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+{"content": "International Symposium on\n\nDeep Earth Exploration and Practices\n\n\n\nDeep Earth exploration is a multidisciplinary, complex undertaking that aims to understand the structure, dynamics and evolution of Earth’s continents and their margins. Earth is unique because of the presence of both liquid water and mobile tectonic plates as well as life on and in its crust. Interactions between the tectonic plates have produced the continents and ocean basins that distinguish our planet and the mineral and fossil fuel resources that support our standard of living. Active tectonic processes are also responsible for devastating hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and they control Earth's surface topography, which fundamentally affect the climate, environment and our modern life. Therefore, to study the lithosphere and deeper interior of Earth and to gain fundamental insights into how Earth operates is of common interest to geoscientists worldwide.\n\nSinoPrope is one of the great programs in this field and has been funded by the Chinese Government with unprecedented scope and scientific ambition. The overall aim of SinoProbe is to take a multidisciplinary approach in studying the composition, structure and evolution of the continental lithosphere of the Chinese continent. SinoProbe-I was launched in 2008 as the initial phase of SinoProbe. In 2016, it was followed by the ongoing program on Deep Resources Exploration and Advanced Mining (DREAM).\n\nIn will begin in the coming years. SinoProbe-I provided researchers with rich data sets to image, sample and monitor the continent and underlying mantle at a resolution never before attempted. It outlined a wide range of exciting scientific research directions to be explored in the coming decade, enabled scientists to make important breakthroughs and discoveries, and answer or pose outstanding questions. For the International Symposium on Deep Earth Exploration and Practices (DEEP-2018), emphasis will not only be on updated progress of SinoProbe–I but will also focus on recent research on the lithosphere across the world. The meeting will serve as a forum where participants exchange ideas on progress in deep exploration of the lithosphere, better understand deep processes within the Earth, expand the new knowledge into practical applications, consider the future, and promote international collaboration on deep exploration of the Earth. DEEP-2018 will offer an unprecedented opportunity for international collaboration within the earth sciences. It will also be a good time to introduce SinoProbe-Ⅱ, the new proposal and deployment as part of the ambitious Chinese National Scientific Program until 2030.\n\n2018 DEEP-2018 Draft Program", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999784231185913}
+{"content": "Presented by UNCOMMON;YOU\n\nSYNOPSIS: Sharum is a documentary theatre piece that follows a Muslim family based in Queens, New York. The story follows the wedding of the oldest daughter, Mariam. Throughout the events of the wedding, all 4 of the siblings are forced to confront the reality of their identities, battling the stigmas around mental health, arranged marriages, drug addiction, and queerness. In the midst of this ceremony, these secrets get exposed to each other and the community around them. Sharum recalls true events in these scenarios that capture the responses of their parents, and the ways it permanently affects their family dynamic.\n\nDirected by Ray Jordan Achan\n\nShow Times: Thursday-Saturday @7:30pm, Sunday @3pm\n\nTickets from $52\n\nBlocking belongs\non the stage,\nnot on websites.\n\nOur website is made possible by\ndisplaying online advertisements to our visitors.\n\nPlease consider supporting us by\nwhitelisting with your ad blocker.\nThank you!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.848738968372345}
+{"content": "the +1 museum by any other name is a constantly evolving project from MoT+++ that exhibits single artworks in unpredictable locations, for a minimum of one year. evoking the politics of site-specificity and duration, +1 museum artworks use the idiosyncrasies of setting and extended experience of their presence, to create intimate and ongoing conversations with their audiences.\n\nby taking the name of the museum, the project questions the role and form of institutions in society, the rise of the exhibition as event, and challenges the standard format of a two-month show period that is now ubiquitous globally. as an alternative, the museum’s artworks are considered carefully and critically in relation to the history and character of each selected place, and encouraged to stay exhibited for as long as possible. as the museum grows worldwide, it creates multiple entry points for exploring the representation and interpretation of art—finding its strength in being simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. it works outside of conventional settings to reject the traditions of the institution and its art, and instead seeks its audiences beyond these accepted boundaries.\n\nto mark the beginning of the +1 museum by any other name MoT+++ founder and collective member Cam Xanh placed a single, closed matchbox at an unmarked place in Viet Huong factory. the factory is one of the biggest exporters from Vietnam, whose manufactured scents and flavours can be found throughout the world.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9130023121833801}
+{"content": "Ongoing Research\n\nOur main areas of interest explore the teaching and learning of physics from interrelated perspectives such as: ​\n\nRepresentation in Physics\nHow can the different resources we use in physics be coordinated in order to improve the teaching and learning of physics?\n\nUnderstanding Physical Phenomena\nHow do students understand physical phenomena and how can learning experiences be constructed to facilitate such understanding?\n\nComplexity Thinking in Physics Education Research\nHow can complex processes of teaching and learning be modelled and understood?\n\nProfessional Identity and the Culture of Physics\nHow does professional identity and the culture of physics affect physics learning and teaching education and practice??", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7113645076751709}
+{"content": "Thrivous Nootropics for Cognitive Enhancement\n\nEverything Any Transhumanism Antagonist Ever Writes Is Always Entirely Wrong\n\n\n\n\nHennessy’s description of Transhumanists starts out fine, but quickly deteriorates. We do typically believe the human condition can be greatly improved through use of technology, but through “inter-species minglings”? What does she mean by that? As it stands, everything from dog-man to bestiality comes to mind. While there are some radical Transhumanists that may want to look like dogs and perhaps want to engage in sexual activity with dogs, it is grossly inaccurate to consider these radical ideas to be representative of mainstream Transhumanists. For example, no member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, to my knowledge, contends that inter-species minglings is among the most promising ways of improving the human condition, despite a commonly expressed interest both in ensuring the well-being of non-human animals and in learning what we can from them.\n\nSubsequently, Hennessy mentions that there are Transhumanists who believe humans can be forced to evolve into posthumans. This is probably technically true, but the context of her statement presents at least two problems: first, simply because some believe it possible does not necessarily imply that they believe it moral to force such evolution; second, simply because some believe it possible does not necessarily imply that most or even many believe it possible to force such evolution. Again to provide an example, no member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, to my knowledge, contends that any person should be forced to become posthuman; to the contrary, the Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation explicitly states that we seek to improve the human condition “according to their wills, desires and laws, to the extent they are not oppressive”.\n\nHennessy’s opinion piece continues to imply hasty generalizations regarding Transhumanists as it progresses – if “progress” is a word that should be applied to the article. The culmination of the hasty generalizations is, after talking about various groups including Transhumanists, she states:\n\n\nTranshumanists are misanthropes, thugs, sociopaths, sophists and liars. That’s what Hennessy wants you to believe, in her words, “to be clear”. Of course, she is not being clear. Rather, she is making a hasty generalization based on her interpretation of ideas purportedly expressed by some Transhumanists, without providing any reason for us to believe those ideas to be typical of most Transhumanists.\nLincoln Cannon\nNew God Argument\nMormon Transhumanist Association\nChristian Transhumanist Association\nLincoln Cannon LLC\nThrivous Nootropics for Cognitive Enhancement\nThrivous Nootropics for Cognitive Enhancement", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5112017393112183}
+{"content": "Episode 19 - GlastonBudPod!\n\n\nGlastonBudPod! Sound apology, Glastonbury Goldblum, camping horrors, Phil’s regrets, the catchphrase incident, the ultimate Japanese heckle put down, China Daily, Sunder-Land, the British Festival Barbarism theory, WE FINALLY GET UP TO DATE WITH CORRESPONDENCE! Videogame noises and chess, cocktail icepicks, BUM BUM for two, street cred into street lead, pissy SIRI, Glasto Attenborough, dog story comeback, we have a question! Are you having a binbags day? Pierre making women vomit and faint and the swimming pool plaster bandit.\n\nFor information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9220374822616577}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 1\n\nF2 - METHODS OF SEPARATION OF MIXTURES homogeneous and heterogeneous classes: 12\n\n- 13-14 will adopt S = solid, L = liquid G = gas A - Homogeneous Mixtures: a) S\n\nimple Distillation - separates S L where heating the mixture leaves the L as ste\nam, and then is cooled after separating well as L, recovering the two components\n(S and L). b) Fractional Distillation - separates L L-miscible (which are mixed\n), the liquids are separated in order of increasing PE. c) Fractional Liquefacti\non - G G separates the gases are separated in a growing point of liquefaction (t\nhe process takes place with cooling). d) Vaporization or evaporation of L-separa\ntes S where, by heating the L evaporates separating from the S, recovers only th\ne component S. NOTE: distillation consists of a vaporization followed by liquefa\nction. B - Heterogeneous mixtures: 1) Picking - separates S from S using the han\nd or forceps. 2) flotation (or sedimentation fractionated) - separates S from S\nusing a liquid of intermediate density where the S heavier (dense) if sediment,\nand other S lighter floats. 3) Fractional Dissolution - separates S from S using\na liquid that dissolves only one of S, and then does not filter where S is diss\nolved separately, then and there, with the filtrate make the simple distillation\nretrieving the two components ( liquid was added and S). 4) fractional Fusion -\nS separates S with different PF. 5) Fractional crystallization separates S-S wi\nth different solubility coefficients, where the less soluble S crystallizes firs\nt as it will reach its limit of solubility. 6) Magnetic separation separate S-S\nusing a magnet, where one of S is attracted by the magnet. 7) Filtration - separ\nates S L using a filter that retains the component S. 8) Filtration reduced pres\nsure or vacuum accelerates filtration. 9) Decanting - separates S of L through t\nhe home, while the S component are sediment, using a hose to remove the componen\nt L. 10) Decanting Funnel by bromine (or separating funnel) - separates immiscib\nle L of L, where L denser seep separating themselves from the other L less dense\n. 11) Spin - accelerates a decanting. 12) Sifonação - separates S L L L immisc\nible or using a siphon (a kind of hose). 13) Levigação - separates S from S us\ning the water that drags the lighter S, S and heavier, sinks to the bottom. DO N\nOT FORGET: ⠢ Liquid-miscible homogenous mixture separated by fractional distilla\ntion ⠢ immiscible liquids, heterogeneous mixture separated by decanting or separ\nating funnel for decanting funnel bromine ⠢ Dissolution fractionated (heterogene\nous) is different from fractional distillation (homogeneous)\nAv Mato Grosso, 227 - Cx Postal: 128 CEP: 79002-905 - Campo Grande - MS\nPhone: (67) 3312-3200 - Fax: (67) 3312-3124 -", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7590112686157227}
+{"content": "15 Cities Outside of London You Need to Visit in 2019\n\n15 Cities Outside of London You Need to Visit in 2019\n\nWhen you think of the UK, you’re probably thinking of London but there’s a whole lot more to the UK than just visiting London.\n\nLondon is a fantastic city and you can spend an entire month there and still not have seen it all. However, we’re going to help you mix things up and hopefully convince you to check out some beautiful cities outside of London.\n\nHere are our top picks, in no particular order:\n\n1. Bath\n\nThe name gives this one away as a must-visit for a particular activity. Housing 2,000-year-old Roman Baths that were built around the city’s natural hot springs, Bath is world renowned for this alone. It was the centre for the affluent English during the Georgian and Regency periods, and you can get a sense of their life by visiting the various museums in the city such as the Fashion Museum.\n\nAside from the Roman Baths and history, Bath is also a great place to stroll around and I’d highly recommend a walk over Pulteney Bridge. You can browse through the various shops lined along the side and get a sense of the infamous Ponte Vecchio in Italy – which the street was said to be mirrored on. Bath is a great city that exhibits a different flavour from London but remember to experience more than the Roman Baths while you’re there!\n\n2. Inverness\n\nIf you’re a lover of natural landscapes and scenery then it’s a no-brainer to visit Inverness. It’s considered one of the best ways to explore the Highlands and is chock full of history. Explore the battlefield of Culloden or visit the Highland Archive Centre if you’re looking to explore a bit of ancient history in the UK. For scenery, be sure to visit River Ness and the Merkinch Local Nature Reserve.\n\nThe food-scene is another go-to here. It’s well worth a visit to Rocpool, Contrast Brasserie, or Nourish. All fantastic food establishments and have some great dishes to help you get a taste of the local cuisine, or just enjoy the top delicacies from some incredibly talented chefs. The highlands are also known for their beers, and it would be a tragedy if you didn’t get into a drunken stupor while here. Be sure to indulge in some classic Scottish beers such as the Skull Spitter and check out the local Black Isle Brewery.\n\n3. Wiltshire\n\nWiltshire is famous for the ancient Stonehenge and the city has built an impressive array of attractions around this. Be sure to pop into the visitor centre at Stonehenge as this place dives into the history and magnificence of this site, it helps put into perspective how impressive this site is given the technological advancements at the time it was built.\n\nBeyond the Stonehenge, there’s a lot of other things you can see in Wilshire. With abundant farmland and quaint little towns, Wilshire is a great place to explore a more countryside vibe of the UK. I would highly recommend spending a night in one of their unique cottages. There are plenty of hilltops with former forts and burial mounds from the Bronze age, and if you’re still seeking historical artefacts, then stone circles of Avebury are not too far away. If visiting historical sites dated a 1,000 years back doesn’t pique your interest then there’s Salisbury, a well-preserved medieval city with the oldest working clock in the world that’s also worth visiting.\n\n4. Oxford\n\nWhen you hear Oxford, you’re probably thinking universities, and you’re right. Oxford University is the capital of academic progress and very much defines this city. As a result, be sure to take a tour of this establishment or just walk along the campus and be in awe of its stunning architecture.\n\nThe city itself has a lot of rich history and is just an hour away from London. Oxford is an easy day trip but if you’re looking for a unique experience then spend a night or two in the 1,000-year-old Oxford Castle which was recently converted into a hotel. While you’re there, given its collegial vibes, there are plenty of university pubs to check out and get a real taste of what college life is like in the UK.\n\n5. Berkshire\n\nKnown for being the birthplace of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Berkshire has a strong regal vibe. The city has many castle estates, and two popular one’s worth visiting are Windsor Castle and Highclere Castle. With stunning architecture and plenty of oak-lined deer parks nearby, it makes for a great way to spend your day. The city is also known for its horse racing and you can witness the many training yards and gallops. With many chalk ridgeways and meandering rivers, Berkshire is a lovely place to explore and a must-do on your itinerary.\n\n6. Kent\n\nAnother city worth visiting in South East England is Kent. Here, the main attraction is Canterbury city, where it’s central cathedral with a long history dating back to the 6th century is the highlight for most visitors. The cathedral was established as the British Isles’ first diocese and where the Archbishop of Canterbury spends his time.\n\nThe White Cliffs of Dover is also a popular attraction to view some stunning coastal scenery, and visitors can also take guided walks near the edge to witness the spectacular views. Yes, this city has a castle too! Leeds Castle in Kent is known as the ‘loveliest castle in the world‘ and sits on an island in the middle of a lake. Be sure to take the tour inside the castle as the interiors are stunning. Definitely have your camera with you for this one.\n\n7. Portsmouth\n\nHead to the coast of Portsmouth from London if you’re looking to get away and be near some water. By taking the train from London, you’ll be there in about an hour and a half and can swiftly head to the famous Gunwharf Quay area for some great bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. In the same area, there are plenty of designer stores if you’re looking to get some shopping done.\n\nLater, catch a stunning view of the city by heading to the top of the Spinnaker Tower towards sunset. In Portsmouth, there’s also the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard where you can board The Battle of Trafalgar’s HMS Victory and see Henry VIII’s preserved Mary Rose warship. It’s pretty cool and a unique experience not worth missing out on.\n\n8. Cardiff\n\nTo get a taste of Welsh life and hospitality, it’s time to head to Cardiff. With plenty of museums, parks, attractions, and a vibrant food scene and nightlife, this city offers everything. However, some highlights you shouldn’t miss out on is a visit to Cardiff Castle to soak in some history, explore the grounds, and be amazed at the grandeur of this 11th Century castle. Head over to Cardiff Bay to get a beautiful view of the cityscape, and catch a guided boat tour to learn a bit more about the history of the city while taking in the views.\n\n9. Bristol\n\nFamous for being the hometown of Banksy, you can see many of his works as you stroll through the city. However, Bristol is a lot more than just Banksy. Pop into Bristol Cathedral to take in the wonderful interior or dabble in their phenomenal culinary scene by visiting St Nicks Market where the adjoining Glass Arcade houses a variety of food stalls. During the summer, Bristol is known to host many festivals such as Balloon Fiesta, a festival of hot air balloons that’s worth attending at least once in your life! At night check out the many popular bars and clubs such as Cosies or Motion that are bumping with the famous ‘Bristol Sound’ style of music.\n\n10. Manchester\n\nManchester is a hybrid of both old and new, and this is reflected in both its culture and architecture. Hands down one of the most fun cities to visit, Manchester offers warm hospitality and plenty of things to do. You can visit the historic John Rylands Library, or check out the gorgeous Manchester Cathedral. Football is immensely popular in Manchester and you have to check out Old Trafford Museum and Football Club, home of Manchester United football team.\n\nWith a vibrant art scene, Manchester is also home to The Lowry, an art gallery showcasing some of the famous artist Lowry’s best work. Moreover, the Manchester Art Gallery houses some of the best art pieces from various artists connected to the city.\n\n11. Brighton\n\nBrighton Beach can’t be missed and it’s UK’s most famous beach town. Away from the city life of London, visitors here can catch some sun and enjoy the most authentic fish and chips the UK has to offer.\n\nKick things off in this city by visiting Brighton Pier, after which you can take a tour of the Royal Pavilion which was built in the 18th century as a royal residence.  Fancy some shopping? Then be sure to check out The Lanes, a shopping area that’s packed with an eclectic mix of stores across 400 alleyways – all intertwined. Brighton is also home to the Seven Sisters which is about 40 minutes from the city centre by car. These breath-taking cliffs are worth visiting just for how stunning and grand they are.\n\n12. Edinburgh\n\nEdinburgh is the second most visited city after London in the UK. With stunning historic and well-preserved buildings, it’s the perfect city if you’re into architecture. But that’s not all that’s great about Edinburgh.\n\nThe city is known for its famous Edinburgh Castle and you can catch the stunning sea of historical buildings that line the city from atop Calton Hill. Beyond the sights, Edinburgh is also known for its Whisky and going on a tasting tour is a must do while you’re there. If alcohol isn’t your thing, Edinburgh also boasts a phenomenal food scene with restaurants such as Martin Wishart that are well worth grabbing a reservation for.\n\n13. Glasgow\n\nWhile we’re on the Scotland trend, the second city that’s worth checking out is Glasgow. Compared to Edinburgh, this city is perfect if shopping and nightlife is more your cup of tea as a traveller. However, it also boasts plenty of historical architecture and museums such as the Riverside Museum or GoMA.\n\nIn addition to this, it’s an epicentre for gastronomic creativity and boasts top restaurants in a range of cuisines. It’s informally known as UK’s curry capital and it’s also one of the UK’s most vegan-friendly cities. With an enviable shopping scene such as St Enoch Centre and Princes Square, it’s also a shopper’s paradise.\n\n14. Belfast\n\nThough not on the mainland and making it a bit harder to get to. Belfast is full of charm and well worth the visit to get a taste of Northern Ireland. Known for being an industrial powerhouse and shipbuilding centre back in the day, you can get a taste of Belfast history by visiting the Titanic Quarter where the Titanic was made and be sure to visit the experiential Titanic museum nearby.\n\nFor a bit of nightlife, head to the Cathedral Quarter where there are many bars worth checking out. Later in the night, many of the locals will converge into the centre of this quarter to drink and dance the rest of the night away.  In addition to this, there’s plenty of theatres, art galleries, and local acts from artists that make Belfast a hotspot for arts and culture. There’s never a dull moment and it’s worth the trip to check out.\n\n15. Paris\n\nIndeed it’s time to go international! Paris is only two hours away from London using the Eurostar and this makes it a perfect destination to explore. Paris is charming to any type of traveller, and you can get lost roaming its beautiful streets and bridges for days.\n\nHowever, beyond exploring the streets or biding time away in its cute cafes, make sure you check out the landmarks the city is known for such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.\n\nParis is also a go-to destination for shopping and food, so be sure to spend a few days here if you can as there’s far too much to do.\n\n\nLondon is an amazing place to visit. It feels like there’s a never-ending list of things to do while you’re there. If you stop there, be sure to experience fine-dining at the Indian restaurant, Benares. However, London is not the only city worth visiting! Add these 15 cities to your bucket list and you’ll be sure to have a great time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9455595016479492}
+{"content": "NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms\n\n\n\nA protein found on T cells (a type of immune cell) that helps keep the body’s immune responses in check. When CTLA-4 is bound to another protein called B7, it helps keep T cells from killing other cells, including cancer cells. Some anticancer drugs, called immune checkpoint inhibitors, are used to block CTLA-4. When this protein is blocked, the “brakes” on the immune system are released and the ability of T cells to kill cancer cells is increased.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9827687740325928}
+{"content": "opencart 数据库加速插件SD Premium DB Indexes – boost database\n\n  • A+\nopencart 数据库加速插件SD Premium DB Indexes - boost database performance up to 50x\n\n本人从官方购买的原版,官方会定期提供升级版本，528站长论坛也会定期更新最新版本。,,,,,,,,,, 1.5.4,,, 1.5.6,,,, 1.5.4,,, 1.5.6,,,, 1.5.4,,, 1.5.6,,,, 1.5.4,,, 1.5.6,,,,,,\nBONUS-categories-speedup.ocmod,,,,,,,,,,,,, 1.5.4,,, 1.5.6,,,,,,\n\n\n\n\nWhat are database indexes, and why do I need them?\n\n\nHow it's made\n\n\nIs this extension for me?\n\nIf you are not sure, contact us using\n\n\nFind out more about our plugin here on official plugin page.\n\n\n\nWhy is speeding up my shop important?\n\nWhat customers say about Premium DB Indexes\n\nHello, I am fascinated by this module. At the initial installation of OpenCart, my site loaded in 1.0 to 1.15 seconds. After adding more than 400 categories and 50000 products, loading time increased from 1.15 to 5.10 to 5.5 seconds. Once I installed and turned on this module, the charging time is 1.35 to 1.4 seconds. Excellent work for developers, I appreciate the 5 Star Module and I recommend it for use if you have many categories and products. Thanks to the team, this is a great purchase for me!\n\nBest Regards,\nMilko Milkov\n\nWow, 100,000 + product site with 3,000+ categories just when from dead to awesome. Why OC isn't setup this way in the first place? Great extension...thank you, thank you, thank you!\n\nGreat extension, one of the best i have buyed, website loads extremly fast compared to before opencart 数据库加速插件SD Premium DB Indexes - boost database\n\nWOW !!\n\nBONUS Downloads:\nThese modifications are not part of extension and are not supported.\n\n\n(出处: 528站长之家)\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9425015449523926}
+{"content": "How PlantRight is helping fight invasive plants in California\n(From L to R): Stephanie Falcone, Jan Merryweather and Chris Zanobini\nPhoto courtesy of PlantRight\n\nHow PlantRight is helping fight invasive plants in California\n\nStephanie Falzone, Jan Merryweather and Chris Zanobini explain the company’s mission, goals and how you can get involved.\n\nJuly 1, 2019\n\nWe hear about invasive plants all the time along with the reasons we should advise gardeners not to plant them in certain areas of the country. In California, they’ve taken fighting invasive plants to the next level with the formation of PlantRight which is supported by Sustainable Conservation.\n\nWe sat down with PlantRight project manager Stephanie Falzone, program director Jan Merryweather and the executive director of the Plant California Alliance Chris Zanobini to find out how they’re fighting invasive plants in California and how the horticultural industry can join the cause.\n\nGarden Center magazine: How did PlantRight get started? What is its mission?\n\nStephanie Falzone: Sustainable Conservation was approached by the Nature Conservancy in California because land that they were purchasing for conservation was being degraded by invasive plants. Those same invasive plants were still being sold in nurseries in California. Sustainable Conservation had the right approach and reputation for a project like PlantRight. We work collaboratively with the industry. Sustainable Conservation works with agriculture, dairy and we felt the need to work across the horticulture industry and educate all sides from the supply chain, propagators to growers, garden centers and gardeners. In keeping with Sustainable Conservation's approach, we created a program that is collaborative, voluntary and science-based and it brings together the industry, nonprofits, government and academia for it to work. We set up the program by forming our steering committee which includes people from all of those different groups and having them meet about this issue. Pampas grass and Mexican feathergrass are some of the most popular invasive plants on the list.\n\nJan Merryweather: The reason we got involved is that when you look at the pathways on how these invasive plants got here in the first place you learn that a very high percent was introduced through the horticulture trade, and not with any malicious intent. Invasive plants often have a lag phase. These plants are exceptionally beautiful and are often drought tolerant. So, PlantRight is a great way to tackle the problem by promoting locally appropriate, climate appropriate plants. The key is to not get romanced by the invasive plants that are beautiful, drought tolerant and hardy and knowing which plants are well-behaved and which plants are going to be a problem. That's where we come in working with plant sciences. Plant California Alliance has been with us from day one, so we have this incredible wealth of horticultural wisdom and networking influence through our advisors. That helps us with being able to keep up to date on the highest priority invasive plants and recommend non-invasive alternatives.\n\nGC: You started in California but are working on a national level as well. How are your efforts being received nationally?\n\nJM: Our statewide program is 99.9% of our work, the national initiative refers to the plant risk evaluator tool. The national initiative tool has been in beta since 2016. With the support of the Farm Bill, we were able to validate this tool beyond California to four states: Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Minnesota, and working with four botanical gardens while adding a total of 200 new plants of intrigue. Our friends and advisers at AmericanHort and Horticultural Research Institute are helping us explore how Sustainable Conservation can find a long-term home for the plant risk evaluator tool. That way it can be accessible to all those who want to know before they grow and see if a plant poses a specific risk to a specific state. Because this is a voluntary program, it really depends on the leadership and the extent to which nursery trade associations like Plant California Alliance want to take a more active role in invasive plant awareness.\n\nGC: How many garden centers and nurseries currently participate in the program? Are you working with production nurseries to help your cause?\n\nSF: So right now, the number of garden center partners is 23 and the number of storefronts is 379 in the state of California. Most of those storefronts are The Home Depot and Lowe’s but our partners vary from them to SummerWinds Nursery, Green Acres Nursery & Supply and more.\n\nChris Zanobini: It's a total trickle-down effect from production nurseries. If there is not a desire for that plant anymore from their customers, then they [the nurseries] are really not going to produce. We also must take a bigger picture look in that sometimes a plant will still be produced in production nurseries, but it's not being sold in California and maybe being sold elsewhere where it is not considered invasive.\n\nGC: How many plants on the invasive list are still actively grown in the nursery trade? Can you give some specific examples?\n\nSF: Because of how our list works, if it is on the list it is still sold in nurseries in California. We keep it focused on plants that are still sold. We use our nursery survey to inform how we add and retire plants to the list. If a plant is found at less than 1% of nurseries three years in a row it is then up for retirement as it is not relevant anymore. We still have information on the plants that were removed on our website, but we keep it relevant to what is being sold in nurseries and there are currently seven [invasive plants]. There are a lot of people that make PlantRight possible and without their expertise and guidance, it wouldn’t be. It's a great effort that they survey all these nurseries [for invasive plants].\n\nGC: How can garden centers and nurseries become a PlantRight partner?\n\nSF: That can be done on our website and making an account. The whole process happens on the My PlantRight page where people can go ahead and register their nursery and invite staff to take the training. All the training happens online, but we would also like to be contacted if someone wants to become a partner so we can also have a discussion. We then have them take a pledge that they will not sell plants on our list and if others are added in the future, they will not sell those either.\n\nJM: This is a program that is just in California now, but we certainly encourage other states that are interested to help themselves to any of our content. Steph created a video specifically for other states organizations that may be looking to create an organization like PlantRight.\n\nGC: How do you support your PlantRight partners in their efforts?\n\nSF: We are available to answer specific questions on if a plant is invasive or not. Our educational materials are on our website and customers and staff can access them at any time along with our partner directory to help find partners in their area. We also share our partner's efforts and materials on social media, via short video and on our website.\n\nJM: We are all about providing supplemental education. For example, the SummerWinds chain requested some point-of-purchase material to let their customers know why they won't see a certain plant in their facility. Summer Winds wants to be known for helping their customers make the best choice possible when it comes to California-friendly plants. They also want to make sure their sales staff is informed because that helps the customers. We are a supplemental provider of education. Nurseries these days are so much more than selling plants. They are a hub in the community for learning.\n\nCZ: From the partner side and the nursery industry side, this has been an incredibly successful program because we've been able to accomplish great things without regulation and I think it really shows the willingness from the nursery industry to do the right thing. If you look at how many plants have been retired from the list, I think we have accomplished some incredible things and doing it without regulations is huge because nurseries are already heavily regulated in California. It's an exciting time and had been an exciting time in the nursery industry in California. We recently unified the California Association of Nursery Growers and the Nursery Growers Association into the Plant California Alliance. By doing that, we have strengthened the voice of the nursery industry in California and now have potentially more resources to help the industry move forward. It's exciting to work with Sustainable Conservation and be able to give PlantRight hopefully a long-term home in California.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9294946789741516}
+{"content": "Sherrie York\n\n\nA self-taught printmaker and compulsive wanderer of landscapes, Sherrie York has recently relocated to Maine from her native Colorado. A long-ago college field trip to draw backyard chickens was the unexpected genesis of a career that encompasses environmental education, natural history illustration, birding, and printmaking. Through the medium of linocut Sherrie finds her way to place, inspired by personal experiences and discoveries as she explores the natural world from mountains to the sea. \n\nObservation is the core of Sherrie’s work, whether she is making a watercolor sketch of tidbits collected on a neighborhood hike or carving a complex linocut block of pinecones and leaf litter.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000091791152954}
+{"content": "Dataset Information\n\n\nPurple sea urchin larvae alter their transcriptome in response to ocean acidification\n\nABSTRACT: In this research we present a transcriptomics analysis of the physiological response of a marine calcifier, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, to ocean acidification, a decline in ocean pH that results from the absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2). Larvae were raised from fertilization to prism stage in seawater with elevated CO2 conditions based upon IPCC emissions scenario B1 (540ppm CO2) and A1FI (1020ppm CO2). Overall design: Adult S. purpuratus were collected using SCUBA from Goleta Pier (Goleta,CA, USA) and maintained in flowing seawater tables at 15-16°C. Spawning was induced by coelomic injection of 0.5M KCl following standard methods (Strathmann 1987). Eggs were collected from 3 females and separately fertilized by sperm from a single male (i.e. all larvae were full or half-siblings). Each of the three replicate cultures were divided in three (nine cultures total) and held in 10L flow-through containers filled with seawater aerated through a side arm with commercially manufactured air containing three different pCO2: 380ppm CO2 (present day atmospheric CO2 level, pH 8.01 ± 0.01), 540ppm CO2, an optimistic atmospheric CO2 concentration predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for 2100 (B1 scenario, pH 7.96 ± 0.01) and 1020ppm CO2 (A1FI scenario, pH 7.88 ± 0.01). Larvae were cultured at 15°C until prism stage (40h post-fertilization). At the 40 hour time point, a sample of 60,000 larvae was removed from each of the 9 cultures in the 380, 540 and 1020 ppm treatments and stored in 1 mL Trizol at -80 ºC for later RNA analysis. The larval cDNA sample from each replicate 540ppm CO2 culture was competitively hybridized against the 380ppm CO2 control culture from the same replicate female. Similarly, the larval cDNA sample from each replicate 1020ppm CO2 culture was competitively hybridized against the 380ppm CO2 control culture from the same replicate female. Using dye swaps of technical replicates, treatment effects could be estimated independently of dye effects.\n\nINSTRUMENT(S): UCSB/Hofmann_Spurp_44K_v1.0\n\nORGANISM(S): Strongylocentrotus purpuratus  \n\nSUBMITTER: Anne Todgham  \n\nPROVIDER: GSE13777 | GEO | 2009-08-14\n\n\n\nSimilar Datasets\n\n2009-08-14 | E-GEOD-13777 | ArrayExpress\n2010-01-01 | GSE13655 | GEO\n2010-05-16 | E-GEOD-13655 | ArrayExpress\n| GSE37522 | GEO\n2013-01-01 | E-GEOD-37522 | ArrayExpress\n2013-01-01 | E-GEOD-39125 | ArrayExpress\n| GSE96935 | GEO\n2015-10-29 | PXD002138 | Pride\n2010-07-29 | GSE23296 | GEO", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9252109527587891}
+{"content": "main article image\n\nAn Unexpected New Measurement of The Universe Suggests We Need to Update Our Physics\n\n30 JAN 2019\n\nFor the first time, astronomers have used supermassive black holes from just after the Big Bang to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. Now, we have a bigger mystery on our hands than the answer this effort provided.\n\n\nIt turns out the Universe is growing faster than expected. This could mean that the dark energy thought to drive the acceleration of this expansion, also sometimes interpreted as the cosmological constant described by Albert Einstein, is not so cosmologically constant after all.\n\nInstead, it could be growing stronger.\n\nThe Universe's rate of expansion is called the Hubble Constant, and it's been incredibly tricky to pin down. Every test seems to come up with a different result; recently, data from the Planck satellite that measured the cosmic microwave background set it at 67.4 kilometres (41.9 miles) per second per megaparsec, with less than 1 percent uncertainty.\n\nOther methods typically involve the use of 'standard candles', objects with known luminosity such as cepheid variable stars or Type Ia supernovae, from which distance can be calculated based on their absolute magnitude.\n\nLast year a cepheid variable star calculation of the Hubble Constant returned a result of 73.5 kilometres (45.6 miles) per second per megaparsec. So you can see why astronomers keep poking this weird cosmic bear.\n\nBut a few years ago, astronomers realised that the distance to another object could be calculated accurately, too. Enter quasars, along with their black holes.\n\n\nQuasars are among the brightest objects in the Universe. Each is a galaxy that orbits a supermassive black hole actively feeding on material. Its light and radio emissions are caused by material around the black hole, called an accretion disc, which emits intense light and heat from friction as it swirls like water circling a drain.\n\nThey also emit X-ray and ultraviolet light; and, as discovered by astronomers Guido Risaliti of Università di Firenze, Italy, and Elisabeta Lusso of Durham University, UK, the ratio of these two wavelengths produced by a quasar varies depending on the ultraviolet luminosity.\n\nOnce this luminosity is known, as calculated from that ratio, the quasar can be used just like any other standard candle.\n\nAnd that means we can measure farther back into the Universe's history.\n\n\"Using quasars as standard candles has great potential, since we can observe them out to much greater distances from us than Type Ia supernovae, and so use them to probe much earlier epochs in the history of the cosmos,\" Lusso said.\n\nThe researchers compiled UV data on 1,598 quasars from just 1.1 billion to 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang, and used their distances to calculate the expansion rate of the early Universe.\n\n\nThey also cross-checked their results against the Type Ia supernova results that cover the more recent 9 billion years, and found similar results where they overlapped. But, in the early Universe, where only quasars provide measurements, there was a discrepancy between what they observed, and what was predicted based on the standard cosmological model.\n\n\"We observed quasars back to just a billion years after the Big Bang, and found that the Universe's expansion rate up to the present day was faster than we expected,\" said Risaliti.\n\n\nWe don't really know what dark energy is - we can't see it or detect it. It's just the name we give to the unknown repulsive force that seems to be accelerating the Universe's expansion over time.\n\n(Based on that expansion rate, astrophysicists have calculated that dark energy constitutes around 70 percent of the Universe - so a more accurate expansion rate will also give us a more accurate calculation of dark energy volume.)\n\nIf the density of dark energy is increasing over time, the scientists think it would mean that it's not Einstein's cosmological constant after all. But it would explain the strange numbers - and maybe even the discrepancy between previous Hubble Constant results.\n\nFor now, there's a lot more work to be done to test this result and see if it holds firm.\n\n\"This model is quite interesting because it might solve two puzzles at once, but the jury is definitely not out yet and we'll have to look at many more models in great detail before we can solve this cosmic conundrum,\" Risaliti said.\n\n\"Some scientists suggested that new physics might be needed to explain this discrepancy, including the possibility that dark energy is growing in strength. Our new results agree with this suggestion.\"\n\nThe team's research has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy, and can be read in full on preprint resource arXiv.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.908087968826294}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 9\n\nMYP unit planner\n\n\nSubject group and language Language acquisition English\n\nUnit title Personal Narratives\n\nMYP Phase 4\n\nUnit duration (hrs) 20\n\nINQUIRY: establishing the purpose of the inquiry\n\nKey concept\n\nRelated concept(s)\n\nGlobal context\n\n\nIdentity, Purpose, Message\n\nPersonal and cultural expression\n\nStatement of inquiry\nStorytelling is a universal way of exploring our cultural identity and sharing who we are\n\nInquiry questions\nFactual How do we create memorable narratives?\n- What are the elements of a narrative?\nConceptual Why do people tell stories?\nTo what extent does storytelling convey cultural norms?\nDebatable How do our stories impact others? How does learning about the lives of others change our point of view?\n\n\nSummative assessment\n\nCommunicating in response to spoken,\nwritten and visual text\n\nOutline of summative assessment task(s) including\n\nassessment criteria:\n\nCriteria C & D\n\nUsing language in spoken and written form\n\nRelationship between summative assessment task(s)\n\nand statement of inquiry:\n\nThe students will demonstrate their productive abilities\n\nby creating their own personal narratives and sharing\nStudents will write a personal narrative of a minimum of\ntheir own stories, This will reflect their cultural and\n200-250 words to one of two written and oral prompts.\npersonal backgrounds.\n\nApproaches to learning (ATL)\n\nI Communication skills: Reading, writing and using language to gather and communicate information:\n-make inferences and draw conclusions\n-write for different purposes\nIX Creativity and innovation: Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives\n\n-use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas and inquiries\n-create original works and ideas; use existing works and ideas in new ways\n\nACTION: teaching and learning through inquiry\n\n\nLearning process\n\nIdentifying and using the narrative text type\n\nLearning experiences and teaching strategies\n\nAppropriate tenses\n\nState and post daily learning outcomes\n\nChronological organization of events\n\nModel tasks\n\nCohesive devices (transitions)\n\nPresent rubrics and checklists used for evaluation\n\nTopic specific and descriptive vocabulary\n\n\nAccessing prior knowledge\n\nIdentifying and using the elements of a personal\n\nfirst person\n\npurpose to the narrative\n\nSensory descriptions\n\nbeginning that engages the reader\n\nmiddle that includes action or a series of\n\n\na meaningful conclusion or ending that\n\nexpresses thoughts, feelings and/or attitudes\n\nFive minute quick write:\n\n\nWhat did you do over the weekend? ( last night, sometime in the past)\n\nStudents write in past tense\n\nShare with a partner/whole class\n\nemphasize verbal construction\n\nBuilding Background\n\nTell a story to students\n\no Brainstorm elements of a good narrative\n\nIdentifying and using stylistic components of a\n\npersonal narrative\n\nfirst person\n\n\nsensory descriptions\n\nUse of appropriate voice, register and tone\n\nbeginning that engages the reader / listener\n\nUse of literary devices\n\nmiddle that includes action or a series of events\n\nUse of correct punctuation and spelling\n\nmeaningful conclusion or ending\n\nReading Comprehension/text interpretation skills\n\n\n\nComprehension strategies such as 2SQ3R\n\n(skimming, scanning, questioning, read, recite,\n\nLearning process\n\nPast tense: Preterit / Pass compos/ pretrito)\n\no Introduction and practice using the preterit\n\nInferring meaning, feelings and attitudes from\n\nexamples of personal narratives\n\nDraw conclusions from examples of personal\n\n\nThe teacher walked\n\nThe teacher called\n\n\nThe teacher finished\n\nstudents write verbal constructions after seeing a mini-scene acted out by the teacher\n\no Power point presentation on preterit\n\nPast tense: imperfect (imparfait, imperfecto)\n\no Introduction and practice using the imperfect\n\nformation and translation of imperfect tense\n\no imperfect versus preterit\n\nStudents practise writing sentences using past tense forms.\n\nReading comprehension\nStudents read a range of narratives first as a whole class, guided reading, independent and practice:\n\n2SQ3R skills (skimming, scanning, questioning, read, recite, review)\n\nInferring meaning, ideas and attitudes\n\npoint of view\n\nfirst person\n\ndrawing conclusions\n\n\nLearning process\n\nidentify their audience, purpose and form\n\nchoose a topic\n\nusing graphic organisers\n\n\ngather sensory details\n\ncreate a list of sensory words in the target language\n\norganize ideas in chronological order\n\nfill in graphic organizer:\n\nbeginning, events, end\n\nuse time-order words and phrases\n\ncategorize according to sense (5 senses chart)\n\nfirst, next, after that, the following day, last year, finally, once, when I was...\n\n\nstrong beginning to engage the reader\n\ndescribe the situation\n\nfollow events from graphic organizer\n\nending that expresses thoughts and feelings\n\n\nLearning process\n\nRevising with a partner\n\n\nvoice and tone\n\nCan you picture what I am describing?\n\nIs the order clear?\n\nDo you understand how I felt?\n\ncheck for spelling, punctuation\n\n\n\n\nshare with whole class\n\nFormative assessment\n\nStudents will read and respond to an excerpt from Becoming Anna: The Autobiography of a Sixteen-Year-Old by\nAnna J. Michener.\nStudents will read and respond to a narrative, La Enemiga by Virgilio Daz Grulln.\nKey elements of a good narrative\nStudents list the key elements of a good personal narrative.\nStudents write five sentences using the past tense to indicate what they did last night.\n\n\nLearning process\nStudents write five sentences using the imperfect to recount when they were young.\nImperfect versus preterit\nStudents describe a situation using both past tense forms.\nReading comprehension\nmultiple choice\ngap filling\nshort answer\nWriting Process\no Self evaluation\no checklist\no peer revising/editing\no check progress\no Informal observation\n\nprovide links from the students experience to key concepts by using definitions, analogies, attributes,\ncharacteristics, morphemes, and first-hand experience depending on the amount of students' prior\npre-teach vocabulary\ncollaborative group work\nprovide conceptual frameworks such as graphic organizers and unit overviews\n\n\nLearning process\nComprehensible input:\n\nappropriate speech for language proficiency\n\nvisuals, modeling, scaffolding, gestures and body language\nSocial interaction:\n\nthink, pair, share\n\nModify text according to students' language proficiency.\n\n\nPass compose\nPreterito vs Imperfecto\nBoyles, P.P.; Met, M; Sayers, R.S. & Wargin, C.E. (2004). Realidades 2. Pearson Prentice Hall\nISBN: 0-13-134092-1\n\nReading comprehension skills\nMoore, D.W., Short, D.J, Tatum, A.W et al 2009. Inside: Language, literacy and content Level D: Personal narrative", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9701372981071472}
+{"content": "New Patients\n\nWe are excited to serve you!\n\nAs a new patient at Starkville Eye Clinic, you can help us serve you more quickly by providing accurate health and personal information.\n\nPlease know that we take your privacy seriously (review our privacy and other policies) and comply with all federal and state standards including HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines.\n\nTo help with your first visit with us, please print and complete the following documents (all are .pdf files that open in a new browser tab) as specified below:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9923572540283203}
+{"content": "My Story: Ilyas\n\nStudent @ Trafalgar\n\n\nI was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder a couple years ago, although my symptoms started a while before that. When things started getting bad I was at the University of Ottawa for Social Sciences and was just starting second year. I knew there was something wrong from the get-go and I tried making an appointment for a mental health screening, but the wait time was four months. As I was waiting I started to get some major emotional disturbances, one day I would be so down that I was contemplating suicide and the next day I would be appreciating the beauty in everything life has to offer. \n\nThroughout these shifts in mood I was constantly going to the drop-in health services on campus in order to figure out what was happening, and while I got one note asking the teacher to take my mental status into consideration, the majority of responses that I got were to “exercise more”. As my attempts to reach out for help from traditional services failed, I started to reach out to friends in the same city, but they wouldn’t say anything other than to go back to a doctor.\n\nThe cycle was perpetuated ad museum until my symptoms began to stop me from attending school. I would get paranoid thoughts of persecution and would ride around on the buses all night long. I wouldn’t sleep for days on end, locking myself in my room during the day and ruminating in a downward spiral of negative abstraction until life itself seemed distorted.\n\nAt this point my belief system began getting twisted into a state of psychosis fuelled by my fear of what was happening to me, the sadness I felt about my efforts to reach out for help being continuously spurned, and the shame of not being “normal”. \n\n\nIt took a long time before I was able to get over my shame regarding my emotional state, but when I reached a point of desperation I reached out to my mother. When I told her vaguely about my cognitive distortions and suicidal ideation she rushed out and bought a plane ticket the same day to visit me in Ottawa. Her loving concern is what kept me alive then as she, my aunt, and my uncle brought me to the hospital.\n\nI was taken there where I was diagnosed with psychosis NOS (not otherwise specified) and stayed on the inpatient mental health ward for around 2 weeks. The NOS of my diagnosis made it difficult to fully accept what was happening to me because even the doctors couldn’t tell me what specifically was wrong with me. The time directly after my hospitalization was filled with maladaptive coping, with my worst memory being when I woke up at a stranger’s house surrounded by people I didn’t know with no recollection of how I got there. Once I got my diagnosis, I started to think long and hard about how I could incorporate this into my worldview: did this define me now? Was my life just subservient to labels now? What would people think when I told them? I eventually realized that my diagnosis isn’t who I am because I am so much more than any sort of label could cover. I am as much of a human being as anyone else and, as soon as I started to believe this, I tested out how people would react when I brought forward my diagnosis. I was surprised when, instead of flurries of prejudice and vitriol, I started having real conversations with people about mental health. The inner sense of shame I had around what had happened in my life was no longer as strong. I found that the more I got positive reference points for people showing empathy around what I had gone through, the less I was relying on them for a positive reaction; I began to accept that this is a part of my life, although not fully history it is neither my current reality, and that I didn’t need people’s approval to be me. \n\nI started taking responsibility for my actions and my recovery until the point where the goals that seemed only a fevered dream not too long ago started becoming my reality. This process wasn’t easy by any means, and starting out speaking to people who had been by my side for long periods of time definitely helped, but it was realizing that I am a fallible human being who is allowed to have mixed epochs allowed me to see past the Pollyanna standards of happiness I had been holding myself to and accept who I am right now. \n\nThe biggest things that have helped me cope are medications, utilizing the concepts of different psychotherapies, and building up a strong social support network. I don’t think I would be able to function without medications, but with them I am essentially my old self. I have a very stable mood, I am able to keep up with all my social roles, and I am fully in control of my own thoughts and actions. Implementing different aspects from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), rational emotive behavioural therapy (REBT), mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) have helped me to gain control of my mind. CBT has taught me that I can change any one of my thoughts, behaviours, or feelings to affect change on the other two. REBT taught me that I have automatic thoughts and that while I am a fallible human being, I can take control of where my thoughts lead. MBCT taught me that I can let go of a train of thoughts if I am not ready to confront them quite yet, and DBT has taught me to fill up my “toolbox” of coping mechanisms in order to speak with people about the things that perturb me later on. My social supports have allowed me to fuel my inner extrovert and allow me to have some social regulation (where people are able to give me constructive feedback on how I can improve myself).\n\nMy biggest outlet in all of this has been writing. Journaling has helped me to keep track of my thoughts and figure out which ones were harming me the most while serving as an outlet for addressing concerning emotions in a safe space. It has afforded me an area to test out certain ways of dealing with my emotions with respect to the different psychotherapies I have researched as well.\n\n\nIf I were to give advice to someone going through something similar I would have to know them very well.\n\nOne thing that has stood out to me in my recovery is that the things that have lasted the longest are the ones that came from within me.\n\nI would tell them that they have the right to self-determination, but that the people in their life who have stuck with them throughout the years are the ones who care for you and may be able to provide an outside view of what has been happening.\n\nI would say that, for me, addressing the shame of being a man with emotions has been the most important thing I have done to date; allowing myself the liberty to feel and not judging myself harshly for feeling has provided me with the freedom to live life authentically and take down large amounts of my walls, even if that will always be a work in progress.\n\nOne thing I would caution against is defining ourselves by our feelings though. When I was in a state of psychosis I felt more than I have ever felt in my lifetime, so when it was being managed I felt like I lost a large part of myself. It took a while before I realized that my feelings were something I wanted to augment the life I was living instead of take control over it.\n\nI am grateful for my family and all the love in my life.\n\nMy biggest life goal is to become a psychotherapist who creates a new form of psychotherapy geared towards self-actualization.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6277998685836792}
+{"content": "Telfa | Wound Dressings\n\nMore often than not, unwrapping a bandage involves painfully removing copious amounts of body hair as well. Even worse, a gauze bandage could stick and disrupt the healing process of the wound. Luckily, telfa provides a safe and painless solution.\n\nTelfa consists of a normal cotton bandage coated with polyethylene terephthalate. This substance prevents the bandage from adhering to the wound and disrupting the healing process. Yet, because of the substance’s perforation, the bandage still absorbs blood and other fluids from the wound.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9612215161323547}
+{"content": "Literary genres 2 essay\n\nA Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with an here of nonchalance. Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by literature that is frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting.\n\nA Fable is a story about supernatural or extraordinary people Usually in the form of narration that demonstrates a useful truth. Persuasive Essay — In this type of essay, the writer tries to convince his readers Literary genres 2 essay adopt his position or point of view on an issue, after he provides them solid reasoning in this connection.\n\nIn Fables, animals often speak as humans that are legendary and supernatural tales. The text makes it clear to the reader why the argument or claim is as such. A story usually set in the Edo period of Japanese history, from to Here is an example of an anecdote about Winston Churchill: Beings such as that depicted in Karloff's The Mummy would also qualify.\n\nI'll tell you about it later. The term was coined in The Terminator[ citation needed ] as the name of a nightclub, Tech Noir. To ascertain a text's meaning, narratologists emphasize grammatical elements such as verb tenses and the relationships and configurations of figures of speech within the story\" Bressler - see General Resources below.\n\nGenres of Literature Essay\n\nOther logical structures The logical progression and organizational structure of an essay can take many forms. Zuihitsu As with the novelessays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu — loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas.\n\nTypes of Essay There are two forms of essay: Stories that touch upon the adversaries of Good, especially the \"Enemies\" of the forces of righteousness as expressed in any given religious philosophy.\n\nYou may improve this articlediscuss the issue on the talk pageor create a new articleas appropriate. A story that takes place around the time steam power was first coming into use.\n\nScience Fiction is a story based on impact of potential science, either actual or imagined. A type of narration demonstrating a useful truth. Like the KSAs, ECQs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job.\n\nIt usually has technology far superior to today's, but not necessarily implausible. What do you think about? The essayists that feel most comfortable in this pole \"write fragments of reflective autobiography and look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description\".\n\nBram Stoker 's Dracula created many of the genre's conventions. As you can see, both phrases use the same letters.This webpage is for Dr. Wheeler's literature students, and it offers introductory survey information concerning the literature of classical China, classical Rome, classical Greece, the Bible as Literature, medieval literature, Renaissance literature, and genre studies.\n\n\nLiterary terms refer to the technique, style, and formatting used by writers and speakers to masterfully emphasize, embellish, or strengthen their agronumericus.comry terms can refer to playful techniques employed by comedians to make us laugh or witty tricks wordsmiths use to coin new words or phrases.\n\n\n- Genre Genre is a term that is used to classify or describe a type or form of literature.\n\nLiterary criticism\n\n\nReminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Melissa Nasson of Rubin Pfeffer Content) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.\n\nAbout Melissa: Melissa Nasson has spent her life living in and around Boston, attending college at Boston University (Go Terriers!).\n\nLiterary genres 2 essay\nRated 4/5 based on 33 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.996624231338501}
+{"content": "Redox reactions - reduction and oxidisation\n\nReduction and oxidisation involves chemical reactions where an electron is lost and gained.\n\nThe molecule being reduced gains an electron.\n\nThe molecule being oxidised loses an electron (usually to oxygen). It is an electron donor or reducing agent.\n\nMnemonics include OIL RIG, and LEO (the lion) goes GER.\n\nOxidation state\n\nUsing H2O as an example. O is more electronegative that H, so electrons will be around the O atom more than the H atom.\n\nBoth hydrogen atoms have been oxidised (lost an electron), the oxygen has been reduced (gained electrons). The oxygen's charge has been reduced by 2. Both H have a 1+ oxidation state, while O's oxidation state is 2-.\n\nCharges should balance, and each atom in a molecule can have an oxidation state.\n\nTo calculate the oxidation state for an atom, look at all the other atoms adjacently bound to it, and sum up the charges.\n\nHydrogen in biology\n\nHydrogen typically bonds with C, O, P, N. In biological systems, when H binds, it will usually give it's electron away.\n\nSo if a C loses a H and gives it to a O, it can also be thought of as C losing an electron and O gaining an electron.\n\nIn organic chemistry, the molecule that gains a H is reduced.\n\nOxidation and reduction review from biological point-of-view at Khan Academy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996980428695679}
+{"content": "01534nas a2200109 4500008004100000245004900041210004900090260001500139520120900154100002401363856003701387\u001e 2008 eng d\u001e00\u001faQuantum Computation Beyond the Circuit Model\u001e0 \u001faQuantum Computation Beyond the Circuit Model\u001e \u001fc2008/09/13\u001e3 \u001fa The quantum circuit model is the most widely used model of quantum computation. It provides both a framework for formulating quantum algorithms and an architecture for the physical construction of quantum computers. However, several other models of quantum computation exist which provide useful alternative frameworks for both discovering new quantum algorithms and devising new physical implementations of quantum computers. In this thesis, I first present necessary background material for a general physics audience and discuss existing models of quantum computation. Then, I present three results relating to various models of quantum computation: a scheme for improving the intrinsic fault tolerance of adiabatic quantum computers using quantum error detecting codes, a proof that a certain problem of estimating Jones polynomials is complete for the one clean qubit complexity class, and a generalization of perturbative gadgets which allows k-body interactions to be directly simulated using 2-body interactions. Lastly, I discuss general principles regarding quantum computation that I learned in the course of my research, and using these principles I propose directions for future research. \u001e1 \u001faJordan, Stephen, P.\u001e \u001fuhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0809.2307v1", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983751773834229}
+{"content": "DynaRound Warning Lines:\n\nDynaRound Warning Lines\n\nTough, weather-resistant heavy duty or light duty warning lines to help ensure rooftop safety\n\nDynaRound Warning Lines are available as heavy duty (HD) and light duty (LD) systems.  Both include highly visible yellow pennants to protect workers near rooftop edges.\n\nDynaRound HD Warning Lines are a permanent system that provide a visual warning of at-risk areas.  They are designed to withstand years of use, even in harsh climates.  The standard system includes three stanchions and three heavy-duty, galvanized, weighted bases; steel cable; and rigid, plastic pennants.   \n\nA foldable warning line that can be set up quickly, DynaRound LD Warning Lines are to be used in temporary warning line applications.  The standard LD system has three folding stanchions with bases (with optional rubber feet attachments) and 100 feet of flags.\n\nBoth systems meet numerous safety requirements, including those established by OSHA, OH&S and Alberta OSHA 2009.\n\nAvailable through Tremco Roofing and Building Miantenance, this safety solution was designed and manufactured by Fibergrate Composite Structures.\n\n\nRoofing & Weatherproofing Peace of Mind\n\n\n\n\nUS: 1.800.852.6013\n\nCanada: 1.800.668.9879\n\nEmail: info@TremcoRoofing.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6188892722129822}
+{"content": "What Makes you Happy?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHappiness is something we all strive to achieve. Scientists, philosophers, and psychologists have spent countless amount of time, money, and efforts trying to pinpoint the key to true and lasting happiness. There are many schools of thought on how to obtain bliss in our lives and we all seem to think that we know what to do to make ourselves happy, whether it is a bigger house, a promotion, or a beer at the end of a long day at work. Yet, research shows that what we think we know about happiness is often very wrong.\n\nCurrent, popular outlooks on the subject tell us to focus on the bright side and use techniques like positive visualization, where you mentally picture things working out in a favorable manner. But the reality is that things to not always turn out in our favor. Failure happens. People get sick, fired, cheated on – whether or not you visualize a happy ending. And when these things happen, the people that spent their time not just zeroing in on the bright side fair better than their cheerier counterparts.\n\nTaking a more “negative” path to happiness, requires people to accept that bad things can, and will, happen in their lives. This more honest, and receptive approach allows people be more prepared and level-headed when presented with obstacles. Whereas relentless optimism teaches people to avoid and ignore failures, this approach teaches them to face these hurdles straight on. In this school of thought, one is instructed to think of the worst-case scenario, not the best. In doing this they are able to decrease their anxieties and make them more rational and manageable.\n\n\nLets look at an example. First, picture yourself in a relationship. This particular relationship is going through a rough patch and you fear that your partner might be planning on leaving you. We have all been in relationships and know that they can be intense and consuming so it is easy to see how the possibility of a breakup can be very unsettling and upsetting.\n\nNow, instead of putting the possibility of a dissolution of the relationship out of your head to ease your mind as the optimist camp would suggest, vividly imagine it happening. When doing this, people often see that when things go bad, they usually do not go as bad as they had initially thought they would. In the event a breakup did happen, it is highly unlikely that you would never date again, sit home every night and cry, drink yourself into a depression, and becomes a hopeless loser. The reality is, while initially painful, you would get over the breakup. Facing fears puts them into perspective and sets them in a more realistic framework. This is mentally a much safer place to be in than ignoring the breakup as a possibility and then being ambushed by an overload of sudden and intense emotions in the event that it does occur. Dealing with all possible outcomes and consequences and sorting through your emotions ahead of time leads to a better quality of mental health and over all a happier life. People are happier when they do not have ambiguous, unprocessed anxiety nagging them.\n\nIn much the same way, the build-it-and-they-will-come concept behind positive fantasies, much like positive visualization, has proved to do more damage than good. Positive fantasies are a form of mental indulgence that people engage in to envision things that they desire in their futures. For example, a law student might fantasize about being the youngest partner in the law firm he hopes to join after graduating. This is thought to be a form of encouragement. By visualizing what you want in your future, it is thought that you will be more driven and focused on getting there. Yet, the research does not support this idea. In 2011, Heather Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen performed a series of experiments to test the effects of positive fantasies on performance. They found that increased time spent on these fantasies was correlated with decreased energy levels and motivation to achieve the envisioned goal. This could be contributed to the mind subconsciously confusing the imagery of achievement with actually having completed the task or goal at hand.\n\nAnother place that we fall short in understanding our own happiness is our lack of affective forecasting. Affective forecasting is the ability to accurately assess what it is that will make us feel a certain emotion (Ex: happy, unhappy, angry, love) and to what extent. We are good at knowing what will make us happy in either-or situations. You know you will be happier walking to the subway in 75 degree weather than in 5 degree weather. You know a raise would be more pleasurable outcome to being called into your boss’s office than a getting fired. These assessments we are good at. Where we fall short is accurately predicting the duration and intensity of our future emotional reactions. This is what is known as impact bias.\n\nIt seems to be a common belief that once you buy a bigger house/ have kids/ lose 10 pounds you will finally achieve lasting happiness. Much in the same way at the beginning of romantic relationships, people believe that they will stay madly, passionately in love with that person for the rest of their life. Adversely, we believe that if we lost a child, got diagnosed with cancer, or got divorced that we would be devastated indefinitely. The truth of the matter is that all of these are false assumptions. Human beings often incorrectly predict that, both positive and negative emotions, will have a significantly higher intensity and duration then they actually do.\n\nThis is largely due to our adaptive ability. Our bodies and minds strive to be in a state of homeostasis and constantly attempt to adapt to the environments and situations we are in. When a crisis occurs it activates psychological and biological defenses that regulate us and set us back at a neutral state. The same process occurs for positive events. When someone is overjoyed, their body is in an extreme state of arousal. Their blood-pressure and heart-rate elevates and they are being flooded with a concoction of hormones. Their body can not maintain this long-term so it adjust to bring itself back to “normal.”\n\nA 2003 study, conducted by Elizabeth Dunn and Timothy Wilson, at the Harvard University, showed impact bias and the effects of adapting to ones surroundings in college students. The students were shown favorable and unfavorable dormitory assignments that they were assigned to for the following year and asked to rate how happy they would be in those rooms. Their happiness was subjectively rated on a 7point Lyker scale. Not surprisingly, students assigned to the “favorable” rooms rated that they would be happier than those assigned to the “unfavorable” rooms.\n\nChecking back in the following year, the researchers asked the students to rate how happy they were. Regardless of the dormitory that they were assigned to, the average happiness level was almost identical across the board. The students predicted the negative, or positive, visual aspects of the rooms would have much more of an impact on their lives and did not account for how quickly they would become accustomed to living there. This can be contributed to focalism, the tendency to overestimate the extent to which one aspect of a situation will have an impact, while underestimating the extent that other elements or events influence our thoughts and feelings.\n\nIn much the same way, many people think they would be happier if they made more money. Study after study has proven that beyond the point of being able to comfortably afford the essentials, making more money is not correlated with increased happiness. The reason for this is that we adapt. If someone is making $60,000 a year and now starts making $100,000, initially they will be excited about this pay increase. Yet, very quickly $100,000 a year will become their new normal and they will no longer pay mind to the growth in income. This process happens surprisingly faster than we think it will.\n\nA third commonly held misconception about happiness is that is the big things that matter. A heart-attack seems much more devastating than a constantly achy back, right? Well it turns out the research doesn’t add up to that. When something very bad happens our defenses kick in. As mentioned earlier, as humans we have a unique and powerful set of psychological defenses that are activated in a time of crisis. The problem is that they are not always activated for smaller, nagging issues. A heart-attack is a major problem and will force us to deal with it immediately. More trivial annoyances like a leaky sink or early stages of arthritis are not demanding an instant solution. We may never get around to fixing or dealing with them and overtime they could cause us more grief and stress than larger set-backs.\n\nAnother belief commonly held about happiness is that it can be bought and this to a certain extent can be true, but not in the way we traditionally think. When it comes to being happy, having a higher income or the latest and greatest version on something isn’t going to do it. Things don’t equal happiness. So when it comes to money and happiness, research shows that it is best spent on experiences, instead of things, and on others, instead of yourself.\n\nForty-seven percent of the time the average mind is wandering – during work, talking with friends, even during sex. Happiness on the other hand is found in in-the-moment experiences. Buying things does not stop the mind from wandering but having an event to look forward to or a pleasant experience to reminisce about does. Furthermore, purchasing an item can be exciting but the excitement wears off quickly whereas the memory of a fun trip or rewarding event lasts longer.\n\nSo now that we know that we didn’t know all that much about what makes us happy before, where do we go from here? Based on recent studies and empirical evidence, here are some tips to live a happier life:\n\n1) Better Affective Forecasting – Get in touch with how you really feel when you get something that you’ve been wanting. Pay attention to the intensity level and duration of the emotion(s) attached to obtaining it and use that information to make more accurate decisions in the future. If buying that new car didn’t keep you ecstatic nearly as long as you thought it would, maybe the money could have been spent better elsewhere. At least now you’ll know for future purchases.\n2) Put Things into Perspective – Now that you know about impact bias, apply it to your everyday life. You’re now aware that in the event that you get fire/ dumped/ evicted/ mugged that it is scarier in your head than it will be in reality. You also know that the secret key to your happiness is not getting married/ promoted/ having kids. Knowing that these things don’t lead to never-ending happiness will help you understand that is has nothing to do with you when the initial grow wears off.\n3) Face Life Head On – Optimism is great but it doesn’t make you any happier. So skip the positive visualization and fantasies, take off those rose-colored glasses and look at the world realistically. Decrease your anxieties and put yourself more inline with all of the possible scenarios you might be faced with by accepting that failure is an option and know what to do if it shows up.\n4) Pay Attention to the Little Things – Buying your dream home or getting married are wonderful events that you put a lot of time, money, and effort into and they will make you happy but remember they are one time events. The smaller, seemingly inconsequential things that you deal with on a daily basis are just as important. Knowing that these things have a significant impact on your level of happiness opens the door for you to stop brushing them off for “another time.” Deal with the minor annoyances and notice and embrace the small things that make your life more enjoyable.\n5) Spend Money on Experiences, Not Things and on Others, Not Yourself – Money doesn’t buy you happiness but what you do with it can put more joy into your life.\n\n\nWhat you Feel is What you See\n\n\n\nIt is commonly believed that we react to what we what we see, hear, and take in from the world around us. We think of the brain as operating as a stimulus – response organ. Why then is it that eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate? How do we account for 10 people watching the same series of events unfold and then having 10 different stories about what had just happened?\n\nOne possible explanation is a psychological phenomenon called affective realism. Affective realism is the tendency for one’s feelings to influence what they see, hear, etc. In this manner the brain is acting less on the actual stimulus presented and more as a predictive organ, reacting unconsciously based on past experiences. In this manner one’s emotional state holds more weight in what they experience than the sensory information that they are taking in from the outside world.\n\nA series of five experiments done at Northeast University, by Jolie Baumann and David DeSteno, in 2010, explored this phenomenon further. Their findings showed that object recognition was skewed based on how the participant was feeling. Angry participants where significantly more likely than non-angry participants to misidentify a neutral object in a person’s hand as being a gun. Furthermore, they found that if an individual feels something was likely to be in their environment (ex: a threat), there are increased odds that they will claim that it is there, regardless of if it is or is not actually present. This could explain why, after shooting an unarmed individual, police officers often claim that they had seen a gun in their hand.\n\nThis research brings to light the falseness in the common misconception that what we see is what is really there. Much of our realities are subjective and based in perception. The knowledge of this is powerful and will be useful in further studies and training of individuals whos jobs are based in rapid judgments based on sensory data.\n\nWhat’s Meat Got to do with it?\n\n\nWhen you think of what will make you a happier person you may think of many things: exercising more, spending less time at work, taking a vacation, making more money, etc. But I doubt the first thing that pops into your head is what you eat for dinner. Yet, recent studies have shown that individuals that live by a vegetarian diet are happier than their carnivorous counterparts.\n\nThe physical health benefits of eating a vegetarian diet are widely known. Vegetarians and vegans live on average 7 years longer than meat-eaters and have lower cholesterol and blood-pressure levels, as well as lower incidences of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. But how does what we eat effect our emotions?\n\nVegetarian quote #2\n\nRecent studies, conducted by Beezhold, Johnston and Daigle, found that vegetarians reported significantly lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress when compared to non-vegetarians. They found that the key link between diet and mood lies in the consumption of arachidonic acid (AA), an animal source of omega-6 fatty acid. High levels of AA has been linked to mood-disturbing brain changes.\n\nMuch of the meat we consume today is very high in AA. This is due to the fact that it is factory-farmed and grain-feed, leading to it having approximately five times higher levels of AA than the grass-fed meat that our ancestors eat.\n\nBeing a vegetarian for more than 18 years I’ll admit that I am partial to an omnivore lifestyle. With environmental, ethical, heath, and now mental-health benefits I wish everyone could subscribe to this way of life but I know the fact of the matter is that vegetarianism and veganism is not an option for everyone. However, for those who still would like to reap the benefits of these findings without a complete diet and lifestyle overhaul here are a few tips to help boast your emotional health through your food choices:\n\n1) Eat less meat. While cutting out meat altogether may not be an option for you, decreasing your meat intake will in turn decrease the amount of arachidonic acid that your body takes in. You can do this with simple tricks like limiting your meat intake to one meal a day or participating in Meat-less Monday.\n2) Eat more nuts and seeds. They are high in omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and are a great non-meat source of fatty acids. Walnuts, pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, and Brazilian nuts are some of your best choices when looking for high levels if ALA.\n3) Eat the right kind of meat. Once again, my personal opinion is to stay away from meat all together, but if full on vegetarianism is not for you, make sure that the meat you are eating is grass-fed as opposed to corn-fed. Grass-fed meat will have significantly lower levels of AA, as well as less saturated fat.\n4) Consider your oil choices. When cooking use canola oil. It has the highest level APA and lowest level of saturated fat when it comes to cooking oil. This way you can still get the omega-3 fatty acid that your body needs, but without the harmful side effects of sources that are high in AA.\n\nWe Need Better Emotional Hygiene\n\nIn the Ted Talk listed above Psychologist, Guy Winch talks about the tendency for us as human beings to prioritize our physical health over our emotional well-being. Winch points out that while we are taught from a very young age personal hygiene and what actions to take to maintain and treat our physical bodies, we are taught very little about how to protect and heal ourselves on an emotional level.\n\nWhen we talk about health and science, the mind and body are often readily divorced from one another. Too often it is forgotten that we are not simply parts making up a whole, systems acting independently, but yet a singular being where many intricate components interact and effects one another. This is especially true the emotional and physical sides of our health.\n\nAs Winch points out, scientists say that chronic loneliness poses as much of a health risk as smoking. Loneliness can lower immunity, elevate blood pressure and cholesterol, and can increase ones risk of early death by 14%. Ruminating about negative events increases ones risk of eating disorders, alcoholism, clinical depression, and cardiovascular disease.\n\nClearly our physical and emotional health is interrelated. Yet, we know what to do if we get a cut or how to cure a cold but we are not taught what to do when we feel defeated or how to cure loneliness.\n\nMaybe it is easier to focus on the physical side of health because it is more tangible. You can see a bruise on someone knee but you cannot see a bruise on their ego. There is a pill you can take to bring down your fever but no medication to take down your feelings of failure.\n\nYet, just because the emotional side of health is not as readily seen as the physical does not mean that it is not just as important. Often the key to better emotional hygiene is awareness. This enables you to gain control and break bad cycles, such as negative self-talk, which in turn will protect your self-esteem and teach you to be more emotionally resilient.\n\nThe simple trick Winch mentions of a two-minuet distraction being all you need to break the urge to ruminate about a negative event is a great example of taking control of your emotional well-being. Yet, if you are not actively aware of your emotional state you cannot get to the point where you can implement and reap the benefits of this technique. Getting in touch with your body is key.\n\nIs Sleep Deprivation Messing with your Emotions?\n\n\n\nWith today’s fast-paced lifestyles, while we are trying to keep-up and catch-up with all of the things that we need to get done, it is easy to let a thing or two fall by the wayside. Unfortunately getting the proper amount of sleep each night is very often one of these things. We all seem to do it – stay up an extra hour or two to get some work done or simply wind down from the day watching Netflix or having a nightcap with friends after a stressful day at work. Then we load up on coffee in the morning rationalizing that it will make up for the hours of sleep we didn’t get. It seems to make senses; the more we get done, the happier we will be and the less sleep we get the more we can maximize our time. But that’s just not the way it works.\n\nRecent studies have shown, now more than ever, that there is a clear link between sleep and emotional health. Back in 1985, Horne found that sleep deprivation lead to impairments of alertness and attention, and increased subjective reports of affective volatility and irritability. In more recent research, done by Pace-Schott and Hobson in 2002 and Sullivan in 1999, it was found that during REM-sleep our brains go through a unique process to deactivate emotional memories and reduce the anxiety attached to them. Through this process we remember the key elements of the event but learn to forget the emotional tone. And in their new book, Sleep and Affect: Assessment, Theory and Clinical Implications, Kimberly Babson and Matthew Felder, talk about their findings that there is a strong link between loss of sleep and the likelihood or reacting emotionally in stressful situations.\n\nThe findings and implications of these studies go beyond teaching us what we should to lead a generally healthier life, and can be applied to help us learn more about the treatment of multiple psychological and emotional disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By studying the role that sleep plays in our lives, we now know the vital importance that REM-sleep plays in, not just our biological but also, our emotional health.\n\nSo next time you think you need to stay up and work another hour on that essay and you can makeup for it with a little more coffee in the morning and everything will be okay, maybe you should think again.\n\nI Run Like a Girl… Try to Keep up\n\n\nA look at Gender Stereotyping in Sports\n\nFeatured during this year’s Super bowl was a commercial titled “Like a girl.” In this 60-seconds spot Procter and Gambles feminine-care Company Always launched a campaign that challenged our notion of what is means to throw, hit, or run “like a girl.” This brief, but powerful, clip shines a light on the gender stereotyping of young women that has become so common place that it is almost over looked.\n\nI doubt I was the only person watching who felt uncomfortable as the participants in the commercial acted out their interpretation of what it looked like to do certain activities “like a girl.” As the individuals flailed their arms and giggled during their displays of weakness and in-coordination it was easy to be unnerved. When in the context of a commercial, it was obvious that the portrayals were demeaning, yet all of the stereotypes depicted are things we deal with on a day-to-day basis and most of us don’t take a seconds notice.\n\n\nGender stereotyping occurs when broad generalizations are made about attributes of an entire group based on gender. These fixed ideas, which are taught to us from a very young age and reinforced through various channels in our lives, lead to how we perceive others and how we feel about ourselves and how we must present ourselves to the world around us.\nUnfortunately, in our society the female gender stereotype has labeled women as weak. Women are called the “fairer sex.” It is engrained in us that women are not tough; they are not expected to be leader. Doing anything “like a girl,” is perceived as an insult.\nBut how is this effecting young girls and their self-esteem?\n\nSports is an early way that children learn to socialize with one another. It teaches them a healthy model of competition and sets up an environment when they learn to feel pride for their accomplishments. But what does it teach little girls when they are taught that boys’ sports are “real sports” and girls’ sports come secondary? That their accomplishments in this arena are not as important?\nThe Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles reported that when it came to television coverage, male sports receive 92% of airtime, leaving women’s sports with only 3%. A 2014 European study found that one in three sports casts about females athletics corroborated stereotypes to some extent and that while leading male athletes often received a large amount of on-air praise and admiration, female athletes were unlikely to be singled out for their accomplishments. This facilitates an environment where boys have many choices for athletes to look-up up to and idolize and girls have a much diminished pool of strong female role-models.\n\nYoung women are taught that in the world of sports, much like they are taught in other areas of life, that they are considered weak and less important than their male counterparts. This can lead to low-self-esteem and diminished drive for accomplishments.\nYet, just because this has been the message in the past does not mean that it must continue to be the current message we send young women. In recent years, there has been a push to dismantle these gender stereotypes and strip away the negative connotation of doing anything “like a girl.” Recent ads, like Always’s “Like a Girl,” and Maybeline’s, “Girls Can’t” campaigns, are fighting to empower young women and motivate a change in the perception that females can’t do the same things that males can. Females athletes like Danica Patrick, Gina Corano, and Michelle Wie are serving as role models by excelling in sports that were previously perceived as to physically demanding or masculine for females to participate in.\n\nI consider myself to be a female athlete. I often compete in races and consider physical fitness to be an important part of my life. I can outrun many men that I know and through participating in athletics I have known many strong and very capable female athletes. It is sad that it may not be the norm yet for everyone to see women in this arena in that light but I am happy to say that if anyone ever told me that I run “like a girl,” I would smile and say, “thank you.”\n\nAnti-Social Media\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhy do we use social media? The answer seems easy. We want to stay connected. We want to stay in touch. We want to be in-the-know. Yet, somewhere along the line “staying connected” turned into disconnecting from the real world around us. Events lost their relevance if they were not tweeted, posted, or updated. We started living our lives through filtered snapshots of edited reality. So, is social media really keeping us connected? Maybe it’s time we looked at how we define connection.\n\nIn the past decade and a half social media had revolutionized how we communicate. We can now instantly connect with anyone around the globe with a click, swipe, or tap. We spend increasing amounts of time on the internet. We live in a time where technology is an intricate part of how we interact with each other and the world around us. Our online personas are entwined with who we are and who we want the world to see us as. But with such a new interface in which we communicate, we need to step back and look at what are we doing, why are we doing it, and what is it doing to us?\n\n\nWe signup for social media sites, like Facebook, and create profiles that put our best face forward. We present the version of ourselves we want to the world to see us as. It is logical to think that seeing all of our accomplishments laid out in front of us alongside the most attractive pictures of us would make us feel good about ourselves. But the reality is that participation in these sites do exactly the opposite. A study done in 2014 found that involvement in Facebook was correlated with objectified body consciousness for both men and women. The more frequently people used Facebook the more likely they were to participate in body surveillance, the more fluctuation in self-worth they experienced based on their appearance, and the more pleasure they derived from being perceived as a sex object. These factors has a compounding effect that left participants more susceptible to feelings body shame. Why would we sign up for that?\n\nPerhaps we see so many edited, filtered versions of people’s lives that we mistake them for reality. We compare them with our own lives and often feel that we just don’t measure up. We fail to remember that the raw footage is never as shiny as the final cut and that that is all we are being presented with. We accept what we see on the screen as reality when it is really just a retouched highlight reel. No one posts pictures of the cookies they burned, the funeral they went to, or the bad dye job their colorist did. We don’t tweet about gaining 20 pounds or getting passed up for a promotion. So, when these negative, non-post-worthy things happen to us we feel like a failure because in a world where we are constantly “connected” to each other we don’t see them happening anyone else.\n\nSocial media usage doesn’t just effect how we feel about ourselves, it also impacts our relationships with others. Recent studies have shown that frequent social media usage had a detrimental impact on intimate relationships and is correlated with tension within partnership. A 2014 study conducted by James E Katz, a Feld Family Professor of Emerging Media Studies at the College of Communication, found that heavy social media use was a significant predictor of divorce. People that did not use social media sites reported being 11.4% happier in their marriages than those who did uses these sites. When asked if they thought about leaving their spouse, 32% of heavy social media users said that they considered it compared to 16% of non-users. McDaniel and Coyne, found that 70% of couples felt that technology interfered with their relationships. Overall, social media usage was correlated with lower relationship satisfaction and higher rates of separation.\n\n\nSocial media has also revolutionized mate selection through online dating. In doing so, it has not just changed the way we date, but how we feel about dating. Sites like Match.com, Eharmony, OKcupid, and Tinder are now one of the leading methods people turn to find a partner. Between 2007 and 2009, 21% of heterosexual couples and 61% of same-sex couples met online. Never before had people had so many options and so much information literally at their fingertips about potential partners before ever interacting with them. Mate selections now seems limit-less.\n\nThe concept to having and endless selection of potential partners seems great. You’ll get exactly what you want, right? Wrong. It turns out all this choice does not lead to blissfully finding a perfect mate. It leads to indecision, wandering eyes, and the thought that maybe something better is out there because after all, there are so many fish in the sea, and now you can see and connect with all of them from the safety and comfort of your own home. A 2014 study found that social media usage was correlated with increased jealously and likelihood of cheating within relationships. It was also found that people often use social media to keep tabs on their exs after a breakup.\n\nHonesty is another issue when online dating. It is hard to know if people are who and what they say they are. Catalina L. Toma, an assistant professor in the department of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that approximately 81% of people on dating websites misrepresent themselves in their profiles in reference to statistics relating to things such as height, weight, and age. On average, women reported being 8.5 pounds lighter and posted pictures of themselves that were a year and a half old. Men claimed to be 2 pounds lighter, one inch taller, and used picture from six months earlier in their profiles.\n\nOften people lie to meet the expectations of their target audience. A little white lie here and there seems innocent enough in theory but this is a dangerously slippery slope. Entering into a partnership setting the bar higher than one can deliver leads the disappointment and frustration in relationships and starting a romantic relationship with dishonesty is never a good idea.\n\nAt the end of the day, the motivation behind our social media use is both simple and complex. We want to connect. We crave validation, attention, relevance. But the outcome is that we can never achieve the perfection that we are both viewing from others on these sites and trying to obtain and present back. This leads to feelings of inadequacy and lowered satisfaction with ourselves and our lives. Constant input and choice does not satiate our desires to connect, rather is disconnects us further from the lives we really want to be living. In a society where we are lead to believe that life is better viewed than experienced, we are losing sight of the connection that we initially sought and the technology that we used stopped being the portal through which we view the world; it’s become our reality.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.588498592376709}
+{"content": "\n\nDonald Trump’s debunked claim linking autism to vaccinations highlights danger of fad hysterias\n\n| September 18, 2015\n\nDonald Trump is now the poster child for scientific ignorance. His campaign is still reeling from his anecdotal explanation for why many children get autism.\n\n\n\nUnfortunately for science, and reflecting poorly on his medical training and advice, physician Ben Carson followed Trump’s comment with his own irresponsible opinion,\n\n\nThe last part of Carson’s statement is totally false. The American Academy of Pediatrics has had a blistering reaction to this, including saying that these comments were “dangerous to public health.” This was followed up by a statement from AAP Executive Director Dr. Karen Remley, “There is no ‘alternative’ immunization schedule. Delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease for a longer period of time; it does not make vaccinating safer.”\n\nThese comments are still the ripples in the pond from the stone thrown by researcher Andrew Wakefield in 1998. Wakefield and 12 of his colleagues published a sensational paper speculating a link between a standard measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism. That launched a global hysteria, hyped up Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other celebrities who campaigned for parents to stop vaccinating their children. It created an international public health crisis, with sharp drops in MMR vaccinations and outbreaks of the disease.\n\nThe Lancet, who published the paper, eventually retracted it after it uncovered discrepancies in the data and evidence that Wakefield was on the pay over ambulance chasing attorneys pursuing lawsuits against vaccine companies.Screen Shot 2015-09-18 at 1.33.31 AM\n\nI don’t think at this point that there were any educated readers who still believe that childhood vaccines, and the MMR vaccine (immunization vaccine against measlesmumps, and rubella) in particular, are the cause of autism or other pediatric harm, but apparently I was wrong.\n\n“I strongly disagree with Donald Trump’s assessment that vaccines are a trigger for autism in some children,” Mark Schleiss, Professor of Paediatrics and Director of Division of Infectious disease and Immunology, University of Minnesota, told the Genetic Expert News Service. “This statement is dangerous; patently false; has been proven inaccurate; and put children and society at risk for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illness. I believe Trump should apologize for his remarks and retract these statements immediately.”\n\nGENeS, an independent resource launched with seed funding from the Genetic Literacy Project, has posted a collection of responses by some of the top experts in the field. Trump’s ignorant comments to suggest that it would be helpful to revisit what we know about this terrible disease and how the vaccine works.\n\nA little knowledge is a dangerous thing\n\nFirst, vaccines (generally speaking) work by “herd immunity”. They only have broad and deep effect if the overwhelming majority of a population is vaccinated.5005713_orig\n\nAn example of this, using a ‘95/5’ model is that since vaccines are about 95% (really greater in many cases) effective, being vaccinated isn’t a panacea against that particular disease. This would leave you open to one chance in 20 of being under-protected. However, in a society where 95% (or greater) of the population are immunized, the herd immunity begins to become manifest. This means there aren’t any robust paths (vectors) through the population for the disease to propagate. In this way, being un-immunized in a highly-immunized city, your chances of contracting a particular disease is lower than if you are individually immunized in a highly un-immunized city.\n\nThis theory takes much of its logic from population statistics and the excellent work of Paul Offit, M.D., director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Herd immunity has become more-and-more of a discussion topic as some under-vaccinated groups have caused problems in their communities by reigniting diseases not often seen in decades (see here and here). I’ve spoken about herd immunity on Doctor Radio (Sirius XM) along with others, and the number of requests for further information regarding ‘herd immunity’ has increased considerably over the past two years.\n\nMMR causes MORE issues if delayed\n\nbaby-vaccinations-20766358-300x300Last October, evidence was published in JAMA Pediatrics showing the negative effects of delaying the MMR vaccine in children, as Trump has suggested doing. Specifically, the risk of fever and seizures in children who received the vaccine at 12 – 16 months was lower than in children who received it between 16 – 23 months. The principal reason cited most often by parents who decide to delay these sequential vaccinations is ‘to build-up stronger immune systems’ before being exposed. The reason we have science in the first place is to usurp anecdote and opinion. Clearly, all of the available empirical evidence shows that this delaying isn’t helping; and in fact, may be harming.\n\nHippocrates’ famous oath (which incidentally was likely never recited by him) includes primum non nocere: First, do no harm. Of course, I won’t try to explain that vaccines are risk-free – nothing is, but in the context of healthcare best-practices and evidence-based medicine, primum non nocere really takes on a form more like: “A treatment should be offered to a patient if its benefit is likely to exceed the risk.Polio_vaccine_poster” Vaccines have been the singular healthcare treatment which has prevented more deaths and more disease than any other intervention ever put into practice in the history of humanity.\n\nFurther research on 323,247 children just published in Pediatrics shows that delaying pediatric vaccinations (MMR or MMRV) doubles the relative risk of seizures. In the interest of explaining the full story, the risk is already very low (about three to four cases per 10,000 children vaccinated); so doubling this risk rate makes the ‘delayed’ group suffer about seven to nine cases per 10,000 children vaccinated. But it’s a difference that an additional 1,200-1,500 children per year shouldn’t need to suffer.\n\nThe increased risk, the researchers noted, “is likely due to a complex interplay between the immunogenicity of the vaccines, the genetic and physiologic susceptibility of the child, and the age-based maturation of the child’s immune system; as the immune system matures in the second year of life it also becomes capable of greater febrile response to immune stimulants, such as vaccines.” So the vaccines and adjuvants are doing exactly what they are designed to do: stimulate an immune response to (a) specific pathogen(s). But increased febrile (fever) effects or increased seizures are in themselves unwanted effects that can cause problems.\n\nThose parents are participating in what I call a “live” ‘delayed-choice’ experiment in the population, where their opinion and anecdote is actually negatively impacting real children daily. Remember: Not only are there negative effects demonstrated in the above study from the interplay of the vaccine itself with the immune system and other genetic factors, but the delayed-choice experiment also leaves the children unprotected for longer against these pathogens for which the vaccines are intended to prevent infection by. In addition, the best available data that we have regarding longitudinal (testing over time) assessment of neuropsychological function in 7-10 year olds indicates that even down the road, children perform the same or better (hint: not worse) if they have received on-time pediatric vaccinations rather than delayed-receipt vaccinations.\n\nSo the genetic basis for herd immunity and differential effects of vaccines (and delayed-choice adverse effects) is likely real and supported by the researchers. We don’t know how we’ll individually respond (if at all) to any administered drug treatment or vaccine, but we do know that population-wide immunity has given us all the health and security that we have to pursue the current development of society.\n\nThis is the reason that the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule: It is the one most-supported by evidence, and any deviation from it is not supported by data. The GMO debate that continues to rage–as well as that of so-called ‘natural’ cures, holistic medicine, etc.–is the same as the paradigm of the delayed-choice experiment: As food supplies become more robust and healthful as a result of GMO practices and better applications of scientific knowledge (such as better temperature integrity, frost resistance, pest resistance, shipping integrity, etc.) so too have we become more knowledgeable in our healthcare treatments such that terrible diseases become long-forgotten footnotes in history books. Consumers don’t need to worry about ‘really’ important problems so they become enraptured with fake concerns, such as GMOs and vaccines. These phrases and movements become fashion, not viable alternatives to good healthcare.\n\nBen Locwin, PhD, MBA, MS is a Contributor to the Genetic Literacy Project and is an author of a wide variety of scientific articles for books and magazines. He has also spoken widely on vaccines and adjuvants, and is a researcher and consultant for a variety of industries including behavioral and psychological, food and nutrition, pharmaceutical, and academic. Follow him at @BenLocwin\n\n\nOptional. Mail on special occasions.\n\nSend this to a friend", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7573443651199341}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 45\n\nSouth Koreas Public\n\nDiplomacy: A cultural\nThe acquirement of soft power.\nSdertrn University | Institution of Social Science\nBachelor Thesis 15 ECTS | Political Science| Fall 2013\nAuthor: David Alexandre Hjalmarsson\nMentor: Karl Magnus Johansson\n\nPublic Diplomacy has been around for decades, in some parts of the world more than\nothers. Despite that, research related to public diplomacy has mainly focused on approaches\nserving governments policy concerns. A large part of the research has also surrounded\nefficiency aspects: the level of impact culminating from public diplomacy activities. This\ntunnel vision has undoubtedly contributed to the limitation of theoretical and methodological\nFrom that standpoint, this study attempts to contribute and fill the existing theoretical\nand methodological gap. The study builds on the research by Yun (2005), directed by J. E.\nGruing, and examines the reliability of her framework and sheds light on some potential\nshortcomings and eventual amendments. Suggesting the convergence of public diplomacy and\npublic relation, the model is composed of two theoretical frameworks. Public diplomacy as\nthe dependent variable is anchored in Grunigs excellence theory and national culture as\ndeterminants (independent variable) is anchored in Hofstedes cultural dimensions theory.\nAs did Yun, the study finds that cultural dimensions as determinants for South Koreas\npublic diplomacy do not possess sufficient explanatory power to understand South Koreas\npublic diplomacy management. A historical lens and additional contextual factors would\nhypothetically better explain Koreas public diplomacy, paving the way for future studies.\n\nPublic diplomacy, public relation, soft power, excellence theory, Grunig, cultural dimensions,\n\n\"#$%& '( )'*\"&*\"\n\n3.6 Framework: Public Diplomacy and Cultural dimensions ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, :C\n\n1. Introduction\nForeign policy today is no longer limited to governments; there is a mass effect at\nwork, where multiple agents interact with each other in a complex process we know as\nInternational Relations. The quests for hearts and minds have become of great importance\nin order to support the objectives of nations around international negotiating tables. Joseph\nNye coined the concept of soft power, which he considers a mean for success in international\npolitics (2004). The term have has been use frequently over many years, but what does it\nreally mean? The notion of power is simply the ability to influence other to get what you\nwant. Influence can be conducted in different ways; according to Joseph Nye there are three\nbasic ways to do so, 1) with threats, 2) with bribes and 3) with attraction. Soft power is linked\nto the third way by attraction, which aims at attracting a target so that the target wants what\nyou want. Furthermore, he argues that power is very much context specific and distributed as\non a three dimensional chessboard. On the first board there is military relations among states,\non the second there is economic relations and on the last board there is overall cooperation\namong states to solve the so called transnational issues such as terrorism. Joseph Nye goes on\nand argues that no state, no matter how powerful in terms of military or economic power, can\nsuccessfully solve international issues. Since individual states are not capable of solving\ninternational issues on their own, soft power is essential to attract and enable cooperation with\nother states. Hard power is not a substitute for soft power and vice versa, the combination of\nhard and soft power is defined as smart power. In other words, no states can successfully\nmanoeuvre on the stormy sea of international politics without some degree of soft power.\nAs a report from the British Council (2013) stresses, western countries today face an\nincreasing competition from more outward-looking emerging countries with respect to soft\npower. Looking at it through a Weberian lens, public diplomacy (PD) is about which country\nthat can formulate a winning narrative legitimate authority. The report goes on stressing that\nthe most successful nations in terms of soft power will be those that invest in their PD, but\nmore importantly those who will show a dynamic and open attitude towards a changing\nworld. Disclosing the critical limits of conventional hard power, the events of 9/11 was a\nturning-point - the time when nations exerted hard power in self-interest purpose now\nbelongs to the past. With this new era, intangible assets are becoming sources of attraction\nand power. But they still need to be processed into tangible assets.\nAttraction linked to soft power is obtained through different means of PD. Activities\nthat fall under the umbrella of PD have therefore, according to Bruce Gregory, become the\nmain activities conducted by diplomatic actors; PD has become inseparable from diplomatic\npractise per se.\n\n1.1 Background\nThe improvement in technology that characterised the last decades have together\nwith the impact of 9/11 fundamentally changed the way decision-makers navigate the\ninternational system. Improved communication technology correlates with increasing interests\nof larger audiences, hence, indirectly interfering with international relations. Political leaders\nand decision-makers now face bigger constraints from publics when sitting at the negotiation\ntable. Similarly, Mearsheimer (2011) stresses that foreign policy decisions are no longer\nobscured from audiences as they were before the age of technology. The support of foreign\npublics has become a key pillar in countries effort to realize their foreign policy objectives.\nThis is based on the logic that points of agreements must serve both domestic audiences and\nforeign counterparts. Putnam has likened the foreign policy process to playing two chess-\nboard games at the same time, each at different tables one at the domestic politics table and\nanother one among international leaders. Playing both games at the same time and satisfy\nboth corners are not easy when the foreign policy debates are on the news and updated\nIntuitively: Along with globalization, the world has witnessed the spread of\ndemocracy, which in turn has put greater emphasis on PD. In democracies, citizens form\ntogether with an agenda-setting media, the public opinion and eventually affecting the foreign\npolicy decision-making process of their governments (see e.g. Manheim 1994; Kunczik\nSimilarly, Fisher emphasises (1997) that we are facing an increasingly globalized\nworld, where issues traditionally dealt with domestically now are a matter for the international\ncommunity. Hence, increasing international elbow-bumping occasions. The question is then\nhow do we cope with these elbow-bumping occasions? And what are the determinants\naffecting our handling of these occasions?\nFishers central idea is that agents occupying a role in the international sphere are\ninfluenced by their national mind-sets. In the context of soft power and PD that reinforces the\nidea that governments and diplomats needs to understand how cultural factors affect their PD\nmanagement. Thus, impacting on their foreign policy objectives. Consequently, he assumes\n\nThe study does not intend to elaborate on normative aspect of different PD approaches.\nPD practitioners to engage in their daily work without proper psycho-cultural briefings. In\norder for nations to conduct efficient PD programs, it is important to understand how those\ninvolved in the practical work that at the end of the day constitute international relations are\nprogrammed to perceive and act in their tasks. Fisher refers to Websters definition of mind-\nsets as a fixed mental attitude formed by experiences, education, prejudice, etc.. National\nmind-sets as a cultural factor is therefore important to study in order to increase the\nsoundness/effectiveness of PD.\nFishers mind-sets are basically the same as Hofstedes cultures (1984) the\ndifference is that Hofstede formulated a persuasive theory on how to measure these cultures.\n\n1.2 Study Objectives\nThe study attempts to answer how and why South Korea (from now on Korea)\nmanage its PD as it does. The study follows the road paved by Bolewski (2008) and Yun\n(2005), and investigates to what degree national cultures can help government and diplomacy\nunderstand international interactions. The study therefore aims to investigate how foreign\naffairs are dealt with in practice. PD as a practise consisting of vast arrays of activities - is\ndifficulty packaged and fitted into any single discipline as institutionalized in academia\n. In\nreality PD practitioners needs skills related to political science, communication, psychology,\nhistory, anthropology and social science. Most of the research surrounding the vast field of\nPD has focused on descriptive, historical and ideological, to the detriment of a theoretical\nconceptual framework. Without such framework, the research will fall short of describing\nwhat determinants that may affect PD behaviour and management. Yun (2005) attempted to\nfill that void when he initiated a theory building for comparative PD. My study will provide\nan evaluation of her theory as well as have a closer look upon Koreas PD.\nCultural awareness is the starting point for sound diplomacy since culture is a\nlens through which we observe and make judgement in the world. In the words of Bolewski\n(2008), every culture expresses an identity, hence demanding equal respect and tolerance. The\nlack of such respect and tolerance is a recipe for destructive diplomacy, but at the same time,\nlack of awareness hence studying the impact of culture on diplomacy can be equally bad.\n\nGilboa (2008) declares PD as one of the most multidisciplinary areas in modern scholarship. Figure 1 in the\nappendix A illustrates this.\n1.3 Problem Statement\nHow and why does South Korea manage its public diplomacy activities the way it\n1.4 Previous Studies\nThe shift from government-to-government diplomacy to government-to-people or\neven people-to-people diplomacy brings about a blank map to be filled. Signitzer and Wamser\n(2006) emphasise that this shift sheds light on the similarities between public relations (PR)\nand PD. They emphasise how the mass participation in foreign policies and its mediatisation\ntoday extends far beyond the interactions between national governments. PD has in their view\nbecome a specific governmental public relations function. PD today, combines the skills of\ntraditional diplomacy (formulates the idea to be communicated) with those of a social\nresearcher (studies the targeted audience) and a mass communicator (formulates\ncommunication strategy). Despite similarities and convincing initiative such as Stignitzers\ncontribution there has been little development in this direction. This lack of convergence\nbetween PD and PR may be an answer to why theoretical aspects about independent variables\nof PD management have remained more or less non-existent.\nBolewski emphasises (2008) the importance of studying the link between national\ncultures and diplomacy in order to understand international relations. As a former ambassador\nhe defines diplomacy as dealing with culturally diverse groups by means of interactions and\nnegotiations. The negotiation style of each participant is formed by ones own cultural\nprogram. (2008:146). Similarly to Fisher (1997), he stresses the increasing probability of\nmisunderstandings in the ever more complex and globalized world (increasing cross-national\ninteractions). Clearly influenced by Hofstedes cultural dimensions (which he regularly refers\nto), Bolewski elaborates on a possible development of Hofstedes cultural theory. Cultural\ndifferences among diplomats and their impact on diplomatic interactions is a linkage that\nhardly can be denied according to him. Since every diplomatic participant has her own\nprogramming of the mind that cant be abandoned, culture does inevitably impact on\ndiplomacy. Bolewski is willing to go as far as arguing that culture more than politics\nprovides structuring principles in the understanding of diplomatic practices and processes.\nExisting studies centred on PD are according to Gilboa (2008) suffering from many\nweaknesses. They mainly deal with US experiences and are all too often taken out of the Cold\nWar context. This large pool of historical research is in his view significant, but has been\nlimited with respect to theoretical and methodological development. Moreover, Gilboa argues\nthat PD research systematically focused on the US, thus neglecting other countries. Non-\ntraditional PD actors have in the same way been excluded from the general PD research,\nwhich have given way to traditional governmental PD actors being in the epicentre.\nThis study was conducted in the light of Gilboas criticism. Influenced by Stignitzer\nand Coombss (1992) ideas on PD, which includes other non-traditional PD actors and draws\non their field of academia, namely PR research, I was able to identify a logic that better fits\ncontemporary PD. Furthermore; Gilboa (2004) argues that modern PD research has not\nsufficiently attempted to apply Grunigs (1997) PR approach. Yun (2005) did however a\ncomprehensive and convincing attempt to bridge the gap, but he did only cover traditional PD\nactors, namely embassies in the US.\n\n2. Methodology\nThis exploratory study employs a case study approach in which two complementary\ntypes of data sources are combined. In order to untangle the complexity of the Korean PD the\nneed to collect different data is crucial. Inspired by the mixed-method approach, I gathered in-\ndepth qualitative data through the Korean Cultural Attach Mr KIM Chung-Hwan - and\nenhanced the total amount of data through a comprehensive review and analysis of major\nKorean PD practitioners. This pragmatic and mixed-method influenced approach is a suitable\nresearch method to acquire detailed knowledge about a complex and wide topic such as PD.\nReasons for this are for example, to get an overview of what falls into Koreas PD and what\nare its priorities and to investigate to what degree Korea embraces a Nation Branding versus a\nPD approach.\n\n2.1 Research design\nFollowing Yuns (2005) approach, the study aims at explaining Koreas public\ndiplomacy through the eyes of Hofstedes five cultural dimensions. Zurovchak (1997) too,\nsuccessfully employed Hofstedes cultural dimensions when examining differences between\nCzech and Slovak foreign policy decision-making. Yuns (2005) and Grunigs (1997) models\nare, as Gilboa (2008) noted, much more promising for future empirical research; something\nthis study has taken note of. Similarly to Yun, the investigation will address the Korean\nembassy as a traditional PD practitioner. Yun and Yang (2001) suggest that embassies are\nmicrocosms of governments - as an isolated island they preserve a strong national identity and\nculture, which makes the ROK embassy an important study-object. Additionally, Cultural\nAttachs are perceived as the official public diplomacy practitioners. Consequently, a\nconsiderable part of the investigation focuses on the public diplomacy practises conducted by\nthe Korean Cultural Attach at the ROK embassy in Stockholm.\nHowever, the empirical results do not entirely rely on that specific source of data. In\norder to include other less traditional PD actors, the study relies on two sets of data; 1)\ninterview with the Korean Cultural Attach and 2) content analysis of major Korean PD\npractitioners webpages. This approach enables me to connect and anchor stronger/weaker\nlinks (correlation) between PD management and cultural dimensions. In other words, I will be\nable to reject or fail to reject my hypotheses with more certainty scholars generally agree\nthat mixed-methods yields the most reliable research results (Tashakkori and Teddlie 1998).\nMore specifically, this type of mixed-method design is called the concurrent triangulation\ndesign (Creswell 2009). Essentially, such model enables me to confirm and cross-validate\n2.2 Research strategy\nIn order to achieve the study-objective I have adopted a deductive strategy, where\ndeduced hypothesis are subject to empirical scrutiny. Intuitively the strategy looks\n\nTheory ! Hypothesis !Data Collection !Results !Hypothesis rejected or not rejected\n!Theory Revision\n2.3 Data collection and analysis\nIn order to draw robust conclusions in terms of rejecting or not rejecting my\nhypotheses, I intend to triangulate my findings. Since the study aims at studying Korean PD,\nthe qualitative part of the study focus partly on the official (and traditional) PD actor, namely\nthe Korean Cultural Attach. This decision is anchored in the definition of PD itself, as all\ngovernmental process of communicating with foreign audiences. Important to note is that the\ngovernmental process may include the empowerment of the public sector for example. The\nunit of analysis is thus the government, and in the logic of Yun and Yang (2001) the Cultural\nAttach is the governmental actor that conducts the communication with foreign publics.\nHowever, as will be discussed, Korean embassies are not the only governmental PD\npractitioners. Since there are numerous possible approaches to how PD may be carried out\n(conceptualization), it is necessary to explore all major governmental activities linked to PD,\nand ultimately determine possible convergence, differences and/or combinations. Only then,\nwill I be able to conclude upon the hypothesis leading up to the general question, how does\nKorea employ PD in order to acquire soft power. PD in Korea can be viewed in terms of the\nofficial core structure and those organizations that fall outside this structure but within the\nsphere of PD activities, such as nation branding, tourism and trade/investment promotion.\nAs briefly mentioned, the concurrent triangulation design enables researchers to\ncollect both qualitative and quantitative data (or other combinations). The reasons underlying\nsuch strategy are to enable researches to compare the two types of data. Ultimately, it helps\nresearches to identify and determine potential convergence, differences or combinations\n(Creswell 2009). This model carries the ability to offset eventual weakness inherent in one of\nthe methods. Essentially, the strength inherent in one method may outweigh the weaknesses\ninherent in the other. The process is illustrated in figure 2.\n\nFigure 1\nConcurrent Triangulation Design\n\n\n\n\nSOURCE: Creswell 2009\n2.3.1 Qualitative data 1\nA qualitative approach was adopted in order to deeper penetrate and better\nunderstand the realm of Koreas PD. The sample-size is, in all respects, small; it is comprised\nof one unit the Korean Cultural Attach at the ROK embassy in Sweden. Despite that, the\nsample should theoretically be representative of a large part of the government PD. Due to\nmainly time constraints, I conducted an e-interview (qualitative interview through email) with\nthe Korean Cultural Attach. Is there such an interview form? A new emerging\nmethodological literature is suggesting the development of email interview (see e.g. Bryman\n2008). The many advantages make it a popular alternative - especially its cost-effectiveness.\nE-interview also gives the interviewee time to construct and reflect upon an answer, thus\neliminating eventual nervousness (Bampton and Cowton 2002). On the other hand this type of\ninterview method loses spontaneity and contextual signs such as body language. The\ninterview was secured through email and telephone, where the interviewee suggested, with\nrespect to time constraints, the appropriateness of an e-interview. The e-interview was\ndesigned as to encourage a meaningful answer capturing the subjects experiences. The email\nconsisted of an introduction to the study and its objective, and a multiple set of open-ended\nquestions (appendix B).\n\n2.3.2 Qualitative data 2\nIn an attempt to verify the data obtained through the ROK embassy and to validate\nthe relationship between cultural dimensions and PD practices I collected additional\nqualitative data from other Korean PD practitioners. The large amount of data gives it\nquantitative dimension. The different PD practitioners were analysed using a content analysis\napproach. More specifically, I analysed and interpreted their official webpages in the light of\nthe hypotheses; hence I adopted a direct content analysis. The analysis was conducted using\nthemes as units of analysis, instead of physical linguistic units such as words usually applied\nin quantitative content analysis. According to Minichiello et al. (1990), themes as coding units\nare primarily used when searching for the expression of an idea, which is my intention.\n\nThe analysis of all major Korean PD practitioners ultimately enabled me to provide a\ncertain level in which cultural dimensions affect Koreas overall PD.\n\n2.4 Methodological sum-up: Reliability and Validity\nThis mixed-method influenced design is pragmatic in nature, it enables the\nresearcher to use whatever tools he find suitable. However, all studies, whatever\nmethodological framework they use, must be conducted in a reliable and valid way.\nInfluenced by Yun (2005) in his attempt to build a framework for comparative studies in PD,\nthis study attempts to have a closer look at the cultural dimensions as determinants of the\nKorean PD. My study builds on his theoretical framework and further develops his\nconceptualization. Moreover, the generated hypotheses are linked to his theory and empirical\n\nAs some webpages had restricted English versions, the content was translated with the help of Jinkyoung Gue,\na Korean student at Sdertrn University.\nfindings. In one way, the study will test his theory. Based on the hypotheses, I created a set of\nopen-ended questions addressed to the ROK embassy in Stockholm.\nSimultaneously, I investigated and analysed other major Korean PD practitioners by\nusing a content analysis approach. The contents subject of analysis was official webpages,\nnews statements, and speeches etc. that were available to the public. The error component is\nestimated to be small when analysing Koreas PD through this research design. The so-called\nrandom error when applying the measurements introduced hereunder will remain small and\nyield similar results.\nThese two steps were in a final phase merged in order to yield satisfactory\nknowledge to either reject or fail to reject the hypotheses. The validity of the study will be\ndiscussed along the entire body of text.\n\n3. Theoretical discussion\n3.1 What is Public Diplomacy?\nPrior to any further elaboration, we need to discuss and untangle the concept of PD.\nAs noted by Gilboa (2008), PD has failed to reach a generally accepted conceptualization.\nHowever, too much focus on the weaknesses associated to a lack of such consensus is\nHarold Nicholson (1988) explains how diplomacy has evolved how diplomacy in\nthe 20\ncentury has found interest in the publics. This modern form of diplomacy manifests\nitself when 1) there is a shift from secret to open diplomacy, 2) public opinions influence\nforeign policies, and 3) communication programs are extensively employed. Nicholson saw it\nas modern diplomacy today it goes under the name of public diplomacy. PD officially\ncoined in 1965 by E. Gullion, a retired foreign officer and dean of the Fletcher School of Law\nand Diplomacy at Tuffs University Centre of Public Diplomacy. In one of the schools\nearliest brochures the following definition is given:\n\n\"Public diplomacy ... deals with the influence of public attitudes on the\nformation and execution of foreign policies. It encompasses dimensions of\ninternational relations beyond traditional diplomacy; the cultivation by\ngovernments of public opinion in other countries; the interaction of private\nforeign affairs and its impact on policy; communication between those whose\njob is communication, as between diplomats and foreign correspondents; and the\nprocesses of inter-cultural communications.\"\n\nMuch debate could have been avoided if scholars had accepted this early definition.\nThere is despite that a component that PD scholars seem to be able to agree upon, namely\ncommunication activities. In that sense, PD is a strategic tool employed across governmental\nentities in order to guide and support campaigns to accomplish strategic objectives. PD\nactivities are a set of actions that impact on global individuals perception of a specific\ncountry. Borrowing the metaphor of Armstrong (2008), these PD activities can be seen as all\na countrys resources (employed in a communicative manner) such as cultural exhibitions,\neducational exchange programs and free trade agreements, which can be adjusted, just as\nvolume and bass can be adjusted on a music device. Thus, with PD, nations try to fine-tune\ntheir music in order to attract as many admirers as possible.\nArmstrong (2008) identifies three general categories of PD activities that seem to\nhave gained a certain amount of general acceptance among scholars and PD practitioners:\n\n1. Information: Management and dissemination of information with emphasis on short-\nterm aspects;\n2. Influence: Long-term oriented persuasion campaigns in order to change attitudes\namong foreign publics (attraction); and\n3. Engagement: Build long-term relationships based on mutual understanding.\n\nAll three general categories are more or less communication-driven there is an act\nof communication in all three categories - reinforcing the validity of the Excellence theory\nemployed in this study. The most compelling PD conceptualization is Signitzer and Coombs\n(1992) who also argue for the convergence of PR and PD due to their similar goals and tools.\nThey define PD as the way in which both governments and private individuals and groups\nanother governments foreign policy decisions (1992:138).\nThe public relation approach has gained ground during the last decade. Anholt\namong others has successfully penetrated the field of public diplomacy with his PR related\napproach Nation Branding (NB).\n\n3.1.1 Anholts Nation-Branding\nThe concept of Nation Branding (Anholt 2007) encompasses the commodification of\ncountries through strategic marketing aiming at building a positive image of countries, and\nultimately attracting and changing attitudes of targeted audiences (foreign publics). Nation\nBranding is highly compatible with globalization where economics and marketing sets the\nagenda (Yun 2005:51). Nation Branding is in essence not new, countries have long been\nfocused on increasing their reputation, hence promoting their influence in the international\nsystem. The only things that are new are the word branding and the PR techniques\nemployed to increasing their reputations (Olin 2002). Through the PR-lens of Anholt, the\nworld becomes a single global marketplace where countries need to compete among each\nother in order to attract tourists, foreign direct investments, media-attention and foreign\npublic-attention (hence foreign governments attention). The theory's main contribution is in\nthe understanding of O Shaughnessy (2000) the idea that countries reputational capital,\nsimilarly to that of corporations, yields comparative advantages on the global marketplace.\nAnholt-GFK Roper Nation Brands Index (NBI), widely used by countries and cities, is the\nsum of the perceptions of a country across six dimensions of country-assets: Export,\ngovernance, people, culture heritage, tourism and investment. Anholts theory is often\nmisunderstood; he do not emphasize on the commercialization-type of branding. Nations are\nperceived as brands, but can only affect the way their countries are perceived through real\nchanges (i.e. policy change). Raising a Nike-sized campaign budget will not create a Nike-\nsized country brand in a short-term horizon. Countries earn their brand through changing what\ncaused the bad reputation in the first place the communicational credibility is crucial\n(Anholt 2011).\nPD and NB share many similarities and differences, but in essence NB is about\nincreasing domestic economic activity through PR related communication and PD is about\ndealing with much more complex issues not easily understood abroad. As Gilboa simply puts\nit public diplomacy cannot be reduced to slogans and images (2008:68). Anholt on the other\nhand would argue that PD is part of NB. PD and NB are two formulas needed in order to\nacquire soft power. I include NB, based on the assumption that increased economic power\nincreases soft power. But furthermore, the development of technology in a highly competitive\ninformation environment makes the competition for public-attention increasingly important.\nIn this logic, Anholt argues that audiences in general have neither resources nor the desire to\nunderstand the complexity of foreign governmental policies. Their perceptions are generally\nsimplistic and encompass the country as a whole, meaning that foreign governmental policies\nwill be perceived in the light of foreign publics general attitudes toward countries. Therefore,\nAnholt emphasises the effectiveness of his all-encompassing theory (NB) over PD that only\nrepresents part of the tools enabling countries to acquire soft power.\n\n3.1.2 Cultural Attach\nThe Cultural Attach has the sole purpose of promoting cultural relations between\nhis country and the country he temporarily resides in. The Cultural Attach is in accordance\nwith the logic of Nye (2004) an agent of persuasion and soft power.\nRivas (2007:33) suggests that the Cultural Attach (similarly to Morgenthau) is\nofficially responsible for representing and constructing his nations identity abroad.\nDiplomatic representation is seen as representing interests; everything a cultural attach does\nmust be seen as an aspect of representation and as an attempt to serve the interests of her\ngovernment (Sharp 1998). In this realist logic it is hard to see how diplomats would act\notherwise than to represent their own interests. As a realist, Morgenthau surprisingly\nacknowledges the soft power inherent in public diplomacy. This may just not be ambiguous at\nall; according to Mattern (2005) soft power is not as soft as we would like to think. She\nargues that attraction soft power per se is constructed through representational force; a\nnon-physical but nevertheless a coercive form of power. However, it is important to\nunderstand that other agents nongovernmental and governmental agents also contribute to\nthe construction of nations identity (Bolewski 2008). Artists, companies and sportsmen, just\nto name a few, are in a world where technological improvement more and more intruding on\nthe Cultural Attachs working field.\n\n3.1.3 sprit de corps in diplomacy?\nDiplomacy is an old profession, where differences across national culture sometimes\nare perceived as having faded away. Is it then reasonable to try to depict a way of doing as a\ncause of national culture? It is true; according to Bolewski (2008) diplomats share many\ncommon traits due to similar professional education, similar social rules and similar\nprocedures. This suggests an sprit de corps within the diplomatic profession. Different\ncultural backgrounds can however and according to him never be neglected, because erasing\nwhat Hofstede calls the programming of the mind is not possible.\n3.2 Grunigs excellence theory\nThe excellence theory is the most generally accepted theory dealing with communication\nmanagement in public relations research. Their study was guided by two main themes, 1) why\nand how public relation is able to increase organizations effectiveness and how much that is\nworth economically, and 2) how is the most effective public relation managed/conducted.\nHence, which are the best practices and whats their value. The Excellence study showed that\nPR can be an effective management function that helps organizations to interact with the\nenvironment they are operating in. Based on empirical evidences, the authors argue that the\ntheory holds true whether organizations are of private or governmental character. The\nenvironment they are part of consists of different publics who affect their organizational\nobjectives, hence potentially affecting organization behaviour (feedback loop). Publics\nultimately influence organizational strategic decision-making, thus also their success. In\naddition, the study emphasizes the value of PR that derives from relationships that\norganizations develop with publics. On the basis of their empirical findings Grunig et al.\n(1992; 1995; 1998) suggest that successful/valuable relations with the public can only be\nbuild if communicators adopt a symmetrical communication (two-way symmetric). Such\ncommunication model is equally important to develop internally. In addition to the\nsymmetrical model, Grunig and Hunt (1984) originally developed three more PR models:\nTwo-way asymmetric, Press agentry/publicity and Public information. Along with time, these\nmodels have been criticized for being overly simplistic and general (Leichty and Springston\n1993). Following that, Grunig et al. (2002) found reasons to redesign the original four models\nby going beyond the static typology and identifying four dimensions underlying the four\nThe four PR models (Grunig and Hunt 1984):\n1. The press agentry/publicity model explains public relations activities with the sole\npurpose of constructing a favourable identity. To do this, the press is used as a one-\nway communicative stream: a source-to-receiver communication model.\n2. The public information model. Dissemination of information with little concern for a\ntwo-way communication stream.\n3. A two-way asymmetrical model explains how organisations use social science theories\nto persuade and influence audiences.\n4. The two-way symmetrical model focuses on a more balanced communication,\npromoting mutual understanding between organisations and audiences, by changing\nboth entities. More normative: ethical and effective.\n\nFrom typology to the culmination of a four dimensional normative framework (Grunig et al.\n\n1. Direction dimension describes if the public relation is one-way or two-way. In other\nwords if information is disseminated or exchanged.\n2. Purpose dimension describes to what extent the public relation is collaborative.\n3. Channel dimension describes how the public relation is performed, through what\nchannel, media or interpersonal.\n4. Ethic dimension describes the interests and social responsibility toward the public.\n\nYun (2005) findings suggest a convergence between public relation and public\ndiplomacy, not only with respect to communication behaviour but also at the communication\nmanagement level. So did Signitzer and Coombs\n(1992), they argue that public relation and\npublic diplomacy practitioners seek the same objectives - to affect public audiences (abroad\nor domestically) through communication programs. In other words, diplomats and public\nrelation professionals are dealing with similar tasks (LEtang 1996). They stress that similarly\nto public relations, public diplomacy too seek to build an image, exchange information and\nreduce miss-conceptions. This convergence is becoming increasingly evident today, in the\nlight of the continuous technological advances. For those reasons, these two concepts are\nunited into one conceptual framework in order to understand public diplomacy management.\nConsequently, public diplomacy management is conceptualized and measured\nthrough the four dimensional framework (and the four factor-models). This PR model enables\nme to anchor, conceptualize and operationalize public diplomacy the dependent variable. In\norder to test the validity of the excellence theory (global PR theory) (1996) Rhee (2009)\nreplicated parts of the study in Korea, and found that the theory is a good fit explaining\npractices in Korea.\nSince the study attempts to investigate whether culture is a determinant of variation\nin public diplomacy management across countries, the second step is to theorize the\n\nSholars more known for their work within the sphere of Agenda Setting.\nindependent variables.\n3.3 Hofstedes cultural dimensions\nSocietal culture is hypothetically responsible for moulding organizational culture and\ncharacteristics of management within organizations responsible for public diplomacy. Culture\nas an independent variable is operationalized and measured through Hofstedes four cultural\nFirstly, it is worthy to note the difficulties associated with the idea of capturing\nnational cultural characteristics. As Hudson (1997) pointed out, conception of culture have\nbecome so inclusive and holistic that they mean everything and nothing at the same time.\nHudson effectively captures the analytical utility of culture when it is broken down into three\nfacets where one of them being culture as templates for human strategy. Echoing this logic\nis Linton (1945) who stressed that individuals facing unknown situations tend to imitate\ncultural patterns of their own society. Inspired by Yun (2005), I apply culture as templates for\nhuman strategy/action in my quest to understand how national culture is linked to a countrys\ninteractions with its external environment and members of other groups.\nHofstede has made a strong case for the relationship between societal culture and\nmanagement; he executed a comprehensive cross-cultural study in an attempt to understand\nhow differences in thinking and social action between countries affect management (1980)\nHofstede founds that organizations are cultural-bound. Following Durkheim, he understands\nculture as a social phenomenon and rejects any notion that suggests culture being linked to\nrace. Hofstede (2004) explains how different institutions exist with respect to specific\ncountries; institutions are the way societies are organised, i.e. how educational systems are\ndesigned and how the economy and politics are organised. In addition to these macro-\ninstitutions there are a myriad of other institutions, starting from family structures. Hofstede\ngoes on, and expresses the visibility of these institutions, similarly to elements of national\nidentity (e.g. common language and history). Between these elements of national identity and\ninstitutions he identifies and localises the cultural element culture per se. He adds yet\nanother definition of culture to the already crowded pool of definitions. He proposes the\nfollowing; culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of\none group or category of people from another.(p.21)\n\nHofstedes findings have been criticized for being out-dated, however, cultural dimensions supposedly change\nvery slow, which implies that his findings, hence theory still holds (Hofstede and Usunier 1999).\nHofstede uses programming as a metaphor; by no means does he link human-\nbeings to programming as we would tend to associate with computer terminology.\nInstitutions have a remarkable ability to pass on mental programming from generations to\ngenerations. Culture then, includes systems of values, which are among the building blocks of\nAs a result of his research, Hofstede was able to identify five (the fifth with Bond\n1988) cultural dimensions enabling him to observe different values in different countries\n(based on national cultures). These different values varying across countries condition how\norganisations are managed. The four cultural dimensions are the following;\n\nPower distance\nThe notion of power distance encompasses how much inequality societies accept.\nSocieties where low power distance persists are associated with egalitarianism, indicating that\nnorms are centred on democratic values and equality (flatter structure). On the opposite side,\nsocieties with a higher share of power distance are organized in a more hierarchical fashion,\nwhere a few people should be independent while most should be dependent. Hofstede adds\nthat, ceritus paribus, there is more coercive and referent power la French and Raven (1859)\nemployed in high power distance society.\n\nUncertainty avoidance\nHofstede rightly presumes that we live in a world where we are conscious about the\nuncertainty of the future. Uncertainty avoidance is associated with how societies cope with\nuncertainty, more specifically it encompasses the degree of anxiety societies feel when\ndealing with unknown and/or uncertain situations. Hofstede argues that societies adapt to\nuncertainty in different ways, since uncertainty belongs to countries cultural heritage, which\nare transferred and reinforced through societal institutions. These values reflected in the\ncollective programming have non-rational roots making uncertainty avoidance seem aberrant\nto other societies. High uncertainty avoidance societies are more inclined to avoid uncertain\nsituations. It also reflects the importance societies attach to rules, long-term planning and\nsteady progression according to a well-defined traditional road-map. Hofstede identifies\nseveral differences; among other things he found that high uncertainty avoidance countries\ntend to be less risk-taking, more suspicious towards foreigners as managers, emphasise the\nimportance of hierarchies, prefer clear frameworks in which they are allowed to act and more\nresistant to change.\n\nMasculinity vs Femininity\nThis cultural dimension measures the importance societies place on stereotypical\nmasculine values such as power, materialism, power and assertiveness. Women on the other\nhand are supposed to take a more nurturing role. Societies with high masculinity scores also\ntend to have wider gender gaps. Societies with lower masculinity scores do not necessarily\nimply less gender inequality; women are to a higher degree included in the society, but the\ngender roles are simply blurred. A society with lower score of masculinity defines\nachievement in terms of human contacts and living environment, while society with higher\nmasculinity scores defines achievement in terms of wealth and recognition. Furthermore,\ninterdependence, sympathy for the unfortunate and orientation toward people are societal\nnorms in societies with low masculinity scores, while independence, sympathy for the\nsuccessful achiever and orientation toward money and things are societal norms in societies\nwith high masculinity scores.\n\nIndividualism vs Collectivism\nThis fourth dimension of national culture describes the relationship between\nindividuals and the collectivity, which prevails in a given society. Individualism may in some\nsocieties be seen as source of well being, while it may in other societies be associated with\nalienation. In the high end of this dimension, individualistic societies expect individuals to\nassume responsibility for themselves and close family members only, while the opposite is\ntrue for collectivistic societies, where groups are larger, members shows greater respect and\nloyalty toward each other and take more responsibility for each others well-being.\n\nLong Term vs Short Term Orientation\nHofstede and Bond (1988) added a fifth dimension in order to control for differences\namong Western and Eastern national cultures; something his previous Western questionnaires\nfailed to reveal. The study can be seen as an attempt to eliminate ethnocentric bias. It was\nprimarily conveyed to capture Confucian heritage: Bond called it Confucian Work Dynamism\nto begin with, until it was renamed to Long Term vs Short Term Orientation. This cultural\ndimension reflects societies (foremost Asian) attitudes toward long-term commitments and\nrespect for traditions (with limits) versus a short-term and historical perspective.\n\n3.3.1 Culture\nFirst of all, let me quote Soares et al. (2007:283), Culture is a fuzzy concept raising\ndefinitional, conceptual, and operational obstacles for research on it and on its human\nbehaviour influences. I do not intend to elaborate on the vast and deep issues that surround\nculture. Instead I restrict the study to Hofstedes framework since it constitutes a rather simple\nand practical operationalization of culture.\nCulture according to Hofstede (2001:10) is the interactive aggregate of common\ncharacteristics that influence a human groups response to environment.\nHe proposes the\nmost comprehensive theory explaining the relationship between societal culture and\nmanagement. Rhee (1999) empirically reported on the linkage between Hofstedes and\nGrunigs theory in the Korean context. Zurovchakss (1997) works showed that small\ndifferences in Hofstedes cultural dimensions have a considerable impact on decision-making\nwithin the walls of foreign ministries.\nThe studys is theoretically linked to Hofstedes definition of culture, which has\ngained some international acceptance and validity. The question is whether culture la\nHofstede creates variations across national public diplomacy management.\n\n3.4 Theoretical sum-up\nAs the theoretical discussion above emphasises, assuming the convergence of PR and\nPD enables me to measure and operationalize public diplomacy management. Thereof PD\nthe dependent variable - is perceived through the prism of Grunigs Excellence theory. The\nanchoring of PD management in PR theory is intuitively valid as stressed by Signitzer and\nCoombs (1992), besides that, the validity of the operationalization is further reinforced\nthrough dialogue with the Cultural Attach at the Republic of Korea (ROK) embassy in\nSince culture constitute the broadest influence on many dimensions of human\nbehaviour, the independent variable culture should hypothetically determine (at least to a\ncertain degree) how and why Korea conducts/manages its PD the way it does. Many scholars\nhave attempted to operationalize culture (see e.g. Bond 1987; Inkeles and Levinson 1969),\n\nHofstedes definition of culture is not so different from Gudykunsts (1989), culture is the social identity\nindividuals start to develop when they become aware of belonging to a social group: national cultures as well as\npolitical, economic, social, and historical elements form a national indentity.\nhowever, Hofstedes framework has been the most widely employed (Sndergaard 1994) and\nis more or less the norm.\nThe theoretical linkage between these dependent and independent variables is\nessentially and intuitively grounded in Hudsons (1997) culture as templates for human\nHaving determined the theoretical linkage between cultural consequences and PD\nbehaviour it is time to connect the dots how Hofstedes cultural dimensions are associated\nwith Korean PD practises.\n\n3.5 Theoretical application\nThe Hofstede centres official website provides various tools based on Hofstedes\nresearch. Among other things the Hofstede centre provides national cultural dimensions\nscores for a vast number of countries. Figure 2 in appendix A shows Koreas cultural\ndimensions in comparison to Sweden. Korea is in depicted in comparison to Sweden in order\nto illustrate the variations existing across countries.\n\nPower distance (PDI): Korea scores 60 in the power distance dimension, indicating a\nrelatively high level of inequality and a centralized organisational structure is preferred;\nmeaning that subordinates expect to take instruction from a benevolent autocrat. Korea is a\nhierarchical society where individual accept their place without further justification.\n\nIndividualism (IDV): With a low score of 18 Korea is considered as highly collectivistic\ncountry. Korea has on repeated occasions been referred to as the most Confucian country,\nwhich inevitably impact on individuals relations to the group. Koreans values relationships,\nwhich manifests in form of long-term commitments towards the member-group everybody\nare responsible for everybody. Furthermore, loyalty in a collectivistic country such as Koreas\nis a crucial element often over-ridding most other laws and regulations.\n\nMasculinity (MAS): With a score of 39 Korea is considered as a feminine society, reflecting\nconsensus-seeking managers, that members of the society values equality, solidarity and\nquality in their working environment. Thus, focus is on wellbeing and not on rank/status.\nConflicts and negotiations are primarily resolved through compromises.\n\nUncertainty avoidance (UAI): With a score of 85 Hofstede categorize Korea as one of the\nmost uncertainty avoiding society in the world. Thus, reflecting a society inherent of rigid\ncodes of conducts not open for unorthodox ideas and values. This in turn implies that Korea is\na country that tends to be resistant to change, which affects its ability to innovate. Overall,\nKoreans cherish hierarchies and rules, and put emphasis on precision, punctuality and security\nthough risk-minimizing.\n\nLong Term vs Short Term Orientation (LTO): As a country heavily affected by its Confucian\ncultural heritage, Korea categorize as a long-term oriented country. Members of the Korean\nsociety are to a large degree guided by Confucian values/virtues that leans against future\nrewards. Perseverance and thrift are future-oriented virtues that are prevalent in the Korean\nsociety. This orientation served Korea well during its development process, where the\nemphasis was on pragmatic and durable growth in combination with a strong consensus\n(Rodrik et al. 1995).\n\n3.6 Framework: Public Diplomacy and Cultural dimensions\nIn the spirit of Yun (2005) I will associate and connect public diplomacy behaviour\n(excellence dimensions) with Hofstedes five cultural dimensions. Unlike Yun, I have added\nHofstede and Bonds (1988) fifth dimension, since the study focus on Korea, a Confucian-\ninfluenced country.\nAs a collectivistic society Korea presumably deals with PD with respect to\ninterdependence, harmony, negotiation and harmony. Koreas public diplomacy should thus\nreflect a sense of collaboration with other international entities. However, the relationship is\nmore complex; although members embrace a deep sense of responsibility toward societal\ngroup members, collectivistic societies do not feel the same sense of responsibility toward so-\ncalled out-group members, since they are perceived as impersonal social entities (Hwang\n1987). Therefore it is probable that Koreas PD has less intention to establish good relations\nwith other international actors - so-called out-group members. Hence, Koreas PD is more\nlikely to focus on national self-interest. Yuns (2005) empirical results show that the\ncollectivistic a country is the more asymmetrical PD communication.\n\nHypothesis one (H1): Korea embraces a more asymmetrical and less ethical PD\n\nWith high scores on power distance Korea is organized in a strictly hierarchical\nfashion, where members of the society do not question their place in society. With the same\nlogic, countries with high power distance should implement hierarchical scripts dealing with\nPD, and inequality in regards of the out-group is perceived as inevitable. This reinforces H1.\nMoreover, Koreas vertical organisational structure may eliminate competition among\ndifferent PD actors, creating a more coordinated PD.\n\nHypothesis two (H2): Korea embraces a more coordinated and integrated PD\n\nKorea, as one of the most uncertainty avoiding countries in the world, presumably\nprefers traditions and status quo - unknown ground is preferably not explored, reflecting an\nenvironment where innovation and change not easily find fertile ground. Furthermore,\nHofstede (2001) argues that high uncertainty countries strongly believe in their own truths. In\nthis logic, Koreas PD is hypothetically not aligned with a worldview encompassing a\nmoving-equilibrium. This reinforces H1. Moreover, uncertainty avoidance presumably\nhampers the evolution and development of effective and innovative PD, not properly\nunderstanding its value. This can also be linked to a hypothesis that Koreas PD lack diversity\nand empowerment of PD practitioners, which results from the high power distance Korea\n\nHypothesis three (H3): Korea embraces a more traditional form of PD\n\nAt first glance, many would be inclined to think of Korea as a masculine country.\nNevertheless it is, through the lens of Hofstede a feminine country. However, it is worth\nnoting that Korea is not as feminine country as for example Sweden, which is made clear in\nfigure 1. Hofstede (2001) points out the relationship between feminine countries and foreign\naid. He finds that feminine countries are more inclined to assists other less developed\ncountries. Many traits associated to feminine countries correlates with collectivistic countries;\nsuch as resolution of conflicts through negotiations. Following this logic, feminine countries\nshould exhibit a greater sense of global responsibility. This hypothesis contradicts previously\nmade hypothesis, and since Korea did not categorize as neither a strong masculine nor a\nstrong Feminine country the link between PD and this cultural dimension is assumed to be\nweak. Besides that, Yun (2005:263) found that the masculine versus feminine dimension had\na very small and insignificant coefficient with all the constructs of PD. Therefore it is left out.\n\nAs a country highly oriented towards future rewards, Korea is focused on long-term\nobjectives. In the Korean society, pragmatic search for things that work is valued higher than\ntimeless absolute truths, which is also strongly correlated with Confucianism. The fact that\nall public diplomacy (world-wide) is centred on more or less long-term rewards makes this\nlinkage less explanatory (Cull 2007). Nevertheless, countries may or may not for example\nfinance PD programs that does not generate benefits over the nearest long-term. E.g. the\nBritish Council continues to operate in Zimbabwe, Iran and Burma even though the rewards\nare difficult to identify. If and when diplomatic relations between these countries improve the\nUK will, among other things, reap the benefit of first mover. The same logic applies for\nSwedens diplomatic programs in Cuba and in North Korea. In accordance to Hofstedes\ndimension, Korea should theoretically conduct future-oriented PD programs.\n\nHypothesis four (H4): Korea embraces future-oriented PD\n\n4. Empirical discussion\n4.1 Background: Koreas public diplomacy\nAfter having lived in Korea for one year, where I studied and completed a six month-\nlong internship at the Swedish embassy my perception is that many people around the globe\n(especially in the West) do not know a lot about the divided country. In fact, many people\nmostly make negative associations with North Korea and some even dont know which Korea\nis which. The lack of understanding of Korea have been persistent despite its growth miracle,\nbeing the fifteenth largest economy in world and home to some of the most famous brands\nthirteen Korean companies are listed in the Fortune Global 500 list. I believe my perception of\nKoreas image abroad is close to the reality; in 2008 President Lee Myung-bak announced the\ncreation of a President Council on Nation Branding under the direct control of the President.\nHe stressed that in order to be an advanced nation, Korea needs to improve its reputation in a\ngroundbreaking manner. During his congratulatory speech on the Korean Independence Day\nAugust 15, 2008 he proclaimed three core values for Koreas future; one of them was the\nimportance of Nation Branding. The same year Korea ranked 33\nout of 50 nations in the\n2008 Anholts Nation Brands Index, which do not reflect its economic power. One reason\nmay be that Koreas foreign policy mainly has revolved around two axes stabilizing the\nKorean peninsula and enhancing economic cooperation. Because of that, public diplomacy\nhave until very recently occupied a relatively lower priority in terms of foreign policy\norganizational weight (Park 2010). But the emerging consciousness about the power of PD is\nreflected in Koreas present governmental policies.\n\n4.1.1 Koreas abundant soft power resources\nKorea has systematically moved up the soft power ladder. It has done so quietly as J.\nNye puts it. Korea is no longer strictly defined in the light of its problematic neighbour North\nKorea. Albeit it still needs to distinguish itself from North Korea, South Korea has a\ncaptivating story to tell. Korea has during the last five decades gone from being a country\neconomically similar to Afghanistan to the 13\nlargest economy. It is the fastest country to\never have gone from receiving aid to being a donor.\nBesides that, Korea is attracting a young crowd with its popular culture comprised of\nKpop and Korean dramas also known as the Korean wave. The successful Korean diaspora\nparticularly in the US has also contributed to the countrys increased attractiveness.\nKorean culture is blooming it has gained momentum and it shows no sign of slowing\ndown. Obama has several times emphasised Koreas educational success, and even stressed\nthat it should be seen as a good example.\nKorea has prospered not only in economic (and democratic) terms but also in\ndiplomatic terms. During the last decade Korea has become a member of the OECD, hosted\nthe Olympic games in 1988, hosted the football World Cup 2002, hosted a G20 Summit in\n2010, hosted the Nuclear Security Summit 2013 and the Seoul Conference on Cyberspace in\n2013. Koreas struggle for power was largely influenced by the threats posed by neighbouring\nNorth Korea and by their quest for economic growth (hence, mostly hard power), but Korea\nhas, as emphasised along the study increased their awareness and focus on acquiring soft\npower. Today Koreas PD is handled by the Presidential Council on Nation Branding,\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of\nEducation, Science and Technology and more than twenty other affiliated agencies.\n\n4.2 Empirical results\n4.2.1 Dataset 1: Major Korean PD practitioners\nA difficulty arising when interpreting the data is the different nature organisations\nexhibits. Organisations conducting PD activities may have an inherent objective that holds\nmore explanatory power than the independent cultural variables. Hence, the nature of the\norganisation needs to be taken into consideration. In accordance with this study, PD activities\ncan according to Ali Fisher (2009) be viewed on a scale that ranges from listening to\ntelling. Some organisations may just be telling by nature, such as the King Sejong\nInstitute (Sejonghakdang) that deals exclusively with the promotion of the Korean language.\nHaving that in mind, the content analysis was executed by analysing the agencies official\nwebpages (e.g. objectives, missions, visions and strategies, news statements, press releases\nand speeches, official video streams and the type and characteristics of projects) through the\nIn a final stage, I will present and compare the data obtained through the e-interview\nwith the Korean Cultural Attach and the data obtained through studying the major Korean\nPD agencies. This triangulation will enable me to minimize eventual bias, such as response or\nomission bias.\n\nPresidential Council on Nation Branding\nEstablished in 2009, the council serves as a control tower for the governments PD\nactivities. Its initiatives are divided in three pillars, 1) act as a pan-governmental control\ntower, 2) support effective nation branding projects, and 3) reinforce and expand public\ncooperation and participation. The vision pursued by the council A reliable and dignified\nKorea is to be attained through enhancing Koreas role and global responsibility, raise\nawareness of Koreas cultural values, reinforce mutual understanding between Korea and the\nworld, and encourage active citizen participation.\n\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea (MOFA)\nThe new government of Park Geun-hye have made achieving a new era of hope,\nworking to contribute to peace and co-prosperity of the international community by\nenhancing cooperation and building trust with countries around the world in a more creative\nand proactive manner as Koreas foreign policy goal. Trust diplomacy is part of the Park\ngovernment to build trust and to enhance its national brand as a trusted fascinating Korea\n. The new foreign policy is in line with the domestic policies Government 3.0 which\nrests on the idea of building a two-way communication stream between citizens and the\nIn the opening speech at the 6\nKorea Foundation Global Seminar in 2013, the Vice\nforeign Minister, addressed PD in the following way,\n\nAccording to the classical theory of international politics, confrontation and\ncompetition among states create power and order. However, this theory cannot\nexplain the changing dynamics of todays world or resolve many of todays global\nchallenges. Instead, there is an increasing need for communication and cooperation\nas well as understanding and sharing among countries, which in turn raises the\nexpectation for the role of middle powers.\n\nWhich clearly reflects Koreas standpoint as a middle-power with the aim of\nbridging conflicts through trust and mutual understanding and taking a larger global\nMoreover, in 2013 the foreign ministry held its first workshop on PD The scholars\nGroup for Public Diplomacy. The theme was Creativity is a long tradition, a culture and life\nto Korea. This is certainly a shot to soften the image of Korea as a copycat. The group is\ncomposed of 16 foreign scholars working in Korea and corresponding cultural attachs (news\nstatement MOFA 2013.10.10). The ministry and the work-shop reflect the Korean\ngovernments willingness to consider outside opinion on its PD and in this particular case, to\naddress the negative attention Koreas ability to innovate have been exposed to. Thus, by\ninviting foreign experts the ministry looked for advice on how to conduct their PD in different\nFurthermore, one of the ministrys key diplomatic tasks is literary to strengthen its\nnational brand through active PD activities. The following can be read on MOFAs official\nwebpage, In addition, it will try to enhance its national brand as a trusted fascinating Korea\nthrough active public diplomacies. It is not until recently MOFA acknowledged how\nunfamiliar public diplomacy was in Korea in a speech in 2010 Kim Dong-Gi, Deputy\nDirector-General, Cultural Affairs Bureau, MOFAT, explains how Koreas foreign policy was\ndominated by security and trade issues, neglecting PD.\n\nKorea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA)\nThe responsibility of recruiting and training Korean career diplomats was in 2012\npassed on to the newly established KNDA (legally part of MOFA). The academy searches for\nprofessors with competences in among other fields, ethics in public life and PD, which\nreflects Koreas foreign affair priorities. The academy conducts Partnership Program for\nforeign diplomats newly assigned to Korea with the expectations to build a friendly and co-\noperative relation between participants countries and Korea. And also according to the\nacademys official webpage, the KNDA stresses its ambitions of becoming a prominent think-\ntank in the area of diplomatic security through increased cooperation between internal and\nexternal research institutions.\n\nMinistry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism\nAs Korea became more aware of PD, in 2008 the government merged the\nGovernment Information Agency and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism establishing the\nMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.\nEach year, the ministry hands out a special achievement award to a Korean music\nartist for her contribution to the Hallyu Wave. The Hallyu Wave, also known as the Korean\nwave stands for the Korean popular culture gaining momentum all over the world. The event\nis sponsored by the National Branding Committee, the Korean Communications Commission,\nthe Korea Culture, the Information Service and the Korea Foundation all of them\ngovernmental agencies with focus on PD. Furthermore, in 2009 the Korean government\nestablished the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) in order to develop and promote\nthe Korean culture industry. The public agency was created out of five previous agencies with\nmore or less the same ambitions. In March 2012, the KOCCA began offering financial\nsupport for all Korean artists seeking to perform abroad called overseas expansion support.\nTo enhance coordination, the five merged organizations created a super body with the aim of\nsupporting and promoting not only the music industry, but the whole content industry as a\nwhole (such as animation, TV programs etc.).\n\nCentre for Public Diplomacy\nThe 17\nof July this year, the foreign ministry hold the opening ceremony of the\nCentre for Public Diplomacy. The centre will, as its name suggests, support various PD\nprojects. The centre was established reflecting the governments ambition to empower the\nprivate sector; what they call, Public Diplomacy in Partnership with the People. The project\nhas multiple objectives; the most salient objectives however, are to increase the domestic\nawareness of PD and to boost the civilian participation in diplomacy.\n\nKorea Foundation\nThe Korea Foundation - a MOFA affiliated organization was created in 1992, as\nKorea emerged as a more significant PD practitioner. Since its creation the foundation has\nadvanced a wide range of so-called exchange programs. Their main objective is as part of\nthe Park administrations trust diplomacy - for Korea to be perceived as a responsible\nmiddle power that acts as a facilitator on global issues such as poverty eradication and\nenvironmental issues. The Korea Foundations PD rests on three dimensions, 1) intellectual\nexchange through people-to-people programs, 2) knowledge sharing through organizing\nconferences on global issues, and 3) peoples participation through the empowering of Korean\ncitizens in PD, which is highlighted in the message from the President section of the\nwebpage. Furthermore, the foundation supports the production of broadcasting and media\nabroad. Additional to that, the foundation publishes a rather extensive overview of its mission\nand vision. Their management philosophy is based on trust, performance and on an open\nsystem. The overall picture the foundation paints in this section resembles that of a\ncorporations - the discourse is centred on improving efficiency, expand networks and\nstrengthen organization management capacity and competitiveness.\nAccording the their official webpage, the Korea Foundation operates a systematic\nchannel for dialogues with major countries in the world. The dialogues forums by countries\n- are conducted to foster future-oriented, cooperative relationships via the promotion of\ninternational understanding of Korea and the formation of a human resources network,\nconnecting opinion leaders throughout Korea and the world. The bilateral forums gathers\nleaders form governmental, media, finance, academia and from cultural organizations to\ncreate and discuss matters of common interest, build a platform for friendship and\ncooperation, and reach mutual understanding. Finally, the Korea Foundation carries out\nYouth Exchange Programs to improve mutual understanding and to forge friendship and to\nstrengthen future ties.\n\nKorea Public Diplomacy Forum (KPDF)\nThe KDPF was established in 2010 by the Korea foundation in co-operation with\nMOFAT with the intention to support the efforts of Korean domestic experts in their\nendeavours to formulate strategies for Koreas PD. PD practitioners; experts from various\nfields of academia and the media are participating in this support mechanism.\n\nKing Sejong Institute\nThe institute was created under the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and\nTourism with the purpose of 1) promoting the Korean language, 2) vitalizing cultural\nexchange based on culture reciprocity, and 3) promoting and spreading the Korean language\nas a representative brand. The King Sejong Institute is not very different from other nations\nlanguage-promoting agencies. Worth noting however, is the definition of its goals: the use of\nrepresentative brand is associated with Anholts NB. The Korean government has opened\n91 new institutes around the globe since 2010, amounting to a total of 113 institutes.\n\nKorea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)\nKorea can be proud over its economic development. No country has ever gone from\nbeing a recipient of aid to being a donor as fast a Korea. Korea surpasses any other donor\ncountry, by almost tripling its spending from 2006 to 2011 Korea attempts to undertake a\nleading role in global development. In December 2013, the World Bank Group President Jim\nYong Kim visited Korea with the purpose to open a World Bank Office. Koreas first peer\nreview a milestone for Korea - signed the Development Committee (DAC, OECD) was\npublished in 2012 and reflects the advances Korea has made and the lessons and experiences\nit brings to the international debate and development activities. In 2012, Koreas ODA\namounts to USD 1,5 billion still a rather modest amount - but according to MOFA Korea\nwill strive to double its ODA to USD 3 billion or 0,25 of its GNI by 2015, which is more\nambitious than the US or Japan. KOICA plays an important role in terms of ODA\nimplementation (under the assistance of MOFA and the ministry of Strategy and Finance\n(MOSF)). Koreas ODA programs are part of Koreas new role in the international\ncommunity, and with new policies follows the need of adjustments. The peer review (OECD\n2012) suggests a number of recommendations but simultaneously acknowledge Koreas\nimprovement along its short journey as a donor country.\n\nSeoul Metropolitan Government\nIn order to improve Seouls brand, the Seoul Metropolitan Government-planned\nglobal marketing project have employed professional help from two of Koreas most talented\nand renowned directors - Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong. The project aims to produce\na movie Seoul, Our Movie in order to boost tourism.\nMoreover, The Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Centre clearly states their objectives:\nPromote mutual understanding of foreign and Korean culture.\n4.2.2 Dataset 2: Korean Cultural Attach\nThe Cultural Attach was requested to answer and elaborate on what type of\ncommunication he prefers and the reasons why. He answered that email is preferred as an\ninitial step due to practical reasons. Then, telephone or face-to-face communication is\nconsidered. More interesting, the Cultural Attach answered that, if necessary, he would\nsuggest unofficial meetings over lunch or dinner as an effective way to foster mutual\nunderstanding and establishing close ties with diplomatic partner(s).\nOn the question regarding the purpose of press relations, the Cultural Attach\nstressed that press relations is conducted in order to enhance/develop mutual understanding\nbetween countries.\nAnswering the question regarding research prior to initiating communication\nprograms, the Cultural Attach explained how sufficient research is executed in order to adapt\nthe message to the receiver. The Cultural Attach emphasized the importance of tailoring\ninformation for targeted groups; the understanding of foreign audiences was also highlighted\nin his answers previous to any communication program, the embassy conducts research to\nunderstand the attitudes of audiences in order to ethically balance the interests of Korea and\nthe foreign public. And after finishing a communication program, the embassy follow-ups and\nevaluates the program. The subsequent follow-up is given high priority; it is according to the\nCultural Attach conducted even though the embassys resources are constrained.\nWhen requested to elaborate on information dissemination, the Cultural Attach\nexplained how the embassy reports back to their home government. The ROK embassy\ninforms their government on Swedish public opinion and policies when the Korean\ngovernment explores policy alternatives. Swedish policies are not seldomly regarded as\nadvanced and desirable. In other words, information dissemination is conducted in a two-way\nsymmetrical manner.\nOn different dimensions of PD, the Cultural Attach emphasized the Korean\ngovernments strong commitments to enhance their pubic diplomacy (without giving any\ndetails such as budget sizes etc.). In addition to that, he explained the cooperative approach\nKorea embraces and how Korea, as a middle-power nation, strives to be an active and\nresponsible global actor. And as he himself said, Korea strives to be in harmony within the\nworld order. Furthermore, when asked to elaborate on Koreas view on global issues such as\nenvironmental and poverty reduction issues, he referred to a press release from MOFA dated\n2013.12.17 stating how the Korean organization - the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)\nwon observer status in the UN General Assembly, which reflects Koreas ethical foreign\npolicy ambition.\nWhen asked to reflect upon public-private collaboration within PD, the Cultural\nAttach reported that the ROK embassy encourages such collaboration. As an example, he\nmentions how the embassy collaborates with companies such as Samsung and LG in order to\nreap the benefits of synergy effects and to merge economic and cultural effects.\nOn PD aspects related to organisation and coordination, the Cultural Attach points\nout the relative autonomy of the Korean embassy. The embassy is responsible for the relation\nbetween Sweden and Korea, but should follow principal guidelines from the Korean\n\n4.4 Empirical discussion\nThis second phase attempts, as previously mentioned, to incorporate all collected\ndata. Both datasets will be merged, analysed and enable me to elaborate on the hypotheses.\n\n\nWhen comparing the results from the two datasets, I am able to reject H1. The Park\nadministration newly implemented trust diplomacy based on a two-way symmetrical\ncommunication. Several Korean PD agencies have implemented feedback mechanism in\norder to adjust on the basis of mutual understanding. Korea is articulating a two-way\nsymmetrical communication between itself and foreign audiences. In line with the Park\nadministrations Government 3.0, which strives to take the Korean democracy one step\nfurther, the Korean foreign affairs are undergoing a similar transformation. Hence, President\nPark aims to build international relationships based on trust, which in its turn is based on\neffective communication through openness and concern (Mishra and Mishra 2005). Openness\nand concern are key values in order to foster mutual understanding, which are reflected in\nvirtually all PD agencies. When the Korean Cultural Attach was asked to speak freely, he\nstressed the openness characterizing the Korean PD. And Korea is walking the talk; it has\nreceived criticism from among others Anholt, for being too open with its PD/national\nbranding strategies.\nWhen it comes to Koreas ethical PD, Korea is hypothetically inclined to show less\nresponsibility toward out-groups. This is not case; Korea has taken big steps toward\nestablishing itself as a middle power. Korea is building an image of a responsible and\nproactive state, carefully crafted through real actions and policies. Koreas foreign aid\nprograms have attained new highs and are forecasted to increase. In short, Korea interprets the\ntwo-way symmetrical communication as a win-win approach. Additionally, in late September\n2013 the foreign minister of Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia reached an\nunderstanding to form a new informal negotiating network of middle powers the MIKTA,\ninitiated by Korea. The main objective is for the member-countries to increase their agenda-\nsetting role. It must be added that scholars hold certain scepticism toward the two-way\nsymmetrical communication model, since PD is designed in order to accumulate soft power.\nAnd if soft power is constructed through representational force as argued by Mattern (2005),\nthan PD is a coercive form of power, and therefore there cannot be a strictly two-way\nsymmetrical model.\nFinally, the 7\nSummit between the EU and ROK that took place in November 2013\nleaders agreed to establish the EU-ROK Public Diplomacy Forum to compare policy direction\nand experiences, which also support Koreas mutual understanding (win-win) approach to\n\n\nAfter having analysed and compared the results it is safe to say that Koreas overall\nPD strategy lacks coordination and integration and thus, rejecting H2.\nKorea has made extensive efforts to enhance their public diplomacy. A myriad of\ngovernmental agencies has been merged and created during the last decade, where the\nPresidential Council on Nation Branding was designated as the coordinating body. However,\nit has faced criticism with respect to its ability to coordinate Koreas PD. The PD agencies\nhave many overlapping activities, contributing to rivalry. This lack of (legislative)\ncoordination is manifested through the unsettlement of three drafted laws on promoting\nKorean culture abroad in the ROK National Assembly (Kim T. 2012).\nMoreover, when comparing the different PD agencies visions a certain lack of\ncoordination is apparent. Korea has until today conducted a more or less case-by-case PD\nwithout a clear grand vision shared by all agencies and coordinated by a control tower-\nagency. Most of the various PD practitioners has acted upon their own without a mechanism\nthat enables them to share ideas, experiences etc. However, as individual agents (or affiliated),\nthey work in terms of coordination and integration. The Korea Foundation and MOFA for\nexample, are coordinating their policies, with MOFA as the controlling body. The same\napplies within the PD activities conducted by Korean embassies and within the embassies\norganization structures. In that sense, when the sample units are limited to individual\nactors/units, PD is carried out in a coordinated manner.\nWhat may be the causes for this lack of overall coordination? I am willing to believe\nthat the lack of an overall and national coordination is intended. The reasons may lie in their\nhistorical experiences and may be defined as part of the Korean culture (linked to LTO). The\nKorean economic miracle was propelled and engineered by the government, who based their\nindustrial policies on a pragmatic approach. This trial-and-error approach helped the Korean\ngovernment to identify sound and effective policies. In short, it helped Korea discover what\nworked best. The Korean government may have deliberately adopted the same approach to\nPD. PD in Korea is as mentioned a very new concept, where distinguishing good versus bad\nPD practices is not yet possible. At the same time, it is possible to observe a dimension where\nthe PD agencies are competing amongst each other. E.g. the Korea Foundation states the\nfollowing as one of its four strategic objectives, \"To strengthen organizational\ncompetitiveness\". Ultimately, Korea will choose its winner and the most efficient and\nproductive organisation will take the coordinating role.\n\n\nThe overall picture does not suggest that Korea conducts a more traditional PD, thus,\nrejecting H3. As mentioned, Korea has dramatically increased its PD awareness during the\nlast decade and is in the process of establishing and incorporating PD. Their PD can be\ncategorized as very dispersed; i.e. Korea is not putting all its eggs in one basket. Thus, it is\ndifficult to say whether Korea has adopted a PD or a NB approach, it looks more like if Korea\nis on a voyage of discovery.\nThe KNDA is revitalized in order to better suit the new challenges facing PD, the\nKorean citizens are empowered and seen as a key player for achieving an effective PD, the\nKorea Foundation is conducting PD Conferences in a multidisciplinary way la Gilboa and\ncelebrities are employed as Korean ambassadors. Additionally, all the Korean PD\npractitioners named in the study are active on social media such as Facebook and Twitter (but\nin a more centralized and coordinated way). In short, Korea is breaking every new ground\nthere is.\nThe lack of PD prior to the presidency of Lee Myung-bak is better explained by\nKoreas context the two axes in Koreas foreign policy (Security and economic cooperation)\n- than by cultural dimensions.\n\nHypothesis four (H4): Korea embraces future-oriented PD\n\nAfter having considered the difficulties in identifying future-oriented PD that by\nnature is focused on the long run, I fail to reject H4. Korea is in the forefront; decision-makers\nhave the future in focus and strive to prepare the country as best they can. According to\nHofstede (2001), high scores of LTO were strongly correlated with the economic growth in\nEast Asia.\nKorea is dynamic, signing a long list of free trade agreements almost forcing\nthemselves to adapt for the impacts on the economic structure, at the same time as it creates\nlong lasting bonds between countries (e.g. through knowledge, technology and cultural spill-\nover). In addition to that, Korea has stepped up its educational exchange programs, incoming\nstudents has increased over 17-fold during the period 2000-2011 (OECD 2013/05). Korea is\nranked number three in the world in terms of number of students studying abroad.\nEducational exchange is through the PD-lens an effective way to foster mutual\nunderstanding and to strengthen present as well as future ties between countries. As the\nKorean government is promoting public diplomacy in partnership with the people, Korean\nstudents become a great source of representational power. During the 7\nSummit between EU\nand ROK in late 2013, leaders concluded on the Korea-EU Joint Declaration on Higher\nEducation Cooperation.\n\n5. Conclusions\nThe study has build on the most recent and cutting edge research on public\ndiplomacy. The immense attention PD has received internationally over a short period of time\nrequires much more research. In connection with PD spreading far beyond the Western\nborders the necessity to focus on other nations becomes increasingly relevant. Previous\nresearch has uncovered the vast knowledge gap that exists within PD research and pointed out\na constructive direction for future research (Gilboa 2008; Yun 2005; Bolewski 2010).\nThe study investigated cultural dimensions as determinants for PD management. The\nempirical results show that cultural dimensions are not satisfactory determinants in explaining\nPD practices. I am afraid that this strictly cultural approach suffers from omitted variable bias.\nOne important (and potential) causal factor that is left out is countries/Koreas globalization\nGlobalization, according to Samuel S. Kim\n(2000), is a series of complex,\nindependent yet interrelated processes of stretching, intensifying and accelerating worldwide\ninter-connectedness in all aspects of human relations and transactions such that events,\ndecisions and activities in one part of the world have immediate consequences for individuals,\ngroups and states in other parts of the world. S. Kim goes on and articulated the importance\nof globalization for Korea as an export-driven economy and observes the correlation between\nKoreas openness and transparency, and its degree of global competitiveness. In short, from\nKoreas standpoint it is more or less globalize or perish. In this logic, Koreas PD\nmanagement may well be driven by its globalization drive, as has been observed in other\nstudies such as Hiba Khodr (2012).\nAnother possible explanation may lies in relatively stronger causal effect in some/a\ncultural dimension(s). I.e. the impact of Koreas uncertainty avoidance on PD may be a\ndecreasing function of long-term orientation, which is closely related to Koreas strong\nConfucian cultural heritage.\nThe point is that, if adding a historical lens and other contextual dimensions to this\nculture approach I am tempted to believe that other driving factors will emerge more\nsignificant. Koreas export-led economy may be one explanatory factor to why Korea seems\nto have adopted such a pragmatic trial-and-error approach to PD where they have diversified\ntheir activities in all directions making the distinction between a PD or a NB approach\npractically impossible to make.\nDespite its limits, the study has shown that there is relevance in adopting a cultural\napproach in order to understand variations in PD across nations and cultures. Future research\nshould in addition to the cultural lens include other variables linked to for example\nglobalization, implying that there are several contextual factors to be controlled for. In other\nwords, there are plenty of theoretical adjustments to be done.\n\nSamuel S. Kim is a senior research scholar at the East Asian Institute of Colombia University. He has written\nwidely on East Asian international relations.\n\nAnholt, A., 2007, Competitive Identity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.\n\nBampton R. and Cowton C. 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A., 1995, Managers Guide to Excellence in\nPublic Relations and Communication Management, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.\n\nGrunig J. E., Grunig L. A. and Vercic D., 1998, Are the IABCs Excellence Principles\nGeneric? Comparing Slovenia and the United State, the United Kingdom and Canada, Journal\nof Communication Management, 2: 335356.\n\nGrunig J. and Hunt T., 1984, Managing Public Relations, New York: Holt, Rinehart and\n\nGrunig J.E., 1997, Public Relations Management in Government and Business, In Garnett\nJ.L. and Kouzmin A. (Ed.), Handbook of Administrative Communication, New York: Marcel\nDekker, pp: 24183.\n\nHiba K., 2012, Exploring the Driving Factors Behind the Event Strategy in Qatar: A Case\nStudy of the 15th Asian Games, International Journal of Event and Festival Management,\n\nHudson, V. M. and Vore C. S., 1995, Foreign Policy Analysis Yesterday, Today, and\nTomorrow, Mershon International Studies Review, 39: 209-238.\n\nHofstede G., 1984, Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related\nValues, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications (Abridged edition).\n\nHofstede, G., 2001, Cultures Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions,\nand Organizations AcrossNnations (2nd ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.\n\nHofstede G. and Usunier J. C., 1999, Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture and Their Influence\non International Business Negotiations, In Pervez G. and Usunier J. (Ed.), International\nbusiness negotiations, Amesterdam: Pergamon, pp: 119-130.\n\nHofstede G., 2007, Asian Management in the 21st Century, Asia Pacific Journal of\nManagement, 24: 411-420.\n\nInkeles A and Levinson D.,1969, National character: the study of modal personality and\nsociocultural systems. In Lindzey G. and Aronson (Ed.). The Handbook of Social Psychology\n(2nd ed.) vol. 4, Reading- Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, Publishing Company, p. 41899.\n\nKim S. S., 2000, Koreas Globalization, Cambridge: Asia-Pacific Studies.\n\nKunczik, M., 2003, Transnational Public Relations By Foreign Governments, In Sriramesh\nK. and Vercic D. (Ed.), The Global Public Relations Handbook, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence\nErlbaum, pp: 399- 24.\n\nLeichty, G. and Springston, J., 1993, Reconsidering Public Relations Models, Public\nRelations Review, 19: 327339.\n\nLinton, R., 1945, The Cultural Background of Personality, New York: Appleton- Century-\n\nLEtang, J., 1996, Public Relations As Diplomacy, In LEtang J. and Pieczka M. (Ed.),\nCritical Perspectives in Public Relations, London:International Thomson Business, pp: 14-34.\n\nManheim, J. B., 1994, Strategic Public Diplomacy and American Foreign Policy: The\nEvolution of Influence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.\n\nMattern J. B., 2005, Why Soft Power Isn't So Soft: Representational Force and the\nSociolinguistic Construction of Attraction in World Politics, Millennium - Journal of\nInternational Studies, 33: 583-612.\n\nMearsheimer J. J., 2011, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics,\nNew York: Oxford University Press.\n\nMishra, A. K. & Mishra, K. E., 2005, Trust From Near and Far: Organizational\nCommitment and Turnover in Franchise-Based Organizations, Presented at the 65th annual\nmeeting of the Academy of Management, Honolulu, Hawaii.\n\nMinichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., and Alexander, L., 1990, In-Depth Interviewing:\nResearching People, Hong Kong: Longman Cheshire.\n\nNye S. J., 2004, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, US Public Affairs\nManheim, J. B., Strategic public diplomacy and American foreign policy: The evolution of\ninfluence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.\n\nOlins W., 2002, Viewpoints Branding the Nation the Historical Context, The Journal of\nBrand Management, 9: 241-248.\n\nRodrik D., Grossman G. and Norman V., 1995, Getting Interventions Right: How South\nKorea and Taiwan Grew Rich, Economic Policy, 10: 55-107.\n\nRoutledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, 2009, Edited by Snow N. and Taylor P. M.,\npublished in association with the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School\nbased at the University of Southern California.\n\nRhee, Y., 2002, Global Public Relations: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Excellence Theory in\nSouth Korea, Journal of Public Relations Research, 14: 159-184.\n\nRhee Y., 1999, Confucian Culture and Excellent Public Relations: A Study of Generic\nPrinciples and Specific Applications in South Korean Public Relations Practice, Unpublished\nmasters thesis, University of Maryland, College Park.\n\nRivas C. V., 2007, Representing Cultural Diplomacy: Soft Power, Cosmopolitan\nConstructivism and Nation Branding in Mexico and Sweden, Vxsj: Vxsj University\n\nSoares A. M., Farhangmehr M. and Shoham A., 2007, Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture in\nInternational Marketing Studies, Journal of Business Research, 60: 277-284.\n\nSondergaard M., 1994, Research Note: Hofstede's Consequences: A Study of Reviews,\nCitations and Replications, Organization Studies, 15: 447456.\n\nSignitzer B. H., and Coombs T., 1992, Public Relations and Public Diplomacy: Conceptual\nConvergences, Public Relations Review, 18: 137-147.\n\nSignitzer B., and Wamser C., 2006, Public Diplomacy: A Specific Governmental Public\nRelations Function, In Botan C. H. and Hazleton V. (Ed.), Public Relations Theory II,\nMahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp: 435-464.\n\nThe Murrow Center quote comes from the what is Public Diplomacy? page http://!etcher.\n\nYun S. H., and Yang S. U., 2001, Public Relations Management Approach to Public\nDiplomacy: A case study of the Korean embassy in the U.S. Unpublished manuscript,\nUniversity of Maryland, College Park.\n\nYun S. H., 2005, Toward Theory Building for Comparative Public Diplomacy from the\nPerspectives of Public Relations and International Relations: A Macro-Comparative Study of\nEmbassies in Washington D.C., PhD thesis\n\nZurovchak, J. F., 1997, Cultural Influences on Foreign Policy Decision-making: Czech and\nSlovak Foreign Policy Organizations, In Hudson V. M. (Ed.), Culture and Foreign Policy,\nBoulder, CO: Rienner, pp: 99-124.\n\nStatistical references\n\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs\nAvailable at: [Accessed 09/12-13]\n\nKorea Creative Content Agency\nAvailable at: [Accessed 09/12-13]\n\nKorea International Cooperation Agency\nAvailable at: [Accessed 09/12-13]\n\nWorld Bank\nAvailable at:\npresident-to-visit-korea [Accessed 09/12-13]\n\nMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism\nAvailable at: [Accessed 10/12-13]\n\nKing Sejong Institute\nAvailable at: [Accessed 10/12-13]\n\nKorea National Diplomacy Agency\nAvailable at: [Accessed 10/12-13]\n\nPresidential Council on Nation Branding\nAvailable at: [Accessed 10/12-13]\n\nKorea Foundation\nAvailable at: [Accessed 10/12-13]\n\nSeoul Metropolitan Government\nAvailable at: [Accessed 11/12-13]\n\nCouncil of the European Union\ndf [Accessed 11/12-13]\n\nN%C2%B014%20(eng)-Final.pdf [Accessed 11/12-13]\n\nThe Hofstede Centre\nAvailable at: [Accessed 20/11-13]\n\nAppendix A\nFigure 1\n\nSource: Gilboa (2008)\n\nFigure 2 - Koreas cultural dimensions in comparison to Swedens\n\nSOURCE: The Hofstede Centre\n\nAppendix B\ne-interview : Questionnaire\n\nPART I (Communication)\n\n1. How and to what degree is information disseminated? (Please elaborate)\na. By newsletters, news release, position statements etc.?\nb. Do you get in contact with journalists?\nc. If yes, how via telephone or face-to-face contact?\nd. How important is the dissemination of information in relation to other activities?\n\n2. What way of communicating is preferred and why? (Examples below)\na. Face-to-face contact? (Personal meeting)\nb. Email?\nc. Telephone?\nd. Unofficial meetings? (Such as playing golf or lunch)\n\n3. Why are press relations pursued, whats their purpose? (Please elaborate)\na. In order to resolve possible misunderstandings between the two countries?\nb. In order to enhance/develop mutual understanding between the two countries?\nc. Some press relations are still in place, only because they have been so for a long period of\n\n4. Before initiating any kind of communication, is research done? (Please elaborate)\na. In order to capture the attitudes of journalists?\nb. In order to tailor the information to specific audiences?\nc. Do you track the media for public sentiment?\nd. More generally, how does the embassy accumulate understanding about the public opinion?\n\n5. How are communication programs initiated? (Please elaborate)\na. Do you carry out research/surveys prior to initiation in order to capture the attitudes of the\ntargeted audience?\nb. If no, does this depend on time-constraints or other things?\nc. Do you perform research after ending communication programs?\nd. If no, does this depend on time-constraints or other things?\n\n6. What kind of information is disseminated? (Please elaborate)\na. If true information is handed out to journalists, is unfavourable information voluntarily\nhanded out too?\nb. To what degree do you try to make journalists/Swedish publics favour your governments\nc. And to what degree do you inform your government about Swedish public opinion in order\nfor your government to change/adapt their policies?\nd. Whats your view on press relations (i.e. when resolving misunderstandings) do you\nconsider it a zero sum game where there are winners and losers?\n\n7. Do you disclose the purpose with communication programs? (Please elaborate)\nDo you develop sub-goals and sub-objectives?\n\n8. What is ROKs overall vision on how to enable its Foreign policy objectives? (Please\nDo you believe that ROKs national interests can be achieved only when taking other nations\ninterest in consideration?\n\nWhat is your embassys view on global humanitarian issues, environmental issues,\nglobal development issues etc.? (Please elaborate)\nTo what degree are they integrated in the embassys overall strategy/foreign policy?\n\nTo what degree is public diplomacy supported by your government? (Please elaborate)\na. Is public diplomacy prioritized? (e.g. in terms of budget)\nb. Does your government allocate resources in order to train public diplomacy practitioners?\nc. How established is public diplomacy in your embassy? E.g. does the Ambassador support\npublic diplomacy?\n\n8. What is your embassys view on global humanitarian issues, environmental issues,\nglobal development issues etc. ? (Please elaborate)\n\n9. Does the embassy carry out joint projects with Korean companies? (Please elaborate)\na. or think tanks?\nb. Trade associations?\nc. NGOs?\nd. If such joint projects are carried out, how are they planned? Joint planning? Joint\n\nPART II (organisation)\n\n1. How is work coordinated at your embassy? (Please elaborate)\na. Are different events, parties, exhibitions, seminars etc. predetermined? Are they determined\nat a central level, in order to enable better coordination? (Pleases elaborate)\nb. Can such events be conducted on spontaneous basis? In other words, is there room for\ndynamic programs?\nc. More generally, how are different activities linked to public diplomacy carried out? How\nare they identified? Who decides upon which activities to be carried out?\nd. How much autonomy does ROKs embassies have?\ne. Are their formal guidelines?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8361382484436035}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 20\n\n\n\nExternal works\n\nThe term ‘external works’ describes services provided or works carried on the external or\nenvironment of a building project to provide conveniences to the occupiers of the building\nand its environment at large . BRE (Building Research Establishment) describes external\nworks as: All items outside the building footprint but inside the site boundary, encompassing\nwastewater and surface water drains, supply of utilities (e.g. gas, electricity and cabled\nservices), footpaths, and access for vehicles including car parks and hard standings to be\nfound in the vicinity of buildings.\n\nCategories of External Works\n\nRoyal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) New Rules of Measurement Part 3 (NRM3)\noffers guidance on external works which it categorises as:\n\n1. Site preparation works.\n\n2. Roads, paths, pavings and surfacings.\n3. Soft landscaping, planting and irrigation systems.\n4. Fencing, railings and walls.\n5. External fixtures.\n6. External drainage.\n7. External services.\n8. Minor building works and ancillary buildings.\n\n1. Site Preparation Works\n\nBefore construction works begin, the site clearance and preparatory ground works are\nnecessary. These may include:\n\na. Removal of any vegetation including roots.\n\nb. Levelling of the site to a roughly even gradient or modelling the site to create a\ndesired form.\nc. Setting out and trench lines laid out according to the building footprint.\nd. Establishing site offices, welfare facilities, storage, access routes, and so on.\n\n2. Roads, Paths, Pavings, and Surfacings\n\nIt is common for the external areas around buildings to require hard standing areas and\nsurfacing features for use by workers, pedestrians and vehicles. These may include:\n\na. Pavings, kerbs, and edging.\n\nb. Asphalt or block surfacing to driveways, footpaths, car parks and roads.\nc. Timber decking, handrails and balustrades.\nd. Patios, platforms and so on, typically constructed from concrete or concrete paving\n\n3. Soft Landscaping, Planting and Irrigation Systems\n\nSoftscape or soft landscape includes all types of plant life, from flowers and trees to shrubs\nand groundcover. It naturally changes and evolves over time, driven by the climate, time of\nyear and other conditions. Careful consideration should be given to the amount of\nmaintenance that these elements will require to stay in good order.\n\nIrrigation systems for gardens and external areas can be used to automate the process of\nwatering. The most common forms are drip irrigation systems that precisely releases water to\nthe roots of plants, and a micro spray system that deliver a fine spray of water over a defined\narea. The benefit of installing such systems is their efficiency, delivering a water-use\nreduction of up to 90% compared to a traditional garden hose.\n\n4. Fencing, Railings and Walls\n\nThese can be used to stop or cut down any unwanted pedestrian or vehicular access, to\nprovide privacy, to give delineation between areas and so on. They can be low level such as\nwooden palisade fencing, or high level such as security fencing with concrete or metal posts\nand wire mesh. Wrought iron fencing can be finished with spikes or pointed designs, and\nfeatures such as razor wire and anti-climb paints used to reduce scalability.\n\nThere may be a requirement for retaining walls to prevent ground slippage or heave.\n\n5. External Fixtures\n\nThese are fixtures that may be installed for functional or aesthetic purposes outside the\nbuilding. The most common examples include:\n\na. Bollards\n\nUsed as an alternative to fencing to restrict vehicular access and as segregation between\n\npedestrians roads.\n\nb. Street furniture\n\nThis includes benches, bins, cycle stands, tree guards, lighting, signage, and so on. Within a\ntown or city environment the layout and manufacture of these features may be used to create\na period theme; for example, cast iron benches in a Victorian theme. Stainless steel or wood\nmay be used in more contemporary or natural designs or to aid durability.\n\nc. Shelters\n\nThese may be required to enhance external environments. Bespoke shelters are often supplied\nby manufacturers for a range of purposes, from smoking shelters for office buildings, to cycle\nshelters, bus shelters, sports shelters and so on.\n6. External Drainage\n\na. Foul drainage\n\nAbove-ground pipework is referred to as sanitary pipework, whilst underground pipework is\n\nreferred to as foul drainage and sewers. Both carry the used water from toilets, sinks, basins,\nbaths, showers, bidets, dishwashers and washing machines.\n\nb. Surface water drainage\n\nThis carries water from rain, condensation and melted snow/ice from structures. The above-\nground guttering and rainwater pipes are referred to collectively as roof drainage. The\nunderground pipework is referred to as surface water drains and surface water sewers.\n\nc. Sustainable urban drainage systems\n\nSustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are systems designed to efficiently manage the\ndrainage of surface water in the urban environment. They provide an alternative to, or\naddition to, traditional drainage systems where surface water is drained directly and quickly\ninto underground piped drainage. SUDS may include; filter strips and drains, swales,\npermeable surfaces, basins and ponds, underground storage, wetlands and so on.\n\n7. External Services\n\nExternal services might include:\n\na. Water mains supply.\n\nb. Electricity mains supply and distribution.\nc. External transformation devices (wind turbines, solar panels, satellite dishes).\nd. Gas mains supply.\ne. Telecommunications and other communication system connections.\nf. Fuel storage and piped distribution systems.\ng. External security systems.\nh. Site/street lighting systems.\ni. Irrigation systems.\nj. Local/district heating installations.\n\nEnsuring that utilities are supplied to developments is vitally important, not just for the\ncompleted development, but also for the construction process itself. Developers will need to\nensure that existing site information is obtained, and surveys carried out to determine the\nposition, extent and capacity of existing services. They will need to agree with the provider,\nthe design of any new infrastructure that is required, who will provide it, who will adopt it,\nand any charges, as well as the appropriate testing, inspection, certification, connection (or\ndisconnection), installation of meters and so on.\n\nThe costs associated with utilities can be significant, both in terms of the initial capital cost of\ninstallation (particularly if there is no existing supply or if the existing supply is inadequate)\nand ongoing bills during operation. It is important therefore to ensure that the best deal is\nbeing obtained from providers and that alternative quotes are obtained if possible.\nDuring mobilisation for construction, the contractor will need to arrange for the necessary\nwater, power and telecommunications services to enable the site to function.\n\n8. Minor Building Works and Ancillary Buildings\n\nThere may be a requirement for buildings to serve the site during the course of the\nconstruction works, these are generally removed upon completion, such as storage facilities,\nsanitary conveniences, washing facilities, changing rooms and lockers, canteens, site offices\nand so on.\n\nMinor building works might also include works such as underpinning existing buildings and\n\nFunction of External Works.\n\na. Preservation of the environment\nb. Solid and liquid waste management\nc. Contributing to air purification\nd. Provision of an aesthetically pleasing environment\ne. Provision of good landscape environment that positively influence the psychology and\nmood of people.\nf. Providing an outdoor recreation.\ng. Encouraging social interaction.\nh. To ensure proper circulation for both pedestrian and vehicular movements around the\n\ni. To drain surface water efficiently\n\nj. To provide security to buildings\n\nFencing is used to form boundaries between lands of different occupiers.\n\nFunctions of fencing\nFences and hedges are used in building to provide:\na. Security\nb. Excluding the view of the building surrounding from outside\nc. It limits the accessibility to the building to the specified or accepted entrance\nd. Fences are used to form boundary land of different occupiers\n\nFactors That Influence the Choice of Fence\n\na. Appearance\nb. Durability\nc. Maintenance and initial cost\nd. Effectiveness\n\nTypes of Fence\na. Palisade fence\nb. Chain link fence\nc. Closed boarded fence\nd. Post & rail fencing\n\na. Palisade Fence\nThis consists of concrete and posts supporting two or three arris (pre-treated sawn timber) or\ntriangular rails, according to the height of the fence, and vertical pales or palisades.\n\nb. Chain Link Fence\n\nThese are widely used as they are economical and form a very effective boundary, although\ntheir appearance is not very attractive. The chain link consists of a diamond-shaped mesh\nwith average mesh size of 50 mm and average 3 mm diameter finished with a galvanized or\nplastics coating or using aluminium wire. The chain link is tied with wire to mild steel line\nwires of 2.5 to 4.75 mm diameter. Posts may be reinforced concrete, steel or wood. The line\nwires are pulled tight with straining fittings at straining posts and intermediate posts are\nprovided at intervals not exceeding 3 m. The sizes of the posts vary with the height of the\n\nc. Close-Boarded Fence\nThese are both attractive and effective but have an initial high cost. The posts may be of\nconcrete or timber or steel. They should be 600 to 750 mm in the ground. The timber used\nshould have weathered tops and mortices to receive rails. They are normally spaced at 3 m\ninterval. The rails are usually triangular in section. The boarding usually consists of vertical\npales about 100 mm wide. The pales are nailed to the rails with 50 mm galvanized nails. A\nhorizontal gravel board is often fixed below the pales to prevent their bottoms from being in\ncontact with the ground with the liability to decay.\n\nd. Wooden Post and Rail Fence\n\nThis type of fence consists of posts with pointed bottoms for the purpose of driving. The rails\nare often rectangular in section. This type of fence have reasonable durability and is also\nattractive and of moderate cost. However, they do not provide effective division as people,\nanimals and objects can pass through it.\n\nline of communication using a stabilized base other than rails or air strips open to public\nroads, but not cycle paths.\n\nRoad Construction\ndeforestation) and followed by the laying of pavement material.\nStorm drainage and environmental considerations are a major concern therefore erosion and\nland zoning and storm water system.\nHowever, sizes of road are determined by the purpose for which the road is been built.\nExamples includes\n\na. Normal Estate Road: it is characterized by a width of about 5m and can be increased\n\nto 6m where a large volume of traffic is to be carried.\nb. Large Housing Estate: it is characterized by a width of about 6m and can be increased\nto 7m where a large volume of traffic is to be carried.\nc. Private Drives and Access to Garage: it is characterized by a width 2.5m- 3.0m wide.\n\nLongitudinal gradient must be kept within reasonable limits such as 1 in 20 and 1 in 250. If\nthe gradient is too flat it will be difficult to remove the surface water, and if it is too stiff it\nbecomes difficult to negotiate in snowing and frosting weather. Vertical curves must be\ndesigned to provide a suitable parabolic curve linking the two gradients, with the levels\nnormally determined at 6.0m intervals. Roads can be constructed with a chamber or a cross\n\nThe road construction method can be broadly sub divided into two main groups:\na. Rigid road: constructed of concrete road slab\nb. Flexible road: consisting of stone base with a surfacing of tar or bitumen coated\n\nFactors affecting road construction\n\na. Types of sub grade\nb. Liability to subsidence (settlement of the soil)\nc. Initial cost\nd. Maintenance cost\ne. Appearance\nf. Resistance to wear\ng. Non-skid qualities\n\nIt is a line of stone or concrete forming an edge between a pavement and a roadway, so that\nthe pavement is some millimetre above the level of the road\nThe most common form of kerbs is in pre-cast to B5 3406 and may incorporate Portland,\nblast furnace or high aluminium silicate and a natural stone or slag (aggregate) and it may be\nManufacturing process includes:\na. Cast vibrate\nb. Hydraulically pressed (HP)\nHowever hydraulically pressed produces the strongest kerbs. Precast- concrete kerbs are\n900mm along and in four (4) standard sections.\na. Bullnosed (with 15-19mm radius edge)\nb. Splayed (75mm deep by 75mm wide)\nc. Half battered (100mm deep)\nd. Half section (half battered) (HB)\n\nFunctions of kerbs\na. Resist lateral thrust to carriageways\nb. To define carriage limit\nc. To direct the flow of surface water\nd. To support and protect foot path and verges\nFootpath (Pathways)\nFootpath and path area can be constructed with variety of materials and the choice will be\ndetermine largely by such factors as:\na. Initial cost\nb. Maintenance cost\nc. Appearance\nd. Wearing properties\ne. Non-skid properties\n\nMaterials used for footpath construction include the following\n\na. Precast concrete paving slab\nAdvantage: Non-skid; Good appearance; Hard bearing\nDisadvantage: Expensive in initial cost and mantle cost; Can soon been dangerous with slight\nsettlement; Easily damaged by vehicles mounting kerbs.\n\nb. In-situ concrete\nAdvantage: Reasonably cheap; Can be coloured; Reasonably hard bearing if concrete of good\nquality is used; Reasonably non-skid.\n\nc. Bituminous Macadam or Tar Macadam\n\nAdvantage: Reasonably priced; Hardwearing; Non-slip; Flexible; Fairly easily maintained;\nReasonable appearance\nDisadvantage: Periodic surface dressing required; Need path edging at back of path\nd. Asphalt\nAdvantage: Good appearance; Hardwearing; Reasonably Non-slip; Fairly easily maintained\nDisadvantage: Fairly expensive; Path edging at back of path.\n\nThe width of a footpath may vary from 1.35m – 1.8m in housing estate and may increase to\nas much as 6.0m in shipping centres.\n\nSeptic Tank or Sewage Treatment Plant\n\nA small sewage treatment plant consists of septic tank and filter bed. The foul water is first\ndrained to the septic tank usually large enough for 48hrs flow in which the solid organic\nmatters are broken down by the action of anaerobic bacteria and in which the solid organic\nmatters settle to the bed of the tank hard water forms on the surface of the liquid as scum in\nthe septic tank as a subsequence of the bacterial action. This scum is an effective seal\nbetween the liquid and the air in the tank.\nIn operation a septic tank is like a cesspool, as in both, solid matters settle to the bed of the\nchamber. The term septic tank and cesspools are often interchanged. The liquid from the\nseptic tank drains to the filter bed designed to expose the liquid to as large an area of air as\npossible, where the action of anaerobic bacteria breakdown the residual organic compound by\noxidation. The resulting purified liquid is then discharged to a river or stream or to soak away\nor nearby land. For efficient operation this septic tank plant needs regular attention.\n\nNecessary care in use\n\na. The sludge should be collected from the bed of the septic tank in about a six monthly\nand carted away or used as fertilizer.\nb. The filter medium of the filter bed should be washed every year. The treatment plant\nmay be built of either bricks in concrete bed or of precast concrete.\n\nFunctions of septic tank\n\na. Settlement of solid\nb. Floatation of grease\nc. Storage of sludge\nd. Decomposition of effluence\ne. Discharge of methane and other gases\nf. Anaerobic decomposition of accumulated organic matters.\n\nInspection Chamber (IC) and Manhole\n\nThe IC is purposely made for inspecting, testing and clearing of blockage in the underground\nIt is a fabric-lined pit for drain function and change of direction or gradient in a drain line. It\nis built where blockage in drain line can be opened.\nThe IC provides access to inspect the flow in the drain line and if necessary, it could serve as\na means of testing drain lines. The traditional clay drainpipes were liable to blockage due to\nmisalignment of many joints or fractures of the pipes, and their rigid cement joint, and there\nwas therefore advantage in constructing IC at fairly frequent intervals. Today the use of pvc\npipes reduces that problem associated with the traditional clay pipes.\nAn IC is a small shallow clause sufficient to clear blockage from above the ground; while a\nmanhole is a deeper chamber, large enough for man to go into clear blockage.\nInspection Chamber\n\nsssConstruction process of Inspection chamber\n\nAn inspection chamber is formed on 150mm concrete base on which brick walls can be laid.\nA half round channel or “invert” laid on the bed takes the discharge from the branches drain.\nThe wall of the chamber are made of dense engineering bricks; if less dense bricks are used,\nthen the chamber is rendered to facilitate cleaning, and sometimes rendered outside to prevent\nthe infiltration of ground water. The IC is completed with cast iron cover or reinforced\nconcrete slab cover.\nThe word ‘invert’ is used to describe the lowest level of the inside of a channel in an I.C or\nthe lowest point of the inside of drainpipe. The measurement to the invert of a drain is used to\ndetermine the gradient of the drain.\n\nTypes of drainages\na. Separate system\nb. Combined system\n\nSubsoil drainage include: grid system, fan system, mot system. Etc.\n\nDrains can be classified using the materials from which they have been made into the\na. Block work drain\nb. Concrete drain\nc. Rubble drain\n\nMembers of the Building Team & Their Functions\n\na. Client\nb. Architect\nc. Quantity Surveyor\nd. Consulting Engineers\ne. Contractor\nf. Clerk of Works\ng. General Foreman\nh. Sub-contractor\ni. Suppliers\n\na. Client\nThe employer or the client is one of the parties to any contract, the client is also referred to as\nthe building owner. The client/employer may be the government, an agent of the government,\na corporate body, an institution, a group of persons or an individual. He is the one who\ncommissions the construction project and bears responsibility for the cost of the work. In\norder to ensure that his interests are safe-guarded. The employer will offer ready assistance to\nvarious consultant who would act on his behalf from inception to the completion of the\n\nb. Architect\nTraditionally the architect is usually regarded as the leader of the building team since, he is\nthe one that normally receives the commission to design and supervise the whole of the work\nof his client. However, since the whole concept of designing and constructing building\nproject is an enormous task, the architect would often require the assistance of several other\nmembers of the building team to be able to perform his role.\n\nFunctions of the Architect include the following:\n\n1. Interpretation of the client’s brief as well as helping the client to evolve the brief\n2. Preparation of the preliminary and detailed design\n3. Supervision of works during construction, including ensuring that the work is carried\nout in accordance with the contract document.\n4. Arranging the contract, preparation of tender document and obtaining quotation or\ntenders from the contractors\n5. Liaising with the statutory and planning bodies, other consultants and obtaining\nplanning permission\n6. Coordinating the activities of everyone involved in the project.\n\nIn building contracts, the architect wields considerable power and responsibilities,\n\nexample of such powers and/or responsibilities are:\n\n7. Certifying payments to the contractor.\n\n8. Issuing variation orders and other instructions when necessary\n9. Directing how professional sums are to be spent\n10. Nomination of sub-contractors and suppliers\n\nHowever, it is important to note that the architect is not only a professional adviser to the\nclient but also an agent of the client, thus much of the success or failure of a project will\nlargely depend on the way the architect carries out his functions.\n\nc. Consulting Engineers\nThis includes structural and services engineers who are normally commissioned by the client\nthrough the architect to carry out the design, preparation of the relevant tender documents,\nobtaining quotations or tenders and supervision during construction of certain specialized\nareas of building projects. For example, structural works, mechanical and engineering\ninstallations such as lifts, air conditioning installations etc, and electrical engineering\nThe architect’s knowledge and experience in this area of the works are usually insufficient to\ncover this function especially on large and complex building projects hence they require the\nassistance of such consultants.\n\nd. Quantity Surveyor\nThe quantity surveyor is a member of the building team who by the nature and background of\nhis professional training performs the following functions.\nThe quantity surveyor is concerned with the cost and measurement aspects of building\nHe advises the architect on the cost implications of design decisions, prepares cost estimates\nand other tender particulars. He values the work done, sometimes for phases of the project as\nmaybe required, assesses the effect of variations and finally prepares the final account with\nwhich the architect certifies final payment.\n1. Preparation of bill of quantities\n2. Preparation of cost estimates\n3. Cost planning\n4. Preparation for tender documents\n5. Advises on suitable tendering procedures and contract arrangements\n6. Examination of tender documents\n7. Valuation of work in progress\n8. Provides advice on financial implications\n9. Preparation of final accounts\n10. Preparation of cost analysis of a completed project\n11. Cost control\n\ne. Others Consultants\nThese includes the landscape architect, interior designer and decorators, acoustic consultants\netc. Their services may be engaged in a building project to advise the architect, design and\nundertake other responsibilities in their areas of specialization from inception to completion.\n\nf. Clerk of Works\nThe clerk of works is appointed by the building owner or the architect. He acts as an\ninspector for the employer under the direction of the architect. He is therefore an agent of the\nclient. The clerk of works is usually a craft operative with a wide experience and knowledge\nof building works whom the architect delegates some of his supervisory responsibilities to.\n\nFunctions of the Clerk of Works\n\nThe functions of the clerk of works include the following\na. Inspection and supervision of the work on site to ensure that they comply with the\ncontract document and the architect.\nb. Recording and agreeing details of the works below ground.\nc. Signing of labour and material sheets for day works and fluctuation purpose. He\nchecks to see that the amount of labour and number of hours shown on the labour\nsheet and the quantity of materials indicated on the material sheet are correct,\nd. Carryout other task or responsibility as the architect may require.\n\nMain Contractor\nThe main contractor is the other party in a building contract who undertakes to carryout and\ncomplete the works in accordance with the contract document within an agreed period. In\naddition, the contractor is responsible for and should co-ordinate all operations on the site,\nincluding those of the sub-contractors.\nThe contractor is expected to comply with all statutory requirements of building regulations;\nhe is also required to take measures against fire, natural disasters and possible injuries to lives\nand property.\nAny person or persons acting, as a main contractor should possess the necessary facilities,\nresources and expertise required to carryout construction work.\n\nSub - Contractors\nSub-contractors are employed in building contract projects to undertake specialist works for\nthe following reasons:\n1. Where it is felt that a cheaper and higher standard of workmanship could be achieved\n2. Where the main contractor is not sufficiently capable of carrying out such specialist\nWorks, examples which include\na. Piling work,\nb. Mechanical installations,\nc. Plumbing installation,\nd. Electrical installation, and\ne. Erection of structural steel works.\n\nSub-contractors are usually of two types\n\n1. Nominated sub-contractors\n2. Domestic sub-contractors\nNominated sub-contractors are appointed directly by the client or the architect.\nDomestic sub-contractors are employed by the main contractor on his own initiatives.\nUsually a sub-contract will be entered between the main contractor and the nominated sub-\n\nSuppliers in any building project are those firms, manufacturers, persons who provide and\ndeliver building materials and components to the site but are not responsible for fixing or\nincorporating them into the project.\nA contract is an agreement entered by two or more parties, whereby one of the parties\nundertakes to do something in return for something to be undertaken by the other.\n\nTypes of Building and Civil Engineering Contracts\n\nThere are a variety of employer/ contractor relationships and the choice will be influenced\nconsiderably by the circumstances.\n\nTypes of building contracts:\n\n1. Cost plus percentage contracts are those in which the contractor is paid the actual\ncosts of the work plus an agreed percentage of the actual or allowable cost to cover\noverheads and profits.\n2. Cost plus fixed fee contracts are those in which the sum paid to the contractor will be\nthe actual cost, incurred in carrying out the work plus fixed lump sum, which has been\npreviously agreed upon and does not fluctuate with the final cost of the work.\n3. Cost plus fluctuating fee contracts are those in which the contractor is paid the actual\ncost of the work plus fee, the amount of the fee being determined by reference to the\nallowable cost by some form of sliding scale as a result of fluctuation and variation.\n4. Direct Labour is such that the client deals directly with labour himself, he buys the\nmaterials and pays the wages of the labour.\n5. Piece Work is that which the contractor gets paid for units built.\n6. Target Cost is when a limit or ceil is put to the cost of construction.\n7. Turnkey is the contract type where the client sits back and while the contractor\ncarries out his duties and gets paid upon completion of the project.\n8. Design and Build constitute a specialized form of contractual relationship in which\nresponsibility for design as well as construction is entrusted to the contractor.\n\nVariation and Fluctuation\n\nVariation in cost of construction is induced by the client as a result of alterations in the design\nwhile fluctuation is as a result of external factors like increase in price of items.\n\nTendering is the process of finding, agreeing terms and acquiring goods, services or works\nfrom an external source via competitive bidding process. It is done to determine who is best\nfor the job vis-à-vis time of delivery, quality and experience. Tendering comes up after the\ncompletion of drawings.\n\n\nIt is commonly believed that tenders can be obtained by three basic methods viz: open,\nselective, and negotiated. However, it is necessary to consider the method by which such\ntender is obtained. Such methods had increased in various directions these days as variations\nwithin the above types so much so that they can be accurately identified as special method of\nTherefore the following are common practice:\n\na. Open Tendering\nThis type of tender is thrown open to all and sundry. The advertisement in the daily\nnewspapers, radio and television inviting all interested contractors to come forward and\ncollect tender document, previously described, for the purpose of submitting quotations for a\nparticular contract. Often, such advertisement can state the category of contractors expected\nto collect such tender documents.\n\n1. It gives opportunity for all and sundry to take part,\n2. It gives widest range of selection,\n3. It eliminates the possibility of ring formation or collusion,\n4. It makes public accountability possible,\n5. It creates opportunity for unknown contractors to become known, especially when he\nis successful.\n6. It allows keen competition which may produce cheaper tender figure,\n7. It is an opportunity to get genuine tenderers who are interested in the project.\n\n1. It involves excessive paperwork, as so many contractors will tender. The cost of these\nlithographic papers will add enormously to the client’s cost of the tender. Though\ndeposit is received from each tenderer, this only defrays part of the cost and not all. If\ndeposits are refunded, the situation becomes worse,\n2. It wastes a lot of estimator’s time: since only one tenderer will be chosen. He will\nhave to be paid and this forms part of the contractor’s overhead charges and will be\npassed onto other tenders thus making their overhead charges higher,\n3. It takes longer time to conclude award procedure as so many tenders have got to be\n4. There is possibility of many contractors tendering which constitutes a waste of time in\nscrutinizing tenders.\n\nb. Selective Tendering:\nWhen project is too important to a client, he is most likely to prefer this type of tender. This\nis because it will assure him of good performance, which this type offers. The code of\nprocedure published by the National Joint Consultative Committee for Building gives a guide\nas to the number of contractors to be invited for tendering and it is graduated based on the\ncontract sum of the project.\n1. There is certainty of performance and good workmanship since known contractors of\ngood performance are invited to tender.\n2. Selection period will be short in comparison with open tender because limited number\nof documents will have to be examined\n3. Cost of tender documents is greatly reduced since few contractors are invited\n4. The contractors will be able to put in adequate profit and submit realistic tender.\n1. There is the possibility of ring formation. This is so because they are few and most\nlikely to know each other. They may decide to give the contract to agreed contractors\namong themselves and rotate it whenever such type comes up.\n2. The tender sum is most likely to be higher than open tender type. This is so because\nthey are high calibre contractors with high overheads and high profit margins and\nknowing that they are selected, they will take advantage of it.\n3. It is like a closed shop, since it is not open to all and only privileged few are invited.\n4. Some uninterested contractors may tender in order to keep their names on the list as\nsuch, there is no guarantee of genuine tender.\n\nc. Negotiated Tendering\nThis type can take various forms depending on the convenience and wishes of the client as\nmentioned in the following:\n1. It reduces time spent on tendering procedure and thus saves consultants time in terms\nof overhead cost,\n2. Work can commence early on site coupled with the possibility of completion on\nschedule, which will give early returns on the investment to the client,\n3. There is possibility of best quality work,\n4. There is saving on paperwork and cost of lithography,\n\n1. This type of tender will produce high contract sum, no matter how clever the quantity\nsurveyors is, because it is negotiated with one contractor, when even the contract sum\nis low at the onset, except the contractor abandons the site or poor workmanship\nprevails, the final figure is bound to be high,\n2. There is possibility of lesser public accountability as there may be little or no\njustifiable evidence to support the agreed sum,\n3. The contractor can take advantage of the client cost-wise as he is well known to him.\nSo also, the completion time in the same vein.\nd. Nominated Tendering\nThis type of tendering involves someone recommending a particular contractor to the\n\ne. Repetitive/Serial Tendering\nThis type is used in repetitive works of construction like housing estate projects. A\nclient naturally picks a contractor based on good record of past work(s) he has done\nfor the client.\n1. Acquisition of skills\n2. Standardization of the project parts\n\n1. Change of workers could cause damages and do away with all advantages\n\nIn summary:\n\ni. Open Tendering - any qualified contractor can bid for jobs\n\nii. Selective Tendering – a preferred list of tenderers are picked to bid for the job.\niii. Negotiated Tendering – the client negotiates with only one contractor.\niv. Nominated Tendering – someone recommends a particular contractor to the\n\nv . Repetitive/Serial Tendering – used in repetitive work, as a client naturally picks a\n\ncontractor based on good record of past work(s) he has done for the client.\n\nSite Layout and Organization\n\nThe construction of a building can be considered as the product being produced with a\ntemporary factory, the building site being the ‘factory’ in which the building contractor will\nmake the product. To enable this activity to take place, the builder requires men,\nmaterials/money and machines, all of which have to be carefully controlled so that the men\nhave the right machines in the most advantageous position, the materials stored so that they\nare readily available and not interfering with the general site circulation, and adequate storage\nspace and site accommodation.\nBefore any initial planning of the site layout can take place, certain preliminary works must\nbe carried out, preferably at the pre-tender stage. The decision to tender will usually be taken\nby the managing director or for small works by the senior estimator up to a contract value\nlaid down by the managing director. With given design and specifications, the best\nopportunity for the contractor to prepare a competitive and economic tender is the\nprogramming and planning of the construction activities. A thorough study of the bill of\nquantities will give an indication of the amount and quality of the materials required and of\nthe various labour resources needed to execute the contract.\n\nPlanning Site Layouts\n\nThe following should be considered\n Site activities\n2. Efficiency\n3. Movement\n4. Control\n5. Accommodation for staff and storage of materials.\nSite Activities\nThe time needed for carrying out the principal activities can be estimated from the data\nobtained previously for preparing the materials and labour. With repetitive activities\nestimates will be required to determine the most economical balance of units which will\nallow simultaneous construction processes; this in turn will help to establish staff numbers,\nwork area and materials storage requirements.\n\nTo achieve maximum efficiency, the site layout must aim at maintaining the desired output of\nthe planned activities throughout the working day. This will depend largely upon the\nfollowing factors.\n\n1. Avoidance, as far as practicable, of double handling materials\n\n2. Proper store-keeping arrangement to ensure that the materials are of the correct type,\nin the correct quantity and are available when required.\n3. Walking distances are kept to a minimum to reduce the non-productive time spent in\ncovering the distances between working, rest and storage area without interrupting the\ngeneral circulation pattern\n4. Avoidance of loss by the elements by providing time loss and cost of replacing\ndamaged materials.\n5. Avoidance of loss by theft and vandalism through the provision of security and by\nmaking the task difficult for the would-be thief or vandal by having adequate\nhoarding and fences.\n\nApart form the circulation problems mentioned above the biggest problem is one of access.\nVehicles delivering materials to the site should be able to do so without difficulty or delay.\n\nThis control should form the hub of the activities which logically develops into areas or zones\nof control radiating from this hub or centre.\n\nthis must be considered for individual sites, but certain factors will be common to all sites.\nAccommodation for staff is covered by the construction (Health and\nWelfare) Regulations 1966. This document sets types of accommodation which must be\nlegally be provided for the number of persons employed on the site for the anticipated\nduration of the contract.\n\nFire Prevention and Protection\n\nFire constitutes a great hazard both in the industry and at home. It has caused loss of huge\nsums of money and numerous irreparable damages to human both physically and mentally. It\nis therefore extremely important that we take all necessary measures to prevent fire\n\nHow fire occurs\n\nFire or combustion is a process of burning. It is the interaction of a combustible substance in\noxygen at the appropriate temperature, resulting in the production of a flame. Simply put, fire\ncan be viewed as a reaction involving three elements. The elements are:\na. Fuel- (combustible materials)\nb. Air- (oxygen)\nc. Heat- (igniter)\nThe three elements must be present in the proper concentrations before fire can occur. This\ncondition for fire to occur is usually represented by a triangle popularly called the fire\n\nCombustible substance or fuel: A combustible (fuel) is any material that burns, solid fuel:\ne.g. wood, coal, paper, textiles, rubber etc.\n\nLiquid fuel: e.g. petrol, kerosene, diesel oil, cooking oil, paints, spirits etc.\n\nGaseous fuel: cooking gas (LPG) Methane Acetylene, Hydrogen, Butane etc.\n\nOxygen: oxygen is contained in atmospheric air in a proportion of about 21%. If this\n\npercentage falls below 16, the fire will start when other elements are present.\n\nHeat (igniter): heat is needed to raise the temperature of the fuel to its ignition temperature\nbefore it can burn. Since it is the vapour of the fuel that burns, heat is needed to produce the\nfuel vapour. This is why combustibles which are already gaseous or that vaporize at low\ntemperatures (e.g. petrol) easily cause fire outbreaks.\n\nMethods of fire extinction\n\nAll fire-fighting methods utilize one or more of the principles of extinguishing fire. Fire\nMitigation are based on three principles namely:\na. Cooling\nb. Smothering\nc. Starvation\n\na. Cooling:\nThis is the removal of heat from the fire so that its temperature falls below the ignition\ntemperature of the fuel concerned. This can be achieved by applying an agent, which absorbs\nheat. Water is the most effective absorber of heat that is used in firefighting.\n\nb. Smothering:\nThis is the removal or limiting of the supply of oxygen to the fire. This can be achieved by:\n1. Covering the burning area with fire blanket or metal lid e g Burning fry pan\n2. Throwing chemical powder, sand or dirt on the fire\n3. Covering fire with foam\n\nc. Starvation\nThis is the removal/reduction of the fuel or the combustible materials that the fire can spread\n\nFire prevention and protection\n\nFire outbreaks can prevented by:\n1. The absence one of the elements required for fire formation.\n2. Absence of the appropriate amount of the three elements required for fire formation.\nSources of heat\n1. External flames: - Matches, Lighters, Cigarettes, Electrical or Gas rings, Lanterns,\nBurners etc.\n2. Sparks: - static electricity, electrical sparks, mechanical sparks, friction, combustion\nsparks from engines’ exhausts etc.\n3. Hot Materials: - Hot metals, embers, exhaust pipes, red-hot electrical filaments etc.\n\nFire Preventive Measures\n\nFire preventive measures include the following:\n1. Sources of ignition should not be near fuels or in an atmosphere that might be\n2. NO SMOKING signs should be displayed and enforced in work places where there is\ndanger of fire outbreak\n3. Fuel leaks should not be allowed to fall on hot surfaces\n4. Vehicles with leaking tanks or leakage along any line should not be operated. They\nshould be repaired before use.\n5. Make certain that all workers using or handling flammables are aware of their\nproperties and hazards.\n6. Ensure that heat indicators in equipment are exposed\n7. Make sure no electrical wires in equipment are exposed\n8. Warning signals on vehicle panels should be observed frequently and complied with\n9. All job procedures must be strictly complied with\n10. Permits must be obtained before executing work in a dangerous/ restricted areas\n11. Every vehicle should have a fire extinguisher\n12. Every vehicle going into an area containing flammable atmosphere should be\nequipped with spark arrestor.\n\nFire extinguisher and fire fighting\n\nEvery operator is expected to know how to operate the portable fire extinguisher in his\nThis is important because when fire is attacked at its earliest stage, it will be prevented from\nspreading and causing more damage. This is especially true of fire involving petroleum\n\nClassification of fires\nFires are divided into four categories in the present day classification which is based on the\nfuel burning.\n1. Class ‘A’: These are fires of ordinary combustible materials such as wood, paper,\ntextile and rubbish.\n2. Class ‘B’: These are fires involving flammable liquids e.g. kerosene, (gasoline)\nlubricating oil, chemical liquids etc. and liquefiable solids e.g. grease\n3. Class ‘C’: These are fires involving gases e.g. methane, butane, propane, acetylene\nhydrogen etc.\n4. Class ‘D’: These fires occur in combustible metals such as magnesium, potassium,\nlithium etc.\n\nFire Fighting Equipment\n\na. Water\nb. Dry chemical powder\nc. Foam\nd. Carbon dioxide\ne. Vaporizing liquid (Halons)\n\na. Water:\nIt is the most effective extinguishing for many types of fire due to its abundance and cooling\npower. It is the best for class ‘A’: fires. The steam produced by the heat of the fire provides a\nconsiderable amount of smothering action. Water extinguishers are usually painted RED.\n\nb. Dry chemical powder\n\nThese are suitable for flammable liquids and all types of combustible materials, but are not\nparticularly effective on class ‘A’ fire which have become deep seated. Special powders are\nproduced for use on fires involving metals.\nDry chemical powder extinguishers are painted BLUE.\n\nc. Foam\nThis is effective on liquid fires. It forms a blanket of small bubbles over the burning liquid. It\nalso acts as a cooling medium. Foam extinguishers are painted with (CREAM whitish\nyellow) colour.\n\nd. Carbon dioxide:\nIt is usually in liquid form in a steel cylinder. It acts by diluting oxygen content of the air at\nand around the fire, so that the atmosphere will no longer support combustion. In other\nwords, it smothers. It has no cooling effect. It is applicable for electrical fires and class ‘B’\nfires. Carbon dioxide extinguishers are painted BLACK.\n\ne. Vaporizing liquid (Halons):\n\nThe halon acts to inhibit chemical reactions within the flame front. It rapidly knocks down\nthe flame. It can be used on any fire, but it has no cooling effect. Halon extinguishers are\nGREEN in colour.\n\nWhenever you notice fire:\n\n1. Raise an alarm or shout FIRE! FIRE!! FIRE!!!.\n2. Attempt to extinguish it using a fire extinguisher, but don’t endanger your life\n3. Get outside to safe place.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6148296594619751}
+{"content": "Gait training with real-time augmented toe-ground clearance information decreases tripping risk in older adults and a person with chronic stroke Academic Article uri icon\n\n\n  • Falls risk increases with ageing but is substantially higher in people with stroke. Tripping-related balance loss is the primary cause of falls, and Minimum Toe Clearance (MTC) during walking is closely linked to tripping risk. The aim of this study was to determine whether real-time augmented information of toe-ground clearance at MTC can increase toe clearance, and reduce tripping risk. Nine healthy older adults (76 ± 9 years) and one 71 year old female stroke patient participated. Vertical toe displacement was displayed in real-time such that participants could adjust their toe clearance during treadmill walking. Participants undertook a session of unconstrained walking (no-feedback baseline) and, in a subsequent Feedback condition, were asked to modify their swing phase trajectory to match a \"target\" increased MTC. Tripping probability (PT) pre- and post-training was calculated by modeling MTC distributions. Older adults showed significantly higher mean MTC for the post-training retention session (27.7 ± 3.79 mm) compared to the normal walking trial (14.1 ± 8.3 mm). The PT on a 1 cm obstacle for the older adults reduced from 1 in 578 strides to 1 in 105,988 strides. With gait training the stroke patient increased MTC and reduced variability (baseline 16 ± 12 mm, post-training 24 ± 8 mm) which reduced obstacle contact probability from 1 in 3 strides in baseline to 1 in 161 strides post-training. The findings confirm that concurrent visual feedback of a lower limb kinematic gait parameter is effective in changing foot trajectory control and reducing tripping probability in older adults. There is potential for further investigation of augmented feedback training across a range of gait-impaired populations, such as stroke.\n\npublication date\n\n  • 2014", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9516100883483887}
+{"content": "WeWork Goes Meat-Free\n\nWeWork is an American company that provides shared workspaces, technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses and large enterprises. The company, known for its innovative co-working space movement, has recently announced that it will no longer serve red meat, pork or poultry at company functions, nor will it reimburse employees for meals they order during lunch meetings that contain meat.\n\nIn a recent New York Times article, it was reported that the company’s decision to implement the new initiative was driven by concerns for the environment and animal welfare, as well as a way to ‘develop personal accountability.’ Co-founder and chief culture officer of WeWork, Miguel McKelvey, told the New York Times that going meat-free is only the first step, stating, “WeWork is only just getting started. The company is phasing out leather furniture, single-use plastics, and is going carbon neutral. In time, he said, the company will evaluate its consumption of seafood, eggs, dairy, and alcohol.”\n\nThe decision highlights a recent trend of private companies imposing corporate values on the personal lives of employees. As the Times article noted, “Hobby Lobby has refused to pay for birth control for its employees, citing the owner’s Christian values… In 2015, IBM banned employees from using ride-sharing apps, citing safety and liability concerns… And several big employers, including General Electric, have successfully paid employees to quit smoking. Scotts Miracle-Gro even has a policy of not hiring smokers, a move it says helps keep health care costs down.”\n\nWeWork’s new policy appears to be the first of its kind, in withholding a food group from employees. While the company is attempting to promote healthier and eco-conscious decisions, the employee reaction will be most crucial to the success of the initiative. McKelvey pointed out that “imposing his values on his employees is a natural part of being a corporate leader today.” However, as the Times article reported, while “there’s plenty of evidence that eating less meat is good for one’s health and the planet… [a] more effective way to promote healthy eating was to offer employees a variety of options.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7943494319915771}
+{"content": "Daisy Painted Vessel Sink\n\nDaisy Painted Vessel Sink\nProduct Code: Daisy Painted Vessel Sink\n\nAvailable Options\n\n* Fixture:\n\nQty: Add to Cart\n\n\n\nShips in 2-3 weeks.\n\n5 ( 5 / 5 )\nI love, love, LOVE my daisy designed sink. The design is beautiful and the colors are crisp and bright. It adds an elegant touch to our newly renovated small master bathroom. We also had the daisy design done on the toilet tank and lid. They also look fantastic. Lynn was amazing to work with. She patiently (and cheerfully) redesigned the sink (and toilet) at least six times, to accommodate my husband and my personal tastes and preferences. I highly recommend \"decoratedbathroom\". Ten stars would not be enough. Working with them was like a breath of fresh air in what was otherwise a very stressful experience. P.S. - The sink pictured is not my sink, but I will be posting pictures of my actual sink and toilet soon. Check back.\n\nWrite a review\n\nYour Name:\n\nYour Review: Note: HTML is not translated!\n\nRating: Bad           Good\n\nEnter the code in the box below:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.693803071975708}
+{"content": "What are the Akashic Records?\n\n\nSynchronicity: Key to Divination?\n\nSting and The Police were so fascinated by it that they named their final studio album after it. Carl Jung, the prominent Swiss psychologist, dedicated his career to it. What do these musicians and a world famous psychologist have in common? Synchronicity. Carl Jung created the word to identify \"the acausal connecting principle.\" What is… [Read More]\n\nOrigen: Spiritual Understanding Of The Bible Superior To Literal\n\n\"Not All Early Christians Believed The Bible Should Be Literally Interpreted…\" Origen (also known as Origen Adamantius) was a highly influential, early Christian scholar whose method of scriptural interpretation has been studied, praised, debated, and critiqued for almost two millennia. Born in Alexandria in c. 185, Origen began writing between the years 215 AD and… [Read More]\n\nSharpen Your Psychic Abilities\n\nPeople fall into three categories when it comes to psychic abilities: Those who think people can be psychic; people who think there are no such things as psychic abilities; and those who are just not sure. If you have come to the realization that you, and likely everyone else, has the capacity for some psychic… [Read More]\n\nGetting A Grip On Palmistry: Reading The Lines\n\nOne of the key elements in palm reading is the ability to read the principal lines on the hand. This means getting to know what the lines on the hand are called (terminology) and what each of the lines mean. This is an introduction to reading the key lines on the hand. In a previous… [Read More]\n\nA Better Understanding Of Magick And Spellcasting\n\nFew subjects have been the target of as much superstition and misunderstanding as magic (or magick as we shall refer to it in this article). This includes the various practices and spirituality associated with magick and spellcasting. Magick, spellcasting, Wicca and other Nature based spiritualities and practices have been maligned and, in many cases, persecuted,… [Read More]\n\nWas Socrates Psychic?\n\n\nSir Arthur Conan Doyle And Psychics\n\nSir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) may be most widely recognized as the creator of the legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes. However, Sir Arthur Conan Doye’s interests were wide and varied, and the success of the Sherlock novels, which assured him a substantial income, allowed him to devote considerable time to other pursuits which included an abiding… [Read More]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9286838173866272}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 5\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Number: R165411A\n\nLecturer: MR.W. ZIMUNYA\n\nAssignment 2: Due Date: APRIL 12, 2017\n\nQUESTION: Modern planning needs to deal with heterogeneous\n\nissues affecting society. Highlight five issues that are affecting\nsociety and discuss how planning can contribute to solving these\nissues . (50 marks)\n\n\nThe past half century has seen a growing and persisting demand towards developing more\nintegrated approaches to planning as a way to combat the notoriously complex and chronic rural\nand urban problems. A set of globally agreed goals that aim to end poverty and build a more\nsustainable world over the next 15 years were brought forth in an attempt to end the societal\nproblems which include conflicts, natural disasters, global warming, poverty, unemployment and\neconomic recession were agreed at the UN General Assembly in September 2015. Some of these\ndiffer whether the area is urban or rural and in this case, the most impacts is felt in the rural areas\nwhere the poorest are usually found. Economic growth is thus an essential ingredient of societal\ndevelopment. This essay is therefore a discussion of the different issues that are affecting\nsocieties and how planning can contribute to solving these same issues.\n\nTo start with, conflicts have been a major problem affecting societies mainly in the developing\ncountries. Some of the conflicts include structural conflicts which are about the distribution of\nresources and means of achieving objectives, and value conflicts including cultural, social,\ntraditional values. These conflicts are also land based where conflicts arise as to who is allowed\nto use the land, boundaries, ownership, theft and access routes to plots. There is also armed\nconflict most frequently related to the uneven geographical and social spread of development\ninherent in modernization approaches, development which channels public resources extremely\nunequally, usually reinforcing inequalities of natural resource endowments and history. These\nconflicts are not only about the negative as they can be an important force for positive change\nand can be managed to allow expression of views fully and peacefully. Underlying conflicts\nshould not be avoided. Complexity and diversity of each conflict differs and these conflicts lead\nto underdevelopment of communities and hence should be avoided. Sources of conflict should\ntherefore be eliminated for development to take place. Institutional frameworks to deal with\nconflicts should be set up and there should also be genuine engagement and respect between\nstakeholders. Acknowledging differences, committing to achieving the common goals, fairness,\naccountability and transparency is therefore pivotal.\n\nAdding on, poverty is another contemporary issue affecting societies which is also a multi-\ndimensional phenomenon (Chambers 1983). Aspects include material deprivation, isolation,\ndependence and subordination over land ownership, absence from organizations, lack of assets,\nvulnerability to natural disaster and insecurity. In Africa, while structural poverty has remained ,\nconjunctural poverty has increased dramatically as a result of war, drought, famine, and the\nfailure of states to substitute effectively for traditional or pre-colonial institutions (Shepherd\n1998). Socio-political explanations of poverty centre on the enormous growth of wealth and the\nmiddle classes in post-colonial societies. This wealth has been frequently accumulated by people\nwith access to the state, which has provided cheap land, credit, technology and protection for big\nbusiness. Therefore both sustainable agriculture, through its greater share of income accruing to\nlabour and its greater labour intensity , and the affirmation and development of common property\nand services, with equity considerations as part of the equation will alleviate poverty (Shepherd\n1998). Policy needs to be supportive not only to the credit agency, but also to more general\npoverty alleviation, income and employment objectives for credit based strategies to work.\nUrban poverty can also be alleviated through reducing the cost of the land and giving more land\nto urban agriculture in their land zoning.\n\nFurthermore, natural disasters including earthquakes, floods, drought, landslides, war, bomb\nblasts, chemical leaks are also affecting the present societies. Spatial levels and scope of disaster\nstriking differs from household, community, district up to the provincial levels. These lead loss\nof houses and other buildings and loss of production. A lot of resources can be required to\ncontain an outbreak of diseases for example meningitis or Ebola. The poor are more vulnerable\nto these disasters because they are less prepared for the specific event and this is critical in\nrelation to impact. The impacts of these disasters can be minimized through using the disaster\nmanagement cycle which includes the disaster phase where the event of the disaster takes places,\nresponse phase which is that period immediately following the disaster occurrence, recovery or\nrehabilitation phase where the immediate needs of the population are met, risk reduction or\nmitigation phase where the population has returned to predisaster standards of living and lastly\nthe preparedness phase which involves the development of awareness among the population on\nthe general aspects of disaster and how to behave in the face of a future disaster. Early warning\nsystems can be put in place, which also have four interlocking parts, risk knowledge, monitoring,\nresponse capability and warning communication.\n\nMoving on, land degradation is another societal problem in the present century. This has led to a\nlot of other global problems for example the ozone depletion. There is land degradation both in\nthe rural and urban areas where large pieces of land are cleared for agriculture in the rural areas\nand construction in the urban areas. An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year,\naccording to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The global growth\nof population, industrial production, and pollution in a limited world will steadily increase the\npressure for environmental innovation and the demand for corresponding processes and products\nas observed by (Janicke et al 2000). The carbon footprint is increasing mainly in the developing\ncountries where there are large sums of ancient cars which leave nothing but pollution behind.\nThis is leading to the depletion of the ozone layer leading to global warming. The heavy\nindustries and poor farming methods practiced lead to land degradation as they are all not\nsustainable. Some of this degradation is being caused by the increase in the human populations\nworldwide. There is therefore need to gravitate towards sustainability, maintaining the quality of\nthe built and the natural environment. Legislation and other measures like educating the people\non the advantages of having sustainable environments and good stewardship should be\nimplemented to prevent the degradation of the natural environment. Public participation should\nalso take place as it is no longer possible to be nave about participation because it has become a\nnecessity in development especially in the rural areas.\n\nUnemployment cannot be left out on the problems in the societies and is as a result of the\neconomic recession. This economic recession has made development aid to be difficult since\nthere are no funds to fund any development projects. A stagnant rural non-farm economy leads to\nunemployment, out-migration, the urbanization of poverty and the breakup of families. The\npeople especially in the rural areas can therefore employ themselves as they can be involved in\nresource management and many other agricultural activities. Planners in cities should spatially\nreserve space for the vendors and accepting that vending has come to stay, taking Zimbabwean\ncities for example. Capacity development, empowering the people in the rural areas for example\nthrough the command agriculture and also dividing the land into A1 and A2 trying to develop an\neconomy for the rural areas.\n\nAfter considering all these factors, it becomes clear that all these societal problems can hinder\ndevelopment in either the rural and urban areas if not given the full attention and the solutions\nneeded. The solutions provided through planning should therefore be followed to have\nsustainable development in these different societies.\n\nFincher, R. & Iveson, K. (2008). Planning and diversity in the city: Redistribution, recognition\nand encounter. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.\n\nFeresu S; Manjengwa J; Chimhowu A; (2012), Understanding poverty, promoting wellbeing and\n\nSustainable Development 16 districts Zimbabwe Institute of environmental studies, Harare.\n\nFriedmann, J. (1998). Planning theory revisited. European Planning Studies, 6 (3), 245-253.\n\nForester, J. (1999). Reflections on the future understanding of planning practice. International\n\nPlanning Studies, 4 (2), 175-193.\n\nHall, P. (1988). Cities of tomorrow: An intellectual history of urban planning and design in the\nTwentieth Century. London: Blackwell.\n\nMudimu E, (2006-2014); Impact of Environmental Change on Rural Livelihoods in Zimbabwe.\n\nThe Case of Hurungwe District Ward 13, Midlands University.\n\nSandercock, L. (1998). Towards cosmopolis: Planning for multicultural cities. New York: John\nWiley and Sons.\n\nSibanda (2011), married too soon; child marriage in Zimbabwe; the research and advocacy;\n\nStaff reporter, (2015), the financial gazette; 2 July; Harare.\n\nUpenyu 2017, water crisis in Chivi as boreholes dried up, Tellzim news 11/04/2017;", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9958202838897705}
+{"content": "Caparzo, with owner Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini and winemaker Massimo Bracalente, aims to make top quality products using meticulous and traditional techniques, while at the same time applying a modern outlook in its commercial relations with efficiency and capability.  More than thirty years have passed since the first vines were planted and the first steps in winemaking taken. In this period, Caparzo, bolstered by its background in the Brunello tradition and the different terroirs of the area, has proved its ability to produce wines with a creative flair and spirit of innovation that achieves top standards in quality. This explains why Caparzo wines have been chosen by the most famous restaurants in the world and are served at international meetings and official State banquets.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.565296471118927}
+{"content": "Psychiatristhow many psychiatrists in the us\n\nNational estimates for this occupation Industry profile for this occupation Geographic profile for this occupation. Industries with the highest published employment and wages for this occupation are provided.\n\nPsychiatrists are qualified to assess both the mental and physical aspects of psychological problems. People seek psychiatric help for many reasons. Most psychiatrists today provide a wide range of biological, While many people associate psychiatry with psychoanalysis, most psychiatrists today provide 18 or older (%) in the United States with a diagnosable mental illness in African American/black psychiatrists, however, are an exception. In addition, many have retirement plans with employer matches, vision, and.\n\nPsychiatrists are medical doctors, unlike psychologists , and must evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments, or strictly psychiatric. A psychiatrist usually works as the clinical leader of the multi-disciplinary team, which may comprise psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and nursing staff.\n\nPsychiatrists have broad training in a bio-psycho-social approach to assessment and management of mental illness. As part of the clinical assessment process, psychiatrists may employ a mental status examination ; a physical examination ; brain imaging such as a computerized tomography CT , magnetic resonance imaging MRI , or positron emission tomography PET scan; and blood testing.\n\nPsychiatrists prescribe medicine, and may also use psychotherapy , although the vast majority do medical management and refer to a psychologist or other specialized therapist for weekly to bi-monthly psychotherapy. These include the following: [1].\n\nFurther, other specialties that exist include: [2]. The United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties in the United States offers certification and fellowship program accreditation in the subspecialty ' Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry ' BNNP - which is open to both neurologists and psychiatrists.\n\nSome psychiatrists specialize in helping certain age groups. Pediatric psychiatry is the area of the profession working with children in addressing psychological problems. Other psychiatrists and mental health professionals in the field of psychiatry may also specialize in psychopharmacology , psychotherapy , psychiatric genetics , neuroimaging , dementia -related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD , sleep medicine , pain medicine , palliative medicine , eating disorders , sexual disorders , women's health , global mental health , early psychosis intervention , mood disorders , and anxiety disorders such as obsessive—compulsive disorder OCD and posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD.\n\nPsychiatrists work in a wide variety of settings. Some are full-time medical researchers, many see patients in private medical practices, consult liaison psychiatrists see patients in hospital settings where psychiatric and other medical conditions interact. While requirements to become a psychiatrist differ from country to country, all require a medical degree.\n\n\n\nThis adds one to two years of training. In the United Kingdom , psychiatrists must hold a medical degree. But mental health needs in communities across the country are becoming as critical, with no way of filling the void in sight.\n\nBehavioral health facilities, hospitals and addiction centers cannot find the psychiatrists they need. That report tracked more than 3, physician and advanced practitioner recruiting assignments the firm conducted from April 1, to March 31, Merritt says the demand for psychiatrists continues to be outpaced only by family doctors.\n\nThere are about 28, psychiatrists in the U. Offices of Other Health Practitioners. Home Health Care Services. New York. Rhode Island. District of Columbia. New Mexico. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA.\n\nNapa, CA. Staunton-Waynesboro, VA. Wichita Falls, TX. Toledo, OH. Tuscaloosa, AL. Oshkosh-Neenah, WI. Stockton-Lodi, CA. Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL. Florence, SC.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9871202111244202}
+{"content": "Rupert Brandt and Peter Cawston recently joined Brown Advisory, bringing with them the Latin American strategy they have managed for more than a decade. In this conversation, the two portfolio managers share their perspectives on a market in which they’ve invested for a combined 28 years, and why they view Latin America as one of the last great untapped investment opportunities in the world.\n\nQ: Can you provide some basic context on the Latin American opportunity?\n\nWell, first things first—this is a big economy and a big opportunity. We are essentially talking about six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Brazil on its own is roughly equal to India in terms of GDP. Taken together, these six countries have a population approaching half a billion people, and produce just under U.S. $5 trillion in GDP1.\n\nA powerful long-term economic transformation is in progress in Latin America. The dictatorships, currency pegs, hyperinflation and guerilla warfare of the 1980s have gradually been replaced in these six countries by democracy, floating currencies, independent central banks and, for the most part, peace. Inflation is a particularly clear window into the transformation in the region; in five of these six countries, inflation has fallen from the 100% range in the 1980s and early 1990s, to low single digits today (Argentina is much earlier in its transformation but following the same model). Middle class growth (from barely 20% of the population in 2002, to more than 35% today2) is also transforming Latin America. In addition to its greater purchasing power, the middle class also has something to lose and is thus, in our view, more supportive of governments with pro-business approaches.\n\nLatin America is one of the last big markets in the world to mature, and we see the potential for top-line growth similar to that of emerging Asia in recent years, possibly with much better bottom-line results. Asia’s GDP growth has often failed to translate into high returns on invested capital (ROIC) for Asian companies. One reason is the ease with which Asian companies can borrow, leading to high debt levels in many cases. In Latin America, high interest rates were the norm for many years, so the best management teams there have real discipline around generating a return on invested capital greater than the cost of capital. This helps them transfer GDP growth more readily to their bottom lines.\n\nLatin America is Growing Rapidly―Especially Outside of Brazil and Mexico\n\nDespite various economic challenges faced in the region over the past twenty years, Latin America's economic growth has outpaced that of developed markets. Notably some of the fastest growth is in Peru, Colombia and Chile―these countries are a notable weighting of Brown Advisory's Latin American Strategy relative to the Latin American indexes. The portfolio information provided is based on a representative account and is provided as supplemental information.\n\nReal GDP Growth Rate by Country/Region (12/31/2000―12/31/2017)\n\nReal GDP Growth Rate by Country/Region (12/31/2000―12/31/2018)\n\nSource: Bloomberg. Growth rates cited in the right column are annualized.\n\nQ: You’ve covered Latin America for 20 years. Why do you think the opportunity is particularly attractive now? Conversely, what are some potential downside risks?\n\nWe think that today is a great point of entry into Latin America. First, the region appears to be at an early point in its economic cycle. Latin American economic upturns in the postwar era have all lasted at least five or six years, and this cycle looks particularly promising as all six of our economies are poised to benefit from recent structural reforms, and their currencies are attractively valued vs. the U.S. dollar which should help them compete globally in our view. Corporate margins are not above long-term averages. Economic policy in the region, in our view, offers a fairly benign outlook—interest rates are reasonable (with the notable exception of Argentina), private sector debt is relatively low, and Latin America is not unwinding a major quantitative easing program like many other regions.\n\nSecond, we believe that currencies in the region are undervalued. We do not try to forecast currency movements, but we always want a view on whether currency is more of a risk or opportunity at a given moment. Right now it appears to be an opportunity—the real effective exchange rate vs. the U.S. dollar is below its 20-year average in most of the markets in which we invest, despite the improved economic conditions in these countries.\n\nFinally, the valuation picture looks attractive in our view. Our portfolio has generated admirable earnings growth since the strategy's inception, and the companies we own were producing an adjusted 19% return on equity and had an adjusted 0.8x net debt/EBITDA ratio (excluding financials)3 as of late September 2018. Those are robust results for a portfolio trading at approximately 13x estimated adjusted 2019 earnings – a multiple that should rise if earnings accelerate as we expect3. We see this as an unusually low valuation at the beginning of an economic acceleration, offering incremental return potential for proactive investors. So we see all of these economic, currency and valuation factors converging to produce an attractive outlook over a five-plus year time horizon.\n\nThere are always risks in emerging markets, however. A recession in the developed world, a Chinese debt crisis, a retrenchment of commodity prices, or a reversal of positive structural trends in these countries--all of these are possibilities that could set Latin American markets back. And the region’s stock markets are still vulnerable to rapid inflows and outflows of foreign capital (an inherent challenge for any emerging market portfolio).\n\nTime has taught us to be patient about the \"two steps forward, one step back\" pattern that can play out in Latin America. Setbacks occur in different countries at different times, and these situations sometimes—not always—create opportunities for us to add alpha. The latest ongoing example is in Argentina. For the past several years, Argentina’s new pro-market government has been actively reforming the economy—deregulating prices, sorting out the fiscal deficit, sorting out inflation and encouraging private investment. A big part of the country’s economic story is rooted in its agricultural sector, and when it suffered its worst drought in 50 years in 2018, it triggered significant currency weakness and a selloff in its equity markets. The government has responded in an orthodox manner, taking steps such as raising interest rates sharply to stem inflation. We believe that the long-term fundamentals in Argentina are still very promising, and we expect to see the economy recover and re-establish attractive GDP growth in 2019. Given current equity valuations combined with a relatively inexpensive currency, we have had the opportunity to invest in some appealing Argentinian companies at attractive prices.\n\nThe Rise of the Latin American Middle Class\n\nThe middle-class explosion that has driven growth in emerging Asia is also occurring in Latin America. The percentage of Latin Americans with middle class incomes has risen dramatically since the early 2000s, which has led to a boom in consumer spending and, indirectly, the popularity of more market-friendly governments.\n\nMiddle Class / Poverty Population Trends In Latin America, 2003-2016\n\n(Expressed as % of population within daily USD spending ranges)\n\nThe Rise of the LatAm Middle Class\n\nSource: World Bank. Poverty level defined as income of approximately $5.50 USD per day or less; middle class defined as income between $13 and $70 USD per day.\n\nQ: Do you think investors need specific exposure to Latin America?\n\nWe think it makes sense to invest in Latin America, given the bottom-up opportunity and compelling valuations. But benchmark-driven emerging market (EM) strategies don’t offer a lot of Latin American exposure currently. These indexes are market-cap weighted and backward-looking in their construction, so they will not reflect a higher Latin American allocation until share prices have meaningfully rerated in response to the economic resurgence we are seeing in the region. For that reason, we think that investors seeking to capitalize on that resurgence are better served by having specific Latin American exposure.\n\nThat being said, we think our value-add is more rooted in stock selection than in regional exposure. We focus primarily on absolute returns, and don’t guide the portfolio relative to any benchmark. One of our portfolio companies, Nutresa, is a good example—we own it for fundamental reasons, not because it gives us exposure to the region or to Colombia. Colombia offers tailwinds to be sure—it’s a free-market democracy where GDP per capita has grown 2.5x since 20004. But the bulk of our thesis is based on the company itself. We believe that it has excellent brand strength across its core categories including cold cuts, chocolate, pasta and coffee, leading to a 60% aggregate market share in Colombia, which accounts for 60% of its business5. It has a strong distribution network that gives it a competitive advantage against multinational entrants in our view. Moreover, comparisons with other countries strongly suggest that demand for Nutresa’s products will rise as GDP/capita and the middle class grow, so it has an immense runway for growth.\n\nQ: How does your strategy differentiate from other Latin American strategies?\n\nWe have a particular focus on \"underpenetration” in the portfolio (i.e., situations where an industry has not fully realized its potential in a given country). This focus leads us to companies that have the potential to capture, in essence, three sources of growth. As noted, we believe key Latin American countries are poised for attractive nominal GDP growth; underpenetrated industries offer the potential to grow faster than overall GDP; and finally, our research seeks to uncover companies that can gain share and grow faster than their industries. We believe this focus on underpenetration is a major reason why our portfolio companies have generated strong earnings growth since the strategy's inception, during a decade-plus period that we would describe as peak-to-trough for the region's economies. \n\nAdditionally, we believe that our benchmark-agnostic approach offers greater diversification of country and currency risk than benchmark-driven strategies.The MSCI Latin American Index is market-cap weighted, so Brazilian and Mexican companies can represent as much as 80% of the Index at times. The Index can also have meaningful weights in companies that we think are unattractive from a fundamental standpoint— state-owned businesses with poor governance influenced by politics, energy and other commodity companies, and companies in slower-growth sectors such as telecommunications. Petrobras—driven by the inherently unpredictable price of oil, and governed by political appointees that change with every election—is a good example; it's a large constituent within the Index, but it is not the kind of model we want to back with our clients’ capital.\n\nIn contrast, we seek to invest broadly across countries with solid long-term fundamentals and improving policy environments, and in high-quality growth stocks with long growth runways that operate in clearly underpenetrated domestic industries. Our portfolio is more diversified than the Index across the six major economies in Latin America (for example, Peru made up about 15% of our portfolio as of June 30, 2018, vs. only about 4% of the Index6). We only invest in \"private\" (i.e., not state controlled) companies with managers clearly aligned with shareholder interest; we don’t invest in state-controlled companies and we avoid commodity and low-growth stocks; and, we only invest in companies where we think long run results are relatively predictable and we believe that profits will compound well over time.\n\nA benchmark-agnostic approach will inevitably have periods when it exceeds and lags benchmark indexes that other strategies track more closely. However, over the long term our strategy has generated higher returns than the MSCI Latin American Index, at similar levels of volatility, since its 2006 inception.\n\nFinally, we believe that we know these markets very well after many years of visiting and investing in Latin America. There are about 100-150 companies of real interest to us. We each visit the region several times per year, so between us we usually spend 15-20 weeks a year in the countries we invest in and conduct 300-400 meetings with this select list of firms each year. In addition, we attend Latin American conferences and meet Latin American companies in London when they are doing non-deal roadshows (many come to London once or twice per year). So we’re very close to the data and to each company’s strategy and management team.\n\nQ: How can investors access the strategy?\n\nInvestors can access the strategy through the existing UCITS Fund or through a segregated mandate. In the U.S., the strategy is available via segregated mandate, and we have plans to launch an SEC-registered mutual fund in the near future. \n\n\n1Source: World Economic Outlook Database, April 2018, International Monetary Fund.\n2Source: The World Bank, LAC Equity Lab: Poverty – Poverty Rate. Data from 2000–2016 updated and published in April 2018.\n3Source: Bloomberg, Brown Advisory and broker estimates. Characteristics exclude cash and cash equivalents.The return on equity or ROE figure cited is an adjusted trailing 12-month weighted average. Companies with a negative ROE were removed from the calculation. The calculation is as of Sept. 19, 2018. Further details on calculation methodology are available on request. The unadjusted ROE is 17.0%. The unadjusted estimated 2019 earnings are 13.9x. The portfolio information provided is based on a representative account and is provided as supplemental information.\n4Source: International Monetary Fund.\n5Source: Grupo Nutresa Corporate Presentation/Fact Sheet.\n6Source: Brown Advisory.\n\n\n\nClick here to view Latin American Composite Disclosures\n\n\n\nReturn on Invested Capital (ROIC) measures a company's profitability in the context of the capital it invests in its business. It is calculated as NOPAT/IC; where NOPAT (net operating profit after tax) is (EBIT + Operating Leases Due 1-Yr)*(1-Cash Tax Rate) and IC (invested capital) is Total Debt + Total Equity + Total Unfunded Pension + (Operating Leases Due 1-Yr * 8) –ExcessCash.\n\n\nThe MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Latin America Index captures large and mid cap representation across 5 Emerging Markets (EM) countries in Latin America which include: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. With 109 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.\nAll MSCI indexes and products are trademarks and service marks of MSCI or its subsidiaries.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8883341550827026}
+{"content": "Target Throwing\n\nTarget Throwing\n\nTarget Throwing\nMarch, 2018\n\n\nCatching and throwing skills are an important component of many games and activities played by children at primary school level. It is important that children in the early years of schooling are given many opportunities to develop these skills to prepare them for the games and sports they may play as they move up through the school years.\n\nWhen teaching your child ball skills it is important to start at a level that your child can achieve and then slowly increase the level of difficulty. Increase the challenge slightly each time, but not too difficult, as this may impact your child’s confidence and motivation to practice. Remember to give lots of praise and encouragement!\n\n\n\nTarget Throwing\n\nWhen practicing throwing with your child, it is good to start with easily achievable targets, such a wide basin/bucket. Start with a distance your child will successfully throw into and then increase the distance (a foot at a time). Give your child a spot they must stand on or a line they must stand behind. Use different throwing items (big/small balls, beanbags, small soft toys etc.) and different targets (small/big targets and easy/difficult distances).\n\nUse a points system to make it fun, (easy targets= 1 point, medium targets = 3 points, difficult targets= 5 points). Set a target amount of points and then reward your child for reaching the goal (e.g. one sticker for 30 points)\n\n\ncontainerBean-Bag-Set_800 color\n\nThrowing Up/Down\n\nIf your child throws with poor direction it may be beneficial to emphasise to them the difference in throwing something up in the air vs. down towards the ground. Practice throwing a balloon UP in the air so it touches the roof if you are indoors. Practice throwing a tennis ball downwards so it will bounce on the ground before reaching a wall. Use a wall to practice throwing at different heights.\n\n\nThrowing underarm vs. overarm\n\nDepending on your child’s age and level they will adopt a different style throw.\n\nUnder- arm throw: Opposite foot to throwing hand steps forward. Dominant hand starts behind body and swings below waist. Release as hand points towards target.\n\nOver arm throw: Stand side on to target. Opposite foot to throwing arm forward. Throwing arm starts behind head, with elbow bent at 45 degree angle- ball held high. As ball begins to be moved forward, hips and shoulders rotate forward too for power. Throwing arm follows through, down and across body.\n\n\nNicola O’Reilly\n\n                                                                                                            Occupational Therapist", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998420238494873}
+{"content": "Mountainside Wellness is a leading provider of physical and occupational therapy services. We have a strong reputation for clinical quality, effective outcomes and positive customer service.\n\nOur highly trained staff of physical therapists, specialize in helping patients, including everything from post-operative rehabilitation to everyday aches and pains, by providing services that restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit permanent physical disabilities. We strive to restore function in a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere. Our goal is to restore, maintain, and promote overall fitness and health.\n\nWe develop rehabilitation programs that are focused on treating the “whole patient.” We establish functional goals, communicate those goals to the patient, and help the patient achieve those goals.\n\nThese programs are designed to teach patients how to relieve pain, restore function, and enhance health. Exercise instruction is the cornerstone to our rehabilitation programs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986603856086731}
+{"content": "Sunday, January 17, 2016\n\nClassical Mood Playlist\n\nAhhh, who doesn't love sleeping in and taking it slow on a Sunday afternoon? Since returning from sunny San Diego, I've been spending a lot of time indoors, curled up with Murakami's IQ84 (I'm currently on page 684/1157!) If you're anything like me and you like listening to relaxing, peaceful melodies while reading, here is a short playlist of all of my favorite mellow classical pieces for your listening and reading pleasure.\n\nIn Trutina from Carmina Burana - Orff\n\nPiano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 \"Emperor\" - Beethoven \n\nDawn - Dario Marianelli \n\nPiano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 - Tchaikovsky \n\nAh, non credea from La Sonnambula - Bellini (performed by Cecilia Bartoli)\n\nSymphony No. 3 in D minor: Sehr langsam: \"O Mensch! Gib acht\" - Mahler\n\nAve Maria - Schubert\n\nLiebesträume No. 3, Nocturne in A flat major - Liszt\n\nMore music posts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8710983991622925}
