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+{"content": "Platelet signal transduction, metabolism and programmed cell death\n\nDespite being the smallest cells of human organism, platelets have incredibly complex intracellular machinery. Their cytoplasm contains dense tubular system, mitochondria, various granules, glycogen, actin-myosin system, and powerful cytoskeleton capable of lightning-quick rearrangement. Dozens of receptors on their surface detect various chemical and physical signals and transduce them into the cell. Then an immensely huge network of signal transduction decideswhether and how to get activated, or probably to go into one of the programmed cell death routes. We try to understand how all this works.\n\nSystems biology insights into the meaning of the platelet’s dual-receptor thrombin signaling\n\nAnastasia N. Sveshnikova, Alexander V. Balatskiy, Aleksandra S. Demianova, Taisiya O. Shepelyuk, Soslan S. Shakhidzhanov, Maria N. Balatskaya, Alexey V. Pichugin, Fazoil I. Ataullakhanov, and Mikhail A. Panteleev.\n\n Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2016\n\nDynamics of calcium spiking, mitochondrial collapse and phosphatidylserine exposure in platelet subpopulations during activation\n\nSI Obydennyy, AN Sveshnikova, FI Ataullakhanov, and MA Panteleev. \n\nJournal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2016\n\nComputational biology analysis of platelet signaling reveals roles of feedbacks through phospholipase c and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase in controlling amplitude and duration of calcium oscillations.\n\nFedor A. Balabin and Anastasia N. Sveshnikova.\n\n Mathematical Biosciences, 276:67–74, 2016\n\nModulation and pre-amplification of PAR1 signaling by ADP acting via the P2Y12 receptor during platelet subpopulation formation.\n\nShakhidzhanov SS, Shaturny VI, Panteleev MA, Sveshnikova AN.\n\nBiochim Biophys Acta. 2015 Dec;1850(12):2518-29. doi: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2015.09.013\n\nCalpain-controlled detachment of major glycoproteins from cytoskeleton regulates adhesive properties of phosphatidylserine-positive activated platelets.\n\nArtemenko EO, Yakimenko AO, Pichugin AV, Ataullakhanov FI, Panteleev MA.\n\nBiochem J. 2015 Nov 25. pii: BJ20150779.\n\nCompartmentalized calcium signaling triggers subpopulation formation upon platelet activation through PAR1.\n\nSveshnikova AN, Ataullakhanov FI, Panteleev MA.\n\nMol Biosyst. 2015 Apr;11(4):1052-60. doi: 10.1039/c4mb00667d\n\n[Activators, receptors and signal transduction pathways of blood platelets].\n\nShaturnyĭ VI, Shakhidzhanov SS, Sveshnikova AN, Panteleev MA.\n\nBiomed Khim. 2014 Mar-Apr;60(2):182-200. Review. Russian\n\nIdentification of signal transduction pathways involved in the formation of plateletsubpopulations upon activation.\n\nTopalov NN, Kotova YN, Vasil'ev SA, Panteleev MA.\n\n\nFormation of coated platelets is regulated by the dense granule secretion of adenosine 5'diphosphate acting via the P2Y12 receptor.\n\nKotova YN, Ataullakhanov FI, Panteleev MA.\n\nJ Thromb Haemost. 2008 Sep;6(9):1603-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1538-7836.2008.03052.x. Epub 2008 Jun 6. No abstract available.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9825372099876404}
+{"content": "Order by phone: 858.551.8500\n\nLouis Claude Desaulses de Freycinet:  (Tasmania) Carte Generale de la Terre de Diemen, Comprenant les decouvertes et les travaux Geographiques executes dans cette partie a borde des Corvettes le Geographe le Naturaliste et la Goelette le Casuarina Redigee Par L Freycinet . . . 1808 (Rare Separately Published Example)\n\nMaps of Australia\n\n(Click Image To Enlarge)\n\n\nMap Maker: Louis Claude Desaulses de Freycinet\n\nPlace / Date: Paris / 1812\n\nColoring: Uncolored\n\nSize: 29 x 19.5 inches\n\nCondition: VG+\n\nPrice: $4,500.00\n\nInventory ID: 54117\n\n\nOne of the Earliest Separately Published Maps of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)\n\nDetailed chart of the island of Tasmania as surveyed during the Baudin expedition and published by expedition member Louis Claude Desaulses de Freycinet. It was included in his celebrated and very rare hydrographic atlas, part of the official account of the voyage. This example is special in that it is a separately issued sheet from the French Hydrographic Office, sold for 3 francs.\n\nThe chart shows the entirety of Van Diemen’s Land as it was known in 1808. It was the second chart in the hydrographic atlas and intended as a guide to the eight larger-scale charts of Tasmania’s coastline which follow. When this atlas was published, it was still only recently known that Tasmania was an island and the novelty of that information explains the detailed coverage of the island in the atlas—establishing its coastline was one of the major achievements of Baudin’s voyage.\n\nThe chart is powerful in its simplicity; it highlights the coasts of the island, with soundings in the northwest, near the Hunter Islands, and along the eastern coast. The high number of French toponyms on the east coast reflect the presence of the Baudin expedition’s ships, but also those of fellow French explorer Antoine Bruni d’Entrecasteaux. The voyage of Tasman, the European discoverer of Van Diemen’s Land, is also referenced in the southwest, with “Is. de Witt (de Tasman).”\n\nThe title, in an oval cartouche at the center top of the chart, explains that the chart was drafted by Freycinet. It also mentions the names of the ships involved in taking observations for the chart, which include the 29-foot Casaurina, which was bought so that its commander, Freycinet himself, could take careful inshore measurements. The Baudin expedition had two larger ships, the aptly-named Geographe and the Naturaliste.   \n\nThe chart contains little adornment besides the cartouche; it was meant to simply and clearly communicate the extensive survey undertaken by the French despite the presence of another British voyage, that of the British Royal Naval officer Matthew Flinders, which was also surveying Australia in the first years of the nineteenth century.\n\nEuropean exploration of Van Diemen’s Land\n\nThis is one of the earliest and certainly the most detailed maps of the entirety of Van Diemen’s Land to have been published. The region had already been visited by several European expeditions, all trying to accurately portray the islands and waterways.\n\nAbel Tasman was sent by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony van Diemen, to seek new lands, resources, and trading opportunities to the south of Australia. In two expeditions in the early 1640s, Tasman sailed in the waters surrounding the continent. His crew were the first Europeans to sight New Zealand, Tonga, and the Fiji Islands. Also, they were the first to visit Van Diemen’s Land.  \n\nAfter sailing widely in the far southern Indian Ocean, Tasman found previously unknown land on November 24, 1642. This shore was named for the governor and Tasman’s ships charted the southern coast. However, Tasman’s officers decided not to tarry on the newly found territory and instead struck out farther east, toward New Zealand. He therefore did not discover the strait between Van Diemen’s Land and mainland Australia; it was drawn as a part of the mainland for over a century.\n\nThe first detailed surveying of the area was done by Tobias Furneaux, who gives his name to islands in the top right of this chart. Furneaux was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both directions. He went round Cape Horn with Samuel Wallis (1766-8) and round the Cape of Good Hope with Cook on his second voyage (1772-5). He was the first European to set foot on Tahiti, where he hoisted the pennant. It was with Cook, however, that he visited New Holland. As commander of the Adventure, Furneaux was separated from his commander and took to surveying the coast south of Botany Bay. He got as far west as Van Diemen’s Land and the Furneaux Islands.\n\nCook sailed to the south of Van Diemen’s Land on his third expedition, thus leaving the Bass Strait uncharted. Another near miss happened on Antoine Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s voyage to find out the fate of the celebrated French explorer La Perouse. D’Entrecasteaux left France in October 1791 and arrived off Van Diemen’s Land in April 1792. He stayed in the vicinity for five weeks, with his base at Baie de la Recherche, surveying and charting in the south of the island. He returned in 1793 and started a systematic search of the southern coast of Australia, laying claim to first discovery of that area, but was forced to sail for a known port in Van Diemen’s Land due to lack of water. If he had continued east, perhaps the Bass Strait would be named for d’Entrecasteaux.\n\nAs it is, the strait bears the name of George Bass, but it owes its charting to Flinders. Flinders first came to Australia in 1795 as a young naval officer on a voyage to deliver John Hunter to serve as the Governor of New South Wales. On that voyage he met Bass, the ship’s surgeon. Once in Port Jackson, the two men set out on two surveying voyages in two tiny vessels, both named Tom Thumb. This established their reputations as skilled hydrographers and navigators.\n\nIn 1798, now Lieutenant Flinders was charged with command of the Norfolk and ordered to sail west of Furneaux’s islands to see if a strait did indeed exist, as there were recent rumors from a shipwrecked crew that a strait was a possibility. If confirmed, the discovery of a strait would change the shape of Australia on all maps and cut the voyage to New South Wales short by several crucial days.\n\nFlinders did confirm the suspected passage in 1798-9, when he and Bass circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land. Flinders suggested naming the strait after his good friend, which the Admiralty accepted. He also discovered and named Hunter Island, in the northwest of this chart, after the Governor of New South Wales he had accompanied. Three Hummock Island, nearby, is also a Flinders toponym.\n\nThe geographic importance of Van Diemen’s Land\n\nThe insularity of Van Diemen’s Land was an important geographic discovery not only because it shortened travel times, but because the island offered the French an opportunity for a colonial foothold in Australia, thanks to the claims made by d’Entrecasteaux and Baudin. Although Flinders is credited with the discovery of insularity, the Baudin expedition also contributed significantly to the known geographic detail of the island. They especially surveyed Maria Island, the d’Entrecasteaux Channel, as well as the larger Bass Strait, all of which are shown in detail on this chart.\n\nWhile the Baudin expedition was still sailing in 1803, the governor of New South Wales, Philip King, sent Lieutenant John Bowen to establish a British presence on the east coast of the island. He wanted to stop the French from achieving the colony they so desired. In 1856, the island colony was granted self-government with a representative parliament. It was then that the name officially changed from Van Diemen’s Land to Tasmania.  \n\nLouis Freycinet and the Baudin Expedition\n\nThis chart featured in the rarest of the volumes to come out of the Baudin expedition. When Nicolas Baudin left Le Havre in the Geographe and the Naturaliste in October 1800, he was embarking on a voyage meant to survey the shores of Australia. At this time, the British had established their presence in eastern Australia, but the western and southern portions of the continent remained unexplored and not necessarily claimed by the British. In other words, although ostensibly a scientific expedition, the French were also open to possible overseas expansion if the opportunity arose.\n\nIn the Naturaliste, commanded by Captain Hamelin, was Louis Freycinet, then only 21 years old. He had joined the French Navy in 1793 and was accompanied on this voyage by his brother, Louis-Henri, who would go on to become an admiral.\n\nInitially the ships, sometimes separated, made their way north up the western coast of Australia from Cape Leeuwin to Timor. They then went south again, but were separated a second time. Baudin and the Geographe made for Van Diemen’s Land and then returned toward the west. En route, they encountered Flinders in the Investigator. Flinders, on his third Australian surveying mission, was heading to Sydney, from where he would begin a clockwise circumnavigation of the Australian continent, the first such voyage to ever do so. Flinders named the place where he and Baudin met Encounter Bay.\n\nBaudin and Hamelin were reunited in Sydney, where both ships had come to recuperate in late 1801. While there, Baudin purchased a 29-foot vessel. He named it Casuarina and placed Freycinet, who had proved himself an adroit hydrographer under Hamelin, in command. With his new charge, Freycinet was to perform inshore surveys.\n\nDuring the course of 1802, the Geographe and the Casuarina surveyed the southern coast of Australia (the Naturaliste had been sent back to France). They then sailed round the west coast to Timor, then back to Mauritius, where Baudin died. It was also where the Casuarina’s career ended, as the ship was abandoned in favor of consolidating the crews on the Geographe. The ship returned home on March 25, 1804.\n\nThe publication of the voyage accounts and atlas\n\nThis map chronicles the work of the Casaurina and the larger ships and was part of the rare hydrographic atlas published in 1812. Although the French were largely repeating work already done by Matthew Flinders, some of the French toponyms survive today. This is due in large part to the fact that this map was finished before Flinders could produce his own account of his Australian circumnavigation. He had published several charts of his 1798 expedition, which were used by Freycinet in making this chart, but Freycinet’s work shows a much larger and more complete area, lending it importance and primacy. \n\nWhy did Flinders take so long to publish his own findings, yielding the novelty of publishing the charting of the Australian coastline to the French? Flinders left New Holland in 1803 and arrived in Mauritius to water and repair his leaky vessel on December 15, 1803. Unfortunately, word had reached the French-controlled island only three weeks prior to his arrival that the British had ruptured the fragile Peace of Amiens; the French and British were at war once again. The French governor, General Decaen, detained Flinders after the British officer was not entirely polite. Flinders was kept against his will on the island for six and a half years, returning to England only in October of 1810. Additionally, the French seized his papers, including the ships logs, though they were eventually returned in part.\n\nFreycinet, meanwhile, had returned to France in 1804. Since Baudin had died in Mauritius, the naturalist Francois Peron and Freycinet were directed to prepare for publication the official account of the voyage, with an accompanying atlas. Baudin was not generally well liked by his fellow sailors, a fact borne out by the limited reference made to him or his discoveries in the narrative and maps of the voyage. The French maps also do not recognize the prior claims of first discovery by men like Flinders, in an attempt to give France more prominence. However, Freycinet did likely have access to copies of Flinders’ documents seized when he was imprisoned, improving the detail of his charts.\n\nThe official account appeared over ten years and in four volumes. The first narrative of the voyage, primarily by Peron, was published in 1807. The second narrative volume was published in 1816 and was written primarily by Freycinet. Peron had died in 1810. The first part of the Atlas, which contained 40 engraved plates, two of them folding, appeared in 1807. The second atlas, was published in 1811 with 14 engraved charts, two of them double-page. These double-page maps include a map of the Australian continent, the first map to show the continent in its entirety and made partially from Flinders’ papers.\n\nThe map shown here was part of the rarest of the volumes prepared by Freycinet, the hydrographic atlas dated 1812, although it was not distributed until 1814. It contained 32 engraved charts, 25 of them double-page. An accompanying text volume was published in 1815, also by Freycinet.\n\nBy contrast, Flinders’ narrative and atlas of his own account appeared only in 1814, almost a decade after the first maps of the Baudin expedition were published and three years after the completion of this chart. \n\nFreycinet’s later career\n\nHis publications stemming from the Baudin expedition would have been enough to secure the fame of Louis Freycinet. However, he is perhaps best known today for his second voyage to the Pacific, one he commanded in the Uranie. From 1817 to 1820, Freycinet cruised the Pacific performing experiments and, of course, making detailed charts. He was accompanied by his wife Rose.\n\nAlthough the Uranie was wrecked in the Falklands on the return journey, the natural historical specimens and geographical notes were saved. They were published in 13 volumes with 4 additional volumes of plates and maps between 1824 and 1844.\n\nThe voyage secured Freycinet a place in the Academie des Sciences. He also went on to help found the Paris Geographical Society, the first such group of its kind. Louis Freycinet died in 1841.\n\n\nThe hydrographic atlas is the rarest of the Baudin publications, many times rarer than the narrative, and it is seldom on the market. This separately issued print is very rare, especially in such good condition. It would be an important addition to any collection of Tasmanian or Australian cartography.\n\nReferences: ADNB, entries for Flinders, Baudin and Freycinet. A Guide to Maps of Australia in Books Published 1780-1830, map 1812.01. Seal, Graham. The Savage Shore: Extraordinary stories of survival and tragedy from the early voyages of discovery. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.\n\nRelated Categories:\nMaps of Australia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6061012744903564}
+{"content": "Scheduling Algorithms for new Emerging Applications\n\n\nAn auction mechanism for scheduling batches on uniform machines\n\nSpeakerTamas Kis\n\nIn a centralized scheduling system all decisions are taken by one author- ity. In contrast, when machines are responsible for their own schedules, a control mechanism is needed for distributing the jobs between the machines. Inspired by the results of Nisan and Ronen, and of Archer and Tardos on job allocation problems, we have studied allocation of batches in a uniform machine environment.\n\nIn a job auction, a dispatcher wants to assign jobs to machines the ob- jective being to minimize the makespan. But it does not know everything about the capabilities of the machines, i.e., it does not know their speeds. Therefore, the dispatcher announces all job parameters and asks a process- ing speed (a bid) from each machine. The machines, in turn, send-in some claimed speed. Based on the collected speeds, the dispatcher allocates the batches to the machines and computes a payment. The cost of each machine is proportional to the true time spent on processing the assigned batches. Hence, a machine could make profit by bidding differently to its true speed. However, if the machines do not provide their true speed, the dispatcher may allocate jobs poorly, i.e., the resulting schedule is far from the optimum. Hence, the dispatcher has to use a payment scheme which incite the machines telling their true speeds.\n\nThe above scheme has been described by Archer and Tardos for job auc- tions in a uniform machine environment. We extend their results to batch scheduling problems, where each batch consists of identical jobs and setups do not depend on the sequence of processing. Our main contribution is a polyno- mial time auction mechanism (allocation algorithm + payment calculation) for scheduling the batches on uniform machines to minimize makespan.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6995236277580261}
+{"content": "mercedes roll dot physics\n\nHow Far Is 150 Meters is match and guidelines that suggested for you, for ideas about you search. The exactly sizing of How Far Is 150 Meters was 1920x1080 pixels. You can even look for a few pictures that related to How Far Is 150 Meters by scroll right down to collection on below this picture. If you wish to find the other picture or article about How Far Is 150 Meters just force another button or prior button; or if you are enthusiastic about similar pictures of How Far Is 150 Meters, you are absolve to flick through search feature that situated on top this site or arbitrary post section at below of the post. Hopefully it can benefit one to get information of the picture.\n\nPlease if you want the image or gallery that you what I'd like someone to do is to aid and help us growing more experience by posting this design or clicking some arbitrary posts below to get more pictures and additional information. Furthermore you can help us expand by showing These Resources of How Far Is 150 Meters on Facebook, Way, Twitter, Yahoo Plus and Pinterest.\n\nGallery of How Far Is 150 Meters", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9948214888572693}
+{"content": "Common Causes for Sinusitis\n\n\nSinusitis is understood and known as the name for an inflammation or swelling, of the tissue lining the sinuses. Regularly, these sinuses are filled with air, however with fluids, or germs they can become blocked and there is always the possibility of an infection. Sinusitis affects about 37 million Americans every year, and there are several different types of sinusitis:\n\n·         Acute Sinusitis is a sudden appearance of what can be often confused to cold-like symptoms. They include runny and stuffy nose and facial pain. These symptoms tend to last for almost 10 to 14 days. This type of sinuses can last up to 4 weeks or less.\n\n·         Subacute sinusitis exhibits the same cold-like symptoms but this type of infection tends to last longer, up to 4 or even 8 weeks.\n\n·         Chronic sinusitis are infections that last even longer than subacute infections, they can last for more than 8 weeks.\n\n·         Recurrent sinusitis, is the one when you get several attacks within a year.\n\nThere are several symptoms common for all the aforementioned types of sinusitis. These symptoms are often mistaken for a regular cold and can be often dismissed at first. Facial pain/pressure, Nasal stuffiness, Nasal discharge, Loss of smell, Cough/Congestion, Bad Breath, Fatigue, Dental Pain and Fever. Sinusitis (specially acute) may be diagnosed when a person has two or more symptoms and/or the presence of thick, green, or yellow nasal discharge. For children, sinusitis can appear due to several environmental factors that contribute to the appearance of the disease. They are allergies, illness from other children at school or day care. For babies and toddlers the infection can come from their pacifiers, bottle drinking, and finally, a smoky environment (second hand smoke). For adults, the main case is 5th hand smoke.\n\nFor adults the common causes for Sinusitis are:\n\n·         The presence and growth of Nasal Polyps blocking the air passages.\n\n·         Allergic triggers could later develop as an allergic reaction that could potentially trigger sinusitis.\n\n·         Deviated nasal septum, this means that the walls between the nostrils are crooked and it come how blocks the airway. This also might be the cause for a patient having sleep apnea.\n\n·         Fracture or broken facial bone can be the cause for obstruction and blockage.\n\n·         Infections in the respiratory tract like colds could be provide an ideal environment for the development of a sinus infection.\n\nTo diagnose sinusitis, a doctor or physician after reviewing the symptoms will proceed to perform a physical examination. This examination includes a feeling and pressing of the sinuses, to check for tenderness. Another option is a tap to the teeth to verify the presence of an inflamed paranasal sinus. Furthermore, other diagnostic tests may include mucus culture, nasal endoscopy, x-rays, allergy testing, CT scan of the sinuses, or blood work.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9902690052986145}
+{"content": "close    home     go to Furious Flower\nback to Furious Flower Facilitator's Guide index\n\n\nDolores Kendrick and Judith Thomas explore the powerful historical images of women whose lives bore witness to struggle.\n\nSelected Bibliography\n\n  • Now is the Thing to Praise. Lansing, MI: Lotus Press, 1984.\n\n  • The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1989.\n\nDiscussion Questions\n\n1. Describe the voice in \"Peggy in Killing.\" Would the poem be as powerful in the third person? Compare the poem to Toni Morrison's novel Beloved.\n\n2. Why are her poems about the experience of slavery able to cross racial boundaries and touch a white mother, as she gave in her example? What techniques does she use in her poetry to bring about this effect?\n\n3. What does she mean by empowering yourself to prevent invisibility? Is this a problem that everyone must solve? How has Ralph Ellison influenced Kendrick's solution?\n\n\nDolores Kendrick, poet, playwright and educator, has been published in the Beloit Poetry Journal, the Indiana Review, Open Places and several other anthologies. Author of Through the Ceiling (1975) and Now is the Thing to Praise (1984), she has received great acclaim for The Women of Plums (1989). This book won the Ansfield-Wolf Award in 1990, it was listed as the New York Public Library Best Book for Teenagers in 1991 and it was the inspiration for an original production by Karamu Theatre in Cleveland. The poem \"Peggy in Killing\" from The Women of Plums has been adapted for an opera which will open in New York in the spring of 1995. Kendrick has also recorded her poetry as a part of the Contemporary Poets' Series by the Library of Congress and has read at The Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress and the Gertrude Whittall Series. She has received a Fulbright to Ireland and a National Endowment for the Arts Award (1989). She is the Bira I. Heinz Professor Emerita at Phillips Exeter Academy and a National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Award recipient (1992).\n\n\n back to top", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8391476273536682}
+{"content": "Top Military Schools in Sandy Springs, GA\n\nDiscipline, honor, loyalty and work ethic are just a few of the traits parents hope their children will learn when they send them to military school in Sandy Springs, GA.\n\nInitially learning how to follow, and then how to lead is at the root of the curriculum in Sandy Springs military schools. Students learn to execute orders, sacrifice for their comrades, and put their individual needs aside for the good of their troop.  The important point, military schools build character by building honesty and honor in their students.\n\nTypes of Military Schools in Sandy Springs\n\nIn the U.S., military schools declined in popularity during the late 1960s and 1970s causing many schools to close their doors. As a result the selection of military schools in the U.S. is limited today, with around 45 military schools still operational across the nation. So, it might not be easy to locate a military school in Sandy Springs. Nevertheless, interest in military school enrollment appears to be on the rise within the last few decades which may result in more Georgia military schools being established.\n\nMany people have misconceptions in regards to what a military school is. A military school in Sandy Springs can be:\n\nSandy Springs military schools are frequently compared to reform schools. Reform schools for troubled teens that have committed crimes are actually modeled after military boarding schools and operate in a comparable fashion. The hope would be that the rigidly structured environment that's a norm in Sandy Springs military schools will reform the children minimizing their chances of engaging in criminal activity as an adult.\n\nSandy Springs Military School Admission Requirements\n\nEvery individual military school in Sandy Springs sets admission requirements, and decides whom to admit. Usually they're searching for young people that aspire to change, to either go from bad to good or from good to great. Needless to say, those who desire to improve themselves and succeed in life are usually welcome.\n\n\nSome military schools in Sandy Springs, Georgia also require that the student serve in the military after their education is completed.\n\nSandy Springs Military School Curriculum\n\nIt may not be easy to get into a military school in Sandy Springs, but those who graduate from military schools often go on to be successes in whatever field they want to pursue. That's because military schools in Sandy Springs, GA offer tough college preparatory courses as part of their curriculum.\n\n\n\nMilitary Schools in Sandy Springs with JROTC Programs\n\n\n\n\nFederal Holidays", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9133977890014648}
+{"content": "How Pick Curtains Living Room\n\nTogether wool cotton sisal jute more shop endless colors patterns online now furnishings kitchens sofas beds ikea mattresses browse modern classic choose our wide range coffee tables storage much affordable sets world market sofa around globe discover rustic styles free shipping 106 decorating southern elk antler trophy focal point how pick curtains living room.\n\nHow pick curtains living room living room curtains walmartcom clearance clothing shoes jewelry baby toddler auto tires electronics office movies music books home furniture appliances improvement patio toys 40 ideas elle decor go beyond basic white these colorful and pattern-heavy options your rugs accent crate barrel pull space.\n\nPalm tree triptych blue green mulberry palette create comfortable environment inviting paint color kelly-moore paints help you find perfect durable interior keep well-loved rooms beautiful years curtain accessories dunelm here we have suit any house hundreds designs fabric combinations variety different design ms including cabinets.\n\nHow Pick Curtains Living Room tv units cushions delivery all how pick curtains living room.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995063543319702}
+{"content": "What is wrong?\n\nNotice: Before sending an error with the download, please try the direct link first: Computer Science Illustrated\n\n\nYou must sign in to do that.\n\nForgot password?\n\nComputer Science Illustrated\n\nComputer Science Illustrated\n\nComputer Science Illustrated\n\nScore: ---- | 0 votes\n| Sending vote\n| Voted!\n\nBook Details:\n\nPublisher:UC Berkeley\nPages:67 pages\nSize:8.21 MB\nLicense:Pending review\n\n\nThe traditional lecture has been a standard teaching tool for university courses all around the world. However, students have different methods of learning, and for those who learn best through visual means, lectures are often not enough to understand the concepts. This is a particular problem in computer science, because a strong grasp of the fundamentals is vital to a student’s understanding of the complexities of programming and computing in general.\n\nComputer Science Illustrated is an endeavor to help visual learners comprehend computer science topics through a series of illustrations, which are made available online for use as handouts in class and posters in the computer labs. These illustrations are designed to present concepts as engaging and memorable visual metaphors combined with concise explanations or short narratives, intended to maintain the students’ interest and facilitate retention. An additional goal of the project is to make learning the concepts an entertaining experience through the use of colorful and whimsical characters in the illustrations. In producing our twenty-seven illustrations, we determined which topics were most difficult for students to understand in our university’s introductory computer science courses and followed a step-by-step process of design, redesign, and revision to generate resolution-independent illustrations. In this report, we will present the rationale behind illustrating computer science concepts, the systematic process we employ to create and distribute our illustrations, the challenges faced during development, and a case study detailing the reation of a specific instance of our illustrations. We will also describe the results of assessing the effectiveness of our illustrations as visual aids used in courses, and conclude with additional paths this project may take in the future.\n\n\n\nLoading comments...\n\nScanning lists...\n\nThe book in numbers\n\nglobal rank\n\nrank in categories\n\nonline since\n\n\nrate score\n\nNothing yet...\n\n\nNothing yet...\n\nSocial likes\n\n\n\n\nThis may take several minutes\n\n\nCountries segmentation\n\nThis may take several minutes\n\nSource Referers\n\nWebsites segmentation\n\n\nThis may take several minutes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9719459414482117}
+{"content": "Help Center\n\nHow can we help?\n\nHow do I reset a password I forgot or lost?\n\nAdvise your user to click on \"Forgot Password link\" found on the login page. They will receive an email with instructions on how to reset their password:\n\nAlternatively, you can give them this link:, which will bring up this page:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8642475605010986}
+{"content": "How those on the autism spectrum can add to your company\n\nIt is time for conformist corporations to embrace neurodiversity to competitive advantage\n\n/Getty Images\n\nWas I gifted or a hopeless misfit? That was the defining dilemma of my entire childhood, adolescence and young life.\n\nAt a time when the spectrum of autism disorders wasn’t easily diagnosed or even discussed, minds like mine were simply considered odd. The polite and friendly would focus their attention and their remarks on my special gifts: my extraordinary skills with numbers, which put me on national television as a preschooler, having memorized entire calendars and able to name a day of the week on any date, years or even decades into the future. I had an exceptionally rare musical talent, which had me on concert stages performing with adult skill-level peers when I was unable to even reach the piano pedals. But the real label was far more stigmatizing: I was different, quirky, a social and emotional outcast. It was nothing short of a disability.\n\nSurviving, let alone succeeding, along a self-imposed ambitious career path took an enormous amount of work. I always needed to try to look and sound and behave like everyone else. I was among the fortunate ones, so close to the top of the high-functioning range of the autism spectrum that I could manage. In fact, it became less and less work as my social coping and adapting mechanisms gradually morphed into second nature. But I never stopped feeling like I barely deserved to be where I was, always weighed down by an extra dose of natural insecurity and fear that I could be found out.\n\nAs Justin Trudeau noted in the foreword to my book , “Too often, in our quest to fit in, we end up quashing those very things that could make us special.”\n\nAndreas Souvaliotis\n\nIt was almost 20 years into an action-packed, emotionally exhausting but reasonably successful career as a marketing executive that my handicap magically turned into a powerful crutch. My almost-uncontrollable obsession with numbers had fuelled (among several other eccentric numerical hobbies), a deep fascination with weather and climate statistics. Through a gorgeous twist of fate, that talent transformed me into a pioneering expert in a brand-new, 21st-century hot topic: climate change and its impact on the behaviour of consumers. I was uniquely tooled to invent something by simply combining what I had learned through my career with just one of the many quirky, obsessive hobbies of my unusual mind. Before anyone else even imagined such a marginal idea, I had created the first eco-loyalty reward points program on the planet and had set my life, my career and my mind on a completely new, unbounded journey.\n\nNeurodiversity, the beautiful mosaic of behavioural and mental variances between us all, continues to be a challenging concept for our corporate society\n\nEmbracing diversity has almost become a standard mantra and a cliché in our society. We all talk about it, understand it and practice it in our own ways and in our own worlds. But there are still forms of inclusion that we haven’t fully explored or harnessed. Neurodiversity, the beautiful mosaic of behavioural and mental variances between us all, continues to be a challenging concept for our corporate society. Jobs, careers and organizations are still generally designed with neuro-conformity at their core. Weirdos like me need to adapt to the world and the jobs around us in order to thrive, instead of our environments finding ways to make the best use of our weirdly wired brains.\n\nThere is an enormous amount of additional economic (let alone social) value we could be unlocking if we figured out how to create more specialized jobs for “minority minds,” as I call them. Lower-functioning autistics who crave extreme routine in their everyday lives are known to generate dramatically lower error rates when performing highly repetitive tasks, so why bore a non-autistic person and waste their (other) talents at a data-entry or document-scanning job when someone with a perfectly and naturally tailored mind could be hired? All it might take is a very slight broadening of our perception and our definition of a skill versus a disability.\n\nMy original and entirely accidental burst into entrepreneurship a decade ago was completely irreversible. For the first time in my career, I felt free to explore and exploit my mind. My quirks and obsessions and useless hobbies suddenly created exceptional value and fuelled a success story. And then a second successful venture, and a third.\n\nIt’s impossible not to wonder if the massively disproportionate concentration of autistic-spectrum minds (diagnosed or widely presumed) among the world’s leading corporate revolutionaries is purely accidental, or might it be that the inherent behavioural autonomy of entrepreneurship offers one of the few available escape routes for quirky minds like mine? And what about all those other minority minds, some of whom couldn’t survive in an autonomous work setting: could they add enormous intellectual value in other ways?\n\nAndreas Souvaliotis is CEO and founder of the health and wellness rewards app Carrot Rewards. He is currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ivey Business School. Souvaliotis can be reached at This article was first published in the Ivey Business Journal.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.909279465675354}
+{"content": "Three measures of fledgling impact\n\non October 30, 2017 | in Conscious\n\nGiven the variety of the fledglings, Fledge’s challenge is how to measure their collective impact.  This is a long-standing industry debate, how to measure the impact of a company in a single number, and how to aggregate that number across a portfolio of companies/organizations.\n\n1- Pinchot Impact Index\n\nFledge has been using the Pinchot Impact Index since its inception, in part because it was invented by Fledge’s founder, Luni, but mostly because it works, producing a value that can be tracked over time.\n\nMore specifically, we measure three levels of impact for our portfolio of fledglings: the potential of the idea to change the world, the intended impact of the startup itself, and the amount of impact the company has actually achieved.\n\nAll measures continue their upward climb.  All the trend lines include the loss of 13 (out of 82) fledglings, who have shut down their startups.\n\nThe high potential impact is driven by two fledglings.  Evrnu, which invented a process that makes cotton recyclable.  Zirconia, which has invented a spray-on coating that will eliminate rust from steel.  These ideas each have the potential to effect tens of billions of lives and shift trillions of dollars of infrastructure spending.\n\nThose companies will not be alone in addressing those issues, and thus the total intended impacts are lower.  The big jump in Fledge9 is from Zirconia.\n\nMeanwhile, most of the fledglings are still quite young, and thus the total achieved impact is still quite small.  Change takes time.\n\nTo dig into the details of the P0.740, see the list of fledglings or watch the videos.\n\n2- UN Sustainable Development Goals\n\nStarting in 2017, Fledge started characterizing all of the fledglings using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (the “SDGs”). These are 17 goals, created by a committee at the United Nations to help explain what the world needs to bring the last few billions of people out of poverty. The taxonomy is quickly becoming the de facto standard for impact, including widespread use by impact investors.\n\nFledge has characterized all of the fledglings against the SDGs. The histogram of that effort is below. Each bar counts the number of fledglings that are targeting the specific goal.\n\nNone of the fledglings are working on education, hence the gap in goal #4.\n\nGoal #8 is Decent Work and Economic Growth, and that is not surprisingly the most common given fledglings like African Chicken, Ayni, Cropital, and Jicote, which all aim to create incomes for smallholder farmers.\n\nGoal #11 is Sustainable Cities and Communities, and that is again not surprising as the second most popular given Arqlite, Evrnu, Zijani, and Zirconia.\n\nWe’ll see over time how this histogram changes, to see if specific goals continue to dominate, or whether the values revert toward the averages seen by\n\n3- Gender Lens\n\nFledge selects the best companies it can find, in a process that is as gender-blind and color-blind as can be, given we interview the best applicants “face to face” over video. We do like bucking the trend in venture capital, investing in women and people of color, but neither gender nor skin color is part our selection criteria.\n\nNonetheless, 39% of the fledglings have a female founder or co-founder. Another 4% are companies founded by an all male team, but which specifically focus on employing and empowering women (e.g. African Chicken and Housekipp).\n\n  • Shaula Massena\n\n    That’s pretty impressive, Luni, that you’ve got something in almost every category for the UN Goals, I thought a couple goals seemed pretty un-invest-able. What are you mapping to #16 – Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions? Is Geossy your life under water? And #17 – Partnership for the Goals? Helpful food for thought.\n\n    • It wasn’t on purpose. Most of Fledge took place before the UN settled on these 17 goals.\n\n      #16 includes Pieta, which works with and employs prison inmates, allowing them to earn some money. In this particular Peruvian prison, that is incredibly helpful, as prisoners have to pay for the use of a bed.\n\n      Two that cover both #16 and #17 are Africa Business Radio and Bright Reality Entertainment, both of which are more about Strong Institutions than Peace and Justice for #16, and then both help other fledglings spread their stories and thus create their impact, hence #17.\n\n      For these and every other goal, you can visit, and at the top of that page click on a goal to see which fledglings are a match.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.713363528251648}
+{"content": "Advanced search    \n\nSearch: authors:\"Simon Mosey\"\n\n2 papers found.\n\nThe impact of digital start-up founders’ higher education on reaching equity investment milestones\n\nThis paper builds on human capital theory to assess the importance of formal education among graduate entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 4953 digital start-ups the paper evaluates the impact of start-up founding teams’ higher education on the probability of securing equity investment and subsequent exit for investors. The main findings are: (1), teams with a founder that has a ...\n\nTechnology entrepreneurship research opportunities: insights from across Europe\n\nOver the last two decades, the phenomenon of technology entrepreneurship has attracted the interest of researchers and policy makers due to its significant impact upon economic progress. Several authors define technology entrepreneurship as the interface of two well-established, but related fields—entrepreneurship and technological innovation. In this vein, technological ...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000029802322388}
+{"content": "\n Download Current HansardDownload Current Hansard   \n\nPrevious Fragment    Next Fragment\nTuesday, 17 February 1987\nPage: 9\n\n(Question No. 1222)\n\nSenator Archer asked the Minister representing the Minister for Science, upon notice, on 13 June 1986:\n\n(1) What is the number of staff currently employed by CSIRONET.\n\n(2) What is the expected expenditure by CSIRONET in the financial year 1985-86.\n\n(3) What proportion of that expenditure is set aside for the purchase, maintenance, or running costs of capital equipment.\n\n(4) What is the total annual cost, including lease cost, to the Organisation of the operation of the CYBER 205 super computer.\n\n(5) What is the expected financial return from the CYBER 205's operation for 1985-86.\n\n(6) How many hours per week is the CYBER 205 in operation.\n\n(7) How many hours or part thereof is the CYBER 205 charged at full commercial rates.\n\n(8) How many hours per week are charged at discounted rates.\n\n(9) What are the eligibility criteria for access to the CYBER 205 super computer at discounted rates.\n\n(10) What attempts has CSIRONET made to increase industry use of the CYBER 205 super computer.\n\n(11) Why has maximum utilisation of the CYBER 205 super computer not been achieved.\n\nSenator Button —The Minister for Science has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:\n\n(1) CSIRONET currently employs 149 people, comprising 135 permanent staff and 14 casual staff.\n\n(2) $17,689,680.\n\n(3) 72%.\n\n(4) Total direct cost, including lease costs, of the CYBER 205 is:\n\n\nStaff Costs...\n\n\nHardware, Software and\n\n\n\n\nLease costs have not ceased since CSIRO entered into an arrangement, with the approval of the Minister for Science, to purchase the CYBER 205 (for $3.7m) with effect from the commencement of 1987. The purchase arrangements are, however, spread over two years and CSIRO will be amortizing the capital outlay involved in future costings of machine time.\n\n(5) The financial return from the CYBER 205 for 1985-86 was:\n\n\n\n\nBureau of Meteorology...\n\n\nMaterials Research Laboratory, Defence Science and Technology Office...\n\n\nBureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics...\n\n\nDepartment of Transport...\n\n\nDepartment of Defence, Navy...\n\n\n\n\n\n(6) The CYBER 205 is scheduled to be in operation for 168 hours per week. After allowing for ``down-time'' associated with operating system maintenance, software and user support, the CYBER 205 is available to the user community for 120 equivalent machine hours per week.\n\n(7) Earnings for the CYBER 205 at non discounted rates in 1985-86 were:\n\n1st and 2nd quarter-0.5 hours/week\n\n3rd quarter-2.0 hours/week\n\n4th quarter-4.5 hours/week\n\nThese figures exclude time made available to industry for demonstration and ``benchmarking'' purposes. CSIRONET staff are making every effort to increase commercial utilisation and the above increasing trend reflects these efforts.\n\n(8) At the beginning of 1986 CSIRO awarded some $2 million of CYBER 205 resources in grants to researchers, principally in CSIRO, the universities and the Bureau of Meteorology, but also in the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, the Materials Research Laboratory in the Defence Science and Technology Office and the State Electricity Commission, Victoria. This amounted to some 50-60 equivalent hours per week. In addition to this, CSIRONET offered the Bureau of Meteorology a significant discount for CYBER 205 processing during January to June, 1986, when the machine was not expected to be fully utilised. This discounted usage amounted to about 10 hours per week.\n\nFor the 1986-87 financial year CSIRONET has offered the Bureau of Meteorology an arrangement involving a 30% discount on CYBER 205 processing, which should amount to about 7 machine hours per week.\n\n(9) The eligibility criteria for the grants established by the CSIRO Executive were based on the quality of the research involved and the extent to which the computing required the power of the CYBER 205. This scheme has been discontinued with existing grants ending in January 1987.\n\nAll universities were offered the opportunity to buy time on the CYBER 205 under the same conditions as CSIRO divisions. Although little response was received, one university has negotiated an agreement involving a significant amount of CYBER 205 processing.\n\n(10) Of the responses received when CSIRONET advertised, in 1984, for expressions of interest from industry for joint development of super computing applications, only one has developed into a successful arrangement whilst another potential user is still developing suitable software. The agreement involves a South Australian company developing CYBER 205 code for fluid dynamics calculations.\n\nMore recently, CSIRONET has contacted a number of companies who expressed interest in the use of the CYBER 205. However delays of 3 to 12 months are to be expected before their CYBER 205 usage becomes significant.\n\nCSIRONET has arranged lectures to special interest groups of the Australian Computer Society and The Australian Mathematical Society as well as visits to government departments to promote the CYBER 205.\n\nDuring the last six months CSIRO and CSIRONET have explored actively a wide range of possible 205 applications. There have been discussions with the Chairmen of the ARGS, the Tertiary Education Commission and University Vice Chancellors and an expansion in CSIRONET's marketing effort.\n\n(11) CSIRO and overseas experience indicates that there are great difficulties in operating super computers in a total cost recovery mode. It would seem that the more effective course is adoption of a national facility structure, with adequate infrastructure and support and differential charging rates for CSIRO and University users on the one hand and a higher commercial rate for industry users on the other.\n\nIn technologically advanced countries, industry has embraced the super computer technology as an invaluable design tool. However, in Australia industry is yet to see its potential. If industry is to make significant use of the CYBER 205 it will need considerable encouragement and expert technical support.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.992172360420227}
+{"content": "Mentoring is volunteering\n\nPeople often confuse the ideas of being a mentor and being a coach. There are two very significant differences between these positions. A mentor is someone who provides advice and guidance without the intentions to make a profit or gains from the process. A coach gets paid to help you for a very specific task.\n\nBe a tortoise and mentor someone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9775059819221497}
+{"content": "Nick Barbaro Doesn’t Get to Define What’s Conservative and What’s Not\n\nI was tired of Nick Barbaro’s trolling at the Chronicle so I sent him an email:\n\nDear Nick Barbaro,\n\nIn your most recent Public Notice, it seems you are at least aware of the other side of a debate that you either consciously or accidentally find yourself weighing in on in Austin: how the city should grow.  You seem well intentioned, so this email will be more explanatory of why what you prefer to call “density activists” support the positions that we do.\n\nSo let’s start with how you addressed Friends of Austin Neighborhoods supporters:\n\nwhen it comes down to specific votes on specific issues, you find yourself allied with the most conservative members of the City Council, and 100% opposed to the voting records of the council members who have the longest and strongest histories of working for social justice issues in every field other than land use.\n\nIt’s telling that you don’t actually address the substance of FAN’s arguments here.  You resort to defending the character of certain members of the Council, which is really not the point.  If Council members are well intentioned but vote for regressive policies, does that make the policies any less destructive?  Your argument is a textbook ad hominem argument as defined by Wikipedia:\n\nAd hominem is a logical fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.\n\nIt’s also notable that you omit mentioning that FAN endorsed Delia Garza in your previous column, but made sure to mention Don Zimmerman, who was not endorsed by FAN as clearly shown on their website.  I’m sure that was an innocent mistake. The line that FAN is a “developer friendly internet group” whose positions “lean hard to the right” is a cheap smear, but it leads me into my next point.\n\nVoting against more housing is voting against the interests of young people, renters, and low income Austinites, and that is precisely what Leslie Pool, Kathie Tovo, Ann Kitchen and Ora Houston have done consistently.  Let’s take the case of the Burnet/Rockwood project in Leslie Pool’s home district.  The lot is currently an auto repair shop, and a developer wanted to build over 200 apartments, including 15% reserved as affordable housing.  There is good public transit on Burnet, and the project was right next to 183.  One would think this is an ideal place to add significant housing so more Austinites can have a place to live.  Pool, Tovo, Kitchen, and Houston all voted against this project.  Leslie Pool cited traffic as a reason, and Ora Houston cited the “rights of neighbors”.\n\nSo I ask you Mr Barbaro: what is progressive about preventing the construction of housing for Austinites?  Is it because for some reason you assume that what is bad for developers is good for everyone?  Have you considered what is good for those of us that don’t own homes, namely young people, renters, and low income Austinites?  Is preventing the construction of housing because it might increase traffic a progressive position?\n\nAdding more housing supply of all types benefits low income and young Austinites.  It doesn’t matter if you call certain people liberals, conservatives, or anything else.  You can distort the meaning of those terms all you want.  It doesn’t change the fact that the policies of your favored City Council members are regressive.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9666033387184143}
+{"content": "Performance Mode\n\nCommand Location:  Tools Menu\n\nPerformance Mode allows you to perform and interact with your songs rather than modifying any song content.  You can create Practice Sessions, study specific ranges of your scores and use learning tools such as Step by Step.  Most score editing functionality is hidden in this mode to allow you to focus on viewing, listening and performing with your scores.\n\nWhen you import a song, it is initially displayed in Performance Mode.\n\nYou can make basic editing changes to the score notation in Performance Mode, for example correcting note lengths, or changing score attributes like key signatures. You can change the presentation of the notation, but in this mode like Layout Mode, the raw music is generally protected so that you can 'interact' freely with the score without making unintentional changes.\n\nThe following interactive tools are available only in Performance Mode:\n\nMore About this Mode\n\nRead more about the difference between Performance Mode and Layout Mode versus Edit Mode.\n\nThe different 'modes' in MidiIllustrator all have an associated 'view' which is optimized for working in that mode.  Read more about Modes and Views here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999641180038452}
+{"content": "full screen background image\n\n5 Reasons Why You Need A Mentor\n\nA lot of young people want to be successful; they want to unleash their full potential and be the best that they can ever be. Most of them are self driven; they know what they want and are going for it but no matter how talented one can be, no matter how brilliant you can be, you still need to have a mentor. You still need someone who will guide you and give you all the support you need. The role of a mentor is not to tell you what to do or to do all the work for you. They are just there to make sure that you’re on the right track and to also make sure that when you fall, you pick yourself up and keep moving forward. You can have more than one mentor for different areas of your life; a career/business mentor, personal mentor and spiritual mentor. Here are 5 reasons why it is important to have one.\n\n\nThey have achieved what you’re trying to achieve\n\nIt is always advisable to be mentored by someone who is already doing what you want to do because they are knowledgeable in that particular field and they will be able to advise you accordingly. They have already achieved what you want to achieve and they will be able to show you how they did it and if you want, you can follow in their footsteps or you can just get some lessons from their story.\n\nYou can confide in them and not feel judged or ridiculed\n\nYou can talk to your friends and family about a number of things but sometimes when you do that, you might feel like they’re judging you or if you were talking to them about your goals and dreams you might feel ridiculed; you might feel like they don’t get you and that they don’t really understand your vision. That’s where a mentor comes in. You can talk to them about anything and they will be there to listen and offer sound advice.\n\nThey will open doors for you\n\nA good mentor will open doors for you that you never even knew existed. They will introduce you to their contacts and help you network with people who will help you achieve what you want to achieve. We live in an era where having good relations with people from different spheres of life is mandatory. If you really want to be successful you need to go out there and meet people who are already doing what you want to do and a mentor will help you a lot with that.\n\nThey will cheer you up when times get tough\n\nThe road to success is not smooth at all. There are so many challenges that one has to face along the way and when you come across those challenges it’s either you turn them into lessons and move on or you let them destroy you. When you have someone who will cheer you up and motivate you to keep going no matter what you go through it becomes much easier not to give up and to choose to turn your challenges into lessons. A mentor will help you a lot with that. They will be your personal cheerleader.\n\nThey will help you set clear goals\n\nIf you really want to turn all your dreams into reality, you just can’t afford to do things haphazardly. You need to have clear goals and have a clear plan of action. Sometimes when you have exciting dreams you get carried away and you come to a point where you just want to do everything all at once so your mentor will be very helpful in that case because they will help you set clear goals and make sure that you achieve them one step at a time.\n\nI believe you now understand why it is important to have a mentor and you will go out there and look for one. There are many people who are passionate about mentorship and would be honoured if you approach them and ask them to mentor you. Just remember that this is a two-way street. You are the least experienced in the relationship but it doesn’t mean that you’re less valuable. You need to always remember that you have so much to offer. Learn from your mentor but do not live in their shadow. If there is something they’re suggesting and you’re not comfortable with it, you don’t have to do it. They are there to guide you and support you not to be your dictator. When you approach mentorship with such an attitude, you will learn a lot, you will grow and you will turn all your goals and dreams into reality; one step at a time; one day at a time.\n\n\n\nRead previous post:\nSA Man Buys McLaren SuperCar For 6 Million Rand!\n\nAccording to McLaren Automotive SA General Manager, Grant Dryden a South African man has recently ordered the limited edition of...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7827672958374023}
+{"content": "The Six Day War, or Arab-Israeli conflict, was caused by previous feuds involving Israel and its neighboring Arab states. Rejection of Israel in 1948 and continued rejection involving an Egyptian blockage of shipping to Israel in 1956 were major precursors to the Six Day War. Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan were all major combatants in the conflict. The international community outside the Middle East and Arabian world were highly involved in the conflict as well. The Soviet Union and the United States did what they could to influence the events of the war. America’s involvement in the Six Day War was very sensitive. Already at war on another front, the U.S. chose its words wisely while reporting on the conflict. Egypt sided with other Arab nations calling for the annihilation of Israel. Egypt’s media was controlled by its government, so citizens of the nation heard only what their ruler wanted them to hear.\n\nWar: 1960's style. Image taken from\n\nThe United States’ relationship with Egypt had always been somewhat tense. Egypt was able to build up its military capability during the Yemen War, and during this time Israel approached the U.S. for aid. The U.S. government was reluctant to help the small sliver of a nation, but in 1963 the Americans approved the transfer of surface-to-air missiles to Israel. The United States stated reason was a need to maintain a regional balance of power. By 1965 President Johnson cut all economic assistance to Egypt causing U.S.-Egypt relations to be worse than ever before, according to Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. Such actions indicate the U.S. backed Israel whether admitting it or not. A June 1967 Universal Newsreel titled ‘Mid-East: Israeli-Egyptian Battle Erupts’ emphasized America’s supposed neutrality. The newsreel stated, “Our state department says we are neutral in word, thought and deed.”\n\nAn article published in Time during the Six Day War paints a different picture of America’s role in the conflict. The article states, “Risking national unpopularity and dissension even within his ruling Mapai party, Premier Eshkol, 71, has withheld Israel’s sword, counting on diplomacy and the good will of such friends as the U.S. and Britain to work out the problem.” Hence, the universal newsreel’s statement from the state department did not hold true. Leading up to the war, the U.S. pursued diplomatic solutions and sought to form a solution to challenge the Egyptian blockage on Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran. While the U.S. continued to refuse to aid Israel militarily, opposition to Israeli action began to soften in the beginning of June 1967.\n\nIn May of 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s prime minister, expelled UN peacekeepers from Sinai Peninsula and announced a blockage of the Straits of Tiran to Israel-bound shipping. The act violated previous armistice agreements and was regarded by most observers as a casus belli, or act of war. Due to these bold moves Arab governments began to endorse Nasser’s steps and prepared their own armies for war. Nasser made sure that Egypt’s citizens believed war was inevitable. Nasser in a May 1967 speech to the Arab Trade Unionists said, “Recently, we felt we are strong enough, that if we were to enter battle with Israel, with God’s help, we could triumph. On this basis we decided to take actual steps… Taking Sharm al Shaykh meant confrontation with Israel. Taking such action also meant that we were ready to enter a general war with Israel.” On the same day Mohammed Heikal, Nasser’s closest confidant and leading journalist in the Arab world, stated that Israel had no choice but resort to arms in the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram. Essentially, Nasser was using his power and utilizing news coverage to persuade the Arab world to support his stance. Because Egypt’s media was controlled by the government citizens were more easily coerced into believing Israel was a major threat.\n\nThe Good Ol' Boys. Controlling media since before your mother was born.\n\nDespite being up against multiple neighboring countries, Israel’s military actions were swift and precise. Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against the Egyptian army and air force. Egypt’s air force was quickly crippled, and a well-executed Israeli ground offensive routed the Egyptian forces in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula in four days.  It wasn’t until the end of the war that Egypt’s citizens grasped the scope of their losses. The state-controlled media was reporting that Egyptian forces had penetrated deep into Israel, that Tel-Aviv had been bombed and the Haifa oil refineries set alight. The U.S. media, however, was quick to cover Israel’s victories. A second June 1967 Universal Newsreel stated, “The first crippling blow came early in the four-day war when the Arab Air Force was destroyed on the ground in air raids on 25 bases in three countries: Egypt, Jordan and Syria.” President Nasser accused the U.S. of aiding Israel in the air raids. The accusation was briefly addressed in the newsreel. It said, “Egypt’s charges that the U.S. and British air units aided Israel are vigorously denied.” Addressing Nasser’s claims in the media shows a major difference in coverage of the conflict in Egypt and America. Officials in the U.S. used media coverage to showcase our nation’s concern for the dilemma while promoting a diplomatic solution. Whether or not the U.S. was more deeply involved in Israel’s military action is debatable. Nasser used media in Egypt to gain the cooperation of his citizens, and then attempted to persuade them to continue fighting by falsely reporting major losses.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8575039505958557}
+{"content": "\n\nShare this page\nBlockchain Technology:\nThe Opportunities and Challenges for Financial Institutions and Insurers\nMonday, December 11, 2017 | Program: 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. | Reception: 7:00 p.m.\n\nProgram Fee: Free for City Bar Members and Members of the Association of Trade & Forfaiting in the Americas (ATFA) | $15 for Non-Members\n\nATFA Members: please call 212.382.6663 to register for this event.\n\nThe panel will address the current efforts by financial institutions, insurers, and technology platforms to utilize blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology, generally as well as the implications for trade finance and credit insurance. Some examples of the issues and questions the panel will explore include: An overview of the distributed ledger technology and current efforts; What are the opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology for the financial services sector generally as well as with respect to the areas of trade finance and credit insurance? What are the benefits for the end customer to using the platforms?; How do the regulatory regimes respond to the development of blockchain technology? Who will ultimately regulate the transactions? What does it mean for compliance issues (such as anti-money laundering, fraud, OFAC, and know your customer requirements)?; How safe is blockchain technology?  What are the cyber or other emerging risks associated with blockchain technology?; How will different blockchain platforms communicate with one another and how do we prevent siloing between different ledgers?\n\nAlisa DiCaprio, Head of Research, R3\nPaul Meeusen, Head Distributed Ledger Technology, Swiss Re\nNick Williams, Partner, Clifford Chance\n\nHarpreet Mann, Vice President, QBE North America\n\nSponsoring Association Committee:\nInsurance Law Committee, Drexel Harris, Chair\n\nSponsoring Organization:\nThe Association of Trade and Forfaiting in the Americas\n\n\n42 West 44th Street\nNew York, NY 10036\n\n\nPlease Sign In to Register", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9985536336898804}
+{"content": "·  For Companies  ·  For Teachers  ·  For Kids  ·  For Parents   ·  Links  ·  About  ·  Home\n\nEverydayActivist.Com - everyday steps that everyday people can take to save the earth\nWays to Save the Planet In the Yard\n\nIf you have a yard and/or garden, there are plenty of ways that you can reduce waste and pollution, and re-use stuff that you may have thought was just garbage. There are 5 eco-friendly choices you can make in this category.\n\nUse only organic fertilizers Easy!\nArtificial fertlizers contain many chemicals that aren't good for you OR the environment, and they can contribute to the pollution of the water table. You'll see (and taste!) the difference in your fruits and veggies!\nYou can also try this: for companies But wait, there's more!\n\nRecycle your yard debris Easy!\n But wait, there's more!\n\nRecycle everything you can! Money Saver!Takes some effort!\nYou benefit either directly or when local taxes are kept lower by reduced disposal costs.\nYou can also try this: at home, at work, at school, for companies, for teachers, for kids and for parents\n\nPlant a tree or small garden Takes some effort!\nTrees and gardens make your yard beautiful, but they also help clean the air and reduce greenhouse gasses.\n\nInsulation that is beautiful and cost-effective Money Saver!Takes some effort!\nPlant short, dense shrubs close to your home's foundation to help insulate your home against cold, and use a light-colored roof to reduce heat absorption. You'll be saving an estimated 13 lbs of CO2 per tree!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998300671577454}
+{"content": "skip to content »\n\nEchinoderm microfossil dating\n\nechinoderm microfossil dating-61\n\nToday, due to the speed of preparation, calcareous nannofossils have bec ome the preferred tool for quick accurate stratigraphic age determination in post-Palaeozoic calcareous sequences.\n\nThere are two forms of coccoliths, the holococcoliths which are formed from calcite crystals which are essentially identical in shape and size and the heterococcoliths which are formed from larger calcite crystals which vary in size and shape.Most living forms are known to produce only heterococcoliths and then only during the non-motile stage of their life cycle.Those that do produce holococcoliths do so only during their motile stage.Today coccolithophores are one of the most important forms of phytoplankton found in the oceans, and may be described as the grass of the sea.The classification of calcareous nannoplankton is carried out under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.They are formally classified in the Kingdom Protoctista, Phylum (or Division) Haptophyta, Class Prymnesiophyceae.\n\nClassification is complicated by the fact that some species are dimorphic, that is they possess more than one coccolith on a single coccosphere.\n\nIt was not untill the second half of the nineteenth century when Wallich found coccoliths joined to form coccospheres that an organic origin was suggested.\n\nEven after the publication of Sorby's 1861 paper, following which the organic origin of coccoliths was generally accepted, Ehrenberg remained unconvinced.\n\nThe organism which creates the coccosphere is called a coccolithophore, they are phytoplankton (autotrophs that contain chloroplasts and photosynthesise).\n\nTheir calcareous skeletons are found in marine deposits often in vast numbers, sometimes making up the major component of a particular rock, such as the chalk of England. Formally coccolithophores are separated from other phytoplankton such as diatoms by the presence of a third flagella-like appendage called a haptonema, although the flagella bearing stage is often only one of a multi-stage life cycle.\n\nThe locations from which the earliest nannofossils are found include; the Northern and Southern Calcareous Alps, Timor, North-West Australia and Queen Charlotte Islands (Canada), all low latitude sites at the time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7448131442070007}
+{"content": "This cocktail is traditionally made with thick, dark, blackstrap rum, or another type of well-aged island rum.\n\nThird annual event features 20-plus restaurants and 30-plus craft breweries and cideries\n\n\nA new watering hole sits along the steel paths of the pedestrian walkway downtown, offering a sweet escape during long ferry waits.\n\nWashington grape growers and winemakers have always been experimenters, seeing what will work in our relatively young industry, but in the past few years, so much has changed that we are in the midst of what might be called the Age of Experimentat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989784359931946}
+{"content": "Wednesday, October 8, 2014\n\n\nIn this post you will learn some fun facts about  France and France's 10 wonders\n\nSome Fun Facts about France\n\nThe 10 Wonders of France\n\n1. Louvre Museum\n\nThe Louvre or the Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre, pronounced: [myze dy luvʁ]) is one of the world's largest museums and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, and received more than 9.7 million visitors in 2012.\nThe museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.\nFor more information visit the Louvre's official below\nOfficial website of Louvre Museum\n\n2. Versailles\n\nThe Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles. Check out the youtube video below\n\n\n3. Chartres Cathedral\n\nChartres Cathedral, also known as Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Chartres (French: Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a medieval Catholic cathedral of the Latin Church located in Chartres, France, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southwest of Paris. It is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1194 and 1250, is the last of at least five which have occupied the site since the town became a bishopric in the 4th century.\nfor more info click on the link below\nChartres Cathedral\n\n\n\n4. Mont Saint Michel\n\nVisit this website or watch the embedded YouTube video for more information\nMont Saint Michel\n\n5. Eiffel Tower\n\nThe Eiffel Tower (French: La tour Eiffel) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.\nThe tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the aerial atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Not including broadcast aerials, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.\n\n6.  Chambord Castle\n\nAt the heart of Europe's largest enclosed wooded park (around 19 mi² enclosed by a 20 mile-long wall), Chambord, the dream of a young king and a marvel of the Renaissance period, is the largest château in the Loire Valley. It boasts a pleasure garden and a hunting park both listed as Historical Monuments. for more information please visit the site:\nThe castle of Chambord\n\n7.  Chenonceau Castle\n\nProperty of the Crown, then a royal residence, the Château de Chenonceau, one of the most famous castles in the Loire valley bears testimony to a sophisticated way of life through its original design, the wealth of its collections, its furnishings and its decoration, but also when considering its fate, as it was loved, run and protected by exceptional women who made a mark on history. Click on the link below  for more information:\nChenonceau Castle\n\n8. Fontaine Bleau\n\nThe town of Fontainebleau is inextricably linked to its forest and its chateau. It grew as a result of its contact with the kings of France and the court over period of eight centuries. It has retained considerable evidence of this link in its layout and its architecture. As a horse capital and rock-climbing  mecca, Fontainebleau delights everyone.\n\n\nThe forest\n\nThe Chateau\n\n9. Notre Dame Cathedral\n\nNotre Dame Cathedral (full name: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, \"Our Lady of Paris\") is a beautiful cathedral on the the Île de la Cité in Paris. Begun in 1163 and mostly completed by 1250, Notre Dame is an important example of French Gothic architecture, sculpture and stained glass. For\nmore information click on the link below\nNotre Dame Cathedral\n\n10. Reims Cathedral\n\nLocated in the Champagne-Ardenne region, 130 km from Paris, Reims, known as the \"city of coronations\" or \"city of kings\", houses four buildings listed as Unesco world heritage since 1991: the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims, the former royal abbey of Saint-Rémi and its abbey church, the basilica of Saint-Rémi, and the former archiepiscopal palace, known as the Palace of Tau.\nClick on the following link for more information:\nReims Cathedral", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9856230020523071}
+{"content": "Definition of element\n\n1) A substance that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by chemical means.\n\n2) One of the 116 presently known substances that cannot be decomposed by chemical reaction into a simpler substance. Elements comprise all matter at and above the atomic level. All elements heavier than lead (Pb) are radioactive and unstable. In addition, there are no stable elements with odd numbers of both protons and neutrons heavier than nitrogen (N). Elements with even numbers of protons and an even number of neutrons make up about 90% of the earth's crust.\n\n3) A substance that cannot be decomposed; each chemical element is characterized by the number of protons in the nucleus. See the periodic table and the introduction for elements.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998847842216492}
+{"content": "Dr. Rodgers provides the time to understand each patient’s current issues as well as their complete medical history.\n\nAn initial adult patient visit is 1-2 hours.  The reason for this length of visit is that Dr. Rodgers takes the time to investigate how each medical concern started and changed throughout the lifetime of a patient.  In order to understand a current medical condition, it is important to understand the many factors that may have contributed to that condition.  Past medical history and the many contributing lifestyle factors are explored.  The understanding gained from this detailed interview as well as a physical and laboratory exams help determine where supportive treatment starts.\n\nBy the end of the visit, both Dr. Rodgers and the patient have a better understanding of factors that may have contributed to the patient’s current medical complaint, as well as the next steps to help achieve better health.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999711513519287}
+{"content": "Plants that grow on stones and rocks are known as :\n\nOptions :\n  1. Halophytes\n  2. Xalophytes\n  3. Lithophytes\n  4. Xerophytes\nAnswer and Explanation :-\n\nAnswer: Option 3\n\n\n\n\nPrevious Question : The Himalayan mountain range is an example of :\n\nNext Question : Ozone day is celebrated on which day :\n\nClick here for online test on Geography\n\n\n (Getemail alerts when others member replies)\n\nUna Salus Victis Nullam Sperare Salutem - (Latin - written 9 BC)The only hope for the doomed, is no hope at all...\n-Virgil The Aeneid", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8703933954238892}
+{"content": "ACL Review\n\nUPDATE: Making our consumer laws stronger\n\nDid you know that in Australia, there is no law that expressly requires businesses to make sure the goods they sell are safe before they hit the stores?\n\nThis could be about to change: after years of community pressure and dozens of dodgy and dangerous products, State and Federal Consumer Affairs Ministers agreed to support making the consumer law work better for people everywhere.\n\nIf Consumer Affairs Ministers follow through on their commitments, here’s what this decision will mean:\n\n  • We could see laws that help people get refunds more easily when they buy a lemon car;\n  • We could be able to get unsafe products, like Samsung washing machines that catch fire, off the market quicker;\n  • And companies like Nurofen that mislead people with dodgy marketing claims will finally be hit with higher fines!\n\nBut this campaign isn’t over yet: now we need to pressure our leaders to turn words into action as soon as possible.\n\nCan you help keep up the pressure? Add your name to this petition now.\n\nDeadly airbags: the Takata recall shambles\n\n2.3 million cars across Australia have a potentially deadly fault. The Takata brand airbags installed in the cars carry a risk of catastrophic injury or death, with a fault causing them to send shrapnel flying with force at drivers and passengers when the airbags deploy.\n\nAs of 23 July 2017, more than 180 people have sustained injuries as severe as blinding, paralysis and severed vocal chords. The death count to date stands at 18, including one Australian.\n\nThe recall started back in 2009, and it is a shambles. It’s why CHOICE is calling for changes to the consumer law to force companies to do better.\n\n  1. Head to the Product Safety website and check if your car is on the recall list.\n  2.  If it isn’t, you can subscribe to receive recall updates in case your car is added to the list later.\n  3. If it is on the list, contact your local dealership to arrange to have the airbags replaced.\n  4. If they can’t do this within a reasonable period of time, lodge a complaint with your local consumer agency.\n\nExploding Thermomixes, flaming Samsung washing machines, and Takata airbags that kill – we expect the products we buy to be safe, but clearly something is going wrong. The number of product safety recalls initiated in Australia is growing at a rapid rate. In 2015, product safety recalls increased by 20% on the previous year. In 2016, there was almost a 30% increase on the previous year, with 671 product safety recall notices received by the ACCC.\n\nIn comparison, the UK has experienced roughly half the number of product recalls that Australia did in 2013-14 and 2014-15, despite having a much larger population and economy. So, what is the UK doing differently to us? The answer is complex, but one piece of the puzzle is in the law. The UK has a law called the General Product Safety Regulations, sometimes referred to as a ‘general safety provision’. This law states, simply, that businesses cannot supply a product unless it is safe. The law prevents retailers from selling any products that they know, or should know, are unsafe.\n\nRemarkably, Australia has no such law. While our consumer protection law is extensive, there is no explicit obligation placed on businesses to make sure they sell safe products. Instead, if a product in Australia hurts someone, that consumer can seek a remedy. If multiple people are injured, the business can choose to run a recall. This is a reactive system, and it is failing us.\n\nThe introduction of a general safety provision will help change this. This legal change should shift business attitudes. While product safety risks and subsequent recalls may be viewed as the cost of doing business now, a general safety provision coupled with strong penalties will encourage businesses to instead view the safety of their products as a priority.\n\nThis new obligation should be easy to meet for businesses that are already doing the right thing. The businesses who aren’t thinking about safety will have to do better. A general safety provision will hopefully capture instances where unsafe cots are being brought in by importers, phones are exploding in people’s pockets, or dangerous button batteries are not properly secured to prevent children removing and swallowing them.\n\nThe UK introduced their General Product Safety Regulations in 2005, and it has been seen as a success. A review of how similar laws operate across Europe found that a general safety provision is a ‘powerful tool’ that helps protect consumers, and that its introduction in Europe has helped ‘track down and eliminate a vast number of unsafe products’.\n\nCHOICE has been calling for the introduction of a general safety provision for the last decade, but until recently there has not been much support for this reform. However, in February a review of Australia’s consumer protection law recommended that we finally modernise our product safety law and introduce a general safety obligation for businesses. Consumer Affairs Ministers are meeting in late August to decide whether or not to support this change, and many other recommended changes that will strengthen our consumer protection framework. If you want safer products, show your support for a general safety provision and join the campaign.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9164503812789917}
+{"content": "U.S. Markets closed\n\nU.S.English Chairman Responds to Debate Over Language Restriction in Texas School\n\nWASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2014) - U.S.English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica today released the following statement in response to a contentious debate over a principal in Texas who was fired for asking students to speak English on school grounds.\n\nIn December 2013, Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey was placed on paid administrative leave for reportedly announcing that the school's students were not allowed to speak Spanish on the school campus. Several months later, the Hempstead school board announced that it would not be renewing Lacey's contract, but due to the terms of the separation, the former principal was unable to comment on the allegations.\n\nThis week, Lacey spoke out, claiming that she did not ban the use of Spanish in the school. Rather, Lacey suggests she was following Texas state code, which states that it is the responsibility of public schools to assist all students in becoming proficient in English.\n\n\"This controversial debate in Texas is the latest demonstration of the clear need for a straightforward and unified language policy in the United States,\" Chairman Mujica said. \"While students, and all residents of the United States, should be free to speak the language of their choosing, it is crucial that English proficiency is encouraged -- especially among school-aged children. When immersed in English, studies have shown that non-English speakers learn the language faster than those surrounded by speakers of their native language. Particularly in schools, students should be exposed to English to the greatest extent possible, to give them the best possible chance of social and academic success.\"\n\nMujica continued, \"Individuals armed with English proficiency are more likely to have better, higher paying jobs as adults, are more likely to have health care and are less likely to be reliant on government assistance. Accordingly, schools across the nation should do their best to encourage English learning among students. A clear national language policy will help prevent instances like this one in Texas from occurring again, instead placing a focus on encouraging English proficiency. \"\n\nU.S.English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S.English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6642405986785889}
+{"content": "Posted in Algorithm, Deep Learning, Theory\n\nDeep Learning 15: Unsupervised learning in DL? Try Autoencoder!\n\nThere are unsupervised learning models in multiple-level learning methods, for example, RBMs and Autoencoder. In brief, Autoencoder is trying to find a way to reconstruct the original inputs — another way to represent itself. In addition, it is useful for dimensionality reduction. For example, say there is a 32 * 32 -sized image, it is possible to represent it by using a fewer number of parameters. This is called you are “encoding” an image. The goal is to learn the new representation, so it is also applied as pre-training; then a traditional machine learning models could be applied depending on the tasks — it is a typical “two-stage” way for solving problems.[3] by Hinton is a great work on this problem, which shows the ability of “compressing” in neural networks, solving the bottleneck of massive information.\n\nContinue reading “Deep Learning 15: Unsupervised learning in DL? Try Autoencoder!”\n\nPosted in Algorithm, Machine Learning, Theory\n\nML Recap Slides sharing\n\nFew friends with me did some works together since last October. All of us were looking for jobs in machine learning or deep learning. We all agreed that we need to review some interesting algorithms together. We had a draft of machine learning algorithms (part 1) during this new year:\n\n\nClick here for a full version: mlrecap.\n\nAlso, we are working on part 2; there are some advanced algorithms which you can see from our outline. It is expected to finish around this June.\n\n\n\nThese slides are suitable for people to review old things. Some details are not included, so do not suggest readers learn some concepts from our slides. If you find mistakes, please leave comments. If you are interested in some particular algorithms, leave comments and we will consider updating our part 2 outline.\n\nPosted in Python\n\nTensorFlow 07: Word Embeddings (2) – Loading Pre-trained Vectors\n\nA brief introduction on Word2vec please check this post. In this post, we try to load pre-trained Word2vec model, which is a huge file contains all the word vectors trained on huge corpora.\n\n\nDownload here .I downloaded the GloVe one, the vocabulary size is 4 million, dimension is 50. It is a smaller one trained on a “global” corpus (from wikipedia). There are models trained on Twitter as well in the page.\n\n\nThe model is formatted as (word vector) in each line, separated by a space. Below shows a screenshot: not only the words, but also some marks like comma are included in the model.image\n\n\nThere is an easy way for you to load the model by reading the vector file. Here I separate the words and vectors, because the words will be fed into vocabulary.\n\nfilename = 'glove.6B.50d.txt'\ndef loadGloVe(filename):\n    vocab = []\n    embd = []\n    file = open(filename,'r')\n    for line in file.readlines():\n        row = line.strip().split(' ')\n    print('Loaded GloVe!')\n    return vocab,embd\nvocab,embd = loadGloVe(filename)\nvocab_size = len(vocab)\nembedding_dim = len(embd[0])\nembedding = np.asarray(embd)\n\nThe vocab is a list of words or marks. The embedding is the huge 2-d array with all the word vectors. We initialize the embedding size to be the number of column of the embedding array.\n\nEmbedding Layer\n\nAfter loading in the vectors, we need to use them to initialize W of the embedding layer in your network.\n\nW = tf.Variable(tf.constant(0.0, shape=[vocab_size, embedding_dim]),\n                trainable=False, name=\"W\")\nembedding_placeholder = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [vocab_size, embedding_dim])\nembedding_init = W.assign(embedding_placeholder)\n\nHere W is first built as Variables, but initialized by constant zeros. Be careful with the shape: [vocab_size, embedding_dim], where we can know after loading the model. If trainable is set to be False, it would not be updated during training. Change to True for a trainable setup. Then an embedding_placeholder is set up to receive the real values (fed from the feed_dict in, and at last W is assigned.\n\nAfter creating a session and initialize global variables, run the embedding_init operation by feeding in the 2-D array embedding., feed_dict={embedding_placeholder: embedding})\n\n\nSuppose you have raw documents, the first thing you need to do is to build a vocabulary, which will map each word into an id. TensorFlow process the following code to lookup embeddings:\n\ntf.nn.embedding_lookup(W, input_x)\n\nwhere W is the huge embedding matrix, input_x is a tensor with ids. In another word, it will lookup embeddings by given Ids.\n\nSo we would choose the pre-trained model when we build the vocabulary: word-id maps.\n\nfrom tensorflow.contrib import learn\n#init vocab processor\nvocab_processor = learn.preprocessing.VocabularyProcessor(max_document_length)\n#fit the vocab from glove\npretrain =\n#transform inputs\nx = np.array(list(vocab_processor.transform(your_raw_input)))\n\nFirst init the vocab processor by passing in a max_document_length, in default, shorter sentences would be padded by zeros. Then we fit the processor by the vocab list to build the word-id maps. Finally, use the processor to transform from real raw documents.\n\nNow you are ready to train your own network with pre-trained word vectors!\n\nPosted in Algorithm, Theory\n\nDeep Learning 14 : Optimization, an Overview\n\nAs a cardinal part of deep learning or machine learning, optimization has long been a mathematical problem for researchers. Why we need optimization? Remember you have a loss function for linear regression, and then you would need to find the optimum of the function to minimize the square error, for example. You might also very familiar about gradient descent, especially when you start learning neural networks. In this blog, we will cover some method in optimization, and in what conditions should we apply them.\n\nWe could split the optimization problem into two groups: constraint and unconstraint. Unconstraint means given a function, we try to minimize or maximize it without any other conditions. Constraint means we would fit some conditions while optimizing a function.\n\nUnconstraint Optimization\n\nDefinition: \\min_{x\\in R^n}{f(x)}, where x^* is the optimum.\nThere are some stochastic and iterative methods for this kind of unconstraint problem. For example, Gradient Descent, Newton Method and Quasi Newton Method (an optimized Newton Method). Compared with GD, the other two would converge faster. In the graph, we could notice that point: the red arrow denotes GD and the green is Newton Method.\n\n\nThe original “Newton Method” (also known as the Newton–Raphson method) is trying to find the roots of a function, f(x)=0. It still needs some iterations. If you look at the fantastic gif below, which I borrowed from wiki, you would have a quick point of view. So the job is to find the x, where we want f(x)=0. First, we select a point randomly x1, and get f(x1), then we get the tangent at that point (x1,f(x1)). The next point to choose is exactly the x where the tangent and x-axis has the intersection, so x_{2}=x_{1}-{\\frac {f(x_{1})}{f'(x_{1})}}. Then we do it many times until a sufficiently accurate value is reached.\n\n\nNow you understand that Newton Method is perfect for solving something like f(x)=0 problem. Then how it is going to help the optimization. You need some math knowledge then. If the function f is a twice-differentiable function f, and you want to find the max or min of it. Then the problem is to find the roots of the derivative f’ (solutions to f ‘(x)=0), also known as the stationary points of f.\n\nConstraint Optimization: Equality Optimization\n\nDefinition: \\min{f(x, y)}, subject to g(x,y)=c.\nIn the equality optimization problem, the equality constraints could be more than one. Here we would talk about one constraint for convenience. The method is called Lagrange Multiplier. When you have constraints, a natural way is try to eliminate them. So it goes this way. We brings in a new variable \\lambda and create a Lagrange function:\n\n\nThen what we need to do is to calculate the following equations:\n\n\nWhen we successfully get the right \\lambda, remember it can not be zero, we could bring it into the Lagrange function. When the Lagrange function has the optimum, the f(x,y) has, too. Because you have g(x,y)-c is always 0.\n\nConstraint Optimization: Inequality Optimization\n\n\nFollowing the same idea, the Lagrange Multiplier could be extended. So a Generalized Lagrange function is written in this way:\n\n\nSo all \\alpha and \\beta are Lagrange multipliers and the \\alpha >=0.\n\n\nPosted in Algorithm, Deep Learning, Theory\n\nDeep Learning 13: Understanding Generative Adversarial Network\n\nProposed in 2014, the interesting Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) has now many variants. You might not surprised that the relevant papers are more like statistics research. When a model was proposed, the evaluations would be based on some fundamental probability distributions, where generalized applications start. Continue reading “Deep Learning 13: Understanding Generative Adversarial Network”\n\nPosted in Machine Learning, Statitics, Theory\n\nIs your model good enough? Evaluation metrics in Classification and Regression\n\nWas working on my research with sklearn, but realized that choosing the right evaluation metrics was always a problem to me. If someone asks me ,”does your model performs well?” The first thing in my mind is “accuracy”. Besides the accuracy, there are a lot, depending on your own problem. Continue reading “Is your model good enough? Evaluation metrics in Classification and Regression”\n\nPosted in Algorithm, Theory\n\nTwo sample problem(2): kernel function, feature space and reproducing kernel map\n\nFind Two sample problem (1) here.\n\nWe will take a look at RHKS (Reproducing Hilbert Kernel Space ) in this post. You might think of it a very statistical term but it is amazing because of various applications. You will need to refresh your mind for some linear algebra computations. We start with some basic terms and definitions. Continue reading “Two sample problem(2): kernel function, feature space and reproducing kernel map”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9646657109260559}
+{"content": "Boxer gym_everett225_DepositPhotos.jpg\n\nI am fully responsible for my current situation in life. Sure, there's luck and chance and good fortune but overall I am responsible for my habits, my outlook, my friendships, my life, my rock hard abs, those are all my responsibility. Do I like what I see? What I am? If not, I have the power to change. To create better habits. To be a better person. To do more crunches. To mold this belly. There's going to be so much serious molding going on.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991123080253601}
+{"content": "The Santa Cruz porphyry Cu-(Mo) system near Casa Grande, Arizona, includes the Sacaton mine deposits and at least five other concealed, mineralized fault blocks with an estimated minimum resource of 1.5 Gt @ 0.6% Cu. The Late Cretaceous-Paleocene system has been dismembered and rotated by Tertiary extension, partially eroded, and covered by Tertiary-Quaternary basin-fill deposits. The mine and mineralized fault blocks, which form an 11 km (~7 miles) by 1.6 km (~1 mile) NE-SW–trending alignment, represent either pieces of one large deposit, several deposits, or pieces of several deposits. The southwestern part of the known system is penetrated by three or more diatremes that consist of heterolithic breccia pipes with basalt and clastic matrices, and subannular tuff ring and maar-fill sedimentary deposits associated with vents. The tephra and maar-fill deposits, which are covered by ~485 to 910 m (~1,600–3,000 ft) of basin fill, lie on a mid-Tertiary erosion surface of Middle Proterozoic granite and Late Cretaceous porphyry, which compose most xenoliths in pipes and are the host rocks of the system. Some igneous xenoliths in the pipes contain bornite-chalcopyrite-covellite assemblages with hypogene grades >1 wt % Cu, 0.01 ounces per ton (oz/t) Au, 0.5 oz/t Ag, and small amounts of Mo (<0.01 wt %). These xenoliths were derived from mineralized rocks that have not been encountered in drill holes, and attest to additional, possibly higher-grade deposits within or subjacent to the known system.\n\nThe geometry, stratigraphy, and temporal relationships of pipes and tephras, interpreted from drill hole spacing and intercepts, multigenerational breccias and matrices, reequilibrated and partially decomposed sulfide-oxide mineral assemblages, melted xenoliths, and breccia matrix compositions show that the diatremes formed in repeated stages. Initial pulses of basalt magma fractured granite, porphyry, and other crustal rocks during intrusion, transported multi-sized fragments of these rocks upward, and partially melted small fragments. Rapid decompression of magma induced catastrophic devolatilization that ruptured overlying rocks to the surface, and generated fragment-volatile suspensions that abraded conduits into near-vertical cylindrical structures. Fragments entrained in suspensions were milled and sorted, and ejected as basal surge, pyroclastic deposits, and airfall tephra that built tuff rings around vents and filled vent depressions. Comminuted m- to mm-sized fragments of wall rocks in magma and suspensions that remained in conduits solidified as heterolithic breccias. Subsequent pulses of basalt magma ascended through the same conduits, brecciated older heterolithic breccias, devolatilized, and quenched, leaving two or more generations of nested and mingled heterolithic breccias and internal zones of fluidized fragments. Tephra and maar-fill deposits from later eruptions are composed of more hydrous and oxidized minerals than earlier tephras, reflecting a higher proportion of water in transport fluid which, based on fluid inclusion populations in mineralized xenoliths, was saline water and CO2. The large vertical extent (~600 m; ~2,000 ft) of basalt matrix in pipes, near-paleosurface matrix vesiculation, and plastically deformed basalt lapilli indicates that diatreme eruptions were predominantly phreatic.\n\nDiatreme xenoliths represent crustal stratigraphy and, as in the Santa Cruz system, provide evidence of concealed mineral resources that can guide exploration drilling through cover. Vectors to the source of bornite-dominant xenoliths containing >1% Cu and significant Au and Ag could be determined by refinement of breccia pipe geometries, by reassembly of mineralized fault blocks using modal, chemical, and temporal characteristics of hydrothermal mineral assemblages and fluid inclusions, and by paleodrainage analysis.\n\nYou do not currently have access to this article.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6655475497245789}
+{"content": "How To Protect Yourself From Cyber Attacks?\n\nIt is necessary for you to take cyber security seriously because it can leave you in trouble without even getting noticed. All around the world, businesses and technology experts have been busy in talking about it because it is such an issue which is troubling thousands of organizations. In short, it is the matter to be taken so much seriously regardless if you are a small, medium-sized or a huge organization.\n\nBank robbery, data compromising and hacking all these things are actually the main issues. And cyber-attacks are the reasons why these all are happening around the world on daily basis. To keep your firm safe from these attacks, the London SOC could be the right choice. Following are some of the main cyber-threats of the present era.\n\n\nThe hacking is something we all are well aware about, even the small children knows what it is. This cyber-attack penalizes the business completely. It can bring financial loss, as well as data corruption and stealing.\n\n\nThese are small hazardous files that arrive with the data transferred from an unknown online store, USB or other data traveler. It slowly starts corrupting all the data to leave you with nothing.\n\n\nThe mostly enter your network from online sources. They also infect your data by either changing their format or locking them with some kind of unknown malicious security keys.\n\nHow to avoid Cyber Attacks?\n\nThe best way to avoid the cyber-attacks is via regular Security Threat and Risk Assessment. In the market there are a lot of 3rd party network information security consultant and service providers. Apart from that, following are some of the precautions which could also save us from these devastating cyber-attacks.\n\nProviding Personal Information:\n\nWhen you are providing the personal information or credentials to someone, make sure you don’t provide it in the form of text message or on email.\n\nKeep the Anti viruses Updated:\n\nYou must keep all your anti viruses updated all the time. Never ever turn off the updates, otherwise it is going to be a problem for you when some new malware will attack.\n\nKeep Strong Passwords:\n\nIt is highly recommended to keep your passwords really strong. Add special characters and those words that are actually really hard to guess.\n\n\nSpy Through An iPhone\n\nThe stunning features of an iPhone device attract customers from all over the world. Friends boast the faster processing speeds, the seamless functionality and the dynamic layout of applications of an iPhone device in the face of an Android mobile user. It could come to a surprise to these avid Apple product users and fans that loopholes in the operating system of the iPhone devices enable certain applications to spy on its users.\n\nThe irony of the matter is that the user when spied on is never prompted or indicated in any way. The application can turn on the camera by itself without letting the user know that it is accessing the phone’s camera and take photos, videos and much more. Managed Security Services Dubai and Sharjah are scrambling to provide protection to their high-value customers from this new threat.\n\nThis alarming new threat to iPhone users was only recently discovered by a security expert named Felix Krause, last week on Wednesday. Felix is also an entrepreneur and an ethical hacker. On his website, he proved to the world by making an iOS application that could without any hint take photographs of the phone user.\n\nThe iPhone has been known for the security and privacy it ensures for its users. To protect the iPhone user, an application has to be scrutinized by Apple to be made available on the Apple Store. Regrettably, the application that Krause constructed fulfilled all standards Apple enforces on every application it makes available for download on its Apple Store. Yet, Krause’s application could infringe a user’s privacy. However, cloud security services protect the user’s information that has already left the iPhone and stored in a protected server.\n\nKrause explained that the exploitation of this loophole is not because of a weakness of software designs or Apple’s own security benchmarks, but in the blanket approve all applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook require to use the phone’s camera.\n\nA malicious application can exploit this expansive approval to access the camera of the phone and;\n\n  • Access both the front and back of the phone’s camera\n  • Make a video of the user anytime while the application is running in the background\n  • Take pictures and video without the approval or prompting the user\n  • Live stream a video from the iPhone of the unsuspecting user\n  • Run real-time face recognition software to recognize and detect the user and the people sharing the device or an in the proximity of the camera\n  • Based on the images collected the application can reveal the location of the user\n  • Build a 3D image of the user’s face\n  • Cause a great deal of embarrassment to the user (let your imagination run wild – seriously)\n\nKrause suggested that Apple should give only temporary approval to an application to access its cameras and microphones, and revoke that approval after a specific time.\n\nHe also suggested that until considerable measures are taken users should cover their cameras with sticky tapes like Facebook founder Mark Zukkerberg and Former CIA director James Commey.\n\nCloud Security Services! Real Need Of The Present Era\n\nEveryone around the world is looking for the better and improved security system these days. The reason is the risk of the threats and vulnerabilities which have been penalizing hundreds of businesses around the world. So everyone linked up with internet somehow most often looks around for a better and well managed security solutions.\n\nIn the past we have heard about huge security attacks that have penalized and brought businesses to the ground in no time. That’s why, it is common practice these days for multinational firms, either they establish their own security system or hire the third party cloud security services. Here are some of the reasons why cloud based security services are the real need of the present era.\n\nStreamlined and Centralized Tools\n\nYou have the access of streamlined and centralized tools to model the security stuff as per your likings. You can make use of them to refine and enforce your own policies. Also, you have the access to design, implementation and other control tools make use of them.\n\nMulti-Level Security:\n\nThere are different 7 layers of a network. What a cloud based security services does is, it provides you the privilege of adding and implementing security on any of these 7 security levels. Also the monitoring intensity of the security could be controlled accordingly.\n\nReal Time Updates:\n\nIt also provides you the facility of real time updates. Whatever activity is happening around in your network is notified to you immediately. Whenever there is a threat alert, it is generated right away on the real time. So appropriate actions could be taken to ensure your business network’s security.\n\nDynamic Resizing:\n\nThe bandwidth, memory and storage needs of the network keeps on changing with the passage of the time. The dynamic resizing feature allows you to resize your plan according to your initial requirements.\n\nFull-time Managed Services:\n\nThey are the full-time managed security services which are which are better for the improved network security level. You can hire the services of the managed security services Dubai to secure your business network with a better cloud based security services to remain safe from the devastating attacks of the modern day threats and vulnerabilities. They can be severely harmful for you to infect you, in no time. That’s why, the managed security services have become the real need for us.\n\nWays For Cyber-Security Risk Assessment You Must Know\n\nCertain organizations face security powerlessness due to availability of partial resources. In such situation, security personals often use the best practices implemented by other organizations to overcome the limitations. However, such an approach is not a helpful strategy to better protection of organizational data assets.\n\nFollowing interior cyber-security risk valuation is a best practice that many organizations adopt these days. Organizations mainly follow certain steps for better security threat and risk assessment. In this regard, the following five-step plan can better guide to lay down the foundation for better protection.\n\nInformation Assets Identification:\n\nOrganizations mainly handle certain types of information including SSN, payment card information and employee details. A better approach is to identify the most crucial assets by making a priority list for all of those that are important to you.\n\nLocate Information Assets:\n\nThe identified list of assets, needs further refinement. All of them must be present inside the organization. So their locality needs to be identified that where an individual asset exist. They must be present either in laptops, removable media or file servers and databases.\n\nClassification Of Information Assets:\n\nClassification of these assets involves proper rating so that their importance stays known to all. A better approach is to use a scale strategy from 1-5 based on certain categories. This will enable organizations to rank information assets centred to effectiveness of damage if they are disclosed or accessed in an unauthorized way.\n\nPublic Information:\n\nPublic information is not usually protected enough from public access. They normally hold contact details, information regarding marketing campaigns and financial reports.\n\nInternal But Non-Secret:\n\nCertain information is although internal but they are not enough confidential. In this regard, phone lists and certain office policies are categorized as internal but non-secret information.\n\nSensitive Internal Information:\n\nNot every type of information that an organization maintains must be accessible to all. This includes business related plans, strategic creativity and non-disclosure contracts.\n\nTagged Internal Information:\n\nCertain information like compensation related evidences and dismissal strategies must be classified as tagged internal information.\n\nRegulated Information:\n\nRegulated information is mainly the general information about users. They are the classified facts regarding the organization or people within it.\n\nConduct A Threat Modelling Exercise:\n\nMicrosoft’s STRIDE is a method that is commonly used for rating threats that might face to information assets. Microsoft STRIDE is commonly used by managed security services UK to ensure that all of the highest threats have been covered so that enhanced must be incorporated.\n\nFinalize Data And Start Planning:\n\nNow find out the product by multiplying cells within the worksheets by the ordered rating performed in the third step known as classification of information assets. This will give you a detailed ranking of possible threats to the business. Such a reasonable security plan will undertake the risks that have been identified with the maximum value or number.\n\nCyber Security Needs To Be Implemented With Absolute Maturity\n\n\nThe revelation about the state of network security always generates perplexing information. The security of network is the area of prime focus for business of any size and scope. Despite all the efforts network security is breached regularly. What vulnerabilities need to be addressed? This million dollar question seems to pose more complexity than simplicity. How many days are required to recover from the vulnerability?\n\nHow to build network security philosophy?\n\nIt is reported that 85% of the websites globally are posed with numerous types of serious threats. Your website could be one of them. Information leakage can contribute to serious breach. How well are you prepared? information security Dubai can deliver industry specific solutions tailored to meet the security objective in its entirety.\n\nHow frequent is inspection for security of network? Is it worth investing in cyber security? The cost of ignorance only comes to haunt after a breach has been made by hackers. The system must qualify to the quality parameters.\n\nThe adoption of latest trends is much faster than anticipated by experts. It is anticipated that 72% of websites will overhaul their security parameters to address the growing capability of hackers in infiltrating the network. It could also be an inside job. Whatever the case may be cyber security UK can assist the organization to prepare for diverse scenario of security check and balance.\n\nSecurity breach is not necessarily due to only malicious activity. Human error cannot be out ruled. It is estimated that 57% of the breaches actually transpired due to human negligence. Enterprise level acknowledgment of how to maintain the quality of the security protocol is important. Experts can train and validate the actions of people with the automated devices.\n\nThe breaches that impact the millions of users eventually decrease the value of the business. Many realities may surprise the management. Specialists can determine how different actions need coordination and better blending of skills in fighting any type of infiltration.\n\n\nThere is never shortage of scare in the online world. Even a minimal loophole can pave way for bigger loss. The facts are for every business to closely understand but how many show real concern for better engagement. Every malware is idiosyncratic in nature and has the capacity to access the network information and distribute it for malicious outcome. Every business has to avoid it.\n\nHow Much Concern Do You Show For Information Security Issues?\n\nAlmost all of our emotional experience rests on different extreme. Either we love it or we simply hate the experience. The products and services that we consume in different contexts offer new experiences. The security of the information that is administered across the network is of prime importance.\n\nHow can sanity be restored?\n\nIn the midst of numerous malware and the capacity of the hackers to generate new infiltration methods the protection of data is becoming more complex. No doubt it takes everything to secure the information across the network; a dedicated and rational model can be constructed to defy any potential attack.\n\nInformation security Dubai can advise on building something equally corresponding security mechanism that has the capacity to confront any type of security challenge.\n\nDon’t settle for average outcomes?\n\nThis is only realizable when the administrators engage with the right methodology to secure the information. At times the management overlook an aspect that become the potential area of infiltration. This should be avoided. As IoT is progressing exponentially the network security require ‘much’ more of attached mechanisms to regularly update the features of the security mechanism.\n\nAs the business develops so does the matters related to security:\n\nIs it possible to attain supremacy in securing the parameters of the network? Yes, you can become the most resolute and shun away any type of security threat. But this is a committed endeavor that would requisite focused approach and attentiveness to show concentration in all areas of security management. All the involved parties must share the information regularly to rate their progress and add new ideas to bolster security.\n\nHave the inconsistencies been addressed?\n\nAny inconsistency that is experienced in securing the network can be quite disturbing. What if the data is compromised? These are the business realities that must be addressed and safety of the information and security of the customer’s information is vital area of management.\n\nCyber security UK can embark on the journey with you to consistently generate a constructive experience in relation to saving the blushes of the business reputation.\n\nIt is marginal:\n\nSometimes you don’t have to make a big mistake to pay the price. Little bit of inattention or distraction can be costly. The experts can be involved to provide professional assistance consistently to evaluate the evolving nature of the issue.\n\nTo what extent have you been able to demonstrate the level of security that is required for the network? The endeavor to secure information is a tough ask, and you know that.\n\n\nHow Challenging Is The Security Of Your Network\n\n\nThe operation centre serves as a hub that monitors all the activities. The foremost advantage of this hub is to streamline the operations and improve on the capabilities of each input. The design and infrastructure required to manage diverse operational capacities is the hallmark of businesses having presence on a global level.\n\nNetwork security is a foremost challenge:\n\nThe management of the service is reliant on how the connectivity remains function across different diverse locations. This is a big ask and requisite capabilities that can allow the business on focusing on their core competencies thus saving time and effort. A highly refined and customized service in relation to numerous network security activities can be accumulated through UK SOC.\n\nThe management of tireless security service has now become ever so important after several high profile cases of network infiltration has surfaced up. Many network get infiltrated due to lack of effective compliant procedures.\n\nHow secure is your network?\n\nThe dependability of the enacted security framework becomes quintessential since an exemplary model is needed to serve the clients in diverse industries. Merely because the network did not get infiltrated does not mean that it can never be. Many businesses pay the price for complacency.\n\nThe scalability of the operations matter and thought provoking understanding is a primary feature of the expert reflection of the loopholes that may get infiltrated by hackers.\n\nFor better advice and excellent evaluation on the reliability and quality of the network security consulting KSA can deliver the vision to arrange the security parameters in the right context.\n\nThe essence of constructive outcome is focus. In due course as the digital integration is becoming more common the need for network security will become a primary source of fear for the administrators. 24X7 monitoring of the devices, health check of different access points and altering the network specification in reference is necessary.\n\n\nThe dependability of the network is based on how client offer feedback to the security service provider. Any decision should be made taking into consideration the strategic requirements of the network security. The brutal realities of the online medium and the comprehensive assessment of the network security\n\nIt is time to address how secure is your network.  A dedicated system can deliver the fundamental needs of the system and how resolutely the future needs of the diverse groups can be established.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6783785223960876}
+{"content": "Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyTagged Content List\n\nAutomation Technologies\n\nAutomatic mechanical or digital operation\n\nShowing 44 results for Automation RSS\nDuring the 1854 cholera epidemic in London, Dr. John Snow plotted cholera deaths on a map, and in the corner of a particularly hard-hit quadrangle of buildings was a water pump. Snow's maps, a 19th-century version of big data, suggested an association between cholera and the pump, but the germ theory of disease had not yet been invented and it took human ingenuity to realize that the pump was a causal mechanism of disease transmission.\n| AI | Automation | Data |\nAt the break of dawn on March 13, 2004, 15 vehicles left a starting gate in the desert outside of Barstow, Calif., to make history in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a first-of-its-kind race to foster the development of self-driving ground vehicles. The immediate goal: autonomously navigate a 142-mile course that ran across the desert to Primm, Nev. The longer-term aim was to accelerate development of the technological foundations for autonomous vehicles that could ultimately substitute for men and women in hazardous military operations, such as supply convoys.\nComputer security experts from academia, industry and the larger security community have organized themselves into more than 30 teams to compete in DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge—a first-of-its-kind tournament designed to speed the development of automated security systems able to defend against cyberattacks as fast as they are launched. DARPA also announced today that it has reached an agreement to hold the 2016 Cyber Grand Challenge final competition in conjunction with DEF CON, one of the largest computer security conferences in the world.\nUnderstanding local languages is essential for effective situational awareness in military operations, and particularly in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts that require immediate and close coordination with local communities. With more than 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, however, the U.S. military frequently encounters languages for which translators are rare and no automated translation capabilities exist. DARPA’s Low Resource Languages for Emergent Incidents (LORELEI) program aims to change this state of affairs by providing real-time essential information in any language to support emergent missions such as humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, peacekeeping and infectious disease response. The program recently awarded Phase 1 contracts to 13 organizations.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.994838535785675}
+{"content": "\n\nHMRC internal manual\n\nExcise Assessments Interim Guidance\n\nTime limits for other excise assessments: exceptions to the normal four and twenty year time limits\n\nTime limits for assessments made under Finance Act 1997 Schedule 5 paragraph 14 to recover excess repayments.\n\nAssessments made to recover excess repayments by HMRC are not caught by any ‘capping’ provisions such as the four-year rule that attaches to most excise assessments. Instead, you have two years from receipt of sufficient evidence of facts in which to make your assessment. Finance Act 1997 Schedule 5 paragraph 16 refers.\n\nThe two years will run from the date you have quantified the erroneous payment and are in a position to make your assessment to best judgement. This two-year rule contrasts with the one year evidence of facts rule for most other assessments.\n\nTherefore, where a claim is paid and it turns out that the facts upon which the claim was paid were wrong, you have two years from the date on which those new facts came to HMRC’s knowledge to make an assessment to recover it. If you are making an assessment under this time limit, it does not matter how long ago the payment was made.\n\nPlease note that the word ‘facts’ is given its natural meaning, regardless of context, and so does not include the legal effect of either a statute or a judicial decision. Consequently we cannot rely on a Courts decision as evidence of facts for the purpose of the Schedule 5 paragraph 16(1) time limit.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6167169809341431}
+{"content": "1 February 1997\n\nSpecialist books : Collected works\n\nWHAT do Jewish people think about the notion that Jews have superior\nintelligence? There is no question about the success of Jews in science,\nacademia and the arts, and Sander Gilman found that some Jewish academics, among\nothers, support the view that Jews are more intelligent than the rest of\nhumanity. One proudly gave a reason. It was, he said, the result of careful\nbreeding because “for at least 700 to 900 years, smart Jewish young men got the\nbest brides, [and] their genes were then interbred back into society”.\n\nSuch views are as racist as those expounded by Richard Herrnstein and Charles\nMurray in The Bell Curve (Free Press, 1994) where they argued that\nAfrican-Americans were at the bottom of the social ladder because they were\ngenetically inferior and not because of the effects of racism.\n\nSmart Jews (University of Nebraska Press, $35, ISBN 0 8032\n2158 4) is Gilman’s welcome addition to one of the most controversial theories\nof our day: the linking of race and intelligence. Although Gilman deals with the\nidea that the Jews possess “superior intelligence”, he points out the underlying\nnegativity of this concept and its stereotypical nature.\n\nGilman does not adopt this genetic standpoint, but looks at other reasons for\nthe many achievements of Jewish people in the West. He suggests that this is a\nresult of the “urban and commercial background of many Jewish immigrants of the\nlate 19th and 20th centuries”, but concludes that Jews are no different from\nanyone else.\n\n\nWhile Gilman’s book deals with race and intelligence, Lawrence Hirschfield’s\nRace in the Making (MIT Press, £29.50/$35, ISBN 0 262\n08247 0) is concerned mainly with psychological and social theories of why some\npeople think of others primarily in terms of their race—a phenomenon he\ndubs racial thinking. The book’s main argument is that people begin thinking in\nthis way not after observing people’s physical differences, but as the result of\na natural cognitive process. Hirschfield’s view challenges the theory of race as\nsocial construct.\n\nGenetic theories that explain human behaviour are difficult to accept because\nthey have no scientific basis, and have also been used to justify social\ninjustices. The real question is, which is most important in shaping and\nmaintaining racial thinking—the social or the psychological? Hirschfield\nargues that psychology is more important.\n\nKenan Malik’s The Meaning of Race (Macmillan, £12.99, ISBN 0\n333 62858 6) is different, because while it deals with racial ideologies, it\nalso looks at the changing nature of race and race relations in Western\ncountries. Malik believes that the liberal ideas of equality, pluralism and\nmutual tolerance which were so widespread in Western societies after the Second\nWorld War were a reaction to Nazism and not the result of a genuine belief in\nracial equality.\n\nRace has returned recently to the political agenda because of the collapse of\ncommunism, the end of the Cold War, recession and the disintegration of the\nThird World. These events, Malik believes, have left a political vacuum in the\nWest, into which the age-old bugbear of “the other” has leapt.\n\nThe Meaning of Race examines the notions of cultural diversity and\npluralism and sees them as new terms that simply enforce the notion of black\ninferiority while maintaining racial barriers. Malik observes that the\nantiracist movement of the 1960s and 1970s moved away from the demand for\nequality to the idea of separatism and the right to be different. This, he says,\nis caused through disillusionment with the continuing state of inequality.\nMalik’s answer to inequality is that we transcend “race” while recognising\ndifference and embodying a humanist approach.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9026728272438049}
+{"content": "Hadi Ziaoddini was born in JorAbad district, Sanandaj, Iran, in 1956. His family is fond of poetry and theosophy. His father was a pious and virtuous man. He taught his children virtuous life and behavior. His mother was sympathetic to children’s manner and education in quite mercy and compassion. He started painting, before elementary school. It was after elementary school that, he took the first steps in sculpture .He learnt them both simultaneously, working hard with lots of pain and without any academic education\nHe entered Fine Arts faculty, Tehran university in 1977.His first noble and sympathetic professor, Hanibal Alkhas made him acquainted with the values of drawing. He taught him that passing the way of art is not possible but in working hard, hard, and hard. Maybe this is why he has been among the most studious painters and drawers of his land up to now for seventeen years, he was learning and educating simultaneously. It is his honor that he established the academic foundations of drawing, painting and sculpture in Kurdistan", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6860796213150024}
+{"content": "Additional images\n\nMissing body!\n\nAmaltheus is an extraordinary ammonite, being extremely flat and discus-like. This example has had the shell removed to reveal the complex suture lines underneath. You can see the chambers between them which are filled with calcite crystal and, towards the end, mud. The ammonite is far from complete; the body chamber (the long chamber that takes up over half of the outer whorl) is completely missing – we know this because there are suture lines right to the end of the fossil. Check out other examples of Amaltheus to see just how different this specimen is. \n\nFind out more about ammonites on the molluscs pages.\n\nCommon name\n\n\nScientific name\n\n\n\nMolluscs > Cephalopods\n\n\nMiddle Lias, margaritatus stone band\n\nTime period\n\nLower Jurassic\n\n\n180 million years\n\nWhere found\n\nThorncombe Beacon\n\nFound by\n\nChris Moore\n\n\nBridport Museum\n\nAccession number\n\nBRPMG 10820", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7811186909675598}
+{"content": "Function tables\n\nTwo function tables were pre-calculated. A sine and a cosine table, each with 512 evaluation points, were generated in C and ported over to 16-bit fixed point notations, and then actuated in M4K blocks. While a cosine table was explicitly not required, one was generated in order to fix a bug that presented itself when a sine table was used even though the argument was offset by $ \\pi/2$ .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998685896396637}
+{"content": "State Records Committee Appeal Decision 2017-41\n\n\nSTEVEN ONYSKO, Petitioner, v.\n\n\n\nCase No. 17-41\n\nBy this appeal, Petitioner, Steven Onysko, seeks access to records held by Respondent, Utah Department of Human Resource Management.\n\n\nThis matter came before the State Records Committee (“Committee”) on October 12, 2017.\n\nA motion was made by a Committee member at that hearing to review the disputed records in camera. After a determination was made that the volume of records would make it difficult for the Committee to review the records during the hearing, the Committee voted unanimously to continue the hearing to a later date. On November 9, 2017, the Committee, after having reviewed the materials in camera, now issues the following Decision and Order.\n\n\n1. The Government Records Access and Management Act (“GRAMA”) specifies that “all records are public unless otherwise expressly provided by statute.” Utah Code § 63G-2-201(2). GRAMA excludes “a temporary draft or similar material prepared for the originator's personal use or prepared by the originator for the personal use of an individual for whom the originator is working” from being considered a “record” subject to disclosure under GRAMA. Utah Code § 63G-2-103(22)(b)(ii). Additionally, records that are private, controlled, or protected under §§ 63G-2-302, -303, -304, or 305, are not public records under GRAMA. Utah Code § 63G-2-201(3)(a).\n\n2. Records created or maintained for civil or administrative enforcement purposes, or for discipline purposes, are protected records if properly classified by the governmental entity and release of the records: (1) Reasonably could be expected to interfere with investigations undertaken for enforcement or discipline; (2) Reasonably could be expected to interfere with audits, disciplinary, or enforcement proceedings; or (3) Reasonably could be expected to disclose the identity of a source who is not generally known outside of government and, in the case of a record compiled in the course of an investigation, disclose information furnished by a source not generally known outside of government if disclosure would compromise the source. See, Utah Code §§ 63G-2-305(10)(a), -305(10)(b) and -305(10)(d)\n\n3. After having considered the written and oral arguments by the parties, and having reviewed the subject records in camera, the Committee finds that the records were non-records pursuant to Utah Code §§ 63G-2-103(22)(b)(ii), or properly classified as protected records pursuant to Utah Code §§ 63G-2-305(10)(a), -305(10)(b) and/or -305(10)(d).\n\n\nTHEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED THAT the appeal of Petitioner, Steven Onysko, is DENIED.\n\n\n\n\n\nEntered this 21st day of November 2017.\n\n\nDAVID FLEMING, Chairperson\nState Records Committee\n\n\nPage Last Updated November 21, 2017 .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.980963945388794}
+{"content": "Law Assignment Help\n\nIf you desire to save time and wants to get over from the trouble of searching people for you law assignment, you can switch to\n\nThe proficient team of teachers holding master’s degree in law are linked to this assignment help site. They have majored in this field and possess years of teaching experience to assist students of undergraduate level. So, seeking the help of teachers here will only benefit you with good grade and coherent knowledge.\n\nHow tough are the topics in Law?\n\nLaw Assignment HelpAccording to Justin Austin, law is defined as “A body of rules, fixed and enforced by a sovereign political authority.” Likewise, there are number of statements that defines this field of academic curriculum. Overall, it is a set of rules that is engraved in judiciary system of every nation, in order to maintain peace, harmony and progress in the society and the country.\n\nLaw is a theoretical subject that have number of topics and sub-topics. Every topic in law is elaborated with words and sentences that requires use of dictionary and professional guidance. Some of the subjects included in this field are:\n\nCriminal law: Criminal is the person who commits crime or he does the work that is not permitted according to the judiciary system of the country. Hence, the law that applies to criminal act is sectioned under criminal law. This subject covers all the laws that are prevalent for different crimes.\n\nLegal research: This subjects covers those area that require research on legal matters or need to check the legal precedent. In other words; it is the process of researching on the information that is required to make decisions that ought to be legally taken.\n\nObligations and contracts: The obligations that arise due to certain contract between two parties are covered in this section of law.\n\nConstitutional law: This subject provides information on the law framed and followed by particular nation or the country.\n\nInternational human right: This sections deals with the rights that are provided to international citizens which in turns does not violate human rights of that country.\n\nChildren’s right law: Children of any nation are given certain rights. Therefore, this portion of children right law focuses on the rights that are provided to children of certain age group.\n\nThese are only the few points that highlights part of some subjects included in the field of law along with the brief idea on the section they cover. Law students need to remember every sections and points that are assigned to them. They need to focus on every single material and instruction that is engraved in the text-book.\n\nMost importantly, to become perfect in this field they need to struggle in memorizing portion of their syllabus that includes every sections, rules, amendments etc. So, undoubtedly students pursuing law have to cover large area of this subject to master in this field.\n\nAre you still worried for law assignment help?\n\nIf law students are to squeeze their brain only for remembering things and memorizing in-depth portion of their syllabus, their interest would surely boost up their confidence. But the situation becomes problematic and intolerable when assignments in law are given by every teachers of different subjects. The lengthy assignment requires proper research and deep investigation. But there is always a way out for any problem. We have solutions to your problems on law assignments.\n\nAre your still wondering who will provide you law assignment help? Be relaxed and stay calm, our team of experts will handle your law assignment on any given topic. Yes, we have a commendable team holding masters and J.D. degrees in law, so they will write your assignment on any topic of law.\n\nLaw assignment help is generally anticipated by most of the students because they desire to utilize their time in memorizing all the engraved information in book of law. So, if you are also the one looking for law assignment help, give a call to our expert. You can also leave a message to get further information on law assignment help. Our law assignment help service will benefit you in several ways thus reducing your academic work load.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.836546003818512}
