Intelligence is Coming to an object near You

Does Artificial Intelligence mean that mankind’s goal is to create human intelligence?  Depends on who you ask.  If that is the assumption, it is not likely to happen any time soon.  Does AI mean that we have the ability to create control systems with more complex behavior?  Yes, absolutely.  And indeed, that is what Automation 4.0 is all about.

What that means and what it will look like are yet to be determined.  This is a new age and a new set of tools and capabilities are emerging.  Whatever that future of AI and industrial control is what we are presently engaged with creating now.

Perhaps the unstated aspect of Automation 4.0 movement is the engineering activity of combining the existing passive components of sensing and monitoring and integrating them in useful ways to make control systems more autonomous.  Autonomy in this context does not imply the presence of will or desire, merely that the systems are able to operate with minimal operator intervention. Sufficient data is available and algorithms of control are written so that all the normal and most of the abnormal operating conditions are anticipated in the programming.

Defining what problems need to be solved is key component of the emerging “next generation of manufacturing”.  As with most things, it will likely be based on where the most money can be made. For control systems the future might be kind of scary.  Convergence of IT and manufacturing systems may result in control vendors be displaced by inexpensive processor platforms like cellphones.  For component vendors, it is likely to be a party.  Ever bearing, seal, actuator and sensor will be a candidate for it’s own re-invention as an intelligent internet device.

The driving force that makes all of this possible is the progressively decreasing cost of electronics and network infrastructure.  What happens when smart silicon devices are $1 and Internet communications are practically free?  These underlying trends are how we will apply technology to the next stage of control system evolution.  Since everything in the real world can be represented as 0’s and 1’s, digitally, there appears to be no limit to our ability to gather data.  Our programming genius will be the basis of how much of that data can be turned into meaningful information that can acted upon.

Does any of this constitute the Big AI? Can any of this pass the Turing Test?  Certainly not.

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Stupid Krap's latest artist interviews, news and releases.

Bafcat releases a new hand-embellished screenprint

Aaron Craig

Bafcat is a Sydney based street artist inspired by the magical nature of the world, the mysterious and supernatural. Mixing animals and human-like creatures, bright colours and shapes, to create a weird world of characters. The works have a fun playful feel which comes from Bafcat’s style of laying paint down.

We caught up with him prior to dropping his latest release to ask about his characters, his collaborations with Jumbo, and his own art collection.

SK: Tell us about the image you've used for this new screenprint release.
Bafcat: The image I created for the release is a combination of human and animal which has been a strong theme in my work lately. This combination I feel creates a magical element thats harks back to times where magic was more common. The man and snake represent good and evil.

'Snake Wzrd' by Bafcat

'Snake Wzrd' by Bafcat

SK: What’s the origin of the name Bafcat?
B: The name Bafcat comes from my favourite novel by Cormac McCarthy, ‘The Blood Meridian’, a brutal novel about cowboys that has never left my mind. Originally the name was Bathcat in the novel due to putting a cat in water and it goes crazy. I feel my personality is a bit like that, dropping an ‘f’ in the word just felt like I was bringing the name up to date.

SK: If I was to visit the environment/dimension that your characters inhabit what would it be like?
B: I think of my characters living in the 8th dimension, on Earth but hiding in solid forms, a mirror image of the world around us but the mirror is warped and things are not what they seem.

SK: Do these characters represent a part of yourself or the world that we live in?
B: My characters represent everything and anything, from the world we live in to the past world and future world and also worlds that do not exist. I let my imagination take over and whatever comes out just feels natural.

Images from

Images from

SK: Tell us about your street art process. Is it fluid or is it more about replicating your sketches?
B: In a way I replicate sketches and ideas, but when I’m painting on a wall its more fluid, no solid structure to follow, just grab an initial idea and let it evolve. I feel when I paint I start by looking at a sketch and then it takes on a new life on the wall.

SK: Who have you enjoyed collaborating with over the years?
B: Well of course that would be Jumbo. The collaboration process feels so natural with Jumbo, when we paint a wall we just go for it in a freestyle manner and it always works out how we want it. It's a real pleasure to find another artist you can connect with on the same level.

Bafcat and Jumbo in Camperdown, Sydney

Bafcat and Jumbo in Camperdown, Sydney

SK: What is your art collection like?
B: My art collection varies quite a lot, from artworks from artist like Shida, Mr Penfold, Roach, Tom Ferson, and Cupco, to a collection of vinyl art toys from Kozik, Ron English, Craola and more, to comic book art like screenprints and posters.

SK: What do you have coming up in the near future?
B: The future I see another solo show possibly at the end of the year, I’m working on ideas about multi-verses, I’m planning on making a comic from some of my characters I just need to get the story to where I want it, and to paint more walls and also travel.

Follow @bafcat on Instagram

~ Interview by Ben Frost


Reactions and “Buzz” from E3 Couldn’t Happen Without Trademarks

When Juliet famously mused “What’s in a name?” she meant to downplay the importance of names, contending that the thing which is named (say, “a rose,” or maybe a family name of “Montague”) persists beyond whatever we call it. The world of trademarks insists on the importance of names to help us understand the differences between roses in a flourishing garden. The current state of the video game industry illustrates this point well.

I didn’t do any dedicated E3 coverage this summer, but looking back, the entire conversation happens around trademarks. The video game industry has always made use of sequels and developing franchises, and one of the biggest reasons for this has to do with the philosophy behind trademarks.

I. Building a Brand…

Trademarks exist on the theory that the creator of a product, or provider of a service, has some consistency in their work. They might rely on the same materials or recipe, they might maintain a certain standard of quality, etc. Trademarks allow an owner to benefit from consistent quality. While trademark litigation is often an argument about preventing someone else from wrongfully benefiting from an owner’s legacy of quality, the norm is just the preservation of one’s own legacy.

In the world of video game developers and publishers, this legacy is reflected in the fan reactions. Why was there such elation over “Fallout 4”? Sure, the trailers looked visually appealing, and might have even hinted at a fun game—but many other games do that every year. Why is “Fallout 4” special? Because of everything it rests upon: Fallout 3, the Fallout franchise, Bethesda Game Studio’s demonstrated caliber of game production, ZeniMax’s proven management of product launches, game director Todd Howard’s numerous awards and consistent excellence in executing his game design philosophy.

The consumers in the game industry (“gamers,” one might call them) know many ways that a game can disappoint—but because of Bethesda’s history of developing and releasing great games, the consumers are steeled against the kind of doubt that would otherwise creep in to counter excitement over an E3 trailer.

II. Destroying a Brand…

In contrast, the games industry also shows how little excitement a tainted company can generate. The perineal whipping boy of the industry has been Electronic Arts for many years now. EA continues to be the foremost example of game industry failure because they (EA and any developer they ensare) seem sadly prone to incidents which only dig itself deeper into a pit of shame and universal contempt. After “Aliens: Colonial Marines,” EA will face increased difficulty in securing game pre-orders (or having consumers believe pre-release game footage trailers). After “SimCity,” EA will find it more difficult to have the kind of participation in a product launch that game studios often rely upon in their entire marketing campaign. But unlike Blizzard, who had their own launch fiasco with “Diablo3,” EA does not have many instances of excellent games and excellent player experiences in their recent history to restore consumer faith in their brand.

III. The Law of the Brand

Trademark law is sometimes a difficult thing to explain. Intellectual property law is necessarily a little bit abstract, but copyrights and patents protect a concrete thing (a book, a painting, a movie, a chemical process, a mechanical procedure, etc). Trademarks are really anchored in the “goodwill” that a company generates though its products and services. The vagueness behind explaining trademark law can lead some to think it is not important.

Trademarks are rooted in the abstract, unquantifiable difference between the excitement over a new Bethesda game and the bitterness over Konami decision to let go of Hideo Kajima. Economists and businesspeople find that their models work best when every factor in their equations and algorithms can be carefully determined.  However, they have long understood that brand loyalty and social popularity or prestige of a brand can influence the market in ways that are difficult to mathematically predict. That weird, unseen, abstract force that pushes the market in ways numbers fail to predict is both the effect of brands and the reason for trademark law.

Privacy (as the Withholding of Information) in the Information Age

3) Privacy can protect both parties from an incomplete picture.

“Oh, Reputation, Reputation!” or “Caveat Emptor”? Gearbox, Blizzard, and GenY’s Revival of Old-Timey Quality.

The latest kerfuffle in the gaming world is over game studio Gearbox’s recent release of “Aliens: Colonial Marines.” The claim (apparently upheld by journalists for Escapist, Kokatu, and IGN) is that the game is terrible. The debate that goes further is whether Gearbox was deceptive in its advertising, demos, and promotions of the game in an effort to get people to pay for the game before it hit shelves (and customers found out that the game was perhaps not as amazing as expected).

Blizzard took a decade to release Starcraft2, and fans were ultimately accepting because of its fine quality. Duke Nukem Forever took forever to be released, and society was both disgusted and apathetic. When Blizzard released Diablo3 after a decade of waiting, fans were outraged because the quality of the experience (from Error 37 to RMAH delays to gameplay curve) just wasn’t up to expectations.

Brands are important to many industries, but I think that IP-based industries feel a special dependence on their reputation. Because the expression is protected by the copyright (and the idea is not), consumers go to their favored bran because they expect a quality of the expression. You can get a very similar game or story from almost any major studio, but people come to trust (or distrust) studios for their quality of interface, graphics, and overall gameplay experience. When a studio fails to meet expectations, there are always plenty of other places to turn to for an FPS or RPG or RTS.

When large, successful studios release poor quality products and then fail to apologize sufficiently, it can create the impression that the studio no longer cares about its fans as much as it cares about its money. Somehow, corporations sometimes think they have to weigh the interests of their “investors” against those of their customers, forgetting that customers are the ultimate investor in any business venture.