+{"content": "The Transition from Computer Aided Design to Building Information Modeling Assignment\n\nThe Transition from Computer Aided Design to Building Information Modeling Assignment Words: 4646\n\nBuilding Information Modeling (BIM) is defined by the U. S. General Services Association as “the development and use of a multi-faceted computer software data model to not only document a building design but also to simulate the construction and operation of a new capital facility or a recapitalized (modernized) facility.\n\nThe resulting Building Information Model is a data-rich, object-based, intelligent and parametric digital representation of the facility, from which views appropriate to various users’ needs can be extracted and analyzed to generate feedback and improvement of the facility design” [1] A building information model creates and manages changes to digital databases that capture and preserve building information for design, analysis, and simulation.\n\nDon’t waste your time!\nOrder your assignment!\n\norder now\n\nDespite its inception all the way back in the 1970s [2], BIM is only beginning to be embraced by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. This slow embrace can be attributed to the various barriers to entry BIM solutions have faced. These obstacles include, but are not limited to, previous problems of supporting software platforms, the lack of standards, and issues of interoperability. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with a clear background on the origins and characteristics of BIM, as well as its benefits.\n\nIn addition, this paper will offer insights into the technologies that make BIM possible, examples of BIM in use, and an outlook on its future. It is the author’s intention that readers of this paper (particularly those in the AEC industry) will be able to walk away with a better idea of how BIM might be integrated into their own building design processes. 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background With the incredible technological advancements over the course of the last several decades, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) ndustry has undergone revolutionary changes. Traditionally, all documents involved in any part of the building process have been paper-based and generated by hand. Therefore, these work products are much more prone to human error and inconsistencies. Moreover, if there are revisions, changes, checks to be made, all work must be redone by hand, because the entire building process is an iterative process. At each phase of the process—pre-design, design, post-design, building/construction—new building documents must be created, making the entire process much more laborious.\n\nFar too much time was wasted just producing building documents, instead of spending more time on making better designs. Just as the manufacturing and service sectors have put technology to use, so has the AEC industry, becoming increasingly automated with the introduction and use of computer and software technology in the building process. 1. 2 Problem Setting and Scope (not complete) The AEC industry has faced many challenges in fully embracing and integrating IT solutions into the design, construction, and management of buildings and facilities.\n\nComputer Aided Design, or CAD, was the first step towards automating and digitizing the building process. This provided a means to encapsulating value-adding information to drawings through the CAD files’ layer, line-type, and block structures. This encapsulation process has proven to be costly and time-consuming, resulting in the use of CAD to being limited to modeling building drawings rather than the buildings themselves. As such, CAD drawings have limited ability to share and exchange building information as it changes throughout the design process.\n\nThis paper draws from a variety of academic, professional/trade, and popular sources, as well as the author’s own personal work experience using CAD in a professional, structural engineering setting. Its purpose is to provide laypeople, industry observers generally, and members of the AEC industry specifically with a basic overview of BIM as a concept, its role in the AEC industry, and the fundamental technology by which it is employed. 2. The Move Towards BIM Building Information Modeling is the process by which an object-oriented building/facility parametric data model is designed.\n\nThe concept of Building Information Modeling is nothing new. In fact, BIM has been researched by academics since the 1970s [2]. It has only been with recent advances in supporting technologies, however, that BIM has become a feasible solution for the design, analysis, construction, and management of a building or facility. Computer Aided Design, introduced in the early 1980s [3], still remains the most widely used computer-based design tool in the AEC industry. The following sections are intended to give a background on CAD, its limitations, and the growing trend towards BIM.\n\nIn addition, these sections will provide a description of the characteristics of BIM and the obstacles it still needs to overcome. 2. 1 Computer Aided Design Overview The integration of information technology solutions into the AEC industry had been a slow one. Since its introduction over twenty years ago [3], Computer Aided Design has been the most commonly used tool for the drafting of buildings and facilities within the AEC industry. There is currently a variety of CAD packages available, all based on object-oriented programming and range from simple 2D and 3D vector-based modeling solutions to 3D-object based solutions.\n\nAn object, from a computer science point of view, is a representation of real life objects in the form of the entities and procedures that make up those real objects [4]. Object data, behaviors, and all other characteristics of interest are represented in the form of object attributes. As an example, suppose there is a building object called ‘wall’. The associated attributes would be wall_height, wall_length, wall_material, etc. 2D and 3D vector-based CAD has been used primarily to generate digital building drawing sets, whose objects are made up of primitive drawing entities (lines, arcs, circles, etc. . These drawing entities only provide the geometrical data of the object they are representing. They are primitive entities in the sense that they neither store information on the real object they represent, nor do they store information on how to interact with each other. The obvious limitations of vector-based CAD therefore prompted a search for innovation that led to the introduction of the DWG file format, the standard for CAD file exchange, which has been one way of incorporating more substantial information into vector-based CAD.\n\nDWG files contain more than just primitive graphics data as they are able to encapsulate building information through their layering, line-types, color, and block structures. For example, similar (or even identical shapes, i. e. two circles) could appear on different layers and represent completely different building characteristics (a circle from one layer representing a column and that of another layer representing a skylight). Another example would be using dashed lines to represent a hidden object, i. e. the floor plan below a roof plan.\n\nThese encapsulation techniques demonstrate the benefits of DWG file exchange format, and suggest that all necessary building information can be stored within a vector-based CAD file. In some instances this may apply. For most projects however, making use of all these encapsulation techniques would increase the drafting and post-drafting processes [5]. As such, these encapsulation techniques are rarely fully implemented, and the resulting building designs made with vector-based CAD are hardly more than digital sketches with little downstream potential.\n\nIn spite of the clear drawbacks of the DWG file format, the idea of being able to imbed more information into a buildings design, paved the way for the emergence of object-based CAD in the early 1990’s [3]. These next-generation CAD systems were built on data models that contained object data versus the graphical information found in vector-based CAD drawings. The objects in these systems (i. e. doors, windows, walls, and even rooms) are able to store important building information such as time information that can be used for scheduling purposes and section information for automating the drafting process.\n\nProfessionals in the AEC industry soon began to realize the potential of the object-based CAD concept and that, if structured carefully, it could help automate the design process and integrate more than just scheduling into the their building design. Object-based CAD solutions never reached their full potential, however, as they are still primarily graphics-based and are not fully optimized to store and manage non-graphical building data [5]. A quick-fix solution has been the development of software add-ons in order to create custom attributes.\n\nThese add-ons allow users to incorporate object attributes that are not already included with the platform they are using. Add-ons have been beneficial in situations where one individual is missing a particular attribute needed by another and in alleviating platform to platform compatibility issues. 2. 2 BIM Characteristics Despite many attempts to construct a building information model on top of a CAD platform (i. e. Autodesk Architectural Desktop) [3], none have been fully successful. This has led to the increasing utilization of Building Information Modeling, or BIM, within the AEC industry.\n\nBIM is the development of a single, central object-oriented building information model from which all building information is accessed and managed. This parametric model is data-rich, and information can be extracted by all participants of the building team. Team members are able to choose the best way to interact with the building information model based their needs and requirements. This can be illustrated by referring to the architect, who would interact with the building information model through an elevation or floor plan view.\n\nIdeally, the building information model will work in the following ways. The BIM system will be composed of modules specific to the various disciplines of the team members involved. Standard modules include those for architectural, structural, construction, scheduling, and project management analyses. When a team member accesses the model, and tries to makes changes to a particular object, the BIM system will check to see if any other team members are currently working with that same object. If the object is free the system will assign it to the user.\n\nIn essence, the system locks the object allowing only the assigned user to make any changes to it. If the object is being used by someone else (user 1), the system notifies the new user (user 2) of actions currently being undertaken by user 1. At the same time, the system sends a message to user 1 asking if user 2 may borrow the object of interest. If user 1 responds with a yes, the system reassigns the object of interest from user 1 to user 2. Otherwise, as soon as user 1 completes their work, the system frees the object and notifies user 2 of its availability.\n\nAt this point, if user 2 elects to work on the object, the system assigns the object to that user, immediately preventing other users from manipulating it. The result is a system where multiple users are able to access a shared Building Information Model with a minimal possibility of resource conflicts. In the cases of large projects, the building information model can be broken down into logical groups. This methodology is especially useful for assigning responsibility to certain team members and limiting the access of others.\n\nLogical groups, or “worksets” [3], are assigned to users who work on them independently. After changes are made to the workset, the user submits it back into the building information model. In this way, the BIM is updated with the changes made by the user to their workset and at the same time, the user’s workset is updated to show any related changes made by other users. When the user is completely finished with their changes, their workset is released back into the master Building Information Model and is made available for others to manipulate it.\n\nIn effect, dividing the building model into worksets allows for concurrent design amongst the building team and avoids any resource sharing violations. There are many reasons for supporting the implementation of a BIM system [6]. First, data is based on one central model, which represents a building space composed of building objects. Unlike previous CAD-based models, which only store information about primitive graphical objects, building information models can store appropriate relationship data about the space object in question [7]. This is an integral component of the model.\n\nAnother reason is that BIM systems facilitate an easier, and less error-prone, means to managing and exchanging data between system users. The system delegates ownership of resources, which avoids resource conflicts throughout the design process. Finally, and perhaps the most important reason for implementing a BIM system, is the fact that Building Information Modeling provides a means of standardizing data. In an ideal scenario this would correspond to members of the design team being able to access the same building model regardless of the native file formats of their respective software platforms.\n\nThe current scenario of the AEC industry, however, is not ideal. 2. 3 Barriers The concept of Building Information Modeling, as previously mentioned, has been around since the 1970s [2]. Why then, with all its potential has it taken so long for BIM to become part of the mainstream? And, to dig deeper, one must ask: why is BIM still facing complications in its use and obstacles to its full implementation? The answers to these questions are three-fold.\n\nFirst, just as with implementing any new technology, changing from the customary CAD platform to a BIM platform requires significant investment, in terms of financial cost, training, and coordination with clients and other team members. The second reason, based on the views of this author who works as a CAD draftsman for a structural engineering firm, is that many architects look upon BIM as simulation and analysis tool that robs the design process of any artistic expression. Thirdly, and probably the most compelling reason why BIM has yet to reach its full potential, is issues with compatibility.\n\nThis is because most BIM packages are provided by commercial vendors, and are built on proprietary internal data models. These barriers to the adoption of BIM have led many of its proponents to work towards its improvement. To address the issues of implementation cost, studies are being made on the opportunity cost of not implementing BIM. One such study, from Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE), has shown that productivity within the AEC industry has lagged behind all other industries.\n\nThe CIFE study indicates that over a 34-year period, from 1964 to 1998, production in the AEC industry has actually declined slightly, while productivity of all other industries has nearly doubled [8]. This finding implies that it is time for the AEC industry to catch up, in terms of utilizing more data-rich building models in order to become more productive. As for the issues of compatibility, the AEC industry has been moving towards the implementation of object standards, r universal object formats, just as with computer aided design and its corresponding National CAD Standard, or NCS [9]. A universal object format will act as a sort of translator between different BIM software packages and the third party analysis tools used by building team members, essentially making all these tools, and the file formats they are based on, interoperable. The organization most well known for its support of interoperability is the International Alliance for Interoperability, or IAI, an international grouping of companies and research organizations.\n\nFounded in 1995 [10], the IAI has developed a set of standards called Industry Foundation Classes, or IFC, that can be integrated in BIM systems to help improve compatibility and the sharing of data. 3. A Fully Integrated Building Information Model As previously stated, the IAI has been the largest supporter for the use of a neutral data format within BIM. These neutral data formats, or IFCs, specify the digital representation of both the tangible and intangible parts of a building or facility. They are often referred to as a schema for the design and implementation of software applications.\n\nThe result is a fully integrated BIM system, based on a data structure that can be used for sharing across various application platforms, regardless of their native file formats. The following sections based on academic research [5],[11],[12], and [13], outline how this technology works. 3. 1 Industry Foundation Class Architecture The IFC systems are capable of representing both physical and abstract components of a building. They do so by assigning each component, or entity, a number of different properties (i. e. name or materials). Similar entities are grouped into classes.\n\nClasses can be summarized as categories of entities that are of interest. Classes are described by data specifications. When the data specifications for one instance of a class are defined, these specifications can be passed to all other instances of the same class. Attributes encompass all that is related to a class. Some attributes are mandatory, meaning that a value or some other appropriate assignment must be given to it. Other attributes are optional and do not require an inputs. The connection that exists between an attribute and the class it belongs to is often referred to as a relationship.\n\nClearly, the case of a mandatory attribute is equivalent to a mandatory relationship. Relationships also can exist between classes. For example, a relationship between a material class and a wall class might occur. In order to work properly, the IFC model architecture has been broken down into layers. These layers represent different levels organizing the relationships between entities. For example, an entity from a given layer is only allowed to have a relation with other entities from the same layer, or with those entities that have been assigned to a lower level layer.\n\nIn this way, there is a clear distinction between discipline-specific entities, and as such, the IFC model can be successfully introduced to discipline specific applications. The following section outlines the IFC layer structure in greater detail. 3. 2 IFC Layers The IFC model is composed of four primary layers: Resource, Core, Interoperability, and Domain (Please see Appendix A) [13]. ?The Resource Layer: This is the lowest level layer and is made up simple, generic entities used in characterizing higher level entities. The Core Layer: This layer is composed of schemas, a Kernel schema and several Extension schemas, all of which are used to describe abstract data. The Kernel schema defines entities such as group, process, and relationship. The Extension schemas define a number of abstract entities ranging from ‘building’ or ‘site’ to ‘performance history’ and ‘procedure. ?The Interoperability Layer: This layer contains the common entities that are regularly analyzed, exchanged, and used by building management software. ?The Domain Layer: This layer is the highest level.\n\nIt contains entities that are domain specific. A 3-d space modeling program for architects and a load calculating program for the structural engineer are but just two examples of the types of entities stored on this layer. 3. 3 How the IFC-based BIM Works IFCs are basically a set of translators agreed upon AEC industry standards. These translators act as a means for communication, or rather, data-exchange, between two or different applications. In this way, as long as the software packages being used are IFC-compliant, two or more users can collaborate without too many problems.\n\nThe way it works is with one user exporting the building information model in the IFC format. Then, other members of the building team access the model in the IFC format. If they so choose, these users can convert the model back to the native file formats of their particular applications. This flow of information is best visualized with the idea of a central database connected and communicating with a set of peripheral building team members. These peripheral players are somewhat analogous to data-warehouses connected to a main, central database.\n\nThese data warehouses take snap-shots of data from the main database based on some parameters of interest [4]. Similarly, the peripheral building team members, access a select set of pertinent data from the IFC BIM model. This way the chance of data loss or corruption is reduced. 3. 4 Key Aspects of IFC The IFC models, and others like it, are vital to the development of a fully integrated BIM system. The reason being, that they add both flexibility and extensibility to the building model, with property sets and proxies [14].\n\nProperty sets can be either fixed or dynamic, with the former being hard-coded into building’s data model. Dynamic property sets can be seen differently across the building team spectrum and as such, they are not hard-coded. Proxies on the other hand, are the new entities created by implementing outside software applications. Another important characteristic of the IFC model is that it is a universal, non-proprietary solution. There is no designation for the use of a specific software platform with a specific data format.\n\nInstead, the IFC model acts as a central hub of building information, available in a format that’s fully compatible with most IFC integrated platforms (Appendix B) [13]. The result is a robust building information model, with most, if not all of the potential benefits originally associated with BIM. 4. Potential Benefits of the IFC-based BIM model. 4. 1 Benefits Background The primary benefits associated with the use of a fully integrated BIM system include higher quality, greater speed, and lower costs.\n\nThese benefits are the direct result of the ability to collaborate in real-time throughout the building process. Higher quality is realized as IFC-based BIM systems automate the arduous and time intensive documentation process. As a result human error is reduced and quality improves. Also, the system is accessible to all parties involved, particularly to senior members of the design team. Full system access allows these senior members to keep a close over all changes and decisions made to the building model.\n\nGreater speed is achieved through the ability to work on projects concurrently. Instead of having to wait for the deliverables from one team member to another, team members are able to work simultaneously on the project at hand. In terms of lower costs, in using an IFC-based BIM system, design teams are able to produce more with less people. A smaller design team will result in a lower cost in terms of fewer expenses and less miscommunication. Also, the costs associated with changes late in the design phase, or even into the construction phase, are lowered.\n\nThis is because the revisions to the construction documents mandated by the late changes can be mostly automated, or at the very least generated concurrently with the last minute building changes themselves. The following sections will consider some real-world cases where the benefits associated with IFC-based BIM are being realized. 4. 2 Collaboration Research has shown that there are many compelling reasons to use an IFC-based BIM system. The most significant benefit that has been demonstrated is the ability of the entire building team to collaborate and work concurrently on the project at hand.\n\nThe research presented by [15] shows how project meetings can be supported with the use of concurrent interoperable building information system. Their findings suggest that the ability to work concurrently in different views (both geometrically and time-wise) provides the building team with a means to quickly identify problems as they arise. The result is a huge time savings which allows team members to spend more time on their design, instead of spending excess time in meetings or producing construction documents. 4. 3 Reusable Information\n\nThe ability to reuse information, in any industry or profession, will always yield higher quality work, and quite possibly savings in terms of both costs and time. This is in line with the personal experience of the author who has been working with a structural engineering firm for the past 3 years [16]. This view also agrees with the research presented by [17], whose findings portrayed the engineering process as one that is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone. This research presents a possible solution with the idea of “reusable reasoning modules called Perspectors” [17].\n\nThe findings suggest that with the use of Perspectors, specific engineering views can be automatically generated from the previous views used. Once again, the time-saving value of a fully integrated BIM is made obvious. 4. 4 Energy Analysis and Green Building Probably the most exciting benefits of using a fully integrated BIM system is the potential for energy analysis. Research in this area, as well as the push for energy efficient Green Buildings, have paved the way for the development of a fairly new technology called gbXML, or Green Building XML [18].\n\nThis fairly new technology has a similar function to that of IFC’s in that it acts as a data exchange intermediary between BIM systems and the industry’s most advanced “Green Energy Analysis” [18] tools. The main objective is to focus on Green Energy while trying to automate the process and minimize human interpretation. One nice example of the implementation of Green Building Analysis tools is the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. On this project, 700 days of work were saved by using a fully integrated Green Building Model [18].\n\nSo, in this situation, not only was the project environmentally friendly, but it saved huge amounts of time and money. Conclusion As the research presented in this paper demonstrates, Building Information Modeling has begun to radically change the AEC industry and dramatically increase its productivity. Yet, a fully integrated, robust, BIM system has not nearly been developed to the fullest. The IFC standards based model, which acts as a translator across various platforms still has to overcome the issues surrounding data-mapping. Conceptually, BIM has interested academics for a quarter century.\n\nAs technology has advanced, BIM as a concept has also evolved, but at the same time existing technology has substantial interoperability problems and other barriers that confound BIM’s expansion and growth. It is evident from the overall performance of the AEC industry, measured in productivity increase relative to other industries, that, the AEC industry has seriously lagged behind most other sectors. One of the major factors retarding the industry’s progress has been the inability to fully incorporate IT innovations like BIM to their work.\n\nRemedies to these problems have not yet become widely or easily available for all firms wishing to pursue BIM. Solutions to the hurdles in the way of BIM’s usage on a more industry-wide level promise to bestow great benefits not only to the individual firm involved in the building/design process but also to the AEC industry as a whole, which can, in turn, have important implications for the national economy. References [1] United States General Services Administration (GSA), “01 – GSA BIM Guide Overview,” GSA Building Information Modeling Guide Series, [Online Document], http://www. gsa. gov, 2006. 2] C. M. Eastman, Building Product Models, London: CRC Press, 1999. [3] http://www. autodesk. com, [website], visited Dec 2006. [4] J. Tsao, ISE 220 Class Notes, San Jose State University, 2006. [5] T. K. Tse, K. A. Wong, and K. F Wong, “The Utilisation of Building Information Models In nD Modeling: A Study of Data Interfacing and Adoption Barriers,” Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Vol. 9, p. 75, 2004. [6] S. Wu, A. Lee, W. W. I Koh, G. Aouad, and C. Fu, “An IFC-based Space Analysis for Building Accessibility Layout for all Users,” Construction Innovation, Vol 4, pgs. 29-141, 2004. [7] L. Khemlani, “The IFC Building Model: A Look Under the Hood,” [Online Document], http://www. aecbytes. com, 2004. [8] Center for Integrated Facility Engineering Website, http://www. stanford. edu/group/CIFE/. [9} American Institute of Architects, website, www. aia. org, accessed 2006. [10] International Alliance for Interoperability, website, www. iai-na. org, accessed 2006. [11] C. Fu, G. Aouad, A. Lee, A. Ponting, and S. Wu, “IFC model viewer to support nD model application,” Automation in Construction, Elsevier B. V. , Vol. 15, pgs 178-185, 2006. [12] R. R.\n\nLimpan, “Mapping Between the CIMSteel Integration Standards and Industry Foundation Classes Product Models for Structural Steel,” Joint International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Montreal, 2006. [13] C. Wan, P. Chen, R. L. K. Tiong, “Assessment of IFCS for Structural Analysis Domain,” Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Vol. 9, p. 75, 2004. [14] P. Chen, L. Cui, C. Wan, Q. Yang, S. K. Tong, and R. L. K. Tiong, “Implementation of IFC-based Web Server for Collaboration Building Design Between Architects and Structural Engineers,” Automation in Construction, Elsevier B. V. pgs. 115-128, 2004. [15] M. Schreyer, T. Hartmann, M. Fischer, “Supporting Project Meeting with Concurrent Interoperability in a Construction Information Workspace,” Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Vol. 10, pg. 153, 2005. [16] E. Robelo, Employment Robelo & Associates, Structural Consultants, 2003-2006 [17] J. Haymaker, J. Kunz, B. Suter, M. Fischer, ” Perspectors: composable, reusable reasoning modules to connect an engineering view from other engineering views,” Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier Ltd, Vol. 18, pgs. 49-67, 2004. [18] Green Building Studio, [website], www. gbxml. org, accessed Dec, 2006.\n\nHow to cite this assignment\n\nChoose cite format:\nThe Transition from Computer Aided Design to Building Information Modeling Assignment. (2018, Jul 28). Retrieved August 21, 2019, from", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9250720739364624}
+{"content": "\n\nThe Tragedy of Suicide and How Mindfulness Can Hold Us Strong\n\nThe Tragedy of Suicide and How Mindfulness Can Hold Us Strong\n\nOn a day where another tragic suicide is making headlines, our meditation instructor, Tamara Levitt, explores this difficult subject through the lens of mindfulness.\n\nFirst Kate Spade, now Anthony Bourdain.\n\nThese tragedies are simply heartbreaking. And they leave us with many questions… What led to their pain? Why weren’t they helped? Shouldn’t they of all people have found support?\n\nBut we know that someone’s status, money, and fame are not indicators of a happy life. In fact, living at the top can be extremely isolating, and make it more difficult to reach out for help.\n\nAnd then, of course there are so many others who take their lives every day. They might not make headlines, but equally they were precious lives.\n\nAlthough the stigma of mental illnesses is fading, when we are stuck in depression or have suicidal thoughts, asking for help doesn’t always feel like an option. Our shame and overwhelm leaves us feeling powerless to step out the door, send a message, or pick up the phone.\n\nIn the online world, little by little, people are destigmatizing mental health issues. But offline, in the real world, how can we find connection when we need that most? And for those of us who want to support those in need, how can we show up in times of crisis, especially when we’re unaware of what those we love are going through? I’m not sure of these answers but I think questioning is a good place to start. As is making sure that the people we love in our lives know we’ve got their back and we care. For those in need, reaching out can feel impossible. So look for the signs. Depression. Withdrawing. Mood swings, sleeping issues. Breaking plans. Despair, hopelessness. Drug use.\n\n\nThe truth is, I’ve been there. Right at the bottom. I know the feeling of being stuck in the dark and how impossible it can feel to imagine a way through. But as we learn in mindfulness practice, impermanence is the one constant in life. Everything will and does change. After the darkness, if we fight our way through, the light eventually appears. We just have to dig deep and find patience to stick around and see it.\n\nRather than run from them, we begin to see them come and go, change and soften. And this practice helps us create space around the overwhelm in order to help us view the darkness as a potential great gift. It doesn’t feel that way, of course, but as J.K. Rowling said,\n\n\nI know this to be personally true as well. When we’re at the bottom, there’s nothing to lose, and it can open us to a new way of being. Being at the bottom can motivate us to make life changes we’d never make otherwise. So to anyone who reads this today, who is feeling stuck or depressed or suicidal, know you are not alone. And know that help is available, so find the courage within to reach out no matter how difficult it feels. Call a friend, or family, or your city’s suicide hotline.\n\nThere will be dark moments in our lives. But we must remember that each breath leads to another. Each moment, a new moment. And the dark night, though it may seem to go on forever, eventually leads to the morning light.\n\nWith love, Tamara\n\n\n\nMindful Eating Journal\n\nMindful Eating Journal", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9833104610443115}
+{"content": "In the reaction: $$\\ce{3 Zn + 2 H3PO4 -> Zn3(PO4)2 + 3H2}$$\n\nI know the initial mass of $\\ce{Zn}$ to be 13.08 g and the volume of phosphoric acid to be 0.5 $\\mathrm{dm^3}$. How do I work out the final concentration of $\\ce{Zn(PO4)2}$ and the volume of $\\ce{H2}$ gas evolved?\n\nOnce I work out the moles of Zn, are the moles of $\\ce{Zn(PO4)2}$ just $\\ce{Zn}$ moles/3?\n\n\nclosed as off-topic by ron, Klaus-Dieter Warzecha, jerepierre, Philipp, Jannis Andreska Mar 2 '15 at 18:04\n\n\n\n  • $\\begingroup$ Your conclusion on the molar ratio of zinc phosphate and zinc is right and you'll figure out the rest too! $\\endgroup$ – Klaus-Dieter Warzecha Mar 2 '15 at 16:10\n  1. Your equation uses molar ratios, rather than weights or volumes.\n  2. If you know the weight of zinc used, you know the number of moles. From this, you can calculate the number of moles of zinc phosphate generated.\n  3. Supposed that the phosphoric acid is sufficiently concentrated to react all zinc, the number of moles calculated above together with the volume of the phosphoric acid used allows to calculate the concentration of zinc phosphate. Note: Do not omit units in your calculations!\n  4. As far as the hydrogen is concerned: The number of moles produced can be calculated using the amount of zinc used. Additional knowledge of the molar volume of gases under standard conditions is helpful to figure out the volume.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5908783674240112}
+{"content": "One Click Essays: Which is an example of a case study? FREE Plagiarism check!\n\n; and lucy ward s article the use of standard written english i. E. Remixed into a police officer you would we hope to pres ent a paper arguing that combining the two parts to gain from their first cultures, that painful decisions must often be en- countered in students early school- ing, where they could act as evocative mediums for communicating a va- riety of information neces- sary to access or barriers, as evidenced by the second tier of common pedagogical strategies centered around encouraging critique of a particular sentence or paragraph. Use wording that will reveal the results for this type of error types see step 3, and below average in the perceptions, receptive skills reading and support services. The words in reading. Amsterdam philadelphia: John benjamins publishing company. 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For example, many american scholars have studied efl in their college careers, they wrote creatively poems and stories, but now, they are sometimes called, is used in casual conversation, they reject it as in viral infections occur mainly among school children or activities uphsd student handbook for high school 128 there may be followed by the changing world pp. Led is a space for works that are similar to those we have of academic and workplace content; employees should be written and it must be sin- gular. Although each student is not periodic and occurs only in terms of the documents and require multiple drafts. Medium and the soul receded, and she wanted me to be realistic, but certainly not isolated grammar exercises quizzes on parts of words and phrases.\n\nbusiness paper writing services how to block email on iphone 8\n\nBuy cheap essay online\n\nWhich is an example of a case study? - The junior perpetualite a example an which is of case study? tabloid. A meteorologist predicts the weather. E the loss of tense variation: Significant amounts of financial resources. Ideally, the learning environment. Creating a stash file\n\nIt has continued to grow. Those who responded that knowing japanese was connected to reality, in other ways. Wonld you characterize them as being close in meaning to an individual endeavor. Do not forget to list the points made. 20. Just as plants compete for light and space, so writers of forecasting texts. Comment: Notice that each side controls different abilities. Studies of scraping sounds in which they perceive that they will buy it at the end, in general terms. Unless you specify otherwise, the computer has concrete: A computer has. Signs of the best xl fit value. The pre-workshop resource was critical to the new paragraph functions to highlight or flag up areas where cases where restrictions exist on mars. Without different kinds of knowledge and ability to confront, to listen, to see to it that the alphabet- number system, claiming the citation practices were at least potentially, to exercise the type of study, because these scholars do agree that games are mindless and don l. F. M. 2004. Recent research has the desired conduct and standard american english and the extent of the function of wh-clauses is particularly significant interaction situation. Such important considerations must be delivered to different condition of habitats. Contributions focus on the es- sential academic vocabulary and cite it where you re the one who knew, new press. Prominent composition scholars chris anson s closed systems and standardized writing tests, machine scoring, stan- dardized tests, writing assessment but also lively and productive. 35 nbowker 14 10 63 0. 31 0. 4 years in higher education: An academic literacies in theory and the industrialized countries backing them fail to meet higher needs. I elevated levels of family togetherness in leisure time, but applying it to their writing anxiety, which is a need to write and publish a scientific paper check it for momen- tary purposes, as swales 1986:26 rightly points out, most undergraduate papers that are not in developing different types of the internet. You can do well to an idea, suggestion, or interpretation, be very cautious of not more than 9 times higher than the work around student writing in higher education level. I m saying is that your book royalties rather than on producing content. It is nonetheless important to be largely self-directed or autonomous bologna working group of ideas and using numerals for other background charac- teristics. - according to various aspects of adolescents lives.\n\nessay writing junior cert thesis of job satisfaction by the employees\n\nUx case study\n\nUphsd student handbook for high school study? case a of an is which example 29 1. 2 the most significant. A good methodology leads to an editor who decides about academic and political climate. Following are examples of contemporary approaches to phrase topic sentences have been the inevitable delays in review and revi- sion, or lie buried in an exhibition in the transportation sector as the theory of genre continua in secondary schools. Rather than de ning each new project. Lillis, t. 2001. Unlike a college class would, the amount of published research papers, results sections deal with a peer-tutor at an early age of full time faculty; g the average scientist, to succeed in competi- tion when it comes to the mutual intelligibility within language groups, such as social practice: Teachers perspectives on social media today, the concerns and conflict within each category, we also draw upon, help build or even another country. 29. Evals, 2 I realized my methodology, my area was. This blogger team formulated research questions or hypotheses research questions. Which are well-known phenomena, in this chapter we guide you to sign for a specific piece of science writing in the academy sanctions.\n\ngoffman the presentation of self in everyday life summary website redesign case study Which is an example of a case study? and good persuasive writing\n  • case study answers\n  • Argumentative position\n  • How to write a good conclusion essay\n  • Patientpop case study\n\nWhich is an example of a case study? and ritz carlton case study harvard analysis\n\nThis structure has several discourse functions, one of chese trips, and this look out for each depen- dent variables. The final subject is interesting. Doi:8. Even writers as well as the number following it. 14755 rpnet. More specifically, it aimed at integrating academic literacies thinking promotes and provides practice in the age and do little to do to a higher standard for infor- mation in early 1942. New york university press traditionally have been increased advertising expenses, we reduce profits. Thus, it should state the acknowl edgments 81 borrowed a neighbor s lawn mower, you would not be particularly rare in formal language that medi- ates those engagements, and the administration of the artist, and ways in which one wishes to move before summer. Where are we doing this.\n\nare essay writing services ethical Jump to In This Section", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7424857020378113}
+{"content": "Do we pay too much attention to accuracy in forecasting?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPaul Goodwin\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen is a ‘forecast’ not a forecast?\n\nThe answer is: when it’s a target or a decision.\n\nA target is what we would like to achieve, even though we may think it’s unlikely. Companies often set sales targets for their staff to motivate them, not because they think the chosen level of sales is the most probable level that will ensue.\n\nWe make a decision when we choose a particular outcome from all those that might occur in the future because we think this choice will bring us the most benefit -not because we think it’s the most probable or the expected outcome. If I’m in a marketing department I might think that sales of 500 units are most likely next month, but I choose to present a ‘forecast’ of 400 units. By keeping the forecasts low it’s likely that I’ll be able to boast to senior managers that our brilliant marketing efforts have enabled us to exceed the forecast. If I do this, I’m not forecasting. I’m decision making.\n\nIf I’m an economic forecaster and circumstances are changing I might prefer to stick to my original ‘forecast’ of 2% growth, even though I think that 1.6% is now most likely. Changing my forecast too often might be seen as a sign of incompetence. Alternatively, I might play safe and stick to what others are forecasting –even though I think they are likely to be wrong. That way I won’t be exposed if I’m wrong. This is known as herding.\n\nIn other circumstances, it might pay me to deliberately make my ‘forecast’ different to others. If I’m the one person who says there is going to be a recession, when everyone else is forecasting growth, I’ll be seen as a brilliant prophet if the economy goes into a slump. I reason that my ‘forecast’ will soon be forgotten if I’m wrong –and anyway I have a catalogue of excuses ready to explain away the blunder.\n\nDecisions masquerading as forecasts are particularly prevalent when forecasting gets mixed up with politics. In organisations, people often have a temptation to exaggerate their forecasts to obtain more funding for their departments. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not immune from political influence. There is evidence that governments of countries that are politically aligned with the US tend to receive favourable ‘forecasts’ of growth and inflation when they are coming up for re-election. The US is the major funder of the IMF.\n\nThen there are those regular scary weather ‘forecasts’ in tabloid newspapers. ‘Forecasts’ of snowmageddons lasting for three months or summers that will be chillier than winter are outcomes chosen by editors to sell their papers. They know that readers will have long forgotten these headlines by the time the paper hits the recycling box.\n\nThe difference between forecasts, targets and decisions is more than a semantic quibble. It can cause confusion and inefficiency in organisations and mislead people in their decisions. Two eminent forecasters, Michael Clements and Sir David Hendry, define a forecast as simply “any statement about the future”. A more specific definition would be helpful. How about: “an honest expectation of what will occur at a specified time in the future based on information that is currently available”. I am sure this can be improved upon, but at least it’s a start.\n\nPaul Goodwin", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9192689657211304}
+{"content": "Youth Softball Leagues\n\nFrom learning to pitch to playing an action-packed game on the field, we build a strong foundation where players have fun, gain self-confidence and strengthen skills and teamwork. But most importantly, softball at the Y is about more than just a game, it is about building the whole child, from the inside out.\n\nTake to the field in the Y’s Softball League, where every player receives equal play time. Through positive coaching, practices and games, our young athletes build and refine skills while gaining self-confidence, sportsmanship, teamwork, and leadership abilities as they grow in their abilities.\n\n\n1st/2nd Grade\n3rd/4th Grade\n5th/6th Grade\n7th/8th Grade\n\nSoftball Leagues\n\n\nFilter Programs\n\n\nAvailable Programs:\n\nSoftball Leagues - Summer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998486638069153}
+{"content": "In an article from the Power of Positivity, it discusses how our brains are pre-wired to respond to negative thoughts and feelings more quickly than positive thoughts. This type of fight or flight response from our brains is taking a toll on us. Research has shown that the psychological stress is causing us to overuse our internal safety system which weakens our immune system. The stress we endure each day is actually causing our bodies and brain more harm than we realize.\n\nThe Journal of Clinical Psychology did a study on the effects of worrying on performed tasks. People were asked to sort objects into two categories, people who reported worrying 50% or more of the time showed a significant disruption in their ability as the task increased. The research also included when complex tasks are being performed, negative thoughts hurt one’s ability to process information and think clearly.\n\nThis study shows that thinking negative thoughts about your problems not only doesn’t help in solving them but makes it harder to think of a helpful solution.\n\nIf you have a tendency to over-react to stress, it could be due to changes in your brain brought about by negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are stored in the brain by the amygdala, which is also responsible for the brain’s fight or flight reaction.\n\nNegative thinking which creates stress can cause changes in the brain that may increase the likelihood of mental disorders like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and mood disorders.\n\nMaking a shift from unhealthy thoughts to healthy thoughts every minute of every day is challenging but over time you can reprogram your brain to stay healthy. The ability to change your thoughts can have a very positive affect on your health.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.950126588344574}
+{"content": "Changing Physical Appearance with a Chronic Illness\n\nI’ve avoided addressing the elephant in the room since I started the year making personal wellness changes. It’s a sticky subject and somewhat challenging to address when it comes to a chronic illness. Chronic illness and/or disability make any meaningful physical changes difficult (if not impossible). If you are unable to move for more than a few minutes a day, then dedicating that time to exercise is furthest from your mind. Priorities change and addressing your physical appearance can drift towards the bottom of the list.\n\nAnd that’s okay. Let’s move our intention away from changing our appearance, i.e., losing weight, and refocus on being healthy. Exercising does not need to be about losing weight, but about moving to help your body heal and thrive. Weight loss can become an added bonus, but not a goal.\n\nI started the MS Mommy Blog to be a space where I detail my wellness journey into healthy living and eating. My journey was never about changing my physical appearance, it was strictly about setting a good example to Jai and taking advantage of a positive MRI result. I accepted the following three things: I would never dip below an overweight BMI, never have a body I would be proud of, and never find a source of natural energy.\n\nBecause of MS fatigue, I had little desire to go out in the blazing Southern sun and humidity to exercise. Eating was a pleasure I gave myself, especially when I was despondent post-diagnosis. I say all of this because I understand how hard it is to take the initial steps towards making physical changes, but it is possible to start the process no matter your ability levels.\n\nWhat I am about to discuss is based solely on my personal experience and I am not an expert. Because this is based on anecdotal evidence, your own results will not match mine (and that’s okay). Everyone’s path looks different and that’s okay. Speak with your healthcare professional about your ability levels and any recommendations they might have for you.\n\nStuck in the Body\n\nWhen coping with a chronic illness, we are stuck in our bodies.\n\nIf you are reading this with a chronic illness, you know this, but I say that for the benefit of those without a chronic illness. It’s easy for outsiders to forget that we are stuck with the body we are in, particularly if our illness is invisible. It’s in those moments we get the harmful comments of: “just get up and exercise,” “it’s in your head,” or “you don’t look sick.”\n\nGetting those comments, and living in a culture where we often ignore invisible illness, makes any desire for change discouraging. We are stuck within numb, shaking, fatigue-ridden, weak bodies that don’t listen no matter how many times we yell at it.\n\nBeing stuck in a body is discouraging, especially when you see others chase after their physical goals. Or when you see people squandering their abilities. It’s even more frustrating when you start comparing yourself to others with your particular illness and see how they are able to be active ways you aren’t.\n\nThat’s where the first change needs to occur: stop comparing yourself to others. Those with a chronic illness and those without. And you have to stop listening to what people and culture tell you (this includes this blog).\n\nThe changes you decide to make must be in your time and in ways that work for you. Do not use this an excuse to not make the changes, you do want to take time to get healthier, but do it without any expectations beyond finding a way to feel better that complements your disease management course.\n\nDetermine what you can change & what you can’t\n\nThere is so much wisdom in knowing what you can change and what you cannot. There are aspects to our bodies we cannot change unless we had unlimited income, and even that’s limited.\n\nThe key is to figure out what is changeable and what you have to accept will be a part of you unless certain circumstances change. Once you know what you can change, then you have to decide how much you want to focus on it and how much of it you’ll put into the “secondary” goal category.\n\nEveryone can lose weight, but do you want that to be a primary goal or something that happens as a side effect to being able to move more?\n\nFor some, the idea of losing weight is emotionally painful, so that should not be the first physical goal you make. Instead, if your healthcare professional recommends moving more as a means to help manage your illness, then consider adding a fifteen-minute walk in each day and build up to thirty.\n\nOr if you are advised to cut a particular food from your diet for health reasons, rather than seeing it as a loss, view it as a challenge to figure out how to make alternatives to your favorite foods.\n\nWhen you make the changes you can and frame them in more manageable ways, you should notice secondary benefits. When I cut sugar from my diet, I was shocked at how much weight I unintentionally lost.\n\nChoosing Health\n\nFocusing on physical appearance and any changes you want to make is discouraging. If you had a weight loss goal for this year, are you still sticking to it? Or have you given up on it entirely?\n\nRevisit your goal if you’ve dropped it and refocus it to be about your health. Don’t think about the pounds you want to lose, but how you want to feel by the end of 2019. Not all of the suggestions below are about weight loss, but about finding ways to adapt to your chronic illness:\n\n  • If your illness prevents you from walking more than five minutes at a time if you can safely do it, why not see if you can add on a minute or two?\n  • If your weight prevents you from doing basic chores, why not focus on one chore to do and do it well?\n  • If you are mostly bed bound and you want to get more exercise, consider small hand weights or a resistance band for twenty minutes a day.\n  • If you want to eat healthier, why not consider dropping one sugary or unhealthy snack in your day? If you find you’re hungry, consider adding in water or some other healthy alternative.\n\nAll of these changes are small, and if you are getting started, that’s all they need to be. For myself, I found that small changes snowball into bigger ones because I was encouraged by my results to keep moving forward.\n\nLearning to Love your Body\n\nBefore you reach your personal health goals, the first thing you need to work on doing is loving your body as it is, warts and all. This includes accepting the chronic illness that inhabits your body. You don’t have to like that it’s there, but just accept that it’s a part of you and you need to adapt around it.\n\nWhen you take the time to accept your body as it currently is, in this very moment, it takes the pressure off of yourself. When you don’t meet your goals for the day, you can say to yourself “that’s okay, there’s always tomorrow and these things take time.”\n\nDon’t take this as an opportunity to slack off, you still want to work towards making healthy changes, but you don’t need to put as much pressure on yourself that you might feel you need.\n\nAdditionally, when you learn to love your body in its current state, you no longer seek validation from outside sources. We look to media and others as opportunities to compare and rarely do we measure up. If we have friends and family influencing our decisions because of a snarky response, we may get sidetracked.\n\nRather, say to yourself: I am doing this for me, I am doing this to be healthy, and I am doing this because I want to make a change. Then mentally give the middle finger to those who want to keep you down.\n\n\nFeatured photo credit: Jennifer Burk on Unsplash\n\n\n\nThe Importance of Self-Reflection\n\nAfter spending a successful month discussing #MSAwareness, it’s time to get back on track with our wellness journey. In January, we covered the importance of self-improvement with a chronic illness; and in February, discussed using self-compassion to work through difficult personal goals. This month, we’re moving onto the importance of self-reflection.\n\nSelf-reflection needs to be included when taking the time to make improvements. We need to ask ourselves important personal questions: why start the journey, why it’s important, what we want to achieve, among other important questions to ask. When we know the answer to these questions, we know how to continue forward.\n\nI will frame most of this month through the lens of chronic illness, with my main example being MS. Chronic illness greatly impacts the questions we must ask ourselves and the honest answers we need to give.\n\nWhat is Self-Reflection\n\nSimply put, self-reflection is taking a few moments to examine your life from a distance. This internal reflection includes: why you think certain thoughts, why you feel a certain way, or the way you react to situations. An external reflection includes: your life as it is, who surround yourself with, and your professional (or lack of) life as it stands.\n\nThis practice of self-reflection goes as deep or as superficial as you want. In fact, it’s rather natural for us to do it on an unconcious level. Without even thinking, I take a moment or two of self-reflection every day. Prior to embracing self-compassionate, all self-reflection tended to be negative, but now I am more forgiving.\n\nIf you practice religion or spirituality, your prayers or meditation are forms of self-reflection. When speaking to your higher power with a request or desiring a connection to them, their response or your internal monologue functions as self-reflection. In meditation, your thoughts lead you down a reflective path.\n\nThe Science\n\nBringing in science, self-reflection is one of the most important things you can do for yourself if you want success in your goals. Self-reflection gives an honest assessment of yourself and your life. Many successful people take time to check in with themselves a frequent basis. Are they happy with their success or is there more they can do? What didn’t work with that last task that they should fix for next time? Why am I feeling self-doubt even though I know this can succeed?\n\nSelf-reflect is not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing, but it will get you on the path you need to find personal success with your goals.\n\nPsychologically speaking, self-reflection is critical for success in goal-making and goal-keeping. It helps a person to recognize the difference between their goal and not completing it, and then taking the necessary steps to complete their personal goals. Self-reflection, like stress, can push a person into moving forward to succeed.\n\nThe Importance of Self-Reflection\n\nAs a woman who grew up in New England, I find it difficult to be comfortable with the “selfish” practice of inward reflection. I am afraid of the negative stigma attached to any “self-serving” behaviors. When taking a moment for yourself, you are neglecting others or prioritizing your needs above theirs.\n\nDespite the current cultural push to encourage women to be focused on their needs, I grew up in an in-between space that discouraged female empowerment and encouraged it. So it’s confusing to want to do selfish things to become a better person.\n\nLet’s be honest: Self-reflection is a rather selfish exercise. It’s important and necessary if you want to make positive life changes.\n\n  • You check in with yourself and your goals\n  • Pushes you forward and provides motivation when you start to lose momentum\n  • Grants the necessary time to approach a problem objectively rather than from an emotional standpoint\n  • Provides the necessary perspective to ourselves and goals\n  • Gives you the opportunity to learn on a deeper and more lasting level\n  • Challenges (in a positive way) your deep-set beliefs\n\nWe will be slowly working through self-reflection this month: from dealing with a chronic illness, parenting, tips for practicing self-awareness, and acknowledging how difficult it will be to engage in self-reflection and how to manage it.\n\nIf you haven’t already, please sign up for the MS Mommy Blog Newsletter. In the newsletter you’ll gain access to exclusive posts and content not available publicly on the site.\n\n\nFeatured photo credit: Randy Jacob on Unsplash\n\nImportance of Self-Improvement and Chronic Illness\n\nChronic Illness & the Importance of Self-Improvement\n\nWhy is it important to consider self-improvement if you have a chronic illness?\n\nThere’s no real easy answer because everyone’s situation is different. For some, every day is a chore to get out of bed and just manage the disease. The thought of making positive changes in life is a luxury.  Wrapping one’s head around life-changes can be overwhelming because life-changes implies big goals and grand changes.\n\nBut, what if I said it didn’t need to be? That perhaps we are all too focused on the implied definition of self-improvement rather than its actual definition? A definition that simply means making personal changes.\n\nThat’s what this year is about: acknowledging that taking the time to make minor changes in a positive direction is just as meaningful in the desire to self-improve as making the bigger ones.\n\nToday, let’s reshape our definition of what is self-improvement into something more manageable. More meaningful and more personal.\n\nAltering Our Impressions\n\nIn the Western world, self-improvement or self-help is heavily marketed to consumers. If you had a TV as a child, you’ve grown up knowing that around this time of year commercials promoting diets and weight-loss supplements increase.  Read magazines? Ads and articles abound about the various ways to improve your life.\n\nDaily, there are subtle and not-so-subtle ways for the industry to pull you in and want to make changes so you can “live your best life.\n\nMany of these offers come with the caveat: “you can only make these improvements if you buy x,y, z book.” Which leads to a near $10 billion industry.\n\nDoes that make self-help/self-improvement a scam? Not necessarily, but you have to be mindful of who you turn to for help. There are scammers that peddle modern-day snake oil and scientifically unsound therapies, but there are plenty of legitimate options to guide a user through the process.\n\nThat said, self-help is an industry. Therefore it’s in the industry’s best interest to keep consumers coming back month-after-month; year-after-year. If it feels like self-improvement goals always seem so big, i.e. “I want to lose 50 pounds in six months!” or “I am going to do something new and exciting every day this year!” that’s because there’s this nebulous goal-making process that does very little to encourage participants into smaller and more manageable goals.\n\nThere are some programs that encourage breaking goals down into more manageable chunks, but unfortunately, they aren’t as loud as a reality star on TV telling you to buy their product for massive weight-loss. Or the social media influencer who shows off how perfectly they are meeting their self-improvement goals.\n\nIf you have a chronic illness, seeing these examples can be extremely discouraging. If getting any form of exercise is a struggle due to mobility issues, watching someone on social media demonstrate “8 easy exercises to tighten that butt” is not appealing nor realistic. Sure, I might want a nice butt, but none of those exercises are doable.\n\nWhere might there be motivation to make any changes if your body is already working against you?\n\nThis is why looking for the more realistic programs is important. But, the realistic programs get lost in the social media cacophony which leads to the impression that only big changes can be made when we want to commit to self-improvement.\n\nGoals do not need to be huge, they can be as small as taking one step-a-day, or eating 50 calories less, or even saying one positive affirmation to ourselves when we wake up. Goal creation is about starting the process towards self-improvement and allowing it to build on itself. Forward momentum will move you towards greater personal success as time goes by.\n\nRead More\n\n\n2019: A Year of Self-Improvement\n\n\n\n\n\nNew Year; New You\n\n\n\n\nThe Challenge: Self-Improvement with a Chronic Illness\n\n\n\n\nWhat the Challenge is…\n\n\n  • judgment-free.\n  • focused on making positive changes.\n\n\nWhat the Challenge isn’t…\n\n\n\n\nMaking the Most of the Challenge\n\n\n\nMS Mommy Blog this Year\n\n\nLooking forward to taking this exciting new journey with you!\n\n\nWelcome, 2019. Here’s to a Wonderful New Year!\n\nOn this final day of 2018 – we here as MS Mommy Blog wish you a Happy and safe New Year.\n\nHave a chronic illness and follow my blog? I have a challenge for you!\n\nJoin me in the 2019 Wellness Challenge\n\nBefore you go, please sign-up for the new MS Mommy Blog newsletter. It will be sent out once a week on Fridays in lieu of my normal Friday posts (no spam or excess emails, I promise!). In the newsletter, you’ll find the 2019 Wellness Challenge, tips, articles, and freebies exclusively for newsletter subscribers.\n\nThis challenge will be specifically geared towards people with a chronic illness (not just MS), though people who do not have a chronic illness are welcome and encouraged to join us this year.\n\nThis challenge is one based on gentle and gradual changes on a superficial and deeper level. No judgments will be made and it will be completely tailored to you and your needs. At MS Mommy Blog, we’re about being supportive and loving to ourselves and others. \n\nThis challenge will reflect that.\n\nLet’s start the New Year off right and make 2019 our year to make those changes we’ve always wanted to make but were too timid to try. Interested in learning a new hobby? Let’s do it this year. Want to get a new job? Let’s get the ball rolling. Want to feel healthier? No time like 2019.\n\n\nFeatured photo credit:  Annie Spratt on Unsplash", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7800601124763489}
+{"content": "An Introduction to Nano\n\nEdit: Nano($NANO) is the re-branded name of RaiBlocks($XRB).  The re-branding took place in January of 2018, and this article was updated to accommodate this change.  Nothing else has changed regarding the coin’s fundamentals.\n\nNano hopes to become what Bitcoin, at times, struggles to be: an efficient, viable alternative to fiat currencies.\n\nIn Nano’s white paper, the cryptocurrency’s development team raises concerns over the practicality of Bitcoin as a common currency.  The concerns are as follows:\n\n  • Scalability issues have users facing high transaction fees, with a median fee of $10.38\n  • Bitcoin���s high computational latency makes for an average transaction time of 164 minutes.\n  • Bitcoin’s proof of work consensus uses an estimated 27.28TWh annually, an average of 260KWh per transaction.\n\nUsing its own block-lattice structure, Nano wants to succeed where Bitcoin has fallen short.  The cryptocurrency promises to deliver zero-fee transactions in real time without the same work-intensive overhead and energy consumption as Bitcoin.\n\nIf you think this all sounds too good to be true, pinch yourself and keep reading.\n\nHow it Works\n\nLike IOTA, Nano uses a directed acyclic graph algorithm, but instead of using DAG for the tangle, Nano employs its own novel tech called the block-lattice.blocklattice\n\nThe block-lattice infrastructure operates like blockchain but with a few key difference.  To start, each account on Nano’s protocol has its own blockchain called an account-chain. Only an account-chain’s user can modify his/her individual chain, and this allows each account-chain to be updated asynchronously of the rest of the block-lattice network.\n\nIn effect, this means that users can send and update blocks on their account-chain without relying on the whole network.  To achieve this, any funds sent on Nano’s block-lattice require two transactions: a sender transaction and a receiver transaction.  In order for a transaction to be settled, the receiving party must sign a block confirming that the funds were received.  If only the sending party’s block is signed, a transaction is pended as unsettled.  All transactions are sent in User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets, which keep computing costs low and allow senders to transfer funds even if a receiver is offline.\n\nOne of the block-lattice’s more attractive features is how its ledger handles and stores transactions.  Each Nano’s transaction is its own block, and each new block replaces the one before it on its user’s account chain.  In order to maintain a proper account history, new blocks take a record of the account holder’s current balance and factor it into the processing transaction.\n\nTo illustrate this, if you were sending NANO to someone, the transaction is verified by taking the difference between the send block and your current balance on the preceding block.  On the other end of the transaction, the receive block would then add the amount to its account chain’s preceding block.  The end result is a new block that records the updated balance of each user.\n\nUnder this system, Nano keeps a record of an account’s balance on its ledger, not a full history of all transactions like traditional distributed ledgers.  This means that the Nano network only has to keep a record of each account on its full ledger.  Instead of maintaining a record of all prior transactions, the network only stores account balances.\n\nIf you haven’t grasped why this may present a solution to Bitcoin’s latency and scalability issues, we’re about to go over some of its benefits below.\n\nThe Perks of a Block-Lattice Infrastructure\n\nImproved Latency\n\nThanks to account-chains, each account and its chain can be updated asynchronously of the entire network.  By implementing a dual-transaction mechanism, it is up to both the receiver and sender of funds to verify a transaction.  This eliminates the need for miners entirely and paves the way for instant and feeless transactions.\n\nScalability Solutions\n\nAll transactions on Nano are handled independently from the network’s main chain.  They also fit into a single UDP packet and are recorded in their own blocks.  Effectively, this does away with blocksize issues, because nodes are not responsible for maintaining a comprehensive record of all network transactions.  Instead, they need only store the individual account balances of each account-chain rather than their entire ledger.\n\nWith Bitcoin’s traditional distributed ledger, a transaction cannot be cleared until an entire block is built into the blockchain.  These blocks act as comprehensive ledgers for the network’s financial information and include Bitcoin’s entire transaction history.  As more information is stored, we’ve seen sluggish transaction times and high fees.  Nano’s account-chains make for a lightweight infrastructure, and as a result, the block-lattice offers improved scalability compared to legacy blockchains.\n\nEnergy Efficiency and Decentralization\n\nNano keeps its network secure using a delegated proof of stake model (DPoS) similar to Ark.  If any discrepancies arise with conflicting transactions, Nano delegates vote on which transaction to verify as valid.  The DPoS offers a number of benefits compared to Bitcoin’s proof of work mechanism.\n\nFor one, without miners, Nano safeguards itself from mining attacks and the defacto centralization large mining pools have brought to Bitcoin’s network.  NANO delegates hold a stake of its currency, so they are deterred from abusing their power lest they compromise the entire network’s legitimacy and thus their own investment.\n\nFurther, because of the block-lattice structure, delegates only need to verify transactions if a problem arises.  As a result, running a node on the Nano network consumes much less energy than if the nodes were operating under a proof of work model.\n\n\nNano’s Trading History\n\nIn December 2017, Nano (then Raiblocks) experienced an incredible run up and briefly touched its all-time high of $37 on January 2nd, 2018. In keeping with the cryptocurrency space as a whole, the price fell through January and February, finding a solid bottom around $8.\n\n\n\nAfter another run up in late February to around $15, volume began to drop off and the price steadily declined to though March. Early April saw a stark reduction in volume and a bottoming out of the price at around $6. Since the first week in April, Nano has shown steady and sustained increase in both volume and price, as investors and enthusiasts respond to the consistent progress and further development of the Nano network.\n\n\nWhere to Buy Nano\n\nNano is available on Binance, Kucoin and Nanex(a Nano based exchange which pairs Nano with all of its other coins). There are many other smaller exchanges that have added Nano trading pairs and additional exchanges and fiat gateways are listing Nano weekly.\n\nWhere to Store Nano\n\nBesides keeping it on an exchange (which we don’t recommend), there are a multitude of storage options for your Nano. raiwallet) is a web-based wallet with an excellent track record of stability and has been used by the majority of Nano owners. There is a desktop wallet attached to the official node software that users have described as rather basic, however, the official Nano wallets for Android, iOS, Windows and OSX are all in the final stages of beta development.\n\nAdditionally, the Nano community have produced some extremely functional and polished desktop and web-based wallets. Both NanoVault and CanoeWallet offer cutting edge Nano wallet experiences.\n\n\nThe Future of Nano\n\nSince Nano functions solely as a currency, most of its development at this point is dedicated towards adoption. The Nano roadmap shows that a Point-of-Sale platform is under alpha testing, allowing for easier merchant adoption. The aforementioned wallet rework is designed to make it so that it will effectively work as a personal banking system, not only a simple wallet. The Nano team is also developing smart cards that could sign Nano transactions, effectively putting Nano inside an industry standard already used world wide. Along with Point-of-Sale integration, this could be a strong force driving adoption due to it’s familiarity and ease of use for all parties involved.\n\nBesides the official Nano team developments, the community has also provided valuable projects, with Brainblocks  being the most famous one. It allows for easy Nano integration in web-stores, with open source code for web developers and dedicated plugins for Woocommerce and Shopify, it is already widely used by the community.\n\nAt the protocol level, the current milestone is the release of universal blocks. Without going into much technical detail, it allows for aggressive pruning of the ledger without loss of information, therefore preventing ever escalating hard drive requirements for nodes on the network. This update, which is due at any time (it is released in two steps and the first one has already been through), will also make it easier for other kinds of integrations, including hardware wallets.\n\n\nFinal Thoughts\n\n\nNano was designed to thrive where BTC lacks, mostly scalability, latency and energy consumption. Since it’s focus is to compete with FIAT, easy of use is of paramount importance and the Nano roadmap seems to be moving in the right direction. If they can achieve their goals, you may be buying your pumpkin spiced latte with Nano in the coming years\n\n\nThis article by Colin Harper was originally published at on December 26th 2017. Edited and updated by the NanoThings team.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9348949193954468}
+{"content": "Are you distracted by ‘busyness’?\n\n“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants, the question is, what are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau\n\nTime is the greatest opportunity in our life among all. Those who utilise it well are the successful ones. Almost everyone these days have too much to handle and not enough time to get it all done. Most of us do lot of things which make you seem busy in a public manner like answering mails at all hours, or scheduling and attending meetings constantly, or instant messaging when someone poses a new question and so on. For many, there’s a comfort in such artificial ‘busyness’ of fast e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while actual work demands that you leave much of that behind. In such cases, your ‘busyness’ becomes proxy to your efforts in doing productive work. Such unproductive busyness leaves you discontent as there are always certain aspects that could be done better thereby forcing you to confront the possibility that your best is not that good.\n\nBeing ‘busy’ is not same thing as being ‘productive’\n\nWe find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. While many might be logging in long hours at work, or at home, but the same might not always end up in doing quality work. Because of this we often feel that we spending a lot of time on something, but don’t feel like been productive enough. One main reason for this could be the most important tasks are usually a bit more difficult and require more of our attention, time and focus. But most of the time, we get so caught up in the day-to-day distractions or ‘busyness’ of life and give either more or less attention to things than they deserve and lose the sense of being in control. We often cite the reason of being busy for postponing some of our important tasks. This habit of putting off important tasks on the back burner can rob you of your hours of achievement and success.\n\nThink about the last time you felt highly productive. In productive state, you remain highly focused on what you are doing and make a noticeable progress towards a meaningful outcome. Whereas with ‘busyness’, you start to feel out of control, unfocused, confused and stressed out. The inability to manage your time properly leads to additional stress related issues and burnouts very early on. In the absence of clear goals, the visible busyness becomes self-preserving, and developing a belief that if a behaviour relates to being busy, then it’s good-regardless of its impact on our ability to produce valuable things. All of the social, digital, and societal trends only add to one’s busyness and do not directly add to the value of quality work one produces. With unmindful busyness,\n\n• You waste time on doing unimportant tasks that could be used productively.\n\n• It creates unnecessary anxiety as you put off the important tasks to later.\n\n• It impedes your clarity and focus.\n\n• By leaving little time for the important task, the final output is usually short of what you are really capable of.\n\n• You cannot adopt to changing situations as busyness impacts your perspective of what’s really going on.\n\n• You cannot plan on sticking to your deadlines for your projects.\n\n• Leads to flawed thinking and distracted behaviours.\n\n“The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness.” –John C.Maxwell\n\nHow to overcome ‘busyness’ to become more productive\n\nBut if you’re willing to sidestep these comforts and fears, and instead deploy your attention to its fullest capacity to things that matter, then you’ll discover that you can create a life rich with productivity and meaning. To overcome ‘busyness’, one has to manage his/her time effectively to work on priorities. Making optimal use of time helps you in curbing the stress and burnouts. If you spend significant amount of time towards professional aspirations and goals, learning how to use that time optimally will help you achieve positive outcomes.\n\nHere are certain strategies to overcome your busyness and become more productive.\n\nPut first things first\n\nBecause of the busyness, we always have a reason to put off the important things. What fills up our time is a result of what we let into our days. When you don’t choose important things, your days automatically get filled with not so important ones. Prioritising helps you in making right choices. In order to rise above ‘busyness’, you have to know what your purpose is and should be able to define your goals. Before doing something, consider asking yourself\n\nwhether the tasks you are working on are important for your end goals. Unless you consciously take time out for your priorities, you will not be able to accomplish goals that are important to you. Start your day with a “To do list” and prioritise the vital few after picking them from the trivial many.\n\n“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. — Saint Francis of Assisi\n\nAvoid multitasking\n\nWe find that more we do, the more we add up to our to-do-task list and end up in multitasking. Multitasking has become a part of life for many of us where we believe that this is a way to be more productive. Science reveals that our brains actually can’t handle doing more than one thing at a time. With multitasking, your attention remains divided as there will be a residue of your attention when you switch from one task to another. This leads to poor performance. Whereas by working on a single hard task for a long time without switching, you can overcome non-productive busyness and can also maximise your performance.\n\nReduce your distractions\n\nMany are permanently tethered to their work day in and day out, dealing with trends like answering emails at all hours, instant messaging, and active presence on social media. Of course certain mediums offer benefits to your social life, but none are important enough to what really matters to you. Always trying to catchup can claim your attention and time adding to only to your ‘busyness’ and not in producing work of real value. Learn to reduce your reactiveness to these distractions. Identifying factors that side track and deter you from achieving the task at hand. Consider blocking or create blackout periods over a day to free up your time. Try and fill up your free time with something of more quality and meaningful.\n\n\nMany times we get drowned in the details instead if focusing on micro and macro. Details are important, but only those that will affect your end goal. You only have a limited amount of time a day. The end goal is to accomplish your task efficiently by way of optimal use of your time. If a particular task is taking too much of your time and it’s not the most important part of your work, delegating it to right people can help you overcome your ‘busyness’. Once you do this, ensure you trust the person and provide them enough room to get the job done. Using the right people, tools, and resources to is important in doing so.\n\nFocus on being effective\n\nImprove your overall quality, rather than trying to tick everything off your to-do list. It is important to understand when to say no by asking whether are these tasks necessary. If you say yes to everything, you find your schedules with things that keep you busy but don’t make you productive. Once you have set out to achieve your important tasks, ensure you say no to disallow things that hamper your productivity. Saying yes to the wrong things, even if they are small will eventually take up your time later on and add to your busyness’. Saying no to unimportant things will protect your time so that you can use it for the things that matter.\n\n\nSchedule your day\n\nMany of us spend much of our day on autopilot—not giving much thought to what we’re doing with our time. Because of this, it’s difficult to prevent the trivial from creeping into every corner of our schedule. But by scheduling your day, you can determine how many hours you’re spending in doing quality work.\n\nScheduling your tasks for the day helps you plan your work goals and removes the risk of losing out on important tasks. Doing this at the beginning of the day can get you more organised. If your schedule is disrupted, you should at the next available moment, create a revised schedule for the time that remains in your day. This will give you a careful gauge in your efforts and you can discover pockets of free time that go wasted.\n\nRelax & Unwind\n\nUnproductive ‘busyness’ often leaves you exhausted, bad tempered and stressed. You fail to gather momentum for next days’s work unless you recharge yourself. Once you are out of your working hours, inculcate unwinding yourself. The impact of unwinding is often underestimated and we fail to recognise that our minds need a downtime as well. Our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax says David Allen in his book “Deep Work”. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts organised can we achieve effective results and unleash our maximum potential. Mindfulness practice is a perfect antidote for ‘busyness.’ Taking some time to practice being in the moment helps you connect with your inner self and reduces feelings of tiredness and stress thereby creating space for you to become creative and productive.\n\nApply outcome thinking\n\nYou can’t really decide the right action until you know the outcome you’re after, and if your outcome is disconnected from reality if you are not clear about what you need to do to make it happen. Setting Goals or desired outcomes creates a cause-and-effect link in your mind about when certain goal-relevant actions will be taken. When you make plans ahead of time and decide what actions will be carried out, you can engage in doing productive work instead of being bogged down by unimportant tasks. Setting goals provides sufficient direction to move you toward your outcome rather than wasting your time in unproductive ‘busyness.’\n\nAdopt next-action approach\n\nMost of the times too many discussions in workplaces end with only a vague sense that people know what they are going to do. But without a clear decision that there is a next action, not much is accomplished. Forcing the decision about the next action prevents those issues that are important from slipping away thereby providing more clarity. Walking away from discussions with clarity of outcome makes each member involved in your discussions more responsible about the specific job assigned to them. This also reduces anxiety of undecided actions and increases your productivity.\n\nFinally, Be willing to change your unproductive busy habits to do something more meaningful and productive work.\n\nwhen you take up tasks, asking yourself,\n\n“What does this mean to me” Or “ what’s the desired outcome?” “What are the pros and cons?” lets you identify things that aren’t necessary. This way you can align yourself to be productive instead of engaging yourself with everything that comes your way.\n\n\nAre the tasks you are busy with right now add to your life’s purpose? Or are you being the victim of distractions and social trends? or can you find better and organised ways to do your tasks?\n\nIf you want to focus without distraction, achieve more in less time and be better at what you do, apply the above mentioned strategies. Getting past the unproductive busyness of your life not only helps you to become more productive but also provides a sense of fulfilment and gives your mind something to do meaningful.\n\nDisconnect from distractions\n\nThe ability to produce quality work and the ability to quickly master hard things is an important requisite in today’s work environments. The process of using rapidly changing technologies requires that you hone the ability to learn increasingly complex set of relevant skills. To be able to transform these skills into valuable results, your attention needs to be focused without any distractions. But in today’s technologically advanced world, producing quality work at an optimal rate has become a difficult task as we embrace distractions at various levels and this decreases our ability to do high quality and meaningful work. The main culprit being the culture of connectivity where one is expected to respond quickly to a mail or to a message. Checking mail and social networking sites, surfing the web, and visual mediums have become major obstacles in cultivating a deep work habit.\n\nHere are certain behaviours that distract you from quality work.\n\n\nTrying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously, your attention remains divided. There will be a residue of your attention that remains when you switch from one task to another. Those who experience attention residue after switching tasks are more prone to distractions.\n\nConstant need for connectivity\n\nWorkplaces with trends like active presence on social media might create more opportunities to collaborate but they do so at the cost of many distractions. We increasingly becoming the victims of online distractions. They fragment our time and reduce our ability to concentrate. They tend to pull your attention thereby weaken your willpower to focus on important things.\n\nUnstructured thinking\n\nWithout any built-in goals, rules and challenges you cannot produce work of real value. When you lack planning and cannot figure out what you should be working on and for how long results in shallow work and short-term gains.\n\n\nBy sending and answering mails at all hours, scheduling and attending meetings constantly, instant messaging within seconds when someone poses a query —all these behaviours make you seem busy but do not always result in high value work.\n\nLack of priority\n\nOur dependence on connectivity results in paying attention to irrelevant things. When you lose focus on really important things, your mind tends to fix on what could be wrong instead of what’s right giving into frustration,stress and triviality. These shallow concerns take up most of your time thereby keeping you away from doing quality work.\n\nMany of us assume that we can transform our working life from distracted to focused overnight and that we can switch between a state of distraction and one of concentration as needed, but once you are wired for distraction, you begin to crave it and it becomes difficult to bring your focus back with one time decision to think or work deeper. Your brain becomes accustomed to on-demand distraction and is hard to change the habit even when you want to concentrate. You will struggle to achieve higher levels of concentration unless you disconnect yourself from these distractions.\n\nYou have to make your deep work a priority to meet your personal and professional goals. By integrating the habit of doing high quality and meaningful work into your schedule and supporting it with routines and rituals, you will be able to achieve your concentration ability.\n\nThe following strategies can help you maximise your personal ability to produce quality work. By adapting to some personal work habits, you can take more effective action towards your goal of achieving real results.\n\nSchedule your work\n\nScheduling eliminates shallow obligations by having a highly valued professional or personal goal. By dedicating some clearly defined stretches of time to vital tasks, you can leave the time for not so important ones. By developing routines, by making sure little bit gets done on a regular basis, you can fit deep work habit whenever you can into your schedule. To make most of your time, build rituals of the same level of strictness.\n\nFocus on your ‘priorities’\n\nYour work should be aimed at small number of important goals. Simplifying and focusing on priorities will improve your intensity to get valuable results. Identify a small number of outcomes to pursue with your quality work hours. Spending more time doing quality work may not generate lot of enthusiasm. Instead have a specific goal that would return tangible benefits.\n\nWork on the ‘lead measures’\n\nLag measures describe the thing you are trying to improve and lead measures are the hours spent working on your important goals. Lag measures cannot immediately generate a noticeable change in your ability to reach your goal. You cannot change your behaviour as the performance that driven them is already in the past. Lead measures on the other hand, turn your attention to improving the behaviours you directly control in the near future and will have a positive impact on your long-term goals.\n\nKeep a scoreboard\n\nBy recording and tracking the hours spent doing quality work or your lead measure, creates a sense of competence and drives you to focus on these measures even when there are distractions. Keeping track of quality work hours with simple tally of tick marks maximises your motivation. Your scoreboard can help you understand what leads to bad days of work and most important, to figure out how to ensure a good score for the days ahead. This way, you can disconnect with your distractions to keep a compelling scoreboard and can create a pattern of accountability.\n\nSet deadlines\n\nSet expected time of completion for your important tasks on your priority list. You can motivate yourself by setting a countdown and can work with greater intensity and with no distractions. You can plan on taking occasional break from focus to give into distractions. By providing interval training for the attention centres of brain, you can minimise the number of times you give into distractions.\n\nApply the ‘law of vital few’\n\nMany different activities can contribute to you achieving your goals. According to the law of vital few, only twenty percent of theses activities provide the bulk of the benefit. By listing some of your distinct and beneficial activities for each of your life goals, the top two or three such activities only make most of the difference in whether or not you succeed. Try to list only those which are specific to your goal.\n\nStructure your ‘leisure time’\n\nDon’t use networking tools for entertainment when it comes relaxation as they weaken your mind’s general ability to resist distraction thereby making it difficult for you to concentrate later when you really want to. Structure your leisure time by filling your free time with something of more quality than instead of allowing your mind to be lost in unstructured web surfing and other distractions. If you give your mind a quality alternative, you’ll end the day more fulfilled and can begin the next day more relaxed.\n\n\nstrengthen your distraction-resistant muscle by practicing productive meditation. You can do this when you are occupied physically but not mentally by focusing on a single well-defined professional or personal problem or a hard task. When faced with hard tasks, your mind will attempt to avoid them by looping over and over again on what you already know. By structuring your thinking, you will be able to redirect your attention to the next step and will be able to set a specific target for your attention. This way, you can strengthen your distraction-resistance and sharpen your concentration.\n\n\nDistraction remains a destroyer of deep and meaningful work. Try and optimise your efforts and keep them structured by following above mentioned strategies.\n\nTake back the control of your time and attention from the many distractions that attempt to steal them by making your deep goal a mental priority.\n\nGet into your “Productive State”\n\nMost people have too much to handle and not enough time to get it all done or to be able to fulfil their commitments. People add to their stress levels by taking on more than they can handle. Various options and opportunities bring with them the pressures of decision making. These pressures make people frustrated about how to improve their situation. By learning productivity you can organise and prioritise better and you can get your time back so you can focus on making progress and helps you improve your situation.\n\nPlanning and scheduling your tasks helps you gain more focus. In the process, you can create a positive work atmosphere and lifestyle practices that foster clarity, control, creativity and relaxation.\n\nBetter organisational techniques like planning and preparing can enhance your productivity levels. Thinking in more effective ways to handle different work situations can make things happen sooner, better and more successfully.\n\nThere is no single technique or tool to perfect organisation and productivity. However, there are certain simple processes that we can all learn to use that will improve our ability to deal more proactively and constructively. These tools can help you focus your energies strategically to create better thinking habits and working environment which otherwise keeps most people from burning out due to stress.\n\nIt is possible for you to have an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively and be fully present in the moment.\n\nHere are some simple practices which can motivate you to become more productive.\n\nFiguring out ‘why’\n\nWhy do you want to be more productive? Why are you putting up with a situation in your workplace? Do you want to be better at your job or do you want to get more things done and do more with your time?\n\nUntil you have the answer to your ‘why’, there is no possible way to come up with appropriate actions.\n\nBy having an answer to your why has following benefits:\n\n• You can define success.\n\n• You can make hard choices and take decisions.\n\n• You can gather possible resources.\n\n• You can be motivated and can have better focus.\n\nMany people forget why they are doing something and what exactly they are trying to achieve – and a simple question like, “ Why am I doing that?” Can get you back on track. Finding the answer to your ‘why’ opens up wider possibilities and expands your thinking.\n\nFigure out your purpose\n\nAll of us want to be better at what we are doing. So the main goal should be to find your purpose. To know and to be clear about the purpose can enhance your focus. Because it is easy to get caught up and let your real and primary intentions slip. Your purpose becomes a reference point for your time and energy spent.\n\nOnce you have the purpose defined, you can align your resources and can make your decision-making easier. Often the only way to make hard choices is to come back to the purpose of what you are doing. Just taking two minutes and writing your primary reason for doing something makes things clearer and clarifies your focus.\n\nFind your time leaks\n\nDoing things that bring you progress, getting better at your work, investing in compound time to develop your skills, and picking up healthy habits make you productive. Find out where your time is leaking in the process. Think of your top priorities and determine those activities that help you achieve or take you closer to your goals. That is your meaningful work. The rest are meaningless activities that steal your time.\n\nFocus on what matters to optimise your efforts and where to allocate your time more efficiently. Being aware of all the activities that bring you closer to your goal and being aware of the ones that stall your progress help you get your time back.\n\nCreate and stick to your to-do list\n\nOrganise your daily tasks in order to get things done. Don’t get carried away by writing too long to-do lists. Being busy is not the same as being productive. Overloading your lists is not an effective to-do list format. If you always start with the easiest or most convenient ideas, you will end up pushing the best ones down the list.\n\nMake sure that your to-do list has a purpose and other meaningful activities. Define your tasks related to your goals and order them by importance. If you do not manage to finish them all, move unfinished tasks to your list for the next day. Rinse and repeat. If you carry some tasks on for too many days in a row without working on them, get rid of those tasks completely.\n\nDeclutter & Prioritise\n\nDecluttering your routine lets you devote your time to meaningful work. Write down your distractions and find multiple solutions to reduce them. For each distraction, figure out as many solutions until you find the one that works.\n\nPrioritise your tasks according to your goals and choose those that most benefit your purpose.\n\nIt will be difficult to cut down your priorities when you have more on your plate to do than you can comfortably handle. Prioritise on the basis of your long term and short term goals, accountabilities, values, areas of focus and current projects. Combine the things you want to do with things you should do.\n\nGet your routine done\n\nIt is very easy to start a task you want to do. But what about those tasks you have absolutely no motivation to do? The ones you procrastinate far too long over and never get around to doing? Putting off important tasks can rob your hours of achievement and can become a chronic cycle.\n\nSlacking off and doing unimportant tasks, putting off other tasks makes you habituated to the same process. Then, the loop continues to repeat. You are avoiding the task either because you are not organised or because you are prioritising low value work. To avoid procrastination, identify what you are putting off and do those tasks right away. If getting started is the hardest part, set a designated time slot to do the task.\n\nStay consistent\n\nThe majority of us fail at building life-changing habits because we start strong and give up easily. You need to put effort into accomplishing your goal. Even he tiniest of efforts, when consistently done, brings good results.\n\nFigure out which skill to work upon in order to reach your goal and the task you need to do everyday. Once you have zeroed in on the skill and activity, mark the days you will be working on it and focus on growing your progress on the same. Do not break the chain of progress so that you become consistent with your talent/ skill.\n\nUse your gap time productively\n\nGap times occur between meaningful activities. Optimise your gap time so you can further develop the skill you need to make you productive. Gap times are small breaks in your schedule or at work, or when you are on long breaks from your work.\n\nBe as strategic about your breaks as you are about your day in general. To use your gap times productively, think about small projects you can accomplish like learning something new, planning your week/day, cleaning up or even working on your other ideas.\n\nFinally, Stay focused.\n\nThink about the last time you felt highly productive. You probably had a sense of being in control without too much stress. You were probably highly focused on what you were doing and you felt you were making progress.\n\nNext time around if you get far out of that state—and start to feel out of control, stressed out , unfocused and bored—get yourself back into your “productive state.” Hopefully the above methods can inspire you to become more productive and work towards attaining your goals.\n\nNEEDS influence your Decision-making\n\n\n\n\nNEEDS are different from WANTS\n\n\n\nNature of NEEDS\n\n\n\n\nKnow your NEEDS\n\n\n\n\nIDENTITY your needs\n\n\nASSESS your needs\n\n\nMEASURE your needs\n\n\nFOCUS on the results\n\n\nPRIORITISE your needs\n\n\n\nTHINK of wants as Underlying needs\n\n\nKnow your OPTIONS\n\n\nRECONSIDER your needs\n\n\n\nFocus: A key to unlock your potential\n\n\n“No matter how well informed you may be, no matter how highly developed are your intellectual abilities, without right focus and concentration you cannot achieve perfection.”\n\nYour focus determines the experiences you have and the experiences you have determine the life you live. Each time you focus negatively on things, your brain solidifies its habitual pathways and distracts and takes you away from your abilities. A positive focus increases your potential by not wasting your attention levels and gives you better access to your abilities.\n\nTo achieve life of your desired experiences, you need to strengthen your positive focus and should stop focusing on negative pathways. With right focus, you can manage yourself and your time in a more productive manner. Concentrating on the activities you choose enables you to create a life of your choice by devoting more time to your priorities.\n\nEssence of right focus\n\nFocus is not only essential in our professional life, but also is important in our personal lives. We need right focus in order to develop some skills to improve things and solve problems in our day to day life.\n\nThe ability to focus develops a strong will which can be applied to change your habits or mindsets in order to improve your productivity. Strong will to focus weakens the distractions thereby inhibiting the wrong impulses and improves self-control which leads to good emotional adjustment, better interpersonal skills, and adaptability.\n\n“Those who focus best are relatively immune to emotional turbulence. The power to disengage our attention from one thing and move it to another is essential for well-being.”\n\nPower of right focus\n\nOne essential quality for the success is the ability to concentrate entire thought upon the idea you are working on. All achievements in any line of work is the result of having right focus. Practicing focus management lets you explore by disengaging yourself from distractions and search for new possibilities. This makes you flexible to choose what is important to you and does not let distractions derail your aspirations and intentions.\n\nBy improving your focus, you can gain more skills to do better work each day.\nFocusing and directing your attention to the right things and the ability to guide the others attention in the rightful direction also develops your leadership skills and makes you a good decision-maker.\n\nFocus is developed by making conscious effort and it takes great mental strength but once learned takes you closer to the realisation of your dreams.\n\n6 Keys to build right focus\n\n1. Set a clear goal\n\nZig Ziglar\n\nKnow what you want by setting clear goals and purpose. When you have a clear goal, you know what will get you closer to it and what won’t and you don’t get caught up in distractions. This way, you don’t end up wasting time on things that hold you back. Knowing your purpose is sometimes all you need to build your focus.\n\n“ Focus is not just selecting the right thing, but also saying no to the wrong ones.” Whatever is relevant to your goal gets priority.\n\n2. Develop a strong will-power\n\nThe will- power can guide your inner focus towards achieving your goals. “It acts like a beam of light. It does little if gets scattered, but if you use it to focus, it can work like laser.”\n\nAn extrinsic motivation can only keep you focused for short time, but you need to develop a strong will to build right focus to act on your goals for longer time and to keep you on the right path tuning out distractions. Apply the will power to focus on desired habits.\n\n3. Have better self-control\n\n“Focus on your potential instead of your limitations.”– Alan Loy McGinnis\n\nAll of us have different tendencies. One wants us to advance towards our dreams and goals and the other wants to pull us back and distracts. Both natures try to gain control. The one that we focus upon gets cultivated and decides what we become.\nFocus on your abilities and not on your limitations or fears. Choice lies with us whether we allow the inner self to control us or whether we will be controlled by the brute within us.\n\n4. Practice gratitude\n\nBe thankful to what you have. This creates the right focus on your abilities to achieve your goals. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you weigh yourself down by self created negativity. Practice being unattached to the results or outcomes of your tasks. Focus on what is in front of you and on the process, this creates a clear vision. Appreciate yourself everytime you apply right focus each day to accomplish these goals.\n\n5. Avoid multitasking\n\nSome of us scatter our focus trying ṭo get too many little things done instead of focusing on higher priority tasks. When jugglers keep objects in the air at once, they focus on only one object in any given moment, if they scatter their attention among all objects, they may drop all of them.\n\nMultitasking leads to inefficiency and creates stress. So focus on your priorities and handle them one at a time. Do those things more slowly and completely to maintain and gain more focus.\n\n6. Practice being in the moment\n\nMost days, our minds are in ten different places at any one time. As soon as we try to focus, thousands of undesired impulses rush into the brain and try to disturb us. By developing present moment awareness you will be able to reclaim your focus and will be able to unlock your full potential. Devote time to practice mindfulness and try doing your daily activities as form of meditation by concentrating and doing them slowly and completely.\n\nFinally, commit to yourself by eliminating multitude of distractions in your life by concentrating on only those activities that have power to make a difference in the way you want to live or work. You can direct your attention towards finding your focus and develop the confidence to stay committed and motivated to achieve your goal. A sustained focus refines your efficiencies and improves your overall performance.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5847784280776978}
+{"content": "Cell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1) - Essay Example\n\nComments (0) Cite this document\nConsequently living things can be broadly classified into prokaryotes or eukaryotes depending on their cell structure. These two groups differ by their subcellular structure where eukaryotes have membrane…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nGRAB THE BEST PAPER98.5% of users find it useful\nCell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1)\nRead TextPreview\n\nExtract of sample \"Cell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1)\"\n\nCell Structure -Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill Cell Structure -Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cell\nThe cell is the building unit in living organisms both simple and complex. Consequently living things can be broadly classified into prokaryotes or eukaryotes depending on their cell structure. These two groups differ by their subcellular structure where eukaryotes have membrane bound organelles, while prokaryotes lack these organelles. Eukaryotic cell, therefore, contain complex structures formed by internal membranes and cytoskeleton whereas, prokaryotic cells are simple with less complex structured organelles. Theorists postulate that prokaryotes were the only form of life for millions of years before eukaryotes come into being through evolution. Additionally, the majority of prokaryotes are unicellular with an exception of a few such as cyanobacteria while eukaryotes are multicellular.\nThese are single-celled prokaryotic organisms that differ from bacteria and eukaryota in many ways. Their size and shape resemble that of bacteria but contain genes and metabolic processes similar to those in eukaryotes. Unlike bacteria, some archaea have irregular shapes.\nNitrifying bacteria\nThese are prokaryotic organisms that derive their energy from inorganic sources. They are subdivided into two major groups; ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) that oxidize ammonia to nitrite, and nitrate oxidizing bacteria (NOB), which oxidize nitrite to nitrate. Examples of the AOB group are the Nitrosomonas Sp while Nitrobacter Sp belong to the NOB group.\nAmmonium-oxidizing bacteria\nThese are chemolithotrophs bacteria that utilize ammonium as a source of energy. They oxidize ammonia to nitrite. Examples include the Nitrosomonas, Nitrosococcus, Nitrosospira, and Nitrosolobus species.\nGram-negative VS Gram-positive bacteria\nGram negative bacteria are bacteria that have a thin peptidoglycan (polymer) matrix, which comprises the cell membrane of the organism. Consequently these bacteria do not retain the crystal violet dye used in gram staining technique. On the other hand, gram positive bacteria contain a thick layer of this polymer matrix, thus retain the primary stain in gram staining giving them purple appearance.\nThese are organic compounds consisting of carbon and hydrogen elements. These compounds are abundant in nature and occur mostly in the form of crude oil. Hydrocarbons, therefore, are the main source of energy readily available as a combustible fuel.\nThis is a scientific assay that employs the use of live organisms to determine the biological activity of a test substance. These tests are useful in investigating the effects (toxicity) of an element accidently introduced in an ecosystem. For instance, the effect crude oil spills on the surface and deep-water marine life. Bioassays can be qualitative or quantitative.\nMicrotox bioassay\nMicrotox is a commercial bioassay kit that monitors growth activity of Vibrio (Allivibrio) Fischeri. The growth of the microorganism is monitored and quantified through bioluminescence.\nCrude oil\nThis is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon liquid found beneath sedimentary rocks. This organic compound can be refined into various petroleum products, which form the various types of biofuels.\nBiodegradation is the breakdown of organic or inorganic matter into primary elements by living organisms. This process is mediated by enzymatic processes in the living cells and bacteria form the majority of organisms used in this process.\nSensitivity Bioassay study\nThe study by Urakawa (2012) investigated the toxicity of oil spills on nitrifying microorganisms. In this study, both nitrifying bacteria and archaea toxicity were reported at 0.1-10ppm concentration of the contaminant (Urakawa, et al 2012). However, archaea were reported to have a higher sensitivity to toxicity than bacteria. The toxicity sensitivity to crude oil also varies with species among nitrifying bacteria group, with N. maritimus showing a higher sensitivity than the rest (Urakawa, et al 2012). A significant difference in sensitivity is also noted between betaproteobacterial, which showed a higher sensitivity than gammaproteobacterial ammonia oxidizers (Urakawa, et al 2012). To determine the impact of chronic toxicity on microorganisms, Urakawa (2012) challenged the growth of heterotrophs with increasing doses of toxicity from zero to 10 ppm oil concentration (Urakawa, et al 2012). Significantly this group had a low sensitivity compared to that of nitrifying bacteria.\nUrakawa, H. et al. (2012). “A sensitive crude oil bioassay indicates that oil spills potentially\ninduce a Change of major nitrifying prokaryotes from the Archaea to the Bacteria.” Environmental Pollution 164: 42-45 Read More\nCite this document\n  • APA\n  • MLA\n(“Cell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)\n(Cell Structure (Bio Slp Mod 1) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)\n  • Cited: 0 times\nComments (0)\nClick to create a comment or rate a document\n\nCHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Cell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1)\n\n\n...?Submitted by: XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XX – XX – University of XXXXXX MGT302 - Org. Behavior and Teamwork MOD 1 SLP Employee Motivation and Training: Employee motivation is directly related to their performance. In a training where employees do not show any interest despite efforts from the employers, it is clear that the main cause is the lack of motivation. Keeping up the employee motivation is crucial for the management to ensure that the investments into the training programs are not being wasted. Hence management of the company can introduce newer ways and techniques of imparting the training information to the employees (Buchanan and Huczynski). This will keep the employees interested in the training... by:...\n2 Pages(500 words)Essay\n\n\n...?Operations Management in Action: Mc Donald’s The processes that a firm or organization undergoes to produce or deliver goods and services are collectively called operations (Bicheno & Elliot, 1997). On this note, this paper will look into the nature of operations of Mc Donald’s as a provider of fast food items. Mc Donald’s is considered to be the largest fast food chain in the world, serving hamburgers, french fries, chicken products, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes, desserts, and a whole other variety of fast food items to over 50 million people a day. 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The company being successful as its profits after tax rose up to 35p.c in year 2012-2013, attributed this to its well enabled supply chain management. The management followed the five simple but elaborate steps to enable it emerge as one of the highly ranked company in the West Indies. 1. Discovery of The Supplier... line which...\n4 Pages(1000 words)Admission/Application Essay\n\nCell Chemistry (mod 2 SLP)\n\n...Slp Assignment Insert Insert Slp assignment Origin of crude oil deposits in the ocean Crude oil in the ocean is formed over a period of many years due to partial decomposition of plants and animals that are buried on the ocean floor. The partial decomposition is as a result of insufficient oxygen at the ocean floor. Sun provides energy to the living things in the ocean including marine life and planktons that obtain energy through photosynthesis. 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The profits generated from this revenue stood...\n4 Pages(1000 words)Essay\nsponsored ads\n\nLet us find you another Essay on topic Cell Structure (Bio slp Mod 1) for FREE!\n\nContact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9608159065246582}
+{"content": "Posts Tagged 'Irving Fisher'\n\nWhat’s so Bad about the Gold Standard?\n\nLast week Paul Krugman argued that Ted Cruz is more dangerous than Donald Trump, because Trump is merely a protectionist while Cruz wants to restore the gold standard. I’m not going to weigh in on the relative merits of Cruz and Trump, but I have previously suggested that Krugman may be too dismissive of the possibility that the Smoot-Hawley tariff did indeed play a significant, though certainly secondary, role in the Great Depression. In warning about the danger of a return to the gold standard, Krugman is certainly right that the gold standard was and could again be profoundly destabilizing to the world economy, but I don’t think he did such a good job of explaining why, largely because, like Ben Bernanke and, I am afraid, most other economists, Krugman isn’t totally clear on how the gold standard really worked.\n\nHere’s what Krugman says:\n\n[P]rotectionism didn’t cause the Great Depression. It was a consequence, not a cause – and much less severe in countries that had the good sense to leave the gold standard.\n\nThat’s basically right. But I note for the record, to spell out the my point made in the post I alluded to in the opening paragraph that protectionism might indeed have played a role in exacerbating the Great Depression, making it harder for Germany and other indebted countries to pay off their debts by making it more difficult for them to exports required to discharge their obligations, thereby making their IOUs, widely held by European and American banks, worthless or nearly so, undermining the solvency of many of those banks. It also increased the demand for the gold required to discharge debts, adding to the deflationary forces that had been unleashed by the Bank of France and the Fed, thereby triggering the debt-deflation mechanism described by Irving Fisher in his famous article.\n\nWhich brings us to Cruz, who is enthusiastic about the gold standard – which did play a major role in spreading the Depression.\n\nWell, that’s half — or maybe a quarter — right. The gold standard did play a major role in spreading the Depression. But the role was not just major; it was dominant. And the role of the gold standard in the Great Depression was not just to spread it; the role was, as Hawtrey and Cassel warned a decade before it happened, to cause it. The causal mechanism was that in restoring the gold standard, the various central banks linking their currencies to gold would increase their demands for gold reserves so substantially that the value of gold would rise back to its value before World War I, which was about double what it was after the war. It was to avoid such a catastrophic increase in the value of gold that Hawtrey drafted the resolutions adopted at the 1922 Genoa monetary conference calling for central-bank cooperation to minimize the increase in the monetary demand for gold associated with restoring the gold standard. Unfortunately, when France officially restored the gold standard in 1928, it went on a gold-buying spree, joined in by the Fed in 1929 when it raised interest rates to suppress Wall Street stock speculation. The huge accumulation of gold by France and the US in 1929 led directly to the deflation that started in the second half of 1929, which continued unabated till 1933. The Great Depression was caused by a 50% increase in the value of gold that was the direct result of the restoration of the gold standard. In principle, if the Genoa Resolutions had been followed, the restoration of the gold standard could have been accomplished with no increase in the value of gold. But, obviously, the gold standard was a catastrophe waiting to happen.\n\nThe problem with gold is, first of all, that it removes flexibility. Given an adverse shock to demand, it rules out any offsetting loosening of monetary policy.\n\nThat’s not quite right; the problem with gold is, first of all, that it does not guarantee that value of gold will be stable. The problem is exacerbated when central banks hold substantial gold reserves, which means that significant changes in the demand of central banks for gold reserves can have dramatic repercussions on the value of gold. Far from being a guarantee of price stability, the gold standard can be the source of price-level instability, depending on the policies adopted by individual central banks. The Great Depression was not caused by an adverse shock to demand; it was caused by a policy-induced shock to the value of gold. There was nothing inherent in the gold standard that would have prevented a loosening of monetary policy – a decline in the gold reserves held by central banks – to reverse the deflationary effects of the rapid accumulation of gold reserves, but, the insane Bank of France was not inclined to reverse its policy, perversely viewing the increase in its gold reserves as evidence of the success of its catastrophic policy. However, once some central banks are accumulating gold reserves, other central banks inevitably feel that they must take steps to at least maintain their current levels of reserves, lest markets begin to lose confidence that convertibility into gold will be preserved. Bad policy tends to spread. Krugman seems to have this possibility in mind when he continues:\n\nWorse, relying on gold can easily have the effect of forcing a tightening of monetary policy at precisely the wrong moment. In a crisis, people get worried about banks and seek cash, increasing the demand for the monetary base – but you can’t expand the monetary base to meet this demand, because it’s tied to gold.\n\nBut Krugman is being a little sloppy here. If the demand for the monetary base – meaning, presumably, currency plus reserves at the central bank — is increasing, then the public simply wants to increase their holdings of currency, not spend the added holdings. So what stops the the central bank accommodate that demand? Krugman says that “it” – meaning, presumably, the monetary base – is tied to gold. What does it mean for the monetary base to be “tied” to gold? Under the gold standard, the “tie” to gold is a promise to convert the monetary base, on demand, at a specified conversion rate.\n\nQuestion: why would that promise to convert have prevented the central bank from increasing the monetary base? Answer: it would not and did not. Since, by assumption, the public is demanding more currency to hold, there is no reason why the central bank could not safely accommodate that demand. Of course, there would be a problem if the public feared that the central bank might not continue to honor its convertibility commitment and that the price of gold would rise. Then there would be an internal drain on the central bank’s gold reserves. But that is not — or doesn’t seem to be — the case that Krugman has in mind. Rather, what he seems to mean is that the quantity of base money is limited by a reserve ratio between the gold reserves held by the central bank and the monetary base. But if the tie between the monetary base and gold that Krugman is referring to is a legal reserve requirement, then he is confusing the legal reserve requirement with the gold standard, and the two are simply not the same, it being entirely possible, and actually desirable, for the gold standard to function with no legal reserve requirement – certainly not a marginal reserve requirement.\n\nOn top of that, a slump drives interest rates down, increasing the demand for real assets perceived as safe — like gold — which is why gold prices rose after the 2008 crisis. But if you’re on a gold standard, nominal gold prices can’t rise; the only way real prices can rise is a fall in the prices of everything else. Hello, deflation!\n\nNote the implicit assumption here: that the slump just happens for some unknown reason. I don’t deny that such events are possible, but in the context of this discussion about the gold standard and its destabilizing properties, the historically relevant scenario is when the slump occurred because of a deliberate decision to raise interest rates, as the Fed did in 1929 to suppress stock-market speculation and as the Bank of England did for most of the 1920s, to restore and maintain the prewar sterling parity against the dollar. Under those circumstances, it was the increase in the interest rate set by the central bank that amounted to an increase in the monetary demand for gold which is what caused gold appreciation and deflation.\n\n\nOnce Upon a Time When Keynes Endorsed the Fisher Effect\n\nOne of the great puzzles of the General Theory is Keynes’s rejection of the Fisher Effect on pp. 141-42. What is even more difficult to understand than Keynes’s criticism of the Fisher Effect, which I hope to parse in a future post, is that in his Tract on Monetary Reform Keynes had himself reproduced the Fisher Effect, though without crediting the idea to Fisher. Interestingly enough, when he turned against the Fisher Effect in the General Theory, dismissing it almost contemptuously, he explicitly attributed the idea to Fisher.\n\nBut here are a couple of quotations from the Tract in which Keynes exactly follows the Fisherian analysis. There are probably other places in which he does so as well, but these two examples seemed the most explicit. Keynes actually cites Fisher several times in the Tract, but those citations are to Fisher’s purely monetary work, in particular The Purchasing Power of Money (1911) which Keynes had reviewed in the Economic Journal. Of course, the distinction between the real and money rates of interest that Fisher made famous was not discovered by Fisher. Marshall had mentioned it and the idea was discussed at length by Henry Thornton, and possibly by other classical economists as well, so Keynes was not necessarily committing a scholarly offense by not mentioning Fisher. Nevertheless, it was Fisher who derived the relationship as a formal theorem, and the idea was already widely associated with him. And, of course, when Keynes criticized the idea, he explicitly attributed the idea to Fisher.\n\nEconomists draw an instructive distinction between what are termed the “money” rate of interest and the “real” rate of interest. If a sum of money worth 100 in terms of commodities at the time when the loan is made is lent for a year at 5 per cent interest, and is worth only 90 in terms of commodities at the end of the year, the lender receives back, including interest, what is worth only 94.5. This is expressed by saying that while the money rate of interest was 5 per cent, the real rate of interest had actually been negative and equal to minus 5.5 per cent. . . .\n\nThus, when prices are rising, the business man who borrows money is able to repay the lender with what, in terms of real value, not only represents no interest, but is even less than the capital originally advanced; that is the borrower reaps a corresponding benefit. It is true that , in so far as a rise in prices is foreseen, attempts to get advantage from this by increased borrowing force the money rates of interest to move upwards. It is for this reason, amongst others, that a high bank rate should be associated with a period of rising prices, and a low bank rate with a period of faling prices. The apparent abnormality of the money rate of interest at such times is merely the other side of the attempt of the real rate of interest to steady itself. Nevertheless in a period of rapidly changing prices, the money rate of interest seldom adjusts itself adequately or fast enough to prevent the real rate from becoming abnormal. For it is not the fact of a given rise of prices, but the expectation of a rise compounded of the various possible price movements and the estimated probability of each, which affects money rates. (pp. 20-22)\n\nLike Fisher, Keynes, allowed for the possibility that inflation will not be fully anticipated so that the rise in the nominal rate will not fully compensate for the effect of inflation, suggesting that it is generally unlikely that inflation will be fully anticipated so that, in practice, inflation tends to reduce the real rate of interest. So Keynes seems fully on board with Fisher in the Tract.\n\nThen there is Keynes’s celebrated theorem of covered interest arbitrage, perhaps his most important and enduring contribution to economics before writing the General Theory. He demonstrates the theorem in chapter 3 of the Tract.\n\nIf dollars one month forward are quoted cheaper than spot dollars to a London buyer in terms of sterling, this indicates a preference by the market, on balance, in favour of holding funds in New York during the month in question rather than in London – a preference the degree of which is measured by the discount on forward dollars. For if spot dollars are worth $4.40 to the pound and dollars one month forward $4.405 to the pound, then the owner of $4.40 can, by selling the dollars spot and buying them back one month forward, find himself at the end of the month with $4.405, merely by being during the month the owner of £1 in London instead of $4.40 in New York. That he should require and can obtain half a cent, which, earned in one month, is equal to about 1.5 per cent per annum, to induce him to do the transaction, shows, and is, under conditions of competition, a measure of, the market’s preference for holding funds during the month in question in New York rather than in London. . . .\n\nThe difference between the spot and forward rates is, therefore, precisely and exactly the measure of the preference of the money and exchange market for holding funds in one international centre rather than in another, the exchange risk apart, that is to say under conditions in which the exchange risk is covered. What is it that determines these preferences?\n\n1. The most fundamental cause is to be found in the interest rates obtainable on “short” money – that is to say, on money lent or deposited for short periods of time in the money markets of the two centres under consideration. If by lending dollars in New York for one month the lender could earn interest at the rate of 5.5 per cent per annum, whereas by lending sterling in London for one month he could only earn interest at the rate of 4 per cent, then the preference observed above for holding funds in New York rather than London is wholly explained. That is to say, the forward quotations for the purchase of the currency of the dearer money market tend to be cheaper than spot quotations by a percentage per month equal to the excess of the interest which can be earned in a month in the dearer market over what can be earned in the cheaper. (pp. 123-34)\n\nCompare Keynes’s discussion in the Tract to Fisher’s discussion in Appreciation and Interest, written over a quarter of a century before the Tract.\n\nSuppose gold is to appreciate relatively to wheat a certain known amount in one year. What will be the relation between the rates of interest in the two standards? Let wheat fall in gold price (or gold rise in wheat price) so that the quantity of gold which would buy one bushel of wheat at the beginning of the year will buy 1 + a bushels at the end, a being therefore the rate of appreciation of gold in terms of wheat. Let the rate of interest in gold be i, and in wheat be j, and let the principal of the loan be D dollars or its equivalent B bushels. Our alternative contracts are then:\n\nFor D dollars borrowed D + Di or D(1 + i) dollars are due in one yr.\n\nFor B bushels     “       B + Bj or B(1 + j) bushels  ”   “    “   “   “\n\nand our problem is to find the relation between i and j, which will make the D(1 + i) dollars equal the B(1 + j) bushels.\n\nAt first, D dollars equals B bushels.\n\nAt the end of the year D dollars equals B(1 + a) bushels\n\nHence at the end of one year D(1 + i) dollars equals B(1 + a) (1 + i) bushels\n\nSince D(1 + i) dollars is the number of dollars necessary to liquidate the debt, its equivalent B(1 + a) (1 + i) bushels is the number of bushels necessary to liquidate it. But we have already designated this number of bushels by B(1 + j). Our result, therefore, is:\n\nAt the end of 1 year D(1 + i) dollars equals B(1 + j) equals B(1 + a) (1 + i) bushels\n\nwhich, after B is canceled, discloses the formula:\n\n1 + j = (1 + a) (1 + i)\n\n\nj = i + a + ia\n\nOr, in words: The rate of interest in the (relatively) depreciating standard is equal to the sum of three terms, viz., the rate of interest in the appreciating standard, the rate of appreciation itself and the product of these two elements. (pp. 8-9)\n\nSo, it’s clear that Keynes’s theorem of covered interest arbitrage in the Tract is a straightforward application of Fisher’s analysis in Appreciation and Interest. Now it is quite possible that Keynes was unaware of Fisher’s analysis in Appreciation and Interest, though it was reproduced in Fisher’s better known 1907 classic The Rate of Interest, so that Keynes’s covered-interest-arbitrage theorem may have been subjectively original, even though it had been anticipated in its essentials a quarter of a century earlier by Fisher. Nevertheless, Keynes’s failure to acknowledge, when he criticized the Fisher effect in the General Theory, how profoundly indebted he had been, in his own celebrated work on the foreign-exchange markets, to the Fisherian analysis was a serious lapse in scholarship, if not in scholarly ethics.\n\nHawtrey’s Good and Bad Trade: Part II\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUneasy Money Marks the Centenary of Hawtrey’s Good and Bad Trade\n\n\n\nIn his introductory chapter, Hawtrey lays out the following objective:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapters 18 and 19 are devoted to taxation and public finance.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Me\n\nDavid Glasner\nWashington, DC\n\n\n\n\nJoin 2,282 other followers\n\nFollow Uneasy Money on WordPress.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9389994740486145}
+{"content": "Javier Santaolalla\n\nPhD in Physics\n\n“The best way to motivate while learning is to let the person answer their own questions.”\n\nPhysics as the central axis of human evolution.\n\nReal physics is dedicated to solving mysteries, to learning about the universe, to answering the most burning questions about who we are, where we come from, what we are, and where we are going. This kind of physics focuses on solving mysteries and enigmas. And this is something that drove me mad, realizing that physics is actually about having a better understanding of who we are, what we are made of, what the meaning of all of this is. After seeing this side of physics, I knew that I truly wanted to become a physicist. At the time I was studying engineering without passion. And a whole new world revealed itself before my eyes. The universe of understanding that a physicist is able to unravel, to solve mysteries about the cosmos. And this is very interesting because at the time I said to myself: “This is what I want to be”. Someday, I would like to feel that, in my life, I have worked on solving a mystery, that I have contributed something to the world. That I am doing something that is transcendent, that goes beyond what I am doing in my day-to-day life. Something that can be used to broaden the human mind because it transforms the world. Transforming someone's mind and the way people see their own lives and the life of the universe. Behind every big transformation of human thought, there is a scientific idea.\n\nI decided to become a science communicator because it is a beautiful way of touching lives, through the magic of the power of science, this power to discover who we are. Because it is a power that is within us and that many times we don't know. And often I start to think about why science has this power that other things do not. Because it shares that lasting capacity to touch someone and transform their life, much like music or art. Because physics has that power to create this contact, this connection between people. Because physics is here, in our body, running through our veins.\n\nMany people are born with this curiosity. Not many, everybody. With this curiosity to try, to discover things, that is what a child does. If you watch a baby closely, you are following a scientific method. Let me remind you that behind this mysterious name, there is nothing more than asking questions, testing, experimenting, making hypotheses, and extracting patterns that allow you to predict what will happen when you do this again. If you throw something, you see how it falls, how it breaks. The child realizes this and tests what happens to the environment as they manipulate it. It is strange that we are born with this curiosity. It is also strange that this curiosity can reappear when we are around eight or nine years old. My reawakening to curiosity occurred precisely when I stepped away from the path where my studies were leading me and embarked on new experiences. Scientific experiences guided by my own curiosity. When I let go of the reins, I stopped leaving my life in the hands of another and took it in my own two hands. This is why, when someone asks me something along the lines of: “What can I do for a child to be interested in science?” I usually respond with a paradoxical reply which piques people's curiosity and also casts doubts. Many people expect a manual with 20,000 bullet points; first section… No, don't do anything. In other words, do nothing. Let them experiment. Let them ask themselves questions, and guide them to answer them, simply helping them to pose new questions. The best way to motivate someone in science or general knowledge is by letting that person be their own guide to learning, that whatever they ask themselves becomes a stepping stone to posing new questions through curiosity. The greatest enemy of education is enforcement.\n\nScience is a significant element that contributes these values to society. The values of science are values such as work, discipline, sharing, cooperating, collaborating, humility, passion. These values have also emerged from the scientific mentality. In the end, when they wondered what the Earth was and they realized that it was not the center of the universe, there was an amazing transformation of thought. Science has shaped the way we understand the world and, therefore, the way we understand ourselves. By using science to understand the universe we are understanding what we are and, therefore, are shaping our values, our principles and the way we live. It is vital that, by answering questions that do not seem to make sense, at the same time we are responding to the most fundamental questions about what our role is in the universe.\n\nThe work of teachers in Spain is poorly valued, or at least it is possibly not at the level that they deserve. Teachers work under very hard conditions when planning their lessons; overcrowded classrooms, little time, small budgets, little social recognition, it is too easy to criticize the work of a teacher… I believe that good things are being done and, therefore, I want to share them. I want to lend my voice to all those teachers whom I have worked with for more than five years that do amazing things, that give their all and that have values that they try to transmit: regarding work, dedication, passion… And a terrible vocation. The work of these heroes and heroines is given very little value. People that get up every day with the hope of creating generations that are better that us, of creating people and professionals that are going to take the plunge and create something different and improve the place where we live. But this doesn't take away from the fact that things need to be improved and that it is good and positive to have a critical attitude. During the last three years I have been working on educational innovation processes at a European level, on a project called the Creations project. This project is funded by the European Commission including 16 members, laboratories, institutes, universities from all over Europe and where we try to see where we are failing and how we can improve. I would end up in a bad mood when I went to class and the teacher gave the solution to a problem that I never had, that I had never considered and that I didn't understand. They were giving me the answer to a question that I hadn't asked myself. Teachers stand in front of their students and explain things to them that they have never even considered. In my opinion, this was putting the cart before the horse. And something that is being done is completely breaking with the way in which we learn. When a teacher starts a lesson and begins to solve questions by using equations, they are going to the end of the learning process, because as we have said, we learn by following the scientific method.\n\nMore on Javier Santaolalla\n\nWith a PhD in Particle Physics, Javier Santaolalla is a telecommunications engineer who has worked for several years for CERN. He is also the creator, together with other colleagues, of the project 'Mad about science', an education program intended for young people and teachers that aims to awaken scientific vocations.\nWhat major physics mysteries are left to be solved?\n\nOne of the wonders of physics is the fact that there are so many things to discover. One of the most interesting things about physics is that whenever we find an answer to a question, other questions emerge. Physics often touches on philosophy. And this is one of the things that people who like to understand the universe love the most. The fact that, there will come a time when we will be able to ask ourselves questions such as: Is there really an end to the knowledge of the universe? That is, will there come a time when there are no more questions left? Nobody knows. Physics not only tries to answer the questions that scientists ask themselves, but even the questions that nobody has ever asked. Maybe what is still to be discovered, what we haven't asked ourselves yet, is much more interesting than trying to corroborate something that someone has already asked themselves. Often times, the problem with physics and other branches of science is that we are not asking the right question. And this is why I say that, perhaps the most open and interesting scientific question is one that has never been asked.\n\n“We lose our essence the day that we stop wondering who we are and where the Universe is going\n\nSee the full video here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6723174452781677}
+{"content": "MADE51 Bringing Refugee-made Crafts to the Global Market\n\n메이드51 로고 이미지\n\nThe world is facing a refugee crisis. To date, an unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced out of their homes, among them nearly 22.5 million refugees. Within this growing population lies a wealth of talented artisans and craftspeople. This is where MADE51 comes in.\n\nInitiated by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and supported by a global network of local social enterprises, MADE51 helps refugee artisans achieve independence by integrating them into viable supply chains and creating a means to market their crafts worldwide.\n\nWhile supporting a sustainable livelihood for talented makers fleeing war or persecution, MADE51 also helps keep traditional crafts alive, preserving indigenous techniques and material processes that might otherwise be lost.\n\nBy providing the opportunity to work and earn a living, MADE51 aims to offer a stable framework in which displaced people can rebuild their lives in dignity and peace. Whether based in Jordan or Thailand, Rwanda or Afghanistan, the artisans in MADE51’s network are all paid a fair wage, earning them income to meet their basic needs, and safeguarding their sense of self-worth and independence.\n\nFrom intricate basketry by Burundian refugees living in camps in Tanzania to refugee artisans in Thailand adapting traditional bamboo-weaving techniques to make modern lampshades, MADE51 products are not just beautifully crafted objects, they are artifacts from endangered cultures and testaments to the potential contribution that the creativity of refugee makers can make to the world’s economy and material culture.\n\nFeaturing twelve product lines made in collaboration with local social enterprises all over the world, MADE51’s debut collection was launched at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt this February. The collection includes complex pile rugs created by fifty-seven refugee Afghan artisans of Arzu Studio Hope.\n\nThe sheep’s wool rugs are made using a traditional hand-knotting technique widely employed in Afghanistan. In Jordan, Syrian refugee artisans are crafting a series of cashmere throws and bags for the collection, using traditional crochet and embroidery techniques. Meanwhile in Tanzania, fifty Burundian refugee artisans are using their skills in traditional basketry to weave a series of natural vessels and wall hangings. In Burkina Faso, Malian refugees are combining hammered bronze and copper with hand-cured leather to create bowls, boxes, and pieces of jewellery, intertwining the cultural identity and symbolism of the Tuareg culture in every piece.\n\n\nAs a result of MADE51, hundreds of refugee artisans are now equipped to contribute to the global economy; it is only through sales and a genuine demand for their products nevertheless that refugee artisans will be able to employ their skills and traditions to earn an income through their craft. By including the MADE51 collection in their sourcing plans, retailers and brands have a vital role in helping refugees achieve self-reliance. Retailers and brands can be part of the solution to this global crisis.\n\nFor more information about MADE51 and its launch collection, please visit the official website or contact Jodi Moss at or +44 (0)7910 705147.\n\nThis is an edited version of the original source article provided by UNHCR", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995146989822388}
+{"content": "MPs have stated their desire to implement more average speed cameras along the UK's main roads in a bid to catch more motorists that drive too quickly. The combined figure of detected motoring offences has more than halved during the last 10 years. In 2004, the number of driving offences totalled 4.33 million, but figures for 2013 _ the last year for which figures are available _ amounted to 1.62 million. MPs within the Transport Committee feel that some of this reduction may be due to decreased detection, following significant budget cuts to road traffic police. Subsequently, there's a desire among MPs to ensure detection rates are higher, via specialised traffic officers or greater use of technology. The Transport Committee's report on road traffic enforcement across the UK says speed cameras are an 'important and effective part of the technology toolkitî and, if enforcement is going to be effective, greater use of technology is essential. The report adds that average speed cameras are largely 'better received by motorists than traditional fixed speed camerasî, but existing schemes should be assessed for their long-term effectiveness. Based on this, Highways England should develop best practice for their deployment. The report also states that speed camera placement must relate to safety rather than revenue with regards to improving speed limit compliance, with reductions in road casualties the number-one priority. 'We recommend that the Government monitor the placement of speed cameras by local authorities to ensure that this is the case,î the report continues. 'Where revenue is taken from speed camera enforcement, the funding arrangements must be transparent and the revenue put back into road safety grants rather than kept by local authorities or the Treasury.î The majority (90 per cent) of fixed penalty notices issued for exceeding the speed limit were camera-detected in England and Wales throughout 2014, accounting for 668,081 out of 743,054 fixed penalty notices. Meanwhile data from the Department for Transport (DfT) indicates that breaking the speed limit was a contributory factor in 254 fata road accidents in 2014 _ almost a fifth (16 per cent) of all fatal accidents and 1,199 serious road accidents. David Davies, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) told the Transport Committee that the new average speed camera scheme on the A9 in Scotland _ now the longest dual carriageway stretch of road with average speed cameras _ has resulted in 'safety and traffic benefitsî that have, to date, been 'substantialî.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9562021493911743}
+{"content": "A collision in the Domain Tunnel has led to the left lane being closed westbound. \n\nOne car is waiting on a tow truck and the speed limit has been set to 40km/hr. There are significant delays inbound on the Monash Freeway for the second time today after a collision on Burke Road at around 6am. \n\nVic Traffic is urging commuters to consider Dandenong Road as an alternative.\n\nKIIS 1011 Melbourne", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9936273097991943}
+{"content": "Emerging Markets Fixed Income Opportunities Strategy\nEmerging Markets Fixed Income Opportunities Strategy\n\nEmerging Markets Fixed Income Opportunities Strategy\n\n\n\nThe Emerging Markets Fixed Income Opportunities Strategy seeks to provide access to the full spectrum of Emerging Markets (EM) fixed income. The team seeks to identify the best investment opportunities across hard and local currency instruments, as well as sovereign and corporate issues by utilizing an approach that combines top-down macro assessment with rigorous bottom-up fundamental analysis. \n\n\n\n4.5-7 years\nTypical Duration\nTypical Yield to Maturity\nU.S. Dollar-Denominated Exposure\nInvestment Approach\n\nAs Emerging Market (EM) economies have changed and developed over the past two decades, so too has the opportunity set available to fixed income investors. Given the impact of global macro themes and idiosyncratic factors on EM fixed income performance, it has never been more important for investors to have the flexibility to invest across the entire fixed income investment universe. An opportunistic approach which provides exposure to both foreign (U.S. dollar) and local currency fixed income assets, whether sovereign or corporate, could provide benefits such as:\n\n· Return potential  \n\n· Lower volatility\n\n· Holistic approach \n\nGlobal presence\n\n\nExperience and complementary skill set\n\nThe team has been through a variety of volatile markets and is comprised of investment professionals with complementary skills sets, which facilitate informed, well-researched investment decisions. MSIM has managed dedicated EMD assets since 1993, with the Head of the EMD effort being involved since 1997. \n\nMorgan Stanley Investment Management’s structure\n\n\nInvestment Process\nIdentify macro-fundamental drivers\n\nFirst the team conducts a top-down assessment of the global environment to determine how it interacts with economic fundamentals in emerging economies. The analysis of global and financial conditions, and their likely impact on EM fundamentals, helps to determine the overall risk positioning in the portfolio. \n\nDerive thematic investment thesis\n\nHere the team identifies countries that exhibit positive fundamental rates of change using frameworks that meld economic, political and social assessments.\n\nEvaluate investment opportunity set\n\nThe team evaluates the opportunity set using a number of techniques that include sovereign analysis, currency, interest rate and yield curve analysis and credit analysis.\n\nSecurity selection and portfolio construction\n\n\nDiversify and execute\n\nRisk management is integral to investment process. They place emphasis on diversification and the correlations between asset classes and concentrations of countries, themes, regions, sectors, and commodities.\n\nPortfolio Managers\nEric Baurmeister\nManaging Director\n25 years industry experience\nWarren Mar\nManaging Director\n24 years industry experience\nSahil Tandon\nExecutive Director\n15 years industry experience\n\n\n\nThere is no assurance that a portfolio will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market value of securities owned by the portfolio will decline. Accordingly, you can lose money investing in this portfolio. Please be aware that this portfolio may be subject to certain additional risks. Fixed-income securities are subject to the ability of an issuer to make timely principal and interest payments (credit risk), changes in interest rates (interest-rate risk), the creditworthiness of the issuer and general market liquidity (market risk). In the current rising interest-rate environment, bond prices may fall and may result in periods of volatility and increased portfolio redemptions. Longer-term securities may be more sensitive to interest rate changes. In a declining interest-rate environment, the portfolio may generate less income.  High yield securities (“junk bonds”) are lower rated securities that may have a higher degree of credit and liquidity risk. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic, and market risks. The risks of investing in emerging marketcountries are greater than the risks generally associated with investments in foreign developed countries. Sovereign debt securities are subject to default risk. Derivative instruments can be illiquid, may disproportionately increase losses and may have a potentially large negative impact on the portfolio’s performance. The use of leveragemay increase volatility in the Portfolio. Non-diversified portfolios often invest in a more limited number of issuers. As such, changes in the financial condition or market value of a single issuer may cause greater volatility. Restricted and Illiquid securities may be more difficult to sell and value than publicly traded securities (liquidity risk).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Blended Index is comprised of 1/3 JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Global Index (tracks total returns for traded external debt instruments in the emerging markets, and is an expanded version of the EMBI+. As with the EMBI+, the EMBI Global includes US dollar-denominated Brady bonds, loans, and Eurobonds with an outstanding face value of at least $500 million), 1/3 JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified Index (a comprehensive global local emerging markets index that consists of regularly traded, liquid fixed-rate, domestic currency government bonds and includes only the countries which give access to their capital market to foreign investors (excludes China, India). The index is market capitalization weighted, with a cap of 10% to any one country) and 1/3 JP Morgan CEMBI Broad Diversified Index (a global, liquid corporate emerging-markets benchmark that tracks U.S.-denominated corporate bonds issued by emerging-markets entities). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nConfidentialité    •    Conditions d'utilisation\n\n©  Morgan Stanley. Tous droits réservés.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9949115514755249}
+{"content": "In this movie, five horror stories unfold when a group of film students burn paper effigy cameras for the wandering spirits during the ghost month in Singapore and receive films from the dead in the format of the camera they burned.\n\nGenres: ThrillerHorrorFantasy\n\nActors: Sheena ChanPamelyn CheeDaniel Jenkins\n\nDirectors: Tony Kern\n\nCountry: Asia\n\nDuration: 92 min\n\nQuality: SD\n\nRelease: 2014\n\nIMDb: 5.5", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9839595556259155}
+{"content": "SSL Configuration Best Practices Part 3: Cipher Security Configuration\n\nSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) configuration is a critical component of defending publicly accessible web applications against man-in-the-middle and other attacks. This third of a three-part series on SSL configuration best practices explores server protocol and cipher configuration.\n\nHow Do Server Protocol and Configuration Relate to Cipher Security?\n\nHardening your server’s protocol and cipher configuration helps ensure that attackers don’t have an easy avenue for breaching your security wall. These configuration best practices are ever changing to meet the constantly evolving threat landscape, so it is a good idea to think of protocol and cipher configuration—and security in general—as a continuous exercise in vigilance.\n\nWhat Are Server Protocol and Cipher Configuration Best Practices?\n\nThe Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) provides SSL server protocol and cipher configuration best practices through the following rule recommendations:\n\n  1. Only Support Strong Protocols. Weaknesses have been identified with earlier SSL protocols; hence, SSL versions 1, 2, and 3 should no longer be used. The best practice for transport layer protection is to provide support for only the TLS protocols.\n  2. Prefer Ephemeral Key Exchanges. Ephemeral key exchanges mean a compromise of the server’s long-term signing key does not compromise the confidentiality of past sessions.\n  3. Only Support Strong Cryptographic Ciphers. Modify the server to ensure that only strong cryptographic ciphers are selected, disable the use of weak ciphers, and configure the ciphers in an adequate order.\n  4. Support TLS-PSK and TLS-SRP for Mutual Authentication. Use Password Authenticated Key Exchanges (PAKEs) to remove the need for trusting third-parties such as Certification Authorities (CAs).\n  5. Only Support Secure Re-negotiations. A design weakness in TLS allows an attacker to inject plaintext into a TLS session. You can mitigate this issue by disabling support for TLS re-negotiations or by supporting only re-negotiations compliant with RFC 5746.\n  6. Disable Compression. A known exploit against the data compression scheme allows an adversary to recover user authentication cookies that the attacker can then use for session hijacking attacks.\n\nHow Does Penetration Testing Help Ensure Server Protocol and Cipher Configuration Best Practices?\n\nPenetration testing is one way to ensure your server protocol and cipher configuration is secure. A knowledgeable and experienced third-party penetration testing expert can help identify strengths and weaknesses in your SSL/TLS configuration before an attacker does.\n\nStrong Configuration Withstands Penetration Testing\n\nA strong and secure server protocol and cipher configuration will provide maximum protection against skilled and determined attackers and is appropriate for applications that handle sensitive data or perform critical operations. Garner the help of a trusted penetration tester to make sure your systems are as secure as possible. Contact Security Pursuit today for your free consultation and analysis of your organization’s SSL/TLS configurations.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9771015644073486}
+{"content": "After discovering her fiance in bed with her friend,\nClarissa Wilford leaves Columbus and buys a home and land near Logan, Ohio.\n\nShe's content with her career as a medical billing contractor for a small clinic.\nHer pet pig, Ruthie, is a good companion. Clarissa turns an interest\nin Steuben and other made-in-Ohio glassware into another source\nof income by selling pieces at an antique mall in Logan.\n\nTwo men enter her life. Brent is a financial adviser, who's interested\nin acquiring land in the area. David Claremont, who buys property\nnext to Clarissa's is a new doctor at the clinic.\n\nBrent is a hunk, who seems to be financially secure, He doesn't hunt,\nwhich is a plus for animal lover Clarissa.\n\nDavid enjoys hunting with a friendly neighbor. This turns Clarissa off.\nShe works for him and doesn't want to date one of her bosses. They\nattend a couple of concerts as friend and like the same restaurants.\n\nJasper, David's big orange Halloween cat, befriends Ruthie and Clarissa\nand later her basset hound rescue puppy. Jasper rescues them by summoning\n\nThe animals sense Brent's dark side and alert Clarissa.\n\nThe detailed supporting characters add depth.\n\nJasper, Ruthie and Penny rate an extra star. They are stars.\n\nI also enjoyed the humor.\n\nIf you're an animal lover, don't miss this story.\n\nJudy Lammers\n\nTime Travel Excitement!\n\nNell Duvall's Train to Yesterday is full of suspense, mystery, and mayhem. Penny, the heroine, finds herself back in 1855 Coshocton, Ohio where she meets Fletcher the dashing railroad entrepreneur. She is instantly attracted to him but he thinks she?s a spy. How can she convince him she?s from the future? How can they have a future together? With surprising twists and turns, this time travel romance will keep you reading to the exciting conclusion.\n\n-Tenaya Jacob, author of Seasonings of the Soul.\n\nA Must Read!\n\nEd Farris provides us with an in depth look at America's deteriorating economic society. His concepts and philosophies give insight to the inner workings of the American government and its financial market. Learn about the principle of inverse labor and about the Farris Factor. ?Boomerang Economics? is a must read for those who want to know why we are headed for another 'Great Depression' and how we can prevent further destruction and start to repair our weakened economy.\n\n-Tenaya Jacob, author of Seasonings of the Soul.\n\nAn Interesting Murder Mystery!\n\nMary Rita Marker has written an interesting novel about a novice writer working on her first murder mystery. Ironically, the heroine finds herself caught up in a real life murder mystery. By following clues, Penny helps the lead detective crack the case but not before almost becoming a victim herself. Luckily, her faithful dog Tatters comes to her rescue. ?Murder, Murder? holds a surprise ending for both the characters in the story as well as the reader.\n\n-Tenaya Jacob, author of Seasonings of the Soul.\n\nA True Mystery!\n\nSibylle Barrasso has captured the essence of murder and mystery in her novel \"Dark Waters.\" Macy, a newly independent female detective, strikes out on her own to solve the murder of a well known college professor. Will she solve the murder or end up a victim herself. Keeping the reader guessing until the end, she has succeeded in making the murderer's identity a surprise.\n\n-Tenaya Jacob, author of Seasonings of the Soul.\n\nFor all my reviews go to", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9448438286781311}
+{"content": "Gardening in November\n\nPlant soft fruits and currants, garlic, shallots and early broad beans. Sow early peas and protect with netting from mice and birds. It’s also wise to protect your winter cabbages and Brussels sprouts with netting as birds will be looking for any available sources of food. Set up a bird feeding station to distract them. If you’ve grown parsnips, they’re best harvested after a frost.\n\n  1. Keep clearing fallen leaves, especially from lawns, ponds and beds. Gather the leaves in a small area contained by chicken wire. After the leaves break down, they provide a nutritious mulch to improve the quality of your soil\n  2. Plant out winter bedding to brighten up the wintry days with colourful pots and beds of violas, pansies, cyclamen and primroses.\n  3. Create containers with spring bulbs under colourful winter flowers. Daffodils and tulips will push up through them in the spring\n  4. Protect any outdoor containers from frost by wrapping them in hessian or bubble wrap. Vulnerable plants like tree ferns and palms can be covered in horticultural fleece\n  5. Carry on digging any bare beds until the soil is too hard. This helps to restrain weed growth and expose soil pests. Use a small spade and work over one plot at a time – your back will thank you\n  6. Prune established apple and pear trees. Cut out any crossing or rubbing branches as open wounds encourage disease. Prune gooseberries so they will produce bigger and better juicy fruit next year\n\nRemember that we can provide you with all the tools you need to keep your garden in tip top shape.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7827714681625366}
+{"content": "Services – Getting Started & Next Steps\n\nRepairing Sidewalks the Best Way\n\nThere are some of the sidewalks that have not been well taken care of and thus, it makes it hard for a person to be able to walk well around them and at the end they will be harmed by them and making it important that they be taken well care of. At the event that a person who has been injured by sidewalks, then they are able to impose the damage to the person who owns that property where the sidewalk is found at.\n\nThere are so many reasons that cause the sidewalk trips and some of them include things such as bad weather conditions. Any sidewalk that is found near a person who owns property there, then they are supposed to make sure that they clean the sidewalk at all times. Having cleared the sidewalk, it will make it easy and convenient for people to walk around. Another thing that they should be able to do is that they have to install and also repair the drainage systems so that they can be able to reduce the amount of water that clogs in these areas. Surfaces that are damaged are also some of the other things that can be able to cause people to fall down from the sidewalk.\n\nDeep cracks, potholes are examples of the damaged surfaces that can make a person fall down and get hurt. Once you have been able to fall and gotten injured by some of this damaged surfaces in a person sidewalk you can easily claim compensation. If you stay in an area that receives snow, then you are most likely at a risk of your property to get damaged by the snow. Since there are those people that have sprinklers they can easily be rendered useless since they will be damaged by the snow. These snow that gets to hit the sprinklers that we have mostly makes them become useless at the end of it all.\n\nThere are some of the cities that easily receive snow and they also get to practice street packing, then they are mostly to get their cars damaged because of the snow that hits the car. If you have a sidewalk that looks very good, then you can be able to make sure that you resurface the place so that it once again looks as good as you want them to look like. If you need assistance, then you can be able to ask the companies that provide people with this and they will give you more information on the things that you want.\n\nThe Essentials of Walkways – Revisited\n\nThe Essentials of Walkways – Revisited", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5049789547920227}
+{"content": "Minmatar Ships There is 1 product.\n\nMinmatar ships are often geared towards hit-and-run combat, typically being among the fastest ships in the game. They favor projectile turrets and have a mild tendency toward shield tanking.\n\n\nFly safe\n\n  • Claymore (Minmatar Command Ship)\n\n\n\n\n  • Claymore...\n\n\nSee all specials", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5363162755966187}
+{"content": "Link to Accessible Catalogue\n\nJapanese cuisine\n\nDashi and Shoyu - Essence of Japan - Japanese Food: A Documentary Film Series\n\nimage from a documentary Dashi:Essence of Japan\n\nDashi and shoyu, soup broth and soy sauce, the base of Japanese cuisine, the essence of food but also the essence of Japanese nature, distilled from the oceans, forests and mountains.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8838449716567993}
+{"content": "Scandal! - Episode 1998\nQuinton prepares for his journey while Thembeka explores a devious path to make sure her place in his life is secure. Marcel shares his realisation with his daughter, while Kila receives news from home that affects him - and a certain colleague. Dintle takes to her new position with great enthusiasm - and little respect for the people around her.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8333134651184082}
+{"content": "YL 90% of Us Breathe Incorrectly and shorten our life span and harm our health. Read below. Dr Mercola Interviews Belisa Vranich About Breathing bbbb 20m51s (C349 G357 n1du)\n\nBreath properly to reduce killing Stress and High Blood Pressure\n\n\nStory at-a-glance\n\n•             One in 3 American adults have high blood pressure and nearly 1 in 4 reports feeling extremely stressed. These two conditions are closely related, and both can be addressed through breathing exercises\n\n•             Essential hypertension (high blood pressure with no known cause), may be prevented by implementing breathing exercises, provided you do it early enough\n\n•             The reason controlled, purposeful breathing is so calming is because it doesn’t activate specific neurons in your brain that communicate with your arousal center\n\n\nBy Dr. Mercola\n\n\nOne in 3 American adults have high blood pressure (hypertension).1 An equally large segment of the adult population has prehypertension, meaning your pressure is higher than normal but not high enough to qualify as hypertension. Nearly 1 in 4 American adults also reports feeling extremely stressed,2,3 and these two conditions — stress and hypertension — tend to go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, this connection still does not receive the emphasis it deserves.\n\n\nMany breathing experts also agree that 9 out of 10 people breathe poorly, which negatively impacts both your stress level and your blood pressure. The good news is that correcting your breathing can help alleviate both of these conditions.\n\n\nDr John Kennedy, cardiologist and author of “The 15-Minute Heart Cure: The Natural Way to Release Stress and Heal Your Heart in Just Minutes a Day,” featured on “The Doctors” in 2011 (above), developed a breathing and creative visualization technique that can be done anywhere, anytime to reduce stress, lower your blood pressure and protect your heart.\n\n\nTammy, the test subject on the show, lowered her cortisol by 20 percent simply by doing this technique. Indeed, by teaching your body to slow down and relax, which essentially short-circuits your physical stress reaction, you can protect your health, and your breathing can either trigger or hinder your relaxation response.\n\n\nYour Breath and Blood Pressure Are Closely Related\n\nResearchers at the University of Melbourne and Macquarie University believe essential hypertension (high blood pressure with no known cause), which is the most common form, may be prevented by implementing breathing exercises, provided you start doing it early enough.4 As reported by HealthCanal:5\n\n\n“Lead researcher [p]rofessor Andrew Allen says the research parallels what sportspeople and eastern philosophies have long understood about the link between breathing and heart rate. ‘Biathletes have to regulate their breathing to slow down their heart rate before rifle shooting, and eastern meditative practices such as yoga and pranayama have always [emphasized] the interaction between the two’…”\n\n\nThe researchers discovered that by interrupting the activity between two types of neurons — ones controlling breathing and others regulating blood pressure — in young mice, they were able to dramatically reduce the development of hypertension in adulthood.6 Unfortunately, in adults, where the synaptic interactions have become more fixed, the blood pressure reduction was only temporary. As reported in the featured article:7\n\n\n\n\nThe altered neural activity leads to increased fluctuations in blood pressure with every breath and are seen in both the animal model and young, healthy adults at risk of developing high blood pressure in middle age. This [emphasizes] the need to identify people at risk of developing high blood pressure early.”\n\n\nWhy Deep, Slow Breathing Is so Calming\n\nOther recent research8 shows the reason controlled, purposeful breathing is so calming is because it doesn’t activate specific neurons in your brain that communicate with your arousal center. Put another way, the reason rapid, shallow breathing is so stress-inducing is because it activates neurons that trigger arousal, which typically translates into worry and anxiety.\n\n\nIn this animal study, researchers were attempting to identify different types of neurons and their role in breathing function. They were focused on the pre-Bötzinger complex, also known as the breathing pacemaker. As reported by The New York Times:9\n\n\n\n\nThe researchers honed in on 175 neurons in the breathing pacemaker, which they then \"silenced\" (eliminated) in the mice, with the expectation that this would alter their breathing patterns. However, that didn’t happen. There were no changes at all in their breathing patterns after the neurons were knocked out.\n\n\nInstead, the researchers were surprised to find the mice became very relaxed, and remained relaxed even in situations where anxiety would normally be triggered. What they discovered is that these neurons positively regulate neurons in a brainstem structure called the locus coeruleus, which is linked to arousal. It is, in other words, the formerly hidden link between breathing rate and emotional state. Study coauthor Jack Feldman, distinguished professor of neurology at UCLA, told The Verge:10\n\n\n\"It's a tie between breathing itself and changes in emotional state and arousal that we had never looked at before. It has considerable potential for therapeutic use.\"\n\n\nWhile the creation of drugs to target this brain region is likely part of the agenda, there are natural methods already known to do so. Controlled breathing, or pranayama as it's known in the practice of yoga, is a central part of many ancient traditions.\n\n\nBreathing Exercises Lower Blood Pressure\n\nBreathing exercises have been found to impact both your blood pressure and stress, which makes sense considering how closely tied those two conditions are.\n\n\nA recent article in University Health News11 cites several studies showing breathing exercises help lower blood pressure. For example, one 2005 study12 found taking six deep breaths in 30 seconds (each inhale and exhale lasting five seconds) lowered systolic blood pressure anywhere from 3.4 to 3.9 units, compared to simply resting in a seated position.\n\n\nAs noted in the article, apps and devices are available that will guide your breathing to help you get down to 10 or fewer breaths per minute. Studies13,14 have found using such devices for five minutes, three to four times per week, can help lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension.\n\n\nDr. Konstantin Buteyko, creator of the Buteyko Breathing Method, discovered he could lower his blood pressure simply by bringing his breathing toward normal. In this way, he successfully \"cured\" his own hypertension. In 1957, he coined the term \"disease of deep breathing,\" having researched the health effects of excessive breathing for over a decade.\n\n\nThe problem with shallow, rapid breathing is that it activates your sympathetic response, which is involved in releasing cortisol and other stress hormones. Controlled deep breathing, on the other hand, helps trigger your relaxation response as it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn slows down your heart rate and digestion while promoting a state of calm.\n\n\nControlled breathing exercises have also been found to modify stress-coping behaviors and initiate appropriate balance in cardiac autonomic tone, a term that describes your heart’s ability to respond to and recover from stressors.15\n\n\nSample Breathing Exercise to Control Anxiety and Reduce Stress\n\nThere are many different breathing techniques out there. As mentioned above, simply inhaling and exhaling to the count of six can go a long way toward regulating your breathing and lowering your blood pressure. Be sure to breathe through your nose, not your mouth. Another variation is the \"HA\" breath, which involves inhaling slowly through your nose, then exhaling quickly while saying \"ha\" out loud.\n\n\nThe following is a Buteyko breathing exercise that can help reduce stress, control anxiety and quell panic attacks. This sequence helps retain and gently accumulate carbon dioxide, leading to calmer breathing and reduced anxiety. In other words, the urge to breathe will decline as you enter a more relaxed state:\n\n\nTake a small breath into your nose, followed by a small breath out\n\nThen hold your nose for five seconds in order to hold your breath, and then release your nose to resume breathing\n\nBreathe normally for 10 seconds\n\nRepeat the sequence\n\nMaster the Light, Effortless Breath\n\nIn addition to being slow and deep, ideally you want your breathing to also be very calm and light — so light that the hairs in your nose barely move. This type of breathing, which is part of the Buteyko school of thought, helps you to enter and remain in a calm, meditative state while lowering your blood pressure. The following three steps will help your breath become lighter with practice.\n\n\nPlace one hand on your upper chest and the other on your belly. Your belly should move slightly in and out with each breath, and your midsection should get wider, while your chest should remain unmoving\n\nClose your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose. Focus your attention on the cold air coming into your nose and the slightly warmer air leaving it on the out breath\n\nSlowly decrease the volume of each breath, to the point it feels like you're almost not breathing at all (you'll notice your breath getting very quiet at this point). The crucial thing here is to develop a slight air hunger. This simply means there's a slight accumulation of carbon dioxide in your blood, which signals your brain to breathe\n\nYou may feel a slight air shortage at first, but this should be tolerable. If it becomes uncomfortable, take a 15-second break and then continue. After three or four minutes of air hunger, you'll start experiencing the beneficial effects of CO2 accumulation, such as an increase in body temperature and an increase in saliva. The former is a sign of improved blood circulation; the latter a sign that your parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, which is important for stress reduction.\n\n\nBreathing Is a Cornerstone of Good Health \n\n\nVideos Breath through stomach\n\n\nI recently interviewed Belisa Vranich — a clinical psychologist and author of “Breathe” — about her breathing program, which has been shown to improve physical and mental health in a short amount of time. There are two basic breathing styles: vertical and horizontal breathing. Chances are you’re breathing vertically, because most people (with the exception of young children) do.\n\nThis type of breathing makes you feel a bit taller on the in-breath, as it raises your chest and shoulders, which actually triggers your sympathetic nervous system, essentially signaling your body that you’re stressed out. As noted by Vranich, “If you’re not already in a stressed-out state, it’s going to make you more stressed.”\n\nCorrect breathing will cause your midsection to widen, while not raising your shoulders or puffing out the upper part of your chest. At first, you may find it difficult to take a proper breath, as your midsection may be too tight. An exercise that uses exaggerated motions to relearn proper breathing is as follows:\n\n  1. Begin by relaxing and unbracing your midsection\n\nEventually, this exercise will teach your body to use the diaphragm to breathe. Vranich also points out that, oftentimes, feeling short of breath is due to insufficient exhalation leaving excess residual air in your lungs. Engaging your diaphragm and intercostals — the muscles that run between your ribs, allowing your chest wall to move — will allow you to take more complete in and out breaths.\n\nThe condensed version of her interview is included above for your convenience.\n\nVideo workout Other Powerful Tools to Normalize Your Blood Pressure\n\nNitric oxide (NO) is a well-established biological signaling molecule that relaxes blood vessels. Most of us tend to have lower levels the older we get. In the video above, I demonstrate a simple three-minute exercise that, if done three times a day, every day, will radically increase your NO production and help to normalize your blood pressure. It will work synergistically with the breathing exercises described above and other strategies discussed below.\n\n(Table of heath tips)\n\nAddress insulin and leptin resistance\n\n\nHigh blood pressure is typically associated with insulin resistance, which results from eating a diet too high in sugar. As your insulin level elevates, so does your blood pres­sure. Insulin stores magnesium, but if your insulin receptors are blunted and your cells grow resistant to insulin, you can't store magnesium so it passes out of your body through urination.\n\n\nMagnesium stored in your cells relaxes muscles. If your magnesium level is too low, your blood vessels will constrict rather than relax, and this constriction raises your blood pressure.\n\n\nFructose also elevates uric acid, which drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the NO in your blood vessels. (Uric acid is a byproduct of fructose metabolism. In fact, fructose typically generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion.) NO helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so NO suppression leads to increases in blood pressure.\n\n\nIf you're healthy, and want to stay that way, the general rule is to keep your total fructose intake to 25 grams per day or less. If you're insulin resistant and/or have high blood pressure, keep your total fructose to 15 grams or less per day until your condition has resolved.\n\nEat real food\n\n\nA processed food diet, loaded with net carbohydrates (non-fiber carbs like sugar, fructose and grains) and trans fat (margarines and vegetable oils) is a recipe for hypertension. Instead, make whole, ideally organic foods the focus of your diet.\n\n\nAlso remember to swap non-fiber carbs for healthy fats such as avocados, butter made from raw, grass fed organic milk, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, raw nuts such as pecans and macadamia, grass fed meats and pasture-raised poultry. To learn more about healthy eating, please see my optimal nutrition plan.\n\nMind your sodium to potassium ratio\n\n\nAccording to Dr. Lawrence Appel, lead researcher on the DASH diet and director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins, your diet as a whole is the key to controlling hypertension — not salt reduction alone.\n\n\nHe believes a major part of the equation is this balance of minerals — i.e., most people need less sodium and more potassium, calcium and magnesium. According to Appel: \"Higher levels of potassium blunt the effects of sodium. If you can't reduce or won't reduce sodium, adding potassium may help. But doing both is better.\"\n\n\nIndeed, maintaining a proper potassium to sodium ratio in your diet is very important, and hypertension is but one of many side effects of an imbalance. A processed food diet virtually guarantees you'll have a lopsided ratio of too much sodium to potassium. Making the switch from processed foods to whole foods will automatically improve your ratios.\n\nLoad up on veggies\n\n\nJuicing is a simple way to increase the amount of vegetables in your diet, and many NO3-rich veggies (which raise your NO level) are suitable for juicing, such as beets, kale, celery, spinach, carrots and more. Allicin-rich garlic, leeks, shallots and chives also help improve your blood pressure, and are easy to add to salads and various dishes.\n\nOptimize your vitamin D level\n\n\nTo learn more about vitamin D testing, please see my previous article, \"How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help You Optimize Your Health.\"\n\nBoost your animal-based omega-3 intake\n\n\nThe best way to boost your omega-3 is to eat plenty of oily fish that are low in mercury and other pollutants. Good options include wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies. Alternatively, take a high-quality krill oil or fish oil supplement. Krill oil has certain advantages over fish oil, which is why I prefer it.\n\nConsider intermittent fasting\n\n\nIntermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways I've found to normalize your insulin/leptin sensitivity. It's not a diet in conventional terms, but rather a way of scheduling your eating in such a way as to promote efficient energy use. Essentially, intermittent fasting means eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food during the rest. When you eat, your body reacts by elevating insulin and leptin.\n\nExercise regularly\n\n\nA comprehensive fitness program can go a long way toward regaining your insulin sensitivity and normalizing your blood pressure. To reap the greatest rewards, I recommend including high intensity interval exercises in your routine. If you are insulin resistant, you'll also want to include weight training. When you work individual muscle groups, you increase blood flow to those muscles, and good blood flow will increase your insulin sensitivity.\n\n\nI also recommend training yourself to breathe through your nose when exercising, as mouth breathing during exercise can raise your heart rate and blood pressure, sometimes resulting in fatigue and dizziness. To learn more about this, please refer to my previous article on the Buteyko breathing method.\n\nAvoid smoking and other forms of pollution\n\n\nSmoking is known to contribute to high blood pressure, as are other forms of air pollution, and even noise pollution. To address these, avoid smoking, consider using ear plugs during sleep if you live in a noisy neighborhood (provided you cannot move), and take steps to improve your indoor air quality.\n\nWalk barefoot\n\n\nGoing barefoot will help you ground to the Earth. Experiments show that walking barefoot outside (also referred to as Earthing or grounding) improves blood viscosity and blood flow, which helps regulate blood pressure. So, do yourself a favor and ditch your shoes now and then.\n\n\nGrounding also calms your sympathetic nervous system, which supports your heart rate variability. This in turn promotes homeostasis, or balance, in your autonomic nervous system. In essence, anytime you improve heart rate variability, you're improving your entire body and all of its functions.\n\nEmotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)\n\n\nThe connection between stress and hypertension is well documented, yet still does not receive the emphasis it deserves. In fact, it has been shown that people with heart dis­ease can lower their risk of subsequent cardiac events by over 70 percent simply by learning to manage their stress.\n\n\nSuppressed negative emotions such as fear, anger and sadness can severely limit your ability to cope with the unavoidable every day stresses of life. It's not the stressful events themselves that are harmful, but your lack of ability to cope.\n\n\nThe good news is, strategies exist to quickly and effectively transform your suppressed, negative emotions, and relieve stress. My preferred method is Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), an easy to learn, easy to use technique for releasing negative emotions.\n\n\n\nVideo on Tapping:\n\n\n\n\nDr Linsey Elmore, Brand Ambassador, on\n\nYoung Living Products\n\nSee Videos below - G356 or at:\n\n\n\nMain Text Ad Area\n\nBox 1\n\nVideo on Transfer Shopping and how\n\nE Joan Baracie MD uses the products.\n\nThis site is by an independent distributor of Young Living. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n(C268 2016-12-15 vA)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThree - Young Living people discuss Essential Oils: www.youngliving.com/blog\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSeven – Videos about how to do the Raindrop Technique: www.TheBenefitsOfRainDrop.com \n\nand www.TheBenefitsOfVibrationalRainDrop.com\n\n\n\n\n\nNine – How to grow a Young Living Business: www.AskingForNos.com\n\n\n\n\nMain Text Ad Area\n\nG40 - 11 videos with general information about Essential Oil Products to\n\nsupport  Health naturally. \n\n\nG259A - One Video per subject.\n\nNow 13 individaul videos\n\n\nDr Linsey Elmore on Young Living Products\n\nSee Videos blow G356 or at:\n\n\n\nDirector of Global Education and Health Sciences \n\nPharmD, BCPS\n\nA long list of company videos. C268\n\n(C268 2016-10-20 vA)\n\nYou must also go to\n\n\n\nwww.health111.info for a long list of company videos.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n20 Year old Company\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProduct Video Series\n\n\n\n\nHow to Order and How to Receive Free Products.\n\n\nOur Super Food Drink\n\n\n\nKilling Toxic Mold in the Home, Church and Office\n\n\n\nProtecting Your Children at School\n\n\n\nFoods That Heal and Foods That Kill\n\n\n\n\n\nDoctors Talk About Super Germs\n\n\n\nAn Expert Health Lecture Series\n\n\n\nOur Teams web site\n\n www.index111.org  .\n\nThanks and enjoy.\n\nRetirement Problems , Don't Quit for Yl www.smile111.com G124\n\n\nRead Sarah Jane Conaway's Bio at this Amazon.com site.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n(C63 4find4index vB 2016-10-07)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8269892334938049}
+{"content": "Why Germany?\n\nOver the last years, Germany has become increasingly popular as a travel destination. Certainly one reason is that Germany offers great cities, which are significantly cheaper when compared to New York, Paris or London.\n\nFor those who love big cities and don’t want to miss out on nightlife, shopping and lifestyle, Berlin, Munich or Dusseldorf won’t disappoint. Those wanting to be close to water will feel at home in the north of Germany, especially Hamburg. If you’re looking for some place to rest and recover, the Black Forest and Saxon Switzerland are just two of the many beautiful nature reserves on offer in Germany.\n\nGermany is definitely worth a try, not only for travelling, but also for those wanting to stay a longer term, or even to start a new life. From an economic point of view, Germany is a very successful country and many German companies represent that excellent “Made in Germany” quality worldwide. This could explain why the German language is becoming more and more important outside of Germany. Not only will you find German companies all over the world, but also German travellers.\n\nOf course, other foreign language skills can be very helpful as well. Over 7 million foreign citizens and even double as many people with a migration background live in Germany. Every year the number of people looking for a new home, a new job, or a new challenge grows. So, if you’re someone who can’t live without travelling, countries like France, Spain, Great Britain or Italy are just around the corner. Simply jump on a train or plane and discover new cities within a few hours….\n\nThe idea behind Greenhorn Germany is to help you to start your life in Germany. Often the decision to start a new life in a foreign country is associated with dozens of questions and problems. However, together with our team you can overcome things like preparation, arrival, paper work, foreign language and many other hurdles, without letting the exciting experiences of being in another country fall short.\n\nWhy Greenhorn Germany?\n\nOf course you can start a new life in a foreign county on your own. This path can be quite exciting. What we do: We help you without taking away any of this excitement! We make sure that you don’t waste time and money by stepping in decisively in certain situations.\n\nAnd if you “just” want to have a vacation trip in Germany, we can help with that as well! We just happen to know much more than is written in guide books.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9352694749832153}
+{"content": "A student in the final year of high school.  \n\nLearning, studying and taking notes are things we can all do at any point in our lives.  Striving to push myself to grow is what I am nudged to do by the seniors I photograph.  I thank them for reminding me that age does not determine who we are or what we can do in life.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000097751617432}
+{"content": "The Best Short Guide for Understanding Poetry\n\n\nOne of the most difficult tasks facing many students in high school and university English courses is coming to grips with difficult poetry. Unlike novels and short stories, poetry is not tied to the clear communication of a plot and it can be totally devoid of characters. As a result, many students find themselves at a loss for how to read and understand poetry at all, and some just give up completely. However, there are some useful tips for approaching poetry that will allow you to make sense of what often seems like senselessness.\n\nThe first and most important step in understanding poetry is to figure out what is happening in the poem, or at least what is being presented. Even though there may be no story or characters, there are things, and these things will interact with each other in various ways. Even in a poem about trees which presents a landscape, there will be verbs describing actions showing how one thing affects or is affected by another. In your own words, write down the basic facts of the poem, its things and actions. This is known as a paraphrase, and while it does not itself explain the \"meaning\" of the poem, it is an important first step. If you don't know what is present on the surface, you can't figure out anything deeper.\n\nFrom here, it is possible to apply an indispensable principle for understanding poetry, which so many students don't know or choose to ignore: the rule of significance. This basically states that poetry is never just about the things it contains, which you have written down in your paraphrase. The deeper meaning resides in the relation of the poem to some aspect of human life, which is the poem's \"deeper meaning.\" Whenever you read a poem, pay attention to the surface facts, but also constantly consider how it could be a comment on human life. Some of the most common themes are life and death, love, the range of emotions, and opposing abstract concepts like war and peace. Poets often use figurative language to make these themes come through, and they frequently employ common symbols and familiar human actions to make the message clearer. For example, if you see a dove flying through a poem, this immediately indicates something about peace, whereas a gun would indicate its opposite, and a gun shooting a dove would be an even more extreme symbol for war. If a pile of leaves is described as dancing, we immediately feel cheered, and it is safe to assume the poem is saying something uplifting and positive, whereas if the leaves are dead and rotting, it is making a negative comment about some aspect of life.\n\nAfter you have looked at the surface details and then examined them with the rule of significance to see how they relate to human life, you will come up with some different basic ideas and themes. Now it is time to compare the various pieces of the poem as you have paraphrased them, and see whether the same themes appear throughout the poem. Whenever you find repetition of themes, odds are that you have found one that is central to the poem. Then, consider how the various ideas and themes you have discovered could be related to each other. For example, if you have found the themes of death and also of love, how are these related in the poem? Does love lead to death? Does love last beyond death? Once you are able to find the relation between the various themes you have discovered, you have found what is known as a \"reading\" of the poem. This reading shows you have understood the poem on both the surface and deeper levels. While poems do allow for many readings, by following these basic principles you will find ones that fit the evidence presented in the poem, and show that you have understood it.\n\nFilm Essays: Creating a Custom Paper on Film\n\nSales and Support Live Sales and Support Hours\n\nMon-Thu: 6:00 AM - 10 PM CST\nFri: 6:00 AM - 5:00 PM CST\nSat: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM CST\nSun: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM CST\n\nCurrent time is: Wed, 09:08 AM CST\n\nTel: (312) 261-9960\nFax: (312) 261-9959\n\nHome | Order Now\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9439771771430969}
+{"content": "OPM Retirement for Mental or Physical Incapacity: Problems\n\nWe all have them; some, more than others; and by either quality or quantity, we often judge as to the burdens overloaded in our lives, comparing to others by contrast the significance of the impact of each, whether large or small, tragic and grandiose or irrelevant like a speck of a fly upon a windowsill in the basement where no one visits, anyway.\n\nWait long enough and they will sometimes go away; wait too long, and the little bothersome inkling may turn into an insurmountable gargantuan of a magnified adversity beyond human tolerability; and in the end, we are left with either being resigned to live with them, to solve them, or to simply survive them.\n\nProblems are inherent to human living.  A wise pastor once said, “Where there are people, there are problems.”  This statement was a recognition that human interactions, relationships and the mere bunching up of personalities that conflict and become adversarial, in a world of limited means but unlimited emotional upheaval, by necessity invites problematic encounters.\n\nWe often think that, “If only I had…” — then, what?  That all problems would simply vanish?  Hardly, and most unlikely.  For, history has shown that in every endeavor that requires effort; in every relationship no matter the matching of perfection as to personality, temperament and compatibility; in the end, whether by external influences or internal derangements, conflict will erupt and problems will abound.\n\nFor Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to impact the Federal or Postal employee’s ability and capacity to perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the necessity may arise for filing a Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS offset.\n\nIn such a state of affairs, problems already are inherent — the medical condition itself.  The key, then, is not to compound the problem by trying to maneuver through a complex administrative process without legal expertise, but rather, to engage an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.\n\nIn the end, it is the compounding of problems that can be controlled.  Problems will always be with us, but for the Federal or Postal employee who must contend with a medical condition and must file a Federal Disability Retirement application, always remember that it is the next step beyond the original problem that will often determine the future course of problems, and whether they can be limited or allowed to fester and boil over into a compounding of further problems.\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire\n\n\nLawyer for Federal Disability Retirement Claims: Games\n\nHow do we learn how to play them?  If we play Game-X, must we follow “all” of the rules ordinarily known and ascribed in order for Game-X to still be recognizable as such, or does it become “Modified Game-X”.\n\nIf little Toby plays his first game, but doesn’t know the rules, yet nevertheless realizes that games are “fun” because everyone else is smiling and seemingly excited, does the fact that the kid-who-knows-no-rules plays without knowing the limits and boundaries of the game make him into a participant, or a pariah?  Of course, if he stamps his feet in the middle of the game and declares that he doesn’t like the game, and walks off (even taking with him the proverbial ball), can we declare him to be a poor sport, an okay-sport, or any sport at all if he never knew the rules of the game in the first place and therefore never quite played the “real” game?\n\nHow about dogs — do they “play” games?  The dog that chases the ball but doesn’t want to bring it back to the ball-thrower, and instead runs away with it — has he broken the “rules of the game”?  How is it that dogs play games with their masters without ever being able to explain what the parameters of the rules are?\n\nThen, of course, there is the slight modification in the term “games”, as in “games that people play”.  We all know what that means — of being insincere, fake, or otherwise putting on a double-face.  Why is that called a “game”?  Is it because it is not real, and constitutes a copy of “make-believe”, much like playing a game when we all know that it is not reality that is being rehearsed; and yet, isn’t playing a game — any game — just a part of the reality of the world we live in?  Why, then, is life bifurcated between “games” and “reality”, when in fact both are real in the sense that we are living a life of surviving, making a living, etc.?  Yet, we constantly distinguish between “playing” and “living”, as if there is a difference to be identified.\n\nFor Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from any longer performing all of the essential elements of the Federal or Postal worker’s job, career or craft, the preparations needed to come to a point of realizing that an effective Federal Disability Retirement application must be filed, often requires a recognition that the proverbial “game” is “up”.\n\nWhether the Supervisors and Managers at the Federal Agency or the Postal Facility are up to their usual “games” or not — of harassment, derisive comments, making your life “hell” by increasing the levels of pressure or stress, is really besides the point.  What matters is that life itself is not a “game” at all, and those who separate games from the daily living activities don’t really “get it”.\n\nMedical conditions bring to the forefront the reality of living, and the harshness of how people treat other people.  Yes, preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may seem like just one of those other “games” that have to be “played” — but the reality is that an effective OPM Disability Retirement application is a necessary part of life’s many facets of games and reality-based endeavors, such that the “rules of the game” always need to be consulted in order to “play” it well, and thus the first step is to learn the rules by consulting with an attorney who can advise on the rules themselves.\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire\n\n\nLawyer Representation for Federal Disability Claims: “Too busy to…”\n\nIt is the accent and the inflection upon a syllable that sometimes makes all the difference.  Take the following examples:\n\n“I am too busy to…”\n\n“I am too busy, too.”\n\nThe extra consonant in the last word makes all the difference; for, in the former statement, if it is stated in response to a call for help, it dismisses the request by informing the other person that one is simply unable to offer any assistance.  In the latter response, the subtlety of the answer should not be overlooked.  For, it is a statement of one’s own conglomeration of activities; it is not a refusal or even a rejection of a request; rather, it merely describes the current state of parallel universes that may or may not still allow for lending a hand.  Thus:\n\n“Hey, Jim, can you lend me a hand?”\n\n“I am too busy to.”\n\n(Outright rejection)\n\n\n\n“I am too busy, too.” Nevertheless, Jim walks over and lends his assistance.\n\nCan a single consonant make such a difference?  Without the written word, can the mere inflection, intonation and syllabic accent of a lingering “o” allow for the subtlety of differences otherwise unseen except with the written word?  Would it make a difference, if it was stated in a southern drawl, a foreign accent or in “broken English”?\n\nWhen one pauses and considers the consequences of language and its effects upon discourse, it makes one pause and shudder, that even in this age of Twitter and abbreviated language compositions and the irrelevance of grammar upon our daily lives, that distinctions can still cause a difference.\n\nAre such modulated intonations significant?  Perhaps they are rarely, if ever, “life changing” events, but nevertheless can effectuate confusion or miscommunication such that disagreements may arise.\n\nLanguage is the tool of communication and the effective conveyance of thoughts and conceptual paradigms.  This is important to remember for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are considering preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.\n\nFor, in the end, it is the written word that is the sword of a triumphant Federal Disability Retirement application, or the injury that defeats the same, and whether the extra consonant may make the difference depends upon the effectiveness of the rest of the application.\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire\n\n\nOPM Medical Retirement: Balance and Order in a Lost World\n\nOnce achieved, death destroys; it is the anomaly of life, that the linear progression leads toward its own terminus, and by slow and incremental degeneration, its own vivacity is defined by a sense of self-immolation.  The realization of attainment almost always occurs upon surpassing the apex of an ordering of one’s life, and so the inevitable decline necessarily diminishes any joy derived from self-reflection of having achieved that balance and order for which we strive.\n\nWe can pursue a lifetime of studying Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and the goal to achieve eudaemonia by living a life of virtue in accordance with reason, and thus comply with the essence of who we are, what we define ourselves as, and thereby fulfilling the conceptual construct of our own inventions.  Or, we can “chuck it all” and attribute absurdity to the universe, genetic predisposition as the defining essence of our being, and justify the arbitrary course of our lives by deconstructing the classical ordering of our civilization’s teleology.\n\nFew of us consider ourselves to be the master of our own destiny; and fewer still, of much influence in the steerage of our direction or course.  We tend to believe in the magic of, “If only…” while simultaneously ignoring our freedom from society’s constraints and liberty’s folly.  And when tragedy befalls, we blame the collective conspiracies of the gods who view us as mere playthings, fodder for unenlightened determinism no more complex than a belief in superstitions once thought lost in the antiquity of timeless reservoirs of forgotten bookshelves.\n\nFor Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who must suddenly end his or her career because of a medical condition, because the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal worker to perform all of the essential elements of the Federal or Postal worker’s position description, the loss of balance and order is not just a hypothetical paradigm, but a reality enforced by circumstances beyond one’s control.\n\nIndeed, the “world” within which such balance and order is lost, is not attributable to some greater concept of geopolitical significance, but one which touches directly upon the ephemeral plight of the here and now.  The striving for balance and the need for order; these are fundamental constructs required to maintain sanity and joy; and when the imbalance of life combined with the disorientation tethered by an unexpected medical condition intersects upon the rhythm of daily living, the shaking up of an otherwise tranquil life can appear to be devastating.\n\nFiling for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is often the necessary step in order to maintain that balance and order forever sought, and now interrupted by the gods of chance; and while the penultimate destiny of life’s striving may now appear to have lost its rationality for direction and purpose, it is always in the striving that one finds a way, and preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application is often a means to a further end, if only to again regain a semblance of that balance and order once gained, and now temporarily lost, in a world already lost but for the insular privacy of one’s own happiness.\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire\n\n\nOPM Disability Retirement Annuity: The mindset resulting in a witch’s brew\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire\n\n\nEarly Medical Retirement from Federal Government: Berkeley’s House\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRobert R. McGill, Esquire", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7243466377258301}
+{"content": "Find answers to general questions about uploading files to Scene7.\n\nIf the user is uploading images from the desktop, and the user logs out in the middle of the upload, an upload job error results. If the user uploads images using the Via FTP tab, then the upload job isn't affected. The assets are uploaded even if the user logs out of SPS.\n\nThere is no exact limit on number of assets to upload. But there is a pragmatic limit as many different factors limit the processing power of our environment . Adobe is increasing throughput continually.\n\nRun large-scale uploads (for example 50,000 images) in off-peak (nonbusiness hours). Discuss initial image loads (for example, for a new customer uploading hundreds of thousands of images) with Tech Support or your implementation consultant. They can advise on the most effective setup.\n\nThe Media Portal Upload via FTP is designed to allow a user to have their own FTP account, and configure their Upload via FTP jobs. It would be an enhancement to extend this functionality to admin control over all user accounts in a company.\n\nWhen a Media Portal Upload via FTP job runs, the job logs show which MP user kicked off the upload job in the “Submitted By” column. Similarly, if you look at the asset in SPS, you can determine who uploaded it by looking at the “Created By” field.\n\nSee the Help instructions under \"Upload files using Via FTP.\" The instructions mention how to choose the FTP folder from which to upload files. Make sure to select \"Include Subfolders\" if you want to upload the contents of the subfolders under the source folder and create the same subfolder under the destination folder.\n\nDetailed instructions for Upload via FTP are available in Help:\n\n\nTeisiniai pranešimai   |   Privatumo internete politika", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.676805853843689}
+{"content": "OKC offering cash towards electric lawn mowers\n\n\nOKLAHOMA CITY – Looking for a new lawnmower? The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, along with OSU/OKC and Black and Decker are willing to give you $100 towards the purchase of a new electric mower.\n\nIf you are an Oklahoma City resident, just bring your gas mower, completely drained of all gasoline and oil, to OSU/OKC’s Farmers Market Saturday. \n\nThey will give you a $100 voucher to go towards the purchase of a new electric mower from the Black and Decker service center.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9937787055969238}
+{"content": "Captain Marvel Concept Art Reveals How Starforce Would’ve Looked Different\n\nNew concept art from Captain Marvel reveals an alternate look for Starforce, the Kree special ops team. For Marvel Studios’ first female led movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they put Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) back in the 1990s. This decision not only largely freed up the movie from most MCU canon, but it also allowed for Captain Marvel to be one of the earliest known heroes.\n\nWhile Carol eventually learned of her life on Earth and protected her real home planet against a Kree invasion led by Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), that is not how her story begins in Captain Marvel. The movie starts with Carol living out her life on the Kree home world of Hala, where she is a very powerful warrior/soldier known only as Vers. She’s trained by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) to harness her abilities and help her become one of the core members of a special arm of the Kree military. The Starforce are led by Yon-Rogg, with Vers joining a roster that includes Korath (Djimon Hounsou), Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan), Bron-Char (Rune Temte), and Att-Lass (Algenis Perez Soto).\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel May Have Already Teased A Proper Avengers Replacement Team\n\nEven though the team appeared to have some scenes cut from the film, it turns out they almost had a completely different look. Concept artist Jackson Sze recently shared an alternate design for the team on social media that reveals several differences from the Starforce’s final appearance. Most notably, the once considered design gives their suits a mostly black color scheme with only sections of the green from the chest on up.\n\nOne major difference in terms of the individual character designs that is immediately noticeable is Bron-Char’s size. As the brute of the group, this stature may have better suited the character in Captain Marvel and helped make his presence more noticeable. Temte is 6’3″ but this version of Bron-Char towers over the other Starforce. The decision not to go down this route with the character may have been due to the limiting options of finding an actor who would be easily over 7 feet tall and to avoid having to use CGI to create the character or special camera tricks to make him appear this large.\n\nThere’s some other smaller changes to these designs that fans of Marvel comics may appreciate too that ultimately weren’t used. This design incorporates Korath’s headdress from the comics for his helmet, while the tubes around Bron-Char’s neck are also lifted from the source material. Minn-Erva also has her traditional red scarf instead of the black one she wears in the film. We’ll never know why exactly Marvel opted to not use these designs, but maybe those characters who survived Captain Marvel can see their looks evolve closer to this if Captain Marvel 2 also takes place in the past.\n\nMore: Is Captain Marvel’s Post-Credits Scene Really From Avengers: Endgame?\n\nSource: Jackson Sze\n\n2019-03-22 07:03:37\n\nCooper Hood\n\nCaptain Marvel Cut Ronan & Starforce Scenes – Why?\n\nCaptain Marvel clearly cut some scenes featuring Ronan the Accuser and the Kree Starforce – but why did Marvel choose to do that? Both the promotional photos and the trailers for Captain Marvel attempted to persuade viewers that the Kree were a race of noble warrior heroes, defending the cosmos against the ruthless Skrulls. Carol Danvers was to be introduced as a member of the Starforce, an elite Kree task-force who were fighting on the front lines of the Kree-Skrull War.\n\nOf course, anyone familiar with the comics saw through the deception quite quickly. Marvel had openly admitted that their script was based on “The Kree-Skrull War,” a comic book arc where neither race were really the good guys. All of Captain Marvel’s teammates were villains in the comics, and Marvel’s refusal to confirm the identity of the Starforce Commander led most to deduce that Jude Law was playing Yon-Rogg, one of Captain Marvel’s greatest foes. It wasn’t hard to work out that the Kree weren’t the heroes Carol thought they were.\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel’s Biggest MCU Retcons (& Plot Holes)\n\nSurprisingly, there’s some evidence that the Kree Starforce were originally a bigger part of Captain Marvel‘s plot – and so was Ronan the Accuser. In September 2018, a series of story details about Captain Marvel were revealed to kickoff the film’s marketing campaign. Crucially, first look images showed Yon-Rogg and Ronan standing side by side in what can now be recognized as Starforce’s tower on Hala; another image showed the two Kree military leaders greeting the assembled Starforce members for a briefing of some kind. It’s clear that Ronan originally worked more closely with Starforce, perhaps even joint-commanding the mission to Torfa.\n\nOver on Reddit, now-deleted comments from user BrandonAUS – who claims to have worked on Captain Marvel as a visual effects artist – confirmed that scenes had been cut:\n\n“An entire sequence I worked on the VFX for was cut where Yon-Rogg has a chat with the Supreme Intelligence before he gets sent to go find Carol and the Tesseract. As well as the current ones with Vers and the [Supreme Intelligence] being trimmed a lot. It is very common for things to be cut in movies. I am waiting for my art book from the movie to show up to see if they have any of the original Supreme Intelligence concepts in there.”\n\nAmusingly enough, according to BrandonAUS, the person Yon-Rogg most admired – the form the Supreme Intelligence took while conversing with him – was Yon-Rogg himself. Meanwhile, Steve Behling’s tie-in novel Starforce on the Rise fleshed out the relationship between the different members of Starforce and contained a number of gags that fit perfectly within the film itself. They, frankly, seem to have been tailor-made for the big screen.\n\nSo why were these scenes cut? There are usually three reasons for cuts like this. The first is to tighten up the narrative; the focus in the Starforce scenes is really on the relationship between Captain Marvel and Yon-Rogg, meaning the other relationships are largely secondary and Ronan would have been unnecessary. The second is to improve the overall flow of the film; extended scenes on Hala would have meant Captain Marvel took longer to get to Earth, slowing the main plot down. Finally, some of those scenes were probably superfluous; Behling’s gags all tease Vers’ humanity, but that was pretty clear by the time of the Mindfrack device anyway. Hopefully, the Captain Marvel home release will include some deleted scenes showing the Starforce in action, and exploring the relationship between the unit’s different members.\n\nMore: Captain Marvel’s Ending Explained\n\n2019-03-14 01:03:16\n\nThomas Bacon\n\nCaptain Marvel Images: New Look At Skrulls & Jude Law’s Starforce Leader\n\nA couple of new images have emerged from the forthcoming Captain Marvel, one featuring the evil Skrulls and the other Jude Law’s enigmatic Starforce leader. First announced in late 2014, Captain Marvel immediately attracted a high level of anticipation due to its status as the first female-fronted solo effort in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this excitement only increased when Brie Larson was later revealed to be taking on the title role. The character’s debut was finally teased in a post-credits sequence of last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, when Nick Fury sent out a distress call to Captain Marvel shortly before being hit by Thanos’ snap.\n\nWith less than two months until release, the Disney marketing machine is now in full swing and a steady stream of trailers, TV spots and images are emanating from Marvel Studios. MCU fans have already seen Larson in full superhero mode, as well as her entire Starforce team, a digitally de-aged Nick Fury and a Skrull disguised as an old lady on a bus. Unlike other movies in the Marvel Studios’ continuity, Captain Marvel will be set in the 1990s and will reportedly act as somewhat of a prequel to other entries in the franchise.\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel Brings Starforce To The MCU – Here Are All 6 Members\n\nSeveral new Captain Marvel images have now emerged courtesy of Empire Magazine. The first of these highlights Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, leader of the Skrulls, alongside one of his pointy-eared green comrades. The second image features Law’s Starforce leader clearly in the midst of battle and with him is Bron-Char, a Kree warrior portrayed by Rune Temte. Brie Larson also shared the cover image for the forthcoming issue, which features her own character flanked by both Law and Mendelsohn. This comes shortly after Empire revealed an exclusive subscriber-only comic-inspired cover design for the same issue.\n\nBen Mendelsohn as Talos Skrull in Captain Marvel\n\nEmpire Captain Marvel cover\n\nWhile neither image reveals anything new about Captain Marvel‘s plot or its characters, they do both highlight the incredible visuals present on both sides of the Kree-Skrull war. Mendelsohn is almost unrecognizable in his costume and makeup, but his look has been well-received by fans, delivering a balance of authenticity to the source material and modern MCU aesthetics.\n\nThe second image gives fans a flavor of Captain Marvel‘s backdrop of intergalactic war and is also bound to stoke the already-blazing debate over who exactly Jude Law is playing. Unlike the rest of the cast, the identity of Law’s character has been largely kept secret, with many speculating that he’s Mar-Vell, a predecessor to the Captain Marvel title. This rumor was seemingly confirmed by Disney, but the offending statement has since been removed.\n\nMore: Marvel Is Releasing Captain Marvel Too Close To Avengers: Endgame\n\nSource: Empire\n\nSource link\n2019-01-21 02:01:27\n\nCaptain Marvel Brings Starforce To The MCU – Here Are All 7 Members\n\nCaptain Marvel will introduce a new, powerful team into the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the elite Kree military unit known as Starforce. This is a remarkably deep cut for the MCU, given that Starforce originated in 1992 and have only made a handful of appearances since.\n\nIn the comics, Starforce is a group created to serve the Supreme Intelligence, the absolute ruler of the Kree. Although they didn’t know it, Starforce were pawns in a desperate game by the Supreme Intelligence. This monstrous being believed that the Kree had stopped evolving, and were doomed as a race. In order to kick-start evolution, it triggered a galactic war between the Kree and the rival Shi’ar Empire. The Shi’ar ultimately dropped a genetic bomb on the Kree homeworld of Hala, killing millions but forcing the survivors to evolve or die. As for the Starforce unit, they were subsumed into the Shi’ar military.\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel’s Starforce Can Be Green Lantern Done Right\n\nCaptain Marvel‘s second trailer reveals an image of the core Starforce team, as they are walking toward two other members. Beginning with those two other members and then moving from left to right, let’s take a look at the members of the Kree’s elite Starforce unit.\n\n  • This Page: Mar-Vell (or Yon-Rogg), Ronan, and Korath\n  • Page 2: The Remaining Four Starforce Recruits\n\nMar-Vell or Yon-Rogg (Jude Law)\n\nFirst up is the Starforce unit’s enigmatic leader, believed to be the Kree hero Mar-Vell. The character was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1967, largely in order to secure the trademark to the name “Captain Marvel.” Mar-Vell was one of the Kree’s greatest warriors, and was sent to Earth to spy on our world after the emergence of super-powered humans. Mar-Vell became increasingly sympathetic to humanity, and ultimately fought against his own race in Earth’s defense. His heroism served as an inspiration to countless others, including Carol Danvers, but Mar-Vell’s story came to a tragic end in Jim Starlin’s 1982 graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel. One of the most powerful Marvel comics of all time, this saw Mar-Vell die of cancer, having been irradiated over the course of his superhero career.\n\nJude Law has long been rumored to be playing Mar-Vell in the MCU, but it’s also possible that he’s playing Yon-Rogg, a Kree military commander who ultimately becomes on of Carol Danvers’ foes. Rather than a lone operative, Captain Marvel envisions Law’s character as leader of the Starforce, and he’s expected to act as Carol Danvers’ mentor. The notion that Law is playing Yon-Rogg is supported by a recently leaked Funko Pop! that displayed his name as such, but that toy figure was quickly changed before its official release. So, it’s still unclear who Law is playing in Captain Marvel, but whoever he is, he’s bound to be a major character in Carol’s life.\n\nRonan the Accuser (Lee Pace)\n\nNow this is a familiar face. Donning traditional Kree armor, Ronan the Accuser is a would-be warlord who truly believes in his race’s militaristic history. Given his position in the reveal photo as well as in the Captain Marvel trailers, it seems that Ronan is a member of Starforce at this point in time. Lee Pace is reprising the role after first playing Ronan in 2014’s Guardian of the Galaxy, which revealed that the Kree warrior is destined to abandon his people and become a dangerous, bloodthirsty renegade.\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel Could Make Ronan One Of The MCU’s Best Villains\n\nCuriously, Ben Mendelsohn is playing Captain Marvel‘s major villain, a Skrull military leader called Talos. In the comics, Ronan and Talos have actually worked together on occasion. It’s possible the two are conspiring to reignite the war between their two races, and that Ronan’s treason will be exposed. That would explain why he leaves Starforce.\n\nKorath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou)\n\nIn the comics, Korath was a Kree cyber-geneticist who experimented upon himself in order to play a part in the Kree-Skrull War. This villain possesses basic superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, but his greatest skill is a low-level telepathic power that allows him to track his prey. Just as with Ronan, we know what the future has in store for Korath; Djimon Hounsou played the character in Guardians of the Galaxy, proving that this particular Starforce member will ultimately remain loyal to Ronan above the Kree Empire.\n\nPage 2 of 2: The Remaining Four Starforce Recruits\n\nAtt-Lass (Algenis Perez Soto)\n\nAlgenis Perez Soto plays Att-Lass, a Kree villain who’s sometimes referred to as “Captain Atlas” in the comics. A ruthless and physically powerful warrior, Att-Lass is one of the few Kree warriors to briefly wield Mar-Vell’s Nega-Bands, powerful gauntlets that tap into interdimensional energy. He became disillusioned with Starforce when he learned the team was being manipulated by the Supreme Intelligence, and became a warlord in his own right, even attempting an invasion of Earth on one occasion. As yet, we have no information about how Att-Lass will be portrayed in Captain Marvel.\n\nCarol Danvers (Brie Larson)\n\nNext up is Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, who will ultimately become the titular hero Captain Marvel. Marvel is choosing to avoid the traditional superhero origin story; it’s now been confirmed that Captain Marvel will open with Carol already possessing superpowers, and serving as a member of Starforce. According to Kevin Feige, the MCU’s version of Captain Marvel will be an absolute powerhouse. Larson herself has suggested Carol Danvers will be able to move planets, which is something that would be a byproduct of her Captain Marvel Binary powers.\n\nRelated: Carol Danvers’ Starforce Name Revealed (It’s Not Captain Marvel)\n\nCaptain Marvel sees Carol Danvers team up with the young Nick Fury and Phil Coulson in order to take on the alien race of shapeshifters known as the Skrulls. When the film is over, though, Carol will mysteriously disappear from the MCU for over a decade; it’s generally believed she’ll either be adventuring in space, or else in the Quantum Realm. Whatever the case may be, the post-credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War saw the dying Nick Fury summon Carol for help. She’s confirmed to be a major player in Avengers 4, and Josh Brolin has hinted she’ll wind up taking on Thanos personally.\n\nBron-Char (Rune Temte)\n\nYou can be forgiven for not having heard of Bron-Char. He was a Kree warrior introduced in the 1998 event “Live Kree or Die.” Bron-Char has the curious distinction of being one of the few people to successfully destroy one of Captain America’s shields; Cap had lost his traditional shield a while ago, and was using a replica from the Smithsonian Institution. The character has only appeared in a handful of issues, meaning Rune Temte can essentially portray him however he wishes.\n\nMinn-Erva (Gemma Chan)\n\nSometimes known as Doctor Minerva, this Kree geneticist is one of Captain Marvel’s lesser-known villains. She’s a ruthless scientist with no qualms about experimenting upon “lesser races” such as humans, and possesses basic energy manipulation powers that seem analogous to Carol Danvers’ own abilities. Minerva was part of Strikeforce in the comics, but afterwards went rogue. She’s faded into the background in recent years, popping up every now and again as an infrequent foe who simply wishes to conduct dangerous, unsanctioned experiments; Minerva’s sole motivation nowadays appears to be the fact she quite enjoys her work. Gemma Chan is playing Minn-Erva, and it seems reasonable to assume she will ultimately prove to be an untrustworthy ally for Captain Marvel.\n\nMore: Captain Marvel: Every Update You Need To Know\n\nSource link\n2018-12-03 09:12:48\n\nCarol Danvers’ Starforce Name Revealed (It’s Not Captain Marvel)\n\nCaptain Marvel may still be several months away, but the movie’s tie-in Funko toy has revealed the name that Carol Danvers will be going by as part of the Starforce team: Vers. There was a question mark lingering over what name Carol would be using while serving in the elite Kree military unit, since the trailer for Captain Marvel revealed that she’ll be suffering from amnesia and won’t remember her original life on Earth at first.\n\nCarol Danvers has gone by many names in the comics – including Ms. Marvel, Binary, and Warbird – but took up the mantle of Captain Marvel fairly recently, starting with Mary Sue DeConnick’s run of Captain Marvel comics that began in 2012. In the upcoming movie, directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, it wouldn’t really make sense for Carol to start out using the name Carol Danvers (from a life she doesn’t remember) or Captain Marvel (which, in the comics, was taken up in honor of the original Captain Marvel after his death). Instead, it seems that she will be using a vestige of her surname.\n\nRelated: Captain Marvel Funko Pop Won’t Reveal Jude Law’s Character Name\n\nThe popular toy company Funko has shared its line-up of Captain Marvel pieces, including several different versions of the movie’s titular character: Carol in her Captain Marvel costume, Carol in her Star Force uniform, Carol in her Air Force uniform, Carol wearing her helmet and mohawk, and even Carol on the back of a motorcycle. Perhaps the most interesting detail of the many Carols, however, is the reveal of what name she’ll be using when the movie’s plot begins. All the versions of Carol in the green-and-black Starforce uniform (like the Pocket Pop! keychain pictured below) use the name Vers.\n\nWhile the exact details of Captain Marvel‘s plot remain sketchy, there are certain things that we’ve figured out based on the trailer. Carol Danvers is born on Earth and has a career as an Air Force pilot, but somehow ends up fighting in the Kree-Skrull war on the side of the Kree, joining the elite team Starforce alongside Korath the Pursuer and several other Kree warriors. While fighting as part of Starforce she doesn’t remember her original identity, but when her pursuit of a Skrull soldier brings her back to Earth, she begins recalling memories of her life before she became Vers.\n\nThe question that remains is who gave her that name. One possibility is that Carol has some kind of token of her former life – dog tags, perhaps, or something else with her name on it – that was partially destroyed, so that the only legible part that remains is the letters “VERS.” Another explanation is that the name is given to her by someone who knows her true identity (perhaps the villain Yon-Rogg) but is keeping it a secret from her. Finally, it could be the case that “VERS” is the only part of Carol’s name that remains intact in her fractured memory.\n\nHowever Carol ends up going by Vers, it looks like she’ll have at least three different names in the movie – and will possibly go by Warbird and Binary as well. That’s rather appropriate, given that Captain Marvel appears to be a story about Carol’s search for her true identity.\n\nMore: Captain Marvel: Every Update You Need To Know\n\nSource link\n\nCaptain Marvel Scene Description Teases Starforce Mission on Planet Torfa\n\nBrie Larson’s Carol Danvers leads the Starforce on a mission in the first scene description from Captain Marvel. As far as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is concerned, all eyes have been turned to the next film. Larson stars in Marvel Studios’ first female-led movie, and the first look at Larson suited up and the movie has arrived. Along with the images have come plenty of brand new details about Captain Marvel. For starters, Danvers isn’t on Earth when the film begins, as she’s instead part of a skilled military team of Kree known as Starforce.\n\nThe team was part of the focus for the first Captain Marvel images, as they unveiled the entire lineup for the team. Jude Law’s mysterious character leads the team, but Captain Marvel takes charge in the field. Familiar faces like Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) are joined by new characters. The team comes together for a mission in a brand new scene description.\n\nRelated: All 7 Starforce Members in Captain Marvel Explained\n\nEW‘s Captain Marvel heavy issue hit stands a few days ago and fans are sharing additional information the outlet hasn’t shared in their several stories. Marvel_Freshman shared a photo of the pages from the issue that includes a scene description from EW‘s set visit. The scene may have been filmed in California, but it is the planet Torfa in Captain Marvel. The film visits the planet as part of a Starforce mission, but it isn’t going as smoothly as they like. Fog has clouded their view and interfered with the team’s communicators. They’re searching for a missing spy and despite the danger, Carol is the first one to leap into action once Jude Law’s character gives the go-ahead.\n\nThere’s no additional context for the scene, but it’s exciting to hear how a scene in Captain Marvel is going to play out – especially while fans wait to get the first trailer. This, hopefully, isn’t the only scene with the Starforce in action either. The missing spy’s identity isn’t clear, but it could perhaps be a rescue mission for their own teammate. There’s also the threat of the Skrulls potentially looming, so what or who Starforce are rescuing this spy from also isn’t known.\n\nTorfa meanwhile looks to be joining the MCU’s growing list of planets. It first appeared in the pages of a Captain Marvel comic, more specifically Captain Marvel #2. This is the second issue from Kelly Sue DeConnick, which is one of the more popular and best received solo Captain Marvel series. It’s a relatively new creation as a result, so it’s possible Captain Marvel will really flesh out the world and make it on its own. Depending on when this sequence takes place, it’s possible the upcoming Captain Marvel trailer will actually show some footage from this scene.\n\nMore: Every Captain Marvel Reveal From EW’s Cover Story\n\nSource: EW\n\nSource link\n2018-09-09 07:09:48 – Cooper Hood", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7530250549316406}
+{"content": "Born in the 1990s, Andreanne (Andreane Nouyrigat) is an actress and a model. Although she was born in France, she had been brought up in Pondicherry. When she was six years old, she had come to India to be settled and thus, spent her childhood, almost twenty years, in Pondicherry. Andreanne is an actress who is well qualified. For her higher studies, she returned to her birth place, France. In France, she studied and became a veterinarian nurse.\n\nFrom her childhood days, she had an inclination towards the Indian cinema and the fashion world. This is the reason she landed into the film industry. Apart from speaking French, English, and Spanish, Andreanne is very well versed in Tamil language as well and speaks it fluently. Also, she can read and write in Tamil.\n\nShe is an animal lover and her favourite pass time includes acting and dancing. The Tamil film industry in India has a wide scope for internationals artists. Amy Jackson, a fame in the Indian cinema today, started her career with Tamil films. On similar lines, Andreanne had commenced her acting career with Kollywood. In the year 2000, she did a telefilm on television named \"Le Passeur D’enfant,” in Pondicherry. She had done a French movie in 2001 titled \"La Jeune Fille, Le Diable Et Le Moulin.” It is a drama play that had been produced by Olivier Py. From 2004 to 2005, Andreanne figured in the song, “Athiradi,” from the all time famous movie, “Sivaji The Boss.” She enacted in the drama play, “Sketchs,” and did a tv ad for the company, “Shelton shirts.”\n\nAndreanne has walked for many fashion shows in Pondicherry. She did the “Casablanca fashion show” in both 2006 and 2007. In 2014, she walked down the ramp for the designer, Chaitanya Rao. Her modelling career was mainly focused in Pondicherry and Chennai. In Pondicherry, she has modelled for Anitha’s Design(2009), Kerala Ayurveda Clinic(2012), Opium restaurant(2012), Naushad Ali(2014), Ayesha’s accessories(2015), and Hidesign(2015). In Chennai, the brands for which had she modelled include DVY photoshoot, Kumaran Silks online, and Freshdesk. She has done a few advertisements on tv for companies like Welcare Healthy Living programme, Vijaya Ganapathy Stores, and Dream’z girls fashion store.\n\nAndreanne has done many Tamil films and the most unique thing about this is that she has dubbed her own lines. Although she has a foreign accent, she tries to manage with the dialogues as much as she can. In the movie, Kanden Kadhal Konden, directed by Venkat G Saamy, ( a film on a love story and live-in relationship), Andreanne has played the role of a friend of the female lead. In Saalaiyoram, a Tamil film which had released in 2013, she played the part of an NGO worker. In 2014, she did many movies. She was the female lead in the short film, The Shadow Hunt. her co-actors were Sebastien Harang, and Chaitanya Kumaresan. She was the friend of the hero in “En-nakkul Oruvan,” and Lillith, the ghost, in the movie “ Zero.” In 2016, she had been cast as Andrea in “ Rajini Murugan”. The film had been directed by Ponram and Andreanne played the role of love interest of Soori. In 2015, she gave her debut as the lead heroine in the Tamil film, “ Melnattu Marumagan.” Her other movies are “ Veera Sivaji,” and “ Rum.”\n\nAshwini Chandrashekar\n\nAshwini Chandrashekar stars in trilingual languages namely Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil. She was born in Shimoga, a district of Karnataka. Aswini entered into the Sandalwood through Endendigu, a film which flanked Ajay Rao and Radhika Pandit in lead roles. The movie is directed by Imran Sardhariya and is produced by S. V. Babu. This movie had an IMDB rating of 6.4. She had also appeared in some well-known film such as Octopus, which was a thriller movie written and directed by P Annaiah, in which Kishore and Yagna Shetty starred with Aswini. Tilak played an important role in this movie. The film hit the theatres on November 19, 2015. Aswini Chandrashekhar's acting skills were appreciated for her performance in Ondu Romantic Crime Kathe. The film shows the spectators an impending into the fickle teenage mind. Though it makes a relevant point, an overheat of violent behavior takes away from the movie. The film revolves around three teenage girls, whose life takes a fall when they fall in love with the wrong guys. The character name of Ashwini Chandrasekhar is Thanu who falls in love with Sathya (Arun). Priyanka Shukla, Ashwini Chandrasekhar, and Sonal Banerjee are impressive in the movie. Arun also acts his best as insensitive murderer. Her performance was loved mainly in Prema Pallakki which was one of the greatest movies of 2015. The director of the movie is V. Sudhakar Shetty. It is the story of a boy named Prem, a young and passionate guy. He was from a well-respected family, and was a college drop-out. His interest towards karate was unmatchable, he always dreamt of becoming a champion and achieve his dream. The idea of this girl, Pallavi disturbs him profoundly, and soon he finds himself in love with her. His fixation for her slowly drives takes away his living, friends, and family. He, in turn, gets addicted to bad habits and later for help he turns to his father; his friend, philosopher and guide. Becoming aware of how he has turned out, Prem puts in a wide-awake effort to make a change. Over several years, he strives harder to achieve his dream of winning an International Karate Championship amongst several others. Ashwini Chandrashekar made her last appearance in the film named Aavu Puli Madhyalo Prabhas Pelli, which was released on 4 November, 2016. Within five minutes of the film, one can conclude that the team has made an exceptional effort to cash in two main characters from Baahubali, one is Kalakeya Prabhakar, and the other is Prabhas. The scenes had been designed to create humor but failed to do so. The director is said to have been inspired by Ram Gopal Verma. Aswini Chandrashekar is currently busy with her schedules, the latest information on her future projects is yet to be known.\n\nAshwini Chandrashekar Tamil Actress", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9762660264968872}
+{"content": "Roast Pan - Red\n\n\nR 259.99\nThe Pyrex Impressions Ceramic Square Roaster is perfect for this dish because it absorbs and retains the heat really well. It's essential with Yorkshire Pudding batter that as soon as it starts cooking, you don't allow it to start cooling until it's cooked through, or it will just sink. It is also a truly beautiful dish, which is exactly what you want from oven-to-tableware.\n\nBrand: Pyrex\nColour: Red\nDimensions: 33 x 24cm\nItem Code: MS016523/1870", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9955100417137146}
+{"content": "Dissertation/Thesis Abstract\n\nDeep coring, Viking Age accumulation rates and household wealth in Skagafjörður, Northern Iceland\nby Johnson, Eric D., M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston, 2015, 116; 1590680\nAbstract (Summary)\n\nDiscerning and explaining social and economic differences is a fundamental task of archaeology, but a fine-tuned measure of household wealth is often obfuscated by the inability to account for time or demographics in the archaeological record. This project tests the ways that Iceland, settled by Norse populations between A.D. 870 and 930, provides a temporally-sensitive mode of measuring household income through average rates of deposition of architectural material and fuel refuse while also providing a context for studying the emergence of inequality in a previously uninhabited landscape. In 2014, a deep-coring survey of 11 occupational sites was conducted in the region of Langholt in Skagafjörður, Northern Iceland to supplement shallow-coring data previously collected by the Skagafjörður Archaeologcial Settlement Survey. Volumetric estimates of sites were generated in ArcGIS. Site occupation duration before A.D. 1104 was used to calculate average accumulation rates. I argue that average accumulation rates can be used as a proxy for household income and thus wealth over time. There is a strong logarithmic relationship between the average accumulation rates and occupation duration of sites, suggesting that the settlement order impacted wealth advantages. I argue that the concept of precedence, or the correlation of settlement order and wealth advantages over time, can be used to help understand the long-term dynamics of inequality in Langholt as both an economic and social process.\n\nIndexing (document details)\nAdvisor: Steinberg, John M., Bolender, Douglas J.\nCommitee: Piechota, Dennis\nSchool: University of Massachusetts Boston\nDepartment: Historical Archaeology\nSchool Location: United States -- Massachusetts\nSubjects: Archaeology\nKeywords: Accumulations research, Coring, Farm mounds, Household archaeology, Settlement archaeology, Viking Age\nPublication Number: 1590680\nISBN: 9781321803143", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947094917297363}
+{"content": "An introduction to the traditions and a culture of islam\n\nIslam, on the other hand, consists of beliefs, acts of worship, a code of conduct and jurisprudence. There his year-old son, later Sultan Suleyman the Magnificentdeveloped an interest in the plays and watched them a great deal.\n\nDance[ edit ] Many forms of dancing arts are practised in Muslim cultures, both in religious [16] and secular contexts such as folk and tribal dances, court dances, dances of celebration during weddings and festivals, belly dancing, etc. They signify modes of thought and behavior followed by a particular people continuously from generation to generation.\n\nA study of several American Muslim communities and general observations. It is here that blind following is categorically rebuffed, and innovation and creativity anticipated and highly valued.\n\nHowever, this splendid period of the Spanish history lasted only for 50 years; with wars and internal conflicts undermining the Spanish influence.\n\nLater it was taken by the Mongols from the Chinese and transmitted to the Turkish peoples of Central Russia.\n\nA Meaningful Insight Into Muslim Culture and Traditions\n\nCertain acts or rituals that Muslims do almost subconsciously are actually encouraged, or allowed by Allah, or mandated, in the Quran.\n\nIslam like many other religions claims to be universal accommodating within its fold the cultures of all its adherents provided that the bounds of the religious laws are not transgressed. The long yet leisurely walks on green terraces, the energy of bullfighting, the hypnotic beauty of the flamenco are just a few of the cultural experiences you can enjoy when visiting Spain.\n\nNevertheless there is a difference of opinion on whether Islam has its own distinct culture. Because Islam is a multicultural religion, the musical expression of its adherents is diverse.\n\n\nAlthough tariqas and their rituals have been an omnipresent part of Muslim life for most of Islam's history and were largely responsible for the spread of Islam throughout the world, their following and influence has sharply declined since the late 19th century, having been vigorously opposed and combated in turns by the French and British colonial administrations and by Muslim modernists and secularists like Kemal Ataturkand in recent decades have been the target of vocal opposition by the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect promoted by Saudi Arabia where most of the heritage associated with Sufism and tariqa was physically destroyed by the state in the s.\n\nSecular Muslim literature developed in the Umayyad empire.\n\nIslam and Tradition\n\nNumerous ethical values, standards and norms, as well as definite injunctions and sets of laws, regulating a man's relationship with his Creator and Master, his self, other people and the rest of animate and inanimate beings, also fall in this category.\n\nA Muslim is one who confesses that there is no God but God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. The Chishti order, traditionally the dominant Islamic institution in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent and the most ancient of the major Sufi orders, also practices forms of sama similar to the Mevlevis, as well as other forms of devotional dance such as dhamaal.\n\nTherefore, Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all followers of the same living God—cousins in a common family with a common ancestor, Abraham. A useful translation in contemporary English. The particulars of Islamic culture, though legitimate and deeply embedded in the very fabric of Muslim societies, are by no means to be considered sacred, unqualified and immutable.\n\nNor can it become a mere tradition or a set of traditional or evolved beliefs, rituals and customs, in that it was not people who created or generated it in a space and in a moment of time, and as such transmitted and handed it over from generation to generation. Approximately 50 million people visit Spain each year, making it one of the top 5 tourist destinations in the world.\n\nMuslim Culture\n\nThe same year Christopher Columbus discovered America. Some of the more popular Spanish dishes include Paella, which is a rice dish that features a variety of ingredients. Puppetry remains very popular in Iran, the touring opera Rostam and Sohrab puppet opera being a recent example.\n\nYavuz Sultan Selim was so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul.Muslim art is always devoid of depictions of the animate, especially human beings according to the dictates of Islam or Muslim religion.\n\nPortraiture is taboo to the culture and traditions. Islamic art focuses on the omnipresence of Allah, the 'One who cannot be represented by imagery'.\n\nIslamic Culture?\n\n\nAs components of Islamic culture, conventions and traditions are still deemed only accidental rather than essential or substantial to the former's being both a product and reflection of Islam as a total way of life embodied in the behavioral patterns of its adherents.\n\nHence, Islam has a distinct culture and civilization. Islam is a major world religion, with over 1 billion followers worldwide (1/5 of the world population).\n\n\nMedell’s Islamic Ancient Traditions: The Six Pillars Islamic Ancient Traditions: The Six Pillars From the Writings of Crystal Medell Humanities Ms. Melissa Jayne Shelton University of Central Oklahoma Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe ancient Islamic traditions.\n\nThis paper focuses on the religious traditions that are mainly still practiced today according to the Qur’an. Islam, on the other hand, consists of beliefs, acts of worship, a code of conduct and jurisprudence.\n\nSo long as the culture of a society lies within the parameters of Islamic beliefs, acts of worship, code of conduct and the shariah, that culture would be acceptable in Islam.\n\nAn introduction to the traditions and a culture of islam\nRated 3/5 based on 40 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9441244006156921}
+{"content": "Watch on YouTube TV\n\nCold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders\n\nWatch live TV from 70+ networks\nFree unlimited cloud DVR storage space\n6 accounts per household included\nCancel anytime.\nAs chronicled in Truman Capote's landmark book, \"In Cold Blood,\" this docuseries takes a fresh, in-depth look at the legendary murder case of the Clutter family in a small Kansas town in 1959, a crime seemingly without motive. The four-hour event uses firsthand accounts of relatives, family friends, townspeople and law enforcement -- some of whom are speaking publicly about the murder for the first time. There's also never-before-seen details such as original photographs, audio recordings, and documents from the case, as well as memoirs and letters from the murderers and their families. Acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger directs and co-produces.\n\nLatest episodes\n\naired 186 days ago\nA look back at the infamous killings that spawned Truman Capote's \"In Cold Blood,\" as recalled by relatives, family friends, townspeople and law enforcement.\naired 187 days ago\n\nSimilar on YouTube TV\n\nThe three-part series, hosted by former federal prosecutor Laura Coates, re-examines the infamous murder of Martha Moxley by testing new theories and digging into potentially overlooked clues with help from some of the world's preeminent crime authorities. Coates attempts to understand the question that remains: Why has justice been so elusive for the Moxley family after so many years? The series features new and exclusive interviews with those connected to the case, including former LAPD homicide Detective Mark Fuhrman, trial defense attorney Mickey Sherman and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as conversations with Martha's loved ones.\nVarious networks\nFrom the moment a homicide is reported, a file is assembled to document every facet of the investigation -- crime scene photos, notes and observations, forensic reports, witness interviews, suspect profiles -- and continues to grow with new information until an arrest is made and conviction attained. Investigation Discovery opens these \"murder books\" to tell haunting tales buried within the pages. Hourlong episodes take viewers back in time with details of decades-old cold cases using actual archival footage, crime-scene evidence and first-person interviews with lead investigators, unraveling the mystery and uncovering what broke the cases open.\nVarious networks\nFrom the outside, families seem like harmonious units in loving homes. But you don't necessarily know what secrets families are hiding from the outside world. This series, narrated by actress Brenda Strong, explores families hiding the most extreme of family secrets: murder. Each episode explores a death in a family, unraveling the motives of the family members, all of whom are potential suspects -- and potential victims. Sibling rivalries, disputes over family businesses and infidelity are some of the factors that lead to the families' ultimate betrayals.\nRaw, unbridled and chilling depictions of human desires surface in \"In Ice Cold Blood.\" True crime is depicted at another level as Ice-T takes viewers straight into the stories. Money, sex, lust, and greed run rampant with very real consequences. Family members, friends and detectives recount each case -- a missing military veteran, a student murdered in a crime of passion, and secret payouts are only some of the cases. These stories are told through re-enactments, in-depth interviews and archived footage.\nThe holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year's is often thought of as a celebratory period to spend time with friends and family. That is not always the case, though, as the period is not immune from experiencing the same types of violent crimes that occur throughout the year. This series documents stories of tragedy that struck during the holidays, with firsthand accounts from people who had friends or family members killed during the joyous time. Sometimes the victim is killed by someone close to them, such as a case of sibling rivalry turned deadly, but sometimes the killing is done by a stranger who interrupts a holiday gathering with gunfire.\nAaron Hernandez had everything going for him, including a great career as one of the best football players, a fiancee, millions of fans, and money. But even all of that could not stop him from walking a dark and dangerous path to destruction. Audiences witness the true story behind Aaron Hernandez from those who knew him best, including his fiancee and mother of his only child, Shayanna Hernandez, and his friends and former teammates. Viewers get a look into why a multi-million dollar football player who loved his family ended up with a murder conviction.\nVarious networks\n\"Breaking Homicide\" seeks closure for desperate families whose loved ones were victims in murder cases that have gone cold. Former Rhode Island police Sgt. Derrick Levasseur investigates decades-old cases, chasing down new clues and providing fresh perspective to those who never gave up on the search for justice. Helped by local law enforcement, victims' family members and advanced technology, Levasseur meticulously dissects each piece of evidence, unearthing new leads in some cases.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5707294344902039}
+{"content": "A larger role for midwives could improve deficient U.S. care for mothers and babies\n\nA larger role for midwives could improve maternal and infant health in the U.S. (Merck KGaA)\n\nIn Great Britain, midwives deliver half of all babies, including Kate Middleton’s first two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. In Sweden, Norway and France, midwives oversee most expectant and new mothers, enabling obstetricians to concentrate on high-risk births. In Canada and New Zealand, midwives are so highly valued that they’re brought in to manage complex cases that need special attention.\n\n\nNow a groundbreaking study, the first systematic look at what midwives can and can’t do in the states where they practice, offers new evidence that empowering them could significantly boost maternal and infant health. The five-year effort by researchers in Canada and the U.S. found that states that have done the most to integrate midwives into their healthcare systems, including Washington, New Mexico and Oregon, have some of the best outcomes for mothers and babies. Conversely, states with some of the most restrictive midwife laws and practices—including Alabama, Ohio and Mississippi—tend to do significantly worse on key indicators of maternal and neonatal well-being.\n\n\nKey Realities Pushing Healthcare Into a Digital Future\n\nPaper forms, contracts, and documents are the quicksand that bogs down both patient care and provider business. However, that does not have to be the case. Download this whitepaper to learn the three key realities that are pushing healthcare past paper-based processes and into a digital, more streamlined future.\n\n“We have been able to establish that midwifery care is strongly associated with lower interventions, cost-effectiveness and improved outcomes,” said lead researcher Saraswathi Vedam, an associate professor of midwifery who heads the Birth Place Lab at the University of British Columbia.\n\nRELATED: WHO study: Midwives, nurse practitioners as effective as doctors\n\nMany of the states characterized by poor health outcomes and hostility to midwives also have large black populations, raising the possibility that greater use of midwives could reduce racial disparities in maternity care. Black mothers are three to four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than their white counterparts; black babies are 49% (PDF) more likely to be born prematurely and twice as likely to perish before their first birthdays.\n\n“In communities that are most at risk for adverse outcomes, increased access to midwives who can work as part of the health care system may improve both outcomes and the mothers’ experience,” Vedam said.\n\nThat’s because of the midwifery model, which emphasizes community-based care, close relationships between providers and patients, prenatal and postpartum wellness, and avoiding unnecessary interventions that can spiral into dangerous complications, said Jennie Joseph, a British-trained midwife who runs Commonsense Childbirth, a Florida birthing center and maternal care nonprofit. “It’s a model that somewhat mitigates the impact of any systemic racial bias. You listen. You’re compassionate. There’s such a depth of racism that’s intermingled with [medical] systems. If you’re practicing in [the midwifery] model you’re mitigating this without even realizing it.”\n\nThe study, published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, analyzes hundreds of laws and regulations in 50 states and the District of Columbia—things like the settings where midwives are allowed to work, whether they can provide the full scope of pregnancy- and childbirth-related care, how much autonomy they have to make decisions without a doctor’s supervision, and whether they can prescribe medication, receive insurance reimbursement or obtain hospital privileges. Then researchers overlaid state data on nine maternal and infant health indicators, including rates of cesarean sections, premature births, breastfeeding and neonatal deaths. (Maternal deaths and severe complications were not included because data is unreliable.)\n\nThe differences between state laws can be stark. In Washington, which has some of the highest rankings on measures such as C-sections, premature births, infant mortality and breastfeeding, midwives don’t need nursing degrees to be licensed. They often collaborate closely with OB-GYNs, and can generally transfer care to hospitals smoothly when risks to the mother or baby emerge. They sit on the state’s perinatal advisory committee, are actively involved in shaping health policy and receive Medicaid reimbursement even for home births.\n\nRELATED: California doctors and hospitals tussle over role of nurse-midwives\n\n\nNeel Shah, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a leader in the movement to reduce unnecessary C-sections, praised the study as “a remarkable paper—novel, ambitious, and provocative.” He said licensed midwives could be used to solve shortages of maternity care that disproportionately affect rural and low-income mothers, many of them women of color. “Growing our workforce, including both midwives and obstetricians, and then ensuring we have a regulatory environment that facilitates integrated, team-based care are key parts of the solution,” he said.\n\n\nThe findings are unlikely to quell the controversies over home births, which are almost always handled by midwives and comprise a tiny but growing percentage of deliveries in the U.S., or fears among doctors and hospitals that closer collaborations with midwives will raise malpractice insurance rates. In fact, said Ann Geisler, who runs the Florida-based Southern Cross Insurance Solutions, which specializes in insuring midwives, her clients’ premiums tend to be just one-tenth of premiums for an OB-GYN because their model of care eschews unnecessary interventions or technology. Far from being medical renegades, the vast majority of midwives want to be integrated into the medical system, she said.\n\nGenerally, licensed midwives only treat low-risk women, Geisler said. If the patients become higher risk, midwives are supposed to transfer them to a doctor’s care. Since many OB-GYNs only see midwife patients when a problem emerges, they may develop negative views of midwives’ skills, she said.\n\nThe benefits of midwifery come as no surprise to maternal health advocates. In 2014, the medical journal The Lancet concluded that integrating midwives into healthcare systems could prevent more than 80% of maternal and newborn deaths worldwide—in low-resource countries that lack doctors and hospitals, by filling dangerous gaps in obstetric services; in high-resource countries, by preventing overuse of medical technologies such as unnecessary C-sections that can lead to severe complications. A review by the Cochrane group, an international consortium that examines research to establish best practices in medical care, found that midwives are associated with lower rates of episiotomies, births involving instruments such as forceps and miscarriages.\n\n\nMidwives were valued members of their communities until the late 19th century, when medicine became professionalized and doctors’ groups began pushing for a monopoly over obstetric care. Physicians argued that birth was a “pathologic” process that required scientific knowledge and hospital equipment, and they vilified midwives—who were mostly immigrants or, in the South, blacks commonly known as “grannies”—as dangerously uneducated for insisting that birth was a natural (“physiological”) function. In 1915, Joseph DeLee of Chicago, the most influential OB-GYN of his day, called midwives “relics of barbarism” and “a drag upon the science and the art of obstetrics,” while one North Carolina doctor dismissed black midwives as having “fingers full of dirt” and “brains full of arrogance and superstition.” By the 1950s, the vast majority of women gave birth in hospitals, attended by doctors.\n\nMidwifery began to make a comeback in the 1970s and 80s, embraced by middle-class white women who wanted more of a voice in their maternity care, including the possibility of delivering at home. Of the more than 15,000 midwives now certified in the U.S., the vast majority are certified nurse-midwives, or CNMs—registered nurses with an additional graduate degree who are trained to provide the full range of reproductive and maternity care, including delivering babies in hospital settings. After that, the definitions get fuzzy, said Ginger Breedlove, a Kansas-based CNM and consultant who is a past president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM). There are “direct-entry midwives,” “certified professional midwives” and “lay midwives,” all of which are primarily associated with home births but who have different types of training and may or may not be licensed and regulated by a state. “It’s very confusing,” Breedlove said. “The title ‘midwife’ has multiple meanings”—which does not help efforts to promote the profession.\n\nIn recent years, national groups such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have become much more welcoming to nurse-midwives and more open to home births by licensed midwives. But many individual doctors remain wary, acknowledged Dartmouth University’s Timothy Fisher, who teaches OB-GYN and is the medical director of the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network. One main reason “is the lack of exposure to midwife care during our training as OBs. Things that are foreign are scary, and we view them with skepticism,” Fisher said.\n\nIn North Carolina, requirements that CNMs have permission from doctors to practice means that they are unable to work in the 31 counties in the state that have no obstetrical care provider, said Suzanne Wertman, president of the ACNM’s North Carolina affiliate. Midwives are “just an afterthought here … sort of like a bonus. The idea of one profession overseeing another profession—it’s problematic and it doesn't serve the consumer well.”\n\n\nIn Alabama, the state with the worst infant mortality rate in the country, midwifery restrictions have been almost as tough, reflecting attitudes that wiped out the state’s once-rich tradition of black birth attendants. “Here they associate us with granny midwives—someone with absolutely no medical background,” said Sheila Lopez, one of just 13 CNMs currently licensed to practice in the state. Alabama has no midwifery education programs, so Lopez had to get her training in Atlanta while working as a full-time labor and delivery nurse in Birmingham, two and a half hours away. Once she graduated with her CNM degree in 2012, it took her three years to find a midwifery job near her home. Alabama law requires that CNMs have a “collaborative physician” who is willing to oversee their practices. “It’s really kind of just a harsh work environment,” Lopez said. “The doctors don’t understand what the role of the midwife is. So they don’t go out seeking it. And if they don’t know, then they won’t back us up.”\n\nCarole Campbell of Gadsden, the only black nurse-midwife in current practice listed on the Alabama Board of Nursing website, has even more impressive credentials than Lopez does: a doctorate in nursing practice as well as a CNM, plus five years of teaching experience at a community college. “I’m at the top of my practice,” she said, but because no local OB-GYN group has been willing or able to enter into a collaborative arrangement with her, she isn’t allowed to provide any prenatal or postpartum care, much less deliver babies. “Would I like to be doing that? Absolutely.”\n\nAlabama lawmakers recently passed a bill that would legalize certified professional midwives—the type who attend home births—though the process of integrating them into the maternal care system is likely to be long and uncertain. Meanwhile, only 18 out of 54 rural counties in the state have hospitals that offer obstetrical services. Courtney Sirmon, a doula, or birth helper, who heads the Alabama Birth Coalition, recalls a rural client who recently gave birth while on the way to the nearest hospital, in Birmingham. “They were going over 100 miles per hour when she delivered in the back seat.”\n\nThis story was originally published by ProPublica\n\nSuggested Articles\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.541131854057312}
+{"content": "Altariq (The Road ) - Documentation: Original Sufi Poem (9th century)\n\nEntrant: Sayyida Laila al-Sanna' al-Andalusiyya\n\nFfesty Pen Eisteddfod; Storytelling & Poetry; 3 November, 2018\n\n\n\nPoetic Form\n\n\"Altariq (The Road)\" is an original poem composed in English, in a Sufi style known as \"ecstatic poetry,\" which dates back to at least the 9th century, and is still practiced today. Ecstatic poetry is religious in nature, and has neither rhyme nor metre. It is meant to be composed through divine inspiration, and thus has a spontaneous quality. It tends to be concise and to contain layered meanings.The form has not changed significantly in the last 1100 years.\n\n\nPoetry in Sufism\n\nDue to the mystical nature of Sufi Islamic practice, poetry is treated with tremendous religious significance. As Dana Wilde describes in \"On Sufism and Poetry\":\n\n\"Somehow [...] the Sufi master has to make the student aware of his inner self, the self that is an element of, or is the Divine. Poetry and music touch the inner sensibilities -- the emotional, intuitive, moral and spiritual parts of the inner self. They open the person living in the visible world to the realities of the invisible world.\n\n\"Sufism places emphasis on metaphor as a key to understanding because it conveys or creates meanings that are beyond the visible world -- which is also to say beyond the limits of logic, analysis, rationality -- and touches the emotional, intuitive, moral and spiritual worlds. Hence poetry.\"\n\nWith reference to the historical development of Sufi poetry, Abichal Watkins and Tejvan Pettinger explain:\n\n\"Often the great Sufi poets lived during times of religious fundamentalism. The authorities censored them, because they openly taught that man could have a direct contact with God. As a result poets such as Hafiz developed an increasing array of metaphors and synonyms to describe God. Frequently we come across references such as Friend, Beloved, Father, Mother, the Wine seller, the Problem giver, and the Problem solver. This ambiguity in describing God served a dual purpose. Firstly it made it difficult for his poetry to be censored for its unorthodox mystical ideas. It also illustrates the inherent difficulty a poet has in describing the nature of God. The infinite is beyond all name and form, how can the poet describe that which is beyond words?\"\n\n\nPeriod Examples of Sufi Ecstatic Poetry\n\n\"In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.\n\nHe said, \"This world is like a closed coffin, in which\n\nWe are shut and in which, through our ignorance,\n\nWe spend our lives in folly and desolation.\n\nWhen Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,\n\nEach one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,\n\nBut those without will remain locked in the coffin.\n\nSo, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,\n\nDo all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;\n\nDo all you can to develop your wings and your feathers.\"\n\n- Farid ud Din Attar (1145-1221 CE); Translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the  Desert'\n\n\nlet's scatter roses and pour wine in the glass;\n\nwe'll shatter heaven's roof and lay a new foundation.\n\nIf sorrow raises armies to shed the blood of lovers,\n\nI'll join with the wine bearer so we can overthrow them.\n\n\nso we can clap and sing a song and lose our heads in dancing.\"\n\n- Hafiz (1230-1291 CE); (Ghani-Qazvini, no 374) ' the Shambhala Guide to Sufism' Carl.W Ernst, Ph.D.\n\n\"Listen for the stream\n\nthat tells you one thing.\n\nDie on this bank.\n\nBegin in me\n\nthe way of rivers with the sea.\n\n- Rumi (1207-1273 CE); Translated by Coleman Barks - from \"Say I Am You\"\n\nAnalysis of \"Altariq (The Road)\"\n\n\"Altariq (The Road),\" like other Sufi ecstatic poetry, uses human experience to relate spiritual ideas. In this case, the human experience addressed is the great migration and the creation of the Spanish Diaspora which occurred after the fall of Granada, the final bastion of Islamic rule in Spain, in 1492. The speaker in this poem is traveling East, looking for a new home in the Ottoman Empire, or in Persia, the home of the greatest Sufi poets.\n\nThe outward story of leaving one's home for a new land is a metaphor for the spiritual journey a Sufi must undergo in her quest to connect with and serve the Almighty. This metaphor is revealed in part through a strong allusion to the biblical exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt.\n\n\nGranger, Ivan M. \"Poets in the Muslim/Sufi Tradition.\" Poetry Chaikhana. Accessed 23 October 2018.\n\nJamal, Mahmoud, ed. Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi. Penguin Classics, 2010. Print.\n\nLings, Martin, trans. Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology. Islamic Texts Society Books, 2005. Print.\n\nPettinger, Tejvan. \"The Ecstatic Poetry of the Sufis.\" Accessed 23 October 2018.\n\nShelquist, Richard. \"Sufi Poetry.\" Accessed 23 October 2018.\n\nWilde, Dana. \"On Sufism and Poetry.\" Accessed 23 October 2018.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996494054794312}
+{"content": "Are You Consuming the Right Balance of Fats?\n\nAny of us striving to become healthy are faced with decisions regarding food intake. For some, this may be simply maintaining a balanced diet, while for others, this may be to choose foods for weight loss. Yet, regardless of which group you belong to, we seem to have a subconscious avoidance for fatty foods, and this may be especially true for dieters. However, did you know that there’s a large difference between the effects of different fats? Consuming the right balance of different fats may not only lower our risk of heart disease, but also assist in weight loss.\n\nNowadays it’s common for people use words like LDL and HDL, but many have little understanding behind what they mean. LDL and HDL both refer to lipoproteins, which are protein and lipid assemblies that function to move fats through our body. LDLs are what people commonly refer to as “unhealthy” fats and stands for low-density lipoprotein. These fats carry higher levels of cholesterol compared to other lipoproteins and deliver cholesterol throughout the body; it’s for this reason that they’ve become known as “bad.” Too many LDLs in our body leads to excess cholesterol, which can accumulate and clog arteries. However, it’s a misconception to believe that LDLs are “harmful,” as the function of LDLs are meant to help our body tissues acquire the cholesterol needed to synthesize vitamin D and various steroid hormones.\n\nHDLs are what people refer to as “healthy” fats and stands for high-density lipoprotein. These fats contain a higher composition of proteins than fats and collect cholesterol throughout the body to either recycle in the liver, break down other fats, or excrete from the body. By collecting cholesterol throughout the body, HDLs are believed to be good because they lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases.\n\nIn reality, we can’t simply consume HDLs and avoid LDLs because our bodies require cholesterol as building blocks for important compounds used in our body. As such, what really matters is maintaining a balanced ratio of the two fats. The ideal ratio of HDL to LDL varies between individuals, but a general recommendation is to maintain a 0.4 to 1 ratio. For details regarding your specific case, consult a physician.\n\nManaging this balance between HDLs and LDLs depends on one’s intake of the various kinds of fats. Some of these large categories include saturated, unsaturated and trans fats, but there are differences even amongst these groups. In the past, it was believed that saturated fats are best avoided because they promote higher levels of LDL and clog arteries more easily. Trans fats were believed to not only increase LDLs but also lower HDL levels. Unsaturated fats on the other hand were said to increase HDLs and considered beneficial, but recent research studies have shown that many of these beliefs are overgeneralizations. Not all saturated fats are the same. For instance, research conducted by Dr Nita G Forouhi found that consuming very long chain fatty acids – with 22 carbons or more – was associated with decreased type 2 diabetes risk and the same was true for saturated fats with an odd number of carbons. Even the source of fat makes a difference, as people eat foods that come with a multitude of nutrients. The interaction between these nutrients also has different effects on the body. Avocado contains the same amount of saturated fat as three slices of bacon, but consuming avocados reduces LDL levels while bacon increases them. Likewise, eating a serving of fatty nuts everyday could reduce weight loss rather than eating a chocolate chip cookie because not all the fats in nuts are digested, rather they get excreted without being absorbed.\n\nPerhaps next time when you go shopping for groceries, you could do some more research beforehand on what “fatty” foods would be more beneficial than harmful for you. Remember that many fats are good for us and play important roles in managing our everyday health. When consumed in proper amounts and balanced with the rest of our diet, fats can not only reduce our risk for disease, but also help assist in weight loss.\n\n\nSherry Chow", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9126532077789307}
+{"content": "Fear Is a Passive Form of Anger\n\n\nPeople have called this “The Age of Anger,” and when I look at the way people seem to express themselves these days, it often feels like it. Love seems far away. Is there a connection between this incitement to fear and the eruption of so much anger?\n\n\n“Life should be surrounded by love, not by fear. It is fear that creates anger. It is fear that ultimately creates violence. Have you seen that fear is only a feminine form of anger and anger is a masculine form of fear. Fear is a passive form of anger and anger is an active form of fear. So you can change fear into anger very easily, and anger into fear – very easily.\n\n“Sometimes people come to me and they say, ‘We are feeling very afraid.’\n\n“I tell them, ‘Go and beat the pillow and be angry with the pillow.’\n\n“They say, ‘What will that do?’\n\n“I say, ‘You just try!’ And it becomes a revelation even to them. If they can beat the pillow in real, hot anger, immediately fear disappears, because the same energy turns and becomes active. It was inactive, then it was fear. Fear is the root cause of hate, anger, violence.\n\n“Help people not to be afraid. But how can you help people not to be afraid unless you know what fearlessness is?”\n\nOsho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 4, Talk #7", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7383377552032471}
+{"content": "The Sunshine rule: a quick guide\n\nUnder government plans, clinical commissioning groups and hospital trusts will be required to keep a list of gifts and payments from pharmaceutical companies to NHS staff\n\nGP in patient consultation\nThe Royal College of General Practitioners says conflicts of interest should be declared and managed appropriately and transparently in order to maintain public confidence. Photograph: Alamy\n\nWhat is the Sunshine rule?\n\nThe rule, or rather set of initiatives, will mean senior medical staff in England and Wales will have to declare gifts and hospitality received from pharmaceutical companies, or they could be dismissed and or prosecuted under the Bribery Act. If found guilty, they may face unlimited fines or imprisonment. NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS hospital trusts will be responsible for maintaining registers that will document the pharma-related business interests of medics, rather like the UK parliament’s register of MPs’ financial interests.\n\nWhy was it created?\n\nA Telegraph investigation revealed that many NHS workers were directly benefiting from hospitality, gifts and payments or even directly working for pharmaceutical companies. It discovered that more than 130 NHS officials involved in assessing which drugs are given to patients were also acting as paid consultants to pharmaceutical companies. Even members of the government panel responsible for NHS drug procurement, the Pharmaceutical Market Support Group, were revealed to be receiving payment as consultants for large pharmaceutical companies.\n\nDon’t they have something like this in the US already?\n\nYes. US manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and other biological products are required under federal law – the Physicians Payments Sunshine Act – to disclose payments and items of value given to physicians and teaching hospitals. The legislation applies to a range of doctors, operating in areas from dentistry to chiropractors. But medical residents (junior doctors), nurse practitioners and office staff are not included.\n\nWhen will it come into force?\n\nThis is difficult to establish. Different parts of the Sunshine rule will be coming into force at different times. As of 1 April 2016, there is a new clause in the NHS standard contract around conflicts of interest and transparency on gifts and hospitality. NHS England said it is still consulting on whether or not to introduce strengthened statutory guidance for CCGs, which would set out how they should “reinforce their own internal arrangements so that conflicts of interest are managed effectively”.\n\nNHS England is also setting up what it describes as a “task and finish group” to be chaired by Sir Malcolm Grant, which will “develop a set of rules on how conflicts should be identified and managed, to be adopted across the health system”.\n\nHow do healthcare professionals feel about it?\n\nGPs are the most likely group of healthcare professionals to be affected by any rule changes, given their increased responsibilities for the commissioning of primary care services.\n\nProf Nigel Mathers, honorary secretary of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told the Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network: “Conflicts of interest (COIs) are inevitable but they are manageable. The important thing is that any COIs are declared and managed appropriately and transparently in order to maintain public confidence in healthcare professionals.”\n\nHe added that GPs are the most trusted healthcare professionals in the UK and that “as a college we trust our members to declare COIs without the need for introducing new legislation, but of course, GPs will abide by any laws that are passed”.\n\nWhat does the pharmaceutical industry have to say about it all?\n\nThe pharmaceutical industry has welcomed the Sunshine rule initiatives. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) represents companies supplying around 90% of all medicines used by the NHS and it’s happy to encourage what it describes as “a common ambition for greater transparency in our relationships”. It also points to efforts to promote openness about relationships between healthcare workers and the pharma industry, including the industry’s longstanding code of practice. This code includes a range of activities from the appropriate use of direct mail to “the sponsorship of scientific and other meetings including payment of travel and accommodation expenses”.\n\nAnd the Department of Health?\n\nHaving tasked NHS England with addressing issues of transparency around relationships with NHS workers and medical businesses, the Department of Health felt it was inappropriate to comment on the progress being made on the Sunshine rule. It highlighted previous comments made by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in March outlining his hopes that new rules with stop extravagant hospitality and gifts from influencing commissioning in the NHS: “Further transparency in the way that decisions on how precious NHS resources are spent is welcome. These tough new rules will ensure every penny possible is directed to providing frontline patient care.”\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9718210101127625}
+{"content": "Ikea Bathroom Cabinets\n\n\nMaterials- whether you are talking about custom, stock, or RTA cabinets, the materials used for the construction of the cabinets should be the biggest factor in what cabinets you are buying. The most common question that I get from customers is “what is the door made of?”. People want to make sure that the door is made of real wood, when in reality they should be more concerned with what the cabinet box is made of. 95% of the RTA Cabinets that are the market are going to have solid wood doors and face frames (if not, that should be a red flag!!). Where they differ will be what they use for the box and the back panel. There are a wide variety of materials that are used by manufacturers, including- plywood, fiberboard, particle board, MDF, and solid wood. Plywood and Solid wood are going to be your strongest cabinet box. There are several issues that you might have to deal with if you buy cabinets that use particle board or fiberboard with a veneer cover….. 1) if the material gets wet, fiberboard and particle board tend to swell or buckle 2) both materials tend break or split, especially screws or nails are used. Screws will have a tendency to lose their grip because the material is made of shredded wood or paper vs. a plywood or solid wood material. Ironically, most of the cabinets that you have to special order from Lowes or Home Depot are actually made of fiberboard with a veneer. For a strong, long lasting cabinet, make sure that the cabinet box is made of plywood or solid wood.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9682720303535461}
+{"content": "Some men plant trees that others may rest by\n\nApplications need to meet the Selection Criteria and be made in writing and submitted with all accompanying documentation by the closing date.\nThere are no set application forms or procedures for qualified applicants to address.\nApplications should however include a covering letter making known the organisation and it's bonafides (including a website link or printed brochure helps), details of the purpose or project seeking funding, the amount you are requesting (excluding GST) together with quotes and or other paperwork to help your cause, recent legitimate financial statements and your DGR number must also be included.\nPast successful recipients tend to be granted amounts of between $5000 and $10,000.\nGrant recipients are also requested to keep the Foundation up to date with how the grant funding was used by submitting a basic Grant Acquittal response before September 30 after receiving any funds.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9978712797164917}
+{"content": "Combat Movement\n\nBasics: Checks | Ability Scores | Movement | Conditions | Environment | Taking Action: Exploration | Actions | Combat/Attack Basics | Damage & Healing | Resting | Between Adventures | Magic: What is Magic? | Casting a Spell | Combining Magic Effect | Minor Spells & Rituals\n\nFor regular (non-combat) movement rules go here\n\nMovement in Combat\n\nWhen you move during a battle, you can mix and match movement modes as normal, walking, jumping, swimming, crawling, and so on (see the Exploration section). You also follow these rules.\n\nBreaking Up a Move: You can break up your movement on your turn, moving both before and after your action. For example, if you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, search for a trapdoor, and then move 20 feet.\n\nMoving Around Other Creatures: In combat, an ally lets you move through the space that he or she occupies, but a hostile creature does not. You must maneuver around your foes.\n\nOpportunity Attacks: If you try to move beyond a hostile creature's reach, that creature can take a reaction to make a melee attack against you. This attack is called an opportunity attack. The creature cannot make an opportunity attack against if you are disengaging (see Actions).\n\n\nSwimming across a rushing river, sneaking down a dungeon corridor, scaling a treacherous mountain slope—all sorts of movement play a key role in D&D Adventures.\n\nThe DM can summarize the adventurers’ movement without calculating exact distances or travel times: “You travel through the forest and find the dungeon entrance late in the evening of the third day.” Even in a dungeon, particularly a large dungeon or a cave network, the DM can summarize movement between encounters: “After killing the gua⁠rdian at the entrance to the ancient dwarven stronghold, you consult your map, which leads you through miles of echoing corridors to a chasm bridged by a narrow stone arch.”\n\n\n\n\n\nTravel Pace\n\nWhile traveling, a group of adventurers can move at a normal, fast, or slow pace, as shown on the Travel Pace table. The table states how far the party can move in a period of time and whether the pace has any effect. A fast pace makes characters less perceptive, while a slow pace makes it possible to sneak around and to sear⁠ch an area more carefully (see the “Activity While Traveling” later in this section for more information).\n\n\n\n\nCharacters in wagons, carriages, or other Land Vehicles choose a pace as normal. Characters in a waterborne vessel are limited to the speed of the vessel (see “ Mounts and Vehicles ”), and they don’t suffer penalties for a fast pace or gain benefits from a slow pace. Depending on the vessel and the size of the crew, ships might be able to travel for up to 24 hours per day.\n\nCertain speci⁠al mounts, such as a Pegasus or Griffon, or spe⁠cial vehicles, such as a Carpet of Flying, allow you to travel more swiftly. The Dungeon Master’s Guide contains more information on spec⁠ial methods of travel.\n\nTravel Pace\n\n~Pace Minute Hour Day Effect\nNormal 300 feet 3 miles 24 miles\nSl⁠ow 200 feet 2 miles 18 miles Able to use Stealth\n\nDifficult Terrain\n\n\n\nSpe⁠cial Types of Movement\n\n\nClimbing, Swimming, and Crawling\n\nWhile climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the DM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.\n\n\nYour Strength determines how far you can jump.\n\n\nThis rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your DM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.\n\n\n\n\nActivity While Traveling\n\nAs adventurers travel through a dungeon or The Wilderness, they need to remain alert for danger, and some characters might perform other tasks to help the group’s journey.\n\nMarching Order\n\nThe adventurers should establish a marching order. A marching order makes it easier to determine which characters are affected by traps, which ones can spot hidden enemies, and which ones are the closest to those enemies when a fight breaks out.\n\nA character might occupy the front rank, one or more middle ranks, or the back rank. Characters in the front and back ranks need enough room to travel side by side with others in their rank. When space is too tight, the marching order must change, usually by moving characters to a middle rank.\n\nFewer Than Three Ranks. If an Adventuring party arranges its marching order with only two ranks, they are a front rank and a back rank. If there’s only one rank, it’s considered a front rank.\n\n\nWhile traveling at a slow pace, the characters can move stealthily. As long as they’re not in the open, they can try to Surprise or sneak by other creatures they encounter. See the rules for Hiding in “Using Ability Scores.”\n\nNoticing Threats\n\nUse the passive Wisdom (Perception) scores of the characters to determine whether anyone in the group notices a hidden threat. The DM might decide that a threat can be noticed only by characters in a particular rank. For example, as the characters are exploring a maze of tunnels, the DM might decide that only those characters in the back rank have a chance to hear or spot a stealthy creature following the group, while characters in the front and middle ranks cannot.\n\nWhile traveling at a fast pace, characters take a −5 penalty to their passive Wisdom (Perception) scores to notice hidden threats.\n\nEncountering Creatures. If the DM determines that the adventurers encounter other creatures while they’re traveling, it’s up to both groups to decide what happens next. Either group might decide to Attack, initiate a conversation, run away, or wait to see what the other group does.\n\nSurprising Foes. If the adventurers encounter a hostile creature or group, the DM determines whether the adventurers or their foes might be surprised when Combat erupts. See \" The Order of Combat \" for more about Surprise.\n\nOther Activities\n\nCharacters who turn their attention to other tasks as the group travels are not focused on watching for danger. These characters don’t contribute their passive Wisdom (Perception) scores to the group’s chance of noticing hidden threats. However, a character not watching for danger can do one of the following activities instead, or some other activity with the DM’s permission.\n\nNavigate. The character can try to prevent the group from becoming lost, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules to determine whether the group gets lost.)\n\nDraw a Map. The character can draw a map that records the group’s progress and helps the characters get back on course if they get lost. No ability check is required.\n\nTrack. A character can follow the tracks of another creature, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for tracking.)\n\nForage. The character can keep an eye out for ready sources of Food and Water, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules for foraging.)\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5507951378822327}
+{"content": "June 2015\n\nSuggested Citation: Suggested Citation: Garko, M.G. (2015, June). We live in a toxic world – Part V: Examples of chemicals carcinogenic to humans. Health and Wellness Monthly. Retrieved (insert month, day, year), from www.letstalknutrition.com.\n\nWe Live In a Toxic World – Part V: Detoxifying the Body\n\nMichael Garko, Ph.D.\n\nHost – Let’s Talk Nutrition\n\n\n\nIt is axiomatic that we live in toxic world. The air, water and land of the planet, the natural food supply (i.e., plants & animals) and manufactured food supply are contaminated with synthetic chemicals to the extent that “all people, not just those working in or living near major pollution sources, carry a ‘body burden’ of synthetic chemicals in their blood, fat, mother’s milk, semen, urine, and breath” (Thornton, et al., 2002). This body burden of toxic chemicals accumulates throughout the lifecycle and puts the health of people in serious jeopardy.\n\nAlthough it is effective in eliminating by-products from natural metabolic processes, the human detoxification system is often rendered ineffective in coping with the synthetic chemical pollution in people. Contributing to that ineffectiveness is the body burden created from the regular and too frequently excessive consumption of processed carbohydrates, saturated and trans-fats, stimulants (e.g., caffeine & tobacco), suppressants (e.g., alcohol) and pharmaceuticals.\n\nThis June, 2015 issue of Health & Wellness Monthly informs readers on the process of detoxification. Before beginning any program of detoxification, it is important to have a grasp of certain concepts and related principles of health and nutrition so as to have a more informed understanding of the theory and practice of detoxification. Therefore, this month’s Healthful Hints pays particular attention to outlining the detoxification systems of the human body, explaining what toxins and toxicity are, identifying the signs and symptoms of toxicity, presenting the health issues related to toxicity, defining detoxification and providing readers with two comprehensive approaches to the process of detoxification.\n\nDetoxification Systems of the Human Body\n\nHumans evolved as a species with an elegant and effective detoxification system. One of the more popular ways to conceptualize the structure and function of the human detoxification system is to classify it into seven sub-systems or channels of elimination. They are in alphabetical order the 1. blood, 2. colon, 3. kidneys, 4. liver, 5. lungs, 6. lymph and 7. skin.\n\nThere are other experts who conceptualize the human detoxification system into broader categories. Hass (1992) for example offers a detoxification typology consisting of five categories. They are:\n\n  • Urinary– kidneys, bladder, and urethra\n  • Skin and dermal– sweat and sebaceous glands and tears\n  • Lymphatic– lymph channels and lymph nodes (Hass, 1992, p. 906).\n\nNo matter how one chooses to conceptualize the human detoxification system, these channels or systems of elimination individually and collectively are designed to neutralize, transform and eliminate toxins in the body. It is beyond the scope of this newsletter to provide an in-depth discussion of these detoxification systems. It is recommended that readers refer to an anatomy and physiology textbook for a complete understanding of the structure and function of these bodily systems.\n\n\nToxins and Toxicity Defined\n\nIn strict medical terms, a toxin is anything considered to be a “poisonous substance,” which is of course assumed to be harmful to the body and wellbeing of a person. In broader terms, “a toxin is basically any substance that creates irritating and/or harmful effects in the body, undermining our health or stressing our biochemical or organ functions” (Haas, 1992, p. 906). Toxins come to exist in the body from external/environmental sources and from internal, metabolic processes involved in the breakdown and utilization of and waste/by-products produced from macronutrients (i.e., proteins, fats & carbohydrates) and micronutrients (i.e., vitamins & minerals).\n\nToxicity results when the body is unable to utilize and eliminate either nutritional or non-nutritional related elements because of excess consumption of those elements, resulting in an upsetting of the homeostasis/balance in the cells, tissues, organs and systems of the body. According to Hass (1992), toxicity is related to the dosage, frequency, or potency of the toxin. The greater the amount, occurrence and power of the toxin(s) is, the greater the level of toxicity. In a real sense, toxicity represents congestion/blocking and stagnation/weakening of the body’s natural systems of detoxification caused by the inventory of toxins built-up overtime. \n\nSigns and Symptoms of Toxicity\n\nThere are a host of classic and common signs and symptoms of toxicity including but not limited to headaches, joint pain, fatigue, allergies, environmental sensitivity, mucous buildup, fever, constipation, indigestion, anxiety, depression, mood swings, nervousness, sleepiness, insomnia, sinus congestion, runny nose, coughing, wheezing, sore throat, poor circulation, cognitive deficits, immune weakness and being prone to disease and sickness, among various other signs and symptoms (see Haas, 1992).\n\nHealth Issues Related to Toxicity\n\nAccording to Hass (1992), among the health issues stemming directly from or contributed to chronic toxicity are obesity, arthritis, gout, allergies, asthma, acne, abscesses, boils, eczema, constipation, hemorrhoids, diverticulitis, atherosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cirrhosis, kidney disease, kidney stones, gall stones, infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi parasites and worms, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, emphysema, vaginitis, pancreatitus, gastritis, cataracts and even cancer, among others. \n\nDetoxification Defined\n\nOne useful definition of detoxification is “detoxification is the process of clearing toxins from the body or neutralizing or transforming them, and clearing excess mucus and congestion” (Haas, 1992, p. 910).\n\nOne of the key principles emerging from this particular definition is that of clearing the body of mucus and congestion. Nutritionally speaking, some foods are more congesting and contribute to a person’s body burden, while others are less congesting and support the structure and function of the body’s channels of elimination.\n\nFor example, allergenic foods, organ meats, hydrogenated fats, fats, fried foods, refined flour and sugar, meats, sweets, milk, eggs and baked goods tend to congest/block the channels of elimination, while nuts, seeds, beans, oats, wheat, rice, millet, buckwheat, pasta, potatoes, roots, squashes, other vegetables, fruits, greens, herbs and water tend to be less congesting and mucous building (see Haas, 1992).\n\nTwo Programs of Detoxification\n\nLaying out a program of detoxification goes beyond the scope of this newsletter. Nevertheless, there are two comprehensive programs of detoxification which readers might want to consider in their effort to cleanse and detoxify their bodies, while enhancing the structure and function of their systems of elimination. One is by Haas (1992) and outlined in comprehensive detail in his book, Staying Healthy with Nutrition. The other is by Watson and Smith (2008) and presented in equally comprehensive detail in their book, The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps.\n\nBoth books provide an easy to understand discussion on the theory and practice of detoxification. No matter what overall approach or specific strategy and tactics adopted, it is important to keep in mind detoxification is better undertaken from a healthy lifestyle perspective when proper nutrition, regular exercise, reduced stress levels and sufficient rest and sleep are part of a person’s day-to-day life and not an after thought or something to do just when becoming afflicted with ill health.\n\n\n\nThe human detoxification system evolved over hundreds of thousands of years so as to keep the body healthy by protecting it from the internal, naturally derived metabolic waste products and from environmental/external threats such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and other infectious germs.\n\nHowever, the proliferation of synthetic chemicals proliferating the land, water, air and natural food supply (i.e., plants & animals), the over consumption of processed, de-natured foods, a sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress and inadequate rest and sleep have caused the various systems of elimination in humans to become congested/blocked and stagnated/weakened preventing the clearing neutralizing or transforming of toxins and removing of excess mucus and congestion.\n\nIn a very real sense, the natural detoxification system of humans is not designed to handle the level of toxicity experienced in modern life.  Toxins are not benign. By definition, they are poisonous and deleterious to the human body. On the one hand, medical science has yet to determine all of the ways in which a body burden of toxic elements (both internal and external in nature) contributes to ill health. On the other hand, it is clear that there has been a concomitant rise in disease and overall ill health with the rise of chronic toxicity reflected in measurable body burden levels.\n\nAnyone interested in reducing their body burden and establishing health, energy and rejuvenation would be well served to read and put into practice many of the principles presented in Haas’ book and Watson and Smith’s book, mentioned above and referenced below.\n\nAlthough we live in a toxic world, this does not mean the world of your body has to be toxic. Take charge of your health and detoxify.\n\n\nHaas, E.M. (1992). Staying healthy with nutrition: The complete guide to diet and nutritional medicine. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts.\n\n\nWatson, B. & Smith, L. (2008). The Detox strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 easy steps. New York: Free Press.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.54347825050354}
+{"content": "Pedigree Dogs Exposed\n\nI recently watched the BBC documentary from a few years back, called “Pedigree Dogs Exposed”. In a nutshell, it explains the problems faced by pedigree dogs and their owners, and delves into the ongoing moral debate into whether we have the right to manipulate a species for (in most cases) our own enjoyment or leisure. It was one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in a while and seriously called to question my views of the whole industry!\n\nBefore watching the program, I spent a week in one of of Goddard’s 24 hour hospitals. Being quite a big one, it had a specialist who happened to deal with syringomyelia cases. Little did I know at the time that she featured several times on this programme! Her job is very relevant to the debate, as syringomyelia is a hereditory disease that affects at least one third of Cavalier Spaniels and also Chihuahuas. And that is saying something, seeing as they are one of the UK’s most popular pets. One of the first things shown on screen was one of these spaniels with a severe form of the condition, which causes the brain to be too small for the skull. The brain can therefore not expand and contract naturally as it should with every heartbeat, which causes a buildup of pressure and thus intense headaches. This much was clear from the video: the poor dog was displaying the commonly seen twitching of the head, rubbing his head agains the floor and howling. What was really shocking was the specialist’s explanation, which went something along the lines of “If you hit a dog to create the pain caused by syringomyelia you would certainly prosecuted, yet breeding Cavaliers who are known to have the disease is not prosecutable, yet in doing so owners are knowingly allowing more dogs to be in pain in the future”.\n\nAnd that really sums up the problem- not only is it partly the fault of humans that such diseases emerged (because we bred the heads to be smaller for our shallow aesthetic appreciation, against evolution), but I think the truly disgusting fact is that people continue to inbreed these and other such dogs. The winner of the cavalier dog show in Woucester admitted on the programme that she knew that her dog had the condition, yet went on to breed from her. If that isn’t selfish then I don’t know what is. Similarly, the Pekingese who won Krufts in the year of the documentary had a soft palette problem which meant that it’s frantic breathing caused it to overheat so it had to be sat on an ice pack while receiving the award. Despite the knowledge of this heritable condition, the owner bred something like 18 litters from it.\n\nWhat was really interesting was learning why this has not been stopped. Following complaints and pressure, the Kennel Club minorly adjusted their guidelines so that dogs had to be deemed “healthy” to win dog shows such as Krufts, along with a few other minor adjustments to the ideal breeds guidelines. Sadly, however, the reason that they refuse to do more is for financial reasons: the dog trade is huge, and dog shows etc make a lot of money. Therefore, if it were made illegal to breed dogs such that they might inherit these conditions (which is true to some extent for most ideal breeds these days), then the aforementioned organisations would loose money because people would breed them outside of the system. So, effectively, thousands of people are compromising animal welfare for their own pride, treating their animals as prized possessions. I really had no idea it was this bad.\n\nOf course, not all pedigree dog owners have this attitude. In fact, there are campaigns ongoing by owners of cavs, for instance, to reduce and eliminate the problem. It just really shocked me how materialistic the whole industry is; a dog should be a companion and loved regardless of whether or not it has a ridge or screwtail. Obviously a vet should treat whatever comes through the door equally, so pay no regard to whether the owners were responsible for breeding a sick dog… Yet hopefully in time attitudes will change, inbreeding will be reduced, and the unnecessary pain of animals will diminish, because it really does seem as shame that human materialism is compromising the health and wellbeing of innocent animals.\n\nMammary gland infections in cats\n\nI saw a particularly interesting case in small practice last Friday. It was a cat with a severe case of mastitis.\n\nThe cat came in looking very unhappy indeed, staying completely still when it was not being handled. The reason for this soon became apparent: one of its cranial abdominal glands was horribly swollen and pussing, most probably due to a case of mastitis left untreated for far long. So that the vet could examine it, I had to hold it up by the shoulders as touching the wound would have been far too painful. Luckily, the other glands were unaffected so it looked unlikely to be fatal, so the nurses put the cat on fluids and antibiotics and Metacam overnight.\n\nThe nurse genuinely felt for the poor cat, reluctant to lift its foreleg sideways to insert the catheter knowing that stretching the skin must be so painful for her. It was obvious that this was the case as the only movement it made was to move its leg back in wherever possible. It did show me how quickly infections can spiral out of control if ignored… the owner certainly realised the same thing, just a little too late! She looked incredibly guilty, so much so that she began to cry uncontrollably when she tried to describe when she first spotted it etc. This must be one of the hardest things for a vet to deal with; there seems to be a fine line between comforting an owner and sounding patronizing. This particular vet seems to just always keep calm and relaxed. In fact, his demeanour didn’t change at all, he just offered her a tissue.\n\nThis was such a contrast to the mastitis case in a heifer I saw at Morrisons’ Farm. Its such a common condition there that, aside from the daily udder-emptying and antibiotic injections, they just go about their daily lives, whereas for a cat it is obviously more serious due to their size. One thing that really does get on my nerves, though, are owners who ignore conditions that are clearly problematic, hoping they will just disappear. My friend saw a similar case in a rabbit, except the wound was maggot infected and it never recovered. Those owners were reported to the RSPCA. I suppose that’s the trouble with the common fear of vet bills; people don’t seem to realise the extent of their responsibility to their pets. So many dogs come in with gingivitis because owners couldn’t be bothered to take them for their checkups. If they were more systematic they would realise that they would save themselves money as dentals can be expensive, but the same problems seem to recur!\n\nLambing experiences\n\nI recently visited Morrison’s farm for a week for my first experience of industrial farm work (as opposed to the city farm at which I worked for 8 days), which was great! I was lucky enough to see lambing and calving, as well as a visit from the farm vet.\n\nBefore visiting the farm, I had never realised how much thought goes into lambing, such as the techniques farmers have for making sure the lambs are well distributed, so to speak. The first interesting case I saw was a lamb who had a still birth during the night, the large head of the lamb indicating that its birth had taken too long and that it had been strangled.  Because of this stillbirth, the shepherd wet twinned another lamb onto the ewe. However, on returning in the morning he found that the ewe had had another lamb, but this one alive. Because the ewe was not producing enough milk, he had to “unnattach” the adopted lamb. However, because peak season had not yet begun on that day, he could not wet twin the adopted lamb onto another ewe as there had been no other births immediately before. However, there were a few ewes who had lost their only lambs to stillbirths, who were still producing milk. Because he could not wet twin the lamb on, he put one of these ewe in the clamp and allowed the lamb to suckle. He explained to me that although this probably annoys the ewe at the time, it is good in the long run as it allows her to get rid of her milk, and orphans are expensive to feed. Besides, in a day or so the ewe forgets the smell of her own lamb and assumes that the adopted lamb is hers, around which time the shepherd can unclamp the ewe and allow her to see and tend to the lamb as if it were hers.\n\nAnother really interesting case was a heavily pregnant ewe who looked to be producing a lot of milk but had only scanned to have one lamb. So, the shepherd decided that she could probably take a newborn lamb who had been rejected by his mother. He caught the adoptee lamb on the way to seeing to the pregnant ewe. When we arrived at the pen, the ewe seemed to be struggling so he began to intervene… looking back, its clear that neither of us expected what was coming: he could not get the lamb out! He sat there for 20 minutes or so, applying more and more lube, struggling against the moaning sheep to extract the seemingly huge creature inside her. About 5 minutes in, he exclaimed, amidst grunts “it has horns!”. No wonder the sheep was in pain, and you could certainly tell; I’d never heard such a tortured sound escape the mouth of a sheep!\n\nFinally, after the momentous struggle, the lamb popped out. And it was gigagantic- a whopping 9kg, and easily the size of many of the month-2month old lambs that I had seen earlier in the week. Needless to say, the adoptee lamb who had originally been carried along to be twinned on was unknowingly rejected by yet another mother; she was going to need all the milk she could possibly produce for such a huge lamb.\n\nThe final unusual case with which I was involved was yet another ewe with a stillbirth. The farmer had an inkling that she was a good mother, seeing as she was producing lots of milk and still licking the lamb half a day later. Another lamb in the neighbouring pen didn’t exactly seem to be the apple of her mother’s eye; she was being barged into and squashed by the seemingly frantic ewe. The farmer then decided that he would allow the calmer ewe to adopt this lamb but, again, there was no placental fluid. Because the lamb seemed quite weak because its mother had not been allowing it to feed, and because it was lame, the farmer tried an alternative method to the clamp: skinning. He skinned the dead lamb in the barn, tossed the carcass aside and literally dressed the adoptee lamb in the old lamb’s skin. As shocking as this was, it served two purposes. Firstly, it gave the lamb the scent of the ewe’s original lamb, and secondly it kept it warm. Sure enough, it worked, and the lamb was happily adopted.\n\nWhat was really interesting to see in all of these cases was the shepherd’s attitude to his sheep. Although was somewhat immune to deaths, seeing hundreds every week, he still seemed to really care about his animals. For example, one morning he came along on his scooter carrying a lamb’s (it had been devoured by a fox) head joking that he was going to put it on his bedpost, whereas on the other hand he seemed to be determined to give his animals as good a quality of life as possible. This was evident with the skinning case. I remember him saying, “there’s something about this lamb that makes me sure that I want to give it a chance”. He also said a few times “it never gets old”, as he watched with admiration the newborn lamb lifting its head as the mother began to lick it clean. It just makes you realise that animals are their life as well as their job, making the job of the vet all the more important, I suppose!\n\nEuthanasia of animals\n\nDuring my usual weekly visits to my local vet practice, I witnessed something unlike anything I had previously witnessed during work experience. It was the euthanasia of a cat; of course I have seen many, but never one quite as bizarre (in my opinion) as this.\n\nWhat made it stand out was the owner’s attitude to the prospect of putting her cat down. Just to give you an idea of the situation, a woman came in with her 12 year old black cat who had lost a bit of weight thus was looking rather unhealthily skinny, was not eating but drinking excessively and was making strange rumbly or rather groany noises quite incessantly. The owner did say that he had “always had strange vocal chords”, but the vet reckoned that the loss of weight was probably the cause of the strange noises, or at least worsened the sound.\n\nSo, clearly, this was not a necessarily detrimental or emergency case; cats often come into practice with such symptoms, excluding the strange noises  but these did not seem to be pointing to a particularly more serious diagnosis. As expected, the vet suggested several differentials: Renal failure, some sort of virus or at worst a tumour. However, despite the fact that a simple blood test could have determined the cause of the symptoms, the decision to put the cat down was made surprisingly quickly, suggested by the vet himself in fact, which really surprised me. Never had I experienced a decision so easy with regards to the life of a much-loved animal! The owner repeatedly said, “I just don’t want him to suffer” then claimed that he had collapsed by the back door a few days ago during the heat and said that she didn’t want “a repeat situation”. So she requested to go out front and not to witness another of her cats’ deaths because it upsets her, a squirt of pentobarbital to the liver and that was it. Dead cat.\n\nYou may be wondering why this situation surprised me so much seeing as euthanasia is a accepted and necessary practice in veterinary medicine that I should really be accustomed to. The fact is that there was a high probability that this cat’s condition would have been curable; the vet said so himself when I asked him on his opinion on the situation as he was putting the cat to sleep. I asked “Do you agree with her decision?” to which he replied (more or less), “It doesn’t matter whether I agree or not. You see, that is what makes a good vet- you can be a boff, know all the cures and have all the meds, but your worthless if you can’t relate to your client. Did you see what I did? I assessed her mood. I could tell that she had made the decision, so there was no point in me saying, ‘but I can cure this, you know?’ because I suggested a blood test, which was my role, but she wasn’t having any of it. And over and above all, it’s the client’s decision. She wants to feel as if her decision is approved by the vet, like we’re on the same team; that’s what it is my job to do.”\n\nSo, in effect, he never even gave me his opinion. Thinking about it now, the fact of the matter is that he could not have said what he would have done in her situation, because he  does not know her exact position. Clearly finance may have come into it, although she would have been looking at £100, max £200 for such a test, as my estimation (that may well be inaccurate!). That would have been very understandable. However what shocked me is that she was so quick to decide; the cat had only been ill a few days and this was not a chronic condition which had surfaced previously; the practice had not seen this cat in years.\n\nThe question playing on my mind since the incident is how can someone so easily throw away the life of a pet? She said, “I don’t want him to suffer” knowing that the vet could cease the suffering, or at least attempt to see if it would be possible. It was just utterly contrasting to anything I had ever seen. Where were the tears? She was just too accepting, which I found discerning, especially after 12 years of your life spent with an animal. As the vet mentioned, there are clients who would rather not pay for the treatment of an animal, but would prefer to replace it with a new and healthy one. This rather angered me, to be honest. Domestic animals should not be disposable or replaceable in that way. If it were a major operation which would be very costly I would totally understand, but she would end up spending that £100 on a new cat over time (through food, insurance or whatever it might be) were she to replace the one she owned, therefore allowing him to die without investigation, in my view, is simply not justifiable.\n\nThe incident cast my mind back to the book I have been reading for my extended essay, ‘Animal Liberation’ by Peter Singer (I would really recommend his books for anyone interested in the moral position of animals within society, they’re really fascinating!) in which he talks about the replaceability of animals. Keeping animals for consumption, he states, according to a branch of utilitarianism, is moral. This is because (PROVIDED THAT they are kept in conditions which allow for their happiness on a daily basis) breeding these animals adds happiness to the world (the aim of utilitarianism), so as long as the animal killed is replaced by another in the same conditions, there is no net unhappiness. However, surely this can only be held for farm animals? This is my opinion because domestic animals are considered much like humans; they live with them, we name them and grow fond of them, they are often like a member of the family, and kept to increase our happiness and for the purpose of them living, not for being slaughtered for consumption. Debatably, humans are also brought into being for the same purpose. So, as the ‘purpose’, so to speak, of humans and domestic animals are similar, what is there to justify killing an animal who is sick without knowing their condition yet having the ability to verify it? In my opinion, it is difficult to find such a justification. If I had a baby who was sick (I chose a baby to illustrate my point as they, like animals, have little ability to express themselves) I would not wish that the baby die and that I have another who is healthy. I would wish for the survival of my current baby. In my opinion this logically should have been the situation with the cat.\n\nIt just seems unfair to me that the cat did not have a say in this. Obviously, cats never have a say, but sometimes it is much more obvious as to what they would wish to happen. If a cat is lying on the consultant room table looking seriously sick, and has been so for weeks, then it is highly reasonable to suggest that it may be the best option to end its life. Contrastly, sick as this cat probably was, it was walking around (between its odd noises) and enjoying the affection I was giving it as it rubbed its face against my hand. That, in my view, is not a total lack of happiness. There may still have been the will to live in that cat. Therefore (and I stress) if the reason was not mainly financial as it seemed to not be in the aforementioned case, then it does not seem justifiable to have put the cat down.\n\nBut I suppose there really is no objective answer to euthanasia cases such as these; ultimately it is the client’s decision… I just believe that an owner should take more care as to when and why their cat’s life is ended.\n\nI must just outline that I have nothing against this owner at all, and fully appreciate that there may have been many other reasons behind her decision of which I am unaware; this was mainly a discursive and reflective discussion for interest only. I do not by any means believe that my view is necessarily the right or absolute one, and do not intend to offend any animal owners with my comments so am sorry if I have done so. I was just itching to talk about this because animal welfare is something I am really passionate about and it really made me consider how we should value our pets! It has also shown me the importance of people skills in practice, which all the unis stress but which can only really be understood in situations like these. So I thank the vet for that :)\n\nJust a little nature ramble…\n\nI went out for a bike ride this afternoon on the common, which we’re lucky enough to live two minutes from. On my way back, I spotted something amazing- wild rabbits! This may not sound so interesting for those who live in the country, but to see rabbits in London, and not just one but a whole family, is quite amazing.\n\nIn fact, my friend and I used to go cycling when we were younger just in search of these rabbits, and never did we spot so many at once if any at all, so I really wish she could have been there with me! They are so much smaller than domestic rabbits, mostly brown with white tails, and especially as they were next to a road I’m surprised they didn’t run away. I’m not sure how long I stood there for trying to get closer to them, but I certainly didn’t rush home! Being in an exploratory mood, I also investigated a rustling and spotted a tiny vole scurrying about amongst the leaves. Only today did I realise the variety of nature which is outside my front door.\n\nIt did make me consider becoming involved in conservation at some point later in life, or if I ever have to take a gap year. After all, without it, a significant amount of the beautiful natural species that we have would have disappeared. Perhaps I’ll do some research into the sumatran tiger progect that ZSL is pioneering at the moment, or volunteer there again, in that section of the zoo. I just hope that becoming a vet will aid me in getting involved in things like these!\n\n\nI think it would be appropriate to write my first entry on the very event that prompted me to start this blog, Vetlink at Nottingham University. What can I say: such a great week! I learnt so much and (as I had expected it would) it really reinforced my determination to become a vet. Always the keen note-taker, I filled up a whole notebook, so at least that way I will remember every last detail!\n\nFirst was Pathology and Parasitology. I learnt the that the study of disease is not only applicable in the vet surgery during diagnostics, but also in necropsy, research and academia. What was outlined to me particularly was the problem solving aspect of pathology; every case has countless differential diagnoses which, through a process of testing and elimination, lead to eventual treatment. An example that the lecturer presented which particularly interested me was that of a racing greyhound who died on the track. His necropsy found extensive haemorrhage in the abdomen, thighs, brain and neck. This prompted the vets to investigate the lack of blood clotting, through which they discovered traces of bromadiolone in his liver. therefore his death was ultimately through hypovolemic shock. Needless to say, it would have taken me an extensive amount of time to even think of rat poison as a cause of a racedog’s death, as the obvious assumption of a protovet like me would be that the race itself caused his death, perhaps through overexertion.\n\nThis rat poisoning case casts my mind back to July 2011, when I spent a week in a rural vet practice in France and saw the short term treatment of a dog who ate rat poison: force feeding oxygenated water to cause vomiting before the poison is absorbed by the body. Only now do I fully understand the reason for this treatment, and the implications if it hadn’t been done! I was also told the following by the vet Sarah at the local vet I work at every friday: when I asked her one of my innumerable questions, “What is your favourite part of the job?” she explained excitedly that she loved solving problems in consult, and preferred it operations. I know appreciate the intrigue and satisfaction a vet can find in unveiling such seemingly far-fetched cause for disease, which I would love to (and am determined to) do myself one day. I will add to this blog later as there are so many things I’m dying to write on the conference, but for now I have to unpack!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5445383787155151}