+{"content": "Mental Preparation for Champions with Brian Alexander\n\nBrian AlexanderWith eight years experience as an Olympic level athlete paired with a Master's degree in sport psychology from John F. Kennedy University and vocational training in business leadership development, Brian Alexander has partnered with athletes and performers of all ages and levels!\n\n\"My passion is to empower others to succeed in life, athletics, performance, and daily activities. With a successful past in the athletic and professional arena, I have found some of my signature strengths to be connecting with people, performing under pressure, and adapting in the moment by being open-minded. I approach each moment with optimism and each person with a genuine, non-judgmental, empathetic listening ear. It is important to identify learning opportunities and develop a plan to grow as you move through your career. My personal mission statement is to be a genuine and honest leader who collaborates with and learns from others in order to find a mutual personal level of excellence physically, mentally, and spiritually.\"\n\nKAP7 has partnered with Brian to bring you mental tips to give you the competitive edge.\n\nWith the Men's Water Polo NCAA Championship Tournament right around the corner, Brian's first topic is:\n\nMental Preparation for Champions\n\nThis weekend, you’ll have the opportunity to watch the top collegiate water polo teams go head to head in the pool at the NCAA championships. These athletes have sacrificed and dedicated more than you will see this weekend to the game and it didn’t start this week, last week, or even this season. It started when they decided they wanted to be a champion. Champions rise to the occasion in every moment of every opportunity they have in and out of the pool. The way you mentally prepare and rise to the occasion is a culmination of everything you do throughout your career. In order to become a champion, you need to live and prepare as if you already are a champion.\n\nHere are some mental skills you can immediately put or help others put into practice that will help you prepare to be a champion:\n\n1. Visualize every shot, every pass, and every defense the way you would ideally like to execute them again and again so that when you get in the game you will feel like you have already played your best game. The mind doesn’t know the difference between imagination and actual physical play. Think of how real a vivid dream feels after you wake up. You feel like you actually lived it. Once you are in the game it will be a matter of trusting your body to do all the work while playing one play at a time. Champions use visualization best when they see themselves executing successfully rather than dwelling on mistakes. Imagine yourself making every shot rather than hitting the post. See yourself in your mind’s eye winning every sprint and making every pass with great precision.\n\n2. Reframe nerves and thoughts to your advantage because the reality is they have been a part of everything you have ever done. Use your awareness of how you think and feel to redirect them toward what you want to do rather than what might happen. Allow yourself to sit with positive belief and be ready to perform in the moment rather than worrying about being nervous of what might come.\n\n3. Your breath is your most powerful tool when learning to work with your nerves. Most of the time we breathe unconsciously. It becomes very shallow and rapid then debilitating by creating muscular tension. Try shooting a 5-meter penalty shot with your shoulders shrugged up into your ears! A trick is to channel your focus into deep belly (diaphragmatic) breathing; inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Your focus will move away from the nerves toward something you can control. Directing your attention to the present moment allows you to put your energy into your game and your team’s game plan.\n\n4. Focusing on the process rather than the outcome of the championship will give you a better shot at the results you want. When you set a goal to win a championship, your goal is unattainable because you haven’t decided how you will accomplish it. Game specific routines or checklists for different situations are the steps in the process that produce the results you want. Long before the games start, decide what your routine will be before you sprint for the ball, as you swim into 2-meters, or when the ball turns over and you counter to defense, etc… These are your checklists and routines that you can use to evaluate on after the game and decide whether or not you were successful.\n\nThese skills will start you in the right direction toward your next championship at any level. You can even use them as cue words to remind you to practice them: Visualize, Reframe, Breathe, and Process. The key is always systematic practice. If you practice to be a champion in everything you do then you will compete the same way you practice—like a champion.\n\nIf you are interested in one on one mental skills coaching or for your team, you can contact Brian Alexander via email: or at Also follow him on Twitter @BA_POS_MIND on Facebook (Athlete Mental Skills Coach) or follow his biweekly blog post on LinkedIn", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.85390704870224}
+{"content": "Music is Hard 52: Inferiority\n\nThis week:\nMusicians will always be compared to other musicians. How do we deal with feelings of inferiority or inadequacy? Are those feelings negative, or can they have a positive effect?\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7136313915252686}
+{"content": "Group Awards\n\nClick on the award name below to fill out a nomination form:\n\nThe Best Student Organization (Americus White Award): Recognizes the student organization that has shown excellence in leadership, management, and programmatic efforts. Allocation of funds is a factor in selection.\n\nBest Event: Recognizes the event that best impacted Washington & Lee during the current academic year.\n\nBest Service Event: Recognizes the campus group or specific event that proved to be impactful by engaging and educating a significant number of volunteers and created a meaningful difference for the population served- whether locally or in another community. \n\nGreenest Group (or Event):  Recognizes the student organization that has made an impact towards sustainability related efforts either on W&L campus or in our global community.\n\nOutstanding Philanthropic Efforts: Recognizes the student organization/chapter whose philanthropic efforts have made the most impact on our campus while supporting a local/national/global cause. The most funds raised per capita and the most innovative way of raising those funds is a factor in selection.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9960375428199768}
+{"content": "Q: Why does it take me to Etsy when I try to check out?\n\nA: I know 3rd party sites complicate things. But for the time being I chose to link my Etsy, just so I don’t have to keep track of inventory over multiple selling platforms. Etsy has recently launched the guest login feature, so you don’t even have to sign up on Etsy, you can just make your purchase as a guest. You can still browse, look at new items, shop and add items to your cart on this site, it only takes you to Etsy when you are ready to check out.\n\nQ: How can I track my order?\n\nA: Your order will be shipped with delivery confirmation via USPS. A delivery confirmation number will be sent via the email you provided at checkout once your package has been shipped\n\nUSPS parcel post, international packages do not have tracking numbers, I can check to see if it has left the U.S. using the customs form number, but once it leaves the United States, USPS can no longer track it by the Customs form number.\n\n(Please double check that your email address is correct before placing your order)\n\n\nShipping generally takes 2 – 5 days for orders traveling within the United States, and 10-14 days for international deliveries. If your order has not arrived after 14 days since your received your shipping confirmation, please check with your local post office to see if a delivery attempt was made. Your package may have been taken to a holding office for your collection. If there is still no sign of it, it may be making it’s way back to me. If it is returned, I will contact you immediately to arrange a re-ship to an alternate address.\n\nQ: Do you make Men’s clothing?\n\nA: I try to have a variety of gender neutral and unisex clothing. But I do mostly work with women’s clothing. I am currently focusing on adding more diversity, including a Menswear line.\n\n\nA: In an ongoing effort to maintain a justifiable price point as well as to ensure I produce quality clothing which fits the customer correctly, the majority of my pieces are made to measure, or come in ready-made sizes x-small, small, medium, and large. Some items can be made in XL but will be considered custom orders and may cost a little extra. Most of my pieces have unique measurements and don’t fall into a standard clothing size. So I try to provide as many measurements as possible to assure a proper fit.\n\nQ: Can I rent or borrow your clothing?\n\nA: In an effort to maintain the physical condition of my items, any for sale clothing and accessories are not available for rental at this time.\n\nI do have some personal pieces and pieces from past collections that are available for rental. After they have been rented a few times, I usually sell them for 25% to 50% off of my original piece. Then replace them with new rental items.\nIn the meantime please contact me here for more information on rentals\n\nQ: Can I interview the designer?\n\nA: For interviews or to write articles about my work, contact me here\n\n\nQ: How can I buy previously sold items?\n\nA: As the majority of my designs are unique, one-of-a-kind productions. I generally do not make previously sold items available for purchase but please do keep an eye out for my website site info and follow my Facebook page for news updates of any possible plans to re-create designs from past collections.\n\nQ: Do you take custom orders?\n\nA: Yes, please contact me for processing times. These can sometimes vary. Depending on your deadline, budget and my availability. (For example, I stop taking Halloween Commissions around October 1st. Because each one usually takes a few days and they all have to be shipped by the 15th or earlier to arrive in time.)\n\nQ: Do you sell wholesale?\n\nA: Yes, Please contact me for pricing requirements, contract agreements and processing times\n\nQ: Can I model or Photograph for Discerpo. Necto. Decrepitus?\n\nA: Feel free to contact me here or drop me a message on social media.\n\nPlease provide me with a link to your website or portfolio and I will keep your information on file for upcoming photo shoots.\n\n\nA: Thank you for offering your help. Feel free to contact me here\nPlease providing me with a list or description of what you would be interested in doing for Discerpo. Necto. Decrepitus. Include your resume, portfolio, or just some relevant links with some content. Please include your contact information.\n\nQ: I want a refund.\n\nA: I apologize if you’re not satisfied with your item. In order to qualify for a refund, there must be a fault with the quality of the item. As “scammers” and “renters” of items are not unheard of, all items are inspected prior to shipping to make sure that they meet their provided description. For more details about refund requirements, please visit shop policies and contact me with all relevant information.\n\nQ: I want to promote you, Can you send me stuff?\n\nA: Thank you for your interest. I do promotional things on a case by case basis, please contact me with further information. I do not have any extra promotional materials to send you at this time, please feel free to post a web link to my shop on your website. I appreciate your support!\n\n\nA: I do not provide tutorials or patterns for any of my designs at this time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5688052177429199}
+{"content": "Latest Posts\n\nCooking and coffee making skills\n\nThere is no difference in the artistic skills in cooking and brewing of coffee. Anyone who loves handling kitchen stuff will not hesitate to come up with delicious meals at the same time, a coffee Bean lover motivated by Pound Coffee has no challenge in preparing an accompaniment for the drink using readily available ingredients. What makes a good cook or a coffee brewer; first, they all have the passion for the kitchen. Naturally, there are people who have a problem in putting ingredients together; they form a bigger percentage that makes the hospitality industry to thrive.\n\nOverall cooking requires proper use of the artistic skills in the brewing of coffee, there is no definite route in making meat, for example, the method of cooking and the kitchen appliance with your touch of creativity makes the difference.\n\nThe level of technology also creates a big impact in changing the aroma of the meals. In ancient times, the use of charcoal and wood fuel, of course, made a difference compared to the modern times where electricity takes center stage in the preparation of most of the meals.\n\nAlthough, the touch of both tradition and modernity still find a way to the digital kitchen, in a better way. In both skills, they are all involved in the use of modern tools to save on time. An automated coffee maker, for example, uses electricity and the principle of pressure and temperature in the brewing to ensure the product gives a perfectly smooth and tasty coffee meals. Similarly, in cooking we have various cooking methods, in just one appliance you can fry, bake, grill and roast now depending on the type of recipe. That means cooking skills requires you to dedicate yourself and learn you might have to take a professional skill to sharpen your skills.\n\nLook at chefs, what makes them better than us, yet we have the same kitchen appliances, they took the time to learn and practice some of the recipes to make the meals. In coffee, it is not just a matter of putting the beverage in water and adding ingredients, it is also the quantity verses the nature of the meal.\n\nIn cooking and coffee brewing, the mastery of ingredients according to global races gives you an upper hand in feeding visitors across the globe. This is the learning curve that gives hotels various classifications – 5 stars or 3 stars restaurants.\n\nHow can you sharpen your skills in the cooking and brewing of coffee?\n\nOnline reviews\n\nThe audiovisual applications on the internet should be your friend in making new recipes. Renowned chefs have blogs and videos on how to make a different meal for your home or commercial entities.\n\nShort courses\n\nThere are many online short courses on the internet, some are free while others are payable. Take advantage and make good use of them to sharpen your skills.\n\n\nYou can also practice some of the skills, of course, you will make mistakes but it will give you an upper hand in making unique recipes. The fact that you can make a new recipe builds your self-esteem and give you positive energy ideal for your personal development.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe chefs, for the most part, wear this uniform almost every day of their lives: a cap, trousers, and a double Filipina. Although these uniforms are similar in the food service industry around the world, little is known about their history. However, the origin and reasons behind the chef’s traditional costume are interesting.\n\nThe design of the chef’s uniform almost in its entirety is related to the need. Filipina, for example, is double so that it can be inserted easily and hide the spots that can accumulate throughout the day; The double layer of cotton is also designed to insulate our bodies from the intense heat of the stove or accidental splashes of hot liquid. Even knotted cloth buttons were invented for a reason – cloth supports frequent washing and buttons survive the abuse they often have contact with pots, pans, and other heavy equipment. Although executive chefs often wear black pants, working chefs usually wear pants with black and white squares because they hide the spots better. The necks used today are simply aesthetic,\n\nThe traditional chef’s hat, or toque Blanche, is the most distinguished and recognizable of the uniform. It is said that by the sixteenth-century hats were already worn. The artisans of that period (including cooks) were often imprisoned, and in some cases executed because of their free thought.\nTo avoid persecution, some chefs took refuge in Orthodox churches and were hidden among the priests of the monasteries. There they wore the same clothes as the priests – including their high hats and long suits – except that the chef’s clothes were gray and the priests’ clothing was black.\n\nIt was not until the mid-1800’s that chef Marie-Antoine Carême redesigned the uniforms. Carême thought that white was the most appropriate color since it denotes cleaning in the kitchen; Also at this time she and her staff began to use the double Philippines. Carême also thought that the hats should be of various sizes, to distinguish chefs from chefs. The chefs started wearing tall hats and younger chefs wore shorter hats, type cap. Carême herself wore a hat that was 18 inches tall.\nThe folded pleats of a cap, which later became a feature of the chef’s hat, claim to have been added to indicate more than 100 ways in which a chef can cook an egg.\n\nEscoffier also considered cleaning the chef’s uniform as very important and promoting professionalism. He encouraged his staff to keep uniforms clean and complete at work, and also to wear layers and ties while they were not working. Today many chefs around the world wear the same outfit that 400 years ago. Along with the other inventions in the 50’s were made up paper caps that could be discarded after getting dirty\n\nThe chef’s traditional uniform may be the standard for our profession, but it’s definitely not the law. Since the mid-eighties a legion of chef and cooks have begun to wear non-traditional suits, pants cotton and Filipino is increasingly replaced with denim and in some cases are stamped with peppers, flowers and school badges of the kitchen. While some chefs consider this new style as unprofessional, others use it because of the comfort and opportunity to express individuality through their clothes.\n\nToday’s non-traditional uniforms are reminiscent of chef Alexis Soyer, author, inventor and chef of the Reform Club era in London. Soyer was known for having his entire wardrobe, including his work clothes, made by a tailor-made tailor. He wore hats as eccentric as red velvet berets, his Philippines often cut diagonally, with large lapels. He called his individualistic style “à la zoug-zoug” and the more his contemporaries made fun of him, the stranger his clothes were.\n\nAs a chef, I adhere to the traditional dress. The uniform and its history are part of our pride. On the other hand, I can also understand a chef’s desire to be expressive. These new uniforms have their place in certain establishments, the restaurants of today. After all, the kitchen is considered a form of theater. Like everything else the chef’s uniform continues to develop, who knows what the future holds in this regard? One thing is certain, however, the image of a cook, in a Filipino and a white cap, is recognized in the world as a professional, and we have our precursors to thank for this.\n\nFree translation of an article originally published in “The National Culinary Review”, by Chef Joe George", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8721556663513184}
+{"content": "http://www.pressherald.com/2017/03/27/rosie-the-riveter-gets-new-look-and-new-message/117WE BELONG HERE   A letter to the editor : http://www.pressherald.com/2017/04/05/letter-to-the-editor-hand-off-the-iconic-rosie-the-riveter-image/\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Glossary - Endangered Species Act\n\n\nWhat does it mean for a species to be endangered or threatened under the ESA?\n\nAn endangered species is defined under the ESA as \"any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.\"\n\nA threatened species is defined under the ESA as \"any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.\"\n\nSpecies designated as threatened or endangered are called “listed species”.\n\nLearn more about how species are listed under the ESA. \n\nWhat are foreign species under the ESA?\n\nUnder the ESA, we must list species that are endangered or threatened regardless of where they are found.\n\nFor our tables of ESA-listed species, foreign species are defined as species occurring only in areas beyond the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters.\n\nFor recovery under the ESA, foreign species are defined as those listed species with current and historical geographical ranges exclusively within territorial seas or the EEZ of foreign nations.\n\nLearn more about how we manage foreign species under the ESA.\n\nWhat is a petitioned species?\n\nAny member of the public may petition us to list a species as threatened or endangered, reclassify a species, or delist a species. We may also receive petitions to revise designated critical habitat for listed species. These petitions need the support of biological data. We consider any information submitted on the biology, distribution, or threats to the species, and data to support critical habitat revisions, when we evaluate the petition. Species undergoing this petition process  are called petitioned species.\n\nLearn more about the petition process and how species are listed\n\n>View currently petitioned species\n\nWhat is a candidate species?\n\nA candidate species is any species whose status we are currently reviewing to determine whether it warrants listing under the ESA.\n\nCandidate species specifically refers to—\n\n  • Species that are the subject of a petition to list and for which we have determined that listing may be warranted, pursuant to section 4(b)(3)(A); and\n\n  • Species that are not the subject of a petition but for which we have announced the initiation of a status review in the Federal Register.\n\n>View current candidate species\n\nWhat is a proposed species?\n\nA proposed species is one that is found to warrant listing as either threatened or endangered, or delisting, after completion of a status review and consideration of other protective conservation measures. We follow a strict legal process known as a rulemaking (or regulatory) procedure to propose to list or delist a species under the ESA. Public comment is always sought on a proposal to list or delist species under the ESA.\n\n>View species proposed for listing\n\n>View species proposed for delisting\n\nWhat is a recovered species?\n\nA species is recovered when it no longer requires Endangered Species Act protections and is delisted.\n\nWe have a recovery program with recovery plans to help species toward recovery.\n\nWhat is a delisted species?\n\nA delisted species is one that was  formerly listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, but has since been removed from the lists of endangered and threatened species.  We “delist” species for three reasons:\n\n  • The species has recovered to the point that it no longer needs ESA protection.\n\n  • The original information warranting listing has been shown to be incorrect, or new information suggests that the species is not actually endangered or threatened.\n\n  • The species has become extinct.\n\n>View delisted species under the ESA \n\nWhat is a distinct population segment?\n\nUnder the Endangered Species Act, a distinct population segment — or DPS — is a vertebrate population or group of populations that is discrete from other populations of the species and significant in relation to the entire species. NOAA Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife Service released a joint policy defining the criteria for identifying a population as a DPS. The ESA provides for listing species, subspecies, or distinct population segments of vertebrate species.\n\nWhat is an evolutionarily significant unit?\n\nUnder the Endangered Species Act, an evolutionarily significant unit — or ESU — is a Pacific salmon population or group of populations that is substantially reproductively isolated from other conspecific populations and that represents an important component of the evolutionary legacy of the species. The ESU policy (56 FR 58612) [PDF] for Pacific salmon defines the criteria for identifying a Pacific salmon population as an ESU, which can be listed under the ESA.\n\n\n\nIncidental take is an unintentional, but not unexpected, taking.\n\n\n\nWhat is designated critical habitat?\n\nCritical habitat is defined as specific areas.\n\n  • Within the geographical area occupied by the species at the time of ESA listing, if they contain physical or biological features essential to conservation, and those features may require special management considerations or protection; and \n  • Outside the geographical area occupied by the species if the agency determines that the area itself is essential for conservation.\n\nOnce designated, other federal agencies consult with NOAA Fisheries to ensure actions they fund, authorize, or undertake are not likely to adversely modify or destroy the critical habitat. Learn more about designated critical habitat\n\nWhat is a 5-year review?\n\nThe Endangered Species Act requires periodic reviews of species that are listed as threatened or endangered to ensure that the listing is still accurate. These reviews are known as 5-year reviews\n\nThe 5-year review can be as straightforward as gathering current information on a species and determining whether recovery plan criteria have been met. Some species do not have recovery plans or have recovery criteria that do not meet all current ESA requirements. In these cases, the 5-year review will analyze information available on the species relative to the definitions of “endangered” and “threatened” and in the context of the five ESA section 4(a)(1) listing factors.\n\n>View the most recent 5-year reviews\n\nWhat is a status review?\n\nA status review is the scientifically rigorous process we use to determine whether a species warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. This scientific review involves collecting and analyzing the best available scientific and commercial information on the species, including its biology, ecology, abundance and population trends, and threats to the species, in order to evaluate the species’ current status and extinction risk.\n\nWhat does anadromous mean?\n\nAnadromous is the term that describes fish born in freshwater who spend most of their lives in saltwater and return to freshwater to spawn, such as salmon and some species of sturgeon. NOAA Fisheries has jurisdiction over most marine and anadromous fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).\n\nWhat is the Code of Federal Regulations?\n\nThe Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) contains regulations created by various federal agencies to support and explain Federal statutes. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries have created wildlife and fisheries regulations to support and clarify sections of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The wildlife and fisheries regulations pertaining to marine mammals and endangered species can be found in 50 CFR 1 - 599.\n\nWhat is the Federal Register?\n\nThe Federal Register (FR) is the official daily journal of the United States Government and contains rules, proposed rules, and notices published by the various federal agencies. When we publish a final rule, proposed rule, or notice in the Federal Register, we refer to the document citation (for example: 81 FR  62259) which identifies the volume number (e.g, 81) and page number (e.g., 62259) on which the document begins.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991067051887512}
+{"content": "Busy. Please wait.\n\nshow password\nForgot Password?\n\nDon't have an account?  Sign up \n\nUsername is available taken\nshow password\n\n\n\n\nAlready a StudyStack user? Log In\n\nReset Password\n\nRemove ads\nDon't know\nremaining cards\n\nPass complete!\n\n\"Know\" box contains:\nTime elapsed:\nrestart all cards\n\n\n  Normal Size     Small Size show me how\n\n8th ScienceUnit2\n\n8th grade Science Unit 2 SECTION 6 PLATE TECTONICS\n\nDRAW AND LABEL THE 3 TYPES OF BOUNDARIES Convergent Boundary, Divergent Boundary, Transform Boundary\nWHAT GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS COULD BE FOUND AT A DIVERGENT BOUNDARY, Mid ocean ridges (sea-floor) spreading) and rift valleys.\nWHAT GEOLOGIC FORMATION COULD BE FOUND AT A CONVERGENT BOUNDARY? Mountains, trenches, volcanoes and island arcs.\nEXPLAIN THE PROCESS OF SEA FLOOR SPREADING. Process that happens at mid ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and gradually spreads away from the ridge.\nEXPLAIN THE THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT. WHAT WAS THE SUPERCONTINENT CALLED? Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other, thus appearing to drift across the ocean bed. The concept first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596, was independtly and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his theory was rejected by some for lack of a theoretical commitments. The idea of continental drift has been followed by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains how the continents MOVE.\nWHO CAME UP WITH THE THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT? WHY DID PEOPLE BELIEVE HIM? First was Ortelius, but most only know of Alfred Wegener. They didn't believe him because he couldn't explain what caused the plates to move, even though he could proved that they had drifted.\nWHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FAULT AND A BOUNDARY? A fault is a break in the rock where rocks move in different directions but a boundary is where 2 plates meet. So, not all faults are boundaries but all boundaries are faults.\nCreated by: asimien907", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999909996986389}
+{"content": "Design Series II: Defining Spatial Expression - The Sunshade\n\nArchitecture Dated:  May 9, 2016\nsubmit to reddit\n0 Comment(s)\nThe Brise- Soleil as a sun breaker\n\nIn the Design series, Defining Spatial Expression, Prof. Ar. Rajini Itham Mahajan, Senior Architect, VBT Consortium and HOD, Aakar Academy of Architecture, Bengaluru discusses various elements that define Architecture in terms of their evolution, significance- aesthetic and functional and construction possibilities. In the second of the series, we will explore the evolution of the SUNSHADE as an element of passive climate control and form accentuation.\n\n\nTraditionally called the ‘Chajja’, the sunshade refers to any horizontal or partially inclined built component to protect from climatic elements. Apart from playing a pivotal role in Micro Climate Control, the sunshade has also been one of the form defining or accentuating elements in architectural facades.\n\n\nHistory says ancient architects had to reconsider their building design due to scarcity of wood, the then primary building material, which was in high demand for ship building. The chief source of heat, charcoal was also becoming expensive. Hence, the master builders started to integrate passive climate control into the design process.\n\nIn India, prominent examples include the ‘Jharokhas’ of Rajasthan, designed to provide privacy to the women, while considerably offsetting the extreme climates of the desert region. Here, the ‘Jharokha’ extends from the building as a sunshade and balcony seat combined with stone trellis screens to keep away dust. This feature is also visible in Indo Islamic Architecture.\n\nSunshade ArchitectureFig 1. The Jharokha in Indian Architecture                                               Fig 2. The ornate overhang and perforated screen in Indo Islamic Architecture\n\nFunctional Significance:\n\nOver the years, the sunshade gained prominence in tropical and temperate climates to protect from the sun and keep out precipitation. It aids in diffusing natural illumination thereby reducing glare and heat gain in tropical zones while admitting sunlight in temperate climates to reduce mechanical heating. It transformed from a simple projection to an elaborately ornate element to complement the style, especially in residential architecture.\n\nTo protect from angular precipitation, vertical elements called fins were also introduced on either side of the windows. Some buildings combined the sunshade and fins to form Egg crate devices. Variations of the same began to define elevations of Modern Architecture in the early and mid-20th century. Eminent architects experimented with the design of sun protecting devices. One such innovation is the ‘Brise – Soleil’, the sun breaker seen in the architecture of Chandigarh, as visualized by Le Corbusier. \n\nThe Brise- Soleil as a sun breakerFig 3. The Brise- Soleil as a sun breaker\n\nThe introduction of air conditioning did impact sunshade design. As climate controlled glass and steel buildings gained prominence, the visual impact of the sunshade as a conspicuous façade element was losing significance. In response to current day challenges to sustainability and energy efficient building solutions, Architecture is revisiting concepts of passive climate control. The sunshade is making a comeback and being reinvented to adapt to a contemporary design language. \n\nStructural Sub Elements: \n\nThe sunshade, by itself is rarely a structural element, unless it is part of a roof projection. The sunshade is typically a cantilevered extension of the structural lintel, which spans the window opening. It is either cast in RCC monolithic with the lintel or fixed later through metal rivets. \n\nThe sunshade is typically 600mm wide, extends 150mm beyond the window opening on both sides and is maintained at minimum thickness to reduce dead load. The sunshade could be precast or cast in situ. In some cases, such as architecture with sloping roofs, the roof overhang doubles as the sunshade. \n\n\nThe most common sunshade material is RCC. But young contemporary designers are exploring alternate materials such as metal, wood, bamboo, glass and even fabric. Tensile structures are also gaining popularity as a modern day shading devices.\n\nSunshade integrated as a roof canopy and space frame with the structural glazingFig 4. Sunshade integrated as a roof canopy and space frame with the structural glazing\n\n\nTraditional architecture incorporates sun shading devices, in tune with the defining elements of style. Now the sunshade is fused to be part of the overall form. In residential high rise, the sunshade is usually provided as a 100mm wide Plaster band. The sunshade forms an interesting pattern on the façade either as a physical element or as a play of light and shade.\n\nJharokha ArchitectureFig 5. Perforated Sunshade forming shadow patterns                                     Fig 6. Plaster bands in High Risea\n\nSunshades may also be motorized as awnings, drop down or even angular rotation as per building orientation. They may also be retractable. With curtain wall and structural glazing facades incorporating special types of glass details, the function of the sunshade has also been redefined. \n\n\nAs one of the primitive needs to protect from adverse climate conditions, the sunshade evolved and later progressed as an essential exterior form component. Over the years, building perforations were modified as per style or design sensibilities, sometimes inset to completely obliterate the sunshade or merged as the roof projection instead of a attaining a separate identity. Current responsible design practices promote reinstating the importance of the sunshade, irrespective of the nature of the building to make architecture more climate and site responsive, encouraging young designers to integrate function, structure and aesthetics.\n\nYou May be Interested in Reading Design Series I: Defining Spatial Expression - The Staircase\n\nLiked this article? Click here to consult Rajini Itham Mahajan for your project or design dilemma.\n\nsubmit to reddit", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7600082159042358}
+{"content": "বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৩ জুন, ২০১৬\n\nA Project on Drone\n\nA Project on Invention of Drone and It’s Multipurpose in our life with advantages and disadvantage\n\nDefinitions of Drone\n\n A drone, is a technological context, is an unmanned aircraft.\nAn unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone. Essentially, a drone is a flying robot. The aircraft may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems working in conjunction with GPS. Drones are sometimes controlled by onboard computer systems. They can also be controlled with radio signals send by humans on the ground or in other aircrafts.\n\nHistory of invention\n\nIn 1959, the U.S. Air Force, concerned about losing pilots over hostile territory, began planning for the use of unmanned aircraft.[13] Planning intensified after the Soviet Union shot down a U-2 in 1960. Within days, a highly classified UAV program started under the code name of \"Red Wagon\".[14] The August 1964 clash in the Tonkin Gulf between naval units of the U.S. and North Vietnamese Navy initiated America's highly classified UAVs (Ryan Model 147, Ryan AQM-91 Firefly, Lockheed D-21) into their first combat missions of the Vietnam War.[15] When the Chinese government [16] showed photographs of downed U.S. UAVs via Wide World Photos,[17] the official U.S. response was \"no comment\".\nThe War of Attrition (1967-1970) featured the introduction of UAVs with reconnaissance cameras into combat in the Middle East.\nIn the 1973 Yom Kippur War Israel used drones as decoys to spur opposing forces into wasting expensive anti-aircraft missiles.\nCAPECON was a European Union project to develop UAV's, running from 1 May 2002 to 31 December 2005.\nAs of 2012, the USAF employed 7,494 UAVs - almost one in three USAF aircraft. The Central Intelligence Agency also operated UAVs.\nDrone Technology\nFig: Drone Technology\nv  FPV (First Person View) Drone Technology\nFPV means is “First Person View” which means a video camera is mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle and broadcasts the live video to the pilot on the ground so the pilot is flying the aircraft as if he/she was on-board the aircraft instead of looking at the craft from the pilot’s actual ground position. FPV allows the unmanned aircraft to fly much higher and further than you can from the looking at the aircraft from the ground.  FPV control allows for more precise flying around obstacles especially with unmanned aerial vehicles which can easily fly indoors and through forests via FPV where you would not be able to see obstacles from a fixed position.\nv  Flight Assistant Port\nThe flight control system communicates with a PC Assistant through a Micro-USB cable. This allows configuration of the UAV and upgrade the firmware.\nv  UAV Remote Control System\nThis is the wireless communication device using the 5.8 GHz frequency band. The drone and the remote control system should already be paired when it leaves the factory.\nv  Range Extender UAV Technology\nThis is a wireless communication device which operates within the 2.4 GHz frequency. It is used to extend the range of communication between a smart-phone and the drone in an open unobstructed area.  Transmission distance can reach up to 700 meters. Each range extender has a unique MAC address and network name (SSID).\nv  Smartphone App Featuring Ground Station Function\nSmartphone App from Google Play or the Apple Store . The app allows for full control of the drone. There is a specific feature called ground station function on the Phantom 2 Vision+ quad copter. This allows for flight missions by placing location waypoints and setting waypoint altitude and overall speed. The UAV should the be able to execute the flight mission automatically.\n\nHow Drones Work:\n\nA typical unmanned aircraft is made of light composite materials to reduce weight and increase maneuverability. This composite material strength allows military drones to cruise at extremely high altitudes. Drones are equipped with different state of the art technology such as infra-red cameras(military UAV), GPS and laser (military UAV). Drones can be controlled by remote control system or a ground cockpit. Drones come in a wide variety of sizes, with the large drone mostly used for military purposes such as the Predator drone, other smaller drones which can be launched by hand, to other unmanned aircraft which require short runways. An unmanned aerial vehicle system has two parts, the drone itself and the control system.  \nThe nose of the unmanned aerial vehicle is where all the sensors and navigational systems are present. The rest of the body is complete innovation since there is no loss for space to accommodate humans and also light weight. The engineering materials used to build the drone are highly complex composites which can absorb vibration which decreases the noise produced.\n\nThe Drone and it’s multiple use in our Life\n\ndrone National scenari\n\nFig: National scenari\n\nDrones have the potential to transform the world for the better. In the UK, the emergency services have started to use them to help people in danger, while the defence industry is exploring how drones can improve security.\nAround the world, wildlife conservationists are embracing the technology to monitor animals and any potential threats against them by using drones.\nEuropean emergency services are being trained on how to use consumer drones in rescue operations and emergencies, including chemical spills, car accidents and widespread fires.\nIreland's Donegal Mountain Rescue Team has been using advanced drone software to help coordinate search and rescue missions in remote areas, while the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department in Denmark will be taught how to use drones to combat fires, chemical accidents and pile ups in both urban and over-water conditions.\n\n In medical sector\nAmbulance drone\nAmbulance drone\n\n A drone can save our life. Just like a “ambulance drone” . When it fly then it can, reducingcarry a medical toolbox and a oxygen mask. The ambulance drone can get a defibrillator to a patient within a 12 square kilometer (4.6 square miles) zone within a minute the chance of survival from 8 percent to 80 percent\nstreamline agriculture management\nAgricultural drone\nAgriculture management\nUsing a crop management system to observe, measure, and respond to variability in individual plants, farmers can target areas requiring attention. By pinpointing these areas, farmers can provide care only where needed—improving yield, conserving resources, and avoiding waste\nAssisting with disasters\nassisting with disasters of drone\n Assisting with disasters\nNothing strikes a strong nation more than a devastating natural disaster, when lives are lost, homes are lost and businesses are ruined for good. But drones have already been put to the test to assist with these sort of incidents, with the earthquake in Haiti being a great example. The US Government used drones to look for survivors and transport medication, protecting its troops from any danger.\nMonitoring wildlife\nMonitoring wildlife of Drone\nMonitoring wildlife\nAnother useful thing we can do with drones is help protect Earth’s wildlife by monitoring it from afar, especially with endangered species. This has already been put to the test by a team of Indonesian scientists ,who have used drones to spy on a group of endangered apes, ensuring they are living well and are accessing the correct vegetation.\n\nDelivering Drone\nDelivering Drone\nAmazon has showcased a prototype drone aimed at getting packages to its customers within 30 minutes.\nThe drone is part of Amazon's future delivery system known as Prime Air, where several different drones will be deployed for package deliveries.\nThe launch date remains unknown, but according to the new Prime Air micro site, the drones are being developed in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel and being tested in \"multiple international locations.\"\nIn 2013, Domino's released footage purporting to show tests of a remote-controlled pizza delivery and in 2014, a Russian pizza chain delivered by drone.\nThe rise of drone technology for deliveries raises the question of whether we will need to leave the house to go to the shops ever again\nInspecting oil rigs\nInspecting oil rigs\nInspecting oil rigs\nOil is a crucial resource, vital to the survival of many economies and mankind in general. Getting hold of it in the first place is generally dangerous, but don’t worry, as drones are already bein used  to make sure oil rigs are in tip-top condition and functioning as they ought to.\n\nIn war\n In war Drone\n In war Drone\n\nThis technology use for modern war. It helps us to war without soldier. The most obvious advantage of drones is that they greatly reduce putting military personnel in harm’s way or in combat.\n\nto their size, unlike manned aircraft, drones are able to fly into areas that were once not possible. They can fly from only a few centimeters of the ground to 400 feet in the air as one long continuous shot, whilst panning and framing a chosen subject. Drones can fly from inside a room and out through a window or door, giving the aerial film makers a very unique shot. Furthermore, they can rotate on the same spot, move left, right up or down, all at the touch of the pilot’s command, whilst giving the camera operator total autonomy to position the camera to frame the perfect shot.\n\nFull HD Quality\nHD Quality photo us of Drone\nHD Photo\n\nFig: Full HD Quality\n\nAs technology has improved, drones are still able to shoot in full HD and create amazing aerial videos, 4k and higher without sacrificing any quality. In fact, there are more and more gimbals (professional 3-axis stabilization systems) coming onto the market to accommodate the wide variety of cameras. This allows aerial filming companies to swap out the type of camera they wish to use, depending on the type of footage one is looking to capture.\n3D maps\n\n                                                                  Fig: 3D maps\nConstruction sites are utilizing them to present their work from a different perspective to prospective clients, as well as generating 3D maps. The drones are also able to generate maps from a series of photos that can then be run through software that will allow the user to measure distances or volumes without having to physically be on site.\nLaw enforcement\n\nFig:  Search\nContribute to safe infrastructure maintenance and management\nFig: Risky place\nConsider the difficulty of inspecting the underside of a bridge or the top of a skyscraper, not to mention the costs and risks. With UAS, scaffolding, cranes, or harnesses are not required. Just deploy the system to assess the structure's condition remotely\nNetwork Rail\nFig: Network Rail\n\nNetwork Rail’s ORBIS project, which will see the railways in the UK digitised with 3D cameras and visualized online to analyze maintenance and field worker distribution. It currently uses aerial cameras but would like to use drones to get a better picture of the transport networks.\n\nBBC and other British Media\n\n\nFig: BBC and other British Media\n\nMedia outlets like the BBC and Al Jazeera have begun using drones to film overhead – but with some undesirable consequences. Three BBC journalists were questioned after breaching high-level security protocols in Davos for the World Economic Forum, and Parisian police arrested three Al Jazeera reporters after their drone was spotted in the Boi de Boulogne skies.\n\nRisky side of Drone in our life\n\nFig: Risky side of Drone\nDrones also have the power to transform the world for the worse. While they have been used to protect against security threats, they have the capacity to be used as a deadly weapon.\n While still early days, the use of unmanned flying objects is set to change the world in which we live.\nSome have also bemoaned the use of drones for spying and surveillance. But, as others have argued, does it really matter if you're not doing anything wrong?\n\nDrone Traffic Regulations \nFig: Drone Traffic Regulations\nGone are the days of being able to fly a drone at will, even now, you have to follow the law of the land. Moving forward authorities will be turning their attention to drones specifically and the space will become increasingly regulated.\n\nDrone Hijacking\nFig: Drone Hijacking\nWith Amazon and Dominoes looking at using Drones in their SCM cycle, it is feasible that soon there will be large amounts of goods being moved by drone. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries to hijack your drone for a free pizza or a free I pad.\nThe end of the “We have something for you” card \nFig: The end of the “We have something for you” card\nWith a drone’s ability to deliver day or night, at a time of your convenience, gone are the days of having to re-arrange a courier or visit your local Royal Mail depot with a “we have something for you” card.\nLast mile disruption\n Last mile courier companies, who deliver from final transport hub to final destination, will be massively affected by drones, with short deliveries now made even easier by drones.\nNo more clear skies \nOur skies are no longer going to be empty wide spaces of blue or grey (in the case of London), they are going to be a chockablock ‘drone ways’.\nMake room for drone stations \nFig: drone stations \nWith the widespread use of drones, we should expect the introduction of drone docking station in our cities and towns. These are places to for drones to refuel/recharge, as well as pick up and drop off goods.\nDrone terrorism \nFig: Drone terrorism\n\n Cyber terrorism and crime is on the rise, and with more and more drones in the air, there is potential for these to be hijacked for terrorist use. The payload doesn’t even need to be explosive, fast and heavy flying objects can do enough damage by themselves. \nDrone economics \nThe economics of drones is going to govern and affect a lot of decisions in the retail market. This will in turn have an impact on the price of commodities.\nDrone throne \nA more light hearted possibility is the idea of drone wars and drone gaming, pitting drones against each other as a sport.\nThe applications and possibilities engendered by drones are endless, and merely limited by our own imagination. How do you think drones will impact society?\nDrones have the potential to supersede large amounts of courier roles, and there is the possibility that there will be many redundancies. Conversely there will be a need for more technically skilled people to manage and maintain an efficient drone delivery network. Whether the UK has the labor pool for this type of work is up for debate.\nDeadly weapon\nFig: Deadly weapon\nAny weapon which can kill. This includes not only weapons which are intended to do harm like a gun or knife, but alsoblunt instruments like clubs, baseball bats, monkey wrenches, an automobile object which actually causes death.This becomes important when trying to prove criminal charges brought for assault with a deadly weapon. In a few 1990scases courts have found rocks and even penises of AIDS sufferers as \"deadly weapons”.\nSuicide Drones\nFig: Suicide Drone\nThe first known use of a \"suicide drone\" is believed to have taken place during the recent fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia.\nAzerbaijani forces are thought to have deployed a drone tipped with explosives and crashed it into its target, rather than firing a missile. \nThe drone slammed into a bus carrying Armenian volunteer soldiers and killed seven people, according to the Armenian defiance ministry.\nFighting periodically breaks out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared Armenian republic that lies within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan\n\nSecurity threat\n The number of reported near-misses between drones and planes is on the rise. In the first four months of 2016, there were 15 reported near-misses, according to a Freedom of Information request.\nPilots have called for better safety regulation to prevent a collision as the risk remains \"unacceptably high\".\nIn April, a British Airways flight was hit by a suspected drone. Transport minister Robert Goodwill later admitted authorities had not yet confirmed whether what struck the Airbus A320 was a remote-controlled device - and that it may have actually been a plastic bag.\nAlthough the aircraft landed intact and was later cleared for its next flight, it has renewed calls for more to be done to curb drone use\nPassengers were terrified by a \"huge bang\" when the drone hit the rear carriage of the train on preserved railway tracks between Grosmont and Pickering. Luckily, in this case no damage or injuries were caused\nSpying and monitoring\nFig: Spying and monitoring\nTV presenter Richard Madeley reported to the police two \"peeping Toms\" who were allegedly flying a drone over his garden to spy on him.\nThe former This Morning host, who was wearing just a pair of beach shorts at the time, said he gave chase to the \"creeps\" and located the suspected owners in a nearby white van, before contacting his local police force in Cornwall .\nHe told The Telegraph: \"I would never dream of going out anywhere I might be photographed dressed like that – yet here, in my entirely private space, I was under surveillance, for who know’s what purpose. For me, this was a red line crossed.\"\nThe drone's owner ​has denied spying on Medley.\nDrones are also being used by councils in England to fly over the homes of people seeking planning permission. A Freedom of Information survey of hundreds of councils found that a dozen had admitted to using or hiring drones.  Two councils said the drones could be used to check on planning applications.\nThe revelation raised questions over privacy.  The Liberal Democrats called for a code of practice to govern how councils use drones while the information watchdog said it was “concerned” by the  news and said councils should consider whether drones were “necessary and  proportionate”\n\n\n\nThough drone has some disadvantages it is needed very badly in our modern life. So , research about drone should be increased.\n\nকোন মন্তব্য নেই:\n\nএকটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.767558217048645}
+{"content": "Using Google Chrome?\n\nDownload my\n\nRecent Posts\n\nSaturday, June 25, 2011\n\nOracle Home Space Cleanup (how random that sounds)\n\nJust a quick post to make you aware of a fantastic option I recently discovered in opatch.\nI look after a large number of database systems, some having multiple Oracle homes on the same drive (I know I know, but when you're limited on drives...).\nThese homes consist of things like Oracle RDBMS (obvious one), Oracle 10g EM Agent and finally Oracle 10gAS (and 10g OEM if you like to think that OMS is separate, but it's a 10gAS so I didn't).\n\nGenerally the Oracle home for a 10gR2 RDBMS Enterprise Edition binary codeset seems to be around 1GB in size.\nApply a couple of opatches and you could be looking at 2GB!\nAll of a sudden, the partition is looking quite full (it used to be 9i on there when it was originally designed!!).\n\nLets bring in a new opatch command that came in as part of an opatch upgrade in 10gR2 (opatch patch 6880880).\nThe command is part of the \"opatch util\" command and is a sub-command called \"cleanup\".\nIt supposedly removes the duplicated binary files taken during an opatch patch application.\n\nOracle doc 550522.1 states \"Starting with 10.2, Opatch does not backup only the affected modules, it also takes a backup of the complete affected libraries to $ORACLE_HOME/.patch_storage//backup//.\".\n\nThe cleanup command only removes files that are not required as part of a patch rollback.\n\nSyntax: \"$ opatch util cleanup\".\n\nYou will be prompted to select the oracle home and confirm the cleanup. It will also inform you of the amount of space saving.\nEnjoy the space you get back, while you can!\n\nFriday, June 24, 2011\n\nChecking Lack of Bind Variables & Adhoc SQL in Oracle\n\nThe following Oracle SQL is a crude method that can be used to check the V$SQLAREA view for SQL statements that have the same execution plan, but where the SQL is unique. e.g. SQL statements where only the predicate changes in the WHERE clause.  These are otherwise known as adhoc queries (something that SQL Server 2008 is supposed to be very good at detecting).\n\nThe statement was constructed based on the \"Understanding Shared Pool Memory\" document by Oracle (\n\nThe doc basically says that a count of the PLAN_HASH_VALUE column versus the number of SQL_IDs using the plan indicates how bad the SQL needs bind variables since it should have only one or two SQL statements (the lower the better) per plan.\n\nIn my opinion, systems that return >60% for ACTION \"Could use bind variables.\" should either consider revising the application SQL code (permanent fix), or using the CURSOR_SHARING=FORCE init parameter (temporary fix!).\n\nSELECT 'Multiple SQLs in SQLAREA using same plan:' DESCRIPTION,sum(pct_hash_use) PCT,'Could use bind variables.' ACTION FROM (\nselect hc.plan_hash_value,\nround((hc.hash_use_count/sc.sql_count*100),2) pct_hash_use\n(select s.plan_hash_value, count(s.plan_hash_value) hash_use_count\nfrom v$sqlarea s\ngroup by s.plan_hash_value\nhaving plan_hash_value > 0\n) hc,\n(select count(1) sql_count\nfrom v$sqlarea t\nwhere plan_hash_value > 0\n) sc\norder by pct_hash_use desc\n) WHERE hash_use_count > 1\nSELECT 'Single SQLs in SQLAREA using same plan:' Description,sum(pct_hash_use) PCT,'No action needed.' ACTION FROM (\nselect hc.plan_hash_value,\n(select s.plan_hash_value, count(s.plan_hash_value) hash_use_count\nfrom v$sqlarea s\ngroup by s.plan_hash_value\nhaving plan_hash_value > 0\n) hc,\n(select count(1) sql_count\nfrom v$sqlarea t\nwhere plan_hash_value > 0\n) sc\norder by pct_hash_use desc\n) WHERE hash_use_count <= 1;\n\nYou can also use the following query to determine roughly how much memory is wasted on single SQL statements that have been executed only once (you should use this on a well bedded in system that has been running for a while):\n\nselect count(1) num_sql,\nsum(decode(executions, 1, 1, 0)) num_1_use_sql,\nsum(sharable_mem)/1024/1024 mb_sql_mem,\nsum(decode(executions, 1, sharable_mem, 0))/1024/1024 mb_1_use_sql_mem\nfrom v$sqlarea\nwhere sharable_mem >0;\n\nYou should double check the output with the SQL text in V$SQLAREA to ensure that the SQL is truly ad-hoc.\n\nRemember to get some hard and fast values for the \"Concurrency\" wait class before and after the change (bind variables introduced or init parameter changed).\n\nYou can use SQL: \"select * from v$system_event where wait_class#=4 order by average_wait desc;\" to determine the average wait time.\n\nI would expect the library cache operation wait times to reduce as hard parses are reduced.\n\nHere is an example of a system that is not using bind variables to optimise SQL:\n\nWhen running the script we get:\n\nYou should note that an OLTP system such as SAP ERP should have a much lower count for adhoc SQL  compared to a SAP BW system where users can write their own queries.\n\nOracle Explain Plans: Cardinality & Histograms\n\nThis is one of the better white papers on how to read an Oracle explain plan:\nThe most important point is made on cardinality on page 10 when explaining \"Data Skew\".\nThe term \"Data Skew\" is used to refer to the imbalance of values with respect to a normal distribution (\nThe imbalance is shown as the Mode ( of the values in a column of a table.\n\n\n   1 | A <== Mode = most frequent.\n   2 | A\n   3 | A <== Median = middle one\n   4 | B\n   5 | B\n\nHistogram for COL2:\n\nValue |Number\nA     |###\nB     |##\n\nData Skew means that more of (usually it takes a lot more, like +60%) the values in COL2 have a value of \"A\" than of \"B\".\nAs the Oracle whitepaper points out \"One of the simplest formulas is used when there is a single equality predicate in a single table query (with no histogram). In this case the Optimizer assumes a uniform distribution and calculates the cardinality for the query by dividing the total number of rows in the table by the number of distinct values in the column used in the where clause predicate.\".\n\nIn example \"SELECT * FROM A_TABLE WHERE COL2='A'\" this would equate to: Cardinality = 5 / 2 A cardinality value of 2.5 would be rounded to 3.\nAccurate enough.\n\nThe problem with this is that the larger the number of rows the more skewed the cardinality will become.\nImagine the table with values like so:\n\nValue |Number\nA     |###############\nB     |##\n\nNow in example \"SELECT * FROM A_TABLE WHERE COL2='A'\" this would equate to: Cardinality = 17 / 2\nA cardinality value of 8.5 would be rounded to 9.\nDefinitely not 15.\n\nTo solve this problem, Oracle has the capability to collect statistics for individual columns.\nYou can use the DBMS_STATS.GATHER_TABLE_STATS command to collect stats on the column (\n\nThe below statement will collect stats on the COL2 column of A_TABLE in the OE schema with a bucket size of 20 buckets.  These column stats are histograms of the distribution of values.\n\n\n\nTwo types of HISTOGRAM are available in Oracle, FREQUENCY and HEIGHT.\nOracle uses HEIGHT based histograms *only* when the number of distinct values of a column is greater than the number of buckets specified.\n\"In a height-balanced histogram, the column values are divided into bands so that each band contains approximately the same number of rows. The useful information that the histogram provides is where in the range of values the endpoints fall.\".\n\nOracle will use FREQUENCY based histograms by default when the number of distinct values of a column is less than or equal to the number of buckets specified.\n\"In a frequency histogram, each value of the column corresponds to a single bucket of the histogram.\".\n\nIt is possible to view the collected histogram for a column:\n\nSELECT column_name, num_distinct, num_buckets, histogram\nWHERE table_name = 'A_TABLE' AND column_name = 'COL2';\n\nSAP RFC Gateway Error 10060\n\nYesterday I spent the majority of the morning tracking a problem in the SAP ERP system.\nIt has been occurring for a while but I have had far more important issues.  Finally I got round to looking at it.\n\nIn hosta SM21 system log, the gateway process (RD) had registered a network connect error (Q0I) \"Operating system call connect failed (error no. 10060)\":\n\nSM21 Q01 operating system call connect failed 10060\n\nThe architecture of the SAP systems involved in the landscape looks like the following diagram, which shows an SAP ERP single ABAP stack (hosta), which is connected to an SAP Enterprise Portal system which is clustered (hostb & hostc):\n\nLooking in the gateway error log (TX: SMGW), I saw the network interface (Ni) timeout error when looking up the hostname for IP address\n\n\nThe business process involved means that an RFC connection is established from the EP server processes (hostb) to the ERP gateway process (hosta).\nAs you can see in the architecture diagram, the IP is the private IP address of the hostb server in the EP cluster.\nSo the question was, why was the SAP ERP gateway process receiving inbound connections from hostb via the private IP address?\n\nThe method of analysis involves understanding how the IP to hostname lookups are performed on the Windows servers:\n\nFirst, if you open a command prompt and use NSLOOKUP to check the hostname (\"C:> nslookup hostb\") it will return the hostname from the Name Service configured for the Windows Server. Usually this is in the order of hosts file first, then DNS. It performs the lookup using the appropriate network interface according to the network routings (\"C:> route print\").\nIn our example, the nslookup correctly returned the public IP address.\n\nSecond, you can issue a PING of hostb from hostb (itself) using \"C:> ping hostb\".\nWhen using PING, it sends a network packet using the appropriate network interface according to the network routings (\"C:> route print\"). Since we are pinging ourselves, it will use the first network interface in bind order of the Windows network connections.\nIn our case, it was pinging the *private* IP address.\nAccording to Microsoft, the PING command in Windows uses gethostbyname() to find the IP address for the destination to be ping'd(\n\nSo we have established that the private IP address is seen when we ping our own servername on hostb, why does this mean that the private IP is seen as the client in a SAP RFC gateway connection?\nWell, in the same way that PING uses gethostbyname(), the RFC connection that is established through jlaunch.exe (host of the JAVA stack server processes) also uses gethostbyname(). Of course, we know what IP address a gethostbyname() call returns, as this is used in the PING command .\n\n(findstr /M gethostbyname jlaunch.exe)\n\nSo, the RFC connection performed by the JAVA stack is created from the jlanuch.exe binary, which uses gethostbyname() during the bind() call, which returns the private IP.\nThe RFC connection is established and part of the RFC connection process the jlanuch.exe process passes it's calling IP address. Which is the private IP address.\nThe ERP system gateway at the other end of the connection receives the incoming connection and notes that it is coming from Should the ERP system on hosta wish to make an RFC callback (\n(, it has no chance of returning the call to the private IP address on hostb. This is where we get the error \"NiHsLGetHostByName failed\".\n\nSo how do we resolve the problem?\nWe could code the lookup into the hosts file (172.x.x.2 hostb) on hostb, but this might cause other issues.\nA quick look into the SAP documentation for installing Netweaver 7.0 SR3 in a Microsoft Clustered system reveals that a simple step was missed during installation on hostb.\nIn the document it states \"The card of the public network must be displayed before that of the private network. If necessary, change the order in which the cards are listed by using the Move Up and Move Down arrows\".\n\nSo I check the binding orders on hostb in Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Advanced Settings:\n\nCluster heartbeat adapters and bindings\n\nThey are the wrong way around. The \"Cluster Heartbeat\" (Private IP) should be beneath the Public IP (\"Local Area Connection\" in our example).\nThe Microsoft article here ( lists the process to change it and provides alternative solutions (I would recommend to follow the SAP document).\n\nChanging the binding order on Windows Server 2003 does not require a reboot, but the change will not be effective until a reboot is performed.\n\nMonday, June 20, 2011\n\nDetecting & Reducing Space Used For SAP Business Workplace Documents\n\nWithin the SAP Netweaver 7.0 system is a complete e-mail tool that allows users to send/receive electronic documents.\nThese documents are visible in the SAP Business Workplace (TX: SBWP) inbox/outbox and also in the SAP Connect transmission requests (TX: SOST).\n\nAs time goes by and users accumulate documents in their inbox and internal/external mails get sent through SAPConnect, space in the database will be used.\n\nSAP Note: 966854 recommends running RSBCS_REORG to clear down these documents and free the space.\nUnfortunately it doesn't tell you how much space is taken up and how much you could get back.\n\nUsing the details in SAP Note: 706478 it is possible to check some of the tables at the database level.\nOnce again, the note doesn't list all tables involved.\nInstead, running the RSBCS_REORG report in \"Test\" mode reveals the full extent of the tables where records will be deleted:\n\nSo using this information, the following constructed SQL query will return the current size of the database segments (Oracle) for the selected tables (FOR ECC 6.0 based systems):\n\nselect sum(s.bytes)/1024/1024 size_mb ,\ns.segment_name table_name,\nt.ddtext descr\nfrom dba_segments s,\nsapsr3.dd02t t\nwhere s.segment_name in ('BCST_BOR',\nand s.segment_name = t.tabname\nand ddlanguage='E'\ngroup by s.segment_name, s.segment_type, s.segment_name, t.ddtext\nunion all\nselect sum(s.bytes)/1024/1024 size_mb ,\nt.ddtext descr\nfrom dba_segments s,\nsapsr3.dd02t t,\ndba_indexes i\nwhere i.table_name in (\nand i.table_name = t.tabname\nand i.index_name = s.segment_name\nand ddlanguage='E'\ngroup by s.segment_name, s.segment_type, i.table_name, t.ddtext\n) t1\nORDER BY t1.table_name ASC, t1.segment_type DESC;\n\nFor R/3 4.7 you can use the query below (removes the table and index descriptions):\n\nselect sum(s.bytes)/1024/1024 size_mb ,\ns.segment_name table_name\nfrom dba_segments s\nwhere s.segment_name in ('BCST_BOR',\ngroup by s.segment_name, s.segment_type, s.segment_name\nunion all\nselect sum(s.bytes)/1024/1024 size_mb ,\nfrom dba_segments s,\ndba_indexes i\nwhere i.table_name in (\nand i.index_name = s.segment_name\ngroup by s.segment_name, s.segment_type, i.table_name\n) t1\nORDER BY t1.table_name ASC, t1.segment_type DESC;\n\nYou may just be able to see that the SOC3 table is using ~7GB of space with an index of 144MB and a lob object of 64KB.\n\nNow if you run the RSBCS_REORG report using \"Test\" mode, with the settings to remove the documents that are >60 days old, then you can estimate what percentage of records will be removed from table SOC3 and therefore estimate the space saving.\n\nAs a rule of thumb, it may be wise to remove the documents from users who have left the company.\nGenerally the SAP account will be locked, so you can pull the account names using the following SQL query then add them into the RSBCS_REORG report \"User\" field:\n\nSELECT DISTINCT bname FROM sapsr3.usr02 WHERE uflag =128;\n\nNOTE: When running RSBCS_REORG, it will not remove assigned workflows from the \"Workflow\" folder (or sub-folders).\n\nYou may also consider running the report for the user who runs the SAPConnect background job step.  As this user will have the majority of occupied space.\n\nOnce you've deleted the records that are not required, the space in the database tables will be freed.\nHowever, this will not release the space to the rest of the database, only the tables from where the records were deleted.\nStay tuned for my up-coming post on how to free the table segment space after you've removed thousands of records from the Oracle database.\n\nUseful SAP Reports\n\nIt's always good to have the exact report handy, just incase the transaction is not in your SAP role:\n\nBTCTRNS1 - Suspend All Jobs For an Upgrade\nBTCTRNS2 - Un-Suspend All Jobs For an Upgrade\nRDBMIDOC - Create IDocs from change pointers and send.\nRBDMOIND - Status conversion of successfull IDoc communication.\nRSALDBRG - Reorganise CCMS Alert Database\nRSALERTTEST - Test alerts\nRSAVGL00 - Table adjustment across clients\nRSINCL00 - Extended program list\nRSBDCSUB - Release batch-input sessions automaticly\nRSCPINST - Check language installation config.\n\nRSCSAUTH - Authorisations assigned to ABAP reports.\n\nRSTXSCRP - Transport SAPscript files across systems\nRGUGBR00 - Substitution/Validation utility\nRSBCSRE03 - Clean old SOST records (send deliveries)\nRSBDCOS0 - Execute Shell command (non-interactive).\nRSBTCDEL - Clean the old background job records\nRSDBCREO - Clean batch input session log\nRSEIDOCA - Active IDoc Monitoring\nRSORAPATCHINFO - Oracle patch level.\nRSPARAM - Display all instance parameters\nRSPO0041 - Removing old spooling objects\nRSSNAPDL - Clean the old ABAP error dumps\nRSSLG200 - Remove expired application logs (SLG1).\nRSSLGK90 - Delete application logs created before the specified date.\nRSSOREST - Clean old SOST records (send deliveries)\nRSPO1041 - Cross-Client Spool Request Cleanup.\nRSPOR_SETUP - BW / BI Configuration Consistency Check\nRSTXICON - List all icons in the system\nRSTRFCEG - Consistency check of outbound queues (RFC/trfc/qrfc).\nRSUSR002 - Roles by complex selection (new)\nRSUSR003 - Check the passwords of users SAP* and DDIC in all clients\nRSUSR006 - List users last login\nRSUSR020 - Profiles by complex selection\nRSUSR050 - Compare users\nRSUSR070 - Roles by complex selection\nRSUSR200 - List users by login date.\nRSWUWFML2 - Delivers work items via users e-mail address.\nRSWWWIDE - Remove work items and related sub-items.\nRSXMB_CANCEL_MESSAGES - Cancel messages in error.\nRSXMB_CHECK_MSG_QUEUE - Check messages in queue.\nRSXMB_SHOW_STATUS - Show statuses of XI messages in the persistence layer.\nSSF_ALERT_CERTEXPIRE - Certificate expiry check.\n\nTuesday, June 14, 2011\n\nOracle vs SQL Server - I like it!\n\nI found this today\nIt shows a good comparison of basic syntactical differences in SQL Server and Oracle when looking to compare performance / features.\nI especially like the use of blockrecover in RMAN towards the end.  Nice.\n\nJust take a look at the tags for it's hosting blog page and it's obvious which one will win without even reading the slide.\n\nUseful SAP Transactions\n\nHere are a collection of SAP transactions that I find useful:\n\nAISUSER - Solution Manager maintain S-user for maint-opt.\nAL08 - All Users Logged On\nAL13 - Display Shared Memory\nALRTCATDEF - Alert category definitions\nALRTDISP - Alert display\nALTINBOX - Alert inbox\nBDLSS - Shows all items associated with the logical system name.\nBDM7 - ALE Audit Statistics\nBD10 - Send Material Master\nBD12 - Send Customer Master\nBD14 - Send Vendor Master\nBD22 - Reorganise (Delete) Change Pointers\nBD87 - ALE Message Monitor\nBF24 - Create Product (User exits)\nBF34 - Register user exit event to function module.\nCG3Z - Transfer file from frontend.\nCMOD - List user exits\nDB02 - Database Tables/Tablespace Statistics\nDB13 - Database Planning Calendar\nDB14 - Database Operations Log\nDB26 - Database Parameters\nDBCO - External Database Connections in SAP.\nF.10 - GL Accounts\nF110 - BACS Payments\nFBL1N - List Invoice Documents\nIDX1 - Port Maintenance In IDoc Adapter\nIDX2 - Meta Data Overview in IDoc Adapter\nIDX5 - XI IDoc search.\nLISTSCHEMA - BW Lists underlying tables for InfoCubes.\nMMRV - Show current posting period\nOAAD - Archivelink Administration of Stored Documents\nOAER - Business Document Navigator\nOAM1 - ArchiveLink Monitor\nOAC0 - Define content servers\nOAWD - Archivelink Document Storage.\nOB29 - Define Posting Periods (See also SPRO -> Fianncial Accounting -> Financial Accounting Global Settings -> Fiscal Year)\nOMJ3 - Printer Determination by Plant.\nOMJR - Printer Determination by Output Type.\nOS01 - Ping servers\nORA_PERF - Analyse tables, delete statistics.\nOY18 - Reports for table logging.\nPA30 - Maintain HR Master\nPFAL - HR ALE Transfer of Master Data.\nPFCG - Role Maintenance\nPFTC - Workflow task maintenance.\nPFTC_CHG - Change a workflow task.\nPFUD - Profile consistency (mass user comparison) check (schedule job).\nRMPS_SET_SUBSTITUTE - Set Workflow substitute.\nPPOME - HR Mini Master (Personnel Management)\nPPOMW - HR Mini Master (Organisational Management)\nRRMX - Launch BEX Analyser\nRSA7 - BW Delta Queue Maintenance\nRSCSAUTH  - Maintain authorisation groups.\nRSM37 - Display background jobs with parameters.\nRSRDA - Stop all daemons for real-time data acquisition in BW.\nRZ01 - Job Scheduling Monitor.\nRZ03 - Display/ Manully Switch Operation Mode (start/stop instance).\nRZ04 - Maintain Operations Modes\nRZ12 - Maintain RFC groups.\nRZ21 - Monitoring Properties\nRZ70 - SLD Administration\nSA38 - ABAP Reporting\nSAPL0ARC - Archiving Customising For Object.\nSCCL - Local Client Copy.\nSCEM - CATT initial screen.\nSCU3 - Analyse table logging logs\nSDCCN - Service Data Control Centre\nSECR - AIS (Audit Information System)\nSE03 - System Change Option\nSE11 - Data Dictionary Display\nSE21 - Package Builder.\nSE61 - Change display screen text.\nSE93 - Transaction lookup.\nSE37 - ABAP Function Modules\nSE54 - Generate Table Maintenance.\nSBIW - Maintain Business Information Warehouse Data Sources\nSCU0 - Customizing Cross System Viewer\nSLDCHECK - Check status of the SLD\nSLG1 - Analyse application log\nSLG2 - Application Logs Delete\nSMLG - Logon groups.\nSMGW - Gateway monitoring\nSMICM - ICM Monitor\nSMQ1 - qRFC Monitor (Outbound Queue)\nSMQ2 - qRFC Monitor (Inbound Queue)\nSMQ3 - qRFC Monitor (Saved E-Queue)\nSMQE - qRFC Administration\nSMSY - SOLMAN - Landscape Directory\nSMSY_SETUP - Solution Directory Setup\nSMX - Own Jobs\nSM18 - Security Audit Log Reorganisation\nSM19 - Security Audit Log Configuration\nSM20 - Security Audit Log Analysis\nSM35 - Batch Input Log (LSMW etc)\nSM58 - Asynchornous RFC Error Log\nSM63 - Maintain Operation Modes Calendar\nSM64 - Background Jobs Events.\nSM65 - Background processing check.\nSM66 - All processes across system.\nSM69 - Maintain External Commands\nSO36 - Automatic System Forwarding for E-Mails\nSOA0 - ArchiveLink Document Types.\nSOLMAN_WORKCENTER - Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer.\nSP12 - TemSe administration\nSSAA - System Administrator Assistant\nST02 - SAP Buffer Tuning\nST03 - Global Workload Monitor\nST04 - Database Statistics\nST06 - Operating System Monitor\nSUCU - Table / View Authorisations.\nSUGR - User Group Maintenance\nSWDD - Workflow Builder.\nSWDM - Workflow Builder\nSWI1 - Workflow Instance Log\nSWE2 - Workflow linkages\nSWEL - Display Event Trace\nSWELS - Switch on/off event trace\nSWEQADM - Event Queue Administration\nSWEQBROWSER - Event queue browser\nSWO1 - Business Object Builder\nSWU0 - Workflow event simulation\nSWU3 - Workflow customizing\nSWUS - Test Workflow\nSWWL - Delete workflow\nSXMB_MONI - Integration Engine Monitoring\nSXMB_MONI_BPE - Process Engine Monitoring\nSXMB_IFR - Call Integration Builder\nSXMB_ADM - Integration Engine Admin\nSXI_CACHE - XI Directory Cache\nSXI_MONITOR - XI Message Monitoring\nTU02 - Change parameters\nUSMM - User Measurement Statistics.\nWE02 - IDoc Display\nWE07 - IDoc Monitoring\nWE05 - IDoc List.\nWE09 - IDoc Search.\nWE11 - Delete IDocs\nWE19 - IDoc Test Tool\nWE20 - IDoc Partner Profiles\nWE40 - Idoc administration setup\nWE41 - Outbound Process codes.\nWE42 - Inbound process codes.\nWE46 - IDoc Admin\nWE60 - IDoc Types Documentation\nXK02 - Changer Vendor Details\n\nUseful SAP Tables\n\nDuring my time as a SAP BASIS administrator, I have accumulated a number of useful database tables.\n\nADR6 - User Address Data (cross with USR21)\nAGR_1250 - Authorization data for the activity group\nAGR_USERS - Assignment of roles to users\nAGR_SELECT - Assignment of roles to Tcode\nAGR_PROF - Profile name for role\nAGR_DEFINE - Role definition\nBDCPS - Change Pointers\nDDLOG - Table buffer changes for sync between dialog instances.\nDD02T - SAP Tables and descriptions.\nDD09L - SAP Tables (with logging PROTOKOLL=X)\nPA0105 - HR Communications InfoType (includes USERID to PERNO).\nSH_PRIN - Printer list\nTADIR - Repository object table.\nTBRG - All Authorisation Groups.\nTDDAT - Tables to Authorisation Groups.\nTBTCP - Background Job Steps (see field AUTHCKNAM for job user)\nTOLE - OLE Link table\nUSR02 - User passwords.\nUSR01 - Users.\nUSR04 - User Master Authorisations.\nUSR10 - Authorisation Profiles.\nUST04 - Users to profiles.\nTDEVC - Package table.\nTSP03D - Printer Output Devices\nTST03 - Spool requests\nTSTC - Transactions\nTVARV - Variant Variables\nVARI - Variants\n\nMonday, June 13, 2011\n\nUse of Oracle AWR / ASH leading to bad coding?\n\nI had a brief email exchange with another Oracle guru the other day.\nHe suggested that the quality of Oracle coding in PL*SQL and Plain Jane ( SQL had gone down hill.\n\nThis could be attributed to two factors:\n1, The level of coding experience has dropped.  Older more experienced coders have filled into the new architect roles and the void is being filled quickly by newer in-experienced coders.\n2, The rigour with which debugging, testing and tuning is performed has become somewhat lax ( ) because there's just no emphasis on the developers to tune their code when the DBA has such great tools to do it for them.\n\nIs it possible that the use of the additionally licensed tools such as AWR (Automatic Workload Repository) and ASH (Active Session History) introduced in Oracle 10g, have provided an easy mechanism for DBAs to seek out better performance.\nI don't think these tools are just for DBAs, but the way they are marketed makes me feel they are pushed that way.\n\nSunday, June 12, 2011\n\nRunning Oracle (Windows vs UNIX/Linux)\n\nFor most of my IT career I've been using UNIX/Linux (let's call this ULix to save my fingers) to run Oracle.\nHumans are creatures of habit (like cats and so why would I want to change this.\nRunning Oracle on ULix is a measured quantity.  It works, it's reliable, you can tune it and then you can really tune it.\n\nWhilst browsing my book library I came across a book I've had for years:\n\"Configuring & Tuning Databases on the Solaris Platform\" by Allan N. Packer\nIf you have ever wondered what the possibilities are in tuning an Oracle system on ULix, then read this book.  It might be old, but it's a good one, and it establishes all the basic principles of tuning.\n\nNow if we were to consider running Oracle on Windows (, then out-of-the-box ( it would work perfectly fine.\n\nMicrosoft have made vast improvements to the monitoring/tuning capabilities in newer Windows Server versions, but I don't think this can compare to the flexibility of monitoring/tuning in ULix.\nI find it very difficult to profile a database on Windows.\nThink about it, where can I see the individual shadow processes ( at the OS level?\n\nOn Tanel Poder's company's website, there's a great whitepaper \"Understanding LGWR, Log File Sync Waits and Commit Performance\".\nIn this whitepaper, Tanel mentions monitoring and tuning the Oracle log writer (LGWR) process to get better CPU time.  I thought to myself, how would someone do this on Windows?\n\nI really don't think you can.\nTo summarise: I like Windows, it can run Oracle RDBMS perfectly fine, but it's not as flexible as running on ULix.\n\nFriday, June 10, 2011\n\nBasic Performance Tuning Guide - SAP NetWeaver 7.0 - Part I - Finding Slow Running Programs\n\nFor me, as a BASIS administrator, it's the most fun part of the job.  Performance tuning!\nI enjoy making things faster, more efficient.  It seems German ( in some ways, and I guess that I must have a little OCD in me, but it's rewarding.\n\nI can't believe how simple performance tuning can be sometimes.  If I write the process down it even seems simple:\n1, Find slow running programs.\n2, Analyse why they are slow or poor performers.\n3, Tune them.\n4, Cup of tea.\n5, See them fly.\n\nFor those Lean Six Sigma followers, this fits in with DMAIC ( quite nicely.\nI bet it would even look good on a fish bone diagram ( (sorry, I did mean \"cause & effect diagram\" honest).\n\nI'm going to break these steps down.\n\nLet's start with number 1:\nFind Slow Running Programs\nSo you have your new SAP system all installed.\nThe consultancy that briskly implemented it and have now rolled-off, have left it running beautifully (\nWhy wouldn't they.\nAs an operations specialist (, you get called in.\nOf course, you're an expert and you know that profiling a system is one of those tasks that needs to be done to help you troubleshoot performance problems.  But being an expert, you also know that there are bigger fish to fry after a fresh implementation of anything.\nSo we assume that it is not plausible to use a comparative profile of before and after performance.\n\nLet's assume that a report/transaction has been reported as running slowly today by a single user (one helpdesk ticket\nYou're on the case and you can look at the problem right now.\nWhat's you're first call?\nWrong!  Crying won't get you anywhere!\nWe need to see if the problem is caused by the system in general, the user (sometimes you do get them) or something else.\nI always use the following methods:\n\n1, Check SM66 (global work process overview). It's easier than checking SM50, then remembering that you're on a system with Apps servers (additional dialog instances).\nWhat's currently running?\nLook specifically at the \"Time\" and \"Action\" columns:\n\nSM66 global work process overview\n\nIf there are any long running programs (large \"Time\" values) in the list, what \"Action\" are they performing?  Could it affect the report that the user has identified as being slow?\n\n2, Check SM21 (System Log) always good to keep abreast of potential system wide issues!  Brownie points ( from the big boss for being so quick!\nAny problems in here will also mention short dumps in ST22, so no need to check ST22 unless it's in the system log.\n\n3, Check STAD (SAP Workload - Single Business Transactions).  This shows specific transactions that the user has completed in the <n>hours (after this they get aggregated and shown in ST03N/ST03G depending on your collector settings).\nUse the \"Show Business Transaction Tots\" option, it's easier to see the wood for the trees (\nEnter the username into the filter and adjust the time period to search for (when did the problem happen?).\n\n STAD single business transactions\n\nGreat!  You can see the individual transactions performed by the user (even ITS based services e.g. BSPs will be shown):\n\nTIP: Try it without the filter on a small system to see what you can actually get.  It's quite a lot of information.  RFCs, background jobs, HTTP.\n\nSTAD business transaction analysis\n\nCheck out the \"Response Time\", \"CPU time\" and \"DB req time\" columns.\nSee if any specific transaction stands out above the rest for these three values.\n\nIf you expand the \"+\" folder on the very left, you will see each dialog step (screen) that the user has been through:\n\n STAD business transaction analysis output\n\nThe time gap between each screen is the previous screens response time + roll-time + front-end time + \"Think Time\".\n\nSo now you've found the slow program, you need to analyse it.\nPart II of this guide shows how to read and decipher the single record statistics using STAD.\nPart III of this guide shows how to perform an SQL Trace.\n\nAre you sure I'm not a consultant\n\nI'd like to mention the growing (in my mind anyway) disparity between an operational support person and a consultant.\nHaving spent some time in contact with various recruitment agencies, I can understand how single words specified on a requirements brief from the client must be followed as accurately as possible.\nThe client, after all, wants the perfect candidate don't they?!\n\nI've worked on both sides of the coin you see.\nI started off as an apprentice in an IT department in the late nineties.\nCustomer satisfaction is key when you're in an IT department working the helpdesk.  Even if you're second line (which infers a military comparison, doesn't it?, you may be rated on your comms skills, how efficient you were and how accurate (first time fix).\nSo I can understand that supporting something that is already installed and working would be viewed as operational support and not consultancy.\n\nI've also worked for a consultancy, quite a big one.  I wasn't called a consultant, but if you work for a consultancy you must be? right?\n\nBut wait, doesn't an internal IT department upgrade stuff?  performance tune?  generate ideas?\nAre we saying that IT departments just do these things without talking to the business side.  I think not.  I remember many meetings where new ideas had been conceived in the IT department and were conveyed to the business.\nIs this not consulting? Advising what would be best for the business and the technology.  I don't know any IT department today that would contemplate changing anything without consulting with the business first.\n\nSo if we're saying that IT departments do consult, the difference between a consultant and operational support must be in the *type* of consulting right?\nYou could argue that a consultant has more \"soft\" skills.  Um, like a salesman perhaps?\nOr would you argue that a consultant may have broader knowledge.  Possibly.  More of a fish eye? (,_master_of_none).\nHmm, I can't see how this is different either.  You are either very good at these things (IT skills) or you're not.\nThe only difference is when you consider a company wanting change, but not having the skills internally.  Wouldn't that force them to use an external consultancy?  Someone *else* to consult with.\n\nI think a \"consultant\" today is someone who has managed to escape the IT department.  He's a free radical (  But without the other elements he's not got anything to bond with.  He's able to offer unbounded ideas and generally gets the biggest budget (and sometimes some training), but he's not able to evolve into anything more complex.  He came, he saw, he implemented, he left.  There's a bigger side to this implementation lark, and it happens to be operational support!\nHurrah to the helpdesk operators, the backup tape changers and the email mailbox size limiting people (\n\nSome of the best, most talented people I've ever worked with have been working in operational support.  Fantastic, creative ideas ingeniously devised in the smallest of rooms at the eleventh hour ( to stop the world ending (or the system from crashing) on a system that was implemented 20+ years ago.  How can these people not be consultants?  Maybe they're too honest ;-)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9789562225341797}
+{"content": "Elizabeth Evans\nSimple Simon & Company\n\nElizabeth Evans\n\nElizabeth Evans is one of the “Elizabeths” that make up Simple Simon and Company, a website dedicated to sewing, quilting, crafting and the art of homemaking. Elizabeth started sewing as a teenager, but it wasn’t until the birth of her children that she fell in love with pattern-drafting, designing, and sewing children’s clothing. She has a passion for all things do-it-yourself, and can’t make it through the day without binding a quilt, sewing a seam, drafting a pattern, revitalizing old furniture, or writing blog tutorials.\n\nElizabeth is a mom to three amazing children who inspire her every day, but as a young stay at home mom, she yearned for something that would stay “done” every day. Dishes were constantly getting dirty, laundry needed to be re-done day after day…but she found that she could sew a skirt or a baby bib and it was so rewarding. Now, she often advises moms to creatively “do something every day that can’t be undone.”\n\nAs part of Simple Simon and Company, Elizabeth enjoys creating simple sewing and quilting tutorials and views sewing as something that is do-able for all. She truly believes the motto that “anyone can sew” and tries to write tutorials and patterns with beginners in mind.\n\nLiz Evans\n\nElizabeth Evans never planned on sewing, or doing anything remotely domestic, even though she was raised by women who were crafty homemakers. After graduating from a university with her degree in art she began her teaching career. Plans soon changed however, when her first son Simon was born. When Simon arrived, Elizabeth found herself more drawn to staying at home with her new found love. By the time Simon was two Elizabeth had changed careers and had become a full time homemaker (a move that surprised everyone, including herself).\n\nIt was during this time that Elizabeth's mom convinced her to take a quilting class, a course that would change Elizabeth's future. While in the class, Elizabeth fell in love with the fabrics and found the very real connection between the fiber arts and the fine arts which she so much enjoyed. From then on Elizabeth was hooked. Elizabeth started with quilt blocks but quickly moved into garment sewing with the birth of her next two children (both girls). She found sewing dresses and garments for these little ladies to be an absolute joy.\n\nFive years ago Elizabeth and her sister in law (also is named Elizabeth Evans) tried an experiment to see if they could sew and blog about a new project every day for 30 days. In the beginning they weren't sure they would have enough ideas to fill 30 days but it sounded like a fun spring project. But, at the end of the 30 days they surprisingly had more project ideas than they started with! At this point, they had no intention of stopping the experiment and so Simple Simon and Company was born. It is now a community where they share tips, tricks, and tutorials about sewing, quilting, and the art of homemaking on a daily basis with other like minded ladies.\n\nLooking back Elizabeth laughs at her previous self. It's been almost a decade that she has been sewing, quilting, and embracing all things connected to the art of homemaking, and she has loved every second of it. Elizabeth is head over heels in love with her family and this new path she has taken with sewing, quilting, and designing fabrics and patterns. She eagerly looks forward to where this path is going to take her and is grateful everyday for where she is in her life....which is so far away from where she intended to be!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7812893390655518}
+{"content": "Monday, April 10, 2017\n\nThe Wildlife in Tohono O'odham Nation\n\nOne thing became abundantly clear to me through this class. To the Tohono O'odham Nation, almost everything in the desert is sacred. Every fruit, shrub bush, rock, tortoise, coyote, javelina, and cactus carries significant value to the Tohono O'odham. They have electrified every patch of their home with immense cultural significance. Every vista is a religious experience and every action is an act of worship. But as I scanned through my little field guide on wildlife in southern Arizona, I found my self tremendously sad. Some of the inhabitants, who made this desert so significant for some many were gone. Cougars and Mexican gray wolves, who used to roam the mountains, had not been seen here for some time. Several species of birds were gone too. In their places, the only animals which carry no cultural signicacne to the Tohono O'odham were in abundance, horses and cows.\n\nAnother thing, which became abundantly clear to me through this class, is that the land is changing, changing irrevocably. What happens when a population, whose entire culture centers on their land, loses their land forever? This is worse than displacement. Displacement could be reversed, the land is still there. The Tohono O'odham face the the possibility of their land being changed into something else entirely. It is unfortunate really, Arizona sits in the middle of a huge chunk of land which is liable to morph into something new. As the earth's climate warms, the Sonoran desert specifically will receive significantly more rainfall. New species of flora and fauna will begin to thrive in the area, and the desert, with its unbelievable beauty and importance will be lost. Additionally, human intervention has and will, most likely, continue to introduce invasive species into the area which further alter the desert. Buffelgrass already threatens so much of the equilibrium of the desert. It takes everything the National Parks Service can do to keep the species off of the Saguaro National Park. Furthermore, continued sprawl from Tuscon and other population centers (its cheaper to build out than it is to build up) will continue to shrink and separate ecosystems. Species like the mountain lion and gray wolf, most likely, aren't coming back to the area, and more species will continue to be lost. Tortoises and Saguaros will continue to be killed by immigrants, and, if something isn't done, the Tohono O'odham people will lose everything, because to them the land is everything.\n\nOn Tepary Bean Production\n\nI found myself quite impressed by Pepe's presentation on Tepary Beans. So much of what we have discussed in this class values more traditional approaches above all else. In fact, nearly every class mentioned the advantages for the Tohono O'odham people in utilizing traditional practices. Our class trip even hit many of the highlights and nearly every individual associated with the tribe (and some individuals not associated with the tribe) emphasized the necessity to move toward more traditional techniques in many sections of Tohono O'odham culture. But Pepe's presentation highlight a specific advantage of modern techniques, a relatively new dialogue regarding Tohono O'odham Nation.\n\nAlbiet, increased Tepary Bean production, no matter how the tepary beans are farmed, allows for a greater traditional presence among the Tohono O'odham. But, as Pepe showed, modern techniques could be more advantageous for the Tohono O'odham regarding scaled up production of Tepary Beans. As Pepe showed, initially the cultural benefits of traditional Tepary Bean production outweigh the additional profit gained from more modern farming techniques. But as bean production scales up (and it would need to scale up significantly to make a profound difference to the O'odham people) the efficiency of modern farming practices becomes the most advantageous route. It is unclear where this intersection point occurs, and if Tohono O'odham Nation could support a sufficiently large Tepary Bean yield to justify modern practices. But my intuition is that the intersection point would be reached within the scope of Tepary Bean production in Tohono O'odham Nation. Here a modern technique, able to more efficiently offer the health and cultural benefits of Tepary Beans to the Tohono O'odham population, appears to be the best best route to take. Instead of simply valuing everything traditional over everything modern, the tribe members of Tohono O'odham Nation can see powerful, positive effects on their culture through a path between traditional and modern practices.\n\nBorderlands literature and Capabilities\n\nI had not heard of borderlands literature before Mary Kate's presentation, so the idea was new to me. As I understood it, borderlands literature discusses a culture which tends to be prevalent on borders, whether they be geographical, psychological, or emotional. The genre first appeared on the U.S., Mexico border but appears to be applicable to all types of borders throughout the nation. Mary Kate concluded that the O'odham experience carries similarities to a borderlands experience, but their culture should not be viewed through this lens. She finished her presentation by stating \"if you only focus on this (meaning the borderlands experience), you lose important parts of the O'odham experience.\" I agree with this analysis. From what I can gather, the mindset of the O'odham people is influenced by their proximity to the U.S., Mexico border, but they are not defined by the border. Jumping from Mary Kate's presentation, I began to understand yet another possible negative consequence of the border to the O'odham people.\n\nThere is a danger of cultural marginalization here. If the O'odham culture, the mindset of the tribespeople, and the requests they make are viewed as the result of their proximity to the border, you lose the weight and importance of thousands of years of heritage. It might seem that borderlands literature is not part of the mainstream dialogue, and, therefore, this culture marginalization is not a pressing concern. But I think, even without a knowledge of borderlands literature, many pundits use many of the concepts presented within the literature. The idea of border towns, literally entire communities defined by their proximity to the border, shows how our mainstream dialogue defines areas and individuals. Additionally, if we accept a borderlands culture as a given in areas near a border, then we may accept much of the crime and poverty that is common on some borders as a given. It is clear that viewing the Tohono O'odham as a borderlands culture carries negative consequences.\n\nThe negative consequences are all part of the unjust structure of our border. Martha Nussbaum defines minimum social justice through 10 central capabilities. The U.S., Mexico border is a clear violation of Nussbaum's 3rd central capability: bodily integrity. To summarize, bodily integrity means that individuals are entitled to move freely from place to place and not be assaulted. Because so many Tohono O'odham do not have passport and because the San Miguel gate has been closed for some time, the tribe members are cut off from access to half of their ancestral lands. It is unjust for a political border to restrict individuals of their freedom to move from place to place, especially to move from place to place in the lands of their heritage. As a result of this unjust situation, the Tohono O'odham see many negative consequences, including cultural marginalization.\n\nInfant Mortality and Midwives\n\nAs many of you learned in my presentation, I wrote my final research paper on infant mortality in Tohono O'odham Nation. I concluded that the most compelling explanation for the high infant mortality rate of Tohono O'odham Nation is the prevalence of diabetes on the reservation. This remains a sound conclusion, but other information, which I have since gathered, could shed additional light on the problem.\n\nIn an entirely different class, my final research project analyzed the relation between infant health and proximity to various medical facilities in Ghana. As I established in my research paper, Tohono O'odham Nation actually shares many characteristics with underdeveloped countries such as Ghana. In my research project, I did not find a significant correlation between infant health in Ghana and proximity to hospitals, nurses, clinics, or maternity homes. But I did find that infant health is positively correlated with proximity to a midwife at the 1% level. In fact, proximity to a midwife was the single largest predictor of infant health outcomes included in our regression. Therefore, it follows that midwives could have the same positive affects on infant health outcomes in Tohono O'odham Nation.\n\nIf the tribal government pushes for more individuals to work as midwives on the reservation. They could also be investing in a solution which aligns closely with traditional tribal values. The midwives of Ghana, which were so effective, often did not use advanced medical technology and methods to safely care for and deliver infants. Instead, these midwives relied on traditional methods and many generations of accumulated information regarding child birth. It is likely that Tohono O'odham culture carries a similar knowledge of child birth and prenatal care. As we've discussed in this class, traditional routes of solving problems in native american nations are often times the most effective long term. My two recommendations for addressing infant mortalities both involve more traditional methods. First, as I discussed in my paper, confronting the type II diabetes epidemic in Tohono O'odham Nation is key. This can be done by movement toward a more traditional diet for Tohono O'odham tribal members as we have discussed in this class. Second, prenatal and infant care can be improved through traditional methods with midwives.\n\nWe have even seen midwives have similar success in the U.S.. I'll link a couple of articles here:\n\nShadow Wolves Tracking Skills\n\n            The skills used by the Shadow Wolves seem unbelievable, even verging on magical, to outsiders, yet to them it is a way of life.  The way they make their job look easy is by constant practice.  Further, training to be a Shadow Wolf is not like ICE or CBP training where an individual goes off to a month of training.  Rather, it is the team working together, constantly improving their own skills and learning off each other, like a wolf pack.  While the requirement of being 1/4th Native American to join the program may draw some people to the conclusion that the native peoples are naturally better at tracking than a non-native, rather some Native Americans have far more practice having begun tracking game for food, and hunting down stray free range cattle .  Sioux Indian John Bothof explains that “Just because you’re Native American, you don’t always have inherent tracking skills…Over time, anybody can be taught the basics, but it takes on-going practice to keep the edge and retain what it takes to be a success” .\n            The process that the Shadow Wolves use, called cutting for sign, may be old fashioned, but in the dessert climate it has its advantages, “Part of what makes the Shadow Wolves so indispensable here has to do with the region's deadly heat, which debilitates things like infrared sensors and smart-nosed dogs. And part of it has to do with the region's far-flung geography, which discourages the sort of fixed towers and manned gates” .  Still their ancient skills are what enables them to excel in any environment. \n\nSunday, April 9, 2017\n\nExtended Family\n\nAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, 54% of all children aged 0-5 on Tohono O'odham land are living with extended family as their primary caretakers. This means that no parents of the child are present in the home, and the primary caretaker (usually grandparents) are in full responsibility. Only 44% of TO children 0-5 are living in a household with at least one parent as the primary caretaker. This can be compared to the total Indian rates in Arizona of 46% living with extended family and 53% with parents.\n\nSingle homes occupied by more than immediate family are incredibly common in Indian communities. This traditional incorporation of all members of the family has been said to help maintain culture, especially relative to story-telling. However, if parents are not the primary caretakers, how can that be related to that actual environment these children are being raised in? It's one thing if grandparents are voluntarily taking kids in for better housing and care (it's often the case that the demands of the parents' work requires additional supervision). But by this metric, 54% of all TO children are not  living with either parent, meaning all responsibilities of child upbringing rely on extended family. This is not an attempt at cultural preservation, but it is often \"due to the parent’s  death,  physical  or  mental  illness,  substance   abuse,  incarceration,  unemployment  or  underemployment  or  because  of  domestic  violence  or   child  neglect  in  the  family.\" The link to the report is:\n\nDeclining Population\n\nAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Tohono O'odham population with residency on Indian reservations dropped by 5%. Comparatively, reservation resident populations dropped 1% throughout Arizona, while the total population of Arizona grew by 25% over that same period. Furthermore, rural districts of all Tohono O'odham lands were the ones seeing growth while historical population centers on TO reservation lands have been experiencing the brunt of the emigration (nominally as well as relative rates). Considering the incredible influx of non-Indian residents into the state of Arizona, I wonder how government aid programs will respond to the per capita demands of non-Indian vs. Indian need. For example, what changes will have to be made to Arizona's funding of medical programs? If they don't distinguish between demographics, will that cause the overall per-capita budget for healthcare funding to drop? What if they do distinguish? Would subjective overhaul of medical programs lead to issues like type II diabetes receiving less coverage? What effect would the high rate of alcoholism play within the reservation?\n\nI doubt healthcare funding would take any approach that bases per-capita funding strictly on income or some form of economic importance. However, I don't think it would be absurd for healthcare programs to begin restricting funding for preventable health issues (you know, like type II diabetes, alcoholism...). The largest issue is that these preventable healthcare issues, which will likely see budget cuts with the aging population (baby-boomers), are a predominant outcome of poverty. Therefore, to what degree would the TO see healthcare costs increase for issues inherently related to their poverty? It may seem wrong to subjectively cut funding for issues related to poverty, but I doubt many think the man with the bar room tan should get a state-funded liver transplant either.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.559687614440918}
+{"content": "Corey Harouff received a disturbing phone call Tuesday night. A student Harouff knew through his nonprofit, Rapid City Young Life, was using the social media app Snapchat and saw a message from another student that bothered him.\n\n\"He's going to kill himself,\" Harouff recalled the student telling him. \n\nHarouff got the student's name, called dispatch and relayed the information to authorities. Pennington County sheriff's deputies were eventually able to locate the student before he could harm himself. \n\nHarouff shared the story Wednesday night at a special meeting organized by the Rapid City school district to address a recent rash of suicides that has alarmed the community. Since mid-July, eight local students and one school staff member have died, and three of those deaths were by suicide. \n\nA diverse panel of school officials, local law enforcement and mental health experts held an hourlong discussion that focused on suicide prevention and how to connect with students who may be thinking about hurting themselves. \n\nMore than 100 people attended the meeting in the City/School Administration Center in the Council Chambers. The first floor of the chambers was so crowded that school officials opened a second room on the floor above, where another group listened to the discussion via speaker. Members of the public were allowed to write in questions but were not given time during the meeting to address panel members directly.\n\nSeveral people on the panel emphasized the importance of listening to students who are experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts. It's \"the most important thing you can do,\" said Stephanie Schweitzer Dixon, executive director of the Front Porch Coalition. The Rapid City nonprofit provides prevention, intervention and \"postvention\" services to prevent the incidence of suicide, according to its website. \n\nSchweitzer Dixon presented a slideshow that included tips for how to talk to children about suicide. The entire community, whether it's schoolteachers, parents or foster parents, must ask specific questions such as, \"How can I help you?\" or \"What can I do to help you right now?\" Schweitzer Dixon said. \n\nThe use of social media and its effect on children's happiness was also raised during the discussion. \"Social media is so addicting for all of us,\" said school liaison officer Eric Dwyer. \n\nEach year, fewer and fewer kids are physically getting together for activities or simple things like going outside, Dwyer said. \"I think that's so sad.\" \n\nHe encouraged parents to wait until their children are older before allowing them to create social media accounts. Dwyer said he didn't know what the appropriate age is. \"21?\" he jokingly suggested, prompting many in the crowd to chuckle. \n\nDwyer turned serious again when he brought up his own 15-year-old son and the thought of giving him access to social media. \"I don't know when I'm going to give it to him. Not yet.\" \n\nMatthew Seebaum, assistant superintendent of educational services, said the entire school district will implement a risk assessment survey for students who are suicidal. If a school receives a report of a student who is suicidal, staff will determine whether the person is a low, moderate or high risk. Based on that information, staff will decide what kind of services the student needs. \n\nSchool spokeswoman Katy Urban said the district already uses a similar system but hopes to put a formal process in place soon.\n\nCharles Sitting Bull, who has participated in suicide prevention efforts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, said he has been tracking the number of suicide deaths there since late 2014, and \"the numbers are staggering.\" \n\nGang violence and other tragedies have increased the need for counselors on the reservation, he said. \n\nAfter the meeting several panel members, including Harouff, hung around to chat with parents. Harouff shared stories of other students he had helped who were on the brink of ending their life. He became emotional while recalling the times he cried with them while they recounted their troubles, and mentioned one instance in which he had to physically restrain a student from hurting himself. \n\nDespite the recent string of suicide deaths and growing concerns over cyberbullying, what happened Tuesday night was a victory for Harouff and law enforcement in their effort to reach children who are going through a crisis. \n\n\"Social media just saved a kid's life yesterday,\" Harouff told the panel.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8158383369445801}
+{"content": "man grabbing chest\n\nWhat Are Heart Palpitations And Should You Worry?\n\nHave you ever felt like your heart was fluttering, skipping a beat, or pounding just a little too hard? Does it sometimes happen after one too many cups of coffee or if you’re feeling stressed over work or school? This uncomfortable and often unnerving sensation is called a heart palpitation and can be felt in your chest, throat, or neck.\n\nAlthough the feeling can be alarming, they are usually nothing serious to worry about and will resolve on their own. Some causes of heart palpitations include:\n\nHowever, it is important to understand that heart palpitations can be caused by serious health problems, like an arrhythmia (an abnormal heart rhythm). You might also experience palpitations for the following reasons:\n\nIt is always best to consult your doctor if you are having heart palpitations for the first time or if you notice a sudden increase or change in them. Also, if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms along with your heart palpitations, you should seek medical attention immediately:\n\n  • Loss of consciousness\n  • Chest pain\n  • Shortness of breath\n  • Unusual sweating\n  • Dizziness or light-headedness\n\nIf it has been confirmed by your doctor that your heart palpitations are not caused by a serious issue, there are ways you can help prevent them from home. Try getting regular exercise, reducing your caffeine intake, or practicing deep relaxation techniques.\n\nIf you have had heart palpitations and are unsure of the source, it couldn’t hurt to visit your doctor to be sure they are not part of a larger health problem. Visit the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute online or call 1-855-UPMC-HVI (876-2484) to schedule an appointment to learn more.\n\nLearn more about your heart health by attending a free community heart screening.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6690390110015869}
+{"content": "Garden & Greenhouse\n\n\nParameters for Hydroponic Nutrient Solutions\n\nPosted August 23rd, 2017 by Robin Nichols in\n\nOne very important aspect of hydroponic gardening is maintaining consistent parameters in the nutrient solution. After all, the nutrient solution is where the plant derives all of its nutrition for growth. In a hydroponic system, there are many variables which all play vital roles in the plant’s ability to uptake and use nutrients. In addition to having control over lighting and ventilation, every hydroponic gardener must have the ability to control the parameters of his or her nutrient solution.\n\nAll hydroponic gardens are different so there is no “one-size-fits-all” technique or product that will maintain a consistent hydroponic nutrient solution. However, a better understanding of each individual parameter and how it affects growth in the garden will give hydroponic gardeners the knowledge to maintain parameters as close as possible to optimal levels. The four most important parameters that affect the way plants respond to a hydroponic nutrient solution are pH, concentration of nutrients, temperature and dissolved oxygen content.\n\nPotential Hydrogen (pH)\n\nThe potential hydrogen, or pH, scale is a system of measurement that determines the concentration of hydrogen ions. In a garden, the pH scale is used to measure the acidity or alkalinity of a growing medium, water source, or nutrient solution. The pH scale consists of number values between 0 and 14 (with 7 being pH neutral). A neutral pH means the substance being measured has neither an acidic nor an alkaline pH, but instead sits directly between the two. Numbers on the pH scale below 7 represent acidity while numbers above 7 represent alkalinity.\n\nIt is important to remember that the pH scale is an exponential logarithmic scale. In other words, the intensity of the acidity or alkalinity increases exponentially as the value gets farther away from the neutral point of 7. In fact, each number on the pH scale represents an increase or decrease in potential hydrogen by ten-fold. This means that a pH value of 4 is ten times more acidic than a pH value of 5 and is 100 times more acidic than a pH value of 6. As pH values increase above 7, the same holds true for alkalinity. For example, a pH value of 10 is ten times more alkaline than a pH value of 9 and is 100 times more alkaline than a pH value of 8.\n\nIn a hydroponic solution, the pH value will influence the plant’s availability to absorb nutrients. Put another way, there is a pH range that is most suitable for nutrient absorption. If the pH level moves too far from that suitable range, certain elements will become “locked out” or no longer available to the plants. The ideal pH range for nutrient absorption for most plants in a hydroponic system falls in the 5-6 pH range. The maximum absorption range for many plant species falls in the 5.5-5.8 pH range. Hydroponic systems do not have a medium to buffer the pH like plants in soil and, because of this; the pH value can fluctuate more rapidly. This is one of the reasons why it is so important for hydroponic gardeners to monitor the pH levels of their nutrient solutions on a regular basis.\n\nWhen pH fluctuations occur, it is important for hydroponic gardeners to catch it quickly and to correct the pH of the nutrient solution. As with other aspects of hydroponic horticulture, consistency is the key. The more consistently a grower can keep his or her nutrient solution within the desired pH range, the more efficiently the plants can uptake nutrients. In other words, when the pH is kept within the desired range, the plants can continue to grow at a fast rate without the risk of a nutrient lock out due to pH imbalances.\n\nNutrient Concentration\n\nThe actual concentration of nutrients in the water is another critical factor for a hydroponic nutrient solution. Just about every nutrient manufacturer has its own suggested nutrient concentration for hydroponic applications. This is usually expressed in either parts per million (PPM), total dissolved solids (TDS), or electric conductivity (EC). PPM is a form of measurement used to determine the concentration of diluted substances. One PPM is equal to 1 milligram of substance per liter of water. In hydroponic gardening, PPM and TDS are used to express the amount of nutrients in the water. PPM and TDS are just different terms that express the same thing. These measurements are taken by using an electronic conductivity device that automatically converts the EC reading into a PPM/TDS format. Some of the older meters do not convert the EC values into a PPM or TDS value. In this case, the gardener can either make the calculation to determine the PPM/TDS or use the EC value itself as a reference point.\n\nJust like pH monitoring, it is important for a hydroponic gardener to regularly check the nutrient concentration of the nutrient solution. If the concentration becomes too low, the plants may not be receiving all they need to sustain accelerated growth rates. This may lead to slowed growth and/or nutrient deficiencies. If the nutrient solution becomes over concentrated, this can cause serious burning or lock out issues, which can also lead to nutrient deficiencies. Put another way, when the concentration of nutrients is not consistently kept in the desired range, the plants will not be able to perform up to their full potential. Unfortunately, the nutrient manufacturer’s suggested dosage is just a starting point. It is ultimately up to the grower to determine the appropriate nutrient concentration depending on the stage of growth, type of crop, and environmental factors, such as enriched CO2 levels.\n\n\nThe temperature of a hydroponic nutrient solution is another pivotal factor over success. For most hydroponic systems, the ideal temperature should fall in the 65-72 degrees F range. It is important to remember that in most hydroponic systems the nutrient solution is taken from the reservoir and then makes direct contact with the plant’s roots. Because of this, the root mass of the plant will be greatly affected by the temperature of the nutrient solution. If the nutrient solution is too cold, the plant’s ability to uptake nutrients will slow down. In extreme cases, cold temperatures in the nutrient solution can cause the plant to stop taking up nutrients all together. When a nutrient solution is too cold, the plants will show signs of stress that often mimic nutrient deficiency symptoms. This can make it hard to correctly identify temperature as the culprit. Regular monitoring of the nutrient solution’s temperature is imperative for hydroponic gardeners.\n\nWhile monitoring the reservoir for cold temperatures is important, most hydroponic gardeners are battling the other end of the spectrum: heat. When the temperature of a nutrient solution rises above the desired range, it can adversely affect the way the plants grow. In fact, a nutrient solution with a temperature that is too warm will open up the possibility of pathogens that can quickly destroy an otherwise healthy hydroponic garden. The main reason why too warm temperatures are detrimental in a hydroponic system is because of the way temperature affects the dissolved oxygen content.\n\nDissolved Oxygen Content (DO)\n\nIn layman’s terms, dissolved oxygen is oxygen (O2) in gas form held in-between the water molecules. Dissolved oxygen levels in tap water are typically between 5-7 PPM at room temperature. Fully oxygenated water at 68 degrees F will hold about 9 PPM of DO. As the temperature of a nutrient solution increases, its ability to hold gas (O2) decreases. In other words, the warmer the water, the less dissolved oxygen it contains. When the temperature of a nutrient solution becomes too warm and the dissolved oxygen content decreases, the possibility of anaerobic pathogens increases. Anaerobic pathogens can only take hold in an oxygen-depleted environment. Root rot is the most common anaerobic pathogen to plague hydroponic gardens with warm water temperatures.\n\nTo maintain high levels of dissolved oxygen, horticulturists need to have control over the nutrient solution’s temperature. Perhaps the most effective way to control temperatures in a hydroponic system is to invest in a water chiller. A water chiller is a device much like an air conditioner, but for water. The nutrient solution can be cycled through the water chiller and, ideally, chilled to the desired temperature range. Many hydroponic gardeners are turning to electrolysis devices which actually separate the oxygen and hydrogen from water molecules. In the process, the electrolysis increases the amount of dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution.\n\nMaintaining consistent parameters in a nutrient solution is crucial to having a successful hydroponic system. Potential hydrogen (pH), nutrient concentration (PPM, TDS, EC), temperature, and dissolved oxygen (DO) each play their own important roles in the crop’s ability to uptake and use nutrients. Hydroponic gardeners who understand each of these parameters and how each affects the garden will be able to more quickly identify problems and more seamlessly implement the parameters needed to sustain accelerated growth. In a hydroponic system, the nutrient solution is, in many ways, the equivalent of soil. In other words, all of the plant’s nutrition and the root’s access to oxygen come from the nutrient solution. When all the parameters of a nutrient solution are dialed in to the desired range, the plants will have access to the nutrients and oxygen they need to produce vibrant and abundant yields.\n\nEric Hopper resides in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula where he enjoys gardening and pursuing sustainability. He is a Garden & Greenhouse senior editor and can be contacted at\n\nRead More Articles\n\nDo-It-Yourself Hydroponics\n\nHydroponic Systems in a Greenhouse\n\nTroubleshooting Hydroponic System Problems\n\nUnderstanding Hydroponic Nutrients for Plant Growth\n\nFree Subscription to Garden & Greenhouse Magazine\n\nFree Subscription to Garden & Greenhouse Email Newsletter", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8413997292518616}
+{"content": "We want the people to focus on Khayyam’s nationality: American curator\n\nJanuary 15, 2009\n\nRASHT -- Harry Ransom Center, which is a cultural, artistic institution located in the University of Texas at Austin, announced last week that it will be inaugurating the exhibition of “Persian Sensation” from Feb 3 to Aug 2.\n\nThe exhibition of 200 items from the Ransom Center’s diverse collections introduces the unique cultural phenomenon of the “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”, which is a gnostic and mystical collection of Persian poems by the world renowned polymath and poem, Hakim Omar Khayyam, translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859.\nIn order to elicit the elaborated information on the details of exhibition, Tehran Times held an exclusive interview with Molly Schwartzburg, the Ransom Center’s curator of British and American literature and co-curator of the exhibition.\nWhat follows is the complete text of an Internet interview with Mrs. Schwartzburg in which a variety of topics related to “Persian Sensation” and its probable impacts on public opinion and the cultural community of the U.S. is discussed.\nQ: Mrs. Schwartzburg; would you please elucidate the general agenda, background and details of the “Persian Sensation” exhibition? What made you first interested in mounting such a show?\nA: In 1859, the British translator Edward Fitzgerald published the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a translation of some of Omar Khayyam’s poems. His translation became extremely famous in both Britain and America by the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, its popularity continued into the 1950s.\nOur library owns a collection of 1500 items representing the entire history of the Rubaiyat phenomenon in Britain and America. We decided to mount this exhibition because 2009 is both the 150th anniversary of Fitzgerald’s translation and the 200th anniversary of Fitzgerald’s birth. The first part of the exhibition includes objects that tell the story of Omar Khayyam’s life, introduces visitors to other Persian poets such as Hafez, Ferdowsi and Rumi, and explains how historical relations between Britain and Persia enabled Edward Fitzgerald to know about Omar Khayyam’s work and translate it.\nAt the Harry Ransom Center, we create exhibitions about all of our collections, which are particularly strong in British and American literature, the history of photography, and the performing arts. The goal of our exhibitions is to educate a general audience about our collections, in the hopes that they will be inspired to read and enjoy the works we discuss and, in some cases, be inspired to perform research on the objects they have seen in the exhibitions. This exhibition is unusual because we do not specialize in Persian or other Middle-Eastern cultural history.\nQ: It seems that among all of the prominent Iranian poets, Khayyam enjoys a widespread and unprecedented popularity in the Western countries. What’s the reason in your view, and how the spiritual couplets of Khayyam have impacted the life of people in the Western community?\nA: Omar Khayyam was very famous from around the 1880s to the 1950s, but today, he is not read widely. Today, Rumi and Hafez are probably the best known Persian poets in the United States. When Omar Khayyam first became popular, many British and American readers were fascinated by Eastern cultures. As the British Empire spread throughout the East, and as Persia became more and more important to the empire’s presence in India, many products of Persia were imported to Britain, and had a profound influence upon the aesthetics of the period, from architecture to textile design to poetry. Many literary historians argue that the spiritual concerns of Omar Khayyam had important parallels with the spiritual concerns of British and American readers\nIn the late nineteenth century, and that this was the reason that he, above all other Persian poets, became so famous at the time. As a curator of this exhibition, I hope the readers and audiences will pay a major attention to the nationality of Khayyam. One of the goals of the exhibition is to help visitors understand and think about the fact that Khayyam is from Iran, a country that we read about in the newspapers every day. I think it is important for our younger audiences to understand that Omar Khayyam’s ideas and poetry were an important part of the lives of our grandparents and great-grandparents, and hence have influenced us, whether we realize it or not.\nQ: Have you any sideline program in the exhibition to put a spotlight on the other dimensions of Persian culture? Which way is more effective adjust the prevalent perceptions of American citizens about Iran and its history in a correct and realistic way?\nA: In the exhibition, we show how in the 18th and 19th century, British readers were fascinated by ancient Persia, especially Cyrus (the Great), Darius (the Great), and the ruins of Persepolis, which influenced their view of the day-to-day life in Persia at the time, as documented in travel memoirs displayed in the exhibition. Besides that, the exhibition does not attempt to survey the history of Persia or Iran. The emphasis is upon the place of Omar Khayyam’s poems in Britain and American culture.\nNevertheless, we want audiences to think about the ways American culture in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries was influenced by Khayyam’s medieval Persian aesthetics and philosophy. We also want audiences to understand why it is important to preserve documents from popular literary phenomena such as the Omar Khayyam craze. We also want audiences to be conscious of the ways in which foreign cultural products are transformed when interpreted by Western audiences in the form of translations, scholarly editions, illustrations, etc.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9765584468841553}