The videogame industry might have the lowest tolerance for deceptive advertising or failure to meet basic expectations. The consumer base is often prone to research and has a very communicative community. The nature of an IP based-business demands a lot out of the expression of the idea. Todd Howard likes to note that “execution” of an idea is more important than the idea itself; having a great idea doesn’t matter as much if you don’t pull it off as well as a less awesome idea done really well. Because no game studio can copyright the idea of a first-person shooter or stealth-based game, the ability of a studio to execute its ideas might be the single core criterion by which a videogame can be judged and compared to its rivals.

I don’t think “Aliens” would be in such hot water if the advertising had been less ambitious. I don’t think any of the games I mentioned would have faced such negative receptions if the expectations had not so far outstripped the reality, and if the industry wasn’t able to offer so many alternatives (Torchlight2 is shockingly similar to Diablo3… except for all of the errors and problems).

Happiness in a Structurally Unhappy Culture

Modern media continually inject us with two anathemas: news and advertising. I will address the latter, which hinges essentially on a message of the form: YOU NEED X. This is what David Cross called “an existence based on manufactured necessity.” (Alan Watts has spoken somewhat on this subject from the Zen Buddhist perspective; without recommending him per se, I recommend reflection on his commentary.)

Individual notions of happiness are subjective, and so ideas of unhappiness are, too. I focus on one issue: does something about the capitalist model nudge us towards something we are prone to find unsatisfactory? I think so, and I think advertising is the connection between a business’ need to make profits and the idea that we lack (or “want”) something. It does not seem likely that we will make as many purchases if we do not feel we need or want anything. Markets are created as people discover a lack—and so there is an interest in manufacturing those lacks (“wants”). A common response to wanting something is some kind of unhappiness. The argument, then, is this: Capitalism emphasizes markets to create profits for businesses. Businesses use advertising to create and expand markets to generate more profits (for the business). Advertising often tells consumers that they lack something in their lives— that something is wrong, insufficient, or missing—and that the business can resolve it. The effect is twofold: 1) we feel our lives are constantly amiss, 2) we feel a continual need to “fix” our “broken” selves/lives/identities/being—and this requires that we work to get enough money to pay for these products and services throughout our lives.

If this line of thought has anything to it, then it is simplistic to think of the problem as strictly being money or power systems or economic structures. One of the fundamental assumptions of this argument is that our happiness is at odds with feeling that something is wrong with our personal state of affairs (whatever we may call “our lives”). This gives us a different notion of what the problem is and how it might be resolved (or what attempted solutions might not work). It seems that mere changes in external systems (especially economic structures) won’t be sufficient if we remain under the belief that our lives are ineffective and in need of constant aid. The corollary is the question: Can we then recover some of this happiness within the current system? If no economic or political system can make us happy so long as it imposes a continual feeling of our own inadequacy and insufficiency, can we achieve feelings of worth and sufficient value within a system that attempts to convince us of our continual want? The answer is crucial in helping us decide whether the next great revolution must be an internal or external one.


MobyDock DX

بـ Mobydock

MobyDock DX is an application for Windows created by Mobydock, Its latest version 0.87b, was released 4679 days ago, on 23.02.05. The size of the app is 3.48MB, with the average size for its category, تحسينات الأداء, being 6.97MB. This app is available in العربية and is supported by the minimum operating system version . MobyDock DX is ranked 11 in its category and is in the top 8001 in Uptodown’s overall ranking. Some similar programs are: Driver Booster, Advanced SystemCare Free, Reimage PC Repair, Glary Utilities, PrivaZer, Yet Another Cleaner.

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Uptodown X


My Favorite Artists

Edgar Degas
Degas, (Hilaire-Germain-) Edgar (b. July 19, 1834, Paris, Fr.--d. Sept. 27, 1917, Paris)

French artist, acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion. Degas worked in many mediums, preferring pastel to all others. He is perhaps best known for his paintings, drawings, and bronzes of ballerinas and of race horses.

The art of Degas reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the harmony of line and continuity of contour. These characteristics set Degas apart from the other impressionist painters, although he took part in all but one of the 8 impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. Degas was the son of a wealthy banker, and his aristocratic family background instilled into his early art a haughty yet sensitive quality of detachment. As he grew up, his idol was the painter Jean Auguste Ingres, whose example pointed him in the direction of a classical draftsmanship, stressing balance and clarity of outline. After beginning his artistic studies with Louis Lamothes, a pupil of Ingres, he started classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but left in 1854 and went to Italy. He stayed there for 5 years, studying Italian art, especially Renaissance works.

Returning to Paris in 1859, he painted portraits of his family and friends and a number of historical subjects, in which he combined classical and romantic styles. In Paris, Degas came to know Édouard Manet, and in the late 1860s he turned to contemporary themes, painting both theatrical scenes and portraits with a strong emphasis on the social and intellectual implications of props and setting.

In the early 1870s the female ballet dancer became his favorite theme. He sketched from a live model in his studio and combined poses into groupings that depicted rehearsal and performance scenes in which dancers on stage, entering the stage, and resting or waiting to perform are shown simultaneously and in counterpoint, often from an oblique angle of vision. On a visit in 1872 to Louisiana, where he had relatives in the cotton business, he painted The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans (finished 1873; Musée Municipal, Pau, France), his only picture to be acquired by a museum in his lifetime. Other subjects from this period include the racetrack, the beach, and cafe interiors.

Announcement Image for EDGAR DEGAS

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso ; 25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish expatriate paintersculptorprintmakerceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-CubistLes Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernicaduring the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso’s art from the time of the Demoiselles was radical in nature, virtually no 20th-century artist could escape his influence. Moreover, while other masters such as Matisse or Braque tended to stay within the bounds of a style they had developed in their youth, Picasso continued to be an innovator into the last decade of his life. This led to misunderstanding and criticism both in his lifetime and since, and it was only in the 1980s that his last paintings began to be appreciated both in themselves and for their profound influence on the rising generation of young painters. Since Picasso was able from the 1920s to sell works at very high prices, he could keep most of his oeuvre in his own collection. At the time of his death he owned some 50,000 works in various media from every period of his career, which passed into possession of the French state and his heirs. Their exhibition and publication has served to reinforce the highest estimates of Picasso’s astonishing powers of invention and execution over a span of more than 80 years.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887. The second of seven children, O’Keeffe longed to be an artist from an early age. In 1905 she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and a year later went to study at the Art Students League of New York. Though her student work was well received she found it unfulfilling, and for a short time abandoned the fine arts. She worked briefly as a commercial artist in Chicago before moving to Texas to teach. During the summer of 1915, O’Keeffe took classes at the Teachers College of Columbia University in South Carolina, and there began her re-entry into the world of painting.

Teaching in South Carolina was Arthur Dow, a specialist in Oriental Art. Dow’s interest in non-European art helped O’Keeffe move away from the forms she had found so stifling in her previous studies. She said of him, “It was Arthur Dow who affected my start, who helped me to find something of my own.” Soon after O’Keeffe’s return to Texas, she made a handful of charcoal drawings, which she sent to a friend in New York. The friend, Anna Pollitzer, showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer and gallery owner. He was enthused with the vibrant energy of the work, and asked to show them. So, without her knowledge, Georgia O’Keeffe had her first exhibition in 1916 at Steiglitz’s “291 Gallery.”

Within two years, Steiglitz had convinced O’Keeffe to move to New York and devote all of her time to painting. His regular presentations of her work had begun to cause a buzz, and create for a her a small following. Six years later the two were married, beginning one of the most fruitful and well-known collaborations of the modernist era. For the next twenty years the two would live and work together, Steiglitz creating an incredible body of portraits of O’Keeffe, while O’Keeffe showed new drawings and paintings nearly every year at the gallery. Living in Lake George, New York, and in New York City, O’Keeffe painted some of her most famous work. During the 1920s, her large canvasses of lush overpowering flowers filled the still lifes with dynamic energy and erotic tension, while her cityscapes were testaments to subtle beauty within the most industrial circumstances.

In 1929 O’Keeffe took a vacation with her friend Beck Strand to Taos, New Mexico. The trip would forever alter the course of her life. In love with the open skies and sun-drenched landscape, O’Keeffe returned every summer to travel and to paint. When Steiglitz in 1946 died, O’Keeffe took up permanent residence there. More than almost any of her other works, these early New Mexico landscapes and still lifes have come to represent her unique gifts. The rich texture of the clouds and sky were similar to her earlier, more sensuous representations of flowers. But beneath these clouds one found the bleached bones of animals long gone.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, O’Keeffe’s fame continued to grow. She traveled around the world and had a number of major retrospectives in the U.S. The most important came in 1970 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, placing her categorically as one of the most important and influencial American painters. The next year O’Keeffe’s vision deteriorated dramatically, and she withdrew from artistic life. It was not until 1973, after meeting Juan Hamilton, a young ceramic artist, which she returned to working. With his encouragement and assistance, she resumed painting and sculpting. In 1976 her illustrated autobiography, GEORGIA O’KEEFFE was a best seller, and the next year she received the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.

In 1985 she received the Medal of the Arts from President Ronald Reagan. In March of the next year, at the age of 98, O’Keeffe passed away at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Georgia O’Keeffe’s work remains a prominent part of major national and international museums. For many, her paintings represent the beginnings of a new American art free from the irony and cynicism of the late 20th century.

Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night

A Brief Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings.

Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh has risen to the peak of artistic achievements. Although Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, the aftermath of his work is enormous. Starry Night is one of the most well known images in modern culture as well as being one of the most replicated and sought after prints. From Don McLean's song'Vincent' (Starry, Starry Night) (Based on the Painting), to the endless number of merchandise products sporting this image, it is nearly impossible to shy away from this amazing painting.

