of time with optimal accuracy.
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)
This therapy uses an X-ray beam to shrink or control the growth of a tumor. It does this by either killing the cells directly or disrupting the cells' ability to grow.
State-of-the-art radiation oncology technology
We offer patients access to state-of-the-art technology that is designed to improve radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments, deliver increased precision and reduce side effects for patients.
This technology has unique capabilities that allows clinicians the ability to deliver more compact radiation doses that closely conform to the size, shape and location of tumors while sparing surrounding tissue. Treatments can be delivered relatively quickly, allowing our physicians to perform higher-quality radiosurgery for more patients.
askSarah (804) 591-4152 to speak with a nurse 24/7.
About Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute
As part of Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, our family of hospitals provides comprehensive cancer services with convenient access to cutting-edge therapies for people facing cancer in our communities. From diagnosis to treatment and survivorship care, our oncology expertise ensures you have access to locally trusted care with the support of a globally recognized network.
Have cancer questions? We can help. askSARAH is a dedicated helpline for your cancer-related questions. Our specially trained nurses are available 24/7, and all calls are confidential. Contact askSARAH at (804) 591-4152 or chat online at askSARAHnow.com. |
So, you want to lower your blood pressure fast? Well, let’s look at a few things first; Your blood pressure level will fluctuate throughout the day naturally. It is affected by what you eat, what you do and even what you’re thinking about. However, sometimes your blood pressure can reach unhealthily high levels.
Any blood pressure reading above 140/90 mmHg is considered high. High blood pressure is dangerous as it can lead to risk of nasty and even life threatening health conditions, including heart disease and stroke.
If you want to know how to lower blood pressure fast and safely, look no further. The good news is that there are things you can do immediately to bring your blood pressure down and get it closer to normal levels. By doing this you will reduce your risk of further health complications. Here are the best tips for bringing down your blood pressure quickly.
Table of Contents
- 1 6 Things Guaranteed to Lower Your Blood Pressure Fast
- 1.1 Stop Eating Salty Foods Immediately
- 1.2 Avoid Sugary Foods too
- 1.3 Eat the Right Things Instead
- 1.4 Get out in the Sun
- 1.5 Try to Relax Immediately
- 1.6 Drink the Right Beverages
- 1.7 Spend Time with your Pet
- 1.8 Check out this Video with MORE Helpful Tips
- 1.9 In other words – you need to ensure you Make Long-Term Lifestyle Choices to keep your Blood Pressure down
- 2 You may also like:
6 Things Guaranteed to Lower Your Blood Pressure Fast
Stop Eating Salty Foods Immediately
Salt will just make high blood pressure worse. Lowering your daily intake of salt just slightly can lower your blood pressure by as much as 8 mmHg.
Lowering your sodium intake in general will keep your blood pressure lower over time. It is worth checking the ingredients of any processed foods you buy for salt and sodium levels. Reduce the amount of salt you use in your cooking too in order to take care of your blood pressure levels long term.
Avoid Sugary Foods too
Fructose can makes your blood pressure soar, and this is one of the things you will want to cut out immediately if you have high blood pressure. Most sugars are not going to do your blood pressure any favors, but fructose is particularly damaging because the body breaks it down into uric acid, among other nasty substances.
Uric acid drives your blood pressure up by hindering the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Substitute sugary snacks for healthy fats such as those found in nuts and seeds.
Eat the Right Things Instead
Eating nutritious foods that are packed full of vitamins and antioxidants is a great way of lowering your blood pressure and keeping it down for good. Raw vegetables and fresh fruits are vital to a healthy diet and play a key part in controlling your blood pressure. Spinach, tomatoes and garlic are all good choices for keeping blood pressure down.
The DASH diet is recommended for those wanting to decrease their blood pressure long term. It stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, a diet that revolves around maintaining a healthy blood pressure level.
The DASH diet focuses on regular consumption of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables while eliminating unhealthy processed or sugary foods.
Get out in the Sun
If the sun is out, heading outside is a great way to lower your blood pressure. Research has shown that soaking up UV light can lower blood pressure significantly. Sunlight oxidizes the nitrate in your skin which dilates your blood vessels.
Remember to still take care of your skin in the sun by applying sun protection cream. Longer term benefits of sunlight include the production of vitamin D in the body which increases feelings of happiness and reduces stress.