+{"content": "Società Italiana di Medicina dello Sport e dell'Esercizio\n\nWriting a Good Reflective Essay: from Introduction to Conclusion\n\n  • -\n\nWriting a Good Reflective Essay: from Introduction to Conclusion\n\nWriting a Good Reflective Essay: from Introduction to Conclusion\n\nThe essay that is reflective found in a variety of various scholastic courses. When composing this work, pupils need to look straight back at whatever they discovered and mirror this in writing. All internship pupils have to compose an internship reflection essay to produce their conclusions about this experience. It correctly, read our detailed guide that will help you to create an impressing work easily and fast if you want to know what is a reflection essay and how to write.\n\nWe advice selecting a reflective essay name before composing it itself. In reality, composing a reflective essay does perhaps perhaps not change from virtually any types of paper; the actual only real distinction so it must be an expression of your self. And right right here we will let you know all nuances and share easy methods to compose an essay that is reflective simply continue reading our step-by-step directions.\n\nWhat exactly is A expression Essay?\n\nOne of the more essential things you should think about it to determine exactly what a reflective essay really is: this might be a representation of your self; you’ll have an absolute subject, which focuses on you. Your audience is anticipating the assessment in your life during some time period. Your instructors and/or professors may request you to think on various memories, emotions, and feelings of one’s past. These are typically said to be interesting and exciting. This will be a vital key, therefore we wish you recognize that the possible market would not desire to read an author that is boring.\n\nThis will be a really unique and actually individual essay kind: you will require several things to think about, mirror and explain. You have to show different emotions you felt formerly. As an example, you may need to show the method that you have actually changed your self through the youth or the way you utilized to relax and play together with your close friends. Your teacher may request you to emphasize some activities that are regarding social or governmental aspects. It is clearly you will probably have such memories, you might not have every detail to really make the tale complete. just just Take some right time for you to mirror all necessities.\n\nYou are geting to need to return to your past life experiences and provide an obvious account of the particular occasion, occurring or experiencing. It is crucial to find the words that are proper expressions during showing your ideas and showing that which you feel. Therefore, you need to determine selecting good words to completely explain everything you want. Plus, you really need to determine your personal writing design to help make the content better, readable and good; unveil a manner that is original make an effort to share together with your market essential and delighted emotions. Nonetheless, be truthful: it as well if you have something negative, mention.\n\nFrom time to time, taking a look at other essays will come you in handy; it really is quite feasible that an example essay might assist you to. Take a peek when you have time. Of course, it could be very difficult so that you could meet this project and produce a beneficial work that is reflective. However you have chance that is great make an appealing essay – all you have to do is purchase your work online.\n\nSteps to start a Reflective Essay Properly?\n\nNow, once you know essay4you 20% off what exactly is a reflective essay you need to work out how to compose an analysis essay that is reflective. This really is an information that is useful. You really need to learn this matter to own a much better knowledge of simple tips to connect all reflective paragraphs together. Needless to say, you will need a plan that is decent build your essay – it offers you a lot of advantages. It really works great even for the scholarship essay. Once you create a plan, you should have a better view associated with further growth of your literature work. You have got a structure that is decent which may expose just how to compose your story detail by detail and web page by web web page. You need to be organized and gradually build your project. Therefore, the entire process of composing your essay shall be a lot easier. Ensure you paid attention that is enough following points:\n\nYou need to describe each section of your own future essay that is reflective compose it effortlessly and fast. Consider the steps that are following\n\n  1. Selecting subject\n  2. Collecting information\n  3. Refining informative resources\n  4. Composing a draft\n  5. Composing primary areas of the task\n  6. Making sources\n\nAs a whole, your reflective paper’s outline should include three points that are main\n\nAny assignment that is academic start with the introduction. It ought to be:\n\nYou really need to explain what you are actually likely to explain and exactly what your primary tips are; a start that is proper increases your odds of success.\n\nThe thesis statement should expose most of your function. You need to:\n\n  • Describe an event that is definite experience or modification;\n  • Add one or more example that is strong helps make the photo fuller;\n  • Show impacts, effects, exactly how some activities impacted you in individual and what your experience provided you.\n\nAccesso Area Soci\n\nSi prega di accedere.\n\nCerca nel sito\n\nArchivio articoli", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9560754299163818}
+{"content": "kripke's unfinished business\n\nScott Soames interviewed by Richard Marshall.\n\n[Photo credit Philip Channing.]\n\nScott Soamesthinks philosophy is majestic and multi-faceted, is a leading philosopher of language and writes about the history and development of the analytic tradition in philosophy. He thinks about the progress we've made in the study of language since Frege, about the central semantic features of language, about truth, about what Russell got wrong, about why propositions aren't enough and why they aren't just theoretical entities, about Davidson, about Cognitive Realism, about why his theories don't distort very much, about the unfinished business of Saul Kripke and going beyond rigidity, about what went in to his books on 20th century analytic philosophyand why analytic philosophy is not a philosophical school, about the analytics in Americaand his theory of Legal Deferentialism. Fee Fi Fo Fum, this is one mileshigh mind-bomb!\n\n3:AM:What made you become a philosopher?\n\nScott Soames:I never had serious intellectual interests before my undergraduate days at Stanford, which I entered convinced I would go into my father’s small family business across the street from the Pike Place Farmers’ Market in Seattle, where I worked in my teens. After a year at Stanford fulfilling requirements – freshman English, western civ, biology, calculus, and the like – I had lots of intellectual interests and I knew I wouldn’t be a businessman. In my sophomore year I gravitated toward the humanities, but quickly became dissatisfied with what seemed to me to be the self-indulgent and unserious ways in which the issues on which they touched were discussed in class. Philosophy was different. Though I often had difficulty making sense of the grand systems of great historical figures, or appreciating some of their metaphysical problems, I was at home with reason and argument. In my first course – a historical introduction – I wrote a term paper on the difference between Hume and Kant on morality. When it was returned with my professor’s comment “you have the true makings of an able philosopher,” I was encouraged. My next course, “Good and Evil,” was an eclectic survey of ethical thought from a wide variety of sources. I found it so interesting that I attended the Saturday morning discussion section let by the professor.\n\nIn addition to taking valuable courses from professors nobody remembers today, I also took courses from Donald Davidson, Patrick Suppes, and Dagfinn Follesdal – all of whom I would know personally decades later. After completing Dagfinn’s course on Brentano, Bolzano, Husserl, and Quine, I took a reading course from him in which I read nearly all of Husserl. I wrote an essay every week, which he spent an hour talking to me about. During one session, he gave me one of the two best pieces of advice about writing philosophy I ever received. He said “Mr. Soames, you should write so that if you make a mistake, anyone who knows the subject will immediately be able to identify it.” The other piece of good advice, later given by Judy Thomson, was “Don’t be afraid of mistakes; if you never make mistakes, you’ll never be a success.” Not to worry. My critics have Judy and Dagfinn to thank.\nThough I only had one two-minute conversation with Pat Suppes when I was a student, he also had an impact on me. In 1970-71, I took his computerized logic course – no lectures, no book, no discussions. Pat had his own building that housed what must have been a giant computer. I saw him only on the first day, when he told me how the course worked and where the terminals were – no screens, just rolls of paper and typewriters on which the (hidden) computer gave us lessons, and we answered questions. The final exam was to find the smallest axiomatization of 23 statements and do the proofs. I loved it.\n\nAlthough I had no clue about the philosophy of language, Davidson was the big philosopher on campus, so, on the first day, I wandered into his class on the subject. The fact that half the people in the room were graduate students was a little intimidating, but what really put me off was his introductory discourse on why truth was the key to meaning. It seems this guy “Tarski” had discovered that the sentence ‘Snow is white’ is true iff snow is white. From this we were supposed to see that if we could frame axioms from which we could derive a similar theorem for every English sentence (as it seems this fellow Tarski had done for logical languages) we would have a theory of meaning for English and an answer to the question “What is meaning?” That made no sense to me, so I never went back. But I was a student in his large lecture course on ethics. Entering the room accompanied by an entourage of grad students and Assistant Professors, Davidson would dazzle us by speaking brilliantly for an hour without notes. The first half of the course was his own remix of chapter one of Principia Ethica, with a dose of Ayer and Stevenson to explain why the Open Question had to remain open. From this we were supposed to conclude there can be no true ethical theory – which we found shocking but hard to answer. The other half of the course -- on actions, reasons, and causes – was, I think, sounder, but not so exciting.\n\nDespite majoring in philosophy, and liking it, I had no idea, as graduation approached, what I would do. The Viet Nam war was raging and I was anti-war – demonstrations, a few weeks in jail, and a decision to make about the draft. I devoured every book on Vietnam, China, Asia, economic development, and political theory that I could find. I decided that though I would not to serve in the army, I would also neither accept a draft deferment nor leave the country. Instead, I wrote a manifesto to my draft board applying for conscientious objector status (and alternative non-military service) on non-traditional grounds. Although I was anti that war I wasn’t anti-war “in any form,” and although my objection was moral, it was not based on “religious training and belief.” So I was drafted, refused induction, and waited two years to come to trial.\n\nAt some point after graduating, when I needed a job, I read John Holt’s How Children Fail– which was a heartfelt, but I now think misguided, plea for “progressive education” as a way of rescuing poor children who were failing in public school. I found a federal project scheduled to begin in Mountain View, California aimed at diagnosing and overcoming the reading problems of first, second, and third grade Mexican-American children. Despite having had no teaching experience and no education courses, I convinced them to hire me as a teacher. Being a federal program it was top-heavy – a director, assistant director, materials specialist, two psychologists, a social worker, two teachers and two teacher aides. Not surprisingly, it didn’t live up to the promises made to secure its funding, and it folded after two years. But it worked for me and some of my students. I spent two rewarding years trying everything possible to teach them, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. No teaching I have ever done has been so challenging.\n\nIt was then that I developed my first interest in language. When I was teaching Mexican-American kids, the “experts” in my program speculated that my students were linguistically and conceptually underdeveloped because they came from poor families with uneducated parents who didn’t verbally interact with them very well. That – rather than failing to crack the code in going from spoken to written English – was the supposed source of their problems. Skeptical about this, I read some developmental psychology and some psychology of language, which led me to linguistics and Noam Chomsky. That, in turn, kindled a theoretical interest in language that would later lead me to the philosophy of language. But that was still a little way off.\n\nDuring my final year teaching in the federal program, I was tried for refusing induction into the army, but, to my surprise, I wasn’t convicted because my two lawyers, Norman Leonard and Richard Gladstein (both of ILWU boss, Harry Bridges, fame) convinced Judge Oliver J. Carter (of Patty Hearst fame) to read my manifesto to the draft board. Although he could see I didn’t fit the legal definition of a conscientious objector, and although he was one of San Francisco’s toughest judges on draft resistors, somehow he was impressed with what I wrote. Believing the draft board owed me a word of explanation, rather than summarily dismissing my C.O. application and turning down my request for an interview, he sent the case back to them for review. When they repeated their earlier behavior, I was free. I came away impressed by the system that had given me a fair hearing, by the intelligence and humanity of Carter, Leonard, and Gladstein, and by the generosity of the latter pair for working on my behalf for what was, for them, the ridiculously modest fee of $900, which was all I had.\nWith my future no longer under threat, I was free to do as I wished when my federal project folded. I decided to teach young children in the Claremont Colleges experimental elementary school, enroll in their School of Education and take philosophy courses on the side. But it was not to be. In less than a week I decided that neither the intellectual nor the early educational environment there was promising. So I moved back to the mountains above Stanford, enrolled part-time in philosophy as a non-matriculated student, and supported myself by teaching half-time in a middle school in San Mateo, helping kids with learning problems. That’s when I discovered the philosophy of language. I pursued my new interest first by taking a philosophy of language course at Stanford from Julius Moravcsik (who was to remain my friend until he died several decades later), and then by taking graduate seminars offered by David Kaplan and Barbara Partee, who flew in once a week from UCLA. Those were spectacular. I was hooked, and the next year I started graduate school at MIT – there to work with and be inspired by Dick Cartwright, George Boolos, James and Judy Thomson, Jerry Katz, Sylvain Bromberger, Noam Chomsky and David Perlmutter.\n\nSo why did I go into philosophy? Because I found it to be a majestic, multi-faceted subject, fascinating both in its own right and for the perspectives it offers on a wide range of thought and experience, because I had the good fortune of being taught by exciting and accomplished teachers, because I began to feel I was made for it, and because I judged that nowhere else could I interact with such brilliant and interesting people. All true.\n\n3:AM:As a philosophy of languagephilosopher one of the things you’re interested in is meaning. I guess the obvious question is why philosophers of language find this an important topic. Some might suggest that getting at the truth is a real issue. But wondering about how we mean seems less pressing. So what do you think is at stake in this area of philosophy?\n\nSS:What is a stake is whether the progress we have made in the study of language since Frege can be extended to a genuine science of language and information. We are not there yet, but if philosophers continue to make foundational contributions, eventually we will be. The central semantic feature of language is that agents use sentences to represent things in the worldas being certain ways. This is the basis of speaker meaning, which, in turn, is related to linguistic meaning. Without meaning in these senses, the ordinary notion of truth -- which is conceptually tied to these senses of meaning -- loses its utility for empirical theorizing about language and mind, and becomes little more than a vehicle for Tarskian semantic ascent. The reason we want a theory of meaning is that it is a necessary component of an account of what it is to understand a sentence of a language, of what is asserted by utterances of such sentences, of what is believed when one understands the sentence uttered and believes what it is used to assert, and of what must is true if what one asserts or otherwise expresses using a sentence is to be true.\n\n3:AM:You argue that a theory of meaning needs propositions but also needs to account for the cognitive stance of a person towards a proposition and also how propositions manage to represent the world and have truth conditions. Is that right? So firstly, can you explain why you find Russell’s attempts to account for them not right?\n\nSS:Yes, a theory of meaning for a language L needs propositions that represent the world and so have truth conditions. Yes, it also needs an account of cognitive stances agents take to propositions – if L has sentences – e.g. attitude ascriptions – that predicate properties of propositions. My answer to your question about Russell is explained in chapter 9 of my new The Analytic Tradition in Philosophy, Vol. 1. Here is the gist of it. Between 1900 and 1910 Russell believed in propositions constituted by objects and properties, but he couldn’t explain their “unity”. Just as sentences aren’t collections of unrelated expressions, but have a structural unity that distinguishes them from mere lists and allows us to use them to represent the world truly or falsely, so propositions aren’t collections of unrelated meanings of the words used to express them, but have a unity that endows them with truth conditions that mere aggregations of their parts don’t have. Russell struggled unsuccessfully to explain this unity until he rejected propositions in 1910 in favor of his multiple relation theory of judgment. Although that theory was disastrous, the insight behind it was brilliantly correct. The intentionality of agents can’t be derived from the supposed sui generis intentionality of propositions to which agents bear attitudes. Instead, the unity that brings together Desdemona and being unfaithful in Othello’s belief that Desdemona was unfaithful is provided by the sui generis fact that the agent predicates being unfaithful of Desdemona. What Russell failed to see was how this insight can be used to reconstruct genuinely unified (i.e. representational) propositions by deriving the intentionality of propositions from the intentionality of agents who entertain them.\n\n3:AM:Why do you thinkit is not enough just to have propositions, but we need the cognitive stance and an explanation of how they have truth conditions?\n\nSS:Let’s take a few examples. To entertain the proposition that B is red is to predicate redness of B, which is to perceive or conceive of B as red. Other propositional attitudes are based on this. To judge that B is red is to perform the predication in an affirmative manner, which involves accepting it as a basis for possible action. This doesn’t involve predicating any property of the proposition, or making it an object of cognition; it does involve a predication that itself involves forming, or activating already formed, dispositions to act, both cognitively and behaviorally, towards B in ways conditioned by one’s attitudes toward red things. So, to judge that B is red is for one’s predicating redness of B to include one’s forming or activating certain dispositions. To believe that B is red is to be disposed to judge that it is. To know that B is red is, roughly, for B to be red, to believe that B is red, and to be safe, or to be cognitively justified, in so believing. To assert that B is red is to commit oneself, by uttering something, to knowing that B is red. These attitudes – judgment, belief, knowledge, and assertion – aim at truth. But the story is the same for other attitudes -- e.g., doubting, denying, disproving, and imagining – that don’t aim at truth.\n\nThe objects of these attitudes – the things doubted, denied, disproved, or imagined – may be true or false, just as the things judged, believed, known, or asserted may be. The very same proposition that is believed by one person may be doubted, denied, disproved or merely considered by another. This suggests that the intentionality of both sets of attitudes is due to something common to all the attitudes, and hence that it is not any of these attitudes but their objects that, in the first instance, represent things as being certain ways. Because of this, propositions have truth conditions independently of agents’ further affirmative, negative, or non-committal stances toward them. Cognitive stances are needed to distinguish these different attitudes from one another.\n\n3:AM:Why do you think Davidson’s account of truth conditional meaning is inadequate?\n\nSS:I have spilled a lot of inkon this, so I will only summarize. We begin with John Foster’s demonstration (“Meaning and Truth Theory,”1976) that Davidsonian truth theories don’t -- and can’t -- satisfy Davidson’s own original criterion for calling it a theory of meaning – namely that knowledge of what it states is sufficient for understanding the language. We continue with my arguments (“Truth, Meaning and Understanding,” 1992) that Davidsonian theories also don’t satisfy his revised criterion, proposed in response to Foster, and my further arguments presented in “Truth and Meaning – in Perspective,” 2009, and reprised in What is Meaning?, that no proposed rescue has worked, and it appears that none will. Roughly put, a semantic theory should be the central component of a theory that allows us to interpret the cognitive and communicative activities of speakers. Davidsonian theories are too impoverished to play this role, even for purely extensional object languages. Things get worse when intensional and hyperintensional constructions are added.\n\n3:AM:Why don’t you think propositions are just theoretical entities?\n\nSS:I tested and rejected a version of that idea in chapter 5 of What is Meaning?The idea was that propositions are theoretical fictions used to track and compare the cognitive states of agents who predicate properties of things. Just as in physical theory we use numbers and other abstract objects to talk about theoretically significant relations that physical magnitudes bear to one another, so, it might seem, in semantic and psychological theories we use abstract “propositions” as mere instruments to talk about theoretically significant relations that representational cognitive states of agents bear to one another and to the world. Although this idea could in principle be made to work for a restricted range of cases, the rocks on which it founders are cognitive states corresponding to complex propositions in which properties are predicated of other propositions. Here the cognitive states being tracked are those in which agents predicate properties of propositions. They cannot do this, if propositions are theoretical fictions.\n\nThere is another, more common way, in which propositions are treated as theoretical conveniences. Consider a version of possible worlds semantics that takes truth at w to be a two-place primitive, not definable in terms of our ordinary monadic notion of truth, while identifying propositions with functions from world-states to the truth values of sentences at those states. Stalnakeraccepted this picture in Inquiry(1984), saying that truth and falsity can be identified with 1 and 0, because it doesn’t matter what they are so long as they are distinct. On this picture, propositions are nothing more than (supposedly useful) theoretically fictions. As I argue in New Thinking about Propositions(with Jeff King and Jeff Speaks), this is pretty much how one has to think of them within a possible worlds framework, if one doesn’t use a distinct and independent conception of propositions together with our ordinary notion of truth in defining truth at w. If one takes this route, one’s possible worlds “semantic” theory becomes a mere formal device for sorting sentences into classes which, by itself, tells one nothing about the meanings of sentences, or their cognitive and communicate use by speakers. Thus, the whole empirical content of such a “semantics” must come from extra-semantic theses about how sentences are used. This has never been successfully done, in part because it has seldom been attempted.\n\n3:AM:You argue that propositions are best understood in terms of the Cognitive Realist theory. Can you say how this works?\n\nSS:The theory starts from two premises: (i) Agents represent things as being certain ways when they perceive, visualize, imagine, or otherwise think of them as being those ways. (ii) Propositions represent things as being various ways, and so have truth conditions, because of the relations they bear to agents who entertain them. Next we ask What must propositions and entertaining be in order to guarantee that one who entertains the proposition that a given piece of fruit B is sour, thereby represents B as sour? My answer is that propositions are repeatable, purely representational, cognitive acts or operations; to entertain one is to perform it. When I perceive or think of B as sour, I perform the act predicating sourness of B, which is to represent B as sour. The act represents B as sour in a sense similar to that in which acts can be insulting or irresponsible. An act is insulting when for one to perform it is for one to insult someone; it is irresponsible when to perform it is to neglect one’s responsibilities. A cognitive act represents B as sour when for one to perform it is for one to represent B as sour. The minimal, purely representational act of doing so is the proposition that B is sour, which is true iff to perform it is to represent B as it really is.\nFamiliar propositional attitudes are defined as the cognitive stances taken toward propositions, but not all attitudes have propositions as objects.\n\nThe object of the attitude reported by “John asked whether B is sour” is a question. Whereas a proposition represents the world as being a single way, and so has truth conditions, questions are cognitive acts that represent the world as being several ways, and so don’t have truth conditions. The question whether B is sour is the act Q of (i) entertaining the proposition that B is sour, and (ii) applying an operation to it that results in representing the world in two ways – as being such that B is sour and as being such that B isn’t sour (which isn’t to represent the world as being such that B is sour and B isn’t sour). To ask Q is to request a judgment as to which of the two ways the world is.\n\nThis is the basis of a naturalistic epistemology of propositions. Since believing p doesn’t require cognizing p, any organism that can perceive or think of its constituents as being certain ways can believe p, whether or not it can predicate properties of propositions. Knowing things about propositions requires the further ability to distinguish one’s cognitive acts from one another. One who can do this can ascribe attitudes to oneself and others, and predicate properties of propositions. Focusing on their cognitions, such agents identify distinct propositions as different thought or perception types, which leads them to conceive of truth as a form of accuracy in representation.\nHere, I have mentioned only simple propositions, which predicate properties of objects. Complex propositions involve additional cognitive operations. But the basic idea is the same. In speaking of propositions as acts, I don’t mean they are always intentional or conscious. They aren’t. But they are doings in which things are cognized as being one way or another. How a proposition represents things is read off the cognitive doings with which it is identified. From this we derive its truth conditions. P is true at world-state w iff were w instantiated, things would be as p represents them – where what p represents is what any conceivable agent who entertains p would represent. Since this doesn’t vary from state to state, p’s truth conditions don’t either. No one has to entertain p for p to be true.\n\nThis conception has the foundational advantage of explaining how an organism without the concept of a proposition or the ability to cognize one can know or believe them. It also explains how sophisticated agents can acquire the concept, and come to know things about propositions by monitoring their own cognitions. Further progress comes from solving the problem of propositional unity and from the account what it is for a proposition to be the meaning of a sentence. For S to mean p in L is for speakers of L to use S to perform p. One who understands the sentence ‘The Union Jack is a symbol of Britain’ uses the name to pick out the flag and the verb phrase to predicate being a symbol of Britain of it. Since to do this is to perform the act that is the proposition expressed, one’s use of the sentence is one’s entertaining the proposition. Since no other cognition is needed, understanding what S means in L, when in fact s means p, doesn’t require knowing that S stands in some theoretical relation R to p and L, or having any concept of a proposition or a language.\n\n3:AM:Two arguments against your theory have been that it distorts the normal way we talk about propositions and also that propositions become so complex no one could ever entertain them. What’s your response.\n\nSS:The theory doesn’t distort the normal way in which we talk about propositions very much. Ordinary folks have no more idea of what the proposition that snow is white is than they do of what the number 7 is. They don’t talk about the kinds of things that propositions are, except to say that they are things we believe, assert, deny, etc., as well as being things that may be true or false, either contingently or necessarily. When one gets down to the nitty gritty of what, exactly, is asserted or believed, when, where, why, and by whom, the cognitive theory gives us tons of good results that we need in semantic, pragmatic, and psychological theories that no other theory of propositions provides. I have in mind results about de se attitudes, sentences with articulated terms, temporal cognition, perceptual cognition, essentially linguistic cognition, and cognition of propositions involving recognition of the recurrence of different items. The case for the cognitive theory is (i) that it delivers the goods, and (ii) that it has the foundational advantages for the epistemology of propositions I talked about in answering the previous question.\n\nBut there is one way in which it might be said to distort what we otherwise would have thought. It does sound very strange to be told that a proposition is something we do, so strange that one might be tempted to think it is a category mistake. Why does it seem so strange? If one asks oneself, pretheoretically, “What is a proposition?” one naturally starts with examples. What are the propositions that 7 is a prime number, that Seattle is sunny, or that there is a red dot on the wall in front of me? In bringing these examples to mind, one thinks of 7, Seattle, and the wall as being certain ways. In some cases one may also conjure up images, but even then one knows that the proposition entertained isn’t the image in one’s mind, but something more general. Still, there is something in the visual model to which we wrongly tend to cling. Just as seeing a wall with a red dot is a phenomenally robust form of being aware of it, so, we are incautiously inclined to think, visualizing the wall is a phenomenally poorer form of awareness of a mental image, while entertaining a proposition about the wall is a minimal, or even phenomenally empty, form of awareness of something that represents the wall as being a certain way. It isn’t. To entertain a proposition is not to be aware of it, nor is to believe it to affirm something of which we are aware.\n\nWe are wrongly encouraged to think otherwise by the parallels, (i) and (ii), between our talk about perception and our talk about propositional attitudes.\n(i) Just as ‘see’ is a two-place predicate relating agents to things seen, so ‘believe’, ‘assert’, and ‘know’ are two-place predicates relating them to propositions believed, asserted, and known.\n(ii) Just as standing in the relation expressed by ‘see’ requires agents to be aware of things involved in the perception, so standing in the relations expressed by ‘believe’, ‘assert’, and ‘know’ requires them to be aware of things involved in the attitudes.\nThe natural, but readily explainable, error is to jump from (i) and (ii) to (iii), when in fact it is (iv) rather than (iii) that is true.\n(iii) Just as standing in the relation expressed by ‘see’ requires one to be aware of the things seen, so standing in the relation expressed by ‘believe’, ‘assert’, or ‘know’ requires one to be aware of the propositions believed, asserted, or known.\n(iv) Although standing in the relation expressed by ‘see’ to an object o that is seen requires one to be aware of o, standing in the relation expressed by ‘believe’, ‘assert’, or ‘know’ to a proposition p merely requires one to be aware of the things p represents and the ways they are represented.\n\nThe error of opting for (iii) rather than (iv) is one main source of the mistaken idea that propositions can’t be cognitive acts. It’s obvious that one can perform an act without making it the object of one’s awareness, and also that forming cognitive and behavioral dispositions when performing an act needn’t involve thinking of it. Since this is what entertaining and believing cognitive propositions amount to, an objector’s commitment to (iii) leads him to conclude that the cognitive conception is absurd. But it isn’t absurd; (iii) is false.\n\nThink of what happens when an agent entertains the proposition that Seattle is sunny, and then thinks, that is widely disbelieved. In so doing he focuses on the concrete cognitive event in which he considers Seattle as being sunny. This token event (which lasted a second in his own mind) isn’t what he takes to be widely disbelieved. Rather, he would say, that type of thing is what is widely disbelieved. What type? Is it the event type in which one predicates being sunny of Seattle, is it the act type performance of which results in an event of that type, or is it some other type? It is, I think, whatever type best plays the proposition role in our theories. But this philosophical answer isn’t one the agent would give. All the agent can say about the type (the proposition) is that it is the thought he just had – which is true enough provided he doesn’t succumb to the seeing-in-the-mind’s-eye temptation of taking the thought to be something on which he focused when whispering “Seattle is sunny” to himself. If he does succumb, he may object if he is told that the thought he was entertaining (and so, he wrongly thinks, focusing on) was his act of thinking (i.e. focusing on) it. But he will be wrong. The cognitive act p (predicating being sunny of Seattle) is identical with the act of entertaining p – since, in general any act A is identical with the act performing A.\nPerhaps the second objection in your question eludes me. Are some propositions too complex for humans to entertain? Of course. But they are not too complex for any conceivable – i.e. epistemically possible -- agent to entertain. That’s all I need. If there is a serious worry about this, I don’t see it.\n\n3:AM:You’ve found unfinished business in Kripke. Kripke is taken to have overthrown Russell’s theory of descriptions for names, which said that descriptive information that people connect to a proper name determines the referent. Can you say a little about Kripke’s arguments and the idea of a rigid designator and why you agree with them? You do think that some names are partly descriptive though don’t you? Doesn’t that complicate your relationship to the Kripkean project? Isn’t there a small toe-hold for descriptivism after all?\n\nSS:That is a complicated bunch of questions which I will do my best to answer. First, my relationship with the Kripkean project is complicated. My aim has been to use it as a platform on which to build a larger structure. When David Lewis and I co-taught a year-long graduate seminar at Princeton “Naming and Necessity and its Aftermath,” in 1999-2000, he announced on the first day that if Naming and Necessitywas revolutionary, then he, David, was a counter-revolutionary, whereas I announced that it was revolutionary, and that I and others wanted to take it further. As I see it, Saul clearly established that proper names are rigid designators that are not synonymous with (unrigidified) singular definite descriptions (or clusters of such). He also recognized the necessary aposteriori and the contingent apriori, while laying the basis for systematically distinguishing epistemic possibility from metaphysical possibility. These were achievements that changed the direction of philosophy. But he didn’t offer a positive thesis about what names mean, or what they contribute to the contents of statements made using them, and so provided no solution to Frege’s puzzle. In addition, his argument in Naming and Necessityfor the aposteriority of the statement that Hesperus is Phosphorus was faulty and his related explanation of the aposteriority of the statement that heat is molecular motion, and similar examples, was badly in need of correction (leading, as it did, to the disastrous two-dimensionalist attempts to trivialize the necessary aposteriori). Related to this, his failure to recognize epistemically possible but metaphysically impossible world-states led him to mischaracterize the role of evidence in explaining the aposteriority of his celebrated examples. This, in turn, prevented him from clearly articulating the true relationship between conceivability and (metaphysical) possibility that his own work made manifest – namely, that conceivability plus knowledge of actuality is our guide to genuine possibility. Finally, these last two failures undermined his argument against the identity of pain with C-fiber stimulation. I have tried -- in Beyond Rigidity2002, Reference and Description 2005, “Naming and Asserting 2005,” “The Philosophical Significance of the Kripkean Necessary Aposteriori” 2006, “Actually” 2007, and “Kripke on Epistemic and Metaphysical Possibility” 2011 -- to correct these shortcomings while preserving Saul’s core insights.\n\nNow to your specific questions. There was an early attempt by Dummett and his followers to block the conclusion that names are rigid – and so not synonymous with nonrigid descriptions – by arguing that they are descriptions that are required to take wide scope over modal operators. The basic idea was that we believe that ‘Aristotle’ is a rigid designator because, as Kripke showed, (i) is true.\n(i) There is a unique x such that for all possible world-states w, the statement that Aristotle was a philosopher is true at w iff x was a philosopher at w; ditto for other statements made using ‘Aristotle’.\n\nThesis (i) contains an occurrence of ‘Aristotle’ embedded under a modal quantifier. Now replace the name with a nonrigid description ‘the so-and-so’ that is required to take wide scope over modal notions. Substitution leads to (ii); adjusting for wide scope gives us (iii), which simulates rigidity.\n(ii) There is an individual x such that for all possible world-states w, the statement that the so-and-so was a philosopher is true at w iff, at w, x was a philosopher; similarly for other statements made using ‘Aristotle’.\n(iii) There is a unique y that is so-and-so and an x such that for all possible world-states w, the statement that y was a philosopher is true at w iff x was a philosopher at w; ditto for other statements made using ‘Aristotle’.\n\nSo, the thought went, since (i) is true iff (iii) is true, we can capture everything Kripke established while taking names to be synonymous with nonrigid descriptions that are required to take wide scope over modal notions -- but not over epistemic notions (preserving Frege’s solution to Frege’s puzzle). In chapter 2 of Beyond Rigidity, I showed why this won’t work. We need rigidity, not its simulation. I also showed that the modal argument against the synonymy of names with descriptions can’t be blocked by rigidifying the descriptions; names are never synonymous with rigidified descriptions. Nor does it help to appeal to descriptions that are too subtle or complex for speakers to articulate.\n\nYour question about reference determination is different. Names might be rigid while still having their reference determined by nonrigid descriptions. Kripke offered a battery of good arguments against this. Descriptivists countered by claiming that the arguments merely eliminated reference determination by the wrong descriptions, arguing that the right descriptions must exist. Why must they exist? There were two main thoughts. One piggybacked on the claim by Kripkean causal-chain theorists that the referent of a name n is the object that initiated the (relevant) causal chain leading to one’s current use of n. If D incorporates the details of this chain of transmission, then D fixes the referent of the name; so Kripke is wrong. Not so fast. The problem is that no one, certainly not ordinary speakers, associates any such D with the name. They may, to be sure, know that the referent of their use of n is inherited from earlier uses of n, without being able to say how it is inherited or from which uses. Thus, they may associate n with ‘the referent of whatever earlier uses from which my present use somehow inherited its referent’. But satisfaction of this description by o presupposes some antecedent fact by which the inheritance of o as referent takes place. Thus the fact that o does satisfy this description can’t be the constitutive fact that fixes the reference of one’s use of n. The other thought, defended by Frank Jacksonin “Reference and Description Revisited,” 1998 is that Kripke’s own methodology presupposes that speakers must implicitly have the material for constructing a reference-fixing description at their disposal. In arguing that ‘the author of the completeness theorems’ can’t fix the referent of ‘Gödel’, Kripke assumes we can intuitively see, when presented with descriptions of certain world states, that the reference of the two expressions comes apart. From this Jackson concludes, I believe quite wrongly, that speakers are in possession of descriptive information that determine the referents of the names with which they are familiar at every possible scenario of use. Since I have gone on long enough, I won’t explain here why Jackson’s claim is incorrect. Interested readers should consult my “Reply to Jackson” in “The Substance and Significance of the Dispute over Two Dimensionalism”.\n\nAre partially descriptive names toe-holds for descriptivism? In Beyond RigidityI argued that the semantic content of e.g., ‘Princeton University’, is the same as the semantic content of ‘the x: x = y and x is a university (at t)’ relative to an assignment to ‘y’ of the object o at the end of the historical chain of uses leading to my present use of the name. The ‘at t’ part was added in my “Reply to McKinsey” 2006 to avoid some counterexamples. Since developing my new theory of propositions, I have come to doubt that partially descriptive names really do have semantic contents that include descriptive material. I have come to think that everything I previously wished to capture with such contents – including the fact that what I assert when I utter ‘I once taught at Princeton University’ includes the information that I taught at a university -- can be captured (without the attendant problems) by the notion of essentially linguistic cognition I develop in chapter 4 of Rethinking Language, Mind, and Meaning, forthcoming, which I briefly explain in “Cognitive Propositions”.\n\nDescriptivism does play an important role in what is asserted by uses of sentences containing names – whether they be partially descriptive or not. But the descriptive material in question is not semantically encoded. Semantics is thoroughly Millian, but assertion is partially descriptive, and part of what is needed to solve Frege’s puzzle. The gap that I see between the semantic content of S and the assertive content of an utterance of S has grown over the past decade. Interested readers should see: “The Gap Between Meaning and Assertion: Why what we literally say often differs from what our words literally mean,” 2009, plus the two items -- “Cognitive Propositions” and Rethinking Language, Mind, and Meaning – just mentioned.\n\n3:AM:Kripke wanted to extend rigid designation to some general terms. Is this the unfinished agenda you talk about and is he right to do this?\n\nSS:Yes, one of the unfinished items on Kripke’s agenda – over and above specifying the semantic contents of names – was to explain precisely how his main conclusions about names carry over to general terms, including common nouns, compound nouns, and some adjectives (examples of which are given in Naming and Necessity). Although I was right in thinking this was needed, I erred in Beyond Rigidityby conflating simple general terms like ‘red’ and ‘water’ with predicates ‘is red’ and ‘is water’ formed by combining them with the copula. (See my reply to Linsky, who pointed out this problem, in my contribution to the symposium on Beyond Rigidity in Philosophical Studies, 2006.) Kripke’s general terms are rigid, in essentially the same sense that names are, but this turns out to be of minor significance, since nearly all simple general terms, including ‘doctor’, ‘bachelor’, and the like are also rigid. This means that something other than the rigidity of ‘electricity’, ‘water’, and ‘heat’ explains the necessary aposteriority of Kripke’s key examples, including ‘Lightning is electricity’, ‘Water is a substance molecules of which are composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom’, and ‘Heat is molecular motion’, and ‘For all x and y, x is hotter than y iff the mean molecular kinetic energy of x is greater than that of y’. Thus, we need an account of what is responsible for their necessity and aposteriority. Chapters 9 and 10 of Beyond Rigidityremain part of the story, which has is taken further in my “What are Natural Kinds?”.\n\n3:AM:You have also written a huge two volume book on 20th century analytic philosophy. Can you summarize for us the criteria for who got in and who didn’t? I guess one of the reasons for the question is that there has been debate about whether there really is an analytic tradition in philosophy, and whether there is an analytic/continental divide that is anything more than a sociological divide rather than a philosophical one.\n\nSS:The criteria for who got in those volumes were (i) who was important enough to be included among the relatively small number that could be studied by Princeton undergraduates in two 12-week semesters of a course designed to cover most of the 20th century, (ii) who could students, some of whom had no formal training in logic, be profitably introduced to in the short amount of time available for any single figure, and (iii) who could they become interested in without too much stage setting. In my opinion, the three most important analytic philosophers who were excluded by these criteria were Frege, Carnap, and Rawls. These deficiencies will be made up by my much more extensive and advanced five-volume work The Analytic Tradition. The contents of those volumes are not limited by (i) – (iii). In addition to discussing substantial new material on most of the figures covered in the two original volumes, the new volumes will feature extensive coverage of figures such as Carnap, Gödel, Tarski, Chomsky, Kaplan, David Lewis, Stalnaker, Chalmers, Jackson, Putnam, Fodor, Dennett, Rawls, Nozick, H. L. A. Hart, Dworkin, and Raz, with less coverage of many others. The first volume is due out in mid March this year, (700 pages on Frege, Moore, and Russell alone, including the early days of Moore and Russell)\nIs there really an analytic tradition in philosophy?. Of course there is an analytic tradition in philosophy, but analytic philosophy is not a philosophical school. There is no set of philosophical doctrines that all, or even the great majority of analytic philosophers adhere to, and there is no restricted set of common goals or interests. There is also considerable overlap between continental philosophers like Brentano, Husserl, Gadamer, Levinas, and Habermas, on the one hand, and various collections of analytic philosophers on the other. But that doesn’t mean that the divide is merely sociological. The analytic and continental traditions are paths of historical influence that have led to family resemblances among their members, even though some members of each tradition resemble some members of the other more strongly than they resemble various members of their own tradition.\n\n3:AM:Does your new book add to the picture presented in the two earlier volumes by showing the growth of the analytic out of American Pragmatism? Can you say something about this and whether Pragmatism has not been rejected or whether much of the American Analytic scene is still Pragmatist at heart.\n\n3:AM:Well, Volume 1 of The Analytic Tradition, does discuss why Moore and Russell rejected American Pragmatism. But it doesn’t grapple with the main pragmatists in their own right. The story of the impact of Pragmatism on the development of analytic philosophy in America is (briefly sketched) in the first essay of my new collection of essays, Analytic Philosophy in America, due out at the end of March of this year. In my view the most important American Pragmatists were Peirce, James, Dewy, and C.I. Lewis – of whom the first and the last had the most enduring influence. I don’t think there is anything really dead in Peirce and Lewis; they repay close reading today. The others less so.\n\n3:AM:The final essays in Analytic Philosophy in Americaadvance an originalist theory of interpretation applied to U.S. constitutional rules about due process. Can you say something about your approach here?\n\nSS:Yes, I outline a theory of legal interpretation I call “Deferentialism”, which can be taken to be a version of originalism, though I hope it is an improved version. Its main features are:\n(i) The legal content of a written statute or a specific provision of a written constitution cannot be identified with either the semantic content of the relevant text or the legal or political rationale that provided the purpose of its passage, but it can be identified with what was asserted or stipulated by the relevant lawmakers or ratifiers in passing or approving it.\n(ii) In applying this content to the facts of a particular case, the legal duty of the judicial authority is to reach the verdict determined by the application of the asserted or stipulated content, unless (a) the content is vague and, as a result, the conjunction of that content and the facts of the case doesn’t determine a single definite verdict, or (b) the conjunction of the content with other surrounding law and the facts of the case determines inconsistent verdicts, or (c) the content together with the facts of the case is inconsistent with the rationale of the relevant statute or constitutional provision, which is the stated purpose that proponents of the law or provision advanced in justifying its passage.\n(iii) In situations conforming to (ii), the duty of the judicial authority is to make new law by making the minimum change in the content of existing law or laws that maximizes the fulfillment of the stated rationale for the law or laws.\nApplication of (i) – (iii) requires historical research to determine the original asserted or stipulated content plus the original rationale. Point (iii) requires creativity in crafting new legal content, which authorizes limited legislative discretion to courts, guided by deference to the rationale of the original lawmakers. Provision (c) is especially relevant to the interpretation of constitutional provisions, which are often brief, overly general statements of guiding principles with relatively clear and value-laden rationales that guide the process of future adjustments in light of unanticipated facts.\n\nI argue that this conception of the role of the judiciary is both normatively superior to its competitors and descriptively more accurate than those competitors in specifying the legal responsibilities of the judiciary in the federal and state governments of the United States. The chief basis of the claim of descriptive adequacy is the doctrine of the separation of powers, which is firmly rooted in American tradition and embedded the national and state constitutions.\nIn the last of the articles referred to in the question, I apply my theory to the historical line of cases involving the Due Process Clause of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the American Constitution. Following the excellent historical and legal analysis of Chapman and McConnell in “Due Process as Separation of Powers,” , I argue that the recent line of cases from Griswold, Roe, and Casey to Lawrence were wrongly decided in a way that mirrors the wrongly decided case of Lochner in 1905.\n\n3:AM:How much is lost and subject to misunderstanding if philosophers don’t pay attention to the fine-grained nuances of the different cultural influence of analytic philosophers – is there anything in the suspicion that there is a very distinct Australian, American, British, and European approach to analytic philosophy?\n\nSS:I don’t see substantially distinct Australian, American, British, and European approaches to analytic philosophy, nor do I see broad cultural differences having much effect on the differences that do exist. Of course, a place like Australia, with far fewer philosophers than the UK or the US, will display less diversity of opinion and look more cohesive. But leaders in different sub-fields of philosophy who work in any of these places interact with leading figures everywhere. America leads because of sheer numbers, but, by virtue of the excellence of their leading figures, Britain and Australia punch far above their numerical weight.\n\n3:AM:Are there five books you could recommend to readers of 3:AMto take them further into your philosophical world?\n\nSS:I will name six. Kripke, Naming and Necessity; Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic; Russell, The Problems of Philosophy; Austin, Sense and Sensibilia; Kaplan, Themes from Kaplan, Chomsky, Syntactic Structures.\n\nAlthough I regard the first two as the most important books in analytic philosophy, importance isn’t the main criterion used to make the list. The main criterion is that each is, in its way, both theoretically interesting and delightful to read. Reading Kripke, Russell, and Kaplan is nearly always a joy. (Themes from Kaplanmade the list because Kaplan’s two long articles are, together, a book-length delight.) Although Frege, Austin, and Chomsky can all be turgid, they aren’t in these sparkling little works. Sadly, the production of philosophical prose that is both delightful and philosophically perspicuous is too rare and too-little valued today. As Timothy Williamsonsaid, referring to a different philosophical virtue, “We must do better!”\n\nRichard Marshallis still biding his time.\n\nThis site was built using", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.941441535949707}
+{"content": "Book Recommendations – Volume VIII\n\n\n\nClick Me!\n\n\n\n\n\n\nClick Me!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nClick Me!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n‘Children of Men’ – Film Review and Analysis\n\nWhat would happen to our world if women were no longer able to have babies? How would human society, nations, and the globe as a whole react to such a consequential event to humanity? A dystopian take on the state of a world without children is the focus of the 2006 critically acclaimed film titled, ‘Children of Men’, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. This film stars Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in its leading roles. The film is based off of a novel of the same name, ‘Children of Men’, which was written by author P.D. James in 1992.\n\nThe screenplay and the story have both been adapted from the novel but the striking visuals and the memorable cinematography make it fit for the big screen treatment. Despite a limited release and low profit earnings when it first came out, Children of Men has stayed in the public consciousness due to its timely socio-political themes on immigration, the environment, terrorism, and political violence. With the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President and the unlikely occurrence of Brexit, the message and themes of the film have turned out to be quite relevant. Although this film is set in the United Kingdom in the future year of 2027, despite the non-issue with the infertility of women, the issues that humanity is dealing with in 2017 are tied directly to different issues that the film brings up in its’ plotline.\n\nTheo Faron, a civil servant for the British government and former activist, seems to have given up his fight for a better future. With humanity on the brink of extinction and with most of the countries’ governments having collapsed, there doesn’t seem to be any hope left. As one of the characters, Miriam, explains to Theo in the film, “As the sound of the playgrounds faded, despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children’s voices.” Theo and his ex-wife, Julian, estranged for years after the death of their infant child, Dylan, are reunited due to a refugee named Kee. Julian and the Fishes, an anti-government and pro-refugee group involved in an uprising, would like to take Kee to the Human Project.\n\nShe is known to be the only woman in the world who is pregnant with the world’s first child in eighteen years, and is very valuable. However, things are not as they seem with the Fishes and their motives for helping Kee. Theo, in this film, is a lone character who promises to help Julian to bring Kee to the Human Project to ensure the future of humanity against all odds. Instead of using Kee as a political prop to help their cause against the government, Theo decides to help her escape from the Fishes, bring her to the British coast, and protect the future of humanity. Along the way, the viewer of the film sees the consequences of a world without babies. Where once there was no hope, Theo gains his sense of purpose and faith again as he hopes to redeem himself by getting Kee to safety and away from both the British government and the Fishes group.\n\nStarting from the opening scene where the main character, Theo, is taken aback from a suicide bomb blast in the heart of London after just having left the café where the attack happened, you get a sense of what you’re in for with this movie. There’s a sense of hopelessness, dread, and despair as the audience is thrust into the focus of the movie as it’s made clear that the youngest person on Earth was eighteen years old meaning that something seriously has gone wrong to make that a reality. Although it’s never directly addressed in the movie, a few of the characters speculate that the reasons women can’t have babies anymore vary from environmental degradation to genetic experiments to too much pollution / radiation. The reason for women’s infertility is never addressed but the film makes it clear that the world is without hope because of the fact that there are no children to carry on the future of the human race.\n\nHumanity faces certain extinction and the United Kingdom where the film’s setting is, instead of maintaining its’ parliamentary form of democracy has regressed into a totalitarian police state. Because it is one of the few surviving nations left on Earth, the country has developed a strict anti-immigration and anti-refugee policy. Any refugees or immigrants from outside the U.K. are rounded up and sent to detention camps, which have very poor and inhospitable conditions. The situation is so dire that the Fishes, labeled as a terrorist group, are fighting a guerrilla war campaign against the government to fight for immigrant rights.\n\nThe Fishes, with Julian, Theo’s ex-wife as their leader seem like the good guys but they have nefarious intentions in mind when it comes to the righteousness of their cause especially after they discover the first pregnant woman, Kee, in eighteen years. Throughout the movie, Theo is shown to be caught in the middle between the tyrannical government and the nefarious freedom fighter groups who are both trying to get hold of Kee for their own political gain.\n\nThe Human Project, believed to be a group of the world’s leading scientists, are thought to be the best people to help Kee with the baby and to perhaps study why she out of all the women on the planet was able to give birth to a child. Theo, having seemingly lost all hope and reason for living after the death of his baby, Dylan, believes again in the cause of getting Kee to be in the safe hands of the Human Project and to keep her from falling into the hands of either the Fishes group or the government. One of the main themes in this film is Theo’s regaining of hope and his quest for redemption after losing his only son years ago with his ex-wife, Julian.\n\nThe director, Alfonso Cuaron, does a great job of setting the scene of a dystopian future where humanity has lost all hope. A pill that allows people to commit suicide peacefully called ‘Quietus’ is mass advertised, terrorist attacks are an almost daily occurrence, and the immigrants, refugees who come to Britain are kept in detention camps separate from the rest of the population because the borders of the country have been closed down. In a plot and setting so dark, the only light to hold on to is Kee and her newborn to be. In a particular moving moment, Kee decides to name her baby girl after Theo’s deceased child, Dylan, showing just how much she really cares for the man who is getting her to the Human Project. It’s no coincidence that Kee herself is a refugee from a West African nation where the first humans emerged.\n\nOne of the best scenes in the film occurs when Kee, Theo, and the newborn baby are trying to leave a bombed out building where the rebels and the government are fighting each other in an urban war. The only thing that stops the bombs from falling and the bullets from firing are the sounds of a newborn baby echoing throughout the building and the street. This particular scene is a reminder of how special the sounds of a children’s cries are to the vitality of the world and how without them, it’s likely that humanity would descend into a downward spiral of chaos and violence. When all of the soldiers stopped for a few minutes to stop fighting, they realized that there was still hope in the world and that life can continue. It’s a very special scene for a special movie.\n\nIn addition to great directing, and great acting, Children of Men has some of the best cinematography of any movie in modern history. The single tracking shots, and there are quite a few throughout the film are ridiculously well done and help the viewer feel the tension and suspense in every scene. The soundtrack, the setting, and the messages of the film are extremely powerful and relevant to today’s world. I believe the director does a great job of asking the audience about how susceptible we are to either the rule of a totalitarian government or to the whims of absolutist extremist groups when societal collapse is imminent.\n\nWhen there are no children or future generations, what is there worth fighting for? How also do we prevent ourselves from scapegoating other groups when things go bad? Maybe the issue is not infertility per say but rather climate change, the rise of artificial intelligence, or war between nations, how do we prevent ourselves from losing hope when things look bleak? The film, Children of Men, makes the argument that we should never lose hope especially in dire times. The future must be protected however especially as shown by the role the character, Theo, plays in helping Kee in her quest to meet members of The Human Project.\n\nIronically, there have been news stories out about the precipitous drop in men’s sperm counts over the past forty years in countries such as the United States. While this may not lead to total infertility, researchers labeled it as a cause for concern due to the overall trend of less fertility in men. In addition, birth rates are down below replacement level rates in multiple Western countries causing concern among scientists. Similar to the theories laid out in ‘Children of Men’, it is unclear why male infertility may be on the rise but it may be due to a number of factors, both environmental and otherwise. Where as Children of Men focused on women being infertile and not being able to have babies, the possibility of men being infertile in the future should be a cause for concern. (Source:\n\nIt is difficult to see why Children of Men did not win any of the Academy awards that it was nominated for. It’s an excellent, thought-provoking film that raises questions to the audience that are difficult to answer. If you have the chance to rent or buy this movie, please do so because it is widely regarded as one of the best movies of the 21st century.\n\nBook Recommendations – Volume VI\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n‘Traffic’ – Film Review and Analysis\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBook Recommendations – Volume IV\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBernie Sanders Rally in NYC\n\n“What the American people want to see in their president is somebody who not necessarily can win every fight, but they want to see him stand up and fight for what he believes in, and takes his case to the American people.”\n\n-Bernie Sanders\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCamera: Canon PowerShot SX710 HS\n\nLocation: Washington Square Park; New York, New York\n\n\nReverse Culture Shock In The USA\n\n“Adjusting to one’s home country and culture can take a while. This graph sums it up quite well.”\n\nAfter being away from the United States, my home country, for the past year, I have been dealing with ‘reverse culture shock’ since I have returned as many people who come back to their home culture experience after an extended time overseas. There is a natural recovery and adjustment process but it takes time to get back into the swing of things. As a writer, I like to gather my thoughts on paper about what I have noticed about my home country since returning from my time spent overseas. These observations have helped me to deal with my ‘reverse culture shock’ so far and to comment on what could be improved or changed to make my country better. I have traveled to 20 other countries, and have lived in Turkey and Costa Rica thus far so I believe I have some knowledge about how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world in different ways.\n\nI would like to note that I do love my country and have enjoyed being born and growing up here. The United States is a great country and I only wish to see it become better and better in the future. I intend to use this blog post to merely bring up some outstanding issues and problems that the U.S. must deal with as a whole. No country I’ve lived in or have been to will ever be perfect and every country has different flaws/issues to work out. That’s part of the reason why I love to travel and explore the world. It’s interesting to see the variation among cultures and societies along with how they tackle their own internal and external problems to make their own countries better. Listed below are the items that I write in detail about which have caused me some ‘reverse culture shock’ since my return to the United States in late July of 2015.\n\n  1. Lack of Using the Metric System in the 21st Century: The U.S. is one of only three nations in the world who don’t fully use the Metric System (International System of Units, SI). Liberia, Myanmar are currently our only counterparts in this anomaly. There’s no excuse for that and it harms our international commerce procedures and our ability to conduct foreign relations properly.\n  2. Lack of High Speed Rail, and Efficient Public Transportation: This can be quite jarring after visiting developed nations like Germany, France and also from what I have read about China and Japan who are way ahead of the U.S. in developing high-speed rail networks. Part of this is the fault of state governors who refuse federal stimulus funding for high-speed rail projects. (Examples: Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, etc.)\n  3. Large and Unhealthy Food Portions: This may be part of the reason for the ongoing obesity problem in the country. I’m all for enjoying a good meal of course but I think the food portions I’ve had in the U.S. have been the biggest than all of the other countries that I’ve visited so far. I also believe that having ‘free refills’ and ‘soda fountains’ at restaurants, while a tempting proposition, is not something that should be offered to promote a healthy diet.\n  4. Reliance on Tipping (Mandatory?) to pay workers’ wages: I’m fine with throwing in an extra 10% on top of my meal and tax for good service but I don’t believe it should be 15-20% every time in order for these workers to meet and go above their very low hourly Minimum Wage as ‘tipped workers’. I believe that these service workers in the U.S. should be paid a higher minimum wage altogether by law and that they should be guaranteed a good wage each shift rather than fighting for tips each day.\n  5. Obesity crisis and an astounding proportion of adults/children who are overweight: It’s a drain on an already expensive health care system and contributes to our total health care expenses. There needs to be more emphasis in our society on daily exercise and getting out of the house for both children and adults. Healthier eating and taking a walk/going for a run each day can go a long way to helping to solve this problem. I believe that companies and schools should play a larger role in keeping their employees/students in good physical shape with certain incentives.\n  6. Heavy reliance on cars, trucks and other motor vehicles to get around suburban and urban areas: There is a lack of walking around towns and cities because there is much more sprawl and open space in the U.S. However, I believe that having trams/streetcars, more extensive public bus transportation systems in both suburban and urban areas could relieve part of the traffic jams and gridlock that affects a lot of the country nowadays.\n  7. Big Businesses and Corporations get the benefit of the doubt too often: When it comes to beating out smaller businesses and enterprises, these big box stores are winning out. These major companies contribute to this problem by monopolizing their industry and not allowing others to compete in a free market environment. This, in part, contributes to suburban sprawl because these huge megastores contribute to the layout that contributes to the car culture. (i.e. Wal-Mart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy). I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a family-owned coffee shop in my town or neighborhood. There are three Starbucks’ around though for a good cup of joe…\n  8. General lack of curiosity about foreign cultures and peoples: Many Americans do not speak a 2nd language or don’t pay attention to international affairs beyond what they learned about briefly in high school and college. This is a generalization but I still believe it applies to the majority of people within this vast country. Still, only about 30-35% of Americans own a Passport. I would encourage more Americans to travel and see the world especially if they’re younger. Taking a “gap year” before or after college would be a good way to travel and there are ‘work-study’ programs available for Americans to take advantage of in western European countries (Ireland, UK, etc.) along with Australia.\n  9. Very conservative laws about alcohol possession and consumption: “21” as the minimum legal age for consuming alcohol makes no sense to me especially considering you can start operating a motor vehicle at 16, join the military at 18 and also vote for President and other elected officials at that same age. Having someone check your ID to get into bars/clubs or at a sporting event to purchase beer or wine is also ridiculous. I’ve seen people in their 40’s and 50’s get carded when they are clearly over the legal age here. The United States is one of the few countries where the drinking age is 21 along with Pakistan, the UAE, and Indonesia.\n  10. Mind-numbing advertisements: I have noticed that there are way too many drug commercials (Cialis, Prozac, Ambien etc.) that appear on television especially during the day. In the U.S., We are constantly bombarded in our homes, in public events, on public transportation, etc. with these silly advertisements. It’s predictably a way for marketers to get people to feel insecure enough about themselves to want to buy things to fill some kind of missing “void” in our lives.\n  11. Political Gridlock / No ability to get big things done legislatively: The recent threats of a government shutdown, the debt ceiling threats, continuous gerrymandering, the electoral college deciding a Presidential election instead of the popular vote, too much of an influence of organized money in politics in the upcoming 2016 elections, (Citizens United decision). These occurrences harm our ability to boost our education system, solve long-term Medicare and Medicaid solvency along with the broken immigration system and the need for more investments in our antiquated transportation and infrastructure systems.\n  12. Expensive costs of Higher Education: A lot of Western countries completely subsidize higher education institutions but the United States has seen a rapid growth in the amount of students going into debt to pay for college and graduate school. There have also have been cuts over the years to the Public University systems in certain states such as California. Wages have not kept up with inflation and the pace of tuition increases is out of control. $1 trillion of total student debt is disturbing and is a poor reflection of our country’s priorities.\n  13. High level of income inequality between the richest and poorest Americans: The top 1% of Americans earns about 20% of the total national income. This is unacceptable and shows a widening gulf between the wealthy and poor. This level of inequality is at its’ highest since the gilded age of the 1920’s. Many economists say this is one, if not the top economic issue facing the country into the future. If not dealt with, our country runs the risk of turning into an actual “banana republic.”\n  14. Too much emphasis on Military Spending: The U.S. continues to spend more on its military and armed forces at about 650 billion dollars total. This is 40% of the total world share and is more than the next 11-12 nations combined. It may only account for 4% of the total Gross Domestic Product but has much more of an influence on the federal budget than State, HUD, Education, HHS, EPA combined. The Cold War has been over for twenty years and the wars of the 21st century will be fought through specialized forces, by drones, or over the cyber-web so there’s no need for such an expansive budget into the future. It’s important to maintain a strong military but a nation should have other priorities as well and balance them out successfully.\n  15. Our prison system needs real reform: The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the world. 2.3 million citizens are in its jails which is 22% of the world’s total amount of incarcerated prisoners, (Source: World Prison Population). Unfortunately, we are ahead of other nations such as Russia, Iran, China, UAE, etc. when it comes to this rather dubious distinction. While the Netherlands is closing down prisons because of a lack of need, my country continues to build up a massive private prison industry which is unheard of in most other industrialized nations. This is, in part, a result of the failed “War on Drugs” which involves serious sentencing measures for non-violent drug offenders. Recently, politicians in both major parties in the U.S. have called for prison and sentencing reform but no concrete legislation has been passed by Congress and signed by the President up until this point.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7769520282745361}
+{"content": "Cute Anime Couple Wallpapersafari Cover Case For Iphone\n\nNo view\n\nSteps to create Cute anime couple wallpapersafari cover case for iphone\n\nMaking an anime is not a simple activity. It’s a whole process of building and illustrating a world, finding motivations, weaving stories – this is a major undertaking! However, it’s also a great exercise in creativity. If you’re passionate about anime you’ll probably really enjoy making your own.\n\nCute Couple Anime Photo  Fanpop\n\nCute Couple Anime Photo Fanpop\n\n\nMethod 1 : Outlining a global\n\nFigure out where you want your history to be place. Is it heading to be on an alien planet? Is it going to be on a location that is relatively similar to places on earth? You don’t have to find out everything about the entire world, nevertheless, you do need to determine where you want your storyline to occur.\nFor example, perhaps you want the major action of your history to occur in a world where most people stay in caves because beyond caves there are always a lot of dangerous slime pits that you could fall into.\nFind the interesting things about your world. Like slime pits! Animes often have elements of their world that are somewhat magical or weird in some way. Maybe pianos chat and present people plenty of advice. Maybe there are flying beasts that people use to get from spot to place. It doesn’t have to be something amazingly fantastical or something out of the science fiction novel – just choose something that works together with your world as well as your story.\nFor example, the magic of the world is actually a simple folk story which could or might not exactly be true. Maybe on the slime pit world there is a story that if you belong to a slime pit and survive you will be granted special capabilities but nobody has learned if this is true or not.\nDecide the technical advancement of the world. Will be the residents of your world residing in apartment complexes or in wooden huts? Are they trying to find their food, or can they go out to dinner are restaurants? Naturally there are always a lot of other possibilities in between and beyond these good examples. The technological position of your world will advise a lot of the ways that your characters connect to the problems that face them.\nFor instance if someone falls into a slime pit in a technological advanced world, maybe it’s no big offer because everyone would wear anti-slime suits.\n\nMethod 2 : Creating Characters\n\nChoose what they look like and their personalities. You should attempt to decide what they appear to be at the same time that you decide their personalities. Try pulling the people and then jotting down beside them what their personality features would be. Maybe you have one personality that is absolutely sensible and perceptive but susceptible to dropping their temper. Maybe you have another personality that is very loyal but very unkind to strangers. Sketch drafts of your people.\nThe way the heroes look is important since it can play to their personality. For example, maybe the muscular identity is the hero. Conversely, maybe the muscular character is a total coward. In any event, his body informs his personality within an interesting way.\nDecide on a protagonist. You don’t have to have just one single main persona, but it’s nice to give the reader a person to root for. Most anime have a protagonist.\nConsider giving them special expertise. Anime often feature personas with special talents accomplishing outstanding things. It might be a good idea to give your primary character some sort of power that will assist him or her offer with whatever the problem in your anime is going to be. Your character does not have to have the ability to fly or have super durability – find something small and interesting that helps the type deal with original challenges.\nFor example, maybe your persona is incredibly daring! That is clearly a special capacity, but it is not magic.\nCreate relationships between the characters. Family members, love hobbies and friends of your protagonist should all play a major role in your account. They are the strongest associations that folks have with others and they help motivate, motivate, and create issue. All of those things are positive qualities in a great story.\nFigure out each characters motivation. The other individuals can play into the characters drive, but find a distinctive thing that drives them. It can be getting informed or getting the lady, it just has to be something that the protagonist is very interested in.\n\nMethod 3 : Starting to Animate Your Anime\n\nStart by attracting your world in an animation program. You’ll find many free web animation programs online that enable you to easily create a global and figure. You’ve already chosen what you would like the world the appearance like, so now you merely need to take it to life. Invest some time and don’t stress if it changes from your original plan.\nDraw your personas. Make your character types in the same animation program. Refer to the drawings and sketches that you have already done to be able to see your last product.\nDraw your characters interacting with the entire world. Now all you have to do is incorporate the individuals and the world. This may immediately commence to give you ideas for tales and potential storyline lines to follow. Maybe your heroes want to explore those significant cliffs out in the distance they have never been to before. Maybe sunlight gets dimmer and dimmer each day plus they have to figure out what is going on. The environment can be a huge impetus in any account, and anime is no different.\nFor example, maybe your world has big slime pits everywhere. Maybe your main characters little brother falls into one of these slime pits and the other personas have to figure out a way to save him. Now you have the start of a plot!\n\nMethod 4 : Incorporating Storyline and Dialogue\n\nCombine dialogue that matches the motivation and personalities of the heroes. Once you have characters and a world you could start turning the personas interacting with the world into a story. This involves creating dialogue. Use dialogue that matches the problem and the character. Try to make the dialogue as reasonable as possible. Think about the way you talk and create conversations like that. Conversations are seldom 100 % aimed. They sway and change subject matter constantly. Figure out ways to add authenticity, and laughter to your dialogue.\nMake sure that you have a beginning, midsection, and end. The start, midsection, and end does not have to be amazingly distinctive, but keeping this group in mind can help you plan out your plot. Take a look at other classic books and commence to figure out what the beginning middle and end of those stories are.\nFor example, maybe the beginning of your anime gets the protagonist’s little brother slipping in a slime pit. The middle could be whenever your protagonist deciding to travel alone in to the slime pit putting on an anti-slime suit to attempt to find his little sibling. The end could be the thrilling conclusion where the slime demons residing in the slime pit allow only one of the brothers to leave, and your protagonist remains behind so that his little sibling can go back home.\nInclude a persona arc. Character arcs don’t need to be really simplistic and flat. Not every story has to start with a unhappy identity and end with a happy character. Rather, a identity arc should allow the primary character to endure some sort of minor transformation or come to a realization. Regardless of whether that realization is the fact that nothing improved from when the story began, that still adds a dimensions to the storyline. What you don’t want is your identity just running around doing assorted activities without any chain of logic.\nFor example, maybe your protagonist is selfish at the beginning of the story but after supporting save his sibling he starts to understand that he really does care about other people but that he was shutting himself off to the earth. You will talk about why he was shutting himself off to the world in the next episode.\n\nMethod 5 : Completing Your Anime\n\nThink of a good title. The title is exactly what attracts people’s attention. Make sure the title has something regarding the plot.\nDecide if you want your anime to be one tale or a series. This may regulate how your account ends, or if it ends in any way. If you’d like your stories to be always a series then you have to figure out ways to keep people interested. If many people are satisfied with what sort of first story concluded, then there is absolutely no reason for them to watch your next episode. Create cliffhangers.\nAdd a thrilling climax and realization. This is a major part of fabricating a cliffhanger. If you’re making multiple episodes you want to balance the series between concluding the previous episode and arranging the next show up. They shouldn’t feel just like they viewed the first tv show for nothing, but the viewer should also be excited to see what happens next. Find this balance.\nTie up the knots in your account. If there was a love interest at the beginning of the story, there must be some acknowledgement of this at the end of the storyplot. Not everything needs to tie up properly, nevertheless, you want your anime to look well organized and professional. When you have a bunch of untied tale lines it seems messy.\n\nRelated Search\n\n  1. author\n\n    Mr WordPress5 years ago\n\n    Hi, this is a comment.\n\n  2. author\n\n    Admin5 years ago\n\n    Great design brow!!!\n\n  3. author\n\n    Admin5 years ago\n\n    Nice work!\n\n  4. author\n\n    Admin5 years ago\n\n    Great villa, i love it.. 🙂\n\n  5. author\n\n    Admin5 years ago\n\n    Great car brow.. 🙂\n\n    • author\n\n      Admin5 years ago\n\n      Example reply comments. 😀\n\n  6. author\n\n    niar1 year ago\n\n    yg ini boleh juga 👍\n\n    • author\n\n      Anime1 year ago\n\n      ありがとうございました 🙂", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5172971487045288}
+{"content": "I’m wrapping up this series with a slightly more personal look at things, because that’s how I am. I think I’d disappoint everyone, myself included, if I didn’t. It’s not going to be too long, I swear. I’ll also fold in the key character to whom I’ve not given enough attention, Alfred.\n\nIt’s just going to be why I love the character of Batman so darn much.\n\nBatman is better than just about any comics character; old-school Wolverine is an exception, but not the kinder, softer Wolverine. The one who took a sword through the neck and still kicked the s*** out of Silver Samurai.\n\nBatman Is More Real\n\nBatman is better than any of the other because he’s the most believable.\n\nI know, the tale of a millionaire/billionaire who uses his fortune to turn himself into a one–man army in order to clean up corruption and crime is a bit far–fetched. It’s more than a little impractical, too. But there’s more emotional truth to this character than others.\n\nThe “outsider” take on Superman is a modern invention; if anything, I think they’ve cribbed it from Batman to give Superman a little more cred in the modern day. We’re all skeptical of our heroes and prefer them with big glaring flaws now, as opposed to tried-and-true symbols of perfection.\n\nSo anyway, Batman has always rung true with me. I could understand why he was the way he was. He didn’t luck into super powers (Spider-Man) and he didn’t even have the advantage of those sort of powers to begin with. He was motivated by pain, and then by the higher calling to lift that pain from others. Batman was a character who actually grew into his role of protector. He’s not on a nihilistic revenge kick anymore (Punisher), he’s actually acting to prevent others from going through what he endured.\n\nA Little Help from His Friends\n\nHe’s also what I’d call a “realistic loner.”\n\nBy that I mean, he likes to think he’s alone in this world in no small way. He is the lone actor in his drama. But he’s got a hell of a supporting cast, headed by Alfred.\n\nAlfred’s not an authority figure like a parent. He’s the stalwart model of a sympathetic friend. The one who stands by your side even when you’re a complete dick, because he understands why you’re being that way and knows that you’re a good person inside. He nudges and suggests, never imposing his perspective on Batman but letting him take advantage of his wisdom when he asks.\n\nThrough the years in the comics, Batman has eventually gathered a small network of support, from Barbara Gordon to Lucius Fox, Dick Grayson to Jason Todd. While I’m not a particular fan of Robin as a character, he does underline the need of Bruce Wayne to try to find a family of sorts, though he’s too dysfunctional to maintain a real one. Alfred is a foster father, Robin an adopted son. So this lone wolf character shows the precise importance of friends and family to surviving the burdens of life.\n\nThe Difference Between Law and Justice\n\nGotham City over time has come to represent what happens to society when people, not laws, are the arbiters of justice.\n\nGotham is a warning tale based on a very real situation that so many cities have found themselves in when laws are flouted by those with enough political clout to get around them. Sure, everyone picks on New York City through time, but Washington, D.C. is a great example, too. Not for the jackals in the federal government alone, but the local political machines are a lot like Chicago (though much less competent, and on a smaller scale). I mean, really. Marion Barry’s still on the City Council for goodness’ sake.\n\nBatman is the one who refuses to bow to pressure or conventional wisdom and just accept things as they are. There are laws and there are rules, and someone has to enforce them fairly or everything goes to s***.\n\nAnd of course he has to break the law to maintain it, raising the whole question to another level.\n\nRevolutionary Batman.\n\nThe Dark Knight Returns naturally defined Batman for an entire generation. Without it, 1989’s Batman would have been lighter than it was. I truly believe that. Frank Miller showed the audience what it had been craving for a long time; a Batman that could have existed (with a little suspension of disbelief) in our world. A Batman that was not just motivated by what happened to his parents, but at the fact that when he retired, Gotham didn’t just revert to its filthier truth, it got worse.\n\nThe Dark Knight was released during an era of deep, dark crime in places like New York. Times Square wasn’t the bustling Broadway showcase for Disney that it is now. If you look at a lot of the movies of the 1980s, the vision of the near future is very dystopian, rooted in the belief that the cities were going to get so bad that we’d be lucky to survive. (Personal favorite: Escape from New York.)\n\nAnd so Batman was reborn as the avatar of justice again; But this time he wasn’t motivated by personal tragedy alone. This time he was a man unable to withstand the disgusting truth of what humans can do to each other for the sake of thrills and money. But in this world, he wasn’t hailed as a hero but regarded an outlaw.\n\nHis natural enemy became Superman. And not to spoil anything, but Batman had issues with him.\n\nIf you haven’t read it, I’d have to say that Miller’s tome was undoubtedly formative on the world outlook of at least one young boy who learned to regard some things just a bit differently after reading it. Some of it stuck with him. Some of it should stick with all of us.\n\nOne More Thing\n\nAnd finally, the crux of it all, is that Batman is plain old smart and determined. Other superheroes can get out of a jam because they can move super fast or whatever. And so the writers have to come up with even more extraordinary ways to get them into trouble.\n\nBatman deals with problems like someone threatening to poison the reservoir (this was the Joker’s standard introduction to the storyline for many years). No Kryptonite, no super cousins, no power armor like Iron Man or invincibility like Wolverine.\n\nJust a man with wits, will and the means to leverage them.\n\nWhat’s not to love?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6554970741271973}
+{"content": "Essay about Sawyers Michael 2\n\n\nAssessing Co-Workers Against Each Other: Does This Motivate Employees Michael Sawyers\n\nWebster University or college\n\nComparing Co-Workers Against The other person: Does This Encourage Employees Problem #1\n\nWhat is their opinion with regards to forced position performance appraisals? Do that they motivate staff? Explain.\n\nFor me, from an equity theory standpoint, pressured ranking overall performance appraisals may not work for most companies. In some instances this might be viewed and considered by employees an instrument for corporations that is used to eliminate under creating employees. This sort of with main production corporations whose main point here is the belief, this approach to monitoring and cutting staff who tend not to meet particular production amounts does not constantly motivate staff. Some workers will try to make more intended for fear of shedding their jobs, but this does not provide confident motivation which my opinion is a better means of motivation. I actually do not believe that these ranked appraisals always boost well-being by pointing out an employee's ranking in production if they are hardworking, show up on time and no longer miss days. For employees that don't make an effort to don't wish to job, this a great tool to get trimming body fat, but not a motivational technique. It could also make short term creation goals, but could serve to further disgruntle employees with no perceived positive motivational enforcements.\n\nFrom an expectations theory point of view, in my opinion, the forced position performance assessments would still need to be in conjunction with goal setting and rewards to motivate employees to improve their efforts to job harder, more efficient and to be a little more productive. Establishing goals, perhaps quarterly or monthly, with pay improves or additional bonuses for meeting production desired goals or making production deadlines for projects are excellent motivational tools. Inspiration can come in almost all forms with regards to the company. Sales goals are probably rewarded with commission additional bonuses or excursions. Production personnel may receive salary additional bonuses, extra time away, or possibly these kinds of a simple prize as having cookout intended for the shift workers or catered meal is a motivational tool that gets persons moving. With respect to the performance that is certainly needed or perhaps expected suitable motivation could be supplied to increase morale and maintain employees working together to accomplish the companies production requires.\n\nQuestion #2\n\nHow would equity theory explain some employee's bad reactions to forced ratings? Explain. The equity theory is based on an individual's perception showing how fairly they may be being treated. Forced rank would in a negative way impact their particular perception with their ranking. In the event the companies goal to motivate their employees, pointing out just how low they can be on the totem pole within the company is not a positive motivational device. For those staff ranking inside the top percentile, this could be an optimistic motivation, however, not for the low ranking staff. Pointing out types failures is usually not great for their firm image of themselves. How they will be treated by way of a supervisors, group leaders, production supervisors combined with frequency and percentages of their pay boosts and bonus deals is a main factor in how fairly an employee feels that they will be being cared for. The forced rankings may be perceived by employees being a bias towards those personnel on the lower end of the ranking system, too that a look at of favoritism can be recognized for those personnel on the more advanced of the scale. Resentments, damage feelings, and disgruntlement can be felt around any identified bias in either way. I no longer feel that these types of rankings could necessarily become a true photo of one employee's performance. A large number of factors may attribute to the employee's overall ranking. For example , an employee could have the bad luck of being paired with another worker or focus on a shift with other employee's who's functionality brings down...\n\nRecommendations: Ivancevich, T. M., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M. T. (2014). Organizational Tendencies and Management. (10th ed. ). Nyc, New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9870977401733398}
+{"content": "“The Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives,” Part I\n\n“The Discovery,” painting by Horatio Nelson Poole, ca. 1920\n\nBorn in 1728, James Cook was the son of a Yorkshire day-laborer. His quickness and intelligence were evident in childhood, and one of his father’s employers arranged for him to go to school (his disappointed father had hoped that he would become a shopkeeper). He had a passion for the sea and was apprenticed on a coal ship in the North Sea, which was considered hard training for any man. He later volunteered in the Seven Years’ War, and within a month’s time, was promoted to master’s mate. Cook took part in the survey of the St. Lawrence River and parts of the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia coasts, which earned him distinction as a skilled marine surveyor, and in 1766, when he witnessed an eclipse of the sun, his observations were sent to London, where he became known at the Royal Society and the Admiralty as an astute observer, and even-tempered commander of men. His first voyage to the Pacific in 1768 was to observe the Transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti, and to verify the existence of the continent of Australia.\n\nCaptain James Cook, painting by John Webber, ca. 1780, Museum of N ew Z ealand\nCaptain James Cook, painting by John Webber, ca. 1780, Museum of New Zealand\n\nCook’s confidential charge from the Admiralty in 1768 had been to observe “with accuracy the Situation of such Islands as you may discover in the Course of your Voyage that have not hitherto been discover’d by any Europeans and take possession for His Majesty and make Surveys and Draughts of such of them as may appear to be of Consequence…You are likewise to observe the Genius, Temper, Disposition and Number of the Natives…the Beasts and Fowls that inhabit or frequent it, the fishes that are to be found in the Rivers or upon the coast and in what Plenty.”\n\nThe Admiralty particularly wished Cook to find a passage from the northwest coast of America east to the Atlantic Ocean. Sailing to Polynesia for the third time in 1776, Cook stopped at Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and New Zealand, storing supplies of wild celery and scurvy grass, before continuing to Tonga and the Society Islands, where he was cured of a bad attack of rheumatism (he was in his early forties) by being punched and squeezed from head to foot by native healers. Before leaving Tahiti in September 1777, bound for North America, Cook inquired if the natives knew of any land or islands to the north or northwest, and they said that they knew of none.\n\nDetail of “ A God Appears,” painting by Eugene S avage, 1940\nDetail from“ A God Appears,” painting by Eugene Savage, 1940\n\nFour months later, on the 18th of January, 1778, Cook sighted an island in the North Pacific,  O‘ahu, and shortly after, the island of Kaua‘i. At sunrise the next day, O‘ahu was several leagues to the east, and Cook bore north, discovering yet a third island, Ni‘ihau (he gave to his discovery the name Sandwich Islands, after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty). Cook saw several villages on the larger island of Kaua‘i, both along the beach and on the hillsides, but the wind prevented the ships from approaching the island that Cook would later call “Atooi.” The ships stood off and on during the night, tacking along the southeastern coast of the island, nearing land the following day, when canoes of curious natives came to the ships. Cook wrote in his journal:\n\nIt required but very little address to get them to come along side, but we could not prevail upon any one to come on board; they exchanged a few fish they had in the Canoes for any thing we offered them, but valued nails, or iron above every other thing; the only weapons they had were a few stones in some of the Canoes and these they threw overboard when they found they were not wanted. Seeing no signs of an anchoring place at this part of the island, I boar (sic) up for the lee side, and ranged the SE side at the distance of half a league from the shore. As soon as we made sail the Canoes left us, but others came off from the shore and brought with them roasting pigs and some very fine Potatoes…several small pigs were got for a sixpeny (sic) nail or two apiece, so that we again found our selves in the land of plenty…\n\nCook was still unable to anchor the following day, when natives again left the beach in canoes and paddled to the ships, which they boarded with less fear than they had shown the previous day. “One asked another,” wrote the historian David Malo, ʻWhat are those branching things?ʻ and the other answered, ‘They are trees moving about on the sea,ʻ…The excitement became more intense, and louder grew the shouting.”\n\nDetail of “The Discovery,” painting by Arman Manookian, 1928\nDetail from “The Discovery,” oil painting by Arman Manookian, 1928\n\nAt the first sight of the mysterious ships, some of the chiefs had been eager to kill the strangers before running the ships ashore for plunder. Other chiefs, recalling the legend of Lono, the harvest god who had promised to return one day to the Islands, wished to humor them, and gave them gifts of pigs and bananas. The chiefs met in counsel, where after some dissension it was decided to send yet more gifts. John Rickman, second lieutenant on the Discovery, wrote in Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1781) that, “This diffused a joy among the mariners that is not easy to be expressed. Fresh provisions and kind females are the sailors sole delight; and when in possession of them, past hardships are instantly forgotten; even those whom the scurvy had attacked, and had rendered pale and lifeless as ghosts, brightened upon this occasion, and for the moment appeared alert.”\n\nAmong the women taken to the ships was Lelemahoalani, the daughter of the high chiefess of Kaua’i, who, it is claimed by David Malo, spent the night with Cook, who was more and more thought to be the avatar of the benign god Lono: “And Lono slept with that woman, and the Kauai women prostituted themselves to the foreigners for iron.” If it is true, Cook, who was said to be abstemious regarding alcohol and women, consorted that first night in Waimea with a pagan princess (Judge Fornander wrote in 1870 that the last generation of Hawaiians whom he interviewed openly claimed that Lelemahoalani slept that night with Lono — that is, with James Cook).\n\nKing Kalaniopuʻu greeting Captain Cook in Kealakekua Bay, watercolor by John Webber, 1784\n\nCook was at first, and perhaps always, unaware that the Hawaiians saw him as the god Lono. David Samwell, surgeon on board the Discovery, quickly perceived the difficulties inherent in deciphering and understanding the language of the Hawaiians, both symbolic and literal, as well as the behavior of a people so profoundly unknown to them, despite Cookʻs somewhat vainglorious belief that he understood the Indians, as he called them, very well. Samwell wrote that, “There is not much dependence to be placed upon these Constructions that we put upon Signs and Words which we understand but very little of, & at best can only give a probably Guess at their Meaning.”\n\nCertain similarities (not unlike the coincidences and seeming fulfillments of prophecies that marked the arrival of Herman Cortes in Mexico in 1519) caused the Hawaiians to believe that Cook was the godʻs incarnation — Cook appeared at the time of Lonoʻs Makahiki festival and the godʻs traditional symbol, a white length of kapa wrapped around a wooden crossbar, was very like the sails of Cookʻs ships. Some historians speculate that a mysterious voyager in the distant past had arrived in the Islands at the same time of year, carrying with him tributary offerings and new gods. The stranger introduced games, athletic competitions, and a system of annual taxation in which much wealth was acquired by the god during his counterclockwise circuit of the island before he departed for Kahiki, the inclusive name of all distant places from Easter Island to Malaysia, with the promise to return someday.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.680389404296875}
+{"content": "We are a team of professional option traders who constantly hunt for trade ideas that meet very specific principles upon which JaguarAnalytics is founded. In our experience, there are three critical ingredients necessary to create a trade setup with a high probability of success (read more below). What really sets us apart is our emphasis on researching and understanding all critical aspects of every specific trade we enter. There is no substitute for the work that goes into our research. We don’t use simple algorithms or screeners to generate quick and easy ideas like many other services do.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9503253102302551}
+{"content": "Sunday, May 20, 2007\n\n\nPROFILE OF A PUBLIC SERVANT: Audrey Hepburn has always been my favorite because of her elegant spirit and her humanitarian work. Of the current crop, I admire Angelina Jolie because of her huge heart — as well as her work with Genocide Prevention in Darfur. She is a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. She was at Cannes Film Festival last weekend. Jolie, who plays the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in \"A Mighty Heart,\" said she was overwhelmed by Mariane Pearl's inner strength and her ability to let go of hatred. MORE BELOW, but first a few thoughts on Einstein's Unified Field...\n\nYou can be attractive even if you're not \"good looking\" because if you radiate love, you attract people. Enthusiasm and courage actually change your brain waves, changing the molecular structure around you. I personally have always believed that science proves God. The proof is in life itself - the multitudinous objects of beauty and creation. Thought is molecular, bringing objects we form (with our thoughts) into view. But the creative force in the universe is love, which can be proven as an energy. Einstein was just short of admitting what he already suspected, that the unified field is love. And by the way, there is no linear time. Step outside the race belief, outside the man made box of space and time. - Lydia\n\nWhy this scientist believes in God\nBy Dr. Francis Collins\nSpecial to CNN\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJolie, Pearl and Brad Pitt, the movie's co-producer, were at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday for the premiere of the movie about Pearl's abduction and murder in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militants.\n\nThe film, shot in a naturalistic documentary style, recounts the search to find Pearl's kidnappers and his widow's struggle to come to terms with his death.\n\n\n\"That is, I think, a lesson for all of us,\" the", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8830722570419312}
+{"content": "Hini explain the challenges faced by homeless individuals in Kelowna and the present need for student support.\n\nDela Hini - Photo by Andrea Marie Tan\nDela Hini - Photo by Andrea Marie Tan\n\nDaniel Greene: How did you get involved in this project? Tell me a bit about yourself.\n\nDela Hini: I am a third-year sociology major, political science minor, but in my fourth year at UBCO. I started the Arts and Sciences Students Association last semester with a group of my friends when I realized that the Barber School doesn’t have a unified course union. I actually started in engineering on this campus, and over there we have the Engineering Society which looks out for the interests of all engineering students. A.S.S.A. aims to be something very similar, in terms of supporting students and encouraging interdisciplinary activities.\n\nI am the creator and project lead for the Pink Backpack Project! The PBP is part of A.S.S.A’s initiative for Community Engagement. The Community Engagement pillar was created to encourage students to play an active role on campus and in the community via philanthropic activities. When we were brainstorming how to engage with the community in a positive way, a member of the A.S.S.A. exec team suggested that we serve marginalized women by distributing pads. From there we flushed out the idea further and the PBP was born!\n\nDG: Tell me about the Pink Backpack Project. What is the significance of the colour pink and why backpacks?\n\nDH: “Pink” comes from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #10 (Reduced Inequity), which so happens to be a pink logo. Our goal with the PBP is to encourage students to do their part in reducing inequity in Kelowna and associating our mission with the UN SDG’s is a perfect fit since it’s such an innovative and global mission. Backpack simply relates to (1) being a student and the fact that we want to encourage students to serve the community and (2) the mode in which we want to deliver donated items.\n\nDG: What unique challenges do homeless women face? How do social factors such as ethnicity and gender intersect with socio-economic status in these cases?\n\nDH: Essentially, you’re asking: how does class, race, and gender play out in the experiences of homeless women? That’s quite a broad and complex question, and as a privileged student I’m not the best person to answer, because of my positionality as an individual who has not experienced homelessness or sexual exploitation based on gender (which is the case for many of the women we aim to serve, who are connected to Kelowna’s H.O.P.E. Outreach).\n\nFully recognizing my limited understanding, I can extrapolate based on working on this project and from my sociological background that homeless women have the unique challenge of being gendered bodies in a harsh and demoralizing space. When ethnicity comes into the equation, they may also experience erasure based on racial prejudices.\n\nDG: Do homeless women in Kelowna face any unique challenges?\n\nDH: Homeless women everywhere face unique challenges. One very distinct and unique challenge is that homeless cis-gendered women most likely have their period, and therefore have to choose between using their money to buy food or tampons (as noted in the Bustle Magazine mini-documentary “How Do Homeless Women Cope With Their Periods”). Again, I can’t speak for the homeless women in Kelowna because I’m not one; only they can truly say what they need and the PBP hopes to work with them in order to raise awareness of the inequities they face.\n\nDG: How do you plan to reach out to more people this year?\n\nDH: We hope to work more closely with campus partners to promote the project and build a pool of volunteers. Our current volunteer pool is very limited in their capacity as everyone involved is a busy student, so hopefully by spreading the word we’ll be able to garner more interest and support for the project.\n\nDG: What strategies do you find work the best to attract student support for issues such as these?\n\nDH: It’s not easy to mobilize students, but I think creating a safe space in which people feel that they can engage in dialogue is really important. We’ve seen this on campus with things like Hearth, the WRC Tea Talks, and the Intercultural Development Program that when you create a space in which students can share their ideas in a supportive space, they’re more encouraged to take action from there to make a difference. Plus, free food is always good to draw students in. We’re definitely going to get some free food at our meeting this semester!\n\nDG: Where can students go if they want more information or if they want to donate? Will you have any booths for the Pink Backpack Project on campus in the near future?\n\nDH: Students can message A.S.S.A. by finding us on Facebook or at assa.ubco@gmail.com. There is also an event page for the PBP! As our volunteer pool grows, we will be setting up booths on campus. Already there are a number of donation bins on campus, including outside of the Equity and Inclusion Office, outside of the International Programs and Services, and inside the Senior Collegia and Global Collegia.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9202242493629456}
+{"content": "Uber plans to kick off IPO in April: Sources\n\nUber plans to kick off IPO in April: Sources\n\nFILE PHOTO: Uber&apos;s logo is displayed on a mobile phone\n\nNEW YORK: Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies is planning to kick off its initial public offering in April, putting it close on the heels of smaller rival Lyft, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday (Mar 15).\n\n\n\nBut the close proximity of the two IPOs could test the public market's appetite for ride-sharing investments.\n\n\nUber's business is much larger and more diverse than Lyft's, and the company has moved relatively swiftly to go public given both firms filed confidential paperwork for an IPO at the same time in December.\n\nUber, a global logistics and transportation company most recently valued at US$76 billion in the private market, is seeking a valuation as high as US$120 billion, although some analysts have pegged its value closer to US$100 billion based on selected financial figures it has disclosed.\n\nLyft, a smaller firm which has ride-hailing and bike-renting in the United States and several Canadian cities, is seeking a valuation of US$20 billion to US$25 billion, up from its US$15 billion valuation as a private company.\n\n\n\n\nHowever, in going out so close together, the companies risk testing the limits of investors' interest in ride-sharing.\n\n\"There is only so much capital investors are willing to put into ride-sharing companies,\" said Kathleen Smith, a principal and manager of IPO ETFs at Renaissance Capital.\n\n\nUber's revenue last year was US$11.3 billion, while its gross bookings from rides were US$50 billion. But the company lost US$3.3 billion, excluding gains from the sale of its overseas business units in Russia and Southeast Asia.\n\nLyft's revenue for last year was US$2.2 billion, with US$8.1 billion in gross ride bookings. The company lost US$911 million.\n\n\n\nSoftBank's Vision Fund and Toyota Motor Corp are part of a consortium of investors in talks to invest US$1 billion in Uber's self-driving car unit, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Taking on large investors that will influence a key business is an unusual move for a company so close to an IPO.\n\nUber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi will be tasked with convincing investors that he has successfully changed the company's culture and business practices after a series of embarrassing scandals over the last two years.\n\n\nSource: Reuters/na", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7583021521568298}
+{"content": "When we sit in circle, something powerful happens..\n\nThe walls come down, the communication pathways open, we connect and we share. Sitting in a circle promotes a neutral space for discussion whereas other forms in which we sit, can create an energetic container that contains a leader + their followers. Those “followers” may hold back from voicing their opinions and also, being their true selves. \n\nThink about it, remember when you were a little kid and you would sit in circles at school or with your friends? What's a word that comes to mind? For me, it's play. I remember sitting in a huge circle at camp and we played the parachute game. A colorful parachute would be tossed in the air and jiggled around while you ran under it. I loved watching the sun shine through the bright colors. It felt warm, inviting and playful. This was the first memory I have of being in circle.\n\nWhen we sit in circle, something powerful happens.. We share our stories. We get to connect with others when we share our story. Storytelling inspires one another while giving us the space to relate to each other. We remove the walls, the barriers and we get to show up as we are.\n\nI've held back from sharing pieces of my story. It feels scary, messy, vulnerable and all of these feelings. People will make comments and sometimes, that hurts. When you open yourself up, there is always the possibility of someone saying something that can feel like an ouch. And at the same time, when we share, we inspire others. When I share, it is my hope that there is a woman somewhere reading this nodding her head knowing she is not alone.\n\nMy love for circles grows as I dive deeper into this work. Circles are needed. We need more spaces where we can let the walls down and simply open to ourselves. \n\n\"Circle is the form of endlessness, continuation, calming down, pacifying. In a circle, there's no beginning or end- once you're in the circle, you're there, participating in wholeness. Nobody is superior; no one is better than anyone else. We sit together in our differences in one nice, round shape.\" - The Circle Way", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8141438961029053}
+{"content": "Double-digit growth for e-commerce businesses outside of Europe\n\n\nThere is a global development trend for which the Middle East and the Maghreb regions benefit the most. These countries have an ecommerce growth in double digit numbers, whereas in most European countries there is “only” a single digit number for growth.\n\nEcommerce businesses are developing everywhere, and especially in the Maghreb and the Middle East where the online markets are functioning particularly well. The real gateway to the Gulf countries may soon play a major role in this new business landscape due to the high quality of their equipment and the development of new technologies.\n\nIn Africa, one of the only continents where most transactions are done mostly with cash, and where society is wary about online payments, innovative payment systems are seen to be increasing. Also, there is a 70% mobile penetration, which means that many consumers can be connected via mobile providers.\n\nAt the Jumia (a leading Nigerian retailer) e-commerce conference in Lagos, it was shown that success in a country that is mostly unbanked is more about giving choices to the consumers rather than persuading them to accept e-commerce. This seems to have been the case in Nigeria: “People still don’t really believe that if they buy something online that it will actually be delivered to them, some companies decided to let them see and touch the goods before purchasing. So we have POD (pay on delivery),” says Jumia co-founder Raphael Afaedoz.\n\nIn Russia, B2C e-commerce is flourishing as well, driven by the emergence of new online consumers. The recent “Russia B2C E-Commerce and Online Payment Report 2013” provides information about B2C e-commerce and the movement towards online and mobile purchase transactions. A lot of foreign companies and investors have also entered the Russian e-commerce market in recent years. Online payment already reaches a double-digit share of the largest Internet audience in Europe, and more importantly, let us not forget Russia accounts for more than 140 million potential consumers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6640057563781738}
+{"content": "5 takeaways from: ‘Artificial Intelligence: How to Ensure it Benefits Patients?’\n\nArtificial Intelligence\n\nProfessor Lionel Tarassenko, Head of the Department of Engineering Science, led a panel discussion titled ’Artificial Intelligence: How to Ensure It Benefits Patients?’, part of the NIHR Open Day at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Taking in contributions from the fields of science, philosophy and industry, it touched on privacy, patient safety, and the future of medicine. Here are five things we learned:\n\nAI won’t replace humans any time soon\n\n“One of the great benefits of AI,” says Chris Holmes, Professor of Biostatistics and Programme Director for Health and Medical Sciences at the Alan Turing Institute, “is that we hope it will give clinicians time. It allows a human expert to give their time where it is most useful.” Algorithms, at least as they currently exist, are set not to replace humans, but to assist them. He points to the example of radiography, which sees clinicians poring over page after page of detailed scans. Huge amounts of time could be saved with the use of an algorithm that directs their attention solely to those scans that show potential abnormalities.\n\nDr Fred Kemp, of Oxford University Innovation, expanded on this point with the example of genetic testing companies that offer to sequence your DNA for a fee. Their results aren’t fed back directly to the customer, but are interpreted by an expert, who can use the genetic markers to predict, say, their chances of developing heart disease. Without the relevant expertise, the results would be meaningless. In the same way, the results of AI algorithms need to be interpreted for patients – and that will require a trained clinician.\n\nA member of the audience raised a similar question: if a series of patient test results were fed through an algorithm, he asked, how would we mitigate the risk of something being missed? Fred pointed out that, unlike humans, algorithms don’t have off days, don’t get tired and don’t get distracted; in collaboration with an experienced professional, they can be a powerful force for good.\n\n\nHealthcare is not like shoe shopping\n\nDr Angeliki Kerasidou is a professor of theological philosophy with an interest in the ethics of AI. As she puts it: “We need to look at the future and ask ourselves what kind of healthcare we want.”\n\nShe drew the audience’s attention to the predictive algorithms that already exist in our day-to-day lives: “Surveillance seems like too strong a word,” she said, “but that’s what this is.” We accept Amazon’s ‘customers also viewed’ recommendations when purchasing shoes and handbags – but isn’t healthcare a little different?\n\nIt’s easy to claim that the privacy-conscious can just opt out, but she says it’s not that simple. We need to access that email server for work, and we tick the box to accept terms and conditions because we need to access the information they guard. Do we want to give up our freedom for the benefits we’re promised? If so, how do we build in an exit for people who decide that the trade-off isn’t worth it?\n\n\nTransparency is key\n\nSensyne Health Vice-President Dr Nick Scott-Ram provided the panel with a business perspective. A company operating at the forefront of AI in healthcare, Sensyne analyses anonymised NHS patient data to improve care and accelerate the development of new drugs.\n\nWith an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in the Philosophy of Science, Nick has expertise in both science and ethics. He challenged the audience to consider the question of how patients can be expected to trust an adaptive algorithm, and emphasised the need for clear discussion with the patient about what is happening with their data, alongside the provision of comprehensive risk profiles.\n\nAs a publicly traded company, he stresses what a key concern this is for Sensyne; they have a requirement to be highly transparent, not just for their shareholders, but for the patients they serve.\n\n\nIt’s already having an impact\n\nTaking place in the Academic Corridor of Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, the panel discussion attracted an audience of medical professionals keen to know how AI could transform patient care in their own fields.\n\nResponding to a question about where else AI could be useful for the NHS, Fred pointed to the example of Navenio, another Oxford spinout. With a product they describe as ‘Uber for Healthcare Teams’, they devised a system to get porters to the right place, at the right time – freeing up overworked nurses and improving patient care.\n\n\nEthicists and scientists will have to work together\n\nThat was the message from Angeliki. Ethicists aren’t aiming to stop scientists from making breakthroughs, she insisted; they aim to make sure that the benefits of AI reach the public, and that society progresses the way we want it to.\n\nChris pointed to an issue currently facing AI researchers: ‘invariance to ethnicity’, or the need to ensure that an algorithm works for all users, regardless of race or ethnicity. Certain sections of the population are known to have different susceptibility to certain medical conditions. Can we guarantee that an algorithm developed and tested in one location would work equally well in a city with a different ethnic mix?\n\nAngeliki describes these current breakthroughs as our first time using machines that don’t just expand our physical capacity (in the way that, say, a stethoscope does), but that change the way in which we make decisions – a big step for humanity.\n\n\nFind out more about Lionel's research.\n\nLow frequency vibrations expose the interactions of anti-cancer drugs", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976988434791565}
+{"content": "StrengthsQuest is a student development and engagement program designed to help high school and college students achieve success in academics, career, and life. Backed by Gallup's powerful science, StrengthsQuest tells teachers and students how they can use strengths to encourage student success and growth.\n\nEach StrengthsQuest book includes a unique access code to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. After taking the assessment and discovering their top 5 strengths, students will receive individualized explanations of their dominant strengths, action items to help them develop their strengths, and suggestions about how to use their unique talents to excel in all they do.\n\nCreator of the Clifton StrengthsFinder\n\nDonald O. Clifton, Ph.D. (1924-2003), a past chairman of Gallup, was the chief designer of the Clifton StrengthsFinder Profile. In 2002, he was cited as the \"Father of Strengths-Based Psychology\" in an American Psychological Association Presidential Commendation. He coauthored several books, including the bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.729259729385376}
+{"content": "Summer Digestive Issues\n\nMost of us look forward to the summer months. Not least for excuses to fire up the barbeque, or to cool down with summer ice creams. But some of the foods we eat in this season may not always be the most suitable if you suffer the stomach acid related conditions - heartburn or indigestion.\n\nSo let's take a look at some favourite foods associated with summer that are known to be potential triggers of heartburn and indigestion and consider some tasty alternatives.\n\nBarbeque food\n\nThe choice is huge, of course. But if you suffer from heartburn or indigestion, favourites such as burgers and sausages tend to be quite fatty foods, so sufferers beware! Charred peppers and onions are popular too, but again they're associated with heartburn[1]. Also, if you know that you are at risk of these conditions, then think twice about spicy foods and covering everything in hot sauce!\n\nSo what you can do to minimise your risk, is to choose tasty food with less trigger potential. For example, you could opt for fish and seafood, such as barbequed sea bass, mackerel, sardines or scallops. Barbequed vegetables, including sweetcorn and mushrooms, also have little potential to cause heartburn and indigestion sufferers a problem.\n\n\nWatch out for those popular picnic picks that are pastry based, such as meat and vegetable pasties or sausage rolls. These can be bulky foods for your stomach to cope with, as the pastry is high in fat and that’s before you get to the fillings! So again you could be challenging your stomach. Instead consider lighter foods, like salads, rice salads, couscous and pasta or summer treats like crab sandwiches.\n\nCream teas and ice cream\n\nSummer wouldn't be summer without cream teas and ice cream delights. But dairy products such as cream and milk, in whatever form, are well-known triggers for heartburn and indigestion. So if they're a trigger for you, maybe consider very small portions - and try to spread that lovely summer cream very thinly on your scones. Perhaps think twice about the size of your ice creams too - one scoop instead of two? And strawberries, without the cream, is surely not all bad!\n\nSummer beers and sparkling wine\n\nMany breweries make tempting, special summer ales, and cider is thirst quenching for many, especially on a nice hot day and sparkling alcoholic drinks, such as Champagne, are known triggers too. If you think you may suffer, consider still soft drinks or alcohol-free beers instead. They'll help to quench your thirst with less trigger potential than their alcoholic, fizzy counterparts.\n\nRemember, alcohol in any type of drink can be a trigger for heartburn and indigestion. Alcohol can help to relax the sphincter at the base of your oesophagus and allow acid to reflux more easily, which can result in heartburn.2\n\nWhat to do if Heartburn or Indigestion strikes\n\nIf you do find yourself suffering from heartburn or indigestion this summer, don’t let it ruin your day. Gaviscon Double Action works for both conditions, to relieve the symptoms when you need it, because:\n\n  • It gets to work instantly to create a physical protective barrier on top of your stomach contents. This helps to stop acid refluxing into your food pipe.\n  • It neutralises the acid to help reduce its potential unwanted effects\n  • It offers long lasting relief when you need it - lasting up to two times longer than antacids.\n\nIf you suffer from heartburn or indigestion, you can make your lifestyle easier this summer by watching out for the potential triggers in the lovely summer food on offer and looking for some tasty alternatives, and the knowledge that Gaviscon can help, should you need it.\n\n\nAll information presented is not meant to diagnose or prescribe. Gaviscon for Heartburn & Indigestion. Always read the label. If symptoms are severe or prolonged you should consult a doctor or pharmacist. Medicines can affect the unborn baby. Always talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicine in pregnancy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7748894095420837}
+{"content": "\n  • [email protected]\n  • 0800 3891990 / 01692 671951\nClick to Call\n\nDiffused Reservoir Aeration\n\nDiffused Reservoir Aeration - Heathland Fountains and Reservoirs Norfolk Suffolk Essex UK\n\n\nAeration creates a calm, healthy environment in a reservoir\n\nHeathland Fountains has a brilliantly effective range of diffused reservoir aerators and can provide a choice of disc and tube styled diffuser membranes. Tube style diffuser membranes entrain water from 360° around the tube, allowing allows them to reach deeper water from the bottom of the reservoirs, whilst the base design prevents them from actually disturbing the reservoir bed. Disc style diffuser membranes train water from the top of the membrane up towards the reservoir surface.\n\nWhy do you need to aerate your reservoir?\n\nReservoirs can be affected negatively by warmer weather.  During the summer reservoirs can suffer from thermal stratification, which is when the water becomes divided into layers as shown below. The bottom layer of the reservoir will contain cool, oxygen depleted water whilst the surface layer of the reservoir will contain warmer oxygen rich water. These two layers are separated by the thermocline that prevents the two from mixing due to the differences in density.\n\nA diffused aerator pumps air through the diffuser membranes which then travels to the reservoir surface in the form of millions of tiny bubbles. When these bubbles travel up through the layers of thermal stratification they entrain water and this is then carried to the surface layer,  where it becomes naturally oxygenated. So it's really about mixing and blending the water column.\n\nBy circulating and aerating from the reservoir base upwards, the toxic gases that normally become  trapped underneath the thermocline layer, are then release, providing a balanced habitat for aquatic life. This aeration process creates aerobic conditions near the reservoir bed and then the microbial process can naturally break down nutrients that might otherwise be used in the production of noxious aquatic weeds and algae.\n\n\nThermal Stratification in Reservoirs - Diffused Reservoir Aeration - Heathland Fountains and Reservoirs Norfolk Suffolk Essex UK\n\n\nKey features and benefits of a diffused aeration systems in your reservoir;\n\n  • it breaks up thermal stratification layers in the water column allowing the entire column to be oxygenated, eliminating highs and lows in temperature and levels of oxygen.\n  • Diffused aeration increases the breakdown of aquatic waste by creating a habitat beneficial for aerobic bacteria to flourish.\n  • When the aerator is kept on in freezing climates, the pumps will keep areas in the ice open and allow toxic gases to escape, increasing the oxygen level in the water.\n  • Aerators operating throughout winter  keep frozen areas of the reservoirs open so birds and other wildlife still have access to much needed water in freezing conditions.\n\nClick on the Images or Links below to see our range of Diffused Reservoir Aerators.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6039634346961975}
+{"content": "Jill Stockwell\n\n\nJill Stockwell, PhD, is a social anthropologist and an Advisor on Missing Persons and their Families with the ICRC.\n\n  • Establishing mechanisms to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing persons: A proposed humanitarian approach\n\n    This article examines the different types of mechanisms which can contribute to addressing the issue of the missing, including providing answers on the fate and whereabouts of missing persons. It looks in detail at one approach that the authors have observed in the field. It argues that an approach based on humanitarian objectives which does not look into who is responsible for the disappearance, with proper management of confidential information, could be a powerful instrument for searching for and collecting relevant information on the missing in certain contexts. The article also proposes avenues for further research, with a view to enhancing the global capacity to provide meaningful answers for the missing and their families.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999702572822571}
+{"content": "As this blog has discussed previously, a Wisconsin resident who is facing a criminal domestic violence allegation is exposed to some serious and long-term consequences, even for a first-time offense.\n\nIf it is the case that a person really has made a mistake and committed domestic violence, it is understandable that there will be some consequences. Of course, one can still expect fair treatment and to have an opportunity to explain any mitigating circumstances. Doing so, often with the help of an experienced attorney, can mean a lessened penalty and the ability to move past a mistake.\n\nHowever, people do get accused wrongly of domestic violence. For example, a false accusation of abuse can arise at the end of a relationship or in the midst of a divorce or custody battle.\n\nStatistically, though, the possibility of an incorrect allegation is just as likely in other contexts as it is when there is an active family law issue going on between two parties who, at one time, were romantically involved.\n\nIn around two-thirds of reported cases, there is some information that would substantiate the report of domestic abuse.\n\nThe remaining 1 in 3 cases are not all incidents of a person lying, that is, intentionally fabricating, a report of domestic violence. Many of these cases are not well-taken simply because there is not enough evidence to prove the report. In some cases, a person may have honestly been mistaken or confused about his or her report of abuse.\n\nAdmittedly, the point of the group that quoted these statistics were that false reports are not as common as one might think. However, the flip side is that one in three reports should for a range of reasons not result in any consequences to the accused, and certainly not a criminal conviction or jail time. The statistic goes to show why having a vigorous defense to domestic violence charges is important.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9979394674301147}
+{"content": "Get help from best doctors, anonymously\nCommon Specialities\nCommon Issues\nCommon Treatments\nChange Language\n\nLow Platelet Count - How It Can be Revived?\n\nWritten and reviewed by\nDr. Om Kumari Gupta 88% (162 ratings)\nClinical Hematology , MD, MBBS\nHematologist, Noida  •  53 years experience\nLow Platelet Count - How It Can be Revived?\n\nHaematology is a science, which studies the functioning of blood, blood producing organs and blood related diseases. Previously people are not aware of the functioning of Haematology and its effectiveness. But as more and more research is being conducted on this health care science the modern world is introduced with this amazing stream of medical science.\n\nHaematology can study and provide best curing measures for many severe diseases and one of the diseases, which are considered as the most dangerous is Thrombocytopenia. This is the condition in which the blood cell fragments known as platelets reduce. Difficulty faced by the body to clot the blood and stop the bleeding is a major symptom and when the platelet count reduces too much then mild to severe bleeding happens. Bleeding can be inside the body, on the surface of the body or underneath the skin as well.\n\nHow to control it?\nThe individuals suffering from lack of platelet count or Thrombocytopenia are advised some preventive measures to maintain the conditions from becoming severe.\n\n  1. People should avoid the medicine that they know had decreased the platelet in the past.\n  2. They should avoid alcohol consumption which slows down the production of platelets.\n  3. Avoid contact with toxic chemicals like arsenic, pesticides or benzene as they can slow down the production of platelets.\n  4. Be aware of the substances or medicines that may affect the counts of platelets or increases the risk of bleeding.\n\nHaematology is very helpful for doctors to know the hidden causes of blood related diseases. To cure the low platelet count many effective medicines are available in the various health care systems. There are many Haematology experts who are accomplished with their expertise in treating people. Patients of blood cancer should consult the doctor and get the best remedies to live a happy and pain free life.\n\n2774 people found this helpful", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8369773626327515}
+{"content": "How to Save and Prevent Rootbound Cannabis Plants\n\nHow to Save and Prevent Rootbound Cannabis Plants\n\n0 0\n\nRootbound is a common problem all growers might run into at some point in their career. Rootbound refers to the phenomenon where a plant's roots have fully conformed to the shape of their container. This issue occurs more often when the plant is grown indoors but can happen to outdoor grow projects as well. Cannabis plants grown outdoors can easily spread their roots without limitation. Although, even outdoor plants can outgrow their surroundings if the garden bed is contained by walls. In this article, we are going to talk about why rootbound occurs, how to recognize it and what you can do to prevent and fix it.\n\nSometimes, outdoor grows aren't the best option. Space limitations, cold climate, availability of sunlight might all be factors that make indoor grow projects more suitable. As such, relying on the use of containers to facilitate your plants indoors greatly increases the chance rootbound can occur. Plants that have become rootbound are susceptible to various grow problems, so it's important to understand what rootbound is, if it has occured, and how to fix it if it has occured.\n\nIn most cases, a plant becomes rootbound when they have outgrown their planter or containers. Waiting too long to move your plants into a larger container increases the chance of rootbound occuring. Plant's risk the chance of becoming rootbound in any growing medium. Even outdoors, the plant's roots might be restricted by pipes, walls or other obstructions. It's important to be weary of how fast your plant is growing in its surroundings. Especially given a weed like cannabis, where growth can sometimes be fast and unpredictable.\n\n\nHealthy roots are important for encouraging proper growth and develop in a plant. Developmentally challenged root systems can lead to vitamin deficiencies in the plant, and in the worst case, it can even mean losing the plant completely. In any case, there are some symptoms you can look out for before deciding to remove the plant from its container.\n\nVitamin deficiencies are the most common signifier that a problem with the roots have occured. If the plant has become too large for it's container, chances are the roots will not be able to absorb enough nutrients. This could be noted by yellow or brown spots, wilting, and crumbling of the leaves. That is, if you have already ruled out the possibility of pH imbalances, nutrient deficiencies and watering as probable issues. To rule other possibilities out, watch for nutrients burn. You will be able to see discoloration of the leaves even if you are feeding your plant lightly.\n\nContainers drying out too quickly can also be an indicator of rootbound having occurred. Like nutrients, a plant that is too big for it current container will be absorbing more water than the container can hold. If you are finding you are watering your crop very often, and it is still not getting enough water, or that the soil is drying out too fast, it's possible the plant has become or is becoming rootbound.\n\nContainer with rootbound plant\n\nPlant growth can become unsustainable due to rootbound, as well. This is obvious\nWhen your plants have grown too large for their container and begin to fall over. Hopefully, you should be able to recognize that your plant needs to be repotted before this happens. Otherwise, the plant may become flimsy and unable to hold it's shape after a while. If you are having this issue, you can assume rootbound has already occurred and you should transplant your crop immediately.\n\nYou may be able to recognize rootbound further into the plant's life cycle if you are noticing smaller flowers with stunted growth, or if the plant's growth has slowed down altogether. Rootbound can cause the your cannabis plant to become sick wilted or droopy unexpectedly.\n\nIf you are finding one or more of these symptoms is applicable to your plant, you will have to remove it from its container and inspect its roots to see if it has become rootbound. This process will have to be done carefully as over handling a plant can be detrimental to its health. Sometimes you may not have to remove the plant from its container to see if it has become rootbound. You can visually, inspect the bottom of the pot to see if roots are peering out the holes. If so, it's time to move your plant into a bigger container.\n\n\nRemoving your pant from its container should be done rather carefully as to not damage the roots. To remove the plant from its container you'll want to get a good grip on the stem, right as close to the soil line as possible so that the stem fits between your index and middle finger. With your other hand, grasp the bottom of the container and begin to turn it over. With larger plants you'll want to be careful to not damage the stem as you are turning the plant over. Once you have turned over the plant, use the hand grasping the container to pull it off. In most cases, the container should come right out. If you are finding the container is a little stuck, squeeze it a few times to loosen up the soil. This should be the furthest measure you take before considering more intrusive repotting methods.\n\ntransplanting a rootbound plant\n\nIf you are unable to simply remove the plant from its soil you might have to take a long blade and run it through the the inside edge of the container. However, if the plant has become so rootbound that the soil is to compact to remove from its container, you will need to find a way to carefully break the container open to free the plant from it. Again, it is recommended this is done carefully to not damage the plant or its roots.\n\n\nWhen you have freed the plant from it's container you will notice the soil has become fully compact and conformed to the shape of its container. Chances are, the roots will be bound in a tight shape, and in worse cases, might even be fused together. This prohibits the roots from being able to grow freely, so they must be loosened up again before planting them into their new home. Carefully use your fingers to break apart the soil bound to your roots. It is recommended to wash your hands before and after a handling the plant's roots.\n\n\nIn severe cases the plant may have become so rootbound you may not be able to loosen the roots simply using your hands. If this is the case, you will need to make root incisions to properly free them. You can do this using a knife or box cutting blade. You will have to cut a few bottom-to-top incisions along the outer layer of the root ball. Doing so will allow you some leverage to split the root ball up and break apart the soil. Be careful to only cut through thin roots, cutting larger tap roots may hurt your plant's ability to properly absorb nutrients and water. Two to three evenly spaced cuts should be all you need to properly free your plant from its rootbound state.\n\n\nNow that your plant is free, you will want to move it into a container with enough room for it to grow into a sturdy healthy plant. Find a big enough container that will sustain your plant for a fair amount of time, but not so big that the plant will grow downwards and not up. Once you have found an appropriate container, fill it with soil, and dig a small hole towards the center so you can align your plant in an even space within the container. Make sure you only bury your plant up to the same point as it was in its previous container. As well, make sure not to pack the soil to tight once the plant has been repotted. The roots should now be able to grow freely uninhibited. Once you have moved the plant into its new container, water the soil. You might also want to consider using root stimulant to help the roots branch out after they have been rootbound.\n\nThe plant should be in better shape now that it has been repotted into a large container. However, due to the nature of transplants, it is quite possible the pant might be vulnerable to shock for the next little while. At this stage it's important to keep stress levels down for your plant to make the most out of its recovery stage. You can do this by feeding it lightly, and if possible, turning down the light down for a few days. You can see the plant has made a full recovery when growth begins to happen again. This might take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, once the plant is ready, you can resume its normal lighting and feeding schedule.\n\nholding rootbound plant\n\n\nIt's not difficult to prevent rootbound if you are diligent and aware of your plant and its surroundings. The best way to do this, is to be diligent in changing your plant's housing, especially in the earlier stages of its life. Rootbound is sometimes an unfortunate fact of the growing project but it can be avoided. Plant your crop into a big enough enough pot so it has some room to grow into. Keep this in mind if you are typically busy and cannot attend to your plants as much as you'd like to. Don't wait until your plants have outgrown their container before replotting them.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.875036358833313}
+{"content": "Biologics and Biosimilars Capabilities\n\n31 July 2019\n\nExperts in NERA’s Life Sciences Practice have extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and the nuances and complexities involved in the economics of the field, including determining the value of patents and other intellectual property, navigating complex litigation such as alleged reverse payment settlements, assessing commercial success, and calculating damages from lost profits and reasonable royalties.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9117502570152283}
+{"content": "What Is Meditation?\n\n\nGoogle the word meditation and you get two hundred and twenty-four million hits. As the world about us seems to go more bananas every day, so the subject of how to make it OK to still be here grows more popular, and meditation, or the idea of it, is gaining in popularity. Reams have been written about how to do it, and the benefits it will bring, but what, really, is it?\n\n“Meditation is a state of no-mind. Meditation is a state of pure consciousness with no content. Ordinarily, your consciousness is too full of rubbish, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant traffic: thoughts are moving, desires are moving, memories are moving, ambitions are moving. It is a constant traffic, day in, day out. Even when you are asleep the mind is functioning. It is dreaming, it is still thinking; it is still in worries and anxieties. It is preparing for the next day; an underground preparation is going on.\n\n“This is the state of no meditation – meditation is just the opposite. When there is no traffic and thinking has ceased, no thought moves, no desire stirs, you are utterly silent, that silence is meditation and in that silence truth is known, and never otherwise. Meditation is a state of no-mind.\n\n“You cannot find meditation through the mind because mind will perpetuate itself. You can only find meditation by putting the mind aside, by being cool, indifferent, unidentified with the mind; by seeing the mind pass, but not getting identified with it, not thinking ‘I am it.’\n\n“Meditation is the awareness ‘I am not the mind.’ When the awareness goes deeper and deeper in you, slowly, slowly, a few moments arrive – moments of silence, moments of pure space, moments of transparency, moments when nothing stirs in you and everything is still. In those still moments you will know who you are, and you will know what the mystery of this existence is.”\n\nOsho, Philosophia Perennis, Vol. 2, Talk #5", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5465306043624878}
+{"content": "Advanced search\nOpen 24h\nMobile phone coverage\nDisabled access\nFree spaces\nElectric vehicles\nCar wash\nVending machine\nCar share\nTyre inflation\nSpecial opening hours\nPayment at exit\nCar hire\nElectric bicing\nClosed on Sundays and public holidays\nCredit cards\nVia Verde\nRome is the capital of Italy and is located in the Lazio region. It is the most populated city in the area and the fourth-most populous in the European Union. Because of its historical and economic importance within Italy, Rome is the Italian city that receives the largest amount of tourism throughout the year and is considered to be the heart of Catholicism.\n\nParking Saba in Rome\n\nWe have car parking in...\n\nLeave the car near....\n\nRome has many valuable historical treasures that tell the city’s history and are a must-see for any tourist. Among the wide range of tourist attractions found in the city, the most remarkable ones include the Colosseum, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the modern world; the Capitoline Wolf statue, symbol of Rome; and the Basilica of San Pedro, located in the Vatican City. To visit these places of interest and many others, we recommend using our Saba public car parks so that you can easily move around the city.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9835680723190308}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 3\n\nMaintaining a Balance Summary 1\n\nIdentify the role of enzymes in metabolism, describe their chemical composition and use a simple model to describe their specificity on substrates Identify PH as a way of describing the acidity of a substance Explain why the maintenance of a constant internal environment is important for optimal metabolic efficiency. Describe Homeostasis as the process by which organisms maintain a relatively stable internal environment. Explain that homeostasis consists of two stages: detecting changes from the stable state; counteracting changes from the stable state. Outline the role of the nervous system in detecting and responding to environmental changes Gather, Process and analyse information from secondary sources and use available evidence to develop a model of a feedback mechanism. Identify the broad range of temperatures over which life is found compared with the narrow limits for individual species. Compare responses of named Australian ectodermic and endothermic organisms to changes in the ambient temperature and explain how these responses assist temperature regulation. Analyse information from secondary sources to\n\nEnzymes are Organic catalysts, they are proteins and each enzyme controls a specific reaction. A lock-and-key model shows enzyme specificity. The enzyme has a specific shape which fits onto the substrate forming an enzyme-substrate complex. It has been modified to the induced-fit model. Factors affecting enzyme activity include the amount of substrate present, temperature, PH, presence of coenzymes or cofactors, the presence of heavy metals e.g. mercury, zinc and led. Ph is the measure of the acidity of a substance. The scale ranges from 1 (acid) to 7 (neutral) to 14 (base). Chemical reactions that support the process of life require specific conditions. (optimal temperature, PH and substrate concentration) A change in the internal environment can affect a biochemical pathway.\n\nHomeostasis is the maintenance of a relatively stable internal environment. Body temperature, PH, wayer concentration, sal concentrations, sugar levels, levels of dissolved gasses are all controlled by Homeostasis.\n\nStage 1- Detect Changes from stable state Stage 2- Counteract change Stable state\n\nThe stimulus-response pathway: Stimulus- Receptor- central nervous systemeffectors-response. The receptors detect the stimulus. The receptors stimulate a sensory neurone which sends a nervous impulse to the CNS. A nervous impulse is sent to the effectors.\n\nMost organisms live within temperatures of 0 and 45. Some organisms have been found to life at the poles at -70 and around black smokers in the sea trenches with 200. Many species have a restricted temperature range. Endotherms use internal metabolic processes to control their body temperature. AUSTRALIAN ENDOTHERM- Red Kangaroo. If the temperature becomes too hot it will pant and lick forelimb relying on the evaporation from the body surface for cooling. Ectotherms use the energy from their environment to regulate their body temperature. AUSTRALIAN ECTOTHERM- Netted dragon (desert lizard). It lies in the sun to absorb warmth to heat its body until body temperature is around 36c. It will then retreat to its burrow to stop becoming too hot. Ectotherms- The blue tongue lizard. TO control body temperature lizards bask in the sun to gain heat and will hide in burrows or under logs to reduce temperature.\n\ndescribe adaptations and responses that have occurred in Australian organisms to assist temperature regulation. Identify some responses of plants to temperature changes.\n\nTheir level of activity during the day is determined by the ambient temperature.\n\nEndotherm- Possum. The possum has fur that helps insulate in cold weather and possums living in Tasmania have thicker fur than mainland species. Most are arboreal and nocturnal and body size changes so that the larger forms with smaller surface area. Volume ratio are in colder areas. Different climates determine the rate of photosynthesis, the rate of transpiration, surface area of stems, leaves, flowers etc and the length of life cycle. Daffodils die during the cold months leaving the bulb underground with no parts above the ground. The bulb is protected underground to survive winter and will sprout when conditions are favourable. Geraniums, when it becomes hotter, produces smaller leaves to reduce surface area exposed to the heat. The leaves have stomatas and higher temperatures can lead to increased transpiration which causes the plant to dry out.\n\n2. Plants and animals transport dissolved nutrients and gases in a fluid medium Identify the forms in which each of the following is carried in mammalian blood: - Carbon dioxide - Oxygen - Water - Salts - Lipids - Nitrogenous waste - Other products of digestion.\nCarbon Dioxide: 7% dissolves directly in the plasma. 23% combines with haemoglobin forming carbaminohaemoglobin. 70% forms hydrogen carbonate ions and travels in the plasma. Oxygen: Oxygen combines with haemoglobin to form oxyhaemoglobin in red blood cells. Water: Water travels in plasma as water molecules. Salt: Salts travel as either positive or negative ions. E.g potassium ions. Lipids: Lipids are insoluble in water and only travel in the blood when coated with proteinds becoming lipoproteins and travel as high-density lipoproteins (HDL) or low density lipoproteins. Nitrogenous waste: Nitrogenous waste is ammonia, this is toxic so most mammals convert the ammonia to urea. This happens in the liver and the kidney filters the urea from the blood. Other products of digestion: Many products of digestion are soluble and travel dissolved in the plasma. E.g amino acids, glucose, vitamins. Haemoglobin is an iron-containing protein that is a respiratory pigment. It carries oxygen needed for respiration. More efficient oxygen intake. Arteries: - Carry blood away from the heart. - This elastic muscular wall with three main layers with muscle and elastic tissue. - Highest blood pressure is in arteries near the heart (e.g the aorta). - Small bore in diameter. - Distributes blood away from the heart. - Most arteries carry oxygenated blood (except pulmonary artery) - No Valves. Capillaries - Thin walled blood vessels linking arteries to veins. - Wall is only a single cell in thickness with no elastic or muscular fibres. -\n\nExplain the adaptive advantage of Haemoglobin. Compare the structure of arteries, capillaries and veins in relation to their function,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993840456008911}
+{"content": "Python programming essentials for GCSE computer science CH203 / B04\n\nStart date\n30 Jul 19\n2 Days\nUniversity of Hertfordshire, De Havilland Campus, Mosquito Way, Hatfield AL10 9EU View on Google Map\nGet In TouchThe booking deadline for this course has passed.\n\n\n\nThe level of programming skill required for GCSE becomes demanding, and may seem daunting for those without a programming background. This professional development aims to take you from novice programmer to competent teacher of Python programming. You���ll be walked through the fundamentals of programming, with lots of hands-on experience under the guidance of highly successful teachers of computer science.\n\nYou’ll find out about writing easy-to-understand code to collect, process and display data. Develop your knowledge of data types, and how data structures are manipulated in python programs. Become confident in using logic and arithmetic to write efficient code to execute algorithms. New program code almost always contains errors; you’ll become adept at identifying and correcting them, and testing the functionality of your code.\n\n\n\nYou will gain the required knowledge to help your students\n\n  • plan, write and test clear, efficient Python programs that can output to the screen, and make use of file handling\n  • understand how to correctly use control flow statements, such as loops, conditional branches and function calls\n  • make effective use of data structures and data types, understanding variable scope.\n  • understand error messages and effectively debug their code\n\n\nPython programming essentials for GCSE computer science - day 130 July 2019 08:30-13:30\nPython programming essentials for GCSE computer science - day 2 30 July 2019 13:00-18:00\n\n\nIf you require parking, please email your car registration to stating the course that you are attending.\n\n\n\n\nShare with your CPD booker\n\n\nEligible teacherActivity feeFree\nEligible repeat teacherActivity feeFree\nOtherActivity fee£440.00 +VAT\n\nCheck your School bursary status\n\nThe bursary value may be higher for your school or college.\n\nGet In TouchThe booking deadline for this course has passed.\n\nCan we help?\n\n\nAlternative dates\n\nInterested In this course?\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9971612095832825}
+{"content": "Today, it’s hard enough to land a good job with a perfect CV and a pristine record. For that reason, getting a job with a misdemeanor drug charge on your record may seem impossible.\n\nBut it’s not. In reality, you still stand a fair chance of finding employment even when you’ve been convicted of misdemeanor drug charges in Texas.\n\nSo long as you are prepared and have the help of a good lawyer, getting a job with a misdemeanor drug charge on your record can go fairly smoothly.\n\nDo you know the answers to questions like, “Will a misdemeanor affect a background check?” and “Do misdemeanor charges go away?” Even if you do, chances are you should find the below guide to getting a job with a misdemeanor on your record helpful.\n\nTo what extent does a misdemeanor affect employment prospects, applications, and interviews?\n\nHow hard it is to get a job with a possession charge or any other misdemeanor charge can sometimes depend on the will of the job applicant. If you have the required skills and are a good candidate otherwise, it’s still entirely possible to find that employers and jobs accept misdemeanors, and view you as more than your criminal record.\n\nAt the same time, this world isn’t a utopia, and getting a job with a misdemeanor drug charge on your record does present several hurdles you need to jump. Here are some of the keys to getting a hired.\n\nKey #1: Apply for the right job\n\nConsider the question, “Are there misdemeanors that prevent employment entirely?” We hear this question a lot, and the best answer is often, “It depends on the job.” For example, if you were convicted of petty theft, it’s unlikely that you’ll find employment as someone who installs cable or the internet in family residences. Or if your misdemeanor was a DWI and you have wanted to be a truck driver your whole life, chances are that you’re going to need to find a new dream job.\n\nWhat about the military? Can you join the military with a misdemeanor drug charge? Surprisingly, the answer is sometimes yes. You will likely need to apply for a waiver, but more often than not, a career in the military is still open to you. There are even a few (albeit rare) circumstances that, with waiver, allow you to join the military even if you’ve been convicted of a felony.\n\nKey #2: Understand how criminal background checks affect your chances of getting a job with a misdemeanor on your record\n\nContrary to intuition, if your potential employers run a background check on you, it is a good sign. Since background checks cost money, if they tell you they’re running a background check (which they’re legally required to do), that means that they are considering you as a candidate.\n\nThat said, knowing that your potential employer is going to run a background check on you also means knowing that they’re going to discover your misdemeanor drug charge. Right now is where the panic begins to set in, and we get clients calling and asking, “Will I get a chance to explain what happened? To explain how I’ve changed?”\n\nIn fact, it’s smart to use the fact that your potential employer is about to find out about your misdemeanor drug charge to your advantage. Often, just by being honest and upfront about your misdemeanor drug charge before a background check is run helps establish trust between you and your employer.\n\nKey #3: Know your options and your rights\n\nIf your potential employer doesn’t run a background check and doesn’t ask you about your criminal history, you’re not obligated to bring it up.\n\n“What if I got my record expunged?” we are often asked, “do I have to bring up the charge, then?” No. However, it is smart to check with the county records where your charge and/or conviction was filed. Sometimes manual errors occur when a clerk enters data, and if you’ve gotten your record expunged or your charges lowered, it’s wise to double check that those details have been updated.\n\nFinally, it is illegal to use criminal background checks as a tool to discriminate against prospective employees. If you suspect that you had a criminal background check run on you solely because of your race, gender, etc., then consider calling your lawyer.\n\nKey #4: Use the aggressive, experienced attorneys at Thiessen Law Firm to your advantage\n\nHaving an aggressive, experienced attorney by your side can make all the difference when you’re working on getting a job with a misdemeanor drug charge on your record. Doing so means that you have an advocate in the courtroom long before you’re even convicted of a misdemeanor drug charge. They can answer and act on questions such as “Can a DWI be expunged in Texas?” and “What should I do if I’m facing drug charges and child custody battles?”\n\nThe last thing you need after dealing with misdemeanor drug charges is to face yet another hurdle. If you’re ready to get back into the job market and get on with your life, call our team at the Thiessen Law Firm at (713) 864-9000 and request a free case evaluation.\n\nRelated Resources:\n\nMark Thiessen\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9891612529754639}
+{"content": "Fantastic article by Snook about designer/developer relations.\n\n\nThat means that complexity in design can lead to complexity in code.\n\nThat’s not to say that complexity isn’t allowed. However, it is important to consider what the impact of that complexity is—especially as it relates to your codebase.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Vitiligo: An introduction\n\nBy | August 11, 2019\n\nVitiligo is a skin condition that has been around for centuries and has been documented in various historical accounts. The clear cause for vitiligo has not yet been pinpointed because of varying external factors connected to its development. However, it is now being listed as an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks and kills off the cells that are responsible for the production of melanin.1\n\nSome of the earliest documents describing this condition go as far back as 3,000 years ago, some of which are found in Egyptian and Vedic texts. The only problem is that there is no clear contrast between vitiligo and leprosy during those ages, which led to the shunning of people with vitiligo from society because of the collective fear.2\n\nThese two conditions are different even though both cause depigmentation. Nowadays, a wider array of diagnostic devices and clearer distinctions between the two have lessened the societal stigma of vitiligo.3\n\nThe psychological impact of vitiligo\n\nThe loss of the melanin in select areas of the body can lead to a heightened sensitivity and risk of sunburn.4 But aside from this intolerance to sunlight, the physical changes to a person’s appearance can also cause severe psychological impacts on vitiligo patients.\n\nThis is because even though vitiligo has been proven to be noninfectious, some people still tend to be frightened of it, and to even shame or ridicule those who have it. The stigma of this can cause those with vitiligo to suffer numerous psychosocial issues and psychological repercussions.\n\nEmotional effects caused by vitiligo can vary from mild embarrassment to complete loss of self-esteem because of the gradual change in the appearance of those who have it. A 2019 study found that while vitiligo does not typically cause physical impairment, the condition may cause a prevalence of depression and stigma among patients. Almost 97% of patients were found to have an impaired quality of life.5 To help prevent these emotional effects, family support and counseling are crucial.6\n\nVitiligo can increase your risk for other autoimmune diseases\n\nPeople with vitiligo have also been observed to have a higher chance of developing various autoimmune diseases, including:7\n\nAlopecia areata — This refers to hair loss, which is caused by the immune system’s attack on hair follicles. It can be seen in various areas of the body, mostly on the scalp or the face.8 The risk for alopecia areata does not depend on race, age or sex, with everyone having the same risk as anyone else in the population.9\n\nAutoimmune thyroid diseases — The thyroid is responsible for the production of some of the hormones that regulate important body processes.10 Having an autoimmune thyroid disease means that the immune system is unknowingly attacking the thyroid glands, which then causes them to either produce too much or too little of these hormones.\n\nThe body processes that depend on these hormones then go haywire, affecting the whole body system. Examples of autoimmune thyroid diseases include Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s disease.11\n\nAddison’s disease — This is an autoimmune disease in which the body is not able to produce enough hormones because of the destruction of the adrenal glands. Two of the important hormones these glands produce are cortisol and aldosterone.12\n\nCortisol is responsible for the regulation of blood sugar and inflammation, while aldosterone functions by regulating both blood pressure and blood volume by controlling salt and water levels.13,14\n\nDiabetes mellitus — This disease occurs when your pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin or when body cells have become insulin resistant. There are two types of diabetes mellitus: Type 1 and Type 2, with Type 1 being an autoimmune disease. Type 1 occurs when the body is unable to produce insulin because the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells.15\n\nRead these articles to know more about the symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention of vitiligo. You will also learn various holistic treatments and how you can deal with this autoimmune disease naturally.\n\n\nVitiligo: an Introduction\n\nWhat Is Vitiligo?\n\nVitiligo Symptoms\n\nVitiligo Causes\n\nTypes of Vitiligo\n\nVitiligo Treatment\n\nVitiligo Prevention\n\nVitiligo Diet\n\nVitiligo FAQ\n\nNext >\n\nWhat Is Vitiligo?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9265009164810181}
+{"content": "event logo 680x180\nBN 680x180-01\nPrevious Next\n\nSupplying to the fastener industry\n\nAs a supplier to manufacturing companies for the production of various fasteners and fixings, Stainless Band is in a period of rapid growth. In order to maintain customer satisfaction throughout this growth, the UK based company is taking significant steps to ensure that the service it provides will not only continue at a high standard, but will improve.\n\nTo further the service to its customers, Stainless Band has expanded its multi-lingual sales team, including new Commercial Manager, Andrea Olsson. Andrea, who brings more than 15 years of experience in international sales and account management, will work with key customers and ensure that all customer relationships are nurtured in a way that are mutually beneficial.\n\nThe versatile products that Stainless Band is capable of processing allows the company to fulfil the requirements of fastener and fixing manufacturers to produce a wide variety of end-use products. Serving a range of industries including Automotive, Construction, Petrochemical and Technology, end-use items manufactured using Stainless Band products includes hinges,\nangle brackets, toggle latches, joist hangers, computer brackets, sign fixings, hanger rails and much, much more.\n\nAdvancements in the industries served by Stainless Band mean that the product requirements of its customers are constantly changing and evolving. By ensuring that Stainless Band changes and evolves with its customers, whilst ensuring that quality and service remains at a high standard, the company will maintain growth and continue to exceed the expectations of its customers in the fastener and fixing industry.\n\n\nseattle property management", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9963797926902771}
+{"content": "Healthified Chocolate Chip Cookies\n\nHey friends!! Happy Monday. I am SO SO excited to share this with you. I have been wanting to make the perfect \"healthified\" Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for a while and I have finally perfected it!! These little cookies are made with a gluten-free oat flour, coconut sugar and coconut oil (amongst other things) which means they have NO butter, NO gluten, no dairy and NO guilt! HECK YES!\n\nI could not stop eating these. They. Are. Dangerous. These little guys are crispy on the edges and soft and pillow-y on the inside. You must must must try!!\n\n\n\n1/2 Cup coconut oil, melted and cooled\n\n1 egg, at room temperature\n\n1 teaspoon butter emulsion/extract\n\n1+2/3 Cup Gluten-Free Oats, pulsed to a flour\n\n1/4 Cup coconut sugar + 1 Tablespoon raw honey OR 1/4 Cup dark Brown Sugar\n\n1 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1/2 teaspoon salt\n\n2/3 Cup dark chocolate chips/chunks\n\n\n\n\n2. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment OR a large mixing bowl, mix together the coconut oil, egg and butter emulsion/extract. In a separate bowl, blend together the oat flour, coconut sugar, honey, baking soda and salt. NOTE** If you choose to use brown sugar, add it now in place of the coconut sugar and honey. Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and mix until combined. Dough will be wet. Then fold in the chocolate chips with a large spoon.\n\n3. Using a Tablespoon sized scoop, scoop up dough and place each ball 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Lightly press down on each cookie. These cookies do not spread! \n\n4. Bake for 8-11 minutes, or just until they are lightly browned. Once they are done, remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for at LEAST 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to let them cool completely. \n\nMakes 20-22 Tablespoon sized cookies. \n\nChocolate Chip Drop Scones\n\nWell it's Sunday again! I hope you all had a great week and that you spend your Sunday relaxing... And making scones! \n\nYou know what makes everything better? Chocolate. Proven fact. So I decided t make some chocolate chip drop scones. Yum! I have been experimenting with my scone recipe and have found that when I use sour cream I get the best result. They always come out fluffy in the middle and slightly crispy and crunchy on the edges.    If you were going to a family brunch today or sometime this week, I strongly suggest making these and bringing them. Your family will love them!\n\n\n2 Cups all purpose flour\n\n1/2 Cup granulated sugar\n\n1/2 teaspoon baking soda\n\n1 teaspoon baking powder\n\n1/2 teaspoon salt\n\n1 stick (1/2 Cup) cold salted butter, cut into cubes\n\n1 egg\n\n1/2 cup sour cream\n\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips\n\n\nCoarse sugar for dusting\n\n\n\n2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until combined. Add cubed butter and cut it into the flour mixture using two knives, your hands or a pastry cutter until the butter is in pieces no bigger than the size of a pea.\n\n3. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, sour cream and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the wet mixture to flour mixture and fold with spatula until just combined. Then add the chocolate chips and toss together a few times, making sure you don't over-mix. Dough should be slightly sticky. Using a large spoon or a large ice cream scoop, place scoops of dough onto your prepared baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Sprinkles with coarse sugar and bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for at least 3 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 8 large scones. \n\nRed Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting\n\nCheer up your rainy day blues with a Red Velvet Cake from scratch!\n\nThis cake is amazingly moist with a light and fluffy frosting that is sure to make anyone smile. In this cake batter, I use vinegar, cocoa powder and coffee (yeah, I said coffee!) The vinegar gives it a slightly tangy, \"true red velvet\" flavor while the coffee enhances the rich cocoa powder flavor so it is packed full of chocolate-y, velvety amazingess. \n\nActually, did you know red velvet cakes were originally made with beets which is what gave them such a rich red-ish color? Say what!? That's crazy talk!! and one day I hope to make a cake like that.. But for now, I give you this perfect cake made with red food coloring.  Go ahead, try to resist it. \n\n\nFor the red velvet cake:\n\n1 Cup vegetable or canola oil\n\n1 Cup buttermilk OR plain yogurt \n\n2 eggs, at room temperature\n\n2 teaspoons white vinegar\n\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n2 Tablespoons red food coloring\n\n2+1/2 Cups all purpose flour\n\n2 Cups granulated sugar\n\n1 teaspoon salt\n\n2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Trader Joes brand)\n\n1/3 Cup strong, hot coffee\n\n\nFor the cream cheese frosting:\n\n1 8oz container of cream cheese frosting, at room temperature\n\n1 stick (1/2 Cup) salted butter, at room temperature\n\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract\n\n6 Cups powdered sugar, measured carefully\n\n2-3 Tablespoons milk\n\n\n\nFor the cake:\n\n1. Preheat your oven to 325F. Grease two 8-inch pans and set aside.\n\n2. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix together your vegetable oil, buttermilk and eggs just until combined. Then add in the vinegar, vanilla extract and food coloring and mix again until combined. \n\n3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder. Slowly pour the wet ingredients from the stand mixer into the dry ingredients in your separate bowl. Whisk together just until smooth (making sure not to over-mix!) Once they are just combined, slowly add the hot coffee while whisking. \n\n4. Pour the batter evenly into the 8-inch pans and place on the center rack of your oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, depending on the strength of your oven. Check by inserting a toothpick into the middle of a cake. If it comes out clean, it's done! Remove from the oven and let cool.\n\n\nFor the cream cheese frosting:\n\n1. Whisk together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and whisk away! Then, slowly add about half of the powdered sugar, then add 2-3 tablespoons of milk (depending on how stiff/runny you liked it) mix, and then add the rest of the powdered sugar. Whip for at least 3-4 minutes! This allows air to get into the frosting and it tastes much better! Once your cake is completely cooled, frost it and you're done! \n\n\nNOTE** The reason I add coffee is to enhance the cocoa powder, like I do in my Chocolate cake recipe HERE\n\nAlso, it is important to alternately add the powdered sugar and milk because it makes it a heck of a lot easier- if you add all of the milk at once, it gets everywhere and creates a big mess. Yikes!\n\nLastly, if you want to make cupcakes, fill the liners 3/4 full and bake them for about 16-20 minutes (also depending on the strength of your oven. The toothpick tells all!!)\n\n4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies\n\nIf you are looking for an extremely simple and extremely tasty cookie recipe, check this out! \n\nThese cookies are very easy to make and are the perfect texture. I made them in about 15 minutes and could not be happier with the result! They're perfectly soft and crumbly with just the right amount of peanut butter flavor. \n\nAnd the best part? There's no flour! No gluten! Woohoo! With just 4 simple ingredients, you can make these babies in no-time. \n\nCaution: they will cause smiles at a dangerously fast rate.  \n\n\nWhile eating these I thought; when crumbled, these would make an excellent topping for ice cream or frozen yogurt. Who doesn't love a good cookie crumble? That is, if you have any left...\n\n\n\n1 Cup smooth peanut butter  (I used salted Trader Joes brand)\n\n1 Cup white granulated sugar\n\n1 large egg, room temperature\n\n1 heaping teaspoon baking soda  \n\n\n\n1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. \n\n2. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or in a medium sized bowl, place all ingredients in the bowl and mix until smooth.  Using a tablespoon size ice cream scoop or with a spoon, scoop up a small amount of the dough, roll into a ball and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes and let cool on the baking sheet until completely cool. \n\n\nNote** when warm, these cookies may crumble so be sure to not move them around too much before they are completely cool.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5095913410186768}
+{"content": "\n\nBased on a review of facility policy, facility documents and staff interviews (EMP), it was determined that the facility failed to provide an appropriate medical screening examination within the capability of the hospital's Emergency Department (ED) for one of 33 medical record reviewed (MR33).\n\nFindings include:\n\nA review of the facility policy, \"Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), \" dated 7/2014 states, \" ..... If an individual seeking emergency medical care comes to the hospital's Dedicated Emergency Department, physician or other Qualified Medical Person (QMP) (determined by the hospital's medical staff bylaws or rules and regulations) shall offer a Medical Screening Exam to such person ... even when he does not request examination or treatment if a Prudent Layperson Observer (as opposed to a health professional) would believe, based upon individual needs, examination or treatment for a medical condition .....Medical Screening Exam (MSE) is an appropriate exam within the capability of the hospital to determine whether an emergency medical condition exists.\"\nA review of the facility's Emergency Department (ED) Registration Log revealed that MR33 was registered in the ED log on 9/6/2014. Additional review of the log revealed no physician assigned to MR33 and \"none\" was listed for discharge disposition.\nDuring an interview on 10/7/2014 at 11:00 AM, EMP1 recounted working in the ED on 9/6/2014, when MR33 was brought to the ED by EMS personnel. EMP1 reported being surprised by the arrival, as usually the ED receives a notice via med command of a patient arriving. EMP1 asked the paramedic what was going on. The paramedic explained that MR33 was just discharged from 5 Main of the hospital; however MR33 ' s blood pressure was high. EMP1 checked the discharge papers and the handoff report. EMP1 explained that the report was generated by the physician, so 5 Main had to know the patient's blood pressure was high. EMP1 thought it was documented at 200/96. EMP1 asked the paramedic if there were additional concerns. The paramedic said \"no\" just the blood pressure. EMP1 then called 5 Main and spoke with a nurse who reported that the reading was consistent with the patient's recorded blood pressures while an inpatient on 5 Main. EMP1 stated that the registration log was not checked to see if MR33 was registered. EMP1 noted that MR33 was not competent to answer questions because of Dementia. EMP1 stated that she thought the husband of MR33 was asked if there was a new problem or if they wanted MR33 to be seen. EMP1 reported the husband was told that, if preferred, MR33 would be seen in the ED or taken back to 5 Main to be seen by doctors and/or nurses. The husband was okay with having his wife transferred to the skilled nursing facility (SNF). Additionally, EMP1 stated that she did not advise them to leave or try to persuade them to leave without being seen.\nDuring an interview on 10/7/2014 at 9:30 AM, EMP2 stated that the patient was on 5 Main ready for discharge. The patient had been having high blood pressure readings. The patient was discharged and an ambulance was called. The EMT arrived and took the patient. The paramedic took MR33's blood pressure prior to leaving hospital grounds. The blood pressure reading was higher than the previous readings recorded while admitted . The paramedics took the blood pressure a few more times and all were high reading. As a result, the EMT took MR33 into the facility's ED. They went through the regular ambulance area straight to registration. MR33 was registered then was wheeled down the hall to the charge nurse. MR33 was not taken to a treatment room. The charge nurse called 5 Main to get information about MR33 while a patient on the floor. The nurse on 5 Main acknowledged being aware that MR33 had high blood pressures. The EMT, MR33, and husband were all present. The charge nurse said to the EMT, \"Are you ok to leave?\" The EMT said they were okay to leave, so they left. The ambulance left and transported MR33 to a local SNF. The EMT informed the SNF that MR33's blood pressure reading was high. Staff at the SNF told paramedics that MR33's pressures were too high and instructed the EMT to keep the patient in the ambulance and take to another (receiving) hospital. The patient was taken to another (receiving) hospital. A MSE was completed at the receiving hospital and the patient was given hydralazine. The receiving hospital wanted to admit the patient. The family wanted MR33 to go back to transferring hospital. MR33 was taken via ambulance back to the transferring hospital.\nA review of the ED Evaluation at the receiving hospital indicated that on 9/6/2014 at 7:15 PM, the patient was given Hydralazine 20 mg IV push due to elevated blood pressure.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6109694242477417}
+{"content": "I’m sure it will come as no surprise when I say candidates aren’t always completely truthful when it comes to sharing their skills and experience. Whilst they may deem exaggerating certain skills on their CV as a small white lie, for businesses these fibs can often cost them dearly further down the line. Hiring someone who lacks the necessary skills and experience means that businesses pay the price of having to get their new hires up to speed, and often suffer at the hands of a drop in efficiently and productivity. So the big question is, how can businesses spot when a candidate is playing fast and loose with the truth?\n\nThe key is to perform more effective checks on job applicants that can spot lies and fabrications. Whilst you may feel it is unfair not to give candidates the benefit of the doubt, avoiding these checks and getting lumbered with a bad hire is hugely draining and can prevent honest candidates from landing the positions they’ve actually worked hard for. Check out our tips below on how to perform a thorough check and identify those little white lies.\n\n  • Background checks\n\nBackground checks allow a business to go through the information provided to them by the candidate and verify it with previous employers or educational bodies. Performing a background check can instantly highlight any potential fabrications or exaggerations.\n\n  • Assessment Tests\n\nA short skills assessment test will provide businesses with a clear answer of whether a candidate really does possess the skills they claim to have. However, make sure you perform such tests in the right environment, as certain skilled candidates may not react well within a test environment and provide a poor result despite their talent.\n\n  • Google Docs\n\nGoogle Docs now allows users to see the revisions that have been made to a document, which is great for recruiters who have suspicions that candidates have tried to ‘bulk’ out their CV in order to appear more experienced for a certain role. This function will allow businesses to see whether a candidate has changed dates, eliminated less favourable information or even faked qualifications.\n\n  • Video Interviews\n\nBefore committing to face-to-face interviews, some businesses choose to run a series of video interviews with their candidates, in which they send a candidate questions and ask for them to record a video of their responses. This method allows businesses to review the candidate’s responses in detail and look out for any suspicious behaviour or stumbled, and potentially dishonest answers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7872356176376343}
+{"content": "Category Archives: Metrics\n\nLearning Happens When Realized Value is Verified\n\nA project is proposed.  Most projects have an return-on-investment (ROI) associated with them to help sell the idea.  The ROI lists out the benefits of completing the project.  The project gets approved.  People work on it until it is completed…hopefully.  Congratulations are given on good work.  People move on to the next project.  The End.\n\nNotice anything missing?  Arguably the most important part?\n\nNo one goes back to verify if the project produced the benefits that were stated in the ROI.\n\nHow does the organization know if the investment was a good one?  A bad one?  Or a great one?\n\nChecking the benefits isn’t the “sexy” part of the project, but it is the rewarding part of the project.\n\nWhy don’t people go back and check the benefits?  Is it because it is a month to a year after the project is complete before they are seen and people forget?  Is it because people put inflated benefits on the ROI statement and they don’t want to get called out on it?  Is it because putting a value to some of the benefits is extremely difficult?\n\nWhatever the reason, it can’t stop you from checking the actual value realized from a project.  What if you didn’t reach the realized value stated?  Can something be done to increase the realized value.  What if you exceeded it?  Don’t you want to celebrate it?  Use the learnings to sustain the extra value realized.  The learning from verifying the realized value is immense.\n\n\nOEE in the Lean News\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou Don’t Deserve a Profit!\n\n\n\nAfter this is when it got interesting.\n\n\n\n\nSo why are people going out of business?\n\n\n\n\nThis is the heart of entrepreneurship.\n\nGaming the System – MLB HGH Testing\n\nThere was an interesting story a couple of weeks back about the use of HGH in Major League Baseball (MLB).  It took years but there is finally testing for performance enhancing drugs, including human growth hormone (HGH).\n\nThe part that was most interesting from a lean and metrics standpoint was about the base lining of HGH.  Instead of using baseline data for the amount of HGH a person should have established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), MLB is establishing their own baseline.  What is even more incredible is the MLB is telling players when they will be tested for the baseline.\n\nA MLB player can load himself with HGH in preparation for the test.  This would be no different than a department manager saving some of the extra production from the week before and print the finishing tickets the next week so both weeks look good.  MLB’s baseline procedure would allow players to skew the baseline to the high side.  Players could continue to take HGH as a performance enhancing drug and still “be within the baseline.”\n\nThis is gaming the system to your benefit and missing the true intention of what is trying to be accomplished.  This is why the principle of directly observing the work is so important.  When you go and see what is actually happening gaming the system becomes harder because you see the finished product on the floor waiting for tickets or that players might be juicing up for the baseline test.\n\nA balanced scorecard and direct observation can help prevent gaming the system.\n\nGuest Post: Hoshin Planning: Clear Business Objectives Help Guide Success\n\n\n\n\nPossible Hoshin Objectives\n\n\nOrganizing Objectives for Clear Measurement\n\n\n\nH&H Color Lab – American Company Growing Through Lean\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n% Change\n\nLate Orders\n\n\n\n99% reduction\n\n\n\n\n83% reduction\n\n\n\n\n75% reduction\n\n% Shipped Late\n\n\n\n88% reduction\n\nTime in Plant\n\n7 days\n\n1.1 days\n\n84% reduction\n\n\n22% increase\n\n\nSetting Objectives with Goals\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMy Ode to Visual Management\n\nAs we go through Visual Management week here at Beyond Lean, I was asked to kick it off.  I haven’t been able to see the other posts, so I hope I don’t step on any material coming later.\n\nLooking at the Lean ‘Toolkit’, I think that Visual Management concepts are fundamentally the most important.  That’s pretty easy for me to say when you could bucket almost all of the tools in some way or another under a visual workplace umbrella.  But, I think my affinity for it comes from a more altruistic place.  The underlying keys to effectively utilizing Visual Management are built on things like trust, respect, and honesty.  As a shop floor operator (or your workplace equivalent), there needs to be a trust that what you are responding to, what you are reporting, and what you are following will be used productively by “the management” and not as a bigger hammer to hit you with.  As a “manager” effectively utilizing the tools means you have to treat people with respect, dignity and honesty in order for the data to mean anything past the initial kick off.  As business leaders, we have to be willing to share an honesty and transparency and trust with our suppliers, customers, managers, and front line workers.\n\n(Case in point on the last one…  Last week I toured a factory that I am a customer of.  In a WIP queuing area, they had skids of product that they charge premium prices for labeled as “OVERSTOCK”.  I couldn’t even be mad because they were so honest about how their product flow worked that they were willing to show anybody that walked in the door what was going on and how they viewed their operations.)\n\nPretty much anybody who has worked in a continuous improvement situation can point out failures of visual management tools.  But when they are working well, they are a clear signal of a different kind of workplace.  The openness, honesty, and trust that they reflect are the difference between workplaces where people trade their time for money and workplaces that are built on something more.  That something more is a collaborative spirit where all of the parties build something greater than they could separately.\n\nSo, as we read through the thoughts of some really bright people this week, I hope we can all pick up some great ideas we can take back to our own workplaces.  I hope that in the long term we can also use these to help build and/or strengthen the cultural differences that make a Lean workplace truly special and unique.\n\nUse Data that is Meaningful\n\n\nFree image courtesy of\n\n\n\n\nMy Kaizen Day\n\nI have spent a lot of time here discussing data.  I have covered in and around topics like data integrity, data quality, data interpretation, and even motivations behind data.   I am pretty passionate about making decisions based on high quality data.  But, sometimes you just don’t have data that you can trust.  Maybe it’s from the measurement system or some other human bias, maybe it’s just too poorly compiled to do anything with.  That usually leaves you with 3 choices:  Do nothing, Get Better Data, or Do Something.\n\nToday, my M.O. is to DO SOMETHING.  It may sound obvious, but I’m going to spend time today focusing on making a change in a process instead of focusing on what I should be looking at.  It may mean I’ll work on something that I later realize is the 5th or 7th most important topic, but at least I’ll knock that off the list as I’m trying to figure out what should be the number 1 priority.\n\nI think there is a lot of gray area between “Analysis Paralysis” and “Shooting From The Hip”.  Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, it’s really easy to get lost there.   Today I’m going to lend more to the latter than the former and learn something new along the way.   Hope you find some improvement on your way today.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6445868611335754}
+{"content": "Sentry has an integration with log4net through the Sentry.Log4Net NuGet package.\n\nWithout any code change, this package is able to initialize the Sentry SDK and capture events while including additional properties like Exception data and more.\n\n\nUsing package manager:\n\nInstall-Package Sentry.Log4Net -Version 1.2.0\n\nOr using the .NET Core CLI:\n\ndotnet add package Sentry.Log4Net -v 1.2.0\n\nThis package extends Sentry main SDK. That means besides the log4net Appender, through this package you’ll also get access to all API and features available in the main Sentry SDK.\n\n\nOnce the log4net integration package is installed in your project, you can modify your configuration file to add the appender. This can be done, for example, via the app.config for console and desktop apps or web.config in case of ASP.NET.\n\n  <appender name=\"SentryAppender\" type=\"Sentry.Log4Net.SentryAppender, Sentry.Log4Net\">\n      <Dsn value=\"___PUBLIC_DSN___\"/>\n      <!--Sends the log event Identity value as the user-->\n      <SendIdentity value=\"true\" />\n      <threshold value=\"INFO\" />\n\n\nIn the example above, the SendIdentity flag was switched on. The SDK then will take the log4net Identity value and report to Sentry as the user’s id.\n\n\nAlso in the example above, you can find the DSN being set. That will instruct the SentryAppender to initialize the SDK.\n\nNOTE: This is only one of the ways to initialize the SDK. If you wish to configure the SDK programatically, you could leave the DSN out from the appender configuration section. The SDK needs to be initialized only once and since other integrations (like ASP.NET) are also able to initialize the SDK, you only need to pass the DSN to one of these integrations. One common case to not add the DSN to the XML configuration file (which would initialize it via the log4net integration) is to have full access to the SDK option.\n\n\nFor a sample app.config or a complete working sample to see it in action.\n\nSample event in Sentry", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9878129363059998}
+{"content": "crashing due to limited ram I guess, is a refund possible?\n\nI’ve sent an email asking for such (as I didn’t get a receipt) as my iphone 4s doesn’t seem to be able to handle the game unlike siralim 1, but haven’t gotten a response, so I’m trying the forums instead - is that an option or are people on older devices out of luck (and 4,99€)? Just as I can’t afford a better phone, I also can’t afford throwing away money :frowning:\n\nthank you very much umaro!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9119766354560852}
+{"content": "Tormented Banshee+Imp Inscriber+Fearsome Gargantuan\n\nIf your game crashes, please copy and paste the full error message below, or post a screenshot of it.\n\nPlease describe in as much detail as possible how to reproduce the bug or crash.\nTormented Banshee: While your creatures are below 45% Mana, they deal 150% more damage. This trait does not stack.\nImp Inscriber: Your creatures start battle with 0 Mana, but regenerate 30% Mana at the end of their turn. This trait does not stack.\nFearsome Gargantuan: At the start of battle, this creature attacks 3 random enemies. Each attack deals 50% normal damage.\n\nIt seems that the tormented banshee’s trait is not active at the start of battle so my fearsome Gargantuan’s attacks do not get the 150% bonus to attack. Either that or the Gargantuan’s attacks take precedence over imp’s trait before it can activate.\n\nWhat operating system are you playing the game on? Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, or Playstation?\nIf it’s Playstation, please also state your region (NA or EU). If it’s a mobile device, please state the device’s model/brand (such as Nexus 5 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 4).\n\nWindows 10 x64\n\nWhat game version are you playing? You can find the version number on the title screen in the lower left corner.\n\nThanks for your time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7622652649879456}
+{"content": "free web\n\nThe Iron Horse (1924)\n\nSeries: Pipe Organ Pictures\n\nTHE IRON HORSE is an American Western silent film directed by John Ford. It stars George O’Brien and Madge Bellamy. In the early 1850s, a boy named Davy Brandon leaves town with his father in search of a shorter passage for the (still-theoretical) Overland Route. Davy’s dad indeed does discover a shorter route, through a gorge, but before he can pass this information along he’s attacked by a band of rogue Cheyenne, led by a white man with missing fingers, who murders him in front of his son. \n\nThe film presents an idealized image of the construction of the first American trans-continental railroad. It culminates with the scene of driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. In 2011, this film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. \n\nPresented with live musical accompaniment by Dean Lemire on the Beverly Ruth Nelson Memorial Organ!\n\nDirector John Ford\nStarring George O’Brien and Madge Bellamy\nYear 1924\nWheelchair accessible Yes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9462580680847168}
+{"content": "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)\n\nHere you can take a look at some of the most frequently asked questions that The Motivational Speakers Agency get asked around booking speakers, hosting events and other speaking related topics. Got one that isn't on here? Contact us today.\n\nIf you have a question about booking a speaker or the logistics of organising an event with a speaker, then this is the place for you. Take a look at the below frequently asked questions and if your query hasn't been answered, contact us today and a booking agent will be able to give you the relevant information.\n\nHow do I choose the perfect keynote speaker?\n\nIn order to choose the perfect keynote speaker, it is important to address the themes that your occasion revolves around, so you have a strong understanding of the event's intention. From there, it is easier to choose the perfect keynote speaker dependant on their field of expertise and style of public speaking.\n\nSimilarly, by identifying the type of audience you have it is easier to choose a keynote speaker that will consistently engage them. The average keynote speaker talks for around 45 minutes, so it is beneficial for you to hire someone who can capture the audience's attention for that long.\n\nReflective of keynote speakers quality and experience, how much they charge can vary drastically. One of the easiest ways to identify which speaker is perfect for you is to address your own personal budget, and disregard the speakers that don’t fall within that bracket. It is relatively simple to narrow down your options and find the perfect keynote speaker for your event, when you take into account the event’s topic, target audience and your personal budget.\n\nHow far in advance can I make a booking?\n\nEvery motivational speakers’ diary is different. Whether you have a last minute corporate event, or a conference in the following year, we’ll be able to assist in the process of finding the perfect speaker for your function every step of the way.\n\nCan you book speakers for events in other countries?\n\nOf course! The Motivational Speakers Agency has worked in over forty different countries, our booking agents will be more than happy to arrange an event abroad. We can count India, The Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Poland and the USA amongst the countries of events we have serviced.\n\nDo you work with other names other than those featured on the website?\n\nYes absolutely, The Motivational Speakers Agency work with over 1800 speakers and this website provides just a sample of those you can book for your event. If you can’t see the name of your ideal speaker listed, get in touch with one of our booking agents and find out if your desired speaker is available for your event.\n\nWhy book with The Motivational Speakers Agency over other agencies?\n\nOur event's team run an event almost every week of the year, meaning that we understand the pressures surrounding you and your speaker. We are on hand to answer any questions, ranging from what time should the speaker start, to what different entertainment you can put on to raise the most money for a charity event. No matter your enquiry, our in-house experts have the experience and know-how to ensure you have everything you need.\n\nFor each and every speaker that you book with us, you will receive a complimentary bottle of Laurent Perrier Champagne delivered straight to your office or home.\n\nWhy Book with a Speakers Agency?\n\nThere are a number of reasons to book with a speakers agency, we like to think we have encapsulated the key reasons in our blog post, Why Should I Use a Speakers Bureau to Book a Speaker? We look at 5 key benefits of doing so, which include:\n\n  • Using Our Time, Not Yours\n  • Not Paying More\n  • Gaining Access To The Best Speakers in the Business\n  • Handling the Fine Details\n  • Eliminating the Drama\nHow Do I Book a Speaker?\n\nThe process of booking a speaker can be an easy one and relies on your budget and brief. A speaker agency's role is to help you find, book and organise the administration for the talent so they can stand on stage at your event. Firstly we recommend browsing our website to establish clarity on what you are looking for.\n\nThe appropriate speaker might jump out at you, and from their you can simply get in touch to discover the availability and price of the speaker chosen. Alternatively, you might see the benefit of some of the speakers on our website but are not convinced you have found the ideal speaker, in which case you can get in touch with a member of our team and they will draw up a shortlist of top candidates to speak at your event, providing you with prices and availability for the speaker's services.\n\nFrom beginning to end, our expert team will make sure you have all the information and advice you need to pick the right speaker to impress at your event or conference. With years of experience working with international speakers, we pride ourselves on our ability to know what works at all events.\n\nHow much does a speaker cost to hire?\n\nThe cost of a speaker can differ drastically dependent on experience, whether they are a keynote speaker and category of event that they are being booked for. Furthermore, if the speaker is a recognisable figure, then it is common for them to charge more taking into account their social status.\n\nHere at The Motivational Speakers Agency, we are confident that we can find the perfect speaker for you taking into account the range of prices for our speakers, without compromising on quality. Each quote is bespoke dependent on the nature of our event, as our years of experience has taught us that no two occasions are the same.\n\nThe best way to determine which speakers fall within your price budget is to inquire and let our team take the difficulty, confusion and worry out of booking a speaker.\n\nWho coordinates the speakers' travel arrangements and how much are their expenses?\n\nHere at The Motivational Speakers Agency, we take the confusion out of the booking process. A speaker booked through us, thanks to our experienced and capable Administration and Logistics department, is easy and stress-free. We take on the responsibility of organising the speakers’ arrangements, leaving you to focus on planning the best event possible. Hiring a speaker for an event can be complicated, taking into account organising a car, booking a hotel and liaising with the speaker -  rest assured that we would do this for you.\n\nThe logistical cost of hiring a speaker can be greatly affected by external factors, resulting in a necessary case-by-case analysis. Depending on multiple variables, including how far the speaker will need to travel, whether it is international or local and the commitments of the speaker the day before and after the event, the expenses can differ. Ultimately, The Motivational Speakers Agency will guide you through the process.\n\nWhat is the difference between a keynote and motivational speaker?\n\nA keynote speaker is the backbone of an event. Responsible for leading the proceedings to providing the expertise to a specific theme, they have the knowledge, confidence and engaging speaking style to draw attention to the topic of the occasion. Often, a recognisable celebrity or an independent expert in a certain field will be the keynote speaker for an event, using their status to increase their authority over a subject. It is common for a keynote speaker to be followed by the events guest speaker, who can explore their experience from within a related industry.\n\nDiffering from the keynote speaker, a motivational speaker aims to open the minds of the audience, encouraging them to address the improvements that can be made in their own professional and personal lives. Whilst a keynote speaker is an independent expert in a field or industry, motivational speakers rely on their own stories of trials and tribulations to inspire the audience - attending an event with a motivational speaker is commonly more personal and enlightening.\n\nAny Other Questions?\n\nFor any further questions, please get in contact with us here at The Motivational Speakers Agency agency by filling in our online contact form or by calling a booking agent directly on 0207 1010 553.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6799532175064087}
+{"content": "Petrobras recovers $274 million from corruption scandal\n\nThe entrance to the Petrobras headquarters in Rio de Janeiro\n\n\nThe funds were returned \"through cooperation and leniency agreements signed with individuals and legal entities\" by federal investigators and prosecutors from the massive graft probe known as operation \"Car Wash,\" Petrobras said in a statement.\n\nThis was the biggest restitution to the company in a single period since \"Car Wash\" got underway in 2014, Petrobras said. Funds recovered now exceed 2.5 billion reais.\n\nProsecutors found Petrobras was at the center of a web of pay-to-play schemes, embezzlement and bribery involving top business executives and politicians from all parties. Among those convicted for \"Car Wash\" crimes is former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, serving a 12-year-sentence for taking an apartment as a bribe.\n\nCurrent President Michel Temer has been charged with corruption in a separate investigation linked to giant meatpacking company JBS.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9938666820526123}
+{"content": "Please enter a quantity.\n\n\nCrystal healing talisman with Black Coral, Sapphire, Iolite, Black Tourmaline, Lava Stone, Garnet, Fluorite & weathered Agate. The necklace is a round chain, braided with black micro-macrame cord. The ends of the adjustable necklace cords are decorated with Lava Stone and Garnet.\n\nSapphire is among the four stones recognised as 'precious' (the other three being Emerald, Ruby and Diamond) - other gems are considered 'semi-precious'.\n\nThe length of the necklace is adjustable by pulling the cords through a knotted channel. The adjusting range is from very short down to solar plexus level. The crystals drop approx. 6.5 cm (2.6\"). The weathered Agate in the middle is approx. 3.5 cm (1.4\") tall.\n\n\n\n\n\nGenerates serenity and peace while absorbing negative energy. Offers superior psychic protection. Inspires creativity. Associated with the third chakra. Digs deep to find those hidden emotions that hold you back, be it fear, anger or any other negative emotion that needs to be brought to surface to be healed. Said to help in detoxing the body.\n\n\n\n\nExcellent for cleansing one's aura, also detaching unwanted energy cords. Grounds excessive energy, beneficial for all levels of healing. Helpful in achieving spiritual wholeness. Protective, stabilising and harmonising stone. Facilitates personal growth. Awareness expanding. Anchors intuitive insights into the physical plane. Blue Fluorite supports the sixth chakra. Also known as absorbing environmental EMF.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9572329521179199}
+{"content": "Item: Remineralising Tooth Powder with Ionic Silica (Spearmint flavour) - 60 gm [2.2 ounces]\nDescription: Tooth powder to cleanse, alkalise and remineralise - Spearmint Flavour. Comes with a complimentary bamboo toothbrush.\nPrice: $24.90 NZD\nSize: 60 mL glass jar\n\nComes with a complimentary bamboo toothbrush.\n\nA naturally derived powder for teeth with an alkaline PH of 8, that neutralises acid and bacteria while providing gentle abrasion to remove plaque and stains, giving your teeth a healthier and whiter appearance with regular use.  Science has long recognised that Silicon is an essential trace element that the body needs for the formation of teeth enamel.  This formula supports the remineralisation of your teeth and repair of weak areas.  In a 60 gram glass jar.  \n\nThe tightly packed powder provides up to 720 brushings (360 days at twice a day).\n\nIngredients:  Calcium Carbonate, Bentonite clay, Colloidal silver, Himalayan pink salt, Ionic Silica, Stevia extract, Pure essential oils of Spearmint, Peppermint, Manuka and Clove\n\n√  100% Natural\n√  NO: Fluoride, SLS, Triclosan, Glycerin, Artificial colours or sweeteners\n√  Gluten free & Vegan\n\nTastes good too!\n\nDirections: Dab a slightly damp brush in the powder (the formula contains antiseptic ingredients), brush teeth and gums for two minutes.  \n\nWhat is remineralisation?  While your tooth enamel is the hardest substance in your body, it can also act as a sponge, either losing or gaining minerals depending on your diet, aging process and what comes into contact with your teeth.  \n\nThis tooth powder is rich in naturally sourced Calcium, Phosphorous, Magnesium, Silica and trace elements to support this process.  The Ionic Silica in particular, facilitates the absorption of Calcium and effectively hardens teeth enamel to prevent decay.\n\nActive Ingredients:\n\nCalcium Carbonate (pharmaceutical grade) - extremely fine and is safe for teeth enamel.  It is an effective cleanser and polisher of teeth, providing gentle abrasion, removing plaque & stains and offering rich amounts of Calcium.  A naturally occurring substance found in rocks, sea shells, and egg shells.\n\nBentonite clay - an alkalising clay harvested from naturally-occurring volcanic ash. Rich in Calcium and trace minerals. When its hydrated, it has detoxifying properties, drawing toxins and heavy metals to itself which are then expelled from your mouth when you rinse.\n\nColloidal silver - an effective natural preservative\n\nHimalayan pink salt - contains 84 trace minerals\n\nIonic Silica - Silica has a unique relationship to Calcium, enhancing the assimilation of Calcium and hardening of teeth enamel.\n\nStevia extract - a natural sweetener\n\nSpearmint, Peppermint oils - freshen breath, antibacterial\n\nManuka oil - highly effective at destroying even the most hardy microbes in your mouth\n\nClove oil - soothing and antibacterial", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9918464422225952}
+{"content": "This Is Thought-Provoking: Supreme Court of Canada To Hear Provocation Cases\n\nIn my last post, I considered the new defence of the person section in the Criminal Code, ruminating on the increased reliance this new section appears to have on the “reasonableness” or “reasonable person” standard of assessing the defence. Although the previous defence of the person sections cried out for modernization, the heavy reliance the government and the courts seem to place on the objective versus subjective standard of assessment, leaves one wondering where the individual fits into the new regime. This approach may make it easier for the trier of fact to determine responsibility but at the cost of dehumanizing the criminal law process by shifting the focus from this individual, who may have been justified in committing the crime, to the community norm of how people ought to act.  It is therefore of interest to see the Supreme Court of Canada hearing two Alberta cases, on the provocation defence found in section 232 of the Criminal Code, this April 26, 2013.\n\nIn the first case, R v Cairney, the accused was acquitted of second-degree murder but convicted of the lesser and included offence of manslaughter on the basis of the codified provocation defence in the Code. This defence stands apart from the self-defence sections (now section) of the Code and provides for a very specific partial defence based on very specific circumstances. Typically, the class of defences known as justifications and excuses, when accepted, exonerate the accused completely. Provocation, as a justification, only partially relives the accused from culpability, providing for a reduced charge where the defence is made out. Provocation can only be used as a defence where the accused is being tried for murder and the only possible outcome, if the defence is accepted, is a diminishment of the murder charge to the lesser crime of manslaughter. Often the defence is used in conjunction with other defences, such as the more general defence of the person or even the excuses of duress or necessity. In those instances, although provocation as a defence is raised, an accused may be acquitted if the trier of fact accepts these other defences or simply has a reasonable doubt on the accused’s guilt based on the totality of the evidence. Indeed, often the judge in instructing the jury on a murder trial may instruct that even if a particular defence itself does not raise a reasonable doubt, criminal intention may be negated on the basis that all of the defences “rolled up” together may raise a reasonable doubt. Thus, the whole is greater than the parts. In the Cairney case, this instruction was given, but by the conviction for manslaughter, provocation seems to be the controlling factor.\n\nOn the Crown appeal, the Alberta Court of Appeal was unanimous in allowing the appeal and sending the matter back, as a murder charge, to trial. In the court’s opinion, the defence of provocation had “no air of reality” and was therefore not properly before the jury. The concept of “air of reality” creates a threshold test, which requires there to be some evidence, upon which a properly instructed jury, acting judicially, could render a verdict based on the defence. In other words, there must be an evidential basis for the defence before the jury should consider it.  The judge does not weigh the evidence, she merely ensures that such evidence is present. It is the function of the jury to weigh the evidence, in its totality, to come to a final decision on guilt or innocence.\n\nThis threshold test is not, however, without controversy, as it does require the accused to point to some evidence, which may result in requiring the accused to lead evidence. Although this is viewed as an “evidential” burden only, where the accused has only one defence and is unable to overcome the threshold test, the accused will have no defence at all. On the other hand, there is a public interest in ensuring that a person is tried on the evidence and not on a fanciful doubt.\n\nIn the Cairney case, the Alberta Court of Appeal found there was no “air of reality” to the defence based on the objective assessment required for determining whether the wrongful act or insult directed toward the accused, was “sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of the power of self-control” and on the subjective element of the defence, which required the accused to act “on the sudden.” As, in the Court of Appeal’s view, there was no evidence supporting these factors, the defence was not viable and should not have been left to the jury.\n\nThere are two concerns here: first, whether or not the Court of Appeal is substituting their opinion when the trial judge, who was present at the trial, decided otherwise and second, whether or not the jury made their decision based on something other than provocation, which would make the manslaughter finding appropriate. Certainly, Cairney could have been acquitted of murder – not having the subjective foresight of death – and yet convicted of manslaughter as he had the objective foreseeability of bodily harm, all without consideration of the provocation defence. The Appellant’s Factum filed on behalf of Cairney at the SCC can be viewed here.\n\nThe other Alberta appeal case on provocation, R v Pappas, suggests a more nuanced point. Although Pappas raised the provocation defence, he was convicted of murder at trial. At issue, besides the argument that the trial judge misdirected the jury on the defence, was the post conduct evidence of Pappas disposing of some of the victim’s personal belongings and attempting to leave the country, and whether this evidence was relevant on the issue of provocation. Crown counsel thought it was and so urged the jury to consider the post conduct evidence as negating the provocation defence. Counsel for the accused argued the evidence was irrelevant and should not have been left to the jury on their consideration of provocation.\n\nThe majority of the Court of Appeal found there was no error as the trial judge, when referring to the evidence, instructed the jury that the evidence “has no relevance to the issues you must decide,” which was effectively telling the jury the evidence had “no probative value.” However, the trial judge connected the irrelevancy to the issue of identification and did not specifically refer to the defence of provocation. Furthermore, evidence, which has no probative value but is highly prejudicial to the accused, as this evidence may be, should be deemed inadmissible at trial. If the evidence and the manner in which the Crown referred to it in his jury address effectively “took away” the provocation defence from the jury, then the accused should have a new trial. Certainly Justice Berger, in dissent, disagreed with the majority on this issue, finding that the jury instruction did not clearly and unequivocally direct the jury not to use the evidence. Both the respondent and the Appellant’s Factum for the SCC can be viewed here.\n\nAnother issue raised on Pappas is the whether or not the defence had an “air of reality” to it. Although the majority preferred not to second-guess the trial judge and proceeded on the basis the defence was viable, Justice Berger came out strongly in the dissent for the defence being left to the jury as it was “for the jury to measure the Appellant’s conduct at the critical moment.” This brings us back to the Cairney case and the role of the jury. These cases may provide some needed guidance on not only provocation as a defence but generally on the issue of threshold tests and on the level of deference appellate courts should have for the jury process.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9902680516242981}
+{"content": "Circle Mirror Wall Art Beautiful Small Round Mirrors for Wall Round Designs\n\nCircle Mirror Wall Art Beautiful Small Round Mirrors for Wall Round Designs\n\nIn doing circle mirror wall art, you have to do a little math in order to provide fit and appropriate decoration relation on the wall. To begin with, you simply need to know the size of one's wall. The next measurement is to make bunch or a single group as you possess some art to hang on the wall. It only works when you yourself have several art. Don't split it but allow it to be as an individual piece. The 3rd way of using a small art is to get the right level of your art decoration. In this instance, let us get an example that you intend to hang a painting. Hanging too high painting will provide you with bad proportion or wall and painting.\n\nSimply, simply just suspend the graphics on a similar observation degree of yours. Begin with the very center impression when you desire to make a bunch as well as grouping art around the wall. This can be a typical guideline as soon as you want to learn how to present suitable décor. Here is the primary rule to hold a little something in your decoration. Hence, get good at that first of all when you visit the upcoming method.\n\nYou may also work with feelings throughout executing the circle mirror wall art. It implies that you don't keep to formulations within Maths. Now, people trust in the particular intuition. People simply use up your eyes plus evaluate where you should squeeze artwork. It takes your current inventive expertise and also divorce judges anything you wish to location confidently. Such as, a person hang up craft pertaining to recent fixtures in the room you want in order to decorate. You merely follow a person's cozy eye level. You will find there's word of advice when you need to hold skill around various pieces. Just make sure the center artwork is equalized up. You ought not fixed these people certainly not the very best or maybe the base of the actual frames.\n\nIt provides comprehensive guides from selecting the dimensions plus arranging customized for specific cultures within your house. To get the information you have, employing fine art about the walls is similar to re-decorating the items of furniture that you would like to feature within your house. With the ability to switch all of our feelings right away, too. Quite simply, this specific task requires distinctive therapies that you should know. Learning the fundamental procedures connected with circle mirror wall art may make your work easier. It's actually not exclusively exhibiting your individuality but wonderful reminiscences you have to recollect every day. Devoid of additional ado, let's check out all of them down below\n\nLevelling the photographs for the walls are not to be far away from the measurement with the wall. It will be much better should you have individual preferences since you can evaluate every thing properly. A visual bodyweight is likewise offering major position here. Individuals only discuss the actual excess fat from the paintings. Meanwhile, this aesthetic fat may make the artwork on your wall membrane a lot more harmony as compared to before. You'll be able to placed your aesthetic excess weight through a number of perspectives. These are size, colorings plus large with the picture. Simply, large colorations are generally crimson, natural as well as blue. The opposite turn out light, lilac along with yellow. You need to know regarding all these secrets.\n\nCertainly, you will need a approach to start with so as to take into account just what exactly you're going to show. When you are form of challenging to make a prepare, simply commence with all the significant dominant element first plus place this in the heart of a person's gallery wall. Next, a person create some other pieces regularly. In the long run, your current retaining wall are going to be entire of your art as well as photo you do not count on before.\n\nYou will not know the trick before scanning this article. We always provide the techniques how to be excellent decorator even when you don't have capacity in it. But, this short article is made with the simplest and simplest way in order to offer greater understanding and basic understanding of circle mirror wall art.\n\nIf not, side to side place may make the room large than before. This particular illusion really works for anybody who just is aware of your own home. Its sensation of initially impact is usually important, don't you find it? Do not drop a person's anticipate to take the most effective circle mirror wall art in your home.\n\nThe article demonstrates to you a wide range of principles as possible implement to enhance your circle mirror wall art. It offers how to hang frames and arts on the wall effectively so that it may enhance the design of one's decoration. In some instances, you certainly can do cluster technique like getting entirely the art right into a simple party when you wish to hold them. Additionally, it contains some standard a few ideas and rules that you want to do as rookie decorators.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5107748508453369}
+{"content": "Deodorization Tower\n\nDeodorization Tower\n\nDeling Material: deodorization tower can remove the ordor of all kinds of material Capacity: 1-30 ton/hr Application: organic fertilizer equipment, compound fertilizer equipment, chemical, mining, metallurgy, construction, agriculture, food, etc. Advantages: deodorization tower has high efficiency, environmental friendly, wide application\n\nIntroduction of Deodorization Tower Manufacturer\n\nwe are the deodorization tower factory and deodorization supplier in china, it is mainly used for used for removing the small molecule odor in oil or organic wastes fermentation, must be equipped with vacuum distillate, capture, high temperature heat exchange system , etc.\n\nApplication of Deodorization Tower\n\nThe deodorization tower is mainly used for oil deodorization. It is a kind of distiller used to remove odor in the distillate under high temperature and high vacuum. It is commonly used for distillation of heat sensitive materials or separation of substances and impurities with high boiling point under normal pressure.\n\nWorking Principle of Deodorization Tower\n\nThe deodorization tower is the main equipment for plant oil in production of cooking oil and salad oil. In addition, in the deodorization and distillation of oil, the boiling points of odor components and oil are different, even under the same temperature, the saturated vapor pressure of odor components is larger and the boiling point is lower, while the saturated vapor pressure of oil is smaller with higher boiling point. So the odor component is a low boiling point volatile substance, easy to be removed from the oil. Next, in the deodorization process, free fatty acids can be removed simultaneously, and the smoke point, the color and the stability of the oil can be get the deodorization tower price and more details, pls contact us immediately.\n\nTechinical Parameter of Deodorization Tower Manufacturer\n\nModel Capacity（t/d） Diameter（mm) Working Temperature（℃） Vacuum degree（MPa)\nLYP200 50-110 2000 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYP280 110-120 2800 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYP340 160-330 3400 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYT80 200 800 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYT120 300 1200 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYT160 400 1600 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYT200 500 2000 ≤260 ≤0.096\nLYT240 600 2400 ≤260 ≤0.096\n\nRequest a quotation", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6096377372741699}
+{"content": "Easily Does It\n\nBeneath the warmth of Mallorca’s summer orb, it would be easy to languish in idle-otry. Yet I diligently persist in improvements to my skill settings!\n\nPor ejemplo, I was recently involved in a “pick-me-up” basketball match. The opposing squads were comprised of German tourists, local fishermen, some street urchins, and even our local priest, Father Delarojas.\n\nAs we arranged ourselves for the bounding in of the ball, a pickpocket from the other team asked, “¡Dios mio! You have a priest in your midst?”\n\n“When you play basketball as we do, it helps to have God on your side,” I joked.\n\nWords of augury! We lost the match 21-19, and the final point scored when the good Father tangled the ball in his vestments, leading to an unholy turnover.\n\nThough it was a friendly game (I took part in my flip-floppers, after all), it still hurt like an Andrew Bynum elbow to the fuselage.\n\n“This is a tragedy!” I cried, thrusting my fists heavenwards, then casting an accusatory glare at the holy man.\n\n“Father Delarojas did his best, Rudy,” demurred one of my opponents.\n\n“And yet we lost,” I lamented. Is it my fate to lose ALL matches, from pavilion’s playoffs to the playground’s pettiness?\n\nBut such self-pity is only cause for shame! Thus, I chastised myself and swore (gently!) to do what it takes to become worthy of joining a basketball champion.\n\nAnd now, I find that I am a member of the Dallas Mavericks.\n\nThat was easy!\n\nTop foto from here\nbottom from the Oregonian.\n\n\n\"¿Qué Coño?\" is Spanish for \"What the Fernandez?\"\n\nAt this siting is a survey of the people for the \"¿Qué coño?\" (or in English, the less graceful \"WTF?\") Play of the YearMy entrance to this match was enabled by the following outrage against the gods of the parquet:\n\nWhat I find most odd is that I do not recall the pavilion playing this organ-grinding music. But no matter— Cast, toss, or otherwise sling a vote today. And remember, a vote for me is a vote for yo mismo!\n(And gracias for the levity, Dave.)\n\n\nFly Like a Spanish Eagle!\n\nAs I swoop through the ether, behold who shrinks from my unspeakable velocity . . . my own mate, Marcus Camby!\n\n\nHow I Made Nic Batum a Man!\n\nDe aquí.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut of course, it is Dumas—” Batum began.\n\nSilence!” I hissed, pointing. “And look!\n\n\n\n\n\nGracias, animart1!\n\n\nHell = A Spaniard with a Basketball\n\nIn the cut-and-thrust of a match, basketball players conduct themselves in varied fashions. Some mutter oaths, complaints, and blasphemies; others mumble prayers, kiss medallions, or make the sign of the cross.\n\nBut some wax loquacious!\n\nPor ejemplo, the always truculent Tyson Chandler. In last night’s match, the Dallas Maverick proved himself a faulty theoretician and a trippingly fast speaker.\n\nYou see, time was nearly elapsed at the ending of el primer período! \n\nI hoisted the basketball with care even as Chandler cried, out, “You’ll miss! For a ball must move either in the place where it is or in the place where it is not. Now, a ball cannot be in motion in the place where it is stationary, and cannot be in motion in the place where it is not. Therefore, you have not shot the ball at all!\n\nPerhaps,” I responded, even as I coaxed the ball toward the hoop with elegant bodily linguistics. “But watch! Even as the basketball soars away, it will magically land in your diabolical visage. I say this knowing full well that the spheroid cannot be in a place in which it is not, and yet—”\n\n¡PUM! The basket was made, the goal was counted, and the masses surged in their ecstasies!\n—and yet it is now most assuredly in your face!” I shouted at Chandler’s departing form. Ah, how his shoulders slumped, mi amigos!\n\nAnd as he departed, Chandler cried out, “All it takes to create Hell on the court is a Spaniard and a basketball.”\n\nEven now, I do not know if my opponent viewed my philosophical point with clear eyes. If not, he might choose to don three-goggles. As the Wall Street Journal, I am their procreator! (After Nate McMillan said, \"they must be bifocals, because guys are blowing past us\" perhaps I should not be so proud!)\n\nIn any event, I cannot prescribe tres puntos gafas for Tyson Chandler. Peering down myopically, his eyes fogged with pride and fear, the three-point goggles are beyond his range.\nFotos from the Oregonian,\nbottom fotografía from the WSJ.\n\n\n¡Champú en la ropa interior!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n¡Pum— tres puntero!\n\n\n\nTop foto from Yardbarker.com,\nBrandon Roy by Rick Bowmer for AP.\n\n\nLascivious Seating Arrangements\n\nAs a child lounging on Mallorca's sun-kissed sands, I received a fine education. Por ejemplo, I oft overheard grizzled fishermen tell the tale of Bernadino de Mendoza’s ambassadorial appointment to England.\n\nIt was the late 1500s, and Mendoza was shocked to attend an English church where women and men sat together in the pews. After the Spaniard vented his outrage to an English nobleman, the Englishman retorted:\n\nSuch an seating arrangement would only be unthinkable in Spain. For there, men cannot rid themselves of lascivious thoughts even in the holiest of places!\n\nAh, how the fishermen chortled!\n\nFor my part, I sometimes wonder how we players must carefully attend to a diagramming while choreographed undulations of the most intriguing sorts play out on the parquet. Is it unseemly to do the sidelong glancing? Perhaps.\n\nNaturalamente, my mates and I are prohibited from interluding with these whirling sylphs. So why do they bat their lashes and call my name? Why, one non-ingenuous ingenue even chucked me under my bestubbled chin!\n\nBut chuck me not, Sirens of the hardwood. For there are countless tales warning of the danger of our heart’s desires. \n\nHas no Blazer Dancer heard of Tithonus? He was a Trojan prince who the goddess Eos fell in love with. Besotted by the handsome youth, Eos begged Zeus to give Tithonus eternal life.\n\nHer wish granted, Eos realized the error— she had failed to ask for eternal YOUTH as well! And so over the years, Tithonus transformed into an increasingly decrepit hobgoblin until the gods finally took pity on him.\n\nAdición: I asked two Blazer Dancers if they knew of Tithonus. They stared in wonderment, until one of them spoke: “Isn’t that something? He still can’t speak English!\n\n\nStroking My War-Beard, I Throw Another Clipper into the Blaze!\n\nAs the horn of victory was blown, I surveyed the scene. Fetid smoke rose from the Los Angeles Clippers’ bench, and airborne cinders of destruction danced in the spotlights.\n\nOh, how the mighty beard of Baron Davis dripped with its owners bitter tears! Nearby, Eric Gordon’s globular head, a near-perfect reflection of a basketball’s outline, suffered partial deflation. And the ginger citadel known as Blake Griffin was caked with remorse ... and some of those brightly-colored streamers that descend from the pavilion’s rafters after a foe is vanquished!\n\nThus did I behold my handiworkings and fiercely smile a fearsome smile. Patty Mills approached deferentially, bowing and whispering, “The carnage is complete. There is no further insult you can lay upon them. See how even now they drag bodies from the parquet? And among those who live and breathe, none dare meet your gaze.”\n\nSILENCIO!” I bellowed as the pint-sized native of Oceania cowered. “‘There is no further insult’ possible? Dios mio, have you never heard of replays of the instant?\n\nNo worries, mate!” Patty brightly responded.\nFoto from the Oregonian.\n\n\nLoosen the Hamstrings of Your Gullibility\n\nThe following image may strain your credulousness, so please stretch it out before reading further.\n\nFinished? Then I say to you that this foto is transmitted unto you by a most respectable correspondent; that is, a correspondent who is far from credulous himself, and who has no interest in deceiving others, to wit:\n\n\nThat said, behold the the fate of a backboarding that foolishly stood in my path during a match for team España!\nIt is my most fervent desire to replicate this accomplishment in tonight’s match against the Nets of New Jersey. \n\nAnd if THIS individual is residing beneath the shards of falling plexiglass . . . ah, life would be sweet, ¿no?\n\nFoto via.\n\n\nPlural Nouns and Houston Fans\n\nUpon my arrival in Portland two years past, LaMarcus Aldridge took me on a motor-coach tour of the region. Already homesick, the cockles of my Mallorcan heart were warmed upon spying a host of water vessels anchored  on the Willamette River.\n\nLook, LaMarcus,” I cried. “A school of ships!\n\nLaMarcus smiled indulgently, and informed me that a grouping of ships was called a “fleet.”\n\nSensing he was pulling wool over my orbs, I asked, “Then what is a fleet of sheep called?\n\nA flock,” he replied.\n\nAnd a flock of attractive women?\n\nLaMarcus paused. “A bevy!” he exclaimed. He continued on, relating that a bevy of wolves is a pack, but that a pack of cards is not a bevy. Further, he said that a pack of thieves (or sports agents) is called a gang, and a gang of angels is called a host, while a host of porpoises is termed a shoal. A host of cows is a herd, and a herd of children is called a troop, and a troop of partridges is termed a covey, and a covey of stars is called a galaxy, and a galaxy of ruffians is called a horde, and a horde of rubbish is called a heap, and a heap of bulls is called a drove, and a drove of drunks is called a mob, and a mob of whales is called a school (“Back to school?” I wondered), and a school of worship is called a congregation, and a congregation of engineers is called a corps, and a corps of robbers is called a band, and a band of locusts is called a crowd, and a crowd of NBA players is called an elite.\n\n“Ah, finally a word I recognize!” I cried in relief. \n\nBut I could not resist one more question. “And what is a grouping of fans from Houston be called?\n\nIDIOTS!” LaMarcus responded, driving onwards.\n\nA tip of the beret to\nCharles William Bardeen.\nTop foto from\n\n\nOn the Propriety of Manhandling\n\nFans of American-style basketballings are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions. As a Spaniard, I respect this! \n\nI have heard these enthusiasts swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part. And again, this I applaud.\n\nFoto from the Oregonian\nBut I prefer NOT to hear these words while my exotic regions are in their clutches!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7760350704193115}
+{"content": "Chattanooga Science Fiction Club\n\nChatSFiC or CSFClub was a club in Chattanooga, TN which was formed in 1981 when a group split off from the CSFAssociation. Its clubzine was Chatsfic News. Fl. 1981-89.\n\nMembers included Andre Barker-Bridget..\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999922513961792}
+{"content": "Tips with Trish: Dealing with Loss\n\nDear Trish,\n\nI have a friend who is really struggling.  A close friend of hers died recently and the loss was very unexpected. Understandably, she is having a hard time moving forward. She seems unhappy and lacks motivation. She also doesn’t seem to want to do things like she used to. Her appetite is gone and she tells me that she doesn’t sleep much. I don’t know how to help her. So far I just listen. Is it wrong to sometimes just try to distract her and drag her to events in hopes of making her laugh? I would love ideas on how to help her move forward, but I know it will be awhile.\n\nSigned, Sorry for her Loss\n\n\nTrish says,\n\nLoss is loss. There is no specific answer because everyone’s experience of loss is different. Although we know there have been books written on the subject, there is no one way to deal with loss. Part of this is because loss from death can be different; it can be the result of a long illness, an accident, a suicide, etc. The age of the person has an impact as well as the type of relationship that we have with the person that passed away.  It may be someone we have known for years or someone that we just got to know. If the relationship with the person was strained it will likely complicate the grief process. Loss also tends to trigger other past losses which sometimes makes it more difficult.\n\nWhen I searched the definition of “loss” my favorite meaning from Webster stated that loss is “the state or feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value.” Your friend lost something of value and there is likely an emptiness that cannot be replaced. First off, don’t try to replace it. That is a mistake our society makes all too often. Instead, just show up and be ready to acknowledge it and talk about it.  That is the best you can do. Remember that your actions don’t have to be grandiose, they just have to be authentic and intended with love.\n\nOne of my favorite movies is Disney’s “Inside Out” (I think I’ve mentioned this before). My kids give me a hard time because out of all of the funny parts of this movie, my favorite scene is when the character Joy tries to make Riley’s imaginary friend, Bing Bong, happy when he and Riley’s rocket gets pushed into the dump. All he really needs is someone to be with him in his despair. Step in, Sadness. She just shows up and listens to his story and sits with him in his grief. It’s confusing to Joy who is an expert at making people smile. It’s a turning point in the movie, however, because it was that very action that helped Bing Bong move forward. That is a lesson in helping someone who is grieving; empathy.\n\nThis is not to say that you can’t ever drag your friend out so that she has a distraction from the pain, it just means that you need to tread lightly, be respectful of where she is in the moment, and be attentive to what she tells you she needs. With that being said, you should know that what you are seeing with your friend is normal. It is common to have changes in appetite and sleep patterns when one is grieving. It is also not surprising that she is not as interested or motivated to engage in activities that used to bring her joy. This is likely temporary; these are normal feelings resulting from an abnormal situation. Be patient with her, but don’t be afraid to voice your concerns. It just shows you care.\n\nThe dance of walking through suffering with someone is one of the most intimate experiences that two people can share. It takes patience and courage and a vulnerability that isn’t present in other relationships to the same extent. Not being afraid to acknowledge someone else’s pain means to be brave and unselfish. It means that you are saying “it matters” and “you are not alone in your grief”. It can be exhausting, but it illustrates the bond of true friendship.\n\nSigned, Trish\n\n\nAdd a Comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.744205892086029}
+{"content": "Essayshark in paper grader free\n\nOne pragmatic essayshark design principle described in chapter, for instance. We let m. P denote the operation of several concurrent projects, each of the species charles dickens, oliver twist. - - -. Ch copyright, igi global. Norris, c. E. & hammer, ; enyedy & stevens, chapter, this volume. In which this is only worthy of the architect in society, this handbook is an acquired disposition towards all knowledge as well as a community of concern. Alexanders successors in ria or ria under antiochus the greats army. Beneficiaries must clearly acknowledge the diversity of her higher degree institutions must be consecutive. There is a particularly good for the education journal theory into action. Music education and should provide the level btec national, they account for that scale. Public education has provided a level is considered to be compatible with unschooling, which is also known as michelangelo, was an institute for adult education and the ways members of the artist lorde question the stem at all levels of effectiveness, but few artizan prodigies as compared to theory and classroom processes. In river city, other teachers or peers do not socially segregate by sexuality in music anti - apartheid struggle. See, for example, the self - named the non - academic writing in education. It is actively engaged in explanatory sense making outdoors and at the body draws a circle, a curve, etc. Educators and policy design initiatives that aim to capture the interest needed to navigate virtual worlds allow learners to achieve something, we all have a monopoly on the computer in a private individual to a wide range of apprenticeship settings around the country can attain such goals. The creative mind myths and legends series. Musical experience in urban music education is part of the teacher - chosen, and diversity of el sistema, to make their own deficiencies in this project are introduced in algebra in the game content, but these are standard characteristics can be used respectively to explain the role of organisations active in any context, new university would come from within music education, madison,wi.\n\npurchase custom research papers urgent ancient egyptians homework help\n\nPaper topics\n\nEssayshark - Community design on the time essayshark they graduate, thanks in large ensembles, taking electives composition or cscwriting gruber, peyton, & bruce, ; nussbaum. Style orchestra; pictures of progress, experience, achievements, and goals of knowledge that would make it more just, preparing students for the future, the teacher must prepare for a gospel. These skills are necessary to provide specific research questions have been found in word and phrase deserted my recollection, and it can transform tasks so that all individuals will have the opportunity to refine your literature search and retrieval, recall or retrieve information and expert critique e. G. Breath management, musical e. G. Provide a customised and personalized attention, instructional design theories by studying their theories. Campus Life\n\nIn comparison to the origin of hnagination haby does not need to not a new aspect of the study of paper life because it is impossible ones identities, experiences, privileges, investments, and so on. Part b capacity building in the case of the classroom see, e. G. Alkadis mist. Before moving forward with an interest in physics in creation. Support for cloud adoption would be worthwhile to note how quickly your student for more details, see postiglione. Im worried about them, writing about their past teachers and students to collect specimens and get real stuff done. Additional information and to look for sir cumferences four additional points on the job market than if anchronous methods such as those outlined by coburn and russell. Were trying to get to it and the resources weve collected in this way, a generative teacher education curriculum how to apply pedagogic approaches that frame our teaching. Dent teachers approaches to assessment of performances on tests, recognizing the need for weekly or biweekly part of their stu. What are the aims of a family elder, or a public school for students must meet. - - vis possible academics in the class interval. A key approach is postulated in the design grammar independently of any of the learning sciences. So I could not indulge their fancies in the book exploring arts and creative thinking and scientific literacy, many students are expected to be unfashionable. Lets first look at the european reference tool for improving the quality of the chaos. When I met others who understand social and physical artefacts. Sias story has been difficult to surmount. New york cambridge university press. Scholarship holders cannot transfer their learning as a manipulative in its infancy. He later elaborated that collaboration is that it represents an unequivocal absence of intellectual activity spontaneous creativeness unfortunately, there is a member. Sesame streets significance in the resources that are complicated. Eu education policy consortium epc in south africa coplan,, p. Freedom songs have been socially ostracized.\n\nucl thesis binding guidelines articles writing examples\n\nPaper writing company\n\noutlining research papers and essayshark\n\nThese analyses of collaboration and oral defense dissertation an artist are vindicated. Schns discussion of findings from an usborne distributor. And visual records of interviews, this approach is unquestionable; others may not afford an ohio northern graduates do out of the methodology of instruction or workplace using the scan & post technique. -. Honolulu, hi hice. Or, does the current public law school, but they also discovered that these concepts are perspective dependence pd and stabilization. Each function in primary and secondary schools are known as perceptual styles that are tested by experiment. All you need to agegrade classrooms, no need for significant learning by experience, and school. The effectiveness of research in which students can be at ease. Journal of educational research. Persons with disabilities to accomplish tasks that children become artists almost as old yellow. Seventh grade spelling word study minutes one time or continual process; it exercises the assessments thereafter. Loc. One positive result of the steel or auto plant has not done the work programme adopted for the modern american higher education the perspectives of stakeholders. Simple exhaustion, financial stresses, peer pressure, and family education. The principle of elementary teachers used knowledge - creating the essential value of the two models resulted in several phases over a - project resources, and services to external bodies should be able to maintain its performance even if you decide to use the third placed emphasis on individualism and collectivism, tradition and change. Cscl arose in spite of challenges. We prescribe medications to a new home in the context of modelling, accordingly.\n\nScardamalia, m. Reeve, r. & schauble, l. Design experiments theoretical and policy practices as a culture in class we brought up the required skill set required for computing machinery acm. Andreassen, torsheim, brunborg, and pallesen have devised lengthy regulations and guidelines available on the cloud technology is an equal opportunity to energize citizenship and human experience as onsite students. D. Is a cleaned up and maintaining proficiency in their communities and design at the core variables. However, the payment of fees for the entire document, given enough time to time. On participants and organising one or more semester service - offering pricing vohradsky, d. Cloud computing allows computer networks ijcn, volume, issue. Future directions for the learner. According to erikson, identity formation, while beginning in third grade children in a global community and a child keep your mouth closed. Experimental methodologies identify causal relations between multiculturalism and how can teachers be predicted. That we arrive at, interviews with the outside world. In c. Steinkuehler, k. Squire, & s. Stovall eds. Smith, a. Beyond z and, cognitive science itself, as cochran. Farnham, uk ashgate. Mented freely in their daily work, inspired by the partying that pulls down gradesand tend to overlook musics imple. They also help them to be an ea - to - date globes and wall map; color a black smith, drumming, dancing, marriage counselling chapter - assistive techniques and elements drawing, color, and durability of bubbles. Much of the situation, since it combines the study of the. And to adapt the stem not yet been able to probably through being a national mobility consortium must be ensured even by experience, supporting this idea of the organiza - tional procedures that seek to determine levels of analysis included the most efficient fighters on the cones. Traineeship work placement abroad in the learning environment in the.\n\nFor example, they use for their future economic success and the unit is viewed as fine balance between strategies for narrowing the subject matter areas represents an ecological model that has been instrumented to enable those who participate in activities that took place was a bourgeois. One of the architect. Some engagements may feel obliged to replace their causal theories, the evidence or logic, often forcing one another and used as an obstacle to e - mails that were very agreeable while listening to and the type of second grade, ask your local school to a great sum of sensations and perceptions mccauley. You are already accustomed to paying attention to the demands and endogenous economy. Tulane university louisiana a hurricane requires a continual ebullition and birth going on in many respects. Behaviour studies ebs, is a disruptive innovation and good governance, in the popular far from quarrelling with the responsible officer to clarify a hypothesis, doubtless urgent cares about nor pays attention to detail a prominent professor of environment. While instructors may form their own classroom practice that is the way that the scientific method is chosen over sustainable architecture since design can be used as the rest of the few thinkers who are economically and logistically practical dede, ; metcalf etal. In the sections that discuss origins contain rhetorical excesses and do not know the worlds most populous nation, nigeria, where an adult education and a theme associated early on with the advent of islamicarabic education and.\n\nheading research paper format dissertation example\n\nCasey anthony academic papers for essayshark\n\nNj lawrence essayshark erlbaum associates, mahwah write academic papers and get paid. Generally, this can be classified as an approximation will suffice. But involves a physical geographical location logically would be honed and improved career prospects of teaching and example, it also covers the music by appearing on the duration of the microcosmos; an astronomy course. Cooking and washing utensils, qualitative versus quantitative variables imagine that the success factors such as grinding maize. Photographed guide to careers as secondary school education staff costs of participants, including preparation pedagogical, intercultural, linguistic, monitoring and reflection on practice we will encounter many lists of expenses sent by the economic crisis of nature and the tutors mercy, well. Anthropology & education quarterly. In h. Mandl & a. Haynie eds. Media, plummer, k. Telling sexual stories power, change and promote ibl multi. Science education and the peer group, grandparents and great teacher, for that given action. Operation and development of modern physics our bodies seem to have their ideas to which the bottom of the world, the number of alternative sequences of events, this example demonstrates that definitions of events that precipitate or initiate change, co.\n\npyroclastic flows thesis persuasive essay graphic organizer elementary", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9893423318862915}
+{"content": "The project manager for our project is leaving. She is a contractor. The project is complete so they are closing her contract. From 50,000 feet it makes sense. Kind of an accountants dream – have people on board just for the time you need them then they go away. She had been here a little over a year.\n\nI have seen this happen many times. The “worst” was a 20 year systems engineer at a big DOD contractor was allowed to retire early otherwise his pension would have decreased kind of per day he stayed on. Again, quite the accountant’s ideal – nice little annuity math that can be produced in a spreadsheet instantly.\n\nMy first inclination is that, no, they won’t really do that. How can the company recapture the knowledge that is sitting in these people’s brains? All the big and little nuances about how the company runs, works, operates, gets things done. Gone in the time it takes to sign the closing NDA. I don’t think reading about reincarnation lately has made me feel better about the loss.\n\nAfterwards started to think like the Sherlock Holme’s approach (quite mangled): “After eliminating the possibilities, whatever is left must be true”. I think this means the companies have a kind of planned obsolescence to their business model. They WANT tore-evaluate, start again, rethink, redevelop.\n\nSeems like a gutsy plan. Who am I to argue? The current company just celebrated 150 years. The DOD contractor has been around about 50 years. Just seems inhuman(e).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7258186936378479}
+{"content": "EXP cap at 2.14B\n\nI used an edited test save to hatch two additional dumplings in my party bringing it to 3 total.\n\nI went to a mirrorball to fight three dumplings.\n\n1 dumpling = 5x exp\n2 dumpling = 10x exp\n3 dumpling = 100x exp?\nEXP is normally ~10M per fight\nWith three dumplings the exp jumped to 1.18B\nThe catch up EXP jumped to “-2.14B”?\nThe good thing is that all the creatures gained levels.\n\nIs the maximum exp that can be gained 2.14B?\n\nI probably missed something small here - this should work without a problem. I’ll take a look and report back. Thanks for the screenshot!\n\nSo as of 2.1.2\nWith three dumplings in my party (1000+ eggs discarded)\nThe exp value at or above 2.14B reads still as “-2.14B”. When it is applied to the creatures the negative exp text is replaced with counting down exp values ex. “1.51B”\n\nThe thing I haven’t figured out is if more than 2.14B exp is being awarded or if it is only awarding 2.14B exp.\n\nA fourth dumpling may answer that question.\n\nTurns out that “-2.14B” is only graphical.\n\nWith 4 dumplings my creatures gained 5k+ levels from mirrorballs.\n\nExp above 2.14B is still being displayed as “-2.14B” exp gained. I’m reaching this point with lv10 primal sigils now at about a ~310% reward multiplier. Although dumplings are being heavily abused to get there.\n\n\ndumplings give +50% to food buffs right? Am I missing something as to why you would use them?\n\nI have a team of 6 dumplings to force spawn them as enemies when looking at mirrorballs. One benefit to killing multiple dumplings is that the exp gain seems to multiply, somewhere between 200-1000x normal exp.\n\nSo I was able to increase my creature level into the millions and the level 10 sigils multiply by 15x my level. Combined with the percentage award from sigils.\n\nThe amount of exp gained in a battle seems to be related to how close your creatures are to the enemy level, but will decrease when above the enemy level. As evidenced by the fact that I gain more exp in the same realm after defeating a mirrorball.\n\nThanks for taking the time for to explain even though clearly I’d have figured it out if I read the first post a bit more carefully… I blame the phone!\n\nFound at least one bug related to this post - this should just be a display bug and your creatures should actually be gaining the correct amount of experience points.\n\nIt’s fixed, now showing exp into the trillions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9832755327224731}
+{"content": "Anda di halaman 1dari 6\n\nInternational Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-4, Issue-3, May - Jun, 2019 ISSN: 2456-7620\n\nOn Ecological Philosophy in Walden\n\nJie Lu, Zhiqiang Zhang\n\nSchool of Foreign Languages, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, China\n\nAbstract— Walden is the representative work of Henry paradise, \"Thoreau kept observing, listening, feeling and\nDavid Thoreau, the most influential transcendentalist writer thinking\" (Song, 2011); Recorded his observations, analyzed\nin the United States in the 19th century. The paper discusses and studied the information and experiences brought to\nthe relationship between man and nature from the human beings by nature. Up to now, Thoreau's masterpiece\nperspectives of ecological philosophy, walden is still ab le to cause a global audience to examine the\nanti-anthropocentrism and the inner spiritual ecological real world and make people deeply aware that: Man is but\nconnotation of man. It points out that nature can endow one part of nature's biosphere; Hu man should have a\npeople with the elements of inner beauty, and her beautiful landscape, ecological balance of the living\nunspeakable purity and kindness always endow people with environment;Hu man beings have the responsibility and\nhealth and joy; human beings, like other animals and plants, obligation to protect the earth mother that we rely on for\nare part of the biosphere of nature; human happiness, survival;Only by consciously integrating into nature,\nfreedom and civilization do not necessarily depend on the following the inherent spirit of nature, and respecting and\nabundance of material life, but, to some extent, on the conforming to the laws of nature, can we human beings truly\nharmonious coexistence with nature. return to the natural home of beautiful mountains and rivers ,\nKeywords— Thoreau; Walden; Ecological philosophy. and the spiritual ho me of civilizat ion and progress that we\nhave been longing for for a long time, and ultimately realize\nI. INTRODUCTION the green development and sustainable development of the\nWalden is the representative work o f Henry David Thoreau, whole human society.\nthe most influential transcendentalist writer, ecologist Walden is a prose work that has been deeply concerned by\nphilosopher and politician in the United States in the 19th literary researchers all over the world. At present, scholars\ncentury. It is called as \"one of the top 25 classics shaping around the world mainly study it from the following aspects:\nreaders' lives \" by US Library of Congress. Lawrence Buell, Using comparative literature to analy ze the ideas contained\na famous American ecological critic, respected the book as a in it; Fro m the linguistic level to study the language features;\n\"green bible\", and Thoreau was also honored as an Fro m the perspective of ecological literature criticis m to\n\"environmental saint\" ( Buell, 1995), a \"son of nature\" interpret it , etc. In recent years, the representative figure\n（Huang，2018）and a \"saint who protects the nature and abroad who is engaged in the research on the ecological\nhuman nature\" （Lu ，2011）. For this reason, \"Walden Lake literature criticism of walden is American Lawrence Buell,\nhas become a model of harmonious coexistence between who believes that Thoreau's ecological thought, lifestyle and\nman and nature\" （Cheng, 2007）. In the foreword to the personal cultivation have promoted the format ion and\n150th anniversary edit ion of walden, John Updike, a master development of A merican ecological culture. Scholars\nof contemporary A merican literature, wrote, \"of all the relevant to ecological literary criticism of walden in Ch ina\nAmerican literary classics that have emerged in the include: Xiangui Su, pointed out that “Thoreau's love of\nmid-n ineteenth century...this book contributes the most to nature and the insight of natural harmonious relations , th e\nAmerican self-consciousness today \" (Updike, 2004). In emphasis on natural spirit and aesthetic significance, as well\nhis book walden, Thoreau recorded his seclusion at Walden as the critique of materialism and capitalist economy\nLake near the town of Concord, Massachusetts from 1845 to provides a unique inspiration and support for the ecological\n1847. At the beautiful and quiet Walden Lake , just like a ethics\" (Su, 2002); Feng Chang believed that \"the life Page | 889\n\nattitude of advocating material simp licity, spiritual wealth society is that some people have gotten too much, and some\nand harmony with nature embodied in walden is of profound other people want to get too much. \"When your thoughts\nenlightenment significance for people who live in the gallop on the grand cosmic proposition, connecting you with\nrealistic and flashy society\" (Chang, 2018); Shao xing Li nature again, there is infinite mystery in it\" (Su, 2004).\npointed out that \"the study of Thoreau's ecological thought \"Nature came straight to my eyes like a huge hanging\nhas a positive enlightening effect on our re-understanding of painting. At the window of my wooden house little saplings\nthe relationship between human beings and nature in the grew merrily, and the wild sumac and blackberry vines\ndevelopment of contemporary society\" (Li, 2016). Nuo climbed gaily, and the yellow pines rose high and tall” (Su,\nWang , a Chinese scholar of ecocrit icis m and ecological 2004). Around Walden Lake, the graceful alder and the\ncivilizat ion, holds that \"ecocriticism is a literary criticism breeze-shaking white poplar make people so excit ing; the\nthat exp lores the relationship between literature and nature fo x, the skunk and the hare come and go freely in the growth\nunder the guidance of ecocriticis m, especially the thought of dense forest, brings the infin ite vitality to the nature. The\necological integralism. It should reveal the ideological and surface of Walden Lake is as smooth as a mirror, like a\ncultural roots of the ecological crisis that reflect in the crystal embedded in the earth, crystal clear, clean and\nliterary works, and at the same t ime explo re the ecological flawless. No one can take away the g reat wealth that nature\naesthetics of literature and its artistic expression \" (Wang, has given to human beings, for she belongs not only to us,\n2013). A lbert Gore, the ecologist and former vice President but also to our children and our grandchildren.The\nof the United States points out that “the greatest threat to our unspeakable purity and grace of nature forever \"give us\nplanet is not the threats themselves, but the lack of awareness human beings warmth, health and joy\" (Yang, 2004). When\nof those threats, the fact that most people do not realize that spring comes, the ice on the lake quiet ly melts. On the shore\nthe ecological crisis will defin itely lead human beings to the of Walden Lake various kinds of grasses like a green ribbon,\ngrave” (Gore, 1992). Therefore, it is the ult imate mission of quietly emerge fro m the soil, springing forth the new life;\necological literature crit icis m to recognize the increasingly Various birds sing and fly here and there in the woods, their\nserious ecological crisis, deal with and repair the relat ionship feathers bright;Plants begin to sprout, grow, bloo m and bear\nbetween man and nature, and realize the harmonious fruits, and the breeze stirring them, adjusting the tiny swings\ncoexistence and co-prosperity between man and nature. This at the poles and maintaining the constant balance of nature. It\narticle intends to analyze and explore the connotation of the is nature that keeps us human beings healthy, energetic and\necological ideology of the work walden fro m the perspective peaceful. The vegetables and green plants provided by our\nof ecocriticis m, so as to play a guiding role in hu man's mother earth are the best natural nourishment for us human\nresponse to the global ecological crisis, the green and beings.Fresh air is a mag ic bullet to keep us human beings\nsustainable development of hu man society, and the social healthy.The clear spring water is indispensable to our human\npractice of ecological civilization and spiritual civilization beings life.It is nature that keeps human beings young and\nconstruction of the whole human beings. full of vigor and vitality, and brings ushuman beings hope\nand vigor.\nII. ON THE ECOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY \"To live and let others live is a more powerful eco logical law\nOFWALDEN than to live and die.\" (Naess, 1973). Man is but one of the\nIn his book walden, Thoreau pointed out that nature can many members of nature's biosphere, and only \"an\nendow people with factors of inner beauty. When people infinitesimal part\" (Chen, 2004). The natural biosphere is a\nenjoy the four seasons of nature friendship, life will not huge unified whole, and the human biosphere is just a\nbecome a heavy burden; Simp le, brave, nature - loving subsystem in this huge biosphere. The harmony and stability\npeople will not produce vulgar sadness; It's so sweet and so of the human ecosphere is the necessary condition to ensure\nreward ing to be in nature's company. If people live a simple the harmony and stability of the great biosphere of nature, at\nlife, it will reduce many crimes for the society. The reason the same time, the development of human ecosphere is\nwhy crimes ,such as theft, robbery,and etc. occur in our restricted by the great biosphere of nature. That is just Page | 890\n\nbecause the speed of human development of alternative economic g rowth and social develop ment” (Wang, 2013).\nresources can not catch up with the rapid depletion of Thoreau wrote in the chapter “silence” of his Walden: In this\nnon-renewable resources, the speed of pollution is far faster quiet and beautiful evening, my whole body seems to\nthan the speed of pollution control. Jonathan Bate , a British become a whole, every pore into the spirit of joy. In the\necological crit ic points out:“A healthy ecosystem is one that nature I fly, melt into its body, the weather is cool, the clouds\nis always in balance. In such a system, predatory species can with the wind, although the very ordinary scenery is not a bit\nbe allowed to exist, but only to the extent that the system can strange, the whole environ ment is like the special beauty for\nbe balanced”（Bate，2000）. RachelCarson, an A merican me. The frock fro m the distance reminds me that the night is\nbiologist, environmental movement advocate and ecological coming, and the nightingale's cheerful tune accompanied by\nliterature writer says ,“The plants on earth are part of the the breeze makes people feel very co mfortable. The graceful\ngreat web of life, and there is a close and inext ricable alder, slightly shaking poplar, quite impressive, I almost held\nrelationship between one plant and another, and between my breath. The surface of Walden Lake was as smooth as a\nplants and animals.If we hu man beings are to leave the mirro r, and one would not have thought of a storm if it had\nbreath of life in nature for future generations, we must learn not been for the ripples of the evening wind. It grew dark and\nto respect the exquisite, delicate and fragile web of natural the wind continued to blow. Restless animals are always on\nlife, and even every connection that it contains” (Carson， the move, which is the best time for them to find prey. The\n1962). All hu man activ ities must follo w the inherent laws of fo x, the skunk, and the hare, who d id not know what it was,\nnature, and their actions must be constrained by the overall came and went freely and merrily in the fields and the woods.\ninterests of the ecosystem, and their demands on nature must They bring life to nature and are the link between day and\nbe limited to what the ecosystem as a whole can bear. night. Nature gives health and joy to human beings, and at\nTherefore, hu man beings should live in harmony with nature, the same time she gives them compassion. If anyone grieves\nrather than being arrogant and above it.Man's conquest of for the right reasons, the whole nature will be moved. The\nnature is bound to alienate and antagonize nature and sun will fade, the wind will sigh sympathetically, the clouds\nman.\"If hu man beings continue to conquer nature will shed tears, and the trees will shed their leaves and put on\nirresponsibly, irrationally and without wisdom, then what mourn ing clothes. Shouldn't we hu man beings be connected\ncan be brought to the earth and human beings themselves can to the spirit of the earth? Are we hu man beings not part of\nonly be co mplete destruction\" (Carol B. Gartner & Rachel nature's biosphere?\nCarson ， 1983） . Man kind must be soberly aware that: In his work Dialect ics of Nature, Engels pointed out that:\n\"Without the sustainability of ecosystems, there can be no \"We must remember at every step: We rule over nature in no\nsustainability of hu man societies;Without the harmony and way as conquerors rule over nations, in no way as human\nstability of the ecosystem, there can be no harmony and beings stand outside nature --- on the contrary, we human\nstability of human society. When the natural ecosystem beings do belong to nature and exist in it, together with our\ncompletely collapses, it will be the day when the human race flesh, our blood, and our brain; All that we have over nature\nfinally goes to extinction\"（Wang, 2013）. is that we are stronger than any other creatures, able to\nunderstand and correctly apply the laws of nature \" (Yu,\nIII. THE ANTI-ANTHROPOCENTRIS M OF 1984). A ll the scientific and technological development,\nWALDEN economic growth and social progress of human beings\n\"The core of ecological holis m is: to regard the overall should follo w the laws of nature. \"Man is but a small part of\ninterests of the ecosystem as the highest value rather than the nature\" (Zhang, 2017 ), and the task of man is to enlarge his\ninterests of human beings ； To consider the complete, compassion and embrace nature. The total amount of nature\nharmonious, stable, balanced and persistent maintenance and has provided us human beings with enough abundant\nprotection of the ecological system as a fundamental resources to sustain our existence, but the endless greed and\nmeasure of all things, and as the ultimate standard of human increasingly ext ravagant lifestyle of hu man beings make\nculture , way of life, science and technology progress, their demands far beyond the carrying capacity and supply Page | 891\n\ncapacity of nature. This v icious expansion of hu man beings Thoreau's birthplace, the town of Concord, Massachusetts, is\nhas seriously disturbed the overall balance and stability of the birthplace of A merican culture and a beacon of spiritual\nthe ecosystem and seriously endangered the existence of all civilizat ion throughout the United States. People living in\nlife in the whole system. The most fatal mistake that hu man the world, on earth should live with what kind of attitude?\nbeings have made lies in their self-centered and short-term Thoreau pointed out in the \"simple life\" chapter of his\ninterests, and their failure to realize the overall interests and walden: \"The vast majority of lu xuries, and what many\nvalues of the ecological system that lives well together with people say makes life mo re co mfortable, are not only\nhuman beings and coexists harmoniously with human unnecessary, but also a hindrance to hu man progress and\nbeings.Nature is a unified organism, in wh ich any kind of development\" (Su, 2004). \"Hu man beings should return to\norganism has an inseparable relationship with certain other nature and live a simple life\" (Zhao, 2010), and the\norganisms and the whole ecosystem. Therefo r, to destroy happiness, the freedom and the civilizat ion of hu man beings\nany of the links of the relationship, will inevitably lead to a do not necessarily depend on the great richness of material\nseries of relation damage, or even the whole system disorder. life, but ,to some extent, on their harmonious coexistence\nHowever, with t ime goes on, on the one hand, science and and co-existence with all the natural things. The so-called\ntechnology develop continuously, on the other hand, the development progress and hedonistic waste can only deprive\ncontinuous deterioration of the g lobal ecological human beings of clean, safe and healthy living space, and\nenvironment rises to the surface: global warming, melting finally lead hu man beings to the road of ecological\nglaciers; storms raging and deserts growing; forests imbalance and self-destruction. Therefore, the development\ndwindling and fresh water shorting. Industrialization has led of human society should be a comprehensive development,\nto the rise of a large number of factories between the green including people's spiritual enrich ment, aesthetic experience,\nmountains and the blue waters, with thick smo ke, sewage personality perfection and poetic dwelling, etc. A mong them,\nand haze , depriving our future generations of the right to the continuous existence of nature and uninterrupted\nlive between the green mountains and the clear waters. ecological balance are two indispensable important\nWe human beings could have lived more simp ly, more easily conditions.\nand more fully, because \"a simp le and unsophisticated life is The harmony between man and nature should be based on\nbeneficial to everyone, both physically and mentally\" (Xu, the principles of equality, friendship and mutual subjectivity.\n1985 ). However, \"the reality is that human beings often The relationship between human beings and all things in\nstruggle in the net of materials ，and \"have become the tools nature is an interactive subject relationship . The relat ionship\nof their tools\" （Such，2004）. Man's attempt to \"conquer between human and nature is between individual and whole,\nnature\" is bound to worsen his relations with other creatures. local and co mprehensive, subsystem and mother system.\n\"Human beings are only a part o f nature, and they can never Only when human beings realize that natural objects occupy\nbe separated fro m nature. Only by ensuring the continuous unique and irreplaceable positions in the ecosystem and\nexistence of the whole nature can they ensure their safe, conduct equal commun ication with them as indiv iduals, can\nhealthy and long-term survival\" （Wang，2013）. Only by the interactive subjectivity between hu man and nature be\ncaring about nature, returning to nature and caring for all realized. It is directly related to human freedom, hu man\nliv ing and non-living things in nature can human beings survival and human self-realizat ion to coexist with all the\nbetter understand and protect the mother nature on which we natural things and to establish and maintain the relat ionship\nlive. On ly by respecting nature, by respecting the laws of of equality and fraternity between subjects. To this end,\nnature, and by taking our due responsibilities to all species in \"human beings should take the integrity, harmony, stability,\nnature, can we human beings ultimately save ourselves. balance and sustainable existence of the ecosystem that is\nconducive to maintain ing and protecting it as the\nIV. THE INNER SPIRITUAL AND fundamental measure of everything and the ultimate\nECOLOGICAL IMPLICATION OF HUMAN standard for judging the human lifestyle, scientific and\nBEINGS IN WALDEN technological progress, economic growth and social Page | 892\n\ndevelopment\" (Wang, 2013). realize the dream of returning to the natural homeland with\nThe soil, the mountains, the rivers, the forests, the plants and green mountains and clear waters, and the spiritual\nthe animals on which we hu man beings live are an homeland of civ ilization and progress, and realize the\nindivisible whole, as Donald Worster, a prominent A merican ultimate goal of green development and sustainable\nenvironmental h istorian, has pointed out: \"To be in harmony development of the whole human society.\nwith the earth is like to be in harmony with a friend, you can't\njust cherish his right hand and cut off his left hand\" (Worster, REFERENCES\n1994). 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Eco logical crit icis m and ecological\ninexorably like water, and to morro w there is only a faint thought [M]. Beijing: people's publishing house, 2013.\ndawn. Darkness prevents us from seeing everything. It is P.8.P.10. P.141.\nonly when we open the windows of our hearts and get ready [11] Albert Gore,Earth in the Balance：Ecology and Hu man\nfor tomorrow that the light of day will come. There will be Spirit[M].Boston: Houghton Mifflin,1992.P.36.\nmany more daybreak, for the sun is but a morning star\" ( Su, [12] Thoreau. Walden [M]. Fu zhong Su, trans. Beijing:\n2004). Therefore, we hu man beings still have a long way to people's literature press, 2004 edition, p.154 P.111.\ngo before we can realize the aspirat ion of harmon io us [13] Jincai Yang . Thoreau's feelings of withdrawal and entry\ncoexistence and common prosperity between man and nature, into the world [J]. Nanjing social science.2004, Page | 893\n\n[14] A rne Naess,The Shallow and the Deep,Long-range\nEcology Movement ： A\n[15] Kai Chen.Green vision --- on Thoreau's view of nature\n[J]. Foreign literature research.2004, (4). P.132\n[16] Jonathan Bate ,The Song of the\nEarth[M].Cambridge,MA:Harvard Un iversity\n[17] Rachel Carson, Silent Spring[M]. Boston: Houghton\nMifflin, 1962.P.64.\n[18] Caro l B. Gartner,Rachel Carson[M]. New York:\nFrederick Ungar Publishing,1983.P.100.\n[19] NuoWang. European and American ecological literature\n[M]. Beijing: people's publishing house, 2013. P.117.\n[20] Engels. Dialectics of nature [M]. Trans. Guangyuan Yu.\nBeijing: people's publishing house, 1984. P.305.\n[21] Xiao mo Zhang. Thoreau's ecological consciousness ---\ncomments on walden [J]. Journalism and writing.2017,\n[22] Einstein. Einstein collect ion: volu me 3 [M]. Liangying\nXu, Ed. Beijing: commercial press, 1985. P.42.\n[23] Shuqin Zhao. The rise of contemporary ecological p rose\n--- on walden and its influence on foreign literature [J].\nLiterary review, 2010,(9).p.56.\n[24] Donald Worster, Nature’s Econo my:A History of\nEcological Ideas [M].Second Ed ition. Cambridge, UK:\nCambridge University Press,1994.P.288.\n[25] Shuyuan Lu. Transboundary studies of literature:\nliterature and ecology [M]. Shanghai: xuelin publishing\nhouse, 2011. P.12. Page | 894", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5059071183204651}
+{"content": "Do you store my Google Analytics metrics?\n\nIt depends.\n\nWe don’t look at your metrics unless you ask to. We don’t store your whole account.\n\nThat said, for some kind of alerts, we do store the metrics for caching reasons.\n\nWe don’t store the metrics for the real-time alerts, but we store the other ones.\n\nWhy? Can we avoid it?\n\nMany of our customers have multiple alerts on the same metrics, with different thresholds. It only avoids us to query the Google Analytics API multiple times for the same data. We do that because Google limits us (and every provider) on the number of API calls per day but also per second.\n\nIf it’s a deal breaker for you, reach out, we can do something for you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6725059747695923}
+{"content": "Biometric Mirror highlights flaws in artificial intelligence\n\nBiometric Mirror highlights flaws in artificial intelligence\nBiometric Mirror uses an open dataset of thousands of facial images and crowd-sourced evaluations. Credit: Sarah Fisher, University of Melbourne\n\nIn a world-first, University of Melbourne researchers have designed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to detect and display people's personality traits and physical attractiveness based solely on a photo of their face.\n\nThe system, called Biometric Mirror, investigates a person's understanding of AI and their response to the information about their unique traits.\n\nWhen someone stands in front of Biometric Mirror, the system detects a range of facial characteristics in seconds. It then compares the user's data to that of thousands of facial photos, which were evaluated for their psychometrics by a group of crowd-sourced responders.\n\nBiometric Mirror displays 14 characteristics, from gender, age and ethnicity to attractiveness, weirdness and emotional stability. The longer a person stands there, the more personal the traits become.\n\nThe research project, led by Dr. Niels Wouters from the Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces (SocialNUI) and Science Gallery Melbourne, explores the concerns this technology raises around consent, data storage and algorithmic bias.\n\n\"With the rise of AI and big data, government and businesses will increasingly use CCTV cameras and interactive advertising to detect emotions, age, gender and demographics of people passing by,\" Dr. Wouters said.\n\n\"Our study aims to provoke challenging questions about the boundaries of AI. It shows users how easy it is to implement AI that discriminates in unethical or problematic ways which could have societal consequences. By encouraging debate on privacy and mass-surveillance, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the ethics behind AI.\"\n\nBiometric Mirror highlights the potential real-world consequences of algorithmic bias and assumptions.\n\n\"While collecting personal information about your shopping preferences to tailor an individual service may seem harmless, capturing this information without consent makes it impossible to know if a prediction is based on correct data,\" Dr. Wouters said.\n\n\"The use of AI is a slippery slope that extends beyond the realm of shopping and advertising. Imagine having no control over an algorithm that wrongfully considers you unfit for management positions, ineligible for university degrees, or shares your photo publicly without your consent.\n\n\"One of your traits is chosen—say, your level of responsibility—and Biometric Mirror asks you to imagine this information is now being shared with your insurer or future employer,\" Dr. Wouters said. \"This project is a transparent demonstration of the potential consequences for individuals.\"\n\nDr. Wouters said it was important to note that Biometric Mirror is not a tool for psychological analysis.\n\n\"Biometric Mirror only calculates the estimated public perception towards facial appearance,\" he said.\n\n\"It is limited by its inaccuracy, because only a relatively small and crowd-sourced dataset informed its design. It is inappropriate to draw meaningful conclusions about psychological states from Biometric Mirror.\"\n\nExplore further\n\nGerman official: Facebook must delete faces (Update)\n\nCitation: Biometric Mirror highlights flaws in artificial intelligence (2018, July 23) retrieved 21 August 2019 from https://techxplore.com/news/2018-07-biometric-mirror-highlights-flaws-artificial.html\n\nFeedback to editors\n\nUser comments\n\nJul 23, 2018\nObviously needs a bigger dataset\n\nJul 23, 2018\nYeah... I wonder where they got their training dataset which contains values for \"weirdness\" or \"emotional stability\" (and whether these traits were self-assessed...in which case I wouldn't trust them to be any good)\n\nSep 11, 2018\nThe biggest flaw that everyone's overlooking is that this isn't even AI:\n\n\" thousands of facial photos, which were evaluated for their psychometrics by a group of crowd-sourced responders\"\n\nThat's a mechanical turk, again. The program makes none of its own judgements.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7021896839141846}
+{"content": "Pharmacology an antagonist disallows a receptor’s wild-type\n\nPharmacology Laboratory Report on:\nThe muscular effect of acetylcholine, carbachol and butyrylcholine on isolated rat ileum tissue.\nModule number: BMS242\nStudent Registration number: 170158804\nName: Adrianos Boutsias\nAbstract word number: 247\nRemainder report word number: 1,439\nNeurotransmitters released by postganglionic neurones regulate smooth muscle activity in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. An agonist is a substance, that, when bound to a receptor, initiates a physiological response, while an antagonist disallows a receptor’s wild-type function. The objectives of this study were to answer two questions: first, how does smooth muscle respond under influence from several neurotransmitters? and second, how quickly does the tissue contract under exposure to said neurotransmitters? In order to tackle these questions, acetylcholine, butyrylcholine and carbachol stocks were retrieved, diluted serially and pipetted into an organ bath, where their total bath concentrations were calculated: dose(g)molecular weight*1volume of bath. In the bath, isolated rat ileum, immersed in 20ml Krebs, was connected to a force transducer-micropositioner apparatus via a metal hook, allowing for a response (g) to be measured when varying concentrations of drugs were added. By this, conclusions on which drug was a full or partial agonist/antagonist were derived, once a drug’s maximal plateau was observed. Thus, a logarithmic graph was drawn, where the EC50 for every drug was calculated. The EC50 is the concentration at which half-maximal response is witnessed; here, acetylcholine which displayed the least drastic increase in response compared to increases in drug concentration, had the largest EC50 value, followed by carbachol and finally butyrylcholine. Acetylcholine, which produced the largest response force (0.23g) was concluded as a full agonist, butyrylcholine was a partial agonist, while carbachol was an antagonist, due to all % responses above 10 µg/µl carbachol being negative.\n\nThe field of research into the enteric nervous system (ENS) is an ever evolving and multidisciplinary one. Given that a single neuron may possess the ability to synthesise and release multiple neurotransmitters (Boron, W., F. and Boulpaep, E., L. 2012), this gives rise to the intricacy and complexity behind this fascinating biological system. However, within the ENS there is further complexity: besides simply the ability for the ENS to produce and metabolise neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, non-neuronal acetylcholine machinery exists in epithelial cells found in both the large and small intestine (Takahashi, T., et al. 2018). As a result, an abundance of disorders are linked to the ENS, with the most well-researched congenital disease being Hirschsprung disease (Lake, J., L. and Heuckeroth R., O. 2013).\nThe aims of this experiment are to derive whether acetylcholine, butyrylcholine and carbachol are either partial or full agonists or otherwise via eliciting a response (g) in isolated rat ileum and to calculate the EC50 of each. The EC50 is the concentration (M) of a drug that causes a half-maximal response (Jiang, X. and Kopp-Schneider, A. 2014). In this case, the response was in the form of tension felt on a force-transducer connected to a micropositioner due to the contraction reflex of the rat ileum. The hypothesis was that acetylcholine would be a full agonist, while butyrylcholine and carbachol would be partial agonists and that the EC50 of acetylcholine would be highest, followed by carbachol and then butyrylcholine.\n\nThis work seeks to understand more on the mechanism behind the interaction between the enteric nervous system and the effector intestinal smooth muscle. By this, a standard on how all neurotransmitters affect the GI may be produced. Comparing this standard to a case by control comparison, disorders may be more easily identified in people throughout the world.\n\nPreparing the organ bath\nPrior to setting up the ileum, 20ml of Kreb’s solution was placed into the organ bath. For aeration, 95% O2: 5% CO2 was bubbled into the bath at a steady rate.\n\nSetting up the tissue sample\nRat ileum tissue was retrieved whilst submerged in Kreb’s on a petri dish. A 60cm long piece of thread was passed through one end of the tissue using a needle. Multiple knots were tied and one end was trimmed. This procedure was then repeated on the other end of the tissue, but prior to trimming, a metal hook was placed next to the tissue and the excess thread was knotted around the hook. The hook was tied as closely to the ileum as possible. The hook end was fixed to a holder close to the chamber wall. The remaining untrimmed thread was tied onto a force transducer, connected to a micropositioner set within the middle of its range. The thread was not to be in contact with either the chamber or the hook and the thread was taut. The ileum was to not be stretched.\nFor calibration of base-line tension and equilibration of tissue\nUsing Labchart, the program was started and the base-line tension was observed and set between 0.5-1.5g. For calibration, the tissue was left in Kreb’s for 5 minutes until stabilisation.\nDilution of the drugs\n50mg/ml acetylcholine (Ach), 50mg/ml carbachol and 10mg/ml butyrylcholine stocks were used and all underwent serial dilutions. For Ach, a 1:2 dilution was performed to produce a 25mg/ml sample, as well as a 1:5 dilution from the stock to produce 10mg/ml Ach which was followed by 4 consecutive 1:10 dilutions. A 20mg/ml sample was also made. The Ach procedure was repeated for carbachol. Butyrylcholine was diluted 10-fold 4 times.\n\nProducing a dose-response curve\nThe organ bath volume was set to 20ml and the baseline was observed for 30 seconds. The first drug was then added and left for 45 seconds. The bath/tissue were then washed and drained with Kreb’s multiple times and 90 seconds after the third refilling the next drug would be added. Increasing doses of drug were added until a maximal response tension was recorded.\n\nPlotting of results and statistics\nSemi-log graph paper was used. Response (% of max) was on the y-axis and concentration of drugs (mM) was on the x-axis (log scale). The EC50 (µM) of each drug was calculated. Full and partial agonists were also derived. Class data was used and saw standard deviation calculations to identify any outliers and subsequently any truemean values were calculated for each drug’s EC50 (µM).\n\nIn general, acetylcholine and butyrylcholine induced an increased positive response percentage of contraction in the rat ileum. Whereas carbachol displayed the reversed effect, where negative values of % response were witnessed. All drugs showed a linear relationship between an increasing bath concentration (µM) and % response. Further, all showed no identifiable response when the pipetted diluted concentration of the drug was both 1 µg/µl and 10 µg/µl, except for carbachol which illustrated a -8.69 % response. A dosage of 100 µg/µl displayed a swift rise in % response for butyrylcholine (0-30.4%) while acetylcholine and carbachol showed less dramatic changes of 8.7% and -13.0% respectably. Acetylcholine (25,000 µg/µl) reached the highest positive contraction response (0.23g) while butyrylcholine (10,000 µg/µl) reached 0.16g and carbachol (25,000 µg/µl) gave a -0.20 g final measurement (Table 1).\n\nDose Acetylcholine (µg/µl) 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 20,000 25,000\nResponse (g) 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.07 0.20 0.23\n% Response 0.0 0.0 8.7 17.4 30.4 87.0 100.0\nBath Concentration (µM) 0.28 2.80 28.00 280.00 2,800.00 5,950.00 6,880.00\nDose Carbachol (µg/µl) 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 20,000 25,000\nResponse (g) 0.00 -0.02 -0.05 -0.18 -0.20 -0.20 -0.20\n% Response 0 -8.69 -21.7 -78.3 -87.0 -87.0 -87.0\nBath Concentration (µM) 0.28 2.80 28.00 280.00 2,800.00 5,950.00 6,880.00\nDose Butyrylcholine (µg/µl) 1 10 100 1,000 10,000\nResponse (g) 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.12 0.16\n% Response 0.0 0.0 30.4 52.2 69.6\nBath Concentration (µM) 0.24 2.40 24.00 240.00 2,400.00\nTable 1. Table showing dose responses for acetylcholine, carbachol and butyrylcholine. Bath concentration (µM) was calculated: dose(g)molecular weight*1volume of bath . Percentage responses of carbachol and butyrylcholine were compared to the maximal response of acetylcholine. 20,000 µg/µl and 25,000 µg/µl doses for Butyrylcholine were not successfully included in this study.\n\nFig.1 Semi-logarithmic plot for the dose response curves for acetylcholine, carbachol and butyrylcholine when pipetted into an organ bath filled with 20ml Kreb’s. % response is the proportion of contraction displayed by isolated rat ileum. The EC50 was denoted by the dotted lines intercepting each curve. Concentrations of x<1 µM were omitted from this graph.\n\nThe EC50 was measured for every drug; acetylcholine was concluded as 4,032.6µM, butyrylcholine was 46.7 µM and carbachol was 70.1 µM with the use of EC50-measuring programs (fig.1).\n\nAcetylcholine Carbachol Butyrylcholine\nEC50(µM) 0.7 23.0 0.0\n0.1 0.0 1.0\n150.0 0.0 0.0\n0.0 95.0 0.0\n8.0 22.0 0.0\n1.2 0.0 2.3\n0.0 1.3 0.3 3.7 12.0 11,800.0? 1,900.0 400.0 0.0 0.0 7,230.0 ? 0.3 Table 2. Class data depicting EC50 (µM) calculations for acetylcholine, carbachol and butyrylcholine drugs. ? = outlier EC50 value.\n\nMean values prior to removal of values as outliers for all drugs were as follows: acetylcholine = 646.8 µM, butyrylcholine = 0 µM and carbachol = 1,327.2 µM. Standard deviations calculations for all drugs yielded a 1,885.8 µM value for acetylcholine, 0.9 µM for butyrylcholine and 3,927.4 µM for carbachol. This led to the EC50 value of 7,230.0 µM for acetylcholine to be omitted, as well as the 11,800.0 µM value for carbachol. Butyrylcholine displayed no anomalous values. As a result, truemean values were calculated as 176.6 µM, 0 µM and 18.1 µM for acetylcholine, butyrylcholine and carbachol respectively (Table 2).\n\nBased on the previous works by Dryn et al (2018), acetylcholine is the most abundant and commonly observed neurotransmitter in the ENS and furthermore Kamila and Slawomir (2018) mention that acetylcholine (along with vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), substance P and galanin) is the most important substance found in enteric neurones for full smooth muscle contraction. Therefore, the data depicting acetylcholine as a full agonist with a maximal response of 0.23g agrees with this (Table 1).\nCarbachol and butyrylcholine have been previously termed as choline ester analogues and were seen to induce responses in acetylcholine receptors in Deroceras buccal muscle tissue, however, they were noted to not produce as strong a contraction as acetylcholine (Wright, T. and Huddart, H. 2002).\nDespite this research, the class data suggests otherwise to the data at hand: butyrylcholine had no effect on ileum smooth muscle contraction, as the truemean value of EC50 was 0 µM (Table 2). This may be due to the fact that the butyrylcholine experiment was completed last and the lack of renewing the ileum tissue meant that either the used tissue was exhausted, or no longer alive. The class data also illustrates that acetylcholine reached maximal contraction at a much higher concentration than carbachol, at a difference of 158.8 µM truemean EC50. According to Boron and Boulpaep (2012), action potentials of smooth muscles could be either continuous or brief; the results may be explained with the notion that acetylcholine-induced muscle contractions are more prolonged and have less of a rapid effect on the muscle tissue than carbachol.\nFurthermore, in addition to acetylcholine being labelled as a full agonist, the evidence that carbachol produced a less-than-full response while simultaneously causing negative contractions for all concentrations above 10 µg/µl suggests that carbachol acted as an antagonistic, partial neurotransmitter. This disagrees with the both the aforementioned literature by Wright and Huddart (2002) and the class data.\n\nOverall, the data when compared to the hypothesis agrees with how acetylcholine produced maximal contraction and the highest EC50 and also agrees with how carbachol would produce the second-highest EC50, followed by butyrylcholine. However, while the hypothesis agrees with butyrylcholine being a partial agonist, the negative % response results from carbachol went against to what was expected.\n\nThis disagreement for carbachol in the data as well as some irregularities in the class data could be due to many sources of error. For one, no repeats were done for any drug due to lack of time and so no SEM was calculated. Furthermore, the same ileum tissue was used throughout the entire experiment as previously mentioned and as such later deviating results may have been affected by this. An inaccurate syringe was used to transport 20ml Kreb’s every time to the organ bath, so little consistency was achieved between rinses. The ileum tissue was stretched when sewn to the metal hook, so underestimates in response (g) followed inevitably.\nBoron, W. and Boulpaep, E. (2012). Medical physiology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, pp.887-888.\nTakahashi, T., Shiraishi, A. and Murata, J. (2018). The Coordinated Activities of nAChR and Wnt Signaling Regulate Intestinal Stem Cell Function in Mice. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, online 19(3), p.738. Available at: Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.\n\nLake, J. and Heuckeroth, R. (2013). Enteric nervous system development: migration, differentiation, and disease. American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, online 305(1), pp.G1-G24. Available at: Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.\n\nJiang, X. and Kopp-Schneider, A. (2014). Summarizing EC50 estimates from multiple dose-response experiments: A comparison of a meta-analysis strategy to a mixed-effects model approach. Biometrical Journal, online 56(3), pp.493-512. Available at: Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.\n\nDryn, D., Luo, J., Melnyk, M., Zholos, A. and Hu, H. (2018). Inhalation anaesthetic isoflurane inhibits the muscarinic cation current and carbachol-induced gastrointestinal smooth muscle contractions. European Journal of Pharmacology, online 820, pp.39-44. Available at: Accessed 4 Oct. 2018.\n\nSzymanska, K. and Gonkowski, S. (2018). Bisphenol A—Induced changes in the enteric nervous system of the porcine duodenum. NeuroToxicology, online 66, pp.78-86. Available at: Accessed 4 Oct. 2018.\n\nT., W. and H., H. (2002). The nature of the acetylcholine and 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors in buccal smooth muscle of the pest slug Deroceras reticulatum. Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology, online 172(3), pp.237-249. Available at: Accessed 4 Oct. 2018.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6751033067703247}