One may begin to ask what features within the painting are responsible for its ever

growing popularity. There are actually several main aspects that intrigue those who view this image, and each factor affects each individual differently. The aspects will be described below:

  • 1. There is the night sky filled with swirling clouds, stars ablaze with their own luminescence, and a bright crescent moon. Although the features are exaggerated, this is a scene we can all relate to, and also one that most individuals feel comfortable and at ease with. This sky keeps the viewer's eyes moving about the painting, following the curves and creating a visual dot to dot with the stars. This movement keeps the onlooker involved in the painting while the other factors take hold.
  • 2. Below the rolling hills of the horizon lies a small town. There is a peaceful essence flowing from the structures. Perhaps the cool dark colors and the fiery windows spark memories of our own warm childhood years filled with imagination of what exists in the night and dark starry skies. The center point of the town is the tall steeple of the church, reigning largely over the smaller buildings. This steeple casts down a sense of stability onto the town, and also creates a sense of size and seclusion.
  • 3. To the left of the painting there is a massive dark structure that develops an even greater sense of size and isolation. This structure is magnificent when compared to the scale of other objects in the painting. The curving lines mirror that of the sky and create the sensation of depth in the painting. This structure also allows the viewer to interpret what it is. From a mountain to a leafy bush, the analysis of this formation is wide and full of variety.

Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in an Asylum at Saint-Remy in 1889.

Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh
The Bedroom at Arles by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still.

Van Gogh loved art from an early age. He began to draw as a child, and he continued making drawings throughout the years leading to his decision to become an artist. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during his last two years. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. His work included self portraits, landscapes, still lifes of flowers, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fieldsand sunflowers.

Announcement Image for VINCENT VAN GOGH


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Being organized = less stress

The Battle against being over-scheduled

Being a personal assistant, I love helping busy people organize their lives and make things easier by taking tasks off of their plate. That being said, I believe that it is always good to re-evaluate what you have in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule. We can become slaves to our schedule and it is […]

OHIO and I don't mean the state


Panetta, speaking at a news conference in Bangkok, gave new words of support to Allen, voicing "tremendous confidence" in the general.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., opened Dunford's hearing with kind words for Allen, saying, "I continue to believe that General Allen is one of our best military leaders. And I continue to have confidence in his ability to lead the war in Afghanistan.

Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the committee's top Democrat, said after the hearing he was satisfied that the FBI had behaved properly in not notifying the White House or lawmakers about the inquiry sooner, in keeping with post-Watergate rules set up to prevent interference in criminal investigations.

But committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said lawmakers would continue to ask questions because "there's a lot of information we need ... with respect to the facts about the allegations against General Petraeus."

Petraeus, the much-honored retired general, resigned his CIA post Friday after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The FBI began investigating the matter last summer but didn't notify the White House of Congress until after the election.

In the course of investigating the Petraeus situation, the FBI uncovered suggestive emails between Allen and Florida socialite Jill Kelley, both of them married. President Barack Obama then put Allen's promotion nomination on hold.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he expects Allen to eventually take over the European Command, but he acknowledged, "I see this investigation and how long it could take affecting that."

Dempsey said he "absolutely" had confidence in Allen's ability to continue in command in Afghanistan despite the distraction of the scandal. He spoke in an interview with American Forces Press Service.

While Allen's nomination has been put on hold, the fact that it wasn't immediately withdrawn suggests there is at least some feeling that he could survive the investigation.

The initial expectation is that the Defense Department inspector general's probe into the emails will be done within weeks rather than months. The final decision would likely be made by Panetta and the White House after discussions with Capitol Hill leaders.

Even if Allen's move to NATO is shelved, Dunford's nomination to take Allen's place as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan will move forward.

Panetta this week sent Dempsey a memo asking the Joint Chiefs to brainstorm "how to better foster a culture of value-based decision-making and stewardship" among senior officers and their staff. In other words: Come up with a game plan for ending bad behavior.

"As has happened recently, when lapses occur, they have the potential to erode public confidence in our leadership and in our system for the enforcement of high ethical standards," Panetta wrote. "Worse, they can be detrimental to the execution of our mission to defend the American people."

Panetta didn't mention Petraeus in the memo, and the defense chief's spokesman said the request for an ethics review was in the works before the Petraeus matter came to light.


Chandigarh Tourist Places

Chandigarh also called The City Beautiful. Chandigarh serves as the capital of two states: Punjab and Haryana. It is very neat and clean. Every one follows the traffic rules. The drive by the Chandigarh Police against violators of the traffic rules, through belated, is welcome. Parking is another area requiring attention. An acute shortage of parking space is being felt in some sectors. However,

  the responsibility for making the city roads safe does not rest with the police alone.   Peoples help must be forthcoming. There are many things to see in the Chandigarh such as Rose Garden, Sector 17(Markets), Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden. All these 4 things are very famous in the chandigarh. Specially the Sector 17(Markets) are very famous because there are all sorts of shops here like Booksellers, Jewellery, ClothShops, General merchants, Stataioners, Shoe merchants, Tailors, Electrical applications, Dry cleaners and many more. Shops selling jewellery and ready made garments are a great attraction. For children, shops selling toys and confecionery are very favourite. Chandigarh has two satellite cities i.e. Punchkula and Mohali. Both of which share a border with it.

Sukhna lake, Rock Garden and Rose garden is also a very famous in the Chandigarh. This lake is situated in Chandigarh Sector1. Even the Sukhna

lake provide numerous facilties such as shops, restaurant and many more. Morover, this lake is very famous for its water sports like boating, canoeing etc. Rose garden is situated in Chandigarh Sector 16. In the garden grass is lush-green throughout, the flower-beds are always in bloom with the seasonal flowers and the small fountain in the center which is always working. The garden is visited by the people throughout the day.

 Geography and climate: Chandigarh is located near the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas in Northwest India. It covers an area of approximately 44 sq mi or 114 km². and shares its borders with the states of Haryana in the east and Punjab in the north, west and south. The exact cartographic co-ordinates of Chandigarh are 30°44′N 76°47′E / 30.74°N 76.79°E / 30.74; 76.79.It has an average elevation of 321 metres (1053 ft).

The surrounding districts are of Mohali, Patiala and Roopnagar in Punjab and Panchkula and Ambala in Haryana. The boundary of the state of Himachal Pradesh is also minutes away from its north border.

Chandigarh has a humid subtropical climate characterized by a seasonal rhythm: very hot summers, mild winters, unreliable rainfall and great variation in temperature (-1 °C to 41.2 °C). In winter, pieces of snow sometimes occurs during December and January. The average annual rainfall is 1110.7 mm. The city also receives occasional winter rains from the west.

 Average temperatureSpring: The climate remains quite pleasant during the spring season (from mid-February to mid-March and then from mid-September to mid-October). Temperatures vary between (max) 16 °C to 25 °C and (min) 9 °C to 18 °C.
Autumn: In autumn (from Mid-March to April), the temperature may rise to a maximum of 36 °C. Temperatures usually remain between 16° to 27° in autumn. The minimum temperature is around 11 °C.
Summer: The temperature in summer (from Mid-May to Mid-June) may rise to a maximum of 45 °C (rarely). Temperatures generally remain between 35 °C to 40 °C (94 - 101F).
Monsoon: During monsoon(from mid-June to mid-September), Chandigarh receives moderate to heavy rainfall and sometimes heavy to very heavy rainfall (generally during the month of August or September). Usually, the rain bearing monsoon winds blow from south-west/ south-east. Mostly, the city receives heavy rain from south (which is mainly a persistent rain) but it generally receives most of its rain during monsoon either from North-west or North-east. Maximum amount of rain received by the city of Chandigrah during monsoon season is 195.5 mm in a single day.
Winter: Winters (November to Mid-March) are mild but it can sometimes get quite chilly in Chandigarh. Average temperatures in the winter remain at (max) 7 °C to 15 °C and (min) -3 °C to 5 °C. Rain usually comes from the west during winters and it is usually a persistent rain for 2–3 days with sometimes hail-storms

Delhi Map

Delhi Map - Large View


The GALLERY PLATFORM features participating galleries. The ARTIST PLATFORM features a vetted selection of works by independent artists. (e)merge's two exhibition platforms inspire a new echelon of art collectors and provide curatorial access to the latest movements in emerging art.

The (e)merge educational platform will include lectures, panel discussions, and tours given by innovative authorities in contemporary art, including collectors, curators, critics, and artists.


NASA Mars Hoax: “Rover” is on Devon island, Canada? You Decide

Just take a look at this info-graphics below:

Sure, one could think NASA just needed a place where they can simulate the conditions on Mars, but what’s the point of simulating those conditions with miniature rovers, that look and work almost nothing like their bigger brothers?

Their shape, size and weight are different and the wheels are worlds apart. It’s really impossible to make even remotely accurate tests.

They also don’t have the on board laboratories, so what’s there to simulate? Except for taking pictures, the “baby rovers” look useless.

Check out the following video for further evidence (please notice the identical terrain as that from NASA’s pictures):

The views and opinions expressed on are solely those of the original authors and our contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent or Staff.


Medical Innovation. Secure Sharing. Private Platform.

ABOUT InsightMedi

InsightMedi is a secure photo-sharing platform where healthcare professionals debate real clinical cases based on medical images. Every image provided by the users must be properly classified and de-identified to ensure both quality and patient’s privacy protection. Within InsightMedi, a global community of healthcare providers and medical students engage in relevant discussions around current topics in the field of medicine leveraging the convenience of their mobile devices.