+{"content": "The First International Workshop on Sharing and Reuse of AI Work Products\n\nAs more AI technologies are used in industry applications, we anticipate that work products of AI will be shared and reused widely. Building AI-based systems involves creating and generating different types of “AI work products” such as training data sets, pretrained models, and AI-generated arts such as paintings and music. These work products are often results of heavy investment of human, data, and computer resources, and should carry some form of intellectual properties. Rules and best practices of sharing and reusing these work products are not very well agreed upon today. For the healthy proliferation of AI technologies in our society we believe now is the time to start discuss these issues. For example, when Company A applies a machine learning algorithm on a training data set prepared by Company B and generates a pretrained model of recognizing objects in images, who owns this pretrained model? How should Company C who wants to reuse this pretrained model by fine-tune it to their own domain compensate to the owner of the original model? These questions are related to various technical, legal, political, and practical issues.\n\nThis workshop is intended to be the first of series of discussions on the issues of sharing and reuse of AI work products.\n\n\n9:00-9:10 Opening by Prof. Jun-ichi Tsujii, AIST\n\n9:10-10:00 Keynote “Machine Learning Engineering and Reuse of AI Work Products,” by Hiroshi Maruyama, Preferred Networks, Inc. (pdf)\n\n    • Abstract: The process of developing machine learning (ML)-based systems is in many aspects different from the process of developing conventional software systems, where the accumulated knowledge on Software Engineering can guide. As more ML-based systems are developed and deployed, we argue that we should establish a discipline that guides the development process of such systems. This talk is intended to set the goal of this new discipline and discuss the areas of interest, especially focusing on the reuse of the artifacts of ML-based systems.\n\n(Coffee Break)\n\n10:30-12:30 Session I -- Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Infrastructure , chaired by Hiroshi Maruyama\n\n    • Invited Talk, Chris Culnan, “The fallacy of de-identification and its impact on data sharing ” (slides)\n      • Abstract: The sharing of data, whether it be open data or commercial, is increasingly reliant on de-identification as a way to protect the privacy of the data subjects. In this talk we discuss why we believe de-identification to be a fallacy, with reference to recent examples of where it has failed, including the MBS/PBS dataset. We will look at how the failure of de-identification could impact on future data exchanges, and discuss how increased awareness of re-identification could impact on the public perception of data sharing. We will discuss some of the techniques that allow data to be safely shared, and how they restrict the type and nature of the data that can be released, and the impact that might have in the future.\n    • “Copyright Issues on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” Tatsuhiro Ueno, Waseda Univ. (pdf, slides)\n      • Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) has recently been causing intellectual property(IP) issues including copyrightability of AI-generated works, pre-trained models and training data sets. AI-generated works are not eligible for copyright protection due to lack of human author’s intellectual creation,in most countries including Japan. Therefore, it is now under discussion in Japan whether it is necessary to introduce some sort of legal protection for AI/computer-generated works for the purpose of protecting investment for them.Also, pre-trained models and training data sets can be protected by copyright, as long as they are creative and considered as not AI-generated works but human author’s own intellectual creation.Additionally, it should be noted that the Japanese Copyright Act has the explicit provision on copyright exception for text and data mining(Art.47septies)under which it is allowed to copy any work for the purpose of machine learning. This provision is the quite helpful for machine learning and facilitating technological development of AI, since it applies to a text and data mining not only for a non-commercial purpose but also for a commercial purpose as well. Hence, Japan is the paradise for machine learning.\n    • “Infrastructures for Sharing and Reusing AI Work Products,” Hideki Asoh, Ryoichi Sugimura, and Jun-ichi Tsujii (pdf, slides)\n      • Abstract: Artificial intelligence technologies had not been able to achieve sufficient performance due to knowledge acquisition bottleneck for long time. However, in recent years, because of the great improvement of the machine learning performance with a large amount of data, performance of AI has dramatically improved and it is strongly expected that AI will be applied to real problems in various social fields. In order to accelerate the implementation of recent AI technologies into society, sharing and/or reuse AI work products such as well-prepared data and trained good models is very important. Powerful computational and engineering infrastructure for producing variety of work products are also inevitable. In this presentation, we briefly survey the current status of such infrastructures. We also introduce our future plan for constructing a public infrastructure for sharing and reuse AI work products.\n\n(Lunch Break)\n\n14:00-16:00 Session II -- Reuse and Sharing , chaired by Hideki Asoh\n\n    • Invited Talk by Viktor Gyenes, \"Neural Network Exchange Format for the Deployment of Trained Networks to Inference Engines\" (slides)\n      • Abstract: Neural networks are successfully being used to solve difficult tasks in image, audio and text processing. Several deep learning frameworks are available for the research community to train such networks. Neural networks require massive amounts of computational power, therefore chip vendors are working on new hardware solutions to accelerate computations, with accompanying libraries to drive their hardware. Low-power embedded hardware solutions are needed in industrial segments, such as autonomous driving, that heavily utilize pattern recognition. Network inference libraries need to be able to digest the products of various deep learning frameworks in order to deploy networks to devices across multiple platforms, and the market is in danger of fragmenting. The Khronos Group, an open consortium of leading hardware and software companies has authored various industrial compute standards, and is now working on developing a Neural Network Exchange Format to facilitate the deployment of trained neural networks from deep learning frameworks to hardware accelerated inference engines. The goal of the exchange format is to describe neural network structure and data in a unified way, with standardized semantics, that can be exported from deep learning frameworks, and is easy to digest for inference engines. The talk will overview the standardization activities, describe the general design principles of the planned exchange format, along with use cases and expected industry outcomes.\n    • “GHELIA Federation,” Ryo Shimizu, UEI\n      • Abstract: GHELIA Federation, jointly developed by Sony Computer Science Laboratories’ Hiroaki Kitano and UEI Corporation’s Ryo Shimizu offers a P2P-based GPU resource sharing platform. Now available as free, open-source software, its blockchain-esque distributed database design allows efficient sharing of computing resources. In addition, Sony CSL and UEI have founded GHELIA Incorporated in order to further promote this project and combat the deficiency of GPU resources worldwide.\n    • Discussions\n\nOrganizing Committee\n\n  • Junichi Tsujii, Director, AI Center at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST),\n  • Joi Ito, Director of MIT Media Lab\n  • Hiroaki Kitano, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.\n\nProgram Committee\n\n  • Hiroshi Maruyama, CSO, Preferred Networks, Inc.\n  • Magnus Rattray, Manchester University\n  • Ryo Shimizu, President and CEO, UEI, Inc.\n  • Tatsuhiro Ueno, Professor, Waseda Univ.\n  • Hideki Asoh, AIST\n\nVenue and Date\n\nSaturday, August 19: Workshop in Melbourne, Australia.\n\nThe room is Building 80, Floor 7, Room 2.\n\nSee the IJCAI-17 workshop page at\n\n\nAll questions about submissions should be emailed to Hiroshi Maruyama (Program Chair,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993746280670166}
+{"content": "Deep Learning Could Replace High Frequency Trading\n\nDeep Learning\n\nHigh Frequency Trading (HFT) is NOT the most popular or embraced program by many traders and money managers. But hey, its here and hard to fight. But now, those flash order folks may have a significant threat to their “gold mine” (or cryptocurrency mine). Deep learning may topple HFT. This is very interesting and is going to be fun to watch how it shakes out.\n(Bill Taylor/ CEO)\n\n“Deep learning just may be poised to shake investment strategies based on alpha capture to their knees, according to some experts.\n\nThe machine learning sub-discipline is setting itself up to displace high-frequency trading which has dominated many of the electronically traded markets since approximately 2007.\n\nSimilar to high-frequency trading, deep learning-based strategies do not approach a trade with a preconceived hypothesis but examines the data for useful information it might contain, explained Gaurav Chakravorty, chief investment officer of online asset manager qplum and who spoke during a webinar hosted by Quantitative Brokers.\n\n“It is the first machine learning algorithm that tries to remove noise from the data before it starts predicting,” he added.\n\n Deep learning does this by using “layers” to summarize the content of the previous layers until a few summaries can describe all of the original data. Chakravorty cited an example where an initial layer was composed of 5,000 distinct pieces, and each subsequent layer reduced the amount of data by a third until the model had five summaries in the end.\n\n“The deeper that you go, the literally more intelligence that you get,” he said.\n\nHowever, Chakravorty has never worked on a network that processed more than ten layers because of the cost it would take to build something larger. In comparison, experts estimated that the deepest network in the human mind is 4 million layers deep, he added…”\n\nRead Full Story at MarketsMedia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9832519292831421}
+{"content": "Monday, January 16, 2012\n\nMy little Bookworm\n\nOne of Elliana's new things that she absolutely loves to do is carry her little books around everywhere and \"read them.\" She has always loved books. Loved looking forward to bed time. Loved when we read to her. Loved touching them, feeling them, all the colors, shapes, and \"sounds\" that they make. Or we make. From day one. Loved.\n\nMaybe it's because we have read to her since she was a little baby. Maybe it's because we have made it a daily routine with her. Maybe it's because she has drawers upon drawers full of books.\n\nBut i really think that she is just infatuated with learning. Children in general, I think are just so interested in everything around them. What is this? Why does this do that? Why does that sound like this? And how interesting does this feel. And when I touch that. And the colors. The colors!\n\nI mean really, that has got to be what goes through their head.\n\nWhen I look at this picture... I think about how mesmerized she is by this book.\nAnd I get that she may not be able to read. May not be able to know what it's about. If there is a story behind it. Or if there is a happy ending.\n\nBut she can see. Those eyes are reading that book. And she is so intrigued by it all.\n\nJust like I am. I was.\n\nI used to read books everyday. A whole book a day. I would stay up all night in order to finish the book. I was addicted. And thinking about it now makes me realize how much I miss it. Getting lost in the book. Putting yourself in the story. Feeling the emotions of the characters.\n\nA book can be so powerful. So moving. So life-changing. You may not realize it at the time, or ever, but a book can have a profound effect on your life.\n\nAnd I truly believe it has a huge effect on my daughter's life.\n\nMy little book lover.\nMy little bookworm.\n\n photo copyright.jpg\nblogger template by envye", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8587442636489868}
+{"content": "Captain Sunshine\n\n\nOrganiCareUSA craft cannabis standards start with our attitudes, character, patterns, and education.   Importantly, OrganiCareUSA craft cannabis standards are built into the design, implementation, and maintenance of the indoor cannabis facility. OrganiCareUSA founding Director Captain Sunshine, has one of the most impressive resumes in the industry. Captain Sunshine hails from over 600 years of farming from his mother’s side of the family.  Simple farmers from Kiel in Germany, arriving in 1912 to become farmers in Iowa.  Captain Sunshine’s grandmother left Iowa for San Diego before WWII.  She eventually settled in San Diego, working on planes, as a Rosie the Riveter.  Captain Sunshine found farming as a mode to reengage his ancestral roots and a coping skill for healing PTSD.  Captain Sunshine possesses his Master’s Degree in Social Work Administration and Community Development, with emphasis in Human Services Management.  In addition to, his Masters in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, with a rich background in politics, law, and society of the Middle East.\n\nCaptain Sunshine dopes not fear politicians, ignorance, stupidity, or down right assholes.  The law is meant to protect citizens, promote the safety and posterity, a more perfect union, and establish justice.  Captain Sunshine and medical patients are protected by numerous Federal Statutes, most importantly, the Americans With Disabilities Act.  The City of San Diego and the County of San Diego do not have the authority to shut down cannabis deliveries without fair representation and taxation.  Whereby, veterans in dire need of cannabis will be denied services because of a lack of local leadership.  Captain Sunshine stands in opposition and with the moral authority.\n\n\nWho is Captain Sunshine\n\nCaptain Sunshine goes by the alias because the hardest experience in his life was working with children who engaged in self-harm.  One of his clients despite much adversity praised Captain with the alias “Captain Sunshine.”  Whereby, Captain Sunshine.  Further, Captain Sunshine is an introvert and prefers not be a center of attention.  As OrganiCareUSA grows, in time, Captain hopes to have a store front where he can engage with veterans and community members like his brother.\n\nCaptain Sunshine was recruited to serve Homeland Security at the age of 19 fighting the War on Terrorism from 2003-2007.  More so, Captain Sunshine is a survivor of domestic violence in his childhood, and fighting the War of Terrorism in his adulthood, Captain Sunshine has overcome and is challenged with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.   As well, Captain Sunshine’s brother fought in the War on Terrorism and served at Guantanamo Bay.  Unfortunately, Captain Sunshine’s brother committed suicide by taking his own life by death by police officer.  Captain Sunshine has overcome significant depression, thoughts of suicide, and even in his earlier life attempted suicide twice.  Thankfully, cognitive reframing, mindfulness, meditation, and cannabis offer significant relief.\n\nImportantly, learning about trauma and the effects on the brain we understand the value of medical cannabis.  Here, Captain reflects on the stigmas his brother and he faced with family.  Cannabis seen as an awful drug and not a medicine.  Captain Sunshine spent time advocating for cannabis from 2008-2010.  As well as, advocating for the Medical Marijuana Task Force in 2010 after his brother’s life transition in order to increase access to medicine.  During this time Captain Sunshine spent time volunteering with the police department, the Peace Promotion Momentum Team, Alternatives to Violence Project, and the International Rescue Committee.   With the Police Departments curfew sweeps the efforts were to reduce youth violent crime, human trafficking, and teach teenagers about dream building and time management.  Eventually working with refugees, child soldiers, and local high school students.  Captain spent the next three years learning about trauma informed service delivery and the effects of trauma on the brain.  Eventually, went back to school, working with homeless youth and homeless veterans.\n\nFurther, Captain Sunshine is a published author on child development, adverse childhood experiences, and pathways to hope.  Captain is an expert team builder, project designer, planner, and executor.  Together, we cultivate craft cannabis.  In the hopes of expanding the teams diversity Captain Sunshine will hire veterans and or train veterans and persons in horticulture, botany, and agricultural science.\n\n\nWhy does Captain Sunshine Cultivate Cannabis\n\nCaptain Sunshine communicates how, “There is a clear distinction of OrganiCareUSA versus our competitors in the medical cannabis industry.  I am an expert on mental health and wellness.  I am a scientist.”  When you are injured you go to the Doctor.  The same logic needs to apply with medical cannabis.  If you want an expert on the mind, mental health and wellness, you go to a Social Worker.  There is a specific strain for every ailment.  In order to properly identify member needs the OrganiCareUSA will train and or hire Social Workers in order to appropriately asses the cannabis needs of our members.\n\nOrganiCareUSA will focus on setting standards in excellence, sustainability, and producing San Diego’s finest Organicare craft cannabis on the market. Our cannabis gardens will one day practice the highest standards of sustainability and zero waste. OrganiCareUSA investment into family, friends, and community produces a cannabis product of the greatest excellence.\n\nFurther, OrganiCareUSA will focus on innovative water efficient technologies, light efficient technologies, and human behavior technologies for the advancement of cannabis.  OrganiCareUSA hopes to steer the medical cannabis market and guide cannabis practices.  Craft cannabis practices start in naturals, organics, veganics, insecticide free, herbicide free, and fungicide free cultivation.  OrganiCare cannabis is craft cannabis.  OrganiCareUSA advocates to stop the use of pesticides.  The importance of mind body awareness is key in OrganiCare cannabis craft cannabis.  Pesticides will effect toxicity, pesticides will affect the body, and pesticides will affect the mind.  In addition, these toxic pesticides end up in San Diego’s rivers, and the ocean. Disgusting.\n\n\nOrganiCareUSA Cannabis Cultivation\n\nOrganiCareUSA hopes to eventually provide beyond the private reserve their bud in cure for 3-6 months. There are no current craft cannabis standard operating procedures for curing. Often, curing cannabis is less than a month, and for many cannabis green rush pursuers often less than one week. Importantly, cannabis curing allows chlorophyll to break down creating a cleaner, smoother, purer cannabis. Curing, moderates moisture, affects taste, and increases potency. Curing is a craft cannabis art Captain Sunshine and OrganiCareUSA hope to achieve for all of their members cannabis needs.  OrganiCareUSA Craft cannabis curing, is the art of aroma, the art of taste, and the art of science.\n\nThankfully, cannabis is a versatile, agile, and adaptable plant.  Whereby, cannabis offers countless strains for consumer needs.  Each cannabis strain will offer a unique psychoactive effect and or physical effect.  Cannabinoids and terpenes effect our brain and trigger the chemical response. Every cannabis strain will offer a unique cannabinoid and terpene profile.  Such profiles include: THC, CBD, CBG, THCA and CBN.  THC is Tetrahydrocannabinol, and is the psychoactive chemical in cannabis.   Whereas, CBD is Cannabidiol and CBN is Cannabinol.  Those chemicals are known for the medicinal properties.\n\nOrganiCareUSA hopes to engage in the advancement of scientific testing of these compounds on PTSD and depression. OrganiCareUSA hopes to engage in patient-based testing and assessment in order to unlock cures for countless ailments, diseases, and pain. OrganiCareUSA hopes to provide top-notch medicinal cannabis naturals, organics, veganics, and pesticide free. Members who use cannabis for epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment, depression, PTSD, and other ailments want to be sure they can count on a pharmaceutical grade.\n\nOrganiCareUSA will be the craft cannabis pioneering educator, advocate for mental health, veterans, healthy cannabis, living safely with cannabis, and thriving with cannabis.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9806920886039734}
+{"content": "Optimism Bias: Why We Assume Brighter Tomorrows\n\nthe grass is greener\n\n\n\n“… People expect that bad experiences are highly unlikely, which helps them stay hopeful in the face of unpleasant prospects. Moreover, even when faced with highly probable negative events, people still might be comforted by their perception that most future events will nonetheless be positive.” (O’Brien, 2013, p. 849).\n\nBeing naïve about the future may provide a sense of hope and success. Assuming a brighter tomorrow may help people get out of bed in the morning, and inspire them toward future goals.\n\nTherefore, people generally hold positive orientations and expect positive outcomes in their futures, unless they have a (good) reason to believe otherwise.\n\nThe study by O’Brien (2013) shows that even when participants have experienced sad pasts, they are still optimistic about their futures.\n\nThe author suggests that we are (emotionally) motivated to think that the future will be positive, and this motivation overrules other metacognitive thoughts about the future. Therefore, optimistic expectations have been found very difficult to change.\n\nThe study also indicates that happiness is maximized when people only generate a few forecasts rather than many. Thus, struggling to think positively about one’s future may lead to less positive future interpretations. This finding is relevant since it suggests that more happiness in quantity does not predict more happiness in quality.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9819356799125671}
+{"content": "For The Adore Of Gardening: Organic Gardening Advice\n\nGardening delivers numerous advantages for individuals that choose to take it up as a pastime. One particular of the more important of those advantages is that it can make us more self-adequate. Even if we grow flowers, we find out capabilities that could be turned to making our very own meals. The suggestions outlined in this post will support you toward that purpose.\n\nWhen boiling or steaming greens, maintain the h2o that the veggies have been cooked in and enable it amazing. Use the h2o to h2o the garden with. It is packed with all the nutritional vitamins and minerals that were in the vegetables when they have been cooked and will support the plants expand as a normal plant foodstuff.\n\nBe practical about the sorts of plants you can grow in your yard. If a certain plant has unsuccessful you in the previous, never attempt it yet again. You require to correct variety of climate, soil, and sunshine/shade ratio for particular plants. If you never have it, no quantity of work will make these plants a success. Deciding on realistically will boost your generate even though lowering your hard work.\n\nFertilize the soil you are going to plant in three weeks just before planting. By carrying out this, you are aiding the soil boost its ability to retain vitamins and minerals and h2o, which are particularly crucial for new vegetation. There are several fertilizers from which to pick at your regional gardening store.\n\ngarden bridges To produce the largest and tastiest fruits and vegetables from vine vegetation, don't be scared to pinch off blossoms, as effectively as the vine, that often trails far and absent from the major plant. If you decrease the blossoms on a plant and the length from the plant to individuals blossoms, the plant is greater ready to give more vitamins and minerals to the blossoms that stay which will then end result in the most significant and greatest fruits and greens.\n\nDevelop a record journal for your backyard garden. Hold track of when you planted your seeds, when they germinated, how a lot of grow to total measurement, the produce, and many others. You will have more expertise about your plants and a good concept of how profitable your strategies are. Use this info for your next expand cycles.\n\nRight after a long day of gardening, thoroughly clean these soiled hands with a breakfast handle. Generate a mixture of oatmeal and water. Make it thick! Use the mixture as an abrasive to get the dust out of your pores and skin and from below your fingernails. Adhere to it up with your standard soap and water wash to get any lingering dust off.\n\nTo keep pests out of your backyard with no making use of chemical compounds, consider planting onions at your garden's borders. The scent of the onion will perform as a natural repellent and will preserve several creatures from disturbing your crops. As an included reward, this makes it possible for you to often have refreshing onions to use in your cooking.\n\nSpend interest to zones when choosing crops for your backyard garden. Most plants will arrive with the zone marked. This is also real of seeds. Make sure the zone corresponds to your expanding zone. Even though vegetation may grow exterior of their typical zone, they are considerably less likely to be hardy crops.\n\nWhen selecting to plant a garden, it is crucial to study the locations available for planting and decide which will be the best spot. Whether you develop your fruits and vegetables in your property, on your patio in containers, or on your condominium balcony, your plants must be in a spot which is uncovered to sunlight. To produce the ideal harvest, most crops want to be located in an location which is an open spot that is sunny.\n\nPrevent bugs with no pesticides with cautious planting. Planting marigolds together the edges of your yard, or planting garlic, parsley, and basil inside your garden can repel bugs without resorting to harsh chemicals. These plants give off powerful scents which are unappealing to most insects. With these in your backyard, pests will steer obvious.\n\nTo preserve animals from digging up and destroying your bulbs, wrap the bulbs in a slim layer of steel wool. This will not avoid the bulbs from growing in any way, but will scare away any animal that's started digging it up. You can purchase steel wool from any house enhancement keep.\n\nDeadhead yearly flowers continuously. This will stimulate new development and promote flowering all year. With perennials, lower the entire plant down by a third soon after flowering. It will bush out and provide you with a new flush of bouquets later on in the period. At the stop of the period, depart the put in flowers on vegetation right up until they dry up, and accumulate the seeds.\n\nSet up a specific routine to know when you need to plant your seeds. Even if you are expanding your plants indoors, you should follow a plan that matches the period and exterior temperature. Spend some time on your routine at the starting of a year and you should be able to increase it the following year.\n\nNever undervalue pine as a great mulch. A lot of types of vegetation prosper in soil that has higher acid amounts. Use pine needles to increase the acid amount in your soil if you have vegetation that call for larger acid. Employing many inches of needles to cover your beds provides acid for the soil as they begin to decompose.\n\nMarigold bouquets are really the powerhouse in an natural and organic garden. As their flowers and leaves decay, the marigold releases chemical substances that draw in frogs, repel snakes and destroy nematode pests that attack a lot of vegetable crops, such as tomatoes. Seem for ways to permit the bright yellow marigold carry excellent coloration and decoration to your garden, as it goes to work to protect the wellness of your plants.\n\nPlanting a residing hedge about your property has many rewards. Hedges give a softer barrier to mark the perimeter of your house and are considerably less forbidding than a structured wall. A living hedge will give privateness but nevertheless discourage trespassing by animals or people. If you have a hedge that blooms, it can be a beautiful backdrop in addition to your landscape.\n\nGardening does without a doubt go hand in hand with a lot of rewards. There are many societal benefits to gardening. Whether or not we are developing foods crops or purely attractive ones, they all add to the aesthetics and attractiveness of our planet. Gardening offers even much more critical positive aspects to the gardener, by instilling a sense of self-sufficiency.\n02.09.2017 15:32:04\n\nMaecenas aliquet accumsan\n\nOr visit this link or this one", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8356804847717285}
+{"content": "Liberty Expose: The New Cold War Myth\n\nIt is natural for people to attempt to frame the present as a repeat of the past. The misguided cliché “history repeats itself” gained popularity for that reason, and leads many to take a cynical view of humanity’s tendency to stumble on the same curb more than once. But history does not repeat itself – it is too specific for that.\n\n However, the human condition is infinite, and global behavior rarely changes. The newest reiteration of the repeated history line is the “new Cold War.” Like the Soviet Union of old, proponents of the new Cold War thesis advance the notion that Russia has once again become a national security threat to the United States. This is undoubtedly true, but once again the attempt to define the present as a reiteration of the past is misguided – Russia is a threat, but it is not the Soviet Union.\n\nThe conflict that exists between the United States and the Russian Federation resembles a more traditional geopolitical power struggle than the Cold War, which was a unique event in world history. The rifts between America and Russia resemble that of the Peloponnesian War, when the Spartans accepted assistance from the Persian Empire when fighting a war against the fellow Greek Athenians (Sparta defeated Athens in the end.) The British and French fought almost innumerable wars to see who will hail supreme on the European continent (the British won out in 1815.) later, the Germans will fight the French and British for similar reasons.\n\nThese were all traditional power struggles, ones that center on geopolitics. The Cold War was not like that. Rather, though geography was as superficial reason, everything about the Cold War differed from power struggles of past – from the culture war, to even the rise of the feuding powers. Because of the global nature of the Cold War, proxy conflicts were fought on almost every corner of the planet. In Central America, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, and the Pacific, Western-backed forces and Soviet (and sometimes Chinese) backed forces dulled each other for supremacy.\n\nThe United States and the Soviet Union however rose together. Both nations were already great powers in their own right; the United States reigned over the Western Hemisphere, willing to confront any power who dares violate the Monroe Doctrine. The Soviet Union, previously cast as Russia, had been a great power in Eurasia for more than a century (depending on one’s interpretation) – though Russia was a tepid and often incompetent empire at that. When the British Empire collapsed on itself, not from conquest, but by bad governance, the United States and the Soviet Union graduated to a power status unprecedented in world history: the superpower.\n\nBoth nations paid dearly for their new positions; Americans suffered to liberate and occupy Northern Africa, Europe, and the Pacific, and the Soviet Union lost more than 16 million to conquer Eastern Europe of the Third Reich. The world become bi-polar – one part revolved around Washington, the other, Moscow.\n\nThese nations didn’t seek the intrinsic pursuit of power like nations past; wars were fought mainly over geographic issues, with issues such as trade and strategic advantage being primary igniters of conflict. The Cold War was predicated on ideas; capitalism vs. communism, freedom vs. order, democracy vs. workers councils, John Locke vs. Karl Marx. This is why the Cold War was so successful at becoming a truly global power struggle. It’s easy to sell ideas and intervene with adherents to ideologies the new super powers represented. It is not as easy when an empire attempts to find support when they have no ideology to sell.\n\nAside from the ideological and cultural spheres of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was significantly more powerful that the Russian Federation of today. The Soviet Union had a vast amount of resources, had satellite governments in Eurasia, and had troops in from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. The Soviet Union also had an ideological appeal that was hard to compete with.\n\n Following the collapse of the empires that proceeded and succeeded the Second World War, a plethora of former imperial colonies were ripe with a climate hostile to the West. The communism sponsored by the Soviet Union appealed to those sentiments beautifully, and it made competing difficult for the United States lead West.\n\nThe Russian Federation has none of those things. Russia has no satellite governments it can rely on. On the contrary, its aggression in Ukraine and Georgia have isolated Russia from its neighbors, and now the Baltics are part of NATO, Ukraine wants to join the alliance, Macedonia just become the newest members, the Scandinavia is revitalizing its militaries.\n\n Russia has its leadership to blame for this. The Russian military does not have the status it once had – instead of having a presence in multiple nations, its most obvious foreign expedition is in Syria, and the rest is done covertly. By the rampant corruption in the Russian government, Russian military equipment is in a state of disrepair, and much of the Russian naval and armor forces are not combat ready. Russia has a very few select number of allies it can count on. Economically, Russia is a disaster. Its foreign policy behavior has led to sections on the economy, Europeans nations are attempting to divest from Russia’s greatest resource, energy, in an attempt to curb Russia’s influence. And the cronyism that replaced the communism has only lead to Russian not living to its economic potential. (Despite this, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds an 81% approval rating.)\n\n Finally, the Russian Federation does not have the same ideological appeal that the former Soviet Union had. Russian nationalism and revanchist ends are the primary ideological motivators of Russian foreign policy, not anti-western communism of the Soviet Union. Russian nationalism does not hold the same appeal to a potential guerilla fighter in a war-torn third world country. The foreign policy of Russia resembles that of the powers of imperial Europe; Russia’s main concern is now geography, more than ideology\n\nBut Russia’s weakness in comparison to its red predecessor should not be seen as a positive. The dichotomy is that the fact that Russia is weak is what makes it so dangerous. What is to risk when there is nothing to lose; the only way to go is up. One should expect to Russia to push the limits of accountability, so long as responsibility and consequences for such aggressive behavior eludes Russian leadership.\n\nIf Russia, or any power, is to understand that their aggressive actions are unacceptable – then the U.S. must make sure it reminds any aggressors who the true hegemon – and victor of the Cold War is. Show that America is capable of having an exponentially more powerful military, and show that the United States has the economic wherewithal to bring any nation back to reality. Until then, Russia will be emboldened to intervene on other nation’s elections and conflicts, Eastern Europe will remain on edge, and the chance of a greater conflict will only rise.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9930959343910217}
+{"content": "\nYou have new items in your feed. Click to view.\nQuestion and answer\nQ: Are comments from customers received by the website? How is this accomplished? If so, how does this affect the company s attempt to build positive relationships with its customers? If not, how are\nrelationships affected\nA: Yes comments from customers are received on their website. This is normally done via the \"Contact us\" icon\"on the website. Pretty much all comments either good or bad are replied to. [ This then helps to build a positive relationship with the customer, or potential customer. ]\nbonaxle|Points 376|\nAsked 10/2/2012 8:45:42 PM\n0 Answers/Comments\nGet an answer\nNew answers\n\nThere are no new answers.\n\n\nThere are no comments.\n\nAdd an answer or comment\nLog in or sign up first.\n26,520,626 questions answered\nPopular Conversations\nWhich of these is an example of a plateau period\nWeegy: Can you share the options please?\n12/1/2017 12:57:36 AM| 4 Answers\nHow many solutions does the system have? x = -4y 4 2x 8y = 8\nWeegy: The equations x = -4y 4 2x 8y = 8, have only one solution being the linear equations in two variables.\n11/30/2017 3:57:16 PM| 3 Answers\nWeegy: HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.\n12/1/2017 7:06:06 AM| 3 Answers\nshould the subject agree with the verb\nWeegy: A transitive verb is a verb that can take a direct object. User: Which of the following statements about a ...\n11/30/2017 9:32:51 AM| 2 Answers\nSimplify 10(2x + 3) - 20.\n11/30/2017 10:00:15 AM| 2 Answers\nHow is the infinitive phrase used in the sentence? To write a novel ...\nWeegy: I hope to convince them of my idea. The infinitive phrase \"to convince them of my idea\" is used as a NOUN. ...\n12/2/2017 11:35:31 AM| 2 Answers\nIn order to maintain good hygiene it is best to reserve your bed for ...\nWeegy: In order to maintain good \"sleep hygiene\" it is best to reserve your bed for sleeping and to engage in all other ...\n12/3/2017 9:06:09 AM| 2 Answers\nWeegy Stuff\nPoints 82 [Total 98] Ratings 4 Comments 42 Invitations 0 Offline\n* Excludes moderators and previous\nwinners (Include)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8430938720703125}
+{"content": "Category Archives: Perspective\n\nViews and articles that shed light on some important and not so important issues.\n\nJoys of Seeking Help\n\nAfter about a year and a half, I finally wised up, rather than trying to figure this out myself, along with the encouragement of my husband, I decided to seek help.\n\nI am studying nutrition and with my new knowledge, perseverance, and persistence, I have already used food to heal myself from a variety of symptoms. These include: suppressed immune system evident with recurring colds (one winter I got eight colds), bowel distress including constipation, bloating, heartburn, and stomach pain, also, acne and stress are immensely improved. My hair is thicker and fuller, nails stronger, and skin more luminous.\n\nEven with the improvement of so many symptoms, still, once a month, when Aunt Flow came to visit, during the first couple of hours of my period, I experienced intense cramping and pain, diarrhea, vomiting, bloating, and fatigue. I would have to spend a few hours in the bathroom, of which half of this time was spent in a fetal position on the floor while I breathed through the pain that made time stand still. Even though, I was doing everything that I could think of to alleviate these episodes, for over a year, once a month, horrible symptoms persisted.\n\nIn October of 2016, I finally had enough and sought help. Since I had not had a pelvic exam in a couple of years, this was the first place to start. The mid-wife, compassionate and motivated to help me resolve this issue shed a little light on the issue. She said that clots were occurring when my uterine lining was shedding resulting in cramping and excessive blood flow. However, I did not think my blood flow was excessive, but clots, I could agree with. Through the pelvic exam and PAP smear, everything seemed normal and healthy. The mid-wife offered some advice consisting of taking an anti-clot medicine prior to the start of my cycle or oral contraceptives. These were the exact substances I had been working hard to detox from body. I could not succumb, there must be another way to resolve my issues. Working with my diet to resolve so many of my other issues had instilled in me that diet and lifestyle is the ultimate means to a healthy soul. I sought an alternative, holistic means to support my body while it balanced itself back to health.\n\nAcupuncture. This Traditional Chinese Medicine practice called out to me. I sought a local practitioner, where through reviewing her website, which had an emphasis on food, led me to an initial consult. After a review of my symptoms, she said I had a damp spleen, which is common among westerners. Westerners heavy reliance on simple carbohydrates, fried foods, rancid oils, and processed foods combined with over-use of antibiotics, antacids, and NSAIDs, many Americans have weak constitutions which leads to bowel distress. This is evident in the increased incidences of IBS and IBD that are occurring in modern, industrialized nations.\n\nThrough diet and lifestyle, I had a massive decrease in problematic bowel related symptoms. However, once a month, when hormone levels decrease which stimulates an increase in inflammation that encourages my uterine lining to shed, it irritated my gastrointestinal tract too. The solution for damp spleen is consistent acupuncture treatments to stimulate Qi along with diet adjustments. Already free of gluten, dairy, eggs, most other grains, and a few other food allergies that I had discovered through elimination diets, my acupuncturist recommended “no raw food”, also limit fruit, sugar, alcohol, tomato, and chicken.  This was a 180 from how I was used to eating. My daily meals consisted of at least one raw salad and a raw smoothie with chicken eaten around five times per week. Immediately, I started sauteing my salads while I thought about how I could incorporate more cooked vegetables into my diet. Slowly, making these dietary changes, while persistently maintaining my acupuncture appointments, I have experienced a tremendous improvement in symptoms.\n\nMy acupuncturist is full of positive energy gently and consistently reminding me to keep my diet on track while offering other lifestyle modifications that can benefit my condition like meditation and hydrotherapy.\n\nNow, my periods start slowly. There is no more vomiting or fetal position once a month. Bloating, cramping, and diarrhea have lessened. I am hopeful these symptoms can be diminished even more through personal effort, but more importantly, with help.\n\n\nA Vision of the Future: How Humanity Can Support a Local Food System\n\nFresh picked produce from bio-diverse, nourished soil.  Pastured chickens and ducks that wander freely within safe confines on green grasses and clover, full of grubs and bugs.  Turkeys that work together in flocks living in wooded areas for protection while plucking the ground for food liberally.  Beef from happy cows that live out their days under the sun and on top of green rolling hills.  Hogs that forage and dig.  Goats and sheep that wander through pastures grazing as they stroll.  Deer, rabbit, fox, hawks, coyote, and squirrel all live nearby letting you know wilderness is close.  This type of farm, large and small scatter through the countryside, but also immediately surround cities providing quick respite from the hustle and bustle of city life.  Within city limits, small urban farms are built into city lots providing pastured goats milk and chicken eggs.  Farms and green space are scattered into parks that flow throughout the city connecting rivers, lakes, forests, buildings and streets.  Shops and business complexes support rooftop gardens and conservatories used to grow vegetables, fruit, and herbs.  Bike lanes connect the city.  Subway and bus lines run efficiently and smoothly.  Cars are limited, but hitchhiking is encouraged because everyone feels important and cared for, there is minimal crime and theft.  A sense of community is large and far reaching, this is a united, stable, and strong country.\n\nThis united country is prosperous and giving.  The satisfaction of giving to the greater good far exceeds any feelings of delusional power that encompassed its long-ago history.  There is welfare, unemployment benefits, social security, and houses for the poor.  No one tries to cheat the system, so these welfare benefits work.  Insurance companies are now non-profits, truly working for the people rather than cheating them from money.  Pharmaceutical corporations and supplement companies are merged into one.  They do research on ways to support the body naturally to determine where chemical imbalances lie and how to support that imbalance while working with the person as a whole.  There is a return to human wisdom letting the body be the guide to health.  As sad as it is, when death is near, there is not a profound longing to hold onto an unfit life.  Rather, there is an understanding that this life is not the end, but the beginning of greater things.\n\nSociety as a whole benefits.  This seems extremely altruistic, but in a fictitious vision, why not hope for the best?  People feel supported and important.  They are intelligent, kind, and understanding.  Greed, manipulation, and fear are characteristics forgotten by the human race.  As a result, government is large, but by comparison, probably smaller than today.  Government uses its resources to maintain infrastructure, support hospitals and universities, employ police officers, firemen, military, emergency disaster workers, teachers, and farmers.  There are private companies and non-profits that are committed to environmental protection, animal welfare, food safety, and public health, but also technology to improve our world.  Technology and business is always conducted in an ethical way because this is the human condition.  The arts are considered highly prestigious and have been integrated into the schools as basic education.  Exercise and movement are also held high priority with the most fashionable people seen sweating in public.   The arts and sports thus provide ample number of jobs.  With an emphasis on movement and personal expression, people understand the connection between themselves and the food they eat.  This trickles down to providing precedence to biodynamic, sustainable farming practices and interest to continue keeping it ingrained in the culture, cities, and land.\n\nThis biodynamic, sustainable farm system that is interwoven within our cities and countryside’s is the backbone of life, so it is cared for the way life-giving properties should be.  Farmers are paid handsomely for their life supporting products and dedication to the trade.  There are farmer coalitions that sit on boards alongside city planners, logistics supervisors, and food market vendors within government that decide which private companies will conduct safety checks and food quality audits.  This board of farmers, city planners, logistic supervisors, and food purveyors work together to form a streamline system that delivers food effectively and efficiently to the people.  Fresh produce, pastured meats, dairy, eggs, and wild caught fish along with pantry stables like dried beans, nuts, seeds, and grains can all be purchased in a variety of venues.  These foods can be purchased from street markets where each store specializes in one genre of food.  Small corner markets are scattered throughout cities and towns that offer a little bit of everything.  Since farms and conservatories are intertwined even within the city, it is easy to swing by a produce and egg stand to pick up groceries for dinner.  Restaurants and small eateries play an integral part by offering prepared, wholesome meals cooked using the same biodynamic, sustainable foods found at the farms.  Schools include a farming and food preparation class that teaches kitchen skills, gardening, and farming practices.  This class is where kids spend their lunch hour preparing and sharing elaborate meals with their classmates.\n\nThis city planning food system described above would require years of evolution to complete.  It would require a massive change in world perspective.  There would have to be a major overhaul of government, private companies, corporations, and humanity.  Is this food system realistic, probably not now, but perhaps for the future?  Hope keeps people moving in an upward direction, a food model like this gives me hope.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.520738959312439}
+{"content": "A hard sell for soft sensors to pick up on the body’s changes\n\nResearch Lives: Prof of materials and sensor science at Dublin City University Dermot Diamond, principal investigator with Insight Centre for Data Analytics\n\n\nYou have worked on intriguing projects, like clothes that change in response to your body heat, sensors that can sit in the environment for ages and even a watch to measure your sweat. What is behind that?\n\nOver the years we have looked at lots of materials, for example, a soft gel or a polymer that responds in the presence of a stimulus. Maybe it expands or contracts when the temperature changes, or exposure to a certain chemical or light might make it change colour. Then we use those materials to build sensors that can pick up signals from the human body or from the environment – devices that can monitor situations over time and alert us to changes.\n\nHow would that work for the environment?\n\nYou might want a low-power sensor to sit in a body of water and monitor pollution, or in the case of landfills a sensor located in situ could respond to a build-up of gas. We have developed the underlying technologies for those and plenty of others.\n\nAnd what kinds of measurements are you looking to take from the body?\n\nLots – it’s easy to track things like the number of steps we take or heartbeat, you can do that with your phone, but it is much harder to track the body’s biochemistry. So we are building non-invasive sensors to pick up signals in bodily fluids like sweat – in the sweat watch – and even the fluid in the eye can tell us a lot about things like blood sugar, so we are looking to measure it with a chemical sensor on a contact lens.\n\nHow will your research make it easier to capture these biological signals?\n\nOne of our latest discoveries is a way to make tiny microfluidic chips using soft materials, and these are much more compatible with biological systems like the human body compared to the hard materials that these chips are usually made from. We have found a way to use light to “3D-print” tiny channels in a soft sensor chip and I think this is huge, as it is going to open up a lot more possibilities for sensors to track your biochemistry non-invasively in wearable devices.\n\nWhat do you do when you are not discovering new material processes and building sensors?\n\nI play the fiddle. I grew up in Belfast playing traditional music – imagine being a teen in Belfast in the 1970s walking around with a fiddle and a banjo case! I still play a lot of traditional music sessions, particularly in Donegal, and there’s a group of us who play Bluegrass and country music in The Cobblestone pub in Dublin each Saturday afternoon.\n\nFinally, what would you like to see in the future of research?\n\nI think more social science and humanities need to be integrated into science and technology projects, especially the game-changing flagship projects that Europe is funding now.\n\nI am a co-chair of the advisory group for the EU Future and Emerging Technologies programme, and in my opinion, it is essential to involve experts from social science and humanities to help to frame the questions we look at in science and tech and engineering so that the projects we fund using taxpayers’ money have a real societal impact, and we can explain that impact to the people who stand to benefit.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7090937495231628}
+{"content": "The Journal of biological chemistry\n\nDetermination of protein interactome of transcription factor Sox2 in embryonic stem cells engineered for inducible expression of four reprogramming factors.\n\nPMID 22334693\n\n\nUnbiased proteomic screens provide a powerful tool for defining protein-protein interaction networks. Previous studies employed multidimensional protein identification technology to identify the Sox2-interactome in embryonic stem cells (ESC) undergoing differentiation in response to a small increase in the expression of epitope-tagged Sox2. Thus far the Sox2-interactome in ESC has not been determined. To identify the Sox2-interactome in ESC, we engineered ESC for inducible expression of different combinations of epitope-tagged Sox2 along with Oct4, Klf4, and c-Myc. Epitope-tagged Sox2 was used to circumvent the lack of suitable Sox2 antibodies needed to perform an unbiased proteomic screen of Sox2-associated proteins. Although i-OS-ESC differentiate when both Oct4 and Sox2 are elevated, i-OSKM-ESC do not differentiate even when the levels of the four transcription factors are coordinately elevated ∼2-3-fold. Our findings with i-OS-ESC and i-OSKM-ESC provide new insights into the reasons why ESC undergo differentiation when Sox2 and Oct4 are elevated in ESC. Importantly, the use of i-OSKM-ESC enabled us to identify the Sox2-interactome in undifferentiated ESC. Using multidimensional protein identification technology, we identified >70 proteins that associate with Sox2 in ESC. We extended these findings by testing the function of the Sox2-assoicated protein Smarcd1 and demonstrate that knockdown of Smarcd1 disrupts the self-renewal of ESC and induces their differentiation. Together, our work provides the first description of the Sox2-interactome in ESC and indicates that Sox2 along with other master regulators is part of a highly integrated protein-protein interaction landscape in ESC.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5427439212799072}
+{"content": "CPO5535: Politics of South Asia 3\n\nDescription: Surrounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West, Central and Southeast Asia, the region of South Asia is composed of eight developing countries of which at least four are of great strategic importance to the international political community. It’s growing economic and political influence along with nuclear proliferation, rise of Islamic militancy, terrorism and wars make South Asia a focal point of growing international attention and concern. This course will provide students with a detailed overview to the political study of the eight nations of South Asia. It will be organized to facilitate cross-national comparison, with course sections on each nation addressing topics such as political culture, government structure and institutions, political parties and leaders, and social conflict and resolution.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993913769721985}
+{"content": "You Can Train Your Senses To Describe Enjoyment Precisely\n\nApril 28, 1994|By Carl Jerome. Special to the Tribune. and Carl Jerome is a Chicago cookbook author and instructor at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago.\n\nMost people who enjoy food find pleasure and excitement in eating. Eating is more than just chewing and swallowing, it is a process of tasting.\n\nUltimately, the excitement in eating comes from being able to taste more flavors, being able to recognize more aromas, and finally, in learning to make finer and finer distinctions among those flavors and aromas of our foods. What separates filling our bellies from eating a gourmet meal is not the quality of the food, but how much we taste it.\n\nIt is this process of making finer and finer distinctions that gives us great pleasure in eating. It is this ability to discover the elegance and subtlety of a food that changes everyday eating into an art.\n\nThe problem for most of us is that we don't have a vocabulary for tasting. We don't know which words to use to describe flavor, so we really don't know what we are eating.\n\nIn many of the classes I teach at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, students practice the art of eating through a series of simple tastings.\n\nTo begin, each student is given a sheet listing 10 categories in which students might search for words to describe the aromas and 12 categories in which to search for words to describe flavors (see accompanying chart).\n\nStudents are then given a tasting sheet on which to make notes (completed examples follow) and are asked to smell and taste a food, first fresh, then dried, and finally canned. Tomatoes and pears are used as examples here.\n\nAfter smelling a wedge of a fresh tomato, students write the aromas on the tasting sheets. If at a loss for words, they refer to the sheet that lists catgories and search for a word in one or more of those categories.\n\nAlthough our noses are extraordinary at distinguishing aromas, the first few sniffs in this exercise always seem difficult. But by the time the tomato is chewed and the textures are noted, the search for words to describe the flavors of the tomato is easier.\n\nThe most difficult part of this exercise is remembering to use words that describe aromas to describe aromas, and words that describe flavor to describe flavors, and words that describe textures to describe textures. So a tomato cannot smell \"sweet\" (sweet is a flavor) or taste \"slimy\" (slimy is a texture).\n\nIn his gastronomic memoir, \"Delights and Prejudices\" (Collier Books, $12.95), James Beard coins the phrase \"taste memory\" to describe his ability to remember flavors for as long as five or six decades.\n\nBeard didn't remember a food the way one might remember the image of a baby taking his or her first steps. What Beard remembered were the words he used to describe the food to himself. As food played an increasingly important role in his life, he began remembering more and more of the words.\n\nTo learn to develop your taste vocabulary and taste memory, try this exercise. Buy a fresh tomato or pear, some dried tomatoes or pears and a can of tomatoes or pears.\n\nMake notes on the aromas you smell in each, their textures and flavors, using the aromas and flavor categories as a guide. Then read through the completed tasting sheet here and compare your findings with those of one of my recent classes. Then try again, searching for more aromas and flavors.\n\nIf you find this little exercise exciting, then you are hooked on the process, and you are well on your way to becoming an everyday practitioner of the art of eating.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5113784074783325}
+{"content": "Ask Questions, Get Answers\n\nHome  >>  EAMCET  >>  Physics\n\nThe radii and Young's moduli of two uniform wires A and B are in the ratio 2: 1 and 1:2 respectively. Both wires are subjected to the same longitudinal force. If the increase in length of the wire A is one percent, the percentage in length of the wire B is :\n\n\\[\\begin {array} {1 1} (a)\\;1.0 & \\quad (b)\\;1.5 \\\\ (c)\\;2.0 & \\quad (d)\\;3.0 \\end {array}\\]\n\n1 Answer\n\n(C) 2.0\nHence C is the correct answer.\nanswered Mar 24, 2014 by meena.p\n\nRelated questions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9927276968955994}
+{"content": "Lytro Cinema\n\n[ TechCrunch ] Lucas Matney:\n\nToday, the company introduced Lytro Cinema, which is the company’s effort to woo those in the television and film industries with cool camera technology that makes their jobs easier.\n\n\nLytro is a company in the business of capturing light fields. What’s a light field? According to Wikipedia:\n\nThe light field is a vector function that describes the amount of light flowing in every direction through every point in space. The direction of each ray is given by the 5D plenoptic function, and the magnitude of each ray is given by the radiance.\n\nWhat that means to me is a light field is light plus the direction the light is going. Capturing a light field means capturing depth information in addition to all the information a normal image sensor captures. Another way for me to understand capturing light fields is that with the Lytro Cinema 3D VR spaces are being captured.\n\nLytro is pivoting from consumer electronics to professional with the Lytro Cinema, which gives filmmakers flexibility not available before and allows for changing shutter speeds, the dynamic range, focus position, depth of field, etc. after footage has been captured. Amazing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.987448513507843}
+{"content": "Meaning of REPRESENT in English\n\n\n\n\na lawyer acts for/defends/represents sb\n\na group of lawyers who represent the airline\n\nmark/represent a shift\n\nThe idea represents a dramatic shift in health care policy.\n\nrepresent a breakthrough\n\nThis represents a major breakthrough in the search for a cure.\n\nrepresent a client\n\nMead was a top attorney representing major corporate clients.\n\nrepresent a minority\n\nOld people still only represent a minority of the population.\n\nrepresent a threat\n\nHe is not afraid, because you represent no threat to him.\n\nrepresent an improvement (= be an improvement )\n\nA pre-tax profit of 4.3 million pounds represents a 5% improvement on last year.\n\nrepresent your country\n\nIt’s a great honour to be chosen to represent your country in a sport.\n\nsth represents an achievement (= something is an achievement )\n\nFew people realised what an enormous achievement Concorde represented.\n\n\n\n\nIn placid periods this measure would represent only a very modest implicit tax on speculation.\n\nPolitical action committees, which are more active in congressional races, represented only 2 percent of the presidential campaign coffers.\n\nFor them aircraft represent only a small part of their huge engineering and shipbuilding businesses.\n\nThe results represented only small Steps toward equipping Taylor with the knowledge he needed to challenge the combined experience of the men.\n\nAnyway, they represent only a fraction of the long distance paths Britain has to offer.\n\nEach of these incremental shifts represents only a brief moment in geological time.\n\nDespite its impressive growth it represents only 5 percent of the total population and is not growing as fast as evangelical sects.\n\n\n\nWhy does government give attention to the views of the associations that represent the various groups of local authorities?\n\nThe Tennessee Education Association , which represents 43, 000 teachers in the state, has opposed the evolution bill.\n\nIt would be helpful if you could indicate on the attached reply slip if your Association will be represented at the meeting.\n\nTrade unions are associations of workers which represent their members in all negotiations with employers.\n\n\nTwenty years later he decided to lodge an Entitlement Appeal against the decision, and nominated the Association to represent him.\n\nThe associations which they represent can be seen in the ways in which they have been quoted by others.\n\n\nAn attorney representing a client before a court helps to make the trial fair, but the attorney is not neutral.\n\nSaturday, Wilson also signed a measure to increase the number of defense attorneys who represent Death Row inmates in their appeals.\n\nThe professors were not training young attorneys to represent peo-ple.\n\nTheodore Graham, an attorney representing the out-of-work San Diego Symphony musicians.\n\nBut the reverse is true when an attorney represents a person who is obviously guilty or whose guilt is widely perceived.\n\nI really believe that we would get an attorney and we would represent ourselves.\n\nAs an attorney , he represented the poor Thee of charge.\n\n\nThe paper claims this represents a serious challenge to other Risc vendors jostling for position in the software arena.\n\nWhat happened there represents a frontal challenge to how the courts, the states and the federal government administer justice.\n\nThey represent a very real challenge to the pub traditional client base.\n\nI chose seven contrasting but popular sports, some I had played many times before, others representing new challenges .\n\nThis historical work itself represents a strong challenge to some of the premises which underpin the idea of structured dependency.\n\nIndirectly this must have represented a challenge to the influence of Aethelred of Mercia in the East Saxon region.\n\nStrikes, in other words, represent a challenge to managerial authority.\n\nInvolving professional services, these two sectors represent particular challenges in managing change.\n\n\nHe says it's not everyone who gets a chance to represent their country .\n\nSo far, the users represent more than 50 countries .\n\nThey're embarrassed to have such primitive people represent the country to the rest of the world.\n\nGlobal information distribution networks represent the infrastructure crisscrossing countries and continents.\n\nThey would like to represent their country internationally.\n\nThey have represented their country at Under-19 level.\n\nShe represented her country in the senior Home Internationals and was undefeated in singles.\n\n\nThe figure represents a rise of £848 compared to the 1991 surplus.\n\nBut these figures do not represent real growth of the economy that people live from.\n\nFigure 1.1 represents the civil court structure and Figure 1.2 represents the criminal court structure.\n\nThe figures represent 2.4 children per 1,000 in the county, compared to an average of 4.2 per 1,000 in the North-East.\n\nThis equals the comparative cost and again the lowest figure represents the best value.\n\nA heavy bar below the figure represents identity across the five genes; a light bar represents a position of conservative change.\n\nThe figures given represent an average over the year.\n\n\nThe second group represented wild birds transplanted from not far away.\n\nThe group represents instead, a combination of such contrasting interests.\n\nMost of the other groups represent segments of the health care system, from insurers to clinics.\n\nIt consists of a number of locally-based groups , linked together by a holding committee on which the district groups are represented .\n\nWork with a group large enough to represent all the various essential interests yet small enough to still be manageable.\n\nThis group therefore represents the most committed sports participants.\n\nBut groups representing the disabled are threatening to disrupt the day.\n\n\nSalinity has reached 14 parts per thousand which represents a 40 percent increase since 1951.\n\nThis represents a 25 % increase over the figure for 1994, which was itself sharply higher than for 1993.\n\nThis represents an increase of 13.4 per cent compared to the previous year's results.\n\nThe investment by 3i represented a 73% increase over the previous year, which ended at 31 March 1990.\n\nAt constant prices accounting for price movements, this represents a 7.6% increase , comparing favourably with last years increase of 1.6%.\n\nAlthough the figure is small, it represents a dramatic increase compared with a total of six elected officials in 1962.\n\nEventhat figure represented a huge increase on previous statistics.\n\nThis represents an increase of 10.7% on last years figure of £317.3 million.\n\n\nIt's a question that lawyers representing the two Hitachi employees wanted to pursue in open court.\n\nA lawyer representing the company currently servicing the loan denies Aikens' assertions.\n\nShe thought lawyers represented ultimate respectability-they all made millions, rode in nice cars, and spoke fluently.\n\nThey are essential reading for child care lawyers who wish to represent their clients effectively in court.\n\nDonald Steier, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Llanos, said the priest maintained that he was innocent.\n\nThe lawyer representing the team doctor, Eric Rijkaert, also gave more details of the organisation of doping within the team.\n\nBernstein include clients the two lawyers represent and for whom they have won substantial judgments.\n\n\nThe election was contested by 1,126 candidates representing 20 political parties and 219 independents.\n\nThe republic's 245,000 registered voters were to elect deputies to the 42-seat Federal Assembly from 320 candidates representing 21 parties .\n\nThe congress was attended by 1,176 delegates representing over 2,000,000 party members.\n\n\nMost of its members represent the old party and management apparatus.\n\nThe election was contested by over 2,700 candidates representing 79 political parties .\n\nPower lay in the hands of a Committee of Public Safety, which represented all local parties and institutions.\n\n\n\nEither would be in sharp contrast to pre-settlement times, when pines represented 90 percent of the forest.\n\nThis represents 10 percent . of the United Kingdom total compared with 14 percent. in July 1989.\n\nThird World loans represent a mere six percent of their total portfolios.\n\nIn 1994, the public deficit represented 6 percent of national output.\n\nBut solid coffins represent less than 10 percent of the Coop's business.\n\nThe United States is the second most popular destination for its exchangers, representing about 20 percent of houses listed.\n\n\nSpecies, then, are real, even if they do not represent different stable states of matter.\n\nThese, representing a powerful State , are highly interventionist, concerned with efficiency and productivity, and rationalists to the core.\n\nAll three countries represent a state of affairs that defies predominant theories in comparative politics.\n\nThus state policies and actions reflect the balance of class forces and the way that balance is represented within the state.\n\nBut one of his students was Dan Morales, the Texas attorney general who is representing the state .\n\nCommissioner Zen and I represent the State .\n\nThe chief executive, or her delegates, represents the state in its dealings with other countries.\n\n\n\nMany athletes from the former Soviet Union now represent their home nations.\n\nSenior officials of the four unions representing Rover workers are trying to find an alternative buyer.\n\nA hundred different trade unions may be represented on one site.\n\nIt is significant that the union which represents the employed workers of Cartón has never been on strike.\n\nSome sacrifice, sneered the union representing the bank's 4,500 workers, before calling for wage talks.\n\n\nWhat causes offence is that he merely represents a shifting of values for the mass of young people.\n\nWe think these plans represent fairness and value for all Raiders fans.\n\nIn the first version, each card laid represents a value , such as love or luck.\n\nI used to pour the orange juice, which represented the added value in our products, into four separate glasses.\n\n\nMost are heavily subsidised and represent excellent value for hard-pressed school budgets.\n\nThe new subscription rates still represent exceptional value .\n\nYour new Thames Water charges still represent exceedingly good value for a continuous supply of water and our sewage services.\n\n\nI assume, therefore, that what he has said represents the majority view within his party.\n\nOne is that each theory represents only a partial view of the 183 whole.\n\nIs it not about time that the Minister started to represent doctors' views properly?\n\nAndrea Seastrand, R-Calif. made an argument that seemed to represent the majority view .\n\nThis represents a limiting view of initiative.\n\nBut Bomer said members represented every point of view in the state.\n\nA machine could effectively represent the views of the population using this information.\n\nI found out Monday that he was representing his own views , not the organization.\n\n\nlet sth be/equal/represent sth\n\nLet c equal 6.\n\n\nAs a top agent, Ovitz represented some of Hollywood's biggest stars.\n\nEach class will elect two students to represent them on the School Council.\n\nEinstein's theory represented a significant departure from previous theories.\n\nSingle letters or combinations of letters represent different phonetic sounds.\n\nThe athletes will represent China in this year's Olympic Games.\n\nthe Congressman who represents the taxpayers of District 1\n\nThe dummies represent average-sized adult males.\n\nThe new law has been criticized by groups representing disabled people.\n\nThe red lines on the map represent railways.\n\nThere is no doubt that this new type of tyre represents a major advance in road safety.\n\nTrade Unions representing ambulance workers yesterday agreed to accept a 5% pay increase.\n\nWho is representing the defendant?\n\nWilson was represented in court by a top criminal lawyer.\n\n\nBetween them, Ickes and Morris represent the uneasy coalition of the Democratic base and centrists that Clinton requires for victory.\n\nI wanted to spend my whole life representing these guys.\n\nIt represents one of his assignations.\n\nNone of the other defendants are represented yet, Singh said.\n\nOver the course of the preoperational stage, children increasingly attempt to represent things through drawings and their efforts become more realistic.\n\nThis approach stems from a strongly held belief that voluntary action represents a major force for positive environmental change.\n\nLongman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8981236815452576}
+{"content": "Supermoon: When and where to see it\n\nAugust 29, 2015 - Supermoon\n\nThree space events are set to stone a skies this fall.\n\nThis weekend, sky gazers will be treated to a singular astronomical event: first, a “supermoon,” a full moon that coincides with a closest indicate of a moon’s circuit to a earth, called perigee. The result? A (very slightly) bigger and brighter moon. \n\nFull moons change in distance since of a oval figure of a Moon’s orbit. As a moon travels a elliptical trail around Earth, it gets about 30,000 miles closer during perigee than during a farthest extreme, apogee.  Full moons tighten to perigee seem additional vast and bright.\n\n“In practice, it’s not always easy to tell a disproportion between a supermoon and an typical full moon,” NASA says. “A 30 percent disproportion in liughtness can simply be masked by clouds and haze.  Also, there are no rulers floating in a sky to magnitude lunar diameters. Hanging high beyond with no anxiety points to yield a clarity of scale, one full Moon looks about a same distance as any other.”\n\nWhen will be a best time to see tonight’s supermoon?\n\nAfter moonrise, when a moon is only above a horizon, a moon “will demeanour bigger and brighter than when it is aloft adult in a sky,” explains, “because observers are means to review a apparent distance of a Supermoon with elements in a landscape – hills, leaflet and buildings.” This outcome is popularly called a moon illusion.\n\nWhy are hulk moons illusory? “For reasons not entirely accepted by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging moons demeanour unnaturally vast when they lamp by trees, buildings and other forehead objects. When a moon apparition amplifies a perigee moon, a distended universe rising in a easterly during nightfall can seem super indeed,” according to NASA.\n\nIn other words, it isn’t indeed any bigger than it is when it’s high in a sky, though a vast moon subsequent to a tree only feels bigger than a same moon alone in a black sky. To infer to yourself that a moon doesn’t change size, reason out your arm while looking during a moon. No matter where a moon – or supermoon – is in a sky, you’ll be means to cover it with your outstretched thumb.\n\nSupermoons can have a genuine outcome on Earth, including larger-than-usual tides, according to EarthSky: “The Moon’s sobriety can means tiny ebbs and flows in a continents called land tides or plain Earth tides. These are biggest during a full and new Moons since a Sun and Moon are aligned on a same or conflicting sides of a Earth.”   \n\nIf we skip Saturday night’s event, we have another dual chances in Sep and October. However, a subsequent Supermoon, on Sunday, Sep 27, 2015, is a special one – it will be totally eclipsed for over 3 hours, creation it a fourth in a “Blood Moon” tetrad.\n\nIf we are a sky gazer, round Sep 27 on your calendar now.\n\nsource ⦿\n\nMore moon ...\n\n› tags: Supermoon /", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9501888751983643}
+{"content": "\n\nArticle: Volume 42 Number 7 Page 656 - September 2015\n\nPrev    Article P656    Next  Read article\n\n  Dent Update 2015; 42: 656-666\n\nPeriodontics:  Juvenile Hyaline Fibromatosis: Impact of Periodontal Care on Quality of Life and a Patient Perspective\n\nCPD:  CPD  0:24   (closed)      Self assess\n\nFeedback:  0 comments, 0 ratings\n\n\nAbstract: Juvenile hyaline fibromatosis (JHF) is a rare autosomal recessive inherited condition presenting early in life and characterized by the accumulation of hyaline-like tissue in the skin as well as various organs. Gingival overgrowth is a significant oral manifestation. This paper highlights how early and essential periodontal intervention may be necessary to improve mastication and subsequent weight gain, and to eliminate pain and improve the patient’s quality of life. Here we highlight the key features of this condition and demonstrate how appropriate surgical management can have a significant impact on a patient‘s wellbeing.\n\nClinical relevance: Juvenile hyaline fibromatosis has a significant impact on patient wellbeing and it is therefore important that clinicians are able to recognize the condition and ensure that patients receive appropriate care and management.\n\nAuthor notes: Zehra Yonel, BDS, MJDF RCS(Edin), Sabrina Parmar, BDS, MJDF RCS(Eng), Iain LC Chapple, FDS RCS, PhD, Department of Periodontology, Birmingham Dental Hospital, St Chad’s Queensway, Birmingham B4 6NN, UK.\n\nObjective: To recognize juvenile hyaline fibromatosis and ensure that patients receive appropriate care and management.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9936761856079102}
+{"content": "HomeNewsCurriculumHow TosTop TipsICT StrategyeLearningeSafetyitsLearningComputerBusTicket\nAssessment - Fitness for Purpose\n\nThroughout this (Isle of Man) scheme, we have made references to something we call ‘Fit for Purpose’.\n\nNow in fact this aspect is pretty fundamental to the UK assessment levels from about Level 2 upwards.\n\nMost of this is common sense. In short - does the solution achieve what it sets out to achieve? For example in a presentation - is the text legible - maybe from the back of a large hall? In a podcast, are the words intelligible? A booklet aimed at a specific audience - is it on target? An experiment aimed at measuring ambient light in a classroom - does it accurately do this?\n\nAll too often, the answer is ‘no’.\n\nThis is where the ‘testing’, ‘reviewing’ and ‘modifying’ bit comes in - establishing the extent to which the solution works and if not - putting it right.\n\nEven if a ‘working’ solution remains elusive - provided that this is acknowledged and understood, then this is an acceptable outcome.\n\nEducation Improvement Service\nFitness for Purpose May include (in no\nScreenshot20111216at101309logoNewsNewsCurriculumCurriculumTop TipsTop TipsICT StrategyICT StrategyitsLearningitsLearningEnd of Key StageQuality CountsSystem LifecycleTransferUK LevelsAfl (ICT)CoverageAssessmentFrameworkOverview", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980285167694092}
+{"content": "Why is Fibonacci series numbers used in Agile Planning and Estimations?\n\nLet’s start with a refresher for Fibonacci numbers. By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1 (alternatively, 1 and 1), and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. Thus a Fibonacci sequence looks like:\n\n\nIf you have worked in any Agile teams, you might have well noticed that the project estimations are not done in terms of hours. I personally believe this is a great thing for developers and testers (generally the time taken by the requirement analysts is not estimated or added to a user story estimation because the requirement work is assumed to have been already done when the user story is written) as they dont have to worry about the time factor when working on any piece of work. They can rather focus on the work itself.\n\nMost of the Agile Teams that I have come across estimate their work in Tee Shirt Sizes (especially at Feature or Epic level) and do a relative sizing in Fibonacci Numbers at the User Story level. But have you ever wondered why Fibonacci numbers? Why not just plain 1,2,3,4… numbers? Well, there is a reason for that.\n\nThe reason for using the Fibonacci sequence is to reflect the inherent uncertainty in estimating larger items. What this means is the larger the size of the card, the more uncertainty exist around what needs to be done to call the card “done-done”. Some people have noted that the Fibonacci sequence grows about the same rate at which we humans can perceive meaningful changes in magnitude, which could be another reason. By principle the larger stories can be sliced into smaller ones if possible. But it is not always possible to slice the work to provide business values. So, in keeping a user story larger, we introduce chances for uncertainty. It’s not possible to accurately estimate work that take days versus hours without introducing uncertainty. So by doing a Fibonacci sequencing for numbers, we account for such uncertainties.\n\nRemember, the estimation is best if it is done as a relative sizing. This means, instead of estimating a card by itself, it is advised that we compare the card relative to other cards (either already done in prior iterations or the ones already estimated) and come to a point.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.981103777885437}
+{"content": "world book day\n\nWhat are you going to come in as on world book day?\n\nWell i’ll tell you about it then so 1 day per year we have a day called world book day. World book day day is where each person will come in as their favourite character out of their favourite book. Then we will have a competition of who has the best costume out each year group so 1 out of year 3 and 1 out of year 4 and 1 out of year 5 and finally 1 out of year 6.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7373884916305542}
+{"content": "martes, abril 21\n\nAth and Thysa, chapter 2 (English version)\n\nThe next part of the chapter one of Ath and Thysa. Enjoy.\n\nThe servant called Emmer appeared again, below one of the arches that leaded to the courtyard.\n\n- Sorry about the interruption, my Lord, but where would you have lunch?\n- Where do you prefer?- asked Ruar, looking at his guests.- Here? Or maybe inside...?\n- Here it’s fine.- answered Ath, after a quick glance to Thysa.- If it isn’t an inconvenience, of course.\n- Of course not.\n\nEmmer nodded and vanished again. Duna closed her book, that she had kept opened over her knees all that time, and sat up. She smoothed the creases of her dress’ skirt.\n\n- Darling, I’m gonna see the twins.\n- Good idea.\n\nMore servantes came to join the tables and put a white tablecloth. The cultlery was made of silver and the glasses of crystal. The ceramic plates were filled with delicious food: fried fish, squids, salads, boiled and seasoned potatos and fruit. Thysa’s belly roared softly due to the irresistible smell of the meal.\n\nDuna came back with two young men not much older than Thysa and completely identical. They had sandy hair, tanned skin and they were tall and brawny, more looking like their mother than like their father. The two brothers took a seat and observed the strangers, curiously. Ruar made them a gesture, encouraging them to help themselves. Thysa took a tray with lemon gilt-head.\n\n- They’re my sons.- the Governor said.- Ifher and Ellem, they’re Ath, the spirit hunter and his friend, Thysa.\n- A really beautiful woman, without any doubt.- commented Ellem, appreciating her with evident admiration.\n- I don’t think she will feel flattered by that, brother.- Ifher replied, severely.\n- Why not?\n- It’s not correct to look at a married woman in that way.\n\nThysa raised her eyes from her plate abruptly to look at Ifher, aware of being blushing. As opposed as her, Ath was calmed and smiling. He was smiling stupidly. Ruar and his wife had surprised expressions in their faces. Ifher was amazed because of his word’s effect.\n\n- I’m not wrong, am I? Both of you wear a silver halfmoon earring. That’s the marriage symbol for the shaman tribe of Dumyat. You wouldn’t wear it if you weren’t together, unless you are married with another...\n- No, no.- Thysa said.- You’re right.\n\nEllem frowned and Thysa cursed to herself. She didn’t like that people knew the nature of the compromise that tied her to Ath, because she tried to avoid that union as much as she could. But desafortunately, sometimes she found someone well versed about her tribe’s customs.\n\nAfter that declaration an uncomfortable silence went on, while everyone ate keeping silence. It was Ath who, passed a few minutes, took up again the conversation changing the topic.\n\n- Can I ask you some more specific questions, sir?\n- Sure, sure. Go ahead.\n- Have anything else happened since you sent the messenger?\n- Some days after that, three more deaths. But since then, nothing. However, things are not all right. Like the calm before the storm. - - It’s like...\n- Like something worse it’s still to come.- Thysa whispered.\n- Yeah, exactly.\n- About those deaths... have you found some similar to the first one, naked and burned?\n- No, that was the only one.\n- There is a common factor... among the victims?\n- No... it seems an indiscriminate massacre. Although we’ve noticed that after our exorcist’s death, all the suicide victims were men. That seemed weird to us.\n- Interesting... have you seen the specter personally?\n- I haven’t, but...\n- I have.- Ellem said.- But I wouldn’t call it a specter. Maybe it was one at the beginning, I don’t know... but I think he’s stronger now.\n- Is it corporeal?- Ath asked, trying to supress the concern in his voice.\n- Yeah. It has the skin slightly green, dirty grey eyes without iris nor pupil. It tries to keep hidden, but I saw its face when it killed one of my father’s soldiers, before disappearing.\n- Does it have some... visible and distinctive wound or mark?\n- If it has one, I didn’t see it.\n- Had you seen that face before?\n\nEllem shook his head negatively. Ath nodded and talked to Ruar again.\n\n- Now I need you to make an effort to remember. Before the ghost stories started to circulate... did it happen... something tragic in the city? Like a significant death, perhaps.\n- I need to think about it, I couldn’t answer right now.\n- It's fine. But please, give it priority. It might be very helpful.\n\nAfter Ath’s questions, conversation topics changed to less horrifying ones. The Governor’s family was very interested about Ath’s unusual gift but he, as he always did, played it down. Thysa ground her teeth and tried to hide her disdain: she’d rather wanted Ath to admit that his gift was an authentic prodigy instead of convincing everybody that to see and listen to the spirits as he did was possible to anyone else. That placed her in a very low position.\nIher asked her about the Dumyat tribe; he had studied it conscientiously. He confessed he would like to visit the place when it was possible to leave Dhara.\n\n- Do you know the Totem of the tribe? I know that he, or she, is elected because of his talent in the shamanic arts, and that every two years there is a challenge, to keep this position or to leave it to someone more qualified.\n- Our current Totem is my uncle.- she answered, proud.- The majority of our tribe’s Totems belong to my family clan.\n- That’s impressive!- he exclaimed.- I need to meet him, it would be an honour. When are the selection rituals? I think they will take place soon...\n- Yes, they will take place in five days, after the summer solstice. If I could be there, maybe I would participate.\n- What can you do with the shamanic power?- Duna asked, shyly.\n- We have a perfect understading with nature and the most powerful shamans are able to control it. We hear and communicate with elements and animals’ spirits, also with human souls, though less easily.\n- You should work well together.- Ellem commented, staring at them.\n- Part of my success’ secret is due to her.- Ath smiled.\n\nThysa didn’t smile back, but she couldn’t help to feel flattered by his words.\n\nWhen they finished lunch, the servants removed the empty plates, the cutlery and the tablecloth. Thysa began feeling slightly drowsy. During the journey she couldn’t eat and rest enough, and that banquet and the peace feeling floating over them threatened to close her eyes. She had to make an effort to supress a yawn. The fountain’s song and the pleasant breeze were making her feel sleepy... She noticed that Ath was looking at her, but she ignored him as she always did.\n\n- Sir...- he said.- Could we retire to get some rest? I would like to revise the information you gave me and draw some conclusions. And although is still early, sleep for a while. I want to be awake and alert this night.\n- Of course.\n\nHe clapped three times again. In a matter of seconds Emmer and Silia appeared under the arch.\n\n- Silia, please, lead our guests to one of the free rooms. The bedchamber in the east wing near the garden would be fine.\n- Inmediately, my Lord.\n\nThey left the courtyard following the Governor’s old maid, to the upper floor. The bedroom mentioned by Ruar was in a corridor whose left side was transformed in a wood balcony that faced the lush garden of the house, with fruit trees, hedges and narrow cobbled paths, fountains and benches. Silia opened the bedchamber.\n\n- You have at your disposal a place to take a bath. I’ll send someone with hot water in a minute.\n- Thank you.- they both said at the same time.\n\nThe room was large and well illuminated. The paving stones were brown and the white walls were decorated by a mosaic frieze. There was just a double bed, with pale blue sheets, a wardrobe, one desk and two comfortable chairs, and a big and solid wood bathtub. Ath undid his belt and lay down over the bed, sighing.\n\n- This seems harder that I thought.\n- Yeah, it doesn’t look good.\n\nThysa sat at the foot of the bed, without looking at him. Ath raised his body to see her better. The sun made her dark hair, messy over her shoulders, shine with coppery sparkles.\n\n- I’m sorry... well. I’m sorry about being in the same room as you.- he said in a low voice.\n- It doesn’t matter, it’s not the first time.- she replied. And without giving him time to answer, asked.- Which are your conclusions so far?\n\nHe sat up and rested his back against the wall, near one of the windows. He stroked his unruly hair, which had the golden wheat colour, with an absent gesture.\n\n- I have a few ones.- he said.- To start with, I suspect that the spirit is strongly tied to the city and because of that nobody else can leave it. Also, its corporeal state is an obvious signal that it’s obtaining strength. However, now it’s aware of its vulnerability and it’s hidden.\n- It can be tied to the city or to someone that is still here and is alive.- Thysa pointed out.\n- Yeah, you’re right. Even they can be both reasons. If we follow that direction... the idea of a summoner’s existence makes sense.\n- The widow’s death has to be relevant.\n- True. The burns suggest that the specter tried to establish a physical contact with her, and her nudity... specify what type of contact.\n- But she was the only victim with those characteristics.\n- So we can conclude that the specter knew the victim and they had a common story.\n- Is it possible that the widow was the summoner? After her death and the exorcist’s there weren’t more victims for a time until they resumed again, more violently. Maybe the specter was her husband.\n- It’s possible... but I doubt it. If the summoner had died so early, the specter had disappeared, too. It couldn’t had time to create a bond strong enough to stay here. It could have been a really powerful specter to do such a thing without a summoner and if that had been the case, its presence now would be stronger that it is. But we’ll check it. We’ll ask Ruar for more details about the widow. If his husband had died recently, we’ll consider it. If not, it wouldn’t be worthy.\n\nShe agreed. She felt comfortable talking to Ath about those topics, and sometimes during those conversations she forgot her aversion to him.\n\n- The suicide deaths, and the fact that all the victims were men, suggest that it was trying to possess another body, without success. Perhaps it did it finally and because of that now is corporeal, or maybe it turned corporeal by itself... what is much more worrying.\n- Because it had needed help.- she whispered.\n- Exactly.\n\nThey heard knuckles against the door and Thysa approached to open it. Four maids, about fifteen or sixteen years, came into the room carrying buckets of hot water and poured them into the bathtub without saying a word. The last one left a bar of soap and clean towels and then they came out holding back their giggles.\n\n- You can... go first. I don’t mind if the water is colder later.- he said.\n- Okay.\n\nThysa went by the bathtub and put her hand into the water to measure the temperature. It was pretty hoy, but she liked that way. A shiver climbed up her back.\n\n- I can turn myself if you want...\n- There’s nothing that you haven't seen already, Ath.\n\nShe undressed herself quickly, leaving her clothes over the chair’s back. She took the bar of soap and placed the towels near the bathtub before get into it, slowly. The heat wrapped her, soaking her through completely, burning her skin. She closed her eyes and a pleasure sigh escaped from her lips. She imagined herself in Dumyat, in the solstice celebration, by the big bonfires that surrounded the lake, painting the water with crimson glows. She saw her family and the faces of those she loved... her parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, the friends that had grown up by her side...\n\nShe froze when she felt an intrusion in that range of loved faces. Her subconscious should have cheated her, adding another well-known face, grave and naughty at the same time, of pale skin, dark blue eyes and wheat hair.\n\nShe shook her head to take out of her mind that image and opened her eyes. She felt relief when noticed that Ath wasn’t looking at her. The young man had lain down over the bed again and remained silent. Thysa didn’t linger there, she washed herself quickly, barely noticing the nice smell of the soap. When she was clean she got out of the bathtub and wrapped herself in one towel. She dried herself rapidly and sat down in the bed.\n\n- Your turn.\n\nAth got up, undressed right there and went into the bathtub without saying anything. Thysa avoided look at him. She finished drying her body and put on a long and white linen shirt that used to sleep. After that she went into the bed, closed her eyes and tried to get asleep soon.\n\nShe couldn’t help listening to Ath while he washed himselh and noticed that he was doing it slower than she. She didn’t understand why, suddenly, she felt so confused and embarrased. She wanted to be asleep before he finished but it was impossible, so she pretended being sleeping.\n\nAth lay very close to her, without touching her. He breathed the fragance of her wet hair and observed the curves of her body in silence. He thougth her already asleep; Thysa sleeped easily and even more when she was tired. He had to make an effort for not to stretch his hand and caress her waist; he didn’t dare to awake her.\n\n- Will you be able to... forgive me and stop hating me someday?- he whispered to himself.\n\nNo hay comentarios:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986369013786316}
+{"content": "The Definitive Guide to Power Of Subconscious Mind\n\nTop latest Five subconscious mind Urban news\n\nwikiHow Contributor Of course it is. Meditation is basically focusing your brain on a particular point. Should you emphasis by yourself on God/the universe/a better consciousness/peace, and so forth., although stating your prayers, Then you really are meditating,\n\n*We guarantee we won't ever SPAM you with unwanted email messages. We respect your privateness and won't ever share your e-mail tackle with anyone or organization.\n\n, and that’s why it provided These emotions and feelings it connected with People feelings. It actually is often a great present We now have!\n\nAt the end of the experiment the results were being extraordinary. The team that bodily practiced every day enhanced their rating by 24%.\n\nExhale deeply and slowly but surely and sense a wave of leisure arrive more than you while you Permit go of any worries or pressure you could be sensation. Over the third breath, Enable your eyelids close.\n\nThey didn’t imply to hurt us or impede us. Most of the mother and father usually do not wake up in the morning and say, “It’s a stunning working day, the sky is blue, the birds singing within the trees; how am I planning to purposely fail my child?\n\nIf, on the other hand, it wasn’t crucial to you to definitely remember your telephone number That always then it may be saved a tiny bit deeper, and Therefore whenever you’re requested for your cell phone number around the spot you could possibly struggle to remember it.\n\nWith Just about every breath, Believe to you “deeper and further” as Your whole body will become Increasingly more relaxed. After seven breaths, you ought to be in a point out of deep rest. Should you’re not, continue to breathe deeply and hold out until eventually every single muscle mass in your body feels entirely rigidity-totally free. \n\nHow do the whole world's most influential, brilliant and impressive people get the inspiration for their ideas, creations and achievements?\n\nSet your phone to silent. Prevent applying a pc or tablet—they provide you with too many distractions![9]\n\nNow we will finally realize why we act the way we act, why we select the same associates again and again, why we don’t regulate to Stop using tobacco, and why we predict negative ideas about ourselves.\n\nEvery time my interest wanders from that which is superior and constructive, I'll quickly deliver it back into the contemplation of that and that is attracting to myself all things that which bless and prosper me. I am gonna be an excellent accomplishment in all my undertakings right now. I am unquestionably destined to be satisfied all day extensive. Start off every single day During this method; then you will end up picking out contentment, and you may become a radiant joyous human being. 107.There is one important place about getting pleased. You will need to sincerely need to be pleased. Very little is completed with no want. Desire is often a desire with wings of imagination and religion. 108.Pleasure is actually a habit. 109.Start to understand that the planet you reside in is set largely by what goes on in your mind. a hundred and ten.The ideas you habitually entertain in your mind contain the tendency to actualize themselves in Actual physical situations. 111.The kingdom of happiness is as part of your believed and feeling. 112.When fearful or angry ideas appear into your mind, say the following: \"Peace, harmony, and poise govern my mind at all times. 113.The happiest gentleman is he who continually brings forth and techniques what's finest website in him. 114.Categorical additional of God's appreciate, mild, real truth, and beauty, and you may turn out to be on the list of happiest human being's on the planet now. one hundred fifteen.Each individual morning say to you, \"I choose contentment now. I choose results right now. I select proper motion now. I select love and excellent will for all currently. I choose peace right now.\" Pour everyday living, really like, and desire into this affirmation, and you have preferred contentment.\n\nTo accomplish this you, you need to go into a point out of rest. If you’re absolutely relaxed, navigate here your mindful mind doesn’t have to have to respond to external stimuli and become on high-inform. This permits your subconscious to take above, and provides you a possibility to influence it. \n\nIn case the dream dictionary’s definition of a image is inadequate, try evaluating subconscious mind progrmming the desire throughout the context of your own personal lifetime. Try out to ascertain on your own when there is a cause this picture, particular person, or issue is showing up as part of your goals.[fourteen]\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6874183416366577}
+{"content": "Veronica Mullenix\nVeronica Mullenix Real Estate Group\n\nWhat is a Zoning Variance?\n\nIf you're in the process of designing a new home or adding an addition to your current home, you're likely aware of the term zoning: the government’s way of controlling the physical development of land and the kinds of uses to which each individual property may be put. Designed to protect you, your neighbors, and the community from undesirable, or inappropriate, land uses and/or construction, zoning laws in many communities can be very rigid and inflexible.\n\nHowever, if you're building plans are thwarted by zoning rules and regulations, you may be able to acquire a zoning variance\n\nA variance is a request made to your local jurisdiction to deviate from current zoning requirements. If granted, a variance will allow you to use your land in a way that is normally not permitted by the zoning ordinance, such as building your home a bit higher than allowed, or adding a shed or guest house closer to your property line.\n\nHowever, do not view a variance as something that changes the zoning law because it does not. Rather, it waives a certain requirement of the zoning ordinance. For example, it may allow the owner of an odd-shaped lot to reduce slightly the setback requirements in order to accommodate a building, or permit the building of a gazebo in the back yard. \n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9095733761787415}
+{"content": "TRIANGLE UFO SENSATION: Huge floating craft CANNOT be explained by investigators\n\nALIEN investigators have been unable to explain what a huge triangular-shaped UFO that slowly drifted over a driver could possibly be.\n\nInvestigators from the US-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) were left baffled by the sighting of the triangular formation said to have drifted over Dauphin, Pennsylvania, in the US.\n\nThe case has intensified the mystery of a baffling rise in so-called triangle UFOs reported across the US.\n\nAnd, it comes after reported on two other sightings that had video footage of the alleged UFOs.\n\nIn the latest case, the witness was driving at about 8.30pm last month when they saw the bizarre sight overhead incident occurred.\n\nIn a report to MUFON, the world’s largest organisation dedicated UFO and other paranormal research, the man said: “My attention was drawn to a triangular object in the sky quickly flying toward me.\n\n“It was low and had a couple of alternating, brightly flashing, white lights with a red light.\n\n“There were several other smaller, flashing white lights that outlined the shape.\n\n“I was drawn to watch it, so I stopped in the middle of the road.\n\n“It descended and flew directly over my car.\n\nWhen I looked up through my sunroof, I could see it had a metallic-like appearance, but it wasn’t smooth, and an irregular light pattern.\n\n“It quickly started a slight ascension, made a quick 90-degree direction change and simply disappeared.\n\n“The entire event was only a couple of minutes in duration. It happened so quickly, it was difficult to take pictures.”\n\nPennsylvania MUFON state section director Julia Weiss investigated the sighting, but was left stumped, and had to close the case as an Unknown.\n\nRoger Marsh, MUFON director of communications, said: “Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made.”\n\nIn December revealed there had been a rise in reports of the mysterious UFOs to MUFON, which keeps a global database of alleged UFO and alien sightings.\n\nTriangle UFO\n\nMUFON receives hundreds of similar reports each year, with numbers seemingly on the rise.\n\nThe reports are often eerily similar, leading to speculation the bizarre UFOs could be REAL.\n\nMany reports tell of a triangle shape, defined by a series of lights, which are said to be in some cases as big as a football field, moving slowly and silently across the sky.\n\nSome believe they are alien craft, while others think they are top secret test craft created by the US Government at mysterious air bases like Area 51 in the Nevada desert.\n\nScott Brando runs website which exposes hoax UFO sightings.\n\nHe is sceptical any unexplainable sightings have been made.\n\nThe expert says many triangle UFO sightings can be explained as aircraft and military flares.\n\nHe told “The Phoenix lights were explained with two different events. The first was the flight of five planes in V-shape formation.\n\n“This is what the witness saw in that day.\n\n“The second event was the launch of military flares over Estrella mountains.”\n\nHe said of the Belgian UFO Wave: “The Belgian UFO wave began as a normal sighting (some lights in the sky) and then spread virally, but it took more time because at that time the media coverage had no internet like now.”\n\nReferring to triangle UFOs generally, he added: “About other similar sightings I’d like to see some reports by MUFON, however many formation of sky lanterns or the launch of skydivers Golden Knights were often mistaken for UFOs.” VIDEO BELOW\n\nClick like if you enjoyed reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8073234558105469}
+{"content": "What is a fart and why do we do it?\n\nFarts – also called flatus (say: flay-tus) or intestinal (say: in-tes-tuh-null) gas – are made of, well, gas!\n\nWhen you eat, you don’t swallow just your food. You also swallow air, which contains gases like nitrogen (say: ny-truh-jen) and oxygen (say: ahk-sih-jen). Small amounts of these gases travel through your digestive system as you digest your food. Other gases like hydrogen (say: hy-droh-jen), carbon dioxide (say: kar-bon dy-ahk-side, the gas that makes soda fizzy), and methane (say: meth-ain) are made when food is broken down in the large intestine. All of these gases in the digestive system have to escape somehow, so they come out as farts!\n\nGases are also what can make farts smell bad. Tiny amounts of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane combine with hydrogen sulfide (say: suhl-fide) and ammonia (say: uh-mow-nyuh) in the large intestine to give gas its smell. Phew!\n\nAll people fart sometimes, whether they live in France, the Fiji islands, or Fresno, California! If you have a dog, you may have even been unlucky enough to have heard (or smelled) Fido farting. Intestinal gas is totally normal, and it’s very rare for farting to be a sign that something is wrong in the body.\n\nFor more on gas visit “Why do I fart? on Kidshealth.org”\n\nAnswer provided by KidsHealth.org\nrelated questions\n\nShare This Site\n\nBorn on this day\n\nDecember 10, 2017\n\n1889 - Ray Collins\n1910 - Jill Summers\n1932 - Dan Blocker\n1926 - Harry Fowler\n1945 - Chad Stewart\n1952 - Clive Anderson\n1957 - Paul Hardcastle\n1958 - Lawrie 'Pepsi' Demacque\n1960 - Kenneth Brannagh\nwww.Bridal-Shower-Games.com |Baby Shower Games | www.TwitterBackgrounds.org", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940998554229736}
+{"content": "This well recorded disc brings to the fore some unusual works by Mozart, realized and completed by other composers including Anthony Goldstone himself. The sprightly ‘Magic Flute’ overture comes alive in this spirited version for two pianos. What follows is a rarity in the shape of the Piano Sonata in B flat major, completed from fragments but it is a truly intriguing find and again it comes alive quite magically.\n\n\n\n—Gerald Fenech", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.921175479888916}
+{"content": "Search latest news, events, activities, business...\n\nFriday, February 5, 2016\n\nSinger Swati Sharrma with her Emotion trance\n\nA Bollywood movie is almost incomplete without a song. The music of a movie makes people hum along and dance to its tunes. Numerous Bollywood songs connect on an emotional level. The lyrics of some Bollywood songs bring tears. Sad songs do bring memories. Bollywood sad songs are all about pain, heartbreak, heartache do have a cult following. Lyrics and music in sad songs evoke a gush of emotion. Old sad songs from Bollywood movies are hugely popular even today. Lyrics speak a language that connects with the heart. Situational songs that evoke painful memories are beautifully enacted in scenes by actors and actresses in movies. Recently 'Banno Tera Swagger\" fame Swati Sharrma has sung a Melodic sad song with her soulful voice in \"Direct Ishq\" song \"Toote Tare\". Swati will get you the teary-eyed when she brings varied emotions in her song. \" Toote Tare\" song is picturised on Rajneesh Duggal, Nidhi Subbaiah and Arjun Bijlani where they will be seen depicting their emotions.\n\nSwati Sharrma said, \" When we talk about sad songs from Bollywood movies, what comes to mind is a broad spectrum of situations. Heartache, heartbreak, pain, sorrow, guilt, jilt, broken relationships are some among the various elements that encompass sad songs. A reason why emotional songs connect with listeners instantaneously is… the depth of lyrics. My song associates with memories, good memories and unpleasant memories. It relates to personal experiences in life and that hits the right notes with listeners\".\n\nThe various emotions which Swati has portrayed in the song bring about a sense of warmth that embalms the heart and mind. \"While sad songs may flashback unpleasant memories, one cannot deny the fact that sad songs or songs about suffering and pain do calm senses and make you emotionally stronger\", Swati added.\n\nThanks for your VISITs\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9828001856803894}
+{"content": "Doomed plane carrying Brazilian team may have run out of fuel\n\n\nIn the sometimes chaotic exchange with the air traffic tower, the pilot of the British-built jet could be heard repeatedly requesting authorization to land because of “fuel problems.” A female controller explained another plane had been diverted with mechanical problems and had priority, instructing the pilot to wait seven minutes.\n\nAs the plane circled in a holding pattern, the pilot grew more desperate. “Complete electrical failure, without fuel,” he said in the tense final moments before the plane set off on a four-minute death spiral that ended with it slamming into a mountainside Monday night.\n\nJust before going silent the pilot said he was flying at an altitude of 9,000 feet and made a final plea to land: “Vectors, senorita. Landing vectors.”\n\n\nFor now, authorities are avoiding singling out any one cause of the crash, which killed all but six of the 77 people on board, including members of Brazil’s Chapecoense soccer team travelling to Medellin for the Copa Sudamericana finals — the culmination of a fairy tale season that had electrified soccer-crazed Brazil.\n\nA full investigation is expected to take months and will review everything from the 17-year-old aircraft’s flight and maintenance history to the voice and instruments data in the black boxes recovered Tuesday at the crash site on a muddy hillside. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was taking part in the investigation because the plane’s engines were made by an American manufacturer.\n\n\n\nBefore being taken offline, the website of LaMia, the Bolivian-based charter company, said the British Aerospace 146 Avro RJ85 jetliner’s maximum range was 2,965 kilometres (1,600 nautical miles) — just under the distance between Medellin and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where the flight originated carrying close to its full passenger capacity.\n\n“If this is confirmed by the investigators it would be very painful because it stems from negligence,” Bocanegra told Caracol Radio on Wednesday when asked whether the plane should not have attempted such a long haul.\n\n\n“’We ran out of fuel. The airplane turned off,”’ rescuer Arquimedes Mejia quoted Sanchez as saying as he pulled her from the wreckage. “That was the only thing she told me,” he told The Associated Press.\n\nInvestigators also want to speak to Juan Sebastian Upegui, the co-pilot of an Avianca commercial flight who was in contact with air traffic controllers near Medellin’s Jose Maria Cordova airport at the time the chartered plane went down.\n\nIn a four-minute recording circulated on social media, Upegui described how he heard the flight’s pilot request priority to land because he was out of fuel. Growing ever more desperate, the pilot eventually declared a “total electrical failure,” Upegui said, before the plane quickly began to lose speed and altitude.\n\n“I remember I was pulling really hard for them, saying ’Make it, make it, make it, make it,”’ Upeqgui says in the recording. “Then it stopped. … The controller’s voice starts to break up and she sounds really sad. We’re in the plane and start to cry.”\n\n\nHowever, there could be other explanations for that: The pilot may have intentionally dumped fuel in the hopes of reducing the risk of a fireball in a crash, or the aircraft could have suffered a fuel leak or other unexplained reason for losing fuel.\n\nJohn Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Florida-based Safety Operating Systems, said the aircraft’s amount of fuel deserves a careful look.\n\n“The airplane was being flight-planned right to its maximum. Right there it says that even if everything goes well they are not going to have a large amount of fuel when they arrive,” said Cox. “I don’t understand how they could do the flight nonstop with the fuel requirements that the regulations stipulate.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8975708484649658}
+{"content": "Pumpkin Pie Flavor\n\npumpkin pie (Taste of Home)\n\nHow did pumpkin spice flavor infiltrate our food supply? Flavor scientists were the instigators. We come up with a good flavor and want everyone to use it in every food imaginable. Most flavor scientists are confident (if not egotistical) and believe that everyone will love their creation and will want to flavor their food products with it. Some favorite pumpkin pie flavored foods are: egg nog, waffles, tea, lattes, chocolate, muffins, cakes and ice cream. Typically, pumpkin spice flavor blends well in fatty sweet foods that we typically enjoy in Fall & Winter. A good pumpkin spice flavor might have the following ingredients: Concentrated Vanilla Extract 10 fold Cinnamon Oleoresin Ginger Oleoresin Clove … [Read more...]\n\nChobani Greek Yogurt Vanilla Review\n\nChobani Greek Yogurt, vanilla flavor\n\nI was in love with Chobani Greek yogurt, until I tried vanilla flavor. The texture and creaminess of this yogurt is delicious, but the vanilla flavor is terrible. Vanilla is my favorite flavor,  I stock a 16 oz of Costco's vanilla extract in my kitchen . You can  use vanilla extract in about everything sweet: milk, hot cocoa, cakes, lattes, teas, cookies, etc. Vanilla enhances flavor and adds a nice creamy sweetness to foods and beverages.  The vanilla flavor used in the Chobani Greek yogurt did none of this.  Chobani vanilla yogurt started out sweet and beany, but had a terrible smokey,woody character that came on strong and lingered unpleasantly.  The vanilla flavor did not balance well with the tart yogurt. The ingredients in Chobani … [Read more...]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9299795031547546}
+{"content": "AP Lit Terms + Definitions\n\nHere are the list of AP literature terms we have been learning over the past year.  Study and Enjoy!\n\nAllegory: a tale in prose or verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities; a story that uses symbols to make a point\n\nAlliteration: the repetition of similar initial sounds, usually consonants, in a group of words\n\n\nAmbiguity: something uncertain as to interpretation\n\nAnachronism: something that shows up in the wrong place or the wrong time\n\nAnalogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them\n\nAnalysis: a method in which a work or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts given rigorous and detailed scrutiny\n\nAnaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences\n\nAnecdote: a very short story used to illustrate a point\n\nAntagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative\n\nAntithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness\n\nAphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life\n\nApologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action; also apology\n\n\nArgument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by proving either the truth or the falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself\n\nAssumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted that a thing is true\n\nAudience: the intended listener or listeners\n\nCharacterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character’s personality\n\nChiasmus: a reversal in the order off words so that the second half of a statement balances the first half in inverted word order\n\nCircumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have served\n\nClassicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome: tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance\n\nCliché: a phrase or situation overused within society\n\nClimax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the pint of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved\n\nColloquialism: folksy speech, slang words or phrases usually used in informal conversation\n\nComedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending; now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter\n\nConflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension\n\nConnotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition\n\nContrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity\n\nDenotation: plain dictionary definition\n\nDenouement (pronounced day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in a story after the climax, closure, conclusion\n\nDialect: the language of a particular district, class or group of persons; the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.\n\nDialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.\n\nDichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.\n\nDiction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.\n\nDidactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.\n\nDogmatic: rigid in beliefs and principles.\n\nElegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.\n\nEpic: a long narrative poem unified by a hero who reflects the customs, mores, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).\n\nEpigram: witty aphorism.\n\nEpitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone.\n\nEpithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that  may insult someone’s character, characteristics\n\nEuphemism: the use of an indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, offensive, or blunt.\n\nEvocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and sensations; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality.\n\nExposition: beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas, and/or characters, in a detailed explanation.\n\nExpressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic   representation of an inner idea or feeling(s).\n\nFable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.\n\nFallacy: from Latin word “to deceive”, a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound.\n\nFalling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax.\n\nFarce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue.\n\nFigurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech (such as metaphor and simile).\n\nFlashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events.\n\nFoil: a person or thing that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent.\n\nFolk Tale: story passed on by word of mouth.\n\nForeshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; “planning” to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away.\n\nFree Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.\n\nGenre: a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content.\n\nGothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence.\n\nHyperbole: an exaggerated statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point.\n\nImagery: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses.\n\nImplication: a meaning or understanding that is to be arrive at by the reader but that is not fully and explicitly stated by the author.\n\nIncongruity: the deliberate joining of opposites or of elements that are not appropriate to each other.\n\nInference: a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which possesses some degree of probability according to facts already available.\n\nIrony: a contrast or incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected to happen and what actually happens, or what is thought to be happening and what is actually happening.\n\nInterior Monologue: a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; the recording of the internal, emotional experience(s) of an individual; generally the reader is given the impression of overhearing the interior monologue.\n\nInversion: words out of order for emphasis.\n\nJuxtaposition: the intentional placement of a word, phrase, sentences of paragraph to contrast with another nearby.\n\nLyric: a poem having musical form and quality; a short outburst of the author’s innermost thoughts and feelings.\n\nMagic(al) Realism:  a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everyday  with the marvelous or magical.\n\nMetaphor(extended, controlling, and mixed): an analogy that compare two different \nthings imaginatively.\nExtended: a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer\nwants to take it.\nControlling: a metaphor that runs throughout the piece of work.\nMixed: a metaphor that ineffectively blends two or more analogies.\n\nMetonymy:  literally “name changing” a device of figurative language in which the name of an attribute or associated thing is substituted for the usual name of a thing.\n\nMode of Discourse:  argument (persuasion), narration, description, and exposition.\n\nModernism:  literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology\n\nMonologue:  an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem.\n\nMood:  the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece.\n\nMotif:  a recurring feature (name, image, or phrase) in a piece of literature.\n\nMyth:  a story, often about immortals, and sometimes connected with religious rituals, that attempts to give meaning to the mysteries of the world.\n\nNarrative:  a story or description of events.\n\nNarrator:  one who narrates, or tells, a story.\n\nNaturalism: extreme form of realism.\n\nNovelette/Novella: short story; short prose narrative, often satirical.\n\nOmniscient Point of View:  knowing all things, usually the third person.\n\nOnomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its\nOxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox.\n\nPacing:  rate of movement; tempo.\n\nParable:  a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.\n\nParadox:  a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas.\n\nParallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.\n\nParody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.\n\nPathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.\n\nPedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.\n\nPersonification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or  abstract ideas.\n\nPlot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.\n\nPoignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.\n\nPoint of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.\n\nPostmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.\n\nProse:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.\n\nProtagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.\n\nPun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.\n\nPurpose: the intended result wished by an author.\n\nRealism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.\n\nRefrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.\n\nRequiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.\n\nResolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.\n\nRestatement: idea repeated for emphasis.\n\nRhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.\n\nRhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.\n\nRising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.\n\nRomanticism:  movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.\n\nSatire:  ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.\n\nScansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.\n\nSetting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.\n\nSimile:  a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison.\n\nSoliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage.\n\nSpiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme.\n\nSpeaker: a narrator, the one speaking.\n\nStereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.\n\nStream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them.\n\nStructure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.\n\nStyle:  the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.\n\nSubordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important  structures of language.\n\nSurrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man’s existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal.\n\nSuspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it.\n\nSymbol: something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.\n\nSynesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense.\n\nSynecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.\n\nSyntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.\n\nTheme:  main idea of the story; its message(s).\n\nThesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved\nor disproved; the main idea.\n\nTone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the         \nauthor’s perceived point of view.\n\nTongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. “dry” or “dead pan”\n\nTragedy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically (fatally) flawed\n\nUnderstatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis\n\nVernacular: everyday speech\n\nVoice:  The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s persona.\n\nZeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9545629024505615}
+{"content": "Today’s Young Professional: Canadian Neuroscientist Dr. Lorina Naci\n\nLorina Naci is a neuroscientist with a passion for understanding human consciousness. She studies people with brain-related injuries to assess their brain function post-accident. Dr. Naci will receive the L’Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science International Rising Talents award in Paris, France, on March 23rd.\n\nIn Lorina’s words:\n\nMy passion for science stems from my desire to understand the human mind. I’ve always been intrigued by human consciousness, specifically ‘what makes human consciousness special? Question such as ‘can we build intelligent machines that are indistinguishable from humans?’ have previously informed my work. My background in intelligence and psychology has helped me solve these questions. What fascinates me most of all is ‘how consciousness emerges from the workings of the brain?’ and ‘can we help brain-injured individuals to regain consciousness?’ this has led to my work in neuroscience.\n\nDo you know where you got your drive to succeed from?\nDeep down, I think my drive to succeed comes from growing up in a family, where our idea of fun was pondering philosophical topics like what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, or discussing the meaning of ‘not judging a book by its cover’ over meals and in our free time.\n\nI learned early that success is about doing the ‘right’ thing, or getting things ‘right’, not narrowly for oneself, but about issues that can have a wide societal impact. So, success for me has never been about money or being successful in terms of material wellbeing.\n\nTo me, I’m most “successful” and proud of myself when I’m helping to make the world a better place.\n\nCapture (via son site)\n\nDo you know where you get your drive to succeed from? \nOvercoming hardships motivates me. Science is always on the cutting edge of creativity and innovation. With this comes tremendous uncertainty, much more present in science than in other well established professions, whether be it regarding research results, funding sources, or the ability to create change and have a positive impact in society.\n\nThe potential implications of my work are so exciting and make all my effort and hardwork worth it. I’m fired up with passion and energy when I think that my work can provide hope to the family of a coma patient, allow a non-responsive brain-injured individual to communicate, or even, in the future, help save patients’ lives.\n\nAs I continue to grow in my career, I am hugely excited and motivated by the opportunity to serve as a role model and inspire girls and young women who want to pursue science careers. This is what I love about the L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” program, it’s all about mentorship, encouragement and growth.\n\nWhat would you say is your preferred way to network?\nNothing beats meeting someone in person and speaking face to face, whether in a conference, at a party, or even at the water cooler.\n\nWhat I love is when the opportunity presents itself to uncover common ground and connect with people on issues I care deeply about.\n\nSocial media can be great for this, because it enables issue-driven conversations. For example, I often speak out about causes I believe in, like the progress of women in science or helping refugees on Twitter or Facebook, and the strength of the connection that can emerge even with distant acquaintances takes me by surprise.\n\n\nHow would you describe your process for deepening relationships?\nFor me, the strongest and deepest connections have been born in moments of difficulty when I’ve had to show my vulnerability and have had to ask for help. A small gesture like a heartfelt kind work can quickly deepen a relationship. These moments of true need break barriers, and also help me really understand the people around me. In turn, one has to be there for others in difficult times. This idea resonates with the words of Robert Frosts, one of my favourite poets, in his beautiful poem “Mending Wall,” where he questions whether “good fences make good neighbours.” It’s worth a read if you have not come across it!\n\nWhat are your preferred tools for keeping organized?\nMy strongest tool is visualization, or creating an inner vision of what I need to do, in order of importance. It is not a quick fix; rather, it takes a lot of thinking, but I find that the vision of how things (whether events or items on a to-do list) fit together helps me stay on top of a busy life. The beauty of this system is that, if something does not fit into the vision, organically I know it has to go, and the decision of cutting stuff out becomes an obvious one.\n\nHow do you market yourself and/or your work?\nI market myself through my personal website and social media tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. I also present my work at scientific conferences, deliver public lectures to lay audiences and engage in outreach activities. To ensure that my research is impactful outside of academia, I also contribute to the public understanding of science, by presenting my work on radio, TV, newspapers and online.\nOverall, I would say that in my field of work, the scientific output, such as journal articles are the substance of the marketing, and once you have high quality work to speak of, the marketing job is easy.\n\nWho has been your mentor in helping you find success?\nI have been lucky to have had countless mini-mentors. Most frequently, mentorship has been entirely informal. There have been many people in my life that have served as mentors, these people are friends, peers, or senior co-workers who I respect. By asking questions, I’ve found that different individuals have pointed me in the right direction at critical turning points or helped me look ahead into the future and think ahead of important decisions.\n\nSometimes mentorship can be like a Secret Santa gift. You don’t get to choose where it comes from. However, the key ingredient for me has been to proactively ask for advice and welcome mentorship that comes from unexpected sources.\n\nWhat social issues do you support?\nThe equal access and promotion of women in STEM (science technology engineering and mathematics) fields.\nThe plight of immigrants\nThe plight of brain injured patients\nPublic understanding of science\n\nHow and where do you continue to learn?\nIn our technological times, there is no shortage of information channels. However, for me the most transformational learning occurs by example. Surrounding myself with people who are better than me, and whom I admire, helps me learn from their lived experience, knowledge and actions.\n\nDo you have a fitness ritual that you live by?\nI am a big believer that movement boosts mental power. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing. I like to exercise before important events, when I feel I need to be at my personal best.\n\nHow do you feed your soul?\nMeditation, playing with my 3 year old son and chatting with my family. Although my parents and sister live in Tirana, Albania, speaking on the phone with them every couple of days fills me up with love and encouragement.\n\nWhat lifestyle brand would you say shares your values most, if any?\nThe partnership between L’Oréal and UNESCO – I am inspired by their visionary support for women scientists, their commitment to research and their shared belief that science can help change the world.\n\nWhat is your favourite meal?\nSashimi sushi ☺\n\nWhere is your favourite place to unwind? \nThe swimming pool!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9848636388778687}
+{"content": "Brief Bio\n\nPieter Abbeel (BS/MS EE KU Leuven, 2000; PhD CS Stanford, 2008, Advisor: Andrew Ng) is professor at UC Berkeley (EECS, BAIR) since 2008 and was a Research Scientist at OpenAI 2016-2017.\n\nPieter has developed apprenticeship learning algorithms which have enabled advanced helicopter aerobatics, including maneuvers such as tic-tocs, chaos and auto-rotation, which only exceptional human pilots can perform. His group has enabled the first end-to-end completion of reliably picking up a crumpled laundry article and folding it and has pioneered deep reinforcement learning for robotics, including learning locomotion and visuomotor skills. His work has been featured in many popular press outlets, including BBC, New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Discovery Channel, SmartPlanet and Wired.\n\nHis current research focuses on robotics and machine learning with particular focus on deep reinforcement learning, deep imitation learning, deep unsupervised learning, meta-learning, learning-to-learn, and AI safety.\n\nHe has won various awards, including:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9640176892280579}
+{"content": "Hubert Burda Media\n\nI’m a Believer\n\nOf Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D fame, renowned illustrator YOSHITAKA AMANO has a vision that is trustworthy. He shows Dazzlyn Koh that it’s a fantastical world out there\n\n“Yoshitaka-san is younger than us all!” exclaims Wakabayashi Ryo, CEO of Mizuma Gallery at Gillman Barracks.\n\nIt might sound like a bizarre statement since Yoshitaka is not exactly spritely at 61. Ryo then explains: “He is youthful in the sense that he takes great risks and dares to try new things.” One look at the artist’s works and you can see his pieces are vivid compositions of metaphysical fantasy — they look as if they were created by a hip 30-something instead of a mature and distinguished gentleman.\n\nWhen you meet the artist, you’ll see why Ryo said what he said. Clad in a dark suit, stylish red sneakers and sporting a crop of dark wavy hair, the Japanese cuts a fine figure that belies his age. He speaks with ease and has a certain debonair charm — one that, no doubt, aided in his journey to becoming one of the animation industry’s most prolific artists. Illustrations aside, he is an all-rounded creative personality who has lent his imaginative power and drawing skills to different mediums.\n\n“I try as much as possible to do new things. I prefer stepping out of the box instead of staying in a safe zone,” he says of his artistic philosophy. From video games to Japanese anime, kabuki stage and costume design, and sculptures, he’s done it all. But for now, he’s back to the drawing boards.\n\nGrowing up in Shizuoka, Japan, Yoshitaka drew all the time and developed his passion into a profession early on in life. At just 15-years-old, he landed a job at animation firm Tatsunoko Productions in Tokyo. From there, he ventured out into the world and has since worked with many industry greats such as George Lucas and Neil Gaiman. He collaborated with the latter (describing it as his “first job in the US and a great honour”) on The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, of which he won the Eisner Award in 2000.\n\nAlso a five-time winner of the Seiun Award for “Best Artist of the Year” (1983-86, 2007), he is currently staging at Mizuma Gallery a series of visually arresting paintings, of which every line and curve was drawn with handheld precision. Titled Mythopoeia, it revolves around the concept of mythology. By combining old legendary characters of yore with newer, modern avatars, he has projected a visual spectacle of gods, androids, beasts and superheroes that frolic and cavort in a contemporary space-like universe.\n\n“There is a lot going on in my paintings. I wanted to create a hub of activity in one big space. You can stand and stare at it for a long time without getting bored.”\n\nHe gleaned his inspiration from a variety of sources: Anime creatures, Greek and Roman mythology, Renaissance painters such as Michelangelo, and even characters like Alice from Alice in Wonderland. With a mix of traditional and modern techniques, he used acrylic on an aluminum canvas, before painting them like a car. Working with an auto factory, his artwork was coated with automotive paint, flattened and then coated again in a process repeated several times until his signature smooth finish and sheen was obtained.\n\nQuirky, colourful and finely executed, his works are composed of a continuum of mythologies conceived by Yoshitaka, of which he is proud of. “The concept of mythology is as important today as it was in the past. It is very close to us on a day-to-day basis, for example in Japan where many cultural or religious festivals are celebrated.”\n\n“Believing [in myths] is important,” he insists. “Human progress has taught us a lot more about our universe but it’s dull to just focus on form and function. Stories, tales and legends have also made us who we are today. It makes the world a lot more interesting and dynamic.”\n\nSo how does Mythopoeia reach unbelievers — those inclined towards facts and logic?\n\n“At the end of the day, art should make people happy. That is the overriding reason of why I created Mythopoeia. I want to give people happiness just by looking at it. Whether they want to believe in its philosophy is their choice. But happiness, that’s universal.”\n\nMythopoeia is exhibited at Mizuma Gallery, Gillman Barracks from June 7 to Jul 14, 2013.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9407240152359009}
