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0.99013 | Focus problems I can't figure out why, but what I see as focused does not come out focused. I have tried the diopter. Also I have an old pentax zx6 that I can focus fine so I don't think that it is my eyes. Any ideas?
It is a mechanical problem, or one with my eyes, I have a good understanding of how it works and it is the same at all shutter speeds. It is a mechanical problem, or one with my eyes, I have a good understanding of how it works and it is the same at all shutter speeds.
I figured it out, there is a small brass shim that goes on top of the focus screen, it was on the wrong side. I changed it and now it works. Thanks for all the help. I figured it out, there is a small brass shim that goes on top of the focus screen, it was on the wrong side. I changed it and now it works. Thanks for all the help.
If you have a low light setting or night setting or a speed priority setting there is the possibility one or the other has been inadvertently activated and you are getting long time exposures check out all your setting with the manual.
the right lens is also controlled (overridden) by the diopter focus ring. may take both pins to repair.
diopter focus ring behind central focus ring.
Hi, I have an astigmatism. Its very difficult for me to shoot in manual mode. Most of my images are not focused enough. I have D700, and for manual shooting i use Nikkor 50mm f 1.2. Please help!!!!
you can try to adjust your diopter. put camera in auto focus then focus on something. then adjust your diopter until it is clear.
By adjusting the diopter on your camera effect the image quality? I guess what I'm trying to say is, will the diopter setting effect how your camera adjusts the focus in auto or manual?
Diopter is for your eye only and does not effect the focus of the camera. By using the 1/2 down method, by pressing the photo taking button half way down, you can set the cameras focus. on some cameras this is shown where it will focus by a red square. If you change the diopter this is like adding by focal lenses for reading a book. and setting the distance your particular eye needs for eye relief. On binoculars this is done with screwing the eyepiece closer or farther away from the other lens. check out online http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyeglass_prescription this will give you more details of what a diopter is or does. Always know what setting your shooting at as well. for instance if you are on a flower setting or Macro then this is for up close work. But up close doesn't mean too close. Most cameras on Macro need to be 6 inches to 12 inches away. But if you are say 24 inches away it won't focus right so don't try to zoom in, use your optical instead of digital and simply move closer or change the settings on the camera to a different setting or it may be blurry.
Two possible situations. It might be that the lens focusing system isn't working. Try focusing by hand (turn the lens manually) If the image moves through a point of sharp focus, then you have a lens or focus motor problem.
More likely, you have improperly adjusted the diopter. There is a small, circular wheel on the right side of the viewfinder, toward the top corner. It is sometimes covered by the rubber viewfinder hood so you might not notice it. This adjusts the diopter correction in the viewfinder and if it's set wrong, nothing will ever look in focus. The pictures would be fine, but since the diopter is a correction for your eyesight, the viewfinder will be out of focus.
When you have a diopter adjustment dial, try looking through your viewfinder and move the diopter one way or the other until it appears to be in focus for you. |
0.999851 | How to calculate Difficulty Index and Discrimination Index for multiple-choice questions?
To determine the difficulty level of test items, a measure called the Difficulty Index is used. This measure calculates the proportion of students who answered the test item accurately.
By looking at each alternative (for multiple choice), we can also find out if there are answer choices that should be replaced. For example, let's say you gave a multiple choice quiz and there were four answer choices (A, B, C, and D).
The following table illustrates how many students selected each answer choice for Question #1 and #2.
Correct answer for #1 is C and for #2 is A.
For Question #1, we can see that A was not a very good distractor -- no one selected that answer.
We can also compute the difficulty of the item by dividing the number of students who choose the correct answer (24) by the number of total students (30).
Using this formula, the difficulty of Question #1 (referred to as p) is equal to 24/30 or .80. A rough "rule-of-thumb" is that if the item difficulty is more than .75, it is an easy item; if the difficulty is below .25, it is a difficult item.
Given these parameters, this item could be regarded moderately easy -- lots (80%) of students got it correct.
In contrast, Question #2 is much more difficult (12/30 = .40). In fact, on Question #2, more students selected an incorrect answer ( B ) than selected the correct answer (A). This item should be carefully analyzed to ensure that B is an appropriate distractor.
Another measure, the Discrimination Index, refers to how well an assessment differentiates between high and low scorers. In other words, you should be able to expect that the high-performing students would select the correct answer for each question more often than the low-performing students. If this is true, then the assessment is said to have a positive discrimination index (between 0 and 1) -- indicating that students who received a high total score chose the correct answer for a specific item more often than the students who had a lower overall score.
This table displays the results of ten questions on a test. Note that the students are arranged with the top overall scorers at the top of the table.
"1" indicates the answer was correct; "0" indicates it was incorrect.
Follow these steps to determine the Difficulty Index and the Discrimination Index.
After the students are arranged with the highest overall scores at the top, count the number of students in the upper and lower group who got each item correct. For Question #1, there were 4 students in the top half who got it correct, and 4 students in the bottom half.
Determine the Difficulty Index by dividing the number who got it correct by the total number of students. For Question #1, this would be 8/10 or p=.80.
Determine the Discrimination Index by subtracting the number of students in the lower group who got the item correct from the number of students in the upper group who got the item correct. Then, divide by the number of students in each group (in this case, there are five in each group). For Question #1, that means you would subtract 4 from 4, and divide by 5, which results in a Discrimination Index of 0.
We can see that Question #2 had a difficulty index of .30 (meaning it was quite difficult), and it also had a negative discrimination index of -0.6 (meaning that the low-performing students were more likely to get this item correct). This question should be carefully analyzed, and probably deleted or changed. Our "best" overall question is Question 3, which had a moderate difficulty level (.60), and discriminated extremely well (0.8).
In the way how to calculate discrimination index, we made a little change. As if the sample is less than 30, upper and lower groups are 50% of the sample, if the sample is greater than 30, upper and lower groups are taken as 28% of the sample. |
0.963666 | What is the most important issue in 2008?
When Barack Obama's opposition to a bill that would ban infanticide was discussed on CNN, an Obama supporter replied that "the American people want to talk about gas prices". Both Republicans and Democrats think they can use high gas prices to their advantage this election season and both will be talking a lot about them in the coming months. Certainly, the high cost of gas (reaching $4.00 a gallon and climbing) drives up the cost of everything else and threatens our economic stability.
But are gas prices the most important issue in this election? Far from it.
The most important issue we face in 2008 is the same as it was in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. The most important issue we face is the fact that fifty million people have been killed by a procedure deemed a "constitutional right" by the Supreme Court and that 1.2 million continue to die annually. To bring it down to the local level, the most important issue we face is that several people were killed yesterday in Bloomington, and it was completely legal to kill them. The most important issue we face, of course, is abortion.
There is no issue in this election more important than the extermination of innocent human life in the womb. There is no issue of greater moral significance than the fact that 1.2 million unborn children are killed ever year right underneath our noses and the vast majority of people do not give it a second thought. Abortion may not resonate politically like high gas prices, but that is more a sign of the moral bankruptcy of the average voter than a sign of what is truly important.
Obama's opposition to a bill that would make it illegal to kill a baby that survives an abortion and is born is the most important window into his overall political philosophy (and his character) that we will see in this campaign. It indicates a radical pro-abortion ideology that shatters the myth of a "moderate" politician. It indicates a moral blindness to serious violations of basic human rights. That Obama opposed and blocked a bill to ban infanticide while he was in the Illinois state legislature is not a side issue: it is an position that we can use to examine the foundations of his political beliefs.
What makes this relevant for voters in the 9th Congressional District is that Baron Hill endorsed Barack Obama just a few days before the Democratic Party primary in May. Obama's opponent, a tireless advocate for "abortion rights" herself, voted for the Born Alive Infants Protection Act at the federal level. Baron Hill decided - perhaps due to the enthusiastic support Democrats in Bloomington have lavished in Obama - to support an extremist who opposed closing a loophole to ban all infanticide.
Hill's endorsement should come under close scrutiny by 9th District voters. Why did Baron Hill endorse a radical who opposed a bill banning infanticide? Why did Baron Hill, who will tell anyone who will listen that he is a moderate "blue dog" Democrat, endorse a candidate who is anything but moderate? Why does Baron Hill support a candidate who supports killing newborns? Baron Hill owes 9th District voters an answer to these questions.
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? -- Proverbs 24:11-12. |
0.999992 | Cult of Mao elevated Mao to god, unquestioning faith and obedience. A quick and easy way to determine if a government has gone through a revolution recently is to see if the country and culture in question has had or has dealt with any hardships that have had a large impact on the society. The seeds of the Chinese Revolution can be found in the anti-imperialism and rising nationalism of the 19th century. The Qing Dynasty, developed in 1644, was weakened during this rebellion. Until the 1970s, the United States continued to recognize the Republic of China, located on Taiwan, as China's true government and supported that government's holding the Chinese seat in the United Nations. The Communists and the Nationalists started their fight in the 1920s; however, Japanese invasions forced the two sides to formulate a temporary truce to battle off the Japanese at the time of World War Two. Chiang announced his resignation as president of China on January 21, and Nationalist leadership passed to Gen.
Trying to determine who should control late Joseon-era Korea Outcome: Decisive Japanese victory - Japan adds Korean Peninsula to its sphere of influence, gets Formosa Taiwan , the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula outright. The revolution of 1911 was confined to canton and surroundings. Li Tsung-Jen called for full retreat soon after he took power and 2 million Nationalists retreated to Tai-wan where they remain to this day. To induce the Communists and other parties to join the new , Chiang issued a qualified cease-fire order on November 11 and postponed the opening of the assembly from November 12 to November 15. For years, the People's Republic and the Republic of China continued to recognize their own legitimacy.
Once the wealth has been redistributed the poor are happy again and eventually grow apathetic, then the rich begin their quiet revolution of taking the wealth back and continue to do so until the disparity between the have's and the have not's becomes so great that the poor can no longer. Communist troops occupied much of the in the north and in Manchuria. He was able to chase the Communists from their urban homes to the mountains where they were no longer a threat. Mao used the peasant army as a battering ram to smash the old state. The Kuomintang government was established by Sunyat Sen in 1922. Role of the leader always more important than that of the individual.
They are merely small political groups, each with a few hundred to a few thousand members. Heavy revenue burdens were imposed on the peasants who worked. The Red Army and the workers Before the War, Trotsky had pointed out that the decisive question was what would happen when the Red Army entered the towns and cities. The communists also resorted to propagating their ideas and not only won people to their ideas and not only won people to their side but also enlisted support of Chiang's army. Those working in these organizations should work peacefully and wait for the takeover. Also, China in wars with Japan in 1895 and with Russia had lost much of its territories. Also known as Manchuria by Westerners and Japanese, this area was known by the Qing Dynasty as the homeland of the ruling family Manchus.
Chiang himself was not prepared to offend his industrial supporters by asking them to pay to the workers their rightful wages. Anyone surrendering his weapons will not be questioned. Who made what in the revolution happen? Since then the conflict between the two Chinas has been going on until today The Chinese Revolution of 1949. The bourgeoisie had fled to Formosa Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek. The Cultural Revolution was nothing more than an attempt by Mao to restore power, exploiting the cult of personality.
The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday — Mao The Unknown Story 2005 — self-serving megalomaniac with no regard for life. One of the most commonly visual revolutions is a political revolution where it usually occurs when t he overthrow of a government by those who are governed. Effects Analysis The origins of the revolution were rooted in Marxist beliefs. Mao Zedong declared that the people's republic was the official government of China in 1949.
Following a meeting with a preliminary peace delegation from Nanking, Mao, now in Peking, agreed on February 9 to call an official peace conference within a month. This has again caused the citizens to become even poorer and become desperate to rise up to other countries economically. Causes of the Chinese Revolution The social inequality of the Chinese Empire Under the power of the last great dynasty, the social gap between the inhabitants, especially the peasants, was extremely wide. Fighting intensified elsewhere, however, as government and Communist troops clashed in Jehol , northern Kiangsu , northeastern Hopeh , and southeastern Shantung. But having taken power, Mao very soon realised that the rotten and corrupt Chinese bourgeoisie was incapable of playing any progressive role.
Ten percent of the agricultural population of China possessed as much as two-thirds of the land. The end of did not mark the end of conflict in China, however. They also deployed most of Mao's Communists into Manchuria and conscripted much of the population to increase his numbers. Negative picture of Mao — a malignant dictator in the same vein as Stalin. But that situation is changing rapidly. The May Fourth Movement gave a boost to nationalism in China, as well as favoring populist causes rather than a small number of elite intellectuals. With the exception of primary sources, all content on this website is © Alpha History 2018.
Please note: this website uses pinyin romanisations of Chinese words and names. The administration also paid for wars by printing extra money which resulted in an inflation. Crafts were there but they were practiced with primitive and outdated techniques. Chiang concluded the year by indicating his willingness to negotiate a peace that would be acceptable to all parties. The governments troops are better trained, equipped, and funded then regular militia men. Because of the cultural revolution, Mao and the Chinese Communist Party. Obviously the communist system is dead in Russia although some dictatorial tendencies remain.
Contradictions of Maoist self-reliance and central planning caused incoherence. Both agreed on the importance of democracy, a unified military, and equality for all Chinese political parties. Until the new constitution was enacted and a new president elected, the Nationalists would continue to be the ruling party. In both China and America, the forms of government previous to their revolutions and extreme…. All those economic reforms resulted in the considerable improvement in living standards of millions of people particularly in what concerns diet, public health care and education systems, and welfare in general increasing substantially life expectancy in China. There is also a range of online activities, such as crosswords and multiple choice quizzes, where you can test and revise your understanding of China in revolution. |
0.970189 | During hurricane Wilma a branch from my tree broke off and blew into a neighbor's yard, breaking the rear window of a car parked in the driveway. Am I legally responsible for the cost of repair? The car belonges to a friend of his and he is unwilling to report it on his home owners ins. |
0.936902 | We learn more about the influence of weight decay on training and uncover an unexpected relation to LARS.
The introduction to a series of posts investigating how to train Residual networks efficiently on the CIFAR10 image classification dataset. By the fourth post, we can train to the 94% accuracy threshold of the DAWNBench competition in 79 seconds on a single V100 GPU.
We establish a baseline for training a Residual network to 94% test accuracy on CIFAR10, which takes 297s on a single V100 GPU.
We investigate the effects of mini-batch size on training and use larger batches to reduce training time to 256s.
We identify a performance bottleneck and add regularisation to reduce the training time further to 154s.
We search for more efficient network architectures and find a 9 layer network that trains in 79s.
We develop some heuristics for hyperparameter tuning. |
0.94215 | You are correct in that sea water close to shore is at a different temperature to that in the open sea. During the winter this difference can be quite substantial and usually the open sea temperature will be warmer than that close to shore. During the summer the opposite happens and water close to shore will be warmer. Water close to shore will be cooled or warmed depending on the time of year by the nearby land mass. The tides also affect the temperature of the water especially inshore and in confined sea areas. |
0.944442 | The act of walking with a very directed and focused manner with focus on the actual act of walking. It is a method we can use to increase our mindfulness as we participate in a natural part of life. It is important to recognise that this meditation is not about contemplation during walking but rather about the act of walking itself. It is believed that this process helps us to create mindfulness and staying present and grounded. It helps us to appreciate and enjoy having a body and can be very pleasurable especially when used between sitting meditations. |
0.943533 | Religion is a cultural system of behaviors and practices, world views, ethics, and social organisation that relate humanity to an order of existence. About 84% of the world's population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion.
With the onset of the modernisation of and the scientific revolution in the western world, some aspects of religion have cumulatively been criticized. Though the religiously unaffliated, including atheism and agnosticism, have grown globally, many of the unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs. About 16% of the world's population is religiously unaffiliated.
The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, including comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer explanations for the origins and workings of religion.
Religion (from O.Fr. religion "religious community", from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods", "obligation, the bond between man and the gods") is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possibility is an interpretation traced to Cicero, connecting lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligare "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect", which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".
The problem with these etymologies, regardless of whether one favours lego or ligo, is that the now-familiar prefix re- "again" is not attested prior to its occurrence in religio and is itself in need of an etymological explanation.
Honeymoon is the fourth studio album and third major-label record by American singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey. It was released on September 18, 2015, by UMG Recordings, and was co-produced by Del Rey alongside longtime collaborators Rick Nowels and Kieron Menzies.
Upon release, Honeymoon received acclaim from music critics. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 116,000 units in first week, and peaking at number one in Australia, Greece and Ireland. "High by the Beach" was released as its lead single on August 10, 2015, and was followed by promotional singles "Terrence Loves You" and "Honeymoon". "Music to Watch Boys To" was released on September 11, 2015 as the album's second single.
Del Rey finished the recording of her third studio album, Ultraviolence, in March 2014, and by June of the same year she had begun working on a follow-up idea stating that the process was "growing into something I really like. I'm kind of enjoying sinking into this more noirish feel for this one. It's been good". In a December 2014 interview with Galore Magazine, Del Rey revealed she had begun working on a new album. In January 2015, Lana Del Rey announced via Billboard that she had begun work on her fourth studio album, announcing she was going to release an album entitled Honeymoon sometime that same year. During the time of the announcement, Del Rey also said that she had written and recorded nine songs that could possibly be featured on the album and stated that she was covering Nina Simone's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". During the interview with Billboard, Del Rey stated that the album would be different from her previous release, Ultraviolence (2014), but similar to her first major release, Born to Die (2012), and the extended play Paradise (2012).
A basic aspectual distinction is that between perfective and imperfective aspects (not to be confused with perfect and imperfect verb forms; the meanings of the latter terms are somewhat different). Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to any flow of time during ("I helped him"). Imperfective aspect is used for situations conceived as existing continuously or repetitively as time flows ("I was helping him"; "I used to help people"). Further distinctions can be made, for example, to distinguish states and ongoing actions (continuous and progressive aspects) from repetitive actions (habitual aspect).
In physical geology, aspect is the compass direction that a slope faces. For example, a slope on the eastern edge of the Rockies toward the Great Plains is described as having an easterly aspect. A slope which falls down to a deep valley on its western side and a shallower one on its eastern side has a westerly aspect or is a west-facing slope. The direction a slope faces can affect the physical and biotic features of the slope, known as a slope effect. The term aspect can also be used to describe the shape or alignment of a coastline. Here, the aspect is the direction which the coastline is facing towards the sea. For example, a coastline with sea to the northeast (as in most of Queensland) has a northeasterly aspect.
Aspect can have a strong influence on temperature. This is because of the angle of the sun in the northern and southern hemispheres which is less than 90 degrees or directly overhead. In the northern hemisphere, the north side of slopes is often shaded, while the southern side receives more solar radiation for a given surface area insolation because the slope is tilted toward the sun and isn't shaded directly by the earth itself. The further north or south you are and closer to winter solstice the more pronounced the effects of aspect of this are, and on steeper slopes the effect is greater, with no energy received on slopes with an angle greater than 22.5° at 40° north on December 22 (winter solstice). |
0.985919 | Jane Fonda talking to a man and a woman, 1963.
Jane Fonda talking to a man and a woman, 1963. Jane Fonda (born Jayne Seymour Fonda; December 21, 1937) is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She is a two-time Academy Award winner and two time BAFTA Award winner. In 2014, she was the recipient of the American Film Institute AFI Life Achievement Award. Fonda made her Broadway debut in the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl, for which she received the first of two Tony Award nominations, and made her screen debut later the same year in Tall Story. She rose to fame in 1960s films such as Period of Adjustment (1962), Sunday in New York (1963), Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Barbarella (1968). Her first husband was Barbarella director Roger Vadim. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, she received her first nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969) and went on to win two Best Actress Oscars in the 1970s for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978). Her other nominations were for Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), On Golden Pond (1981) and The Morning After (1986). Her other major competitive awards include an Emmy Award for the 1984 TV film The Dollmaker, two BAFTA Awards for Julia and The China Syndrome and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1982, she released her first exercise video, Jane Fonda's Workout, which became the highest-selling video of the time. It would be the first of 22 workout videos released by her over the next 13 years which would collectively sell over 17 million copies. Divorced from second husband Tom Hayden, she married billionaire media mogul Ted Turner in 1991 and retired from acting. Fonda was divorced from Turner in 2001. She returned to acting with her first film in 15 years with the 2005 comedy Monster in Law. Subsequent films have included Georgia Rule (2007), The Butler (2013), This Is Where I Leave You (2014) and Youth (2015). In 2009, she returned to Broadway after a 45-year absence, in the play 33 Variations, which earned her a Tony Award nomination, while her recurring role in the HBO drama series The Newsroom (2012-2014), has earned her two Emmy Award nominations. She also released another five exercise videos between 2010 and 2012. She currently stars with Lily Tomlin and Martin Sheen in the Netflix original series Grace and Frankie (2015). Fonda was a visible political activist in the counterculture era during the Vietnam War and has been more recently involved in advocacy for women. She was famously and controversially photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun on a 1972 visit to Hanoi. She has also protested the Iraq War and violence against women, and describes herself as a feminist. In 2005, she, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content. Fonda currently serves on the board of the organization. She published an autobiography in 2005. In 2011, she published a second memoir, Prime Time. |
0.998608 | As 2017 ended with billionaires toasting their tax cuts and energy executives cheering their unfettered access to federal lands as well as coastal waters, there was one sector of the American elite that did not share in the champagne celebration: Washington’s corps of foreign policy experts. Across the political spectrum, many of them felt a deep foreboding for the country’s global future under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
In a year-end jeremiad, for instance, conservative CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria blasted the “Trump administration’s foolish and self-defeating decision to abdicate the United States’ global influence — something that has taken more than 70 years to build.” The great “global story of our times,” he continued, is that “the creator, upholder, and enforcer of the existing international system is withdrawing into self-centered isolation,” opening a power vacuum that will be filled by illiberal powers like China, Russia, and Turkey.
Yet no matter how sharp or sweeping, such criticism can’t begin to take in the full scope of the damage the Trump White House is inflicting on the system of global power Washington built and carefully maintained over those 70 years. Indeed, American leaders have been on top of the world for so long that they no longer remember how they got there. Few among Washington’s foreign policy elite seem to fully grasp the complex system that made U.S. global power what it now is, particularly its all-important geopolitical foundations. As Trump travels the globe, tweeting and trashing away, he’s inadvertently showing us the essential structure of that power, the same way a devastating wildfire leaves the steel beams of a ruined building standing starkly above the smoking rubble.
The architecture of the world order that Washington built after World War II was not only formidable but, as Trump is teaching us almost daily, surprisingly fragile. At its core, that global system rested upon a delicate duality: an idealistic community of sovereign nations equal under the rule of international law joined tensely, even tenuously, to an American imperium grounded in the realpolitik of its military and economic power. In concrete terms, think of this duality as the State Department versus the Pentagon.
At the end of World War II, the United States invested its prestige in forming an international community that would promote peace and shared prosperity through permanent institutions, including the United Nations (1945), the International Monetary Fund (1945), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1947), the predecessor to the World Trade Organization. To govern such a world order through the rule of law, Washington also helped establish the International Court of Justice at The Hague and would later promote both human rights and women’s rights.
On the realpolitik side of that duality, Washington constructed a four-tier apparatus — military, diplomatic, economic, and clandestine — to grimly advance its own global dominion. At its core was an unmatched military that (thanks to hundreds of overseas bases) circled the globe, the most formidable nuclear arsenal on the planet, massive air and naval forces, and an unparalleled array of client armies. In addition, to maintain its military superiority, the Pentagon massively promoted scientific research, producing incessant innovation that would lead, among so many other things, to the world’s first system of global telecommunications satellites, which effectively added space to its apparatus for exercising global power.
Complementing all this steel was the salve of an active worldwide diplomatic corps, working to promote close bilateral ties with allies like Australia and Britain and multilateral alliances like NATO, SEATO, and the Organization of American States. In the process, it distributed economic aid to nations new and old. Protected by such global hegemony and helped by multilateral trade pacts hammered out in Washington, America’s multinational corporations competed profitably in international markets throughout the Cold War.
Adding another dimension to its global power was a clandestine fourth tier that involved global surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) and covert operations on five continents by the Central Intelligence Agency. In this way, with remarkable regularity and across vast expanses of the globe, Washington manipulated elections and promoted coups to insure that whoever led a country on our side of the Iron Curtain would remain part of a reliable set of subordinate elites, friendly to and subservient to the U.S.
In ways that to this day few observers fully appreciate, this massive apparatus of global power also rested on geopolitical foundations of extraordinary strength. As Oxford historian John Darwin explained in his sweeping history of Eurasian empires over the past 600 years, Washington achieved its “colossal Imperium… on an unprecedented scale” by becoming the first power in history to control the strategic axial points “at both ends of Eurasia” through its military bases and mutual security pacts.
While Washington defended its European axial point through NATO, its position in the east was secured by four mutual defense pacts running down the Pacific littoral from Japan and South Korea through the Philippines to Australia. All of this was, in turn, tied together by successive arcs of steel that ringed the vast Eurasian continent — strategic bombers, ballistic missiles, and massive naval fleets in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Pacific. In the latest addition to this apparatus, the U.S. has built a string of 60 drone bases around the Eurasian landmass from Sicily to Guam.
In the decade before Donald Trump entered the Oval Office, there were already signs that this awesome apparatus was on a long-term trajectory of decline, even if the key figures in a Washington shrouded in imperial hubris preferred to ignore that reality. Not only has the new president’s maladroit diplomacy accelerated this trend, but it has illuminated it in striking ways.
Over the past half-century, the American share of the global economy has, for instance, fallen from 40% in 1960 to 22% in 2014 to just 15% in 2017 (as measured by the realistic index of purchasing power parity). Many experts now agree that China will surpass the U.S., in absolute terms, as the world’s number one economy within a decade.
As its global economic dominance fades, its clandestine instruments of power have been visibly weakening as well. The NSA’s worldwide surveillance of a remarkable array of foreign leaders, as well as millions of the inhabitants of their countries, was once a relatively cost-effective instrument for the exercise of global power. Now, thanks in part to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the agency’s snooping and the anger of targeted allies, the political costs have risen sharply. Similarly, during the Cold War, the CIA manipulated dozens of major elections worldwide. Now, the situation has been reversed with Russia using its sophisticated cyberwarfare capabilities to interfere in the 2016 American presidential campaign — a clear sign of Washington’s waning global power.
Most striking of all, Washington now faces the first sustained challenge to its geopolitical position in Eurasia. By opting to begin constructing a “new silk road,” a trillion-dollar infrastructure of railroads and oil pipelines across that vast continent, and preparing to build naval bases in the Arabian and South China seas, Beijing is mounting a sustained campaign to undercut Washington’s long dominance over Eurasia.
During just 12 months in office, Donald Trump has accelerated this decline by damaging almost all the key components in the intricate architecture of American global power.
If all great empires require skilled leadership at their epicenter to maintain what is always a fragile global equilibrium, then the Trump administration has failed spectacularly. As the State Department is eviscerated and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discredited, Trump has — uniquely for an American president — taken sole control of foreign policy (with the generals he appointed to key civilian posts in tow).
How, then, do those who have been in close contact with him in this period assess his intellectual ability to adapt to such a daunting role?
Reflecting his administration’s well-documented difficulties with the truth, almost every one of those statements is either inaccurate, incomplete, or irrelevant. Setting aside such details, the document itself reflects the way the president (and his generals) have abandoned decades of confident leadership of the international community and are now trying to retreat from “an extraordinarily dangerous world” into a veritable Festung America behind concrete walls and tariff barriers — in some eerie way conceptually reminiscent of the Atlantic Wall of beachfront bunkers Hitler’s Third Reich constructed for its failed Festung Europa (Fortress Europe). But beyond such an obviously myopic foreign policy agenda, there are vast areas, largely overlooked in Trump’s strategy, that remain critical for the overall maintenance of American global power.
And that’s just to scratch the surface of one week’s news without even touching on the kinds of ruptures with allies regularly being ignited or emphasized by the president’s daily tweets. Just three examples from many will do: President Peña Nieto’s cancelation of a state visit after a tweet that Mexico had to pay for Trump’s prospective “big, fat, beautiful wall” on the border between the two countries; outrage from British leaders sparked by the president’s retweet of racist anti-Muslim videos posted on a Twitter account by the deputy leader of a neo-Nazi political group in that country, followed by his rebuke of British Prime Minister Theresa May for criticizing him over it; or his New Year’s Day blast accusing Pakistan of “nothing but lies & deceit” as a prelude to cutting off U.S. aid to that country. Considering all the diplomatic damage, you could say that Trump is tweeting while Rome burns.
Since there are only 40 to 50 nations with enough wealth to play even a regional, much less a global role on this planet of ours, alienating or losing allies at such a rate could soon leave Washington largely friendless — something President Trump found out in December when he defied numerous U.N. resolutions by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The White House soon got a 14-1 reprimand from the Security Council, with close allies like the Germans and the French voting against Washington. This came after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley had ominously warned that “the U.S. will be taking names” to punish countries that dared vote against it and Trump had threatened to cut aid to those that did. The General Assembly promptly voted 128 to 9 (with 35 abstentions), to condemn the recognition — eloquent testimony to Washington’s waning international influence.
Next, let’s consider the “historic investments” in a central pillar in the architecture of American global power, the U.S. military, mentioned in Trump’s National Security Strategy. Don’t be distracted by the proposed whopping 10% increase in the Pentagon budget to fund new aircraft and warships, much of which will go directly into the pockets of giant defense contractors. Focus instead on what once would have been inconceivable in Washington: that the proposed Trump budget would slash funding for basic research in strategic areas like “artificial intelligence” likely to become critical for automated weapons systems within a decade.
In effect, the president and his team, distracted by visions of shimmering ships and shiny planes (with their predictable staggering future cost overruns), are ready to ditch the basics of global dominion: the relentless scientific research that has long been the cutting edge of U.S. military supremacy. And by expanding the Pentagon while slashing the State Department, Trump is also destabilizing that delicate duality of U.S. power by skewing foreign policy ever more toward costly military solutions (that have proved anything but actual solutions).
Starting on the campaign trail in 2016, Trump has also hammered away at another pillar of American power, attacking the system of global commerce and multilateral trade pacts that have long advantaged the country’s transnational corporations. Not only did he cancel the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which promised to direct 40% of world trade away from China and toward the United States, but he’s threatened to void the free-trade pact with South Korea and has been so insistent on recrafting NAFTA to serve his “America first” agenda that ongoing negotiations may well fail.
As serious as all that might be, Trump revealed the deepest damage he was capable of doing to the geopolitical foundations of the country’s global power in two key moments on his trips to Europe and Asia last year. In both places, he signaled his willingness to deliver hammer blows to Washington’s position at those strategic axial ends of Eurasia.
During a visit to NATO’s new headquarters in Brussels in May, he chastised European allies, whose leaders reportedly listened “stone-faced,” for failing to pay their “fair share” of the military costs of the alliance and, while he was at it, refused to reaffirm NATO’s core principle of collective defense. Despite later attempts to ameliorate the damage, that sent shudders across Europe and for good reason. It signaled the end of more than three-quarters of a century of unchallenged, unquestioned American supremacy there.
Under Trump, in fact, Washington’s close relations with three key Pacific allies continue to weaken in visible ways. During a courtesy phone call upon taking office, Trump gratuitously insulted Australia’s prime minister, an act that only highlighted that country’s mounting alienation from the U.S. and a growing inclination to shift its primary strategic alliance toward China. In recent polls when asked what country they preferred as a primary ally, 43% of all Australians chose China — a once-unimaginable transformation that Trump’s version of diplomacy is only reinforcing.
In the Philippines, the inauguration of President Rodrigo Duterte in June 2016 brought a sudden shift in the country’s foreign policy, ending Manila’s opposition to Beijing’s bases in the South China Sea. Despite an aggressive courtship by Trump and a certain temperamental affinity between the two leaders, Duterte has continued to scale down the joint military maneuvers with the U.S. that were an annual event for his country and has refused to reconsider his decisive tilt toward Beijing. That realignment was already evident in a leaked transcript of an April phone call between the two presidents in which Duterte insisted that the resolution of the North Korea nuclear issue should rest solely with China.
It is, however, on the Korean peninsula that Trump’s limitations as a global leader have been most evident. In two uncoordinated, ill-informed initiatives — denigrating the Korean War-era U.S. alliance with South Korea and demanding total nuclear disarmament by the North — Trump fostered a diplomatic dynamic that has allowed Beijing, Pyongyang, and even Seoul to outmaneuver Washington.
During his presidential campaign and first months in office, Trump repeatedly insulted South Korea, demeaning its culture and demanding a billion dollars for installing an American missile defense system. No one should then have been surprised when Moon Jae-in won that country’s presidency last year on a “say no” to America platform and on promises to reopen direct negotiations with the North Korea of Kim Jong-un. Then, during a state visit to Washington last June, the new South Korean leader was blindsided when Trump called the free-trade agreement between their two countries “not fair to the American worker” and blasted Moon’s proposal for negotiating with Pyongyang.
Within days, however, then-White House strategist Steve Bannon exposed the empty bluster of all of this by telling the press, “There’s no military solution until somebody solves the part of the equation that… ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons.” So the threats failed and Trump flailed, repeatedly trash-tweeting Kim Jong-un as “little Rocket Man” and bragging that his own “nuclear button” is “much bigger” than the North Korean leader’s. These 12 months of bizarre, destabilizing presidential twists and tweets, almost without precedent in the annals of modern diplomacy, have pushed Seoul toward direct talks with Pyongyang — excluding Washington and weakening what had been a rock-solid alliance.
In the war of nerves with North Korea over its missile tests, Trump’s strategy of triangulation with China (that is, Washington nudges Beijing, Beijing shoves Pyongyang) has already inflicted a major, unrecognized defeat on American power in the Pacific. For the last six months, to encourage Beijing to pressure Pyongyang, the White House has suspended the “freedom of navigation” patrols that challenge Beijing’s spurious claims to territorial control over the South China Sea, effectively conceding this strategic waterway to China.
In a deft bit of dissimulation, Beijing has made a show of cooperation with Washington by expressing “grave concerns” over Pyongyang’s missile tests and imposing nominal sanctions, while playing a longer, smarter strategic hand. In the process, it has been working to curtail joint American-South Korean military maneuvers and neutralize the U.S. Navy in what China considers its home waters.
In this diplomatic edition of The Art of the Deal, Beijing is trumping Washington.
Quite understandably, many Americans have focused on the damage Trump’s first months in office have done domestically, from opening pristine wilderness areas and offshore waters to oil and natural gas drilling to threatening access to medical care, skewing the progressive tax code to favor the rich, cancelling net neutrality, and voiding environmental protections of every sort. Most if not all of these regressive policies can, however, be repaired or reversed if the Democrats ever take control of Congress and the White House. |
0.923101 | A man goes to his doctor and says "I don't think my wife's hearing is as good as it used to be, what should I do?"
The doctor replies: "Try this test to find out for sure. When your wife is in the kitchen doing dishes, stand fifteen feet behind her and ask her a question, if she doesn't respond keep moving closer asking the question until she hears you."
The man goes home and sees his wife preparing dinner. He stands fifteen feet behind her and says "What's for dinner, Honey?" No response.
He moves to ten feet behind her and asks again. No response.
Five feet, no answer. Finally he stands directly behind her and says, "Honey, what's for supper?"
She turns and in exasperation says, "For the fourth time, I SAID CHICKEN!" |
0.999985 | The Disney film version of Alice in wonderland when compared to the The novel Alice in wonderland by Carroll Lewis, expresses a variety of changes which can alter ideological values. Disney is well known for taking classic stories and fabricating them for a wider audience. This form of fabrication can be beneficial, especially in regards to creating various messages that are intended to be perceived by audiences. Other instances the changes are small and less note worthy. The images left out by Disney alter the ideologies that are expressed. Much of the Disney film version is quite consistent with the book, with the addition of certain aspects added from Alice through the looking glass. One crucial alteration added to the Disney film version is the implication that Alice created wonderland; “why in my world cats and rabbits would reside in fancy houses (Disney).” As seen in the first scene when Alice is singing to herself. This crucial addition to the Disney film version of Alice in wonderland changes overall themes of the film. It introduces the stresses Alice is dealing with, and her strategy to cope with these strategies. Alice uses wonderland as a form of escapism to avoid social constructs, which ultimately allows for growth. |
0.994935 | This article is part of a package on gender differences in car buying. Read the other article: What Cars Do Men Want?
Market research shows that women influence 93% of car-buying decisions and buy 65% of new vehicles themselves. So what cars do women want when their name is on the title? They go for smart-looking, affordable cars with high gas mileage, according to auto information site TrueCar.com.
Analysts at TrueCar sifted through 8 million auto purchases in 2010 to see what brands and models attracted a high percentage of men and women. "The study shows that women car buyers are more cost-conscious and purchased fuel-efficient vehicles," says Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights at the site.
But good looks clearly don't hurt. The brand with the highest percentage of female buyers (48%) is Mini, where every model makes you smile by just looking at it. And the top individual model for women (61% female buyers) is the appealing Volkswagen New Beetle. Worth noting: Women appear to be more likely to pick brands with broad appeal (unlike men, who fixate on sports cars and pickups) - so that even the top brands for women have plenty of male buyers as well.
Unlike men, women car buyers avoided high-performance cars with stratospheric prices. All but one of their top 10 models (see below) had a list price under $30,000. (The exception was the stylish hardtop convertible Volkswagen Eos, at right, which begins just over that mark.) And some - like the Toyota Yaris, starting at about $14,000 - sell for much less. All those top models are rated above 20 mpg in city driving and close to or above 30 mpg on the highway.
Unlike men, women were quite partial to imports. Other than Mercury, the Ford Motor Co. brand that was heavily promoted to women before being discontinued, the top brands for women were all imports. No. 1 Mini is owned by Germany's BMW; the other eight are Asian brands generally known for fuel economy.
Although female buyers chose cars that are economical in price and gas consumption, they did tend to pay slightly more than men for the same model. A study led by market researchers at the University of California's Haas School of Business showed that women who shopped at dealerships paid about 0.2% more than men for the same model. That difference disappeared when both genders shopped on the Internet instead of in person.
Meanwhile: Whatever your gender, take these steps if you are shopping for a new car.
Research carefully: Check reviews on sites like Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com and U.S. News Best Cars, which aggregates reviews from automotive magazines and web sites.
Set your price target: Look at TrueCar.com and Edmunds.com to see the average selling price for the model you want in your area. Determine not to pay above that average unless there are special circumstances like hard-to-find colors or options.
Get competing bids without visiting dealerships A service like CarWoo.com will, for a $19 fee, get competing bids from three dealers on exactly the model you want. You can ask questions of dealers through the service, but it does not give dealers your email or telephone number until you have picked the dealership to buy from - letting you skip the hard sell. Alternately, TrueCar.com will direct you to the dealers near you with the lowest price. The service is free, but you don't see competing bids.
Even if you are choosing an economical car, you'll feel even better if you get it for a good price. |
0.981422 | After a divorce, the majority of couples with children enter into a co-parenting agreement for the benefit of their children, most taking advantage of 50/50 time. During this time, it’s important to properly manage the co-parenting schedule to ease the stress on all involved.
Life as you know it changes after divorce. Of course, it also changes for your children. Co-parenting and developing a proper co-parenting schedule is a critical part of helping your children adjust to life after a divorce. Co-parenting also illustrates both parties’ dedication to the wellbeing of their children.
Effective co-parenting helps the child to not feel torn between two different parties. It illustrates proper conflict resolution and puts the child at ease. When co-parenting is working as it should, it increases the likelihood that both parents will be active throughout the child’s life, resulting in a happier and more fulfilled childhood and early adulthood.
Is there a way to effectively plan a co-parenting schedule that works for all parties involved? The short answer is yes. There are a few tips and tricks that can make the process simpler for you and your ex.
Communication is key: Proper communication between you and your ex is paramount when deciding on a co-parenting schedule. You should both feel free to voice your concerns and desires when it comes to the parenting of your children.
Consider your child above all: Although a convenient co-parenting schedule might sound like a good goal, it’s important to remember your children above all else. Put yourselves in their shoes and realize this is something they’ve never done before. Think about what life will be like for them as you plan and before you make any decisions.