Datos InsightMedi

Fundación Spain · United States, September/2013
Estado Growth

Inversores InsightMedi 1


Ocean water killing wild animals in Lamu as drought bites

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has warned of possible massive deaths of wildlife in Lamu following prolonged drought since the wild animals are drinking saline ocean water.

Lamu County KWS Senior Warden Jacob Orale has confirmed that tens of hippos and buffaloes have already died in various parts of the county after resorting to drinking salty water from the Indian Ocean.

Addressing journalists in his office on Thursday, Mr Orale said ocean water is not safe for wildlife consumption and it may cause deaths especially in areas adjacent to the Indian Ocean in Kwasasi, Basuba, Kililana and Mashunduani.

He said the same situation is also being experienced at Mpeketoni’s Lake Kenyatta, one of Kenya’s oldest natural fresh water lakes but whose water has now tuned salty due to the ravaging drought that.

Over 15 hippos have already been reported to have died at Lake Kenyatta since the onset of the drought in mid-2016.

“Due to the ongoing drought that has led to shortage of water in the county, wild animals have resorted to consuming [water from the] Indian Ocean which is very salty and unsafe for their health.

“Many animals have died due to lack of food and water as the drought continues to bite.

“We are, however, worried that more wildlife will perish due to consumption of the saline ocean water.

“Already we have lost a considerable number of hippos and buffaloes at Lake Kenyatta, Kwasasi and Basuba,” said Mr Orale.

Mr Orale also said due to the lack of water in their usual habitats, most of the wild animals are now invading human habitats where they also risk being attacked and killed by locals.

“We have had cases of buffaloes and hippos invading homesteads and schools looking for water in tanks, taps and even bathrooms,” said Mr Orale.

He appealed to the government and well-wishers to join hands with the KWS and put up dams and water pans for wildlife in the county.

“As KWS, together with the various conservancies in Lamu, we have sponsored water tracking at Lake Chomo and areas within Amu Ranch in order to save the animals from dying due to the biting drought,” he added.

Management expected to improve in new student ID system

Youth protest against Kisumu governor’s leadership


Victory by Valor: Shaw Air Force Base, Part 4 - Shaw Facilities

Lieutenant Colonel Jacqueline Crum, Civil Engineer, discusses the operational mission being the war on terrorism. With over 7,000 employees, a payroll of $230 million, and 35,000 acres, plus a 12,500-acre bombing range, there is a lot to manage at Shaw Air Force Base. The civil engineers take care of the facilities and the underground infrastructure, including maintenance and repairs, emergency management, budget, housing and military construction. Some of their buildings are LEED-certified.


Hole Shrinkage

Ozone in the stratosphere blocks deadly ultraviolet rays from the sun, but the past use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in aerosols and other products has thinned the protection. The damage is embodied by the infamous “ozone hole” that forms over the South Pole every Antarctic spring. (A hole is defined as a thickness of ozone less than 220 Dobson units—or less than 2.2 millimeters thick if the ozone resided at sea level at 0 degrees Celsius.) Measurements of the hole taken by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite do not necessarily mean that the ozone layer has begun recovering. Rather weather patterns allowed warm air to mix into the polar regions, thus limiting the problem.

Temperature below which ozone depletion occurs: –78 degrees C

Percent that the ozone layer has thinned every year this decade: 0.3

Peak Antarctic ozone loss, in metric tons:

In 2006: 40 million

In 2007: 27.7 million

Minimum ozone depth in hole, in Dobson units:

In 2006: 100

In 2007: 120

Area of hole, in square kilometers:

In 2006: 28 million

In 2007: 24.7 million

Area of North America, in square kilometers:

24.25 million

SOURCE: European Space Agency announcement, October 3


Birkbeck University of London PHD Psychology

Birkbeck University of London PHD Psychology

Programme overview

The MPhil/PhD in Psychology provides an excellent forum for you to develop and enhance your specialist skills, as well as more general, transferable research skills. It is designed to allow you to gain insight into different research methods and to acquire valuable experience both in carrying out large-scale research projects and in teaching.

Our current research interests include: brain and cognitive development (development of perceptual, cognitive and linguistic abilities); cognitive modelling (Bayesian approaches to human reasoning; connectionist modelling of language, memory, executive functions, cognitive development, developmental disorders and neuropsychological syndromes; cognitive architectures); perception, attention and emotion/anxiety (investigations of relevant processes using behavioural, electrophysiological, TMS and hemodynamic measures of brain activity); child, family and health psychology (social and emotional development; early childcare; family stress; qualitative approaches); and genetics of human development and behaviour.

Entry requirements

First- or upper second-class honours degree in psychology or relevant discipline.

International entry requirements


About Pine Crest Village

Sturgeon Bay, named Wisconsin’s friendliest small town, is known for its year round cultural events, quality recreational facilities, waterfront villages, low crime and safe neighborhoods.

Nestled between the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, Sturgeon Bay is a historical waterfront community that has earned a reputation for its vital maritime heritage. Wartime vessels, schooners, dugout canoes and giant commercial carriers enhance the
activity and view all along the Door County peninsula.

With a population of just over 9700 people and voted one of the "Top 10 Vacation Destinations in North America" by Money Magazine, Sturgeon Bay offers a magnificent collection of unique shops, artists galleries, museums, charming restaurants and bistros, state parks, fun festivals, farmers’ markets and thoughtfully restored bed and breakfast inns.

There are so many reasons why people choose to live in Sturgeon Bay and even more reasons why they choose Pine Crest Village as their preferred retirement and assisted living community.


-       Trauma

-       Lymphoma/leukaemia

-       Haemolytic anaemias

-       ITP

-       Splenomegaly with hypersplenism

-       Cysts, abscess, haemangioma or splenic artery aneurysm

-       Part of other operations

o   Gastrectomy

o   Distal pancreatectomy

o   Conventional splenorenal shunt

-       Tumour

Preoperative preparation

-       Correction of anaemia, thrombocytopaenia and coagulopathies

-       Prophylactic antibiotics

-       Vaccinations - see notes re timing

-       X-match

-       General anaesthesia

Position of the patient

-       Supine on the operating table

Special equipment

-       IDC

-       NGT

-       1+ assistants

-       Midline laparotomy

-       For smaller spleens – some use a left upper paramedian or left subcostal incision

-       First tie the splenic artery in continuity

o   Enter lesser sac by dividing 8 – 10cm of greater omentum between ligatures

o   Keep to the colic side of the gastroepiploic vessels

o   Divide the adhesions between back of stomach and front of the pancreas

o   Palpate along superior border of body of pancreas for arterial pulsation; corkscrew artery (vein here is inferior and always deep to pancreas, never tortuous)

o   Incised the peritoneum at this point, mobilising the vessel with right angled forceps and ligating it with 0 ties

The splenic artery may be exposed and ligated above the tail of the pancreas by opening the gastrocolic ligament outside the gastroepiploic arcade and opening the posterior peritoneum of the lesser sac over the vessel. Proximal ligation should be avoided to prevent ischemic pancreatic injury. Preliminary ligation reduces the risk of haemorrhage and allows a large spleen to decompress and shrink, making surgery easier and safer

-       Pass the left hand over the top of the spleen to draw it medially

-       Retract the left side of the abdominal wall

-       Coagulate and divide any adhesions between the convex surface of the spleen and the parietal peritoneum

-       Cut through the left/anterior leaf of the lienorenal ligament (peritoneum just lateral to the spleen), slitting it upwards and downwards
Restores anatomical position; do not go through the gastrosplenic ligament.

-       Gently mobilise the spleen forwards and medially using the fingers of the left hand

-       Identify the left colic flexure and free it from the spleen

-       Identify the tail of the pancreas as it turns forwards into the splenic hilum and dissect it gently free

-       Place a pack in the splenic bed while completing the splenectomy

-       Free the spleen from its attachments to the diaphragm (avascular) and greater curvature of the stomach
(contain the vasa brevia);

-       Incise the anterior peritoneal leaf of the gastrosplenic ligament
Mobilise off splenocolic ligament; may need to use haemostats and ties; no major or named vessels but can cause troublesome bleeding

-       Identify, ligate and divide the short gastric vessels (care not to include any of the stomach wall in the ligatures), using a right angled forceps and ties; 3-4 short gastric; highest shortest.

-       Approach the hilum from the posterior aspect of well-mobilized spleen
Control the vascular pedicle of the spleen between fingers and thumb, dissecting away fatty tissue to expose the splenic artery and vein

-       Doubly clamp, ligate and divide each branch of the vessels close to the spleen (to avoid pancreas); suture ligate large branches (avoid damage to tail of pancreas)

-       Divide remaining peritoneal attachments (right leaf of lienorenal ligament)

-       Haemostasis

-       Look for accessory spleens (splenunculi)

Options arising during surgery

-       Massive spleen

o   Adhesions to the diaphragm or parenchymal tear can cause bleeding

o   Enlarge the incision or ligate the splenic artery on top of the pancreas to improve control or otherwise mobilise the organ and bring up into the incision as soon as can safely be achieved

-       Ruptured spleen

o   Often possible to break down the left peritoneal leaf of the lienorenal ligament using finger dissection

o   Bring (medialize) spleen up into the wound

o   Compress vascular pedicle to control the bleeding

o   Inspect the organ to assess extent of damage

-       Not routinely performed

-       Loop 0 Novafil

-       Staples to skin

-       Comfeel

Post-operative instructions

-       NGT

-       Watch platelet count

-       Vaccinations

-       Physiotherapy

-       Thromboembolic prophylaxis.