+{"content": "A beautiful disaster of wonder and hope\n\n“Birdman” flies high with amazing performances.\n\nBy Jasel Rico, Staff Writer\n\n“Birdman” will have viewers soaring with very intense emotions, from feeling suspense to being scared of our own failures.\n\nAn aging actor, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), tries to shed his previous mega-hit movie persona – “Birdman.” In the process of trying to stay relevant and produce a play on Broadway, he deals with his ego and how his cast interacts intensely with one another while trying to be pleased with how they see themselves on- and offstage.\n\nThis dark comedy gives a glimpse of the theater life and what goes on behind the curtains . Each cast member struggles to find acceptance in their performance, seeing how far their boundaries can be pushed while trying to stay sane. Their relationships offstage are taking a backseat. Riggan is dealing with daughter-daddy issues with Sam (Emma Stone) as she now has a job as his assistant, having just gotten out of rehab.\n\nRiggan constantly argues with his Birdman persona, now becoming his conscience . And the more Riggan pushes it away, the harder the struggle of letting go of his most famous character gets. Trying to find the balance between it all is a struggle among his ego, his family, and himself.\n\nKeaton delivers an outstanding performance that will be remembered, come Oscar season. His portrayal of this complex and confused character shows the effects of getting older in the business and wanting nothing more than to make something of  his career. Edward Norton plays co-star Mike, who pushes the boundaries of Riggan’s acting and himself. Norton delivers an all-too-real performance on stage, adding depth to each of his scenes. Mike can’t make love to his co-star girlfriend (Naomi Watts) in life, but onstage tries to push her for a “real performance” in a sexual scene, humiliating her. Their lives are all missing the feeling of being secure with themselves and their loved ones, causing each to feel alone.\n\nThe movie is a beautiful disaster of wonder and hope. We root for Riggan to succeed in not only his play, but personal life as well. Deep rhythmic drums playing throughout the film enhance the intensity of each scene. Director and co-writer Alejandro González Iñárritu allows us to see a unique perspective behind the scenes of theater life.\n\nViewers are left wondering,  if you stop focusing on your own ego, will people see you for who you really are?\n\nWARNING: The video clip below contains adult language.\n\n“Birdman” opens in theaters October 17\n\nRated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief violence\n\n5 Stars out of 5\n\nYour thoughts?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8431931734085083}
+{"content": "Facebook Twitter Google+ YouTube Pinterest\nHand Ranking | Chip Stack over Ace of Spades\n\nPoker Hand Rankings\n\nIn a nutshell, a hand consists of five cards. Poker hands fall into one of several categories, such as flush, straight, or two pair. The player with the highest-ranked hand is the winner.\n\nRoyal flush\n\n\nStraight flush\n\nA straight flush is a five-card straight, all in the same suit. For example, 7-6-5-4-3 all of clubs.\n\nFour of a kind\n\nFour of a kind, or quads, are four cards of equal value. For example, four jacks.\n\nFull house\n\nA full house contains a set (3) of cards of one value and a pair of another value. For example, Q-Q-Q-2-2.\n\n\nA flush is any 5 cards, all of the same suit. For example, K-Q-9-6-3 all of diamonds.\n\n\nFive cards of sequential value. Every possible straight will contain either a 5 or a 10. For example, 7-6-5-4-3 with different suits.\n\nThree of a kind\n\n\nTwo pairs\n\nThis is two cards of one value and another two cards of another value. For example, two jacks and two 8s.\n\n\nOne pair is two cards of the same rank. For example, two queens.\n\nHigh card\n\n\nTies & Kickers\n\nPoker is all about making the best five-card hand from the seven available (five community cards and your own two hole cards). That means in the event of a tie with four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, or high card, a side card, or 'kicker', comes into play to decide who wins the pot.\n\nPlayer A's best five cards\n\nPlayer B's best five cards\n\nPlayer A wins the hand with 4 kicker.\n\nWith a three of a kind, one pair or high card tie, a second, third or even fourth kicker could come into play to decide the pot. If the kickers can’t decide one overall winner, those players involved are just going to have to share the pot.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9231768250465393}
+{"content": "Kings and Queens of the Mountains\n\nScreen Shot 2017-11-09 at 18.40.09.png\n\nI guess that most male cyclists don’t pay much attention to the women’s leaderboards on Strava. And if they do it might just be to make some puerile remark about boys being better than girls. From a scientific perspective the comparison of male and female times leads to some interesting analysis.\n\nAssuming both men and women have read my previous blogs on choosing the best time, weather conditions and wind directions for the segment that suits their particular strengths, we come back to basic physics.\n\nKOM or QOM time = Work done / Power = (Work against gravity + Drag x Distance + Rolling resistance x Distance) / (Mass x Watt/kg)\n\nOf the three components of work done, rolling resistance tends to be relatively insignificant. On a very steep hill, most of the work is done against gravity, whereas on a flat course, aerodynamic drag dominates.\n\nThe two key factors that vary between men and women are mass and power to weight ratio (watts per kilo).  A survey published by the ONS in 2010, rather shockingly reported that the average British man weighed 83.6kg, with women coming in at 70.2kg. This gives a male/female ratio of 1.19. KOM/QOM cyclists would tend to be lighter than this, but if we take 72kg and 60kg, the ratio is still 1.20.\n\nMales generate more watts per kilogram due to having a higher proportion of lean muscle mass. Although power depends on many factors, including lungs, heart and efficiency of circulation, we can estimate the relative power to weight ratio by comparing the typical body composition of males and females. Feeding the ONS statistics into the Boer formula gives a lean body mass of 74% for men and 65% for women, resulting in a ratio of 1.13. This can be compared against the the useful table on Training Peaks showing maximal power output in Watts/kg, for men and women, over different time periods and a range of athletic abilities. The table is based on the rows showing world record performances and average untrained efforts.  For world champion five minute efforts and functional threshold powers, the ratios are consistent with the lean mass ratio. It makes sense that the ratio should be higher for shorter efforts, where the male champions are likely to be highly muscular. Apparently the relative performance is precisely 1.21 for all durations in untrained people.\n\nScreen Shot 2017-11-08 at 10.23.33\n\nOn a steep climb, where the work done against gravity dominates, the benefit of additional male muscle mass is cancelled by the fact that this mass must be lifted, so the difference in time between the KOM and the QOM is primarily due to relative power to weight ratio. However, being smaller, women suffer from the disadvantage that the inert mass of bike represents a larger proportion of the total mass that must be raised against gravity. This effect increases with gradient. Accounting for a time difference of up to 16% on the steepest of hills.\n\nIn contrast, on a flat segment, it comes down to raw power output, so men benefit from advantages in both mass and power to weight ratio. But power relates to the cube of the velocity, so the elapsed time scales inversely with the cube root of power. Furthermore, with smaller frames, women present a lower frontal area, providing a small additional advantage. So men can be expected to have a smaller time advantage of around 9%. In theory the advantage should continue to narrow as the gradient shifts downhill.\n\nTheory versus practice\n\nStrava publishes the KOM and QOM leaderboards for all segments, so it was relatively straightforward to check the basic model against a random selection of 1,000 segments across the UK. All  leaderboards included at least 1,666 riders, with an overall average of 637 women and 5,030 men. One of the problems with the leaderboards is that they can be contaminated by spurious data, including unrealistic speeds or times set by groups riding together. To combat this, the average was taken of the top five times set on different dates, rather than simply to top KOM or QOM time.\n\nThe average segment length was just under 2km, up a gradient of 3%. The following chart plots the ratio of the QOM time to the KOM time versus gradient compared with the model described above. The red line is based on the lean body mass/world record holders estimate of 1.13, whereas the average QOM/KOM ratio was 1.32. Although there is a perceivable upward slope in the data for positive gradients, clearly this does not fit the data.\n\nScreen Shot 2017-11-09 at 17.54.43\n\nFirstly, the points on the left hand side indicate that men go downhill much more fearlessly than women, suggesting a psychological explanation for the observations deviating from the model. To make the model fit better for positive gradients, there is no obvious reason to expect the weight ratio of male to female Strava riders to deviate from the general population, so this leaves only the relative power to weight ratio. According to the model the QOM/KOM ratio should level off to the power to weight ratio for steep gradients. This seems to occur for a value of around 1.40, which is much higher than the previous estimates of 1.13 or the 1.21 for untrained people. How can we explain this?\n\nA notable feature of the data set was that sample of 1,000 Strava segments was completed by nearly eight times as many men as women. This, in turn reflects the facts that there are more male than female cyclists in the UK and that men are more likely to upload, analyse, publicise and gloat over their performances than women.\n\nHaving more men than women, inevitably means that the sample includes more high level male cyclists than equivalent female cyclists. So we are not comparing like with like. Referring back to the Training Peaks table of expected power to weight ratios, a figure of 1.40 suggests we are comparing women of a certain level against men of a higher category, for example, “very good” women against “excellent” men.\n\nA further consequence of having far more men than women is that is much more likely that the fastest times were recorded in the ideal conditions described in my previous blogs listed earlier.\n\n\nThere is room for more women to enjoy cycling and this will push up the standard of performance of the average amateur rider. This would enhance the sport in the same way that the industry has benefited as more women have joined the workforce.\n\nStrava Fitness and Freshness\n\nThe last blog explored the statistics that Strava calculates for each ride. These feed through into the Fitness & Freshness chart provided for premium users. The aim is to show the accumulated effect of training through time, based on the Training-Impulse model originally proposed by Eric Banister and others in a rather technical paper published in 1976.\n\nStrava gives a pretty good explanation of Fitness and Freshness. A similar approach is used on Training Peaks in its Performance Management Chart. On Strava, each ride is evaluated in terms of its Training Load, if you have a power meter, or a figure derived from your Suffer Score, if you just used a heart rate monitor. A training session has a positive impact on your long-term fitness, but it also has a more immediate negative effect in terms of fatigue. The positive impact decays slowly over time, so if you don’t keep up your training, you lose fitness. But your body is able to recover from fatigue more quickly.\n\nThe best time to race is when your fitness is high, but you are also sufficiently recovered from fatigue. Fitness minus fatigue provides an estimate of your form. The 1976 paper demonstrated a correlation between form and the performance of an elite swimmer’s times over 100m.\n\nThe Fitness and Freshness chart is particularly useful if you are following a periodised training schedule. This approach is recommended by many coaches, such as Joe Friel. Training follows a series of cycles, building up fitness towards the season’s goals. A typical block of training includes a three week build-up, followed by a recovery week. This is reflected in a wave-like pattern in Fitness and Freshness chart. Fitness rises over the three weeks of training impulses, but fatigue accumulates faster, resulting in a deterioration of form. However, fatigue drops quickly, while fitness is largely maintained during the recovery week, allowing form to peak.\n\nThe example chart above shows how my season has panned out so far. After taking a two week break before Christmas, I started a solid block of training in January. My recovery week was actually spent skiing (pretty hard), though this did not register on Strava because I did not use a heart rate monitor. So the sharp drop in fatigue at the end of January is exaggerated. Nevertheless, my form was positive for my first race on 4 February. Unfortunately, I was knocked off and smashed a few ribs, forcing me to take an unplanned two week break. By the time I was able to start riding tentatively, rather than starting from an elevated level, my fitness had deteriorated to December’s trough.\n\nAfter solid, but still painful, block of low intensity training in March, I took another “recovery week” on the slopes of St Anton. I subsequently picked up a cold that delayed the start of the next block of training, but I have incorporated some crit races into my plan, for higher intensity sessions. If you edit the activity and make the “ride type” a “race”, it shows up as a red dot on the chart. Barring accident and illness, the hope is to stick more closely to a planned four-week cycle going forward.\n\nThis demonstrates how Strava’s tools reveal the real-life difficulties of putting the theoretical benefits of periodisation into practice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5196226835250854}
+{"content": "Step One in Data-Mining America: Build a Big Database\n\n\nAs we explained before, under the new guidelines approved by the Attorney General, the NCTC may aggregate federal databases consisting mainly of information about Americans with no connection to terrorism and then analyze those databases and disseminate the results for reasons also unrelated to terrorism. What databases will NCTC aggregate? We don’t know yet, but in our FOIA requests we’ve asked for details. What we do know is that the federal government collects an enormous amount of personal information for myriad reasons. Think about your healthcare services, business licenses, gun permits, welfare benefits, voting registrations, and employment records.\n\nUnder the new guidelines, the NCTC could potentially combine all the databases that store that sensitive and private information into a single, massive searchable and data-minable database.\n\nThe guidelines accomplished this sweeping transformation of the NCTC’s data-mining abilities primarily by allowing the NCTC to intentionally collect data on U.S. citizens and residents even where those people have no suspected ties to terrorism, and to keep that data for 5 years (up from 180 days).\n\nHidden by the dry technical details of the new guidelines is what we called a “reboot of the Total Information Awareness Program” roundly rejected by Americans after 9/11. Here is how my colleague, Chris Calabrese, described one of the main problems with the guidelines in his written statement to Congress:\n\nIn what is perhaps the most significant change, the Obama administration has extended the authority of the NCTC to intentionally collect, retain and assess data on U.S. citizens and residents, even where those people have no suspected ties to terrorism. Previously, the intelligence community was barred from collecting information about ordinary Americans unless the person was a terror suspect or related to an actual investigation. Therefore, when NCTC collected information from federal government databases, it had to search for and identify any innocent US person information inadvertently collected, and discard it within 180 days. This crucial purpose limitation meant that NCTC was dissuaded from collecting or maintaining information on innocent Americans in its large databases, and prohibited from using or disseminating it. The 2012 guidelines eliminate this check, allowing NCTC to collect and “continually assess” information on innocent Americans for up to five years.\n\nChris went on to describe the NCTC’s alarming new powers under the guidelines to mine the data it has aggregated:\n\nOnce NCTC acquires this information, the new guidelines give it broad new powers to search through it. As long as queries are designed to solely identify information that is reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information, it may conduct queries that involve non-terrorism data points and pattern based searches and analysis (data mining). It is particularly noteworthy that NCTC relies on a technique, data mining, which has been thoroughly discredited as a useful tool for identifying terrorists. Data mining searches are notoriously inaccurate and prone to false positives, and it is therefore very likely that individuals with no connection to terrorism will be caught up in terrorism investigations if this technique is utilized. As far back as 2008 the National Academy of Sciences found that data mining for terrorism was scientifically “not feasible” as a methodology, and likely to have significant negative impacts on privacy and civil liberties.\n\nYou can read Chris’s full statement to Congress here.\n\nThe three FOIA requests we filed yesterday seek more information about the government’s claimed need for the updated NCTC guidelines and the likely impact on the privacy of millions of innocent U.S. citizens and residents whose private information is routinely collected in federal databases. We’ll keep you posted on how the government responds.\n\nAdd a comment (1)\nRead the Terms of Use\n\nDesi Foxx\n\nI'm curious, you fight the government having our information to PROTECT US yet you fight for ISPs and the Porn Industry to BE ABLE TO datamine our information. Since both have been LINKED to multiple crimes and violations against the ENTIRE WORLD . . .\n\n\nStay Informed", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7646833658218384}
+{"content": "Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad Southwest Grains Grain Salad\n\nBetty Crocker Suddenly Salad Southwest Grains Grain Salad\n\nBetty Crocker Suddenly Salad\n\nFree Delivery\n\nOn your first order over $35!\n\nExtra 5% off *\n\nAlready have an account? \n\n\nBetty Crocker Suddenly Salad Southwest Grains.\n\n\nBrown Rice, Whole Grain Quinoa, Black Beans, Corn*, Red Bell Peppers*, Buttermilk, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Salt, Garlic*, Modified Whey, Onion*, Modified Corn Starch, Lactic Acid, Cream, Calcium Lactate, Chipotle Pepper*, Paprika, Spice, Cilantro*, Natural Flavor, Vinegar*, Parsley*, Cheddar Cheese* (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Vegetable Oil (Canola, Soybean and/or Sunflower Oil), Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Sodium Phosphate, Soy Lecithin. *Dried.\n\n\nDirections for Cold SaladYou will need:1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil1 tablespoon cold water1. Fill 3-quart (or larger) saucepan half full with water; heat to boiling. Remove outer plastic wrap, but do not open bag of grains. Carefully place bag of grains in water. Gently boil uncovered 17 minutes, turning bag once. (Cooked grains will fill bag.)2. Stir together Dressing Mix, oil and cold water in medium bowl. Set aside.3. Carefully drain cooking water and bag in colander. Caution: Hot! Rinse unopened bag under cold running water 1 to 2 minutes, turning bag, until grains are cold. Let water drain from bag until dripping stops.4. Cut bag open. Stir grains into dressing. Serve immediately, or refrigerate. (If desired, stir in a few teaspoons more oil to moisten refrigerated salad.) Refrigerate leftovers.To serve warm, after draining in step 3, rinse unopened bag under warm running water 5 seconds, then drain bag until dripping stops. Continue as directed. Serve immediately.Do Not Open Inner Bag of Grains!*Do Not Microwave.*If the bag of grains was opened before cooking, follow these directions: Heat 5 cups Water to boiling in 3-quart (or larger) saucepan. Pour grains into water and reduce heat to prevent boilover. Gently boil uncovered 17 minutes, stirring frequently. Carefully drain in a fine-mesh strainer to retain smaller grains. Gently rinse under cold running water until grains are cold. Drain well.\n\nAlways refer to the actual package for the most accurate information", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997828006744385}
+{"content": "Philosophy Lexicon of Arguments\n\nScreenshot Tabelle Begriffe\n\nTime: A. Time is a dimension in which events are arranged. At first, no direction (before / after) is defined with this. A time direction can be obtained in the context of the Second Principle of Thermodynamics. However, a global framework must be assumed, within which there is an increase of entropy. The assumption of increasing entropy does not apply to the comparison of local events. B. In the case of the subjective time, the question of direction is less problematic. The perceived time direction is expressed by the learned use of the terms \"before\" and \"after\". See also time arrow, time travel, time reversal, symmetry, duration, space time, relativity theory, four-dimensionalism, world lines.\n\n\nAuthor Item Summary Meta data\n\nBooks on Amazon\nII 51\nTime/time direction/time reversal/Vollmer: the designation of a time direction is empirical and is made always only secondarily by additional assumptions - e.g. initial conditions in the mechanics and thermodynamics - rediance conditions in electrodynamics.\nII 234\nTime/logical form/Vollmer: temporal relationships can be expressed by real functions t(e1, e2) that are defined on event pairs. - Asymmetry: is then a formal property of this function to change the sign at reversal - this has nothing to do with reversibility of physical processes, also not with designation of one direction. - Time Reversal: only formal operation of changing the sign.\nII 325\nInvariant: is a formula that does not change under time reversal. - Time reversal invariance: So is a property of formulas or functions. - E.g. Newtonian equation of motion. - On the other hand: the question of whether natural processes are reversible, relates to the real world. - Problem. a T-invariant equation can describe both reversible and non-reversible processes. - If, then it does not yet contain complete information.\nII 236\nDefinition Time Arrow/time direction/Vollmer: so we will call the fact that there are chains of events, whose part events never happen in reverse order - time direction is not a characteristic of the time, but of processes - that there are different classes of irreversible processes, there are different arrows of time: the expansion of the universe, the electrodynamic of spherical waves - that a process is irreversible, one cannot see that in looking at it. - It can also never be proven. - Causality/cause/effect/VollmerVsReichenbach: cannot define the arrow of time. - Reversed: these are not to defined without time arrow.\nII 238\nIrreversibility/Physics/time reversal/time arrow/Vollmer: We expect that the fundamental equations, equations of motion, laws of force, field equations are T-invariant, that is, that they change with time reversal.\nII 252\nEntropy/universe/Boltzmann/Vollmer: for him, the universe as a whole is in a thermodynamic equilibrium, so in the entropy maximum.\nII 253\nVollmerVsBoltzmann: the observations state the contrary. If we advance into more distant parts of the universe, we can always find low entropy. - If there were a region of space with decreasing entropy (increasing order), there would also be irreversible processes, but some time arrows would be reversed.\n\n\nVo I\nG. Vollmer\nDie Natur der Erkenntnis Bd I Stuttgart 1988\n\nG. Vollmer\nDie Natur der Erkenntnis Bd II Stuttgart 1988\n\nSend Link\n> Counter arguments against Vollmer\n\n\n\nEd. Martin Schulz, access date 2017-12-11", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999659061431885}
+{"content": "Stone Circle\n\nA very hard frost had occurred overnight turning the ground white with rime. Then as the sun rose, the thin layer of Stratocumulus cloud-Fire and Ice - a perfect combination. Location: Castlerigg situated near Keswick in Cumbria, North West England.\n\n\nConcept ships by Sparth (is most def one of the best sci-fi artists)\n\nKraken #MythicCreatures\n\nNo see this is why we can't have shared human kraken bathrooms! No one will be safe from the hentai!\n\nDid St. Patrick Really Drive Snakes - or Paganism - Out of Ireland?\n\nCalanais Stone Circle, Isle of Skye, Scotland ~ The Callanish Stones, Clachan Chalanais or Tursachan Chalanais in Gaelic, are situated near the village of Callanish (Gaelic: Calanais) on the west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides (Western Isles of.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6488942503929138}
+{"content": "The Productive Body (BOK)\n\nDidier Deleule, Guyry Franyois\n\n99,00 9900\nSendes vanligvis innen 5-15 dager\nThe Productive Body asks how the human body and its labor have been expropriated and re-engineered through successive stages of capitalism; and how capitalism's transformation of the body is related to the rise of scientific psychology and social science disciplines complicit with modern regimes of control. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault cited Guery and Deleule in order to link Marx's diagnosis of capitalism with his own critique of power/knowledge. The Productive Body brings together Marxism and theories of the body-machine for the goal of political revolution.\n\n\nSpråk Engelsk Engelsk Innbinding Heftet\nUtgitt 2014 Forfatter Didier Deleule, Guyry Franyois\nZero Books\nISBN 9781780995762\nAntall sider 148 Dimensjoner 14cm x 21,6cm x 0,9cm\nVekt 191 gram Leverandør Bertram Trading Ltd\nEmner og form Social & political philosophy, Political science & theory", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940558671951294}
+{"content": "Snapping Hip Syndrome\n\n\nDo you hear a strange snapping sound when you walk or stand? How about a snapping sensation in your hip when you move orkick? Many people experience the symptoms of what could potentially be snapping hip syndrome. The best way to narrow down the cause of these unsettling experiences is to see a hip and groin specialist for assessment before running the risk of permanent joint damage.\n\nDo you have questions about snapping hip syndrome? Get some answers here:\n\nWhat Is Snapping Hip Syndrome?\n\nSnapping hip syndrome is the term for the condition in which you feel or hear a snapping when you move, walk, run or go about daily activities. It is usually more of an annoyance than a problem, although many afflicted report discomfort and weakness that can disrupt daily life. Snapping hip syndrome is often called “dancer’s hip” and is diagnosed by your medical provider.\n\nHow Is It Diagnosed?\n\nGenerally, your provider will want to rule out some other common causes of a snapping during movement of the hip, so a medical assessment is always advised. Some other conditions that could mimic the symptoms of snapping hip syndrome include arthritis, nerve compression (meralgia paresthetica), tumors and inflammation of the hip joint, called synovitis. Once your doctor has eliminated these possible diagnoses, they may determine that you have one of three different types of Snapping hip syndrome.\n\nWhat Kind Do You Have?\n\nThere are basically three types of snapping hip syndrome: internal, external and intra-articular. Internal and external snapping hip syndrome is caused by muscles, tendons, and ligaments being stretched taut over bone, creating the snapping sound when released. Intra-articular snapping hip syndrome is usually caused by trauma or when there is a mechanical dysfunction in the hip joint itself. In these instances, symptoms may manifest quite suddenly, often following a fall or other type of accidental injury.\n\nWhat Causes Snapping Hip Syndrome?\n\nAs mentioned, the cause of your snapping hip syndrome depends on the type that you are diagnosed with. Sometimes, cartilage in the hip can tear, which creates bits of debris or bone to occupy the joint space. In addition to the tell-tale snapping sound, individuals will likely experience some degree of pain and, in some cases, physical impairment or disability.\n\nSnapping Hip SyndromeHow Is It Treated?\n\nMany patients may not seek medical attention for their snapping hip syndrome unless pain is a symptom. Some individuals may experience challenges in physical activities or mobility, which drives them to seek treatment. If you experience symptoms of this condition, consult with your doctor to rule out other conditions and to determine if you have debilitating intra-articular snapping hip syndrome. You can also relieve symptoms by decreasing physical activity, applying ice and taking a pain reliever. When this doesn’t help symptoms subside, physical therapy is a prudent option. If symptoms do not alleviate, see your doctor about steroidal injections for more long-lasting relief. In rare and extreme cases, your doctor may recommend surgery. Addressing your snapping hip syndrome now can prevent permanent hip and joint damage later.\n\nSee your doctor if you are experiencing any of the symptoms of snapping hip syndrome, including the unmistakable sound, sensation or potential paint associated with this condition. Ask your provider to refer you to a bone and groin specialist to rule out other potential diagnoses and to begin treatment for fast relief.\n\nSchedule an Appointment\n\n\nSchedule an Appointment\n\nDr. Srino Bharam\n\nDr. Srino Bharam\n\nGetting to Know Dr. Bharam\n\nPatient Testimonials\n\nRead patient reviews from all around the web\n\nPatient Reviews\n\nImaging Review\n\nSubmit your MRI or X-rays for a complimentary review.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946990609169006}
+{"content": "Chocolates As Wedding Favors\n\nChocolates As Wedding Favors chocolate wedding favors\n\nChocolates As Wedding Favors It is actually essential to take into consideration some favors thoughts for teenagers for those who really want to make the day memorable on your kid. The best thing your son or daughter would at any time choose to listen to from his/her pals is how wonderful the birthday favors were. Just in case, you fall short to deliver the appropriate favors or never offer them at all, young ones are very likely to complain regarding how monotonous the birthday celebration was.\n\nThemes and activities are two revolutionary favors for children. It is possible to either abide by the topic in the birthday party when picking out the favors or offer a favor that provides some activity. Exercise favors are indeed a great thought for the reason that they give another reason for the little ones to benefit from the social gathering. It is possible to prepare different video games and quizzes through the occasion and can present them while using the required components as a Chocolates As Wedding Favors.\n\nAlternatively, you can even lower your burden simply by picking out a favor that goes with the concept of your occasion. This is has a short while ago turn into a typically followed development. Due to the fact all birthday events are structured with a distinct theme, supplying bash favors that adhere to exactly the same concept is like icing within the cake.\n\nChocolates As Wedding Favors Attempt to abide by favors that make your small attendees content. Though choosing the proper favors could possibly be a challenging job for a few dad and mom, they should not ignore that there are never-ending choices for them to generate youngsters joyful. It satisfies your son or daughter and will make other small children pleased.\n\nTags:#Eat Drink And Be Married Wedding Favors#Chocolate Favors For Weddings#Mason Jars As Wedding Favors#Wedding Favor Wine Opener#Wedding Favors Soap", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8878588676452637}
+{"content": "Thesis statement of the problem definition\n\nresearch paper title\n\nBefore you can start your research, you write a research proposal that has to be approved of by the first and the second reader. This proposal should provide clear and realistic answers to the WHY, WHAT, WHERE, HOW, HOW MUCH and WHEN questions related to your particular research. The why and what are connected to the purpose of the research and together form the problem statement. There are lots of different ways to write a problem statement — some sources will recommend jumping right to the problem itself, while others recommend providing background context first so that problem (and its solution) are easier to understand for the reader.\n\nIt states the claim of the argument presented in a paper. The paper focusses on two key problem areas: the definition of the research problem, and the planning and writing of the first draft of the thesis. The claim could be an opinion, a policy thesis statement of the problem definition, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.If you are writing a text that does not faIn Rhetorical Strategies for Composition (201), Karen A.\n\nthe book of joy quotes\nCopyright 2010 - 2017 | kurskie-roditeli.ru", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.910682737827301}
+{"content": "France-icon Franceball (alias French-icon Franceballe; born 481) is a culturally, military and economically successful countryball who loves poems, architecture and epic facts. She is the outcome of Francia-icon Franciaball built in Gaul-icon Gaulball on the ruins of SPQR-icon SPQRball and thus, the matrix of European balls. She is currently the wife of her clone Germany-icon Germanyball, and mother to EU-icon EUball.\n\nShe still has a friendly rivalry against UK-icon UKball who stole her America she says, and who sucks at cooking. Franceball also retained some of her imperial possessions, such as French Guyana-icon French Guianaball, Réunion-icon Réunionball or French Polynesia-icon French Polynesiaball who are splendid children who have many good things to cook and who constitutes for her a gigantic maritime space. Franceball conquered a very large part of the planet but is told not to be good at fighting, because of her schizophrenia in WW2 despite of her heroic action in Dunkirk to save UK-icon UKball. But usually, she tags along with USA-icon USAball with Middle-Eastern conflicts (Even told so, Franceball military-talking the most powerful European ball, and she hides a dark side of military pride, Napoleonic and Crusader dreams). She also has the most tourists visiting her clay in the world and is currently experiencing a permanent strike. She also has good and smart diplomacy, noblesse oblige.\n\nFranceball is a member of the G7 as a member of the G20 (or Group of Twenty), a group formed by the countryballs that have the 19 largest economies plus the EU-icon EUball. She is also a permanent member of the UN-icon UNball Security Council, trolling USA-icon USAball as Russia-icon Russiaball in their aggressive instincts.\n\nHer national day is in 14th of July (Bastille day). But her birthday is in 25th December, the day of the baptism of Clovis the First. Her first clear king. Her astrological sign is Capricorn. She also wants to remove kebab but she is a major EU member so she will be kicked by Germany. The French election ended on May 7 and the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron defeated far right candidate Marine Le Pen.\n\nFranceball was host of two FIFA World Cup in the past: the first time in 1938, and the second time in 1998.\n\n(Strong incompatibility with Taurus as UK-icon UKball)\n\nHistoire / History\n\nAncient History Francia-icon (200BC-1200AD)\n\nFrance-icon Franceball is biological daughter of Gaul-icon Gaulball and SPQR-icon SPQRball, and also adoptive sister of UKball. Her father, SPQR-icon SPQRball, was a harsh trainer but otherwise a loving father who taught them nice pools, christianity and the art of Imperialism. When SPQR-icon SPQRball died (killed by Germania-icon Germaniaball), however, they were left as orphans, and the once-siblings, became rivals who always tried to up each other in the game of World Domination, to be the one and only successor of SPQR-icon SPQRball, aka the Imperium.\n\nThe siblings have always fought each other ever since. After she defeated the barbarians on their clay in the 600s, she became a powerful empire in Europe. In 843, while England-icon Englandball reestablished relative control over his rainy clay, Franceball (then known as Francia-icon Franciaball) expanded her empire into Germania-icon Germania, Italy, Spain and Burgundy, diffusing catholicism, latin language and her cooking and architecture over there, but her clay was divided in tree parts around 900. So this event built a kind of other Franceball, in Germania-icon Germaniaball, a clone in other words, who begun HRE-icon HREball.\n\nIn 1066, her step-brother Normandy-icon Normandyball conquered England-icon Englandball's clay, resulting in Franceball's political and cultural domination of England-icon Englandball's clay for some centuries.This is why all smart and complicated words come from her language.\n\nIn 1090's Franceball started the first crusade up, claiming Jerusalem-icon Jerusalemcube and took it in 1098 after building new countryballs in Levant, Kingdom of Jerusalem-icon Kingdom of Jerusalemball . For the next centuries, Franceball has been the primordial european arbitrator of the political events of Mediterranea and Orient, being sometime in open war with Turkey-icon Turkeyball and Egypt-icon Egyptball.\n\nFrance Médiévale Kingdom of France-icon (1200-1610)\n\nA long period of self-fulfillment continued in this context. Kingdom of France-icon Franceball developed new architecture as the \"french art\" (alias gothic), new recipes, her language, her courteous feeling and a new concept of chivalry that are still so fashionable.\n\nAfter having a first time completely rid herself of the painfull presence of England-icon Englandball who harassed her since the XIth century, she began a great modernization work at home. England-icon Englandball, HRE-icon HREball and Flanders-icon Flandersball decided to bash her into an imposing coalition. So in 1214 HRE-icon HREball and Flanders-icon Flandersball attacked her to the head while England-icon Englandball attacked simultaneously in the back. Kingdom of France-icon Franceball counter-attacked and severely kicked them all at the battles of Castillon and Bouvines, strengthening her main position in Occident.\nLater, the Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 pitting England-icon Englandball, against Kingdom of France-icon Franceball for control of her clay and finishing by the definitive expulsion of England-icon Englandball of her ground. Here is a full list of English-French rivalry. With a tactics of entrenchment and archery which put an end to the chivalrous methods of Franceball, England-icon Englandball defeated her at Crecy in 1346, and Poitiers in 1356, taking enormous part of her land which was reconquered and conquered again during decades. To make matters worse for her, a civil war begun between the feodal guilds of Burgundy-icon Burgundyball and Centre-Val de Loire-icon Orleansball (who successively allied themselves to England) and, as detail, the Black Death destroyed most of her resources in the 1340s and 1350s. However she had the pleasure of watching it spread to England-icon Englandball and also watching his civil war, known as the Wars of the Roses. In 1415, after a particularly humiliating defeat by her brother at Agincourt, after which almost half her clay was occupied by him, she secretly vowed to get his act together again. In 1429, she did just that, kicking his arse at Orleans and retaking Paris to Burgundy-icon Burgundyball. But in 1431, with Burgundy-icon Burgundyball's help, Englandball captured and burned her secret to power.\n\nHowever, Burgundy-icon Burgundyball abandoned England-icon Englandball when Kingdom of France-icon Franceball developed her new fatal toy : the powdered artillery regiments to solve all her problems. She reclaimed most of her clay by 1453, with the exception of Calais city which was the first \"Gibraltar\" of UKball (recovered in 1558), ending the systematic looting of its pretty gardens.\n\nBut a kind of cold war begun with Burgundy-icon Burgundyball. Kingdom of France-icon Franceball built a large anti-Burgundyball club with Savoy-icon Savoyball, Switzerland-icon Switzerlandball, Lorraine-icon Lorraineball, Alsace-icon Alsaceball and Milan-icon Milanball which isolated Burgundy-icon Burgundyball. This proxy war ended in the battle of Nancyball in 1477 and with the desintegration of burgundian states between Franceball and Habsburg family, preparing tree centuries of intensive wars between Spain-icon Spainball and Franceball for the recovery of this ex \"Grand duché d'Occident\".\n\nBy the 1480s, Kingdom of France-icon Franceball mooved into the Renaissance of the 1500s as Burgundy-icon Burgundyball did 30 years before and Italy-icon Italyball before again.\n\nApart from the occasional war with England-icon Englandball in 1512 and 1525/6, tensions between the two siblings lowered as they celebrated together at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, that was the occasion to humiliate and sportively England-icon Englandball. In 1555, Franceball reclaimed Calais from him, and set about organising her army and navy for overseas exploration, colonisation, and trade. In 1559, however, Franceball ended her alliance with England-icon Englandball's brother Scotland-icon Scotlandball, after he became Presbyterian, and kicked her out of Leith, and set about massacring Protestant Huguenots in 1572 when they began to think about a dynasty reversal. She also began reclaiming her frontiers. By 1600, after having fought Spain-icon Spainball a lot, and building some overseas colonies, she was the most influential ball in Europe once again.\n\nAncien Régime New France-icon (1610-1789)\n\nIn the 1660s, Kingdom of France-icon Franceball had become a rich and prosperous nation. However, she had been badly traumatised by the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The resulting Peace of Westphalia in 1648 had seen the European political spectrum shift dramatically, and in 1682, Franceball completed an ambitious project of hers, the Palace of Versailles, which rivalled all other palaces in Europe. She had also made some conquests in the Lorraine east in the 1670s and 1680s.\n\nShe was also involved in European conflicts, such as the Nine Years War, and the War of the Spanish Succession in the 1700s. She had also not forgotten about England-icon Englandball's humiliation of herself in the Middle Ages, and tried to extract revenge by supporting the Catholic Irelandball in 169\n\n1 against England-icon Englandball, albeit half-heartedly. In 1718, Franceball briefly reconciled with her brother, the newly-united UK-icon UKball to fight Spain-icon Spainball in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720).\n\nIn 1730, Kingdom of France-icon Franceball was at a new height, having a string of colonies in the Americas, governed by her son New France-icon New Franceball, and an alliance with the soon-to be anschlussed Madrasball. She had adopted children such as San Domingoball (later succeded by his son Haiti-icon Haitiball), Martinique-icon Martiniqueball, and Guadelopeball. And yet, she wanted more. In 1745, the War of the Austrian Sucession saw her take most of Austrian Netherlands-icon Austrian Netherlandsball's clay, only to be forced to hand it back in 1748 by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Her desperate attempts to get revenge on UK-icon UKball culminated in the Diplomatic Revolution, and the Seven Years War of 1754-1763, during which she lost India, Americas, and the Carribean. The humiliating Treaty of Paris in 1763 saw her lose most of her colonial possessions, and New France-icon New Franceball was adopted by UK-icon UKball to be raised with ColAmerica-icon Thirteen Coloniesball.\n\n\nNew franceball\n\nIn 1776, ColAmerica-icon Thirteen Coloniesball declared independence from his father UK-icon UKball, and seeing her chance to get even with her brother, sent supplies and ammunition to help her nephew, and Kingdom of France-iconFranceball  went personally in 1778 to help him, tripling his forces. Despite UK-icon UKball's help from Iroquois Confederacy-icon Iroquoisball and Hesse-icon Hesseball, he was unable to prevail the french and rebell forces, and was forced to pull out of America in 1781, after the blockage of his fleet by Kingdom of France-icon Franceball  at the Siege of Yorktown, and another Treaty of Parisball in 1783 forced him to recognize his son as the newly-independent USA-icon USAball who just mumbled a \"thank you\" to her and began to watch Louisianaball with appetite. Helping her nephew, however, had cost Kingdom of France-icon Franceball a lot of money, which meant that she was now deeply in debt. Her extravagant lifestyle contributed to her financial problems, and despite scientific breakthroughs and discoveries in the Enlightenment, new ideals of Liberty and Equality had penetrated her mind, and in 1789, she had a complete personality change. This alarmed her ally Austria-icon Austriaball, her hated neighbour UK-icon UKball and the other European balls who were still conservatively minded.\n\nRévolution and Napoleonic Wars Napoleonic-icon (1789-1815)\n\nIn 1792, Napoleonic-icon Franceball declared herself to be a republic, and won the Battle of Valmy against Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball and Austria-icon Austriaball attempting to seize her clay. The First Coalition was formed against her by UK-icon UKball and Austria-icon Austriaball, and as a result, in 1793, Napoleonic-icon Franceball set about purging her memories of the Bourbon past. However, she found herself descending into madness and schizophrenia, as the civil war in the Vendee (1793-1796) and the Terror (1793-94) nibbled away at her sanity. By 1794 UK-icon UKball had invaded Flanders with the help of Luxembourg-icon Dutch Republicball and HRE-icon Holy Roman Empireball but was defeated and chased away by Napoleonic-icon Franceball in 1795. But by 1795, she had a new personality, the first European republic ball, and set about taking her lands back. In 1796-7, she invaded Piedmont-icon Piedmontball, Savoy-icon Savoyball and the Papal States-icon Papal Statesball's clay, emptying Vatican-icon Vatican Cityball's treasury, and marching into Vienna. The Second Coalition was formed to stop her in 1793, and her brother UK-icon UKball blockaded her port at Toulon in 1797, but failed to stop his advancing upon Malta-icon Maltaball and Egypt-icon Egyptball in 1798. He did, however, succeed in destroying her ships at the Battle of the Nile while she was distracted by Ottoman-icon Ottoman Empireball in Syria, so in 1799, she left Egypt-icon Egypt and returned to Europe.\n\n\nIn 1800, Napoleonic-icon Franceball defeated Austria-icon Austriaball at the Battle of Marengo, and defeated HRE-icon Holy Roman Empireball the following year. The Peace of Amiens in 1802 that came after UK-icon UKball's temporary defeat offered her a bit of a breather, but she realized she was running low on funds. So in 1803, she sold the Louisiana Territory to USA-icon USAball for 15,000,000 USD, and declared herself an Empire in 1804. However, her navy was utterly annihilated at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 by UK-icon UKball, and realizing she was better at land warfare, she spent most of his money on her Grand Armée. In 1805 UK-icon UKball funded a coalition against Franceball in an attempt to remove Bonapartist sentiments from her, in response Napoleonic-icon Franceball marched onto central Europe where she defeated Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball and Austria-icon Austriaball at Austerlitz, resulting in the dissolution of HRE-icon Holy Roman Empireball. In 1806, she won the twin battles of Iéna and Auerstadt, then Tilsit against Russian Empireball, and also against Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball, and the Confederation of the Rhine, which gave her domination of Continental Europe. She implemented the Continental System, an attempt to embargo UK-icon UKball into submission. Austria-icon Austriaball was defeated again in 1809 at the battle of Wagram, and the Treaty of Schoenbrunn was signed.\n\nIn 1808, she began the Peninsular War (1808-1814), against Spain-icon Spainball, who no longer co-operated with her, and she took Madrid in 1809, forcing Portugal-icon Portugalball and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies-icon Kingdom of the Two Siciliesball into exile. By 1811, Napoleonic-icon Franceball ruled much of Europe, having defeated the Third and Fourth and Fifth Coalitions, with Austria-icon Austriaball, UK-icon UKball and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball subdued. Drunk on success & confidence, she invaded Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball's massive clay via Warsaw. She advanced into Smolensk and Moscow, which Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball had destroyed in advance, so she found nothing. Starving and bitterly cold and disappointed, she headed home, only to find the road blocked at Maloyaroslavets, forcing her into combat with Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball at Borodino in the winter of 1812. She won the battle, but the winter caused her to weaken, and she barely made it back to her clay, with her prestige in tatters.\n\nThe War of the Sixth Coalition saw Napoleonic-icon Franceball shamed further by the Confederation of the Rhine and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, and her defeat in Spain in 1814. By mid-1814, the armies of the Sixth Coalition were advancing on her clay, and she decided to send her Bonapartist sentiments to Elba. However, they escaped, and by June 1815, it was back on her former clay, with her army back, and she marched on Brussels, but was stopped at Les Quatres Bras, where she defeated Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball. However, UK-icon UKball and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball managed to finally defeat her at the Battle of Waterloo, whereupon she was given therapy by the Concert of Europe, and her personality changed back into her old self (mostly). Her Bonapartist sentiments were sent to UK-icon UKball's son St. Helenaball's clay , and it died in 1821.\n\nRévolutions and Wars (1815-1914)\n\nAfter 1815, the Concert of Europe was set up to help Europe recover from Napoleonic-icon Franceball's rampage. She became once again, a secondary power to UK-icon UKball, who dominated the world unquestionably during the Pax Britannica, and focused on overseas colonies. Her new continental possessions had been removed from her, and in the 1820s and 1830s she invaded much of the Algerian coastline, seizing control from the Barbary pirates. In 1830, she had another change of personality, albeit a much smaller one this time, which did not have much effect upon her. In 1832, she had a brief period of schizophrenia.\n\nFranceball took advantage of the Industrial Revolution to expand her economy and industry. She had yet another personality change in 1848, along with Austria-icon Austriaball, and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball, and declared herself a republic once again. However, in 1852, she became an Empire again. This time, she sought to co-operate with her brother, having matured. They worked together in the Crimean War against Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball with Ottoman-icon Ottoman Empireball in 1853-56, and again in 1859-60 in Qing-icon Qing Chinaball's clay in the Second Opium War. During the Second Empire, Franceball adopted Savoieball and Nice-icon Niceball from Sardinia-icon Sardiniaball, who later became Italian-Empire-icon Italyball in 1861, after Franceball helped him libertae Italian Stateballs from Austriaball in 1859; and then she experienced a revival in the arts and sciences, with new buildings , such as the Pantheon, the Opera Garnier, and the Napoleon III apartments in the Louvre. Franceball claimed new colonies by adopting New Caledonia-icon New Caledoniaball in 1853, and Cochinchinaball in 1862.\n\n\nFrance throughout the 1800s, (Credit to NotExistor)\n\nHowever, Franceball's luck declined from 1863 onwards. She tried to help Austria-icon Austriaball onto Mexico-icon Mexicoball's clay, but Mexico-icon Mexicoball defeated miraculously them both, and she left in frustration. In 1866, Austria-icon Austriaball and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball were at war with each other, and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball and the North German Confederation tried to gain Franceball's guarantee of neutrality. She was too busy eyeing Luxembourg-icon Luxembourgball's clay to notice, however, and after an unsatisfactory reply was produced to Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball, he invaded Franceball's clay in 1870, defeating her at Metz and Sedan, and laying siege to Paris. She was humiliated once more, and sought revenge after Prussia, who became German Empire-icon German Empireball,in 1871, and took her Alsace-icon Alsaceball and eastern Lorraine-icon Lorraineball clay.\n\nAfter the defeat of 1870, Franceball descended into madness again, but the Third Republic was declared in 1871, and came to be a long-lasting cure for Franceball's constant fits of madness and personality changes. By 1884, she had recovered enough to participate in the Scramble of Africa, kidnapping & forcefully adopting Senegal-icon Senegalball, Gabon-icon Gabonball, Upper Voltaball, Tunisia-icon Tunisiaball and Dahomeyball. She gradually became stable again, donating and receiving gifts (the Statue of Liberty to USA-icon USAball in 1886, and the Eiffel Tower in 1889), and entered the prosperity of the Belle Epoque of the 1890s, with only the Dreyfuss Affair of 1895 to worry her. She invaded Madagascar in 1895, and formed alliances with her brother UK-icon UKball formally in 1904, and Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball, in 1907, to form the Triple Entente, or the Entente Cordiale, to protect herself against German Empire-icon German Empire's growing strength. She longed to recover her provinces of Alsace-icon Alsaceball and Lorraine-icon Lorraineball, so when war broke out in 1914, she enthusiastically launched Plan 17, and attacked German Empire-icon German Empire's western Rhine border.\n\nGuerres Mondiales Free France-icon (1914-1945)\n\nHowever, German Empire-icon German Empireball had activated his Schliffen Plan, and attacked through Belgium-icon Belgiumball's clay, which slowed him down slightly, giving Franceball valuable time to mobilize her army. Franceball defended Paris at the Miracle of the Marne, while her brother outflanked German Empire-icon German Empireball in the Race to the Sea. In 1915, German Empire-icon German Empireball used poison-gas and aerial-bombers at Mons, and beat up Franceball at Neuve-Chapelle but was defeated by Franceball at Verdun in 1916. By 1917, the tide of war was turning, as the Allies captured all of German Empire-icon German Empire's overseas colonies, and despite Russian-Empire-icon Russiaball's personality change, they were supplemented by USA-icon USAball's help, who helped defeat German Empire-icon German Empireball at the Meuse-Argonne offensive in spring 1918. Franceball and UK-icon UKball accepted an armistice, which went into effect on the 11th of November, 1918.\n\nAs Austria-icon Austriaball, German Empire-icon German Empireball was completely dismembered, and his son, Germany-icon Germanyball, was forced by Franceball to pay massive reparations of 6.6 billion pounds, and also forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Versailles in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference. Alsace-Lorraine clay was returned to Franceball, who received the Levant, Kamerunball, Togolandball, and the Saarland as well, and Germany-icon Germanyball was forbidden from uniting with Austria-icon Austriaball, or arming the Rhinelands, bordering Franceball's clay. When hyperinflation set in in Germany-icon Germanyball's clay in 1923, he tried to postpone payments, only for an enraged Franceball to occupy his Ruhr clay. She left in 1925, after Germany-icon Germanyball signed the Locarno Treaties, and joined the League of Nations, of which she already was a founding member of, in 1926, satisfied that she was now safe. She also signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 in favour of disarmament, but just as it looked as though the world was headed for peace, it was plunged into the Great Depression by the Wall Street Crash in USA-icon USAball's stock market in 1929.\n\nWithout USA-icon USAball's loans, Franceball's economies ground to a halt, as Germany-icon Germanyball became Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball, intent on avenging ReichTime Reichtangle in 1933, and Italian-Empire-icon Italyball became fascist. Not wanting another War, UK-icon UKball and Franceball used a policy of appeasement in the 1930s, which included giving Nazi Germanyball the Saarland back, allowing him to rearm the Rhineland-Palatinate-icon Rhinelands, and re-occupy Danzig. After the 1938 Anschluss, and the Czech crisis of 1938, the 1933 Four Powers Pact and the Munich Agreement were signed, but immediately over-stepped by Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball in 1939 when he invaded Second Polish Republic-icon Polandball's clay.\n\nIn 1939-1940, Nazi-icon Nazi Germany blitzkrieged through Denmark-icon Denmarkballs clay, Norway-icon Norwayball's clay, the Low Countries, and invaded Franceball's clay, by coming around the Maginot Line and taking Paris. She was raped, and fled to her brother UK-icon UKball's clay after their defeat at Dunkirk, and became Free France-icon Free Franceball. Her German son Vichy France-icon Vichy Franceball was trained to govern Franceball's former clay for his father, who invaded the Balkans, Kingdom of Greece-iconGreeceball's clay, and Eastern Europe. In 1941, Japanese-Empire-icon Japanball, who had invaded her adoptive son French Indochina-icon French Indochinaball's clay bombed USA-icon USAball's navy at Pearl Harbour, causing him to enter the war. He was given permission to land in Franceball's North African possessions, via Operation Torch, to drive Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball out of North Africa.\n\nMeanwhile, Soviet-icon Sovietball had defeated Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball in 1943 at Stalingrad and Kursk, while the battle of El-Alamein was won by the Allies. In 1944, she landed at the beaches of southern France and Monte Cassio in Operation Dragoon, and also in Normandy in June 1944. Free Franceball liberated Paris in September, and the Allies pushed into the Ardennes in the winter of 1944-45. By May 1945, Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball was dead, followed by Vichy France-icon Vichy Franceball, who was dissolved, and Japanese-Empire-icon Japanball, who was bombed by USA-icon USAball. France stood next to Germany's corpse waiting for him to open his eyes again. Mysteriously, she had fallen in love with Germany at his bedside. Soviet-icon Sovietball and the Western Allies partitioned Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball's clay formally in 1948, and the following year, Franceball gave her sector to Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball's sons, Austria-icon Austriaball and Germany-icon West Germanyball, and they joined NATO-icon NATO. She became a permanent member of the newly-formed UN security council, and declared the Fourth Republic. She also created and held on to Saar Protectorate-icon Saar Protectorateball until 1957.\n\nModern Franceball France-icon\n\nAfter World War II and the conclusion of her double old vendetta against both destroyed Austria-icon Austriaball and Kingdom of Prussia-icon Prussiaball, Franceball began to flourish again. But the disastrous 1946 war of decolonization in Indochina, where Vietnam-icon North Vietnamball and South Vietnam-icon South Vietnamball, as well as Cambodia-icon Cambodiaball and Laos-icon Laosball gained their independence in the 1954 Geneva Accords following Franceball's Dien Bien Phu defeat left her relatively destitute. She then let some of the African colonies, namely French West Africa-icon French West Africaball and French Equatorial Africa-icon French Equatorial Africaball go without a fight, by referendum, being not able to offer French citizen equality to all the subjects of the Empire without making of her own European population an ethnic minority. In 1958 she formed the Fifth Republic's system to resolve a major political crisis in the decolonization context, but was forced to give up her last major colonial possession, Algeria-icon Algeriaball, up in 1962 following the Evian Accords to stop a steril bloody war. By now she had already formed the EU-icon EECball (later EU-icon EUball )'s predecessor entity, the European Coal and Steel Union in 1951, and through the 1956 Treaty of Rome, married Germany-icon West Germanyball and gave birth to EEC ( EU-icon EUball ) in the Treaty of Utrecht the following year. She put a vet at the entrance of UK-icon UKball's in EU-icon EUball considering he's just a troll (future showed that he was) but he entered in 1973 after De Gaulle's death. She had a brief madness anti-systemic period in 1968, origin of her current migraines.\n\nHer Gaullist era ended in 1970, but she continues to be a massive influence of world politics, and in the 1990s was essential in the reorganization of her son EU-icon EUball . People come from all over once more to visit her clay and she once again became a vibrant countryball of culture, arts and sports. In 1998, her beloved \"Bleus\" won the World Cup on home clay in the mythic Stadium of Franceball. Franceball also hosts the French Open tennis tournament at Roland-Garros, as well as the Tour de France bicycle race, which has been travelling annually across her clay every July since 1903 (except during the World Wars). It is the highlight of Franceball's summer because it brings millions of cycling fans to her clay from all over the world.\n\n2015 : Tragic Year\n\nThe 2015 was Tragic Year of France, beacuse there are two major terrorist attacks happened in Paris-iconParisball. On January 7, 2015, two ISIS-iconISISball members shot 11 members of the staff at Charlie Hebdo dead, also killing a police officer. On November 13, 2015, ISIS-iconISISball attacked Paris-iconParisball again. They started suicide bombings at outside of the Stade de France first, and continued into the streets of the city killing people at several cafes and at the Bataclan concert hall, where people attending a rock concert were also taken hostage. 137 Dead, around 500 were non-fatal injuries.The attack in Paris-iconParisball on November 13, 2015 was the most devastating terrorist attacks in Franceball's history.\n\n2016 : Joy and Sadness\n\nThe year 2016 was a year of both joy and sadness for Franceball. After 7 years of futility, she finally could into a good result at the Eurovision Song Contest when she went to Sweden-icon Swedenball and finished in 6th place in the grand final with the extremely catchy song J'ai cherché, her best result in 14 years. A month later, she proudly hosted the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup soccer tournament. She rekt her husband Germany-icon Germanyball after kicking Islandball in a funny \"festival des buts\" and finally lost in extra time to her brother Portugal-icon Portugalball. Still, the tournament was seen as a massive success bringing supporters throughout the metropolitan area.\n\nOn July 14 (Bastille Day), a day that was meant for celebration, tragedy struck when Nice-icon Niceball was run over by a truck. Because of what happened combined with the 2015 attacks at Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan, Franceball has sworn never to forgive ISIS-icon ISISball for what they did. And despite the sadness, her beloved Tour de France went on, taking time to remember the victims of that horrible attack.\n\n2017: A rollercoaster of good and hard times\n\nFranceball history\n\nHistory of Franceball\n\nOn January 29, 2017, Franceball won the world men's handball championship. On that same day in Philippines-icon Philippinesball, she won Miss Universe - the only candidate from Europe to advance through the competition. She had waited over 60 years for this moment!\n\nNow, Franceball is debating who's gonna be the next president (good luck!) in a surrealist campaign full of corruption scandals. On 20 April, at 9:00 PM, a new attack happened on the Champs-Elysées. Franceball will still never forgive what ISIS-icon ISISball did before the presidential elections. She wanted to elect another president between the young liberal Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! and conservative kebab remover Marine Le Pen of the National Front, which created a big social divide in her clay. (like USA-icon USAball in 2016).\n\nBut sadly, on June 19, 2017, a closed attack happened on the Champs-Elysées (terrorist attacked the police). No deaths, but only the terrorist is dead. But Franceball still worries about the possible attacks happening in the future.\n\nFranceball was delighted to learn on July 31, 2017 that her dear Paris-icon Parisball would be hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics after Los Angeles-icon Los Angelesball made a deal with the IOC to host 2028 instead - it was made official on September 13, 2017 at the IOC's meetings in Peruball. She can't wait to welcome the world to her clay for that beautiful event!\n\nOn October 10, 2017, she qualified for the World Cup in Russia-icon Russiaball (and is now looking to rekt Sweden-icon Swedenball for revenge over beating her in the June qualifiers).\n\n\nCopains / Amis (Friends)\n\n  • Gaul-icon Gaulball - Mon ancestor. He was of stronk!\n  • Germany-icon Germanyball - Husband, who runs the EU.Can yuo stop winning every steps of mon Tour de France?\n  • Spain-icon Spainball - Sister. We had a very turbulent relationship in the passé cause of Napoliball and Burgundyball but now we're good! I buy cheap cigarettes and drugs and vacation in her clay.\n  • EU-icon EUball - Mon son. Well, be happy and don't mind my business S'il te plait.\n  • Canada-icon Canadaball - Mon son. Je really like him, he is nice and tolerant out of quebekers, indians nations, trees, oceans, animals... Canadaball is the favourite destination for our young students. My only problem with him is that he is part British but I will destroy it using my French genes. But sometimes we confuse them with the Americans (Anyway those Anglos are all the same thing). Also good funny poutine ! I don't talk about the russian guy.\n  • Quebec-icon Quebecball - Mon favorite grandson with funny accent! Of worriyings a lot about genes Française being suppresed. Invented poutine. Gib Celine Dion's songs! Can yuo stop being angry all the time ?\n  • Louisiana-icon Louisianaball - Mon son living with USAball.\n  • Austria-icon Austriaball - Mon frère in law whom I had issues in the past. We're now living in peace and he is cool with moi since I reduced him to almost nothing :)\n  • Haiti-icon Haitiball (Mostly) - Mon Caribbean rebellious son.\n  • Belgium-icon Belgiumball - Bastard son. We tell bad jokes about each other.MY FRIES COME FROM MARSEILLE ! FRENCH FRIES BEST FRIES! REMOVE WAFFLE ! But the fries come from moi,OK ?\n  • Vietnam-iconLaos-iconCambodia-icon Indochinaballs - Mes adoptives sons in South East Asia. Also biggest asian community in mon clay since they test communism and exterminations in their clays.\n  • Philippines-icon Philippinesball - I win! Merci for hostings Miss Universe 2016! It was mon pleasure to celebrate this wonderfulle event!\n  • Netherlands-icon Netherlandsball - Ex-épouse, much of high all ze time. He go vacation in my clay. Part of Burgundyball, no..?\n  • USA-icon USAball - Mon sarcastic and arrogant godson (but I am sure he has his good points), je gave him Louisiana-icon Louisianaball (he is un cool godson). Il helped me during WW 1 (late but merci) and 2. I also kicked UK-icon UKball ass during his independence. It was an expensive but funny game. Je also gave him a state of moi (Statue de la Liberté). But his new président is of scaring me and EU-icon EUball. To me the only differences between him and his dad (UK-icon UKball) is that he don't like Football (Soccer), Monarchy and tea... In other things they are the same thing. But no vendeta, yet.\n  • Monaco-icon Monacoball - Mon petit pet. Can into rich.\n  • Armenia-icon Armeniaball - Bon ami, remover of kebab. Encore un douze points, s'il vous plait?\n  • Serbia-icon Serbiaball - Of needings more help to remove ze kebabs,also good ally.Very sorry for bombing yuo in 1999, but I had the UN benediction.\n  • Japan-icon Japanball - Un bon fan de moi. Merci for of lettings moi inspire ze Pokémon region of Kalos!\n  • Poland-icon Polandball - Good flirt friend with vodka and a complicated language. I have resurrected him with the dragon balls in 1807 and he helped me when I invaded Russiaball during one of the coalitions (giving me typhoid -.- ).\n  • Australia-icon Australiaball - Many franceballs are big fans of crocodiles and kangouroux zis country! Je Of Building Submarines For Him. But sometimes we confuse them with the Americans (Anyway those Anglos are all the same thing).\n  • New Zealand-icon New Zealandball - Mon Nephew. Both Love Rugby, And Helped Me In WW1 With Australie. Also Je Sorry For Bombing Your Ship In 1985.Never forget 2007 and 2011... But sometimes we confuse them with the Americans (Anyway those Anglos are all the same thing).\n  • Qatar-icon Qatarball, Saudi Arabia-icon Saudi Arabiaball - Business partners from le Moyen Orient.\n  • Argentina-icon Argentinaball - Mon nephew (The son of Espagne) and latin american BFF. I helped him to customize his cool music. Yuo remember \"Last Tango in Paris\" ?\n  • Chile-icon Chileball - Nephew. Je helped his people to escape in my clay after the coup d'état, but now I think he is...okay. His présidente is of French, Swiss, Greek and Basque ancestry. (Yuor vin sucks!)\n  • Iran-icon Iranball - He exports good Oil to me and he like my Car Brands Peugeot, Citroen et Renault\n  • Switzerland-icon Switzerlandball - Nous love your chocolate, Gib more of your best chocolate! And aussi, gib more banks for ze riches!\n  • Bulgaria-icon Bulgariaball - Merci pour ze 12 points from ze televote in Eurovision 2017, je am happy vous like mon song zis year!\n  • Mali-icon Maliball - Favorite African son. I help him removing ze jihadists on his clay.\n  • Gabon-icon Gabonball - Puppet Adopted son in central Africa who have très bonnes relations with moi!\n  • Tunisia-icon Tunisiaball - Il finally can into democracy, good for him! Very nice clay for vacationings.\n  • India-icon Indiaball - Macron meet your prime minister! Also good friend.\n  • Indonesia-icon Indonesiaball - Love mon wine! Psst ! Don't be a friend with this a****** italien! His wine and his food is ze worst! Have yuo try mon food?\n  • Niger-icon Nigerball - Mon African son who is of very poor. Am sorry for creating your borders... in which I not expect...*Pffft*...To Turn Out Looking Like Fried Chicken Drumstick!!! HONHONHONHONHON!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Iraq-icon.png Iraqball-Jelped you against ISIS.And Macron meet your prime minister! you are also a good friend.\n\nNeutral (Frenemies\n\n  • UK-icon UKball - Eternel perfide et barbare traitor. Rosbif vicieux. Roast beef! HonHonHon! Rival and frenemy who choose to leave l'EU. Don't forget that je have French-icon La Francophonie,who have more members than your Common what? British Empire-iconCommonwealth ! HonHon... Ah; before Je forget... your language is very ugly. Each vowel is pronounced in 10 ways lol. Need help ?\n  • Russia-icon Russiaball - Mon history et culture REALLY relate to yours but mon godson USAball told me toi did bad lastly. Cousin, tell je the truth ! Tant que j'y suis, tanks for DAESH ! Also Macron meet Vladimir Putin-iconPutin.\n  •  Mexico-icon Mexicoball - My newphew.He of stronk against USAball's new président! BUT 1867 ZE WORST YEAR MON LIFE AND JE WANT BE FRIENDS!! ;(\n  • Italy-icon Italyball - Frenemy And Brother. My food is better! Mona Lisa is mine ! If yuo want je can be more arrogent with yuo. Ils sont fous ces italiens !!!\n  • Brazil-icon Brazilball - Stop calling me a surrending coward !!! But je help for the sattelite. Hon hon! Never forget 1998 world cup! REMOVE HUE!!!\n  • Thailand-icon Thailandball - Many franceballs visits your country ! BUT JE NEVER FORGET 1890!!!!!! HONHONHON!!! I hate more Siam. Don't make me addicted to farang=ATM.\n  • Syria-icon Syriaball - My son.I promise je will help him aganist ISIS. BUT STOP SENDING MIGRANTS PLOX! DON'T YUO SEE WHAT HAPPEND IN PARIS & CALAIS??? MANY MANY MIGRANTS!!!\n  • Algeria-icon Algeriaball - Very compliquée story de merde...\n  • Portugal-icon Portugalball - Brother, fan and janitor. I have a big Portugalball community in my clay. NEVER FORGET EURO 2016 FINALE!!! 2016 WORST MATCH OF HISTORY!!! REMOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mais, je liked your 2017 Eurovision song, it was ze very deserved winner. S'il te plait, build me a kitchen wall.\n\nBande de cons (Enemies)\n\n  • Sweden-icon Swedenball - HONHONHON, JE CAN INTO WORLD CUP! JE WILL REKT VOUS AFTER VOUS BEAT ME IN JUNE! JE WILL GET MON REVENGE!!! (Ne pas of worrying, frère Italy, je will rekt him for both of us!)\n  • Haiti-icon Haitiball (Rarely) - Well... Do you regret your independance now ? One more cataclysm ?\n  • Croatia-icon Croatiaball (sometimes) MAD COS I TOOK ISTRIA ONCE GIB ISTRIA\n\n ̶F̶I̶L̶S̶ ̶D̶E̶ ̶P̶U̶T̶E̶S̶ GROS ENNEMIS!!! (biggest enemy)\n\n  • Gypsy-icon Gypsyball - WORST ENEMY ! REMOVE GYPSY FOR PREMISES!!!\n  • Nazi-icon Nazi Germanyball - 1940 WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE!! NEVER FORGET THE PARTITION! REMOVE REMOVE REMOVE NAZIS!!!! Take a Bir Hakeim et Dunkirk dans ta gueule !!\n\nRegional departments\n\nMetropolitan regionballs\n\n\nFrance is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions.\n\nThe 13 metropolitan regions (including 12 mainland regions and Corsica) are each further subdivided into 2 to 13 departments, while the overseas regions consist of only one department each and hence are also referred to as \"overseas departments\". The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, and in 2016 what had been 27 regions was reduced to 18.\n\n  1. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes-icon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpesball (which it merger with Auvergne-icon Auvergneball and Rhône-Alpes-icon Rhône-Alpesball.)\n  2. Cross of Burgundy-icon Bourgogne-Franche-Comtéball (which it merger with Burgundy-icon Burgundyball and Franche-Comté-icon Franche-Comtéball.)\n  3. Brittany-icon Brittanyball\n  4. Centre-Val de Loire-icon Centre-Val de Loireball (which it formerly called Centreball until 2015.)\n  5. Corsica-icon Corsicaball\n  6. Grand Est-icon Grand Estball (which it merger with Alsace-icon Alsaceball, Lorraine-icon Lorraineball, and Champagne-Ardenne-icon Champagne-Ardenneball.)\n  7. Hauts-de-France-icon Hauts-de-Franceball (which it merger with Flanders-icon Nord-Pas-de-Calaisball and Picardy-icon Picardyball.)\n  8. Kingdom of France-icon Île-de-Franceball\n  9. Normandy-icon Normandyball (which it merger with Upper Normandy-icon Upper Normandyball and Normandy-icon Lower Normandyball)\n  10. Nouvelle-Aquitaine-icon Nouvelle-Aquitaineball (which it merger with Aquitaine-icon Aquitaineball, Limousin-icon Limousinball and Poitou-Charentes-icon Poitou-Charentesball.)\n  11. Occitania-icon Occitanieball (which it merger with Midi-Pyrénées-icon Midi-Pyrénéesball and Languedoc-Roussillon-icon Languedoc-Roussillonball.)\n  12. Pays de la Loire-icon Pays de la Loireball\n  13. Provence-Alpes-Côte d&#039;Azur-icon Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azurball\n\nOverseas regionballs\n\n  1. French Guyana-icon French Guianaball\n  2. French Polynesia-icon French Polynesiaball\n  3. Guadeloupe-icon Guadeloupeball\n  4. Martinique-icon Martiniqueball\n  5. Mayotte-icon Mayotteball\n  6. Réunion-icon Réunionball\n\nFranceball and cie", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6136007308959961}
+{"content": "By Simon L. Altmann\n\nThe constitution of a lot of solid-state concept comes without delay from staff concept, yet earlier there was no basic advent to the band conception of solids utilizing this technique. utilising the main simple of team theoretical principles, and emphasizing the importance of symmetry in opting for the various crucial innovations, this is often the one e-book to supply such an advent. Many issues have been selected with the wishes of chemists in brain, and various difficulties are integrated to let the reader to use the foremost principles and to accomplish a few elements of the therapy. actual scientists also will locate this a necessary creation to the sphere.\n\nShow description\n\nRead Online or Download Band theory of solids: symmetry PDF\n\nBest symmetry and group books\n\n\nThis quantity involves chosen paper on contemporary developments and leads to the learn of assorted teams of diffeomorphisms, together with mapping type teams, from the viewpoint of algebraic and differential topology, in addition to dynamical ones regarding foliations and symplectic or touch diffeomorphisms.\n\nAdditional info for Band theory of solids: symmetry\n\nSample text\n\nTherefore no group of order 30 is simple. In order to show that there are no simple groups of order less than 60, apart from the cyclic groups whose order is prime, it only remains to verify that there are no simple groups of orders 24, 36 and 48. In order to deal with these remaining cases, we need to make use of the following result. 52 Let H and K be subgroups of a finite group G. Then |H ∩ K| ≥ |H| |K| . |G| Proof Let ϕ: H × K → G be the function with ϕ(h, k) = hk for all h ∈ H and k ∈ K. ) Let (h1 , k1 ) and (h2 , k2 ) be elements of H × K.\n\nThen H1 is a subgroup of G/Z. 43). The induction hypothesis ensures the existence of a subgroup K1 of G/Z such that H1 K1 and K1 /H1 is cyclic of order p. Let K = {g ∈ G : gZ ∈ K1 }. Then H K and K/H ∼ = K1 /H1 . Thus K is the required subgroup of G. 44 yield the following result. 45 Let G be a finite group whose order is a power of some prime number p. Then there exist subgroups G0 , G1 , . . , Gn of G, where G0 is the trivial subgroup and Gn = G, such that Gi−1 Gi and Gi /Gi−1 is a cyclic group of order p for i = 1, 2, .\n\nIt follows that either |J| = 18 or 36. If |J| = 36 then J = G and H ∩ K is a normal subgroup of G of order 3. If |J| = 18 then J is a subgroup of G of index 2, and is therefore a normal subgroup of order 18. We conclude that any group of order 36 contains at least one non-trivial normal subgroup. Therefore there are no simple groups of order 36. We have now shown that there are indeed no simple groups of order less than 60, other than the cyclic groups of prime order. 24 Solvable Groups Definition A group G is said to be solvable (or soluble) if there exists a finite sequence G0 , G1 , .\n\nDownload PDF sample\n\nRated 4.91 of 5 – based on 47 votes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5456027984619141}
+{"content": "Saturday, February 8, 2014\n\nShiva Panchakshari Stotram - Video with Sanskrit, English Lyrics and Meanings.\n\nश्री शिव पंचाक्षरी स्तोत्रम\n\nShri Shiva Panchakshari Stotram\n\nFacebook Page (\n\nShiva Panchakshari Stotrma - Sanskrit, English Lyrics and Meanings\nॐ नमः शिवाय शिवाय नमः ॐ\n\nनागॆन्द्रहाराय त्रिलॊचनाय\nभस्माङ्गरागाय महॆश्वराय ।\nनित्याय शुद्धाय दिगम्बराय\nतस्मै “न” काराय नमः शिवाय ॥ 1 ॥\n\nNagendra haraya Trilochanaya,\nBasmanga ragaya maheswaraya,\n\nNithyaya shudhaya digambaraya,\nTasmai nakaraya namashivaya. 1\n\nMy salutations to the letter 'Na' , which is Shiva,\nWho wears as garland the king of snakes.\nWho has three eyes,\nWho wears ash all over Him,\nWho is the greatest Lord,\nWho is forever,\nWho is the cleanest,\nAnd who wears the directions themselves as dress.\n\nमन्दाकिनी सलिल चन्दन चर्चिताय\nनन्दीश्वर प्रमथनाथ महॆश्वराय ।\nमन्दार मुख्य बहुपुष्प सुपूजिताय\nतस्मै “म” काराय नमः शिवाय ॥ 2 ॥\n\nMandakini salila chandana charchithaya,\nNandeeswara pramadha nadha maheswaraya,\nMandara pushpa bahu pushpa supoojithaya,\nTasmai makaraya namashivaya. 2\n\nMy salutations to the letter 'Ma' , which is Shiva,\nWho is bathed by waters of Ganga,\nWho applies sandalpaste all over him,\nWho has Lord Nandi as his chieftain,\nWho is the greatest lord,\nAnd who is worshipped by Mandhara and many other flowers.\n\nशिवाय गौरी वदनाब्ज बृन्द\nसूर्याय दक्षाध्वर नाशकाय ।\nश्री नीलकण्ठाय वृषभध्वजाय\nतस्मै “शि” काराय नमः शिवाय ॥ 3 ॥\n\nShivaaya gowri vadanara vinda,\nSooryaya daksha dwara naasakaya,\n\nSri neela kantaya vrisha dwajaya,\nTasmai sikaraya namashivaya. 3\n\nMy salutations to the letter 'Si' , which is Shiva,\nWho is peace personified,\nWho is like Sun to the Lotus face of Gowri,\nWho destroyed the fire sacrifice of Daksha,\nWho has a blue neck,\nAnd who has a bull in his flag.\n\nवशिष्ठ कुम्भॊद्भव गौतमार्य\nमुनीन्द्र दॆवार्चित शॆखराय ।\nचन्द्रार्क वैश्वानर लॊचनाय\nतस्मै “व” काराय नमः शिवाय ॥ 4 ॥\n\nVasishta kumbhodhbhava gowthamadhi.\nMunendra devarchitha shekaraya,\nChandrarka vaiswanara lochanaya,\nTasmai vakaraya namashivaya 4\n\nMy salutations to the letter 'Va' , which is Shiva,\nWho is worshipped by great sages like\nVasishta, Agasthya and Gowthama,\nAs also the devas,\nAnd who has sun, moon and fire as his three eyes.\n\nयज्ञ स्वरूपाय जटाधराय\nपिनाक हस्ताय सनातनाय ।\nदिव्याय दॆवाय दिगम्बराय\nतस्मै “य” काराय नमः शिवाय ॥ 5 ॥\n\nYaksha swaroopaya jada dharaya,\n\nPinaka hasthathaya sanathanaya,\nDivyaya devaaya digambaraya,\nTasmai yakaraya namashivaya. 5\nMy salutations to the letter 'Ya' , which is Shiva,\nWho takes the form of Yaksha,\nWho has a tufted hair,\nWho is armed with spear,\nWho is forever filled with peace,\nWho is godly,\nWho is the great God,\nAnd who wears the directions themselves as dress.\n\nपञ्चाक्षरमिदं पुण्यं यः पठॆच्छिव सन्निधौ ।\nशिवलॊकमवाप्नॊति शिवॆन सह मॊदतॆ ॥\n\nPanchaksharamidham punyam,\nYa padeth Shiva sannidhou,\nShivaloka mavapnothi,\nShive na saha modathe .\nThose who read these holy five letters great,\nIn the temple of Shiva,.\nWould go to the world of Shiva,\nAnd be forever happy with Him.\nWatch in 'HD' mode in full screen for better experience.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6561930179595947}
+{"content": "Cree-ations specialize in handmade Aboriginal Arts and Crafts. They are a locally owned and operated family business. They buy most of their furs and hides for their products locally. They are located in the Inner City and try to be part of community activities and support the surrounding neighbourhood.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6419180631637573}
+{"content": "Define tree ?, Data Structure & Algorithms\n\nA tree is a non-empty set one component of which is designated the root of the tree while the remaining components are partitioned into non-empty groups each of which is a subtree of the root.\n\nTree nodes have much useful functionality. The depth of a node is the length of the path from the root to that edge. The height of a node is the longest way from that node to its leaves. The length of a tree is the height of the parent node. A parent node has no children -- its only path is up to its parent. Describe the axiomatic development of trees and its rules for more information.\n\n\nPosted Date: 7/27/2012 6:26:16 AM | Location : United States\n\nRelated Discussions:- Define tree ?, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Define tree ?, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Define tree ? Discussions\n\nWrite discussion on Define tree ?\nYour posts are moderated\nRelated Questions\nExplain about Franklin Algorithm We mentioned how the number of possible comparisons of polygons grows as the square of the number of polygons in the scene. Many of the hidden-\n\nAs we have seen, as the traversal mechanisms were intrinsically recursive, the implementation was also easy through a recursive procedure. Though, in the case of a non-recursive me\n\nOne can change a binary tree into its mirror image by traversing it in Postorder is the only proecess whcih can convert binary tree into its mirror image.\n\nData array A has data series from 1,000,000 to 1 with step size 1, which is in perfect decreasing order. Data array B has data series from 1 to 1,000,000, which is in random order.\n\nOne of the main problems with the linear queue is the lack of appropriate utilization of space. Assume that the queue can store 100 elements & the complete queue is full. Thus, it\n\nIn the present scenario of global warming, the computer hard ware and software are also contributing for the increase in the temperature in the environment and contributing for the\n\nLinked lists are among the most common and easiest data structures. They may be used to implement various other common abstract data types, including queues, stacks, symbolic expre\n\nData records are stored in some particular sequence e.g., order of arrival value of key field etc. Records of sequential file cannot be randomly accessed i.e., to access the n th\n\nhow to define the size of array\n\nAn undirected graph G with n vertices and e edges is shown by adjacency list.  What is the time required to generate all the connected components? O (e+n)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9468364715576172}
+{"content": "Derivative action - statutory provisions, Business Law and Ethics\n\nDerivative action:\n\nIn Nurcombe v Nurcombe Lawton L J stated that a derivative action is a procedural device for enabling the court to do justice to a company controlled by miscreant directors or shareholders.  It is called \"derivative\" because the right to sue derives from that of the company.  In such a case the minority shareholders sue on behalf of themselves and all other shareholders except those who are defendants and may join the company as a defendant.The directors are usually the defendants.  Where the action is successful, the damages awarded belong to the company.\n\nA derivative action is usually appropriate where the wrongdoers have voting control and therefore prevent the company from suing, as in Cork v Deeks or Alexander v Automatic Telephone Co (103).\n\nAlthough the rule in Foss V Harbottle indicates the right of the majority of the company's members to pass resolutions on the company's behalf, it hedges that right with rules or exceptions which are also intended to protect the interests of minority members in appropriate situations.  But it should be noted that, in the process of protecting their perceived interests, the minority are also in fact, protecting the interests of the company itself since the company cannot protect itself in such situations.\n\nPosted Date: 1/15/2013 3:03:55 AM | Location : United States\n\nRelated Discussions:- Derivative action - statutory provisions, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Derivative action - statutory provisions, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Derivative action - statutory provisions Discussions\n\nWrite discussion on Derivative action - statutory provisions\nYour posts are moderated\nRelated Questions\nDetermine the focal point for coordination The focal point for coordination is point C, which is the unique symmetrical Pareto efficient outcome. Compared to this outcome the N\n\n\nQUESTION1 Compare and contrast the Securities Act with the Insurance Act QUESTION 2 (a) What are the main stages of money laundering? (b) Explain the legal framework\n\nQuestion : (a) Who is a ‘whistle blower'? Explain the main disadvantage a ‘whistle blower' may face. (b) Name two engineering disasters (c) What do yo\n\nPromotion: A company comes into existence from the moment of its registration by the registrar of companies. However, the  registration is preceded by what is called \"promotio\n\nWhat is the Predevelopment Phase of policy process a) Get authorization and support Who has the authority to create this type of policy? Who has the authority to approve\n\nExplain Universal jurisdiction of criminal jurisdiction It is concerned with the application of a State's criminal jurisdiction in respect of offences committed against the int\n\nAfrican Customary Law However African customary law may be specified as the law based on the customs of the ethnic groups that constitute England's indigenous population. Now\n\nContracts of Guarantee However a contract of guarantee or suretyship is such a contract through one person to answer that for the debt, such default or miscarriage of another.\n\nFraudulent Preference: Under s.312, any disposition of the company's property and any creation of a charge, fixed or floating, effected during the period of six months before", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7775645852088928}
+{"content": "What is Solution Of State Equation For Discrete Time Lti System?\n\n\nThe state equations are used to decompose higher-order differential equations into multiple first-order equations. The solution to this problem is the state variables this is done without any integral of the system. In thestate space system, the internal state of the system is explicitly accounted for by the equation known as the state equation. The system output is given in terms of a combination of the current system state, and the current system input, through the output equation. These two equations form a system of equations known collectively as the state-space equations\n\nState Variables\n\nWhen modeling the system using a state-space equation, we first need to define three vectors:\n\nInput variables\n\nOutput variables\n\nState Variables\n\nWe denote the input variables with u, the output variables with y, and the state variables with x. In essence, we have the following relationship:\n\ny = f(x,u)\n\nWhere f(x, u) is our system.\n\nx' = g(x,u)\n\nWhere x' is the rate of change of the state variables. We will define f(u, x) and g(u, x) in the next chapter.\n\nState-Space Equations\n\nIn a state-space system representation, we have a system of two equations: an equation for determining the state of the system, and another equation for determining the output of the system.  If the systems themselves are time-invariant:\n\nx' = Ax(n) + Bu(n)\n\ny(t) = Cx(n) + Du(n)\n\nThe State Equation shows the relationship between the system's current state and its input, and the future state of the system. The Output Equation shows the relationship between the system state and its input, and the output.\n\nNow, if we take the partial derivatives of these functions we get our system matrices:\n\n A = \\bold{g}_x[x(0), x(0), u(0)]\n\n B = \\bold{g}_u[x(0), x(0), u(0)]\n\n C = \\bold{h}_x[x(0), u(0)]\n\n D = \\bold{h}_u[x(0), u(0)]\n\nMatrix Dimensions\n\nFor integer values p, q, and r, the dimensions of the system matrices and vectors are defined as follows:\n\nA: p × p\nB: p × q\nC: r × p\nD: r × q\n\nIf the matrix and vector dimensions do not agree with one another, the equations are invalid and the results will be meaningless. Matrices and vectors must have compatible dimensions or they cannot be combined using matrix operations.\n\n\n\nGet Solutions of State Equations for Discrete-Time LTI Systems Assignment Help with these Q&A\n\nMore Q&A\nSubmit Your Questions Here!\nCopy and paste your question here...\n\nAttach Files\n\nTop Solutions of State Equations for Discrete-Time LTI Systems Experts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5628713965415955}
+{"content": "With a clear vision and mission to develop young leaders, CIC Enrichment centre or also known as Children Islamic Centre has grown to become a world class educational institution and the most reliable and trusted brand for the Muslim families. CIC aims to educate young learners to the highest academic standard in a safe, enjoyable, dynamic environment, balance with Islamic teachings and values that enable children to develop the highest potential in their intellectual, emotional and spiritual capabilities.\n\nCIC ensures that the children are prepared with the skills necessary to be successful. Through a dynamic learning culture, high thinking orientation and leadership exposure activities, every child has a great start and is advanced.\n\nSince CIC was founded in the year of 1997, there are continuously impressive achievements with 99% of the CIC’s preschoolers entered the primary school with extra advantage and 80% sat at the top of the primary school. CIC’s enrichments have developed the children to be confident beyond the school.\n\nCIC offers 18 enrichment programs in 3 main categories, Preschool, Playschool and after school. CIC currently is available at 70 locations nationwide and growing. Led by CEO Founder, Qutren Nada Ahmad, CIC has 10 franchisees, more than 300 staff and over 4000 students who make CIC as the best place for early education.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996341466903687}
+{"content": "His Mercy is our only constant\n\n“Allah Guides to His Light Whom He Wills.”\n\nBismillah-ir-Rahman-ir Raheem.\n\n\nAllah’s (Most High) Rahma is infinite. In less than the blink of an eye, His Rahma (mercy) renews itself and further penetrates existence.\n\nTake a moment.\n\nLook at your hands – touch them. What do you feel? Smooth skin, bones, joints, and veins. Look how Allah (Most High) constructed your hands. The small veins of your hands lay on the service, while larger veins lay deeper. His Rahma is reflected in this, as if it were that your larger veins lay on the surface, you would be in grave danger of injury.\n\nTake another moment.\n\n\nTake yet another moment.\n\nThink about your hearing. Allah (Most High), from His Rahma, has limited your hearing as well. Every process in your body makes as sound, but yet we are unable to hear the closest sounds to us! If our hearing was not limited, we would constantly imbued with sounds from within our own body.\n\n\nMay Allah (Most High) raise your maqam, and May He envelope you always in His Rahma.\n\nShaykh Faid Mohammed Said", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9456682205200195}
+{"content": "Office of Operations\n21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies\n\n7.4 Transportation Impacts\n\nImpacts to the transportation system depend on the incident. Two of the incidents resulted in little to no impact on the local transportation systems, while two others did have an impact.\n\n7.4.1 El Dorado, Arkansas\n\nThere appeared to be no impact to the transportation system due to the El Dorado incident. The police department cordoned off the evacuation zone, and traffic was rerouted through town. The main north-south roadway, US 167, was closed, but traffic was rerouted around the downtown. This incident happened on a Sunday morning, but if it had occurred during the week, there would have been little impact on the traffic system.\n\nHowever, since the residents of the nursing homes and prisoners at the county jail facility are without personal vehicles, ambulances and school buses were used to evacuate the nursing home residents and school buses were used to evacuate the prisoners.\n\nPredominately, the method of transportation for the nursing home residents was the use of buses; however, approximately 15 to 33 residents required the use of ambulances for their evacuation. Six ambulances were utilized to evacuate these residents. Four ambulances were from the city and two were from the county.\n\n7.4.2 Graniteville, South Carolina\n\nThere appeared to be little impact to the transportation system due to the Graniteville incident. The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office cordoned off the evacuation zone and traffic was rerouted through the community. The main thoroughfare (Aiken/Augusta highway), a four-lane roadway connecting Aiken, South Carolina, to Augusta, Georgia, was closed for over a week, but traffic was rerouted through the area onto parallel roads or Interstate 20.\n\nIn addition, roadblocks were established around the incident zone, and a curfew (dusk to dawn) was set to stop unauthorized people from entering the zone.\n\n“Access [was] controlled early through traffic control points established quickly and efficiently due to recent training. Locations [were] determined based on major intersections and information received from 911 distress calls within first 15 minutes. Roadblock placement [was] reevaluated within first 30 minutes, and determined to be adequate based on wind direction and HazMat input,” as reported in the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office After-Action Report.\n\nThe train manifest from Norfolk Southern was available to fire and police either in 30 minutes or up to 2 hours from the time of the incident. Interviewees expressed cooperation from the railroad in identifying the chemicals.\n\n7.4.3 South Salt Lake City, Utah\n\nThe Roper Rail Yard, scene of the hazardous material spill, is located near the intersection of Interstates 15 and 80, which were closed. In addition, due to the incident, local streets were also closed.\n\nThe police department, department of public safety, and highway patrol were involved in the closing of the roadways. Roadways were quickly blocked with barricades and barrels.\n\nAs the neighborhoods were evacuating, the local streets were barricaded with roadblocks to prevent the reentry of residents and the entry of unauthorized personnel.\n\nAt approximately 12:45 on Sunday, March 6, 2005, Interstates 15 and 80 were shut down, which took a little more than 1 ½ hours. Initially, Utah Department of Transportation resources were used to close the interstates. Once it was determined that the closure would take longer than anticipated, it was decided to use an authorized traffic management contractor to close down the interstates with barriers and electronic signs.\n\nState troopers were sent to patrol and monitor the closed freeways to ensure motorists did not drive onto the roadways.\n\nThe main means of communication to the traveling public was using fixed and portable dynamic message signs, 511 travel services, highway advisory radio, and the commuter link Web site. It was felt that the notification worked well.\n\nThere was an initial backup of approximately 1 to 2 miles when the interstates were initially closed, but this was quickly dissipated. While not associated with this incident, the Utah Department of Transportation conducted a public opinion poll and found that 70 percent of people polled would change their travel pattern if information was provided. After the initial closure, traffic was manageable.\n\n7.4.4 Big Bear Valley, California\n\nThere are three main evacuation routes out of Big Bear Valley; one to the west, which was closed, and two that are north and south of the valley. There was concern regarding the loss of the remaining roads as evacuation routes and possible accidents that would slow the progress of evacuees. The emergency community looked into the possibility of staging resources along the evacuation route to push vehicles off the roadway if necessary.   \n\nThe roadways in the valley did not allow for a quick evacuation. However, there were no incidents on the road; people were patient, and there were no recorded instances of flared tempers. People made the best of the situation.\n\nNow, based on experience, the local emergency management community has an estimated time to evacuate the valley, in case this needs to happen again.\n\nFebruary 6, 2006\nPublication #FHWA-HOP-08-014", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8814846277236938}
+{"content": "CROs discuss - do we even need a risk team?\n\nEnsuring an appropriate risk culture is an important but sometimes hazy activity for a risk team. At InsuranceERM's recent conference, a group of CROs discussed some of the issues and challenges they face in achieving a good risk culture\n\nA transparent approach to the SFCR\n\nDenmark’s Industriens Pensionsforsikring went the extra mile in completing its solvency and financial condition report (SFCR), providing historical data and putting the quantitative information into context. David Walker asks chief risk officer Pernille Jul Overby why she opted for more work\n\nNN's Jan-Hendrik Erasmus: \"the key issue is how to embrace technology\"\n\nNN Group’s chief risk officer discusses with David Walker how the Dutch insurer is positioned for M&A, why Solvency II does not need to change, longevity risk hedging and today’s technology and cyber challenges\n\nUnipol's Renzo Avesani: balancing risk and innovation\n\nRenzo Avesani holds the positions of chief risk officer and chief innovation officer at Unipol – a unique combination at such a large insurer. He tells Cintia Cheong about the firm’s latest initiatives and how it is adapting to life under Solvency II\n\nView from the Top: The next crisis, counter-cyclical business models and pro-cyclical valuations: What's to be done?\n\nIn this instalment, Tom Wilson, chief risk officer for Allianz, reviews the implications of a financial market correction for the industry and makes some recommendations on how risk, capital and value should be managed\n\nGen Re's Jules Constantinou: technology can make insurance more meaningful\n\nJules Constantinou, regional manager for life and health at GenRe UK and Ireland, and president-elect of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, vows to make insurance more meaningful to society. He tells Cintia Cheong how technology can help achieve that", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8741557598114014}
+{"content": "December 11, 2017\n\nWas Jesus Really Human?\n\nStraight Cuts: The MAN Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)\n\nRolland D. McCune\n\nThis article first appeared in FrontLine • January/February 2000. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.\n\nFundamentalists have always held clearly to the genuine and total deity of Jesus Christ. This was one of the “fundamentals” of the faith, and there was no compromise or deviation on the point. In some respects it was the flagship of Fundamentalism’s armada against modernism. But, conversely, the genuine and complete humanity of our Lord has not always been clearly understood.\n\nWe believe that Jesus is fully man and fully God, that He is neither more nor less human than we are, and that we are neither more nor less human than He is. When last did we hear of a fight for the faith over the humanity of Jesus or even a sermon on His human nature? The truth is, some of the most vexing heresies in church history have involved a denial, in some way, of the authentic human nature of Jesus of Nazareth. We probably have not seen the last of those controversies.\n\nThe Bible teaches plainly concerning “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). He was “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1), a “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes” (Luke 2:12), a “carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James” and others, whose “sisters [are] here with us” (Mark 6:3). He had a human body, soul, and spirit (John 2:21; 12:27; 11:33). He had a human birth (Luke 2:5, 12), growth and development (Luke 2:40, 52), emotions (John 11:35), and appetites (John 19:28). He had human limitations as seen in His weariness from traveling (John 4:6), fatigue that required sleep (Matt. 8:24), and physical stress in the Garden on the night in which He was betrayed (Luke 22:43).\n\nOur Lord had all the appearances of a human being: He was a recognizable Jew (John 4:9), had the looks of a prophet (Matt. 16:13–14), and even after his resurrection was mistaken for a gardener (John 20:15). He experienced human suffering and death (Luke 22:44; John 19:30, 34). Jesus had every essential characteristic or attribute of true humanity. (Sin is not a necessary ingredient of genuine humanity. Adam was clearly and fully human before he sinned.)\n\nThe Bible also teaches that Jesus’s human nature, which He received from His human mother, Mary, was inseparably and permanently united to His divine nature (the eternal Logos, John 1:12) in the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). This union formed the one indivisible Person of Jesus of Nazareth. A nature is a complex of attributes or characteristics that make something what it is. This one Person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, has two distinct but inseparable natures. The historic formula cautions us, “we must neither divide the Person nor confound the natures.” Since His supernatural conception, Christ is, and always will be, the God-man (John 1:14; Heb. 7:24): fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9). In this union of the two natures, His human nature does not “humanize” His divine attributes in any way, nor does the divine nature “deify” any aspect whatever of His humanity.\n\nWhy is His true humanity important? One reason is that our Sinbearer had to be a member of the human race so He could pay the penalty of human sin (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 2:17, 9:22). God cannot die. No human death, no atonement for human beings. But it is also necessary for our Sinbearer to be God so that His death can have infinite value. Anything that diminishes either of our Lord’s natures undercuts His atonement for sin, thus questioning His ability to forgive sin and be our Savior. And this strikes at the very heart and soul of New Testament Christianity. “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:2–3; cf. 2 John 7).\n\nAnother reason His full humanity is essential is His ability to be a perfect high priest. “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2:17). He was tempted, abused, persecuted, ridiculed, and betrayed. He knows human life by experience from the inside; He has lived where we live. Our God and Savior is no mere armchair expert living in lofty splendor unrelated to us and removed far from us. He does not react to our cries mechanically and coldly, but personally, warmly, and lovingly.\n\nYes, Jesus Christ is really human, and His humanity is as important as His deity.\n\nRolland D. McCune, retired, was formerly Professor of Systematic Theology at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.\n\n\nSubmit other comments here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7532188892364502}
+{"content": "wallThe directive from the interviewer to “tell me about yourself” strikes fear into the hearts of even the most confident candidates. That’s because they haven’t given serious consideration to how they should answer this directive.\n\nIt’s also because they haven’t taken time to construct a persuasive elevator pitch, which is one of the most important tools in your job search toolbox. There are three components necessary to answering the “tell me about yourself” question:\n\n1. Keep It Relevant\n\nYou must be aware of what the employer wants from employees, which requires that you research not only the job but also the company.\n\nLet’s say, as a trainer, you’re aware of the employer’s need for satisfying people from a variety of cultures. You’ll begin your elevator speech by addressing this need:\n\n“Along with my highly rated presentation skills, I’ve had particular success with designing presentations that meet the needs of diverse populations.”\n\nThen, you’ll follow with a memorable accomplishment:\n\n“For example, the company for which I last worked employed Khmer- and Spanish-speaking people. I translated our presentations into both languages so that my colleagues could deliver their presentations with ease and effectiveness. This was work I did on my own time, but I realized how important it was to the company. I received accolades from the CEO, and I enjoyed the process very much.”\n\nFinally, you’ll close your elevator pitch with some of the strong personality skills for which you’ve been acknowledge. In this case, your innovation, assertiveness, and commitment to the company would be appropriate to mention.\n\n2. Be on Your Toes\n\nBeing prepared is essential if you want to say the right thing to your prospective employer at the right time. This is where your research on the company really comes into play. The more you know about a company, the more you can tweak your elevator pitch when needed.\n\nThroughout the interview, you should be paying careful attention to what the interviewer has been saying regarding the challenges the company is facing. This will give you vital information about what the interviewer needs to hear from you.\n\nbootsSay the interviewer needs a manager who can develop excellent rapport with younger staff while also enforcing rules that have been broken. Based on this knowledge, you realize you’ll have to use a variation of your rehearsed pitch. You’ll open instead with:\n\n“I am a manager who understands the need both to maintain an easy-going, professional approach and to discipline employees when necessary. As this is one of your concerns, I can assure you that I will deliver on my promise, as well as exceed other expectations you have for this position.”\n\nThen, you’ll follow with an example of what you have just said about yourself:\n\n“If I may give you a specific example of my claim, on many occasions I had to apply the right amount of discipline in various ways. There was one employee who was always late for work and would often return from lunch late as well.\n\n“I realized that she required a gentler touch than the others, so I called her to my office and explained the effect she had on the rest of the team when she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. I then explained to her the consequences her tardiness would have on her. I don’t think she had been spoken to in such a straightforward manner by her other managers. I treated her with respect.\n\n“From that day forward, she was never late. In fact, she earned a dependability award. There are other examples. Would you like to hear them?”\n\n3. The Purpose of Your Elevator Pitch\n\nWhen employers listen to your elevator pitch, they should learn about skills and accomplishments that set you apart from other candidates.\n\nGive your elevator pitch in a concise manner that illustrates these skills. Don’t simply provide a list of skills you think are required for the position; remember that accomplishments are memorable and show your value, especially if they’re relevant to your audience.\n\nAbove All Else, Your Elevator Pitch Must Show Value!\n\nThe value you bring to the employer, that is. You must know your employer’s pain points, as in the aforementioned example where the candidate shifted the focus of their elevator pitch to accommodate for the employer’s need of a manager who could build rapport while enforcing rules.\n\nOnce you have a full grasp on the employer’s pain points, you’ll know which content to include in your elevator pitch and how to deliver. it.\n\nA version of this article originally appeared on Things Career Related.\n\n\nin Interview]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9374073147773743}
+{"content": "Accessibility links\n\nEU Submits Iran Resolution to IAEA\n\nThe European Union has proposed an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution calling on Iran to stop all nuclear fuel work.\n\nThe draft, proposed by France, Britain, and Germany, will be considered by the U.N. agency Thursday. Delegates from the IAEA have been discussing a response to Iran's decision to resume uranium processing.\n\nEarlier Wednesday, Iran broke United Nations' seals placed on parts of a uranium processing plant, clearing the way for the complete resumption of work at a controversial facility in central Iran.\n\nThe U.S. State Department called the move a \"negative step,\" and part of a series of \"provocative\" actions that further isolate Iran from the international community.\n\nDelegates from the IAEA's 35 member countries have not been able to agree on a response to Iran's uranium processing.\n\nTehran agreed to suspend uranium conversion last year, to counter U.S. and European suspicions that it was secretly trying to develop fuel for nuclear weapons.\n\nThe European Union had threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, if Tehran resumed the suspect fuel work.\n\nSome information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5535414814949036}
+{"content": "Anki Cozmo application update grows programming operation\n\n\nLast September, Anki released a particular Collectors Copy of its Cozmo toy automatic robot, alongside an essential app posting for both the first and fresh models. The Cozmo’s a large number of features may be the ability to course basic responsibilities through the mobile phone app. When a full Python-based SDK can be found for those attempting to use true programming ‘languages’, the drag-and-drop Code Clinical had almost all of the essentials.\n\nAnki released an update for that Cozmo application, with big changes to typically the programming feature.\n\nReading more\n\nAnki Cozmo app revise expands encoding functionality was basically written by typically the awesome crew at Google android Police.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7975307106971741}
+{"content": "What Is A DDC System?\nDDC simply stands for Direct Digital Control.\nDDC is often used to control HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) devices such as valves or compressors. Such systems receive input from the sensors and devices installed in the HVAC system and, according to the control logic, provide output commands to control the HVAC system devices.\n\nWhy Should I Use DDC?\n- Remote Accessability - System can be accessed via popular web browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) on both desktop and mobile devices.\n- Data Logging - Data such as temperature, humidity and CO2 can be logged and graphed.\n- Customizable - Each system is installed to the specific needs and requirements for that site.\n- Fault Detection - Faults are recorded and alarms sent via text or email to users.\n- Optimal Start - Allows equipment to start up before occupancy to ensure comfort.\n- Lighting Control -\n- Energy Conservation - With features such as data logging, scheduling and optimal start, DDC systems are a sure way to lower power consumption and save money.\n\n- DDC systems are essential if attempting to meet strict energy efficiency standards such as LEED, or for owner/operators looking to streamline day-to-day operation of their home or building.\n\nHow Do I Start?\nSimply CONTACT our sales team and they can review your system needs and provide you with a customized package to fit your budget.\n\n\n\"...multi-trends are critical in helping SES indentify deficiencies in energy control strategies. The multi-trend tool in Automated Logic is really amazing! Getting more contractors and clients focused on setting up and using effective multi-trends will play an important role in our industry.\"\n\nJustin Blanchfield, P.Eng., MASc\nEnergy Efficiency Engineer\nSES Consulting Inc.\nVancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Squamish BC.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999765157699585}
+{"content": "Carpe Diem\n\nLet Your Light Shine.CMC\n\n\n“Bezos said everyone has two options for creating their “life story.” Either you go for a life of “ease and comfort” or a life of “service and adventure.” Bezos is clear about which is the right choice: He said you’ll be prouder of living an adventurous life when you’re 80 years old.\n\n\n\n\n As high school seniors craft their “life’s stories” AKA college essays, they face the very conflict Mr. Bezos illuminates.  The college essay is simultaneously a declaration of personal independence, a reflection on a life’s meaning and an imagining of a future vision.  Taking “longer” than expected, and in many cases, right to an 11th hour finale (literally), is both necessary and inevitable.\n\nSubsequently, nail-biting finishes with nervous parents pacing in the background is also a natural outcome.\n\nThe more parents understand the complexity inherent in crafting college essays, the more space a senior has to truly engage the writing process.  Thus, parents give their children the greatest chance for economic security and thus peace of mind.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998805820941925}
+{"content": "What is a Pecan?\n\nA pecan, like the fruit of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut, but is technically a drupe, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower, while the part known as the nut develops from the endocarp and contains the seed. The husk itself is aeneous, oval to oblong, 2.6–6 cm (1.0–2.4 in) long and 1.5–3 cm (0.59–1.2 in) broad. The outer husk is 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) thick, starts out green and turns brown at maturity, at which time it splits off in four sections to release the thin-shelled nut.\n\ngormet-pecan-franklinThe seeds of the pecan are edible, with a rich, buttery flavor. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking, particularly in sweet desserts, but also in some savory dishes. One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline candy, most often associated with New Orleans.\n\nIn addition to the pecan seed, the wood is also used in making furniture and wood flooring, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meats.\n\nPecans were one of the most recently domesticated major crops. Although wild pecans were well-known among the colonial Americans as a delicacy, the commercial growing of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s.   Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world’s pecans, with an annual crop of 150–200 thousand tons from more than 10 million trees.  The nut harvest for growers is typically around mid-October. Historically, the leading pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia, followed by Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma; they are also grown in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, South Carolina and Hawaii. Outside the United States, pecans are grown in Australia, Brazil, China, Israel, Mexico, Peru and South Africa. They can be grown approximately from USDA hardiness zones 5 to 9, provided summers are also hot and humid.\n\nPecan trees may live and bear edible seeds for more than 300 years. They are mostly self-incompatible, because most cultivars, being clones derived from wild trees, show incomplete dichogamy. Generally, two or more trees of different cultivars must be present to pollinate each other.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8009858727455139}
+{"content": "Biochemistry of Sudarshan Kriya\n\nBiochemistry of Sudarshan Kriya | Sudarshan Kriya\nEver wondered, what causes us to age, resulting in death of our body cells over the years, develop heart disease leading to plaque in the artery, or suffer from cancer causing cells to mutate and grow erratically? The answer may be simpler than we think.\n\nSome researchers say the common denominator in all these conditions is the antioxidant status — the level of chemical process that takes place in our cells and genes. Like we measure our cholesterol level, researchers argue, we can measure our antioxidant status and determine how vulnerable we are to diseases.\n\nIn a pilot study, biochemists at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) studied the effect of Sudarshan Kriya on the antioxidant status of individuals. Sudarshan Kriya is a well known rhythmic breathing technique promoted by the Art of Living workshops.\n\nIt is preceded by Ujjayi Pranayam or long and deep breaths with constriction at the base of throat and Bhastrika or fast and forceful breaths through the nose along with arm movements.\n\nBefore we talk about their findings, let’s step back into our biochemistry class and understand what antioxidant status means. According to the free-radical theory, the cells in our body are being constantly damaged and destroyed by oxygen radicals, similar to what dirt and rust do to our cars. Oxygen radicals are different from oxygen gas in that they are molecules that are highly charged and detrimental byproducts of cell reactions.\n\nOur body has an antioxidant defense system that constantly searches and destroys these oxygen radicals, much like our immune system, which polices our body for foreign agents such as bacteria and viruses and eliminates them. If the antioxidant defense system of our body is weak, then the number of oxygen radicals increases, causing our cells to die quickly. This results in inflammation and plaque within our heart vessels or prompts the cells to mutate into cancer cells. If we reduce the number of oxygen radicals, we improve the antioxidant status in our body, and we live longer and lead a disease free life.\n\nIt is important that we try to reduce the level of oxygen radicals and strengthen our defense system. We can increase our antioxidant levels through our diet. A healthy diet of vegetable and fruit increases our intake of important antioxidants such as Vitamins A, C, E, and beta caroten. Some initial studies have shown the benefit of higher antioxidants in our diet, but larger studies have not detected the benefit — so the jury is still out. Smoking, alcohol and chronic psycho-social problems like work and family pressures, can increase oxidative stress. This stress affects our complex molecules and genes. Yoga and meditation can relieve this stress. Will Sudarshan Kriya have a similar effect?\n\nA team lead by Dr Neeta Singh and Dr Vinod Kochupillai, former chief of IRCH and Head of Medical Oncology at IRCH ( Institute rotary cancer hospital) at AIIMS, tested the blood of 42 persons who were practicing Sudarshan Kriya for over 1 year and compared it with the blood of 42 healthy individuals who were not practicing any form of physical exercise or stress management techniques. What the researchers found was thought provoking. Clearly, the cellular activity between the two groups was different.\n\nThe Kriya practitioners had a better antioxidant status at the enzyme and the gene level. Also they had less DNA damage and cell aging. It is difficult to know if this change will lead to longer life span, decrease rates of cancer, or lessen heart disease, but “we should practice some type of breathing technique once a day to reduce stress,” said Dr Neeta Singh, who herself does it twice everyday. Though biochemical science and spirituality may seem miles apart, it is heartening to see ancient practices and modern science converging in man’s endeavour to live a richer and healthier life.\n\n- As published in The Times Of India, Delhi paper dated Feb 24, 2008 [Dr Manoj Jain is an infectious disease physician working in Memphis (US) and Indore (MP)]\n\nSource: Art of Living Global Website", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6125288009643555}
+{"content": "Principal's Note\n\nPrincipal's Note\n\nIt is my privilege and honor to join Wenonah Elementary School as the newly appointed Principal for the 2015-2016 school year.  Wenonah is a place where strong connections are made between the home and the school and where parents and educators partner together to develop the whole child.  I value these characteristics; I am excited to help continue moving Wenonah along the path of excellence.\n\n\nThis year's theme is \"Moving in the Right Direction.\"  We will continue to focus on student achievement, highly effective teaching, and continuous school improvement.\n\nThis year we will work towards reinstating our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO).  My goal is to establish a vibrant, dynamic PTO that supports our teachers, staff, students, and families, and makes Wenonah Elementary School a place of excellence.  One of the greatest gifts that you can contribute to your child's education is by being involved with our school.  I highly encourage you to get involved at any level that you can.\n\nAn essential component of a successful school is a strong partnership between home and school.  As your principal, I pledge to communicate and work with you to be certain that decisions are made with our students' best interests in mind.  I look forward to a long partnership as we work together to create an engaging and rigorous learning environment for all of our students; I am confident that together we can make Wenonah an even better place for our students to learn and grow.\n\nThank you for the opportunity to serve your families in this role.\n\nWith warm regards,\n\nTonya Cook Carter, Principal\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.848607063293457}
+{"content": "P-300b-BL, 1980\nPlotter drawing ink on paper\n23.5 x 23.5 in / 60 x 60 cm\n\nPart of the Divisibility work series, P-303-11 is a relief cut from wood. Its mathematically precise composition is based on the shape and logic of a cube, as a fixed structure from which signs are generated. The cube is divided into four sections by a horizontal and a vertical cut. Four independent rotations of a cube are projected onto the corresponding quadrants created by the cut. In order to visually stabilize the structure, two diagonally opposed quadrants (top right and bottom left), contain the same rotation. The resulting contours create a starling figure/ground relationship.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992166757583618}
+{"content": "Mohanlal To Relax In Bhutan Before Starting ‘Odiyan’\n\nMohanlal needs no introduction down the South and is one of the highest paid actors of Mollywood. Even after completing more than 35 years in the film industry, the actor has his kitty full with film offers. He was last seen in ‘1971: Beyond Borders’ and is now geared up for his next which is Lal Jose's ‘Vellipadinte Pusthakam’.\n\nAfter ‘Vellipadinte Pusthakam’, the actor will soon join the sets of VA Shrikumar's ‘Odiyan’. However, he is in no hurry to start shooting for ‘Odiyan’. If reports are to be believed, the actor will take a break before joining the sets of ‘Odiyan’ in Varanasi. Mohanlal will fly to Bhutan for a week-long break.\n\nAs per a source, \"He will be there for a week with his family and then fly to Varanasi, where ‘Odiyan’ will kick off. He will have a different getup for the movie as well\". On a related note, the actor will be occupied with a film by Shaji Kailas, after Odiyan.\n\n\nMohanlal To Relax In Bhutan Before Starting ‘Odiyan’", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8685020804405212}
+{"content": "Join Us\n\n\nTake Me to HistoryHit.TV\n\nBy History Hit\n\nThe 30th July 1966 was the date of England’s finest moment as a sporting nation. The hosts and winners of the 8th FIFA World Cup, England’s iconic team of the Charlton brothers, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Moore swept all before them. There was plenty more going on as well, however, with a lost trophy, an African boycott and the emergence of Portugal’s black superstar Eusebio also making the headlines.\n\nAfter England was granted the next World Cup in Rome in 1960, the preparations were inevitably overshadowed by politics. This was nothing new, already the 1942 and 1946 incarnations had been cancelled by the more pressing issue of World War 2, and the 1938 tournament had featured a Germany side full of stolen Austrian players after Hitler’s takeover of that country earlier that year. This time, the issue was Africa. In an era of decolonization – some violent – the emergent African countries were arrayed in protest against the inclusion of apartheid-era South Africa in FIFA qualifications, despite being banned from football on the African continent. As a result of this, and qualification rules that did not garuantee an African team a place in the competition – most of Africa’s developing football nations boycotted the tournament, though their pressure did lead to a belated ban on South African participation in 1964. The trials of the organisers did not end there, however. As was customary, the famous Jules Rimet trophy was on display in England in anticipation of the tournament, but on the 20th March its custodians found it to have disappeared, and the next day received a phone call demanding an extortionate sum of money for its return. This dragged on for weeks, and the English Football Association agreed to have a replica made for the presentation on the 30th July, before an unlikely saviour was found in the form of a dog called Pickles, who sniffed out the cup that Bobby Moore would lift from under some bushes in London. Pickles then enjoyed brief fame as a national celebrity.\n\nPickles the dog enjoys the limelight after finding the World Cup Trophy\n\nApart from all this, the tournament itself had to be organised, with 16 teams reaching the finals, including England, Italy, newcomers Portugal, Brazil, the Soviet Union and West Germany. The draw was made in January, and the hosts were placed in a tough group with Uruguay, France and Mexico, and played all their group games at the famous Wembley Stadium in London. Under pressure from a rapturously expectant home crowd, England got off to a disappointing start by failing to beat Uruguay in the opening game, but two 2-0 victories then saw them safely through to the quarter finals. Group 2, meanwhile, was a fairly straightforward affair, with fancied teams West Germany and Argentina going through, but Groups 3 and 4 – which contained newcomers Portugal and North Korea, were more interesting. The Portuguese made an instant impact in defeating two-time champions Brazil 3-1, and had their legendary striker Eusebio to thank for two of their group stage goals. Born in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, the man nicknamed the “black panther” would end the tournament as its top scorer and end his career with an astonishing 749 goals in 745 matches. In Group 4, the North Koreans – who weren’t even recognised as a country by the west during the Cold War, pulled off an even bigger shock by defeating Italy and qualifying at their expense alongside the Soviet Union.\n\nThe next stage was also full of incident. In England’s match against Argentina, the Argentine Antonio Rattín was sent off but refused to leave the pitch, resulting in a squad of policemen having to drag him away. This decision, and England’s narrow 1-0 margin of victory, means that the match is still known as the “robbery of the century” in Argentina. The Germans, meanwhile, also benefited from some questionable refereeing decisions as they beat 9-man Uruguay 4-0, and one of the best matches in World Cup history saw the Portuguese progress. The unfancied North Koreans had raced into a 3-0 lead, only for Portugal to come back to win 5-3, with Eusebio scoring four of the goals in an immense solo performance. In the other game, the Soviet Union triumphed over Hungary to set up two semi-finals between four European powers. England’s subsequent match against Portugal was a narrow 2-1 win, with Bobby Charlton scoring twice to trump Eusebio’s penalty, while the Germans beat the Soviets due a Franz Beckenbauer strike to set up a tasty final against England, a country that most people of their population remembered invading and occupying their broken nation at the end of World War 2.\n\nEusebio scored his ninth goal of the to win Portugal third place in their playoff match against the USSR\n\nThe final on the 30th July was probably the best ever in a World Cup. The Germans opened the scoring in an entertaining match after just 12 minutes, only for England’s replacement striker Geoff Hurst (first choice Jimmy Greaves was injured) to equalise just four minutes later. Midfielder Martin Peters then sent the 98,000-strong crowd into raptures with another goal with twelve minutes to play. England held out, hoping to grind out the momentous win until the very last minute of the game, when a German free kick was lashed into the net by the centre-back Wolfgang Weber. With the scores now level, the match went to an extra half hour of extra time. Eight minutes later Hurst scored again after lashing the ball against the crossbar and onto the goal line. Decades before goalline technology, the referee granted the goal, which incensed the Germans and remains contentious to this day. The Germans then pushed back, but as the 120th minute approached, delirious fans began to encroach onto the pitch, causing the BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme to comment “they think it’s all over” just as Hurst scored one more goal to put the result beyond doubt. Wolstenholme then finished his own sentence in one of the most famous lines in football history “…it is now.” England’s inspirational captain Bobby Moore was then awarded the trophy by Queen Elizabeth II, and it remains their only World Cup win to date.\n\nThe iconic image of Bobby Moore lifting the trophy\n\nOur Apps\n\nTank 100 with World of Tanks and The Tank Museum\n\nTanks 100\n\nSomme 100 with The Royal British Legion\n\nSomme 100\n\nTimeline Nelson with The National Maritime Museum", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.673647403717041}
+{"content": "Cyclist dies in New Forest collision\n\nHampshire Police are appealing for information after a cyclist died in a fatal road traffic accident in the New Forest.\n\nAt around 6.45pm yesterday, officers received a report of a collision between a car and a cyclist on Hilltop, Beaulieu. Members of the public performed CPR on the cyclist, whilst awaiting emergency services. He was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital but died a short time later.\n\nInspector Andy Storey, said: \"At this stage we’re still trying to identify the cyclist and we'd like to hear from anyone who thinks they might know who he is. We believe he was aged in his 60s, and he had a tattoo on his left forearm. He was riding an older style bicycle with racing handle bars.\n\n\"The collision happened close to the Royal Oak public house and I would urge anyone who witnessed what happened to get in touch.\"\n\nNew Forest investigation", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8690233826637268}
+{"content": "BRCA: The Breast Cancer Gene\n\nWhat is a Gene?\n\nEach person’s DNA contains the code used to build the human body and keep it functioning. Genes are the small sections of DNA that code for individual traits. For example, someone with naturally red hair has a gene that causes his or her hair to be red.\n\nAll inherited traits are passed down through genes. Each person has two copies of every gene: one gene from each parent. Since each parent passes down exactly half of their genes to each child, any of the parent’s genetic traits has a 50% chance of being passed on to their offspring.\n\nWhat is BRCA?\n\n\n\n\nBRCA Mutations\n\n\nWhen a BRCA gene is mutated, it may no longer be effective at repairing broken DNA and helping to prevent breast cancer. Because of this, people with a BRCA gene mutation are more likely to develop breast cancer, and more likely to develop cancer at a younger age. The carrier of the mutated gene can also pass a gene mutation down to his or her offspring.\n\nBRCA Mutation Risks\n\nIt is estimated that one in eight women, or approximately 12%, will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.\n\nHowever, women with certain genetic mutations have a higher lifetime risk of the disease. It’s estimated that 55 – 65% of women with the BRCA1 mutation will develop breast cancer before age 70.\n\n\nWomen with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation who overcome their breast cancer with treatment appear to have a higher-than-average chance of developing a second cancer. This is called a recurrence. Cancers related to a BRCA1 mutation are also more likely to be triple negative breast cancer, which can be more aggressive and difficult to treat.\n\nYou may find these statistics alarming. However, it’s important to note that less than 10% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a BRCA mutation. Also, with early detection, the vast majority of breast cancer cases can be successfully treated—and that’s true even for people who have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation.\n\nDonate to NBCF\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996806979179382}