Consider travel: Do you and your ex live close? If so, co-parenting travel arrangements are simpler than if you live farther apart. Always consider travel requirements while planning and how they relate to your work schedule and your child’s school schedule.
Remember routine: Your child might already be accustomed to a routine. If this is true, it’s best to keep that routine as intact as possible during this time.
Consider your child’s school activities, extracurricular activities and more during your planning.
Need Help Understanding Your Co-Parenting Roles?
Your roles will change too as you navigate co-parenting. And sometimes, these new roles can be difficult to manage and understand alone. If you’re struggling to understand your roles as a co-parent, you need assistance with your co-parenting plan or you have questions about divorce, send us a message! |
0.999905 | I was reading through the ship adventures section. How does someone get enough wealth to earn Gold Drives a Man to Dream? You need to sell 10 wealth of cargo in one voyage, but as far as I can figure out, the max you can get at once is 6. 2 cargo, 2 port, 2 for demand. What am I missing?
I believe I would consider a voyage to be the trip to the location, and the trip back.
So, depending on the trip, potentially up to 12 Wealth. 6 to one port, and 6 on the return trip.
As an IRL merchant sailor, I can attest that a voyage may consist of multiple ports of call, and Wyrd is correct, a voyage is often there and back. Additionally, liner trade vessels sail the same route over and over again (e.g. Brunswick, GA -> Zebruge, Belgium -> Rotterdam -> Falmouth, England -> Cork, Ireland -> Newark, NJ -> Baltimore, MD -> Charleston, SC -> Brunswick, GA). One circuit is one voyage. |
0.947354 | 911 Dispatcher Requirements in Colorado: What do you need to work in Emergency Communications in Colorado?
In Colorado, standards for hiring and training of emergency dispatchers vary from one municipality to another.
Colorado is among the states that does not mandate a minimum level of emergency services training. However, individual agencies may offer a significant amount of classroom instruction as well as on-the job training. A Denver 911 professional, for example, typically receives eight weeks of classroom training and then spends an additional twelve weeks with a trainer.
911 dispatch is part of a broader career group that may be termed "emergency communications" or "public safety communications". Advancement is based on a number of factors.
A high school diploma or GED is generally adequate for a career in dispatch. However, agencies sometimes prefer degreed candidates or accept degrees en lieu of relevant job experience. Employing agencies will look for academic abilities as well as socioemotional ones. The required skills may, however, be attained in a variety of ways.
A dispatcher may progress to the supervisory level with education at the high school level. However, some high-level safety communications positions favor those with degrees.
Colorado Springs: Most dispatch and public safety communication positions do not require college education (https://hr.coloradosprings.gov/government/human-resources/compensation-classification/job-classificationsdescriptions). The expectation is a diploma or GED, along with specialized training in dispatch or another related field. Dispatchers are expected to have intermediate reading skills; in this case, intermediate is defined as the high school to college level. Math skills are required at only a basic (elementary to high school) level for dispatcher and trainer positions while supervisors are generally expected to have skills at an intermediate level. Basic writing skills are sufficient for dispatch; trainers and supervisors, though, are expected to have skills at an intermediate level. Human Resources notes that skills can be obtained through self-study.
Educational expectations are higher for public safety communication managers. At this level, a bachelor's degree is expected. The hiring agency will consider candidates with degrees in public administration or business administration as well as communications; other related degrees may be accepted. Reading skills should be at the advanced level (college or above); this is the level that would include legal documents and financial reports.
Larimer County: Larimer County lists high school graduation or general equivalency as the minimum educational requirement for emergency communications operators and supervisors. Among the required skills at the operator level are reading and interpreting maps, communicating effectively, typing quickly, and prioritizing tasks.
An emergency communications manager will need the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. The hiring agency can accept two years of high-level work experience as a year of college education.
Boulder: The city of Boulder lists skills and abilities en lieu of minimum educational level for police dispatch positions (https://bouldercolorado.gov/human-resources/job-search-by-class-title). However, a bachelor's degree is listed among the desired (preferred) qualifications. Bilingualism is also on the list of desired qualifications.
Denver: Denver has also set the minimum education level for 911 operators and police dispatchers at the level of high school graduation or general equivalency (https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/department-of-safety/emergency-services/911-emergency-communications/jobs.html).
Some municipalities expect work experience, if not in dispatch, in a related field such as one that involves “public contact”. Successful dispatch experience can make a person a candidate for supervisory positions; a dedicated dispatcher may progress to the supervisory level after several years.
Candidates for managerial-level emergency communications or public safety communications positions are generally expected to have had previous positions that involved exercising a good deal of responsibility. However, they may or may not have started as dispatchers.
Denver expects that 911 agents and agents will have had two years of experience involving public contact; experience is to have included application of procedures, policies, or legal guidelines.
Larimer County notes that no experience is necessary at the “Operator I” level. The individual will need at least a year of experience at this level to move up to the “Operator II” level.
Boulder lists prior dispatch experience as a desired, but not required, qualification.
Colorado agencies list a variety of third party professional certifications. Certification may not be required at the onset; the agency may instead state that the individual will need to be able to attain it within a set period of time. The agency’s own in-house training program may qualify the completer for various entry-level credentials.
One commonly referenced certification is Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD). The agency may also seek Emergency Fire Dispatch (EFD) and/ or Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD). Some job descriptions note that certification is to come from the NAED (or IAED as it is now known). Again, the provider may from one agency to the next. Dispatchers who provide pre-arrival medical directions are typically also required to hold CPR certification. Additionally, some workers may need brief training/ certification in the incident command system, criminal information data systems, and/ or telecommunications response to missing children reports.
Colorado’s professional association is NENA-APCO; it is a chapter of both APCO International and the National Emergency Numbers Association (https://www.apco-co.org/). NENA-APCO is not a legal regulatory body, but may be a source of information as well as a professional development resource. |
0.958551 | Johnson was arguably 2009's most successful American Cyclocross rider, winning 11 races, including the US Cyclocross National Championships in Bend, Oregon. In 2009, Johnson was first in the North American Cyclocross Trophy overall standings and second in the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross overall standings. Johnson missed the first five major UCI races of the season, including the first weekend of the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross, due to a separated shoulder he suffered at Star Crossed in Redmond, Washington.
Johnson finally won the coveted US Gran Prix of Cyclocross overall title in 2008, wearing the Cyclocross National Champion jersey, winning three of the series' six races. Johnson missed time late in the season due to a knee injury, but still managed to finish second in the North American Cyclocross Trophy overall standings, despite missing two of the series' eight races.
In 2007, Johnson captured his second U.S. national cyclocross championship repeating his 2000 success. Video production company DH Productions produced a documentary about Johnson's 2007-2008 season, following his success from early season success through his National Championships victory and his subsequent trip to the UCI World Championships in Treviso, Italy. The film was titled the 9 Ball Diaries, paying homage to the design of Johnson's Cannondale/Leer/Cyclocrossworld.com team jersey and Cannondale's Cyclocross bicycle.
In 2006, Johnson finished the season without landing outside the top-4 in any Cyclocross race entered. As a co-captain of the Health Net Professional Cycling Team he helped the team achieve its 3rd consecutive #1 NRC Ranking.
In 2005, Johnson edged two-time defending champion Mark McCormack to win the New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series title and finished second overall in the United States Gran Prix of Cyclocross series after leading the Overall.
In 2003, Johnson won two stages and the overall title at the Herald Sun Tour, a road bicycle racing stage race held in Australia. Johnson won the tour's ninth stage from Horsham to Mount William. Two days later, Johnson won the tour's twelfth stage, a criterium in Echuca. The following day, Johnson finished second on the tour's thirteenth and final stage, taking a narrow 33 second victory over Australia's Luke Roberts.
Johnson has won United States Cyclocross National Championships on six occasions. Johnson won his first as a Junior rider in 1995 in Leicester, Mass Johnson won his first of his U23 Cyclocross National Championships in 1998 in Fort Devens, Massachusetts and won his second the next year in 1999 in Presido, California. In 2000, Johnson was on the top step of the podium for the third year in a row, this year as an Elite rider, winning his first Elite title in Kansas City, Kansas. It was not until 2007 that Johnson found himself back in the Stars and Stripes jersey, winning the 2007 National Championship, again in Kansas City, Kansas. Johnson again won in 2009, taking his third Elite National Title, this time in Bend, Oregon.
This page was last edited on 21 September 2018, at 15:17 (UTC). |
0.999998 | Originally published under the title "Here's Where the Phrase 'Islam Is A Religion of Peace' Came From. Politicians Should Stop Using It."
Days after the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in San Bernardino, President Obama's address to the nation concerning the threat of ISIS missed the mark. In fact, President Obama seemed at times to be more concerned with Americans ostracizing Muslim communities through "suspicion and hate" than he was with protecting innocent American civilians from murder in the name of radical Islam.
It is high time for Western political leaders to stop responding to terrorism by naming Islam as "the religion of peace." It is time to have a hard conversation about Islam.
The slogan "religion of peace" has been steadily promoted by Western leaders in response to terrorism: George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac after 9/11, Tony Blair after 7/7, David Cameron after drummer Lee Riby was beheaded and after British tourists were slaughtered in Tunisia, and François Hollande after the Charlie Hebdo killings. After the beheading of 21 Copts on a Libyan beach Barack Obama called upon the world to "continue to lift up the voices of Muslim clerics and scholars who teach the true peaceful nature of Islam."
The claim that Islam is a 'religion of peace' first appeared in the 20th century.
One may well ask how "the religion of peace" became a brand of Islam, for the phrase cannot be found in the Qur'an, nor in the teachings of Muhammad.
Islam was first called the "religion of peace" as late as 1930, in the title of a book published in India by Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi. The phrase was slow to take off, but by the 1970s it was appearing more and more frequently in the writings of Muslims for Western audiences.
What does "religion of peace" actually mean?
Words for "peace" in European languages imply the absence of war, and freedom from disturbance. It is no coincidence that the German words Friede (peace) and frei (free) sound similar, because they come from the same root.
While there is a link in Arabic between salam, a word often translated "peace," and Islam, the real connection is found in the idea of safety.
The word Islam is based upon a military metaphor. Derived from aslama (surrender) its primary meaning is to make oneself safe (salama) through surrender. In its original meaning, a Muslim was someone who surrendered in warfare.
Thus, Islam did not stand for the absence of war, but for one of its intended outcomes: surrender leading to the "safety" of captivity. It was Muhammad himself who said to his non-Muslim neighbors aslim taslam, "surrender (i.e. convert to Islam) and you will be safe."
The religion of peace slogan has not gone uncontested. It has been rejected by many, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Melanie Phillips writing for The Times, who called it "pure myth." Even among Muslims the phrase has not only been challenged by radical clerics such as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, but also by mainstream Muslim leaders.
Western leaders invariably respond to Muslim terrorism with pronouncements about Islam's peacefulness.
readily accept this 'defense' as valid and begin bringing forth one piece of evidence after another to demonstrate that Islam is, indeed, a peaceable, conciliatory religion which has no reason to interfere in others' affairs. ... The aim ... is to erase the notion of jihad from the minds of all Muslims.
There does seem to be something to Al-Buti's theory, for it has invariably been after acts of violence done in the name of Islam that Western leaders have seen fit to make theological pronouncements about Islam's peacefulness. Who are they trying to convince?
In the long run this cannot be a fruitful strategy. It invites mockery, such as Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada's riposte to George Bush's declaration that "Islam is peace." Abu Qatada asked: "Is he some kind of Islamic scholar?" |
0.951745 | Part of the scriptural canon of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (members of which are often referred to as Mormons), along with the King James version of the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants (a record of revelations received during the 19th century) and the Pearl of Great Price.
1 Nephi begins in ancient Jerusalem around 600BC, at roughly the same time as the book of Jeremiah in the Bible. It tells the story of Lehi, his family and several others as they are led by God to travel from Jerusalem to the Americas. 1 Nephi - Omni recount the group's dealings from around 600BC to around 130BC, in which they grow to a sizeable number, and eventually split into two groups, the Nephites and the Lamanites.
The Words of Mormon, written in AD 385, is a short introduction to the books of Mosiah, Alma, 3 Nephi and 4 Nephi. Mormon compiled The Book of Mormon (thus the name). He included the original records comprising 1 Nephi - Omni, then abridged a large quantity of collected records detailing the national history from the end of Omni until his own time.
3 Nephi contains an account of the visit of the glorified, resurrected Jesus Christ to the Americas after his ministry in Jerusalem. Here he gives much of the same instruction given in the Gospels of the Bible, and establishes an enlightened, peaceful society which endures several generations.
Mormon is an account of the events which occurred during Mormon's life, after the enlightened society of 3 and 4 Nephi had deteriorated yet again into warring groups.
Ether is another abridgement by Mormon, this time of the records of a much earlier civilization beginning at the time of the tower of Babel. In this account, a man named Jared, his family and others were led by God to the Americas before the languages were confounded and formed a civilization long before Lehi's family arrived. Mormon placed this account after the end of his own work, before turning over the record to his son Moroni.
Moroni witnesses the final destruction of his people and the idolatrous state of the remaining society. He adds a few spiritual insights and mentions some important doctrinal teachings, and ends the book with an invitation to pray to God for a confirmation of the truthfulness of the account.
The original record was engraved on thin sheets of gold and bound with rings at one edge, much like a modern book. At the end of Moroni's ministry (around AD 421), he hid these gold plates along with several other artifacts in a stone box.
In 1823, Joseph Smith was directed by God to the place where the plates were stored. He was not immediately allowed to take them, but was eventually entrusted with them. With God's help he was able to translate the characters (described in The Book of Mormon as being a variant of Egyptian) into English.
The gold plates were quite heavy, and were consequently much sought-after by those monetarily inclined. Church history records many attempts by others to find and take the plates from Joseph Smith.
Joseph was allowed to show the plates to several people, and these accounts are recorded in the front of The Book of Mormon as "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" and "The Testimony of Eight Witnesses". After translation was complete, an angel received the plates from Joseph Smith, and no public account of their whereabouts has been made since.
It is worth noting that, in contrast with the Bible, the historic claims of the Book of Mormon have not been widely corroborated by archeologists. For example, it is commonly noted that while the Book of Mormon makes references to swords and horses, neither swords nor horse remains have ever been found in America predating their introduction by the Europeans.
There have been changes in wording of the text of the Book of Mormon since it was initially printed.
And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.
the word white was replaced with the word pure. Lists of the changes since the first printing can be found numerous places online, and Project Gutenberg has the text of an early edition which can be compared with current editions.
These textual changes to the Book of Mormon are often presented by its critics as proof of changing doctrines within the church, or of the imperfection of the book as a scriptural foundation. |
0.999672 | How to care for yourself when you have a preemie, advice from a preemie's father.
Unplug your phone (or at least screen your calls).
Every time the phone rings, panic begins to race through your body. You're just sure it will be a doctor calling to give you bad news. When you answer, it's just Uncle Billy checking in on your, or the neighbor checking in on you, or the lady at the grocery store checking on you Everyone wants to talk to you and they feel obligated to call. It's amazing how many people have your number.
Get someone to be your point-man.
Because of what I just mentioned about, have someone else fielding all the calls, telling the story over and over. Believe me, it will wear you down faster than anything else if you don't.
Summarize events in a newsletter of web site.
We wrote a newsletter every 2 weeks and mailed it to those interested and left it lying around in our respective office. As I mentioned, the web was still pretty young and not many of my friends and relatives had access, but today, I would put the information on my web site and let them come to the information. That way everyone gets the same story and no one will feel left out.
Not only for your own reflection later, but also keep tabs on the situations that arise. The doctors and nurses are extremely professional and do a fantastic job, but, as it was in Jacob's case, accidents do happen. Documentation is always your friend.
You have to take a day off every now and then. You'll feel guilty as hell, but 24 hours away from the hospital and a full night's sleep will help you relax and renew your spirit. You can always call in and talk to the nurses on duty as much as you like, but don't go in for a full day. It's not so much that you deserve a day off. It's more that you need a day off.
Meet another family in the NICU.
It really helped us to find a young couple like ourselves who we could share the experience with. Even though their child went through completely different circumstances, we could talk, cry, laugh and worry together.
Talk to the doctors and nurses and ask questions regarding each and every treatment, test, medication, etc. this is your child and you need to be informed about what they are doing and why they are doing it. |
0.98415 | This set of color maps implements the suggested RGB values from the set palette section of the Gnuplot manual. The traditional pm3d palette is the return value for the palette method when it cannot figure out which palette you are asking for. I have a question about a handsome colorpalette for 2d contour plots in gnuplot. Based on the gnuplot manual and help function, I figured out that there are some predefined colors palettes like: Palette color gnuplot manual Gnuplotting gnuplotpalettes.
Code. Issues 1. Pull requests 0. Projects 0 Insights Dismiss Color palettes for gnuplot. In order to use a palette load it at the beginning of your gnuplot file via. load ' palette. pal ' Replace palette by the name of your desired palette, which are listed below. # # Color Models# set palette color set pm3d map set xrange [10: 10 unset ztics unset ytics set samples 101 set Palette color gnuplot manual 2 set xtics 2 set palette rgbformulae 7, 5, 15 set palette model RGB rgbformulae 7, 5, 15 set title" set palette model RGB rgbformulae 7, 5, 15" splot f(x) The color is added by applying the Moreland color palette, which we discussed earlier.
The palette is defined in an extra file and loaded, this enables easy reuse of defined palettes. The palette is defined in an extra file and loaded, this enables easy reuse of defined palettes.
Gnuplot: controlling colours and ranges of set palette. By the way, is there any extensive manual for gnuplot that you recommend? stupidity Aug 7 '12 at 0: 07. gnuplot palette, default and defined. 1. Varying filling colour in Gnuplot according to certain palette. 1. Color Names and Their Numerical Equivalent; Name Test Hex Code Test RGB; aliceblue: F0F8FF: 240, 248, 255: antiquewhite: FAEBD7: 250, 235, 215: aqua: 00FFFF CONTENTSgnuplot 5.
25 Lines 64 Linespoints 64 Parallelaxes 65 Points 65 Steps 65 Rgbalpha 66 Rgbimage 66 Vectors 66 Xerrorbars 66 Xyerrorbars 67 Yerrorbars 67 gnuplot text color palette. Ask Question.
up vote 3 down vote favorite. 1. Unfortunately, gnuplot can only color the entire string" Number of Connections". You can influence the color using the additional frac option. It involves some manual settings, though, as I'll explain below: This way, the current gnuplot color palette can be loaded into other imaging applications, for example Octave.
Additionally to this textual list of RGB table, you can use the palette command to plot the R, G, B profiles for the current palette. The following options determine the coloring properties. CONTENTS gnuplot 4. 0 5 36. 9 Clip. . 58 36. 10 Cntrparam Graytorgb mapping can be manually set by use of palette defined: A color gradient is defined and used to give the rgb values.
Such a gradient is a piecewise linear mapping from gray values in [0, 1 to the RGB space [0, 1x[0, 1x[0, 1. |
0.999998 | Is there a strategy for consistent winning in the base dominion game with the base setup?
We play "tournament style" where you can pick your first 2 cards to purchase.
Maybe my initial buys are not so good?
I usually start out with smithy+silver, and then pick up a mine when I get my first $5. From then on I usually do: $2=cellar, $3=silver, $4=silver, maybe one more smithy, $5=market, maybe silver, $6-7=gold, $8=province.
Basically I'm trying to do some variant of "smithy big money" but it isn't working out so well.
Does any one have a consistent strategy for the base game that works?
Open with Militia and Silver.
Get a remodel on turn 2 to get rid of your bad cards and maybe throw in a smithy or another militia. Skip the mine, it's not really that great a card in this set as it gets pretty useless towards the endgame, whereas with remodel you can still turn gold into provinces.
If you have 3, buy a silver for the first few turns, then maybe switch to village or nothing once silver ends up being one of the worst cards in your deck. At 4, buy maybe 1 smithy, then go with one of the 3 options. At 5, take a market as it's better than silver 95% of the time. At 6-7 take gold, at 8 take a province unless its really early in the game.
Once you get to the point where you only have <2 reshuffles in your deck, but nothing but victory cards! Even take an estate if you have to. At this point, your will only draw each card in your deck about 2 more times, so that duchy starts looking way better than a gold, since the you'll barely be able to use the gold at all.
Forget that workshop, woodcutter, and mine exist. Take 1 moat only if people are getting lot of militias. Maybe take a cellar if you end up with a lot of copper and estates in your deck despite your use of remodel. Take a cellar only if you want to use a lot of actions and already have plenty of silver. Take village if you have a lot of action cards in your deck and consistently not enough actions to play them.
My favorite Dominion article, Building the "First Game" Engine, looks at this problem. The article works out some very good strategies, comparing them to a baseline of Big Money + Smithy. They run simulations to "prove" which one is best. A Village/Smithy/Province (V/S/P) strategy beats Big Money + Smithy a little more than half the time, and eventually the find a strategy that beats V/S/P a whoppping 89% of the time. Best of all, the article showcases the depth that a single set of 10 kingdom cards can have.
Their best answer is complicated (surprising to some, given the common overestimation of Big Money + 1 or 2 other card strategies). It uses a Workshop to pick up early Villages and a Remodel, a Mine, several Smithies and eventually a Militia, with Markets and Cellars "sprinkled in".
Of course it's not a definitive "best solution", but it's several clear steps ahead of an already very competitive baseline.
You are buying way too many actions that don't actually combine well. Try buying a single Smithy, and then buy the first thing you can afford from this list for the rest of the game: Province, Gold, Silver. Literally, that's it. You'll be able to buy your share of the Provinces in 14 turns, on average, which is a solid strategy.
Smithy/ Village is a good combination to have a few of, as it will allow you to draw a lot of cards in your hand. A single workshop very early can help to get the silver flowing, and help to get Smithy/Village cards, but no more. From there, buy Province, Gold, or Silver as you can.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged dominion or ask your own question.
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0.964959 | do you want to end patriarchy or preserve cis supremacy?
This narrative that we should focus on cis women's issues and "address the nonbinary question" in the future is so pervasive, entrenched, and troublesome. What it shows is that many feminists are fighting for cis supremacy, not the end of patriarchy (there is a difference).
If you were really interested in ending patriarchy you would recognize that relying on the gender binary to advance your political claims and secure justice means that you are not fighting for total and complete liberation.
Challenging the gender binary helps EVERYONE, not *just* nonbinary and gender non-conforming people. This is not about a disgruntled minority overstepping our bounds and speaking for a majority -- this is about a concerted effort by people of various genders to dream and imagine a way of living in the world where our personhood, our safety, and our dignity are not linked to gender.
Your body -- every body -- should have an intrinsic worth for being, a right to self-definition and authorship, a right to choose your own gender, a right to existing outside of the mandate and mechanisms of gender itself. No doctor, no politician, no parent, no document, no policy should be able to decide your gender for you.
The reason trans and gender non-conforming people critique feminism is not because we are "divisive," it is because we know intimately how detrimental the gender binary has been not just in our own lives, but in the lives of the communities that we are from and the people that we love.
We believe you -- and we -- are worth so much more than having our bodies belong to gender and not ourselves. We believe that you -- and we -- are worth so much more than having all of our uniqueness, our differentness, our complexity be glossed over in the service of homogenizing billions of people into one of two categories. We believe that your -- and our -- existence is so complicated, so nuanced, so textured, so vast, so incredible that no one category can hold all of our multitudes. |
0.939257 | What are the advantages of commencing online businesses?
You asked really very interesting question about online business. Present time is giving a best opportunity for starting online business. There are many source available for starting a online business. Most big advantage of online business is it has not requires big investment. We can also just start with a low capital and other thing is that online business is a very easy task than other business opportunities. Online business not required more people, even one person can also commence online business. This is a overview of online business's advantages but if you want to more details then i could give you okay. Thanks for giving a this opportunity to sharing my experience to you.
The experience is the great reward.
Small business technology is an important small business program. It can be expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development arena. This is a good for business. There are so many business technology available in the market.
Business online presence means more bigger market share, more consumers i.e. more sales, that create positive cash flow as well increase your profits.
You don't need to travel. You always have the freedom to work anytime you like. |
0.999985 | Identify the most recent national commitment on reducing ghg emissions (INDCs) made by the country and the date on which it was made.
On September 28th, 2015 the Government of Peru submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) document to the UNFCCC, in which they committed to a reduction of emissions equivalent to 30% below the projected business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2030 (Republic of Peru 2015). Of these planned reductions, 20% are unconditional which means that they will occur through “domestic investment and expenses”, while the remaining 10% are conditional upon the availability of international financing and the “existence of favourable conditions” (2). The government acknowledges, however, “significant room for upgrading the INDC on subsequent review phases” (6). The Peruvian INDC also outlines a number of adaptation measures, focusing on the sectors and systems that are seen as particularly vulnerable to climate change: water, agriculture, fishery, forestry and health (9).
Although Peru does not go into much detail about the particularities of their mitigation actions in the INDC document itself, they build upon the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) that Peru has been developing since 2010 and which are reflected in Peru’s National Strategy on Climate Change. These actions are aimed at achieving a zero deforestation rate by 2021, 33% renewable energy profile by 2020, and the design and implementation of measures to reduce emissions from solid waste management (Carmelo & Del Biondo 2015; MINAM 2014a; GIZ 2012; Piu & Garcia 2011). Some have calculated that approximately 70% of the mitigation efforts Peru has committed to are therefore likely to be achieved in the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, while the remaining 30% will come from emission reductions in energy, transport, industrial, and waste sectors (Climate Action Tracker 2015; Carranza 2015).
Given that any national ghg emissions reduction target is implicitly a position on an atmospheric ghg concentration that will avoid dangerous climate change, to what extent has the nation expressly identified an atmospheric ghg level target goal or a warming limit that its INDC is designed to achieve and is it possible to quantitatively examine how the ghg emission target links quantitatively to an atmospheric ghg concentration or carbon budget?
Peru clearly states that it has “defined its mitigation commitment in order to participate in the collective effort to keep global warming below the 1.5 C° – 2.0 C°” (11). However, they offer no way to quantitatively measure or assess whether and how their stated contributions relate to this goal or how they have determined what their ‘fair share’ of mitigation responsibility to be, stating only that the 1.5 C° – 2.0 C° target is to be “met through the efforts of all countries in accordance to science and the principles of differentiated equity”, although they do not elaborate upon what kind of differentiation would be considered an equitable one (12). Although Peru states that its intended actions are “fair and ambitious” (6), some analysts have claimed that Peru’s commitments are not in line with a 2 C° maximum temperature increase unless other countries make “much deeper reductions and comparably greater effort” (Climate Action Tracker 2015). Refuting such claims would require that Peru explain more specifically how they have determined their GHG reduction target vis-à-vis the stated goal of a maximum1.5 C° – 2.0 C° temperature increase.
Given that any national ghg emissions reduction target is implicitly a position on what ethics, justice and equity requires of it, to what extent has the nation expressly identified the justice or equity basis that it has considered in determining a ghg emissions reduction target percentage level?
Although Peru does not explicitly identify a particular ethical basis for their intended contributions, some implicit notions of justice and equity can be identified. At the most basic level, Peru has recognized that they have a certain amount of responsibility with respect to climate change, stating that Peru is “responsible for its actions” (2) and, elsewhere, that Peru is a “climatically responsible country, at the national level” (MINAM 2014b, 5, author’s translation). Peru expands slightly upon these vague notions of responsibility in the INDC by committing to “increase the promotion, development and implementation” of mitigation and adaptation actions in order to “meet the ethical responsibilities at the national and international levels” (1). Although this seems to imply that Peru recognizes an ethical responsibility both to its own people as well as globally, the ethical determinants of this responsibility (why it exists, what is consists of, and to whom specifically it applies) are not made explicit, and there are no other explicit references made to ethical concepts or framings in the INDC. There have been indications that Peru’s climate change policy is driven, in part, by ethical principles concerning the duty to meet commitments derived from international treaties and agreements (MINAM 2015a, 106); however, this emphasis is perhaps unsurprising, given Peru’s role as host of the 2014 COP and continuing presidency of the UNFCCC and the undeniable impact that has on both the framing and content of Peru’s own domestic commitments.
Language of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ (and related discussions of what that concept implies or requires of a country) that is a veritable staple amongst developing country submissions is also largely absent from Peru’s INDC, which calls only for “the efforts of all countries in accordance to science and the principles of differentiated equity [CBDR]” (12). They do not, however, expand upon what ‘differentiated equity’ means for Peru and how it relates to their commitments and/or what they expect of others. A 2014 interview with Environmental Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal however clearly suggests that, for Peru, the standing principle of CBDR does not mean, “any country should be exonerated from fulfilling its duties” (quoted in Portillo 2015), suggesting again that Peru acknowledges a certain amount of ethical responsibility to address climate change, despite their position as an non-Annex I (developing country) party to the UNFCCC.
That is not to say that Peru denies that there are differing level of responsibility to address climate change between developed and developing countries, and that developing countries will need assistance in order to achieve or deepen their mitigation and adaptation goals (recall that 10% of Peru’s intended 30% reductions are ‘conditional’ upon the availability of international financing and the “existence of favourable conditions” at the international level). However, unlike other developing countries with similar conditionality clauses in their INDCs, Peru does not draw upon ethical or justice-based justifications such as historical or climate debt in order to demand assistance from developed countries. Also unlike other developing countries, Peru refrains from referencing as a initial caveat in their INDC submission UNFCCC Article 4.7, which states that “…economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country parties” and that any actions taken by developing countries will depend upon the commitments and assistance of developed countries. Rather, Peru chooses to refer at the outset of its commitments to the ‘two pillars’ under which COP20 in Lima was conducted, which were ‘urgency’ and ‘high level of ambition’ (1).
Generally speaking then, the Peruvian INDC and related climate policy documents focus heavily on the ‘what’ of climate change action, with very little emphasis on the ‘why’ beyond a few somewhat vague references to ‘responsibility’. However, given Peru’s unique role vis-à-vis the UNFCCC process and the international spotlighting of their INDCs as a result, their tendency towards use of an optimistic, win-win discourse in lieu of more polemical framings such as historical responsibility and climate/adaptation debt is perhaps not surprising.
To what extent, if any, has the national debate about the nation’s INDC considered or acknowledged that the nation not only has economic interests in setting its ghg target but also ethical obligations to those who are most vulnerable to climate change?
Peru is quite emphatic about the economic opportunities associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the potential synergies between climate action and sustainable growth and development within Peru. While other developing countries tend to imply a significant economic trade-off between climate mitigation and domestic development priorities, Peru emphasizes that they have experienced significant economic growth as of late, “while complying with the country’s international commitments and domestic action necessary to face the conditions imposed by Climate change” (Article 1). This emphasis on economic opportunity is a much more dominant framing throughout Peru’s INDC submission than is any emphasis on ethics or responsibility.
Peru also makes it clear though that they are considered “particularly vulnerable” to the impacts of climate change, according to the UNFCCC’s nine characteristics of vulnerability (7). They also mention their low levels of historical and current emissions (estimated at 0.3% of global total as of 2010), as well as their relatively low per capita emission levels in comparison to both the Latin American Region and the world (ibid). Despite their high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and relatively low historical and per capita contributions to global GHG concentrations, Peru does not focus exclusively on the ethical responsibilities developed countries have to Peru given these facts. They also do not explicitly acknowledge any ethical responsibility towards other, poorer countries or peoples, beyond vague references to ‘national and international ethical commitments’ (1). Rather, Peru seems to imply that the ethical responsibility of the Peruvian government is to its own people, all of whom are exposed to the impacts of climate change, but with a particular focus on those segments and sectors of the population that are most acutely vulnerable (9). Thus, states that it will prioritize adaptation to climate change along as well as addressing poverty and inequality at the national level, but that these efforts will necessarily be accompanied by a “significant reduction of GHG emissions” (6; MINAM 2014a, 39).
To what extent have NGOs or other major participants engaged in climate change policy formation at the national level examined the national INDC from an ethics, justice, or equity perspective?
Although there has been some emphasis on the importance of procedural equity in the formation of the INDCs and related climate policies (Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) 2015), civil society actors engaged in climate change policy formation in Peru have for the most part not drawn explicitly on ethical discourses when evaluating the commitments made in the INDC and related policy documents. In fact, the particular content of the INDC submission itself has not been a matter of much analysis, with Civil Society focusing more so on the closely related National Strategy on Climate Change (MINAM 2014a), which goes into much more detail (and therefore offers much more opportunity for controversy) about the operational details of Peru’s climate policy than does the INDC submission itself. For example, although some major civil society groups interested in climate policy have critiqued the National Strategy for Climate Change for lacking ambition (particularly given Peru’s COP presidency), lacking specificity, and insufficient consideration of cross-sectoral policy implications (Carmelo & Del Biondo 2015; Grupo Perú COP 2015), these critiques are framed in largely pragmatic terms rather than employing ethical or justice-based framings or critiques. However, according to a leading Peruvian climate NGO – Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climático – a number of Peruvian organizations will be taking to the streets in November of 2015 as part of the World Climate March to demand a “just” climate agreement in Paris (MOCICC 2015). This suggests the existence of an underlying concern with climate justice within certain sectors civil society, even if these concerns have not yet been prominent in their critiques of Peru’s climate policies to date.
Perhaps the only actor that has notably taken issue with the deeper principles of equity and justice on which Peru’s climate policy is based has been national indigenous organizations (primarily AIDESEP). In various forums relating to climate policy – in particular that involving forest and other land-use issues – indigenous groups have been very vocal in opposing market mechanisms that mercantilize’ and attempt to sell nature (considered sacred to Peruvian indigenous groups). They also more specifically the generation of carbon offsets (particularly those from avoided deforestation projects) that let developed countries ‘off the hook’ for their climate debt while failing to recognize and compensate the indigenous communities who have historically cared for and maintained the services of forests and other ecosystems. Finally, they call upon the government to adhere to its international obligations to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including recognition of ‘historical debt’ in recognizing indigenous lands (AIDESEP 2011). There is currently no publically available documentation suggesting that indigenous organizations have evaluated the final, submitted INDC in terms of its adherence to their ethical principles; however, one would assume that these concerns were raised during the public consultations phase for the draft INDC document in which indigenous groups took part (see answer to Question #8).
To what extent has the national media covered issues concerning the national INDC with respect to ethical, justice, and equity issues?
National media coverage of the INDC specifically has been somewhat limited, while national media coverage of Peru’s climate policy in general has tended to overwhelmingly reflect the trends outlined above concerning civil society responses (concerns about participatory inclusion and concerns on recent passing of somewhat contradictory policies for mining, etc.).
Before any nation may adopt an INDC or climate policy it often has to satisfy national economic interests. Yet many nations fail to disclose the national economic interests that have actually affected the lack of aggressiveness of the national INDC when commitments are made under the UNFCCC. Given this, what is known about the actual basis for the aggressiveness of the national INDC?
Peru goes to great lengths in their INDC submission to highlight the perceived economic advantages of taking action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Peru emphasizes that any domestic climate action will be done in conjunction with “maintaining a highly competitive economy” (3) which is “in line with the new global trends” (1) towards decarbonization and green growth, suggesting that addressing climate change is complementary to, rather than in conflict with, domestic economic growth and development. In related policy documents, Peru further elaborates this synergistic relationship between domestic economic development and action on climate change by stating that addressing climate change is a prerequisite to sustainable development within the Peru (MINAM 2014a, 32) that will allow them to “maximise the social and environmental benefits of efficient and inclusive productive sectors” which is the result of sustainable use of natural resources (1). Given the perceived low costs and potentially high social and economic benefits of reducing emissions for a country with Peru’s developmental profile and GHG emission composition, Peru therefore claims that they are fortunate to be in a position to “correct the curve” of emissions growth without affecting economic growth and environmental and social sustainability that must accompany it (MINAM 2014a, 24).
Despite the dominant rhetoric about synergies, some have suggested that the government’s ambition has been stifled as a result of pressures from certain ‘sectors’ with economic interests in reducing the government’s emission reduction goal (although it is not clear which sectors in particular this refers to) (Grupo Perú COP 2015). Others have accused the government of using lofty rhetoric concerning the environment in public forums (particularly as it relates to climate change), while continuing to support environmentally damaging but politically powerful extractivist sectors within Peru (Carmelo & Del Biondo, 2015; “Open letter to Peru” 2014; Yeo 2014). Most notably, civil society groups have drawn attention to the government’s recent approval of an economic reform package that weakens environmental protections and standards in order to promote private investment in the wake of the recent economic downturn, suggesting that the government does see some trade-offs between environmental protectionism and economic growth (Carmelo & Del Biondo, 2015; Edwards et al. 2015; 2015). Although these developments have not been linked directly to the level of climate ambition indicated in Peru’s INDC submission, actions taken to encourage or facilitate investment in sectors such as mining, agriculture and forestry are bound to conflict with, or at least constrain, Peru’s performance in climate mitigation and adaptation and therefore will undoubtedly impact Peru’s climate actual achievements, even if they have not directly or obviously limited their stated aspirations.
What formal mechanisms are available in the nation for citizens, NGOs and other interested organizations to question/contest the nation’s ethical position on climate change?
Several formal mechanisms have been developed in Peru over the past decade to facilitate the participation of societal actors in the formation of climate policy, although whether actors have been able to challenge the government’s ethical position (and how successful those challenges have been) is somewhat unclear. Prima facie, the participatory mechanisms for climate policy in Peru are made to seem fairly extensive; for example, the government ran several workshops for the formation of the general Environmental Agenda – which includes provisions relevant for climate change policy – through national-level workshops as well as a month-long consultative process with regional governments (MINAM 2015a, 100). There is also a National Climate Change Commission, established in 1993 and modified in 2009 and 2013, with the goal of involving various sectors (public and private) in the elaboration and implementation of climate change polices within Peru (MINAM 2014a, 34).
In a document outlining Peru’s position in the lead-up to COP21 the government claims that Peru’s climate change policy is constructed through a ‘constant and transparent dialogue’ with an openness to listening to the inputs of all relevant actors, consisting of three periods of workshops, forums, and debates (see MINAM 2015b). An initial draft of the INDC specifically seems to have undergone a lengthy process of public consultation in the months leading up to its submission (June 5th to July 17th, 2015), which included input from national and sub-national governmental entities, as well as civil society representatives and indigenous organizations; however, the government claims that the general content of the INDC under review during this phase was the result of an input process beginning in 2003 that has involved over 100 political and technical meetings incorporating the voices of over 300 experts (1).
There have been some critiques about both the inclusiveness of these processes, as well as the extent to which the government actually incorporates the inputs of various groups, particularly those critical of the government position (see AIDESEP 2013 for an example relating to reducing emissions from avoided deforestation [REDD] policy). It is also unclear whether and how actors involved in these processes were willing or able to challenge the ethical basis of the government’s climate policy specifically; however, given the relative absence of ethical framings or justifications in the INDC submission itself, and the fact that civil society analysis/media coverage of the INDC and related policies have not employed ethical or justice-based lenses when examining the commitments contained therein, one might reasonably assume that ethical issues did not feature heavily in these discussions.
One exception to this may be the successes indigenous groups have had influencing certain aspects of Peru’s climate policy, particularly with respect to the proposed reducing emissions from avoided deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) mechanism. Recognizing that the majority of forested lands in Peru are located in indigenous territories and therefore that indigenous approval of, and participation in, policies to mitigate GHG emissions from deforestation is critical, the Peruvian government has established several forums in recent years in which indigenous groups have been able to influence both the ethical and technical content of Peru’s response to REDD. Compared to the pragmatic and technocratic language used by Peru in many of its climate policy documents, indigenous groups in Peru have been much more emphatic concerning issues of climate justice and historical debt. Most notably, they have vocally opposed market mechanisms that ‘mercantilize’ and attempt to sell nature (considered sacred to Peruvian indigenous groups) in order to generate offsets that let developed countries ‘off the hook’ for their climate debt while failing to recognize and compensate the indigenous communities who have historically cared for and maintained the services of forests and other ecosystems. Indigenous groups also have called used forest-related climate policy forums in particular to pressure the government to adhere to its international obligations to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including recognition of ‘historical debt’ in recognizing indigenous lands (AIDESEP 2011).