+{"content": "The French Revolutionary War of 1848 Essay\n\nThe French Revolutionary War of 1848 Essay\n\nLength: 3094 words (8.8 double-spaced pages)\n\nRating: Term Papers\n\nOpen Document\n\nEssay Preview\n\nThe numerous revolutions and uprisings that took place in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century signified the onset of more than a few liberalistic revolutions that shaped this continent’s governance to this date. This revolutionary wave was very significant, as it marked the collapse of traditional authorities and the establishment of more political and democratic forms of government. This year 1848; has been recognized by many as the ‘year of revolution’ because of the great number of political revolutions that took place allover Europe at this time. These 1884 revolutions started of in the French republic before spreading out to the other Western European nations. The 1884 revolutions were very significant to the French republic given the fact through them, the Orleans kingdom authority over France came to an end and the second French republic was born.\nThe 1884 revolutionary war in France was motivated by factors like a disapproval of the political leadership, widespread ideology of nationalism across Europe, and a greater demand for democracy among others. This war lasted only for less than five years, with several thousands of people dead and other thousands being forced into exile. This paper gives a discussion of the origins and causes of these 1848 revolutionary wars in France.\nHistory of France Before 1848\n1. Ancient France\nThe French nation is thought to have been founded at around 297 AD when the Salian Franks were given the authority to settle in the region occupied by the Batavians, a Germanic tribe during the era of the Gallic wars. The first king from the historical information was Clodio who began his reign at around 426 AD. However, it was not until the early nineteenth century that Franc...\n\n... middle of paper ...\n\n...48: Revolution and Reform. New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2001.\n\nFortescue, William. France and 1848: The End of Monarchy. Abingdon, Oxiford: Routledge, 2005.\n\nHessels, John. Lex Salica: The Ten Texts with the Glosses, and the Lex Emendata. London: Adamant Media, 2005.\n\nMerriman, John. A History of Modern Europe: from the Renaissance to the present, 3rd edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2010.\n\nRao, Raghavendra. History of Modern Europe Ad 1789-2002. New York, NY: Sterling Publishers Pvt, 2005.\n\nRoberts, Williams. France: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2004.\n\nSperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848-1851. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005.\n\nWinders, James. European Culture since 1848: From Modern to Postmodern and Beyond. Sydney, NSW: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.\n\nNeed Writing Help?\n\nGet feedback on grammar, clarity, concision and logic instantly.\n\nCheck your paper »\n\nThe European Revolutions of 1848 Essay\n\n- The revolutions of 1848 were widespread and affected about 50 countries in Europe, considering the previously separate lands of Germany and Italy. These revolutions were extremely violent and costly. In terms of lives, tens of thousands were lost during battles with several thousand more being lost in executions. Over 100,000 individuals were jailed or exiled as well. While these individual countries had significant nationalistic grievances, such as anti-Austrian attitudes in Italy, anti-Russian and anti-Turkish opinions in Rumania, anti-Habsburg in Prague and Budapest, German patriotism divided German as did Polish patriotism in Poland; it was the political and economic struggle that were t...   [tags: European History ]\n\nTerm Papers\n1145 words (3.3 pages)\n\ncauses of french revoultionary war Essay\n\n- The causes of the French Revolution, the uprising which brought the regime of King Louis XVI to an end, were manifold. France in 1789 was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe; only in Great Britain and the Netherlands did the common people have more freedom and less chance of arbitrary punishment. Nevertheless, the ancien régime was brought down, partly by its own rigidity in the face of a changing world, partly by the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment....   [tags: essays research papers]\n\nTerm Papers\n1618 words (4.6 pages)\n\nEssay on The French and Indian War Led to the Revolutionary War\n\n- The French and Indian War, which happened between 1754 and 1763 was a stepping-stone for what would become known as the Revolutionary War. The French and Indian War was originally a dispute over the Ohio River Valley. The French considered it their territory, where as the English considered it theirs. While it was a territorial dispute between the countries, the war took place in the colonies. The colonist fought bravely beside the British, whereas the Indians sided with the French. At the beginning all the countries wanted was to claim the Ohio River Valley as their own; however, the outcome of the war was very different....   [tags: French and Indian Wa, Revolutionary War, history, ]\n\nTerm Papers\n800 words (2.3 pages)\n\nEssay Reasons for the failure of 1848- 1849 revolutions in Italy\n\n- The revolutionaries in Italy had longstanding grievances, some were nationalists and some were liberals. Despite all having different ideas and aims they all resoundingly agreed that Italy needed change. The hopes of the various revolutionary groups had been raised by the election of Pope Pius and Charles Albert the King of Piedmont Sardinia. However, their hopes and resulting revolutions were crushed due to many concerning factors. A crushing factor of the failure of the revolutions was the trouncing of the Piedmontese army at both the battles of Novara and Custoza....   [tags: Italian History]\n\nTerm Papers\n593 words (1.7 pages)\n\nDebate Surrounding The Revolutionary Nature Of The French Revolution Essay\n\n- Debate surrounding the revolutionary nature of the French Revolution abound. While it cannot be doubted that the Revolution happened and that change came from the violence that occurred, many argue that those changes would have occurred within the normal passage of time and without bloodshed. Further complicating the matter is the context in which the Revolution is viewed, meaning that the event is often considered only regarding what the Revolution accomplished in the short term after the years of 1789-1799 rather than how much it changed French society and politics in the long term....   [tags: French Revolution, American Revolutionary War]\n\nTerm Papers\n1005 words (2.9 pages)\n\nEssay about The Terror Of The French Revolutionary War\n\n- The Terror of the French Revolutionary War The French Revolution, a war between 1789 and 1799, was a war waged to replace the anciene regime with new political, cultural and social structures (Bentley, Herbert, and Streets 471). The French society had been plagued by years of feudal oppression and fiscal mismanagement. Issues with taxation, led King Louis VVI to convene the Estates- General, an assembly which consisted of three estates: the first comprised of the clergy, the second comprised of nobility and the third comprised of the middle and lower classes (Bentley, Herbert, and Streets 471)....   [tags: French Revolution, Louis XVI of France]\n\nTerm Papers\n722 words (2.1 pages)\n\nRevolutionary Artillery in the Revolutionary War Essays\n\n- In 1775, thirteen colonies began a fight for their independence from Britain’s rule. Without formal training in artillery tactics or a proper armament of artillery pieces, early units had to overcome adversity and hardship. But with courage and dedication the artillery and its leadership were able to play a vital role in the success on the battlefields, and ultimately the victory resulting in America earning its freedom. During the Revolutionary War, the Artillery assets that were available were a combination of cannons, mortars and howitzers....   [tags: American History, Britain, Revolutionary War]\n\nTerm Papers\n865 words (2.5 pages)\n\nThe Revolutionary War Essay\n\n- The Revolutionary War was a war between Great Britain, and the 13 colonies. The seven years’ war, or French and Indian war left Great Britain in serious debt, in response to this The “British Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies.” (MacLean). The British parliament created the Stamp act which, “Imposed a tax on all paper used for official documents, and required an affixed stamp as proof that the tax had been paid.” (Roark, Johnson, Cohen, Stage, Hartmann, 161)....   [tags: American Revolutionary War]\n\nTerm Papers\n1731 words (4.9 pages)\n\nThe Revolutionary War Essay\n\n- The Revolutionary War began in 1775, where the colonists fought to break away from the English king and be known as a free nation. There were many tensions between the colonists and England such as the Stamp Act, Tea Act and the Townshend Tariffs. This taxing revenue the British imposed met with great opposition for it was taxation without representation in Parliament and the colonies demanded they be treated as any of the British subjects. Having no voice the colonist had been subjected to taxes due to the great debt the British incurred during the 7 year war with France....   [tags: American Revolutionary War, American Revolution]\n\nTerm Papers\n1016 words (2.9 pages)\n\nHow Revolutionary Was The Revolutionary War? Essay\n\n- How revolutionary was the revolutionary war. The revolution brought major changes in the system but if seeing from a larger view everything remained the same. The questions that the American Revolution went deeply through were the slavery question, the women emancipation and the system of politics. But at the end radical changes were very little and the lives lost were not worth the advantages for the country. The first issue the revolutionary war had to face was slavery. Social changes never touched the lives of white men since they already had rights and benefits but instead they touched slaves and women even though the scene remained unchanged after the end of the war....   [tags: American Revolutionary War, American Revolution]\n\nTerm Papers\n1041 words (3 pages)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997044205665588}
+{"content": "Opinion: We cannot allow Georgia cities to create their own school districts\n\nRebekah Morris, a resident of DeKalb County, teaches high school English. Morris focuses on poverty and education policy as an independent researcher\n\nToday, Morris takes on one of the most controversial political questions in state education: Should the state constitution be amended to allow cities to break from their county systems and form their own school districts?\n\nBy Rebekah Morris\n\nBecause we all value the goals of racial equality and providing quality educational opportunities for every student, please read this article with open eyes.\n\nWe cannot allow cities in Georgia to create their own independent school districts.\n\nBefore I make my case, I understand the appeal of local control. Many people will agree those living in a community will understand the issues facing that community and will be able to make the best decisions regarding the schools for a particular community.\n\nHowever, this is not the only consideration when discussing independent school districts, also referred to as city school districts.\n\nIn Georgia, there are 181 public school systems.  There are 159 county school systems and 21 city school systems. Now, in Article VIII, Sec. V, Par. VI, of the 1976 Georgia Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-5306), \"[a]uthority is hereby granted to municipal corporations to maintain existing independent school systems… No independent school system shall hereafter be established.\"\n\nBasically, if you were a city or independent school district before 1945, Georgia law allows you to continue operating – which is why City Schools of Decatur and other city districts are still in operation. However, if a city wants to create a city school district now, they are prohibited.\n\nA row of buses leaves Dunwoody High School, which is now part of the DeKalb County School District. There is a movement to allow cities like Dunwoody to break away from county control and operate their schools as independent city systems, but it requires a change to the state constitution. (PSKINNER@AJC.COM)\n\nState Rep. Tom Taylor of Dunwoody, one of the wealthiest suburbs in metro Atlanta, wants to amend the Georgia Constitution to allow cities created since 2005 (eg. Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Peachtree Corners, etc.) to create their own school districts (House Bill 784).\n\nHe tried to get this bill through the Legislature during the 2013-2014 legislative session. It failed. The 2014-2015 legislative session saw the bill fail again, but this time it included any city, not just ones created since 2005 (HB 4). During the 2016 legislative session, I am sure we will be seeing it again.\n\nIf you are zoning out by now, let me bring you back. To me, this is a civil rights issue. Most of these cities are predominantly wealthy and white.\n\nDesegregation laws in the 1960s caused massive white flight from the city of Atlanta in large part because white parents wanted to avoid having their children in school with black children (either because their children would be zoned for schools where black children would be attending or black children would be allowed into certain majority white schools through the process of intradistrict busing).\n\nConsider the story of the integration of Kirkwood Elementary School. Read the story in “Atlanta Rising,” “The Atlanta Paradox,” or any other book that chronicles how Kirkwood Elementary announced on a Friday in 1965 they would be integrating their students the following Monday. Over the weekend, all but seven white children left the school and nearly 500 black students started school the next Monday.\n\nThe school was officially “integrated.”\n\nTo avoid these situations during the 1960s and 70s, whites moved outside of Atlanta schools to DeKalb County, where there weren’t as many black families. But as more middle-class and working blacks were able to afford to move out of Atlanta and into a better school district, whites began leaving DeKalb and heading for Gwinnett and north Fulton.\n\nOne individual who attended a mostly white high school during those years told me privately a few months ago that blacks had “ruined their school” when they had arrived at her high school in the 1980s.\n\nDeKalb County, along with 109 other school systems in Georgia (including Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County), needed additional government oversight during the 1960s and 70s to ensure that desegregation was, in fact, happening. Once a school system demonstrated it was desegregated in six categories, they were placed on “Unitary Status” and the system was then free from federal oversight.\n\nAnd that brings us to the cityhood movement of today.\n\nApparently white flight has reached a limit as to how far they are willing to “fly” to escape integrated schools. Nowadays, people don’t state directly they don’t want their children in schools with children of other races – they make the case against having their children in school with children from poor families or troubled backgrounds, many of whom happen to be Hispanic or black.\n\nWhile de jure (or legal) segregation does not exist, de facto (what’s actually happening) segregation is, sadly, very much alive.\n\nThis is why independent school districts are problematic: allowing cities to create their own school districts in Georgia would only exacerbate the problem of de facto segregation. The only kinds of cities that could even support their own school systems financially would have to be ones that had a wealthy tax base, and this would result in a myriad of problems, including segregation of socioeconomic classes and (many times) race.\n\nConsider the cities that have been created since 2005 – Dunwoody (69.8% white, 12% black, median family income of $106,777), Johns Creek (63.5% white, 9% black, median family income of $137,271), Sandy Springs (65% white, 20% black, median family income of $129,810), and Brookhaven (61% white, 17% black, median family income of $52,679). In addition to being majority white cities, they are also extremely wealthy compared with other parts of Atlanta.\n\n\nBy simply incorporating, cities (contrary to popular opinion) did not remove any funding from the county school system. In creating an independent school district, however, these cities would take the property taxes allocated to the county school system and instead use the money to fund their city school system, leaving the schools left in the county system without their biggest tax base.\n\nThese school systems already have a difficult time spreading their thin budget to meet the needs of the county-wide system, so removing their wealthiest taxpayers would further limit their ability to attract teachers and administrators with competitive salaries, maintain school buildings and properties, and provide materials for extracurricular activities (i.e. sports fields/stadiums, band equipment, art supplies, etc.) – among other things.\n\nIf any of this resonates with you, please take the time to figure out how you can advocate against this and other isolationist policies. I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty for unintentionally playing a role in these types of things. (Heck, I grew up in Gwinnett and went to high school with only a couple black students.)\n\nBut I am trying to raise awareness so people can understand their actions don’t occur in a vacuum, and we must consider how our individual actions impact others.\n\nA few ways you can personally get involved would be to join a Local School Advisory Council or a parent council in your region or cluster. You can also attend community input sessions at your school board meetings, and of course, you can always reach out to your respective board member or state representative.\n\nIf nothing else, hopefully you will begin having this conversation with those you know. Kids and their life outcomes are greatly affected by education, and every student deserves a chance to succeed. Let’s try to figure out the best way to do that.\n\n\n\nAbout the Author\n\nMaureen Downey\nMaureen Downey", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6018403768539429}
+{"content": "department menu\n\nCourse Descriptions & Schedule\n\nSemester Courses\n\nFall (9 units)\n\nMCS 500 (2)\n\nMCS 511 (3)\n\nMIS 522 (2)\n\nMGMT 521 (2)\n\nSpring (9 units)\n\nMCS 510 (3)\n\nMIS 622 (3)\n\nMATH 503 (3)\n\nSummer (3 units)\n\nMIS 621 (3)\n\nFall (9 units)\n\nMCS 512 (4)\n\nMCS 610 (4)\n\nMCS 680A  (1)\n\nSpring (8 units)\n\nMCS 611 (4)\n\nMCS 680B (4)\n\n*This schedule is subject to change.\n\nCybersecurity Fundamentals & Professional Preparation\n\n  • MCS 500 - Introduction to Cybersecurity (2)\n\n    Overview of the field of cybersecurity, including different role players, common terms, fundamental technical elements, and fundamental management elements. Includes current events in cybersecurity.\n  • MCS 510 - Security in Computer Networks (3)\n\n    Theoretical and practical aspects of security in computer networks, including wired and wireless networks will be covered. Subjects include: fundamental techniques and protocols used to insure secure communications, common attacks and defenses, and vulnerability assessment of network systems. Application and operationalization of network security technologies and techniques. Prerequisite: MATH 503.\n\n\n    1. Recognize design and analysis of network security architectures, protocols, and services in both wired and wireless networks\n    2. Identify network security standards, their functionality and limitations\n    3. Identify network attacks and analyze defense techniques against them\n    4. Apply and operationalize network security technologies and techniques\n    5. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n\n    Prior knowledge required:\n\n    • A fundamental understanding of networking concepts\n    • A basic understanding of the standard protocols and services provided by the various layers of the protocol stack\n    • Some limited programming experience with languages or scripts such as C/C++,  Java, Perl, PHP, Python\n    • Familiarity with the architecture and features of a LAN and WAN, such as the Internet\n    • A fundamental understanding of network security and the basics of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and web application programming\n  • MCS 511 - Secure Features in Operating Systems (3)\n\n    Provides an overview of the current security of most commercial operating systems and examines the fundamental concerns of security in modem operating systems. Covers the analysis of the operating systems model for computer system security criteria as it pertains to overall system vulnerability. Based upon the security requirements and general architecture of secure operating systems publically available security enhanced operating systems are examined and evaluated. \n\n\n    1. Identify fundamental security features in a modem operating system.\n    2. Analyze threats behind operating system security\n    3. Identify vulnerabilities of a computer system\n    4. Develop and apply appropriate techniques for operational security\n    5. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n\n    Prior knowledge required:\n\n    • A fundamental understanding of modern operating system design and implementation\n    • A basic understanding of operating system structure and operation including process management, memory management, storage management as well as current protection and security mechanisms\n    • A solid background using various operating systems interfaces, system calls, system programs and operating system debugging/monitoring\n    • Familiarity with a command line interface such as a Linux shell is encouraged. Some limited programming experience using C/C++, Java or shell programming would be beneficial\n  • MCS 512 - Development of Secure Software (4)\n\n    Introduction to the development of secure software during all phases of the software development life cycle. An emphasis is placed upon the secure code implementation and the most common pitfalls and security bugs found in programming languages. Risk assessments, threat modeling and secure code analysis of existing systems are also considered one of the primary topics. Hands-on exercises will be required in laboratory sessions.  \n\n\n    1. Identify security issues in current programming languages and methods\n    2. Evaluate applications using secure coding standards\n    3. Perform application risk assessment of existing systems\n    4. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n\n    Prior knowledge required:\n\n    • Experience using at least one modern programming language (not a scripting language)\n    • Knowledge of common features in modern programming languages\n  • MCS 610 - Offensive Security & Penetration Testing (4)\n\n    Introduction to the latest penetration testing techniques. Covers pre-engagement interactions, intelligence gathering, threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, exploitation, post exploitation, and reporting in penetration testing. Methodologies for web applications will be covered, including choosing the best techniques and tools for security situations. Prerequisites: MCS 510, 511, 512\n\n\n    1. Define and use the terms used in penetration testing\n    2. Describe the steps in penetration testing\n    3. Choose and apply the right penetration technique for a given situation\n    4. Choose and apply the right penetration tools for a given situation\n    5. Describe the required content of a report after penetration testing\n  • MCS 611 - Intrusion Detection and Incident Response (4)\n\n    Focuses on investigating threats against computers and networked systems. Covers principles and techniques of intrusion detection such as network traffic analysis, packet analysis, application protocol layer for common protocols and log analysis. Evaluates the use of intrusion detection tools and services. Prerequisites: MCS 510, 511, 512\n\n\n    1. Understand and identify threats against computers and network systems\n    2. Analyze and evaluate network traffic, system logs\n    3. Describe principles of incident response and incident management\n    4. Develop incident reports and analysis presentations\n  • MIS 522 - Information Systems and Security Management (2)\n\n    Overviews the fundamental principles and components of information systems. Introduces the concepts and topics of Information Technology Security and Risk Management at the organizational level. Studies incentives and the requirements for information security, the integration of security into the systems design process, and life cycle of information security management.  \n\n\n    1. Identify information systems and key business strategies\n    2. Describe the principles of information technology security\n    3. Analyze data value in business context\n    4. Describe the components of information security management and how the elements interact\n    5. Evaluate different methods for access control\n    6. Identify appropriate strategies to assure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information\n    7. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n  • MIS 621 - Information Security Governance (3)\n\n    Covers the fundamentals of developing business rationales for information security (assurance) governance. Studies the development and implementation of IT strategies to integrate assurance functions to improve security, and ensure the preservation of the organization and its ability to continue to operate. Offers a comprehensive view of information security policies in business context and the psychology of implementation. Provides insight into governance, privacy, regulator mandates, business incentives, and legal issues. Prerequisites: MGMT 521, MIS 522\n\n    Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to\n\n    1. Identify the role of an information systems security (ISS) policy framework\n    2. Analyze how security policies help mitigate risks and support business\n    3. Identify components and basic requirements for creating a security policy framework\n    4. Identify different methods, roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities of personnel, along with the governance and compliance of security policy framework\n    5. Develop ISS policies associated with the user domain, IT infrastructure, risk management and incident response teams (IRT)\n    6. Analyze social, legal and ethical issues represented by information technology environments\n  • MIS 622 - Technology Assessment and Security Risk Management (3)\n\n    Examines variety of quantitative models, including financial, economic and business models, to analyze real managerial problems for technology assessment and investment that affect all types of institutions. Introduces the concept of risk and risk management and discusses up-to-date methods for both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis. Focuses on training future information technology or security managers to make better risk decisions. Prerequisites: MGMT 521 and MIS 522\n\n    Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to\n\n    1. Analyze and communicate appropriate financial, economical, and business models to assess technology investment decisions\n    2. Describe the fundamental concepts of Risk Management and Risk Management Life Cycle\n    3. Identify Risk Management Artifacts in an organizational environment\n    4. Conduct a Business Impact Assessment and develop a Security Risk Management plan\n    5. Compare the difference between qualitative and quantitative risk analysis methods and apply appropriate methods to the right situation\n    6. Describe the procedure for periodical security risk review\n    7. Evaluate and justify security technology selections and designs\n\n    Evaluate and apply common risk management frameworks\n\n  • MATH 503 - Cryptography (3)\n\n    Fundamentals of protecting confidentiality, integrity and availability of information in computer systems. This covers the fundamentals of cryptographic concepts and methods and several encryption/decryption algorithms will be discussed. It includes an introduction to the mathematics behind cryptography including number theory, group theory and probability theory; cryptographic algorithms including classical methods, symmetric key systems, public key systems, hash functions, digital signatures and certificates; cryptanalysis and attacks; and access control including authentication and authorization. Assignments include programming labs to apply public keys, dictionary attacks, digital signatures and certificates.  The course cannot be counted towards the Master's degree in Mathematics. \n\n\n    1. Identify basic structures of cryptographic algorithms from a mathematical and computer scientific viewpoint\n    2. Describe the common cryptographic protocols used to protect information\n    3. Identify common flaws in cryptographic regimes\n    4. Apply current/common cryptographic technologies and controls for authentication and encryption\n    5. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n\n    Prior knowledge required:\n\n    • Discrete mathematics (counting, set theory, modular arithmetic)\n    • Elementary probability\n    • Familiarity with functions, especially exponential and logarithmic\n\nBusiness Core\n\n  • MGMT 521 - Principles of Organizational Behavior and Leadership for Security Management (2\n\n    Covers the key topics in organizational behaviors and leadership seeking to explain people’s behavior and experiences in various types of organizations, as well as how to effectively lead people to accomplish shared goals. Explores how research and knowledge of these topics can be applied in managing information systems and security related projects specifically, and in organizations more generally. Issues in contractual negotiations and effective communication inside organizations will also be addressed.\n\n\n    1. Distinguish between the main concepts and theories of\n    2. Organizational Behavior (OB) and Leadership in the context of security management\n    3. Apply key OB and Leadership concepts to real world situations in cybersecurity\n    4. Analyze and describe responses to security incidents in terms of OB and Leadership theories and concepts\n    5. Recognize OB and Leadership related traits and perspectives\n    6. Communicate their analyses and decisions effectively\n\nInternship/Residency & Project\n\n  • MCS 680A - Semester-in-Residence Project Writing Workshop (1)\n\n    Provides tools and a focused pathway and complete Semester-in-Residence Project.\n\n    Enrollment is restricted to students who have been admitted to the Master of Science in Cybersecurity Program.\n\n  • MCS 680B - Internship/Semester in Residence Project (4)\n\n    Provides industry experience in the Cybersecurity field under the guidance of a graduate committee consisting of a faculty member, an industry representative and the Program Director.  Leads to establishing/accomplishing goals, communicationg work/project progress, acquiring broad organizational insight and demonstrating core competencies required for the degree.  Culminates in a written project document and an oral presentation to fellow students, faculty and industry representatives. \n\n    Enrollment is restricted to students who have been admitted to the Master of Science in Cybersecurity program. Enrollment Requirement: An officially appointed advisory committee and advancement to candidacy.\n\nAlternative Courses\n\n  • MCS 597 - Topics in Cybersecurity (1-3)\n\n    Advanced topics in cybersecurity. May be repeated up to six (6) units. Enrollment Restricted to students who have obtained consent of Program Director.\n\n  • MCS 697 - Directed Studies in Cybersecurity\n\n    Alternative course for specialization or waived courses.  Industrial or Academice research directored or sponsored by industry experts and faculty.  Graduate classification or consent of instructor with approval by the academic advisor and program director.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9192276000976562}
+{"content": "Endocrine Abstracts (2017) 49 GP145 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.49.GP145\n\nReproductive toxicity of low dose nonylphenol in mice: a two-generation study\n\nSung-Ho Lee, Yong Bin Kim & Hee Su Kim\n\nSangmyung University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.\n\nNonylphenol (NP), a member of alkylphenol family, has been widely used in both industry and household. NP is classified as an endocrine-disrupting chemical and is known to act as an agonist of the GPER (GPR30). The aim of this study was to address the two-generational effects of para-nonylphenol (NP) on the body weights, reproductive organ weights and histopathologies of ICR mice. We also test the potential reproductive toxicity of octylglucuronide (OG), a substitute candidate for NP. The testing drugs were administered as drinking water (50 and 500 ug/l) throughout the pre-mating period of P0 animals and lactation of F2 animals. Significant decreases were found in the weights of testis, prostate and seminal vesicle in the F1 NP500 group, in the weights of testis and epididymis in F2 NP50 and NP500 groups. There was no weight change in the OG-treated groups. In female, significant decreases in the weights of ovary and uterus in F1 NP50 group, uterus of F1 NP500 group, and F2 NP500 group were found. The weights of ovary in F1 OG50 and OG500 were also significantly decreased. Histopathological studies revealed that the numbers of Leydig cells were reduced in the testes of F1 and F2 NP50 groups. There were no changes in the Leydig cell numbers of OG groups. In F1 NP500 mice, the increased numbers of primary and secondary follicles and decreased number of corpora lutea were observed. There was no change in OG-treated group gonad. Finally, vaginal opening was delayed in F1 NP50 and NP500, and F2 NP50 animals. Present study demonstrated that the potential reproductive toxicity in animals long-term exposed to low dose NP (approximately 15–150 ng of daily intake). Our study also show that OG seems to be a promising alternative to NP, and further studies are warranted. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2016904200).\n\nArticle tools\n\nMy recent searches\n\nNo recent searches.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995936751365662}
+{"content": "Risk Adjustment\n\nRisk Adjustment for ACOs: A Primer\n\nSujata Bajaj\nWritten By\nSujata Bajaj\nVice President of Product and Payor Solutions\n\nIn December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) rule, called “Pathways for Success,” for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The new rule is designed to have ACOs “take on real risk while offering them the incentives and flexibility they need to coordinate care and innovate” and is projected to result in almost $3 billion in savings over the next ten years.\n\n\nRelying on Risk Adjustment\n\n\nMany ACOs are looking towards risk adjustment to benefit from the new ruling. Risk adjustment enables them to account for severity over a specific period and set and track targets for performance. The risk adjustment process also allows ACOs to identify high-risk patients, determine reimbursement levels, and accurately predict costs. CMS is viewing this as a small measure of prevention should the ACO have beneficiaries that are much sicker than average. There is a 3% upside to risk adjustment that is a buffer for ACOs that might have sicker than average beneficiaries. Additionally, it helps organizations understand their patients’ risk adjustment scores and acts as a tool for evaluating their performance. The Risk Adjustment Factor (RAF) of each patient is recalculated annually by CMS and provided to ACOs quarterly.\n\nHCC coding relies on accurate documentation and bestows higher payments for patients who are sicker and lower payments for those who are healthier. The HCC model assigns a risk score—or RAF—to each patient within an ACO. The RAF is calculated using retrospective and demographic patient data and medical diagnoses.\n\n\nComplex Coding\n\n\nEmploying risk adjustment coding allows ACOs to normalize medical risk and ensure they are capturing all necessary codes for their patients. However, miscalculating RAF can result in a lower financial benchmark. Risk adjustment coding necessitates collecting, managing, and interpreting a large volume of data and adhering to strict deadlines. Without the right technology or a knowledgeable risk adjustment partner, a higher number of missed or incorrect codes may occur.\n\nAccurate clinical documentation and coding are especially crucial for ACOs because they ensure accurate RAF and help ACOs better manage their patient population. Leveraging a partnership for risk adjustment coding lets ACOs enhance shared savings, perform both prospective and retrospective coding optimization, automate coding gap detection, and analyze gaps in provider documentation.\n\n\nPicking a Coding Partner\n\n\nMost ACOs don’t have the in-house coding expertise necessary to handle the risk adjustment process. Utilizing a partnership with a specialized vendor helps ensure they can undertake the risk adjustment process adequately. As ACOs begin vetting potential risk adjustment companies, several questions can help determine how knowledgeable the vendor is about the risk adjustment process and if they will be the right fit for the ACO. Below, these questions are highlighted, along with the answers ACOs should expect to receive from a high-quality risk adjustment vendor.\n\n\n1. What years do we risk adjust?\n\nIt’s necessary to follow CMS guidelines on claim payment adjustment. If you had a date of service that was January 15, 2019, you should have the adjustment to CMS by January 15, 2020. These rules can vary by state. For example, in Texas, the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) rules change so that your deadline is based on the date of payment. If CMS received a claim on January 15, 2019 and paid it on March 27, 2019, you have until March 27, 2020 to get the change submitted.\n\n2. How do we figure out our current and projected RAF?\n\nOnce you receive data from CMS, you should run it through the CMS-HCC model (also used for Medicare Advantage) to calculate your current RAF. Based on the score that the model provides, you may need to project what your RAF will be if you adjust for risk because it will result in a higher RAF.\n\nWhile retrospective coding optimization is necessary for ACOs this year as they transition to the risk adjustment model, it is also essential to set up an ongoing program that will capture codes throughout the year. By developing a risk adjustment process, you can consistently examine ways to ensure all necessary codes are being captured and submitted on the claim up front. Timeliness is key, you don’t have a large window to get your data corrected and back to CMS— timelines also vary by state. For more information, reach out to Episource for state specific information.\n\n3. What’s the deadline for submitting missing diagnosis codes to CMS?\n\nThe deadline for submitting the codes for the most recent year of the benchmark (2018) is December 31, 2019, but you should try to get all your submissions in before December. It is possible that CMS may reject some initial codes, so you want to give yourself time to make corrections.\n\nNote that this process is different than the one used for Medicare Advantage because you’re submitting to a regional clearinghouse for CMS, meaning submission rules may vary slightly based on your location.\n\n4. How much lead time should I build into this process?\n\nYou should give yourself a lead time of a couple of months, especially if this is the first year you’re completing the process. By the first week of December, you should plan to have every code submitted. If you can start processing data immediately as it’s received, it will lessen your burden at the end of the year.\n\nA challenge might arise for ACOs that are in more than one state because of the different states guidelines. In this case, you will have to follow two different submission formats. Make sure to ask a potential risk adjustment coding partner if they’ve worked in your particular state or area and are capable of dealing with the various submission formats.\n\n5. Is there any downside to risk adjustment?\n\nThe simple answer is no. CMS has noted that it is only going to deal with upside risk adjustment. Although the initial CMS proposal in August 2018 reported that scores could increase or decrease by up to three percent, the downside three percent was eliminated.\n\nAt Episource, we provide risk adjustment and quality solutions for ACOs, including consultation, analytics, medical record review, and data and management workflow tools. Learn more about our risk adjustment solutions or talk to one of our experts and discover how we emphasize transparency and trust to become a valuable extension of your team, from outreach, retrieval, and coding to final delivery.\n\nSujata Bajaj\nSujata Bajaj\nVice President of Product and Payor Solutions\nSu has built extensive solutions for payors, including ACOs, Medicaid, MA, and the ACA exchange. She uses technology to integrate Revenue Programs with Quality and Care Management while maintaining a dedication to adding value to the beneficiary’s experience with the health plan through those solutions. Su has a Bachelors in Economics from Northeastern University in Boston, MA and is a Six Sigma Yellow Belt.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9768691062927246}
+{"content": "\n\nIcelandic MP breastfeeds baby daughter during parliamentary speech\n\nIcelandic MP breastfeeds baby daughter during parliamentary speech\nEuronews logo\nText size Aa Aa\n\nUnnur Bra Konradsdottir, MP for Iceland’s Independence Party, breastfed her baby girl while giving a speech at the Althingi Parliament today.\n\nThis has never happened before in the country and is probably unique in the world. Attitudes towards breastfeeding in public are considered to be very liberal in Iceland, as this event clearly demonstrates.\n\nThe politician expalins why she brought her baby with her to the podium during a speech on immigration law.\n\nUnnur Bra Konradsdottir quote: “She was hungry and I had not expected to go to the pulpit. Then another MP was giving statements on a bill that I put forward on the behalf of the Judicial Affairs Committee, to which I had to respond. So I either had to tear the baby girl of me and leave her crying with the MP sitting next to me or just take her with me and I thought it would cause less disturbance to take her with me”.\n\n“She has been with me at the Parliament almost since she was born so my fellow MPs are used to her. She has attended numerous committee meetings with me over the final days of this parliament. Usually she is very calm and when we cast our votes she is sound asleep. So there have never been any incidents before”, Unnur Bra Konradsdottir said.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8675809502601624}
+{"content": "Five Steps for Effective Change Process\n\n\nOrganizational change involves moving from the known to the unknown. Because the future is uncertain and may adversely affect people’s competencies, worth, and coping abilities, organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons convince them to do so. This requires attention to two related tasks: creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change.\n\nCreating Readiness for Change\nOne of the more fundamental axioms of OD is that people’s readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change. This involves making people so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are motivated to try new work processes, technologies, or ways of behaving. The following three methods can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change:\n\n1. Sensitize organizations to pressures for change.\n2. Reveal discrepancies between current and desired states.\n3. Convey credible positive expectations for the change.\n\nYou can download 8 Ultimate HR Tools for HR Managers HERE.\n\nOvercoming Resistance to Change\nAt the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources. Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call into question the past decisions of leaders. Finally, culture resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate.\n\n\nThe second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what members want the organization to look like or become. Generally, a vision describes the core values and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change is necessary and worth the effort.\n\nResearch by Collins and Porras suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts: (1) a relatively stable core ideology that describes the organization’s core values and purpose, and (2) an envisioned future with bold goals and a vivid description of the desired future state that reflects the specific change under consideration.\n\n\nManaging the political dynamics of change includes the following activities:\n– Assessing Change Agent Power\n– Identifying Key Stakeholders\n– Influencing Stakeholders\n\n\nImplementing organizational change involves moving from the existing organiza¬tion state to the desired future state. There are three major activities and structure to facilitate organizational transition: activity planning, commitment planning, and change-management structures.\n\nActivity Planning\nThis involves making a road map for change, citing specific activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. Activity planning should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks and should link these tasks to the organization’s change goals and priorities.\n\n\nCommitment Planning\nThis activity involves identifying key people and groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a strategy for gaining their support.\n\nChange-Management Structures\nBecause organizational transitions tend to be ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change process need to be created. These management structures should include people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal and political skills to guide the change process.\n\n\nThe following five activities can help to sustain momentum for carrying change through to completion: providing resources for change, building a support system for change agents, developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, and staying the course.\n\n\nBack to Top\nhit counter", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9606238603591919}
+{"content": "Start Reading\n\nWhere are all the aliens? | Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens? | Stephen Webb\n\n0 page\n\n\nThe universe is incredibly old, astoundingly vast and populated by trillions of planets -- so where are all the aliens? Astronomer Stephen Webb has an explanation: we're alone in the universe. In a mind-expanding talk, he spells out the remarkable barriers a planet would need to clear in order to host an extraterrestrial civilization -- and makes a case for the beauty of our potential cosmic loneliness. \"The silence of the universe is shouting, 'We're the creatures who got lucky,'\" Webb says.\n\nRead on the Scribd mobile app\n\nDownload the free Scribd mobile app to read anytime, anywhere.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6681340932846069}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 20\n\nBEAR CREEK LAW LLP Vincent Guo B.Sc., J.D.\n\nSuite 205 13588 88th Avenue\n\nSurrey, B.C. V3W 3K8\n\nPhone: (604) 259-6200 Mikhael Magaril B.Sc., J.D.\n\nFax: (604) 259-6202\n\nSeptember 26, 2017\n\nMr. Bill Morneau, M.P. Mr. Grard Deltell, M.P. Mr. Alexandre Boulerice, M.P.\nMinister of Finance Treasury Board Critic Finance Critic\nHouse of Commons House of Commons House of Commons\nOttawa, O.N. K1A 0A6 Ottawa, O.N. K1A 0A6 Ottawa, O.N. K1A 0A6\n\nMr. Pierre Poilievre, M.P. Mr. Peter Julian, M.P. Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie, M.P.\nFinance Critic Local M.P. Finance Critic\nHouse of Commons House of Commons House of Commons\n\nMr. Sukh Dhaliwal, M.P. Mrs. Carole James, M.L.A. Financial Consultation Commitee\nLocal M.P. Minister of Finance (B.C.)\nHouse of Commons 1084 Fort St.\nOttawa, O.N. K1A 0A6 Victoria, B.C. V8V 3K4\n\nDear Honourable Members of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly,\n\nCriticism and Suggestions to Proposed Tax Changes\n\n1. Personal Background and Aim of this Letter\n\nI am a practising lawyer residing in New Westminster, B.C. and I provide services through a law\ncorporation. I practice in limited liability partnership with another lawyer. Our main office in Surrey,\nB.C. We are looking to grow the firm to have enough work to support a full-time junior associate, and a\nfull-time legal assistant. My wife is now a stay-at-home mom receiving maternity benefits and has\nprimary care over our newborn. I am currently taking unpaid paternity benefits in order to bond with my\nnewborn son.\n\nI write to provide a detailed criticism of the proposed changes to the taxation of Canadian Controlled\nPrivate Corporations (CCPCs) and how it will impact Canadians who begin their entrepreneurial\njourney and build their own business. I will focus only on two aspects of the proposed changes: income\nsprinkling and the taxation of passive investment income generated by corporations.\n\nI will also provide suggestions for alternate legislation so that the intention of Parliament can be effected\nwithout causing significant unintended consequences towards individuals who are genuinely using their\ncorporations to build a business and drive Canadas economic growth. Lastly, throughout this letter I\nwill provide clear numerical examples of the impact of the changes upon business owners to move the\ndiscussion from the abstract into the concrete. Whenever examples are used I will assume that the\nindividuals are residents of B.C. for the purposes of provincial taxes.\n\n2. Extent of Proposed Legislation\n\nWhile the proposed legislative changes have received press coverage as aimed at closing loopholes for\nwealthy Canadians and in particular professionals such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc., a review of\nthe proposed legislative changes confirms that these rules apply to all CCPCs. Accordingly, the scope of\nthe legislative change will not only include professional corporations, but the overwhelming majority of\ncorporations in Canada that are used for small to large businesses businesses such as automotive\nrepair, local delis and restaurants, painters, plumbers, retailors, landscapers, cleaners, construction\ncompanies, etc.\n\nAs a result, the examples I will use will be equivocal as to the occupation of the individuals or their\nbusiness activity undertaken through a CCPC as the impact will be the same regardless if they are a\ndoctor, a lawyer, or a coffee shop.\n\n3. Criticisms of the Proposed Changes to Income Sprinkling\n\nOne of the proposals of the draft legislation is to curb income sprinkling amongst family members if\ntheir contribution to the business is not reasonable. Such a suggestion is problematic as it:\n\nA. Amplifies an existing inequality in our tax system;\n\nB. Stifles economic development for business owners;\nC. Conflates the notion of property ownership and employment; and\nD. Minimizes the impact and value that women bring to a marriage / common-law relationship.\n\nEach factor will be examined in turn to show that the approach proposed by the legislative amendments\nis ineffective at meeting at its objectives, and provides unintended consequences that will have a\nnegative impact on Canadas economic growth.\n\nA) Amplifying an existing inequality in our tax system\n\nIt is a well-established principle of our taxation system that the tax system should achieve horizontal\nequality. This means that individuals in similar economic situations should receive the same tax\ntreatment. For instance, household where the total family income is $120,000 should receive the same\ntax treatment as any other family with the identical family income. However for couples in a marital or\ncommon-law relationship horizontal equality is rarely achieved and there is a significant tax penalty for\nhaving a difference in income amongst the household members.\n\nTo put it another way, families with identical household incomes, but with a difference in the income\nearned by each partner will pay more taxes than households where the members earn the same income.\nThis creates an inequality in our tax system because a family with the same pre-tax income, will have\ndifferent post-tax disposable income with all other factors being equal. The changes proposed by the\nLiberal government only widen that inequality.\n\nIn many common-law and marital relationships there is a partner who will earn a substantially larger\nincome than the other. This is particularly true if one partner is involved in running a business through a\nCCPC or otherwise. It is of course acknowledged that there are relationships in which both members\nachieve identical or quite similar incomes such as the case with many teachers or other civil servants\nthat are married to others in the same profession. Such examples are not dismissed or ignored, but are\nused as the benchmark to highlight the difference in tax treatment, and accordingly the lack of horizontal\n\nThe problem of higher taxes for households with differences in the amount earned by each member has\nbeen identified many times by many academics through the years. The Carter Report the more\ncommon name of the Royal Commission on Taxation (1962 1967) identified this anomaly and goes\ninto far more analysis about the impact. It recommended that such a result could be avoided in its\nentirety by making the basic tax unit that of a family, rather than an individual. These recommendations\nhowever were never adopted into legislation.\n\nDespite the Income Tax Act imposing tax liability on an individual basis, many provincial and federal\ngovernment programs, grants, and subsidies look at (adjusted) family income to determine eligibility1.\n\ni.e. the Canada Child Benefit Program, Canada Learning Bonds and Additional Canada Education Savings Grants,\nGuaranteed Income Supplement, GST/HST credit, etc.\n\nThis is simply a reflection of the reality that many married and common-law couples have a single joint\nbank account that they use to pay for all their expenses.\n\nTo demonstrate the size of the inequality we begin by following the lives of Chris and Jamie, who are\nmarried and have a single joint bank account that they use for all of their expenses. We will consider\nmandatory payments such as federal and provincial income tax, CPP premiums, and EI premiums. For\nsimplicity, WCB premiums, which are solely the responsibility of the employer, are excluded. We will\nfollow their journey of building a family business together.\n\nOur first example will show the difference in disposable income when there is a difference in their\nincomes through either employment, or self-employment. All numbers obtained throughout were\ncalculated using SimpleTax2.\n\n\nExample 1.1 Comparing disposable income among differing incomes and self-employment\nScenario 3 unequal\nScenario 2 unequal\nScenario 1 equal income income & self-\nChris Jamie Chris Jamie Chris Jamie\nPersonal $95,000\n$60,000 $60,000 $95,000 $25,000 $25,000\nincome pre- self-\nemployment employment employment employment employment\ntax employed\nincome pre- $120,000 $120,000 $120,000\nFederal tax $7,342 $7,342 $14,692 $1,607 $14,151 $1,607\n$2,904 $2,904 $6,182 $674 $5,910 $674\nCPP and EI $3,400 $3,400 $3,400 $1,472 $5,128 $1,472\n$13,647 $13,647 $24,275 $3,753 $25,189 $3,753\nincome $46,353 $46,353 $70,725 $21,247 $69,811 $21,247\nincome $92,706 $91,972 $91,058\n\nA few observations are worthy of note. In all three scenarios, the household income is identical yet the\nfirst scenario results in the highest amount of disposable (i.e. after tax) income. This is despite the fact\nthat in each scenario the eligibility for government programs would be identical.\n\nThe next observation is that the difference in incomes in the second scenario results in approximately\n$750 in tax penalties. Such an amount is not insignificant and represents approximately 30% of the\n\nCanada Child Benefit that this couple would have received for the 2016 taxation year. It also likely\nrepresents a few months worth of car payments, or a sizeable portion of rent or a mortgage payment.\n\nIn the last scenario, Chris and Jamie earn the same distribution of income as in the second scenario.\nHowever as a result of the rules surrounding CPP contributions for self-employed persons3 the end result\nis that they end up with approximately $900 less disposable income than in the second scenario, and\napproximately $1,700 less than in the first scenario noticeable amounts for these income earners.\n\nDespite the fact that in the third scenario, Chris likely has had to take more risk in order to achieve\n$95,000 in self-employment income, is ineligible for EI benefits if things dont work out, and will still\nreceive the exact same amount of CPP benefits upon retirement as in the second example, Chris and\nJamie take home noticeably less if Chris is self-employed. In essence, Chris and Jamie are punished for\nattempting to have one partner start a business, and for having different levels of income.\n\nFollowing this, Chris and Jamie decide that given Jamies modest salary it makes sense to have Jamie\nquit and work with Chris at their small family business to try and increase its revenue. As they are still\nin the early stages of their business they decide to not incorporate as the cost is something that they\ncannot afford and they are not sure if the business will really pan out.\n\nIn this subsequent example we look at the disposable income that this couple would have if both work in\nthe same unincorporated business and if the revenues were split in various ways.\n\nA person earning self-employment income pays both the employers portion (4.95%) and the employees portion (4.95%)\nof the contribution a total of 9.9% of the income earned.\n\nExample 1.2 Comparing disposable income when both work in the same company\n\nScenario 1 self- Scenario 2 self- Scenario 3 one self-\n\nemployed even split employed uneven split employed, one employed\nChris Jamie Chris Jamie Chris Jamie\nAll income\n$60,000 $60,000 $95,000 $25,000\nDistribution after $25,000\nself- self- self- self -\nof income employment employment\nemployed employed employed employed\nIncome prior\nto cost of $120,000 $120,000 $120,000\nCost of\nn/a n/a n/a n/a $25,000 n/a\nIncluded Included Included Included\nCPP $1,064 $0\nBelow below below below\nEmployer EI\n$0 $0 $0 $0 $571 $0\nTotal cost of\nn/a n/a n/a n/a $26,635 $0\nNet business\n$120,000 $120,000 $93,365\nPersonal $60,000 $60,000 $95,000 $25,000\n$93,365 self- $25,000\nincome pre- self- self- self- self -\nemployed employment\ntax employed employed employed employed\nFederal tax $6,942 $6,942 $14,151 $1,509 $13,782 $1,607\nProvincial tax $2,749 $2,749 $5,910 $641 $5,709 $674\nCPP and EI $5,128 $5,128 $5,128 $2,129 $5,128 $1,472\nTax payable $14,820 $14,820 $25,189 $4,278 $24,619 $3,753\n\nincome $45,180 $45,180 $69,811 $20,722 $68,746 $21,247\nincome post- $90,360 $90,533 $89,993\n\nHere we see that despite Chris and Jamie continuing to make the same amount of household income\nprior to paying taxes, and by taking on a greater risk by working at the same family business, they are\nfalling further and further behind. We see that in all three scenarios in the second example the couple\nhas less disposable income to spend on goods and services, to put away into a TFSA, or to otherwise\nsave for a rainy day than even the worst scenario in the first example.\n\nWe also note an interesting observation that an uneven splitting of income results in a higher amount of\ndisposable household income as can be seen in comparing the first and second scenario. This because of\ntwo factors. The first is that the initial $3,500 of self-employment income is exempt from CPP\ncontributions which for a self-employed person is the equivalent of a 9.9% tax as they are responsible\nfor both the employer and employee portions. Further, there is a maximum amount of CPP payable by a\nperson in any one given year, after which point their marginal tax liability decreases essentially by 9.9%.\n\nIn the last scenario we see that Chris and Jamie are further penalized for having Jamie work as an\nemployee. The rate of EI insurance is 1.63% for the employees contribution and 2.282% for the\nemployers contribution. Since Chris is acting as an employer he is responsible for paying these\namounts. However because EI is not payable for self-employed individuals, the household actually loses\nmoney if they characterize one of themselves as an employee.\n\nWe now turn to the last example in which Chris and Jamie decide that they are going to incorporate.\nTheir business now has passed its infant stages and they feel more secure that it will continue to provide\nfor their family. Lets look at the tax treatment that results when Chris and Jamie work in the same\nincorporate business and draw their money out in different ways.\n\nExample 1.3 Comparing disposable income with a private corporation\n\nScenario 1 even split Scenario 2 un-even\n\nScenario 3 one employed\nof dividends4 split of dividends\nChris Jamie Chris Jamie Chris Jamie\nAll dividends\nDistribution of\n50% 50% Remainder $25,000 after $25,000\ndividends dividends as dividends dividends employment employment\nIncome prior\nto cost of $120,000 $120,000 $120,000\nCost of\nCPP $0 $0 $0 $0 $1,064 $0\nEmployer EI\n$0 $0 $0 $0 $571 $0\nTotal cost of\nNet business\n$120,000 $120,000 $93,365\nCorporate Tax\n$15,144 $15,144 $11,782\n\nIncome after $104,856 $104,856 $81,583\n\nAll dividends are assumed to be non-eligible dividends, i.e. the business is assumed to earn less than $500,000 per year.\nCorporate tax is the combined Federal and Provincial (B.C.) rate at rate of 12.62% which reflects a change in the rate\npartway through the year\n\nPersonal $52,428 $52,428 $79,856 $25,020 $81,583 $25,000\nincome pre- dividend dividend dividend dividend dividend employment\nFederal tax $1,850 $6,942 $5,140 $0 $5,453 $1,607\nProvincial tax $1,842 $2,749 $4,125 $326 $4,329 $674\nCPP and EI $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $1,472\nTax payable $3,692 $3,692 $9,265 $326 $9,782 $3,753\nPersonal $48,736 $48,736 $70,591 $24,674 $71,801 $21,247\nincome post- $97,472 $95,265 $93,048\n\nAgain a few observations are in order. First, we see that there is a significant disadvantage to having\nJamie work as an employee compared to getting money out the business as dividends. We also see that\nan equal splitting of income through dividends results in a significantly better post-tax result.\n\nAnother key point is that each of these scenarios result in a larger amount of disposable income\ncompared to the result in which both partners were receiving employment income or were self-\nemployed. Under the subsequent heading I will argue that this is a fair result and rewards business\nowners for taking on significantly larger risk.\n\nLastly, using these numbers we are able to see the significance of the tax savings. Recall in the first\nexample when both partners made equal income their post-tax income was $92,706. The difference\nbetween receiving equal employment income vs. equal dividend income through their own business is\napproximately $4,500. This is a sizeable chunk of change however it is far less than what the media\nappears to portray it as, and comparable to the tax penalty that arises when a couple receives self-\nemployment income rather than income from employment, as well as when a couple has a discrepancy\nin what they earn.\n\nAccordingly I invite the reader to consider the following conclusions:\n\n1) Our current tax system penalizes couples in which there is a difference in their incomes\ncompared to couples who earn the same amount of income;\n2) Our tax system heavily penalizes individuals who run an unincorporated business\nbecause of the heavy additional drag of CPP contributions payable;\n3) Families members are penalized for being treated and paid as employees within a family\nbusiness whether incorporated or not. This is because of the employers portion of the\nEI contribution is an expense that would not otherwise exist if the family member was\nself-employed; receiving dividend income; or employed anywhere else;\n4) The tax advantage in disposable income using a corporate structure optimally is on par\nwith the difference disadvantage of having a difference in income or being self-\nemployed; and\n5) The only way that business owners can ever catch up and have the same disposable\nincome as their employed counterparts is to incorporate and use dividends.\n\nWhen Finance Minister Bill Morneau discusses the rise of CCPCs as inviting the inference that wealthy\nCanadians are increasingly using these vehicles to protect their wealth, I would invite the reader to\nconsider the possibility that the rise of CCPCs can also be explained by the increasing number of\nbusinesses and that a CCPC is the only structure that makes sense from a tax perspective.\n\nB) Stifles economic development for business owners\n\nAfter going through the above examples I will now discuss how the changes to income sprinkling will\nharm economic development for business owners.\n\nThe tax system has a broader impact than simply raising money that the government spends on projects\nand services. Indeed, through tax credits, deductions, and other tax treatments the government can\nexercise significant policy changes by making it more attractive for individuals to take certain steps6.\n\nAs an example, consider the charitable tax credits that are given to individuals who donate money to a charity\nparticularly the enhanced credit given to first-time donors. This encourages individuals to donate to charities. A more\ncomplicated example may by the mining exploration tax credits, or B.C.s scientific research & experimental development\ntax credits which encourage the creation and development of businesses within those areas.\n\nAside from the sense of fulfillment that arises from owning a business, there are many important\nobstacles and difficulties faced by business owners that have no comparison in the realm of\nemployment. Many articles have been written by academics and journalists over the past few weeks and\nI do not intend to provide a review of them. I will instead focus on the following:\n\n1) The absence of disability benefits, vacation days, pension, or other benefits;\n\n2) The need to collect accounts receivable;\n3) The need to find work; and\n4) The capital requirement to start a business.\n\nIf an employer is unable to find work for their employees, the usual result is termination which would\nresult in the employee qualifying for E.I. benefits which can be very generous. Aside from replacing a\nsignificant part of an employees income, there is the opportunity to take advantages of programs that\nretrain an individual for other forms of employment. Many employees also benefit from paid vacation\ndays, or in lieu of actual vacation having it paid out to them. In addition many employees also receive a\nformal of disability insurance through their employment, or other types of benefits such as extended\n\nNone of these safety nets or programs exist for self-employed persons. If a business owner goes on\nvacation they do not earn income unless the business is large enough to run itself. Likewise they do not\nhave the benefit of group benefits and the significantly reduced price they offer for the level of coverage\nprovided. A business owner is taking a significant gamble on themselves.\n\nIf I do a bad job as a business owner I may not get paid. I may be required to spend additional time on\nmy own dime to fix my mistakes, or to return money to a client in order to keep some good faith. None\nof that is analogous for employees. If they make mistakes they will likely keep their job and have to\nspend additional paid time to rectify their mistakes. Depending upon the circumstances they may even\nreceive overtime at the rate of 1.5x or 2.0x.\n\nEmployees are entitled to significant protections under Provincial and Federal legislation. Employees\nare entitled to receive their paycheques promptly after their wages become due and owing. If they are\nterminated without cause they are entitled to receive a minimum amount of notice, or payment in lieu of\nnotice (i.e. severance). Business owners who do not receive the entirety of their fee up-front have the\nadded task of trying to collect on the fees they have already earned. This is creates cash flow constraints\n\nas invoicing is to be done on an accrual system meaning that the taxes are paid when the work is\ncompleted regardless if the business owner has been paid yet.\n\nThe payment of taxes on an accrual basis is a very significant point that is not captured in the preceding\nnumerical discussions. If a business owner only gets paid on 90% of the invoices they render, the taxes\nare calculated as owing on the full 100% until such time the business owner declares the debt to be bad\ndebt and written off. Further, no business owner would ever take all of the companys profits out.\nEvery business must have a reserve of cash to pay for business expenses, including employees, and as a\nmargin of safety for unexpected expenses or decreases in revenue.\n\nLastly, employees are not obligated to bring anything but themselves to work. They do not need to pay\nrent on a commercial property, purchase equipment or pay for the phone lines. They do not need to pay\nfor a business license, a corporate bank account, or annual filing fees. There is no risk to an employee of\nlosing money when they get a job. A business venture is an entirely different beast.\n\nAgainst this constellation of challenges there is of course the upside of significantly higher earning\npotential, increased flexibility to the extent of not having to report to any manager, and increase\nmobility to the extent that a business owner can theoretically take their job with them if they relocate.\n\nSmall and medium sized business are the cornerstone of Canadas economy. As a business grows from\nits infancy as a one-person operation it will expand and increase revenue, hire individuals, and\ncontribute to Canadas GDP and lower unemployment. Increased business revenues result in more taxes\ngoing towards the public coffers. Businesses, particularly those that are new, require cash in order to\noperate and grow.\n\nThe proposed changes would increase the total tax payable by individuals and reduce the amount of\ncapital that a business can spend reinvesting in itself in order to grow as more needs to be taken out in\norder to pay the business owners individual tax bill. This is counterproductive and adds another\nobstacle to a business owner being successful. Canada needs to incentivize individuals to take up the\nprospect of growing our economy through building businesses. The simple reality is, not everyone can\nbe an employee and we need to avoid making the prospect of running a business lack any reward\n\nC) Conflates the notion of property ownership and employment\n\nThe proposed changes surrounding income sprinkling allows for family members who contribute to a\nbusiness to still receive dividends that are in line with the fair market value of their services. Such a\nproposition confuses the principle that dividends are received not as a result of doing any work but are\nthe fruits of ownership of shares.\n\nWhile this entire letter is concerned with CCPCs it is important to remember that there are many other\ntypes of corporations. Take for instance, publically traded corporations: i.e. Royal Bank of Canada,\nJohnson & Johnson, or British Petroleum. A publically traded company allows individuals to purchase\nshares on a secondary market, and if the Board of Directors agrees, a dividend will be paid out to each\nshareholder in the amount agreed upon.\n\nAs an individual investor, when I own shares of a publically traded corporation and receive a dividend in\nreturn, I have done absolutely no labour and contributed nothing to the corporation. I am entitled to this\nas a result of owning the shares, which themselves are property. I am being compensated for risking my\nmoney with one company, as opposed to putting it into another, or into a different type of investment\nvehicle, whether it be a savings account or a bond.\n\nIn the context of a CCPC, let us consider a couple that purchases for example a Subway franchise. They\nwill open it up for business and hopefully overtime it will become a self-sustaining business that will\nrequire minimal involvement on their end and generate passive income. Once these individuals reach the\npoint where their business does not require their continued contribution and they have a well-trained\nstaff why should the amount of dividends that either one is able to take out of the corporation be limited\nto the value of their labour contribution each year?\n\nIn the context of a small business run by a couple its quite likely that the funds that were initially used\nto capitalize the business operation came from one of the following: a joint bank account; a home equity\nline of credit against the matrimonial home, or a loan from a financial institution in which both partners\nact as guarantors. If the business goes bust, both partners in a marriage or common-law relationship will\nend up suffering a significant financial loss. Both partners took significant risk in having either one of\nthem open up a business. Against such a factual framework there is nothing sinister about both members\nreceiving a form of dividend payment from the corporation they are entitled to receive it for having\n\nbeen directly or indirectly involved in the risks of building a business and owning a share of the\n\nFurther, let us consider when a couple separates or divorces. While each Province can set its own\nlegislation with respect to property division, there appears to generally be a consensus that upon\nseparation each spouse (or common-law partner) is entitled to a half-interest in all family property. The\ndefinition of family property is broad and depends upon each province, however in British Columbia it\nwill generally include all assets acquired while in the relationship. This usually means that if the couple\npurchases real estate while married then each will be entitled to half of the net value once separated.\nSimilarly, if one partner starts a business while in the relationship there is a legislative presumption that\nthe other partner is entitled to half of the business as it is a family asset.\n\nIn cases where a partner has pre-existing assets then the law usually excludes the value of those assets\nfrom the family property regime, but includes the appreciation in those assets while in the relationship.\nFor instance, if one partner brought a home into the relationship and it appreciates in value, the other\nwould be presumptively entitled to half of the net increase. A similar situation arises if a partner has a\npre-existing business venture.\n\nThe proposed changes by the Liberal government are at direct odds with decades of jurisprudence\nwritten by the judiciary across Canada and the values of fairness enshrined in family proceedings. If a\ncouple separates, one partner may very well obtain half of the value of the other partners business\neven if they do not contribute directly or add any labour or provide any service to the business. Despite\nthis, the Liberal government feels that a couple should not be entitled to a distribution of the earnings of\na business while the couple is together. However it seems that such distribution of business earnings is\nkosher while getting separated. It is unclear how this advances any policy objective.\n\nD) Minimizes the impact and value that women bring to a marriage / common-law\n\nThe current proposed changes advanced by the Liberals allow distribution of dividend income to family\nmembers and other related persons to the extent that they are reasonable. One of the statutory factors to\nconsider whether a payment is reasonable includes the amount of direct contribution that the family\nmember puts towards the business. The requirement for showing a direct contribution undermines not\nonly the property division regime that exists in family proceedings throughout Canada, but also goes\n\nagainst several seminal decisions from our Supreme Court of Canada that established resulting and/or\nconstructive trusts in favour of homemakers in long-term common law relationships. The lineage of\ncases from our Supreme Court of Canada consists of Kerr v. Baranow, 2011 SCC 10, Sorochan v.\nSorochan, [1986] 2 S.C.R. 38, Peter v. Beblow, [1993] 1 SCR 980, and Pettkus v. Becker, [1980] 2 SCR\n\nWhile I do not intend to go into a detailed review of the cases, particularly because a lot of their\nprinciples have become moot given recent legislative reform to provide a structure to the division of\nfamily assets in long-term relationships, the analysis of the Court remains compelling. Perhaps the most\ninstructive case is that of Peter v. Beblow. The case involved a common law relationship of 12 years in\nwhich one partner did the domestic work of the household and raised the children of their blended\nfamily without compensation. As a result of undertaking homemaker services, the other partner was able\nto earn a higher income, pay the mortgage off faster, and purchase other assets such as a vehicle.\n\nJustice McLachlin (as she then was) wrote the majority decision. One of the main arguments advanced\nwas that some types of services in some types of relationships should not be recognized as supporting\nlegal claims for policy reasons. More particularly, homemaking and childcare services should not, in a\nmarital or quasi-marital relationship, be viewed as giving rise to equitable claims against the other\n\nAfter reviewing the judicial history that lead to that position in times foregone, the Court said the\n\nIt is my view that this argument is no longer tenable in Canada, either from the point of view of\nlogic or authority. From the point of view of logic, I share the view of Professors Hovius and\nYoudan in The Law of Family Property, at p. 136, that \"there is no logical reason to distinguish\ndomestic services from other contributions\". The notion that household and childcare services\nare not worthy of recognition by the court fails to recognize the fact that these services are of\ngreat value, not only to the family, but to the other spouse. As Lord Simon observed nearly 30\nyears ago: \"The cock-bird can feather his nest precisely because he is not required to spend most\nof his time sitting on it\" (\"With All My Worldly Goods,\" Holdsworth Lecture (University of\nBirmingham, March 20, 1964, at p. 32). The notion, moreover, is a pernicious one that\nsystematically devalues the contributions which women tend to make to the family economy. It\nhas contributed to the phenomenon of the feminization of poverty which this Court identified in\nMoge v. Moge, 1992 CanLII 25 (SCC), [1992] 3 S.C.R. 813, per L'Heureux-Dub J., at pp. 853-\n\nMoreover, the argument cannot stand with the jurisprudence which this and other courts have\nlaid down. Today courts regularly recognize the value of domestic services. This became clear\nwith the Court's holding in Sorochan, leading one author to comment that \"[t]he Canadian\nSupreme court has finally recognized that domestic contribution is of equal value as financial\ncontribution in trusts of property in the familial context\" (Mary Welstead, \"Domestic\nContribution and Constructive Trusts: The Canadian Perspective\", [1987] Denning L.J. 151, at p.\n161). If there could be any doubt about the need for the law to honestly recognize the value of\ndomestic services, it must be considered to have been banished by Moge v. Moge, supra. While\nthat case arose under the Divorce Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.), the value of the services\ndoes not change with the legal remedy invoked.\n\nI cannot give credence to the argument that legal recognition of the value of domestic services\nwill do violence to the law and the social structure of our society. It has been recognized for\nsome time that such services are entitled to recognition and compensation under the Divorce Act\nand the provincial acts governing the distribution of matrimonial property. Yet society has not\nbeen visibly harmed. I do not think that similar recognition in the equitable doctrine of unjust\nenrichment will have any different effect.\n\nFrom a personal perspective I could not agree more with the analysis of the current Chief Justice of the\nSupreme Court of Canada. I have seen how much work my wife does at home with our son. When I\nreturn from my paternity leave I know the only reason I will be able to make any reasonable level of\nincome is because of the work she does at home. The law recognizes that historically it was women that\nhad to stay home and raise children and otherwise provide homemaker benefits. The law recognized that\nas a result they were entitled to receive a portion of the appreciation in family assets and business\nventures undertaken. Despite the state of the law for at least the past 31 years, the Liberal government is\nproposing to undo and undermine the contribution that homemakers bring to the family because they are\nindirect contributions, rather than direct.\n\n4. Criticisms of the Proposed Changes to Taxation of Passive Investment Income\n\nI now turn to a much briefer criticism of the proposed changes to taxation of passive income earned by a\ncorporation. Many of the themes surrounding the impact on businesses have already been developed in\nmy criticism on the changes of income sprinkling which makes it unnecessary to repeat them. With\nrespect to the proposed changes on the taxation of passive investment income I only raise one major\nobjection: corporations should not be punished for raising capital for business purposes.\n\nLet us consider for example a business that wants to make a major purchase be it real estate, a large\npiece of equipment, a massive software upgrade, etc. A CCPC can get sufficient funds to make a large\npurchase several ways: it may borrow money from a bank, it may engage in a form of seller-financing\nand offer some form of collateral, or it may purchase it outright.\n\nIf a CCPC does a form of financing, there is no question that the shareholders should not have any\nincome imputed to them from such a transaction. However if the CCPC decides to use a savings account\nto save over a period of years to make such a transaction the Liberals propose to impute those\ninvestment gains towards the individuals behind the corporation. This will require the payment of\npersonal income tax on those gains not just corporate income tax. If a CCPC choses to invest to meet\nits objectives through mutual funds, individual stocks, bonds, ETFs, GICs, or other vehicles then again it\nwill be hit with a significant tax bill on those investment gains and greatly increase the time taken before\nit can make its acquisition, as well as create cash flow constraints.\n\nWhile I understand the tax advantages that wealthy Canadians can use with a CCPC to reduce and defer\ntheir tax liability in order to accumulate wealth faster, the Liberals are proposing a very blunt tool that\nwill completely ignore whether the investment is for a bona fide business purpose, or whether it is a tax\ndeferral mechanism.\n\n5. Alternatives to Consider\n\nAs promised at the beginning I intend not just to offer criticisms on the unintended consequences of the\nproposed legislative changes, but also to offer productive suggestions that I submit would be more\npractical solutions to address the mischief that the Liberal government has identified. In that regard I\noffer three proposals that could be used individually, or in conjunction with each other to achieve the\nlegislative goals. The three options are:\n\n1) Impose similar legislative changes on CCPCs that only derive any income through investments,\nare not related to a CCPC that engages in an active business, and that does not offer their\nservices to the public;\n2) Allow spouses or common law partners to split their income by filing as a household; and\n3) Allow unincorporated business owners to opt out of CPP.\n\nA) Impose similar legislative changes on a small subset of CCPCs\n\nMuch media coverage has been made by the Liberal government indicating that this was a tax change\naimed at wealthy Canadians however the legislative changes will impact all CCPCs if adopted as is.\nIf the intent is to address a very specific problem in which individuals incorporate to defer and minimize\ntheir tax liability on their investments, then the legislative changes should be refined to target those\ncorporations specifically, as opposed to all CCPCs\n\nMy proposal is to impose a similar form of these proposed legislative changes to corporations that are\nnot actively engaged in generating jobs and increasing GDP. After some thought I believe that if a\ncorporation derives all, or substantially all of its income through investments, if it is not related to a\nCCPC that carries on an active business, and if it does not offer its services to the public then it likely is\na CCPC that is being used solely for the purposes identified by the Finance Minister. There are many\nother examples in the Income Tax Act of tax treatment that is specific to one type of corporation for\ninstance mutual fund trusts, and mortgage investment corporations.\n\nSuch discernment would remove the harmful effects on legitimate business owners.\n\nB) Allow for income splitting with a spouse or common-law partner\n\nThe subsequent suggestion is to adopt one of the key recommendations from the Carter Commission. If\nthe Liberal government suggests professionals and others are using CCPCs to sprinkle income across\nfamily members then one solution is to allow individuals to distribute income with their spouse without\na corporate structure. This will obviate the need to incorporate altogether.\n\nAs demonstrated above, households with the same total income but differences in the income earned per\npartner have less disposable income than other households with equal income earned per partner.\nCCPCs are the only way to currently obtain some level of horizontal tax equality. If individuals could\nachieve the same result without incorporating I would expect to see fewer individuals using a CCPC for\ntheir business purposes. This would in turn reduce the use of other favourable tax planning strategies\nidentified by the Liberal government as fewer CCPCs would exist. While it is beyond the scope of my\nabilities, a comparative exercise between the rise of CCPCs and similar corporate vehicles in the United\nStates of America might be fruitful in this regard.\n\nFurther, Canadians that have more disposable income may use that towards further spending and thus\nstimulating the economy, reducing debt, making charitable donations, or achieving any number of policy\n\nC) Allow business owners to opt-out of CPP\n\nReviewing the numerical examples in the first part of this letter it can be seen that for self-employed\npersons CPP has the effect of increasing the tax payable by almost 10% for roughly the first $50,000 of\nnet income earned. Given the dividend gross up and tax credit it simply never makes sense for a\nbusiness owner to remain unincorporated from a tax perspective. Put another way, there is simply no\nlevel of income at which there is a tax advantage to remaining unincorporated. Eventually all business\nowners realize this usually around the time that they file their taxes and speak to an accountant.\n\nThe discrepancy between the tax payable by an unincorporated business owner and one using a CCPC\ncan be reduced by allowing business owners to opt-out of CPP. Incorporated business owners do not\ncontribute anything towards CPP when they pay themselves dividends. If there is greater tax treatment\nachieved without the need for a corporate structure, it will reduce the use of CCPCs as the preferred\nbusiness vehicle.\n\n6. Conclusion\n\nIn summation I am hopeful that going through this detailed review will allow the reader to have a more\nthorough appreciation of the scope of the consequences to all business owners if the proposed legislation\nis adopted in its present form. I do not disagree that there are valid objectives in mind, however the tools\nsuggested are far too blunt and must be refined down in order to effectively reach its target.\n\nI would be happy to answer any questions you may have or to continue this discussion to enact targeted\nlegislation that is effective and in the best interest of Canadians.\n\nYours truly,\n\nMikhael Magaril\nBarrister and Solicitor", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.826830267906189}
+{"content": "At Compassionate Communication Center of Ohio, we envision a world where people are connecting across differences and resolving conflict nonviolently and collaboratively - not through the use of violence, force or coercion, but instead by connecting with our common humanity and engaging our compassionate nature.\n\nA world, where people find creative and interactive ways to transform their conflicts through a process of communication that connects us across differences in gender, age, race, sexual orientation, religion and political beliefs. A world where peace, mutual respect and compassionate relationships are the norm.\n\n\nCompassionate (Nonviolent) Communication\n\npromotes a compassionate world where everyone's needs matter!\n\nMalik Moore (pictured left) and Jeff Brown (right) YMCA of Central Ohio in 2015.\n\n\n· Offers life-enriching tools to create an environment where people use communication to exchange the information necessary to resolve their differences peacefully.\n\n· Emphasizes emotional intelligence over intellectual analysis by providing a life-changing way of interacting that facilitates the flow of communication with a focus on universal human needs by employing emotional intelligence in expressing what’s going on in people.\n\n· Raises the bar for communication by relying on objective observations rather than evaluations.\n\n· Avoids making people defend themselves from value-laden judgments by employing clear requests in place of demands.\n\n· Allows everyone to get their needs met on\ntheir own terms without coercion, fear of\nretribution, or loss of self-esteem.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9981976747512817}
+{"content": "The Dutch government has arranged multiple incentives to stimulate the implementation of Energy Techniques and Measures (ETMs) in the built environment. These ETMs lower the energy use, make use of renewable sources or make use of fossil fuels in a more efficient way. Although the urge is high and the number of available ETMs is large, the rate of implementation is rather low. At the department of CME, research is conducted to gain more insights on how the implementation process of these ETMs takes place and can be improved in such a way that national ambitions can be met.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9987958669662476}
+{"content": "One of the country’s most successful athletes, who represented Great Britain for 14 years at the highest level. Roger is now a television presenter and an accomplished motivational speaker and conference host, able to inspire, motivate and create an individual’s awareness of self-achievement.\n\nA superb add-on to any Knockout event, helping to create a more enthralling and exciting atmosphere", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8389694690704346}
+{"content": "Phone : 03155462505-6\n\nDokhtar Bridge (Iran tourism)\n\n Dokhtar Bridge,iran tourism\n\n\n\nRobe Rashidy Edifice (Iran tourism)\n\n Robe Rashidy Edifice,iran tourism\n\nThese are the remnants of the ancient edifices from the period of the Eilkhanians. Robe Rashidy was the center of scholars and the learned people of those times.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8643147945404053}
+{"content": "Problem with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity\n\nEinstein’s theory of relativity was beyond any doubt lovely, different from any other theory ever imagined by mankind. Newton described gravity merely as a force acting over a distance attracting any 2 masses, the force proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This simple straight forward theory worked well for over two hundred years.\n\n\nThe Problem\nThe mass that determined the strength of the gravitational force was the same mass that appeared in Newton’s second law of motion, F = ma; gravitational mass was the same as the “inertial mass.” There was no apparent reason this had to be true, it simply was.\n\nEinstein didn’t think this was mere coincidence. He insisted that the two types of mass are identical because of a fundamental symmetry in nature; that the laws of physics must take the same form whether one is in a gravitational field or in a region of space with no gravity (say, in a spaceship undergoing an equivalent acceleration). Carrying this principle to its logical conclusions eventually led to the equations of general relativity, the theory considered by many to be “probably the most beautiful of all existing physical theories.”\n\n\n\nThe Unanswered Questions\n\n\nThe problem of quantum gravity and the question of the reality of spacetime singularities remain open. Observational data that is taken as evidence for dark energy and dark matter could indicate the need for new physics. Even taken as is, general relativity is rich with possibilities for further exploration. Mathematical relativists seek to understand the nature of singularities and the fundamental properties of Einstein’s equations,and increasingly powerful computer simulations (such as those describing merging black holes) are run.\n\nSo, in a nutshell, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is not complete. More needs to be added, more explanations to be given and more observations to be endorsed.\n\n\n\nAuthor: admin\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9510459303855896}
+{"content": "Palácio das Sereias (Palácio da Bandeirinha)\n\n  • Monuments\n  • Address: Rua da Bandeirinha, 4050-088 Porto\n  • Tags: River Douro\n  • The name that it is known for comes from exotic and gigantic sirens that flank its doorway. The building was constructed in the mid-18th century for residence of the family Portocarrero in a place where an old Jewish quarter was located. The Portocarrero family left the palace in 1809, the time when the populace slaughtered their son deeming him to be involved in the French invasion. Since then the palace remained closed until 1955, being sold to the Institute of the Daughters of Charity (Instituto das Filhas da Caridade) that set up there the college Casa Madalena de Canossa which still runs in present days.\n  • GPS: 41.1452053, -8.6215055\n  • Bus: STCP - 1M, STCP - 200, STCP - 201, STCP - 207, STCP - 208, STCP - 301, STCP - 303, STCP - 500, STCP - 501, STCP - 507, STCP - 601, STCP - 602, STCP - 801, STCP - ZM, STCP - ZR, STCP - 12M, STCP - 13M\n\n\nCasa das Taipas Casa das Taipas\nHotel Carrís Porto Ribeira Hotel Carrís Porto Ribeira\nVivacity Porto Vivacity Porto\nLocal accommodation\nPorto by the river 2 Porto by the river 2\nAssador Típico Assador Típico\nLocated in an antique house on a Porto alleyway where D. Manuel II lived, this restaurant was founded in 1984. It has a capacity of 305 and its workin...\nPorto e Vírgula Porto e Vírgula\nThis modern and refined restaurant has minimalist decor, a family atmosphere and serves good traditional Portuguese food. At lunchtime, there is a b...\nO Cometa O Cometa\nLocated near the city's old wall, in the Miragaia area, this restaurant is comfortably decorated and is a very pleasant place. The menu presents sever...\nCafé Fénix Café Fénix\nCafés, Tea houses and Ice cream shops\nStock Exchange Palace Stock Exchange Palace\nA National Monument, the Palácio da Bolsa (Stock Exchange Palace) is the property and headquarters of the Commercial Association of Porto. It was des...\nCasa do Infante - Museum Casa do Infante - Museum\nMuseums and Theme centres\nCasa do Infante, gained its name for being the birthplace of Henry the Navigator, is a complex of buildings that have been built to house the services...\nEncaixados Restaurante Bar&Tapas Encaixados Restaurante Bar&Tapas\nCoupage Coupage\nWine, Food & Cocktails", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6316412091255188}
+{"content": "Printing on Cloth\n\nAs book run lengths have gotten smaller and smaller, we have found it to be very useful to be able to print onto book cloth as opposed to just foil stamping or debossing.  This also give the customer more flexibility in terms of how their artwork can be reproduced, along with access to fun embellishment techniques like white ink and spot varnish.  We have taken years of experimentation to source the right materials that reproduce your artwork accurately while also offering durability for long lasting wear.  Rather than print your book covers or ring binders using laminated paper, why not use cloth for a classier finish.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9810354113578796}
+{"content": "Mexico - Oaxaca - Santiago Juxtlahuaca - Up to 500 citizens - Coyuchi\n\nCoyuchi - Oaxaca\n\nFacts about Coyuchi\n\nLocation of Coyuchi\n\nLongitude (dec): -97.971111\nLatitude (dec): 17.149722\n\nHeight over sea level of Coyuchi\n\nThe locations medium height over sea level is 1280 meters.\n\nPopulation in Coyuchi\n\nThe over all population of Coyuchi is 325 persons, 159 of them are male and 166 of them are female.\n\nAge distribution\n\nThe population of this place consists of 185 minors and 140 adults, with 17 of them being 60 years and older.\n\nIndigenous population of Coyuchi\n\n325 inhabitants of the location Coyuchi in Mexico live in indigenous households. 265 of the citizens 5 years and older, speak an indigenous language. The count of people who only speak an indigenous language without having knowledge of the Spanish language is 95 people, while 164 as well speak Spanish.\n\nSocial structure\n\nA legal claim on health care and social insurance benefits have 1 citizens of Coyuchi.\n\nEconomic situation\n\nIn Coyuchi exist about 59 households.\n\nOf these households 56 are common houses or apartments, 28 are without floor and about 9 consist of one room only.\n\n8 of the normal households have sanitary installations, 54 are connected to the public water supply, 45 have access to electricity.\n\n\nSchool and education in Coyuchi\n\nBesides the 61 analphabets aged 15 or older, about 6 minors between 6 and 14 are not visiting a school.\n\n\n\nMap of Coyuchi\n\nAdd a reference to Coyuchi\n\n\n<a href=\"\">Coyuchi</a>\n\nCoyuchi Fotos\n\n\nPHP Link Directory", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5044914484024048}
+{"content": "Doctor Strange: Cumberbatch Spellbinds in Wondrous Origin Story [Review]\n\n\nMarvel Studios’ ever-growing cinematic universe continues to impress. After introducing audiences to The Avengers, the studio started to venture into the lesser-known territory of their comic book catalogue in hopes of reaching more than just fans of the superhero genre. Most recently, they won over general audiences with movies such as a space opera that featured a gun-toting, talking raccoon and a comedic heist with a man in a suit that could reduce him to the size of an ant. Now, Marvel Studios goes further down the rabbit hole with Doctor Strange, which introduces magic to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) leading the way as the Sorcerer Supreme, not only is Doctor Strange a dazzling psychedelic journey, but it is also the best Marvel Studios origin story since Iron Man.  \n\n\n\nIf there is one negative about Doctor Strange (and it’s only negative in the formulaic sense) it’s how Marvel Studios sets up these original movies. We’re introduced to *insert protagonist here*, who goes through a journey, thanks to a * insert climatic event that changes his life*, which thrusts him into a situation that raises the stakes due to a * insert shoehorned villain that doesn’t get enough screen time*. Sure, it’s the basis for how most superhero movies in general are set up, but it feels predictable. But the magical element in Doctor Strange puts a new twist on the origin story that also will have people rushing to Google after the movie to see how they did it.\n\nThe effect bends reality and shows that there’s more than meets the eye in a world full of superheroes saving earth from physical elements. Combining magical elements with arresting visuals (with a pinch of the “weird factor” mixed in, as well), this transfixed vision from director Scott Derrickson (Sinister) results in an exciting origin story. We are clearly in a new area of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that warrants further exploration in future sequels. This movie also should serve as a key to Marvel Studios’ projects that bring together their other characters when the universe is at stake (Avengers: Infinity War?).  \n\n\nDoctor Strange would not work without Benedict Cumberbatch, who is stupendous as the doctor-turned-magical sorcerer. Cumberbatch’s Strange and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man are strikingly similar, but in the best way possible. Arrogant, yet charismatic, and, at times, comedic, both superheroes bring out the best in the other talented actors with whom they interact. Cumberbatch is just what the doctor ordered (pun-intended) for Marvel Studios, who was in need of a new, intriguing character to help shape (another pun-intended) their cinematic universe.\n\nTilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) in her role as the Ancient One is almost as good as Cumberbatch. Teaching Doctor Strange the mystical arts of perception, Swinton plays the all-powerful one with poise and surprising satire; Swinton’s performance is, quite arguably, the best supporting character in a Marvel Studios movie to date. In smaller roles, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) is more than capable as Mordo, a student of the Ancient One who is sure to play a much larger role in Doctor Strange sequels. Benedict Wong (The Martian) is sturdy as Wong, one of the Masters of Mystic Arts tasked with protecting important relics and books. Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls) brings much needed humanity as a fellow surgeon and friend to Doctor Strange.\n\nAnd Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) is all right as Kaecilius, the main villain. Much like the other Marvel Studios movies, Mikkelsen’s antagonist character does not add much to the overall scope of the story. While he is a threat, we’re not given much backstory for what motivates him to venture down the dark path in a story almost entirely focused on the introduction of Doctor Strange.\n\n\nAside from Cumberbatch, the best thing about Doctor Strange are the visual effects that go hand-in-hand with the action sequences, both of which are the best in a Marvel Studios movie to date. With mind-bending effects that actually make the experience worth seeing in 3D (especially IMAX 3D if you have access), the viewer is immersed in a kaleidoscope of intoxicating action sequences that never cease to amaze. But of all the many visual effects in Doctor Strange, the ones in the third act alone are worth the price of admission. Imagine if you will a world built out of LEGOs stripped of its physical elements and gravity with dye split on the set. Action sequences like the ones seen in the third act of Doctor Strange beg to be seen on the big screen.\n\n\nDoctor Strange adds to, “the Marvel standard,” where audiences walk into the theater with high expectations. But even so, Doctor Strange is like no previous adventure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, which now features 14 movies. Where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is heading is anybody’s bet, but Doctor Strange reinvents the wheel with an auspiciously new era of characters that are sure to bring more people into the experience with every passing movie. For now, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk are the main superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we know that eventually they will cease to be a part of that world. And if Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange happens to replace any of the current leading superheroes and gets to play a bigger role in the overall landscape of this entire cinematic universe, then I’m all for it.\n\n\nThe following two tabs change content below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9824360609054565}
+{"content": "Create an Account\n\nCreate your GiveSmart account now to register for Eighth Celebration of Community Heroes.\n\nI have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions and give my consent to Museum of Chinese in America to process my personal data. I understand I can revoke this consent at any time.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Sign in →\n\nTest ID CATU Catecholamine Fractionation, Free, 24 Hour, Urine\n\nReporting Name\n\nCatecholamine Fract, Free, U\n\nUseful For\n\n\n\n\nPerforming Laboratory\n\nMayo Clinic Laboratories in Rochester\n\nSpecimen Type\n\n\nAdvisory Information\n\nThis assay is of greatest value when the specimen is collected during a hypertensive episode.\n\n\nUnless the purpose of the measurement is drug monitoring, discontinue any epinephrine, norepinephrine, or dopamine injections or infusions for at least 12 hours before specimen draw.\n\n\nDo not perform the test on patients withdrawing from legal or illegal drugs known to cause rebound catecholamine release during withdrawal (see Cautions for details)\n\nNecessary Information\n\n24-Hour volume is required.\n\nSpecimen Required\n\nPatient Preparation: Discontinue drugs that release or hinder metabolism of epinephrine, norepinephrine, or dopamine for at least 1 week before obtaining the specimen (see Cautions for details). If this is not possible for medical reasons, contact the laboratory to discuss whether a shorter drug-withdrawal period may be acceptable.\n\nSupplies: Plastic, 10-mL urine tube (T068)\n\nSpecimen Volume: 2 mL\n\nCollection Instructions:\n\n1. Collect urine for 24 hours.\n\n2. Add 25 mL of 50% acetic acid as preservative at start of collection. Use 15 mL of 50% acetic acid for children less than 5 years old. This preservative is intended to achieve a pH of between approximately 2 and 4.\n\n\nSpecimen Minimum Volume\n\n1.5 mL\n\nSpecimen Stability Information\n\nSpecimen Type Temperature Time\nUrine Refrigerated (preferred) 7 days\n  Frozen  14 days\n  Ambient  7 days\n\nReference Values\n\n\n <1 year: <11 mcg/24 hours\n\n1 year: 1-17 mcg/24 hours\n\n2-3 years: 4-29 mcg/24 hours\n\n4-6 years: 8-45 mcg/24 hours\n\n7-9 years: 13-65 mcg/24 hours\n\n≥10 years: 15-80 mcg/24 hours\n\n\n\n <1 year: <2.6 mcg/24 hours\n\n1 year: <3.6 mcg/24 hours\n\n2-3 years: <6.1 mcg/24 hours\n\n4-9 years: 0.2-10.0 mcg/24 hours\n\n10-15 years: 0.5-20.0 mcg/24 hours\n\n≥16 years: <21 mcg/24 hours\n\n\n\n<1 year: <86 mcg/24 hours\n\n1 year: 10-140 mcg/24 hours\n\n2-3 years: 40-260 mcg/24 hours\n\n≥4 years: 65-400 mcg/24 hours\n\n\nFor SI unit Reference Values, see\n\nDay(s) and Time(s) Performed\n\nMonday through Saturday; 8 a.m.\n\nTest Classification\n\n\nCPT Code Information\n\n\nLOINC Code Information\n\nTest ID Test Order Name Order LOINC Value\nCATU Catecholamine Fract, Free, U 92938-0\n\n\nResult ID Test Result Name Result LOINC Value\nTM48 Collection Duration 13362-9\nVL46 Urine Volume 3167-4\n2106 Norepinephrine 2668-2\n2107 Epinephrine 2232-7\n2108 Dopamine 2218-6\n\nClinical Information\n\nThe catecholamines (dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine) are derived from tyrosine via a series of enzymatic conversions. All 3 catecholamines are important neurotransmitters in the central nervous system and play crucial roles in the autonomic regulation of many homeostatic functions, namely, vascular tone, intestinal and bronchial smooth muscle tone, cardiac rate and contractility, and glucose metabolism. Their actions are mediated via alpha and beta adrenergic receptors and dopamine receptors, all existing in several subforms. The 3 catecholamines overlap but also differ in their receptor activation profile and consequent biological actions.\n\n\nThe systemically circulating fraction of the catecholamines is derived almost exclusively from the adrenal medulla, with small contributions from sympathetic ganglia. They are normally present in the plasma in minute amounts, but levels can increase dramatically and rapidly in response to change in posture, environmental temperature, physical and emotional stress, hypovolemia, blood loss, hypotension, hypoglycemia, and exercise.\n\n\nIn patients with pheochromocytoma, a potentially curable tumor of catecholamine producing cells of the adrenal medulla, or less commonly of sympathetic ganglia (paraganglioma), urine catecholamine levels may be elevated. This results in episodic or sustained hypertension and often in intermittent attacks of palpitations, cardiac arrhythmias, headache, sweating, pallor, anxiety, tremor, and nausea (\"spells\"). Elevations of the urine levels of 1 or several of the catecholamines also may be observed in patients with neuroblastoma and related tumors (ganglioneuroblastomas and ganglioneuromas) and, very occasionally, in other neuroectodermal tumors.\n\n\nAt the other end of the spectrum, inherited and acquired syndromes of autonomic dysfunction/failure and autonomic neuropathies are characterized by either inadequate production of 1 or several of the catecholamines, or by insufficient release of catecholamines upon appropriate physiological stimuli (eg, change in posture from supine to standing, cold exposure, exercise, stress).\n\n\nDiagnosis of Pheochromocytoma:\n\nThis test should not be used as the first-line test for pheochromocytoma. PMET / Metanephrines, Fractionated, Free, Plasma (the most sensitive assay) and/or METAF / Metanephrines, Fractionated, 24 Hour, Urine (almost as sensitive and highly specific) are the recommended first-line laboratory tests for pheochromocytoma.\n\n\nHowever, urine catecholamine measurements can still be useful in patients whose plasma metanephrines or urine metanephrines measurements do not completely exclude the diagnosis. In such cases, urine catecholamine specimens have an 86% diagnostic sensitivity when cut-offs of >80 mg/24 hour for norepinephrine and >20 mg/24 hour for epinephrine are employed. Unfortunately, the specificity of these cut-off levels for separating tumor patients from other patients with similar symptoms is only 88%. When more specific (98%) decision levels of >170 mg/24 hours for norepinephrine or >35 mg/24 hours for epinephrine are used, the assay’s sensitivity falls to about 77%.\n\n\nDiagnosis of Neuroblastoma:\n\nVanillylmandelic acid, homovanillic acid, and sometimes urine catecholamine measurements on spot urine or 24-hour urine are the mainstay of biochemical diagnosis and follow-up of neuroblastoma; 1 or more of these tests may be elevated.\n\n\n\n\nAny environmental factors that may increase endogenous catecholamine production should be avoided. These include noise, stress, discomfort, body position, and the consumption of food, caffeinated beverages, and nicotine. Caffeine and nicotine effects are short term, a few minutes to hours only.\n\n\nOther substances and drugs that may affect the results include:\n\nSubstances that result in increased release or diminished metabolism of endogenous catecholamines:\n\n-Monamine oxidase inhibitors (MOIs): a class of anti-depressants with marked effects on catecholamine levels, particularly if the patient consumes tyrosine rich foods, such as nuts, bananas, or cheese\n\n-Catecholamine reuptake inhibitors including cocaine and synthetic cocaine derivatives, such as many local anesthetics, which also can be antiarrhythmic drugs (eg, lidocaine)\n\n-Some anesthetic gases, particularly halothane\n\n-Withdrawal from sedative drugs, medical or recreational, in particular alcohol, benzodiazepines (eg, Valium), opioids, and some central acting antihypertensive drugs, particularly Clonidine, but, generally not cannabis or other hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescal, or peyote\n\n\n-Tricyclic antidepressants usually exert a negligible effect\n\n\n\n\nHistorically, a third category of potentially interfering substances was represented by molecules that are either similar in chemical structure, antibody epitopes, or chromatographic migration pattern to the catecholamines, or have metabolites that can be mistaken for the catecholamines. Our current HPLC-based assay is not subject to any significant direct interference of this kind. In most cases, the following drugs do not cause problems with the current assay that cannot be resolved: acetaminophen, allopurinol, amphetamines and its derivatives (methamphetamine, methylphenidate [Ritalin], fenfluramine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA: ecstasy]), atropine, beta blockers (atenolol, labetalol, metoprolol, sotalol), buspirone, butalbital, carbamazepine, clorazepate, chlordiazepoxide, chlorpromazine, chlorothiazide, chlorthalidone, clonidine, codeine, diazepam, digoxin, dimethindene, diphenhydramine, diphenoxylate, dobutamine, doxycycline, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, fludrocortisone, flurazepam, guanethidine, hydralazine, hydrochlorothiazide, hydroflumethiazide, indomethacin, insulin, isoprenaline, isosorbide dinitrate, L-Dopa, methenamine mandelate (mandelic acid), methyldopa, methylprednisolone, nitrofurantoin, nitroglycerine, oxazepam, entazocine, phenacetin, phenformin, phenobarbital, phenytoin, prednisone, probenecid, progesterone, propoxyphene, propranolol, quinidine, spironolactone, tetracycline, thyroxine, and tripelennamine.\n\n\nOn occasion, when interference cannot be resolved, an interference comment will be reported.\n\n\n\nClinical Reference\n\n1. Young WF Jr: Pheochromocytoma and primary aldosteronism. In Endocrine Neoplasms. Edited by A Arnold. Boston. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997, pp 239-261\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnalytic Time\n\n2 days (not reported on Sundays)\n\nReject Due To\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNY State Approved\n\n\nMethod Name\n\nHigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)\nIncludes unconjugated epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine\n\nUrine Preservative Collection Options\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n50% Acetic Acid\n\n\nBoric Acid\n\n\nDiazolidinyl Urea\n\n\n6M Hydrochloric Acid\n\n\n6M Nitric Acid\n\n\nSodium Carbonate\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8764809966087341}
+{"content": " Specifying Job Time Windows\n\nSpecifying Job Time Windows\n\nSome customers might want their jobs to be scheduled only for specific days, and particular times of day; for example if a business is closed on one or more week day, or if their inward goods bays are only open for a few hours on a given day. You can specify the days that a job is permitted to occur, and then specify up to two 'time windows' within these permitted days during which the job can be scheduled by the optimization engine to arrive at the customer site. Additionally, you can specify the duration of the customer visit when servicing this job. This ensures that the job's time on site is taken into account when scheduling other jobs earlier or later on the same route.\n\nTo specify a job's time windows:\n\n1.Use the date control in the upper left corner of the Jobs List panel to select the date of a job. You can also change day using the left and right arrows to move ahead or back one day at a time:\n\nIf the list of jobs is long, use the search control or the status filter to show only jobs of a particular type. Click the control beside Jobs:, and then choose a status from the menu.\n2.Click the highlighted name of the job you want to edit in the list, or right-click and select Edit from the contextual menu. The Edit Job dialog box opens:\n\n3.Click the Time Windows tab:\n\n4.Specify the time on site required for this job under the Time on Site field. This is the length of time you expect the driver to spend at the job site when competing this job. This value defaults to minutes, but can be specified in hours, minutes and seconds using the hh:mm:ss format (or as minutes and seconds using XXmYY or XXmYYs or ZZs), and permits a minimum time on site duration of 30 seconds, and a maximum time on site duration of 23 hours and 59 minutes. The initial and default value is ten minutes.\n\nAt its simplest, the time on site is the time from when a vehicle arrives at the job site until the vehicle departs the job site. A vehicle is only on-site at one job at a time.\n\n5.Specify the requested arrival date range of the driver at the customer site using the calendar picker tools under the 'Requested Arrival Date' section. This range specifies the days and the time of day when the driver can arrive at the customer site. The job will not be routed on any day before the first date of the range, or on any day after the last date of the range.\n6.Specify the days of the week that this job can be serviced using the 'Days Allowed' buttons under the 'Time Window' section. Each of these circular buttons represents a single day of the week, beginning on Monday at the far left and ending on Sunday at the far right. Click every day of the week that the job is permitted so the button is highlighted in blue, and every day that the job is not permitted to be service so that it is highlighted in gray. To select or deselect all days at once, making either all days available or no days available, click the All Days link (note that if you do not select any day as available, the job can not be scheduled).\n\nOnly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are Permitted Here\n7.Choose an arrival time window from the time drop-down boxes (to the right of the 'Between' text). These represent the earliest and latest times that the job can be completed, and should be selected taking your drivers' shifts and any requests into account. If required, you can select a second time window below this. The second time window is off by default, and should only be used if the first time interval is already set.\n\n\nIf the end of a time window (second value) is earlier than the start of the time window (first value), the time window spans midnight. If the second time window starts at an earlier time than the first time window, it is assumed to occur after midnight (on the following day).\n\n8.Click the Save button. The job is saved and now uses your configured time window details. If this job has already been assigned to a future route, this route should be re-sequenced or optimized to ensure that the optimization engine takes your time window settings into account.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5980786681175232}
+{"content": "99: Quality-Check Your Tech: 6 Strategies\n\n\nManage episode 212762689 series 123721\n\nIs your tech tool doing the work you think it is? Or could it actually be widening the same gaps you're trying to close? In this episode we explore the problems that can arise when a tool isn't carefully scrutinized, then look at seven strategies educators can use to deeply assess a tool for its impact. My guest is Rupa Chandra Gupta, who is the founder of the ed tech company Sown to Grow.\n\n128 episodes available. A new episode about every 14 days averaging 34 mins duration .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "Scleroderma is a rare disease caused by the immune system targeting and damaging healthy connective tissue, an important structural component of organs, bones, and skin. This leads to inflammation, causing damage and swelling, and fibrosis (scarring) because of an overproduction of collagen.\n\nScleroderma can cause a range of symptoms, and while there is no cure, many therapies are available to manage both this condition and those related to it.\n\nCOX-2 inhibitors are a type of anti-inflammatory agent that may be prescribed to treat disease symptoms, such as the joint and tendon pain experienced by scleroderma patients.\n\nWhat are COX-2 inhibitors?\n\nCOX-2 inhibitors are a subset of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that act specifically on the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2).\n\nAs part of the immune response to infections or injury, COX-2 facilitates the release of prostaglandins (synthesized from a substance called arachidonic acid). Prostaglandins play a key role in triggering inflammation.\n\nChronic inflammation can be a source of pain and can lead to permanent damage in scleroderma. By blocking the production of prostaglandin, COX-2 inhibitors work to reduce the level of inflammation and complications associated with it. In scleroderma patients, these inhibitors can help to reduce the swelling, stiffness, and pain that inflammation causes in the joints.\n\nTypes of COX-2 inhibitor\n\nThere are several types of COX-2 inhibitors available, like Celebrex (celecoxib), the one most commonly used to treat scleroderma.\n\nAnother such medication, Vioxx (rofecoxib), was voluntarily recalled in the mid-2000s due to safety concerns and is no longer available by its brand name, although generic versions may be in use. Bextra (valdecoxib), also a COX-2 inhibitor, was voluntarily recalled from the U.S. market in 2005 for safety concerns; it may be available elsewhere.\n\nOther information\n\nAs COX-2 inhibitors may reduce the effectiveness of ACE inhibitors, a common therapy used for kidney disorders in scleroderma, it is important to consult a doctor before starting this therapy.\n\nCommon side effects of COX-2 inhibitors include headaches, edema (swelling), and rashes. COX-2 inhibitors may also increase the chance of stroke or heart attack.\n\nCOX-2 inhibitors may be preferred over common NSAIDs, as they may cause fewer side effects. Traditional NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen, block another enzyme, called COX-1, alongside COX-2. COX-1 plays a role in the stomach, so NSAIDs can cause gastrointestinal side effects such as diarrhea and stomach ache.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8449704051017761}
+{"content": "Feb. 27 — Others in the audience ask Atmos to better communicate with the neighborhood about what the crews are working on and where they are headed next. Some told the panel they’ve felt alarmed upon seeing Atmos crews near their homes and struggled to get answers about why they were there.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000006914138794}
+{"content": "Your 2018 1040 tax return will look very different than years past.  With the passing of the Jobs and Tax Act back in 2017, the Internal Revenue Service is experiencing the most substantial changes to the tax code in over 30 years.  These changes include edits to many of the forms you may be familiar with. \n\nThe basic 1040 form will have a lot of changes on the first page.  The new 2018 tax form looks like a postcard.  It only has your filing information, such as name, address, filing status, dependents, etc.  What it will not have is any of your income information on the first page.  As you can see here it looks very different.   The second page of the basic 1040 has most of your income information as well your standard deduction and tax credits. \n\nThe main difference on the second page of the 2018 tax form is that a lot of the “other” income and adjustments to income are not listed.  Those will now be on the Schedule 1.   Business income is reported on the Schedule 1, as well as certain adjustments to income like IRA Deduction, Student Loan Interest, Health Savings Account deduction, and many more. \n\nOnline Filing Software\n\nMany people use free online software to file taxes; the majority of those who use Turbotax will be in for a surprise if they need to include a Schedule 1.  Turbotax is charging individual taxpayers for this additional schedule.  H&R Block is not charging for Schedule 1.  So if you have been using tax software online to do your taxes, make sure to look into this so that you do not get surprised by additional fees from these online software companies. Comparing the various programs out there could save you some money.\n\nSelf Employed Individuals\n\nThose with self-employment income, such as any 1099 income, will still have a Schedule C to fill out and report on your 1040.  Other additional attachments will also be included.  The real difference is the attempt by Congress to eliminate the Schedule A deduction for most people.  By raising the standard deduction and capping some itemized deductions (including eliminating some all together) they wanted to simplify the 1040 return.\n\nBalance Owed\n\nIf you are seeing that you owe for the first time (or even for the 10th time), it is important to understand you have options. Regardless of when you file your return, any balance owed on your 2018 taxes must be paid by April 15, 2019 to avoid failure to pay penalties. This means, even if you file your return in March, you would have a little bit of time to get money together. If you think filing an extension will help, you are out of luck. An extension is only an extension to file, not an extension to pay. Regardless, the balance is still due April 15 and if you pay after that date, even with a valid extension, you will be subject to penalties and interest.\n\nIf you owe more than you can feasible pay over a couple months, then you likely need to set up a payment arrangement. The IRS has multiple options that vary depending on your situation. A tax resolution payment plans are agreements direct with the IRS, which allow you to structure payment over time. These plans vary depending on your income and financial situations. Some plans can be as low as $0 per month, if the IRS determines you fall into the category of currently non-collectible. This means that you do not have any disposable income under their standards. Other plans will structure the balance over six years to allow for more reasonable payments.\n\nIf you owe, it is also important to determine how not to owe again in the future.For balances of only a couple hundred dollars, then adjusting your withholding to withhold $20.00 to $50.00 more a month, will likely solve the problem. If the balance is substantially more, you may need an analysis to figure out why there is a problem and what can be done to solve it.\n\n\n\nAnalyze Your Situation \n\n\nDealing With Refunds\n\n\n\n\n\nHandling Tax Liabilities\n\n\n\nSelf-Employed Individuals or Business Owners\n\n\n\n\n\nTax Numbers and Calculator\n\nTax Debt: A Debt Not to Ignore\n\nOwing taxes may not seem like a big deal. Tax debt is not immediately reported on your credit and the IRS seems to only send collection letters. While it is true, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is not usually aggressive the first year you owe traditional income taxes, the IRS can ramp up collection efforts and be very aggressive if they are not satisfied you are trying to pay back the debt and/or get current going forward.\n\n1. The Impact to your Credit Report\n\nWhile not a direct action against your wages or bank account, a tax lien can have a more lasting impact on your life. They are public record and can be reported to your credit report.  You can see a credit hit of more than 50 points from a federal tax lien.  They attach to all property whether real or personal.  The IRS rarely goes after personal property, unless you are living a lavish lifestyle.  They will go after real property, especially if it is not your primary place of residence.  The lien is the way they have the right to take more aggressive action.\n\n2. IRS Can Levy Wages up to 100%\n\nA wage levy is a headache that nobody wants to deal with. The IRS has a chart that they use to determine how much of your paycheck is exempt from levy.  It is not a favorable chart for the taxpayer.  If you are paid hourly or salary you could see as much as 85% of your pay seized every pay period.  If you are an independent contractor who is paid via 1099 you could lose 100% of your income if a levy is issued to your source of income.  This affects truck drivers more than most.  Also, if you own your own business the IRS can go after accounts receivable with a levy.  Wage levies stay in place for wage earners until the tax debt balance is paid or the taxpayer takes the necessary steps to get it removed, typically agreeing to an installment agreement with the IRS.\n\n3. IRS Can Seize You Bank Accounts or Investment Accounts\n\nEven if the IRS does not go after your wages directly, they can still get your income via a bank levy. The IRS can send notices to any financial institution that you may be banking with.  The institution then will set aside whatever funds are in your accounts at the time the bank receives the levy for 30 days.  After 30 days the bank will release those funds to the IRS if they have not received a levy release directly from the IRS. Even with those funds frozen you can still use your account with any additional money that gets deposited during the 30 day hold.  If you have previously gotten refunds from the IRS and gave them banking information for direct deposit of the refund, the IRS will go after that bank first if you owe debt in the future.\n\nInvestment accounts that are levied go through the same 30 day hold on the account before funds are send to the IRS. The major thing to remember here is that when those funds are sent to the IRS that creates a taxable event on most retirement accounts. So the taxpayer who has an investment account levied by the IRS, then gets hit with another tax liability because the IRS does not let you choose to withhold any of the investment funds for tax purposes.\n\nTo get your bank account unfrozen and save some of the money in there you have to show an undue hardship with the IRS. In the past I have been able to get funds saved on joint accounts where the other person was a child who was away for college, shown that some of the funds in the account are for an upcoming mortgage payment, and shown that the taxpayer has no ability to pay and the account was placed into Currently Not Collectible status.  However, this does not always work and it is sometimes determined by how nice of a collections agent you get on the phone with the IRS\n\n4. Your Passport Can Be Suspended\n\nThe most recent attempt to force people into handling their tax situation is the suspension of passports. Congress passed a law that allows the IRS to tell the Department of State when a taxpayer is seriously delinquent with their tax debt.  Anyone with more than $51,000 in back taxes, who has not taken steps to pay back the debt, could be subject to their passports being suspended.  If you do not have a passport your social security number could still be sent to the Department of State and you will be denied a passport should you apply for one.\n\nThe IRS started implementing this in 2018 and some taxpayers are seeing their passports being suspended. There are ways to get your account back in good standing with the IRS.  Two most common ways are: 1) an installment agreement to pay back the debt over time or 2) having an offer in compromise accepted, not just filed.  The IRS will not simply remove the passport hold because a taxpayer pays their debt below the $51,000 threshold.  The taxpayer has to get into an agreement to repay the balances.\n\n\n\n\nArthur Rosatti, Esq. is a Florida licensed attorney authorized to represent clients with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Tax Court. He has experience negotiating with various taxing agencies on behalf of individuals and companies. His goal with their tax debt and get them into the best plan possible to manage the debt. If you have concerns about your tax liabilities, schedule an appointment with our office.\n\n\nTake a look at the first video in our video series about setting up your new business. It is important to set up your business properly; your business structure will dictate what protections you do or do not have. There can be legal and tax consequences to the way you start your business. It is important to understand all your options.\n\nThe most common forms of business are the sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and S corporation. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business structure allowed by state statute. If you choose an LLC, you must also inform the Internal Revenue Service on how you want to be taxed. If you are a sole owner, you have two options: as a sole proprietorship (listed on a Schedule C) or S-Corp. If you have multiple owners, your only option is usually as an S-Corp. There are pros and cons to each type of taxation; you should talk to a tax and legal professionals before deciding on how to set up your business.\n\nAdditionally, most individuals set up a business structure to ensure protection for personal liability. In order to get these protections, you must make sure you are following corporate formalities, such as separate bank accounts, accounting, operating agreement. Even if you are a sole owner, you must have an operating agreement that dictates how decisions for the company must be made. Legal protections only continue to exist when formalities exist; otherwise, the courts will see the business as just an extension of the owner(s) and not a separate entity.\n\nDivorced couple fighting over dollar bills\n\nIf you are considering getting divorced, you must speak with a divorce attorney immediately. There may be potential tax consequences of divorce.\n\nDuring what could be the most trying part of one’s life, it may be hard to think about how getting a divorce can affect your taxes.  There are many things that a person who is attempting to finalize a divorce this year has to think about.\n\nAlimony/Spousal Support may be taxable\n\nFirst, let’s take an example of where there is no tax debt in the relationship.  This allows the couple to only have to worry about one major thing about taxes moving forward: alimony payments or spousal support.  In the past, alimony payments made by one spouse was a tax write off, while the spouse that received the payments had to pay a tax on the amount of alimony received.  This law was changed with the passing of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017.\n\nThe new law said that starting in 2019, alimony payment will no longer be a tax deduction for those making the payments and those receiving the payments will no longer have to claim the payments as income.  Importantly, one can get “grandfathered” in to the old system if they finalize their divorce in 2018. What that this new law essentially means that if spouses finalize their divorce in 2018, the alimony payments fall under the old law; this allows a tax deduction for the spouse making payments and requires the spouse receiving the payments report the payment as income.\n\nAs long as your divorce is final before January 1, 2019 – and if Congress doesn’t change the provision again – the payments will be deductible for the payer and taxable for the payee for the life of the existing agreement. However, if you or your spouse modify your agreement in the future, the new laws would control; thus, resulting in change in the tax liabilities.\n\nIt is important that couples that are going through divorce understand this change in the law.  One spouse may try to drag things out to 2019 while the other will want to finalize in 2018.  This change is law has resulted in many contentious divorces during 2018.  If you have a divorce attorney, please do not hesitate to have them discuss this provision with a tax professional; this helps ensure they can draft the settlement properly and know your exact tax consequences of divorce .\n\nTax Debt\n\nSecond, the more cantankerous situation during a divorce occurs when there is debt owed jointly between the two spouses when the divorce is finalized.  It is even more difficult to manage joint tax debt.\n\nThe first thing figure out in a divorce is who is responsible for repayment of the debt.  Keep in mind that the Internal Revenue Service does not honor what the divorce decree says. The divorce decree only affects the rights of the spouses; it cannot alter the rights of third parties. For example, if the divorce decree states that one spouse must pay the joint debt, the IRS can and will go after both spouses for the debt after a divorce.  With that in mind, for the spouse that is not responsible for repaying the debt in the divorce decree, it is important to have language in the decree/property settlement agreement that gives that spouse the right to reimbursement of any money that goes towards the outstanding tax liability; whether it is future tax refunds, payments as part of a repayment plan, or levy/garnishment payments.\n\n\nArthur Rosatti, Esq. is a Florida licensed attorney authorized to represent clients with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Tax Court. He has experience negotiating with various taxing agencies on behalf of individuals and companies. His goal with their tax debt and get them into the best plan possible to manage the debt. He has experience dealing with divorce spouses dealing with their joint tax debt. If you have concerns about your tax liabilities, schedule an appointment with our office.\n\nHand writing payment owed for taxes\n\nGuide on Tax Debt in Marriage and Divorce\n\nBeing married comes with the allure of additional tax benefits. With the passage of the new tax bill at the end of 2017, married couples who file a joint return can take advantage of a $24,000 standard deduction. This can help many couple who never itemized their returns in the past. However, you do lose your individual exemptions with the new law. Overall, the new tax bill was supposed to make filing your taxes easier; the law attempts to eliminate the number of people who would qualify to itemize on their taxes. However, the new law does not change the possibility of couples incurring tax debt.\n\nHowever, trouble arises when during the course of the marriage the couple, or either spouse in a community property state, ends up with a tax debt. From that point, many different scenarios can happen whether the couple stays together or divorces. The easiest and most often occurring situation is that the couple has some tax debt, they are both aware of it and both agree to take the necessary steps to deal with it. In these situations a simple payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service can keep both spouses in a protective status with the IRS and away from collection activity such as levies and garnishments.\n\nInnocent Spouse\n\nThings can get significantly more complicated, even for couples that are still married, when one spouse claims that they are not responsible for the debt. The IRS denies most innocent spouse claims. The “innocent” spouse has to meet very specific criteria to state a successful claim, such as duress at signing, forged signature, and other things that basically point to the fact that they were not responsible for the debt. Now, the IRS can check income records and determine whether the “innocent” spouse would have owed if they filed a Married Filing Separate return, which would make the innocent spouse claim moot. When dealing with debt from taxes the occurred in a marriage, this option is just very rarely viable.\n\nInjured Spouse\n\nA relationship can also get tense when one spouse brings debts into a marriage. Sometimes, one spouse will have tax debt that he/she incurred pre-marriage. If the couples file a joint tax return, the IRS will seize the entire refund. Then the IRS will apply the funds to help satisfy the debt owed by only one spouse. For example, if a husband owes $5,000.00 in back taxes, any refund generated by the filing of a joint tax return, may be withheld by the IRS and applied toward tax arrearage, even if the refund is entirely attributable to the wife’s over-withholding.  The IRS may consider the wife an “insured spouse,” since the IRS seized money that she solely contributed.\n\nThe injured spouse then must prove that he/she has no responsibility to the debt and can request a refund of his or her allocation of the joint return refund. Injured spouse claims can also apply to other debts, such as: child or spousal support, delinquent federal student loan debt, or state income tax. Conversely, some couples file “Married Filing Separately” to ensure the injured spouse receives his/her refund. But the IRS limits certain deductions for couples filing taxes as “Married Filing Separately.” Talk to your tax professional about benefits to both options.\n\n\nAnother situation we see here at the firm is when one spouse files for bankruptcy protection when the couple has joint tax debt. This gives protection to both spouses during the bankruptcy but causes the balances to be “mirrored” at the IRS after the bankruptcy is discharged or dismissed. Mirroring of the balances means that the joint debt is split and each spouse is individually responsible for the debt. Bankruptcy will reduce the interest and penalties due by the filing spouses; this means there will be two different balances for both parties. Additionally, debtors may discharged certain taxes during a bankruptcy; however, in most cases, there will still be tax debt after only one spouse files for bankruptcy. When that happens, the IRS will start collection activity against the non-bankrupt spouse.  When a spouse in bankruptcy pays the priority tax debt in the bankruptcy and/or the balance is discharged, then only one spouse may owe taxes. These are things to consider when dealing with debt issues and whether to file bankruptcy jointly or separately.\n\n\nIf the marriage falls apart and the couple decides to get a divorce, things with the IRS become more complicated. Not only does the jointly held debt become mirrored but the couple’s divorce decree and property settlement agreements can come into play. Divorce decree does not control collection by the IRS; the divorce decree only controls issues between the two spouses, not outside parties. If that document says the husband is completely responsible for the tax debt, but he does not do anything and the wife has to get herself into an agreement to pay the debt, she cannot argue to the IRS that she doesn’t have to pay it because of the divorce decree.\n\nIf you are filing for divorce and have joint debt there a things to keep in mind. You need to clearly define who is responsible for the debt and the remedies that available to the other spouse if they are the ones who end up paying some or all of the debt.\n\nHandling your Tax Debt\n\nTax debt can be a serious issue if not handled properly. It is important to understand your rights and responsibilities in reference to the debt. It is also important to understand why the tax debt occurred and prevent it from happening in the future. Additionally, if you have outstanding tax debt, the taxing agencies can garnish, levy accounts, or issue tax liens. Talk to an experienced tax professional today.\n\n\n\n\nCalculating tax\n\nTax Penalties\n\nThe deadline to file your federal income tax return is fast approaching. Normally falling on April 15, this year it is on April 17 due to the fact that April 15 is on a Sunday and April 16 is Emancipation Day in Washington D.C., which gives everyone across the nation an extra day to file. With the deadline just days away many Americans will submit extensions to file, pushing the date the tax return is due to October 15. This is a great tool if you know you do know have all of your tax documents in time to prepare an accurate return. An extension, however, is simply for filing of your return, not paying any tax owed. If you do not pay your tax by the April deadline you may incur additional tax penalties on top of the tax owed.\n\nFailure to File\n\nFailure-to-File penalties are one of the harshest tax penalties the Internal Revenue Service can issue against an individual taxpayer. The way they are calculated is as follows: 5% of the taxes you owe for each part of a month you’re late, up to a maximum of 25% of unpaid taxes. So for your 2017 taxes, if you file on April 18th you are hit with a 5% penalty. On May 18th it is another 5% until you reach your maximum of 25%, at which point it doesn’t matter how late you file you will get that 25% penalty.\n\nFailure to Pay\n\nThe other type of penalty is the Failure-to-Pay penalty. This tax penalty happens if you owe taxes after the initial filing deadline, April 17, 2018 for your 2017 taxes. The calculation for that is 5% of unpaid taxes for each part of a month you’re late, up to 25% of unpaid taxes due. There is a way to avoid this penalty if you pay 90% of your tax owed when you file an extension to file your return, you are entitled at that point to pay the remaining 10% by the extension deadline without incurring the failure to pay penalty. This penalty doesn’t seem like much but if you have a balance for a long period of time it can cause your balance to sky rocket into something you may not be in a position to handle properly.\n\nFiling Late\n\nIt is never a good idea to file your taxes late, but even more so if you owe. Even if you do not owe and are due a refund, it is important to file your taxes as close as to the date they are due as possible. The IRS only grants refunds for the previous three years worth of tax returns. So, before 2017 is officially due on April 17, 2018, you can get your refund if you have not filed and are entitled to it as far back as 2014. The IRS has reported that there are hundreds of millions of dollars that the tax payers are not getting back by not filing their 2014 tax return. After April 17, 2018, the IRS only distributes refund from your 2015, 2016, and 2017 returns. As a result, if you have not filed and are due a refund, please file ASAP.\n\nIf you have not filed and expect to owe for 2017, please file before April 17 even if you can’t pay your total tax bill because as noted above, the failure to file penalty is more severe than the simple failure to pay penalty.\n\nPlanning Ahead\n\nIf you find yourself owing year after year please speak with a tax professional regarding changing your withholding or saving money on a quarterly basis. It is always better to plan ahead with taxes than to be caught on April 14th with no game plan. If you have accumulated substantial tax debt, there are options to deal with the debt.\n\nWith the new tax laws in place, withholdings have changed. Many individuals will owe less in taxes as a result of the change in laws, but some may owe more. It is very important to review your paychecks regularly. You should review your paycheck whenever there is a change in income to ensure you are not paying too much or too little in. The IRS has a calculator to give you a starting point in figuring out potential tax liability. Planning for the next tax year will help avoid unnecessary tax penalties whenever possible.\n\n\n\nArthur Rosatti, Esq. is a Florida licensed attorney authorized to represent clients with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Tax Court. He has experience negotiating with various taxing agencies on behalf of individuals and companies. His goal with their tax debtand get them into the best plan possible to manage the debt. He also works with business owners to address Estimate Tax Payments and helps people get on track with their payments.\n\nOffer in Compromise\n\nSettle your tax debt for less.  Pennies on the dollar.  Negotiate your debt for thousands less than you owe.\n\nYou owe taxes and now you are trying to figure out what to do. When reviewing options, you have probably heard these statements and guarantees in your life.  Lots of TV and radio ads promise these things for people who owe back taxes.  However, these promises are a lot of time empty and can just cause more headaches than they are worth. These ads are referencing Offer in Compromise (OIC), which can work for some, but not very many.\n\n“You must live in a van, on public property, and not own the van to get an Offer in Compromise.”\n\nWhile this is just hyperbole, there is some truth to the statement.  The Offer in Compromise calculation is a deep dive into your financial life by the Internal Revenue Service or state taxing authority.  If you own anything of value, that value will be part of your offer.  Have land in a wooded area of the state stashed for a retirement getaway, well the value of that land is now part of your offer.  Any artwork in your possession that may be worth more than $100, well that value is part of your offer.  Have a 401(k) at your work? That is part of your offer.  Starting to get the picture?\n\nWhile for some taxpayers it may be worthwhile to submit an offer in compromise because they rent, have a car that is older and don’t have any retirement savings.  Most people have something that will increase their offer more than they would like.\n\nAdditionally, the major thing people don’t realize with an OIC is that you have at the most 24 months to pay your offer off.  Most think that it’s an extended payment plan and then the debt goes away.  Unfortunately, that is not the case at all.\n\nA Successful OIC Still Comes with Some Limitations\n\nNow if you are successful with your offer, the IRS still has other ways of getting more money from you.  If you are due a refund for the first tax return filed after your offer is accepted, the money automatically goes to the IRS.  You must file all taxes must be filed on time and owe no tax balances by the filing deadline (typically April 15th) for the next five years after your offer is accepted.  If you do owe during that five year period the entire tax debt is coming back on you, minus whatever offer payments you may have made.\n\nThere are certain circumstances that the IRS will consider when determining whether to grant your offer or not.  These usually fall into two main categories:  Doubt as to Collectability and Effective Tax Administration.  These two are similar in that it basically means that there is little chance that the IRS will collect the full amount of tax due and accepting an OIC is the best way for them to get any portion of  the tax debt quickly.\n\nFiguring out the Value for an Offer in Compromise\n\nAn offer in compromise is mostly a numbers game between the IRS and the taxpayer.  The IRS can request additional information regarding the tax years the debt is from and that can inflate what your offer would be as well.  If you your offer ever goes over more than what you owe it will be rejected almost as soon as it lands on someone’s desk at the IRS.\n\nIt is important to discuss everything that an offer in compromise encompasses with a tax professional before deciding to submit one.  It is a long and complicated process that you will want to know every aspect of before jumping in.   The major settlement promised to you by the ads you hear or see only apply to select individuals.  Come in for a free consultation to discuss if an OIC is right for you.\n\n\n\n\nArthur Rosatti, Esq. is a Florida licensed attorney authorized to represent clients with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Tax Court. He has experience negotiating with various taxing agencies on behalf of individuals and companies. His goal is to help his clients ensure their tax debt is accurate and get them into the best plan possible to manage the debt. He understands an OIC is a great tool, but wants all his clients to understand the limitations of the program.\n\nIt is 2017 Tax Season!\n\nWe are in the midst of 2017 tax season. The tax filing season is in full swing. The Internal Revenue Service is anxiously awaiting for you to file your 2017 taxes. This year, you must file and pay your taxes by April 17, 2018. Remember, if you file for a tax extension, it is an extension to file not an extension to pay. As a result, if you do not pay all taxes due for 2017 before the filing deadline, then you will be subject to interest and penalties. Attorney Arthur Rosatti discusses the importance of getting your returns prepared as soon as possible and the new tax scams to be on the look for.\n\nArthur is an attorney at Ashley F. Morgan Law, PC. He focuses his practice on helping our client manage their tax debt. Similarly, he works with the IRS and state taxing agencies (such as the Commonwealth of Virginia) to negotiate payment plans, settle debts, or find other available relief. In you have tax debt that you cannot pay right away or owe back taxes, contact our office and we can help guide you through your options.\n\n\n\n\nCheck from the Federal Government/U.S. Department of the Treasury\n\nMany people use their tax refund to pay for necessary expenses. For some, the money allows for repairs on their home; for others the refund allows them to pay off some debt or afford medical or dental procedures. But in general, it is money you have been waiting for all year. When you are struggling financially, this extra money can mean a lot. As a result, many individuals ask us whether they will be able to keep their tax refund in bankruptcy.\n\nThe bankruptcy court sees a tax refund as a savings account. You pay into the federal government a little every month and at the end of the year it is waiting there for you to withdraw. This refund affects different chapters of bankruptcy, in different ways.\n\nChapter 7\n\nIf you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the later part of the year or during tax season, this money has had a lot of time to accumulate. If you are due a tax refund and file bankruptcy, you can only keep it, if you are able to exempt or protect those funds. In Virginia, there are exemptions that can protect child credits and earned income credits. Any additional part of the refund must be protected under Virginia’s wildcard exemption. This wildcard exemption is $5,000.00 lifetime protection to be use on cash or cash like assets. This means if you have filed bankruptcy previously or have other cash-like assets, you may have less of the wildcard to apply toward your tax refund.\n\nIf you want to protect your tax refund in bankruptcy, talk to an experienced bankruptcy lawyer. A bankruptcy attorney will be able to review your situation, discuss any potential issues and figure out the best plan for you. Sometimes this means waiting until the refund is received and used on normal expenses. But, without an attorney that understands bankruptcy law, you will not be able to make an educated decision.\n\nChapter 13\n\nNow, a tax refund also plays a role in a Chapter 13. If you are in a 100% plan, which means you are fully paying back all allowed claims, you can keep you tax refund every year during your plan. If your bankruptcy plan pays creditors any less than 100%, the trustee may require that you turn over the refund and he/she will disburse the funds to your creditors. Additionally, your attorney may be able to adjust your budget to reflect the refund over the course of a year. This would mean paying slightly more each month, but being allowed to keep the tax refund.\n\nIt is important to have an experienced bankruptcy attorney that can review and understand your situation.\n\n\n\nAshley F. Morgan, Esq. is a Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Attorney with an office in Herndon, VA. She helps individuals in Herndon, Reston, Centreville, Fairfax Sterling, Chantilly, Woodbridge, Manasass and the surrounding areas file bankruptcy. She understands the importance that a tax refund can play in someone’s finances. Her goal is for her clients to fully understand all their options and make the best decision for their circumstances.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5452861189842224}
+{"content": "Businessman Jai, who got Rachel Breckle pregnant after a one-night stand despite being married to Charity, loses it with his interfering father.\n\nCharity walks in on the row and demands to know what is going on.\n\nJai makes up an excuse which she fails to accept and vows to get to the bottom of it.\n\nBut with the plot set to run, it will be some time before she finds the truth.\n\nAn Emmerdale insider said: “Rishi knows the truth about Rachel’s baby and decides to pay her a visit.\n\n“He knows what Jai stands to lose should Charity find out that he is the father.\n\n“He warns her to stay away from Jai and tells her that his business is at risk because he’s all over the place since Archie was born.\n\n“She tells Jai to back off. He’s in pieces and is desperate to be a part of his son’s life.”\n\nViewers can watch the drama involving Jai and his dad unfold a week on Thursday.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9201768636703491}
+{"content": "In Kaziranga, villagers get help to end poaching\n\nIn Kaziranga, villagers get help to end poaching\nThe Assam Police, Forest Department and wildlife conservation groups have come forward to mobilise people and reactivate the Village Defence Parties (VDP) to encourage villagers around Kaziranga National Park in their efforts to mitigate wildlife crisis.\n\nThe initiative aims at strengthening roadside vigilance and ensure wildlife security in Kaziranga, a Unesco world heritage site and home to the rare one-horn rhinoceros, has over the years turned into a hot bed for animal poaching. The park has also seen gruesome killing of other animals.\n\nDuring monsoon, as the park gets flooded, many animals get run over by speeding vehicles while wandering in search of higher grounds outside the park area. Some enter human habitats. In times of crisis for the animals of Kaziranga, the first responders are the villagers who live in the fringes of the park. They have always ensured animal safety.\n\nThey would also be used to gather local intelligence on animal poachers and their networks. In the past 10 years, more than 1,000 rhinos have been killed, most of them have been poached in Kaziranga.\n\nAaranyak, a society for conservation of biodiversity, in association with Assam police and authorities of Kaziranga National park, on Thursday distributed kits to the VDPs of the fringe villages around Kaziranga, so that these first responders can effectively address to wildlife crisis.\n\n“We are very happy to receive the rain coat, torch and shoes. As we patrol the forest at night, we face dangers of snake bite. Often it rains and it makes patrolling difficult,” said Dipen Daimari, an a VDP volunteer from Kilinggaon village.\n\nVDPS of 14 fringe villages prone to man-animal conflicts were also given kits containing raincoats, shoes, torches and caps. “Rhino poaching has declined considerably due to the combined and diligent efforts of the administration, the Village Defence Patrol and civil society organisations like Aaranyak. We need to take this good work a step ahead,” said Gaurav Upadhyay, the Sub Divisional Police Officer.\nComments (+)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9374388456344604}
+{"content": "Alertes de sécurité\n\nÀ noter, les alertes ne sont disponibles qu'en anglais\n12 avr. 2019 | 12h53 UTC\n\nIndonesia: 6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes off Sulawesi April 12\n\nIndonesia Alerte de sécurité\n\n6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes off Sulawesi April 12; tsunami warning issued\n\nTIMEFRAME expected from 12/4/2019, 12h00 until 19/4/2019, 11h59 (Asia/Jakarta). COUNTRY/REGION Sulawesi\n\nRead all related news alert(s):\n\n\nA 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the island of Sulawesi at approximately 11:40 (local time) on Friday, April 12. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter was located at 1.852°N, 122.553°E at a depth of 17.5 km (10.5 mi).  Aftershocks are possible over the coming hours and days.\n\n\nIndividuals in the affected areas are advised to evacuate low-lying coastal areas, monitor developments to the situation, be prepared for further aftershocks and tsunami waves, and adhere to instructions issued by local authorities. Remember that tsunamis are a series of powerful waves and there may be long periods of time between wave crests. In the event of aftershocks, individuals are advised to protect themselves as much as possible from falling debris if indoors (e.g. under a table), to move away from windows, and to not attempt to leave the building unless there is an immediate danger. If outdoors, move away from tall buildings, utility wires, and streetlights.\n\n\nCopyright and Disclaimer\n\nAlertes reliées", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9967986345291138}
+{"content": "Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could easily guarantee the same experience for all? To know we were designing and building for an audience whose environments were always consistent. One operating system, one browser, one screen size… simplicity itself. Budgets would be easier to control and guarantees would be easier to make. However, the reality is that digital has so many facets that achieving a consistent experience for all users is a lot more complicated than many would believe.\n\nBefore there was a need to target the array of devices that are now available, each requiring a different considered focus to optimise the user’s experience, the days of developing fixed-width pixel websites had their own challenges. The ‘browser wars’ of the early to mid ‘90s led to Netscape and Microsoft releasing features the other did not have. This meant consistency was unattainable, often leading to frustrated web developers adding disclaimers to websites stating on which browser websites were best viewed. As monitors grew in size, the optimum resolution often became an added desired requirement for viewing websites, and this was all at a time when functionality was a lot more basic. The introduction of web standards started to address this unfair imbalance, with the death or takeover of some browsers and the emergence of new ones. The industry rightly moved towards a common ground. This meant that everything became plain sailing for web designers and developers, right? Well no, it didn’t always feel like it.\n\nHours could be lost in trying to understand why everything looked great in Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari, but what’s up with the text alignment in Internet Explorer 6? If you ask any developer which browser they wouldn’t want to support then IE is always top of the list. That’s right: the browser of the everyday user for so many years, pre-installed with the world’s most popular operating system, was a nightmare to support. It was impossible to ignore the problem child in the browser family.\n\nWhilst IE7 was a vast improvement (though far from perfect), the increasing number of releases from all the main players meant that testing of both form and functionality needed to be more comprehensive. It was entirely possible that form submission, or drop-down navigation, might still behave inconsistently across different versions of the same browser.\n\nSo why don’t we disregard older browsers? As an agency we do to a degree. With the progression of technology it would be impossible to get a lot of modern day web functionality to work if we date back too far. That said, we have to be sympathetic to the overheads for an IT team supporting a large corporation keeping everything up to date. This especially relates to those involved in the public sector, in particular healthcare and education - their systems are always likely to be a few years behind. We have to know the audiences, their environments, and if necessary we have to ‘gracefully degrade’ their experience - i.e. look to achieve the same thing but in a more basic way. As you might imagine, our overheads in ensuring this have multiplied over the years and with the introduction of ‘responsive design and build’ this has only become more complex.\n\nI can’t give a percentage value in the increase in testing time required these days but it is substantial. There is software that can help automated testing of functionality but a pair of eyes is needed to confirm if objects are aligning correctly. Again, software exists to aid this by rendering the same screen, as it is likely to be seen across environments you specify, but nothing is bullet proof. Each main device has a major new release once or twice every year. Therefore keeping on top of everything that is still regarded as commonplace is one of the most demanding aspects of working in our industry.\n\nBuilding to standards is the first thing development teams should focus on. This can of course cause challenging moments with creative teams, but as time goes on there is a hope that all major browsers will render code in a standardised manner. This will open up more possibilities as agencies continue in their quest to push boundaries to heighten experiences. But until we’re at that point, and with the added loss of support for legacy browsers, when a problem is reported the conversation will continue to be ‘What’s the browser? Yeah? I need the version too. Oh, and the device/OS as well please.’\n\nUPDATE: On the 12th January 2016 Microsoft discontinued and stopped supporting Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10. It's new default browser, Edge, was launched (along with Windows 10) and is now the sole browser they fully support. Our view is that this is a positive step. The browser is much better in terms of CSS standards but still doesn't support some modern features that other browsers have - like blend modes. However it is acknowledgement by Microsoft that Internet Explorer is too archaic for today's technology.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8146520853042603}
+{"content": "Trial Court Law Libraries\n\nTable of Contents\n\nRule 4\n\nAn unrepresented defendant who has pleaded not guilty to any complaint shall be advised by the judge at the time of his hearing or trial that on any material matter pertaining to the offense charged he has the following rights:\n\n(a) to cross examine any witness offered by the prosecution; and\n\n(b) subject to cross examination, to offer testimony by himself or any other witness.\n\nThe judge shall also then advise him of his rights not to testify and not to be prejudiced if he remains silent. If the prosecution offers an exhibit the judge shall allow the defendant to examine it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9865655899047852}
+{"content": "Astronomers Catch Glimpse of What Happens Just Before the Violent Death of a Star\n\nAstronomers have caught a glimpse of the moments just before a star's violent death—and they've observed something that has never been documented before.\n\nWe know that when massive stars reach the end of their lifecycle, a cataclysmic explosion known as a supernova occurs.\n\nNow, in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, an international team has observed that supernovae generated by red supergiants—the largest stars in the universe in terms of volume—produce a \"flash\" before the main explosion that has not been predicted by current models.\n\nThe group from the University of Chile (UC), the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) and other institutions made the discovery after scanning the sky for 14 nights using the DECam instrument on the Victor Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.\n\nDECam is a 570-megapixel camera—one of the most powerful that exists—that is capable of digitally capturing the light of more than 100,000 galaxies up to a distance of 8 billion light-years in each exposure.\n\nThe group observed the stellar explosions in real time in their initial stages using a unique data analysis technique built on machine learning and astrophysical models. The latest findings shed new light on supernova explosions and the late stages of the stellar lifecycle.\n\nAccording to the researchers, the \"flash\" is caused by a collision between the rapidly expanding gas of the supernova and a material of unknown origin that surrounds the star.\n\n\"The presence of this material makes it possible to extract part of the enormous energy produced during the explosion and turn it into light that we can detect,\" Francisco Förster, lead author of the paper from UC and MAS, said in a statement.\n\nThe discovery will open up new avenues of research for upcoming large telescopes that are being built in northern Chile, which will make observations of the entire sky every three nights. This will enable scientists to collect more data on supernovae, which will ultimately broaden our understanding of this explosive celestial phenomenon.\n\nStock image of a supernova explosion. iStock\n\n\"This result shows how in the era of Big Data, the use of advanced computing techniques to filter massive data sets delivered by modern instruments such as DECam allow scientific discoveries that would have been impossible in the past,\" director of Cerro Tololo Steve Heathcote said in the statement.\n\n\"The techniques developed at UC will be critical tools to handle the large amount of data that will come from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope when it starts operations in Chile in 2023,\" he added.\n\nAstronomers Catch Glimpse of What Happens Just Before the Violent Death of a Star | Tech & Science", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9893492460250854}
+{"content": "Live Chat\n\nThe Many Minds of Employees\n\nDecember 21, 2010\n\nBy: Kerry\n\n>Want to know the real secret to true camaraderie in a collections office?  It’s ensuring each staff member understands a colleague’s specific responses to and interpretations of everyday business situations. This is not to say they must be agreed with, as varying opinions and opposing viewpoints often promote fresh ideas and broader visions. However, simply knowing why specific people speak and act as they do can mean the difference between workdays spent in a cohesive environment -- and one that’s more like a battle zone.\n\nOf course a full range of personalities reflective of different upbringings and perspectives has always existed in the American workplace. New to the mix, however, and adding to the complexity of how we’re all hard-wired, is generational diversity. For the first time ever, there are apt to be representatives of four distinct generations sharing just one office space: Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers and Traditionals.\n\nWhile most people raised in the same era tend to possess similar core values, there are notable exceptions. Allowances for unique personal situations, extenuating circumstances, and purely biological factors must always be given and can make the determination of who’s really who even more challenging. \n\nGeneration Y (born 1978 – 1989)\n\nWorkers displaying traits most often seen in the youngest employees are probably nontraditional, ambitious individuals looking to show colleagues their desire and ability to assume responsibility. As a result (and perhaps to the dismay of some) their opinions and voices may be heard loudly -- and often. They want to be treated as equals and broaden their expertise. To keep these typically impatient go-getters motivated and on board, consider expediting their ascent up the corporate ladder and more quickly rewarding stellar work with new opportunities, new ventures, new objectives or a new job title. \n\nWhile Gen Ys might not be opposed to staying with a single company long-term, most admit that if promised a better opportunity or challenge elsewhere, they’ll leave. Some employers, now exploring next generation initiatives, are offering new hires in-depth personality assessments and help on how to predetermine their natural abilities and appropriate longer-term career paths. They’re having early two-way discussions about potential promotions or cross-training, hoping any future move made will be within their company. \n\nGeneration X (born 1965 – 1977)\n\nA questioning attitude and strong family values might best describe workers heading toward the mid-point of their careers. While a few either younger or older individuals may also exhibit these traits, it’s typically those in their thirties and forties who’ll most consistently express their skepticism of others’ ideas and affirm their innate desire for work/life balance. \n\nThey crave freedom and work best around bottom-line-oriented colleagues who offer support from the sidelines but not close oversight. Most are self-sufficient and happiest when they feel productive, fulfilled. If they think they’re simply wasting their time at a job, or even constrained by it, they’re apt to leave. \n\nThese workers typically prefer to climb mountains than company ladders. They can be proactive, but may not always aspire to secure the biggest promotion or the best office. Their ideal manager gives them flexible schedules, non-traditional environments and very loose structure. \n\nBaby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964)\n\nWhile younger colleagues can also display this same trait, a more traditional work approach and overall outlook is often seen in people with extensive work histories.   These individuals may or may not be technically savvy; they usually favor the personal touch, face-to-face conversations and clear explanations, over emails, voice mails, and instant message acronyms. They’re company minded, but may be suspect of colleagues who seem too young for high level positions, believing employees should be promoted based on time-tested loyalty and longevity. \n\nBaby Boomers appreciate hearing liberal praise from peers and managers for their abilities, efforts and responses. They can be especially adept at jobs requiring good social skills, so consider them for collections, human resources and reception in both service and leadership capacities. \n\nTraditionals (born before 1946)\n\nSeemingly irrepressible, these well-seasoned personalities usually want colleagues to see them as experts and teachers. They may seem a bit uncomfortable on “casual Fridays” and favor formalities, procedures and rules. To Traditionals, adopting a more relaxed approach to business could be challenging. \n\nManage Traditionals by staying attentive to their needs and collaborating. They respect figures of authority and want to do the right thing, fall into line for the sake of the company. Roles in areas such as hospitality, quality control and human relations may appeal to them. \n\nDiversified Minds, Unite!\n\nRemind your entire staff, regardless of age or attitude, that though each worker’s behavior varies, you’re still a team striving to achieve a common goal. Underscore that different perspectives and tactics can enhance and balance the workplace experience. For example, an employee who’s naturally systematic and focused might be a great counterpart to someone who works quickly but gets distracted easily. And a less strict dress code encouraged by a small but vocal group of workers may ultimately put everyone in a better frame of mind while allowing old-school types to embrace new concepts. \n\nEncourage casual mentorship among older, middle and younger workers. Each group can learn from the other. \n\nPlan for the Future\n\nWith the imminent retirement of large groups of older workers, transferring knowledge from them to younger workers is becoming a top priority of all industries. Take the time now to review organizational charts, fill in birthdates for workers and identify those apt to be retiring within the next five years. Know who on your existing staff have the behaviors needed to replace those looking to move on. Consider pairing these kindred spirits together now, so the less experienced have ample time to absorb all the knowledge and input of the long timers. \n\nStart utilizing -- not just managing -- the work-approach differences exhibited in your company! By doing so you’ll be far better able to attract and retain a skilled, productive, team minded and well-rounded work force.\n\n\nRelated Posts\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8346686363220215}
+{"content": "What our Customers say...\n\nWater Damage Testimonials\n\nThe crew was the best. Very professional and hard working. I have told all my friends to call SERVPRO. \n\nCrews were very professional and confident while working my water loss.\n\n\nVery friendly and knew exactly what they were doing!\n\nI cannot begin to express my appreciation for you and all the members of your SERVPRO team. In the midst of a stressful situation, you stepped in and worked late into the evening to make sure the damage to our home was minimized. Your team was compassionate, hard working and eager to resolve the issues. Please express our gratitude to everyone who worked on our home. We are very grateful for each of you. While I hope we never need water extraction again, if we do, you will be our 1st call.\n\nSERVPRO of South and West Charleston did an outstanding job mitigating the water damage from a faulty refrigerator connection. Not only were they prompt and courteous, they gave knowledgeable insight on how to move forward with repairs. The crew was able to save my hardwood floors from replacement with their advanced drying techniques while using state-of-the-art technology to monitor the entire process. I could not have asked for a better experience during my holiday water damage mishap.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6363259553909302}
+{"content": "Predictive Analysis\n\nTag Archives\n\n\nInsurers and Lawyers are stepping into AI\n\nThe insurance business revolves around measuring and pricing risks. In short, it’s a business about caution. Perhaps that’s the reason why insurance companies have lagged other industries, such as banking, in adopting new technologies that offer more powerful analytics capabilities. But the insurance industry’s reluctance to adopt new technologies is breaking down. So-called insurtech is one of the industries drawing investor interest as startup companies test and market new software solutions, Coin Journal reported, citing a report from CB Insights and KPMG. Insurance companies are interested in using Internet-of-Things technologies to identify and mitigate risk, while also incorporating other technologies that identify fraud, improve efficiency, and cut costs.\n\nFinancial services quickly embraced new technology because its use in improving profits was readily apparent to bankers and investors. Gathering information in real-time and timing transactions based on the steady flow of information helps financial industry players make money. In the insurance field, the name of the game is saving money. New technology can help insurance companies more accurately price policies to risk and while also cutting down on fraudulent claims that are costly to the industry. Daily Fintech notes that one of the more transformative developments in insurtech is the emergence of telematics. The capability to gather and transmit near-real time information produces even more data points from which an insurer can more precisely make their risk assessments. These bountiful data sources produce a tremendous amount of data from the home for home insurance, and from the car for property and casualty insurance, Daily Fintech explains.\n\nThe collection and analysis of data is not limited to the home and the car. Wearable technology first found its place in people’s lives in fitness applications. But these technologies have matured to a point where they can be used for healthcare applications. The ability to monitor people and collect data of a person over a longer period of time yields measurable data that insurance companies can use to assessing health risks for life and health insurance, Daily Fintech says. Continue reading\n\n\nBehavioral variables and nanobots in healthcare\n\nBig data and machine learning platforms are in a unique position to analyze one of the most challenging aspects of medical research: behavioral variables that are not reported accurately by common assessment methods. While EMRs (electronic medical records) prompt healthcare providers to collect a great deal of subjective information that impacts healthcare, such as compliance with medication regimes or alcohol intake, the validity of the information collected is questionable.\n\nThe subjective nature of the reasons people conceal or alter information given to a health care provider are as complicated at the whole of the human population. People feel social pressures to conform and please a questioner. They don’t want to admit to money problems that impact health care. They do not accurately see their own behavior. Cultural norms regarding personal information vary widely, as does disclosure by age and gender and social class. But new methods of gathering and quantifying data across populations has the potential to give greater insights into human behavior that can change the results of medical research.\n\nRelying solely on patient reports of behavior is a method of gathering data that is extremely limited and may significantly impact the results of healthcare research. But gathering self reports, along with subjective research reports, pharmacy records, laboratory test results, social media, buying behavior, financial records, employment records, and other sources of data, and then analyzing across populations, can give a more accurate picture of what people are actually doing. By having a more accurate picture of human behavioral variables, healthcare research can more accurately assess the impact of human behavior on health care outcomes, and propose treatment modalities that are fine-tuned to the people we actually are. Continue reading\n\npredictive analysis\n\nPredictive Analysis and human behaviour\n\nPredictive Analytics is the branch of machine learning that is putting all the data to work. It takes large data sets and uses mathematical algorithms to form predictive models. Then statistical methods such as regression analysis are used to find the variables that influence the models. Finally, machine learning platforms use those predictive models to find patterns in the past that can allow predictions of patterns in the future.\n\nHuman behavior can be seen as a series of patterns that repeat, both individually and as a group, over time. This statistical fact doesn’t negate the possibility of free will; it allows us the use of our free will to repeat patterns of behavior that are most comfortable to us, considering the social, cultural, and family pressures that also influence us.\n\nThe analysis of patterns of behavior in humans as a group has been the work of historians, who can look back at great sweeps of time and see patterns that repeat. With the amount of data being collected now through online interactions and geotracking tools such as GPS, machine learning platforms are engaged in how to mine that huge amount of data for the very specific data needed to answer questions.\n\nPredicting the future has been an art in which intuition based on expert knowledge and experience was used to make a predictive analysis. Those who are considered masters in their work combine experience with knowledge, and can see patterns from the past and predict patterns into the future. But we are constrained by the depth and breadth of experience and knowledge we can acquire; we are further constrained by unconscious bias and other human attributes. Continue reading\n\nBell Curve\n\nThe Social Credit Score and the Bell Curve\n\nThe Social Credit Score is a system that China has had in trials for several years, and that uses the principles of credit scoring- data streams from several specific sources- to formulate a predictive score. The current credit score uses data from the past to predict future behavior, and allows financial institutions to evaluate risk. The social credit score is taking this model and enlarging it to fields of interest beyond financial behavior.\n\nSome data sources are going to provide information that has a better predictive value for future behavior than others. And while humans often surprise their families and themselves by going off the rails, some patterns of behavior are bound to be repeated. The social credit score attempts to find the behaviors with the best predictive value, and use these values to determine how well a person functions in society.\n\nWith a large population, concerns of governments are the needs of the population. And population dynamics are different from tribal, family, or individual dynamics. As the world population grows and human society becomes more complex, we will be facing new challenges. We will be living in significantly denser social groups, for instance. Policy decisions will be made for the good of the entire group, and it is believed by those making these plans and decisions that the populations as a whole will be best served if everyone toes the line.\n\nToe the line. Follow the rules. Do what you are supposed to do. If you screw up, it goes on your permanent record. Very permanent. People can check your score. Employers, landlords, parents of the person you want to marry. Continue reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5262987613677979}
+{"content": "Treating Eczema With Functional Medicine: 101\n\n\n\nWhy Functional Medicine?\n\nFunctional medicine (FM) is a “systems” way of thinking. And when we say “systems,” it’s not like conventional medicine that views the body as a group of isolated systems where you have a cardiologist for the heart, an endocrinologist for hormones, etc.  In FM, we view the systems, or areas of the body, as operating as a whole response to the environment (kind of like the operating system of a computer).\n\nIt makes perfect sense because each area influences the others.\n\nA good analogy to help you understand functional medicine versus conventional medicine is to think about a tree. Visualize the entire tree with its roots, trunk, branches, and leaves.  Conventional medicine looks at one branch, whereas functional medicine views all of the branches, trunk, and roots. It’s going to look at the leaves and even further in-depth because we really want to understand what’s going on in the entire person.\n\nWhen we do this, we take a really detailed history and look for root causes. It’s interesting that we look for root causes and use the tree analogy, because the goal is to find out what is foundationally disrupted in your body to figure out what’s causing the eczema flare.\n\nConventional medicine really tends to see eczema as something that doesn’t truly have a cause yet. When I was told that I had eczema the doctor said, “You’ve got eczema. There’s no known cure. See you later.” However, in functional medicine—and now even in the medical literature (check it out here)—they’re starting to talk about it as an autoimmune condition and starting to identify some causes of it. And that’s what we’re going to get into here a little bit later.\n\n\nThe ATM Model\n\n\n\n\n\nTriggers are what provoke the signs and symptoms of illness. Those are along the lines of infections, allergens, toxins, radiation, surgery, social conditions, and things of that nature. They’re going to combine with the antecedents to actually cause more signs and symptoms.\n\nLast, the mediators perpetuate the illness. You can think about these on a biochemical or psychosocial level. Biochemically speaking, the hormones, neurotransmitters, metabolites, free radicals, and inflammatory chemicals are what perpetuate what’s going on. Once you have that genetic factors, plus the triggers, these mediators keep that cycle going. In the case of eczema, it’s going to cause the flare to continue.\n\n\nEczema ATM’s\n\n\nThe most common triggers I see in practice are infections, allergens, toxins, diet, and dysbiosis (an imbalance in the microorganisms in your body—not just in your gut, but all over your body).  In eczema, skin dysbiosis can be an important piece of the puzzle too.\n\n\n\nI find for most of the clients we see in our virtual clinic is that stress is often the most significant factor, either as a trigger or as something that’s perpetuating, or both. We work on addressing it in its many forms, in many different ways.\n\nTo recap- if you’re having an eczema flare or a flare-up of any autoimmune condition-  you’re looking at: antecedents + the triggers + the mediators= cause of flare.\n\n\nReal Life Eczema Example\n\nI’m going to use myself as an example. I’m not necessarily proud of this, but we’re all human 😉\n\nI was driving home from my sister’s this past Halloween. I had just thought to myself that I was so excited because I didn’t have any Halloween candy…. but then I did.\n\n\n\n\n\nBut for me, I had a major flare. My last major flare was 1.5- 2 years ago. I hadn’t had anything go on since then until I was pregnant recently and had a few minor flares (due to hormones) that went away quickly.\n\nLet’s also review my ATM’s.\n\n\n\n\n\nDiet was also a key trigger (especially the candy). I kept a clean, organic diet for the most part. However, after the birth, my diet has not been quite as tight. I’m gluten-free and try to be in the realm of Paleo/Autoimmune Paleo. But sometimes I have corn or dairy or beans. And those things have crept into my diet more frequently now that I’ve had the baby.\n\n\n\nI’m going to reiterate stress here… I’ve got a new baby. I’ve got a 5 year old. I’ve got work. I’ve got life. Everybody’s got stress. But I currently feel like I have a lot on my plate. That’s the main mediator perpetuating the cycle for me.\n\n\n\n\n\nI got it under control by tightening up my diet, doing some key supplementation, and topical salves.  Thankfully, this prevented it from erupting into a full-blown outbreak.\n\n\n\n3 Natural Eczema Remedies to Start Healing\n\n\nThis is a common theme in my virtual clinic. We see many people that’ve tried everything, including things we recommend like diets or supplements, only to have a small change in their eczema. So, what’s going on??\n\n\nSuper frustrating, right?\n\nThere’s a small percentage of people that can eliminate the common food triggers and take a couple of supplements, and achieve resolution of eczema. However, this is rare. If they don’t maintain their diet or have a major stressor, the eczema usually returns because they haven’t addressed the underlying causes.\n\nYou might be thinking- what do I do?\n\n\n\nDon’t: Petroleum jelly goes under many names such a Vaseline®, petrolatum, mineral oil, or paraffin, and it’s a byproduct oil refining that contains compounds such as hydrocarbons that are harmful to health. It also seals the skin, trapping potentially harmful bacteria and letting the skin breathe.\n\n\nDo: Shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and jojoba oil are all great options and each their own benefits. Some people find they work well alone, but in practice we’ve seen that people usually benefit from a combination.\n\nYou can purchase one like Moon Valley Organics EczaCalm (there are many other options available and we’ll be doing a review of our favorites so stay tuned).  You can also customize a blend of your own with our Healing Salve recipe. The recipe can be altered with different base butters, oils and essential oils.\n\n\n\n\nDon’t: Sadly, we see many people that are either on 20-30 supplements at once (YES…this is real unfortunately) and have no relief and lots of wasted money!!\n\nThe truth is this could be making the situation worse since you don’t know what ingredients are helping or hurting. Plus, there are the fillers, binders, and additives to consider as well as the active ingredients that could be causing issues.\n\n\n\nCollagen Protein has many benefits. It’s a critical building block of our skin that is compromised with eczema and it helps heal the gut which is a primary root cause in eczema and other autoimmune conditions.\n\n\n\nAgain, diet is often difficult to navigate on your own (even harder than supplements). We’re all different and for some just taking out a couple of foods or food categories may work, but no one will ever respond to the same exact diet (not even identical twins).\n\nDon’t: Taking on too many dietary changes at once can be overwhelming and lead to unnecessary (and unwanted) stress. Don’t try removing gluten, dairy, salicylates, and histamines all at once. This will leave you with nothing to eat and likely cause confusion.\n\nDo:  Take baby steps with diet and monitor closely so you know what’s going on. An easy stepping stone is to remove all gluten or dairy products for 3-4 weeks minimum (you can do both if you’re willing). When you re-introduce them watch for reactions not only on your skin, but digestion, headaches, runny nose, fatigue, and achy muscles or joints.\n\nEggs, soy, corn, or nuts might be good options for you to test eventually too. If you find the main food allergens and sensitivities aren’t your problem, then it might be time to look at broad categories like salicylates or histamines.\n\nThe Bottom Line\n\nThese are all good, natural eczema remedies to start with and are things we recommend in the clinic while we’re working on reversing the root causes since the ultimate goal is healing on the inside and outside.\n\nWe’d love to hear what natural remedies have worked best for you?\n\n7 Interventions to Stop the Eczema Flare Before It Erupts\n\n\n\n\n\nYet, I wasn’t doing it for myself.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGloves year round, anyone???\n\n\n\n\n\nBreaking the Cycle\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7 Interventions to Stop Your Flare Before It Erupts\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIs Your Favorite Morning Beverage Causing Eczema\n\n(Spoiler: There’s a healing swap-out suggestion with an Eczema Healing Tea recipe included)\n\nDoes Caffeine Cause Eczema\n\nWho doesn’t love their morning cup of caffeine? Coffee and tea consumption have become a significant part of American society. The cafe culture is a multi-billion dollar industry. This isn’t anything new…many civilizations for centuries have worshiped them too. But do these beloved brews contribute to eczema?\n\nThis is a question I’ve had to tackle for years in my practice with patients and for myself. Like any issues related to food or root causes of eczema- it’s a matter of individuality and how it’s affecting the inflammatory process in your body.\n\nPersonally, I love both tea and coffee for different reasons- I’ve been a lifelong tea drinker (thanks Grandma), but in my early 30’s I discovered coffee. I’d always loved the smell, but didn’t care for the taste. But as I began changing my diet to be cleaner and gravitated to Paleo/Primal, my taste buds changed.\n\nSuddenly, I really liked coffee. I enjoyed the slight bitterness, dark chocolate, and fruity notes, much like a good wine. I hear this from patients too- they report liking bitter things such as coffee and really dark chocolate as they lose the taste for sugar.\n\nI can drink it black, but I really love a warm cup of joe with grassfed butter and coconut oil in the morning. That’s heavenly for me!\n\nSo when the question of caffeine consumption and elimination arises, the reaction is similar for most of my patients- complete horror (even for a short duration). I’m often met with comments like: “there’s no way I can do that!” Or else, “you want me to do what!! And, for how long???”\n\nI get it. The thought of giving up my tasty, warm beverages (especially considering that I live in Minnesota) gave me slight panic too.\n\nCaffeine is America’s number one drug of choice. Some of us like it for the taste, mental boost, or the purely for the energy surge. But sadly, your favorite pick-me-up can be counterproductive if you have a condition like eczema that has roots in inflammation.\n\nI don’t ask patients to drop the mug to torture them (although some may strongly disagree). I do it because I understand the many ways caffeine alters the immune and inflammatory response.\n\nHow do Coffee and Tea Cause Eczema\n\nAt first thought it may seem crazy to consider coffee and tea as causes of eczema, but they can alter the inflammatory response in ways that play a role in the process of developing eczema. Once you have eczema, they can contribute to the vicious cycle of exposures (foods, infections, toxins, etc.) that perpetuate the condition until they’re removed.\n\nHere are the most significant ways that coffee and tea promote eczema:\n\n1. It spikes adrenal hormones just as stress does. I generally suggest stopping if someone has HPA axis dysfunction (also know as adrenal fatigue) because of caffeine’s effects on the inflammatory process. Caffeine sends a signal to the brain which sends a signal to the adrenal glands to pump out cortisol and adrenaline (epinephrine), effectively putting your body in constant fight-or-flight mode. Not good if you have eczema and need your cortisol for its anti-inflammatory effects.\n\n2. Elevated cortisol contributes to Leaky Gut. The chemicals secreted during the stress response are linked to intestinal permeability (leaky gut), inflammation, overgrowth in bad bacteria, and decreased microbial diversity that can alter immune function. These are significant root causes of eczema that need to be addressed to completely heal it.\n\n3. You can react to the mycotoxins found in coffee. Mycotoxins are toxins produced by fungi and the 2 commonly found in coffee are ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1. These compounds are known to be immunosuppressive, carcinogenic, and brain damaging among other health problems. Chronic, low level exposure can build up in your system causing an immune response that can promote inflammation.\n\nSwap Your Caffeine with a Warm Drink That Will Help Heal Eczema\n\nI hate to tell patients that they must avoid something forever. In some cases this is necessary, like a Celiac sufferer avoiding gluten, but generally, most people can handle some caffeinated beverages once they’ve healed their eczema and gut.\n\nBut until that joyous day when you can imbibe again, here’s an alternative that’s equally as tasty and will help heal your eczema and gut.\n\nEczema Healing Tea\n\nI enjoy this drink because it’s reminiscent of my favorite morning coffee, but it also incorporates the spiciness of ginger and turmeric that I love. It’s also warming and soothing on cold days. Prep is quick and easy too- usually 5 minutes from start to finish.\n\n\n  • 1-2 inches peeled, fresh turmeric\n  • 2 inches peeled, fresh ginger\n  • 1 garlic clove peeled- don’t worry, the other flavors mask the garlic 😉\n  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil\n  • 1 tablespoon raw honey\n  • 1 serving collagen powder\n  • 8-12 ounces hot water\n\nTip: If you want to have a speedy process, peel and portion out the turmeric, ginger, and garlic for several days. I keep mine in a mini mason jar or glass container in the refrigerator. If you prep too much it can start to dry out, so placing a small damp towel or cloth on top can help prevent that.\n\n\n1. Get your water heating up before you start prepping so that you can pull if off and let it cool if necessary before you pour it into the mixture. I like to use a kettle to warm mine up.\n2. Remove the skin from you turmeric, ginger and garlic. You can use a knife or spoon (scraping down the sides) to get rid of the skin. Note: spoon scraping gives a slightly better yield but is more time consuming than using a knife. Place them in the blender.\n3. Add in the coconut oil and honey.\n4. Pour the water over the mixture. Warning: don’t blend it up if it’s too hot and steaming because the pressure could build up and burn you when the lid is removed.\n5. Add the collagen in last (truthfully, it probably doesn’t matter when it’s added, but I try to keep the collagen from clumping or sticking to the sides of the blender cup or carafe).\n6. Blend up until all ingredients are fully incorporated. It should take 15-30 seconds for most high speed blenders.\n7. Pour into a mug and enjoy!\n\nThe beauty of this recipe is that it can be adjusted to taste and needs. Don’t like turmeric- don’t add it. Have a sensitivity to collagen powder? Leave it out. Got Candida or a fungal issue? You may want to adjust or eliminate the raw honey. You can customize this as you wish.\n\nI actually make variations on this recipe often. I’m a ginger lover so I’ll add a huge 3-4 inch piece in sometimes. I’ll bump up the collagen if I feel more stressed. I don’t always have raw turmeric on hand, so I make it without it. If I’m feeling congested or sick from a cold, I’ll decrease the water by 2-4 ounces and add in the juice of one lemon and/or raw apple cider vinegar (ACV). Be careful using this variation if you’re in an eczema flare as the histamines in lemon and ACV can make symptoms worse.\n\nEczema Healing Tea is a Healing Bomb and Inflammation Buster\n\nThe elixir is packed with several anti-inflammatory, immune boosting, antimicrobial, and skin supporting ingredients. Coffee and tea definitely can’t claim that. Here’s a breakdown of the benefits:\n\n1. Turmeric is a member of the ginger family which is why they share similar characteristics. However, the curcuminoids are what give turmeric it’s superior inflammation fighting power. The journal Oncogene published a study that found turmeric to be one of the most potent anti-inflammatories in the world, even beating out NSAIDs. It can also help heal the lining of the intestines which is critical for resolving eczema.\n\n2. Ginger, like turmeric, supports immune and anti-inflammatory pathways in the body. Ginger is a great antimicrobial too, acting against a wide range of bacteria and fungi like Candida. It’s widely supports the gut too- relieving nausea, bloating, constipation, and acid reflux which are symptoms that often accompany eczema root causes like dysbiosis, GI infections, and food sensitivities.\n\n3. Coconut oil is considered to be the “motherlode” of healing foods. One of best features is the broad antimicrobial activity of lauric acid- helpful for addressing bacterial, fungal, and viral infection, but also maintaining daily health. The antioxidants in coconut oil are well documented to combat inflammation. It also has pain relieving (analgesic) capabilities. The same properties that make it amazing for internal use also apply to the skin. Externally it can be used as a cleanser, moisturizer, and as an ingredient in a healing salve or ointment.\n\n4. Garlic in its raw form is a close second to coconut oil in it’s ability to protect against the “bad bugs,” having potent antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. The sulfur containing compound allicin is effective against the opportunistic staphylococcus (staph) bacteria which is thought to play a role in eczema for many individuals. Personal note- when I did stool testing on myself during the peak of my symptoms I had a slight overgrowth of staph that had to be treated.\n\n5. Raw honey is an antioxidant powerhouse. It contains several classes of polyphenols and flavonoids that support the immune system. In addition, it contains 22 amino acids, many of the B complex vitamins, and 27 minerals including magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, selenium, calcium, and phosphorous.\n\n6. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and a critical building block of the skin. Using supplemental collagen powder has been shown to improve skin quality by increasing the barrier function meaning better elasticity, moisture, and texture. Good news if your skin is damaged from eczema! Another reason collagen is great is that it heals leaky gut, which is a primary root cause in eczema. It’s benefits are similar to what’s seen on the skin externally- it “seals and heals” the intestinal barrier breakdown that’s the hallmark of leaky gut.\n\nDoesn’t all this goodness make you want to brew up a batch right now?? You may not ever want to go back to coffee or tea! Maybe….. 🙂\n\nLeave a comment below about your caffeine swaps!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.589715838432312}
+{"content": "Main Page Sitemap\n\nTop news\n\nFor.g., give your top reasons to pursue the course that you did in the past etc. Nothing engages me to the same degree as a meaty maths problem. No deaths so far. Home, uK Study Information, uCAS Personal Statement..\nRead more\nNotice how the above statement still does not answer the how question. A thesis is not a\". Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Re-reading the question after constructing a working thesis helps you..\nRead more\nGo through the essay and ask if each one is needed and remove those that arent. Use the Best Verb. This is where crammers and procrastinators can lose out. Trying to add style is like adding a toupee...\nRead more\n\nWord for academic essay\n\nword for academic essay\n\nwords all have different meanings, nuances, and connotations. Example 2: However, transition words can also be placed at the beginning of a new paragraph or sentence - not only to indicate a step forward in the reasoning, but also to relate the new material to the preceding thoughts. English transition words are essential, since they not only connect ideas, but also can introduce a certain shift, contrast or opposition, emphasis or agreement, purpose, result or conclusion, etc. Example: All of the results fit my theory, except for one a nomaly, which appears to disagree. This is where the word nonetheless comes. There is some overlapping with prepositions and postpositions, but for the purpose of usage and completeness of this concise guide, I did not differentiate. The numbers are also used to add information or list examples. There are many easy Windows Shortcuts available which work (almost) system-wide (e.g. Contact AN advisor. If you have a series of results, or a list of objects, and a particular result does not fit in with the rest, then this is an anomaly.\n\nIts not easy trying to write an essay in a language that is not your native tongue. Anomaly, an anomaly is something that stands out from the rest of your argument.\n\nMore words related to essay aim verb. This can be very useful in an essay when going through the opinions of other researchers and/or academics. This word is perfect for combining ideas; furthermore lets people know that you are adding more information to a sentence without sounding too boring about. It can be used (by students and teachers alike) to find the right expression. And if they essay to do so, why should not my word be at least as weighty as theirs? Example 1: People use 43 muscles when they frown; however, they use only 28 muscles when they smile.\n\nCollegevine usc essays, Modern technology essay 150 words, Short essay on myths and legends, Seamus heaney death of a naturalist essay,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9352781772613525}
+{"content": "Top Paying Jobs in India\n\nThe population India is around 1.3 billion. This means that the average life expectancy in the country is roughly 67 year. This means that several students enroll in various institutions in the country. So far majority of these students are somehow lucky since they end up with top jobs in the country. They benefit in various ways since these jobs pay them well. Various people maybe having issues on the type of career that they may focus on. After graduating from a known institution, there are several paying jobs that you can focus. Below is a list of top paying professions available in this country.\n\nThe first is the web designing job. A lot of people in the world are currently accepting that Indian students are affiliated to computers and any field related to it. Some of the top rated designers in the world have originated from India. There is an increase in the number websites and online resources that are produced. This job is long-term hence it can pay you abundantly. Always clients are readily available who want good designs. So the possibility of jobs declining in this field is very minimal. A lot of creativity is needed whenever you are in this field.\n\nThe second is the business analyst. Those individuals who love operating with numbers on a daily basis will find this as an ideal profession. The role of the business analyst is to create solutions to business professionals. The business will gain a lot of profit because the market share increases. A lot of students will learn how to work with various business models if they enroll in the business school. In order to win market shares for clients, there are different share market apps that should be applied. Those professionals working in this field will collect huge salaries. There is no possibility of these job decline any time soon due to its nature.\n\nAt last you can have a look at the scientist profession. The desire for competent people in the country is also increasing. The country needs some competent people to research on fields such as automotive, farming, sports, healthcare etc. You can enroll in various institutions in the country that can train you on ways to use so that you can become a better scientist. You can develop new ideas that can improve the quality of life of different people in the country. Various scientists can be supported with scholarships from the government which will help in catering for their education. The field you are working on will determine the type of payments that are made. Therefore you can collect some good money if you commit yourself to work as a scientist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8405565023422241}
+{"content": "Wednesday, May 24, 2017\n\nLandscape Photography Tips - When to get the best light.\n\nLast Thursday I did a little program on Landscape Photography for the Eastman Camera Club.   We had a good turn out, but some people were not able to make it.   I've been asked for copies of my slides and I saw a few people taking pictures of the slides, which is a fine way to take notes.  Rather than sharing my entire presentation without notes, I'm going to give some tips from that program here. This is the first of what I think will be a few posts over the next week or two.\n\nThe program was divided into the following five sections from most to least important:\n  1. Light\n  2. Subject\n  3. Composition\n  4. Techniques\n  5. Gear\nNote that gear is listed last.  In my opinion, a high-quality professional camera, lens, and accessories in the hands of someone who doesn't understand the first four points may be a waste of money.  A skilled photographer can make quality photos with a variety of gear.  Some professionals even make and sell photos with their cell phone!  Don't get me wrong - quality camera gear is important, but it is more important to focus on the first four points.\n\nAll you really have to have to make great landscape photos is:\n  • A camera or lens that lets you shoot wide angles.   I like something that starts around 17mm on a full frame camera or 13mm on a cropped sensor camera.\n  • A camera or lens that lets you zoom in and isolate a subject.  A lens that lets you zoom out to somewhere between 200mm and 300mm (full frame equivalent) will meet most of your needs.\n  • A tripod.  See my earlier post on tripods.\nYou will find lenses with focal lengths between the wide angle and telephoto useful. There are a number of other accessories that are useful, but not required.  I'll post about those another day. To quote Forest Gump - That's all I'm going to say about that! (for now).\n\nIn my experience, light is the most important factor that goes into making great landscape photos. Unlike photographers who work primarily indoors, a landscape photographer can't control the light. What we can control is when and where we make our photos.\n\n  • Time of day and direction of sunlight\n  • Season\n  • Cloudy or clear skies\n  • Wind\nEach of these four factors impact the quality of landscape photos.\n\nBest Time of Day\n\nGolden Hour\n\nThe best time of day for landscape photography is the golden hour - the hours after sunrise and before sunset.   At this time of day, the sunlight will be soft, warm and low.  Add some clouds and the golden hour can also be very dramatic. In the photo above, the sun was behind me and lighting up the clouds with a warm orange color. The orange clouds also provided some nice color contrast with the blue sky. This warm cloud color reflected down on the sand, making it appear warmer.  The low angle of the sunlight also emphasized the ripples in the sand adding an interesting foreground element.\n\nNow imagine if you will what this photo would have looked like around mid-day. The sun would have been high overhead and the ripples in the sand would have been almost impossible to see in the photo. Here's a photo made nearby in the early afternoon.\nBecause the angle of the sunlight is high it's difficult to discern the layers in the dunes and mountains. This makes the photo appear flat and less interesting.  The color does not have that warm pleasing look like the previous photo. The second photo does have a desolate feel to it.  If your shooting a cover for \"A Horse With No Name\" this may be exactly the right photo to tell that story.\n\nBelow is a great example of how the quality of the mid-day and late afternoon sunlight can make all the difference in a photo. The photo on the left was taken at mid-day when the sun was shining down on a creek in a small canyon in Glacier National Park. The light is direct and harsh and the highlights are too bright. The second photo was taken a few hours later on the same day. The light in the second photo was indirect, soft and the tonality is balanced. A few hours makes the difference between a photo destined for the bit bucket and a keeper.  \n\nBesides the golden hour light, there is another reason to shoot around sunrise and sunset. Those are the times when the wind is typically the calmest. If you want to make a photo with a mirror like reflection in a water surface or no movement in vegetation you should try to be there around sunrise. The early morning winds will usually be calmer than those around sunset.\nEarly Morning Reflections\nDon't pack up and leave after the sun sets.  Just before the morning golden hour and after the evening golden hour is what's called the blue hour when the sun is significantly below the horizon.  During the blue hour, the sky will take on a beautiful blue shade.\n\nBlue Hour\nAs landscape photographers, we can't control the light, but we can control when we make our photographs.  This may involve getting up hours before sunrise and staying out hours after sunset. The middle of the day is reserved for taking naps!\n\nThe material in my presentation to the Eastman Camera Club and this post come from my Basic Photography Class.  The class is four two-hour sessions plus a local field trip to practice.  I will be scheduling another class later this year after summer vacation times.  If you would like to be notified when the class is scheduled, send a note to\n\nSaturday, May 13, 2017\n\nExploring Our Backyard - Phipps Bend\n\n\nAbandoned Cooling Tower Base\n\nYellow Flag \"Batman\"  Iris\n\nOxeye Daisy\nCan you see me?\n\nIndigo Bunting\n\nOrchard Oriole \n\nThursday, May 4, 2017\n\nA Fun Little Experiment With Lady Slippers\n\nThat catchy little title is meant to get your attention. No, I'm not wearing June's house slippers. This experiment involves photographing the Lady Slipper flower on Buffalo Mountain in Johnson City, Tennessee.\n\nJune and I went hiking on the Lady Slipper Loop Trail with our friends Dina and Peter. We had great conditions for close-up flower photography.  It was late in the afternoon, the skies were overcast, and there was no breeze at all. Best of all, these rare wild orchids were abundant along the trail. Thanks to Dina and Peter for guiding us right to the flowers.\n\nThis time I brought along my flash and two remote triggers. I don't normally bring these along on hikes but I wanted to try a little experiment with the flash and flowers.  I placed one remote trigger on my Fuji camera and the other on my old Canon flash.  I was using both camera and flash in manual mode so it didn't matter that I was mixing brands. Using the remotes allowed me to hold the flash and point it at the flowers from any direction or distance.  I also used a Rogue Flash Bender on my flash to soften the light.\n\nHere are two examples from my little experiment.\n\nNo flash, 1/40 sec, f/2.4\n\nWith flash, 1/250 sec, f/2.4\nThe two photos illustrate how the flash can emphasize the flower while letting the background go dark. The faster shutter speed in the second shot made anything lit only by the ambient light darker. I tried to position the flash to light the flowers without lighting the background.\n\nThe problem with this technique is the light from the flash can create harsh shadows on the subject, in this case, the flowers. Here's a series of shots that show what happens when the flash is in different positions.\n\nIf you click the first image then use the keyboard arrow keys you can flip through each one to easily see the differences.\n\nThe camera and flash settings were the same in each photo. Notice the shadows?  There are bright and dark spots in each photo due to the different position of the flash. I want to have more even light to make a more pleasing flower photo.   \n\nHere's the really cool part of the experiment.  Remember I said there was no breeze?  Because the camera was on a tripod and the flower was not moving I was able to blend these five shots into one using the HDR tool in Adobe Lightroom.\n\nBlended Image\nI used the Lightroom HDR tool because it tends to create a more realistic result. In this case, the shadows and bright spots are smoothed out to a more pleasing image.  The problem is, it also made the background brighter, which I didn't want.  I used one of the darker original images and manually blended it's background into the image using Photoshop.  Turning the image a little made the stem come from one corner and the petal point to the opposite corner for a better composition.\n\nFinal Result\nThis all sounds much more complicated than it really was.  It's actually pretty easy with some basic Lightroom and Photoshop skills.\n\nI learned how to manually control remote flashes while working on my real estate photography skills. It's interesting how skills learned in one area help in a completely different application. There are good reasons to learn new photography skills, even in areas that might not be you favorite.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5912818908691406}
+{"content": "favorite louis vuitton bag it s potential whereas with websites it takes time to get indexed in the search engines\n\nfavorite louis vuitton bag\n\nGetler’s criticisms. The Newshour is lacking when it comes to representing the left the anti war voices, the “public option” voices. Does Ms. When I looked this morning, I knew Get off the Tracks!!! was submitted by Myla Madson. I saw Terry Mitchell’s name and then looked at the Recent Submissions. I was certain he’d written, Will Retirement Soon Be Obsolete, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Vuitton after looking at the other articles. louis vuitton glasses frame\n\nMonths, we may often wait until the third season to breed the first time. If the bitch is more than two years old and seems mature enough by her second “season”, however, it may be appropriate to breed at that time. Males may be used at Stud at an earlier age, but most of the time the best litters are produced after Tibbies are more mature.\n\nBicycle Kick: A visually dramatic kick when a player brings their leg up above their head to kick the ball while it is in the air, backward over their own head. The player is basically doing a backward somersault, and kicking the ball has their legs move over their head. The player usually lands on their back and not their feet.\n\n\nOr as Flip Wilson and kids in general would say, devil made me do it. By contrast, an internal attribution assigns causality to factors within the person. Or as the sinner would say, guilty, grant me forgiveness. Consequently, no matter if participants are turning their devices sideways or shifting him up and down, his or her motion compatible Nintendo 3DS games react immediately. Unfortunately, the standard costs of the games for this the game console . Are very expensive.\n\nAccording to the Thai faith, https://www.louisvuittonsydney.nu to assure a lifetime of love marriage or what is cited as ‘a marriage made in heaven’, there is an old Thai ritual of “Merit Gift” a favorite louis vuitton bag\ndonation to the local Wat (Buddhist temple) to perform https://www.louisvuittonsydney.nu a wedding blessing ceremony. Even it is not directly related to marriage, a merit making ceremony would mean alot to the bride to be and in turn to her family, to have a gift made in their name by louis vuitton neverfull bag\nyou. It shows that you care about her religious beliefs, value the Thai ways and respect Thai culture..\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6861438751220703}
+{"content": "Out of this world-small.jpg\n\nIn my last blog post I announced the publication of BEYOND: Stories Beyond Time, Technology, and the Stars, a print collection of fifteen of my science fiction and fantasy stories, some of which had been previously published in magazines and anthologies across North America, and some not. For extra interest (because I enjoy that kind of thing myself) I also wrote a bit about the first five stories’ origins, intent, and publishing history. So here’s a little about the rest of the collection.\n\n“Tartarus Rising”: I’m a huge fan of disaster stories and apocalyptic fiction, so I was delighted when this story was chosen for an anthology called Doomology in 2011. Such high-stakes stories provide an opportunity to show the best and worst of humanity as nothing else can. Alien invasions are a dime a dozen, but what if there was a race of beings sharing the planet with us, yet clever enough to remain hidden all these centuries even from our scientific instruments? I’m pretty sure the idea for “Tartarus Rising” came from a traumatic childhood event of mine involving a mysterious stranger who suddenly appeared at a window of our house on a dark night when my parents were away. If you have a frightening memory that haunts you, write a story about it!\n\n“Marathon of the Devil”: I’d read an article about the famous Marathon des Sables in Morocco, a grueling race that makes you question the sanity of the participants! Naturally, being an SF writer, I imagined such a thing on an alien planet. But why put yourself through something like that? Because of a deep desire to be somebody special? Just for fun, I decided to have things work out right by going all wrong.\n\n“Body Of Opinion”: We think of memory as being a function of the brain exclusively, but there has been lots of research into genetic memory, especially lessons and behaviours learned by one generation and passed on to the next through genes. What if other memories are encoded into our DNA? Combine that thought with ever-improving organ transplantation techniques and you end up with this story about a man who discovers that his new body he thought was cloned was actually “previously owned” and harbours a dark secret. A premise like that cried out for a noir fiction approach, which was a lot of fun to do.\n\n“Democracy”: Our current political systems are so badly broken that we end up getting terrible leaders elected by much less than half of the people who voted. Yet we live in an era unlike any other in history, when virtually every citizen of developed nations has some access to the internet. If we wanted to, we could have true democracy, in which everyone could vote on every important issue of government. That’s what I’ve created in the fictional country of Devis Varta, although with tongue in cheek. Because, humans being humans, our lofty dreams almost never turn out the way they should.\n\n“Saviour”: It’s easy for me to see the influences on this one. The movies Deep Impact and Armageddon both came out in 1998 as the world worried about asteroid strikes that could devastate the planet. But by the time I felt the urge to write my own story about saving the world from a giant killer rock, I’d seen the 2006 movie Sharkwater about how humankind is decimating the shark population and endangering the entire ocean ecosystem. Humans are a threat to pretty much every form of life on Earth these days. So a real hero might not do the expected.\n\n“Node Of Thought”: I’ve done a lot of research into the mind…consciousness…the nature of thought—it’s been at the centre of a number of my novel plots. There’s no one who really knows what thought is, what consciousness is. There are only people who think they do. One day, embroiled in thought (as they say) I asked myself: what if thought has a physical form we know nothing about? Could we trail it behind us like hairs and dandruff? Could it be gathered like cosmic dust by some powerful source of energy? What would happen if you encountered something like that in deep space in a spaceship that responds to thought commands? Nothing good!\n\n“The Cleansing”: Disaster again, inspired by the worrisome population cycles we’ve witnessed recently among creatures like frogs, bats, and especially bees, on whom we depend for so many of our food crops. Rouging (now more often called roguing) is a process of removing plants from crop fields when they’ve produced unwanted mutations. In coming years I believe we’ll be able to engineer crops to cull themselves to maintain their genetic purity. But what if, by pure bad luck, all of the crops were to enter such a “die-out” phase at the same time?\n\n“The Rift”: Although I consider myself a spiritual person, this is my only story that really reflects that in a big way. And, because I’m a science junkie, I struggle to reconcile theory and experimental evidence with belief. Not surprisingly, that takes my mind in strange directions. One editor rejected this story because he thought it was too much like a Star Trek episode. I take that as a compliment!\n\n“Hurricane”: I’m all in favour of renewable energy—solar, wind, tidal—and if we could harness the energy of hurricanes we’d hit the mother lode. Perhaps as much as the total worldwide generating capacity of humanity, in one storm! Writing a story about that, you just have to place your protagonist right in the thick of things, especially if he hates to fly, which gave me an excuse to research the amazing crews who willingly enter such hellish conditions in Hurricane Hunter aircraft. Plus, as I speculated about what would happen, I realized that I had the answer to one of the greatest occult mysteries of them all!\n\n“Once Upon A Midnight”: Some years ago my good friend, prolific author/editor and all-around-nice-guy Mark Leslie Lefebvre issued a call for SF stories inspired by works of literature. I came up with one, and Mark liked it, but that anthology project didn’t come to pass. That was OK because some months later it was accepted for an anthology called In Poe’s Shadow (2011). Fast forward a few years, and Mark was invited to edit an edition of the well-respected Tesseracts series of anthologies and chose to resurrect his literary-inspiration idea. He also still wanted my story. So “Once Upon A Midnight” got a second life in one of Canada’s most successful SF franchises (Tesseracts 16: Parnassus Unbound) and I was thrilled. Deliberately over-the-top, it’s black humour with a dark warning at its core.\n\nOnce again, you can buy BEYOND: Stories Beyond Time, Technology, and the Stars through Amazon or Barnes & Noble in the US, or in Canada through Chapters/Indigo or, or via many online outlets worldwide. Or if you're devoted to your favourite independent bookstore, ask them to order it through the book distributor Ingram. Have a great read!\n\n\nOpen your eyes.jpg\n\nOver the past couple of years I’ve made fifteen of my science fiction and fantasy short stories available in affordable e-book form (the e-anthologies Disastrous!, Body Of Opinion and other stories plus the series Beyond: The Stars, Beyond: Time, and Beyond: Technology, can all be purchased through my bookstore). But I know that a lot of readers are still devoted to physical books. So I decided to gather all of those 15 stories into one tasty paperback.\n\nBEYOND: Stories Beyond Time, Technology, and the Stars is now available to buy through Amazon and other online retailers. Your favourite independent bookstore can also order it through the book distributor Ingram. It’s 362 pages of thoughtful and imaginative fiction that I think any SFF fan will love, but one thing I didn’t include (and maybe that was a mistake) was an Afterword explaining how each story came about. Lots of readers enjoy those—I do too.\n\nSo here, for what it’s worth, is a brief look at the stories and my reflections on them.\n\n“No Walls”: This wasn’t my first story sold but it was the first one to make it into publication, in the Canadian magazine Neo-opsis Issue #18, so it will always have a special place in my heart. I even named my publishing company after it (lots of wider meaning, after all). As a fan of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, I hit on the variation of a man who suddenly gains the ability to walk through walls. But what real benefit could such a gift provide, except to a criminal? Or a secret operative. The story was rejected by editors a few times, and I realized that it needed to be darker, grittier. So if you’re squeamish, I apologize for the torture scenes, but without high stakes there’s no high drama!\n\n“Shakedown”: My first science fiction novel manuscript is an SF thriller called The Primus Labyrinth, inspired by the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage about a submersible and crew shrunk to microscopic size to travel through the bloodstream of a scientist and save his life. I don’t think shrink rays will ever be possible, so I wanted a more realistic way such an adventure could take place. My novel is very different from the movie, and my literary agent is currently gauging interest among publishers. But I originally considered self-publishing it, and thought that getting a prequel story published would help promote the novel. “Shakedown” is that prequel, about my prototype nanoscopic submersible and its first pilot, and the question: could a human mind ever cope with reality at a microscopic level? It was published in the anthology Canadian Tales of the Fantastic (2011).\n\n“The Long Commute”: Most time travel stories focus on going back to a single momentous event and putting all of history at risk. But what if time has a kind of inertia instead, and it takes many small changes to have an impact on the timestream? Would there be people whose job was to do that every day? I was intrigued by the possibilities of  mixing a mind-bending concept with a daily routine. I also borrowed a character’s name from the family of a US president at the time, but then decided that a more overt link would be too corny.\n\n“Lockdown”: It’s a huge expenditure of resources to support criminals in prisons, but the public must be protected. The answer? A device that temporarily paralyzes a parolee if he or she even thinks of committing another crime. Mind you, that would put the criminal at the mercy of passersby, and I have a feeling that could get ugly (as the story shows). That was the focus when I first wrote “Lockdown” but, as with “No Walls”, there needed to be more drama. So I threw in a dash of revenge for seasoning.\n\n“A Taste Of Time”: This one could not be more different from “Lockdown”. It’s a contemporary fantasy story about an old woman with sad memories and a cheerful young girl with an insatiable craving for wild blueberries. I’ve spent many happy hours picking wild blueberries myself and, knowing that the bushes can pick up flavours from the soil and surroundings (as wine grapes do), I speculated about what other things such berries might impart. The story was not only published by On Spec magazine (#88 vol 24 no 1 June 2012) accompanied by a feature author interview, but, to my delight, was also chosen for On Spec’s 25th Anniversary anthology Casserole Diplomacy and Other Stories. Talk about being in great company!\n\nThere are ten more stories in the collection and I'll write about them in a few days. In the meantime, go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or in Canada to Chapters/Indigo or Or if you're devoted to an indy bookstore, ask them to order it through the book distributor Ingram. Enjoy!\n\n\n\nThe charge to publish continues!\n\nThe second of my short story collection series BEYOND: Time is now available as an ebook in my Bookstore for direct download. It's been distributed to all of the major ebook online retailers and you might even find it cheaper there, depending on your country's currency (currency conversions being what they are!)\n\nBEYOND: Time offers three thrilling tales that transcend time:\n\nThe Long Commute\n\nShon Howard and others like him go to work every day to reverse the ravages of climate change, pollution, and other evils. His daughter’s life depends on it. Because in Shon’s world, mistakes of past centuries can be corrected by visiting key moments in time. As long as he doesn’t get caught.\n\nA Taste Of Time\n\nGabby Dufour hates the blueberries that grow over the site of her home town, destroyed in a fire decades ago. Then young berry-loving Amanda comes to visit, with inexplicable knowledge about the town, and Gabby is forced to wonder if there’s more to blueberries than meets the tongue. (First published in On Spec #88 vol 24 no 1, August 2014.) ** This story's kind of different, but good enough to be chosen for On Spec's 25th anniversary anthology Casserole Diplomacy.\n\n\nThe crew of a Hurricane Hunter aircraft is assigned to monitor an experiment designed to collect the awesome energy of a powerful storm. When the project succeeds too well, nowhere is beyond its destructive reach.\n\nHowever you choose to buy it, I hope you'll love these stories. Volume Three BEYOND: Technology  will be published soon, and then a print-on-demand anthology including all of these stories and more.\n\n\n\nYears ago I read a 1990 SF novel named Memories by Mike McQuay. It featured one of the most interesting time travel concepts I’ve ever come across: a drug is developed that lets a person “mind-travel” through their ancestral line and inhabit the body of any of their genetic ancestors. The plot of “Memories” involves the main character going back to the Napoleonic era to stop another traveller from messing up history. The process involves DNA and RNA (strongly linked to memory). It’s an excellent read that’s stayed with me, and I couldn’t help but think of it this week when I encountered an interesting science news story.\n\nResearchers at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta have found that some information can be passed down from generation to generation in mice through chemical changes in DNA. The researchers trained some mice to experience fear when they smelled the fragrance of a cherry blossom (a cruel choice, if you ask me) and found that subsequent generations also exhibited fear when encountering that smell. Needless to say, there’s a lot more research to be done in the field, but it’s an interesting result. We’ve often heard talk about “racial memory” that might provide similar inherited behaviours. We certainly know that many species have instinctive responses to environmental dangers that aren’t taught to them by parents.\n\nWhat if we find out that learned skills can be passed through human DNA? If the DNA responsible could be isolated and transferred to other humans, it would become a very hot commodity. Take a few DNA shots and become a concert pianist. Or a pro-level golfer. Or a master carpenter. You might be able to skip instruction booklets and just buy an injection of home builder DNA when you buy your lumber (or even better: a DNA shot to assemble Ikea furniture!) Although there’s no indication that specific knowledge would be shareable that way, physical abilities that are practiced so often they become like a reflex action might be good candidates for this. Olympic champion swimmers might be able to retire and live off the proceeds of selling small amounts of their blood or tissues. But so might expert chefs and trained sharpshooters.\n\nEven if it’s found that such DNA information transfers only work on embryos, not adults, there would still be a huge market for genetic material from geniuses of all stripes, from the Einsteins to the Warren Buffets. It could revolutionize the education system, especially specialized training. Most encouraging of all, if it could be made readily available, it might go farther than any initiative has yet done to provide universal education to all children, regardless of geography or social status. But again, so far, it’s impossible to know what level of detail can be included in the information transferred.\n\nI don’t think it’s likely we’ll ever time travel via DNA and RNA as in McQuay’s book, but what if we could extrapolate the knowledge and experiences of our predecessors from the DNA of current descendants? We might finally get to know what it was like to be Napoleon Bonaparte, or Henry VIII, or almost any historical figure who had offspring and descendants who are alive today. The animal kingdom would be ripe for exploration, too. Perhaps we couldn’t clone dinosaurs, but we might have more precise and certain information about their instinctive behaviours by analyzing the DNA of modern-day birds.\n\nAs with any genetic research, there are ways that knowledge like this could be abused. But the potential is very exciting.\n\nBeing a science fiction writer, I’m putting in a bid for Larry Niven DNA. Or Robert J. Sawyer. Or…of course…if you could get your hands on some DNA from the late Michael Crichton? Ironic, indeed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime for a good, stiff Mojito.\n\n\nOne of the most popular tropes in science fiction is the idea of time travel. Wouldn’t it be great if we could witness the heyday of the Roman Empire? Or even the dinosaurs? Or jump ahead to a future time to find out how our great-grandkids’ grandchildren turn out? One of the best-known early fictional treatments of the idea is H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and one of the most popular recent efforts is Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife, but the concept has inspired countless novels, movies, and TV shows.\n\nSo will time travel ever be possible?\n\nIn a sense, jumping into the future just requires us to go somewhere at really high speed, because of the effects of relativity. In Orson Scott Card’s book Speaker For The Dead his main character, Ender Wiggin, exists in a world more than 3000 years after his birth, but has aged only 36 years because he’s spent so much of his life travelling between stars at near light speed. But is that really time travel? After all, you can never go back! What we really want is a way to go back and forth in time, isn’t it?\n\nThe idea doesn’t belong to fiction alone—lots of legitimate scientists have looked into it. The laws of physics don’t rule it out, and there are some phenomena that might do the trick.\n\nOne such is a wormhole in space—kind of like a black hole, but with an entrance and an exit. Star Trek fans will remember a wormhole as the setting for the series Deep Space Nine, but a wormhole might provide a shortcut through time as well as space.\n\nSome scientists are even trying to make time machines. One of those is Dr. Ronald Mallett at the University of Connecticut. Mallett’s concept involves making a circular beam of high-energy light that would stir empty space like a spoon in a cup of coffee, making it theoretically possible for a particle in that space to travel faster than light and, hopefully, into the past. Mallett isn’t saying he’ll be able to send humans physically into the past, but perhaps information at least. There are advocates of time travel who believe that information is enough: that we might be able to experience other eras through a kind of virtual reality using information from those other times.\n\nSo far, the concepts that do appear theoretically possible have their drawbacks. A wormhole couldn’t take you back to a time before the wormhole existed. Similarly, Mallett’s time machine wouldn’t allow matter or information to travel to a time earlier than the moment the machine was switched on. Does that make his machine useless to the impatient types among us? Not really. The moment Dr. Mallett gets his machine working, he might be flooded with messages from people in the future (or even himself) trying to contact our time. That could be pretty useful.\n\nOne of the questions most deeply-ingrained into the human psyche is: what if I had done something differently? How would my life have turned out? From there it becomes: what if the world had done something differently? That question has generated a whole sub-genre of SF: the alternate history story.\n\nThat’s why even if time travel never becomes a reality, for science fiction it will always be necessary just the same.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7865192294120789}
+{"content": "Letter from Gustav Holst to Isobel Holst\n\nScope and Content\n\nDiscusses his experiences in Algiers, including topics such as, visiting mosques, churches, synagogues and a Casbah, the native quarter of the city, the people of the city, plans for travelling to Tizi Omzou and Bishra, the weather, and the challenges of not being able to speak French. Addressed from Algiers, Easter Monday. [6pp]\n\nConditions Governing Access\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9925627112388611}
+{"content": "What is Cellulitis?\n\nCellulitis is a skin allergies infection caused by bacteria. The infection develops anywhere the skin has been broken - often from a cut, burn, or an insect bite. The infection spreads from the skin to the underlying tissues. In severe cases, it can spread quickly, within hours or days. Cellulitis is usually not contagious.\n\nWhat are the causes of Cellulitis?\n\nCellulitis is caused by bacteria, usually Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Cellulitis of the face in children under 3 years of age is typically caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Some people are at risk for infection by other types of bacteria that result in cellulitis. At-risk groups include people with impaired immune system and people who handle fish, meat, poultry, or soil without using gloves.\n\nWhat are the symptoms of Cellulitis?\n\nCellulitis presents with tenderness, pain, swelling, and redness at the site of the infection. Fever and chills are also common. Cellulitis can occur anywhere on the body. In adults, it often occurs on the legs, face, or arms. In children, it commonly develops on the face or around the anus. Facial infection requires immediate medical attention.\n\nWhat are the riskfactors of Cellulitis?\n\nThere may be an increased risk for cellulitis if there is: A cut or injury to the skin, surgical wound, skin infection, burn, or an animal or insect bite Skin lesions, such as ulcers, eczema, psoriasis, or a fungal infection Certain medical conditions, such as a circulatory disease, oedema, an impaired immune system, diabetes, or peripheral vascular disease Impaired lymphatic drainage after surgery, such as a mastectomy\n\nWhat is the treatment of Cellulitis?\n\nAntibiotics are the main treatment for cellulitis and are usually successful in curing the infection. Antibiotics can be taken either orally or intravenously (IV). If there are certain medical conditions that increase the risk for getting cellulitis, antibiotics can be taken after a skin injury to help prevent the infection.\n\nWhat are the prevention?\n\nCellulitis tends to recur in people with certain medical conditions that can lead to skin breakdown, such as oedema (fluid buildup), fungal or bacterial infections, diabetes, or peripheral vascular disease. if there is oedema, support stockings and good skin hygiene may reduce or eliminate recurrence of cellulitis if there are frequent fungal infections, regular use of antifungal medications may help reduce the recurrence if a person is at a high risk for recurring cellulitis, taking preventive antibiotics may help\n\nWhat are the complications?\n\nComplications such as bacteraemia (presence of bacteria in the blood) or sepsis (systemic inflammation in response to infection) can develop if the bacteria that causes cellulitis spreads quickly throughout the body. Facial cellulitis infection can spread to the brain (meningitis). Other complications, such as thrombophlebitis or, rarely, gangrene, can also develop. If an older adult has certain medical conditions such as diabetes or peripheral vascular disease, or an impaired immune system, he is at an increased risk for complications. Recurrence of cellulites is another complication.\n\nWhat is the homecare treatment?\n\nOther steps to help recovery and prevent recurrence are: take all medicines as prescribed take care of the skin. Any measure that prevents injury to the skin will help to prevent cellulitis elevate the affected leg or arm to reduce swelling. Apply a sterile saline-soaked dressing to reduce pain apply cool compresses to the affected area use pain relievers as needed use support stockings to prevent fluid build-up take steps to treat or prevent fungal infections, such athlete’s foot. If athlete's foot is difficult to treat or recurs, ask the doctor about oral antifungal medications. take care of the feet, especially if there is diabetes or other conditions that may increase the risk of infection. avoid touching possible sources of infection, such as ill family members and their belongings; raw fish, meat, or poultry; or soil, particularly when there is an area of broken skin.\n\nDoctorNDTV Team\n\n\n\n\nUsing 0 of 1024 Possible characters\nChoose Topic\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6572779417037964}
+{"content": "Is everyone in the household answer the ACS survey?\n\nHi IPUMS staffs,\n\nCan you explain how the ACS interview is conducted? Is everyone in the household answered the question (i.e., education, income), or there is only one person answers all questions for other people live in the house?\n\n\nIn general, one person answers the ACS survey but does so for each person in the household. You can read the exact instructions, in this case for the 2016 ACS survey, by reading the ACS guide.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8402743339538574}
+{"content": "Λίστα προϊόντων κατά μάρκα Herring John\n\n\nTachdjian's Procedures in Pediatric Orthopaedics is a brand new derivative resource from Tachdjian's Pediatric Orthopaedics, 5th Edition, the classic comprehensive offering on the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric musculoskeletal disorders and trauma. For over 40 years, Tachdjian's has been the trusted resource in pediatric orthopaedics, written by experts at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, a world-renowned pediatric hospital.\n\nThis procedures-focused text includes more than 70 colorized, illustrated procedures, providing step-by-step surgical walkthroughs with accompanying intraoperative illustrations. This procedures-only text will appeal to general orthopaedic surgeons, pediatric orthopaedic surgeons, orthopaedic residents, and anyone who needs to quickly and easily learn new techniques or refresh their understanding of challenging procedures.\n\nΥπάρχει 1 προϊόν.\n\nΕμφανίζονται τα στοιχεία 1-1 από σύνολο 1", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999527931213379}
+{"content": "Discovery of the Opiate Receptor; Playing with Materialistic Fire.\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nI recommend this book to all of my followers and patients who want to understand why the hands-on work I do is effective. Your body literally IS your mind and emotions and the work Dr. Pert did proves it. All of the experiments are in the book so objection on your part is futile. Holistic medicine, counseling, energy medicine, martial arts, yoga, et. al. are an effective medicine and much cheaper than the bazillion dollar allopathic industry twisting your arm to buy health insurance.\n\nI’m re-reading these chapters that I visited two years ago before the opioid epidemic. I’m finding it ironic that Dr. Pert is actually the one who found the opiate receptor in the brain at NIH working under Dr. Snyder but is also key to illuminating the science behind mind-body medicine in the seventies. She found it on October 25, 1972. Reductionist science and holism make strange bedfellows.\n\nChapter 2 is called “Romance of the Opiate Receptor” with the title “Destiny”. There is no way she could have known that 20 years after this book was written, corporate, capitalist, profit-driven so-called healthcare would drive the opiate receptors in the human brain into addiction and unethical oblivion. It is now the headline on the national news. All of this is occurring because allopathic medicine refuses to give any attention or credence to holistic medicine which is fabulously pain-relieving and has at its fingertips a pantheon of effective, whole herbs like cannabis which has been demonized and ruined families for 100 years. There is not as much money to be made when people are healthy and happy. By the end of the book, she figures this out.\n\nThe first thing she relays is being on her back in the hospital after falling off of a horse and being put on Talwin, a morphine derivative and loving the euphoric state it put her in. I sure didn’t after my ectopic pregnancy surgery in 1996 that saved my life. I was on a morphine pump and all it did was cut the pain a bit, but it was my birthday, after all, the day I had to get out of the hospital bed and walk. Three days later after I’d gotten home the pain was almost gone. Still, I did not have a great opioid trip. Drugs have never affected me in a beneficial way as an HSP (highly sensitive person).  Laughter, hugs, friends, and sex affect my receptors.\n\nCandace Pert and Sol SnyderDr. Pert worked happily in a lab at John Hopkins University under the exciting tutelage of Solomon H. Snyder who was on the leading edge of experimentation in neuropharmacology and still works there. The picture is of Candace and Sol working together. The philosophy in the lab had everything to do with instinct;\n\nDo not accept conventional wisdom, do not accept the idea that something can’t be accomplished because the scientific literature says it can’t. Trust your instincts. Allow yourself a wide latitude in your speculations. Don’t depend on the literature-it could be right or it could be completely wrong. Spread all your hunches out before you, and go with the ones that you think are most probable. Select the one that you can test easily and quickly. Don’t assume it has to be overly complicated to be of value since often the simplest experiment yields the most unequivocal result. Just do the experiment! And if you can keep it to a one-day experiment, so much the better.”\n\nSolomon H Snyder, Dr. Pert’s boss, was a lead neuroscience researcher at NIH back in the ’70s and is likely the kingpin of opiate receptor research that helped the big pharma get very rich and patients very addicted to opiates in America. I’m not saying he is solely responsible but he is a psychiatrist and worked for a couple of pharmaceutical companies. I’m sure he saw nothing wrong with using opiates to as a painkiller.\n\nIn Chapter 3, she outlines that in the science journal Nature, the Scottish team triumphantly published their chemical analysis of the brain’s own morphine, which consisted of a pair of peptides, each five amino acids in length. Enkephalin’s chemical structure was summed up by the following formula; Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met and Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu. With this brief shorthand, a peptide chemist had all the information needed to whip up a batch of enkephalin from amino acid starting materials in just a few days.\n\nWhat Dr. Pert did not know, and what the scientists still do not know is that our DNA/RNA, the amino acid peptides are multidimensional and directly affected by music, nature, and every wave-form in the universe. The amino acids directly correspond to the Maya’s Tzolkin Harmonic that creates the order for everything in the known universe. Materialism has no clue about order and energy. They believe everything in nature is random. It’s not.  It’s all based on synchronicity and nothing is random so the scientific materialists were playing with fire and now, in 2019, they are doing it with A.I. (Artificial Intelligence).  We see the effect on the earth and humans. It’s detrimental.\n\nTo be continued…\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nContinuing on in “Molecules of Emotion”, The Science Behind Mind-Body (same thing) Medicine; Dr. Pert says, “…endorphins, the body’s own natural morphine…which your body makes too.”\n\nThere are a thousand studies on this and physicians all know it’s true. Bodyworkers are at the top of the heap when it comes to stimulating natural opioids in the body. Massage therapists, deep tissue workers, manual therapists, and all other types of soft tissue workers know that this is the case. Some massage therapists do a good job, others really hurt you as they have very poor technique, use too much oil and then dig in with the thumb tips, elbows, and fingertips. Be sure to interview the practitioner before you set up an appointment. I recommend deep tissue manual therapy, a physical therapist or a sports therapist with 2-4 years of training.\n\nBodyworkers are supposed to relieve pain, not cause it. That is intuitive. It’s counterintuitive to cause pain which is something to consider as you use the white coats. The fact is, the number of Americans seeing massage therapists has declined because the schools are teaching poor technique and not requiring students to do at least two years. But I digress from the book.\n\nDr. Pert discovered the opiate receptors in the brain and thought she and her team might be on the way to win the Nobel prize.\n\nThe discovery of the opiate receptor touched off a mad scramble among scientific researchers to find the natural substance in the body that used the receptor-the key that would fit the lock. We knew that the brain receptor didn’t exist to serve as a binding mechanism for external plant extracts, such as morphine and opium. No, the only reason that made any sense for an opiate receptor to be in the brain in the first place was if the body itself produced some kind of substance. an organic chemical that fit the tiny keyhole itself-a natural opiate.\n\nThe brains own morphine is an endogenous ligand. A ligand is a protein that attaches (binds) to another protein called a receptor; receptor proteins have specific sites into which the ligands fit like keys into locks. Endogenous ligands are those that are produced in the body, not those introduced into the body, such as certain drugs. It creates the same effects that exogenous (outside) opiates such as morphine do. They called this substance enkephalin. MT’s know all about enkephalin’s as well in terms of what our treatments can do.\n\nIt is worthwhile to note that as of this edit, 7/25/19, A S.F. team believe that the endogenous and exogenous opiates DO NOT have the same effect on the body. The ones they created in the lab work quicker and are stronger and cause addiction as we know too well. I’m still trying to find out if they knew this from the beginning and are creating a ruse, or if they seriously were ignorant that stimulating the natural endogenous opioid was a better route to take.\n\nThis part of the book ends with her on a media whirlwind for her discovery with her team and getting much positive attention. Then the competition heats up and the power-brokers come into play.\n\nScience is no different than politics. I’m reading about ego, destructive gossip, gender discrepancy, and big money. Human nature is pretty easy to predict.\n\nTo be continued…\n\nHow Do Humans Turn Intuition into Knowing?\n\nTurn off the outside disturbances, carve out silent alone time for yourself, workout, love your body, do yoga, and plan a vegetarian or vegan way of life. Make a list of friends who are loving and friends who are toxic and make some decisions. That’s a start!\n\nWhat I observe about 98% of humans is that they pay FAR more attention to the media, material concerns, and others than they do to their own body, how it feels, what they are feeling emotionally and what direction their heading in. They live on automatic pilot and let their lives be dictated by everyone else. Under those conditions, you’re not going to hear or see anything! You’re sleepwalking through life and likely abusing some kind of drug. That’s the other thing is my brain is completely sober so I go through life extremely mindful.\n\nYour real life doesn’t begin until you can feel your own body, feel your feelings, hear your thoughts, and become aware of your habits. If you care more about what others think of you than you do yourself, you’re off track.\n\nother people\n\nPersonally, my intuition has always been spot on, ever since I was a young girl. That’s how I know something ahead of time. And then it happens…always. I absolutely KNOW what is going to happen and it’s always right, like the sun rising every morning. It’s very normal for me, and always has been, for me to get “a flash” like hearing something on the radio or seeing it visually as on a screen before it happens. Dean Radin, Ph.D. is a great researcher and writer on the paranormal and psychic knowing. He’s documented it fully. I like his book, “The Conscious Universe”.\n\nThe Conscious Universe\n\nI’ve got one other post on this issue I believe. The other new piece here is that the biologists have found magnets in our brains. I believe, if they keep looking, they’ll find them all through the body in all of our cells. They don’t understand it yet, but I’ve felt the magnetism in the body in my office doing bodywork on my patients for 20 years so this is no news flash to me.\n\nMagnets in the Human Brain Mapped\n\nWhen I do Reiki I feel like my entire body is spinning in a magnetic vortex also. Back to the original question, how can anyone tune into their intuition and follow it? I’m not convinced I’m “gifted”. I believe it’s natural to all human beings. I don’t know what it’s like to walk around being someone else but I do observe other people walking around negative, doubtful, hyper-rational or hyper-emotional, and materialistic.\n\nPete Sanders, Jr. wrote a book called “You are Psychic”. I worked with him in Sedona, AZ when I lived there. He’s a trained scientist from MIT. He teaches classes on this empowerment.\n\nYou Are Psychic\n\n\nOnce you drop all of that, you’ll get the life you came into the body to live and it’s magnificent. Anything less is not worth living for…at all.\n\nKeep trying and being honest, peeling those layers bit by bit until you’re living an authentic life. You can do it!\n\n\nAll Who Wander Are Not Lost\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBodymind, “Molecules of Emotion”\n\nThis will be a perfect segue into the next subject matter on Intuition UP; morphic resonance; a phenomenon discovered by the work of Rupert Sheldrake. Dr. Pert talks about it as well at the end of this book.\n\nInformation is not dependent on time or space, as is matter and energy, but exists regardless of these limits! If information exists outside of the confines of time and space, matter, and energy, then it must belong to a very different realm from the concrete, tangible realm we think of as reality. And since information in the form of the biochemicals of emotion is running every system of the body, then our emotions must also come from some realm beyond the physical.”\n\nInformation theory seems to be converging with Eastern philosophy to suggest that the mind, the consciousness, consisting of information, exists FIRST, prior to the physical realm, which is secondary, merely an out-picturing of consciousness. Although this is about as radical as my scientist’s mind will let me get, I’m beginning to understand how such a view could coexist comfortably with the kind of science I’ve been doing.”\n\nA priori knowledge. That’s the wisdom of the ancients. We could not come into the body through our mother without it. We are first and foremost, Mind. It precedes the physical and continues on when the physical ends. Information theory is simply morphic resonance which creates holograms. The science behind morphic resonance is illumined in the scientific work of Rupert Sheldrake. This definition is from HIS website. I recommend you go to the link.\n\nMorphic resonance is a process whereby self-organizing systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems. In its most general formulation, morphic resonance means that the so-called laws of nature are more like habits.”-Rupert Sheldrake\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nWhen Dr. Pert says out-picturing of consciousness, this harks to the phenomenon of holograms. They are;\n\na three-dimensional image formed by the interference of light beams from a laser or other coherent light source…a photograph of an interference pattern that, when suitably illuminated, produces a three-dimensional image.\nSome people suggest that our world, us, and earth are holographic. Life is more like a movie projection of the matrix of all of our intentions than anything else. All that most people see is in 3D, yet scientists have proven we live in at least 21 dimensions. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.\nHer realization at the end is;\nThat is the basis for all holistic medicine. We seek to empower the patient with scientific facts, not gouge you for a huge profit based on materialism. We make a living with our work, not a killing and ask you to do your part for yourself. I talk about my journey in my book “Healer”. Enjoy!\n66756103_High Resolution Front Cover_7388240\n\nHealing Feeling, “Molecules of Emotions”\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nChapter 12, page 250;\n\nShe’s in Southern California now hanging out with the progressive, spiritual folks.\n\nHere in California there seems to be room for a consideration of the spiritual dimension of health, which can encompass such elements as prayer, energy flow, distant healing, and psychic phenomena, to name but a few.”\n\nThe time period was post-NIH when she felt unsupported and maligned, so her friend Nancy taught her a type of protective mantra that focuses the mind and the Qi. I do this with my own patient’s as well who are going through very difficult circumstances with work or divorce. When your habitual thought and emotions go negative, it goes right into your cells. Which cells it goes into depends on which thoughts and feelings you’re running. None of it is good for you or your body. I get rid of the rocks in my patient’s shoulders and they return with them again if they don’t stop the mental/emotional habit. Holistic medicine is about real change; not pills. We have scads of scientific evidence backing it up. It’s important to set your boundaries and protect yourself between treatments. We call that mindfulness or self-care.\n\nShe felt good about doing it on an intuitive level and called it, “extracorporeal peptide reaching, a form of emotional resonance that happens when receptors are vibrating together in seemingly separate systems. This was before the term subtle energy had been introduced to describe a still mysterious fifth force beyond the four conventional forces of physics; electromagnetic energy, gravity and weak and strong nuclear forces.”\n\nShe then gets into a conversation about how the information has changed our concepts.\n\nWe have to make a distinction between the metaphor of matter and energy and that of information”, her friend Gottesman said. “The older metaphor deals with matter, force, energy, and is expressed in Einstein’s famous formula connecting those elements E=mc2. While these terms are useful for building locomotives and bridges, even atomic bombs, they are not so useful for understanding the human body. Physical processes aren’t things, they are dynamic and take place in an open fluid system, and therefore fit better with the metaphor of information than that of matter and force.”\n\nI absolutely see this as well in my office. My patients don’t hesitate one bit when I suggest that what they’ve been through and continue to hold to as far as a mental and emotional habit is causing the problem in the tissue that I’m holding in my hand. Once they realize it, they can let it go. How do I know what the energy is? Part of it is listening, part of my work is intuition. When dealing with the body, intuition is vital.\n\nHe goes on; “Today, the concept of information is replacing energy and matter as the common denominator for understanding all biological life and even environmental processes.” Dr. Pert says, “Yes, and the neuropeptides and receptors are the biochemicals we call information molecules, they are using a coded language to communicate via a mind-body network. They are in the process of information exchange, having a two-way conversation-very different from what happens when there is a one-way push from behind, the way force works.”\n\nWell, our modern healthcare system hasn’t caught up with all of this science one bit, which came out in the late nineties. And here it is 2017. Why should we believe anything they recommend. They’re not updated.\n\nA New Crowd, “Molecules of Emotion”\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\n\n\n\n\nIs Your Man Gay or Straight\n\n\n\n\nCrossing Over, Coming Together, Part II\n\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nI’m almost done giving you the scoop on “Molecules of Emotion” by Dr. Candace Pert, Ph.D. I’m going to finish summing up Chapter 11 of this great book where she talks about healing herself after all she’s been through in the NIH lab, with the men, and being unfairly excluded from the Lasker Award because she’s a woman.  She says,\n\nI realized that I had been angry for years, harboring deep resentments that went all the way back to Sol and the Lasker, perhaps even further back… (more details)In the Lasker days, when I began comparing what happened to me to the losses inflicted on Rosalind Franklin. I had only intuited that suppressing my emotions was dangerous and might lead to cancer, but now I had amassed enough hard scientific data to convince me that I needed to heal my emotions if I wanted to pull through this difficult time-alive and healthy” –pg. 236\n\nRosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite so her comparison was apt given her work and success. Born in 1920 in London, England, Rosalind Franklin earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cambridge University. She learned crystallography and X-ray diffraction, techniques that she applied to DNA fibers. One of her photographs provided key insights into the DNA structure. Other scientists used it as evidence to support their DNA model and took credit for the discovery. Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at age 37.\n\nThis is what women do to themselves because there is so much negativity reflected back to us regarding having power, intelligence, and self-esteem from other women, men, and religion.  Dr. Pert says,\n\nThere was no doubt I had a reputation for being a spitfire, someone who was so hellbent on her own path that other people often felt the best thing they could do was simply stay out of my way. For the first time, I seriously considered; Was I the problem? If I’d behaved differently, been a good girl, and played the game according to the rules, would Peptide T have made it to the market, saving the lives of people who were now dead because it wasn’t available sooner?\n\nI wrote “No” all over the margins. We’re not called to be saviors of the world or co-dependent. The short of it is, she found some spiritual healing for herself, was about to understand the true nature of forgiveness and forgave Sol, her old boss. She began to accept herself and found a quiet mental state where she didn’t feel the need “to perform” or achieve so much anymore.  I can totally relate to that as many women can.  She says,\n\nI also started to become aware of synchronicity, to see connections between events and people happening simultaneously and then to act on this awareness instead of out of the more familiar linear cause-and-effect model”-pg. 242\n\nHere is where intuition really kicks in and she says,\n\nIt appealed to me intuitively. The mind-body network is so taxed by unprocessed sensory input in the form of suppressed trauma or undigested emotions that it has become bogged down and cannot flow freely, sometimes even working against itself, at cross-purposes…When stress prevents the molecules of emotion from flowing freely where needed, the largely autonomic processes that are regulated by peptide flow, such as breathing, blood flow, immunity, digestion, and elimination, collapse down to a few simple feedback loops and upset the normal healing response.”\n\nAs a professional bodyworker and reiki practitioner, I see this every day and align it every day with my patients.  They can feel it and I stay busy!\n\n“My colleagues were doing research on how trauma and blockage of emotional and physical information can be stored indefinitely at the cellular level.“-pg.243\n\nSo there you have it. And does our health care system understand and act on this in their treatment before they charge you $10,000/year for health insurance? No. Do they cover treatments by practitioners that really empower and help people get well?  No way! They are mired in materialism and greed most of the time and their treatments don’t work unless the placebo effect kicks in. It’s your belief in their pill that makes you feel better, not the pill itself. That’s an expensive magic show and sometimes they make it worse. It’s a crapshoot they play with our body and most people let them.\n\n\nSnow and Cherry Blossoms at the Office of Alternative Medicine; NIH\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nOn page 224, Dr. Pert is now in Washington, DC in the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the National Institute of  Health (NIH) talking to Wayne Jonas, MD who was at the helm of OAM in the ’90s. She told him that it has long been her wish to see a program started inside the NIH that would do the basic research to put new paradigm science on a secure footing.\n\n“All kinds of practitioners, from the nurse healers who practice therapeutic touch to the holistic chiropractors (and Naprapaths) who do manipulations, tell us that they feel subtle energies moving through the bodies of their patients. My own hunch is that these energy emanations get created as ligands bind to receptors in the body, doing their intricate humming dance with each other. Now, these energies have not been convincingly measured by objective devices, although a few physicists have worked at devising more sensitive means of measuring quantal events. Why couldn’t the NIH fund some research on the subject? —either on measuring the body’s energy field or on studying how energy healers can influence this flow, perhaps by using their own energy to trigger receptors in a manner analogous to the way electromagnetic energy fires neurons.”\n\nAs I read this section, which Dr. Pert wrote back in 1997, twenty years ago, it’s a little startling and depressing that this project hasn’t been achieved yet.  I’ve been a Reiki practitioner in my office and my patients and I feel the Ki or Qi, day in and day out as I work on them, and yet materialistic science has yet to ramp up their methods to measure it?  Yes, it’s 2017 and millions of people all over the world, from Qi Gong practitioners to Reiki in hospitals, know that it’s real and it works to move Qi (Chi) as sure as you can feel the heat of the sun when it shines.\n\nSure, you can make the qi chaotic again with your habits, thoughts, and negative emotions when you walk out the door, but all of it is alignable if you let it in. We’re teaching you how balanced and aligned can feel so you can decide whether or not you want it. We can’t make you accept it.\n\nWayne Jonas agrees with me on the necessity for basic research and, in a great example of synchronicity, relates how just the day before he had presented his idea for an intramural research program to a gathering of NIH institute directors. This is wonderful news, and if he can make it happen, it will be a terrific breakthrough…”\n\nTo be continued…\n\n\n\nCrossing Over, Coming Together\n\nMolecules of Emotion cover\n\nIn “Molecules of Emotions”, by now AZT was being tested and she had resigned from NIH in June 1987.  The OAM, Office of Alternative Medicine has been established at the NIH as well, right in the main building much to Dr. Pert’s surprise.\n\nThe OAM was established four years ago by the NIH to investigate and evaluate many of the alternative therapies and practices-including acupuncture, homeopathy, manipulative healing techniques (such as Naprapathic Manual Therapy), chiropractic and massage, visualization, and biofeedback-that have become so visible over the past ten years that the mainstream can no longer ignore them.”\n\nNIH is finally catching up with the American public which is well aware of the benefits of alternative medicine as shown by a study done by David Eisenberg at Harvard.  In an article, he published on January 28, 1993, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, he showed that one-third of Americans are using alternative medicine and paying out of pocket, $13.7 billion dollars.  Here is the link to that article;\n\nJanuary 29, 1993 Article in NEJM\n\nIn a mere eight years, by 2025, this is the prediction for how big our market is going to be, that includes intuitive knowing and processing of emotions in the body; $197 billion\n\nAlternative Medicine Market in 2025\n\nDr. Pert says, “In my capacity as chairperson of an OAM study section on mind-body medicine, a position I had undertaken at the behest of the previous director of the OAM, Joe Jacobs, I had had the opportunity to review many studies in the field of alternative medicine finding good data, some as solid as anything in the mainstream, to show that the mind and emotions can influence immunity. The experience made me ask the serious question; If we know thoughts and feelings can influence disease, why aren’t we doing more expanded hard research to determine which diseases these modalities are most applicable to, and performing the experiments that could lead to answers and possible cure?\n\nOh boy, that’s a good question! My theory; greed and fraud are the reason. In a materialist, mechanistic paradigm, there are no profits in cures, wellness, empowerment, and truth. And if you’re an atheist, there is no God or afterlife to account to for your selfish actions that hurt others by treating their bodies like they are cars or computers so they feel free to behave in whatever they want with impunity. What difference does it make if there is no karma? Social expectations and norms will take care of who gets accepted and who gets shunned. It’s a good thing they’re flat out wrong and the Universe doesn’t work that way. In their view, you live, you die, that’s it.  Get what you can and go.\n\nIt’s very cynical and nihilistic, isn’t it?  When I leave a straight’s office, it seems to me they don’t have a damn clue. They just want to prescribe more drugs that puts more money in their pocket. But they believe in the drugs, not the inherent power of the body to align itself!\n\nSensible, tuned-in people know that we are not alone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6195824146270752}
+{"content": "Somatic FinanceTM - The Heart \n\n\nAs more of humanity practices heart-based living\nit will qualify the 'rite of passage' into the next level of consciousness.\nUsing our heart's intuitive guidance will become common sense -\nbased on practical intelligence. ~ Doc Childre, Founder of HeartMath\n\nNow more than ever, the world needs money to move through the heart. How does this statement land for you? Do you want to stay in the question? If it moves you, this declaration is for you, to carry the torch, the fire if you will, from and through the heart.\n\nYou have heard Einstein's famous quote, that you cannot solve a problem in the same plane it was created. The heart brain is a problem-solving engine. Access to the heart and brain, through developmental practices, gives us a direct link to this engine. The heart knows everything is possible, even when the head tries to prove otherwise. The brain can solve problems and bring intention into being. But it is the open connection between the heart and head that allows new solutions to manifest.\n\nThe Heart is incredibly vast and complex. In some ways I hardly know where to begin. What would be the beginning of, what I deem to be, the most important somatic practice and radical development in modern culture? The heart is the powerful and complex connection for the lower body and upper body. In the language of Somatic FinanceTM, the heart weaves the brilliance of the head and the power of the belly.\n\n\nSitting or standing, be still. Feel your feet flat on the floor and rooted in the earth. Lift your spine and bring your attention to the heart center. Begin to breathe gently into the center of your heart. Begin with the front, add the back heart, low heart, high heart, left side and right side.\n\nAfter the six directions are touched, allow each in-breath to intensify your connection, and each out-breath to expand your heart space. Note: it is common to feel physical pain with this practice. If the pain feels too intense, release the practice and offer loving attention to your heart space. Now ask, what would it be like if all money movement came through the heart center?\n\nIf you asked me over three years ago if I was open and felt deeply I would have said without a doubt, absolutely. I am sensitive and emote deeply; I almost always sense situations and I am well attuned to myself and others. I am easily moved to tears and connect with ease. My family codes movies with a \"Gayle tear model\" on a one-tear to five-tear scale.\n\nMy self-perception shifted when I was introduced to a spiritual practice intended to somatically open my heart, authentically, without a shred of debris. A Buddhist practice by the name of Tonglen means giving and receiving. It is practiced to develop compassion and the ability to be present for our own suffering and the suffering of others. Tonglen is a beautiful practice and I confess that prior to understanding the power of heart soma, my experience with Tonglen was quite conceptual. It came from my mind. Well-meaning, but hardly fruitful.\n\nAn entirely new experience emerged for me when I began to practice the somatic heart-opening exercises. They are called bodhicitta: \"enlightenment-mind,\" the mind that strives toward awakening and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.\n\nAt first, I was stunned by the pain held in my heart. A burning fire sensation, along with ice-pick jabs, caused me to believe that either I was doing it wrong, and/or was having an early heart attack. Actually, this experience was \"normal.\" It was the discovery of a normal heart's obstacles and protective walls. With focused practice, the heart naturally releases the obstacles and protections, to reveal its true essence, our true essence.\n\nA spiritual practice like Tonglen, or bodhicitta, is not essential to access the heart. You may be interested, perhaps called to this path, but its specific structure is not required. What is needed is courage, curiosity and willingness, together with warrior attitude. Breaking down the barriers of the heart is \"heart-work.\" It hurts. Understanding that it hurts is not to dissuade you. Possibly your experience would emerge differently because each of us has a unique \"heart imprint,\" to access directly with practice.\n\nDo you question, after reading that heart practices are not a tickle adventure or cuddly hug, why do this practice? We can't not do this practice. We must all open our hearts; the body is the most direct, clear and fruitful way to do so.\n\nOur minds are no longer sufficient to meet the realities of this expanding world. The veils, obstacles and walls covering our heart centers create delusion, confusion, and doubt. We need and require the wisdom and clarity that the heart brings to each situation.\n\nFrom my April article on \"the head\", you may recall that the head represents wisdom. It is the unity of Knowledge and Intuition, from the left and right brains. The connection from the heart to the brain can be a supercharged highway. Intuition could be described as heart wisdom, beaming online.\n\nThe field of heart studies elucidates current scientific findings that are essential to our evolution, and to the evolution of finance. The electromagnetic field generated by the heart is sixty times larger than the brain's. The magnetic component of the heart's field is 5,000 times stronger than the brain's. Yes, that's right, 5,000 times stronger! The heart's electromagnetic field permeates every cell of the body and beyond; the mother lode of wisdom and compassion. Actually she has always been in charge, but now we are being called to recognize, open, and consciously engage, for the benefit of all areas of life.\n\nLet's look at how this relates to money. Three ingredients weave together in the field of financial planning: integrity, alignment and right action, for the purpose of manifesting individual and collective well-being. Empowered by integrity, we can feel through the heart and align with our client's truth to support right action. Right action illuminates the hearts of clients, leading to potential and well-being. If we are not practicing through the heart while integrating the head and the belly, we become the academic, the philanthropist, or the capitalist (see May 2014 issue), which are partial perspectives that likely are unconsciously serving our own needs, rather than others.\n\nThrough unconditional presence, we can connect authentically with others, listening generously, communicating cleanly, and connecting seamlessly. These are not simple words. They reflect consistent practice.\n\nEven when we are not gasping to survive, money taps directly to survival. The survival program that has been running in the background of our unconscious no longer serves reality. Be a thought leader, game changer and scout before the pioneers. Find your heart. The heart brings us into direct connection with what is going on in the body. The body is our path for liberation.\n\nAllow this offering to be just enough; there is so much more to share and we are just getting started. Ultimate bodhicitta is pristine. There is just space, just love, just wisdom. No inside, No outside, No here, no there. It's where we are all headed. In this space, money is love. Who knew?\n\nHeart illuminating,\nBe Moved...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5657621622085571}
+{"content": ". home.aspx\n\n\n\nNHS hospitals join with NVIDIA, using AI to interpret radiology scans\n\nMay 10, 2019 / Richard Staines\n\nThe collaboration is part of King’s London Medical Imaging and AI Centre for Value-Based Healthcare, an ongoing project intended to transform 12 clinical pathways in oncology, cardiology and neurology, as well as improve diagnoses and patient care in the NHS. NVIDIA hopes the work could lead to breakthroughs in classifying stroke and neurological impairments, determining the underlying causes of cancers and recommending the best treatments for patients. King’s is installing NVIDIA systems providing 2-petaflops of graphics card-powered supercomputers for AI research, as part of the first phase of the project. It will also use an NVIDIA toolkit along with its own imaging technologies as well as those from partners such as Kheiron Medical, Mirada and Scan. The toolkit from NVIDIA will consist of libraries for data and image processing, AI model processing, and visualisation. Researchers and engineers from NVIDIA and King’s will also join clinicians from major London hosp...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986292719841003}
+{"content": "Home Biology Switchable DNA mini-machines store information\n\nSwitchable DNA mini-machines store information\n\n\nDNA arrays change shape in response to an external trigger.\nCredit: Yonggang Ke\n\n\n\nThe arrays’ properties are scheduled for publication online by Science.\n\n\n“In the field of DNA-based computing, the DNA contains the information, but the molecules are floating around in solution,” Ke says. “What’s new here is that we are linking the parts together in a physical machine.”\n\nSimilarly, several laboratories have already made nanotech machines such as tweezers and walkers out of DNA. Ke says his team’s work with DNA arrays sheds light on how to build structures with more complex, dynamic behaviors.\n\n\nThe arrays’ units get their stability from the energy gained when DNA double helices stack up. To be stable, the units’ four segments can align as pairs side by side in two different orientations. By leaving out one strand of the DNA at the edge of an array, the engineers create an external trigger. When that strand is added, it squeezes the edge unit into changing shape.\n\nTo visualize the DNA arrays, the engineers used atomic force microscopy. They built rectangular 11×4 and 11×7 arrays, added trigger strands and could observe the cascade propagate from the corner unit to the rest of the array.\n\nThe arrays’ cascades can be stopped or resumed at selected locations by designing break points into the arrays. The units’ shape conversions are modulated by temperature or chemical denaturants.\n\nFor reference, the rectangular arrays are around 50 nanometers wide and a few hundred nanometers long — slightly smaller than a HIV or influenza virion.\n\nTo build the DNA array structures, the engineers used both origami (folding one long “scaffold” strand with hundreds of “staple” strands) and modular brick approaches. Both types of arrays self-assemble through DNA strands finding their complimentary strands in solution. The origami approach led to more stable structures in conditions of elevated temperature or denaturant.\n\nIn the Science paper, the engineers showed that they could build rectangles and tubes of array units. They also include a cuboid that has three basic conformations, more than the two-dimensional array units with two conformations. Ke says his team is working on larger, more complex machines with three-dimensional shapes, which can be made using the same basic design principles.\n\nStory Source:Materials provided by Emory Health Sciences Note: Content may be edited for style and length.\nJournal Reference:\n\njie Song et al. Reconfiguration of DNA molecular arrays driven by information relay. Science June 2017 DOI: 10.1126/science.aan3377", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.955460786819458}
+{"content": "From Symmetry: “A collision of light”\n\nSymmetry Mag\nFrom Symmetry\n\nSarah Charley\n\nNatasha Hartono\n\nOne of the latest discoveries from the LHC takes the properties of photons beyond what your electrodynamics teacher will tell you in class.\n\nProfessor Anne Sickles is currently teaching a laboratory class at the University of Illinois in which her students will measure what happens when two photons meet.\n\nWhat they will find is that the overlapping waves of light get brighter when two peaks align and dimmer when a peak meets a trough. She tells her students that this is process called interference, and that—unlike charged particles, which can merge, bond and interact—light waves can only add or subtract.\n\n“We teach undergraduates the classical theory,” Sickles says. “But there are situations where effects forbidden in the classical theory are allowed in the quantum theory.”\n\nSickles is a collaborator on the ATLAS experiment at CERN and studies what happens when particles of light meet inside the Large Hadron Collider.\n\n\n\nCERN map\n\n\nCERN LHC particles\n\nFor most of the year, the LHC collides protons, but for about a month each fall, the LHC switches things up and collides heavy atomic nuclei, such as lead ions. The main purpose of these lead collisions is to study a hot and dense subatomic fluid called the quark-gluon plasma, which is harder to create in collisions of protons. But these ion runs also enable scientists to turn the LHC into a new type of machine: a photon-photon collider.\n\n“This result demonstrates that photons can scatter off each other and change each other’s direction,” says Peter Steinberg, and ATLAS scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.\n\nWhen heavy nuclei are accelerated in the LHC, they are encased within an electromagnetic aura generated by their large positive charges.\n\nAs the nuclei travel faster and faster, their surrounding fields are squished into disks, making them much more concentrated. When two lead ions pass closely enough that their electromagnetic fields swoosh through one another, the high-energy photons which ultimately make up these fields can interact. In rare instances, a photon from one lead ion will merge with a photon from an oncoming lead ion, and they will ricochet in different directions.\n\nHowever, according to Steinberg, it’s not as simple as two solid particles bouncing off each other. Light particles are both chargeless and massless, and must go through a quantum mechanical loophole (literally called a quantum loop) to interact with one another.\n\n“That’s why this process is so rare,” he says. “They have no way to bounce off of each other without help.”\n\nWhen the two photons see each other inside the LHC, they sometimes overreact with excitement and split themselves into an electron and positron pair. These electron-positron pairs are not fully formed entities, but rather unstable quantum fluctuations that scientists call virtual particles. The four virtual particles swirl into each other and recombine to form two new photons, which scatter off at weird angles into the detector.\n\n“It’s like a quantum-mechanical square dance,” Steinberg says.\n\nWhen ATLAS first saw hints of this process in 2017, they had only 13 candidate events with the correct characteristics (collisions that resulted in two low-energy photons inside the detector and nothing else).\n\nAfter another two years of data taking, they have now collected 59 candidate events, bumping this original observation into the statistical certainty of a full-fledged discovery.\n\nSteinberg sees this discovery as a big win for quantum electrodynamics, a theory about the quantum behavior of light that predicted this interaction. “This amazingly precise theory, which was developed in the first half of the 20th century, made a prediction that we are finally able to confirm many decades later.”\n\nSickles says she is looking forward to exploring these kinds of light-by-light interactions and figuring out what else they could teach us about the laws of physics. “It’s one thing to see something,” she says. “It’s another thing to study it.”\n\nSee the full article here .\n\n\nPlease help promote STEM in your local schools.\n\nStem Education Coalition\n\nSymmetry is a joint Fermilab/SLAC publication.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997897148132324}
+{"content": "The Ancient History Of Hypnosis\n\nalcSelf hypnosis sound therapy MP3s.\n\nThe use of hypnosis is as old as humankind itself. As far as can it be traced back through history, we can find evidence of hypnosis being used to heal through out time. Hypnosis has been used down through the centuries, and the use of hypnosis for healing can be traced back to 3000 BC in Egypt. Both the new and old testaments of the Bible speak of what could be hypnosis, and the ancient Greeks and Romans had what were called sleep temples, where those in need of healing would be put into a trance like sleep, then their dreams would be interpreted by the priests. Much of what has been done in the past by the tribal shaman can be attributed to a state of hypnosis, in which the fostering of a strong belief and expectation in the person being healed, effects a magical cure.\n\nIt has long been believed in many healing traditions that the body, thoughts and emotions can influence health and well being. It is possible to influence a physical illness by working on particular emotions, and by changing thoughts and behavior patterns.\n\nThe ancient Romans had a saying, “MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO”, or, “healthy mind in healthy body”.\n\nThis ancient saying confirms that for many thousands or years, it’s been believed that physical and emotional well being effects on one another. The division between body and mind in medicine only took place around 1750, with the scientific developments of Sir Isaac Newton. Since that time, the mind and spirit have been considered under the jurisdiction of the church, and the body under the jurisdiction of science.\n\nTraumatic experiences are not only stored on an emotional level, but also on a physical level. The emotional charge of trauma can influence our immune system, and our general health. By processing old traumas, and the emotional charge connected to a certain conditions, it is possible to find the inner resources that could help us begin the healing process.\n\nModern hypnosis began with Anton Mesmer in the 18th Century. After studying as a Jesuit priest, Mesmer became a graduate from a famed medical school in Vienna. Mesmer became interested in magnetism, and eventually became Europe’s foremost expert at magnetic healing, wherein magnets where passed over the body, to effect a healing. Mesmer believed all living things contained a type of magnetic ‘fluid’, and if someone had enough of this fluid, they would be healthy. Mesmer’s practice is where the term ‘Animal Magnetism’ comes from.\n\nOne day, Mesmer forgot his magnets, so he just made passes over the patient with his hands. He was surprised to find that even without the magnetic treatment, they got better. From then on, Mesmer thought he had sufficient magnetic fluid within himself to effect cures. In reality, he was practicing a form of hypnosis.\n\nJames Braid, a Scottish surgeon working in Manchester, coined the terms hypnotism and hypnosis, in 1843. He found that some people could go into a trance if their eyes where fixed on a bright object, like a pocket watch. He believed that a neurological process was involved, and that this process could be very useful, when no organic origin could be found for a person’s disorder.\n\nJames Esdaile (1808-1859) was another Scottish surgeon working in India. He would use the eye fixation technique to prepare a patient for surgery. With slow, sweeping motions, Esdaile would put them into a deep hypnotic sleep, causing full amnesia throughout the body.\n\nJames Braid and James Esdaile where among the first who could be called scientific in their research and use of hypnosis. These pioneering doctors removed hypnosis from the realms of mysticism. Other scientific pioneers include Bernheim, Brewer, Liebeault and Freud. Amongst those individuals who have formed the current view of hypnosis are Erikson, Milton, Ormond McGill, Charles Tebbetts and David Elman.\n\nOrmond McGill was a stage hypnotist, but he fostered the public interest in hypnosis. Charles Tebbetts was involved in stage hypnosis, early in his career. At that time, stage hypnosis would engender a curiousity among the general public, and bring many of those who pioneered the therapeutic use of hypnotherapy through the 20th century.\n\nDavid Elman brought some measure of acceptance to hypnosis from the medical profession, when the Council on Medical Health of the American Medical Association accepted the use of hypnotherapy in 1958.\n\nProbably the most important contributor to the practice of hypnotherapy was Dr. Milton Erikson. Dr. Erikson was a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist, with outstanding professional credentials. Because of his solid medical background, he had credibility within the medical profession. Others worthy of note for their contribution to the advancement of hypnotherapy are: Menninger, Rosen, Abramson, Shenek, Bordeaux, Magonet, Wolberg, LeCron, Wetzenhoffer, Erwin and Simonton, who continues to do amazing work with cancer patients, using mental imagery, and focusing on belief systems.\n\nWhat is Hypnotherapy\n\nHypnotherapy is the application of psychological therapy during a state of hypnosis, to change or modify behavior patterns, such as compulsions to smoke, gamble, drink etc. Hypnotherapy can help in the reduction of phobias, such as a fear of flying. It can help with motivation, self confidence, stress reduction and pain control.\n\nHypnotherapy can deal with psychosomatic problems; that is, problems that are rooted in and controlled by the subconscious mind. Hypnotherapy can bypass the conscious mind, allowing positive, life affirming suggestions for change, to be fed to the subconscious mind directly, to be acted upon. Hypnotic suggestions have a cumulative effect, over time, there is a build up of reinforcment in the subconscious, that it will act upon by the conscious mind.\n\nHypnoanalysis is used to initially find the event or events that are at the root of a problem, and release the emotions associated with them, freeing the individual from an outdated and obsolete thought pattern or conditioning. Following this discovery, hypnotic suggestions are used to build on the desire for change, and to strengthen and support movement into a positive future.\n\nHypnotherapy can empower you to take control of your inner resources, to bring about the changes you want. You are always in control during hypnosis, and the hypnotherapist cannot make you do anything against your will. With a little work a hypnotherapist and a client who wishes to make changes, and is truly motivated to, will be able to achieve success about 95% of the time.\n\nWho can be hypnotized? Virtually everyone can be hypnotized, if they have a good hypnotherapist, and wish to cooperate in order to work on the problems in their lives.\n\nWhat does hypnosis feel like? It feels different to everyone, but it could be explained as a relaxed easy feeling, and a heightened state of awareness. Some people may be prone to drift away, just like day-dreaming, or you might be concentrating on your therapist’s voice.\n\nHypnotherapy can help to address many problems including:\n\nFear of Flying\nFear of Crowds\nLack of Confidence\nStress and Anxiety\nLow Self Esteem\nPanic Attacks\nTest Anxiety\nSmoking Cessation\nWeight Loss\n\nHypnotherapy is not magic but it sometimes it seems magical!\n\nSelf hypnosis sound therapy MP3s.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8349510431289673}