+{"content": "Servers Tips for The Average Joe\n\nPosted on Posted in Internet Services\n\nWhy Consider Installing Server Lifts In Your Data Center When You Are After Efficiency And Productivity For any data center to be effective as well as productive; great care needs to be taken where one should ensure that the operations in a data center proceed smoothly. In any data center there are electronic devices which need to be installed and also to be regularly maintained. There are many tasks that are performed by the IT experts in a data center such as updating software and applications that are used in the data center, but the most challenging task that they have to carry out is process of upgrading the servers. What makes the process of upgrading the servers so challenging is the fact that the servers will need to be lifted and at times the technicians who are upgrading them. There is need therefore for one to come up with a solution to the challenges that face the deployment process and also ensure the safety of the technicians involved when upgrading the servers. Creating a safe and efficient environment increase the productivity of the data center. In most data centers the IT experts depend on the manual lifting process to lift the servers during the deployment process. Lifting equipment manually is not safe for the employees especially when they ought to lift heavy equipment where they may also take long periods before the process succeeds. Technology has come to aid the deployment process as safer ways of lifting servers and also experts can now be done more safely without taking long periods as well as minimizing the number of accidents that are involved. The the invention of the equipment makes it possible for the IT experts to safely lift the servers and the experts needed for the deployment process where one does not need to overexert themselves lifting heavy equipment. The equipment that has enabled all the operations in a data center is called a server lift which is considered as a smart investment for any center. There are different models that have been designed for the server lifts, but there are two main features of a server lift that one should pay attention to when buying a server lift. When purchasing a server lift, one should ensure that they have small foot prints for them to be capable of moving through the data center corridors. Most data centers are designed with limited space where the aisles and paths between the server racks are usually constrained. A server lift, therefore, needs to be small for it to maneuver through the standard pathways of the data center. Storing the server lifts is also easier if they are small in size as most data centers have limited storage facilities. The lift should also have the ability to lift up to 500 Ibs weight to a height of eight feet. Different equipment such as batteries, power supplies, and servers are lifted using the server lifts.Lessons Learned About Businesses\n\nThe Art of Mastering Equipment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6033917665481567}
+{"content": "The Permaculture Student\n\nA resilient, abundant future starts with permaculture education.\n\nWhat is Possible? The Regenerative Economy\n\nMatt PowersComment\n\nWhat is Possible?\n\nMost folks have no idea what is possible simply because they are unacquainted with the natural systems and cycles of our natural world. They cannot imagine natural solutions to complex modern problems because they have never seen or heard of such solutions. More than anything else, our goal with our business and educational resources is to bring these initial suggestions and solutions into the collective consciousness, so that we can start to think creatively and with a full understanding about our world and our actions in it. Only then will we arrive at the solutions we truly need. We will likely not find permanent or even longterm solutions from our current small pool of minds - instead, we will inspire those that will come up with those solutions by our actions, discussions, and struggles. That being said, we have to plan as if we can find those longterm solutions to access our best answers to the current problems & then we tinker and revise to get better solutions. It is a process of adaptation and improvisation. \n\nThe Regenerative Economy\n\nThe regenerative economy is simply one that facilitates the regeneration of degraded landscapes while supporting businesses or families economically. These could be farmers, beekeepers, ranchers, orchardists, and more.  The economic measures for progress could be based around the sale of carbon credits, product sales, leasing the land to other regenerative ventures, the sale of public or private shares in the company, the land, or the products, and even the levels of natural capital and their changes over time(calculated as biodiversity levels, soil depth, soil organic matter, water retention, etc.) While it may sound like a hyped up version of stock in timberland which is slow to mature and cash in, regenerative land-flipping can happen within a few years - from barren to biodiversity-rich in only three to five seasons. The bottom line in the regenerative economy is always one that reflects linked growth in the environment and the quality of life for all people involved and affected.\n\nWhat If? \n\nWhat if we fomented a speculation craze on degraded land? A system in which groups could buy or lease abandoned farmland, desertified wilderness, and poorly managed public lands, restore that land, run a business regeneratively on that landscape, and then buy or sell stocks once mature after less than 10 years time - leaving a thriving business and ecology in their wake. If we could start flipping land like this, we’d see a boom of regenerative jobs using the same modalities as the prior economy but with additional new roles.\n\nNot so Unrealistic…\n\nThese ideas aren’t so far fetched as private investors and individuals have been doing this very thing for decades already: buy land, restore it, and sell it. Many folks practicing permaculture find this to be the case. There are many famous worldwide examples of farmers or companies with regenerative transition plans for restoring a landscape and making money - Ernst Gotsch in Brazil and Willie Smits in Borneo both have a tropical successional system to do this. In the temperate climate, there is a longer time scale for investments to mature, so instead of a 4-5 year adaptation, we have 10-20 year adaptations. These provide a spectrum of investments and maturation rates that are local and climate specific. \n\nWhat about superbly degraded land? We have examples of restoration there too with real investors with real payoffs - a prime example being the World Banks water restoration project on the Loess Plateau & the revegetating of rural China. Neal Spackman’s work with the Al Baydha Project is also a prime example - it can profitably scale up to regreening the entire Saudi Arabian peninsula’s coast. We just need to make a system that opens up these isolated operations into a market where investors can plug in money that’s already in the system.\n\nWe Can Change\n\nWhat if 401k’s invested in regenerative land flipping? What if Wall St. started speculating over the relative value of the 3.5 BHa worldwide that is desertified if it was restored? What would that do to the economy? The environment? Jobs? Prospects for the future? We can change the game we are playing - we just have to consciously break the pattern. It starts with investing our time and money in regenerative businesses and actions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.619647741317749}
+{"content": "Title 1\n\n\nParent Involvement means the participation of parents in regular, two-way communication involving student academic learning and other school activities, including ensuring:\n  1. that parents plan an integral role in assisting their child’s learning;\n  3. that parents are full partners in their child’s education and are included, in decision-making and on an advisory committees as appropriate to assist in the education of their child;\n  4. that parents are involved in identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in parent involvement activities.\nPurpose: The purpose of parent involvement is to increase each parent’s capacity to help their child(ren) be successful in school.\nTo facilitate meaningful parent involvement in our school we will:\n  1. Develop a Parent Advisory Committee:  The school will establish a parent advisory committee to assist in the review of their parent compact, parent involvement plan, use of parent involvement funds, and the annual  review and evaluation of our school Title I program as well as the review and plan for school improvement.  The school will solicit parents to serve on the committee at the start of each school year.  Any parent of a student in the school is eligible to serve on the committee.  The school will establish, from a list of parents willing to serve on the committee, a group of 6-12 parents who serve throughout each the school year.  Every effort will be made to make all parents aware of the efforts of this committee and solicit input from all parents concerning these efforts.  The Parent Advisory Committee, or any parent, may request opportunities for regular meetings to formulate suggestions and to participate in decisions relating to the education of their children, and the school will respond to any such suggestions as soon as practical.\n  2. Annually review our Parent Involvement Plan:\n    The school will, with consultation and input from parents, annually review and when necessary revise this parent involvement plan.  The plan will outline how the school will work with their parents throughout the school year.  A meeting will be held within the first month of school to review and possibly revise the plan.\n  3. Annually review our Parent/School Compact:\n    The school will, with consultations and input from parents, annually review the Paren/School Compact.  A meeting will be held each spring to provide parents an opportunity to review and possibly revise the current compact.\n  4. Annually establish how Title I funds will be used:\n    The school will, with consultation and input from parents, annually review how Title I funds will be used throughout the school year.\n  5. Facilitate regular, meaningful two-way communication:\n    The school will hold an annual meeting for parents to explain title I and what it means to them as a parent and to their student and to explain the right of parents to be involved in the school and in their child(ren)’s education.\n  6. Buld the capcity of parents to support their child(ren)’s learning:\n    The school will provide materials and training to help parents to work with their child(ren) to improve their child(ren)’s performance.\n  7. Build the capacity of school staff to work with parents:\n    The school will work with educational staff to train and provide means to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as partners and build ties between parents and the school.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9535917639732361}
+{"content": "How two high school friends built a YouTube empire\n\nIan Hecox and Anthony Padilla have mastered the art of YouTube.\nIan Hecox and Anthony Padilla have mastered the art of YouTube.\nImage: defy media\n\nLong before teens were lip syncing songs on and celebs were battling it out on Lip Sync Battle, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla were recording their own musical showdowns from their high school bedrooms.\n\nTheir first YouTube video — a Power Rangers theme song recording — went viral 10 years ago, launching the beginning of their digital entertainment careers as the comedy duo SMOSH.\n\nNow, SMOSH has seven YouTube channels, a combined 40 million subscribers, 39 million social media followers and 18 billion YouTube views. And they aren't stopping anytime soon.\n\nSMOSH’s second channel is officially rebranding into \"SMOSH Pit\" this summer, and will launch new comedy shows, Mashable has exclusively learned. Also part of the expansion: SMOSH Games is adding one new cast member and SMOSH is  launching Summer Games — an event that pits two SMOSH channels against each other — later this year.\n\n\"Things are so different now — we're a full-blown company, this is our job,\" Padilla said in an interview while on set shooting one of SMOSH's most recent videos. \n\n\"It's weird because it's become simultaneously less work and more work at the same time,\" Hecox added.\n\nBut what's most interesting about SMOSH is that unlike countless other YouTube creators — many who experience just brief internet fame — Hecox and Padilla still haven't fallen out of the internet's favor. Ten years in and that's saying something: viral stars don't often survive their fan's short attention spans. \n\nMost say there is no real formula to making it big on YouTube, but it seems the two have figured something out.\n\nBuilding a brand\n\nImage: defy media\n\nHecox and Padilla, Sacramento natives, didn't know making videos could result in a career. Back then, Hecox was making money by working at Chuck E. Cheese's part time (his experience there later inspired one of SMOSH's shows) and uploading videos with Padilla on the side.\n\n\"I'd wake up at 11 to Ian calling me every day and he'd say 'hey want to get lunch?' we'd go to a fast food place, spitball ideas, joke around ... and then write something up,\" Padilla said of their early days.\n\nThey averaged about one video per month, which Hecox said would be \"YouTube suicide\" today.\n\nStill, the extra hustle paid off. Then-Disney executive Barry Blumberg, who oversaw franchises including Kim Possible, was interested in building future digital stars. He was a fan of SMOSH videos and reached out to Hecox and Padilla to meet. He  convinced them that being a YouTuber could indeed be a career.\n\nBlumberg wasn't wrong. As SMOSH became more of a digital force, it caught the attention of even more people in Hollywood. \n\nDefy Media (formed from the merger between Alloy Digital and Break Media), a Los Angeles creator of digital content geared toward millennials, eventually acquired the brand for an undisclosed sum in 2011. The company, which has investors such as Viacom and Lionsgate, produces, distributes and promotes content. It raised $70 million in September, as it looks to continue expansion of production and creating content that reaches far beyond YouTube.\n\nBlumberg served as Defy's chief content officer until March, when he announced his exit.\n\nSMOSH remains Defy's biggest brand, and the one it is expected to flaunt at its New Fronts presentation in May.\n\nAnd with Defy's investment, Hecox and Padilla  added cast members and built their own team of collaborators. The two went from doing it all to managing a team of people who help them do it all.\n\n\"If you want to create something bigger than just two dudes with a camera, the only way to do that is to grow the team, grow the production and in turn grow the business that supports that production,\" Hecox added. \"It's all part of the goal of being able to create good stuff.\"\n\nShayne Topp is part of the on-camera cast tapped by Hecox and Padilla.\n\nThe actor, who started out doing linear TV shows and movies, joined the SMOSH family two years ago after his friend Noah Grossman — also in the SMOSH cast  — recommended him.\n\n\"I’ve been an actor for a long time, and I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things, and when I first joined Smosh I was honestly a little skeptical,\" Topp said. \"[I worried] that it wouldn’t be the right move, but it’s turned out to be the best move I’ve ever made in my whole life. I love being a part of this.\"\n\nIn January, Topp was among the cast members on set filming a sketch for SMOSH's main channel called \"Am I A Bad Boyfriend?\"\n\nThe sketch centers around a guy (Padilla) meeting his girlfriend's friends for the first time. He is surprised to find everyone's significant other is an electronic device, but Padilla's character is the only one who thinks it's weird.\n\nTopp, Hecox and Padilla could barely hold back their laughter in between takes. \n\nAll grown up\n\nMuch has changed since Padilla and Hecox's first video. \n\nFor starters, the two are both now 29, and far more experienced with writing, editing, shooting, producing, acting, and now leading. \n\nThey are also now famous enough that they were the first digital influencers to get their own Madame Tussaud's wax figures. Forbes estimated the duo made $7 million in 2016.\n\nThe two describe SMOSH's brand as a mix of MTV and Comedy Central — \"it's for teens but at the same time it's a little edgy,\" Padilla said.\n\nAnd while the SMOSH brand maintains its comedic tone, the type of content they put up expands and evolves constantly.\n\nSince 2015, SMOSH has experimented with a variety of formats. They have released a Saturday Night Live-esque live sketch show called SMOSH Live, two seasons of a sitcom (Part Timers), and launched eight new shows (including the popular Every Blank Ever series).\n\nThey have also launched two movies, which have completely different tones.\n\nThe first film — Smosh: The Movie — had more of a YouTube-centric premise. In it, the two teleport into different YouTubers’ channels in order to delete an embarrassing video of Padilla.\n\nGhostmates has a buddy comedy feel. It follows socially awkward Charlie (Padilla), who moves into a furnished apartment where Eddie (Hecox) also lives. Eddie is obnoxious, self-involved and a ghost, one that only Charlie can see. To get rid of Eddie, Charlie agrees to help him get to heaven.\n\nWhile they dabble with all types of programming, the two have never really \"sold out,\" as fans would say. There has been somewhat of a divide between OG YouTubers and those who became overnight famous via vlogging. The latter of the two groups tend to use YouTube like a stepping stone rather than a place to hone their craft. \n\nTons of YouTubers have moved on from vlogging to write books, take roles in films and TV shows and go on nationwide tours. Others have juggled doing content on multiple platforms — including Instagram and Snapchat — at once to maximize their audience reach. \n\nBut for SMOSH, YouTube remains their primary home. Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms serve more as ways to promote their YouTube videos.\n\n\"Other people that started YouTube later than us thought 'this is a great starting point to do other things,'\" Padilla said. \n\n\"And you've seen Hollywood actors start channels but you can tell their heart isn't in it, they aren't really creating it, they are just kind of a face, and I think people see through that,\" Hecox said. \n\nSMOSH has many things going for it, but two pillars stand out: They were early to the YouTube game and they have stuck with it, without abandoning their YouTube fans to test other platforms. YouTube fans are fickle and their outrage swift. \n\nJoe Bereta, creative director of SMOSH, attributes the brand's success to something he deems \"the Jackass factor.\" \n\n\"Jackass wasn’t necessarily successful because they risked life and limb whilst buck-naked (although it was awesome),\" Bereta explained. \"It was successful because you just wanted to hang out and have fun with that crazy group of guys. I think that’s what we [at SMOSH] offer up now, except we have girls in our group, so we win.\" \n\nWATCH: How To Be Youtube Famous\n\nHttps%3a%2f%2fblueprint api uploaders%2fdistribution thumb%2fimage%2f13%2fe9b1359d 2c04 4f15 8dea 8b4e5d86c8bc", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6747437715530396}
+{"content": "Seeds of life spread across the universe\n\nTuesday, Oct 27, 2015,16:54 IST By Metrovaartha A A A\n\nTokyo | Elements important for life on Earth are available in similar relative proportions throughout the bulk of the universe, a new survey of hot, X-ray-emitting gas in the Virgo galaxy cluster shows. The elements needed to make stars, planets and people were evenly distributed across millions of light-years early in cosmic history, more than 10 billion years ago, researchers said. The Virgo cluster, located about 54 million light-years away, is the nearest galaxy cluster and the second brightest in X-rays. The cluster is home to more than 2,000 galaxies, and the space between them is filled with a diffuse gas so hot it glows in X-rays. Using Japan’s Suzaku X-ray satellite, a team led by Aurora Simionescu, an astrophysicist at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Sagamihara, acquired observations of the cluster along four arms extending up to 5 million light-years from its centre. Different classes of supernovae produce different chemical compositions. Core-collapse supernovae mostly scatter elements ranging from oxygen to silicon, while white dwarf explosions release predominantly heavier elements, such as iron and nickel. Once the chemical elements made by supernovae are scattered and mixed into interstellar space, they become incorporated into later generations of stars. In an earlier study led by Norbert Werner, from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford University, Suzaku data showed that iron was distributed uniformly throughout the Perseus Galaxy Cluster, but information about lighter elements mainly produced by core-collapse supernovae was unavailable. The Virgo Cluster observations supply the missing ingredients. Simionescu and her colleagues showed they detect iron, magnesium, silicon and sulphur all the way across a galaxy cluster for the first time. The elemental ratios are constant throughout the entire volume of the cluster and roughly consistent with the composition of the Sun and most of the stars in our own galaxy, researchers said. The study shows that the chemical elements in the cosmos are well mixed, showing little variation on the largest scales. The same ratio of supernova types the same recipe thought to be responsible for the solar system’s makeup was at work throughout the universe. This means that elements so important to life on Earth are available, on average, in similar relative proportions throughout the bulk of the universe, said Simionescu.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998113214969635}
+{"content": "Is psychoanalysis only a therapy?\n\nOne could almost call psychoanalysis an approach to life. Psychoanalysis is really a method for learning about the mind – how it functions and how different minds interact on a daily basis. Psychoanalytic theory works hand in hand with biology and other social sciences in explaining and understanding such diverse areas as group behavior, education, history and law. Furthermore, psychoanalytic knowledge is the basis of all other dynamic approaches to therapy.\n\nSigmund Freud was the first psychoanalyst. Freud was the preeminent pioneer in recognizing the importance of the unconscious mind. He was instrumental in teaching that the dark and seemingly overwhelming forces in human nature can be understood and managed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9968562722206116}
+{"content": "\"Reuters\" (JAMARAT)\n\nTwo million Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of the devil on Friday, the riskiest part of the annual haj pilgrimage where hundreds of people were killed in a crush two years ago.\n\nSaudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organizing the world’s largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed more than 100,000 security forces and medics as well as modern technology including drones and fiber optics to ensure a safe pilgrimage.\n\nUnder close supervision from Saudi authorities, pilgrims clad in white robes converged on Jamarat carrying pebbles to perform the ritual from a three-storey bridge erected to ease congestion.\n\nGroup leaders carrying flags from their countries directed pilgrims into the building. Some of the faithful held umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) around midday.\n\nThe 2015 incident killed nearly 800 people, according to Riyadh, when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual.\n\nSaudi Arabia said more than 2.3 million pilgrims, most of them from abroad, had arrived for the five-day ritual, a religious duty once in a lifetime for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford the journey.\n\nThey will continue the stoning ritual over the weekend and return to Mecca to pray at the Grand Mosque before completing the pilgrimage.\n\nIn previous years, jostling to perform the stoning before returning to Mecca accounted for many of the stampedes and crushes that have afflicted haj.\n\n“Thanks to the latest construction, this time even small children, old men, women and the disabled are being accommodated,” said Abdelaziz al-Azmi from Kuwait. “As you see, there is no problem.”\n\nKing Salman was in Mina on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Adha (feast of the sacrifice). He and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, welcomed well-wishers at a palace gathering attended by princes, clerics, military leaders and distinguished guests.\n\nSaudi authorities have urged pilgrims to set aside politics during the haj but violence in the Middle East, including wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya and other global hotspots are sure to be on the minds of many.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5249660015106201}
+{"content": "\n\n\nSubscribe or Register\n\nExisting user? Login\n\nSummary care record\n\ncomputer key access summary care record\n\nA one-off £200 payment will be awarded to each England-based community pharmacy contractor when the summary care record (SCR) service is activated before 31 March 2017, and pharmacies using the SCR can earn points through the Quality Payments scheme — which could be worth up to £1,280. Learn more about the service and how to use it with The Pharmaceutical Journal’s special report on the SCR.\n\n\nPharmacist looking at a patient's summary care (SCR) record on a computer\n\nHow to use the summary care record in community pharmacySubscription\n\nBy ,\n\nAn overview of the summary care record, including its contents, who can view it, how its use can be monitored as well as how access in community pharmacies in England can benefit patients and pharmacy practice.\n\nNews and analysis\n\nYoung female pharmacist using a computer\n\nSummary care record now used in 50% of community pharmacies in England\n\nThe summary care record (SCR) is now used in almost 6,000 community pharmacies — around half the total number in England — one year after its roll out to community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, NHS Digital has announced.\n\nA pharmacist helping a patient\n\nPharmacist expertise must be used to support people with long-term conditionsSubscription\n\n\nA new campaign calling for pharmacists to have a significant role in supporting people with long-term conditions is being launched by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.\n\nNeal Patel, head of corporate communications at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)\n\nPharmacists play vital role beyond 'doling out' medicines, says Royal Pharmaceutical SocietySubscription\n\n\nSource: Royal Pharmaceutical Society “This month we are speaking to both MPs, local councillors and the NHS about the vital role all pharmacists play,” says Neal Patel, ...\n\nAsh Soni, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), has questioned whether seeking consent to access a patient’s summary care record (SCR) is always in the best interest of patients. In the image, rows of medical files\n\nRPS president questions value of pharmacists seeking consent each time they access a patient’s recordSubscription\n\n\nAsh Soni, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), has questioned whether it is in the best interests of patients to seek consent each time their summary care record (SCR) needs to be accessed.\n\nJames Wood, a pharmacist at Wicker Pharmacy in Sheffield, one of the 140 chosen to pilot pharmacy access to the patient summary care record\n\nGaining patient trust over pharmacy access to recordsSubscription\n\n\nWith the roll out of pharmacy access to summary care records, some patients will inevitably express concerns about privacy, but the signs are that patients support this move.\n\n\nWhy we need write access to patient summary care recordsSubscription\n\nBy Louise Laming,\n\nA patient came into our pharmacy requesting an emergency supply of a salbutamol inhaler recently. He lives elsewhere but was working locally. We accessed his summary care record (SCR) and, to our surprise, discovered that he had not been prescribed anything since 2015. Before then, he was regularly prescribed beclomethasone and salbutamol inhalers. In addition, the surgery details he provided were incorrect.\n\nCampaigning for write access to patient recordsSubscription\n\n\nTuesday 14 January 2014 marked the beginning of the journey for pharmacists to gain full read-and-write access to patient records.\n\nYour RPS\n\nImagery of mental illness: woman sits on stairs looking out to sea\n\nWhat can pharmacists do to improve the physical health of people with mental illness?Subscription\n\nBy , Dolly Sud\n\nDavid Branford, member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) English Pharmacy Board, and Dolly Sud, specialist mental health pharmacist Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, explain the importance of the role of pharmacists in improving the physical well-being of patients with severe mental illness.\n\nEvent on pharmacists’ access to the electronic patient record hosted by the RPS. In the image, Kevin Barron, Gisela Stuart, Zafar Khan, Sandra Gidley, Victoria Borwick, Stephen Hammond\n\nWhy shouldn't pharmacists have access to patient records?Subscription\n\n\n“Talk to your local MP and invite them to your pharmacy!” This was the advice given by Oliver Colvile, vice chair of the All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG), at an evening of discussion hosted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) London Central Local Practice Forum at Portcullis House on 6 January 2016.\n\nSibby Buckle, public affairs lead for the English Pharmacy Board and a Conservative candidate for the Westminster parliament\n\nWrite access to patients' records would transform pharmacy's role in careSubscription\n\n\nCommunity pharmacist Sibby Buckle, public affairs lead for the English Pharmacy Board, makes a case for eventual write access to patients’ records but recommends that the pharmacy profession proceeds with care.\n\nNewsletter Sign-up\n\n\nPharmaceutical Journal Jobs\n\nMore jobs", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.633617639541626}
+{"content": "What is the benefit of using Rapid Prototyping?\n\nWhat is the benefit of using Rapid Prototyping?\n\nrapid prototype development\n\nWhat is the benefit of utilizing Rapid Prototyping?\n\nStereo lithography was contemplate to be 1st fast prototyping technique that developed by 3D program of Valencia United States. But right now market is flooded with a range of RP strategies which used by millions of people worldwide. RP program can be also refer to as solid free-form manufacturing, layered manufacturing and pc automated manufacturing that turn out to be vital for nowadays style and devolvement world. By employing this program 1 can get minimizing charges along with time that makes it most handy and innovating devices for corporate planet.\n\nSpeedy prototype machining is capable in decreases improvement time by permitting improvements to a item to be made early in the development. By creating engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and acquiring a look at the manufactured goods early in the advanced design method, blunders can be avoided and alterations be completed while they are nevertheless cheapest. The trends in modern industries continue to highlight the a number of aspects of merchandise such as growing quantity of options of the made product, improve the complexity and some far more. This program improves the item development by enabling communication in a concurrent engineering atmosphere.\n\nApart from these 3E RP system from china is one of the most advanced prototype solutions that permit you to use least expensive tools and techniques to save time. CNC machining, vacuum casting, rapid tooling and some other people are the greatest RP tools in the marketplace.\n\nThe most advanced RP system describes some a variety of technologies that permit customers to make physical objects from personal computer models. This device is not only can these technologies be utilized to create prototypes for later creation in the healthcare, corporate, artistic and other areas it can be also employed to create completed components or tools. The beginning of purchaser level 3D and 3E printers, which are a type of speedy prototype machine, has began up new approaches for speedy prototyping world.\n\nWhen it comes to the solution improvement stage of any engineering item, the earlier the item is ready to be launched into the worldwide market successfully. RP system gives solution designers a comfortable prompt way to craft, calculate and recalibrate samples of a product. These technologies are then used to examine the buyer response and technical viability, as the growth advancements. Which enables you to get more precise, appropriate and customer-ready final item to be constructed immediately?\n\nThis technology is most comfy produce a smaller sized item, or a component of a bigger merchandise, than it is to re-establish a huge-scale item. The purpose behind it is extremely simple the fast prototype goes via step by step in creating a prototype, discarding the old as modifications aim toward to get excellence. When you generate a big element then it will be less costly than other source. In addition, the manufacturing some large pc things such as RAM and so on are a lot more comfortable and more affordable by making use of this technologies.\n\nFor a lot more information aboutrapid prototyping go to at www.rapidprototyping-china.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6490517258644104}
+{"content": "\nYou have new items in your feed. Click to view.\nQuestion and answer\nQ: describe the social culture and media attitudes to mental illness and the impact these have on the service users and their care 'media attitudes'\nA: Many people with serious mental illness are challenged doubly. On one hand, they struggle with the symptoms and disabilities that result from the disease. [ On the other, they are challenged by the stereotypes and prejudice that result from misconceptions about mental illness. As a result of both, people with mental illness are robbed of the opportunities that define a quality life ]\nExpert answered|MrG|Points 4177|\nAsked 6/23/2013 4:30:31 PM\n0 Answers/Comments\nGet an answer\nNew answers\n\nThere are no new answers.\n\n\nThere are no comments.\n\nAdd an answer or comment\nLog in or sign up first.\n26,520,605 questions answered\nPopular Conversations\nWhich of these is an example of a plateau period\nWeegy: Can you share the options please?\nWeegy: HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.\nshould the subject agree with the verb\nSimplify 10(2x + 3) - 20.\nWeegy Stuff\n* Excludes moderators and previous\nwinners (Include)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8314205408096313}
+{"content": "An image of Jesus\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe all need deep roots\n\nOur lives and those of our loved ones are in danger of dying without a fountain of living water. The Word of God provides this for us, regardless of the circumstances or problems in our lives. It is something that we need to be grounded in from an early age and if we are not, almost anything can and will take its place.\n\nTrees need a good established root system or they will not reach maturity and so do Christians. Those in our world who do not believe or who choose to believe a lie have very shallow roots or none at all.\n\nIn God’s Word, the palm tree is used as an example for a life lived through the grace of God. Since palm trees don’t produce fruit until maturity, their fruit gets sweeter as they age. The palm tree is also made up of living wood all the way to the bark and their roots are the same size no matter how long they are so they are strong and can withstand the forces that life throws at them.\n\nIn the fallen world that we live in, we have to have some sort of foundation. That root or foundation is the Word of God. It established the universe and the earth and brought forth life in its abundance. The beauty of the cosmos is reflects the beauty of His design in all of its ways. The heavens declare God’s glory,  and we should too!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988342523574829}
+{"content": "March 7, 2017\n\nHeurisko is Supporting the Development of the Bioeconomy Through Directed Evolution in vivo\n\nE. coli\n\nHeurisko, an international leader in the field of directed evolution, is a small, privately-held biotechnology company founded in 2007 by Philippe Marlière, a scientist and entrepreneur and a co-inventor of the automated evolution technology. Philippe, along with Rupert Mutzel (Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin), coordinated an international team of researchers who, in 2011, succeeded in generating a bacterium possessing DNA in which thymine is replaced by the synthetic building block 5-Chlorouracil (c), a substance toxic for other organisms.\n\nHeurisko’s Corporate Philosophy\n\nThe company acknowledges that human adaptation of natural ecosystems to better address our needs has been taking place for many years and this adaptation today involves sophisticated methods due to the complexity of the components of these ecosystems. Heurisko strives to harness the power of natural selection for the accession of bioprocesses with better economics.\n\nThey believe that industrial biotechnology alone is limited in its ability to deliver solutions for feeding the planet and sustainably produce fuels, chemicals and materials. The company believes that heuristic and non-GM techniques that harness natural selection are necessary in combination with industrial biotechnology.  This combination will more efficiently achieve desired solutions.\n\nHeurisko’s Platform: How It Works and What It Offers\n\nHeurisko has developed a platform based on this philosophy for the enhancement of microbial strains and their adaptation to industrial needs. It was designed to produce solutions that connect the available biodiversity to desired biocatalytic outcomes.\n\nThrough its platform, Heurisko develops cutting-edge evolutionary setups, involving innovative selective schemes conducted in its proprietary automated technology.  Heurisko believes that its multi-dimensional platform will offer solutions where regulatory issues prevent some markets from genetic and metabolic engineering tools.\n\nOne of the processes that the platform offers is the mimicking of natural selection through directed evolution in vivo. In the ex vivo approach, the natural selection is mimicked toward a user-defined goal. The three steps of evolution – (1) diversification, 2) selection, 3) amplification – are emulated in a laboratory setting, operate at the molecular level (nucleic acids) and focus on specific molecular activities (enzymes, proteins).  Heurisko proposes to both generate diversity and screen activity at the organism’s level, (in vivo approach) to optimize natural organisms (non-GMOs) and to complement existing genetic and metabolic techniques to engineer GMOs.\n\nAnother process is the harnessing of the power of adaptative evolution.  Adaptive evolution is a potent tool for biological discovery and engineering. Their platform uses the inherent competition between organisms and the natural accumulation of mutations within microbial population, desired phenotypic traits can be selected for without requiring a priori knowledge on how the traits might arise.\n\nApplications of the Platform\n\nThe following applications of the platform, as outlined on the company website, have been key to the success of Heurisko in the international biotechnology community:\n\n  • Enhance tolerance to adverse conditions. The platform promotes genetic variants with increased tolerance to production parameters such as a given toxic compound concentration (product, by-product or solutes in substrates), pH, temperature, etc.\n  • Growth on complex and alternative substrate. Evolving strains capable of growing on the appropriate feedstock greatly impacts any bioprocess’ feasibility and profitability. The platform enables the strain to adapt to complex growth media (including non-natural nutrients), substrate simplification (weaning from growth factor), alternative substrates, etc.\n  • Enabling technology for genetic engineering. Genetically engineered strains are designed to express a desired function. For this purpose, the genetic information coding for corresponding enzymes is introduced within a host organism that is expected to express properly the activity. However, regulation and expression of the altered part of the metabolic pathway is usually suboptimal, leading to a reduced growth rate when compared to the original host strain. Because it enables the growth rate recovery of engineered strains, the approach is the ideal complement to genetic engineering in developing industrial strains. The platform supports the implementation of alternative metabolic pathways through the systematic improvement of heterologous enzymatic activities.\n  • Increase growth rate. The higher the production strain’s growth rate, the higher the productivity of the bioprocess. The production strain’s growth rate is therefore a critical factor for any bioprocess’ feasibility and profitability. The platform promotes genetic variants with the highest growth rate.\n  • Steady bioproduction. As they grow and thrive during industrial production, microbial strains are subject to evolution and natural selection. To ensure a steady production on an industrial scale, production strains must retain stability over evolutionary times. The platform effectively creates stable strains for industrial applications.\n  • Genetic engine. Heurisko’s evolutionary devices, which control the selective pressure over a microbial population, are used as genetic engine to generate valuable information of industrial and academic interest.  The schematic below from their website demonstrates how this genetic engine functions.\n\n\n\nHeurisko’s website has a link to publications highlighting synthetic biology experiments utilizing its technological platform.  (\n\nSimon Trancart at SynBioBeta London\n\nSimon Trancart\n\nSimon Trancart, Heurisko CEO\n\nSimon has a strong science and business background which well suits him for the role of CEO. Simon earned diplomas from the Ecole Centrale Paris (France) and Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil). Previously, Simon served successively as Deputy Technical Director in Brazil, Product Manager and Regional Sales Manager for Central and South America with an engineering company that designs and supplies equipment and turnkey plants for sugar, refining and bioethanol industries from cane and beets.  Simon is able to converse in five languages, giving him and Heurisko the ability to easily connect with their international client base.\n\nSimon will be joining the SynBioBeta London 2017  conference being held from April 4 to April 6 at Imperial College London as a speaker. Simon will be participating in a session which will highlight advancements in metabolic engineering for synthetic biology.\n\nThe capabilities of the synthetic biology field are allowing for better engineering of biology in order to create improved chemicals, drugs, foods, fuels and more via sustainable processes. Heurisko’s unique platform is a great fit for discussion in this session.  Simon will specifically discuss how this platform uses both non-GMO and biotechnology processes to advance the field of gene editing and metabolic engineering.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9558844566345215}
+{"content": "Of Mice and Men\n\nBy John Steinbeck\n\nJohn Steinbeck\nOne of The Great American Writers of the 20th Century\n\nA Look at the Author \u0011\n\nBorn February 27th in 1902 in Salinas, California, John was the third of four children, and the only son. \u0011\n\nDuring his childhood, Steinbeck learned to appreciate his surroundings, and loved the Salinas countryside and the nearby Pacific Ocean; it would be this appreciation that would later come out in his writing. Steinbeck worked during his summers as a hired hand in nearby ranches. \u0011\n\nThe Fields of Salinas, California\n\nfertile soil .The Beauty of Salinas \u0011 Rich.\n\n\u0011 At the age of 14 he decided to be a writer and spent a lot of time writing in his room. \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 . sometimes to work with migrant workers and bindlestiffs on California ranches. However. From 1919-1925 Steinbeck attended Stanford 1919University to please his parents. writing courses. Steinbeck did well in English and edited the school yearbook. classical and British Literature. and an odd science course. but only chose courses that interested him. Steinbeck did not receive a degree because he would drop in and out of school. In high school.\n\nWhat¶s a Bindlestiff? A hobo. especially one who carries a bedroll. .\n\n\u0011 Steinbeck gained great success by readers and critics.\u0011 During the late 1920s and 1930s. . he concentrated on writing and wrote several novels set in California.\n\nCup of Gold \u0011 In 1930. Tortilla Flat. and was so widely accepted that Steinbeck began a book tour that led him to Europe. Of Mice and Men was published. In 1935. he won his first literary prize. \u0011 \u0011 In 1936. His father helped support the struggling couple. Steinbeck married Carol Henning. he published his first novel. and they moved into his family·s home. they divorced in 1942. Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal for Best Novel by a Californian for his novel. .\u0011 In 1929. but unfortunately.\n\n\u0011 . Men. just like Of Mice and Men. in 1940 it was bestawarded the Pulitzer Prize. one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. stemmed from his experience working among migrant workers. \u0011 This novel. and stirred up his concern for social justice. The Grapes of Wrath was published and became an instant best-seller.\u0011 In 1939. Steinbeck·s experiences in the fields researching migrant workers led him to have more compassion for these workers. justice.\n\n\u0011 In 1943 he married Gwendolyn Conger who would father him two sons before their divorce in 1948. . Herald Tribune. \u0011 In 1943 Steinbeck worked as a war correcorrespondent for the New York newspaper.\n\nSteinbeck said that he felt unwelcome as no one would rent him an office for writing. \u0011 . and partly because he was so successful: ´This isn't my country anymore. partly because of his works. California.µ He left Monterey the next year and moved to New York. It makes me very sad. and he was harassed when trying to get fuel and wood from a local wartime rations board. Steinbeck wrote that his old friends did not want to be around him. And it won't be until I am dead.\u0011 While living in Monterey.\n\nµ \u0011 . Only when I am delivered in a pine box will I be considered ¶safe. who in 1950 became his third wife. who had known my folks remarked that is was lucky my parents were dead so that they did not have to suffer this shame.· After I had written the Grapes of Wrath the librarians at the Salinas Public Library.\u0011 In 1948 he moved back to Monterey. he never felt at ease in his life.· You won·t! I still have not been forgiven. A year later he met Elaine Scott. Although he continued to write and publish. and once wrote to an aspiring writer from Salinas: ´Don't think for a moment that you will ever be forgiven for being what they call ¶different.\n\n. a Long Newsday. Island newspaper. while Steinbeck himself was in Asia covering the war for Newsday.\u0011 One of Steinbeck·s two sons fought in the Vietnam War. \u0011 Steinbeck lost a number of friends during the anti-war movement due to antihis open support of the war and America·s involvement.\n\n\u0011 \u0011 \u0011 Steinbeck·s last two books were nonfiction. Travels with Charley in Search of America was an account of his trip from Maine to California with his poodle. Charley. was about his belief that in time. His final book. America and the Americans. America would once again feel united. .\n\n1968. His wife took him home to Salinas to be buried near the land that he spent his life writing about. at his apartment in New York City. \u0011 .\u0011 John Steinbeck died on December 20.\n\nMural overlooking The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas .\n\n\nhe wrote a manuscript. \u0014 When Steinbeck first thought of the idea for the book he intended it to be for children. but his puppy (a setter called Toby) ate it! \u0014He said of the book: \u0014\"It is an experiment and I don't know how successful. Steinbeck told a friend that he was experimenting with a new ³dramatic form.´ \u0014In May 1936.The Book \u0014Of Mice and Men was originally called Something That Happened.\" .\n\npoverty. the exploitation of itinerant workers. America¶s general moral decline. the failure of the Dream. homelessness. .Of Mice and Men \u0011 The novel deals with the issues dear to Steinbeck¶s heart .\n\nMain Characters: Lennie & George .\n\nGentle and kind. His love of petting soft things. leads to disaster. his friend and traveling companion. lumbering. for guidance and protection. a vision that Lennie believes in wholeheartedly. Lennie completely depends upon George. dresses. The two men share a vision of a farm that they will own together. such as small animals. and people¶s hair.Lennie Small \u0011 Lennie is a large. Lennie nevertheless does not understand his own strength. . Due to his mild mental disability. childlike migrant worker.\n\nquickquickwitted man who travels with. and cares for. . wiry.George Milton \u0011 George is a small. Although he frequently speaks of how much better his life would be without his caretaking responsibilities. eventually. George is obviously devoted to Lennie. Though George is the source for the often-told story of oftenlife on their future farm. deliver them both to the farm of their dreams. George¶s behavior is motivated by the desire to protect Lennie and. Lennie. it is Lennie¶s childlike faith that enables George to actually believe his account of their future.\n\nGeorge promises Lennie that some day they will have their own farm and raise rabbits as well as other animals.George and Lennie go to a ranch near Salinas. Lennie previously had been kicked out of a town for grabbing a girl·s dress. to work. . That is also the reason that he has a dead mouse in his pocket: Lennie petted him too hardly. George is Lennie·s keeper. California. and Lennie imitates everything that George does. He simply liked to touch soft items.\n\n. The ranch in the novel is near Soledad. which is southsouth-east of Salinas on the Salinas river. and the ranch itself is based on Steinbeck·s own experiences. where John Steinbeck was born.The setting in Of Mice and Men \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 The novel is set in the farmland of the Salinas valley. The countryside described at the beginning of the novel.\n\nCalifornia .Soledad.\n\nCalifornia in the 1930s .\n\nBetween the 1880s and the 1930s.Why Migrant Workers? \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 Before technology created farm machinery. . Such work included the harvesting of wheat and barley. thousands of men would travel the countryside in search of work. humans had to do a lot of the farm work by hand.\n\n00 a day.S. George and Lennie (the two main characters) were given work cards from Murray and Ready·s.50 or $3. In the novel..Migrant Workers \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 These workers would earn $2. During the 1930s. and with so many men searching for work. the unemployment rate was high in the U. agencies were set up to send farm workers to where they were needed. . which was one of the farm work agencies. plus food and shelter.\n\nChasing the American Dream \u0011 ³Give me your tired.´ ( Emma Lazarus) Written on the base of the Statue of Liberty . tempest tost to me. the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. the homeless. your poor. your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.\n\nThe American Dream \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 You can be successful if you work hard and live morally. Freedom to work hard and be happy is enshrined in the Constitution. The Dream assumes equality of opportunity. America is the land of opportunity. . freedom to follow goals and freedom from victimization. no discrimination.\n\nMany people immigrated to America in search of a new life for themselves or their families. Many others immigrated to escape persecution or poverty in their homeland. . immigrants have dreamed of a better life in America.The American Dream \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 From the 17th Century onwards.\n\n.Immigrants dreamed of making their fortunes in America. ² there was a growing number of slums that were just as bad as those in Europe. ² there was also great corruption in the American political system which led to many shattered hopes. \u0011 For many this dream of riches became a nightmare. ² there were horrors of the American Civil War. \u0011 ² there were horrors of slavery.\n\nThousands of people made their way west towards California to escape from their farmlands in the Midwest that were failing due to drought. The characters of George and Lennie dreamt of having a ´little house and a couple of acresµ which was their own dream. some people·s dreams survived.\u0011 The idea of an American Dream for many was broken when in 1929. marking the beginning of the Great Depression. This era affected the whole world during the 1930s. \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 . the Wall Street crashed. but even in the midst of hardship.\n\nIs the American dream possible in the historical context of the novel? .\n\nto make enough money to live \"off the fat of the land\" and be their own bosses. Lennie will be permitted. even before they arrive at their new job on the ranch. .Dreams \u0011 George and Lennie have a dream. to tend the rabbits. then.\n\nDreams \u0011 When George goes into a full description of the dream farm.\" . he twice describes it in terms of things he loved in childhood: ± \"I could build a smoke house like the one gran'pa had.\" \u0011 When George talks about their farm. As Lennie says: ± \"We could live offa the fatta the lan'.\" \u0011 George yearns for his future to reflect the beauty of his childhood.. its Eden-like qualities become even Edenmore apparent. with minimal effort. All the food they want will be right there. ± \"An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid..\n\nMeet the Other Characters \u0011 Candy \u0011 Curley \u0011 Curley¶s \u0011 Crooks \u0011 Slim \u0011 Carlson Wife .\n\noffering his life¶s savings if he can join George and Lennie in owning the land. The fate of Candy¶s ancient dog. Fearing that his age is making him useless. foreshadows the manner of Lennie¶s death. Candy lost his hand in an accident and worries about his future on the ranch. .Candy \u0011 Candy is an aging ranch handyman. he seizes on George¶s description of the farm he and Lennie will have. which Carlson shoots in the back of the head in an alleged act of mercy.\n\nCurley wears high-heeled boots to highdistinguish himself from the field hands. mean-spirited.Curley \u0011 Curley is the boss¶s son. Recently married. he is a confrontational. Rumored to be a champion prizefighter. . meanand aggressive young man who seeks to compensate for his small stature by picking fights with larger men. Curley is plagued with jealous suspicions and is extremely possessive of his flirtatious young wife.\n\nshe is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life. Like the ranchranchhands. Curley¶s wife is never given a name and is only referred to in reference to her husband. . but rather as a victim. Steinbeck depicts Curley¶s wife not as a villain.´ Dressed in fancy.Curley¶s Wife \u0011 Curley¶s wife is the only female character in the novel.´ a ³tart. she represents the temptation of female sexuality in a malemale-dominated world. The men on the farm refer to her as a ³tramp.´ and a ³looloo. feathered red shoes.\n\nDespite himself. and though he derisively claims to have seen countless men following empty dreams of buying their own land. and caustically funny. stablebitter. he is isolated from the other men because of the color of his skin. Proud.Crooks \u0011 Crooks. . the black stable-hand. he asks Lennie if he can go with them and hoe in the garden. Crooks becomes fond of Lennie. gets his name from his crooked back.\n\n. The other characters often look to Slim for advice. insightful man. Slim alone understands the nature of the bond between George and Lennie. For instance. Slim is the only character who seems to be at peace with himself.Slim \u0011 A highly skilled mule driver and the acknowledged ³prince´ of the ranch. and comforts George at the novel¶s tragic ending. A quiet. only after Slim agrees that Candy should put his decrepit dog out of its misery. does the old man agree to let Carlson shoot it.\n\npatient woman who took good care of Lennie and gave him plenty of mice to pet. and wellCurley¶s father. ranchAunt Clara . ranchsmelly dog. The Boss . but seems to be a fair-minded man. By all accounts. . does not actually appear in the novel except in the end.Other Characters \u0011 \u0011 \u0011 Carlson . well-dressed man in charge of the ranch. When Candy finally agrees. who cared for him until her death. she was a kind. He is never named and appears only once. He convinces Candy to put the dog out of its misery. Later. Candy happily reports that he once delivered a gallon of fairwhiskey to the ranch-hands on Christmas Day. as a vision chastising Lennie for causing trouble for George. George uses Carlson¶s gun to shoot Lennie.The stocky.A ranch-hand. Carlson promises to execute the task without causing the animal any suffering.Lennie¶s aunt. Carlson complains bitterly about Candy¶s old.\n\n± George and Lennie¶s dream²to own a little farm of their own²is dream² own² so central to Of Mice and Men that it appears in some form in five of the six chapters. Of Mice and Men is as much a story about the nature of human dreams and aspirations and the forces that work against them as it is the story of two men.Themes in Of Mice and Men \u0011 The Nature of Dreams ± In essence. ± Humans give meaning to their lives²and to their futures²by lives² futures² creating dreams. humans crave contact with others to give life meaning. \u0011 Loneliness ± In addition to dreams. life is an endless stream of days that have little connection or meaning. Without dreams and goals. Loneliness is present throughout this novel. .\n\nand he shows compassion toward them throughout the body of his writings. Just when it appears that George and Lennie will get their farm. \u0011 Nature ± Steinbeck uses nature images to reinforce his themes and to set the mood. . societal²and Steinbeck touches on them all. fate steps in.Themes in Of Mice and Men \u0011 Powerlessness ± Steinbeck¶s characters are often the underdogs. financial. Powerlessness takes many forms² forms²intellectual. societal² \u0011 Fate ± Life¶s unpredictable nature is another subject that defines the human condition. \u0011 My Brother¶s Keeper ± Steinbeck makes the reader wonder whether mankind should go alone in the world or be responsible and helpful to others who are less fortunate.\n\nreferring to a little mouse wrongwho had so carefully built her burrow in a field to protect herself and her little mice babies ² and the burrow is turned over and destroyed by the man plowing.Of Mice and Men ² Title·s Origin \u0011 The title of the novel comes from a poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759 96) The best laid schemes o· mice and men Gang aft agley [often go wrong] And leave us nought but grief and pain For promised joy! The best laid schemes of mice and men often go wrong. .\n\ncom http://www.This powerpoint was kindly donated to www.com is home to over a thousand powerpoints submitted by teachers. .worldofteaching.worldofteaching. This is a completely free site and requires no registration. Please visit and I hope it will help in your teaching.\n\nSign up to vote on this title\nUsefulNot useful", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7499615550041199}
+{"content": "The Theodosian Code\n\nA Significant Body of Laws through the Middle Ages\n\nEmpreror Theodosius II\nMarble bust of Empreror Theodosius II, 5th c., in the Louvre Museum. Photo by Wikimedia user Clio20, made available through the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2\n\nThe Theodosian Code (in Latin, Codex Theodosianus) was a compilation of Roman Law authorized by Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II in the fifth century. The code was intended to streamline and organize the complicated body of imperial laws promulgated since the reign of Emperor Constantine in 312 C.E., but it included laws from much further back, as well. The code was formally begun on March 26, 429, and it was introduced on February 15, 438.\n\nIn large part, the Theodosian Code was based on two previous compilations: the Codex Gregorianus (the Gregorian Code) and the Codex Hermogenianus (the Hermogenian Code). The Gregorian Code had been compiled by the Roman jurist Gregorius earlier in the fifth century and contained laws from Emperor Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 138 C.E., down to those of Emperor Constantine. The Hermogenian Code had been written by Hermogenes, another fifth-century jurist, to supplement the Gregorian Code, and it focused primarily on the laws of the emperors Diocletian (284–305) and Maximian (285–305).\n\nFuture law codes would, in turn, be based on the Theodosian Code, most notably the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian. While Justinian's code would be the core of Byzantine law for centuries to come, it wasn't until the 12th century that it began to have an impact on western European law. In the intervening centuries, it was the Theodosian Code that would be the most authoritative form of Roman law in western Europe.\n\nThe publication of the Theodosian Code and its rapid acceptance and persistence in the west demonstrates the continuity of Roman law from the ancient era into the Middle Ages.\n\nThe Theodosian Code is particularly significant in the history of the Christian religion. Not only does the code include among its contents a law that made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, but it also included one that made all other religions illegal.\n\nWhile clearly more than a single law or even a single legal subject, the Theodosian Code is most famous for this aspect of its contents and is frequently pointed to as the foundation of intolerance in Christendom.\n\nAlso Known As: Codex Theodosianus in Latin\n\nCommon Misspellings: Theodosion Code\n\nExamples: A great many earlier laws are contained in the compilation known as the Theodosian Code.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5101032257080078}
+{"content": "Use a Nameplate to Make Your Publication Instantly Recognizable\n\nNameplate and other newsletter parts (1933 newsletter from born1945 CC by 2.0 license | Design & Layout | Type & Fonts | Alpha Index of Full Glossary:. # | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ\n\nThe stylized banner on the front of a newsletter or other periodical that identifies the publication is its nameplate. The nameplate usually contains the name of the newsletter, possibly graphics or a logo, and sometimes a subtitle, motto or other publication information. The nameplate communicates the identity of the publication and makes it easily recognizable.\n\n\nThe nameplate provides a visual identity for the newsletter and—except for a dateline or issue number—is usually the same from issue to issue. However, variations are not unheard of, such as making color changes or adding graphic embellishments to match the theme of the issue.\n\n\nConsiderations When Designing a Nameplate\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7627694010734558}
+{"content": "All numbers from -3 to 108 have distinctive colors, dimensions, personalities, and some of them I can feel (19, for example, can only be described as the feeling of a quarter rolled in dough being pushed into my shoulder).\n\nI have a neurological condition that allows me to quite literally see and touch music when I listen to it. AMA, and/or send me some tunes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9542181491851807}
+{"content": "91843768_ab7e7e1f2aOdissi is an ancient temple dance tradition of India\n\nA performance of traditional dance repertoire as prescribed many centuries ago by the kings and priests of the Lord Jagannath temple in Odisha, continues today as a staged classical art style. Elaborate costumes, devotional music, thrilling percussive rhythms and tinkling ankle bells have the effect of transporting the audience through time and space while imparting an understanding of the Devdasi ritual that was once practiced centuries ago in India. Today, the dancers perform in public spaces but the traditional Odissi repertoire of dances still follows a prescribed sequence.\n\nA dance creating a sacred space through an offering of flowers, to meditate on the deity and acknowledge the\nimportance of the Guru and the clan. This dance is traditionally dedicated to Lord Ganapati, the elephant headed God, the One who removes all obstacles.\n\nBatu Nritya:\nA dance depicting the lineage of dancers as inscribed on the temple walls of dancers in sculptured movements. The dance honors the cosmic God Shiva, the creator of movement of the Universe. .\n\nInterweaving music and movement with expression to create a dance that shows the lyrical and graceful style is a DOC_20150602204236_Page_12distinct characteristic of Odissi.  Sometimes, poetry can be incorporated. Traditionally, the vocals are sung or chanted as mnemonic syllables, copying the sounds of the drum but within classical melodic patterns.\n\n\nSongs from the Gita-Govinda, a 12th century religio-erotic poetic work by Jayadeva were prescribed as songs to be danced in the Odissi style.Popular even today, these songs recount the love of the God Krishna with his consort Radha and weave the re-telling of  the legends of Krishna’s life and his relationship with mortals.  Other poetic compositions by Oriya poets have also been included as also devotional hymns from poet saints as Mira Bai\n\nTraditionally, the closing dance of the classical repertoire it signifies becoming one with God. Many new and revived and re-arranged dances are also now included in the Odissi repertoire.\n\n\n\nWithin its repertory, Nataraj Dancers maintains the following major dance-theater productions choreographed by Guru Ranjanaa Devi:\n\nGita Govinda: The Song of the Dark Lord by Jayadeva\n\nAn allegorical love poem about Krishna and Radha enacted as a dance-theatre production.\n\nDOC_20150602204944_Page_3   DOC_20150602204236_Page_06   DOC_20150602205018_Page_3\n\n\nBased on the Hindu scriptural text Devi Mahatmyam, the production highlights the dramatic legends of the great goddess Durga/Kali, Destroyer of Demons and Protector of Mankind.\n\n\n\nOne of the famous musical plays written by India’s Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore shining light on the plight of an Untouchable girl to tries to rise above her caste and ends with tragedy. This work is imaginatively choreographed in a theatrical style with a multi-ethnic cast by Ranjanaa Devi.\n\nDOC_20150602205730_Page_2   DOC_20150602205830_Page_5   DOC_20150602204236_Page_08\n\nBhanusingher Padavalli:\n\nA series of seasonal songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore has been imaginatively choreographed with reflecting Bengali folk style dances to a live music score.\n\n\n\nConceived by Ranjanaa, Moksha is a compelling story of a western-trained dancer, her inner struggles with contemporary life patterns, of visions and understanding philosophy of life through Indian dance ritual. Beyond physical movement is the dance of the Mind; beyond that is Moksha, Liberation.\n\n\nRaga Mala: The Nine Jewels\n\nThe Nine Jewels is a dance theater production that draws its inspiration from the traditions of Sanskrit drama and Miniature paintings in India dating from the 15th to 20th centuries. The selected nine paintings act as representations of nine Rasas (human emotions) that are brought to life as short vignettes within the frame of a play.\n\n\nPooja: The Five Elements in Prayer\n\nThis is a collaborative dance theater work that depicts the creation of the Universe in a juxtaposition of dance, theater, sculpture, poetry and narrative with the theme of the Five Elements in Nature.   This work deviates in many ways from the classical choreographic style and explores a more abstract territory of movements that draw heavily upon the Indian folk and theatrical vocabulary with masks and props to create visions and impressions of the Elements. Based on a sculpture of four charred trees by Japanese sculptor Thomas Matsuda, a selection of world music compilations, masks and set design by well- known theater and visual artists Tim Holcomb, Henry Lappen, Steven Korns, and light designer Kathe DeVault, Pooja is visual feast of stunning images of the Five Elements -Space, Water, Earth, Fire and Wind in movement and color.\n\nPooja trees-page-001\n\nThe Dance of the Dieties\n\nAn Indo-Tibetan Tantric Dance Theater work Combining dance, ritual and visual dioramas of Tibetan and Indian landscapes, this work highlights the life of Buddha Sakyamani from his miraculous birth to renunciation and enlightenment; essence of prayer to Mahakala the Tibetan wrathful deity who is universally recognized as one of the great protectors of the Buddhist Dharma and Green Tara, the gentle and heartfelt deity who symbolizes compassionate activity. She represents the mothers of the Buddhas of the past, present and future.\n\n\nIn Praise of Tara\n\nUsing the Indo-Buddhist liturgical text “Homage to Twenty-One Taras”, a prayer that is recited and meditated upon daily by millions of Tibetan Buddhists all over the world and has its roots in ancient Hindu Tantric traditions.  This work represents the twenty- one emanations of the Goddess Tara, the goddess of compassion who arose from the tears of Buddha Avalokitesavara and upon being invoked through prayer swiftly responds to those in need by granting refuge and bestowing fearlessness.  The work is conceived as experiencing a vision of this Goddess through surrealistic and saturated pools of light ever changing to enhance the choreography The music sung in Sanskrit lyrics and danced using the Odissi style to show ancient connections of tantric worship that existed between Orissa -Odisha and Tibet.\n\nTara image (1)-page-001\n\nMudra: The Gesture Speaks\n\nMudra is a spectacular work linking classical dance, yoga, live music and theater.  Drawing upon ancient ritual, dialogue, poetry, and imagery, the work creates a remarkable visual tapestry of ideas that are expressed through gestures- abstract and literal, and movements and spoken words. Mudra exposes its audiences to the sheer beauty, power and skill of the hand; it highlights the importance of the hand as a vital part of the human body and shows how the fingers help to communicate and express thoughts and emotions in their fullest sense.\n\nMudra is the Sanskrit word for a hand gesture depicting a thought, an idea or a word in classical Indian dance. Used in narrative and poetic dance sequences, Mudras uniquely tell the story in a literal way making the words of the song almost inconsequential for those educated in Indian classical dance.  Mudra is also contemporary, as simple and complex hand gestures are used by people as a tool for communication on a daily basis. The Mudra includes video projections, along with Nataraj Dancers, guest musicians, dancers and theater artists in its production.\n\nMudraflames Mudragroup Mudragroup2 (1)\n\nFor more choreographic works, please contact Ranjanaa Devi", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994663000106812}
+{"content": "History of Religion: An Overview of the most Important People and Events in The\n\n\n\nTurn the Page And Live a Better Life”\n\n© Copyright 2016 Michael J. Stewart- All rights reserved.\n\nIn no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.\n\n\nRespective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.\n\nShakespir Edition\n\nLegal Notice:\n\n\nDisclaimer Notice:\n\n\n\n\nAn Overview of the most Important People and Events in The World’s Religions, Mythologies, & History of the Church\n\nTable of Contents\n\n\nPolytheistic and Monotheistic Religions\n\n\nAncient Mesopotamia\n\nEgyptian Mythology\n\nAncient Greek Mythology\n\nGreek Gods\n\nAncient Roman Religion\n\nNorse Mythology\n\nAncient China\n\nI Ching\n\n\nGautama Buddha and Buddhism\n\nAztec, Mayan, and Incan Religions\n\nNative American Religions\n\nHistory of Religion in America\n(From Native Americans to Present-day)\n\nAbrahamic Religions\n\nHistory of Jerusalem\n\nHistory of the Church\n\n\n\nThe World’s Religions\n\nThe World’s Most Destructive Religious Movements / Cults\n\nParody Religions / Some Of The World’s Funniest Religions\n\n\n\n\n\n“If you love books. You will love the Lean Stone Book Club”\n\n*** Exclusive Deals That Any Book Fan Would Love! ***\n\n\n\nWelcome to this brief guide to the history of the world’s religions! Although societies differ tremendously in terms of their customs and laws, every group of people in recorded history has practiced some kind of religion. For the purposes of this book, ‘religion’ is here defined as ‘a set of beliefs and practices centered around the idea of, and worship of, one or more supernatural powers.’ Broadly speaking, religions come in two main varieties. The first kind, comprising of monotheistic traditions (e.g. Judaism and Islam), is based around the worship of one being or god. Polytheistic religions, on the other hand, feature multiple deities. Examples of polytheism include the ancient Greek religion, which included 12 major deities and many other minor figures.\n\nIn this guide, you will be introduced to the six major world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. You will also gain a basic grounding in ancient Egyptian and Norse mythology plus the various Native American religions. Although these ancient legends are no longer regarded as literally true and do not form the basis of any widely-practiced religion, their impact on contemporary culture is still significant, and for this reason, they are still worthy of study. Religion has been – and indeed, remains – a key motive for wars on a small and large scale, and it is vital to realize the importance many people attach to their belief systems.\n\nIn our age of ever-increasing connectivity and travel, more of us have the opportunity to meet people of other cultures. In order to create a world of peace rather than a world characterized by conflict and violent differences in opinion, we need to take the time and effort to understand how others live and what they believe. Learning about the value systems of other countries, groups, and cultures is an important step forward in living in harmony. May this guide help you develop your own understanding and appreciation of religious diversity.\n\n[] Polytheistic and Monotheistic Religions\n\nReligion is that system of activities and beliefs directed toward that which is perceived to be of sacred value and transforming power.\n\nJames Livingston\n\nReligion is a social phenomenon that is subject to the certain laws of the formation, development, and disappearance. It can be defined as a spiritual connection between one group of people with some higher, holy being, or deity. The word religion is derived from the Latin Religio, meaning ‘restraint,’ or Relegere which means to show respect for what is sacred. Religion is a form of social consciousness through which all the natural and social forces seem as supernatural, independent of man, nature or history. Every religion represents teaching the simple relations between nature, purpose, and origin of all existing. Also, every religion implies certain forms of religious communities, as well as certain rites – rituals, performed in the holy places, and in certain institutions (churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, etc.).\n\nThe first forms of religion appear already in prehistoric period as a result of human understanding that there are many phenomena in nature, such as drought, floods, thunder, etc. that are happening on a daily basis without his will. As a human being, he is incapable to control or to have any kind of influence on them. This way man learned the existence of the “higher power“ and, in his mind, he generated the first forms of „gods“ to symbolize the unique powers that govern his existence. The man found a way, through prayers and sacrifice, to communicate and satisfy deity. One of the oldest beginnings of the ceremonial rites are the graves in a period of Homo Heidelbergensis, in Eurasia, Spain, Wales, and Croatia. Neanderthals placed their deceased in simple graves that, occasionally, would have limestone blocks placed in or on them which can, possibly, represent an archaic way of marking the graves. These practices were most likely the result of empathetic compassion towards fellow members of the tribe. In 98,000 BCE, in the area of France and Belgium, Neanderthals began to deprive of the flash of their deceased before the burial, and one of the oldest cremated humans was found near Lake Mungo in 40,000 BCE.\n\nAdditionally, by the time, burials took very important place. The oldest known animal-shaped sculpture in the world, as well as one of the oldest sculptures, in general, is the Aurignacian Lowenmensch figurine. This sculpture, even though interpreted as anthropomorphic, may as well have represented a deity.\n\nOver time, the concept of religion took on many different meanings, and there is no generally accepted definition of religion. For some, it is just kind of feeling (emotion, experience) which is not subject to logical nor moral thinking. It is a mystical feeling of oneness with the infinite reality, experiencing the infinity, the feeling of absolute dependence, and experiencing the entire world as a God’s work. On the other hand, religion is a special form of awareness of the relationship with the absolute spirit. It is an attempt to explain the origin of something that is inexplicable with a result of finding the meaning and purpose of the life.\n\nThere are three main groups of theories of religion. According to the first, religion is an invention of one (usually the ruling and privileged) group of people with a purpose to protect the privileges of that same group of individuals. According to another group theory, religion is an existential characteristic of every human being. Finally, according to the third group theory, religion is just a human tendency to the superstition that came as a result of insufficient knowledge of the true nature of things.\n\nNowadays religion is systematized in the primitive religions: animism and Supernaturalism and world religions: theism and systems of abstract beliefs (Taoism, Buddhism).\n\nOrganizations that occur within the religions are the church, sect, denomination, and cult.\n\nTheism religions are polytheistic and monotheistic religions.\n\nThe main difference between polytheistic and monotheistic religion is that polytheistic religions are based on the belief of multiple gods existing, while monotheistic traditions conceive on existing only one, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, ruler of the entire universe. Polytheistic religion (Greek: poly – more, and many Theos – God) is characterized by the belief in many gods, various deities who rule the different sectors of nature and human activity. Polytheistic religions are more ritualistic and ceremonial than theoretical. Unlike monotheistic religions, polytheistic religions generally do not have a tendency to spread around the world. The most ancient religions were polytheistic (Egyptian, ancient Greek, Roman, Odin-ism, etc.). Almost all the European nations belonged to various pagan, natural, polytheistic religions in the period before Christ.\n\nNowadays, many of polytheistic religions are almost extinct, due to the occurrence of monotheistic, Abrahamic religions. Heavenly patriarch or monarch eventually became absolute ruler of heaven, and finally, there was the only one, true God, with a large entourage of angels and saints, like the court dignitaries. So monotheistic religions arise from the polytheistic religion.\n\nMonotheistic religions (Greek: monos – one and theos – God) are characterized by the worship of one God, and that is the main difference with the polytheistic religions. Another important difference between the polytheistic and monotheistic religions is that polytheistic religions are mostly folk religions, usually limited to one clan, nation or state, while monotheistic religions are universal and supranational.\n\nWe can find some common features in all the monotheistic religions. The first common feature is the aforementioned universal, supranational character. The second – all monotheistic religions are revealed, and that means that they are established and founded by the people commonly named prophets – religious and moral reformers who, it is believed, had, each individually, interaction with a God personally. Each one of these prophets is considered as a savior of the humankind.\n\nFinally, all monotheistic religions are eschatological, which means that all of them are based on a belief that there will be, at some point, the end of this world.\n\nDifferent aspects and traditions of different religions do not exclude each other. They complement each other and lead to the conclusion that religion is a way of life. It is a life that has feelings, thoughts, and actions directed toward a superior purpose, a life devoted to the to the superior creature, deity or God. All of the religions are interpreted as an ideal, imagined compensation, spiritual rejection of reality and life’s miseries that give hope and helps in everyday struggle. Typical for every religion is a faith in the afterlife. The fact of human death might be the most important when it comes to the existence of religion. The strongest human fear, fear of death, is being compensated by the religious concept of the afterlife which teaches us that death does not necessarily mean “the end” or disappearance, but rather the border between two ways of life. Faith in the afterlife made people follow the religion and believe in invisible, eternal, supernatural world, inhabited by mysterious creatures that rule the natural phenomena and human destinies.\n\n[] Mythology\n\nAt the time, it was widely believed that myth is a product of primitive human consciousness and, as such, represents the prelogical moment of philosophical and scientific awareness. In such belief, the myth was considered a manifestation of primitive mentality, characteristic for archaic and traditional societies whose cultural facilities can not manifest themselves in the modern civilization.\n\nThroughout the world, and throughout recorded human history, myths have formed an important means by which people have understood the world around them. A myth is a story that is somewhat fantastical in nature, usually, contains at least one supernatural element, and is told with the intention of explaining a particular phenomenon. The term ‘mythology’ is used either to refer directly to myths shared by a certain group of people, or to the formal study of these stories. Each culture has its own collection of myths, some of which have been mentioned in this book.\n\nEvery culture’s collection of myths usually tries to account for particular phenomena. Perhaps the most important kind of myth is the ‘creation story’ or ‘creation myth,’ which is passed down through the generations as a means of explaining how the universe came to exist in the first place. An example of this is the Norse myth of the universe arising from a sea of cosmic chaos. Another important purpose served by myths is to explain the existence of good and evil. In Egyptian mythology, good and evil became distinct, a polarized phenomenon as the result of conflict between two deities.\n\nThere are several theories as to how and why myths originated. One is the theory of elaboration or euhemerism. By this account, myths arise because storytellers in a particular culture tell and retell stories over and over again until the main characters are directly or indirectly granted god-like powers or importance. This early theory was put forward by Euhermus (c.315 BCE), who argued that real human events had inspired legends about Greek gods.\n\nPersonification is another principle evoked in explaining how myths arose. Some historians and psychologist have proposed that ancient humans worshiped natural phenomena that seemed all-consuming and out of their control. For instance, not understanding how weather patterns were formed, they created deities from wind, sun, rain, and so on. In doing do, they would gain a sense of control over their environment, even if in practice this meant simply praying to, or trying to placate, the gods. According to theorist Max Muller, most myths started with poetic or allegorical descriptions of events that over time came to be taken literally.\n\nMyths seem to bind groups of people together. In sharing a common creation myth, for example, members of a tribe, nation or religion can feel as though they have a history that unites them. Myths also serve to bind people across time. For instance, if a child grows up hearing the same creation myths that their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother heard, this furthers their sense of taking their place among their people. Myths can also act as cautionary tales and models for proper behavior. In discussing actions taken and consequences suffered by various mythological figures, those listening to the myths are implicitly encouraged to behave in a certain way.\n\nAccording to Carl Jung, similar myths tend to occur across different societies because humans all contend with the same basic set of fears and desires. For instance, they all want to understand where the universe came from, why there are good and evil in the world, and where people go after death.\n\nThe myth originated from the need for the cognition of complex natural and social phenomena. Campbell points out that traditional mythology fulfills four functions:\n\n- Metaphysical or mystical, the compliance functions of human consciousness with living conditions;\n\n- Cosmological function, the function of creating and establishing a particular image of the world;\n\n- Sociological function, the function of evaluation and preserving social order;\n\n- Psychological function, which consists in the need to align individual aspirations with the ideals of society and thus eliminates the tension in the man.\n\nIn some respects, myth precedes religion and philosophy and is, in the early stages, uncritical development of all cultures, primarily because the myth can be seen as picturesque, a fantastic story about understanding the world, and the creator of the universe. Because of this myth is recognized and determined as a lie, fantasy, collective dream or fiction, and so is opposed to scientific thought. There are different sociological understandings and interpretations of myth and mythology. Some social scientists consider that mythology is basically a primitive philosophy, and myths are stories that arise as rational attempts of a primitive man to make sense of the world in which he is located.\n\nAccording to some, the mythical world is nothing but a world of illusion, but an illusion which is to explain when it detects a necessity and the original self-deception from which this image comes from.\n\nMyth can be qualified as an alternative to what is true or false. Although the myth is imaginary, it cannot be reduced to an illusion, false and misleading; it can even be false, illusory, erroneous and truthful at the same time. All the religions, even if under different names or having different rituals and traditions, share the basic idea of worshiping the world around us. The basic idea of good vs. evil is something that refers to all of the world’s religions.\n\nIn primitive culture, in every religion, myth performs several functions:\n\nExpresses, reinforces and legitimizes the belief;\n\nPreserves and raises morale;\n\nGuaranteeing the effectiveness of ritual and contains practical experiences.\n\nBecause of this myth, it is an essential part of human civilization, and it is not a vain story, but worth the active force. It is also not an artistic conceit or intellectual explanation.\n\nAccording to some theorists, myth can be divided into natural and social myths.\n\nNatural myths relate to a specific explanation of the natural phenomena, social myths of social events.\n\nBesides these functions and divisions, there are some of the most important characteristics that link all the myths, no matter on religion.\n\nA panoply of gods and goddesses is very important when it comes to all the ancient polytheistic religions and myths within it. Ancient religions mostly share the common belief in multiple gods.\n\nVery significant is the linguistic connection between the myths of different cultures. Academics have found interesting correspondence between mythological names of the gods in different cultures which suggests that Greek, Romans, and Indians originated from the same ancestors. This idea came from the conclusion that Greek god Zeus, Roman god Jupiter and Indian god Dyaus came from an older name- Dyeus Phater which means sky god or the day- father.\n\nThe most interesting myth that has uncovered a number of parallels between the different cultures might be the Flood myth. All around the world, from the ancient times, cultures have been telling the stories about the great flood and only one survivor, or a group of survivors. Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh tells us the story of the global flood that destroyed the entire humanity leaving only one man who was in charge of saving the Earth’s species by taking them on a boat. Even in case one did not read Epic of Gilgamesh he must have heard about this, we can say universal myth, very common to many other religions, and polytheistic ancient and Abrahamic. Flood myth has been described in Hindu, Greek, and Aztek mythology, as well as in sacred texts of Abrahamic religions.\n\nThe dying god is another very common theme of ancient myths. Such myths usually describe the god who returns to life after he has passed away. The motif of dying God is seen in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek culture, as well as in the Christian story of Jesus Christ.\n\nMyth, as well as the poetry, occurs regardless of religion. However, it soon becomes content and fundamental base of the religions. Together with ceremonies and law, myth becomes the supporting pillar of every religion. Mythical language is the language of the religious man who wants to express a higher, absolutely transcendent reality leaving the deity hidden, mysterious and inaccessible. Myth does not impose a “sacred, “ but it refers to the “sacred” and symbolize it.\n\n[] Ancient Mesopotamia\n\nThe Mesopotamians were the people, skilled artisans, and craftsmen who lived within the safety of the city walls in houses of clay brick. They were known for their magnificent palaces and temples. They have made great progress in agriculture and invented the plow wagon which the peasants used for harvesting. This invention helped the peasants to support and feed their families, militaries, and builders. There are numerous clay tablets written in Akkadian language about the epic heroes, mythical beasts, kings, and deities.\n\nRising above the city in layered pyramids, temples dominated over Mesopotamian cities. According to Sumerian legend, after he created one city, God founded and built five more cities on the “clean” sites, named them and made them as a center of the cult. After this, gods transmitted plans of the other cities and temples directly to the leaders. It is unknown when did religion developed in Mesopotamia but the first written records of religious practice dated to 3500 BCE. According to Mesopotamian religious beliefs, human beings were co workers with gods. People worked with, and for gods and as a consideration, gods would hold back the forces of chaos. The Gods created order out of chaos, but there was no guarantee that the forces of the chaos might not recover and overturn their strengths. Mesopotamian people, together with gods, were involved in the struggle to restrain the powers of chaos. Each one of them had their unique role in this struggle.\n\nThey believed that humans were created for the purpose to work with and for gods toward mutual benefits. In some way, Mesopotamians were slaves to their gods, yet they found their role as co-workers for they were repaid for their service. Gods would supply humans with food and drinks (beer was considered as the drink of the gods) and maintain their world. Gods were not distant entities living in heavens; they lived on earth, in the temples built by the people. In case the temple became too small or too old, Mesopotamians would build the new one on the remains. Such successive construction made the temples eventually became larger and higher, approaching the gods to the people, and people to the gods. Towering ziggurat in temple complexes was considered as literal homes of the gods. Statues of the gods were daily taken care of by the priests and priestesses. This included feeding, bathing, and even clothing. The first gods of the sky, the air, soil, and water were the supreme deities and the entire pantheon numbered more than 3,000 deities because for every aspect of human interaction with nature, gods and men together, there was one deity. Some of the most powerful gods were Marduk- patron deity of the city Babylon and Inanna- deity of love, sex, and war.\n\nIt is particularly interesting that the Lilith, originally the Sumerian goddess of desolation, in Babylon became the demon who preyed people. According to the Hebrew legend, Sumerian Lilith was actually the first woman created for Adam. Once she refused to become addicted to Adam, believing she is equal to him, she fled into the wilderness and gave birth to many demons. Jahve blamed this woman that it was she who seduced Eve and Adam to reveal the secrets of the garden in Eden.\n\nEpic of Gilgamesh, the great king, is one of the oldest stories in the world. It is written on a dozen plates. The first half is devoted to the glorification of Gilgamesh, while the second part is telling the story about his quest to find a key to immortality which becomes his obsession. Many of themes of this story we see in Homer’s epic works as well as in the stories of the Old Testament. The main topic is the problem of human mortality.\n\nMesopotamian mythology is filled with dark forces; its view of the afterlife is very different from the views of other religions. The life of the common man was marked by hard work, while the religion did not give any hope of salvation that would be expected at the end of his lifetime. Torn between underground demonic forces that have threatened him at every step and pleasing the gods that watched his every move, he spent his life working in humility, knowing that after the death he will spend time in infinite standing in the dark halls of the underworld. Comparing the elements of Mesopotamian and Ancient Egyptian religion, we find many similarities; in some segments, they are almost identical. Since those two religions mutually permeate, it is easy to conclude that they are pulling together the roots from one ‘parareligion “or are in the course of its history due to the geographical closeness gradually elements of one switch to another.\n\n[] Egyptian Mythology\n\nThe ancient Egyptians made use of a number of stories as a means of understanding the world around them. Their accounts of creation, gods, goddesses and symbolism helped them understand a variety of natural phenomena around them. The ancient Egyptians saw the world as a collection of recurring patterns, and their myths addressed not only the original creation of the world but also the cycles seen in nature.\n\nEgyptian mythology is based on totemism – the belief in the sacred animals. It is characterized by the gods with human bodies and animal heads, provided that there are exceptions. One of the major parts of ancient Egyptian religion is the belief in the afterlife, as evidenced by a large number of tombs found, among which are the largest pyramids, then a large number of mummies, statues, and many deities associated with the afterlife. Most gods have the ankh, the holy sign of life.\n\nThe ancient Egyptians made deities of everything – the sun, animals, the desert, the sky, and the weather. They created, and worshiped, many gods. Some gods took on human form, some were depicted as having animal bodies, and some were a mixture of the two. In addition, the same God often went by different names. For example, the deity Ra was also known as ‘The Sun God.’ He was depicted in Egyptian art as having a human body but the head of a hawk.\n\nEgyptian religion was localized, meaning that various regions had their own myths and gods. However, it is fair to say that some gods were widely recognized. These included Ra (the sun god), Shu (god of the sky and offspring of Ra), Tefnut (another of Ra’s children and sister-wife of Shu, goddess of rain), Osiris (grandson of Ra, god of nature and principle judge of character in the afterlife), and Hathor (goddess of love and women, shown in Egyptian artwork as possessing the head of a cow). All Egyptian Pharaohs were also worshiped as gods.\n\nThe Egyptians made reference to a creation myth in explaining how the earth came into being and why it contains good and evil. According to tradition, at the beginning of time, there was nothing except a state of chaos known as Nun. One day, the sun god Ra came from the waters and gave birth to his two children, Tefnut and Shu. His children then created Geb (the earth god) and Nut (the sky goddess).\n\nHumanity was created from Ra’s tears. However, as Ra became older and weaker, the human race began to work against him and conspire to bring about his downfall. When he found out, he ordered the goddess Hathor to kill off humankind, which she did until only a small percentage of the population remained. Before humanity could be wiped out altogether, Ra granted them a pardon. He ordered Shu to rule in his place, and he took up residence far away in the heavens.\n\nGeb and Nut married, defying Ra. Shu, the air god, was ordered to separate them and did so successfully. Nut was pregnant, but Ra decreed that she could not give birth to her baby at any time during the year. Thoth, the god of learning, managed to help her by securing five extra days for the Egyptian calendar, enabling Nut’s children to be born. Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nepthys were born in due course. Set and Osiris became the incarnations of evil and good respectively. According to ancient Egyptian religion, this tale accounts for the existence of both states in the world.\n\nThere is extensive mythology around the fights between Osiris and Set. In brief, Osiris ruled Egypt successfully until he left to bring similar prosperity to other parts of the world. While he was gone, his wife Isis continued his reign. However, his evil brother Set plotted to bring about his downfall. When Osiris returned, he was captured and killed. Years of turbulence followed until finally Isis and Horus, her son, were able to defeat Set and revive Osiris. Horus went on to father four sons who, it was believed, represented the lineage from which all of Egypt’s Pharaohs were descended.\n\nEgyptian religion was similar to Mesopotamian for they also believed that human beings are co- workers with the gods to maintain the order. However, the principle of harmony was the most important in Egyptian life, as well as in the afterlife, and their religion was integrated into every aspect of their existence. Their religion was a combination of magic, science, medicine, spiritualism, mythology, etc. The gods were friends with human beings, providing them the perfect land to live in and eternal home to enjoy once they die. This is probably to the most important difference between Egyptian and Mesopotamian religion. Egyptians strongly believed in the afterlife. Their afterlife was the Field of Reeds. It was a mirror of the life on earth. Egyptians saw earthly existence just as one part of an eternal journey. They were very concerned about passing from this life to the next phase so much that they created pyramids, temples and funerary inscriptions (Egyptian Book of Dead) in order to help the soul's passage.\n\nThe Egyptians worshiped gods and offered them sacrifices. They considered them the masters of the world. They believed in a thousand gods, except for the period of Amarna. By order of the Pharaoh Akhenaton, all the temples were closed and the new city – Amarna was built. In Amarna, people worshiped Aten – solar disk. During the invasion of Greeks, Thoth was associated with Hermes. During the Roman Empire, Egyptians were introduced to Christianity and temples were closed. Romans issued an order to ban the worshiping of pagan gods.\n\n[] Ancient Greek Mythology\n\nAncient Greek religion represents all religious beliefs, cults, and rituals of the population in between 2100 and 1900 BCE which settled the southern area of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as islands in the Aegean Sea. Immigrants had, together with the natives who happened to be there, accomplished the most complex pre-Christian religion of Europe.\n\nAncient Greek religion had an influence on the understanding of the various peoples who inhabited the Mediterranean and the Black Sea coast, especially those living in the Apennines. As Christianity became one of the dominant religions, many characters from Greek mythology have emerged as important factors of that religion, or saints. This big influence of Greek religion can be explained by its humanism, as well as its ability to assimilate other religions.\n\nAncient Greek religion may be reconstructed on the basis of the literary, historical, mythological and archeological sources.\n\nLiterature represents the most reliable source. Almost all sources, from Homer to Julian the Apostate contain mythological and religious components. Archaeological research has enabled the detailed study of their shrines and objects used in rituals. Greek fine art is mainly related to religion and myths. Thanks to all this, we succeeded to examine even local cults and religion, except the secret, mystical cults, because their participants were bound to silence.\n\nThe earliest phase of this religion is linked to the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1550 BCE)\n\nWe can observe the history of Greek religion through four phases:\n\nHomeric or geometric period (of about 1100th-50th BCE)\n\nThis period is called Homeric because we can mostly learn about it from Homer and Hesiod’s poems. It was the period of immigration and the final stabilization of the Greek tribes.\n\nHomer created in his work the world of gods and heroes, who are primarily described to satisfy the aristocracy. This world is different from the one in later epochs, mostly because of the fact that it has no room for the irrational and mystical. There are some connections between previous Mycenaean period and this period. For example, they took many deities from Mycenaean such as Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo. Under the influence of Eastern religions, they established the pantheon of twelve Olympian gods. The basic characteristic of the gods in this period was anthropomorphism. The gods are subject to feelings, injuries, and have other disadvantages. They are not omnipotent and omnipresent. Even Zeus, the supreme god, must comply with the will of Moira, or fate. People are fully subordinate to the will of the gods and depend on their mood. Homer`s poems indicate that, at this period, the cult of the dead was not developed. Instead, it emphasizes the idea that souls of the dead are residing in the Kingdom of the Dead, ruled by Hades and Persephone. However, archaeological findings suggest otherwise; during this period the dead were buried with food and drink which gives us the idea of continuing the life in the grave.\n\nUnlike Homer, Hesiod introduces the dimension of time in the static world of the gods creates the history of the world from the very beginning. He systematized mythological material and introduced the gods who were unknown to Homer, such as Hestia, Prometheus, and Pandora. That is how the myth of the shift of the ruler of the world, from Uranus, over Chron, to Zeus and his posterity, was created.\n\nArchaic period (from 50th to 500th BCE)\n\nDuring this period, we can see two religious movements: Dionysian-Orphic and Apollonius. The first was the cult of the god Dionysus, who is perhaps more established in the Mycenaean. Members of this cult were mostly women, so-called maenads. Maenads were practicing sparagmos / dismembering the wild animal / and eating raw meat with the aim of becoming one with the god, Dionysus. The cult of the god Apollo developed as a response Dionysian-Orphic cult. This cult is different from the previous one, as called for reason and order. This period begins with the first Greek colony or polis. Each polis had its own patron deity, which was perfect for the flourishing of local cults, but also Greek shrines, deities, and cults. This period is characterized by a special construction of temples that were built on the Acropolis and Agora, or in the city center, as a stand-alone facility. The temples were dedicated to the gods and represented their home. An important novelty is the introduction of a cult of hero. Hero and his heroic acts constituted the legendary history of the polis.\n\nClassical period (from 500th to 338th BCE)\n\nGreek philosophy, in this period, attempted to explain many phenomena, which were attributed to the myth or the divine forces, explain as natural. Philosophers such as Anaximander and Xenophanes and many other, believed that religion and myth were nothing but deception. On the other hand, the myth and official religion were very accepted, especially after 650 BCE. The victory over the Persians had the consequence that many of local gods raised to the rank Panhellenic deities, especially those who have “helped” the Greeks to defeat the enemy. This way, Akkadian god Pan was widely accepted in Athens because, it was believed, that he helped the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon. Although the government took over the care of religious ceremonies, the people were still living the old religion that characterized by mysticism and archaic magical rituals. The reason was the pessimism and resignation in people because they had to obey the gods that governed everything, even their destinies. Conflicts between Greek cities in the second half of the fifth-century BCE culminated during the Peloponnesian War, which led to the religious crisis. This was also due to the great tragedians, especially Euripides. At the end of the century, and during the following, the elite of Greek society moved away from traditional religion to an abstract religiosity or atheism. As a result, between ordinary people, emerged many cults with, even more deities. The final dissolution of religion in this period happened after the conquers of the Alexander the Great. His death also led to the end of this period.\n\nHellenistic-Roman period (from 338 BCE to the end of the fourth century)\n\nDuring the Hellenistic- Roman period, philosophers continued to derogate the traditional gods and myths. They held that myths were exaggerated stories describing the real events and that their actors were ordinary people, not deities. Meantime, while gods were losing their supernatural powers, the same powers were very often attributed to the ordinary mortals. Since the period of the Alexander the Great, it became a common practice to raise the ruler to the level of deity. Therefore, from the traditional Pantheon, only those deities that were suitable for emerging opportunities were “revived.” This is the reason why the members of the dynasty of Ptolemy and Seleucid enjoyed divine honors.\n\n[] Greek Gods\n\nThe ancient Greeks devised a rich mythology containing many accounts of gods, goddesses, and heroes. Although now widely recognized as works of great fiction, they were held up as true accounts by many Greeks living at the time. The most famous and influential gods are known as the Twelve Olympians, so-called because they were said to live on Mount Olympus, home of the deities. There is some dispute over whether Hestia or Dionysus should be considered the twelfth deity, and so brief descriptions of both are included in this section.\n\nZeus ruled over all the other gods. According to Greek myth, he led the struggle against the Titans, in which the Greek Gods prevailed. Zeus is the God of the sky, order, and justice. He was often depicted holding a thunderbolt and is also associated with oak trees, scales, and eagles.\n\nHera was the most senior of the female deities and was the goddess of family and marriage. She was married to – and was also the sister of – Zeus. Her related symbols included peacocks, crows, and cuckoos. According to Greek myth, she often tried to exact revenge on Zeus’ lovers and the children they bore him.\n\nPoseidon was the god of earthquakes, all the seas and related events such as tidal waves. He was often shown surrounded by dolphins and depicted as carrying a trident. He was the brother of Zeus and Hades (ruler of the underworld).\n\nDemeter was the goddess of nature, agriculture, fertility, and the changes of seasons. Her symbols were related to agriculture and included wheat, poppies, and pigs.\n\nAthena was a goddess associated with higher intellectual functions such as intelligence, crafts, science, and strategy in warfare. She was a daughter of Zeus, and according to legend emerged from his head a full-grown woman dressed in battle regalia.\n\nApollo was a son of Zeus and twin brother of Artemis. He was associated with the arts, including music and poetry. He was also the god of medicine. The ancient Greeks regarded him a source of creative inspiration, light, and prophecy. His symbols include swans, lyres, and mice.\n\nArtemis was Apollo’s twin sister and another of Zeus’ daughters. She was the goddess of hunting, animals, the moon, virginity, and the moon. The snake, bear, and bow and arrow are among her symbols.\n\nAres was the god of war, battle, and violence. He was often shown alongside boars, dogs, and serpents. In line with his reputation, another of his symbols is the sword and shield. Greek myth states that he was strongly disliked by the other deities aside from Aphrodite.\n\nAphrodite was the goddess of beauty and love. Often depicted with roses, doves, and apples, she was commonly believed to be a daughter of Zeus. Although she was married to Hephaestus, she was not faithful to him and embarked on many affairs. One of her lovers was Ares.\n\nHephaestus was a master blacksmith and considered the god of fires and of the forge. His symbols included anvils, fire, and tongs. He was a son of Hera, possibly fathered by Zeus. He was husband to Aphrodite and was known for being unusually faithful by the normal standards of behavior seen among the male deities.\n\nHermes was a messenger and god of commerce. He was also a deity associated with eloquent speech, thieves, and streets. His symbols included winged sandals, a stork, and a tortoise – it was said that he invented a musical instrument using a tortoise shell. He was the product of a union between Zeus and a nymph named Maia.\n\nHestia was the goddess of family, hearth, and home. Although she was said to be among the original twelve Olympians, over time she appears to have been displaced in some retellings of the myths by Dionysus.\n\nDionysus was the god of celebrations, alcohol, and happiness. He was also associated with the performing arts. His symbols included a cup, a tiger, and grapevine. He was the youngest of the gods, and the only one who had a human mother – he was the son of Zeus and Princess Ariadne of Crete.\n\n[] Ancient Roman Religion\n\nSince the Romans had immigrated their primary gods with them from Greece, they followed the same pattern as that of Greece. However, as soon the Roman had established their religion, and it was connected to the state’s welfare, they enforced that they would not welcome any foreign gods into their religion. Romans had a very practical attitude to religion, and it was not based on any central belief. Their religion was based on a mixture of many rituals, superstitions, and traditions, collected over the years. In the ancient Rome, religion was not as much as a spiritual experience but more as a contract between people and deities who controlled people’s existence and well-being. This way, Roman religion was based on the principle “I give that you might give.” Priests of the Roman religion were only the members of the elite classes, and it was impossible to separate the religion from the state. Religion did not depend on faith or dogma, but it depended on the correct practice of prayer, rituals, and sacrifice. Religious tolerance during this period was not an issue, and one could, as an individual, practice some of the mystery religions that offered salvation in the afterlife as well as take part in public religion. Concerning the rise of the city, Roman mythological tradition is very rich in myths, and for the earliest period, it is almost impossible to distinguish history and myth. Romans believed that heavens were ruled by the immortal gods either gods of the upper heavens, gods of the underworld, or deities between those two. They believed that many of these deities favored Rome which is the reason the Roman state had a broad network of cults. Roman most powerful of all gods was Jupiter. Roman Jupiter was same as Greek Zeus king of the gods.\n\nSome of the other important to mention gods of Roman period are:\n\nJuno (Greek Hera) – goddess of marriage,\n\nNeptune (Greek Poseidon) God of the Sea,\n\nSaturn (Greek Cronos) Father of Zeus / Jupiter\n\nVenus (Greek Aphrodite) Goddess of Love\n\nPluto (Greek Hades) God of the Underworld\n\nApollo kept the same name as in Greece – God of Music and Medicine\n\nAthena (Greek Minerva) Goddess of Wisdom\n\nMars (Greek Ares) God of War\n\nCupid (Eros) God of Love\n\nEven the most skeptical members of the Roman intellectual elite, such as Cicero, recognized the necessity of religion as a form of maintaining social order in spite of the distinct elements of the irrational.\n\nReligion had a major role in later political conflicts and civil wars, and all the political events had to be justified by religion. However, the practice of traditional religion remained as one of the foundations of the Rome, and its development and success. The era of the Christian hegemony in Rome started when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. In 391. Under Theodosius I, Christianity became the state religion of Rome, in spite of all the other rituals and practicing. Starting with the 4th century, diverse religious practices around the empire were condemned as pagan and, over time, absorbed or suppressed.\n\n[] Norse Mythology\n\nNorse mythology has its origins in the pagan religions of ancient Scandinavian people – those living in Norway, Denmark and Sweden – although it continued to be spread even after the official religion of these countries was changed to Christianity. It comprises a set of stories centered around heroes and deities. These representations have been preserved in manuscripts, oral traditions, and artwork. Oral traditions were passed down in the Old Norse language, which originated in the Middle Ages and formed the foundations of contemporary Scandinavian languages. Iceland is considered to be the origin of many of the oldest texts describing Norse mythology.\n\nA key element of Norse mythology are the gods, their actions, and their relationships with humans as well as other mythical races. Thor was the most powerful and popular god in the Viking age. He was described as carrying a hammer, which he would use to defeat enemies of both the gods and the human race. Odin is another god given a great deal of attention within Norse mythology. He carries a spear, is accompanied by ravens and wolves, and seeks out new knowledge. According to myth, he hung himself from a tree in the act of noble sacrifice so that he could obtain knowledge of the alphabet. He then decided to grant this knowledge to humanity, so that they could access written the language.\n\nOdin is also associated with death and the afterlife. He rules over Valhalla, which according to Viking lore, was the resting place of warriors who died in battle. Odin is married to Frigg, a goddess who is capable of foretelling the future (although she does not disclose this information), and he has a son named Baldr. According to Norse mythology, Baldr had a series of dreams in which he was dying. Shortly after, he was killed by Loki (a mischievous shape-shifting figure) and is forced to reside in a place known as Hel.\n\nAlthough Odin is the god perhaps most commonly linked with death, he cannot claim all who pass on from the earthly plane for himself. He shares them with the goddess Freyja, who chooses her half of the dead from battlefields. Her brother, Freyr, is a God frequently linked with sexuality, pleasure, and agriculture. Other deities include Bragi, Fenrir, and Gefjon. Mythical races such as dwarves, elves, and Valkyries also occur frequently in Norse mythology.\n\nNorse creation mythology is based on the belief that there are nine worlds, all centered around a giant cosmological tree known as Yggdrasil. Asgard is the name given to the realm in which the gods live, whereas humans occupy Midgard. Norse myths often describe journeys made between the realms, as enacted by gods, humans and assorted other forms of being. The first two human beings, Ask and Embla, were supposedly created from pieces of floating wood that were made animated by the three gods who found them.\n\nThere is debate as to whether time is represented as cyclical or linear, and myths surrounding the afterlife are also not completely clear. The goddess Hel rules over a realm of the same name, and humans may reside there after death. Those who die in battle may be spirited away by Valkyries to live with Odin in Valhalla, which is represented as a large hall-like place. Gefjon, a goddess, is believed to attend the death of any virgin who passes on from the human world. There are also allusions to the possibility of reincarnation within some of the myths.\n\nThe concept of the Norse myth is quite similar in basic structure and concepts. Most of the other ancient religious groups used myth to understand the world around them. However, Greek and Norse myths, with their great meanings are considered to be the most important mythologies of the world. The Greeks and Nords, even though from two very different groups had a lot of basic ideas that were similar. They had a huge number of myths which they used to explain everything that was confusing them or did not make sense to them.\n\nBoth Greeks and Norse believed in only one ruler of the gods and man. Greek god was Zeus, and Norse god was Odin. Both of them had wives who did not have as much power as their husbands, but yet again Hera ( Zeus’s wife ) and Frigg (Odin` s wife ) had much more power than any other god.\n\nEach of these mythologies had the certain deities such as God of love, sea, underworld, war, etc. Norse and Greeks also had the same concept of the idea of fate and had three of these gods who were females. Both Greeks and Norse believed that their lives were predetermined and that they can not influence on their destiny. The main difference between Greek and Norse mythologies is the mindset and personality of the stories, but this can be explained and justified by the major differences in climate between these two countries. Greece was, at one point, considered the greatest country of their time, while Norse had a difficult time due to extreme drops of temperature and barely any sunlight.\n\n[] Ancient China\n\nReligion in ancient China developed around 4500 BCE in the Yangshao Culture, long before Buddha came to China. People of China worshiped nature which, eventually, developed into religion with concepts of “wealth” or “fortune.” Early structure of belief in ancient China was a mixture of animism and mythology which is evidenced on the ceramics found at the Neolithic area called Banpo Village. Designs on the ceramics include images of animals and dragons. Besides ceramics, more than 250 tombs, containing grave goods, were found. This led us to the conclusion that even in ancient times, Chinese people believed in life after death, as well as in the concept of rebirth.\n\nBased on the grave goods that were found, scientists believe that ancient Chinese people in this period worship women and female deities who were a dominant figure in representing benevolence. While the Yangshao Culture was matrilineal, the next recorded, Qijia Culture that has inhibited the Upper Yellow River Valley was patriarchal. At this period people worshiped one, the supreme god, who was a king of many other deities. This king of the Gods got his name in Shang Dynasty-Shang Ti.\n\nShangti had the main role in all the important matters, so people were asked not to “bother “him too much with sacrifice. At this period, besides Shangti, there were over 200 gods. The early gods were spirits of the place known as Tudi Gong. Chinese people strongly believed in ghosts who were the spirits of deceased that had not been properly buried as they should be, or had some other reason the be attached to the earth. Besides spirits and Shangti, Nuwa, goddess of humankind was considered to be half a woman, half a dragon. It was believed that Nuwa brought people to life and taught them how to reproduce. Fuxi was the god of fire and teacher. He gave the fire to people similar to Greek Prometheus and taught them how to cook food and keep warm. Fuxi was considered to be Nuwa`s friend and who was helping her to teach the humans how to survive. The Zhou Dynasty developed the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. Confucianism and Taoism were both influenced by ancient belief systems. Both Confucianism and Taoism continued the ancient practices of ancestor worship. During this period, Shangti was replaced with the idea of Heaven (Tian). Tian was a paradise where the dead rested eternally in peace.\n\n[] I Ching\n\nThe I Ching, also known as the Classic of Changes, is an ancient Chinese text and divination manual that underlies a number of Chinese thought systems and religions such as Confucianism.It is thought to have originated from the period 750-1000 BCE and represents the culmination of thousands of years of Chinese wisdom from various stages. Essentially, the I Ching is a book comprised of symbols, imagery, advice and poetry that invites the reader to seek out solutions and guidance based on tosses of three coins (or more traditionally, 50 yarrow stalks). Its origin is sufficiently ancient and obscure that no-one can say with any certainty who wrote it.\n\nThe I Ching lists 64 ‘situations.’ Each situation is represented by a collection of six lines, which can be broken or unbroken. Broken lines are taken to symbolize ‘yin’ (dark, calm, feminine energy) while unbroken lines symbolize ‘yang’ (active, light, masculine energy). To use the I Ching as an oracle, a reader needs to discover which hexagram is applicable to their situation. They can then turn to the hexagram in question and read the accompanying text.\n\nTo select the correct hexagram, a set of three coins are commonly used. The individual wishing to consult the I Ching thinks of a question to which they would like an answer while tossing the coins six times, once for each line of the hexagram. The first coin toss dictates the bottom line, the sixth toss the top line. Each coin toss dictates whether the line is broken or intact. When tossing the coins, tails gives a value of 2 and heads a value of 3. An even number (e.g. 2 heads and 1 tails) dictates a broken or yin line, whereas an odd number (e.g. 1 heads and 2 tails) dictates that an unbroken or yang line be drawn. However, a throw that yields all heads or all tails is considered to be a ‘changing’ line, and must, therefore, be changed to a yin or yang respectively when drawing up the final hexagram.Each hexagram is considered to represent a situation common to all humanity. Therefore, people of all cultures can use the I Ching.\n\nYin and yang are considered to be the two complementary forces seen throughout nature. They are in the balance throughout the universe – active and passive, masculine and feminine. A healthy mind and body have a balance of both. The philosophy of the I Ching is simple – we can make predictions based on our knowledge of what has gone before, and the observable fluctuations between yin and yang. For instance, the changing seasons are thought to be the result of regular changes in yin and yang energies. However, this applies to human nature as well – our moods fluctuated and based on this principle, users of I Ching argue that we can attempt to predict future events based on I Ching readings.\n\nEach of the 64 hexagrams makes reference to a particular state or prediction that makes use of the broken or unbroken nature of each line. For example, if the bottom line within a hexagram is broken, this is interpreted as indicating a fundamental weakness of some kind that must be addressed if a satisfactory outcome is to be achieved.\n\nTraditionally, none of the hexagrams are considered ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ Rather, they are perceived as useful clues and hints for the reader, offering guidance as to how they ought to handle a particular situation. The reader must apply their maturity in determining how any particular hexagram applies to their current situation and then act accordingly in an ethical manner.\n\n[] Hinduism\n\nHinduism is the world’s oldest organized religion, and third largest religion of the world. The most important difference between Hinduism which can not be sorted into any belief system and Abrahamic religions is that Hinduism does not have a single founder, nor a single system of morality. Hinduism also does not have central religious authority, nor the concept of the prophet. Even though Hinduism in a strict sense of the word did not exist before the modern time, Hindu traditions are ancient and embrace many traditions. However, Hinduism` s history is firmly linked with the social and political development. We classify the main historical periods of Hinduism into:\n\nBefore 2000 BCE\n\nThis is a period of the Indus Valley Civilization which had established their base on the river Indus, the present day of Pakistan. Nowadays, we do not have may recordings about religion in this period but it seems that the ancient people in the Indus Valley did have temple rituals and ritual bathing, as well as the animal sacrifice. Later, Hinduism and early Indus Valley civilizations may have some connections when it comes to these rituals and sacrifices, but these features are also common to many other ancient religions.\n\n[* Vedic Period (1500- 500 BCE) *]\n\nThe Early Vedic period was focused on the sacrifice and sharing the sacrificial meal with each other and gods. However, term “sacrifice” refers more to any offering into sacred fire (milk, butter, etc.) than to offering animals. Some of the Vedic rituals are continued to the present day. Sacrifice was offered to the god Soma (plant god), Agni (god of fire), and Brihaspati (god of Priestly power). Besides these gods, there was warrior Indra, the wind Vayu, storm gods or Maruts, and the sky contained the sky god Dyaus who has same origins as Zeus, Varuna who was a god of the cosmic law, Mitra who was the god of night and Vishnu.\n\n[* Epic, Puranic and Classical Age (500 BCE -500 CE) *]\n\nThis is the period which saw the composition of Dharma Sutras and Shastras, Mahabharata and Ramayana and Puranas which had many stories that are popular even today. The idea of Dharma is specified in Dharma Sutras and Shastras. During this period sacrifice was minimized, and the rise of the Gupta Empire (320- 500 CE) saw the evolution of the Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism. Present-day Hinduism has many elements from this period, such as devotion and temple worship and the most important element from this period were the texts composed in Sanskrit in the form of the poetic literature.\n\n[* Medieval Period (500 CE- 1500 CE) *]\n\nThis period saw the rise of devotion to the main deities, especially Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. Regional kingdoms were established just after the collapse of Gupta empire, and all of them had different religions and belief systems. During this period, many of the most important temples were raised, such as Jagannatha in Puri, and two Shiva temples in Tamilnadu. The temples were dedicated to the one, major deity and were the centers of the religious and political power.\n\n[* Pre-Modern Period (1500 CE -1757 CE) *]\n\nAt this period, many temples were destroyed by Turkish sultanate, and Hindu practices were restricted. This period is the period of poetry, meditation, yoga and Islamic mysticism. The poetry of princess Mirabai, Surdas, Dadu and many other are popular even in present day.\n\n[* British Period (1757 CE -1947 CE) *]\n\nThis period was the period of British supremacy in India. In 1757. Robert Clive won a battle at Plassey which meant the end of the Mughal Empire. Until the arrival of missionaries, British did not intend to interfere with the religion of Indian people. After the arrival of missionaries who promoted Christianity and had a strong will to westernize the local popularity, there were many Indians who converted to Christianity.\n\nIn 19 century, we can see many important reformers of the Hinduism. Reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy had the intention to present the Hinduism to the world as the rational and ethical religion. All of the other reformers wanted to get rid of superstition in Hinduism. The most important person in establishing the independent India was Gandhi (1869 – 1948) who propounded non-violence, justice, and love between all the people, no matter on religion. Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi is known as a “Father of India.” Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.\n\n[* Independent India (1947 CE- today) *]\n\nIndian independence resulted, in the beginning, with the nationalistic tendencies which resulted with the eruption of communal violence. Tensions were provoked by many efforts to of other religions to convert Hindus people. These tensions brought the question of Hindu identity and were the main reason for the Indians migration to Britain and U. S. A. From the 1960s until today Hindu communities all around the world became well established and socially accepted.\n\nHinduism recognizes single deity and other gods and goddess are just a manifestation or aspects of the Supreme God. Fundamental Hindu deities are the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma is a creator, Vishnu preserves, and Shiva is the one who destroys.\n\n[] Gautama Buddha and Buddhism\n\nBuddhism is another one of the world’s major religions with estimated following numbers reaching over 500 million for all schools combined. The religion is most popular in East and Southeast Asia, but there are minority populations of adherents spread throughout the globe. There are two main branches of the religion, mirroring cultural differences in the region. Whence arose the world’s fourth largest religion by adherents?\n\nBuddha is technically a title, and all living things can become a Buddha through study and working towards that goal. However, Gautama Buddha is the man whose teachings are the basis for Buddhism. He lived and taught in ancient India sometime between 2600 and 2400 years ago, which makes Buddhism one of the oldest religions that are still widely practiced today. Sometimes he is referred to as The Buddha for his central role in founding the religion. Similarly to Christmas for Christians, there are celebrations in Buddhist nations to celebrate his birthday.\n\nHis early life was spent in royalty, where his father wanted him to become a king. He was shielded from the suffering of the people and how people inevitably aged; however, on a trip outside the palace, he is said to have encountered an old man. This caused him to later seek more trips, further beyond the palace grounds, and during these trips, he encountered, even more, suffering, including a subject suffering from disease and a corpse. These encounters resulted in him deciding to lead the life of an ascetic. Asceticism is the practice of denouncing earthly pleasures in favor of spiritual ascension. At one point he was offered the throne in another area but refused. His practices became more extreme until he had restricted himself to eating only a leaf or nut per day. Of course, this was not enough energy to sustain his body, and he collapsed while bathing one day. He was rescued and reconsidered his goals.\n\nHe knew that awakening was achieved through meditation, but extreme asceticism to the point of starvation was not the way to achieve it. He decided on the Middle Path, which is a central tenet of Buddhism today. This is a balance between overindulgence and extreme deprivation. He is said to subsequently have meditated for 49 days under a tree until he reached True Enlightenment, which would liberate him from the cycle of rebirth, suffering, and dying that all unenlightened creatures were trapped in.\n\nHe died at the age of 80, though the records of the exact year differ based on Chinese or Sri Lankan writings. He told his disciples to follow no leader, and he believed he was entering the deathless state since he had broken out of the cycle of life and death. Relics exist of him, including some in Burma believed to be given to some of his earliest followers. His teachings were passed into the Sangha, the community of followers. They remained unsectarian for at least one hundred years after the Buddha’s death when there was a documented split in the community.\n\nThe Buddha was somewhat reluctant to ordain women into the Sangha, and he even rejected his own foster mother. However, after the rejection, she felt so strongly about his teaching and awakening that she led a group of women on a long journey. After five years of further consideration and the promotion of the idea of women in the order by the Buddha’s cousin, he judged that women and men both had equal rights to attain Enlightenment. Women have more rules to follow, though.\n\nWhile the religion arose in India, it was eventually supplanted by Hinduism and Islam there. Nevertheless, it still holds a strong position in other parts of Asia. There two main schools of thought: Theravada and Mahayana. The former follows the Middle Way, which seeks nirvana to break the cycle of life and death, and has its strongest following in Sri Lanka and other parts of Southeast Asia. The latter sect, conversely, does not try to break out of the cycle of life and death; rather, it seeks to attain Buddhahood by staying in the cycle but teaching others how to reach awakening. This is more common in East Asia.\n\nDukkha is often translated as “suffering,” but the English word does not quite capture the meaning. The suffering arises from being attached to transitory states, such as life and material things. One example is how vanity causes suffering because humans inevitably age. Material things also age, such as a building becoming corroded over time or even the collapse of cliffs into the ocean. Unfortunately, this attachment traps the non-enlightened in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth. To escape it, one must master the Eightfold Path, which is also known as the Middle Way. We suffer because we seek happiness from impermanent things and states (such as living), so we can never hold onto the happiness forever; hence we suffer at some point. Moreover, dukkha arises from wanting to be AWAY from such things as death. This is still a craving for something that is impermanent, and all of these cravings produce karma, which ties the creature to the cycle. Once all craving is conquered, no more karma is produced, which implies the end of rebirth. This state is known as nirvana.\n\nNothing in Buddhism is permanent, even the self. The notion of a linear soul, such that is common in Western religions, is untrue in Buddhism. This mistake, as described by Buddhism, is a major cause of the clinging. A person wants to be oneself and see oneself endure, through life and death and time, but that insinuates one is still clinging to something; unfortunately, that implies the production of karma and therefore no attainment of nirvana.