-       Chonic vs acute
- Acute include bleeding, damage to adjacent structures, stomach at short gastrics, pancreatic leak at hilum (or distal pancreas necrosis as bld supply from splenic), colon at splenocolic ligament

- Residual bleeding at the retroperitoneum can be contained with a running lock-stitch; remember may have coagulation problem
- Chronic relates to hyposplenism and infections / OPSI - see notes.
Missed accessory spleens


Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Halls Hill Labyrinth, The Sun

An incredible solar flare arcs far from the surface of the Sun
The Sun is the star around which the planets in our solar system orbit.  It's made of "hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields" that formed when when a large molecular cloud collapsed more than 4 1/2 billion years ago.  The majority of the matter in that cloud gathered in to the Sun while the rest spread as a giant orbiting disk that would eventually become the planets and asteroid belts we know today.  Its diameter is 109 times that of Earth.  3/4's of its mass is made up of hydrogen, and most of the rest is helium, with less than 2% being heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, and iron.  This fiery ball generates enormous amounts of heat that warm the surface of the orbiting planets on the side that faces it determining planetary day and night cycles.

The Sun flaring
The Sun's name comes from the old Anglo Saxon word Sunne, which was derived from a Germanic word, Sunno.  Sunna was a  Goddess in Germanic mythology.  Sunno came from the older Indo European word sóh₂wl̥,.  For the Egyptians, the God of the Sun was Ra.  The Greeks worshipped Helios, who later became associated with Light to make room for Apollo.  Helios was considered a Titan, while Apollo resided on Olympus, a loftier abode.  It was in Latin myth that Apollo drove the chariot of the Sun while the Greeks always attributed this task to Helios.  In mythology, Apollo was born on the Greek Island of Delos.  Delos is said to have the most sunny days of any other place in the Greek empire.  A city of temples was built on Delos over the years there by the various Greek states wanting to gain the favor of the Gods through displays of devotion.  In Roman mythology, the Sun diety was named Sol Invictus.
All that remains of the Temples to Apollo on the Island of Delos, Greece
The Hindu God of the Sun is Surya, who also drives a horse drawn chariot.  The 13th Century Temple at Konark in the Indian state of Orissa is a monumental chariot like structure with stone wheels that is drawn by majestic horses with Surya at the helm.

A stone wheel on the Temple of Konark, a monumental chariot guided by the Hindu God Surya
The Halls Hill Labyrinth is literally a path leading to the Sun, which you reach by walking in and out of circuits dedicated to the planets in the solar system.  It has been a long haul building the hundreds of feet of path that leads from the eastern entrance of the Labyrinth to the center.  I've gone around and around 11 times and now I am ready to build the center, the star that dominates our very existence.  I started the center by arranging the steel form strips in to a circle merging with the straight path that leads in to it.

The forms set for making the center of the Labyrinth
A lot of people came by on Friday and Saturday, to the point where I was having a hard time getting my work done.  I've been at it for 12 days straight and I probably need a day off.  But that will come after I'm finished.  People are showing up with last minute stones, beach glass, and found objects for me to incorporate last minute in to mortar.  Boxes of heart shaped rocks, barely tumbled broken bottles, and broken dishes have been offered up but much of it can't be properly set in to the mosaic with lasting results.  But the things that will work will find their way in to the center of the Labyrinth.

Judy brought me a bag of beach glass.  She came on her bicycle, bravo!
What I need for the sun mosaic are lots of slender and wedge shape stones, so I went to Pleasant Beach and picked about 50 good thin little pebbles to mix in.  This is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island.

Looking for slender pebbles on Pleasant Beach
I spent much of two days collecting the loose unused stones from the site that have been spread out over the mosaics.  I picked out all the linear, rather hot dog and wedge shaped stones to use in the center disk, where I want to make a bursting design radiating from a hole in the center.  The hole will be the same size as the white stone mosaic moons on the outer 11th ring of the Labyrinth.  This hole will represent Blue Moons, which occur when there are 13 full moons in a year.  It will also represent solar and lunar eclipses when the Earth, Sun and Moon are aligned.  I'm hoping people will come and walk the Labyrinth on full moons when the forest is bathed in moonlight.

Deborah Cheadle, who took me to visit the Country Club area on Easter Sunday came by and then went home and retrieved a stack of nursery pots that I can store unused rock in for future mosaics.  Her father Andrew Price came by later in the evening and gave me a copy of his book about the history of the Port Blakely area where I am working.  I look forward to reading about it.  He told me the first tennis courts in Washington used to be near where the Labyrinth is now, built by the Halls brothers after which the hill and park are named.

I mixed a couple of bags of mortar and set the first third of the Sunburst and think it looks very pretty, like multi colored hot dogs mixed with other linear pieces in rich colors.  So I'm roasting hot dogs on the Sun.  I added a mixture of colored stones in with the twelve seasonal colors that expand out from it to depict the bursting force of the Sun.

Beginning the circle of rays that emanate from the center of the Sun disk
Having the center open makes a kind of turn around leading in and out.  Later as people began to walk it I noticed that people tend to enter to the right, probably conditioned from driving on the right, but for me the energy flows in a sun wise direction.

The first section of the Sun
I had so many visitors yesterday that I was mentally exhausted.  The weather forecast was for rain the day I finished and it was cold out.  And it was Sunday and I really felt like I needed a day off, but I set goals for myself and push to meet them sometimes.   It is a lot of work to build a path that is almost 1,000 feet long out of beach pebbles and stones.  Because the weather was chilly, I didn't get a lot of visitors, but rather just the right amount.  It was a special day and I had good heartfelt connections with most of the people who came by.

Joe and his daughter Kailin (I'm hoping I'm remembering these names properly) came first with some pieces of beach glass for me to slip in to narrow gaps between the linear stones I am using.  They loved the idea of having something in there that is personal to them.

Joe and Kailin
Judy, who came by yesterday just as I was swearing a string of foul curses when I accidentally dumped my lunch salad on the floor of my truck, brought me a bag of healthy treats in a labeled bag and some nice big nursery tubs for storing the left over stones.  Thank you Judy.

Delicious things in a humble paper bag
I mixed the two bags of mortar that I had left and set the south side of the sunburst.  Gregory went to the building supply place and picked up two more bags and delivered those so I would have enough to finish.  A photographer named Joel Sackett came and took stills from the top of a ladder while I worked.  As he was leaving Terry Moyement arrived and he videotaped the last section of work I needed to do to complete the project.  We hugged after I placed the last stone.  I told him I thought the Sun looked like an alien Cyclops from the entrance or  one of those weird water towers you see on the tops of hills.

I had to finish the Labyrinth more than anything else in my life and had worried along the way that something could happen that might prevent me from completing it.  I'm so glad I made it to the end, and I thank my body for tolerating the hard labor necessary to create a project of this scale and intensity of meaning.  I found myself crying from time to time later that day, probably a combination of relief and exhaustion.

The next day I removed the forms and filled the gaps with gravel.  The Eagle Feather has been at the center of the project almost the entire time.  It survived the winter, and I think I will leave it in there.  Please don't step on it.

The Eagle Feather and a memorial stone left for someone named Monty
I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the site and then went for a walk down the slope to Blakely Harbor.  The houses down there range from funky little old places to American dream homes.  The old Victorians have been renovated and their original character is unrecognizable.  Beyond them is Port Blakely park, with rotted pilings and a heavily graffitied old concrete mill building where island kids gather to party.  It hardly seems real that this place was once the largest supplier and shipper of timber in the world.  The pilings covered in seaweed are all that remain of the once bustling port.

Blakely Harbor, once the site of the largest lumber mill in the world
Once all of the loose stones were picked up I cleaned the stonework with muriatic acid to remove the mortar film that dulls the surface.  Then the Labyrinth shows its true colors.  The work was a kind of penance and I did all of the physical labor from start to finish except for the site preparation, which was masterfully installed by Savage Landscapes.  Seeing it glowing there in this magical glade in the forest I have gotten to know so intimately is rather overwhelming.

The completed Labyrinth
And then people began to arrive and walk it.  Helen brought her daughter, who walked it 3 times.  Another woman I had not met before arrived and half way through burst in to tears.  Nancy and Dave came.  I hadn't seen them this year and was so happy that they came.  Dave is blind and Nancy walked him through it.  At the center, they embraced the woman who had been crying, who I learned had suffered the terrible loss of her son.  Then I started to cry.  It just seemed so impossibly beautiful and powerful and full of everything I intended it to be all at once, kind of overwhelming, like the cosmos itself.

I'd like to thank the people who's vision made it possible for this project to happen, and all of the amazingly diverse people I have met during the process of its construction.  Its been an incredible journey.  We may publish a guide to understanding the meaning incorporated in to the circuits so that people can better understand what they are walking on, and work will be done to improve the entrances, so I will be back to this beautiful island in the not too distant future.  When you come to the bend to the 3rd circuit in the pink stone area of the south, and you see the Red Tara, a Bodhisattva surrounded by radiating stones, try not to step on her.  She connects Heaven and Earth and deserves great reverence.  There will be a formal dedication at 4:00 on Sunday, June 29th, 2014.

Red Tara
Thanks for following this winding path from the outside to the center, Jeffrey

Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Halls Hill Labyrinth, The First Circuit, Mercury

Mercury has a surface similar to our moon

Parian Marble statue of Hermes, 1st Century BC, found in the Antikithira Shipwreck excavation, National Museum of  Archaeology, Athens.  Only the part of the statue buried in the sediment escaped the erosion of time.
The last circuit that I built in the Labyrinth is the first, dedicated to the planet and God Mercury.  Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, and also the smallest in our solar system.  It takes 88 Earth days for it to make a full rotation around the sun.  The speed of its rotation may have inspired its being named for the fastest of the Gods.

Mercury is the small dark spot in the lower center.  The others are sun spots.