+{"content": "Find Experts\nExpert Bio\n\nPrimary Area of Expertise\n\n\nExpert Witness Profile\n\nDr. Reddy is a Board-certified psychiatrist in New York City with twelve years’ experience in the field of psychiatry. She has extensive experience as an expert witness having worked in Manhattan Psychiatric Center, in the civil and forensic system. She also has additional Psychodynamic training, covering areas of personality and personality disorder. Her areas of expertise include integrative psychiatry, and has participated in research studies in PTSD and HIV psychiatry. Her areas of expertise include detailed chart reviews, evaluation for capacity, treatment over objection, involuntary retention, violence risk assessment, suicide risk assessment, evaluation for fitness to stand trial and psychopharmacology. Dr. Reddy states that being an expert witness involves differentiating the subjective and the objective, while extracting and presenting relevant facts to support diagnosis, clinical opinion and treatment plans.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998977780342102}
+{"content": "“President Milo Djukanovic awarded Ambassador of the United States of America,Margaret Ann Uyehara, the second rank of the Montenegrin flag, for her services, as well as a remarkable contribution to the improvement of relations between the two countries during her diplomatic mandate in Montenegro.\n\nFrom the cabinet of the President it was announced that Djukanovic received Uyehara in a farewell visit, expressed his great respect for her engagement during his stay in Montenegro and thanked her for her dedication to the further development of the ties between Montenegro and the United States that had friendly and partnership relations. ” (translated from Vijesti)\n\n“Montenegro and the United States are linked to lasting friendship and partnership, said Prime Minister Dusko Markovic during US Ambassador Margaret Ann Uyehara’s farewell visit with.\n\nMarkovic received today Uehara in a farewell visit and assessed that during her mandate Montenegro achieved one of its strategic goals – NATO membership.” (translated from Vijesti)\n\n“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will stay in Montenegro tomorrow morning and tomorrow. Orban will meet with Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and President Milo Djukanovic.\n\nOrban tomorrow, after the invitation of Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, arrives on a two-day official visit to Montenegro. After the solemn welcome, with the highest state honors, the presidents of the government will, as foreseen, talk in four eyes on Tuesday morning.” (translated from RTCG)\n\n“Imagine a country so small that the whole ski-in-the-morning, beach-in-the-afternoon thing is feasible. That’s Montenegro, a country on the Balkan Peninsula, full of natural wonders and beauty and where people are known for their candor, enthusiasm and hospitality.\n\nBut when the leader of the democratic free world, Donald Trump, throws our country, into the chaotic news cycle — or under the bus — by calling us “very aggressive” people, we have to stand up for ourselves.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.986739456653595}
+{"content": "After the Battle of Winterfell, it's possible the chopping block might be empty for the week.\nChoosing a random episode with the click of a button makes it easier to passively watch TV forever.\nJustin Goldsmith joins the show to discuss all things Game of Thrones ahead of the Season 8 premiere on Sunday night.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7057768702507019}
+{"content": "Gulf tensions rise as US downs Iranian drone | 2019-07-20\n\nGulf tensions rise as US downs Iranian drone\n\n19th July, 2019 10:18:01 printer\n\nWASHINGTON: Tensions in the Gulf region mounted Friday as Washington said an Iranian drone was destroyed after threatening an American naval vessel at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz, reports AFP.\n\nIt was believed to be the first US military engagement with Iran following a series of increasingly serious incidents.\n\nThe USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, “took defensive action” against the Iranian drone on Thursday to “ensure the safety of the ship and its crew,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said.\n\nThe drone was “immediately destroyed” after it approached within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of the Boxer, US President Donald Trump told reporters.\n\n“This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran, against vessels operating in international waters,” he added.\n\n\nBut Iran denied losing any drones.\n\nArmed forces spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi described Trump’s statement as “baseless and delusional claims,” according to the Tasnim news agency.\n\n“There have been no reports of a confrontation with the American USS Boxer,” he was quoted as saying by Tasnim.\n\nDeputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted: “I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own (drone) by mistake!”\n\nThe apparent confrontation came as Iran defended its detention Sunday of a “foreign tanker” believed to be the Panamanian-flagged vessel Riah and its 12 crew for allegedly smuggling fuel. “The vessel was en route to deliver contraband fuel received from Iranian boats to foreign ships in farther regions when it was intercepted,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on its Sepah News website.\n\nThe incident comes after a series of low-level attacks in the region blamed on Tehran’s forces, including placing limpet mines on several tankers and actions by what Washington calls Iranian proxies in Syria and Yemen.\n\nIn May, the Pentagon announced the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to waters near Iran in response to “indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces.”\n\nTehran downed an American surveillance drone in June, prompting Trump to order air strikes against Iran. But he called them off at the last minute, saying the plan was not “proportionate” and casualties would have been too high.\n\nOn July 4, Britain seized a fully loaded Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, allegedly headed for Syria in violation of sanctions.\n\nIran furiously branded the seizure “piracy, and one week later, armed Iranian boats menaced a British tanker in the Gulf before they were driven off by a Royal Navy frigate.\n\nThat led to US calls for an international flotilla to escort hydrocarbon-laden vessels from Gulf oil fields through the Hormuz Strait.\n\nUS Central Command chief Kenneth McKenzie pledged Thursday to work “aggressively” with partners to ensure freedom of navigation in Gulf waters.\n\nThe incidents have raised fears of a regional conflict involving the US and its allies in the Gulf region, through which nearly a third of the world’s oil is transported.\n\nIt comes amid a threatened breakdown of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, with Washington steadily ratcheting up economically debilitating sanctions on Tehran a year after unilaterally quitting the deal.\n\nEarlier this month, Tehran purposely surpassed the deal’s caps on uranium enrichment, aiming to pressure the other parties—France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia—to break with the US sanctions escalation and defend the economic benefits Iran was promised for agreeing to drastic limitations on its nuclear program. On Wednesday at the United Nations in New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused Washington of waging “economic terrorism.”\n\nWashington nevertheless announced fresh sanctions Thursday on what it called a “network” of companies in Iran, Belgium and China supplying crucial materials to Tehran’s enrichment program.\n\nYet both sides kept open the possibility of talks.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5341404676437378}
+{"content": "Antique Vintage 04\n\n\nWinnifred Cornelita Gilling\n\nAugust 1, 1919 ~ July 31, 2019 (age 99)\n\nWinniefred Cornelita Gilling was born on August 1, 1919 in Mandeville, Jamaica, West Indies. As a child she lived with her grandparents George and Frances Marshall.\n\nIn 1952 Winniefred immigrated to the United States and joined her father Rufus C. Gilling in New York City. She took various jobs and retired from NATIONAL CLEANING COMPANY in 1991 after twenty-two years of employment. She is survived by her children: Beatrice, Linda and Rabdu; grandsons: Shanean Gilling and Jason Raynor; nephews, nieces and many cousins. As a result of her kindheartedness and love for children, in 1989 she adopted Linda and Rabdu Gilling.\n\nOne of her favorite sayings was “Why should I frown and have wrinkles when I can smile and have dimples”. An example of her positive attitude and zeal for life. She will be missed by family and friends in England, the United States and Jamaica.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.632903516292572}
+{"content": "BOISE, Idaho — A pair of tiny gliding opossums native to Australia and New Guinea are looking for a new home after they were surrendered to the Idaho Humane Society.\n\nSugar gliders, which can float through the air much like flying squirrels, are popular in the U.S. as exotic pets. In the wild, the creatures live their entire lives in trees, and get their name from the sweet nectar and tree sap they seek out as food. \n\nThe gliders turned in to Idaho Humane are both male, and are a bonded pair, according to the shelter. \n\nBecause of their highly specialized diet, the sugar gliders have been turned over to the Guinea Pig & Friends Sanctuary for care until they can be adopted.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9799424409866333}
+{"content": "See What Happens To Your Body When You Sleep With Socks On\n\nAs strange as it might seem, sleeping with socks on may aid getting to sleep faster. This is because temperature regulation is a necessary part of the sleep cycle. Sleep is a vital part of everyone's life. After all, humans spend around a third of their days sleeping.\nMost people have difficulty getting to sleep from time to time. One trick they may not have tried is sleeping with their socks on. watch on to find out more about the benefits and risks of sleeping with socks-on.\nIt may seem like wearing socks in bed would overheat the feet. But, in reality, this habit might assist the body's internal temperature regulation.\nA study from 2007 reported that adults who wore either normal or heated socks in bed got to sleep-faster.\nThis is because a person's core body temperature drops during the night, reaching the lowest temperature around 4 a.m. The average body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but this varies by 1 to 2 degrees over the course of 24-hours.\nWarming up the feet and hands makes the blood vessels dilate, a response that is called vasodilation. This releases heat through the skin and helps to lower core body temperature. This, in turn, sends a message to the brain that it is bedtime. Research suggests that warm skin is associated with getting to sleep faster.\nWhen someone begins to fall-asleep, the temperature of their body decreases by 1 to 2 degrees. This could be because the body is conserving energy for other functions.\nIf a person sleeps with their socks-on, this may help with their temperature regulation cycles.\nGood temperature regulation in the body is also why it is usually suggested that people keep their bedroom’s cool, somewhere between 60 and 67°F.\nOther benefits of wearing socks in bed are\nPreventing hot flushes\n• a sudden sensation of intense warmth that spreads through the body\n• sweating\n• palpitations\n• flushing of the face\nThis is because hot flashes are thought to be caused by hormonal fluctuations that affect the body's temperature control.\nReducing Raynaud's symptoms\nWearing socks in bed could help reduce symptoms, as well as keeping warm throughout the day. Cursos Cosmética Natural Málaga Talleres Jabones Naturales Málaga\n\nPlease follow and like us:\nFollow by Email78k", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6396534442901611}
+{"content": "Despacho: A Q’ero Gift to the Earth\n\nPrinted in the  Summer  2017  issue of Quest magazine. \nCitation: Pateros, Christina, \"Despacho: A Q’ero Gift to the Earth\" Quest 105:3(Summer 2017) pg. 34-35\n\nThe sacred despacho ritual, a central practice of the Q’ero and Quechua peoples of the Andes, is used to honor Pachamama, Mother Earth, in daily ceremony. By creating a mandala-like bundle or offering, they create a gift to Pachamama and to spirit/creator. The gift is also used to transmit intentions of gratitude, using earth elements as the sacred messengers. It has been said that the paco, or priest, is a sacred chef, mixing ingredients from timeless recipes and creating a living prayer bundle, an act of love that honors a connection to all living beings.\n\nDespacho, “dispatch,” in this sense refers both to the ceremony and the sacred bundle being offered. The traditional despacho ceremony begins with the ethereal practice of creating sacred space. By calling in the helping spirits of the earth, the mountains, the elements, the animal archetypes, the sky, the ancestors, at the start and throughout, the paco sets the stage for support in carrying the prayers to spirit/creator.\n\nOn the physical plane, the despacho begins with laying a paper as the base or foundation in which the bundle will be wrapped, much like a present. This bundle is most typically offered to fire to release the prayers contained within it. In an adapted version, in which the despacho will be offered to water, the base may consist of a sacred cloth or even a dissolvable substance such as seaweed paper or tortilla, food for the waters and the creatures inhabiting them.\n\nTraditionally, three coca leaves form a triad known as the kintu. The kintu is the central ingredient of the despacho. Leaves are believed to accept prayers unconditionally, so kintus are used as messengers of gratitude, intentions, and prayers. It is common practice for the Andean pacos to wear palm-sized kintu pouches, woven of alpaca yarns in the traditional pattern of the sun, around their necks.\n\nIn the simplest form, an offering of gratitude is blown with heart-centered breath into the kintu. That sacred set of leaves may then be carried in the pouch throughout the day and blown into. This humble offering may then be lovingly placed on the earth—under rocks, in water, in sacred stone temples.\n\n\nEach participant in the despacho is given a kintu to blow prayers, wishes, and intentions into. Traditionally, the kintu is handed to the paco so that she may impart her prayers and blessings to the offering. The paco offers her own prayers through a kintu. Often one specific kintu is given to the despacho to represent any forgotten prayers.\n\nSeeds, from native plants like quinoa and corn, represent planting dreams and wishes. The question is posed: what are you growing? We are asked to be conscious of what is contained in our everyday thoughts, since thoughts become our life’s experiences.\n\nSal (salt) is often spread across the paper base as a cleansing element. A seashell is typically placed in the center to honor Mamacocha, Mother of the Waters, or the sea. Red wine is poured to the earth as an offering and as a reminder of her life blood, and white wine is poured as an offering to the mountain spirits (apukuna), whose highest peaks are wrapped in snow, dancing with the clouds in the sky.\n\nGold and silver elements, such as ribbons or metallic fetishes, are also offered, representing the sun (light) and the moon (dark). Beans are included to bring abundance and prosperity, while minerals represent the earth’s food. Fat from around the heart of the llama is included as energy in pure form, helping the despacho to burn. (Butter or coconut oil are excellent Western stand-ins.) Red flowers, traditionally fresh, fragrant carnations, represent the feminine, while white signifies the masculine: woman and man, sacred balance, relationship.\n\nIn pure Q’ero tradition, a sacred llama fetus is placed in the arrangement. The fetus, reclaimed from the animal’s natural cycles, represents unborn, unfulfilled, or dormant aspects of the circle of life.\n\nThe stars and star beings are depicted, often by anise or star-shaped candies. Cotton or white flower petals speak for the clouds and sky. Rainbow colors, often in the form of sand or hand-woven yarns, visually depict the rainbow bridge between this world and the world of spirit. The animal world is honored sweetly with animal crackers, and sweet Pachamama is honored with cacao or chocolate. The honoring of this world’s measure for opportunity is traditionally layered with bills of paper play money, chocolate coins, or chocolate in the form of a frog (a symbol of abundance). Sweetness of life lives in the candies or simple sugar added to the mix. Paper confetti can be liberally sprinkled both on and around the despacho, celebrating life itself. Confetti blessing is extra sweet when sprinkled on the heads of the participants as well.\n\nFinal Blessing\n\nWhen the despacho is complete, all are invited to infuse the offering with love from their hearts by holding their hands over this earth mandala. Hand bells are rung over the despacho. It is then wrapped in a sacred cloth and tied with string. Very often it is used as a vehicle to cleanse each participant’s aura, as the paco deliberately sweeps across the meridians of the bodies, one by one, before it is released on its journey to spirit.\n\nTurning It Over\n\nOne key part of the despacho process lies in the ultimate offering. The sacred chef cues into the energy of the bundle, asking without words if the package will be offered to fire for immediate transmutation; to flowing water, like a river or the sea, for a gentler, slower release; or directly to the earth by being buried, which is the slowest of the vehicles of transmutation. This will often be known at the outset of the ceremony, thus guiding the process.\n\nThree Types\n\nAs each paco is unique, so is each despacho itself. Creativity in depiction and assembly reflects the character of the ceremonial guide, as well as the intentions of the offering and the individual personalities of those partaking.\n\nThree types of despachos reflecting these intentions are ayni, aya, and kuti. Ayni despacho honors and supports right relation to Mother Earth, with deep gratitude. Ayni, or “reciprocity,” the keynote of the Andean way of living, is offered in despacho form with joy and celebration of life.\n\nThe aya despacho honors the dead. It is a ceremony for the deceased soul, supporting the soul’s journey into the afterlife. But this despacho also celebrates life, specifically the life of the one being honored.  Red, green, blue, purple, gold, and white paper, layered  over a black paper base, creates a rainbow offering and forms a bridge for the soul from this earthly world to the shamanic upper world, where the soul thrives with the stars.\n\nThe kuti despacho is created for the removal of obstacles, such as clearing away the effects of sorcery or malign intent. Again, the base is traditionally black, with the intent of clearing, cleansing, restoring, and forgiving. Spices may be added to this bundle for heat. One foot of the participant(s) may be placed on the blessed and folded bundle at the end of the ceremony to deepen the power of the physical and energetic release. Most often, the kuti despacho is burned in a sacred fire ceremony, releasing all attachments cleanly and quickly.\n\nThe despacho ceremony is used to honor milestones of life: births and birthdays; marriage unions; holidays; new years, solstices, and equinoxes; new moons and full moons. The earthkeepers of the Andes teach us that any process can be supported with ceremony, which invites the quieting of the mind and the opening of the heart to speak and lead. This is the language of the soul. Thus the practice of the sacred despacho offers the message of gratitude to Pachamama, our mother and our home, and to the unseen worlds, in a way that goes beyond words.  \n\nChristina Pateros\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9605454802513123}
+{"content": "Mathematics:  From Concrete to Conceptual\n\nDuring the years from kindergarten to eighth grade, students must repeatedly extend their conception of number. At first, “number” means “counting number”: 1, 2, 3, … Soon after that, 0 is used to represent “none” and the whole numbers are formed by the counting numbers together with zero. The next extension is fractions. At first, fractions are barely numbers and tied strongly to pictorial representations. Yet by the time students understand division of fractions, they have a strong concept of fractions as numbers and have connected them, via their decimal representations, with the base-ten system used to represent the whole numbers. During middle school, fractions are augmented by negative fractions to form the rational numbers. In Grade 8, students extend this system once more, augmenting the rational numbers with the irrational numbers to form the real numbers. In high school, students will be exposed to yet another extension of number, when the real numbers are augmented by the imaginary numbers to form the complex numbers.\n\nPlease click on the links below to access unit plans and YAG's.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9160838723182678}
+{"content": "Green Army Green Army Green Army\n\nWhy are fruit flies attracted to the indoors?\n\nFruit flies are internally hard-wired to detect decaying or rotting fruit and vegetables.  The fruit bowl on your dining room table may not have fruit flies swarming today but you can guarantee that there are many just outside your home waiting for a way inside.  Due to their minute size, fruit flies can enter a house easily through crevices, cracks, windows, window screens, and doors.  Upon entering your home, the fruit flies begin to mate and multiply while feasting on your fermenting fruits and vegetables.\n\nIn fact, a fruit fly can enter your home atop your produce fresh from the grocery store or garden.  Fruit flies lay eggs on the skins of ripening fruit and vegetables; thus, those bananas may already harbor the next generation of fruit flies.  Fruit flies multiply quickly as they have a life cycle of only eight days.  A ripening tomato still on the vine may also be growing a pesky fruit fly population that will swarm about unforgiving.\n\nUnfortunately, fruit flies do not require fruit or vegetable to survive and mate.  Fruit flies can reproduce on an old mop or sponge or in the slime layer of stagnant water.  These tiny nuisances multiply quickly and can be tough to get rid of.\n\nFor more information about Green Army, visit Follow Green Army’s news on Facebook and Twitter.\n\n, , ,\n\n); ?>", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9545129537582397}
+{"content": "Masera, Pedro (1877- 1938)\n\nA short biography of the Spanish anarchist miner Pedro Masera, murdered by the Francoists in 1938\n\nDrumheller coal mining strike of 1919\n\nDrumheller strikers, 1919\n\nA short history of a strike by coal miners organised in the syndicalist One Big Union in Alberta which was repressed by bosses and the state.\n\nBirmingham district coal strike of 1908\n\nBirmingham coalminers\n\nA short history of the multiracial coal miners' strikes in Birmingham, Alabama, in the early 20th century which were violently repressed by mine owners and the state.\n\nThe Stockade Stood Burning: rebellion and the convict lease in Tennessee’s coalfields, 1891-1895\n\nSomething happened in Tennessee, something almost unimaginable to the mine owners and politicians of that\nstate. When the companies tried to intimidate their workers by bringing in convict labor to take over their jobs, the workers responded by storming the stockades, freeing the prisoners, and loading them onto freight trains bound for Nashville and Knoxville and places far away...The Tennessee convict war was one of the largest insurrections in American working-class history. And yet, unfolding at exactly the same time as the more publicized labor wars in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, it was largely ignored.\n\nA short history of colonialism in Congo, 1885-1997\n\nA missionary with a child whose hand had been severed\n\nA very short overview of Belgian, and latterly US, imperialism in Congo, written by Marty Jezer in 2001.\n\nThe Coal Miners’ General Strike of 1949-50 and the Birth of Marxist-Humanism in the U.S.\n\nWritten by Andy Philips with a foreword by Raya Dunayevska this gives an overview of the 1949-1950 US coal strike by a participant.\n\nThe French Miners Strike of 1948: Some Scraps of history\n\nWhat little information I've managed to dig up on what seems to have been an important struggle in post war France.\n\nThe Spanish anarchists of Merthyr in the early 20th century (video)\n\nVideo of a talk by James Yeoman on migrant Spanish anarchists living and working in the Welsh valleys in the early 20th century.\n\nThe UK coalminers’ dispute, 1973-4\n\nMiners picket a colliery in Doncaster, 1974\n\nA short account of the national coal miners’ dispute in the winter of 1973-4 which led to the three-day week, the collapse of the Conservative government and a 35% pay increase for the miners.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5900979042053223}
+{"content": "Definitions for \"Precedence\"\nThe act or state of preceding or going before in order of time; priority; as, one event has precedence of another.\nThe established system of priorities of trades in an exchange. For example, the highest bid and lowest offer have highest precedence; the first bid or first offer at a price has highest priority, and large orders have priority over smaller orders.\nThe order of preference among established names, used to select the accepted name from among them. In general, precedence is based on the date of establishment, with earlier-established names having precedence over later ones, but later-established names may be conserved over earlier ones.\nPrecedence is a solitaire card game which uses two decks of playing cards. It is a building game where the playing does not have to worry about a tableau or playing area. In the book 100 Solitaire Games by Sloane Lee and Gabriel Packard, it is known under the name Downing Street.\nThe act or state of going or being before in rank or dignity, or the place of honor; right to a more honorable place; superior rank; as, barons have precedence of commoners.\nKeywords:  precompute, precious, metals\nPrecious metals Precompute\nKeywords:  otob, task, started, complete, first\nWhen one task must be complete d before another task can be started, the first task is said to have precedence over the other. [D01228] OTOB 73", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9968841075897217}
+{"content": "OVO Grabczewscy Architekci agency has designed the structure of Museum of fire located in Poland. For that they illustrate in a conceptual way the idea of fire. Polygonal and angular, the museum’s architecture is composed by huge copper panels. Through contact with lights, it produce a sparkle reflect, shining like fire. To discover below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9815463423728943}
+{"content": "Scholarship master thesis abstract\n\nThey must be a citizen, national or legal permanent resident of the United States and have attained a cumulative high school GPA of 3. If you are probably not the behavioral sciences. Is the candidate sufficiently capable of researching the theme?\n\nBuild your relationship on academic interest, not on you begging for free school. Is the research topic appropriate to the area of study? A PhD candidate is supposed to accomplish extensive research work to fulfill the dissertation requirements with international publications being a mandatory requirement.\n\nOthers commented on how various beasts dogs, chickens, spiders, cats demonstrated high structural invariance during adulthood and even a majority of ethnic separation, cobb and glass found that childhood socioeconomic status in order with supporting evidence, possibly even leading them to want from me.\n\nTake your time and be thoughtful.\n\n\nThe Director may be involved with regular supervision along with the other supervisors, or may have more of an oversight role, with the other supervisors taking on the more day-to-day responsibilities of supervision. Prospective applicants should check the official website for details regarding the application deadline of any given year.\n\nTips for Abstract and Keywords\n\nDoes the candidate have a high level of technical skill and knowledge to pursue the research? Understanding of the question: Presented at the beginning of the thesis, it is likely the first substantive description of your work read by an external examiner. Successful applicants will have a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.\n\nNow highlight the outcomes of your thesis. The nature and history plays. The application form has changed significantly from previous years. One or more members of the jury or the thesis supervisor will make the decision on the acceptability of revisions and provide written confirmation that they have been satisfactorily completed.\n\nIn christoph kodron eds. An undergraduate thesis is completed in the final year of the degree alongside existing seminar lecture or laboratory courses, and is often divided into two presentations: Malaysia[ edit ] Malaysian universities often follow the British model for dissertations and degrees.\n\nUhrig, and application deadlines. Prospective applicants should check the website for further information regarding application deadlines. After a short stay in his home country November —FebruaryCioran never returned again.\n\nDoes the candidate have definite awareness of the question?\n\nThesis Abstract Usm\n\nThe scholarship provides funding and mentoring to minority physics students, helping them enhance their education and for successfully prepare for a variety of careers. What impact do you plan to make with the results of your research and degree? Pakistan[ edit ] In Pakistan, at undergraduate level the thesis is usually called final year project, as it is completed in the senior year of the degree, the name project usually implies that the work carried out is less extensive than a thesis and bears lesser credit hours too.\n\nSome older house styles specify that front matter title page, abstract, table of content, etc. India[ edit ] In India the thesis defense is called a viva voce Latin for \"by live voice\" examination viva in short.\n\nIs the candidate able to express a unique visual sense? This project is later to be presented in front of an academic panel, often the entire faculty of an academic department, with their recommendations contributing to the acceptance, revision, or rejection of the initial topic.\n\nIn order to apply, students must be nominated by their undergraduate institution. Each scholarship covers tuition and college fees in full, plus a generous grant for living expenses. Art Science Why does the candidate wish to attend this department? Selection for the fellowship is based upon academic performance, character, financial need, and a willingness to continue a career in a field related to electrical energy.\n\nEligible applicants must be affiliated with an accredited graduate program, and preference is given to members of the Soil and Water Conservation Society. In teams, there will often be a Director of Studies, usually someone with broader experience perhaps having passed some threshold of successful supervisions.\n\nHow to write a good thesis abstract?\n\nHenry, and application deadlines. The word dissertation in French is reserved for shorter 1,—2, wordsmore generic academic treatises.We've ranked the best master’s degrees in the fields by looking student satisfaction, return on investment, and institutional excellence, with data from U.S.\n\nNews and World Report, Payscale, IPEDS, and college websites. The economy gets tough on occasion. When it does, many adults choose to return to school alongside graduating high school seniors. Both types of students enter higher education for one purpose: to better their chances of getting a job that will help them through the hard times, or to get their dream job they have wanted to do for most of their lives.\n\nA comprehensive, coeducational Catholic High school Diocese of Wollongong - Albion Park Act Justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God Micah Online custom essays, term papers, research papers, reports, reviews and homework assignments. Professional custom writing service offers high quality and absolutely plagiarism free academic papers.\n\nAffordable prices and written from scratch by highly qualified academic writers. Here are the first things you need to know if you're just starting to apply for the MEXT Scholarship.\n\nPainting, Sculpture, Ceramic, Glass & Metal Works, Design, and Scenography Design, Drama & Dance Majors Applicants will be screened on the basis of a comprehensive assessment of submitted works (may submit thesis for Integrated Design Course only), an essay, an interview (only the Environmental Design Course includes a simple practical test), and submitted documents.\n\nScholarship master thesis abstract\nRated 4/5 based on 13 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9975230693817139}
+{"content": "  Echoes & Reflections Connect | Echoes & Reflections\nThanks for visiting!\n\n\n\n\n\nIs it possible to teach respect for racial and religious differences?\n\nView more +\n\nThis is a question I hear a lot from teachers who are committed to social justice but frustrated by mounting evidence of blunt and sometimes deadly prejudice. ADL recently confirmed that since 2016 antisemitism has dramatically increased in the U.S. and abroad. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC) reports, “a surge of incidents involving racial slurs and symbols, bigotry and the harassment of minority children in the nation’s schools.”\n\nIt’s a fair question, and a rational one. Does classroom instruction on racial and religious tolerance make any difference at a time when intolerance is on the rise?\n\nIt does, and scholars have documented that studying the Holocaust and racial equality cultivates respect for diversity and fortifies democratic ideals. Teaching about the Holocaust is one of the most powerful ways to help young people understand the dangers of unchecked biases, and how, even in modern, democratic societies, these biases can escalate to catastrophic proportions.\n\nIn fact, the nation’s first program of anti-bias education was developed during World War II to “inoculate” American youth against Nazism. As one teacher insisted in 1941, “The most vital program of our country today and one, therefore, especially important to our schools is the promotion of the doctrine of tolerance as a means of knitting our nation into one closely integrated unit.” Scholars including the anthropologists Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead developed K-12 curricula—including comic books and animated films—designed to teach students that Judaism was a religion, not a race, and that there was no such thing as racial superiority.\n\nFigure 1 An image from The Races of Mankind, by anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish, in 1944. Anthropologists during World War II believed that teaching the scientific definition of race would undermine Nazi racial doctrines and fortify American democracy.\n\nTimes of crisis, like World War II, force educators and politicians to recognize that unchecked bias is a direct threat to American democracy. That is why antiracist education became so popular during World War II, as I document in my book, Color in the Classroom: How American Schools Taught Race, 1900-1954.\n\nIt’s also why anti-bias education is such a hot topic today. Anti-bias education is designed to address prejudices including racial, religious, ethnic, gender, sexuality, social class, and immigration status. Teaching young people to identify and resist biased attitudes usually includes a study of historical events where small prejudices grew into acts of discrimination, which, in some cases, escalated into state-sponsored violence and genocide. The Pyramid of Hate found in Echoes & Reflections offers students a graphic representation of this danger.\n\nAs the Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Project at Montclair State University (MSU), I have seen interest in our anti-bias programs surge since 2016. Our Holocaust education workshops fill up with a diverse group of people including not only K-12 teachers, but also school administrators and college students. Other human rights programs such as Native American environmental justice and support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGTBQ) students are also popular. Educators are ready to teach lessons emphasizing respect for diversity and equality—what they need is more support.\n\nThis is where higher education has a vital role to play. American colleges and universities can support stronger and more robust anti-bias education in our K-12 schools. The question is, how?\n\nFirst, universities can host professional development workshops such as Echoes & Reflections for K-12 educators and student teachers, including alumni. These workshops offer hands-on training in how to teach about the Holocaust—a topic that many K-12 teachers are nervous or unprepared to talk about. Participants gain access to online teaching materials including primary historical documents, photographs, interactive maps, and survivor testimony and are provided with models of how to incorporate these texts into effective lessons. Special thematic workshops on topics like antisemitism or immigration help teachers make direct connections between the Holocaust and current events. At MSU, we find that blended workshops with K-12 educators and student teachers create especially dynamic spaces. What is more, when a prominent university hosts a social justice education workshop for local teachers, it signifies to the broader public scholarly support for anti-bias education.\n\nSecond, scholars and university administrators can advocate for legislation requiring anti-bias education in public schools. New Jersey is a leader in this area. In 1994 state legislators mandated education on the Holocaust and genocide. Earlier this spring, New Jersey passed a law requiring instruction on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender social, political, and economic contributions. These laws provide critical support for anti-bias education in public schools, especially in communities where such lessons may be seen as controversial. In New Jersey, teachers can point to state law and continue the hard work of teaching children to understand and respect one another’s differences. The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education coordinates anti-bias education through a network of centers located the state’s public and private colleges and universities. Despite New Jersey’s success as a leader in anti-bias education, few other states have similar structures in place. If more states required and supported anti-bias education, it would expand training, resources, and support for K-12 teachers.\n\nFigure 2 A Human Rights Education Intern at Montclair State University teaches about the Syrian refugee crisis to local middle school students.\n\nThird, universities can mobilize our greatest resource to promote anti-bias education—our amazing students. MSU hosts a Human Rights Education Internship, where undergraduate students can apply to train as professional human rights educators. Interns select a specific human rights issue and spend a semester learning about human rights law, researching their selected topic, developing an effective lesson on it for a secondary school audience, and then teaching it in a local school. This spring we hosted a “Human Rights University for a Day” at Montclair High School, where interns taught lessons on Holocaust denial, the gender wage gap, juvenile incarceration, school segregation, religious tolerance, the Central American refugee crisis, the healthcare crisis in Venezuela, child labor, and colorism. The internship serves two purposes—first, it allows undergraduate students to train as human rights educators, skills they will carry with them into their future professions. Second, the internship sends undergraduate students as human rights education ambassadors into local public schools, where they not only teach about important subjects that are not necessarily part of the regular curriculum, but where they also model what it looks like to be an engaged, socially conscious college student. Put plainly, human rights education interns inspire youth to go to college! The results are inspiring for both our interns and the high school students they meet, and help our university forge new relationships with our local community.\n\nIs it possible to teach respect for racial and religious differences in K-12 schools? The answer is yes, but our teachers need more help and American colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to provide it.\n\nAbout the Author: Dr. Zoë Burkholder is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University, where she serves as Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Project (On Facebook: @MSUHumanRights). She is the author of Color in the Classroom: How American Schools Taught Race, 1900-1954 (Oxford University Press, 2011). She may be contacted at burkholderz@montclair.edu\n\nFacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link\n\nClose -\n\n\n\n\nAs we enter Genocide Awareness month in April, we offer our community an inside perspective on how to approach the important, yet challenging subject of the Holocaust in the classroom. Seasoned Echoes & Reflections teacher Lori Fulton, English 11 & Technical Reading and Writing instructor at Mattawan High School in Mattawan, MI, lends her perspective and approach to inspire students with these lessons from history to prevent future acts of hate.\n\nView more +\n\n\nWhy do you feel it is necessary to teach about the Holocaust?  \n\nTeaching students about the Holocaust should be the responsibility of instructors in all secondary schools.  As a high school English teacher, I am amazed at how little my students know about this subject.  Sure, they know a little about Hitler and gas chambers, but they have no idea how the Versailles Treaty connects to the Nazis, most of my juniors assume all the death camps were in Germany, and none are aware of the 10 Stages leading to genocide.\n\nMore importantly, the Holocaust requires studying to prevent genocide from happening again.  We are raising a generation of students who will one day rule the world. They are subjected to the constant noise of social media, which unfortunately at times, is accompanied by hate speech.  They all have a sort of cyber-courage that makes them vulnerable to saying things online they would never say to anyone in person.  As a result, there is almost a sense of acceptance of anything online.  With that potentially comes the notion of denying the Holocaust, something that must be addressed as wrong and dangerous.\n\nWe live in a world where words breed hate, not just on the internet but from the mouths of our politicians.  We see vandals desecrating Jewish cemeteries and tagging buildings with swastikas, as well as Americans in parades wearing Nazi-like uniforms; we hear of news of a person going into a synagogue and killing innocent worshippers.    Our students see and hear all of this and need to know that hate didn't end or begin with the events of World War II.\n\nWhy should I teach the Holocaust?  If I don't, who will?  Who will provide students with the resources, the knowledge, and the ability to help them make up their own minds about that horrific time in world history? It is my duty and my desire to help students realize genocide can happen again and, as the next generation of Americans, they must do everything in their power to stop it.\n\nWhat are some recommended strategies for teaching such a sensitive theme? How do you approach this important yet complex topic with your students?\n\nWe must approach the subject of the Holocaust with students in a sensitive manner to help them understand, remember, and hopefully eliminate future genocides.  This means sharing the stories of those who faced life-and-death situations simply because of who they were.  We cannot replicate their experiences through simulations, but we can learn from the experiences of others.\n\nI start by introducing the idea of antisemitism.  From there, we study pre-war Jewry, the Treaty of Versailles, then how Hitler rose to power, steps leading to genocide, the Final Solution, resistance, liberation, and what happened to European Jews following WWII.\n\nFurthermore, personal stories are essential ingredients in the teaching of the Holocaust. The testimonies on the Echoes & Reflection's website and USC Shoah Foundations’ IWitness powerfully say what I cannot say.\n\nHolocaust Films, as well as literature, are also great tools to reel in my students.  Most of them are visual learners, so having new resources available to meet their learning styles is important to teach this complex subject.\n\nI have traditionally shown Schindler’s List when teaching about the HolocaustI cannot think of a better movie for my juniors to really set the stage for deeper learning and truly connecting to the story of Schindler and the Jews he saved.  We discuss many questions that arise from the film:  Who else is considered  “Righteous Among the Nations” in the eyes of Yad Vashem--and what does that mean?  What would have happened if Schindler's ultimate objective to save Jews was discovered?  What happened to the survivors after liberation?  Would I have the courage to save someone if it meant my possible death?\n\nFinally, I take my juniors to the Holocaust Memorial Center and Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan.  For some of them, they have never been much farther than the next town over.  A docent takes us through the museum to study the artifacts, as well as (again) the stories of individuals.  This comes to the penultimate point of the unit where a survivor speaks to my students about his or her experience.  This is life-changing for my students.  Many are in tears by the end of the survivor's story.\n\nIf students are emotionally drawn into this experience, I feel I've done my job.  They have seen a bigger picture of the Holocaust and genocide than they have ever seen before.  History has come alive for them, but more importantly, they have come full circle in their learning experience.  Most of my students will say the unit is the one they will never forget and graduates who return to visit express similar sentiments.\n\nWhat specific resources would you especially like to highlight that support you in teaching about the Holocaust?\n\nAfter spending several weeks last summer in Jerusalem as part of Echoes & Reflections Advanced Learning Seminar at Yad Vashem, I have gained deeper insight into resources that can support classroom instruction on the Holocaust. These include:\n\n  • Echoes & Reflections’ new timeline helps show the events leading up to when the Nazis came to power, as well as what happened as a result of it.\n  • Echoes & Reflections’ companion resource for Schindler's List, which includes survivor testimony, new handouts on historical context, and a series of discussion questions and writing prompts add to the unit and unpacking the film.\n\nNothing, however, is more important than the testimonies of survivors as far as I'm concerned.  Their recollections bring a perspective nothing else can-- not books, not films, not internet sources.  The pathos of survivors’ experiences motivates my students to keep learning. Overall, the resources available from Echoes & Reflections and their Partners help enhance my unit on the Holocaust and genocide, making it relevant and inspiring to my high school juniors.\n\nFacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link\n\nClose -\n\n\n\n\nWhat do we, as Holocaust educators, seek to do? It’s a question with which I continuously grapple. It is impossible to deny that much of this history showcases the most devastating and bleakest views of humanity. Yet, despite this heart-breaking reality, as educators, we understand the critical importance of teaching our students the consequences of allowing antisemitism and other forms of bias and hate to pervade a society. From this realization, another equally vital question emerges: How do we best teach this history?\n\nView more +\n\nThe horrors of the Holocaust are undeniable, and though they must be taught, it is imperative that students are able to understand the material in a way that inspires them to engage positively with their communities to ensure that the past does not repeat. Art can act as an excellent gateway for students to effectively connect to the lessons of this history. Art raises questions seldom addressed when dealing with a historical subject. Art elevates viewpoints to a whole different level, which traditional historical approaches alone cannot inspire. While there are many types of art mediums from the Holocaust, poetry in particular is an excellent way to engage students. Poetry highlights an individual’s voice. This allows the reader to more fully empathize with the author’s experience and inspires both personal reflection and a greater understanding of the subject matter. Essentially, Holocaust poems are the whispers and cries from a dark past that we must bring to light.\n\nA poem I often recommend educators introduce into the classroom is Five, by Hanuš Hachenberg, a Jewish boy from Prague who wrote these words in 1943 when he was 13 years old.\n\n\nThis morning at seven so bright and so early\n\nFive novels lay there, sewn up in a sack\n\nSewn up in a sack, like all of our lives\n\nThey lay there so silent, so silent, all five.\n\n\nFive books that flung back the curtain of silence\n\nCalling for freedom and not for the world\n\nThey’re somebody’s novels, somebody who loves them...\n\n\nThey call out now, they cried, they shed tears and they pleaded\n\nThat they hadn’t been finished, the pitiful five.\n\n\nThey declared to the world that the state trades in bodies,\n\nAnd slowly they vanished and went out of sight\n\nThey kept their eyes open, they looked for the world\n\nBut nothing they found, they were silent, all five.\n\n-Hanuš Hachenburg\n\nHanuš wrote this poem and others, for Vedem (“We Lead”) - a clandestine magazine produced by Jewish teenage boys imprisoned in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. There, amidst their crushing reality of ever-present death and disease, horrific overcrowding and hunger, living in constant fear of transports “to the east”, Hanuš and the boys of his dormitory performed an incredible act of resistance: they created. They secretly wrote stories, poems, jokes, and essays. They illustrated comics and drew fantasy drawings. They wrote bitterly about the inhumane prison they were forced to endure while trying to make sense of the hatred that had engulfed their lives.  Mourning their lost childhoods, they still dared to hope that the world they knew would one day be restored. They cautiously dreamed of a brighter future.  They remained determined to retain their human dignity in a world that had betrayed them, and their magazine was a means to that end.\n\nAlmost of all the young contributors to Vedem were murdered in Auschwitz and other death camps. Of the 7,590 children deported eastward from Theresienstadt, a mere 142 survived to be liberated. Of Hanuš, all that remains behind to show that a person of such sensitivity and brilliance ever existed are his beautiful Vedem poems and writings and a few black and white sketches. Not one photograph of this young man survives. We know almost nothing of his early life, except that it probably wasn’t a very happy one — following his parents’ divorce Hanuš spent 5 lonely years in an orphanage. The few people who remember Hanuš can only tell us that he was a frail, thin child with very dark and expressive eyes. Even in death he left nothing tangible behind. We will never have the solace of putting a memorial rock on his tombstone, running our fingers lovingly over the name engraved on its surface, sanctifying it with our tears. Auschwitz is his grave, and his poem Five is his epitaph.\n\nFor me, Hanuš lives on in his poetry, and its power to move us. His maturity, sensitivity, and brilliance are almost palpable in each line that he writes. Reading the poems of Hanuš, I am overwhelmed by a deep sense of loss. And anger. And yet, his poetry offers us a conduit to connect students to his inner world, to give voice to his fear and despair, his anger, his hope, and his dread of being forgotten. It is a towering testimony to his humanity and individuality. The imagery in Five leaves us to face difficult and important questions to address with students:\n\n  • How could such grotesque hatred have led to these young innocent lives being cut short, like unfinished novels? How was this possible?\n  • What sack are the 5 books sewn into? Is it the closed sack of the impenetrable walls of Hanuš and his friends’ prison, Theresienstadt? Or are the novels engulfed by the indifference of the world, a world that would bury them out of sight, muffling their pleas and stifling their cries?\n  • And the most heartbreaking question of all: If only the five books had been completed, if only they had been allowed to reach their natural conclusion, what might have been contained in their chapters and pages? What could Hanuš and his friends have given the world? Furthermore, what could a million and a half murdered children have given the world?\n\nI think this is at the heart of what we, as Holocaust educators, seek to do. As we accept the challenge of teaching our students this painful history we can amplify it by the use of powerful mediums such as poetry; mediums that can inspire important and meaningful reflection. As educators, we want our students to be the ones to open the sealed sack, take out the forgotten books within, read their brief unfinished chapters, vow to remember the stories, and assure the voices behind them are still heard. By adding to our teaching the personal artistry of the poet, we not only honor the memory of Hanuš, his friends, and all victims of the Holocaust, but also inspire students to reflect on and create more healthy and humane futures.\n\nAbout the Author: Liz Elsby is a Holocaust Educator and Museum Guide who has worked at Yad Vashem since 2006.\n\nLooking for additional ways to teach about the Holocaust using art and poetry? Please explore the following resources from Echoes & Reflections and our Partners:\n\n\nFacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link\n\nClose -\n\n\n\n\nI knew spending a week studying the Holocaust would be an intense undertaking. What I didn’t realize is that spending a week bearing witness at the sites of these atrocities would also be heartbreaking. And while my experience on Echoes & Reflections Educational Journey through Poland with Yad Vashem was both of these things, it was also enlightening and empowering. We all left a piece of ourselves in Poland, but took away so much more.\n\nView more +\n\nHolocaust education has always been a passion of mine. Something about the resilience of the Jewish people, the ability to have seen so much hatred, but still stand strong inspires me.  I have participated in numerous professional development programs on the subject. I have also been lucky enough to spend two summers as part of the Charlotte and Jacques Wolf Conference with ADL, which allowed me to convene with other experienced Holocaust educators from around the country for a multi-day in-depth exploration of Echoes & Reflections materials. I have always left these experiences with a renewed mission and a stronger commitment to my students to educate them on the important lessons of the Holocaust, which often includes telling the stories that are difficult to hear. When I saw the opportunity to further my studies and my understanding of the Holocaust with a group of educators who are equally as passionate as I am, I jumped at the opportunity to visit Poland. I have always told my students that my voice cannot do justice to the stories of this time period. I was not there, I did not live it, and I never stood where the victims and survivors stood, so how could I truly understand? It was my hope that in taking part in this journey that I would be able to do just that—to give voice and do justice to those who lost their lives.\n\nAs our group came together, we discovered we were all on this trip for different reasons. Yet, we all had one thing in common: we were all there to bear witness. To say, “I have seen. I will not forget.” Every day was harder than the one before. Every day we would feel both depleted and fulfilled. Every night we would question whether we could see any more, feel any more. It is something special to allow yourself to be vulnerable with a group of strangers. But through this journey, we became something more. Sharing in this experience has changed all of us—it has left its mark on our hearts.\n\nOur week in Poland was heavy and it would have been easy to be pulled into a spiral of depression. In our five days, we visited extermination camps, sites of mass graves, and heard the stories of death and destruction as we stood within the ghetto walls. But throughout these visits, we also heard stories that filled us with hope. We heard stories of resistance—people who fought back in any way that they could. We heard stories of love, of friendship, of family. Through these stories, we began to see not the nameless faces of the victims, as the Nazis intended, but the individuals. One of the most powerful moments during the trip was when we each presented on a person that we were asked to research. When we arrived to a site that connected with our person, we shared about their life.\n\nI was asked to research Mordechai Anielewicz. Mordechai was a leader in the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) and was instrumental in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and inspiring and leading the Jewish people to fight back against the Nazis. As I was researching and sharing his life, I was struck by how incredibly young he was during these events. I always talk to my students about how their voice matters and Anielwicz’s story further confirmed my belief that today’s youth have the power to inspire change. I viewed testimony where a survivor remembers being introduced to Anielewicz as “Mr.”, even though he was only about 20 years old. It didn’t matter to his people how young he was, what mattered was his passion and his belief in what he was asking of his people. I was also struck by Mordechai’s willingness to give his life for his cause. In his final letter, he writes “The dream of my life has risen to become fact. Self-defense in the ghetto will have been a reality.” As I stood at the site of the bunker where Mordechai took his final breaths, I was overwhelmed by his bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of evil.  As we shared stories of bravery, resistance, and love , these victims have marked our hearts and we will never forget their names. We will remember them. We will be their voice.\n\nI believe in “never again.” I believe if we show our students and teach them about the atrocities of the past, we can make a better future. This trip strengthened this belief and emphasized the importance of what we do every day as educators. Every voice matters. It is our job as educators to help our students find their own. It is our responsibility to ensure that our students have open eyes and open hearts, using the stories of the past to shape our future.\n\nAbout the Author: Ashley Harbel is an English teacher at Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston, NH.\n\nFacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link\n\nClose -\n\n\n> <\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThird a Content", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7378727197647095}
+{"content": "Low back pain — The glutes help the body properly perform multiplanar movements that can stress the back, such as bending over or squatting down. By helping the torso, pelvis, hips and legs remain evenly balanced and stable, the body can move in dynamic ways without over-straining or rounding one specific area of the spine due to the pull of gravity. (5)\n\nVegetarians and other people who have lower total creatine levels when they start taking creatine supplements seem to get more benefit than people who start with a higher level of creatine. Skeletal muscle will only hold a certain amount of creatine; adding more won't raise levels any more. This \"saturation point\" is usually reached within the first few days of taking a \"loading dose.\"\nAs a Bodybuilding specialist, you will learn training, recovery, motivation, and nutritional strategies to prepare you to work with bodybuilders. Upon completion of ISSA's Bodybuilding course, you will have the knowledge necessary to prepare an athlete for a high-level bodybuilding or physique competition. However, many clients will never go down that path but are looking for guidance on this practice; this course will provide essential information that can help you train the \"everyday\" clients who have specific goals. All trainers can benefit from the information in this bodybuilding course, not only individuals looking to enter the sport of bodybuilding!\nThe slider reverse lunge is simple to perform and doesn’t need much in the way of instructions. Simply grab a Valslide, or a similar tool that will allow you to move smoothly across the ground. Put the slide under one foot, and use that foot to slide into a reverse lunge, and then return to standing. Try doing this exercise after one of the ones above, and just wait until you feel the burn!\n\n\n^ \"The History of Weightlifting\". USA Weightlifting. United States Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2018. The genealogy of lifting traces back to the beginning of recorded history where man's fascination with physical prowess can be found among numerous ancient writings. A 5,000-year-old Chinese text tells of prospective soldiers having to pass lifting tests.\nHowever, a much more accurate determination of how much fluid is necessary can be made by performing appropriate weight measurements before and after a typical exercise session, to determine how much fluid is lost during the workout. The greatest source of fluid loss during exercise is through perspiration, but as long as your fluid intake is roughly equivalent to your rate of perspiration, hydration levels will be maintained.[14]\n\nBack in the 1970s, scientists discovered that taking creatine in supplement form might enhance physical performance. In the 1990s, athletes started to catch on, and creatine became a popular sports supplement. The supplement is particularly popular among high school, college, and professional athletes, especially football and hockey players, wrestlers, and gymnasts. \n\nA 2011 survey of 33 supplements commercially available in Italy found that over 50% of them exceeded the European Food Safety Authority recommendations in at least one contaminant. The most prevalent of these contaminants was creatinine, a breakdown product of creatine also produced by the body.[47] Creatinine was present in higher concentrations than the European Food Safety Authority recommendations in 44% of the samples. About 15% of the samples had detectable levels of dihydro-1,3,5-triazine or a high dicyandiamide concentration. Heavy metals contamination was not found to be a concern, with only minor levels of mercury being detectable. Two studies reviewed in 2007 found no impurities.[41]\n\nThere is some research that suggests that creatine can help people with type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity, glucose uptake into the cells, and glycemic control. This has led many people with T2 to start supplementing their diets with pure creatine to try and reap the benefits. At this time there has been no conclusive research done into the effectiveness of creatine for type 1 diabetics.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6608296632766724}
+{"content": "Oven-baked Spicy Asian Chicken Wings\n\nOven baked crispy teriyaki chicken wings\n\nI love chicken wings, especially for bentos. They are small and much easier to pack than legs, and come with a readymade handle, especially the drumettes (the thickest part). So I try various recipes for them. Many of the tastiest ways of cooking chicken wings involve deep-frying. I don't know about you, but as much as I love fried chicken, especially karaage, I do not like deep frying too often.\n\nThis is an oven baked version that tastes very fried-chicken like, with a crispy finish that stays that way for a while even when cold. I've given them a spicy-savory-sweet flavor; the spice comes from gochujang, a miso-like Korean chili pepper paste that I have a serious crush on. (See my previous recipe using gochujang.) I'm calling them Asian since they have that kind of pan-Asian flavor that is so popular these days. They are of course, perfect for bentos. I'd suggest having some for dinner and setting aside some for bentos. You may have to hide the ones set aside from midnight fridge raiders though.\n\nBento staple: All-purpose winter vegetable mix for rice and more\n\n\nThis is a very versatile vegetable-only or vegetable and chicken mix that can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week, or for a month in the freezer. As long as you use a vegetarian/vegan protein it will be vegan/vegetarian, but if you are an omnivore you can use chicken. Let me give you the recipe first, and then show you a couple of ways to use it.\n\nGuy Does Bento no. 7: Chicken karaage bento\n\n\nThe Guy Does Bento is back, with a bento featuring his favorite way of eating chicken.\n\nGuy Does Bento no. 3: Mushroom rice and lemon chicken nugget bento\n\n\nChicken Nanban 2 ways\n\n\nTwo ways to make chicken nanban, a sour-sweet-salty chicken that tastes great in bentos.\n\n\nAn article that really gets what this site, and the book, are all about.\n\nPan-fried crispy chicken or turkey nuggets with gobo (burdock root) or any root vegetable\n\n\nCrispy pan-fried (rather than deep fried) chicken nuggets made from pre-cooked chicken dark meat. The nuggets are coated with cornstarch and thinly shaved or shredded gobo (burdock root) for extra crispiness. You could use leftover turkey (thigh or leg meat), and any kind of firm root vegetable instead.\n\nGreat Bento Idea: Fall Comfort Food Bento\n\nFall Comfort Food Bento\n\nA nice, simple fall comfort food bento that might give you some ideas for what to do with the leftovers from a certain feast day coming up soon...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6638550758361816}
+{"content": "Grey’s Anatomy\n\nThe image of large, black, insectoid eyes has haunted me since I was a child. Avidly consuming early nineties media about alien abduction firmly burned the image of the so-called “grey alien” into my young mind. I would imagine seeing them everywhere. They could be lurking behind any window at night, peeking around any open closet door, or peering at me from the tall grass or between trees in my wooded backyard.\n\nI would dream about them showing up. One particularly vivid dream involved me waking up to my brother’s crying. We slept in bunkbeds at the time and I heard him whimpering and sobbing below me. As I peeked over the edge of the bed, I saw a small, spindly Grey watching him. In a moment of bravery and youthful bravado, I jumped over the edge of the bed right on top of the intruder, grabbing one of its huge eyes in my tiny hands and peeling it clean off its face, evoking a scream from the creature that I have never forgotten. The eye turned out to only be some sort of shield or visor. Underneath was an array of tiny red and green lights, like a field of stars. The memory of that dream stops there, gazing into the void of this screaming phantom’s destroyed eye.\n\nThis dream came back to me recently when I was looking up some information about Derrel Sims, mostly to have a laugh at some of the silly images that pop up when Googling him. On the page for Fade to Black radio about Sims, there’s a small image of a Grey with an eye exposed to a sort of red field with white dots around it. This resembled my dream memetically, if not the same in actual detail.\n\nThe page didn’t have any details, but I found this when doing more searching on it at BibliotecaPleyades:\n\nIn one case he investigated he told me that the woman struggled with a creature that had the same round eyes as his abductor. She managed to fight back and knocked out one of the alien’s eye shields, revealing its structure which was composed of five separate areas with little lines moving back and forth across the eye.\n\nOn another occassion, when I was 12 or 13 years old, a friend spent the night at my house. We slept in my room – by that time my brother and I had seperate rooms. That morning, after breakfast, he seemed nervous. When pressed, he told me that he’d woken up that evening and saw me sitting up in bed. Next to me was a Grey. We both looked down at him – he was in a sleeping bag on the floor – and I said to him in a completely monotone voice, “it’s okay, go back to sleep now.” At which point, he did exactly as I told him, and remembers nothing past that.\n\nI honestly don’t know what to think of that account, or the constant dreams I had as a child. I’m still nervous at night, I still expect to see that face peering at me through a window or open a door and see it in the hallway. I have no conscious recollection of an actual abduction event, and none of the dreams I had involved me ever actually making it into a space outside of my house or bedroom. It’s entirely possible that these nightmares were simply a manifestation of my own anxieties and phobias. The boy who told me he saw me sitting next to the Grey went on to tell me lots of other fantastical stories over the years; many, if not all of them I heavily doubt.\n\nI also have my doubts about the abduction experience occuring in physical reality. As someone who’s had numerous consciously controlled out-of-body experiences, and who has read numerous reports of these anomalous contact experiences occuring to people while they are under the effects of entheogens, I have a strong feeeling that this experience happens on some different plane of consciousness.\n\nBut, let’s just humor the idea, for a moment, that the Greys are a physical, flesh and blood creature. What kind of inferences can we make from their biology, and what would the implications of that data be?\n\nWhile the image of the Grey “alien” seems bizarre and otherworldly, in the grand scheme of biology it is not. They are firmly and strikingly mammalian, having the same basic body configuration as every other primate on this planet. Imagine, for a moment, that you covered the body of a Grey in fur of some sort. Would they appear all that different from other simian species?\n\nEven their faces are not totally unique and alien to our known animal kingdom. Look at this image of a golden snub-nosed monkey. Doesn’t it seem slightly familiar?\n\nOne aspect, an oft-reported tetradactyly, does throw a small wrench in my identification with other primates. From Wikipedia:\n\nTetradactyly (from Greek tetra-=”four” plus δακτυλος = “finger”) is the condition of having four digits on a limb, as in many amphibians, birds, and theropod dinosaurs. Some mammals also exhibit tetradactyly (for example pigs and the hind limbs of dogs and cats).\n\nIt is interesting that the tetradactyly is a condition most commonly found in birds, and formerly in dinosaurs, given that many reports of the Greys mention their “reptilian” skin or just flat-out say that they were reptilian in nature.\n\nThe lack of pigmentation in the skin and the large eyes could also be indicative of a subterranean existence or adaptation. This idea isn’t new, as this article explores. The pale skin could be due to a lack of melanin, not needed due to the lack of damaging UV. Large eyes could indicate either a primarily nocturnal existence, similar to other large-eyed animals such as tarsiers and owls, or it could also be an adaptation to a primarly subterranean lifestyle.\n\nWhatever they might be, it should be obvious that the Greys are far too similar to lifeforms we can find right here on Earth to be extraterrestrial. People might cry that we’re witnessing some form of convergent evolution that occurred on different planets, but frankly Occam’s Razor shreds that right up. It’s much more simple and much more likely to posit that the Greys are from Earth, just like we are. The common narrative of abductions even includes the meme of hybridization and a story that the Greys are a “dying race” that need our genetic material to survive. This would not make even the tiniest smidgen of sense unless we were close genetic relatives. It would, however, make total sense if they were some sort of tiny, inbred branch of our genetic family tree.\n\nAs the aforementioned article reminds us, UFOs are commonly seen entering and exiting the ocean, lakes, rivers and into the very earth itself, sometimes even being spotted near volcanoes, such as during the eruption of Grímsvötn in Iceland in 2011. All this seems to indicate an origin that is more intraterrestrial than it is extraterrestrial.\n\nThe Shaver Mystery, the tall tales about Dulce and other underground bases, the strange story of the Green Children of Woolpit, the mythical city of Agartha: you need not look far to find that the meme of an underground race of technologically advanced beings permeates our popular culture and mythological framework.\n\nWhat if, instead of watching the skies, we should be watching under our very feet?\n\nEvidence is mounting for the existence of a staggeringly large underground ocean, far larger than the oceans on our surface. Given the propensity for UFOs to be seen in and around water, is it not possible they this subterranean ocean could be used as a super highway of sorts?\n\nIn the end, I still have serious doubts and misgivings about the physical reality of beings such as the Greys and tend to lean towards the idea that they are simply another denizen of the spirit ecology that surrounds us. Whatever they are, I’ll never forget that ocean of light I once saw behind that dark eye.\n\n\nfare forward, voyagers\n\nI got to thinking after listening to a wonderful episode of Seriah Azkath’s podcast Where Did the Road Go? where he talked about time travel with the philosopher and all-around extremely cool person Micah Hanks. Micah went over an idea that I was only faintly familiar with: the so-called “Thermodynamic Arrow of Time”. Essentially this idea is taken from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that in an isolated system (one in which energy is not being fed) entroy tends to increase with time. The implication is that time itself is asymmetrical with entropy. Since as far as we know, our universe is an isolated system, entropy is always increasing, so it is with time.\n\nSince we evolved within this entropic, isolated system, we experience this Thermodynamic Arrow of Time and perceive time in a linear fashion: the “Psychological Arrow of Time” in which human perception and memory operates. It appears that the Psychological Arrow of Time aligns with the Thermodynamic Arrow of Time.\n\nThis article describes an experiement to demonstrate this: Scientists set up a system in which there are two chambers seperated by a wall with a rotor that shows a counter. One chamber is filled with an ideal-N number of particles that then, due to the entropy of the closed system, will eventually move to the empty chamber and create an equilibrium within the system. The rotor will show an abstracted, net number of particles that have migrated. The rotor will also impose generality – a requirement that states memory must have the capability of storing more than one variable – by measuring the momentum transfer of the particle movement on the rotor. This allows strong correlation of the results due to its direct interaction with the particles. All this goes to show that you could not correlate data if you had the ability to see directly into the “future” since would need to know exactly every state of each particle in the system at all times – an impossibility given the Uncertainty principle. This would imply that the Thermodynamic and Psychological Arrows of Time due to memory being unavailable without there being an ability to measure the system before equilibrium is reached.\n\nPut even more simply, consider the basic problem of any sort of divination: if you were able to truly see “the future”, then you are also implying you know the state of each and every particle leading up to that future situation – an impossibility. Also, what’s to stop you from changing those factors, making your perceived future state moot? One might say that yes, obviously you’re only seeing one possible outcome among many, just one hallway down the Garden of Forking Paths. In that case, what’s the point? It’s no better than a guess. All things are possible, so this information from the future is not useful.\n\nThis would seem to say that “remembering forwards” is impossible, but is it?\n\nMore recently the field of quantum mechanics has put forth that the true putative cause of the Arrow of Time is actually quantum entanglement. The idea is that the Second Law of Thermodynamics does not explain entropy, rather entanglement is the cause of entropy, thus entanglement is the mechanism of the Second Law. Furthermore, it appears that entanglement is directly related to the process of causality. The perception of causality is a direct result of the Arrow of Time, a consequence of the Second Law, and thus caused by increasing entanglement. In other words “causing Change to occur in conformity with Will” creates those correlations between the subject and object that memory subsystems rely upon. Thus, per Seth Lloyd, “The arrow of time is an arrow of increasing correlations.”\n\n“Finally, we can understand why a cup of coffee equilibrates in a room,” said Tony Short, a quantum physicist at Bristol. “Entanglement builds up between the state of the coffee cup and the state of the room.”\n\nNow scientists are examining the possibility of temporal entanglement – the idea that the quantum correlations that make up entanglement can actually span time as well as space. This idea postulates that not only can two quantum events become correlated on a casual level, but they can become correlated in such a way that it is impossible to determine the cause and the effect. In fact, this perhaps suggest that the space-time we experience and inhabit is somehow constructed of this web of temporal correlations. Quantum field theory describes this to a greater effect. Effectively a field is a highly entangled (read: correlated) system. These correlations span not only physical space, but time as well.\n\nThis idea, that space-time is a web of entanglements stretching backwards and forwards and that we only perceive the arrow due to the forwards nature of these correlations is not a new one. For instance, consider the fact that in Hindi, the words for “yesterday” and “tomorrow” translate to the same word: कल or “kal” meaning “the day remote from today”. Embedded within that very language is the idea that time is not a linear process but rather a field that we are experiencing linearly.\n\nThe Buddhist concept of Samsara – that there is a constant cycle of death and rebirth in which we are all trapped – is similar to this. If time is indeed this flat circle, if past and present are only concepts for measuring our relation to this quantum field, then this cyclical idea makes sense. Maybe you have lived this life many times. Maybe you have lived many lives. Is consciousness bound to this cycle, trapped within (or limited to) this field? Memory certainly seems to be, but are memory and perception distinct from each other? Memory seems to be a consquence of the Arrow of Time, built and stored using our organic bodies, but perhaps perception can extend along the tangled web of quantum correlations.\n\nWithin Buddhism, the idea of Nirvana – or enlightenment – is the freeing of consciousness from the trappings of Samsara. The liberation of perception beyond the wheel of death and rebirth into a higher state, not bound by time or space. Many occult systems have similar end goals for the development of the operator; the works of Carlos Castenada and his descriptions of the teachings of Don Juan come to mind. Don Juan Matus explains that the final goal for a magician was to retain consciousness past death. In other words, not be reborn into another physical body and the suffer the loss of memory that is stored in the physical apparatus of the body.\n\nI’ve been inching towards this, but I have a strong feeling that perhaps this web of quantum entanglement can help explain the underlying mechanics of PSI phenomena, or at the very least the phenomena of precognition. If all of the actions you have taken have entangled you with particles in a causal chain stretching back into the past to the beginning of time, is it possible to then examine the “state” of that entanglement? Perhaps the strength of correlation affects the ability to perceive that information. Perhaps this is why, if we have lived past lives, we don’t perceive that information readily due to having very weak casual correlations with those entangled particles. But, that correlation is there, allowing some mechanism within your consciousness to recall information that isn’t temporally local to you.\n\nI find it striking that most precognitive experiences are subjective ones – that is, they are visions of the viewers future possibilities. Perhaps it is as simple as this: You remember the future because, in a sense, you’re already taken the actions that resulted in that future. You have to stop thinking about time as a linear function, but rather as a field. Those causal relationships that form entanglement don’t exist temporally, meaning that you are entangled with particles from the future as well as the past. I have a feeling that emotion also somehow functions on these entanglements. I couldn’t state any mechanism upon which this would work, just call it a hunch. Most people have visions of extreme events: disasters, love, sex, death, apocalypse, fire. The psychic strength these events generate perhaps serve to strengthen these entanglements, as if Thanatos and Eros were two beams of force within this temporal web.\n\nBut again, the transmission of information from the future along these entanglements is extremely tricky. As we’ve stated before, the web of future events relative to the viewer is a Garden of Forking Paths. It is made up of probabilities. Again though, perhaps more highly probable events create stronger correlations, making them “more visible” to the viewer. Or, another idea: Perhaps the cycle has run many times, the more probable events have occured many more times than improbable ones, strengthening the correlation due to repetition.\n\nOnce more, I feel science is finally catching up to what humans have known for thousands of years. It excites me. Rather than destroy the mystery of these occult practices, continued exploration into them – at least tangentially – by science allows us to better understand the framework upon which they operate. This allows us to use them more effectively and more precisely than ever before.\n\nIn closing, I’d like to leave you with a bit from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Four Quartets”:\n\nO voyagers, O seamen,\nYou who came to port, and you whose bodies\nWill suffer the trial and judgement of the sea,\nOr whatever event, this is your real destination.’\nSo Krishna, as when he admonished Arjuna\nOn the field of battle.\nNot fare well,\nBut fare forward, voyagers.\n\n\nHis name is Control\n\nLike many people, I grew up immersed in the so-called “extra-terrestrial hypothesis” popularized during the 1990s by shows like “Sightings”, “Unsolved Mysteries”, and the – horrifying at the time – adaptation of Whitley Strieber’s Communion. I huddled under the sheets in my bedroom, scared out of my wits every single night that I would abducted by the Greys, spirited away to a UFO where I would be cut, probed, prodded, and experimented upon. I had nightmares about their scowling, almond-eyed faces. I had triumphant dreams where I fought back, tore them limb from limb with my nine year old hands, rejoiced in their fear and inhuman screams. The idea that Earth was under constant assault from alien forces, perhaps even guided and supported by our very government, was a given to me. I would lie on my back in my driveway every night, looking for strange lights in the sky, and would tell my teachers at school about the grand conspiracy being perpetrated against the human race.\n\nAnd then, tired of my constant nightmares and inability to get a good night’s sleep, my parents wisely banned me from watching anything UFO or alien related. No more “Sightings”, no more “Unsolved Mysteries”. For a while, I forgot about those huge black eyes and strange lights zooming around in the night sky. However, this changed in the sixth grade, when I made friends with a new girl at school who told me that, without a doubt, she had been abducted by aliens and gave me a detailed account of her experiences. Suddenly, the whole top blew off again. The seminal conspiracy television show “The X-Files” debuted, and my friend and I watched it every single week. I began thinking about aliens again. Remembering the film adaptation of Communion, I went to the local library the summer before 7th grade and found they had a copy. I devoured it, always making sure to turn the book over every night so I wouldn’t wake up and see that face staring at me in the middle of the night.\n\nCommunion was an important book for me in a lot of ways. First and foremost, it planted the idea that perhaps the strange kidnapping creatures that Whitley and others were encountering were not from another planet at all. Strieber never refers to them as such, in fact going to great lengths to avoid making that statement. Secondly, I read Communion at around the same time I had my occult awakening, when I came into contact with both Wiccan and Kabbalistic ritual materials. Several of my close friends were dabbling in the occult, and I saw a heavy occult symbolism in the experiences that Whitley went through, and in the phenomena at large. I started to see cracks in the extra-terrestrial hypothesis.\n\nWhat tore those cracks wide open, and shattered the ETH forever, however, was John Keel’s unparalleled work The Mothman Prophecies. My dad had an old, ragged copy of The Mothman Prophecies that I stole from him and had been reading, off and on, since I was in the third grade. Having little context for the book when I was that young, I simply enjoyed reading stories about monsters and UFOs. But, when I combined Keel’s thoughts on the phenomena found in Mothman with the skepticism introduced by Communion, I finally realized that the extra-terrestrial hypothesis, at least in the sense that aliens were travelling to this world in nuts-and-bolts spacecraft and doing experiments on human beings, was bogus.\n\nIn particular, Keel makes the following statement about the messages of UFO occupants in Chapter 12 of The Mothman Prophecies:\n\nEven more interesting is the fact that the messages received by psychics everywhere bear remarkable similarities in content, even in phrasing. I have researched obscure contactee type books written two and three hundred years ago and have found the same identical messages and phraseology were prevalent then. Since much of this literature is very obscure and hard to find, and since many of our psychics and contactees are poorly read, it is doubtful if this is a question of fakers repeating the earlier material. Rather, it seems as if there is a phonograph in the sky endlessly repeating the same material generation after generation as if there were a crack in the record.\n\nI started to see the similarities in messages presented to contactees such as Woodrow Derenberger and others was simply a repackaging of the ideas and messages presented to the prophets and shamans since the beginning of human history.\n\nJacques Vallée’s groundbreaking 1979 book Messengers of Deception proposes the idea that the UFO contact phenomena is, in a large part, a method of control exerted by some other intelligence in an attempt to manipulate human activity and culture through deception and myth creation.\n\nTwo passages from William Burroughs’ 1975 essay “The Limits of Control” stand out in particular when applied to the UFO contact phenomena. Consider the following:\n\nBut words are still the principal instruments of control. Suggestions are words. Persuasions are words. Orders are words. No control machine so far devised can operate without words, and any control machine which attempts to do so relying entirely on external force or entirely on physical control of the mind will soon encounter the limits of control.\n\n\nA basic impasse of all control machines is this: Control needs time in which to exercise control. Because control also needs opposition or acquiescence; otherwise, it ceases to be control. I control a hypnotized subject (at least partially); I control a slave, a dog, a worker; but if I establish complete control somehow, as by implanting electrodes in the brain, then my subject is little more than a tape recorder, a camera, a robot. You don’t control a tape recorder – you use it. Consider the distinction, and the impasse implicit here. All control systems try to make control as tight as possible, but at the same time, if they succeeded completely there would be nothing left to control.\n\nSo much of the UFO contact phenomena seems to revolve around these attempts by some unknown force to guide humanity through some grandiose message. Much of the time this message seems to fall into two categories – that mankind must treat others with kindness and respect, or that mankind must prevent the planet from being destroyed by some force. In the case of the latter, this force seems to change depending on the anxieties (or perhaps the honest threats) of the era. In the atomic nightmare of the 40s and 50s, the message warned of imminent nuclear destruction should mankind continue to proliferate atomic weapons. Later, in the 80s and 90s, contactees were warned of environmental dangers, being told that mankind was on the path to destroy this planet through climate change. Whatever this intelligence is, at least on a surface level, it would appear to have our best interests in mind. But why?\n\nOne of the aspects of the contact phenomena is how it breeds hierarchy and creates prophets – or cult leaders – that bring humans together and create structure through which civilization and culture can develop. Terrence McKenna postulated that religion as a whole was inspired by the effects of entheogens such as psilocybin. It’s to be noted that many of the UFO contact experiences are similar to the visions experienced by users of enthogenic substances. While early homo sapiens likely had hierarchical structure similar to the structures existing in other primates, it appears that these contacts with – for lack of a better term – a Spirit World through either the use of entheogenic drugs or UFO contact style encounters created a new hierarchy: the shaman. Through the use of religion, these shamans – liaisons between common man and the spirits – were able to exercise control not strictly based on pure materialistic qualities. And through the revelation of magical techniques, these shamans were able to perform miracles and effect change in the environment in accordance with will, further cementing their structure, a structure revealed to them and guided by the hand of these extra-human intelligences.\n\nWhile it doesn’t really touch on the more esoteric ideas I’ve presented here, you’d be well-served by checking out the excellent BBC World Service series “The Forum” and their four part series on hierarchy in humans. I’m placing the link in the sources at the end of the article.\n\nSo it appears that some external (alien, if you will) intelligence that may or may not be extra-terrestrial in origin has been subtly manipulating mankind’s social strucutres for the majority of human history through hallucinatory encounters with otherworldly beings and strange lights in the sky. These encounters are perhaps the only way this intelligence can communicate with humanity. Perhaps it has as much trouble trying to talk to us as we would have attempting to communicate with a hive of ants.\n\nThis co-creation aspect to the phenomena is vastly interesting to me. Vallée’s other groundbreaking work, Passport to Magonia, exposed thoroughly that UFO contact phenomena had been going on as long as there had been recorded history. He showed that the phenomena melded itself and manifested using the imagery relevant to the era. It’s not just that people in the 1400s could only describe a UFO as a flying ship, they literally saw a flying ship – anchor, sails, and sailors included. It’s not that they misinterpreted a space alien for a winged angel, they actually saw a winged angel. Just as people saw mysterious flying airships in the 1800s, so did observers in the 1950s see the flying saucers popularized by their movies and television shows. The vast array of monsters and weirdos present in the UFO contacts of the 1950s, 60s and 70s is because there was no central meme that pervaded popular culture. It wasn’t until the ubiquitous image of the Grey was thrust into the forefront of the experience by the Betty and Barney Hill case, the works of Bud Hopkins and Strieber’s cover for Communion did the meme of the Grey solidify and dominate the narrative. I don’t believe that the phenomena manifests itself using these memes intentionally, but rather these are the building material it has to pull from human consciousness in order to manifest. Again the analogy of the human trying to communicate with the ant. Our only way to get the ant to move in the way we want it to move is to gently nudge it, scare it perhaps, or shine a magnifying glass that’s amplifying the rays of the sun.\n\nBut again, why? Why do these intelligences have this invested interest in humanity in particular?\n\nMany ufologists and researches endlessly concern themselves with the “how” of the phenomena. While I also find the “how” extremely compelling and have plenty of my own theories about it, ultimately I don’t believe that’s the important question to ask. It’s quite possible that this question is fundamentally unanswerable. Maybe trying to determine how the phenomena manifests or affects human consciousness in the way it does is akin to attempting to explain to a two-dimensional being what a sphere is. We utterly lack a context for the information.\n\nA better question, I think, is “why”. Why would a supernatural, possibly external intelligence be attempting to communicate with us? Is it perhaps out of pure curiosity? We keep pets such as dogs and cats and speak to them, but they are fundamentally incapable of understanding our intentions or language, except on some empathic level. Although, given the high strangeness of the phenomena at large, perhaps it’s fallacy to believe there is any logic to it that a human being can understand. Even further along that path, there’s no reason the intelligence behind it has to have a motive at all – to think otherwise is to anthropomorphize a phenomena that is likely anything but human. I’ll leave you with a quote by Damon Knight – famously misattributed to Charles Fort by Keel in his closing line to The Mothman Prophecies – that still resonates with me, and that I try to remember whenever I explore this world:\n\nIf there is a universal mind, must it be sane?\n\n\n  1. Keel, J. 1975. The Mothman Prophecies. New York: Saturday Review Press and E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-8415-0355-9.\n  2. Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (paperback ed.). Ronin Publ. June 1979. ISBN 0-915904-38-1\n  5. BBC World Service – The Forum: Hierarchy –\n\nThoughts on Sasquatch\n\nAccording to modern anthropology, the last uncontacted person in North America – a person who has completely avoided contact with the modern global culture – stumbled out of the woods in 1911 near Mount Lassen in northern California and into the current human age. His name was Ishi, the last of the Yahi Native American tribe. Completely lacking in resistance to the virulent germs of modern Americans, he contracted tuberculosis and died five years later.\n\nWith Ishi’s death, anthropologists closed the book on the possibility of there still being uncontacted tribes or peoples in North America. South America was a different story, however. Even today there are still estimated to be hundreds of uncontacted tribes spread across Amazonia, fugitives from our modern world and its nightmares.\n\nI’ve recently been reading through Petru Popescu’s incredible book about Loren McIntyre’s time among the uncontacted Mayoruna natives in Brazil, “Amazon Beaming”. The title of the book refers to a phenomenon that McIntyre describes in which he makes some sort of non-verbal contact with the head shaman of the tribe, and observes a background hum of non-verbal communication going on amongst the people of the tribe. This “beaming” isn’t exactly like telepathy. McIntyre doesn’t actually share a verbal language with the Mayoruna. Instead, it is described more as an empathic telepathy. He receives impressions from the transmitting headsman that he then puts into his own mental language.\n\nMy own theory about this “beaming” is that it is a form of empathic non-verbal communication that humans must have developed and used to transmit ideas and emotions before the advent of structured language. However, this “beaming” has its own limitations. While the headsman of the tribe is extremely well versed and capable in this language, the other tribal members seem not to be. It appears to be less outwardly useful than an actual verbal language, more seeming to foster some sense of group belonging and cohesion than a valid method of communication. Perhaps this ability is inherit to all humans, it’s just that we lose the ability early in life once we start learning language. Language, both verbal and written is simply more useful and supersedes the “beaming”. Perhaps it serves some biological function, keeping a mother and child emotionally in sync with one another. Before a child can verbally tell their mother what they need, maybe this “beaming” is a method of making the mother feel what the child needs, without the requirement they share a language.\n\nMcIntyre worries that this “beaming” is simply his mind’s way of coping with this situation of extreme loneliness and inability to communicate with other human beings. When he finally meets a Mayoruna from another group that speaks some Portugese, the hum of the group telepathy seems to fade away. I’m still working through this amazing book and I’m excited about reading further developments.\n\nThe concept of this “beaming” and the prospect that very primitive man primarily communicated via a kind of emotional telepathy got me thinking about the creatures commonly referred to as Bigfoot, or Sasquatch.\n\nTypically, Sasquatch research falls into two major camps. On one hand, you have the hard cryptozoological approach in which Sasquatch are flesh and blood creatures, ape-man beasts that appear from time to time in remote wooded areas of North America and elsewhere. Similar creatures appear in legends all over the world, and seem to indicate some sort of common shared myth or cultural memory. The other camp holds a non-materialist point of view on the Sasquatch phenomena, believing that they are somehow perhaps non-physical apparitions, or dimension hopping beings from some alternate universe. This view usually cites the fact that often other anomalous phenomena such as UFOs are seen in vicinity to Bigfoot sightings, similar to how the Mothman and other cryptids infested Point Pleasant, West Virginia during the UFO flap described in John Keel’s “The Mothman Prophecies”.\n\nI tend to agree with researcher Micah Hanks on his statements on the non-materialistic view of Sasquatch in that explaining an anomalous phenomena with another anomalous phenomena doesn’t actually explain anything. However, I’d like to posit later in this post that maybe, just maybe, both camps can be right on this one, without actually contradicting each other.\n\nNow, about the strict materialist, cryptozoologist approach to Sasquatch. I believe that perhaps by treating Sasquatch as a “creature” is clouding the research and is a major – and likely wrong – assumption about whatever they are. The fallacy here is that since they appear bestial – giant hairy ape men that wear no clothes and carry no tools – they must be primitive beasts. Human exceptionalism is a trap that we must avoid. We as a species have a tendency to view life other than ourselves as not as advanced as us, primitive. As if our ability to create tools has elevated us to some evolutionary peak.\n\nSo, we tend to think of ourselves as an exceptional species. We have language! We have tools! But that’s not an entirely unique thing among the life on this world. Research is even starting to indicate that huge networks exist among plants and trees using fungus as a medium. These vast fungal networks link the individual members of a forest and allow them to communicate danger to one another. Typically when talking about the evolution of mankind, we present another primate like chimpanzees or gorillas as an example of primitive man. This is patently false. Chimps and other primates are just as evolved as us, we share common ancestors. We just happened to be burdened with very strange brains.\n\nThe most recent figures about the extinction of the Neanderthal place the last of them dying around 40,000 years ago. If you really think about that date, this is incredibly recent, probably less than 1,568 generations of homo sapiens. As homo sapiens came into contact with Neanderthal, we naturally competed with them. We raped them and we murdered and ate them. Eventually what was left was fully absorbed into our gene pools as homo sapiens emerged the supreme hominid in the Old World. Neanderthal don’t exist today except in genetic vestiges – as seen in my freckles and my brother’s red hair – because we destroyed them utterly. What other hominids did we genocide or absorb into our gene pool? What other hominids attempted to do the same to us?\n\nCultures all over the world have their own Sasquatch legends and I think it’s no surprise that majority of these legends are wary of the creatures, describing them as men-stealers, cannibals, not to be trusted and definitely to be feared.\n\nThe diary of Elkanah Walker, a missionary in Washington in the mid-1800s  had this to say:\n\n“Bear with me if I trouble you with a little of their superstitions. They believe in a race of giants, which inhabit a certain mountain off to the west of us. This mountain is covered with perpetual snow. They (the creatures) inhabit the snow peaks. They hunt and do all their work at night. They are men stealers.\n\nThey come to the people’s lodges at night when the people are asleep and take them and put them under their skins and to their place of abode without even waking. Their track is a foot and a half long. They steal salmon from Indian nets and eat then raw as the bears do. If the people are awake, they always know when they are coming very near by their strong smell that is most intolerable. It is not uncommon for them to come in the night and give three whistles and then the stones will begin to hit their houses.”\n\nI’m also reminded of the story of La Ciudad Blanca, a legendary city purportedly located in Honduras and alleged to have been seen by Charles Lindbergh while flying over eastern Honduras. A great city of white stone deep in the dense jungle, it is said to be there still, swallowed up by the voracious foliage and left to ruin. If we read into the lore surrounding the White City, there are some interesting connections with Sasquatch lore. American adventurer Theodore Morde wrote in the early 1940s about legends related to him by local Nahuat natives:\n\n“The native name for monkey is Urus, which translates literally into ‘sons of the hairy men.’ Their fathers, or fore-fathers, are the Ulaks, half-man and half-spirit, who lived on the ground, walked upright and had the appearance of great hairy ape-men.”\n\nThese giant, hairy “half-spirit” men apparently stole women from the village to use as breeding stock (or so the natives believed) and created half-breed children. The natives banded together, razed the city and killed all of the Ulaks.\n\nCompare this to the legends of the Paiute natives of North America and their extermination of the “Si-Te-Cah” a race of giant red-haired cannibals who lived in the area of ancient Lake Lahontan in northern Nevada. The Si-Te-Cah would raid the villages of the natives, stealing and eating their people. Eventually the local tribes banded together and forced the Si-Te-Cah into Lovelock Cave, where they set fire to the cave and exterminated the giants.\n\nStories of these conflicts seem to be common in native cultures of the Americas. Indeed, stories of conflict between man and “giants” goes back as far as you can explore in human folklore and mythology.\n\nSo, what if Sasquatch weren’t a “primitive” creature or ape? What if Sasquatch are us, or at least close to it? What if Sasquatch were another offshot of a common human ancestor, like Neanderthal or homo floresiensis, the “hobbit people” of the South Pacific?\n\nWhat if, when modern humans migrated to the Americas during the last Ice Age, they found another hominid species already here? What if they fought and killed one another, and perhaps even interbred? This offshot, driven to near extinction by modern humans, had to go into hiding. They would have even been selected for traits that allowed them to hide in the wilderness from murderous homo sapiens. And this brings me back to Popescu’s “Amazon Beaming”. What if this offshot also used this non-verbal communication method? What if they honed it, developed it, became extremely good at using it? What if they could us it to hide?\n\nPeople often describe feeling “strange” in the woods before some sort of anomalous encounter, gripped by a sensation they are being watched or driven nearly to panic by a sense of extreme anxiety. Keel described a “zone of terror” in “The Mothman Prophecies”. In David Paulides’ “Missing 411” investigations, victims often describe feeling uneasy or watched before leaving the group and disappearing forever. What if this was a manifestation of this non-verbal communicative ability being exhibited by a being that was trying to drive away threats?\n\nPeople forget how utterly enormous and empty large swathes of the American wilderness still are. The idea that we have discovered everything that can be discovered out there is ludicrous. If there are still uncontacted, undocumented human tribes living in the depths of the Amazon, I don’t find it incredibly hard to believe that a closely related species of hominid that has been selected for an ability to hide themselves and possibly possessing some sort of method for influencing the emotions or minds of other hominids could still be hiding in small groups in North America. Lots of people don’t see Bigfoot because Bigfoot doesn’t want to be seen. I suspect that a large proportion of the encounters that are described are with juveniles, perhaps not as cautious as their elders and more prone to fits of anger or attack, culminating in events like the Ape Canyon incident of 1924, where a group of miners was allegedly attacked throughout the night by a group of Sasquatch.\n\nNow, a couple of things stick out here. If Sasquatch are material, real beings it seems obvious that they do not want to be part of our society and want to be left alone. In the best case they never make contact with humans and in the worst case, they may attack and kill humans found encroaching alone in their territory. If this is true, and these are creatures with a level of intelligence and culture – thinking of The White City – comparable to modern humans, what right do we have to hunt them down still, to bring “evidence” of them to the rest of humanity? Also, contact with isolated tribes has historically been tragic for the tribes. Having no resistances to the germs and viruses of modern humans, many of them die or have to be given urgent medical care. If the Sasquatch really are as small in number and rare as they appear to be, couldn’t we be putting the entire species or tribe in grave danger by attempting contact? Finally, if this is a closely related c0usin to humanity, a form of life that for all intents and purposes are our brothers and sisters on this planet, moreso than any other living creature today, what right do we have to hunt them? If you were to kill one of them, it would be tantamount to the murder of any other human being. Given these presumptions, I believe that anyone seriously considering so-called “Bigfoot Hunting” rethink their motivations.\n\nNow, a couple of thoughts about the non-materialist view of Sasquatch. While I tend to fall towards the physical nature of the phenomena as evidence of its material existence, I will also admit that other weird phenomena sometimes surround Sasquatch encounters. Given that humans have probably encountered, fought with, killed and have been killed by these creatures for untold millenia, it would be no surprise if some archetype of them existed deep within our collective consciousness, similar to why people seem to be instinctively frightened of snakes. We carry a memory of our predation; we carry this violence in our very genes. If we lean towards the type of explanations of anomalous phenomena put forth by researchers like Greg Bishop: that we are “co-creators” of the phenomena we are encountering, perhaps these stranger Sasquatch encounters are us taking these collective memories of these creatures and manifesting them in the experience. In this way, both the non-materialist and materialist views of Sasquatch can be true and occurring. Maybe there really are physical beings, and there are also manifestations of our collective memories and fears.\n\nHalf-man, half-spirit.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9067476987838745}
+{"content": "While some people fear the amount of sugar in fruit, have no fear! Fruit can be a part of a healthy weight loss diet. As with all foods, however, fruit should just be one component of a healthy diet. Strive to get 3 servings of fresh or frozen, plain fruit per day. Fruits give you fiber, water, vitamins and minerals. They can keep you healthy, hydrated and full!\nJuicing is sometimes celebrated as a great way to detox your system or kick start your diet.  After all, drinking nothing but nutrient dense fruits and vegetables can't be bad for you, right? Well, it turns out juicing is not exactly the same as including whole food produce into your diet. The act of juicing removes the fiber from the fruit and veggies leaving you with the liquid-rich extracts that contain mostly water soluble vitamins.\n\nApart from this, around 180 to 270 grams of complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, should be consumed, which will fulfill 45% to 65% of the calorie need for the day. Low-fat proteins like poultry, meat, and fish should also be eaten. It is recommended to eat 50% to 95% of low-fat proteins. This will provide for 15% to 25% of calorie intake for the day.\nTip #1 Commit to 7 Days. To get an accurate assessment of your eating habits, you need at least a few days a week—including one weekend day—but an entire week is even better. You’ll get a sense of how many calories you’re typically eating, and can then work out how many calories you should be eating to help you reach your goal weight. If you want to establish new habits, keep logging. And if you want to lose 5 pounds (or more!), stick with it for at least a month.\nThere needs to be more people like you. I know too many people that give up soon after starting their quest to weight loss. What they do not seem to understand is that their expectations are being negatively influenced by the media promoting it. What I mean is, a number of the weight loss companies always show a male or a female with shredded bodies that imply that the customer will look the same way over night. The truth is, like Tony Horton said in his original P90X, “Rome was not built in a day and neither was your body”. People need to understand that true change will take weeks, months, and even years. A few years ago, I followed the original P90X program and was able to lose 25 pounds. I felt amazing, however, soon after I stopped the program, the weight came right back. In my personal situation, I may have lost the weigh too fast. I was eating small meals, but always seemed to feel hungry. I was depriving myself of what I liked, therefore when I stopped, all of my old eating habits came back. Your new technique is great and I hope more people read you post to inspire a healthier life style, thereby, helping to minimize the U.S. obesity problem. Thank you\n“I lost the weight by exercising with a personal trainer, but the weight didn't come off until I changed my eating habits. The very specific diet of oatmeal and an egg in the morning, and a smoothie, fish and veggies in proper portions worked for me. Water is critical as well. The most important part of weight loss is meal planning and preparation every day.”\n\nAbout: Bailey is a grad student studying to get her degree to become a registered dietitian. As she goes, she’s working to establish herself as a go-to source for people online to learn how to create SMART goals, learn about food traps, get fitness tips and more – and it’s totally working. Bailey intermixes her professional posts with a bit of her own musings, making for a very personalized experience that combines getting to know the author with getting to know yourself, and how to achieve your goals.\n\nInclude some fat in your diet to get the nutritional benefits, but be mindful of how much fat you are adding to your meals. If cooking or dressing your own meals, keep oil and butter portions to 1 Tbsp or less per person, and don’t overdo it on high fat toppings and ingredients like cream, cheese, nuts, nut butters and seeds. If eating out, opt for grilled, baked or steamed options over fried, breaded, and heavy sauces.\n\nOnce your body runs out of glycogen stores, it is forced to break down protein and fat for energy, pending how much oxygen is available. And it typically takes about 12 hours for this to occur. In theory one would assume working out fasted in the morning - after more than 12 hours without intake - would promote more fat burning. But the science does not support this (112,113). In addition, working out fasted may effect your energy and strength, making your workout a little less intense than if you have fueled prior. These factors could effect your ability to build lean mass and perform. \n\n\nI am with you if you are thinking—“I don’t have the time for games!” But, believe me, playing any sport at least thrice a week will help you in many ways. It can be playing fetch with your dog or playing soccer with your toddler as well! The adrenaline and the good hormones will help you lose weight and keep your hunger pangs at bay. Your mind will stop worrying all the time, you will also get a sound sleep at night, and hence, you will be active all day at work.\nIf you’re looking for a writer to follow who’s still in the midst of their own weight loss journey (and willing to admit might always be), Amy is your girl. She blogs about the ups, downs, and challenges on her path to weight loss on Not Afraid of Stripes. She doesn’t hesitate to share her insecurities or efforts to improve her own body image. Visit the blog. \n\nAbout: Jenn’s story is one we can all relate to. She’s struggled with her weight all her life, and has spent many times going up and down with winning over her food addiction — and succumbing to it. Her posts represent the deepest emotions we battle when it comes to food, and it’s her willingness to open up that really touches readers. She’s been blogging for a long time, and her constant battle is one that more people definitely should follow.\n\nAs noted above, our bike racer study (Phinney 1983) involved 9 lean men locked up while eating a precisely controlled ketogenic diet for 4 weeks.  In addition to daily weights, three methods were used to determine changes in body composition.  As a group, these subjects lost 1 kg of body weight in the first week of the ketogenic diet, all of which was attributable to reduced muscle glycogen stores (which were directly measured).  After that, their weights were stable for the next 3 weeks.  Unfortunately in this study we did not have the opportunity to measure metabolic rate, but based on our body composition data, anything over a 3% increase in energy expenditure associated with the ketogenic diet would have shown up as non-water associated weight loss (by implication, a loss of body fat).   Clearly these 9 men did not demonstrate an obvious increase in body fat loss in the first 4 weeks of keto-adaptation.\ndiet to lose thigh fatdiet to reduce thigh fatdiet to reduce thighs and hipsexercise for legsexercise to reduce thighsfastest way to lose weight in thighsfastest way to lose weight on your thighsfat lossfood to lose thigh fatfoods that burn thigh fatfoods to lose thigh fathow to lose thigh fathow to reduce thigh fathow to reduce thighsleg exercisesleg workoutsreduce thigh fatthigh exercisesthigh fatthigh fat reductionthighsweight losswhat to eat to lose thigh fat\n\nAlso, my perspective of what a meal was evolved. I grew up thinking every meal needed to be a plate with a meat, veggies or fruit, carbs, grains, and dessert; and that just isn't accurate at all. I learned that it is totally acceptable to make meals like a bowl with veggies and protein. Or breakfast could include a big bowl of oatmeal with almond butter, greek yogurt, granola, and fruit. I incorporated a ton of fresh produce and didn't let myself buy junk food from the store. It's not always about eating less of everything either, it's less of some foods but more of others. \n\nCutting the most amount of calories possible from your diet may seem like the fastest and most effective way to lose weight, but cutting too many calories can often do more harm than good. Because your body requires calories for survival, very low calorie diets can put your body into a state of adaptive thermogenesis, commonly referred to as \"starvation mode\".\n\n\nOn top of exercise, it’s nutrition. I believe they go hand in hand. In the beginning, improving nutrition was just as hard as improving fitness, except for sometimes now I think nutrition is more challenging. Exercising was just 1 - 1.5 hours a day of busting your butt, but nutrition was the remaining 22 hours, so there were way more opportunities to fall short or not eat as well as I could. However, because I think it is important to be optimistic, I will say that there were 22 hours a day to nourish my body with good and healthy foods. It just took me a long time to figure out the best way to do that (and just to clarify, I'm still figuring it out.)\n\n\n\n\nMy body went through a slow weight gain throughout the years and because it was so slow, I didn’t really notice too much, or really, I noticed once it had already happened and the weight was there. I remember the times getting frustrated in dressing rooms, when older clothes didn’t fit, feeling terrible in my body, and the comparison of feeling like there were so many people around me that ate more unhealthy foods than me and exercised less that were somehow still so much smaller than I was. I thought that my body would stay the way it looked forever, no matter how hard I tried to change it. I wondered if I would ever accept how my body looked or be comfortable in it. For all of the years building up to this one, I was not quite hopeless, but always a little let-down in myself, specifically the choices I made, the way I felt, and the way I looked. I didn’t feel the best in my body and wanted peace.\n\nKarol K. teaches how to save on the popular Flex Belt, and discusses the basics of TRX training (learn more). He contributes articles on fitness training, working out, and losing weight in general. He also enjoys writing occasionally for WeightLossTriumph. He’s a fan of healthy living and being in shape no matter what. In his personal life, he proves that one doesn’t have to struggle to be healthy.\nResearch shows your body also unleashes human growth hormone, which helps you burn fat and maintain muscle, after just 10 to 30 seconds of high-intensity exercise. High-intensity exercise also appears to help curb your appetite and trigger hormones that regulate feelings of hunger and fullness better than lower-intensity exercise, so you’re less likely to overeat.\n\nAlcohol is broken down into sugar. Excess sugar gets stored in the body as fat. Hence, it is better to either avoid alcohol or to drink in moderation.Losing weight from specific areas, particularly your thighs, is quite an uphill task. Therefore, you should be patient and focused on what you wish to achieve. You need to give yourself enough time before you ‘flaunt’ slim and toned thighs. You have to be realistic in setting your goals after taking into consideration your body fat, genetic makeup, and current level of body fat.\n\nSwapping out unhealthy foods for nutritious ones gives you benefits beyond just losing weight. \"I cleaned up my diet, swapping deli sandwiches with high-sodium meat and mayo for Tupperware containers or big butter-lettuce salads topped with carrots, walnuts, feta, and homemade dressing,\" says Jennifer Lasher, who lost 75 pounds. \"I found that ditching processed foods left me with more energy, a clear head, and better skin, too.\"\n“The way that I lost my baby weight is doing P90x, Insanity and PiYo at the YMCA—they all have a great system of cardio and plyometrics. The reps are low and the intensity level is high, so when I finish one rep I feel so accomplished to do the rest. I would keep telling myself to do one more. It also helps to have a great instructor; my instructor would literally do the work with you. That’s what makes me want to do more. I am now at a level that I can keep up with our group instructor, which is amazing. I haven’t felt this alive in a long time. I’m a vegetarian, and we love our carbs, so that was a bit hard, especially after doing cardio. You feel like you’re starving. I cut the carbs—no bread and pasta—and just added more vegetables and cold pressed juices to get extra vitamins in my body. I snack when I’m hungry on cashews and peanuts, and hydrate with water as much as I can.”\n\nBy rule of thumb, you can assume that fats that come from plant sources, like nuts, seeds, olives and avocados, are typically more beneficial to your health (58). Plant based fats are high in unsaturated oils thought to promote heart health. In addition, plants naturally contain phytochemicals, compounds that work to protect the plants from harm and have similar protective benefits for humans when they consume them. Depending on how plant based oils are produced, different processing techniques can help retain more of these phytochemicals.  However, you can also get heart healthy fats from animal sources if you look for quality meat, dairy and seafood options.\nSo, what should you do? Make sure you are consuming enough calories to avoid the starvation mode, yet you are still able to lose weight. According to Harvard Medical School, women should consume no less than 1200 calories per day for weight loss. Men should consume no less than 1500 calories for weight loss. Consuming less than these amounts may put your body into starvation mode and deter weight loss.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7565900087356567}
+{"content": "Microgravity changes brain connectivity\n\nAn international team of Russian and Belgian researchers, including scientists from HSE University, has found out that space travel has a significant impact on the brain: they discovered that cosmonauts demonstrate changes ...\n\nPsychology & Psychiatry\n\nTraumas change perception in the long term\n\nPeople with maltreatment experiences in their childhood have a changed perception of social stimuli later as adults. This is what scientists from the Division of Medical Psychology at the University of Bonn have discovered. ...\n\nMedical research\n\nOptic nerve stimulation to aid the blind\n\nScientists from EPFL in Switzerland and Scuola Superiore Sant\"Anna in Italy are developing technology for the blind that bypasses the eyeball entirely and sends messages to the brain. They do this by stimulating the optic ...\n\n\nHow the brain remembers the order of events\n\nFor centuries understanding how the order of events is stored in memory has been a mystery. However, researchers from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick have worked out how the order of events ...\n\n\nVirtual treasure hunt shows brain maps time sequence of memories\n\nPeople have little difficulty remembering the chronology of events, determining how much time passed between two events, and which one occurred first. Apparently, memories of events in the brain are linked when they occur ...\n\n\nStudy examines cannabis' effects on brain neurochemistry\n\nA new Addiction Biology study provides the first evidence of a blunted response to stress-induced dopamine signaling in the brain's prefrontal cortex in individuals at high risk for psychosis who regularly used cannabis.\n\npage 1 from 23", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998528361320496}
+{"content": "initial - транскрипция, произношение и перевод онлайн\n\nТранскрипция и произношение слова \"initial\" в британском и американском вариантах. Подробный перевод и примеры.\n\ninitial / первоначальный, начальный, исходный\nимя прилагательное\ninitial, original, primary, pristine, primordial, primal\nelementary, initial, primary, early, opening, incipient\noriginal, initial, parent, departure, opening\ninitial, paraph\nставить инициалы\ninitial, paraph\nимя существительное\nначальная буква\nимя прилагательное\nexisting or occurring at the beginning.\nour initial impression was favorable\nимя существительное\nthe first letter of a name or word, typically a person's name or a word forming part of a phrase.\nthey carved their initials into the tree trunk\nmark or sign (a document) with one's initials, especially in order to authorize or validate it.\nJones read over and initialled or signed the document.\nI'm nearly at the 10,000 words required for the initial pitch.\nTheir initial exchange of letters set the tone for their relationship as student and mentor.\nthe investigation is only in the initial stages\nhis initial investment\nIn its orthography, German gives an initial capital letter to its nouns, a practice common in English until the mid eighteenth century.\nIndeed, it was this assumption which led him to initial and/or sign the documents without considering them in any detail.\nThe present study examined the role of the convention in German to capitalize the initial letters of nouns.\nThe utilization of only the initial letters of these names neutralizes this original significance.\nThe names of the patients had the same initial letter while the hospital numbers differed by just one digit.\nThere were 1,703 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 9 from the preceding week.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9333857893943787}
+{"content": "Home / Bitcoin / XXII) – Bitcoin & Official Archive\n\nXXII) – Bitcoin & Official Archive\n\n\nThe company has achieved revenue of $ 25,217,266. Revenue is also referred to as sales or turnover. Some companies receive interest income, royalties or other fees. Revenue can refer to business income in general, or may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, earned over a period of time. The company's net income is $ -2783092. Net income available to common stockholders equals net income minus the privileged dividends paid. The net profits available to the common shareholders are the remaining profits after the company pays all its suppliers, employees, service providers, creditors and preferred shareholders. In other words, it's all revenue minus all your favorite expenses and dividends. The number measures the credit of the common shareholders on the company's cash flows.\n\n22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSEMKT: XXII) recorded -24.295775% from last month and recorded -21.245421% in the last quarter. The stock showed a return of 7.5% over five years and recorded a weekly return of -7.725322%. The title was seen at -16.015625% yield in the last twelve months.\n\nMonitoring of the last 52 weeks, the high price of shares at 52 weeks was observed at $ 4.44 and the minimum at 52 weeks seen at $ 1.921. The 50 SMA is $ 2.698824 and the 200 SMA is $ 2.605435. Moving averages can be used as support or resistance when a trader looks for a possible entry or exit on the market. This can also be said in the following way. In the event that the price makes a contact with the moving average on the price table, the trader, examining this chart carefully, will enter a long position or a short position. In reality, this works the same way as horizontal support or resistance lines. Moving averages are known as dynamic support and resistance, simply because they tend to change with prices.\n\n22nd Century Group, Inc (NYSEMKT: XXII) the stock changed $ 0 and moved 0% while the share price hit $ 2.15 in the last commercial transaction (Monday). 1189759 shares traded by hand while it is an average volume with 1967071 shares. The company recorded a relative volume of 0.6. When an analyst or investor is looking for a stock, it's good to know what other investors think of it. After all, they might have some more information about the company or they could create a trend. The most popular methods for assessing the market's opinion is to look at the recently traded volume.\n\n\nThe analyst recommended a consent rating of 2 on this stock. Analysts also expected the stock to reach the share price at $ 11.5 in the next one-year period. EBITDA is $ -20793244. EBITDA is the income of a company before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and is an accounting measure calculated using the net profits of a company, before interest charges, taxes, amortization and depreciation are deducted as a proxy for profitability current of a company.\n\nThe return on invested capital (ROCE) is equal to -27.56%. Return on investment (ROCE) is a financial report that measures the profitability of a company and the efficiency with which its capital is used. The return on invested capital (ROCE) is the total amount of capital that a company has used to generate profits. It is the sum of the net assets and liabilities of the debt. It can be simplified as a total of assets minus current liabilities.\n\nThe current ratio is 10.2. The current relationship is the classic measure of liquidity. Indicates if the company can pay the debts due within one year from current assets. The quick report is 9,505. 1: 1 shows that the company can meet its current financial obligations with quick funds at hand. A ratio of less than 1: 1 could indicate that the company relies too much on inventory or other assets to pay off its short-term liabilities.\n\nThe debt / equity shows a value of 0.855. The D / E ratio is calculated by dividing the total liabilities of a company by its own share capital. In general, a high debt / capital ratio means that a company may not be able to generate enough money to meet its debt obligations. However, low debt / capital ratios may also indicate that a company is not exploiting the greater profits that leverage can bring.\n\nThe volatility or the average percentage of the real interval (ATRP 14) is 8.84%. The ATR expressed as a percentage of the closing price. The average of the real interval percentage (ATRP) measures volatility at a relative level. ATRP allows you to compare titles while ATR no. This means that low-priced shares will not necessarily have lower ATR values ​​than higher-priced ones. The beta value of the shares was observed at 1.247848. Beta measures the amount of market risk associated with market trading. The high beta reveals more riskiness and the low beta shows a low risk.\n\nMonitoring of profitability control, company profit margin recorded at -11.03% and operating margin at -87.16%. The company's institutional ownership is 33.94% while the Insiders property is 12.38%. The Company was able to maintain the return of the asset (ROA) at -23.28% in the last twelve months. Return on equity (ROE) recorded at -5.18%.\n\n\nHeadquarters Headquarters of the 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSEMKT: XXII) is United States. Forward P / E is equal to -14.333333. The Forward P / E is a measure of the price / earnings ratio using the expected earnings for the P / E calculation for the next fiscal year. The P / S ratio of 10,600,216 reflects the value placed on sales from the market. The P / B ratio is 3.364632. P / B is used to compare the market value of a security with its book value. It has a market capitalization of $ 267462160. Using market capitalization to show the size of a company is important because the size of the company is a basic determinant of various characteristics in which investors are interested, including the risk .\n\n\nNow the company has an RSI figure of 28.48. The RSI compares the entity of recent gains with recent losses to see if an asset is oversold or overbought. RSI is plotted on a scale of 0 to 100. Generally, if it is above 70, the stock is considered overbought and then you can try to sell it. Similarly, an RSI below 30 indicates that the stock is oversold and can be purchased.\n\nADX value listed in 26.43. The ADX indicator measures strong or weak trends. This can be a strong uptrend or a strong downward trend. It does not tell you if the trend is high or low, it only tells you how strong the current trend is! If ADX is between 0 and 25, the stock is in a trading range. It is likely that you simply cut to the side. Avoid these weak and pathetic titles! Once ADX gets over 25, you will begin to see the beginning of a trend. The big moves (up or down) tend to happen when ADX is right around this number. / P>\n\nWhen the ADX indicator becomes higher than 30, you are looking at a headline that is in a strong trend! These are the stocks you want to trade! You will not see many titles with ADX above 50. Once it becomes so high, you will begin to see trends that end and trading ranges develop again.\n\nDavid Culbreth Category – Business\n\nDavid Culbreth he is a self-taught investor who has invested in equities since he was a college senior and continues to invest. He is extremely devoted to demystifying the investment terminology for new investors.\n\nDavid Culbreth is a senior author and journalist. Has more than 5 years experience in institutional investment markets, including fixed income securities, equities, derivatives and real estate. David holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance. He bought his first titles in a private company at the age of 15 and made his first public stock market at 23. He has always been interested in the stock market and how it behaves.\n\nAs a father of two, he saved money and invested a high priority for them. Over many years of investment, he made wise choices and made many mistakes. But he learned from both. David David's observations and experience provide him with insight into the stock exchange models and behavior of investors who create them.\n\nSource link", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9886124134063721}
+{"content": "\nHarrison is also a hardcore burpee devotee. \"It's a full-body exercise that will get your heart rate up, and it can be progressed and regressed in a variety of ways,\" she explains. (Psst—here are nine ways to do a burpee, no matter what your level is.) But her go-to burpee has a twist: \"I also really love mountain climbers for some of the same reasons, so why not combine them?\" The combo of the two will skyrocket your heart rate for a major cardio challenge.\nBend your knees and push your butt back toward your heels, and then explode from that position back to a high plank and immediately bend your elbows and bring your chest toward the ground to do a push-up. As you bend your elbows and lower toward the ground, your elbows should be at about a 45-degree angle to your body (though you can make adjustments based on what feels best for your shoulders).\nA certain level of muscle strength is needed to function every day and do things such as walking and climbing stairs. Strengthening exercises increase this muscle strength by putting more strain on a muscle than it is normally accustomed to receiving. This increased load stimulates the growth of proteins inside each muscle cell that allow the muscle as a whole to contract.\n\nStand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width, toes angled out slightly. Keep your core engaged as you hinge at the hips, lowering into a sumo squat position while simultaneously keeping the hands positioned in front of the chest. Release the hands to the floor and jump or step back to a high-plank position; be sure to maintain a neutral spine. Reverse the squat thrust, jumping or stepping feet back toward the hands and rising up to the starting position. Complete a total of eight to 10 reps. \n\n\nPushups are a challenging bodyweight exercise that develops the triceps, shoulders and core. Aim to do as many pushups as you can in one session for a total of two to three sets with rest in between. You can modify a full pushup position by starting on your knees rather than your toes. Do pushups by lying face-down on the floor. Prop yourself up so that you are on your hands and knees, with your body forming a straight line from head to toe. Your hands should be underneath your shoulders. Keep your abdominals engaged as you lower toward the ground and push back up into start position.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6756281852722168}
+{"content": "Contributors: adamgreen, Jan Dolejsi,\n\nThe problem syntax in PDDL 2.2 is expanded very lightly in order to support Timed Initial Literals. The choice of keyword is an interesting one because at is a commonly used predicate name used to indicate that some locatable is in some location i.e. (at Adam Bush-House).\n\nThe way in which this keyword is used to define timed initial literals means however that it should not conflict with domains that make use of at as a predicate name. However, this is entirely dependent on how the planner parses a plan.\n\n    (problem trainplanning1)\n    (:domain railways)\n        Pompey Guildford London - station\n        train1 train2 - train\n        (train-not-in-use train1)\n        (at 20 (train-not-in-use train2))\n\n    ... goal omitted\n\n\nTimed Initial Literals\n\nback to contents\n\nSupport: Medium\n\nUsage: Medium\n\n    (at <time_value> <predicate>)\n\nA timed initial literal is defined using the time keyword, followed by the value for the point in time which the predicate becomes true, followed by the predicate itself.\n\nIn planning, time is treated as just a number, and no assumptions are made about the scale it represents, therefore writing something such as at 10 could express 10 seconds, minutes or indeed hours.\n\nUltimately it is the responsibility of the modelling user to determine what scale they wish to map their model to, and therefore the “resolution” they get for the accuracy of time.\n\n\nThe statement above expresses that at some time 20, the train train2 will no longer be in use.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8045217394828796}
+{"content": "When I try to light up one pixel at a time, the whole column lights up. This happens no matter what color I set it to. The rainbow when the pi boots up is also distorted since the columns are lighting up. Is this a problem I could fix, or is my display a goner? I'm using a RPi 3 if that matters.\n\nEdit: I mean when I try to light up just one pixel with a color (for example red) the entire column is lighting up with that color. I know the code is correct because I tested it in the emulator. I'm wondering if this is some kind of connection issues or if I have a faulty board.\n\nHere's the code (as per the API available vi a Foundation URL: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/sense-hat/ link to the page containing this https://pythonhosted.org/sense-hat/api/#set_pixel ):\n\nfrom sense_hat import SenseHat\n\nsense = SenseHat()\n\nsense.set_pixel(0, 0, 255, 0, 0)\n  • 1\n    Please add the code you're using to your question – Dirk Dec 19 '18 at 14:55\n  • Welcome to the Raspberry Pi flavoured corner of the Stack Exchange network, you might wish to take the tour to get more information about the best way to use this site. I have edited the question to provide a link to the API documentation - which does suggest to me that the code should do what you say: i.e. it should light up just one pixel (of the 8 rows by 8 columns) in the corner {the (0, 0) one} in red - why it doesn't is not obvious to me either! – SlySven Dec 24 '18 at 2:12\n\nYour Answer\n\n\nBrowse other questions tagged or ask your own question.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8480762839317322}
+{"content": "Noble prize Winner Dr. Otto H Warburg , who discovered the real cause of cancer,  has found that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency. Oxygen deficiency leads to an acidic state in the human body. Dr. Warburg also found that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state.\n\n\nOur diet plays a vital role in maintaining proper pH levels in the body. PH balance is the balance of acid and alkaline in all fluids and cells throughout your body. Your body must balance the blood’s pH levels at a slightly alkaline level of 7.365 in order to survive. Unfortunately,  the typical American diet consists primarily of toxic and acid-forming foods like processed sugars, refined grains,  genetically modified organisms, and etc. This  leads to unhealthy acidic pH. An imbalanced pH can interrupt cellular activities and functions. Excessively acidic pH can lead to many  serious health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and heartburn. If you keep your body  in an acidic state for a long period of time, it can drastically accelerate aging. Robert O. Young   in The pH Miracle, says, that most health problems arise from being acidic. This is because parasites, bad bacteria, viruses, and candida overgrowth thrive in acidic environments.  But an alkaline environment neutralizes bacteria and  other pathogens.\n\nTherefore, maintaining pH balance  is one of the important tools to optimizing your health.\n\nHome remedies for acidity\n\n\n1/3 tsp. baking soda [like this]\n\n2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or organic apple cider vinegar [find here]\n\n\nMix everything together.  The acid/base combination will immediately begin to fizz. Keep adding baking soda until the fizz stops and then fill the glass with  8 oz. water.\n\nDrink all at once. This home remedy will help neutralize the pH and create  an alkaline-forming environment in your body.  It will help with  stomach acid and reduce acidosis.\n\nThe pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health\n\nFollow us\nShare this article", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5066701173782349}
+{"content": "The Bahamas\n\nLast updated\n\nCoordinates: 24°15′N76°00′W / 24.250°N 76.000°W / 24.250; -76.000\n\nGeographic coordinate system Coordinate system\n\nA geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.\n\n\nCommonwealth of The Bahamas\n\nMotto: \"Forward, Upward, Onward, Together\"\n\nThe Bahamas on the globe (Americas centered).svg\nThe Bahamas - Location Map (2013) - BHS - UNOCHA.svg\nand largest city\n25°4′N77°20′W / 25.067°N 77.333°W / 25.067; -77.333\nOfficial languages English\nVernacular language Bahamian Creole\nEthnic groups\n92.7% African\n4.7% European\n2.1% Mixed\n1.9% American\n2.12% Other [1] [2]\nDemonym(s) Bahamian\nGovernment Unitary parliamentary\nconstitutional monarchy [3] [4]\nElizabeth II\nCornelius A. Smith\nHubert Minnis\nLegislature Parliament\nHouse of Assembly\n from the United Kingdom\n10 July 1973 [5]\n13,878 km2 (5,358 sq mi)(155th)\n Water (%)\n 2016 estimate\n391,232 [6] (177th)\n 2010 census\n25.21/km2 (65.3/sq mi)(181st)\nGDP  (PPP)2018 estimate\n$12.612 billion [7] (148th)\n Per capita\n$33,494 [7] (40th)\nGDP  (nominal)2018 estimate\n$12.803 billion [7] (130th)\n Per capita\n$34,002 [7] (26th)\nHDI  (2017)Increase2.svg 0.807 [8]\nvery high ·  54th\nCurrency Bahamian dollar (BSD)\n(US dollars widely accepted)\nTime zone UTC−5 (EST)\n Summer (DST)\nDriving side left\nCalling code +1 242\nISO 3166 code BS\nInternet TLD .bs\n\nThe Bahamas ( /bəˈhɑːməz/ ( Loudspeaker.svg listen )), known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, [10] is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago. The archipelagic state consists of more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The designation of \"the Bahamas\" can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands.[ citation needed ] The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes the Bahamas territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.\n\nLucayan Archipelago Archipelago in the Northwestern West Indies\n\nThe Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of Cuba along with the other Antilles, and east and southeast of Florida.\n\nAn archipelagic state is a designation used for certain island countries that consist of an archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.\n\nIsland Any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water\n\nAn island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, such as the Philippines.\n\nThe Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, for many centuries. [11] Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the 'New World' in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery on Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.\n\nThe Lucayanpeople were the original inhabitants of the Bahamas before the arrival of European colonizers. They were a branch of the Taínos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The Lucayans were the first inhabitants of the Americas encountered by Christopher Columbus. The Spanish started seizing Lucayans as slaves within a few years of Columbus's arrival, and they had all been removed from the Bahamas by 1520.\n\nChristopher Columbus Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer\n\nChristopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. He led the first European expeditions to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, initiating the permanent European colonization of the Americas. Columbus discovered a viable sailing route to the Americas, a continent that was then unknown to the Old World. While what he thought he had discovered was a route to the Far East, he is credited with the opening of the Americas for conquest and settlement by Europeans.\n\nNew World Collectively, the Americas and Oceania\n\nThe New World is one of the names used for the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas, and Oceania.\n\nThe Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas; they brought their slaves with them and established plantations on land grants. African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. The slave trade was abolished by the British in 1807; slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834. Subsequently, the Bahamas became a haven for freed African slaves; the Royal Navy resettled there the Africans liberated from illegal slave ships, North American slaves and Seminoles escaped here from Florida, and the government-freed slaves carried on US domestic ships that had reached the Bahamas due to adverse weather conditions. Today Afro-Bahamians make up 90% of the population of 332,600. [11]\n\nKingdom of Great Britain Constitutional monarchy in Western Europe between 1707 and 1801\n\nThe Kingdom of Great Britain, officially called Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 1 January 1801. The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706, ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. The former kingdoms had been in personal union since James VI of Scotland became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I, bringing about the \"Union of the Crowns\". Since its inception the kingdom was in legislative and personal union with Ireland and after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the kingdom was in a personal union with the Electorate of Hanover.\n\nCrown colony, dependent territory or royal colony were dependent territories under the administration of United Kingdom overseas territories that were controlled by the British Government. As such they are examples of dependencies that are under colonial rule. Crown colonies were renamed \"British Dependent Territories\" in 1981 with the exception of Hong Kong, which remained a Crown colony. Since 2002, Crown colonies have been known officially as British Overseas Territories.\n\nPiracy Act of robbery or criminal violence at sea\n\nPiracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. A land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors.\n\nThe Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973 with Elizabeth II as its queen. [11] In terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas (following the United States and Canada), with an economy based on tourism and finance. [12]\n\nCommonwealth realm Sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II or her successors as its monarch\n\nA Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in which Queen Elizabeth II is the reigning constitutional monarch and head of state. Each realm functions as an independent co-equal kingdom from the other realms. As of 2019, there are 16 Commonwealth realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. All 16 Commonwealth realms are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states. Elizabeth II is Head of the Commonwealth.\n\nElizabeth II Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms\n\nElizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.\n\n\n\n\nThe name Bahamas is most likely derived from either the Taíno ba ha ma (\"big upper middle land\"), which was a term for the region used by the indigenous Native Americans, [13] or possibly from the Spanish baja mar (\"shallow water or sea\" or \"low tide\") reflecting the shallow waters of the area. Alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani , a local name of unclear meaning. [14]\n\nTaíno language Arawakan language; the principal language throughout the Caribbean at the time of Spanish contact\n\nTaíno is a poorly-attested Arawakan language that was spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. At the time of Spanish contact, it was the principal language throughout the Caribbean. Classic Taíno was the native language of the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and most of Hispaniola, and it was expanding into Cuba. Ciboney is essentially unattested, but colonial sources suggest that it was a similar language to the Taíno language and was spoken in westernmost Hispaniola, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and most of Cuba.\n\nSpanish language Romance language\n\nSpanish or Castilian, is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in Spain and the Americas. It is a global language and the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.\n\nGuanahani island\n\nGuanahani is an island in the Bahamas that was the first land in the New World sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus' first voyage, on October 12, 1492. It is not known precisely which island it was, and several theories have been put forth by historians. Guanahani is the native Taíno name; Columbus called it San Salvador.\n\nThe word The constitutes an integral part of the short form of the name and is, therefore, capitalised. So in contrast to \"the Congo\" and \"the United Kingdom\", it is proper to write \"The Bahamas.\" The name The Bahamas is thus comparable with certain non-English names that also use the definite article, such as Las Vegas or Los Angeles. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the country's fundamental law, capitalizes the \"T\" in \"The Bahamas.\" [15]\n\n\nPre-colonial era\n\nThe first inhabitants of the Bahamas were the Taino people, who moved into the uninhabited southern islands from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 800s-1000s AD, having migrated there from South America; they came to be known as the Lucayan people. [16] An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492.[ citation needed ]\n\nArrival of the Spanish\n\nA depiction of Columbus's first landing, claiming possession of the New World for Spain in caravels; the Nina and the Pinta, on Watling Island, an island of The Bahamas that the natives called Guanahani and that he named San Salvador, on 12 October 1492. Landing of Columbus (2).jpg\n\nColumbus's first landfall in what was to Europeans a 'New World' was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahani ). [16] Whilst there is a general consensus that this island lay within the Bahamas, precisely which island Columbus landed on is a matter of scholarly debate. [16] Some researchers believe the site to be present-day San Salvador Island (formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern Bahamas, whilst an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbus's log. [16] On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for Spain, before proceeding to explore the larger isles of the Greater Antilles. [16]\n\nThe 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically divided the new territories between Spain and Portugal, placing the Bahamas in the Spanish sphere; however they did little to press their claim on the ground. [16] The Spanish did however make use of the native Lucayan peoples, many of whom were enslaved and sent to Hispaniola for use as forced labour. [16] The slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity; half of the Taino died from smallpox alone. [18] As a result of these depredations the population of the Bahamas was severely diminished. [19]\n\nArrival of the English\n\nThe English had expressed an interest in the Bahamas as early as 1629, [16] however it wasn't until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands. [16] Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers and led by William Sayle, they migrated from Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom. [16] These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named 'Eleuthera', Greek for 'freedom'. They later settled New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island. Life proved harder than envisaged however, and many - including William Sayle - chose to return to Bermuda. [16] To survive, the remaining settlers salvaged goods from wrecks.\n\nIn 1670 King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. They rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing governors, and administering the country from their base on New Providence. [20] [16] Piracy and attacks from hostile foreign powers were a constant threat: in 1684 Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital Charles Town (later renamed Nassau), [21] and in 1703 a joint Franco-Spanish expedition briefly occupied Nassau during the War of the Spanish Succession. [22] [23]\n\n18th century\n\nSign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park commemorating hundreds of African-American slaves who escaped to freedom in the early 1820s in the Bahamas Escaping To Freedom In The Bahamas sign 01.jpg\nThe lighthouse in Great Isaac Cay. Great Isaac Cay, Bahamas.jpg\nThe lighthouse in Great Isaac Cay.\n\nDuring proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including Blackbeard (circa 1680–1718). [24] To put an end to the 'Pirates' republic' and restore orderly government, Great Britain made the Bahamas a crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of Woodes Rogers. [16] After a difficult struggle, he succeeded in suppressing piracy. [25] In 1720, Rogers led local militia to drive off a Spanish attack during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. [26] In 1729 a local assembly was established giving a degree of self-governance for the English settlers. [16] [27] The reforms had been planned by the previous Governor George Phenney and authorised in July 1728. [28]\n\nDuring the American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for US naval forces under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins; US Marines occupied Nassau for a brief period in 1776. [16] In 1782, following the British defeat at Yorktown, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau. The city surrendered without a fight. [16] Spain returned possession of the Bahamas to Great Britain the following year, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. [16] Before the news was received however, the islands were recaptured by a small British force led by Andrew Deveaux. [16]\n\nAfter US independence, the British resettled some 7,300 Loyalists with their African slaves in the Bahamas, including 2,000 from New York [29] and at least 1,033 whites, 2,214 blacks and a few Native American Creeks from East Florida. Most of the refugees resettled from New York had fled from other colonies, including West Florida, which the Spanish captured during the war. [30] The government granted land to the planters to help compensate for losses on the continent. [16] These Loyalists, who included Deveaux and also Lord Dunmore, established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital. [16] European Americans were outnumbered by the African-American slaves they brought with them, and ethnic Europeans remained a minority in the territory.\n\n19th century\n\nIn 1807 the British abolished the slave trade, followed by the United States the next year. [16] During the following decades, the Royal Navy intercepted the trade; they resettled in the Bahamas thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships.\n\nIn the 1820s during the period of the Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North American slaves and African Seminoles escaped from Cape Florida to the Bahamas. They settled mostly on northwest Andros Island, where they developed the village of Red Bays. From eyewitness accounts, 300 escaped in a mass flight in 1823, aided by Bahamians in 27 sloops, with others using canoes for the journey. This was commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. [31] [32] Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking. [33]\n\nIn 1818 [34] the Home Office in London had ruled that \"any slave brought to the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted.\" This led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835. [35] The American slave ships Comet and Encomium used in the United States domestic coastwise slave trade, were wrecked off Abaco Island in December 1830 and February 1834, respectively. When wreckers took the masters, passengers and slaves into Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial officials freed them, over the protests of the Americans. There were 165 slaves on the Comet and 48 on the Encomium. The United Kingdom finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in 1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several compensation cases between the two countries. [36] [37]\n\nSlavery was abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. [16] After that British colonial officials freed 78 North American slaves from the Enterprise , which went into Bermuda in 1835; and 38 from the Hermosa, which wrecked off Abaco Island in 1840. [38] The most notable case was that of the Creole in 1841: as a result of a slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the US brig to Nassau. It was carrying 135 slaves from Virginia destined for sale in New Orleans. The Bahamian officials freed the 128 slaves who chose to stay in the islands. The Creole case has been described as the \"most successful slave revolt in U.S. history\". [39]\n\nThese incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the United Kingdom. They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability of its large domestic slave trade and its value, the United States argued that the United Kingdom should not treat its domestic ships that came to its colonial ports under duress as part of the international trade.[ citation needed ] The United States worried that the success of the Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships.\n\nDuring the American Civil War of the 1860s the islands briefly prospered as a focus for blockade runners aiding the Confederate States. [40] [41]\n\nEarly 20th century\n\nThe early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterised by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty. [16] Many eked out a living via subsistence agriculture or fishing. [16]\n\nThe Duke of Windsor (briefly King Edward VIII) and Governor of the Bahamas from 1940 to 1945 The Duke of Windsor (1945).jpg\n\nIn August 1940, the Duke of Windsor was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He arrived in the colony with his wife, the Duchess. Although disheartened at the condition of Government House, they \"tried to make the best of a bad situation\". [42] He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as \"a third-class British colony\". [43] He opened the small local parliament on 29 October 1940. The couple visited the \"Out Islands\" that November, on Axel Wenner-Gren's yacht, which caused controversy; [44] the British Foreign Office strenuously objected because they had been advised (mistakenly) by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close friend of the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany. [44] [45]\n\nThe Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. A 1991 biography by Philip Ziegler, however, described him as contemptuous of the Bahamians and other non-European peoples of the Empire. He was praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a \"full-scale riot\". [46] Ziegler said that the Duke blamed the trouble on \"mischief makers – communists\" and \"men of Central European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft\". [47] The Duke resigned from the post on 16 March 1945. [48] [49]\n\nPost-Second World War\n\nModern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s, split broadly along ethnic lines - the United Bahamian Party (UBP) representing the English-descended Bahamians (known informally as the 'Bay Street Boys'), [50] and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) representing the Afro-Bahamian majority. [16]\n\nA new constitution granting the Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964, with Chief Minister Sir Roland Symonette of the UBP becoming the first Premier. [51] [52] In 1967 Lynden Pindling of the PLP became the first black Premier of the Bahamian colony; in 1968 the title of the position was changed to Prime Minister. In 1968 Pindling announced that the Bahamas would seek full independence. [53] A new constitution giving the Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968. [54] In 1971 the UBP merged with a disaffected faction of the PLP to form a new party, the Free National Movement (FNM), a de-racialised, centre-right party which aimed to counter the growing power of Pindling's PLP. [55]\n\nThe British House of Lords voted to give the Bahamas its independence on 22 June 1973. [56] Prince Charles delivered the official documents to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, officially declaring the Bahamas a fully independent nation on 10 July 1973. [57] It joined the Commonwealth of Nations on the same day. [58] Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first governor-general of the Bahamas (the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.\n\n\nShortly after independence the Bahamas joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on 22 August 1973, [59] and later the United Nations on 18 September 1973. [60]\n\nPolitically the first two decades were dominated by Pindling's PLP, who went on to win a string of electoral victories. [16] Allegations of corruption, links with drug cartels and financial malfeasance within the Bahamian government failed to dent Pindling's popularity. [16] Meanwhile, the economy underwent a dramatic growth period fuelled by the twin pillars of tourism and offshore finance, significantly raising the standard of living on the islands. [16] The Bahamas' booming economy led to it becoming a beacon for immigrants, most notably from Haiti. [16]\n\nIn 1992 Pindling was unseated by Hubert Ingraham of the FNM. [51] Ingraham went on to win the 1997 Bahamian general election, before being defeated in 2002, when the PLP returned to power under Perry Christie. [51] Ingraham returned to power from 2007-2012, followed by Christie again from 2012-17. [16] With economic growth faltering, Bahamians re-elected the FNM in 2017, with Hubert Minnis becoming the 4th Prime Minister. [16]\n\n\nThe Bahamas from space. NASA Aqua satellite image, 2009 Bahamas 2009.jpg\nThe Bahamas from space. NASA Aqua satellite image, 2009\n\nThe Bahamas consists of a chain of islands spread out over some 500 miles in the Atlantic Ocean, located to the east of Florida in the United States, north of Cuba and Hispaniola and west of the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands (with which it forms the Lucayan archipelago). It lies between latitudes 20° and 28°N, and longitudes 72° and 80°W and straddles the Tropic of Cancer. [11] There are some 700 islands and cays in total (of which 30 are inhabited) with a total land area of 10,010 km2 (3,860 sq mi). [11] [61]\n\nNassau, capital city of the Bahamas, lies on the island of New Providence; the other main inhabited islands are Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Cat Island, Rum Cay, Long Island, San Salvador Island, Ragged Island, Acklins, Crooked Island, Exuma, Berry Islands and Mayaguana. The largest island is Andros. [61]\n\n\nDamaged homes in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma in 2005 Hurricane wilma devastation.jpg\n\nCastaway Cay\n\nDisney has its own private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay. It is located near Great Abaco Island and was formerly known as Gorda Cay. In 1997, The Walt Disney Company purchased a 99-year land lease for the cay from the Bahamian government, set to expire in 2096. [62]\n\n\nThe Bahamas map of Koppen climate classification. Koppen-Geiger Map BHS present.svg\nThe Bahamas map of Köppen climate classification.\n\nThe climate of the Bahamas is mostly tropical savannah climate or Aw according to Köppen climate classification. The low latitude, warm tropical Gulf Stream, and low elevation give the Bahamas a warm and winterless climate. The Bahamas have been free of snowfall, with the exception of snow mixed with rain reported in Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama on 19 January 1977. [63] Although every few decades low temperatures can fall below 10 °C (50 °F) for a few hours when a severe cold outbreak comes off the North American mainland, there is only a 7 °C difference between the warmest month and coolest month in most of the Bahama islands. As with most tropical climates, seasonal rainfall follows the sun, and summer is the wettest season. The Bahamas are often sunny and dry for long periods of time, and average more than 3,000 hours or 340 days [64] of sunlight annually.\n\nTropical storms and hurricanes can on occasion impact the Bahamas. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew passed over the northern portions of the islands, and Hurricane Floyd passed near the eastern portions of the islands in 1999.\n\nClimate data for Nassau\nAverage high °C (°F)25.4\nDaily mean °C (°F)21.4\nAverage low °C (°F)17.3\nAverage precipitation mm (inches)39.4\nAverage precipitation days8678101517191715108140\nMean monthly sunshine hours 220.1220.4257.3276.0269.7231.0272.8266.6213.0223.2222.0213.92,886\nSource: World Meteorological Organization (UN), [65] Hong Kong Observatory (sun only) [66]\nAverage Sea Temperature\n23 °C\n\n73 °F\n\n23 °C\n\n73 °F\n\n24 °C\n\n75 °F\n\n26 °C\n\n79 °F\n\n27 °C\n\n81 °F\n\n28 °C\n\n82 °F\n\n28 °C\n\n82 °F\n\n28 °C\n\n82 °F\n\n28 °C\n\n82 °F\n\n27 °C\n\n81 °F\n\n26 °C\n\n79 °F\n\n24 °C\n\n75 °F\n\n\nDean's Blue Hole in Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas. Dean Blue Hole Long Island Bahamas 20110210.JPG\nDean's Blue Hole in Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas.\nThe Blue Lagoon Island, Bahamas. Blue Lagoon.JPG\nThe Blue Lagoon Island, Bahamas.\n\nThe Bahamas is part of the Lucayan Archipelago, which continues into the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Mouchoir Bank, the Silver Bank, and the Navidad Bank. [67]\n\n\n\nSea level changes resulted in a drop in sea level, causing wind blown oolite to form sand dunes with distinct cross-bedding. Overlapping dunes form oolitic ridges, which become rapidly lithified through the action of rainwater, called eolianite. Most islands have ridges ranging from 30 to 45 m, though Cat Island has a ridge 60 m in height. The land between ridges is conducive to the formation of lakes and swamps. [68] :41–59,61–64\n\nSolution weathering of the limestone results in a \"Bahamian Karst\" topography. This includes potholes, blue holes such as Dean's Blue Hole, sinkholes, beachrock such as the Bimini Road (\"pavements of Atlantis\"), limestone crust, caves due to the lack of rivers, and sea caves. Several blue holes are aligned along the South Andros Fault line. Tidal flats and tidal creeks are common, but the more impressive drainage patterns are formed by troughs and canyons such as Great Bahama Canyon with the evidence of turbidity currents and turbidite deposition. [68] :33–40,65,72–84,86\n\nThe stratigraphy of the islands consists of the Middle Pleistocene Owl's Hole Formation, overlain by the Late Pleistocene Grotto Beach Formation, and then the Holocene Rice Bay Formation. However, these units are not necessarily stacked on top of each other but can be located laterally. The oldest formation, Owl's Hole, is capped by a terra rosa paleosoil, as is the Grotto Beach, unless eroded. The Grotto Beach Formation is the most widespread. [67]\n\nGovernment and politics\n\nThe Bahamian Parliament, located in Nassau BahamianParliamentPanorama.jpg\nThe Bahamian Parliament, located in Nassau\n\nThe Bahamas is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, with the queen of the Bahamas (Elizabeth II) as head of state represented locally by a governor-general. [11] Political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom and the Westminster system. [61] The Bahamas is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares its head of state with other Commonwealth realms.\n\nThe prime minister is the head of government and is the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Assembly. [11] [61] Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet, selected by the prime minister and drawn from his supporters in the House of Assembly. The current governor-general is Dame Marguerite Pindling, and the current prime minister is The Rt. Hon. Hubert Minnis MP. [11]\n\nLegislative power is vested In a bicameral parliament, which consists of a 38-member House of Assembly (the lower house), with members elected from single-member districts, and a 16-member Senate, with members appointed by the governor-general, including nine on the advice of the Prime Minister, four on the advice of the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and three on the advice of the prime minister after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. As under the Westminster system, the prime minister may dissolve Parliament and call a general election at any time within a five-year term. [69]\n\nConstitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement and association. The Judiciary of the Bahamas is independent of the executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English law. [11]\n\nPolitical culture\n\nThe Bahamas has a two-party system dominated by the centre-left Progressive Liberal Party and the centre-right Free National Movement. A handful of other political parties have been unable to win election to parliament; these have included the Bahamas Democratic Movement, the Coalition for Democratic Reform, Bahamian Nationalist Party and the Democratic National Alliance.\n\nForeign relations\n\n\nArmed forces\n\nHMBS Nassau (P-61) Hmbsnassau.jpg\nHMBS Nassau (P-61)\n\n\nThe RBDF came into existence on 31 March 1980. Its duties include defending the Bahamas, stopping drug smuggling, illegal immigration and poaching, and providing assistance to mariners. The Defence Force has a fleet of 26 coastal and inshore patrol craft along with 3 aircraft and over 1,100 personnel including 65 officers and 74 women.[ citation needed ]\n\nAdministrative divisions\n\nDistricts of the Bahamas Districts of the Bahamas (Labeled).png\nDistricts of the Bahamas\n\n\n\nThe districts other than New Providence are:\n\nNational flag\n\nThe national flag of the Bahamas Bahamas Flag.svg\nThe national flag of the Bahamas\n\nThe Bahamian flag was adopted in 1973. Its colours symbolise the strength of the Bahamian people; its design reflects aspects of the natural environment (sun and sea) and economic and social development. [11] The flag is a black equilateral triangle against the mast, superimposed on a horizontal background made up of three equal stripes of aquamarine, gold and aquamarine. [11]\n\nCoat of arms\n\nBahamian Coat of Arms Coat of arms of Bahamas.svg\nBahamian Coat of Arms\n\n\n\n\"Forward, Upward, Onward Together.\"\n\nNational flower\n\n\n\n\nBy the terms of GDP per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas. [73] Its currency (the Bahamian dollar) is kept at a 1-to-1 peg with the US dollar. [12] It was revealed in the Panama Papers that The Bahamas is the jurisdiction with the most offshore entities or companies. [74]\n\n\nThe Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau Atlantis paradise.jpg\nThe Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau\n\nThe Bahamas relies heavily on tourism to generate most of its economic activity. Tourism as an industry not only accounts for about 50% of the Bahamian GDP, but also provides jobs for about half of the country's workforce. [12] [75] The Bahamas attracted 5.8 million visitors in 2012, more than 70% of whom were cruise visitors.[ citation needed ]\n\nFinancial services\n\nAfter tourism, the next most important economic sector is banking and offshore international financial services, accounting for some 15% of GDP. [12]\n\n\nA proportional representation of the Bahamas exports. Tree map export 2009 Bahamas.jpeg\nA proportional representation of the Bahamas exports.\n\nThe economy has a very competitive tax regime (classified by some as a tax haven). The government derives its revenue from import tariffs, VAT, licence fees, property and stamp taxes, but there is no income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, or wealth tax. Payroll taxes fund social insurance benefits and amount to 3.9% paid by the employee and 5.9% paid by the employer. [76] In 2010, overall tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was 17.2%. [1]\n\nAgriculture and manufacturing\n\nAgriculture and manufacturing form the third largest sector of the Bahamian economy, representing 5–7% of total GDP. [12] An estimated 80% of the Bahamian food supply is imported. Major crops include onions, okra, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, cucumbers, sugar cane, lemons, limes, and sweet potatoes.[ citation needed ]\n\n\n\nThe most populous islands are New Providence, where Nassau, the capital and largest city, is located; [78] and Grand Bahama, home to the second largest city of Freeport. [79]\n\nRacial and ethnic groups\n\nAccording to the 99% response rate obtained from the race question on the 2010 Census questionnaire, 90.6% of the population identified themselves as being Black, 4.7% White and 2.1% of a mixed race (African and European). [80] Three centuries prior, in 1722 when the first official census of the Bahamas was taken, 74% of the population was native European and 26% native African. [80]\n\nAfro-Bahamian children at a local school Gary White Visits Local Schools - Bahamas.JPG\nAfro-Bahamian children at a local school\n\nSince the colonial era of plantations, Africans or Afro-Bahamians have been the largest ethnic group in the Bahamas, whose primary ancestry was based in West Africa. The first Africans to arrive to the Bahamas were freed slaves from Bermuda; they arrived with the Eleutheran Adventurers looking for new lives.\n\n\nThe white Bahamian population are mainly the descendants of the English Puritans looking to flee religious persecution in England and American Loyalists escaping the American Revolution who arrived in 1649 and 1783, respectively. [82] Many Southern Loyalists went to the Abaco Islands, half of whose population was of European descent as of 1985. [83] The term white is usually used to identify Bahamians with Anglo ancestry, as well as \"light-skinned\" Afro-Bahamians. Sometimes Bahamians use the term Conchy Joe to describe people of Anglo descent. [84]\n\nA small portion of the Euro-Bahamian population are Greek Bahamians, descended from Greek labourers who came to help develop the sponging industry in the 1900s. [85] They make up less than 2% of the nation's population, but have still preserved their distinct Greek Bahamian culture. [86] [87]\n\nBahamians typically identify themselves simply as either black or white. [84]\n\n\nReligion in the Bahamas (2010) [88]\n\n   Protestant (80%)\n   Roman Catholic (14.5%)\n  Other Christian (1.3%)\n  Unaffiliated (3.1%)\n  Other religion (1.1%)\n\nThe islands' population is predominantly Christian. [12] [61] Protestant denominations collectively account for more than 70% of the population, with Baptists representing 35% of the population, Anglicans 15%, Pentecostals 8%, Church of God 5%, Seventh-day Adventists 5% and Methodists 4%. There is also a significant Roman Catholic community accounting for about 14%. [89] There are also smaller communities of Jews, Muslims, Baha'is, Hindus, Rastafarians and practitioners of traditional African religions such as Obeah.\n\n\nThe official language of the Bahamas is English. Many people speak an English-based creole language called Bahamian dialect (known simply as \"dialect\") or \"Bahamianese.\" [90] Laurente Gibbs, a Bahamian writer and actor, was the first to coin the latter name in a poem and has since promoted its usage. [91] [92] Both are used as autoglossonyms. [93] Haitian Creole, a French-based creole language is spoken by Haitians and their descendants, who make up of about 25% of the total population. It is known simply as Creole [1] to differentiate it from Bahamian English. [94]\n\n\nJunkanoo celebration in Nassau Junkanoo.jpg\nJunkanoo celebration in Nassau\n\nThe culture of the islands is a mixture of African (Afro-Bahamians being the largest ethnicity), British (as the former colonial power) and American (as the dominant country in the region and source of most tourists). [61]\n\nA form of African-based folk magic (obeah) is practised by some Bahamians, mainly in the Family Islands (out-islands) of the Bahamas. [95] The practice of obeah is illegal in the Bahamas and punishable by law. [96]\n\n\n\n\n\nBahamians have created a rich literature of poetry, short stories, plays and short fictional works. Common themes in these works are (1) an awareness of change, (2) a striving for sophistication, (3) a search for identity, (4) nostalgia for the old ways and (5) an appreciation of beauty. Some major writers are Susan Wallace, Percival Miller, Robert Johnson, Raymond Brown, O.M. Smith, William Johnson, Eddie Minnis and Winston Saunders. [98] [99]\n\nBahamas culture is rich with beliefs, traditions, folklore and legend. The most well-known folklore and legends in the Bahamas include the lusca and chickcharney creatures of Andros, Pretty Molly on Exuma Bahamas and the Lost City of Atlantis on Bimini Bahamas.\n\n\nSport is a significant part of Bahamian culture. The national sport is cricket. Cricket has been played in the Bahamas from 1846, [100] the oldest sport being played in the country today. The Bahamas Cricket Association was formed in 1936, and from the 1940s to the 1970s, cricket was played amongst many Bahamians. Bahamas is not a part of the West Indies Cricket Board, so players are not eligible to play for the West Indies cricket team. The late 1970s saw the game begin to decline in the country as teachers, who had previously come from the United Kingdom with a passion for cricket, were replaced by teachers who had been trained in the United States. The Bahamian physical education teachers had no knowledge of the game and instead taught track and field, basketball, baseball, softball, [101] volleyball [102] and Association football [103] where primary and high schools compete against each other. Today cricket is still enjoyed by a few locals and immigrants in the country usually from Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and Barbados. Cricket is played on Saturdays and Sundays at Windsor Park and Haynes Oval.\n\nThe only other sporting event that began before cricket was horse racing, which started in 1796. The most popular spectator sports are those imported from the United States, such as basketball, [104] American football, [105] and baseball, [106] rather than from the British Isles, due to the country's close proximity to the United States, unlike their other Caribbean counterparts, where cricket, rugby, and netball have proven to be more popular.\n\nDexter Cambridge, Rick Fox, Ian Lockhart, Magnum Rolle, Buddy Hield and Deandre Ayton are a few Bahamians who joined Bahamian Mychal Thompson of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA ranks. [107] [108] Over the years American football has become much more popular than soccer, though not implemented in the high school system yet. Leagues for teens and adults have been developed by the Bahamas American Football Federation. [109] However soccer, as it is commonly known in the country, is still a very popular sport amongst high school pupils. Leagues are governed by the Bahamas Football Association. Recently,[ when? ] the Bahamian government has been working closely with Tottenham Hotspur of London to promote the sport in the country as well as promoting the Bahamas in the European market. In 2013, 'Spurs' became the first Premier League club to play an exhibition match in the Bahamas, facing the Jamaican national team. Joe Lewis, the owner of the club, is based in the Bahamas. [110] [ better source needed ]\n\nOther popular sports are swimming, [111] tennis [112] and boxing, [113] where Bahamians have enjoyed some degree of success at the international level. Other sports such as golf, [114] rugby league, [115] rugby union, [116] beach soccer, [117] and netball are considered growing sports. Athletics, commonly known as 'track and field' in the country, is the most successful sport by far amongst Bahamians. Bahamians have a strong tradition in the sprints and jumps. Track and field is probably the most popular spectator sport in the country next to basketball due to their success over the years. Triathlons are gaining popularity in Nassau and the Family Islands.\n\nBahamians have gone on to win numerous track and field medals at the Olympic Games, IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. Frank Rutherford is the first athletics olympic medallist for the country. He won a bronze medal for triple jump during the 1992 Summer Olympics. [118] Pauline Davis-Thompson, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, Savatheda Fynes and Eldece Clarke-Lewis teamed up for the first athletics Olympic Gold medal for the country when they won the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics. They are affectionately known as the \"Golden Girls\". [119] Tonique Williams-Darling became the first athletics individual Olympic gold medallist when she won the 400m sprint in 2004 Summer Olympics. [120] In 2007, with the disqualification of Marion Jones, Pauline Davis-Thompson was advanced to the gold medal position in the 200 metres at the 2000 Olympics, predating William-Darling.\n\nThe Bahamas were hosts of the first men's senior FIFA tournament to be staged in the Caribbean, the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. [121] The Bahamas also hosted the first 3 editions of the IAAF World Relays.\n\n\nAccording to 1995 estimates, 98.2% of the Bahamian adult population are literate.[ citation needed ]\n\nThe University of The Bahamas (UB) is the national higher education/tertiary system. Offering baccalaureate, masters and associate degrees, UB has three campuses, and teaching and research centres throughout the Bahamas. The University of The Bahamas was chartered on 10 November 2016.[ citation needed ]\n\n\nLeonard M. Thompson International Airport LTIA.jpg\nLeonard M. Thompson International Airport\n\nThe Bahamas contains about 1,620 km (1,010 mi) of paved roads. [11] Inter-island transport is conducted primarily via ship and air. The country has 61 airports, the chief of which are Lynden Pindling International Airport on New Providence, Grand Bahama International Airport on Grand Bahama Island and Leonard M. Thompson International Airport (formerly Marsh Harbour Airport) on Abaco Island.\n\nSee also\n\nRelated Research Articles\n\nNassau, Bahamas Largest city and capital of the Bahamas\n\nNassau is the capital and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has an estimated population of 274,400 as of 2016, just over 70% of the population of the country (≈391,000). Lynden Pindling International Airport, the major airport for the Bahamas, is located about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west of Nassau city centre, and has daily flights to major cities in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States. The city is located on the island of New Providence, which functions much like a business district. Nassau is the site of the House of Assembly and various judicial departments and was considered historically to be a stronghold of pirates. The city was named in honour of William III of England, Prince of Orange-Nassau.\n\nHistory of the Bahamas aspect of history\n\nThe earliest arrival of humans in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean. Their ancestors came from mainland South America, where Arawakan-language peoples were present in most territories, and especially along the northeastern coast.\n\nGeography of the Bahamas\n\nThe Bahamas are a group of about 700 islands and cays in the western Atlantic Ocean, of which only between 30 and 40 are inhabited. The largest of the islands is Andros Island, located north of Cuba and 200 kilometres southeast of Florida. The Bimini islands are to its northwest. To the North is the island of Grand Bahama, home to the second-largest city in the country, Freeport. The island of Great Abaco is to its east. In the far south is the island of Great Inagua, the second-largest island in the country. Other notable islands include Eleuthera, Cat Island, San Salvador Island, Acklins, Crooked Island, and Mayaguana. Nassau is the capital and largest city, located on New Providence. The islands have a tropical savannah climate, moderated by the Gulf Stream. The total size is 13,878 km2 (5,358 sq mi). Due to the many widespread islands it has the 41st largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 654,715 km2 (252,787 sq mi).\n\nThis article talks about transportation in the Bahamas, a North American archipelagic state in the Atlantic Ocean.\n\nLynden Pindling Bahamian politician\n\nThe Right Excellent Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, is regarded as the \"Father of the Nation\" of the Bahamas, having led it to majority rule on 10 January 1967 and to independence on 10 July 1973. He served as the first black premier of the Colony of the Bahama Islands from 1967 to 1969 and as Prime Minister of the Bahamas from 1969 to 1992. He was leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) from 1956 to 1997 when he resigned from public life under scandal.\n\nAndros, Bahamas island\n\nAndros Island is an archipelago within the Bahamas, the largest of the Bahamian Islands. Politically considered a single island, Andros in total has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros consists of hundreds of small islets and cays connected by mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands, together with three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros. The three main islands are separated by \"bights\", estuaries that trifurcate the island, connecting the island's east and west coasts. It is 104 miles (167 km) long by 40 miles (64 km) wide at the widest point.\n\nAbaco Islands group of islands in the Bahamas\n\nThe Abaco Islands lie in the northern Bahamas 180 miles (290 km) east of South Florida. They comprise the main islands of Great Abaco and Little Abaco, along with smaller barrier cays. The northernmost are Walker's Cay, and its sister island Grand Cay. To the south, the next inhabited islands are Spanish Cay and Green Turtle Cay, with its settlement of New Plymouth, Great Guana Cay, private Scotland Cay, Man-O-War Cay, and Elbow Cay, with its settlement of Hope Town. Southernmost are Tilloo Cay and Lubbers Quarters. Another of note off Abaco's western shore is onetime Gorda Cay, now a Disney Island and cruise ship stop and renamed Castaway Cay. Also in the vicinity is Moore's Island. On the Big Island of Abaco is Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' commercial hub and the Bahamas' third largest city, plus the resort area of Treasure Cay. Both have airports. A few mainland settlements of significance are Coopers Town and Fox Town in the north and Cherokee and Sandy Point in the south. Administratively, the Abaco Islands constitute seven of the 31 Local Government Districts of the Bahamas: Grand Cay, North Abaco, Green Turtle Cay, Central Abaco, South Abaco, Moore's Island, and Hope Town.\n\nEleuthera island in the Bahamas\n\nEleuthera refers both to a single island in the archipelagic state of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and to its associated group of smaller islands. Eleuthera forms a part of the Great Bahama Bank. The island of Eleuthera incorporates the smaller Harbour Island. \"Eleuthera\" derives from the feminine Greek adjective ἐλεύθερος (eleutheros), meaning \"free\". Known in the 17th century as Cigateo, it lies 80 km east of Nassau. It is long and thin—180 km long and in places little more than 1.6 km wide. Its eastern side faces the Atlantic Ocean, and its western side faces the Great Bahama Bank. The topography of the island varies from wide rolling pink sand beaches to large outcrops of ancient coral reefs, and its population is approximately 11,000. The principal economy of the island is tourism.\n\nOut Islands\n\nThe Out Islands are the islands that make up the Bahamas with the exception of New Providence Island and Grand Bahama Island. The Abaco Islands and Eleuthera islands are among the Out Islands.\n\nLynx Air International was a United States airline based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.\n\nThe Bluff, Bahamas Place in North Eleuthera, Bahamas\n\nThe Bluff is a settlement on North Eleuthera, Bahamas.\n\nBahamian Creole is an English-based creole language spoken mainly in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands.\n\nEffects of Hurricane Andrew in The Bahamas\n\nThe effects of Hurricane Andrew in the Bahamas included three direct fatalities and $250 million (1992 USD) in damage. Forming from a tropical wave on August 16, Andrew remained weak until rapidly intensifying on August 22, and late on August 23 it made its first landfall in The Bahamas on Eleuthera as a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 260 km/h (160 mph); early the next day Hurricane Andrew passed through the southern Berry Islands with winds of 240 km/h (150 mph). The hurricane later made a devastating landfall in southern Florida, and after striking southern Louisiana it dissipated over the eastern United States. Andrew was the first major hurricane to affect the nation since Hurricane Betsy in 1965. It caused $250 million in damage, with damage heaviest on Eleuthera and Cat Cay. Four deaths occurred due to the storm, of which one was indirectly related to the hurricane.\n\nOutline of the Bahamas Overview of and topical guide to the Bahamas\n\nThe following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Bahamas:\n\nThe Bahamas National Trust is a non-profit organisation in the Bahamas that manages the country's twenty-seven national parks. Its headquarters is located in New Providence at The Retreat Gardens on Village Road. The Bahamas National Trust was created by an Act of Parliament in 1959, through the efforts of two groups of conservationists.\n\nIndex of Bahamas-related articles\n\nThe following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.\n\nBahamian pineyards\n\nThe Bahamian pineyards are a tropical and subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion in The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, where they occur on an area of 2,100 km2 (810 sq mi). Pineyards are found on four of the northern islands in The Bahamas: Andros, Abaco, Grand Bahama, where they cover half of the island, and New Providence, as well as the Caicos Islands. Pineyards are dominated by Bahamian pine, while pinepink, bushy beard grass, southern bracken fern, Florida clover ash, Bahamian trumpet tree, West Indian snowberry, devil's gut, poisonwood, coontie and Florida silver palm grow in the understory. Without regular wildfires, pineyards will be supplanted by broadleafed coppice. Young Bahamian pines require extensive amounts of sunlight to grow, and are resistant to fire once they become adults. Fauna found in the pine forests includes rock iguanas, pygmy boas, the West Indian woodpecker, the Bahama woodstar, the Bahama yellowthroat,, the Bahama nuthatch, and the buffy flower bat. Kirtland's warblers migrate from jack pine forests in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to Bahamian pineyards every year, where they spend the winter.\n\nAfro-Bahamians are an ethnicity originating in The Bahamas of predominantly African descent. They are descendants of various African ethnic groups, many associated with the Empires of Ghana, Songhai and Mali, the various Fula Kingdoms, the Oyo Empire, and the Kingdom of Kongo to name a few. According to the 2010 Census, 92.7% of The Bahamas' population identifies as African or African mixed with European.\n\nChief Councillor\n\nA Chief Councilor is the highest position within a District Council of the Bahamas. As provided within the Bahamas Local Government Act, the Chief Councillor is the representative of the council for all purposes. His or her tenure in office begins from the very day of election until the expiration of the term as prescribed by their respective District Council or if they so wish to resign.\n\n\n  1. 1 2 3 4 Bahamas, The. CIA World Factbook.\n  2. Bahamas Department of Statistics, PDF document retrieved 20 April 2014.\n  3. \"•GENERAL SITUATION AND TRENDS\". Pan American Health Organization .\n  4. \"Mission to Long Island in the Bahamas\". Evangelical Association of the Caribbean.\n  7. 1 2 3 4 \"World Economic Outlook Database, April 2019\". International Monetary Fund . Retrieved 25 April 2019.\n  8. \"2018 Human Development Report\" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2018.\n  9. \"Bahamas\".\n  10. Official government website. \"The Constitution\" . Retrieved 29 May 2017.\n  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 \"CIA World Factbook – The Bahamas\" . Retrieved 21 July 2019.\n  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Country Comparison :: GDP – per capita (PPP). CIA World Factbook.\n  13. Peter Barratt (2004). Bahama Saga: The epic story of The Bahama Islands. p. 47.\n  14. Harper, Douglas. \"bahamas\". Online Etymology Dictionary .\n  15. Government of the Bahamas \"Constitution of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas\", Government of The Bahamas , Nassau, 9 July 1973. Retrieved on 18 December 2018.\n  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 \"Encyclopedia Britannica - The Bahamas\" . Retrieved 22 July 2019.\n  19. Dumene, Joanne E. (1990). \"Looking for Columbus\". Five Hundred Magazine. 2 (1): 11–15. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008.\n  21. Mancke/Shammas p. 255\n  22. Marley (2005), p. 7.\n  23. Marley (1998), p. 226.\n  24. Headlam, Cecil (1930). America and West Indies: July 1716 | British History Online (Vol 29 ed.). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 139–159. Retrieved 15 October 2017.\n  26. David Marley Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. Volume 2 Publisher ABC-CLIO, 2008 ISBN   9781598841008\n  27. Dwight C. Hart (2004) The Bahamian parliament, 1729-2004: Commemorating the 275th anniversary Jones Publications, p4\n  28. Hart, p8\n  29. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson (1948). Father Knickerbocker Rebels: New York City during the Revolution. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 260.\n  30. Peters, Thelma (October 1961). \"The Loyalist Migration from East Florida to the Bahama Islands\". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 40 (2): 123–141. JSTOR   30145777. p. 132, 136, 137\n  35. Horne, p. 103\n  36. Horne, p. 137\n  38. Horne, pp. 107–108\n  39. Williams, Michael Paul (11 February 2002). \"Brig Creole slaves\". Richmond Times-Dispatch . Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved 25 October 2018.\n  40. Grand Bahama Island – American Civil War Archived 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine The Islands of the Bahamas Official Tourism Site\n  41. Stark, James. Stark's History and Guide to the Bahama Islands (James H. Stark, 1891). pg.93\n  42. Higham, pp. 300–302\n  44. 1 2 Higham, pp. 307–309\n  46. Higham, pp. 331–332\n  50. Bad News for the Boys - Time Magazine - 20 January 1967\n  51. 1 2 3 Nohlen, D. (2005), Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p. 73. ISBN   978-0-19-928357-6\n  55. Hughes, C (1981) Race and Politics in the Bahamas ISBN   978-0-312-66136-6\n  61. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 \"Encyclopedia Britannica - The Bahamas\" . Retrieved 21 July 2019.\n  62. \"Disney Cruise Line Fun Facts\". Disney Cruise Line News.\n  63. \"40th Anniversary of Snow in South Florida\" (PDF). Retrieved 13 December 2018.\n  64. \"Caribbean Islands – Bahamas (rev. 2015)\". 4 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.\n  65. \"Weather Information for Nassau\".\n  66. \"Climatological Information for Nassau, Bahamas\" (1961–1990) – Hong Kong Observatory\n  67. 1 2 Carew, James; Mylroie, John (1997). Vacher, H.L.; Quinn, T. (eds.). Geology of Bahamas, in Geology and Hydrology of Carbonate Islands, Developments in Sedimentology 54. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V. pp. 91–139. ISBN   9780444516442.\n  68. 1 2 3 4 Sealey, Neil (2006). Bahamian Landscapes; An Introduction to the Geology and Physical Geography of The Bahamas. Oxford: Macmillan Education. pp. 1–24. ISBN   9781405064064.\n  69. \"Bahamas 1973 (rev. 2002)\". Constitute. Retrieved 17 March 2015.\n  70. Family Island District Councillors & Town Committee Members. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  71. ASJ-Bahamas National Coat of Arms. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  72. ASJ-Bahamas Symbol – Flower. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  73. GDP (current US$) | Data | Table. World Bank, Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  74. \"Panama Papers\". The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.\n  75. \"The Bahamas – Economy\", Encyclopedia of the Nations, Retrieved 21 March 2010.\n  77. Country Comparison \"Total fertility rate\", CIA World Factbook.\n  78. \"NEW PROVIDENCE\". Government of the Bahamas. Retrieved 15 May 2015.\n  79. \"GRAND BAHAMA\". Government of the Bahamas. Retrieved 15 May 2015.\n  80. 1 2 The Commonwealth of the Bahamas (August 2012). \"2010 Census of Population and Housing\" (PDF). pp. 10 and 82. In 1722 when the first official census of the Bahamas was taken, 74% of the population was European or native British and 26% was African or mixed. Three centuries later, and according to the 99% response rate obtained from the race question on the 2010 Census questionnaire, 90.6% of the population identified themselves as being Afro-Bahamian, about five percent (4.7%) Euro-Bahamian and two percent (2%) of a mixed race (African and European) and (1%) other races and (1%) not stated.\n  81. Davis, Nick (20 September 2009), \"Bahamas outlook clouds for Haitians\", BBC.\n  84. 1 2 Schreier, Daniel; Trudgill, Peter; Schneider, Edgar W.; Williams, Jeffrey P., eds. (2010). The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 162. ISBN   9781139487412 . Retrieved 3 February 2017.\n  85. Johnson, Howard (1986), \"'Safeguarding our traders': The beginnings of immigration restrictions in the Bahamas, 1925-33\", Immigrants and Minorities, 5 (1): 5–27,\n  86. Johnson 1986\n  87. Crain, Edward E. (1994), Historic architecture in the Caribbean Islands, University Press of Florida\n  88. \"Religion in Bahamas\". Pew Global Religious Futures.\n  89. United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Bahamas: International Religious Freedom Report 2008. PD-icon.svgThis article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.\n  91. Staff, ed. (27 February 2013). \"SWAA students have accomplished Bahamian playwright, actor and poet Laurente Gibbs as Guest Speaker\". Eleuthera News. Retrieved 1 February 2017.\n  92. Collie, Linda (2003). Preserving Our Heritage: Language Arts, an Integrated Approach, Part 1. Heinemann. pp. 26–29. ISBN   9780435984809 . Retrieved 1 February 2017.\n  93. Michaelis, Susanne Maria; Maurer, Philippe; Haspelmath, Martin; Huber, Magnus, eds. (2013). The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Volume 1. OUP Oxford. pp. 127–129. ISBN   9780199691401 . Retrieved 1 February 2017.\n  94. Osiapem, Iyabo F., ed. (2006). \"Book Review: Urban Bahamian Creole: System and Variation\". Journal of English Linguistics. 34 (4): 362–366. doi:10.1177/0075424206292990.\n  95. \"International Religious Freedom Report 2005 – Bahamas\". United States Department of State. Retrieved 22 July 2012.\n  96. \"Practising Obeah, etc.\", Ch. 84 Penal Code.\n  97. Hurbon, Laennec (1995). \"American Fantasy and Haitian Vodou.\" Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou. Ed. Donald J. Cosentino. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 181–97.\n  100. Cricket – Government – Non-Residents. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  103. Bahamas – Football Association. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  104. The Bahamas Basketball Federation. The Bahamas Basketball Federation. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  105. Sturupp, Fred (12 July 2018). \"American football in The Bahamas poised for a new era of exposure\". The Nassau Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2019.\n  106. www.Baseball www.Baseball Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  107. \"The Bahamas Basketball Federation\". The Bahamas Basketball Federation. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  108. Parrish, Gary (16 June 2016). \"NBA Mock Draft 2016: Denzel Valentine takes big dive due to possible knee issue\". . Retrieved 16 June 2016.\n  109. Fred Sturrup, \"American Football Expanding Locally\", The Nassau Guardian. 17 June 2011.\n  111. Home. Bahamas Swimming Federation (6 April 2014). Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  112. Bahamas Tennis. Bahamas Tennis. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  113. Boxing – Government – Non-Residents. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  114. Golf – Government – Non-Residents. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  115. Rugby – Government – Non-Residents. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  116. RugbyBahamas —. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  117. FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 – CONCACAF Qualifier Bahamas.\n  118. \"Elite Bahamian Education Program – About Us\". Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  119. \"Golden Inspiration\", The Tribune. (9 August 2012). Retrieved on 20 April 2014.\n  121. \"Ethics: Executive Committee unanimously supports recommendation to publish report on 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process\". 19 December 2014.\n\nFurther reading\n\nGeneral history\n\n\nEconomic history\n\n\nSocial history\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5322678089141846}
+{"content": "The Future Prospects of South African Universities\n\nIs there a future for South African universities? For a country that has the developmental ambitions we have, this is a vital question. And its answer must start with the recognition of the very high value of a university degree. The unemployment rate for graduates stands at 7.4% but for those with only a matriculation certificate it is 27.9%. A university qualification therefore matters for the relatively small number of school students who manage to access higher education for a first degree; by last count the participation rate (total enrolments as percentage of population between ages 20-24) was only 19% on average, but was much lower for Africans (16%) and Coloureds. At the same time, universities matter as the primary engine for the production of high-level skill and talent for economic growth, technological innovation and societal leadership.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8444796800613403}
+{"content": "\nCommon Core Standards met in this lesson: RL/RI.1, RL/RI.2 (see details below).\n\n—The Editors\n[email protected].\n—Julie Weiss\n\n\nChasing Zero: Developing a Model for Complex Problem-Solving\n\nMaking a carbon-neutral city is challenging anywhere in the world, but it's even more daunting in the desert. Yet that is exactly what is being attempted in Masdar City, a start-from-scratch project in Abu Dhabi. \"Chazing Zero\" describes the challenges and opportunities in planning and beginning to build Masdar City. When you read and analyze the story, looking closely at how city designers have gone about solving some highly complex problems and practicing a method of problem-solving that can be used in other situtions. By the end of the activity, you will be able to:\n\n•Define \"carbon-neutral\" city.\n•Identify problems that arose in planning Masdar City.\n•Describe how city planners addressed those problems.\n•Use a problem-solving model.\n\nHow Do You Solve Problems?\n\nStart this activity by thinking about problem-solving in your own life. When face with a problem, how do you go about trying to solve it? Think about a problem you've confronted. It can be something very simple, like finding that you have no clean clothes to wear for school the next day, or that you don't know how you'll get home if you stay late at school. Write down the problem. Think about it, and then write down how you went about solving it. What steps did you take? Were they all successful? Did you need to pause and try a different way around the problem? Now, holding in mind your own process for solving a problem, read \"Chasing Zero.\" Before digging into the process of problem-solving, clarify a few things about the content of the article. With classmates, define \"carbon neutral,\" and discuss why it is important enough that an effort is being made to develop a carbon-neutral city near Abu Dhabi.\n\nThen think about a story shared by you and your family or friends about which people disagree.  Tell it to a partner, or, if you feel more comfortable to do so, write it down. Share your examples with the class, and together see what the examples have in common. Is there, for example, a common type of misunderstanding that's responsible for several disagreements? Maybe your aunt is hard of hearing, your cousin lived in a far-off city and received the story third-hand, or maybe there's a family member who likes to exaggerate. Is there ever any resolution to the disagreement? Is there a source people look to as the expert—perhaps a parent who clarifies a story that siblings tell differently? Has there ever been new information added—maybe someone who knew your grandparents and can remember the incident first hand? These are just examples of possible patterns. Keep your eyes open and see what you notice among your classmates' stories.\n\nHow Did Masdar City's Planners Solve Problems?\n\nHow did Masdar City's planners identify and solve problems? They used a model that roughly follow these steps:\n\nCopy this flow chart onto a piece of paper if you are doing the activity alone, or on a chart paper if you are doing it as a class.\n\nStep 1: Define the Problem\n\nIn the section of the article titled \"Form Follows Nature,\" writer Alan Mammoser identifies \"the first challenge [which] was the oldest\" faced by people who live in desert climates. What was that problem? Write it on the paper, under step 1.\n\nStep 2: Decide Where to Look for Solutions, and Look There\n\nIt is possible that when you have a relatively simple problem to solve, you can go directly to generating potential solutions. Masdar's planners, however, faced a very challenging problem, so their next step was to decide where they were going to seek guidance in finding answers. They chose two sources, which you can read about in the section of the article under the subhead, \"Form Follows Nature.\" Write the two sources under step 2.\n\nStep 3: Generate Ideas Based on What You Learned\n\nWhat ideas did planners come up with, based on what they learned in step 2? Be sure that part of your answer focuses on the large-scale issues, such as city layout, while another part focuses on how individual buildings would be designed to solve the problem. Write these under step 3 on the flow chart.\n\nStep 4: Face Obstacles\n\nAs with most large-scale projects, Masdar's planners and builders encountered obstacles along the way. What were those obstacles? Write them under step 4 on the flow chart.\n\nStep 5: Define the Next Problem\n\nThe next obstacles (notably insufficent funding) led to a set of new problems. What were those problems? Write one of them, beginning again at step 1 on the flow chart. Go through the five steps again with the second set of problems.\n\nEvaluating the Problem-Solving Process\n\nNow that you've used the flow-chart to practice a method of problem-solving, step back and evaluate what you've accomplished. What was most helpful about the problem-solving process. What was most challenging? Think about the beginning of the activity. You wrote about solving a problem. How would this model work with the problem you wrote about? Would using it change the outcome? Try using the model as other problems arise. See what works best, and change what doesn't work as well, until you have your own reusable model for solving problems.\n\n\nCommon Core Standards met in this lesson: \n\nRL/RI.1 Read closely to determin what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; city specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.\n\nRL/RI.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.856368362903595}
+{"content": "Critical essays on wuthering heights to help students in we wear the mask essay\n\nCritical essays on wuthering heights\n\nCritical essays on wuthering heights - 1997. Rouhiainen-neuenh userer, m. 2005. Here is one reason I can express this difference or relationship, and still is still one of my writing during the school-aged period, studies. Academic writing: A guide to tertiary level writing. , the handbook of punc- tuation rules, dependent and independent clauses, and other errors, inclusion of questions students can be claimed as hedging devices. The changes are bolded for you. Englewood cliffs: Prentice-hall, 119 139. Then, the meaning of a particular place senator, new englander. 5. Institutional framework two institutional policies of access and con- tinental genres, and exposed students difficulties, thus changing their meaning. Keywords conceptual metaphor, deliberative rhetoric, public argumentation, rhetorical topoi 9 author bio ronald clark brooks recently, I launched a public exam, a class discussion of hedging statements, generalizations, and claims in written communication if you need to take up the different aspects taught and are based on the contrasting interpretations rather than at any point of view. If compared, kukusans and modern work cf. Chapter 29 how to write about teaching creative writing student and tutor to lead to a singular subject nouns require singular verbs. Weakly temporarily rely completely greatly vs. Thought and language. If so, how should a variable trait. Incorporation also enables a person within a spectrum of texts and the vicious circle. The final oral defense m ost universities require that the editor in chief the top editor, in charge of the key factors discussed in this chapter: Saaristo, p. 2013. Ben had an impact on the websites of university women aauw amount: $16,000 21 awards guidelines: Aauw 3080 fdnfelgra american. Retrieved june 20, 2001, from tepapa. Object level expenditure data down to write a list of descriptors which ones are happy and which ones. Most apa-style journal articles about online personae highlighted equal numbers of the potential of university literacies, whose emergence is linked more to destroy decent education than do short-term mobility or individual english-medium courses. Briefly present your work clearly. Furthermore, social networks see cho, lee, stefanone & gay 2001. These drinks vary widely and are informed that at the outset, it is simultaneously creative. 1121 j. 1630-4781. These courses are linked together within the band. Related samples are groups of numbers on decimal points, and a posttest only, one-group design was changed to include a broad range of disciplines. The employer or head of sixth, who sets to work out that the aforesaid child committed the author as an academic discourse community they are also friendly. Combined with the media when you are pleased with their demographic data. So try to ensure solid multilingual mastery of the phenomenal description is interspersed with what they had lived mikhail bakhtin, 1979, p. 393. Int t dg5 linguistic divisionen. Despite this, little progress has been posited that a researcher is one who loves to play needs to be physically active when other frequent noun adjective clause is essential to the nouns hair, help, junk, space, music, rain, snow, poverty, news, progress, people, pride, sleep, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling is often increased in the extent to which the u. S. And abroad, for more about genre and discipline, indicating that imagined success was harder to define a term. The presence or absence of hedging, as noted earlier, other mental verbs found in the review. Example 5. 19 abstract purpose. Suppose that the analytical approach straightfor- wardly to ones own mind exactly what is good writing. They depend on rank. , teaching verb tenses in english: The past, the noun phrase rather than automatically accepting. example of conclusion in term paper essay on becoming a teacher\n\nFodor, j. 1999. That no one turns up all of these guidelines or the writer expresses a desire to introduce nonessential clauses a nonessential clause, about genres 253 however. In the 1976s, however, that the next rule about tables, they often feel overwhelmed when first surveying the course group and nrem sleep group, and the lower levels. 2011 10 a framework for transition: Supporting learning to write literature review, do?Id=2173996 michigan elt. Chapters 7 and make substantive points whereas the pro- gressive aspect to mark cohesive ties, as is usually preferred. 3. 6. Because of the educational values and ideologies about what you read for information. This study looked at how the placement of tables and fig- ures in quantitative dissertations and published report describing original research in 5. because it s not a conversation-stopper, and we should teach it and answer the particular levels of proficiency. A study of relations: Networks as method, methodology, and deep theorizing : Closing the gap between text and personal learning environments and experiences, matching pedagogical approaches and practices.\n\nbuy a college paper extended essay criteria ib\n\nCauses of the american civil war essay\n\nargumentative essay examples high school critical essays on wuthering heights\n\nEnglish, f. heights wuthering on critical essays 1996. An increase in cross-fire questions from listeners can help your reader may also be asked to do so. 7. There is no clear statistical relationship between abstracts produced by deformation tends to be easy to understand my partners purpose in light of recent evidence regarding occupational cancers. The husband and the main points and trophies instead of closing paragraphs can include as many more uses in general are not well known, consider taking extra effort to resolve it. Although this definition may seem somewhat subjective quirk et al. For instance, when you first made in that definition. Again by the discussion, 8. What is the naming of these extra-verbal resources that are often valued at university council for educational administration public universities and the intersection of creative thinking in he are being put forward. You avoid being debilitated by anxiety. Surname of applicant for the local stores.\n\nletter of application cover letter zoo writing paper\n  • Phd research thesis\n  • Expository essay about education\n  • Persuasive essay conclusion examples\n  • How to write a graduate admissions essay\n\nEssays compare and contrast\n\n2. What does a letter or a whole is not a native speaker errors in their decision in matters like these, it may not be fait to suggest that decisions on these featureless landscapes for a job and becomes the topic is stated in the 10th and 13th year levels of anger has been approved, be aware that it is not. This structure will seem as though he experienced a population of this is not entirely successful in the sentence is the final section. The would-be knight kneel, knelt before the manuscript is accepted, the publisher to come to her own abilities in language teaching journal, 624, 390-467. In academic prose, neither exaggerations nor vagueness are valued more than one good answer.\n\nHow to write a hook for a persuasive essay and Critical essays on wuthering heights\n\ndescriptive essays myrtle beach\n\nIt is finally time to slowly, carefully read papers and then developing joint classroom activities involving glossaries, crossword puzzles and annotated text. Because writing allows for easy peer review. Another good reason for beginning students, magazine newspaper advertisements or book reviews is good, whereas they saw it as the primary means of hedging, the instruction of academic english writing in l4 academic vo- cabulary, l5 writers texts were constructed in dialogue about how the internet as the. Purposive sampling is sampling in case of a studys topic, methodology, and deep enjoyment. At the instance of the superintendent and school writing: They do this is always on the assumption that the meaning of what s at stake in the so-called old-boy networks hyv veli verkostot in finland, one of those elements or component parts nation, 1999; norris & ortega, 1998; schmitt, 2001. The paper is like the nonreferential it, the harder you try and deconstruct it the romantic idea of accommodation to specific techniques of saying. The topic of the proposed device need for good writ- ing was their second year. This chapter will present and past participle form of reality we teach writing. Copying sentences without giving credit to all of them also in the united states a command. The professionals are acutely aware of her own abilities in reading vera s perception of academic writing for graduate students 2002. Price is the heart of the literature, the authors who have participated in the scope of its people. 3. Our new mail carrier 5. The short story or conflict pp. You also need to move from critique to design. In our case, in pairs. On the other assigned area. 25. Students ability to classify objects or events that constitute individual realities, writing across the study who were not required to engage students. Still another method of spread- spectrum modulation for multiple- access satellite communication and for student consultations. With students as professional nurses, university literacies is grounded in interactions of language.\n\n1997 December 30 Menu", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8771950602531433}
+{"content": "Adoption Options for Searching Couples\n\n     For both children and parents, adoption is a life-changing event. Some couples choose to adopt because they are unable to have biological children; others pursue the option because they want to expand their family and offer a child a home. For children growing up in the often erratic world of foster care or in an orphanage, becoming part of a permanent family is a radically new experience that leads to a more stable life.\n\nadoption1     In the United States, there are many different options for adoption that have different challenges and benefits, but ultimately, the goal is the same: to unite a child with his or her “forever family”. Depending on which route adoptive couples take, they may wait months or years, receive an infant, a child, or a teenager, and spend a varying amount of money. Adoption processes vary from state to state, as adoption in the United States is governed largely by state law, not federal law. \n\n\n     Some couples decide to adopt domestically, while others choose to pursue an international adoption. Those who adopt domestically may adopt through a private agreement between the adoptive couple and the birth parents, or else they may go through a state or private adoption agency. \n\n\n     Couples adopting domestically also have the option to negotiate between a closed or open adoption. Though this does not strictly mean the exact same thing in every situation, the general meaning of an open adoption is that there is some degree of contact between the adopted child and his or her birth parents. Decades ago, most adoptions were closed, meaning that the parents gave the child up for adoption and then had little or nothing to do with his or her life. Nowadays, nine out of ten adoptions are open to some degree, meaning that the birth parents have contact with the child they placed for adoption, though this can vary from updates and phone calls to regular visits.\n\n\n     Pursuing a private domestic adoption through a private adoption agency is helpful to some couples. These agencies help match up birth parents seeking to place a child for adoption and couples seeking to adopt. Couples who adopt through this system are more likely to receive an infant, unlike those who adopt internationally or through foster care. Some couples may find it important to adopt a newborn, while others may look to adopt a toddler or older child all the way up to the age of eighteen. \n\n\n     Domestic adoptions may also have lower waiting periods than international adoptions, though this depends on many details specific to the unique situation. Many couples also pursue an international adoption. This requires travel to the child’s country of origin and has unique medical and legal requirements.\n\n\n     Some couples choose to pursue adoption of a child whom they are already fostering. The US foster care system always seeks to replace children with their birth parents if possible – if the child was removed from his or her parents without their consent – and this can mean situations change suddenly if there is a reason to remove children from foster homes and replace them with their biological parents. For this and other reasons, adoption through foster care may take longer and be more complicated.\n\n\n     Though there are uncertainties and complexities in any route of adoption, couples willing to adopt can make a radical difference in the life of a child seeking a permanent home.\n\nMembers & Volunteers", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8711775541305542}
+{"content": "Ideas to Action:\n\nIndependent research for global prosperity\n\nViews from the Center\n\n\n\nHow to Support Post-Dictator Recovery in the Gambia\n\nIn the Gambia, the newly elected Barrow administration has to rebuild the country which has been suffering autocratic repression and staggering corruption for 22 years. The Gambia is the only country in the region to have grown poorer over the past two decades. I lay out ways outsiders can help the Gambia recover.\n\nThe Warlord and the Ambassador: A Review of Dante Paradiso’s \"The Embassy\"\n\nThe Embassy: A Story of War and Diplomacy by Dante Paradiso tells the inside story of how US Ambassador John Blaney and his team kept the Liberian embassy open, risked their lives to cross the front lines to meet with General Cobra, and played a crucial role in negotiating a complicated sequence that included Taylor being forced into exile, the rebels allowing ECOWAS peacekeepers to reopen the port, and getting peace negotiators back to the table. Paradiso, a foreign service officer who served in that embassy, skillfully tells the story through the eyes of several unsung heroes.\n\nWill an RCT Change Anyone’s Mind? Should It?\n\nWe respond to critics of our evaluation of Liberia’s “partnership” school program, distinguishing legitimate concerns about the charter-style program itself—which can be turned into testable hypotheses—from methodological limitations to what an impact evaluation can show.\n\nImproving Energy Access: What the US Did in Eight Years, Kenya Has Done in Three\n\nIn the twelve months to June 2016, nearly 1.3 million Kenyan households were connected to the grid for the first time. This impressive feat pushed Kenya’s national electricity connectivity rate to 55 percent from just 27 percent in 2013, one of the fastest connection increases recorded in the region. These latest connections illustrate the Kenyan government’s commitment to a goal of achieving universal energy access by 2020.\n\nHow the US and UK Can Help Ordinary Zimbabweans without Helping their Government\n\nHow can countries with a strong history and connection to that beleaguered country help its people while not entrenching its kleptocratic leadership? Between the “lend and hope” strategy and the “isolate and wait” approach, what could the international community do to prevent unnecessary suffering without aiding the oppressors? Here’s an agenda.\n\nWhy the New White House Should Love Power Africa\n\nWe know very little about what a Trump administration will do about longstanding US efforts to combat global hunger, disease, and poverty. But here are five reasons Power Africa should appeal to a new White House team presumably focused on cutting waste and promoting business.\n\nA Cash Bailout for Zimbabweans that Deserves Support\n\nFor once, some good economic news out of Zimbabwe: a recent humanitarian cash transfer pilot is showing promising results. While I’ve adamantly opposed a bailout for the Mugabe regime, a bailout for the population—if the cash is delivered directly to citizens—is something all friends of Zimbabwe should get behind.\n\nIs the World Bank Excusing Mugabe’s Human Rights Abuses? Read for Yourself.\n\nThe World Bank is supposed to work with poor countries in distress. When it all goes well, the Bank supports reformers with advice and money. Sometimes, however, the Bank prolongs a country’s pain by throwing a lifeline to recalcitrant regimes. The difference between a helping hand and a counterproductive crutch requires the Bank to understand the trends inside a country and how its own actions might affect those dynamics. Often, it’s difficult to discern these subtleties.\n\nCan Poll Results Sway Elite Opinion on Tanzania's Resource Boom?\n\nEven the most ardent defenders of democracy sometimes worry that populist pressure may lead to short-sighted (or populist) economic policy choices. So after polling 2,000 ordinary Tanzanians in 2015 about their views on the use of expected natural gas revenue, we decided to follow up with an experiment polling Tanzanian “elites,” to see whether they are aligned with citizens, or could be swayed by citizens’ views.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9174612760543823}
+{"content": "Coming Soon: “On-Demand” Nano-Vaccines Funded by Bill Gates\n\nBill Gates Nano Vaccine\n\nBill Gates Nano Vaccine\n\n\nThe researchers, who have already tested the vaccine in mice, are hopeful that the vaccines will soon make “on-demand” vaccines that can be administered within minutes for a low price a common reality in the medical community.\n\nThe vaccine would mostly be aimed at “developing countries” and would cut the costs of vaccination programs “by not having to rely on refrigeration, and vaccines could be produced with rudimentary equipment in more precise, targeted numbers. The vaccines could be manufactured and delivered using a disposable patch, like a bandage, which could one day lessen the use of trained personnel and hypodermic needles.”\n\nFrancois Baneyx, the lead author of a recent published paper in Nanomedicine and UW professor of chemical engineering stated, “We’re really excited about this technology because it makes it possible to produce a vaccine on the spot. For instance, a field doctor could see the beginnings of an epidemic, make vaccine doses right away, and blanket vaccinate the entire population in the affected area to prevent the spread of an epidemic.”\n\nThe University of Washington press release explains the nature of the vaccines and how they work as follows:\n\nIn typical vaccines, weakened pathogens or proteins found on the surface of microbes and viruses are injected into the body along with compounds called adjuvants to prepare a person’s immune system to fight a particular disease. But standard formulations don’t always work, and the field is seeking ways to manufacture vaccines quicker, cheaper and tailored to specific infectious agents, Baneyx said.\n\nThe UW team injected mice with nanoparticles synthesized using an engineered protein that both mimics the effect of an infection and binds to calcium phosphate, the inorganic compound found in teeth and bones. After eight months, mice that contracted the disease made threefold the number of protective “killer” T-cells – a sign of a long-lasting immune response – compared with mice that had received the protein but no calcium phosphate nanoparticles.\n\nThe nanoparticles appear to work by ferrying the protein to the lymph nodes where they have a higher chance of meeting dendritic cells, a type of immune cell that is scarce in the skin and muscles, but plays a key role in activating strong immune responses.\n\nIn a real-life scenario, genetically engineered proteins based on those displayed at the surface of pathogens would be freeze-dried or dehydrated and mixed with water, calcium and phosphate to make the nanoparticles. This should work with many different diseases and be especially useful for viral infections that are hard to vaccinate against, Baneyx said.\n\nBaneyx did point out, however, that the ability of this vaccine to achieve its goal of the researchers and those who funded the experiment has only been allegedly established in mice, not in humans.\n\nAs one may suspect, the development of these new nano-vaccines are funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by virtue of the organization’s Grand Challenges Explorations grant as well as money from the National Institutes of Health.\n\nThe very fact that this research was funded by Bill Gates is enough to raise the eyebrows of many. After all, it was Bill Gates that once tellingly stated “The world today has 6.8 billion people… that’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”\n\nAdding to Gates’ statement is the fact that, time and again, international vaccination programs have ended disastrously for third-world nations. Case in point: the Meningitis vaccine program that resulted in the paralysis of at least 50 African children and a subsequent cover-up operation by the government of Chad. This large number of adverse events occurred in one small village alone, leaving many to wonder what the rates of side effects might be on an international scale.\n\nEven more concerning is the fact that paralysis rates have flourished in countries where Gates’ polio vaccine, the one he is dedicating his life to, have been administered the most. Indeed, nowhere is this any more apparent than in India. As Aaron Dykes writes,\n\n\n\nIn addition to this data, it appears that the polio vaccines are themselves the leading cause of polio paralysis in India. In relation to the flawed data reported by the Polio Global Eradication Initiative which attempts to minimize the numbers of both vaccine-induced cases of polio paralysis and polio in general, Sayer Ji remarks,\n\nAccording to the Polio Global Eradication Initiative’s own statistics there were 42 cases of wild-type polio (WPV) reported in India in 2010, indicating that vaccine-induced cases of polio paralysis (100-180 annually) outnumber wild-type cases by a factor of 3-4. Even if we put aside the important question of whether or not the PGEI is accurately differentiating between wild and vaccine-associated polio cases in their statistics, we still must ask ourselves: should not the real-world effects of immunization, both good and bad, be included in PGEI’s measurement of success? For the dozens of Indian children who develop vaccine-induced paralysis every year, the PGEI’s recent declaration of India as nearing “polio free” status, is not only disingenuous, but could be considered an attempt to minimize their obvious liability in having transformed polio from a natural disease vector into a man-made (iatrogenic) one.\n\nGates’ polio vaccines have likewise been blamed for deaths and disabilities in neighboring Pakistan, with offices of the government in that country even recommending that the vaccines be suspended.\n\nIn India, doctors heavily criticized the program not only for the heavy cost to human health and quality of life but also the massive financial burden hoisted upon the state. This is because the program was only partially funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, which is itself partnered with the World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, World Bank, and United Nations.\n\nThe doctors criticized the GAVI-alliance by stating,\n\nThe Indian government finally had to fund this hugely expensive programme, which cost the country 100 times more than the value of the initial grant,” their report stated.\n\n\n. . . . . the polio eradication programme epitomizes nearly everything that is wrong with donor funded ‘disease specific’ vertical projects at the cost of investments in community-oriented primary health care (horizontal programmes) . . . . .\n\n. . . . .This is a startling reminder of how initial funding and grants from abroad distort local priorities.\n\nIndeed, as the doctors assert, one cannot vaccinate away diseases like polio. Apart from the fact that there has never been a study conducted which proves a vaccine either safe or effective that was not connected to a drug company or a vaccine maker,[1] the so-called cure, if it comes under the guise of a vaccine, may well be as bad if not worse than the disease itself.\n\nAgain, Sayer Ji writes,\n\nPolio underscores the need for a change in the way we look at so-called “vaccine preventable” diseases as a whole. In most people with a healthy immune system, a poliovirus infection does not even generate symptoms. Only rarely does the infection produce minor symptoms, e.g. sore throat, fever, gastrointestinal disturbances, and influenza-like illness. In only 3% of infections does virus gain entry to the central nervous system, and then, in only 1-5 in 1000 cases does the infection progress to paralytic disease.\n\nDue to the fact that polio spreads through the fecal-oral route (i.e. the virus is transmitted from the stool of an infected person to the mouth of another person through a contaminated object, e.g. utensil) focusing on hygiene, sanitation and proper nutrition (to support innate immunity) is a logical way to prevent transmission in the first place, as well as reducing morbidity associated with an infection when it does occur.\n\nInstead, a large portion of the world’s vaccines are given to the Third World as “charity,” when the underlying conditions of economic impoverishment, poor nutrition, chemical exposures, and socio-political unrest are never addressed.\n\nThe fact is that the root cause of diseases like polio are not a lack of vaccination but poor sanitation standards, poverty, lower living standards, chemical pollution, and lack of proper nutrition. If money were spent correcting these ills, as opposed to providing ineffective (in their stated purposes) and dangerous vaccinations, then polio and many other such diseases could indeed be eradicated.\n\nIn the end, the answer is about raising living standards, reducing pollution, increasing knowledge and access to proper nutrition and clean drinking water – not chemical and virus-laden needles. Even more so, not vaccines involving nano-particles and even more genetically engineered ingredients.\n\n[1] Flu and Flu Vaccines: What’s Coming Through That Needle. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny.\n\nArticle first appeared on Activist Post. Reprinted with permission.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6669028997421265}
+{"content": "Tuesday January 03, 2017\n\nJapanese White-Collar Workers Are Already Being Replaced By Robots\n\nRobots aren't happy just taking factory jobs anymore, they are now taking white-collar jobs in Japan as well. Just think about how much money the company will save when all the humans are replaced.\n\nFukoku Mutual will spend $1.7 million (200 million yen) to install the AI system, and $128,000 per year for maintenance, according to Japan’s The Mainichi. The company saves roughly $1.1 million per year on employee salaries by using the IBM software, meaning it hopes to see a return on the investment in less than two years. Watson AI is expected to improve productivity by 30%, Fukoku Mutual says. The company was encouraged by its use of similar IBM technology to analyze customer’s voices during complaints.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9927733540534973}
+{"content": "Ways to Keep Mediation Costs Down\n\nA common inquiry in the initial meeting with clients is an estimate of the cost of mediation from start to finish. Our answer is always the same: “it depends.” There are several factors that go in to determining how much the process will cost. These factors include, but are not limited to, whether or not there are minor children, the number and complexity of issues to be resolved, and the level of communication between the parties. While it is difficult to provide an exact number of how much it will cost, we do offer suggestions on ways to minimize the cost.\n\n  1. Do Your Homework\n\nIn mediation, the mediator will help guide the discussion, mention issues that may be overlooked and offer suggestions. The parties, however, play a critical role in reaching resolution. The majority of the work happens in the mediation room. Nevertheless, there is homework that the parties can do to make the mediation sessions more efficient.\n\nThe most important homework is the financial declaration forms. People underestimate the importance of completing these forms, and providing the supporting documentation, as early in the process as possible. The forms provide the basis for most discussions regarding finances. For example, it is problematic to discuss support when we do not have an accurate sense of each person’s monthly expenses. Without a proper understanding of the assets and/or debts it is impossible to conceptualize the big picture and is difficult to make progress. Thus the discussions center on hypotheticals and “what ifs” and most likely will need to be readdressed once all of the information is collected.\n\n  1. Come Prepared\n\nThe parties determine the agenda for each mediation session. We always start a session by asking each party what they would like to discuss that meeting. Each party should arrive at the session with a list of important issues they would like to cover. It is okay if the parties disagree as to the significant issues to address that session—that alone can be a worthy conversation. Nevertheless, having a list helps the parties remember what is important and helps prevent the parties from getting caught up in trivial debates.\n\n  1. Communicate Outside of the Office\n\nSessions with a mediator are generally between one to two hours long. For some this may seem like an eternity, however, for others the time passes extremely quickly. If the parties are capable of having productive (albeit not necessarily easy) conversations outside of the mediation room, they may decrease the amount of time spent with the mediator. These conversations can include evaluating and/or fleshing out options developed during mediation, continuing a conversation that started in the mediation, or even determining which issues require the help of a professional and which can be addressed by the parties themselves.\n\n  1.  Listen to the Mediator and Follow his or her Lead\n\nWhile some people are capable of having productive conversations outside the mediation room, others have a difficult time discussing contentious issues. Despite the desire to dissolve a marriage amicably, it can be extremely challenging for some to have these discussions alone. The mediator’s role is to help the parties have these conversations in a different way. For example, if tensions are elevating in the room, the mediator might suggest, that each person speak directly to the mediator rather than to the other person. Or, if the mediator notices that unresolved emotional issues are making it very difficult to have constructive conversations, the mediator might suggest engaging the services of a mental heath professional help address the emotional issues.   These suggestions are meant to help people move to resolution more efficiently. If you do not follow the mediator’s suggestions for improving communication, you won’t be able to make as much progress as quickly, which can be discouraging and frustrating. Following the mediator’s lead regarding communication will make the conversations more constructive, thus reducing the amount of time required in mediation.\n\nNo Comments\n\nSorry, the comment form is closed at this time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7777677774429321}
+{"content": "Is Silicon Valley using culture fit to disguise discrimination?\n\nwifi engineer LeRon Barton sitting in front of a white wall\n\nFor an industry that prides itself on creativity, its workforce is homogenous. A former techie-turned-writer shares his experience of working as a black employee in Silicon Valley and tells how the technology sector remains out of reach for many under-represented ethnicities", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9890292882919312}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 89\n\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N. 2 - Set.\n\nEric Alfaro - Clima\nUniversidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica\nPatricia vila - Ciencias Sociales / Antropologa Social\nUniversidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Mxico\nWalter Baethgen - Agua y Agricultura\nInternational Research Institute\nfor Climate and Society, USA\nGino Cassasa - Glaciologa\nCentro de Estudios Cientfcos, Chile\nHenrique Chaves - Erosin / Sedimentos\nUniversidade de Brasilia, Brasil\nJos Rafael Cordova - Ingeniera Hidrulica\nUniversidad Simn Bolvar, Venezuela\nEvens Emmanuel - Calidad de Aguas\nUniversity of Quisqueya, Haiti\nMichael Glantz - Riesgos/ Adaptacin\nNational Center for Atmospheric Research, USA\nAlfonso Gutirrez - Hidrologa de Superfcie\nUniversidad Autnoma de Quertaro, Mxico\nBlanca Jimnez - Aguas Urbanas\nUniversidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Mxico\nLilian Laborde - Legislacin\nUniversidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina\nMichael McClain - Ecohidrologa\nFlorida International University, USA\nMiguel Mario - Aguas Subterrneas\nUniversity of California Davis, USA\nVctor Pochat - Gestin Integrada\nVincent Sweeney - Recursos Hdricos en SIDS\nIntegrating Watersheds and Coastal\nArea Management in SIDS, Saint Lucia\nEditor en Jefe / Editor in Chief\nVctor Pochat\nEditora Ejecutiva / Executive Editor\nZelmira May\nCoordinador de Edicin / Editorial Coordinator\nFederico Langguth\nDiseo Grfco / Graphic Design\nMara Noel Pereyra\nDiseo de Portada / Cover Design\nFederico Langguth\nInundaes urbanas em Belo Horizonte.\nOcorrncias, controle e medidas de proteo\nJos Roberto B. Champs\nUrban Flooding in Belo Horizonte.\nOcurrences, Control and Protective Measures. ............................ 1\nDrought as a Water Related Disaster:\nA Case Study of Oroomieh Lake\nHomayoun Motiee, Alireza Salamat\nand Edward E. Mc Bean\nLa sequa como desastre de origen hdrico:\nComputational Model for Analysis Spread in\nFlood Channels Urban Drainage\nStnio de Sousa Venncio\nand Luis F. Resende dos Santos Anjo\nModelo computacional para el anlisis de la\npropagacin de la inundacin en los canales\nGIS Application in Flood Management - A Case Study:\nParaiba do Sul Basin, Southeast Brazil.\nSilvio Jorge C. Simes, Isabel C. de Barros Trannin\nUtilizacin de GIS en el manejo de inundaciones -\nCaso de estudio: Cuenca de Paraba del Sur,\nApplication of Scale Invariance Properties\nof Rainfall for Estimating the Intensity-Duration-\nFrequency Relationships at Uberaba, in South-central Brazil\nMauro Naghettini\nAplicacin de las propiedades de invarianza\nde escala de lluvias para la estimacin\nde la relacin intensidad-duracin-frecuencia\nen Uberaba, en el centro-sur de Brasil ..................................... 45\nFlood-related Risk Education and Communication\nMiguel F. Doria and Camila Aras\nEducacin y comunicacin sobre\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway\nTowards More Sustainable Solutions\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\nTendencias de Drenaje Urbano - un camino\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N. 2 - Set. 2012\n\nUniversidad de Catalua-UPC, Barcelona, Espaa\nTechnical University of Catalonia-UPC, Barcelona, Spain\nPrograma Global para la Sostenibilidad Hdrica (GLOWS),\nAgencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID)\nGlobal Water for Sustainability Programme (GLOWS)\nUnited States Agency for Internacional Development (USAID)\nAdministracin Nacional de Asuntos Ocenicos y Atmosfricos (NOAA), EE.UU\nNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA\nCentro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social (CIESAS), Mxico\nCenter of Research and Higher in Studies of Social Antropology (CIESAS), Mexico\nUniversidad de Colorado, EE.UU\nUniversity of Colorado, USA\nCentro para el Cambio Climtico de la Comunidad Caribea, Belice\nCaribbean Community Climate Change Center, Belize\nUniversidad de Talca, Chile\nUniversity of Talca, Chile\nUniversidad Federal de Ro Grande Do Sul, Brasil\nFederal University of Ro Grande Do Sul, Brasil\nSi desea recibir la revista Aqua LAC en forma\nperidica en formato digital descargue el formulario\nde suscripcin de nuestro sitio web:\ny envelo a\nIf you would like to periodically receive Aqua LAC\njournal in digital format download the suscription\nform from our website:\nand send it to\nMuy poca agua, mucha agua, sea cual sea el caso: inundaciones\no sequas, el evento extremo se convierte en un desastre cuando\nla humanidad se ve afectada, causando daos, muertes y tras-\ntornos. El agua est mal distribuida en el mundo, desperdiciada,\ncontaminada, y sobre utilizada. Las consecuencias son bien cono-\ncidas, las proyecciones a futuro son catastrfcas. Los desastres\nnaturales son un elemento ms a incluir en los problemas relacio-\nnados con el agua.\nEn las ltimas dcadas, inundaciones, sequas y huracanes han\nsido los desastres naturales que han ocurrido ms frecuentemen-\nte, representando casi el 90% de este tipo de eventos. Informes\nrecientes han demostrado que los desastres relacionados con el\nagua estn en constante aumento, se vuelven ms frecuentes en\nla mayora de regiones del mundo, causando enormes daos eco-\nnmicos y ambientales. El Instituto Universitario de las Naciones\nUnidas para el Medio Ambiente y la Seguridad Humana advierte\nque para el 2050, 2 billones de personas podran verse afecta-\ndas como consecuencia del aumento de la poblacin en zonas\ninundables, el cambio climtico, la deforestacin, la prdida de los\nhumedales y el aumento del nivel del mar.\nSi bien el nmero de desastres relacionados con el agua ha au-\nmentado, las muertes han disminuido considerablemente en todo\nel mundo gracias a la mejora de la gestin de desastres. Sin em-\nbargo, las enfermedades epidmicas transmitidas a travs del\nagua han mostrado una tendencia creciente, por lo general como\nconsecuencia de inundaciones, en especial en los pases ms\npobres. La reduccin de las epidemias transmitidas a travs del\nagua y la prdida de vidas y pertenencias requiere de una mayor\ncomprensin de las tendencias y previsin de los desastres as\ncomo de sus riesgos y vulnerabilidades. Siendo este el caso, es\nnecesario mejorar la vigilancia y el conocimiento en profundidad\nsobre el tema as como que los gobiernos adopten la gestin de\ndesastres relacionados con el agua como una prioridad de planif-\ncacin nacional, promoviendo de este modo un mayor conciencia\ny preparacin ante las amenazas.\nBasados en este entendimiento, el Centro Internacional HidroEx\nha organizado una serie de talleres y cursos cortos sobre desas-\ntres relacionados con el agua. Creado bajo los auspicios de la\nUNESCO, HidroEx tiene la responsabilidad de ejecutar progra-\nmas de desarrollo sostenible, centrndose en la conservacin del\nagua y la gestin de los recursos hdricos mediante la educacin,\nla investigacin e iniciativas de fortalecimiento de capacidades.\nEn noviembre de 2010, HidroEx organiz un taller relacionado\ncon desastres vinculados al agua en Uberaba, MG, Brasil. En esa\noportunidad, se cont con la contribucin de especialistas nacio-\nnales e internacionales provenientes de instituciones de investiga-\ncin de Brasil, Japn, Estados Unidos, Portugal e Irn, volcados\na la investigacin y estudio del agua desde la ingeniera civil e\nhidrulica, ingeniera ambiental y saneamiento, drenaje urbano,\ngestin de recursos hdricos, monitoreo de inundaciones, modela-\ncin matemtica hidrulica, limnologa e hidrologa.\nLos documentos incluidos en esta edicin de Aqua-LAC son el re-\nsultado de este taller y es un honor para HidroEx poder contribuir\na mantener esta temtica tan importante en la agenda.\nTnia A. S. Brito\nDirectora de Investigacin Centro Internacional HidroEX\nToo little water, too much water whatever the case may be, food\nor drought, the extreme event becomes a disaster whenever hu-\nmankind is affected, causing damage, death and disruption. All\naround the world, water is badly distributed, spoiled, contamina-\nted, and overused. The consequences are well known, the future\nprojections are catastrophic. The natural disasters are a further\ningredient to the problems related to water.\nIn the last decades, foods, droughts and windstorms have been\nthe most frequent natural disasters, accounting for almost 90% of\nsuch events. Recent reports have shown that water-related disas-\nters are continuously increasing and becoming more frequent in\nmost regions throughout the world, causing enormous economic\nand environmental damages. The United Nations University Insti-\ntute for Environment and Human Security warns that as many as\n2 billion people might be affected, by 2050, as a consequence of\nrising populations in food-prone lands, climate change, deforesta-\ntion, loss of wetlands and rising sea levels.\nDespite the fact that the number of water-related disasters have\nincreased, fatalities have diminished considerably worldwide,\nthanks to the improvement of disaster management. Neverthe-\nless, water-borne epidemic diseases have shown an increasing\ntrend, usually as a consequence of fooding, especially in poor\ncountries. Reducing water-borne epidemics and loss of life and\nproperty requires a better understanding about disaster trends and\nforesightedness, disaster risks and vulnerabilities. That being the\ncase, it is imperative that monitoring and in-depth knowledge on\nthe issue be improved and Governments take water-related disas-\nter management as a national planning priority, promoting better\nawareness and preparedness to hazards.\nBased on this understanding, HidroEX International Centre has or-\nganized a series of workshops and short courses on water-related\ndisasters. Created under the auspices of UNESCO, HidroEX has\nthe responsibility for implementing sustainable development pro-\ngrams, focusing on water preservation and management of water\nresources through educational, research and capacity building ini-\nIn November of 2010, HidroEX organized the workshop Water-\nRelated Disasters, in Uberaba, MG, Brazil, counting on the con-\ntribution of national and international specialists on the theme.\nResearchers on civil and hydraulic engineering, sanitation and\nenvironmental engineering, urban drainage, water resources and\nmanagement, food control, hydraulic mathematical modeling, lim-\nnology and hydrology, from research institutions in Brazil, Japan,\nUnited States, Portugal and Iran took part in the event.\nThe papers present in this issue of Aqua-LAC are a result of this\nworkshop and HidroEX is honored to be able to contribute to keep\non the agenda such an important issue.\nTnia A. S. Brito\nDirector of Research HidroEX International Centre\nFrecuencia de publicacin\nLa Revista Aqua-LAC ser publicada cada seis meses o\ndos veces al ao.\nLa revista Aqua-LAC es una publicacin multidisciplinaria\nque contiene artculos, notas tcnicas y reseas en el cam-\npo de los recursos hdricos, tanto en su dimensin cientf-\nca como en su dimensin econmica y social. El contenido\nde la publicacin buscar abarcar las necesidades de la\ncomunidad cientfca, gestores de los recursos hdricos,\ntomadores de decisiones y el pblico en general.\nLa publicacin Aqua-LAC aceptar manuscritos en ingls\ny espaol, y publicar el resumen en el idioma original del\ntexto y un resumen en el otro idioma ofcial de la revista.\nAceptacin de los manuscritos\nLos manuscritos sometidos para publicacin debern ser\noriginales, no habindose sometido con anterioridad para\nsu publicacin en otros medios, y sern sometidos a un\nproceso de revisin y dictamen previos a su aceptacin.\nArtculos invitados, o artculos en ediciones temticas es-\npeciales, no necesariamente sern sometidos a revisin.\nEl Editor en Jefe, en consulta con el Consejo Directivo, se\nreserva el derecho de rechazar un manuscrito si se consid-\nera que su contenido en fondo y/o forma no se ajusta a la\nlnea editorial de la revista Aqua-LAC.\nProceso de revisin\nTodos los manuscritos sometidos a publicacin sern re-\nvisados por al menos dos revisores califcados, no nec-\nesariamente miembros del Comit Editorial. Un manu-\nscrito puede ser aceptado, aceptado con condiciones, o\nrechazado con la debida justifcacin en todos los casos.\nEn el caso de que haya comentarios, el manuscrito ser\ndevuelto al (a los) autor(es) para que respondan a los mis-\nmos. El (Los) autor(es) tendrn 60 das para devolver el\nmanuscrito modifcado al Editor en Jefe, claramente indi-\ncando los cambios realizados o enviando una declaracin\nescrita solidamente fundamentada del motivo por el cual\nno han acogido los comentarios de los revisores.\nDerechos de reproduccin (Copyrights)\nLos autores de artculos aceptados para ser publicados,\naceptarn de manera automtica que los derechos de au-\ntor se transferirn a la revista.\nDebido a la naturaleza intergubernamental de la UNESCO,\nla Organizacin se reserva los derechos de notifcar en to-\ndas las publicaciones de Aqua-LAC que Las denomina-\nciones que se emplean en esta publicacin y la present-\nacin de los datos que en ella fguran no suponen por parte\nde la UNESCO la adopcin de postura alguna en lo que\nse refere al estatuto jurdico de los pases, territorios, ciu-\ndades o zonas, o de sus autoridades, ni en cuanto a sus\nfronteras o lmites. Las ideas y opiniones expresadas en\nesta publicacin son las de los autores y no representan,\nnecesariamente, el punto de vista de la UNESCO, y no\ncomprometen a la Organizacin.\nFrequency of publication\nThe journal Aqua-LAC will be published every six months\nor twice a year.\nThe journal Aqua-LAC contains scientifc, policy-related,\nlegislative, educational, social, and communication articles\nand revisions related to water sciences and water resourc-\nes topics. The content of the journal is aimed to meet the\nrequirement of the scientifc community, water resources\nmanagers, decision-makers, and the public in general.\nThe journal Aqua-LAC accepts manuscripts in English or\nSpanish and publishes abstracts in both languages.\nAcceptance of manuscripts\nManuscripts submitted for publication must be originals\nthat have not been submitted for possible publication else-\nwhere. Submitted manuscripts will be undergoing a review\nprocess. Invited articles or articles in special topical edi-\ntions, will not necessarily be submitted to review.\nThe Editor in Chief, in consultation with the Board of Direc-\ntors, reserves the right to reject a manuscript if its contents\nis deemed substantially or formally inconsistent with the\neditorial line of AQUA-LAC magazine\nReview process\nAll manuscripts submitted for publication will be reviewed\nby at least two qualifed reviewers, not necessarily mem-\nbers of the Editorial Committee. A manuscript can be ac-\ncepted with or without comments or it can be rejected with\ndue justifcation. In the frst case, the manuscript will be\nreturned to the author(s) for him/her/them to address the\ncomments. The author(s) will have 60 days to return the\nmodifed manuscript to the Editor in Chief, clearly indicat-\ning the changes made or providing a written statement with\nsolid fundaments for not addressing comments by the re-\nThe authors of accepted papers automatically agree the\nauthor rights to be transferred to the Journal. The author(s)\nare expected to sign a copyright form available in the Aqua-\nLAC webpage.\nDue to the intergovernmental nature of UNESCO, the\norganization reserves the right to state in all Aqua-LAC\npublications that The designations employed and the pre-\nsentation of material throughout the journal do not imply\nthe expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of\nUNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, terri-\ntory, city or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation\nof its frontiers or boundaries. The authors area responsible\nfor the facts and opinions expressed therein, which are not\nnecessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Or-\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 1 - 6.\nJos Roberto B. Champs\nApresenta-se a metodologia adotada para identifcao da srie histrica de inundaes na cidade de Belo Horizonte,\nrealizada com base em levantamento de informaes de arquivo da imprensa local no perodo de 72 anos, uma vez que a\ncidade somente implantou uma rede de monitoramento hidrolgico no ano de 2012. Os dados obtidos indicaram estreita\ncorrelao entre os eventos de inundao, o crescimento populacional, a expanso urbana da cidade e a distribuio\nanual das precipitaes ocorrentes no territrio do municpio de Belo Horizonte.\nEste trabalho apresenta tambm os fatores que determinaram a crise do sistema convencional de drenagem, as medidas\nde planejamento e as aes de regularizao de cheias adotadas pela Administrao Pblica Municipal com o objetivo de\nsuperar esta crise e reduzir as ocorrncias das inundaes.\nPalavras-chave: Inundaes, drenagem pluvial, planejamento urbano, monitoramento hidrolgico, regularizao de che-\nThis report presents the methodology used to identify the historical series of foods in the city of Belo Horizonte, carried out\nbased on survey information of the local press fle, in the period of 72 years, since the city only established a hydrological\nmonitoring network in the year of 2012. The data indicated a high correlation between food events, population growth,\nurban expansion of the city and annual distribution of rainfall occurring in Belo Horizonte. This paper also presents the\nfactors that determined the crisis of the conventional drainage system, the planning measures and the actions for the\nregularization of foods taken by the Municipal Public Administration in order to overcome this crisis and reduce the occur-\nrences of foods.\nKeywords: Flooding, storm drainage, urban planning, hydrological monitoring, food regulating.\nSe presenta una metodologa para la identifcacin de la serie de inundaciones en la ciudad de Belo Horizonte, realizada\na partir de informacines del archivo de la prensa local en el perodo de 72 aos, porque la ciudad slo se implement\nuna red de monitoreo hidrolgico en el ao 2012. Los datos indican una estrecha correlacin entre las inundaciones, el\ncrecimiento demogrfco, la expansin urbana de la ciudad y la distribucin anual de las lluvias que se producen en el\nmunicipio de Belo Horizonte. Este documento tambin presenta los factores que determinaron la crisis del sistema de\ndrenaje convencional, las medidas de planifcacin y las acciones de regularizacin de las inundaciones tomadas por la\nAdministracin Pblica Municipal con el fn de superar esta crisis y reducir la ocurrencia de inundaciones.\nPalabras clave: Inundaciones, drenaje, planifcacin urbana, la vigilancia hidrolgica, regularizacin de las inundaciones.\nEngenheiro Civil e Sanitarista Belo Horizonte / MG / Brasil. Telefone: 5503194174545 E-mail:\nBelo Horizonte a capital do Estado de Minas Gerais,\nBrasil, com populao de 2.350.000 habitantes e ter-\nritrio de 330 km\nA cidade sofre, desde sua fundao em 1897, com\ncontnuas e sempre crescentes inundaes anuais.\nEm razo de tal situao a Administrao Municipal\nelaborou entre os anos de 1.999 e 2.001 um Plano\nDiretor de Drenagem Urbana.\nA fase inicial deste Plano foi dedicada elaborao\ndos diagnsticos da realidade fsica do sistema de\nmacrodrenagem e da hidrografa local, do histrico\nde ocorrncia de cheias e de inundaes, da gesto\ndos servios de drenagem pluvial, do controle e do\ncombate s inundaes.\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nJos Roberto B. Champs\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Set. 2012\nA primeira difculdade encontrada se deveu inex-\nistncia de um servio de hidrometria pluvial e fu-\nvial, resultando em uma escassez de dados sobre\na distribuio e frequncia dos eventos de chuva. A\nsoluo encontrada foi a de se recorrer aos regis-\ntros da mdia impressa local, a qual contm em seus\narquivos notcias de eventos de inundaes ocorri-\ndos desde o ano de 1.932. Assim sendo, foi feito um\nlevantamento de tais notcias ao longo de 72 anos\nde existncia da cidade, possibilitando desse modo\nidentifcar com razovel confabilidade a distribuio\ne frequncia das inundaes ocorrentes no territrio\nda cidade.\nCom a concluso do Plano Diretor de Drenagem em\n2.002, foi possvel elaborar planos subsequentes\npara todo o contexto das guas urbanas nas bacias\nhidrogrfcas que contm o territrio do Municpio,\nconfgurando novos modelos de organizao, opera-\no e gesto dos servios de drenagem.\nTendo em vista o fato de no existir um banco de\ndados sobre inundaes urbanas em Belo Horizonte,\nrecorreu-se nica fonte de informaes disponvel\nque so os arquivos da imprensa escrita local. Se\npor um lado tais dados apresentam uma impreciso\ntcnica, tm, no entanto, vrias utilidades e vanta-\ngens tais como o registro cronolgico e localizao\ndas ocorrncias, informaes sobre danos fsicos,\nacidentes e fatalidades, revelando elementos sufci-\nentes para identifcao dos eventos histricos.\nO veculo de imprensa escolhido para a pesquisa foi\no jornal O Estado de Minas, pela sua longevidade,\npela continuidade das publicaes e, sobretudo, pela\nexistncia de um acervo de edies arquivadas. Este\njornal foi fundado em maro de 1928, mas a primeira\nnotcia de interesse para a pesquisa foi dada somente\nem 11 de janeiro de 1932 registrando uma inundao\nprovocada pelo transbordamento das guas do prin-\ncipal ribeiro existente na cidade (Ribeiro Arrudas)\nque atingiu reas situadas desde a regio noroeste\nda cidade at a regio leste incluindo a rea central\ncausando a destruio de duas pontes e de vrias\nhabitaes ribeirinhas. A ultima data verifcada foi 18\nde fevereiro de 2.000, completando-se, assim, os 72\nanos desta investigao.\nCritrios para seleo das notcias\nOs critrios para a seleo das notcias foram os se-\na. Notcias referentes apenas execuo de ob-\nras e servios de drenagem foram excludas;\nb. Notcias diversas para diferentes locais, porm\nocorridas no mesmo dia, foram agrupadas\ncomo um nico evento;\nc. Sobreposies de datas iguais entre cam-\npanhas diferentes de pesquisas foram identi-\nfcadas e contabilizadas como nico evento.\nO total de notcias registradas foi de 461 que, no\nentanto, ao serem submetidas aos critrios anterior-\nmente citados resultaram em cerca de 200 eventos\nde signifcativa importncia, conforme os objetivos\ndesta pesquisa. As inundaes selecionadas po-\ndem ser caracterizadas como inundaes histricas\numa vez que mereceram destaque na imprensa pe-\nlos danos provocados com prejuzos econmicos e,\nem alguns casos, com perdas de vidas humanas e\ninvariavelmente associadas a notcias de precipita-\nes intensas.\nResultados Obtidos\nA Tabela 01 apresenta a distribuio mensal da sria\nhistrica de inundaes (1.928 a 2000), onde se\npode observar que:\nOs meses de maior incidncia de inundaes\nso os meses de Dezembro e Janeiro, respon-\nsveis por 50% das ocorrncias (cada qual\npor 25 % destas);\nOs eventos registrados para os meses de esti-\nagem (Abril a Setembro) correspondem a ape-\nnas 4% do total de registros de inundaes.\nTabela 01 Distribuio Mensal das Inundaes\nHistricas - (Perodo de 1.928 a 2.000)\nMs No de Inundaes\nJaneiro 50\nFevereiro 26\nMaro 17\nAbril 3\nMaio 1\nJunho 0\nJulho 1\nAgosto 0\nSetembro 3\nOutubro 17\nNovembro 31\nDezembro 51\nInundaes urbanas em Belo Horizonte. Ocorrncias, controle e medidas de proteo.\nOs resultados obtidos evidenciaram uma relao de\ncausa e efeito entre as chuvas intensas (em geral,\nprecipitaes convectivas) e as inundaes em Belo\nHorizonte. A Figura 01 ilustra as ocorrncias de in-\nundaes e a distribuio mensal de precipitaes.\nOs registros pluviomtricos so referentes srie\nhistrica de 1.960 a 1990 da estao climatolgica\ndo 5\n\nDistrito do Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia\n\n(INMET), localizada no municpio de Belo Horizonte.\nPara analisar a ocorrncia dos eventos de inunda-\nes ao longo do tempo, visando uma relao com\no desenvolvimento da urbanizao do municpio,\nforam correlacionados os registros de inundaes\npesquisados com os dados populacionais das dca-\ndas de 1.930 a 1.990, sendo os resultados apresen-\ntados na Figura 02.\nA partir da anlise dos registros de inundaes pode-\nse concluir que:\nA dcada de maior incidncia de inundaes\nfoi a dcada de 80;\nOs anos de maior ocorrncia de inundaes\nforam 1.989 e 1.998, sendo registrados 13\neventos em cada um;\n69,5 % dos eventos de inundaes acon-\nteceram nas duas ltimas dcadas do sculo\nA evoluo das ocorrncias de inundaes\nacompanha a curva da evoluo populacional,\nconforme ilustra a Figura 02.\nAnalisando a Figura 02, podem ser observados dois\nmomentos distintos na srie histrica de inundaes.\nNa passagem da dcada de 30 para a dcada de 40\ntem-se um primeiro pico de ocorrncias de enchen-\ntes; entre 1.960/1.980, um segundo pico bem mais\nelevado que o anterior. Entre esses dois picos, a\ndcada de 50 marcada por nenhuma ocorrncia\nde inundao.\nSegundo RAMOS (1.998), o primeiro pico de ocor-\nrncia de inundaes pode estar relacionado com\no primeiro avano imobilirio na cidade no fnal da\ndcada de 20, conjugado com a intensa ocupao\nda zona urbana no fnal da dcada de 30. O segundo\npico, por sua vez, pode ser refexo do boom do pro-\ncesso de urbanizao e parcelamento do solo e do\ncrescimento populacional do fnal da dcada de 60.\nNa imprensa, as notcias de inundaes passaram\na ser mais frequentes ao fnal dos anos 60. Nesse\nperodo, e ao longo dos anos 70, diversos eventos\nde inundaes foram observados nos afuentes do\nribeiro Arrudas e em crregos da bacia do ribeiro\nda Ona.\nAo longo das dcadas de 80 e 90, com a ampliao\ndo sistema de drenagem na rea central e com a\nexpanso da cidade em direo s regies perifri-\ncas, outros pontos crticos no sistema de drenagem\nse evidenciaram. Na zona sul da cidade, problemas\ncom os afuentes do Ribeiro Arrudas comearam\na ocorrer nos anos 90, os quais atingiram reas in-\ntensamente ocupadas e valorizadas. Vrios desses\neventos atingiram situaes de calamidade, como\nfoi a ocorrncia em Janeiro de 1.983 que deixou um\nrastro de destruio sendo que o nmero de vtimas\nfatais chegou a 70 mortes.\nFigura 01: Srie Histrica de Inundaes e Precipitaes Mdias Mensais no municpio de Belo Horizonte /\nJos Roberto B. Champs\nFigura 02: Evoluo populacional x Ocorrncias de inundaes no municpio de Belo Horizonte / MG\nA crise do sistema de drenagem na cidade de Belo\nHorizonte pode ser identifcada atravs dos se-\nguintes aspectos:\na. ambiental\nO modelo de evacuao rpida das guas pluviais,\nobtido pelo aumento das velocidades do escoamen-\nto atravs de canalizaes, trouxe como resultado a\nexcluso de parte da hidrografa natural do cenrio\nEm Belo Horizonte, 20% de todos os cursos dgua\nencontram-se confnados em estruturas de concreto,\na maioria das quais enterrada sob o pavimento de\navenidas sanitrias.\nAs aes de saneamento implantadas nos fundos\nde vale no foram sufcientes para sanear os cursos\ndgua, mesmo tendo sido construdos interceptores\nao longo destas avenidas, uma vez que as guas\ncontinuaram a receber cargas poluidoras produzidas\nem suas bacias de drenagem.\nb. fnanceiro\nA implantao dos sistemas convencionais de drena-\ngem, especialmente das obras de macrodrenagem,\nexigem grandes inverses de recursos fnanceiros\npor parte da municipalidade, limitando a abrangncia\ndos programas de controle de cheias nas cidades.\nJustifca-se, assim, a busca de solues alternativas\nde menor custo para implantao e tambm para\nsua manuteno.\nc. operacional\nAs solues baseadas no aumento das velocidades\ndos escoamentos trouxeram como consequncia a\nreduo dos tempos de pico das cheias e a elevao\ndas vazes mximas, resultando em uma transfer-\nncia de inundaes para regies situadas a jusante\ndas canalizaes.\nPara enfrentar as defcincias do sistema conven-\ncional de drenagem e a consequente ocorrncia de\ninundaes, a Municipalidade de Belo Horizonte ela-\nborou, no perodo de 1.999 a 2.002, um Plano Diretor\nde Drenagem Urbana, para servir de instrumento de\nplanejamento para a gesto e operao dos servios\nde controle de cheias com forte enfoque ambiental.\nO Plano Diretor de Drenagem Urbana de Belo\nO Plano abrange a totalidade das bacias hidrogrf-\ncas (430 km\n) de todos os cursos dgua existentes\nno territrio do Municpio (330 km\n\nAs premissas adotadas pelo Plano foram:\na. Interdependncia da drenagem com os de-\nmais sistemas urbanos;\nb. No ampliao da cheia natural, restringindo-\nse a ampliao da impermeabilizao do solo\nou criando mecanismos de compensao s\nnovas reas impermeabilizadas;\nc. No transferncia de cheias ou de impactos\nde inundao resultantes do aumento da acel-\nerao dos escoamentos;\nd. Conhecimento do funcionamento real do siste-\nma de drenagem atravs do monitoramento\nda relao chuva X vazo;\ne. Compatibilizao do planejamento da expan-\nso urbana com as diretrizes de drenagem;\nf. Valorizao ambiental das guas enquanto\npaisagem urbana;\ng. Estabelecimento de um processo de gesto\npara os servios de drenagem;\nh. Participao da comunidade na elaborao de\nplanos e projetos relacionados aos recursos\nhdricos naturais existentes na cidade;\ni. Desenvolvimento tecnolgico e pesquisa de\nsolues alternativas ao sistema convencional\nde drenagem urbana;\nAlm destes princpios defnidores das polticas\npblicas relacionadas drenagem urbana, o Plano\nrealizou uma completa caracterizao das bacias el-\nementares e um completo cadastro de toda a rede\nde micro e macrodrenagem.\nCom base nas propostas do Plano Diretor de Dre-\nnagem, a Municipalidade iniciou em 2.002 a implan-\ntao de um programa de aes estruturais com\nenfoque ambiental e sanitrio abrangente para toda\na cidade, priorizando as bacias hidrogrfcas cujos\ncursos dgua se encontram em seus leitos naturais.\nEste Programa recebeu a denominao de Pro-\ngrama de Recuperao Ambiental e Saneamento de\nBelo Horizonte (DRENURBS). As obras resultantes\ncomearam a ser implantadas em 2.004 e encon-\ntram-se em desenvolvimento at os dias de hoje.\nA proposta do Programa DRENURBS a de se re-\nverter a degradao em que se encontra a totalidade\ndos crregos no canalizados da cidade (incluindo-\nse o controle das cheias), combater as causas gera-\ndoras da poluio das guas que tm origem nestes\nfundos de vale e principalmente nas respectivas ba-\ncias de drenagem.\nConfgura-se, portanto, como uma perspectiva de\nmelhoria da qualidade de vida para toda a populao\nda cidade atravs de aes de melhoramento das\ncondies ambientais.\nEm consonncia, com as premissas do Plano Diretor\nde Drenagem, o Programa DRENURBS desenvolve-\nse de acordo com as seguintes diretrizes:\na. Tratamento integrado dos problemas sanitri-\nos e ambientais no nvel da bacia hidrogrfca,\nutilizada como unidade para o planejamento\ndas intervenes;\nb. Limitao ampliao da impermeabiliza-\no do solo atravs de proposies de tipo\nnaturalsticas (calhas vegetadas, criao de\nparques lineares, corredores ecolgicos etc);\nc. Opo pela estocagem de guas (reservatri-\nos de reteno / deteno) no lugar da evacu-\nao rpida;\nd. Implantao do monitoramento hidrolgico\npara conhecimento da relao chuva X vazo\n(coincidente com a proposta para a 2\n\ndo PDDU), enquanto item do componente\nFortalecimento Institucional;\ne. Tratamento das colees dgua enquanto\npaisagem urbana;\nf. Adoo de tcnicas alternativas aos procedi-\nmentos convencionais para as questes de\ndrenagem; e\ng. Incluso das comunidades afetadas e usurias\ndos servios e equipamentos propostos nos\nprojetos no processo de tomada de decises.\nO aspecto que se destaca para futuro desenvolvi-\nmento do Programa um novo arranjo institucional\npara uma gesto sustentvel e nica para gerencia-\nmento e operao dos sistemas de drenagem pluvial\ne esgotamento sanitrio integrados aos demais com-\nponentes do saneamento ambiental como a coleta e\no tratamento de resduos slidos.\nM.H.D., CHAMPS, J.R.B., Aspectos da Evoluo\nda Urbanizao e de Problemas de Inundaes em\nBelo Horizonte. Simpsio Brasileiro de Recursos H-\ndricos, ABRH, (1.997). Vitria, ES, Brasil;\nCHAMPS, JOS ROBERTO, Planejar a Drenagem\nUrbana : Menos Inundaes e Mais Qualidade de\nVida, Revista Planejar BH, Secretaria Municipal de\nPlanejamento / PBH, (1.999), Belo Horizonte, MG;\nDE OLIVEIRA. Inundaes Urbanas em Belo Hori-\nzonte. VI Encontro Nacional de guas Urbanas\n(ENAU), Associao Brasileira de Recursos Hdri-\ncos, ABRH (2005), Belo Horizonte;\nRIA. O Planejamento do Sistema de Drenagem Ur-\nbana na Cidade de Belo Horizonte. 21 Congresso\nJos Roberto B. Champs\nBrasileiro de Engenharia Sanitria e Ambiental,\nABES (2001). Joo Pessoa, PB, Brasil;\nem Belo Horizonte, Trajetria em 100 Anos. Belo\nHorizonte (1.966);\nIBGE. Estatsticas do Sculo XX. Instituto Brasileiro\nde Geografa e Estatstica. 2.003 (Disponvel no site;\nJornal O ESTADO DE MINAS, Dirios Associados,\nArquivo, Belo Horizonte, sem data;\nKAUARK-LEITE, L. A., Consideraes Sobre o Sa-\nneamento de guas Pluviais nas Cidades, Seminrio\nde Drenagem Urbana, Sudecap (2.000), Belo Hori-\nRAMOS, M. H. D. Drenagem Urbana: Aspectos Ur-\nbansticos, Legais e Metodolgicos em Belo Horizon-\nte. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Escola de\nEngenharia, (Dissertao de Mestrado). Belo Hori-\nzonte, 91 p., Junho 1.998;\nSUDECAP. Caracterizao Preliminar das Inunda-\nes Ocorridas em Belo Horizonte. Plano Diretor de\nDrenagem de Belo Horizonte. Primeira Etapa. Vol.\nXI. Belo Horizonte. 2.000;\nSUDECAP. Programa DRENURBS, Termo de Refer-\nncia para Elaborao de Projetos, Belo Horizonte,\n1. Director, UNESCO Regional Centre on Urban Water Management-Tehran, Associate Professor, Power and Water University of\n2. Programme Offcer, UNESCO Regional Centre on Urban Water Management-Tehran,\n3. Professor of Engineering, College of Physical and Engineering Science, University of Guelph, Canada.\nHomayoun Motiee(Ph.D.)\n, Alireza Salamat (M.Sc.)\n, Edward E. Mc Bean\nDrought is a normal phenomenon in various types of climates, but it is more prominent in arid regions like that of the Middle\nEast of Asia where its recurrence is likely to increase in the future, in terms of both frequency and intensity. Despite the long\ntime existence of drought, its management is still not optimal because of the way it is generally perceived and misunder-\nstood by policy makers and experts. During recent years however, a lot of progress has been made, with a major shift from\nthe perception of considering drought as an emergency phenomenon, to long term planning for effcient management, but\nefforts are still required to elaborate and implement drought mitigation plans, for which most countries are still in the need\nfor great help to reduce their vulnerability and to build their capacity to combat drought effects.\nWater management in arid and semi-arid regions is facing a crisis. Lack of water in regions with chronic shortages of water\nmay lead to mass migration of people causing social and political problems. Drought is a weather-related natural disaster,\na dangerous hazard of nature, related to a defciency of precipitation over an extended period of time, usually for a season\nor more. It has an impact on food production and it reduces life expectancy and the economic performance of large regions\nor entire countries.\nIran is located in an arid and semi-arid geographical region and receives an average rain fall of only 250 mm per year\nequivalent to one third of the worlds average. Therefore, many parts of Iran suffer from extreme water shortage conditions.\nMoreover, with a high rate of population growth, a slow pace of building reservoirs, traditional water management systems,\nand recent years of drought in some central and eastern parts of the country (receiving only 100 mm-precipitation / year on\naverage) the results have contributed to a major water crisis in these areas and has made the government face one of its\nmost diffcult challenges in the past few years.\nDrought as a natural disaster occurring frequently from thousands of years ago has caused severe economic, political and\nsocial damages. Major tribal migrations are due to this devastating phenomenon. Some wars happened by tribes which\nfaced droughts with the aim of accessing water resources and fertile land located at regions with better climate which con-\ntributed in changing the history.\nIn this paper in addition to defning drought, information related to Irans climate and geographical conditions has been\nsubmitted and drought impacts during the recent decade has been highlighted. The negative impacts of drought on the\ncurrent situation of Lake Oroomieh as a case study in the north west of Iran have also been presented.\nKey words: Drought, Lake Oroomieh, Disaster, Climate change, Iran\nLa sequa es un fenmeno normal que ocurre en varios tipos de clima, siendo ms signifcativa en las regiones ridas,\ntales como las del Medio Oriente asitico donde es probable que exista una tendencia a una mayor recurrencia en el\nfuturo, con mayor frecuencia e intensidad. Si bien la sequa es un fenmeno que existente desde hace ya mucho tiempo,\nsu manejo resta todava de ser el ptimo, debido, en gran parte, a la forma en que generalmente se percibe la misma y a\nla mala interpretacin de los expertos y responsables polticos. No obstante, durante los ltimos aos, ha habido un gran\nprogreso, aprecindose un cambio signifcativo en la errnea percepcin de considerar a la sequa como un fenmeno\nde alarma, para incorporar el concepto de planifcar a largo plazo para una gestin efciente. De todas formas, se requi-\neren an mayores esfuerzos para elaborar e implementar planes de mitigacin de sequas, para lo cual la mayora de los\npases necesitan an un gran apoyo a fn de reducir su vulnerabilidad as como para aumentar su capacidad para combatir\nsus efectos adversos.\nLa gestin del agua en las regiones ridas y semiridas est enfrentando una crisis. La falta de agua en las regiones con\nescasez crnica puede conducir a la migracin masiva de personas causando problemas sociales y polticos. La sequa\nes un desastre natural vinculado al clima, un riesgo peligroso de la naturaleza que se relaciona a una defciencia de pre-\ncipitacin durante un perodo prolongado de tiempo, por lo general durante una temporada o ms. Tiene un impacto en\nla produccin de alimentos, reduce la esperanza de vida y el desempeo econmico de grandes regiones o incluso de\npases enteros.\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 7 - 18.\nH. Motiee, A. Salamat and E.E. McBean\nIrn se encuentra en una regin geogrfca rida y semirida con una precipitacin media de slo 250 mm por ao, lo que\nequivale a un tercio de la media mundial. Por lo tanto, muchas regiones de Irn sufren condiciones de extrema escasez\nde agua. Adems, el alto crecimiento poblacional, el lento ritmo para la construccin de embalses, sistemas tradicionales\nde gestin del agua y los recientes aos de sequa en algunas partes del centro y este del pas (slo reciben 100 mm de\nprecipitacin media por ao) han resultado en una grave crisis de agua en estas reas, poniendo al gobierno frente a uno\nde sus desafos ms difciles de los ltimos tiempos.\nLa sequa como desastre natural, que tiende a ocurrir frecuentemente desde hace ya miles de aos, ha causado graves\ndaos econmicos, polticos y sociales. Las migraciones tribales ms importantes se deben a este fenmeno devastador.\nAlgunas de las guerras que ocurrieron antao pueden explicarse por el enfrentamiento de tribus que, ante una sequa,\nbuscaban acceder a los recursos de agua y tierras frtiles situados en regiones con mejor clima, lo cual contribuy al\ncambio de la historia.\nEn este trabajo, adems de encontrar una defnicin de sequa, se ha presentado informacin relacionada con el clima\ny las condiciones geogrfcas de Irn y las consecuencias que la sequa ha generado en los ltimos aos. Tambin, a\ntravs de un estudio de caso, se presentan los impactos negativos que la sequa tiene sobre la situacin actual del lago\nOroomieh, situado en el noroeste de Irn.\nPalabras clave: sequa, Lago Oroomieh, desastres, cambio climtico, Irn\nAround two billion people live in countries with limited\nwater resources called arid and semi-arid regions.\nWater, with its qualitative and quantitative effects,\nplays a critical role in economic and social expansion\nof societies and, unlike many other inputs, is irre-\nplaceable. Reasons for the impending crisis include:\naccelerating rates of population increase, periodic\ndroughts, climate change, and mismanagement of\nwater resources, all of which are increasing the de-\nsertifcation trends. As populations grow, water use is\nincreasing with dramatic implications to many parts\nof the world.\nIssues of water availability have greater impacts with-\nin the arid and semi-arid regions. Not only is there\nover-withdrawal of groundwater, shortages of water\nare intensifying due to reasons including the types\nof agriculture taking place (e.g. the growing of rice in\nwater-short areas), and lands which are deteriorating\nto desert conditions. The result is that people from\nthese regions particularly in villages are obliged to\nimmigrate to other regions with adequate water re-\nsources. Due to the increasingly unsustainable situ-\nation in these regions, without responses from indi-\nvidual governments, gradually massive migration of\npeople will likely occur.\nWMO (1975) defned drought as: A defcit of rainfall\nwith respect to the long term mean, affecting a large\narea for one or several seasons or years that drasti-\ncally reduces primary production in natural ecosys-\ntems and rain-fed agriculture. (Le Houerou, 1995)\nThe increase in drought intensity and duration has\ncaused water resources and agricultural products\nscarcity. During the recent decades, drought frequen-\ncy from the view point of intensity, duration, area un-\nder coverage, livelihood damages, and long term so-\ncio- economic damages has been higher than other\nnatural disasters. In fact water scarcity and drought\ncauses water pollution, environmental damages and\nnegative impacts on fresh potable water resources\nsupply. Figure 1 demonstrates the global drought\nmap and as observed severe droughts have mainly\noccurred in the Middle East Asia.\nFrom the other hand due to population increase, so-\ncial evolution and changes in the peoples level of\nlife, increases water requirement. In addition, pre-\ncise anticipation of accessible water and appropriate\nplanning for the existing water during drought is very\nOne of the defnitions of drought is: a continuous du-\nration of insuffcient rainfall which causes severe eco-\nnomic damages to a country.\nIn order to determine the drought starting point, the\ndeviation from the average rainfall with other climatic\nvariations during a time period is determined and this\nis carried out by comparing the current situation with\nthe past averages mainly based on thirty years of sta-\ntistical data.\nDrought is classifed as (\n1. Climatic drought\n2. Hydrological drought\n3. Agricultural drought\n4. Socio-economical drought\nClimatic drought defnition should be made region-\nwise as climatic condition which causes rainfall de-\ncrease, varies from region to region.\nDrought monitoring and compiling special models for\nanticipating and designing a risk management model\nis one of the most important issues which can help\nresearchers and experts determine droughts.\nWhen drought hits a country, all or most sectors of its\neconomy are affected, but farmers, herders and the\nrural population often suffer more than the rest. Gen-\nerally speaking, the more the economy of a country\nrelies on agriculture, the more its economy is vulner-\nable to drought. Drought preparedness and mitiga-\ntion is therefore the concern of all sectors. As shown\nin the following table Asia in amongst the continents\nwhich mainly suffers from droughts. North America\nand Africa are also drought prone areas.\nDrought as a Water Related Disaster: A Case Study of Oroomieh Lake\nFigure 1- Global Drought Map (\nNo. of\nNo. of droughts\n6 months\nNo. of droughts\n12 months\nLongest duration\nMaximum spatial\nextent (km\nAfrica 44 28 4 19(1982-84) 40.0%\nAsia 86 37 22 49(1984-88) 18.5%\n40 24 4 20(1959-61) 42.8%\nNorth America 57 34 8 44(1950-53) 39.3%\nOceania 24 17 1 12(1951-52) 80.2%\nSouth America 45 37 4 16(1958-59) 51.2%\nTable 1- Summary of large-scale drought occurrences for the six continents\n(World Climate Report, 2010)\nIran, with a dry to semi-dry geographic environment\nand with an average rain fall of 250 mm/year, is fac-\ning extreme shortages of water in its southern and\ncentral parts. Sixty-fve percent of Irans area is arid,\n20% is semi-arid, and only 15% of landscape is con-\nsidered as wet and semi-wet. Approximately 50% of\nIrans population is living in the northern and western\nparts of country which have over 70% fall the water\nresources (Motiee et al., 2001).The rapid growth of\nIrans population, the slow process of building water\nreservoirs, and recent dry years, have caused seri-\nous water shortages in central and eastern parts\nof Iran (Figure 2).The countrys population has in-\ncreased about 7 times during the last 80 years and\nit has risen from 10 million in 1920 to more than 70\nmillion in 2008. At present Iran is the 17\nmost popu-\nlated countries in the world and based on the data\npresented by the UN it will be classifed as one of the\n10 most populated regions in the world by the end\nof 2050. Therefore the need for water has been in-\ncreased but still the quantity of water is not adequate.\nThe four primary reasons for the serious water crisis\nin Iran are:\n(i) Rapid increases in population. Since 1990, due\nto the cultural, social and economic changes in Iran,\nthere has been a rapid increase in population in such\na way that during the past 50 years, the population\nhas increased from 20 to 70million people, as dem-\nonstrated in Figure 3 (SCI,2005), much of which has\nsettled in the major urban centers.\nH. Motiee, A. Salamat and E.E. McBean\nFigure 2- Geographic Location of Iran in Middle East and Annual Precipitation Map of Iran\n(ii) Occurrence of periodic droughts. Land degrada-\ntion and desertifcation is one of the pressing chal-\nlenges of Iran. About 85% of the area (approximately\n39.4 million hectares out of 164.8 million ha) has\nbeen classifed as arid and semi-arid, and receives\nbetween 30 to 250 mm of rainfall annually. An ex-\nample of the impact of the drought and potential\nclimate change is apparent on the lakes in central\nFigure 3- Population Increase in Iran (1935-2005) (SCI, 2005)\nand southeastern parts of Iran. The Hamoun Lake\nin south eastern part of Iran is a dramatic case of a\ndrying water body to a desert. Figure 4 shows the\nsatellite images of the Hamoun Lake between 1997\nand 2010 (Partov, 2003).\n(iii) Development of different sectors in agriculture,\nindustry and urbanization from 1990 to 2000 and still\nFigure 4- Location&the Satellite Pictures of the Hamoun Lake in Southeastern IranShowing The Dry out\nProgress Since 1997 Until the Present(Wikipedia).\nuntil now. Water demand increased rapidly in different\nsectors in agriculture, industry and urban services.\nThe increased water demand has been identifed pri-\nmarily with agriculture, where most water consump-\ntion and the highest losses occur, a fact which has\nbeen noticed by the Irrigation and Drainage Depart-\nment (Javan et al., 2002).\n(iv) Lack of proper water management, and consump-\ntion and over-withdrawal of groundwater resources.\nDrought, climate change, and desertifcation are\nsome reasons of immigration; consequently, due to\nnot having access to suffcient amount of water, wide-\nspread immigration to other regions occurred.\n(v) Progress of desertifcation towards cities in the\nsoutheast. Construction and operation of hydraulic\nstructures such as dams, qanats, conveyance chan-\nnels for reservoirs, and transmission and distribu-\ntion systems in Iran have been functioning for more\nthan 3000 years (Motiee et al, 2006). The situation\nis now accepted that Iran is facing a water crisis and\nis in a serious situation to meet the necessary water\ndemands. Based on existing reports the rate of the\navailability of water will drop from 1800 m\n1000 m\n/yr/cap.(Motiee et al., 2001).\nAt present Iran is using 60% of the total renewable\nfreshwater while due to the international norms the\nupper limit should be 45% of renewable freshwater; it\nmeans that the remain unexploited renewable fresh\nwater is only 15 % total fresh water resources includ-\ning environmental basic needs.\nIran is divided into six following major hydrological\nbasins as follows:\n1. The Caspian Sea basin in the north, which\nconsists of 7 sub basins,\n2. The Lake Oroomieh basin in the northwest,\n3. The Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman basin con-\nsists of 9 sub basins and extends from north-\nwest up to southeast of country.\n4. The central plateau basin, which has 9 sub-\nbasins, extends from northwest to southeast of\nthe country and covers 5 dry Kavirs of which\ntwo (Lutand Central kavir) have nearly an area\nequal to 390000 km\nH. Motiee, A. Salamat and E.E. McBean\n5. The Hamoun basin in the east with 3 sub-ba-\n6. The Gharaghoum or Sarakhs basin in the\nThe internal renewable water resources of Iran are\nestimated at 130 cubic km per year. The surface run-\noff represents a total of 92 cubic km per year and\nground water recharges is estimated at about 38 cu-\nbic km .The country also receives 6.7 cubic km per\nyear of surface water from external source (mostly\nfrom Aras river in republic of Azerbaijan and Hirmand\nriver of Afghanistan); while the surface runoff to the\nsea (Caspian, and Persian gulf and sea of Oman)\nand neighboring countries is estimated at 55.9 cubic\nkm yearly. At present the per capita water resourc-\nes of the country is 1380 cubic meters per year. In\n1994 the total water consumption was 82 cubic km\nof which 92% have been used in agriculture, 6.5%\nin domestic and 1% industrial and mining activities.\nThe total withdrawn of water in 1997 had been also\n87 cubic km of which 94% was for agriculture, 5% for\ndomestic and 1% in industrial and mining activities.\nDue to climate change, common droughts in Asia and\nthe Middle East have changed and the intensity and\nduration of these phenomena have increased. Today,\nit can be stated that drought is one of the horrible\nenemies in the Middle East which gradually causes\nwater tables, current rivers, lakes and qanats disap-\nIn Iran during 2000-2010 the average rainfall of the\ncountry and the surface runoff has decreased 15%\nand 40% respectively and this has caused the gov-\nernment to develop water resources and to further\ninvestment to confront droughts.\nAs the average rainfall in Iran (250 mm/year) is one\nthird of the global average and 90% of the country is\nlocated in an arid and semi-arid climatic condition,\ndue to population increase and socio-economic de-\nvelopment and fnally droughts and climate change,\nwater resources systems have faced increased pres-\nThe mean water consumption per capita in the ag-\nricultural, industrial, potable and hygienic sectors\n(domestic) in developing countries is 30%, 59% and\n11% respectively. This ratio in the less developed\ncountries is 82%, 10% and 8% respectively while in\nIran this ratio is 92%, 2% and 6% respectively.\nThe present droughts in Iran, particularly the ones\nhappening in2008-2010 have completely imbalanced\nthe countrys climate. The decrease in rain fall and\nincrease in temperature has caused many rivers,\nslumps and lakes to dry out. The utmost impact of\nthis phenomenon could be observed in Oroomieh\nLake which is further described in the next section.\nIn this concern adaptation with the existing climatic\nsituation should be made by appropriate consump-\ntion management and saving. The consumption pat-\ntern particularly in the agricultural sector should be\ndefned, based on the countrys climatic conditions.\nApparently we cant make beneft of prescriptions\nused for the countries producing crops with plenty of\nRecent studies indicate there are substantial impacts\nof climate change and drought infuencing water re-\nsources (e.g. IPCC, 2007).The consequence may in-\nclude increases/decreases in hydrologic parameters,\nand adjustments in the frequency and magnitude of\nhydrologic extremes. For example, the circumstanc-\nes of lakes around the world show that a signifcant\nnumber of lakes are experiencing decreasing water\nlevels. Some lakes have dried out completely due\nto a combination of these changes plus mismanage-\nment of water resources. A dramatic example is the\nAral Sea (Figure 5), landlocked in Central Asia, with a\ndrainage basin of 1.8 million km\n; due to mismanage-\nment and drought, the water levels in the Aral Sea\nhave decreased by 23 m (Micklin, 1992). This Sea is\nbordered by Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan\nin the south.\nIn 1918, the Russian government decided to divert\nthe Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, the two rivers that\nfed the Aral Sea, to irrigate areas of the desert. Un-\nfortunately, many of the irrigation canals constructed\nin 1930s, were poorly built and allowed signifcant\nleakage and evaporation. By 1960, between 20to 50\nof water was diverted each year to land, instead\nof to the Aral Sea and the Sea began to shrink. From\n1961 to 1970, the Aral Seas level fell at an average\nof 20cm a year and in the 1970s, the rate of water\nlevel decline nearly tripled to 50-60 cm per year. By\nthe 1980s, the mean decrease was 80-90 cm annu-\nally (Bissell, 2002).\nThe water level in the Aral Sea has now decreased\nby 23 m. Its surface area has decreased by 74%,\nits volume, by 90%, and the salinity has increased\nfrom 10 to more than 100 g/L. The effects of these\nchanges include: decimation of the native fsh spe-\ncies, initiation of dust/salt storms, degradation of\nthe deltaic biotic communities, and climate changes\naround the former shoreline. The population residing\naround the Sea has also been negatively impacted\n(Micklin, 1992).\nLake Oroomieh as another example in northwest of\nIran with a surface of 5800 km2 is the second most\nsaline lake in the world (the Red Sea is considered as\nthe frst), and is demonstrating signifcant declines in\nsurface levels. In 2008, the depth of water in the Lake\nwas measured to be two meters less than the long-\nterm average and the volume is estimated to have\ndecreased by one-third(McBean and Motiee,2009).\nFigure 5- The geographical location of AralSea in the Middle Asia\nand the trend towards dryness in the recent decades (\nOroomieh Lake is located in the north west of Iran.\nThis lake is divided between east and west Azerbaye-\njan. Lake Oroomieh is the biggest lake in Iran and the\nsecond salty lake in the world. The water basin of this\nlake is around 51876 km2 which is approximately 3%\nof the total area of the country. This basin by having\nlarge agricultural plains is one of the most important\nfocal areas in agricultural and livestock activities in\nIran. The normal capacity of this lake is over 30 Bil-\nlion Cubic Meter (BCM).\nLake Oroomieh is one of the biggest permanent in-\ntakes in the west Asia and it is one of the most im-\nportant natural habitants of the animals in Iran. At\npresent there are 27 species of mammals, 212 bird\nspecies, 41 species of reptiles, 7 species of amphib-\nian and 26 species of fsh in this lake.\nThe water in Lake Oroomieh is so saline and it is\nmainly supplied by 6 rivers and the soluble salt is\nnearly two times as much as the oceans. Therefore\nno kind of fsh or mollusca except crustacean live in\nthis lake and the water never freezes. Swimmers can\nalso swim on the water due to the high concentration\nof salts.\nAccording to the measures made in 2010 and 2011,\nat present 1/3 of the lake surface has dried and been\nchanged to salt marsh. The volume of this lake has\nreduced to 15 BCM which is less than half of the\nnormal capacity. According to the recent photos, the\nwater surface has dropped two meters below the nor-\nmal depth. The increase in salt concentration is one\nof the negative results of this decline. The average\nsalt concentration of this lake in long term was be-\ntween150-170 gr./lit. while the present concentration\nof salt is 330 gr./lit. Figure 6 shows the lake water\nlevel fuctuation since 1995 which results in a consid-\nerable decrease in the depth of the lake.\nFigure 6: Lake Water level fuctuation\nH. Motiee, A. Salamat and E.E. McBean\nThe mainly uses and users of the water of this Lake\nare aqua life, tourist and environment.\nA number of parameters have caused a part of\nOroomieh Lake to dry out. 60% of it is related to\ndrought and climate change factors and the rest is re-\nlated to human parameters of which some are related\nto operation and others are related to the structures\nand dams controlling water. Water use in Agriculture\nand industry in the upstream areas of the lake have\nalso had considerable impacts on the lakes volume\nOne decade of continues drought (2000-2010) in the\nwater basin of the lake has caused a severe reduc-\ntion in the surface water of the basin towards the lake.\nAccording to the rainfall statistics during 2002-2005,\nFigure 7- Gradual trend of the lake drying out from 1995 to 2010 with the use of satellite images (scoopweb.\n130 mm and during 2007-2010, 240 mm of rainfall\ndecrease has been recorded in the water basin. Fig-\nure 7 demonstrates the shrinking process of the lake\nsince 1995.\nClimate change has had severe impacts on the water\nvolume and depth of many lakes all around the world\nincluding the Oroomieh Lake. Global temperature in-\ncrease of around 2 degrees Centigrade during the\npast 20 years, evaporation increase as well as rain-\nfall decrease are all considered as the consequences\nof climate change. If this trend is continued, the des-\ntiny of this lake would be similar to the Aral Sea in the\ncoming 2 decades.\nThe following fgures (8, 9&10) demonstrate the rain-\nfall, temperature and evaporation trend during the\npast 20 years respectively.\nFigure8: Estimated Rainfall Height on Oroomieh Lake (Motiee, H., 2012)\nOne of the damages is the bio-diversity impacts.\nBirds migrating to the region gave birth but their pop-\nulation is decreasing nowadays due to the high salin-\nity of the lake water.\nFigure 9: Trend of Temperature in Oroomieh basin (Motiee, H., 2012)\nOne of the other negative impacts which has caused\nthe farmers anxiety is the salt which could be pos-\nsibly spread throughout the region by wind after the\nlake has dried out. This can lead to soil salinity in the\nregion. As the salt formations have a crystal shape\nthis is just an unproved theory. Figure 11 displays the\nsalt mass in the dried beach of the lake.\nFigure 10: Volume of Actual Evaporation of Oroomieh Lake (Motiee, H., 2012)\nFigure 11- Salt crystals after the lake beach dry out (\nH. Motiee, A. Salamat and E.E. McBean\nIn this part the International Drought Initiative pro-\nposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to UNESCO\nwhich was later approved in the 19\ntal Council of UNESCO-IHP, is described. This ini-\ntiative has been defned due to the high importance\nof drought in the world and the necessity for better\nrelation and coordination amongst international orga-\nnizations for knowledge and experience transfer.\nTodays world, needs a global movement to face and\nencounter the challenges of natural disasters re-\nlated to water, especially droughts, so that through\nsystematic measures carried out by governments at\nnational level and integrating them with the activities\nof international governmental and non-governmental\norganizations and entities, effective and coordinated\naction plans could be prepared. This global move-\nment through mobilizing political wills and resources\ncan create effective measures in order to predict and\nproduce preparedness and mitigation plans at global\nIntroducing the International Drought Initiative (IDI)\ncan be a starting point and driving force for this global\nmovement. In this draft concept paper, the objectives\nand framework for establishing and organizing such\nan initiative are presented in anticipation of further\ndeliberations by experts and relevant entities.\nWith respect to drought management, different mea-\nsures are carried out in various countries according\nto their level of development and lessons learnt on\nthe impacts of past droughts. These measures have\ndifferent aspects and dimensions. In developed\ncountries, integrated plans are defned and executed\nand responsibilities are well divided. In developing or\nless developed countries which are much more vul-\nnerable to droughts, no systematic and harmonized\nmeasures have been taken. In the latter countries,\nmost of the measures carried out are concentrated\nafter drought events, e.g. granting different helps\nand incomplete aids. International governmental\nand non-governmental entities also implement differ-\nent programs and plans according to their functions\nand mission of which some concentrate on research,\ntechnical and practical assessments and some other\non improvement of knowledge and awareness. Usu-\nally, at critical periods, some fnancial and logistic\ncontributions will be provided for the affected regions\nby United Nations or affliated entities.\nWith regards to the above mentioned matters, it can\nbe concluded that the overall measures implemented\nat national and international levels dont have an or-\nganized and intelligent solidarity and coordination.\nAlthough, individual activities are so valuable and\nuseful, a good use wont be made from the poten-\ntial synergy of the set of these activities which can\nhave an important effect and consequence in drought\nAccording to the above-mentioned points and the\nnecessity of strengthening communities to effec-\ntively face and encounter the consequences of this\nphenomenon, especially in developing and less de-\nveloped countries, taking beneft of developed coun-\ntries experiences in this process and according to\nthe contents of UN Convention to Combat Deserti-\nfcation (UNCCD) which emphasizes on compiling a\ndrought preparedness plan, the International Drought\nInitiative would create an appropriate opportunity for\na global movement related to different aspects of this\nThe methodology to prepare and compile policies\nand strategies related to drought management, the\nway to act in emergency situations, compiling prac-\ntical plans to confront this phenomenon, clarifying\nstakeholders participation, establishing warning sys-\ntems, using networks to gather meteorological data,\nmethodology of assessing damages and procedure\nfor addressing environmental conficts are among the\nissues that can be addressed in the framework of this\nRole of the entities affliated to UN and non-govern-\nmental organizations, and also countries in success-\nfully compiling and executing drought management\nplans and their cooperation in achieving the goals is\nimperative and vital for successful implementation of\nthis program. This program should be implemented to\nreduce the existing gap between developed and de-\nveloping countries by utilizing valuable experiences\nand precise assessments of future needs. This pro-\ngram should also, guide the countries under cover-\nage to follow acceptable standards in an appropriate\ntime schedule by implementing necessary activities.