\n\nThose who have not reached nirvana will be reborn into one of six (or five for Theravadins) classes: heavenly, the highest, followed by a demi-god, human, animal, hungry ghost, and, at the lowest level, hellish. In the East Asian and Tibetan tradition, there is a waiting period between death and rebirth, but in the Theravada tradition there is no such wait and immediately following death, there is a rebirth. The more positive karma one has built, the higher likelihood of being reborn into a higher realm\n\nKarma is of two types: positive and negative. The “seeds” need not mature in this life, and a deed’s seed may indeed arise in the next life or even later. This reinforces the common notion surrounding karma that something having happened in a previous life has led to the current situation. Karma is not produced only by actions but also thoughts or inactions. The intention is essential to determining whether Karma is produced: the inadvertent, unknown killing of a creature does not translate into negative karmic seeds. Furthermore, karma is transferrable between family members or ancestors, and it can be accumulated not only through good deeds but by exchanging goods or services that lead to good outcomes.\n\nNirvana is the state of not wishing for anything, including for nirvana. This is generally considered the ultimate goal of a Buddhist, especially one who practices monastic life. However, most followers of Buddhism certainly are not monks in monasteries, and for that reason, the main goal of most adherents is to increase karma for higher levels of rebirth. As the level of rebirth is elevated, it becomes more possible to lead a monastic life or at least a life in which one becomes less interested in pursuing impermanent states. Therefore, while at first glance it may seem a bit contradictory to want to achieve a higher rebirth, it can also be viewed as a way to reach nirvana in the future.\n\nThe Middle Way or the Eightfold Path was the way laid out by the Buddha to follow to the cessation of dukkha, in turn becoming Enlightened. There are, obviously, 8 parts to the idea. First is the Right View and Right Resolve, which deal with wisdom. One should believe in an afterlife that is evident through life, death, and rebirth; and one should move towards loving kindness and away from cruelty. The next three, Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, all deal with moralistic virtues. One should not lie or speak for others for the first and for the last one should not cheat or harm others with their livelihood. If possible, one should possess only the things necessary for sustenance. For Right Action, the tenets are similar to religions and codes around the world, where one should not kill or injure living creatures, one should not steal, and one should refrain from sexual misconduct. The final set of three deal with meditation, and they are Right Effort (guarding against sensual thoughts to avoid disruption to meditation), Right Mindfulness (always be conscious of one’s actions), and Right Concentration (correctly meditating or concentrating).\n\nThe religion can be described as non theistic in that there are no gods to worship as in other religions. One should respect and praise the Buddha, but that does not mean one should worship the Buddha. Furthermore, the spirits who have reached the heavenly states sometimes think of themselves as gods, but they should not require worship. Because this state has little possibility of doing ill deeds and gaining negative karma, sometimes the spirits there remain for very long periods of time. Due to the long lengths of time spent in such sublime planes of existence, a spirit there can be deluded into thinking it is a god. However, there is no required worship in Buddhism.\n\n[] Aztec, Mayan, and Incan Religions\n\nThe Mayan religion was a polytheistic one that had a hierarchy with a Supreme God. This God was too sacred to partake in daily human affairs, and as such was not present in the ways, people went about their lives. His son was the god of books and writing and the champion of science. This gives an indication of how important science and learning was for the Mayans. Similarly to many polytheistic mythologies, there are a plethora of gods who have various aspects associated with them. These aspects are connected to real world phenomena or concepts in human societies (such as science and learning).\n\nAs is common even with modern South American tribal beliefs, the Mayans believed the world had been destroyed and recreated many times. The cosmology surrounding the earth was complex, with 9 levels of the underworld and 13 levels of heaven. The same gods ruled over all these planes. And showing similarity with other magic-based religions, each god had a specific color (often colors are associated with gods and emotions because certain colors evoke certain emotions more strongly than others). The idea of levels was also present in the monuments built by Mayans, presented in the form of pyramids. The pyramids generally had a temple on the top, but the pyramid itself was a set of steps to the gods. Often when the ruler died, his successor would build another pyramid on top of the one already there.\n\nThe priesthood was not celibate, in deep contrast to the Catholic Spanish and Portuguese who came later. That is important, too, because initiation into the priesthood was hereditary, and if there were no reproduction by the priests, the priesthood would quickly die out. Sacrifice was common, mostly of various animals. However, human sacrifice was considered the holiest and human blood was the essence on which the gods thrived. Usually, slaves, criminals, and orphans were the offerings for such sacrifices. Another violent aspect of traditional Mayan beliefs was to start bloodletting at the beginning of ceremonies by piercing various parts of the face and head.\n\nLike the Mayans (and indeed the common theme among South American Natives), the Aztecs believed in the destruction and rebirth of the world. The world had died four times, and our current world is the fifth reincarnation. They believed the two sources of everything were two beings, and they lived on the 13th level of heaven (the levels reflect the Mayans’ beliefs). This highest level of heaven was considered the be a very cold place and may have its very ancient origin in the fact that the northern and southern latitude of the world is rather cold places.\n\nThe cold place was where man originated (Interestingly, it is thought by modern historians that people migrated to the Americas over a land bridge between Russia and Alaska, so this may actually be a legend that has truth behind it). All the gods were created by the two top gods, and the birth of the sun, which was essential to life, was only possible through blood and sacrifice. This violent belief led many sacrifices, though the acts were not due to Aztec cruelty, as some Westerners believe. The sacrifice was a way to keep the world alive, and the duty of the sacrificed was to bear a message to the gods to let the sun be born again. The sun god was the central figurehead in the hierarchy of the Aztecs (the two origin beings created all the gods), and as the Aztecs conquered more land, his importance rose.\n\nThe Aztecs were interested in absorbing other religions and beliefs, and they did not necessarily have to conflict with Aztec beliefs. This is a common theme for empires, which will assimilate the beliefs of the conquered into their societies, thereby quelling unrest in newly subjugated populations.\n\nFurther south, the Inca had differently named gods, but their roles often ran alongside those of the other civilizations. There was a central creator God who made nature, while there was also a sun god among others. The Inti Raymi festival was their largest celebration and celebrates the winter solstice. Various indigenous cultures in the Andes Mountains still celebrate today, though many have equated the celebrations with the Christian holiday of St. John the Baptist.\n\nHuacas are Incan spiritual places, and these could be placed in caves, near springs, or in man-made shrines. The battlefields and cemeteries are also appropriate places for the spiritual worship of the gods. On the concept of sacrifice, it was mostly animal sacrifice, and human sacrifice was rare. However, if it was deemed that the animal sacrifices were not providing sufficient results, a human sacrifice was prescribed. Different animals were sacrificed to specific gods.\n\nOf course, the rulers of all the empires used religion for their own ends, too. Throughout history, in Native American and in other societies, rulers have used religious arguments to take their place at the seat of power. If it seems like a backward idea, consider that even the French kings not long ago used the divine right to continue their rule. Just the same, the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan rulers used religion as a way to enforce their power and protect their seat at the throne.\n\n[] Native American Religions\n\nWhen most Westerners think of Native American religions, there are images of totem poles, ritual dances, Aztec sacrifices, and spiritual drug use. These are all part of Native American religions, but the scope goes far beyond just those four ideas. Certainly, vastly diverse cultures spread out over two continents and millennia are not so standardized as to be conceptualized in just four notions. The style of religion ranges over all types, from mono- and polytheistic to animistic and henotheistic, which focuses on a single god but acknowledges the possibility of other deities.\n\nThe religions were largely disseminated through oral traditions. This meant over generations the religion could evolve rapidly and change significantly. The keepers of the traditions were medicine men and shamans, who were able to communicate with the gods. These positions were highly esteemed and elevated the holder’s position in society, such that they were given responsibilities for major decisions and ceremonies. However, as a result of this lack of written accounts, many European invaders, and even many modern people, did not see the religions as true religions, for they are not prescriptive in nature and do not have historical written accounts. And perhaps they are correct, for Native American religions are actually more spiritual beliefs that do not separate worlds.\n\nAside from the population decimation faced by the indigenous of the Americas, their religion was under attack by Europeans who sent missionaries to convert the natives to Christianity. The mixture of death brought on by war and disease plus the conversion efforts has effectively obliterated the religions, though there are still some elements that survive in the tight-knit communities of Natives. After the formation of the United States, the federal government combatted the native religions by forcibly removing children from their families and placing them into western style schools. This continued well into the modern age, with the practice still being practiced as late as the 1970s. This has left the population of those practicing Native American religions to be tiny, with only about 9000 estimated to be in the United States today. However, that number is deemed an underestimate since being a member of the society is not required to practice the religion.\n\nAs is common with ancient religions, the beliefs held were largely used to explain physical phenomena that occurred in nature. This led to many animals being representative of different aspects of nature, for what better embodies nature than a living creature within it? The idea that nature and everything physical can be connected runs deep in such traditions. There is little if any boundary between this world and others if other worlds are believed to exist. However, the beliefs are highly localized, and it is impossible to expound on all the variations in this short book.\n\nOne major theme that is common throughout the highly varied belief systems is location. The location is often directly embedded into the system such that nearby mountains or rivers can hold significance for one group. Therefore, by the very nature of the religious system, it becomes localized and necessarily different from others. Other common themes are that words and knowledge have power; sometimes so much power that special ritualistic preparation is required to wield such knowledge. Participating in the community is also more important than belief, which strongly promotes a collective mindset over an individual one. This intertwining of participation and religion means acting in the best interests of the community and helping others in it are considered religious as well as social acts.\n\nDue to the loss of so many tribes and so much knowledge during the European invasion, a lot of native religions have simply disappeared. There are some rays of hope, though, for the Native American Church, and the Ghost Dance movements have both revived interested in traditional ways. It originated in the mid-19th century and, ironically, spread through the Indian schools set up by the US government to combat traditional beliefs – the pupils were able to communicate with each other over distances which facilitated the spread. It blends traditional practices and Christianity in a religion that is not tied to location. Today it is practiced throughout the country (albeit on a very small scale). The Ghost Dance was a backlash against the ever-expanding greed of the American and European settlers. The movement was a way to promote the revival of native religion after decimation and constant erosion from European forces. The movement suffered a major blow when the natives lost at Wounded Knee at the end of the 19th century, though it still saw some implementation until the 1950s and a few revivals later.\n\nAs the traditions were largely oral, it is believed by many practitioners that the rituals only have importance in the original language. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the religions, as the languages of the natives are rapidly dying out in a constantly standardizing world. Furthermore, if there is no way to translate the concept into English (or any other language for that matter), it is far too easy for the knowledge to simply disappear altogether. Furthermore, if the place is important, so can artifacts be important. Unfortunately, again, many of these have been taken to museums where their power to the people who worship or use them is absolutely diminished. One reason single objects can be so powerful for these practices is that, as mentioned, everything is alive and flowing with some sort of energy. This includes seemingly inanimate objects such as masks and dress.\n\nOn the other hand, in South America, the communities that still practice indigenous religions are alive and well. Most have been influenced at least to a degree by Christianity, but it is certainly not the only option open to adherents. Sometimes these religions even incorporate Christian beliefs, pitting a Christ-like savior hero against the invading colonists and imperial destruction of their lands.\n\nThe movement of stars and the passage of time are central to many of these belief systems, and this idea is even evident in the Western obsession with the Mayan calendar. Many South American systems also include some sort of destruction of many worlds, which invites an interesting question of why powerful figures and the world fall into disarray. It is believed the idea of the destruction of worlds predates the invasion of Europeans, but the absolute destruction of many tribal ways of life surely attributed some truth to these beliefs.\n\nThe spiritual journey undertaken by many shamans are for the purpose of communicating with the other worlds or for finding religious answers. Strong herbal mixtures were common in inducing altered states of mind, which assisted the traveler in his quest. Two common substances were Mescal and peyote cactus, both of which are sometimes used recreationally by non-natives to alter their mind states. For shamans, the spirit is able to exit the body once a trance state is achieved and can wander. The shaman takes greatly detailed note of the surroundings and is eventually expected to find a path forward in life. Animal and plant spirits may show themselves to the quester during the journey for further guidance. The shaman must then return to his body and should have solutions for the tribe.\n\n  • * History of Religion in America[\n\n**](From Native Americans to Present-day)\n\nWith the arrival of missionaries, Native Americans were the object of many extensive Christian activities.\n\nProtestant faith motivated the first European settlers to establish their community from Europe to the New World where they could practice their religion in peace. Ever since then, America became a synonym for freedom of religion and religious refuge for all the Europeans who were faced with religious persecution and who refused to compromise and accept conservative Christian religious doctrines in Europe. Europeans wanted to escape from the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England whose religious beliefs they found too oppressive and forced. America was supposed to be a new world where the state and church would be separated, and everyone would have a right to practice their religion without being afraid of persecution.\n\nFrom the colonial times to the present-day, evangelism has played the essential role in the history of religion in America. The most important Christian denominations in America were:\n\n\nReformed Presbyterian churches, as well as the European Free Church, gave a base to the reforms which were brought in America by Puritans. Puritans were English Protestants tended to „purify „ the Church of England resulting in the birth of first Baptists and Congregationalists in America. Around 900 puritans, together with their leader John Winthrop, and books that were printed to spread the „Good News „ settled down in Massachusetts Bay. Their tradition of taking care of each other turned this number of 900 to grow to more than 100,000 until 1700. Puritans based their life on the teaching of John Calvin and the New Testament. Puritans were considered to be a group of extremists who believed that traditional, deep-rooted church must not be reformed and that only solution was to separate the churches. Puritans believed that an individual, as well as the group, exist only to glory and honor the God and that their primary task in this life is to the God` s will. They hold on to the belief that their destiny was predetermined and their segregation, isolation, and religious singularity later lead to the witch hunts starting in 1688.\n\n\nCongregationalism is more easily classified as a movement. The early Congregationalists believed in the idea of pure church. Congregationalists planted their beliefs and traditions based on Calvinists (Reformed) established practice, strictly disputing the external authorities. Congregationalists came to New England in 1620 and created the autonomous congregations in which God was the unconditional authority. Most important Congregationalists that formed divided churches from the Church of England were Robert Brown, Henry Barrow, John Greenwood, John Penry, Thomas Jollie, and John Robinson. Some of the first colleges and universities in America, such as Harvard, Yale, and Middlebury, etc. were founded by Congregationalists.\n\n\nThe base of the Methodism was a group of students from the Oxford University. Unlike Puritans, Methodists were not departing from Europe because of the religious persecution. They developed their religious inspiration from the teachings of John Wesley. Besides John Wesley, important leaders of this movement were George Whitefield and brother of John Wesley- Charles Wesley. Theology of Methodists was concentrated on dedication and effect of faith in human nature. Methodist beliefs accentuate the promise of salvation, justness, and righteousness, as well as the perfection of love, support for the sick and charity. Methodists established hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, and schools. Methodists rejected the Calvinists beliefs that God has predetermined salvation of chosen group of people.\n\n\nLutheranism is a leading and most prominent branch of Protestant Christianity and\n\nLutheran Church played the most important role in the history of American Christian denomination. Members of the Lutheran Church came from all sides of Europe: Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Lutheranism promotes an attitude of justification “by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone.” It is established on the belief that humanity possesses free will on “goods and possessions” but that it is also sinful by nature and helpless or impotent when it comes to contributing to its own salvation. Lutherans find the Jesus is the Christ, promised savior and both by nature man and God. They came to America in 1619 and settled on the East Coast and American Midwest. From their first foothold, they established 150 synods.\n\n\nPresbyterian and Reformed churches share the same prevalent root in the teachings of John Calvin and the Swiss Reformation. Having a little in common with the liturgy and tradition correlated with a Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian denomination is more attached to an active leadership style for ministers and lay members. They came to America from England, Scotland and Ireland with named Presbyterians that worked with the congregation’s ordained minister. Presbyterian’s belief structures and practices are bringing to the focus the Bible and the sovereignty of God. Nowadays, they make up one of the most extensive branches of Protestant Christianity.\n\n\nQuakers were established by English evangelist George Fox, in 1647. Quakers belief system was based on the idea that one’s conscience is the furthermost important authority on morals and actions. One of the most important members of Quakers was William Penn. He wrote about freedom of consciousness, and his writings made a base of religious ideas and understandings for Quakers all around the world. William Penn wrote about and believed in equal rights for women and promoted religious toleration. He also accentuated the need for fair trade with Native Americans. Quakers did not have church buildings, and they spoke up only when “the Spirit moved them.” Being very modest, Quakers dressed up in plain clothes and preferred simple life over aristocracy.\n\nThe most important Christian churches that had a great influence on the history of religion in America were Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Eastern Orthodoxy.\n\nThese, often called “liturgical” churches set form of ritualistic practices and practiced an allegiance to certain doctrines that were based in the early centuries.\n\nEven though not the oldest one, Roman Catholic Church ranks as the largest Christian tradition today. Roman Catholics arrived in America with Spanish people in 1513. In the beginning, Roman Catholics held their cultural roots strongly, however, later they joining the rest of the American society. Even though there are many members of Roman Catholic Church that do not agree with all the issues, such as abortion, the general attitude towards women and abortion, the American Church has continued its loyalty to the Pope even today.\n\nThe Church of England, which later became the Episcopal Church in the U. S. was the first one established in America, in Virginia. Ever since their first services were held, The Church of England had been tested by a numerous schism, especially when it comes to their attitude toward woman. The Church of England and Roman Church are in many ways similar, especially in their clergy orders.\n\nOrthodoxy is the third Christian church which had a great influence on Christianity in America today. Eastern Orthodoxy in America is a mixture of many church bodies whose origin comes from Greece, Romania, and Russia. The Orthodox belief system is based on doctrines of the early Christianity and the Bible. Their services are the most detailed worship services of all the Christian traditions.\n\nAmerica was also the perfect place for utopian communities which rose as the places where followers could be involved in perfect social and religious systems. The first utopian community in America was established in 1663 and, until the American Revolution, there were about 20 of them. Throughout the history, the most successful utopian community was the Mormons community. The leader of Mormons was Joseph Smith who established these communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Joseph Smith claimed that angled directed him to a buried book which was written on golden plates. According to Smith, this book, which he named as the Book of Mormon, contained the religious history of people. In 1830 Smith established a church of Christ, and its missionaries had made a large number of people who converted to Mormonism religion. Over time, Mormons expanded their missionary efforts around Europe and South Pacific, and many of the people that converted came from England and Scandinavia. Mormons believe in a universe which is ruled by a God whose goal is to bring his followers/children, immortality, and eternal life. They believe in the premortal existence, and that people are, at this stage, spirit children of God who created the plan of salvation which will help his children to make progress and become like him. The most important child of God is Jesus Christ, who is considered to be the eldest child and only those who fully accept the Jesus will be accepted to the highest kingdom. Mormons believe that God chose Joseph Smith to restore the Christianity the way it should be from the beginning. The popularity of utopian community escalated during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of those who were seeking for personal growth joined these communities. Utopian communities offered an alternative lifestyle which served as an example of some of the best characteristics that America was originally meant to offer.\n\nAlthough Jews were presented in America in the 17th century, large-scale immigration took place only in 19th century, as a result of European persecutions. In the history of American religion, it is also very important to mention that Israel gained the statehood after the centuries of persecution and mistreatment. President Harry S. Truman offered U. S. A. `s recognition if the Israel statehood for the sake of all those who suffered in the World War 2. Even though there was a possibility of retaliation from Arab countries, President Harry S. Truman also offered recognition of the American Jewish population and, no matter on the long criticism America continued to support Israel notably among American evangelical churches. From 1950s African- American Southern churches also created a sustained presence on the American religious scene as a result of impassioned leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. New Age movement in America emerged in 1968. New Agers started looking for the answers in spirituality and occult, identifying themselves with the wave of the Eastern spiritual masters. The idea of the New Age movement was bonding with the God on the basis of universal transformation. The fastest spreading and developing manifestation of the movement is Scientology founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954. Scientology is based on Hubbard's researches and analysis of how the human mind and spirit work.\n\nNowadays, America continues to be a place for all of those who seek for religious freedom and, with approximately 3,000 religious groups that exist on its territory makes a small heaven for every human being.\n\n[] Abrahamic Religions\n\nAbrahamic religions are one of the major religions in the world. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the largest divisions in comparative religion in terms of numbers of followers. Of all these three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Judaism is the oldest Abrahamic religion, and it dates from the late second millennium BCE.\n\nChristianity first occurred in the first century BCE, while the Islam is the youngest among these three and dates from seventh century BCE. Besides these three main religions, there are also Samaritanism, the Druze faith, Rastafari, and Baha I Faith which are also Abrahamic religions.\n\nTerm “Abrahamic religion” means that these religions come from one metaphysical origin- belief in Abraham as the ancestor. While Christians assign Abraham as a “father in faith,” Muslims have a religious term “faith of Ibrahim” which illustrates the belief that practicing the Islam is based on traditions of Abraham. All three Abrahamic religions claim their genealogies to Abraham in their sacred texts. In Torah, Abraham is described as the ancestor of the Israelites, the first part of Christian Bible- Old Testament, also claim Abraham as their ancestor, and Islamic tradition claims that Muhammad is a descendant of Ishmael who is a descendant of Isaac by Jacob, who is later known as Israel. There are many common elements to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam:\n\n\nChristianity, Judaism, and Islam are strictly monotheistic religions which promote the faith in one omnipotent and omnipresent God, creator of the entire universe. As an opposite of the ancient polytheistic religions such as Mesopotamian and Egyptian, followers of the Abrahamic religions are not created only to serve the gods. The Abrahamic system of belief is based on faith in one God who cared about his creation (people) and desires the well-being of all human beings. For the safety of humankind, it is believed that God has provided basic rules which, if followed, make a man good and righteous. In Jewish theology, God of Israel is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Israelites is named YHWH (Jehovah) which means “The self-existent One.” Although Christians believe in holy trinity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is still monotheistic religion, and the belief in the Trinity is just an expression of the complex divinity of the God. Islamic belief, on the opposite of Christianity, has no progeny. Islamic God is named Allah.\n\nReligious texts\n\nIt is believed that religious texts were God’s tool of communicating with people. This way God was able to express his will to the human kind. Even though all the main Abrahamic religions have their own sacred texts, those texts feature very similar figures, historical stories/myths, and places. These religious texts are considered to be words of God, therefore sacred and unquestionable. The sacred scriptures of Judaism are Torah (Law of Teachings), Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). Most of the Christian groups take the Old Testament and the New Testament for their sacred scriptures. Latin Bible contained 73 books, but 7 of them were removed by Martin Luther King because of the lack of original Hebrew sources. Islam` s holiest book is the Qur’an. However, Muslims do believe in the religious texts of Judaism and Christianity as well, but only in their original versions which, they believed, are lost by many years of changing and rewriting.\n\nGood and Evil\n\nJudaism, Christianity, and Islam strongly believe in the choice between good and evil. Abrahamic religions have actually the came concept and ethical orientation which is associated with the obedience or disobedience to a God.\n\nJudgment day\n\nAll the Abrahamic religions are based on the belief in Judgment day. Beginning with the creation of the world, through the entire history of humanity, all the way to the death and the day of final Judgment when it is believed, true followers will go to heaven, and those who disobeyed will go to hell. Even described differently, all the religions spread the story of heaven and hell. What is the most fascinating is that, on the opposite of traditional belief, none of these religions claim that followers of the other religion will strictly go to hell? The most important goal in anyone` s life, no matter on religion, is to follow main moral instructions and do no harm to any other living creature on purpose.\n\n\nAbrahamic religions had prophets who were, besides the sacred texts, a God`s tool to communicate with people. Abraham is claimed to be the first Hebrew and father of Jewish people, Jesus Christ was a prophet of Christianity, the son of the God, and Muslims believe in Muhammad a.s. As mentioned, all three of these religions do believe that Abraham was their ancestor, and Muslims actually believe in all the Abrahamic prophets, considering the Muhammad as the last one whose primary goal was to bring back the basics of monotheistic religion.\n\nRituals and Traditions\n\nAbrahamic religions have some very similar rituals and traditions, starting from the fact that all of them have one day in a week to rest and do nothing. This is considered to be based on the story of how God created the world in six days, and the last one took to take a rest. In Judaism it is Sabbath, Christians have Sundays and Muslim people Friday.\n\nNowadays, since Abrahamic religions take the majority of the world’s religions, we can see many tensions between the followers of these three religions. No matter on some disagreements it is the fact that these religions have many things in common and while the extremists are taking the effort to find the differences, regular people, no matter which Abrahamic religion they follow, learned from their religion that they should not hate any God` s creature.\n\n[] History of Jerusalem\n\nThe Israeli city of Jerusalem has a complex and bloody 6,000-year story. At the beginning of its history, a group of people made a settlement near the Gihon Spring, which lies east of today’s Old City walls. For hundreds of years, Jerusalem was merely a small place dominated by agricultural concerns. It was known as Rusalimum and may have referred to Shalim, a Canaanite dawn god. At the time, the Egyptian empire was powerful, and the inhabitants of the settlement would have lived under its rule.\n\nTwo and a half thousand years after it was founded, Jerusalem and the surrounding area were invaded by a group of people known as the Philistines. They weakened the Egyptian empire’s rule. King David emerged as a ruler, creating a new kingdom (Judea), which had Jerusalem as its capital. The city became subject to the increasingly organized rule. The inhabitants officially worshiped a single god, but ancient polytheistic beliefs were still the day-to-day norm. A Temple was built, and the population was encouraged to make religious pilgrimages there and cast their old religions aside.\n\nAhaz of Jerusalem was king of Judea in 733 BCE. At that time, he requested that the ruler of the Assyrian Empire help him defeat his enemy and neighbor, Israel. However, the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians in 605 BCE. Their king, Nebuchadnezzar, later took over Jerusalem and took the king of Jerusalem, Jehoiachin, into captivity. Zedekiah was made king in his place but was still subject to control by Nebuchadnezzar. However, he rebelled in 587 BCE, and as a result, the latter destroyed the Temple in a fit of rage. After a period of conflict, Jerusalem was left empty for a number of years.\n\nWhen the Babylonian Empire collapsed in 538 BCE, the new ruler King Cyrus II of Persia encouraged an alliance with the Judeans by allowing them to rebuild their Temple. By 516 BCE, the new Temple was complete, and Jerusalem became the administrative center of Judea, now ruled over by the Persians. A comprehensive history is beyond the scope of this chapter but, in brief, Jerusalem was ruled by the following groups and leaders: Alexander The Great, Ptolemy I, the Seleucid Empire, the Hasmoneans (including King Herod, who was installed by the Roman Empire), Nero, Titus, Emperor Hadrian, Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Umayyad dynasty, the Fatimid dynasty, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, and the Ottoman Empire, who ruled for almost 400 years. During the Ottoman rule, which was largely tolerant and peaceful, the city expanded to include a number of new settlements beyond its official walls.\n\nJerusalem has been completely ruined on two occasions, subjected to over 20 sieges, over 40 instances of capture and recapture, and 52 instances of attack. For significant periods in Jerusalem’s history, Jews were banned from living in or sometimes even visiting the city. In 312 CE, Christian rule exiled Jews from the city. Jews were permitted to live there once more in 638 CE while the city was under Muslim rule, but mosques were built on Temple Mount, previously a holy Jewish site of special religious significance. In 1099, the city’s Muslim rulers were defeated by Christians, and the city’s Jews were killed. It wasn’t until 1267 that a new synagogue was established.\n\nThe British ruled Jerusalem from 1917-1948, after which it was split into two parts – one-half belonged to Jordan, and the other to Israel. Israel took control of Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Modern-day Jerusalem is split between Jews in the West and Muslims and Christians in the east.\n\n[] History of the Church\n\nTo speak of the history of ‘the Church’ is to speak of the history of Christianity, which encompasses various branches of the religion and its attendant figures, buildings, and nations. Early Church history began with the early spread of Christianity in the middle of the first century AD. The early Christians took their religion from Jerusalem and brought it to Jordan and Egypt. By the end of the third century AD, Christianity was a major religious force in the Mediterranean.\n\nThe missionary Paul (formerly known as Saul prior to his conversion) played a major role in spreading Christianity. He worked hard in establishing groups of Christians – churches – in many countries, both within and beyond the Roman Empire. However, despite his efforts, Christians were often persecuted for their beliefs by various rulers including Nero (54-68) and Diocletian (284-305). As a result, Christians were often martyrs, dying in an attempt to uphold their faith.\n\nA key change took place when a senior Roman soldier, Constantine, triumphed in an important battle in his quest to become Emperor. He believed that the Christian God had helped him succeed, and as a result converted to the religion. Shortly afterward, Christianity became the approved, official religion of the Roman Empire and Christians could live without fear of persecution. In order to formulate the specifics of the Christian religion, Constantine called a council together in Nicea in 325 AD. They established creeds and the official tenets of the Christian faith.\n\nHowever, their decisions did not go unchallenged. Over the coming centuries, various figures would launch counter-attacks and alternative interpretations of, for example, the teachings of Jesus. The final Council held to discuss such matters during the time of the Roman Empire was held in 451 AD in Chalcedon. The Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, and the impact upon the Christian Church was significant. Previously, all members of the Church had been subject to Roman rule. However, once the Empire collapsed, differences between Eastern and Western Christians emerged.\n\nVarious differences in opinion regarding teachings and traditions within the Church erupted into the Great Schism in 1054. The religious rulers of Constantinople and Rome were unable to reconcile their views, and the Church was split into two main branches – the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. A key difference concerns the issue of Papal infallibility. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes the authority of the Pope, whereas the Orthodox Church does not.\n\nBetween the 14th and 15th century, there was a significant difference of opinion within the Roman Catholic Church concerning the appointment of a new Pope. This resulted in a fresh schism, which was motivated by political as much as religious issues. Another key turning point in Church history was the Protestant Reformation, which began in 1517 when a German monk by the name of Martin Luther began to protest against what he saw as problematic issues within the Church, such as the buying of indulgences and general corruption. In time, a number of groups would form including the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Reformed, and Anabaptist churches. Small groups who were considered to have ‘radical beliefs’ (such as the Amish and the Hutterites) were persecuted by the larger, more well-established branches of the Church. Later movements within the Church included Puritanism (16th and 17th Centuries), Pietism, and Spiritual Revivalism (incorporating the 18th Century Methodist movement, which represented a breakaway group from the Church of England).\n\nToday there are over two billion Christians around the world. There are three key denominational branches, 12 denominational families, and 33,000 denominational sects. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches all claim to be the one true Church grounded in the teachings of Jesus, meaning that Christianity remains a highly divided religion.\n\n[] Crusades\n\n‘The Crusades’ is a phrase that generally refers to several long-term military operations led by the Church that took place during the Medieval period (between the 11th and 15th centuries) with the intention of defeating Muslims living in the Middle East. It is important to note that there is no universal agreement among historians as to how exactly, a ‘crusade’ ought to be defined. However, the information in this section is generally considered representative of the history and purpose of the Crusades. The purpose of the Crusades was to secure Christian territory, to capture lands held by those of other faiths, and to defend Christians living under the threat of persecution in other lands.\n\nThe campaign referred to as the First Crusade was triggered in 1095 following Pope Urban II’s statement that the Byzantine Empire needed the Church’s help in defeating Turks in Anatolia. Pope Urban claimed that he wanted to ensure rights of access to areas in the Holy Land that were under Muslim rule, but his actual motives remain unclear. He may have sought, rather, to bring together Western and Eastern regions of Christendom before establishing himself as head of a new Church.\n\nThose who lead Crusades would often use their positions to further their own ends, sometimes keeping the lands they captured for themselves rather than aim to establish a new, peaceful Christian kingdom. For example, those leading armed units in the First Crusade did not always return the land to the Byzantines.\n\nThose leading the First Crusade achieved their goal of capturing Jerusalem in 1099 and established Christian states in the surrounding areas. Centuries of fraught relationships between various groups in the region lead to further Crusades, all of which were ordered by the Papal authority with variously stated intentions. For example, the Fifth Crusade featured the invasion of Egypt, and the Sixth Crusade the restoration of the holy city of Jerusalem. The final Crusade, lead by King St. Louis IX of France in 1269, represented an invasion of Tunisia. In brief, the eight Crusades were as follows:\n\nThe First Crusade: 1096-1099: Jerusalem was recaptured from Muslim rulers in 1099.\n\nThe Second Crusade: 1147-1149: Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany lead a campaign to capture the County of Edessa.\n\nThe Third Crusade: 1189-1192: Lead by three European kings with the aim of recapturing Jerusalem, which was again under Muslim rule.\n\nThe Fourth Crusade: 1202-1204: This represented another attempt at regaining the Holy City. However, it ended with the sacking of Constantinople.\n\nThe Fifth Crusade:1217-1221: An attempt to succeed where the Fourth Crusade had failed, this campaign also ended in defeat.\n\nThe Sixth Crusade: 1228-1229: A major success, this Crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem, Nazareth, and other cities.\n\nThe Seventh Crusade: 1248-1254: Louis IX attempted to conquer Egypt and recapture parts of the Holy Land that had fallen outside of Christian rule. However, he failed as he had to return home to France when his mother died.\n\nThe Eighth Crusade: 1270: This represented Louis’ second attempt. He began in Tunisia but died shortly after arriving. His brother was left to ensure the army returned home to France. Prince Edward of England then launched his own campaign but left to return home once he received news that his father had fallen ill.\n\nEach Crusade had the following elements in common. Firstly, all those taking part swore an allegiance to join the cause. They would sew a red cross onto their clothes, which could only be removed when they had completed their quest. Secondly, all Crusades were ordered or endorsed by the current Pope. Thirdly, those who completed their Crusade were granted leniency for their sins, also known as ‘indulgences.’ Finally, in order to ‘count’ as a Crusade, those fighting it had to be granted privileges. For instance, anyone caught attempting to take over a Crusader’s lands was punished severely. Crusaders also enjoyed hospitality from the Church, and lower rates of taxes compared with those paid by the general public.\n\nThe legacy left by the Crusades is extensive. In practical terms, they facilitated business and travel in the Mediterranean area, which, in turn, meant that cities such as Venice grew in wealth and influence. The ideals of chivalry, self-denial, and heroism were widely endorsed, and this lay the foundations for various literary traditions including romanticism.  \n\n[] Muhammad\n\nMuhammad (Muḥammad ibn `Abd Allāh), also known as ‘The Prophet Muhammad,’ is the most important human figure within Islam. Muslims believe him to be the final prophet sent from God to humankind in order that the one true monotheistic religion is established. He is commonly referred to as ‘The Holy Prophet’ by followers of Islam. ‘Muhammad’ translates to ‘praiseworthy’ in Arabic. Muslims believe that Muhammad’s origins can be traced back to the Prophet Abraham, placing Muhammad firmly amongst the most significant prophets to have ever lived and contributed to the modern monotheistic religions.\n\nMuhammad was born in Mecca, Arabia, circa 570 CE. His parents died young, leaving him an orphan who was raised by various relatives and non-relatives including a grandfather and then an uncle. It is thought that the Islamic tradition of showing generosity towards orphans is the direct result of the Prophet’s own beginnings in life. In line with customs of the time, the young Muhammad passed a few years in the desert with the Bedouin people, in order that he might learn not only the Arabic language and traditions but also desirable personal qualities such as self-discipline.\n\nAs an adult, Muhammad worked as a merchant trader. Islamic tradition teaches that he was a good-looking man who enjoyed a reputation as a fair, noble individual who was always willing to help others. He became known as ‘al-Amin,’ which translates to ‘The Trusted One.’ Between his shoulder blades was a mole, which was recognized by many as a sign of prophethood. At the age of 25, Muhammad married a 40-year-old widow by the name of Khadijah. Their union was long and happy. Despite the fact that it was common practice to take multiple wives, he did not marry another woman until Khadijah had died. The couple had six children, two boys (who died young) and four girls.\n\nIn middle age, he began to receive holy revelations while engaging in prayer and periods of quiet seclusion in caves near his home. Within a few years, he began spreading these teachings. Among Muhammad’s key messages were the following: That there is only one God, that all must surrender to God, and that he (Muhammad) was a prophet in direct communication with God. He stated that he had received direct teachings from the Angel Gabriel and other holy figures.\n\nWhen he received the first set of revelations from the Angel Gabriel, Muhammad feared that he had been possessed by demonic forces. He told his wife what had occurred, and she consulted her Christian cousin Waraqah. Waraqah, who was highly knowledgeable on the topic of religious and spiritual matters, believed that Muhammad had been chosen as a prophet. He would then receive revelations, which were sometimes accompanied by a bell-like sound, for 23 more years.\n\nInitially, when Muhammad tried to tell others what he had learned, his preaching was met with hostility. He left Mecca and settled in Medina. This move came to be known as the Hijra. While living in Medina, Muhammad formed a united state of tribes, known as the Constitution of Medina. In 629 CE, he and thousands of converts to Islam captured Mecca. By the time of Muhammad’s death a few years later, much of the Arab world had converted to Islam.\n\nThe teachings received by Muhammad from middle age until death form the basis of the Quran, the holy text at the heart of the Islamic faith. The Quran, also known as ‘The Word of God,’ is comprised of verses addressing a range of issues covering most aspects of human nature and relationships. There are also separate pieces of literature – the Hadith and Sira literature – that contain other teachings and practices espoused by Muhammad (also known as ‘sunnah’).\n\n[] The World’s Religions\n\nIt is commonly agreed that there are six major religions practiced around the world today. They are listed below, along with their key beliefs.\n\nChristianity: Based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, a Jew who lived approximately 2,000 years ago, Christianity has 2.1 billion followers. Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Jewish Old Testament, that he is the son of God, and was sent to earth in order that humanity is saved from its sins. Jesus is believed to have come to earth in human form and died on the cross before rising from the dead and ascending to Heaven. Followers believe that in coming to accept Jesus as one’s personal savior, one can enjoy eternal life and closeness to God. The Bible is the key holy text within Christianity.\n\nIslam: With 1.3 billion followers, Islam is the most popular religion on Earth. The faith was formed in Arabia by the Prophet Muhammad. Islam is a monotheistic religion – indeed, the word ‘Islam’ means ‘submission to God’s will.’ Muslims believe that the key teachings of Allah (God) were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad around 1500 years ago. Jesus, Abraham, and Moses are respected as prophets, but Muslims believe that the word of God was revealed in its final form to Muhammad. The Quran is the Islamic holy text.\n\nHinduism: Hinduism is practiced by 900 million people worldwide, and is more properly described as a group of religions and practices originating over thousands of years ago. It is unusual in that it has no key figurehead or even consensus as regards teachings. The word ‘Hindu’ derives from ‘Sindhu,’ a Sanskrit word used by inhabitants of a region of northwest India. Although it is difficult to define ‘a Hindu,’ most practitioners follow a body of literature called the Veda, and a system of morals known as dharma. Most Hindus believe in a supreme God who may take on a variety of forms, as well as the principle of reincarnation.\n\nBuddhism: Derived from the teachings of the Buddha, Buddhism is practiced by 376 to over 500 million people worldwide. It focuses on attaining enlightenment through regular, deep contemplation on the true nature and meaning of existence. In the 6th century BCE, a prince by the name of Siddhartha Gautama left his life of luxury and went on a quest for personal enlightenment. Sitting underneath a tree one day, he found what he was seeking – a sense of being at one with the universe. Buddhists do not believe in a personal God and see change as the single ongoing reality. Morality, wisdom, and meditation are perceived as paths to nirvana (a state of ultimate enlightenment and bliss).\n\nSikhism: Practiced by 23 million people worldwide, Sikhism is based on the teachings of the teachings of Guru Nanak, who lived during the 15th Century CE. It is a monotheistic religion that has at its center an emphasis on living well and performing good deeds, not merely enacting religious rituals. A Sikh will strive to remember God at all times, serve other people, work hard, act fairly, and be honest. Sikhs worship at temples known as Gurdwaras, and their religious text is the Guru Granth Sahib.\n\nJudaism: Predating Christianity and Islam, Judaism is the religion of 14 million people across the globe. Jews believe that they were chosen over 3500 years ago to enter into an agreement with God. Under the terms of this agreement, they agreed to uphold a standard of holiness and good behavior to all other groups of people. The religion was founded by Moses. Their holy text is the Torah, which outlines the moral law. A Jewish place of worship is known as a synagogue, and their religious leaders are known as Rabbis.\n\n  • * The World’s Most Destructive Religious Movements / Cults\n\nEver since the ancient times, the world has created a great amount of religions whose primary goal was to help the person to identify himself with a group of like-minded. However, one thing which should be the same for every religion is not to do harm to any other creature. Unfortunately, today, there are many destructive groups that name themselves as some sort of religious movements whose ritual practices and system of beliefs include human sacrifice, child abuse, mass suicides, criminal activity or psychological casualties which can expose an unethical use of control. Some of the most common features of these movements are isolation, group pressure, removing any chance of privacy- an individual is never left alone, and a group is involved in all the segments of his life, indoctrination, change of diet, sense of guilt and fear, etc.\n\nThe following are some of the most dangerous and destructive religious movements in the World:\n\n\nAs the name says itself- Satanism is categorized as a religion of the worshippers of Satan. Public practice of Satanism began in 1966 with the American occultist Anton Szandor LaVey who wrote a book called Satanic Bible. This religion rejects the existence of any form of supernatural beings, basing itself on atheistic and materialistic beliefs. Some of the satanic sects are well known for their destructive activities such as the \"Beasts of Satan\" whose members committed murders in Italy between 1998- 2004, or the Order of Nine Angels, the group from the 1960s that affirmed human sacrifice.\n\nPeoples Temple\n\nThis religious movement was founded in 1955 by Jim Jones. Jim Jones promoted a message which was a combination of Christianity and social politics with an accent on the racial equality, which is, to be honest, not a destructive system of beliefs. However, this movement is mostly known for the murders of Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his delegation, after which John convinced the members to commit suicide. November 18, 1978, will be known as greatest single loss of American civilian life after 909 people, members of Temple, committed suicide.\n\nHeaven’s Gate\n\nMarshall Applewhite, a founder of the cult Heaven’s Gate, believed he was a descendant of Jesus Christ. He spread a message among his followers that the world is going to be ruined by aliens and that all of them should leave the earth before this happen. The idea was a massive suicide that would provide their souls a journey with Comet Hale- Bopp, which was believed to be a spaceship. Members of this group took phenobarbital mixed with pineapple and vodka to commit suicide.\n\nChurch of Euthanasia\n\nThis group believes that the world is overpopulated. They actually encourage its members to take action such as taking one’s life, avoiding procreation at all costs, as well as promoting cannibalism to avoid burying the bodies of the dead. Because of their strange practices and beliefs, this church came under fire many times by police. This Church asks from people to kill themselves in order to save the planet. One of their most unpopular videos was the video “I Like to Watch” which showed 9/ 11 footage side-by-side with hardcore porn.\n\nAum Shinrikyo\n\nA religious movement founded by Shoko Asahara, the Japanese man who claimed to be “the Lamb of God.” He claimed he could cleanse members of his group of all the sins and help them survive the End of the world. This group released sarin on the three lines of the Tokyo subway during the rush hour causing the death of 12 people, severely injuring 50 and causing temporary injuries to thousands.\n\n  • * Parody Religions / Some Of The World’s Funniest Religions\n\nParody religions are mostly the system of beliefs that mock the spiritual convictions of others. The accent of most of these religions is having fun through humor, satire or burlesque. Some of the most popular parody religions are:\n\nInvisible Pink Unicorn\n\nThis religion was created as a parody of theistic and their definitions of the God. The basic idea of Invisible Pink Unicorn’s members is to discuss and argue about supernatural beliefs which they compare with Russell’s cosmic teapot.\n\nThe Worst Religion Ever\n\nThis religion was created in honor to Ed Wood who was known as a director of cheap films in the 1940s. Ed Wood was famous for his constant revisions on the set and directed the movie “Plan 9 From Outer Space” which was claimed to be the worst movie in the history of movie-making. Followers of the Church of the Heavenly Wood rely on a possibility to find a true path to the happiness in life by watching his films.\n\n\nParody religion Pastafarianism is known as the Church of the flying spaghetti. Even though it is a parody, this religion has a huge number of followers. The basic belief of Pastafarians is that monster in the shape of spaghetti with meatballs created the earth when he was drunk. Pastafarianism is, similar to Invisible Pink Unicorn, modern version of the Russell ` s teapot.\n\n\nThis religion movement is inspired by the movie “The Big Lebowski” and its main character “The Dude” who was a very appreciated guru. Their belief system is a modern form of Taoism, and it advocates the practice of “being cool-headed,” “taking it easy” or “going with the flow.” The number of Dudeist Priests is estimated on 350,000 nowadays.\n\n\nJediism is relatively new religious, a non theistic movement which is based on the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the depiction of the Jedi in Star Wars. Followers of Jedism movement follow the moral codes which are demonstrated by the Star Wars Jedis.\n\n[] Zoroastrianism\n\nDating back at least 3000 years, Zoroastrianism is among the oldest religions in the world. It is still practiced to an extent in India and Iran (where it was founded), and, as with most religions in the modern day, it has small communities around the world. The religion was powerful during ancient times when it was the state religion of Persia, but today its adherents have fallen to numbering below possibly 200,000. The religion has seen some debate in the West due to its early adoption of a dualistic approach (in opposition to polytheistic) to the universe. Good and evil are two separate concepts, but they both exists to make up the whole. They exist physically in the universe but also in the mind. The opposing forces of good and evil, represented by Ahura Mazda and, Angra Mainyu respectively, form a similar dichotomy that God and Satan form in the Abrahamic religion Christianity.\n\nAhura Mazda is considered to perpetuate the creative force, Spenta Mainyu; Angra Mainyu is not the exact opposite of Ahura Mazda (and certainly not the same as Satan), but this entity is considered to control the destructive force opposing the creative one. Disease, sickness, and death are all consequences of Angra Mainyu’s attack on Spenta Mainyu. These two forces mirror physical aspects such as life and death, light and dark, and good and evil.\n\nAgain, displaying similarities to Christianity (though founded at least a millennium earlier), God (Ahura Mazda) gifted free will to mankind, who may choose the be good or evil. If the former is pursued, everlasting happiness and peace is the reward; the latter leads to suffering in Hell. This area of the religion deals with the mind’s duality, and there we can see dualities like sadness and happiness or truth and deception. Once all mankind decides to follow the path of good, then there will be a paradise on Earth, for good will have defeated evil. Overall, it is believed humanity is inherently good and gives a positive prognosis on the future of the battle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. Interestingly, man is thus seen as an assistant rather than a servant of God, for if a man chooses good, he will help God defeat evil. Under this condition, all humans are considered equal (man, woman, child), and only are unequal in their level of righteousness.\n\nThe founder of the religion, Zoroaster, is also known by the name Zarathustra, which is also the main character in Nietzsche’s writing, Thus Spake Zarathustra. He was married with children, and he rejected the polytheism of his contemporaries. He also did not approve of the oppressive system in his society, hence one of the main tenets of Zoroastrianism being that all humans are equal. Around the time he was 30 (again similar to the Christian savior), Zoroaster had a vision that there was only one God worthy of worship, and he attempted to impart that to others. Initially, it is believed, he only had one person convert, and the convert was a family member. The local religious leaders did not accept his warnings against over ritualization and the local lay people, who believed in some gods, were discontent with his reclassification of those gods as simply evil spirits doing the work of the one Evil Spirit.\n\nBy the time of the first Persian Empire, Zoroastrianism was an established religion in western Iran. The rulers, starting with Cyprus the Great, were followers of the religion. Unlike certain other empires, Cyprus did not foist the religion upon all his subjects. The subjects included the Jews who had been Babylon, and he even allowed them to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple. Resulting from this act of good, Zoroastrian ideals heavily influenced Judaism following the return to Jerusalem.\n\nWhen Alexander the Great of Macedonia arrived and conquered the Persian Empire, the religion was particularly harmed. Many of the leaders and priests were killed and the texts destroyed. However, the core tenets remained and, after Alexander died and his empire began to fragment, the religion enjoyed more freedoms in various regions. Shortly after Alexander’s successors were removed from power, another set of rulers entered. They were not particularly interested in forcing religion upon their subjects and governed in a fashion reminiscent of their Zoroastrian predecessors. A centralized church was eventually set up and became rather wealthy. This afforded it independence and some insulation from other growing religions of the time, but, as with everything in history, the rulers eventually fell to another power.\n\nIn the 7th century during the Arab conquests, Persia fell under Arab rule. This conquest was more detrimental to Zoroastrianism than the attack from Alexander, but they were allowed to keep their particular religious practices provided they paid an extra tax. Life was not great for adherents, though, he also faced many laws that encouraged the conversion to Islam and social pressures to do the same. Zoroastrianism was destined to become a minority religion in the former Persian Empire. The conquests of the Turks and Khans was further harmful, and the status of the religion deteriorated even further. The ruling Khan converted to Islam instead of Zoroastrianism, effectively ensuring the religion would remain a minority religion.\n\nZoroastrians believe fire represents the wisdom of God, but it does not imply they worship fire. They worship God. Furthermore, because Zoroaster was against over ritualization in his time, modern Zoroastrians do not focus significantly on the rituals associated with the religion. It is a largely individualistic religion in which believers can pray how they want. They are expected to follow the three central ideals of Good Thoughts, Good Deeds, and Good Words. When praying – which is traditionally done several times a day but the frequency is up to the believer – they generally face some source of light (such as the sun, fire, or, in modernity, artificial life is also permissible), so that they may face the representation of God. This is likely the reason many people who know little about the religion think they worship fire. The religion also has been known to keep sacred fires alive inside temples as a way to stay constantly connected to God.\n\nAs death is the work of evil, and nature is the work of good, the corpses of Zoroastrians should not be buried in the ground. This mixes the impure dead body, which has been contaminated with evil death, into the sacred ground. Hence bodies used to be left on a high tower, built specifically for the funeral ritual. The bodies were left for vultures to eat and the sun to desiccate. This has the added benefit of exposing the body to constant good during the day (the sun). The practice, however, is often impractical in modern societies as there are laws about simply leaving decaying corpses out in the open. In India, there is still an area with the Towers of Silence, where a large portion of the extant Zoroastrian population leaves their dead. Even in India, though, the modernization of the country is forcing the remaining Zoroastrians to rethink the tradition. For those who cannot participate in such rituals due to laws or impracticability, cremation is usually the optimal choice for it turns the things associated with death such as stench and ugliness into simple ash.\n\n[] Conclusion\n\nJudging by events in human history to date, it seems likely that religion of some kind or another will continue to be practiced by the majority of the world’s population, at least for the foreseeable future. However, what form this religious adherence will take is open to interpretation and debate. There can be no doubt that the story of religion around the world will have to be frequently rewritten.\n\nSome religions are growing, whereas others are shrinking. According to the Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life, there is currently a dynamic shift taking place in the number of people practicing the major world religions. The Center’s researchers believe that if current trends continue, then by 2050 the number of Christians and Muslims will be equal, the number of Buddhists will remain approximately the same, and the number of Christians in the United States will decline from 75% to 66% of the population.\n\nWhile atheism, agnosticism and other forms of non-affiliation are growing in some countries, it is predicted that there will be an overall drop in the number of people who claim not to be a member of any religion. At the moment, there are thought to be around 1.1 billion people who do not identify with any particular religion. However, while the Pew Research Center predicts that this will increase to 1.2 billion by 2050, this will not keep pace with the global population growth as a whole. Currently, the non-affiliated make up 16% of the world’s population, but by 2050 this figure is predicted to settle at 13%. This change can largely be attributed to the fact that birth rates among the countries and classes that ascribe to these non religious ways of life are lower than the replacement rate, while the population is expected to grow, or even explode, for other areas that tend to be religious. The continual spread of knowledge and the fact that many religions are not compatible with each other may reverse this downward trend for the nonreligious; however, birth rates and population statistics cannot be ignored.\n\nThe ways in which future generations practice and follow any particular religion is impossible to predict with any degree of certainty, but understanding our cultural past as a species is important to understanding how we arrived at our current understanding of the world and how we approach the meaning of life itself. Religion and spirituality will, therefore, be an ongoing area of study for many years to come. It will also continue to play a role in global politics, especially if the world population in places with diverging religions continues to grow. Regardless of differences, we are all still human, and we can see commonalities between religions and indeed cultures. The study of religion should help you better understand those around you who are different.\n\n\n\n\nClick HERE, you’re going to love it!\n\n\n\nFor decades, religion has been the major source of human controversy. Throughout history, it has been a way to distinguish cultural and political beliefs. This has brought us together and torn entire kingdoms apart. The study of religion can greatly impact our understanding of certain places, people and events throughout the ages. History of Religion: An Overview of the most Important People and Events in The World’s Religions, Mythologies, & History of the Church focuses on the 6 major world religions that are unique on its own. These are: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. You will learn about: Egyptian Mythology, I Ching, History of Jerusalem, The Crusades, Muhammad, The World’s Religions, The World’s Most Destructive Religious Movements and Cults Parody Religions & Some Of The World's Funniest Religions, Zoroastrianism. Taking a deep dive into different religious tradition will help you gain a better understanding of different cultures and the religious traditions that are passed on from generation to generation. The culture and rituals that religion creates have infused themselves as a way of life for different people all around the world. Whether you are a student majoring in Humanities and Social Sciences, or you simply want to learn more about the history of religion, you won’t be disappointed with this enriching book!\n\n  • ISBN: 9781370921454\n  • Author: Lean Stone Publishing\n  • Published: 2017-05-14 09:05:16\n  • Words: 22380\nHistory of Religion: An Overview of the most Important People and Events in The History of Religion: An Overview of the most Important People and Events in The", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9868192076683044}
+{"content": "mulberry sale Spanish doctor Fuentes convict\n\nSpanish doctor Fuentes convicted over doping ring\n\nSeven years after the “Operacion Puerto” doping ring was uncovered, Judge Julia mulberry sale Santamaria on Tuesday sentenced Eufemiano Fuentes to one year in prison for endangering public health.\n\nFuentes was also banned from practicing sports medicine for four years and was ordered to pay a fine.\n\nThe judge also ruled that the blood bags be destroyed, which ruled out any further investigations by the World Anti Doping Agency or Spain’s national anti doping body.\n\nThe court also sentenced former cycling team official Ignacio Labarta to four months mulberry sale in jail. Fuentes’ sister Yolanda and former cycling officials Manuel Saiz and Vicente Belda were acquitted.\n\nDefendants who receive sentences of less than two years in Spain generally do not go to prison.\n\nAccording to the judge, Fuentes’ practices were aimed at enhancing athletes performances and, “This is a potential danger to athletes’ health,” the ruling said.\n\nThe defendants were charged with endangering public health instead of doping because it was not a crime at the time of the arrests. A Spanish anti doping law has since been passed.\n\nThe alleged doping network was uncovered on May 23, 2006, when Spanish police raided several apartments and a laboratory in Madrid and seized about 200 mulberry sale bags of blood. Police also arr mulberry sale ested doctors, sporting directors and trainers suspected of taking part in the scheme.\n\nmulberry sale Spanish doctor Fuentes convict\n\nSpanish doctor Fuentes convicted over cyclist doping\n\nA Spanish doctor accused of running one of the world’s largest sports doping rings has been sentenced to a year in prison for endangering public health.\n\n\nFuentes who is unlikely to be jailed because sentences under two years in Spain are usually suspended was also barred from practicing sports medicine for four years mulberry sale and fined.\n\n“The extractions and transfusions were not practised in accordance with the sanitary norms, but in a clandestine manner,” she said.\n\n\n\n\nSpain’s State Anti Doping Agency said it would appeal the ruling that the blood bags be destroyed and regretted that a new anti doping law pending in parliament had not been in force at the time.\n\n“All I can say is that I want to continue to work on this. For me, Operation Puerto is not over,” Ana Munoz, the director of Spain’s Anti Doping Agency, told a news conference after the court issued its ruling.\n\n‘Cover up’The court’s decision not to name and shame athletes has been criticised by world number three tennis player Andy Murray, who took to his Twitter account to call it “the biggest cover up in sport.”\n\noperacion puerto case is beyond a joke.\n\n“Dr Fuentes has admitted to having been involved in multip mulberry sale le prohibited doping activities, and linked with multiple unnamed athletes.\n\n\nFormer cyclist Jesus Manzano who gave evidence in the trial, said: “It’s shameful mulberry sale , I sincerely don’t know why they bother charging a person in order to deliver a verdict like that.\n\n“You don’t have to be a judge to deliver a sentence like that, a builder could do it.”\n\nSpain has been hoping the trial would help to dispel the im mulberry sale pression that the nation was soft on doping and boost Madrid’s bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games.\n\nmulberry sale Spanish Courts Initiate Crimin\n\nSpanish Courts Initiate Criminal Doping Investigation Of Armstrong’s US Postal Team\n\nAfter the Operacion Puerto verdict in the doping case of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes was announced earlier this week, the Spanish courts were confirmed to have opened a criminal investigation into doping which is following up on the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) investigation and 2012 report detailing the doping of Lance Armstrong and his teammates.\n\nAccording to The Guardian, a magistrate in Spain’s Alicante province, initiated a criminal investigation. Some of the happenings in USADA’s report occurred in Alicante, where Lance Armstrong’s US Postal team sometimes trained in 2001.\n\nAna Mu head of the national anti doping agency in Spain, told The Guardian, “Both the investigating magistrate and a prosecutor agree with the agency that there is evidence that a crime may have been committed.”\n\nThe investigation came about after the Spanish anti doping agency shared details of the USADA report with Spain’s attorney general, who in turn passed them onto prosecutors in Alicante and other provinces.\n\nUSADA’s report named Spanish doctors Luis Garc del Moral and Pedro Celaya as well as coach Jos “Pepe” Mart as involved in the doping scandal. In addition, Dr. Michele Ferrari was identified as present in Alicante at a team camp.\n\nGarc del Moral and Mart are not from Alicante, but come from a nearby province and it is uncertain whether they are under investigation. The team also trained in Girona, but there is no word on whether courts there are also investigating.\n\nBecause doping was not prohibited by Spanish law at the times of the incidents detailed in USADA’s report, those under investigation would only potentially face charges for public health crimes.\n\nOkay so Spain couldn’t use Puerto as an anti doping case, all they could so was charge with “using practices endagering public health”. Now they realize how much they have lost face in the world of sports they are trying to regain standings by going after a crime that they don’t have to investigate because someone has already done it for them. I know they are broke but this is just shameful.\n\nThe only thing that could be good out of this is that the riders who came forward only because they could reduce their own penalty may get a proper sentence. (Doub mulberry sale t it though as doping wasn’t illegal in Spain back then)\n\nThe crime they are investigating is trafficking, and not using (doping). But that still dosn’t matter when the judge in OP makes such a shameful and disgraceful decision as the one that was made. I need not list the names of their quilty cyclists, for there are too many. It’s such a shame for the likes of Oscar Freire and JA Flecha, whom i’d like to think are not part of that cheating spanish institution. i feel for them.\n\nSpain, get your house in order!\n\nNot LOL at all. The above mob dumping on Spain is deplorable, but has become comon practice among many X Lance fans or false patriotic zealists or whatever it is that makes one need focus blame. No one seems to remember the US federal USPS investigation being dropped for no reason. What was that? And the USADA had to basically fight their own countries cycling community as well as the UCI before finally presenting their case. Does that show a country with their “house in order”? What about Cycling Irelands decision to endorse McQuaid only last month. Its true the Puerto case is a shambles, but it is not remotely alone. With the smallest bit of perspective, it is clear that no one country is innocent of corruption, nor is any one country guilty. That same mulberry sale perspective will also show that doping is an international practice exclusive to no one country.\n\nThe saddest part of the Puerto case is that for us cycling fans the majority of the media focus ha mulberry sale s been on doping in cycling. Not to mention at least one certain popular Spanish tennis player. The Spanish justice system is not just trying to protect thier own. They are trying to protect a billion dollar sporting world from scandals way beyond the world of cycling.\n\nI’m not a believer in this popular (and interesting) conspiracy theory. There’s precious little circumstantial evidence or ‘smoke’ for the fire. I know Fuentes said it, but how much do we believe of what he said? The odd individual would not surprise me at all, but organised and professional Festina/ONCE/Postal style doping I’d be really shocked.\n\nCycling has a long history of doping, of people regularly getting popped by the (not very good) drug tests, of occasional scandals and riders ‘spitting in the soup’. Football and tennis not so much (and look at the relative size of these sports!) I know they do less rigorous testing but they seem to catch far more recreational drugs than PEDs.\n\nThis is not a conspiracy theory! Firstly, the absence of positive tests doesn’t prove the sport is clean recent history proves how the tests can be manipulated and beaten. Secondly, I think you need to look at the long history of systematic doping across Russian, East German, Chinese olympics programs, and any other high performance sport for that matter. Those programs/practices spread into many other sports. Many of the coaches from those countries found themselves in direct leadership and director roles in national sporting federations.\n\nSports such as football have so much more investment, influences from gambling, cartels operating, etc I have little doubt there are some seriously illegal practices occurring there not just doping. All these practices weren’t invented by cycling for god’s sake.\n\nI’m all too aware of olympic programme doping, which continues most noticeably in athletics.\n\nThere are scandals in football, sure, including lots of match fixing. But if there was organised doping I would expect a lot more Paul Kimmage/Willy Voet/Simeone type exposees and rumours. I’d also expect the few tests there are to catch out lazy/incompetent individuals on a regular basis as was happening in cycling all along outside of the big scandals. As it is, I only ever hear this line of argument from cycling fans who want to believe that other sports are just as bad.\n\nTo take another example: US sports like baseball and football. To neutral observers, these have been very obviously dirty for a long time. They have positions where brute strength is a key factor in performance. There were plenty of rumours and admissions flying around about drug use. And sure enough, they added some extremely trivial testing to baseball, and started popping cheats left, right, and centre.\n\nNB with all sports I’m sure there is the odd cheat looking to take a shortcut I’m talking about professional, organised doping.\n\nB16B, When OP broke news, for at least the first 6 month it was widely reported that there were almost 60 cyclists caught up with over 200 names in the records siezed. this was quoted in official press releases fro the civil guard at the time. since those initial statements the whole case has dwindled down to be involving the only large dollar sport that mulberry sale isn’t self regulating. Your comment on Football and tennis doing less testing and catching recreational rather than PEDs is because the recreational use is caught on phone camera rather than controled testing. I can’t think of anyone being caught on an iPhone camera doing EPO. Down under the football comentators even openly talk about players having Cortizone injections at half time to come out on the field in the second half.\n\nYes agreed. Don’t get me wrong, Spanish cycling seems to have done some pretty bad things in defence of its domestic riders, but this investigation (and court case, and law changes) has been far more useful than anything coming out of most other countries. It has taken years to get here but this is not a bad result.\n\nIn the US, as well as the case being dropped, and some pretty one eyed defense of certain riders in the face of overwhelming evidence, you also had the top riders using the legal system as a weapon against the truth (and mostly winning) by suing anyone and everyone for libel.\n\nI’d like to know the full list of riders implicated as much as anyone, but I’m not sure we can expect that as it would probably be illegal under the law of the time. I think we know (or can guess) many of the (allegedly 35) names anyway.\n\nRelated articlesReport: Spanish criminal investigation of Armstrong Trafficking and distribution of doping products illegal in Spain", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7340714931488037}
+{"content": "Emily Griffin’s LIGHT YEARS Inspires Young Creatives\n\n\nEmily Ziff Griffin\n\nSimon Pulse,\nISBN 9781476772875,\n\nEmily Ziff Griffin\n\nAuthorlink Audio Interview with Emily Ziff Griffin\n\n Audio Length: 15 minutes\n\nWriter and film producer Emily Ziff Griffin survived two experiences of devastating grief. Her father passed away from AIDS when she was a teenager. Her dear friend, mentor and producing partner Philip Seymour Hoffman died tragically in 2014. She’s spent more than two decades grappling with what death means and trying to accept the unexpected gifts that profound loss offers. Now, in her debut novel, LIGHT YEARS (Simon Pulse, September 2017), Griffin tells a deeply personal story through an imaginative lens. \n\nAuthorlink recently talked to Emily (audio interview) to learn what she gleaned about creativity from Philip Hoffman, and from the painful losses and experiences in her life. She believes books, unlike film, allow the reader to live inside someone’s head in a way that only the printed page can do.  Emily also wants to encourage young women to believe in their own creativity, a message borne out in LIGHT YEARS. \n\nIn the novel, Luisa Ochoa-Jones is ready for her life to start. Yesterday. And she could be on her way, as her extraordinary coding skills have landed her a finalist spot for a fellowship sponsored by Thomas Bell, the world’s most brilliant and mercurial tech entrepreneur. Being chosen means funding, mentorship, and most importantly, freedom from her overbearing mother. Maybe Lu will even figure out how to control the rare condition that plagues her: whenever her emotions run high, her physical senses kick into overload, with waves of color, sound, taste, and touch flooding her body. But Luisa’s life is thrust into chaos as a deadly virus sweeps across the globe, killing thousands and sending her father into quarantine. When Lu receives a cryptic, message from someone who might hold the key to stopping the epidemic, she knows she must do something to save her family—and the world. \n\n“I wrote LIGHT YEARS for teenagers who are on the precipice of adulthood, with all its freedoms and perils,” says Emily Ziff Griffin. “Life can feel limitless and bountiful and then suddenly become staggeringly lonely and confusing when we experience loss for the first time. We feel powerless. Through Luisa, I hope readers will connect to a character who is faced with epic circumstances and tremendous grief but discovers that her deepest emotions and most authentic self are the keys to reclaiming her power with purpose, grace, and hope.”\n\n\nEmily Ziff Griffin lives in Los Angeles where she writes, produces, teaches, daydreams, and mothers two young kids. When she was 25, she co-founded Cooper’s Town Productions with Philip Seymour Hoffman and produced the Academy Award-winning film, Capote, along with Hoffman’s directorial debut Jack Goes Boating and John Slattery’s God’s Pocket. She’s run three marathons, slowly, and hold a degree from Brown University in art-semiotics, the study of how images make meaning. She believes children are way more sophisticated than adults typically give them credit for and writes for the teenager who is ready to claim their own worldview and be grounded in their own power.  For more information, visit \n\n\n“The intersection of spiritualism, physical health, and a global community creates an evocative message that hints at the butterfly effect one person can have. Griffin’s near-future worldbuilding is stylish, immersive, and entirely plausible… A supernatural romantic thriller that defies convention.”\n\nKirkus Reviews\n\n “Griffin crafts a gorgeously written tale with depth, suspense, intriguing characters, and an engaging plot that moves along like a gripping action film.” School Library Journal, (starred review)\n\n\n\nSuspenseful, lyrical, and thought-provoking, LIGHT YEARS features a remarkable heroine on an intensely physical and emotional quest for hope and existential meaning.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998215913772583}
+{"content": "Anger, Rage and Furious George.\n\nAnger, Rage and Furious George.\n\nCurious George investigates his world because everything fascinates him; familiar things, unfamiliar things, things he doesn’t quite understand – everything. What keeps us wanting to come back to George is the fact that we know his curiosity will propel him into (mis)-adventures. But George isn’t undone by his mischief. He usually manages to pull himself out of it and sometimes even saves the day. (\n\nOkay, that’s the beloved George of the Curious ilk that we all grew up with. Yet, we’ve all met a George of the more Furious ilk – one minute a great guy, the next, something comes over him and he’s flying into a rage.\n\nDomestic abuse comes to mind as does road rage, angry outbursts, screaming and yelling, impulsive corporal punishment, assaults and violent crime.\n\nWhat is it that “trips” someone into that aggressive state?\n\nBy aggression, I am referring to anger that we cannot control and often feel remorse for.\n\nIn the case of Furious, uh, er Curious George he is experiencing a biological conflict of identity (the rectal relay on the left hemisphere) coupled with a second biological conflict of an anger (the stomach relay on the right hemisphere.)\n\nWhen George experiences an everyday trigger that accentuates his identity conflict he’ll can often go into a rage. Like the time his girlfriend questioned his sexuality (they don’t call him curious for nothing!)\n\nIn German New Medicine, aggressive disorders such as anger and rage involve multiple biological conflict-shocks in opposing halves of the brain, referred to as constellations. In other words, one active conflict on each hemisphere in direct opposition. Think a constellation of stars in the night sky. These constellations will always create unique psychoses depending upon their sequence and combinations.\n\nThe biological conflicts involved will always affect the territorial brain relays in the cerebral cortex. The left cerebral cortex is the female territorial realm while the right cerebral cortex is the male territorial realm.\n\nIf you play close attention, all of George’s cortical conflicts are revealed in this short film.\n\n\nDr. Hamer has unraveled the brain and has shown us that the masculine or right hemisphere is responsible for depression when part of a larger constellation. By depression, I am referring to a range of moods from simply feeling unmotivated, introspective and couch potato blue to a deep, debilitating and unshakable funk. The feminine or left hemisphere – mania when part of a larger constellation. By mania we are referring to a similar range of moods from feeling motivated and energized to the classical manic expression.\n\nWhen in constellation, if the greater mass or weight of conflict activity is on the right hemisphere we will be what is referred to as aggressive-depressive; in other words the anger is directed towards self. When of the left, aggressive-manic where the anger is directed outward as rage, violence towards others.\n\nDetermining proper laterality and hormonal status is vital to understand the origin of the anger. The intensity of the rage is determined by the magnitude of the conflicts.\n\nAn oft asked question, one that seemingly has not been adequately answered by traditional psychiatry is why anger and aggression tends to come in spurts? Why we seemingly for no apparent reason go into it and come out of it. The answer may be found in the ‘rule of weight’ which Dr. Hamer discovered during his work with psychoses.\n\nObviously, for most of us, as our life events are unfolding we unconsciously go on ‘tracks’ affecting the ‘weight’ on either hemisphere – reflecting in the outbursts of aggression and violence.\n\nI always try to look at the most recent conflict that came into play with the aggression program that is running. It is simply a matter of unraveling the conflict sequence. The beauty of having a session with a client experiencing this unique constellation is that we only need resolve or downgrade one side of the constellation for results. The constellations are usually firmly in place by our late teens. After that it’s all about tracks – which have been extensively discussed is other blogs.\n\nThis constellation is not to be taken lightly when it is coupled with what is known as a post-mortal or suicide constellation. It requires a great deal of experience to safely unravel the conflicts. A non-medical interpretation of the clients brain scan is advised in situations such as this.\n\n\n\nMultiple Sclerosis & Parkinson’s Disease\n\n\nMultiple Sclerosis & Parkinson's Disease\n\nWhen I was just four or five, my parents would take us to visit my father’s Uncle Louie and his wife. He was a benevolent elderly man that I innocently referred to as shaky. I now know today that Uncle Louie was suffering from Parkinson’s disorder.\n\nIn GNM, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease are what Dr. Hamer refers to as cancer equivalents or cancer equivalent disorders, in other words – a disorder reflecting functional changes. Blood sugar and sensory changes fall into this category as well.\n\nBoth disorders, although deemed incurable through a conventional lens have a much more optimistic prognosis through a GNM lens – and here’s why…\n\nBoth MS and Parkinson’s revolve around a motor conflict (dhs) – a biological conflict all about feeling stuck, unable to escape or flee. Movement (literal or symbolic) that is prevented or blocked. The specific muscles that are affected will reflect the particulars of that individuals unique conflict experience.\n\nWhen breaking down the clinical presentation, we must look at the action of the particular muscle or group of muscles for clues to the nature of the conflict.\n\nFor example, one’s legs are affected when the dhs has the unique flavor of being unable to flee or feeling trapped or held down by a relationship or circumstance (literal or symbolic.) When we are unable to move, follow, progress, advance or keep up. When we are a deer-in-the-headlight and frozen in place.\n\nThe arms, hands and fingers are affected when we unable to retain or hold onto someone or something dear (literal or symbolic), when we are unable to repel or push someone or something away that is undesired, when we are unable to embrace or contact that which is desired, when we are restrained or forcibly held down, when we are unable to defend or shield our self.\n\nIt is during the time that the conflict is active that the functional motor (muscle) loss or paralysis appears. A heaviness may be noticed in the arms or legs. A clumsiness in manual dexterity.\n\nIt is for this reason Multiple Sclerosis is referred to as a “hanging active” disorder in German New Medicine – as the patient gets stuck in this stage of the biological conflict. The biological purpose of this response has it’s genesis in the comparable “play dead” survival reflex we see in animals in nature.\n\nWhen the MS conflict (dhs) is experienced both the cerebrum as well as the cerebral medulla are impacted affecting both movement and muscle wasting at the same time.\n\nIf there was an element of separation (wanting to or not wanting to separate) with the experience, the sensory cortex will be affected with a secondary conflict and the hallmark paresthesia or numbness associated with Multiple Sclerosis will be experienced.\n\nSo depending upon the circumstance – we can have paralysis, muscle wasting and numbness during the conflict active phase.\n\nAll three of these will often then contribute to a tangential greater conflict … one of self-devaluation (and subsequent further muscle wasting.)\n\nWithout an adequate understanding of GNM this is all understandably scary and fear will inevitably overtake the individual; fear of losing ambulation and independence. So great is the resignation to a life of incapacitation that the original motor conflict is compounded by the diagnosis of being “stuck” for the remainder of that individual’s life.\n\nA biological conflict of self devaluation in this context is all about a loss of self worth, a loss of independence, being unable to do the things one used to do, having to now rely on others. Ironically, should the self devaluation conflict get resolved and we enter a healing phase, the signs and symptoms of that very healing phase (pain, inflammation and swelling) lend a further air of decline and the cycle is reinforced.\n\nThe uncontrolled muscle twitching, jerking and convulsing (tonic clonic cramping) of the healing phase, the atrophy, the wasting and visible loss of muscle mass of the conflict active phase – all reinforce the self devaluation.\n\nThe poor prognosis with both Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s stems from the diagnosis, the accepted prognosis and a lack of understanding of what the individual is experiencing (clumsiness, walking difficulties, wasting, atrophy, falls) within their body.\n\nWhen the patient is told they most likely deteriorate into a wheelchair – the motor conflict of being “stuck” or “unable to flee” becomes deeply reinforced due to the shock of that prognosis. It all becomes a downward spiral and a self fulfilling prophecy.\n\nThis needn’t be. If the client were to understand the biological or meaningful purpose of, for example, the healing phase twitching (as scary as it is) the slippery slope of deeper conflict activity and tangential conflicts arising could be nipped in the bud.\n\nIf the client does not have this knowledge, the motor, separation and self devaluation conflicts all deepen as the client thinks he, she is worsening and therefore more “stuck.” It’s a bit like quicksand, the more one struggles with being “stuck” – the deeper in one goes.\n\nThe uncontrolled muscle twitching, btw, is nature’s way of counteracting the paralysis (“play dead” reflex) with maximum movement. This ‘seizure’ is a visible sign that the body is healing and striving to get back to normal.\n\nThe mainstream take on Multiple Sclerosis is that of an autoimmune disease which causes a degeneration of the myelin sheath. In other words, the insulating covers around the motor neurons in the brain are being attacked by self and is deemed the causative factor for the presentation we see with MS. This is just a working hypothesis.\n\nThe de-myelinization and re-myelinization is observable, yet whether that is cause or an expression of the biological program is conjecture at this time.\n\nThe name multiple sclerosis refers to the sclerotic areas or plaques that form and can be viewed. With many years of conflict relapse the oligodendrocytes, which are a type of glial tissue undergo a process of repair. Repeated and chronic relapses may be what is presenting as these plaques.\n\nAbove, we described MS as a “hanging active” disorder, in other words the client is relapsing into the active phase of the conflict. With Parkinson’s, the client relapses into the healing phase of the conflict. This is called a “hanging healing” in German New Medicine.\n\nFrom a GNM perspective, the seemingly miraculous recovery demonstrated in this video lends to the premise that perhaps Parkinson’s is not a degenerative disease after all.\n\nTremors, whether they be hands, neck, arms or legs are indicative of this resolution phase that is chronically relapsing. As the hand tremors continue and the clients can no longer use their hands – the motor conflict gets reinforced and deepens. It’s another layer of conflict added.\n\nIt’s a somber cycle.\n\nKnowledge, awareness, mindfulness is the antidote.\n\nThe traditional view of Parkinson’s is that of a a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system mainly affecting the motor system. Early in the course of the disease, the most obvious symptoms are movement related; these include shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with walking and gait. The motor symptoms of the disease result from the death of cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain. This results in not enough dopamine in these areas. The reason for this cell death is poorly understood but involves the build-up of proteins into Lewy bodies in the neurons. (Wikipedia)\n\nOnce again, this is all poorly understood. What is observed is valid, yet whether the observed is at cause or an expression of the biological program is conjecture at this time.\n\nA loss of the ability to speak is a further conflict-shock as is double vision.\n\nSo, in practical application how successful are we with unraveling the layers of conflict? Well, that all depends. If the MS and or Parkinson’s is ‘fresh’, the volume of layers of conflict are minimal and can be easily unraveled. The individuals willingness to become mindful and patient play a role as well. If the MS or Parkinson’s has been longstanding for decades, we may have dozens upon dozens of conflict layers that have built up due to recurring relapse.\n\n\n\n\nHypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s Disease.\n\nThis is the post excerpt.\n\nDr. Hakaru Hashimoto’s surname, for whom the above condition is credited ironically translates into “the base or origin of the bridge.” I say ironic, as you will see in a moment, Hashimoto’s disease concerns itself with “the base or origin of the bridge” from the thyroid gland into the bloodstream … in other words, the ducts!\n\n\nI’ve read much online relative to hypothyroidism and wished to clarify things a bit. I have read misinformation stating that chronic relapse, relative to the thyroid gland (not the thyroid ducts) is responsible for hypothyroidism.\n\nDr. Hamer’s explanation of an underactive (hypo) thyroid is not autoimmune related! In fact, it is not related to the thyroid gland at all, but rather to the thyroid ducts.\n\nTwo different biological conflicts. Two different brain relays. When searching for the biological conflict with a client – we don’t wish to be barking up the wrong tree!\n\nBy the time Hashimoto’s Disease has been diagnosed the conflict has relapsed many times over. Hashimoto’s is an inflammation of the thyroid ducts. In essence a ‘hanging healing’ (PCL-A) where the healing phase has got ‘hung up’ due to ongoing conflict relapse.\n\nThe hypothyroidism occurs when the efferent or outgoing thyroid ducts (“the base or origin of  the bridge” from the thyroid gland into the bloodstream) swell and occlude, thereby blocking thyroxin from entering into the bloodstream. If we can assist in a completion of the healing phase – thyroxin levels will return to normal. Otherwise, supplementation may be needed to avoid a condition known as myxedema, which involves a swelling of the skin and tissues.\n\nRelative to the thyroid ducts, the biological conflict is about powerlessness, helplessness (I have no control) – if one’s is laterality is right. There may be an element of danger as well. If one’s laterality is left, the biological conflict is about heading into danger or a perceived dangerous situation.\n\nDuring conflict activity, the ducts will ulcerate (cell loss, cell negative) along with an elevation of “fight-or-flight” hormones. Only a slight tightness or pulling may be noticeable at this juncture.\n\nThe intelligent purpose behind this widening of the duct is to allow for greater secretion of thyroid hormone into the blood stream in order to assist the individual to gain control of the conflict.\n\nOnce the individual has come to terms with the conflict, the swelling or edema (healing always occurs in a fluid environment) will occlude the duct preventing the expression of thyroxin into the body. It is believed that the thyroid gland has become hypoactive or even non-functional – this is a misinterpretation. It is the swollen ducts that are lowering the thyroid hormone bio-availability.\n\nIf the conflict of powerlessness or danger is identified and resolved early on in the process, the outcome is quite optimistic. Sadly, without a knowledge of GNM – the majority of individuals will experience decades of relapse into conflict activity.\n\nAt the very end of the healing phase a papillary thyroid carcinoma may be diagnosed. These are also known as cold or benign nodules. Ironically, if a biopsy is performed prior to a very specific point in the healing phase (known as the epileptoid crisis) the nodules with be said to be malignant. It’s really just a timing issue.\n\nThe grading of the cancers “aggressiveness” would be dependent upon the timing of the biopsy. If the biopsy was performed early on in the resolution phase when the cells were rapidly mitosing (dividing) they would appear poorly differentiated and a grim prognosis would result. If the biopsy was done a bit later as the cellular replenishment slowed down a bit, the diagnosis would be the same – albeit a less aggressive form. Remember the ducts will ulcerate (cell loss, cell negative) during the conflict active phase and fill in or replenish with new rapidly mitosing cells upon conflict resolution. If the biopsy was performed after all cell division was complete, a benign cyst as noted above would be now diagnosed!\n\nMigraines, btw involve conflict expressing through the thyroid duct relay and or the branchial arch relay in the frontal area of the brain. Chronic migraines are the result of a constant reactivation of these relays through what are called “tracks”.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9349828958511353}
+{"content": "StudentShare solutions\nTriangle menu\n\nPantheon - Essay Example\n\nNot dowloaded yet\n\nExtract of sample\n\nIt was thought that this inscription referred to the present temple, but Agrippa's temple was destroyed and then restored several times by Domitian and Trajan. It was fully reconstructed by Hadrian around 125 A.D., but he preserved Agrippa's inscription. This new Pantheon has been attributed to the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, one of the most famous architects of the Ancient world. The Greek influences we can appreciate in the portico (very similar to the pronaos of the Greek temples) are due to the great admiration Hadrian felt for Greek culture. After the portico, we find a big circular cella or rotunda, covered with a semispherical dome with an oculus opened to the sky. The portico and the rotunda are linked by a polygonal structure. The dome rests on a cylindrical drum and it is decorated with coffers, which were designed to reduce the weight of the dome; it is the world's largest concrete dome. The walls of the temple have the same height as the radius of the dome and the total height is equal to the diameter, so a perfect imaginary sphere can be inscribed in the interior of the Pantheon. The structure of the Pantheon is very different from the conventional structure of the roman temples, which was very influenced by the preceding Etruscan and Greek models, so when it was built it represented an important innovation. Although we can find examples of domes resting in a cylindrical drum in some previous buildings, like the thermal baths of Agrippa or Caracalla, the dome of the Pantheon is the first one built with such big dimensions.\nThe materials used in the Pantheon were also very innovative; the concrete applied to the construction of the dome and the marble, used in the floor, which was a symbol of magnificence and splendor.\n\nAgrippa's temple was smaller than the present temple and it was facing to the south (the actual Pantheon is facing to the north). It seems that the structure was very similar to the actual temple, and it was based in the architectural principles of Vitruvius. In the pronaos, now decorated with Corinthian columns, were erected the statues of Augusto and Agrippa as the promoters of the temple, so what people saw at first sight were the figures of the Emperors, as the developers of this magnificent architectural work.\n\nThe geometry of the Pantheon has a deep symbolic meaning. According to the plane geometry and Vitruvius' ideas, the squared Greek portico represents the Earth and the circular rotunda the Heaven. The rotunda and the dome are linked by an octagon, by which the squaring of the circle is achieved; this will mean the indestructible union between matter and spirit. In the floor we can also find geometrical drawings of circles inscribed inside squares. Furthermore, the lower part of the drum's wall is drilled with niches, suggesting a continuity in the unlimited space. The columns that support these niches have been constructed as if they were not supporting the dome, so it seems to be floating in the air. The dome represents the vault of heaven and each of the five levels of coffers represents the five concentric spheres of the Ancient planetary system.\n\nThe central oculus, which illuminates the interior of the temple, symbolizes the ...Show more\n\n\nThe Pantheon is one of the most well-known monuments all over the world and it is one of the best preserved Ancient monuments. It is a symbol of the Roman Empire and it has influenced a great number of architectural works throughout history. Its importance lies, not only in its architectural improvements and innovations, but also in its symbolical meaning…\nAuthor : reichelida\nPantheon essay example\nRead Text Preview\nSave Your Time for More Important Things\nLet us write or edit the essay on your topic\nwith a personal 20% discount.\nGrab the best paper\n\nRelated Essays\n\nA Comparison between the Pantheon and the Coliseum\n\nFrom this research, it is clear that Ancient Rome was marked with a lot of features, which evidently expressed its early civilization. Most importantly, the civilization was in terms of the culture, traditions, and religion, which were practiced by its citizens. Architectural constructions marked the ancient Roman Empire on a large scale.\n\n8 pages (1750 words) Essay\nCompare and contrast the Erechtheum and the Pantheon\nAmong the most influential aspect of the development of Western civilization is the importance it yields to religion. The belief in deities has been a common ground in history that is definitive of its culture. One can perceive this notion of religious belief base on the way of living of the people, their stories, their art and their architecture.\n3 pages (750 words) Essay\nThe Parthenon & Pantheon\nThus because of this, we are able to see the influence of the Greeks on the roman art through comparing the two structures. A part from being places of worship the two temples share other common characteristics. However, they also have a number of differences in terms of function, themes and ideology.\n4 pages (1000 words) Essay\nThe Parthenon in Athens and the Pantheon in Rome\n\nAccording to the research findings, both Greece and Rome were Mediterranean countries.  The government of Athens was an oligarchy, which evolved into a democracy.  Kings governed Rome in the beginning, then a mixed Republican form of government, and finally emperors.  Both the Greek and the Roman economy was based on agriculture. \n\n7 pages (1500 words) Essay\nHagia Sophia and Pantheon\nThe building is the oldest surviving pieces of Byzantine architecture and its beauty lies in its transformation and adaption to suit the needs of its occupants. From the exterior, one would envision Hagia Sophia as only a mosque and when I first encountered the building I believed that Christian elements within the original building would have been completely removed due to the Muslim influence.\n10 pages (2500 words) Essay\nArchitecture of the Pantheon and its History\nThe building is a cylindrical drum, 21.5 m (71 ft) in height, containing a hemispherical dome of the same spoke. Google Picture. The Pantheon. Arch. Marcus Agrippa. Rome, Italy. 27 B.C. The entrance is in the form of gable in Corinthian style, earlier accessed by five steps from a porch forecourt beneath the current street level.\n8 pages (2000 words) Essay\nThe Pantheon\nThe architectural design represents a wider world than the imperial Rome where it is situated. The Pantheon has left its mark more than any other architectural establishment around the world. Its message is compounded of obscurity and facts, stasis and uncertainty of the earth and that above it, the pulses through the architecture the western man’s descendants, both structure and concept.\n7 pages (1750 words) Essay\nWhat was architecturally innovative about the Pantheon in Rome\nThe building is circular with a front entrance portico made up of eight large Corinthian columns made of granite. There are another two groups of four behind that are all under pediment. There is a vestibule, rectangular in shape that links the porch to the cupola that is beneath a coffered concrete auditorium.\n4 pages (1000 words) Essay\nBased off *Art History* The Differences Between The Hadrians Pantheon and Justinians Hagia Sophia\nby Archimedes of a sphere inscribed inside a cylinder: Archimedes had an image of this inscribed upon his tomb in two dimensions but the Pantheon has is a full three dimensional version, where people can enter the sphere and walk around, looking at the structure from the inside\n2 pages (500 words) Essay\nGreek Parthenon, the Roman Pantheon, and Chartres Cathedral\nThe paper tells that without a pre-understanding of ancient architecture the Parthenon and Pantheon resembles a significant extent due to structure of its pillars in a resembling manner however, Chartres Cathedral is a depiction of gothic architecture which can be identified with ease in its visualization.\n1 pages (250 words) Essay\nGet a custom paper written\nby a pro under your requirements!\nWin a special DISCOUNT!\nYour email\nComments (0)\nRate this paper:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9894647002220154}
+{"content": "The effect of lineup changes\n\nThe Bulldogs have made five changes to their lineup for the Elimination Final against the Eagles tonight, while the Eagles have only made one change. Based on that, which team should we expect to win? Do teams that make more changes – the Dogs in this case – tend to lose?\n\nThe answer is ‘yes’, but it’s a very tentative answer. On average, teams that make only one change to their lineup have a winning margin of 5.93. I calculated this average by looking at all games played since 1990, other than the first game of the season for each team. Meanwhile, teams that make five changes to their lineup have an average margin of -8, a losing margin.\n\n\nThat should give Eagles’ fans some cheer, right? But not so fast. There’s a large range of variation in these numbers. A lot of teams have made a large number of changes to their lineup and still won their game, while a lot of teams have made no changes or one change and lost their game.\n\n\nIn general, I think it makes sense to interpret a large number of changes to the lineup as a bad sign. Lineup changes are often made due to injuries or form slumps. But there are plenty of examples of teams making five changes to their lineup, like the Dogs have done, and winning the game.\n\n\nNote:  I’ve made no adjustment to these figures for the strength of opponents, or anything else. These are just simple averages. This is, I think, an interesting area to look into further.\n\nCreator of The Arc", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.997279942035675}
+{"content": "The Swedish K Submachine Gun Was So Great That the Americans Couldn’t Help But Copy It\n\nWIB history December 12, 2016 0\n\nSource A simple, reliable weapon by MATTHEW MOSS Gunnar Johnsson, an engineer at Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori designed the Kulsprutepistol m/45 — sometimes known as the “Swedish K” — at...\n\nA simple, reliable weapon\n\n\nGunnar Johnsson, an engineer at Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori designed the Kulsprutepistol m/45 — sometimes known as the “Swedish K” — at the end of 1944.\n\nIt endured in military service for more than 60 years, making it a true classic. Demand was so high that, when Sweden cut off exports to the United States, an American company promptly copied it.\n\nDuring World War II, neutral Sweden equipped its soldiers with the Husqvarna m/37/39, a licensed copy of the Finnish Suomi submachine guns. By 1944, Sweden was seeking a new submachine gun that it could produce cheaply and efficiently.\n\nThe Carl Gustaf factory developed the m/45 while Husqvarna offered a similar submachine gun, the FM44 — later, Hovea M49. Unsurprisingly the Swedish army selected the m/45 from the state-owned Carl Gustaf factory.\n\nFinal development and initial production of the m/45 began just after the end of the war. Initially the m/45 had a removable magazine housing, allowing it to use the m/37–39's 50-round quad-stack magazines. These proved unreliable, so in 1948 Carl Gustav developed a new 36-round double stack, single feed magazine.\n\n\nContemporary submachine guns such as the STEN and PPSh-41 influenced the m/45’s design. Johnsson aimed to apply the same simple but effective production methods that had allowed the Allies to produce millions of guns during the war.\n\nChambered in nine-by-19 millimeter, the m/45 featured a conventional blowback action inside a steel tube receiver. The m/45 had no safety mechanism, but the charging handle could hook into a safety cutout in the receiver to prevent firing.\n\nThe m/45 had 100-meter and 200-meter flip-up sights. The m/45 weighed 7.4 pounds unloaded and its side-folding wire stock reduced the weapon’s length to 21.7 inches.\n\nWhen the Swedish army replaced the 50-round magazines, Carl Gustav developed a new model with a fixed magazine housing that took only the new 36-round magazines.\n\nThis second new model, the m/45B, also had smaller barrel shroud holes and a stronger buffer. The original models without added magazine housings are rare, as Sweden refitted almost all of them to be compatible with the new magazines.\n\nThe m/45C had a bayonet attachment on its barrel shroud. The Irish Defense Forces and the Swedish army adopted this version. Interestingly, the Swedes often selected the m/45C fitted with a bayonet for ceremonial purposes. A select-fire variant, the m/45D, was optimized for police use.\n\nWhile the m/45 could use standard nine-by-19-millimeter ammunition, the Swedish military also developed a lead-core, steel-jacketed, brass-covered “penetrating” round — the m/39B — for the m/45. The round’s main downside was its tendency to increase the rate of barrel wear.\n\nThe m/45 was extremely popular with U.S. Special Operations Forces in Vietnam, including U.S. Navy SEALs and the CIA. They favored the weapon’s robust design, reliable magazine and its ability to fire immediately after being submerged in water. The fact that it wasn’t American-manufactured made it suitable for clandestine work.\n\nThere are also examples of the m/45 with integral suppressors.\n\nThe m/45 armed not only the Swedish and Irish militaries and U.S. commandos, but also the Estonian navy — and both Algeria and Egypt produced licensed versions. The Egyptian “Port Said” and “Akaba” submachine guns, manufactured by Maadi Factories, saw action during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur war in 1973.\n\nIrish and Swedish troops attached to the U.N. mission to the Congo during the early 1960s also carried m/45s into battle.\n\nSweden placed an arms embargo on the United States in 1966 over America’s intervention in Vietnam and this ceased exporting the m/45 to U.S. forces. Seeing an opportunity, Smith & Wesson began producing the M76, a clone of the m/45, in 1967.\n\nThe M76 featured several changes compared to the m/45. The pistol grip and trigger group were farther forward and it boasted a safety switch instead of a bolt safety slot.\n\nThe Swedish army retired the m/45 from service in 2007. however, it may still be in limited use with the Swedish Home Guard.\n\nOriginally published at", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6947067379951477}
+{"content": "Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) is one of 31 publicly-traded companies in the “Airlines” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Ryanair Holdings PLC to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk and earnings.\n\nVolatility and Risk\n\nRyanair Holdings PLC has a beta of 0.59, suggesting that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ryanair Holdings PLC’s rivals have a beta of 1.20, suggesting that their average stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.\n\nInstitutional and Insider Ownership\n\n40.4% of Ryanair Holdings PLC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.9% of shares of all “Airlines” companies are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of shares of all “Airlines” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.\n\nValuation & Earnings\n\nThis table compares Ryanair Holdings PLC and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.\n\nGross Revenue EBITDA Price/Earnings Ratio\nRyanair Holdings PLC $8.26 billion $2.63 billion 16.75\nRyanair Holdings PLC Competitors $8.60 billion $1.61 billion -87.99\n\nRyanair Holdings PLC’s rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Ryanair Holdings PLC. Ryanair Holdings PLC is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.\n\n\nThis table compares Ryanair Holdings PLC and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.\n\nNet Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets\nRyanair Holdings PLC 21.44% 34.02% 13.43%\nRyanair Holdings PLC Competitors 3.84% 10.71% 3.57%\n\nAnalyst Ratings\n\nThis is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Ryanair Holdings PLC and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.\n\nSell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score\nRyanair Holdings PLC 4 1 7 0 2.25\nRyanair Holdings PLC Competitors 300 1045 2148 95 2.57\n\nRyanair Holdings PLC presently has a consensus target price of $96.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.57%. As a group, “Airlines” companies have a potential downside of 12.58%. Given Ryanair Holdings PLC’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ryanair Holdings PLC is more favorable than its rivals.\n\n\nRyanair Holdings PLC rivals beat Ryanair Holdings PLC on 7 of the 13 factors compared.\n\nAbout Ryanair Holdings PLC\n\nRyanair Holdings plc (Ryanair Holdings) is a holding company for Ryanair Limited (Ryanair). Ryanair operates an ultra-low fare, scheduled-passenger airline serving short-haul, point-to-point routes between Ireland, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Morocco and Israel. Ryanair provides various ancillary services and engages in other activities connected with its core air passenger service, including non-flight scheduled services, Internet-related services, and the in-flight sale of beverages, food and merchandise. Ryanair markets accommodation services and travel insurance through its Website. It provides hotel and accommodation services. Ryanair provides its own aircraft and passenger handling and ticketing services at Dublin Airport. As of June 30, 2016, Ryanair had a principal fleet of over 350 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and offered over 2,000 scheduled short-haul flights per day serving approximately 200 airports throughout Europe.\n\nReceive News & Ratings for Ryanair Holdings PLC Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Ryanair Holdings PLC and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9363964200019836}
+{"content": "OCT 11, 2017 03:30 PM PDT\nFevers in Early Pregnancy Linked to Birth Defects\n3 6 340\n\nImage credit: Pixabay.com\n\nMany women in their early pregnancies are hesitant to take medications for fear that they may endanger their baby. However, it may be prudent to treat fevers in early pregnancy, as researchers have now officially linked fevers to birth defects.  \n\n\"We have known since the early 1980s that fevers are associated with birth defects, but how that was happening has been a complete mystery,\" said Dr. Eric Benner, a neonatologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Duke University, and the study’s senior author. Specifically, doctors didn’t know whether the high temperatures (fever) or the underlying infection was responsible for the birth defects.\n\nThe answer to this question came about serendipitously, as Benner and his team were studying ways to change the activities of cells with temperature. But they soon realized that a specific type of cells, called neural crest cells, were extremely sensitive to temperatures.\n\n\"We found that these neural crest cells contain temperature-sensitive ion channels that typically are found in your sensory neurons,\" Dr. Benner said. \"They're the channels that, when you stick your hand in a hot cup of water, tell your body the temperature has changed.\"\n\nNeural crest cells are also vital in the development of facial features, such as the jaw and face, as well as the heart. The team hypothesized that fevers interfere with two temperature-sensitive ion channels in the neural crest cells (TRPV1 and TRPV4), which results in the birth defects. Indeed, experiments in zebrafish and chicken embryos confirm their suspicions. Furthermore, they showed that fevers occurring during head and face development corresponded to facial deformities, such as cleft lip or palate. Likewise, fevers occurring during heart development corresponded to heart defects.\n\n\"We need to increase public awareness regarding fevers and birth defects. Women are often hesitant to take medication during pregnancy,\" said Dr. Benner. \"While doctors advise most women to avoid any drug during pregnancy, there may be benefits to taking acetaminophen to reduce fever. Women should discuss all risks and benefits with their doctors.\"\n\n\n\"I hope moving forward, we can educate more women about fever as a risk factor for birth defects and let them know they shouldn't just tough it out if they develop a fever,\" Dr. Benner said. \"They should ask their doctor before getting pregnant whether they may benefit from taking a fever-reducer such as acetaminophen in the event they develop a fever.\"\n\nAdditional sources: Duke University\n\n\nLoading Comments...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7496646642684937}
+{"content": "Busy. Please wait.\n\nshow password\nForgot Password?\n\nDon't have an account?  Sign up \n\nUsername is available taken\nshow password\n\n\n\n\nAlready a StudyStack user? Log In\n\nReset Password\n\nRemove ads\nDon't know\nremaining cards\n\nPass complete!\n\n\"Know\" box contains:\nTime elapsed:\nrestart all cards\n\n\n  Normal Size     Small Size show me how\n\nperiodic table\n\nVocabulary for Matter and Elemaents\n\nMatter anything that takes up space\nmass the materiel that matter is made up\nvolume how much space matter takes up\ndenstity the amount of stuff takes up within a specific space\natom smallest part of an element, the building block matter\nelectron a subatomic particle, symbol e− or B−, with a negative elementary electric charge.\nproton particle of an atoms that positive charge located in the nucleus\nneutron particle of an atom located in the nucleus with a neutral or no change\nperiodic table a large grid that identifies and classify all of the elements on the chart by their chemical and physical and chemical properties\nelement the simplest substance that cant be broken down into pieces\nperiods/rows rows that tell how many energy levels each elements has for the electrons move around\ngroups of family/columns columns that tell how many valence electrons each element has\nvalence electrons the electrons that move on the outer shell\natomic number how many protons an element has inside the nucleus\natomic mass the measurement of the mass for elements atoms\nchemical property the ability of a substance to mix with one another forming new and different compounds and molecules\nphysical property A physical property is any property that is measurable, whose value describes a state of a physical system.\nionic bond In other words, an ionic bond is the electrostatic force of attraction between two oppositely charged ions.\ncovalent bond A covalent bond is a chemical bond that involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.\nchemical change Chemical change is any change that results in the formation of new chemical substances.\ncompound A compound is a molecule made of atoms from different elements.\nmixture two substance mixed together.\nalkali metals Alkali metals are the chemical elements found in Group 1 of the periodic table.\nmetalloids an element whose properties are intermediate between those of metals and solid nonmetals.\nCreated by: haydennichols", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6829574108123779}
+{"content": "Law Firm Defending Drug Crimes in Dallas, TX\n\nDrug Crime Lawyer Securing Favorable Results for Clients\n\n  • Whether your drug charges are federal or local, our top team of award-winning defense lawyers has the legal experience necessary to protect your interests and freedom.\n  • Drug charges carry serious penalties, and our aggressive attorneys offer over two decades of experience, making us one of the best defense law firms in Dallas.\n  • Attorney Grass is a highly-respected lawyer and frequently praised in reviews for his honest and dedicated nature.\n\nIt can be terrifying to find yourself facing drug charges, whether it’s at the local level or the federal level. In Dallas, TX, drug charges carry some very harsh penalties, including jail time, hefty fines and routine drug testing, which can be especially problematic for those who are struggling with addiction. Plus, a drug crimes conviction can result in serious effects on other aspects of your life. For example, a potential employer may be hesitant to hire you if you have drug convictions, while landlords and others may discriminate against anyone who is perceived to be involved in illicit substances. If you’re convicted of a more serious offense, you can face added challenges due to your status as a convicted felon.\n\nFor these reasons and many others, it’s vital that you trust your drug crimes case to an experienced Dallas defense lawyer with the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass. Our legal team has the knowledge and experience required to help you fight drug charges, whether you’re up against state prosecutors or federal prosecutors. An experienced drug crimes defense attorney can go a long way toward maximizing your chances of seeing a positive case outcome, and for those who are faced with overwhelming evidence, an experienced legal team can work with prosecutors and the courts to help you secure a more favorable plea deal or less severe penalties.\n\nAt the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass, our goal is to protect you, your interests and your freedom by leveraging over 20 years of experience in the legal field. In fact, Attorney Grass is well-regarded in his field. He maintains an AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell® and has many years of experience, including experience serving as a U.S. Navy Judge Advocate (JAG).\n\nIf you or a loved one has been arrested for drug crimes in Dallas, Texas, contact the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass today. Our legal team is here to discuss your case in a free, fully confidential case consultation. Call (214) 431-3897.\n\nCommon Questions and Concerns Following an Arrest on Drug Charges in Dallas County\n\nDrug charges can leave you feeling embarrassed, frightened and uncertain about the future, so it’s important to trust your case to an experienced drug crimes attorney who is familiar with the Dallas drug laws surrounding cases involving everything from drug possession (including illegal possession of a prescription drug), possession with intent to distribute, drug trafficking or another offense.\n\nAt the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass, we work with our clients to answer their questions and address their concerns, as we believe that it’s important to understand the legal process. Knowing what to expect can reduce a lot of the fear and stress that our clients experience, so let’s examine some of the most common questions that we address with clients like you.\n\nHow Does Texas Classify Drugs?\n\nOur Dallas, Texas drug crimes lawyers have experience defending clients who are accused of offenses involving the six controlled substance groups, which include a separate group exclusively for marijuana.\n\nThe five groups of controlled substances in Texas are:\n\n  • Group 1A – This group includes LSD;\nWill I Be Charged With a Misdemeanor or Felony?\n\n\n  • the nature of the substance and its Group classification;\n  • the amount of the substance;\n  • the manner in which the substance was packaged; and\n\nDrug Crimes Defense LawyerDrug crimes vary significantly in terms of severity. Possession of drug paraphernalia is a class C misdemeanor – an offense that carries a maximum fine of up to $500.\n\nIn cases that involve 28 grams or less of a Group 3 or Group 4 substance, prosecutors usually prosecute the case as a class A misdemeanor. This type of offense carries a maximum penalty one year in county jail and a fine of $4,000.\n\n\nIt should be noted that the aforementioned penalties are imposed only at the state level. If you are charged with a federal drug crime, different penalties may apply. Regardless of whether you’re being tried at the state level or the federal level, it’s important that you trust your case to an experienced Dallas drug lawyer.\n\nHow Does Texas Law Define Drug Possession?\n\nAccording to Texas law, drug possession involves a situation where an individual is in possession and/or control of an illicit or controlled substance.\n\nPossession can take many forms, including:\n\n  • Physically holding the drug in your hand;\n  • Possessing a drug in your pocket;\n  • Possessing a drug in your purse or backpack; or\n\nThe latter falls into the category of what Texas drug laws term “constructive possession.” Constructive possession typically applies to a situation where a drug is found in a location that you access and control, such as your home, your desk at work, your car or the seat where you were sitting in a friend’s car.\n\nIs Possession Different from Possession With Intent to Sell?\n\nYes, there is a major difference between possession and possession with intent to sell a controlled substance in Dallas and the surrounding region. This is particularly true when it comes to the severity of the charge and the possible penalties.\n\nPossession usually refers to possession of a relatively small amount of a drug, contained within a bag or other package that’s conducive to personal usage. On the other hand, if an individual is found in possession of a large quantity of an illicit drug or controlled substance – especially if the drugs are packaged in lots of smaller packages in a manner that’s conducive with sale, then prosecutors may try to argue that there was an intent to sell. The presence of other items, such as large sums of cash or scales, may also lead to possession with intent to distribute charges.\n\nWhile a first-time offender who is found in possession of a relatively small amount of a drug that’s believed to be intended for personal use may be eligible for an alternative sentence such as drug treatment and counseling, individuals who are convicted of possession with intent to sell face far harsher penalties, including jail time.\n\nWill a Drug Conviction in Texas Really Result in a Driver’s License Suspension?\n\nUnfortunately, any individual who is convicted of a drug crime will be subject to a driver’s license suspension for 180 days, even if the offense did not involve a vehicle. Drivers are also required to complete a 15-hour Drug Education Program.\n\nIf you do not have a driver’s license yet, there will be a 180-day delay when you seek a driver’s license in the future. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the 180 days for the denial of issuance – also called an “Order of Prohibition” – will begin when you complete the appropriate form with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). So, if you are not licensed by may seek a license in the future, it’s wise to discuss this issue with your attorney, especially if you’re considering a plea deal or a plea that would result in a conviction.\n\nWhat is the best time to hire a criminal defense lawyer when facing charges for drugs?\n\nWhen you are arrested for drug charges, it is a good idea to consult with a criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible before speaking to law enforcement.\n\nWhat is the penalty for a conviction related to drug possession?\n\n1. Possession of Marijuana is unlike other drugs, chemicals, or substances because it has its own set of penalties in the state of Texas. Even a small amount of marijuana is considered drug possession. You can face up to 180 days in jail if you are caught with under 2 ounces of marijuana.\n\nIf you have more than 2 ounces of marijuana, you can face a minimum of 180 days in jail to a maximum of 20 years in prison with fines up to $10,000 for felony possession. However, if you are caught with more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana, you could be imprisoned for life.\n\n2. Possession of Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine are classified as Penalty Group 1 drugs and may result in a 2-year jail sentence and a fine up to $10,000. However, felonies can result in a life sentence if you are in possession of more than 400 grams in Texas.\n\n3. Possession of LSD is known as a Penalty Group 1A drug, and due to its hallucinogenic effect may result in a minimum 2-year sentence in jail with a maximum life sentence, and a fine of $250,000 for felonies.\n\n4. Possession of Ecstasy, PCP, Mescaline are classified as Penalty Group 2 drugs can result in a felony charge of possession. This also includes concentrates that contain THC, such as hashish or hash oil. A defendant could face up to 2 years in jail for under one gram, with a maximum penalty of a life sentence and a $50,000 fine for more than 400 grams per Texas drug laws.\n\n5. Possession of Valium, Ritalin & other chemical compounds are known as Group 3 and 4 penalty drugs, and prescription medication that is often illegally sold and abused. If convicted, the minimum penalty could be one year in jail and a fine up to $4,000. For more than 200 grams, you can receive a 20-year prison sentence and a fine up to $10,000.\n\nWhat are the drug possession laws in the state of Texas?\n\nIn the state of Texas, drug possession laws are in the Texas Controlled Substance Act (Health and Safety Code, Title 6, Subtitle C, Chapter 481).\n\nWould the courts classify a drug charge as a violent crime?\n\nMisdemeanor and felony drug charges are not traditionally known as violent crimes, but if the charges occur because of violence, then it can be associated with another offense. Each charge may be a result of violence, however, not necessarily be considered a violent crime by a judge or a lawyer.\n\nDoes state or federal laws regulate drug crimes?\n\nBoth state and federal law regulates drug crimes depending on the client’s case and the facts of the crime.\n\nWhat is the difference between misdemeanor and felony drug charges in Dallas County?\n\nA felony is the most serious classification of drug crime because felonies are known to have the highest risk of danger to the community. Felonies result in harsh sentences with penalties that could affect a defendant for the rest of their life. Misdemeanor charges often result in shorter jail sentences and less expensive fines.\n\nFelony charges occur when an individual has a large amount of an illegal drug, substance, or compound. Each drug crime differs due to the amount and classification of the drug under state or Federal law.\n\nA penalty for a felony increases if you have a lot of drugs or there is evidence of intent to sell or distribute the drugs. Felony offenses can also occur when paraphernalia is found, or there is proof of drug trafficking with intent to distribute.\n\nFelony drug charges for drug trafficking or distribution will result in harsh jail or prison sentences and fines. If you are arrested in a restricted area, like a high school, you could face a felony charge based on the location of the crime. If convicted, a defendant can face at least one year in jail to a 20-year prison sentence, in addition to hefty fines and probation.\n\nHow does drug trafficking and possession with intent contrast?\n\nDrug trafficking is the sale and distribution of illegal drugs in large quantities across different states and countries. Possession of paraphernalia is evidence of intent to distribute, whereas possession with intent to distribute is simply getting caught with a lot of drugs. This amount must be large enough for the police to believe that you are selling or distributing the drugs.\n\nWill hiring a criminal defense lawyer help eliminate or decrease drug charges?\n\nDrug charges can range of a minor misdemeanor to a serious felony with penalties that include jail or prison time, fines, and probation. With the help a criminal defense lawyer, you can receive legal advice and possibly avoid conviction. An experienced attorney will defend you in court and provide you options to ensure the best results. Drug possession charges can disturb your life and prevent future employment opportunities. Get the legal help you need to avoid the severe penalties associated with drug charges.\n\nYour criminal defense attorney can also provide you with other resources, like rehab programs if you are caught with a small quantity, or it was your first offense. Those charged with misdemeanor crimes can join a rehabilitation program, complete probation, or pay fines instead of jail or prison time. The completion of this program may result in an expungement of your records with no evidence of a conviction. If you fail to finish the program, all the charges are recorded, and you must pay a fee for the incomplete program.\n\nOur Dallas County Drug Crimes Defense Lawyers Will Protect Your Freedom\n\nDrug Crimes Defense LawyerAt the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass, we know how profoundly a drug conviction can impact your life. Our elite team of Dallas drug crime defense attorneys are committed to representing your case and defending your freedom using an aggressive, strategic approach.\n\nDon’t risk the loss of your freedom or your future. Contact an experienced Dallas drug attorney who will fight for you. Our Dallas, Texas law firm was founded by Attorney Jeffrey C. Grass, who has been in practice for over 20 years.\n\nContact the Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass to arrange a confidential, no-cost case consultation session. Call (214) 431-3897.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6360815763473511}