The Roman God Mercury was the messenger, perhaps best known in modern times as the logo for FTD Florists.  In Greek mythology he was the God Hermes.  He is often depicted with wings on his golden sandals which were made by the God of Craftsmen, Hephastus.  On his head he wore a winged hat called a Petasos.  This was derived from floppy sun hats usually made of felt worn by farmers whose form gave the impression of wings.  These two implements helped to give Mercury the ability to fly at great speeds.

He carries a Caduceus, a staff entwined by two serpents given to him by his half brother, the God Apollo.  It became the symbol of commerce, negotiation, and balanced trade (an irony in today's corporate world).  He is also the patron deity of communication, divination, eloquence and poetry, boundaries, luck, and my favorite- travel.  In Roman mythology he was also the guide of souls to the underworld.  And he deliveres flowers!

A classic Mercury adorns the prow of a gondola in Venice, Italy
I began the work on this circuit by bringing the straight path that runs in line with the entrance in to the curve of this circuit, which runs a short distance around to the west where two loops connect it to the Venus circuit.  I made a feeble and totally abstract attempt to depict a Caduceus.  Only I will ever know where it is.  Then I went back to flowers, tapping in to the FTD Florist connection by coincidence.  Ford made a Mercury, and Hermes makes scarves, and I made a rainbow of colored stones.  The next day I made the second loop connecting the Mercury to the Venus circuit in brown stones.

Rainbow colors in the Mercury circuit
A breathtaking rainbow over Puget Sound a week before I made this mosaic
While I was working on this my friend Sarah King from Portland arrived.  We sat on the bench swing when it rained and then I went to work on the other half of this short circuit.  I will make the loops at the end tomorrow.  I made Sarah a black flower that went perfectly with her outfit.  She had a little black lava pebble in her car from a special outing that she retrieved and I tucked it in to a spot next to the flower.

Sarah King
Next to it I made another flower using a glazed black door knob for the center given to me by a woman who lost her husband last year.  Mercury is an escort for departed souls to the Gates of the Underworld.

Later two women came to visit.  Bonny lives on the island and Naira is from Armenia.  Naira works for Habitat for Humanity and Bonny worked on a project with her in Sri Lanka.  We had the sweetest visit and I made them each a flower after they went to ring the Prayer Wheel.  Doing good work is the best message of all and it was a pleasure to meet these generous souls.

Bonny and Naira
The next morning the sun was sparkling on the water and a frigate boat, the Odyssey was loaded with Sea scouts as it pulled out of Blakely Harbor.  Through the telescope it looked like they were saluting.  The temperature feels like it goes up 10 degrees when the sun is out and what a beautiful day to go sailing.

A Odyssey pulling out of Blakely Harbor
I returned to the site and finished the loops that connect the Mercury circuit to the Venus circuit in the shortest section of the Labyrinth.  It looks kind of like a hot dog so I am now calling it the "Frankfurter".  Once I finished this section I started the daunting task of moving stones off the Labyrinth.  Len brought me several large nursery tubs to store them in until I can use them for other projects in the park.  There must be a ton or more of stones that didn't get used, because having a good selection to chose from is essential for making a well fitted mosaic.

The Mercury circuit finished
I was planning to take the rest of the day off but a series of people arrived as if they were scheduled by appointment, one after another, including my friend Gillian Matthews from Seattle who brought her son.  It was a beautiful afternoon and people were dropping off pebbles and found objects for last minute inclusion in the Labyrinth.

Special delivery of a special little stone that will go in to the sun at the center of the Labyrinth
Chris came by again with his big yellow Labrador Retrievers.  He brought a fascinating book of historic photos of Bainbridge Island showing an entire mill town below the site where I am working.  Small Victorian houses lined a waterfront street edging a bay filled with frigate ships loading up lumber destined for the far reaches of the globe.  Lumber was shipped to California, Chile, England, France, Germany, and Australia.  Stones were brought as ballast and dumped off Rockaway Beach before loading the wood.  These stones make up the majority of the material I used for the mosaics.  Now a Labyrinth sits in the midst of a forest growing on what was once the largest lumber mill in the World, which when viewed from Nature's standpoint was a genocide.  In my mind we have some healing work to do.  Mercury comes bearing flowers to those who give back to the Earth.  May walking this path inspire us to do so.

The last of the circuits is complete
Thanks for reading, Jeffrey

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Halls Hill Labyrinth, The 2nd Circuit, Venus, Love

The Second circuit in the Labyrinth is dedicated to the Planet Venus, and the Goddess of Love, beauty,  pleasure, and procreation.  This is the second shortest circuit in the Labyrinth.  Venus is a terrestrial planet about the same size as earth but has an atmosphere that is 97% Carbon dioxide.  The surface of Venus is 462 degrees centigrade, so there is no water.  The outer layer of the atmosphere is Sulfuric Acid.  Charming.
An ancient Greek statue of Aphrodite, with a replacement head carved by Canova
Venus is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite.  According to Hesiod's Theogeny, a poem describing the birth and genealogy of the Gods, Aphrodite was said to have been born out of the foaming sea (Aphros) where the genitals of the God Uranus were flung after he was castrated and deposed by his son Cronus (Saturn) at the desperate request of his Mother, Gaia, who was tired of giving birth to bizarre and troublesome children.  While this may cause a smirk of malice among women, and men to cross their legs, I find the analogy of love being born out of the pain of divine castration to have some interesting psychological connotations.  What better way to explain the vagaries of love to scholars and illiterate sheep herders about the irrational chaos inspired by the secretion of hormones and various other chemicals in the brain when one comes in to the proximity of an object of desire.

Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus
When the genitals hit the water, Aphros and Bythos went to work.  Aphros (Sea foam), and his sibling Bythos (Sea Depths) were Ichthyocentaurs, anthropomorphic sea creatures with the body of man to the torso, where a pair of horses legs emerged followed by the tail of fish.  They were fast swimmers and able to breathe underwater.  They bore a scallop shell to the surface near the shore of Pathos on the island of Cyprus where the genitals had splashed, from which the Goddess Aphrodite emerged, so beautifully depicted in Botticelli's painting and this scene from the Terry Gilliam movie, 'The Baron Von Munchausen.  Aphrodite literally means rising from the Sea Foam.

                                             Double click this to make the video full screen

A less macabre birth story is the claim in Homer's Iliad that Aphrodite was the offspring of the Goddess Dione, a consort of Zeus.  Dione is a feminine form of the word Dio, so essentially she was the female aspect of Zeus himself.

Aphrodite was so beautiful and desirable that Zeus suspected there would be trouble in the kingdom with suitors fighting for her favor, so she was married off to the hideous God Hephaestus (Vulcan), the God of artisans and metal smiths.  He made her fabulous jewelry and a corset that made her even more irresistible, but she was not content with him and took other lovers, including Ares (Mars), the God of war.  Hephaestus learned of the affair from Helios and made a very fine but unbreakable net which he cast over them as they slept naked together.  He dragged them to Mt. Olympus to exact retribution, but the other Gods only found  the situation humorous and made him release them with a minor sentence.

Aphrodite fending off Pan, with the aid of Eros, Parian Marble, from the island of Delos, Greece
Aphrodite is often depicted in the company of her winged son Eros, the God of Love.  Eros later became the Roman cupid, which is the most pagan of characters to cross over in to the realm of Christianity.  My favorite Eros story was a time when he was kissing Aphrodite and a loose arrow in his quiver grazed her breast.  She pushed him away but then her gaze set sight on the youth Adonis with whom she fell hopelessly in love.  He was a hunter so she followed him on his expeditions, even though she had no interest in hunting.  She was so distracted that she fell behind on her divine duties and had to leave him for a time to tend to her responsibilities as a Goddess.  Before she left she advised Adonis not to hunt animals that showed no fear.  Shortly afterwards he was castrated by a giant boar (believed to be a jealous Ares).  Ouch!  It is said that where Adonis's blood spilled Anemones bloom.  They were my favorite late winter flower when I was in Greece, colonizing specific areas of suitable habitat.  Once again castration leads to beauty.

Anemones on the island of Ios
I began the Venus circuit on Easter Sunday after a lovely sunny day of pebble collecting on the Country Club peninsula of the island with a woman named Deborah Cheadle, who's family's summer home overlooks a geologic formation created when the sea floor was uplifted during a great earthquake that occurred hundreds of years ago.   Later I built the loop from the Earth circuit and made the first hearts in the second circuit dedicated to love.

The loop from the Earth circuit to the Venus circuit
These are not the most obvious symbols since they are usually made of two stones pressed together at the center.  Love usually attaches itself to another entity making it a two part equation.  The ultimate love is loving compassion for all sentient beings as prescribed in Tibetan Buddhism as a way of liberating the soul.  This is a good circuit to commit to that ideal while walking the Labyrinth.

A 3 part red heart with a green beach glass Aorta

The next day was gorgeous once again.  The resident woodpeckers to working on trees making a wonderful vibrational sound in the forest.  I set up my forms and worked from green to pink, and red in to purple, ending where the circuit will loop to connect to the first circuit, dedicated to the planet and God Mercury.

A couple who's dog Riley passed away brought me two white pebbles they had found the beach in Fay Bainbridge Park.  They told me that the speckled white granite one was exactly the same color as Riley was.  I'll make a flower around a geode using the two pebbles for petals when I make the loop in the white northerly direction connecting the Venus circuit to the Earth circuit.
Reilly's Pebbles
Later a man named Chris and his daughter Christine came cycling by.  He said he had been reading my essays and was very interested in the stories about Greek and Roman mythology.  It was one of those engaging conversations that just naturally occur in this space.  It inspires profound thought.  I had just wet the stonework so I could take my daily photograph and the light was perfect.  I was done working for the day but told them I would make them a pair of hearts tomorrow.