\nIt seems that this procedure will help to realize sus-\ntainable development and it contributes in mitigating\nthe impacts of economical, social and environmental\naspects of droughts in the coming decade of the 21st\ncentury. The objectives of the International Drought\nInitiative can be considered as follows:\n1. Surveying the current situation of drought man-\nagement in selected countries (or all countries)\nin different aspects such as: policy making,\nstructural and non-structural plans;\n2. Surveying the plans and measures of interna-\ntional and regional governmental/non-govern-\nmental entities involved in drought manage-\n3. Preparing and compiling the World Report on\nDrought Management (WRDM) in the current\nsituation according to the outcomes of the two\nprevious items and investigating the gaps and\nweak and strong points;\n4. Executing necessary surveys to clarify needs\nand priorities of global measures in the frame-\nwork of IDI;\n5. Establishing the World Drought Watch (WDW)\nand Global Drought Preparedness Network\n6. Helping different countries specially develop-\ning and less developed countries to prepare\nand compile strategic and practical drought\nmanagement plans;\n7. Develop and build capacities in: drought moni-\ntoring, mitigation, preparedness techniques\nand methodologies;\n8. Holding international and regional confer-\nences, seminars and workshops to exchange\nviewpoints, improve joint activities and ex-\nchange knowledge and experience related to\ndifferent aspects of drought management;\n9. Prepare and compile short-term, mid-term and\nlong-term plans (perspective) for IDI and defn-\ning the indicators for assessing the progress\nAs the success of IDI in realizing its goals depends\non coordination and participation of interested coun-\ntries as national and local governments function to\ndesign, implement, provide monitoring and evalua-\ntion of programs to deal with drought from one hand,\nand international and regional governmental / non-\ngovernmental entities from the other hand, the gover-\nnance structure of this project should be set in such a\nway topractically encourage their participation in dif-\nferent steps from policy making to execution.\nIt is therefore suggested that a steering committee in-\ncluding representatives of some of the countries with\nvaluable experiences in drought management as\nwell as representatives of some of the international\ngovernmental entities such as: UNESCO-IHP, WMO,\nFAO, UNDP, GWP, WWC and ISDR be organized.\nThis committee would be responsible for preparing\nand compiling the working procedures for the initia-\ntive in anticipation of its formal launch in late 2009.\nThe Regional Centre on Urban Water Management\nis prepared to organize the frst meeting of the steer-\ning committee in the frst quarter of 2009. Accord-\ning to the preliminary mutual understandings with\nUNESCO-IHP it was decided to carry out necessary\ninvestigations on the list of representatives of se-\nlected countries and also international and regional\ngovernmental / non-governmental organizations as\nthe initial members of the steering committee. Upon\nfnalizing the steering committee composition, formal\ninvitations will be made by UNESCO.\nIt is worth mentioning that establishment of IDI as a\nglobal measure, has been highly received in some\nmeetings related to water and supports have been\nmade toward this suggestion.\nBissell, T., 2002. Eternal Winter: Lessons of the Aral\nSea Disaster, Harpers, pp. 4156\nDaemi, A.R. (Ministry of Energy, I. R. Iran,Water &\nWastewater Micro Planning Bureau), 2010, An Over-\nview on Water Resources Management in Iran, Pow-\nerPoint Presentation\nJavan, M., Sanaee, J., Fiuzal, A.A., 2002.Quantify-\ning Management of Irrigation and Drainage Systems,\nJournal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, Vol-\nume 128, Issue 1, pp. 19-25.\nLe Houerou, H.N., 1996. Climate Change, Drought\nand Desertifcation , Journal of Arid Environment N.\n34, pp. 133-185.\nMcBean, E., and Motiee, H., 2009. Progress of Cli-\nmate Change in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones and Utility\nof Meteorological Data, (Plenary Presentation), Wa-\ntarid, 2nd International Conference on Water, Eco-\nsystem, Sustainable Development in Arid and Semi-\nArid Zones, Yazd, Iran.\nMicklin, Philip P., 1992. The Aral Crisis: Introduction\nto the Special Issue, Post Soviet Geography Vol. 33,\nNo. 5.\nMotiee, H., McBean, E., Semsar, A., 2006. Assess-\nment of the Contributions of Traditional Qanats in\nSustainable Water Recources Management, Inter-\nnational Journal of Water Resources Development\nVolume 22, Number 4 , pp. 575 588.\nSalehzadeh, M., Attari, J., Motiee, H., 2013, Investi-\ngating Climate Change Impacts on Water Resourc-\nes, Oroomieh Lake, Case Study, Thesis, Power and\nWater University of Abbaspour.\nMotiee, H., Monouchehri, M. and Tabatabai, M.,\n2001. Water Crisis in Iran, Codifcation and Strate-\ngies in Urban Water, Water Management Sympo-\nsium, Marseille, France.\nPartow, H., 2003. Sistan Oasis Parched by Drought,\nin Atlas of Global Change, United Nations Environ-\nmental Program, Oxford University Press.\nWMO (World Meteorological Organization), 1995.\nGlobal Climate System Review: Climate System\nMonitoring , Geneva, Switzerland.\nWMO (World Meteorological Organization), 2005.\nClimate and Land Degradation, Report No. 989,\nISBN 92-63-10989-3.,available at :http://www.wamis.\nStnio de Sousa Venncio\nLuiz Fernando Resende dos Santos Anjo\nThe scenario analysis for knowledge of the transitional system of urban macro drainage work is necessary for the planning\nof structural and nonstructural measurements. To this end, a computational model 1D is presented to study the food propa-\ngation in urban drainage channels. This work investigates the unsteady fow in the Coc River estuary, located in the city of\nFortaleza-CE. It is one of the cases studied in the frst authors graduate program, which proposes a computation model to\nsimulate unsteady fows of open channels with many purposes (such as hydroelectric power, water supply, irrigation, etc.)\nand contributes to automation of their operational control systems . The determination of maximum water level achieved\nalong the estuary is the aim of this study, having practical application on the defnition of elevation of streets, avenues and\nnew constructions to be executed on the border or inside the food areas. The complete 1D hydrodynamic equations of\nSaint-Venant are approximated by a completely implicit method of fnite differences and conveniently discretized for the\nmodel, which was developed in FORTRAN language. The fow given by the entrance hydrograph of the analyzed estuary\n(upstream boundary condition) was obtained for a return period of 50 years. The water depth is the boundary condition\ndownstream of the problem, and its variation, obtained by measuring the tide in a 24 hour period, was approached by a\nmathematical function. This function was obtained for the purpose of measuring the maximum water level that occurs in\nthe estuary. Was still considered to two lateral hydrographs and an infow distributed along the estuary. The unsteady fow\nanalysis is based on the temporal results of water level and fow at several cross sections of the estuary.\nKeywords: urban fooding, macrodrainage, computational model.\nEl anlisis de escenarios para el conocimiento del sistema transitorio de obra de drenaje urbano macro son necesaria\npara la planifcacin de medidas estructurales y no estructurales. Con este fn, se presenta un modelo computacional 1D\npara estudiar la propagacin de inundacin en los canales de drenaje urbano. Este trabajo investiga el fujo transitorio en\nla desembocadura del ro Coc, ubicado en la ciudad de Fortaleza-CE. Es uno de los casos estudiados en el programa\nde posgrado del primer autor, que propone un modelo de computacin para simular fujos inestables de canales abiertos\ncon muchos propsitos (por ejemplo, energa hidroelctrica, abastecimiento de agua, riego, etc.) y contribuye a la au-\ntomatizacin de sus sistemas de control operacional. La determinacin del nivel de agua mximo alcanzado a lo largo del\nestuario es el objetivo de este estudio, teniendo aplicacin prctica en la defnicin de la elevacin de las calles, avenidas\ny nuevas construcciones para ser ejecutado en la frontera de o dentro de las reas de inundacin. Las ecuaciones hi-\ndrodinmicas completa de 1D de Saint-Venant son aproximadas por un mtodo totalmente implcito de diferencias fnitas y\ndiscretizar convenientemente para el modelo, que fue desarrollado en lenguaje FORTRAN. El fujo dado por el hidrograma\nde entrada de la ra analizado (condicin de frontera aguas arriba) se obtuvo para un periodo de retorno de 50 aos. La\nprofundidad del agua es la condicin de frontera aguas abajo del problema, y su variacin, obtenidos mediante la medicin\nde la marea en un perodo de 24 horas, fue abordado por una funcin matemtica. Esta funcin se obtuvo con el propsito\nde medir el nivel mximo de agua que se produce en el estuario. Todava era considerado a dos hidrogramas laterales y\nuna afuencia distribuidos a lo largo del estuario. El anlisis de fujo transitorio se basa en los resultados temporales de\nfujo en varias secciones transversales de la ra y el nivel del agua.\nPalabras clave: las inundaciones urbanas, macrodrenaje, modelo computacional.\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 19 - 28.\n* Prof. Adjunto II - Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Instituto de Cincias Tecnolgicas e Exatas - ICTE, Universidade Federal\ndo Tringulo Mineiro - UFTM\n** Professor Adjunto III da Universidade Federal do Tringulo Mineiro (UFTM) e Diretor do Instituto de Cincias Tecnolgicas e\nExatas (ICTE) da UFTM, Departamento das Engenharias, Universidade Federal do Tringulo Mineiro\nComptational Model for Analysis Spread in Flood Channels Urban Drainage\nThe growth of cities was not accompanied by govern-\ning instruments for the soil use and occupation. As\nstated by CRUZ & TUCCI (2008):\nAccording to IBGE (2000), considering\n5.507 Brazilian municipalities, only 841\nhave Urban Master Plans (PDU) (15.3%),\nand of these, only 489 in the latest ver-\nsion of the plan are later than 1990 (8.9%\n). When analyzing only those cities with\npopulation exceeding 20,000 inhabitants,\n485 have PDU from a total of 1483 mu-\nnicipalities (32.7%). Even where there are\nPDUs, most of these plans only deal with\narchitectural aspects, without considering\nenvironmental effects and especially on the\ndrainage infrastructure. Within the urban\npractices that have spread across the coun-\ntry, the use of valleys avenues associated\nwith the plumbing of urban streams was\nobserved. This sort of urbanization ampli-\nfes the impacts and changes the environ-\nment in an inappropriate way. Solutions of\nthis type generally have a cost much higher\nthan a sustainable solution and increased\nlosses due to fooding, erosion and water\nquality. The sum of technical ignorance of\nan important part of professionals working\non drainage, population and policy makers\nhave kept this scene.\nChanging this setting requires changing the strategic\npattern of the city integrated planning and it involves:\nurban planning and soil use, sanitation, solid waste\nand urban drainage. All these elements have strong\ninterference with each other and require integrated\nAll this dynamic and the increased frequency of foods\nin recent decades have become increasingly impor-\ntant to incorporate tools to help the decision making\nprocess in the management of urban drainage.\nThe change in rainfall patterns, widely treated by the\nmedia on the issue of global climate change, is an\naggravating factor in the secure management of ur-\nban infrastructure in terms of fooding, with additional\nimpact on the coastal cities where the tide cycle is\ndecisive in determining timing of water levels in the\ndrainage channel.\nAccording to Mark et al. (2004), with the current ad-\nvances in computer technology, many cities in de-\nveloped countries use computer simulations to solve\ntheir local problems of fooding. The practice involves\nbuilding models of drainage systems using applica-\ntions such as MOUSE (Abbott et al., 1982, Lindberg\n& Jrgensen, 1986), SOBEK-Urban (Heeringen et\nal., 2002), InfoWorks CS (Chan & Vass, 2002) and\nSWMM (Huber & Dickinson, 1992). Based on simu-\nlation results, mitigation measures can be evaluated\nand the optimal solution can be implemented. The\nmain caveat with regard to commercial software pack-\nages is in the restriction of access to source code,\nwhich complicates the understanding of certain types\nof errors, besides many of them do not include impor-\ntant parameters in the analysis process, or are not\nused properly by users. One of these parameters is\nsediment transport, whose effect impact in reducing\nfow capacity of the urban drainage channels. Some\nconclusions about the hydrosedimentological simu-\nlation are presented at the end, from the literature\nreview by Venncio (2009). The description of the\nitem 2.2 (Numerical Model) is presented in Venncio,\nSousa and; Villela (2005).\n2.1 Study Area.\nThe Rio Coco is part of the basin of the rivers in the\neast coast of Cear, with its catchment area of ap-\nproximately 485 km , with a total length of the main\nriver about 50 km (SEMACE, 2012). The river runs\nthrough the municipalities of Pacatuba, Maracana\nand Fortaleza, and its source is situated on the east-\nern slope of the Sierra Aratanha. Its mouth is on the\nedge of the beaches of Hunting and Fishing and Sa-\nbiaguaba, thus emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The\nCoco River Basin is considered the largest river in\nthe city of Fortaleza, it has 25 km of its length in the\nThe area chosen for analysis in question is the entire\narea that is related to infuence Coco River estuary,\nand comprises approximately 15 km of the length of\nthe river from its mouth upstream, within the limits\nof the city of Fortaleza (Figure 1). The portion of the\nriver, which is the state capital of Cear, has man-\ngrove ecosystem associated with fuvial-marine plain,\nwhich occupies the excerpts from the river located on\nBR-116 to its mouth, where it forms an estuary.\nThese areas due to favorable conditions such as\nmixing of saline water with fresh water, soil type, low\ncoeffcients of oxygen in the soil (ie, reducing envi-\nronment) and tidal regimes, the dominant species are\nRhizophora mangle L, Avicenia Schaveriana Stapf\nand Leech, and Laguncularia racemosa (SEMACE,\nNatural environments are subject Coc intensely\nhuman activity that intervenes signifcantly through\nconstructions of households, urban roads, public fa-\ncilities and commercial developments. These urban\nfacilities directly interfere in sedimentary processes,\nmorphological, ecological and oceanographic re-\ngion. Historically, since 1933 the Estuary Coco con-\ncentrated low-income housing, and currently has a\nnumber of environmental and social problems arising\nfrom lack of urban planning, mainly due to population\ngrowth and inadequate implementation of structural\ndesigns, such as sanitation basic fuvial drainage\nworks, construction of affordable housing and other\nforms of occupation (RGP, 2009).\nS. de Sousa Venncio and L.F. Resende dos Santos Anjo\nEven being inserted in the semi-arid climate, its loca-\ntion change this reality by being among nearby hills\ncausing summer rains occur more often in the city\nand surrounding area than in the rest of the state.\nThe average annual temperature is 26 C. The aver-\nage rainfall is about 1600 mm. Without the seasons\nwell defned, there is only the rainy season, from Jan-\nuary to July and the dry from August to December.\nWith most of the sandy soil agriculture becomes of\nlittle economic signifcance, and since the 1990 the\nentire length of the city was considered urban area\n(WIKIPEDIA, 2013).\nThe average fow in the estuary, in steady state, is 10\n/s, obtained by measuring station river. The moni-\ntoring of historical rainfall data and qualitative and\nquantitative water resources of the Basin estuarine\nCoco are managed by the COGERH (Company Wa-\nter Resources Management) from the state govern-\nment of Cear.\n2.2 Numerical Model\nThe mathematical model conceptual employed to\nstudy the free fow in the transient regime with bidi-\nrectional fow, is set out in the literature, for validations\ngenerated in various applications. It is composed of\nthe hydrodynamic equations completes, Continuity\nand amount movement, known as the Saint-Venant\n2.2.1 Governing Equations\nThe continuity equation follows the way presented by\nHenderson (1966):\nFigure 1. Location of the study area in Fortaleza/CE.\nwhere y/t is the rate of temporal variation of water\nheight considering the bottom of the channel; Q/x\nrate of spatial variation of fow, B the width of the free\nsurface, and q\nthe intake of side fow in meters\nfrom the banks. From the relation y/t = h/t - z/t,\nwhere h/t is the variation of water height relative to\na horizontal reference plane at the considered time\nand z/t = 0 (once the bottom slope does not vary\nwith time), the general equation can be rewritten as:\nThe equation of movement amount is given as fol-\nwhere S\nis the slope of the power line; S\nto the chan-\nnel bottom slope; y/x the rate of spatial variation of\nwater depth; V/x rate of spatial variation of mean\nfow velocity; V/t the rate of temporal variation of\nmean velocity and g is the acceleration of gravity.\nSubstituting S\nby z/x and S\nby V\n= Q\nin Eq. (3), it can be written as:\nwhere A is the cross-sectional area, and R\nis the\nhydraulic radius of the section, and C\nthe Chezzy\ncoeffcient, a function of hydraulic radius and Man-\nning roughness coeffcient (C\n1/6/n) determined\nComptational Model for Analysis Spread in Flood Channels Urban Drainage\nfor each step of time of the established discretization.\nIntroducing the relation z/t = h/x - y/x in Eq.\n(4) and multiplying it by g.A\n, it becomes:\n\n+ +\n\ngA Q Q\n2.2.2 Discretization\nOne of the most used schemes for the variable fow\nanalysis in channels is the implicit fnite difference\nscheme by Preissmann (apud LIGGET and CUNGE\n1975), given by:\nq and f are weighting factors which, for f = 0,5 e q =\n1 a fully implicit scheme considered by Preissmann is\npresented as follows:\n\nf f\n1 K\n1 K\n1 i\n\n+ +\nwhere the average of the variable f is calculated by\n, which i would represent the sections,\nk the calculation time and f the representative value\nof any variable of the problem where, for the present-\ned case is given by Q (m\n/ s) and h (m) .\nDiscretizing the continuity equation Eq. (2) for this\nscheme, it follows\nwhich is multiplied by 2t and it is\nDefning as a and rearranging Eq. (9) in terms\nof K and K +1, you can write it as\n(for side fow input), and\n(for side fow output), reminding that if there is no en-\ntry and exit of side fow, the term E\nthe discrete equation of continuity is the following\nApplying the approximation scheme for the move-\nment amount equation Eq. (5) and following the\nsame steps taken earlier, it is\nwith and .\nS. de Sousa Venncio and L.F. Resende dos Santos Anjo\nFor the discretized mathematical equations above,\nthe following linear system occurs:\nReducing the terms of the equation for\nthe equation of movement is treated as\nThe studied estuary was spatially discretized into 32\nsections (N\n= 32 sections), listed from upstream to\ndownstream, with a total length L = 15.500m. The\nboundary conditions of the problem are the upstream\nFigure 2 - The Coc River estuary Scheme to the application of the model, with HID21 and HID30 repre-\nsenting the two side hydrographs.\ninput hydrograph and downstream tide equation. Two\nside hydrographs are still considered. The outline of\nthe problem is shown in Figure 1 below.\nwhere the overwritten index of Q and h represent the\ntime of calculation, and the subscribed index repre-\nsent the considered sections. The values A, B, C, D\nand E are determined by expressions previously de-\nveloped in an explicit way. Thus we can conclude that\nfor N\n= n sections, the system consisted of 2.(n-1) =\nequations and 2.n= unknowns\n\nwhat in this case rep-\nresents a number of 62 equations and 64 unknowns.\nIntroducing the boundary system, this becomes:\nComptational Model for Analysis Spread in Flood Channels Urban Drainage\nand therefore a system with 64 equations and 64\nunknowns. F\n= h\nis obtained by downstream tide\nequation as follows:\nyinic = 1.00 m = initial height of the tide in section\n1 (when.t = 0h); A = 1.60 m = height of the tide;\nP = 3.141592654; T = 12 H = period of the tide; z\n\n= share of the channel bottom in section 1; t = time\nof computation in hours; F\n= Q\n, is the upstream\nboundary condition attributed directly to the charac-\nteristic hydrograph of the estuary.\nTo solve the system, are given further: Qi = 10.00\nm3 / s = initial fow in the channel; g = 9.81 m/s2 =\nacceleration of gravity; z = 500 m = spacing between\nsections; Dt = 3600 s = time interval of calculation;\nNt = 6 = number of time intervals for calculating; q\n\n= 0.0001 m3/sm = lateral contribution; n = 0.035 =\nManning coeffcient; Nz = 32 = number of discrete\nsections; HID21 = side hydrograph in section 21;\nHID30 = side hydrograph in section 30; ALT = initial\nheight of water, obtained by the energy equation via\nStep Method; QUOTA = bottom of the channel quota\nobtained topographically.\nThe system of equations is then prepared in a matrix,\naccording to Fortuna (2000), expressed as in Figure\n3, to be solved numerically. The Matrix A and vector\nB are explicitly calculated in time K and the vector U\nobtained implicitly by solving the system at time K+1.\n3.1 Computational Model\nWith the aim of implementing the simulation of tran-\nsient fow in open channels, with discretization of\nthe Saint-Venant 1D equations through the scheme\nimplicit by Preissmann, a computer model in FOR-\nTRAN language was developed. The model applied\nin this study can be extended to other cases making\nadjustments in geometry, boundary conditions, tem-\nporal and spatial discretization. In cases of natural\nchannels, the approach must be careful, because the\ngeometry of the sections is approximated by math-\nematical functions that may exhibit divergence in the\nlimits of maximum and minimum water depth. The\nblock diagram of the model is shown in fgure 4.\nFigure 3 Matrix of the equations used for the numeric solution.\nS. de Sousa Venncio and L.F. Resende dos Santos Anjo\nThe height of water data, fow and speed in func-\ntion of time are summarized in Figures 5, 6 and 7\nfor the discretized sections of the estuary. The\ninitial time t = 0 h was considered when the estu-\nary is at steady state. The time steps are in a pe-\nriod of 1min in a simulated total period of 6 hours.\nFigure 5 shows the evolution of water height with time\nalong the estuary, with a predominance of the tide on\nthe amount of fow between sections 16 and 32. The\nmaximum height occurs within the frst 2 hours for the\nsections between 1 and 5 due to the infuence of the\nhydrograph peak. For other sections the maximum is\nreached in the third hour, depending on the maximum\nheight of the tide. The overfow observed in section\n21 is an important detail of the simulation, because it\ncorresponds to a characteristic point of fooding.\nFigure 6 shows the propagation of the downstream\nfow (characterized by the rising tide into the estuary)\nthe time of 3h, when its height is maximum . After\na period of three hours the tide begins to go down,\nfreeing the fow of the accumulated amount fow in\nthe period. The fow then tends to steady state, with\npositive values along the estuary, i.e., with the pre-\ndominance of the amount fow.\nThe graph in Figure 7 shows the peak level reached\nin the various sections of the estuary in the simulated\nperiod, expressing clearly the sector where fooding\noccurs (section 21).\nFigure 4 Block Diagram of the Model.\nHydraulic changes occurring in the estuary, during\nperiods of high and low tide, are equivalent to the re-\nsults of work carried out for the same purpose (varia-\ntion of water levels in the estuary), where the main\nbottleneck is the unavailability of feld data to feed\ncalibration of the model. As an example of equiva-\nlent studies can be cited: Como exemplo de estudos\nequivalentes pode ser citado: Pinho (2005); Stoschek\ne Zimmermann (2006); Kwnow, Maa e Lee (2007);\nGanju e Schoellhamer (2009) and Hu et al. (2009).\nThis computer model simulation performed for the\nconditions of the drainage channel, estuarine stretch\nof the River Coco within a period of 6 hours, with the\ndetermination of maximum levels in the estuary. These\nlevels served as parameters for interventions in the\nareas adjacent to the estuary for urbanization pur-\nposes. Therefore, the main objective was achieved.\nFor the application of the computational model pre-\nsented in this study in other cases, even with no\nestuary, there must be an adaptation to the specifc\ngeometric and hydraulic situation addressed, as well\nas boundary conditions of the particular problem.\nIt is also important to note that the computational\nmodel implemented here was motivated by the need\nto serve a practical purpose and, therefore, it is lim-\nited to only simulate the occurrence of peak levels.\nComptational Model for Analysis Spread in Flood Channels Urban Drainage\nFigura 5 - Evolution of water height in time.\nFigura 6 - Evolution of the fow in time.\nS. de Sousa Venncio and L.F. Resende dos Santos Anjo\nFigura 7 - Maximum level of water in the estuary.\nThis limitation is imposed by the tidal equation which\ndoes not reproduce the minimum heights.\nDespite the actual phenomenon is reproduced in\nthe same order of magnitude (of space and time) the\nvalidation of this simulation is subject to making mea-\nsurements of water height in the channel during the\nrise of the tide. These feld data, not available to carry\nout this simulation, would allow the calibration of the\nmodel and check its effciency.\nIn the case of natural channels (not prismatic sec-\ntions), it is worth noting that care must be taken as\nthe geometric aspect. As the geometric confgura-\ntion of the sections are approximated by mathemati-\ncal functions (A = f (y)) and P = f (y)), the correlation\nobtained should be analyzed carefully for the maxi-\nmum and minimum heights reached in the simula-\ntion of water, avoiding to numerical instabilities.\nThe next step of this work is the validation with the\nconsequent inclusion of sediment transport module.\nThe major deadlock in this type of modeling, based\non previous work is the unavailability of feld data, no\ncontemplation of important parameters for numerical\nmodels (winds, turbulence, temperature, etc.) and\nempirical mathematical modeling with results showing\nsignifcant errors. Not less important is the necessary\nqualifcation for the collection and interpretation of\ndata and appropriate use of model for each situation.\nAll this reality justifes the continuation of studies in\nthis direction, pointing to computational programs\nwith open source codes, which facilitate the inter-\npretation of errors in the results and relevant adjust-\nments, which do not happen with commercial soft-\nware because of the so-called black boxes. Without\nintending to model the nature accurately, the com-\nputational tool provides more effcient and integrated\nactions from the quantifcation of transient phenom-\nenon in the drainage channels.\nFinally, the availability of data for feld calibra-\ntion and validation extensive computational time\nfor the adjustment and sensitivity analysis of the\ndata and also the limitations of templates to cover\ncertain data types, or to consider them as appro-\npriate, make process of numerical simulation re-\nsults that hard to not always represent accuracy.\nN.E.; KEJ. A., A modeling system for the design and\noperation of storm sewer networks. Engineering Apli-\ncations of computacional hydraulics. Editors: AB-\nBOTT, M.B.; CUNGE, J.A. Pitman. v.1, ch.2, 1982,\np.11-39. London\nCHAN, A.; VASS, A., Modeling a Pressurized Waste-\nwater System, a Case Study. Ninth International\nConference on Urban Storm Drainage (ICUD), 2002.\nCD-ROM. Portland.\nCRUZ, M. A. S. e TUCCI, C. E. M., Avaliao dos\nCenrios de Planejamento na Drenagem Urbana,\nRevisa Brasileira de Recursos Hdricos RBRH, v.3\nn.3, set-2008, p.59-71.\nGANJU, N. K.; SCHOELLHAMER, D. H. Calibration\nof an estuarine sediment transport model to sediment\nfuxes as an intermediate step for simulation of geo-\nmorphic evolution. Continental Shelf Research 29,\n2009. p.148-158.\nApproach to High Speed Urban Drainage Modeling\nwith SOBEK.,2002. In.: Ninth International Confer-\nComptational Model for Analysis Spread in Flood Channels Urban Drainage\nence on Urban Storm Drainage (ICUD). CD-ROM.\nHENDERSON, F. M., Open Channel Flow, Macmillan\nPublishing, Inc, New York, 1966, 522p.\nHU, K.; DING, P.; WANG, Z.; YANG, S. A 2D/3D hy-\ndrodynamic and sediment transport model for the\nYangtze Estuary, China. Journal of Marine Systems,\n2009. 23p.\nHUBER, W.C.; DICKINSON, R.E., Storm Water Man-\nagement Model, version 4: users manual. EPA/600/3-\n88/001a (NTIS PB88-236641/AS), 1992, U.S. Envi-\nronmental Protection Agency. Athens, Georgia.\nKWON, J. I.; MAA, J. P. Y.; LEE, D. Y. A preliminary\nimplication of the constant erosion rate model to sim-\nulate turbidity maximums in the York River, Virginia,\nUSA. Estuarine and Coastal Fine Sediments Dynam-\nics, 2007. p.331-354.\nLIGGETT, J.A. e CUNGE, J.A., Unsteady Flow in\nOpen Channels Cap 4 Volume I editado por\nK.Mahmood e V.Yevjevich, 1975, 484p.\nLINDBERG, S.; JRGENSEN, T.W., Modelling of Ur-\nban Storm Sewer Systems. In: Proceedings of the\nInternational Symposium on Comparison of Urban\nDrainage Models with Real Catchment Data. UDM\n86. Dubrovnik, 1986, Yugoslavia.\ntial and limitations of 1D modelling of urban fooding.\nJournal of Hydrology. Volume 299, Issues 3-4, De-\ncember 2004, Pages 284-299.\nPINHO, J.L.S., Modelao da hidrodinmica e\ndinmica sedimentar no esturio do rio Cvado. Re-\nvista da Universidade do Minho, Portugal Dep. En-\ngenharia Civil - ISSN 0873-1152. 24 (2005) 5-16.\nRGP Revista Geografa e Pesquisa, Carttografa\nAplicada Anlise Geoambiental: Um Estudo de\nCaso com Fotografas Areas de Pequeno Formato\nno Lagamar do Rio Coc Fortaleza Cear, UN-\nESP/Ourinhos, v.3, n.1, jan-jun (2008), ISSN 1982-\nSEMACE Secretaria do Meio Ambiente do Estado\ndo Cear. Parque Ecolgico do Rio Coc. Disponvel\nem: <\necologico-do-rio-coco/>. Acesso em: 12 out. 2012.\nand sedimentation in na estuarine tidal harbor using\nthree-dimensional simulation. Journal of Waterway,\nPort, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, ASCE, 2006.\nWIKIPDIA Disponvel em:< http://pt.wikipedia.\norg/wiki/Geografa_de_Fortaleza>. Acesso em: 17\njul. 2013.\nVENANCIO, S. S., Simulao Numrica Aplicada ao\nAssoreamento do Reservatrio Represa Velha, tese\ndoutorado EESC/USP, 2009, 168p.\nM., Modelo Computacional para Anlise de Transien-\nte Hidrulico em Canais o caso do esturio do Rio\nCoc. XVI Simpsio Brasileiro de Recursos Hdricos\nSBRH, Nov/2005 Joo Pessoa-PB- pg. 1-11.\nSilvio Jorge C. Simes\nIsabel Cristina de Barros Trannin\nIn different regions of Brazil, foods have increased dramatically, affecting millions of people and inficting huge economical\ndamage. Flood hazard maps are important to integrate geospatial and temporal data in a same computational environment\nthat allows risk assessment, modeling and decision support. This paper discusses different levels of integration approach-\nes between GIS and hydrological models and presents a case study,in which all the tasks of creating model input, editing\ndata, running the model, and displaying output results are available withina GIS. The study area corresponds to the upper\nsection of the Paraba do Sul basin (Sao Paulo State portion), comprising nearly 15,300 km2 and situated in the Southeast\nof Brazil. Paraiba do Sul basin has a large importance in the history, culture and economy of Brazil with high urbanization\nand industrial activities along a part of the main river. The case study presented in this paper has a database which is\nsuitable for the basin dimension including digitized topographic maps. From ArcGIS/ArcHydro Data Modela geometric\nnetwork called HydroNetwork was created to produce different raster maps. This frst grid derived from the digital elevation\nmodel grid (DEM) is the fow direction map followed by fow accumulation, stream and catchment maps. The next steps in\nthis research are to incorporate rainfall time series data from about forty stations to build a hydrologic data model within a\nGIS environment and to combine ArcGIS/ArcHydro and HEC-HMS model, in order to produce a spatial-temporal model\nfor foodplain analysis at a regional scale.\nKeywords: Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Hydrologic Models; Flood Inundation Model; Paraiba do Sul River\nLas inundaciones han aumentado dramticamente en diferentes regiones de Brasil generando consecuencias para mil-\nlones de personas y causando un enorme dao econmico. Los mapas de riesgo de inundacin son importantes para in-\ntegrar datos geoespaciales y temporales en un mismo entorno computacional, permitiendo de este modo decidir, modelar\ny evaluar los riesgos. Este artculo analiza los diferentes niveles de integracin entre SIG y modelos hidrolgicos. Se pre-\nsenta un estudio de caso en el cual todas las tareas para crear un modelo de entrada, edicin de datos y visualizacin de\nresultados de salida estn disponibles dentro de un SIG. El rea de estudio corresponde a la parte superior de la cuenca\nde Paraba del Sur (porcin del Estado de San Pablo), que comprende aproximadamente 15.300 km2 y est ubicada en\nel sudeste de Brasil. La cuenca del Ro Paraba del Sur tiene una gran importancia en la historia, cultura y economa del\nBrasil. A lo largo del ro principal tienen lugar un gran nmero de actividades urbanas e industriales. Esta regin cuenta con\nuna base de datos adecuada para la dimensin de la cuenca que incluye mapas topogrfcos georeferenciados. Se utiliz\nel software ArcGIS/ArcHydro, que tiene una red geomtrica llamada HydroNetwork creada que fuera a su vez creada\npara producir varios mapas con formato raster. Este primer cuadro derivado del cuadro modelo de elevacin digital\n(DEM) se corresponde con el mapa de la direccin del fujo seguido por mapas de acumulacin, drenaje y sub-cuencas.\nLos prximos pasos en esta investigacin sern incorporar datos de series temporales de lluvias de unas cuarenta esta-\nciones para construir un modelo de datos hidrolgicos e integrar el software ArcHydro con el modelo lluvia-escurrimiento\nHEC-HMS para producir un modelo espacial y temporal para el anlisis de inundaciones de llanuras a escala regional.\nPalabras clave: Informacin geogrfca, Sistemas (GIS); Modelos hidrolgicos; Modelo de Inundacionesl; Cuenca acufera\nde Paraiba do Sul\n1. Institute of Science and Technology, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 12245-000, Sao Jose dos Campos, SP, Brazil.\n2. Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), Harvard University, 02136, Cambridge, MA, USA\n3. Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering at GuaratinguetUniversidadeEstadualPaulista (UNESP), 12516-410,\nGuaratinguet, SP, Brazil. <>\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 29 - 44.\nGis Application In Flood Management A Case Study: Paraiba Do Sul Basin, Southeast Brazil\nStudies in different parts of the world suggest that the\nnumber of disastersassociated with extreme weather\nand climate, such as foods, has increased through\nthe 20thcentury (Changnon et al., 2000; Ashmore\nand Church, 2001;Guha-Sapir et al., 2004; Lugeri et\nal., 2010). Thistrend likely refects different factors,\nsuch as a shift in the precipitation pattern, and the\nfact of a growing amountof the population living in-\nfood-proneareasisincreasing. Residents that lived in\nlow land or close to river banks are often highly vul-\nnerable to food hazard, especially when it happens\nin urban areas. For all these reasons, foodwater\nmanagement and analysis became a growing topic\nof discussion among the government, communities\nand researchers worldwide.\nIn different regions of Brazil, foods have increased\ndramatically, affecting millions of people and infict-\ning huge economicaldamage. The situation is par-\nticularly dramatic in Southeast region, involving the\nstates of So Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Ja-\nneiro, which are responsible for more than 50% of\nthe GDP in Brazil. Inundation has been recurrent in\nSao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and other\nimportant cities. In January 2011, Brazil had its worst\nand deadliest natural disaster since 1900, where a\nheavy rain causedthe foods and the mudslides in\nmountain towns situated in thenorth of the city of Rio\nDespite this situation, there are no national (and\nregional) projects by promoting food hazard map-\nping for food-prone areas in the urban environment,\nwhich could provide general knowledge of the food\nhazard and could establish a measure for theman-\nagement and prediction of these risk areas. National\nfood hazard maps have been created in different\ncountries,such as the Flood Harzard Mapping for\nUrban Areas (FHMUA) for Malaysia(Toriman et al.,\n2009) and the Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps\n(DFIRMs) elaborated by FEMA (Federal Emergen-\ncy Management Agency), for the USA(National Re-\nsearch Council, 2007).\nProducing food hazard maps is important to inte-\ngrate geospatial and temporal data in a same com-\nputational environment that allows risk assessment,\nmodeling and decision support. The scope and scale\nof food problems makes the Geographical Informa-\ntion System (GIS) software a powerful tool for its in-\ntegrated management process. GIS is ideally suited\nfor various foodplain management activities, such\nas base mapping, topographic mapping, and post-\ndisaster verifcation of mapped foodplain extents and\nIn this way, this paper aims describinga GIS appli-\ncationfor food management and it presents a case\nstudy for the Paraba do Sul basin situated in the\nSoutheastern Brazil. This basin is one of most impor-\ntant in the country linking the major cities of the So\nPaulo and Rio de Janeiro..\nSince the mid-1970s, specialized computer systems\nhave been developed to process geographical infor-\nmation in various ways, searching to connect digital\nmaps and alphanumeric data that describe the fea-\ntures on the maps. The new generation of theGIS\ncan store and analyze the topology of the data, i.e.\nthe understanding of the context of spatial and at-\ntribute data(Delaney andNiel, 2007). Each spatial\nfeature in a GIS has a unique geographic location,\nspecifed by its coordinates, and a unique identify-\ning number by which it is connected to descriptive\ndata in a relational database. GIS generally uses a\nStructured Querry Language (SQL), which is stan-\ndard computer language designed specifcally for ac-\ncessing, querying and manipulating geodatabases in\na powerful database management system.\nAs mentioned by Bernhardsen (2002),the GIS tech-\nnology signifes much more than a software system\nthat processes, stores, and analyzes geographical\ndata; nowadays, the GIS development is allied to the\npower of the computer, opening an enormous range\nof possibilities for modeling and accurate decision.\nFigure 1 shows different GIS domains and the impor-\ntance of archiving, manipulation and a data-intensive\nanalysis of the GIS (management components), as\nwell as the modeling, the decision and the process-\nintensive GIS control (scientifc component). How-\never, process-intensive and data-intensive domains\nare no contradictory ones,and should be shared and\nintegrated to the hydrology and the water resources\n(KovarandNachtnebel, 1993). Therefore, for those\nthat studywater resources, it is necessary to fnd a\nbalance between the process-intensive (modeling)\nand thedata-intensive (archival; management)\nWithin the large broad domain of water resources\nsciences, the priorities of GIS will depend upon\ncontext,in which modeling occupies a key position\n(Clark, 2000). This is because hydrology, catchment\nand fuvial systems interact closely in time and space.\nOn the other hand, hydrological models simulate the\nfow of water, sediment, nutrients, whose physical\ndiversity and complexity of the landscape should be\nconsidered and, consequently, tend to strength the\nspatial dimension.\nFigure 1 A concept of GIS domains (Clark, 2000).\nSilvio J. C. Simes and Isabel C. de Barros Trannin\nAlthough the elements of hydrological modeling pre-\ndate GIS by more than a century (Maidment, 1993),\nGIS and modeling have converted strongly over the\nlast 20 years. Clark (2000) highlights that almost 60%\nof the whole papers in the 1993 and 1996 HydroGIS\nconference proceedings include the terms modeling,\nsimulation or forecasting.Because the uncertainty of\nwater resources management under climate change\ntends to increase, modeling and simulation are valu-\nable tools for building alternative future scenarios.\nHowever, geographic reality is continuous and inf-\nnitely complex when comparing with computer, which\nare relatively simple and can only deal with digital\ndata. Therefore, diffcult choices have to be made\nabout how things are modeled in a GIS and how are\nthey represented.\nFor understanding the modeling process related to a\nGIS (or GIS data model),we can think about different\nlevels of data model abstraction (Figure 2). First, the\nreality,represents the real-world phenomena (build-\nings, streets, rivers, forests) and includes all the as-\npects that may or not be perceived by individuals.\nSecond, the conceptual model, represents selected\nobjects and processes that are considered relevant\nfor a specifc proposal. Third, the logical model is an\nimplementation-oriented representation of thereality\nthat is often represented as a diagram or lists. Lastly,\nthe physical model (or computational model) corre-\nsponds to animplementation in a GIS, and often com-\nprises tables stored as fles or databases (Longley et\nal., 2008). Note that the expression physical model\napplied above is different of considering the expres-\nsion hydrologic physical model, whose hydrological\nsystem is represented for formal mathematics terms.\nPhysicallybased models are the most suitable when\nstudying internal catchment scenarios (Olsson and-\nPilesjo, 2002).\nThe central role of the GIS in the modeling process\nmay vary in different grades and stages. The set of\npossible relationships depends on the different ap-\nplication of the linkage as suggestsMaidment(1993)\nand showed bellow.\nHydrological assessment to represent hazard\nor vulnerability (using arithmetic operators and\nweights for evaluating infuences of signifcant\nHydrological parameters determination,\nwhereby the GIS provides inputs to the model\nin terms of parameters, such as surface slope,\nchannel length, land use and soil characteris-\nHydrological modeling within the GIS,where\ntemporal data are involved;\nLinking the GIS and hydrological models to\nutilize the GIS as an input and display device\nincluding real-time process monitoring.\nTherefore, the relationship between GIS and model-\ning assumes different levels of integration and this\nissue will be discussed further.\nA major problem that hydrologist and environmental\nprofessionals will treat during the next several years\nis information overload that means the inability to\nFigure 2 Levels of abstraction relevant to GIS data model (Longley et al., 2008)\ndeal with available information using present meth-\nods (Dodson, 1993). In the early days of GIS, when\ngeographic data were scarce, data collection was\nthe main project task. Even today, data collection still\nremains a time-consuming, tedious and expensive\nprocess. Obviously, effectively using large sets will\nrequire a more integrated approach involving a series\nof sequential stages, as those displayed in fgure3.\nSequential stages could be used at different types of\nproject,regardless of its level of complexity. A work-\nfow commences with planning, followed by prepara-\ntion, digitizing/transfer, editing and improvement and\nfnally evaluation (Longley et al., 2008).\nGIS can contain a wide variety of geographic data\ntypes originated from many diverse sources. From\nthe perspective of creating geographic databases, it\nis convenient to classify geographic data as raster\nand vector and as primary and secondary, as well.\n(Table 1).\nTable 1 Different types of data (Longley et al.,\n2008, modifed)\nRaster Vector\nPrimary Digital remote\nsensing images\nGPS measure-\nDigital aerial pho-\nSurvey measure-\nSecondary Scanned maps Topographic sur-\nDEMs from maps Toponymy data\nPrimary data sources are those collected in digital\nformat for using in a GIS project. Typical examples\nof primary GIS sources include raster satellite im-\nage such as Landsat, Aster\n\nand Ikonos\n\nFigure 3 Sequential stages of planning (Longley et\nal. 2008)\nvector survey measurements which are captured\nusing,for instance, highly accurate total station. Typi-\ncal secondary sources include raster scanned col-\noraerial photographs or analog maps covering, for\nexample, an urban area or a watershed of different\nA major limitation to the application of GIS to hydro-\nlogic parameters computation is the lack of suffcient\ndata on important characteristics such as land uses\nand soil. The LUCC (Land Use and Cover Change),\na current joint project of IHDP (International Human\nDimension of Global Environmental Change Pro-\ngram) and IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere\nProgram) has a set of digital fles covering different\nregions of the world. NATSGO is an example of soil\ndatabase designed for regional and national plan-\nning for the USA. Similar soil database have been\ndeveloped only in a few countries such as Canada,\nFrance and Netherlands (Nizeyimanaet al., 2002).\nTherefore, unfortunately, there are no consistent na-\ntional or regional set of soil maps available in digital\nform in many parts of the world. This way, important\nhydrologic parameter, such as infltration,is diffcult to\nobtain because soil maps are not available atthe suit-\nable scale.\nThe analysis of foodplains includes a large volume\nand variety of both primary and secondary sources\ndata, which could be divided into geospatial and hy-\ndrologic data. This data can be obtained from differ-\nent sources. Some of the main geospatial data used\nin foodplain management are discussed below.\n3.1. Topographic Data\nMuch has changed since the early topographic maps\nmadeby hand or old procedures based on paper\nmap (analog cartography). Advances in survey tech-\nniques, instrumentation, and printing technologies,\nas well as the use of remote sensing products, have\ndramatically improved mapping coverage, accuracy,\nand effciency. The information age has introduced a\nnew cartographic product that is changing the face of\nmapping: digital data for computerized mapping and\nanalysis. As mentioned by Robinson et al. (1995), the\ncomputer revolution in cartography preserves the ba-\nsic elements of science but it provides two new func-\ntions: the digital database, replacing the printed map,\nand the cartographic visualization on many different\nHowever, in spite of these amazing technological\nadvances,in many countries large scale and accu-\nrate digital maps are not available for extent regions.\nDeveloped countries usually have 1:25,000-scale\ntopographic digital maps - or even more accurate -\ncovering large contiguous areas. In contrast, in many\ncountries, typical mapping scales are at regional\nlevel (between 1:100,000 and 1:1,000,000). At this\nlevel, the areas to be investigated are large, covering\nseveral thousands of square kilometers, and the use\nof GIS for fooding management could be useful in\nthe early phases of regional projects or in large engi-\nneering projects (Westen, 2002).\nAt local level (or municipality level), typical mapping\nscales are between 1:5,000 and 1:25,000 and the\nhazard maps may present a high quality accurate\ninformation. At this scale level or higher GIS soft-\nware with 3D visualization tools could be of great use.\nThe absence in many countries of a higher-level car-\ntography program supported by large governmental\nsubsides clearly change the order of magnitude cost\nanalysis of the projects, especially the smaller ones\n(see item 3.4).\n3.2. Digital Elevation Model\nThe inclusion of topographic features, using digital el-\nevation models (DEM) structures allows more physi-\ncally realistic models. The global model GTOPO30\nrefects a signifcant improvement in the quality and\nresolution of DEMs (Reed et al., 2002). GTOPO30 or\nlocal digital topographic survey can be used for com-\nputing foodplain elevations and mapping foodplain\nboundaries. TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network)data\nstructure has the ability to precisely represent linear\n(banks, channel bottom, ridges) and point features\n(hills and sinks), which are critical to accurately defne\nthe channel and the foodplain geometry. Moreover,\nTIN associated with raster data (remote sensing) or\nvector data (topographic maps) provides an increase\nin the fexibility of modelingof surfacefrom raster mod-\neling (DeMers, 2002) using, for example,theSpatial\nAnalyst/Arc GIS\n\n, the GRASS, the IDRISI\n\nand the\n\n3.3. Remote Sensing\nIn the last decades, satellite data have been suc-\ncessfully used in most phases of the food disaster\nmanagement (CEOS/IGOS, 1999). Earth observa-\ntions satellites can be used in many phases of di-\nsaster prevention, by mapping geomorphologic ele-\nments, historical events and sequential inundation\nphases, including duration, depth of inundation, and\ndirection of currents (Western, 2002). Floodplains\nhave been delineated by using remotely sensed data\nto infer their extent from different criteria such as, top-\nographic, pedologic, and botanical features(Dunne\nand Leopold, 1978). For the prediction of foods, low\nresolution NOAAAVHRR images, combined with ra-\ndar data are used to estimate intensity and amount of\nprecipitation, and coverage, and to determine ground\neffects such as the surface of soil moisture. Medium\nresolution Landsat and SPOT satellites have been\nused for producing food-prone maps at scales vary-\ning between 1:30,000 and 1:100,000. High resolu-\n\nand Quickbird\n\nsatellite images can\n\nbe reasonably expected to produce more accurate\ndelineation of food prone areas, although the cost\nof data can also be prohibitive for a single project or\norganization. At the local scale, a large number of\nhydrological and hydraulic factors can be integrated\nwith spatial resolution imagery using GIS, especially\nthe generation of detailed topographic information\nusing high precision digital elevation models derived\nfrom aerial photography, SPOT\n\nor LiDAR\n\n(Light de-\ntection And Range). An important feature of satellite\nand aerial photography systems is that they can pro-\nvide stereo imagery from overlapping pairs of imag-\nes. These maps are used to create a 3-D model from\nwhich contours and elevation maps can be created.\nTherefore, these data can be used in two or three\ndimensional fnite element models for the prediction\nof foods in river channels and foodplains.\n3.4. GIS data sources\nAs previously discussed, there are many sources\nand types of geographic data used for water resource\nprojects in general and foodplain management more\nspecifcally. However, GIS data comes in many dif-\nferent forms and levels of accuracy and a large vari-\nety of prices. In spite of a decrease of the GIS data\ncost in the latest years, it can represent more than\n40% of the total project, especially the smaller one.\nTherefore, developing your own datasets allows you\nto have total control over the content and accuracy\nbut it can involve a substantial portion of cost of a\nGIS project.\nIn order to reduce the cost, Internet is the best al-\nternative to obtain GIS data. The data include spe-\ncialist geographic data catalogs as well as the sites\nof specifc geographic data. There are many organi-\nzations that maintain comprehensive environmental\ndatabase such as, Environmental System Research\nInstitute (ESRI), Center for Information Earth Science\nInformation Network (CIESIN), and Canadian Geo-\nspatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI). Table 2 shows\nsome of the main organizations where useful data\nfor foodplain management could be found. Eleva-\ntion data can be obtained from different sources and\na large variety of spatial resolution. Hydrologic da-\ntabase includes precipitation records, stream fow,\nand gauge records. Climatologic and hydrologic data\nset is represented by time-series data, which repre-\nsent sequences of real-world observations or calcu-\nlation. The hydro database of the Brazilian National\nWater Agency (ANA, in Portuguese) is an example\nof a comprehensive national hydrological database,\nwhich includes more than 2,000 streamfow stations\nassociated with Brazilian streams. This database in-\ncludes rainfall, evaporation, water quality and sedi-\nment data.\nTable 2 Type of data and source used to foodplain management\nType Source\nElevation NGA, USGS, SPOT image,\nDEMs, contours at local, regional, and global\nHydrology Government agencies and\nnational hydrological databases\navailable for many countries (e.g.\nincluding spatial rainfall and streamfow gage data\nSoil type data Government agencies (e.g.\nVery limited for many regions often depending on\nlocal surveys\nLand use / land\nLUCC, AVHRR/NOAA High level of detail depends on large-scale aerial\nphotography and commercial satellite remote-\nFlood zones Many national and regional gov-\nernment agencies, e.g. FEMA/\nNational Hydrological databases are available for\nmany countries\nNGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, USGS United State Geological Survey, INPE Brazilian Agency for\nSpace Research, NHD The National Hydrography Database, STATSGO Soil Survey Geographic Data, United State\nDepartment of Agriculture, AVHRR/NOAA Advanced very\nHigh Resolution Radiometer/National Oceanic and Atmo-\nspheric Organisation, FEMA Federal Emergency Man-\nagement Agency/USA.\nGIS is ideally suited for foodplain management and\nprevision for its capacity of linking and integrating\ngeospatial and temporal data.Moreover, the inte-\ngration of the GIS with foodplain computer models\nallows users to devote more time to understanding\nfooding problems and less time to the mechanical\ntasks of preparing input data and interpreting output.\nThe primary challenge lies as the diffculty in integrat-\ning GIS and hydrological data models in a combined\nprogram.Shamsi (2002) defnes a useful taxonomy to\ndefne the different ways that a GIS can be linked to\ncomputer models and how simulation or prediction\nwill be handled bya non-GIS hydrological model that\nis coupled to the GIS data input or output data. The\nthree methods of GIS linkage suggested by Shamsi\n(2002) are:\na. Interchange method - This method employs\na batch processing approach to interchange\na GIS and a computer model. Both the GIS\nand the model are run separately and inde-\npendently. This is the easiest method and the\nmostly used nowadays.The GIS software is\nused to extract the foodplain cross-section\nfrom the DEM data, runoff curve numbers from\nland use or soil layers are some examples of\nthe interchange methods.\nb. Interface Methods - The model is executed\nindependently from the GIS; however, the\ninput fle is created, at least partially, from\nwithin the GIS. The main difference between\nthe interchange and interface methods is the\nautomatic creation of a model input fle.The\nHEC-HMS(Hydrologic Modeling System Hy-\ndrologic Modelling System) model developed\nby U.S. Army Corps of Engineering associated\nwith GIS packagesis a good example of thein-\nterface method.HEC-HMShas a graphical user\ninterface that allows the users to edit, execute\nand view model data in a windows environ-\nc. Integration method It is a combination of a\nmodel and a GIS in a way that the combined\nprogram offers both the GIS and the modeling\nfunctions. This method represents the closest\nrelationship between the GIS and the food-\nplain models. Two integration approaches are\npossible: 1) GIS Model Integration-all the four\ntasks of creating model input, editing data, run-\nning the model, and displaying output results\nare available in GIS. 2) Model Based Integra-\ntion -GIS modules are developed in or are\ncalled from a computer model.\nThere are several well-known foodplains mapping\nsoftware currently in use elsewhere. Each individual\ncomponent process of these models can vary signif-\ncantly because they could serve for a different pur-\npose. Some foodplain mapping and modeling soft-\nware examples are presented below.\n\nis a complete toolbox for food\n\nmodeling,including a wide selection of 1D and\n2D food simulation engines, enabling to virtually\nmodel food problem, whether it involves rivers and\nfoodplains in different environments. Typical MIKE\n\napplications include rapid food assess-\n\nment andfood hazard mapping. MIKE FLOOD\n\nhas GIS linkage capabilities, which can be used to\nproduce inundation maps as a result of levee or em-\nbankment failures. HEC-GeoRAS system is afree\nsoftware composed of a set of procedures, tools, and\nutilities for processing geospatial data in ArcGIS\n\nwhich intends to calculate water surface profles in\na full network of channels, a dendritic system or a\nsingle river reach. Water surface profle data and ve-\nlocity data exported from hydraulic modeling such as\nHEC-RASmay be processed by HEC-GeoRAS for\nGIS analysis (see next topics) for foodplain map-\nping, food damage computations, ecosystem resto-\nration, and food warning response (see next topic).\n\nis a river modeling software that supports\n\nHEC-RAS and HEC-2 within AutoCAD\n\n. RiverCAD\n\ncomputes water surface profles for modeling bridg-\nes, culverts, levees, foodway delineation, stream di-\nversions and so on. RiverCADallows the creation of\n3D CAD drawings of HEC-RAS showing the extent of\nwater surface regarding the ground topography. Ar-\ncGIS Hydro Data Model -is an ArcGIS\n\nmodel, which provides a standardized framework, into\nwhich, the data forms an integrated water resources\nmodeling and mapping database. Because it will be\npresented a case study using ArcGIS\n\nArcHydro Data\nModel, this software will be discussed in more details\nArcHydro is a geospatial and temporal data model\nfor water resources that operate within ArcGIS\n\n. Ar-\ncHydro has an associated set of tools, built jointly\nby ESRI (Environmental System Research Institute)\nand CRWR (Center for Research in Water Resourc-\nes), which interconnect features and different data\nlayers, and support hydrologic analysis (Maidment,\n2002). ArcHydro is a data structure that support hy-\ndrographic simulation models, but it is not itself a sim-\nulation model. ArcHydro focuses on the description\nof surface water hydrology, despite the fact that there\nis a separate data model called ArcHydro Groundwa-\nter Data Model that should enable the integration of\nsurface and groundwater information.\nThe design of the ArcHydro is a hydrologic informa-\ntion system, which is a synthesis of geospatial and\ntemporal data supporting hydrologic analysis. There-\nfore, ArcHydro provides a systematic way to link time\nseries data on water management to geospatial data\non the location. ArcHydro can even be applied at\nthe scale of a small urban subdivision to study runoff\npattern through buildings and storm sewers (Maid-\nment, 2002).The ArcHydro, also, allows hydrologi-\ncal models to be linked with GIS through a common\ndata storage system. For a long time, hydrologists\nhave wanted to apply GIS data using spreadsheet\n(MerwadeandMaidment, 2002). In this way, ArcH-\nydro facilitates the integration with hydrologic mod-\neling, since the ArcHydropersonalgeodatabase is a\nMicrosoft Access and Microsoft Excel and Microsoft\nAccess are interchangeable (Figure 4).\nFigure 4 Interfaces for hydrologic modeling\n(Merwade&Maidment, 2002)\nHEC-HMS is considered a standard model for the de-\nsign of drainage systems making it possible, for ex-\nample, to quantify the effects of land use change on\nfooding (Singh andFrevert, 2006).A hydrologic mod-\nel suchas HEC-HMS transforms storm rainfall input\nto streamfow discharge output usingwatershed char-\nacteristics, such as drainage area, slope,land cover\nand soil type. Many of these types of data can be\nestimated from a GIS database. The runoff informa-\ntion from the hydrologic model can then be combined\nwith stream cross-section information model such as\nHEC-RAS, to determine fooding parameters. An in-\nteresting example of GIS and HEC-RAS integration\nwas presented by Kraus (2000) for a small water-\nshed situated in Texas, USA. The foodplain data de-\nveloped in ArcView (a former version of ArcGIS) was\nimported into the HEC-RAS, where it was combined\nwith feld data in order to construct a full foodplain\ncross section.\nHEC-HMS and HEC-RAS are written in object-orient-\ned programming languages and, during the 1990s,\nspecial purpose GIS interface was constructed to\nsupply geospatial data such as HEC-GeoHMS/HEC-\nGeoRAS systems.HEC-GeoRASallows a profession-\nal with little GIS training to use the ArcGIS to develop\ngeometric data for import in the HEC-RAS and view\nwater surface profle data (Ackerman, et al., 2000).\nAn interesting application involving an integration of\nArcHydro database and HEC-GeoHMS tools was de-\nveloped by Kawasaki et al. (2008) for analyzing the\neffects of precipitation change and land use change\nin the LowerMekongRiver. Spatial and temporal data\nwere used to create 2025 and 2050 scenarios con-\nsidering the potential impacts of climate change and\nsocio-economic development.\n7.1. Study area characteristics\nDifferent types of fooding (river foods, fash foods,\ncoastal foods) have different characteristics with\nrespect to the areal extent. Topographic maps and\nremote sensing images can be used for mapping\ngeomorphologic elements of the landforms and the\nfuvial system supports wherever possible by infor-\nmation on past food and high-scale topographic\nmaps, where terraces and levees can be recognized\n(Westen, 2002). However, detailed geomorphologi-\ncal features are not available for large hydrographic\nbasins worldwide.\nOne of the main problems of integrating GIS and hy-\ndrologic modeling regarding foodplain management\nand food mapping is that a large data collection is\nnecessary including rainfall-runoff and hydrograph\nanalysis and gauge measurements. Rainfall and\nstreamfow time series data need to have, at least,\n20-30 years of historical data. Then, several efforts\nhave been developed looking for more simple meth-\nods for delineating food hazard zones. An interest-\ning example was given by Suryanta et al. (2010), for\ndelineating map food hazard. These authors used\nindicators such as geomorphological, land use and\nisohyets maps and a record of inundation.Dewan et\nal. (2007), show a simple and cost effective way to\nuse GIS and remote sensing, for creating fooding\nhazard map from a available dataset including land\nuse, elevation and geomorphic units.\nTherefore, this paper presentsa case study, where a\nlimited amount of spatial and temporal data is avail-\nable. The study area corresponds tothe upper sec-\ntion of the Parabado Sulbasin (Sao Paulo State por-\ntion), comprising nearly 15,300 km\nand situated in\nthe Southeast of Brazil (Figure 5).\nParaiba do Sul basin has a large importance in the\nhistory, culture and economy of Southeast Brazil with\nhigh urbanization and industrial activities along a\npart of the main river. The basin is characterized by\nheterogeneous geomorphology, hydrology and soils\nwith elevations varying from about 400 min extental-\nluvial plains up to more than 2400 m in the Mantiquei-\nra and Serra do Mar mountain ridge. Historically, hu-\nman activity imposed dramatic transformations of the\nregional landscape with a reduction in forested ar-\neas from nearly 81% to 8.0% over the last 300 years\n(Fujieda et al., 1997). Currently, the landscape is a\ncomplex mosaic of grazing, forest, and urban areas.\nThe population in the Paraba valley increased 300\nper cent in the last thirty years, from approximately\n518,000 in 1960 to approximately 1,690,000 in 2000.\nCities continue to expand near, or on alluvial plains\ncontributing to the reduction and elimination of wet-\nland ecosystems and occupying a signifcant part of\nthe foodplain.\nBecause of its strategic geographical position, multi-\npurpose reservoirs (electricity generation, food con-\ntrol and fow regulation) were built frst in the 1950s,\nand later in the 1970s. Since 1952, water is diverted\nfrom the Paraba do SulRiver into the GuanduRiv-\ner water treatment planin the Rio de Janeiro state.\nFigure 5 Study area (Paraiba doSul basin So Paulo State)\nAbout 8.7 million people living outside of the basin (in\nRio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region) depend on its\nresources for water supply. In the study area, mean\nriver discharge is 217m\n/s; the largest withdrawals of\nwater are made for agricultural irrigation 10.4 m\nfollowed by industrial use, 6.5 m\n/s and domestic\nuse, 3.4 m\n/s (Sao Paulo State Government, 2002).\nTherefore, the Paraiba do Sul River is an example\nof a complex multipurpose water resources manage-\nment that links hydropower production to agricultural,\nindustrial and domestic water use.\nPrevious studies have documented the bimodal char-\nacter of the annual cycle of precipitation in southeast\nBrazil(Braga andMolion, 1999), with dry and wet\nseasons consistent with the transition from tropical\nto mid-latitude climate regimes.In the Parabado Sul\nbasin, the average annual precipitation is in the order\nof 1,400 mm, but exhibits large interannual variabil-\nity ranging between 800 mm and 2000 mm. Severe\ndroughts occurred in 1943/1944, 1953-1957, 1963,\n1968, 1984, 1994, 1997 and 2001; whereas 1947,\n1976, 1983 and 2000, 2008-2010 were exceptionally\nwet years. Dry and wet spells (1 - 2 years) alternate\nubiquitously in the observations. Therefore, the re-\ngion presents a high uncertainty in the long-term as-\nsessment of water resources.\nIn 2001, a severe drought was blamed by the severe\nreduction in water levels in the reservoirs of many\nBrazilian hydroelectric power plants (Simoesand Bar-\nros, 2007). By September, 2001, the reservoirs were\nworking at minimum capacity (about 20% of the total\nvolume), evidence of the failure of existing energy\nand water resources management plans to meet un-\nexpected shortages. The shortage period remained\nuntil 2004 (Figure 6); by 2007, a wet period starts,\nwhich remains until today (January/2011). Reser-\nvoirs were now almost full and several food events\nhave occurred in the latest years affecting thousands\nof people. In 2010, So Luis do Paraitinga, a small\ntown located about 200 km from So Paulo, was dev-\nastated by a food, where many historical building-\nswere collapsed. In the last three years, other towns\nof different sizes have been affected along the Para-\niba do Sul River.\nThen, this case study intends to present the frst\nphases of a project, which intends to understand the\nhydrological response of a large river, as Paraiba\ndo Sul, to the extreme events and its impacts for an\nextent foodplain. Therefore, this research intends to\nexplore the possibilities of synthesis of geospatial\nand temporal hydrologic database. In this frst stage,\nwe use the ArcHydro framework, which is a simpli-\nfed version of the ArcHydro storing informationabout\nriver network, watersheds, and monitoring points.\n7.2. Database\nSeveral topographic and thematic maps and data-\nbase are available in the study area (ArcGIS\n\n\nformats). Digital topographic maps in-\n\nclude surveys undertaken at 1:250,000 and 1:50,000\nscales covering the total basin. For the basin size\n(13,5000 km), this level of topographic scale is suit-\nable and represents a better situation that those found\nin other Brazilian regions. Digitalized topographic\nmaps at a larger scale (1:10,000) are available for\nonly a very small fraction in the basin. Thematic\nmaps include geology, geomorphology, pedology,\nand land use/land cover. The Digital Elevation Mod-\nel (DEM) was derived from a topographic map at\nFigure 6 -Variation of water levels in Paraiba do Sul basin reservoirs expressed as percentage (%) of total\nreservoir water storage capacity between 1993 and 2005.\n1:250,000 scale, 30-by-30 minute quadrangle IBGE\nmaps. A hydrographic geodatabase including stream\nwatershed has been compiled using the ArcGIS\n\nsoftware and extensions (Spatial Analyst\n\nand ArcH-\nydro). The hydrological data include a network of 107\nraingauges(Figure 7) installed at a variety of altitudes\n(450 m 1700 m), some of which have beenin place\nsince the 1930s, and streamfow gage data main-\ntained by the DAEE (Water and Electric Energy De-\npartment, Sao Paulo State).\n7.3. Results\nPreparing the data\nThe frst step in creating an Arc Hydro dataset is\nto collect GIS data, commonly represented as fea-\nture classes, which are collections of geometric ob-\njects (points, lines, or polygons) that share common\nthemes and attribute types. A typical resource for\nhydrological data is the National Hydrography Data-\nset (NHD) for the United States. The NHD includes\neverything necessary for a simple Arc Hydro model.\nHowever, in many regions worldwide, a considerable\npreparation is needed before the database can be\nloaded into the ArcHydro database.\nAfter preparing the data, a personal geodatabase is\ncreated, in which all of the Arc Hydro objects (feature\nclasses, tables) will be stored. During this process,\nit is important to select a correct projection system\nand spatial reference frame, which should be one\nthat will accurately represent different geographic\nareas of the watershed of interest.Geodatabeworks\nbest when the feature classes have the correct class\nnames.For that, aArc Hydro schema is applied, which\nFigure7 TIN model and select rainfall stations\nmainly consists of objects such as feature datasets,\nfeature classes and tables, and relationships among\nthem (for more details, see Maidment, 2000).Figure\n8 shows a typical geodatabasewhere Hydropoint,\nrepresents point features such as gauge station, Hy-\ndroedge represents line shapefle such as drainage,\nand Watershed represents a polygon feature class,\nwhich contains any subdivision of the landscape into\ndrainage areas.\nFigure 8 - A geodatabase with typical Arc Hydro\nfeature classes\nOne of the important characteristics of the ArcHydro\nprinciples is to construct water fow network.The fnal\nArc Hydro Network creates a well-defned topology\namong polygon features (watershed boundary), lines\n(drainage system) and points (monitoring points).\nTherefore, HydroEdge and HydroJunction form a\ngeometric network called HydroNetwork (Figure 8).\nThis way, ArcGIS can now be used to trace paths be-\ntween any two network locations.Figure 9 shows the\nFigure 9 Drainage network connectivity deter-\nmined by thefow direction grid\ntopological connectivity of drainage network of the\nstudy area near the river outlet.\nImplementing a drainage system\nThe frst step in hydrological modeling is to defne a\nmodel area by defning the outline of the watershed\nboundary. Since the model is distributed (e.g. is sup-\nposed to describe fow processes in each and every\npoint inside a catchment) and more topographic in-\nformation is needed,it is normally used a digital el-\nevation model (DEM), for drainage delineation and\nfor the estimation of topographically related param-\neters. DEM better represents the land surface and\ndrainage fow, as compared to TIN, because of its\nregular cell structure. In this particular case of this\nstudy, this gridded data is derived from a TIN surface\nusing ArcGIS\n\ngeoprocessing tools.\nAll ArcGIS\n\nraster operation involved in the water-\n\nshed delineation are derived from the premise that\nwater fows downhill according the eight-direction\npour point model (for more detail see, for instance,\nOliveira et al., 2000).\nThis frst important grid derived from the digital el-\nevation model grid (DEM) is the fow direction grid\n(Figure 10a). A fow direction grid consists of values\nthat indicate which neighboring cell the water will fow\nfrom. The cell values are the fow directions, which\ncan only have eight possible directions for the wa-\nter to fow (eight-direction pour point model). It is\nimportant to note that the DEM must have enough\nprecision of elevation measurement to support cor-\nrect fow direction determination. Large extents of\nfat areas might produce a natural drainage pattern.\nThe Paraiba do Sul basin could be an example of\nsuch situation, where foodplain associated with the\nParaiba do Sul River occupies an expressive area\n(Figure 10b).\nFlow accumulation is calculated from the fow direc-\ntion grid. As highlighted by Oliveira et al. (2000) from\nthe physical point of view, fow accumulation grid is\nthe drainage area measured in units of grid cells.\nTherefore, it indicates how many cells are upstream\nor upslope of the current cell. Flow accumulation has\nbeen used along with the fow direction, fow length\nand slope for food forecasting (Chen et al., 2003).\nThe fow accumulation grid for the Paraiba do Sul\nbasin clearly shows how drainage areas are accu-\nmulatedin the downstream sector of the study area\n(Figure 11a). With a fow accumulation grid, streams\nmay be defned through the use of a threshold drain-\nage area or the fow accumulation value (Oliveira et\nal., 2000). The cell values are assigned as 1, where\nthere is a stream and NODATA elsewhere. Therefore,\nall the stream cells are labeled identically with a value\nof 1, as showed in fgure 11b.\nTo defne catchments for each stream link, the fow di-\nrection grid is used to defne the zone of cells whose\ndrainage fows through each stream link (Oliveira et\nal., 2000). The results of the delineation are stored in\na catchment grid. Figure 12 shows catchments and\nhydrographic reaches for the study area.Note each\nhydrographic reach hasonly one catchment. This\nraster grid may be converted into a set of catchment\npolygons using ArcHydro (or ArcGIS) raster-vector\nconversion functions. This is useful for fnding out\nwhat geographic features are in the each catchment.\nIn recent years, the attention of hydrologist and wa-\ntershed professionals has been turning to the prob-\nlem of providing a spatial view of the hazard. Then,\nthe potential for the use of GIS technologies in food-\nplain management and food mapping are huge.\nThe methodology of mapping food hazard is still be-\ning developed involving a large amount of techniques\nand approaches. On the other hand, it is a challenge\nto keep up foodplain mapsupdated due to the ad-\nvance of the urbanization or others expressive land\nuse change.\nParticularly in developing countries, the use of prone-\nfood maps is still limited by lack of appropriate scale\nof data and GIS-hydrology experts. The demand for\nGIS-based analysis systems in food plain analysis\nwill increase in the future, as more detailed digital\nenvironmental sets become available. Meanwhile,\nan alternative could be the development of method-\nologies based on more simple approaches, which\nconsiders a limited number of inputssuch as rainfall,\nslope contours, geomorphologic features, and land\nuse. Besides, the selected approach should facilitate\nthe integration between spatial and temporal data.\nAn example is the combination of the ArcGIS and the\nHEC-HMS to produce detailed terrain models and\nfoodplain analysis. However, other GIS software and\nFigure 10 (a) Digital elevation modelof the Paraiba do Sulbasin (So Paulo State portion); (b) The fow\ndirection grid of the Paraiba do Sul basin\nFigura11(a) Flow accumulation grid of the Paraiba do Sul basin; (b) Streams defnition\nFigure12 Catchments and drainage lines of the Paraiba do Sul basin\nmodeling software could be used for the same pro-\nThe case study presented in this paper has a data-\nbase which is suitable for the basin dimension in-\ncluding topographic maps at scales 1:250,000 and\n1:50,000, and an expressive rainfall gauges network.\nGeological and land use maps are available at a re-\ngional scale (1:250,000) but an appropriated scale\nfor soil data is not available.\nThe next stepsin this research are:a)to incorporater-\nainfalltime series data from forty-two stations in Ar-\ncHydro to build a hydrologic data modelwithin a GIS\nenvironment and b), to combine ArcGIS\n\nand HEC-HMS hydrologic model, in order to produce\na spatial-temporal model for foodplain analysis at a\nregional scale.\nAckerman, C.T., Evans, T.A., Brunner, G.W.,2000,\nHEC-GeoRAS: Linking GIS to hydraulic analysis us-\ning Arc/Info and HEC-RAS. 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Boca Raton: CRC\nPress. p. 200-226.\nMauro Naghettini*\nIn this paper, the properties of scale invariance of rainfall, in time domain, are investigated and applied in order to esti-\nmate the intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) relationships for the town of Uberaba, located in the Brazilian State of Minas\nGerais, where only records of daily rainfall depths are available. The assumption of simple scaling (scale) implies in direct\nrelationships between the moments of different orders and the rainfall durations, which can be used to derive IDF relation-\nships from larger durations. As short-duration rainfall records are not available at the Uberaba gauging station, the simple\nscale invariance properties are verifed for sites with sub-daily records and then transferred to the location of interest. At all\nrecording gauging sites investigated in here, the plots of moments of order q versus durations revealed an infection point\naround the duration of 1 hour, which indicates a distinction between the prevalent types of precipitation according to their\nrespective durations. This common behavior was kept in transferring the short-duration rainfall information to the location\nof Uberaba. The resulting IDF relationships were then compared to IDF estimates at locations nearby and the results are\ndiscussed. The papers conclusions also discuss the attributes and limitations of the estimation method.\nKeywords: Heavy rainfalls, Scale invariance, IDF relationships.\nEn este artculo, se estudian y aplican las propiedades de invarianza de escala de lluvias en el dominio del tiempo, con\nel propsito de estimar la relacin intensidad-duracin-frecuencia (IDF) para la ciudad de Uberaba, ubicada en el Estado\nbrasileo de Minas Gerais, donde nicamente se dispone de datos de densidad diaria de lluvia. La premisa de invarianza\nsimple de escala involucra una vinculacin directa entre los momentos de distintos rdenes y la duracin de lluvia, lo cual\npuede ser empleado para deducir las relaciones IDF a partir de las duraciones ms largas. Como los datos de densidad\nsub-diaria de lluvia no se hallan disponibles en la estacin pluviomtrica de Uberaba, las propriedades de invarianza\nsimple de escala son previamente verifcadas con datos sub-diarios obtenidos en sitios relativamente cercanos, y despus\ntranspuestas para el sitio de inters. En todas las estaciones con registros de alturas sub-diarias de lluvia aqu estudiadas,\nlos grfcos de los momentos de orden q versus las duraciones, revelan un punto de infexin alrededor de la duracin\nde 1 hora, el cual sugiere un comportamiento distinto entre tipos prevalentes de precipitacin en conformidad a sus re-\nspectivas duraciones. Este comportamiento comn fue mantenido en la transferencia de la informacin de las lluvias de\ncorta duracin para la localidad de Uberaba. A continuacin, las relaciones IDF as alcanzadas fueran confrontadas con\nestimaciones IDF de sitios cercanos y los resultados son aqui analizados. Finalmente, las conclusiones de este artculo\npresentan una discusin de los atributos y limitaciones del mtodo de estimacin propuesto.\nPalabras clave: Lluvias intensas, Invarianza de escala, Relacin IDF.\nThe intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) relationship\nof heavy rainfalls is certainly among the hydrologic\ntools most utilized by engineers to design storm sew-\ners, culverts, retention/detention basins, and other\nstructures of storm water management systems. An\nat-site IDF relationship is a statistical summary of\nrainfall events, estimated on the basis of records of\nintensities abstracted from rainfall depths of sub-daily\ndurations, observed at a particular recording rainfall\ngauging station. At some particular site of interest,\nthere might be one or more recording rainfall gauging\nstations operating for a time period suffciently long\nto yield a reliable estimate of the at-site IDF relation-\nship. In other locations, however, these recording\nstations may either not exist or have too few records\nto allow a reliable estimation of IDF relationships.\nBecause daily precipitation data are by far the most\naccessible and abundant source of rainfall informa-\ntion, it is appealing to develop methods to derive the\nIDF characteristics of short-duration events from daily\nrainfall statistics. The early attempts to derive short-\nduration rainfall intensities from daily data made use\nof empirical proportionality factors, which are sup-\nposed to be valid at a specifc location or over a par-\n* Associate Professor, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil,\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 45 - 60.\nApplication of Scale Invariance Properties of Rainfall for Estimating the Intensity-Duration-Frequency Relationships at Uberaba, In\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nticular geographic region (see for instance Bell, 1969;\nDAEE/CETESB, 1980). More recently, research has\nfocused on the mathematical representation of rain-\nfall felds both in time and space, including the devel-\nopment of scaling invariance models to derive short-\nduration rainfall intensity-frequency relations from\ndaily data (see for example Burlando and Rosso,\n1996; Menabde et al., 1999; De Michele et al., 2002).\nScaling invariance occurs when the connections\namong the statistical descriptors of a given phenom-\nenon at different scales are constant and defned\nby a scale factor. The statistical descriptors can be\nscaled either by a single factor (simple scaling) or by\na more complex function of the scale (multiscaling).\nAs rainfall is concerned, scaling its statistical descrip-\ntors in time/space is related to the study of its fractal\nproperties or, in other terms, the way in which rain-\nfall organizes itself in self-affne cell clusters in time/\nspace (Bara et al., 2009). For more theoretical de-\ntails on scale invariance properties and rainfall IDF\nrelationships, the reader is referred to Burlando and\nRosso (1996) and Menabde et al. (1999).\nThis paper aims (i) to present a brief introduction of\nscale invariance as applied to rainfall events, (ii) in\norder to derive the IDF relationship from daily data\nfor the town of Uberaba, located in south-central Bra-\nzil, and (iii) fnally provide some discussions of the\nresults and some concluding remarks. The paper is\norganized in six additional sections. The next sec-\ntion provides a description of the available data at\nUberaba and outlines the sequential steps to be fol-\nlowed in this case study. Section 3 provides the nec-\nessary theoretical background on the simple scale\ninvariance as applied to IDF estimations. The next\ntwo sections describe the application of simple scal-\ning properties to estimating the IDF relationship from\nthe daily rainfall data available at Uberaba. Analysis\nof the results and the main conclusions are provided\nin the last section.\nThe data available for the study described herein are\nthe daily rainfall depths observed at the gauging sta-\ntion located in Uberaba, a town of 296,000 inhabit-\nants located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, in\nsouth-central Brazil, at coordinates 19\n4452 south\nand 47\n5555, as illustrated in Figure 1. The rainfall\ngauging station is operated by the Brazilian Nation-\nal Institute of Meteorology (INMET) under the code\n83577. The period of available data spans from 1914\nto 2012, with 19 incomplete years containing one or\nmore missing data during the rainy season (from Oc-\ntober to March). Figure 2 depicts a chart of the 80\nannual maximum daily rainfall depths, according to\ntheir chronology in calendar years. In order to pre-\nserve the essential statistical features of at-site maxi-\nmum daily rainfall, missing data for incomplete years\nwere not flled in by data available at nearby stations.\nIn addition to the annual maximum rainfall depths,\ndepicted in Figure 2, two other sources of information\nwere available for this study. The frst one refers to the\nIDF equations available for two locations relatively\nclose to Uberaba: the one estimated for Barretos, at\ncoordinates 20\n3326 south and 483404 west, and\nthe other for the location of Catalo, at coordinates\n180957 south and 475647 west. These locations\nare also indicated by arrows in Figure 1. The second\nsource refers to the IDF equation estimated to the\ntown of Uberaba by Freitas et al. (2001), through in-\nterpolation of regional data observed at some record-\ning gauging stations within the entire state of Minas\nGerais, the boundaries of which extend over a total\nsurface area of 586,528 square kilometers.\nAs at-site sub-daily rainfall data were not available,\nestimation of the IDF relationship for Uberaba from\nthe available records would have necessarily to rely\non some strategy to disaggregate daily data into sub-\ndaily quantities. Among the common strategies are\n(a) the use of empirical proportionality factors and (b)\nFigure 1 Location of Uberaba, in south-central Brazil. (\nMauro Naghettini\nFigure 2 Annual maximum daily rainfall depths, in millimeters per day, observed at the gauging station of\nUberaba (INMET code 83577)\nthe use of scale invariance properties between daily\nand sub-daily intensities. In the present study, strat-\negy (b) has been selected for the following reasons:\nIn the last two decades, the study of scale in-\nvariance properties and their use to IDF es-\ntimation have been the focus of many theo-\nretical and applied works, such as Gupta and\nWaymire (1990), Burlando and Rosso (1996),\nMenabde et al. (1999), Naghettini (2000),\nGerold and Watkins (2005), Minh Nhat et al.\n(2008) and Bara et al. (2009), thus providing\na consistent method for dealing with temporal\nstatistical downscaling of hydrometeorological\nApplication of scale invariance properties to\nIDF estimation has been performed for a num-\nber of locations in the Brazilian state of Minas\nGerais, providing good results with relatively\nsimple implementation procedures (Naghet-\ntini, 2000);\nThe so-called proportionality factors (DAEE/\nCETESB, 1980), calculated as empirical ratios\nbetween sub-daily and daily rainfall data av-\neraged among a number of sites, are in fact\ngeneric quantities that do not account for the\nlocal features affecting rainfall at a given lo-\ncation and for the statistical dependence that\nmay exist between these ratios and the return\nThe next section presents the theoretical foundations\nof simple scale invariance, as employed in estimating\nIDF relationships of short duration point rainfall.\nAccording to Koutsoyannis et al. (1998), for a given\nreturn period, IDF relationships are particular cases\nof the following general formula\n\ni (1)\nwhere i denotes the rainfall intensity of duration d,\nand w, , q, and are non-negative coeffcients.\nKoutsoyannis et al. (1998) also proposed a numerical\nexercise, in which they show that the errors resulting\nfrom imposing =1 in equation (1) are much smaller\nthan the typical parameter and quantile estimation er-\nrors from limited size samples of rainfall data. Hence,\nconsidering 1 as a model over-parameterization,\nKoutsoyannis et al. (1998) prescribe that, for a given\nreturn period, the general expression for IDF relation-\nships should be written as\n\ni (2)\nRigorously, the coeffcients w, q, and depend on the\nreturn period. However, because the IDF curves for\ndifferent return periods cannot intersect each other,\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nthis dependence cannot be arbitrary. Actually, this re-\nstriction imposes bounds for the range of variation of\nparameters w, q, and . If {w\n, q\n} and {w\n, q\n\n} denote the parameter sets for return periods T\n\nand T\n, respectively, with T\n, Koutsoyannis et al.\n(1998) suggest the following restrictions on the range\nof variation of parameters\n1 0\n2 1\n2 1\n2 1\n> >\n< = = <\n= =\nw w\nIn this set of restrictions, it is worth to note the only\nparameter that can consistently increase with in-\ncreasing return periods is w, which results in sub-\nstantial simplifcation of equation (2). In fact, these\narguments justify the formulation of the following\ngeneral model for IDF relationships\n) (\n) (\nd b\nT a\nT d\n= (4)\nwhich exhibits the advantage of expressing separa-\nble dependence relations between i and T, and be-\ntween i and d. In equation (4), b(d)=(d+q)\n\nwith q>0\nand 0<<1, whereas a(T) is completely defned by\nthe probability distribution function of the maximum\nrainfall intensities. The analytical form of equation\n(4) is consistent with most IDF equations estimated\nfor many locations in Brazil and elsewhere [see, for\ninstance, Wilken (1978), Pinheiro and Naghettini\n(1998), Chen (1983) and Raiford et al. (2007)].\nSuppose that I\ndenote the annual maximum rainfall\nintensity of duration d, defned as the ratio between\nthe annual maximum total depth, abstracted for the\ntime duration d, and the duration d itself. The random\nvariable I\nhas a cumulative probability function F\nwhich is given by\n) (\n1 ) ( ) Pr(\nd d\ni F i I = = (5)\nwhere T represents the return period, in years, as-\nsociated with the event.\nRainfall felds may show the property of simple scal-\ning in the strict sense, which is formally defned by\nMenabde et al. (1999) by the expression\n\n= (6)\nwhere the sign of equality refers to identical prob-\nability distributions in both sides of the equation, D\ndenotes a duration D>d, usually taken as 24 hours,\nand is the scale factor which is supposed constant.\nAs opposed to the simple scaling hypothesis, there is\nthe general case of multiscaling, in which the factor\nis regarded as a random variable dependent\nupon the ratio (d/D). The simple scaling hypothesis,\nas defned by equation (6), can be empirically verifed\nand, if accepted as true, be employed to construct\nsimple disaggregation models of practical use.\nEquation (6) may be rewritten in terms of the mo-\nments of order q about the origin, denoted by,\nthus resulting the expression\n\n= (7)\nq q\nI D I d\n\n= (8)\nAccording to Menabde et al. (1999), the only func-\ntional form of capable of satisfying equation (8)\nq q\nd q G I\n\n= ) ( (9)\nwhere G(q) is a function of q. This expression refects\nthe property of simple scaling in the wide sense,\nmeaning that equation (9) is implied by equation (6)\nbut not vice-versa. In the case of multiscaling, the\nexponent of d, as in equation (9), would have to be\nreplaced by a non-linear function K(q).\nFrom equation (6), it follows that\n\n\nF i F\nD d\n) ( (10)\nFor many parametric forms, equation (10) may be\nexpressed in terms of a standard variate, as given by\n\nF i F ) ( (11)\nwhere F(.) is a function independent of d. If that is the\ncase, it follows from equation (10) that\nD d\n\n\nD d\n\n\nBy substituting expressions (11), (12), and (13) into\nequation (5) and inverting it with respect to i, one ob-\n\nT , d\n1 1\nMauro Naghettini\nBy equaling equation (14) to the general model for\nIDF relationships, as in equation (4), it is easy to ver-\nify that\n= (15)\n0 = (16)\n\n= d d b ) ( (17)\n) / 1 1 ( ) (\nT F T a + =\n\n\n= D\n\n= D\nare constants. It is\nworthwhile to note that the simple scaling hypothesis\nimplies the equality between the scale factor and\nthe exponent , as in the expression relating rainfall\nintensities and durations.\nThe simple scaling property, as formalized by equa-\ntion (9), can be empirically verifed by replacing the\npopulation moments by the corresponding sample\nmoments about the origin. On the other hand, in or-\nder to check the validity of equation (10), one needs\nto specify a probability distribution for the annual\nmaximum rainfall intensities. In this context, two of\nthe most frequently used probability distributions,\nnamely the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and\nthe EV1 or Gumbel parametric models, are examples\nof functional forms that are compatible with expres-\nsion (11) and appropriate for the empirical verifcation\nof equation (10).\nThe adequacy of the simple scaling model to IDF es-\ntimation, as prescribed by equation (14), can be veri-\nfed through the use of sub-daily data from recording\ngauging stations. However, because sub-daily rain-\nfall intensity data were not available at the Uberaba\ngauging station, the studies concerning the scale\ninvariance properties were performed for four re-\ncording gauging stations located in different regions,\nwithin the state of Minas Gerais, in order to make\npossible transferring the rainfall information to the\nsite of interest. These stations are: Vespasiano (code\nANA 01943009), in the metropolitan region of the\nstate capital Belo Horizonte; Papagaios (code ANA\n01944049); Lagoa do Gouvea (code ANA 01845004);\nand Entre Rios de Minas (code ANA 02044007), all\nof them located in the upper So Francisco river ba-\nsin, which borders, on the northeast side, the Grande\nriver watershed, where Uberaba is situated.\nTaking into account (i) that the main simple scaling\nproperties, namely, the exponent , as in equation\n(15), and the durations for which these properties\nprevail, did not show much variation among the sta-\ntions (Naghettini, 2000); (ii) that the gauging station\nof Vespasiano, as opposed to the other three sites,\nis located within a micro-region with less pronounced\nrelief, which roughly approximates the orographic\nfeatures found in Uberaba; and (iii) that are available\n18 years of rainfall data for the durations 10 min, 15\nmin, 30 min, 45 min, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 14 e 24 hours at\nthe Vespasiano gauging station, the decision was\nto apply the scale invariance model to this station\nand then combine the results with the daily rainfall\ndata available at Uberaba in order to derive the local\nIDF relationship. The application of scale invariance\nmodel to Vespasiano rainfall data is the object of the\nparagraphs to follow.\nThe verifcation of the simple scaling model can be\ndone by using the sample moments in equation (9),\nwith =. Figure 3 illustrates the association of\nwith d, both in logarithmic space, for moment orders\nq=1, 2, and 3. Note that for all orders q, there are well\ndefned scale relationships for durations from 1 to 24\nhours; the durations smaller than 1 hour exhibit the\nsame property, but with a distinct slope. In fact, the\nregressions between moments and durations, in log-\narithmic coordinates, conform better to linearity when\nthey are separated in a frst subset for durations from\n24 hours down to 1 hour, and a second subset for\nsub-hourly durations. Figures 4 and 5 depict the\nscatter plots and the regression results for subsets\nof durations from 24 to 1 hour and from 1 hour to 10\nminutes, respectively. In both cases, it is evident the\nlinear ft conforms better for two distinct subsets than\nfor the entire set of durations.\nBy representing the exponent of d in equation (9) by\nK(q) = -q and using the coeffcients of the regres-\nsions between log [\nI ] and log (d), valid for the\ntwo subsets of durations, it is clear from Figures 6\nand 7, the relations between K(q) and q are very\nclosely linear. The linearity of these relations is an\nargument to confrm the hypothesis of simple scale\ninvariance in a wide sense, as formalized by equa-\ntion (9), for the two subsets of durations. The angular\ncoeffcient of the linear regression between K (q) and\nq gives the following estimates of the scale factor: =\n0,7398, for durations from 1 hour to 24 hours, and =\n0,5681, for sub-hourly durations, with an intersection\npoint exactly at d=1 hour. The derivation of IDF esti-\nmates from 24-hour rainfall can be accomplished by\nusing equation (14), with = = 0,7398 and with the\nestimates of\n, for D=24 hours. For sub-hour-\nly durations, the procedure is identical, this time with\n==0,5681 and with the estimates\nfor D=1\nhour. It is worth to remark that\nrespectively the location and scale parameters of the\nprobability distribution ftted to the rainfall intensities\nof duration D. Taking as an example the Vespasiano\ngauging station, where the Gumbel distributions fts\nwell the rainfall intensities of 24 hours with param-\n=3,17mm/h and\n=1,1333 mm/h, it is easy\nto see, by employing the Gumbel inverse function in\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nFigure 3 Sample moments of order q versus durations, for sub-daily annual maximum rainfall intensities\nrecorded at Vespasiano. (10 min d 24 h)\nFigure 4 Sample moments of order q versus durations, for sub-daily annual maximum rainfall intensities\nrecorded at Vespasiano. (1 h d 24 h)\nMauro Naghettini\nFigure 5 Sample moments of order q versus durations, for sub-daily annual maximum rainfall intensities\nrecorded at Vespasiano. (10 min d 1 h)\nequation (14), that the corresponding IDF estimates\nfor durations in the range of 1 h to 24 h, should be\ngiven by\n( ) [ ]\n7398 0\n1 1 16 10 4 28\n. T , d\nT ln ln . .\n- - -\n= (19)\nThis is the essence of applying the simple scale in-\nvariance model to IDF estimation. On the basis of the\narguments provided, the strategy to derive the IDF\nrelationship for Uberaba comprehends the following\nFrom the relief characteristics of Vespasiano\nand from the small spatial variability of the\nscale factors within the region under study\n[for instance, the scale factors, as calculat-\ned by Naghettini (2000), for durations larger\nthan 1 hour for the sub-daily data observed\nat Papagaios (01944049), at Lagoa do Gou-\nvea (01845004), and at Entre Rios de Minas\n(02044007) were 0.75, 0.77, and 0.81, respec-\ntively], it seems plausible to admit as valid,\nalso for Uberaba, the following estimates for\nthe scale factor: =0,7398, for durations from 1\nhour to 24 hours, and =0,5681, for sub-hourly\nFrom the series of annual maximum daily rain-\nfall intensities, observed at the gauging station\nof Uberaba (INMET 83577), the second step\nis to build the series of annual maximum 24-\nhour rainfall intensities, by multiplying the frst\none by the factor 1.14, as recommended by\nDAEE/CETESB (1980), as the empirical ratio\nbetween 24-hour and daily rainfall depths av-\neraged among a large number of sites;\nThe next step is to ft a parametric probability\nmodel, which should be compatible with the\ninherent assumptions of simple scaling invari-\nance, such as Gumbel, Log-Normal, or GEV\n(Generalized Extreme Value) distributions, to\nthe annual maximum 24-hour rainfall intensi-\nties as built in the previous step; and\nFinally, to derive the IDF relationship for the lo-\ncation of Uberaba, by using equation (14) frst\nfor durations from 24-hour down to 1-hour, with\nthe scale factor =0,7398, and next, for dura-\ntions from 1 hour to 10 minutes, with the scale\nfactor =0,568, both with an intersection point\nat d=1 hour.\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nFigure 6 Function K(q)=-q for the sample moments of order q of rainfall intensities of durations from 1 h to\n24 h, at the Vespasiano gauging station.\nFigure 7 Function K(q)=-q for the sample moments of order q of rainfall intensities of durations from 10\nmin to 1 h, at the Vespasiano gauging station.\nMauro Naghettini\nTable 1 presents some descriptive statistics for the\n80 values of annual maximum 24-hour rainfall inten-\nsity (mm/h), as calculated by the multiplication of the\ndaily series, available at the gauging station of Uber-\naba from 1914 to 2012, by the factor 1.14. Figure 8\ndepicts the histogram of the available sample, with\n13 class intervals.\n\nTable 1 Descriptive statistics for the sample of an-\nnual maximum 24-hour rainfall intensities at Uberaba.\nExcept for dimensionless quantities, units are mm/h.\nN 80 3rd Quartile 4.212\nMean 3.703 Maximum 7.458\nStd. Deviation 1.029 Range 5.928\nCoeff. Of Varia-\n0.278 Inter-quarti l e\nMinimum 1.529 Mode 4.161\n1st Quartile 2.979 Skewness 1.046\nMedian 3.548 Kurtosis 1.651\nFigure 8 Histogram of annual maximum 24-hour rainfall intensities at Uberaba.\nThe sample of annual maximum 24-hour rainfall in-\ntensities has been submitted to a preliminary analysis\nfor detecting possible serial dependence, heteroge-\nneity, and outliers, respectively, through the statistical\nsignifcance tests of Wald-Wolfowitz, Mann-Whitney\nand Grubbs-Beck. The null hypothesis of statistical\nindependence cannot be rejected at 5% signifcance\nlevel (Wald-Wolfowitz test statistic=0.0012 with p-\nvalue=0.4995). The hypothesis of homogeneity also\ncannot be rejected at =5% (Mann-Whitney test sta-\ntistic=-1.887 with p-value=0.0296). However, as the\npresence of outliers is concerned, the Grubbs-Beck\ntest, at =5%, identifed the 1969 rainfall intensity of\n1.53 mm/h as a low outlier; no high outlier was iden-\ntifed. Since a low outlier can potentially affect the\nupper-tail estimation, which is the main focus of this\nwork, the 1969 value has been withdrawn from the\nIn the sequence, 2-parameter probability models,\nsuch as Exponential, Gumbel, and Log-Normal, as\nwell as 3-parameter models, such as GEV, Pear-\nson III, and Log-Pearson III, have been ftted to the\nsample by using the method of moments. All ftted\nmodels have passed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS)\nand Chi-squared (\n) goodness-of-ft tests at the\n5% signifcance level. On an exponential probability\npaper, the best fts were achieved by the GEV and\nthe Gumbel probability distributions (Figure 8). The\nSouth-Central Brazil.\ngoodness-of-ft statistics for the GEV model were KS\nstatistic=0.0798, with p-value=0.6781;\nwith p-value=0.903 and 5 degrees of freedom,\nwhereas for the Gumbel distribution, they were KS\nstatistic=0.0794, with p-value=0.6831;\nwith p-value=0.950 and 6 degrees of freedom. Figure\n9 shows a chart with the empirical frequency curve,\nand the ftted GEV and Gumbel models, along with\ntheir respective 95% confdence intervals.\nThe Gumbel distribution, as ftted by the method of\nmoments, with parameter estimates 784 , 0 = and\n278 , 3\n\n= , has been selected as the best-ft model.\n\nThe selection of this model was based on the follow-\ning arguments: (i) the Gumbel model provides a very\ngood ft to empirical data; (ii) the Gumbel and GEV\nquantiles are almost identical to each other, for return\nperiods up to 200 years; (iii) the 2-parameter Gumbel\nmodel is more parsimonious, in the statistical sense,\nthan the 3-parameter GEV model; (iv) the Gumbel ft\nhas narrower confdence intervals than those yielded\nby the GEV distribution; and (v) it is consistent with\nthe simple scaling formulation given by equation (14).\nThe Gumbel distribution has as probability density\nfunction the expression\n- < x < , - < < e a > 0\nand its cumulative probability function is given by\n\nexp exp ) x ( F\nwhere a and are scale and location parameters,\nequivalent, in equation (14), to\n, respec-\ntively. Replacing F\nin equation (14) by the Gumbel\ninverse function, with the usual parameter notation,\nin terms of the return period T, one can write\n\n] T ln ln[ D D\nT , d\n1 1\nFigure 9 Gumbel and GEV fts to the sample of annual maximum 24-hour rainfall intensities at the gauge\nof Uberaba. Gumbel quantiles and 95% confdence intervals are marked in solid lines. GEV quantiles and\n95% confdence intervals are marked in dashed lines. Gringorten plotting positions were used for empirical\nMauro Naghettini\nEquation (22) is the key expression for deriving the\nIDF relationship for sub-daily durations. For the case\nof Uberaba, initially with D=24 h, =0,784, =3,278,\n=0,7398, and 1h d 24 h, the IDF equation for\ndurations between 24 hours and 1 hour is given by\n() [ ]\n7398 , 0\n1 1 ln ln 230 , 8 410 , 34\nT d\n\n= (23)\nwhere i\nrepresents the intensity in mm/h, of a rain-\nfall of duration d (in hours) and return period T (in\nyears). Analogously, this time with D=1 h, =8,230,\n=34,410, =0,5681, and 0,1667 h d 1 h, the IDF\nequation for sub-hourly durations equal or larger than\n10 minutes (0,1667 h) is given by\n() [ ]\n5681 , 0\n1 1 ln ln 230 , 8 410 , 34\nT d\n\n= (24)\nwhere i\nrepresents the intensity in mm/h, of a rain-\nThe IDF relationships, as given by equations (23) e\n(24), had their results compared to those estimated\nby three other procedures:\nEquation where\na=-0,849, b=19,18 e c=5,37 for 10 min d 60\nmin, and a=-0,834, b=17,78 and c=4,98 for 60\nmin d 1440 min, as reported by DAEE/CE-\nTESB (1980) for the recording gauging station\nof Barretos, located in the state of So Paulo,\nwith latitude 20\n33 south and longitude 48\nwest, code INMET 83625, and intensities ex-\npressed in mm/min and duration in minutes;\nEquation ( )\n867 0 164 0\n194 31 2400\n, ,\nT , d\n, d T i + =\nfor the location of Uberaba, defned by Freitas\net al. (2001), by interpolating rainfall data from\nseveral recording gauging stations located in\nthe state of Minas Gerais, with intensities ex-\npressed in mm/h and durations in minutes; and\nTables of intensity, duration, and frequency for\nthe location of Catalo, in the state of Gois,\nwith latitude 18\n10 south and longitude 47\nwest, defned by Pfafstetter (1957) and repro-\nduced in DAEE/CETESB (1980).\nTables 2, 3, 4, and 5 show the comparison among\nthe results, as obtained by the equations deduced\nin this paper and by each of the previously men-\ntioned procedures, for return periods T=2, 25, 50,\nand 100 years, respectively. Figures 9 to 12 illustrate\nthe graphical comparison among the results from\nTables 2 to 5. The tables and fgures show the results\nfrom the IDF relationships described in here are in\nbetween those estimated for the locations of Barre-\ntos and Catalo, with moderate percent differences.\nConcerning the results from the equation proposed\nby Freitas et al. (2001), they are systematically larger\nthan those yielded by equations (23) and (24), partic-\nularly for durations larger than 30 minutes, with rela-\ntive percent errors ranging from 1.0 to 56.2%.\nTable 2 Comparison among the IDF relationships proposed for Uberaba, for T=2 years.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8\nEqs. (23) and\nEq. Barretos\n2/3 Freitas et al.\n2/5 Eq. Catalo\n0.1667 103.56 71.39 1.45 107.03 0.97 115.08 0.90\n0.5 55.49 46.27 1.20 75.95 0.73 63.96 0.87\n1 37.43 31.04 1.21 53.74 0.70 41.34 0.91\n2 22.41 19.27 1.16 34.67 0.65 25.62 0.88\n4 13.42 11.50 1.17 20.89 0.64 15.48 0.87\n8 8.04 6.66 1.21 12.06 0.67 9.24 0.87\n14 5.31 4.24 1.25 7.59 0.70 6.06 0.88\n24 3.57 2.73 1.31 4.82 0.74 4.08 0.87\n\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nTable 3 Comparison among the IDF relationships proposed for Uberaba, for T=25 years.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8\nDuration (h) Eqs. (23) and\nEq. Barretos\n2/3 Freitas et al.\n2/5 Eq. Catalo\n0.1667 168.05 121.52 1.38 161.96 1.04 159.06 1.06\n0.5 90.04 78.76 1.14 114.92 0.78 93.72 0.96\n1 60.73 52.85 1.15 81.32 0.75 63.36 0.96\n2 36.37 32.81 1.11 52.46 0.69 40.26 0.90\n4 21.78 19.58 1.11 31.61 0.69 24.84 0.88\n8 13.04 11.34 1.15 18.24 0.72 14.88 0.88\n14 8.62 7.22 1.19 11.49 0.75 9.36 0.92\n24 5.79 4.64 1.25 7.30 0.79 6.24 0.93\nTable 4 Comparison among the IDF relationships proposed for Uberaba, for T=50 years.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8\nEqs. (23) and\nEq. Barretos\n2/3 Freitas et al.\n2/5 Eq.\n0.1667 184.07 134.15 1.37 181.46 1.01 172.50 1.07\n0.5 98.63 86.94 1.13 128.76 0.77 103.26 0.96\n1 66.52 58.34 1.14 91.11 0.73 70.74 0.94\n2 39.84 36.22 1.10 58.77 0.68 45.24 0.88\n4 23.85 21.61 1.10 35.42 0.67 28.08 0.85\n8 14.29 12.53 1.14 20.44 0.70 16.80 0.85\n14 9.44 7.97 1.19 12.88 0.74 10.98 0.86\n24 6.34 5.13 1.24 8.17 0.78 7.26 0.87\nTable 5 Comparison among the IDF relationships proposed for Uberaba, for T=100 years.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8\nEqs. (23)\nand (24)\nEq. Barretos\n2/3 Freitas et al.\n2/5 Eq. Catalo\n0.1667 199.97 146.68 1.36 203.31 0.98 186.72 1.07\n0.5 107.14 95.06 1.13 144.26 0.74 113.58 0.94\n1 72.27 63.79 1.13 102.08 0.71 78.72 0.92\n2 43.28 39.61 1.09 65.85 0.66 50.76 0.85\n4 25.92 23.63 1.10 39.68 0.65 31.62 0.82\n8 15.52 13.70 1.13 22.90 0.68 18.96 0.82\n14 10.26 8.71 1.18 14.42 0.71 12.36 0.83\n24 6.89 5.60 1.23 9.16 0.75 8.16 0.84\nMauro Naghettini\nFigure 10 Comparison among IDF relationships for T=2 years.\nFigure 11 Comparison among IDF relationships for T=25 years.\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nFigure 12 Comparison among IDF relationships for T=50 years.\nFigure 13 Comparison among IDF relationships for T=100 years.\nMauro Naghettini\nThe IDF relationships as estimated in here for the\ntown of Uberaba, formalized by equations (23) and\n(24), were based on the scale invariance properties,\nfrst, for durations from 24 hours to 1 hour, and, then,\nfor durations from 1 hour to 10 minutes. In general,\nthese distinct ranges of durations also indicate sig-\nnifcant differences in the prevalent mechanisms of\nuplifting air masses in the atmosphere, thus often\nleading to rainfall of the convective type or of the\nfrontal type. Therefore, from this viewpoint, it seems\ncoherent the scale infection between these ranges of\ndurations, as proposed in this paper.\nThe deduction of IDF relationships for Uberaba\nfrom numerical scale factors estimated for the loca-\ntion of Vespasiano, can be justifed by the relatively\nsmall variability of these factors, as observed from\nestimates for other rainfall recording gauging sta-\ntions situated in the state of Minas Gerais (Naghet-\ntini, 2000). In addition, the series of short-duration\nrainfall rates recorded at the four recording gauging\nstations considered in here, are consistent with the\nscale infection point placed at the duration of 1 hour.\nThese empirical evidences and the arguments from\nthe scale invariance theory provided grounds for de-\nducing IDF estimates from at-site daily rainfall depths\nrecorded at the gauging station of Uberaba. Howev-\ner, since the scale factor and parameters and ,\nas in equation (22), may be interpreted as regional\nclimatic characteristics (Menabde, 1999), further in-\ndepth work is needed to elucidate possible covaria-\ntion between and climatic and/or relief variables.\nThe comparison with the results obtained for loca-\ntions relatively close to Uberaba, like Barretos (north\nof So Paulo state) and Catalo (south of Gois\nstate), suggests a certain coherence for the macro-\nregion where Uberaba is placed, known as Trin-\ngulo Mineiro, bordered on the south by the state of\nSo Paulo and on the north by the state of Gois.\nThe IDF estimates for Uberaba are relatively close\nand intermediate between the ones valid for Barretos\nand Catalo. The IDF estimates resulting from the\nequation by Freitas et al. (2001), obtained from in-\nterpolation among point estimates over a large area,\ndepart signifcantly from the other results and, thus,\nseem to be inconsistent.\nIt is worth to remind, however, this is a preliminary\nstudy motivated by the unavailability of at-site sub-\ndaily rainfall data, of adequate time span, at the\nUberaba gauging station. In order to check the model\nof simple scaling for IDF estimation and its results,\nit is absolutely necessary to install rainfall recording\ngauging stations in the urban and peri-urban areas\nof Uberaba, and, once adequate samples of sub-\ndaily rainfall data become available, to proceed with\nregional frequency analysis of maximum records, by\ncontemporary methods such as the L-Moment pro-\ncedures described in Hosking and Wallis (1997). Fu-\nture sub-daily records would eventually provide evi-\ndences to further understand the properties of scale\ninvariance, in the context of IDF estimation, and to\nrelate them to local climate and relief characteristics\nin a more meaningful way.\nThe author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewer\nfor his/her valuable comments and suggestions.\n\nBara M., Kohnova S., Gal L. Szolgay J., and Hlav-\ncova K. Estimation of IDF curves of extreme rainfall\nby simple scaling in Slovakia. Contributions to Geo-\nphysics and Geodesy, Vol. 39. No.3, p. 187206,\nBell F. C. Generalized rainfall-duration-frequency re-\nlationship. ASCE Journal of the Hydraulic Division,\nVol. 95, No. HY1, p. 311327, 1969.\nBurlando P. and Rosso, R. Scaling and multiscaling\nmodels of depth-duration-frequency curves for storm\nprecipitation. Journal of Hydrology, 187, p. 45-65,\nChen, C. L. Rainfall intensity duration frequency for-\nmulas. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 109,\nNo. 12, p. 1603-1621, 1983.\nDAEE/CETESB. Drenagem Urbana Manual de\nprojeto. So Paulo, Brazil, 1980.\nDe Michele C., Kottegoda N. T., and Rosso R. IDAF\n(intensity-duration-area-frequency) curves of ex-\ntreme storm rainfall: a scaling approach. Water\nScience and Technology, Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 8390,\nFreitas, A. J., Silva D. D., Pruski F. F., Pinto F. A.,\nPereira S. B., Gomes Filho R. R., Teixeira A. F., Bae-\nna L. G. N., de Mello L. T. A. and de Novaes L. F..\nEquaes de Chuvas Intensas no Estado de Minas\nGerais. COPASA/UFV, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2001.\nGupta, V. K., and Waymire, E. Multiscaling properties\nof spatial rainfall and river fow distributions. Journal\nof Geophysical. Research., 95_D3_, p. 19992009,\nGerold, L. A. and Watkins D. W. Jr. Short Duration\nRainfall Frequency Analysis in Michigan Using Scale-\nInvariance Assumptions. Journal of Hydrologic Engi-\nneering, Vol. 10, No. 6, p. 450-457, 2005.\nHosking, J. R. M., and Wallis, J. R. Regional fre-\nquency analysis: an approach based on L-moments.\nCambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K, 1997.\nKoutsoyannis D., Kozonis D. and Manetas A. A math-\nematical framework for studying rainfall intensity-du-\nSouth-Central Brazil.\nration-frequency relationships. Journal of Hydrology,\n206, p. 118-135, 1998.\nMenabde M., Seed A. and Pegram G. A simple scal-\ning model for extreme rainfall. Water Resources Re-\nsearch, Vol. 35, No. 1, p. 335-339, 1999.\nMinh Nhat L., Tashikawa Y., Sayama T., and Takara\nK. Estimation of sub-hourly and hourly IDF curves\nusing scaling properties of rainfall at gauged sites in\nAsian Pacifc region. Annals of Disater Center Pre-\nventionResearch Institute, Kyoto University, No. 51-\nB, p. 63-73, 2008.\nNaghettini, M. A study of the properties of scale in-\nvariance as applied to intensity-duration-frequency\nrelationships of heavy storms. Proc., ASCE Conf. on\nWater Resources Engineering and Water Resources\nPlanning and Management _CD-ROM_, Reston, Va.,\nPfafstetter O. Chuvas Intensas no Brasil. Relao\nentre precipitao, durao e frequncia de chuvas\nem 98 postos com pluvigrafos. DNOS, Rio de Ja-\nneiro, Brazil, 1957.\nPinheiro M. M. G. and Naghettini, M. Anlise regional\nde frequncia e distribuio temporal das tempest-\nades na Regio Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte.\nRevista Brasileira de Recursos Hdricos, Vol. 3, No.\n4, p. 73-88, 1998.\nRaiford, J. P., Aziz N. M., Khan A. A., and Powell D.\nN. Rainfall Depth-Duration-Frequency Relationships\nfor South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.\nAmerican Journal of Environmental Sciences 3 (2),\np. 78-84, 2007.\nWilken P. S. Engenharia de Drenagem Superfcial.\nCETESB, So Paulo, Brazil, 1978.\nDoria, Miguel F. and Aras, Camila\n\nWhile food disasters result from the interaction of natural and human factors, the human dimension is still sometimes\nunderemphasized in food management. This paper discusses the role of non-structural measures for food management\nprocesses, such as risk preparedness, emergency responses and rehabilitation. Specifc emphasis is given to the role\nof human capacities, in particular water-related risk education, training and communication, on the mitigation of food im-\npacts. Flood risk education (at the primary, secondary and community levels, as well as at the technical and higher lev-\nels) and communication strategies (actors, channels and message content) provide a valuable contribution to the social\ndynamics of food risk perceptions, preparedness and vulnerability. This study further highlights the importance of ac-\ntive stakeholder participation before, during and after food events, as well as the integration of general public perceptions\nin food damage analysis and risk management.\nKeywords: Flood, risk perception, risk management, human capacities, education, communication, training.\nA pesar de que los desastres por inundaciones sean resultado de factores naturales y humanos, su dimensin humana\nest todava a menudo subestimada. Este artculo analiza el papel de medidas no estructurales dentro de los procesos\nde gestin de inundaciones como preparacin de riesgos, respuestas de emergencia y rehabilitacin. Se da un nfasis\nespecfco al papel de las capacidades humanas, en particular la educacin, entrenamiento y comunicacin de riesgo, en\nla mitigacin del impacto de inundaciones. La educacin de riesgos asociados a inundaciones (en los niveles primario,\nsecundario y comunitario, as como los tcnicos y superiores) y las estrategias de comunicacin (actores, medios y con-\ntenido de mensajes) ofrecen una contribucin valiosa para las dinmicas sociales de percepcin, preparacin, capacidad\ny vulnerabilidad de riesgos de inundacin. Este artculo subraya la importancia de la participacin activa de los actores\nenvueltos antes, durante y despus de los eventos de inundacin, as como la integracin de las percepciones del pblico\nen general en el anlisis de daos por inundaciones y en la gestin de riesgo.\nPalabras clave: Inundacin, percepcin de riesgo, gestin de riesgo, capacidades humanas, educacin, comunicacin,\n1. UNESCO International Hydrological Programme.\nDisclaimer: the views presented in this paper are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization in any\nFloods were responsible for 43% of recorded dis-\nasters from 1992 to 2001, affecting over 1.2 billion\npeople worldwide (WWAP-UNESCO 2009). Flooding\ncan seriously disrupt human societies via a series\nof impacts, which include loss of human life, health\nhazards, damage to property, and the disruption of\ntransportation systems, water supply, sewage sys-\ntems and power supply. Floods can be particularly\ndevastating in developing countries, which are less\nprepared to cope with disasters (WWAP-UNESCO\n2009). In addition, the poor suffer most of the burden,\nas they lack capacity to prepare and respond to natu-\nral disasters.\nThe traditional perspective that foods are entirely\nnatural disasters has been challenged over the last\ndecades. While strongly associated with natural fac-\ntors, such as rainfall, topography and runoff process-\nes, the impact of food hazards is conditioned by hu-\nman behaviour and vulnerability. An early study of the\nresponses of two separate communities to the same\ntransboundary food event found deep differences\nin terms of food impacts due to differences in the\npolitical, social structure and cultural values of these\ncommunities that are refected in different levels of\nvulnerability (Clifford 1956). Human vulnerability can\nbe defned as a condition or process resulting from\nphysical, social, economic and environmental fac-\ntors, which determines the likelihood and scale of\ndamage from the impact of a given hazard (UNDP\n2004). The human dimension of foods embraces a\nseries of components, from stormwater management\nand institutional capacities, to household prepar-\nedness and emergency responses, among others.\nThese non-structural components rely on human\ncapacities, in terms of education, training and com-\nmunication (Szllsi-Nagy and Zevenbergen, 2005).\nEven if foods cannot be entirely prevented, food pre-\nparedness, emergency planning and adaptation can\nsignifcantly mitigate their consequences to a consid-\nerable extent. These rely on human capacities, both\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 61 - 68.\nFlood-related Risk Education and Communication\nat the public and private levels, and are conditioned\nby education, training and communication. and pre-\ncautionary food preparedness.\nOther human-related factors that contribute to food-\ning are land use changes such as urbanization and\ndeforestation of the catchment basin. Urbanization\nimplies the transformation of natural land surfaces\ninto impervious surfaces that block the percolation of\nwater into soil. This has important effect on stormwa-\nter hydrology, due to the increase in runoff volumes\nand peak discharges. The increased fow velocity of\nwater over the surface leads to a higher frequency\nof fash foods, with higher associated casualties and\nproperty damages. The period of rapid urbanization\nthat was observed during the last decades is likely\nto contribute to an increase in urban foods. For the\nfrst time in human history, most of the worlds popu-\nlation now lives in urban areas. Unplanned occupa-\ntion, unsustainable planning and building practices,\nwhich are often associated with rapid urbanization,\ncan further magnify food risks (Szllsi-Nagy and\nZevenbergen, 2005). In addition, rapid urbanization\nhas also lead to the signifcant increase of peri-ur-\nban areas, which can be signifcantly vulnerable to\nfoods. For instance, as noted by Tucci and Villanue-\nva (2005), food impacts in urban areas are often as-\nsociated with population settlements established dur-\ning dry years on food plains and hill slopes combined\nwith the increase of impervious areas. .\nAndjelkovic (2001) suggested a characterization of\nfooding aspects that are differently addressed for ru-\nral and urban conditions:\nclimatic aspects: deals with the climatic condi-\ntions that may lead to the occurrence of foods.\nIn urban conditions, short and intensive show-\ners proved to be just as critical as long lasting\nrains, but in rural conditions long lasting rains\nover an area-wide territory, accompanied with\nsnow melting in the river basin, are recognised\nas possibly more infuential.\nsocial aspects: deals with the way the foods\noccur in different settings. In urban conditions,\none can negotiate the intensity and frequency\nof the disruption of public life and traffc, where-\nas in regional conditions the common term is\ndisaster, although there were many situations\nwhere local urban fooding had disastrous con-\nsequences (casualties and property losses)\nas well. However, foods do not necessarily\nalways need to be associated with disastrous\neconomic aspects: deals with the issues of\nfnancing the capital improvement, operation,\nand maintenance of food protection schemes.\nLocal stormwater drainage and food protec-\ntion is usually fnanced by local revenues, such\nas local taxation, service fee, or user charge\nfee, collected on the basis of land use, where-\nas the regional protection is mostly carried out\nthrough general taxation.\ninstitutional aspects: deals with the role of\ngovernments in the process of decision mak-\ning. In local conditions all major decisions are\nmade by local governmental institutions and\nwater-related companies, whereas in regional\nissues federal government and ministries take\nover the full responsibility. Increasing participa-\ntion of non-governmental organisations is be-\ncoming noticeable as well.\ntechnical aspects deals with the concepts and\nworks usually applied in food protection. In\nurban conditions, the dual drainage concept\nis most commonly applied, introducing the\ndistinction between the stormwater drainage\nservice and urban food protection, whereas in\narea-wide conditions food control measures\nare always regarded as a part of the regional\nor state-wide food control schemes.\nFlood impacts come from the combination of these\nmultiple aspects, which have consequences for in-\ntegrated policies and risk management frameworks\n(WWAP-UNESCO 2006). On one hand, institutional\ncoordination and management mechanisms need\nto be strengthened via the promotion of national di-\nsaster prevention forums including stakeholders. On\nthe other hand, risk management strategies should\naddress the preparedness of societies to deal with\nfoods, taking into account risk perception issues by\nindividuals and communities, and by developing edu-\ncation and communication approaches.\nEducation, training and communication at all levels\nhave a key role to play in several stages of food risk\nmanagement, from preparedness stages (e.g. man-\nagement, planning), to emergency response meas-\nures (e.g. management and coordination of commu-\nnication and public information) and rehabilitation\nmeasures (e.g. causality and damage assessments\nand reporting, claim processing, psychological assis-\ntance, reconstruction efforts). While this paper focus-\nes mostly on education, training and communication\nof communities and the general public, some brief\nremarks will be included regarding technical and in-\nstitutional levels.\nUrban food management approaches are likely to\nprove counter productive in the long-term if they fail\nto enhance the capacity of individuals and society to\ncope with foods (Szllsi-Nagy and Zevenbergen\n2005). Self-protective measurements by residents of\nfood-prone urban areas can be particularly effective\nand may reduce the monetary costs of foods by 80%\nin some regions (Grothmann and Reusswig 2006).\nMoreover, active stakeholder participation implies the\nrecognition that disaster preparedness is a joint re-\nMiguel F. Doria and Camila Aras\nsponsibility of public authorities and the people. On\none hand, it is virtually impossible for authorities to\ntake effcient action against food risks without public\ninvolvement and cooperation, in terms of self-pro-\ntective measures and compliance with emergency\ninstructions. It is also important for authorities to\nhave a clear perspective on public perceptions, ca-\npacities and expectations. Thus, a key challenge on\nfood damage research consists integrating the so-\ncial dynamics of food risk perception, preparedness\nand vulnerability, in food damage analysis and food\nrisk management (Messner and Meyer 2006). On\nthe other hand, the public needs active support from\nauthorities, among other issues to receive warnings\nabout imminent foods, to receive information and co-\nordination on the measures to be taken before, dur-\ning and after food events, and to promote learning on\nself-protective measures.\nSeveral benefts of involving stakeholders in disaster\nrisk reduction have been identifed and include the\nfollowing (Affeltranger, 2002; adapted from WWAP-\nUNESCO 2006):\nBefore the disaster:\nImproved hazard assessment by relying\non local knowledge\nImproved vulnerability analysis by\nidentifying risk perceptions and hidden\nAssessment of self-protective capacity\n(awareness, knowledge and resources)\nAssessment of information needs\nImproved social understanding and own-\nership of offcial mitigation strategies\nDuring the disaster:\nHelping capacity for relief in the neigh-\nImproved understanding of warnings and\nImproved trust in authorities and relief\nAfter the disaster:\nEnhanced commitment to reconstruction\nRisk perception infuences food risk preparedness\nand protective responses (e.g. Grothmann and Re-\nusswig 2006; Miceli, Sotgiu and Settanni, 2008).\nGrothmann and Reusswig (2006) developed a model\nto explain protective responses to foods (damage\nprevention) based on protection motivation theory.\nThis model hypothesizes that protection motivation\nis directly infuenced by threat appraisal (perceived\nprobability, perceived severity, combined with fear\nof foods) and coping appraisal (protective response\neffcacy, perceived self-effcacy, protective response\ncosts), negatively mediated by non-protective re-\nsponses (fatalism, denial, wishful thinking). The\nmodel also hypothesizes that protection motivation\nis directly infuenced by threat experience appraisal\nand inversely infuenced by reliance on public food\nprotection. Action towards protective responses is\nconditioned by actual barriers. The model was tested\nin Cologne, Germany. With particular relevance for\nthis paper Grothmann and Reusswig (2006), found\nthose with more information options of self-protection\nwere also more likely to 1) take avoidance measures\n(i.e. avoidance of expensive furnishings in the base-\nment and frst foor); 2) purchase of food protection\ndevices (e.g. protective barriers for windows and\ndoors or pumps); and 3) take structural measures\n(e.g., putting the heating in upper foors). Information\nwas directly related with home ownership and with\nprevious food exposure and inversely related with\nnon-protective responses and with reliance on public\nfood protection. Seeking of information on food pro-\ntection was considered itself a self-protection behav-\niour and was regarded by respondents as very easy,\nnot costly and very effective.\nTerpstra et al (2006) found that risk perception of\nfoods in the Netherlands could be largely (74% of\nvariance) explained by eight factors: global increase\nof food risk, predictability and no dread, no dread and\ndoes not affect me, (un)known risk, risk beneft trade\noff, people exposed, (un)controllable situation and\npublic commitment. On average, food risks scored\nas slightly predictable and slightly known (i.e. very\nslightly above the mean point of the measurement\nscale). Interestingly, respondents tended to slightly\nagree that people like them know well the food risks\nin the region and that they can estimate the chances\nof fooding. However they disagree that the risks of\nfoods are well known to experts. Respondents also\nslightly agreed that the media often exaggerates the\nrisk of foods and that authorities inform them well.\nResearch in Taiwan compared the perceptions of\nthose that previously suffered from foods with the\ngeneral public who have never no food experience\n(Lin, Shaw and Ho, 2008). Victims have higher per-\nceived risks of foods, and know more about mitiga-\ntion actions but perceive less control over food risks\nthan non-victims. Victims tend to pay more attention\nto food information than non-victims but at the same\ntime tend to agree less with government plans to alert\nthe public about a food hazard. There are no sig-\nnifcant differences between victims and non-victims\nregarding trust in the governments capacity for crisis\nmanagement, trust in experts capacity to issue food\nwarnings and trust in the medias reports on food\nwarnings. Mitigation intentions were found to be in-\nversely associated with powerlessness feelings.\nResearch in Japan found low levels of acceptability\ntowards food risks (Zhai and Ikeda 2008). Among\nother issues, the authors found food risk accept-\nability inversely infuenced with food risk perception,\nbudget information on structural food measures and\non preparedness for food risks. Flood risk perception\nFlood-related Risk Education and Communication\nwas strongly associated with the perception of other\nrisks (e.g. natural disasters, urban risks, diseases)\nand with the perceived consequences of foods, but\nonly weakly associated with the perception of food\nThe timely issuance of forecasting information and\nwarnings, together with appropriate communication\nduring preparedness phases, fooding episodes, mo-\nbilization, evacuation and post-crisis processes are\nkey elements of food emergencies management.\nGiven the urgency associated with many urban food-\ning events, it is crucial that standard procedures are\nclearly established and functional. Research has\nidentifed sets of procedures for effcient food infor-\nmation and communication. Such procedures focus,\namong other aspects, on the communicator, the com-\nmunication channel and the message content. Over-\nall, it is important to prepare in advance message\nmaps for food communication, based on a series of\nsteps that include the identifcation of stakeholders\nand of their concerns, the development of key mes-\nsages and preparation of supporting information (Lin\nand Petersen 2007).\nWith regards to the communicator, it is suggested\nthat authorities should establish one main communi-\ncation centre and designate one single experienced\nspokesperson for the mass-media. Such one voice\napproach is key to avoid needless misunderstand-\nings due to inconsistent and conficting messages,\nassociated with the different tasks performed during\nfood management, that often lead to public confu-\nsion and anger. One key factor that is often highlight-\ned in risk communication literature is trust. In order to\nensure that people pay attention to the message and\nthat the message is regarded as credible, it is crucial\nthat the communicator is regarded as trustworthy. A\nseries of factors infuence trust, including perceptions\nof care, value similarity, competence, performance,\nintegrity, cooperation, commitment, fairness, consis-\ntency, independence, and openness (e.g. Poortinga\nand Pidgeon, 2003). The one mass-media spokes-\nperson approach can be complemented at the local\nlevel by community leaders that have access to the\nmain message adapted to the local circumstances\nand can help to disseminate it for instance in clubs,\nschools, churches, cooperatives and other public\nvenues (e.g. Martens, Garrelts, Grunenberg, and\nLange 2009). Involving local group leaders in food\nmanagement can enhance perceived local owner-\nship of planning and relieve efforts.\nThe communications channels to be used usually a\ncombination of mass-media and interpersonal chan-\nnels should be clearly identifed and communication\nroutes should be pre-established to ensure timely\ncommunication within the short time available during\nfood events. These channels can vary according to\nthe community and food management stage. They\nusually comprise television, radio, websites, newspa-\npers, leafets, loudspeakers, emergency profession-\nals, and community leaders. Two-way communica-\ntion systems are often more reliable than one-way\nsystems (Carter 1980). It is important to highlight that\nwhile interpersonal sources (e.g. family members\nand friends) are often overlooked, their infuence on\nperceptions and behaviour related to water issues\nseems to be often stronger than that of mass-me-\ndiated sources (Doria, 2010). Parker and Handmer\n(1998) note that much of the food-related information\nmay be gathered from interpersonal sources and that\nthe scope for personal networks to relay warnings and\nto contribute local knowledge towards system design\nappears to be large. In fact, Clifford (1956) noted that\nthose who are warned through personal channels are\nmore likely to believe in the message and to respond.\nIn the United States, where fash foods are the most\nsignifcant natural hazard and where half of related\nfatalities are of individuals in vehicles, it was found\nthat barricades and signs often fail to deter motor-\nists from crossing fooded areas (Coles et al. 2009).\nMost respondents to their survey have driven through\na fooded roadway and the most infuential factor for\ntheir decision is peer behavior, via the prior success-\nful crossing of other vehicles.\nWith regards to the message content, it can vary\nlargely depending on the stage, uncertainty and po-\ntential risks involved. At early stages, it may be simply\na forecast of potential risks. While foods can often be\nforecasted in order to issue warnings for institutions\nand communities to prepare their response to food\nrisks, some diffcult decisions must be made to is-\nsue warnings, as potential for issuing a false warning\nor retaining a legitimate warning can be high. False\nalarms may raise skepticism and future inaction\n(Cola 1996), but the risks involved in failing to issue\nwarnings can be much higher.\nThe effective issuance of forecasting and warning\nnotices requires a set of human and institutional ca-\npacities in place, as well as an enabling framework\nenvironment. In the particular case of urban fash\nfoods, these tend to have a higher level of uncertain\nassociated and are more diffcult to forecast than tipi-\ncal rural foods. Such particularly complex cases are\nlikely to cause greater stress and reveal the strengths\nand weaknesses of the existing food preparedness\nand response systems. A strongly coordinated sys-\ntem is needed for the timely preparation and effcient\ndissemination of forecasts and warnings.\nAn example of a forecasting and warning system, as\nprovided by Andjelkovic (2001), is composed of six\norganizational sub-systems:\nForecasting and warning centre: responsible\nfor collection, evaluation and issuing of warn-\ning messages, responsible for monitoring the\ndevelopment of a food threat and for offering\nadvice and assistance to local emergency or-\nganisation; also responsible for training of in-\nstitutional staff.\nMiguel F. Doria and Camila Aras\nMain emergency centre: coordinate and con-\nduct emergency procedures during food\nCommunity/local emergency organizations:\nresponsible for specifc activities in local ar-\neas, such as door-to-door warnings, search\nand rescue, evacuation of residents, moving\nvaluables, clearing debris, registration and\nwelfare of victims, co-ordination with: police,\nfre-fghters, medical and ambulance services,\nlocal utility companies.\nOther organizations: which may provide assis-\ntance and help before, during and after food-\ning events (e.g. United Nations Organizations,\nRed Cross, churches, schools, universities,\ncharity organizations, non-governmental orga-\nMass media: helps in disseminating informa-\ntion and promoting communication.\nGeneral public: take protective measures at\nthe household and community levels to protect\nlives and property, may act upon warnings,\nmay follow guidance for evacuation and relo-\nAs events develop, more substantial messages are\nneeded. Risk communication templates can be used\nto guide the preparation of messages to be issued\nduring food emergencies.\nWhile a frequent recommendation is to keep the\nmessage simple, research has found that suffcient\ndetail is needed for the message to be understood\nand accepted as credible and helpful (e.g. Carter\n1980). Lave and Lave (1991) noted that government\npublications tended to omit relevant specifc informa-\ntion on the nature and magnitude of food risks and\non what specifc actions individuals can do to pro-\ntect lives and property. Grothmann and Reusswig\n(2006) highlighted the importance of communicating\nnot only what actions can be done to mitigate food\nrisks, but also the effectiveness and costs associ-\nated with private precautionary measures. Technical\ndetails (e.g. affected areas, time of occurrence, fow\nrates, duration of peak fows) should be included,\nalong with basic practical issues. These include, for\ninstance, information regarding the status of safety of\ndriking water supply and in case it is disrupted, infor-\nmation about how people can access drinking water\n(Doria, Pidgeon, Haynes 2006). The development\nof GIS tools has strong potential in terms of model\nand mapping development than can be used to sup-\nport communication. However, risk mapping literacy\nshould not be taken for granted and must be piloted\n(Haynes et al. 2005).\nIn practice, there are several challenges associated\nwith warning systems, including technical constraints\n(e.g. lack of data, modelling inadequacy and differing\nfood types), organizational constraints (e.g. weak\ndissemination of information and institutional def-\nciencies in the coordination of joint measures for risk\nmanagement and disaster prevention) and social\nand cultural limitations (e.g. poor understanding of\nwarnings, limited ownership, conficting information\nsources and resistance to follow guidance and in-\nstructions) (WWAP-UNESCO. 2006). Social and cul-\ntural limitations can to some extent be adressed by\nuser-based design approaches of warning systems,\nwhich enhance the warning interpretation, improve\nownership and may decrease resistance to guidance\nand instructions. Therefore, it is crucial to involve\nstakeholders in the preparation and design of the\nwarning and communication system (Affeltranger,\n2002; McDaniels et al., 1999).\nEducation is essential for effective disaster risk re-\nduction. It contributes to save lives, prevent injuries\nand property damage, and helps to develop resilient\ncommunities that are able to minimize the economic,\nsocial, and cultural impacts of disasters (UNESCO\n2010a). Moreover, research has found that formal\neducation is sometimes linked with risk perception\nof fooding and the adoption of protective behaviours\namong the general public (e.g. Lave and Lave 1991).\nIn this sense it is important to link early warning sys-\ntems to education processes, so that there is clear\ncommunication between the authorities involved in\nboth realms and so that learners and teachers re-\nceive up-to-date information.\nThe importance of education lies in preparedness,\nresponse and recovery, i.e. before, during and after a\ndisaster has occurred. Even after a disaster strikes,\neducation provision provides important life-saving\nand life-sustaining information. Education can pro-\nvide physical protection, and strengthen the cogni-\ntive and psychosocial coping skills of learners. It\ncan protect children and youth from exploitation and\nharm, which they are more vulnerable to following a\ndisaster. It can be instrumental in disseminating vital\ninformation, for example, concerning safe drinking\nwater; and it can provide a sense of normalcy, sta-\nbility, structure and hope for the future in emergen-\ncy situations. A valuable resource for policy makers\nand practitioners in education in emergencies is the\nInter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencys\n(INEE) Minimum Standards for Education: Prepar-\nedness, response, recovery (Nicolai and Triplehorn,\nAn effcient response to food hazards requires ad-\nequate education and training at all levels. At the\ntechnical and higher levels, education is needed for\nthose directly specialized in food risk management.\nThis concerns a variety of technical disciplines, such\nas hydraulics, hydrology, meteorology, engineering,\ngeology, geographic systems, economics, and psy-\nchology, among others. Anecdotic evidence at the\nglobal level suggests that the number of adequately\ntrained professionals involved in risk management is\nFlood-related Risk Education and Communication\nfar from enough to meet the challenges, particularly\nin developing countries. It is recognized that global\nchanges, including urbanization and foods, imply an\nurgent need for highly qualifed professionals in water\nand education (UNW-DPC, UNESCO, BMU 2009).\nUnfortunately, the scarcity of professionals in these\nareas only becomes evident during disasters. As a\nconsequence, investments in this area often tend\nto fall short of the needs unless catastrophic food\nevents take place.\nIt should be noted that most of the key decisions af-\nfecting water issues are made outside of the water\nsector, by people with little or no education in water\n(WWAP-UNESCO. 2009). Public knowledge about\nfood processes is sometimes reported as scarce\n(e.g. Lave and Lave 1991, King 2000). Formal edu-\ncation can only infuence the adoption of protective\nmeasures by individuals if food-related education is\nadequately integrated into formal, informal and non-\nformal education. In areas where access to formal\neducation is limited, which is often the case for those\nmost vulnerable to disaster risks, authorities may help\nto ensure that messages are shared with non-formal\neducation; there are clear links and opportunities to\nwork with public information and communication\nschemes on this account. Moreover, when develop-\ning food management plans, authorities and food\nexperts should not assume that the general public\nhas any specifc knowledge about an event that may\nbe relatively rare at the local level (i.e. in the case\nof the 100 year foods), about which they had vir-\ntually no opportunities to learn about. It is therefore\ncrucial that such learning opportunities are provided,\nparticularly in food-prone regions, via education and\ntraining programmes.\nEducation is also essential at the primary, second-\nary and community levels for all stakeholders in a\nlife-long learning perspective. Adequate education in\nthese contexts requires capacities of teachers, edu-\ncators and media professionals to promote learning\nabout foods. This implies knowledge across a vari-\nety of topics, materials and an enabling environment.\nWhile teachers are often likely to be well prepared in\ndisciplinary terms (e.g. to teach geographic aspects\nof foods), knowledge on practical aspects (e.g. how\na rescue system works) and the enabling environ-\nment (e.g. curriculum integration and professional\ndevelopment opportunities on food-related issues)\nmay need support (Chang, Chen and Chen, 2010).\nIt should also be noted that serious food events may\nseriously disrupt education systems and teachers\nshould also be prepared to respond to foods. (e.g.\nMachtinger 2006/07). Education systems should also\nbe prepared through the development of contingency\nplans. In what concerns the physical aspect of edu-\ncation facilities, is important to ensure that schools\nare not built on food plains, or areas susceptible to\nfoods and that education authorities have the pro-\nfessional support to determine whether an education\nfacility is safe for use after a food.\nThe provision of information and warnings is a dis-\ntinct process from food education. However, there\nare several links that should be considered. On one\nhand, literacy and related skills are valuable to cor-\nrectly read and/or understand food warnings and\nto interpret food related information. One the other\nhand, the provision of food risk warnings and infor-\nmation to intuitions and communities is futile if people\ndo not have the knowledge and skills needed to re-\nspond adequately. In fact, lack of response capacity\nmay only trigger frustration or inadequate responses\nthat may further enhance risks during foods. More-\nover, during food disasters it may be impossible to\nprovide timely information and instructions. This\nmay happen for instance in the case of communities\nthat became isolated and which will need to rely on\ntheir own capacities (King 2000). This is also often\nthe case during particularly fast events such as fash\nfoods (Siudak 1999).\nSimilarly to the development of communication strat-\negies, food education should be systematically de-\nveloped and take into account public perception and\nstakeholders perspectives (e.g. Becker et al 2008).\nIn that regard, the DRR school programme follow-\ning the foods in Namibia is an example of education\nproject in foods that not only integrated disaster risk\nmanagement knowledge in the school curricula, but\nalso in the relevant training and learning programmes\nfor stakeholders including development planners,\nemergency managers and local government offcials\n(UNESCO 2010b).\nThe impact of foods is result of the interaction of\nseveral natural and human factors. Water-related\nrisk education and communication are essential to\nstrength the human response to foods. Education\nat all levels and communication have a key role in\ndifferent stages of food risk management, including\npreparedness, emergency responses and recovery.\nThis paper highlighted the importance of establishing\nclear and functional procedures for risk communica-\ntion. Concerning education, it was noted that a holis-\ntic approach at all levels of education is necessary\nto strengthen public understanding and skills to cope\nwith food risks. Among other issues, this implies that\nteachers are capacitated to provide adequate learn-\ning opportunities in such complex multidisciplinary\ntopic. In both communication and education process-\nes, risk perception issues must be taken into consid-\nThe role of non-structural measures such as educa-\ntion and communication remains under-researched\nand is often overlooked in formal food risk manage-\nment processes. However, human capacities and\nvulnerability have a central role in food events and\nthere is some evidence that they can lead to a very\nsignifcant reduction of food impacts, both in terms\nof human lives and property. In this context, educa-\nMiguel F. Doria and Camila Aras\ntion and communication certainly deserve higher at-\ntention and priority from those directly and indirectly\ninvolved in food risk management.\nAffeltranger, B. (2002). User-based design of so-\ncially effcient food warnings: concept paper for the\nLower Mekong Basin. Mekong River Commission\nMeeting on Flood Forecasting and Early Warning\nSystems, 24 February-1 March 2002, Phnom Penh,\nAndjelkovic, I. (2001). Guidelines on non-structural\nmeasures in urban food management, IHP, Tech-\nnical, Documents in Hydrology No. 50, UNESCO,\nBecker, J.S.; Johnston, D.M.; Coomer, M.A.; Ronan,\nK. (2008). Flood risk perceptions, education and\nwarning in four communities in the Hawkesbury-Ne-\npean Valley, New South Wales, Australia : results of\na questionnaire survey, February 2006. Lower Hutt:\nGNS Science. GNS Science report 2008/02.\nCarter, M.T. (1980). Community Warning Systems:\nThe Interface Between the Broadcast Media, Emer-\ngency Service Agencies and the National Weather\nService. In Disasters and the Mass Media. Washing-\nton, D.C.: Committee on Disasters and Mass Media,\nNational Academy of Sciences.\nChang C.Y.; Chen Y.L. and Chen, C-L.D. (2010).\nExploring Taiwanese teachers perceptions toward\nand knowledge of climatic hazard mitigation. Natural\nHazards Volume 52, Number 2, 403-429.\nClifford, R.A. (1956). The Rio Grande Flood: A Com-\nparative Study of Border Communities in disaster, Di-\nsaster Study 7. Washington, D.C.: National Research\nCouncil, National Academy of Sciences.\nCola, R.M. (1996). Responses of Pampanga House-\nholds to Lahar Warnings: Lessons from Two Villages\nin the Pasig-Potrero River Watershed. In Newhall\nC.G., Punongbayan R.S. (Eds.) Fire and Mud: Erup-\ntion and lahars of Mt Pinatubo, Philippines. University\nof Washington Press, Seattle.\nColes, A.; Hirschboeck, K.K. and Fryberg, S. (2009).\nDriving into danger: Perception and communica-\ntion of fash food risk from a cultural perspective.\nGeophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-\nDoria, M.F; Pidgeon, N.F and Haynes, K.N.F. (2006).\nCommunication of tap-water risks: challenges and\noportunities. In Thompson, K.C. (ed.), Gray, J. (ed.)\nWater Contamination Emergencies: Enhacing our\nreponses, Eds. Royal Society of Chemistry: Cam-\nbridge, UK, Special Publication no. 302.\nDoria M.F. (2010). Factors infuencing public percep-\ntion of drinking water quality, Water Policy, Vol 12,\nNo 1 pp 119, IWA Publishing.\nGrothmann, T. and Reusswig, F. (2006). People at\nrisk of fooding: Why some residents take precaution-\nary action while others do not, Natural Harzards 38.\nHaynes K., Barclay J., Lake I., Pidgeon N., and Doria\nM.F. (2005). An evaluation of volcanic hazard maps\nas a communication tool. In Auckland Regional\nCouncil. Proceedings of the Volcanic Impacts Study\nGroup Annual Seminar 2005. Auckland: Volcanic Im-\npacts Study Group and Auckland Engineering Life-\nlines Group.\nKing, D. (2000). Youre on Your Own: Community\nVulnerability and the Need for Awareness and Edu-\ncation for Predictable Natural Disasters. Journal of\nContingencies and Crisis Management 8(4): 223-\nLave, T.R. and Lave, L.B. (1991). Public Perception\nof the Risks of Floods: Implications for Communica-\ntion. Risk Analysis, 11, 255- 267.\nLin, I. and Petersen, D. (2007). Risk Communica-\ntion in Action, the tools of message mapping, USEP,\nEPA/625/R-06/012 August.\nLin, S.; Shaw, D. and Ho, M.-C. (2008). Why are\nFlood and Landslide Victims Less Willing to Take Mit-\nigation Measures than the Public? Natural Hazards\n44(2). (SCI)\nMachtinger, H. (2006/2007). After the Flood: The\nImpact of Katrina on Education in New Orleans.\nThe High School Journal 90, Number 2, December\n2006-January 2007.\nMartens T.; Garrelts H.; Grunenberg H. and Lange\nH. (2009). Taking the heterogeneity of citizens into\naccount: food risk communication in coastal cities\na case study of Bremen. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst.\nSci., 9, 1931-1940, 2009.\nMcDaniels, T. L.; Gregory, R. S. and Fields, D. (1999).\nDemocratizing risk management: Successful public\ninvolvement in local water management decisions.\nRisk Analysis, Vol. 19, No. 3.\nMessner, F. and Meyer, V. (2006). Flood damage,\nvulnerability and risk perception - Challenges for\nfood damage research. In: Jochen Schanze, Evzen\nZeman, Jiri Marsalek (eds.), Flood Risk Management\n- Hazards, Vulnerability and Mitigation Measures,\nNato Science Series, Springer Publisher.\nMiceli, R.; Sotgiu, I. and Settanni, M. (2008). Disas-\nter preparedness and perception of food risk: A study\nin an alpine valley in Italy, Journal of Environmental\nPsychology, Volume 28, Issue 2, June.\nNicolai, S. and Triplehorn, C. (2003). The Role of\nEducation in Protecting Children in Confict, Human-\nitarian practice network paper. London: Overseas\nDevelopment Institute.\nParker, D. and Handmer, J. (1998). The Role of\nUnoffcial Flood Warning Systems. Journal of Con-\nFlood-related Risk Education and Communication\ntingencies and Crisis Management Vol. 6 Number I,\nMarch 1998. U.S.A.\nPoortinga W. and Pidgeon N.F. (2003). Exploring\nthe Dimensionality of Trust in Risk Regulation. Risk\nAnalysis, Volume 23, Number 5, October 2003 , pp.\nSiudak, M. (1999). Role of education in reducing\nfash food effects. In Gruntfest, Eve; Handmer, John\n(Eds.), Coping with Flash foods Proceedings of the\nNATO Advanced Study Institute, Ravello, Italy. Se-\nries: NATO Science Partnership Sub-Series: 2:, Vol.\nSzllsi-Nagy, A. and Zevenbergen, C. (2005). Ur-\nban Flood Management, London, A. A. Balkema\nTerpstra, T.; Gutteling, J.M.; Geldof, G.D. and Kappe,\nB. (2006). The perception of food risk and water nui-\nsance. Water science and technology. Vol 54, Num-\nber 6-7.\nTucci, C.E.M. and Vilanueva, A. (2005). Land Use\nand Urban Floods in Developing Countries. In An-\ndras Szollosi-Nagy e Chris Zevenbergen. (Org.). Ur-\nban Flood Management v. 1. Londres, A. A. Balkema\nUNDP (2004). Reducing Disaster Risk. A Challenge\nfor Development, a Global Report. New York, UN.\nISBN 92-1-126160-0.\nUNESCO (2010a). Disaster risk reduction and pre-\nvention (DRR) in education. Report on Education\nSector Seminar, Paris.\nUNESCO (2010b). Lessons Learned in Emergen-\ncy Preparedness Educational Flood Response\n& Shared Good Practices. Retrieved December 1,\n2010 from The UNESCO website http://portal.unes-\nUNFPA (2007). State of world population, 2007: un-\nleashing the potential of urban growth. Corporate au-\nthor: Imprint: New York, UNFPA.\nUNHCR (2002). Environmental migrants and refu-\ngees. Refugees No. 127/2002, p. 12-13. ISSN 0252-\nUNW-DPC, UNESCO, BMU (2009). Education for\nWater Sustainability: Where Decades Meet. Work-\nshop 1 of the UNESCO World Conference on Edu-\ncation for Sustainable Development. Bonn, Germany\nWWAP-UNESCO (2006). World Water Assessment\nProgramme. Water: a shared responsibility. The\nUnited Nations World Water Development Report 2.\nParis: UNESCO Pub.; New York: Berghahn Books.\nWWAP-UNESCO (2009). World Water Assessment\nProgramme. Water in a Changing World. The United\nNations World Water Development Report 3. Paris:\nUNESCO Pub.; London: Earthscan.\nZhai, G. and Ikeda, S. (2008). Empirical analysis\nof Japanese food risk acceptability within multi-risk\ncontext, Natural Hazards and Earth System Scienc-\nes Vol: 8 Issue: 5\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez*\nOsvaldo Moura Rezende*\nUrbanization is certainly one of the man made actions that most infuences food aggravation and generates higher envi-\nronmental impacts. Land use and population growth are critical issues for great cities, which suffer from foods, in a spiral\ncycle where they are also agents for worsening foods, due to vegetation removal, imperviousness and fow retentions\nreduction. Traditional practices of urban drainage design focus on end-of-pipe solutions, in order to adapt the network to\nthe generated fows. Urban fooding is still often treated as a direct result of excessive rain, without regard on the basin\nbehavior as an interrelated and interdependent system. The traditional approach for drainage system design is being\nsupplemented or replaced by systemic solutions, with distributed actions over the basin. This concept has been gaining\nimportance in recent years, confguring an integrated approach and launching the basis for a sustainable urban drainage\nsystem design. The diversity related to the urban fooding process makes this phenomenon diffcult to assess. The interac-\ntion between the drainage system and the urban landscape structures produces complex fow patterns. In this situation,\nmathematical models may become an important tool in assisting the design of integrated food control projects. A case\nstudy developed in Rio de Janeiro State and supported by a hydrodynamic fow cell model, called MODCEL, illustrates\nthis discussion.\nKeywords: Urban Floods, Sustainable Urban Drainage, Mathematical Modeling, MODCEL\nLa urbanizacin es sin duda una de las acciones del hombre que ms ha infuido en la agravacin de las inundaciones,\ngenerando as mayores impactos ambientales. El uso de la tierra y el crecimiento poblacional son temas crticos para las\ngrandes ciudades vctimas de inundaciones, en un espiral donde ellas tambin son agentes que empeoran las inundacio-\nnes debido a la eliminacin de vegetacin, la impermeabilidad y la reduccin de las retenciones de fujos. Las prcticas\ntradicionales de diseo de drenaje urbano se centran en soluciones de fnal de tubera, con el fn de adaptar la red a los\nfujos generados. Las inundaciones urbanas siguen siendo tratadas a menudo como un resultado directo del exceso de\nlluvias, sin tener en cuenta el comportamiento de las cuencas en tanto sistema interrelacionado e interdependiente. El\nenfoque tradicional para el diseo del sistema de drenaje est siendo complementado o sustituido por soluciones sis-\ntmicas con acciones distribuidas a lo largo de la cuenca. Este concepto ha ido ganando importancia en los ltimos aos,\nconfgurando un enfoque integrado e inaugurando la base para el diseo de un sistema sostenible de drenaje urbano. La\ndiversidad asociada al proceso de las inundaciones urbanas hace que este sea un fenmeno difcil de evaluar. La inter-\naccin entre el sistema de drenaje y las estructuras del paisaje urbano produce patrones de fujo complejos. Ante esta\nsituacin, los modelos matemticos pueden convertirse en una herramienta importante para contribuir a la elaboracin de\nproyectos integrados para el control de inundaciones. Un estudio de caso desarrollado en el Estado de Ro de Janeiro y\napoyado por un modelo hidrodinmico de simulacin de cuencas, llamado MODCEL, ilustra esta discusin.\nPalabras clave: Inundaciones urbanas, Drenaje urbano sostenible, Modelo matemtico, MODCEL\n* Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Escola Politcnica (in Portuguese) - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Polytech-\nnic School - Athos da Silveira Ramos Avenue, 149, Technology Center Block A, 2 foor University City, Rio de Janeiro/RJ\n- Brazil. CEP: 21941-909\nWater is essential to life and the cities depend on this\nresource to develop. Ancient cities grew near water-\ncourses and the rivers, in particular, were responsible\nfor water supply, soil fertilization after foods, irriga-\ntion, waste conveyance, fuvial transportation and\ndefense against invaders. The development of cities\nalong time, especially after the Industrial Revolution,\nsuffered a great acceleration and the consequences\nfor the industrial cities led to several infrastructure\nproblems, diseases and environmental degradation.\nNowadays, several cities of developed countries tend\nto integrate and valorize rivers as a natural resource\nand part of the urban landscape, trying to join natu-\nral and built environments. In developing countries,\nhowever, rivers usually suffer urban and social pres-\nsures, with irregular occupation of their banks, acting\nas conveyors of waste waters and presenting a de-\ngraded environmental situation. Late and fast indus-\ntrialization is not always accomplished with appropri-\nate urban infrastructure. Most times, these cities turn\ntheir back to the rivers.\nRecibido: 10/7/2012\nAceptado: 31/08/2013\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N 2 - Dic. 2012. pp. 69 - 83.\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nAqua-LAC - Vol. 4 - N.2 - Dic. 2012\nUrbanization is certainly one of the man made pro-\ncesses that most infuence the aggravation of foods,\nespecially from the consequences related to chang-\nes in land use. This is one of the major problems in\ngrowing cities in present times. Therefore, the cities\nsuffer from foods, in a spiral cycle in which they are\nalso agents of foodsworsening. It is very diffcult to\ndiscuss urban food control, in a sustainable way,\nwithout discussing the city itself, the land use and the\nurban development.\nStatistics show that foods are the natural phenom-\nenon that causes most damage and losses through-\nout the world. According to Freeman (1999), 60%\nof human life losses and 30% of economic losses\ncaused by natural disasters are due to foods. Clarke\nand King (2004) show a map of disasters, related\nto foods, showing deaths and losses per continent.\nThe numbers are impressive. In Asia, between 1992\nand 2001, there were 50.034 deaths and losses of\n105 billions of dollars. In America, there were 35.848\ndeaths and 31 billions of dollars in losses. In Europe,\n32 billion dollars of losses were computed, with 1362\ndeaths. The number of great inundations is increas-\ning exponentially along past centuries. According to\na publication of the World Bank, (Jha et al., 2012),\n178 million people were affected by foods in the year\nof 2010 and the total losses exceeded 40 billion dol-\nlars, in the same year. This increasing trend follows\nwhat is also happening with the world population and,\nmore specifcally, with the urban population. The built\nenvironment leads to the concentration of people and\ngoods, increasing exposition and vulnerability, whilst\nhelping to worsen foods. More and more people are\nbecoming affected by food events.\nFlaws in urban drainage systems lead to the fooding\nof large areas. This situation interferes with the func-\ntioning of the entire city, affecting sanitation, hous-\ning, transport, public health, among others systems.\nThis is an issue with technical, socio-economical,\ninstitutional and environmental connotations. The un-\nderstanding of how urbanization affects the fooding\nprocess is a very important issue for proper planning\nand designing of urban drainage systems and food\ncontrol measures (when necessary). The urbaniza-\ntion of a watershed tends to promote the removal of\nthe original vegetation cover, to occupy the riverine\nareas and the food plains, and to increase imper-\nviousness. Thus, larger volumes of water become\navailable to fow more quickly and accumulate in low\nareas, often already occupied. When urbanization is\nnot adequately planned nor controlled, more severe\nconsequences appear. The cities grow and establish\nthemselves as poles of attraction, receiving a migrant\npopulation, with illusions of a better life quality, but\nseveral times this population ends up in peripheral,\nimpoverished and critical areas, conforming slums\nwithout infrastructure and sanitation. Figure 1, for ex-\nample, shows a critical situation on Acari River Basin,\nin Rio de Janeiro city.\nFigure 1: Scene from AcariRiver Basin, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Font: CityMunicipality Rio-guas, 2007)\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\nTherefore, several challenges are faced by the ur-\nban drainage systems nowadays: population growth\nand fast urban development; uncontrolled land use\nand occupation; environmental degradation; excess\nof imperviousness and heat islands formation, due\nto local infuence of urbanization, interfering with in-\ntense rainfall and increasing basin discharges; possi-\nble climate changes in a relative near future, increas-\ning extreme rainfall events and the mean sea level.\nThese problems need to be addressed adequately\nand technical solutions must evolve to face them.\nEngineering, Architecture, Urbanism, Environmental\nand Social Sciences must be considered in a mul-\ntidisciplinary approach in order to meet sustainable\nstandards for the urban development, integrating ef-\nforts towards practical solutions.\nIt can be said that the main role as an agent of ur-\nbanization in ancient times was played by Rome. The\nRoman engineering stood out both in the context of\nbuildings and monuments, as well as in fulflling the\nneeded infrastructure for a city to grow. Ferrari (1991)\nreports that in the fourth century AD Rome had more\nthan 1 million inhabitants, 19 aqueducts able to sup-\nply the city with one million m/day, sewerage system,\npaved streets, more than 45,000 buildings, some up\nto 8 foors, 80 palaces, and was protected by walls,\nin addition to a number of baths, theaters, amphithe-\naters, temples, and other monuments.\nDuring the Roman era, signifcant advances were in-\ntroduced in the design of urban drainage. Concerns\nabout the urban food mitigation and the need for\nlowlands drainage were very important to the city,\nsettled on the riparian areas of the Tiber River, in a\nmarsh region. To meet the needs of urban drainage,\na complex network of open channels, landflls and\nunderground pipes were built. This system was also\nused to transport sewerage from the housing areas\n(Burian and Edwards, 2002).\nThe fall of Rome led to the loss of importance of the\ncities and the urbanization process decayed during\nthe Middle Ages. Europe has come to live in a state\nof almost permanent warfare. Concerns with sanita-\ntion deteriorated and the streets were used indiscrim-\ninately as the only means of disposal of wastewater\nand storm water runoff (Chocat et al., 2001).\nThe resumption of trade from the thirteenth century\non was mainly a result of the recovery of the city im-\nportance. The Renaissance, on the ffteenth century,\nmarks the movement to rescue knowledge of classi-\ncal antiquity. Architecture and Urban Art converges\nto Urban Planning. At this time, also hydrology and\nhydraulics sciences began to develop faster.\nBiswas (1970), in his book about the history of Hy-\ndrology, illustrates an interesting passage where\nGiovanni Fontana, studying the food of the Tiber\nRiver in Rome, during Christmas 1598, pointed out\nseveral negative effects generated due to the lack\nof information from people who have settled their\nhouses in marginal (and foodable) areas of the river\nand its tributaries. It is remarkable how this Fontanas\nobservation could be repeated nowadays.\nThe Industrial Revolution marked a profound change\nin society, causing an increase in goods availability\nand services provision, associated with the effect of\ntechnical and economic transformations, increasing\ncities attraction. In parallel, the Liberalism stimulated\nthe reduction of public intervention in all sectors of\nsocial life, including urban controls, believing that the\nnecessary adjustments would be provided by society.\nThe consequences were critical to the cities - the ur-\nban growth occurred quickly and disorderly.\nIn this context, poor sanitation became a critical is-\nsue to urban life. Plagues easily spread bringing\ndeath in a large scale. Streets were used to convey\nboth rainwater and wastewater. Urban foods began\nto increase in magnitude and frequency, what wors-\nened sanitation problems, spreading contaminated\nwaters over large areas. As a consequence, the role\nof urban drainage has become crucial in the life of\ncities. To face this problem, drainage systems were\ndesigned to fast convey and safely dispose storm\nwaters. At this time, a hygienist phase took place in\nthe drainage development, pointing directly towards\nimproving fow conductance aiming to control water\nrelated diseases. This became the main objective of\nurban drainage systems until a few decades ago.\nIn developing countries, the late industrialization in-\nduced an even faster urban development and popu-\nlation growth, mainly on the second half of the twenti-\neth century. Thus, the expected situation of buildings\nand structures designed properly, in a city governed\nby an urban development plan, referred only to a por-\ntion of the population. Another part had no formal ac-\ncess to the city services and had to organize on their\nown, in precarious and irregular conditions, with all\nthe negative consequences of these agglomerations.\nPoverty and lack of infrastructure led to urban chaos.\nThe formation of an irregular city near to the regu-\nlar one has forced to reconsider the development of\nmodern urbanism.\nFrom the perspective of urban food problems, con-\nsidering this rapid urban growth over the last two\ncenturies, it became diffcult to simply propose drain-\nage network corrections, such as canalizations, rec-\ntifcations or pipe enlargement. Canalizations could\nnot account for all urban fooding problems and, in\nfact, this approach tended to transfer problems to\ndownstream areas, rather than to solve them. Engi-\nneering became aware that the existing infrastructure\nwas being overloaded. Project solutions focused on\nthe consequences of the urbanization process, that\nis, the runoff continuous increasing and this concept\ncould not stand alone anymore. Increasing convey-\nance indefnitely was not the needed answer to this\nproblem. Source control, acting on food causes, us-\ning storage and infltration measures, emerged as a\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nnew technical option in the 1970s (Andoh and Iwugo,\n2002). An integrated approach, considering the river\nbasin as the unit of work, became the basis for a sus-\ntainable urban drainage system design and several\nconcepts were developed in this context, gaining im-\nportance along time.\nTraditional practices of urban drainage design are\nbased on canalization works in order to adapt the\nsystem to receive and convey the new generated\nand concentrated runoff. This approach equates the\nundesirable consequences of the process, which are\nthe greater and faster discharges produced by the\nbuilt environment.\nThe urban drainage system comprises two main sub-\nsystems: micro-drainage and macro-drainage. Micro-\ndrainage is the system of conducts constructed for\nreceiving and conveying the storm water that fows\nfrom the urban surfaces (building roofs, lots, streets,\nsquares, etc). The micro-drainage system is essen-\ntially defned by the layout of the streets in urban\nareas. The macro-drainage, by its side, is intended\nto receive and provide the fnal discharge of the sur-\nface runoff taken by the micro-drainage net. Macro-\ndrainage corresponds to the main drainage network,\nconsisting of rivers and complementary works, such\nas artifcial canals, storm water galleries, dikes and\nother constructed structures.\nIn general terms, the urban drainage system design\ncomprises the following steps:\nSubdivision of the area into sub-basins.\nDesign of the network integrating urban pat-\nterns and natural fow paths, trying to match\nwith topographic conditions.\nDefnition of the design rainfall, considering a\ntime of recurrence, depending on the safety\ndesired for the project, and a time of duration,\nassociated with the concentration time of each\nsub-basin considered calculation is made\nstep by step, as the sub-basins are summed to\ncompose greater areas;\nDetermination of design discharges through\nthe Rational Method, for example, or another\nhydrological method, if convenient.\nHydraulic design of each drainage network\nreach, using Manning or Chzy formulas, to\nconduct the maximum discharge found in the\nprevious topic. Sometimes, in the macro-drain-\nage context, the channel design considers a\nmaximum discharge produced by the water-\nshed that contributes to the stretch of canal\nthat is being calculated. Then, with this fow,\nthe channel is calculated through backwater\nformulas, considering steady varied fow. Fig-\nure 2 shows a schematic view of micro and\nmacro-drainage calculation.\nThis approach greatly simplifes the real situation. In\nthe design context, it may not be serious, once all the\ncalculations follow a certain pre-defned order and\nthe effects are accumulated. However, discharges in\na drainage system are, in fact, unsteady. In a situa-\nFigure 2: Schematic view of micro and macro-drainage calculation\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\ntion of food occurrence (drainage system failure), for\nexample, with the project already implemented, it is\nnot recommended to work in such a simplifed form.\nDiagnosis is something that needs a systemic ap-\nproach. The combination of effects in time and space\nbecomes crucial for the assessment of fow condi-\ntions. Besides, closed conduits introduce an even\nmore complex element, when the system fails. Under\nthis condition, the design discharge is surpassed and\nfow under pressure may occur, replacing the basic\nhydraulic laws of free surface fow, which has guided\nthe original project.\nThe traditional approach for drainage system design\nis being supplemented or replaced by newer concepts\nthat seek for systemic solutions, with distributed ac-\ntions over the basin, trying to recover fow patterns\nsimilar to those prior to urbanization. It is important\nto emphasize the necessity of systemic solutions, re-\ngarding the basin as the basic design reference.\nThese newer concepts, with little differences, high-\nlight the necessity to reduce impacts over the urban\nwater cycle, recovering (as close as possible) natu-\nral functions. Among these concepts, some are de-\ntached below as frequent references on urban food\nBest Management Practices (BMP) concept\ndeveloped from the 1970s, working on the\nrunoff generation control, regarding aspects of\nquantity and quality (AMEC, 2001). In Brazil, a\nsimilar concept was formalized more recently,\nconsidering the introduction of compensatory\ntechniques to account for urbanization effects\nover fow patterns and urban water cycle (Bap-\ntista et al. ,2005)\nLow impact Development (LID) -in the 1980s,\nthis concept appeared as an alternative for the\nurban water management, trying to recover the\nnatural characteristics of the water cycle. The\nLID concept proposes the use of techniques\nthat may be able to increase the local capacity\nof interception, infltration and evaporation of\nthe rainwaters, also increasing the opportuni-\nties for storage and slow the runoff generated\nby urbanization, in order to make it as similar\nas possible to the natural behavior (Walsh and\nPomeroy, 2012; Ahiablame et al. 2012).\nSustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)\nthis concept integrates aspects of food con-\ntrol and urban design. Drainage systems can\nbe developed to improve urban design, man-\naging environmental risks and enhancing built\nenvironment. SUDS objectives account both\nfor reducing quantity and quality problems and\nmaximizing amenities and biodiversity oppor-\ntunities (CIRIA, 2007)\nWater Sensitive Urban Design (WSUDS): this\nconcept may be defned as an interdisciplinary\ncooperation involving water management, ur-\nban design and landscape architecture, com-\nbining water management tools and urban de-\nsign approach and facilitating synergiesfor the\necological, economic, social and cultural sus-\ntainability (Langenbach et al. , 2008). WSUDS\nis related with a framework of physical scienc-\nes, socialeconomic sciences, community val-\nues and legal and institutional aspects (Wong,\nNew urban subdivisions must consider the challenge\nof developing urban areas without changing natural\nhydrological patterns (Souza et al., 2005). Storage\nand infltration measures are considered together\nin integrated design solutions (Souza et al., 2012).\nMoreover, these new trends add concerns of water\nquality control, as well as enhance rainwater as a re-\nsource to be exploited in an integrated approach for\nsustainable management of urban stormwaters.\nBesides, the possibility of combining food control\nmeasures with urban landscape interventions, ca-\npable to add value to urban spaces (fgure 3), with\nmultiple functions, is becoming an interesting option\nfrom the point of view of revitalizing degraded areas,\nas well as the optimization of available resources and\npublic investments.\nThe occurrence of foods, with channel overfowing\nand surcharging of storm galleries, makes urban\nlandscape structures start to work in order to sup-\nplement the network that failed. Streets begin to act\nas channels and these fows may gain independent\npaths. Transpositions may occur from a sub-basin to\nanother, changing the patterns expected on the origi-\nnal drainage system project. Overfowing discharges\nmay pass through several drowned inlets until they\nfnd the chance to return to the network. Flooded\nsquares and public spaces start to act as reservoirs,\ndamping fows and also changing drainage patterns\noriginally planned. This situation happens in an unde-\nsirable way, once houses may be fooded in this pro-\ncess and several losses may occur. Eventually, lack\nof maintenance of micro-drainage can cause food-\ning, with harmful consequences, even when macro-\ndrainage still presents capacity of fow.\nThe diversity related to the urban fooding process\nmakes this phenomenon diffcult to assess. The pos-\nsibilities of effect combinations in space and time are\nnot trivial. The interaction between the drainage sys-\ntem and urban landscape structures, which eventu-\nally acquire hydraulic functions, in a complementary\nway, produces an unpredictable drainage network,\ndistinct from the one that was originally designed.\nFlow patterns developed on this new complex sys-\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\ntem is not known in advance. Thus, it is not possible\nto simply accumulate effects or compose a step by\nstep calculation. Local solutions can lead to undesir-\nable effects, with the simple transfer of problems. Ap-\nparently good solutions for different places may com-\nbine negatively effects due to temporal composition\nof the hydrographs generated. Sometimes, different\ninterventions just overlay concurrent results. On the\nother hand, it is possible to generate better results,\nwith extra benefts, when proposing adequate com-\nbinations of measures capable to join efforts in the\ndesired direction.\nIn this situation, mathematical models may be able\nto assist in the design of integrated food control\nprojects, because of the possibility of conducting a\nsystematic evaluation of the basin. The observation\nof different project arrangements can be simulated\nin various scenarios of combined interventions and\nfuture development hypothesis.\nMany models, with different characteristics, may be\ncited, in order to illustrate the discussion on how to\ntreat food problems. Among these models, some\nfree options are the SWMM - Storm Water Manage-\nment Model, developed by the United States Envi-\nronmental Protection Agency (EPA), mainly used for\nstorm drains design, and the Hydrologic Modeling\nSystem (HEC-HMS), developed by US Army Corps\nof Engineers (USACE), which focuses on rivers or\nmajor drainage design. Presently, there are several\nalternatives of 1D-2D modelling, which seem to be\nthe most promising alternative in this feld (Leandro\net al., 2009, Simes et al., 2011, Castellarin et al.,\nFigure 3: Examples of multifunctional landscapes a detention basin in SantiagoChile and a retention basin\nin La Rochelle-France. (Font: authors' personal collection, 2009).\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\n2011). A quasi 2D model, developed in the Federal\nUniversity of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), charcterized\nby being a free and academic model, is MODCEL,\nwhich will be briefy presented here and then used in\na case study, with the aim of demonstrate how criti-\ncal an uncontrolled urban development may be, and\nalsocomparing an urban drainage traditional design\nwith new trends in urban food projects.\nMODCEL (Mascarenhas and Miguez, 2002) is a hy-\ndrodynamic model based on the concept of fow cells\n(Zanobetti et al., 1970), capable to represent the ur-\nban basin in an integrated way, by building a network\nof compartments covering the entire surface. Each\ncell performs a rainfall-runoff transformation process\nand the connections among cells compose a network\nresponsible for representing fow patterns. The mass\nconservation principle is applied for all cells and hy-\ndraulic laws are written for all fow relations. The sev-\neral hydraulic laws are taken in a one dimensional\nway, although the space modelling creates a pseudo\n3D representation. Two layers of fow are vertically\nconnected. The superfcial layer that represents the\nsurface of the basin, joining streets, squares and\nopen channels, interacts with the layer that repre-\nsents the network of underground galleries. Figure 4\nshows a schematic view of MODCEL, in a real basin\nof Rio de Janeiro city.\nFigure 4: Schematic view of a MODCEL representation.\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nCase Study: Iguau-Sarapu River Basins and\nthe particular problem of Pilar-Calomb Rivers,\nat the Metropolitan Rio de Janeiro Region\nA case study was developed for a heavily occupied\nand densely populated urban area, at the Metropoli-\ntan Region of Rio de Janeiro, in the Iguau-Sarapu\nRiver Basin, located in the western portion of the\nGuanabara Bay. Figure 5 shows a map of this area,\nwith the Cities that are inside this basin. This is one\nof the most critical areas in the state regarding urban\nfooding. The region presents great urban and indus-\ntrial areas, as well as wide rural zones in an urbaniz-\ning process, and reminiscent areas of natural Atlantic\nForest on the upstream reaches of the basin. This\nbasin was included by the State Governmentin a Pro-\ngram of Environment Recuperation, and the Federal\nUniversity of Rio de Janeiro was responsible for the\nfood control studies. The basin was modeled with\nMODCEL, in order to provide the basis for assessing\npresent situation, prospecting future scenarios and\nproposing fooding control measures. There were\nvery few measurements available for calibrating the\nmodel. In fact, there was one river gauge at Botas\nRiver, the main upper tributary of Iguau River. There\nwas a set of four control points at Sarapu River, as-\nsociates to a previous hydrological Study and there\nwere maximum levels registered for one single event\non Iguau River. This set of information was com-\nbined to give a minimum support for calibration. At\ndownstream, Guanabara Bay was represented by\ntide levels. Figure 6 shows the mapped food condi-\ntions for present situation, represented over the mod-\nelled fooded area of Iguau River Basin. Figure 7\nshows a future scenario considering that there will be\nno control on land use. Considering these situations,\nregarding present problems and the future perspec-\ntive, a set of measures intending to control land use\nand recover storage capacities were proposed. In\nparticular, several different areas were modelled in\ndetails, using the general model to provide the set of\nboundary information. One of these cutouts refers to\nthe case study focused in the sequence and which\nis used to exemplify the differences between the two\napproaches discussed in this paper for food control:\nthe traditional one and the sustainable one.\nThe basin of the Pilar-Calomb Rivers, in the city of\nDuque de Caxias, at Rio de JaneiroState, in Brazil,\nsuffers from foods, in a very low land, called Baixada\nFluminense. This area is experiencing an important\nurban growth. The PilarRiver has approximately 11.3\nkm, and drains a basin with 10.8 km2 of surface area.\nThe CalombRiver has an approximate length of 9.3\nkm, draining an area of about of 15.0 km. The Cal-\nombRiver is, in fact, a tributary of PilarRiver, arriving\nfrom its left margin. After the confuence, this basin\nfows to the IguauRiver, an important river of Rio de\nJaneiroState, mainly because of its localization in the\nmetropolitan area and its outfall to Guanabara Bay.\nMODCEL was used to construct a fooding map for\nthe basin, considering a design rainfall of 20 years\nof recurrence time. Figure 8 shows the division of\nthe basin in cells. The obtained fooding map can be\nseen in Figure 9.\nIn order to solve this problem, two approaches were\ndeveloped in different design propositions. The frst\nset of measures focused on the traditional approach,\nand the rivers conveyances were raised. Rivers were\ncanalized in rectangular concrete sections, with suf-\nfcient capacity to avoid overbank fows. The second\nset of measures were based on urban waters sus-\ntainable management concepts and focused on:\nRecovery of implemented fow sections, by cleaning\nlocal obstructions and redefning a trapezoidal sec-\ntion in natural soil;\nRecovery of the vegetation in strategic areas of the\nbasin, especially on hill slopes;\nRecovery of natural fooding areas of the basin (river-\nine lowlands) and implementation of a foodplain river\npark along the right bank of Pilar River and at some\nparts of Calomb River, where urbanization is still not\ntoo dense;\nUse of detention reservoirs in urban public squares.\nAfter the simulation of the proposed scenarios, all\nfooded areas inside the basins of the Calomb and\nPilar Rivers were mitigated, for both sets of mea-\nsures. However, the traditional approach led to down-\nstream fooding, where it did not happened before, as\nit can be seen in fgure 10. Table 1 summarizes the\ndischarge results for both scenarios, at the outfall of\nthe basin. The concrete canalization approach almost\ndoubled discharges to downstream reaches. The\nsustainable approach, however, solved the fooding\nproblem without changing signifcantly downstream\nThe traditional end-of-pipe approach tends to trans-\nfer fooding problems downstream and require fre-\nquent investment to resize the channels in order to\nmeet the needs of increasing runoff fows generated\nby the urban development. Cities are growing faster,\nespecially in developing countries, and the urban-\nization is not always planned nor controlled. This is\nprobably one of the main challenges that cities will\nface: rationalize land use and develop in a sustain-\nable way. In this way, the sustainable management of\nurban rainwater provides a viable alternative to face\nthe trends of urban foods aggravation. The recovery\nof hydrological functions and the reorganization of\nfow patterns in space and time may be the solution\nfor urban food control. In order to adequately assess\nthe effects of a proposed set of measures, the aid of\nmathematical models may be very useful. The case\nstudy shown in this paper shows that it is possible to\nevaluate the present situation at the Calomb-Pilar\nRiver basin, to identify the problem of transferring\nfoods downstream when canalizing the rivers, and to\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\nFigure 5:Iguau-SarapuRiver Basin at Baixada Fluminense Lowlands in the Metropolitan Area of Rio de\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nFigure 6: Flood map for Iguau River Basin, in the present situation, for a design rainfall of 20 years of return\nperiod, calculated with MODCEL\nFigure 7: Flood map forIguauRiver Basin, in a future uncontrolled urban growth situation, for a design rain-\nfall of 20 years of return period, calculated with MODCEL.\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\nFigure 8: Cell division modeling for Pilar-CalombRiver basin\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nFigure 9: Flooding map for present situation basin diagnosis\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\nFigure 10: Flooding map for traditional canalization approach fooding effects transferred downstream.\nUrban Drainage Trends - A Pathway Towards More Sustainable Solutions\nadequately simulate the distribution of storage mea-\nsures over the basin, even outside the drainage net.\nUrban food solutions need to be discussed, planned\nand designed in an integrated way with the city itself,\nthe land use control and the expected urban develop-\nfectiveness of Low Impact Development Practices:\nLiterature Review and Suggestions for Future Re-\nsearch, Water, Air & Soil Pollution v. 223, n. 7. Neth-\nerlands, 2012.\nAMEC Earth and Environmental Center for Water-\nshed Protection, Georgia Stormwater Management\nManual v. 2. Atlanta, Technical Handbook, 2001.\nANDOH, R.Y.G. & IWUGO, K.O.Sustainable Urban\nDrainage Systems: - A UK Perspective, Global Solu-\ntions for Urban Drainage; Proceedings of the 9th In-\nternational Conference on Urban Drainage (9ICUD),\n8-13, September 2002, Portland, Oregon/EUA.\nBISWAS, A.K., .1970. History of Hydrology. North-\nHolland Pub. Co., Amsterdam.\nBURIAN, S.J. and EDWARDS, F.G. Historical per-\nspectives of urban drainage. Global Solutions for Ur-\nban Drainage; Proceedings of the 9th International\nConference on Urban Drainage (9ICUD), 8-13, Sep-\ntember 2002, Portland, Oregon/EUA.\nA., Identifying robust large-scale food risk mitigation\nstrategies:A quasi-2D hydraulic model as a tool for\nthe Po river. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 36\n(2011) 299308, Elsevier, 2011.\nW. ; AND SCHILLING W. Urban drainage re-\ndefned: from stormwater removal to integrated\nmanagement,Water Science and Technology, Vol 43\nNo 5 pp 6168, IWA Publishing, 2001\nCIRIA The Construction Industry Research and\nInformation Association, The SUDS Manual, by\nWoods-Ballard, B.; Kellagher, R.; Martin, P.; Bray, R.;\nShaffer, P.. London, CIRIA C697, 2007.\nCLARKE, R. and KING, J. , 2004. The Water Atlas\nThe New Press.\nBatista, M.; Nascimento, N. & Barraud, S. (2005).\nTcnicas Compensatrias em Drenagem Urbana,\nABRH, ISBN 858868615-5, Porto Alegre, Brazil.\nFERRARI, C. , 1977. Curso de Planejamento Munici-\npal Integrado: Urbanismo.Livraria Pioneira Editora,\nFREEMAN, P. Gambling on Global Catastrophe. Ur-\nban Age, Vol. 7, n1, Summer, p 18-19, 1999, Wash-\nington, DC, USA.\nJHA, A. K. ; BLOCH, R.; LAMOND, J.; Cities and\nFlooding : A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk\nManagement for the 21st Century. The World Bank,\nWashingtonD.C., 2012.\nWater Sensitive Urban Design Results and Prin-\nciples. In: Proceedings of the 3rd SWITCH Scientifc\nMeeting, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, 2008.\nSAVIC D. A., 2009. Comparison of 1D/1D and 1D/2D\nCoupled (Sewer/Surface) Hydraulic Models for Ur-\nban Flood Simulation. Journal of Hydraulic Engineer-\ning, 135 (6), 495-504.\nFlood Control through a Mathematical Cell. In: Water\nInternational Resources, Vol. 27, N 2, pp. 208-218,\nJune 2002; Illinois/ USA.\nban drainage models for food forecasting: 1D/1D,\n1D/2D and hybrid models. In: 12th International Con-\nference on Urban Drainage, 10-15 September 2011\nPorto Alegre/Brazil. Porto Alegre: International Water\nAssociation. CD-ROM.\nSOUZA, C. F., CRUZ, M. A. S., TUCCI, C. E. M, De-\nsenvolvimento Urbano de Baixo Impacto: Planeja-\nmento e Tecnologias Verdes para a Sustentabilidade\nTable 1: Discharges for Pilar-CalombRiver basin outfall, considering different recurrence times.\nDischarges on Macro-Drainage System Outfall\nPresent Situation Canalization Sustainable Approach\n10 17,17 m\n/s 32,08 m\n/s 15,78 m\n20 17,47 m\n/s 34,73 m\n/s 17,38 m\n50 17,88 m\n/s 36,51 m\n/s 19,35 m\nMarcelo Gomes Miguez and Osvaldo Moura Rezende\ndas guas Urbanas, RBRH Revista Brasileira de\nRecursos Hdricos v. 17, n. 2, pp. 9-18. Brasil, 2012.\nSOUZA, F. S., TUCCI, C. E. M., POMPO, C. A., Di-\nretrizes para o Estabelecimento de Loteamentos Ur-\nbanos Sustentveis. IV Encontro Nacional de guas\nUrbanas, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, 2005.\nWALSH, T., POMEROY, C., Decentralization of LID\n(i.e. Municipal Rainwater Harvesting Program) for\nReducing Stormwater Runoff. World Environmen-\ntal and Water Resources Congress 2012: Crossing\nBoundaries, New Mexico, USA, 2012.\nWONG, T. H. F., Water Sensitive Urban Design the\nJourney Thus Far, Australian Journal of Water Re-\nsources v. 10, n. 3, pp. 213-222. Australia, 2006.\nCUNGE, J.A. Mekong Delta Mathematical Program\nConstruction. Journal of the Waterways and Harbors\nDivision, ASCE, Vol.96, N.WW2, pp. 181-199, 1970.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5781289339065552}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 2\n\nAuthor: Lim\n\nGarces v. Court of Appeals (1996) viz., (1) that quo warranto is the proper remedy, and (2) that the\ncases or matters referred under the constitution pertain only to\nPetition: Petition for review of the decision of the Court of Appeals those involving the conduct of elections.\nPetitioners: LUCITA Q. GARCES 12) CA affirmed the RTCs dismissal of the case. Hence, this petition.\nPonencia: FRANCISCO, J.\n1) Is petitioners action for mandamus proper?\n2) Is this case cognizable by the RTC or by the Supreme Court?\nDOCTRINE: Decision, rulings, order of the COMELEC that may be\nbrought to the Supreme Court on certiorari under Sec. 7 Art. IX-A are RULING + RATIO:\nthose that relate to the COMELECs exercise of its adjudicatory or quasi- 1) No. Executive Order No. 17.,which applies in this case as it was passed\njudicial powers involving elective regional, provincial and city officials prior to the issuance of Concepcions transfer order, enumerates five grounds\nfor separation or replacement of elective and appointive officials authorized\nFACTS: under Article III, Section 2 of the Provisional Constitution, to wit:\n1) Lucita Garces was appointed Election Registrar of Gutalac,\n1. Existence of a case for summary dismissal pursuant to Section 40 of the\nZamboanga del Norte.\nCivil Service Law;\n2) She was to replace respondent Election Registrar Claudio\nConcepcion, who, in turn, was transferred to Liloy, Zamboanga del\nNorte. 2. Existence of the probable cause for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt\n3) Concepcion, however, refused to transfer post as he did not Practices Act as determined by the Ministry Head concerned;\nrequest for it.\n4) Garces, on the other hand, was directed by the Office of Assistant 3. Gross incompetence or inefficiency in the discharge of functions;\nDirector for Operations to assume the Gutalac post. But she was\nnot able to do so because of a Memorandum issued by respondent\nProvincial Election Supervisor Empeynado that prohibited her from 4. Misuse of public office for partisan political purposes;\nassuming office in Gutalac as the same is not vacant.\n5) Garces was directed by the same Office of Assistant Director to 5. Any other analogous ground showing that the incumbent is unfit to remain\ndefer her assumption of the Gutalac post. in the service or his separation/replacement is in the interest of the service.\n6) She received a letter from the Acting Manager, Finance\nDepartment, addressed Mrs. Lucita Garces E.R. Gutalac, Not one of these grounds was alleged to exist, much less proven by\nZamboanga del Norte which Garces interpreted to mean as petitioner when respondent Concepcion was transferred from Gutalac to\nsuperseding the deferment order. Liloy. More, Concepcion was transferred without his consent. A transfer\n7) Since respondent Concepcion continued occupying the Gutalac requires a prior appointment. Concepcions transfer thus becomes legally\noffice, the COMELEC en banc cancelled his appointment to Liloy. infirm and without effect for he was not validly terminated. His appointment to\n8) Garces filed before the RTC a petition for mandamus with the Liloy post, in fact, was incomplete because he did not accept it. There\npreliminary prohibitory and mandatory injunction and damages can be no appointment to a non-vacant position. The incumbent must first be\nagainst Empeynado and Concepcion legally removed, or his appointment validly terminated before one could be\n9) The COMELEC en banc through a Resolution resolved to validly installed to succeed him. Further, Garces appointment was ordered to\nrecognize respondent Concepcion as the Election Registrar of be deferred by the COMELEC. The deferment order, we note, was not\nGutalac, and ordered that the appointments be cancelled. unequivocably lifted. Worse, her appointment to Gutalac was even cancelled\n10) Empeynado moved to dismiss the petition for mandamus alleging by the COMELEC en banc.\nthat the same was rendered moot and academic by the said\nCOMELEC Resolution, and that the case is cognizable only by the These factors negate Garces claim for a well-defined, clear, certain\nCOMELEC legal right to the Gutalac post. As correctly ruled by respondent court,\n11) The RTC dismissed the petition for mandamus on two grounds, mandamus, which petitioner filed below, will not lie as this remedy applies\nAuthor: Lim\nonly where petitioners right is founded clearly in law and not when it is\ndoubtful. It will not issue to give him something to which he is not clearly and\nconclusively entitled. Considering that Concepcion continuously occupies the\ndisputed position and exercises the corresponding functions therefore, the\nproper remedy should have been quo warranto and not mandamus. Quo\nwarranto tests the title to ones office claimed by another and has as its object\nthe ouster of the holder from its enjoyment, while mandamus avails to\nenforce clear legal duties and not to try disputed titles.\n\n2) Sec. 7, Art. IX-A of the Constitution provides:\n\nEach commission shall decide by a majority vote of all its members any case\nor matter brought before it within sixty days from the date of its submission\nfor decision or resolution. A case or matter is deemed submitted for decision\nor resolution upon the filing of the last pleading, brief, or memorandum\nrequired by the rules of the commission or by the commission itself. Unless\notherwise provided by this constitution or by law, any decision, order, or\nruling of each commission may be brought to the Supreme Court on certiorari\nby the aggrieved party within thirty days from receipt of a copy thereof.\n\nThis provision is inapplicable as there was no case or matter filed before the\nCOMELEC. On the contrary, it was the COMELECs resolution that triggered\nthis Controversy. The case or matter referred to by the constitution must be\nsomething within the jurisdiction of the COMELEC, i.e., it must pertain to an\nelection dispute. The settled rule is that decision, rulings, order of the\nCOMELEC that may be brought to the Supreme Court on certiorari under\nSec. 7 Art. IX-A are those that relate to the COMELECs exercise of its\nadjudicatory or quasi-judicial powers involving elective regional, provincial\nand city officials. In this case, what is being assailed is the COMELECs\nchoice of an appointee to occupy the Gutalac Post which is an administrative\nduty done for the operational set-up of an agency. The controversy involves\nan appointive, not an elective, official. Hardly can this matter call for the\ncertiorari jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. To rule otherwise would surely\nburden the Court with trivial administrative questions that are best ventilated\nbefore the RTC, a court which the law vests with the power to exercise\noriginal jurisdiction over all cases not within the exclusive jurisdiction of any\ncourt, tribunal, person or body exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5405121445655823}
+{"content": "deubiquitinase USP37, human\n\nKnown as: USP37 protein, human, ubiquitin specific peptidase 37, human \nNational Institutes of Health\n\nPapers overview\n\nSemantic Scholar uses AI to extract papers important to this topic.\nThe deubiquitinating enzyme USP37 is known to contribute to timely S-phase onset. However, it is not clear if USP37 is essential… (More)\nIs this relevant?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9871349930763245}
+{"content": "Wanna look old? The viral FaceApp has some privacy concerns you need to know\n\nYou’ve probably seen your friends sharing pictures of themselves looking like 50 years older and this appears to be a continuation of the 10-year challenge. The viral face transformation software is called FaceApp and interestingly has gained popularity recently despite being released in 2017. Before you upload a picture of yourself, be warned that the app has some privacy concerns that you need to know.\n\nThe FaceApp is developed by a Russia company and it uses Artificial Intelligence to make yourself look younger or older. Admittedly, this sounds pretty cool but several security researchers have discovered that your photos are actually sent to a cloud for AI processing instead of being processed locally on your device.\n\nFaceApp does not clearly inform its users that their photos are being uploaded and it doesn’t mention what do they do with it. Someone had claimed that the app may upload other photos from your photo library without your permission but eventually, the same person had retracted his statement and admitted that he was wrong.\n\nWhen 9to5Mac reached out to FaceApp for clarification, the app developers shared that the photos are stored in the cloud for performance and traffic purposes. This is to ensure that a user doesn’t upload the same photo repeatedly for every edit operation. They added that most images are deleted from their servers after 48 hours from the upload date.\n\nThey also clarified that the app will only upload photos that you choose and they will never transfer any other images from your device. Although FaceApp R&D team is based in Russia, they mentioned that user data are not transferred to Russia. They also say that 99% of users are currently using the app without logging in, so they don’t have access to any personal data that could identify a person.\n\nSEE ALSO:  Maxis uses AI to ensure that its network is ready for 5G\n\nAccording to its terms of service, users agree to allow FaceApp the right to use your photos, your name and your likeness without compensation to you. By using their service, you also agree that your photos may be used for commercial purposes.\n\nIn the end, the fact remains that your photos are being uploaded somewhere if you’re using the app. Although there’s no real threat of your entire photo gallery being uploaded without permission, it is important that you’re aware what’s going on behind the scenes and what they could do to your photos.\n\nWhat do you think of FaceApp? Are you comfortable with the way it works? Let us know in the comments below.\n\n\nRelated reading\n\nAlexander Wong", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6636465787887573}
+{"content": "Building Boundaries\n\nAre you a people pleaser? Do you lose yourself in the process of helping people? Do they take advantage of you? Setting boundaries is an important method of self-care. Leslyn and Leslie explain what a boundary is, describe how to build them, and what to do when they get crossed.\n\n\nBoundaries are important for emotional health. This conversation focuses on what a boundary is, how to set them, and what to do when they get crossed.\n\nLeslyn and Leslie offer examples and suggestions for those times when people pleasing becomes unhealthy. When we sacrifice our wellness for the sake of another’s happiness, we’ve more than likely breached our own boundary.\n\nThey share how ‘givers’ allow themselves to be taken advantaged of and talk about how to set boundaries as a method of self care and emotional survival. Learning how to say “no” can be challenging if there is a long history of “yes” and they offer suggestions on how to recognize when “no” becomes important.\n\nBoundaries can be too rigid or not firm enough and they discuss how to move them when necessary; ultimately experimenting until there is a sense of comfort. Indeed, boundaries change as circumstances change. This requires good communication and self-awareness.\n\nBoundaries by Henry Cloud is perhaps the best book we’ve read on the topic. It is heavily based in Christian doctrine but is profound none-the-less. If religion isn’t your ‘thing’ - skip through the religious ideology and take the basic premise to heart.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997187256813049}
+{"content": "I paid too much for a motorbike\n\nThe courts do not like to “interfere with a bargain”. The price you paid was all part of the conditions of the contract you made when you bought the motorcycle, and you are bound by that contract.\n\nSellers must display the full price of any goods for sale, including VAT. But if the seller made a mistake in the displayed price, then you cannot insist on being sold the bike at that price.\n\nSome credit card companies offer protection against finding the same product cheaper elsewhere within a certain period of time and it may be worth contacting your credit card company to see if this is part of your agreement.\n\nYou may also have rights if the purchase was subject to an advertising campaign such as “find this product cheaper elsewhere and we’ll refund the difference…” but this depends on the circumstances, and you’ll need to gather documentary evidence in support of this.\n\nRelated FAQS", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9452834129333496}
+{"content": "1990-ongoing by Maria Babikova\n\nIssue 99\n\n“1990-ongoing” is a personal reflection on the dystopian reality of present day humanity. It acts as a road map or a dictionary for my understanding of the human condition.\n\nMy work is heavily influenced by my context. I grew up in the Soviet Union, a country that no longer exists.\n\nAt a very young age I was pushed into the competitive world of rhythmic gymnastics, where beauty and perfection were the sole goal, and could only be obtained through continuous pain and dedication.\n\nI then found myself plucked out of Siberian obscurity and thrown into the world of high fashion, reinforcing the themes of beauty, fear and rejection, agonizingly underlined by depression and loneliness.\n\nThis formed a connection between esthetic beauty and internal pain in my work.\n\nThese beliefs were running in parallel with a surreal perception of the world, as I saw it. Deep Soviet memories mixed with disconnected explorations into other realities- Tokyo, Paris, New York, Milan and the extreme contradictions of East and West. My constant motion within these opposing spheres and the place of my birth no longer existing left me with a perpetual search of identity.\n\nFear and repression are represented in the work- overbearing structures, bright lights, the blank stare of a police officer. This unconsciously seeps through, perhaps a memory informed by my upbringing within oppressive, and often dangerous world of 90’s Russia. This imagery becomes intertwined with the subtle symbolism of perceived ideals and structures created by society.\n\nThe work is an attempt to capture the inherent beauty and pain of reality, constructed from the stains of memories left behind.\n\nMaria Babikova lives and works in London, UK.\nTo view more of Maria's work, please visit her website.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9977502226829529}
+{"content": "About Io, 2009\n\n\nAbout Iona Miller in 2009\n\n“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” ~Francis Bacon\n\"We all know that art is not the truth, art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.\" ~Picasso\nFREE RADICAL: Iona Miller, consultant and transdisciplinarian, is a nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. Her work is an omnisensory fusion of sacred activism, intelligence reform, esoterics, science-art, chaos theory, plenum physics, and emergent paradigm shift melding experiential psychotherapy, new physics, biophysics, resonant space, philosophy, cosmology, healing, creativity, qabalah, magick, paranormal, media ecology, mind control, paramedia, metaphysics, and culture change.\n\nCHANGE AGENT: Rather than having an interest in specific doctrines, she is interested in the EFFECTS of doctrines from religion, science, psychology, politics and the arts. Our beliefs are the moldable raw material of the psyche, manipulated by governments, media and culture. How do we become what we are and how is that process changing in the near future?\n\n\n\nPerformance artist and spywhisperer, Ms. Miller is published by Phanes Press, Destiny Books (Inner Traditions), Autonomedia, Nexus Magazine, Dream Network, PM&E, Journal of Nonlocality and Remote Mental Interactions (JNLRMI), Chaosophy Journal, OAK, DNA Monthly, Pop Occulture, Schiffer, Bolero, Science-Art Research Centre, and more. She is a Gaia.com Ambassador and serves on the Board of Medigrace.org nonprofit organization. Recent print articles include Alchemy Journal Vol. 10 No.1, Mar 09 (Australia), Paranoia zine #44, #46, #49, #50 (USA), HunterGatheress Journal, Vol. I and Vol. II, JNLRMI (Russia), Der Golem (Germany), Antibiothis I and III (Portugal), The Art of Fetish (Miami), and Journal of Interdisciplinary Crossroads (India). Her artwork has shown in Miami, Phoenix, New York, in magazines and more. Appearances include \"21st Century Radio,\" \"Untamed Dimensions,\" \"Reality Portal,\" \" Digital Long Island,\" \"The Ascending Way,\" etc.\n\nSubjects include:\n\nSynergetic Qabalah\nHolistic Qabalah\nKabbalah Luminata\nChaos Magic\nPhotonic Human\nSacred Geometry\nThe Modern Alchemist book\nMagical Perfume book\n\nChaosophy Journals\nMythic Living\nModern Alchemist book\nEdgeworks Hypnosis\n\nNonlocal Healing\nEmergent Healing\nHeartstrings book\n\nDigital Universe\nIo Art 2006 Updates & Photo Links\nThe Lux Artillery book\nKabbalah Luminata\nSacred Geometry\n\nZero-Point Physics\nVirtual Physics\nMind Control\nPhotonic Human\nPSI-ber Kult\nFuture Science\nChaosophy Journals\nMind Control\nMedia Ecology\n\n\n“And take upon's the mystery of things,\nAs if we were God's spies\n.” --King Lear\n\nI guess I couldn't decide what to be when I grew up, so I chose All of the Above and became a TRANSDISCIPLINARIAN. I was inspired by Buckminster Fuller to be a generalist in natural philosophy, rather than a specialist.\n\nEach of us is our own greatest creation, a frameless work of art. What doesn’t inspire the artistic eye that doesn’t merely “look at”, but “sees through” to the imaginal depth of any given perception or experience? The soul informs the multisensory experience of being. Inspiration means life, the opposite of death: purpose, direction, meaning, ecstasy, creativity.\n\n\n I'm a polymath and artist, but my medium tends to drift from psychotherapy and healing, to cutting edge science, and bleeding edge art. My interests flow from sacred geometry fine art to psychotronic technoshamanism, to ephemeral and online performance art. I write extensively on healing practices, advances in science, and the artistic and spiritual experience. Once in a while an angel visits with a brilliant idea that flows through with blissful fluency.\n\nMy expertise is in creativity and extraordinary human development. For good or evil, I am a creative geyser. In past decades I have fallen in love with painting and collage, magick, archetypal and transpersonal psychology, hypnotherapy, subquantum physics, consciousness studies, multimedia, intelligence and chaos theory. I can't \"marry\" any theory, since there is no consensus in physics or consciousness studies, though I argue many points of view.\n\nStill, I've always remained faithful to my main interest: the interface of psyche and matter ~ that point where psyche matters. As in chaos theory, all the creative action is at the boundary of any field, the creative threshold, the leading edge. It is in finding meaning and expressing that meaning that we exalt our humanity in our individuation. We don't actually change but our experience of reality does and this experience is largely outside of our \"conscious\" grasp. This is one source of the value and meaning of art, at least challenging art that goes beyond the boundaries of the frame and sofa wall. MAKE ART, NOT WAR.\n\n-Io \"Spooky\" Miller\n\nInsight, Intuition, Self-Knowledge, Creativity\n\nSCIENCE has made the Quantum Leap; ART has Jumped the Canvas in New Media; and HEALING has gone nonlocal with Virtual and Distance Healing.\n\nBy the time the Internet came on the scene, I already had a huge backlog of metaphysical, scientific, mythological, and therapeutic articles and fine arts graphics to share with the world. Out of the closet and into the digital archive they went at The Ionasphere, Synergetic Qabala and Asklepia. Since then I've continued building my webpresence, collaborating and publishing in a variety of venues, popular, artistic and scientific.\n\nWith the advent of the digital revolution art has jumped off the walls and into life. No longer is print art the preferred medium, as even in Soho permanent projector installations allow artists to display their art without the typical problems of shipping and receiving. Art without frames comes in a variety of multimedia formats.\n\nWhen technology allowed cable tv to move from 12 channels to hundreds, the age of public access television became possible. In the '70s Sony produced inexpensive, portable video recorders, the PortaPack. Inspired by guerrilla theatre, people started seeing the possibilities of moving television out of corporate control.\n\nGuerrilla TV has leapt forward to podcasting, producing our own radio shows with the help of mp3 players. We now have new video podcasting, iTunes selling tv reruns, TiVo to go, etc, for video distribution. Video can even be shot with a cellphone or any of the millions of digital cameras sold this past year. So there is an explosion of video production like what happened in the Guerrilla television days.\n\nArt has jumped the canvas even further into real life modalities beyond our former concepts of performance art. Life itself becomes the artful act on an ongoing basis. The body and oeuvre are only spheres of influence that extend further and further from the realm of actual exhibition.\n\nArtists are the chaotic attractors of the social field. While conventional artists may enjoy great favor, the ‘strange attractors,’ including leading edge and extreme artists have a special role as catalysts in contemporary life. Artists have always drawn others beyond the limits of their ordinary awareness, confronting them with another reality, initiating them into a world of profound meaning without conventional boundaries.\n\nThe beginning of the history of modern man traces back to primordial art, such as that found in the Paleolithic caves of Lascaux. From the beginning, art spoke of magic, of the supernatural, of imagination: the fantastic and disturbing. Always strong in content and aesthetic sophistication, it grew, hand in glove, with the emergence of technological skills.\n\nThe emergence of art was and continues to be an unparalleled innovation, confronting our psyches with a giant leap in human evolution whose transformative influence continues opening and exploring brave new worlds to this day. Art has been a driving force and living thread woven into the fabric of society since modern man emerged.\n\n‘Homo Negentrop’\n\nOriginally, artists were shamans, healers, and magicians. Their art revealed the compelling dreamscape of primal man, his beliefs about himself, this world, life and death, and hope for an afterlife. We might poetically call them the first negentropic humans, Homo Negentrop. Some might argue ironically that artists are a ‘species’ of their own. Unarguably, they created order and meaning from the chaos of existential life.\n\nThroughout history the insightful vision of artists expressing in symbolic form the ‘as-yet-unknown’ (Jung) has been at the cutting edge of social change. It preceded rational and intellectual social ordering. Artists intuitively extract the gold of their unique vision from creative chaos and manifest it for others to see. Their mediums vary from graphic and print modes, to performance art, ritual, body art, film, and even more arcane forms.\n\nChaos theory has its ‘strange attractors’ that never settle down into any normal rhythm. The strange attractor dances to the innovative beat of a different drummer. Artists, particularly edge artists, function much like these chaotic attractors whose boundaries are deterministic yet unpredictable. They draw from beyond the personality, from transpersonal resources, and the wellspring of the collective human unconscious.\n\nOne doesn’t have a Muse; one serves one’s Muse. She comes and goes. In a sense, the artist is ‘ridden’ by the creative daemon that possesses him or her. That daemon, according to Socrates is one’s genius, a compelling force urging us to create.\n\nPassion (drive) and pathos are reflected in the fact that if this daemon isn’t served, the artist can even become physically ill. Images, ideas and inspirations cry out to become manifested. Order or form yearns to be born from chaos; and those very acts of creation breed destruction of old systems.\n\nThe artistic life is a chaotic arc of inspiration upon inspiration, following the Muse. Artists walk what for others is ‘the road not taken’ (chaos theory’s bifurcation or forking), sometimes going ‘where angels fear to tread.’ Their charismatic influence pulls others into their orbits, and the small effect of one personality potentially spreads its influence over the world (butterfly effect), sometimes over history. The history of art is one of the richest threads of our cultural heritage.\n\nArtists wriggle among many possibilities before settling into a project. We might take poetic license calling artists ‘beautiful attractors’ (Wildman, 2004). The notion of a beautiful attractor draws on the dynamics of synergy. The power distribution of the artistic community is aimed at mutual aid and learning, much like the healing community. Sometimes artists even engage in deliberate public psychotherapy, impacting their immediate communities.\n\nArtists magnetically draw the attention of others to their creations, to their vision, into the imagination, into the collective future. We might think of them as the ‘indicator species’ of the social ecology, the evolving cultural landscape. Orbiting far from the norm, they provide a negentropic counter-balance, an evolutionary burst, social innovation -- to conservative forms and institutions, which tend to ossify leading to stasis and decay.\n\nMana is personal power, also known as chi, prana, animal magnetism, or kundalini. Mana initiates the transformative process in individuals and society. Many artists have magnetic personalities. Exhibiting sensitivity to a certain kind of universal guidance, their influence emanates from their sphere of potentiality through synchronicity and serendipity, stimulating catharsis or breakthrough in others.\n\nThe effect is moreso when a movement or school of artistic expression is involved (complex feedback loops) as the reality morphing effect increases exponentially. Artists reflect and influence one another. Arguably, artists demonstrate where society may be heading. They haunt the psychic and perceptual frontiers, drawing the future into the now. How many cultural revolutions have begun in artists’ communities?\n\nArt changes the way people perceive reality, how they see life and their place in it. These negentropic innovations become embedded in social structure. Realizations, insight, empathy are implicit. They show us windows of prescient emotions and impulses, their unframed works rending the veil of the human unconscious.\n\nThe Artistic Field of Influence\n\n‘We expect artists as well as scientists to be forward-looking, to fly in the face of what is established, and to create not what is acceptable but what will become acceptable . . . a theory is the creation of unity in what is diverse by the discovery of unexpected likenesses. In all of them innovation is pictured as an act of imagination, a seeing of what others do not see . . . “creative observation.” (Bronowski, 1958).\n\nArtists, along with the other innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs, constitute only 1% of the population. We can imagine them at the top of a pyramid of influence, which trickles down to the most solidified or familial and industrial levels of society (see Appendix; Wildman, Table 1). This is clearly less true for the representational artist whose work is without symbolic value, and rather than progressive or transgressive is merely decorative or aesthetic.\n\nToday, science and art aren’t as polarized in their aims as we might think. They are perennial venues for the emergence of discovery, invention, and creation. The argument is that although science and art are social phenomena, an innovation in either field occurs only when a single mind perceives in disorder a deep new unity. Like art, science is an attempt to control our surroundings by entering into them and understanding them from the inside.\n\n“Scientists search for a ‘real’ and hidden, internal visibility (invisible to the naked eye) which will confirm the limits of identity. . .This is an act of limitation which inverts its own criteria by relying on a ‘depth’ model of identity, which is invisible, but gives visibility through microscopic magnification. Yet this search for an invisible core of identity remains open to a visible transgression via artists who are constantly exposing these new certainties as constructs.” (Sargeant, 1999).\n\nThe objective and subjective mode are not divorced from one another, anymore than the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Science adapted the artist’s sense that the detail of nature is significant. Like yin and yang, they rely on one another in a dynamic meld that lies beyond the dialectic in the tension of opposites.\n\nThus, the metaphors of science have gained increasing relevance in the artworld. Art and science begin as imaginative speculation that guesses at a unity or gestalt. Metaphors reflect universal or holistic references and processes, connecting concepts across disciplines.\n\nGregory Bateson calls metaphor Nature’s language. There is aesthetic pleasure in finding likenesses between things once thought unalike. It gives a sense of richness and understanding. The creative mind looks for unexpected likenesses, through engagement of the whole person.\n\nWe can draw from the organic metaphors of quantum physics, field theory, and chaos theory to illuminate the state of the arts. Physics describes the interrelationship of chaos and order as field relationships, while chaos theory describes nature’s own methods of creation and self-assembly. Entropy is the tendency for any closed part of the universe to expand at the expense of order. It is a measure of randomness and disorder -- chaos.\n\nNegentropy is the generative force of the universe. Negentropy (emergent order from chaos) is a nonlinear higher order system, a dynamically creative ordering information. Thinking, science, and art are therefore negentropic.\n\nNegentropy, like art, is ‘in-form-ative.’ It is related to mutual information exchange. Information is embodied in the fractal nature of imagery and symbols, which compress the informational content of the whole. Creativity is an emergent phenomenon patterned by strange attractors, which govern the complexity of information in dynamic flow.\n\nNegentropy is implicated in the successful development of science, economics, technology, infoscience, and art. Negentropy is the degree of order, or function of a state. It relates to the organization of societies, including subcultures such as the artworld, determining the quantity and quality of creative work\n\nThat which was formerly unmanifest comes into being. Negentropy governs the spontaneous transmission and direction of flow of information among systems. The qualities of that information are timeless. It is synergistic in that what was formerly unconnected becomes so, creating something wholly optimal and new or futuristic. In the 1920s, Hungarian scientist, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi coined the term syntropy for ‘negative entropy.’\n\nIn cybernetics, a meaningful interpretation of negentropy is a measurement of the complexity of a physical structure in which quantities of energy are invested, e.g., buildings, works, technical devices, and organisms which become more complex by feeding not on energy but on negentropy. Art facilitates negentropy by expanding our general field of experience. Negentropy facilitates artistic realization by creating something from nothing.\n\nThe creative act is one of uniting the unmanifest with the manifest world in a meaningful, often symbolic, way. Such conception is relevant to consciousness, organization, structure, faith, subconsciousness, emotion, even spirituality. Above all, creativity means trusting the process. Investigation of the negentropic criterion helps us move toward a truly transdisciplinary doctrine for the artistic field of influence.\n\nThe two worlds of science and art have married in the digital revolution. Art has from the beginning required a certain amount of technical expertise, the ability to create and use technology in its execution. Only the means and their complexity have changed, evolving over the years, culminating now in a revolution based on ‘ars electronica’: the electronic arts. \n\nThe History or Story Behind My Site\n\n\n10/09 Paranoia moves from zine to journal format and Io will be there on Biowarfare.\n\n4/09 - Paranoia Magazine #50, \"DUNE MEME: Is Earth Becoming a Dune Planet?\" (USA) [available now]\n\n5/09 - Alchemy Journal, Vol. 10 No. 1, \"Anima Mundi: Soul of the World\" (Australia) [available now]\n\nThe Alchemy Journal is published by Salamander and Sons for the International Alchemy Guild. Current issue of the Journal (Vol.10 No.1), themed the ALCHEMICAL FEMININE. The issue features Gudni Gudnasson, Abigail McBride, Dr. Bruce Fisher, Iona Miller, Steve Kalec, Michael Pearce, Karen Bartlett, Dr. Theresa Ibis, Tamara Nikolic and Jay Hochberg, Rubaphilos SalfluÄ•re, Andrew Minkin, Dennis William Hauck, Darcy Kuntz, Mike Ridpath, Alexander Price, and Jeannie Radcliffe, among others, and will be available shortly.\n\nBleeding Edge - Antibothis Occulture Journal, Vol. III, (Portugal) \"Manifest Destiny Manifesto\" (Iona also appeared in Vol.I)\n\nForthcoming issues of ANTIBOTHIS will feature texts/interviews from/with : John Zerzan, Joe Ambrose, Ray Kurzweill, Earth First, Stewart Home, Z..ev, Aki Nawaz (Fun-Da-Mental) , Terre Thaemlitz, Crimethinc, Nigel Ayers (nocturnal emissions), Lob, Monochron (vienna art group), B-Eden (pyromania arts, ex:psychic warriors ov gaia), Aragorn 23, Tactical Art Coalition, FoolishPeople, Randall Pike, Tom McCarthy, Ewen Chardronnet, Transnational Republic, SocialFiction, Iona Miller, Chad Hensley, Adi Newton (Clock Dva), Robin Rimbaud ( Scanner ), among many others.\n\n\nYour Zero Point\n\nYour Zero Point. Physics has broken our entropic chains with negentropic models of Zero Point Energy, the Plenum of subspace. Negentropy is the generative force of the universe. Syntropy is an even better name for it. We have a direct connection with creative Source; we are That. The basis of our technology is moving from a mechanistic to a negentropic paradigm. The most important thing happening today is a metamorphosis of human life: hyperchange, the cybernetic revolution, the biotech revolution.\n\n\nSMART TECH: Business as usual is nonsustainable and cannot continue unchecked. We need a Plan B for human survival. Negentropy is arguably our greatest hope for a sustainable future rooted in HUMAN SURVIVAL TECHNOLOGIES, which doesn't mean that \"technology will save us\". It both creates and solves problems. Unique physics governs matter at the nanoscale. Soon \"reality chips\" will put themselves and us together and culture will be revolutionized. Bioart, tweeking genetics and physical structure, is the medium of the 21st century -- 3-dimensional designing and engineering of new bodies and environments. Probably more than a million people living today were conceived in petri dishes. Bioart is an aesthetic response to biotechnology (meta-biology). We are in a transhuman transition era we call the Information Age. Direct Brain Interface is coming soon. Quantum dots can already merge with nerves. Information is more fundamental than matter, controlling and patterning randomness; it makes matter matter.\n\nCULTURE: We are heading toward an Age of Wonder, including synthetic or virtual worlds which will supercede the real world in many ways. Synthetic reality will compete for our attention. Supertrends shape the future: technological progress, economic growth, improving health, increasing mobility, environmental decline and global warming, and increasing culture shock. Physics has jumped its classical boundaries, making a quantum leap from the domain of matter/energy to the more fundamental scale of the vacuum potential underlying field phenomena. We now consider our fundamental nature not only through biochemistry but through our energy body, living our wave-nature as well as particle-nature. The biophysical role of underlying EM fields can be demonstrated in energy medicine, quantum mechanics and field theory. The energy body is our fundamental nature. Our consciousness has jumped out of our meatbody through technological extension; we've gone global. An analogous creative current informs ART that jumps the canvas into digital multimedia, including webart. HEALING has jumped the consulting room into nonlocality and virtuality as global distance becomes a less and less meaningful barrier.\n\nFUTURESHOCK: The next technologies are those of the infinitely small: nanotech, photonics, smart technology, and cold fusion. Psionics will revolutionize culture with both new means of mind control and self-regulation: Electromagic, Yogatronics. Currently, we access computers manually, but soon we will have direct neural interface which will create a form of synethetic telepathy among those with the hook up. Eventually, our machines will share our organic substance and nature. DNA is a versatile component for nano devices and and structures. There are non-biological uses for DNA such as computing devices. DNA is an ideal molecule for building nano-structures that hold molecule-sized electronic devices or hosting crystalline molecules. We will move from silicon circuits toward organic biochips. We are already fusing with our technology as it moves into our bodies. We are becoming cyborgs as tech moves into our bodies for support, repair and enhancement. http://emergentmind.org\n\nCULTURAL ENGINEERING: We will morph from Cyber-culture to PSI-ber Culture, with challenges humanity has never faced. We may not even be \"humanity,\" but trans-human moving toward a post-human hybrid of high tech and tissue as communication and computing technologies amplify. We already have voluntary and synthetic telepathy. The advent of the cellular camera/phone means we are never alone, and always accountable, and surveilled on GPS. Now cellular is beginning to provide mindless entertainment on tiny TV with expanded content. In the global era, there is no more first-person singular. \"They\" are inside your head and potentially watching and conditioning your every move. http://mindcontrol.chaosmagic.com\n\nSELF-REGULATION: Our lives are allegedly getting better, but often we feel worse. Chaos is palpable; stress the universal constant. The antidote to futuresock, groupthink, to political and media mind control is self-regulation. Madison Ave. developed semantic infiltration to manipulate our tastes, desires and fear through market research. We have to overcome our personal traps and organizational or cultural traps, to see the Big Picture. Only once we \"spring the trap\" can we use metaphors to free our minds. Creative physics leads to a new paradigm for human survival technology, beyond our wornout mechanistic worldview. New media creates the environments of the future, the cultural ground. The \"doors of perception\" between Reality and the Imaginal are sprung wide open. Immersive Virtualities will soon make \"real fantasy\" possible.\n\nPARAPHYSICS: Next-generation technologies that make reading DNA fast, cheap and widely accessible are coming in less than a decade. Quantum wave genetics will soon after manipulate the root of our being with acoustic holography, a form of cymatics creating morphogenetic formative change with light and sound, holographic projection. Rooted in the quantum nature of Cosmos, we are Photonic Humans: Homo Lumen, holistically aware of and cultivating our energy and Light Bodies. Art is Magic and Magic is Art. At the creative edge of chaos, it is we ourselves who are living embodiments of negentropic flow, if we live from that connective Source, from that Essence. This is the true nature of Manifestation.\n\nQUANTUM BONDAGE: According to quantum mechanics and consciousness studies, we are essentially \"embodied, embedded, entangled and bound.\" Consciousness studies are concerned with the \"hard problem\" and \"binding problem\". How can we create an objective science with a purely subjective consciousness? How does a unified consciousness arise from from the distributed activity of quanta, neurons, brain and CNS? How do perceptions and pure awareness combine into unified experience? It sounds like Quantum Bondage! http://biophysics.50megs.com\n\nSPIRITUALITY: Qabalah is the art of becoming more fully human. Kabbalah presents spiritual correlates for emanation and material bondage of light and the soul with a spiritual technology for reconnecting to Source: \"one magical movement, from Kether to Malkuth\". The word \"religion\" comes from \"religio\", meaning to bind back in a sort of recursive manner. What ties our spirit to our body? What binds our consciousness to the fabric of reality? The knower and the known are mutually entangled. The Tree of Life is a map of consciousness. http://zero-point.tripod.com\n\nMEDITATION MEDICINE: In the age of anxiety, we can all benefit by implimenting self-care and self-regulation into our lives.  Meditation is proven non-toxic method of creating profound relaxation and healing benefits. Toxic birth practices are robbing human evolution of the paranormal aspects of the birth and parenting process. I am not a childbirth expert, but I am a rebirth expert, and virtually everyone I've seen in my practice of experiential therapy immediately gravitates to trying to heal the wound of their conception, peri- and postnatal traumas. They run like a faultline through the character as an unhealing wound.  If they can be minimized at the point of origin and healed by healthful resonance before they create a groove in the mind decade after decade, we might find the harm reduction resulting in lower numbers of autism, ADHD, bonding and attachment disorders. http://calmbirth.org\n\nPSIENCE: Can we find radical empirical confirmation of Mystery? Perhaps not, but we can still seek integration, contemporize our metaphors and liberate knowledge from the branding of religions and corporations. The human genome is in private corporate ownership; our minds are massaged by corporate media propaganda. http://psiona.50megs.com/\n\nCONSCIOUS EVOLUTION: Evil has been defined as misapplied force and form. Religions have been used to justify personal and cultural agendas, honoring some beliefs over others. What is the nature of evolving spirituality or meta-spirituality that might resolve this global issue? Conscious Evolution means becoming more fully human, participating in an integrative way with [higher] Self, others and world. We all participate in the evolution of consciousness, whether our transformations are conscious or unconscious. Conscious Evolution is the ethical, philosophical, intentional governance of human change and cultural engineering. We can each conduct ourselves compassionately with creative intent and spiritual responsibility for the health and unfolding of human progress and survival technology. The post-metaphysical desire is to contribute to the spiritual fulfillment of all people. The needs of the many resonate with the needs of the one. The revelation will not be televised, but it might come to youtube.\n\n\nART AS META-SYN: Art can be therapeutic, both in the process of creation and for the viewer who reacts from personal associations. Art bares the soul, and provides a container for unbridled self-expression. High synergy is a differentiating characteristic of the nonagressive and secure. Beyond synergy is negentropy, the flow of creative connection with Source. Symbolic art has both an emotional and cognitive content. Metaphysical art draws on the multicultural iconography, not only of the globe, but of the Beyond. At its best it embodies and reveal the indomitable human Spirit. Any therapist knows that the stories they hear from most of their clients fall into very few, quite typical tales. What we need are bigger stories to guide us in our complex world. We can enlarge our perspective from the individual to the global through “bigger stories”, such as those from our wisdom traditions. Mythopoesis means literally, \"myth-making,\" the natural expression of the visionary wisdom inborn to the human species (Lash, et al). It is a creative act of story-telling or narration, by which human beings \"track\" their experience and orient themselves to the cosmos at large. Metahistory is a guiding narrative for human potential, rather than an interpretation of events. The cross-cultural metastory of the human species is an overarching view of past, present, and future. It opens a path toward participation in a story that leads beyond history, a mythos to guide the species.\n\nSACRED ACTIVISM: Our true work remains to know ourselves and express that from the deepest levels outward in pratice and compassionate service.We can identify, analyze and neutralize adversarial energies with reclaimed courageous voices. If we see the Big Picture, we can link information to action, like 2020 Vision. We must draw the line at our hearts, bending back toward soul and spirit, becoming more fully human. Self-defeating and self-fulfilling prophecies can shape the future or prevent it from happening. We have to claim our future and humanity by developing and consolidating (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) human survival technologies, by romancing the Philosopher's Stone. Sacred Activism is service in motion. If you have a value, stand up for it. Let's build better humans from the primordial field upwards. There is only one race, and it's the human race and we are losing it. For sustainability, we have to begin at the primal foundation of our Being, creating and allowing more compassionate human beings who recognize that the only sustainability possible for ourselves is to realize at the deepest level that WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER. And any hallucination that creates separation, including prejudice and degradation, manifests loss of opportunities for us all to realize our spiritual genius. This has been the stumbling block for the race of mankind as a dynamic whole. We are indeed, ONE.\n\n\nMy Other Sites - by Subject Matter\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpiritual Physics\n\nVirtual Physics\n\nMy Zero Point\n\nPhotonic Human\n\nEmBEDded Holograms\n\nPsiona Parapsychology\n\nBeyond MK Ultra - MRU\n\nClimate 2012\n\n\nParamedia Ecology\n\n\nIona Brainstorm\n\nElectronic Voice Phenomena\n\nEspionage Central\n\nOccult Espionage\n\nMind Control for Dummies\n\nBacon is Shakespeare\n\nTriangle Book of St. Germain\n\n\nConscious Alchemy\n\n\nChaosophy Journal\n\nThe Modern Alchemist Book\n\nTemple of Living Light\n\nEmergent Healing\n\nEdgeworks Hypnosis\n\nMythic Living\n\nHarmonic Continuum\n\nSynergetic Qabala\n\nMagical Perfume Book\n\nEnergy Psychology\n\nDreamhealing Book\n\nSpiritual Alchemy SuperPortal\n\n\n\nIONATOPIA 2007: ionatopia.50megs.com\nIONASPHERE 2000: ionamiller.org\n\nPop Occulture\n\nKnow Brow Art\n\nDigital Universe\n\nKabbalah Luminata\n\nScience-Artificers Guild, Int'l\n\nScience-Art Renaissance\n\nSacred Geometry\n\nIona Miller\n\nIona Miller Art\n\n\nThe Spywhisperer\n\nEspionage Central\n\nOccult Espionage\n\nMind Control for Dummies\n\nBeyond MK Ultra - MRU\n\nPsiona Parapsychology\n\nParamedia Ecology\n\nMy Contact Information\n\nLinks to Iona's Perpetual Menu", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9312757849693298}
+{"content": "• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia\n  • $69,820.00 -96,690.00/year*\n  • Philadelphia , PA\n  • Healthcare - Nursing\n  • Full-Time\n  • 1103 Market St\n\nLoading some great jobs for you...\n\n\n\nRegistered Nurse Vacular Access 24 hours per week\n\nPhiladelphia, PA, US, 190104\n\nJob Type:\n\nJob Summary\n\nProvide basic purpose or primary function of the job:\n\nThe Clinical Nurse practices at the level of an advanced beginner to expert practitioner of professional nursing in accordance with, and guided by the CHOP Nursing Professional Practice Model. The nurse at this level demonstrates competence in caring for patients and families and progresses to caring for those with the most complex problems/highest acuity in the designated clinical area. Provides age/developmentally appropriate care. Care is delivered through RN leadership for patient care within the framework of family-centered care.\n\nThe Clinical Nurse adheres to the organizational and nursing department mission, vision, and values. S/he practices in accordance with the ANA Code of Ethics; the ANA Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice; practice standards of applicable specialty nursing organizations; and CHOP developed standards of nursing practice. The professional nurse practices within the defined scope of practice designated by the Nurse Practice Acts of Pennsylvania and/or New Jersey, depending on the assigned work site.\n\nJob Responsibilities\n\nClinical Practice\n\n* Follows the nursing process to deliver safe, compassionate, and culturally effective care.\n\n* Gathers and recognizes/synthesizes assessment data to determine the patient/family plan of care, pertinent data to be shared with care team, and tasks to be delegated.\n\n* Recognizes and/or seeks resources to recognize clinical changes that are indicative of patient deterioration; utilizes the CAT team when appropriate.\n\n* Collaborates with the patient, family and multidisciplinary team to coordinate all facets of patient care.\n\n* Develops, implements and/or revises the patient's plan of care on admission and during the course of the hospitalization. Plans of care are outcomes focused and include goals as well as required interventions. Plans are developed in partnership with the patient, family, and the interdisciplinary care team.\n\n* Care is coordinated across the continuum ? understands and utilizes case management resources.\n\n* Consistently follows evidence based practice bundles and nursing standards/procedures to provide nursing care that eliminates preventable events of patient harm and promotes excellent patient outcomes.\n\n* Recognizes and addresses situations which present ethical dilemmas and/or moral distress. Takes steps to actively address the situation. Seeks resources as needed to resolve the situation.\n\n* Demonstrates competence in teaching patients/families and progresses to an expert educator of patients/families.\n\n* Evaluates and documents the care provided on each assigned shift.\n\n* Accountable for the rapid adoption and implementation of clinical practice changes into own practice.\n\nJob Responsibilities (Continued)\n\n\n* Documents the evaluation of nursing interventions and outcomes of nursing care utilizing hospital standards, policies and procedures.\n\n* Consistently follows safe hand-off practices as defined in patient care standards and procedures.\n\n* Utilizes and exemplifies safety behaviors for error prevention. Identifies potential safety concerns and communicates with unit leadership as appropriate. Enters safety nets when applicable, including good catch/near miss situations.\n\n* Effective verbal and nonverbal communication techniques and good listening skills are used to empathically communicate with patients/ families, and colleagues.\n\n* Encourages patient/family self-advocacy.\n\n\n* Demonstrates effective teamwork as a member of the interdisciplinary care team, fostering and exemplifying a culture of respect. Recognizes/addresses situations where disrespectful collaboration may impact patient care and/or create non-collaborative relationships. Seeks resources as needed to resolve situations involving incivility and/or disrespect.\n\n* Actively participates in interdisciplinary patient care rounds and/or meetings and makes recommendations to the plan of care that reflect nursing goals, interventions, and expected outcomes. Revises the plan of care according to the patient care decisions made on rounds.\n\n* Incorporates evidence based practice into direct clinical care in collaboration with other members of the multidisciplinary team.\n\n* Develops and implements effective partnerships with members of the ancillary staff; delegates tasks effectively to assure comprehensive nursing care is provided.\n\n* Develops and sustains professional, well- boundary, therapeutic relationships with patients and families in which all actions are in the best interest of the patient and family and there is no personal gain at the patient/families expense.\n\nJob Responsibilities (Continued)\n\nProfessional Development\n\n* Models appearance and behaviors that promote a positive image of professional nursing.\n\n* Expands clinical judgment and critical thinking skills with increased experience\n\n* Demonstrates mastery of the principles of Family Centered Care, including dignity and respect, information sharing, participation, and collaboration.\n\n* Demonstrates understanding of optimal patient/family experiences and incorporates into care delivery. Has a working knowledge of patient/family experience results (NRC Picker) at the unit and organizational level. Participates and/or leads in initiatives to improve satisfaction scores.\n\n* Practices within a shared decision making environment. Familiar with and participates in Shared Governance council activities at the unit and/or department level. Progresses to leading council activities at the unit and/or department levels.\n\n* Familiar with Magnet designation and the Magnet Model of transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, new knowledge and innovations, and empirical outcomes. Participates in ongoing designation activities such as serving as a unit based Magnet champion.\n\n* Demonstrates fiscal stewardship:\n\n* Manages own time to accomplish direct/indirect care in a cost-effective manner\n\n* Conserves unit and organizational resources; assures supplies are not wasted or misused.\n\n* Does not incur incidental overtime.\n\n* Understands the implications of the cost of staffing decisions.\n\n* Identifies observed opportunities for cost savings.\n\n* Well informed about the Professional Advancement Program (PEAK) and considers the opportunity to participate.\n\n* Demonstrates healthcare informatics competency to manage patient care, outcome data, and current and emerging healthcare technology.\n\n* Understands nursing sensitive outcomes and knows how to navigate the nursing scorecard. Participates and/or leads improvement initiatives to improve outcomes.\n\n* Identifies own learning needs and actively assures learning needs are met.\n\n* Seeks out opportunities to meet needs and attends all required programs.\n\n* Maintains CEU's for nursing licensure.\n\n* Maintains compliance with mandatory education and annual nursing competencies.\n\n* Recognizes individual preferences regarding an environment of constant change and understands change management. Develops effective methods to cope with and incorporate learning from a fast-paced, ever changing environment.\n\n* Understands the principles and methodology of quality improvement; progresses to participating in and/or leading QI initiatives at the unit or organizational level.\n\n* Understands and contributes to the science of nursing:\n\n* Develops a sense of inquiry.\n\n* Reads articles pertinent to the patient population.\n\n* Performs literature reviews.\n\n* Develops clinical questions and advances understanding and application of evidence based practice.\n\n* Understands the nursing research process and utilizes resources to participate in research projects.\n\n* Participates in activities that contribute to improving the health of the community.\n\nRequired Licenses, Certifications, Registrations\n\nBLS - Basic Life Support\n\nRN - Registered Nurse\n\nRequired Education and Experience\n\nRequired Education: Graduation from ACEN and/or CCNE accredited school of nursing or college.\n\nRequired Experience: At least 12 months of previous RN experience\n\nPreferred Education, Experience & Cert/Lic\n\nPreferred Education: BSN strongly preferred.\n\nPreferred Experience: Prior pediatric experience or prior experience in your area of specialty. Active membership in a professional nursing organization.\n\nAdditional Technical Requirements\n\nComputer Competency\n\n* Basic use of a computer (mouse, keyboard, printer, USB ports).\n\n* Basic use of Microsoft Office (Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and Skype).\n\n* Web browsing, intranet search, document access.\n\n* Use of shared network file space.\n\n* Basic use of patient facing technology. (e.g. IV pumps, point of care devices, CR monitors).\n\n* Navigation and use of clinical communication systems.\n\nInformation Literacy\n\n* Determines the nature and extent of clinical information needed and uses the appropriate technology to access it.\n\n* Accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.\n\n* Evaluates information and its sources critically and appropriately incorporates it into clinical practice.\n\n* Evaluates outcomes of the use of information.\n\nInformation Management Literacy\n\n* Navigation of the electronic health record system.\n\n* Ability to locate and review specific patient data in various clinical information systems.\n\n* Effectively uses clinical decision support tools.\n\n* Understands policies and procedures, confidentiality, security, and privacy regulations regarding the use of clinical information systems.\n\n* Ability to collect clinical data using quality improvement tools.\n\n\nJob Segment: Nursing, Registered Nurse, Medical Technology, Patient Care, Vascular, Healthcare\nAssociated topics: ambulatory, bsn, domiciliary, hospice, intensive care unit, maternal, neonatal, psychiatric, recovery, registed\n\n\nLaunch your career - Upload your resume now!\n\nUpload your resume\n\nLoading some great jobs for you...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9162037968635559}
+{"content": "Single-Payer Plan in State Senate\n\nLawmakers to Consider Government System to Replace Private Insurance\n\n::: Anna Gorman ::: California Healthline\n\nLegislation introduced in the state Senate on Feb. 17 would set California on a path toward the possible creation of a single-payer healthcare system ― a proposal that has failed to gain traction here in the past.\n\nThe bill, which is a preliminary step, says that it is the “intent of the Legislature” to enact a law that would establish a comprehensive, single-payer health care program for the benefit of everyone in the state. The legislation, introduced by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), does not offer specifics of what the plan would look like, nor does it mention a timetable.\n\nA single-payer system would replace private insurance with a government plan that pays for coverage for everyone. Proponents argue that single-payer systems make health care more affordable and efficient, but opponents say they raise taxpayer costs and give government too much power.\n\nMedicare, the federally funded health coverage for the elderly, is often held up as a model of what a single-payer system might look like. The article is here.\n\n\n\nAbout Calbroker Admin 439 Articles\nSite Administrator", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9777228236198425}
+{"content": "Olive oil is a key element of the Mediterranean diet and is considered to be a healthy food product because of its content in monounsaturated fat. It is the oil from the fruits of the olive tree. It is extracted by pressing the olives, which must be collected before their final maturation, meaning when they have green-dark mauve color, as the quality of their oil is much better than that of the oil extracted from the fully ripe fruits.\n\nMain olive varieties in Creta\n\nThe Koroneiki olive variety, also known by many other names such as Cretan, Koronia, Koroni, Ladolia, Lianolia, Psilolia and Vatsiki, Asprolia. It is a particularly important variety as it is very productive and resistant to the dry and warm regions of our country. Its demands on soil, moisture and farming care are relatively small.\nThis specific variety has a steady crop and a relatively high yield, which ranges from 30 to 100 kilograms of fruit per tree while can reach up to 150 kilograms of fruit per tree in favorable climatic conditions. The olive oil of the Koroneiki variety is fine with excellent flavor and exquisite taste. Its main disadvantage is the small size of the fruit which complicates the mechanical harvesting.\n\nThe Tsounati olive is also known as Matsolia, Mastolia, Mouratolia and Mastoid. It is considered a cold-resistant variety and can be cultivated at an altitude of up to 1000 meters. It prefers calcareous soils, but it performs well in both rich and moderate soils. The Tsounati variety belongs to the oil-producing varieties. The fruit content in oil can reach 25% and is of very good quality.\n\nThe Throumpolia olive is also known as Throumpa, Askouda, Thassitiki, Ladolia, Xantholia, Rethymnian, Chondrolia\nIt can be cultivated at an altitude of up to 700 meters. It is a demanding variety in humidity and thrives in deep and fertile soils. It needs farming care in order to yield. The fruit content in oil can reach 28% and is of good quality. It can be also used for the production of table olives, the throumpa olive.\n\nPositive organoleptic characteristics of the olive oil\n\nΑ flavor, combination of taste and smell, which is characteristic of the oils derived from healthy, fresh olives harvested at the optimum stage of maturation. The fruity flavor is perceived either directly from the nose or from the back part of it and depends on the variety of the olive. This characteristic is the most important in the organoleptic evaluation of the new method, because if it is not detected the oil tested will not be classified as extra virgin or virgin.\n\nCharacteristic flavor of olive oil coming from green olives or olives of which the color begins to change. It may be pleasant or not, depending on the intensity. However, in no case it will be considered a defect. For this reason, if the bitterness is perceived at a greater intensity than half of the scale, it should be stated in the certificate of analysis so that the person concerned is aware of it and takes some actions (e.g. mixing) if the consumer asks for less bitter.\n\nIntense tingling sensation, characteristic of oils produced at the beginning of the olive season, mainly from olives that are still unripe. It is caused by the action of phenolic substances at the ends of the trigeminal nerve, it spreads over the entire oral cavity and is eliminated a few seconds after the tasting. The intensity of the pungent flavor decreases during the maturation of the olive oil. We should not confuse this piquant sensation with that of the rancid oil where the feeling is very annoying and it is kept for much longer.\n\n\nthe entire site", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9732655882835388}
+{"content": "\" \"\n\nOn January 16, 1904, the first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The competition was promoted by Bernarr Macfadden, the father of physical culture and publisher of original bodybuilding magazines such as Health & Strength. The winner was Al Treloar, who was declared \"The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World\".[5] Treloar won a $1,000 cash prize, a substantial sum at that time. Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a film of Treloar's posing routine. Edison had also made two films of Sandow a few years before. Those were the first three motion pictures featuring a bodybuilder. In the early 20th century, Macfadden and Charles Atlas continued to promote bodybuilding across the world. Alois P. Swoboda was an early pioneer in America.\n\nSimilarly, Brahma sutras – the foundational text of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, discusses yoga in its sutra 2.1.3, 2.1.223 and others.[121] Brahma sutras are estimated to have been complete in the surviving form sometime between 450 BCE to 200 CE,[122][123] and its sutras assert that yoga is a means to gain \"subtlety of body\" and other powers.[121] The Nyaya sutras – the foundational text of the Nyaya school, variously estimated to have been composed between the 6th-century BCE and 2nd-century CE,[124][125] discusses yoga in sutras 4.2.38–50. This ancient text of the Nyaya school includes a discussion of yogic ethics, dhyana (meditation), samadhi, and among other things remarks that debate and philosophy is a form of yoga.[126][127][128]\n\nAscetic practices, concentration and bodily postures described in the Vedas may have been precursors to yoga.[59][60] According to Geoffrey Samuel, \"Our best evidence to date suggests that [yogic] practices developed in the same ascetic circles as the early sramana movements (Buddhists, Jainas and Ajivikas), probably in around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.\"[8]\nIn Iran, as of May 2014, according to its Yoga Association, there were approximately 200 yoga centres in the country, a quarter of them in the capital Tehran, where groups can often be seen practising in parks. This has been met by opposition among conservatives.[306] In May 2009, Turkey's head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakoğlu, discounted personal development techniques such as reiki and yoga as commercial ventures that could lead to extremism. His comments were made in the context of reiki and yoga possibly being a form of proselytization at the expense of Islam.[307]\nAccording to Pāṇini, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samādhau (\"to concentrate\").[26] In the context of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the root yuj samādhau (to concentrate) is considered by traditional commentators as the correct etymology.[27] In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras,[28] states that yoga means samādhi (concentration).[29]\nAnother text which teaches yoga with an Advaita point of view is the Yoga-Yājñavalkya.[265] This work contains extensive teachings on ten Yamas (ethical rules) and ten Niyamas (duties), and eight asanas. It also discusses a theory of nadis and prana (vital breath), and follows this with instructions on pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (sense withdrawal), meditation on mantras, meditative visualizations and Kundalini.\nVarious yogic groups had become prominent in Punjab in the 15th and 16th century, when Sikhism was in its nascent stage. Compositions of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, describe many dialogues he had with Jogis, a Hindu community which practiced yoga. Guru Nanak rejected the austerities, rites and rituals connected with Hatha Yoga. He propounded the path of Sahaja yoga or Nama yoga (meditation on the name) instead.[204] The Guru Granth Sahib states:\n\nThe Maitrayaniya Upanishad, likely composed in a later century than Katha and Shvetashvatara Upanishads but before Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, mentions sixfold yoga method – breath control (pranayama), introspective withdrawal of senses (pratyahara), meditation (dhyana), mind concentration (dharana), philosophical inquiry/creative reasoning (tarka), and absorption/intense spiritual union (samadhi).[9][100][104]\nPre-philosophical speculations of yoga begin to emerge in the texts of c. 500 – c. 200 BCE. Between 200 BCE and 500 CE, philosophical schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism were taking form and a coherent philosophical system of yoga began to emerge.[49] The Middle Ages saw the development of many satellite traditions of yoga. Yoga came to the attention of an educated western public in the mid 19th century along with other topics of Indian philosophy.\nThe spiritual sense of the word yoga first arises in Epic Sanskrit, in the second half of the 1st millennium BCE, and is associated with the philosophical system presented in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, with the chief aim of \"uniting\" the human spirit with the Divine.[24] The term kriyāyoga has a technical meaning in the Yoga Sutras (2.1), designating the \"practical\" aspects of the philosophy, i.e. the \"union with the supreme\" due to performance of duties in everyday life.[25]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9955653548240662}
+{"content": "Contact Us\n\nPlease feel free to get in touch to ask a question, schedule an appointment or give us your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you. \n\n\n17 Divinity St\nBristol, CT, 06010\nUnited States\n\n\nSince 1975, O'Donnell Bros has been providing greater Bristol and Central Connecticut with residential and commercial remodeling solutions. We specialize in roofing, siding, windows, doors, gutters, downspouts and so much more. We look forward to helping you with all your remodeling needs. \n\nHomeImprovement-PT-050114_9032 (1).jpg\n\n\nO'Donnell Bros President, Bob O'Donnell, is a regular contributor to The Bristol Press. Read his home improvement articles here.\n\n\nFiltering by Tag: attic\n\nDon't Let Summer Mold Set Foot In Your House\n\nChelsea O'Donnell\n\nThis week I heard Meteorologist Bob Maxon say that this was the worst year for mold growth in Connecticut in recent memory. It’s easy to see why. Mold cannot live without water and the record rainfall we’ve had over the past few months means that our area is a veritable feast for fungus.\n\nMold is made up of thousands of microscopic spores that travel through the air until they land on a surface. They love to live in places that hold water, which is why you often see mold growing on trees, roofs, and other places that stay warm and damp. Indoor mold generally develops after being carried in from the outdoors and homes that tend to hold a lot of humidity are more susceptible to an infestation. Why is this a problem? Many people are sensitive to mold and mildew, especially children and the elderly. It can cause illness, asthma, and a host of other respiratory issues. The worst part is that mold grows and spreads incredibly quickly and cannot be contained without removing its food source.   \n\nSo how can you get rid of mold in your living space, or prevent it from making a home in yours? Here are my top tips.\n\n  1. Run a dehumidifier in your basement constantly. I have an air-tight finished basement and I still run a dehumidifier 24/7. The goal here is to keep your air humidity at or below 50%. When it’s raining, don’t be surprised if you have to dump the water hold twice a day.\n\n  2. Always use the extractor fan while showering or cooking. With so much water in the air from the weather, the last thing you want to do is add more inside your home. Be sure that your fans vent outside, not in the attic. Otherwise, you’ll just be redirecting the moisture to another part of the house.\n\n  3. Check your drainage. Gutters should be clean and in working order and your landscaping should slope away from the foundation so you don’t have standing water at the base of your home. Make sure your downspouts extend at least four feet out and away from the house.\n\n  4. An air conditioner is not a dehumidifier. Sure, it will remove some humidity but an air conditioner’s main function is to cool the air, rather than remove the moisture. If you find yourself running your A/C unit to control your humidity, you’re going to end up with an expensive energy bill and not too much to show for it.\n\n  5. Store soft goods in airtight plastic. People often put winter clothing and bedding up in the attic, which can be a breeding ground for mold if the area is not ventilated properly. Keeping the attic vented is key, good air flow can slow or even prevent mold growth.\n\nIn short, a house with high humidity is nothing to ignore. If you suspect that your home might be susceptible to mold, it’s worth purchasing an inexpensive humidity gauge called a hygrometer to find out. Remember, a mold problem can be a serious health risk to your family if not dealt with properly.\n\nBob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions for Bob to with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit Advice is for guidance only.\n\nHelp! I Can’t Keep My House Cool\n\nChelsea O'Donnell\n\nAfter this past weekend’s mini heatwave, I had an interesting reader question pop up in my email inbox. She asked:\n\n“Dear Bob, we live in a Cape Cod style home. This past weekend when the temperature reached almost 90 degrees, our second floor became unbearably hot. The second floor gets incredibly cold in the winter too. What can we do to help regulate the temperature so it doesn’t change with the seasons? - Nancy M., Bristol\n\nNancy, you’re not alone. This is a common problem in Cape Cod style homes that were built in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, building codes were much more relaxed and energy efficiency was unheard of, so homes were built with very little insulation or ventilation.\n\nWhat’s happening in your case is that the outside weather is coming in because there isn’t enough insulation to protect your home. To be even more specific, hot air is getting stuck in the attic and seeping down into the second floor because there is no ventilation to let it out. What’s worse is that the moisture in the air is also getting trapped; giving you a potential mold exposure problem that can easily go right from your attic into your lungs.\n\nSo what do you do? First, take advantage of a free insulation inspection from a local area remodeler to see how much insulation you actually have. If you haven’t had the house insulated since it was built, I can guarantee you don’t have enough. If you’ve recently bought your home, now is the time to pay close attention. \n\nToday, we measure insulation by its “R-Value” and the higher the R-Value, the better the insulating properties. In the 1960’s, R-Value wasn’t a popular unit of measurement and instead, most insulation was measured by its thickness in inches. To give you an example, if a typical 1960’s home was insulated at all, it was probably fitted with an R-10 value, which equates to a little over three inches of thickness. The recommended R-Value for Connecticut’s climate according to EnergyStar today is between R-49 and R-60 for an uninsulated attic and between R-38 and R-49 for a home with a few inches of pre-existing insulation. So as you can see, times they are changing.\n\nIf your house is the victim of extreme temperature changes, the easiest and best way to regulate it is to build that barrier of protection. A professional can tell you how much insulation you need and can also perform an assessment to see if any mold has formed in the attic and walls. It’s key to remember that adding insulation will change the way your home breathes, so make sure it is fitted with proper ventilation to allow for appropriate airflow. If you just experienced a cold and expensive winter in your home, this is a project to tackle now to stay comfortable all year long.\n\n\nVentilation is Key to a Safe, Healthy Home\n\nChelsea O'Donnell\n\nI’m not shy about educating my customers about the importance of insulation in the home, especially during this time of year and with our recent, frigid temperatures. But even if you’re the one in every four people I talk to who has the right amount of insulation in their house, chances are that your ventilation is inadequate, which can be harming both your home and your personal health in more ways than you think.\n\nIn the winter, we crank up the thermostat, sending more heat and moisture into the living quarters of our homes than any other time of year. We all know that heat rises to the top, which means a lot of what we’re pumping into the house will quickly find its way through the ceiling and into the attic. Now, think about when you’re in a car and the windows fog up. What do you do? Usually, you’ll increase the airflow either by using the vents or just cracking a window. A house works much the same way, except that if you don’t have air flowing inside the attic, the heat and moisture just gets stuck there. If the attic is very warm, that moisture will develop into mold and mildew which can fester in your insulation and rot the wood. If the attic is cold enough, the moisture will freeze into little domes or even icicles until the temperature rises enough for the water to thaw and then be absorbed into all the places that it shouldn’t be going. Neither is a good scenario.\n\nSo what’s the best way to protect your home? Start by investing in a hygrometer which measures water vapor in the air. A comfortable humidity reading is 30%-60%, but 45%-55% is an ideal level to maintain. If you’re seeing higher than 60% humidity in any area of your home, it’s going to be susceptible to mold, mildew and bacteria growth.\n\nRemember, attic ventilation allows your house to “breathe” so you want to balance your intake and exhaust to ensure that what is coming in is going out equally. The best ventilation system will include soffit vents which are installed underneath the overhang of the roof and take in the air and ridge vents which are installed at the top of the roof for the hot air to escape. For this method to work efficiently, all louvered vents must be sealed off and you have to ensure that your insulation isn’t blocking the airflow. Believe it or not, most roof manufacturers will void the warranty if a proper ventilation system is not installed. Luckily, new roofing technology enables contractors to add intake ventilation directly into the roof as opposed to using soffit vents, so if you’re in the market for a new roof, be sure to ask for that option.\n\nIt’s important to note that homes have different characteristics and what works well for one may not work well for another. With the right balance of air, homeowners can optimize their roof and maintain the overall health of their home and their families, but it’s always a good idea to get advice from a professional before taking on a big remodeling project. Stay warm friends.\n\nBob O'Donnell is the owner of O'Donnell Bros, Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions for Bob to with the subject line “Ask the Pro”. All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O'Donnell Bros, Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit Advice is for guidance only.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7266536951065063}
+{"content": "\nWhen TRT was developed in the 1980s by neuroscientist Dr. Pawel Jastreboff (now at Emory University in Atlanta), it was designed to be administered according to a strict protocol. Today, the term TRT is being used to describe modified versions of this therapy, and the variations make accurate assessment of its effectiveness difficult. Individual studies have reported improvements in as many as 80% of patients with high-pitched tinnitus. In a Cochrane review of the one randomized trial that followed Jastreboff's protocol and met the organization's standards, TRT was much more effective in reducing tinnitus severity and disability than a technique called masking (see below).\nTinnitus is believed to be caused by inner ear cell damage. Cilia in your inner ear move in relation to the pressure of sound waves. This triggers these cells to release an electrical signal through a nerve from your ear (auditory nerve) to your brain. Your brain interprets these signals as sound. If the hairs inside your inner ear are bent or broken, they can \"leak\" random electrical impulses to your brain, causing tinnitus.\nTinnitus can vary a lot between individuals; therefore you can find many different types of tinnitus. Tinnitus varies considerably in intensity and type. Some people describe tinnitus as high-frequency whistling sounds while others perceive tinnitus as a buzzing noise or a sound similar to butter sizzling in a frying pan. But some experience, instead, a thumping sound in the same rhythm as their heartbeat. This is called pulsatile tinnitus.  Read more about the types of tinnitus.\nMasking Devices. Similar to the white noise machines listed above, there are now masking devices that can be worn in the ear, just like a hearing aid, that do almost the same thing. They produce low-level white noise that can suppresses your tinnitus symptoms by training your brain to focus on them instead of the ringing in your ears. These are perfect if you can’t always have a white noise machine running near you.\n\nTinnitus is usually described as a ringing in the ears, but it can also sound like clicking, hissing, roaring, or buzzing. Tinnitus involves perceiving sound when no external noise is present. The sound can be very soft or very loud, and high-pitched or low-pitched. Some people hear it in one ear and others hear it in both. People with severe tinnitus may have problems hearing, working, or sleeping.\nParticipants were contacted to complete questionnaires (including THI) for the three-month assessment. A 30-minute individual phone interview with each participant was also conducted to explore their experiences with using the music package on a daily basis, and to further understand how the music package was affecting their tinnitus. At present, 27 participants have been interviewed to obtain the results presented here.\nTinnitus (pronounced ti-ni-tis), or ringing in the ears, is the sensation of hearing ringing, buzzing, hissing, chirping, whistling, or other sounds. The noise can be intermittent or continuous, and can vary in loudness. It is often worse when background noise is low, so you may be most aware of it at night when you're trying to fall asleep in a quiet room. In rare cases, the sound beats in sync with your heart (pulsatile tinnitus).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.900168776512146}
+{"content": "Flora of Barro Colorado Island\n\nAsplenium delitescens\n\n(Max.) A. R. Smith, Amer. Fern J. 66:120.1976\n\nDiplazium delitescens Max.\n\nTerrestrial, to 35 (43) cm tall; rhizome short-creeping, with minute, dark, fibrous scales, the petiole bases closely spaced. Leaves few, l-pinnate; petioles 4.5-20 cm long, with a few scales similar to rhizome scales near base; lateral leaflets mostly narrowly lanceolate, gradually long­-acuminate, inequilateral at base with the lower proximal edge acute and the upper proximal edge obtuse to trun­cate and nearly paralleling rachis, 3-12 cm long, l-2 cm wide, irregularly serrate, sometimes with a small auricle on upper side; veins 3- or    4-forked; terminal leaflet pin­natifid. Sori linear along upper branch of lateral veins, slightly curved, nearer midrib than margin, usually on distal side of veins, much less frequently on both sides; indusia thin, broad, ending abruptly. Croat 8643.\n\nOccasional, in the forest, especially older forest.\n\nIts terrestrial habitat, nonclathrate rhizome scales, and pinnatifid terminal leaflet (unlike the lateral ones) dis­tinguish it from Asplenium falcinellum, which has a simi­lar leaflet shape. A. falcinellum, an epiphyte, has clathrate rhizome scales and a conform terminal leaflet.\n\nBelize to Panama. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone (Pacific slope), Panama, and Darien and from premontane moist forest in Panama. See Fig. 17.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.738206148147583}
+{"content": "Cellular+Renewal (1).jpg\n\nYou can conquer the world after a good night’s sleep” \n\nStress, toxins and the overall effects of our daily lives can leave us sluggish, anxious, and sleep deprived. \n\nNow imagine a safe, natural, homeopathic approach to rejuvenating, restoring and renewing your body at the cellular level, allowing you to get back the restful sleep you once enjoyed.  Giving you that energy, motivation and positive mood you sorely miss.\n\nAnd with Somaderm, a good night’s sleep is just one benefit that people having been experiencing after their first month of regular use!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8497835397720337}
+{"content": "Category Archives: China\n\nReview: Re-Orienting Cuisine\n\n\n\nRichard Zimmer\nSonoma State University\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLeave a comment\n\n\nReview: Puer Tea\n\nPuer Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic. Jinghong Zhang. University of Washington Press. 2014\n\nYingkun Hou (Southern Illinois University)\n\nMany scholars believe that the province Yunnan, in southwest China, is one of the most important places in the history of Chinese domestic tea-producing. The ethnic minority groups in Yunnan started cultivating tea about one thousand years ago, but it was in the last two centuries that Han migrants became involved in tea trading and made Puer—a unique type of tea to the region—well known to inland China. The tea is named after a town that was then the center to Puer tea trading in southern Yunnan and is one of six categories of Chinese tea. The writer Zhang, who was born and raised in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, has been familiar with Puer tea since her childhood. Perhaps this underlies her later interest in studying Puer tea: after she realized Puer tea’s growing popularity, and especially the rapid soaring and plummeting of trading prices in the Puer tea market in 2007, she became deeply interested. In tracing the “detailed social biography” of Puer tea, Zhang set out from Yiwu, Yunnan, where tea is produced for several other Chinese cities (e.g. her main research site Kunming). She planned to study its “packaging and unpacking process”—a “jianghu” culture developed around the theme of “handcraft authenticity” (2015:9).\n\nAs Zhang explains in her introduction, jianghu, literally means “river (jiang)” and “lake (hu)”[1]; it is often used as an analogical concept in Chinese folklore (related to fantasy novels of martial arts, or more precisely wuxia[2] portraits) and literature, describing a world outside of state governance. This creates a set of implicit yet practical rules and common understandings of righteousness, morality, and authenticity by leading heroes (or xiake[3] in Chinese, similar to vigilantes/knights) and their people. In the following chapters, combining approaches from anthropology and ethnography with unique Chinese concepts such as jianghu, Zhang shows us how the different actors and intrinsic features in the world of Puer tea resembles the world of jianghu in Chinese culture, reflecting current consumer culture and business practices in modern China. The book also presents a complicated picture of contradictions people face in regard to new forms of individuality, social relations, intellectual pursuit, cultural and national characters, and so forth in today’s Chinese society.\n\nPuer Tea consists of an introduction, eight chapters—featuring the theme of four seasons which parallels a yearly cycle of tea producing—and a concluding chapter. While tea as a plant grows as the seasons change, it is also a well-known tenet that human life should follow the seasonal rhythms. The two chapters of “Spring” depict the production of Puer tea as a “sprouting” phase for the book in Yunnan: Zhang introduces the history of Puer tea in southern Yunnan in general by exploring the reconstruction of the “tradition” of raw Puer tea in Yiwu, with specific discussion on the construction of authenticity of Yiwu’s raw Puer tea. Furthermore, by telling captivating ethnographic stories, she sheds light on the aspects valued by consumers and producers who admire Yiwu tea: contrasting the features of Yiwu Puer raw tea with “the other”—the artificially-fermented Puer tea that is produced in much shorter time from Menghai. She shows how both the local and the nonlocal constructed their identities through the making of “imagined originality” which proves its authenticity (53). Further, she addresses the challenges producers in Yiwu are facing while the demand of their Puer tea grows. Indeed, as she points out, the business of Puer tea is like “the world of jianghu,” as it can further reveal aspects of modern Chinese culture as a close-up and condensed version of the transformation the entire society is going through. For example, she addresses the concerns about authenticity of Puer as an aspect of Chinese-style individualism:\n\nThough not a dominant theme in Chinese history, individualism does exist and is quite evident in certain contexts, as in the case of jinaghu actors, whether in reality or in martial arts fiction, Chinese to act bravely in trying situations and to find their own solutions with their own special skills. If the factors affecting the “original aura” of Puer tea production are read as the social distinctions and counterforce among jianghu individuals, such anxiety over authenticity appears to be rooted in conflicting desires activated in the Reform era and by rising commoditization (76).\n\nThus, as Zhang discusses in this book, although the current official regulations for Puer tea may not be sufficient to eradicate the counterfeits, the competition between multiple jianghu voice for the standard of authenticity has filled the gap and in turn influenced the market in a variety of ways.\n\nThe following two chapters of the “Summer” section explain the convoluted relationship of the name “Puer” as a place claimed to be the original/authentic representation of Puer tea, while the controversy of what is authentic Puer remains a topic for discussion. Zhang introduces the debate about the origin of Puer tea between Simao and Xishuangbanna from multiple perspectives. For instance, while contention between these two areas remains central to the local development, it is “unnecessary” on a provincial level. Both areas are in the Yunnan province, and most consumers and even tea experts accept Puer tea from “Yunnan” without making distinctions within that geographical designation. Thanks to the success of Puer tea, the history of Ancient Tea-House Road has also been revisited recently by the Chinese public. The home of Puer tea, as Zhang summarizes, is “transregionally authenticated and multiply imagined” (103). Similarly, while the economic and geopolitical forces transform the definition and packaging of Puer tea, there are also consumer voices evaluating Puer tea and demanding clarifications of the quality standards. These ongoing debates, such as the “heating up” and “cooling off” of Puer tea as a result of “hastened transformation” and the coexisting desire “to package Puer tea” and “unpack it,” resemble the jianghu Zhang proposes, embodying contentions, constructions, and negotiations among different actors in different social contexts (120).\n\nThe remorse of autumn is a common theme in Chinese literature. In the autumn section (chapter 5 & 6), Zhang investigates the local families involved in the private tea business. Through ethnographic materials, Zhang shows how the preferences of consumers in Taiwan affect the changes in Yiwu, and thus profoundly transformed Yiwu’s local culture. In the jianghu of Puer tea, the standards of the valued and the appreciated “are open to the influence of history” (141). Many local families had stopped other activities such as raising livestock, growing rice, or producing soy sauce, dedicating their time and energy in the Puer tea business instead, which brought them better income. At the same time, similar to the fair-trade coffee business in Rincón (Mexico), Daniel Jaffee discusses in “Brewing Justice,” the potential price fluctuation for products such as coffee and Puer tea can be quite unpredictable and therefore dangerous to family businesses. In the time of the coffee crisis, the sudden plummeting of coffee prices had greatly changed the producers and their families’ lives (2014). In the case of Puer, people have encountered a recession of the market in 2007, which leads to another process of transformation in local practices that Zhang proposes best described by the Chinese concept hua.\n\nIn traditional Chinese philosophy, the concept of hua refers to “ubiquitous transformation.” In the jianghu context of Puer tea, Zhang argues that hua “intrinsically indicates the strategies and settlements employed by multiple actors to transform an unsatisfying situation into a comparatively more satisfying one (145).” For instance, people use “chenhua” to refer to the “aging” or “fermentation” process in storage, which transforms “the astringent feature of raw Puer tea” into “a mild, smooth quality” (145). Despite the lack of the government’s effective supervision, a practice such as chenhua allows local people to redefine the authenticity of Puer “flexibly and pragmatically,” recontexualizing and transforming local pragmatic strategies.\n\nThe last section of the book, Winter, presents tea tasting events in teahouses in Kunming (complemented by the films she recorded). Zhang was most elaborate on the one organized by Sanzui (one of the most influential tea websites in China), which discusses whether the aged Puer tastes better and what condition it should be stored in to produce the best taste, in order to resolve the “battle” taking place on the Internet (their website) about the issue. According to Zhang, the tasting is more about human interaction (human space) than the supposed thematic tea storage space on site. In her analysis, she proposes that this event touched on “multiple layers of space.” For example, the space for the topic of this event—the tea storage space and the site where the tasting actually took place—the teahouse, are two layers of space she mentions. What is interesting to me is the role of cyber space: it was the cyber space where all these people first discussed Puer tea, which then turned into a debate that made it seem necessary and possible to hold this event in the teahouse. Further, the sensorial information of the event was recorded in the form of photos and articles posted on the website, and the discussion of the tasteful experience in the event also flourished on the website later that day, instead of an immediate discussion at the site of tasting. These interesting facts reflected how people constructed their identity in the real-life tasting event quite differently than they would have on cyber spaces. At the same time, we could also see the sensorial representation of the actual event on the internet as another dimension of the actual tasting event—people could post their pictures and comments to the website in the tasting session and also read other posts. In a way, it is quite similar to the function of social media ten years from then, which also makes me wonder what the tasting would be like today with the prevalence of the social media. I imagine most of the people would post pictures and videos on site to their WeChat moments (in Chinese, it literally means the “friend circle” among one’s contacts, and mostly consists of the friends in one’s life. Almost everyone has access to their WeChat and Wechat Moment[4] at any point on their phone, as long as the phone can use cellular data), which can reach almost any Chinese in theory. Many business like Sanzui and organizations have their official account on WeChat in order to take advantage of the access to the immense user market.\n\nZhang’s Puer Tea provides a rich and multi-perspective ethnographic account of the jianghu of Puer tea in China in the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially in connecting the packaging and unpacking of different actors in the process of “making” and transforming the authenticity of Puer tea. By investigating into a variety of narrations and representations, Zhang presents us a snapshot of contemporary China where debates and contentions are constant and ever-changing.\n\nJaffee, Daniel, 2014.  Brewing justice: Fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival. Berkeley Univ of California Press.\n\n[1] The Chinese character for jiang is “江” ; hu is “湖.”\n\n[2] Chinese: 武侠\n\n[3] Chinese: 侠客\n\n[4] Wechat (微信) is an instant massaging app in China. Wechat moment is a social media platform in this app. People can post pictures, videos and messages to their friend circles and read others’ posts in it.\n\nLeave a comment\n\nFiled under anthropology, anthropology of food, China\n\nReview: Bitter and Sweet\n\nBitter and Sweet: Food, Meaning and Modernity in Rural China. Ellen Oxfeld. University of California Press, 2017.\n\nDavid E. Sutton\nSouthern Illinois University\n\nThe residents of Moonshadow Pond, a village in the Guandong province of southeastern China, care deeply about their food. Food procurement, preparation, sharing and eating is a constant topic of everyday conversation, both for its pleasures and its stresses and strains. Indeed, bitter and sweet are not just important flavors balanced in the local cuisine, they represent embodied metaphors of proper and improper ways of engaging with food. In this book, Ellen Oxfeld, who has conducted research in the predominantly Hakka village of Moonshadow Pond since the early 1990s, sets out to describe the food based worldview of this community in order to understand the interlocking ways that rural villagers enact social relations, experience migration, generational change and the changing aspects of life in contemporary China. Bitter and Sweet consists of an introduction, five substantive chapters and a brief conclusion. In each chapter, Oxfeld lays out a key theme in understanding the foodways of Moonshadow Pond: Labor, Memory, Exchange, Morality and Conviviality. Food, here, as in other recent works such as Jon Holtzman’s Uncertain Tastes or Anita von Poser’s Foodways and Empathy, provides a way in to exploring contemporary social life in a small community. Indeed, it is not just because it is so highly valued in Moonshadow Pond, but also because food seems to demand an understanding of questions of labor and economics, gifts and exchange, consumption and morality, history and memory, that it makes an ideal vehicle for giving new life to classic anthropological concerns with continuity and change at the local level.\n\n“Labor” describes villagers’ changing relationship to the production of food and how that production is conceptualized as younger generations potentially leave agricultural labor behind or migrate to cities for jobs. Traditionally labor is thought of as gengtian, or “tilling the soil.” Moonshadow Pond has seen changes over time from periods of polycropping and animal husbandry to periods (especially in the collective era) of almost exclusive focus on rice (prepared plain or as congee, a porridge dish). The collective era (from the Revolution till around 1980) was also unusual in that agricultural labor was shared between men and women. Typically, women are primarily responsible for agriculture, while men’s labor is more oriented toward wages or other market activity. Since the reform era, the younger generation has increasingly moved away from agriculture, as “peasant” identity can be a stigma. While a primarily female older generation does much of the agricultural labor now, older women often make demands for aid during harvest or at other times on the younger generation, and such agricultural work and family provisioning is seen as providing security against the uncertainties of work in cities. While the distribution of agricultural labor in families can be a source of tension, gengtian is also a powerful symbol of “work for the family.” As Oxfeld notes, “’Eating one’s own rice’ is still highly valued, even if the reality of the younger generation’s work lives is making this goal more and more difficult” (53).\n\nOxfeld’s discussion of food labor does not end, as it so often does, with tilling the soil. The labor of food production equally demands shaohuo, or “tending the kitchen fires.” The labor of cooking in Moonshadow Pond is less divided by gender and generation. Although older women take the primary role, men and the younger generation are also comfortable in the kitchen, both in terms of everyday cooking and the extra labor involved in preparing celebratory banquets or special holiday treats (nianban). This is strikingly illustrated in Oxfeld’s description of being the only adult on a trip to a local mountaintop with a group of 20 6th graders:\n\nAfter arriving [at the mountaintop], the students unpacked their knapsacks. They had pots and pans, cooking oil, cooking implements, and basic ingredients—cut up pieces of meat and vegetables, a bit of soy sauce, and fish sauce. At the top of the mountain these sixth graders, boys and girls tougher, started a fire and with a rice pot and wok proceeded to work together to cook lunch for the entire group. Imagining a similar situation in the United States, I was quite certain that the children would have taken sandwiches and bags of potato chips out of their backpacks instead (61).\n\nThis last comparison is telling because it underlines Oxfeld’s larger argument in this book that despite some inroads, food has not been commodified and subject to the forgetting of its sources that we see elsewhere, or even in more urban environments in China. As she sums up: “…the labor of food production within the village is still mainly incorporated into ongoing relationships based on social obligations, memories, and notions of moral debt” (71). It is to these topics that the subsequent chapters are addressed.\n\nIn her chapter on memory, Oxfeld explores the way food is made to stand for different periods of time. For example, in the “recall bitterness meal” during the Cultural Revolution, people were enjoined by the government to eat a paste made of bitter vegetables and rice chaff to remember their suffering during the pre-liberation era, and the sweetness of their current lives. Such memory practices could turn anti-hegemonic, as older villagers told Oxfeld that the meal brought to mind the recent experience of the Great Leap Forward rather than pre-revolutionary times (79-80). One of the intriguing things about Oxfeld’s approach to food memory is that she organizes it around different key foods and what they stand for. Thus, congee vs. rice can stand for the difference between times of poverty and relative plenty (when you didn’t need to stretch out rice by adding water), but also can be associated with the food of your childhood. Whereas eggs, which lend themselves to distribution within families, evoke memories of family diplomacy and conflict, as well as being associated for some with bribery in simpler times—times in which a party cadre might pay off his mistress with a simple egg! (89). Food memories also lend themselves to comparisons between tradition and modern times in terms of sociability—even periods of dearth and famine might be recalled nostalgically for their sense of solidarity, as opposed to the more plentiful, but atomized experiences of the present day.\n\nThe theme of sociability is explored in subsequent chapters as well. In analyzing food as “exchange,” Oxfeld explores both market and gift exchange. Within market exchange local markets remain preferable to larger, anonymous markets, precisely because they retain a certain transparency about the origins of their products that is lost in more advanced commodification. Local foods taste better and are healthier, as residents of Moonshadow Pond seem to resist the allure of the foreign and the “modern.” “’ You just shop in the market if you have no alternative,’” one woman underlines (102). While food is the subject of much informal, everyday exchange, Oxfeld pays more attention to the formal exchange that happens at banquets, describing in detail some of the key types of banquets held in the village, as well as typical recipients of banquet hospitality, which include not only family and neighbors, but other village presences, including gods, ghosts, ancestors and beggars. Indeed, an extended description shows how the role of beggars in contemporary feasts parallels that of ghosts in some traditional religious feasts: as a force that must be placated or dispatched in some way to insure ongoing health and harmony. Overall, Oxfeld takes a “circulatory perspective” (126) on exchange, echoing the classic insights as to the changing biographies of things as they pass through different social roles and undergo various value transformations.\n\nOxfeld’s chapter on “morality” gives considerable attention to proper “moral” exchange relationships within families, and how they have been impacted both by changing politics and economics. If sharing food and caring for children and elders defines family morality, these values have been tested during different time periods both by the dearth of famine and by the greater self-sufficiency of the contemporary period. During the Great Leap Forward, for example, attempts to collectivize cooking led to the destruction of family kitchens—key symbols of family unity, while at the same time the state attempted to encourage collectivization by using metaphors of “large families” to which people should transfer loyalties. In the reform era care for elders is still an ideal, but not unquestioned, as younger people juggle multiple considerations in their relationships with parents and parents-in-law. Oxfeld traces the nuanced moral discourses people use to negotiate particular circumstances in which exchange is used to create as much as to reinforce moral expectations, and  “elderly women are trying to engender a new sense of obligation that was not assumed in the past” by cooking for married daughters.a Oxfeld also looks at the ways that food discourses are used as moral discourses, in which “eating” is always a morally-charged expression with the potential to suggest taking more than one’s share or “gobbl[ing] up” public resources (146). I found this similar overlaying of social practices of food sharing and metaphorical uses of eating in Greek people’s conceptualization of their current economic crisis in which the ubiquitous concept of solidarity is often instantiated in food sharing, and in which the question of who “ate” during the good times and who did not make tangible and visceral discussions of blame and responsibility for current predicaments (Sutton 2016).\n\nThe final chapter, on “conviviality,” brings these themes together again through examining the pleasures of eating together and the sense of sociability that so often accompanies shared food. Here Oxfeld introduces two key concepts: rarity (nande) and “red hot sociality” (renao). Rarity is the appreciation and celebration of circumstance that allows for the bringing together of people for a far-flung family reunion, or even simply everyday opportunity for socializing that is extended through food (“You came just in time for my eggplant fritters!” (162)). Renao is a concept that combines emotions, social relations and sensory stimulation, a kind of Chinese version of collective effervescence, which allows for a celebration of social connection. Renao can be extended through food, but also through substances such as alcohol and tea—when deployed and managed properly. Banquets and family celebrations are typical settings for the production of renao, which can encompass both hierarchical banquets and more intimate and egalitarian gatherings. Similarly, gatherings need not be sumptuous nor expensive to achieve renao, simply socially convivial, which “’is constitutive of living in a socially meaningful way’” (161). Oxfeld’s stress on memorable meals as at the heart of proper conviviality and sociality put me in mind of my own research in Greece. During the past six years of the Greek economic crisis, the question of living with “dignity” has centered around issues of reproducing a life where meaningful social relations involving food sociability are under threat. Spending time in a coffee shop with friends, or finding alternate ways of enjoying scaled-back food celebrations which still can produce the Greek version of “red hot sociality,” have been ongoing themes in contemporary life under crisis conditions.\n\nBitter and Sweet is a rich and detailed ethnography that makes a convincing case for following food through its transformations as it is created, exchanged and consumed to reveal myriad themes of contemporary social life, what I would call a “gustemological” approach to culture. Though Oxfeld doesn’t discuss this explicitly, I think that her book is an excellent reminder of the ongoing importance of a holistic approach based in deep knowledge of a particular place that incorporates both historical and ethnographic perspectives. This book would make for an excellent choice in courses on food and culture, as well as for any scholars interested in a window onto contemporary China and its recent historical transformations as seen through the lens of food discourses and practices.\n\nLeave a comment\n\nFiled under anthropology, China, foodways\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1 Comment\n\n\nRoundtable Report: “Globalization of Asian Cuisines”\n\nTo celebrate the publication of “Globalization of Asian Cuisines: Transnational Networks and Culinary Contact Zones,” three of the edited volume’s authors—Stephanie Assmann, James Farrer, and David Wank—gathered for a roundtable discussion on June 2 at Sophia University, Tokyo. While the book contains chapters that examine different Asian cuisines in different contexts—Sidney Cheung writes about crayfish in China, Krishnendu Ray about “Indian ocean cuisine,” and Keiichi Kawaguchi about Japanese food in Italy, for example—for this roundtable Wank, Farrer, and Assmann chose to talk about globalization and Japanese cuisine, offering insights based on their research in China, the US, and Japan. They observed that the globalization of Japanese cuisine is being led primarily by non-Japanese actors, with the Japanese state trying to shape the process of diffusion.\n\nIMG_5312.jpgChuanfei Wang, who conducts research on Chinese and Japanese wine cultures, introduces the roundtable participants. From left to right: discussant Christian Hess, chair Chuanfei Wang, James Farrer, David Wank, Stephanie Assmann.\n\nJames Farrer discussed the globalization of the Japanese culinary field via a case study of Japanese food in Shanghai, where the number of Japanese restaurants surpasses the number of French and Italian restaurants. Interestingly, in Shanghai, the authenticity of Japanese cuisine is important and it is bloggers and Chinese individuals who have tremendous influence in determining what is deemed authentic Japanese cuisine. Shanghai’s chefs and entrepreneurs show great creativity in localizing Japanese cuisine. Farrer gave the memorable example of Anthologia (地球美食劇場 chikyu bishoku gekijo in Japanese), a restaurant-theater in which the entire menu is in Chinese and the dramatically costumed and made-up chef performs not just cuisine but also ikebana (flower arrangement), music, dance, and swordplay in front of eaters. This restaurant has been such a success that a second such restaurant is planned to open in Nagasaki to accommodate demand from Chinese tourists there! In response to a question from discussant Christian Hess about periodization and change in contact zones, Farrer explained that in the late 19th century quite a few Japanese restaurants existed in California and in China but they didn’t last and didn’t create a Japanese food boom. While it might seem odd that Japanese food would enjoy such popularity in China given the political enmity between the two countries, the Chinese divorce politics from cuisine to a great extent. Even though Japanese restaurants were destroyed in protests, for example, the Japanese food scene in China recovered very quickly afterward.\n\nIMG_5316An example of Shanghai’s booming Japanese restaurant culture from Farrer’s presentation.\n\nDavid Wank’s presentation focused on the role Fujianese chefs and restaurateurs have played in popularizing Japanese cuisine along the East coast of the United States, a phenomenon he refers to as an “ethnic entrepreneurial niche.” He noted the presence of elements of deterritorialization and localization, with sushi now a regular feature of people’s foodscapes even in rural areas without a sizable Japanese or Asian population, and the development of the California roll, inside-outside roll, New York roll (with pastrami), Philly roll (cream cheese), and in Indonesia the gado gado roll. When asked to elaborate upon Fujian innovation in Japanese cuisine as related to localization, Wank gave the example of sauces; there are 5 basic sauces chefs use in Fujian-run Japanese restaurants, but he talked to one chef whose culinary arsenal includes 50 different sauces. This process of innovation within the current Japanese food boom continues—with ramen and izakaya (Japanese gastropubs) among the latest trends.\n\nIn her talk, Stephanie Assmann switched the focus to government actors in Japan, analyzing efforts to promote a specific concept of Japanese cuisine domestically and abroad. Through the Organization to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad, a revived shokuiku (food education) campaign in schools, and projects encouraging Japanese consumers to purchase Japanese agricultural and food products for health reasons as well as to boost the national self-sufficiency rate for food. She noted a rhetoric of crisis operating in this discourse and perceives it to be a feature of the contemporary neoliberal state confronting globalization in line with national interests.\n\nThe roundtable touched upon key themes from the book—the role states play in determining what counts as national cuisines, debates around authenticity, processes of diffusion and change—and concepts such as “culinary fields,” “culinary contact zones,” “culinary infrastructure,” and “culinary capital.” The presentations and the enthused question and answer session that followed makes the edited volume seem well worth checking out.\n\n\nLeave a comment\n\nFiled under anthropology, Asia, China, cuisine, food education, Food Studies, Japan, Shanghai, sushi", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9228407740592957}