These ethical concerns have been recognized and incorporated by the government into climate policy in certain ways (e.g. formal recognition of the non-market based ‘Indigenous REDD’ proposal in domestic policy documents, allocation of REDD funds for the titling of indigenous lands) (Forest People’s Program 2011; Rights and Resources 2013). This suggests a certain openness of the government towards calls for the incorporation of alternative or additional ethical considerations into climate policy decisions. That being said, the ethical and ideological framings employed by indigenous groups have not been overly present in the government’s INDC or related domestic policy documents, and the policies that flow from those ethics have only been partially incorporated. For example, the government does emphasize the particularly vulnerability of indigenous peoples within Peru and indicates an intention to prioritize them for adaptation activities outlined in the INDC; however, they also state support for a REDD mechanism (without mention of the indigenous variant) and admit that Peru is “considering selling emission reductions” (6), which, given Peru’s intended emission reduction profile, are likely to come primarily from forest-related mitigation activities. Thus, although formal mechanisms exist through which indigenous groups have been able to bring government’s ethical position more closely in line with the indigenous perspective, there seems to be reluctance on the behalf of the government to allow the ethical discourse and justifications used by indigenous groups to creep into their international policy statements and submissions. However, as mentioned in Question #3, Peru’s COP presidency and the particular type of diplomacy that such a role entails may have played a role in the choice of discourse employed.
Are you aware of any regional, state, provincial, or local governments in your country that has acknowledged ethical responsibility for climate change? If so, what have they said?
As the entities responsible for elaboration and implementation of environmental policy within Peru, 12 regional governments within Peru have laid out Regional climate change strategies, while 23 others have formed Regional CC Technical Working Groups (as of July 2014) (MINAM 2014a, 34). However, there is no evidence that any of these sub-national efforts were inspired or justified in terms of an ethical responsibility for climate change.
Has your national government taken any position on or otherwise encouraged individuals, businesses, organizations, subnational governments, or other entities that they have an ethical duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
The Government of Peru has stated that, “all people and institutions’ must be self-reflective of their resource use, thus suggesting that one dimension of their climate change approach is to “introduce a new dimension of responsibility and action” (p.6). They also state that the participation of the national and international private sectors will enable Peru to meet its emission reduction objectives (5) and call for higher level of involvement of cities in local/regional environmental policy decisions, including climate change (MINAM 2014a, 15). However, the government does not employ ethical or justice based discourses when making such statements, focusing instead on pragmatic considerations such as the need to reduce vulnerability and capitalise upon economic opportunity.
What recommendations would you make to get the nation or civil society in the country to take ethics and justice issues seriously in climate change policy formulation?
Unlike some of its regional counter-parts that emphasize issues of historical responsibility, international inequality, and climate/adaptation debt when positioning themselves vis-à-vis Annex-I countries, Peru has tended to focus on matters of equity and justice within the country while maintaining an optimistic and fairly inoffensive discourse concerning its role in the broader process of climate governance. Thus, Peru’s policy statements tend to focus on the government’s responsibility towards its own people (given their high levels of vulnerability to climate change) as well as the economic opportunities associated with certain mitigation and adaptation options.
Generally speaking then, Peru has chosen not to incorporate explicitly ethical and justice-based discourses into its climate change policy documents; however, that does not mean that their national commitments are inconsistent with what ethics and justice would demand of the country. Whether and how ethics and justice have been taken into consideration when formulating policies is at times a separate issue from the words chosen to present and justify those policies. Peru’s role as the host of the 2014 COP and continuing presidency likely impacted their ability or desire to use certain framings such as climate or adaptation debt, historical responsibility, and loss and compensation for damages, as these may have proven too polemical for a country whose mandate as President of the COP was to encourage cooperation and conciliation.
Although Peru may be more willing to engage with ethical calculations and justifications once their COP presidency is over, given concerns about the government’s prioritization of economic (read: extractivist) development over environmental protectionism, civil society groups may want to capitalize on the moral authority of ethics-based rhetoric (including magnifying the ‘domestic responsibility’ approach that Peru has itself used to justify its position) to ensure not only that commitments are met, but also that they are worthy of meeting. Although they are not perfect, solid mechanisms for civil society participation exist within Peru that give societal actors relatively good access to decision-makers; however, civil society still needs to take more seriously the utility of ethics-based policy analysis and the efficacy of ethical and justice-based discourse. If the Government of Peru’s commitments were to become more closely linked with an ethical position, this may increase their accountability to their own people moving forward while at the same time strengthening an international discourse that could inspire, if not require, more ambitious commitments on the behalf of industrialized nations.
AIDESEP (2013), ‘Carta No. 021-2013-AIDESEP’, available at http://www.redd-monitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CARTA-021-2013-AIDESEP.pdf, accessed 2014 September 15.
AIDESEP (2011), ‘Construyendo REDD Indígena’, available at http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2011/03/aidesepreddindigenasp.pdf, accessed 2014 January 15.
Carmelo, C. and Del Biondo, K. (2015, June), ‘Análsis comparativo de las estrategias nacionales de cambio climático de la región de Latinoamética y El Caribe’, Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climático (MOCICC), available at http://www.mocicc.org/index.php?option=com_docman&view=document&alias=34-analisis-comparativo-de-las-estrategias-nacionales-de-cambio-climatico-de-la-region-de-latinoamerica-y-el-caribe&category_slug=publicaciones&Itemid=275, accessed 2015 September 15.
Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) (2015, March 16), ‘Demanda Grupo Perú COP un proceso participativo y transparente para INDC’, retrieved from http://www.can-la.org/es/noticia/demanda-grupo-per-atilde-%20ordm-cop-un-proceso-participativo-y-transparente-para-indc, accessed 2015 November 03.
Edwards, G., Roberts, J.T., Araya, M. and Retamal, C. (2015, May), ‘A new global agreement can catalyze climate action in Latin America’ [policy paper 2015-03], Brookings Institute; Washington, DC.
Forest Peoples Program (2011, July 07), ‘Determined lobbying by Peruvian national indigenous organization – AIDESEP – leads to government commitment to address outstanding indigenous territorial claims’, available at http://www.forestpeoples.org/nl/node/2327, accessed 2015 September 04.
GIZ (2012), ‘Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA)’, available at http://www.spc.int/lrd/publications/doc_download/1650-nationally-appropriate-mitigation-action-nama, accessed 2015 November 01.
Grupo Perú COP (2015, September 01), ‘Carta Abierta del Grupo Perú COP’, retrieved from http://www.infoandina.org/es/content/carta-abierta-del-grupo-per%C3%BA-cop-exigimos-se-mantenga-la-ambici%C3%B3n-en-las-contribuciones, accessed 2015 November 03.
MINAM (2015a), ‘AgendAmbiente Perú 2015-2016: agenda nacional de acción ambiental’, available at http://sinia.minam.gob.pe/documentos/agendambiente-peru-2015-2016, accessed 2015 July 15.
MINAM (2015b), ‘Construyendo participativamentela Contribución Nacional: propuesta del Perú (iNDC) para consulta pública’, available at http://www.minam.gob.pe/wpcontent/uploads/2015/06/contribucion-iNDC21.pdf, accessed 2015 September 08.
MINAM (2014a), ‘Estrategia nacional ante el cambio climático’, available at http://www.minam.gob.pe/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Estrategia-Nacional-ante-el-Cambio-Climatico_ENCC.pdf, accessed 2015 September 28.
MINAM (2014b), ‘La ruta hacia la COP21: semanas del compromiso climático’, available at http://www.minam.gob.pe/peruclimatico/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2015/04/Ruta-Hacia-la-COP21_Semanas-Clim%C3%A1ticas_final-280415.pdf, accessed 2015 October 15.
MOCICC (2015, October 28), ‘Organizaciones peruanas se organizan con miras a la gran Marcha Mundial por el Clima’ [blog post], available at http://www.mocicc.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=217:organizaciones-peruanas-se-organizan-con-miras-a-la-gran-marcha-mundial-por-el-clima&Itemid=238, accessed November 6 2015.
“Open letter to Peru” (2014, July 08), available at http://eia-global.org/images/uploads/201407_ICS_Letter_OH_Presidencia_COP20_confirmas_ENG_VF.pdf, accessed 2015 November 4.
Che Piu, H. and Garcia, T. (2011), ‘La situación de REDD en el Perú’, Derechos Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), Lima, Perú.
Republic of Peru (2015, September), ‘Intended nationally determined contribution (iNDC) from the Republic of Peru’, available at http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Peru/1/iNDC%20Per%25C3%25BA%20english.pdf, accessed 2015 October 15.
Rights and Resources (2013, August 13), ‘Indigenous participation in REDD+ increases in Peru’, available at http://www.rightsandresources.org/news/indigenous-participation-in-redd-increases-in-peru/, accessed 2015 November 01. |
0.999999 | Where Is Basaksehir in Istanbul?
Located on the European side of Istanbul, Basaksehir district has a very modern and sophisticated infrastructure that attracts local and foreign investors from all parts of the world.
It is one of the most vital areas on the European side of Istanbul, which consists of 39 (municipal) districts, spread between the European and Asian continents on both sides of the city.
The municipality of Basaksehir was established in 2008 after it was separated from the municipality of Kuchukchekmech, it is bordered by Arnavutkoy from the north, Eyub from the north-east, Sultan Ghazi and Esenlar from the east, Baghchilar, Kuchukchekmech and Avchilar from the south, and Esenyurt from the south-west.
Basaksehir is surrounded from the northern region by wide green forests, consists of cypress trees, pine trees and evergreen trees throughout the year, as a river passes through the area, there is also a dam along the river, which flows into Kuchukchekmech Lake, creates beautiful natural areas throughout the district, besides a large artificial lake.
Basaksehir is the most developed area in Istanbul in terms of its modern infrastructure. It has many natural and artificial facilities and has one of the largest and most diverse natural valleys in the Sazledar region. It also contains an ancient natural park, preserving biodiversity and the historic heritage of the area.
The district also includes another valley called water valley, located in the fifth neighborhood of Basaksehir. It covers an area of 45 thousand and 723 square meters. It includes 26,000 square meters of pedestrian roads. There are also a number of vital facilities, such as shopping malls, sports clubs, restaurants, cafes and many other facilities.
The 26,000 m2 famous Basaksehir Lake is Istanbul's largest artificial lake, is located in the Bahcesehir district which is related to Basaksehir. Surrounded by 300,000 m2 of landscaped gardens, adjacent to restaurants, playgrounds, Private clubs, and cafes… The district also has the second largest Square for shows in Istanbul and is used for many different events throughout the year. Theatrical performances, concerts, festivals and Ramadan celebrations are the highlights.
Basaksehir has a protected forest in the Shamlar region, and this forest contains a great diversity of wild animals such as fox, eagle, and many other wild animals. In addition to large green spaces designed for hiking, it was allocated by the municipality of Basaksehir to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, this forest extends over an area of approximately 50 square kilometers.
A public university is soon to be opened in Basaksehir. Several private universities in the district are also opening, including Ibn Khaldun University, which teaches a number of courses in Arabic.
There are also a number of Arab and international schools, private schools, and government schools, covering all other stages of education, from kindergarten and to high school.
On the health level, there is a large public hospital in Basaksehir, along with 23 medical centers from state-run clinics; and a large number of private hospitals; the government has recently embarked on the establishment of an integrated health city in Basaksehir, the largest of its kind on the European continent.
Eight specialized hospitals, with a capacity of 2,000 and 682 beds, equipped with the latest medical technology, are being built to make the new hospitals among the largest hospitals in the country.
These hospitals will be divided in terms of specialization to Children's Hospital, General Hospital, Obstetrics, and Gynecology Hospital, Cancer Hospital, Neurosurgery and Arthritis Hospital, Cardiac Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital.
On the municipal level, the Turkish government is constructing a 60,000 m2 large central square in Basaksehir and is expected to be the second largest square in Istanbul, doubling the size of the famous Taksim Square.
A network of underground transport runs down the square, it reaches other European and Asian districts of Istanbul and facilitates transportation to and from the district.
The square is surrounded by a number of vital facilities such as Europe's largest botanical garden, covering 368,000 square meters, parking for thousands of cars, many restaurants and cafés, and a large mosque for 5,000 worshipers.
Basaksehir depends on a strong network of transport, such as public and private buses, and the metro line, and there is a connecting station that facilitates access to important areas in Istanbul, such as Ataturk International Airport and the Marmaray train linking the European and Asian continents. The state is working on a new tram line in Basaksehir, at a cost of 450 million Turkish liras.
Basaksehir is a rich social environment with many shopping complexes, theaters, cinemas, conference halls, and celebrations, as well as facilities for people with special needs. The stadium is the largest stadium in the Olympic region, the largest sports stadium in Turkey.
The area is characterized by a young population structure, where the under-20s constitute 40% of the total population.
The area has a very modern infrastructure, which is rated as one of the world's Solutions applied in smart cities globally.
** If you are looking for apartments for sale in Basaksehir, please visit the best and most prestigious residential projects offered by the Imtilak real estate in the area. |
0.998495 | NARRATIVE: Early Saturday morning on April 3rd, 2010 at 3:28 A.M., the Spokane Fire Department responded to a report of a fire in an apartment complex located at 1608 E. Mission. This building is known as the River Ridge Apartments. Engine 8 from the neighborhood fire station at Mission and Rebecca was the first to arrive within minutes and found heavy smoke and fire enveloping the second floor of a two story apartment building. An early call for an additional fire company was made given the large volume of fire and smoke coming from the structure. A rapid fire attack using Engine 8 and Engine 1 with hose lines coupled with a rapid search for occupants using Ladder 2, was coordinated on the second level of the building. At the same time, a ventilation crew consisting of Ladder 1's crew was cutting open the flat roof overhead for the fire crews inside involved in the extinguishment and search efforts. Two adult occupants along with their three children were found to be safe outside of the structure. A rapid knockdown of the flames was achieved after 20 minutes. The fire was confined to the apartment unit on the second floor and portions of the roof. Fire crews were then busy with overhaul work which consists of searching out all areas within the building for hot spots. A top to bottom secondary search of the entire complex was also begun to confirm reports that all occupants were out of the building. The apartment unit was totally destroyed as were most of the contents inside. The apartment unit below the fire sustained water damage from the extinguishing effort.
The Red Cross arrived to assist the occupants with shelter and belongings. In addition to the 5 occupants displaced by the fire, there were 5 occupants in the apartment unit next door and two occupants in the apartment unit below that were also displaced by the fire.
There were 4 engine companies, 2 ladder companies, a rescue unit and 2 battalion chiefs on this alarm. The Special Investigation Unit of the Spokane Fire Department remains on the scene and is currently working towards finding the cause of this fire. Given the advanced fire conditions found upon arrival, the time of night, and the large life hazard in this type of occupancy, the fire was kept relatively small and the majority of the apartment complex was saved. There were no injuries to civilians or firefighters. Fire crews remained on the scene for hours afterward checking hotspots and making sure the fire was completely out.
DAMAGE EXTENT: The apartment unit was completely destroyed by fire and most of the contents which consisted of furnishings and clothing were also consumed. The apartment unit below sustained some water damage and the apartment unit next door received some forcible entry damage because of firefighters efforts to gain access, ventilate and search for occupants. The roof sustained moderate damage from the fire and vertical ventilation actions.
NARRATIVE: At 1:25 AM on Friday, April 2nd the Spokane Fire Department responded to a reported structure fire at 4224 N. Monroe. The caller, a passerby, reported smoke and flames visible. Pumper-Ladder 13 arrived within four minutes and confirmed there were flames coming from the front window and door of a single story duplex. Battalion Chief Dave Haworth arrived on-scene concurrently with 13's and directed them to begin fire attack. As other crews arrived they were assigned to search the main floor and basements of both units of the duplex for victims. One adult female occupant was assisted from the uninvolved unit and evaluated for injuries. She was uninjured. There were no other victims found. The fire was quickly knocked down and confined to the living room and dining room of the fire unit, with heavy heat and smoke damage throughout the remainder of that unit. The uninvolved unit received minor smoke damage.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Spokane Fire Department's Special Investigation Unit.
DAMAGE EXTENT: The fire unit received heavy fire and smoke damage, destroying much of the contents.
NARRATIVE: On April 1, at 2015 hours, the Spokane Fire Dept responded 4 engines, 2 ladders, 1 rescue, and 2 battalion chiefs to a reported structure fire at 2513 N Regal. The first arriving company, SE8, reported heavy smoke and fire coming from a vacant 3 story wood/brick structure. Due to the large volume of fire and the fact that this structure was vacant, the decision was made to attack the fire in a defensive manner. Heavy hose streams and an aerial device were used to apply large volumes of water from several positions. A collapse zone was established to protect firefighters should the walls fail, which in fact did occur. The fire was extinguished in just under 2 hours. There were no injuries to firefighters or civilians.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The cause is currently under investigation by the Spokane Fire Dept Special Investigations Unit.
DAMAGE EXTENT: Damage was confined to the structure, which was a total loss.
NARRATIVE: The Spokane City Fire Department responded firefighting crews and their apparatus to the South Hill for a structure fire at 1021 E. 41st Avenue. The alarm was reported at 07:17 hundred hours this morning, Wednesday, March 31st, 2010. The first arriving fire company reported light smoke coming from the front door of a single-family residence. They reported further that they were going to stretch a hose line to the front door and make entry to locate and extinguish the fire. As additional firefighting resources began arriving on scene they were given various assignments, which included ventilation of the house and pulling additional hose leads to protect the firefighting crews who had already made entry into the fire structure. Other firefighting crews supplied water from the hydrant a block away. The fire structure is a one story single family dwelling with a full basement. The first arriving crew discovered that the fire was in the basement, and it was confined to a laundry dryer. A quick knock down of the fire was achieved with a minimal amount of water.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The cause of the morning fire is being investigated by members of the Spokane City Fire Department's Special Investigation Unit.
DAMAGE EXTENT: No fire damage to the structure had occurred due to the fire being contained within the dryer unit itself. In addition to the dryer, damage was confined to smoke damage throughout the basement and the first floor.
NARRATIVE: On Monday March 29th, 2010 at 9:39 P.M. the Spokane Fire Department responded 3 Engine Companies, 1 Ladder Company, 1 Pumper Ladder Company, a Rescue Unit and 2 Battalion Chiefs to a structure fire in an apartment complex located at 3009 E. 53rd. Upon arrival, first in fire crews found a fire located on an upper floor balcony burning and extending into the exterior wall of the apartment complex. A quick aggressive fire attack using ground ladders, preconnected hose lines, a thermal imaging camera, self contained breathing apparatus, axes and pike poles resulted in a quick knock down of the fire and this limited the fires spread to the interior of the apartment complex where there was a single occupant sleeping. The occupant of this apartment unit was unharmed even though the apartment unit was not equipped with a smoke detector. Due to an alert neighbor who noticed the fire and called 911, and the quick response and aggressive actions of the firefighters, the fire was kept small. Because the fire was quickly engulfing the exterior siding of this apartment, the fire was only minutes away from vertically extending into the soffit space and attic above where the outcome could have been very different for not only this occupant, but for all of the occupants in this complex. A total of 19 firefighters responded to this alarm. The fire cause at this time appears to have started from a discarded cigarette near a planter and wooden bench kept on the exterior balcony. Many people are of the belief that planter material in a container is made of dirt and non-flammable and therefore capable of extinguishing a cigarette. This is not the case. Planter material is in fact very flammable as it is composed of combustible fuel and because this fuel is in fine form, it readily ignites and will sustain flaming combustion. The Spokane Fire Department would like to remind everyone to exercise caution when using ignited materials and to extinguish these materials properly. There were no injuries to firefighters or civilians at this fire.
PROBABLE CAUSE: Improperly discarded cigarette.
DAMAGE EXTENT: Fire damage to exterior balcony decking, bench, exterior siding and insulation.
NARRATIVE: On March 22, 2010 the Spokane Fire Department responded at approximately 7:22 PM to 5408 North Washington on a reported structure fire. The first crew on-scene reported smoke and fire showing at the northeast corner of the 1.5 story, wood framed and concrete block, single family residence. The structure's basement was fully involved with fire and the fire was advancing to the main floor area via an open stair way leading from the basement. The fire was also entering the attic space through a gable vent on the structure's east side. Fire fighters aggressively performed an interior attack on the fire while additional fire crews completed search and rescue, roof ventilation and salvage and overhaul. The fire was brought under control within 30 minutes. One firefighter was transported to a local hospital for a possible leg injury. Nine fire companies with 27 firefighters and 2 chief officers responded to this fire and were on scene for approximately 2.0 hours.
Four adults were displaced by the fire and are being assisted by the Spokane Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The Spokane Fire Department would like to take this opportunity to state the importance of installing properly working smoke detectors through out your home. The occupant's of the home were alerted to the fire in the basement by a smoke detector and were able to safely exit the structure.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The cause of the fire is under investigation by The Spokane Fire Department Special Investigation Unit. |
0.999857 | Red lights to green lights: from 20th century environmental regulation to 21st century sustainability.
Twentieth century environmental protection delivered significant improvements in America's air and water quality and led companies to manage their waste, use of toxic substances, and other environmental impacts with much greater care. But the pace of environmental progress has slowed as the limits of the command-and-control regulatory model have been reached. This Article calls for a new 21st century sustainability strategy that overcomes the ideological, structural, and operational issues that have led to political gridlock and blocked environmental policy reform. It makes the case for a transformed legal framework that prioritizes innovation, requires payment of "harm charges" and an "end to externalities," and shifts toward market-based regulatory strategies that expand business and individual choices rather than government mandates. It further proposes a systems approach to policy that acknowledges tradeoffs across competing aims, integrates economic and energy goals with environmental aspirations, and emphasizes on-the-ground pollution control and natural resource management results. This new approach would go beyond the "red lights" and stop signs of the existing framework of environmental law that centers on telling people what they cannot do, to a broader structure of incentives and "green lights" that would engage the public and the business world in environmental problem solving. Building on the changed circumstances of the 21st century, including the extensive breakthroughs in information and communications technologies, the transformation envisioned would permit a shift in the "environmental possibility frontier" and a lighter and stronger structure of pollution control and resource management that could appeal to Americans from all parts of the political spectrum, making real reform possible after decades of deadlock.
Environmental protection has gone from a realm of broad political consensus in the 1970s to a domain of bitter partisan battles today. As a result, virtually no substantial environmental legislation has moved through Congress in a generation. This gridlock in Washington has stalled efforts to recast our pollution control programs to meet evolving challenges such as climate change, restructure our regulatory toolbox to take advantage of 21st century policy opportunities (notably the advances in information technologies), reframe the country's energy strategy, and advance new approaches to land conservation.
This Article begins with two related questions: Why has environmental progress in America come to a dead stop? What will it take to get political consensus on how to go forward? In answering these two questions, I highlight the need to move from our existing 20th century model of environmental regulation to a new 21st century sustainability strategy (1) that builds on the successes of the past five decades, but acknowledges both that our current circumstances and looming challenges have changed. I argue that the federal-government-led structure of command-and-control mandates worked reasonably well in the 1970s as America launched efforts to address critical concerns about air pollution, water quality, chemical exposure, and land use. But what worked in those early days is no longer our best path forward. Going beyond the usual academic critique of environmental law and policy theory, I highlight the political obstacles that have made systematic reforms of our environmental protection regime impossible to advance. I argue that progress depends on a transformed agenda that addresses both the revealed weaknesses of the current legal framework and the need for a reframed political consensus about energy and the environment.
We've come a long way since Earth Day 1970, which might be seen as the launch of the modern era of environmental law and policy. We've learned a great deal about the spectrum of harms we face; the fate and transport of pollutants; the epidemiological and ecological impacts of emissions; and the environmental effects of choices made in other domains including energy, agriculture, trade, transportation, and the economy. We've come down a long learning curve and now have much more data and analysis about these problems, their causes, the interactions among pollutants, aggregate impacts across various scales and over time, and what policy interventions work best in response.
Like a fast-growing teenager bursting out of children's clothes, our society plainly needs an updated approach to environmental protection for the 21st century. Instead, we are stuck with an outdated regulatory model that no longer fits our current requirements and circumstances. Despite the widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo--from both the Left and the Right--and even some agreement on better ways of doing environmental protection, we have not seen major policy refinements or progress.
Change is never easy, especially within a fraught political context, but it is essential. Indeed, one of the most significant findings in social science of recent decades is the importance of innovation to healthy organizations. (2) Businesses have come to learn that they must constantly remake themselves to stay competitive and profitable. (3) Other institutions must similarly transform themselves to stay relevant and vibrant. Some parts of our administrate state have been remade for the 21st century. Recast telecommunications regulations helped to usher in the smartphone era. (4) Regulatory reform also transformed the airline industry, railroads, and other sectors of society. (5) The environmental arena and related energy systems have remained, however, curiously unchanged for decades. (6) And, even when the broader political climate seems poised to support new policy directions, the structure of American democracy--which positions an engaged minority to obstruct majority action--makes meaningful change difficult unless a bipartisan transformation agenda can be forged.
I make the case in this Article for a reconfigured legal framework that can deliver real transformation because it takes up the opportunities to create a 21st century approach to energy and environmental challenges, and takes seriously the political necessity of a degree of consensus on the path forward. In laying out a possible new sustainability strategy, this Article proceeds in five parts. Part II provides a high-level analysis of the sources of gridlock in America's environmental policy, highlighting the ideological, structural, and operational issues that have led to political breakdown and declining effectiveness of the 20th century environmental regulation model. It ends with a call for a new political theory of environmental protection around which Democrats and Republicans might find common ground--making\ reform possible.
Part III spells out the core elements of a refined political theory of environmental protection to undergird a recast sustainabiuty strategy building on: 1) a commitment to the "end of externalities" in keeping with the common law property rights, meaning that polluters (7) must either stop their polluting activities or pay "harm charges" for their emissions; 2) an emphasis on choice rather than government mandates so as to provide both businesses and individuals greater flexibility in where to draw the line between stopping their harm-causing activities and paying for them; 3) an integrated or systems approach to environmental protection that recognizes interconnections across issues and the reality of tradeoffs among them; 4) a priority on innovation and the capacity to bring new technologies, information, and learning to bear in support of environmental protection and a transition to clean energy; and 5) a focus on "on-the-ground results," policy implementation, and improved outcomes over time.
Part IV translates these principles into a revised environmental governance structure. It calls for an environmental strategy that is broader than the 20th century government-centered (largely federal) regulatory model. I argue, in particular, for a sustainability strategy that goes beyond "red lights" that tell polluters what they cannot do, and creates an expanded structure of "green lights"--incentives to spur fresh thinking and creative responses to persistent pollution challenges. More fundamentally, I suggest that government is not the only actor able to deliver environmental progress--and in many circumstances not even the best-positioned driver of improved outcomes.
title 46 code of federal regulations subchapter b part 12. |
0.931985 | What is happening with food and fuel prices in developing countries?
What can the IMF do to help?
How is the IMF providing financial assistance?
Q. What is happening with food and fuel prices in developing countries?
• Food prices have risen by 45 percent since end-2006, mirroring earlier price run-ups in other commodities (Source: IMF Commodity Price Index).
• Many prices reached record highs in current US$ terms—including those for crude oil, tin, nickel, soybeans, corn, and wheat. The surge was led by some major food crops (corn, wheat, and edible oil), but has spread to other foods including, most recently, rice.
However, in real terms, prices of many commodities, particularly foods, remain well below their highs in the 1970s and early 1980s, with the main exceptions of crude oil, lead, and nickel.
• Strong food demand from emerging economies, reflecting stronger per capita income growth, accounts for much of the increase in consumption. Although demand growth has been high for some time now, the recent sustained period of high global growth contributed to depleting global inventories, particularly of grains.
• Rising biofuel production adds to the demand for corn and rapeseeds oil, in particular, spilling over to other foods through demand and crop substitution effects. Almost half the increase in consumption of major food crops in 2007 was related to biofuels, mostly because of corn-based ethanol production in the US; and the new biofuel mandates in the US and the EU that favor domestic production will continue to put pressure on prices.
• At the same time, supply adjustment to higher prices has remained slow, notably for oil, and inventory levels in many markets have declined to the lowest levels in years.
• The policy responses in some countries are exacerbating the problem: (i) Some major exporting countries have introduced export taxes, export bans, or other restrictions on exports of agricultural products. (ii) Some importing countries are not allowing full pass-through of international prices into domestic prices (less than half a sample of 43 developing and emerging market countries allowed for full pass through in 2007).
• Drought conditions in major wheat-producing countries (e.g., Australia and Ukraine), higher input costs (animal feed, energy, and fertilizer), and restrictive trade policies in major net exporters of key food staples such as rice have also contributed.
• Financial factors: the depreciating US$ increases purchasing power of commodity users outside of the dollar area; falling policy interest rates in some major currencies reduce inventory holding costs and induce shifts from money market instruments to higher-yielding assets such as commodity-indexed funds.
A. To date, most developing countries have been able to absorb the balance of payments impact. Higher export earnings or inflows of capital and transfers helped finance the higher commodity imports.
The overall effect of the commodity price hike on the terms of trade has varied widely across countries. In about half the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the negative impact has been offset by rising food and fuel export prices.
Higher food prices have been passed through to domestic markets in most countries, but the responses to fuel price increases have varied (the pass-through for oil-exporters averaged slightly over half of that for oil importers).
• Headline inflation is up in many countries. This is a particular concern in developing countries where food expenditure shares exceed expenditure shares in other goods by a large margin. Food price increases accounted for almost 70 percent of 2007 headline inflation in emerging economies. Looking ahead, the impact on inflation of food price increases will persist through 2008 even without further price increases.
• External balances of net commodity importers have deteriorated. The first round effect on 2007 current account balances exceeded 1 percent of GDP in some developing countries. With most of the increase in prices of grains and oil in the 2nd half of 2007, external balances in some LICs may deteriorate significantly in 2008.
• The social implications of rising food prices can be severe for the urban poor. Some countries in Africa have recently had food price–related riots. In Burkina Faso, there have been demonstrations in two cities. In Cameroon, political unrest spilled over into protests over food and fuel prices. Niger has also suffered food-price-related riots, while in Indonesia there have been protests over soybean shortages.
At the same time, external balances of net commodity exporters have improved. The challenge for them is to maintain macroeconomic stability while dealing with rising foreign exchange inflows.
Q. Is there relief in sight?
• Oil prices are expected to moderate once a global growth slowdown sets in, depending on how much this will affect emerging economies. Nonetheless, the decline in oil prices will be limited, as high prices reflect soaring oil production costs, and OPEC is likely to reduce quotas in response.
• The global slowdown is unlikely to provide much relief this year for food prices, which are expected to peak in 2008 and then ease gradually, with upside price risks in the short term. With normal weather conditions and indications of increased acreage for planting, supply conditions for wheat and corn should improve. However, this will only provide limited relief, as food demand is less cyclical than demand for other commodities and as the increase in food demand from biofuel production is largely policy-induced.
Q. What can and should be done?
• It is hard to tell the extent to which recent price increases are permanent: the speed and size of the price increases have been large.
• Temporary prices increases can be mitigated by temporary, targeted subsidies or increased aid to protect the poorest. Countries should avoid untargeted subsidies to lower domestic food prices, direct price controls or financing of production, and export bans—which tend to raise world market prices further, may be a disincentive for producers, fail to help the poorest and drain scarce resources. More permanent shocks may require adjustment of exchange rates or monetary and fiscal policies.
• Beyond the current price boom, the most effective response for developing countries is to seize the opportunity and step up efforts to encourage expansion of domestic agricultural production by improving infrastructure, distribution and storage systems; increasing competition; providing a stable regulatory environment and access to financing; and removing trade barriers. This will increase productivity and food supply.
• Multilateral policy efforts should ensure international free trade in commodities. Restrictive trade policies to protect the urban poor in net commodity exporters tend to have unintended negative consequences at the domestic level, and at the global level, they push up world prices even further and hurt net importers. From a global perspective, maintaining free trade in commodities while fostering incentives for production and using efficient policies to protect the urban poor (e.g., targeted cash transfers) is a priority. At the same time, less ambitious and more trade-friendly biofuels policies in the EU and the US would also lower pressure on food prices.
Q. What can the IMF do to help?
• The IMF is carefully monitoring the commodity price boom, and we are concerned with the impact of these price increases, especially on the poor.
• In the short-run, the IMF will help countries be accommodative. (e.g. through temporary, targeted subsidies).
• The IMF can provide financial support to those countries where the price shocks are having a significant impact on the balance of payments.
• The IMF supports any multilateral efforts that ensures open commodity markets and increases temporary relief to those most in need.
Q. How is the IMF providing financial assistance?
• For low-income countries with a PRGF arrangement in place, IMF assistance is being made available by augmenting the resources available under the PRGF. A number of countries that experienced qualifying shocks since late 2005 had PRGFs in place and availed themselves of PRGF augmentations (Niger in 2005, Burkina Faso in 2006, Moldova in 2006, and Burkina Faso again in 2008; Kenya reduced access under a previously augmented PRGF arrangement in 2007).
• The Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF) can provide policy support and financial assistance to low-income countries facing exogenous shocks.
• So far, no member has drawn on the ESF. This reflects (i) that many potential users had PRGFs in place and opted for augmentations; (ii) strengthened economic policies in potential users, with many LICs able to accumulate foreign exchange reserves as a first line of defense; and (iii) favorable global market conditions up to recently. Despite the increase in world oil and food prices, many LICs experienced improvements in their terms of trade (see question above), as the prices of their other commodity exports increased as well. This may change in the months ahead. |
0.941266 | Jestli moja práca vzbudila v niekom zápal o posvätnú našu vec, vtedy nežil som nadarmo.
Našli jsme další záznamy k osobě Emília Gessayová-Kohutová.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová je pohřben(a) na hřbitově Ondrejský cintorín v místě zobrazeném na níže uvedené mapě. Tyto informace o GPS jsou k dispozici POUZE na stránkách BillionGraves. Naše technologie vám pomůže najít umístění hrobu a také další členy rodiny, pohřbené poblíž.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 6 years old when Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa and cause years of climate change. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies began in the afternoon of Sunday, 26 August 1883, and peaked in the late morning of Monday, 27 August when over 70% of the island and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed as it collapsed into a caldera. Additional seismic activity was reported to have continued until February 1884, though reports of seismic activity after October 1883 were later dismissed by Rogier Verbeek's investigation into the eruption. The 1883 eruption was one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history. At least 36,417 deaths are attributed to the eruption and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were also felt around the world in the days and weeks after the volcano's eruption.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 16 years old when Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 26 years old when The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two American aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05 the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 37 years old when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by a Yugoslav nationalist named Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of World War I. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este was a member of the imperial Habsburg dynasty, and from 1896 until his death the heir presumptive (Thronfolger) to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia, which in turn triggered a series of events that resulted in Austria-Hungary's allies and Serbia's declaring war on each other, starting World War I.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 52 years old when The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression. The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$21.3 trillion as of June 2017. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013. The NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 62 years old when World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II. World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Emília Gessayová-Kohutová was 63 years old when The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz. The Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, was a genocide during World War II in which Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, between 1941 and 1945. Jews were targeted for extermination as part of a larger event involving the persecution and murder of other groups, including in particular the Roma and "incurably sick", as well as ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens, Soviet prisoners of war, political opponents, gay men and Jehovah's Witnesses, resulting in up to 17 million deaths overall. |
0.962181 | What are the most popular types of promotional products? Technology! Hi hi-tech now and in the future with ABC Marketing's huge selection for your gadget themed giveaways, power banks, chargers, USB flash drives, tablet and computer cases, stylus pens and pointers, ear buds, screen cleaners - the list is endless and so are the possibilities!
Browse through our online catalog for the perfect technology product or just to get some fresh ideas for your next marketing campaign. |
0.999963 | Complete the article with the correct form of TAKE, MAKE, KEEP or PUT.
In Denmark, some pupils stay at school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In the afternoon they usually part in activities from roller-skating to watching films. It's a system that working parents and their children use and appreciate. Parents who work long hours know that professionals are care of their children. Meanwhile, the children friends with other students and enjoy various types of activities. The older pupils an eye on the younger ones and the younger kids learn from the older children's experience.
After-school clubs, which are separate from the main school building, are not homework clubs. Nobody is there to an exam or up with their homework. The idea is that children up new interests and activities that are not on the school's timetable. The atmosphere is relaxed and pupils only do their homework if they want to.
The number of schools offering these clubs on growing. According to Danish professionals, after-school clubs don't pressure on the pupils to study. They offer choice and the freedom to do what they want in their spare time. |
0.979777 | What is the idea of the “I need your help to find a job” campaign and what is the incentive behind it.
The whole campaign is designed to work as a job ad, and the primary intention is to SHOUT OUT LOUD for some attention. However, it is not just any kind of attention. With the campaign I hope to communicate Out Side The Box Thinking and the values that I stand for, which can be extremely hard to communicate in a job application. It is really about doing something different and letting the world know that I am available at the job market.
I have done a lot of job applications, but getting my first interview seems to be harder than first anticipated. It is understandable due to the current market situation, where there is an overload of available labour. This is why I as job hunter need to be creative and must do anything possible to stand out in the crowed.
I hope the campaign will be sufficient for creating the necessary attention needed to get my first job interview. But I am also depended on the goodwill of my network for the campaign to reach its target audience, which are potential employers that might look for an individual with my qualifications. |
0.999989 | Ethics is definable as conducting what an individual considers is suitable whatever the downside, expense or issues required. It is an inner framework of key points that e-books the behaviour that should develop although nobody is taking a look at.essay capital Personal dependability is extremely important virtue that is definitely relevant in any components of lifetime. Therefore, there may be will need to assess the role of personalised credibility, getting amongst the main key facts on the information values. Personalised ethics regarding information values, just simply describes having an individual’s agreements and assurances. Which can be attempting for uniformity of procedure along with assumed. Personal stability is considered the most sought virtues in knowledge integrity. People learn from the earlier grow older that currently being ethical means that indicating to the reality and maintaining offers, really being conscious of cheating, being untruthful or maybe even stealing are dishonorable. But, it happens to be probable for an individual to remain lured into doing the other attributable to fear of failing and also likelihood of minimize or imagined being successful. This type of troubles could cause website visitors to betraying the principle of integrity, fact and credibility when bringing details. Aside from that, personal joys, demands or own problems can bring about bargain the ideals, really being thoughtless acts that cause loss of ethics. Offers and codes cannot modify a person’s personal identity but following them is probably going to warranty that all final choice crafted upholds the values.
Particular reliability would mean possessing mental truthfulness when working on, proposing and revealing homework. Additionally, it involves consistency when someone is symbolizing any contributions to investigate stories and proposals, along with reflecting fairness in peer reviewed advice. Make sure you recognition copyrights, patents, together with the other forms of scholarly building. Choosing unpublished data, final results or techniques but without the owners’ approval is unacceptable. Therefore, giving loan exactly where it will be owing, portrays a level of own credibility. Suitable credit ratings or acknowledgement for virtually any contributions of got info, while steering clear of plagiarism no matter what. It pays to try in averting bias when getting data if it’s by way of facts studies, people judgements, statistics interpretation, and experimental structure involving other strategies for tracking down information and facts. Individual condition features self-browse exactly where in cases like this it assists in cutting down or staying away from self-deception though disclosing personal financial or your own preferences quite likely to change facts gallery. Furthermore, it is very important to come with collegiality where exactly clinical communications are involved including posting of means and communications. There must be incorporation of transparency from the disputes of curiosity and feasible clashes interesting and individual members must be protected subsequent to accumulating info. Once a people has integrity, it can be straightforward to keep away from neglectfulness and clumsy errors because there is a careful and critical study of personal function and therefore of friends. In addition, there would be decent always keeping of data of knowledge collecting pursuits like correspondence with journals and businesses.
To conclude, individual reliability takes on an incredible purpose in facts integrity, as it involves retaining arrangements and assures and possess cerebral honesty. Anytime a person has strength in doing any type of homework or information, prejudice is going to be routinely stopped though yet the maintenance of consistency of action and consideration. Information getting made would be also free of issues due to mindful and essential study of personal perform and also that of friends. For this reason, very own credibility is just about the selecting element of qualifications of researching or facts compiled. |
0.927976 | Membrane-bound organelles are a defining feature of eukaryotic cells, and play a central role in most of their fundamental processes. The Rab G proteins are the single largest family of proteins that participate in the traffic between organelles, with 66 Rabs encoded in the human genome. Rabs direct the organelle-specific recruitment of vesicle tethering factors, motor proteins, and regulators of membrane traffic. Each organelle or vesicle class is typically associated with one or more Rab, with the Rabs present in a particular cell reflecting that cell's complement of organelles and trafficking routes.