Christine and Chris
It rained all night but was dry in the morning and it turned out to be a pretty nice day in spite of the weather forecast for more rain.  A group of four people came to visit and got the tour, and then I set to work moving the forms for the days work.  Every day I have the nicest interactions with a wide variety of people, many of whom come back again with more people to share what is happening here.

Add caption
Helen brought her friend Joyce this morning and we had a nice talk about what I am building and how I would incorporate the ceramic heart Helen had left with her note earlier.

Helen and Joyce
They each gave me a silver coin with an angel on it to place in the mortar below the heart for their children.  It was a very sweet gesture.  Angels of Love.

Helen's ceramic heart and two silver Angel coins to be placed underneath the heart

So my goal for the day was to build the Venus circuit from the west to the bend in the north connecting to the Earth circuit.  I transitioned from orange to black to white, and in the bend I set a collection of small stones and shells given to me by a woman named Kayla representing her family and the challenges they've faced and overcome in the last year.  Near those I placed 3 geodes, surrounded by donated ceramic bits and beach glass and the two stones for Reilly the dog.  I added white marble stones I had brought back from sacred places in Greece as well.  One is a disk of white Parian marble that I found on the island of Paros at an excavation site with Hellenistic period mosaic floors.  I had other pieces of marble from the Temple of Hera on Samos, the beach of the Delian Apollo on Naxos, and beaches on Crete.  Another stone came from Pompeii when I was there 5 years ago.

I placed the two angel coins beneath the ceramic heart and filled the center with bits of beach glass.  This cluster of mixed elements makes for an interesting and rich conglomeration.

Placing the silver angel coins in mortar beneath where the ceramic heart will go
Then I built the other loop adding 3 more geodes to match the other side.  I placed little ceramic masks made by Jenny Anderson in the gaps in between the two circuits and tucked a tiny starfish that somebody had left for me next to one of them.

A ceramic mask by Jenny Anderson and a tiny starfish left by someone in the loop between the Earth and Venus circuits

From there I worked in to the silver stones that represent the middle of winter and then in to blue green. I places a heart shape rock somebody had left for me that was rather thin, so I pinned it down with green oxidized nails from Blakely Harbor that Chris had given me.  Hopefully they will keep it from popping out of the mortar as the Labyrinth ages.

The end of the Venus circuit will loop in to the Mercury circuit which is the last and shortest one.  The open space in the center of the Labyrinth is getting really small now after about 3 months of hard work. When people walk this circuit I hope that it triggers feelings of love and understanding and caring.  And then you turn to Mercury, the messenger and deliver a love letter to all who come in to contact with you.
The Venus circuit will be complete when I build the loops connecting to the Mercury circuit
Almost done!  Thanks for reading this, Jeffrey


The vast majority of scholarly efforts to reform copyright start from the supposition that the scope of protection for works of authorship has become overbroad.1 However, while there is general consensus on the broad contours of the problem, there is far less agreement on how to solve it.
The attraction of the proposal to raise the originality threshold is that it promises to nip the problem in the bud, at the level of the subject matter definition. That is, rather than struggling to regulate innumerable and wildly varying works that all meet the minimum requirement for copyright protection, raising the originality threshold restrains the amount of works eligible for copyright in the first place. Thus, Joseph Scott Miller notes that many other proposals to restrict the scope of copyright have an “en- forcement focus” and therefore “do not reduce the sheer number of copy-

1 See generally NEIL WEINSTOCK NETANEL, COPYRIGHTS PARADOX 80 (2008) (“Copyright began as a narrowly tailored, short-term prerogative designed to promote the printing of original expression. It now threatens to meta- morphose to a rotund, Blackstonian property right . . . . Copyright’s unto- ward expansion betrays copyright’s core principles rather than faithfully translating those principles to new conditions.”); with respect to copyright’s requirement of originality and the concept of the work, see Sir Hugh Lad- die, Copyright: Over-Strength, Over-Regulated, Over-Rated, 18 EUR. IN- TELL. PROP. REV. 253, 257 (1996) (asserting that copyright currently seems to spring up “to protect nearly every creation of the human mind, be it ever so trivial”).


Pesticides around dogs and puppies

These products, made with organic phosphate composites, can provoke discomfort, vomits and spasms. Due to the immediate effects of the poison, it all depends on how fast you make it to the veterinarian and how fast he can act. It would take me too long to present all the possible consequences of the treatment here.With this I finish describing the most frequent cases of intoxication, which are not difficult to differentiate. However, the list of poisonings can be endless, as any substance can have toxic effects, even water or salt; it all depends on the quantities.

Important: If you suspect your dog has been poisoned by a stranger, you have to consider that you might want to file a complaint, in which you will have to prove the poisoning, and this is not always easy. Anyway, in such a case, have the veterinarian state when the poison could have been ingested. It is also important to specify which kind of poison it was, with the certification of a lab or institution. So my recommendation in these cases is: before making the decision to file a complaint, gather all the pertinent information and evidence. Otherwise, apart form the pain of having lost a beloved animal, you will also have to face elevated monetary damages if you happen to lose the case.

seeFIDOObjectsRenal FailureIntoxicationPesticidesLocomotiveLeptospirosis


Fertility Meal Plan (trying to conceive for 6 months or more) - Dr. Kate Naumes||Holistic Wellness
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Flourish with Dr. Kate

This meal plan includes dishes that have nutrients known to be beneficial for optimizing fertility. Diet may play a significant role in helping your body to be as healthy as possible. In addition, reducing or eliminating alcohol will be beneficial for you when you are trying to conceive, as alcohol can have a negative impact on fertility. Fermented foods are also included to help populate your intestinal tract with healthy bacteria.  This plan is PORK FREE, SOY-FREE, CORN-FREE, LOW-GLYCEMIC, CHOLINE-RICH, ALKALINE, and ANTIOXIDANT-RICH. All Meal Plans are free of Gluten and Cow-Dairy.

We know meal planning can be overwhelming and time consuming! Easily and consistently implement a nutrition plan targeted to your specific health needs. With a research-based, condition-specific Fertility Meal Planning Package, you will receive 7 days of meal plans, recipes and a corresponding grocery list.


If you belong to the human race, chances are good that stress is definitely a companion throughout the course of your life. For better or possibly worse, this can be a motivating factor in a number of the decisions we make every single day– forming events in dramatic fashion.

Make no mistake. A little bit of stress might be a good thing. Without a dash of stress and anxiety thrown into the mix before a major high school examination, where is the compulsion to study on the weekend prior to the test? The boss approaches you having a special offer for a big promotion (complete with the commensurate earnings bump into the six-figure range), and it’s all dependent upon your accepting relocation plans to the west coast where the expense of living could be astronomical. Without having a dash of stress mixed into the discussion, it would be entirely achievable to delay any choice forever.

In these types of circumstances and thousands of others which occur throughout a lifespan, a specific degree of stress– in moderation– might be a helpful encouraging force in moving forward with life. Add in an excessive amount of stress into the daily mix, though, and also the effect could be harmful to the health and well-being of the human body in both equally physical and emotional terms.

Speaking strictly within biological and also medical terms, stress is understood by experts to be a physical, mental or psychological factor triggering body tension or mental tension. Stress factors can easily emerge both externally (from the environment, psychological or social situations) and internally, coming from incidents such as illness or even looming medical procedures, for instance. The presence of stress within the human organism, like any other, leads to a “fight or flight” response entailing a complicated reaction including both the neurological and endocrinologic systems.

The presence of stress impacts thoughts, feelings and also behavior. Potentially, stress and anxiety can even cause any person to engage in risk-taking behaviors which can negatively influence health, live over-indulging within the ingestion of alcoholic beverages.
A number of the typical impacts of stress on the human body could include headaches, muscle strain or ache, chest pain, overwhelming exhaustion, alterations in sex drive, upset stomach as well as sleep problems. Beyond the physical implications of stress, there is an impact on the mood, as well; aspects can consist of: anxiety, uneasiness, a lack of proper motivation or perhaps concentrate on the issue at hand, a feeling of being bewildered, irritability or even anger, and despair or even depression and a sense of hopelessness.

Combined, these various stress variables can lead to a litany of unpleasant behavioral concerns, consisting of overeating and under eating, unpredicted flare-ups of rage, drug or alcohol abuse, tobacco use, a reduction in exercise or physical activities and also social withdrawal from friends, family members as well as co-workers.

Thankfully for those grappling with the unavoidable presence of stress in their daily lives, there really are some natural countermeasures which could be taken to help alleviate a few of the signs and symptoms. Research studies have proven that taking part in regular physical activity (like 30 minutes of daily exercise), relaxation methods emphasizing deep breathing, meditation, doing yoga and more, preserve a healthy sense of humor, socializing with friends and family members, and also dedicating some free time to unwinding hobbies or even activities can all supply some considerable benefits.

Whenever these various measures simply aren’t sufficient in order to revert the negative trends triggered by pervasive stress and anxiety, however, it’s nice to have an idea that there is another natural option which doesn’t rely on powerful medication in order to remedy the situation. The alternative makes use of a hands-on healing method known as chiropractic care.

Numbers may vary a little, however experts typically strongly believe that more than 30 million people yearly visit a chiropractor’s office– normally seeking in order to minimize the existence of neck pain, upper back pain, lower back pain, migraines and tingling or even numbness within their limbs.

Chiropractic doctors are certainly thoroughly trained medical professionals

Making use of an alternative method to medicine within treating their patients. Their attention is concentrated on the musculoskeletal systems and nervous system, as well as the impacts of these disorders on the overall health of their patients. Chiropractic care services that include spinal manipulation (also known as spinal adjustment) are frequently utilized to treat these kinds of neuromusculoskeletal complaints.
All treatment approaches commence with a thorough evaluation of the individual’s medical history, followed by a detailed questionnaire assisting shedding understanding. A physical examination follows, and that procedure may include the chiropractor’s use of diagnostic tools like blood tests and X-rays to provide a definitive medical diagnosis.