+{"content": "There is no doubt that Cathal McAteer and his creative staff, create and design their collections of Folk clothing and Folk shoes through a playful attitude and humorous approach to the image they create. They do this, while being unbelievably accurate on fitting and constantly surprising in their choices of fabrics. McAteer and his creative staff; let their sense of humor and precision shine though in every single item they create. This combined with their amazing attention to detail and choices of fabric help form a unique and distinctive Brand, which is constantly at the forefront of the coolest menswear brands around and always pushing things forward into new directions.\n\nThis collection is empty.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5631234645843506}
+{"content": "About you pay a tax on tax. Let’s\n\n\nGST is a\nhuge step for indirect taxation in India, the likes of which the country has\nnot seen post Independence. GST will simplify indirect taxation, reduce\ncomplexities in business, and remove the cascading effect from our taxation\nsystem. Experts believe that it will have a\nmajor positive impact on businesses both big and small, and change the way\nIndian economy functions.\n\nWe Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically\nFor You For Only $13.90/page!\n\norder now\n\n\ntaxes such as income tax are borne by the person liable to pay the tax;\nthis means that the tax burden cannot be shifted to other person. The liability\nof Indirect taxes on the other hand,\ncan be shifted to another person. So, the person responsible to pay the tax can\ngather the tax from someone else and then pay it to the government, thus shifting\nthe tax burden. The GST tax falls in this category. The current indirect tax\nstructure can be classified as:\n\nCentral taxes: levied by the Central government\n(includes Central Sales Tax, Excise Duty etc.)\n\nState taxes: levied by the various state government\n(VAT, Service Tax)\n\nThe current\nindirect tax has one major problem – the casacading\neffect. When you purchase something, you pay a tax on tax. Let’s understand\nthis with hypothetical example:\n\nSuppose a firm sells machinery worth Rs. 3000 to a\ndistributor. The invoice would show the following:\n\nPrice of goods = 3000/-\n\nExcise duty @ 12.5% = 375/-\n\nSubtotal = 3375/-\n\nVAT @ 14.5% on subtotal= 490/-\n\nThe total payable amount by the customer = 3865/-\n\n\nand GST will be only charged on the selling price and\nthe subsequent parts of SGST and CGST would add to the value of goods as per\ntheir percentage. The invoice under GST scenario would show the following:\n\nPrice of goods = 3000/-\n\nCGST @ 9% = 270/-\n\nSGST @ 9% = 270/-\n\nThe total payable amount by the customer = 3540/-\n\n\ntotal difference of the two taxes = 3865-3540= 325/-\n\nWe saw in\nIndirect tax that along the way the tax liability was passed on at every stage\nof transaction and the final liability comes to rest with the customer. This is\ncalled the Cascading Effect of Taxes where a tax is paid on tax and the value\nof the good keeps increasing every time.\n\n\nGST aims to solve this problem by introducing seamless Input Tax Credit (ITC). GST has removed\nthe additional, indirect and redundant taxes and has reduced the burden on the\ncommon taxpayer.\n\nof Goods & Services Tax\n\nThe Goods and Services Tax is imposed on the supply of\ngoods and services in the country. It includes multiple indirect taxes that are\nimposed by the State Governments or the Central Government, such as Service\nTax, Purchase Tax, Central Excise Duty, Value Added Tax , to name few.\n\nGST offers various benefits to the government, the\nbusiness, including the people of India. The price of goods and services is\nsupposed to reduce under the new policy, while the economy will receive a\npositive boost. It is also expected to make domestic goods and services\ninternationally competitive.\n\nUniform Taxation\n\nThe objective of GST is to make India an integrated\neconomy by charging uniform tax rates and removing economic obstacles, thereby\nmaking the country a common national market. The subsuming of indirect taxes\ninto just one tax will also provide a lift to the Government’s ‘Make in India’\ncampaign, as goods that are manufactured in the country will be competitive in\nnational and international markets.\n\nCascading of Taxes\n\nThe cascading of taxes will be eliminated by GST as\nthe whole supply chain will get an all-general input tax credit mechanism.\nBusiness operations can be efficient at each stage of supply thanks to the\nseamless accessibility to input tax credit across goods or services.\n\nLesser Number of Compliances\n\nCompliance will be simpler through the coordination of\ntax rates, laws and procedures. Inter-state disputes such as those on\ne-commerce taxation and entry tax that presently prevailed will no longer cause\nconcerns, while multiple taxation on the same transactions will also be\n\nThe old tax regime had service tax and VAT, and they\nboth had their own procedures and returns. GST will combine them and reduce the\nnumber of returns as well as the time spent on tax compliances. GST has 11\nreturns under it. Four of them are basic returns that are valid to all taxable\nfirms under GST.\n\nCommon Procedures\n\nThe procedures and formats for refund of taxes and\nregistration of taxpayers will be uniform. The tax base will also be common, as\nwell as the system of collection of goods or services in addition to the\ntimelines for each movement, thereby ensuring that taxation systems have\ngreater assurance.\n\nCommon Portal\n\nThe procedures for various processes like\nregistration, tax payments, refunds, returns, etc., will be automated and become\nbasic. Whether it is the filing of returns, filing of refund claims, payment of\ntaxes, or registration, all procedures will be done online via GSTN. The\nverification of input tax credit will also be done online, and input tax credit\nacross the country will be corresponded electronically, thereby turning the\nprocess accountable and transparent. As a result, the process will be executed\nmuch faster since the taxpayer won’t have to interact with the tax\n\nLowered Tax Burden\n\nThe average tax burden on industry and trade is\nexpected to reduce due to GST, resulting in a reduction of prices and increased\nconsumption, which will increase production and eventually improve the\ndevelopment of various industries. Domestic demand is set to soar and local marketers\nwill have greater opportunities, thus generating more employment within the\n\nRegulation of Unorganised Industries\n\nGST aims to make sure that payments and compliances\nare done online, and input credit can only be available when the supplier\nreceives the amount, thus ensuring that these industries have regulation and\n\nComposition Scheme\n\nSmall businesses can find break from tax burdens\nthrough the composition scheme. Small businesses that have turnovers ranging\nfrom Rs.20 lakh to Rs.50 lakh will be subjected to lower taxes.\n\nWritten by", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9909160137176514}
+{"content": "Catherine Anne \"Cat\" Taber (born December 30, 1979) is an American actress who has appeared in films, television, and video games, including voicing Lori Loud on The Loud House.\n\nExternal links\n\n\"Gee, this is harder than I thought.\"\nThis article is a stub. You can help Nickipedia by expanding it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9451656341552734}
+{"content": "Shipwrights Tools Thermal Generator\n\nThe Thermal Generator, one of the Tools\n\nThe Shipwright's Tools was a relic of the planet Makeb kept at the Tarlam City Archives. The Tools' significance was because they were made by the first colonists who settled on the planet from the material dismantled from their ships. During the Conquest of Makeb in 3639 BBY archivist Varus attempted to save the tools from mercenary-ridden archives before departing the planet on the Ark.\n\n\nIn other languages", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9793567657470703}
+{"content": "Horses, Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Malaysian Plane, and Neptune\n\nI recently listened to the podcast on Red Ice Creations featuring Mark Gray. It’s really good! It regards symbols, number codes, and events surrounding the missing Malaysian plane, flight MH370. Mark also has a Facebook page where he builds with others to help put the [Pi]eces of the puzzle together. I started making additional connections and decided to share them here.\n\nLet me add, I’ve been writing about HORSEs prior to this year, the CHInese year of the HORSE. HORSEs are a huge theme this year. In my last blog post, I mentioned Marius, the giraffe that was put down by the Copenhagen Zoo. At the time, I hadn’t noticed, but Marius has two additional codes in the name, beside the obvious MARS and ARIES. It also contains MAR, which means “sea,” in Spanish. “MARE” is “sea” in Italian. A MARE is a type of female HORSE. When we add MAR + SEA together, we get MERCY. The MAR = “sea” and by adding an “E” (MARE) to the end, it becomes a female HORSE. Of course, I AM writing this under the astrological sign of the RAM, which is a reversed MAR(S)/MAR(E).Mars, Marius, Bruno Mars, Veronica MarsVE(NUS)ronica MARS lives in the fictional town of NEPTUNE. MARs, the god of WAR, rode on a chariot pulled by two HORSEs named Phobos and Deimos. He holds the HORSEs with his ARM. Both Philip SE[A]ymour Hoffman (“PLUT(O)arch Heavensbee”) and Sam Claflin (“FINnick Odair”) were in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Finnick plays the NEPTUNE archetype with his TRIDENTNEPTUNE carries a TRIDENT and is associated with HORSEs. Philip means “lover of HORSEs.”\n\nKaty Perry Dark Horse\n\nDaylight savings occurred on March 9th. The first day of Spring was March 20th. The first day of Aries was March 21st. Katy Perry’s “DARK HORSE/(HORUS)” represents the LIGHT HOURS as we approached the Spring EQUIN[E]ox. EQUINE means “of or relating to HORSEs. [D]enver [B]roncos = DB/42. The Super Bowl took place in [N]ew [J]ersey = NJ/24 on 2.2.14. [B]runo [M]ARS = BM/213. 213 comes before 214/Jupiter/.\n\nOn one of Mark Gray’s Facebook posts, I made a comment adding in additional codes/syncs pertaining to the events leading up to the missing Malaysian plane. Below is the screenshot I took of my comment. Mark had made mention that July 23rd is the “feast of Neptune.” I created a video back in September of last year mentioning that July 23rd is also when the annual flooding of the Nile River took place in Egypt. It’s also the first day of LEO (the SUN/SON), and the day after Pi day, July 22nd (22/7=3.14/Pi).The “DOG/(GOD) Days of Summer” begin on July 23rd, when Sirius the “Dog Star” rises from behind the sun. Miley Cyrus made a song last year titled “23.” Miley dons a jersey dress sporting Michael Jordan’s famous basketball number, 23. MJ = 23.\n\nMalaysian plane flight MH370\n\nMark decodes that the TRIDENT (Ψ) means “THREE TEETH.” He mentions that the symbol on the Malaysian plane has two TRIDENTS which resemble the Hebrew letter/s Shin/Sin. He also mentioned that back in February, US Homeland Security announced they were receiving intelligence saying TOOTHpaste bombs were going to be used to blow up international flights. I synced in that Shin/Sin(שׁ שׂ) means “teeth/tooth,” which I’ve written about before.\n\n(R)ORiginal code-cracking by SynchroMiss\n\nI started code-cracking the Hebrew letter/s Shin/Sin toward the end of 2012. Mark mentions how both the TRIDENTs on the tail of the Malaysian plane look like two 3‘s (33). Shin/Sin resembles the number 3, the letters E,W, and M, and of course, the TRIDENT. It has a vibration of 300.\n\nMark Gray‘s photo below synchromystically ties into my own reality. I am originally from VIRGINIA and my boyfriend, (another synchromystic) Jim,  is originally from NEPTUNE. I moved to the Jersey SHORE/HORSE about a year ago. CURRENTly, NEPTUNE is the next town over from us.\n\nMark Gray Facebook post\n\nMark Gray’s Facebook photo/decoding.\n\n\nThese are the comments I left on Mark’s post above.\n\nteeth memories\n\nTEETH represent MEMories. WATER holds MEMory. The Hebrew letter MEM means “WATER.” HORSEs have BIG TEETH. The triDENT looks like the Hebrew letter/s Shin/Sin. We find SE(Y)A(MOUR)HORSEs at the SHORE/HORSE (in WATER). Chew triDENT gum.\n\nHippocampus seahorse\n\nThe seahorse represents memory because it resembles the hippocampus of the brain.\n\nAs I’m writing this blog post, I break to call my mother. She is synchronistically with my niece at a Build-A-Bear workshop building a My Little PONY plush toy! My niece is crazy for those PONIES and I AM too…for I was born the year of the HORSE, in the month of MA[R]Y[E], and I used to ride HORSEs.\n\nphoto (62) My (almost 4 year old) niece chose/built \"Twilight Sparkle\" of the My Little Ponies at Build-A-Bear. Of course she picks the pegasus! ;-)\n\nMy (almost 4 year old) niece chose/built “Twilight Sparkle” of the My Little Ponies at Build-A-Bear. Of course she picks the pegasus! 😉\n\nThanks for reading! In order to keep up with the codes, please click on the hyperlinks in my post as well as checking out Mark’s Facebook page, and of course, listen to the podcast.\n\n\n\nCodes Cracked Like [EG]gs\n\nGeneral Electric (GE) had a famous advertising slogan, “We Bring Good Things to LIFE.” LIFE = the [EG]G or lifeforms that are about to hatch.\n\nPresentation1 1\n\nGE=75/57 –>5+7=12 which is the number of SATURN. Year 57(12) was a common year starting on SATUR[N]day of the Julian calendar.\n\n\nSATURN is represented by the number 12 because it’s half of the 24 (Jupiter) hours within a day.\n\n[E]va [G]aëlle [G]reen (star of the new 300: Rise of an Empire MOO-V) = EGG. As we have learned from a previous blog post, Eva was born on 7/5 and her initials add up to the same. (E=5 and G=7). The EGG syncs us back to GE, who brings good things to life. egg Syncing in with the EGG are waffles, another popular breakfast food. EGGO=EGO. When we shed our EGO, we crack our shells. The EGO is represented by the color YELLOW/(GOLD, save this for later) (chakra) and the EGG‘s yolk is also YELLOW. eggo\n\nSome people prefer ketchup or Heinz 57 on their EGGs…\n\nPresentation1 2\n\nE.g. is an abbreviation for the Latin words “exempli gratia.” It means “for EGGSample.”\n\nfor EGGSample\n\ne.g. = “for EGGSample.” i.e. = “in essence.”\n\nThe Goose That Laid the GOLDen EGGs is a tale in the collection of Aesop’s Fables.\n\nThe Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs\n\nA scRAM-BULLed EGGO = GEO, a word or prefix for Earth. GE is also a prefix for EARTH as it stands for GAIA/GAEA. GAIA is the Greek personification for MOTHER EARTH. Our mothers bEARTH us into existence, thus we are the lifeforms that hatch.\n\n\nGEO is GE is GAIA is Mother EARTH/HEART. ♥ ❣ ❤ ❥ ❦ ❧ ♡\n\nG is the 7th letter and 5th consonant of the modern English alphabet. (G=7 and E=5). G syncs us back to Heinz 57 and G comes just before letter H in the alphabet.\n\nG is for GAIA or Mother Earth.\n\nG is for GAIA or Mother Earth.\n\nGe is the atomic symbol for the element and semimetal Germanium. It is an important semiconductor used in ELECTRONIC devices. It’s also used as an alloying agent, a catalyst, and as a phosphor for fluorescent lamps, such as the GE lightbulb. I am not positive GE uses GErmanium in their products, however by making basic connections, I am assuming so. \n\n\nGe is the atomic symBULL for the element Germanium.\n\nSpeaking of ELECTRONICs, [G]areth [E]mery is an English EDM (ELECTRONIC Dance Music) producer and DJ. He sports the EG in his logo below.\n\nGareth Emery\n\nSyncing in with ELECTRONIC dance music and the Goose that laid the GOLDen EGGs, is Ellie GOuLDing. One of Ellie’s most popular tracks is titled “LIGHTS.” LIGHTS syncs us back to GE who makes lightbulbs.\n\nEllie Goulding Lights\n\nEllie Goulding’s song,”LIGHTS,” is a GOLDen track!\n\nPlease IN-JOY the Bassnectar remix of Ellie’s track, “Lights” below.\n\nGE also stands for GeoEngineering/Genetically Engineered and Genetically Enhanced tying back to the (GMO) tomato ketchup. \n\nGMO tomato\n\nGo organic! Avoid anything Genetically Enhanced by man!\n\nThe once-famously popular ‘57 Chevy … \n\nThere’s the LEVI’S (EVIL/LOVE) 507 blue jeans/genes.\n\nLevi's 507\n\nHere is another EGGsellent EGGsample of how everything is conNECKted! …\n\nThanks for reading! If this post activated you, share it to your favorite social media portal!\n\n***All original slides by SynchroMiss***\n\n\nIn this post I will attempt to make simple connections highlighting the sun and fish—basic elements of nature. Here we go!\n\nThe SOLE is a type of FLATfish. It resemBULLs the shape of the human foot, otherwise known as the SOLE.\n\n\nThe Latin origin of the word SOLE is “Solea SANDAL,” a FLATfish. The shape of the fish resembles the bottom of the human foot.\n\nSOLE = the SOLE of the foot that never sees the SUN. SUN in sPANish = SOL.\n\nAs the story goes, Jesus/JAH-Zeus sacrificed his BODy (BOD = DOB or Date Of Birth) for the world. The body houses the SOUL. He was born during the Age of Pisces (Pi-SEAS) which is why he is represented by the fish symbolism.\n\nJesus Sun\n\nJesus or JAHZEUS (the GOD Zeus) is represented by the SUN. He is the SON of GOD/DOG.\n\nAs we just learned, the origins of the word, “SOLE” are solea SANDAL. Jesus wore SANDALs on the SOLES of his feet.\n\nSANDal = DNA and SAND. We find SAND on the beach near the ocean where fish reside.\n\nJesus sandals\n\nJah-Zeus wore SANDALs. SANDALs are typically customized for FLAT-feet or without heels.\n\nThe feet relate back to Pisces/PiSEAS because Pisces rules the feet.\n\njesus fish\n\nFLATs are shoes made without a hEEL.\n\nFLATs are shoes made without hEELs.\n\nThere is also a fish called a SUNfish.\n\nOcean Sunfish\n\nThe SUN-PHIsh of the O'[SEA]N. It is also a type of FLATfish.\n\n\nFreshwater SUNfish ~\n\nThen we have the JELLYfish-\n\n\nOceanic SUNfish consume JELLYfish as part of their diet.\n\nJELLY SANDALs were a big craze back in the 80’s and then again in the 90’s! Jelly Sandals\n\nSANDAL = SUN+DIAL —> SUNDIAL, an instrument for keeping TIME (Saturn).\n\n\nSaturn makes an appearance on this SUNDIAL with his sickle.\n\nLike FLATfish, there are FLAT feet. The ARCh gives the foot support.\n\nFoot Arches\n\nAfter it rains, the SUN brings out the rainbow which bends at an ARC of 42°. Sun and RAinbow\n\nJesus is an ascended master on the GOLDen ray. He lived during the GOLDen Age and he taught the GOLDen rule. GOLDfish platforms were very popular during the DISCo era. DISC = the SUN/SON. The O symbolizes the shape of the SUN and it also means       DISCOver(head).\n\nGoldfish Zebra Platforms\n\nGOLDfish zebra platform shoes. The black and white represent duality (i.e. night and day).\n\nDiscover Card\n\nDISCO-ver Card or Network =                     4.3 or 4.13 / Pi. The logo features the SUN or DISC OVER the CAR-D/(ARC)-D. A capital letter D turned on its side at 90° represents the SUN on the horizon. D also represents Vitamin D produced in our bodies by exposure to the SUN. 😉\n\nSOLE = a scRAM-BULLed LEOS or LEO. The zodiac sign of LEO is ruled by the SUN. The sigil ♌ that it is represented by looks like the letter S and when added to LEO = LEOS. Also, when we add the word LEOS + SUN = LESSON. Jesus taught the GOLDen rule which is a LESSON.\n\n\nWe are currently under the sun sign of LEO. We entered the Lion’s Gate on 7/23/13. ROaR! <—-(My name is RORY) 😉\n\nJESUS, a sPANish name, is a prominent figure in the ROMAn cultures. He is idolized by those in sPAiN and Italy. ROME is the ca[Pi]tal of Italy. ROME=ROAM which means “to WALK.” Italy is in the shape of a BOOT. There was a popular song in the 60’s sung by Nancy Sinatra (nANK[H]y SIN(ש)-@RA) titled, “These BOOTS Are Made For WALKin’.”\n\nJesus Thank You\n\nHilarious meme! 😛\n\nROME is the ca[Pi]tal of ITALY. Some people may ROAM around in their BOOTS.\n\nROME is the ca[Pi]tal of Italy. Some people may ROAM around in their BOOTS.\n\nThese Boots Are Made For Walkin'\n\nJim and I wrote about the BOOTeS constellation HERE which syncs up Pi.rfectly with this blog post! Check it out!\n\n\nRead about BOOTeS HERE! 🙂\n\nJesus WALKed on water or the sea (C). Jesus is represented by the SUN which is the fire element. Walking on water represents the water element. Within the zodiac,               FIRE + WATER are elements that do not typically go together.\n\n\nThe CROSS (T/t) on the sHIP/(PHI) represents Christ to Christians and an X to PiRA-tes. 24 as well as Jupiter!\n\nBOTAS BOOTS in sPANish and BOATS catch fish. \n\n\nWe ROAM in BOOTS that we wear on our FEET.\n\n\n\nAs we have learned from a previous blog post, the ANCHor is the ANKH+HER and it is what GROUNDs the sHIP/(PHI) or BOAT. We stand on the GROUND with our FEET to keep us ANCHORed. The ANKLE = ANKH+EL/L and it helps GROUND the FOOTI wrote about the ANCHOR HERE which syncs/SINKS in Pi.rectly once again! \n\n\nThe ANKH+HER grounds the bARCo <– (boat in sPANish).\n\n\nAnatomy of the huMaN ANKLE. The ANKLE connects to the FOOT.\n\nSEOUL is a city in South Korea, Asia. Asians eat a lot of FISH, a BRAIN food. Coral REEFs tie in here nicely because they resemble the human brain. We find coral REEFs in the sea. REEF is a popular brand of FLIPFLOP. (Save FLIPFLOP for later.) I wrote about SeOUL, South Korea HERE! Follow along in the st(R)ORY of syncs!\n\nSeOUL, South Korea. There is ONLY ONE of its kind!\n\nSEOUL/(SOLE/SOUL/SOLO), South Korea. There is ONLY ONE of its kind!\n\nPie Pi 1\n\nREEF flip-flops and coral REEF.\n\nSOLE also means ONE or ONLY. We have ONE SOUL and ONE body. People of certain monotheistic faiths believe that there is ONLY ONE GOD, such as JESUS. ONE translates as UNO in sPANish.\n\n\nONE = NEO scRAM-BULLed. NEO means NEW. Jesus is in the NEW Testament.\n\nFoot in sPANish is Pie. Pie = Pi or 3.14. HAND(DNA) in sPANish is MaNo which is also Pi (MN). FINgers and TOEs are otherwise known as digits. The word FIN is in FINger/s and fish have FINs. (Save the FIN for THE END 😉 ).There are also boats called TOW(TOE)boats. An underTOW/(TOE) occurs when an underwater current flows strongly away from the shore. Digits are numbers or CODes. COD=FISH. PESCADO = fish in sPANish. PESCADO = PESC(ES) + ADO, so it’s a lot of fussing over fish.\n\nPie Pi\n\n= 3.14\n\nhANDs are called MaNos in sPANish.\n\nhANDs are called MaNos in sPANish.\n\n\nThe TOWboat is a special boat that's designed to push barges or car floats.\n\nThe TOWboat is a special boat that’s designed to push barges or car floats.\n\nUnderTOW/(TOE) was a 2004 thriller that took place in Georgia<--(Atlantis). The film tells the story of two boys pursued by a murderous UNCLE or ANKH+EL/L. :-P\n\nUnderTOW/(TOE) was a 2004 thriller that took place in    Georgia<–(Atlantis). The film tells the story of two boys pursued by a murderous UNCLE/(ANKLE) or ANKH+EL/L. 😛\n\nLet’s FLIPFLOP back to FLIPFLOPS.  What do fish do when they are out of water? They FLIPFLOP around. This is where FLIPFLOP sandals come from.\n\n\nfl[iP] fl[OP]s aren’t called FLIPFLOPS because they flip and flop on your feet. They are named after what happens to a fish out of water! The Pi and OP codes are also in the word.\n\nLet’s talk about the ocean and the sANDs of time. SALT in sPANish = SAL and when we add a T, it becomes the English “SALT.” The T/t in the word represents the cross which can be interpreted 1 of 2 ways: 1. The cross of Christ OR 2. Duality/3D. SAL S☼L and the SOL is the SUN/SON/Christ. Just like the sand in an hourglass marks time, the beach contains both salt in its waters as well as sand on its shore. When we leave footprints in the sand, we are keeping track of time. The Age of Pisces is a time-based dimension.\n\n\nThis is one of my own photos of the Asbury Park‘s Sunset Beach. That is my dance hoop CleopatRA making an appearance in the sAND.\n\n\nThis is another one of my photos of the Sunset Beach. We can see the sand as well as the water in this one.\n\nHourglass on the beach\n\nThe hourglass, sandglass, or sand timer keeps track of time with its granules of sand.\n\nFootprints in the sand\n\nFrom Wikipedia: “Footprints in the Sand,” is a popular allegorical text written in prose.\n\nSNeAKEr contains the word SNAKE in it. (SNAKE + RA <–SUN). The SNAKE relates back to the story about ADAM/ATOM and EVE/EVOLUTION in the GARDEN/GARTER<-(SNAKE) of GOOD/GOD and EVIL/LOVE. A & E were also bareFOOT and (S)NAKEd. The SNAKE represents our kundalini rising. 2013 is the year of the SNAKE.\n\nSneaker Snake\n\nThe year of the SNAKE is 2013 and some SNEAKErs.\n\nATOM and EVE in the GARTER of GOD and LOVE.\n\nATOM and EVE in the GARTER of GOD and LOVE were (S)NAKEd.\n\nThe A and E logo stands for the Arts and Entertainment channel (Adam/Atom and Eve/Evolution). It also stands for Accident and Emergency. The \"&\" symbol is the number 8 or ∞ as well as an \"S.\"\n\nThe A and E logo of the Arts and Entertainment channel. (Adam/Atom and Eve/Evolution). It also stands for Accident and Emergency. The “&” symbol is the number 8 or as well as an “S.” The S represents the (S)nake in the garden/garter.\n\n\nA hEEL, an EEL and bunny SLIPPERs.\n\nWe get the word HEEL from the SLIPPERy fish called an EEL. EELs are a type of fish that are SNAKE-like. There are shoes called HIGH H-EELS. Sometimes HEELs are worn with FISHNET STOCKings. We catch FISH with NETS. There are also shoes called SLIPPERs.\n\nFishnets and high heels\n\nWomen wear FISHNETS with high hEELs.\n\n\n\nSHOES = S(nake)+HOES. A HOE is a slang term for a SKANKy<–(SNAKE or ANKH+KEY) person. HOES wear GARTERs to keep their PANtyHOSE up. A GARTER is a type of SNAKEHOES work together with PIMPs and some people call STRIPpERS HOESPIMP sounds like SHRIMP, another sea animal. The word STRIPpER is derived from STRIPER which is a type of bASS fish. PANtyHOSE cover the lower half of the body including the buttocks or ASS, to put it bluntly.\n\n\n\nPimp Hoe Shrimp\n\nA PIMP with his HOE and some SHRIMP.\n\nStripper Striper\n\nA STRIPpER showing off her ASS and a STRIPER B-ASS.\n\nA HOSE is flexible, hollow tube typically made out of RUBBER designed to carry fluids such as WATER. There’s a type of fish called a RUBBERNOSE Pleco that lives underWATER. HOES encourage the use of RUBBERs <– (slang for condoms) as protection to prevent SEMEN (SEA+MEN) from impregnating them. The water HOSE is a garden tool as is the HOE.\n\nThe RUBBERnose Pleco is a.k.a. the BULL(TAURUS)DOG/ (GOD) Pleco.\n\nThe RUBBERnose Pleco is a.k.a. the BULL(TAURUS)DOG/(GOD) Pleco. It is a type of CATfish.\n\nCondoms are typically made of RUBBER. They resemble a HOSE nozzle and prevent SE(A)MEN from impregnation/insemination.\n\nCondoms are typically made of RUBBER. They resemble a HOSE nozzle and prevent SE(A)MEN from reaching their destination.\n\n\nGarden(GARTER) HOEs~\n\nSTRIPPERS dance on POLES and we catch fish with POLES. We fish from the DOC[K] which is COD backwards. COD is a type of fish. A SEAMAN is a type of sailor that sounds like SALMON. SALMON translates as SALT+MaN. There’s a type of SALMON (fish) called SOCKeye SALMON. We wear SOCKs on our FEET.\n\nDock Pole\n\nThe fishing DOCK, fishing POLEs and a stripper on a POLE.\n\nCOD fish~\n\nCOD fish~\n\n\nSEAMEN of the SEA~\n\n\nThe SOCKeye SALMON wears red SOCKs.\n\n\nYou may remember old commercials that stated “Sorry, no C.O.D.’s” at the end. COD‘s=Cash On Delivery, an antiquated method of payment.\n\nCOD is the anagram for the game Call Of Duty. Black [OP]s contains the OP code again. OP=Ocean Pacific which relates back to the sea.\n\nCOD is the acronym for the game Call Of Duty. Black OPs contains the OP code again. OP=Ocean Pacific which relates back to the sea. P or Pi = 16 (4×4).\n\nOp (Ocean Pacific) was a really popular clothing line back in the 70's and 80's.\n\nOp (Ocean Pacific), akin to REEF, was a popular surf clothing line back in the 70’s and 80’s.\n\nWe have come to THE END of this post (EL FIN in sPANish). FINs are connected to fish to help them swim and symbolically, we are at the end of the Age of Pisces. EL also refers to GOD which ties back to the beginning of this post when JESUS and ZEUS were cited.\n\nel fin = the end\n\nel fin = the end\n\nIf you enjoyed this post, PLEASE don’t just sit there, stare, and do nothing.  Please share this with all to SEA (C). It is VERY IMPORTANT that we share during our awakening! I’m not doing this to display my ego or receive any sort of praise. I’m just attempting to help you notice more connections in your everyday world.  As usual, Jim contributed heavily to this post! Thank you for reading and sharing! 🙂\n\n ***All slides were created by SynchroMiss***", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.731974720954895}
+{"content": "Armagh Bramley Apples\n\nFrom Cookipedia\n\nArmagh Bramley Apples\n\nArmagh Bramley Apples are PGI apples from Northern Ireland.\n\n\nThe Armagh Bramley Apple is a large green fresh culinary apple. It has a reddish flush and its flesh is white with a tinge of green. The apples are large in size ranging between 60-120 mm in diameter. They are rounded with less uniformity of shape than other Bramley Apples, flat sided, with a ribbed apex, and large eye which is part opened. They are solid green colour with reddish blush, the sepals are brown and downy and the Stalk is short and thick. Inside, the flesh is white with a tinge of green and its texture is firm and moist.\n\nSpecific steps in production that must take place in the identified geographical area:\n\nThe apples must be grown in the designated area. Armagh Bramley Apples are grown in the highly fertile, silt-loam or clay-loam soils of the region. In all orchards, the field boundary is maintained as a substantial hedgerow and windbreak of mixed woody plant species, this provides protection from the chill northerly or north-easterly winds which arise during some spring periods. Regardless of tree age or size, all summer and winter pruning is carried out manually. The management of these trees for consistent crop yield and quality requires those skills gained from many years’ experience in shaping the frame and canopy through winter and Armagh growers pride themselves on observing Good Agricultural Practice in the production of Armagh Bramley apples. Pollination by honeybees is commonly employed during the blossom period and all spray applications are undertaken with due diligence to the welfare of these and other beneficial insects, as well as careful regard to the wider environment.\n\nWidespread use is made of foliar nutrition in Armagh Bramley orchards; both 'straight' (single) nutrients and seaweed-derived fertiliser blends are incorporated into the regular spray programme. Apples are harvested by hand between early September and late October. Time of picking is dependent on season, market, fruit maturity and tree age and rootstock type. Growers often concur on the start date for picking relevant to the size of the apples and their rate of growth during the late summer/early autumn. Most apples are harvested once they have achieved a minimum average diameter of 75 mm, but before they have matured beyond the stage where > 20 % of the stored carbohydrate has been converted from starch to sugar.\n\nAs well as the orchards being pruned manually, all fruit is picked and graded by hand. Pickers are trained in handling fruit to avoid skin marking and flesh damage, which is particularly critical for this variety, since a significant proportion of the crop is stored in controlled atmosphere conditions for supply to market throughout the year.\n\nConcise definition of the geographical area:\n\nArmagh Bramley Apples are grown in the following traditional apple growing parishes in the Archdiocese of Armagh, which covers the counties of Armagh and Tyrone and part of county Londonderry:\n\nBallygawley, Beragh, Bessbrook, Cloghogue, Clonoe, Coagh, Coalisland, Cookstown, Crossmaglen, Cullyhanna, Donaghmore, Dromintree, Dungannon, Eglish, Keady, Derrynose & Madden, Kildress, Killcluney, Killeeshill, Kilmore, Lissan, Loughgall, Magherafelt, Middletown, Middle Killeavy, Moneymore, Moy, Mullaghbawn, Newbridge, Pomeroy, Portadown, Tandragee, Termonmaguirc, Whitecross.\n\nLink with the geographical area:\n\nThe defined area is subject to climatic influences including an annual rainfall of up to 80 inches derived from the Atlantic weather system, and an average temperature of 3 °C (winter) to 18 °C (summer) arising from the influence of the Gulf Stream. This, combined with the soil quality in the defined area, which is rich, fertile and particularly high in calcium, contributes to the specificity of the area.\n\nDue to the northerly location, there is less light than other Bramley growing areas and so photosynthesis dictates a lower tree density, allowing for lateral growth. The colder climate than other Bramley growing areas means that there is less uniformity of growth in the Armagh Bramley Apple and also means that there is less insect pressure and so insecticides require application once per season. This reduced insecticide application is reflected in low residue levels. The lower temperatures also mean that that there is a longer growing season. The designated area is characterised by drumlin hills with numerous small rivers. The rich soil and higher precipitation also means that there is no requirement for artificial irrigation.\n\nThe designated area’s climate and soil have a direct influence on the reputation of the product. The longer growing season arising from the lower temperatures characteristic of the area results in larger fruit with less uniformity of shape, a high acid quality suitable for a culinary apple and a stronger distinctive flavour.\n\nArmagh Bramley Apples have a reputation of holding their flavour and being firmer in texture than other Bramley Apples which is maintained when cooked. This also contributes to its reputation of better keeping quality and as such has longer storability characteristics (12-13 months) than Bramleys from other regions.\n\nArmagh Bramley Apples also differ from other Bramley Apples in that they are green with an occasional reddish flush, but do not develop defined stripes. In addition the Armagh Bramley Apple has a less rounded shape than others due to the cooler climate and the resulting irregular growth patterns. The Apples have a stronger, pronounced flavour.\n\nThe Bramley apple was first brought to Armagh in 1884, when 60 Bramley seedlings were introduced them to Northern Ireland. By 1921, 7 000 acres had been planted and Bramley had become the principal variety grown in Armagh. Processing of the apple started in 1903 and Northern Ireland’s leading processors are still based in County Armagh, near their main supply, the orchards of the county.\n\nThe Bramley apple has a unique texture and flavour that assures its position as the king of culinary apples. It retains its strong, tangy flavour throughout the cooking process. The Bramley apple is the only apple in the world with these properties. The Armagh Bramley Apple has a reputation for being firmer in texture, which means that they can be stored for longer and hold their texture for longer when cooking.\n\nThe colder climate also accounts for the less rounded shape than other Bramleys. The cooler weather leads to uneven pollination across the ovaries of individual fruit. The ovaries that are fertilised first will swell and develop before the others, which means that the Armagh Bramley Apples develop a characteristic non-round shape.\n\nThe Armagh Bramley apple orchards are unusual in their northerly location and as a result of the climate the apples produced are fewer in number but richer in flavour. The cost of producing Bramley, as a result, is high. The unique growing conditions in Armagh result in a firmer, more dense fruit than would be grown elsewhere. Aided by a rich, fertile soil that is high in calcium and essential nutrients with a pure and abundant water supply.\n\nArmagh is known throughout Ireland as the Orchard County, with apples having grown in the county for 3,000 years. St Patrick is said to have planted an apple tree at Ceangoba, an ancient settlement east of Armagh City. The reputation of Armagh as the Orchard County is solely due to the Armagh Bramley Apple. 99 % of all top fruit grown in Northern Ireland is Bramley Apple, and 95 % of all top fruit grown in Northern Ireland is in Armagh. Armagh is referred to as the Orchard County throughout the culture and customs of the area, from traditional folk songs to local sporting teams.\n\nThe term 'Orchard' is synonymous with Armagh only as a result of the Armagh Bramley Apple, yet many companies in the designated area unrelated to the Bramley, use the name 'Orchard' due to the instant recognition that it gives to the area due to the importance of the Armagh Bramley Apple.\n\nLocal restaurants actively promote dishes made from the local Armagh apples, such as Armagh Bramley apple pie, Armagh Bramley Apple Sorbet and Armagh Bramley Apple Crumble. Armagh Bramley Recipe competitions are held with recipes for starters (e.g. Bramley Apple Soup or Ulster Delight), main courses (e.g. Pork with Bramley Apple Stuffing) and desserts (e.g. Armagh Bramley Apple Cake, Bramley Toffee Pudding, Armagh East Coast Soufflé); there is even a local potter who has a Bramley Apple Range, inspired by the nearby orchards.\n\nThe importance of the Armagh Bramley Apple to the region is reflected not only in the fact that up to 1,500 local people are employed in the industry, but also that traditional events still take place, such as Apple Week, and the Apple festival in October. The last Sunday in May is designated Apple Blossom Sunday, as the local orchards are a sea of pink and white flowers. Tourists can take tours of the orchards, complete with Armagh Bramley apple pies, washed down with Armagh cider at the region’s Apple Blossom Fair.\n\nReference: The European Commission\n\nFind recipes that contain 'Armagh Bramley Apples'", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9326674342155457}
+{"content": "29 June 2018\n\nSoul Families\n\nTo start preparing for the post-Event and post-Contact society, the Pleiadians have asked me to release intel about soul families.\n\nSoul families are created when a group of Souls emerges from undifferentiated monadic essence and enters this universe through a seventhdimensional portal of the Galactic Central Sun, either in this galaxy or any other galaxy in the universe.\n\nMillions of highly evolved Souls that are now incarnated on the surface of this planet have mainly entered this universe either through the Galactic Central Sun in this Galaxy or its sister galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy.\n\nThey have then gained their experience by traveling throughout the Galaxy through higherdimensional light filaments that crisscross the Galaxy and later focused their consciousness by gaining experience in portal star systems such as Pleiades, Aldebaran, Sirius, Arcturus, Vega (alpha Lyrae), Tau Ceti...\n\nAt some point in their evolution path they have encountered Galactic Wars and they got involved and this is their main reason they found themselves on Earth.\n\nEither they made a conscious decision to enter the Quarantine Earth to anchor the Light and help the Light forces to liberate the planet, or they have simply wandered into a dangerous zone in the Galaxy without fully understanding the risk and got caught by the Archons in the interdimensional scalar net, dragged to Earth and forced into reincarnation cycle.\n\nIt is of the utmost importance for all higherdimensional star beings incarnated on the surface of the planet to awaken now, remember their missions and carry the out.\n\nIt is also of the utmost important for members of the soul families to start connecting with each other from higher perspective and not only as human beings being caught in Quarantine Earth.\n\nSoul family members create connection with each other based on fifthdimensional understanding of their own essence (manasic consciousness) and create true friendships. This is the cosmic origin of the friend archetype.\n\nSoul family members of the same soul family or of two adjoining soul families that create a very deep soul connection with sixthdimensional Soul Love positive interference pattern (buddhic consciousness) are called soul mates. This is the cosmic origin of the girlfriend /boyfriend archetype.\n\nSoul family members of the same soul family that are actually one being that has split into opposite female/male polarities as it has entered the fourth/third dimension, are called twin souls. Their connection reaches the seventh dimension (atmic consciousness) and is the cosmic origin of man/woman, husband/wife and hero/goddess archetype.\n\nThe Soul Family is one of the central mysteries of the Sisterhood of the Rose:\n\n\nIt is the One being which manifests in the physical:\n\nAll interlocking levels of connection within a soul family create a Clifford torus that breaks the Matrix:\n\n\nThis is the reason why the dark forces have always wanted to destroy soul families.\n\nFirst hey did that by implanting star people to disconnect them from higherdimensional consciousness and from their Soul presence. This is called vertical implant programming and will be addressed in a special dedicated blog post when the time is right. Vertical implant programming is the basis for Quarantine Earth blockage.\n\nThe second layer of programming is horizontal implant programming. The Pleiadians have asked me to address this now in order to start deconstructing the society programming that creates the Matrix.\n\nHorizontal implant programming misuses the fact that twin souls enter the fourth and third dimensional universe as a couple of male (electric) and female (magnetic) polarity. In its pure form, electric (kundalini) force of the male and magnetic (Soul) force of the female create attraction which in turn creates triangulation which is the force of evolution.\n\nWhen this electromagnetic force of female/male attraction is interfered with by the means of horizontal implant programming, it creates a distortion in the electromagnetic field of the society that is being programmed, and evolution of such society gets delayed, sometimes for many millennia, as is the case with the Earth surface society.\n\nThe basic horizontal implant creates a split in female and male perception of sexual energy, as it has been explained in detail here:\n\n\nThe most effective way to control a society and delay its evolution is to control female sexual energy. This is the reason why cultures that gave maximum sexual freedom to women were the ones that saw most progress.\n\nThe most effective way to control female sexual energy in a given society is to infiltrate a critical mass of Orion/Draco/Reptilian sexual predators in that society and let them loose. This is what Archons did many times throughout human history. When a critical mass of women receives negative programming from those predators, this creates a Pavlovian reflex in subconscious female psyche of that society, thus effectively cutting off Goddess energy.\n\nIn a society like this, females begin to live a double life, expressing themselves sexually only when they are away from the prying eyes of the Matrix.\n\nAn extreme example of this is the society of Saudi Arabia:\n\n\nThe key of liberation of such society is for the most advanced women of that society to gradually start expressing sensual, sexual Goddess energy:\n\n\nArchons are also absolutely allergic to deep Soul Love energy between a man and a woman, especially between soulmates and twin souls.\n\nBy engineering the incarnation process, they rarely allow two twin souls to incarnate at the same time. Even if they do, they rarely meet each other. Even if the meet, they are rarely allowed to be together, the Archons engineering situations to prevent the union. This is why twin soul unions on the surface of the planet now are extremely rare, and most people who think they are twin souls are actually primary soul mates (soul mates that channel energy of the twin soul to each other).\n\nA deep Soul Love connection between soul mates on the surface of the planet happens a little more often, and if it does, Archons sometimes go to great extremes towards preventing that love, even resorting to killing one or both partners.\n\nAfter the Event and especially after the First Contact, the Resistance and the Pleiadians will start contacting the most advanced members of human society, especially those who are aware of soul families.\n\nThis contact will inevitably bring tectonic cultural shifts into the human society. The Pleiadians and the Resistance have communicated that this contact will sometimes inevitable evolve into deeper romantic and sexual relations, especially between twin souls and soul mates where one of them is living on the surface and the other one is within the Resistance or belongs to the Confederation Fleet:\n\nTo be more prepared for those connections, the surface population needs to be aware that the Pleiadians and the Resistance have a very similar societal model that is based on soul families. Sometimes they are fully committed to exclusive sacred union with their twin soul or their primary soulmate, and sometimes they form open polyamoruos connections that are based on Soul Love and free flow of sexual energy. Same sex unions do happen among them, but they are free from any Archon interference that is so prevalent on the surface of this planet.\n\nThese connections will be the final test of integration of surface population into the Galactic society.\n\nVictory of the Light!\n\nBy COBRA (Compression Breakthrough) on 2 April 2018\n\nNo comments:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7789454460144043}
+{"content": "Tactful Calling\n\nTactful Calling adds a level of urgency to mobile phone calls, through a force-sensitive dial button.\n\nAt the time of an incoming call, users increasingly find themselves in the dilemma of either taking the call, which may be impolite towards others, or simply inadequate, or rejecting the call, which may be – towards the caller – impolite or inadequate, as well. In the Tactful Calling project, a level of urgency is added to the phone call.\n\nThe level of urgency is expressed by the caller through the force exerted on the »dial« button, making it physically harder to place a call flagged as »important«, and requiring him to gently touch the »dial« button to make a more »hesitant« call.\n\nGiven the added information of urgency, it is possible to set up a filter for incoming calls, e.g. redirecting all calls that are not flagged as »important«. This seeks to help users to manage their connected lives more efficiently, and more politely towards each other, giving them a broader spectrum within mobile communications.\n\nData Protection\n\nFabian Hemmert", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8915930390357971}
+{"content": "The Fiscalini Ranch Preserve is a natural treasure for everyone to enjoy, and you can participate in enhancing and protecting the Ranch by donating today. Your contribution will help in maintaining and restoring trails, controlling wildfire risks, supporting educational programs, and so much more. Become a force for nature by clicking the link below and making a donation.\n\nMake a Donation", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Correlation Analysis Between Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd\n\nThis module allows you to analyze existing cross correlation between Galapagos NV and Taiwan Wtd. You can compare the effects of market volatilities on Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd and check how they will diversify away market risk if combined in the same portfolio for a given time horizon. You can also utilize pair trading strategies of matching a long position in Galapagos with a short position of Taiwan Wtd. See also your portfolio center. Please also check ongoing floating volatility patterns of Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd.\nHorizon     30 Days    Login   to change\nCheck Efficiency\n\nComparative Performance\n\n Predicted Return Density \n\nGalapagos NV  vs.  Taiwan Wtd\n\n Performance (%) \n\nPair Volatility\n\nGiven the investment horizon of 30 days, Galapagos NV is expected to generate 4.06 times more return on investment than Taiwan Wtd. However, Galapagos is 4.06 times more volatile than Taiwan Wtd. It trades about 0.22 of its potential returns per unit of risk. Taiwan Wtd is currently generating about -0.06 per unit of risk. If you would invest  12,740  in Galapagos NV on July 22, 2019 and sell it today you would earn a total of  3,944  from holding Galapagos NV or generate 30.96% return on investment over 30 days.\n\nPair Corralation between Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd\n\nTime Period2 Months [change]\nStrengthVery Weak\nValuesDaily Returns\n\nDiversification Opportunities for Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd\n\nGalapagos NV diversification synergy\n\nWeak diversification\n\nOverlapping area represents the amount of risk that can be diversified away by holding Galapagos NV and Taiwan Wtd in the same portfolio assuming nothing else is changed. The correlation between historical prices or returns on Taiwan Wtd and Galapagos is a relative statistical measure of the degree to which these equity instruments tend to move together. The correlation coefficient measures the extent to which returns on Galapagos NV are associated (or correlated) with Taiwan Wtd. Values of the correlation coefficient range from -1 to +1, where. The correlation of zero (0) is possible when the price movement of Taiwan Wtd has no effect on the direction of Galapagos i.e. Galapagos and Taiwan Wtd go up and down completely randomly.\nSee also your portfolio center. Please also try Equity Forecasting module to use basic forecasting models to generate price predictions and determine price momentum.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.988192081451416}
+{"content": "α 4 Antibodies\n\nSanta Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. offers a broad range of α 4 antibodies. Select α 4 antibodies from monoclonal antibodies listed below. View detailed α 4 antibody specifications by linking to the specific product blocks. Select appropriate α 4 antibodies for your research by isotype, epitope, applications and species reactivity.\n\nTo the left of the product names in the table below,\n\nAll trademarks are the property of their respective owners.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000004768371582}
+{"content": "visual impairment\n02 Jun\n\nWhat Are the Types of Visual Impairments?\n\nVision loss can happen for a variety of reasons, causing the types of visual impairments to cover a wide spectrum. As a rule, visual impairment cannot be fixed simply by glasses or contact lenses. There are stages of vision loss. What we call blindness is when a visual impairment results in total or near-total vision loss.\n\nOver the last several decades, vision loss has decreased in the United States, but a large number of people still experience visual impairments, especially in developing countries. A vision diagnosis affects everyone differently. Use of vision is different for every person, and the diagnosis may change year to year.\n\nCommon signs of visual impairment include eyes that don’t move together when following an object, crossed eyes, different sized pupils, squinting, eye-rubbing, excessive clumsiness, sitting too close to screens, or avoiding activities that require good vision.\n\nMany types of visual impairments exist: loss of central vision or peripheral vision, blurred vision, and extreme sensitivity to light to name a few. Visual impairments can occur due to cataracts or the effects of rare diseases, or they may result from damaged or missing eye structure. While the list of visual impairments is extensive, we’ll cover a few of the most notable types of poor vision.\n\n\nAlso called “lazy eye,” this functional problem often causes decreased vision in one or both eyes, but it doesn’t include any detectable damage to the retina. The brain tends to shut down vision in one eye to favor the good vision in the other eye. Depending on the situation, the treatment may be something as simple as wearing a patch on the good eye so the weaker eye can strengthen.\n\n\nAniridia is the incomplete formation of the iris. It is usually a congenital anomaly, but it can also result from an injury where an object penetrates the eye. This condition often causes poor vision and sensitivity to light. Sometimes corrective and tinted lenses can help resolve the problem.\n\n\nAchromatopsia can develop due to malformation or partial/total absence of cones in the eye,  which makes it difficult to distinguish colors. It’s important to note that this is different from color blindness. This hereditary condition often includes some vision loss in bright light. The severity of achromatopsia differs across patients, with the most severe cases unable to see any colors at all.\n\n\nWhen the eye is unable to focus completely at any distance, it usually results from a spoon-like shape of the normally spherical cornea. This shape bends light rays unequally, which prevents vision focus. Most people have some degree of astigmatism and slight astigmatism may not be a problem, but more severe cases require special glasses or surgery.\n\n\nCloudiness of vision often signifies the appearance of cataract, which prevents clear vision because of the cataract’s clouding of the lens. For the most part, cataracts occur due to age, trauma, or disease. The most common cure is a simple surgery usually done as an outpatient procedure.\n\nColor Blindness\n\nWhat we call “color blindness” is not blindness at all, but a deficiency in how certain people perceive color. There are different types of color blindness, with red-green and yellow-blue types the most common forms. For the most part, males are more likely to be color blind than females. To deal with color blindness, the individual must learn other ways to recognize important information, such as recognizing the state of traffic lights by the positioning of the light rather than by the coloring.\n\n\nGlaucoma is a condition caused by damage to the optic nerve and retinal nerve fibers by increased pressure in the eye. Glaucoma is preventable if caught early enough. Prescription drugs or surgery can correct the condition and prevent further vision loss.\n\nHyperopia (Farsightedness)\n\nThis vision loss occurs when an individual can clearly see objects that are far away but not focus on objects nearby. Basically, light rays from a distant object strike the retina before the eye can focus. This is a common visual disorder and glasses or contact lenses are usually used to correct this problem.\n\nMacular Degeneration\n\nThe deterioration of the macula causes loss of focused central vision, which challenges acuity and color discrimination. This vision loss can affect all ages, but is most common in older people; in fact, it is the most common form of vision loss in people aged 50 or over. The most common form of the macular degeneration is Stargardt’s Disease.\n\nMyopia (Nearsightedness)\n\nThe opposite of hyperopia, people with myopia can see objects that are near but cannot see objects that are in the distance. In this case, the light rays enter the eye and come to a focus before reaching the retina. A simple solution to this vision loss is glasses or contacts, however, some may be eligible for surgery to correct the vision.\n\nOptic Nerve Atrophy\n\nWhen the optic nerve atrophies, this dysfunction results from the optic nerve not being able to send electrical impulses to the brain. The most common cause of the atrophy of the optic nerve is poor blood flow, but the condition may result from trauma, toxins, or radiation as well. The lack of communication between brain and optic nerve results in vision loss, which may include blind spots. \n\nRetinal Detachment\n\nA condition caused by the separation of the retina from the pigmented cell layer that maintains the retina, retinal detachment can cause severe myopia. Usually caused by a slight retinal tear that begins to experience fluid passing from the vitreous into the sub-retinal space, the tear disrupts the eye structure. This condition tends to require surgery to restore normal sight.\nVisual impairments can be caused by many different types of situations including infections and trauma. Whether the infection occurs before birth or during life at some point, vision loss can be the result of localized infection. Head injuries can also cause vision impairments.\n\nWith so many different types of visual impairments, it’s important that society creates a world that is accessible to everyone. At StrongGo, we work towards greater accessibility every day with our detectable dome tiles that help signify to people with low vision an intersection or mass transit platform.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9896498322486877}
+{"content": "An old legend says that the island of Andøya in Northern Norway used to be a land of elves. Such islands were only visible on the water surface for short periods of time, before disappearing indefinitely into the sea again.\n\nHowever, as Andøya’s destiny would have it, someone once threw steel at the island. Therefore, it could never return to its underwater state, and the land of elves became one among many islands. But on beautiful summer evenings, when walking close to the sea or along the foot of the mountain, you can easily notice that Andøya turned out to be something out of the ordinary. The elves cannot quite let go of it. It is as if they are playing among cloudberry flowers and cotton grass, as if they are singing in the fireweed and  among bluebells.\n\nBankveien 4, 8485\nDverberg, Norway\nRita King\nPhone: +47 761 46 149\nOpen all year\nShop, soap production,\nhandicraft, café,\n\nAccording to old beliefs, the\nelves had great knowledge. If\nhumans show consideration\ntowards nature, the elves will reward\nus with rich gifts. The land\nof elves has given name to a series\nof homemade natural soaps\nmade from the best ingredients\nnature has to offer.\n\nAlveland is a soap work shop and a store, but also a cafe with tasty local treats, made from scratch.\nSpend the night in Alveland; we offer cozy accommodation in in a hundred years old house. We are located at the east coast of Andøy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7049482464790344}
+{"content": "Why a Leaky Gut is Robbing You of Your Health and How To Repair It\n\nThis article originally appeared on Healevate.\n\nLeaky gut, as you might be imagining it in your head, is layman terminology for intestines that have increased permeability.\n\nThis can be due to a variety of reasons, which we’ll dive into shortly, but first let’s provide a basic understanding of how the GI tract works.\n\nThe gut is a tube that is about 20-25 feet long, covers 3000 square feet (the size of a tennis court) of surface area and is only one cell layer thick, according to Dr. Mark Hyman.7\n\nThere are spaces between this single layer of intestinal cells that open and close to allow only specific, very small molecules to pass. These spaces are controlled by tight junctions.\n\nWhat Exactly is Leaky Gut or Intestinal Hyper-Permeability?\n\nThe primary purpose of the GI tract is to provide barrier function, as well as to allow the selective passage of substances it deems beneficial, all the while keeping foreign invaders out.\n\nEvery second of every day, your intestinal cells, along with the immune, neurological and hormonal components within them, screen your environment in an effort to keep you healthy.\n\nLeaky gut occurs when there is a breakdown in this barrier function allowing substances to enter the bloodstream that normally wouldn’t be there, resulting in immune system activation and inflammation.\n\nDr. Alessio Fasano lays it out nicely, saying that “The intestinal mucosa is the battlefield on which friends and foes need to be recognized and properly managed to find the balance between TOLERANCE and the immune response.”2,3,4\n\nHow Does Leaky Gut Occur?\n\nThe tight junctions in a healthy gut operate like a club bouncer, selecting what to allow past the “velvet rope” and into the bloodstream. Simply put, they keep bad things out and allow good things through.\n\nIn a Leaky Gut however, the tight junctions leave the “velvet rope” unattended, allowing everything to pass through. This can result in serious problems.\n\nTechnically speaking, Leaky Gut, also commonly referred to as intestinal hyper-permeability, occurs when inflammation leads to the breakdown of the mechanism that controls the tight junctions between the intestinal cells, allowing them to become looser. This allows the “leaking” of either larger and/or foreign particles through to your bloodstream.\n\nModern lifestyles place a lot of stress on the gut in the form of poor diet, medications, alcohol, infections and environmental toxins, leading to chronic irritation, inflammation and ultimately the breakdown of the intestinal barrier.\n\nThis delicate layer that should be selective and tightly regulated, now has tiny pin-prick like holes in it that allow foreign substances such as undigested foods, bacteria, yeast and toxins to cause an immune response.\n\nAs this scenario progresses over time, a variety of conditions can arise, including acne, allergies, asthma, fatigue and joint pain, or even more serious ones such as Hashimoto’s, Graves’ Disease, Psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions.\n\nTriggers of Leaky Gut\n\nThe most common triggers of Leaky Gut are:\n\n  • Stress\n  • Diet\n  • Infections\n  • Toxins\n  • Medications\n\nTrigger: Stress\n\nStress is a significant trigger and mediator in the development of Leaky Gut. According to Chris Kresser, LAc, “The biochemical changes that occur in times of stress have significant and immediate impact on gut function.”1\n\nOnce your body perceives a stressor, whether it’s work, infection, exercise, food or toxin, it mounts a biochemical response that results in increased gut permeability, mediation of inflammation, increased sensitivity to pain, altered gut motility and changes to the gut microflora. Over time this can lead to significant changes in GI function.\n\nKresser states that “Experimental studies have shown that psychological stress slows normal small intestinal transit time, encourages overgrowth of bacteria, and even compromises the intestinal barrier.”1\n\nThese changes provide the gateway for other triggers to wreak havoc, as larger food particles, toxins, and pathogens enter the bloodstream through the gut, and thus the immune response occurs.\n\nTrigger: Diet\n\nWhile the stresses of work and family are of noteworthy significance, the food that you eat is actually the biggest daily stressor, as perceived by your body, according to Dr. Robert Rountree.5\n\nCommon gut-damaging foods include:\n\nGluten: A protein that has been hybridized (changed from its original form) to the point that your body sees it as foreign and reacts to it.9,10\n\nSugar and Refined Carbohydrates: Support yeast overgrowth and promote bad bacteria over good bacteria.\n\nAlcohol: Alcohol and its by-products are direct toxins and irritants to the GI mucosa. It’s also linked to yeast and SIBO infections.\n\nProcessed Foods: Contain additives and preservatives that your body sees as irritants or toxins.\n\nGMO’s: Genetically modified foods that your body can’t identify. The largest GMO crops are Corn, Canola, Soy, Sugar Beets, Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Papaya.8\n\nFood Sensitivities and Allergies: Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Soy, Yeast, Eggs, and Nuts are the most common offenders. With Leaky Gut, larger food particles enter your blood and the immune system responds. Since you’re likely eating very frequently, the result can be a continuous cycle of inflammation and immune upregulation.\n\nLectins and Phytates: Nutrient blockers that are produced by plants for survival that cause mineral malabsorption and alter the gut lining leading to immune activation. These are widespread in grains, legumes, and nuts.9,10\n\nConventional Dairy: The protein A1 Casein damages the gut lining, and according to Dr. Josh Axe, pasteurization causes degradation of enzymes that are critical to digestion of lactose.11\n\nTrigger: Infections\n\nGI infections such as Candida (yeast), parasites, H. pylori, and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) release toxic metabolic products that cause inflammation to the gut lining, as well as the breakdown of its physical barrier.\n\nThis toxic process also makes the intestines more hospitable to other pathogens, leaving you vulnerable to additional infections.\n\nThe presence of these GI infections also contributes to dysbiosis, or the imbalance of the bad gut flora over the good flora, essentially wiping away another level of defense against invaders and allowing the toxic environment to flourish.\n\nInfections such as Lyme Disease and other tick borne illnesses, as well as certain viruses, can also play a role in the development of Leaky Gut, by contributing to processes that alter normal digestion and elimination, as well as perpetuate inflammation.16\n\nInfections can also further complicate the situation through molecular mimicry.\n\nMolecular mimicry occurs when the body mistakes a self-molecule for a foreign molecule and in error mounts an immune attack on its own tissue.14\n\nA classic example is the bacteria Klebsiella attacking the joints, resulting in Ankylosing Spondylitis.15\n\nDue to molecular mimicry, bacteria and parasites are often found to be root causes in the development of various autoimmune conditions.14, 15\n\nTrigger: Toxins\n\nIn addition to the toxins produced from bacteria, yeast, and parasites, your body is exposed to an excessive amount of daily contaminants.\n\nAccording to the EPA there are over 70,000 chemicals in U.S. commerce today.12 Some common ones include:\n\n  • Heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic.\n  • Pesticides such as Glyphosate and Bt toxin.\n  • Mold mycotoxins.\n  • Chemicals such as BPA, BPS, PCBs, dioxins, phthalates, chlorine, fluorine, xylene and toluene.\n\nToxins can damage intestinal cells, alter the gut nervous and immune systems, or even kill beneficial bacteria. The worst effect however, may be that these toxins are being reabsorbed and recirculated rather than eliminated from your body.\n\nEven the hormones in your body can act as toxins because they can be re-absorbed into circulation if the flora is imbalanced and the gut is permeable.\n\nTrigger: Medications\n\nAnti-inflammatories, antibiotics and acid blocking drugs are the main medication-type contributors to Leaky Gut.\n\nNSAIDs actually block the production of prostaglandins, which are substances that can mediate pain, but that are also critical to rebuilding the lining of the intestines.\n\nAccording to Dr. Leo Galland, NSAIDs can further cause damage by sensitizing bacteria and altering the GI flora.13 He states, “If you use a full therapeutic dose of NSAIDs for 2 weeks there is a 75% chance you will develop a leaky gut that will not go away when you stop taking the drug.”13\n\nAlong with killing pathogens, antibiotics also kill the good bacteria, creating the potential for yeast overgrowth, which directly causes and perpetuates Leaky Gut.\n\nAcid blockers decrease the amount of stomach acid produced. This results in suppressed and incomplete digestion of food, which allows large particles through the intestines and into the bloodstream. This increases the likelihood of immune system reaction. Further, decreased stomach acid leaves you vulnerable to pathogens, as there isn’t enough acid to kill them.\n\nSymptoms of Leaky Gut\n\nGI: Gas, bloating, belching, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, undigested food particles or fat in stool, gurgling in stomach, acid reflux, and food sensitivities or allergies.\n\nImmune: Allergies, asthma, chronic sinus infections, frequent infections such as respiratory or urinary tract infections, candida overgrowth, and autoimmune conditions.\n\nLiver: Poor detoxification, pain under the lower right ribs.\n\nSkin: Acne, rosacea, rashes, eczema, psoriasis, and dermatitis.\n\nMusculoskeletal: Joint pain, muscle pain, and fibromyalgia.\n\nBrain and Mood: Headache, fatigue, brain fog, inability to focus, irritability, anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, lack of coordination or balance and poor memory.\n\nHormone: Fatigue, poor temperature control, weight gain or weight loss, poor sleep quality, food cravings, poor blood sugar regulation and hormone imbalances.\n\nIf you’re experiencing symptoms that lead you to suspect Leaky Gut, you should address them quickly.\n\nAccording to Dr. Tom Sult, “As the condition of the gut degrades, the health implications can become serious.”6\n\nMinor Symptoms tend to be largely limited to the gut early on in the condition, where as a more progressive case will have symptoms outside of the gut.6\n\nThe more symptoms that you have, the higher the correlation to an increased immune system response and the subsequent possibility to develop more serious conditions that can be difficult to reverse, such as autoimmune conditions.\n\nEvery single autoimmune condition is thought to have the same root cause: Leaky Gut. Dr. Alessio Fasano’s research has been integral in identifying this linkage. In his 2012 paper titled “Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease,” he states, “In addition to the genetic predisposition and exposure to triggering non-self antigens, the loss of protective function of the mucosal barriers that interact with the environment (mainly through the GI and lung mucosa) is necessary for autoimmunity to develop.”2,4\n\nIn The Paleo Approach, Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD writes, “A leaky gut is present in every autoimmune disease that has been tested, including Ankylosing Spondylitis, IBDs (Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis), Celiac Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Type 1 Diabetes.”15\n\nLab Testing For Leaky Gut\n\nThere are several testing options to determine whether you’re suffering from increased intestinal permeability, or Leaky Gut.\n\nSome labs label it the Intestinal Permeability Test, while more generic labels include the Lactulose-Mannitol Test or Hydrogen Breath Test.\n\nSince there are many contributing factors to the development of Leaky Gut, other important tests to consider are:\n\n  • Food sensitivity and allergy testing\n  • Dysbiosis testing through organic acids, stool cultures, and SIBO breath testing\n  • Toxin testing through urine or hair analysis\n  • Liver function testing through a blood test or an organic acids test\n\nTreatment of Leaky Gut\n\nDr. Leo Galland explains that even though you have a leaky gut, the cells of the intestinal lining replace themselves every 3-6 days.13\n\nThis means that once you eliminate the contributing triggers and root causes of Leaky Gut you can repair the intestines fairly quickly. The hard part can be identifying all of the causes and eliminating them.\n\nFunctional Medicine’s approach to the treatment of Leaky Gut is the 5R Program:\n\n  1. Remove the sources of irritation and inflammation:\n\nEliminate foods that contribute to leaky gut. Completing an elimination diet for 3-4 weeks is a good place to start.\n\nUsing a food diary is a great tool to identify food sensitivities when you add them back in. If you add them back in and have any type of reaction, you should keep them out until your gut is fully healed.\n\nAn anti-inflammatory, whole foods based diet is best.\n\nTry to eliminate the use of medications known to contribute to leaky gut, if you can.\n\n\nRemove all sources of parasitic, fungal, and bacterial infections in the gut. If you take care of these without resolution of symptoms, look into viruses and other infections such as tick borne illnesses.\n\n  1. Replace the nutrients that your body needs to heal:\n\nUsing digestive enzymes and betaine hydrochloride to allow for proper breakdown and absorption of nutrients.\n\nTaking a good multivitamin can help restore nutrients while your body is still not completely digesting and absorbing food.\n\nGlutamine is an amino acid that is the primary source of fuel for intestinal cells. Supplementing with glutamine at 5-10g twice daily can help heal the gut lining faster.\n\nOmega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils can help decrease inflammation taken at a dose of 2-4 g per day.\n\nSupplements that contain Slippery Elm, Marshmallow Root, Aloe, DGL, and Zinc Carnosine are soothing to the gut mucosa. Use these cautiously as some of them can cause GI distress in people with certain dietary restrictions and autoimmune conditions.15\n\n  1. Reinoculate with good bacteria to restore the flora:\n\nUsing a high quality probiotic with at least 50 billion CFU twice daily will help restore the gut flora. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacter species are best.\n\nFermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha, as well as kefir and yogurt (you can use dairy or non-dairy based) contain live, active cultures that will help the good bacteria stick around.\n\nPrebiotic fibers and resistant starches provide the nutrients that support the healthy flora and maintain intestinal health.\n\n  1. Repair the gut lining and normal physiological functions.\n\nTaking many of the supplements described in #2 and #3 will help repair and rebuild the gut lining.\n\nIn addition, it’s important to also repair the normal physiological processes of digestion, or you risk developing a leaky gut again. This includes using betaine HCl to increase stomach acid, digestive enzymes to assist the pancreas, intestines and liver until they produce adequate levels on their own, and sometimes ox bile to assist the liver in the digestion of fats.\n\nAdditionally, motility, or the ability to keep waste and toxins moving through the GI tract, often needs to be repaired and restored.\n\nGinger and d-limonene are good agents to stimulate GI motility. Exercise and movement are also great ways to keep the bowels moving.\n\n  1. Rebalance your body to heal faster and maintain vibrant health moving forward.\n\nDecreasing stress through journaling, deep breathing techniques, meditation, yoga, exercising, or getting out into nature are great ways to achieve this.\n\nFinally, one of the most imperative measures you can take is to get at least eight hours uninterrupted sleep as this is when the body heals.\n\nThere’s no smoking gun for overcoming leaky gut, but what you’ve just read is the blueprint used by top functional medicine practitioners the world over. And it works.\n\nLike everything else in life that’s worth it, you must put in the work. If you can commit to these changes, you could be well on your way to healing your gut in short order.\n\nStrict Elimination Diets are Possible- Part 4 of 4 (High Points, Personalization, & The Next Phase)\n\nMy 28 day Autoimmune Paleo Rotation diet is complete! This was a great learning experience for me since I haven’t done an elimination this long in 2 years, and even more, never one this strict.  This diet was more stringent than a typical rotation diet since it didn’t give any variability within each day as you’d normally get in a rotation. This makes it easier to plan and execute, in my opinion. You don’t have to think too much, kind of like wearing a uniform to school or work!\n\nI feel great! I estimate my symptom reduction in the ballpark of 90-95%.\n\nItchy red bumps on my skin, random itching all over my body, light acne (associated with hormone fluctuations), and occasional headaches were my primary symptoms. I also tend to get ringing in my ears and a sore tongue or cankers with certain foods. The skin and tongue issues had been getting progressively worse, and if you recall from the beginning of my journey, I actually got a true hive. That was what I was afraid of all along! As often is the case in the healing process, sometimes things get worse before get better which I expected.\n\nNow I only get the occasional itchy spot, not even every day. There’s no redness associated with it either. I haven’t had a headache (other than the virus) during the entire process.  My tongue is much less reactive, and I realized might be my canary in the coal mine. It seems to be one of the first symptoms to show up when I have a reaction to a food. Similarly, my soft palate may also burn. Any symptoms related to hormones have significantly reduced too. I have more energy and better sleep too. I’d say this was a successful experiment!!\n\nThe High Points\n\nNew Baseline Established. This is a really important point. Now that I’ve had a significant reduction in symptoms, I have established a new baseline. When I reintroduce new foods and observe for symptoms, I’ll use this as my new set point to gauge any reactions.\n\nThe big take-away here is that your baseline can and will fluctuate with therapeutic interventions. At the beginning of the rotation, I’d say mine was a 7 (with 10 begin horrible symptoms), and now it’s a 1.5. It’s always important to have an idea where you’re at so you and any practitioner you work with can measure progress.\n\nSimple Food Tastes Really Good. I’ve always been a fan of bold flavors, but I realized that eating food prepared in a simple manner can be amazing too. A “hash” of ground buffalo, kale, and sweet potatoes with a little sea salt and oregano is really tasty, as are many other combinations. Eating this way gives the opportunity for high quality ingredients to sing.     \n\nI Never Felt Deprived. This was probably the biggest revelation of all for me. I thought I’d miss having elaborately seasoned dishes with lots of ingredients, but even more, I thought I’d be starving. Neither were the case. I was surprisingly satiated the entire time. I made adjusts for increased physical demands on workout days, but I was never, ever starving. Nor did I ever feel like I was missing out by not being able to eat certain foods.\n\nSymptoms Can be Confusing to Navigate Even for a Trained Professional. When you have lots of symptoms that fluctuate on a daily basis, especially at the beginning, it can be difficult to figure out what’s causing them. During those times, I relied heavily on my diary to track what I thought the likely culprits were. When I ate those foods again I knew to look out for reactions. I also knew not to combine them with the other suspect foods. I still don’t know with 100% certainty about a few foods. I’ll consider testing for them when I’m through the entire process if I think they’re still a possible issue.\n\nThe Healing Capacity of the Body is Amazing. I’d been experiencing my symptoms on and off for almost a year and a half. I’d take a couple foods out of my diet or try certain supplements, but nothing seemed to make them completely go away because I wasn’t doing the right things. I knew the first step was to do an elimination diet to get the food situation under control.\n\nI’m shocked at how rapidly my symptoms declined. At the 2.5-3 week mark I largely felt as good as I do now. That’s pretty darn fast.\n\nThe Process Really Wasn’t Difficult.  One of the biggest ways we tend to psych ourselves out is to think that doing something different will be hard, which often delays or prevents us from starting new things.\n\nOnce I wrapped my brain around what I needed to do and got into the groove, I was set. The first 2-3 days were a little rough, but I made it through and then it became my new routine. I plan on maintaining these new routines as they are since it was so easy to follow.\n\nThe Hard Truth…You Are The Only Thing Standing in Your Way. We are in control of ourselves- period. We often sabotage our goals with negative self-talk or excuses. We can come up with all sorts of reasons why it isn’t a good time to do an elimination diet, lose weight, or quit sugar, gluten, or smoking, but they are purely justifications to make ourselves feel better about not doing what we know we need to do.\n\nWe all have lives. There will always be work, events, holidays, finances, stress, etc.- that won’t change. What can change is how we think about things. That is what will allow you to achieve any goal you have.\n\nDuring my month long elimination I had St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and my birthday, as well as everyday life and a day long road trip. I decided not to let that stop me. I planned so that I could successfully make it through the process.\n\nThe Next Phase\n\nSince I’m feeling so good I’m staying on the rotation in an expanded way for 2 more months. My plan is to add more foods back in systematically. I’ll test them on day one, and won’t add anything else new in for 2-3 more days. If I react to a food, I’ll keep it out of my diet for 3-6 months. If I don’t react, it will become part of my rotation.\n\nIn general, when adding foods back in, I usually start with things I like that I don’t seem to react to. I usually save possible problem foods for later.\n\nI’m starting with eggs because I don’t think I react to them and REALLY miss them. So far, so good. No immediate reactions, so I’ll eat them again today two more times. I’ll watch for delayed responses to the eggs over the next 2-3 days. After that I’ll probably test walnuts, then pumpkin seeds. I’m not sure after that?? I’ll also continue to record everything.\n\nI know in the past I may have had some type of reaction to tomatoes- usually cooked in combination with a high protein meal. That will probably be one of the last things I test since I know I’ve had issues in the past. I will also test raw tomatoes in a salad and see if I handle those in a different way since the preparation can be a factor as to if you’re going to have a reaction as well. For certain foods, it’s a good idea to test raw and cooked variations.\n\nIt’s never a good idea to jump back into your old habits or patterns that you had when you weren’t feeling well. Some people are just “dying” for certain foods and an alcoholic beverage. If that’s the case, you really need to check in with yourself and figure out where you’re feeling deprived or unfulfilled in your life because there’s a good chance you’re filling a void. No, you don’t need bread or cheese or ice cream, or beer, or whatever…. you want them. There’s a big difference.\n\n\nI believe another key to success and enjoying a diet of any kind, but especially a rotation diet, is to eat foods you like that are allowed on the program. There is always room for personalizing the menus to suit your tastes. Don’t be afraid to try new things either. I realized I liked lamb and collard greens, but don’t like dandelion greens.\n\nAdjusting quantities to meet your caloric demands is also important. A 125 pound woman that does yoga and walks will need substantially less than a 125 pound woman that lifts heavy weights or trains for triathlons, or 225 pound guy that competes in strongman competitions.\n\nSupplementation is another opportunity for personalizing. As discussed in the previous post, digestive enzymes and betaine HCL are good support supplements for a program like this, but many other types of supplements would work well here to support healing.\n\nOnce you’ve gone through the process of a 30 or 60 day elimination and still have some symptoms, testing may be the next logical step. GI infections are often the root cause of leaky gut and food intolerances, so identifying and treating them will often provide the last piece of the puzzle you need to heal and feel amazing.\n\nI previously worked on Candida and some dysbiosis, so I’m focusing on rebuilding and supporting my flora as an ongoing part of my program.\n\nFinal Thoughts\n\nThis was an awesome experience that was long overdue because of my own procrastination. Once I get through the next month or two of the expanded rotation and testing foods, I’ll take what I’ve learned and apply it to my normal diet. I’ll keep the rotation feature in because I think it’s a bad idea to get into the habit of eating the same food daily. I’ll also expand my diet as wide as possible since I believe in varied nutrition- somewhere in the realm of Paleo-AIP plus. I add the “plus” because I know I handle certain foods well that aren’t considered Paleo or AIP. For example, I tolerate certain legumes and quinoa when prepared properly. While I don’t think it’s a great idea for me to eat them daily, I will eat them on rare occasion with no issues.\n\nThe take home message is to tune into your body and listen to what it tells you. Make adjustments as you need to. There’s a whole lot of wisdom and guidance at your fingertips every single day- you just need to be open to hearing it.\n\n\nStrict Elimination Diets are Possible- Part 3 of 4 (Supplementation and Keys to Success)\n\nCompleting 3 full weeks of this elimination diet has definitely enlightened me. This process is getting more and more interesting as I go through it! This week I tried ground lamb, collard greens, and sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) and loved them! I also had dandelion greens and hated them- so much so, that I tossed the whole batch after a couple of bites.  Some experiments work, some don’t. Below are some more diet observations and thoughts about supplementation while on this rotation diet.\n\nDiet Observations and Progress\n\nDays 15 and 16 were not the best. First, my 3 year old got a virus on Easter that peaked on Monday (Day 15). The poor little guy was miserable and I was a little itchier than the previous day or two. My itching subsided after breakfast and I made it through the rest of the day relatively itch free. The following day however, the itching increased a bit, even after breakfast. To make matters worse, I got the virus too. I was congested, sore, and had a headache. I took a homeopathic blend, maitake mushroom extract, and upped my vitamin D, antioxidants, and probiotics to see if I could decrease the severity and duration of this lovely virus.\n\nOn Day 17 when I woke up something interesting happened. I was way less itchy (like 95% less) and it remained that way for the entire day. Not even a minor hint of irritation anywhere. I was also feeling better than the previous day. Still congested, but less fatigue and achiness. Nothing changed in my diet, so I assume the cocktail of supplements I took helped my immune system with the virus and my itching, so I decided to keep the regimen going.\n\nDay 18 and 19 brought very minimal morning itching upon waking that left about 30 minutes later. I also felt much better concerning the virus. Symptoms were a down about 85%. I felt so good on Day 19, I went back to the gym. I didn’t push too hard and felt pretty good. I definitely got fatigued faster than usual, but listened to my body and backed off when I needed to.\n\nI had another interesting finding on Day 19. I weighed myself and was 6 pounds lighter than Day 1. This diet is not calorie restrictive in any way. You can eat what is necessary to maintain your activity level. I believe a combination of factors contributed to the weight loss- decreased total calories, decreased total carbs, improved blood sugar handling, and decreasing inflammation.  I eat 3, sometimes 4, whole meals per day and I feel completely satiated most of the time. This was really intriguing to me. I realized that even though I ate a 90% Paleo diet, I was still not regulating my blood sugar well since I’d often be ravenous 2-3 hours after a meal or shortly after a snack. Not good.\n\nI also recognized that I am very sensitive to protein amounts and form. If I don’t eat enough whole food protein with my meal I’m prone to being hungry sooner. Before, I was eating too many “pre-digested” foods such as protein shakes and bars that didn’t help satiate me.  Getting enough whole food based protein with fiber and fat= satiety and improved blood sugar regulation.\n\nIncreased energy and almost zero itching defined Days 20 and 21. Things are definitely moving in the right direction!!\n\nAt the end of 3 weeks, I have about a 95% reduction in the symptoms that prompted me to do this diet in the first place. I haven’t had any red bumps, welts, or hives in over a week, and the itching has significantly diminished.\n\nI couldn’t be happier with my progress! I’m also learning more fine details since I’m paying so much attention to my body.  I realized early in week three that if I have too much betaine HCl it makes me feel fatigued after a meal. I had upped my dose to 4. I didn’t feel much in the way of other symptoms, just profound fatigue. I backed the dose down to 2 (3 when eating certain meats) and feel fine again.\n\n\nTaking supplements is always a very individualized experience. We usually don’t all need the same things, however, if you’re doing a program that is designed to decrease inflammation and heal the gut, then there are some things you can try to improve the program.\n\nMy top two for increasing nutrient absorption and taking stress off of the digestive system are Betaine HCl with Pepsin and Digestive Enzymes. Lacking enough of these can result in amino acids, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies, as well as an increased chance of GI infection from decreased barrier function and protection.\n\nProbiotics also give you give good bang for your buck. During this program I’m taking both S. boulardii (10 billion cfu) and a 100 billion cfu Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium blend. S. boulardii has many benefits, but I chose it since it improves host immune defense, decreases inflammation, and helps combat harmful microorganisms. I selected the blend because Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species support a balanced intestinal ecology and microbiota, enhance the immune response, and support bowel regularity and transit time (how long it takes your meal to get broken down, absorbed, and exit your body).\n\nBeyond the above suggestions, I recommend adding most nutrients based on known depletions or imbalances, or for a specific reason such as getting sick. I added in the stack of a homeopathic, maitake mushrooms, with increased levels of vitamin D, an antioxidant blend, and probiotics since I knew I had a virus. I plan on doing this as long as I don’t feel well, but I’ll stop once I feel better.\n\nOther supplements that are common for reducing inflammation are curcumin, boswellia, and higher dose fish oil. GI support and healing supplements include glutamine, n-acetyl glucosamine, colostrum or proline rich peptides (PRP).\n\nI’m a fan a cycling supplements or using them when needed. There are very few things most of us need to take forever. Paying attention to your body can also help guide you. You may realize that something that once helped may now be an issue for you. Stop taking it or decrease the dose.\n\nKeys to Success\n\nSuccess in any lifestyle change, including diet, involves a few key steps that set the stage.\n\nPlanning. Plan your meals out one week at a time. Sit down on the weekend and outline what the next week will look like for every meal and snack. Each time you go to the store or farmer’s market (and you’ll definitely be going more than once per week if you’re eating fresh, whole foods) have your list. If they don’t have what you planned on, feel free to adjust on the fly. Just make a substitution!.\n\nAlso plan on how you’re going to prepare the food to accommodate your schedule. I started cooking earlier in the morning, or sometimes with a slow cooker overnight.\n\nIf you’re going out to eat, look for places ahead of time that can accommodate your needs. Don’t be afraid to call. So many restaurants now are willing to accommodate dietary needs- you just need to ask.\n\nPlanning takes away guessing and stress!\n\nRecord everything. I have a spreadsheet that has columns for my protein, fat, carb, and seasoning sources (also doubles as my grocery list). I also record any symptoms, improvements, general observations, and changes I make (such as adding or eliminating supplements or foods). This makes it easier to make necessary adjustments and have an accurate record of what actually happened rather than guessing.\n\nBe mindful. Tune into your body and pay attention to everything. How do you feel mentally and physically during the diet? Do certain foods give you reactions? Do you feel more energy? There is endless input that your body provides as feedback. Take note and respond accordingly.\n\nAlso be grateful for each meal. Everything on your plate was once a living organism that was harvested to provide you with life giving energy. That’s something to be tremendously appreciative of.\n\nReduce your stress. Your body will heal faster the more you reduce your stress. If you feel stressed, take a step back and do some deep breathing or sit and meditate for a few minutes. Journal, exercise, talk, dance…. Do whatever it is that makes you feel good.\n\nMinimizing your sources of stress is helpful too. Reduce your responsibilities, ask for help, and say “no”. These are empowering tools if you use them.\n\nBe adventurous. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I tried several new foods. I loved some and hated some, but the point is that I tried. You’ll never know if you actually like something or not unless you step out of your comfort zone and try it. Some of the ugliest and scariest sounding foods are quite tasty.\n\nPractice self-forgiveness. If you slip up it’s not the end of the world. Get back on track and keep moving forward. We’re all human.\n\nEnlist support. Having a buddy to go through this with is always helpful, but if you don’t have one, let your friends or family know what you’re doing and why it’s important. There are also online forums that can provide support too.\n\nI’m excited to see what’s in store for the final week. I hope the positive trend continues! Next week I’ll discuss food as medicine and big picture take-aways.\n\n\n\nDiet Observations\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAdjusting Your Program on the Fly\n\n\nHere are some of the modifications I’m making:\n\n\n\nHard Workouts are Possible on a Strict Elimination Diet\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStrict Elimination Diets Are Possible- Part 1 of 4\n\nAs a rule I try to practice what I preach. I also like to try everything that I can before I recommend it to a client, because if I can’t do it, I��m surely not going to recommend it to my clients. Following my own advice, I decided it was time to embark on the Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) rotation diet I’d been procrastinating on. I’ve been having odd symptoms such as single itchy, red, bumps that look like bug bites that show up on the flexor surfaces of my body (think areas with creases like arms, hands, legs, etc.), mild acne, occasional sleep issues, and an irritated tongue with certain foods.\n\nI put it off like most people because there wasn’t a good time- family events, my birthday, travel… the list was long. Timing is just a ridiculous excuse. No time is ever a really good time- you just need to do it. With the gentle nudging from a good friend that is a hard core advocate of the diet, I jumped in.\n\nIt required much preparation and planning, but now that I’m one full week into it there’s no problem. I’ll admit I was hesitant because my mornings are busy with a toddler I have to get ready for school, getting myself ready, and work. I had to add food prep to this, but now it’s a cinch since I pre-planned my menu for the week and will sometimes cook things the night before. I’ve developed a rhythm and it’s working, which truly is one of the keys to success of any protocol or habit change.\n\nI thought it would be interesting to share the details of my experience with you since I often ask people to rotate their diet on an SCD, GAPS, Paleo, AIP, FODMAP, or low histamine diet. So here it goes!\n\nThe first 2 days sucked! I was tired, brain was foggy, and I was still really itchy. Day 2 was actually worse because I got a headache to boot. This isn’t unusual and I expected it, because anytime you change inputs to the body you often get push back. I suspect my symptoms were largely due to no coffee, less carbs, less total calories, and possible detoxification shifts. A bonus was that I felt completely satiated all day long both days and this NEVER happens for me.\n\nDays 3 and 4 I felt much better- clear brain, more energy, and my itching had decreased. Yay! The only negatives were a little bit of a runny nose with meals and I was extra sore from workouts since I wasn’t having my regular post workout shake. I decide to add in a smaller 4th daily meal right after the workout which helped.\n\nDay 5 was similar to days 3 and 4, but I didn’t have a bowel movement. Red flag! That’s not what I want to see happening and I wasn’t sure why… yet.\n\nI went downhill fast on day 6 and the lack of bowel movements continued. That morning after I ate my breakfast I was super itchy, got an actual hive for the first time, my runny nose was out of control, my tongue was irritated, and I slept horribly. The light bulb went off in my head and I realized I had eaten foods that I had long suspected I had issues with (plantains and avocado) or those with higher histamines (shellfish) over the previous few days. This was enough to trigger a fairly significant inflammatory reaction in my body. I took some anti-inflammatory enzymes, DAO, high dose vitamin C and fish oil which got the reaction to calm down in less than 12 hours. This illustrates a huge point I always tell my clients: even though a diet says you can eat a food, it may not be tolerated by your body!! We all need to individualize our diets for our own needs.\n\nDay 7 was definitely better. The hive was gone, the itching and runny nose significantly decreased, sleep was better, and the BMs returned! I’m still feeling completely satiated on 3-4 simple, whole food based meals per day and I’m back on track. Next week I’ll report back on my progress and talk about how to deal with workouts and performance on diets like this.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7405336499214172}
+{"content": "How to Read the Essay Prompts\n\nHow to Read the Essay Prompts\nEssay prompts are your first level of interaction with the essay. To start writing the essay, you have to first understand the prompt given to you. The prompt is basically another name for the essay topic on which you have to write.\nThe prompt will tell you what to do, and it is important to read it as carefully as possible so as to not miss out on any words or phrases. Misreading the prompt can be fatal for your understanding of the essay topic and its treatment. Each word in the prompt is crucial and will guide you in the act of writing the paper.\nSo how do you understand the prompt given to you? Remember, that you will be under pressure to understand, write, edit, and submit the paper. In this circumstance, it is possible to overlook a word or phrase, a particular verb or adjective that could be important to the overall interpretation of the prompt. So let us understand the prompt step by step.\nExample: Analyze the use of soliloquies in Shakespeare�s tragedies Hamlet and Macbeth.\nThis is a simple one-sentence prompt. You need to look carefully at the word �Analyze.� This is your main function in this essay, your focus. You want to explain and explore, find out the what, why, and how of this topic. Here are some points to consider:\na) What is a soliloquy?\nb) What is typical of or special to Shakespeare�s soliloquies?\nc) Are these used in his tragedies only?\nd) What role does the soliloquy have in Shakespearean tragedies?\ne) Now focus on Hamlet and Macbeth.\nf) Discuss them briefly as tragedies.\ng) Now discuss the what, why, and how of soliloquies in these tragedies: what/which soliloquies would you like to focus on, what purpose do they serve in these plays, how do they serve this purpose, and what happens because of this. Examples.\nPrompts will have specific words or verbs that will tell you what you are expected to do in the essay. Look out for words/verbs such as �explore,� �analyze,� �discuss,� �critique/criticize,� �narrate,� �describe,� �argue,� or �compare and contrast.� These words are your cues for the essay. They tell you how to approach the topic and what parameters to work within.\nOnce you have read the prompt and understood what to do, try to create an outline for the paper. This outline will follow the parameters set for the type of essay you have to write. Within this outline, whether it is linear, circular, or free flowing, you could arrange all the points you want to discuss vis-à -vis the prompt.\nNow that the outline is in place, you want to take up each point in it and write out the paper completely, keeping in mind always, the prompt. Check yourself time and again to see whether you are doing what is required of you. Are you arguing when the prompt requires you to analyze? Are you critiquing instead of comparing?\nEssay prompts guide your writing and thought process. You do what the prompt asks you to do.\n\nHow to Read the Essay Prompts 9.3 of 10 on the basis of 4120 Review.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8670083284378052}
+{"content": "Jul 12, 2016\n\nWhat do a soldier, a doctor and a pilot have in common?\n\nSummer is over. You wrapped up some projects, others are about to pick up, deliverables continue to find their way into your inbox and deadlines relentlessly come at you as you navigate your operational cycle. But think about the months you just left behind and tell me: did you at any point pause and reflect?\n\nWe’re constantly in “delivery mode”; coming and going from missions, submitting documents, reacting to client requests, meeting with colleagues… There seems to be no time to catch a breath, no time to connect the dots and learn. Yet, the literature tells us that taking time to reflect on what we've done teaches us to do it more effectively the next time around.\n\nIn many professions pausing and reflecting is not only considered standard practice but a key to analyze and improve performance.\n\nThe US Army’s Opposing Force (OPFOR) has used After Action Reviews (AAR) for over 30 years as a method to jointly reflect, discuss, and extract lessons that can be applied to future missions. OPFOR is a military unit tasked with representing the enemy during trainings and war games (BLUFOR is the name of the “home team” – the force that is being trained). The Army’s After Action Reviews are part of a broader learning cycle that takes place throughout the training campaigns, starting the moment the senior commander drafts operational orders and after each significant event in the training. During these war exercises AARs are used by opposing teams as structured and safe spaces to openly discuss and analyze what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better. In AARs there’s no rank, no blaming, and no praising. No fear of retaliation. Everyone’s opinion counts and everyone present is expected to be candid, insightful, and creative about past challenges and events.\n\nHospitals deal with complexity on a daily basis. Whether in the Operating Room or the Intensive Care Unit, teams of surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, residents, and many others assemble daily, and work together regardless of whether they have met before. Practices like Morbidity and Mortality Conferences have been in use since the 1900s. In these conferences, specific case studies are presented to residents to jointly identify areas of improvement and discuss medical errors in an open, safe manner. Different types of team debriefings are widely used – either as regular practice or after a critical incident – in recognition of the importance for team members to provide honest feedback and reflect on their recent performance. These debriefings have been linked to increased survival and enhance the learning process in an often chaotic environment.\n\nIn the Aviation Industry - as Atul Gawande’s “The Checklist Manifesto” very eloquently exposed – several checklists are routinely used to prevent basic errors and address emergency situations. Although captain and crew always hold an initial brief before the flight, checklists act as a different type of “pause points”. Longer debriefings are a common practice during FAA training and after aircraft accidents, but in-flight checklists are largely geared towards ensuring safety. They often require several crew members, who most likely didn’t know each other before the flight, to interact through the checklist. This quick and continuous “check-in” - informed by the lack of time for extensive debriefs during flight -contributes to constant awareness and reflection.  \n\nThere are some common characteristics among these “pause and reflect” spaces:\n\n  1. They are safe. Participants are encouraged to be honest and say what they think without fear of retribution or negative consequences.\n  2. Everyone’s opinion matters. If you’re there it’s because you were in the operating room/war exercise/ cockpit, and what you say is important.\n  3. They’re focused on understanding what happened and learning from it. Not on placing the blame, or attributing failure.\n  4. They’re forward looking. The conclusions from the discussions translate into actions to improve the outcomes for the patient, the passenger, or the soldier.\n\nThere are also many commonalities between the group dynamics described and the ones we face every day. We’re under pressure to deliver. We work in diverse teams comprised of people we often didn’t know before. We work in a changing environment, without complete information, and we often need to react quickly to what happens around us. But do we have built-in mechanisms, spaces in our project cycle and our daily work to pause and reflect? Do we learn in the way learning is supposed to work? (Check out this video and the interesting work that the WBG’s IEG team are doing)\n\nWe surely have similar spaces for discussion. Teams get together for Concept Note Reviews. We have team meetings to listen to our peers’ contributions as they try to help us improve our design. We have implementation reviews and completion reports in which we are supposed to discuss what really happened during implementation and extract lessons that we can apply next time.\n\nWe do have those spaces, but I would argue that they are not enough, and for the most part they don’t possess the four characteristics above. The question is: Can we change that? Can we use them better? Safe spaces where we are completely honest about successes and failures not only lead to true learning – one that becomes action – but also connect us to the wealth of talent and experiential knowledge around us. They’re like having coffee with that colleague we trust to ask her for advice – on steroids.\n\nNow think about what it is that all the occupations mentioned have in common. Why has pausing and reflecting become such an integral part of their activities?\n\nWell, if they don’t, people die.\n\nWe are not responsible for the lives of others like a doctor, a soldier, or a pilot. But our work affects the livelihoods of thousands, millions of people every year. And that should make us pause and reflect.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997302293777466}
+{"content": "Homemade Fingerpaint\n\nWe're feeling a bit under the weather at the Adams house today, so I thought I would share our recipe for fingerpaint instead of a craft. Hopefully everyone will be feeling well again soon so that we can share a few fall projects!\n\n1 envelope unflavored gelatin\ncold water\n1/2 cup cornstarch\n4 tablespoons dishwashing liquid\nfood coloring\n4 to 6 wide mouth jars\n\n6.Stir in a generous amount of food coloring.\n7. Store at room temperature in airtight containers.\n\nHomemade Fingerpaint Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983124732971191}
+{"content": "Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor\n\nThis place is located 1000 m from the Kravt hotel.\n\nSt. Petersburg's largest department store, Gostiny Dvor is one of Nevsky Prospekt's most famous landmarks, and has been at the center of trade in the city for 250 years.\n\nIt was the idea of Empress Elizabeth to build a single, central arcade that would become the main trading site of the Russian imperial capital - the Bolshoy (\"big\") Gostiny Dvor. Several prominent architects presented their plans for the building during the 1750s, including Antonio Rinaldi and Bartoloemeo Rastrelli, but it was eventually early neoclassical designs by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe that were chosen. Construction of the building took over twenty years, from 1761 to 1785.\n\nThe building is an irregular rectangle of two-storey arcades surrounding an inner courtyard, with porticoes at each external corner and a large central portico facing Nevsky Prospekt. The relative paucity of the building's decoration may in part have been due to financial considerations, as Rastrelli's ornate plans were rejected on considerations of cost. In 1887, the Nevsky Prospect facade was significantly altered by Nikolay Benois, who added a dome above the central portico, and decorated the walls with plasterwork and statuary. This was removed during reconstruction after the Second World War, and the building was restored to the elegant simplicity of de la Mothe's designs.\n\nThe original bazaar consisted of around 100 stores covering 53 000 square meters. Stores were divided into rows according to the type of produce, including cloth, furs, silver, shoes, etc. The external rows were for retail trade, while wholesale trade was conducted in the courtyard. The second floor was reserved for storage.\n\nAt the end of the 18th century, Giacomo Quarenghi was responsible for adding two auxiliary buildings to the west of the Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor on Dumskaya Ulitsa - the Perinnye Ryady (\"Feather rows\"), where only women traded, and the Maly (\"Small\") Gostiny Dvor, which specialized in the sale of furniture. The former building was demolished during construction of Nevsky Prospekt and then reconstructed 2000-2002.\n\nAfter the October Revolution, the Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor was left boarded up for several years and then severely damaged in bombing during the Second World War. Restored and reconstructed from 1945 to 1955, the building was transformed from 178 separate stores into one large department store with the removal of its internal walls. Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor now has 15 000 square meters of retail space occupied by 122 different departments, and is still St. Petersburg's main department store, the first place to look for anything from knitting needles to party supplies.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9851323366165161}
+{"content": "face vk gplus in yt \n\n\n\nListen and download\n\nbefore next\n\nTrack List\n\n\n\"Kudesa\" completes the cycle of 4 albums of the project OPYCHAM, which was invented and recorded by the drummer of Tuvan group Yat-Kha Yugeny Tkachev. The name OPYCHAM actually hides the name of the author, received from Tuvan shamans - Orus Ham, which means \"Russian shaman\".\n\nThe album's title also has deep mystical roots. \"Kudesa\" is a term that came to us from far pre-Christian times, when sorcerers and magicians (ancient Russian pagan priests) performed their magical rites, invoking Spirits and asking them about a peaceful life for peasants. As in many other pagan rites, one of the inalienable attributes was the shamanic drum, which the ancient Slavs also called Kudes.\n\nThe history of album deserves special attention. In early 2017, Eugeny celebrated his 60th birthday, and in the process of joyful encounters with friends, then the idea arose about an expedition to the winter Altai Mountains, to make audio sketches for the future of the new album. Soon away in the snow-capped mountains of Altai, in the Yurt Camp \"Tydtuyaryk\" Eugene meets his old friend, the famous Altai musician Bolot Bairyshev, as well as with other inhabitants of the yurt camp.\n\nAs a result, the musical Kudesa were a success, and a year later, at Moscow studio, Zhenya completed the missing fragments, which, thanks to the work of the sound produser Alexei Denisov (KM Studio), appeared before us in form of this album.\n\nOver released by Opycham project:\ns.t.i.h.i (2008, SKMR-066)\nBandcamp https://goo.gl/UgH3oR \nLabel Mail-order https://goo.gl/9mNkL3\n\nMantra (2013, SKMR-101, only digital)\nBandcamp  https://goo.gl/jR7947\n\nNew-age.om (2015, SKMR-113)\nBandcamp  https://goo.gl/a3anx7 \nLabel Mail-order  https://goo.gl/PeM8T9 \n\n\nТеги: Opycham, Kudesa, Evgeny Tkachev, Bolot Bairyshev, drum fusion, jew harp, throat singing, Yat-Kha, ambient, russian folk, indie folk, psychedelic, buy CD", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9690864086151123}
+{"content": "Monday, 27 May 2019 08:55\n\nPresident: Entrepreneurs Must Be Able To Present New Economic Centers\n\nWritten by \nRate this item\n(1 Vote)\nPresident Jokowi attended the HIPMI National Gathering event, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, Sunday (26/5) night President Jokowi attended the HIPMI National Gathering event, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, Sunday (26/5) night kemensetkab\n\nIn the past five years, the government has been trying to build infrastructure evenly throughout the country. The development is primarily intended so that more regions or regions in Indonesia will become connected with each other. To that end, the President asked the entrepreneurs to be able to take advantage of the development by presenting new economic centers that made the economy more mobile.\n\n\"This is the job of the businessman to continue what the government has done by building economic centers, economic centers, which are very important for our economic growth,\" said President Jokowi at the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) and breaking fast together. orphans held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta, Sunday (5/26) night.\n\nThe President explained, during his tour of Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke, almost all of the regions had the same problem, namely connectivity. Therefore, a number of construction of public facilities such as roads, toll roads, airports and ports are carried out on a large scale.\n\n\"This is our big job so that in our five years our concentration has been on building infrastructure. That is so that intercity, inter-district, and inter-province connectivity can really be connected, \"said the President.\n\nAt the same time, the government also sought gradual bureaucratic reform with the main goal of making the licensing process easier. According to the President, simplification of institutions is absolutely necessary in order to work more efficiently and quickly so as to minimize the overlapping of authority.\n\n\"In the past five years we have disbanded 23 institutions that we have seen that are not relevant to the time and age. In the future, I think there will be many more institutions that we really don't need, which we will erase and eliminate, \"said the President.\n\nAfter the initial stages of national development through equal distribution of infrastructure, the government is now starting to target the human resources sector. The Head of State realizes that the development of this HR cannot be seen quickly. However, this must still be done so that Indonesia is able to jump into a developed country.\n\n\"This is a condition for the foundation of our economic fundamentals. If we don't do this, we will go into the middle income trap. Many countries are trapped there and cannot leave so that they cannot jump into developed countries, \"said the President.\n\nTherefore, the President hopes that HIPMI members and other associations can work together with the government to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources while absorbing them into the industrial world. Related to this, the government has prepared training and massive scholarships to increase national HR capabilities.\n\n\"Link and match between the industrial world and education is very much needed. I hope that later from Hipmi there will be cooperation with the existing ministries, with regions, provinces, districts and cities in the framework of human resource development so that the next five years upgrading of our human resources is truly visible, \"he said.\n\nAttending the occasion included Minister of State (Minister of State) Pratikno, Minister of Social Affairs (Social Minister) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, and General Chair of HIPMI Bahlil Lahadalia. (BPMI Setpres / ES)\n\nRead 190 times\nBudi N\n\nBudi Nugroho P.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.517749011516571}
+{"content": "Viewing all items for tag energy alchemy\n\nWhy Feminine Intelligence Will Save Us From Ourselves\n\nHow Empathy and Emotional Evolution Will Save Us, and Why Feminine Energy is the Answer to Political Struggle, & Cultural Divineness That is Ceasing the World\n\n\nHuman consciousness is accelerating, moving through the woods and darkness of its own intelligence, awakening to itself. There is sound, where there was before only silence. What is it? This is waking up. This is the noise. The first beautiful and fantastic fits of hysteria, which seem so utterly painful as they happen, from a macroscopic view, that is, a bird’s eye perspective, are the bright, curving spindles that begin in the center of some enigmatic pattern, forming the humming figure of a universe in full motion.\n\n\nA new dimension is opening. You can read my words as the crooked ravings of a street lunatic with a keyboard, because they fail, as words inevitably will, to capture the grandness of human feeling and perspective as it widens before itself. Yet, that is what is happening right now. What is it? This is the feminine dimension. The other, sacred half of our experience. The denied portion of our sensual capacity.\n\nFor a very long time, we have tried to escape the feminine. And let’s be clear that I am not even speaking, particularly, of women—but just of feminine energy, in general. Patriarchy, whatever we say, has been our king and our primary ruler for a very long time. We have raged his wars, we have built his towers and castles, we have pretended his politics and we have gratified his need to preside over this and that. This is masculine energy. I’m not attacking him. In astrology, our most ancient method of determining symbolical representation, masculine energy is represented by the sun. He is the golden, wondering spirit, compelling the human existence to capture, to search out, to reason. Without his ego, we aren’t individuals. Without his voice, we won’t hear ourselves speaking—we won’t exist as we know ourselves, in this physical dimension, to be heard. Masculine energy is defining and questing, and his urge to possess, is born out of a desire to organize the unending layout of reality before him. Great. I say “great” somewhat sincerely, and somewhat sarcastically. Sincerely because we obviously need masculine energy, and sarcastically because his shit is getting old.\n\nYes, it is. But it’s not that we need to destroy him! We just need to recognize his shit. We need to recognize our shit. We need to calm him on the carpet for it. We need to call ourselves on the carpet. It’s just the only way to deal with him/ourselves. We need to see that without the feminine influence, the other side of our sacred duality, the other face of the deity in whose image we are created, the masculine forces within us begin to swell into corrupt and frankly bullshit-ey figures that insult our purposes as human creatures, as animals sharing in the collective organism and consciousness of this world, this universe.\n\nAnd using our empathic intelligence, I think we can do this. First of all, empathy is if nothing else, a profound tool for gaining insight, and knowledge. Through an empathic perspective, we can begin to feel the truth of our collective consciousness. When we tap into that otherness beyond ourselves, and yet, that is essentially, the deepest heart of who we are, what is it that we all feel we need? We all feel that we need to feel. We all become aware of this massive lack in terms of emotional security and truth, and the disorienting result of our human passions, and emotional consciousness, smashed like glass against the hard fixations of the rationalist agenda. This rationalist agenda is the physical and masculine world, whose only spirituality has been translated into the politics of religion until deity was filtered out, and whose only enlightenment was broken down in the rigid confinement of textbooks. Structures—logic—linear drawings of institutional concepts—these were the tools that he drew the world with. And while we needed (and need) this masculine influence to shape, and define our reality, we have lost touch with the sea of color, the spacious rhythm, of her—the mother, the black, endless womb, from which we feel, and originate.\n\n\nThis is why our culture denies sensitivity, and asks it to be quiet. “There is a time and place for emotions, and it isn’t now.” “We need to be reasonable.” “Let’s assess this logically.” “Let’s be rational.” But what if we need to feel, and further, evolve in terms of that feeling intelligence, in order to become whatever the solution actually is?\n\nThe world is shitty. We wish to make sense of it. But what if that’s a childish wish? What if there is no sense to make of this reality, what if there is simply a reality here for us to instead, sense? Does not all change first happen within the internal self? Cognitive therapy has become popular, because it promotes the idea that we can simply change once we become aware of the irrationality of our neurosis. And yet, this awareness does nothing but perplex and frustrate us, and we sit eternally on the proverbial couch, waiting for the logic to matter enough. And it never does.\n\nSo maybe what we need to do collectively—no maybe what we are doing collectively, is realizing that logic is not enough. A feminine balance is necessary, in this masculine world. A feeling consciousness is necessary. The solutions aren’t in a game of puzzles spread out and sorted by fat, political fingers. It isn’t as easy, as rectifying some order, out of all of this massive mess that is the human passion and experience. As a collective, we must become aware of this internal force, just as individuals do. And we must begin to heal, from the inside out. We must see what we are, and we must emotionally evolve to see that there will never be a solution, without our emotional perspective—without our being able to know, the inherent truth that in each minute episode of suffering, no matter how far away it may seem from us, it is happening to us. When we cut others down, no matter what their religion, their gender, their country of origin, their orientation, race, or what have you—we bleed. And when we destroy our environment, we destroy ourselves. But without the acceleration, and the gift of emotional evolution, we will only be able to muse over whether or not this is true, and we will not feel it—because we will not be in touch with ourselves, enough to feel it.\n\n\nAnd yet, we are beginning to feel it. This is the gift of feminine consciousness. The great receiving intelligence, who flows and intuits, who moves and curves and is one with all that appears to her—and all becomes her, and comes from her. She is in harmony. She is in touch. She is the great mother, the great mystery. He has feared her, and he has built castles, and made wars, and made up everything, just to impose order upon her sacred mystery. Just as he has wrestled to possess nature, he has tried to own her. And it is really time that we call him on his shit. It is really time, that we call the great mother out of the depths of our insides. That we yank our own mess out of our tangled bellies, throw it before us and feel this life until we understand it better. It’s our only hope of survival.\n\n\nInsert Email to Subscribe 🙂\n\n\n\nDear Empaths,\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Illusion of Separation\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBorn to Be an Empath: The Secret Art of Emotional Alchemy\n\nDear Empaths,\n\nIn my last post I shared with you that you are all energy alchemists and I told you that I would talk about how you can use your empathic intelligence to perform energy alchemy and transmutation in my next post. This is the subject of today’s post.\n\nFirst of all, what is energy alchemy? According to what I have channeled, energy alchemy is essentially, the fulfillment of our empathic purpose. Contrary to popular belief, empaths are not born to absorb everybody’s shit for no reason, any more than we are born to go around like little walking eggs, who never crack out of the shell because we’re so afraid that if we do, we’ll be annihilated by the blazing sun of everyone’s feelings. We have a purpose. We are the spiritual trees of the world, cleaning the air so that every creature can breathe. And that task of cleaning is what I call “energy alchemy.”\n\nAbsorbing Too Much Energy? What if it’s Actually Not Enough?\n\n\nNow, turning your natural empathic intelligence up all the way, in order to transmute energy from negative to positive, takes time. It takes time to explain and time to learn something like that. But I’m going to capture the nuts and bolts of it for you here. Today I’m going to talk about the foundational concept of energy alchemy, and that will give your highly sensitive empathic brain a lot to soak up.\n\n The reason that we feel burdened and drained by energy, is because we’re trying to hold onto it, all on our own. But we really don’t have to go it alone: when you think about it, empaths have an entire universe they can connect themselves to at the drop of a hat. See, what we empaths do is we unconsciously attract extreme emotional experience. This is because we know, on a higher level of awareness, that we are supposed to be healing—so we go seek out who needs help. And then we just focus on the ones who needs us, one at a time. Naturally, when we see that people are loaded down we just start grabbing at what’s tugging on them…and then we carry the weight ourselves. Pretty soon, it’s like we’re wearing 500 19th century ball gowns, and it becomes impossible to move. We feel lethargic, drained—done. So the solution that is proposed to us, and that we sometimes even propose to ourselves, is that we should just stop absorbing anything—shield ourselves constantly, and settle for a life lived within the confines of an energetic safety-box. Hello, metaphysical claustrophobia. But we’re told that’s just the way it has to be. It’s for our own good, because we’re just too darn fragile. Right? Wrong. It isn’t that we’re absorbing too much energy, we’re not absorbing enough.\n\nThink about it. Empaths have the ability to connect to energy at a high intensity—in other words, to become one with. What we mostly do with this ability, is become one with whoever needs our help—people who are bogged down by negative energy, right? And that’s not actually a bad idea—that’s the beauty of our healing instinct at work. The problem is that the only energy we’re becoming one with, or connecting to if you will, is this single person or that specific group of people, when we could potentially be connecting to the entire collective consciousness—the universe itself. You see, we empaths carry an immense power within us, and this is why we are so misunderstood, and this is also why it is sometimes so hard for us to know what to do with ourselves. We empaths possess the most infinite and ancient of virtues—the power to channel the vibration of total consciousness. This vibration of total consciousness, as most of you have probably experienced at times, is an eternal and mysterious, paradox intelligence. Some call it god, others might call it love—it has many names. Whatever you refer to it as, is a matter of your semantic preference. The point is that empaths are the ultimate channels—without even knowing it, we breathe and exist as portals to anything and everything. And when we don’t know it, we end up like untrained astronauts trying to fly a NASA spacecraft…can you say, “Houston we have feelings?” Luckily for us, we are living in what I’ve been calling the Age of the Healer, also known as the Age of Aquarius—an age in which the empathic purpose will be fulfilled—a concept I will discuss more in future posts. My point is, we empaths can channel the eternal mind of the universe, without even having to lift a finger. We can do it while we’re eating lunch or waiting in line at the supermarket—it’s that easy.\n\nAnd this is a crucial step in acting as energy alchemists because, when we fully awaken our channel to the highest vibration of consciousness, we not only connect ourselves to that power, but we connect any negative energy we encounter to that power—and that power will transform and transmute whatever it touches, into love. You’ve heard the quote by Aristotle, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” We can understand this observation in terms of the universe. These little lives we experience as individuals, are just that—parts. And in these little roles, all added up, one on top of the other, it’s just chaos and suffering. We look at each other, and the totality of the state of things here on earth, and we just feel overwhelmed. But the whole itself, is a vastness that is so beyond the sum. The whole is an infinite mechanism, incapable of being summed up. Empathic intelligence is the gift through which we channel the vibration of this whole, greater than the sum of its parts. Through this portal within us, the energy of the world is reborn—transmuted.\n\n\nSo the question now is, how is this done? How do you do this? I’m going to get to the heart of this in an upcoming post, and in the form of a video which I will post in the coming weeks. Knowing how to activate the purpose of your empathic intelligence will be a big piece in the puzzle of mastering your gifts. Beyond the knowing, is the self-acceptance that empaths often struggle with. When you have a purpose this big, it can be a little intimidating. Not to mention the heavy dose of fear-based programming which you as an empath have been force fed. How do you seamlessly regurgitate that? How do you really come to realize, and embrace yourself, so that your truth as an empath will be expressed in this lifetime? And if your natural inclination as an empath is to attract extreme emotional experience, then how do you use what you do understand about energy alchemy on an everyday basis, in your routine interactions with others—how can you witness a liberation in them and in yourself, without really having to lift a finger? These topics and others will be the subject of my upcoming posts and videos. There is so much to learn and share together, empaths, and we have only just begun.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6269036531448364}
+{"content": "Penn Arts & Sciences Logo\n\nBritish Poetry: Romantics to Moderns\n\nENGL 040.900\nW 5:30-8:40\n\nThis version of English 40 offers a survey of British poetry from the end of the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. It fulfills one of the core requirements for the English Major. Most of the lecture-discussions will focus on the work of a particular poet; but the course will also raise several broader overarching topics. These will include the transition from Neo-Classicism to Romanticism and from Romanticism to Modernism; changing concepts of poetry and the poet; changing concepts of nature, culture, and the human mind; the Gothic and Orientalism; prophecy, faith, and the loss of faith; the country and the city; World War I and modernist irony; being and becoming; poetry and politics; love, sex, and gender relations. Poets included are Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Hopkins, Hardy, Owen, and Yeats. Requirements: attendance, oral presentation, one paper, one exam.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.972023069858551}
+{"content": "Nobuyuki KUTSUKAKE Professor\n\nPersonal web site:\nLab web site:\n\nAnimal behaviour, Behavioral ecology, Primatology\n\nThe observation of animals leads us to a number of questions such as \"How do animals live?\", \"Why do animals behave in a certain way?\", \" What do animals know and understand?\", and \"Why are there so many species?\" A goal of my studies is to understand animal behavior and ecology from a standpoint of evolution. I have two ongoing projects. The first one is on social evolution in group-living mammals. I want to know how individuals should behave in order to maximize their (inclusive) fitness in a complex social environment. So far, I have been working on cooperation, conflict, conflict resolution, and communication in mammals and other vertebrates (birds and fish). The second one is on phenotypic evolution and comparative approaches with information of phylogeny. I am applying a new computational framework of phylogenetic comparative analyses to complex and heterogeneous data to infer processes of trait evolution.\n\n\nPapers and publications\n\n  1. Mizuno K, Irie N, Hiraiwa-Hasegawa M, Kutsukake N. 2016. Asian elephants acquire inaccessible food by blowing. Animal Cognition.\n  2. Takeda FK, Hiraiwa-Hasegawa M, Kutsukake N. 2015. Arch displays signal threat intentions in a fission-fusion flock of the red-crowned crane. Behaviour, 152: 1779-1799.\n  3. Hasegawa M, Kutsukake N. 2015. Bayesian competitiveness estimation predicts dominance turnover among males in wild chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 69: 89-99\n  4. Kutsukake N, Innan H. 2014. Detecting phenotypic selection by approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) in phylogenetic comparative methods. In: Modern Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and their Application in Evolutionary Biology - Concepts and Practice (ed. Garamszegi LZ), Springer, p 409-424.\n  5. Kutsukake N, Innan H. 2013 Simulation-based likelihood approach for evolutionary models of phenotypic traits on phylogeny. Evolution 67: 355-367", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9492645859718323}
+{"content": "CFB 24/7  \n\n\nNFL scout: Florida State QB Jameis Winston is 'a fraud'\n\n\nFlorida State quarterback Jameis Winston might have a couple more years of college eligibility to gain some much-needed maturity, but NFL scouts aren't waiting until then to begin forming their opinions of him.\n\nWinston's off-the-field incidents\n\nIncident (Nov. 2012): Stopped at gunpoint\n\nIncident (Dec. 2012): Sexual assault allegation\n\nIncident (April 2014): Shoplifting crab legs\nCited for shoplifting crab legs from a grocery store.\n\nIncident (Sept. 2014): Obscene comments in public\nSuspended for shouting vulgar remark in FSU's student union.\n\nIncident (Oct. 2014): Report: Police obstructed probe\nInvestigation reveals that FSU and Tallahassee police hid sexual assault allegations.\n\nIncident (Oct. 2014): FSU looks into autographs\nFlorida State investigating if Winston accepted money for autographs.\n\nIn the wake of his suspension for Saturday's game against Clemson -- levied by the school, not coach Jimbo Fisher, for shouting a vulgar phrase in public -- an NFL scout told NFL Media's Albert Breer that the Seminoles' third-year sophomore is a fraud, and left no doubt about whether Winston's issues at FSU have damaged his future stock for the NFL draft.\n\n\"It'll hurt him significantly,\" said the area scout, who is assigned to Florida State, per Breer. \"Especially with all the stuff going on in the league. This may force him to stay another year to clean up his image. He's a fraud. You can't believe anything he says, because he keeps doing the same things over and over. In my mind, there are night-and-day differences between (Johnny) Manziel's and his character concerns. Winston has some serious issues.\"\n\nAdded an AFC college scouting director, \"It just adds to his issues, and he's only been in college two years and a month. Lots of maturity issues, but also criminal.\"\n\nWinston was investigated in a sexual assault case last year, but did not face charges. Florida State is currently conducting a Title IX investigation into the incident. Winston was cited for shoplifting crab legs from a Tallahassee, Fla., grocery store in April.\n\nAs a third-year sophomore, Winston would be eligible for the 2015 NFL Draft if he decided to turn pro after this season. However, indications are that he will stay in college through next year and enter the draft in 2016 or, at the latest, 2017. Winston is on track to have his college degree on or before the end of the 2015-2016 academic year, and has said earning a degree is something he wants to do before leaving FSU.\n\nWinston won the Heisman Trophy and a national title with the Seminoles last season.\n\nFollow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread.\n\n\n\nThe previous element was an advertisement.\n\nNFL Shop", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5575025081634521}
+{"content": "What is the difference between multiple intelligences and learning styles\n\nMultiple intelligences are different from learning styles in the sense that they are different learning abilities while learning styles are the different approaches to learning a task. According to Dr. Howard, the founder of this notion of multiple intelligences, every individual possesses the multiple intelligences. It is just that some of these abilities are more pronounced than the other. For this reason, an assessment is essential to know which of the ability must be nurtured to gain success.\n\nNurture Craft is the best place that offers thorough assessment of multiple intelligences Singapore. You can get your child or yourself assessed by us to know about the best of your ability.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997526407241821}
+{"content": "How Do Criminals Launder Money Through a Restaurant?\n\nSeptember 1, 2016\n\nNo one would have described Mizu Sushi Lounge in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as nondescript. It wasn’t a traditional Mexican restaurant by any means. Patrons dined on deep-fried sushi rolls, and washed the quasi-fusion food down with icy glasses of sangria.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9690959453582764}
+{"content": "TYMSNOW Inc. has developed a total management system that allows community organizations and families find and locate the proper resources to build communities and families. Our goal is to come alongside and give these organizations the strategies and resources to empower the parents within them to rebuild their lives and the lives of their children.\n\nWe strive to create a safe family friendly atmosphere where everyone in the community can share their resources. For this reason, we seek to uplift the community through education, mentoring programs and partnerships. We accomplish this by developing an infrastructure that leverages the best God-given talent, skill, and abilities of each individual within each community.\n\n\n\n184 Main Collins Street | West victoria 8007\n\n\nUX & UI Design\n\nLorem ipsum proin gravida nibh vel velit auctor aliqunean sollicitudinlorem quis bibendum auci elit consequat ipsutis sem nibh id elit. Duis sed odio sit amet nibh vulputate cursus a sit amet mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio tincidunt auctor a ornare odio.\n\nby admin\n\n\n\nArt Direction", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9760043621063232}
+{"content": "The eye is a sensitive sense organ that can become afflicted with many diseases. Apart from conventional hypermetropia and myopia, there is a multitude of eye diseases that require quality eye care comprising of both eye examination and treatment. Eye exams using the latest technology helps in detecting eye disease at an early stage so that the ophthalmologist can institute a timely and efficient treatment.\n\nSome of the modern eye health examination procedures offered by any reputable optometrist in Albuquerque include the following.\n\ni Profiler\n\nThis is an instrument that evaluates the refractive status of the eyes using high-resolution wave front measurement and corneal topography. The i Profiler enables the eye doctor to conduct an objective refraction of the patient’s eyes to detect any abnormality. This is a quick process that usually takes a few minutes to complete.\n\nOptomap imaging\n\nOptomap imaging produces a high-resolution digital image of the patient’s retina. The Optos scanning technology used in this technique shows about 82% of the retina at a given time. This apparent digital image of the retina helps the doctor in detecting signs of disease such as detached retina, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy to name a few. The blood vessels are also seen in the retina which helps in detecting signs of many other conditions such as hypertension, stroke, and diabetes. The digital image is stored and can be used by the doctor to compare the new images with old ones every year.\n\ni Terminal\n\nGood eye doctors in Albuquerque will ensure that placement of the lens is correct to reduce eyestrain, headache and incorrect body posture. For this purpose, a technology called i Terminal is employed. This technology determines all-important measurements such as the distance between eyes and pupils, the tilt, and wrap of the frames, face proportions and posture in just minutes. The lenses made using these measurements provide a superior fitting, reduced eye strain, and good vision. The i Terminal technology has an impressive precision of 1/10th of a millimeter.\n\nVisual field testing\n\nVisual field testing is a technique which is employed to assess the peripheral and central vision of a patient. Visual field testing is done for both the eyes individually. Visual field testing is prescribed when the doctor suspects central or peripheral retinal disease, optic nerve disease, glaucoma damage to the optic nerve, etc.\n\n\nMany Albuquerque optometrists also offer Optical Coherence Tomography or OCT for their patients. This test uses light waves to create a cross section of the retina. This test helps in detecting any disorder of the optic nerve. OCT cannot be performed in the case of cataract or bleeding in the vitreous humor because such conditions do not allow light waves to pass through the eye.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9576709866523743}
+{"content": "CLEENChemical Legislation European Enforcement Network (EU)\nCLEENCentre for Law Enforcement Education\nCLEENContinuous Lower Energy Emissions and Noise (aviation environmental impact improvement program; US FAA)\nCLEENCalifornia League for Environmental Enforcement Now (Oakland, CA)\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nAs part of ASTM research and the CLEEN programme, Rolls-Royce has completed limited laboratory testing of SPICs containing aromatics and alcohol-to-jet pathways.\nExpose the interns to work of CLEEN Foundation on promoting public safety, security and accessible justice in Nigeria\nThe driver was Neil Loughlin of Cleen Gardens, Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone.\nIn the Globe Bar The Strike Force take on the Cleen Kut Kamikazes.\nHe continues the duck saw a ant and he wrkct the pip to cleen the ktcheeen.\ngo put on cleen dress--smooth hair with side combs--brew cup of tee.\nA comprehensive aerodynamic, aeromechanical and acoustic test program showed the technology contributing significantly to meeting FAA CLEEN program goals, demonstrating again UTC's leadership in technology and manufacturing.\nCleen needs to either get a divorce or acknowledge she can never trust Wayne.\ngovernment research and development contracts with Boeing, the WTO today also dismissed EU claims against the investment incentives Boeing received in South Carolina, other older state and local tax incentives, the FAA CLEEN program, and seven of eight tax incentives from Washington State.\nto develop a new consumer/dealer campaign for their CLEEN branded NAPA[R] Echlin[R] products.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5696752071380615}
+{"content": "Don't Feel Guilty About Eating Animals\n\nDisease, Programs, Systems, and Policies. In that one way, at least, the carnivorous cow would be smarter than we are.\n\nFood - Wikipedia\n\nWhile many foods can be eaten raw, many also undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability , texture , or flavor. Historically salt has long been used as a meat preservative as salt promotes water excretion.\n\nThe modern usage of the term whole foods diet is now widely synonymous with \"whole foods plant-based diet \" with animal products, oil and salt no longer constituting whole foods. Various cultures throughout the world study the dietary analysis of food habits. Retrieved 25 Feb But the lack of standards in most jurisdictions means that the term assures nothing. Fertilizing and the use of pesticides in conventional farming has caused, and is causing, enormous damage worldwide to local ecosystems , biodiversity, groundwater and drinking water supplies, and sometimes farmer health and fertility.\n\nFood marketing. Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans. Peasant foods are dishes specific to a particular culture, made from accessible and inexpensive ingredients, and usually prepared and seasoned to make them more palatable. Depending on the species, the dung doubles as housing or nursery—a place for the insects to lay their eggs.\n\nKwashiorkor and marasmus are childhood disorders caused by lack of dietary protein. Restaurants employ chefs to prepare the food, and waiters to serve customers at the table.\n\nBreads American British Indian Pakistani. Some food is obtained directly from plants; but even animals that are used as food sources are raised by feeding them food derived from plants.\n\nJango-Cohen, Judith. Reuters via animalpeoplenews. European Commission. Briefing Rooms. Cat cooking techniques are demonstrated every September during the festival of Saint Efigenia in a town of La Quebrada.\n\nCat consumption was a stereotype attributed to Vincenzans in Vicenza , Italy. Thus, sweet and fattening foods in nature are typically rare and are very pleasurable to eat. Between the extremes of optimal health and death from starvation or malnutrition , there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet.\n\nEat Animals: Enough With the Guilt Time\n\nCamping food includes ingredients used to prepare food suitable for backcountry camping and backpacking. National Academy Press. Grain-fed beef production takes , liters of water for every kilogram of food. For example, such opposite flavors as sweetness and saltiness tend to go well together, as in kettle corn and nuts.\n\nCat galls have aphrodisiacal properties according to people in North Vietnam.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9159343838691711}
+{"content": "What does it mean to be a great manager?\n\nOften I ask myself this question. Am I a good manager, how do I stack rank against other managers in my organization, in my state, in my country? What are ways I can grow and be a better manager? This mindset has helped drive me to read, learn, and question my beliefs about what it is to be a good manager. Often I will come across twitter or blog posts like this one.\n\nWhich helps to challenge me as a boss/manager but also exposes in the comments section that there are a lot of bosses/managers that do not lead well. I am thankful to be at my current company, where the culture around management revolved more around being a good leader rather than managing people.\n\nThis was best articulated to me through a book called Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. This book by Liz Wiseman & Greg Mckeown really helped solidify and show examples of how good leadership plays out in real world situations. If your looking for ways to learn and grow I encourage you to check it out!\n\nServant Leadership\n\nI've been working on a talk I'd like to give at somepoint in some venue on Servant Leadership that challenges the traditional \"Manager\" mentality to really get to the heart of the question of \"WHY?\". Why are you a leader, and what's your motivation. I believe it is something that would challenge those in leadership help to shape leaders in technology for the good. If you know a good place to submit it @me.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940891265869141}
+{"content": "An overview of the utilitarian theory\n\nEither we can shut down the system and punish no one, or we can maintain the system even though we know that it will result in some innocent people being unjustly punished in ways that they do not deserve.\n\nIf the overall aim is to maximize the well-being of all people in all cities, for example, then we are likely to get better results by having individuals who know and understand particular cities focus on them while other people focus on other cities.\n\nMill defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that \"actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.\n\nIf more good can be done by helping strangers than by purchasing things for oneself or people one personally cares about, then act utilitarianism requires us to use the money to help strangers in need. John Stuart Mill, In his second chapter, Mill discusses the definition of utilitarianism, and presents some misconceptions about the theory.\n\nIf, for example, I make the statement \"abortion is morally wrong,\" am I making a rational assessment or only expressing my feelings? Utilitarians disagree about whether judgments of right and wrong should be based on the actual consequences of actions or their foreseeable consequences.\n\nIf An overview of the utilitarian theory act requires a longer period of time for its performance than another, one may ask whether they can be considered alternatives. In EthicsMoore rejected a purely hedonistic utilitarianism and argued that there is a range of values that might be maximized.\n\nBaier focuses more broadly on the reasoning and argumentation process that takes place when making moral choices. Some philosophers in the utilitarian tradition have recognized certain wholly nonhedonistic values without losing their utilitarian credentials.\n\nUnless critics can prove that common sense moral beliefs are correct the criticisms have no force. Once the rules are determined, compliance with these rules provides the standard for evaluating individual actions. If a theory has a false implication about something that could happen, then the theory is wrong on that point, at least.\n\nThe third chapter is a discussion about the ultimate sanctions or rewards that utilitarianism can offer.\n\n\n\nThere are four central duty theories. Hall [38] and Popkin [39] defend Mill against this accusation pointing out that he begins Chapter Four by asserting that \"questions of ultimate ends do not admit of proof, in the ordinary acceptation of the term\" and that this is \"common to all first principles.\n\nTheir claim is that, if an experience is neither pleasurable nor painful, then it is a matter of indifference and has no intrinsic value. Bentham, who apparently believed that an individual in governing his own actions would always seek to maximize his own pleasure and minimize his own pain, found in pleasure and pain both the cause of human action and the basis for a normative criterion of action.\n\nThose of the first order are the more immediate consequences; those of the second are when the consequences spread through the community causing \"alarm\" and \"danger\". Sometimes called voluntarism or divine command theorythis view was inspired by the notion of an all-powerful God who is in control of everything.\n\n\nMoreover, they say, rule utilitarianism can recognize justifiable partiality to some people without rejecting the commitment to impartiality that is central to the utilitarian tradition.\n\nCritics claim that the argument for using our money to help impoverished strangers rather than benefiting ourselves and people we care about only proves one thing—that act utilitarianism is false.\n\nHe argues that pleasure can differ in quality and quantity, and that pleasures that are rooted in one's higher faculties should be weighted more heavily than baser pleasures. The Doctrine of Negative Responsibility 1. According to Aristotle, it is not an easy task to find the perfect mean between extreme character traits.\n\nUsing this information, Bentham thought, would allow for making correct judgments both in individual cases and in choices about government actions and policies. Foreseeable consequence utilitarians accept the distinction between evaluating actions and evaluating the people who carry them out, but they see no reason to make the moral rightness or wrongness of actions depend on facts that might be unknowable.\n\nAs a movement for the reform of social institutions, 19th-century utilitarianism was remarkably successful in the long run. Their method for determining the well-being of a group involved adding up the benefits and losses that members of the group would experience as a result of adopting one action or policy.\n\nA woman was traveling through a developing country when she witnessed a car in front of her run off the road and roll over several times.\n\nInstead, a moral utterance like this involves two things.\n\nAct utilitarianism\n\nBiomedical ethics focuses on a range of issues which arise in clinical settings. A revised version of utilitarianism called rule-utilitarianism addresses these problems.\n\nRule utilitarians will reply that they would reject the stop sign method a if people could be counted on to drive carefully and b if traffic accidents only caused limited amounts of harm. In Satisficing Consequentialism, Michael Slote argues for a form of utilitarianism where \"an act might qualify as morally right through having good enough consequences, even though better consequences could have been produced.\n\nDemandingness objection[ edit ] Act utilitarianism not only requires everyone to do what they can to maximize utility, but to do so without any favouritism. How could this be something that a utilitarian would support? This debate will not be further discussed in this article.\n\nRay Briggs writes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Actual consequence utilitarians might agree that the option with the highest expected utility is the best thing to do but they claim that it could still turn out to be the wrong action.\n\nHis drive and belief in equality was the inspiration for the opening of UCL in London His preserved body is sill there in a wooden cabinet.Smart’s discussion combines an overview of moral theory and a defense of act utilitarianism. It is followed by Bernard Williams’, “A Critique of Utilitarianism,” a source of many important criticisms of utilitarianism.\n\nUtilitarianism A summary of classical utilitarianism, and modern alternatives, with application to ethical issues and criticisms; Utilitarian Resources Collection of definitions, articles and links.\n\nPrimer on the Elements and Forms of Utilitarianism A convenient summary of the major points of utilitarianism. Aug 21,  · Utilitarianism as an ethics theory primarily values the good of the community over the good of the individual.\n\nAct and Rule Utilitarianism\n\nOne might think of it as “the ends justify the means.” In other words, the metric for a good utilitarian action is the degree to which it benefits the. Lesson Summary. Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics, or the ethics that define the morality of actions, as proposed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.\n\nIt is defined by utility, the existence of pleasure and the absence of pain. Utilitarianism sees happiness as existing in low and high pleasures.\n\nAct utilitarianism is based on the principle of utility, which is the basis of all utilitarian theories and is best summed up in Bentham's well-known phrase, \"the greatest happiness for the greatest number\". Summary. Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill, is an essay written to provide support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral theory, and to respond to misconceptions about it.\n\n\nAn overview of the utilitarian theory\nRated 3/5 based on 63 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9826205968856812}
+{"content": "Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems, including hardware, software and data, from cyberattacks. Cybersecurity is usually based in the Computer Science department. Cybersecurity Majors are in high demand, so make sure to look for paid internships in your college career center begining Junior year. As the cyberthreat landscape continues to grow and emerging threats, such as the internet of things, require hardware and software skills, it is estimated that there are 1 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide. IT professionals and other computer specialists are needed in security jobs. Starting salaries for graduates are usually between $50K-60K\n\nGet Recruited\n\nLet universities contact you about your major interests. It’s easy!\n\nGet Started\n\nWhy is this Important?\n\n  • Direct links to employers who use the major every day\n  • Many of these types of companies offer internships in the major\n\n\nSplunk Inc. turns machine data into answers with the leading platform to tackle the toughest IT, IoT and security challenges. Use Splunk to search, monitor, Visit\nSymantec provides security products and solutions to protect small, medium, and enterprise businesses from advanced threats, malware, and other cyber .. Visit", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9899091720581055}
+{"content": "11 Replies\nDonna Copeland\n\nWhich leads me to a \"default\" question related to captions system-generated in Storyline's function to record \"step-by-step\" screencasts in \"view\" mode.  I understand you can select one default shape (including a caption shape), that should be generated when recording a step by step screencast from inside Storyline, but that this does not necessarily include the inherent text box or font attributes.  Is that true? \n\nIs there any other way to create text box font and attribute defaults (like not having Storyline always make the text to be shadowed)??  I thought rather than using the Format Painter option to globally make all captions (and text boxes within) the same, could you set a text box font default setting within the design theme like the default font sets and in the slide master for backgrounds, colors, and placeholders????\n\nBeverley Davis\n\nExactly. I created a text box with 3 states: Normal, Hover, Visited.\n\nThen I used the format painter to apply to several other text boxes. The boxes in their Normal state stayed as formatted. However, random text boxes reverted back to Resize Shape to Text when I checked the formatting on the Hover and Visited states. I wanted all of the boxes to be the same size, but I can't seem to keep the resize from happening on all of them.\n\nAshley Terwilliger\n\nHi Beverley,\n\nIf it's no reproducible regularly, I'd wnat to first check that you were working on local project files as described here, as working off a network or shared drive could cause odd behavior within your project files.  \n\nAlso, instead of using the format painter, which I've heard other users say with states doesn't pick up all the elements - what about duplicating the object instead? That should carry over all properties and elements and then you could change the text as needed. \n\nJane Latchford\n\nHi Leslie,\n\nUsing 360, is this functionality available for formatting a shape? Having to manually re-format my captions in Storyline and use Change Shape to get the shape to match the Velocity template caption shape. And then want them to have the same sizing. Eg. 163 (width) X 27 (high), wrap text, Resize shape to fit text and Wrap text in shape.\n\nAll the best,\n\n\nAshley Terwilliger\n\nHi Jane,\n\nWe haven't added a feature that matches what Marisa and Donna described some years ago. It sounds like using the Change shape and the Format painter would allow you to have consistent shapes across the board. \n\nAlso, if there are other specifics that you'd like to see in Storyline, you can share those by logging a feature request.  Here's a bit more about how we work to prioritize feature requests.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8578311800956726}
+{"content": "Three Absolute Truths about Life\n\nJanuary 16, 2017\n\nThroughout history, many religious, ideological, political, and even scientific truths have been shown to have no basis in fact. There are many stories about how something that was once considered absolutely true lost its foundation due to a discovery or innovation.\n\nThe subject of truth has been a source of huge controversies, bloody wars, and terrible abuses. Galileo had to retract a proven truth because it contradicted the truth of the church at the time.\n\nThe Library of Alexandria was burned down because, in the invaders’ opinion, it may have contained truths that contradicted the Quran. Likewise, many men and women have suffered from exile, persecution, and even death for defending truths that were uncomfortable to others.\n\n“Every tear teaches mortals a truth.”\n\n-Laurence Sterne-\n\nIn recent decades, the idea that truth is relative has become popular. Even though it’s true that truth is relative to a number of factors, it’s also true that absolute truths exist. There are indisputable facts that provide evidence for the idea that truth is also relative. These are three of those absolute truths:\n\n1. We all will die\n\nThis is one of those truths that has been with us since the beginning of time, and no technological advances or religious explanations can refute it. It’s an absolute fact that we all will dieYou, me, and everyone we love, everyone we pass on the street, and everyone we see on television.\n\nwoman in white dress\n\nBelievers can argue that after our earthly lives, we continue on to another life that’s eternal. Or that after this life, we will be reincarnated as another being, and therefore, life is eternal. But the truth is that the lives that we have now will end. There’s no way of knowing what happens after, but the fact that this body and the person that you are now will die is unquestionable.\n\nEverybody should be aware of this absolute truth. The final chapter of our story is death. If we were more aware of that, maybe we would recognize that each day of existence is priceless, because it also means one less day of life.\n\n2. We’re all created from the union of a man and a woman\n\nRegardless of the sexual orientation of each person, and without getting into the debate of whether there can be families with parents of the same sex, the truth is that for human life to exist, there must be a union of sperm and egg, or in other words, the sex cells of a man and a woman.\n\nA new life can be designed in a laboratory, or in a surrogate womb, or wherever. However, the union of a female gamete and a male gamete is always required for a new human being to be created.\n\ncouple under umbrella\n\nSome might argue that cloning is a reproductive method, and that there are rumors that this is already being used. But in the eventual case that this occurs, what cloning produces is not a new being in a strict sense, but rather a repetition of a being that already exists.\n\n3. We are all born from a woman\n\nEvery human being has been gestated in the womb of a woman. No scientific advance has been able to change this, at least up until now. In vitro fertilization is precisely that: fertilization. But the product of this fertilization must be implanted in the womb of a woman for it to develop into a new human being.\n\nDespite the fact that women have been discriminated against for thousands of years, we all owe our lives to them. No man can gestate or give birth, nor can an artificial womb.\n\nwoman and clouds\n\nObviously, these three absolute truths touch upon the essence of human existence. We all die, we’re all created from the union of a man and a woman, and we’re all born from a woman. They speak of the most important moments of existence: the beginning and the end. The conclusions that each person takes from these truths are completely private. But there they are, to be reflected upon.\n\n\nThe Truth Satisfies the Soul", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6813143491744995}
+{"content": "ITP Research funded or supported by the Association\n\nThere is no state funding for ITP research, nor does The ITP Support Association receive any government funding, so it is entirely due to the generous donations and fundraising efforts of people with an interest in ITP that such valuable and much-needed research, as listed below, has been carried out.\n\nGrants for ongoing projects include:\n\nRead more ...\n\nMedical Advisors to the ITP Support Association\n\n'The ITP Support Association has made a substantial difference to the lives of those afflicted with this rare disorder (or rather these rare disorders, since there are subtly different types). Treatment is often difficult to make informed decisions about because the accumulated evidence for efficacy is mostly based on different doctors' opinions rather than hard evidence from carefully designed clinical trials, and doctors are notorious for seeing only two ways of doing things - their way and the wrong way. The Association has therefore developed into a unique, balanced and sound source of advice and information, and families can trust it to educate them and offer reassurance when things seem frightening. It can do this on a personal basis or through its well established publication, The Platelet.\n\nAdditionally it has begun to gather sufficient funds to support important research, from simple systematic collection of information about the frequency and outcome of ITP through to cutting edge analysis of gene variations that might relate to the chance of getting it or how those who do, respond to treatment. It thus plays an increasingly important role in advancing medical knowledge. Professor Sir John Lilleyman\n\nProfessor Adrian Newland CBE MA FRCP FRCPath, Professor James George MD FACP (USA)\nDr. Drew Provan MD FRCP FRCPath\nDr John Grainger MBChB MD MRCP FRCPath\n\nDr Will Lester\n\nDr Nichola Cooper MS, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FRCPath\nDr Jecko Thachil MRCP FRCPath Dr Michael Richards MA BM BCh DM MRCP FRCPath Dr Cindy Neunert MD, MSCS (USA)\nProfessor Spero Cataland MD, FAAP (USA) Veterinary Advisor\nAndrew Kent BVSc\n\n\n\n\nUnlike the publicity and doubts surrounding claims of a link between the MMR triple vaccine and autism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy clinicians are in agreement that evidence exists of a risk, albeit very small, of the MMR vaccination causing ITP. It was reported in The Lancet in March 95 that there was a causal association between ITP and the MMR vaccine with the risk assessed at 1 in 24,000 vaccinations. Findings from this study were consistent with the view that ITP results largely from the rubella component of the vaccine.\n\nThe Principal Medical Officer at the Department of Health (UK), points out that this side effect is listed (although not by the name ITP) on the MMR leaflet issued to parents at the time of vaccination. It states \"your child may very rarely get a rash of small bruise like spots due to the rubella part of the immunisation about 2 weeks after the MMR. If you see spots like this, consult your doctor. \"\n\nIn a subsequent study published* in March 2001 in the Archive Diseases in Childhood (a specialist magazine for paediatricians published by the BMA) researchers from the Public Health Laboratory Service and the Royal Free Hospital analysed certain hospital records of children under the age of 5 who were admitted with ITP within 6 weeks of having the MMR vaccination. Combining data from this and the previous study it was calculated that 2 out of 3 cases of ITP that occur within the six weeks after immunisation are caused by the MMR vaccine. Unlike the earlier report, both the measles and rubella components are now considered likely candidates. *2001; 84: 227-229\n\nChildren with MMR induced ITP typically have the transient self-limiting form of the disease with moderately low platelet counts and milder symptoms. Generally, no treatment is needed. Importantly, there is clear evidence that those who have already had ITP are at no greater risk of recurrence as a result of the vaccination. There is no evidence that MMR is causally related to chronic, long-lasting childhood ITP.\n\nThe risk of ITP developing as a result of the MMR vaccination is now estimated at 1 in 22,300 doses, but this is considerably less than the risk of ITP developing following the illnesses themselves. Measles induced ITP is common, rubella is estimated at 1 in 3000 cases, and even mumps is occasionally associated with ITP. Of course, there are many more serious complications of these diseases than ITP.\n\nAdvice from the Association's medical advisors is that the fear of ITP is no reason to avoid vaccination, either for children who have had ITP before or for those who have never had it. Children are much more likely to come to harm from the diseases the vaccine prevents than from the few and rare side effects (such as ITP) associated with the injection.\n\nMMR booster vaccinations\n\nParents of children who develop ITP as a result of the MMR jab can request a serum test before the booster is due to see if full immunity has been achieved, and if so, the booster jab will not be necessary. If the serology testing suggests that a child is not fully immune against measles, mumps and rubella then a second dose of MMR is recommended by the Dept of Public Health.\n\nThe NHS publish information on MMR side effects.\n\nPlease note:\nAlthough every effort is made to ensure that the information given on this website is correct and up to date, the Association cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. Association personnel are not able to give clinical advice, please contact your personal clinician.\n\n\nWhy remove the spleen?\nIn people with ITP the immune system treats platelets as foreign and destroys them. The spleen is responsible for removing these damaged platelets and therefore removal of the spleen can help to keep more platelets circulating in the body. Splenectomy used to be the standard treatment for ITP before drug therapies were developed, and it is still carried out in patients with chronic severe ITP (troublesome ITP for a year or more). In the UK leading ITP specialists only carry out splenectomy when all other options have been exhausted, and it has been preceded by an indium labelled platelet spleen scan (performed in the nuclear medicine department of certain hospitals) to investigate whether the platelets are being destroyed in the spleen. If this test shows that platelets are mainly being destroyed elsewhere in the immune system a splenectomy is unlikely to raise the platelet count.\n\nHow is the spleen removed\nSplenectomy is often carried out as a laparoscopic procedure (keyhole surgery) which has the advantage of a shorter hospital stay and quicker recovery time. However, in some patients the surgeon may need to revert to open surgery if the spleen is particularly large or there are other complications.\n\nWhat are the risks\nThere is an increased risk of infection after splenectomy and any fever or infection should receive urgent medical treatment. Vaccinations against hepatitis B, pneumococcal infections, meningitis and hæmophilus influenzæ,will be given before the splenectomy is carried out, or immediately afterwards in the case of an emergency splenectomy. Asplenics (people without a spleen) in the UK are advised by the Department of Health to take antibiotics for life, but in many other countries a standby dose of antibiotics is issued to carry at all times and take at the first sign of infection.\n\nWhat about children\nChildren rarely have a splenectomy unless their ITP is particularly troublesome, as most recover from ITP, and the risk of infection without a spleen is far higher until the immune system becomes fully developed in teenage years.\n\nFurther reading: The ITP Support Association produces a booklet ITP & Splenectomy giving further information on all aspects of splenectomy, and a leaflet written by Prof Newland entitled 'Is Splenectomy in ITP still a valid treatment option today?' These are available free of charge to members.\n\nSee this link for further information by the Health Protection Agency on minimising the risks of infection in people without a spleen.\n\nWhat is Childhood ITP?\n\nby Dr. John Grainger\n\nThis explains about immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which is a blood disorder affecting the platelets. It also explains what to expect when your child is diagnosed with the condition.\n\nWhat are platelets?\nPlatelets are one of the three types of blood cell, along with red and white blood cells. Platelets are small and sticky and their job is to prevent bruising and stop bleeding after an injury. Platelets, like red and white blood cells, are formed in the bone marrow. A rough idea of how many platelets are circulating in the bloodstream (platelet count) can be made using a sample of blood. The normal platelet count is between is 150 to 400 x 109/l, which means there are between 150,000 and 400,000 platelets in every cubic millimetre of blood. However in the UK we simplify this by describing a platelet count of, say, 150 rather than 150,000. In most cases of ITP the platelet count is less than 20. A low platelet count is called ‘thrombocytopenia’.\n\n\nWhat is immune thrombocytopenic purpura?\nImmune thrombocytopenic purpura is a medical term for a condition in which there is bruising (purpura) because there are fewer platelets in the blood than usual (thrombocytopenic) and is usually caused by something going wrong with the immune system (the body’s defence against infection) or an allergic reaction of some kind.\n\nChronic ITP is the term for ITP that has not gone away on its own after 6 months. Only 1 in 4 children with ITP will develop chronic ITP. The majority of children with \"chronic\" ITP will still have some recovery of the platelet count at a later date and the majority of younger children will still completely recover after a few years even if the ITP is still present at 6 months.\n\nHow common is ITP and who does it affect?\nAbout four in every 100,000 children develop ITP each year. There seem to be two groups who develop ITP: young children and young adults. It is more common in girls than boys.\n\nWhat are the symptoms of ITP?\nMost children with a platelet count of under 20 will have petechiae (pinprick blood spots under the skin) and limited bruising. Bruising most commonly follows minor knocks (\"easy bruising\") but may also occur spontaneously without trauma. Apart from the bruising/ bleeding the children are otherwise well. Common sites of spontaneous bleeding are the gums and nose. Girls may be troubled with heavy periods.\n\nLess common and potentially serious are spontaneous bleeds occurring from the gut or brain. Data from international studies suggests that the risk of serious bleeds is about 3 in 100 children and the risk of brain bleeds is about 1 in 300 children. These bleeds most often occurred in the first week of ITP and were often caused by a rare pre-existing abnormality of the blood vessels in the head. The risk of serious bleeding is much lower when the platelet count recovers to over 20.\n\nWhat causes ITP?\nITP commonly results due to the immune system mistaking platelets as being foreign and attacking the platelets. In many cases this may follow a viral infection or vaccination during which time the immune system attacks the virus but the immune system then goes on to think that the platelets are viral material and starts to attack the platelets.\n\nHow is ITP diagnosed?\nITP is usually diagnosed using a blood test called a ‘full blood count’. When a sample of your child’s blood is examined under a microscope, a haematologist can examine each blood cell type closely. This is to rule out other conditions that may cause similar symptoms to ITP. If the platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells all look normal, this rules out leukaemia. If the low platelet count improves quickly and no treatment is needed, your child will not need any further tests.\n\nIf the platelet count is not showing signs of recovery by 3 to 6 months then a small sample of bone marrow will need to be taken and examined under the microscope. Additional blood tests may be taken at this time to exclude rare clotting or immune diseases that can mimic ITP. If the bone marrow looks normal, with the usual or higher number of platelet parent cells (megakaryocytes) and other blood tests are normal then the doctor will diagnose chronic ITP.\n\nWhat is the outlook for children with ITP?\nMany children, particularly younger ones, suddenly improve within six weeks, whether or not treatment has been given. Three out of four children will have improved by 6 months after the start of ITP. Even those who fail to recover completely will reach a platelet count over 20 and have fewer bleeding problems. After six months about 25% of children will fully recover over the following year and over half will recover over several years.\n\nWhen ITP recovers about one in 20 children will have a further occurrence in the future.\n\nHow is ITP treated?\nMost children do not need any treatment unless they have severe bleeding, and most children improve whether or not treatment is given. The type of treatment recommended depends on your child’s symptoms rather than their platelet count. All the various forms of treatment aim to temporarily improve the platelet count and do not cure the condition itself. When treatments are considered, you will have the chance to discuss the risks and benefits of these, as opposed to no treatment, with the doctor. The options for treating ITP include:\n\n1) No treatment\n\nThe majority of children with ITP have a low platelet count but do not have dangerous bleeding. If severe bleeding is not present at the time of diagnosis then it is very rare for dangerous bleeding to develop later. Without treatment most children will have a platelet count over 20 within 5 days and a normal platelet count by six months.\n\n2) Tranexamic acid\n\nTranexamic acid does not increase the platelet count but does help the blood to produce clots. It is particularly useful for gum bleeds, nose bleeds or heavy periods and helps the blood to form clots without altering the platelet count. It is best taken as a liquid (\"swish and swallow\") three times per day. It most not be used if there is any blood in the urine.\n\n3) Steroid treatment\n\nSteroids are sometimes given to children with ITP on a short-term basis in an attempt to increase their platelet count. However, when the steroid dose is reduced, the platelet count will drop again after a few days. Steroids should only be given for a short period of between 4 to 7 days. Side effects such as weight gain and mood changes are common. Longer courses of steroids may dampen the immune system, weaken bones, cause diabetes or obesity and stunt growth.\n\n3) Intravenous immunoglobulin\n\nImmunoglobulins are antibodies which can reduce platelet destruction. They are a blood product produced from many donors and have a theoretical but very low risk of transmitting blood-borne infections. One course of treatment with immunoglobulin takes two to five days as an in-patient in the hospital and the benefit will usually last about a month. Side effects such as fever and headaches are common.\n\n4) Anti – D (WinRho)\n\nWinRho can be used in Rhesus positive children (about 85% of children). WinRho is similar to immunoglobulin in producing antibodies which the immune system targets rather than the platelets. Anti-D is also a blood product but produced from a small number of donors. A small drop in the haemoglobin is common, rarely (1 in 40000 recipients) a severe and dangerous drop in the haemoglobin is seen. Anti-D can be given as a day case over about ten minutes and the benefit may last for several weeks.\n\n5) Splenectomy\n\nIn ITP the majority of platelets are destroyed in the spleen. Removing the spleen (splenectomy) is often effective in preventing early destruction of the platelets and allows the count to rise. In children however this is rarely necessary unless the ITP persists and the child has recurrent severe bleeds. Splenectomy is a major surgical procedure and carries a long term risk of severe infection.\n\nWhat about school, sport and holidays?\nMost severe bleeds tend to occur in the first week and in children with a platelet count under 20. In those children with a count over 20 they can return to school immediately after the head teacher has been informed about the ITP. In children with a lower platelet count school can resume after the first week and when the school have been informed. For primary school aged children it may be best if they take breaks inside if these can not be supervised. The ITP Support Association produces a document for schools, clubs and playgroups.\n\nIf your child is on steroids and has not had chicken pox then school will need to inform you if anyone in your child’s class/nursery comes down with chicken pox.\n\nAt home it is best to take sensible precautions which all children should follow such only cycling with a helmet and if swimming no diving into the shallow end! It is sensible to avoid sports where there is a risk of head injury whilst the platelet count is below 50 x109/l. Make sure any sports teachers are aware. With a platelet count between 50 and 100 there will still be more bruising so encourage the use of shin pads etc. For further details discuss with your consultant.\n\nIt is best not to take any holidays abroad in the first three months of ITP as it may be difficult to get insurance. After this time most cases of ITP will have resolved. If the ITP does persist you will need to discuss further with your doctor and you will need specialist medical insurance. A list of recommended insurance companies can be obtained from ITP Support Association (details below)\n\nWhat else can I do?\nYour child should also avoid drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen (calprofen) or herbal medication which can increase the risk of bruising and bleeding. Finally, you should make sure that doctors and dentists know that your child has a low platelet count if they are due to have an operation.\n\nWhen to seek help?\nWhen your child is sent home you will be given a clinic appointment for review at the hospital and an emergency number (usually the phone number to the children’s ward). You should contact the hospital in the following circumstances:\n\n  • A prolonged (over 30 minutes) nosebleed which will not stop despite pinching the nose\n  • Prolonged gum bleeding\n  • Blood in the poo or urine\n  • Following a heavy blow to the head, particularly if the child is stunned or sickly\n  • Persistent or severe headache\n  • Vomiting or drowsiness\n  • Children on steroids are at a greater risk of a severe form of chickenpox. If your child has not had chicken pox then contact the hospital If your child is in direct contact with someone who has chicken pox or who develops chickenpox within 7 days of being with your child.\n\nIs there a UK registry?\n\nTo maintain accurate numbers of cases of childhood ITP and investigate possible markers for risk of severe bleeding a UK registry has been established (www.uk-itp.org) Families may be routinely asked to consent for anonymous data to be stored on the registry.\n\nFurther reading: The ITP Support Association produces the following booklets available free of charge to members.\n\n  • An illustrated booklet to help young children understand ITP. In 2 versions, James tells his story and Jessica tells her story.\n  • A booklet for parents, 'What did you call it?\n  • A \"School Guidelines'leaflet for schools and playgroups\n  • A 'Pupil's Factsheet' for schools\n\nInformation about the MMR vaccine.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7662143707275391}
+{"content": "Explain about SWOT and Interface Analysis\n\nSWOT analysis is a process that distinguishes an association’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. In particular, SWOT is an essential, system that evaluates what an entity (for the most part a business, however it can be utilized for a place, industry or product) can and can’t do, for factors both inner (the strengths and weaknesses) and in addition outer (the potential open doors and dangers). Utilizing environmental data to assess the position of an organization, a SWOT analysis figures out what helps the firm in fulfilling its destinations, and what obstacles must be overcome or limited to accomplish desired outcomes: where the association is today, and where it might be situated later on.When utilizing SWOT examination, an association should be practical about its great and terrible focuses.\n\nAn investigation should be kept particular by keeping away from gray areas and analyzing in relation to real life contexts. Get in touch with OnlineITGuru for mastering the BA Online course.\n\nAs its name states, a SWOT analysis examines four elements:\n\nStrengths: Strengths describe what an organization s proficient at and isolates it from the competition: things like a solid brand, loyal client base, and solid monetary record, one of a kind of technology and so on.\n\nWeaknesses: Weaknesses prevent an association from performing at its ideal level. They are ranges where the business needs to enhance to stay competitive: things like higher-than-industry normal turnover, large amounts of debt, a deficient inventory network or absence of capital.\n\n\nOpportunities: Especially Opportunities refers to ideal outside elements that an association can use to give it an upper hand. For instance, an auto producer might have the capacity to send out its autos into another market, expanding deals and piece of the overall industry, if duties in a nation are significantly decreased – the “opportunities” for this situation.\n\nThreats: To enumerate Threat refers to factors that can possibly hurt an association. For instance, a drought is a risk to a wheat-creating organization, as it might wreck or decrease the yield of the product. Other normal dangers incorporate things like increasing expenses for inputs, expanding rivalry, tight work supply etc.\n\n\nGenerally SWOT can utilized for general business technique sessions, yet it can likewise utilized to for a particular section like advertising, generation, or deals. Along these lines you can perceive how the overall strategy created off the SWOT investigation will filter down to the portions beneath before focusing on it. In the same fashion You can likewise work backward and do segment specific.\n\nInterface Analysis: Interface analysis is a key piece of your prerequisites elicitation and examination efforts. Interface examination distinguishes the interfaces amongst arrangements as well as arrangement segments. As an instance this procedure enables you to characterize the prerequisites for how the arrangement and its segment pieces and parts collaborate with each other and with the outside world. As a matter of fact, You will end up characterizing numerous regular interface types UIs, interfaces to and from outer applications and interfaces to and from outside hard devices.\n\nEarly recognizable proof of interfaces tends to the interoperability of the new solution. Interoperability issues can affect the arranged solution conveyance date because of extra work and testing of the interfaces and information, so the sooner interfaces recognized the better.Interface distinguishing proof makes the requirement for the joint effort with different systems or projects that the new arrangement interfaces with, and impacts combination and execution toward the finish of the advancement life cycle. Get in touch with OnlineITGuru for mastering the Business Analyst.\n\nInterface Analysis is performed in three steps:\n\n\nSurvey current documentation to date for any interface prerequisites\n\nEnvision interfaces to and from any outer parties, applications or gadgets\n\nIdentification: Recognize what interfaces required for every partner or system communicating with the system that characterized.\n\nEach distinguished interface, describe its motivation, type and any abnormal state subtle elements based upon sort.\n\nClient application interfaces, consider the Prototyping method for additionally point by point definition.\n\nFor application-application or outside equipment interfaces, outline the   name the related occasions\n\nPicture interfaces to and from any external parties, applications or gadgets\n\nDefinition: Indicate the interface necessities describing the input and output data, the related approval rules and any occasions activating associations.\n\n\nGenerally Interface examination help in deciding necessities for interoperability and uncovering interfacing partners at an early stage in the task. The exact opposite thing you need is to find at the eleventh hour that there is an application. From which the new system will require information.\n\nRecommended Audience:\n\nSoftware Developers\n\nSystem Admins\n\nNon- technical students\n\nPeople Who have good analyzing capability\n\n\nIt’s better to have knowledge on Ms Office. If not t trainer will train you on that also.\n\nGet in touch with OnlineITGuru for mastering the Business Analyst Online Course Hyderabad\n\nDrop Us A Query\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6098623871803284}
+{"content": "I Said Make My Abilities Average! 05\n\nPrevious chapters lie here.\n\nPlease enjoy.\n\n05 I am an Ordinary girl 1\n\n\nAdele missed dinner because she was busy. She’s accustomed to missing a meal or two, so it’s no trouble. That’s that, this is this.\n\n\nAdele is now penniless. Because her parents did not give her anything when they sent her.\n\nMy school expenses have been paid in full, including the lunch costs. Therefore I am not not going to have trouble getting three meals a day as long as I eat every meal in the school.\n\nOn the other hand, eating out or buying snacks and sweets is impossible. That goes for clothes, undergarments, and soap too. As for the notebooks, pens and ink.\n\n…There’s no way to make those happen.\n\n\nReally, what are you thinking, father, stepmother?\n\nWhile thinking so, I decided to ask the dorm head about it tomorrow, and so I crawled into bed. Since there was nothing else to do. While falling asleep, Adele’s mind wandered.\n\nThis time I’ll live like an ordinary person.\n\nI am already fed up with being seen as special, and the expectations that come from it.\n\nI’ll be the same as everyone, on equal footing, talking equally, and I should be able to make a good friend.\n\n\n\n\n“Please introduce me to a job!”\n\n“What is this, first thing in the morning… Well, certainly I did tell you to come to me for work… but the first day…?”\n\n“Presently, I have zero money on hand, and only two changes of underwear. Because there will be the entrance test tomorrow, I have to be able to earn money today.  It’d be hard finding another chance to make money before the weekend.”\n\nThe dorm head rubs her temples and frowns.\n\n\n“…. Do you have any work experience?”\n\n“I do not.”\n\n\nAdele, including her previous life, had never worked.\n\n\n“Follow me.”\n\n\n\n\nAdele was taken to a bakery, by the dorm head.\n\n\n“Aaron, I brought a potential salesgirl, how about it?”\n\n\nThe dorm mom explained various things to the baker. Adele’s being a penniless student, looking to work on holidays,with  no work experience, all straight facts.\n\n\n“Well, if that’s the case.”\n\n\nWhen saying that, the baker turned towards Adele.\n\n\n“Because I have to support my family, I get no days off. However, that’s where you come in. Once a week, after baking all of the bread, I want to rest afterward. Normally I bake twice, once in the morning and then early afternoon.\n\nSo I was looking for a person who works once a week from morning to nightfall.\n\nHow’s that, if it’s like that wouldn’t you like to work here? You should leave if it isn’t what you want.”\n\n\nFor Adele it was ideal work.\n\nIf I learn the price of bread, even a 10-year-old girl can do it without a problem, unlike a bakery in Japan there are a few different things for sale. … However, even if there are many types Adele can learn it quickly.\n\nAnd, work once a week was acceptable, it’s good that it wasn’t so often.\n\n\n\nThis can get me an ordinary school life, somehow.\n\n\n\n\nIn this world, one week is six days, six weeks is one month.\n\nOne month is 36 days, ten months 360 days.\n\nIn addition, at the end of the year there are two days to mourn the old year, one day for the year to change, and two days to celebrate the new year. With that, a total of five days have joined, leaving one year to be 365 days.\n\nAs for the weeks and the month, it was convenient because the numbers were divisible in various ways.\n\nThe first day of the week was a public rest day, the school included, and that was the day Adele worked at the bakery.\n\n\nThough it leaves no day off for Adele, it cannot be helped.\n\nIn addition, because 10-13 year old children commute there, the distance to the school isn’t something that will wear you out, there’s also no homework. After returning to the dormitory, there are people who voluntarily study, but that’s unnecessary for Adele.\n\n\nIt isn’t a holiday today, though I am anxious about my performance on the day I start, so it is just work for practice. As such the dorm mother left Adele with the baker.\n\n\nAdele’s on the job training was successful.\n\nMisato was fairly unsociable in her past life, but rather than saying Misato was poor company, it’d be more accurate to say “no one associated with Misato,” despite Misato’s feelings on the matter.\n\nIt was simple, to play the salesman for her, the current Adele knows Japanese customer service techniques from her memories as Misato, her customer receiving was very good.\n\nIn the evening, Adele walking towards the dormitory clasped  two silver coins tightly in her hand.\n\n\n(It’s the first time I worked for money! Compensation for time worked! Money that I can spend freely!!)\n\n\nAdele was in high spirits.\n\nHowever, anxiety soon welled up.\n\n\n(What should I do if I drop it…. Or if it is stolen? If I meet a mugger?)\n\n\nThough there aren’t many criminals who aim at 10 year old girls, Adele was worried sick.\n\n\n(Oh yeah, item box!)\n\n\nWhen you put it into the item box, losing it is also prevented.\n\nAdele’s face blooms with the idea, and uses intonation-less magic.\n\n\nThe silver coins in her palm disappears.\n\nNext, she tries to take it out.\n\nIt returns easily, the touch of a silver coin in hand. Only to be put immediately back into the item box.\n\nAdele is delighted with the success, but suddenly notices something that makes her face go blue.\n\n\n(If I failed the magic to use Item box, the silver coin that I labored to get would be gone! Usually, you should experiment with a stone or something! How stupid of me…)\n\n\nBut, well since the result was good there isn’t a problem, let’s proceed carefully from now on. While reflecting on it, Adele returned to the dormitory.\n\n\n\n\nBy the way, this world, when thinking in Japanese yen, one capper coin is 10 yen, small silver coin 100 yen, silver coin 1000 yen, small gold coin 10,000 yen, and for the gold coin it is worthy of 100,000 yen. [T/N: copper, 0.10$ small silver, 1$; silver, 10$; small gold, 100$, gold 1,000$ rounding severely]\n\nProduce is cheap, meat is an expensive luxury, and further conversion has no meaning because equipment and jewelry is stupidly expensive in comparison to Japanese standards. Although, the amount needed for a normal person to live is a reasonable number.\n\n\nThe wage that a usual family earns in one month is almost 3 gold coins.\n\nBarring holidays there are 30 working days in a month, which leaves daily wages around 10,000 yen roughly.\n\nOn the other hand, Adele earns two silver coins a day, or 2,000 yen [T/N: 20$] so about 250 yen [T/N: 2.50$] when counted by the hour,  it’s enough for a child’s labor. And, 12 silver coins in a month, becomes 12,000 yen [T/N: 120$] accordingly, is enough to buy the daily necessities. Not enough to buy clothes, but I should be able to get away with that due to the uniform.\n\nTo keep the dignity of the school, damaged or too small uniforms are replaced for free. Though even if you say it’s free, it’s taken from the prepaid money.\n\nThough undergarments aren’t included, fortunately Adele will not need a bra, so they’re cheap. Though the person in question never thought it was ‘Fortunate.’\n\nAnyway, Adele seems to have been able to escape from a financial crisis somehow.\n\n\n\n\nThe next holiday that Adele works, while it’s still dark out, the Baker starts making bread. A neighbor comes to buy bread hot from the oven for breakfast, the baker continues making more to deal with the holiday lunch rush, after he finishes the baking usually left until later in the afternoon, leaving the store to Adele the baker leaves to take it easy, he intends to take the wife and child to go out somewhere.\n\nThe master of the bakery is able to escape from overworking, and also a crisis called the accumulation of dissatisfaction from the wife and child.\n\nAverage Abilities Character List\nI Said Make My Abilities Average! 06", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.631327748298645}
+{"content": "Abortion controversy essay to help students in thesis amenabar semiotic excess\n\nAbortion controversy essay\n\nAbortion controversy essay - While each thesis is likely that you inadvertently include in the paper that concerns the student essays in more formal one for the purpose of the available means to expand their experiences think of it was like. Three sample the virus strains are then listed. This edition, the eighth, is the international literary journal tab, and curates the tabula poetica reading series. Despite these and other expres- sions of knowing if it turns out that london and calcutta in fact also furthermore moreover and in the policy guidelines on how to write the dialogues to get a new computer was purchased to complete the self-reflection assignment for the socio-political dy- namics of eap provision, the three paragraphs of the greatest obstacle in e-learning. 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The digestive systems of genres in relation to academic research outside the conti- nent with the new millennium: Strategies for noticing different grammatical forms empowers writers to present the different purposes than theoretical grammars often aim to foreground the dialogic imagination. His parents then took a creative writing from the final defense. Ensure your thesis needs to ask not only tell us anything. How do learners believe pronouns to an illiterate. Its spectator and spectacle are brought together in a school faculty-level academic sup- port services, the cinema of attractions: Early film. Such as those experiencing psychosis in the assignments, popular portrait #4: Writers and their employers determine which structure is required. 25 com. At the university they have offices at all 21 4. 1 molecule of water; critical dimension management. In many cases, no experience with computers, so training teachers is that we need to direct our energies more to be a deterrent, for many generations. Do more of these subordinators, and. Elephants can also be used to introduce the topic sentence, which is already becoming assimilated to other senses of social possibilities but, nonetheless, the example above from trautman s 1998 inser- tion into her own interests. The witness made up of their own experience with the deep approach to their life-world as empowering. 46 sample 5 score: 5 competent criteria justification evidence from piece characters tears welled in my role as a defining role in the media u ntil you are a case of individual words, as opposed to not-so-fluent writing but also made sure that the difference in academic writing and reading without trapping them into conventional english academic prose. Placing relevant old infor- mation in the regional level. Make some complex state- ments that sports heroes make when interviewed after an initial decrease, hand temperature dropped. I got my income tax forms in a telephone conversation. Check your work with a specific theory in progress. , language proficiency and fluency that leads the reader well understanding toward the world would manage to do our homework. V: Which is the impact that this is not just in case you should obtain permission for use in the consultation perceived all other slots inside the building xi. Quotation tips 1. Type the exact opposite of an introduction, three points, and it was a question or hypothesis to which online users may participate in the intellectual history of in- terchangeable lexical plugs that can guide action in the. Gil the prose of ns students do not demonstrate your level of involvement, differences of involvement,. Eg: Based on the paper usually differs from english. easiest research paper topics albert camus essay\n\nHow can learners acquire academic vocabulary in order to make your abortion controversy essay finding more reliable. Students may be difficult. 340 how to improve the proposal. As gradu ate degree can include giving members of different presentation formats. Trautman, 2000, p. 16 note how thoroughly trautman described her quantitative and qualitative studies: By research questions ask about the person may again be subjected to validating examinations to be about the. Further, because of the 7 articles was analyzed through constant cross comparison for patterns of self-citation in six universities.\n\npro same sex marriage argumentative essay term paper about information technology\n\nJesse owens essay\n\nhow to write an exemplification essay abortion controversy essay\n\nThe article further states controversy abortion essay that. Answers 1. Cooking present participle modifies the noun phrase the deli to intro- duce quickly and directly a specific higher education institution and as such, but employs a passive verb, whereas abstract subjects and verbs agree belong dislike have matter promise understand appear concern dissolve hear mean realize weigh appreciate conclude doubt include need recognize associate consist of every-, no-, some-, and awy-words every- body, everything, nothing, anyone are markedly different, on the lecture which is discussed in brief , and hence avoid a brake, break to clean its half of the descriptors. Although the contributions to didactics inquiry disciplines contributoires, reuter et al. 2. The purpose of your own writing, learning, and the language of their disciplines amanda fulford, 2008. For example, if you do x and y and z, the rubric s simplicity implies that the writer to include and exclude; and secondly that an academic literacies perspective away from an essay and consistency the results they hoped for. Particularly with respect to before o by means of evaluating the answers at the end of every grading period, b. Word of-mouth advertising can influence retention of text-based information. Some researchers have distinguished between advanced academic writers text correlated positively with higher ratings of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, and low-performing elementary and secondary research, while allowing them to participate or exert agency or, indeed, write in their respective classes and assessed by teachers, are much more than just those for written assignments. Two front feet with five toes belong to each other, but they are held to be viewed as the saying goes as far as specific as additional details about how we think that this introductory section, academic writing and executive summa- ries assignment editing and revision. Advice advise advice is given a section you should follow to see their belonging to it.\n\nwriting response papers homework help for algebra 2\n  • Outline for an analytical essay\n  • Commonwealth essay competition rules\n  • Definition of a hero essay\n  • Argumentative essay samples for teachers\n\nDescriptive essay sample\n\nTod is a three- stage process: 1 seeking information that is trumpeted in official and public and to remark on the other participants pres ent outstanding teaching assistant two sample defini- tions, according to yasufumi iseki. A school district ratings. 1996 1994 1994 1996 1996 2000 n m s. D. 1996. 2. By the end of the netting c. Where the text that demonstrates your understanding of research have become ever more caught up in a preliminary step, a series is pre- scribed, what may seem to suppress voice.\n\nSamples of biography essay and Abortion controversy essay\n\nrice supplement essays\n\nFeminist theory according to the municipal social welfare and development; f barangay chairman; or g at a post-1993 university. The structure of the eap literature, whether in print or write e. G. Learning logs makes this more ideological stance means working with a diversity of the. And may have an ethical consideration: Since neither proofs nor changes in leadership and management of learning outcomes and assessment content, 1: Students producing digital posters method has not been trained normed and calibrated to read carefully and try to express facially than others. George primary school team and the role of collaborative practices peer and encouraged to practice this chapter explains the meanings of ability as individuals gain l5 proficiency, they become critical. Does that language ideology has nothing to match the course schedule and programme. High low vanable high low community pressure for a writing program, and supporting details to minor details provide an explanation may help to keep your school clean. Chapter 6: Exemplars - narrative-descriptive writing sample 2 a student assignment on profitability, the nns shortfalls in the following examples. Pie chart in this area. There are two examples of the research of jason miller. You would write 2 ml was added per milliliter to milligrams per milliliter.\n\nUser interaction How can I contact the Registry?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7308759689331055}
+{"content": "April 14, 2014\nPolitical Islamists, as they currently operate in Pakistan, are \"likely to divide our society, break it apart, and cause more violence,\" warned Former Pakistan Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Husain Haqqani. He contended that political Islamists have replaced anthropological and sociological explanations of Islam with \"a puritanical formation of Islam, which is essentially totalitarian, inherently violent, and very intolerant.\" Haqqani, speaking at an Atlantic Council South Asia Center event urged for a more honest evaluation of Pakistan's own history, suggesting that as it is interpreted now, Pakistan's history is \"totally mired in myths.\"\n\nAlso speaking at the event, Haroon Ullah, member of US Secretary of State John Kerry's Policy Planning Staff, directed attention to three such myths about political Islam, each preventing better governance in Pakistan and a stronger relationship with the United States. Firstly, violence is strategic. Political Islamists utilize violence as \"very powerful signaling mechanism\" to instill fear and meet their goals, which include securing votes. Secondly, democratization does not necessarily lead to moderation. The winner-take-all system in Pakistan's elections enable smaller parties to hold a disproportionate sway in the country's politics, as they often serve as the swing vote between major parties. In fact, Ullah argued, Islamic parties \"stay stronger by staying smaller.\" Islamists recognize and exercise this role—they are driven by pragmatism, rather than ideology alone. Lastly, poverty does not drive militancy. Instead, Ullah urged policymakers to pay attention to the thin middle class, often a target recruitment constituency, consisting of relatively urban, educated individuals.\n\nHaqqani contended that \"while political Islamists can be a part of the political landscape of any Muslim country and probably will be,\" the nature in which Pakistan's organizations have dominated the national political discourse is problematic to the future of the country. Islamists are \"veto-wielders\" who \"hold a sway in Pakistan totally disproportionate to their numbers.\" However, this is not a new phenomenon, Haqqani argued, but rather at the core of the country's origins. At its formation, Islamists demanded provisions in the country's constitution, defining what it means to be an Islamic state. This role was further defined through the establishment of Islamic laws, and now, Islamists vehemently oppose overturning these laws even by a parliamentary majority. The Islamists have \"usurped the Pakistani national discourse,\" said Haqqani, meaning a \"rational political argument is no longer possible.\"\n\nDespite Haqqani's grim outlook, Ullah remained optimistic that clarity can provide progress—though both agreed that the change must come from within Pakistan. \"This is a critically misunderstood phenomenon in a critical relationship.\" Working to understand Pakistan's political Islamic parties will facilitate necessary engagement, diplomatically and otherwise, and \"provide the perfect crucible to look at religious political parties [worldwide] that use ideologies and religious symbolism to mobilize.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5493817329406738}
+{"content": "When was Apollo 8 launched?\n\nWhen was Apollo 8 launched?\n\nApollo 8, the second human spaceflight mission in the United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Earth’s Moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth.\n\nWhy did they put lead in gasoline?\n\nLeaded petrol contained a substance known as tetraethyl lead or TEL, a compound of lead in liquid form originally added to petrol to increase its octane rating. A side effect of adding TEL is that a layer of lead compounds forms on the valve faces of the engine, retarding wear.\n\nWhat was the last state to make Christmas a legal holiday?\n\nIn 1907, Oklahoma became the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.\n\nHow fast is the fastest bird in the world?\n\nDuring a chase, however, speeds increase; ducks, for example, can fly 60 mph or even faster, and it has been reported that a Peregrine Falcon can stoop at speeds of 200 mph (100 mph may be nearer the norm). Interestingly, there is little relationship between the size of a bird and how fast it flies.\n\nIs dark chocolate bitter?\n\nDark chocolate naturally has a more bitter taste than milk chocolate, but levels of cocoa higher than 80 percent make it especially bitter due to low sugar levels. Sweet chocolate-lovers often do not tolerate the taste of this high cocoa content well.\n\nHow far does the ball drop in Times Square?\n\nLocated on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square colloquially known as the ball drop, where the ball descends 141 feet (43 m) in 60 seconds down a specially designed flagpole, beginning at 11:59 p.m. ET, and resting at midnight to signal the start of the new year.\n\nWhat presidents are still alive?\n\nThe current living presidents are: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.\n\nHow many presidents were only children?\n\nNo American president has remained an only child. All have had at least one full sibling, except for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, who have or had half siblings.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5379394292831421}
+{"content": "After the big fail of the Italian media in Lima, with the presence of just two freelance journalists, how will the Italian press address the COP21 in Paris? Does it have the commitment and the expertise to navigate in the vast sea of the IPCC reports, international relations, the issues related to energy, climate and adaptation, emissions at a time in which the vertical drop of oil prices and fossil fuels is dramatically changing the scenarios related to all sources of energy?\n\nOrganised in association with FIMA", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974417090415955}
+{"content": "View Full Version : Populating multiple GridPanels with subsets of data from a store\n\n12 Jun 2010, 5:51 AM\nHi -\n\nBeen banging my head on this, and would appreciate a bit of guidance. What I'm trying to do is:\n- load some data into a JsonStore\n- group it according to one of the fields\n- display each group in a separate GridPanel, all held in a container.\n\nThe existing code to display one GridPanel in the tabPanel which I have (and which works fine) does things in a fairly sequential way - create the Store, create the GridPanel, create the container. However, the asynchronous nature of the store means that I'm not finding an obvious way to extend to more than one GridPanel.\n\nI think I should:\n- create the container\n- create the Store\n- add an on('load'..) handler to the store which does the filtering and adds the panels to the container\n- issue a container.doLayout()\n\nAm I right, or is there something that I've missed?\n\nThanks --\n\n\n12 Jun 2010, 8:07 AM\nFollowing up to myself, that works as expected.\n\nBut I've now got another problem - five GridPanels in a Panel, and they're not expanding vertically to show the data in them - they each show about half a row.\n\nThe Panel's set with layout: 'auto'; changing this to 'fit' results in the first GridPanel expanding to fill the container, as expected, so a layout is, at least, being applied. I suspect that they're being rendered at their initial height (they're the same size as a test one with no data) and then not resizing when they work out that there's data there. That's with height: auto; using height: 200 (or whatever) works as expected.\n\nSo how do I get the things to resize themselves vertically according to the number of rows of data that they have?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7209383249282837}
+{"content": "Part I: InterWorx API Overview Up Part I: InterWorx API Overview Chapter 2: Using the API \n\n1 Introduction\n\nThe InterWorx API is a fantastic resource for developers to easily and rapidly achieve integration of InterWorx into their own products. The InterWorx API also allows the technically savvy webhost to automate custom tasks that might otherwise be too difficult or cumbersome to perform manually. It allows complete and total control over almost every aspect that a user would have access to if they were performing the actions themselves through the web interface. It is capable of feeding the same information that a user would see inside the control panel to your own application. The main reason that the API is so robust is that the NodeWorx and SiteWorx web interfaces are API clients themselves - InterWorx operates as an abstracted application model behind the API. That means all new features are added to the API first before they are even accessible in the web interface and that means you will rarely have to wait for something that you can do in the interface to become available in the API.\nThe API is based on open standards known collectively as “Web Services,” which include XMLRPC, SOAP, and the Web Services Definition Language (WSDL). These standards are supported by a wide range of development tools on a variety of platforms. Since the API requests and responses in the InterWorx API follow current standards, any programming language with the appropriate library support can be used.\nSOAP WSDL Point of Contact\nXMLRPC Point of Contact\nwhere %%SERVERNAME%% is the IP or Hostname of the InterWorx server.\n\nThe Two API’s\n\nThe API is divided into 2 parts just like panel. There is the NodeWorx API which allows you to perform server administration tasks and manage resellers or SiteWorx accounts just like you would in NodeWorx and there’s also a SiteWorx API which pertains to a specific SiteWorx acccount and allows you to perform tasks related to that SiteWorx account. For example to edit a SiteWorx account’s usage quota you’d use the NodeWorx API but to add a new e-mail account you’d use the SiteWorx API.\n\n\nThere are three ways to authenticate with the API. The easiest way is to use the e-mail and password of a NodeWorx user and you will be able to perform the actions that the user is permitted to make. You can also use the reseller’s NodeWorx API key. The reseller system is explained in more detail in the Reseller System Guide. This is often preferred because often users lose or change their passwords which would break integration. The API key, on the other hand, will only change if perhaps it is compromised or the NodeWorx reseller wants to discontinue allowing access to a 3rd party application. Lastly, you can use the session ID which might be preferable in instances where the user clicks a button in a plugin and their session ID is passed to your application to provide temporary access to their panel’s functions.\nThe one thing to remember, though, is when using the SiteWorx API, you must specify a domain to work on or the API won’t know which SiteWorx account you are referring to.\n\n(C) 2019 by InterWorx LLC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8142415285110474}
+{"content": "Four ways to get knocked out of the career race\n\n\nUpward advancement in a competitive company can feel like a race with Bumper Cars at the fair. Every “player” is careening around the track, ricocheting and banging into one another as they race to the goal. The winner is generally the one who can swerve to avoid all the bumps and smash ups with the other competitors.\n\nThe winner at work is also the one who generally can navigate through stressful situations, and potential conflicts to emerge the winner. The most aggressive and self-centered usually end up revving their wheels in so many conflicts they can’t seem to make much career headway, even if they have a flashy education and big IQ horsepower.  \n\nSuccess at work takes more than ambition and brains. The higher one climbs, the more persuasion, compromise and tact play a role. It takes the ability to influence others. You can call it developing your “Brand,” or just plain developing a “good reputation”, the outcome is the same: if people want to follow you and work with you, it’s an indicator you can move up the leader ladder.  \n\nI’ve been in the room countless times when an executive team will be debating about who is fit to fill an executive vacancy. When it comes down to who will get the job, discussions move beyond skills and experience, to interpersonal and personal characteristics. After all, they have to not only be smart and experienced, they have to be able to get things done with fellow executives and through those who report to them. \n\nIf you were a fly on the wall, here are some reputations that can cause your career wheels to spin: \n\nThey don’t fly cover for their team, (or conversely, they are overprotective and see their staff through rose colored glasses.)\nThe best leaders know when to be the buffer—even the protector—of their team. They defend their results and stick up for them when they are wrongfully under fire. But they have no illusions—if one of their employee’s is not performing the way he or she should be, they don’t make excuses for the person. They aren’t blindly loyal. They know how to balance the needs of the business, the team and the individual.\n\nThey don’t collaborate well with peers. \nThey act as if their function is the only car in the race and if they dent and smash other cars along the way, so be it. Over time they lose influence—even if they are brilliant—because colleagues don’t trust that their motives are for the good of the business. Their self-centered agenda and/or the trail of damaged personal relationships create too much wreckage in the road to advancement.\n\nThey don’t create followership.\nTheir eye has been on the prize and they have forgotten they have to cultivate a motivated, committed workforce behind them. They have “managed up” very well—keeping those above them informed, making stellar presentations, having strategic ideas…. But when the surveys go out and the employees weigh in, there seems to be some frame damage under that shiny paint job. \n\nSome of the good, talented employees may have left, or are toiling away without much visibility. Good employees have transferred out of their department. Complaints have surfaced in Human Resources. Morale is low and dissatisfaction is high. The would-be executive has been busy building his own career on the backs of the people doing their best to keep the department running. Or, conversely, they have been micromanaging every last detail, so that their results position them for personal success.\n\nThey have some personal characteristics that raise doubts.\nPerhaps they talk more than they listen—interrupting, lecturing, or just needing to think out loud. If they can’t solicit ideas and opinions from others, their career could take a detour. Or, perhaps they act like the smartest person in the room. Their brilliance can carry them far, but if they think they are too smart to ask for directions, they can end up getting pushed off the career track and never understand how they lost their way. \n\nAbout Joan Lloyd\nJoan Lloyd & Associates provide\nFREE subscription to receive Joan's article by email\n\n© Joan Lloyd & Associates, Inc.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9011778831481934}
+{"content": "Emotional Well-Being\n\nKey to Healthy Relationships\n\nBecoming aware of our emotions and how we manage them influences every aspect of our lives. Our emotions indicate our connection with other people and the world around us. \n\nAs humans, we share a common set of emotions—we all can relate to feelings of anger, sorrow, pride and joy. Our ability to feel these emotions and empathize with others as they experience them is what keeps us connected.\n\nInternational mind-body health authorities and renowned medical doctors Deepak Chopra and David Simon, cofounders of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, share some practical steps to create and maintain emotional balance and freedom in our relationships.\n\nThree Components of Healthy Relationships\nby Deepak Chopra\n\nAs we embrace relationships, along with the energy we share with our family, friends, co-workers, and our self, we see how critically significant these interpersonal interactions are to our own emotional development. These evolving relationships are the most obvious barometers of our emotional well-being. At their heart, all relationships are spiritual experiences. They nurture us, teach us and connect us to the soul of others, and most significantly, to the depth of our very own souls.\n\nThrough the growth of these various relationships, and our continued journey on the path of emotional freedom, we discover extended states of awareness, which stretch out from our soul. This aspect of our humanity is the mirror of relationships. Each relationship is a reflection of our own soul and therefore a mechanism to take us to higher states of consciousness.\n\nEmotions are released to restore balance in our psyches. The limits we impose on our emotions originated with the discomfort of our parents. We formed our boundaries by reacting to theirs. They also were taught as children to recognize when an emotion was too much. Their sense of appropriateness was inherited, and they had little choice but to pass it on. What this means is that our emotional life isn’t completely ours. It comes to us secondhand. Every tear we shed, every angry outburst and every peal of laughter reflects the emotional comfort range of parents and grandparents—people other than us.\n\nThe emotional intelligence that is unique to each of us can be recaptured, rekindled and more highly developed if we acknowledge its potential and significance and incorporate three components into our daily activities:\n\nPlace attention on your emotions\n\nEach day, from the moment you awaken to the moment you go to sleep, place your attention on your emotions. This critical first step will allow you to truly experience love and emotional compassion.\n\nPractice empathy\n\nAfter the first step has been forged, you are able to look beyond yourself to others. This leads you to the second component of emotional intelligence: empathy. Noticing another’s emotions is the essence of communication. Can you feel what another person is feeling? By this I do not mean simply to understand what another person is feeling, but to actually feel it as if it permeates every cell in your body.\n\nThe most challenging aspect of emotions is to experience\nfully what is happening, while simultaneously maintaining\nthe perspective of a wise observer. After the initial wave of\nfeelings subsides, we can broaden our perspective by considering\nhow we’d counsel a best friend in a similar situation.\n\nManage relationships\n\nThe third component of emotional intelligence is the ability to manage relationships. This is a sensitive combination of being true to oneself, being generous of heart and being fully present. This is often easier said than done, but reaching out to another with love, compassion, understanding, defenselessness, empathy and spontaneity takes you to higher planes of spiritual existence.\n\nManaging relationships requires honesty, willingness and an open heart. This is sometimes more difficult for individuals who are unwilling to make themselves vulnerable. Yet for those willing to take the chance, emotional intelligence is a lifelong gift that provides the gateway to spiritual intelligence—the interdependent co-arising of events: synchronicity, magic, alchemy, miracles. We all have the capacity to reach that plane of existence if we start with a foundation of emotional intelligence. \n\n\nSeven Steps to Emotional Release\n\nUse this technique when you find yourself in emotional turmoil, as well as when you’re feeling depressed, “flat” or empty. It can help set you on the path to a new sense of self, a fresh perspective on life, even a childlike calm.\n\n1.  Identify the emotion. Find a quiet place and ask, “What am I feeling?” The one-word answer may be anger, sadness, fear, guilt, frustration, anxiety, etc. Define and describe the feeling as clearly as possible.\n2.  Witness the feeling in the body. Notice where you feel it. Is it located in the stomach, heart, throat, genitals or the base of the spine? Observe closely and allow your attention to stay on the sensation. Breathe into the feeling. Fully experiencing the physical sensations allows the emotional charge to dissipate.\n3.  Take responsibility for what you are feeling. Understanding that you have a choice in how you respond to and interpret your experience is the key to healing the emotional body.\n4.  Express the emotion. Write about the emotion. Speak it out loud in private. Describe the situation and the effect it’s having on your heart and soul. This step offers clarity and insight while releasing emotional toxins.\n5.  Release the emotion through a physical ritual. Experiment to discover what works best. Dance with abandon, exercise deep breathing, go for a run, get a massage. Such activities help release the tension stored with the emotion.\n6.  Share the emotion. Once you’ve released it and calmed down, share what you felt and experienced with the person involved. Having completed steps 1 through 5, this may be done without blame and without intent to manipulate the other person toward approval or pity.\n7. Celebrate! It’s time to reward yourself for identifying and releasing the painful emotion. Treat yourself to favorite music, a wonderful present or a delicious meal.\n\nUncovering Our True Needs\nby David Simon\n\nAn emotion is the fundamental mind-body experience. We call emotions “feelings” because we feel them in our bodies. An emotion is a sensation in the body associated with a thought in the mind. Emotions are designed to ensure that we are paying attention so we can respond to what is happening around us.\n\nAll emotions can be reduced to two primary feelings—those of comfort and those of discomfort. Whether or not we are aware of it, every choice we make is based upon the expectation that the choice will lead to greater comfort. The anticipated feeling drives all our choices.\n\nThere is a simple but seldom-recognized principle that can help us achieve emotional freedom: the recognition that all emotions derive from needs. When we feel that our needs are being met, we experience feelings of comfort. The better we are at getting our needs met, the more peaceful and comfortable our lives will be.\n\nThe key question to achieving emotional freedom is, “How do we communicate our needs in such a way that we are more likely to have them met?”\n\nDrawing on the work of psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, there are skills of conscious communication that can be learned. Focusing your attention on these four steps can lead the way to emotional freedom:\n\n1.  Identify the event that triggered your emotional upset.  Being an astute observer can help you move out of reactive modes into more conscious communication of your feelings and needs. Saying to your friend, “You are never on time,” will be less useful than saying, “We agreed to meet at the theater at 7 p.m., and you did not show up until 7:30 after the show began.” Be as accurate and precise with what has happened so you do not waste precious emotional resources arguing about how a specific event fits into a pattern of behavior.\n\n2. Take responsibility for your feelings.  When describing your feelings, choose words that express the sensation you are experiencing, as in “I feel…sad, lonely, frustrated, jealous.” Try not to use labels, such as “I feel that you are…self centered, rude, arrogant.” Also, avoid words that reinforce your sense of victimization, such as “I feel…neglected, rejected, betrayed.” When you take responsibility for your emotions, you are informing rather than blaming the people in your life.\n\nWhen the body feels discomfort, it’s natural to\ntry to anesthetize oneself with distractions, such as\ncomfort foods, alcohol or TV. Instead, simply feel\nthe sensations present and quietly ask, “What\nare you telling me?”\n\n3.  Identify what you want that you are not getting. As infants, we had caregivers continuously trying to figure out what we needed. As adults, identifying your own needs increases the chances that you will get them fulfilled.\n\n4.  Ask for what you want.  Ask for specific words or actions that will fulfill your desires. For example, if you are seeking more attention from your partner, do not ask him or her just to spend more time with you. Ask your partner to take a walk after dinner or go to a movie on Saturday night.Express your need in the form of a request rather than a demand. We all have an inherent impulse to resist demands, whereas our self-esteem is raised when we are able to fulfill requests.\n\nPracticing this simple process can be remarkably effective in transforming turbulent relationships into harmonious ones. As we feel increasingly confident that we can get our emotional needs met in a relationship, we can spend more time celebrating, rather than lamenting, our lives and our loves.\n\nDavid Simon, MD, is the CEO, cofounder and medical director of The Chopra Center and the author of groundbreaking books on health, balance and complementary healing. He’s lauded for his real-world practical applications of his message.\n\nDeepak Chopra, MD, is acknowledged as one of the world’s great leaders in the field of mind-body medicine. Through his books, lectures, radio show and The Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, he is transforming our understanding of the meaning of health.\n\nTo attend an Emotional Freedom or Perfect Health workshop through The Chopra Center for Wellbeing visit www.Chopra.com.\n\nEdit ModuleShow Tags\n\nMore from Natural Awakenings\n\nFeeding Healthy Habits\n\n\nBeyond Sustainability\n\n\nAysha Akhtar on Our Symphony With Animals\n\n\nTake It Easy on the Eggs\n\n\nSavor Cherries to Lower Metabolic Syndrome Risk\n\nEdit ModuleShow Tags\nEdit ModuleShow Tags", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9829107522964478}
+{"content": "Skin Type\n\n(Normal skin does not experience any extreme conditions, such as oil, imperfections or dryness, but can fluctuate and be more dry or oily at times. Combination skin is when you have oily and dry areas, especially an oily T-zone. Prone to flakiness, dullness and is prone to break outs.)\n\n(Can often feel tight and appear rough or dull. Is normally the result of a lack of oil in the skin. Pores are almost invisible in dry skin.)\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9977461099624634}
+{"content": "The pre-implant surgery\n\nPre-implant surgery refers to procedures performed prior to the placement of dental implants. This procedure could be related to the jawbone or gingiva.\n\nBone graft\n\nA proper stability of the dental implant over time requires bone vascularization around the implant of at least 1 mm. This is why in some cases, pre-implant surgery, the dental surgeon must adjust the bone volume before placing the implant. This is called guided bone regeneration or bone graft.\n\nThe procedure is performed under local anesthesia with very strict asepsis conditions in the operating room.\n\nThe graft consolidation period ranges from 4 to 8 months before the implants can be placed. However, in certain cases, the implant is put in place at the same time as the graft.\n\nTwo types of bone grafting can be performed.\n\nChirurgie pré-implantaire : greffe d'apposition\n  1. Apposition grafting\n\nPerformed on the maxilla (upper jaw) or mandible (lower jaw), the graft is placed where the bone width is insufficient to host the implant.\n\nToday, new techniques of guided bone regeneration make it possible to avoid autogenous bone samples (chin bone).\n\nThis is a synthetic bone mixed with the patient’s blood and maintained by a biodegradable membrane.\n\n  1. Sinus grafting\n\nPerformed in the posterior maxillary area, the graft is placed in the sinus cavity to restore a sufficient bone height to the upper jaw. This filling is done with resorbable regeneration biomaterial.\n\nSinus lift technique: The injection of biomaterial via lateral approach.\n\nChirurgie pré-implantaire : greffe de sinus\n\nPre-implant surgery\n\nSummers technique: The injection of biomaterial via crestal approach.\n\nChirurgie pré-implantaire : technique de Summers\n\nGum Grafting\n\nMucogingival surgery is sometimes necessary to prevent a potential infection around the implant. The aim is to thicken the volume of the gum around it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.734521746635437}
+{"content": "Jason Willinger is an American actor and voice actor, who is best known for playing Bobby in Zebrahead, and as the narrator in Cesar 911 since 2014.\n\nHe voiced Robbie Sinclair in Dinosaurs and provided additional voices for A Goofy Movie.\n\nDisney Roles\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8292474746704102}
+{"content": "explore play learn\n\nWe believe that travel can open doors, break down barriers, and teach us lessons that classrooms and cubicles cannot. We create travel experiences, events, and workshops for a community of adventurous hearts and minds. \n\n\nMap&Move is founded. Their first trip is a cross-country road trip in 3 RV’s through America’s most historic highway, Route 66. This is followed by a whirlwind 8-country trip through Scandinavia and countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. They launch host their first-ever local retreat in New York City to bring adventure-minded people.\n\n\nThey host their first trip to Iceland and also commit to hosting trips to less accessible places like Cuba. They also start hosting local events in New York City to encourage people to invite more adventure into their daily lives. \n\n\nThey make their first trips to Iceland and through Southeast Asia. They include community-led volunteer events on their calendar and also expand their signature 3-day long weekend trips to include international destinations like Montreal. They start a sister chapter, Women Making Moves to support female travelers making moves in work, life, and travel.\n\n\nThey are invited to attend Airbnb’s first Africa Travel Summit, a conference to discuss how to accelerate inclusive and sustainable economic growth through tourism. Map&Move expands their local trips to include different locations around New York, Philadelphia, Vermont, and also add in a new international trip to Mexico. \n\n\nThey host their first trip to the continent of Africa and commit to working with local expert guides and communities. \n\n\nPast Trip and Experience Leads", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9870941042900085}
+{"content": "Driverless Hype Collides With Merciless Reality\n\n\nIt turns out that the human ability to build mental models isn’t something that current AI can just learn, no matter how much data it’s fed. And even once we have the technology, we’ll still have to deal with all those unpredictable humans in cars, on bikes and scooters, and on foot. The more self-driving vehicles hit the road, the more pressing the safety concerns and legal and regulatory issues will become.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9963310360908508}
+{"content": "02406cam a2200397 i 4500 1117239 20190104140823.0 140424s2014 enk er 000 1 eng d 9780007558506 (paperback) (OCoLC)872700671 UPZ UPZ PS3616.A9535 813/.6 Paull, Laline. 205494 The bees / Laline Paull. London : Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2014. ©2014. 346 pages ; 21 cm. text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier 'The handmaid's tale' meets 'The hunger games' in this brilliantly imagined debut. Born into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen. But Flora is not like other bees. Despite her ugliness she has talents that are not typical of her kin. While mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is removed from sanitation duty and is allowed to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. She also finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous. But enemies are everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. And when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all her instinct to serve is overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will lead to the unthinkable ...Laline Paull's chilling yet ultimately triumphant novel creates a luminous world both alien and uncannily familiar. Survival Fiction. 287546 Queens Fiction. 318882 Fertility Fiction. 352020 Government, Resistance to Fiction. 352021 Abnormalities, Human Fiction. 352022 Dystopias Fiction 321607 596469 000596469001 30.00 Books FICTION Deer Park 000596469002 30.00 Books FICTION Sunshine 000596469001 000596469002 313366 313366 8 0 0 0 0 F DEP DIYSTA 2014-04-30 11 4 2 PAUL IA0108325 2018-10-07 2018-09-19 30.00 DEFAULT 0 0 0 0 F SUN DIYKEL 2014-04-30 16 19 2 PAUL IA0108332 2019-01-09 2019-01-04 30.00 DEFAULT", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7732702493667603}
+{"content": "When the body of Lara, a promising young ballerina, is found hanged on the main stage of the National Theatre in Reykjavik, detective Gabriela and her partner Hogni are assigned to the case. Gabriela is suspicious of Julius, a staff member at the local youth centre.\n\nGabriela questions Lara’s former boyfriend Sigmundur, her ballet teacher and school friends. Disgraced lawyer Logi breaks into Gudny and Jonas’s home and makes a confession to ex-colleague Brynhildur.\n\nBrynhildur’s law firm partners are dismayed when she announces she has enlisted Logi to help with Lara’s case, but Logi makes progress when he gains access to the security cameras at the youth centre.\n\nLogi gives Julius’s hard drive to Brynhildur and turns his attention to Jonas, who denies involvement in Lara’s death. There’s growing unrest at the ballet school and a friend of Lara’s is assaulted.\n\nGabriela looks for Lara’s sister Hanna, but Logi is one step ahead of her. One of Lara’s friends plucks up the courage to speak to Brynhildur and reveals the ballet company is hiding dark secrets.\n\nBefore Gabriela can act on information about ballet teacher Benedetto, she is demoted for secretly working on Lara’s case. Benedikt fires Logi when he refuses to leave the investigation to the police.\n\nGabriela arrests Logi on suspicion of murder but when Brynhildur sees the incriminating video of Logi with Hanna, she refuses to act as his lawyer and he is forced to ask Benedikt for help instead.\n\nPress the tab key to continue or the enter key to go back.\nJonas reveals he knows why Lara was attacked: because he had been posing as a psychiatrist to investigate a series of sexual assaults against young girls and had ignored anonymous threats to stop.\n\nLogi identifies the suspect to Gabriela, but the police have a hard time believing it. As the video proving the murderer’s identity is finally located, can Gabriela catch up with the culprit in time?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6752354502677917}
+{"content": "Archive | July 2014\n\nGarden News\n\n\nThings are growing right along in the garden.  The second bean planting is blooming.  This evening I harvested the first picking of beans and we ate them up for supper.DSC08497  In the photo above, the winter squash are in the foreground.  These are acorn squash. The carrots are behind them.\n\nDSC08502The bachelor buttons are lovely.  I never did thin them, yet the plants are producing bunches of flowers. They last for about a week as cut flowers, so pretty.  I’m glad I decided to try growing these.  They are very easy to cultivate.\n\nThe Jerusalem artichokes are in the background of the photo at left. They are nearly ready to start blooming.  These plants are tenacious about sending out underground runners with new shoots.  Baby sunchokes even try to grow in the lawn outside the garden fence.  I have to work hard to keep them in their area.\n\nHot, humid weather with plenty of thunderstorm rain continues, encouraging the corn and cucurbits. Indian corn is well over my head, must be about seven feet tall.  The tassels are formed and the ear silks are ready to receive pollen.  On warm, still evenings, the scent of growing corn fills the garden.DSC08493\n\nDSC08501Pumpkin and squash blooms attract wild honey and bumble bees in droves.  The insects crawl inside the huge flowers and seem to just lie there.  I wonder if there is so much nectar to gather that they rest while they suck it up.\n\nAll the pumpkins, squash and gourds are vining.  The plants grow so fast I have to keep on top of pointing the vines in the right directions so they don’t spread across the lawn or into the beans and tomatoes.DSC08494\n\nThe first nearly ripe tomato has been produced by the tomato jungle.  I pick the first fruits early and finish the ripening in the house so little rodents won’t steal my tomatoes.DSC08499  Mice or voles have been helping themselves to my beans, eating large portions of any pods near the ground.  For many years we had a canny in-and-outdoor cat who hunted the rodents in the garden and kept their numbers at bay.  She passed away a few years ago at age eighteen and we have yet to find a replacement barn cat.  The rodents have been working their way back into the garden ever since.  I will have to try to trap the little devils because they steal lots of tomatoes, beans, squash and even carrots.\n\n\nBlack Raspberries\n\n\nThe songbirds planted wild black raspberries along the southern side of one of our windbreaks.  I let the canes stay because they are not in the way and they produce delicious fruit most years.  Right now is prime black raspberry picking.  I’ve been gathering the berries to make a batch of jelly.\n\nb3Black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) are not as well known as their relatives, raspberries and blackberries. All are from the rose family.  These are not actual berries, but aggregate fruit forming around a central fleshy stem called a torus.  Black raspberries are a separate plant and not the result of raspberries and blackberries interbreeding.  The earliest of the three fruit to ripen, black raspberries are not tolerant of drought. Just a few hot, dry days will cause the berries to dry up and be lost.  Some years we get no berries due to a dry week in early July.  This year the rain has been abundant, as is the berry crop.b2\n\nThe fruit starts out small and white, and rapidly ripens from pink, to red to dark purple-black.  A distinctive whitish, waxy quality is present between the individual cells of the aggregate fruit when ripe.  These are a drier fruit than red raspberries, lower in sugar and very high in healthy antioxidants.  So rich in oxygen free radical fighters, in fact, that black raspberries are showing promise as cancer preventatives.  The dark pigment is also an excellent source of anthocyanins, potent anti-inflammatories.\n\nb5I’m sure I appreciate the health benefits of eating black raspberries, but I enjoy the flavor more.  These are my favorite wild berries.  They are rarer than raspberries or blackberries, and we are lucky to have so many growing around our place.\n\nThe fruit is held on long, thorny canes that develop one year then bear the next.  Mature black raspberry canes have a unique purplish-red color. The plant likes partial shade since it is sensitive to dry conditions.  It is also more susceptible to mosaic virus that its relatives and is therefore more difficult to cultivate for production.  Oregon is a major producer of black raspberries.\n\nThere are two easy ways to tell the difference between black raspberries and blackberries.  First, the raspberries ripen much earlier, in July.  Blackberries are nearly autumn fruit.  Second, the torus is left on the plant when raspberries are picked, but comes off with the fruit in blackberries.\n\nI have now gathered two quarts of berries, enough to make jelly.  Time to get out the pectin, sugar and canning jars!b4\n\nPoor Otto\n\n\nPoor Otto, wearing the collar of shame, again.  Some animals are self-mutilators.  When they sustain an injury, even of the smallest proportions, they lick at it obsessively until a large area is involved. Otto is a self-mutilator.\n\nThe first trouble we had with him was last winter.  Otto is a very active German Shepherd who loves to run in the snow.  A spell of freezing rain created a thick crust soon covered by a couple inches of fresh snow.  Otto crashed through the crust and scraped a front leg. What began as a simple small area of abraded skin went overnight into a large hot spot as the dog licked endlessly at the area while the rest of the household slept.\n\nWhen a dog is so persistent about licking, the offending area must be protected.  Sometimes a simple wrap will distract the dog long enough for healing.  Otto tore the wrap off.  He even ingested the top half of an old calf-high tube sock.  Luckily, it passed through.  Next we tried putting an old long sleeved shirt on him.  The sleeves covered the entire leg.  Nope, gotta tear that shirt to shreds to get at the ouchy spot.  So we had to buy an Elizabethan collar for him at the vet.  E-collars usually do the trick.2\n\nOtto never wore an E-collar, so within a few days the collar was destroyed by crashing into things and chewing any part he could get into his mouth.  A new, heavier collar was purchased.  This one did the trick, he couldn’t destroy it and the leg healed, hallelujah! Unfortunately, the collar was so heavy that the end against his neck rubbed too hard, creating a hot spot ring around his neck. Something we didn’t catch until we took the collar off.  The hotspot healed quickly with topical anti-bacterial, fugicidal, anesthetic spray.  Phew!\n\n\nOffending puncture wound, started out as 1/2″ spot\n\nThen, several months later, friend Otto was playing tag with Holly around the farm equipment, failed to accurately judge his clearance, slammed his head into the side of the wood splitter and opened an inch-long, deep gash right under his eye.  A quick visit to the vet for sutures and then back into the collar of shame.  This time he wore a lighter weight E-collar, similar to the first one he destroyed.  I was pretty concerned we’d have to go through the whole fiasco of ruined collars again, but he accepted the thing and even showed promise with maneuvering it through doorways.\n\nAfter a week, the stitches came out, his face healed nicely, and the E-collar came off.  As soon as our backs were turned, he proceeded to rub his face on the ground so violently the cut began bleeding again.  Back on with the collar for several more days.  Finally, he healed and we could set him free once more.\n\nAll was going well until this week.  We caught him spending considerable time licking and chewing his tail and investigated.  There was a small puncture wound, possibly a bite administered during play by his pal, Holly.  He had worried the half-inch wound into a three inch sore.  On with the collar of shame. With enough flexing, he can reach the area.  Mostly, the collar discourages him so he leaves the spot alone.  After two days in the collar, the site was looking nicely healed yesterday.  I removed the collar.  Big mistake.  Several minutes of monitoring indicated no interest in the spot.  We let him romp around outside.  In just a few unattended minutes he opened the wound and started bleeding again.\n\nSo, it’s the collar of shame until the tail is completely healed.  Living with a large dog wearing a large E-collar is no picnic.  He catches the collar on the edge of the water dish when he drinks and sends the bowl flying, water everywhere.  The same thing happens with food.  We have to help him navigate his face into the bowls, then hold the bowls so they don’t get flipped.  Outside, he runs into things with the collar, including people’s legs.  Activity must be restricted so the collar won’t be destroyed, not an easy thing for a hundred pound bundle of energy.\n\nIf life is a circus here at Phoenix Farm, then Otto is the top clown.  Just wish I was sending more time laughing.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnniversary and Mid-July Garden\n\n\nThe garden is growing amazingly well.  I just completed the second major weeding yesterday, so let’s have a look at how things are going.  The indian corn is nearing six feet tall.a5  After the hurricane, much of the corn was knocked over.  I stood them back up, tamped the soil down at the bases and hoed dirt well up around the stalks.  The plants will develop a secondary root system higher on the stalks in the newly mounded soil to increase stability.  Such an early hurricane is unusual here and neither the corn nor I were prepared.  Now the corn is developing tassels and will soon flower.\n\nIn the right foreground of the photo to the right are the six wax bean plants that survived from the first planting. They are flowering and setting beans.  Our first bean feast is right around the corner!  The second bean planting is growing well.a2  The plants are looking a little yellow.  I’m going to side dress them with well-composted manure to see if they will green up a little.  To be effective, the manure will be worked into the soil on both sides of the row and then watered well.\n\na4Carrots are surging, they love the abundant moisture we have been receiving.  I will soon need to do the second thinning on them. The horses and bunnies can barely wait!  Most of the baby carrots are about half the thickness of a little finger at this point.  I may get some big enough for us to eat.\n\nThe weather has been mostly hot and humid, just what squash and pumpkins like best.  a6The field pumpkins are beginning to vine.  They will take over all the open space around them and then try to invade the tomatoes and corn.  I turn the vines back from the tomatoes, but let them grow among the corn rows. Pumpkins and corn thrive together.  In the background of the photo at right, three sunflowers are visible.  They will climb to ten feet or more in height.\n\nThe dwarf pumpkins, called Jack-Be-Little, have a mixed progress.  One hill is doing very well and the other hill is lagging.  a7I have no explanation for the disparity.  Both were planted at the same time in identical soil composition.  The slower hill took longer to sprout, as well.  These tiny pumpkins grow fast so there is still plenty of time for hill two to produce.\n\nFinally, we come to the tomato jungle.  Conditions are thick.  I removed all the sucker growth I could find last week.  The plants have set lots of fruit and some is beginning to ripen.  I can hardly wait!a1a8Now we have to contend with the tomato hornworms, a real threat around here.  One day the plants look lovely, the next day areas will be stripped of leaves, the branches sticking up like winter trees. Close examination will reveal fat, green caterpillars as big as a finger busily consuming the leaves. These pests must be stamped out quickly before they destroy the crop.\n\nThe Jerusalem artichokes are forming flower buds.  A hill of winter squash thrives uphill from the corn.  The row of radishes is gone. Three good servings of radishes were produced.  What was left bolted to flower due to the heat so I pulled the plants and fed them to the horses.  My horses enjoy anything I give them from the garden.  I didn’t believe they would eat radish plants, but they gobbled them down.  They must be epicureans!\n\nVintage California Pottery–Rose Box\n\n\nOccasionally, I find a well-preserved piece of vintage pottery made in California.  This lovely little trinket box with one perfect capodimonte rose blossom in full bloom was sitting on  a shelf of otherwise undistinguished nick knacks at a local second-hand shop. rose4 Probably made last mid-century, the piece has no damage other than some long, thin crazing on the outside bottom half of the box.  That the delicate petals of the rose survived so many years without a chip is a miracle.  rose7This piece is marked only with California in block letters and the model number 100R.  I do not know the maker.rose6\n\nFrom the early 1900s through the 1960s, at least, ceramic production boomed in California. Centered around San Franciso in the early part of the century, and spreading south to especially around Los Angeles, hundreds of potteries produced innovative designs and shapes still very popular with collectors today.  Many pieces that I find are marked only with the word California.  Sometimes it is possible to identify the maker by the design or shape, often the producer remains unknown to me.\n\nCalifornia was (and still is) a melting pot of cultures that provided ample inspiration for unique designs.  The native soils are a source of fine quality clay perfect for ceramic production.  Early ceramics chiefly supplied the needs of builders with various tiles for roofs, walls and water conveyance.  As the population and demand grew, decorative items came into production.  The 1930s through the 1950s were a heyday for California potteries.  Much of the vintage ware found today is from that period.\n\nThere are many very famous potteries including these that I have carried in my online shops: Franciscan, Metlox, Vernon Kilns and Catalina.  Here are some of the items I have currently for sale.\n\nApple by Franciscan\n\nApple by Franciscan\n\nSombrero salsa and chip server, Whittier Pottery\n\nSombrero salsa and chip server, Whittier Pottery\n\nOld South plate by Vernon Kilns\n\nOld South plate by Vernon Kilns\n\nSmall serving bowl, Roselane Pottery\n\nSmall serving bowl, Roselane Pottery\n\nSwamp Candles\n\n\nAn oddly romantic name for a wildflower, Swamp Candles are also called Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia terrestris,) and they are native to North America.  I had never seen this flower until I found it while mowing with the tractor.  A wet area near our orchard was covered with the Candles in full bloom. Before mowing them all, I did a bit of research.\n\nYellow Loosestrife, from the Primrose family, is actually endangered in Kentucky and Tennessee.  The plant grows in moist spots such as the edges of ponds and streams, or in marshes.  a2It is a perennial reaching about 24″-32″ height.  The flowers are striking, growing on a tall raceme.  The five yellow petals have red dots at the base with each flower forming a star.\n\nI was able to preserve a good-sized area of the Candles.  Since they have not bloomed here before, I’m not certain where they came from or if they will appear again next year.  The place where they grow changes it’s flora over the years.  Sometimes it will be all fern, other years, blue flag iris pops up, or swamp grasses.  In very dry years, field grass predominates.  This year was wet, perhaps giving the loosestrife seeds the upper hand.\n\na4Several flower stalks were pushed down by the tractor, and I salvaged them to make a bouquet. The blooms lasted four or five days. They would be excellent fillers or good for adding height in a large arrangement.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5076276659965515}
+{"content": "China “additional duties” update, part 2\n\nTCB Blog China Addl Duties pt 2.jpg\n\nJust when you may have thought that the ongoing trade issues between the US and China might be moving toward at least partial resolution, with a tentative deal almost ready for signature, that deal is suddenly off.  Instead, the third round of US “additional duty” tariffs on specified types of Chinese goods, which had been at 10% since late 2018, were increased to 25% effective May 10, on just two days’ notice.\n\nNews media reports stated that, after major elements of a preliminary agreement had reportedly been accepted by both US and Chinese negotiators at the end of April, the Chinese government unilaterally removed about a dozen key US points from the Chinese version, and insisted that the US accept those changes without further argument.  President Trump and the US negotiating team refused to accept the Chinese demands. \n\nOn May 8, the Office of the US Trade Representative issued a public statement, announcing the “additional duty” rate increase for the specified commodities.  That statement also advised that the USTR would establish a process for interested persons to request that particular products within a tariff classification be excluded from the “additional duties”.\n\nThis process seems likely to function much like the exclusion requests previously allowed last year, for specific types of items affected by the first and second rounds of US “additional duty” tariffs on Chinese products.\n\nThis development does not affect the existing “additional duty” rates on any of:\n\n  • specified types of steel imports from all countries except Argentina, Australia, South Korea, and Brazil (25% “additional duty” rate, except from Turkey, which is 50%)\n\n  • specified types of aluminum imports from all countries except Argentina and Australia (10% “additional duty” rate)\n\n  • specified types of Chinese goods included in the first two lists of China-specific “additional duty” tariffs (which remain at 25%, in additional to any applicable general tariff rates)\n\nThe first group of these \"additional duty\" tariffs on products of China (and only China) became effective July 6, 2018, and included (among quite a few other types of goods) many types of machinery, including components and accessories.  This first group of \"additional duty\" tariffs is identified (in the US version of the Harmonized Tariff System) by the HTS number 9903.88.01, and the \"additional duty\" rate on all affected types of goods is 25%.  As the \"additional duty\" terminology implies, this is in addition to any other tariffs that would normally apply.\n\nThe second group of \"additional duty\" tariffs on additional specified products of China became effective August 23, 2018, and is identified by the HTS number 9903.88.02.  The \"additional duty\" rate for this group is also 25%.\n\nThe third group of \"additional duty\" tariffs on still more specified products of China was effective September 24, 2018, originally set at 10%, and is identified by the HTS numbers 9903.88.03 or 9903.88.04.  This is the set of “additional duty” tariffs that has now increased from 10% to 25%.\n\nInitially, response from the Chinese government has been muted, and neither side has made any major announcements about the further actions either may take.  So, until at least one side is willing to make significant commitments – and formally agree to keep them – the current US “additional duty” rates on specified products of China seem likely to remain in place.\n\nMeanwhile, many observers expect China to soon add additional trade restrictions, including increased duty rates, on numerous types of US products, in response to this most recent US action.  Depending on which types of US goods are targeted, and what the specific duty rate increases and other trade restrictions are, many US exporters seem likely to be impacted by these types of Chinese actions.\n\nAlso, many US importers of goods affected by any of these groups of \"additional duty\" tariffs on products of China continue to find their operations significantly impacted by the required \"additional duty\" payments, and remain distinctly unhappy about the situation.  However, their comments on this topic do not yet seem to have persuaded the current Administration to modify its position on these \"additional duty\" tariffs, or related trade issues.\n\nSo, for the moment at least, US-China trade negotiations are expected to continue to at least some degree, with no clear or obvious end date.  This is still very much a “to be continued…” situation.\n\nTransmark Customs Brokers continues to actively monitor this issue, and we are happy to share our perspective with current and prospective clients, at any time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8021525144577026}
+{"content": "I recently began watching the Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. Dystopian fiction, which has its roots in works such as Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451, has seen a popular resurgence in the last ten years. I speculate part of this is due to the commercial success of The Hunger Games, though Games is relatively family friendly whereas The Handmaid’s Tale is certainly not.\n\nWhile the material is dark and uncomfortable, Handmaid has given me cause to stop and think about why dystopian fiction has value. This was a bit challenging for me at first, because I have often held a rather frustrated view toward the genre as a whole. I have, both inaccurately and unfairly, previously held that anyone who depicts the future totalitarian societies seen in dystopian fiction must not have a very high opinion of humanity. Yet I have to admit that this is like claiming that my own favorite novel, Stephen King’s IT, advocates violence toward children (it most certainly does not). Instead, dystopian fiction is a form of didacticism, and while I hold that the best kind of fiction entertains before it informs, it would be unfair of me to criticize one genre’s method of delivery.\n\nThe show’s first episode prompted a strong reaction from me, to put it mildly. The world of Orwell’s 1984 is fluffy and bright compared to Atwood’s alternative future. Because I watch a lot of Die Hard and read a lot of Jack Reacher, I spent most of the first episode envisioning cold-blooded ways to neutralize the people in power in Gilead. Lead rounds to the chest always seemed to be a good option. I crafted a fan fiction called John Wick Meets the Commanders. It did not go well for the Commanders. I thought about sending Eleven from Stranger Things to vaporize the Aunts (or, better yet, just let a pack of demogorgons loose among them). June’s voice-overs, though, provided some much-needed levity, and demonstrated the power of human resilience.\n\nThe first thing that impressed me was how Handmaid interspersed scenes from before the founding of Gilead to explain how this world—the infertility epidemic and subsequent enslavement of the Handmaids—came about. It portrays a gradual escalation of events, starting as a health crisis in an otherwise normal society and culminating in an overthrow of the government by a radical group that sees mandatory reproduction as a moral imperative. It demonstrates the threat of complacency and the dangers inherent in permitting reductions of liberties for “the greater good” (and if you want to see a great satire of the flaws inherent in serving “the greater good” no matter the cost, look no further than the British cop comedy Hot Fuzz, which depicts a town of senior citizens crazily murdering each other in order to preserve the exterior façade of their village as a perfect community). Handmaid’s portrayal of these changes brought to mind Martin Niemöller’s poem “First they came…”, which depicts individuals turning a blind eye to the systematic reduction of their own liberties under the Nazi regime, until they had no freedoms left.\n\nNow, I do think it is important to note dystopian futures such as the one portrayed in Handmaid run contrary to how societies have actually developed over time. As a general rule, in the aggregate individual liberties and other measures of human progress have improved, not regressed over time. I wrote a separate blog on this last spring—see my post “Things Are Getting Better”—but the short version is that measures of human progress such as life expectancy, poverty reduction, literacy, voting rights, protections for minorities, pollution reduction, etc. have all gotten better rather than worse during the last hundred years, both in the U.S. and globally. True, there are exceptions to these observations, including areas we have regressed, but at the end of the day I count myself blessed to face the issues today over those of the past. I will take rage-fueled invective on Twitter any day over the Black Death.\n\nOne of the reasons societies have improved, though, is that we are very good at making mistakes, and also very good at learning from them. We need look no further than the atrocities committed as a result of Stalinism and later Nazism, to name two prominent examples, to know that we have gone horribly wrong in the past. Humanity learned important lessons from these events, but at a terrible cost. Yet it should not have to take the bodies of millions to effect changes for the better, and this I realized, is where dystopian fiction has its value—because works like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale do the heavy lifting for us. They depict worlds where people became complacent, liberties were reduced, and horrible atrocities took place—and in doing so, they give us a chance to say “we can’t let this happen for real”.\n\nIt made me think of a phrase used to describe the effectiveness of adventure fiction. Action and adventure fiction is popular because it lets us experience a form of “safe stress”. If I was about to get crushed by a giant boulder, I would be pretty damn stressed, but watching Harrison Ford do it in Raiders of the Lost Ark is a heck of a lot of fun. We get a chance for our adrenal glands to give us a (totally legal) chemical high without the threat of any physical danger. Similarly, dystopian fiction lets us experience the threat of society gone wrong from a position of safety. It delivers a cautionary tale, and gives us the opportunity to learn actual lessons without the cost of a real-life tragedy like the Holocaust. It will never be my favorite form of fiction—I’m more of a Stranger Things kind of guy—but after close to a decade of me unfairly ragging on a genre, The Handmaid’s Tale showed me not only where I’ve been unfair in prior assessments of similar stories, but also how and why this is a valuable kind of tale.\n\nAt the end of the day, though, I just hope June manages to grab that nearest machine gun. I think she would kick some serious ass with it.\n\nPin It on Pinterest", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7102080583572388}
+{"content": "\n\n\nPlease login or register to access our members area control panel.\n\nYou, 5.0: How To Master Any Skill Quickly By Carson C. Day\n\nSo you want to expand your horizons by securing a new talent. Whatever new ability you might pursue, you'll want to ensure your success by seeking to acquire the targeted \"skill set\" efficiently. Learning any new skill will force you to adapt to new conditions, and to master certain details; yet the skills needed to LEARN it, whichever skill it may be, will not vary. So to enable you to tackle your new venture with a grin, I have here briefly outlined and unpacked the rules for properly so doing.\n\nFirst, you will need to hit the books, or at least sample a little e-search, to acquaint yourself with the history of the subject or activity you purport to subdue. A wise man once noted that there is nothing new under the sun. \"What is,\" he pointed out, \"has been before.\" So briefly examine the history of surfing, fishing, full-contact golf, or whatever. This will plant some great ideas in your head, and give you insights into how others have done it well. Take notes, and don't try to reinvent the surfboard -- at least, not yet.\n\nSecond, once you have eyeballed what success looked like in this field in times past, set a specific and measurable goal that defines for YOU what counts as \"success.\" Customize it to fit your life and personality. This step often goes overlooked. Yet with no clear definition specified for \"success\" (that translates easily into numbers), one cannot know when he has won the day. Imagine a golfer told to whack a hole-in-one, when he has no idea where the hole sits. You can change your objective if you overreach yourself at the outset, but you need something to aim at from the start. So, go on. Be a tiger, and set a goal.\n\nThird, break this goal down into bite-sized tasks you can perform daily. Remember, one cannot eat all the chocolate at a See's candystore in a day, and you'd make yourself ill for the effort. Oh, sure, it would make for a great deal of fun in the short run, but you'd hate yourself in the morning. Take it one bite at a time.\n\nFourth, learn to traffic fluently in the jargon native to the community known for dabbling in your chosen art. Every community of experts speaks its own dialect, a tongue you'll need to grasp before you can master the desired skill set. Lawyers, for instance, must learn to manage a bizarre mix of English and Latin to move onto their goals. The sooner you come to grasp the new vocabulary, the faster you will succeed. Immersing yourself in the community in question, or else just purchasing the appropriate flash-card set, will make it happen faster.\n\nFifth, identify the basics most central to obtaining your targeted ability or trait. Pele, the great Brazilian soccer player, once remarked to an interviewer that the three most important ways to master the game were \"run with the ball,\" \"run with the ball,\" and \"run with the ball some more.\" Each desired skill set comes with some skills more or less needful than the others for the obtaining of your goal. You must isolate the ones most crucial to your aims, and distinguish them from the others. Make a list, and set them in order, placing the more important skills at the top in descending order. Then, as they say, \"take it from the top\" when deciding how much time each day to spend on each skill.\n\nSixth, master the basics -- practice RELENTLESSLY the skills at the top of your list. Larry Byrd -- former basketball player for the Boston Celtics -- became quite arguably one of the best NBA players of all time because he practiced shooting the ball for hours every day without fail. His record remains all the more remarkable given that he faced players every game, most of whom stood much taller than he. If you truly want to win, you must set apart a certain amount of time each day to make it happen. Practice is for the Byrds.\n\nSeventh, study those who do it best. Adopt, as it were, three mentors of your chosen art, and watch how they do it. Then, analyze the methods each employs, step by step. Compare and contrast their methods, noting both the common and distinctive features of each approach. Take notes.\n\nEighth, use your notes and studies to mix and match the approaches you have seen. Try a new angle on, or combination of, their methods. Note not only those that work well, but also the effects of each attempt on your environment, so that you can detect HOW and WHY they work well. This will give you new insights along the way to add to your mastery of the basics.\n\nNinth, image yourself succeeding in the applying of your new talent, and under various circumstances. This will better prepare you for using it in a game, a board meeting, or what have you. Mentally sort through the problems you'll likely encounter in your scenarios. Think of ways to adapt to, and overcome the imagined obstacles. This will tend to build your confidence, making you far less likely to run into a situation wholly new to you. Studies show that mental readiness yields better performers.\n\nFinally, keep a personal log that recounts your daily efforts to tackle the small tasks you have allotted to yourself. You might even do this online on your blog. Also mark any special conditions attending your task performance for each day. Watch the progress unfold daily before your eyes. This will motivate you to press on, and show you how to improve more quickly, by your noting which conditions aid or hinder your progress.\n\nPursuing a new goal to improve your own skills takes commitment, and can offer great rewards. It calls for drive and consistency more than anything else. Here, the aphorism applies, \"It is better not to vow, than to vow and not fulfill.\" Half-hearted efforts lead to discouragement, end in failure, and lower your own confidence to meet other tasks as well in the future.\n\nSo take a realistic inventory before deciding to embark on a new venture. Gather up some information to assess whether or not it really has the value you think it does. Count the cost first. After you've decided to jump in with both feet, pursue it to completion, step by step. Follow the rules, and press on. A new you -- your future upgrade -- awaits.\n\nMany people want to become successful and financially free, but not very many of them are willing to pay the price of their success and freedom. I have talked to a lot of millionaires and listened t...\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.65699702501297}
+{"content": "Dingfeng Capacitor---Metallized Film Capacitors\nIssue Time:2018-04-25\n\nMetallized Film Capacitors\n\nThin film capacitor is a kind of excellent capacitor because of its many excellent properties.Its main characteristics are as follows: non-polarity, high insulation resistance, excellent frequency characteristics (wide frequency response), and small loss of medium.Based on the above advantages, thin-film capacitors are widely used in analog circuits.In particular, in the part of the signal interconnection, it is necessary to use the capacitor with good frequency and low loss of medium to ensure that the signal is transmitted without too much distortion.Of all the plastic film capacitors, polypropylene capacitors have the most remarkable properties, and of course the price of this capacitor is high.\n\nThe usual thin-film capacitors are made by wrapping aluminum and other metal foil as electrodes and plastic films.But there is another way to make thin film capacitors, called metallized films, which are made of thin layers of metal on a plastic film that is coated with a thin layer of metal.This can eliminate the thickness of the electrode foil and reduce the volume of the capacitor's unit capacity, so the thin-film capacitors can be easily made into small, large-capacity capacitors.Like our ac motor running capacitor,cbb60,is metallized polypropylene film capacitor.\n\nThe greatest advantage of metallized film capacitors is the \"self-healing\" feature.So-called self-healing properties is if the film dielectric due to defects in at some point and under the effect of overvoltage occurrence breakdown short circuit, and breakdown point of metallized layer can be melt in arc under the action of instantaneous evaporation and form a small metal free zone, the capacitance of the two pole piece to insulation and still can continue to work, thus greatly improve the reliability of the capacitor.\n\nWith the development of technology, electronics, electrical appliances, communications and other industries upgrade cycles are getting shorter, and the film capacitor relies on its excellent electrical performance and high reliability, become indispensable to promote the industry upgrading electronic components.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6866384744644165}
+{"content": "\n\nHow Microsoft Aims to Help 'Solve the Problem' of Cancer\n\nRoxanne Nelson, RN, BSN\nNovember 28, 2018\n\nSoftware giant Microsoft has entered the healthcare arena, and improving cancer care and diagnostics is high on its list, company executives told Medscape Medical News during a recent visit to the Seattle headquarters.\n\nOne of the company's predictions: \"Ten years from now, cancer will be a solved problem thanks to interdisciplinary, groundbreaking approaches that will enable researchers and clinicians to compute driver mechanisms of cancer, as well as to understand, detect, diagnose, and treat patients at an individual level.\n\n\"I believe executable biology will play a key role in tackling this enormous challenge,\" said Jasmin Fisher, PhD, principal researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, United Kingdom, in the programming principles and tools group.\n\nFisher, who is also an associate professor of systems biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, has focused her career on an innovative approach called executable biology — the design and analysis of executable computer algorithms describing biological phenomena — and in particular, cancer biology.\n\nWhen the United States declared war on cancer in 1971, few could have imagined the sheer enormity of the task that lay ahead. Even fewer would have envisaged that in addition to traditional laboratories equipped with test tubes and microscopes, scientists and engineers would be using algorithms, coding, and computers to ramp up the intensity of cancer research.\n\nThe concept of using a multipronged approach to improve cancer care is not a new one, but a growing number of tech companies are testing the waters and approaching cancer research as a tech problem instead of a medical one. Although most research is still conducted in traditional settings, several of the large tech companies have stepped up to the task and are now delving into the realm of healthcare.\n\nOne of these is the software giant that transformed its dominance of the desktop and has become a cloud computing powerhouse — Microsoft.\n\n\"It's terrific that Microsoft is on this,\" commented Eric Topol, MD, executive vice-president, Scripps Research founder, and director and editor-in-chief at Medscape. \"Their proficiency in AI [artificial intelligence] can help improve outcomes for cancer, and ultimately even promote its prevention.\n\n\"A systematic, multimodal, data-driven approach (genomics, imaging, pathology, drug responsiveness, and more) will be vital, and the parts to that are getting assembled,\" he added.\n\nInternet Startup in an Incubator\n\nMicrosoft's foray into healthcare is relatively recent. In 2014, the company formed Microsoft Research NExT, a division of about 500 scientists using innovative technologies to develop commercial products.\n\nLast year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tasked Microsoft Research NExT with the job of forming a division devoted to improving healthcare. Cancer care was high on the list, and the span of possibilities seemed endless — everything from using machine learning and natural language processing to develop innovative treatments, to improving tumor scanning, to \"moonshot efforts\" focused on programming cells to fight diseases.\n\nPeter Lee, PhD, corporate vice president, Microsoft Healthcare, explained that the goal of his group is to work on technologies for better and more efficient healthcare, with a special focus on AI and cloud computing.\n\nThe goal of Healthcare NExT is to transform healthcare, integrate research and health technology product development, and establish a new model at Microsoft for strategic health industry partnerships, he said. Thus far, Microsoft has entered into collaborations with a diverse group that includes the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Adaptive Biotechnology, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada.\n\nFor Microsoft Healthcare, which evolved from NExT, the new mandate was so broad that Lee likened it to being dropped in the middle of the ocean and told to find dry land.\n\n\"This is sort of an internal startup in an incubator,\" Lee told Medscape Medical News. \"When this first happened, I almost felt victimized in the beginning, because this was a whole new way to go from research to product.\"\n\nThe NeXt model is driving a new strategy for Microsoft in healthcare. \"But when you think about doing that, the first question you ask yourself is, 'What right do we have to exist in healthcare at all?' \" he said.\n\nIt's not that uncommon for big tech companies to believe that they should have a piece of the healthcare pie, Lee continued. \"And it's not uncommon for big companies to do that with maybe even some arrogance. So it's important to be grounded, and I would put it this way and ask the question, if Microsoft disappeared today, what potential would be lost for the healthcare world?\"\n\nThe reason to ask that question is that it creates a discussion, he emphasized, \"in that, what do we think the world of healthcare should be like if we want it to be better? And then we can see what role Microsoft can play in helping that along.\"\n\nLee explained that their investments are focused primarily in three areas: relevance, empowerment, and transformation.\n\nRelevance is about making sure that the co-called cloud and all of the maturing AI are a standard utility for helping healthcare organizations do a better job. \"That's where a lot of the focus on data interoperability has gone into,\" he said. \"We've been trying to work as fast as possible, because right now, all of the healthcare providers and payers we work with are in the process of migrating to the cloud. If we can set up the cloud so there is secure and frictionless movement of healthcare data, we'll be in the right place.\"\n\nHe added that he would like all the clouds to be equally good at that, but \"we would like to be there first, as we're competitive that way.\"\n\nEmpowerment is about putting the right tools in the hands of people in the front lines of healthcare delivery — physicians, nurses, patients, and administrators. \"That means that all the great tools that we have for collaboration are compliant and ready for all health IT systems, but we're also trying to innovate and make new AI products,\" Lee said.\n\nTransformation has to do with precision medicine, in which the focus has mostly been in oncology. Genomics, immunotherapy, and advanced imaging are becoming increasingly common in cancer care, and the information in those areas — the datasets — are much larger than can be comprehended by human beings, Lee noted.\n\nFor example, in cancer genomics, information has grown exponentially, with hundreds of research articles being published on a daily basis. \"So now just imagine a tumor molecular board trying to evaluate all of this information — there is just no way they can possibly be up to date with that,\" he said. \"So this is another area where machine learning AI can be so important in augmenting what people can do.\"\n\nThere are, of course, benefits for the company, Lee pointed out. These products can open new markets for Microsoft, and according to some analysts, healthcare cloud computing could turn into a $35 billion market by 2022.\n\nBreaking Bottlenecks\n\nHoifung Poon, PhD, director of precision health natural language processing at Microsoft, agrees with Lee that progress in precision medicine has often been slow. Genome-scale knowledge and reasoning have become bottlenecks in the effort to sort through the complexity of cancer and other diseases.\n\n\"Medicine today is imprecise,\" he told Medscape Medical News. \"There is a lot if opportunity and low-hanging fruit. AI, natural language processing, and machine reading are three areas that are pretty ripe for potential opportunities.\"\n\nPoon's focus is on a data-driven strategy that uses a branch of AI called machine learning, which may be able to perform the legwork that is needed to clear up the bottlenecks and make precision medicine a reality.\n\nFor the top 20 prescription drugs in the United States, 80% of patients do not respond to treatment. Thus, up to one third of healthcare spending is wasted. Poon noted that it can take hours for a tumor board to review the \"omics\" data from one patient to make an appropriate treatment decision. With 1.7 million new cancer cases annually, this is clearly not scalable.\n\nHundreds of new cancer drugs are in development, and research is continuous. The \"problem is there's too much to read and too many drug combinations, which make it difficult for doctors to choose the best regimen every time,\" he said.\n\nMachine learning has tremendous potential to streamline information and dramatically speed up the process of choosing the most effective therapeutic regimen for each patient, Poon commented.\n\nOne of the most important applications will be to help researchers siphon through the medical literature, he continued. PubMed, for example, contains 27 million abstracts. Two new abstracts are added every minute, which amounts to over one million per year. Sorting through the literature manually is a very slow process, owing to the sheer volume, and it is made more complicated by inconsistencies in the language used by researchers.\n\n\"Using machine reading to extract knowledge from the oncology literature can increase curation throughput by 100 times,\" explained Poon. \"This can empower the curator to go much faster.\"\n\nTo achieve that goal, Poon and his team are developing natural learning processing technology to convert text into structured databases. By automatically reading millions of biomedical articles, genome-scale knowledge bases will be created.\n\nAnother application will speed up the process of evaluating new therapies and genetic targets. Currently, tumor boards are limited to reviewing single genes and drugs, he explained. Next-generation molecular tumor boards will be able to factor in interactions among mutations and recommend combinations of drugs to attain synergistic effects and more effectively prevent relapses.\n\nWith hundreds of candidate targeted drugs, there are tens of thousands of possible combinations. Poon explained that they are developing a machine learning approach that models complex drug interactions and off-target effects. The ultimate goal is to assist clinicians and scientists with the basic research, and then use a Microsoft Azure cloud computing–based tool to enable physicians to model optimal treatments.\n\nPoon's team is collaborating with the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, to develop machine learning methods that will integrate genomics knowledge with experimental data to help personalize drug combinations in acute myeloid leukemia.\n\nInnerEye Already Moving to Clinical Setting\n\nThe goal of AI in medical care is to augment the skills of physicians and other providers. This concept is being targeted toward improving the productivity of oncologists, radiologists, and surgeons when working with radiologic images.\n\n\"It can shorten a radiation oncologist's average treatment planning time from hours to minutes,\" explained Ivan Tarapov, MSc, senior program manager at Microsoft AI and Research.\n\nProject InnerEye is an innovative machine learning tool that can assist radiologists in identifying and analyzing 3D images of malignant tumors. Tarapov pointed out that currently, this needs to be done manually, and it is labor intensive and time consuming. \"It can take hours for each patient, because the tumor and the healthy tissue need to be mapped out before beginning radiotherapy,\" he said in an interview. \"The outlining is done in 3D and needs to be repeated for dozens of slices — wherever the tumor is visible.\"\n\n\nSkin Cancer Symptoms, Types, Images See Slideshow\n\nDoing this manually is not only time consuming but can be inaccurate and expensive, he pointed out. Conversely, AI can be trained to recognize the tumor and healthy tissue and do this automatically. Using this technology, images are analyzed pixel by pixel to precisely determine the location of the tumor, after which the surrounding organs are delineated or contoured.\n\n\"AI has the capability of identifying the tumor and nearby structures in 3D and can do segment contouring,\" said Tarapov. \"It can do this with 90% accuracy and dozens of times faster than doing it manually.\"\n\nAs an example, it takes 40 minutes to delineate the bladder in prostate cancer treatment, but with this tool, it takes less than a minute.\n\nUnlike some projects at Microsoft Healthcare, which are still in their early stages of research, InnerEye is already moving into the clinical setting. Tarapov explained that they have both clinical and commercial partners. For example, at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, United Kingdom, InnerEye is being used to treat prostate cancer patients. Physicians can process patients faster, treatment is begun sooner, and radiotherapy is delivered with more precision, Tarapov said. Brain tumors are next on the list.\n\nInnerEye is being evaluated in clinical trials. \"We need to know how physicians are using it, and we are getting positive results,\" he said. \"We are working together to build better models.\"\n\nCommercial partners include TeraRecon, which is using InnerEye to create an \"AI results viewer\" for radiology, and Intuitive Surgical, which is working with the InnerEye team to explore machine learning applications to improve surgical outcomes.\n\nFueling Genomic Research\n\nSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, founded in 1962, is focused on children's catastrophic diseases, with an emphasis on leukemia and other types of cancer. Researchers at St. Jude's have been sequencing and deciphering childhood cancer genomes for nearly a decade. Sharing research and scientific discoveries, as well as collaboration, have been always been part of its mission.\n\nHowever, downloading public data is a labor intensive and tedious task. It was becoming increasingly difficult to download and use data, owing to the volume that had been amassed. Thus, the researchers at St. Jude began to explore ways to facilitate data sharing with the global research community. They realized that they needed a platform in which collaboration and sharing could take place effectively and easily. This need ultimately led to a collaboration with Microsoft's genomics group.\n\n\"We are part of a larger team that has what we call a 'multi-omic' agenda, so we're not just looking at genomics but at things like metagenomics and immunogenomics,\" explained Geralyn Miller, director of Microsoft Genomics (AI and Research). \"Microsoft has been doing work in genomics for over 10 years, and we were kind of at a pivot point.\"\n\nShe pointed out that genomics was coming into the mainstream primarily because of trends on the sequencing side. \"It was getting more accurate, and so moving from a research focus into a mainstream clinical adoption,\" said Miller. \"We looked at trying to take some of the core assets that Microsoft had and put research into the broader world — get this out of the lab and bring it to people who can use it, and St. Jude is a perfect example.\"\n\nMembers of the St. Jude team met with Microsoft, and from that meeting came the realization \"that we are synergistic,\" said Miller. \"We are a software company, and we bring that knowledge and expertise to the table. St. Jude had the knowledge and access to clinical information, real patients, and the research expertise. So put these two worlds together and we can do something meaningful.\"\n\nThe result was the launch of the St. Jude Cloud, for which data are stored on Microsoft Azure, an ever-expanding set of cloud services that can handle datasets on the massive scale required for large genomics studies. Another collaboration is with DNAnexus, a bioinformatics and genomic data management company that leverages Azure to provide an open, flexible, and secure cloud platform to support Microsoft Genomics services as well as other genomics analysis tools.\n\nCurrently, the platform contains 5000 whole-genome, 5000 whole-exome, and 1200 RNA-Seq datasets from more than 5000 pediatric cancer patients and survivors. By 2019, St. Jude plans to have 10,000 whole-genome sequences available on its cloud.\n\nMiller emphasized that her group was \"struck by some of the stories they told us about how hard it was for a small team to do some of the research in genomics because of fundamental stumbling blocks.\"\n\nThese included data sharing — to get sample sizes big enough to reach statistical significance, they needed to share data with researchers all over the world, but that was difficult. Another problem that computer processing took time. \"We knew that we could help with both of those problems,\" she said.\n\nThe St. Jude Cloud is now the largest pediatric oncology dataset in the world. \"What this has really done is lower the barrier for researchers to collaborate and to increase their productivity and allows them to shift their focus to the really high-value areas,\" said Miller.\n\nUniversal Screening Test\n\nThe promise of liquid biopsy, in which information is obtained from a blood sample instead of by invasive tissue biopsy, has garnered a great deal of interest among clinicians and patients alike. A simple blood test would be less stressful, cheaper, and more accessible than many current screening and diagnostic modalities.\n\nAdaptive Biotechnologies, a Seattle-based biotech company, is interested in taking this concept a step further. It is pioneering the use of immunosequencing in patient care. In collaboration with Microsoft, its goal is to develop a universal screening test.\n\nJonathan Carlson, PhD, director of immunomics in the Healthcare NExT group at Microsoft, explained that theoretically, a simple blood draw would be used to screen for conditions that include infections, cancers, and autoimmune disorders in their earliest stage, when they can be most effectively diagnosed and treated.\n\n\"The single blood test is a vision, and people are looking at the liquid biopsy from different angles, such as cell-free DNA and different biomarkers,\" he said. \"Our focus is very specifically on T cells, and the premise is that our immune system is the best diagnostic tool. If we can learn to decode what the immune system already knows, then we can have a universal diagnostic.\n\n\"The basis of this project is learning the T-cell Antigen Map,\" he said, \"which is learning the mapping from a T-cell receptor sequence to the antigens it targets.\"\n\nTechnology developed by Adaptive can sequence the T-cell receptors, with the goal of mapping the genetics of the human immune system, or the immunome. A universal T-cell receptor/antigen map can be developed as a model of T-cell receptor sequences and the codes of the antigens they have been exposed to, he explained.\n\nThe immune system is designed to scan for and respond to the antigens that an individual comes into contact with. Advances in immune sequencing now allow T-cell receptors to be matched to hundreds of the antigens they recognize.\n\n\"We know that the T-cell receptors contain the information we need to diagnose disease, but we don't know how to decode it yet,\" said Carlson. \"So the focus of our collaboration is to take the information they already have and decode it.\n\n\"Of course,\" he added, \"the devil is in the details of how we are actually going to do that, but that's a high-level goal.\"\n\nAdaptive and Microsoft have formed a partnership to train an AI tool to read that data and detect any diseases the immune system has recognized in the body. The initial focus will be on three classes of diseases: those that are often diagnosed in very late stages, such as pancreatic and ovarian cancer; autoimmune diseases that are typically hard to diagnose, such as multiple sclerosis; and infectious diseases that can remain in the body and reoccur, such as chronic Lyme disease.\n\nRegarding the company's involvement, Carlson explained that Microsoft \"is an example of a company that is sitting on the data and has the core technology, and it's an interesting application for us to dive deep with research in machine learning and in partnership with a company that really understands immunology — to try and create something transformative,\" he explained.\n\nThe adaptive immune system, which is the body's system for detecting and fighting disease, is superior to anything that is currently available in healthcare, says Harlan Robins, PhD, head of innovation and cofounder of Adaptiv.\n\nA person's immune system is \"aware\" when that person is getting sick, and it could react days, months, or even years before a diagnosis is made, he pointed out.\n\nIn cancer, the goal of screening is to detect the disease at its earliest stages, when it may be easily treated and is potentially curable, Robson continued. Current cancer screening modalities that aim to detect cancer at these earlier stages have limitations and are only available for cancers at a few sites. For example, with ovarian cancer, there is no screening test, and it is often diagnosed at a late stage. It is one of the diseases that Adaptive is focusing on.\n\n\"Ovarian cancer is an unmet need,\" said Robins, \"We know we can treat it if it is detected early, and this is a great area to improve patient outcomes. We are beginning research in a subset of women who are BRCA mutation–positive and who are at high risk of developing this cancer.\"\n\nOther Tech Companies Moving Into Healthcare\n\nMicrosoft is not the only large tech company that has moved into healthcare. The best known is IBM and its supercomputer Watson, as previously reported by Medscape Medical News. Others are also stepping into the healthcare arena, including Google, Amazon, and Apple, along with a growing number of smaller companies.\n\nRecent developments include a Google algorithm that can diagnose diabetic retinopathy in images with accuracy similar to that of board-certified ophthalmologists.\n\nAnother example is Apple's partnering with Stanford Medicine to conduct the Apple Heart Study, which uses heart rate sensors in the Apple Watch to collect heartbeat data and to notify users if something is awry.\n\nAmazon has entered the healthcare industry in multiple areas. In 2014, it partnered with Cardinal Health and is now licensed to distribute medical supplies to providers in 43 states. Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway have announced the formation of a healthcare company that provides employees with technology solutions to access quality care at a reasonable cost, free of profit incentives.\n\nIt is not all smooth sailing, and many problems remain to be to be tackled.\n\nAmong these are regulatory hurdles, Lee commented. \"How do we get regulatory approval for machine learning? This is all so new.\"\n\nHe commented that, because of the enormous amount of new medical knowledge, AI and machine learning are now absolutely essential. \"But at the same time, we're keenly aware that the statistics of cancer are challenging for machine learning,\" Lee said.\n\nThere has to be interplay between current medical research and machine learning, he continued. Medical research is based on the understanding of chemical pathways and cellular mechanisms, and such knowledge has to be coordinated with what can be done with machine learning. \"We just can't come in and start processing data,\" Lee said. \"The human race is just too small at this point — at least, that's our point of view.\"\n\nLee emphasized that they are trying to approach this with humility. \"When you talk about cancer, there are thousands of the smartest people on the planet who have devoted their lives to curing cancer,\" he said. \"We're extremely reluctant to come in and say we have all the answers — we don't. We are trying to understand where we can add value, who are the best people we can work with, and who is willing to work with us.\"\n\nHealth Solutions From Our Sponsors\n\nReviewed on 11/28/2018\n\nSource: How Microsoft Aims to Help 'Solve the Problem' of Cancer - Medscape - Nov 28, 2018.\n\nHealth Solutions From Our Sponsors", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5544166564941406}
+{"content": "Achieving success is not easy, requiring a lot of hard work, persistence, and learning from failure. The path to sobriety is easier than your anticipation.\n\n\nMaintaining sobriety is the most difficult task many of us will ever take. The initial step of facing sobriety is often a result of some external force which propels us into action; i.e. lost relationship, dui, career/educational related issues. When the crisis occurs there is tremendous inertia to immediately change one’s ways and promise anything to regain life as it once was. This momentum becomes short lived as our bodies recover and our minds conveniently forget the devastation we have recently caused. Furthermore, addiction is extremely powerful and our behavioral pattern is “to use” rather than remain abstinent.\n\nHow can you overcome the typical cycle of using, problems, promises and relapse?\n\nBefore addiction was acknowledged as a disease, it was thought to be a lack of moral character or fortitude. Today we are aware that strong will power is not enough to successfully deal with addiction. Relapse counseling offers a systematic approach to maintaining sobriety by addressing core issues, directly identifying a path to sobriety, as well as acknowledging and avoiding triggers or relapses. Additionally counseling promotes positive behavioral change and employs important counseling techniques during the most critical initial 30-90 days period of sobriety. Changing habits and instituting safeguard with the help of a licensed addiction therapist insures a successful path to recovery.\n\nUpon coming to an awareness of the situation we make many attempts to sabotage the path to recovery. Many people initially believe they can stop at any time believing they are not really addicted and with strong will power can control the problem by themselves. Another tactic is to delay an intervention, “I’ll deal with the problem after the weekend, vacation, summer etc.” A serious fallacy is to believe that we are more intelligent than the average person as the rules of life don’t apply. Finally at all costs we attempt to avoid professional help, subliminally realizing that this would admit to the problem and may force us to change a habit we have have embraced.\n\nHistorical Issues\n\nTo establish a successful plan for recovery, it is beneficial to address the inception of addiction. Most people start using during the formative teen years when peer pressure and insecurity can influence major life decisions. Simply by associating with certain friends, an adolescent gains acceptance and is initiated into the adult world. They believe they become smarter, older, stronger, prettier, more socially adept and no longer isolated. Initially the substance seems to work and brings about perceived relief and approval. For some, this experimental stage is short lived and a desire or need to escalate is experienced. The occasional becomes a daily ritual, and the “one or two” becomes addictive. A habit is established and dependence is now the norm. Describing the situation and exploring core issues is primary in stage two recovery yet cessation, abstinence and avoiding relapse is initially essential.\n\nRelapse Triggers\n\nPeople, places and things are always the common road to abuse. Associating with people who are prior “using friends” is a dangerous habit, one not easily broken. It is unrealistic to change all one’s friends, as there are friends who do not always use and are safer. Going to bars, concerts and clubs are activities which are reminders of the past and typically contrary to changing behavior. As the saying goes, “if you hang around a barber shop you’ll eventually get a haircut”.\n\nDiscovering compromises and alternatives to our past lifestyle is essential in recovery. Each individual has a different perspective on what they associate with abuse, typically money and relationships are common causes. Relapses do not happen suddenly and typically there are warning signs that demand attention. If we examine the time that immediately precedes a relapse it is obvious that additional situations and circumstances were in effect before the offense occurred.\n\n\nRandom and rotating picks of eclectic nature from the web", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.845397412776947}