Through iterative use of hidden Markov models and tree building, we classified Rabs across the eukaryotic kingdom to provide the most comprehensive view of Rab evolution obtained to date. A strikingly large repertoire of at least 20 Rabs appears to have been present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), consistent with the 'complexity early' view of eukaryotic evolution. We were able to place these Rabs into six supergroups, giving a deep view into eukaryotic prehistory.
Tracing the fate of the LECA Rabs revealed extensive losses with many extant eukaryotes having fewer Rabs, and none having the full complement. We found that other Rabs have expanded and diversified, including a large expansion at the dawn of metazoans, which could be followed to provide an account of the evolutionary history of all human Rabs. Some Rab changes could be correlated with differences in cellular organization, and the relative lack of variation in other families of membrane-traffic proteins suggests that it is the changes in Rabs that primarily underlies the variation in organelles between species and cell types.
The secretory and endocytic pathways of eukaryotic cells allow the biosynthesis of lipids and of secreted and membrane proteins to be separated from the barrier function of the plasma membrane. They also allow the remodeling of the cell surface and the uptake of large molecules and even of other organisms. Although some prokaryotes have internal organelles, these lack the complexity seen in eukaryotes and also the trafficking routes that connect the organelles into pathways . However, this complexity and connectivity presents eukaryotic cells with a major organizational challenge, as vesicles and other carriers must select particular cargo from their site of generation, and then move toward, and fuse with, specific target organelles. The specificity of cargo selection is determined by coat proteins and their adaptors, with the recruitment of coats being directed by phosphoinositides or by members of the Arf family of small G proteins [2, 3]. However, the movement and arrival of vesicles is directed for the most part by small G proteins of the Rab family, with the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) then driving membrane fusion [4, 5].
Originally identified in yeast, the Rab proteins have now emerged as the largest and most diverse family within the 'landmark' molecules that specify the identity of vesicles and organelles [6–10]. They are typically anchored to the bilayer by a long flexible hypervariable domain that ends in a prenylated C terminus. In the GTP-bound form, Rabs bind effectors, but when the GTP is hydrolyzed through the action of a GTPase activating protein (GAP), they are extracted from the bilayer by a carrier protein called GDP dissociation inhibitor (GDI) [11, 12]. Thus the activating exchange factors (GEFs) and GAPs of Rabs act in concert to establish a restricted subcellular distribution for each particular Rab-GTP form, and this GTP form then serves as a landmark for the recruitment of those proteins that need to act in that location. Rab-GTP effectors include linkers to motor proteins and tethering factors that attach vesicles to the correct organelle before fusion.
Although Rabs are members of the Ras superfamily of small G proteins, they share features that allow them to be clustered within a monophyletic branch of this family, with their closest relatives being the Ran family which directs nuclear transport [13–15]. The genomes of all eukaryotes encode multiple members of the Rab family, with humans having 66 and even the simplest eukaryotes having more than 10 Rabs. [16–18]. Studies of Rab conservation have shown that their numbers and presence varies considerably between different phyla, and even between different species within phyla [13, 16]. Thus, studies on Rabs have great potential to shed light on the evolution of eukaryotic endomembrane systems, and have already provided useful insights into this issue [17, 19, 20]. However, the complex history of Rabs, including independent losses, duplications and diversifications, means that providing a full catalogue of Rab diversity and evolutionary history is a major challenge.
In this study, we used a classification and phylogeny-based approach to define subfamilies of the Rab proteins, and then iteratively built and refined hidden Markov models (HMMs) for these subfamilies to use for searching sequence databases. Finally, we built evolutionary trees using maximum likelihood and distance-based methods. This provided the most comprehensive view of Rab evolution obtained to date, and we have established a Rab Database web server to make the classifiers and full analysis available. Examining the patterns of Rab evolution demonstrates the striking degree of Rab complexity in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), and provides insights into the evolution of membranes prior to the LECA. In addition, it is clear that many Rabs have proven dispensable during evolution whereas a small set have been well conserved, or have even expanded in particular lineages, and in some cases these changes can be correlated with changes in cellular properties, or can even be used to predict function.
We started our classification by collecting known Rab protein sequences from 21 widely diverse species. After aligning the sequences and removing those of low quality, we obtained a first set of approximately 500 sequences from which we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree and clustered similar sequences (see Methods for details). We extracted a conserved core Rab motif from the constructed alignment, partitioned it into sub-alignments according to the different initial sequence groups and constructed an HMM for each one. Finally, we used these models to search genome and expressed sequence tag (EST) databases for further Rab sequences. With the expanded dataset we repeated the analysis and refined the set of specific HMMs. This process was repeated until no further improvement in the classification was achieved. Finally, we supplemented our dataset with data from further species, obtaining more than 7600 different Rab sequences from more than 600 species representing all major eukaryotic phyla. For 384 of these species we found genome projects listed in the Genomes On Line Database (GOLD) . The analysis contained 248 metazoans (of which 131 were included in GOLD: 37 genomes were complete, 3 were draft, and 91 were incomplete), 166 fungi (25, 4, and 90 respectively), 81 plants (16, 1, and 30), 19 apicomplexans (8, 0, and 7), 20 heterokonts (7, 1, and 5), and 11 kinetoplastids (4, 0, and 4).
Our classification analysis identified a set of 20 basic Rab types (Figure 1). Deducing which of these Rab types were present in the LECA was complicated by the fact that the placement of the root in the eukaryotic tree of life is still under debate [22–24]. What is perhaps the most widely accepted hypothesis places the eukaryotic root between the bikonts and unikonts [23, 25, 26]. Other possible scenarios reported to date include rooting the tree within or close to Excavata [27, 28], and studies of rare genomic changes have led to the proposal of a root between Archaeplastidia and all other eukaryotes . We inspected the effect of these different hypotheses on the set of likely LECA Rabs, and found that the presence of the same 20 Rabs in the LECA was supported by two of the three trees (Figure 2). The exception was the tree based on the Archaeplastida outgroup, in which the number of LECA Rabs reduced to 14 of these 20. However, it should be noted that in this model the position of the excavates was uncertain, with the authors stressing the need for 'extreme caution' , and if the excavates were placed with the Archaeplastida, then the number of LECA Rabs would again be 20.
Evolutionary tree depicting the relationship of the different Rab families that were potentially present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). The tree was constructed as described in the Methods section; we removed any groups that were difficult to place (Rab19, Rab33, Rab34, Rab44 and Rab45) from the tree. Statistical support is shown for edges that support major Rabs groups, or a LECA Rab group, or show unexpected splits, and also for the colored surroundings associated with the edge, with the first number of the pair being the likelihood-mapping value and the second being the almost unbiased test (AU) value . All supergroups are clearly separated, and most LECA groups showed good statistical support. Exceptions generally showed better support in their corresponding supergroup trees (see Additional file 2). For example, the analysis indicated that Rab22 is a close relative of Rab5. Separating Rab5 and Rab22 was complicated by protozoan duplications of Rab5, which have drifted away from their ancestor and are often placed very close to Rab22.
Changes to the repertoire of Rab proteins in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) considering different hypotheses of rooting the eukaryotic tree. (A-C) This shows the major hypotheses for rooting the eukaryotic tree, and underneath the six different Rab supergroups with their members (order as shown in the key). Presence of a Rab type in the LECA is indicated by a black outline. Hypotheses A and B both suggest the same 20 Rab types being present in the LECA (see also Figure 3 and Additional file 1). Placing Archaeplastida as an outgroup to all other eukaryotes would decrease the number of Rabs in the LECA to a minimum of 14, although in this model the position of Excavata is uncertain .
It is also formally possible that Rabs have moved between kingdoms by horizontal gene transfer, but the trees for the 20 Rabs generally fit well with species evolution. In addition, horizontal gene transfer after endosymbiosis would probably have involved a non-unikont species as the donor and so would not have increased the number of Rab families in the bikonts. If one divides eukaryotic phyla into the four proposed supergroups (Unikonta, Excavata, Archaeplastida and SAR+CCTH ), then of the 20 putative LECA Rabs, 19 are present in at least three (Figure 3 and Additional file 1). The exception was Rab29, whose only occurrences outside of unikonts were found in Naegleria gruberi (an excavate) and Thecamonas trahens (a member of the phylum Apusozoa, whose relationship to other phyla is unclear) [23, 30]. Thus, Rab29 seems to be the only equivocal Rab in our proposed set of 20 LECA Rabs. Given these observations and caveats, we have based our further discussion on the cautious assumption that all 20 basic Rab types were in the LECA.
Last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) Rabs and their evolution in different phyla. In this overview, we show the changes of LECA Rabs in a number of different phyla. The most elaborate changes to the repertoire are displayed. For example, the transition to metazoan multicellularity gave rise to a large number of new, mainly secretory, Rabs. This can be seen by the change from choanoflagellates (Monosiga brevicollis) to metazoans. Similarly, there was a loss of LECA Rabs in fungi; basal fungi still possess a large number of these Rabs, but Basidiomycota have already lost three and the Saccharomycotina another one. Early in their evolution, plants lost a number of LECA Rabs, but then expanded the remaining Rabs into families. Particularly in plants there was a number of Rabs that we could only locate in one species: Rab24 was found only in the algae Coccomyxa, Rab28 was found only in the algae Micromonas, and for angiosperms we could identify a Rab21 only in Oryza sativa. It seems likely that these groups will get better support once more genome sequences become available.
For each of these 20 basic types we constructed HMMs. However, this basic set has diversified over time in all major phyla, and especially in metazoans. For the majority of these diversifications, it is clear from which LECA Rab they descended; however, we found a number of lineage-specific Rab types that have diverged substantially from their ancestors, making them difficult to place with one of the LECA Rabs. This problem is especially present in protozoan lineages for which only few species have been sequenced to date. For a few metazoan duplications, we used an approach based on sequence similarity to identify their ancestral Rab type (see Methods for details). To better distinguish basic Rabs from those that developed later, we supplemented the generated HMMs with 15 further models that recognize metazoan-specific types, and especially those that were difficult to place. Other eukaryotic lineages with extensive genome sequence coverage, such as fungi and plants, do not possess such diversified Rab sets, and so for these cases we did not need to generate further specific HMMs.
All our models showed at least 95% sensitivity and positive predictive value (see Additional file 2). Thus, the structure of the Rab family tree developed from our analysis appears to be robust, allowing considerable confidence in its implications. We have implemented a web interface called the Rab Database which provides access the collected information and allows searches with new proteins against our HMM-based classifiers (http://bioinformatics.mpibpc.mpg.de/rab/).
The history of Rab evolution shows some striking features, including an unexpectedly large number of different Rabs present in the LECA. These twenty LECA Rabs can be arranged into six supergroups, which has implications for the evolution of the membrane system prior to the LECA. During the subsequent divergence of eukaryotes many of the LECA Rabs have been lost in particular lineages, whereas other families have expanded, and in some cases it is possible to correlate this with loss or gain of particular cellular processes. These points are discussed in detail below.
Our analysis identifies a set of 20 Rab proteins that are likely to have been present in the LECA based on the arguments above (Figure 1, Figure 3). Of these proteins, Rab1, Rab2, Rab4, Rab5, Rab6, Rab7, Rab8, Rab11, Rab18, Rab21, Rab23, and Rab28 are known likely candidates, and Rab14, Rab32, and RabL4 have just recently been added to this list . To these proteins we can now add Rab22, Rab24, Rab29, RabX1, and Rab7L1. This total of 20 is larger than that found in many extant eukaryotic phyla, such as plants and fungi. This indicates that the endomembrane system of the LECA was relatively complex, consistent with studies of proteins involved in other cellular processes such as the cytoskeleton, all of which have indicated that the LECA was a particularly complex and sophisticated cell [24, 31].
It is well established that the LECA must have had a Golgi apparatus, and the capacity for both endocytosis and phagocytosis . This would be consistent with the roles that many of these Rabs have been reported to play in extant eukaryotes. Thus Rab1, Rab2, and Rab6 are on the Golgi, and Rab8 acts in Golgi to plasma membrane traffic, while Rabs 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 21, and 22 are in the endosomal system, and are thus likely to have acted in endocytic and phagocytic processes of the LECA cell. These processes will have allowed uptake of food sources, as well of recycling of components to the cell surface, and possibly the fusion of a contractile vacuole to expel water [33, 34]. Likewise, RabL4 (also known as intraflagellar transport (IFT)27) and Rab23 are known to be involved in cilia/flagella formation or function in extant eukaryotes, consistent with other proteins specific to these structures being found in all eukaryotic kingdoms and thus present in the LECA .
Of the remaining seven LECA Rabs, Rab32 and its paralogs in extant eukaryotes (for example, Rab38) are well established to be involved in forming lysosome-related organelles (LROs) such as melanosomes, platelet dense granules and alveolar lamellar bodies [36, 37]. Rab29 and Rab7L1 are distantly related (see below), and the latter has been proposed to also have a role in granules derived from endosomal system . It can only be speculated as to how the LECA may have used LROs, but obvious possibilities include pigment granules to block sunlight, secretory granules to combat competitors, or granules that fused with phagosomes to aid killing of phagocytosed bacteria in the manner of neutrophils . Of the few non-metazoans that have conserved this Rab, phytophthora contain a large number of granules in their motile zoospores, which are released during encystation to rapidly reform the cell wall, concomitant with a loss of motility .
This leaves four Rabs (Rab18, Rab24, Rab28 and RabX1) whose role even in extant eukaryotes is unclear, although their ancient origins suggest that they may have more fundamental roles than previously thought. Of these, Rab18 is the best characterized, with several reports suggesting a role on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), either in lipid droplet formation or in Golgi to ER traffic [41, 42]. However, despite Rab18 being well conserved in many eukaryotic phyla, human patients lacking Rab18 do not show obvious defects in lipid storage or general secretion, and so the role of Rab18 remains unclear . However, it is possible that Rab40 may have a partially redundant role with Rab18, as in humans it seems to have expanded from Rab18 during metazoan evolution (see below). Of the remaining three LECA Rabs, Rab24 has been linked to autophagy, but cannot be obligatory for this process as it is conserved in only a very few non-metazoan phyla, and Rab28 has been linked to endosome function in trypanosomes, but little is known of its role in metazoans [44, 45]. Finally, RabX1 is conserved in only a few sequenced genomes across several phyla, including various invertebrates but not vertebrates. In Drosophila, it is expressed primarily in the nervous system, and a P-element insertion next to the gene perturbs development of the peripheral nervous system [46, 47].
Many eukaryotic-specific genes were already present in the LECA as families, which indicates that they must have duplicated and diverged in the period between the earliest eukaryote(s) and the LECA. The Rabs are a particularly extreme case of this, and our analysis allows insights into how this family emerged. During the iterative refinement of our analysis, it became apparent that the twenty LECA Rabs fell into a set of six larger supergroups, suggesting a primitive pre-LECA eukaryote with just six Rabs. The tree (Figure 1) shows the relationship between the different LECA Rabs, and provides statistical support for this observation. Interestingly, each of these six supergroups comprised Rabs that are mostly associated with one particular process, consistent with diversification from a simpler system in which there was a single Rab for each of the following: secretion (group I), early endosomes (group II), late endosomes (group III), recycling from endosomes to the surface (group IV), recycling from endosomes to Golgi (group V), and traffic associated with cilia/flagella (group VI).
Comparing the LECA Rabs with those present in extant eukaryotic phyla revealed two striking patterns. Firstly, many Rabs have been lost in at least some lineages, despite being conserved in others, with relatively few Rabs seeming to be indispensible (Figure 4). Secondly, some Rab families have expanded greatly in particular kingdoms (Figure 3). In both cases, it was sometimes possible to correlate these genetic changes to changes in cell structure and function. Below we discuss these two aspects of Rab evolution in detail.
Overview of how Rab proteins were lost during the expansion of eukaryotes. The losses of the putative last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) Rabs are indicated at each evolutionary step, as depicted in the key, with loss being indicated by loss of the black outline. The tree reflects available genome sequences rather than the full diversity of eukaroytic lineages. For the phyla with sufficient sequences available, we depict the losses during the evolution of a specific model organism. The extent of lost LECA Rab types varies considerably between different phyla. Whereas metazoans seem not to have lost any, the Apicomplexa have lost nine. Similarly, humans seem to have only lost two LECA Rabs, but S. cerevisiae has lost a total of fourteen.
Although the LECA seems to have had at least 20 Rabs, most of these are clearly not essential for eukaryotic life, as many have been lost in one or more kingdoms (Figure 4). Indeed, of the twenty Rabs present in the LECA, only five seem near-indispensible, in that they are present in almost all well-characterized genomes reported to date. These are Rab1, Rab5, Rab6, Rab7 and Rab11, which correspond precisely to five of the six supergroups present in the LECA, with the remaining supergroup probably being that linked to cilia/flagella. This again suggests that membrane traffic is fundamentally underpinned by just five Rabs. Note that even these 'indispensible' five show some losses in a few very reduced or parasitic eukaryotes such as the microsporidian Encephalitozoon cuniculi, and although all five are present in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, remarkably three of the five (Rab5, Rab6 and Rab7) are not actually essential for the viability of this yeast. In addition to these core five Rabs, there are three Rabs that are only rarely lost in free living eukaryotes: Rab2 and Rab18 (both lost in budding yeasts) and Rab8 (lost in kinetoplastids). It may be that these three can be lost because the 'indispensible' Rab in their group can sometimes take over their role, and, indeed, it has been shown for S. cerevisiae that a single chimeric Rab can perform the roles of both Rab1 and Rab8 [48, 49].
Consistent with the LECA having a large Rab repertoire, there is evidence that several eukaryotic kingdoms contain more Rabs than do many of that kingdom's individual species (Figure 4). For instance, basal fungi have already lost seven of the twenty LECA Rabs (Rab14, Rab21, Rab22, Rab24, Rab28, Rab29 and Rab7L1), but it is apparent that further Rabs were lost during the expansion of the fungal kingdom. All non-basal fungi have also lost Rab23, Rab32 and RabL4. In addition, Rab18 has been lost in all Saccharomycotina, while Rab2, Rab4 and RabX1 are still present in Yarrowia lipolytica but seem to have been lost in all later Saccharomycotina, including S. cerevisiae, leaving the latter with orthologs of only six of the LECA Rabs. For plants, only 14 out of the 20 LECA Rabs are present in the Chlorophyta. Interestingly, all more derived plants have lost three additional LECA members (Rab24, Rab28 and RabL4). In addition, angiosperms have also lost Rab23, and so even these complex multicellular eukaryotes lack almost half of the Rabs present in the LECA.
In some cases, it is possible to correlate loss of particular sets of Rabs with changes in cellular organization. Rabs linked to cilia and flagella (RabL4 (IFT27) and Rab23), have been lost in those organisms that have also lost these structures, in particular most plants and fungi. This loss is often associated with the organism gaining a cell wall, and such a structure would also prevent phagocytosis of large objects. This provides a possible explanation for the loss of Rab14 in these lineages, as this Rab is recruited to phagosomes in both mammals and Dictyostelium [33, 50]. In other cases, genome compaction may have driven Rab loss, as particularly small Rab repertoires are present in organisms with compacted genomes such as the microalgae Ostreococcus, or the budding yeasts, although it is also possible that this is an indirect consequence of a general simplification of the intracellular membrane-traffic systems of these organisms.
While many Rabs show a history of extensive independent losses, there have also been many cases in which Rab families have expanded by gene duplication and diversification. Metazoans show expansions in twelve different LECA Rabs, plants in eight, heterokonts in five, apicomplexans in three, fungi in two and kinetoplastids in just one (Figure 3; Figure 4). We discuss these expansions briefly for each of the six supergroups of Rabs.
This supergroup has a particularly complex history of expansions and losses. Rab1 is the 'indispensible' member of the supergroup, and seems to have been duplicated a number of times in metazoans (Rab19, Rab30, Rab33, Rab35, RabX6). The addition of Rab35 seems to predate the rise of metazoans, as we could also identify it in Capsaspora owczarzaki, which branched off from the pre-metazoan lineage after fungi but before choanoflagellates. RabX6 appeared in metazoans, but is one of the few Rabs that is lost in vertebrates. Rab1 has duplicated independently in most other phyla, including apicomplexans (Rab1B) and heterokonts (Rab1B) . In angiosperms, there are three different Rab1 proteins, apparently expanded from one in Bryophyta.
Rab8 has probably the most complex history of the LECA Rabs. It has been independently triplicated in heterokonts and, similar to Rab1, it has been duplicated in angiosperms but not in Bryophyta. More strikingly, it has a large set of duplications in metazoans (Rab3, Rab10, Rab15, Rab26, Rab27, Rab34, Rab44, Rab45, RabX4). Rab44 and Rab45 are two of three Rabs that have an additional domain present, with two EF hand motifs present in the N-terminal region of the protein. Many of these Rab families have expanded further in vertebrates, but a few, such as RabX4, have been lost. Although RabX4 is present in insects and not in vertebrates, it is also present in a few genomes of more primitive metazoans (for example, Amphimedon queenslandica, Nematostella vectensis and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), indicating that it arose early in metazoan evolution and was widely lost. In addition, Rab8 seems to have undergone another duplication in deuterostomes (Rab12) and two in vertebrates (Rab8b, Rab13).
By contrast, Rab18 seems to have a rather simple evolutionary history, being present in all major clades and only being lost in Saccharomycotina. It shows a duplication in angiosperms and also duplication in bilateria (Rab40), which expanded further in vertebrates (Rab40b, Rab40c) and then in primates (Rab40a, Rab40aL).
Rab5 is apparently indispensible, and also has the most complex evolutionary history of this supergroup. It seems to have been duplicated independently in basal fungi after the loss of their flagellum (Ypt52), and also in apicomplexans (Rab5B) and kinetoplastids (Rab5B). In addition, it has quadrupled in vertebrates (Rab5a, Rab5b, Rab5c, Rab17). Similarly, there are independent duplications in Saccharomycotina (Ypt10) and in Angiospermae (Rab5B).
Rab21 and Rab22 have no major expansions (Rab22 has a duplication in vertebrates), and have been lost in members of several phyla. Rab24 is rather unusual as it is well conserved in metazoans, where it has also been duplicated (Rab20), but it seems to have been lost in most other species. However, we could detect members of this group in a small but diverse group of species outside of unikonts, indicating that it was present in the LECA (Figure 3; see Additional file 1). The final member of this group, RabX1, is one of the few that seem to have been lost in vertebrates; however, it is well conserved in insects and nematodes, as well being present in heterokonts and fungi (it is present in some Saccharomycotina species, but not in S. cerevisiae).
Rab7 seems to be indispensible, and is also the member of the family that shows the most expansions. There are four Rab7s in angiosperms, and metazoans have a Rab7 relative, Rab9. Previous analysis has dated the duplication that formed Rab9 to the rise of the metazoans . However, we identified a conserved set of fungal proteins that must either be an independent duplication of fungal Rab7 or must belong to the Rab9 subfamily, and hence Rab9 appeared with the opisthokonts. Our phylogenetic analysis indicates that the latter possibility seems to be more likely. In addition, we found this special fungal version of the protein not only in a wide variety of fungi, but also in very basal fungi species, strengthening our view that these sequences are indeed members of the Rab9 family.
Rab23 and Rab32 show extensive patterns of loss, which in the case of Rab23 correlate well to loss of cilia or flagella, consistent with functional work on this protein . Rab23 shows no duplications, whereas Rab32 has been duplicated in vertebrates (Rab38). Rab7L1 and Rab29 have been independently lost in fungi, plants, apicomplexans, and kinetoplastids, but for Rab7L1, we identified a number of related sequences in diverse non-unikont species and in metazoans, including humans (Figure 3 and Additional file 1). As noted above, the assignment of Rab29 as a LECA Rab rather than being unikont-specific is based on Rab29 being in one excavate with a high score to our Rab29 model, with a Rab29-like sequence also being found in the phylogenetically elusive Apusozoa. Interestingly, Rab29 has also been lost in vertebrates. The relationship between Rab7L1 and Rab29 is not completely clear, as several metazoan species seem to have lost one or other group. However, we found sequences from choanoflagellates and from C. owczarzaki, corresponding to both groups. We have used the names Rab29 and Rab7L1 for these two groups because they have been used for members of the two groups previously; however this has not been consistent, thus if confirmed by more genomes, adopting new names for these two proteins may help avoid confusion.
Rab11 seems to be the indispensible member of this supergroup, and is certainly the only Rab from this family that is still present in Saccharomycotina, where it has duplicated (Ypt31/32). Overall, Rab11 presents a unique pattern of duplications. Apicomplexa contain two Rab11 genes, and there has been a large expansion in plants. There are three different Rab11 genes in Bryophyta (Rab11A, Rab11C, Rab11D); these genes expanded to 10 versions in angiosperms and Arabidopsis thaliana possesses 26 different Rab11 genes. In heterokonts, we can observe some independent duplications of Rab11 genes, including oomycetes which have seven Rab11 genes.
Rab2 is present in all major eukaryotic phyla and has been independently duplicated in metazoa (Rab39), heterokonts (Rab2B) and angiosperms (Rab2B), but has been lost in all more derived Saccharomycotina species. By contrast, Rab4 and Rab14 have no major duplications (Rab4 has been duplicated in vertebrates) and have both been lost in several phyla.
Rab6 seems to be indispensible, but we found no expansions in the genomes examined. apart from one in Angiospermae and, like many other Rabs, an expansion in vertebrates (Rab6b). In the latter case, there was a later expansion to generate Rab41, which is present in primates and dolphins, and a further expansion due to a reactivated retrotransposed pseudogene, which seems to be specific to Hominidae (Rab6c, ).
Neither of these Rabs is indispensible, with many losses and no expansions apart from a duplication of Rab28 in heterokonts. RabL4 (also known as IFT27) has been clearly linked to the function of flagella and cilia, and its pattern of conservation fits well with the presence of these important but not ubiquitous structures . Interestingly, the phylogenetic profile of Rab28 is rather similar to that of RabL4, suggesting that its function may also be linked to cilia or flagella. RabL4 has no prenylation site, and our analysis gives strong support to separating this group from the other Rabs (Figure 1). This may indicate that these groups are not classic Rab proteins, but would be better placed somewhere between the Ran and Rab supergroups of the Ras family.
What has driven the expansion of particular Rab families?
The striking expansion of Rabs in humans seems to have been caused by two separate processes: one at the start of metazoan evolution and a second that occurred at the appearance of vertebrates. Comparing the Rabs of metazoans with those of choanoflagellates, which are the closest relatives of metazoans, the appearance of 17 new Rab proteins can be seen in metazoans (Figure 5). Interestingly, the large majority (14) of these new Rab proteins appeared in group I, indicating an early diversification of the exocytic pathway. It seems likely that this is associated with several changes in cellular organization. Not only are metazoans multicellular, but they also form polarized cell sheets, hence proteins need to be trafficked to different domains on the cell surface. In addition, even early metazoans seem to have had neuroendocrine cells that communicated with their neighbors, presumably by regulated release of compounds stored in vesicles . These extra processes will have required diversification of the Rab machinery that is involved in delivery to the cell surface, and indeed, many of the relatives of Rab8 are believed to be involved in such processes. Several members of this family seem to be expressed primarily in the brain, and in some cases have been clearly shown to function in neurotransmitter release (Rab3, Rab15 and Rab27 and RabX4) . It also seems possible that more complex patterns of exocytosis would have required a concomitant elaboration of pathways of endocytic recycling, which may account for the expansion of the Rab1 family to generate more Rabs associated with Golgi functions, such as Rab19/43, Rab30 and Rab33. By contrast, plants and fungi show no expansion of Rab8, suggesting that it was protein-mediated interactions between cells without cell walls, rather than multicellularity per se, which drove the Rab explosion in early metazoans.
Evolutionary history of the human Rabs. Losses and gains of Rabs from the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) towards Homo sapiens. The six supergroups are indicated by their name on the right and the common color scheme. The time points of major remodeling of the human Rab proteins are shown on the top. Most gains in the Rab repertoire are associated with the transition to multicellularity or the rise of vertebrates. In addition, there are two Rab proteins that are specific to primates (Rab40a, Rab40aL), Rab41 is present only in primates and dolphins, and Rab6c seems to be specific to Hominidae. The losses of RabX1, Rab29, RabX4, and RabX6 are indicated by their lines terminating somewhere between the development of multicellularity and the rise of the vertebrates.
The second major expansion in Rab numbers took place during the rise of the vertebrates, most likely through two rounds of whole genome duplications, expanding their set from 38 to 62 Rab proteins (with further duplications in primates, taking the total in humans to 66). In contrast to the first event, the effect of the expansion in vertebrates can be seen in all major groups, and indeed, many other vertebrate families show such an expansion from one gene to two, three or four paralogous genes (Figures 2; Figure 4). In the case of the Rabs these extra paralogs may have acquired subtly different roles, but in some cases, the paralogs are expressed in different sets of tissues, which may have contributed to their conservation [16, 56].
Rationalizing Rab expansions in other kingdoms is made more difficult by the more restricted number of genomes available. However, it is at least clear that in plants several Rab families have also expanded, with the most notable being Rab11, which diversified even in Bryophyta. This also explains how the Angiospermae were able to encompass such a large variety of Rab11 proteins (we found 10 different proteins as a general pattern, and A. thaliana has 26 Rab11-related proteins). Rab11 is involved in recycling back to the plasma membrane, and diversification of such routes to the plasma membrane seem likely to be important for cell plate formation during mitosis, for polarized growth of root hairs and pollen tubes, and for the targeted delivery of auxin transporters that underlies the spatial organization of some multicellular structures in plants [57–59].
Using probabilistic models and advanced tree building methods, we have been able to build the most comprehensive evolutionary tree of the Rab family that has been reported to date. In our analysis, we defined the Rab family as being distinct from the Ran family, and thus excluded some proteins which have been referred to as Rab-like but which are more likely to be 'Ran-like' or have roles distinct from Rabs. These include RabL2, RabL3, and RabL5.
Our findings confirm and extend the evidence that the LECA had a large number of Rabs . If our size estimate of LECA Rab repertoire is incorrect, it will, if anything, prove to be an underestimate once more genome sequences become available from non-metazoan organisms, in particular protozoa. Indeed after our analysis was completed, Elias et al. reported an analysis of LECA Rabs using a different method to identify evolutionary relationships applied to only 55 species, and concluded that the LECA could have contained 23 Rabs. Although this 'ScrollSaw' method was not validated with well established protein families, and found only two of the six supergroups we have identified, there is nonetheless a reassuring overlap of 19 Rabs with our LECA repertoire (although Elias et al used non-standard names for Rab7L1 (Rab32B) and RabX1 (Rab50)). The one extra Rab in our proposed set is Rab29, which Elias et al did not distinguish from Rab7L1, possibly due to their use of a smaller genome set, but as discussed above, we felt we could tentatively include Rab7L1 in the LECA repertoire, based not only on it being in amoeboza and metazoans, but also on it being an excavate sequence that scores above the strict cut-off with our Rab29 HMM. Elias et al. also suggest that the LECA contained four further Rabs that we did not include; Rab20, Rab34 and RabL2 (which they renamed RTW), and a new family that they named RabTitan. They based Rab20 on four sequences outside of unikonts, but in each case the relevant sequence gave a higher score with our Rab24 model, and the organism concerned had no other Rab24 in its genome, suggesting that these really are Rab24s. The inclusion by Elias et al. of Rab34 is based on a Rab34-like sequence that is present in one non-unikont genome (the excavate N. gruberi). With our Rab34 HMM, this sequence gave a score below the strict cut-off point, and so we felt it premature to include this protein. We also did not include RTW/RabL2, as it is well established to be an outlier from the Rab family that is more closely related to Ran, and so is unlikely to be a Rab [14, 15]. RabTitan is based on a set of rather distantly related sequences from several kingdoms, but all lack C-terminal cysteines and seem only very distantly related to the Rabs. We tested a 'RabTitan' from a metazoan (Branchiostoma floridae), an amoebozoan (Dictyostelium discoideum) and a excavate (N. gruberi), and in each case we obtained a much lower score for our general Rab HMM than for either Ran or Rho/Rac from the corresponding species. To determine from which G proteins these RabTitans evolved will probably require a phylogenetic analysis of the entire Ras superfamily.
Irrespective of whether any further Rabs will be added to the LECA repertoire, it now seems unambiguously established that the repertoire was large, probably consisting of at least 20 members, which strongly supports the notion that the LECA had a complex set of internal organelles and trafficking steps [16, 61]. This is consistent with the 'complexity early' model of eukaryotic evolution that has been suggested by examining other families of proteins such as cytoskeletal components and motors [24, 31, 62]. The notion that a single-celled LECA needed such complexity in its internal membranes is consistent with the Rab repertoires of more than 50 members found in some extant single-cellular protozoa [63–65].
The widespread loss of Rabs during the diversification of eukaryotes probably reflects in part the loss of particular structures or processes during specialization. These include cilia/flagella and a capacity for phagocytosis. Interestingly, a LECA Rab of unknown function, Rab28, has a phylogenetic distribution similar to that of cilia, and it groups with RabL4, a Rab known to be involved in cilia function. Thus we suggest that Rab28 is a candidate for a role in cilia formation or function. In addition, the requirements for membrane-trafficking events during cytokinesis are likely to have changed as this process has diversified greatly in different lineages .
It is possible that some cases of Rab loss reflect overlap in function between particular Rabs that belong in the same family, even if they have diverged from a common ancestor in the LECA. For instance, Rab4 and Rab11 were both present in the LECA, but are part of the same fundamental group of Rabs and have been found to share some effectors . This may have allowed Rab4 to have been lost more readily than if Rab11 had not been present to take over some of its roles. Likewise, mammalian Rab5 shares the same binding site on some effectors with other LECA Rabs of its group, Rab21 and Rab22, and again the latter have often been lost during evolution . Such 'cryptic' redundancy suggests that caution may be needed in interpreting the effects of deleting particular Rabs; that is, a failure to see a perturbation of a particular process need not imply that the Rab that has been deleted is not normally involved in that process. This is more likely to be the case for Rabs that have duplicated more recently in evolution, and may explain the surprisingly mild phenotypes observed after loss of some mammalian Rabs such as Rab18 or the Rab3 family, as both have relatives that arose from duplications at the dawn of metazoan evolution [67, 69].
Not only have some Rabs been lost, but also new ones have been gained by gene duplication and divergence. A large increase in the Rab repertoire occurred at the root of the metazoan lineage, which may be linked to multicellularity without a cell wall, and hence the opportunity for intracellular contacts and communications to be mediated by proteins directed to the cell surface. In most cases it seems likely that the duplications generated Rabs that carry out spatially or functionally related roles. However, there are one or two enigmatic exceptions; for instance, Rab35 is related to Rab1 and yet has a role in endocytosis at the plasma membrane rather than acting at the Golgi [70, 71], while Rab2 emerged in a LECA group with Rab4, Rab11, and Rab14, and yet acts on the Golgi rather than on endosomes .
For the non-metazoan kingdoms, a lack of sufficient genome sequences restricts a deep understanding of Rab expansions, although plants seem to have expanded Rab11 . The protozoans Paramecium, Trichomonas, Entamoeba and Tetrahymena have greatly expanded their Rab repertoires, perhaps reflecting the complex endocytic/phagocytic routes in these organisms and their elaborate cilia or flagella, but understanding the history of these expansions will require more genome sequences from other excavates and chromalveolates [63–65, 74, 75].
A second round of Rab expansion occurred in vertebrates as a result of the two rounds of genome duplication that seem to have happened early in vertebrate evolution and that also generated paralogs for many other gene families . It remains to be determined which of these new Rabs have been conserved because they had different functions or different expression patterns [16, 77]. However, it is clear that the naming of these paralogs has not been consistent, with some being distinguished with letters (for example, Rab4a and Rab4b) and others by new numbers. For instance, Rab25 could be Rab11C, and Rab34 and Rab36 could be Rab34a and Rab34b. Adopting a consistent nomenclature for the vertebrate Rabs might avoid some confusion, and in particular the risk that potentially highly redundant paralogs are overlooked because they have different numbers. These anomalies and our suggested 'rational' names for human Rabs are shown in Figure 5.
Finally, it is interesting to compare the evolutionary patterns of Rabs with those of other components of membrane traffic. Known vesicle coat proteins (adaptor proteins (AP)-1 to AP-4, retromer) and multi-subunit tethering complexes (conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG), Golgi-associated retrograde protein (GARP), exocyst, homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting (HOPS) and transport protein particle (TRAPP)) have undergone little expansion since the LECA, indicating that their different subtypes correspond to the fundamental routes of traffic [78–81]. These protein families must be the core components of ancient machineries involved in the fundamental steps of vesicle budding and fusion, which diversified during evolution of the LECA to adapt to the needs of specialized compartments. The SNARE protein families show a post-LECA diversification pattern comparable with that of Rabs; for example, during the rise of metazoans, the development of vertebrates , and in angiosperms . In addition, metazoan SNARE diversification is, like Rab8 expansion, associated with those SNAREs involved in transport steps to the plasma membrane. However, the Rab proteins show a much more extensive and dynamic gain-and-loss history, with SNARE proteins having a tendency to become essential 'housekeeping' genes. For example, S. cerevisiae has retained only 6 of the 20 LECA Rabs but 21 of the 22 LECA SNAREs.
This greater diversity in Rab evolution may reflect the fact that it is difficult to duplicate a coat, a tethering complex, or a SNARE tetramer, as they are encoded by multiple genes. More importantly, it suggests that a particular Rab can be gained or lost without a concomitant gain or loss of any of the known members of the known coat, SNARE, or tethering complex families. This is rather unexpected, as it implies that either these components are associated only with those Rabs that are 'indispensible', or that the Rabs only add functionality to existing processes, or, as seems likely in at least some cases, new Rabs can add transport steps without the cell having to evolve new coats, tethering complexes, or SNAREs. This suggests that Rabs have directed the evolutionary plasticity of membrane traffic, and hence, by implication, they encode much of its specificity. Given that the function of many Rabs, including some of those that were present in the LECA, is poorly understood, it seems certain that there is still much to learn about the involvement of Rabs in the organization of internal organelles and trafficking pathways.
In this study, we built an evolutionary tree of the Rab family that reconstructs the repertoire of Rabs in the LECA and accounts for the origins of all 66 Rabs in the human genome. The twenty different Rabs of the LECA seem to have arisen by duplication and diversification of six fundamental Rab types, which probably can be assigned to the fundamental routes of membrane traffic. Indeed, many extant eukaryotes have fewer Rabs than the LECA, although in some cases this has been balanced by expansion and diversification of the remaining Rab set. The metazoans seem to be the kingdom that has lost fewest of the LECA Rabs, although all individual phyla within metazoans have lost one or more of them. Patterns of Rab loss or expansion can in some cases be correlated with changes in membrane-traffic processes, and we found that a LECA Rab of unknown function, Rab28, showed a pattern of loss similar to that of cilia, suggesting a role for the protein. The evolutionary plasticity of Rabs has been much greater than that of other membrane-traffic components such as coats, tethers, and even SNAREs. This suggests that variation in Rabs has been used during evolution to augment membrane-traffic processes and even to invent new ones, and hence to generate the diversity of organelle function that exists between different cell types and organisms.