Try to Relax Immediately
I know it may seem easier said than done, but hear me out. Stress can often trigger high blood pressure levels. If you find yourself in a stressful situation, the best thing you can do for your blood pressure is to remove yourself from it. If you are still feeling stressed, try taking time out to relax.
Taking a few moments to concentrate on breathing deeply can be a great help. Meditation and yoga are other great activities to reduce stress. We recommend Yoga Burn, by Zoe Bray Cotton for an amazing at-home yoga workout. In the long term, creating a routine that including one or more of these stress reduction techniques will be important to keep your blood pressure down in normal levels.
If you find you are prone to stress, it is advised that you avoid highly caffeinated drinks. Switch from coffee to green tea, for example.
Drink the Right Beverages
It is not just what you eat that affects blood pressure, but your choice of drinks too. Make sure you stay hydrated, and if your blood pressure begins to soar then drink plenty of water (try Turapur Water). This will keep your veins hydrated and ease the load on your heart.
Avoid sugary drinks or anything containing alcohol or caffeine as these can heighten your blood pressure. Alcohol in particular makes you prone to gaining weight, so make sure you stay in the recommended limits and avoid drinking alcohol altogether in a period of high blood pressure.
Spend Time with your Pet
Studies have shown that observing animals reduces blood pressure. It awakens the parasympathetic nervous system which can help reduce blood pressure and counteract adrenaline spikes.
If you do not have a pet, visiting a local zoo or community farm should do the trick.
It does not even have to be animal contact. Human contact is great too, so if you are suffering from high blood pressure then a cuddle with your spouse could be just what you need. Being able to laugh with our partner or friends is a great way to reduce stress, so spending regular time socialising is a good tool when it comes to keeping a normal blood pressure level.
Check out this Video with MORE Helpful Tips
In other words – you need to ensure you Make Long-Term Lifestyle Choices to keep your Blood Pressure down
While lowering your blood pressure fast is a good thing to master, it is vital that you take care of your blood pressure level long term too. You can do this by following the tips in this article and making healthy choices when it comes to diet, exercise and habits.
Putting the best nutrition into your body and maintaining a relatively stress free lifestyle will get you closer to having a healthy blood pressure level for years to come. If you have concerns about your blood pressure level, visit your doctor for advice.
For Further Reading, see our article 8 Ways to Naturally Improve Your Heart Health
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/396908-how-to-quickly-lower-your-blood-pressure-in-hour-with-food-or-water/
- http://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/lower-it-fast#Outlook9
- http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/7-weird-ways-to-lower-your-blood-pressure
- http://www.wikihow.com/Lower-Blood-Pressure-Overnight
- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/08/discover-the-secret-to-lowering-your-blood-pressure-in-15-minutes.aspx |
Children with learning challenges must truly understand in order to remember. Their brains tend to store information in pictures, not words. The traditional approach of teaching mathematics using heavy doses of counting, flash cards, and rote memorizing does not work for them. Learn ways to minimize counting and concentrate on place value,
strategies to teach the facts with visual pictures, and techniques for mastering the four operations. |
Values-based recruitment is about attracting and keeping people who have compatible values, attitudes and aspirations to work in a care, support or educational environment.
Why is values-based recruitment important?
In a care, support or educational role, the way that people connect interact with each other and with the people they work for is critical. How well a person performs, how happy they are, and how well the team works together is a product of the alignment of individual and collective values. Ultimately this determines how well the organisation is able to support people, and how long people stay productively in their roles.
Traditional recruitment struggles to place effective emphasis on these factors. By taking a new approach to recruiting through a consciously values-based process, we are better able to support people well and to build a healthy, happy workforce that wants to stay.
How do we design a values-based recruitment process?
Each organisation is unique, and as such will have a unique set of values they are looking to bring to life through their people.
To create a values-based recruitment process, we first need to identify the values that actually matter to the organisation. Following this, we can start to design tasks and challenges for the recruitment process that will help us to identify the people who are best suited to undertaking these roles in this workplace and who can establish rapport with the people that the organisation supports.