+{"content": "Chartering Manager - Dubai (Permanent)\n\nThis position offers a competitive salary circa $100,000 - $120,000 benefits\nUnited Arab Emirates\nChartering jobs\nThe company.\nFaststream are working with a growing shipping company to recruit for a Chartering Manager to join their team in Dubai.\n\nThe role.\nYou will come from a chartering background with experience of the dry cargo industry.\n\nResponsibilities will include:\n\n*Negotiating and booking of cargoes and contracts\n*Knowledge of fixing vessels on both voyage and time charter.\n*Making commercial decisions and negotiations.\n*Running voyage calculations before fixing vessels.\n\nThe person.\nThis is a position for an experienced charterer who is looking to join an established team with an exciting shipping company. Experience in chartering Supra/Ultramax dry bulk vessels and a strong cargo book trading in the Atlantic is essential.\n\nThe reward.\nThis position offers a competitive salary of circa $100,000 - $120,000 depending on experience.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989264607429504}
+{"content": "By Elwyn R Berlekamp\n\nThis can be the revised version of Berlekamp's well-known e-book, \"Algebraic Coding Theory\", initially released in 1968, in which he brought numerous algorithms that have as a consequence ruled engineering perform during this box. this type of is an set of rules for deciphering Reed-Solomon and Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem codes that thus grew to become referred to as the Berlekamp–Massey set of rules. one other is the Berlekamp set of rules for factoring polynomials over finite fields, whose later extensions and elaborations turned typical in symbolic manipulation structures. different novel algorithms stronger the elemental equipment for doing a number of mathematics operations in finite fields of attribute . different significant learn contributions during this booklet integrated a brand new category of Lee metric codes, and distinctive asymptotic effects at the variety of info symbols in lengthy binary BCH codes.\n\nchosen chapters of the ebook grew to become a customary graduate textbook.\n\neither practising engineers and students will locate this publication to be of significant value.\n\nReadership: Researchers in coding idea and cryptography, algebra and quantity thought, and software program engineering.\n\nShow description\n\nRead or Download Algebraic Coding Theory PDF\n\nBest information theory books\n\nQuantentheorie der Information: Zur Naturphilosophie der Theorie der Ur-Alternativen und einer abstrakten Theorie der Information\n\nNEUER textual content! !! Holger Lyre unternimmt den grenzüberschreitenden Versuch, sowohl in die philosophisch-begrifflichen als auch physikalisch-mathematischen Zusammenhänge von Informations- und Quantentheorie einzudringen. Ausgehend von Carl Friedrich von Weizsäckers \"Quantentheorie der Ur-Alternativen\" wird eine abstrakte Theorie der info in transzendentalphilosophischer Perspektive entworfen und werden die begrifflichen Implikationen einer konsequenten Quantentheorie der info umfassend diskutiert.\n\nProbability, Random Processes, and Ergodic Properties\n\nLikelihood, Random methods, and Ergodic houses is for mathematically vulnerable information/communication theorists and other people operating in sign processing. it's going to additionally curiosity these operating with random or stochastic approaches, together with mathematicians, statisticians, and economists. Highlights: whole journey of e-book and instructions to be used given in advent, so readers can see at a look the themes of curiosity.\n\nExtra resources for Algebraic Coding Theory\n\nSample text\n\n2, then we may define a,. and r,. rn-1 + r,. 0 ~ r,. - r,. rn-1 +0 0 0 0 0 < r-1 < r-2 < ro < r-1 < r1 < ro < r2 < r1 0 = r,. < Tn-1 tHere [:z:) denotes the greatest integer not exceeding z. page 2 March 3, 2015 6:6 Algebraic Coding Theory (Revised Edition) 9in x 6in b2064-ch02 ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS MODULO AN IRREDUCIBLE BINARY POLYNOMIAL 23 Since the r's form a decreasing sequence of nonnegative integers, they must eventually terminate when, for some n, rn = 0. ) The weakness of this method is that all the partial results ao, ro, a1, r1, .\n\nHint: Show that the rows of either are linear combinations of rows of the other. 2. How many codewords are there in the codes defined by each of the following parity-check matrices? 3. For the code defined by the parity-check matrix II of Prob. 4. Fill in the last five rows of the matrix in Eq. 41). 5. If the received word (using the code of Prob. 4) is 0110101110110101110001011011111 what is s,? What is Sa? If there are no more than two errors, what is the errorlocator polynomial? 6. (a) Verify that the binary polynomial x 4 + x 3 + x 2 + x + 1 is irreducible.\n\nPage 12 March 3, 2015 6:6 Algebraic Coding Theory (Revised Edition) 9in x 6in b2064-ch02 ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS MODULO AN IRREDUCIBLE BINARY POLYNOMIAL 33 The output, which is taken from the right side of the loop, then becomes equal to the input. After the set command again becomes zero, the loop signals retain their new values. Thus the flip-flop is a memory device. Its output now is equal to the value that the input was when the set command signal was most recently one. A more complicated flip-flop is shown in Fig.\n\nDownload PDF sample\n\nRated 4.36 of 5 – based on 12 votes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9514132142066956}
+{"content": "\"Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Television is a steam of underselected images, each of which cancels is predecessor. Each still photograph ia a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look  at again.\"\n\nSusan Sontag in On Photography\n\nSem comentários:\n\nEnviar um comentário", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5254085063934326}
+{"content": "Two articles explain why Canada could turn into another Venezuela!\n\nHey, Trudeau, your “most expensive (HEALTH CARE) system in the world cannot meet the public’s needs.”\n“Canada’s healthcare, to paraphrase Hillary, ‘leaves no citizen behind,’ but THIS MOST EXPENSIVE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD CANNOT MEET THE PUBLIC’S NEEDS. Although Canada’s Universal healthcare is excellent once the person is in the system, the key words are “in the system,” and it’s not always “universal,” with wealthier provinces better funded than others. It is true that their efficiency channels the funds more to care than to administration, but patients are assessed in terms of “outcome” and what is acceptable to the voters. This is reminiscent of Sarah Palin’s warning of death panels, where the medical boards evaluate the person’s age and quality of life before deigning to provide costly medication and therapy.”\n\nThey Paved Canada and Put Up a Parking Lot! AND OTHER PROBLEMS WITH SOCIALIST CANADA!!\n\nThe cover of the August 2017 issue of Rolling Stone magazine displays the image of Justin Trudeau, and the first headline, “Justin Trudeau, Why Can’t He Be Our President?”\n\nAside from his not being an American, the American people have finally elected to withdraw from their detrimental socialism and return to our Constitutional Republic.  Unfortunately, Canadians have reversed their course toward a more intense socialism.\n\nTrudeau promised real change, the same vague promise made by then-candidate President Obama in 2008.  To reflect his multiculturalism, Trudeau chose a cabinet of thirty, based not on competence, but on gender, ethnicity, and disabilities, yet there appears to be not one observant Jew among them to handle the antisemitism in schools and media and to represent the one percent Jewish population most victimized by hate crimes in an increasingly dangerous Canada. He pledged to legalize recreational marijuana, and to change the electoral system, except that he finds this to be unnecessary now that the very process got him elected.\n\nA globalist, Trudeau promised to welcome 25,000 more Syrian refugees in 2016, without vetting facilities, compared to the 10,000 accepted by the Conservatives. Interestingly, immediately following the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, he accepted 33,200 refugees, a number that soon became 46,700, representing the same belief system and increasing violence to that one percent and more.   I am reminded of the song, “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.”\n\nThe Trojan Horses!\n\nCanadian-born, then-15-year-old Omar Khadr, had been taken by his father to join Al Qaeda.  Captured at 16, he pled guilty to planting ten landmines and murdering an American soldier by throwing a grenade at Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, in a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. US Sgt. Layne Morris was also severely wounded by the explosion and blinded in one eye. Convicted, and after serving eight of his 40-year-sentence in Guantanamo, the 24-year-old Khadr was released to Canada where he would spend the remainder of his sentence.\n\nDespite his being dropped into a war zone by his own father, however, he sued the Canadian government for breaching his rights (as a minor) under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and received $10.5 million and an apology from the Canadian government. Years before, Omar’s father had been arrested and imprisoned for being an Al Qaeda financier in the jihad bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan, and his mother wanted to raise her six children outside of Canada, away from Western social influences. This is just one of many unvetted families who have emigrated to the west. Trudeau has indeed brought change. Instead of this family’s paying for their crimes, they are receiving payment for their crimes. Inviting and rewarding terrorism has resulted in increased crime against Canada’s Jewish citizens and will ultimately affect all infidels. (ME THINKS A WALL IS NECESSARY AT THE CANADIAN BORDER.) \n\nHonor killings are on the rise in Canada, sanctioned by sharia, blamed on the challenging process of integration but never experienced with previous immigrants.  They include a 16-year-old daughter of Pakistanis who was killed for wanting to wear western clothes and get a part-time job, like her peers; a 19-year-old daughter whose crime was to stay out all night; a first-wife and three daughters found drowned in their vehicle in a canal, and 13 other such cases under investigation.\n\nThe results of Trudeau’s tenure in office thus far range from disappointing to disconcerting. Unable to cap Canada’s budget deficit at $30 billion over three years as expected, after a year in office, Trudeau blames the previous administration for weak economic growth. Considering Trump’s roaring economic growth within his first six months, Trudeau’s excuse is feeble. And, rather than keep his promise to help to defeat ISIS, he has promised humanitarian support for Iraqis and Syrians.\n\nRolling Stone magazine also bore the headline, “How the Trump administration is destroying the EPA.”  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, which was created to protect human health and the environment by enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. Created in 1970, this bureaucracy had burgeoned, by 2016, to 15,376 full-time employees, with a budget of $8.1 billion. The Trump administration proposed a 31% budget cut to $5.7 billion and to eliminate a fourth of the agency jobs. This is improvement, not destruction.\n\nThe EPA’s increased jurisdiction has encroached on private property, making it more difficult for farmers, ranchers, those in agriculture and homebuilding to meet stringent water supply regulations. The US Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, The American Farm Bureau Federation and others filed a lawsuit to stop the EPA, which uses the pressure of social media for covert propaganda for their own purposes, violating laws and increasing prices of produce. Farmers depend on a fair regulatory system that protects the environment and does not force them to raise strangling prices on consumers.\n\nAs Mark Levin explained, “The EPA is destroying the middle class; it’s destroying working people in this country; it’s destroying coal miners; it’s destroying oil jobs; it’s destroying trucking jobs. The EPA is destroying our smokestack industries. The EPA is doing more damage to our economy and hardworking men and women in this country than any country in the world. The environmental movement is a communist movement.”\n\nComplying with EPA regulations costs the U.S. economy $353 billion per year — more than 30 times its budget, more than Denmark’s entire national GDP in 2011. The annual cost of the global warming industry is, conservatively, $1.5 trillion, enough to reduce our taxes and national debt – for the “possibility” of reducing our temperature by 0.048°C (0.086°F) by the end of the century, the same temperature reduction one experiences traveling down an elevator.\n\nBy shrinking its budget to two-thirds, its workforce to one-fifth, and limiting its regulatory powers, Trump is redefining and narrowing the EPA’s focus to its original purpose of 1970, to improve our water and air while also cultivating job growth.  Superfund sites (land previously used for chemical dumps) will fall under the purview of the states, rather than further drain the federal budget.\n\n\n\nBrian Lindenberg | April 16, 2012\n\nIn my last article for BenefitsCanada.com, I compared and contrasted the state of healthcare in this country at the time that the basic principles for the Canada Health Act were conceived (in 1961) and today.\n\nAs the federal government is about to undertake a review of this legislation, it’s important that all Canadians formulate a point of view on the future of our healthcare system. Employers in particular have a vested interest in the outcome of these deliberations, given the interrelationship between the public system and employee benefits programs.\n\nFirst, an important acknowledgement: the healthcare debate is charged with emotion. Canadians from all walks of life have different experiences with our healthcare system, and these form our opinions. My own experiences with our system have been generally favourable—others I know have had completely difference experiences. Additionally, there are those Canadians who are also health professionals working within the system who are constantly asked to do more with less. The perspectives of the multiple stakeholders are of equal importance in the deliberations of the future of healthcare in this country. Weighing each perspective is the next-to-impossible task put before the government as it develops a template for Canada’s healthcare system that will last another 50 years.\n\nSo with this very important caveat, let’s consider THREE THINGS WORKING WELL IN OUR CURRENT  system and SIX THINGS THAT DO NOT!\n\nWhat works well\n\nNo Canadian is left behind – Unlike in the U.S., no citizen of this country is denied access to healthcare based on whether or not he or she can afford to pay. This is a point of pride for many Canadians and clearly distinguishes us from our neighbours to the south. Universal healthcare defines us as Canadians.\n\nExcellent standard of care – Once you are in the system, the standard of care is excellent. For example, health outcomes in the areas of cardiovascular disease and many forms of cancer are far better than in the U.S., which suggests that we are doing many things right. Of course, the operative words here are “once you are in the system.” Clearly, reasonable access to care is an issue that this country must address. (??? HOW COME I MET SO MANY CANADIANS WHEN MY WIFE AND I SPENT SIX WEEKS, FOLLOWED BY MANY VISITS, TO MAYO CLINIC???)\n\nFunds go to healthcare, not administration – For the most part, our Canadian system efficiently allocates funds between healthcare provision and healthcare administration. For every dollar spent on healthcare funding, far less gets spent on administration than in countries such as the U.S. Our system is FAR FROM PERFECT, but in relative terms, it is not bad.\n\nWhat does not work well\n\nOur healthcare system is costly – Canada has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the world. We can look to many OTHER COUNTRIES to see SUPERIOR HEALTH FOR LESS MONEY. Our single-payer model works in theory, but, in practical terms, it has not delivered the results that one would have necessarily expected with respect to value for money.\n\nHealthcare decision-making is political – Healthcare decisions are often made based on “political palatability” or what’s acceptable to the voting public versus what makes sense from a financial sustainability perspective or in terms of health outcomes. The decision-making process is complicated and often slow, and results in small incremental change rather than fundamental change. We are likely at a point in time where we need to ask the tough questions—but the politics of decision-making will get in the way and we may not get to where we need to be.\n\nACCESS to care is A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM – Restrictions on government funding has limited access to care—wait-lists are routine, and Canadians are increasingly having difficulties accessing the services of family physicians. The system has not kept up with the demands and expectations of the patient.\n\nThe healthcare system is NOT VERY NIMBLE – Our healthcare system is huge and, therefore, not very nimble. Although many provinces are trying to change this, our system remains focused on acute and chronic care—addressing the problem once it becomes a problem. Most experts agree that the focus should shift to prevention and health promotion. This is a monumental shift that is going to take time. The system has also not kept up with the changing face of illness and treatment. For example, physical health remains the primary focus of the system while mental illness represents a significant cost to the Canadian economy and society. Drug therapy is used extensively in the treatment of injury and disease, yet these costs fall largely outside of the public system.\n\nNOT ALL CANADIANS ARE TREATED THE SAME – We have a UNIVERSAL healthcare system and yet—in some respects—this is also A MISREPRESENTATION. HEALTH CARE  across the country is far from consistent with access to care defined, in part, by your province of residence. And this gap will only get larger as resource-rich provinces such are Alberta and Saskatchewan are able to invest more on a per capita basis than the other provinces. Health transfer payments are supposed to compensate for these funding imbalances; however, the fact of the matter remains—our healthcare system is far from universal.\n\nSo where to from here? Many of the basic principles embedded in the Canada Health Act still work. However, this important piece of legislation needs to be modernized to reflect the realities of today.(MAYBE IT NEEDS TO BE REPEALED AND REPLACED). The principles of public administration and the guidelines for what is “medically necessary” in particular need to be reviewed to ensure that whether what was anticipated in 1961 still works today. And we need to ask the hard questions—the questions no politician wants to ask—to ensure that we establish the most appropriate path for our future.\n\nWe can probably all agree on the objective—to develop a framework for a cost-effective, efficient healthcare system that responds to the medical needs of all Canadians. How we get there is subject to debate. But we do need to get there, and the debate needs to start now.\n\nBrian Lindenberg is a senior partner and the health and benefits leader at Mercer Canada. He has more than 30 years of experience in the employee benefits field.\n\nCopyright © 2017 Transcontinental Media G.P. Originally published on benefitscanada.com\nBenefits Canada\nBenefits Canada is the country’s most influential pension and benefits publication for decision-makers in Canadian workplaces.\n\n\n\nHave all your camping, hunting and survival needs filled at one place: See https://readynetwork.com/battista\n\nSocks stop pain: bit.ly/soxstoppain\n\nGrams of gold are affordable and easier to use in trade than Troy ounces. The gold bank account is free to set up. Costs are based on spot pricing plus shipping: Go to http://www.abundantgoldmine.com\n\n\nTrump is Gaining as my Presidential First Choice with His “Keep Terrorists Out!”\n\n“They will kill him before they let him be president.  It could be a Republican or a Democrat that instigates the shutting up of Trump.  Don’t be surprised if Trump has an accident.  Some people are getting very nervous: Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Jon Corzine, to name just a few.  It’s about the unholy dynamics between big government, big business, and big media. They all benefit by the billions of dollars from this partnership, and it’s in all of their interests to protect one another.  It’s one for all and all for one.”\n“It’s a heck of a filthy relationship that makes everyone filthy rich — everyone except the American people.  We get ripped off. We’re  the patsies.  But for once, the ‘powerful socialist cabal’ and the ‘corrupt crony capitalists’ are scared.  The over-the-top reaction to Trump by politicians of both parties, the media, and the biggest corporations of  America has been so swift and insanely angry that it suggests they are all threatened and frightened like never before.” \n\nExcerpt from Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show.\n\n\n2015 is 1984!\nBig Brother Barry is watching us!\nThe Sinister  Difference Between “ISIS” and “ISIL”\n\n\nISIL =  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  Iraq is still to the east of  Jordan, and “the Levant” is a term that comes from “the rising (of the sun,  i.e., to the east)” – and is basically the land along the Mediterranean – that  includes Lebanon, Israel, and those countries along there.\n\nBy  saying ISIL, you “negate” Israel as its own country and lump it in with the  rest of the countries along the Mediterranean – and Israel sort of disappears  (loses its sovereignty) and becomes part of “the Levant ” – which is therefore  part of ISIL.\n\nIf you’ve  wondered, as I have, why all government agencies and especially BHO calls it  ISIL and even spells it out every time it’s used, instead of ISIS as the rest of the world, here’s the answer. Decoding  Obama’s speech reveals some startling revelations. In one  press conference after another, when referring to the Muslim terror  super-group ISIS, United States President Barack Obama will use the term ISIL,  instead of their former name ISIS, or current name Islamic  State. Have you  ever wondered about that?\n\nISIL stands for the  Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.  Now, to us  Westerners we don’t really make much of a distinction, do we?\n\nNo,  honestly from our perspective it’s all about the same.  But how would a  Muslim living in the Middle East view it? Just what  is the Levant anyway? Let’s take a look. The  geographical term LEVANT refers to a multi-nation region in the Middle  East.  It’s a land bridge between Turkey to the north and Egypt to the  south.\n\nIf  you look on a map, however, in the near exact middle of the nations that  comprise the Levant, guess what you see? Come on, guess!\n\nIt’s  Israel.\n\n****When  Barack Obama refers over and over to the Islamic State as ISIL, he is sending  a message to Muslims all over the Middle East, that he personally does not  recognize Israel as a sovereign nation, but as territory belonging to the  Islamic State.\n\nNow you  know why Obama has no plan, no goal, and no stated aim for  dealing with ISIS.\n\nBut he does  have a plan, and it’s a really nasty, diabolical one.\n\nObama’s  plan is to drag his feet for as long as he can, doing only the bare minimum  that Congress forces him to do.  His plan to buy ISIL as much time as  possible to make as many gains as they can. Listen as  Obama and his press secretary and the spokesperson for the State Department  and his Joint Chiefs of Staff painstakingly spells out the letters I-S-I-L so  there is no doubt in your mind. And it’s  working. The Islamic  State has garnered millions of dollars, a vast cache of weapons, and in their  latest foray have captured Syrian fighter jets and now 12 commercial passenger  planes. With each passing day that Obama fulfills his stated aim of doing  nothing, the Islamic State grows by leaps and bounds. The ultimate goal, of  course, has not changed and will never change.\n\nThe  ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel and then the United States.\n\n\n“A Jew who  votes for Obama (OR ANY DEMOCRAT) is like a chicken who votes for Col.Sanders.”\nAll you idiots of SMART, can’t you finally see Trump has you all fooled into giving him everything he wants? Trump’s a genius! The clowns that think they are the smartest in the room are being lead around by their noses! Trump is the great negotiator!  As he manipulated the press and the establishment, I now believe he will get Mexico to pay for the Wall! He can get better deals out of China!  Once again he will re-establish good relations with Putin. He may also be able to get that twerp of a clown in North Korea and the terrorists to become more civilized!  He is the only one that has a chance to negotiate peace in the Middle East! Until it happened, I couldn’t believe so many Americans could be deceived by Obama, twice!  Then I saw Trump perform on the national stage! I thought he was just a lucky guy with connections. Now, I believe he is the knight in shinning armor we have prayed for!  I still love a couple of other candidates, but lately Trump has taken the lead!\nIn case you haven’t caught on yet let’s look at what Trump does to work his magic: He researches the issue of the day. He finds out the truth behind it. He states that fact in an audacious manner! Everyone jumps all over what he said before looking into the truth of the matter, giving him tons of publicity, then the truth emerges and he looks like a hero and a genius!\n\nThe most recent example is the claim by democrats and establishment that Trumps calling for the activation of “8 U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens” of 1952 was illegal, unconstitutional and bigoted.  It was passed  by a democrat congress and signed into law by the democrat Harry Truman. The politician to use it was the democrat Jimmy Carter in 1979 when he gave all alien Shiite Muslims from Iranians 30 days to report. 50,000 did! 15,000 of them didn’t pass the smell test and were deported! When Trump asked the Obama government to apply the law to terrorist jihadists, the likes of Megan Kelly, Josh Earnest, Carly Fiorina, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Lindsy Graham and Paul Ryan all proved how uninformed they are by attacking this law! Trump was right factually, legally and historically and his critics were left to look like fools!\n\n8 U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens\n\nAllows the president, by Proclamation to ban or prevent “All, or any class of immigrants” from the United States!\n\nPlease, if you are a member of the deceived class, Google it and see that unlike today, in those days the democrats had some common sense and passed laws that protected the American people! Here are a few of the most pertinent clauses for the situation today:\n\n(3) Security and related grounds\n\n(A) In general Any alien who a consular officer or the Attorney General knows, or has reasonable ground to believe, seeks to enter the United States to engage solely, principally, or incidentally in—\n\n\nany activity (I) to violate any law of the United States relating to espionage or sabotage or (II) to violate or evade any law prohibiting the export from the United States of goods, technology, or sensitive information,\n\n\nany other unlawful activity, or\n\n\nany activity a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means,\nis inadmissible.\n\n(B) Terrorist activities\n\n(i) In general Any alien who—\n\n\nhas engaged in a terrorist activity;\n\n\na consular officer, the Attorney General, or the Secretary of Homeland Security knows, or has reasonable ground to believe, is engaged in or is likely to engage after entry in any terrorist activity (as defined in clause (iv));\n\n\nhas, under circumstances indicating an intention to cause death or serious bodily harm, incited terrorist activity;\n\n(IV) is a representative (as defined in clause (v)) of—\n\n\na terrorist organization (as defined in clause (vi)); or\n\n\na political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity;\n\n\nis a member of a terrorist organization described in subclause (I) or (II) of clause (vi);\n\n\nis a member of a terrorist organization described in clause (vi)(III), unless the alien can demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the alien did not know, and should not reasonably have known, that the organization was a terrorist organization;\n\n\nendorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization;\n\n\nhas received military-type training (as defined in section 2339D(c)(1) of title 18) from or on behalf of any organization that, at the time the training was received, was a terrorist organization (as defined in clause (vi)); or\n\n\nis the spouse or child of an alien who is inadmissible under this subparagraph, if the activity causing the alien to be found inadmissible occurred within the last 5 years,\n  is inadmissible. An alien who is an officer, official, representative, or spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization is considered, for purposes of this chapter, to be engaged in a terrorist activity.\nMost might think the Security and Terrorist section above are most important. However, I believe Section G is vital to our survival as a nation:\n\n(G) Foreign government officials who have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom\n\nAny alien who, while serving as a foreign government official, was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as defined in section 6402 of title 22, is inadmissible.\n\n\nWhy is that more vital than terrorism? Simply because Islam isn’t just a religion, as Americans think of religion!  The Muslim is controlled entirely by Islam.  He follows it in government, health, marital relations, diet, military matters and especially legal matters.\n\nThe concern is in how they interpret “Legal Matters!”  It appears from the beheading of an off-duty soldier in England, the beheading of a secretary in Oklahoma and the many shooting from Ft. Hood to San Bernardino every Muslim can determine and be “responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” If the Muslim or a small group of Muslims deem a person is not of the correct religion he can decide to kill him!  In other words, if a community of Catholics, Protestants and a Mormon were friends and their Muslim neighbor feels they are infidels, he can be the judge and the executioner!  Maybe they have some sort of legal machinations before the Muslim can act, such as issuing a fatwah, but so far it looks like any Muslim at any time can be “responsible for … particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”\n\nIf you read The Hadith you will see Muhammad instructs the Muslim to “…lie in wait until the time is right to strike the Infidel…” and “…it’s ok to speak lies…” if it furthers the cause of Islam!\n\nSo, if the critics of Trump want to let just any Muslim into the USA, I suggest they rethink such an open welcome. Or, move to Saudi Arabia or a similar country and partake all of their joy! Meanwhile, we need a moratorium on admitting alien Muslims into the USA until they can be properly vetted!\n\nEven then it was obvious!\nEven then it was obvious!\n\nTIMES ARE DANGEROUS! Protect your family with guns and Gold!  If you buy a gun, learn to properly use it . For your small increments (grams) of gold for purchases or barter, go to  Your free gold savings account!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6165021657943726}
+{"content": "\n\nIntroduction to Video Indexer\n\nVideo Indexer is an AI cloud service for videos, that enables customers to extract, review, and curate insights from their videos. Customers can also embed the insights in their own apps by using widgets provided by Video Indexer.\n\nVerwante video's\n\nAzure Availability Zones\n\nOpen Service Broker for Azure\n\nAzure Location Based Services", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.79194575548172}
+{"content": "U.S. federal law enforcement and computer security agencies recently released a rare security alert, citing that a North Korean hacking group is actively targeting media, aerospace, financial, and critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and around the world. The hackers are believed to have used a botnet creation malware called DeltaCharlie to launch DDoS attacks.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8858638405799866}
+{"content": "Image by Jordan Barab used with permission.\n\nBlack people living in poorer neighborhoods are most likely (by far) to be ticketed for ordinary behavior, like walking and biking. Minneapolis is taking the Super Bowl a bit too seriously. Unfortunately, that Bill Gates smart city we were all excited about is literally none of those things. \n\nWalking while black comes at a price: ProPublica reporters conducted an investigation in Jacksonville, Florida that found race profoundly affects how police enforce pedestrian and bike laws. Black pedestrians were three times more likely to be issued a citation than whites (especially obscure citations like “walking in the roadway where sidewalks are provided,”) and people in the city’s three poorest zip codes were about six times more likely to be ticketed than residents in more affluent neighborhoods. (ProPublica)\n\nMinneapolis Superbowl transit separation: This year's Super Bowl will take place in Minneapolis, and the local transit agency has created a plan that is likely to anger many transit riders. Light rail trains on game day will be reserved for those with passes to the game only, while parallel bus routes are set up to serve riders on the same corridors. The reason given was security — though personally, I am not buying it. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)\n\nRumors of a Bill Gates smart city were exaggerated: After the purchase of 25,000 acres west of Phoenix Arizona, the internet was abuzz about the possible purchase by one of the world's richest men. Many assumed that a smart city would spring up in the desert to test new technology. Unfortunately, it seems like the reality is a run-of-the-mill sprawl project, bought by a secret trust to make a ton of money when the new highway goes in. (Slate)\n\nImproving right of way management in Seattle: In 2015, Seattle's Department of Transportation upgraded their right of way management software, a program that helps them coordinate street repairs and other work between their numerous city agencies. (Their previous software was developed before geographic mapping software became more user friendly.) The change has saved the city millions of dollars and upped participation in coordination meetings. (Route Fifty)\n\nThe retail apocalypse is upon us: Even during a time of sky-high consumer confidence, chain retail stores are feeling a lot of pressure to close at a high rate. However, the root of the problem doesn't seem to be's surging presence, but rather piled-up debt from private equity firms trying to squeeze every last drop out of the chains they purchased through leveraged buyouts. (Bloomberg)\n\nA census of steps: In the hilly city of Pittsburgh, there are more than 800 public staircases that people use to get to and from where they need to go each day. As these staircases are battered by the elements, they fall into disrepair. In order to see what needs to be fixed, the city is creating a step census that will be completed in a few months. Then they'll see what the *next step* is in the process. (NPR)\n\nQuote of the Week\n\n\"This is why, according to Whitman, it’s a mistake to treat strangers as fundamentally distant and unfamiliar. For linguistic and conceptual purposes, we need a distinction between a neighbor and stranger, sure, but if we perceive strangers as fundamentally other, we have misconstrued an extrinsic change (living in a big city) as an intrinsic one (human nature).\"\n\nBerny Belvedere in the National Review discussing Walt Whitman's thinking at a time when the United States was becoming more urbanized.\n\n\nTagged: links\n\nJeff Wood is the Principal of The Overhead Wire, a consulting firm focused on sharing information about cities around the world. He hosts a weekly podcast called Talking Headways at Streetsblog USA and operates the daily news site The Direct Transfer.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6358939409255981}
+{"content": "Civil Liability and Contract Law – Business Law Study Guide 2017\n\nIn which of the following methods of alternative dispute resolution must parties to a case employ a neutral third party to settle their dispute?\n\n\nExplanation: Arbitration is conducted by allowing a moderator to make a legally binding ruling on a case, just as if it were done in an actual courtroom. This can be beneficial for parties in the dispute because it is often more flexible than formal court proceedings.\n\nIf a competitor reverse engineers a trade secret, then the competitor is…\n\n allowed to use the trade secret but not the original trademark\n\nExplanation: When a trade secret is legally reverse engineered, a company is allowed to use it in their own business model. For example, if you were able to reverse engineer Google’s search algorithm, you could use it for your own search engine, but you wouldn’t be allowed call it the same trademark brand name.\n\nWhich of the following federal statutes was enacted by the Congress to protect trade secrets?\n\n Economic Espionage Act\n\nExplanation: The Economic Espionage Act was implemented to prevent foreign governments and competitors from stealing trade secrets from U.S. based companies operating internationally.\n\nWhich of the following does the Money Laundering Act prohibit?\n\n Knowingly engaging in the financial transaction involving the proceeds of an unlawful activity.\n\nJeremy crashes his friend John’s car because he is an incompetent driver.\n\nEmily, John’s sister, is outraged and wants John to sue his friend. John refuses to file a case against his long-time friend. Which of the following is Emily allowed to:\n\n She cannot sue because she has no stake in the outcome of the case.\n\nExplanation: Jeremy would need to file the lawsuit in this case and cannot be compelled by an uninvolved third party, such as Emily.\n\nDaniel Simmons and Lawrence Rogers, the 2 owners of XYZ, LLC are contending parties to a lawsuit involving the division of their business assets.\n\nThey wish to settle their case out of court. Daniel and Lawrence engage in discussions and bargaining with the presence of their attorneys and finally conclude that Daniel keeps 60 percent of the assets while Lawrence gets the remainder. In this scenario, the method of alternative dispute resolution is used\n\n\nWhich of the following is true of the registration of copyrights?\n\n Registration permits a holder to obtain statutory damages for copyright infringement.\n\nExplanation: Copyright law outlines statutory damages for cases of copyright infringement. You can read more about it here.\n\nWhich of the following is true about a minor’s right to disaffirm a contract?\n\n A minor can disaffirm a contract any time prior to reaching the age of majority\n\nExplanation: A minor can disaffirm prior to reach majority under most circumstances, as minors cannot enter legally binding contracts on their own.\n\n  • Student: Forest Bayes\n  • Textbook: Various Law Textbooks\n  • Course: Business Law 421\n\nBrowse More Business Law Resources\n\nLaw is one of the most memory-intensive aspects of business school. Learn the most important concepts with our full 2016-17 study guide:\n\n  1. Part 1 - Civil Liability and Contract Law\n  2. Part 2 - Employee/Employer Relations and Civil Rights\n  3. Part 3 - Federal/State Regulations and Legal Powers\n  4. Part 4 - Issues Concerning Liability\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9586633443832397}
+{"content": "In Focus\nPOWER UTILITY | Staff Reporter, Singapore\n\nIs energy storage a situational fix for renewables integration?\n\nStorage is useful but not essential, expert said.\n\nIf the energy transition outlook by DNV GL proves true, then almost three-fourths of the electricity demand increase by 2050 will be generated by renewables. But with this expected jump in renewables generation comes a dilemma: How will power grids deal with the variability and intermittency of sources such as wind and PV?\n\nAdvanced storage technologies should be able to offer substantial solutions, but will not provide the full remedy, said Paul Gardner, segment director - Storage at DNV GL. \"Storage is useful for that but it is not essential,\" he said. \"And on its own it is probably not sufficient to deal with the issues of high variability of, particularly wind and PV.\"\n\nWhere storage technologies shine is addressing niche needs based on how long power wants to be stored. Gardner said flywheels are excellent at storing power and delivering a large amount of power in a short amount of time. Flow batteries are more suitable for applications that require power over extended periods, while thermal storage can address even longer timescales.\n\nThermal storage, in particular, is a very economical solution for situations when the end use is also heat, said Gardner, and will prove attractive to power grids that want to a more convincing reason to build expensive storage facilities. At least until costs come down in the future, which should happen soon, as the electrical vehicle market starts to find more efficient ways to produce energy batteries.\n\n\"I was in a battery manufacturing plant and it’s really very impressive how automated the manufacturing is,” said Gardner. “About 90% of the batteries that are being manufactured now for long term energy storage are being manufactured for electric vehicles.”\n\n\"So it is actually the electric vehicle market that is driving these manufacturing improvements, and those will drive the cost reductions\" in energy storage, he added.\n\nBut aside from the cost hurdles, regulatory impediments are also slowing down adoption of storage technologies and, in effect, hamper renewables integration. Gardner pointed out that in some countries, there have been “significant” delays in the ability to implement storage because of a lack of a common definition of what storage actually is.\n\n“That sounds silly but, actually, it’s important because, in some countries, they operate through systems of licensees. So there are generator licensees, and network operator licensees, and there are energy supply licensees,\" he said.\n\n\"In those licensed environments, it is not clear exactly where storage fits. If it can be considered as a generator, then that has different implications than if it is considered as something that a network operator can do. And that is important for storage because the inherent technology provides benefits both to generators and to network operators,\" he added.\n\nFactoring in the current high costs and regulatory roadblocks that energy storage still has to overcome, Gardner reckoned that the issue of renewables integration will likely be best addressed by other solutions. The limitations of storage in this regard is put fully on display when one considers creating larger-scale energy systems supplied completely by wind and PV in northern latitudes where there is greater seasonality in both renewable resources and energy demand.\n\n“ If you wanted to have a 100% renewable system to supply that, you would end up building capacity that you would only use once in a blue moon - once every ten years in a really unfortunate set of circumstances. Now, you could do it, but it is a bit silly to build something very expensive that you are only going to use one in a decade,” said Gardner.\n\n\"There are other solutions and those solutions, typically, are greater electrical interconnection across countries and between countries, and even between continents eventually,\" he added, citing efforts by manufacturers to make gas turbines more flexible, and developments in the area of demand site management. \"All these options are competing with storage for providing the necessary services to run grids with high penetration available in renewables.\"\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9398025274276733}
+{"content": "Jörg Schulenburg\n\nWhats about?\n\nCW_KEY is a tiny program to control your linux computer with only few keys (1..3) using morse code.\n - want to edit files with closed eyes or in complete darkness? blind? \n - riding bicycle (in a fitness room) and type text using morse key?\n - practice morse code by writing documents?\n - control your full automated home by just a few keys?\n - control your wearable computer or a real mini computer?\n - throw away a computer with partial defect keyboard?\n - your neighbour isn't happy about your speech recognition system?\n\n\nDownload cw_key.tgz , uncompress with\n\ngunzip -c cw_key.tgz | tar -xf -\n\nenter directory and start compilation:\n\ncd cw_key\n\n\nGetting started\n\nYou need \"sh\" to start try:\n\ncw_key -3 -s\n\nStartwith simple commands, like ls; cat >file.txt; mail friend@localhost; date; wget http://host/. There is still lot of work, to make the program useful for more complicated programs like pico, joe or lynx.\n\n\nStart the program with sound switched on (-s) and try out the keys. You will hear what keys are used and which function they have. You can use speaker or soundcard (/dev/dsp) to generate sound. two and three key mode: key 1: . spelled as dit key 2: - spelled as daw key 3: , pause to seperate chars or make spaces (only three key mode) one key mode (works only in console mode): press shortly = dit press longer (three times short pulse) = daw pause three times of a short pulse = next char pause 5 times longer than a short pulse = space (or ASCII-SPC=0x20)\n\nMorse code\n\nThe code itself:\n A  .-      B  -...    C  -.-.    D  -..     E  .       F  ..-.    G  --.\n H  ....    I  ..      J  .---    K  -.-     L  .-..    M  --      N  -. \n O  ---     P  .--.    Q  --.-    R  .-.     S  ...     T  -       U  ..-\n V  ...-    W  .--     X  -..-    Y  -.--    Z  --.. \n 0  -----   1  .----   2  ..---   3  ...--   4  ....-\n 5  .....   6  -....   7  --...   8  ---..   9  ----.\n\nNon standart Morse codes:\n\n There are two ways to enter characters, which does not belong to the\n table above. First way is to use 7 or 8 bit ASCII codes and replace\n every 0-bit by a \"dit\" and a 1-bit by a \"daw\". The problem is to know\n about the ASCII code and binary numbers. The second way is to use modifier\n or combinations of chars. For this purpose four 4-bit Morse codes are\n replaced by modification codes. With SHIFT or ~ you can reach uppercase\n characters and with CTRL (Control or ^) you can reach special codes.\n In this way you are able to confirm unix comands or start a new line \n using CTRL-M. For both possibilities you have an advantage if you know\n about ASCII codes. To handle special codes can be subject of changes\n in future versions.\n\nSome examples of non standart Morse codes:\n\n RET=[SC] ...-.-.   DEL=[SB] ...-...\n SPC=[RH] .-.....   ESC=[UY] ..--.--    ASCII-7: 0=dit 1=daw\n\n In the three-key mode SPC or SPACE can be entered by pressing the\n pause key twice.\n\nShort Form of code table:\n  1\\2     .   -  ..  .-  -.  -- ... ..- .-. .-- -.. -.- --. ---\n  .   E   I   A   S   U   R   W   H   V   F   ~   L   @   P   J\n  -   T   N   O   D   K   G   O   B   X   C   Y   Z   Q   &   ^\n\n The first column shows the first morse-bit, the upper row the\n other one to three morse bits. A \"F\" is coded as dit + dit daw dit\n in this table.  \n\nToDo / plans\n\n - switch off key-repeat (How to do that?)\n - expand morse code to full ASCII/UTF8 capability (ESC-sequenzes?)\n - start bash and pipe morse_input to it (fully PC control by CW)\n   pipe+fork+execl(\"bash\",NULL) .OR. popen(\"bash 2>cw\",\"w\") ???\n - output text to file\n - use DTR/CTS from serial port as In/Output (also 2..3 keys)\n   how to deal with RS232 status wires using linux? need a kernel module?\n - use soundcard output or echo 07 (up to 3 times)\n - use IR as input with a RemoteTV (is that possible?)\n - make ----, ---., .-.-, ..-- redefinable via ESC sequences\n - small-code speech output of typed chars\n - show last error or errlog\n - F1 to switch on/off the help-screen (read, train-mode, etc.)\n - F2 switch on/off sound, reconfigure keys etc.\n - use /dev/beep?\n - use only keys '123' as input keys and bypass the rest?\n - use speaker-sound-module\n - write morse input (via RS232 ctrl-wires) module\n - cw-output module /dev/cw\n\n\n  v0.2 - using mouse buttons\n  v0.1 - initial version\n\n\n   free for use, comments are welcome\n if you leave in raw-mode,\n   press 2+F12+' (german-kbd) or 2+F12+= (us-kbd) for ^CX\n good idea is: alias X=\"kbd_mode -a\"\n see also the cw- and cwcp-program\n raw-mode and speaker sound only works on linux console\n\n  coding: F => ..-. => s0010 => 10010 => 0x12 => 18\n\n  CW is the abbreviation for \"Continuous Wave\" or \"Morse Code\"\n  The origin morse code was developed by Samuel F. B. Morse.\n  The code was the earliest form of communication via radio and telegraph.\n\nAbout this document\n\nA good viewer to read this document is lynx, links or w3m.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9893632531166077}
+{"content": "Ahead of Hurricane Matthew making landfall, 13WMAZ wanted to check the facts on how state officials plan to make smooth evacuations if they become mandatory for Georgia coastal counties. After taking a closer look, we were able to verify that there is a plan in place.\n\nWith hurricane Matthew brewing off the coast, Sherry Arnold and her family weren't taking any chances staying at their home on Saint Simons.\n\n\"I've not ever seen it that rough,\" Arnold said \"This is the first time I've seen it this rough.\"\n\nShe hit the road headed for North Georgia by way of I-16. That’s the main evacuation route from Savannah and coastal Georgia to the rest of the state.\n\nDon Bryant, EMA Director of Laurens County said they updated those plans since they last time they were used for Hurricane Floyd in 1999.\n\n\"The state has come up with a plan of what we call contra flow traffic,\" Bryant said. \"Which basically means that all lanes of I-16 will be changed for traffic to move away from the coast. That contra flow actually ends in Laurens county.\"\n\nTo do that, the Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Department of Transportation would lower these barriers seen at on-ramps along Interstate 16. Once the eastbound lanes are reversed, access on and off will be limited.\n\n\"They'll be places where people can get off for emergencies or to refuel as well as when they get to places they’re supposed to go for shelter,\" Bryant said.\n\nHe says dropping the gates and implementing those procedures will help keep the evacuation traffic moving.\n\nIf the lanes of I-16 are reversed it will be the first time the state has done it since 1999.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.984906792640686}
+{"content": "Advertising Console\n\n    Temperance Seven\n\n    bob erwig\n\n    by bob erwig\n\n    1 655 views\n    Everybody loves my Baby Temperance Seven 1962\n    The Temperance Seven in 1962\n    The Temperance Seven were formed at the Royal College of Art during 1957. The band usually had nine members (one over the eight!) and dressed in the style appropriate to the late 1920s jazz they played.\n    The members generally gave themselves fictitious titles. John R.T. Davies used the pseudonym Sheik Wadi El Yadounir and wore a fez. On the first hit numbers vocals were provided by 'Whispering' Paul McDowell who was replaced later by Allan Moody Mitchell. The band once appeared in Spike Milligan's 'The Bed Sitting Room' and spawned new interest in the styles of the 1920s.\n    Thi is vintage British traditional jazz. I'm originally from Holland. Of course we were familiar with the trad boom, but some of our British youtube jazz fans might be much more familiar with the personnel details of these wonderful trad bands. I look forward to your detailed help in this.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9748077988624573}
+{"content": "Define Motivation\nAccording to one of the universally accepted definitions of motivation, it is an internal state of being, or an internal condition that activates one's behavior, giving it direction. Motivation has also been defined as a desire or need which directs and energizes behavior that is oriented towards a goal. Another definition of motivation states that it is the influence of the ...more»", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "Hanna Kim '21\n\nPOC Columnist\n\nFor many adolescent children of Asian descent, Hello Kitty seems to be an emblem of childhood. I was definitely no exception. When I was 4 years old, I loved Hello Kitty. In fact, I was obsessed with Hello Kitty. My most prized possessions were my Hello Kitty stuffed animals. They were about five inches tall and each had a different costume. Each week for show and tell, I would use my short and fleeting block of time to share each Hello Kitty from my flourishing collection.\n\nOne day I was coloring in my Hello Kitty book at the counter while my mom prepared dinner for me and my siblings. While searing a cast iron pan full of tofu, my mom turned around and said, “why doesn’t Hello Kitty have a mouth?”\n\nAt first, I was puzzled. Why was Mom questioning my favorite character? Why is she attacking her? I tentatively flipped through my coloring book and saw that she was right. Hello Kitty might have walked to school, hung out with friends, ridden horses, and eaten ice cream, but she did all of this without expression. I decided to take matters into my own hands. With a black sharpie, I drew mouths on all my dolls, every page of my coloring book, my backpack, my lunchbox, and, lastly, my pillow.\n\nAs an eighteen-year-old Asian-American girl, I now can truly understand why my mom was concerned with the portrayal of Hello Kitty. Throughout grade school and high school, my peers thought they knew me because they had internalized the stereotypical prototypes of Asian people: shy, emotionless, passive, and quiet. My mom saw Hello Kitty as an encapsulation of all these stereotypes and felt uncomfortable that her young daughter idolized her so much. Surrounding myself with all things Hello Kitty could have led to my own internalization that I should embody the role of the Asian girl who has never spoken aloud. For my mom, Hello Kitty was not a risk worth taking. Hello Kitty has continued to flourish into an empire. Jewelry, comics, music, video games, TV shows, merchandise, even credit cards, have Hello Kitty’s face on it. In 2014, Avril Lavigne released a song entitled “Hello Kitty” with a music video alongside it.\n\nIn the video, she parades around with four identically dressed expressionless and robotic Asian women in the background as she plays guitar, eats sushi, and goes to the candy store. The monotony of the submissive background dancers makes them seem to be interchangeable, forcing the viewer’s attention to Lavigne in the foreground.\n\nShe made it pretty clear that she doesn’t share this view. She took it to Twitter, posting “RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan.”\n\nFor me, this is the equivalent to someone saying” “I love Korean culture. I love K-POP”. Familiarizing oneself with a culture’s surface level stereotypes by no means makes someone an expert on that culture.\n\nIn conclusion, I want to thank my mom for being mindful of these harmful stereotypes at such an early age. Media, like the Hello Kitty shows and movies I constantly used to watch, possesses the ability to form young minds’ understanding of the world around them.\n\nMy mom, took it upon herself to protect my highly impressionable four-year-old self against the detrimental effects of cultural appropriation before it was even a coined term. Now it’s my turn to do the same.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9909709692001343}
+{"content": "08008000415, 09246178801\n\n\n\nThe Philippines is a developing nation with a democratic system of government, located in Southeast Asia. The Philippine Islands are a cluster of more than 7000 islands. The major island groupings are Luzon in the north, the Visayas in the center, and Mindanao in the south. Tourist facilities are available within population centers and the main tourist areas. English is widely spoken in the Philippines, and most signs are in English. \n\nThe total land area of the Philippines is about 300,000 square kilometers, and the largest city is the its capital, Manila. The two largest islands are Luzon to the north and Mindanao to the south, with a host of smaller islands in between, including some unnamed and uninhabited patches of land.The Philippines are a relatively save and cheap place to visit with long beaches, interesting mountain treks and hikes, and spectacular underwater experience with long beaches, interesting mountain treks and hikes, and spectacular underwater experiences.The climate is mostly hot and humid - averaging at about 80 degrees with humidity of 77%. The best season to visit is during the months of November to March - which is the dry season. The months of May to October are very hot and humid.\n\n  • 1. Philippines is the 1st democratic country in Asia.\n  • 2. Quality  and Professional Doctors and Nurses works around the world comes from Philippines\n  • 3. Filipinos are the largest Asian immigrant community in USA.\n  • 4. Philippines is the 3rd largest English-speaking nation in the world.\n  • 5. Philippines is the world's 2nd largest exporter of Physicians after India.\n  • 6. Quality  and Professional Marine Engg & Ship Captains also from Phillipines.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9549488425254822}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\nRESET (2017) review\n\n\n\nTHE WITNESS (2015) review\n\n\nA remake of his own successful Korean thriller Blind (2011), Ahn Sang-hoon’s The Witness transposes the action to China but keeps much of the original film’s key plot points. Xing (Yang Mi) is a young cop who lost her brother in a car accident. She blames herself for the tragedy, as she had tied her unruly sibling’s hands in the car to keep him still, leading to his eventual inability to escape the car as it teetered on the edge of a bridge. She also lost her eyesight in the accident, which means she can’t be a cop anymore, and leads a dour, guilt-ridden life. One day she gets into a cab whose driver turns out to be a psychopath (Zhu Yawen) who’s behind a wave of abductions, with all the victims being beautiful young women. As Xing struggles to break free of the driver, the cab hits someone who was crossing the street, and she manages to escape. The next day she reports the incident to the police, and astounds the detective in charge of the investigation (Wang Jingchun) with her astute observations on her would-be abductor : though she’s blind, her astute remaining senses and sharp deduction skills allow her to provide useful information. But soon thereafter a young skater, Chong (LuHan), turns up at the police station : he says he’s witnessed the incident, but his indications don’t match Xing’s. As a wayward youngster his testimony doesn’t weigh much more than that of the blind woman, but things become urgent when Xing realizes she’s dropped her diary in the psychopath’s car, and he may now be stalking her.\n\n\nWU DANG (2012) short review\n\n\nVincent Zhao’s unremarkable comeback continues with this barely lukewarm adventure in which he plays a professor/adventurer in the Indiana Jones mould. He is seeking seven mythical treasures, and a vital clue leads him to Mount Wu Dang, where a martial arts tournament is taking place in the famous monastery of the same name. There’s a good cast, with martial arts actors Fan Siu Wong and Dennis To as Wu Dang disciples, Xu Jiao as Zhao’s daughter, the ubiquitous Yang Mi as a rival adventurer, and Shaun ‘son of Ti Lung’ Tam as a gangster. Corey Yuen provides the action, which is sometimes palatable (a balletic martial arts duet with Zhao and Yang taking on Tam’s men is particularly nice) but often forgettable and tame : who wants to see pretty Yang Mi fight kiddy Xu Jiao is one of the lamest film tournaments ever ? There’s no sense of adventure (the bad CGI doesn’t help matters), and the romantic subplots are either massively creepy (40-years-old Fan and 14-years-old Xu aren’t exactly a match made in heaven) or simply cold (Vincent Zhao and Yang Mi have no chemistry whatsoever). A failure, but in an amiable kind of way. **", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6940193772315979}
+{"content": "'What is Good' in the Bible\n\n4 occurrences in 36 translations\n\n'What is Good' in the Bible\n\n\nHe should turn away from wrong living and do what is good. He should desire peace and do whatever it takes to maintain it.\n\nAnd who [is] the one who will harm you if you are a zealous adherent for what is good?\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.634028434753418}
+{"content": "A term coined by Ulric Neisser to describe the auditory equivalent of iconic memory, the other main component of sensory memory. Echoic memory refers to the 'echo' that remains in your head after the original sound has ended. This is separate from the acoustic code in short-term memory and the Phonological Loop in Working Memory. This is the actual presence of the sounds in your brain, and it only lasts for 2-3 seconds. If you wish to remember a sound for longer than that, you must store it in a more permanent type of memory.\n\nEchoic memory is very good at catching a lot of different stimuli, but you can only retrieve about 5 items from it once you pick what to focus on.\n\nOnce your brain selects the important bits from your echoic memory, it plays an initial replay in your short-term memory, where it may be rehearsed with with your acoustic code until it enters your long-term memory.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999107718467712}
+{"content": "Short for substitution box; a common design element in iterated block ciphers. S-boxes are usually invertible nonlinear functions that are carefully chosen to make differential cryptanalysis, linear cryptanalysis, and other cryptanalytic attacks as impractical as possible. They perform a nonlinear substitution of their input and may be fixed with some mysterious values (as in DES) or depend on the input keys (as in blowfish and twofish).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8632081747055054}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\nGeosciences LibreTexts\n\nReading: Climates and Tectonics\n\nTectonic–climatic interaction refers to interrelationships between tectonic processes and the climate system. The tectonic processes in question include orogenesis,volcanism, and erosion, while relevant climatic processes include, but are not limited to,atmospheric circulation, orographic lift, monsoon circulation and the rain shadow effect. As the geological record of past climate changes over the tectonic-scale (i.e. millions of years) is sparse and poorly resolved, many questions remain unresolved regarding the nature of tectonic-climate interaction, although it is an area of active research by geologists and palaeoclimatologists.\n\n\nDepending on the vertical and horizontal magnitude of a mountain range, it has the potential to have strong effects on global and regional climate patterns and processes including: deflection of atmospheric circulation, creation of orographic lift, altering monsoon circulation, and causing the rain shadow effect.\n\nFigure 1. Simple illustration of the rain shadow effect\n\nOne well known example of an elevated terrain and its effect on climate occurs in the Southeast Asian Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain system. A range of this size has the ability to influence geographic temperature, precipitation, and wind. Theories suggest that the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has resulted in stronger deflections of the atmospheric jet stream, a heavier monsoonal circulation, increased rainfall on the front slopes, greater rates of chemical weathering, and thus lower atmospheric CO2concentrations. It is possible that the spatial magnitude of this range is so great that it creates a regional monsoon circulation in addition to disrupting hemispheric-scale atmospheric circulation.\n\nThe monsoon season in Southeast Asia occurs due to the Asian continent becoming warmer than the surrounding oceans during the summer; as a low-pressure cell is created above the continents, a high-pressure cell forms over the cooler ocean, causing advection of moist air, creating heavy precipitation from Africa to Southeast Asia. However, the intensity of the rainfall over Southeast Asia is greater than the African monsoon, which can be attributed to the awesome size of the Asian continent compared to the African continent and the presence of a vast mountain system. This not only affects the climate of Southeast Asia, but modifies the climate in neighboring areas such as Siberia, central Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean basin as well. To test this a model was created that changed only the topography of current landmasses, which resulted in correlations between the model and global fluctuations in precipitation and temperature over the past 40 Myr. interpreted by scientists.\n\nFigure 2. Example of the rain shadow effect in the Himalayas\n\nIt is commonly agreed upon that global climate fluctuations are strongly dictated by the presence or absence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and carbon dioxide (CO2) is typically considered the most significant greenhouse gas. Observations infer that large uplifts of mountain ranges globally result in higher chemical erosion rates, thus lowering the volume of CO2 in the atmosphere as well as causing global cooling. This occurs because in regions of higher elevation there are higher rates of mechanical erosion (i.e. gravity, fluvial processes) and there is constant exposure and availability of materials available for chemical weathering. The following is a simplified equation describing the consumption of CO2 during chemical weathering of silicates: CaSiO3 + CO2 ↔ CaCO3 + SiO2\n\nFrom this equation, it is inferred that carbon dioxide is consumed during chemical weathering and thus lower concentrations of the gas will be present in the atmosphere as long as chemical weathering rates are high enough.\n\n\nThere are scientists who reject that uplift is the sole cause of climate change and are in favor of uplift as a result of climate change. Some geologists theorize that a cooler and stormier climate (such as glaciations and increased precipitation) can give a landscape a younger appearance such as incision of high terrains and increased erosion rates. Glaciers are a powerful eroding agent with the ability to incise and carve deep valleys and when rapid erosion of the earth’s surface occurs, especially in an area of limited relief, it is possible for isostatic rebound to occur, creating high peaks and deep valleys. A lack of glaciation or precipitation can cause an increase in erosion, but can vary between localities. It is possible to create erosion in the absence of precipitation because there would be a decrease in vegetation, which typically acts as a protective cover for the bedrock.\n\nModels also suggest that certain topographic features of the Himalayan and Andes region is determined by an erosional/climatic interaction as opposed to tectonism. These models reveal a correlation between regional precipitation and a maximum topographic limit at the plateau margin. In the southern Andes where there is relatively low precipitation and denudation rates, there is no real extreme topography present at the plateau margin while in the north there are higher rates of precipitation and the presence of extreme topography.\n\nFigure 3. Peaks and valleys of the Torres del Paine range of the Andes in Chile\n\nAnother interesting theory comes from an investigation of the uplift of the Andes during the Cenozoic. Some scientists hypothesize that the tectonic processes of plate subduction and mountain building are products of erosion and sedimentation. When there is an arid climate influenced by the rain shadow effect in a mountainous region, sediment supply to the trench can be reduced or even cut off. These sediments are thought to act as lubricants at the plate interface and this reduction increases the shear stress present at the interface that is large enough to support the high Andes.\n\n\n\nAround the world, dotting the map are volcanoes of all shapes and sizes. Lining the landmass around the Pacific Ocean are the well-known volcanoes of the Pacific Ring of Fire. From the Aleutian Islands to the Andes Mountains in Chile, these volcanoes have sculpted their local and regional environments. Aside from admiring their majestic beauty, one might wonder how these geologic wonders work and what role they play in changing the landscape and atmosphere. Principally, volcanoes are geologic features that exude magmatic material from below Earth’s surface onto the surface. Upon reaching the surface, the term “magma” disappears and “lava” becomes the common nomenclature. This lava cools and forms igneous rock. By examining igneous rocks, it is possible to derive a chain of events that led from the original melt of the magma to the crystallization of the lava at Earth’s surface. By examining igneous rocks, it is possible to postulate evidence for volcanic outgassing, which is known to alter atmospheric chemistry. This alteration of atmospheric chemistry changes climate cycles both globally and locally.\n\nFundamentals of Igneous Rock and Magmatic Gas Formation\n\nMagmas are the starting point for the creation of a volcano. In order to understand volcanism, it is critical to understand the processes that form volcanoes. Magmas are created by keeping temperature, pressure, and composition (known as P-T-X) in the realm of melt conditions. The pressure and temperature for melts are understood by knowing the chemistry of the melt. To keep magma in a melt condition, a change in one variable will result in the change of another variable in order to maintain equilibrium (i.e. Le Chatlier’s Principle). The production of magma is accomplished in multiple ways: 1) subduction of oceanic crust, 2) creation of a hot spot from a mantle plume, and 3) divergence of oceanic or continental plates. The subduction of oceanic crust produces a magmatic melt usually at great depth. Yellowstone National Park is a hot spot located within the center of a continent. Divergence of continental plates (i.e. the Atlantic Mid-Ocean ridge complex) creates magmas very near the surface of the Earth. A plume of heat from the mantle will melt rocks, creating a hot spot, which can be located at any depth in the crust. Hot spots in oceanic crust develop different magmatic plumbing systems based on plate velocities. Hawaii and the Madeira Archipelago (off the West coast of Africa) are examples of volcanic complexes with two different plumbing systems. Because islands such as Hawaii move more quickly than Madeira, the layered rocks at Hawaii have a different chemistry than those at Madeira. The layers beneath Hawaii and Madeira are different because the magma produced underground at these locations rests for different amounts of time. The longer the amount of time magma will rest underground, the warmer the host rocks become. Fractionation of crystals from melt is partially driven by heat; therefore, the igneous rock produced will vary from an insulated host to a non-insulated host. Each of these avenues of magmatic creation develops different igneous rocks and, thus, various P-T-X histories. Definitions and other geologic explanations of igneous systems are explained in Loren A. Raymond’s Petrology text.\n\nIn order to understand the creation of igneous rocks from a melt, it is fundamental to understand the concepts produced by Drs. Norman Bowen and Frank Tuttle from the NaAlSiO4-KAlSiO4-SiO2-H2O system. Tuttle and Bowen accomplished their work by using experimental petrologic laboratories that produce synthetic igneous materials from mixes of reagents. Observations from these experiments indicate that as a melt cools, it will produce derivative magmas and igneous rock. Following Bowen’s research, the magma will crystallize a mafic igneous rock prior to a felsic igneous rock. As this crystallization process occurs in nature, pressure and temperature decrease, which changes the composition of the melt along various stages of the process. This constantly changing chemical environment alters the final composition that reaches the Earth’s surface.\n\nThe evolution of magmatic gases depends on the P-T-X history of the magma. These factors include the composition of assimilated materials and composition of parent rock. Gases develop in magma through two different processes: first and second boiling. First boiling is defined as a decrease in confining pressure below the vapor pressure of the melt. Second boiling is defined as an increase in vapor pressure due to crystallization of the melt. In both cases, gas bubbles exsolve in the melt and aid the ascent of the magma towards the surface. As the magma ascends towards the surface, the temperature and confining pressure decrease. A decrease in temperature and confining pressure will allow an increase in crystallization and vapor pressure of the dissolved gas. Depending on the composition of the melt, this ascent can be either slow or fast. Felsic magmas are very viscous and travel to the surface of the Earth slower than mafic melts whose silica levels are lower. The amount of gas available to be exsolved and the concentrations of gases in the melt also control ascension of the magma. If the melt contains enough dissolved gas, the rate of exsolution will determine the magmas rate of ascension. Mafic melts contain low levels of dissolved gases whereas felsic melts contain high levels of dissolved gases. The rate of eruption for volcanoes of different compositions is not the controlling factor of gas emission into the atmosphere. The amount of gas delivered by an eruption is controlled by the origin of the magma, the crustal path the magma travels through, and several factors dealing with P-T-x at the Earth’s surface. When felsic melts reach the surface of the Earth, they are generally very explosive (i.e. Mount St. Helens). Mafic melts generally flow over the surface of the Earth and form layers (i.e. Columbia River Basalt). Magma development under continental crust develops a different type of volcano than magmas that are generated under oceanic crust. Subduction zones produce volcanic island arcs (such as the Aleutian Islands, Alaska) and non-arc volcanism (such as Chile and California). Typically, arc volcanism is more explosive than non-arc volcanism due to the concentrations and amounts of gasses withheld in the magma underground.\n\nFluid inclusion analysis from fluids trapped in minerals can show a path of volatile evolution in volcanic rocks. Isotopic analyses and interpretation of degassing scenarios are required in order to derive the origin of magmatic volatiles. When gas bubbles accumulate in a melt that is crystallizing, they create a vesicular texture. Vesicules are created by super cooling a melt while gases are present. Because the rock crystallized very quickly while in the Earth’s atmosphere, it is possible to examine some igneous rocks for fluids trapped in vesicules. By examining many different inclusions, it is possible to detect crustal assimilation and depressurization that account for volatile release.\n\nMethods of Characterizing Igneous Rocks\n\nThe methods by which petrologists examine igneous rocks and synthetically produced materials are optical petrography, X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and many others. Methods such as optical petrography aid the researcher in understanding various textures of igneous rocks and, also, the mineralogical composition of the rock. XRD methods define the mineralogical constituents of the rock being tested; therefore, composition is only known based on the mineralogical composition discovered using this method. EPMA reveals textural features of the rock on the micron level. It also reveals a composition of the rock based on elemental abundance. For information about fluids trapped in an igneous rock, LA-ICP-MS could be used. This is accomplished by finding rocks with small pockets of fluid or vapor, acquiring the fluid or vapor, and testing the fluid or vapor for various elements and isotopes.\n\nVolcanic Emissions and Effects\n\nWhile most volcanoes emit some mixture of the same few gasses, each volcano’s emissions contain different ratios of those gasses. Water vapor (H2O) is the predominant gas molecule produced, closely followed by carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), all of which can function as greenhouse gasses. A few unique volcanoes release more unusual compounds. For example, mud volcanoes in Romania belch out much more methane gas than H2O, CO2, or SO2—95–98% methane (CH4), 1.5–2.3% CO2, and trace amounts of hydrogen and helium gas. To measure volcanic gases directly, scientists commonly use flasks and funnels to capture samples directly from volcanic vents or fumaroles. The advantage of direct measurement is the ability to evaluate trace levels in the gaseous composition. Volcanic gasses can be indirectly measured using Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometry (TOMS), a satellite-remote sensing tool which evaluates SO2 clouds in the atmosphere. TOMS’ disadvantage is that its high detection limit can only measure large amounts of exuded gases, such as those emitted by an eruption with an Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 3, on a logarithmic scale of 0 to 7.\n\nSulfur ejection from volcanoes has a tremendous impact environmental impact, and is important to consider when studying the large-scale effects of volcanism. Volcanoes are the primary source of the sulfur (in the form of SO2) that ends up in the stratosphere, where it then reacts with OH radicals to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4). When the sulfuric acid molecules either spontaneously nucleate or condense on existing aerosols, they can grow large enough to form nuclei for raindrops and precipitate as acid rain. Rain containing elevated concentrations of SO2 kills vegetation, which then reduces the ability of the area’s biomass to absorb CO2 from the air. It also creates a reducing environment in streams, lakes, and groundwater. Because of its high reactivity with other molecules, increased sulfur concentrations in the atmosphere can lead to ozone depletion and start a positive warming feedback.\n\nVolcanoes with a felsic melt composition produce extremely explosive eruptions that can inject massive quantities of dust and aerosols high into the atmosphere. These particulate emissions are potent climate forcing agents, and can provoke a wide variety of responses including warming, cooling, and rainwater acidification. The climatic response depends on the altitude of the dust cloud as well as the size and composition of the dust. Some volcanic silicates cooled extremely quickly, created a glassy texture; their dark color and reflective nature absorb some radiation and reflect the rest. Such volcanic material injected into the stratosphere blocks solar radiation, heating that layer of the atmosphere and cooling the area beneath it. Wind patterns can distribute the dust over vast geographic regions; for example, the 1815 eruption of Tambora in Indonesia produced so much dust that a cooling of 1 degree Celsius was noted as far away as New England, and lasted for several months. Europeans and Americans called its effect “the year without a summer.”\n\nVolcanic emissions contain trace amounts of heavy metals, which can affect the hydrosphere when they are injected into the lower reaches of the atmosphere. When large quantities of these emissions are concentrated into a small area they can damage ecosystems, negatively affect agriculture, and pollute water sources.\n\nMaterials being emitted from volcanoes typically carry heavy metals in the trace level. When large quantities of these emissions are collected into a small area, the contamination effects become paramount.\n\nThe short-term (months-to-years) impacts of volcanism on the atmosphere, climate and environment are strongly controlled by location, timing, flux, magnitude and emission height of sulfur gases. Episodic explosive eruptions represent the principal perturbation to stratospheric aerosol (though the atmospheric effects of sulfur degassing associated with continental flood basalts might well be more profound). In the troposphere, the picture is less clear but a significant part of the global tropospheric sulfate burden may be volcanogenic. Sulfate aerosol influences the Earth’s radiation budget by scattering and absorption of shortwave and long-wave radiation, and by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. When they are brought to the boundary layer and Earth’s surface, clouds containing volcanic sulfur in both gaseous and aerosol phases can result in profound environmental and health impacts.\n\nExamples of the environmental and health impacts are agricultural loss due to acid rain and particulate shading, damage to ecosystems, and pollution in the hydrosphere. Intensity of a volcanic eruption is a variable controlling the altitude and effect of ejected material. Though larger eruptions occur less often than smaller eruptions, larger eruptions still deliver more particulate matter into the atmosphere. This year round behavior of emitted material yields mild effects on the atmosphere in comparison to larger eruptions. Over time, changes in the composition of smaller scale eruptions yields changes to atmospheric cycles and the global climate. Larger scale eruptions cause changes to the atmosphere immediately, which in turn leads to climatic changes in the immediate vicinity. The larger the volcanic expulsion, the higher the altitude achieved by the ejected silicate materials. Higher altitude injections are caused by larger intensity eruptions. Larger eruptions do not emit as much, on average, as smaller eruptions. This is related to the return period of the eruptions and the amount of ejected material per eruption. “The injection height of sulfur into the atmosphere represents another important determinant of climate impact. More intense eruptions, i.e., those with higher magma discharge rates, are more likely to loft the reactive sulfur gases into the stratosphere where they can generate climatically effective aerosol.”\n\nEruption intensity of a volcano is not the only factor controlling the altitude of particles. The climate surrounding the volcano constrains the impact of the eruption. Models of eruptions that treat climatic variables as controls and hold eruption intensity constant predict particulate emissions, such as volcanic ash and other pyroclastic debris ejected into the atmosphere, in the tropics to reach higher altitudes than eruptions in arid or polar areas. Some of these climatic variables include humidity, aridity, winds, and atmospheric stability. The observation made by the model matches what is seen in nature: volcanoes in tropical climates have greater eruption heights than those in the poles. If there were a widening of the tropics, the number of volcanoes able to produce higher altitude emissions into the atmosphere would increase. Effects on the climate from the increase in airborne silicate material would be substantial because the height of these tropical eruptions will become more prominent with a widening of the tropics leading to more risks such as cooling, pollution, and aircraft disturbances.\n\nThe location of a volcano strongly influences the geographic distribution of atmospheric heating and the development of planetary waves that affect air circulation (especially in the northern hemisphere). Another relevant factor is that the height of the tropopause varies with latitude—at the tropics it is around 16–17 km above sea level but descends to 10–11 km at high latitudes. In general terms, an explosive eruption requires a greater intensity (magma discharge rate) to cross the tropopause in the tropics than at mid to polar latitudes. However, there are two factors that limit this effect. The first is that a high-latitude eruption will have a more limited effect than a low-latitude one because further from the tropics there is less solar energy to intercept. Secondly, atmospheric circulation works in a way to limit the effects of high latitude eruptions. A tropical eruption that pumps aerosol into the stratosphere results in localized heating. This increases the temperature difference in the middle atmosphere between the equator and high latitudes, and thereby enhances meridional air flows that spread aerosol into both hemispheres, promoting climate forcing at a worldwide scale. In contrast, volcanic aerosol injected into the stratosphere from high latitude volcanoes will tend to have the opposite effect on the temperature gradient, acting to stagnate meridional air flow. Very little, if any, of the stratospheric aerosol formed as a result of eruption of a high latitude volcano will reach the opposing hemisphere.\n\nInteraction Between Glaciation and Volcanoes\n\nVolcanoes do not only affect the climate, they are affected by the climate. During times of glaciation, volcanic processes slow down. Glacial growth is promoted when summer heat is weak and winter cold is enhanced and when glaciers grow larger, they get heavier. This excess weight causes a reverse effect on the magma chamber’s ability to produce a volcano. Thermodynamically, magma will dissolve gases more readily when the confining pressure on the magma is greater than the vapor pressure of the dissolved components. Glacial buildup typically occurs at high elevations, which are also the home to most continental volcanoes. Buildup of ice can cause a magma chamber to fail and crystallize underground. The cause of magma chamber failure occurs when the pressure of ice pressing down on Earth is greater than the pressure being exerted on the magma chamber from heat convection in the mantle. Ice core data from glaciers provides insight into past climate. “Oxygen isotopes and the calcium ion record are essential indicators of climatic variability, while peaks in sulfate ions (SO4) and in electrical conductivity of the ice indicate volcanic aerosol fallout.” As seen in ice cores, volcanic eruptions in the tropics and southern hemisphere are not recorded in the Greenland Ice sheets. Fallout from tropical eruptions can be seen at both poles though this takes nearly two years and consists of only sulfuric precipitation. “One of the striking revelations of the ice core record is the evidence for numerous great eruptions, which have not otherwise been recognized in tephra records. One caveat to the approach is that although the dating of the ice core by counting of seasonal layers is fairly robust, it is not fail-safe. The greater the depth from which the core is retrieved, the more likely it is to have suffered deformation Prevailing winds and atmospheric chemistry play a large role in moving volcanic volatiles from their source to their final locations at the surface or in the atmosphere.”\n\nCretaceous Climate\n\nDuring the Cretaceous, Earth experienced an unusual warming trend. Two explanations for this warming are attributed to tectonic and magmatic forces. One of the theories is a magmatic super plume inducing a high level of CO2 into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels in the Cretaceous could have been as high as 3.7 to 14.7 times their present amounts today causing an average 2.8 to 7.7 degrees Celsius. Tectonically, movements of the plates and a sea level fall could cause an additional 4.8 degrees Celsius globally. The combined effect between magmatic and tectonic processes could have placed the Cretaceous Earth 7.6 to 12.5 degrees Celsius higher than today.\n\nA second theory on the warm Cretaceous is the subduction of carbonate materials. By subducting carboniferous materials, a release of carbon dioxide would emit from volcanoes. During the Cretaceous, the Tethys Sea was rich in limestone deposits. By subducting this carboniferous platform, the resulting magma would have become more carbon dioxide rich. Because carbon dioxide dissolves into melts well, it would have remained dissolved until the confining pressure of the magma was low enough to de-gas and release massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere causing warming.\n\n\nVolcanoes represent powerful images and forces on Earth’s landscape. Generation of a volcano depends on its location and magmatic origin. Magmas will remain a melt until pressure and temperature allow crystallization and outgassing. During outgassing, the magma chamber will rise and meet Earth’s surface causing a volcano. Depending on the composition of the melted material, this volcano could contain a variety of gases. Most of the gases emitted via volcanic eruption are greenhouse gases and cause atmospheric alterations. These atmospheric alterations then force the climate, both regionally and locally, to reach a new equilibrium with the new atmosphere. These changes can reflect as cooling, warming, higher precipitation rates and many others.\n\n\n  • What skill does this content help you develop?\n  • What are the key topics covered in this content?\n  • What questions do you have about this content?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8918992280960083}
+{"content": "Why Biomimicry Will Shape the Future of Design\n\nThis is astounding.  I have heard of bio-mimicry before in our second year studio with Professor Katrina, but until now I guess I have sort of taken it for granted.  I assigned it to aesthetics and buildings only, without letting it expand to where it truly fits: everywhere.  In this talk, Jay Harman, President and CEO of Pax Scientific, starts off by giving several examples of elements found in nature that can impact our own products, or the way that we design buildings or pharmaceuticals, etc.  One particularly fascinating chemical that exists in nature is hippopotamus sweat.  It is a natural sun-block.  It is waterproof, spreads on it’s own, and of course effectively blocks UV radiation.  Companies are currently testing and engineering hippopotamus sweat to be used in human sunscreen to create a more effective radiation blocking cream.  Why has this not been done before? In a sense, it is so simple.  This knowledge has existed around us for hundreds, thousands of years.  It works for our animal and plant friends, so why can it not work for us?  Another pattern that Harman mentions is the vortex, a geometry found nearly everywhere in nature, the weather, our ears, seashells, and even a human skin pore.  He notes that there are no straight lines in nature, yet we use nearly only straight lines in our architecture and designs.\n\nWe think as humans, that by going in a straight line, we are using the least amount of energy.  Pax Scientific essentially “froze” a whirlpool and created a miniscule component to place in a massive tank of water, that processed and cleaned the water to make it potable and reduce energy consumption by about 80% as well.  This component is now in application all over the world, and works in every installation.  Apparently, copying nature actually works.\n\nMy one concern, particularly with chemicals is the question of whether or not something that works for a hippopotamus can work for us?  Will we have adverse reactions? How much of an adaption do we have to make before our creations are basically synthetic?\n\nHarman, J. (2015, February 9). Why Biomimicry Will Shape the Future of Design. Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.greenbiz.com/video/why-biomimicry-will-shape-future-design\n\n\nWeek 12\n\nThis week I worked on a variety of projects.  Monday was spent working on a few favors for Dennis.  I gathered and perused through existing drawings for a new library project we won last week in Eagle, Colorado.  These drawings would then be used by Dennis to create some preliminary concept sketches for the library, who is debating whether or not they want to remodel or expand or renovate their existing building.  After looking over the floor plans, he decided they were messy and hard to read, so he requested that I reconstruct them to make them cleaner and more readable.  I also gathered images from Google Earth of the town of Eagle (located thirty minutes west of Vail), the surrounding neighborhood, and the site.  I then identified the actual site and approximately how much acreage they owned by looking at county records and zoning maps.  All of this I then delivered to Dennis.  I may even be taking a trip up to Eagle soon to take pictures of the site and the building for Dennis to use to begin concept work on the project.\n\nThe rest of the week was occupied with the McNichols project, surprise work from Xcel for the Thornton Substation, work on an apartment complex called Vela (or Peoria Apartments), and further picking up of red-lines on the retail space, 38th and Kalamath.  McNichols work included some quick modeling on the current section model for new designs of the lobby area and third floor alterations for a client meeting on Tuesday morning.  Then Xcel came back to us for revisions to the elevations on the Substation that I have worked on in the past.  Sometimes clients can be incredibly particular.  The fun work for the week was on 38th and Kalamath, learning a little bit more about egress and how to show that in construction documentation, and learning new tricks in Revit as some of the information from previous drawings was missing when we reconfigured the site. On Peoria, I modeled a few different options for signage outside of the clubhouse and created a few images of what that would look like from both the entrance and the back.  I’ll try and upload some of these images if I can next week.\n\nHow to Master Your Next Meeting\n\nThe article, “How to Master Your Next Meeting,” by Ross McCammon provides practical advice on how to make the most of meeting time.  Most people greatly dislike meetings, and it is no wonder, as usually next to nothing gets resolved, people are confused, and often the conversation is sidetracked and takes a jaunt down the rabbit hole.  McCammon offers several glimpses of wisdom into this event.\n\nThe first topic that is covered consists of knowing what people want.  People desire for their expectations for the meeting to be met, and people wish to feel that their presence is crucial.  In order to accomplish and make decisions in a meeting, having an agenda and following it is key.  Not only does an agenda help the attendee to know what will be going on and how much longer the meeting will go, but it also provides an excellent reference to stay on track.  Also, the other component to addressing what people want is to make them feel necessary.  No one wants to waste time at a meeting that they do not need to be at.  Therefore, make the topic relevant to everyone, and be attentive to make eye contact with everyone involved.\n\nThe next aspect to cover is how to actually deliver the message.  Treat the information you are delivering as a speech.  Speeches are organized, easy to follow, and to the point.  That is how the information in a meeting should be delivered.  Say what you are going to talk about, talk about it, and then state the main deal again to bring everything full circle.  Keep it short and sweet and stay on schedule.  Usually there will be interruptions throughout, but it is completely fine to ignore those altogether and acknowledge the interruptions when you are done.\n\nThere are also some ideal conditions to help a meeting be productive and successful.  First of all, start at an earlier time, then people are not already worn out by a long day.  Next, have meetings in a smaller room rather than a larger one.  Attention is more called for in an intimate space.  Also, have fewer people.  Fewer people makes it easier to move forward and avoid distractions.  Keep a room warmer rather than cooler.  It is easier to concentrate.  Allow for natural light as opposed to artificial light.  Be quiet and attentive when you are listening to the speaker.\n\nMcCammon, R. (2015, March 3). How to Master Your Next Meeting. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242497\n\nWeek 11 (I think)\n\nI am starting to lose track of the weeks, though I guess that is a good sign that I am enjoying myself.  This week contained a lot of variety, small tasks for many different projects.  I quite enjoy this though, as it gives me an excuse to be nosy and learn a lot about different projects.  Another added bonus is that by talking to the people who create the design, you get a behind the scenes look at the nitty-gritty, how and why a client did or did not like an idea, what it is like dealing with a regional building department, talking with contractors and manufacturers, thinking a lot on certain details, such as how high and thick the foundation wall needs to be to address the 100 year flood, etc, and having to take a best guess on color choices when you really do not know what a client wants.\n\nThe first part of my week consisted of more work done on the McNichols model.  I will show you more pictures later.  I may have mentioned this before, but I always kind of thought model building was antiquated in modern architectural offices, but it truly has proved to be a very useful tool for the client, who continually asks us to bring the model to the design meetings.  This time we have moved on from the exterior plaza and entrance, and are dealing with the stairs and third floor ceiling.  The stairs on the second floor will be restored to their historical proportions, detail, and grandeur.  The first floor stairs, however, were in debate until Tuesday afternoon.  This was originally the basement of the old Carnegie library, and so it was used exclusively for storage.  Therefore, the stairs were never meant to be used with heavy traffic.  The three options were to make them simple and up to code, up to code with historical replication, and a completely different twist that allows them to lower the landing and open up the lobby area just off of the current grand main entrance.  I modeled these three, and the Denver Arts and Venue people are very open to what we propose, so they chose the completely new option.  The new stairs now also need to be completely enclosed, so we are playing around with the idea of surrounding the stairs and the lobby for each floor in fire-rated glazing.  This provides protection from fires and noise from events on each level, but still gives you a visual of what occurs on each floor as you move to your desired destination.\n\nThe next items I worked on were a continuation of the report for Big Piney Library in Big Piney, Wyoming, more work on our office renovation, and prepping and submitting material for the Colorado Landmark Buildings award for Library 21C in Colorado Springs, CO.  Ryan and Dennis returned from the initial Mind-Breaking and Building-Breaking session for Big Piney, so I compiled their results into the report and made several diagrams, explanations, and wordles to help the client visualize the results.  For the office renovation I mainly helped move around furniture, and redrew portions of our site and desired parking for Dennis to take to the contractor for pricing.  For 21C, I cleaned up and redrew the existing plans in Revit to be ready to submit for the award.\n\nHere are some photos of Library 21C before and after, as well as McNichols:\n\nbefore atrium after atrium\n\nbefore middle after middle\n\nbefore staircase after staircase\n\n\nCoin Check\n\nThere is an architecture and design podcast that I have been listening to recently (yes, they also have full transcripts posted on their website) called 99% Invisible that I highly recommend everyone to listen to and check out.  This podcast out of San Francisco is produced by a man named Roman Mars, with the help of various NPR associates and reporters.  Roman’s background and education is in Architecture, making him a suitable host for a podcast such as this.  What I like about this podcast is that it is not explicitly architectural.  Every podcast relates back to architecture or design in general, but maybe in a less conventionally way.  The show has really pushed me to see design in literally everything around us, and has put me in a state of awe in regards to how the world is organized around us, whether that be specific works of architecture, or music, or other parts of design.  Is that not what design is about?  Organizing, making sense of, improving, and beautifying the world around us?\n\nThe podcast that I listened to this week, or rather one out of the many that I have been binge listening to, is titled Coin Check.  It discusses the use of Challenge Coins within the military.  These exist throughout all branches of the military, but are used in various ways and take on various aesthetic forms.  The producers remember a story of when they attended a conference, and ended up getting into a long in-depth conversation with a high-ranking officer.  As they parted ways, the officer handed them a coin.  This led to the birth of this story.\n\nApparently, these coins serve a variety of purposes.  They are used to show gratitude or affection in an environment where emotion or displays of affection are counter-cultural.  Often-times they will be received and given as a form of friendship and well-being, or as thanks for a job well done.  They are also commonly used in a drinking game.  This drinking game occurs when someone takes his challenge coin, and taps it on the bar or table, loudly calling out coin check.  Everyone who knows what is going on will then take out their coin and do the exact same thing.  The hope is that someone does not have their coin on them, and then has to buy a round of drinks for everyone involved.  If everyone does have their coin, the initiator has to pay for a round of drinks.  The rules vary from place to place and branch to branch as well.\n\nThe interesting part about these coins is, though they are prevalent throughout all branches of the military, they are not official.  There is no budget for them, no rules, no regulations, which for a culture that is used to rules and regulations, and control, this is a nice breath of freedom and identity.  There are literally hundreds of different types of coins and looks, each individualized to a specific group, branch, unit, etc.  They also vary by rank, further allowing for identity and ownership to be built into the coin.  Coins are usually designed in powerpoint, then sent off to the people who produce them, where the design submitted by the soldiers is put into more complex software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and then produced and delivered to it’s owners, to be circulated throughout more ranks, branches, and units.\n\nMars, R. (2015, March 10). Coin Check. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/coin-check/\n\nCommongrounds and Union Station\n\n\nCommongrounds Coffee House is a small coffee shop/lunch place in Lower Downtown Denver.  They are located in a large building, but only take up a small tenant space in the first floor.  I must be honest, I expected a lot better atmosphere from this shop.  Spatially the establishment functioned well, but the details could have been a lot more spectacular.\n\n\nThe layout consisted of two larger seating areas on both sides of the door, separated by bookshelves.  Each of these seating areas were pleasantly situated by the large full-height storefront windows.  Another small seating area was situated just off to the side of the beverages counter.  The counter itself took up a large portion of the room, with coffee and tea ordering and creating to the far left, food ordered and made in the half-circle portion of the counter, and alcoholic beverages served to the far right of the counter.  Prominent signage, with their name and logo hung in another concave semi-circle behind the main counter.  Another small booth seating area occupied the back portion of the shop near the restrooms at the very back.\n\n\nCirculation ran smoothly, with people channeled through the main entry forced through on either sides by half-height bookcases framing the customer on both sides.  Main circulation revolves around the counter, and secondary circulation branches off to the various  seating spaces.\n\nAs stated before, the details were nothing extraordinary.  Furniture consisted of a variety of wooden chairs and tables,  the ceiling was exposed to the black painted ductwork, and lighting consisted mostly of downlighting spotlights.\n\n\nUnion Station on the other hand is a pleasantly surprising space.  This building is indeed the main Amtrak Train and Bus Depot for Denver.  The entire building, exterior, and courtyard was renovated last year, once again making this space a pleasant one for the visitor.  The exterior courtyard is sprawling, with the building façade itself boasting a complex masonry cladding.\n\n\nOnce you enter the building, through either side, you pass through a small airlock, and enter into the main waiting room.  A restaurant and bar, Terminal Bar, is situated at the front of the space, while the exterior spaces of the main room are occupied by gift shops on the left side and small restaurants on the right.  Cafeteria seating exists just outside Terminal Bar, and the rest of the spaces are arranged with couches, side tables, table lamps, and armchairs in comfortable and intimate settings, with area rugs defining each setting.  The middle portion is raised with two tale shuffleboard games in the middle flanked at each end by more lounge seating.  A florist station is setup at the end of this raised space, and some of the traditional high-backed benches have been placed at the far end of the station.  Train and bus access can be reached by a hallway to the very back right of the main lobby.  The three upper levels of the station consist of office space.\n\n\nCirculation happens in an orderly, orthogonal fashion.  Two main walkways go from the entries to the back, and cross to reach the trains, with secondary circulation splitting the lounge spaces and entering the restaurants and gift shops, and tertiary circulation spanning from the primary circulation to the raised portion of the station.\n\nIMG_1675 IMG_1682\n\nIn terms of details, the space was stunning, with the furniture lending to a homey, warm feeling, and the lighting giving a grand scale to the space.\n\nWeek 9\n\nLast week we received the go ahead from the owner of 1230 at 38th and Kalamath as well as Civil to continue working towards 100% completion on construction documents.  That meant that this week was a big push for taking that leap from design thinking to technical thinking.  Originally all of this was going to be due at the end of this week, but due to some issues with Structural regarding the foundation, we had to push the due date out a ways.  I was tasked to spend ten hours on drawing up wall sections and details in Revit and generally just cleaning up the Revit model that we so quickly put together when the façade was changing.  The work was then passed on to another co-worker, Felipe. The rest of the week was supposed to be spent doing work on Big Piney Library.  We won the bid for Big Piney at the beginning of this month.\n\nBig Piney library is located in Big Piney, Wyoming, and Humphries Poli will be the lead architect working on remodel and possibly expansion or relocation for this library.  At the beginning of each project Dennis or Joe and the project manager travel to the location of the project for a few days and conduct “research” sessions with the client.  They invite the owner (board of trustees, private owner, investors, etc.), the staff or employees, and the general public or the users to a variety of interactive meetings.  During these meetings they introduce who they are and get to know their clients.  Then they conduct interviews, surveys, and “Mind-Breaking” or “Building-Breaking” exercises.  These exercises consist of using large scale printed out floor plans and titled tags for people to dictate things like where is the quiet part of the library?  Which entrance do you use?  What is the best view?  Outdoor space? etc.  Mind-breaking exercises consist of participants placing sticky notes with their thoughts on large pieces of paper with categories such as, teen space, renovations, staff, seniors, technology, sustainability, etc.  Once all of this information is compiled and Dennis and the project manager, in this case, Ryan, return all of this information is processed and put into a report that continues to grow as progress continues.  This book is very similar to the other one that I have worked on previously for another library, Campbell County Library.\n\nMy job this week in regards to this library was to compile the aerial images, plans, blank plans, and mind-breaking sheets and have those printed and ready to go for Monday.  I also had to print out all of the tags for the exercises.  The funny part is, almost every person who walked past me cutting out these tags commented on how they had to do that too or wish they still did not have to do that.  After these tasks were completed, I began to compile and set up the report in InDesign for when Dennis and Ryan return from Wyoming next week and we start processing the information.\n\nTime in-between working on this report was spent helping Felipe clean up and organize the Revit model, and draw wall sections and details.  I learned a lot about detailing and how walls meet at a parapet, foundation, exterior cladding change, storefront, etc.  We have not spent too much time in school with specifics on flashing or membranes, building wrap, or furring for metal panels, so it was fascinating and slightly confusing at first to learn how all of these make up a wall and how to protect any changes in material or direction from water infiltration.  Tom and Felipe were happy to teach me what I did not understand.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9333137273788452}
+{"content": "Humans and Monsters\n\nLevel Up Gif\nLeveling Overlay in MMORPG Maplestory\n\n“Yes! Finally level 150! Time to grab that sweet gear!”\n\n“Amazing, I’m only level 100. Gotta go grind more mobs to catch up, I guess.”\n\nThe feeling of euphoria and achievement when reaching high levels in RPGs after killing many thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of computer-controlled monsters is not at all uncommon to many online video-game players. After all, that time and dedication paid off in the form of higher character statistics! Now your warrior can swing that blade even harder and mage can cast fireballs that burn even brighter! All… to what, kill even more monsters? Look cool in your fancy new armor?\n\nHave you ever thought about all of those monsters’ lives that you took to get a little tiny bit more EXP?\n\nMMO Monster Kill\nFighting in MMO Canto\n\nNo, I have never.\n\nThat is, until I discovered the RPG named Undertale.\n\nUndertale Logo\nUndertale Logo\n\n(Huge spoiler alert for Undertale!)\n\nI know, I know, for those of you who already know of Undertale, even bringing up its game can cause lots of groans and shaking of heads, but hear me out. Undertale, for me, completely changed the meaning of a RPG and how it conveyed such deep and emotional meaning about how a player normally treats games astonished me.\n\nHere’s the rundown:\n\nUndertale, a wildly successful indie game with its endearing 8-bit art style, starts out the same way as many single player RPGs do. The main character, a human played by you, had climbed a very tall mountain, found a crater, and fell down into the underground, where all of the monsters have been exiled to after losing a war to the humans.\n\nFallen Down\nUndertale: Fallen Down\n\nThe obvious goal is to get past all of these monsters trying to kill you and return to the overworld. Almost immediately, you notice you have a LV number, HP (hit-points), and AT (attack), DF (defense), EXP stats.\n\nStat Panel\nUndertale: Character Info (Note: This player named themselves “Shulk”)\n\nAgain, highly reminiscent of most RPGs. However, Undertale has one glaring difference. You can progress through the entire game without killing a single monster. As the story unfolds, you are informed that the monsters attack due to their fear of humans, but you can choose to talk to them, give them mercy, and spare them instead of killing them. Undertale’s fighting mechanism is bullet-hell, meaning that your Soul, represented as a heart, must dodge all of the missiles in a box to avoid taking damage.\n\nAct Menu\nUndertale: Actions Menu in a Monster Encounter\n\nWhile the player continues not to kill any monsters, the main storyline progresses. The human is taken through the whole underground on their main mission to leave the Underground, forming friendships with the boss monsters along the way. Notable ones include Toriel, the tu“Toriel” monster who teaches the player to be merciful at the beginning, Papyrus, a goofy skeleton-soldier-in-training, Sans, Papyrus’ interesting and punny brother, and Asgore, the king of the Underground.\n\nPictured from Left to Right: Toriel, Asgore, Sans, Papyrus\n\nThe player learns that the monsters are kept Underground by a magical barrier that was created after the war to keep humans safe that will not allow monsters to pass. Only a being with the both the soul of a human and a monster is allowed to exit from the Underground, and the barrier can only be shattered with 7 human souls.\n\nUndertale: The Barrier\n\nCoincidentally enough, there are 6 already collected… and you know what this means.\n\nYou’re up next.\n\nCollected Souls\nUndertale: Collected Souls\n\nFurthermore, the player learns of the first human to ever fall into the Underground. This person was adopted by Asgore and Toriel, who were the royal couple back in those days. The human was the pride and joy of the Underground, and was treated the same as their biological son. However, the human became sick after eating too many buttercups, and became terminally ill. Their last wish was to see the golden flowers in their home village. Thus, Asgore and Toriel’s son absorbed the soul of the human and passed through the barrier to carry their now-lifeless body to the flowers.\n\nGolden Flowers\n\nUndertale: Golden Flowers\n\nWhile the son held the human though, other villagers witnessed the dead human in the arms of a monster, and assumed he had killed them. The humans mauled Asgore’s son nearly to death, but had enough strength left to straggle back into the Underground and die on a bed of buttercups. Due to the war to force the monsters out of the Overworld and this event, monsters were persistently seen by the humans as purely malevolent creatures and would be killed on sight, like in almost all other MMORPGs.\n\nThis idea was interesting to me because in all other games, I simply accepted that the monsters were “bad” and killed them because they hurt me. I never considered that it could be a world where the monsters were forced off of their rightful territory and killed due to their resistance, a surprising connection between MMORPGs and European history.\n\nChristopher Columbus arrives on the San Salvador peninsula, Bahamas, 1492. (John Vanderlyn)\n\nNow here’s the twist:\n\nIn Undertale, I had mentioned you can be kind and spare all of the monsters, but there’s another path as well. You can choose to fight and kill every monster you encounter, even the ones that would have become your friend and are the main characters. You can walk around and discover monsters (much like Pokémon), then kill them all, until instead of encountering a monster, only a dialog pops up on the screen reading, “But nobody came.”\n\nUndertale Hit Gif\nUndertale: Fighting\nNobody Came\nUndertale: But Nobody Came\n\nKilling all of the monsters in every area takes quite a while to accomplish, and the player is met with sad lines with each kill, such as:\n\n“Froggit is trying to run away.”\n\n“Lesser Dog tucks its tail between its legs.”\n\n“Whimsalot’s flying stutters.”\n\nHowever, the effect on the player diminishes after many monster kills. I have watched many, many playthroughs online on Youtube of players who first completed the “Pacifist Route”, where they made friends with and spared all of the monsters, and then started the “Genocide Route”, what killing every single monster in the game is called. They all initially felt that killing the monsters was wrong, but cared less and less about the monsters after each kill. Not too long afterwards, they treated it more like a chore to sit through and kill each of them.\n\nWhen the player continues on the Genocide Route, all of the previous map puzzles are gone, the dialog between boss monsters and the player is altered, and notably, the player’s LV rises. After the player kills every monster in the game up until the Last Corridor, their LV reaches 19.\n\nUndertale: LV 19 Stat Panel in Hallway\nLast Corridor\nUndertale: Last Corridor\n\nOnce the player reaches the hallway to Asgore’s chamber room, they are unexpectedly met with Sans standing at the end of it. This hallway is named the Last Corridor. He speaks to the player and if they are on the Genocide Route, says the following:\n\nSans Talk Genocide\nUndertale: Sans Genocide Speech\n\n“heya. you’ve been busy, huh? … so, i’ve got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change…? that everyone can be a good person, if they just try?”\n\n\nOh, by the way, if you’ve assumed that I meant “level” up to now by LV, you should now know that it actually stands for LOVE, or Level of Violence… which explains why it rises with every kill. Attack also rises because for each Level of Violence you gain, you feel less and less sympathy for them and are able to do more damage.\n\nReflecting on this, it made me think about how Sans had really believed in the human to change and make the right choice not to kill everything and everyone completely. It made me think about the outside world, and how even people who have done terrible, terrible things have realized their faults and mistakes, then changed to become a better person. However, in this game on this route, the player cannot decide otherwise at this point. After Sans finishes saying this, the player sprite moves forward at him involuntarily. The player is now locked in on True Genocide and must fight Sans. He is, hands down, the hardest boss fight in the entire game.\n\nSans Fight Gif\nUndertale: Sans Fight\n\nThis is because Sans is trying to stop you, the monster, from destroying the entire world outside of the Underground too. At this point, you are no longer the protagonist, but the antagonist, and this fight against you can be compared to a typical player fighting the end boss of a video-game, stereotypically, the “one who is going to destroy the world”.\n\nGrinding mobs? Check.\n\nGaining higher stats? Check.\n\nObtaining and using better gear to do damage? Check.\n\nSuper-ultra-difficult boss fight that you will eventually attempt over and over to beat?\n\n\n\nBy slowly reversing the roles in the Genocide Route, making the player feel nothing while killing their former friends, Undertale has successfully mimicked the layout of a typical RPG while conveying the opposite message. I was completely enthralled at how Undertale managed to make me feel so many different emotions regarding a game style that I had played for years upon years, and never gave a second thought to. My childhood consisted of another popular MMORPG at the time, named Maplestory, but I had never considered the cute, pixelated monsters as anything else besides bags of cash and items to wear.\n\nIt really made me think about forced points of view within games… and within societies in general. At war, your own country or your own “team” always seem like the Humans, and the opposing side always seem like the Monsters, but there are two sides to the coin and there are always two different stories.\n\n\nWho considers your Humans, their Monsters?\n\n – Vivian Li\n\nBy The Way\n\nChoices (Don’t) Matter\n\nI never knew how to raise a family.\n\nBack in 4th grade, I was introduced to video games for the first time. My initiation into this inescapable obsession began with The Sims 2.\n\n\nThe layout of The Sims 2’s game screen\n\nGames in The Sims franchise belong to a genre called “life-simulation” where you create virtual characters called “Sims” and control them to literally play out their lives. But it is not that simple: every Sim has its own “Wants” and “Fears” just like normal human beings, as well as basic human needs like hunger, hygiene, social interactions, etc… not to mention some hidden interactions between Sims with different character traits and horoscope signs, as well as unforeseen consequences for any actions taken. My 4-year-old self who created a family of four had no idea how to effectively manage that household and frantically scrambled around the house, switching from one Sim to another and trying to keep them all alive. However, my futile efforts led to the father being hospitalized from not having enough sleep and two children failing all of their classes.\n\nIn video games, the player’s choices are absolutely vital to the gaming experience. The Sims 2 serves as one prime example: how the player chooses to control their Sims directly affects the state of the household they’re managing. Every single action has a small influence on Sims, and as the player queues up actions after actions, they’re slowing changing the outcome of the household. The power of the player’s choices also applies to other game genres. In real-time strategy games where players build their army to battle each other, one single miscalculated move can cost you the whole game. Professional players from famous strategy games like Warcraft or Starcraft all design for themselves specific game plans that they follow with pinpoint precision. If they somehow make even just a single mistake, their opponents are very likely to take advantage of it and gain the upperhand. In some role-playing games like Skyrim, your choices can grant your character more powers and stats or conversely, harm your character. In The Witcher series, where more recent games remember and import data from previous titles (supposing the player has already played those), the player’s choices are even more significant, since it gives them the power to alter the storyline throughout the whole franchise (It’s interesting to note that, just The Witcher 2 alone has 16 different endings, depending on your deeds and decisions throughout the game.)\n\n\nAnd then of course, when talking about players’ choices, we have to take into account interactive, narrative-oriented games. I find these games especially interesting, more so than game of other genres, since players most often have to put themselves in the circumstances of the characters and see the situation from their point of view.\n\n\n(An example of the dialogue options in a scene from The Walking Dead: The Game)\n\nTelltale Games’ The Walking Dead, based on the comic series of the same name, presents to its players a breathtaking immersive story that includes countless decisions that the player has to make. Dialogue choices as well as player’s actions during quick time events (when one has to choose, for instance, who to save, or what direction to proceed) affect how the story plays out and affects the relationships between characters in the cast. The game forces you to actively question yourself: “What would I do if I were him/her? What would be the best choice in this situation?” in order to get through many challenges and obstacles. However, it’s not always that easy – the game is filled with moral dilemmas and you never really know the consequences of your choices until the story continues, so sometimes what seems to be the right thing to do turns out to be a disastrous decision to make. The player is constantly put on the edge of their seats, wondering whether they have paved the way to a better future or pushed their favorite character to their doom.\n\n\nAn honorable mention here would be the Japanese type of game called visual novel that was mentioned in Ethan’s blog post. In most cases, there is almost no gameplay mechanics in these visual novels, although you do ‘play’ them by making your decisions at certain plot points. The focus is all on the story and character development, and you are subjected to an even more complicated network of chocies and consequences. It’s super obscure and in certain titles you can almost never know how to proceed the story in the direction you want to just because of the sheer number of possibilities the developers have prepared for the plot.\n\n\nThis is just one example of how convoluted the choice system in visual novels is\n\nAfter all these years, I’ve taken quite a liking to games like these. I am fascinated with seeing how my choices alter the storyline and the fact that with every playthrough, I am presented with a whole unique, different experience from the last. I had the same mindset when I came across Emily Is Away (free on Steam, and spoilers ahead!)\n\n\nEmily is Away is the same kind of narrative-based, story-driven game (albeit much, much shorter than The Walking Dead) In the game you are taken back to the 2000s and chat with your friend and potential love interest through the AOL messaging system. Occasionally you are presented with 3 options to reply to Emily’s messages, and apparently your choices are supposed influence how Emily feels about you. So I went into the game carefully selecting my dialogue so that I could woo Emily, and I really thought I made the best choices.\n\nBut in the end, Emily just drifted away.\n\nSo I tried again, and again, and again, until I made sure to even try the most nefarious responses. That was when it hit me that in this game, choices don’t matter. No matter what you decide to reply to Emily, the end result would always be the same: you will never be able to get Emily.\n\nThis gives me a fresh perspective into yet another way of presenting the narrative in video games. In Emily is Away, to portray the distance between people who have grown apart and use online messaging to converse, the developer puts in an unchangeable ending to emphasize that feeling of futility in players – it’s certainly very disheartening to know that despite all of your efforts, you can never achieve your goal.\n\nTo wrap up, I think that the way developers present choices to gamers and how players interact with these choices is absolutely one of the most fascinating aspects of video games. Whether in the case of meaningful choices that influence the story, or choices and don’t really matter at all, the player would always have an unique, memorable experience with the game’s narrative.\n\n\n\nLearning the Ropes about Tropes\n\nENGL 3726 - Gone Home\n\nSpoiler alert for Gone Home — Don’t read further if you want to avoid spoilers.\n\nJust say the word “western,” and I can immediately visualize a high noon showdown, as if I were hiding behind a barrel on the porch of a saloon. Say “sci-fi,” and now we’re zipping by the stars at light speed and shooting lasers at corrupt galactic empire forces. I played a game called Gone Home recently, and everything about it was telling me “mystery” and “horror,” so you can well imagine my thoughts as I stepped into the dimly lit, sparse mansion in the middle of a forest on a dark and stormy night.\n\nTurns out, it’s not horror — your character, Katie, is just trying to figure out why the house is empty on the night of your return from abroad. The reasons are dramatic, rich with complexity, but totally benign of anything supernatural.\n\n2018-02-25 (4)\n\nWhy was I so scared, though? Why were my immediate thoughts upon entering my family’s new home, “Something horrible has happened here”? Granted, I scare fairly easily, but I think there was more than my lack of fortitude at work. I’d like to say a word about tropes, how they’re used in Gone Home, and how mystery and horror tropes were perfect for this game.\n\ntrope is an easy way to make the participant feel standard things: just like I described at the top of the post, they provide a framework for thinking about setting and emotions. I’ve definitely been one to harp on tropes in the past, but really, they’re crucial to storytelling. Without some expectation for what’s about to happen, there can be no surprises, no twists, no novel deviations — the things that are more beloved of a story. Tropes may be a heavy-handed way of establishing the expectations, but they can be incredibly important when used right!\n\nAll that said, I think Gone Home uses tropes expertly. In Gone Home, even the title screen, with its silhouettes, secluded look, and one light eerily lit, is a trope of horror, and it immediately makes you feel jittery. I even used the word “eerily” just now, and I’ve already played the game and know it’s not horror! Throughout the game there are a number of tangible cues that make you feel like something in the house is amiss: the house is called “The Psycho House”; the lights flicker constantly; your father has an obsession with conspiracies; the list goes on. My favorite example is the upstairs bathroom stained with red, but you find out it’s just hair dye.\n\n2018-02-25 (3)\nYou might now be thinking, “So what? Why does it matter that Gone Home uses these tropes?” Well, if you think about it, this game desperately needs to rely on them. You are the only player in the game, and you have only one environment to explore. Without the notion of mystery and horror, you would have very little incentive to explore the house — actually, you would have no incentive to explore. This and many other games relies on the assurance that the player, when confronted with a mystery (Sam saying, “Don’t try to find out what happened”), will promptly disobey and begin to search. The trope of flickering and dim lights, secret passages, and a paper trail are tediously common, but they draw you in so the true story can unfold. I guess that’s what I’m trying to get across: the tropes do not make the game; they create the tension players need to discover the game.\n\n2018-02-25 (2)\n\nMoreover, I find the implications of the horror tropes in this game fascinating. How many times have you awakened in the wee hours, gone to the bathroom, and then the floor creaks in just the wrong way, making you complete your mission a little too early? Certainly in such circumstances, we have the very same tropes of horror in mind, but we can still recognize they’re just fiction, right? I think Gone Home recreates the very same effect we experience in real life. There is absolutely no danger in the game, but good grief it just feels like something is going to get you!\n\nI’ll leave you thinking about that — is a trope really something you feel just in a book, a movie, a game? Or is it something you carry with you and project? Gone Home wrestles with these questions and blurs the lines between virtual and real experience. It makes an ordinary home come alive with mystery, mythos, and the thrill of discovery. Isn’t that what we all want, a way to make the unremarkable, unforgettable? If that’s the case for you, I have a great game to recommend.\n\nThanks for reading!\n\n\nYou Can’t Beat Video Games\n\nYou know you’ve finished a book when you read the last page; you know you’ve finished a movie when the credits roll. But how do you know when you’ve finished a video game?\n\n\nI’ve finished the main story line of a handful of video games: Mass Effect, Portal 1&2, Skyrim, all the Bioshock Games, Arkham City, Until Dawn, Tomb Raider and a few others. I’ve seen the final cutscenes and the end credits on all those games, but I don’t feel as though I’ve beaten or finished any of them. Sure, I may have played out the narratives, but in Until Dawn I’ve only achieved one of the possible final outcomes and earned 20% of achievements. In Mass Effect I’ve only maxed out one of the romance options and I never even started acquiring the in-game collectibles. In Bioshock I’ve never gotten around to finding all of the audio diaries, and the list goes on.