We started with a set of approximately 500 Rab proteins from 21 species: Arabidopsis thaliana, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Batrachytrium dendrobatidis, Caenorhabditis elegans, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Dictyostelium discoideum, Drosophila melanogaster, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, Homo sapiens, Laccaria bicolor, Monosiga brevicollis, Nematostella vectensis, Plasmodium falciparum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Tetrahymena thermophila, Trichoplax adherens, Trypanosoma brucei, and Volvox carteri. We used two methods for our classification analysis. Firstly, we made use of the CLuster ANalysis of Sequences (CLANS) software, which uses the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and a subsequent similarity analysis to identify similar subtypes . Using the implemented network clustering method and different e-value cut-offs, we constructed a hierarchical representation of the analysis. Secondly, we used phylogenetic analysis. We aligned the sequences, extracted the 163-residue conserved Rab motif and reconstructed a phylogenetic tree as described below. The results of the analyses were inspected for subgroups which showed similar structure with both analyses and also contained a large number of species from different eukaryotic kingdoms. These were used to define an initial set of 15 subgroups of the Rab family. For each subgroup we used HMMER, with standard settings and calibration for the profiles, to build HMMs , and to then search the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) RefSeq database.
To ensure the quality of the HMMs we added a verification step after gathering new sequences. All sequences in our classification were inspected by eye. Our verification visualized the HMM hits for the different models, and allowed us to review the fit of the sequence to our classification. For the vast majority of the sequences we found a clear fit to one model; however, for a small number of sequences, this was not the case and we inspected these further. There may be several reasons why a sequence will not fit well within the classification. If a species has an eccentric evolutionary history (for example, G. lamblia) it can reduce the fit of the models. However, we found that most problems were due to low sequence quality, and this was especially common with Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequences. Our verification method allowed us to use pairwise alignments and BLAST searches to evaluate the general fit of the sequence. Identified fragmented sequences were joined into one sequence, and sequences that were obviously misassembled were removed from the dataset.
The verification was especially important because we integrated sequence information from a large range of different databases of differing quality. We generally ranked the reliability of the different databases in the following way. Sequences from the NCBI RefSeq database were considered to be most reliable, followed by NCBI Nr and NCBI EST, and then all other databases. For duplicate entries, we generally kept the sequence from the highest ranked database, and if there was more that one from this database we kept the latest version of the sequence. We should emphasize that at each iteration of the classification, we manually inspected all the sequences that showed a low fit to our model and also any new sequences. In the first iteration we gathered approximately 3000 sequences, and after the verification, we obtained a set of 1400 sequences. To refine our classification we used the same methods as described in the previous two paragraphs. We defined a set of 20 different subgroups, each subgroup representing a Rab present in the LECA. Because these subgroups have undergone extensive duplications within the metazoans we supplemented these 20 subgroups with 15 further subgroups representing those metazoan duplications. Because the resulting dataset showed a clear over-representation of metazoan sequences, we decided to construct our HMMs from a subset of all available sequence information.
For the 20 general models, we selected a set of 81 species that were more equally distributed across the eukaryotic domain. For the Rab9 model, we selected 94 Opisthokonta species, and for the metazoan models, we selected 53 species (see Additional file 3). Except for the Rab29 model, this general selection provided sufficient sequences; for Rab29, we randomly added sequences to reach 20 sequences. Finally, we supplemented the sequences from these genomes with additional sequences from the NCBI Nr and EST database whenever necessary. To further enrich our dataset, we obtained 43 genomes from the Broad Institute (http://www.broad.mit.edu), 86 genomes from the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (http://genome.jgi-psf.org), and integrated EST sequences from 236 species from the NCBI EST database. In total, we obtained more than 13,000 Rab sequences, of which we removed approximately 5,000, because they were duplicate entries, of low quality, or contained only a very short part of the Rab motif.
To resolve the five metazoan groups that we could not link unambiguously to one LECA Rab (Rab19, Rab33, Rab34, Rab44 and Rab45), we used a pBLAST-based similarity search . For each group we blasted each of the sequences in the group against all of the Rab sequences from the same species. From the result, we took the sequence with the best expectation value as the closest relative. We counted the occurrences for the different LECA groups, and selected the group with the most similar sequences as its parent. Because each of the five groups has an independent HMM model for searches, the effect on the overall performance of the classification scheme appeared to be negligible; however, future research may be able to shed more light on these Rab proteins.
To estimate the quality of our classification, we used two different approaches. We estimated the positive predictive rate (PPR; a value that gives the rate at which a positive is a true positive) and the sensitivity (a value that describes the percentage of correctly found true positives) by resampling 90% of the members of each HMM 1000 times (see Additional file 2). To estimate the expectation value cut-offs for our models, (that is, the value at which we are confident that the Rab sequences are correct), we used approximately 2000 members of the larger Ras family to which Rab proteins belong (for example, Arf, Arl, Rho and Ran proteins). We provided two different cut-offs using the 5% and 95% percentiles as estimators. The first (strict) cut-off was generated using the 5% percentile of the expectation value distribution from the motifs we selected during our sequence analysis as member of the HMM., while the second (soft) cut-off was generated using the 95% percentile of the expectation value distribution from the motifs found by the HMM but belonging to the non-Rab sequences of the Ras family. The box plots of both samples together with the bounds for the models can be found in Additional file 2.
Alignments were generated using the software Multiple Sequence Comparison by Log-Expectation (MUSCLE) . To increase the quality of the alignments, we visually inspected the results and removed sequences of low quality, corrected the alignment when necessary, and removed sites with more than 25% gaps or sequences with more than 25% gap characters in the motif. The resulting alignments of groups I to VI are available as FASTA format files (see Additional file 4; Additional file 5; Additional file 6; Additional file 7; Additional file 8; Additional file 9). For phylogeny, we reconstructed a tree from the conserved alignments using Important Quartet Puzzling and Nearest Neighbor Interchange (IQPNNI), with a gamma distribution as a model for rate heterogeneity . The estimation for the gamma distribution parameter used four rate categories. Additionally, the proportion of invariable sites was estimated from the data. We explored the use of the Jones, Taylor, and Thornton (JTT) and the Whelan and Goldman distance matrices for the reconstruction of our phylogenetic trees. Because we could not identify an advantage of one over the other, we selected the JTT for the analysis. The stopping rule of the algorithm was used, but the algorithm had to run for at least the suggested number of iterations. All other settings of the application were set to the default values. For each edge of the constructed tree, we estimated the confidence using likelihood mapping . Secondly, we used the PHYLogeny Inference Package (PHYLIP) to apply a distance-based bootstrap analysis with 1000 replicates . We used standard settings for 'seqboot', the JTT distance matrix once again and also a gamma distribution (with parameter approximation from TREE-PUZZLE for 'protdist', and standard options for 'neighbor'). Whenever necessary, we used a random seed of nine. Because bootstrap values have been shown to be systematically biased, we used the almost unbiased (AU) test to correct for this . The site wise log-likelihoods needed for the AU test were obtained using the Phylogenetic Estimation Using Maximum Likelihood (PhyML) software, and the test was performed using CONSEL [92, 93]. We joined the results of both estimations, using the IQPNNI tree as a starting point, and labeled the inner edges of the tree with their likelihood-mapping and corrected-bootstrap support values. The resulting trees are available from TreeBASE (S12811), or in Nexus format from our Rab Database web server (see below).
We have implemented a web-based interface called Rab Database to provide access to our results (http://bioinformatics.mpibpc.mpg.de/rab/). It is divided into three sections. The first section provides access to our collected information, which can be searched for groups, species, and protein names. The second section allows submission of new sequences to our HMM models. We implemented the expectation value cut-off to reflect the strict and soft bounds for each family (defined in Additional file 2). The results display the best four hits and the position of the motif in the alignment. The final section contains the protein alignments and the Rab trees generated for this analysis in Nexus format, which can be analyzed in detail with SplitsTree [94, 95].
We thank Alison Gillingham, Falko Riedel and Katja Röper for comments on the manuscript. We thank the IT and Electronics Service of the Max Plank Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, for hosting our computer cluster and for their ongoing support. THK, NK and DF were supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants Kl 2370/1-1 and FA 297/3-1. SM was supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC file reference number U105178783).
THK, DF, and SM designed the analysis, THK and NK performed the analysis, NK built the Rab Database web server, and SM and THK wrote the manuscript. All authors read an approved the final manuscript. |
0.982278 | The Cowboys are in desperate need of a quarterback, and former running back Herschel Walker knows just the person to take over in the pocket.With Robert Griffin Alex Boone Jersey III on the bench in Washington and Dallas struggling to find a replacement for Tony Romo, Walker appealed to Redskins owner Dan Snyder to make a deal.MORE: Power rankings |Dysfunction in Dallas| A bold trade for RGIII would save Brett Favre JerseyCowboys seasonduring the Heisman Trophy media tourI think hed love to go down to Dallas and play for the Cowboys.Griffin signed a fifth-year extension guaranteed only against injury, but has been inactive the entire seasonwith the exception of one game. Kirk Cousins has taken over as quarterback of the Redskins, who are now 3-4 after a 31-30 comeback win over the Buccaneers on Sunday.Right now, I know hes not doing Michael Floyd Jersey anything. So, give him an opportunity to play," Walker said."Itll be bad to see him continue to sit there on the bench, but you know youve got to give a shout out to Cousins.Let me tell you what, the guys playing well cant deny that. They just won a big game this past week. You got to give him credit. So Trae Waynes Jersey , if RGIIIs got nothing to do and Mr. Snyder dont mind, send him down to Dallas a little bit. |
0.999999 | What resources can you refer me to for long-term care financial help? My 84-year-old mother needs assisted living or nursing home care, but we do not have a lot of money and she does not have long-term care insurance.
If your mother does not have a long-term care insurance policy there are several resources you should look into that may help pay for her care depending on her particular circumstances.
Medicaid: The first thing to understand is that Medicare (the government health insurance program for seniors 65 and older and individuals with disabilities) does not cover long-term care. This includes nursing home care, the costs of assisted living facilities and home aide services (unless your mom is receiving skilled nursing or therapy services too). Medicare only provides limited short-term coverage, which includes up to 100 days for skilled nursing or rehabilitation services after a hospital stay.
However, Medicaid (the joint federal and state program that covers health care for individuals who have very low income) as it currently stands, does cover long-term care facilities and in-home care. To be eligible for coverage, your mother must have a very low level of income. Her countable assets cannot be more than around $2,000, including investments.
Note that most people who enter a nursing home do not qualify for Medicaid at first, but pay for care out-of-pocket until they deplete their savings enough to qualify. Contact your state Medicaid office (see Medicaid.gov) for eligibility details.
Veterans aid: If your mom is a wartime veteran, or a spouse or surviving spouse of a wartime veteran, there is a benefit called "Aid and Attendance," which can help pay between $1,153 and $2,127 a month toward her long-term care.
To be eligible, your mom must need assistance with daily living activities like bathing, dressing or going to the bathroom. In addition, her yearly income must be under $13,836 as a surviving spouse, $21,531 as a single veteran or $25,525 as a married veteran (after her medical and long-term care expenses). Her assets must also be less than $80,000 excluding her home and car.
To learn more, see Benefits.VA.gov/pension or contact your regional Veterans Administration office or local veterans service organization. Call 800-827-1000 for contact information.
Life insurance: If your mom has a life insurance policy, find out if it offers an accelerated death benefit that would allow you to receive a tax-free advance to help pay for her care.
Another option to consider is selling her policy to a life settlement company. These are companies that buy life insurance policies for cash, continue to pay the premiums and collect the death benefit when she dies. Most sellers generally get four to eight times more than the policy cash surrender value.
If she owns a policy with a face value of $100,000 or more and is interested in this option, ask for quotes from several brokers or life settlement providers. To locate some, use the Life Insurance Settlement Association member directory at LISA.org.
Tax breaks: If you are helping out your mom financially, you may also be able to claim her as a dependent on your taxes. This could potentially reduce your taxable income by $4,050, which you could use for her care. To qualify, you must pay at least half of your mom's yearly expenses and her annual income must be below $4,050, excluding Social Security. For more information, see IRS Publication 501 at IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf.
If you cannot claim your mom as a dependent because her income is too high, you may still be able to get a tax break if you are paying at least half her living expenses and they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. These expenses include her medical, dental and long-term care costs. You can include your own medical expenses in calculating the total. See the IRS Publication 502 (IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf) for details.
My dad is interested in downsizing his smartphone wireless plan and is looking for the best low-cost options. He uses his phone primarily for talking and texting, but also wants to have some cellular data for checking email when he does not have WiFi access. Do you have any recommendations? There are several great low-cost deals I can recommend for older smartphone users who are looking to save some money by paring down their cell phone plan. Here are three possible options to consider.
If your dad is an Android smartphone user, Republic Wireless (RepublicWireless.com) offers one of the cheapest deals available for light data users. Republic uses a mixture of Wi-Fi and cellular networks—Sprint and T-Mobile specifically—to transmit calls, texts and data. This patented technology automatically offloads as much as possible to WiFi networks when available, so he will consume less data than he would with traditional carriers. Republic's no contract service plans start at $20 per month for unlimited talk, text and one gigabyte (GB) of data. If your dad needs more data, their $30 per month plan provides 2GB, and $45 per month buys 4GB. How much data will your dad need? The best way to find out is to check his current phone bills. The average smartphone owner uses between 2GB to 3GB of data each month, but most seniors use less than 1GB. To use Republic Wireless, he will need a compatible Android phone (iPhones are currently not compatible) or your dad can buy a new phone through the company. It currently offers eight Android phones with prices starting at $99.
Another excellent low-cost option for lighter data users, and one that caters to older adults, is Consumer Cellular (ConsumerCellular.com). Rated the number one wireless service by Consumer Reports seven years running, Consumer Cellular offers a variety of "pay for what you need" talk and connect plans that will allow your dad to choose exactly what he wants. Consumer Cellular's talk plans start at $10 per month plus 25 cents per minute, which may be an option if your dad is an infrequent caller. Otherwise they offer $15 per month for 250 minutes, $20 per month for 1,500 minutes or $30 per month for unlimited minutes. Consumer Cellular also offers connect plans for text messages and cellular data. These plans cost $2.50 per month for 300 texts and 30 megabytes (MB) of data, $5 per month for 2,000 texts and 200MB data, $10 per month for unlimited texts and 500MB, $20 per month for unlimited texts and 1.5GB, $30 per month unlimited texts and 3GB or $40 per month for unlimited texts and 5GB of data. Consumer Cellular, which offers 5% monthly fee discounts to AARP members, also allows customers to utilize their own smartphones by offering free SIM cards. Alternatively, customers can purchase a wide variety of Android and Apple iPhones or the senior-friendly Doro 824 SmartEasy.
If your dad's income is low enough, another option to check into is the Lifeline Assistance Program. This is a federal program that provides a $9.25 monthly subsidy that can go toward your father's smartphone service. To qualify, your dad will need to show that his annual household income is at or below 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (which is $16,281 for one person or $21,924 for two people) or that he is receiving a government benefit, such as Medicaid, food stamps, SSI, public housing assistance, veterans pension or survivor's pension benefits or that he lives on federally recognized tribal lands. To apply, he can contact a wireless provider in his area that participates in the Lifeline program (see LifelineSupport.org or call 800-234-9473) and ask for an application form. He will want to check all wireless providers in his state because some offer better services than others.Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living” book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization’s official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) has awarded Washington County Community Foundation a $25,000 grant for Out-of-School STEM Learning. The purpose of the program is to partner with our local schools and organizations to create inspiring STEM learning environments for our youth.
The program creates an inspiring STEM learning environment for all youth.
STEM resources, equipment, and supplies support STEM learning.
The STEM program engages families, schools, and community.
Staffs receive professional development that increases their confidence and ability to facilitate STEM learning.
The program provides opportunities for youth to learn STEM content, skills, and knowledge.
The program utilizes a variety of data to measure the impact of its STEM program.
Eligible expenses for grant funding include program planning, professional development and part of program implementation, actual implementation, program materials, and scholarships for STEM participants. Grant dollars may not be used for one-time events not related to an ongoing STEM program or staff time (unless a plan for sustainability is defined and realistic.
If your school or organization would like to apply for this grant, applications for the grant can be found in the Grants section of the Washington County Community Foundation website at www.wccf.biz and are due by September 25, 2017.
For questions, please contact Judy or Lindsey at 812-883-7334.
The Washington County Community Foundation will begin accepting applications immediately for this opportunity.
I'm worried about my 72-year-old mom who has been taking Vicodin—an opioid medication—for her hip and back pain for more than a year. I fear she's becoming addicted to the drug but I don't know what to do.
Opioid addiction is a national problem that is hitting people of all ages, including millions of older Americans. Here is what you should know and do to help your mom.
The main reason opioid addiction has become such a problem for people over age 50 is because opioids have become a commonly prescribed (and often overprescribed) medication by doctors over the past two decades. It is being used to treat many different types of pain and diseases, including arthritis, cancer, neurological diseases and other illnesses that become more common in later life. Nearly one-third of all Medicare patients—almost 12 million people—were prescribed opioid painkillers by their physicians in 2015. That same year, 2.7 million Americans over the age of 50 abused painkillers. Taken as directed, opioids can manage pain effectively when used for a short amount of time. However, because nearly 5% of those treated will develop an addiction or abuse the opioid medication, people should be screened and monitored when using an opioid for a long period of time.
Your mom may be addicted to opioids if she cannot stop herself from taking the drug and her tolerance continues to increase. She may also be addicted if she keeps using opioids without her doctor's consent, even if it is causing her problems related to her health, money, family or friends. If you think your mom has an addiction, ask her to see a doctor for an evaluation. Go to a family doctor, her prescribing physician or find a specialist through the American Society of Addiction Medicine (see ASAM.org) or the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP.org). It is also important to be positive and encouraging. Addiction is a medical matter, not a character flaw. Repeated use of opioids actually can change the way the brain functions.
Treatment for opioid addiction is different for each person, but the main goal is to enable your mom to stop taking the drug and avoid using it again in the future. To help her stop using the drug, her doctor can prescribe certain medicines to help relieve her withdrawal symptoms and control her cravings. These medicines include methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. After her body detoxifies, behavioral treatments such as individual counseling, group or family counseling and cognitive therapy can help her learn how to manage depression, avoid the drug, deal with cravings and heal damaged relationships. For assistance, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) confidential help line at 800-662-4357 or visit SAMHSA.gov. The SAMHSA has individuals who can connect you with treatment services in your mom's state. Also, if you believe that your mom has a doctor who prescribes opioids in excess or without legitimate reason, you should report him or her to the appropriate state medical board. For contact information visit FSMB.org.Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living” book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization’s official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
How does one go about choosing a walker? I have some balance issues along with arthritis in my knee and could use a little more help than a cane provides. When it comes to choosing a walker, there are various styles and options to consider, but selecting the best one for you will depend on your needs and where you'll be using it. Here are some tips to help you choose.
There are three basic types of walkers on the market today. To help you choose, consider the type of support you'll need. Then, pay a visit to a medical equipment store or pharmacy that sells walkers so you can test-walk a few (see Medicare.gov/SupplierDirectory). Here are the different types you will be able to choose from:Standard walker: This is the most basic style of walker. It has four legs with rubber-based feet (no wheels), is very lightweight (around 6 pounds) and costs between $50 and $100. This type of walker must be picked up and moved forward as you walk, so it's best suited for people who need significant weight bearing support or who are walking very short distances.Two-wheeled walker: This has the same four-leg style as the standard walker except it has wheels on the two front legs. This allows the walker to be easily pushed forward without lifting. The back legs glide across the floor providing support while you step forward. This type of walker works best for people with balance issues and is priced at around $60 to $120.Rollator: This is a rolling walker that has wheels on all four (or three) legs. This type of walker is best for people who need assistance with balance or endurance inside or outside the home. This walker does, however, require some upper body strength in order to prevent the walker from rolling out from under you. Rollators typically come with a built-in seat, basket and hand-breaks. For those with hand arthritis or gripping problems, there are rollators with pushdown brakes that engage with downward pressure and will lock when you are seated. Rollators typically cost between $75 and $225.
After deciding on a type of walker, there a few additional things you need to double-check to ensure it meets your needs. First, if you have a larger frame, make sure the walker's weight capacity will support you. If you choose a rollator, make sure to test the seat to ensure that you can comfortably fit between the handgrips. Always check the height of the walker to make sure that it is set appropriately for you. To do this, stand with your arms relaxed at your sides. The handgrips of the walker should line up with the crease on the inside of your wrist. You also will want to ensure that the walker folds easily for transport and storage and that it is light enough to lift into your car. Test the handgrips to make sure they are comfortable. Also, be sure you measure the doorways in your home to ensure your walker will fit through them. If you have narrow doorways consider installing "swing clear" offset door hinges. This would be a simple and affordable way to widen your doorways an extra two inches. Walkers also have numerous accessories that can be added for your convenience, such as—food tray attachments, tote bags for carrying personal items, oxygen tank holders and tennis ball walker glides that go over the feet of a standard walker to help the walker slide across floors. For more tips on how to choose and use a walker, visit Mayoclinic.com/health/walker/HA00060. It is also a smart idea to work with your doctor or a physical therapist, as Medicare will cover 80% of the cost if you receive a written prescription for a walker.Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living” book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization’s official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
I've heard that there are free online search tools that can help people look for lost or forgotten money left behind by deceased relatives. Can you refer me? When my father passed away his financial affairs were a mess, I'm wondering if there was anything he left behind.
Forgotten or lost money is actually quite common in the United States. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, there is around $42 billion in unclaimed funds sitting in state treasuries and other agencies just waiting to be found.
These unclaimed funds are from accounts that are inactive or whose owners, or their heirs, cannot be located. Unclaimed funds can include lost or forgotten saving or checking accounts, stocks, utility security deposits, tax refunds, life insurance proceeds, uncashed dividend checks, contents of safe-deposit boxes and more.
This typically happens because of a change of address (the owner moved), a name change (the owner got married or divorced) or the owner dies and the estate was unaware of the money or the heirs could not be located. By law, companies and financial institutions that can't find the owner or their next of kin within two to five years must turn the property over to the state where it's held indefinitely.
It's very possible that your father, or you, have some unclaimed money out there and you don't even know it. To start your quest go to Unclaimed.org, which has links to all state programs that will let you to do a state benefits search online for free. Alternatively, you can do a multi-state search in 40 states at MissingMoney.com.
Check every state in which your father or you have lived, worked or conducted business. Also, if you're married, make sure to check under your maiden name as well. Using a first initial and your last name is also encouraged to make sure everything comes up. Every state should be able to tell you immediately if you or your dad have some unclaimed money, as well as how to go about collecting it.
In addition to state treasuries, here are some other agencies that can help you find unclaimed money.
IRS: Each year thousands of refund checks totaling millions of dollars are returned to the IRS by the post office. To look for lost Federal tax refund checks go to IRS.gov/refunds, or call 800-829-1954.
U.S. Treasury: To find out if there are any savings bonds your dad didn't claim dating back to 1974, go to TreasuryHunt.gov. For older bonds, or those still drawing interest, use form 1048, which you can download at TreasuryHunt.gov/forms/sav1048.pdf, or call 844-284-2676 to request a form by mail.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: If your dad worked for a company that went out of business or ended its defined benefit pension plan, you may be entitled to some of his benefits. To look for lost pensions, use the pension-search tool at PBGC.gov/search/unclaimed-pensions, or you can call 800-400-7242 and get help over the phone.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners: To track down a lost or forgotten life insurance policy, the NAIC, an insurance regulatory support organization, offers a national policy locator service at Locator.NAIC.org.
PenChecks Inc. and Millennium Trust Co.: To search for lost or forgotten retirement benefits or 401(k) funds left behind with an old employer, go to UnclaimedRetirementBenefits.comand MTrustCompany.com/unclaimed-retirement-funds.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: To search for unclaimed bank accounts at firms that were shut down between January 1, 1989 and June 28, 1993 go to ClosedBanks.FDIC.gov/funds. State treasuries hold assets from shutdowns after 1993.
Social Security: To find lost Social Security benefits, including the $255 death benefit, call 800-772-1213.
The Washington County Community Foundation is now offering scholarships to non-traditional students through its Education Matters initiative.
Education Matters is a regional undertaking organized by the community foundations that serve Washington, Scott, Harrison, Clark and Floyd counties to try to increase the number of working adults in our region who started but never completed some form of post-secondary education – education that extends beyond high school.
You might be surprised to learn that in Southeast Indiana, only 25% of our workforce has an associate’s, bachelors or professional degree, compared to 38% nationally. Yet one in four of our community’s adult workers has earned some college credits! That’s over 3,100 people in Washington County! For whatever reason, they started but never completed their post-secondary education. This represents a tremendous amount of untapped potential in our community.
The community foundations that created Education Matters have elected to concentrate on a small sliver of the overall issue, those one in four of our adult workers who have some post-secondary credits but did not complete their degrees or certifications. This population of people who started but didn’t finish their education is where the Washington County Community Foundation sees opportunity to implement immediate changes that can drive our educational attainment numbers up, ultimately having real impact on our community.
Annual awards will not exceed $3,000 the first twelve months and $5,000 per person in any subsequent twelve month period.
Scholarship applicants must be a minimum of 28 years old as of the date of application.
Only individuals who can demonstrate continuing legal residence in Washington County for at least the past five years are eligible. Documentation such as tax forms, housing receipts, or utility bills will be used to verify residency and/or household income.
Scholarship awards may be used for tuition, course-related fees, or books only. Checks will only be written to an educational institution or certified training provider.
The application deadline is October 6, 2017. No exceptions.
Adult scholarship awards may not be used to pay for college debt.
Subsequent awards will only be considered for students maintaining at least a 2.5 GPA.
Call the Washington County Community Foundation office at 883-7334 or email program.officer@wccf.biz to request an application or for more information.
The mission of the Washington County Community Foundation is to engage people, build resources and strengthen our community.
Is regular heartburn or indigestion anything to worry about? My 60-year-old husband eats a lot of Tums or Rolaids throughout the day to help him manage it, but it keeps him up at night too. What can you tell us?
Almost everyone experiences heartburn or acid indigestion from time to time, but frequent episodes can signal a much more serious problem. Here's what you should know, along with some tips and treatments to help relieve your husband's symptoms.
It is estimated that more than 60 million Americans experience heartburn at least once a month, with around 15 million people suffering from it daily. If your husband is plagued by heartburn two or more times a week and it is not responding well to over-the-counter antacids, he needs to see a doctor. Frequent bouts may mean he has gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which can severely irritate and damage the lining of his esophagus, putting him at risk of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer if it is not treated.
Avoid problem foods: Certain foods can trigger heartburn symptoms, including citrus fruits, tomatoes, fatty foods, chocolate, garlic, onions, spicy foods, mints, alcohol, coffee and sodas. Your husband should keep a food diary to track which foods cause him the most problems and avoid them.
Eat smaller, slower and earlier: Having smaller portions at mealtime and eating slower can help reduce heartburn symptoms. He should also wait at least three hours after eating before lying down or going to bed.
Lose weight: Having excess weight around the midsection puts pressure on the abdomen, pushing up the stomach and causing acid to back up into the esophagus.
Quit smoking: Smoking can increase stomach acid and weaken the valve that prevents acid from entering the esophagus. If your husband smokes, the National Cancer Institute offers a number of smoking cessation resources at SmokeFree.gov or 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Sleep elevated: To help keep the acid down while sleeping, get your husband a wedge-shaped pillow to prop him up a few inches. If that's not enough, try elevating the head of his bed six to eight inches by placing blocks under the bedposts or insert a wedge between his mattress and box spring. Wedges are available at drugstores and medical supply stores. Sleeping on his left side may also help keep the acid down.
H-2 Blockers: Available as both over-the-counter and prescription strength, these drugs, including Pepcid, Tagamet, Axid and Zantac, reduce how much acid your stomach makes but may not be strong enough for serious symptoms.
Proton-Pump Inhibitors (PPI): If you have frequent and severe heartburn symptoms, PPIs are long-acting prescription medications that block acid production and allow time for damaged esophageal tissue to heal. They include Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec, Zegerid, Protonix, Aciphex and Dexilant. Prevacid 24 HR, Prilosec and Zegerid OTC are also available over-the-counter. But be aware that long-term use of PPIs can increase your risk for osteoporosis and chronic kidney disease.
Surgery: If medications don't do the trick, there are also surgical procedures that can tighten or strengthen the lower esophageal sphincter to prevent gastric fluids from washing back up into the esophagus.
I just received my Medicare card in the mail and was surprised to see that the ID number is the same as my Social Security number. I know it's a bad idea to carry around anything that displays my Social Security number because it makes me vulnerable to identity theft. Wasn't the government supposed to stop putting Social Security numbers on Medicare cards?
Many people who are new to Medicare are surprised to learn that the ID number on their Medicare card is identical to their Social Security number (SSN). After all, we're constantly warned not to carry our SSN around with us, because lost or stolen SSN information could result in identity theft.
But what should you do when the Medicare card itself tells you to carry it with you so that you can present it to administrative staff at a doctor's office or hospital? Here are some tips and information that you can use to protect yourself.
For starters, you'll be happy to know that the government is in the process of removing SSNs from Medicare cards. But with 58 million beneficiaries, it is a huge undertaking that will be implemented gradually. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will start sending the new cards in April 2018, but it will take until December 2019 for SSNs to be removed from all cards.
Under the new system, a randomly generated 11-character Medicare Beneficiary Identifier will replace the SSN-based health claim number on your new Medicare card, but your Medicare benefits will not change.
You will receive information in 2018 letting you know about the new Medicare card with an explanation of how to use the new card and what to do with your old one. You can start using your new Medicare card and number as soon as you receive it. There will likely be a transition period in 2018 and 2019 when you can use either the old card or the new card.
Until your new Medicare card is issued, here is what you can do to protect your SSN on your current card. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a national consumer resource on identity theft, recommends that you carry your Medicare card only when you visit a health care provider for the first time so the provider can make a copy for their files. Otherwise, make a photocopy of your card and cut it down to wallet size. Then take a black marker and black out the last four digits of your SSN and carry that with you instead.
If your Medicare card does happen to get lost or stolen, you can replace it by calling the Social Security Administration at 800-772-1213 or by contacting your local Social Security office. You can also request a card online at SSA.gov/MyAccount. Your card will arrive in the mail in about 30 days.
If your Medicare card containing your SSN gets lost or stolen, you will need to keep an eye out for Medicare fraud. You can do this by checking your quarterly Medicare summary notices for services or supplies you did not receive. You can also check your Medicare claims online at MyMedicare.gov (you'll need to create an account first) or by calling Medicare at 800-633-4227. If you spot anything suspicious or incorrect, call the Inspector General's fraud hotline at 800-447-8477.
Also, watch for other signs of identity theft. For example, if someone uses your Social Security number to obtain credit, loans, telephone accounts or other goods and services, report it immediately to the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov (or 877-438-4338). This site will also give you specific steps you will need to take if your identity gets stolen.
There will be a public meeting for any non-profit organization wishing to apply for a grant from the Washington County Community Foundation. The meeting will be held on August 1st, 2017 at 6:00 pm at the Community Learning Center. We will discuss our grant criteria, guidelines, application process, deadlines and reporting process. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. Our goal is that by the end of the meeting, all potential applicants will have a strong understanding of the process. Attendance at this meeting is not required to apply for a grant; however, first-time grant applicants are strongly encouraged to attend this session.
This type of grant is issued from the Washington County Community Foundation’s Touch Tomorrow funds. The total amount available for this grant cycle is $30,000.00.
Grant applications for the fall grant cycle will be available at the public meeting and the WCCF office. The Washington County Community Foundation will begin accepting applications on August1, 2017. The application deadline will be 3:30 pm, September 14, 2017. For more information, you may call Judy Johnson or Lindsey Wade-Swift at the Foundation office. The number is 883-7334. |
0.999016 | Grab some spare paper plates and make them into elephants, zebras, giraffes, tigers, leopards, lions, dogs, cats, rabbits, cows, pigs, reindeer, and more animals.
1Choose an animal to make.
Think about an animal you want to make. Imagine the paper plate as the animal's head. What do you need to decorate the paper plate with to make it look like the animal you have in mind?
Cut out a pair of ears out of any color of construction paper or cardboard.
Place your paper plate front side up. Glue the pair of ears onto the top portion of the plate.
4Cut out other head parts.
Some animals will need additional head parts. An elephant for instance, needs a trunk. Cut it out from construction paper or cardboard.
5Glue the other head parts.
After gluing the ears, flip the paper plate so that the bottom side is facing up. Glue the other head parts onto the plate. The elephant's trunk needs to be glued at the center of the paper plate.
Remember to position your paper plate with the bottom side facing up. The ears should be glued at the back. Paint your animal with tempera or poster paint.
7Add spots or other patterns.
Create some spots, stripes, or patches, if your animal has them. You can paint them using your fingers, some cotton buds, or a regular paint brush. The patterns can also be drawn using crayons or permanent markers.
Another option is to cut out the spots and stripes out of paper and glue them onto the paper plate.
8Glue a pair of eyes.
Glue a pair of wiggle eyes or or buttons to create the animal's eyes. You can also cut out circles out of paper, craft foam, or felt to make the eyes.
9Draw a nose and mouth.
For most animals, like these cute leopard and tiger, you can draw the nose and mouth directly on the paper plate. Use a black permanent marker or crayon.
Some animals like the giraffe, have a snout. To make a snout, cut out an oval shape from construction paper. Draw a pair of nostrils and a mouth on it.
Glue the snout at the bottom portion of the paper plate. To make the animal's head a little less round, position the snout so that it protrudes a little bit from the bottom of the plate. You can do this for long-faced animals like giraffes, horses, cows, and goats.
Create a pair of horns by cutting a craft stick in half. Glue the horns at the back of the paper plate. You can color or paint the horns if you like.
Add more details if you like. My giraffe needs circles at the tips of the horns. I cut them out from paper and glued them at the tips of the craft stick.
This giraffe illustrates the basic steps for making paper plate animals. More ideas for making these animals are described in the section below.
So far, we have made twelve paper plate animals, namely, a giraffe, an elephant, a tiger, a leopard, a lion, a zebra, a dog, a cow, a rabbit, a reindeer, piglets, and bears. Check them all out below. We described the variations we have done from the craft steps above.
The important detail for making a lion is its mane. Cut out strips of dark brown or orange paper and glue them around the back edge of the paper plate.
Create tufts of hair at the top of a zebra's head by cutting thin strips of black construction paper and gluing them at the back of the paper plate, in the area between the ears.
An extra large snout defines the look of this paper plate cow. You can also do this for other large animals like hippos and buffalos.
As shown in Steps 4 and 5 above, a long trunk out of cardboard or construction paper is attached to the paper plate prior to painting. Paint the entire paper plate, including both sides of the trunk. After the paint dries, draw lines on the entire length of the elephant's trunk using crayons, permanent markers or poster paint. Draw a mouth on the paper plate, a half-inch or so below the trunk.
If you don't feel like doing a messy craft, you can skip the painting step altogether with this adorable paper plate pup. Cut out a pair of long brown paper ears and an oval paper eye patch. Cut out an oval nose out of craft foam or felt for a three-dimensional feel. Glue all the cut-outs onto the plate. Add a pair of wiggle eyes and draw a mouth to complete your paper plate dog.
A fluffy snout was made for this bunny by gluing some cotton below an equally fluffy pompom nose.
Paper plate animals are great for storytelling or role playing. Make a handle by gluing a wooden dowel or a craft stick at the back of the paper plate. Give the animals lots of character by drawing expressive mouths, eyebrows or even distinct facial features like freckles or mustaches. Hats, bows, spectacles, and other wearables can further give them character. If you want to wear them as masks, simply cut out holes for the eyes. |
0.999977 | By default, all users have access to new collections. To make a collection invisible to other users, Once done, you should now see a sub-menu named Settings on the right side of the application, click that button to access the collection's settings view, where you will be able to modify some of the collection properties. Following the next screenshot, to modify a collection's permission like the visibility by clicking on the dropdown ( 1 ), selecting the desired displayed preset and saving the changes ( 3 ). The category tree shown in the homepage of the application will automatically adapt his behavior to the visibility setting.
Owners of a collection can invite other editors to their collections. Once a collection is selected, you should be able to see the Permissions menu, go ahead to reach the detailed permission parameters view. You will now can add or delete permissions for a specific user , a group of user or an user's role. For that, regarding your wishes, you will have to click and write ( 1 ) into the corresponding input box the user, group or role name that you want to add edit permission for. Next, press enter or click on the auto-completed name ( 2 ). To update the collection settings, hit the Save button ( 3 ). Here is an example of how to add edit permissions to a group of user : To edit an user or a role permission, just follow the previous instructions and type the right name in the corresponding input box. |
0.984973 | Concrete is a construction material that consists of cement (Ordinary Portland cement or Portland Slag Cement or Portland Pozzulana Cement), Cement Additives (FlyAsh or GGBS Slag or Micro-silica), Aggregates (generally Gravel and Sand), Water and Admixtures.
Concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing and placement due to a chemical process known as hydration. Free water, present in concrete, reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a stone-like material.
Concrete is used to make pavements, architectural structures, foundations, motorways / roads, overpasses, parking structures, brick / block walls and footings for gates, fences and poles etc.
Regular concrete is the lay term describing concrete that is produced by following the mixing instructions that are commonly published on packets of cement, typically using sand or other common material as the aggregate, and often mixed in improvised containers. This concrete can be produced to yield a varying strength from about 10 MPa to about 20 MPa, depending on the purpose, ranging from blinding to structural concrete etc. Many types of pre-mixed concrete are available which include powdered cement mixed with an aggregate, needing only water.
Plasticizers are additives that soften the materials (usually a plastic or a concrete mix) to which they are added. Although the same compounds are often used for both plastics and concrete, the desired effect is slightly different. The plasticizers for plastics soften the final product increasing its flexibility. Plasticizers for concrete soften the mix before it hardens, increasing its workability , and are usually not intended to affect the properties of the final product, after it hardens.
Superplasticizers are chemical admixtures that can be added to concrete mixtures to improve workability and strength of concrete.
Strength of concrete is inversely proportional to the amount of water added or water-cement (w/c) ratio. In order to produce stronger concrete, less water is to be added, which makes the concrete mixture very unworkable and difficult to mix.
This difficulty is overcome by using plasticizers and superplasticizers. These admixtures increase workability of concrete at lower water-cement ratio. Although, plasticizers and superplasticizers do not directly affect the strength of concrete, their action of reducing the water-cement ratio results in concrete of increased compressive strength.
Plasticizers are commonly manufactured from lignosulfonates , a by-product from the paper industry. Superplasticizers have generally been manufactured from sulfonated naphthalene formaldehyde or sulfonated melamine formaldehyde , although new generation products, based on polycarboxylate ethers, are now available.
Polycarboxylate Ethers (PCE), the new generation of superplasticisers are not only chemically different from the older sulphonated melamine and naphthalene based products but their action mechanism is also different, giving cement dispersion by steric stabilization , instead of electrostatic repulsion. This form of dispersion is more powerful in its effect and gives improved workability retention to the cementitious mix. Furthermore, the chemical structure of PCE allows for a greater degree of chemical modification than the older generation products, offering a range of performance that can be tailored to meet specific needs.
Concrete Curing Compounds when sprayed or brushed on newly laid concrete surface forms a tough and elastic membrane thereby reducing the loss of water from concrete during early-hardening period. The concrete gets adequately hydrated by matrix water since evaporation of water from the surfaces is minimized by the film barrier of resin. The concrete achieves maximum beneficial properties including increase of mechanical strength. |
0.915342 | To understand strabismus surgery, we first need to understand how the muscles in our eyes work.
In the previous article on strabismus, I had mentioned that each of our eyes is surrounded by 6 extraocular muscles.
These eye muscles are attached to the sclera (wall of the eye) and control our eye movement.
For the eye to be properly aligned, the strength of each muscle has to be balanced.
For the eye to be properly aligned, the strength of each muscle has to be balanced. If one muscle is too strong or too weak, it may cause the eye to turn in, turn out or rotate too high or low.
The surgery is a one day outpatient basis procedure. The surgery itself takes 20 to 40 minutes.
For most cases, the operation is performed in the operating room, with general or local anesthesia.
To prevent eyelid movement, the eyelids are held open by a small instrument called a lid speculum.
After anesthesia is administered, the surgeon will create incisions in the conjunctiva (a thin layer of transparent tissue covering the eye muscles) and uses delicate tool to isolate the muscle.
Contradictory to belief, the eyeball is not removed from the eye socket during the surgery.
Surgeon may consider either the recession or resection approach depending on the cause of strabismus.