Some examples of tasks designed to values include:
Self-management: This is about finding a team that works together effectively without traditional management structures, by being accountable to each other and to the people they support. This is so much more than prioritising teamwork, or seeking positive relationships. Tasks that can draw out aligned values include:
- Scenario exercises that focus on practical teamwork and accountability
- Asking people to give each other feedback in pairs to demonstrate the key skill around giving feedback. This is crucial for self-managing teams
- ‘Reverse interviews’, where representatives of the organisation are interviewed about the role by candidates
- Asking people to contribute to the recruitment day, for example by bringing a lunch to share exploring an individual’s approach to sharing, cooperation and teamwork
Authenticity: Care and support roles benefit from people bringing their ‘whole self’ to work, rather that a sanitised ‘work persona’. Ways to find people who are willing to bring their whole self to work could include:
- Crafting a ‘could this be you?’ person specification that goes far beyond qualifications and experience
- Sharing one-page profiles, both by the candidates and by the people who are recruiting
- ‘Human bingo’ – a game where the people applying for the role find out more about the people who work in the organisation and each other
A person-centred outlook: Ways to find out about how people express their sense of the values of care and compassion include:
- Creating situations where people have to identify what really matters to others in the room
- Demonstrating physicality and readiness to engage with others through hand massage
Commitment to co-production: This is about keeping people at the centre of decision-making about their care and support, appreciating people’s rights and dignity. Inviting people who will be using the service to participate in the recruitment process demonstrates the organisation’s commitment to co-production and gives the applicants an opportunity to show how they interact with the people they would be supporting.
How can we support you to implement values-based recruitment?
Bespoke organisational support
Helen Sanderson Associates works with organisations to deliver all stages of values-based recruitment, from identifying values, to building advertising material, developing recruitment days,selecting successful candidates together and bespoke design of induction to include individual and collective values profiling in support of aligning the new team with the required culture.
We offer this in partnership with values expert Jackie Le Fevre.
To find out more about how we could build a values-based recruitment process to suit your organisation’s needs, contact Helen on email@example.com or get in touch via our contact page.
Our book ‘Person-Centred Teams’ can act as a useful introduction to identifying team purpose and bringing one’s whole self to work. Buy it online here. |
The Aged Accounts Summary report provides a breakdown of unpaid fees by family. The unpaid fees are divided into various buckets: 0-30 days old, 31-60 days old, 61-90 days old, and older than 90 days. This report is known as an Aged Accounts Receivable report in the accounting industry.
From the Reports (menu) > Find Reports > Transactions/Financials (left menu), the Aged Accounts Summary report can be found under the Recommended and Who Owes Me Money tabs. This report can also be generated from the Aged Accounts on the Executive Dashboard.
- Evaluate the health of your Accounts Receivable.
- Expedite collection efforts with the ability to email families directly from the report results.
- Create a listing of all Problem Accounts and the details of their outstanding fees.
As a default this report is created with the Balance from defaulted to $1. If you have many families who regularly maintain a credit balance, for example if they often make prepayments, you will want to change it to -$5,000 so those families will be included in the report.
- The Show/Hide Columns button allows you to customize your report by selecting which information to display.
- Select Apply to have these selections applied to only the report you are currently viewing.
- Select Apply & Save to have these selections applied and saved for your User ID. When logged in as your User ID, you will see only the columns of information you chose previously. Other Users will see the columns they selected and saved, which may differ from yours.
- Use Restore Columns to view all available columns.
- Use the links in the aging columns to see the fees that make up the total.
Save this as a frequently used report! Click the heart (icon)next to a report name, the heart will change to redand the report will be listed under the Reports (menu) > My Reports for quick and easy access! |
How to read an email in a Talend Batch Job
POP3 and IMAP are the two widely used protocols for reading email messages from mail servers. These 2 protocols are generally implemented by common email clients like Microsoft Outlook, and others.
POP (Post Office Protocol) is used to download messages fom the mail server. It is a one way operation whereby the email messages are downloaded into the email client on the client computer/device. This operation is often followed by a deletion of the emails from the mail server. Thus, POP can be used to read the messages on 1 device. It does not provide synchronisation capabilities with the email server.
IMAP (Internet Messaging Access Protocol) is a protocol that synchronises the email messages between the server and all the devices connected to the email account. Changes made to email messages on 1 device is synchronised with the email server and all other devices. For example, if an email is marked as read in one email client, this change is reflected on the server and all other computers/devices which are connected to that email account.
With the recent increase in number of devices used, IMAP is generally considered a better protocol as it allows the synchonisation of changes across multiple devices.