\n\n\nDespite all this, I consider myself a completionist. That is not to say that I am prone to completing all side quests, finding all collectibles, and completing the main storyline on all difficulties (as I’ve mentioned, there’s no game in which I’ve done this). I do, however, imbue those aspects of video games with immense value. If I put a game down before I achieve completion according to every possible metric, I feel like a quitter. I don’t feel like I can say I played the game anymore than I could say I’ve read a book that I never finished.  \n\n\n(Though I’ve completed the main story line of Batman Arkham City, I’ve only completed 57% of the game)\n\n\nCheck the global stats for any game, however, and you’ll see that most people don’t complete anywhere near 100% of the achievements, and in many games most players don’t even earn all the achievements related to main story completion. People don’t often “complete” games, and in most games true completion is nigh on impossible. Games differ from novels and film in that they aren’t designed for everyone to stop at the same point; there isn’t always a clear end or a point of victory. Because of the numerous metrics of accomplishment built into video games, of which main story completion is only one, the definition for the “end” of a game based artistic medium is far more fluid than the end of a written work, film, musical work, etc.\n\n\n(The Last Laugh achievement indicates that you’ve completed the main storyline; only 19.5% of players earn that achievement)\n\nTake, for instance, the Pokemon games. When I was young I thought I’d beaten  Pokemon Fire Red because I defeated the “Elite Four,” who serve as a final trial for aspiring Pokemon Masters, and signify the end of the main story line. But I realized my friend had cataloged more Pokemon in his Pokedex, so suddenly I was playing the game again trying to catch up. I collected nearly every creature in the game, but eventually, due to some difficulties acquiring Golem and Machamp, I stopped. Even if I had collected all of the Pokemon would I have beaten the game? The answer is simply no. The main story and the Pokedex are only two of a potentially infinite number of metrics for success. The game lays out level and stats as metrics of success as well, so maxing out all of those values would be necessary for the game to be truly completed. Additionally, the Pokemon games include incredibly rare algorithmically generated “shiny” Pokemon with alternate colorations. Collecting all of these shinies creates still another metric of completion. Even if every metric within the game was fulfilled (which would require thousands upon thousands of hours of grinding and spec training) there are countless player created metrics, such as the famous nuzlocke challenge, that could be used to paradoxically complete the game more.\n\n\nIncreasingly such functions are incorporated into games by the developers themselves. The “new game plus” feature has become more and more common; once you’ve completed a game, you can complete it again with increased difficulty and all the abilities you may have earned in the principal game. Furthermore, achievements and trophies (awards granted out-of-game to individuals who complete certain tasks) have created a game within a game. In video games, most actions are considered positive or negative based on the in-game effects they produce. For instance, in one game, firing a rocket directly at your feet is considered a negative action because doing so heavily damages your character and yields no reward; in another game, it is considered a positive action because you take only a small amount of damage and launch yourself vertically to double your standard jump height.\n\n\n(damage taken+no gain=negative action)\n\n\ngiphy (2)\n\n(little damage taken+double jump=positive action)\n\n\nAchievements bypass this evaluative frame by encouraging actions which often have no discernible effect on the gameplay (such as the Transmission Received achievement in Portal). Developers can direct players to accomplish tasks which outline an underlying component of the game not apparent in an achievement free play through of the game. Thus, a subtextual game within the principal game can be established by achievements, and this subtextual game can often be no less important than the principal game itself. This introduction of additional material to the game via achievements results in games that very few people actually complete. The numerous metrics of success in every game allow the player to decide which metric indicates that he or she has beaten the game, and when that metric is fulfilled the player will either quit or establish a secondary metric to pursue. This process can repeat itself a potentially infinite number of times, as there is no finite number of metrics in any game.\n\n\nThe only potential exception to this is pure progression based games, such as Until Dawn and those made by Telltale Games, in which the primary gameplay mechanic is decision making. In these games you can in fact attain all permutations of the game in a relatively low number of playthroughs and achieve something as close to completion as possible. It is that fact, along with their lack of endgame, which aligns such platforms with novels and movies, which, as I mentioned at the outset, have a clear beginning and end. With nearly every game outside of this genre, however, the player is essentially unable to “complete,” he or she can only decide when to quit. This is an element of video games which imbues them with a realism absent from most artistic mediums; as in real life, there’s always more you could have done, and how far you go is determined by the difficulty of the challenge and your own desire to keep fulfilling the metrics of success.\n\nEvolution of a Franchise with New Media\n\nSPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Grand Order ahead.\n\nNote: As there are too many spin-offs in the Fate franchise, I will be focusing on the main works related to “Fate/Stay Night.”\n\nThe Fate franchise is one I have followed since experiencing the first work in the franchise, “Fate/Stay Night.” Now one of the globally top-grossing Japanese franchises, “Fate/Stay Night” was originally humbly released in 2004 as a standalone work, a Bildungsroman in the ‘visual novel’ format, just prior to the widespread popularization of the genre of PC game software in Japan. A ‘visual novel’ is a form of mixed media, a kind of remediation of multiple genres, where the player of the game reads the text of a novel, sees events and reactions as depicted by static or animated character sprites on computer graphic backgrounds, hears the speech of characters as well as sound effects of events while background music changes in the background, and can make different choices – sometimes a large number of choices, sometimes a small number of choices – in order to change the direction of the story, called a “route,” much like the path the player, the protagonist, chooses to reach the ending, much like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, or a video game. In addition, players can save and load at different decisions should they make the wrong decision and reach a ‘bad end,’ or perhaps would prefer to pursue the story from a different direction. It is also possible for players to clear the novel selectively, e.g. progressing through one story route but not the others, or completing every route, including all bad ends. This allocates a large amount of freedom to the player, and allows for a multitude of ways and orders the stories can be told, as it offers an all-around immersion with the simultaneous experience of the visual stimulation of characters and actions on the screen along with the text to be read and animations for actions, aural stimulation as characters speak, events play out, and music plays, causes the players to think about which choices to make and when they should save, and more.\n\n\nSample choices in the visual novel, Fate/Stay Night.\n\nIn “Fate/Stay Night”, the player is thrust into the position of an inexperienced magus who is suddenly thrust into a battle of seven mages for the Holy Grail, eponymously named the ‘Holy Grail War.’ Equipped with a ‘Servant,’ the spirit of a heroic warrior from legends, he must fight for the Holy Grail in order to make a single, omnipotent wish. Depending on the choices the player makes, the story ultimately takes us through three big arcs representative of different facets of the protagonist’s growth, with the primary route ‘Fate’ displaying the slanted ideals of the protagonist with the theme of “Oneself as an ideal,” the second route ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ which shows us the protagonist’s resolve with the theme of “Struggling with oneself as an ideal,” and the third route ‘Heaven’s Feel’ displaying the protagonist’s resolution of his previous issues with the theme of “The Friction between the real and the ideal.” Due to this format, it is possible to interpret the events of the story in different ways, which results in different people receiving a divergent message from the content they have played through.\n\n\nExample of a Computer-Generated Graphic depicting a battle in Fate/Stay Night.\n\nWhile “Fate/Stay Night” was meant to be a standalone project, its immense popularity spawned a large number of follow-up works, including sequels and prequels. One of those such works is “Fate/Hollow Ataraxia,” which is a visual novel sequel of “Fate/Stay Night.” Ataraxia’s continuation of the story of Stay Night proved to be difficult due to the divergence of the routes and the varying results in each of the timelines. However, the story for the visual novel focuses on what appears to be the protagonist from Stay Night, and the story ‘encompasses the endings of all of the routes, while not being any of them.’ However, as there is an end to the story in the visual novel and following events; hence, it was stated that the novel continued out of the ending of a certain rate of Stay Night, but also stated that readers should not think too much about it. Being a visual novel with a similar format as the first novel, the presentation and experience of the player remained about the same in this sequel. Around that time, Stay Night was also adapted into a graphic novel (manga), and an animated television series (anime). These two adaptations, while having the liberty of being in a different format, suffered from the adaptation into a format restrained by time, and thus covered a slightly altered version of the story, with an amalgamation of events from all three routes, but ending with a single route. However, soon after, a prequel novel series, “Fate/Zero” was released, and was also later adapted into an anime.\n\n\nCover of a novel in the Fate/Zero series.\n\n               “Fate/Zero” explored the many events that occurred ten years before the events of Stay Night, events which would eventually shape the circumstances surrounding Stay Night. Being written in a more expository format that detailed the previous Holy Grail war instead of focusing on a single character’s development, Zero followed a chronological set of events, swapping back and forth between different factions while establishing backstories for various characters. This was later easily adapted into an animated series, with the perspectives and orders of events already being set in paper, and being provided with an ample timeframe of episodes so that the plot could be properly told without being rushed. However, while Zero was adapted very well, a movie for the second route, “Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works” was released, and as constrained by the movie format, was 105 minutes long, not ample enough to exposit the full contents of the route.\n\n\nComparison of Fate/Zero anime (above) and the Unlimited Blade Works movie (below).\n\n               Due to this, ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ was re-adapted into a longer animated television series, much as Zero was. Given this ample timeframe, the route was adapted in a slower-paced way that allowed for proper exposition and depiction of the protagonist, crucial to its themes as a Bildungsroman. With proper character development and depiction of the struggles the protagonist faces, as well as with flashier battle sequences than the visual novel could hope to provide, the anime series was a fantastic adaptation of the source material that allowed one to enjoy the work regardless of experience with the series, but was altogether more enjoyable if one were familiar with the series, as with any other series continuity. A few years later, in 2017, a movie release of the first part of the third route, ‘Heaven’s Feel’ followed. Regarding the time constraints of the movie format, this route was split into a trilogy of movies. With this format, the movie sought to split the movie into three major parts of the character’s realizations to segue into another. Additionally, time is saved by the omission of heavy explanations of every detail, with certain parts that are expected to be known in the beginning are shown as a shot-by-shot exposition. The producers behind the movie stated that the wanted to have multiple levels of immersion with the movie: the movie would still be enjoyable if you were not familiar with the series, but the more depth and knowledge one had of the franchise would serve to increase the enjoyment of the movie, scene by scene, and detail by detail. By drawing on the rich history of source material, the allowances today’s technology makes, and expanding the time, it was possible to go from a movie that was commercial bust to one that was very lucrative and popular.\n\n\nUnlimited Blade Works anime (top) and Heaven’s Feel movie (bottom).\n\n               Now, the biggest part of the franchise is one of the more recent releases in the franchise, the mobile game “Fate/Grand Order,” which was launched in 2015. Currently available in seven global markets, including Japan, China, the United States, and Korea, the game is responsible for repeatedly single-handedly bringing Sony Music’s profits record highs. Being free-to-play, but offering a higher chance at premium content by purchasing in-game currency with microtransactions, Grand Order is the top-grossing app on multiple app stores across platforms around the world. The game features a mixture of features: one can collect different ‘Servants’ from different times and places, including characters such as Arjuna from the Mahabharata and Thomas Edison from America, features stories with these ‘Servants’ in a visual novel format, with scrolling text, character sprites, music, and choices to be made, and also a ‘game’ portion where the player can use the servants they have collected to battle epic enemies and obtain materials required for progression through the game. By mixing content and features of different kinds of media, the Fate franchise has proved to be successful, making a lot money and capturing the hearts of many fans. This kind of innovation continues to this day, with an animated series, a Virtual Reality demo, and an Arcade game released related to the series, with more content to come. By expanding the horizons with different media with differing approaches depending on the medium, authors can use different techniques to delivery various types of stories to better effect.\n\n\nScreenshot of Grand Order\n\n\nRevenue Ranking of Grand Order\n\nNew Adventures in Old VR (And Vice Versa)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImmersion across media\n\nSPOILER ALERT: Minor House of Cards and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Spoilers Ahead\n\nImmersion is that ever sought-after quality, the perpetual goal of any aspiring creator. Individual investment is a crucial component of any successful piece of media. Paintings evoke more emotion when the observer can project some aspect of his identity into the artwork. Nature documentaries are all the more fascinating when the videographer gets up close and personal with the subject(s) of the documentary, be it through swimming amidst humpback whales or trekking through the African safari in pursuit of a leopard. When an audience is absorbed in something, they generate more buzz, buy more merchandise, and become emotionally attached. All of these are within the creators’ best interests, thus this post aims to explore how just a few creators have tailored their product to best allow for audience immersion and investment.\n\nSpecifically focusing on storytelling media, immersion manifests itself in various ways. The television show “House of Cards” immerses viewers in a rather unique fashion. Most of the show focuses on the machinations of Frank Underwood, a ruthless politician who rises to power in the US Government by systematically eliminating any who stand in his way. Occasionally, Frank turns to the camera and speaks directly to us, the viewers, proclaiming his ruthless motivations and Machiavellian intentions.\n\n“There are two types of vice presidents: doormats and matadors. Which do you think I am?” –\n\nSome might argue that this detracts from immersion. After all, these short asides draw attention away from the issue at hand and expect a sort of suspension of disbelief from the viewer that these statements don’t actually occur in reality, but in a sort of parallel situation to the events of the show. I would argue the opposite, however. Sometimes Frank’s motivations remain unclear to even the most astute viewers of the show. By inserting these short windows into Frank’s psyche, the director forges a seemingly intimate connection between the audience and Frank Underwood. Despite going against the grain and defying the norms of immersion by breaking the fourth wall, House of Cards presents a commendable example of how to effectively immerse a viewer using unconventional means.\n\nMoving into the medium of gaming, immersion can present itself via multiple avenues. One route is through the implementation of nuanced consequences for the actions of the player. This route is exemplified in the video game “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.” The player has the option of adopting children from an orphanage. This in and of itself is a rather unique choice presented to the player, but the game goes further and introduces the player to Sissel, a young girl who is relentlessly abused by her father and bullied by her twin sister.\n\nThe face of a child who needs to be saved. –\n\nThis makeshift Cinderella story certainly tugs at the player’s heartstrings, and it would be remiss if the player were to witness this situation but be powerless to do anything about it. Luckily, the player does have power. One can secretly murder her father, thereby placing her in an orphanage provided the killing is done in secret. She can then be adopted as the player’s daughter at a later date, effectively liberating her from her hellish home life. On a moral level, this action can be questionable, but the fact that the player is even allowed to do this in the first place represents an overcoming of a traditional barrier of video gaming: the player’s “sphere of action.” This hypothetical sphere not only represents the actions a player can carry out within a certain game, but also represents the observed effects of those actions in the game world. For some games, the sphere only extends to the onscreen death of an enemy, and nothing more. Skyrim’s sphere, as evidenced by the Sissel side story, is far-reaching and expansive. The larger this sphere is, the greater influence the player has on the world, and the greater degree to which the gamer is immersed in the world.\n\nAnother method to increase immersion is through the controls themselves. How a developer chooses the player’s control over the game has massive implications for the player’s experience of the game. One primary example of this phenomenon can be seen in “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.” In this game, there are two movement modes for controlling one’s character: a default mode and an alternative mode. Both modes are generally identical, with a couple of exceptions.\n\ngiphy (1)\n\nNotice the differences in movement. –\n\nIn the standard example, the character has weight to his movements. He obeys physical laws to a greater extent and can’t simply snap out of a deep lunge immediately. On the other hand, the alternative mode features much lighter movements, and the character fluidly frolics about with ease. The standard mode is more “realistic,” and thus feels more natural in a strictly objective sense. However, the alternative mode eliminates the clunkiness of the standard mode and makes the character much, much more responsive to the player’s input: commanding the character to move right will move him right instantly in the alternative control scheme, as opposing to waiting for him to stop his current movement then moving him as in the standard control scheme.\n\nSo which one is more immersive? The standard scheme can be construed as more lifelike, forcing the player to carefully decide how he or she will move the character so as not to waste time and lose potential battles by making unnecessary movements. However, the alternative scheme is more fluid, enabling the player to undergo a smoother and less frustrating experience. Neither answer is 100% correct, as this matter is often left up to personal preference. Nonetheless, Witcher 3 presents a fantastic example of how the controls of a video game can contribute to immersion in various ways.\n\nThere are countless other ways in which creators invite audience immersion, and this post explored only a few. As technology and audiences progress, creators continually search for more avenues through which they can entice audiences to invest themselves in their creations. There is no one best way to ensure a captive audience, but it certainly presents an exciting lens through which to view a work of art.\n\n  • Sunny Chennupati", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6700919270515442}
+{"content": "Recover password\n\nEditorial: Hats off to UNM for adding honors degree\n\nThe University of New Mexico is giving its honors program its due with the establishment of its own bachelor’s of arts degree.\n\nA new honors college was launched more than a year ago and regents approved the new degree Monday. It already has an acting dean, Catherine Krause, who is out recruiting high school students.\n\nThe university’s goal is to convince more high-achieving students to stay in New Mexico rather than going out of state for their college education. UNM wants to attract more students who ranked in the top 10 percent of their class or scored a 30 or higher on the ACT. And that could help raise UNM’s profile and improve its graduation rate.\n\nThe degree will require at least 128 credit hours, 36 of which have to be honors courses, and 12 credit hours of a non-English language, courses that focus on globalization and an interdisciplinary honors thesis.\n\nUNM President Bob Frank calls the new college “one of the most important initiatives we have.”\n\nThe university is on the right track by putting a premium on academic excellence and raising the bar. This is a good step if UNM wants to further its reputation as a destination university instead of a fall-back.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5443499088287354}
+{"content": "October's Wild Ride Isn't Over Yet\n\nAsset losses are a hard lesson for investors who were lulled by what they believed was a low-growth, low-volatility equilibrium. \nRelax? We don't think so.\n\nThe first half of October and particularly the last five days and today have been brutal for investors who had bought into the notion of the low-volatility \"Goldilocks\" economy and markets. They have experienced large losses on their highly correlated positions in different asset classes. Indeed, with the exception of government bonds -- a generally unappreciated asset class until recently -- they have found few if any shelters from the storm. And the market choppiness is likely to continue for what many will feel is an uncomfortably long period of time.\n\n\n\nPoor data out of Europe and, earlier today, the U.S. highlighted the downside growth and deflation risks facing the global economy, as did the rush of unfavorable revisions for 2014-2015 projections by the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and Germany, Europe's powerhouse. Concurrently, traders' confidence in the willingness of central banks to repress market volatility was shaken by the difficulties the European Central Bank faced in being more accommodative, given signs of both internal and external opposition.\n\n\nIn such wild markets, a growing number of traders received that dreaded tap on the shoulder from risk managers to exit positions regardless of liquidity. And that liquidity was patchy to begin with given that broker-dealers have little appetite for risk these days. The result has been multiplying technical disruptions.\n\nHow about the outlook?\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8636101484298706}
+{"content": "5.1 Home theater\n\nDVD HTD3500K/98\n\n\nThere is no picture from my Philips HTS on my TV\n\n  • The correct source mode was not selected. Ensure that the selection of source mode is the same as the rear connection. Example AV1/AV2/AV3/CVI etc. Follow the steps below to find the correct viewing channel: 1. Press STANDBY-ON to turn on the player. 2. Turn on the TV. Note If connected to your VCR, make sure it is switched off or in standby mode before proceeding. 3. Select the TV?s video input channel that corresponds to the jacks connecting the player to the TV. Note: Video Input selection varies for different brands/models of TVs. Consult the user manual or manufacturer or your TV if none of the below is successful. > Press channel 2 on your TV. Then press the channel down button to locate the video input channel. (This channel is usually located between the lowest and highest TV channels.) >OR: > For some TVs, there may be a button on the TV?s remote control that accesses the video input channel labeled SOURCE, AV or SELECT. >OR: > Select the Video Input Channel* from the TV?s on-screen menu system. * The cable between the TV and the receiver may not be securely connected. Ensure the connections are securely connected. * Try another similar cable to test out if the cable is defective, replace when necessary. * If this happens when you turn on the progressive scan feature or change the HDMI video setting, wait for 15 seconds for the auto recovery or refer to user manual for turning off the feature manually.\n\nThe information on this page applies to the following models: HTD3500K/98 , DVP3980/75 , HTS3011/98 , HTS3548/98 , HTS3000/98 , HTS3548W/98 , HTS3090/98 , HTS3455/98 , HTS5310S/75 , DFR9000/01 , HTS3500S/75 , HTS3500S/98 , LX3900SA/75 , LX3600D/75 , LX3600D/69 . more less\n\nNot what you are looking for?\n\nDid we answer your question?\n\nIf not, contact us.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9482420682907104}
+{"content": "Aristomenes X\n\n\nMusings over Online Encounters: Part I\n\nThis diatribe is an attempt to organize thought in the aftermath of experience dissonance in online encounters. This dissonance involves witnessing conflict even more than participating in it. The dissonance is steeped in the sense that online manipulation abounds more than any individual who takes their reasoning for granted would like to think. It is more than just a conspiracy effect.\n\nIt is that people have been conditioned to deny in certain instances- and idolize in other ones- qualities that spread suffering. In this way, without directly intending the aforementioned pseudo-discernment can sabotage inspired motivation that might lead to a better tomorrow. As such the rant is my desire to depressurize the force of dissonance without pushing it further under the rug.\n\nTo begin, I realize online interactions can sap our energies, especially when dealing with people who may not even realize they are projecting what they don’t want to face in themselves. I am not referring to the proverbial “troll”. The very extremity of that scenario is usually so blatant that guiltless and effective action, as simple as blocking them, is a mouse-click away. There are, however, fine lines and gray areas in the multifaceted topography of online human interaction. This is the arena of subtle manipulation, be it conscious or not, where the receiver is not even sure they are being psychologically played.\n\nIt isn’t as rare as one might think, or hope to experience discomfort, stress or even trauma when confronted with projected emotional states. The more repressed the hurtful issue underlying the state of projection the more extreme the discomfort can get. Even so, unless the receiver is also already traumatized and holding it in, it is most likely that their suffering is far less than that of the one doing the repressing.\n\nTo clarify a bit; my understanding of “projected states” involves not just how people feel, but also what they are denying in themselves in favor of a more sustainable to them self-image. That denial tends to spawn dramatic pressure, a subconscious desire to act out the issue in some way without being hurt by it. The internal pressure is itself a form of suffering and it does not go away with time, although it may appear to go dormant.\n\nI would not call this a guilty conscience. It happens to be more prevalent in a victim than someone who has victimized after all. In extreme cases, victimizing itself is a form of projecting one’s repressed victim state. Hence the more members of a group or society are made to suffer the more suffering prevails overall.\n\nSome appear more sensitive to emotional energy than others, their own as well as what permeates their environment. That does not guarantee that reason can make sense of an encounter with projection. Being sensitive, in other words, doesn’t mean we can easily understand what is going on. Are we somehow forced into being recipients of projection, just minding our own business when the bird poop spatters, or are we participants and perhaps even main protagonists in a drama with many screen-writers? Should we even consider that we are the prime creator of this drama?\n\nIn my experience when engaged in online discourse where fingers are being pointed, all participants fall into a state beyond default reasoning. The reasoning from the side-lines and that of hind sight is what I would call closer to our default or normal reasoning state. When engaged in finger pointing we at the very least fall into crisis reasoning mode. This is more like warfare than discourse. When sustaining the upper hand especially psychopaths love this frame of engagement.\n\nTherein, anything said can be turned back to the one saying it as their issue or fault. At a deeper level of perception, the issue isn’t one of me vs. another, but of individuals finding themselves in a ‘vibration’ or felt sense that triggers trauma echoes in both of them. This is true even when one group or person engages in gas-lighting or demonizing another as a means of defeating them. In less consciously deliberate scenarios, however, battlefront polarization occurs because the discomfort demands reparation, and that leads to projecting blame and/or guilt on top of the most convenient scape-goat.\n\nUsually options of avoiding blame and guilt are offered that involve some form of manipulation, by one or both parties. Because the field of experience is temporarily mutual, any guilt or blame can be turned back on the other party with tension and denial escalating as a result. In merely complaining about being a victim of projection one can have all one’s arguments flipped on their ears and end up looking or even being convinced it is all one’s own fault.\n\nI have seen ‘self-help’ presentations that trigger rage in me. The speaker (or writer) will turn it all back on their audience. They will even speak of themselves claiming they “used to be in that position”. It’s only right to state that the aforementioned speaker often could have- and more times than I would want to admit- has been me. Notice how I too am turning it back on myself, but past tense so I don’t piss myself off as I’m writing these words. Being tripped with guilt hurts. When tribulation you want to share or communicate is rejected, the result is also hurt.\n\nOn the flipside being tripped with guilt does not imply we have done wrong and must atone, at least not in the immediate or moral sense. We have, on the other hand, experienced the wrong of being unable to prevent our own verbal abuse, and demonization, which in any online community often results in being ostracized. There are often frighteningly primitive elements at work in online communities. Judging from the twists and turns of global events and the trends of western civilization, it is not farfetched to say that innocents may suffer from demonization in more ways than just having a tarnished reputation.\n\nTo avoid the end of addictive drama we can vacillate back and forth between extreme views, being doormats of tolerance in one instance and shifting to howling mobs of righteous indignation the next. All to avoid that disturbing zone in the middle where all bets are off and we are left with the tribulation of facing our existential desperation.\n\nIt helps in my opinion to admit our own perspective as a starting point and consciously stand as a self-centered being. This cuts the moral confusion down, something that guilt trippers may find discomforting. The fact remains, however, that when you are on a plane and the cabin depressurizes, you would be prudent to pick up your oxygen mask first and put it on.\n\nBy the same logic, when confronting a field of trauma, or post-traumatic reverb (acute or chronic), you would be wise to direct compassion to yourself first. It is only selfish when you shut the other out after you are cleansed of guilt and/or blame imprinting and other judgments. Yet that is a contradiction because selfishness in the derogatory sense does not occur when imprinting is not operant. Therefore, allow me to rephrase what I consider to be a cliché type phrase that is easily open to misunderstanding: It is only selfish when you neglect your deeper needs in the process and focus on the surface state of self.\n\n\n\nBalance and the Utility of Absolutes: Part III\n\nThis post continues the examination of the issue of maintaining balance in the context of absolute notions. Is that really what we want? Be that as it may, we are engaging in grounded and pragmatic exploration and not pie in the sky speculation. That is because the cultivation of understanding where the aforementioned issues are concerned is a valuable resource in an information age where deception, conditioning and deliberate stress induction appear more and more to be definitive factors in our world.\n\nIn this final installment, we extend the exploration of the relationship between balance and concepts that appear- and may well be- universal and absolute. The previous installment referred to concepts occupying the poles of a spectrum, and offered that they do not necessarily guarantee a pivot-point or fulcrum between them where one might sustain functional balance.\n\nIf the balance, or any other state we seek, enhances the experience of existential value fulfillment, if it is sustainable and if it reinforces the power to live according to one’s truth, for me it is functional. If one’s idea of balance is remaining safe and secure in one place, set of circumstances or ideological stance, I would strongly hesitate to call it functional. That kind of state would be a candidate for stagnation, if not corruption.\n\nIt is not difficult to come up with an example of absolute poles tempting us with a dysfunctional or nonfunctioning midpoint passing off as an idealized state of balance. The most prominent one involves the duality of life and death. Imagine life as the extreme end of a continuum and death at the other extreme. Ponder what the midpoint of that continuum would be. We can see therein a state between life and death, not quite one, yet not quite the other either. Can this be anything other than a state of disease or something out of a horror movie?\n\nThe conceptual pairing of compassion and cruelty as extreme ends of a continuum offers a more convincing promise of balance at the midpoint. Ironically, the somewhat relative nature of the terms increases the likelihood of a misconception that compassion is at the midpoint of its extreme expression (martyrdom for example), and its extreme lack, which would appear to be cruelty. The continuum might otherwise have sadism on one end and masochism on the other, with the middle being love.\n\nThis is where I disagree with a prevalent idea that admittedly appears to make sense at first: that our ideals are points of presence on a continuum of unacceptable or compromising options, the worst or most unhealthy of which lie at the extremes of the continuum. According to this view, if we somehow tune our awareness like a radio dial along a band of stations that are not in our best interests, we can find “the one” that is. This state is different than the others of the continuum because it lies at the sweet spot where opposing extremes are in balance.\n\nThere is a similar view, identical in fact, but with a twist. Here the continuum holds the desirable trait at one end and the most undesirable one at the other. The idea of balance is idealized throughout, and we are led- by the nose as far as I’m concerned- to the logical conclusion that we need to compromise our idea to maintain balance. This is where the example of Life vs. Death comes in. Nobody sane, at least as far as I understand sanity, would choose to be a zombie. If told, however, that this is what it means to be in balance- and our logic convinces us that balance is always the best of all options- then zombie or not, that is where we must go.\n\nThe view expressed prior to the one immediately above, which I believe is known as the Virtue Continuum, would express things a bit differently. There Life would be at the mid-point of a continuum whose extremes are Death and Overpopulation- from that of multi-celled organisms like rabbits and people down to cells where the issue of cancer arises. My contention with the continuum view is that it promotes idolization of static or compromised balance, where we end up locked and bound in and by the linear frame the continuum represents. We become effectively imprisoned by a metaphor.\n\nThe way I see the example of the previous paragraph, the issue is one of reproduction, which is one of quantized life, not its qualitative sense. Then the balance is a reduced population, but not because we kill half of all who are born, or insure a limited life span. So long as we ensure a proportioned- need I say balanced–  relationship between bodies and their resources, there is leeway for life extension and the perpetual maintenance of youthful vitality. Reproduction can diminish or even cease so that the choice is between the immortality of one’s gene pool or one’s own embodiment of it. In any case, it is the qualitative dynamic that is in our best interest to maximize.\n\nThe so-called Virtue Continuum is nothing new. The idea is even found in Cabala Philosophy, expressed through the notion of the three pillars of the Tree of Life. The middle pillar represents balance and the pillars on either end, the divine absolutes of judgment and mercy. Too much judgment (or blind justice) and suffering increases because we are all flawed and judgment of this sort tolerates no leeway. Too much mercy and everyone gets away with murder so to speak. In both cases order breaks down. This order is maintained by the balance of the middle pillar.\n\nThe continuum in this case is that of divine justice. Divine judgement lies on one end and divine mercy on the other. The same continuum can be seen as one of divine love, where we are judged for our own good (though love) and forgiven (nurturing love) in good measure as well. Ideally we tune our radio dial so that we are treated justly, with enough toughness to be tempered properly and enough soft love to avoid becoming brittle and bitter.\n\nI don’t know about you, but to me this continuum notion smacks of behavioral conditioning. The implication of abiding by such a continuum is accepting the necessity of the extremes because without them the center we are prompted to honor is meaningless. Just as in the other example, cruelty is touted as necessary because it lies at the other end of the love continuum. If the watered down balance isn’t touted then a fulcrum at the center tells us that compassion must be up some times, and cruelty gain the upper hand at others. That’s the way the seesaw wobbles.\n\nI imagine to dare not only moving outside the box, but throwing out the whole box concept. It’s the damn box, after all, that convinces us there is a pie and there is the eating of the pie and that we can only have one or the other if anything at all.\n\nThe virtue continuum simplifies things, but that is the allure of boxed-in awareness. There will always be example that make life outside the box appear risky if not outright deadly. If we let everyone have the pie and eat it too, then all hell is going to break loose. I agree! But only when we are still under the spell of the matrix or engineered and trauma directed thinking.\n\nNo matter how this may occur collectively, one can envision a horse that needs to go before the cart if one is to get anywhere. In other words, there are priorities. Before we go around trying to change the world and everyone in it, let us reach the point where we have become free of the box. That freedom is the balance we rightly covet, independent of continua, unshackled from extremes and their mid-point pivots.\n\nOne of its most promising attributes, furthermore, is that it is unbound from concepts of absolute vs relative- so much for that utility. We don’t need to argue when we are free. In freedom our minds seek creative solutions, and our hearts are nourished in wellbeing. The body is respected and loved, and even if we must engage in challenging activity, our options increase exponentially.\n\nLogic may not see this clearly, but perhaps we can consider it. Better yet, if anything is taken from this long diatribe then I pray it is the sincere willingness to imagine a state where the box or the line or the rule of law and dictate does not enslave us into the compromises we are prone- more than we may think- to obey. That state is the balance I cherish to experience; a dance of life, harmony and meaning. In a paradoxical way, the only “absolute” I’ll ever need.\n\nPart I\n\nPart II\n\nBalance and the Utility of Absolutes: Part II\n\nIt’s a bit more than obvious that that the examples of Part I do not resolve the issue of balance amidst polar conceptions. This is the part where the answer precipitates closer to pragmatic sense. Fortunately, the question itself- as I understand it- considers two things a given, or close enough: a) that balance is a desired and beneficial state and b) that relativism and the wishy-washy, arbitrary interpretation of basic memes is not where we want to go.\n\nThe aim of this essay is to affirm and show that we can cultivate natural states of balance. These are beneficial in the midst of solid conceptions that form two ends of a spectrum of options. In balance we are in an embodied psycho-spiritual state free of denial or repression. Balance allows an efficient distribution of forces so that we are free to be who we are, and unstrained in all our relations.\n\nWe are, therefore, most ourselves when balance is the status quo between body and mind (and/or any other quality and attribute of healthy human nature one wishes to pose in the works). To understand balance, however, it behooves us to note that polarization can be either creative or destructive, and that balance is meaningless when we are dealing with the latter.\n\nWe see proof of creative polarization in the form of a battery whose poles generate a current of electricity that is a valuable resource, and hence benefits lives as we see fit. Destructive polarization, on the other hand, is conflict: a clash of rivals and competing foes. This is not to be confused with themes such as sportsmanship. That involves ritualized competition meant to diffuse otherwise destructive social energy and channel it into constructive resolution. Therein we have the positive attributes of athletic competition or any situation involving pitting one’s self against an obstacle to be transcended or overcome.\n\nIf our poles are creative, therefore, it is in our best interest that they are absolute. In the case of electrical poles, science proves that they are a universally natural phenomenon we can technologically reproduce under specific conditions. You cannot really fake electricity in a convincing manner, unless you use electricity to do it.\n\nThis is not the case for the more abstract conceptions of understanding. Therein there is danger of deception. Destructive polarization sold as creative, and creative polarization used as a scapegoat for what is destructive. Both are common today, so that up is promoted as down, good as bad and the innocent are victimized for the acts of the guilty.\n\nGiven that the above is often due to deliberately conspired, criminal manipulation, navigating the sea of lies and misconception in our complicated information age is more than challenging. It is designed to wear us down unless we can engage in a state of balance.\n\nPart I offered examples of natural body/mind balance, where body and mind were in complementary states. When mind was sharp, body was relaxed. When body was strained, mind was relaxed. In this form of balance one side charges with energy to feed the other side. Body and mind are not the polarizing concepts. Together they actually represent the wholeness of body/mind (keeping it simple and free of complicating concepts such as soul and spirit etc.). Body and mind in opposing states encouraged creative balance between them and that enhanced the wholeness of body/mind in its chosen pursuit, be it philosophical revelation or climbing a mountain.\n\nEven though relaxation and strain are not objectively absolute, they are still very human states. I have no doubts when I am relaxed and no doubts when I am stressed. There is no arguing this because my subjective sense is definite. If someone were able to cast doubt in my sense of stress vs. relaxation and convince me I was relaxed when I was not, my psychological integrity could be in jeopardy. It is significant, therefore, that strain and relaxation represent a prominent dynamic continuum of our being whenever we deal with psychological and ideological polarization.\n\nInstead of looking at the correctness or lack thereof of ideas and concepts, it is probably more constructive to focus on being sensitive to our stress/relaxation response when thrust in an arena of destructive polarization. It is irrelevant if the concepts are posed in absolute or relative terms (as my/your/their truth or as the truth).\n\nIf we consider mind and body as two expressions of a single entity, the key to getting the most out of polarized absolutes and sustaining creative balance is to practice maintaining said state when free of conflict. So many today we are stressed, scheduled, threatened, moralized, demoralized, terrorized and enraged in a manner two systematic for it to simply be happenstance. Instead of diving headstrong into the issues themselves like philosophers, mountain climbers, warriors or negotiators, we can consider that we are being set up for being victimized by chronic stress.\n\nWhen mind and body via creative and complementary polarization support each other, balance is natural, and we build immunity to the engineered effects of chronic destructive polarization. When extremes co-exist in a single medium the result is either conflict or mutual dilution and co-operant weakening. In other words, if the mind cannot balance with body, and both are strained, then both can break. If both are relaxed perpetually, both can get dull and weak.\n\nThe idea is to indeed engage in the stream of polarized concepts, even if they appear destructive. How else will peace come if there is nothing to stand between conflicting factions, or destructive extremes? But if such a thing is to be done dynamically, with power and strength and wisdom, then we must sustain intrinsic balance first. The mind especially is challenged to find its balance within a balanced body/mind experience so that it can engage in heroic relationship with polarized absolutes in a peace-making, harmonizing, and even transforming function.\n\nConcepts can will either be in conflict or in complementation. They dilute each other or one dominates. They mate and establish a synthesis for better or worse or remain mutually alienated or in conflict. When we reinforce creative poles, however, we strengthen the current between them, or the synthesis they generate. In doing so we may experience the dawning realization that the sought-for balance manifest through the experience of the ‘energy’ that flows between the poles, or it can be the very synthesis of their mating.\n\nTo conclude this installment, I want to note that the conception of absolutes can be problematic, and when oversimplified the poles can manifest destructively. The next installment of this essay will attempt to address the issue. I encourage the reader to think on this: Just because concepts, memes (truths) are polarized doesn’t mean that balance between them has any meaning, especially when our idea of balance is remaining safe and secure in one place, state or ideological stance.\n\nPart I\n\nPart III\n\nBalance and The Utility of Absolutes: Part I\n\nI have pondered the utility of absolutes, i.e., good/bad; right/wrong; true/false. In a sort of visual description these absolutes reflect polar opposites. It seems that the adoption of either results in imbalance. Would you care to address this observation?\n\nThe above was a question posed to me, and not one easy to answer in a straightforward manner. Let me go for it anyway. I just hope readers don’t abandon me to blather alone in the mental wilderness of my own meandering complications. As challenging as that is, in other words, I am making a note to keep it simple.\n\nI imagine this is one of those questions one expects to hear in a circle of stuffy old men stroking long white beards as they recline amidst the marble columns of Plato’s Academy. Just imagine that for a moment. The hurumphing of old farts dominates the scene- a figure of speech by the way. It is not conducive to the current discourse to expend mental energy imagining an aging puff of gas thoughtfully say: “hurumph!”.\n\nSuffice it to say that the revered lovers of wisdom in our imagined circle of accomplished argumentation are certain they have all the bases covered. They will possess their certainty with a straight face even as they quote Socrates- their reluctant idol- in proclaiming “the only certainty is that we know nothing”.\n\nA few of the more insightful in their midst must surely comprehend the paradox: sharp intellects contrasting soft rears endlessly shifting on hard marble recliners for the ever-elusive comfort zone. If they are especially mindful, our wise men might notice the seed of revelation concealed in the conundrum of discomfort that a well-placed pillow could appease with ease.\n\nStill with me? Let’s blow the exaggerated caricature of that imaginary Academy. Let’s put our mind’s eye to better use and find ourselves relaxing on a nice sandy beach. We are reclining comfortably with our favorite drink, sitting back to listen to the soothing sound of the tropical surf for a spell. Not a care in the world.\n\nThose wizened philosophers of yesteryear made it a point to recline in comfort when pondering the mysteries of nebulous mentation. That soft and supple pillow under the rump was an absolute necessity for the demands of higher discourse. It virtually- no pun intended- guaranteed the finely honed blade-like intellect these philosophers brandished with the expert grace of hardened veterans of legendary battles.\n\nFacing questions like this can create a cold and brittle mood when the acuity of the intellect is emphasized more than what makes relaxing and comfortable sense. I want to point out, however, that where the body is comfortable and relaxed, ideas can balance on the razor’s edge of a vibrant mind. This is balance, and it is not a given.\n\nSustaining a sharp intellect without rest is stressful and can cause fatigue and burnout. Sustaining perpetual relaxation, on the other hand, can dull both mind and body leaving the spirit flaccid and the heart as slothful as the physical frame.\n\nBalance is, therefore, a treasure that is not just cultivated between opposing absolutes. It is a valued state earned by the act of confronting forces engaged in a struggle with us. In this case our balance lies in the integration of a relaxed body with a sharp mind. Part of the value of this state lies in the high stakes of the struggles we face with it. If we submit to the will of what opposes us the core of our experience of self and world is thrust into a corner of conception, backed into it to be bound by the programmed conclusions resulting from our alleged “defeat”.\n\nIn other words, we can become victims of possession by various forms of the meme: “unless I am a winner, I am a loser”. One version is the variant: “unless I am right, I am wrong”. We may think our struggle is with something tangible, like a force of nature or a human oppressor, but we are physically relaxed in the world of ideas. Therein what is challenged is our sense of self and what is meaningful to it.\n\nIn that sense balance means throwing out the either/or and choosing to learn from the engagement. Experience is the coin of purchase in this process, and balance involves its best investment. In my book that is worth pondering.\n\nThe metaphor that led to all this pontificating, however, is two-fold. Balance comes from understanding both aspects of it. The second aspect contrasts the image of the sharp-minded philosopher with flaccid body with the reverse arrangement. This time, we can imagine finding ourselves among a group of athletes climbing a mountain, struggling against the elements to gain the victory of standing at a pinnacle of nature’s majesty.\n\nAs we climb, we realize that the warrior stance of a mental blade-wielder is the last thing we need.  Instead, circumstance asks that the mind relax, and its intellectual blade stand aside for a deeper visceral intuition to enter to scene.\n\nIn doing so the mind may find itself “in the zone” where the body is one with the nature it seeks to pit against its own limitations. This mind-zone is zen-like in its mystery and paradoxical luminous silence. It is also part of the appeal of extreme physical struggles that to the average plodder seem more like examples of human lunacy than achievements.\n\nMake no mistake, the mind is not dull. It is not dead, nor is it vacuous. It is infinitely deep, yawning into its own mystery of pre-conceptual calm. It is the ocean without waves to distract from sensing its true depths. And when the body is challenged, and forced to plumb its own potentials of resourcefulness, the mind steps back and falls over the precipice of residual assumption into the fathomless expanse of its own nature. Paradoxically, when that happens, the body becomes stronger and more capable. This is balance as well.\n\nPart II\n\nPart III\n\nLearning from Time Obsession-Free\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThinking the US Election\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis is how I see it:\n\n\n\n\n\nReality Sculpting 101: II. Facing The Challenge\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nReality Sculpting 101: I. Changing Beliefs\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Demonizing of our Inner Resources\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBritain has Spoken\n\nYesterday the Brits voted to exit the EU. The margin was narrow, which is something noteworthy in itself. I look at this as an example of the implementation of strategies and tactics toward the consolidation of power. It always is like this for psychopaths. Psychopaths can be understood to be individuals who really lack any working connection with life and ‘creation’. They don’t care about anything that feels meaningful to a psycho-centric human. That last word means soul centered.\n\nI would say there is a tendency today to oversimplify the psychopath. It appears the tendency condenses them to the childish level of ‘bad’ and that’s all we need to know. Maybe then we can sweep them under the rug or just annihilate them physically. I am not advocating some sort of ‘love-in’ response to them. I consider myself more of a realist in that regard, and want to encourage others to study them in relation to ourselves, because they appear to have researched all our weaknesses. Perhaps we can look at this referendum deal from that studious perspective.\n\nLet’s start by looking at this referendum in terms of “who benefits” from the decision, in the long run if not within the aegis of the emotional high of ‘victory’. The establishment calculates risks and benefits and comes to conclusions with respect to getting to the goal/prize it covets with as little loss as it can. To insure minimal loss, grand scale events need to be progressively and multiply simulated to account for an acceptable spectrum of variability.\n\nOne thing is noteworthy; that the establishment realizes the element of surprise can go a long way. But those cards are limited and several have been played already. It’s like Hollywood screenwriters trying to outwit an increasingly plot-savvy audience. I would say there are many probable moves in the chess game psychos play, and one can endlessly speculate. I realize I can appear uncharacteristically cynical and pessimistic in this analysis. When I say that the establishment will not allow real positive change unless it causes a greater change toward it’s agenda, I am doing so in the spirit of rising to the challenge, not dashing hope. Hope, in my honest opinion, is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened, not coddled.\n\nAfter writing the above I came upon this article that collapses the proverbial wave-function of the vote results, or at least hints toward a specific ramification path. Remember the Greek referendum? It was practically a year ago this month. If authoritative control freaks are into the science of behavioral manipulation, it makes sense to dispense self-similar events under similar conditions. That sends a message of synchronistic significance to the masses, and increases the probability of a response similar to the one in the parallel circumstance. In this case, the EU gave the Greeks the finger regarding their vote.\n\nHere’s the metaphor: give baby candy. Then ask for it back politely, and then more firmly. Then let the baby think it won. Then dash its little baby hopes to pieces. There is no greater victory over a human psyche than that revolving around the dashing of hope. Not only is the candy taken, but if the baby cries or in any way attempts to show disrespect to the authority looming over it, then terror is dispensed liberally, in the form of abuse impending or directly applied.\n\nThere are any number of ways the firm parent can reveal itself to be an abusive monster to the Brits. Some years ago there were riots, and I’m sure those memories are burned in the minds and bodies of quite a few. Perhaps that was the point. To let people know what may happen if they think they can ‘revolt’.\n\nAlthough speculation here is informed and thought out, it is still speculation. Things can play out differently, with Britain being left alone to stand similar to Iceland in terms of establishment independence. That’s radical, but not unprecedented. Think of the colonial acquisitions Britain relinquished in the 20th century. Those countries are still under the thumb of globalist interests, still under the machinations of destabilizing elements, yet officially they are more likely to believe it’s an ‘internal’ problem, or an issue with a neighboring country. The usual suspects actually look generous.\n\nAlthough there may be many paths twisting to the same goal, we need not predict them specifically. It is more important to brave the manipulation and learn from the patterns. It is said that great clarity comes to those who realize the noose waits for them. It comes after they transcend the initial terror. The practice of thinking or simply being present- not freaking out- under the duress of psychological manipulation can strengthen us, especially if thought is deep, clear and outside the box. This could lead us to a stronger in mind and more determined in heart.\n\nThe fact of globalism in the frightening sense is not the crazy theory it used to be. More and more are taking it seriously. Sociopolitical awakening is something the circumstances in the world themselves can do these days, even if much is controlled information. At least a few can resist the somnambulist momentum of cooked ‘disclosure’ and strengthen their minds to be more resourceful in ways they discover, share and innovate further.\n\nI believe we can discern what we can do and in what way to do it. Suffice it to say, disrupting the impact of all those experiments against us, ‘should’ in my honest opinion be a priority. We are not sheep and we are not helpless children. Those are facts we can stand upon so the formerly knowing but firm parent cannot proclaim themselves to be a raving butcher/pedophile.\n\nTo conclude this little commentary I want to emphasize two points. First, that there is such a thing as intelligent revolution. Second that IQ only marks a slice of what constitutes ‘smarts’. Let us learn from events, and know ourselves and our world, the real and the programmed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6812788248062134}
+{"content": "5 Things You Must Do Before You Hit Publish\n\nPosted on July 17, 2014\nBy Summer\n\nBefore you hit publish on your blog post, there is one critical step before you click that button.\n\nThat mission critical step is to review your work. If you are a one-man show (where you don't have the luxury of having a team) then you'll be going through the system of a self-edit process.\n\nIt may sound tedious but you want to make sure that your writing is polished, easy-to-read and effective. It is important that you review your work with a critical eye. You wouldn't want the world to read poor writing, you can lose a lot of readers that way.\n\nHere are 5 things you must do before you hit publish! \n\n 1) Walk away\n\nWhen you're done your blog post, step away from it. For a minute, for an hour, maybe even a day. Let yourself breathe for a second so that when you go back to it, you'll have fresh eyes and a clear mind.\n\nWhen you come back to it, you'll be able to evaluate things like if the body actually matches the title and delivers on its headline promise, or if  the post makes sense from start to finish.\n\n2) Remember those grammar rules in school?\n\nBe meticulous when you’re proofreading and editing. Thoroughly look at your grammar and style. If you're unsure about your grammar or punctuation, look it up. Make sure your writing is error-free because this is one of reader's biggest (if not, the biggest) turn-off.\n\n3) Read Aloud\n\nIf you're still unsure if your readers will understand the whole piece, read your finished work aloud. This will help you focus in on what is on the page and let you hone in on overall story. You might catch something that you wouldn't have reading in your head.\n\n4) Formatting\n\nReviewing your format means things like font (size, type, bold, italics, etc), paragraph and line spacing. Sub-headings are really important in online reading and writing and you should definitely include these in your article if you can. Sub-headings help break up blocks of text and caters to our world of skimming, mobile readers.\n\n5) Rewrite your title over and over again\n\nHere's why you should write the best title you possibly can. Brian Clark of copyblogger.com says,\n\n\nWithout an attention-grabbing title, the rest of the words might as well not exist because people will not feel compelled to click on your post.\n\n\nTags: writing, blog, Blogs, Content Marketing, edit, proofread, publish, review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8119467496871948}
+{"content": "Wanda \"Fengyun\" across the board help explore the tomb open beta in September 23rd Wanda holdings, mutual love and interactive launched large-scale 3D Palace of the Earth expedition war Mobile Games \"exploring tomb situation\" has logged on Apple’s App Store in September 23rd, the whole network will open beta blockbuster. Wanda film and television to mobilize the full range of resources to help promote the exploration of the tomb of the storm. The game also invited the \"China suspense master\" Cai Jun personally, architecture world outlook story. \"The grave situation\" 100 City Wanda Wanda studios power beta power, Ying beta \"exploring distributed welfare situation\" is the tomb of Wanda holdings and its wholly-owned subsidiary of the first interactive mutual love tour video linkage products, you will be in the country more than three hundred Wanda cinema, nearly 3000 theaters in Palace of the Earth in advance to feel the atmosphere. In order to meet the \"situation\" on the tomb of the beta, Wanda studios will be more in the beta phase line to distribute benefits, please look forward to. Open early exploration tomb tour, APP Store have been added to \"explore the tomb situation\" has landed APP Store, Apple users in advance open the tomb exploration trip to Palace of the Earth in search more mystery. A number of online activities are underway, cumulative landing available to massive game super practical props, high value of diamonds, who help ghoul to elevate the role of force, to meet the challenges in many organs of the Palace of the Earth. 8 days to send gold will force the value of the golden partner will accompany you to explore. APP Store has shelves, on line eighth, send pet \"golden China suspense master\" Cai Jun endorsement, construct the grand Palace of the Earth world \"China suspense master\" Cai Jun \"to explore the tomb construction situation\" world view, take you to explore the mystery of the tomb of Cao Cao. In the folk seventy-two genuine coffin statement is true? Anyang Gaoling why not open? Why are split into Ghoul Xunlong, gold, Feng Shui three schools? In the mysterious Palace of the Earth, waiting for you is a treasure or crisis? \"The tomb\" Chinese Fengyun \"master of suspense\" endorsement of family social VS million people in war, friends in \"exploring the tomb of like-minded situation\" in the interactive system more closely to form the family, the family is a social system in the game is most closely, a lot of family activities will bring considerable benefits to all members. The treasure in Palace of the Earth is limited, but the family involved in the tomb is increasing. The sheer size of the PVP Losers are always in the wrong., national war came into being. National war by the family chiefs declared war, the declaration of war in the required time to defeat the BOSS. Of course, the other members of the family is your real enemy. Explore the tomb of the storm, the national war opened on the tomb of the exploration of the tomb of the tomb of the storm is a subsidiary of Wanda film and Television Holdings, a subsidiary of mutual interaction of large 3DMMO Palace of the Earth adventure expedition hand travel. The game \"invited China suspense master\" Cai Jun endorsement, jointly build the world Palace of the Earth. Game player will start from three to the identity of the tomb of Cao Cao, Palace of the Earth’s tomb tomb deep exploration, a thrilling cliffhanger adventure. The tomb of Palace of the Earth, dragon, gold exploration, catch demon pet, reincarnation challenge dumplings, PK, in the ladder match…… A variety of gameplay to create a stunning world of suspense.��关的主题文章：", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989307522773743}
+{"content": "Before you write aletter, you need answer these questions.\n\nGood writers can express complex ideas in a very simple way. If you are able to do this, you will demonstrate strong writing skills. More importantly, short and simple sentences mean fewer grammatical mistakes.\n\nYou will write down your important thoughts in less than tenminutes.\n\nIt is a good idea to read over anything you write, searching forthis sort of word.\n\nHow to Write an Essay (with Pictures) - wikiHow\n\nPosted: 24 Sep 2016, 19:02 Author: YjygixyjPersuasive Essay and Speech Topics, ereading Worksheets\n\nThesis statement for lack of communication in a relationship\n\n\nBest write my essay service that guarantees timely delivery\n\nUnless you are a professionalwriter or editor, you will need to improve your writing skills infour areas: clarity, brevity, interest, andaccuracy.\n\nWhen you write letters, you are alsotrying to educate and inform this decison-maker.\n\nWrite Your Best Analytical Essay Today: Tips and Tricks\n\nYour grammar may be perfect and your ideas may be great. Even so, if you don't answer the TOEFL question, none of that matters. If the question asks for your opinion, be sure to write about what think--don't write about what other people think. On the other hand, if the question is about what other people think or do, don't write about yourself.\n\nUnsure how to write your analytical essay\n\nEssays are usually divided into two basic types: creative and logical. Creative essays turn around imagination, artistic skills and ability to figure out situations which are far from reality. On the other hand, logical essays are very well structured and oftentimes deal with important topics by employing precise methodology. The main goal of creative essays is to make the reader enjoy them in an aesthetic sense. The aim of logical essays is to solve a definite problem. Hence, both types of essays require different skills, so you should be very well prepared and have some information on how to write an imaginative essay.\n\nTop 10 Tips for Taking Essay Tests | Best Colleges | US News\n\nIf you have various options to choose, opt for writing on the “most extravagant” topic. The advantages are the following: first, your imaginative essay will be unique in a sense that there will not be another one to compare it with; and second, teachers welcome working on non-standard topics and also non-traditional approaches to the assignments they give.\n\nThe Stranger won�t know the background orhistory unless you provide this information.\n\nIf You Teach or Write 5-Paragraph Essays–Stop It\n\n\nUnfortunately,you do have to pay for the APA guide, though it is now available in aless-expensive.\n\n\nDon’t wait for too long; start writing when you have some inspiration. This will only be your first draft. Follow your internal feeling of aesthetics. Analysis and reflection are not proper methods for carrying out the task; you’d rather search for associations provoked by the topic/title. Let’s say, your topic is “A day of the raindrop.” What is your first association? Would you speak from first person, or will merely tell a narrative about the raindrop? What situation should be included in your essay? Where does it take place?\n\nHow to Write aLeadership Essay\n\nWe will write a custom essay sample on\n\nYet badgrammar, bad style, and poor organization will make it very difficultfor you to convey your ideas clearly and professionally, and willlimit your academic and professional success.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9048760533332825}
+{"content": "Google Docs\n\nEver been at home and wished you had a document from your office computer? Maybe you are travelling and want to look at the family budget spreadsheet that you store on your wife's computer. Now there is a place on the internet where you can store your documents so that you can easily work on them from anywhere you can get online.\n\nGoogle Docs is still in Beta or testing, but anyone can use it. All you need is an internet connection and a Google login. Go to and sign in. If you don't have a Google login, then click \"Get started\" on the right.\n\nOnce you are logged in you can easily upload existing Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents from your computer or simply start new documents online. Here are a few of the many things you can do with Google Docs:\n\n- Share your documents with other users so they can view them or make changes as well\n\n- Create folders and organize your documents\n\n- Print your documents\n\n- Export documents to Adobe PDF format\n\nClick on Help in the upper right corner and you will find easy to browse instructions on doing all the things you want to do with Google Docs.\n\nThere are some limits on document sizes, but Google Docs is a great place to store documents you need to access form anywhere or share with others.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993592500686646}
+{"content": "The Trouble With Homework\n\nIt's great to see the latest research on the science of learning being covered in the NY Times. This research should be put into practice during the school day which should be structured around learning. There's also research on the importance of downtime, play and sleep and a number of countries performing well on tests with far less homework than in the US.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8105366826057434}
+{"content": "Tesla's Electric Car #2 - 01/09/98\n\nThis file was originally posted on the KeelyNet BBS on January 31, 1993 as TESLAFE2.ASC.\n\nThis file is a Sysop commentary on the Tesla Power Box as described in the original file TESLAFE1.ASC on KeelyNet.\n\nThese are my own thoughts on the Tesla Power Box, I welcome your constructive comments regarding this device......Jerry W. Decker/KeelyNet\n\nThe following are the details as removed from the file TESLAFE1 :\n\n\n\n\n\nThe mention of this experiment in a local paper kind of blew me away but it did give \"some\" detail of what was in this mysterious power box.\n\nWe know that T.H. Moray had probably the best known version of such a device. In his case he used a special \"valve\" which appeared to be basically a diode. Except this diode worked more like a Triac. That is, any electrical wave, both positive AND negative going currents, was picked up by an antenna and passed through this diode with minimal loss of energy. As far as we know, this valve was based on a composite substance with GERMANIUM as the host material.\n\nFrom there it went through a tuned circuit based on vacuum tubes and capacitors to build and discharge the energy as demanded by the load.\n\nThe tuned circuits were resonant with one or more earth or cosmic frequencies and the vacuum tubes acted as harmonic constructive interference amplifiers of the input signals.\n\nWe will note that Moray's resonant circuits used CAPACITORS, COILS and RESISTORS. Experiments done during Moray's heyday showed an output up to 50,000 Watts of high frequency energy. It is believed that the energy was high frequency because 100 watt light bulbs burned cool to the touch.\n\nOne other CRITICAL POINT about Moray's converter was that it would ONLY energize RESISTIVE loads and NOT INDUCTIVE loads. This is because inductive loads imply coils of wire which are heated more so by HYSTERESIS (interferring electro-magnetic fields) rather than simple resistance from the flow of current through molecular/atomic patterns.\n\nThis type of interferring field caused an energy backup and subsequent de-tuning of Moray's generator. Since it was essentially a TUNED device, it could not compensate for any frequency changes or distortions ONCE TUNED. As a result, any attempt to hook up an inductive load would cause the device to stop generating electrical energy. To restart it, all inductive loading must be removed, the device re-tuned and restarted.\n\nMoray also used an unusual mode of operation for a vacuum tube in that he operated with a \"cold cathode.\" This did not require a heated plate for the \"thermionic emissions\" deemed necessary to successful vacuum tube operation.\n\nThere is also mention of radioactive elements in the antenna circuit which leads one to think he might have been tuning into the continual radioactive decay processes of nature, rather than cosmic or earth energies.\n\nNow to the Tesla Power Box\n\nWe will first of all note the use of an AC coil motor. This alone tells us that the Tesla device was superior and not so dependent on tuning as was Moray's machine which could only power RESISTIVE loads. All universal energy moves in WAVES and so is essentially for alternating current (AC). That is why Moray called his book \"THE SEA OF ENERGY IN WHICH THE EARTH FLOATS\". The entire universe is continually bathed in these AC energies and they cover the entire frequency spectrum.\n\nWhat intrigues the hell out of me was how Tesla could use \"off-the- shelf\" vacuum tubes and other components, put them together in the correct configuration and make it work.\n\nAnother point we should note is the list of components :\n\nNOTE, NO CAPACITORS! The wires could have been simply for connection or wound as coils. The 1/4\" rods were either BUS BARS for power output taps OR more likely ANTENNAS! Resonant circuits can be constructed using several techniques. You can achieve the same effect from :\n\nSo, in the case of the Tesla Power Box, he either wound his own coils or simply used the wire to connect the resistors with the vacuum tubes. I am of the opinion that he used the wire ONLY for connection and DID NOT USE COILS! I also think he used a DIODE somewhere in the circuit in order to tap ONLY one polarity.\n\nWe have no specifications for the AC motor that Tesla used in the auto, so we have no idea if it was single or polyphase. In the case of a single phase motor, it only requires a single winding which projects a magnetic field that rotates according to the increase or decrease of the alternating current.\n\nA polyphase (poly = two or more) motor uses multiple windings which are fed by phased input currents that alternate in such a manner as to reinforce each other. In the case of a 3 phase motor, the currents are phased 120 degrees apart. This gives much greater torque to the motor but requires 3 times the current because it uses 3 times the input energy.\n\nSince the box powered an AC (coil) motor, it is probable it was TUNED to one or more frequencies, most likely polyphased frequencies.\n\nSo, if the 3\" long rods were in fact ANTENNAS, we can calculate their frequency by using the following :\n\n(I cannot express Lambda here so we will use w for wavelength)\n\n                           w = wavelength\n                           v = velocity of propagation\n                           f = signal frequency\n\n        a short example :  w = v / f = wavelength in feet\n                           w = 984,000,000/1,500,000 = 656 feet\n                           f = 984,000,000/656 = 1,500,000 or 1.5 MHZ\n\n                           3 inches * 4  = 1 foot\n                           984,000,000/1 = 984,000,000\n                           984,000,000/4 = 246,000,000 or 246 MHZ\n\nThis would indicate the 3\" rods (if they were truly 3\" in length and functioning as antennas) would resonate at 246 MHZ.\n\nBecause of the parts list description, I am of the opinion that it was a DUAL circuit. That is, 6 vacuum tubes and one 1/4\" diameter 3\" rod along with assorted resistors were to pick up and \"pump\" ONLY the positive going signals, while the other 6 vacuum tubes, rod and resistors did the same for the negative going signals. Such a scheme could either use PARALLEL or SERIAL connections of the vacuum tubes. Since current conduction is proportional to surface area, one would think that a parallel arrangement of the 70L7-GT rectifier beam power tubes with all INPUTS connected to one antenna source and all OUTPUTS connected to a common terminal attached to the load, would provide for the MAXIMUM current flow from incoming energy waves.\n\nThe nature of these \"energy waves\" is the question here. Are they cosmic rays, electrostatic, Schumann peaks, magnetic force, something \"other\" or Aether flow into the neutral centers of mass as per Keely.\n\nVacuum tube construction takes several forms. Of these, the simplest is two plates separated by a grid wire. When the bottom plate is heated, thermally induced ions (thermionic emissions) are emitted by the bottom plate. The grid can be biased by the application of voltage to increase, decrease or halt the flow of these ions to the upper plate.\n\nOther forms include more plates with more grids to allow better control of the ion flow. By proper biasing, vacuum tubes can be operated as switches, modulators or amplifiers among other uses.\n\nVacuum tubes operate primarily with high voltages that control the ion flows. Modern transistors are equivalent to vacuum tubes except that they operate using CURRENT instead of voltage. Transistors equate to Vacuum tubes by the following comparisons :\n\n                    Vacuum Tube       Transistor   Polarity\n  Operates from      Voltage           Current\n                     lower plate       emitter     negative - cathode\n                     grid              base        neutral\n                     upper plate       collector   positive - anode\n\nIn the case of the Tesla Power Box, the vacuum tube appears to function as a \"pump\", collecting incoming current in the form of ion intensification. Once this \"compressed\" ion field reaches a certain density, the pump allows it to be released into the next stage of the circuit, be it the actual load or another vacuum tube.\n\nSo if the circuit is 6 vacuum tubes in parallel, all fed from a common antenna, outputting to a common load terminal, then the common antenna input would feed all vacuum tubes with the same wave. This would give the greatest CURRENT accumulation because of the EXPANDED SURFACE AREA of the paralleled tubes.\n\nNote, these vacuum tubes most likely operate in the \"cold cathode\" mode since the heaters of the vacuum tubes were not fed by any outside voltage to provide the heat for the more orthodox therionic emission.\n\nIf the vacuum tubes are hooked in series, then one \"pump\" would feed another \"pump\" to get successively higher densities of electrons. This would give higher VOLTAGES because of increased PRESSURE.\n\nKeep in mind that electricity is much like air or water. We can think of voltage as pounds per square inch (PSI) and current as cubic feet per minute (CFM). That is PSI is pressure, CFM is flow.\n\nAnother analog is comparing a river to electricity. In such a comparison, the speed of the river is the VOLTAGE or pressure while the width of the river is the CURRENT or rate of flow.\n\nSuch a comparison shows WHY current requires THE GREATEST SURFACE AREA for the maximum flow. Fuses function on just this principle, when the current flows over the surface of the fuse, it creates heat. If too much current flows, it creates too much heat causing the fuse to melt and separate. The more surface area the fuse, the greater the amount of current can flow, another reason to not place a penny in a fuse socket.\n\nSo we have two antennas (1/4\" diameter, 3\" long rods), two sets of 6 vacuum tubes connected together by wire and assorted resistors. As the waves of energy are collected by the 3\" rods, positive on one, negative on another, the energy builds up in the form of increased ions in each of the paralleled vacuum tubes. As in Moray's generator, the circuit will feed whatever load is attached as long as it does not EXCEED the current carrying capacity of the circuit components. What we have is an energy pumping system.\n\nI made a drawing of the box with some idea of the circuit. My electronics knowledge is on IC's and transistors with almost nothing in regard to vacuum tubes so there won't be much technical concept of the circuit per se. Perhaps after some study, either I or someone else will come up with some testable or useable circuits.\n\nThe Parallel Version\n\nThe Serial Version\n\nTESLAFE1.HTM - original articles\n\nTESLCAR.HTM - another viewpoint", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6933063268661499}
+{"content": "The Building Process\n\nBuilding the robot is a long process. After kickoff, the team went straight into brainstorming mode to figure out what exactly we want the robot to be able to accomplish. After we determined the main tasks, the experienced members of the team went to Fargo Automation to design the robot using 3D software.\n\nWhile those members were busy at Fargo Automation, the rest of the builders worked on learning how to do everything they would need to know to be able to build the robot. They then proceeded to build the outer works for the practice field while the parts were being made for the robot.\n\nThe programming team worked on learning how to code and also built a prototype of the robot’s shooting mechanism. They tested out the code that they wrote for shooting and vision sensing.\n\nOnce the parts began to come in, both builders and programmers worked together to build the robot and test the code that the programmers wrote.\n\n-Emily Martin", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.732744038105011}
+{"content": "Member of The Internet Defense League\n\nLatest Tech\n\nAn anonymous reader quotes a report from WIRED:The peop...\nDescription\"Meltzer is a master and this is his best. N...\nNASA announced this week that it's looking for some cit...\nFire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8\" HD Display, 32 GB, Blac...\nFacebook has suspended Cambridge Analytica.Image: PA Im...\n\nAMD has a Spectre/Meltdown-like security flaw of its own - CNET\n\nResearchers have discovered critical security flaws with AMD's chips, allowing attackers to access sensitive data from highly guarded processors across millions of devices.\n\nParticularly worrisome is the fact that the vulnerabilities lie in the so-called secure part of the processors -- typically where your device stores sensitive data like passwords and encryption keys. It's also where your processor makes sure nothing malicious is running when you start your computer.\n\nResearchers from CTS-Labs, a security company based in Israel, announced on Tuesday that they found 13 critical security vulnerabilities that would let attackers access data stored on AMD's Ryzen and EPYC processors, as well as install malware on it. AMD's Ryzen chips power desktop and laptop computers, while EPYC processors are found in servers.\n\nThe researchers gave AMD less than 24 hours to look at the vulnerabilities and respond before publishing the report. Standard vulnerability disclosure calls for 90 days notice, so companies have time to address flaws properly.\n\n\nThe revelation of these vulnerabilities come after the emergence of Meltdown and Spectre, security flaws that affected Intel and Arm chips. They caused such a problem for PCs dating all the way back to the last two decades. The vulnerabilities were widespread considering that 77 percent of computer processors are Intel, while AMD takes up 22 percent.\n\nWhen those two security flaws were announced in January, AMD said it was not affected because of the differences in its architecture. These new security vulnerabilities break down into four categories, according to CTS-Labs co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Yaron Luk-Zilberman.\n\nAll of the vulnerabilities essentially allow an attacker to target the secure processor, which is crucial to protecting the sensitive information on your device.\n\n\"You're virtually undetectable when you're sitting in the secure processor,\" Luk-Zilberman said. \"An attacker could sit there for years without ever being detected.\"\n\nHere's a breakdown:\n\nMaster Key\n\nWhen a device starts up, it typically goes through a \"Secure Boot.\" It uses your processor to check that nothing on your computer has been tampered with, and only launches trusted programs.\n\nThe Master Key vulnerability gets around this start-up check by installing malware on the computer's BIOS, part of the computer's system that controls how it starts up. Once it's infected, Master Key allows an attacker to install malware on the Secure Processor itself, meaning they would have complete control of what programs are allowed to run during the start-up process.\n\nFrom there, the vulnerability also allows attackers to disable security features on the processor.\n\n\nThis vulnerability specifically affects AMD's Ryzen chips, and would allow malware to completely take over the secure processor.\n\nThat would mean being able to access protected data, including encryption keys and passwords. These are regions on the processor that a normal attacker would not be able to access, according to the researchers.\n\nIf an attacker can bypass the Windows Defender Credential Guard, it would mean they could use the stolen data to spread across to other computers within that network. Credential Guard is a feature for Windows 10 Enterprise, which stores your sensitive data in a protected section of the operating system that normally can't be accessed.\n\n\"The Windows Credentials Guard is very effective at protecting passwords on a machine and not allowing them to spread around,\" Luk-Zilberman said. \"The attack makes spreading through the network much easier.\"\n\n\nLike Ryzenfall, Fallout also allows attackers to access protected data sections, including Credential Guard. But this vulnerability only affects devices using AMD's EPYC secure processor. In December, Microsoft announced a partnership with for its Azure Cloud servers using AMD's EPYC processor.\n\n\"Windows has a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues, and proactively update impacted devices as soon as possible. Our standard policy is to provide solutions via our current Update Tuesday schedule,\" a Microsoft spokesperson said.\n\nThese chips are used for data centers and cloud servers, connecting computers used by industries around the world. If an attacker used the vulnerabilities described in Fallout, they could use it to steal all the credentials stored and spread across the network.\n\n\"These network credentials are stored in a segregated virtual machine where it can't be accessed by standard hacking tools,\" said CTS-Labs CEO Ido Li On. \"What happens with Fallout, is that this segregation between virtual machines are broken.\"\n\nSegregated virtual machines are portions of your computer's memory split off from the rest of the device. Researchers use it to test out malware without infecting the rest of their computer. Think of it like a virtual computer inside your computer.\n\nOn Credential Guard, the sensitive data is stored there, and protected so that if your computer were infected by normal malware, it wouldn't be able to access it.\n\n\nChimera comes from two different vulnerabilities, one in its firmware and one in its hardware.\n\nThe Ryzen chipset itself allow for malware to run on it. Because WiFi, network and Bluetooth traffic flows through the chipset, an attacker could use that to infect your device, the researchers said. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the researchers said it was possible to install a keylogger through the chipset. Keyloggers would allow an attacker to see everything typed on an infected computer.\n\nThe chipset's firmware issues means that an attack can install malware onto the processor itself.\n\n\"What we discovered is what we believe are very basic mistakes in the code,\" Uri Farkas, CTS-Labs's vice president of research and design said.\n\nWhat should I do?\n\nIt's unclear how long it will take to fix these issues with AMD's processors. CTS-Labs said it hasn't heard back from AMD. The researchers said it could take \"several months to fix.\" The vulnerabilities in the hardware can't be fixed.\n\nIntel and Microsoft are still managing its patches for Meltdown and Spectre, and the fixes have ended up causing more problems, such as bugs that slowed down your computer. These new vulnerabilities could mean similar headaches for AMD-powered devices.\n\n\"Once you're able to break into the security processor, that means most of the security features offered are broken,\" Li On said. \n\nShare your voice\n\nRecode Daily: Trump stops the Broadcom-Qualcomm de...\nCCleaner 5.41.6446\n\nRelated Posts\n\n\n\nNo comments made yet. Be the first to submit a comment\nSaturday, 17 March 2018\n\nCaptcha Image", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8853173851966858}
+{"content": "Erdoğan owns many ships, including tankers! An Azeri billionaire secretly purchased a $25 million oil tanker for Erdoğan in 2008. Mubariz Mansimov, an Azerbaijani national, had become a Turkish citizen two years earlier, changing his name to Mubariz Gurbanoglu, at Erdoğan’s urging. \n\n\nErdoğan is reputed to be extremely wealthy, estimated by some as having a worth of several billion euros, the result of rampant corruption and cronyism in the Turkish state since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power in 2003.\n\nThe Erdoğan family came to public attention over their relations with ethnic Azeri Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab in a corruption investigation in 2013.\n\nZarrab was the prime suspect in a major corruption probe that went public in December 2013 in which Erdoğan’s inner circle was implicated.\n\n\nIn a statement in April, Erdoğan said Zarrab’s case would be one of the issues he would discuss with Trump when they met in May.\n\n“Zarrab is not the son of my father, but he is a citizen of mine. If he has committed a crime, his dossier should be forwarded to the Justice Ministry. If he is arrested on trumped-up charges, we will fall into the category of a country that does not stand behind its citizens,“ Erdoğan had said back then.\n\nWhat disturbed Erdoğan and other Turkish officials is that former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara’s office cited the 2013 corruption investigation into Erdoğan and other Cabinet members in the Zarrab indictment in New York.\n\nWhen the graft probe was launched, Erdoğan’s government retaliated by purging the police chiefs and prosecutors who initiated the corruption investigation and introduced new legislation that restructured the judicial system to establish more political control over it.\n\nWith all prosecutors either reassigned to other posts or dismissed, and some even later arrested, the probe was dropped and Zarrab was acquitted of charges thanks to government intervention in the legal proceedings.\n\nŞebnem Erişmek, one of Zarrab’s lawyers, was seen in front of the residence of the Turkish ambassador in Washington on May 17 while Erdoğan was paying a visit to the residence.\n\nThe largest bribes originate in the military industry. Military procurement is a corrupt business from top to bottom. The process is dominated by advocacy, with few checks and balances. Most people in power love this system of doing business and do not want it changed. War and preparation for war systematically corrupt all parties to the state-private transactions by which the government obtains the bulk of its military products. There is a standard 10% bribe to kleptocrats for military purchases.  \n\nParticipants in the military industrial complex are routinely blamed for mismanagement, fraud, abuse, bribes, and waste. All of these unsavory actions, however, are typically viewed as aberrations, malfeasances to be covered-up, while retaining the basic system of state-private cooperation in the trade of military goods and services and the flow of bribes. These offenses are in reality expressions of a thoroughgoing, intrinsic rottenness in the entire setup.\n\nIn recent years, citizens’ concerns about corruption in the public sector have become more visible and widespread. From São Paulo to Johannesburg, citizens have taken to the streets against graft. In countries like Greece, Pseudo-Macedonia, Romania, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Malaysia and Ukraine, they are sending a clear and loud message to their leaders: Address corruption!\n\nPolicymakers are paying attention too. Discussing the “C word” has long been a sensitive topic at inter-governmental organizations. Defining corruption may seem easy. Most people will have the sense that they know it when they see it. For example, a public official takes a bribe in exchange for providing a financial or political gain.\n\nHowever, experts increasingly consider corruption to be much broader. Rather than merely being a transaction between two parties, corruption can be viewed as the privatization of public policy. Powerful elites in business and politics collude to control public institutions, capture the policy-making process, and monopolize government contracting and procurement. Defined corruption even more broadly is the lack of impartiality in government, where public money and authority are used in ways that impact negatively on human well-being.\n\nThe direct economic costs are obvious to most people. Demand for bribes by providers of services affects achievement of social outcomes. The bribe to the taxman that reduces public revenues, and lowers government’s provision of public services. A school that is not built because the allocated funds have been misappropriated. Yet, the indirect costs are likely to be economically far-reaching. Corruption has a negative impact on economic growth through, for example, the over-investment in rent seeking, the underinvestment in productive activities, and the perpetuation of inefficient policies, among other things. The economic costs of corruption, which by the way afflicts countries at all stages of development, are substantial. The global cost of bribery alone is three trillion euros, in the order of four percent of the world’s current GDP. There is a strong correlation between lower levels of corruption and long-term improvements in GDP per capita and in human development indices. In sum, corruption is a tax on growth and investment.\n\nMoreover, the costs are not only economic in nature. Corruption also contributes to the loss of public trust in government, higher levels of inequality in political influence, the deterioration of public values and, ultimately, to the diminution of citizens’ well-being or quality of life. These non-economic costs create a vicious cycle of under-performance of the public sector that is harmful to the economy in the long-term.\n\nGiven how broadly corruption and its consequences are now viewed, addressing it also requires a broad and multifaceted approach. Such a holistic approach requires leadership, changing incentives and building values, which are all mutually-reinforcing.\n\nFirst, leaders must be willing to bring to account powerful vested interests—the big fish rather than the small fish, the tigers rather than the flies. They must also set the example by being above reproach. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore is a prime example of a leader who successfully fought corruption through his own personal example and the political will that he engendered.\n\nSecond, strong incentives. Leadership must be complemented by a strong system of carrots and sticks—positive reinforcement and accountability. There needs to be a clear framework to combat corruption that is enforced. At the same time, governments need to ensure that public officials earn a living wage. Openness of the economy through deregulation and liberalization will also help since overly-regulated economies create strong incentives to maintain corrupt practices. Poland is a good example of quick and effective liberalization measures. Transparency of government operations and transactions is also important as a disincentive.\n\nThree, building values of integrity. Countries need to promote a culture that values clean government. Building such a culture requires education of citizens. Formal training can help, but ultimately values must be learned through the education system, peer pressure and the day-to-day work experiences and practices of institutions. In most cases, corruption starts long before it becomes critical to the economy.\n\nFiscal transparency – the comprehensiveness, clarity, reliability, timeliness, and relevance of public reporting on the past, present, and future state of public finances – is critical for effective fiscal management and accountability. It helps ensure that governments have an accurate picture of their finances when making economic decisions, including of the costs and benefits of policy changes and potential risks to public finances. It also provides legislatures, markets, and citizens with the information they need to hold governments accountable.\n\nThe Fiscal Transparency Code is the international standard for disclosure of information about public finances. The Code comprises a set of principles built around four pillars: (i) fiscal reporting; (ii) fiscal forecasting and budgeting; (iii) fiscal risk analysis and management; and (iv) resource revenue management. For each transparency principle, the Code differentiates between basic, good, and advanced practices to provide countries with clear milestones toward full compliance with the Code and ensure its applicability to the broad range of countries.\n\nFiscal Transparency Evaluations (FTEs) are the fiscal transparency diagnostic. FTEs provide countries with:\n\na comprehensive assessment of their fiscal transparency practices against the differentiated standards set by the Code;\n\nrigorous analysis of the scale and sources of fiscal vulnerability based on a set of fiscal transparency indicators;\n\na visual account of their fiscal transparency strengths and reform priorities through summary heat maps;\n\na sequenced fiscal transparency action plan to help them address those reform priorities; and\n\nthe option of undertaking a modular assessment focused on just one Pillar of the Code.\n\nFTEs are carried out at the request of countries. They also support capacity building, including the prioritization and delivery of technical assistance. A number of FTEs have been conducted to date in countries across a wide range of regions and income levels and additional FTEs are underway.\n\nOne way to end the problem of political corruption is to establish a new branch of government that serves as an umpire. Due to the growth of government, systemic political corruption jeopardizes the equity and well-being of the people. Reforms and remedies to deal with corruption that are under consideration would be ineffective and undermine basic constitutional rights.\n\nDemocracy is founded on Madisonian principles, which are based on elections and the rivalry among the existing three branches of American government – the legislative, executive and judicial branches. So the solution is to establish a fourth branch of government of umpires. It would be an improvement to rely on disinterested professional umpires to decide which legislative plays are welfare-enhancing and which are not, particularly if the umpires themselves could be insulated from the political processes that lead to corrupt laws and policies.\n\nNominations for the umpire seats would come from the president, chief justice, and parliament leaders. After confirmation by a two-thirds majority of the parliament, each umpire would serve a term of 15 years.\n\nPresidential vetoes and judicial review do not stem corruption, as they do not reflect the public well-being objective. The Supreme Court also focuses largely on precedent and procedure, overlooking practical effects on the public welfare.\n\nEven elections prove ineffective, given that all political representatives are themselves unreliable to some degree because of self-interest and voters are woefully bad judges of the performance of these officials.\n\nThe best way to overturn corrupt laws is to assign a new branch of government – the umpires – who hold the power to assess and veto legislation that fails to embody the goals expressed in the Constitution’s preamble.\n\nThe framers asserted in the preamble that the welfare of the people – their capacity to pursue happiness – should be a primary objective of government, no less fundamental than protection of life and liberty. Umpires would chiefly improve aggregate welfare by restricting rent-seeking, or the advancement of elite interests without concern for other interests or for the economy as a whole.\n\nThe output of law will not be perfected by welfare-oriented umpires, but at least welfare and equity issues will have a place, and an institutional advocate, in the debate. As for legitimacy, what matters in the end is whether people trust the government to act in their interests. Despite being thoroughly undemocratic, the judiciary is seen as far more trustworthy than parliament.\n\nCorruption prevents the efficient production and distribution of goods and services throughout the economy. For example, this occurs when resources are denied to the poor and redirected to the rich because elites spend billions of dollars lobbying for their interests. Elite interests that succeed through corruption each have narrow objectives, and they each only marginally reduce citizen well-being. But the overall effect is cumulative.\n\nEven though each successful interest increases its share of the pie at the expense of other interests, the political process as a whole may result in every interest, strong and weak alike, ending up worse off in absolute terms. The accompanying distribution of well-being may be one that even the winners find unattractive.\n\nUmpires would be more effective than other suggested reforms of the political process – such as political expenditure limits, constraints on lobbying, and reforms of the administrative process and congressional procedures.\n\nThe umpires would be far more protective of the general welfare of the people, while no more difficult to implement than other reforms. This is a logical extension of the already-existing Madisonian competition between branches of government, otherwise known as the system of checks and balances. It would still likely require a constitutional amendment. But at least the remedy would be effective.\n\nCongresspeople in both political parties have substantial holdings in firms their legislative actions affect — and this number has grown substantially in recent years. While roughly 20% of lawmakers owned stock in 2001, that number had more than tripled today. Most Congress owns stock, many with holdings in excess of $200,000 in stocks alone, not to mention mutual funds and other forms of investments. In addition, most lawmakers are millionaires.\n\n\nMany other examples exist, spanning decades. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about what actually happens at a company level when members of Congress own stock. The average S&P 500 firm has about seven members of Congress holding its stock. Some companies have closer to 100 members holding stock, and many firms have 50 or more in a given year. In addition, firms where a greater percentage of lawmakers invest have significantly higher performance in the subsequent year — with each percentage of congressional membership owning stock worth about a 1% improvement in ROA or Tobin’s Q — suggesting that politicians may be privy to nonpublic information about future regulatory or legislative actions that may prove helpful to these companies. Members of Congress use their influence to benefit the firms in which they invest.\n\n\nFirms are taking note of congressional investments in a couple of ways. It is not surprising that they’re paying close attention to public disclosure laws that require members of Congress to report their stock holdings annually. But they’re also hiring private companies that specialize in a unique business: identifying who owns firms’ stock (among other political intelligence activities). Firms can use information about which members of Congress own their stock to minimize the intensity of their lobbying activity, as in the case of Apple. Three-quarter increase in members of Congress who held Apple stock from 2007 (22 people) to 2008 (38) was followed by a nearly 50% reduction in lobbying intensity the following year (2009).\n\n\nEven when lobbying has been cut, there has been no change in how much firms donate to election and reelection campaigns. Such donations are still largely seen as quid pro quo, where firms supply members of Congress with cash in their campaign war chests to curry favor later. Unlike lobbying, they affect Congresspeople’s personal interests directly. Reducing those donations would end the quid pro quo arrangement and would generate congressional ill will toward those companies.\n\nCongresspersons intersecting with legislation are profiting at the expense of their constituents and society. For example, one industry that has a direct impact on Americans — and gives a lot of money to elected officials — is big pharma. Prices for prescription drugs have skyrocketed, and researchers argue that this partially stems from the actions of lawmakers. The Senate recently voted on proposed legislation that would allow the importing of prescription medication from Canada, to trim costs. Although it would have benefited Americans struggling to pay for medication, the legislation didn’t pass — and those who voted no received significantly more in contributions from big pharma than those who voted yes. This was true on both sides of the aisle.\n\nSuch conflicts undermine public trust. Members of Congress don’t get it, but they need to. If there is an appearance of an impropriety, there just might be an impropriety. Members need to bend over backwards to show people they are there for the good of the country, not their own pocketbooks.\n\n\nThe latter claim was given in defense of Tom Price and for similar conflicts involving the portfolio, and voting, of Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass). In another example, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not allow a vote to come up that, if passed, would have materially affected her stock in Visa, not to mention that she and her husband participated in an IPO around the same time the legislation was moving through the House. Given that there are many reasons why a bill might fail — and many people who might be able to prevent it from coming to a vote — it is hard to prove that a particular lawmaker is motivated by their investment holdings. You can’t get into their heads to know what is motivating them. Companies are good at influencing lawmakers, and they are getting more strategic about it. Such conflicts extend to state and local politics. The effects of corporate money in politics are only going to become more pronounced, and more complex.\n\n\nLeave a Reply\n\n\nYou are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )\n\nTwitter picture\n\n\nFacebook photo\n\n\nGoogle+ photo\n\n\nConnecting to %s", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5432102680206299}
+{"content": "ChEMBL logo\n\n\nChEMBL Statistics\n  Loading Statistics...\n\nTarget Report Card\n\nTarget Name and Classification\n\nTarget ID CHEMBL3687\nPreferred Name Arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase\nSynonyms 12LO | 12S-LOX | 12S-lipoxygenase | ALOX12 | Arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase, 12S-type | LOG12 | Lipoxin synthase 12-LO | Platelet-type lipoxygenase 12\nOrganism Homo sapiens\nSpecies Group No\nProtein Target Classification\n  • enzyme\n\nTarget Components\n\nComponent Description Relationship Accession\nArachidonate 12-lipoxygenase, 12S-type SINGLE PROTEIN P18054\n\nTarget Associated Bioactivities\n\nTarget Associated Assays\n\nTarget Ligand Efficiencies\n\nTarget Associated Compound Properties\n\nTarget Cross References - Gene\n\nArray Express ENSG00000108839\nEnsembl ENSG00000108839\nGO Cellular Component GO:0005737 (cytoplasm)\nGO:0005829 (cytosol)\nGO:0016020 (membrane)\nGO:0042383 (sarcolemma)\nGO:0070062 (extracellular exosome)\nGO Molecular Function GO:0004052 (arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase activity)\nGO:0005506 (iron ion binding)\nGO:0005515 (protein binding)\nGO:0016165 (linoleate 13S-lipoxygenase activity)\nGO:0016491 (oxidoreductase activity)\nGO:0016702 (oxidoreductase activity, acting on single donors with incorporation of molecular oxygen, incorporation of two atoms of oxygen)\nGO:0016787 (hydrolase activity)\nGO:0046872 (metal ion binding)\nGO:0047977 (hepoxilin-epoxide hydrolase activity)\nGO:0051120 (hepoxilin A3 synthase activity)\nGO:0051213 (dioxygenase activity)\nGO Biological Process GO:0006629 (lipid metabolic process)\nGO:0006631 (fatty acid metabolic process)\nGO:0006928 (movement of cell or subcellular component)\nGO:0007568 (aging)\nGO:0008284 (positive regulation of cell proliferation)\nGO:0010595 (positive regulation of endothelial cell migration)\nGO:0010628 (positive regulation of gene expression)\nGO:0010656 (negative regulation of muscle cell apoptotic process)\nGO:0010942 (positive regulation of cell death)\nGO:0019369 (arachidonic acid metabolic process)\nGO:0019372 (lipoxygenase pathway)\nGO:0019395 (fatty acid oxidation)\nGO:0030307 (positive regulation of cell growth)\nGO:0030335 (positive regulation of cell migration)\nGO:0042554 (superoxide anion generation)\nGO:0043065 (positive regulation of apoptotic process)\nGO:0043066 (negative regulation of apoptotic process)\nGO:0043280 (positive regulation of cysteine-type endopeptidase activity involved in apoptotic process)\nGO:0043651 (linoleic acid metabolic process)\nGO:0045603 (positive regulation of endothelial cell differentiation)\nGO:0045766 (positive regulation of angiogenesis)\nGO:0045785 (positive regulation of cell adhesion)\nGO:0045909 (positive regulation of vasodilation)\nGO:0048661 (positive regulation of smooth muscle cell proliferation)\nGO:0051121 (hepoxilin metabolic process)\nGO:0051122 (hepoxilin biosynthetic process)\nGO:0051901 (positive regulation of mitochondrial depolarization)\nGO:0055114 (oxidation-reduction process)\nGO:0061436 (establishment of skin barrier)\nGO:0071396 (cellular response to lipid)\nGO:0072593 (reactive oxygen species metabolic process)\nGO:0090331 (negative regulation of platelet aggregation)\nGO:1901751 (leukotriene A4 metabolic process)\nGO:2001300 (lipoxin metabolic process)\nGO:2001303 (lipoxin A4 biosynthetic process)\nGO:2001306 (lipoxin B4 biosynthetic process)\nWikipedia ALOX12\n\nTarget Cross References - Protein\n\ncanSAR P18054\nHuman Protein Atlas ENSG00000108839\nIntAct P18054\nGuide to Pharmacology 1387\nOpen Targets ENSG00000108839\nPharmGKB PA45\nReactome R-HSA-2142696 (Synthesis of Hepoxilins (HX) and Trioxilins (TrX).)\nR-HSA-2142700 (Synthesis of Lipoxins (LX).)\nR-HSA-2142712 (Synthesis of 12-eicosatetraenoic acid derivatives.)\nUniProt O95569 P18054 Q6ISF8 Q9UQM4\n\nTarget Cross References - Domain\n\nInterPro IPR000907 (LipOase.)\nIPR001024 (PLAT/LH2_dom.)\nIPR001885 (LipOase_mml.)\nIPR013819 (LipOase_C.)\nIPR020833 (LipOase_Fe_BS.)\nIPR020834 (LipOase_CS.)\nPfam PF00305 (Lipoxygenase)\nPF01477 (PLAT)\n\nTarget Cross References - Structure", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994004964828491}
+{"content": "Ross Ulbricht (born 1984) is a former darknet market operator most famous for creating and running the Silk Road market. He was jailed in 2013 on charges of money laundering, computer hacking, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics. \n\nIn the world of the dark net, it seems that every activity has at least a shade of criminality to it. Indeed, one of the ways that the encrypted corners of the internet are most commonly used is as a platform for illegal dealings, including the buying and selling of recreational drugs and weapons.\n\nThe dark net has become a strange hideout for an odd combination of criminals, curious but innocent individuals, and politically oppressed people. Ulbricht, who used the pseudonym \"Dread Pirate Roberts\" online, will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Here's his story. \n\nEarly Life and Silk Road Scandal\n\nUlbricht grew up near Austin, Texas, studying physics at the University of Texas at Dallas and then Pennsylvania State University to pursue a masters program in materials science and engineering. During this time, Ulbricht developed a keen interest in libertarian views of economic theory. He became a supporter of the political philosopher Ludwig von Mises and aligned his views with prominent libertarian politicians.\n\nIn 2009, upon his graduation from Penn State, Ulbricht returned to Austin set on becoming an entrepreneur. His early attempts were unsuccessful, and he moved between a number of jobs. He tried his hand at day trading and even at developing video games, as well as founding a company to sell books online.\n\nIt was during this time that Ulbricht first developed the idea of creating an online marketplace utilizing Tor encryption and bitcoin, which was still in its nascent stages at the time.\n\nBy adopting encryption and cryptocurrency, Ulbricht believed that his marketplace could provide anonymity and security for its participants, allowing them to avoid government scrutiny. Tor passes user information through a vast network of encryption procedures, effectively disguising the identity and location of participants on the network, while bitcoin offers a decentralized and anonymous transactional platform. This early idea would eventually develop into the Silk Road marketplace.\n\nRoss Ulbricht, Dark Net Pirate\n\nUlbricht founded Silk Road in 2011, calling himself \"Dread Pirate Roberts\" online, in a nod to the hit 1987 movie The Princess Bride. He envisioned Silk Road as a \"means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind,\" according to his LinkedIn page.\n\nHe also said he was \"creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force.\"\n\nSilk Road became popular over a very short span of time. When numerous media outlets picked up stories on the market in mid-2011, a significant amount of interest developed in the site and traffic increased exponentially. Of course, as the site became more widely known, authorities also made moves to identify Silk Road users and to shut down the site. Nonetheless, Silk Road remained a popular black market, focused on the sale of illegal drugs, through 2013.\n\nIn early 2013, an Australian drug dealer was the first individual to be convicted of crimes directly linked to the Silk Road. From this point, identification of users of Silk Road continued to develop, and eventually the FBI determined that Ulbricht was the founder and owner of Silk Road. He was arrested on October 2, 2013 in San Francisco, and was later indicted on charges of computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics, money laundering, and attempting to have six people killed.\n\nAuthorities alleged that Ulbricht had paid more than $700,000 to have the murders carried out, although no murders ultimately took place. In the process of shutting down Silk Road, the FBI seized 26,000 bitcoins, worth nearly $4 million at the time. At the time of his arrest, Ulbricht's net worth topped $28 million.\n\nTrial, Imprisonment and Attempted Appeal\n\nUlbricht's trial began in January 2015 in Manhattan. Ultimately, charges of procuring murder were dropped, but Ulbricht was convicted of all other charges. The trial was a highly publicized and charged event, with the presiding judge receiving death threats from presumed Silk Road supporters.\n\nPrior to his sentencing, Ulbricht stated via a letter to the judge that his actions were linked to his libertarian ideals and that \"Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices.\" On May 29, 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms to be served concurrently without the possibility of parole.\n\nUlbricht attempted to appeal, and in May 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied his attempt. As of December 2017, Ulbricht had appealed to the Supreme Court, with attorneys arguing that his case involves unresolved constitutional questions regarding the Fourth Amendment and the digital age.\n\n\nWant to learn how to invest?\n\n\nDelivered twice a week, straight to your inbox.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7498693466186523}
+{"content": "Tagged: Catacombs\n\n\nEuropean Funeral Traditions\n\nSome of the earliest tombstones I have seen are the ones of some Roman soldiers on the island of Inismor in the Aran Island group, Ireland. In early Christian times, some remains were placed in...\n\n\nFuneral Traditions Around the World\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9435282945632935}
+{"content": "Glossary of whip terms.\n\nBelly - Is the insides of the whip. This is the most important part of the whip. It is what gives the whip it's density. If this part of the whip is not made correctly the whip will not be good. A whip is only as good as it's belly. No matter what it looks like on the outside.\n\nDouble Plaited Belly - A \"Double Plaited Belly\" starts with a rolled or plaited core. Then plaited layer #1 and a \"bolster\" is added. Over top of that another plaited layer with a higher number of laces and another bolster. This whip within a whip design forms the \"double plaited belly\" of the bullwhip.\n\n\nOverlay - The \"overlay\" or outer layer of laces that is plaited over the belly. It's he layer you see.\n\n\nHandle - On a bullwhip or stock whip this is the solid part of the whip you hold on to. On a snake whip or signal whip it is still the place you hold on to but it is flexible and usually is plaited with a single diamond plait.\n\n\n\nHeel Knot - The knot at the end of the handle.\n\n\nKeeper - The loop of leather on a stock whip that the thong is attached to. This is also on the same as the keeper on the stock whip thong.\n\nFall Keeper Knot - The knot that holds the fall onto the thong of the whip usually it consists of several overhand knots however some whip makers use avery intricate knot called snake head knot.\n\nWrap - This is when the fall of the whip and in some cases the thong wraps around an object like a tree or someone's arm or body.\n\nCutting - Usually having to to do with cutting targets like sheets of newspaper or other targets.\n\n\nFour Seam Plait - Also called a whip makers braid/plait. It is a braid consisting of four seams as opposed to a herring bone plait which consists of eight seams. It is the most common type of plait used on the thong of the whip.\n\n\nWhite Hide - Partially tanned rawhide used for falls. Usually those found in Australia.\n\n\n© 2006 Victor Tella\n\nBullwhip (HOME) / Site map / Contact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9854974746704102}
+{"content": "Advertising Console\n\n    Dolomites - Italy, Udaipur - India, Arcachon - France, Dresden - Germany, Istanbul - Turkey, St. Anton am Arlberg - Austria, Budapest - Hungary\n\n    earthTV network GmbH\n\n    von earthTV network GmbH\n\n    4 Aufrufe", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000009536743164}
+{"content": "A stock market transaction (or sometimes, a quote) at a price higher than the preceding one for the same security. also called plus tick. opposite of downtick.\n\nUse uptick in a sentence\n\nshort exempt closing tick", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999045133590698}
+{"content": "Niklas Antonson\n\n\nVinker til himlen\n\nI designed the material for a concert called “Vinker til himlen” (Waiving to the sky). It was a part of the 100 year celebration of the danish composer Carl Nielsen. The concerts contained both some of Carl Nielsens music as well as two newly written pieces. The music was performed by a symphony orchestra, quire, 4 vocal soloists and one poet making it almost 200 people on stage.\n\nKlick the image to view the next one →", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8737510442733765}
+{"content": "Carrot and Parsnip Butter Mash\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBasic Burgers\n\nToday is the first day after the Pie and I finished our month-long vegetarian experiment.  Accordingly, we’re going to MEAT IT UP and have ourselves some burgers tonight.  So much for easing back into omnivorism.\n\nThere are two very important things to remember when making burgers by hand.  The first is to buy no leaner than a medium ground chuck.  You may think you’ve made a healthy choice with a leaner ground but your burger will not stick together and will crumble as it cooks.  The second is to touch the meat as little as possible, which is quite a feat considering you need to hand-form the patties.  But it is doable, and making your own burgers really isn’t that hard.\n\nThere is a third thing you should know about burgers: KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Remember that you are frying or grilling up some ground meat, which, as it cooks, will secrete slippery oil and will shrink into individual particles.  This means that cohesiveness is an issue when making burgers, which is why you don’t touch them too much or get too rough with them.  The more stuff you add to the chuck before forming it into the patty, the more you risk a crumbling burger.  If you’re going to add things to the meat, make sure they’re small things so they don’t mess with the burger’s internal structure.\n\nGonna get gooey.\n\nSo you take your meat.  We made some of these patties out of medium ground beef and others from ground chicken.  I like to leave it out of the fridge for a while because you are going to be working it in your hands and manipulating cold ground meat feels like sticking your hands in the northern Pacific in the winter (which I have done and don’t recommend).  The amount of meat you use depends on the number of burgers you want, obviously.  We find a kilo of ground makes about 9 3-inch patties.\n\nPut your meat in a large bowl that you can easily get your hands into.  Remove your rings and roll up your sleeves.  This is going to get gooey.\n\nFinely (and I’m talking FINE) dice a medium onion and chuck that in with the meat.  Add a few teaspoons of minced garlic from a jar, and a few sprinkles of dried oregano and basil (or any herb of your choice) and a pinch or two of sea salt and ground pepper.  If you’re feeling adventurous you can add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and/or Tabasco sauce.  Don’t go too crazy with your ingredients, because you need the meat to be able to stick to itself as it cooks.\n\nIf you have no confidence in your patty cohesiveness, or if you have ignored me and purchased lean ground beef, you can add an egg or two, but I think that’s cheating.  Eggs are useful in meatloaf, but they don’t really belong in burgers.  ON burgers, but not IN burgers.\n\nWorking quickly, mix the meat with your hands until all your ingredients are just combined.\n\nGrab a handful of the mixture and pat it gently into a patty about the size of your palm.  Make a thumbprint indentation in the centre of the patty and set it aside.  The indentation will keep the patty from contracting too much as it cooks.  Repeat until all the meat is gone.\n\nYou can freeze your patties for use at a later date.  Simply separate the patties with wax paper and place them in a freezer bag, tightly sealed, with the air removed.\n\nHeat a large skillet with a bit of olive oil (or a grill, or even a broiler) and get those patties on there.  Once the patties are on the hot surface, you leave them the hell alone.  You may flip the burgers, but you can only do it ONCE, usually about five to ten minutes into the cooking, depending on how well done you like your meat.  Safety-wise, your burger should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F.\n\nIf you like cheese on your burger, put a few slices on after you have flipped the patty and they will melt into the meat.\n\nServe on a bun of your choice with the toppings you like.  Very much a crowd-pleaser, and it covers four food groups.\n\nRoasted Garlic\n\nGrab yourself some garlic.\n\nSeriously, is there anything better than roasted garlic?  I’m not sure there is.  I got this idea from Martha Stewart, of course.\n\nPreheat your oven to 400°F.\n\nTake some garlic, still in its head (I used five, because that’s what came in the package), and carefully slice off the top quarter of the head.  Make sure the garlic sits flat and arrange the heads, cut-side-up in a baking dish.\n\nCut off the top quarter or so.\n\nSeason the garlic heads with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with some fresh thyme (or frozen, if you have some on hand).\n\nSprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme.\n\nSlowly drizzle olive oil over each head, letting the oil soak into and around the cloves.  My heads were small, and I used about a tablespoon of oil for each head.\n\nDrizzle the oil so it soaks in.\n\nCover the dish tightly with tin foil and roast until the cloves are golden, very soft, and starting to stick out of the head a bit, about an hour.  Let them cool until you can hold them comfortably in your hand.\n\nStarting from the bottom, squeeze each head to push out the cloves and peel the skin from any cloves still enclosed.  At least, that’s what Martha told me to do.  I found it was easier to peel the outside layer of skin away and pop out the roasted clove.\n\nPop out the roasted cloves.\n\nTransfer the garlic and the cooking oil to a jar or other airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.\n\nMy very own garlic in a jar!\n\nSalt and Pepper Dish\n\nI like tobasco sauce, but Pie prefers pepper flakes.\n\nWe only have one set of salt and pepper grinders in the house, and they’re in use pretty much all the time.  We like to have them on hand when we’re cooking, and as well when we’re eating, so they travel all over the kitchen, to the dining room, and also the living room.\n\nI got tired of making trips between rooms with all the little items under my arms, and I also got tired of cleaning up the little piles of ground salt and pepper left on the counters and table after putting down the grinders for the umpteenth time.\n\nI think I got this idea from Martha Stewart, but regardless of where it came from, it’s a keeper.\n\nFind a small dish you like and keep all your table items on it.  It makes transportation between rooms and counters a one-trip job, and it keeps the powdered spices off your tables and counters.  It’s pretty genius.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.555918276309967}
+{"content": "Plagiarism: What it is and How to Avoid it\n\nWhen a teacher or professor assigns a research paper, they are expecting an original, well-researched written piece to be handed in. What they’re not expecting is a research paper that is riddled with information that was “stolen” from other sources. This act of “stealing” someone else’s work and including it in your own project, without providing credit or acknowledging the original author or work, is called plagiarism. Plagiarism can include:\n\n  • Submitting an assignment that was written by someone else and passing it off as your own.\n  • Including another author’s words or ideas in your assignment, without sharing where the information came from, and passing it off as your own.\n  • Using another author’s words, but modifying the words by substituting them for synonyms.\n  • Submitting an assignment that was already submitted in a previous class. Even if you wrote the original assignment yourself, you’re not allowed to pass it off as a “new” project.\n\nThe consequences of plagiarism can include a failing grade, course or school expulsion, and possibly even legal action. How can you avoid plagiarism? Follow these simple steps. 1. Accurately Quote A well-written paper includes a mix of the quotations, paraphrases, summarizations. For quotes, be sure to correctly write what the author said or wrote. Look up the actual quote; don’t try to do it from memory. Misquoting is a disservice to both you and the originator of the quote. ffxiv gil 2. Properly Paraphrase Paraphrasing allows you to frame supporting information from a source in your own words. timberland homme However, if done poorly, this can lead to accidental plagiarism. Paraphrasing is a great way to condense a passage, state technical information in layman’s terms, or focus on a particular point you want to highlight. Don’t simply replace a few words in the passage with synonyms, or change words around—use your own words and sentences to communicate the main idea. Including additional information, such as how the information was published or the credentials of the author, can be helpful. Here is an example paraphrase of an excerpt taken from an op-ed author Neil Gaiman wrote for The Guardian in 2013. Original Quote: “I’m going to tell you that libraries are important. I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do.” Paraphrase: Many people think that studying non-fiction is more valuable than reading fiction. However, Neil Gaiman, an internationally renowned author for over 30 years, would argue that reading fiction is one of the best decisions you could make for yourself. Full citation (created with help from this tool): Gaiman, Neil. “Neil Gaiman: Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming.” The Guardian, 15 Oct. 2013, 3. Add in-text citations in the body of your work Place in-text citations directly after quotations and paraphrases, whenever possible. In-text citations show the reader that the information was borrowed from another source, and it gives them a brief idea as to where the information was borrowed from. timberland homme There are many ways to format an in-text citation. Here is an example of an in-text (or parenthetical) citation for a direct quote from Gaiman’s book The Ocean at the End of the Lane, in MLA format: The boy said, “I bent down, dipped it into the water, rubbed my fingers across it to clean it off. I stared at it. Queen Victoria’s face stared back at me” (Gaiman 48). If including the author’s name in the sentence, structure the in-text citation like this: Gaiman shocks the reader when the boy says, “I bent down, dipped it into the water, rubbed my fingers across it to clean it off. I stared at it. Queen Victoria’s face stared back at me” (48). In-text citations are also created when you use another author’s idea. This is called a paraphrase. Here is an example of an in-text citation for a paraphrase, in MLA format: The reader realizes that the ghost-like creature is responsible for numerous, odd occurrences when the boy pulls the object out of the fish’s body, cleans it off, and finds that he’s holding a Queen Victoria coin (Gaiman 48). adidas zx flux homme adidas zx flux The information included in the in-text citation is the last name of the author, Neil Gaiman, along with the page that the information was found on. To find the title of this particular book, and other information such as the publication date and publisher, researchers include the complete citation at the end of the assignment. This leads us to #3 on this list. 4. Add complete, or full citations, on the Works Cited page In-text citations, as mentioned above, are rather brief. adidas pas cher They only include the last name of the author and the page number. nike air max pas cher To locate the other information about the original source, turn to the last page of the paper or project, which is called the Works Cited page, sometimes called a bibliography. The complete citations are listed in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. Here is the complete citation for the Neil Gaiman book, in MLA: Gaiman, Neil. The Ocean at the End of the Lane. nike free William Morrow, 2013. The examples for the in-text and complete citations on this page are written in MLA format. There are other formats for citations, such as APA format, Chicago, and many, many more. Ask your professor or teacher which format they’d like your citations to be written in. If you need help creating your citations, there are many online guides, as well as website that create your citations quickly and easily. For examples, click here for MLA or see here for APA. ugg australia 5. Cite as you write Some students only add citations or references after they have completed research and writing. This is because the works cited list or bibliography is usually the last page of a project or paper and they don’t think of it until later. This is a mistake. asics gel lyte v It is a best practice to add sources to your bibliography as you research and write. That way, you don’t forget to include or reference any sources, which could lead to accidental plagiarism. This can be prevented, as long as you add citations throughout your project and at the end of your assignment. Technology has made citing much easier today than it was years ago. Citation generation tools (example: provide services that automatically create citations, or guide you through the process with citation guides and forms. WriteWell now has an integration that helps you cite over 50 different source types.\n\nLeave a Reply\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5367920994758606}