Recession is used when the affected eye muscle is too strong.
The recession approach weakens the relative eye muscle by altering the attachment site on the eyeball.
In the procedure, the affected extraocular muscle is detached from the eyeball and reattached further back from the front of the eye to weaken the strength of the muscle.
A suture is placed through the muscle to hold the muscle in place at the attachment site to the eye.
It is also possible that that your surgeon use recession procedure to reduce strength of the opposing muscle if the affected eye muscle is too weak.
Resection strengthens the function of an eye muscle by removing a portion of it before attaching it back to the original insertion site.
In the procedure, a suture is placed through the weaker eye muscle at the intended new attachment site.
Then the surgeon will proceed to attach the muscle back to the eye after the segment of muscle between the suture and the eyeball is removed.
This surgery is generally more suitable for adults. It works best for someone whose strabismus develops in adulthood after previously normal eye alignment.
A standard strabismus surgery involves the muscle being sewed (using suture) to the wall of the eye after the necessary modification is made.
Suture that is used to hold the eye and eye muscle together is normally not adjustable (permanent knot).
In contrast, adjustable suture approach utilizes a bow-knot or slip-knot (temporary knot) instead.
After surgery the eye alignment can be altered by adjusting the temporary knot to improve your final outcome.
The adjustment is typically done while awake and the operated eye is numbed.
After the surgery there are some things to expect.
Firstly, possible vomiting due to the side effect of the anesthesia.
It is also normal for patient to notice that their operated eye becomes red after the surgery. This condition is likely to last for 2 or 3 weeks before the redness disappear.
They are likely to feel some sort of soreness in their operated eye upon movement. The skin area around the eye may become swollen too. The soreness usually improves after a few days.
A few days after the surgery, you should be able to notice a change in the eye position, however, more permanent results may not be known until four to six weeks after surgery.
As with all kind of surgeries, strabismus surgery carries risks. Especially when you are dealing with something that is as delicate and sophisticated as eye.
The main risks of such surgery are undercorrection and overcorrection.
As strabismus surgery involves detaches, cuts and reattaches eye muscles, sometimes the eye muscles are not adequately reattached during the surgery.
This may cause the muscles to detach and slip.
There are many possible ways to damage the eye during the surgery. Documented problems include damages to the sclera, blood vessels in the eye, optic nerves and retina.
All these may cause permanent blindness.
Other risks include infection and bleeding.
I'm not attempting to scare the hell out of you here.
Strabismus surgery does have its merits and some people do benefited from it. My aim here is to help you make informed choices so that you won't regret in the future.
I had shared several non-surgical method in my previous post on Strabismus. If they don't work for you or your child then consider going for the surgery. |
0.849024 | Johannes "John" Kerler was born August 11, 1800, in Memmingen, Bavaria. He lost both parents at a young age and was raised by his step-parents. John came from generations of wealth and was well-educated. As a young man, he took over ownership of an inn and brewery, and later worked as a forester.
In 1821, John married Veronica Herman. To John and Veronica were born four children: John, Jr. (1823), Edward (1827), Veronica (1828), and Louis (1830). John's wife Veronica died 1837. Since she was instrumental in the running of the business, running it alone was out of the question for John, and he felt obligated to sell it for the sake of their children. Shortly after, John married Veronica's sister, Regina Sturm, whose husband had died four years earlier. [An interesting fact to note is that intermarriage – marriage among step relations – was a way of keeping wealth within the family, and it was practiced by the Kerlers down through the generations. There is nothing inappropriate with intermarriage since step siblings are not related by blood, but it can make a family tree look less like a tree and more like an electrical circuit diagram.] Regina brought two step children into the family: John Sturm (1824-1843), and Regina Sturm (1828). John and Regina had a child of their own, Herman (1839). John's second wife, Regina, died in 1848.
Also in 1848, tension and violence were mounting in the wake of the German revolutions of 1848-49. Life in Bavaria was not safe. John dispatched his eldest son, John, Jr., to the United States to survey land on which to settle. While John, Jr. was surveying land in the United States, John, Sr. was liquidating his assets in Bavaria and preparing for a new life in a new country. John, Jr. first went to Michigan, then came to Wisconsin and found Milwaukee to be an ideal place on which to settle. He reported this information back to his father.
In 1849, John, Sr. and the rest of the family – Edward, Veronica, Louis, Regina, and Herman – left their homeland for the United States. They took a steam ship to New York where they picked up a hired hand, Elias Kusher. From New York, they traveled to Buffalo and across the Great Lakes to Milwaukee. In Milwaukee, they rented a room while John, Sr. and John, Jr. made excursions out to various farms, looking for property to purchase. They found the kind of land they were looking for in the Town of Greenfield. John Sr. purchased 200 acres. The property was bordered by the then-existing Beloit Road to the north and Cold Spring Road to the south, and what is now Highway 100 to the west and the I-894 bypass to the east.
The first thing the Kerlers did was expand an existing log house on the north end of property to fit the large family. Then they got to work erecting buildings. By the end of the year, the Kerlers had built a stall for two horses, a 50' x 30' barn with a stall underneath large enough to hold 22 head of cattle, and a 22' x 23' two-story house. The family moved into the new house in 1850.
John Kerler's first house, built in 1849. Neither the fate of the house nor its location on the farm property are clearly documented, however, deductive reasoning suggests this house was the one purchased by Regina Kerler and Henry Frank when they were married in 1853. That would put the approximate location of the house near what is now 104th & Plainfield. The photo is from the book "Pionierjahre der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Familien Frank-Kerler in Wisconsin und Michigan" published in 1911 by Dr. Louis Frederick Frank.
John, Jr., now 26-years-old, went back to Michigan to work in the tanning trade. John, Jr. and John, Sr. had a falling-out which led to a hostile relationship between the two. John, Jr. eventually left for the western frontier, working odd jobs and remaining estranged from his father for the rest of his life. He died in Montana in 1885 at the age of 62.
Herman was about ten years old when he emigrated with his family. After four years of schooling, instead of staying to work on the family farm, Herman chose to lead a merchant's life. He started working in his brother-in-law's dry-goods store in Milwaukee, then moved to New York several years later to land a successful career. He retired in 1894. After ten years of traveling, Herman died in Los Angeles in 1904.
Sons Louis and Edward stayed to clear the land and work on the farm, which became quite popular. In an 1850 letter to his cousin in Bavaria, John Kerler remarked that his farm had become a somewhat famous and that he and his family were held in high esteem. His farm had so many visitors (up fifteen neighbors on Sundays) that it was becoming a burden to entertain them all.
Shortly after settling, John Kerler recalled a form a "street justice" that took place in the City of Milwaukee. A man was said to have caused the death of his wife by leaving her alone and helpless as she was about to deliver a baby. Since there was no witness to the allegation, the man was freed. A relative of the deceased showed up at the accused man's house with a mob. They tarred and feathered him, tied him to a fence rail, and paraded him around the city. Before letting him go, they dunked him in the water.
The family worked the bottom 160 acres and John rented out the top forty. In 1851, John, gave 42 acres each to Louis and Edward. Edward married Mathilda Kuener and built a new house, which was approximately located at what is now 3977 S. 104th Street.
Edwards Kerler's house, built in 1851. The photo is from the book "Pionierjahre der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Familien Frank-Kerler in Wisconsin und Michigan" published in 1911 by Dr. Louis Frederick Frank.
"There is also no lack of taverns here in the country. I have three in my neighborhood, in front, to the back, and at the side..."
In 1852, Veronica Kerler married August Frank, a businessman, and left the farm to live in Milwaukee.
In 1853, Regina Kerler married Henry Frank, August's brother. Henry, Regina, and Louis bought the southern and eastern 74 acres of their father John's farm. Shortly after a lease agreement with a tenant farmer from a nearby property fell through, John, Sr. turned over the top forty acres to Edward and Louis.
Also in 1853, Louis built his own house, which was located at approximately what is now 4055 S. 103rd Street.
Louis Kerler's first house, built in 1853. Photo supplied by Frank Baldwin.
John, now living with Regina and Henry, often found himself in the middle of their newlywed quarrels. Sometimes he would leave for the night and find a place to stay in town, but found the best solution to be moving out. Having doled out the last of his farm property, John set aside a two-acre plot of land for himself on which he built a new house in 1854.
John Kerler's second house, built in 1854. It's approximate location is believed to be in what is now the backyard of 4000 S. 104th Street. The fate of the house is not documented. The photo is from the book "Pionierjahre der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Familien Frank-Kerler in Wisconsin und Michigan" published in 1911 by Dr. Louis Frederick Frank.
A sketched plat of the 1854 Kerler Farm. Within five years of buying all this property, John Kerler gave and sold it all away to his sons and son-in-law, and kept for himself just a two-acre plot. The plat is from the book "Pionierjahre der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Familien Frank-Kerler in Wisconsin und Michigan" published in 1911 by Dr. Louis Frederick Frank.
The Kerler/Frank farms in 1854, superimposed over a present day street map of Greenfield. By cross-referencing the original land plats with aerial photos, satellite images, historical data, photos, and eyewitness accounts, this map was made to be as accurate as possible.
Shortly thereafter, August Frank bought John's two acre property so that his wife, Veronica, could spend time away from the city, living on the farm with her father. |
0.995893 | Draping beautifully off the body in fluid chiffon, this ultrafeminine gown features a deep-cut back and a wraparound skirt ready to catch every breeze.
Choose a sizeBest for a straight or pear-shaped figure. If between sizes, order one size down. XS=0-2, S=4-6, M=8-10, L=12-14, XL=16. |
0.999988 | How Do I Unclog Paper and Napkins?
To remove a paper and napkin clog, start with your easiest options first.
If you believe that a large volume of tissue paper, baby wipes, paper towels or other sanitary products has clogged a toilet or drain line, start by trying to pull out as much of the material as you can.
First, try using a toilet auger (or "closet auger") to pull out or break apart any flushed material that's close to the bowl.
A toilet auger is a hand-held snake, typically with 3 to 6 feet of cleaning cable, and a curved, plastic elbow sleeve to help you avoid scratching the visible ceramic surface inside the bowl.
A toilet auger with a cable that can telescope to 6 feet in length can be purchased online and in many hardware stores for under $50.
Use care to insert the plastic sleeve into the opening at the bottom of the bowl before you extend the cable, and always keep the protective sleeve pressed firmly against the opening to avoid scratching the visible ceramic surface inside the bowl.
Press down and rotate the toilet auger handle to extend the auger cable through the toilet trap. Avoid using too much force so that you do not kink or knot the cable.
It may take several attempts to fully clear the clog. Falling and siphoning water in the toilet bowl is an indication that the blockage may have cleared.
Use extra care as you pull out the cable to avoid scratching the visible ceramic surface inside the bowl.
Use caution when working on any plumbing fixture where chemical drain cleaners may have been used to avoid splashing liquid on yourself and surrounding areas.
If you can't reach the clog with a toilet auger, and you can find an alternate, clogged drain opening that's upstream of the toilet (like a sink, a clean out opening in a wall, or a shower floor drain), try using a handheld drum auger to clear the drain.
Important: to avoid scratching the visible ceramic surface inside a toilet bowl, do not run a handheld drum auger directly into the toilet.
This is a good next choice, since the auger can break through many clogs that are further away from the toilet.
Expose the alternate drain opening that's upstream of the toilet and then feed the auger into the drain by locking the cable, turning the drum in a clockwise direction, and then unlocking and feeding the cable as needed to pass the auger tip through elbows and obstructions.
After you have inserted the drum auger all the way into the drain, pull out the auger cable as you feed it back into the drum. It may take several attempts before the drain is unclogged.
Note that removing the toilet, checking for material stuck in the toilet trap, running a drain snake or sewer jetter through the drain opening in the floor, and then reinstalling the toilet is usually the most time-consuming option but might be necessary if no good, alternate drain opening can be found.
If a large volume of tissue paper, baby wipes, paper towels or other sanitary products has caused several plumbing fixtures to all clog, you can usually break apart and flush out the clog with a sewer jetter.
Important: you should avoid using a sewer jetter if you think that your sewer drain could have structural problems caused by foundation issues, or if you live in an older home that could have ceramic (clay) or Orangeburg (wood composite) drains.
For detailed tips to clean your main drain with a sewer jetter, visit the unclog a main sewer drain tips page.
For tips to clear a toilet that's been clogged with paper or napkins, visit the unclog a toilet tips page. |
0.96989 | Sequence 32, 32, 16, 32, 32, 8, 32, 16, 32 to end.
S1: 1/2, Cross & Behind, Behind & Step, 1/2, Step, 1/2, 1/2, Rock.
2&3Cross step Right over Left, step Left to Left side, cross step Right behind Left (Sweeping Left from front to back).
4&5Cross step Left behind Right, step Right to Right side, step forward on Left.
S2: Recover, 1/2,1/2,1/2,1/2, 1/4, 1/8 Rock, Run,Run,Run.
S3: 1/2,Step, 3/8, 1/2, 1/4, Back, Rock, Side, 1/4 Twist, .
6&7Cross rock Left behind Right, recover on Right, step Left to Left side.
S4: Reverse Spiral, 1/4 Sweep, Cross, 1/4, 1/2, Step, Step, Touch, Back, Together.
3Cross step Right over Left.
6-7Step forward on Right, touch Left toe behind Right.
8&Step back on Left, step Right next to Left.
Restart 1: on Walls 3 & 8.
Dance up to including 6 section 2 then Rock back on Left, rock forward on Right ready to start again.
Restart 2: on Wall 6.
Dance up to including count 7 Section 1 then step forward on Right ready to start again.
You can replace these 4 counts for dancers that have difficulty with a full spiral but still wish to enjoy the dance .
Back Rock Side, Together, Cross.
8&1Cross rock Right behind Left, recover on Left, step Right to Right side.
2-3Step Left next to Right, Cross step Right over Left.
- Did you want to say something Theresa.Onw word would suffice GENIUS.
- Awesome dance written perfectly to the music. The key is to hear and dance to Adele's unique phrasing. Brilliant! |
0.999998 | Name Ahmadzai, Mariam Ghani Mrs.
Mariam Ghani daughter of Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and his wife Rula was born 1978 in New York, USA. Ghani holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from NYU and an MFA from SVA, and has taught at NYU, Parsons, Stevens, Otis, and Cooper Union. Mariam Ghani is a Brooklyn-based artist whose research-based practice operates at the intersections between place, memory, history, language, loss, and reconstruction. She has been awarded the NYFA and Soros Fellowships, grants from the Graham Foundation, CEC ArtsLink, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Experimental Television Center, and residencies at LMCC, Eyebeam Atelier, Smack Mellon, and the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Her videos and installations have been exhibited internationally, most recently at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel and Kabul, the Sharjah Biennial 10, and MoMA in New York. Her public and participatory projects have been staged in Berlin, Amsterdam, Buffalo, Detroit, New York and online. She has collaborated with artist Chitra Ganesh since 2004 as Index of the Disappeared, an archive of post-9/11 detentions, deportations, renditions and redactions, and with choreographer Erin Kelly since 2006 on the video series Performed Places. Her recent publications include an Index project in the “Historicizing 9/11″ issue of the Radical History Review; “To Not Wait for the Archive” in Mousse #34, with members of the online archive collective pad.ma; and Afghanistan: A Lexicon (Hatje Cantz & documenta, 2011), with her father anthropologist Dr. Ashraf Ghani, who was elected Afghan President in 2014. |
0.948466 | I feel a strong aversion against blue veins (the "normal" ones, not "spider veins"). More specifically, I am a Caucasian male with a Caucasian wife and a Caucasian child. We all have relatively fair skin and three years ago I noticed that blue veins are visible on the backs of my wife's hands. Since then, I "discovered" more blue veins on her temples, arms, legs, feet, etc. I also found many similar veins on myself, our child (albeit in both cases to a lesser extent) and on many other people.
It bothers me so much that I often don't look at my wife because I fear that seeing such a vein would trigger an unpleasant emotional reaction. Or sometimes I "seek" these veins, yet feel strong aversion when I "find" them, especially on my wife and child. I also ruminate daily about it, and even fantasize about divorcing my wife and finding a partner with very dark skin.
I talked with two psychotherapists about it and they couldn't help and basically said nothing can be done about it. However, based on everything I've learned about psychology, Buddhism, etc., I don't believe that.
Therefore, I started working on this issue myself several days ago. Firstly, I acknowledged that it's not a sign of disease, that most people with fair skin have visible blue veins to some extent, that these veins fulfil a vital function, that even people on whom they are invisible still have them and that most people don't seem to care much about them. Secondly, I realised that using aversion doesn't help and that fearfully looking away is not the solution. I therefore started to continue looking at them until my feeling of aversion has grown weaker. I feel that these two methods have already worked to some extent but may either need more time/practice or require additional methods/insights.
Secondly, I realised that using aversion doesn't help and that fearfully looking away is not the solution. I therefore started to continue looking at them until my feeling of aversion has grown weaker. I feel that these two methods have already worked to some extent but may either need more time/practice or require additional methods/insights.
That sounds like a good approach. I would suggest that in cases like this, where aversion/fear/etc arises, you try to focus on the feeling of aversion itself, rather than the object of aversion (which can just make it worse). What does the aversion/fear/etc feel like? Where do you feel it? Somewhere in the body? Just in the mind?
You could also use this as an exercise if you have a meditation practice. After developing some calm, try bringing to mind something you don't want (such as the images you describe), and ask the above questions (what does the aversion feel like, etc). Then, after a time, bring to mind something you want and ask the same questions about the feelings of attraction. Compare and contrast the feelings. Where do they send the mind? What do they do to the body?
Blue veins are simply the lack of red light waves returning to your eyes.
Blue light does not penetrate human tissue as deeply as red light does. As a result, veins that are close to the surface of the skin will be more likely to reflect blue light back to the eye.
Your emotional reaction is not grounded in logic and reality. Blue veins have nothing to do with health..
Afaik for the most part it is due to a lower bodyfat % that one sees the veins. There is nothing intrinsically attractive about veins but perhaps you can get rid of the aversion by cultivating perception of equanimity.
Contrary to what you may have heard, or been told, I think this is something that can be helped by psychotherapy or other treatment.
Another thing you can do is to observe the aversion when it arises. Experience how it feels , where the feeling manifests in your body, its shape, tightness, how it feels. Aversion arose because your eyes came into contact with the veins. But when you direct the mind at the aversion itself, the stimulus is cut off. In addition, by consistent and repeated application of this awareness, the reaction will weaken over time.
I therefore started to continue looking at them until my feeling of aversion has grown weaker.
This technique is called exposure therapy. It is possible to do on your own, but having someone trained in it can be helpful. The effectiveness rests on being exposed to the trigger until the negative reaction subsides. Having a helper can make sure you stick with it until the feelings go away.
The therapists you talked to are wrong. You probably want to be looking for someone trained in cognitive behaviour therapy with a speciality in phobias. In the mean time you can just google exposure therapy and read information that comes from a trusted source.
Good luck and good for you for asking for help and being committed to overcoming this.
Thank you for all your replies so far. I appreciate it!
I can see how developing repulsion may intially be helpful for a monk who was previously overwhelmed by sexual desire, but for a married layperson it seems harmful to me (being repulsed by my veins and my wife's veins does not help).
Why do you think that it is more helpful to focus on the aversive reaction instead of the object of aversion? Do you recommend to look away from the stimulus (veins) and focusing on the aversive reaction or to continue to look at them but focus on the aversive reaction simultaneously?
You are right, I know these scientific/logical facts. They have helped me somewhat but logic alone has been insufficient so far to overcome my aversion.
Yes, low body fat percentage also seems to play a role, but as far as I know it is not nearly as strong a factor as skin colour. I agree that one can take the position that there is nothing intrinsically attractive about veins but being repulsed by them has caused me considerable suffering.
Yes, I think that too. Do you have any more specific ideas or recommendations?
I am somewhat familar with exposure therapy and used it several years ago to reduce my arachnophobia (phobia of spiders). Finding a therapist with such a focus seems like a good idea.
Because it's the reaction that's the problem.
It's not so much "looking away" as focussing on a different part of the total experience.
Did you try examining your reaction?
Thank you mikenz66, that makes sense. I will start to practice it daily and tell you how it goes.
Realise that you come into contact with far worse things, on a daily basis, without knowing it. How many parasites live in your gut? How much dried and vaporized dog-sh*t did you breathe in with all the dust today? There's really no getting away from gross things.
Rahula Sutta wrote: "Rahula, develop the meditation in tune with earth. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind. Just as when people throw what is clean or unclean on the earth — feces, urine, saliva, pus, or blood — the earth is not horrified, humiliated, or disgusted by it; in the same way, when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind.
I hope it proves useful!
How many parasites live in your gut? How much dried and vaporized dog-sh*t did you breathe in with all the dust today?
Gawd, something else to worry about. |
0.999491 | The business scenario is now project-based. Projects involve cross-functional teams, and diversity of opinion helps in innovation. The objective of many business projects is to meet and exceed customer expectations. Integrated project management is the new business mantra, wherein project management is an integral process of the execution of the strategic plan. Understanding the process of a project lifecycle is critical for all areas of work as it translates to better efficiency.
Businesses often rely on “projects” to satisfy customer needs. A “project” is distinguished from everyday routine activities and long-term “programs” by certain characteristics. In order to be called a “project” a task should have a specific objective, should be a one-time effort with an established life span. Projects also have performance specifications and are limited by time, money, manpower and other resources. Each project lifecycle is characterized by four stages: the defining stage, planning stage, executing stage and delivering stage.
Project management is the process of planning, scheduling and controlling projects. Several factors have led to increasing emphasis on efficient project management. Increasing global competition has led to compressed product lifecycles. Businesses are dealing with shorter “time to market” product development scenarios. The knowledge explosion with shared information networks and increased customer focus have contributed to greater complexity in the nature of projects. This requires an efficient management of cross-functional project teams. Companies are also performing numerous projects simultaneously. Therefore, allocation of resources and efficient project management is of strategic importance.
Planning in the context of a project involves providing a roadmap for the proper execution of the project. The planning process involves defining the project, including the proposed outcome of the project. The planning process also involves clearly defining the goals and objectives of the project, the specifications of the quality, the budget and time estimates and control parameters. In short, the planning stage is a stage to review and reaffirm the project objectives and guidelines and resolve any undermining issues. Contingency approaches are also designed during the planning process to avoid pitfalls. Ideally, the planning process should involve all the team members.
Scheduling projects involves breaking down the project to clearly defined simpler tasks. This is also known as the “work breakdown structure”. This structure allows the team members to understand a complex project in terms of simple achievable tasks. Scheduling also involves assigning these tasks to the relevant personnel and establishing the time, money and other resource constraints for each task. For example, if the project is to organize a convention, then the work breakdown structure would involve tasks such as booking a hall or printing brochures. Specific people are assigned to each task with time, money and quality constraints.
Execution of the project involves dealing with unexpected events. While establishing a clear plan and scheduling process minimizes ambiguities, careful control has to be exercised by the project manager in order to maintain the time, quality and budget requirements. Two elements of project control involve establishing and achieving clearly defined project milestones and maintaining clear lines of communication. Milestones help in monitoring progress, and communication helps in oversight and improving team effort. |
0.999935 | Cómics de Cinjis Kan Hay 3 productos.
Glenat. Cinjis Kan. 01. Cothias. Griffo.
Glenat. Cinjis Kan. 02. Cothias. Griffo.
Glenat. Cinjis Kan. 03. Cothias. Griffo. |
0.99619 | Why People Get Fatter When They Get Older?
Is it true that if you eat the same amount of food, you can still become fatter when you are getting older?
Starting in 40s, you will lose half pound to two pounds of muscle and gain a pound of fat every year naturally. The more muscle you lose, the slower the metabolism will be and making calorie burning slower. The body you once had at 20 will no longer be the same when you are going to middle age.
Many elderly people have joint problems. Without choosing the right exercise, they suffer more pain. Some decided to give up and becoming less active. With little physical activities and spending more time in front of television, they burn less calories.
To make thing worse, some still eat the same amount of food, if not more than they ate during younger days. To give you a better picture on this – say, when you are 40 years old, you need to eat 2,200 calories a day. When you are 50 years old, assuming you need only 2,000 calories a day, but you still eat 2,200 calories a day. You eat additional 200 calories a day. In one year, 365 x 200 = 73,000 more calories. 3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat, so you may end up gaining as much as 20 pounds of fat in a year time!
Exercise regularly. Jog, swim, or cycle, or whatever you can get yourself moving. If you are young, start early while time is on your side. Make it a habit. Even if you are already 50s or 60s, do not give up. It is better late than never. Get off the couch and do houseworks like vacuuming or gardening.
Lift weights to maintain your current muscle mass, or hopefully, can build a little bit more. You need to have some muscles to help burning more calories. Apart from that, if you lose muscle mass, you will lose strength and ability to do everyday tasks like climbing stairs, walking or even getting up from a chair. Many older people tend to fall because of the lost strength and I do not want you to have the same issue when you age.
Eat healthy. When you get older, you need to eat less in each meal and split 3 big meals a day into 5 to 6 meals. Eat less fried or oily food. Avoid junk food. Getting older does not give anyone the license to eat all the foods youngster should avoid. Eat food in high fiber, fruit and vegetables.
However, you still need to be realistic. Don’t expect yourself to look like Ryan Reynolds or Jessica Biel when you are old. When we get older, we need longer time to lose weight.
Hopefully, by knowing the tips above, while you are gaining maturity and wisdom when you age, you will still be healthy and fit.
Indeed, there are people who have the misconception that when they age, they will be afflicted with many diseases and body breakdown.
Most definitley I agree, we have a choice, and just because you gain age, doesnt mean you have to gain weight and diseases. Get it right today to have a great Future!
I have lost a significant amount of weight in the lat 4 months. clean eating, regular exercise, and now I am carb cycling- one day I eat higher complex carbs and the next I eat lower carbs. I am absolutely in love with the science of nutrition. I eat only nutrients that nourish or cleanse my body. If you are serious about helping your body, you must educate yourself about food, suppliments and your metabolism in general. It is fascinating, and relatively easy to master. |
0.999945 | sayHello = (++) "Hello! "
Haskell functions can take functions as parameters and return functions as return values. A function that does either of those is called a higher order function.
myInit = error "cannot operate on empty list"
myTail = error "cannot operate on empty list" |
0.999816 | The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) and its constituent boroughs already have a strong record of partnership working, and a clearly defined set of strategies created in partnership, which define how we work and the decisions we make.
The North London Joint Waste Strategy (NLJWS) provides the strategic framework for municipal waste management in North London for the period 2004 - 2020. The NLJWS sets out the targets for reducing, reusing and recovering a greater proportion of the municipal waste which is generated in the North London Waste Authority area and for reducing the amount which is sent for disposal to landfill.
Implementing the strategy involves working in partnership as local authorities and with local communities to provide the services and facilities required to make the improvements we need at the most efficient scale of operation and finance. This involves action and investment in waste minimisation, recycling and composting and recovering energy from waste.
The first draft of the NLJWS was published in 2004 (Mayor's Draft, September 2004) but was subsequently updated and subjected to a new Strategic Environmental Assessment or SEA in 2008 before final adoption.
The NLJWS completed the process of adoption by all eight partners (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Waltham Forest and the NLWA) in February 2009.
A bite-sized version of the NLJWS has been produced (June 2009) to share the vision for meeting the challenge of managing waste in north London up to 2020. The summary additionally provides an update on progress with implementing the Strategy and sets out how progress will be monitored and reviewed.
In partnership with the seven boroughs, NLWA also produces a Waste Prevention Plan. A full version of the 2018-20 plan will be available soon but in the meantime, a shorter version can be viewed here. A copy of the previous plan can be viewed via the following link: Waste Prevention Plan 2016-18 (or a shorter summary version is also available here). The plan sets out in more detail how the waste prevention objectives within the North London Joint Waste Strategy will be met. This regularly updated plan details a series of short to medium term actions to minimise the amount of waste produced by north London. A summary report of waste prevention activity in 2017-18 available here. The implementation of the Plan is carried out by NLWA and the constituent borough councils (together or separately).
What is the North London Joint Waste Strategy?
The North London Joint Waste Strategy is the joint waste strategy for the London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest and the North London Waste Authority (which arranges the disposal of waste collected by these seven London Boroughs). It sets out how the partners will manage the waste that they collect from households and businesses in the area until 2020.
The Strategy also sets out the roles of the London Boroughs (as 'waste collection authorities') and the North London Waste Authority (as the 'waste disposal authority'), and how collectively the partners will seek to reduce the amount of waste being generated, and recycle, compost, recover energy and dispose of the waste that is produced in North London over the forthcoming years to 2020.
Why did you alter the Strategy in 2008 if it runs from 2004 - 2020?
New legislation came into force in 2006 which requires certain strategies to be subjected to a 'Strategic Environmental Assessment' or SEA before they can be adopted. A SEA has therefore been undertaken of the 2004 draft North London Joint Waste Strategy and changes were proposed to the strategy as a result. The SEA legislation requires public consultation to be undertaken as part of the process.
The North London Joint Waste Strategy also makes a commitment to regular reviews and updates.
Can I see a copy of the 2004 draft of the Strategy?
What is a Strategic Environmental Assessment or SEA?
A SEA is essentially an environmental review of a draft strategy. It identifies and assesses the likely environmental impacts of the draft strategy and makes recommendations for changes to reduce environmental impact. The findings of the SEA process should be incorporated into the final strategy that is produced. Public consultation forms part of the SEA process.
ongoing environmental monitoring of the strategy must be undertaken as it is implemented to ensure that environmental impacts are minimised.
Section 2 of the SEA scoping report, outlines the stages involved in SEA and may provide a useful guide regarding the different aspects of the process.
Is the North London Joint Waste Strategy the same as the North London Waste Plan?
No, these are two separate documents.
The North London Waste Plan is about the use of land and it will identify suitable sites for new waste facilities. The North London Waste Plan is being prepared by the same London Boroughs as those involved with preparing the North London Joint Waste Strategy, but in their separate capacity as planning authorities. The North London Waste Plan will set the land use planning framework for siting waste facilities in north London up until 2020, i.e. it will identify 'where' facilities will be located. Moreover, it will do this for all waste arising in north London, whether household, commercial, industrial, construction, demolition, clinical etc.
The website for North London Waste Plan is www.nlwp.net.
The North London Joint Waste Strategy sets out 'how' waste will be managed in the same period and it relates only to the waste collected by the seven London Borough Councils, which will be about a quarter of the total amount of waste considered within the North London Waste Plan.
Whilst the North London Joint Waste Strategy provides a key input into the North London Waste Plan, the two documents and processes are separate. Sustainability appraisal, which is being undertaken on the North London Waste Plan is also a slightly different process to SEA.
How is my borough/local area affected?
The North London Joint Waste Strategy sets out how all the seven North London boroughs and the North London Waste Authority will be changing the way in which waste is managed over the forthcoming years. For local areas this means more efforts to recycle and compost more waste, potentially additional local facilities and more investment in waste management across the area. Consultation will be undertaken when changes are proposed which might affect local residents.
For information on the North London Joint Waste Strategy please contact our External Relations Manager Barbara Herridge.
The Mayor of London's spatial strategy for the capital, the London Plan, sets a target of working towards sending the equivalent of zero waste to landfill by 2031. |
0.999968 | How to 'weaken' or 'strengthen' a normal map texture?
I would like to export a normal map texture itself, what is a correct way to make it stronger or weaker?
I found that weakening effect can be accomplished by mixing texture with #8080ff color using MixRGB node, but I am not sure it is the best/proper way to do it.
values for both directions, with alpha being the angle away from the surface normal. You might notice that it's not immediately trivial to make it stronger or weaker, the standard transformations (saturation, contrast, brightness) on their own will not do what you want.
... to strengthen the map would be to, for example, subtract 0.1 from the red and green channels and then multiply the red and green channels by a factor of 1/(1 - 2*0.1) = 1.25. The problem with this is that you can clip colors and that you end up with a normal map that is technically wrong because the normals will be longer than 1. Basically, this stretches the normal in the x and y directions. For normal maps that are far too weak because they were created from a very smooth surface, this method might work fine. Do not use it on anything where steep angles are already in the map.
Setup: Be careful here to make sure you work in linear image coordinates without any gamma correction.
This looks something like this: You still have to watch your image gamma.
Clipping is not a problem any more here and even strong strengthening should not create any problems. You bend the normals away from the centre while retaining their length.
In this setup, a smaller gamma value creates a stronger normal map, while gamma = 1.0 doesn't change the map.
The values of 0.637 are actually 2/pi, while 1.570 is pi/2 (enter the values as "2/pi" etc., python will understand what you mean).
Interestingly, Doc:2.4/Bump_and_Normal suggests that Blender uses the full range of the blue channel for the range of 0.0 to 1.0, which makes the ((B-0.5)×2) and ()×0.5+0.5 transformations unnecessary for this channel. I can't find a more current reference, but I assume this is still true in the current versions. So I might have to change the second setup accordingly.
And then bake it as Emit on a texture in Raw format, with Float set.
The resulting normal map will have a "neutral" color set at #8080FF as required by game engines.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged normals texture-baking or ask your own question.
How to Combine two Normal Maps?
How to save normal map texture from Blender?
How do I make and apply a Normal Map?
How can I paint terrain with normal map? |
0.960577 | Is the price of Yamaha RD350 really INR 30,000 or it is INR 3 lakhs?
The price of Yamaha RD350 was really INR 30,000 at that time, which was quiet high for that time. The bike on the website has the image of the Japanese version of RD350 whereas the Indian version was identical to it, except the disc brake being provided into it. The bike in India produced around 30.5 BHP and 32.3 NM of torque. It was the best performer of its time and was so fast that people were scared to ride it on high speeds. Riding a bike with no disc brake on Indian roads of that time could have been really a difficult task. The bike has a lot of chrome for its parts and is still remembered for its out of the world performance. The bike you are getting confused with is the SR400, which costs more than INR 3 lac and is not available currently in India. |
0.99935 | How do I use Google Calendar on Windows 10?
Windows 10 has its own calendar app, which makes it easy for you to track all your appointments, events, and vacations right on your PC. However, if you're thinking, "I already have a Google calendar for that," the good news is you can important your Google Calendar into the Calendar app on Windows 10.
By default, your Calendar app should be located in your Start menu. If you have removed it from the Start menu, it's readily available through the File Explorer.
Click on the Start menu button. It's the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Click on the Calendar app.
Click on the Settings button. It looks like a gear.
Click on the start time.
Enter your desired start time.
Click on the end time.
Enter your desired end time.
Click on location. If you don't want to add a location, skip to step 12.
Click on the dropdown menu beside the calendar. |
0.934331 | The 1906 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was the 19th All-Ireland Final and the culmination of the 1906 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, an inter-county hurling tournament for the top teams in Ireland. The match was held at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, on 27 October 1907 between Dublin, represented by club side Faughs, and Tipperary, represented by club side Thurles. The Leinster champions lost to their Munster opponents on a score line of 3-16 to 3-8. Tipperary extended their unbeaten record in All Ireland Finals to seven wins out of seven.
For a list of honours won by Tipperary in hurling, football and handall competitions see Tipperary GAA honours. For a history of GAA in Tipperary in see History of Tipperary inter county teams, County Tipperary holds an honoured place in the history of the GAA as the organisation was founded in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, on 1 November 1884. Tipperary are currently sponsored by Intersport/Elverys, a sponsorship that covers both the hurling and football codes and includes all grades from minor to senior inter-county teams, Tipperary GAA has jurisdiction over the area that is associated with the traditional county of County Tipperary. There are 9 officers on the Board including the Cathaoirleach, Sean Nugent, the original colours of Tipperary GAA were a white jersey with a green diagonal sash. This jersey design is associated with Tipperarys most historic match in either code, the current jersey is blue with a gold central band. This crest was used until the late 1990s when the current crest, four Tipperary men have served as President of the GAA.
Maurice Davin is the man to have served two terms as President while Seán Ryan represented Dublin from 1928 to 1932, though a native of Kilfeacle. Mr. Ryan a solicitor based in the capital, was the Associations legal advisor over a period and played a central role in the acquisition and vesting of many club. Maurice Davin 1884–1887 Maurice Davin 1888–1889 Seán Ryan 1928–1932 Séamus Gardiner 1943–1946 Séamus ORíain 1967–1970 In the All-Ireland series and this rivalry has lasted since Kilkennys coming to power in the early 20th century. Tipp are the team to have beaten Kilkenny in the All Ireland senior hurling championship more times than they have lost. Another rival of Tipperary is Cork in the Munster Championship and these teams have met 80 times in the championship, more than any other rivalry in hurling. They have met them countless times in the National League, a Tipp and Cork Munster hurling final in Semple Stadium is often claimed by supporters of both counties to be the most traditional Munster final and the games between them are nearly always close. |
0.999986 | Please read the following instruction if you would like to charge your customers for an audio file. If you would like to charge your customers for the entire article, please click here.
Log into your WordPress Dashboard. Click "Posts" and select "All Posts" on the menu on the left side of the page. Click on the title of the article where you would like to add an audio file.
To add a charged audio file, click the plus sign on the top left corner of the page. After clicking the "+" sign, scroll down and look for "SatoshiPay". Click the little arrow next to "SatoshiPay" to further expand the menu. Choose "Paid Media".
Choose "Upload" to upload a file.
After choosing an audio file to upload, (1) set a price and (2) choose whether you would like it to be automatically played after payment.
Select "Update" on the top right corner to confirm the change.
A pay button will now appear in your post. Once a customer clicks the "Pay" button, the audio file will be available to the customer.
The process is almost the same when you create a new post instead of editing an old post. Simply follow the same procedure described above. However, instead of clicking the "Update" button in the end, simply click the "Publish" button at the same location to confirm it.
On the "Edit Post" page, click "SatoshiPay" on the toolbar and choose "Add Paid Audio"
Go to "Upload Files" and click "Select Files" to find the audio file you would like to upload. Click "Insert" on the bottom right corner of the page to confirm it.
Type in the price of your audio file in the box next to "Price (lumen)". If you would like to have it automatically played after a customer pays, check the box next to "Autoplay". Finally, click "OK".
After clicking "OK", don't forget to double-check the SatoshiPay meta box on the right side of the page. Make sure that both the checkbox near "Paid Post" and the box underneath "Price" are empty. Finally, click "Update" in the "Publish" meta box to confirm. DONE! |
0.985442 | If an architect was responsible for crafting the sentence "The gorgeous Victorian/Arts & Crafts heritage style exterior," that person should have their license revoked until they can prove that they have actually studied the history of their art. The Arts & Crafts movement was a direct repudiation of the flouncy excesses of the Victorian era.
It looks like the fourth floor units have vaulted ceilings so I'll change the title to refer to this as a four-storey project.
The Arts & Crafts movement was a direct repudiation of the flouncy excesses of the Victorian era.
Exactly. To describe this project as being of both styles is to entirely ignore architectural history. |
0.999998 | Which of the following protocol is used for transferring electronic mail messages from one machine to another?
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending e-mail.
1. systems use SMTP to transfer mail from one user to another.
2. SMTP is a push protocol.
3. SMTP is an application layer protocol. |
0.954582 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) is a tactical shooter video game released for Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. As in previous Ghost Recon games, players command their team of Ghosts while neutralizing hostile forces and completing various mission objectives. These objectives can range from escorting friendly units across the map to rescuing hostages or taking out enemy artillery.
Being a tactical shooter, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter places emphasis on using cover effectively in order to stay alive, together with sound strategic co-ordination to successfully complete mission objectives. A new feature is the Integrated Warfighter System, a system based upon the Future Force Warrior program.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, the game's direct sequel, was released a year later in 2007. On July 3, 2018, the Xbox 360 version was released for Xbox One Backwards Compatibility.
Gameplay emphasis in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is placed upon the player doing the bulk of the fighting in each mission, through the character of Captain Scott Mitchell, while relying on tactical combat rather than arcade run-and-gun shooting to overcome enemies. Combat in the game is more forgiving than in previous titles in the series, with players being able to survive several bullet hits before dying, instead of dying after only a couple of shots like in the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series. However, players are unable to regain lost health in the middle of a mission, and a single headshot or a sustained burst of assault rifle fire can kill the player instantly.