As a best practice, it is recommended that developers use the IMAP protocol when reading email messages from a Talend Data Integration job, since all the operations on the emails are synchronised with the email server.Environment
The example below is created using:
- Talend Data Fabric 6.3.1
- Oracle JDK Build 1.8
- Windows 7
- Valid Hotmail account
In this example, we are going to design a data integration job to do the following:
1. Read emails from an email server and store it in local directory
2. Read the email files from local directory
3. Extract standard key data from the email files
4. Print the extracted data into the console window
To implement this example, we will need the email server details like:
- Hostname (example: imap-mail.outlook.com , smtp.gmail.com , etc)
- Port (example: 995, 993, etc)
- Secure Connection type used by the server (SSL or TLS) to retrieve emails from server.
The final job, once completed, will look similar to the screenshot below. We need the components tPop , tFileList , tFileInputMail and tLogRow to complete this job.
Configure the tPOP Component
Configure the tPOP component basic settings as shown in the screenshot below:
- In the Host field, enter the IP address of the email server you want to connect to.
- Enter the Port number of the email server.
- Provide the Username and Password of the account to use to download the emails.
- Specify the path to the Output directory where email messages will be downloaded and stored as files.
- The Filename pattern option enables you to define the file name for each individual email message. Each message will be downloaded and stored as a file on disk. You can press Ctrl+Space to display the list of predefined patterns. In this example, the name of the files for each email will be named using a combination of date, year, file and count. The files will have a .mail extension. Therefore, we will enter the following expression TalendDate.getDate("yyyyMMdd-hhmmss") + "_" + (counter_tPOP_1 + 1) + ".mail" as the filename pattern.
- Check the option Retrieve all emails? if you want to retrieve all email messages present on the specified server. If you do not want to retrieve all emails, you can specify the number of email you want to retrieve. In this example, we want to retrieve 10 emails.
- If you want to retrieve the emails in chronological order, then check the Newer email first option. This option would be disabled if you want to Retrieve all emails .
Select Delete emails from server check box if you do not want to keep the retrieved email messages on the server.
- Choose the protocol depending on your email server. If you choose the imap protocol, you will be able to select the folder from which you want to retrieve your emails.
Check SSL Support option to enable the component to open an SSL connection when communicating with Gmail SMTP server.
Configure the context variables for Username and Password as required. In our example, we are using the 2 context variables shown below.
Configure the tPOP component advanced settings to specify if you want emails with specific sender , receiver , subject and date range. In this example, we are filtering emails with subject “Talend Jobs” as shown below.
- We can define multiple filters using the ‘And’ or ‘Or’ options.
The tFileList component is going to iterate over all the files created by the tPOP component so that we can process each file, one by one, in the next step.
Configure the tFileList component as follows:
- Specify the directory where the files are to be read. This should be the same directory where the tPOP component is writing the email files.
- If you want to read files from subfolders within the source directory, then check the box ‘Include subdirectories’
- If the filenames are case sensitive, then select ‘Yes’ in the option Case Sensitive
- If the directory has no file and you want to the job to generate error, then check the box ‘Generate Error if no file found’
- In the Files option, give the filemask detail. In the example, we want all the files with ‘ . mail ’ extension to be read.
- You could specify the order in which files are to be read. In the example we have selected the order by modified date option.
Order action lets you select the sorting order of the files. In the example, we want to process the files by modified date in descending order.
Configure the tFileInputMail component basic settings as follows:
- Specify the File Name to read and extract data from. In the example we want to process all the files in the folder and hence have used the global variable ((String)globalMap.get("tFileList_1_CURRENT_FILEPATH")) which is coming from the tFileList as an iterator variable.
- Edit the schema and specify the columns for the data part we want to extract. In this example, we are going to extract Date, Author, Objet and Status. We will map these columns to the actual email parts as shown in the screenshot below.
- In the Attachment export directory , enter the directory where you want to save the attachments of the emails read.
In the Mail parts , specify the standard key data you want to extract from the email and how you want to map it into the schema columns you have defined.
We will use the tLogRow component to print the values of the schema from the tFileInputMail component. The tLogRow will print the values in the console output window.
Running the Job
Save and run the job. You will see the contents read from the emails in the console window of the studio.
You can check the directory you have specified for the attachements. If an email contains an attachments, the attachments are extracted and saved in this directory. In our example, both emails and attachments are being saved to the same directory (as shown below). |
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