Can chiropractic treatment help in reducing stress in the life of any patient? That is a conversation that is certainly validated, based on the ability of treatment to improve general emotional and physical health.


The Professionals K To Z

December 6, 2017

Lovesey, Peter. ANOTHER ONE GOES TONIGHT. Soho Crime. July '17. $15.95. Sixteenth in the Detective Peter Diamond series. What would you do if you found out you saved the life of a serial killer? That's Detective Peter Diamond's dilemma in this entry of the wonderful series. It all starts when a police car skids off the road, killing one cop and badly injuring the other. While investigating the scene, Diamond finds a man on the side of the road that must have been involved in the accident. He does CPR on the victim while waiting for the ambulance, but starts to become suspicious of the man. While the man remains on life support, Diamond decides to find out more about him and begins to believe he just might be a serial killer.

Lovesey, Peter. BEAU DEATH: A Peter Diamond Investigation. Soho Crime. December '17. $27.95. Seventeenth in the series. Chief Inspector Peter Diamond is assigned to a very unusual case when a corpse, possibly from the 1700s, is found in an attic in Bath. A row of townhouses is being demolished and when a body is found, Diamond is sent there to find out if the dead man is actually the infamous Richard 'Beau' Nash. Was Beau killed centuries ago and left in the attic? The corpse is dressed in 1700s garb along with a hat that was Beau's signature. Diamond is looking forward to upsetting the The Beau Nash Society if it is actually Beau in that attic. The only problem is Diamond's constable who insists the body could not be Beau. Is this the case of a a very old murder, or a more recent one? BR>

Maron, Margaret. t. Grand Central. July '17. $27.00. From the publisher: "Sigrid is still reeling from the untimely death of her lover, acclaimed painter Oscar Nauman, when she is called to investigate the deaths of two homeless men in the West Village. The police at first assume an overdose, until they realize that one of the men shows no signs of drug use. Then when containers of poisoned takeout food are found nearby, Sigrid's case is suddenly much more complicated. As Sigrid investigates, she uncovers an intriguing neighborhood history: a haughty mafia widow and her disgraced godson, a retired opera star with dark secrets, an unsolved hit-and-run, and the possible discovery of a long-missing painting that will rock the art world. Soon the case is fraught with myriad suspects and motives. Who killed the two homeless men, and why? And which one was the intended victim? Or was the poisoned food meant for someone else entirely? Throwing herself into the murder investigation to distract herself from her personal grief, Sigrid still can't stop wondering what led Nauman across the country to the winding mountain road that took his life. Until she meets a man who may hold the answers she seeks. In her newest gripping mystery, Margaret Maron's beautifully drawn characters and unpredictable plot twists prove once again why she's one of today's most beloved writers." Available in paperback. April '18. $7.99.

Neville, Stuart. SO SAY THE FALLEN. Soho Crime. June '17. $15.95. Sixth in The Belfast Series. Belfast Police Detective Serena Flanagan is called in to investigate a possible suicide when car dealer Henry Garrick is found dead. Garrick had been in a very serious car accident and there is no evidence of any foul play. Yet Serena smells something fishy. Her investigation takes her to the widow, Roberta Garrick, who Serena believes is not what she seems to be.

Norton, Graham. HOLDING: A Novel. Atria Books. August '17. $25.00. Sergeant P.J. Collins becomes involved in his first big case in the small, remote, Irish village of Duneen when the remains of a body are found buried on an old farm. Believed to be the body of Tommy Burke, known to have been involved with at least two village inhabititants, Collins is overwhelmed as he tries to solve the crime and looks beneath the idyllic town's facade into old secrets and lies.

Pronzini, Bill. THE VIOLATED: A Novel. Deckle Edge. March '17. $26.00. "A new stand-alone thriller by an acclaimed master of the genre and author of the Nameless Detective series. Bill Pronzini is crime-writing royalty. His more than eighty published novels have won or been nominated for Edgar, Hammett, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards - a clean sweep of the crime fiction award field - and received rave reviews from critics. He crafts masterful stories, often from multiple perspectives, in which the human condition is on full display. THE VIOLATED is no exception. In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has no easy solution. Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives - Martin Torrey's wife, caught between her grief and the fear her husband was guilty; the outraged husbands of the women violated; the enterprising editor of the local paper; the mayor concerned most with his own ratings; the detectives, often spinning in circles - until a surprising break leads to a completely unexpected conclusion. THE VIOLATED is Bill Pronzini at the height of his storytelling powers." Simultaneous release on Audio CD from Blackstone Audio.

Quartey, Kwei. DEATH BY HIS GRANCE: A Darko Dawson Investigation Set In Ghana. Soho Crime. September '17. $26.95. Fifth in the series. A high society marriage is all the people of Accra, Ghana are talking about. The gossip goes into high drive when it's learned that the wife, Katherine Yeboah, can't have children. Here husband's family accuses her of practicing witchcraft and the marriage starts to fall apart forcing her husband, Solomon, to throw her out of the house. Then, on her final night before leaving, Katherine is brutally murdered. Assigned to the case, Chief Inspector Darko Dawson of the Ghanaian federal police has several reasons for wanting to discover who killed Katherine, including the fact that she was his wife's cousin. His investigation leads him to several possible suspects including her husband, her ex-lover and her very wealthy pastor. As he sifts through the clues Darko is forced to look into the important role played by religion in the area and must face his own inner turmoil.

Russell, Sheldon. THE BRIDGE TROLL MURDERS: A Hook Runyon Mystery. Roadrunner Press. November '17. $24.00. Fifth in the series. Railroad Detective Hook Runyon is on the job when a boy is found murdered and mutilated sixty miles down the track in what was supposed to be a safe area. Teaming up with Ria Wolfe, a graduate student studying the new science of forensics, they set out to solve the crime. To make matters even more stressful, their are new faces at the rail yard and an East coast criminologist sticking his nose into everything. Hook must solve the murder and bring the culprit to justice before the story ends up on the front page of the newspapers.

Starr, Jason. GOTHAM: DAWN OF DARKNESS. Titan Books. February '17. $7.99. "'GOTHAM' is an American crime-drama television series from Warner Bros. Television developed by Bruno Heller, based on the characters from DC Comics in their Batman mythology - centering on a young Bruce Wayne, then-detective James Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, a pre-Catwoman Selina Kyle, as well as a rogues gallery of burgeoning villains before they became known as the Penguin, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Two-Face and more. A break-in at Wayne Manor. The death of a masked intruder. Amid the seething crime and corruption of Gotham City, Thomas Wayne fights to protect his family and his company from forces unknown. While detective Harvey Bullock investigates the incident as a simple burglary, Wayne discovers that the threat may come from his own dark past."

Todd, Charles. RACING THE DEVIL: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery. William Morrow. February '17. $26.99. "Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge finds himself caught in a twisted web of vengeance, old grievances, and secrets that lead back to World War I in the nineteenth installment of the acclaimed bestselling series. On the eve of the bloody Battle of the Somme, a group of English officers having a last drink before returning to the Front make a promise to each other: if they survive the battle ahead - and make it through the war - they will meet in Paris a year after the fighting ends. They will celebrate their good fortune by racing motorcars they beg, borrow, or own from Paris to Nice. In November 1919, the officers all meet as planned, and though their motorcars are not designed for racing, they set out for Nice. But a serious mishap mars the reunion. In the mountains just north of their destination, two vehicles are nearly run off the road, and one man is badly injured. No one knows - or will admit to knowing - which driver was at the wheel of the rogue motorcar. Back in England one year later, during a heavy rainstorm, a driver loses control on a twisting road and is killed in the crash. Was it an accident due to the hazardous conditions? Or premeditated murder? Is the crash connected in some way to the unfortunate events in the mountains above Nice the year before? The dead driver wasn't in France - although the motorcar he drove was. If it was foul play, was it a case of mistaken identity? Or was the dead man the intended victim after all? Investigating this perplexing case, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge discovers that the truth is elusive - and that the villages on the South Downs, where the accident happened, are adept at keeping secrets, frustrating his search. Determined to remain in the shadows this faceless killer is willing to strike again to stop Rutledge from finding him. This time, the victim he chooses is a child, and it will take all of Rutledge's skill to stop him before an innocent young life is sacrificed." Trade paperback edition. December '17. $14.99.

Tursten, Helene. PROTECTED BY THE SHADOWS: An Inspector Irene Huss Investigation. Soho Crime. December '17. $26.95. Translated by Marlaine Delargy. Tenth and final book in series. Goteborg, Sweden has a big problem with gang violence and to make matters worse, it looks like there is a mole on the force. The situation escalates, forcing the Organized Crimes Unit to join forces with the Violent Crimes Unit. When a member of a biker gang is set on fire and both units expect some kind of retaliation. To complicate the matter even further, Irene is sure she is being stalked and fears for the safety of her family.

Williams, Timothy. THE SECOND DAY OF THE RENAISSANCE. he Second Day of the Renaissance: A Commissario Trotti Investigaation Set In Northern Italy. Soho Crime. May '17. $26.95. Sixth in the series. After a long and successful career as a police detective in River Po, Northern Italy, the Commissario has retired. His retirement, however, doesn't last long when an old friend warns him that a well-known hitman has returned to Italy to kill him. Trotti isn't very surprised at the news though - it isn't that unexpected consdering his long career and the mistakes he made. In an effort to escape the hitman, Trotti travels around Italy and searches for clues to an old murder case that was never solved. Will this investigation help him to evade the hitman and save his family? Available in trade paperback. June '18. $15.95.

© 1996-2017 Bill Palmer.