GRAW features numerous firearms, many based on real weapons, including the Heckler & Koch G36, the Beretta M9, and the FN SCAR. A few, such as the MR-C, are actually hypothetical prototypes. The game also makes use of various other pieces of equipment, including tanks, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, and remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles, which can be used tactically to overcome obstacles, and scout out the environment, in order to complete objectives. GRAW features three versions of the game that each have slight minor variations in storyline/missions that is found on a different game platform's version; the main storyline, though, remains the same between the versions. While both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions are essentially the same title, the Xbox 360 and the Windows versions each stand out on their own with their own unique features, including the ability to command a squad of soldiers indirectly.
One unique feature of the gameplay is the cross-com system, which is designed to allow players indirect control over friendly units assisting them on a mission (e.g. helicopters, UAV drones, etc.), by giving them commands on what to do, whether to locate enemies or deal with a particular threat encountered. This system can be used in conjunction with the game's Intel map - a tactical map showing the entire play area and location of objectives, enemies and friendlies/allies - to issue commands. Notably, this gameplay feature varies between the different versions. For the Xbox 360 version, the system highlights enemies spotted by both the player and both their squad and other allies, while the Microsoft Windows version only highlights enemies seen by the player's squad and not themselves.
Both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox console versions of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter are played in first-person, but have notably fewer features than those found in the Xbox 360 or the Windows versions. The most notable differences to the other versions is that players only have a single AI-controlled teammate following them on missions (as opposed to a squad of 3 soldiers), there are more levels but of shorter lengths, and that Scott Mitchell (the main character of the story) never speaks throughout these versions.
Unlike all other versions of GRAW, the Xbox 360 version gives players a choice between using either a third-person or first-person perspective during the campaign mode, and also features a unique covering system that allows the player to duck behind objects for protection from gun-fire while performing tactical maneuvers such as pop-and-shoot. In addition, some levels feature on-rail sections in which players must eliminate as many enemies as possible from their airborne transport via the use of a mounted gun, and if a mission provides them with a squad, they may issue orders only to the entire squad via the cross-com system and not to individual squad members. Players cannot recover ammo from fallen enemies but can take their weapons if needed, otherwise they must re-arm at either rally points or ammo stations.
The Microsoft Windows version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is played from a first-person perspective. This version features larger levels than those of the console versions with enemy AI more likely to use ambush tactics, thus greater emphasises is placed upon using squad tactics and having more situational awareness in each mission in order to achieve success. The cross-com system in this version is more flexible, capable of issuing more controlled commands to individual squad members, as well as plotting out attack routes and battle plans for other friendly units. In addition, player's cannot take discarded weapons, unlike the other versions, but can take ammunition from the weapons of dead enemies or allies, if the player's weapon is of the same calibre.
Unlike other versions, players may choose the weapons for their selected Ghost team before the start of a mission, although this is done with no briefing given, with each Ghost member being able to carry a primary weapon and a secondary weapon, while either carrying extra ammunition or a heat-seeking anti-tank weapon. Unlike other versions, every Ghost member has a maximum weight limit on how much they can carry, with them becoming fatigued from sprinting at a much faster rate, the more equipment they are carrying, while weapons may be modified with various attachments, such as optical sights, grenade launchers, silencers, and vertical foregrips. Every modification has used on a weapon has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, attaching a grenade launcher reduce accuracy and adds weight, but adds extra firepower including the ability to take out multiple targets with grenades, while adding a silencer reduces noise and muzzle flash of a weapon at the expense of accuracy and range.
The Microsoft Windows version can take advantage of the presence of a PhysX card, however the enhancements are only cosmetic and do not affect gameplay.
Online multiplayer on the Microsoft Windows edition has both versus and co-op mode. Versus mode features 32 players, which is double that of the Xbox 360 version. The online co-op mode only supports up to 4 players maximum on Windows (the Xbox 360 version supports up to 16 co-op players).
For those with the Xbox 360 version, some new Xbox Live features are included. For the Xbox 360 version the co-operative campaign (which currently features 8 missions - 4 of which are now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace) and multiplayer maps are all set in Nicaragua as a follow-up to the Mexico City missions of the single player campaign.
On June 22, Ubisoft released the Chapter 2 Downloadable Content for 1,200 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
The price of 1,200 Points was later reduced to 600.
In the UK, a special Game of the Year edition was released in late 2006 containing a card enabling the player to obtain (for free) all the marketplace content, including the Chapter 2 download. The game is also budget priced.
The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions have some similar online game modes and can be played with up to 8 players.
The story, written by Gérard Lehiany, unfolds entirely across a realistic and detailed modelling of Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities. The events take place in 2013 and over a period of three days, and each mission's environment ranges from heavily industrialized areas to local parks and landmarks to office districts.
Seeking to unify their countries' security and to combat the smuggling of drugs and weapons, and the movement of terrorists between their borders, the Canadian prime minister and U.S. President Ballantine travel to Mexico City for a summit with Mexican President Ruiz-Peña, to sign a historical treaty known as the North American Joint Security Agreement (NAJSA). At the same time, a team of the elite Ghost Recon force, led by Captain Scott Mitchell, is sent into the city to intercept a deal taking place and recover Guardrail IX, a U.S. device capable of disrupting wireless communications, which had been taken from a spy plane that was shot down in Nicaragua. However, complications arise when a coup d'état begins in Mexico City, forcing General Joshua Keating, the Ghost's primary commander, to abort the mission so that Mitchell can locate and extract both Ballantine and Ruiz-Peña, who both went into hiding shortly after Mexican rebels attacked the summit, killing the Canadian Prime Minister in the process.
Although the Ghosts rescue both VIPs, rebel anti-air forces Ballantine to hold at the perimeter of the city's airport until it is neutralized, while an attempt by rebels to kill the Mexican president fails after he survives an explosion at the city's U.S. Embassy and a massive assault by them is thwarted by the Ghosts. During this time, news reports confirm that the coup is being spearheaded by a rebel special forces group called the Aguila 7, led by members opposed to NAJSA, including General Ontiveros, and his son Colonel Carlos Ontiveros, a former student of Bud, Mitchell's friend and a UH-60 pilot. Seeking to re-establish order, Ruiz-Peña allows U.S. forces to combat the rebellion, with Mitchell ordered by Major General Martin to help clear a path into the city, whereupon he neutralizes artillery and anti-air weapons, assaults Chapultepec Castle, and eventually secures some of the 50 M1A2 Abrams tanks given to the Mexican government as part of NAJSA signing, to help combat rebel armour. But during his efforts to secure the tanks, Aguila 7 ambush the troops guarding Ballantine and capture the U.S. President, forcing Mitchell to locate him in the city's shanty district and extract him once more.
Although they rescue the U.S. President, Keating orders Mitchell and the Ghosts to find and recover the "Football", after the rebels steal it, but are thwarted by them through the use of Guardrail IX, which Lieutenant Barnes, the intelligence officer assigned to the Ghosts, quickly reveals is being used to monitor and disrupt communications between U.S. forces. Mitchell quickly manages to find and destroy most of the device, before assisting allied forces in pushing for Zocalo Plaza, rescuing Martin when his Black Hawk is downed. During this time, Keating informs Ballantine that the rebels are still using elements of Guardrail IX to hack into NORAD, in order to gain control over the United States' ICBMs and buy time to gain international support for their coup, which in turn causes China and Russia to ready their own and thus escalating the crisis in Mexico. Mitchell quickly is ordered to assist in the final push for Palacio Nacional, destroying the last parts of Guardrail IX, and eventually helping to capture General Ontiveros before he can flee, but is unable to find the "Football" with him.
Mitchell quickly learns that Carlos has the "Football", after he manages to escape and hijacks Bud's Black Hawk, killing Bud in the process. Forced to fight to the wrecked U.S. embassy where Carlos begins to transfer the codes for the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Mitchell and his team overcome the last remnants of Aguila 7, successfully killing Carlos and recovering the "Football", ending the crisis. As the group leave the city for the States, earlier talk about a traitor in the U.S. government is confirmed by Barnes, who reveals through news footage that a retired U.S. Army general, who was in opposition to NAJSA, turned traitor by assisting Ontiveros and Aguila 7 in their activities, explaining how Guardrail IX fell into their hands and how they were able to hack into NORAD.
In May 2005, the Xbox 360 edition of Advanced Warfighter was shown to the press in trailer form at the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) convention in Los Angeles.
The Xbox 360 version of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter was released on March 9, 2006 to multiple rave reviews. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 90.47% and 90 out of 100. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's stunning next-generation presentation and high entertainment value, giving it an average score of 9.5 out of 10. The game was noted for its deeply immersive atmosphere, smart A.I. (though flawed for the squad and VIP A.I.), wide variety of weapons, multiple action scenes and believable storyline. The Xbox 360's version was particularly noted for its realistic graphics. GameTrailers gave the game its highest review ever, a 9.9 out of 10, stating that GRAW is a landmark next-gen game that redefines shooters. TeamXbox gave the X360 version a score of 9.3 out of 10, saying that it has "some of the best modern combat scenarios you’ll have ever taken part in. Ubisoft is not only kicking the door in with Advanced Warfighter, they are taking the whole damn building down along with it!"
Reviews for other platforms ranged from positive to mixed to negative. GameRankings and Metacritic gave the game a score of 80.07% and 80 out of 100 for the PC version; 64.57% and 66 out of 100 for the Xbox version; and 50.67% and 44 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version.
On October 5, 2006, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter won two out of the eight nominated BAVGA awards including, "Best Technical Achievement" and "Best Game".
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was a commercial success, selling more than 1.6 million copies by the end of March 2006. Its Xbox 360 release made up 800,000 of these sales, which made it the console's fastest-selling title by that date. The Xbox 360 version sold 360,000 units within a week of release, including 240,000 sales in North America. Europe bought 120,000 copies within three days of release. Sales of Advanced Warfighter's computer and Xbox 360 versions rose by another 560,000 copies between April 1 and June 30, 2006. By the end of September, the game's total sales had surpassed 2.4 million units.
Advanced Warfighter sold 1.2 million in the United States, 8,903 in Japan, and 200,000 in the United Kingdom.
^ Adams, David (March 22, 2006). "GDC 06: Ageia Reveals PhysX-Ready Games". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ a b Butts, Steve (May 18, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (PC)". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "New Maps and Features for Advanced Warfighter". Xbox.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2007. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
^ a b "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for Xbox 360". GameRankings. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
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^ a b "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for Xbox Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
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^ Marriott, Scott Alan. "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (X360) - Review". AllGame. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Edge staff (May 2006). "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (X360)". Edge (160): 88.
^ Reed, Kristan (March 13, 2006). "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (X360)". Eurogamer. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (X360)". Game Informer (156): 126. April 2006.
^ "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Xbox)". Game Informer (157): 106. May 2006.
^ Four-Eyed Dragon (March 8, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Review for Xbox 360 on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on April 10, 2006. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Dodson, Joe (March 23, 2006). "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Review (X360)". Game Revolution. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Colayco, Bob (March 8, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (X360)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Colayco, Bob (May 5, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfigher Review (PC)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Colayco, Bob (March 16, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (Xbox)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Colayco, Bob (March 31, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (PS2)". GameSpot. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Tuttle, Will (March 10, 2006). "GameSpy: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (X360)". GameSpy. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Kuo, Li C. (May 30, 2006). "GameSpy: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (PC)". GameSpy. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Fischer, Russ (March 27, 2006). "GameSpy: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Xbox)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on April 8, 2006. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ a b "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfigher Review (X360)". GameTrailers. March 17, 2006. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (PC)". GameTrailers. May 8, 2006. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Grabowski, Dakota (March 19, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - 360 - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Giacobbi, Kevin "BIFF" (May 18, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Perry, Douglass C. (March 7, 2006). "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (X360)". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Perry, Douglass C. (March 14, 2006). "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (Xbox)". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Roper, Chris (March 31, 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PS2)". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine: 77. July 2006.
^ McCaffrey, Ryan (April 2006). "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (X360)". Official Xbox Magazine: 79. Archived from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Xbox)". Official Xbox Magazine: 76. June 2006.
^ "Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter". PC Gamer: 44. September 2006.
^ Fish, Eliot (March 25, 2006). "Ghost Recon: Advance[d] (X360)". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ Clayman, David (May 17, 2005). "E3 2005: The Complete MS Conference Guide". IGN. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Release Information for Xbox 360". GameFAQs. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
^ EGM staff (April 2006). "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (X360)". Electronic Gaming Monthly (202): 90.
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^ Maitland, Amber (October 6, 2006). "Bafta's top award goes to Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter". Pocket-lint. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
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^ "Ubisoft Reports Revenues for the First-Quarter 2006-2007" (Press release). Paris: Ubisoft. July 27, 2006. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017.
^ "Ubisoft Reports Sales for the First Semester 2006-07" (Press release). Paris: Ubisoft. October 24, 2006. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017.
^ Brian Hastings (2007-11-30). "Fantasy of the Familiar". Insomniac Games. Archived from the original (PPT) on 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
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^ "ELSPA Sales Awards: Gold". Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. Archived from the original on 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
This page was last edited on 31 December 2018, at 05:40 (UTC). |
0.999921 | Unknown search command 'gentimes'.... can anyone help to find if this command has been discontinued in Splunk?
How can I create a subsearch with multiple time ranges?
What efficient subsearch options do I have while avoiding the 10k result limit?
The gentimes command is useful in conjunction with the map command.
Generates timestamp results starting with the exact time specified as start time. Each result describes an adjacent, non-overlapping time range as indicated by the increment value. This terminates when enough results are generated to pass the endtime value.
This command does not work for future dates.
Description: Specify as start time.
Description: Indicate the timeframe, for example: 10/1/2017 for October 1, 2017, 4/1/2017:12:34:56 for April 1, 2017 at 12:34:56, or -5 for five days ago.
Description: Specify an end time.
Description: Specify a time period to increment from the start time to the end time. Supported increments are seconds, minutes, hours, and days.
The gentimes command is anevent-generating command. See Command types.
The gentimes command returns four fields.
starttime The starting time range in UNIX time.
starthuman The human readable time range in the format DDD MMM DD HH:MM:SS YYYY. For example Sun Apr 1 00:00:00 2018.
endtime The ending time range in UNIX time.
endhuman The human readable time range in the format DDD MMM DD HH:MM:SS YYYY. For example Fri Apr 13 23:59:59 2018.
Generates daily time ranges from April 1 to April 5 in 2018. This search generates four intervals covering one day periods aligning with the calendar days April 1, 2, 3, and 4, during 2018.
Generate daily time ranges from 30 days ago until 27 days ago.
Generate hourly time ranges from December 1 to December 5 in 2017.
Generate daily time ranges from September 25 to today.
Although the week increment is not supported, you can generate a weekly increment by specifying increment=7d.
This examples generates weekly time ranges from December 1, 2017 to April 30, 2018.
Have questions? Visit Splunk Answers and see what questions and answers the Splunk community has using the gentimes command.
Woodcock - As stated in the increments, only seconds, minutes, hours, and days are supported. Weeks have never been supported. However to get weeks, you can use "increment=7d".
On some (all?) versions of Splunk, "increment=1w" does not work (does the same thing as "increment=1d") and that should be fixed. When that is fixed, "increment=7d" should also be fixed so that the difference between "increment=7d" and "increment=1w" should be that the former's events have "endtime" values 1 day later than "starttime" and the latter should have "endtime" values 1 week later than "startttime"; otherwise they should be the same. It seems to me that the right thing to do is always use the "s/m/h/d/w" value to determine what the span from "starttime" to "endtime" should be in every case. |
0.960316 | Transfering balance to zero interest card worth it?
IMHO it is worth it if you cannot pay that balance relatively fast. If you are going to take 18 months to pay that off and you are saying $171 is less than 3 months interest then that is over $1000 in interest in that 18 months. Saving that $1000 is worth more to me than a couple points off my credit score. Again I am sure there are people who value a couple points over $1000. I am not one of them.
I am not 100% certain, but I was pre approved about a year ago as well. Took the offer and I did not see a hard inquiry on my credit report. Again that was a year ago and I could be completely wrong.
Will this work on a closed account as well?
After 8 months of credit repair here is where I stand..
Congrats! I hope to follow in your footsteps.
Negative Closed Account - Am I out of luck?
Oh and I forgot to mention some valuable information. I had paid off the debt a couple months after (again over 4 years ago). So I do not have outstanding debt, but there is a negative mark on my credit report due to it.
Hi, I am new to this forum, but am in a similar situation with a closed citibank credit card. strive4credit, can you please PM contacts on who I can email? Thanks in advance. |
0.997428 | Is there substantial evidence to suggest that Arthur Miller wrote 'Death of a Salesman' and 'The Crucible' in direct response to the social and political events taking place at the time they were written? A close study of the characters and the narratives of 'Death of a Salesman' and 'The Crucible' and an investigation into the similarities between the plays and the historical, political and social context of the period in which they were written.
(2015) Is there substantial evidence to suggest that Arthur Miller wrote 'Death of a Salesman' and 'The Crucible' in direct response to the social and political events taking place at the time they were written? A close study of the characters and the narratives of 'Death of a Salesman' and 'The Crucible' and an investigation into the similarities between the plays and the historical, political and social context of the period in which they were written., no. 62.
American playwright, Arthur Miller (1915-2005), could be described as one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. Much of his work analyses, and in many ways criticises, various social and political attitudes and viewpoints in 20th century America. Two of his most popular and most performed plays, Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953), perceptively scrutinize two important periods in American culture. This dissertation will provide a close textual analysis of these plays and provide evidence that suggests Miller wrote them as a direct response to the events taking place at the time of their creation. Not only did Miller write about the events taking place around him, he used his own personal experiences and observations of those close to him in order to develop characters that would be more recognisable in 20th century America. Miller's observations, and indeed his own experience of the 'American Dream' and its effects on his close family, can clearly be interpreted as inspiration for his play, Death of a Salesman, and Miller's political beliefs and his encounters with the House of Un-American Activities Committee form parallels with the character of John Proctor and the Salem Witch Trials in his play, The Crucible. This dissertation investigates these similarities between the plays and Miller's own life in order to prove that Arthur Miller did indeed write Death of a Salesman and The Crucible as a reaction to those events taking place around him and their impact on American society between 1948 and 1954. |
0.999745 | one. Soccer 1/2 Day Field Player programs offer advanced technical and tactical specialized training for the player ages 9-16 who is passionate about the game, does not mind working hard, enjoys being challenged and ultimately looking to get ahead of their opponents and teammates by taking his/her game to the next level. Our innovative and modern curriculum, along with an international coaching staff who are knowledgeable, passionate about teaching and most importantly dedicated to making a difference in the life of a youth soccer player on and off the field creates the ultimate training environment for maximizing the individual players growth and development! Your athlete will train hard, learn, improve, make new friends and most importantly have a blast. This is a condensed version of the one. Soccer Full Day Field Player Program where the athlete finishes their training at 12:00 noon. We encourage our Field Players ages 9-16 to attend our full day programs, but in the event schedules, etc..do not work this program will be a great fit! |
0.946862 | How to measure world peace?
Most of the times we are interested in measuring performance in business context, either at organizational, operational or employee level. I would like to bring to your attention a different scenario, wider than usual, the global perspective with a sensitive topic: Peace! |
0.999971 | Colon is the capital of the Panamanian Province of Colon, on the Caribbean coast of Panama. The estimated population is about 49,422 people, according to the 2010 census.
Colon is located near the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. It is commercially important for the country because of the Colon Free Zone (the second largest in the world) and the activities in the different ports.
Colon has the largest port system in Latin America, located at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. This port system consists of: Colon Container Terminal (Evergreen Administered), Manzanillo International Terminal (Operated by the Stevedoring Services of America), Panama Port Terminal (Managed by Hutchison Whampoa) and Colon Port Terminal. Currently, the city has two cruise ports: Colon 2000 and The Home Port in Paseo Gorgas.
Portobelo is a natural harbor and a town located in the Province of Colon. It was one of the most important town and port in America during the colonial time. Portobelo Bay was discovered by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage, carried on board the Santa Maria, on November 2, 1502. This place attracted the attention of Columbus for its natural environment and unique beauty and security. For this reason, he named it Porto Bello.
In 1976 the Monumental Historic Portobelo is delimited. It includes the area occupied by the old city of Portobelo, the ruins of the Castle of Santiago de la Gloria, the Castle of San Felipe, San Jerónimo Battery, Fort Bateria and Fort Santiago House, the High and Low battery and the Casa Fuerte de San Fernando, the ruins of Fort Trinchera primitive Santiago, battery Buenaventura, the ruins of Fort Farnese, Trench House Powder, Customs, the bastions of walled enclosure called San Cristóbal, and other ruins that existed within and near the city.
San Lorenzo is a fortification, located at the entrance of the Chagres River in the Province of Colon. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 under the name of the Fortifications on the Caribbean coast of Panama, with the fortifications of the city of Portobelo. It formed the defensive system for transatlantic trade of the Crown of Spain and they are fine examples of military architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Fort San Lorenzo is one of the oldest fortresses in Spanish America. It is located next to what was the old seat of the town of Chagres, at the mouth of the river of the same name, and it was through this river that the pirate Henry Morgan came to the city of Old Panama to plunder. |
0.945549 | Isn't it illegal for you to charge VAT on postage?
Nick, I've been running mail order businesses on and off since the 1970s. I recall when I first started buying things by mail order that I also accused a number of suppliers of illegally charging VAT on postage. In fact we have to charge VAT because post and packing is classed as a service. YOU can go to any Post Office and buy stamps without paying VAT. However I am legally obliged to charge VAT for the "service" of postage and packing which includes buying the stamp and packing materials plus the "labour" of sticking the stamp on the packing, putting the goods inside and driving to a post box.
I don't agree with the idea myself but I'm bound by law to do it this way. Believe me, if I could avoid it I would. I don't gain anything because the VAT has to be handed over to Customs and Excise. The only items I'm allowed to sell without adding VAT are books and booklets. Even here there is a distinction: If the book is in a ring binder with replaceable pages or on a CD or a downloadable file, then I have to charge VAT!
For further information please call the Customs & Excise help line.
BTW some suppliers do not charge VAT on anything. This is because their annual turnover is so low that they are not VAT registered. However, they can not claim VAT back on things that they buy so their goods are likely to be no cheaper than mine. |
0.943456 | But] if they're alone, they feel like they're carrying the whole responsibility for helping or not helping, so they feel the urge to intervene more.
Youths willingness to intervene in cyberbullying depends on their relationship with the target; 90 per cent of youth said they would intervene if their family member was the target and 89 per cent would intervene if a close friend was the target.
The bank said that it has no plans to intervene in the markets for now, even though Chile's peso has depreciated by more than 14 percent against the US dollar this year.
This is openly makes it legal for the executive branch to intervene in the judiciary.
The MPs suggested Russia may have felt empowered to intervene in Ukraine because the UK and others had failed to act in Georgia or Syria.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may intervene in the discussion on missing files pertaining to coal block allocations, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajeev Shukla said on Thursday.
Bystanders break up about a third of the fights that occur in bars and are most likely to intervene in conflicts between males, Michael Parks, who recently earned his doctorate in sociology at Penn State, said.
And in a withering critique of the approach of US president Barack Obama, the man who beat him to the White House in 2008, McCain said: "Everything that people said would happen if we did not intervene has now happened because we have not intervened.
Students were less likely to intervene if members of the victim's "tribe" or high-status students were present--or if higher-status students were involved in aggression.
Why do some children intervene when others don't?
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Al-Iraqiyah political bloc MP announced that "political blocs have no right to intervene in the cabinet's work," pointing out that "Parliament should be the boy to hold the government accountable.
One economist said he had not expected the central bank to intervene before the pound had fallen to 6 to the dollar.
Summary: Rabat - The League of the Defenders of Autonomy in the Marrakesh-Tensift-Al Haouz region called upon the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene to ensure the immediate release of all populations held captive in the the polisario's prisons.
Former defence secretary John Reid said: "I very much welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has been prepared to listen to the issues and personally intervene to make sure that the Territorial Army training budget is retained.
Former defence secretary John Reid - one of a series of Labour MPs who public ally challenged the cuts in Parliament - welcomed the decision: "I very much welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has been prepared to listen to the issues and personally intervene to make sure that the Territorial Army training budget is retained," he said. |
0.956806 | Will using steel framing in place of the wood 2x4s make a big difference in the acoustic properties of a 19' x 13' x 10' room? I am using 6" insulation, 5/8 sheetrock on both sides.
I'm not a construction expert, but my understanding is that steel studs are a little better than wood when you're building a simple non-staggered wall because they offer slightly more isolation from one side to the other. If you're using staggered studs, where each wall side has its own set of studs, there may be less difference between steel and wood. |
0.999963 | The Scandal After Show recaps, reviews and discusses episodes of ABC's Scandal. Show Summary: "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes is the creative mind behind this ABC drama. Olivia Pope, a former media consultant to the president, is ready to move on with her life and opens her own crisis-management firm, but she can't seem to shake ties with her past. Olivia's staff includes Quinn Perkins, who has a complicated history, and hacker extraordinaire Huck. As she moves forward it becomes clear that, while her staffers may specialize in cleaning up the lives of other people, they can't seem to do the same for themselves. |
0.974053 | What tasks does image advertising solve?
The goal of image ads is to establish your brand in the eyes of consumers.
Image advertising helps you bring new products or services to the market and inform potential consumers about them.
Image advertising helps to increase the value of your product in the eyes of the consumers, encourage them to learn more about your company, product or service.
Image advertising will remind a broad range of users or customers of your brand.
The price per impression in Yandex.Direct is not firmly set. It is based on the results of an auction held between advertisers while the user loads a web page. It is a "Second Price Plus" auction: the advertiser offering the highest bid pays the minimum price sufficient to win, i.e., the nearest competitor's bid + the bid increment.
Bid per thousand impressions and, if necessary, the daily budget, for manual bid management.
The budget per week or arbitrary period, and the average price per thousand impressions (for automatic strategies): Maximize impressions for lowest price or Decrease price for repeat impressions. Yandex.Direct will recommend an average price to enable efficient spending of the budget with the given settings.
Minimum bid or price per thousand impressions — 0.07 euro or 0.08 dollars (values for other currencies).
Minimum budget — 10 euros or 10 dollars (values for other currencies).
Minimum order — 15 euros or 15 dollars (values for other currencies). |
0.996752 | Do you like testing your mental capabilities? How about your knowledge? Do you like playing games? Well, if the answer to all these questions is yes, then you definitely need to check out different puzzle games. These are games in which the player is required to use logic and keen analysis to put different pieces together so as to arrive at the correct solution. It usually tests and individuals knowledge and his ability to detect patterns.
Puzzle games are usually categorised into distinct groups depending on the nature of the game and the skills required in solving the puzzle. Some of the types of puzzles include crossword puzzles, number puzzles, word-search puzzles, construction puzzles and disentanglement puzzles among many others.
Depending on the type of game, different puzzle games require different sets of skills are required to arrive at the correct solution. In some games, players need to have strong observation and analytical skills to be able to identify recurrent patterns. High inductive reasoning skills also offer an added advantage to the players. For puzzle games that require constant inquiry and discovery, strong deductive skills are essential to arrive at the correct solution.
Initially, puzzle games were played on paper or using tangible objects. However, upon the dawn of the technological era, puzzle games are mainly played on smartphones and other gaming devices. Mobile game developers have been actively creating new games on both the android and apple platforms to serve the increasing number of gamers globally.
This is an android game in which the objective of the player is to combine adjacent grid boxes that contain the same number so as to form a new number which represents the sum-total of the two. The grid boxes are usually square in shape and range from four by four boxes all the way to eight by eight boxes.
This is a puzzle games that provides the players with a series of complex puzzles with the aim of discovering the hidden secrets and treasures. Players must find secret compartments, discover the clockwork mechanism and rearrange the switches to as construct and manipulate the new stage.
The game makes use of creative visuals and touchscreen controls such as taps and swipes so as to give the game a natural feel and to keep the players glued to the screen.
This is a game developed on both the android and iOS systems. It involves cultivating a growing plant by exposing it to the ideal environmental conditions and pruning it. Players go through several stages, and the ultimate goal is to make the plant grow towards the light.
Puzzle games are good for the human brain. There are beneficial to kids and adults. When playing a puzzle, there is a single goal; you must achieve. You have to think and devise strategies to achieve it. Thus, you drastically improve your reasoning skills, problems solving skills and the ability to find solutions.
If you are guilty of indulging too much in Candy Crush Saga, do not be. The game now available on different platforms can be an enjoyable distraction that boosts your mental health. The end goal is quite simple. You combine as many similar pieces of candy as possible before you run out of moves. Remember, it is not just for the girls.
If you are not yet familiar with chess, it is never too late to learn. The end goal is to checkmate your opponent. You can download the game, and play against real players across the world. Similarly, you can challenge someone with the multiplayer mode or compete against the computer. The game has made many people stars, and you could become the next world champion.
It is one of the most popular family puzzle games. You start with tiles with numbers, and some are similar. You combine similar tiles to create new numbers. When you run out of tiles to combine, the game will end.
Monument Valley looks fantastic and artistic. You will guide Princess Ida through physics-challenging levels. To proceed, you have to twist and turn the levels to clear her way. The game is not difficult, and it does not have a time limit. However, you will feel a huge sense of accomplishment.
Prune has 48 levels. In each level, you help a plant grow by pruning it. The game has a minimalist style, and you will enjoy its simplicity. Furthermore, it is family friendly.
It is among the most downloaded free puzzle games on android. You move pieces with paths across the screen to create a track that the ball follows to its destination. The ball does not roll until you have solved the maze.
Toon Blast is currently the number one free puzzle game on Android. You match the required tiles per level to complete various objectives.
Countless puzzle games could bring tremendous benefits to your brain. Just find one with a good end goal.
Puzzle game is a unique gaming genre that focuses on solving puzzles. It tests the player’s problem-solving skills that include pattern recognition, word completion, sequence solving, and logic. Some games have a time limit, while other games provide players with unlimited time and attempts. The history of the puzzle game goes back to the puzzles and brainteasers throughout the centuries.
Many puzzle games owe their origins to traditional thinking games. For instance, Android Nim for the TRS-80 is the digital version of the math game Nim. Other traditional games that got their early video game interpretations include Mastermind and Hangman.
The first video game console from Atari is the Atari 2600. It was released in 1977, and game developers were quick to create games for it. The first ever puzzle game for the console was probably Flag Capture, which was the predecessor of what we know today as Minesweeper.
In 1981, Stephen Bradshaw and Alan Griesemer released Blockbuster for the Atari 8-bit. It was a digital version of the Rubik’s cube that was popular during that time. In 1982, Snark Hunt was released for the Atari 8-Bit. It was a copy of the popular board game Black Box from the 1970s.
It was also in 1982 when Hiroyuki Imabayashi released Sokoban for the PC-8801. It introduced a brand new mechanic that was not seen in the history of the puzzle game before. To this date, many modern games utilise the core mechanic of Sokoban, and it is not just limited to puzzle games.
Konami released Loco-Motion in 1982, which is an action game that incorporated some puzzle game elements. You can see some of the game’s elements in LucasArts’ Pipe Mania released in 1989.
Puzzle Panic is a 1984 action puzzle game for the Atari 8-bit. It is also that year when Boulder Dash was released. Its gameplay featured avoiding rocks and collecting diamonds. It led to many clones known as rocks and diamonds games.
Chain Shot introduced a gameplay in which players need to remove tiles of the same colour. Uncle Henry’s Nuclear Waste Dump was similar to Tetris, but the game developer said that that he didn’t know about the latter. The release of the game was before Tetris reached the US market.
The release of Tetris is a golden age in the history of the puzzle game. People call it as the game that revolutionised the puzzle genre. Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian game designer, made the game in 1985. He said that he was inspired by Pentomino, which is a traditional puzzle game where players try to arrange falling blocks without producing any gaps.
In 1987, Tetris became a hit when Spectrum Holobytehas released it for MS-DOS. The next year, Atari Games released it in arcades. The game sold more than 30 million units on the Game Boy.
This is the short history of the puzzle game. At present, puzzle games remain to be popular among gamers. People love playing puzzle games, especially with their smartphones. |
0.951461 | How does the IRS determine how to attach liens to property?
The tax lien secures payment of a specific year or account. That year or account is either priority or general.
The POC may report $5,000 of secured debt, and this secured debt will relate to a specific year. The POC will always assume that the IRS is going to get paid the secured amount.
IRS always applies payments in the way that is in its best interest. Remember that rule, and you understand a great deal about the taxing authority. Let’s say that the taxpayer-debtor has $5,000 of personal property (all exempt, but the IRS doesn’t care, because exemptions don’t apply to it). The debtor owes $15,000 in general tax debts, $25,000 in priority tax debts.
Assuming that the tax lien covers both the general and the priority years, the IRS will take $5,000 of the general unsecured liability and make it secured, and leave the rest the way it is, because it would rather have the security use up general unsecured debt than priority debt, which will still be owed at the end of the day anyway. |
0.999947 | It's no secret that customer expectations are growing every day. As such, many companies has no alternative but to expand their support channels from conventional email and web portal to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook so that they can support their customers where they feel most comfortable.
With Trakdesk, you can support your customers wherever they are. Tweets and Facebook messages can automatically be converted into support tickets and assigned to the correct team.
Additionally, Agents and customers can interact within each support ticket, allowing you to capture all interactions so that nothing slips through the cracks.
Select the Social Accounts option.
At the Top Right of the page, click on the drop down menu and select Add Twitter Account.
Your browser will automatically redirect to twitter for authorization. Enter your twitter account username and password to authorize your helpdesk to connect to your twitter account.
Once authorized, you will be redirected back to Trakdesk. You can then configure the account to meet your requirements.
Finally, click on the Save Changes button to save changes.
Login to your helpdesk as an agent.
Click on the Social Feed option in the navigation menu.
Under Social Accounts, click on the twitter account to view all tweets.
In the tweets view, you can perform actions like, replying to tweets, re-tweeting tweets, like tweets, creating support ticket and also view tweets on twitter. Additionally, you can post new tweets from your twitter accounts by clicking on the Compose a tweet option.
With Trakdesk twitter integration, you can reply to tickets that were created from tweets and direct messages directly from your helpdesk in seconds.
Reply via tweet - Public twitter message.
Reply via direct message - Private twitter direct message.
Reply via Email - Available only if the requester has a valid email address.
Reply via SMS - Available only if Twilio SMS app is installed and configured.
Upon clicking Authorize on the Twitter Website it attempts to redirect me back to Trakdesk but fails and provides an "Invalid Parameters" error.<br /> <br /> Same thing happens for both Twitter and Facebook.
Hi Jamison,<br /> <br /> You are getting the error because you have disabled social login. Go to Admin -> Customer Portal -> Settings and enable Facebook and Twitter social login options. After you have saved the settings, try to add your Facebook and twitter accounts again. |
0.998642 | Lecture two: the role of culture in global management. Culture consist of everything on a list of topics or categories, such as social organisation, religions, and economy. Culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on to future generations. Culture is shared, learned human behaviour: a way of life. Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living. Culture is the way human beings solve problems or adapting to the environment or living together. Culture is a complex of ideas, or learned habits, that inhibit impulses and distinguish people from animals. Culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideas, symbols or behaviour. Internal direction vs outer direction: common themes across culture, power distribution, social relation ships, environmental relationships, time and work patterns, uncertainty and social control, cultural complexities and contradictions. Individuals within the same society may use different strategies to deal with identical challenges. As a result, it is unwise to stereotype an entire culture. |
0.999999 | Should I buy a timeshare or a vacation home? Key considerations to review before either purchase.
Most vacation properties are only used a few times a year. The timeshare industry became immensely popular since owners were basically allowed to purchase a week interval at popular destinations and in prime locations for a fraction of what similar properties would sell for and only for the time period that you would actually use it.
For a lot of lucky individuals, there comes a time where you may want to and have the ability to purchase a second home or condo for vacations. I personally have been looking for a second home and I truthfully have run into a difficult situation where I might actually purchase additional timeshares instead of a second home.
There are definitely a lot of pros and cons associated with timeshares but there are also a lot of pros and cons about home / vacation home ownership.
1. You will have your own place in a location that you love to travel.
2. You can go to your vacation home at any time without worrying about reservations or availability.
3. You can keep you things at the vacation home so that traveling will be easier.
4. You could rent out the vacation home and make some additional money or help you offset your expenses.
1. You have to either have cash to purchase the property outright or have a large upfront deposit and be able to obtain financing.
2. If you obtain financing, you will have a second mortgage payment each month in addition to your primary home.
3. Repairs, maintenance and landscaping need constant attention.
4. You will need to spend time and attention to rent it out and you may not want to rent it out to complete strangers. Strangers will never care for your place as much as you do.
5. Unplanned maintenance issues can arise so you need to have extra funding set aside for those expenses.
6. Vacation homes can take a while to sell if and when you want to sell it.
3. You can afford to "own" in very desirable areas that would normally be out of the price range for most individual owners.
3. The value of the timeshare will likely be much lower than the initial purchase price.
4. Timeshares can be difficult to sell so if you cannot sell, you will still owe maintenance fees forever.
5. You cannot leave any personal belongings at your timeshare.
6. Although you may "own" your week, you are essentially a guest and you cannot decorate or otherwise personalize your timeshare unit.
While I highly doubt that I touched on all benefits or downsides to both vacation ownership and timeshare ownership, the general idea is that neither is a perfect situation and both have pros and cons.
The financial considerations for either purchase can be significant but purchasing property in a very desired vacation spot can be extremely costly. Timeshare costs can be pricey but will almost always be cheaper than comparable properties since you are only buying a week or a certain interval of time.
I do not think that there is an easy answer to this question and I think each individual will be unique in their decision making process. Both types of vacation purchases have unique attributes and there is no wrong answer.
The key is being able to travel where you want to travel so however you can accomplish this is the right decision for your.
Does anyone have any additional considerations or comments? |
0.964164 | Vine maples are a common understory tree of Pacific Northwest forests, well adapted to the shade and moist soil of the region, though it will also take full sun and occasional drought in cool areas of the country. The long, thin multistemmed shape that gives it the name of "vine" maple is most often seen near stream banks. It is easily pruned into a variety of shapes, short, tall, single trunk and multistemmed.
Sketch a rough outline of the shape you want your maple to grow into on a piece of paper. Write a few descriptive words underneath, terms such as "tall, broad" or "narrow, high" or "multi-trunked, spreading."
Look at your vine maple and plan your cuts to shape the tree to the vision you sketched. Tall and narrow means taking off bottom and side branches. Tall and broad means taking off bottom branches and cutting the highest stem back to force out side branches.
Cut off all the superfluous branches, starting from the base and working upward. If you want a single trunk, choose one main shoot and cut away all others at the base. Always remove the major branches or shoots first, and work upward to the smaller ones.
Thin out the smallest branches if you want to force growth upward and outward. Maples have leaf and branch buds that are directly opposite each other, so when you cut above a node (the place where the buds sit) the buds on both sides are forced out, giving you two branches for one cut. To keep the tree open and airy, remove one of these buds, directing growth into the other.
Shorten the longest branches if you want to encourage the tree to be broad and bushy. When you cut back to a node, keep both buds, giving you twice as many branches. Or keep some as double buds and some as single.
Take out any branches that are pointing back toward the center of the tree, giving it a cluttered appearance.
Never cut more than a quarter inch above a leaf or branch node. Any stubs left will decay, possibly rotting the wood below your cut. |
0.952999 | I can relate to what you experienced as my situation was somewhat similar. The end result is that I have a beautiful daughter, but I also experienced two unsuccessful pregnancies.
It’s great that there is a website with real information on how to deal with high risk pregnancies. |
0.998744 | I don't know why the present progressive tense was used in the following conversation.
Michael: Yeah, I think she'll be impressed with my new exercise program.
Michael: Well, you know, I enjoy staying in shape. [Right] First, I usually get up every morning at 5:30 a.m.
You are really getting on my nerves.
I hear that Tom is really doing well at his new job.
They say that the oil spill is really getting worse.
More and more people ARE PREFERRING to take early retirement.
I am not sure about it though. The above doesn't actually convince me. But I never really aunderstood these things.
Do you see the progressive and the continuous as distinct forms?
I'm not sure. But I read somewhere they are or could be. Probably wikipedia. |
0.952443 | How do I set up SSH keys in order to access my repositories via SSH?
Repository Hosting uses public key cryptography to authenticate all private access to repositories over SSH. In order to access a private repository, or commit to a public repository, you will need to generate an SSH keypair and provide Repository Hosting with the public half of the keypair.
To register your public key, first log into Repository Hosting and then click the "My Profile" link in the upper right hand corner, or on the Settings link next to a user on the Account Dashboard. Select the "Public Keys" tab and then paste the entire contents of the public key file (with the .pub extension) into the form for adding public keys.
For more details on how to generate a keypair, see this page. |
0.999998 | Answer the following distance problem. Report the time to the nearest tenth of a day.
Henry was traveling at 14 centimeters per day and Tommy was traveling at 18 centimeters per day. They were traveling directly toward each other.
How many days will it take for Henry to meet Tommy if they are 115 centimeters apart? |
0.999981 | Mauna Kea is the largest mountain in the world, bigger than Mount Everest when measured from the sea floor.
Because of its height and position on the Earth, it is also the site of some of the world's largest telescopes. One -- planned to be the biggest in the Northern Hemisphere -- has been at the center of protests because the mountain is considered sacred in traditional Hawaiian culture.
Even so, the Hawaii Supreme Court has approved a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope. It may not work out in the long run, however, because Mauna Kea is also a volcano.
Mauna Kea, which hasn't erupted for 3,600 years, is part of land that belonged to the Hawaiian Kingdom before the nation was overthrown in 1893. As part of the transition to statehood in 1959, it is now administered by the government.
In 1968, the state leased 11,000 acres of the mountaintop to the University of Hawaii for $1 a year. The university has since subleased the land to various astronomical organizations.
The Thirty Meter Telescope project has been a flashpoint for protestors who stopped the groundbreaking and blockaded the mountain in 2014. Joined by environmentalists, Native Hawaiian groups said the telescopes polluted the mountain.
The Supreme Court of Hawaii rescinded a construction permit for the TMT two years ago on procedural grounds, but the high court cleared the way in its latest decision. It affirmed an agency decision to issue a new permit for the $1.43 billion project on Mauna Kea.
Mauna Loa, an active volcano, rises above Hawaii's Big Island just 35 miles to the northeast. It is the biggest volcano on Earth.
Kilauea, which recently destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres there, is connected to Mauna Loa. Scientists believe Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are on different lava tracks -- for now.
In other words, Mauna Kea is not likely to erupt any time soon. Protests, however, are very likely to continue. |
0.957158 | Guess who is likely to lie? Yes, the maligned CEOs in this country. However, other people tend to lie on their taxes too, including business owners, who can inflate expenses; people with rental properties, who can inflate repair costs; and people with investments.
Everyone else who files taxes and works for an employer must submit an employer-verified W-4, which notes your income and taxes paid. Employees have little occasion to lie to Uncle Sam.
Beware of the Angry "Ex"
If you think the IRS discovers tax evasion through their network of detectives, you are somewhat correct. However, the IRS often discovers unreported income or inflated expenses from estranged ex-wives still looking for revenge, or angry ex-husbands who might be unhappy with the fact that the ex-wife's lover is living with the couple's children.
As Shakespeare said, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Or in some cases, like a very angry ex-husband.
In California, community property laws allow for both spouses to split all assets accumulated during the marriage, including homes, businesses, vehicles, investment properties and other items.
If a husband lied on his taxes during the marriage, he may continue to lie in order to reduce his liability for spousal and child support. If the wife knew about the false income tax returns, she could report her former husband to the IRS and depending on the outcome, receive a higher support payment.
Alternatively, suppose an ex-husband, who is receiving spousal support, suddenly has his payments reduced due to a reported drop in revenue in his ex-wife's business. He could report his suspicions to the IRS, and if they are confirmed, the ex-wife could find herself in the kind of trouble she never dreamed possible.
However, if you knew your spouse was under-reporting income while you were married, you might not want to call the IRS because you, too, could find yourself facing penalties. There are some cases in which you might be to claim you were an "innocent spouse" in the fraudulent filings and avoid tax evasion charges.
But the best first step you can take is to speak to an experienced family law attorney before reporting your ex-spouse to the IRS to determine what your liability might be.
Do you have questions about custody, guardianships, children's issues, or spousal support? If so, call me or schedule a consultation with the Law Offices of James V. Sansone at 707-623-1875 or contact me by email. You can find additional information on family law, children's issues, spousal support, domestic violence as well as a list of resources you'll find helpful on our website. |
0.981624 | Make cleansing step one of a simple skincare routine Should you wash your face in the morning and evening? Yes. Even if a few, short minutes is all you have, freshly cleansed skin twice a day is a good place to start your routine. A great cleanser, like Simple® Water Boost Micellar Cleansing Water, will rid your skin of dirt and impurities (and make-up too!) without leaving your skin feeling taut and dry. It’ll prep your skin for your next skincare steps, meaning products like your moisturizer will work better. Missed your alarm? Skip your regular morning skincare routine and speed things up by trying a facial cleansing wipe as your morning cleanser while you brew your morning joe. Rocked a bold red lip today? A facial cleansing oil will melt away make-up remains without drying out your skin.
Does your skin need a little something extra? We’re talking boosters and serums! These little skincare saviors are targeted products that contain active ingredients to boost your skin and give it more of what it needs. When to apply a booster? We say after cleansing (and toning) but before moisturizing. If your skin’s feeling dehydrated and lacking in radiance (hello, glow, where are you?), try a product like Simple® Water Boost Hydrating Booster, which includes *PENTAVITIN®, a plant extract, which instantly quenches thirsty skin for up to 48 hours. Need to get out the door like, now? Add a dash to your moisturizer and apply in one step to save those precious minutes.
OK, we know, not quite part of a daily skincare routine, but these few steps are great if you have more time—your skin will love you for it! A deep cleansing clay mask is ideal if your skin is a bit oily—plus it’ll help shrink the look of pores and absorb impurities and dead skin cells. An exfoliator? A scrub that uses tiny particles (like rice powder) to help gently buff away dead skin cells from your skin, revealing brighter skin underneath (just remember to do a patch test before you start!). When exfoliating, we like to give our hairline some attention—especially around our neck and ears—as sometimes, skincare products and make-up can build up here. The trick? Keep these skincare steps to once or twice a week and start slowly at first so you don't irritate your skin. It’ll help keep skin feeling calm (and soft and smooth too!). |
0.999988 | What is Arts, A/V Technology, & Communications?
The Arts, Audio/Video Technology, and Communications cluster can best be described as a group of career paths that are designed to get information and entertainment to the masses. As there are many ways that information is obtained, and a lot of work that goes into preparing and disseminating this information, this provides for a multitude of potential career options. These options include careers in telecommunications, performing arts and even journalism. With the evolving nature of how we consume information, the Internet has created many opportunities for people to break into this cluster with minimal education. New mediums even allow for people to have their voice heard without having to be hired by a television station or newspaper.
Hearing about your success is music to my ears! |
0.999995 | Is the lowest price system the best value?
Simular to many goods and services, you often get what you pay for. Some solar retailers offer low priced systems, however this does not necessarily translate to mean better value, cheaper systems often experience a greater upfront degradation, less yield and sometimes complete failures which means less power and / or less or no money off your electricity bill. Many cheaper systems will also have inferior warranties, both on equipment and installation / workmanship. |
0.999995 | A co-worker and I have been exchanging flirty comments with each other for the past year or so. We recently had a professional disagreement over how to deal with a client, which she took personally. Now, she's filed a complaint with the head of the company, saying I harassed her. The flirting was 100 percent mutual, she never told me it bothered her and it never went beyond words. My record has been spotless over the eight years I've been with this company. I'd like to keep it that way and prevent this from escalating. What are my options?
You don't mention how you learned that your co-worker filed a complaint and whether the formal complaint process within your company has been activated to address the concern. If you have not been approached, you may want to acknowledge to your manager or human-resources department that you take the situation seriously and want to discuss the concern.
Your clearest option is to provide straightforward, honest information to the company representative who investigates the complaint. This includes listening to the complaint and asking questions to understand behaviors that are under scrutiny. If you have a different perspective, offer it respectfully and clearly.
Also, respond factually with specific examples of behaviors you engaged in and your co-worker's response. Give examples of similar behaviors initiated by your co-worker and how you responded to her. When possible, provide dates when flirtatious behavior occurred, names of those who may have observed the interactions and e-mails or other documents related to the complaint.
Finally, take responsibility for your actions that were inappropriate.
It is important to do the following to ensure the situation does not escalate.
If you are engaged in related behaviors, stop the behaviors immediately. Don't approach your co-worker to question her motives for making the complaint. Do not discuss the complaint with co-workers or encourage them to take sides. Recognize the behavior you describe is not appropriate within the workplace and seek training on what is or is not appropriate at work. And if you don't agree with the investigation's outcome, request a review at the next level within the company.
This is one of many reasons that office romances are not a good idea. That being said, much of how this situation will be handled will depend on the company's employee-conduct and workplace-harassment policies.
Anyone has the right to complain, but most companies will perform an internal investigation to substantiate their complaint. Oftentimes the investigation results in a "he said, she said" situation, and the fact that your work record has been spotless for over eight years could certainly work in your favor.
At this point, there is nothing that you can do other than to continue to do your job well and wait for your company to respond to this individual's complaint. Because a complaint has been made, it is important that you not attempt to interfere with the company's investigative process by talking with the complainant or others about this matter.
If you feel that you have to speak with someone, ask to meet with human resources to express your concerns and find out what action, if any, they plan to take regarding this matter. In the meantime, continue to focus your efforts at work on doing your job well, and leave the flirting to your time off! |
0.998541 | My teaching approach: I like to work with each student to develop an individual lesson plan, and then use a variety of printed and online materials and resources during lessons to help guide instruction. For jazz and rock, I create backing tracks that students can take home and use. I also (with student's permission) encourage recording of lessons, which I provide. I am comfortable teaching students who learn via musical notation, tablature, and/or by ear. My influences are: My biggest influences in my playing are: Jimmy Page, Pat Metheny, Guthrie Govan, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe, Larry Carlton, Daniel Gildenlow, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Robert Fripp, and George Harrison. My teaching is inspired by the many incredible guitar, bass, history, theory, and composition that I have had throughout my life, from age 4 until the present. Each one has taught me about how to form a partnership which yields the most benefits for both student and teacher.My guitar lessons take place in: The teacher's studio or the student's homeGuitar lessons typically take place on these days and hours: I teach guitar between 5pm and 8:30pm on weekdays, and between 11am and 8pm on the weekends.Guitar Techniques: Lead guitar, Rhythm guitar, Fingerstyle, Vocal Accompaniment, Performance, Improvisation, Jamming Skills, Reading Music, Music Theory, Scales and Exercises, Song Writing, Guidance In Equipment SelectionYour first guitar lesson with me might include the following: Firstly, I have a detailed conversation with the student about their goals for the lessons and what they would like to get out of my instruction. I also like to make an agreement of commitment on the part of both the student and the instructor. I then ask the student to play something that they are comfortable with (if they have previous experience), and may ask for a student to sight-read either music notation or tablature. I also encourage students to try their hand at soloing over a blues on the first lesson (or even singing a solo) to assess improvisation ability.A guitar lesson with me might entail the following: The initial lesson usually entails hearing the student play (if they have experience), going into detail of what the student would like to learn, and then developing a curriculum plan to span several lessons. In each lesson, I start by reviewing scales and other material from the previous lesson, as well as go over the reasons why the scales/practice are relevant to the students' goals. The rest of the lesson is more specific to each student, but may include playing along to backing tracks/duets with the teacher, analysis of songs, technique instruction, and completion of other student goals.The qualities I look for in an ideal guitar student might include the following: My ideal student's primary motivation to take lessons is to become better at an instrument that they love to play. I expect my student to make a commitment to practice material taught that fits within their schedule and their interest. My ideal student has clear goals of what they would like to accomplish, so that we can track improvement and progress together and ensure that the student is continuously benefiting from the instruction. |
0.953952 | British tanks advancing under fire at the Second Battle of El Alamein during World War II.
Prior to World War I, horse-mounted cavalry performed what is now the role of tanks; manoeuvring and breaking through enemy infantry to attack army lines of communication in the rear. The entry of machine guns on the battlefield, and the increased occupation of the flanks of armies, leading to closed fronts, made cavalry too vulnerable for this task.
British Mark I tanks first went to action at the Somme, on September 15, 1916, but did not manage to break the deadlock of trench warfare. In the Battle of Cambrai (1917) British tanks were more successful, and broke a German trenchline system, the Hindenburg Line.
The German Empire produced only a few tanks, late in the war. Twenty German A7V tanks were produced during the War, compared to almost 4,000 French and over 2,500 British tanks of various kinds. Nonetheless, World War I saw the first tank-versus-tank battle in military history, in April 1918 during the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, when a group of three German A7V tanks engaged a group of three British Mark IV tanks.
After the disastrous final German offensive; in the summer of 1918 the lack of Tanks on the German side, coupled with the Allied tactics that involved a combination of hundreds of their own tanks, cannon equipped (aka "males"), as also machine guns equipped ("females"), with rotating turrets (like the French Renault FT) or not (like the British tanks), greatly contributed to the success of 1918 Allied counter-offensives (as eg the Battles of Soissons and Amiens), which ended the stalemate imposed by trench warfare on the Western Front, and thus effectively ending the war. Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare became more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools of doctrinal thought.
During the 1920s, various British and French commanders who had been associated with the development of the tank were involved in developing the new ideas. The significant split in philosophy can be said to be French and British in schools of thought.
The French school proposed the armoured forces to be largely an infantry supporting arm, demanding heavily armoured tanks armed with infantry support guns, as well as 'cavalry' tanks operating en masse to break through the enemy defensive lines. Although seen as retrograding and reminiscent of WW1 tank use, it advocated a doctrine that included a desire to introduce an element of manoeuvre without expecting collapse of the enemy infantry's defence.
The British school leaned more towards more mobile and lighter designs supported by equally mobile units of infantry, artillery and sappers to replace horse-mounted cavalry. These self-contained motorised detachments would depend on the tank only to provide a way to penetrate the main enemy defensive lines, and would seek to bring about defeat of the enemy by severing the lines of communication and supply as had been done during the previous century.
In Britain Liddell Hart wrote extensively on tank warfare and the theories of Colonel Fuller. The British War Office sanctioned the creation of the Experimental Mechanised Force which was formed on May 1, 1927, under Colonel R. J. Collins. The units were entirely mobile and consisted of reconnaissance tankettes and armoured cars, a battalion of 48 Vickers medium tanks, a motorised machine gun battalion, a mechanised artillery regiment, which had one battery of fully tracked self-propelled guns capable of acting as conventional or anti-aircraft artillery (Birch guns), and a motorised company of field engineers. The unit carried out operations on Salisbury Plain and was observed by the other major nations, the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Although its performance was recognised, it was disbanded in 1928.
In the Soviet Union during the early 1930s Red Army and German officers collaborated in developing use of tanks based on 2nd generation vehicles using turreted main weapons, and experimenting with different chassis configurations and drive trains. One important acquisition for the Red Army turned out to be the purchase of a T3 chassis from an inspired US designer J.W. Christie which served as the basis of the Soviet BT series of fast tanks. The Red Army in particular was much influenced by the theoretical works of Marshal Tukhachevsky who advocated "large scale tank warfare" in the early 1930s His theories died with him with his execution in 1937, but were revived with General Georgy Zhukov's mass tank, artillery, and air attacks at the battles of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan) in 1939, during the Soviet's undeclared war with Japan. These tactics would be repeated on a larger scale a week later by the German army during their invasion of Poland in September 1939. This development led to the intent by the Red Army to form a massive tank force of thousands of vehicles.
Concentration of force requires mobility to prevent the enemy detecting the point of attack in time to reinforce the section of the defence, and concentration of firepower to be effective in combat once concentrated. The tank embodies these two properties, and so constitutes the primary weapon in armoured warfare.
The arrival of the German Afrika Korps under command of General der Infanterie Erwin Rommel highlighted the weaknesses of the British approach: the small number of infantry and artillery in each armoured division was sufficient when attacking the immobile and uncoordinated Italian troops, but against the highly mobile, well-coordinated German units, the undermanned Commonwealth formations were proving inadequate.
Between 1941-42, the Allies struggled in armoured battles in the North African desert due to improper tactics; in particular, running armoured formations into opposing anti-tank positions; however, they achieved some notable successes at Crusader, 1st Alamein and under Montgomery finally achieved decisive victories, in particular at the Second Battle of El Alamein against even the mighty 8.8 cm flak guns. In the later years of the war, with the invasion of the European mainland, Allied Armies become effective armoured forces, but increasingly larger and more powerful German tanks, such as the Panther, Tiger and King Tiger easily outclassed most Allied tanks on a tactical level, with the Churchill & Cavalier/Cromwell being the closest match the British could offer. Nonetheless, the overwhelming numbers of Shermans combined with their average capabilities ensured Allied Victory.
Later in World War II, the Germans were on the defensive. The Panther and heavy Tiger tanks had impressive firepower and armour in tank to tank battles. It could take four to five Shermans to knock out a single Tiger tank by manoeuvring to its weaker flank or rear armour. But the onslaught of Allied armour was much superior in numbers. Besides using tanks in dug-in positions, the Germans made use of older types by turning them into tank destroyers, basically turretless tanks with heavier guns and sometimes heavy armour plating.
Though the U.S. had established the Tank Corps in WWI using French Renault FT (and Six Ton Model 1917 tanks, copies of Renault FTs) and British MK tanks, and some officers like Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, Jr. emerged from that war initially as avid proponents of continuing and developing an American armored force, the rapid reduction of the forces and apathy and even antipathy towards funding and maintaining armed forces in the inter-war years led to relative stagnation of armored doctrine in the United States. Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., virtually alone, advocated for the future of armored warfare and the development of appropriate training, equipment and doctrine during the late 1920s through the 1930s.
The United States Army had always regarded the French Army as the best army in Europe, and consequently the US Army frequently copied French uniforms (the US Civil War), airplanes, and armour (Renault FT tank). Only when France was rapidly overrun in 1940 did the US Army become "shocked" into re-thinking the influences by the perceived actions of German tanks in the 1939 Polish Campaign. Its Armored Combat Arm was not created until 1940 when The Armored Force was born on July 10, 1940, with the Headquarters, Armor Force and the Headquarters, I Armored Corps established at Fort Knox. On July 15, 1940, the 7th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanised) became the 1st Armored Division; the 7th Provisional Tank Brigade, an infantry tank unit at Fort Benning, became the 2nd Armored Division". The Tank Battalion was established at Fort Meade, Md., and a small Armored Force School was also established.
The popular conception in the US was that tanks had been used boldly as part of a new system of war called Blitzkrieg. Under General Jacob L. Devers, Chief of the Armored Force, doctrine evolved into a combined arms operational force consisting of primarily infantry, artillery, and tanks with tanks being the major maneuver component. Under this doctrine, US tank crews of both armored divisions and GHQ tank battalions were taught to fight tanks in tank on tank engagements. Armored Force personnel during and after the war criticized the infantry for using the GHQ tank battalions assigned to infantry divisions strictly as infantry support.
The US Combined Arms team included air support, artillery, engineers, and a tank component supplemented by the Tank Destroyer concept. The latter is most closely identified with the Chief of Army Ground Forces, General Leslie McNair. Having studied the early German successes McNair came under the belief that US forces would be faced with fast moving enemy forces who would seek to bypass, isolate and reduce US forces in a replay of the Fall of France. To counter the enemy blitzkrieg McNair sought to improve the organic anti-tank strength of the US infantry divisions by attaching towed AT guns and equipping the infantry with hand-held Bazookas. To stem the flood of marauding panzers, fast moving powerfully armed Tank destroyer battalions were created to be held back and used in the counterattack.
It was believed that conventional tanks that could take on the enemy Panthers and Tigers toe to toe would not have the speed and mobility to avoid being flanked and bypassed and therefore would not have the chance to fight. It was also calculated that US interests would be better served by large numbers of reliable (battleworthiness) medium tanks rather than a smaller number of un-reliable heavy tanks. It was decided therefore to slow the production of the US heavy tank designs such as the M26 Pershing and concentrate resources on mass-producing the M4 Sherman and tank destroyers such as the M18 Hellcat. Since the Sherman medium tank would be inferior to the enemy heavy tanks they would have to avoid tank-vs-tank combat as much as possible, leaving enemy tanks to the tank destroyers.
To be able get into position to counterattack, the tank destroyers had to be fast. To achieve the desired mobility and agility from the engines available the armor protection was sacrificed, a measure of protection coming from being nimble and hopefully from being able to knock out the enemy before they could get a shot in. Although they had guns of around about 76 mm, the tank destroyer units were issued with the ancestor of the modern Armour-piercing discarding sabot, rounds which made their guns much more powerful than a simple comparison of calibres would suggest.
In 1939, the Japanese Army engaged Soviet armour at Nomonhan. During the three month long war, Japanese armour had shown their weakness against Soviet tanks; and the resulting Japanese defeat prompted a series of complaints by the Imperial Army to incorporate improvements in future Japanese armour. This is the primary reason IJA tanks were not as successful while being used with IJA tactics. The tank forces of the US Army consisted of the M2A4 and M3 Stuart light tanks up until 1941, although these vehicles were five years newer than the 1935 built Type 95's, the IJA and US light tanks were comparable to each other, and seemingly performed well for their respective forces during jungle combat operations; during their phase of WWII.
In many conflicts, it was usual to see infantry riding on the back of tanks, ready to jump off and provide support when necessary. Unfortunately, the design of many modern tanks makes this a dangerous practice. The M1 Abrams, for example, has such hot exhaust gas that nearby infantry have to be careful where they stand. Tanks can also be very vulnerable to well aimed artillery; well-coordinated air support and counter-battery artillery units can help overcome this.
Tanks rarely work alone; the usual minimum unit size is a platoon (platoon is the smallest US Army/Marine unit led by an officer, and a component of a company or troop) of four to five tanks. The tanks of the platoon work together providing mutual support: two might advance while covered by the others then stop and provide cover for the remainder to move ahead.
Normally, multiple platoons coordinate with mechanized infantry and utilize their mobility and firepower to penetrate weak points in enemy lines. This is where the powerful engines, tracks and turrets come into play. The ability to rotate the turret by a full 360° allows coordinated movement within and between platoons, while defending against attacks from multiple directions and engaging troops and vehicles without stopping or slowing down.
Although able to carry a number of different missiles and bombs (including anti-tank ordnance such as the AGM-65 Maverick), its main weapon is the 30 mm GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling gun which is capable of firing 3,900 depleted uranium armour-piercing rounds per minute (a popular belief is that the plane was actually built around the gun and not vice-versa). Capable of low-speed, low-altitude flight, the A-10 is itself an airborne armoured vehicle with a titanium enclosure about the pilot, an airframe that can survive direct hits from armour-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm and triple redundancy in its flight systems, with mechanical systems to back up double-redundant hydraulics. The Soviet equivalent is the SU-25.
Similarly, a number of helicopter gunships have been designed mainly to engage enemy armoured vehicles. The AH-1Z Viper, AH-64 Apache, Denel AH-2 Rooivalk, Eurocopter Tiger, Ka-50 Black Shark, Mi-28 Havoc, A129 Mangusta and Westland Lynx are examples. Helicopters are very effective against armoured vehicles for many reasons. The AH-64D Longbow Apache, for example, is equipped with an improved sensor suite and weapon systems and the AN/APG-78 Longbow Fire Control Radar dome installed over the main rotor. Helicopters however have proved highly vulnerable to small arms ground fire, and so in American service, most missions that would have originally fallen under the domain of the attack helicopter are instead being executed by the much more heavily armoured A-10.
↑ "Israel unveils defense shield for Merkavas". UPI.com. 2010-04-06. http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/04/06/Israel-unveils-defense-shield-for-Merkavas/UPI-97231270579381/. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
↑ "Trophy Active Protection System". Defense-update.com. http://defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
↑ Maital, Shlomo. "Anti-tank missile defense system stops attack ... JPost - Defense". Jpost.com. http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=210366. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
↑ "125mm APERS And Special Rounds". Fofanov.armor.kiev.ua. http://fofanov.armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/ARM/apers/ammo.html. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
Guderian, Heinz (2001) . Panzer Leader (Da Capo Press Reissue edition ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81101-4.
Hofmann, George F. and Starry, Donn A., eds. "Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of U.S. Armored Forces." 1999; University Press of Kentucky. ISBM 0-8131-2130-2.
von Mellenthin, Major General F. W. (1971) . Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War (First Ballantine Books Edition ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-24440-0. |
0.999993 | Reef sharks are usually indifferent around divers, but they are known to become aggressive when food is present, which describes the circumstances of the shark attack on Dimitri.
And he will continue to protect himself in case of other shark attacks by reef sharks.
Caribbean reef sharks are common in the Caribbean Sea and are typically 6 to 8 feet in length, but can grow to 10 feet. According to the latest findings of the International Shark Attack File, there have been 27 shark attacks attributed to the Caribbean reef shark, four of them unprovoked, none fatal. Make that five unprovoked attacks.
“In no way did this encounter discourage me from getting back into the water,” he said. |
0.997333 | For the Roland Kirk album, see Rip, Rig and Panic (album).
Rip Rig + Panic were a post-punk band founded in 1980, and disbanded in 1983. The band were named after a jazz album of the same name by Roland Kirk. They were formed by Sean Oliver (bass), Mark Springer (piano, sax, vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar, sax, keyboards, vocals) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion)—the latter two formerly of The Pop Group)—with singer Neneh Cherry. Other members included saxophonist Flash (David Wright), singer Andi Oliver, trumpeter David De Fries and viola-player Sarah Sarhandi.
The group strayed from more conventional post-punk, mixing avant-garde elements with jazz and led by Cherry's innovative pop/soul singing style. Their second album, I Am Cold, included a number of tracks featuring jazz trumpeter Don Cherry (Neneh Cherry's stepfather). They also appeared with Nico on a BBC radio session.
Rip Rig + Panic was formed in 1980 by drummer Bruce Smith and guitarist and saxophonist Gareth Sager after the dissolution of their previous band, The Pop Group. Naming their newly founded project after the 1965 Roland Kirk album of the same name, the duo preferred to explore their free jazz and reggae roots in contrast to their former band's avant-garde and political leanings. Pianist Mark Springer, who had performed live with The Pop Group, began collaborating with the duo by playing keyboards and occasionally providing vocals during live shows. Eventually, vocalist Neneh Cherry joined followed by bassist Sean Oliver. This line-up released the single "Go! Go! Go! This Is It"/"The Ultimate in Fun (Is Going to the Disco with My Baby)" on 13 August 1981, with Gavin Martin of NME saying "Rip Rig and Panic tread a fine line between undisciplined wasted and ingenious commercial aplomb."
The band's debut album, God, was released on 3 September 1981 by Virgin Records. It fused free jazz and free improvisation with post-punk, funk and reggae music. The music received high marks from NME for their viruoso playing and esoteric sense of humor, with the review calling it "an act of faith in tumult." The single "Bob Hope Takes Risks" followed on 27 November. For their second album, I Am Cold, the band adopted a more commercial approach in their sound while further embracing jazz and world music influences. The album was recorded with the help of vocalist Andi Oliver and jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. The band made a guest appearance in an episode of the British sitcom The Young Ones performing their 1982 single "You're My Kind of Climate". 1983's Attitude was the band's final and most accessible album, supported by the singles "Beat the Beast" and "Do the Tightrope".
Rip Rig + Panic became Float Up CP in 1985 and produced the album Kill Me in the Morning, but amicably dissolved shortly thereafter. Cherry commented on the group's end in an interview with Spin: "Everyone needed to go and do their own thing. I don’t remember us splitting up, but there was an overspill into another overspill."
The band's members continued to their musical involvement. Mark Springer continued to record as a solo artist, debuting with Piano in 1984. Sean Oliver became a session musician for Terence Trent D'Arby, co-writing his 1987 hit "Wishing Well". He died in 1990 of sickle cell anaemia aged 27. In 2010, Sager and Smith reformed and began touring and recording with The Pop Group. Andi Oliver is currently a chef, television and radio broadcaster in the UK.
^ Laszlo, Skip (1982). "Rip Rig & Panic". The Wire (2): 27.
^ "Rip Rig & Panic". Discogs. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
^ "Neneh Cherry unearths footage of Rip, Rig And Panic with Don Cherry". Wire. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
^ Reynolds, Simon (17 February 2006). Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984. Penguin Books. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 876. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ a b Gimarc, George (2005). Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock, 1970-1982. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 504. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ Gimarc, George (2005). Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock, 1970-1982. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 728. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ "Rip Rig and Panic". Bristol Archive Records. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
^ Isler, Scott; Sheridan, David (2007). "Rip Rig + Panic". Trouser Press. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ Cameray, Bob (1986). "Easr Across the Water". Spin. 2 (1): 60.
^ Gehr, Richard (24 February 2014). "Neneh Cherry Talks Her Weird Punk-Pop-Jazz Trajectory, and the New Blank Project". Spin. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
^ "Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent d'Arby". Song Facts. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
^ The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. 2003. p. 1969. ISBN 9781858284576.
^ "Andi Oliver: 'I'm a black, middle-aged woman judging The Great British Menu - hooray!'". Telegraph Media Group Limited. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
This page was last edited on 28 August 2018, at 22:13 (UTC). |
0.999999 | Našli jsme další záznamy k osobě גנדי הנך גרברג.
גנדי הנך גרברג je pohřben(a) na hřbitově New Kiryat Shmona Cemetery v místě zobrazeném na níže uvedené mapě. Tyto informace o GPS jsou k dispozici POUZE na stránkách BillionGraves. Naše technologie vám pomůže najít umístění hrobu a také další členy rodiny, pohřbené poblíž.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 4 years old when Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million (equivalent to $2,197,000,000 in 2017) public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world's economy can decline.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 15 years old when World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, intending to neutralize the United States Pacific Fleet from influencing the war Japan was planning to wage in Southeast Asia. World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 29 years old when Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California. The Disneyland Hotel is a resort hotel located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, owned by the Walt Disney Company and operated through its Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products division. Opened on October 5, 1955, as a motor inn owned and operated by Jack Wrather under an agreement with Walt Disney, the hotel was the first to officially bear the Disney name. Under Wrather's ownership, the hotel underwent several expansions and renovations over the years before being acquired by Disney in 1988. The hotel was downsized to its present capacity in 1999 as part of the Disneyland Resort expansion.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 37 years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas; hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One as the 36th President of the United States. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. As a member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate prior to becoming president.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 46 years old when Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war by some US perspectives. The majority of Americans believe the war was unjustified. The war would last roughly 19 years and would also form the Laotian Civil War as well as the Cambodian Civil War, which also saw all three countries become communist states in 1975.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 59 years old when Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board. The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official name, Space Transportation System (STS), was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 63 years old when Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.
גנדי הנך גרברג was 75 years old when The September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated suicide attacks killing 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Additional people died of 9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks. |
0.999989 | Capitalizes the first character of the given string.
doAll boolean No If true, then every word is capitalized, where a new word is defined as alpha characters that come after whitespace, a dot [.], a dash [-], or (parenthesis).
This is especially useful to clean up user input of names, e.g. converting a string like "susi q. sorgolis" to "Susi Q. Sorgolis"
doLowerIfAllUppercase boolean No If true, then if the input string contains letters and they are all UPPERCASE, then the input string is first lowercased.
"Susi Q. Sorgolis" while preserving the CaSe if the input is e.g. "Ronald McDonald" |
0.997652 | Collecting 20 essays by 20 professional philosophers, The Matrix and Philosophy remains the best Matrix collection currently available. The essays run from 8 - 25 pages, with most coming in around 10 pages, giving the reader a solid introduction to the theory, but not overloading you with complex material. This book is aimed at readers new to philosophy, using the obvious (and not-so-obvious) philosophical roots of The Matrix as the starting point for a journey into deeper thinking. If you always wanted to know more about philosophy but weren't sure of an accessible path, this is it.
The book is divided into five sections (called scenes), each devoted to examining a particular aspect of The Matrix, with each scene containing 4 similarly-themed pieces. The topics covered include just about any "-ism" you can think of: skepticism, moralism, reductive materialism, fatalism, Buddhism, religious pluralism, existentialism, Marxism, etc. etc. etc.
The essays vary in complexity and writing style, as you might expect with 20 different authors. Many are extremely easy to read, with an inviting writing style, and as little use of jargon as possible. There are probably about 3 or 4 that may be a little too dense for an introductory book. Not that these pieces are too complicated for a new reader, but the book loses its pace when you slow down completely on a complex essay.
One of the especially interesting aspects of the book is that reading it now, after the trilogy has been completed, may be more satisfying than reading it before watching Reloaded and Revolutions. Some of the theories put forth gain additional meaning knowing the events of the sequels. A few, on the other hand, are revealed for what they were: an educated guess that ultimately proved incorrect.
There is some repetition in the book, which is unavoidable when the essays were all written independently. You'll hear the story of Plato's cave numerous times, as you will Descartes' malicious demon, but these are interesting theories, and they are the foundations upon which many other propositions in the book are built, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.
For me, many of the most memorable essays were contained in the first half - the sections that dealt with questions like "Could a Matrix really exist?", "Are we in one now?", "How can we tell if we are?". An interesting argument is put forth in essay 3: The Matrix Possibility, that Neo has no basis to believe Morpheus' story about the real world. Why? He has no frame of reference. His first 25(?) years have been lived a lie. Everything he's seen, heard, tasted, touched, and felt has been a simulation, so he can't know real from fake. In that case, why would he believe anything Morpheus tells him? Could it not just be another level of simulated deception? Of course, it isn't�but how can Neo believe anything when his entire frame of reference, his entire context is false?
Another fave is essay 8: Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge, which pretty accurately predicts The Oracle's Gamble. I believe it also sheds light on what The Merovingian was really getting at in his memorable causalism rant in the restaurant. I believe it was a much more direct attack on The Oracle and everything she stands for than anyone realized at the time. But that's for another day!
While there are a few uneven spots, The Matrix and Philosophy manages to hit on all the classic themes you'll find in philosophy - philosophy of mind, the mind-body problem, nihilism, the nature of reality, intellect vs. experience, existentialism and religion (Buddhism and Christianity). And it manages to do it in a readable, well-laid out series of essays that won't make you feel like you need a Ph.d to appreciate it. If you're interested in going deeper, this is the book for you!
Get The Matrix and Philosophy for yourself today! |
0.878171 | Browser wars, end of Internet Explorer?
In light of the recent headlines regarding the security risks of Internet Explorer, users have been warned to use alternative browsers while Microsoft combat the problem currently affecting millions of users. Unfortunately Internet Explorer has long been recognised by experts as a browser prone to malicious content and a direct pipeline for viruses.
As of November 2008, the usage stats are as follows: 26.6% IE7, 20% IE6, 3.1% Chrome, 44.2% Firefox, 2.7% Safari, 2.7% other.
Firefox is catching up but is always going to be on the back foot as Internet Explorer browsers are pre-installed and used by default on all of Microsoft's operating systems. The most shocking fact of all is that IE 6 is now 7 years old, 1 in 5 people are still using this outdated technology when a fast and free upgrade is literally a few clicks away!
As a web developer I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the glorious Firefox browser. Unlike Internet Explorer, the Firefox browser is a far more efficient and secure browser, effectively helping web developers comply with standards of the web world (what little standard that there is!).
Firefox offers a more reliable and effective browsing experience and also includes a wide variety of available plugins endorsed by the makers Mozilla, such as 'No-Script' and 'Adblock Plus' for enhanced security. So give it a try and get your own Firefox now!
So either way, give Internet Explorer the boot, its old and tired and needs to step back to allow for the next generation of web browsers - ones that people choose to use rather than being forced into using what's already on their desktop. |
0.999997 | Be aware of these five reasons (and solutions).
1. Women tend to not eat enough. Solution: Learn your specific calories needs. Each person needs a different amount of calories based on height, weight, age and activity level. Following a random low-calorie diet found in a fitness magazine will not work for everyone. If you do not eat enough, your body will eventually learn to live on low calories. Once a "normal" amount of calories is introduced, many tend to gain and find it hard to lose weight.
2. Women naturally carry more body fat. Solution: Eat a well-balanced diet and exercise. Because women carry more body fat to become pregnant and support having a child, it can become harder to lose body fat as they become leaner. It is easier for men to get their body fat in the single digits, while women begin to experience loss of menstrual cycle and thinning hair and other health-related issues if their body fat gets too low.
3. Women naturally carry less muscle. Solution: Add strength training to your exercise routine. Muscle burns more calories than body fat does. Remember to challenge yourself. Two-pound weights are not going to cut it. Lifting heavy will not make you bulky. Women do not naturally have enough testosterone to support muscle growth like a man. The added lean muscle will help burn some extra calories each day, even while you sleep.
4. Women are emotionally attached to food. Solution: Learn the difference between emotional and physical hunger. Many tend to eat socially and because of boredom, loneliness and stress. During many of these times, individuals are not physically hungry. Eating when you are not physically hungry will add excess calories and eventually lead to weight gain.
5. Women underestimate calorie intake. Solution: Download a free calorie counting app that will allow you to track meals as well as provide servings and calorie info on each item. Many people forget to add candy, condiments and small snacks to their daily calorie intake and may be eating just enough to support their current weight. A calorie counting app allows you to keep a food log of your meals and track your progress. |
0.99999 | Research question: A growing number of studies of professional team sports have tried to understand the drivers behind match-day attendance. However, no research has ever been conducted in relation to team handball. As existing literature mainly focuses on European football and US Major League sports, club managers from smaller sports lack the evidence that could assist them in developing strategies to increase attendance. This study is a step toward filling this gap.
Research methods: Using robust panel data regression models deployed on data from Danish men’s team handball league matches in the seasons from 2011/12 to 2015/16, the study identifies the main determinants of spectator demand.
Results and findings: The findings are largely consistent with existing research, but also reveal new insights that seem to be specific to handball. These include (1) negative effects on spectator demand due to simultaneous live television coverage of other league matches; (2) no obvious preferences for weekend matches and (3) weather-related factors, whereby rain has a positive effect and snow a negative effect, while variations in temperature have no effect.
Implications: To maximize spectator attendance, we suggest that league managers and club representatives take the problem of simultaneous broadcasts from other league matches into consideration when planning the schedule in the future. Further, we argue that games should be placed in the time slots with highest spectator demand while recognizing that this can be club-specific. Finally, we recommend that clubs increase their efforts in promoting games involving strong away teams. |
0.999978 | What should we do if we are instructed to “shelter-in-place”?
Sheltering-in-place simply refers to taking refuge in a building, in the event there is an airborne hazard, rather than evacuating from an area. Depending on the situation, it may be safer to quickly shelter-in-place rather than try to drive to a safe area. It might be sheltering at home, at work or in some other other building and if you understand a few principles, it should be easy.
The purpose is to get out of the outside-air and inside a building that is not contaminated. You want to keep the inside-air in, and the outside-air out, until the bad outside-air blows away.
Close all windows and doors, exterior and interior. Open interior doors as little as possible.
Turn off all fans, heaters and air conditioners so that they don’t continue to blow outside-air into your house.
Close the fireplace damper so that outside-air can’t blow down the chimney and inside the building.
Take water, food and disaster supplies, including a radio, into the most airtight room, preferably one without windows, but with a phone. Bring your pets in with you, along with additional water and food for them.
Use duct tape or other strong tape to seal all cracks around the door, vents, etc., into the room to help keep out any outside-air.
Listen on your radio or television for further instructions. |
0.999869 | I read about Tule fog and likes the image so much that I composed the above haiku.
A Tule fog (pronounced too-lee) is a very thick fog that collects in parts of California during the rainy season of the late fall and winter. It is a type of radiation fog, caused by the combination of increased humidity due to the rain and rapid cooling due to the longer nights. Tule fog makes for very low visibility and is the cause of many accidents every year. |
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