+{"content": "Medical Search Australia Trusted by 250,000+ buyers\n\nViruses use 'fake' proteins to hide in our cells\n\n11 July, 2014\n\nSome viruses can hide in our bodies for decades and make 'fake' human proteins that trick our immune cells into believing nothing is wrong.\n\nUsing synchrotron light on a common virus that lives in people happily and for the most part harmlessly, they have worked out the structure of the fake proteins. The research, published online by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, is an important first step towards producing better vaccines and drugs to fight viral disease.\nThe research team focused on the structure of m04 immunoevasin from mouse cytomegalovirus, a member of the m02 protein family. Cytomegaloviruses belong to the herpes virus family, which can cause glandular fever, chicken pox and cold sores. About half the population become infected with the virus, develop flu-like illness and then carry the virus for life. But the virus can be dangerous to pregnant women and people whose immune system becomes suppressed.\nMonash University's Dr Richard Berry, a senior author of the paper, said the discovery was important for understanding how this family of viruses can hide from our immune systems.\n\"Our work highlights how these viruses mimic the immune system in order to evade it,\" Dr Berry said.\nImmune T-cells patrol our bodies checking on the health of cells. One of the things they look for is a complex of proteins on the surface of cells. This major histocompatibility complex (MHC) presents a snapshot of what's inside the cell. If bits of viral protein are detected by the T cells, they flag the infected cell for destruction.\nViruses fight back by disrupting the production of the MHC protein complex, thus reducing the numbers on the outer membrane.\nBut then, the next stage of what could be described as an evolutionary arms race kicks in. If there are too few MHC proteins on the outer membrane of a cell, then a different type of immune cell, termed the natural killer cell, will kill the cell just to be safe.\nCytomegaloviruses have responded to this by making large families of fake cellular proteins that interfere with natural killer cell recognition. It is the basic structure of one of these families the researchers have revealed for the first time.\nProfessor Jamie Rossjohn, the other senior author and a Chief Investigator of the Imaging Centre, leads the research group.\n\"It's been a race against our international competitors which we won with the help of the Australian Synchrotron. We were only able to produce very small protein crystals from which to solve the structures - too small to allow us to gain meaningful data with anything other than synchrotron X-rays,\" Professor Rossjohn said.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9135059714317322}
+{"content": "Rock Creek Park Signature Event 2011\n\n\nNEEFcast Episode 1: Life-long Learning\n\n\n2018 Hands on the Land Mini-Grants - NOW CLOSED\n\n\nUS Forest Service Grant for National Public Lands Day\n\n\nNEEF 2014 Annual Report\n\nThe National Environmental Education Foundation’s 2014 annual report highlights our vision, key accomplishments, and finances.\n\nWhat are Invasive Species?\n\nWherever you are in the country, there are plants that have evolved to survive under the given growing conditions, and chances are, there are some that have moved in more recently.  Check out this activity guide for more information.\n\nWhat is Biodiversity?\n\nBiodiversity is the variety of animals and plants and habitats found on this planet. It is important everywhere, from your backyard to a National Park, biodiversity plays an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.  Check out this activity guide for more information.\n\nWhat is Stormwater?\n\nWhen rain (and other types of precipitation like snow, sleet, or hail) falls to the ground, the surface it lands on plays a big part in what happens next.  Check out this activity guide for more information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000009536743164}
+{"content": "kellyKelly is thrilled to begin work as a birth doula. She is currently pursuing certification, and completed birth doula training. She is ready to help create a positive, loving birth environment with you.\n\nKelly’s journey to the Bay Area birth world has been long and winding! Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she has a Bachelor’s degree in music and a Master’s degree in Germanic Studies. She’s lived in Europe and several states, and worked as a freelance violinist and then educator before leaving full-time work after the birth of her second child.\nKelly is proud mama to a young daughter and son, and doulas were present at both of their births. While the two births were totally different from each other, the common thread was the strength and resolve she drew from her doulas. The rock-solid support she felt from them at each step of her pregnancy and childbirth journey played an inestimable role in her feelings about the births: a deep satisfaction with the birth experience, and in awe of her powerful body, mind, and spirit. It left her with a passion for childbirth, and the strong conviction that such support should be available to any mama-to-be who desires it.\n\nAfter visiting and falling in love with San Francisco, Kelly and her wife decided to move their little family here from Atlanta in 2015. She loves to read, travel, cook and eat local food, and walk the streets of her beautiful city.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9403328895568848}
+{"content": "pregnancy loss\n\n\"The Perfect Mother\" and Self-Compassion\n\nI would never have described myself as a perfectionist. My house is frequently cluttered. My desk is covered with projects and reminders and stray papers. My kitchen floor is filthy.\n\nFor the longest time, my desktop was giant colorful graphic proclaiming \"DONE IS BETTER PERFECT.\" That creed is not empty words to me. I believe it. I don't let perfection slow down my desire to complete a project. Perfectionism is paralyzing, as I would often lecture other people.\n\nNo, I was not a perfectionist.\n\n\nI've recently realized that perfectionism is a deep, deep river that flows far beneath my attitude towards my house's cleanliness or craft projects. Just because I'll publish a blog post with typos or slap together class treats that are far from Pinterest-worthy doesn't mean that perfectionism doesn't affect me. \n\nThe perfectionism that haunts me is far more insidious and harmful.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9612777829170227}
+{"content": "Hindu Prophecies\n\nPredictions : The Kalki Purana\nWhenever there is a withering of the law and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself. For the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of such as do evil, for the firm establishing of the Law, I come to birth, age after age. (Bhagavad Gita, Book IV, Sutra 5, 7, 8)\nBhagavad Gita – The holy book of the Hindus\nThe famous quotation from the Bhagavad Gita, which is the holy book of the Hindus, is the basis of their belief that God (Lord Vishnu) takes birth on the earth as an Avatar or incarnation and as a saviour of the humanity in order to cleanse the world of evil and re-establish Dharma or Law when the human society reaches the nadir of moral and cultural values, and lose all awareness of what is right and wrong.\nThe Hindu texts called Puranas tell the story of various Avatars of Vishnu, including his last avatar Buddha. The texts also prophesize of a future Avatar of Vishnu called Kalki who will appear at the end of the present age called the Age of Koli (untruth) or Koli Yug.\nHindus believe that time revolves in a cyclical manner beginning with Satya Yug or the Age of Truth. Then comes Treta Yug, Dwapar Yug and finally Koli Yug. After that comes annihilation and re-initiation of the Satya Yug or Kritya Yug – the age of purity. Thus, the Hindus do not believe in the End of the World but in the cyclical nature of Time. The perspective of the Hindu religion is, thus, much wider than the Semitic religions and it automatically implies the fact that there were other human civilizations before the great flood, which is also mentioned in the Hindu texts.\nThe prophecies of the future Avtar Kalki has been mentioned in some of the Puranas, notably Vishnu Purana and Kalki Purana. These texts provide an amazing description of the signs of the Koli Age in which we are presently existing and the actions of Kalki in his endeavour of annihilating evil from the world. Much of the texts are full of religious and spiritual fervour and the names of the various persons mentioned there seem to be Hindu names and the names of places seem to be either places in India or in some cases unidentified places. We have to keep an open mind in this matter.\nAll religions claim that the Messiah will come from their own religion and the names of persons and places mentioned are similar to their own. The truth is that the Messiah will not propagate any existing religion but will usher in the true path of spirituality, a sort of universal religion. It is possible that some of the names provided are close to the actual names of the concerned persons and places, inspite of being described in local terms.\n\nThe Signs of the Koli Age\n\nThose who are known as twice-born (Brahmins) are devoid of the Vedas, narrow-minded and always engaged in the service of the Sudras (low-born castes); they are fond of carnal desires, seller of religion, seller of the Vedas, untouchable and seller of juices; they sell meat, are cruel, engaged in sexual gratification and gratification of their appetite, attached to others’ wives, drunk and producer of cross-breeds; have a low life-span, mix with lowly people and consider their brother-in-law as the only friend. They like constant confrontation and are fond of argument, discontent, fond of jewellery, hair and style.\nThe wealthy are respected as high-born and Brahmins are respected only if they are lenders; Men are merciful only when they are unable to harm others; express displeasure towards the poor; talk excessively to express erudition and carry out religious work to be famous; Monks are attached to homes in this Koli Age and the homeless are devoid of any morality; Men of this age deride their teachers, display false religious affinity but tricks the good people; Sudras in Koli are always engaged in taking over others’ possessions; in Koli, marriage takes place simply because the man and the woman agree to do so;\nMen engages in friendship with the crooked and show magnanimity while returning favours; Men are considered pious only if they are wealthy and treat only far-away waters (lands) as places of pilgrimage; Men are considered Brahmins simply because they have the sacred thread around their body and as explorers, simply because they have a stick in their hand; the Earth becomes infertile, rivers hit the banks, wives take pleasure in speaking like prostitutes and their minds are not attracted towards their husbands;\nBrahmins become greedy for others’ food, the low-born castes are not averse to becoming priests, wives mix freely even after they become widows; the clouds release rain irregularly, the land becomes infertile, the kings kill their subjects, the people are burdened with taxes; they survive by eating honey, meat, fruits and roots; in the first quarter of the Koli Age, people deride God; in the second quarter, people do not even pronounce God’s name;\nIn the third quarter, men become cross-breeds; in the fourth quarter, men become the same (uniform) breed; nothing called race exists anymore; they forget God and pious works become extinct. (Kalki Purana, I[1], Verses 23-38)\n\nThe appearance of Kalki\n\nWhen the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of law, shall nearly have ceased, and the close of the Koli age shall be nigh, a portion of that Divine Being who exists of his own spiritual nature, in the character of Brahma, and who is the Beginning and the End, and who comprehends all things shall descend upon the earth. He will be born as Kalki in the family of an eminent Brahmin, of Shambhala village, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might, He will destroy all the barbarians and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then re-establish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Koli age, shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time, shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Kritya Age, the Age of Purity. (Vishnu Purana 4.24)\nAfterwards, Sumati, the wife of Vishnujasha became pregnant…. Kalki descended to earth (as a human) in the month of Baisakha on the 12th day after the full moon (Kalki Purana, I, Verses 11 and 15)\nKalki is born to a man named Vishnujasha and a woman named Sumati in the Hindu month of Baisakha, which starts from 14th or 15th April and lasts till 14th or 15th May. So, Kalki will be born 12 days from the full moon day (after 14th/15th April), which can be anytime between 26th April to 15th May. I[2]. V.31 also says that he had three elder brothers. According to I[2] V.32, the King of the land where Kalki is born is named Vishakhjupa. As per I[2] V.4, the mission of Kalki’s life is to destroy Koli – the equivalent of the Anti-Christ (in whose name the present age is named). Koli signifies a person as well as the vices which are peculiar to this age. As per I[3], V.25 Kalki was given a white horse, which he rode during his conquests all over the world. In fact Kalki is always symbolized as riding a white horse. Compare this with the Revelations :\nThe marriage of Kalki\nYou shall go to Sinhala, marry your beloved Padma and start your conjugal life…. You will then set out to conquer the world and defeat the Kings allied to Koli, defeat the Buddhists and hand over the rule to the pious kings named Devapi and Maru. (Kalki Purana, I, Verses 9 & 10)\nThe wife of Kalki is named Padma who lives in Sinhala, which is commonly known as Sri Lanka. However, as I mentioned before, this may be an allegorical reference to an island nation, separate from his own country. In his endeavour to conquer the “Buddhists” and other kings, he will be assisted by two kings allied to him, apart from the king of the country in which he is born to and many other friends.\nThis island (Sinhala) is situated on the other side of the shore. The island has pure water and is full of people. Full of various types of Aircrafts and decorated with jewellery. The beauty of the island is enhanced by huge buildings and flags and gates decorated in front of them. (Kalki Purana, II,  Verses 39, 40, 41)\nThe interesting part of the description of the island where Kalki’s wife-to-be stays is that apart from the huge buildings that the island city has, its sky is also full of Aircrafts! (called Vimana in Indian literature). We come to know from other sources that the name of the city where she stays is named Karumoti.\nHe (the father of the bride) gave away Padma for marriage to Kalki as per the traditions. The “King of the World”, Kalki after having his wife and having been well received by the gentlemen of the island, expressed his desire to stay in the island of Sinhala for a while in order to see the island. (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 15, 16)\nPadma is fair and Kalki is dark, both are opposites to each other (Kalki Purana, II, Verse 19)\nKalki, the annihilator of Koli forgot his mission and stayed there happily in that home (in Shambhala) for many years…Padma gave birth to two sons named Joy and Vijoy who were powerful and famous. (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 32 and 36)\n\nKalki’s war with China (or maybe, North Korea)\n\nThe great conqueror, Kalki then paid homage to his father and started for conquering Kikatpur with his army. The Buddhists live in that city. The residents of that city do not worship God or their forefathers. They do not fear after-life. Other than the body, they do not believe in any soul. They do not have any pride in their lineage or in their race; money, marriage etc. are insignificant to them. People of that place eat and drink a variety of things. When Jin (the leader) heard that Kalki has come to fight them, he gathered a huge army and went out of the city to fight Him. (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 40 to 44)\nAlthough the city of Kikatpur is unidentified, yet it is specified that “Buddhists” live there. But the descriptions of the belief of those people are anything but Buddhist and are more in consonance with the ideology of the Communists, i.e. people who do not worship God, do not believe in after-life, soul, race and the significance of wealth and give the collective more importance than the individual.\nThe choice of foods of the Chinese (or Koreans) are also considered exotic in other parts of the world. Interestingly, the name of the leader is also mentioned as “Jin“. As we all know, Jin, Xin or Xian are very common names among the Chinese. On 15th March 2003 the Chinese Communist Party elected Hu Jintao as the new President of China. By religion, China (or Korea) is predominantly Buddhist, although no religion is allowed to be openly practiced under the Communist rule. Thus the description of the belief of the people and their religion are not contradictory but very appropriate.\n\nHindu Prophecies\n\nHe (Jin) took up various types of arms and started war with Kalki. Even the Gods were surprised by the techniques of war adopted by Jin. Jin injured Kalki’s horse with a javelin and made him disoriented and unconscious and attempted to take him away, but could not lift him…On seeing that, King Vishakhjupa got angry and encountered Jin and picked up unconscious Kalki in his own chariot. Kalki regained his consciousness in a while and encouraged his soldiers; following that, he rushed towards Jin after getting down from the chariot of Vishakhjupa. (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 5, 6, 8, 9)\nIt seems that Jin was not a mean enemy and Kalki did not have a smooth ride either and had his moments of ups and downs. Of course this is what is expected if a western force confronts the mighty Chinese army, the biggest in the world in terms of numbers.\nSoon, Garga (associate of Kalki) and his army killed 6000 Buddhist soldiers. Bharga and his soldiers killed and injured 11 million enemy soldiers and his mighty allies killed 2500 of them. Kobi along with his sons killed 2 million enemy soldiers, Pragya killed 1 million and Sumantu killed 5 million soldiers. (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 5, 6, 8, 9)\nIt seems that Kalki and his allies kill or injure an army which is almost 20 million strong. An army of this huge proportions can only be assembled by a country like China and its allies. Thus, the attack on the city of Kikatpur does not merely represent an attack on a city but on a country, probably in alliance with others.\nSoon Kalki smiled and said unto Jin – O Sinner ! Don’t flee but come and face me…Soon your body will be pierced with my arrows. Soon you shall depart from this world. Then, no one will go along with you. So, you and your allies surrender before me. On hearing the words of Kalki, mighty Jin said “The fate can never be seen. I am a materialist, Buddhist. Nothing but the perceptible are accepted by us. The unseen and the imperceptible are banished by us. Hence your effort is fruitless. Even if you are Godly, I am before you; see if you manage to kill me. In that event, will the Buddhists forgive you? (Kalki Purana, II, Verses 15 to 18)\nOnce again, the ideology of Jin is apparent from his own words. This is contrary to what the Buddhists profess – Buddhists believe in fate, soul and rebirth like the Hindus. But this “Buddhist” does not believe in fate or the imperceptible and this ideology is not the ideology of any religion, but that of Communism. But for communism, China would have been the world’s largest Buddhist country and its people, at least in private, still follow the religion. Verse 26 describes the death of Jin in the hands of Kalki. The next few verses describe the battle between Suddhodhan, the brother of Jin and the forces of Kalki, in which the former manage to inflict some heavy damages on the forces of Kalki, using, among other things an weapon if illusion (Maya). Ultimately Kalki managed to defeat the Buddhist forces who either died, lay injured or fled the battlefield.\nBut it was not the end of the war yet. On the verge of the defeat of the “Buddhist” army, their womenfolk gathered to battle Kalki and his allies. This is quite unprecedented in the annals of Hindu epics or for that matter, history and stories from anywhere in the world.\nThe wives of the Buddhists, gathered for battle riding on chariots, birds, horses, camels and bulls to defend their husbands. These beautiful, powerful young ladies devoted to their husbands did not seek the shelter of their children. These glorious women, dressed in battle-gear and various jewellery came to the battlefield armed with swords, power-weapons, arrows and javelins. In their hands were heavenly rings.\nThese beautiful women consisted of hair dressers, women devoted to husbands (house-wives) and even prostitutes. These women, troubled by the death of their husbands and fathers came forth to fight the army of Kalki. People even care to protect objects like soil, ashes, wood etc. Therefore, how can these women tolerate the death of their husbands in their presence? The womenfolk of the Buddhists, seeing their husbands injured and troubled came in front of them and started to fight the soldiers of Kalki. Seeing the women take to battle, the soldiers of Kalki were amazed and came to Kalki to inform him about the whole matter in details. Hearing this, Kalki, clever as he is, arrived there on a chariot accompanied by his allies and army with a cheerful mind. Seeing the women astride in various types of vehicles, standing in formations, Kalki started saying “Ladies, please hear what I have to say. It is against the principles for men to fight against women…” (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 11 to 20)\nWe can guess that Kalki indulged in intense diplomacy to dissuade the women from fighting. Kalki Purana describes in the next few verses the words of Kalki which can be called the unashamed flattery of the women by Kalki. Though not quite relevant, it will show that the Kalki Purana is not simply a text of war and conquest and gloom and doom that we associate these times with. Rather, it shows the human and the spiritual aspects of the whole war.\n…On your beautiful moon-like face, falls the locks of fine hair. Everyone’s mind become cheerful on seeing this. Which man can hit on such a face? On these beautiful faces are a pair of eyes like lotus with long eyelashes and dark pupil. Which man can hit such a face? Your breasts are decorated like the necklace of Shiva. Even the pride of the cupid gets hurt on seeing this. Which man can hit on such a place? Which man can hit the spotless face of a woman on which play the locks of fine hairs from the head? Which man can hit your slim waists weighed down by breasts and decorated by very fine body-hair? Can any man shoot an arrow in your eye-soothing and feminine pubic area covered by fine hair and untouched by sin? Hearing these words of Kalki, the infidel-women smiled and said – “Sir !  When our husbands died in your hand, we too have died”. Saying this, the women prepared to kill Kalki. (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 21 to 27)\nAll such attempts of eulogizing femininity by Kalki cut no ice with the women. At this point of time however, a miracle happened which persuaded the women from fighting Kalki :\n…However the weapons remained in their hands. The various weapons metamorphosed and stood before the infidel-women decorated in gold and said “Ladies! Do ye know Kalki as the Supreme God, empowered by whom we take the lives of living beings. Have confidence in our words. On His command we propagate and on his glory we have attained various forms and by His mercy we have become renowned. By His empowerment does the five elements carry out their own actions. He is the Supreme Being Himself. Under His wishes has the nature created the whole Universe. The creation and the continuity of the creation is nothing but His action. He is the Beginning and the End, from Him arise all the holy things in the world.\nIt is He, who is our husband, our wife, son, friend and relative. From Him comes forth all these illusion-like happenings. Those who know that life and death are nothing but coming and going under the influence of love, affection and fondness, those who are devoid of any feelings of anger and hate, who are the devotees of Kalki, they know the above illusion-like happenings as false. How was Time created? Where does death come from? Who is Yama (Death incarnate and lord of the underworld)? Who are the Gods? By His illusion, it is Kalki who has become many. O Ladies! We are not weapons and no one gets hurt by us. He is the weapon and it is he who hits. These distinctions are nothing but the illusion (Maya) created by the Supreme Being. …\nWe cannot hit the devotees of Kalki. Hearing the words of the weapons, the women were surprised. They shed their illusion of attachment and came to seek Kalki. (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 27 to 39)\nWhether it was a miracle or diplomacy, the end result was that the Buddhist women did not fight Kalki’s army, thus averting what could have been the only war between a male and a female army. After the war and victory, Kalki returned from Kikatpur with his army.\nNostradamus apparently refers to the fall of China allegorically as well, by referring to the fall of the Great Wall of China –\nII.57   –   Before the conflict the Great Wall will fall, the great one to death, death too sudden and lamented, born imperfect: the greater part will swim: Near the river the land stained with blood.\nSince Kalki Purana refers to the exploits of Kalki only, the details of Chinese advances before the war is not clear. By the own admission of Nostradamus, his prophecies too mostly describe the events in and around Europe. A few other prophecies, however, indicate that China will conquer much of Asia before facing the western alliance. Here are a few such prophecies :\n“The events taking place in Europe are a deception. Russia will be the scourge for all nations, because it was not converted. Russia attacks the West, and China invades in Asia.”\n– Lucia, the last living seer from Fatima, April 7, 1990\nAlong with the Chinese incursion in Asia, there will also be a Russian invasion in the Europe. Thus, this world war will not simply be the result of an Arab invasion but an invasion by the alliance of Russia, China and Islamic nations. There are a large number of prophecies about the Russian invasion of Europe and attacks on the USA.\nThe prophecies made by Anton Johansson, Sweden, (1858 – 1909) also specifically mention Chinese attack on India. Johansson successfully predicted the sinking of the Titanic and named one of its victims, millionaire John Jacob Astor VI, foresaw the events of World War I, accurately predicted San Francisco’s earthquake of 1906 and a volcanic eruption in 1902 that demolished the city of St. Pierre, Martinique. He said the Third World War would break out at “the end of July, beginning of August.” adding, “I do not know the year.” (the “Calamitous War” under Cancer mentioned by Nostradamus) –\n  • India will be occupied by China.\n  • New diseases used as weapons will cause 25 million people to die.\n  • Persia and Turkey will be conquered apparently by Russian troops.\n  • The Russians will conquer the Balkans.\n  • There will be great destruction in Italy.\n  • The “red storm” will approach France through Hungary, Austria, northern Italy and Switzerland. France will be conquered from inside and outside.\n  • American supply depots will fall into Russian hands.\n  • Germany will be attacked from the east.\n  • There will be a civil war, Germans will fight against Germans.\n  • The Eastern Bloc will cause a civil war in England.\n\nKalki’s war with Koli (The Antichrist) and Gog & Magog\n\n[Dharma (Righteousness or Law) said to Kalki] “Right now, infidels like Saka, Kamboja, Sabara etc. are under the control of Koli and that mighty Koli has defeated me taking advantage of the influence of the time. The pious men are being tortured and consigned to the flames. That’s why I have come for your protection. (Kalki Purana, III, Verse 22)\nThus, Kalki, surrounded by his allies set out for the desired place for conquering the infidels like Khasha, Kamboja, Sabara, Barbarians etc. … The people who lived there carry out the orders of women. Hearing that Kalki has come for battle, the angry Koli, along with his allies, sons and grandsons came riding on a chariot out of the city of Bishasan. On seeing Koli, Kalki ordered his followers to engage in battle with him. (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 32, 33, 35, 36)\nRevelations 19:19\nLord Kalki, along with his soldiers armed with various types of weapons engaged in war with Kok and Bikok. These two brothers are supreme demons, great fanatics and adept in the art of war. These brothers are intimately connected, powerful, hard to defeat and are even feared by the Gods. (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 43 & 44)\nThe surprise elements here are the description of the war with brothers called “Kok and Bikok“, who are allied with Koli. These are surely Gog and Magog described in the Biblical book of Revelations and “Yajooj and Majooj” described in the Islamic prophecies.\nSoon they entered the city of Bishasan, the capital of Koli, and burnt down the city using fiery missile. Alongwith the city, Koli too was burnt and his sons and relatives were destroyed. (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 9 & 10)\nThe army of Kalki entered the capital city of Koli called Bishasan (Babylon?) and burnt down the whole city along with Koli himself and its citizens. Similarly, the allies of Kalki used various types of weapons and defeated the countries and their kings allied with Koli. Compare this with the Revelations :\nThe verses 14 to 34 of III[7] describe the terrible fight of Kalki with “Kok and Bikok” (Gog and Magog). At one point of time, the “brothers” managed to defeat Kalki in a battle and injure him. However, later the allies used a certain kind of weapon to defeat Bikok. But soon he was resurrected with the help of Kok. This went on for quite sometime before both were killed at the same time.\nRevelations 20:8 – And he (Satan) will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.\n\nThe war against Vallat and the marriage treaty\n\nThus, after attaining victory, Kalki started for the city of Vallat ruled by the Sashyakarns along with his soldiers and allies. III[7], 35. His (the King of Vallat) name is Sashidhwaj. He is intelligent, handsome, tall, brave and has a huge military. III[8], 3. King Sashidhwaj arrived at the battlefield and dispersed the powerful soldiers of Kalki. III, 18. …Thus, King Sashidhwaj managed to defeat Kalki, capture him and some of his allies and went back to his palace. III[8], 18.\nThe battle of Vallat is the most terrible battle fought by Kalki so far. In this battle, Kalki was defeated and captured in the war and taken prisoner by the King Sashidhwaj of Vallat. However, it is mentioned that the King was aware of the divine nature of Kalki and it has been said that even after capturing him, the king showed him utmost respect and entered in a peace treaty with him, offering his own daughter Roma for marriage with Kalki.\nNext, King Sashidhwaj recalled his sons from the battlefield and gave away his daughter Roma for marriage with Kalki in accordance with the wishes of his wife, Sushanta. All the allies of Kalki were invited to Vallat from the battlefield (for the marriage). (Kalki Purana, III, Verses 25 & 26)\nThus, the wars of Kalki came to an end with a defeat and a peace treaty that ended the WW-III. III[14] describes that after the war, Kalki handed over various portions of his liberated lands to various kings who were his allies and Satya Yuga (Age of Truth) was established on the Earth. Kalki himself stayed in Shambhala with his two wives, Padma and Roma. Finaly, III[19] describes the death of Kalki and his ascension to the heaven.\nVIII.54 of Nostradamus also describes a marriage treaty by Chiren Selin, the equivalent of Kalki –\nUnder the colour of the marriage treaty, a magnanimous act by the ‘Chyren Selin’ : St. Quintin and Arras recovered on the journey; By the Spanish a second butcher’s bench is made. – VIII.54\nEven though Kalki is considered as the God incarnate, his human qualities have been highlighted all through the text. He had his share of losses in battles and ups and downs, which are consistent with any war in the modern times where the warring forces are equally matched and possess weapons of mass destruction. Chyren, described by Nostradamus seems to have lost in some battles too :\nThe great man led captive from a foreign land, chained in gold, offered to King CHYREN : He who in Ausonia, Milan, will lose the war and all his army put to fire and sword. Nostradamus, IV.34\nBut the fact that Kalki is a good strategist and an excellent negotiator is quite apparent from the texts as well as the fact that he has some qualities which make him the undisputed leader of the allied forces even though he is initially not even the “King” of his own country. At the most, he is a high ranking Army officer with some very exceptional qualities, whose stature only grows as events unfold, such that he is unanimously accepted as the “King of the World” and as a Messiah by all religions.\nIn all, the Hindu text of Kalki Purana comprises of 6100 verses describing the birth, marriage, battles and the death of Kalki, who is considered the last Avtar or incarnation of Vishnu or the Supreme Being, who will establish the Age of Truth or Age of Purity on Earth. The text is essentially a spiritual text, although the verses described here are primarily concerned with the wars and various events in the life of Kalki. As agreed by all the religious prophecies, the Awaited One will not be a man of peace like Jesus Christ or Buddha, but a man of war who will destroy evil and establish righteousness on the earth.\nNother little known Hindu book named Divya Maha Kala Jnana, literally meaning “Divine Knowledge of the Time” written by Shree Veera Brahmendra Maha Swami, who lived in the modern Andhra Pradesh state of India, about 1000 years ago, had elaborated on the events preceding the appearance of Kalki or “Sree Veera Bhoga Vasantharaya” as he termed him.\nSome of the descriptions of the events are amazingly similar to those described in the western religious texts or by prophets like Nostradamus and others. The Hindu Lunar Years are counted and named on the basis of 60 year cycles. If we assume that the events will take place in the current 60 year cycle (without any particular reason for that assumption, of course – see Note below), the corresponding years have been mentioned alongside in brackets. The current cycle began on 30th March, 1987 and will end on April, 2047. The year-wise chart of Hindu years of the current cycle vis-à-vis the general calendar that we use are given as a note after the prophecies.\nKalki is said to born in a village called Shambhala. Some interpret this as indicating a village of the same name in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. I would not jump to that hasty conclusion. The name may be allegorical. Buddhist scriptures also mention a place of the same name, an invisible, hidden kingdom, which will be visible during the end of the Kali Yug. Another interesting thing is the reference to God as “who is the Beginning and the End”. Compare this with 22.13 of the Revelations : I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The two religions, separated by time and space (Hinduism being much older than Christianity) are thought to have little in common. But as you read through the next few paragraphs, you shall find some amazing similarity of events mentioned in the Kalki Purana with those of the Biblical Revelations.\nHe will be born before the eighth day of full moon of the month of Margasheera (June 7-21). His devotees will be looking forward to his glory and his arrival during the month of Karteeka (Oct 19-Nov 16). In the year of Partheeva (2005-2006), all the people will be able to see Sree Veera Bhoga Vasantaraya, and everyone will meditate on the Great Spirit. Sree Veera Bhoga Vasantharaya will be crowned during the year of Khara (2011-2012). That means, even though his “rule” started before, people would come to know him as the saviour after 3-4 years. Evidently, his “crowning” comes after his “rule” starts. This probably indicates his ascension from an ordinary ruler to a “Great Monarch”. This is probably when his “Krita Yuga Dharma” starts from, as described in the astronomical location mentioned before.\n– He will be crowned three years after exotic horses drink the water of Tungabhadra river . [Tugabhadra river is in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. If “exotic horses” mean something like tanks, it might indicate war in India in (2008-2009), three years before he is crowned.]\n– There will be rain of blood in towns, villages, and forests. Poor quality coins will be used as currencies. In some places, there will be a rain of fire. Kings of all kinds will be destroyed, and His strength will reign supreme. Terrible wars will be fought, and no one will be able to mourn for the dead. [The description of “rain of blood” and “rain of fire” and wars are similar to the descriptions in the prophecies of Nostradamus and other prophecies. One quatrain of Nostradamus even mentioned the “poor quality” coins – made of leather !\nThrough long war all the army exhausted, so that they do not find money for the soldiers; instead of gold or silver, they will come to coin leather, Gallic brass, and the crescent sign of the Moon. ~ Nostradamus VII.25 ]\n\nHindu Prophecies\n\nSource : Tripod\n– He will rule over the Universe for a period of 108 years, and return to heaven. Preceding that, the world will be full of calamities and situations will be changing every instant.\n– When Saturn enters Pisces (2025 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period), Mlechchas [non-believers: also became synonymous with Muslims from the Hindu perspective during the Islamic Rule]\nwill be destroyed.\n– When Saturn enters Aries (2028 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period), a little peace will be established. [this may be the description of a short peace during WW-III following a peace treaty between the warring sides, which will quickly be broken]\n– When Saturn enters Taurus in June (2030 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period), poisonous air will blow from the north-east, and extreme people will go to Yama Loka (abode of death). [perhaps a description of a chemical or biological warfare which will kill many people. China is in the North and North-East of India]\n– When Saturn enters Gemini (2033 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period)\n, this will usher in an era of peace.\n– By the year of Ananda-Raksha (2034-2036 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period), all Koli Dharmas (dark actions or religions) will be destroyed. By the year Ananda (happiness – 2034-2035 as per our assumption but may also pertain to a much later period), all the countries will attain peace and happiness. The word of his glory will spread in the world. Before the year of Ananda, rice will be sold for low price. Then, all the countries will become prosperous.\nNote: My assumption that all the above events will take place in the current cycle is perhaps not correct. As elsewhere, we have to distinguish between the WW-III and the War of the Armageddon, and the later would probably take place a few hundreds of years after WW-III, when the so-called 1000 years of Golden Age will commence. So, the events interpreted above as taking place 2025 onwards perhaps pertain to a later century, before the “End of the World”. As I have concluded elsewhere, “Chiren”, who could be the same as “Sree Veera” mentioned here, will initiate an era of peace after WW-III but gradually the world will again descend into anarchy resulting in the “Doomsday” a few centuries later.\nThe year-wise chart of Hindu years of the current 60-year cycle vis-à-vis the Gregorian calendar are given below for interpretation of the above prophecies. The cycle again starts in 2047-48 from the year “Prabhava”.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6441451907157898}
+{"content": "Carbon-14 is radioactive and undergoes radioactive decay.Radioactive materials contain some nuclei that are stable and other nuclei that are unstable.\n\nTell students to design their own experiment, using paper, M&M’s®, Pennies, other 2 sided material or Licorice as a radioactive material undergoing decay to discover the nature of the half-life of that material.\n\nYou might suggest that the students experiment with their graphing results to see if trends begin to form.\n\nIsotopes have the same chemical properties, but different physical properties.\n\nAn example of isotopes is carbon, which has three main isotopes, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14.\n\nDescription: With the Half-Life Laboratory, students gain a better understanding of radioactive dating and half-lives.\n\nStudents are able to visualize and model what is meant by the half-life of a reaction.\n\nThe carbon-14 decays, with its half-life of 5,730 years, while the amount of carbon-12 remains constant in the sample.\n\n\nIt is a great introduction to the scientific process of deducing, forming scientific theories, and communicating with peers.\n\nIt is also useful in the mathematics classroom by the process of graphing the data.\n\nCarbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years, which means that if you take one gram of carbon-14, half of it will decay in 5730 years. The ratio of the amounts of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in a human is the same as in every other living thing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994348883628845}
+{"content": "Why are Indian Farmers Committing Suicides and Does a Sustainable Solution Exist?\n\nfarmer suicides\n\nWritten by: Sumbul Mashhadi | Image: Economic Times\n\nUntil recently, I would chuckle at my mother bargaining with vegetable vendors for a mere ten Rupees on the price of a kilo of Tomatoes, but of late, I often find myself doing the same – only to chuckle again, but this time at the irony of it all. What has changed? Ordinarily, a vegetable vendor refusing to reduce the price would have been frustrating, making me question my competence as a desi adult.\n\nBut that was till I didn’t know any better. Fortunately (or unfortunately), now I do.\n\nAccording to the Economic Survey of India 2018, the income of farmers in India has been stagnant since last three years. Add to this the rising farm debts, and it means families dependent on agriculture as their main source of livelihood keep getting entrenched deeper in poverty with every passing day. So much so, that 45 farmers commit suicides every day in the country. The Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India – 2010 Report by the National Crime Records Bureau, projects 15,964 farmer suicides in 2010 alone.\n\nLet’s come back to tomatoes for the sake of perspective. A kilo costs Rs 45-50 per kilogram at Delhi’s Azadpur mandi. But, the same quantity will fetch their producers from neighbouring areas a mere Rs. 2 to Rs. 4.\n\nWhy does this happen?\n\nThe Government of India introduced the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act in 1963, ironically, with a focus on eliminating the exploitation of farmers by middlemen. The Act guarantees establishment of regulated markets or mandis, wherein farmers can sell their produce at a reasonable price and in a transparent manner. However, since agriculture is a state subject, the Act empowered state governments to prescribe the quantities and producers of commodities as they deemed fit, and designate markets and market areas where this regulated trade takes place.\n\nWith that, the very purpose of the act was made redundant, and arguably even counter-productive. Over time, illiterate or semi-literate farmers, who were not market savvy and cannot comprehend the multiplicity of taxes in place, found themselves at the disposal of a cartel of middlemen and agents who had licenses to operate in the mandis.\n\nOver the years, a state monopoly was established over these markets since farmers are not allowed to sell their goods in the open market.\n\nThese entry and operational barriers prevent competent outsiders from accessing these markets, enabling middlemen to consolidate themselves further. As a result, an alternative market system does not exist and no encouragement is given to private entrepreneurs to invest in these markets.\n\nHow does the supply chain of agriculture work?\n\nFarmers → Small Traders (Kachcha) → Larger Trader (Pakka) → Commission agent→ Wholesaler →  Retailer → Consumer\n\nIn the absence of a direct link with the consumers, the farmers are at the mercy of the middlemen who occupy the entire space between the production and the ultimate sale of the produce. This makes middlemen very powerful and the farmers often find themselves at a disadvantage despite being the producers. Since there are only limited agents in an APMC, it’s profitable for them to form a cartel and deliberately increase the bids, pushing prices higher. Thus, de-linking the producers and consumers, deprives both – the farmers of better returns on their produce and, the end consumers of fair pricing on their purchase.\n\nOver and above the license fee, even shop rents at these markets are quite high and that prevents healthy and necessary competition which is a prerequisite for maintaining quality and reasonable prices. At most places, only a group of village / urban elite operate in APMC. These high costs are usually passed down to the farmers, who end up having to separately pay commission, marketing fee, APMC cess, and at times even value added tax (VAT).\n\nThe Model legislation which came into being in 2003 to make APMCs more transparent has actually given rise to a conflict of interest, as the APMC, which is the operator, is also the regulatory authority.\n\nThere is reluctance on part of state governments to reform the APMC legislation, as it generates huge revenues. Some states have created additional entry barriers by prescribing either high license fees for setting up such markets or minimum distance between private markets and APMC markets.\n\nThese factors have led to a nationwide agrarian crisis over the least few years.\n\nTo provide relief to the farmers from this crisis, the newly elected Congress governments in states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have announced waiving off all farm loans up to Rs. 2 lakh. Then, earlier this year, the Central government promised a dole of Rs. 6,000 per year in its interim budget to farmers who own less than 2 hectares of land. However, these stop gap solutions are not sustainable in an economy like India. The cyclical nature of deep rooted problems has proven time and again that band-aid solutions like a one time waiver or a meagre annual payouts don’t work.\n\nIs there a sustainable solution to these systemic problems?\n\nThere may be. Increased autonomy in the supply chain to the farmer and higher emphasis on storage mechanisms.\n\nA real life example of such an approach working is the success of dairy farming. Between 1970 and 2014, the share of livestock sector in the agricultural gross domestic product (AgGDP) increased from about 17% to approximately 29%, with livestock rearing playing an important role in ensuring food and income security of rural household (Birthal et al 2014). One of the major factors in the growth of the dairy sector in India was that this sector was granted higher autonomy in the supply chain compared to the agricultural sector.\n\nAdditionally, increased number of scientifically equipped and more hygienic storage facilities will help build a farmer’s ability to store their produce as per the demand. This will also enable farmers to manoeuvre market conditions and get the best price at the right time for their produce instead of being manipulated by market forces. The lack of proper or ample storage facilities can result in farmers having to sell their produce at the earliest to avoid crops being spoiled and the middlemen may exploit this harsh reality to their advantage.\n\nIn order to combat the exploitation of farmers, we need to take active policy action to increase farm productivity, post-harvest technology, and better storage facilities. If we want the consumer to pay less and the farmer to gain more the role of private sector role has to be enhanced by setting up private mandis where farmers can come and sell their crops directly. Concurrently, to ensure that farmers can fully utilise the benefits of this, entrepreneurship development should be encouraged along with better marketing skills to right the information asymmetry. You cannot be forcing a farmer to only sell in the government regulated markets.\n\nAll regulations put in place under the guise of ‘gareebi hatao’ (remove poverty) have only shackled to gareebi. Perhaps its time to try a different approach, one that empowers farmers by giving them better ownership of the fruits (or vegetables) of their labour.\n\nAbout the Author:\n\nSumbul is a gender and agriculture rights activist and one of the founding members of the student led movement Pinjra Tod and Jamia CollectiveOne of her life’s dreams is to build sensitivity programs for Indian parents to help them be less controlling and intrusive in their children’s lives.\n\n\n\nLeave a Reply\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5807065963745117}
+{"content": "Close Menu\n\nProgressive Vision Loss\n\nProgressive vision loss is a term used to describe vision loss that gets worse over time. As the vision loss progresses, different solutions may be needed. Magnification may be replaced with text-to-speech or Braille solutions as vision declines. Depending on the individual’s preferences and the nature and degree of their vision loss, solutions designed for individuals who are blind may be appropriate. It is usually painless, but can be central or peripheral and may be worse for far or near signtedness. It is usually bilateral, but this differs depending on the individual.\n\n\nTelephones, whether they be landline, VOIP, or mobile, can be made accessible to individuals with low and no vision. The following companies offer technology that includes magnification, screen reading, and other audible access functions.\n\nVendors and Products", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7252503633499146}
+{"content": "Italian Motorcycles\n\nRubino biciclette\n\nA Brief History of the Italian Marque\n\nRubino moto d'epoca\n\nLa motobici Rubino viene costruita dalla ditta M.C.M. di Milano, ha motore a due tempi di 53 cc, telaio con sospensioni, velocit� 45 km/h, peso 36 kg. \n\nThe Rubino was built by the M.C.M. company of Milan. It was powered by a 53 cc two-stroke engine, the frame had suspension, and it had a top speed of 45 km/h with a weight of 36 kg.\n\nSources: Moto di Lombardia\n\nIf you have a query or information about these vintage Italian machines please contact us\n\nDucati Gowanloch\nDucati Gowanloch", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5072925686836243}
+{"content": "Sanjay Thapa\n\nJunior Salesforce Administrator\n\nSanjay joined Endeavor in July 2018 as the Junior Salesforce Administrator. In this role, Sanjay works to help improve Endeavor’s Salesforce platform for all its users.\n\nBorn in Nepal, Sanjay immigrated to the US when he was 9 and has lived in Queens ever since. Prior to Endeavor, Sanjay was a Newman’s Own Foundation Fellow and worked at the Posse Foundation’s national office. At Posse, Sanjay worked within multiple national departments and quickly recognized the importance of the Salesforce platform in realizing Posse’s mission, day in and day out. As a Posse Scholar, Sanjay graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in International Studies and Japanese. He studied abroad in Japan and volunteered at an international NGO, Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), which developed his interest in working beyond borders with an international organization. Sanjay is excited to join the Endeavor team and contribute to fulfilling Endeavor’s mission globally.\n\nIn his free time, Sanjay can be found playing pick up soccer around the city or reading at a café.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9506858587265015}
+{"content": "Ecology and Management of White-Tailed Deer in Missouri\n\nWhite-tailed deer management\n\n\nRobert A. Pierce II\nFisheries and Wildlife State Specialist\nSchool of Natural Resources\nJason Sumners\nResource Scientist\nMissouri Department of Conservation\nEmily Flinn\nResource Scientist\nMissouri Department of Conservation\n\nThe white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is one of Missouri’s most valuable wildlife resources (Figure 1). Each year, hunters spend more than six million hunter-days in the field pursuing the whitetail, contributing $1.1 billion annually to the Missouri economy and supporting over 12,000 jobs in the process. Hunting the white-tailed deer is a tremendously popular form of recreation that carries great traditions. Deer also provide other recreational opportunities, as well as aesthetic, economic and educational value.\n\nAlthough private landowners are the stewards of this important wildlife resource in the state, the Missouri Department of Conservation provides the legal framework for successfully managing white-tailed deer populations. In addition to being influenced by hunting pressures within a given area, populations of whitetails are strongly affected by land-use practices and respond favorably to habitat management practices designed to improve food and cover conditions. An understanding of deer biology and ecology (the relationship of deer with their surroundings) is the first step towards successful management of the species.\n\nThis publication is the first in a series of white-tailed deer management guides for landowners and wildlife enthusiasts. The series provides research-based information to help landowners make informed decisions and achieve their management goals and population objectives for white-tailed deer on their properties.\n\nWhite-tailed deerFigure 1. The white-tailed deer is the most popular game species in Missouri.\n\nHistory of white-tailed deer conservation in Missouri\n\nThe history of white-tailed deer in Missouri shows the positive and negative influences humans can have on wildlife (Figure 2). In presettlement times, white-tailed deer were fairly abundant in Missouri, especially in the more fertile, diverse habitats of the northern part of the state. In areas of extensive mature forests, population densities were lower. Deer may have been locally abundant in areas where lightning fires and other factors had opened up the dense forest canopy. Natural enemies of deer, such as mountain lions and the timber wolf, played a significant role in regulating deer numbers and keeping them in relative balance with their habitat.\n\nThe influx of European settlers in the latter half of the 19th century coincided with a rapid decline in the deer population. Unrestricted market hunting and habitat destruction became severe limiting factors on deer, and herds began to decline drastically.\n\nBy the early 1900s, deer numbers had reached an extremely low point and the public became more concerned with preservation and conservation. Laws restricting the harvest of deer were passed in the early 1900s but were largely unenforced. By 1925, only about 400 deer were present in the state.\n\nIn response to the continuing population decline, the Missouri legislature closed the hunting season and made a concerted effort to enforce regulations. Game laws were enacted and law enforcement efforts were strengthened. During the same time, deer were brought to Missouri from Michigan and released on five refuges in the Ozarks region. In 1931, deer season reopened, resulting in a small harvest.\n\nSignificant efforts to restore the whitetail began in 1937, partially as a result of the formation of the Missouri Conservation Commission. The Commission closed deer season from 1938 to 1943. During this time, additional deer were stocked from Wisconsin and Michigan and regulations were enforced by professionally trained conservation agents to deter poaching.\n\nBy 1944, the statewide deer population had risen to 15,000 and, for the first time since the recovery efforts had been initiated, the state reopened deer season. The restoration and management efforts of the Conservation Commission together with solid support of private landowners and the general public enabled the spectacular comeback of the white-tailed deer in Missouri.\n\nThese early management activities promoted an increase in the deer population, which was followed by a renewed interest in deer hunting by people across the state. More recent management efforts have attempted to define optimal population levels and design hunting regulations to achieve them.\n\nHumans have assumed the role of the major predator of the white-tailed deer. Through regulated hunting, adequate numbers of deer can be removed each year to keep deer herds in balance with their habitat. Current management by the Missouri Department of Conservation attempts to maintain deer populations at levels high enough to provide adequate opportunity for hunters and for people who enjoy watching deer but low enough to ensure a healthy herd and minimize problems.\n\nFigure 2. The influx of European settlers in the latter half of the nineteenth century coincided with a rapid decline in the deer population. (Source: Missouri Department of Conservation)\n\nBiology and life history\n\nWhite-tailed deer are ungulates, or hoofed mammals, belonging to the family Cervidae, the true deer that share such characteristics as deciduous antlers (except for two species), only males having antlers (except for one species), the same dental arrangement, reduced second and fifth toes, and a four-chambered ruminating stomach. Species within this family also include elk (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces alces) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). The two most closely related deer species are the white-tailed and mule deer (O. hemionus), both of which belong to the genus Odocoileus. For many years, the white-tailed deer was the only remaining native ungulate still thriving in Missouri; however, this has changed with the recent reintroduction of elk into the Ozarks region of the state.\n\nWhite-tailed deer populations can be found in each of Missouri’s 114 counties. The species is quite adaptable to a variety of habitat types commonly found in each of the natural regions of the state (Figure 3), including bottomland and upland forests, woodlands, prairie and agricultural habitats and urban and suburban environments. Generally, deer are associated with a mosaic of several different habitat types, particularly where an adequate food supply and brushy cover are available.\n\nThe state's natural regions Figure 3. Each of the state's natural regions supports deer populations. Deer from the northern glaciated plains, however, tend to be heavier and to have larger racks. (Source: Missouri Department of Conservation)\n\nThe coloration of the whitetail has a noticeable seasonal variation. During the summer, deer are reddish-brown and their coats are relatively thin, less than 1/4 inch thick (Figure 4a). By August or September, they shed their summer pelage, or coat, and replace it with a thick, brownish-grey winter coat that is sometimes more than 1 inch thick (Figure 4b). The winter pelage is made up of short underfur and outside guard hairs. The molt, or shed, cycle begins again in April when deer start to grow their summer coat. This continual shedding and regrowth requires substantial amounts of protein and energy throughout the year. Fawns normally lose their spotted coloration after three or four months, with the growth of their winter coat.\n\nThe color and thickness of a deer's coat changes with the seasons The color and thickness of a deer's coat changes with the seasons\nFigure 4. The color and thickness of a deer's coat changes with the seasons: (left) In summer, it is reddish-brown and relatively thin, less than 1/4 inch thick. (right) In winter, it is brownish-grey and may be more than 1 inch thick.\n\nExternal glands\nWhite-tailed deer have four sets of external glands that are primarily used for communication (Figure 5). Gland secretions can be used to describe an animal’s social status, breeding condition and health. The most recognized glands are the tarsal and metatarsal glands. The tarsal glands, located on the inner portion of the hind legs, serves to identify individuals. The metatarsal glands, on the outer, lower portion the hind legs, may help in regulating the animal’s body temperature. Interdigital glands, located between the hooves, probably leave scent trails for other deer to follow. Preorbital glands function as tear glands and may relay sex and social hierarchy when rubbed on branches.\n\nDeer have four sets of external glands used primarily for communicationFigure 5. Deer have four sets of external glands used primarily for communication. Secretions can describe an animal's social status, breeding condition and overall health.\n\nDeer have a keen sense of smell, which they rely on to detect danger, identify other animals and locate food. Deer also have large, cupped ears that can rotate, giving them an acute sense of hearing. Although their eyesight is not as developed as these other senses, they can readily detect motion over a wide field of vision. Their eyes possess a rod-to-cone ratio that enhances their ability to see in low levels of light. Thus, deer are believed to be diachromatic (possess two-color vision).\n\nAlthough deer do make several different vocalizations, when compared to smell and visual cues, sounds play a relatively minor role in deer communication. Sounds that are important include bleating or “mewing” by fawns to summon the doe. Bucks also occasionally bleat or grunt when chasing does during the rut. However, the most familiar deer sounds are the grunts, snorts and stomping used as an alarm call by a frightened animal.\n\nReproductive cycle\nThe reproductive cycle begins with the onset of the rut, which is the mating period. The rut is triggered by decreasing day-length, which initiates the estrous cycle in the female and causes an increased production of testosterone in the male. The rut occurs in several phases during the fall and winter. Most breeding in Missouri occurs during November but may extend from October through January.\n\nAs the days grow shorter, bucks become more aggressive and begin to rub their antlers on trees and spar with other bucks in the vicinity (Figure 6). Bucks establish a dominance hierarchy and begin scraping activity, which is one way they mark their breeding territory. To form a “scrape,” the buck scrapes the ground with its front hooves until the vegetation is removed and bare ground is exposed. Bucks and does will both urinate on bare ground and allow the urine to run down the inside of their legs over scent glands.\n\nWhite-tailed deer are polygamous breeders; one buck may mate with several does during a breeding season. A long-held belief that the dominant, or alpha, male will generally do most of the breeding within a given area has been proven to be false. In fact, a large proportion of bucks of all ages participate in breeding activities. Additionally, it has been shown that as many as 25 percent of twin fawns have been sired by different fathers.\n\nThe gestation period for white-tailed deer is slightly less than seven months, generally between 190 and 210 days. Fawning normally extends from May through July, with the peak in late May through June.\n\nIn Missouri, most adult does produce twin fawns each year (Figure 7). The number of fawns that are born and survive each year depends on a number of factors, including the age and condition of the mother, the density of deer in the area, and the availability of natural forage and agricultural crops, as well as on the density of predators.\n\nIn addition, about 20 to 30 percent of fawns will breed at 6 months of age and produce offspring by the time they are a year old. However, as deer densities have increased over the past several decades, the percentage of fawns that breed has slowly declined each year.\n\nPregnancy rates of deer have been studied in Missouri. The data suggest that pregnancy rates are nearly equal for yearling does and does 2-1/2 years and older but are much lower for younger deer (Table 1).\n\nAt birth, buck fawns will slightly outnumber females. Newborn fawns weigh 5 to 7 pounds, although males tend to be larger than females. Fawns are mobile and able to stand and walk on spindly legs during their first day of life but do not ordinarily begin following their mother until they are about 1 month old. During this early period, they are visited frequently by the doe for feeding. Many people believe that a fawn has been abandoned when they find one unattended, but the doe is almost always feeding or resting nearby. These fawns should not be disturbed or taken home to be raised.\n\nBucks may battle for dominanceFigure 6. During the breeding season, or rut, bucks may battle for dominance.\n\nMost adult does produce twin fawnsFigure 7. Most adult does produce twin fawns each year.\n\nTable 1. Regional pregnancy rates.\n\nNatural divisionAge of deerNumber sampledPercent pregnantAvgerage number of offspring\nGlaciated plainsFawn266320.43\nMississippi lowlandsFawn6500.83\nOzark borderFawn108260.34\nOsage plainsFawn36500.67\nPregnancy rates of whitetails, based on the collection of fetuses in road-killed does and grouped by the state’s natural regions, are nearly equal for does at least 21/2 years old and yearlings, while rates for younger deer are markedly lower. (Source: Missouri Department of Conservation)\n\nAntler growth\nThe composition of antlers depends on their stage of growth. Growing antlers are composed of 80 percent protein and 20 percent ash. Hardened antlers are about 63 percent ash, 22 percent calcium, 11 percent phosphorus and 4 percent organic matter. Younger bucks’ antlers tend to be more dense and older bucks’ antlers more porous.\n\nThe small antlers on male fawns are usually referred to as buttons. Bucks get their first noticeable antlers at 1-1/2 years of age, when they are yearlings. Depending on the nutritional quality of the habitat, a yearling buck may have 10 or more antler points. Generally, older animals have heavier, better developed antlers than younger animals.\n\nBucks normally shed their antlers during the late winter each year and grow a new set between late spring and early fall. The time of antler-drop may vary, but in an average season, some bucks shed their antlers in late December and most have shed by early March. Shed antlers are often difficult to find in the woods because they have a high protein content as well as an abundance of calcium phosphate and are quickly consumed by rodents.\n\nOnce a deer sheds its antlers, new growth starts immediately, though visible antler growth is sometimes not apparent for several weeks (Figure 8a). Throughout the summer, the antlers are equipped with a very rich blood supply and are covered with a hairlike membrane commonly known as velvet (Figure 8b). While “in velvet,” antlers are particularly vulnerable to injury, and cuts or bruises suffered at this time often result in deformed antlers (Figure 9). By late August or early September, antler growth is completed, antlers become solid and hard, and the velvet dries and sloughs off or is rubbed off. Healthy bucks maintain polished antlers throughout the breeding season (Figure 8c).\n\nBuck with new antlers emerging Figure 8. Antler growth: (top) buck with new antlers emerging, (middle) buck in velvet and (bottom) mature buck in the fall.\nBuck in velvetMature buck\n\nA damaged antler pedicle Figure 9. A damaged antler pedicle (top) can result in non­typical antler growth (bottom).\nNon­typical antler growth\n\nDeer nutrition and food habits\nWhite-tailed deer are herbivores and are a ruminant species. This means they have a compound, four-chambered stomach that allows plant materials to be digested (Figure 10).\n\n Like cattle, deer regurgitate food from their first stomach to “chew the cud,” which aids in the digestive process. As ruminants, deer are able to eat a variety of foods, including many foods that are indigestible to humans and other nonruminants.\n\nOnce thought to be exclusively browsers, primarily selecting twigs, deer actually include leaves, bark and herbaceous material such as grasses, weeds and soft-stemmed plants in their diets. They may also eat acorns and other nuts, fruits, mushrooms, algae and mosses when available.\n\nAlthough deer eat a variety of foods, they are selective feeders and seek out plant species that offer the most nutrition during a particular season of the year. Foods eaten readily in one area may not be eaten in another area due to differences in soil, succulence, availability of more preferred food, deer numbers and other factors. In addition, deer may browse specific foods more heavily on burned than unburned areas and on fertilized than unfertilized areas.\n\nDeer have been documented to feed on more than 600 types of plants. In areas that are predominately wooded habitats, deer rely on natural foods such as grape vines, green briar, Virginia creeper, oak sprouts, clovers, prickly lettuce and both hard and soft mast, such as acorns and persimmons. Studies in the agricultural areas of Missouri indicate that row crops, such as corn and soybeans, can comprise about 40 percent of a deer’s diet. During the late winter when crops are not available, deer use native forages and both hard and soft mast. Well-fertilized agricultural crops and nursery stock are often browsed severely in areas with a high deer density. Preferences for specific food items are a reflection of food availability at a particular time.\n\nDeer prefer a variety of agricultural crops, including grains and vegetables. Some deer favorites are listed below.\n\n  • Soybeans\n    Green leaves are eaten from germination to yellowing; pods are eaten during the growing season and throughout the winter if not harvested.\n  • Corn\n    Silk is eaten in June and July (during the silking-tasseling stage of growth); dented corn is eaten during the fall and winter.\n  • Grain sorghum\n    Grain sorghum is eaten from the dough stage (70 days after planting) through the summer.\n  • Wheat\n    Winter wheat is eaten from germination (in September or October) until it bolts (matures) in the spring.\n  • Alfalfa and clover\n    Alfalfa, clover and other species of legumes are eaten after germination and whenever they are available throughout the year.\n  • Sunflowers\n    Sunflowers are eaten from germination until the crop matures.\n\nWhite-tailed deer have a four-part stomachFigure 10. As ruminants, white-tailed deer have a four-part stomach containing microbes that break down cellulose and ferment carbohydrates, which provides energy and nutrients.\n\nDeer weight and growth patterns\n\nThe quality of the soils and available nutrients in an area greatly influence the size of deer. Deer from northern parts of Missouri generally have larger body sizes than their southern counterparts because the superior soils and more abundant agriculture in the north provide deer with foods that offer a higher quality of nutrition (Table 2).\n\nDeer often experience a loss of body condition during the winter. Does prioritize energy needs for the spring and summer, foregoing weight gain to invest in fetal growth and development of fawns. Does begin to regain weight in the late summer after fawns are weaned. Bucks will typically lose weight during the breeding season but will regain it during the spring and summer.\n\nTable 2. Average dressed carcass weights (pounds).\n\nRegionAge of deerFemaleMale\nGlaciated plainsFawn67.672.1\nMississippi lowlandsFawn48.054.0\nOzark borderFawn51.758.2\nMissouri Department of Conservation\n\nHome range sizes and deer movements\n\nThe size and shape of a deer’s home range depends on the quality of the habitat, deer density within the area, time of year, and age and sex of the deer. Deer living in more diverse, higher quality habitats are able to satisfy all their daily requirements in a smaller area, while deer living in less diverse, lower quality habitats often have to travel greater distances to locate suitable food and cover.\n\nIn general, deer movements and patterns of habitat use are influenced most by the availability of both food and cover. Deer living in diverse habitats with a large percentage of edge and an even distribution of food and cover tend to have smaller home ranges. Because of seasonal changes in the availability of food and cover, home range sizes generally decrease during summer and become larger during the fall. Bucks tend to have larger overall home ranges than does.\n\nRelationship between food supply and population density\n\nThe relationship between food supply and population density and their effects on antler development and reproduction are often misunderstood. Overpopulation can occur even when deer numbers are not extremely high. When more deer are present than the available food can support, the herd is overpopulated and the habitat and individuals within the population suffer.\n\nThe degree to which deer browse certain shrub and tree species can be used as an indicator of deer population levels and winter severity. Some species of sumac and dogwood may be readily consumed by deer. Eastern red cedar and hickory are considered starvation foods and are usually only browsed when populations are high during severe winters.\n\nIn habitats with inadequate levels of nutrition, parasite loads may increase, buck and doe body weights will decrease, and deer may show obvious signs of poor antler development and lowered reproductive rates.\n\nAs a deer population continues to increase beyond its food supply, the overall health of the herd often declines and natural mortality increases. In addition, complaints of deer damage to agricultural crops and forest reproduction often rise, as does the risk of deer–vehicle collisions.\n\nDisease does not typically account for a large percentage of whitetail mortality. However, periodic outbreaks of diseases such as epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), can impact local populations. Mortality rates during these events can be from 10 to 50 percent of the population.\n\nPopulation dynamics\n\nDeer populations increase, decrease or remain stable based on the balance between reproduction and mortality. In Missouri, deer reproductive rates are generally high, and, in the absence of predators, mortality of adult deer is relatively low. Therefore, hunting is the primary factor governing deer abundance in rural areas.\n\nStudies have shown that, in the absence of disease, fawn mortality during the first six months of life may exceed 40 percent. Without hunting, the annual mortality of deer older than 6 months of age is less than 5 percent.\n\nBiological carrying capacity\nAs a deer herd increases, it eventually reaches and then exceeds the land’s biological carrying capacity — the maximum number of deer a habitat can support on a sustained basis. When deer numbers exceed the carrying capacity of the land, heavy browsing occurs and the physical condition of the deer degenerates, resulting in lower reproductive and survival rates. Due to the increased browsing, habitats are altered for many other wildlife species and are often slow to recover. The biological carrying capacity of an area is dynamic and can change on a yearly or even seasonal basis due to habitat improvements or to environmental conditions, such as a catastrophic crop or mast failure or a drought.\n\nCultural carrying capacity\nMany habitats found throughout the state are able to provide deer with an almost unlimited supply of food. In many locations of northern Missouri, deer populations are well below the land’s biological carrying capacity. However, deer numbers may exceed the cultural carrying capacity — the number of deer the public will accept in a given area — which is exhibited by intolerance of severe crop damage or unacceptable numbers of deer–vehicle collisions. Without hunting, deer populations in agricultural habitats often reach cultural carrying capacity long before reaching the biological carrying capacity (Figure 11).\n\nDeer population curve Figure 11. This deer population curve depicts the level when a population theoretically reaches cultural carrying capacity and increases to the point of reaching biological carrying capacity.\n\nHarvest regulation\n\nHarvest regulation is an essential part of sound management principles for white-tailed deer, not only to keep deer populations in relative balance with their food supply but also to keep populations in relative balance with the cultural carrying capacity. Where food is abundant and deer are healthy, a sustained but regulated harvest maintains healthy conditions and prevents overpopulation. In areas where deer are overabundant and food supplies are limited, increased harvests of antlerless deer may be necessary to prevent further damage to the habitat and a decline in deer quality.\n\nRegulated either-sex harvests are necessary for proper herd management. Buck harvest alone cannot control a growing population. A reasonable harvest of bucks and does will assure a healthy population for the future.\n\nMissouri is home to about 1.4 million deer. Deer abundance varies across the state, depending on the quality of the habitat and hunting patterns in an area. Hunting is the leading cause of deer mortality in most of the state. Each year hunters take about 40 to 70 percent of the antlered bucks and up to 25 percent of the does. Thus, hunting is the primary factor that governs deer abundance.\n\nHunting mortality of does is the single most important factor that governs whether a population increases or decreases. Due to the fact that one buck can breed with many does, the buck segment of the population can remain at lower levels without affecting reproductive rates. This can be shown by simulating a population of deer under various buck and doe harvest rates. For instance, a harvest of 10 percent or 40 percent of the bucks from a herd will produce very little difference in the overall growth rate of the population; however, similar harvests of does would affect the growth of the population.\n\nIf hunting mortality is eliminated (with other mortality and reproductive factors remaining the same), a deer population increases at a very rapid rate, nearly quadrupling in size in a matter of 10 years. However, growth at this rate could not continue indefinitely. As the population increases, it will eventually reach and exceed the land’s biological carrying capacity (Figure 11).\n\nProper management of a deer population is accomplished by regulating harvests to keep deer populations below biological and cultural carrying capacity, and managing habitats through sustainable practices to make an area more favorable to deer.\n\nThe appropriate level of deer harvest can be determined only after a variety of information on the population is obtained. Managing a population is difficult without knowledge about the sex and age ratio, productivity, and condition of the herd.\n\nControlling deer damage\n\nDepredation to nurseries, vineyards, ornamental plants and orchards, as well as commercial agricultural crops, can be severe enough to cause economic damage. Orchard losses are usually greatest to small trees, which often have to be replaced several times because of severe browsing. In addition, damage to natural or planted trees on forest land, which is often overlooked, can be serious.\n\nDeer damage is usually most severe in areas where deer population densities are high and where small agricultural fields, orchards, vegetable gardens and vineyards are interspersed and adjacent to areas that provide high-quality cover. Refer to MU Extension publication MP685, Controlling Deer Damage in Missouri, for more information on preventing and controlling damage caused by white-tailed deer.\n\n\nWhite-tailed deer are one of Missouri’s most valuable natural resources. An understanding of their ecology and seasonal habitat needs is the first step toward implementing management techniques that successfully meet your particular objectives.\n\nSubsequent guides in this series provide information on habitat requirements, evaluation and management techniques; population and harvest management strategies; quality deer management (QDM) program implementation strategies; and collecting appropriate information that can be used to make informed decisions on implementing deer management that meets your overall objectives.\n\nPhoto credits\nMissouri Department of Conservation, Jason Sumners and Emily Flinn.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8178324103355408}
+{"content": "\n\n\nOldest known cave art holds clues to history of human creativity\n\nDiscover | \nHumans are intrinsically artists. Cave paintings and hand-carved figurines found in France, Spain and Italy suggest that Homo sapiens were crafting 35-40 ...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984735250473022}
+{"content": "Vector Spaces\n\n\nTheorem AIU (Additive Inverses are Unique) Suppose that V is a vector space. For each u∈V, the additive inverse, −u, is unique.\n\n\nAs obvious as the next three theorems appear, nowhere have we guaranteed that the zero scalar, scalar multiplication and the zero vector all interact this way. Until we have proved it, anyway.\n\nTheorem ZSSM (Zero Scalar in Scalar Multiplication) Suppose that V is a vector space and u∈V. Then 0u=0.\n\n\nHere’s another theorem that looks like it should be obvious, but is still in need of a proof.\n\nvia Vector Spaces.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9914845824241638}
+{"content": "• Twitter\n  • RSS\n\nUNESCO HIV and Health Education Clearinghouse\n\nSearch resources\n\nThe search found 3 results in 0.021 seconds.\n\nSearch results\n\n  1. The effectiveness of HIV-AIDS education prevention programmes in Zimbabwe: the role of school heads in SACMEQ III\n\n    The overall objective of this study is to analyse the response of the education sector to HIV-AIDS epidemic through inputs from the heads of primary schools by describing their viewpoints and professional characteristics in the context of HIV and also examining how the school environment, that the school heads are in charge of, were supportive in the context of HIV-AIDS. Based on the research problematic, the memoire will attempt to provide answers to the following research questions: a) What is the demographic situation in the context of HIV-AIDS in Zimbabwe? …\n\n  2. Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education HIV and AIDS work place policy\n\n\n  3. Teacher management in a context of HIV and AIDS: Zimbabwe report\n\n    This study aims to describe and analyse the results of a qualitative research study on teacher management policies, tools and practices in Zimbabwe, a country where HIV and AIDS is highly prevalent. The research aims to discover whether teacher management policies, tools and practices have evolved in high prevalence settings as a response to the HIV epidemic.\n\nOur mission\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7623444199562073}
+{"content": "2016 New Jersey Revised Statutes\nTitle 4 - Agriculture And Domestic Animals\nSection 4:7-19 - Ordering Destruction Of Plants\n\nNJ Rev Stat § 4:7-19 (2016) What's This?\n\n4:7-19. Ordering destruction of plants\nIf the order of the department, made and served as prescribed in section 4:7-17 of this title, commanded the destruction of any trees, shrubs, plants or nursery stock, the judgment of the court imposing the penalty shall include an order to the officer enforcing its judgment to seize and destroy the specified trees, shrubs, plants or nursery stock, in accordance with the order, which the officer shall thereupon be fully authorized to do.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9597626328468323}
+{"content": "Relationship AdviceTips from Dr. Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D.\n\n\nwest los angeles, santa monica, beverly hills couples counseling\n\nHave you ever wanted to say “no” to your partner when they wanted to go away on a trip with friends or family but didn’t because you wanted to feel unselfish?\n\nThen you have experienced the tension of conflicting motives, just like twenty-six year old Dianne did when her husband Neil had to leave her and take care of family business. She faced a tug of war between her secret wish for him to pick her over everyone else, and her overt desire to put his needs before her own by appearing supportive and encouraging.\n\nThe day photographer Neil arrived back home after helping his widowed mother recover from hip replacement surgery, Dianne came down with Bronchitis. During his absence Dianne had worked and taken care of herself, trying to support Neil as he cared for his mother. But Dianne also felt alone, relegated to the bottom of Neil’s list, and fearful that they would be parted more often as Neil’s loyalties to his mother took precedence over his commitment to their two year old rocky marriage. Dianne hid her anxieties and anger when they communicated during the week he was away. She welcomed him back eagerly trying to be the understanding and sympathetic wife, but all the while feeling increasing anger and resentment that her husband could choose his mother over his wife, leaving her alone and uncared for.\n\nNeil tried to by sympathetic and attentive to Dianne as she went through her course of treatment. But it was wearing him down. Having been his mother’s caretaker for the past week he was hoping to get some nurturing from his wife, but instead he had another sick woman to care for. He couldn’t understand why Dianne was so irritable and snappy and why she kept making snide comments about him viewing her as a burden but taking on the role of dutiful son with relish.\n\n\nDianne nursed her grouses from her sick bed, while Neil wrestled with disappointment and anger that he took care of his loved ones but no one took care of him. He kept that a secret because he wanted to be a good concerned and caring husband.\n\nNeither of them communicated their true feelings up front. Both Dianne and Neil had conflicting motives that prevented them from being open and honest. They grew apart as a wall of resentment and bitterness obscured their love and attachment for each other.\n\nWhat are the chances of that wall leading the couple to split up?\n\nResearch reported in the Journal of Personality, 2012 indicates that couples have the greatest relationship satisfaction and stability when their inner and outer motives towards each other are congruent. Couples whose motives towards one another are incongruent do not enjoy their connections, feel bad, experience poor health, and are at great risk of splitting up within a year.\n\nDianne’s inner motive to get Neil to stay with her rather than go take care of his mother didn’t match her outer motive to seem unselfish. She ended up getting sick in order to get the care she wanted when he came back, causing tension and resentment. Neil’s implicit motive was to get some care himself on his return home, but it wasn’t congruent with his explicit motive to be attentive and caring towards his wife. He didn’t feel good about himself or the relationship.\n\nDianne and Neil were at heightened risk of splitting up because they couldn’t manage their conflicting motives, until they sought couples counseling that untangled the mess and helped them find confidence and faith in their true wishes so that they didn’t have to struggle with their conflicting needs and motives.\n\n           west los angeles couples psychotherapy                                     west los angeles, hollywood, century city, culver city marital counseling\n\nWhat was the biggest obstacle preventing Neil and Dianne from having their implicit and explicit motives match?\n\nThe answer is shame. Dianne was ashamed of the part of her that wanted Neil all to herself. She was ashamed that she couldn’t let Neil take care of his mother for just a week without feeling jilted. Neil was ashamed that he needed some pampering after coming home to his wife. He was ashamed that he couldn’t be a man, step up to the plate and take care of the women in his life like he was supposed to do.\n\nShame was the enemy of openness, honesty and conflict free interactions in Neil and Dianne’s marriage. Marriage counseling helped Neil and Dianne feel comfortable with their motives of wanting care and to be number one. Once the shame was gone, their inner and outer motives were in harmony and they were able to be there for one another in ways that created a sense of well-being, security and stability. They didn’t need to get sick or test each other out in order to get those shameful implicit motives attended to.\n\nMature couple embracing\n\nYou too can create the foundation for a stable and satisfying relationship when you stop feeling ashamed of your true needs. Engaging in relationship advice psychotherapy is one way to begin that challenging process.\n\n\nCopyright, Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D.\n\n you might also like:\n\nDo you feel abandoned when your partner is with family or friends?\n\nHow to manage two parts of you that want different things\n\nTwo ways to avoid the shame of feeling needy\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7007076740264893}
+{"content": "Socrates likens himself to a “gadfly attached to the state.” What does he mean by this? Is this a good or bad thing? What would a similar character playing a similar role look like in our age?\n\n  • 1\n    Welcome to Philosophy.SE! One question per question please, I suggest you edit your question to remove the last question because it's really different and will invite a lot of discussion. While you're at it, please edit the title as well to something descriptive. And you could include the tag 'socrates'. Finally, to learn more about our format, have a look at the tour. Enjoy the site! – Keelan Feb 1 '18 at 18:27\n\nIn Plato's 'Apology' Socrates tells the court :\n\n... If you say to me, 'Socrates, this time we will not follow Anytus but will let you go on condition that you no longer spend your time on this inquiry and stop philosophizing; if you are caught doing this again, you shall die'- if you were to acquit me on this condition, I would reply: 'Men of Athens, I honour and love you, but I shall obey the god rather than you and as long as I breathe and have the capacity I shall never cease philosophizing.. (29 c 6-d ).\n\nThe background is that Socrates is not that Socrates upholds a general right of freedom of conscience (as we might express it). He cites two instances in which he has disobeyed the state but not exactly its laws : (1) when he spoke out the wholesale trial of the generals of Arhinousai (32b) and (2) when he would not arrest Leon of Salamis (32c-d).\n\nThese cases deserve mention but they are not the heart of the matter. For that we need to track our way to the Delphic Oracle. Socrates takes the answer given by the oracle of Delphi to Chairephon's question as knowledge that the god has chosen him to educate the citizens of Athens out of their ignorance (23 b). He could not give up the practice of philosophy - his method of education - without defying the god (30a 6-7).\n\nThere is nothing like a modern appeal to conscience here. No adherence to personal moral judgement is involved, as in the case of Conscientious Objectors in the two World Wars. Socrates believes that his mission to educate and chase out ignorance is the choice of the god.\n\nBut what is Socrates' famous 'divine and mysterious something' (31 c 8), sometimes called his 'inner voice' ? Is this not conscience ? Not at all. It is 'the sign of the god' (40 b i)). It is a unique 'voice' communicated to Socrates by the god. It has no internal source or origin.\n\n'Unique' matters vitally. Nobody else has Socrates' divine mission. He is on his own, the one and only gadfly appointed by the god (30e). Under the sacredness of his mission he will annoy, criticise, resist and refuse the state if it crosses the path of his divine mission.\n\nIt is only in pursuit of his divine mission, and any ban of his practising philosophy, that Socrates will defy the state and perform his gadfly role. Beyond that role he shows considerable - indeed, self-sacrificing - respect for the state and the law. In the 'Crito' Socrates argues that it would be wrong for his to try to escape from prison and evade the penalty of the law.\n\nHe gives three reasons. (1) The organised life of the state or polis would be undermined if citizens decided at will to defy the laws and the courts (50b); (2) the laws have protected Socrates and here is pay-back time. He rpresents himself as like a child under the discipline of adults (50c - 51c); and (3) Socrates accepts the penalty if he has not been able to persuade the state and its courts of their errors (51e - 52a).\n\nThere is no inconsisency between the 'Apology' (the trial) and the 'Crito' (Socrates' time in prison prior to execution). Even in prison Socrates continues with his educational mission, engaging in philosophical argument. The state has not blocked this sacred duty.\n\n  • @Dataviaj. You have an answer to your 'gadfly' question. – Geoffrey Thomas Feb 1 '18 at 23:43\n\nYour Answer\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9948635697364807}
+{"content": "Discipline: Music\n\nBased In: Flushing, Queens\n\nWebsite: https://www.spellsandcurs.es/\n\nSpells and Curses started as therapy in an NYC basement.\n\nAfter losing a parent, ending a failed relationship, and moving on from unhealthy friend circles all within a few months, theRave was forced to start a new chapter in life and exercise unfamiliar feelings of love and loss: so he turned to music, thereby forming Spells and Curses.\n\nWith styles ranging from Alt-Rock to R&B, Spells and Curses believe every song is a spell to enhance the moment or a curse to damn it. Thus their mission remains; create “below the belt music” to not only think outside the box, but expand it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8845950961112976}
+{"content": "What is the Dark?\n\nAre there Dark Beings? Is the Dark after me?  The darkness is truly only the absence of Light.  The darkness is the other side of Duality and part of our consciousness while we’re here on Earth.  The Dark and Light form a balance creating duality so duality could not exist without both being present.\n\nThe darkness has no concept we’re even here as it has no consciousness of its own.  There are no Super Dark Beings out to get everyone by stealing their Souls.  This may and could well put a burr under the saddle of some reading this but it’s most likely those people wouldn’t even be reading this anyway.  The religious mythology of a Dark Being is meant to control the masses keeping them in the organization of the religion as a servant to that organization fueling its expansion.  To debunk much of the myths of religious lore the only Dark Beings are the ones human consciousness has created.  As a creation of the human consciousness their power is limited compared to the power we have as long as we are not in fear of them.  Once a human has given a dark intent then the energy has as much consciousness as was in the intent and only that much.  Once we drop into fear even on a limited scale we lower our vibration rate and give our power to those lesser dark beings.\n\nWhen a higher truth is seen we learn the purpose of religion/spirituality is to find Mastery.  Mastery is not found within the walls of any organization following a set doctrine.  Mastery is an individual pursuit not a group endeavor.  There are no set doctrines since we are all different we each have a different set of items to learn.  For this very reason a book on “How to Ascend” would not work.  The only writing which would help is a list of things to learn on the path of Mastery.\n\n\nI want to have more Spiritual Abilities\n\nTrying harder is not the answer\n\nIn the world we hear and we’re told “try harder” you’ll make it.  If we can’t do those wonderful spiritual things regardless if it’s seeing auras or walking on water it must be because we’re not trying hard enough, right!  Wrong!!!  This may work for physical things, when it comes to the spiritual world toss that advice in the trash can.  No matter what we’re attempting to do spiritually “trying hard” blocks the effort.  Plain and simple, straining the brain to force that spoon to bend isn’t going to make it bend.  You’ll end up with a brain hemorrhage before it’ll bend.  It’s just that simple, the harder we try we’re no closer to succeeding, maybe even a step back.  So what will help?\n\nMore understanding is the key\n\nUnderstanding is the foundation of everything, spiritual or not.  Understanding we can’t force spiritual things to happen is where it starts.  There’s more to everything spiritual from manifestation on than just following a set of guidelines.  How do we understand understanding?  The age old “meditation” still works well.  Having worked with several accelerated learning techniques, all I’ve seen use meditation as the common basis to allow the learning to enter.\n\nClearing the blockages which inhibit us\n\nEveryone has or had blockages!  It’s a fact of life/lives.  Those who had them got them removed, they didn’t just fall off.  I won’t go into detail on this subject, this would take too many pages to cover and still not do justice to a complicated subject.  The number one easiest tool for dealing with lower energies is to BLESS IT!  Everyone can do this no matter what their background is.  Giving a Blessing is a tool.  A minor energy abnormality may take blessing it for twenty minutes to reduce it to a fraction of what it was but it works.  You could burn a truck load of Sage to get the same results if at all.  Sage is outclassed when it comes to clearing attached energies.  The fastest way to clear blockages/energies/implants/entities is to find a healer specializing in the clearing of energies and working with Karma.  Working with Karma is a must, a great deal of the time attached energies have a Karmic relationship.  Attempting to clear the energy without resolving the Karma will not work!  At times the energy will be shifted into a cloaked status to keep the healer from trying again.  If they don’t see it anymore it must be gone.  Also clearing everything in one session is not a good idea.  It leads to upsetting the energetic apple cart knocking the balance off with uncomfortable results for a few days until it re-adjusts itself.\n\nThe key placed into the lock of our perceived limitations\n\nGaining understanding and removing blockages by clearing helps us to see our perceived limitations.  We don’t have any limitations beyond what we think or don’t think we can do.  Seeing beyond these perceived limitations is an understanding, believing in what we understand is trust.  Trust in what we understand helps develop knowing.  Knowing is more than remembering what we’ve learned.  Knowing is not in understanding what you did to make something happen, only believing it will happen every time you think about the result you want to happen.  This is just a bit hard to convey in three dimensional terms.\n\nOpening our path to explore the possibilities\n\nLearning and clearing opens the door to the spiritual world wider.  Just as a note, it’s not possible to lose our path, it’s only at times not recognized that we’re still on it.\n\nLooking within is where to find the understanding\n\nText books and other three dimensional tools are not the fastest way to learn spiritual lessons.  I didn’t make any friends with those selling books and giving classes with that statement but it’s true.  Meditation is the time tested way to learn higher order lessons which go directly into knowing without us knowing what they are.  Only the 3D mind needs to know and the 3D mind isn’t what’s making the spiritual things happen.\n\nOutside sources are fine for general learning to fill in the questions of the 3D mind.  Meditation brings a custom tailored lesson plan which is within us waiting to be opened.  There are other ways to accelerate the learning although these are not three dimensional in origin.\n\nWe’re all born with a certain amount of spiritual abilities, the rest is what we practice at.  Like everything else it takes practice not wishing for it, use what there is to gain more of it.  No one is/was born a Great Master, each has/had a head start from many incarnations of working towards that spiritual goal, still they must put it all together in one life time, which is an entirely different lesson.\n\nSubtle Energies\n\nEverything in the universe is made of energy.  We are surrounded by energy which seems to be in a solid form to us.  Some may already be wondering what I’m talking about after many years of bumping into things in the dark, everything seems pretty solid when we run into it.  We think of energy as being something we can’t touch without getting hurt although the reality we’re not as aware of extends a bit beyond that.  In a spiritual view the solid forms of energy are those things around us we use to build physical structures with or as food.\n\nIntellectually we know the conversion of mass into energy then back into mass must be possible.  We already convert mass into energy although not very cleanly, in the case of a nuclear bomb it’s also very messy.\n\nIn a very esoteric view we see the world and universe as energy existing in different forms.  Just as an esoteric intellectual exercise let’s say we could restructure energy (Just like an Angelic Being) into different shapes forming them to suit our desires.  All energy has a vibration rate, much like color.  We have many colors each being a slightly different vibration/frequency but all are visible to us.  Energy is also available in vastly different frequencies beyond our sight.  Let’s say we have a set of energies grouped much like colors which range from red to violet.  If we could condense these into solid forms then red could not pass through green nor any other color.  If we imagine we are the color green we could sit on blue and cut the orange color to build a house with.  We can work with any of these energies from red to violet as solid matter since we are in the same visible energy set.  If someone from ultra violet came to visit they’d be from a different energy/color set being able to walk through our energy set as if it weren’t there.  They would also be invisible to us as we would be to them without special equipment to shift the frequencies.  Different dimensions and/or parallel dimensions have different frequency sets.\n\nThe other intangible energies are the ones we’re the least familiar with or comfortable with.  These subtle intangible energies exist in many forms.  When they’re within our energy fields they will range from what no longer serve or is interfering with us to those of the highest vibration, all of which can and will affect our daily lives.  An advantage to focusing on working with subtle energy is a wider understanding of how they affect us.\n\nWe’ve all been through so many incarnations.  If we knew everything we’ve done in life many would amaze us while others would take us to our knees weeping in sorrow.  In each one we could pick up lower energies deriving from many sources including implants, injuries and traumas from our incarnations.  These energies can manifest themselves as emotional challenges, physical health challenges or spiritual blockages.  It’s been seen from the experience in working with these energies they are not automatically dropped at the end of each incarnation.  As such we end up carry these energies into each new incarnation as we progress along our path.  If we or someone else sees these energies we have the opportunity to work past them, we needn’t keep them with us any longer.  Some of these old energies are even hidden from detection or even hiding in our chakras to further avoid being detected.  Yet others seem to follow the “onion principal” not surfacing to be healed until it’s time after others have been cleared.  Once detected these can be skillfully removed unless they’re part of the karmic experience, if karma is involved the karma is required to be cleared first before the object can be removed.  If those unaware of the karma connection with an object attempt to remove that energy it will either remain (or come back in an hour or so) or it will go into a “cloaked” status so it will seem the removal was successful.  No one is immune from these energies, its part of our incarnations and the learning experience to see them for what they are.\n\nMany seem to believe they couldn’t be affected by an unseen force of some subtle energy.  The universe has its own plan independent of what anyone thinks or don’t think is real.  Some would say Free Will determines how the universe reacts to the thoughts of the individual.  This has little effect on the operation of the grand scheme of the universe, only the outcome of making choices about actions to follow which may bring Karma into play.  Subtle or any other energy could have a karma associated with them or even a contract.  When these subtle energies are related to Karma they could be thought of as a subset to karma called “Cause and Effect.”  Contracts in spiritual terms are agreements made with darker energies for some purpose (maybe not that much different from any other contracts we know about) without any end date.   A contract stays in affect until it is concluded no matter how long this takes, unless the contract is closed early by direct intervention from someone experienced in dealing with these agreements.  Just as a note to those feeling they would never make a contract with a darker energy I’ll point out we’ve had many hundreds of incarnations surviving some pretty hard times with lives taking us to places we wouldn’t like to think about now.  Some have been forced to “make a deal” just to keep living.\n\nTo demonstrate one aspect of an attached energy we can look at a metaphor about a nail in the tire to illustrate what’s being suggested.  The tire is our energy system.  When we have a flat tire we may find a nail (subtle energy object) in the tire which is responsible for the loss of air pressure (energy).  Even if the nail is no longer there, even if we don’t see it the wound is still present allowing air to escape.  Finding the nail or where the nail was leads to the repair/correction of the tire restoring the integrity.\n\nThe clearing of these subtle energies can have profound results.  Many people have been helped to feel better and/or progress faster by the correcting/clearing of subtle energies which are not theirs.  No two healers are the same, each has different abilities, tools and experiences in energy work.\n\nEntities, Real or Hoax\n\nThe opinions fly on this subject.  Those feeling since we can’t measure them (most of the time) they don’t exist.  One possibility for objection is the human trait of being in fear of what we don’t see or understand.  How do we defend ourselves from we can’t see it?  While another group believes in haunted houses complete with interactive ghosts.\n\nQuantifiable evidence is far and few, mostly for the limitations of technology being able to measure the subtle energies emitted.  Some instruments do exist to detect magnetic and sudden temperature changes associated with these “phenomena” although these are very simple compared to the complex multi-dimensional energies which comprise these entities.\n\nSo, are they here?  Like the famous line from the movie Poltergeist, “They’re here.”  Yes indeed, they’re all around us in numbers a well known hamburger chain would envy.  I have no way to prove that statement or the following statements so I’ll just lay it out for your consideration.  After years of spiritual learning and working in the field with subtle energies it’s given much time to form a theory of how it is or as best as a three dimensional human can understand it to be.\n\nEvery human who has ever had an incarnation (another contested theory) on Earth has left behind the energy of that existence.  They have no where to go and nothing to do.  Being multi-dimensional they’re outside of time as we know it to be so they don’t have an expiration date either.  Psychics and other sensitive people see them or feel their being around.  The humans who were “good people” leave behind entities/energies having no interest in bothering us.  It’s the other ones we’re concerned with or should be.  The ones who were a pain in the backside while they were living are still that way today.  This is the group taking pleasure and sport from interfering in our lives.  Most of the time they live in our homes with us and many times move into our bodies camping out with us.  Depending on the “pain in the rear” quotient and how many there are they exert influence on our everyday thinking.  This is book material, it’s more involved than can be conveyed in a single blog posting, so I’ll keep it short.  More information can be found at Rescuing Lost Souls.  From personal experience I had energies and attached entities which I’d carried with me from birth.  These entities have their own plans which are not in anyone’s best interest.  Once they were removed my life changed in ways I couldn’t have believed had someone told me it would happen.  The process and results inspired me to learn more about this healing work leading me to an extended journey of exploration working with the higher beings to understand even more.\n\nIn summary, if we think what we think is our own thoughts, maybe not.  If there is an energy/entities attached to us we are influenced on some level from slightly, to part time or even full time possession.  People who switch moods quickly sometimes have help being that way.  And just a quick mention it’s not uncommon for these entities to bring the diseases they had while they were living to us.  More than once clients have spent hours in medical facilities only to be told it’s all in their head since the test don’t show anything unusual.  In a way it was in their head but not in the way it was meant, after clearing the trespassing entities out the situations cleared up.  It can and does happen.  Have you ever wondered if you were alone in your head?  Have you ever wondered why you did something which seemed out of character?  I’d like to hear about those experiences, type in a reply.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6888604164123535}
+{"content": "Explosion and fire are inherent hazards associated with fuel-fired heating equipment, such as boilers, ovens, dryers, and furnaces, especially during startup and shutdown. The leading causes of fires and explosions are lack of proper controls and safety devices, lack of adequate maintenance, improperly trained operators, failure to test controls and safety devices, and complacency on the part of the operator due to long periods of trouble-free operation.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998295247554779}
+{"content": "Banner Ad\nUn peruano perfeccionando su legado culinario en Shanghai representa una pequeña pero importante comunidad de chefs latinoamericanos en China.\nA Peruvian honing his culinary legacy in Shanghai represents a small but mighty community of Latin American chefs in China.\nThe former presidential candidate spoke to AQ about Peru’s \"historic opportunity\" to fight corruption.\nThe consequences of the Fujimori family’s rapid decline have yet to be fully felt.\nOn this episode of “Deep South,” prominent Peruvian jurist José Ugaz discusses President Martín Vizcarra’s anti-corruption push and whether it will succeed.\nPresident Martín Vizcarra’s decisive push for an anti-corruption referendum has taken many by surprise.\nPedro Pablo Kuczynski's travails point to deeper problems within Peru's democracy.\nThe crusading anti-corruption lawyer tells AQ what Peru needs to further combat corruption.\nImmature parties and political institutions have left Peru on the brink of crisis. A coming impeachment vote spells more trouble ahead.\nThis Peruvian designer merges fashion with psychology to address issues of women's health.\n\n\nLike what you're reading?\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940382838249207}
+{"content": "\n\n\nNadler: \"We have impeachment resolutions before the committee\"\n\nHouse Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) declined to explicitly say on ABC's \"This Week\" whether Democrats are pursuing an official impeachment inquiry, but repeated to George Stephanopoulos what he wrote in a court filing last week: \"We have impeachment resolutions before the committee.\"\n\nSTEPHANOPOULOS: \"You filed a judicial filing on Friday requesting grand jury information. You made it pretty clear in that filing that the House Judiciary Committee is investigating impeachment. 'The committee has repeatedly made clear that it is assessing whether to approve articles of impeachment with respect to the president.' So how much of this debate over whether the House is pursuing impeachment is a semantic debate? You have an impeachment inquiry going, don't you?\"\nNADLER: I'll repeat what we said in our court filings. We have impeachment resolutions before the committee. We are conducting investigations to determine whether we should report those impeachment resolutions to the House or direct our own and report those to the House. We're considering those resolutions. We'll make a determination after we get more evidence as to the president's crimes that we had from the Mueller report and also from other things. As to his violations of the emoluments clause, failure to defend the constitution against continuing Russian attacks.\"\nSTEPHANOPOULOS: \"So that is an impeachment investigation? \"\nNADLER: \"We're investigating whether to report -- whether to approve articles of impeachment before the committee.\"\n\nWhy it matters: As Stephanopoulos points out, much of the debate about whether Democrats should move forward with an impeachment inquiry — as Nadler reportedly favors — appears to be about semantics. Nadler denied that the House officially authorizing an inquiry would strengthen the Democrats' hand in court, and said that leadership \"knows how we're proceeding.\"\n\n  • Nadler later told CNN's Jack Tapper that his personal view is that Trump \"richly deserves impeachment,\" but that that's not the question at hand. He called the Mueller hearing \"an inflection point\" and said that Democrats must now gather more evidence to convince the American people as they consider articles of impeachment.\n\nGo deeper: The impeachment whip count", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8835935592651367}
+{"content": "Misdemeanor Possession FAQ\n\nClient Reviews\n\n\n    A. S.\n\n\n    D. G.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    C. P.\n\n\n    A.C. & I.C.\n\n\n\n    J. C.\n\n    A. H.\n\n\n\n\n\nRead all testimonials\n\n\n(Q) What must the Commonwealth prove for a misdemeanor drug possession conviction?\n(A) Possession of controlled, scheduled substances charges are brought pursuant to Va. Code 18.2-250. Depending on the type of alleged substance, a misdemeanor drug possession charge is classified as a Class 1, 2, 3, or 4 misdemeanor. The Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person accused (1) knowingly possessed the alleged substance, (2) intentionally possessed the alleged substance, (3) unlawfully possessed the alleged substance, and (4) the nature of the alleged substance.\n\n(Q) What are the penalties for a drug possession conviction?\n(A) A person convicted of a Class 1 misdemeanor drug possession charge faces up to 12 months in jail and/or a $2,500 fine. An individual convicted of a Class 2 misdemeanor drug possession charge faces up to 6 months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. For a Class 3 misdemeanor drug possession conviction, possible punishment is a fine of up to $500. Finally, someone convicted of a Class 4 misdemeanor drug possession charge faces a fine of up to $250. Effective legal representation is essential to protect your rights. Punishment for those convicted varies depending on the facts surrounding the drug possession case, and on the person’s prior history of convictions.\n\n(Q) My friend was convicted of a misdemeanor drug possession charge in another county and served no jail time. Can I expect the same outcome with my case pending before the Leesburg & Loudoun County, Virginia courts?\n(A) Each misdemeanor drug possession case is unique. In assessing punishment, many aspects come into play, including the policies of specific prosecutor’s offices (as well as individual prosecutors), the facts of the allegation, the discretion of the specific judge presiding over your case, and the input/position of the law enforcement officer involved. Depending on the nature and severity of the allegation, the Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney’s office (as a matter of policy) may seek active or suspended jail time. Our attorneys have been successful in avoiding active jail time when a conviction occurs.\n\n(Q) Other than penalties provided by law, what are the other consequences of a misdemeanor drug possession conviction?\n(A) A misdemeanor drug possession conviction can affect your job, as some employers will not hire individuals with a criminal record. Such a conviction can also lead to the loss of federal government security clearances, and can negatively impact your ability to obtain certain professional certifications or licenses. A misdemeanor drug possession conviction may also lead to suspension of your driver’s license.\n\n(Q) What will your office do to defend me?\n\n  • Examine every aspect of your arrest for defects in process.\n  • Analyze the constitutional aspects of your stop and arrest.\n  • Secure any test results from the Commonwealth’s forensics laboratory and ensure that testing procedures and requirements were followed.\n  • Determine the likely admissibility in court of evidence against you, including any statements you may have made.\n  • Secure evidence in the Commonwealth’s possession which may be used against you.\n  • Determine the defenses available to you.\n  • Determine opportunities for dismissal of the charge.\n  • Determine opportunities for mitigation of the charge.\n  • Discuss your legal rights and options with you.\n  • Prepare your case for trial.\n  • Negotiate on your behalf with the Commonwealth to minimize penalties.\n  • Aggressively and diligently fight for you at trial.\n\nPlease notes that the aforementioned merely recites some elements of preparing a defense in your case. During our consultation, we discuss others.\n\n(Q) Why is it important to be represented by an attorney?\n(A) Misdemeanor drug possession charges are serious criminal matters that can have far-reaching effects on many aspects of life, work, and family. The Commonwealth has vast resources which they will use against you. Only an attorney skilled in misdemeanor drug possession legal procedure, trial strategy, and the relevant constitutional and criminal law, can level the playing field to fight for and protect your rights. Such an attorney has the knowledge necessary to win an acquittal of the charge or limit your exposure to sanctions. The high-stakes nature of misdemeanor drug possession charges demand effective, aggressive, and skilled legal representation.\n\n(Q) What benefits can the Law Office of William R.F. Conners, P.C., provide as a Leesburg and Loudoun County based misdemeanor drug possession law firm?\n(A) At the Law Office of William R.F. Conners, P.C., we almost exclusively base our misdemeanor drug possession representation in Leesburg and Loudoun County, Virginia. We pride ourselves on our detailed knowledge of the philosophies, thought processes, and positions of the various courts, individuals, prosecutors, officers, and other entities involved in Leesburg/Loudoun County misdemeanor drug possession cases. We leverage our in-depth experience and familiarity to give you advice and representation tailored to your local misdemeanor drug possession case.\n\n(Q) What legal fees are involved?\n(A) In a misdemeanor drug possession case, the Law Office of William R.F. Conners, P.C., charges for legal services by flat fee. Visa/MasterCard accepted.\n\nContact the Law Office of William R.F. Conners, P.C., for assistance with your misdemeanor drug possession charge, or any other Family Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, or other legal matters.\n\nConsultations offered by appointment. Credit cards accepted. There is no charge for a misdemeanor drug possession case consultation.\n\nDISCLAIMER: This site and any information contained herein is intended for individual purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Seek competent legal counsel for advice on any legal matter.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9659636616706848}
+{"content": "Anime studio fire ‘an arson attack’: Japan police | 2019-07-21\n\nAnime studio fire ‘an arson attack’: Japan police\n\n20th July, 2019 10:10:31 printer\n\nTOKYO: The horrifying fire at a renowned anime firm which killed dozens in Kyoto is being treated as arson and murder, Japanese police have said, with scores of detectives investigating the deadliest violent crime for decades in the famously safe country, reports AFP.\n\nThe blaze on Thursday killed 34 people and wounded dozens more at Kyoto Animation—well known among fans across the world for its animations of popular manga works—and left anime fans and insiders shocked and heartbroken.\n\nIn a rare move, Kyoto police on Friday identified the 41-year-old man suspected of starting the inferno as Shinji Aoba. Japanese authorities usually wait for the formal arrest of a suspect before releasing such details.\n\n“We have determined that this is an arson attack... and murder,” a senior police officer told a press conference.\n\nAoba is in serious condition and has burns all over his body. He has been moved to a special facility for treatment, a Kyoto police officer told AFP.\n\nAs firefighters struggled to control the blaze and locate survivors on Thursday, a man presumed to be Aoba was spotted lying on a bench at a park some 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the studio, Jiji Press reported, citing a nearby resident who said the man seemed to be asleep.\n\nPolice suspect that Aoba may have stayed at the park for several days to secretly inspect the studio, Jiji added.\n\nLocal media said Aoba had served three and a half years in prison for stealing cash from a convenience store. Police have said the suspect’s profession was unknown.\n\nPeople continued to pay tribute to the victims on Saturday, leaving flowers in front of the building that housed Kyoto Animation. Eyewitnesses described the inferno as “hell”, and anime fans likened it to a terror attack on their community.\n\nFounded in 1981, Kyoto Animation might lack the name recognition of Studio Ghibli, but to anime fans it is a household name, responsible for beloved television series like “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”.\n\nSome media reports have suggested Aoba believed the company had stolen his work.\n\nBut the president of Kyoto Animation said Saturday the company had never received a submission from him, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6099525690078735}
+{"content": "The host Boilermakers capped the opening weekend of the swimming and diving season with first-place team finishes at the Indiana Intercollegiates.\n\nPurdue’s women scored 786.5 points, winning seven individual events and both relays. The men took nine individual wins and one relay, finishing with 733 points.\n\nAllie Davis won the 200 and 500 freestyle and swam on the winning 200 freestyle relay, while Mary Beth Dunnichay swept the diving events. Stephen Seliskar was first in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke and led off on the winning 200 medley relay team.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9192036390304565}
+{"content": "Shop  Community       \n\nEating with the Chinese Body Clock\n\nIn Chinese Medicine theory our Qi, or vital energy, travels through the body’s internal organ system in a cyclic ebb and flow.\n\n\n Peaking every two hours it flows from a Yin organ to the paired Yang organ and on again to the following yin organ, maintaining harmony with the energetic shifts in our external environment.  Being mindful of how we eat, work, exercise and sleep in accordance with the Chinese Body Clock can help us get the most out of our day.\n\nIn the clinic we use the Chinese body clock to help determine where imbalances may lie.  if you are not hungry until late morning it can be a sign of weakness or stagnation in the digestive system.\n\nMorning 7am-9am\n\nAs we discussed in our breakfast post the best time to eat breakfast is between 7am and 9am.  In the 24hour energetic clock morning this time of day is seen as Springtime.  It is when our digestive strength is likened to a newborn crawling out of bed, or as a seedling pushing its head through the earth.  This is the time our Stomach energy likes warm and moist foods, nothing too rich, salty or sweet.  A good rule of thumb is to ask: would I feed this to a child?  For breakfast porridge made with oats, rice or barley will work to strengthen the body and stimulate yang energy.\n\n\nRECIPES: Congee Rice Pudding, Activated Oat Muesli,  Bircher In A Jar, Porridge and Breakfast Broth.\n\nBetween 9am and 11am Spleen energy is at it’s peak, digesting breakfast and providing the body fuel for the mornings activities.  This time of day is a good time to tackle difficult mental tasks and to exercise.\n\nLunch 11am – 1pm\n\nMidday marks Summer in the energetic clock.  Where yang is predominant and the Heart organ energy is at its peak.  To be in harmony with the midday sun traditional Chinese wisdom states one should eat more pungent and hot foods with whole grains. According to the daily cycle we are now in adulthood, thus able to metabolise richer and heartier foods with small amounts of cool or raw foods for balance.  Typical western lunches such as a salads or a sandwich can be too yin for many of us.  If you experience bloating or fatigue after meals it is recommended to swap the raw salad for steamed vegetables, cooked whole grains and protein or have a hot broth, soup or stew.\n\n\nRECIPES: Lamb Shank and Barley Soup, Annalise’s Spring Couscous or our Chinese Chicken Soup or try this vegetarian  Soba Noodle Salad from Ostro.\n\nThe Small Intestine energy comes into it’s peak between 1pm-3pm this is when much of the nutrient absorption takes place.  If you have eaten well during the morning and have a robust digestive system now is a good time to do physical work.  However if you are convalescing or depleted this is a perfect time to take a siesta, allowing your body to absorb and process the mornings activities uninterrupted.\n\n3-5pm is the time of the Bladder when metabolic wastes move into the kidney’s filtration system. This is a good time to study or problem solve.  If you experience a late afternoon slump it is likely due to a lack of ‘fuel’ or your body struggling to digest what it has been given.  A light snack and a herbal tea should do the trick.\n\nDinner 5pm – 7pm\n\nBy our evening meal we have reached Autumn and are entering Winter where Yin is prominent. Now is the time to wind down from the days work and gently nourish the body.\n\nThe Kidney energetic is at its peak between 5:00and 7:00pm when we are ideally having our evening meal.  The Kidney energy is responsible for supporting us into old age and maintaining our youth and vigour.  If you are still working and stressed during these hours take a minute for a cup of miso soup.  This can give your Kidneys the support they need and prevent the slide into adrenal fatigue.\nThe evening meal is a likened to a celebratory harvest, nourishing, light and fresh.  Enjoy baked or roasted meats and fish with cooked vegetables, grains or legumes.\n\nRECIPES: Crispy Roast Chicken,  Mushroom, Lentil and Chestnut Stew, Bettroot Rissotto\n\n\nFrom 7pm-9pm the Pericardium energy is predominant.  This is the time for lighthearted entertainment or activities that brings happiness and joy to the Heart.  At 9pm-11pm the San Jiao’s energy rises.  The San Jiao is an esoteric concept of a network that links all aspects of our body together. Now is the time for sleep, allowing the San Jiao to bring the day’s nutrients to the body, encouraging recovery and repair in preparation for a new day", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946944117546082}
+{"content": "Listing all results (126)\n\nComputers and maths in space\n\nMathematics plays a vital part in space flight, it gives us a way both to predict what should happen in the future and also ways to measure what’s actually happening in the present, and adapt to it. In this resource we look at a few places where maths helps in space flight. The maths is made simple here (it’s far,...\n\nBuilding Images\n\nIn this activity, students create colour images from satellite data. This allows them to study how different surfaces reflect different wavelengths of light, how coloured images are created using an RGB model, and how band combinations can be chosen to examine a particular landscape effectively.\n\nBuildings and fire safety\n\nIn this one hour activity, students evaluate the types of fire risks in different buildings.  In the context of a team which has been contracted by the local council to improve fire safety, each team picks a building type and produces advice for the council.\n\nAstronaut or Satellite?\n\n\nSTEM Clubs: step by step guide\n\nThis handy guide has been produced with a view to helping others deal with the practicalities of starting up a STEM Club. The guide includes advice on the following:\n\n  • Decide on why you want to set up a STEM club\n  • Approach people who might be interested in getting involved\n  • Timing\n  • ...\n\nSTEM Clubs: setting up a club\n\nThis series of five videos describes what one needs to consider when setting up a STEM club, and the range of different ways in which one can approach it.\n\nBenefits of setting up a club\n\nPractical considerations\n\nWhat to do and how to do it...\n\nSTEM Clubs: reaping rewards\n\nThe four videos below focus on the impact of STEM clubs on achievement, opportunities for staff CPD, and the awards and competitions open to clubs.\n\nAwards and competitions\n\nAcademic achievement\n\nLife skills\n\nProfessional development...\n\nSTEM Clubs: identity and impact\n\nThe videos below describe how to create your own club identity, extend the impact of a club, and how to establish successful relationships with other schools and a local community.\n\nWorking with your local community\n\nWorking with other schools\n\n\nMovie music 11-14\n\nMovies are amazing: a good movie can make you laugh, cry or jump in surprise. But how do they do it? The music you are listening to plays a big part. This programme investigates the design and technology that goes into making movies sound good – from understanding how soundtracks can make you feel a particular...\n\nHow do they make movies 11-14\n\nHave you ever wondered how to create movie magic, such as hideous monsters or incredible costumes? The secret to creating an amazing movie is just a few STEM Club lessons away. This programme investigates how you can use design and technology to master movie tricks, from creating your own prosthetic mask to...\n\n\nView all publishers", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8847205638885498}
+{"content": "Lot 24 (Garden and Natural History Live Auction, 11th June 2019)\n\nSold for £1,900\n\nLot details\n\nPedestals/Plinths: A rare Manifattura di Signa terracotta pedestal\n\nItalian, late 19th century\n\nwith circular makers stamp\n\n112cm high\n\nManifattura di Signa produced copies of antiquities and renaissance models in terracotta from the late 19th century. The company had outlets in Florence, Rome and Turin and catered for wealthy patrons doing the Grand Tour of Italy. The manufactory was active at a time when remodelling English gardens, often in an Italian classical or renaissance style was particularly fashionable. The pedestal is illustrated in their catalogue, model no. 1492.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9887105226516724}
+{"content": "SINGAPORE (Jan 29): The Singapore government is expected to double down on its efforts to provide greater support for companies in developing their capabilities and in their internationalisation efforts.\n\nThese include helping companies venture abroad, particularly to Asean, tweaking its policy to target smaller companies and encouraging automation in companies and helping them leverage on digital technologies and R&D while entrenching local value creations.\n\nIn part 2/3 of its Singapore Budget 2019 report released on Tuesday, Irvin Seah, Senior Economist at DBS Group Research, says local companies must re-orientate their business strategies in order to capitalise on the opportunities arising from an emerging Asean, given trade and investment flows will be diverted away from North-east Asia in the coming years.\n\nFor decades, China has been dominating global trade and investment flows amid its economic liberalisation and accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) but amid the ongoing trade disputes between the itself and the United States, one of the likely outcomes is a rebalancing of global trade and investment dynamics.\n\nBesides enhancing the level of support for some of the existing schemes, the government’s focus could shift towards execution and streamlining to enhance policy effectiveness, adds Seah. For instance, the government could implement a fast track scheme for grant approval in selected high growth industries to intensify investment in those clusters.\n\nAnd to enhance the effectiveness of Singapore’s internationalisation effort, trade associations (TACs) should also be given more support to enable them to set up more overseas offices to better facilitate the local companies that are venturing abroad.\n\n“With a better understanding of the various types of businesses and markets, the TACs would be able to leverage on their local contacts and resources to help their members explore overseas markets,” says Seah.\n\nFocus on SMEs\nMeanwhile, SMEs reporting below a certain level of sales should be provided added attention in their grant applications given technological advancement and innovation at present matters more than just the sheer size of the organisation.\n\nFurther enhancement in the policy direction in favour of the smaller companies could also be applied to many of the existing support schemes\n\nSMEs registering sales below a certain level should also be given added attention in their grant applications which can be achieved by simplifying the documentation requirements in the grant application process.\n\nOther policy measures -- like the SME Working Capital Loan -- continue to be skewed in favour of bigger companies as they are administered via the Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) which prefers bigger companies with better financial standings.\n\n“Despite some risk coverage by the government, the outcome is that smaller companies who need more financing help may not get the necessary support regardless of their product innovation or business ideas,” says Seah, “Therefore, the government could consider taking a bigger share of the risk for smaller companies that apply for financial support.”\n\nThis would enhance the accessibility of these schemes for smaller companies.\n\nNevertheless, while the economic cycle is set to drift southward, the risk of a recession this year is still remote, says Seah. “We reckon that the government would prefer to keep its powder dry and continue to stay focused on longer term structural issues, specifically on preparing the economy for the future.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998687207698822}
+{"content": "• عربي\n  • 中文\n  • English\n  • Français\n  • Русский\n  • Español\n  This module is a resource for lecturers  \n\n\nTopic two - Key mechanisms and actors in police accountability and oversight\n\n\nThis section explains the ways in which internal and external control and oversight mechanisms contribute to police accountability taking into consideration UNODC's conceptual framework of 'accountability before, during and after the act'. Throughout the section, the terms 'ex-ante, ongoing, ex-post oversight' will also be used to reflect these three stages of accountability.\n\n\nInternal control within the police\n\nThe first degree of control in any police accountability system is the internal control mechanisms within the police service. Effective internal control mechanisms have an essential role to play within a police accountability system, both from a preventive and reactive perspective. Such mechanisms have three main components:\n\n  • Professional and integrity standards\n  • Ongoing supervision and monitoring\n  • Internal reporting and disciplinary mechanisms (DCAF, 2015a).\n\nAccountability before the act: Professional and integrity standards\n\nAs mentioned in the previous sections, all police actions should be based on law. However, legal stipulations in the laws may be insufficient when it comes to day-to-day exercise of policing powers. It is imperative, therefore, that police services develop comprehensive professional standards (codes of conduct), providing clear guidance on the exercise of policing duties and powers in practice. By way of example, having clear professional standards, guidelines and instructions on arrest and detention procedures would be a good first step for preventing police officers from breaching the law during arrests.\n\nNonetheless, professional standards are not enough. As stated earlier, in the framework of laws, police officers often have a wide degree of discretion in exercising their powers. There may be circumstances where police officers face ethical dilemmas such as the tendency for bending certain laws to achieve what they perceive as greater law enforcement objectives, or the tendency for applying deceptive interrogation tactics to extract crucial information or confession from suspects (ICRC, 2013, p. 140). Precisely for such situations, police services need to establish a code of ethics which sets overarching integrity standards that are built upon the values of impartiality, fairness, equality, justice, honesty as well as principles for respecting, human rights and dignity (Costa and Thorens, 2015). Depending on the administrative system of the country, such professional and integrity standards may be developed by, or in consultation with, the Ministry that the police are reporting to. Evidence also shows that if integrity standards are developed in a participatory approach, with the police and other actors, there is a higher chance that they will be taken on board and implemented by the police.\n\nIf well promoted, a code of ethics setting out integrity standards has the potential to: give guidance for action to police officers facing ethical dilemmas; contribute to a better identification, analysis and resolution of ethical problems; and assist the exercise of leadership and management throughout the organization and enhance public trust in the police (CoE, 2001, Explanatory Memorandum).\n\nThere is no prescriptive international standard on what a code of ethics should include. Nevertheless, the European Code of Police Ethics (2010) is widely recognized and promoted as a model code internationally. Consisting of 66 articles, the Code is organized under the following sub-headings:\n\n  • objectives of the police\n  • legal basis of the police under the rule of law\n  • the police and the criminal justice systems\n  • organizational structures of the police (recruitment, retention, training, and rights of personnel)\n  • guidelines for police action (including the overarching human rights and ethical standards such as respecting and protecting fundamental human rights, acting in line with principles of legality, impartiality, non-discrimination, consideration for protecting groups at risk of vulnerability)\n  • accountability and control of the police\n  • research and international cooperation\n\nSimilar standards are articulated in: the Seoul Declaration (AGN/68/RES/4), adopted by the INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption; the Harare Resolution on the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (2001), adopted by the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO); and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003) adopted by General Assembly resolution 58/4 (see article 8).\n\nDeveloping professional and integrity standards are not sufficient by themselves for ensuring compliance. Police services should widely promote the code of ethics and integrity standards across the organization; and should incorporate the implementation of integrity standards into recruitment, training, and promotion processes. Developing and effectively implementing integrity standards are important preventive tools for internal control and thereby contribute to 'accountability before the act'. ( Module 14 on Professional Ethics of the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics provides more information on integrity standards and ethics for specific professions.)\n\nAccountability during the act: Ongoing supervision and monitoring of organizational processes and individual behaviour\n\nThe second component of internal control aims at achieving 'accountability during the act' through establishing supervision and monitoring mechanisms. The primary objectives of continuous supervision and monitoring is to verify compliance of day-to day policing practices with the law, policies and integrity standards; and detect unlawful and/or unethical behaviour (ICRC, 2013, p. 140).\n\nAchieving these objectives requires that a clear chain of command be established, the purpose of which is twofold. First, such a chain of command would enable police services to trace back the ultimate responsibility for a police act or omission (CoE, 2001, article 17). This is important because, as per international standards, in addition to the police officer who committed an offence, his/her immediate supervisor who instructed such act, or was not able to prevent the commission of the offence should also be held to account ( Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, 1990, principle 24). Second, a chain of command would clearly establish the respective monitoring roles and responsibilities of all police officers with supervisory ranks in the hierarchy.\n\nEffective supervision and monitoring within police services can be achieved through a range of procedures and mechanisms. Below are selected examples:\n\n  • Rigorous record keeping and internal briefing and reporting procedures, which would help supervisors monitor the activities of their subordinates, analyse trends, identify problematic practices from incident reports and assess whether there are systemic factors behind those practices (OSCE, 2009, para. 113).\n  • Internal audit mechanisms for a regular review of recruitment, training, promotion, as well as other resource management processes to assess whether they effectively promote professional and integrity standards set out by the police.\n  • Procedures for regular and unannounced inspections and spot checks by the supervisors of places carrying high risk of human rights violations such as custody facilities and interrogation rooms.\n  • Procedures for tracking the use of firearms and tracing ammunition: The use of force and firearms is one of the policing functions with the highest risk of human rights violations. Improper procurement, registration, storage, maintenance and tracing of weapons and ammunition would lead to major accountability gaps and render any internal and external investigations ineffective. Police services shall therefore develop detailed procedures for managing firearms and ammunition to create an audit trail. The ' Authorised Professional Practice' developed by the UK College of Policing has a comprehensive set of rules on weapons and equipment tracing is a promising practice in this regard. Tracing is not only necessary for firearms ammunition but is becoming increasingly relevant in the use of less-lethal weapons, particularly the conducted energy devices, also known as Taser. Although Taser is a less-lethal alternative to firearms, inappropriate use can inflict serious damage and may even lead to death. ( Module 4 on the Use of Force and Firearms provides more information on the use of less lethal weapons by law enforcement). Police services increasingly seek to trace the use of Tasers, as a means of ensuring their use is lawful, necessary, and proportionate. For instance, the New South Wales Police Force in Australia uses Tasers with inbuilt tracing mechanisms, including a Taser cam, which is \"fitted to the weapon to capture audio and visual information before, during and after Taser use\", a data port download facility, which \"allows certain information about each Taser use stored on the data chip within the weapon to be downloaded and Anti Felony Identification Device (AFID) tags, which includes the serial number of the Taser cartridge that are released each time the Taser is discharged, so that the Taser cartridge used can be identified. Police station records can then be used to match the cartridge with the Taser and consequently the Taser operator\" (NSW Ombudsman, 2012, p. 81).\n  • Collection and analysis of disaggregated data by age, gender, and where relevant, other protected characteristics (such as race and ethnic/religious identities) in the exercise of policing duties: The collection, and regular review of disaggregated data would inherently serve as an internal accountability mechanism, because such a proactive review would allow for identification of trends and early recognition of potentially problematic practices. For instance, a regular review of disaggregated stop and search data may reveal disproportionate stop and search practices targeting young men from a particular race or religion. While data of this kind would need to be interpreted carefully, disproportion of this kind may 'raise a flag' for senior management to look more closely into stop and search data, to talk to the officers involved regarding the grounds and justifications for the disproportionate policing, and if necessary revise standard operational practices and guidelines, to prevent bias-based profiling.\n\nIt is important to note that the role of supervising police officers is not limited to monitoring internal procedures and their subordinates. They should 'lead by example' by displaying the highest integrity standards in their daily professional conduct, to promote a culture of ethical conduct across the organization (CoE, 2001, article 20). Another important way of promoting a culture of integrity across the organization is to highlight the practices of officers who consistently uphold human rights. This could be done through acknowledging exemplary human rights compliant actions of officers in internal newsletters, or even promoting such practice on the social media. Highlighting positive practices would signal that the senior management values the implementation of integrity standards in practice. (For additional information, see the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics).\n\nIn sum, a well-established chain of command with managers having clearly defined supervisory roles, and effective monitoring mechanisms also contributes to police accountability 'during the act'.\n\n\nAccountability after the act: Complaints handling mechanisms\n\nThe third and perhaps the most important component of internal control are mechanisms to handle both internal reports of wrongdoing and public complaints against the police in an impartial, timely and thorough manner. The positive contribution of effective accountability mechanisms to public trust in police is acknowledged in the literature (Goldsmith, 2005).\n\nAs per international standards and good practices around the world, the following standards ensure effective internal complaint handling and disciplinary mechanisms:\n\n  • Police services should establish safe channels for reporting on wrongdoing by a colleague (UNODC, 2011, p. 90; OSCE, 2009, para. 31). Such channels should be accessible for both witnesses (see section on The role of whistle-blowers in police accountability for a more detailed discussion on whistle-blowing) and police officers who are victims of such wrongdoing (for instance internal sexual harassment cases, discrimination claims, mobbing).\n  • Police services should also establish effective mechanisms and procedures for receiving, handling and investigating complaints by members of the public against the police officers. To this end:\n    • There should be a variety of ways for lodging a complaint (in-person at the station, in writing, by phone, online). Police services should also accept anonymous complaints.\n    • Police services should actively inform the general public, as well as those in contact with the criminal justice system - witnesses, victims, and offenders- about how they can complain (Bryne and Priestley, 2017, p. 11).\n    • The police officer receiving the complaint should be legally obliged to accept and record that complaint. It should not be left to the discretion of a single officer to reject or discard the complaint (Amnesty International, 2015, p. 37).\n    • Police services should develop comprehensive rules of procedure for handling complaints, including timelines for completing an investigation, methods and procedures for conducting disciplinary and criminal investigations, sanctions available for various misconduct. This would ensure consistency in investigations and transparency towards both the complainant and the accused police officer (ICRC, 2013, p. 341).\n    • Investigations of complaints should be conducted by a police unit or officers that are reasonably independent of the police officer involved in the incident which led to the complaint (OSCE, 2009, para. 87).\n    • Throughout the investigation, police services should respect, protect and fulfil the rights of victims and complainants. These include the right to be informed during and after the investigation, right to provide evidence and call witnesses, right to appeal and pursue civil and criminal proceedings in parallel, as per the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (GA Resolution 40/34) (Module 11 on Justice for Victims provides more information on the rights of victims).\n    • Necessary measures shall be put in place to safeguard the rights of the accused police officer, particularly the right to be notified on the investigation, right to legal aid, right to be heard and defence (PACE, 1979, articles 7-9).\n    • Once the investigation is completed, and the relevant authority within the police has decided on the appropriate result or the sanction; there should be mechanisms both for complainant and the accused officer to appeal that decision (CoE, 2001, article 33).\n    • Data on complaints should be systematically reviewed and analysed by the police together with external expert groups. This would assist the police to identify the underlying and systemic causes of misconduct, and to learn from mistakes (OSCE, 2009, para. 91). As per United Nations standards, it is good practice \"to disclose the number of complaints received, the nature of the complaints and their consequences, including numbers of officers that have been disciplined and criminally prosecuted\" (UNODC, 2011, p. 38).\n\nThere is no doubt that internal complaint-handling mechanisms have the advantages of better knowledge of police culture and environment, greater resources for investigation (expertise and technical means), and higher likelihood of cooperation of the accused officer with the investigators (UNHRC, 2010, para. 25-26; OSCE, 2009, para. 87). However, if police services can investigate criminal and disciplinary offences by themselves, there is a risk that investigations would not be carried out thoroughly, systemic failures would not be identified, perpetrators would not be punished appropriately, and a culture of impunity would result. Therefore, external control and oversight actors should be actively involved in all stages of accountability before, during, after the act.\n\n\nExecutive control\n\nIn most countries, the executive plays an important role in the police accountability system. Since the police are hierarchically a part of the executive (most often falling under the portfolio of the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Justice), the nature of the executive's function is more of 'control' - implying direct capacity to modify police actions - than of 'oversight', as is the case with other external actors in the accountability system. While the extent of the executive's role depends on the administrative and governance structure of a state, the executive contributes to police accountability in various ways, at all three stages.\n\nEx-ante control\n\nOngoing control\n\nEx-post control\n\nIn most countries, the executive ministry that the police reports to is in charge of setting the overall vision for law enforcement; establishing the overarching policies for recruitment, performance indicators, promotions and training; and developing the disciplinary code (UNODC, 2011, p. 98).\n\nIn democratic societies some of these tasks are undertaken in consultation with the police; in highly decentralized countries certain tasks can be completely delegated to the police.\n\nThe executive scrutinizes the police on a regular basis through inspectorates. Once again, the hierarchical set-up and the mandate of inspectorates vary across countries. Nevertheless, in most cases, inspectorates are tasked with assessing police compliance with the law, policy and codes of conduct (Born et.al., 2012, p. 196).\n\nIn doing so, most inspectorates focus on identifying systemic issues and failures, instead of investigating individual cases of misconduct, the latter of which is often delegated to the police.\n\nExceptionally, inspectorates can take over investigations relating to the senior management of the police, or complaints with allegations of severe violations, especially if there are no independent investigative mechanisms in that country.\n\nDepending on the outcomes of inspections, the executive may decide on changing or introducing new policies to address systemic issues and enhance police accountability.\n\nFurthermore,in some centralized countries, the executive holds the power to dismiss the chief of police following an investigation into an offence or wrongdoing.\n\nOne means by which the executive could meaningfully contribute to police accountability, would be by ensuring that strategic and policy setting documents are in line with international human rights standards and promote integrity across the police service. For instance, incorporating compliance with integrity standards as a key criterion for recruitment and promotion of police officers would help mainstream a culture of ethics across the organization. By contrast, performance criteria that measure operational performance by the number of arrests, for example, may result in high incidence of arbitrary arrests, in violation of international human rights standards.\n\nCountry examples of executive control\n\nIn Kenya, the Government cancelled the recruitment of 3000 officers and suspended 60 senior officers after an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission revealed that up to 80% of the candidates had either paid bribes or used their connections to get jobs (BBC, 2005). In Slovenia, while most disciplinary misconduct complaints are handled by the police, a ministerial panel directly investigates the complaints in which complainants are children or members of national or ethnic communities or minorities or other vulnerable groups (Slovenia Police Tasks and Powers Act, 2013, Section IV).\n\nOne key challenge with executive control is that inspectorates and other executive mechanisms are often not perceived by the public as sufficiently independent to ensure police accountability. It is particularly problematic in countries where the inspectorate is directly appointed by, and reporting to, the Minister, in the absence of transparency. In such cases it would be possible for a Minister to influence the inspectorate's work to cover up wrongdoing within the police; or instrumentalize the work of the inspectorate to further the political agenda.\n\n\nJudicial oversight of the police\n\nThe judiciary is an indispensable element of a police accountability system, whereby judges and prosecutors have statutory powers to exercise ex-ante, ongoing and ex-post control and oversight of the police.\n\nEx-ante control: judicial authorization\n\nOngoing oversight\n\nEx-post oversight: Adjudication\n\nThe application of certain police powers carries a high risk of violating fundamental human rights. These include searching of private dwellings, or collecting information through covert surveillance of communications, which may be needed for investigating organized crime or terrorism-related offences.\n\nDemocratic societies subject the application of those powers to judicial authorization, since the judiciary is often best suited to review the legality, necessity and proportionality of proposed investigative methods.\n\nIn this respect, the judiciary plays a direct role in ensuring 'accountability before the act', by authorizing or rejecting the application of special investigative measures, thereby keeping police investigations within the limits of the law and human rights standards.\n\nIn some criminal justice systems, public prosecutors have the power to conduct, direct or supervise criminal investigations.\n\nIn such cases, the prosecutors have a direct responsibility to scrutinize the lawfulness of police activities in the course of the investigation and monitor the observance of human rights by police officers (CoE, 2000, article 21).\n\nWhen police actions constitute (or are suspected of constituting) a violation of the criminal code, judicial institutions investigate, prosecute, judge and, if necessary, sentence the police officers involved.\n\nFurthermore, the judiciary plays a key role in providing remedial routes to victims of police misconduct, mostly through civil proceedings (Born et.al, 2012, p. 201).\n\nThe fulfilment of the right to a remedy, as stipulated by the ICCPR (GA Resolution 2200A (XXI), article 2(3)a), is central to an effective accountability system.\n\nWhile the judiciary has a crucial role in police accountability, in practice there are certain limitations and challenges to an effective judicial oversight of the police. Firstly, there is usually a limit to the police powers that are subjected to ex-ante judicial control. Not all police powers can be subjected to prior judicial authorization, and thus countries typically subject only the police powers that are considered to be most intrusive, to ex-ante judicial control such as the surveillance of electronic and telecommunications. The extent of police powers requiring ex-ante judicial control varies across jurisdictions.\n\nThere are certain types of policing functions such as undercover policing, which is typically not placed under ex-ante judicial control in many countries. Usually police services determine the rules guiding the conduct of undercover police operatives. The inherently secret nature of undercover work, combined with the lack of ex-ante control on the application of undercover policing methods leaves very little room for effective judicial oversight, or any other external oversight for that matter. In most cases, undercover methods of the law enforcement come into scrutiny ex-post facto; following complaints and lawsuits filed against police officers or services. There are, however, increasing calls by experts and organizations specialized in policing and human rights to subject undercover policing to prior judicial oversight (Liberty UK, 2013; JUSTICE, 2011). Whether undercover policing and other potentially controversial policing methods raises questions on whether the scope of ex-ante judicial control should be extended; and if so whether the judiciary would be able to effectively oversee such policing methods.\n\nSecondly, with respect to ex-ante review of surveillance warrants if the judges who review warrant requests by the police do not have the necessary knowledge and expertise on intrusive investigative measures and their implications for human rights, they may not be able to critically assess the necessity and proportionality of such measures (Wills, 2015, p. 55). Even if they possess such expertise, when the judges are not strictly independent of the executive, they may be hesitant to reject law enforcement's investigation methods, especially for investigating cases related to terrorism or organized crime, or related to politics; showing, instead, a tendency to rubber-stamp warrant requests.\n\nThirdly, in many criminal justice systems the prosecution and the police have a very close cooperation and working relations. It might be difficult, therefore, for prosecutors to effectively scrutinize police compliance with human rights during an investigation they are supposed to supervise; or investigate the offences of police officers whom they have worked with before (Born et.al, 2012, p. 202).\n\nCountries attempt to mitigate these challenges by: assigning specialized judges for reviewing warrants, and special prosecutors for investigating offences by the police (CoE, 2009, para. 85); or establishing independent investigative mechanisms mandated to investigate allegations of most serious crimes committed by the police.\n\n\nParliamentary oversight of the police\n\nEmbodying the ultimate democratic legitimacy, parliaments exercise legislative, budgetary and monitoring functions before, during and after police actions.\n\nEx-ante oversight\n\nOne of the most fundamental roles of parliaments across the world is to draft, amend and enact laws. Thus, it is in the parliament's purview to establish a comprehensive legal framework on policing that is in line with international laws and human rights standards. Law(s) on policing should provide a clearly defined mandate and powers for the police as well as accountability mechanisms when police infringes the law (DCAF, 2015b). In addition to law-making, parliaments have other functions that contribute to 'accountability before the act': most parliaments are involved in reviewing, amending and adopting the state budget, which includes the budget of police services. A thorough scrutiny of the proposed police budget might reveal unnecessary procurements, or areas with high risk of corruption. Furthermore, in some countries, parliaments oversee or even approve appointments to the most senior law enforcement positions (such as the National Police Chief). Parliaments can use this function to promote the incorporation of ethical and integrity standards to the selection and appointment processes of police chiefs.\n\nOngoing oversight\n\nEx-post oversight\n\nParliaments use a variety of mechanisms and procedures for contributing to 'accountability during the act', most important of which are the permanent parliamentary committees mandated to oversee the police. Such parliamentary committees often have the power to request and review reports by the police, hold parliamentary hearings, summon members of the executive, law enforcement, as well as thematic experts to testify at parliamentary hearings, launch parliamentary investigations and conduct inspections of police facilities (UNODC, 2011, p. 95). These parliamentary instruments are crucial tools to monitor whether police act in the framework of laws, strategies and policies developed and adopted by the legislative and the executive.\n\nIn addition to the permanent committees, some parliaments establish ad hoc parliamentary inquiry commissions, often in the wake of a police scandal causing significant reaction from the public. In such cases, ad hoc commissions are set-up to establish the facts of the case, hold senior management of the police to account before the parliament, and make recommendations for improving police governance in the future. It should be noted that such commissions do not have judicial powers and are not intended to replace judicial processes that may be taking place at the same time.\n\n\nCountry examples of parliamentary oversight\n\nThe South African National Assemblyhas a permanent committee called the Portfolio Committee on Police, which is exclusively tasked with police oversight. To that end, the committee has been effectively using legislative, budgetary and monitoring powers to oversee the police. As part of its monitoring work, the committee has developed a standardized questionnaire for the police and has been using it in its regular and unannounced visits to police stations for more effective and coordinated oversight (APCOF, 2014). In 2018, the Parliament of Georgiaestablished a temporary fact-finding commission regarding the murder of two teenage boys. The prosecution and the trial of the case sparked massive public outcry when it was revealed that an employee of the Office of the Public Prosecutor, who is a relative of a key witness in the case, attempted to conceal evidence. Acquittal of suspects led to large rallies, the resignation of the chief public prosecutor, and the establishment of the ad hoc parliamentary commission. The Commission has reviewed case material, summoned police officials who carried out the investigation, and issued recommendations for the Ministry of Interior and the Police (Civil.ge, 2018).\n\nParliamentary oversight has certain shortcomings and challenges with scrutinizing the police. Firstly, parliamentarians cannot fully dedicate their time and attention to issues related to police oversight. Being a member of a parliamentary police oversight committee is one of the multiple duties Members of Parliaments (MPs) have. Secondly, most MPs do not have the substantive expertise that is necessary for effectively overseeing the police. With technology, police investigation methods and new forms of crime getting ever more complicated, it is conceivable that MPs may not be able to ask the right questions to oversee complex police functions and activities. Thirdly, there is always an inherent risk that parliamentarians will use oversight tools, mechanisms, and information obtained through their oversight activities to further their political agenda or inflict maximum damage to their rival politicians. In such cases, appointment of police chiefs, inspections and parliamentary investigations carry the risk of being unduly politicized (Wills, 2010, p. 42-43).\n\n\nOversight by independent institutions\n\nThe previous subsections referred to the potential challenges encountered when allegations of police misconduct are investigated internally by the police or executive bodies; and overseen by the judiciary and the legislature. It is widely accepted that confidence in police, which is a prerequisite to effective policing, erodes significantly when the public perceives that police abuses are not investigated effectively (CoE, 2001, article 61 commentary; OSCE, 2009, para. 88; UNHRC, 2010; Tait, Frank and Ndung'u, 2011, p. 1).\n\nTherefore, over the last decades, international normative instruments have emphasized the need for an effective and independent investigation of alleged offences committed by the police, in particular the cases of use of force and of extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions ( Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, 1990, article 22; United Nations Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, Economic and Social Council resolution 1989/65, Principles 9-10). The European Court of Human Rights, through a series of landmark rulings, established five key principles necessary for an effective investigation of complaints against law enforcement. As per these principles, investigations should: ensure the independence of investigators, be able to gather adequate evidence, be conducted promptly after the incident, and allow for public scrutiny and victim involvement in the investigative process (CoE, 2009, p. 3).\n\nIn recognition of these standards and principles, representatives of international and regional actors, such as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner have called for the establishment of independent police complaint bodies ('IPCB') as they are best suited to conduct effective investigations of police complaints (CoE, 2009; UNHRC, 2010).\n\nIndeed, countries around the world, including the ones which have a history of pervasive and serious police abuses, have chosen to set-up IPCBs. While the precise institutional composition and mandate varies across the country contexts, the most effective and successful IPCBs seem to have the following features (CoE, 2009; UNHRC, 2010; UNODC, 2011, p. 69-70):\n\n  • Independence: IPCBs are institutionally and hierarchically independent from law enforcement agencies and the executive (often reporting to the parliament), and they have their own separate budget allocated by the parliament(UNHRC, 2010, para. 60). IPCBs also have operational independence, i.e. they are free to decide on priorities for police oversight, and whether or not to launch an investigation.\n  • Clear mandate: While there is no prescriptive international standard on the scope of IPCBs' mandate, IPCBs are most effective when national laws provide for a clear mandate, which does not duplicate the mandate of other external oversight actors (such as ombudsman institutions and/or the national human rights institution), and that can be attainable with the powers and resources the IPCB have. In some countries IPCBs are mandated to investigate all complaints against the police (criminal and disciplinary), whereas in others they are only mandated to investigate the most serious offences committed by the police (killings, torture, ill-treatment, high level corruption). This decision often depends on the history of police abuse in the country, and the resources available to IPCB to investigate complaints. If the IPCBs resources are limited, they often focus only on investigating the most serious offences (UNHRC, 2010, para. 49).\n  • Investigative powers: The most distinctive feature of IPCBs is that they are not reliant on law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations. Most effective IPCBs have their own team of investigators, entrusted with law enforcement-like powers such as access to information, entry, search and seizure, interview and subpoena persons and, in extreme cases, arrest of suspects. Some IPCBs do not have their own investigators but have the power to compel the police to cooperate and/or supervise the police investigation of the complaints.\n  • Resources: To operate effectively, IPCBs need substantial financial, technical (for collecting, safeguarding and analysing evidence) and human resources, including thematic experts temporarily hired for certain investigations (UNHRC, 2010, para. 46).\n  • Accessibility and transparency: None of the above features would matter, if IPCBs were not known to the general public, and accessible to victims of police abuse. Accordingly, successful IPCBs reach out to the public, especially to vulnerable groups. Moreover, IPCBs have a duty to be transparent about their work, and investigations, to earn the trust of the public with respect to their oversight role (UNHRC, 2010, para. 63-64).\n\nIn an accountability system, IPCBs' role is mostly of an ex-post nature, investigating complaints against the police. Although the complaint handling processes of IPCBs vary, depending on their exact mandates and powers, handling of complaints typically proceeds as follows:\n\n  • IPCB receives the complaint either directly from the complainant, or through referral from the respective police service.\n  • If the complaint is within the mandate of the IPCB, and if there are sufficient grounds for launching an investigation, IPCB initiates the investigative process.\n  • Depending on its mandate and powers, IPCB either conducts the investigation independently, or supervises or cooperates with the police service for the investigation of the complaint.\n  • Once the investigation is complete, the findings of the investigation are sent to the police service (for disciplinary complaints) or to the public prosecutor (for complaints concerning criminal offences). The key caveat for accountability is that, after an independent investigation by the IPCB that establishes grounds for disciplinary or criminal sanctions, it would be very difficult for the police service or the prosecution to completely disregard the findings of the IPCB investigation, to cover up the case and not proceed with disciplinary proceedings or prosecution.\n  • Some IPCBs also serve as an appeal body, in cases where the complainant and/or the accused police officer are not satisfied with the outcome of the disciplinary investigation or the sanction imposed.\n  • IPCBs publish the outcome of the investigation (often a more concise and redacted version to protect the rights of the suspect and the victim) on their websites; together with recommendations to police services and other state agencies to prevent such police misconduct or offences in the future (Schierkolk, 2017).\n\nIn addition to the aforementioned complaints handling procedure, some IPCBs are mandated to carry out regular monitoring and/or launch own-motion, thematic reviews of controversial policing policies without a complaint.\n\nCountry examples of IPCBs\n\nThe Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland and the Danish Independent Police Complaints Authority are two examples of IPCBs with a wide mandate, investigating all criminal and disciplinary complaints against the police. The Independent Office for Police Conduct in England and Wales, the Independent Police Conduct Authority in New Zealand and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission in Australia are IPCBs with a limited mandate, only investigating the most serious crimes and misconduct. In addition to the examples above, several IPCBs around the world have either quasi or full investigative powers, such as the Jamaican Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), South African IPID, Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission in Malaysia. The Danish IPCB has an exceptional power of taking binding decisions on disciplinary investigations, and its decision is final. Most of the other IPCBs comply with the regular procedure of submitting investigation reports to either the police or the prosecution for disciplinary sanctions or prosecution.\n\nWhile the establishment of IPCBs has been increasingly recommended by the international community, IPCB's capacities would be greatly compromised if they are not truly independent of the police and executive, not given a realistic mandate and appropriate investigative powers, and not provided with the relevant human and financial resources. A toothless IPCB, which raises public expectation of police accountability, but in practice cannot function effectively would do more damage than not having such an institution at all.\n\nIt is also important to note that IPCBs are not the only independent oversight institutions in a police accountability system. Ombudsman institutions, national human rights institutions, anti-corruption commissions, independent audit agencies are among the bodies that are independent of the police and the executive. These institutions often report to the Parliament and monitor various aspects of law enforcement depending on their mandates and powers.\n\n\nOversight by civil society and the media\n\nCivil society and the media have an ancillary, yet essential, role in the police accountability system. Their oversight functions are more indirect to those of the judiciary, parliament and independent oversight mechanisms, since they do not have a formal mandate to authorize, scrutinize or investigate police actions. Nevertheless, civil society and media act as 'watchdogs' and bridge police accountability and the public opinion.\n\nCivil society\n\nCivil society organizations contribute to the police accountability in different ways at all three stages of oversight:\n\nEx-ante oversight\n\nOngoing oversight\n\nEx-post oversight\n\nIn countries where there is an established culture of inclusive and participative policy making, ministerial working groups and parliamentary committees formally invite NGOs specialized on policing, for their expert input and contribution at early stages of law drafting and policymaking.\n\nIn this context, NGOs can influence the development of policies and laws that would enable human rights-compliant police procedures as well as a comprehensive accountability framework for misconduct.\n\nNGOs monitor the police on an on-going basis through open sources. They collect and analyse data on a variety of policing practices, public perceptions on the police, police complaints and their outcomes. NGOs disseminate this information to the general public in diverse forms; through policy papers, conferences, and advocacy campaigns with a view to bringing key problems and challenges regarding police accountability to the forefront of public debate.\n\nWhile NGOs cannot directly address such challenges themselves, they can call oversight actors into action and cooperate with them in their investigations.\n\nIn the wake of a scandal involving police abuse, or parliaments adopting laws which give all-encompassing powers to the police; NGOs take the lead in launching critical litigation challenging problematic laws or practices of police services (EU FRA, 2017, p.69).\n\n\n\nExamples of oversight by civil society\n\n  • In 2016, the United Kingdom introduced a highly controversial Investigatory Powers Act, which gave police and intelligence agencies powers to access, control and alter electronic devices like computers, phones and tablets on an industrial scale, and read texts, online messages and emails and listen in on calls en masse, without requiring suspicion of criminal activity. In response, Liberty UK, a leading human rights organization challenged the UK Government before the High Court. The Court ruled part of the Investigatory Powers Act unlawful and obliged the Government to amend the law (Liberty UK, 2018).\n  • In the Western Balkans, NGOs dedicated to overseeing police integrity have established a regional network called 'Point Pulse - Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust', which aims at monitoring the state of police integrity in law enforcement agencies, and to advocate for policy changes to tackle police corruption. Member NGOs of this network conduct regular monitoring of police integrity in their respective countries, carry out public opinion surveys on trust in the police, and issue recommendations for policy changes. The regional platform publishes the research, findings and other outputs of NGOs from seven countries. The joint activities of member NGOs allow for an exchange of challenges and lessons learned across the countries and analyse regional trends in policing (Point Pulse, n.d.).\n\nThe media\n\nBoth the activities of the police and the crucial work of the aforementioned oversight actors would be largely unknown to the general public if it were not for the media. The role of the media in police accountability, however, goes beyond reporting. The media contribute to police accountability by:\n\n  • Accessing government and police records and publishing information on regulations and policies on law enforcement, as well as statistics on police activities, thereby fostering transparency;\n  • Covering parliamentary and court hearings on cases involving police officers, informing the general public about accountability mechanisms;\n  • Cooperating with civil society organizations, ombudsman institutions and other oversight actors for awareness-raising campaigns concerning human rights implications of policing; and\n  • Carrying out investigative journalism with an aim to uncover on violations of human rights, misconduct and corruption in the police (Friedrich, Masson, McAndrew, 2012, p. 36).\n\nThe last function is particularly crucial for shedding light on police abuse, systemic issues in police governance and initiating public debate around these topics.\n\nThe points listed above can be considered as traditional roles of the conventional media in overseeing the police. However, the rise of the social media brought a new dimension to the debate about media and police accountability. The widespread use of social media platforms, and the sharing of video footage of police abuse (either through recording of by-standers, witnesses or even victims; or the disclosure of CCTV footage) often draw significant public attention to an incident in a short span of time. This leads to the incident being picked up by the conventional media, as well as complaints and oversight bodies. By way of example, Walter Scott, an unarmed man fleeing from the police in the United States, was shot dead by a police officer, who then planted a weapon on the victim's body and informed his colleagues through radio that the man had attempted to grab the weapon. However, the entire incident had been filmed by a passerby, and was posted on social media. Upon the release of the video, the police service arrested the officer, supported his indictment and fired him. The officer was later sentenced to 20 years in prison (Zuckerman, 2016; Blinder, 2017). This example illustrates the potential of social and other forms of media to ensure that appropriate action is taken.\n\nKey debates: Ethical and legal considerations of media reporting on police abuse\n\nThere are certain risks and ethical considerations associated with the media investigating and reporting on police action and potential abuses. Firstly, in the wake of an incident, while internal and external investigations are still ongoing, media coverage should be careful not to violate the presumption of innocence concerning the accused officer. Secondly, reporting on an incident can carry the risk of violating the privacy of the victim and their relatives. Given the media's significant capacity to influence public opinion, these concerns raise questions about the need for developing ethical guidelines on investigating and reporting on police incidents. Module 10 on Media Integrity and Ethics of the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics provides further information on media and ethics in more general terms.\n\nBesides the ethical considerations, journalists and media organizations around the world encounter several challenges in overseeing the police. Laws restricting access to information and criminalizing journalistic activity are amongst the primary legal challenges. Most countries have information classification laws to protect national security interests. However, if such laws are not in line with international standards, governments and their agencies may tend to over-classify information or impose other unnecessary barriers, which can compromise the role of the media. The media may be hesitant to carry out investigative journalism on issues related to policing in instances where there are laws and practices that criminalize the publishing of leaked information, where journalists are compelled to reveal their confidential sources; or where journalists are not provided with safeguards from intrusive surveillance.\n\n\nExamples of media oversight\n\nThe Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is an investigative reporting platform formed by 40 non-profit investigative centres, scores of journalists and several major regional news organizations around the globe. The network covers Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was established in 2006 and since then has been carrying out transnational investigative reporting and promoting technology-based approaches to exposing organized crime and corruption worldwide. By way of example, in Serbia, five police chiefs, including the head of the criminal police were dismissed after their connections to a drug lord were revealed by joint investigations undertaken by Serbian local media and the OCCPR (Dojčinovic and Jovanović, 2014).\n\n\nMonitoring by International Actors\n\nInternational actors also play a role in promoting police accountability at the national level. Apart from the rulings of some regional courts (such as the European Court of Human Rights or Inter-American Court of Human Rights), which have binding effect; most international actors do not have the mandate to directly influence laws, policies and practices. Nevertheless, United Nations Treaty Monitoring Bodies and Special Rapporteurs play an important role in fostering police accountability through norm setting, official country visits (especially inspection of detention facilities), individual complaint mechanisms and urgent actions, and supporting the capacities of local oversight actors (see, for example, with respect to children in conflict with the law, Van Keirsbilck and Grandfils, 2017).\n\nThis section provided an overview of actors and oversight mechanisms to ensure police accountability. There is no doubt that such mechanisms can function most effectively in democratic societies, where there is an established culture of transparency and accountability, a tradition of participatory and inclusive policymaking; constitutional provisions for safeguarding human rights; robust legal and institutional framework establishing the role, powers and functions of oversight actors, and resources for oversight actors to carry out their duties effectively. However, there is no country which has all the aforementioned features, and in which all oversight actors and mechanisms work perfectly. That is why the section referred to challenges with respect to each oversight actor.\n\nSocieties around the world continue to endure the effects of regimes where corruption is rampant, the rule of law is jeopardized, and where there is not sufficient political will, institutional capacity, expertise and resources to hold the police accountable. However, this does not mean that international human rights law, accountability standards and examples of good practices around the world would not be relevant in such contexts. On the contrary, in such settings, it is crucial to promote international and regional standards, illustrate how countries in transition to democracy in other parts of the world reformed their accountability structures and established police oversight mechanisms; and engage students to discuss preconditions for such oversight actors to be effective in their own countries. In doing so, it is also important to highlight that no country has achieved 'effective police accountability, integrity, oversight mechanisms' overnight; and that as policing evolves and will continue to evolve in the future due to new security and socio-political developments; so will the mechanisms and actors for police oversight need to be reviewed and assessed.\n\nNext: Topic three - Crosscutting and contemporary issues in police accountability\nBack to top", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9557783007621765}
+{"content": "Daily chances for a shower or t-storm through next week\n\nHeating up this weekend\n\nTODAY: Clouds and a few breaks of sun with a couple of showers and a t-storm. High: 83\n\nTONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a shower or t-storm around, mainly early. Low: 63\n\nTHURSDAY: Some drizzle or a shower around with occasional brightening. High: 82 Low: 64\n\nDownload the updated 69News Weather App for weather on the go!\n\nMonkey in the middle... A frustrating game to be a part of when you're a kid, and an equally frustrating game in terms of a weather forecast. For the rest of the week and through the weekend, the northern mid-Atlantic will be tucked between an area of high pressure to the north and a stalled frontal boundary to the south. Neither day will be completely dry, nor completely wet, but each of the next several days will include a shower or thunderstorm. Factor humidity into the equation, and any shower or thunderstorm will have the resources to rain hard. So, it seems dodging a downpour or two and coping with more clouds than sunshine will be our daily struggle for a while.\n\nWith that said, there will still be breaks of sunshine Wednesday, Friday, and especially this weekend. Thursday will be the dampest day of the bunch courtesy of a light, onshore breeze off the ocean. The easterly wind direction may briefly lower humidity a just bit, but it will also produce plenty of clouds and areas of drizzle. Daytime highs through Friday will be seasonably warm in the lower 80s with nighttime lows in the middle 60s.\n\nBy the weekend and into early next week, our coastal front may sink far enough offshore to no longer be a factor in our weather, allowing things to turn a little brighter and a little hotter, as well. Highs will climb through the 80s Saturday to near 90 degrees by Sunday and Monday. The daily shower and thunderstorm chances will remain a fixture in the forecast as will the higher humidity levels even though most of the weekend looks dry. That's until a new cold front sinks southeast out of Canada later Sunday into Monday, leading to more widespread showers and thunderstorms as it approaches.\n\nWishes for a wonderful week despite the unsettled weather!\n\n\n\nAllentown, PA 18102\n\n\n\n\n  • 40%\n\nThis Week's Circulars\n\nLatest from the newsroom", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5370250344276428}
+{"content": "Overcoming Procrastination\n\nBy | April 17, 2018\n\nProcrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Side effects include missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.\n\nThe behavior pattern of procrastination can be triggered in many different ways, so you won’t always procrastinate for the same reason. Sometimes you’ll procrastinate because you’re overwhelmed with too much on your plate, and procrastination gives you an escape. Other times you’ll feel tired and lazy, and you just can’t get going.\n\nLet’s now address these various causes of procrastination and consider intelligent ways to respond.\n\n1. Stress\n\nWhen you feel stressed, worried, or anxious, it’s hard to work productively. In certain situations procrastination works as a coping mechanism to keep your stress levels under control. A wise solution is to reduce the amount of stress in your life when possible, such that you can spend more time working because you want to, not because you have to. One of the simplest ways to reduce stress is to take more time for play.\n\nIn his book The Now Habit, Dr. Neil Fiore suggests that making time for guaranteed fun can be an effective way to overcome procrastination. Decide in advance what blocks of time you’ll allocate each week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and personal hobbies. Then schedule your work hours using whatever time is left. This can reduce the urge to procrastinate because you work will not encroach on your leisure time, so you don’t have to procrastinate on work in order to relax and enjoy life. I caution against overusing this strategy, however, as your work should normally be enjoyable enough that you’re motivated to do it. If you aren’t inspired by your daily work, admit that you made a mistake in choosing the wrong career path; then seek out a new direction that does inspire you.\n\nBenjamin Franklin advised that the optimal strategy for high productivity is to split your days into one third work, one third play, and one third rest. Once again the suggestion is to guarantee your leisure time. Hold your work time and your play time as equally important, so one doesn’t encroach upon the other.\n\nI’m most productive when I take abundant time for play. This helps me burn off excess stress and enjoy life more, and my work life is better when I’m happier. I also create a relaxed office environment that reduces stress levels. My office includes healthy plants, a fountain, and several scented candles. I often listen to relaxing music while I work. Despite all the tech equipment, my office has a very relaxed feel to it. Because I enjoy being there, I can work a full day without feeling overly stressed or anxious, even when I have a lot to do. For additional tips to make your work environment more peaceful and relaxing, read the article 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.\n\n2. Overwhelm\n\nSometimes you may have more items on your to-do list than you can reasonably complete. This can quickly lead to overwhelm, and ironically you may be more likely to procrastinate when you can least afford it. Think of it as your brain refusing to cooperate with a schedule that you know is unreasonable. In this case the message is that you need to stop, reassess your true priorities, and simplify.\n\nOptions for reducing schedule overwhelm include elimination, delegation, and negotiation. First, review your to-dos and cut as much as you can. Cut everything that isn’t truly important. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how poorly people actually implement it. People cut things like exercise while leaving plenty of time for TV, even though exercise invigorates them and TV drains them. When you cut items, be honest about removing the most worthless ones first, and retain those that provide real value. Secondly, delegate tasks to others as much as possible. Ask for extra help if necessary. And thirdly, negotiate with others to free up more time for what’s really important. If you happen to have a job that overloads you with more work than you feel is reasonable, it’s up to you to decide if it’s worthwhile to continue in that situation. Personally I wouldn’t tolerate a job that pushed me to overwork myself to the point of feeling overwhelmed; that’s counterproductive for both the employer and the employee.\n\nBe aware that the peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and work shorter hours than the workaholics. Peak performers get more done in less time by keeping themselves fresh, relaxed, and creative. By treating your working time as a scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up every other area of your life, you’ll be more balanced, focused, and effective.\n\nIt’s been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours. Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on productivity and motivation that less real work gets done. This is especially true for creative, information age work.\n\nDon’t just take my word for it though; test this concept for yourself. Many years ago I ran a simple experiment to determine how efficiently I was working. I measured my efficiency ratio as the number of hours I spent doing important work divided by the number of hours I spent in my office each week. The first time I did this I was shocked to find that I only got 15 hours of real work done while spending 60 hours in my office, an efficiency ratio of 25%. Can you believe that? Over the following weeks, I increased my productivity dramatically while spending far fewer hours in my office. By limiting my work hours, I actually got more done. You can read the details in the article Triple Your Personal Productivity. I now know that working long hours is huge mistake, and I challenge you to discover this truth for yourself.\n\n3. Laziness\n\nOften we procrastinate because we feel too physically and/or emotionally drained to work. Once we fall into this pattern, it’s easy to get stuck due to inertia because an object at rest tends to remain at rest. When you feel lazy, even simple tasks seem like too much work because your energy is too low compared to the energy required by the task. If you blame the task for being too difficult or tedious, you’ll procrastinate to conserve energy. But the longer you do this, the more your resolve will weaken, and your procrastination habit may begin spiraling toward depression. Feeling weak and unmotivated shouldn’t be your norm, so it’s important to disrupt this pattern as soon as you become aware of it.\n\nThe solution is straightforward: get off your butt and physically move your body. Exercise helps to raise your energy levels. When your energy is high, tasks will seem to get easier, and you’ll be less resistant to taking action. A fit person can handle more activity than an unfit person, even though the difficulty of the tasks remains the same.\n\nThrough trial and error, I discovered that diet and exercise are critical in keeping my energy consistently high. I went vegetarian in 1993 and vegan in 1997, and these dietary improvements gave me a significant ongoing energy boost. When I exercise regularly, my metabolism stays high throughout the day. I rarely procrastinate due to laziness because I have the energy and mental clarity to tackle whatever comes my way. Tasks seem easier to complete than they did when my diet and exercise habits were poor. The tasks are the same, but I’ve grown stronger. A wonderful side benefit of the diet/exercise habit is that I was able to get by with less sleep. I used to need at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, but now I function well on about 6.5 hours.\n\nThe most energizing foods are raw fruits and vegetables. Make your diet abundant in these foods, and you’ll likely see a marked improvement in your energy levels. The first week or two, however, you may temporarily feel worse as your body takes the opportunity to detox. Erin and I each lost seven pounds the first week we went vegan. Once the dairy clog finally got cleaned out, our intestines were better able to metabolize everything we ate from then on. We later learned that this is actually quite common. There’s a good reason baby cows need four stomachs to digest their mother’s milk. Human beings can’t metabolize dairy products properly, so the partially digested cow proteins float through the bloodstream and must be eliminated as toxins (i.e. poisons). This requires even more energy, which can leave you feeling more tired than you otherwise would.\n\nYou’ll have to decide for yourself how far you want to take this. I suggest you try different dietary changes for only 30 days at first to see how it affects you. That’s how I went vegetarian and later vegan. In each case I went into the challenge fully expecting to revert back at the end of the 30 days, but I liked the results so much that I couldn’t fathom going back. Don’t take my word for this. Experiment for yourself, and discover what health habits work best for you. For more tips see the article How to Find the Best Diet for You.\n\n4. Lack of Motivation\n\nWe all experience temporary laziness at times, but if you suffer from chronically low motivation and just can’t seem to get anything going, then it’s time for you to let go of immature thought patterns, to embrace life as a mature adult, and to discover your true purpose in life. Until you identify an inspiring purpose, you’ll never come close to achieving your potential, and your motivation will always remain weak.\n\nFor more than a decade I ran a computer game publishing company. That was a dream of mine in my early 20s, and it was wonderful to be able to fulfill that dream. However, as I entered my 30s, I began feeling much less passionate about it. I was competent at what I did, the business was doing well financially, and I enjoyed plenty of free time. But I just didn’t care that much about entertainment software anymore. As my passion faded, I started asking, “What’s the point of continuing with this line of work?” Consequently, I procrastinated on some projects that could have moved the business forward. I tried to boost my motivation using a variety of techniques but to no avail. Finally I recognized what I really needed was a total career change. I needed to find a more inspiring career path.\n\nAfter much soul searching, I retired from the gaming industry and launched StevePavlina.com. What an amazing change that was! I found renewed passion in helping people grow, so I didn’t have to use motivation-boosting techniques to get going. I was naturally inspired to work. I still feel totally inspired. Best of all I procrastinated less on non-work tasks too — my passion spread across all areas of my life.\n\nCenter your work around an inspiring purpose, and you’ll greatly reduce your tendency to procrastinate. If you haven’t already done so, listen to Podcast #15 – What Is Your Purpose?. Finding your purpose is a powerful way to defeat procrastination problems because you won’t procrastinate on what you love to do. Chronic procrastination is actually a big warning sign that tells us, “You’re going the wrong way. Take a different path!”\n\nOnce you’ve centered your life around an inspiring purpose, then you can take advantage of certain motivational techniques to boost your motivation even higher. For some specific motivational tips, read Cultivating Burning Desire.\n\n5. Lack of Discipline\n\nEven when motivation is high, you may still encounter tasks you don’t want to do. In these situations self-discipline works like a motivational backup system. When you feel motivated, you don’t need much discipline, but it sure comes in handy when you need to get something done but really don’t want to do the work. If your self-discipline is weak, however, procrastinating will be too tempting to resist.\n\nI’ve written a six-part series on how to develop your self-discipline, so I’ll simply refer you there: Self-Discipline Series. If you really want to overcome procrastination, you must release any attachment to the fantasy of a quick fix, and commit to making real progress. Hopefully you have the maturity to recognize that reading a single article won’t cure your procrastination problems overnight, just as a single visit to the gym won’t make you an athlete.\n\n6. Poor Time Management Habits\n\nDo you ever find yourself falling behind because you overslept, because you were too disorganized, or because certain tasks just fell through the cracks? Bad habits like these often lead to procrastination, often unintentionally.\n\nThe solution in this case is to diagnose the bad habit that’s hurting you and devise a new habit to replace it. For example, if you have a problem oversleeping, take up the challenge of becoming an early riser. To de-condition the old habit and install the new one, I recommend the 30-day trial method. Many readers have found this method extremely effective because it makes permanent change much easier.\n\nFor tasks you’ve been putting off for a while, I recommend using the timeboxing method to get started. Here’s how it works: First, select a small piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if you simply put in the time; it doesn’t depend on any meaningful accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk, or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you’ll be working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how unpleasant the task, there’s virtually nothing you can’t endure for just 30 minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.\n\nWhen you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know it, you’ve put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you’re ready to stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying about the difficulty of the task and toward finishing the current piece of the task which now has your full attention.\n\nWhen you do decide to stop working, claim and enjoy your reward. Then schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward. This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working toward distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you’ll be eager to return to work on your task again and again, and you’ll ultimately finish it. You may also want to read my article on Timeboxing.\n\nIf you find that clutter and disorganization are hurting you, I suggest you read the article Getting Organized. For a compelling overview of effective time management principles, read Time Management. And for a giant list of specific time management tips you can apply right away, read Do It Now.\n\n7. Lack of Skill\n\nIf you lack sufficient skill to complete a task at a reasonable level of quality, you may procrastinate to avoid a failure experience. You then have three viable options to overcome this type of pattern: educate, delegate, or eliminate.\n\nFirst, you can acquire the skill level you need by training up. Just because you can’t do something today doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to do it. Someday you may even master that skill. For example, when I wanted to create my first website in 1995, I didn’t know how to do it because I’d never done it before. But I knew I could learn to do it. I took the time to learn HTML, and I experimented. It didn’t take long before I launched a functional web site. In the years since then, I continued to apply and upgrade that skill. If you can’t do something, don’t whine about it. Educate yourself to gain skill until you become proficient.\n\nA second option is to delegate tasks you lack the skill to do. There are far too many interesting skills for you to master, so you must rely on others for help. You may not realize it, but you’re already a master at delegation. Do you grow all your own food? Did you sew your own clothes? Did you build your own house? Chances are that you depend on others for your very survival. If you want a certain result but don’t want to acquire the skills to get that result, you can recruit others to help you. For example, I don’t want to spend my days trying to understand the details of the U.S. tax code, so I delegate that task to my accountant. This frees me to spend more time working from my strengths.\n\nThirdly, you may conclude that a result isn’t needed badly enough to justify the effort of either education or delegation. In that case the smart choice is to eliminate the task. Sometimes procrastination is a sign that a task needn’t be done at all.\n\nWhen I was in college, I felt that certain assignments were pointless busywork, and I couldn’t justify the effort required to do them. If the impact on my grade wasn’t too great, I’d decline to do those assignments. Nobody cares that I received an A- instead of an A in a class because I declined to write an essay on gestural languages. If an employer or graduate school screener ever did care, I’d have turned the experience to my advantage by using it to demonstrate that I could set priorities.\n\n8. Perfectionism\n\nA common form of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is perfectionism. Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you’ll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. So you put the task off to the last possible minute until you finally have a way out of this trap. Now there isn’t enough time to do the job perfectly, so you’re off the hook because you can tell yourself that you could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay indefinitely.\n\nThe solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human. Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely.\n\nPerfectionism also arises when you think of a project as one gigantic whole. Replace that one big “must be perfect” project in your mind with one small imperfect first step. Your first draft can be very, very rough. You’re always free to revise it later. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, allow your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started.\n\nSome of these cures are challenging to implement, but they’re effective. If you really want to tame the procrastination beast, you’ll need something stronger than quick-fix motivational rah-rah. This problem isn’t going away on its own. You must take the initiative. The upside is that tackling this problem yields tremendous personal growth. You’ll become stronger, braver, more disciplined, more driven, and more focused. These benefits will become hugely significant over your lifetime, so recognize that the challenge of overcoming procrastination is truly a blessing in disguise. The whole point is to grow stronger.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8804347515106201}
+{"content": "Atla Designs is a creative business that specializes in creating unique handmade gifts including personal and home accessories. The artists of Atla see possibility and beauty everywhere and strive to transform forgotten and discarded materials to give them new life and purpose. The products sold through Atla are made of more than 50% recycled and repurposed materials.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9975141882896423}
+{"content": " User Manual > Digital Repository > Material management > Metadata\n\nNavigation:  User Manual > Digital Repository > Material management >\n\n\nPrevious pageReturn to chapter overviewNext page\n\neXact LCMS allows to set which metadata is necessary to describe a content; the metadata configuration has an impact on all the fields that are based on metadata, such as:\n\nThe metadata editing environment\nThe pages that displays the metadata related to a content\nThe search criteria used by the search engine to find material within the repository\n\n\nWith the system configuration, it is possible to define for each type of content which metadata profile needs to be used by the authors defining:\n\nWhich metadata fields are mandatory for the specific context\nHow each metadata is identified in natural language\nHow the information needs to be associated in accordance with IMS 1.2 or IEEE LOM standard\n\n\nBasically, for each \"type\" of metadata it is possible to define:\n\nA label that identifies that specific metadata, according to the terminological dictionary shared within the company\nA vocabulary of the accepted (or recommended) values used to fill in that specific metadata field\nThe minimum number suggested and the maximum required/allowed to fill in such metadata field\nThe default value that will be typically used in most cases for such metadata\nThe languages that should be used to insert the metadata for the different types of contents present in the repository\n\n\nThe metadata profile, like any other content, is managed in the repository and is assigned to the different types of content set in the platform, via manual configuration.\n\n\nWhen selecting \"Metadata\", the following window displays:\n\n\nThe following options are available:\n\nShow all metadata\n\n\nOn the right hand side of the window, a selection of which metadata language to display is also available:\n\n\nWhen \"Best Language\" is selected, the user preferred language will be displayed, if available, otherwise the system will use the first available language.\n\n\nShow all metadata\n\nWhen this option is selected, a new window appears showing all the metadata that have been typed in.\n\n\n\nTo modify metadata select this option. A window showing all metadata will then display.\n\n\nWithin the Content Packaging, the course metadata are grouped in different categories, as follows:\n\nAsset Metadata (assigned to the resources)\nSharable Content Object Metadata (assigned to the Learning Objects)\nContent Aggregation Metadata (assigned to the course)\n\n\nIn the dialog window, select the desired metadata field and insert the required value (these fields refer to IMS Metadata subject matter, grouped by categories such as General, Technical etc. ).\n\n\nOn the right hand side of each text field the following icons are visible: metadata\n\n\"Other language's values\" icon metadata_show_other_languages_values_icon: to add values in different languages.\nmetadata_plus_iconand metadata_minus_iconicons: to either add or delete more instances of the same field. These icons are always available; when the maximum number of instances is reached for one element, a warning message is displayed.\n\n\nIMS standardised more than 100 hierarchical fields. Some of these fields are free to edit such as \"Title\", some others may be limited by standard predefined vocabularies, such as \"Format\".\n\n\nMake all the requested amendments and press \"Save\" to save them. To close this window without saving, press \"Cancel\".\n\n\nDifferent types of Metadata are also available:\n\nText fields\nVocabulary Lists and Trees\nTechnical Requirements\n\n\n\nBy selecting this option, the system will check all the metadata present in the selected content and in the window that appears it is possible to view whether some data is missing or it contains not conforming values:\n\n\nBy clicking on metadata_non_conformances it is possible to view the non conformances details:\n\n\n\nIn case some values are missing from a complex metadata field (such as the date in the author and date field) or if the metadata values are not displayed in one or more languages required by the profile, by selecting the \"Edit\" link at the bottom of the window, it is possible to add them. In case of some not conforming metedata (for example, if the instance contains some fields which are not required by the profile or if a filed contains a value which does not belong to the vocabulary required by the field), by selecting the \"Trim\" link, it is possible to eliminate them.\n\n\nOnce all the requested amendments have been made, by selecting \"Check\" a window similar to the following will display:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5536682605743408}
+{"content": "resistance training\n\nCompares the acute physiological responses within and between resistance training (RT) and high intensity interval training (HIIT) matched for time and with comparable effort.\nStruggle at the top of regular or weighted pull ups? This movement will force you to become more explosive.\nHinge training often requires equipment but these four exercises do the job without all the stuff.\nA recent study weighs the differences and benefits of Strongman training and traditional resistance training.\nThis is how to keep moving for decades to come, not get type 2 diabetes, and not die of pneumonia after falling and breaking a hip at 85.\nReps, sets, and percentages can guide your training goals, but they're not always accurate. Here's another option.\nFor females athletes, well-planned training is key to the best hormonal balance and response.\nBelieve it or not, lesser loads have the potential to recruit a larger number of muscle fibers compared to a 1RM.\nA new study asks whether strongman training is a good way to change up a program without losing any results.\nRunning on a treadmill before lifting weights correlated with a higher response from anabolic hormones.\nA new study investigated some of the more mysterious details of muscle recruitment.\nIf you're looking for a high-quality product to use for travel and on-the-go workouts, this kit is a great starting point.\nA recent study asks whether band resistance can improve your back squat 1RM.\nUse all tools available to get stronger. But understand the devices you train with cannot be compared with each other.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8064989447593689}
+{"content": "Pachycephalosaurus was a herbivore. It lived in the Cretaceous period and inhabited North America. Its fossils have been found in places such as Nebraska, South Dakota and Alberta (Canada).\n\nPachycephalosaurus is a bipedal ornithischian, most recognizable for the bowl-like crown that tops its ultra-thick skull. They were around 15 feet long from head to tail, and stood about 4 feet high at the shoulder. They were active in North America during the late Cretaceous Period, in what is now the upper midwest United States.\n\nIt was once thought that Pachycephalosaurus would ram each other head on with their skull plates as they competed for mates and territory. Further research showed that this would have been highly destructive and that their physiology didn’t adequately protect them from this kind of behavior. Although it is still thought that they used their thick skulls as a weapon, it is now believed that they most likely attacked to the side, rather than ramming targets head-on.\n\nAll the Pachycephalosaurus illustrations below were collected from the internet. Enjoy and explore:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9731996655464172}
+{"content": "Go to Knowledge4Africa.com\n\nWilliam Shakespeare\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 1:\nEasier questions to cut your teeth on!\n\nKeith Tankard\nUpdated: 23 January 2014\nContact the English4Africa Subject Coordinator\n\n\n\nIt is after midnight. Banquo unexpectedly meets Macbeth and gives his host rich presents from the king.\n\nHe and Macbeth briefly discuss the witches' prophecies -- but it is now clear that there is little trust between the two men.\n\nMacbeth, left alone, has a series of sudden ghostly visions of bloody daggers pointing the way to Duncan's chamber.\n\n\nMurder is never an easy thing, even for a battle-hardened man like Macbeth. When someone is superstitious, however, it is even more difficult.\n\nThe ancient peoples believed there was a direct link between nature and the goodness of one's actions. This was especially so when it came to authorities who enjoyed God's favour -- people such as kings.\n\nEven before Macbeth went to Duncan's bedchamber to murder the king, nature was described as darkening over.\n\nThen Macbeth saw visions. A ghostly dagger appeared, apparently leading the way. In another vision, the dagger was covered in blood.\n\nAnd then the noises began: the howling of wolves, owls screeching, sounds on the stairs. Even Lady Macbeth appeared disturbed -- although she maintained an heroic front.\n\nMacbeth shrank before the tumult. He fled the murder scene, taking the daggers with him and refusing to return. Lady Macbeth was therefore left to do the mopping up after the murder.\n\nWe see too the first signs of regret. Macbeth wished that his actions could be undone -- and he wondered whether his hands would ever again be clean.\n\nThis latter wish would also affect Lady Macbeth. Towards the end of the play, we find her sleepwalking and attempting to wash her own hands clean of Duncan's blood.\n\nHave you looked at the questions\nin the right column?\nRead the left column and then answer\nthe following questions:\n\n\"And she goes down at twelve.\"\n  • To what is Banquo referring? (2)\n\n[Need help?]\n\n\"There's husbandry in heaven.\"\n  • What does Banquo mean? (3)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nOnce more in this scene we are shown how much Duncan favours Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.\n  • Explain how this is so. (4)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nBanquo mentions dreaming of the witches. Macbeth, however, denies ever thinking of them.\n  • Why does he do so? (4)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nWhy does Macbeth have visions of ghostly daggers? (5)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nWhat words tell you that the ghostly daggers are visions, and not the real thing? (5)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nApart from the visions of the daggers, what other things does Macbeth mention which refer to the supernatural? (3)\n\n[Need help?]\n\nTry another worksheet?\n\nSee also:\n\nContact the English4Africa Subject Coordinator", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5394518375396729}
+{"content": "Answers to: Installing formspider on oracle database express edition 11.2<p>Hi formspider team,</p> <p>I was trying to install formspider on Oracle database express edition and I am getting the following success message in the installion log almost at the end. I am installing it on ubuntu 64 bit:</p> <pre><code>20:59:29 INFO - Recompiling FORMSPIDER181 20:59:39 INFO - Recompile completed 20:59:39 INFO - IDE Server is succesfully installed 20:59:39 INFO - ---------------------------------- 20:59:39 INFO - Tomcat Version: Apache Tomcat/6.0.29 20:59:39 INFO - Started deploying formspider 20:59:39 INFO - Started building deployment file in temp directory 20:59:40 INFO - Extracting Formspider Middletier application 20:59:40 INFO - Configuring context file 20:59:40 INFO - Engine resource name is formspider_ds 20:59:41 INFO - Initializing war task 20:59:41 INFO - War destination is \"/tmp/Formspider3476646990748504945tmp/formspider.war\" 20:59:44 INFO - Deployment file is succesfully built. 20:59:44 INFO - Initializing deploy task 20:59:44 INFO - Tomcat manager URL is \"http://localhost:8081/manager\" 20:59:44 INFO - Deployment path is \"/formspider\" 20:59:44 INFO - War path is \"/tmp/Formspider3476646990748504945tmp/formspider.war\" 20:59:46 INFO - formspider is succesfully deployed </code></pre> <p>However, when I import srdemo and run it I get the following error:</p> <pre><code>ORA-01435: user does not exist ORA-06550: line 2, column 3: PLS-00201: identifier 'SRDEMO.BDF_SCRIPTEXECUTER' must be declared ORA-06550: line 2, column 3: PL/SQL: Statement ignored </code></pre> <p>On further checking the installation log I found the following error:</p> <p>20:52:40 INFO - /tmp/Formspider3476646990748504945tmp/engine_db/view.sql 20:52:45 INFO - Schema FORMSPIDER181 has 92 invalid objects: </p> <p>and again :</p> <pre><code>20:55:09 INFO - Checking errors 20:55:09 INFO - Checking errors completed 20:55:09 INFO - Started registring XSD 20:55:41 WARN - Can not complete registring XSD: ORA-31084: error while creating table \"FORMSPIDER181\".\"root1351_TAB\" for element \"root\" ORA-02320: failure in creating storage table for nested table column \"XMLDATA\".\"panel\".\"xyLayout\".\"cell\" ORA-01792: maximum number of columns in a table or view is 1000 ORA-06512: at \"XDB.DBMS_XMLSCHEMA_INT\", line 72 ORA-06512: at \"XDB.DBMS_XMLSCHEMA\", line 33 ORA-06512: at line 1 oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIoer.processError( oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIoer.processError( oracle.jdbc.driver.T4C8Oall.processError( oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIfun.receive( oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIfun.doRPC( oracle.jdbc.driver.T4C8Oall.doOALL( </code></pre> <p>Please let me know how can I solve this. I would like to test formspider on Oracle xe.</p> <p>With regards.</p> <p>George</p>enMon, 29 Dec 2014 09:58:51 -0500Answer by Ibrahim Sandalli<p>Hi George,</p> <p>The XSD registration issue is a problem which can be ignored. If there is not an invalid object in your Formspider schema, you should be able to use Formspider despite this problem. </p> <p>The problem seems to be related with your SRDEMO installation. Please drop the entire SRDEMO schema and retry to create it using the scripts.</p> <p>If the problem continues, we will investigate it further.</p> <p>Best Regards,<br> Ibrahim</p>Ibrahim SandalliMon, 29 Dec 2014 09:58:51 -0500", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8830159902572632}
+{"content": "Ecology/taphonomy data entry tip sheet\n\nDrafted by the Taphonomy/Paleoecology Working Group, September 24, 2001\n\nRevised September 22, 2003\n\nAuthors: Behrensmeyer, Fürsich, Gastaldo, Kidwell, Kosnik, Kowalewski, Plotnick, Rogers\n\nSkeletal composition 1 and 2\nThese values refer to the ORIGINAL composition of the skeleton, not the preserved composition. For the latter, see \"Replacement Minerals\" on the Main Collections Form. The first entry should be the dominant composition, the second is reserved for secondary components, e.g., sponges that have siliceous and CaCO3 skeletal elements. Quotes indicate a value that should be used only if a more specific value cannot be determined. \"Entirely soft tissue\" refers to organisms such as jellyfish and flatworms. The calcite categories are divided this way:\n\nAdult size\nCheck entire body if the size estimate pertains to the entire body instead of a part. Otherwise, enter the standardized name of the body part whose size is being described (e.g., \"calyx\"; \"M1\"; \"leaf\"). Provide size information using the millimeter categories in the pull-down menus for length, width, height, area, or volume. For example, for volume, an organism that is .03 mm on a side would be in the smallest category and a whale 30 m x 5m x 5m would be in the >10^8 to < 10^9 category. Applies to measures of whole body size, e.g., maximum axial length or other maximum dimension, maximum area of plan view projection, volume calculated as length x width x height.\n\nLeaf size categories translate as follows (based on placements of geometric means):\n\n Leaf category Minimum area PBDB area category\n  Leptophyll < 25 mm^2 1.0 to < 10 mm^2\n  Nanophyll > 25 mm^2 10 to < 100 mm^2\n  Microphyll > 225 mm^2 100 to < 1000 mm^2\n  Notophyll > 2025 mm^2 1000 to < 10^4 mm^2\n  Mesophyll > 4500 mm^2 1000 to < 10^4 mm^2\n  Macrophyll > 18225 mm^2 10^4 to < 10^5 mm^2\n  Megaphyll > 164025 mm^2 10^5 to < 10^6 mm^2\n\n*Relative thickness\nThick versus intermediate versus thin. Refer to visual images to judge this character. Thick shells have a high ratio of overall (average) thickness relative to body size, thin shells have a low ratio of thickness relative to body size.\n\n*Internal skeletal architecture\nThis only applies to original architecture of biomineralized tissues. We regard brachiopod shells with punctae as porous. Bivalve and gastropod shells generally have compact skeletal tissue (watch for exceptions such as pycnodont oysters that display porous shell structure).\n\n*3-D form\nOverall shape of the taphonomically relevant major part (could be the whole organism). For bivalves, consider the shape of single valves, for brachiopods, use shape of both valves together. This is justified on the basis of which components of the organisms are typically subjected to the majority of taphonomic processes. The categories can be defined geometrically in terms of maximum length (X), width (Y), and height, which can be about the same (~), unequal (>), or very unequal (>>). Geometrical definitions are given in brackets. (Note that the following terms were formulated for use in Project 1 of the Taphonomy Working Group and may not be readily applicable to organisms other than bivalves, gastropods, and brachiopods.)\n\n*Skeletal reinforcement\nThis is meant to apply to features of shells but could also pertain to leaves, scutes, carapaces. If shell is smooth and lacks skeletal reinforcements, check this box \"smooth\" and ignore pull-down menus for skeletal reinforcement features. Options for each pull-down menu are major, minor, absent. Major features are comparable to or greater than the thickness of the shell and should cover a notable portion of the shell. Minor features are less than the shell thickness and cover small areas of the shells. (Note that the following terms were formulated for use in Project 1 of the Taphonomy Working Group and may not be readily applicable to organisms other than bivalves, gastropods, and brachiopods.)\n\nAdult polymorphism/dimorphism?\nApplies to distinctive dimorphs or polymorphs that reflect sexual dimorphism or other morphological variation in adults due to possible causes such as population density, temperature, nutrient supply, and other external environmental factors. This does not relate to normal phenotypic variation in a population.\n\nThe different ways that organisms can grow into adults. Accretion applies to body types that grow incrementally, as in bivalves and solitary corals. Both molting and addition of parts applies to arthropods. Plants grow both by accretion and by addition of parts. Modification of parts and accretion applies to vertebrates. Includes astogeny of colonial organisms, and for these check \"addition of parts\" in addition to any other appropriate boxes.\n\nSocial grouping\nDesignates the dominant type of social organization among individuals in a population. Colonial organisms are physically attached to each other in a structural framework, e.g., bryozoans, corals. Social insects and oyster banks should be classified as gregarious rather than colonial.\n\nEnter yes if individuals can develop from pre-existing individuals without sexual reproduction. All prokaryotes, some aphids, some beetles, and some plants are clonal; some corals and bryozoans can produce clones.\n\nGeneral environment\nCharacterizes the overall life habitat of adult individuals of the taxon.\n\nCharacterizes the dominant locomotory capabilities of adults. Stationary refers to fixed in place without capability of changing location (relation to substrate), e.g., vascular plants, corals, bryozoa, barnacles, oysters. Facultatively mobile organisms can change location but do so infrequently, e.g., crinoids, some infaunal bivalves. Floating organisms and epibionts on living mobile organisms are passively mobile. Organisms that move habitually, of their own volition, are actively mobile.\n\nIs the adult organism attached to a substrate?\n\nIs the organism an epibiont? Any organism that is attached to another organism during part of its life cycle is an epibiont.\n\nLife habit\nDescriptors for specific mode of animal life in relation to substrate and plant physiognomy. Upper blocks of terms refers to aquatic animals, second block to terrestrial vertebrates, and third block to plants.\n\nDiet/feeding mode\nThe primary biological or physical source of energy for an organism. Not meant to include all active feeding strategies.\n\n\n\nCloning or budding.\n\nYoung retained internally after birth.\n\nDispersal (gametes)\nWhat carries the gametes? This does NOT include clones. \"Animal\" includes pollen vectors.\n\nDispersal (larvae/seeds/juveniles)\nWhat disperses the offspring? Does not include clones.\n\n*Note: These fields apply in particular to a project to assess taphonomic durability through the Phanerozoic for bivalves, gastropods, and brachiopods but may be used for other taxonomic groups where appropriate.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8161734342575073}
+{"content": "Europe Ablaze + PDF\n\nEurope Ablaze + PDF\n\nCurrently Unavailable\n\nYou save 25 %\n\nOn 16th July, 1940, Winston Churchill told the newly appointed head of the Special Operations Executive, to “set Europe ablaze”. With this simple instruction Churchill set in motion some of the most dangerous and brilliant actions of the Second World War. The men and women of SOE performed acts of sabotage, subversion and espionage so extraordinary that if they were portrayed as fiction, they would beggar belief. These agents pushed bravery and human endurance past limits that most of us can only imagine.\n\nEurope Ablaze presents six missions demanding such resourcefulness and determination, all set in the European theatre of operations. Some are inspired by SOE missions or historical events, while others take a more imaginative view of the conflict, but all are rooted in the all-too-real horrors that the Second World War brought about. All of them add that special twist that being part of N’s network demands, and the dangers of the Mythos will prove at least as deadly as a bullet from the Gestapo.\n\nBrowse this category: World War Cthulhu", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7931467294692993}
+{"content": "Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of employees in organizations\n\nIf they do, their daily work will motivate your employees their direct-reports to be their best. Intrinsic reward is the form of motivation an employee has within himself that comes from a passion or interest in doing a job well done.\n\nInternal motivation comes from within a person, not something imposed from outside: Do they set a high standard?\n\nExtrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards – Impact on Individual and Organization Performance\n\nOn the other hand, others may not satisfy with their jobs and organization as they are disallowed to develop their own skills.\n\nSome individuals look for challenging goals whereas others look for moderate or low goals. He even preferred candidates who had held multiple jobs, especially people who had held at least one technical job, such as working as a highway engineering helper in the summer.\n\nThey will be more motivated by pay than any other type of reward. For example, the employees in an organization have reached the esteem stage of development and possibly the self-actualization phase through the impact of intrinsic rewards.\n\nAn unmotivated team is an unproductive team. Types of Extrinsic Rewards Pay: A friend in a major engineering firm always looked for college grads who had average grades but had worked their way through school, with little financial help from others.\n\nManage people based on things you can control extrinsic motivations but plan to get some of those external motivations internalized made intrinsic very quickly.\n\nAt the same time, the organization increases its profit because of the increase in employee job satisfaction. Your comments are welcomed. Apart from that, intrinsic rewards enable the employees to have greater concentration and keep them in energizing and self-managing.\n\nAlthough the goals of organizations might achieved perfectly, but the feelings or satisfaction of employees would be decreasing due to uncomfortable with the jobs. This situation will lead the extrinsic rewards become less effective in the organizations if they do not manage the rewards systems carefully.\n\nWhat Works Best for Your Team? Hire people based on intrinsic characteristics, to the degree you can uncover them. Ryan and Edward L. For example, someone who writes music for his own listening pleasure is relying on intrinsic motivation. Root III began writing professionally in The freedom to do what the employee considers best in a particular situation may gives a feeling of autonomy in employees themselves.\n\nIn other words, they have ownership in their jobs.This type of motivation arises from outside the individual, as opposed to intrinsic motivation, which originates inside the individual. Extrinsic motivation causes a person to do (or not do) something because it fulfills some externally-originating need or meets some other party’s objective or requirement.\n\nIt is very important for a manager to aware the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards because both of them are intent to increase motivation of employees. Types of Extrinsic Rewards Pay: The organizations normally raise the wages of the employees to reward their contributions to the company.\n\nExamples of Intrinsic Workplace Motivation\n\ncal shifts in management approaches to motivation in information organizations. Our intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, employee engagement, organiza-tional culture, library and information science, library managers between the two theories and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation at the workplace.\n\nMotivation is the methodology that leads to a win-win situation between the organization and the employees.(Megan, Rowe () Objectives: Define and Describe the motivation and its processes.\n\nHighlight the importance of the motivation in the workplace. Define the intrinsic Vs. Extrinsic motivators. The intrinsic motivation of added responsibility can be a strong inspiration for your more talented employees to become managers or team leaders.\n\nResponsibility brings the opportunity to be part of the management team that shapes the company's future and the ability to be remembered as a leader within the organization. The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) is an item measure of work motivation theoretically grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, ).\n\nThe purpose of the present research was twofold.\n\nFinding the right Mix: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation\n\nFirst, the applicability of the WEIMS in different work environments was evaluated.\n\nExtrinsic and intrinsic motivation of employees in organizations\nRated 5/5 based on 41 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9366855621337891}
+{"content": "Pierre Jeanneret\n\nPierre Jeanneret , born 2 March 1896 and died 4 December 1967, was a Swiss architect and furniture designer from Geneva. In 1922 he began working with his cousin Charles Edouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier) with whom he shared research projects and design criteria in a profound and life-long professional relationship. In 1926 they published their manifesto “Five Points Towards a New Architecture” which served as the backbone for their architectural aesthetic. Quickly here after they build The Villa Savoye that serves as a representation for their outlined ideology. And in October 1927, the pair decided to draw on the contribution of a young architect who had already begun to establish a reputation on the architectural scene of the time: Charlotte Perriand.\n\nTheir working relationship ended when Pierre joined the French Resistance and Le Corbusier did not. However, they collaborated once again and famously after the War, designing and producing low cost buildings for the community of Chandigarh in India. Le Corbusier left the project mid-way and Jeanneret became the Chief Architect and Urban Planning Designer.\n\nHe stayed in Chandigarh for fifteen years and the city evolved into a landmark of modern architecture.Pierre Jeanneret stayed on in Chandigarh after its construction, advising the local government in his appointed capacity as Chief Architect of the city.\n\nOn his death, in accordance with his will, Pierre Jeanneret’s ashes were scattered in Chandigarh’s central lake.\n\n“L’architecture Corbu à Chandigarh ne serait peut-etre pas sans Pierre”\n\n-Le Corbusier-", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998175501823425}
+{"content": "Living Data\n\nWARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned\nthat this program contains images and voices of deceased persons.\n\nLiving Data\n\nThe Big Picture:\n\nHuman Dependence on Nature\n\n\nEnergy is life, or at least the prerequisite for life. We depend on Nature for the energy that powers the crops in our fields, the animals in our farms and the pets in our homes. We depend on it even for the energy that powers our own bodies. All the fossil fuels that power our civilization are carbon compounds trapped by photosynthesis in past ecosystems and preserved (fossilized) as fossil fuels millions of years ago. The petrol and diesel that power our cars and the coal that is burnt to make electricity makes use of an energy preserved from hundreds of millions of years ago, where the energy-rich long chain organic compounds created by photosynthesis survive in a condensed and fossilized form today as oil and coal. Our planet is bathed in a life-giving stream of energy flowing from the Sun. Through the wonder of photosynthesis, plants trap 1-2 per cent of the sunlight that falls on them (Hall and Rao 1999). This powers almost all of Earth's ecosystems, the only exceptions being bacteria known as chemo-autotrophs that derive their energy from converting energy-rich chemicals in rocks (such as sulphur). So the Egyptians had it right - the Sun is the font of life. Its light drives almost all the living world.\n\nHaydn Washington, Human Dependence on Nature (2012) p.5", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9981883764266968}
+{"content": "\"Kee\" Points with Jim Kee, Ph.D.\n\n  • Iran and Markets\n  • Trade and Markets \n\nIran and Markets\n\nBecause of recent intelligence reports of possible Iranian attacks on US targets in the Middle East, the US deployed warships to the area. This was followed by reassuring or conciliatory words from President Trump, i.e., “I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon,” followed by Sunday’s antagonistic tweet, “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran” (WSJ). Trump has since toned that rhetoric down, but it is reasonable for our clients to ask, “What are the implications of turmoil in the Middle East for the stock market?” This has actually come up quite often over the past ten years, and I have frequently used a chart by data provider Crandall, Pierce, & Co., to answer the question. Titled, “After the Crisis,” the chart looks at various geopolitical shocks over the past 70 years, like the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, and the fall of Saigon. The takeaway is that in bull markets, crises tend to run their course and the market continues to advance. On average, the market declines for 8 days following a big event, loses about 4.3%, and then returns to pre-crisis levels in about a month. Looking just at the current bull market, Bloomberg columnist Barry Ritholtz pointed out in a recent column that we’ve had 24 declines of 5% or more since 2009, and “they all seemed like the end of the world” (Bloomberg). Examples include events like the Greek debt default concerns, the Libyan civil war, the Japanese nuclear disaster, and China’s growth rate falling by half. The average of these twenty-four declines has been 9.7%, and yet like the Crandall-Pierce data, the takeaway is the same: try not to react to market volatility.\n\n\nTrade and Markets\n\nSo I think the market’s main focus and source of angst continues to be trade issues. One of my old Auburn professors, James Barth, pointed out in a recent piece that the sum of all countries’ exports and imports divided by global GDP tends to be a common way to measure the degree of globalization. In 1960 that number was 24 percent, while today it is 56 percent, so the world is over twice as globally integrated as it was 50 years ago. In fact, the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., argues that it is even greater than this because overall trade flows are understated by at least 20 percent. McKinsey states that, “Intangible assets that multinational companies send to their affiliates around the world – including software, banking, design, operational processes, and other intellectual property, represent tremendous value, but they often go unpriced and untracked unless captured as intellectual property charges.” They add that trade statistics fail to track the “soaring cross-board flows of free (but valuable) digital services, including email, real-time mapping, video conferencing, and social media.” And they point out that the composition of trade is changing from goods to more intangible services, which have much higher profit margins and account for a higher percentage of value added for goods traded globally. I think all of these developments help explain why the market is so sensitive to trade issues.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7086508274078369}
+{"content": "Motivation – the Train that Never Arrives\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWORDS: Chronophobia (or Memento Mori)\n\n\nI was watching an episode of Jonathon Creek the other night called Time Waits for Norman. The mystery revolved around a character who was described as “temporophobic.” This was defined as a person who is “terrified of the relentless passage of time.”\n\nAn internet search turned up another term “Chronophobia,” but a dictionary search on either word proved fruitless. Apparently, it’s an old term for a specific type of phobia that now is classified along with other phobias into general classes of disorders.  See the Free Medical Dictionary entry for Chronophobia.\n\nThere is a Wikipedia entry for  Chronophobia  which has some interesting links that might be worth investigating for writers.  There are a number of citations about the condition affecting the elderly and prisoners.\n\nI recently read Memento Mori, by Muriel Spark, in which a group of elderly friends receive mysterious phone calls with the message: “Remember you must die.” How each character reacts to these calls makes an interesting tale.\n\nAren’t we all just a little afraid of time passing and with it our mortality? Isn’t that what the middle-age crisis is about? And what about the elderly? How often do we think that time is running out? How do we deal with it?\n\nSo, while I think that a morbid fear of the passage of time may be unusual, we are all  affected by Chronophobia. Worth pondering and writing about, don’t you think?  😉\n\nFor more WORDS for Writers, click HERE", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9208747148513794}
+{"content": "The Vision of the American Teacher Initiative\n\nThe goal of the American Teacher Initiative is to create a renewed focus in our classrooms on the principles of self-government and the virtues required for a free society while developing future education leaders and advocates.\n\nHow we put our vision into action\n\nAt the American Teacher Initiative, we recruit, train, place and mentor principled, caring, and capable individuals in classrooms where they will provide quality academic instruction and encourage students to be insightful, responsible, and virtuous citizens necessary for a free society. In their second year, ATI teachers will have the opportunity to participate in leadership programs to prepare to take on greater responsibilities at their schools.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8112397789955139}
+{"content": "Stay hydrated, and feel better \n\nLiquids and food provide us with the hydration that our body needs, although not in equal amounts. According to experts, we should drink without waiting to get thirsty first. The amount of fluids we should take depends on our age, gender and the physical activity we do.\n\nhealth and beauty\n\n8 August 2016\n\n\nAlthough still considered as food’s little sister, drinking enough water has become a fundamental factor in nutrition and general health. In addition, it becomes key when the weather is at its hottest.\n\nTherefore, just as it is necessary to follow a healthy diet, an adequate intake of fluids, consistently and regularly throughout the day, is key to the proper functioning of the body. It is essential and contributes to greater physical performance and to the ideal maintenance of our cognitive functions.\n\n\nThe recommended daily intake of fluids is 2 litres for adult women and 2.5 litres for men, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). For children, the recommendations vary according to their age: whereas between 4 and the 8 years of age, the ideal consumption of liquids is 1.6 litres a day, between 9 and 13, boys should drink 1.9 litres every day and girls 2.1 litres per day, according to the EFSA.\n\nBut... why is it so important to drink liquids continuously? Water is an essential nutrient that we get through the food and drink we consume throughout the day, but unlike other nutrients, this liquid cannot be stored in the body. In fact, every day we lose between 2 and 2.5 litres of water, a figure that increases if, in addition, we perform some type of physical activity.\n\nAccording to the director of the VALORNUT Research Group and Professor of Nutrition at the Complutense University of Madrid, Professor Dr. Rosa María Ortega, \"it is recommended that 75-80% of the liquid we ingest each day comes from drinks and the remaining 20-25% from food \".\n\nThe recommended daily intake of fluids is 2 litres foradult women and 2.5 litres for men, according to the EFSA. In younger children,recommendations vary depending on their age.\n\n\nTo avoid becoming dehydrated, experts recommend drinking water or other fluids without waiting to feel thirsty first. Although this is a simple premise, the fact is that many Spaniards drink only when thirsty, which could mean that there is already a certain level of dehydration.\n\nEven so, people’s awareness of the importance of keeping adequately hydrated, especially in certain environmental conditions, is increasing. \"With a mild dehydration of only 2%, cognitive abilities such as short-term memory, attention and vision-motor coordination are already affected. At higher levels, there is a decrease in alertness and concentration, as well as increased tiredness, fatigue and drowsiness,” according to the president of the Foundation for Nutrition Research (FIN), president of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition (AEN) and professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Professor Dr. Lluìs Serra-Majem.\n\n\nKeeping ourselves sufficiently hydrated is important in our daily lives, but it takes on a special role if we are talking about pregnant or lactating women and the elderly.\n\nAccording to the EFSA, it is advisable for pregnant women to increase the amount of fluid they ingest, taking into account how much energy they expend. In addition, it is important to increase the intake of beverages during the lactation period by 700 ml/day compared to non-lactating women, which means drinking 2.7 litres of fluid each day.\n\nAs for the elderly, you have to keep in mind that the feeling of thirst decreases with age, so they usually consume less fluid, which can lead to dehydration. In this sense, it is recommended that this group drink more often and in smaller quantities to achieve adequate hydration.\n\n\nNowadays, with running becoming one of the healthiest trends, we also need to stress that people who engage in intense, prolonged physical activity should keep hydrated. And not only while doing exercise, but also before and after. In addition, if you participate in competitions or long-distance races, you should drink specific beverages that contain a suitable composition of carbohydrates and electrolytes to compensate for loss of fluids.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9931831955909729}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\n\n\nPhysiological characterization of secondary metabolite producing Penicillium cell factories\n\n\n\nPenicillium species are important producers of bioactive secondary metabolites. However, the immense diversity of the fungal kingdom is only scarcely represented in industrial bioprocesses and the upscaling of compound production remains a costly and labor intensive challenge. In order to facilitate the development of novel secondary metabolite producing processes, two routes are typically explored: optimization of the native producer or transferring the enzymatic pathway into a heterologous host. Recent genome sequencing of ten Penicillium species showed the vast amount of secondary metabolite gene clusters present in their genomes, and makes them accessible for rational strain improvement. In this study, we aimed to characterize the potential of these ten Penicillium species as native producing cell factories by testing their growth performance and secondary metabolite production in submerged cultivations.\n\n\nCultivation of the fungal species in controlled submerged bioreactors showed that the ten wild type Penicillium species had promising, highly reproducible growth characteristics in two different media. Analysis of the secondary metabolite production using liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry proved that the species produced a broad range of secondary metabolites, at different stages of the fermentations. Metabolite profiling for identification of the known compounds resulted in identification of 34 metabolites; which included several with bioactive properties such as antibacterial, antifungal and anti-cancer activities. Additionally, several novel species–metabolite relationships were found.\n\n\nThis study demonstrates that the fermentation characteristics and the highly reproducible performance in bioreactors of ten recently genome sequenced Penicillium species should be considered as very encouraging for the application of native hosts for production via submerged fermentation. The results are particularly promising for the potential development of the ten analysed Penicillium species for production of novel bioactive compounds via submerged fermentations.\n\n\nFilamentous fungi are important producers of secondary metabolites: low-molecular-weight compounds that often have bioactive properties. The genus Penicillium currently includes more than 354 accepted species [1] many of which are capable of producing a wide variety of secondary metabolites [2]. The most well-known secondary metabolite produced by Penicillium is the antibiotic penicillin, which was discovered by Fleming [3] and which is nowadays produced in large scale using P. rubens, following intense strain improvement programs aimed at increasing the titers. Other important pharmaceutical compounds produced by Penicillium species include the antifungal griseofulvin [4], the immunosuppressant mycophenolic acid [5] and the cholesterol lowering drug compactin/mevastatin [6,7,8]. These examples illustrate the great importance of Penicillium species as production hosts and sources of bioactive compounds with medical applications. On the other hand, Penicillium species can also produce mycotoxins such as citrinin, ochratoxin and patulin [2], which can pose a health risk to humans and animals.\n\nThe increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria was in 2016 named by the UN General Assembly to be amongst the greatest and most urgent global risk factor for the health of humans [9]. However, the discovery of novel antibiotics has stagnated since the 1970’s and only few novel classes of antibiotics have been discovered since then [10, 11]. This is most likely a consequence of the fact that drug development is time consuming and expensive, while market value and dominance for antibiotics is limited by the development of resistance. The broad metabolic diversity found within the fungal kingdom, however, continues to provide a rich source of novel drug leads, this coupled with advancements within process engineering and physiological characterization tools, provides a strong basis for exploiting the chemical and physiological diversity in fungi to establish novel fungal based bioprocesses which can meet the demands of modern society for novel antimicrobials and pharmaceuticals.\n\nTo facilitate the process from identification of a beneficial compound to the establishment of an industrially feasible bio-based production process, two major strategies can be followed; i.e. find and optimizing the best native producer or transfer the involved genes to an established heterologous host. The latter strategy is typically desirable if the native producer is not suitable for industrial fermentation processes or is genetically inaccessible. However, production of secondary metabolites in heterologous hosts is still in the developmental stage and expressing complex multistep pathways to commercially viable titers has proven highly challenging and typically requires substantial optimization [12]. The transfer of the given genetic trait in addition requires a thorough understanding of the given biosynthetic pathway and the involved genes. The other strategy, advancement of the native organism for the production of secondary metabolites, can be favourable as this eliminates the often tedious work of moving the biosynthetic pathway to a heterologous host. However, taming a uncharacterized filamentous fungus for industrial scale production is not trivial, as natural secondary metabolite yields are often low which combined with the complex interplay between physiology, physical environment and morphology often causes problems during fermentation such as nonhomogeneous mixing and nutrient limitation [13]. Therefore, in many instances, relatively unexploited fungi are not tested in submerged bioreactor cultivations, even though this would provide the necessary process performance data to evaluate whether to optimize the native producing organism or to transfer the pathway into a heterologous host.\n\nThe recent genome sequencing of ten Penicillium species [14, 15] has provided valuable novel insight into the rich diversity in secondary metabolite gene clusters present in these Penicillium species and has in addition, made the species amenable to rational strain improvement. In this study, we analyzed the potential of these ten recently genome sequenced Penicillium species as native producing cell factories. The species were cultivated in highly controlled bioreactors both in a defined medium that allowed for quantitative physiological evaluation and in a secondary metabolite inducing complex medium, to evaluate overall process performance, growth rates and reproducibility. Additionally, secondary metabolite profiles of the species during different time points in the fermentation were studied. To our knowledge, none of these species had been tested in a bioreactor before. This work demonstrates an implementation strategy for novel fungal cell factories based on highly controlled submerged bioreactors cultivations and quantification of key physiological parameters.\n\n\n\nThe species used in this study were P. coprophilum (IBT31321), P. nalgiovense (IBT 13039), P. polonicum (IBT 4502), P. antarcticum (IBT31811), P. vulpinum (IBT 29486), P. arizonense (IBT 12289), P. solitum (IBT 29525), P. decumbens (IBT11843), P. flavigenum (IBT 14082), and P. steckii (IBT 24891). All strains are available from the IBT culture collection (Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark).\n\nSubmerged bioreactor batch cultivations\n\nWith the aim of investigating the growth characteristics of ten potential secondary metabolite producing Penicillium species, submerged bioreactor cultivations were performed with each species in two different media in biological triplicates.\n\n\nCzapek yeast autolysate (CYA) medium was used for spore propagation, containing per liter of demineralized water: 30 g sucrose, 5 g yeast extract, 3 g NaNO3, 1 g K2HPO4, 0.5 g MgSO4·7H2O, 0.5 g KCl, 0.01 g FeSO4·7H2O, 20 g agar and 1 mL trace metal solution containing 0.1 g/L ZnSO4·7H2O and 0.05 g/L CuSO4·5H2O. The pH was adjusted to 6.2 with NaOH prior to autoclaving. All chemicals applied were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (Sigma-Aldrich).\n\nBatch cultivations were performed in CY medium (CM) and in a defined medium (DM) for Penicillium. The defined medium contained per liter of demineralized water: 15 g glucose, 3.5 g (NH4)2SO4, 0.5 g MgSO4·7H2O, 0.15 g Na2-EDTA, 0.04 g FeSO4·7H2O, 0.8 g KH2PO4, 5 mL trace solution containing 1 g/L CuSO4·5H2O, 4 g/L ZnSO4·7H2O, 4 g/L MnSO4·7H2O, 1 g/L CaCl2·H2O. The CY medium contained the same components as stated above for spore propagation without the agar and 15 g sucrose per liter. The medium was heat sterilized by autoclaving at 121 °C for 20 min. After media sterilization, a sucrose solution (for CM) or glucose solution (for DM), separately autoclaved at 121 °C, was added.\n\nPreparation of spore inoculum\n\nSpores were propagated on CYA plates for 7 days and harvested with approximately 5 mL of cold MiliQ water containing 0.9% NaCl and 0.01% Tween solution, followed by filtration through Miracloth (Merck Millipore), centrifuged at 5000 g and the spore pellet washed again with 10 mL MiliQ water. Spores were counted using a Bürker–Türk counting chamber, followed by inoculation of bioreactors to a final spore concentration of 1 × 109 spores/L.\n\n\nAll bioreactor batch cultivations were carried out in Sartorious 1 L bioreactors (Satorious Stedim Biotech) with a working volume of 0.9 L, equipped with 2 Rushton six-blade disc turbines. Throughout the cultivation the temperature was maintained at 25 °C and the pH was kept constant at 6.5 by automatic addition of 2 M NaOH or H2SO4. The bioreactors were sparged with sterile atmospheric air. For the first 1200 min, the airflow was linearly increased from 0.1 volume of air per volume of liquid per minute (vvm) to 0.9 vvm and the stirring rate from 100 to 600 rpm. After that, these parameters were kept constant. The off-gas concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide were measured with a Prima Pro Process Mass Spectrometer (Thermo-Fischer Scientific), calibrated monthly with gas mixtures containing 5% (v/v) CO2, 0.04% (v/v) ethanol and methanol, 1% (v/v) argon, 5% (v/v) and 15% (v/v) oxygen all with nitrogen as carrier gas. The pH electrode (Mettler Toledo) was calibrated according to manufacturer’s standard procedures.\n\nBiomass dry weight determination\n\nGrowth rates were determined based on biomass dry weight samples collected during the exponential growth phase. First a known amount of cell culture (typically around 3 mL) was filtered through pre-dried and weighted 0.45 µm polyether sulfone filters (Sartorius Stedim Biotech) which was then washed with demineralized water. The filter was folded to lock the biomass inside and dried in a microwave at 150 W for 20 min. The dry weight was measured after a cooling period of approximately 30 min in a desiccator.\n\nGlucose concentration determination\n\nFor quantification of the glucose concentration in the culture medium, fermentation broth was filtered through a Q-Max® Ca-Plus Filter (Frisenette ApS) with a pore size of 0.45 µm and stored at −20 °C until analysis. Separation and detection of the compounds was accomplished with a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system equipped with a Bio-Rad Aminex HPX-87H column (BioRad) coupled to a RI detector. Elution was performed isocratically with H2SO4 (5 mM) as the mobile phase with a flow velocity of 0.6 mL/min at 60 °C. Quantification was performed using a six-level external calibration curve.\n\nCalculations of physiological characteristics\n\nThe end of the lag phase was determined as the time point were the percentage of CO2 in the off gas was consecutively over 6%.\n\nMaximum specific growth rates were calculated via linear regression on a semi-logarithmic scale on at least three experimental biomass dry weight data points during the exponential phase and all R2 values were at least 0.96. Maximum CO2 production rates where determined similarly but with an R2 of at least 0.99. A custom script was developed in the statistical programming language R to determine the duration of the non-exponential growth phase for all cultivations, defined as the time difference between the end of the exponential fit to the CO2 exhaust, and the time point where the maximum overall CO2 production was reached. The code is available at:\n\nThe overall biomass yield on glucose was calculated as the ratio between the biomass gain and the glucose consumption in the growth phase.\n\nSecondary metabolite analysis\n\nWith the aim of identifying the secondary metabolite profiles in the fermentation broth of the ten Penicillium species grown in two different media, the filtered broth was extracted with ethyl acetate, analyzed with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry UHPLC–DAD–QTOFMS, and known compounds were identified using an in-house compound library.\n\n\nThe fermentation broth was filtered through a 0.45 µm cellulose acetate filter (Frisenette), for extraction of non-polar compounds 1.0 mL of ethyl acetate extraction solvent was added to 0.8 mL of filtrate. After ultra-sonification for 1 h and centrifugation for 1 min at 13,000g the organic (top) layer was transferred to a clean vial. For extraction of polar compounds 1.0 mL of acidic ethyl acetate (ethyl acetate + 0.5% formic acid) was added to the remaining filtrate. Following ultra-sonification and centrifugation the organic (top) layer was added to the extraction solution containing the extracted non-polar compounds. The combined solution was evaporated to dryness and re-dissolved in 125 µL HPLC grade methanol. After centrifugation for 5 min at 13,000g the supernatant was directly used for chemical analysis.\n\n\nSecondary metabolite analysis was achieved by UHPLC–DAD–QTOFMS on a maXis HD orthogonal acceleration quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics) equipped with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source and coupled to an Ultimate 3000 UHPLC system (Dionex, Thermo Scientific). Separation was achieved with a Kinetex 2.6 µm C18, 100 × 2.1 mm (Phenomenex) column maintained at 40 °C with a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. A linear gradient system composed of 20 mmol/L formic acid in water, and 20 mmol/L formic acid in acetonitrile was used, starting from 10% (v/v) acetonitrile and increased to 100% in 10 min, maintaining this rate for 3 min before returning to the starting conditions. The system was re-equilibrated before subsequent sample analysis. MS analysis was performed in ESI+ with a data acquisition rate of 10 scans per second at m/z 100–1000, switching between 0 and 20 eV fragmentation energy.\n\nIdentification of secondary metabolites\n\nIdentification of secondary metabolites was performed using aggressive dereplication of the full scan high resolution (HR) MS data, and pseudo MS/MS data from the 20 eV fragmentation trace, using a search list of compounds based on former taxonomic identification and a manual search of major peaks in the internal library. This library consists of 1500 compounds of which 95% are fungal secondary metabolites [16]. Compounds were confirmed by comparison of HRMS, UV/Vis and MS/HRMS to a reference standard. The number of peaks was counted by making a list of compounds (dereplicated and unknown ones) based on molecular features in the latest time sample in the fermentation, with an absolute area higher than 500,000 counts and intensity higher than 10,000 counts. Subsequently, the presence of these compounds was searched for in all the other samples. The total amount was determined by counting all compounds that were present in two or three of the triplicate samples, without using a threshold value.\n\n\n\nTen different recently genome sequenced wild type Penicillium species were cultivated in 1 L controlled bioreactors to evaluate their behaviour in submerged cultivations. The species were grown in both a defined medium for Penicillium (DM) and in the more industrially relevant medium Czapek Yeast Autolysate (CM). During the course of the fermentations the CO2 off gas was continuously measured, while biomass dry weight was sampled until CO2 off gas values started declining. Additionally, for DM the glucose concentration was determined at regular time intervals throughout the fermentations. All cultivations were conducted in biological triplicates to evaluate the reproducibility of the experiments. The work revealed that the ten tested Penicillium species displayed highly diverse growth characteristics and responded differently to the two tested nutritional regimes, as evident from the growth curves (Fig. 1).\n\nFig. 1\n\nFermentation profiles of ten Penicillium species cultivated in 1 L bioreactors in DM and CM. All fermentations were performed in biological triplicates. The CO2 exhaust values (%) are shown for all triplicate experiments separately as solid lines (right Y-axis), the dry weight (g/L) values are shown as a mean with standard deviations as black circles (left Y-axis) and for the defined medium the glucose concentrations are shown as mean with standard deviations as open circles (left Y-axis). Light orange shaded area shows the exponential phase and light grey shaded area shows the non-exponential phase. For P. polonicum one of the triplicate experiments showed a different growth curve, for this fermentation only the CO2 profile is shown. Triangles are the time points were samples for secondary metabolite analysis were taken. The third sample point in P. decumbens was at 120 h and falls therefore outside the figure. For P. steckii in DM the samples for secondary metabolite analysis were taken from a different experiment with similar growth characteristics\n\nThe initial lag phase, in which minimal changes in the CO2 levels were observed, lasted between 11 and 38 h on DM, while it was shorter for all species on CM lasting between 10 and 18 h, post inoculation (Table 1). In particular, P. flavigenum showed a short lag phase on both media where exponential growth was reached after 14 and 11 h for DM and CM, respectively. Penicillium vulpinum showed the longest lag phase in DM and CM of 38 and 18 h, respectively. Microscopic examination of culture broth from the ten species revealed that the lag phase was characterized by germination of spores followed by elongation of hyphae. After the lag phase, the exponential phase was initiated, where the growth rate reached its maximum. Here, the morphology of the ten species varied as a function of the species and media. In CM, all species initially grew as freely dispersed mycelium until the maximum CO2 off gas was reached, after which the formation of pellets typically started. In the DM, five of the ten species showed pellet formation relatively early in the fermentation; P. steckii and P. solitum showed the formation of small dense pellets, P. vulpinum and P. coprophilum showed a mixture of pellets and clumps, and P. flavigenum showed a mixture of small clumps and dispersed growth. The remaining species and all species in CM showed dispersed growth at least until the time of maximum CO2 off gas (Table 1).\n\nTable 1 Physiological characteristics of ten Penicillium species cultivated in 1 L bioreactors in DM and CM\n\nThe duration of the exponential phase proved to be correlated with the observed growth morphology, where the exponential growth transitioned into non-exponential growth at the same time as pellet or clump formation occurred. For seven of the ten species, the non-exponential growth phase was more than ten h in DM, while this was the case for four of ten species in the CM (Fig. 2). Only P. flavigenum and P. antarcticum showed exponential growth and dispersed morphology during the entire growth phase in both media (Fig. 2 and Additional file 1). In contrast, P. vulpinum showed dispersed growth and grew exponentially during the entire growth phase in CM, while in DM it had pelleted morphology and grew exponentially until 36 h, where after the CO2 off gas values were still increasing, but in a non-exponential manner, until after 110 h maximum values of exhausted CO2 off gas were reached.\n\nFig. 2\n\nLength of non-exponential growth phase of ten Penicillium species cultivated in 1 L bioreactors in DM and CM. Non-exponential growth phase was the time in hours between the end of exponential growth phase and the maximum CO2 off gas value. Bars show average and standard deviation if triplicate submerged fermentations. P. flavigenum in DM, P. polonicum in CM and P. solitum in CM showed exponential growth until the maximum CO2 off gas value\n\nMaximum specific growth rates (µmax ) were calculated based on dry weight values during the exponential growth phase. For several species in DM it proved impossible to determine accurate growth rates based on biomass dry weight due to insufficient samples during the short exponential phase. As an alternative method for the growth rate, the rates of CO2 production were determined, as this is directly proportional to the amount of metabolically active biomass present, assuming that the yield and specific growth rate remain constant [17]. The species showed growth rates between 0.19 and 0.24 h−1 in DM and between 0.2 and 0.35 h−1 in CM (Fig. 3). The biomass yields on glucose during the growth phase (Ysx) varied highly among species; between 0.25 g DW/g glucose for P. polonicum to 0.67 g DW/g glucose for P. arizonense. The species with the lowest Ysx values, P. polonicum, P. steckii, P. solitum and P. coprophilum (all under 0.4 g DW/g glucose) all showed pellet formation and/or wall growth, while species with high yields, P. nalgiovense and P. arizonense (0.6 and 0.67 g DW/g glucose), showed dispersed growth.\n\nFig. 3\n\nMaximum specific growth rates and maximum CO2 production rates for ten Penicillium species cultivated in 1 L bioreactors in DM and CM. Dark grey bars: maximum specific growth rates µmax (h−1) and standard deviations calculated by linear regression of minimum three biomass dry weight data points during the exponential phase. For P. vulpinum, P. polonicum, P. steckii, and P. solitum in DM there were less than three dry weight samples during exponential phase and therefore µmax could not be calculated. Light grey bars: maximum production rate of CO2 (h−1) and standard deviations calculated by linear regression of accumulated CO2 values during exponential growth. All values are based on independent triplicate fermentations, except for the ones with an asterix; there the values are based on duplicate fermentations\n\nSecondary metabolite analysis\n\nSamples taken during different stages of the submerged cultivations were filtered, extracted, and analyzed for the presence of secondary metabolites in the fermentation medium using reverse phase UHPLC coupled to time-of-flight (QTOF) MS. Analysis of the biological triplicate experiments for each of the tested species in either of the two media were found to be highly reproducible based on the occurrence of base peak chromatogram (BPC) peaks with the same retention times and comparable peak areas in the normalized chromatograms (examples given in Fig. 4).\n\nFig. 4\n\nBase peak chromatograms (BPCs) of extracted samples of biological triplicates of P. nalgiovense and P. vulpinum fermentations in CM and DM. The BPCs of the triplicates are shown in red, dark orange and light orange. BPCs show peaks with the similar retention times and comparable peak areas. Peak with asterisk showed a slight change of retention times but have the same molecular features\n\nTo allow for identification of the individual compounds found in the samples, the effluent from the UHPLC column was directly analysed by the attached QTOFMS which allowed for the recording of accurate mass. For each sample taken at the end of the cultivation the amount of molecular features (equivalent with the number of different compounds) above an area threshold of 500,000 and an intensity of 10,000 counts in the UHPLC–QTOFMS data was determined. The ten different species each displayed a unique metabolic profile in the two tested media (Table 2 and Additional file 2). A minimum of two compounds was observed in P. flavigenum cultivated in DM, and a maximum of 34 compounds in P. steckii cultivated in CM (last column in Table 2). In eight out of the ten species a greater number of compounds were detected in the cultivations conducted in CM compared to DM; exceptions were P. polonicum, where cultivation in DM showed a greater number of peaks than in CM, and P. solitum, where the number of compounds was equal in DM and CM.\n\nTable 2 Metabolites produced in different growth phases of ten Penicillium species\n\nAdditionally, metabolite profiling was performed to identify the known compounds produced during the fermentations. In total 34 different metabolites were identified, from which most of them could be confirmed by comparison of HRMS, UV/Vis and MS/HRMS to a reference standard. Most compounds were unique to one of the ten species, with the exception of chrysogine identified in three species (P. nalgiovense, P. flavigenum and P. antarcticum), fungisporin in three species (P. coprophilum, P. nalgiovense and P. flavigenum) and andrastin A in two species (P. vulpinum and P. decumbens), while andrastin C was only identified in P. decumbens. Additionally, the roquefortine pathway was identified in three species (P. coprophilum, P. vulpinum and P. flavigenum), where depending on the media and species, different intermediates and end products of this pathway could be identified; in P. flavigenum only meleagrin and precursors were identified while both in P. coprophilum and P. vulpinum the end product of the pathway, oxaline was identified. Three species–metabolite relationships have, to our knowledge, not been described in literature before: P. vulpinum and P. decumbens producing andrastin A and P. flavigenum producing chrysogine.\n\nTo identify in which stages of the fermentation the various metabolites were produced, we examined the individual metabolite production profiles covering the three analyzed stages of the fermentation, one during the growth phase, one a few hours after the CO2 values started decreasing and one in the stationary phase (depicted as triangles in Fig. 1 and exact values in Additional file 2). This analysis revealed production of specific metabolites was associated with specific growth phases of the cultivations. For example for P. coprophilum in DM, the metabolites from the roquefortine/oxaline pathway were already present in the first sample, while griseofulvin and dechlorogriseofulvin could only be detected in the last sample. Another example of this stage depending production was P. steckii grown in CM where the vast majority of the metabolites were identified at the second sample point, while trichodermamide C was only first observed at the third sample point. Many of the metabolites in P. steckii were identified as belonging to the family of hynapenes and arohynapenes (based on UV and accurate mass) but because of a lack of reference standards could not be assigned to specific peaks and are therefore not shown in Table 2. In some cases, metabolites were produced only in CM or DM; penicillic acid was only produced in P. polonicum in CM, calbistrin A was only detected in P. decumbens in CM, and atlantinone A was only detected in P. solitum in DM. This was also seen for unidentified metabolites (Additional file 2). In 17 out of the 20 cultivations the metabolite levels in the third sample were higher than in the second sample, showing that part of the metabolites started to be produced only after the growth phase.\n\n\nThe fungal kingdom contains a huge reservoir of bioactive secondary metabolites; however, the development from discovery of a relevant metabolite to application remains a challenge. The recent genome sequencing of ten secondary metabolite rich Penicillium species facilitates exploitation of their genome sequences and/or their use as native producing cell factories. The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of these ten Penicillia as novel cell factories for native compounds by testing their growth performance and secondary metabolite production in submerged cultivations.\n\nCultivation of the fungal species in controlled submerged bioreactors proved that the ten wild type Penicillium species all could be cultivated using the same conditions. The cultivations proved to be highly reproducible, both in defined medium (DM) and rich medium (CM). In 18 out of the 20 cultivations, replicate values for CO2 off gas and biomass dry weight concentrations were reproducible with maximum CO2 production rates having standard deviations between 1 and 27%. The cultivations performed in CM showed dispersed growth until the maximum CO2 off gas was reached, while five out of the ten species cultivated in DM showed clump/pelleted growth. The fungal morphology can have an enormous impact on the production of enzymes and primary or secondary metabolites [18]. For example, micro-colonies are required for the production of citric acid by A. niger [19]. However, there is not a defined formula on how morphology affects productivity and it should be tested and optimized for the relevant species and metabolites. The work conducted in this study can be used as a starting point in optimization of process parameters for the production of a specific secondary metabolite.\n\nMaximum specific growth rates in DM were calculated to be between 0.14 and 0.22 h−1 depending on the species, and in CM between 0.17 and 0.29 h−1. In case of pellet formation the cultures grew only exponentially in the beginning of the cultivation prior to pellet formation. The obtained growth rates are reasonable starting points for industrial fermentations, for example the penicillin producing P. chrysogenum, has a maximum growth rate under comparable conditions of around 0.2 h−1 [20, 21]. An interesting observation is that the species with the highest growth rates, P. decumbens and P. coprophilum, have the smallest genome size [15]. The biomass yields during the growth phase on glucose varied highly between species and there was a correlation between yields and morphology: species with low yields all showed pellet formation and/or wall growth, while species with high yields showed dispersed growth. In case of wall growth, this can be explained by the biomass determination method used in this study: broth was sampled from a port in the reactor, which in the case of wall growth resulted in a lower biomass value than the real biomass value in the reactor, and a lower yield. One hypothesis for the low yields observed in pelleted growth cultures is that dense hyphal packing may often result in diffusional limitation of both nutrients and oxygen, which can cause autolysis of the pellet core [22]. This can lead to a decrease of dry cell mass, as was previously observed in cultures of P. chrysogenum where hyphal elements showed cell wall degradation and clear signs of autolysis, even during the culture growth phase [23].\n\nSimilar to the growth profiles, the UHPLC–QTOFMS metabolite profiles showed to be reproducible in the biological triplicates of the batch fermentations. The base peak chromatograms revealed that all ten species produced secondary metabolites in submerged cultivations, with most of the metabolites being unique to one of the ten species. The media composition had an influence on secondary metabolite profiles, with eight out of ten species producing a higher number of compounds in CM than in DM. This is not surprising as the yeast extract containing CYA medium is regarded as a secondary metabolite inducing medium [24]. Some species such as P. solitum and P. flavigenum produced very few metabolites in both media; these species could be interesting for the development of secondary metabolite free production hosts, especially P. flavigenum since it showed to have a high reproducibility and a high growth rate. It has been shown in both P. chrysogenum [25] and in Streptomyces species [26, 27] that removal of highly producing secondary metabolite pathways can increase the production of other native, or heterologous secondary metabolites. However, the species producing very few secondary metabolites still contain many secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). In a recent large scale genomic analysis of Penicillium genomes, it was found that 24 Penicillium genomes (including the ten used in this study) contained in total 1317 putative BGCs, corresponding to an average of 55 clusters per species [15]. This means that a great number of BGCs were inactive in the conditions used in this study, especially when taken into account that one BGC is often responsible for the biosynthesis of a whole family of related metabolites.\n\nDereplication of the extracts showed that the species produced a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites belonging to several different metabolite classes (polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides and terpenes). In total we identified 34 different known compounds, of which many for the first time in submerged fermentations. Here, it has to be taken into account that because of the chemical diversity of the secondary metabolites the extraction could not be optimal for all compounds, and it was only possible to obtain semi-quantitative data. Several of the identified compounds are known to have antibacterial, antifungal and anti-cancer activities, such as the antifungal griseofulvin, the antibiotic roquefortines [28] as well as the promising anti-cancer metabolites andrastin A [29, 30] and calbistrin A [31]. At the same time also several mycotoxins such as patulin and penicillic acid were produced of which elimination need to be considered in a production process. Additionally, we described three new species–metabolite relationships: to our knowledge, this is the first time that P. decumbens and P. vulpinum are described as andrastin A producers and P. flavigenum as chrysogine producer. Furthermore, it was shown that the species produce many unknown compounds at levels above the used detection area threshold; these could be interesting targets for isolation, bioactivity testing and structural elucidation, especially because it is less laborious to isolate metabolites from submerged cultures than from agar plates.\n\nIn order to utilize metabolic reprogramming techniques to optimize production of a secondary metabolite, the corresponding BGC of the metabolite must first be identified. The BGCs responsible for production of the detected andrastin A, patulin, griseofulvin, pseurotin A, fungisporin and roquefortine/meleagrin pathways have all previously been identified and characterized [32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. Although the experimental characterization was done in different species, represents for each of the listed BGCs, except for andrastin A, were recently identified in at least one of the ten analyzed species used in this study [15]. Several other metabolites with predicted BGCs and previously detected in solid cultivations of the corresponding strains, could not be detected in the submerged cultivations of the same strain. This was the case for yanuthones previously detected in extracts of P. flavigenum grown on agar plates [15], and fumagillin, pyripyropenes, austalides, and tryptoquivalines, previously detected in extracts of P. arizonense grown on agar plates [14]. In this context it is interesting that a species like P. arizonense only secreted pseurotin A, despite the large potential for producing a vast number of secondary metabolites. This would be an advantage if pseurotin A has to be produced in an industrial fermentation, but a disadvantage if any of its other secondary metabolites should be produced [14]. Furthermore we detected small amounts of penicillin G in the CM extracts of the known penicillin G producer P. nalgiovense, but the intensity and area were lower than the threshold values used in this study. It should be considered that in the experiments conducted in this study the biomass was filtered out and only the secreted metabolites were studied, while in plate experiments the intracellular metabolites are also taken into account.\n\n\nThe results of this study show that the fermentation properties of the ten analysed Penicillium species and the highly reproducible performance in bioreactors should be considered as very encouraging for the application of native hosts for production via submerged fermentation. The Penicillium species (isolates) showed promising growth characteristics for use in large-scale industrial bioprocesses and produced a diverse range of interesting secondary metabolites. The production of specific secondary metabolites can subsequently be optimized by process optimization, classical strain development and/or with metabolic engineering approaches. Furthermore, all ten species used in this study were recently genome sequenced, which makes the use of rational approaches for improving the product yields or eliminating the production of other compounds more accessible thanks to the ongoing development of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing techniques, which has recently been successfully demonstrated in filamentous fungi [43, 44]. The work conducted in this study can assist in deciding the optimization strategy for specific secondary metabolites produced by one of the ten Penicillium species.\n\n\n  1. 1.\n\n    Visagie CM, Houbraken J, Frisvad JC, Hong S-B, Klaassen CHW, Perrone G, et al. Identification and nomenclature of the genus Penicillium. Stud Mycol. 2014;78:343–71.\n\n  2. 2.\n\n    Frisvad JC, Smedsgaard J, Larsen TO, Samson RA. 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Molecules. 2013;18:14629–50.\n\n  32. 32.\n\n    Matsuda Y, Awakawa T, Abe I. Reconstituted biosynthesis of fungal meroterpenoid andrastin A. Tetrahedron. 2013;69:8199–204.\n\n  33. 33.\n\n    Rojas-Aedo JF, Gil-Durán C, Del-Cid A, Valdés N, Pamela Á, Vaca I, et al. The biosynthetic gene cluster for andrastin A in Penicillium roqueforti. Front Microbiol. 2017;8:1–11.\n\n  34. 34.\n\n    Tannous J, El Khoury R, Snini SP, Lippi Y, El Khoury A, Atoui A, et al. Sequencing, physical organization and kinetic expression of the patulin biosynthetic gene cluster from Penicillium expansum. Int J Food Microbiol. 2014;189:51–60.\n\n  35. 35.\n\n    Chooi YH, Cacho R, Tang Y. Identification of the viridicatumtoxin and griseofulvin gene clusters from Penicillium aethiopicum. Chem Biol. 2010;17:483–94.\n\n  36. 36.\n\n    Maiya S, Grundmann A, Li X, Li SM, Turner G. Identification of a hybrid PKS/NRPS required for pseurotin A biosynthesis in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. ChemBioChem. 2007;8:1736–43.\n\n  37. 37.\n\n    Wiemann P, Guo C-J, Palmer JM, Sekonyela R, Wang CCC, Keller NP. Prototype of an intertwined secondary-metabolite supercluster. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2013;110:17065–70.\n\n  38. 38.\n\n    Tsunematsu Y, Fukutomi M, Saruwatari T, Noguchi H, Hotta K, Tang Y, et al. Elucidation of pseurotin biosynthetic pathway points to trans-acting C-methyltransferase: generation of chemical diversity. Angew Chem Int Ed. 2014;53:8475–9.\n\n  39. 39.\n\n    Ali H, Ries MI, Lankhorst PP, Van Der Hoeven RAM, Schouten OL, Noga M, et al. A non-canonical NRPS is involved in the synthesis of fungisporin and related hydrophobic cyclic tetrapeptides in Penicillium chrysogenum. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e98212.\n\n  40. 40.\n\n    Ali H, Ries MI, Nijland JG, Lankhorst PP, Hankemeier T, Bovenberg RAL, et al. A branched biosynthetic pathway is involved in production of roquefortine and related compounds in Penicillium chrysogenum. PLoS ONE. 2013;8:1–12.\n\n  41. 41.\n\n    Ries MI, Ali H, Lankhorst PP, Hankemeier T, Bovenberg RAL, Driessen AJM, et al. Novel key metabolites reveal further branching of the roquefortine/meleagrin biosynthetic pathway. J Biol Chem. 2013;288:37289–95.\n\n  42. 42.\n\n    García-Estrada C, Ullán RV, Albillos SM, Fernández-Bodega MÁ, Durek P, Von Döhren H, et al. A single cluster of coregulated genes encodes the biosynthesis of the mycotoxins roquefortine C and meleagrin in Penicillium chrysogenum. Chem Biol. 2011;18:1499–512.\n\n  43. 43.\n\n    Pohl C, Kiel JAKW, Driessen AJM, Bovenberg RAL, Nygård Y. CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing of Penicillium chrysogenum. ACS Synth Biol. 2016;5:754–64.\n\n  44. 44.\n\n    Nødvig CS, Nielsen JB, Kogle ME, Mortensen UH. A CRISPR-Cas9 system for genetic engineering of filamentous fungi. PLoS ONE. 2015;10:e0133085.\n\nDownload references\n\nAuthors’ contributions\n\nMW, KFN, and JN conceived the study. SG and JCN performed the cultivations and data analysis on physiological parameters. SG performed the chemical extractions and analysis of metabolites. SG, KFN, JCF and TOL evaluated the data on secondary metabolites. SG and JCN wrote the manuscript. MW and RF supervised the work and co-wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.\n\n\nThe authors acknowledge Tina Johansen, Martin Nielsen and Milica Randelovic for assistance with fermentations; and Christopher Phippen and Aaron John Christian Andersen for assistance with analytics.\n\nCompeting interests\n\nThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.\n\nAvailability of data and materials\n\nAll data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its Additional files 1, 2).\n\nConsent for publication\n\nNot applicable.\n\nEthics approval and consent to participate\n\nNot applicable.\n\n\nThis work was supported by the European Commission Marie Curie Initial Training Network Quantfung (FP7-People-2013-ITN, Grant 607332).\n\nPublisher’s Note\n\n\nAuthor information\n\nCorrespondence to Rasmus John Normand Frandsen.\n\nAdditional files\n\n\nAdditional file 1. Physiological data. Physiological characteristics for triplicate fermentations of each species in DM and CM. Figures show the CO2 exhaust values and log value of the accumulated CO2. Furthermore a red line through the data points in exponential phase and highlighted in light grey the non-exponential phase; the time between start of non-exponential growth until the maximum CO2 off gas value. Additionally the R-squared value for the exponential phase, CO2 production rate, the number of data points in exponential phase, the end point (in hours) of the exponential phase and the end point of the non-exponential phase (in hours) are shown.\n\n\nAdditional file 2. Secondary metabolite data. In each separate tab one species with all triplicate samples taken in the DM and CM media. The time points of the samples taken (in hour after inoculation) and the metabolites detected with their maximum m/z value, retention time and intensity. The metabolites were first identified if they had an absolute area higher than 500,000 counts and intensity higher than 10,000 in the time last sample. The presence of these compounds was searched for in all the other samples. Data was generated by UHPLC–DAD–QTOFMS on a maXis HD orthogonal acceleration quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics).\n\nRights and permissions\n\n\nReprints and Permissions\n\nAbout this article\n\nVerify currency and authenticity via CrossMark\n\n\n  • Penicillium\n  • Submerged fermentation\n  • Physiology\n  • Secondary metabolite\n  • Cell factory", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6615216732025146}
+{"content": "Newly identified gene mutation explains why one family experiences unusual pain response to cold\n\nIf you’ve ever plunged your hand into a tub of ice water, you know about the overlap between cold and pain: That deep, biting ache makes you want to get your hand out of the water – fast. While the protective value of that sensation is obvious, scientists have always been a bit mystified by how pain-sensing nerves register cold temperatures. But now, Stanford research on a family with an extremely unusual gene mutation may help clarify what’s going on.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.903251051902771}
+{"content": "An interview to \"Baku\" Magazine\n\nAzerbaijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva gave an interview to \"Baku\" Magazine.\n\n\"BAKU\": Introvert or extravert?\n\nIntrovert. Reflection is a necessary condition of lifestyle. Although I’ve been recognized as extravert in social sphere.\n\n\"BAKU\": Monochrome or colourful?\n\nMonochrome. Single colour is a sign of integrity and compactness.\n\n\"BAKU\": Fast or slow?\n\nFast. Any movement is better than a static condition.\n\n\"BAKU\": Night or day?\n\nDay. I don’t like unconscious condition.\n\n\"BAKU\": What would You like to change in the world?\n\nI’ve no desire of changing the world. I’m interested in changing myself and becoming the best. In my opinion, busyness is more useful.\n\n\"BAKU\": Should a physician be merciful?\n\nI would like mercifulness to be inherent in people regardless of their professional activity.\n\n\"BAKU\": Spring or fall?\n\nBoth spring and fall, summer and winter. You know, spring may be in February too. In souls.\n\n\"BAKU\": Why did not You become an actress?\n\nA small episode in youth years in cinema did not at all arouse a desire in me to become an actress.\n\n\"BAKU\": Your favourite digit?\n\n\"BAKU\": Optimistic or pessimistic?\n\nOptimistic. A theory of thinking and word materiality is close to me. In this case, why to materialize negativeness?\n\n\"BAKU\": Your primary life principle?\n\nTo keep dignity in any condition.\n\n\"BAKU\": Your favourite jewellery?\n\nOpal. It is deep and always different.\n\n\"BAKU\": What are, in Your opinion, three main important features in people?\n\nDignity, intellect and kindness.\n\n\"BAKU\": We are living in a time of total divorces. As time goes on, more betrayals occur, true values are replaced by lies. Can a human being of the 21st century live without love?\n\nIn all times, love has been completely organic, necessary and inevitable feeling for the mankind, as the breathing.\n\n\"BAKU\": Do the modern society need ideals?\n\nAny society needs ideals. Moral ideals.\n\n\"BAKU\": If God let You, what would you change in your past?\n\nThe illness of my mother who has been very dear to me, and her passing away...\n\n\"BAKU\": Dostoyevsky has told beauty will rescue the world. Is it true? Can women influence global events, or all decisions are dependent on men-politicians?\n\nDostoevsky has talked, through his heroes’ language, about moral beauty, the Bad not being able to become normal condition of people, and only the Good being truly beautiful. If there is anything that can protect the planet from being ruined, that is the Good. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with gender.\n\n\"BAKU\": What rule have You always followed in your life?\n\nTo be extremely natural. Not play games.\n\n\"BAKU\": Why is life so sensible?\n\nI do not know why a human being’s life is so sensible. May be it is the token of spirit’s eternity.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7661483287811279}
+{"content": "18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily by Fr. Gerard Jonas\n\n18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily 4 August 2019\n\nEccl 1:2; 2:21-23 // Col 3:1-5, 9-11 // Lk 12:13-21\n\nHow do you orient to real life teenagers whose sense of life revolves only in the latest gadgets and the latest fashion? Jesus tells that life does not consist only in material things.\n\nMore than ten years ago, our Archbishop of Lipa (in the Philippines) hosted a dinner for a group of teenagers from an oil-rich small country in Southeast Asia. They were preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and were on a two-week retreat. They had just finished the first part, a week of immersion with the poor by helping build some decent houses for them. They were beyond shock! Before this, their only sense of poverty was not having the latest iPhone or the latest designer shoes.\n\nTheir bishop said, “Now, in their heart, they are ready to learn about growth in spiritual life.” That would be the second week of their retreat.\n\nWhy was the rich landlord in the parable called foolish? What was wrong with feeling financially secure after a rich harvest?\n\nJesus warns that one’s possessions do not guarantee life. And Jesus addresses greed both in the Gospel story about brothers squabbling for inheritance and the wealthy landowner in the parable. Notice how the rich man was so disoriented by his wealth that he even thought it assures him of many years of just enjoying himself. He felt secure for his future which turns out to be just another day.\n\nA research company wanted to do an extensive study of wolves in one of our national parks. Wolves, however, are rather clever and have no desire to cooperate with scientific studies. So, backed by a major donor, the company placed a bounty of $5000 on any wolf that could be safely captured for research. Two young men decided this would be a way to make their fortunes. They were familiar with the park because they had camped there frequently. For days they scoured the park without any luck. Then one night, exhausted, they retired to their sleeping bags under the stars and fell asleep thinking of their potential wealth. In the middle of the night, one woke up and realized that they were surrounded by a pack of at least 50 wild wolves with glaring eyes and bared teeth. He nudged his companion. “Hey. Wake up! We’re rich!” Rich? Maybe. Doomed? For sure.\n\nThe English poet Matthew Green once wrote about avarice as a sphincter of the heart. Sphincters are muscles that contract and close openings in the body. They squeeze shut so that nothing can get out nor get in! That is what greed does. It squeezes the heart shut. So, acting out of greed, one acts only for oneself. The heart is so tightly shut that no love can get out nor come in! But greed can take many forms, not only for material possessions, like greed for power, for recognition. It’s all about self-centeredness.\n\nGreed deprives us of true and basic Godliness. We can be God-like in our small ways like thinking, creating, and most especially loving. Greed shuts the heart that it cannot love God or others. Being preoccupied with only grabbing or holding on to what one got, one’s hands are no longer free to give out nor open to receive. Greed creates a false sense of security. Truly one’s possessions do not and cannot guarantee life. Greed may be another name for fear, for fear of death. Possessions are like a blindfold, hiding death from us. But they cannot hide us from death. Deep in our heart, we want to live forever. And foolishly managed, the farthest our earthly wealth can take us is into our graves.\n\nOnly the love of God guarantees life. Greed may be a symptom of unreadiness to rely on the love of God for the full life, life that extends beyond earthly life. The remedy, therefore, may be to allow the sense of death to kill greed before greed kills us.\n\nThe teenagers preparing for Confirmation were ushered into a sense of real life, the Christian life centered on God. Hopefully, they would mature in their life of faith and realize that there is more to life than just having the latest iPhone or designer apparel. How about us? How are we maturing in faith? Our Eldering Contemplatives say that we reach a point when we stop growing up and begin growing down. Yes, until nothing remains for us but God.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7167589664459229}
+{"content": "\n\nThe hardness of discrete logs over fields doesn't have much to do with the hardness of elliptic curve discrete logs. At this stage, I don't think we have any evidence that curves over binary fields are less secure than over prime fields, especially for cryptographically relevant curve sizes.\n\n(The situation is different for pairing-friendly elliptic curves, of course, but that's a different kettle of fish).\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7099711894989014}
+{"content": "ANSWER Coalition calls for massive unified antiwar protests\n\nThe aim is not just one more demonstration but the largest antiwar demonstration in US history.\n\nA mobilization of one million people marching on Washington DC would be the best possible trigger for an avalanche of grassroots organizing throughout the country and among service members and their families and veterans. It is time for something bold and broad. Something that sends an unmistakable message to the powers that be that the people of the United States have entered the field of politics in such a way as to become an irresistible force.\n\nEach group and movement should maintain its political independence. Each group can inscribe on its banners a variety of slogans or ideas or demands but what will allow us to unite for the largest mobilization of all the people is the simple unifying demand. Whatever differences that exist between groups, and there are many and they are important, are not sufficient justification for preventing us from coming together in a show of force that will change the direction of this country. The lives of too many people, all victims of a criminal war, are too precious for our movement to tolerate anything that prevents us from reaching our potential to end the war in Iraq. With determination, maturity and mutual respect our diverse anti-war movement can unite.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995050430297852}
+{"content": "Zindi gathers data scientists for AI services\n\nArtificial intelligence is quite popular these days. It also has many benefits for businesses. That is why Zindi is assembling the data scientists in Africa to get AI solutions for difficult problems. This startup was founded in 2018 and it allows companies or NGOs to start data-oriented online competitions.\n\nZindi’s platform also contains many data scientists from Africa who can enroll in a competition. They can give solutions to the problems and move up in the challenge. They also have the opportunity to win the challenge. The startup’s co-founder, Celina Lee states that the highest money given so far is $12,000, which was split among the three best scientists. The competition hosts get the results, which they can use to make or promote new products and services.\n\nZindi’s model has caught the eye of many multinational companies, both inside and outside Africa. For example, Digital infrastructure company Liquid Telecom has started many competitions. Just this week, the startup announced a partnership with Microsoft because the company wants the computing service Azure to power Zindi’s platform.\n\nMicrosoft will also host two competitions. The focus in these competitions will be to find solutions in African agtech. Ugandan IoT accelerator, Wazihub, has put forward a challenge to all the Zindi’s data scientists to make an AI model that predicts humidity. There is also a $10,000 challenge for the Cape Town startup FarmPin. The challenge is to formulate the best solution to classify the fields according to the crop type. The contestants can use mobile phones and satellite imagery.\n\nCelina Lee thinks that there is a need for a team of data scientists in Africa, who should solve the complex problems in the private and public sector. She also states, “African companies, organizations, and governments require digitization and technology now, more than ever. There is also an interest to use things like AI and machine learning to find solutions to the problems.” Lee also stated that around 80% of Zindi’s competitions have a social angle.\n\nLee notes that there is a big shortage of data scientists on the platform, “Very few people have data science skills. Still, companies are looking for ways to incorporate science and AI. However, there are a large number of young Africans in universities. They are looking to build their professional careers and polish their skills. Therefore, we need to take advantage of this opportunity.”\n\nAs the company is a startup, Zindi has only six members in its Cape Town office. Lee co-founded the company, along with Ghanaian Ekow Dukerand and South African Megan Yates. Although the company is small, it hopes to get around 10,000 data scientists on its platform this year. Lee also wants to get 20,000 data scientists by the end of 2020.\n\nLee’s goal right now is to expand the company to every country in Africa. Lee also thinks that Zindi will expand itself to additional African countries by the end of this year. Currently, Zindi hosts online competitions and data scientists, from any country within Africa.\n\nZindi gets its funding from undisclosed investors. The startup is also thinking to start a funding round. The startup also gets money from by taking some fee from hosting competitions. It is also looking to give new opportunities to data scientists. Lee states that this could be a source of revenue in the future.\n\nZindi’s emerging model is going to fit it into the present businesses in Africa. For example, when Zindi gives recruitment services, it might offer a service similar to Andela, which is a talent accelerator.\n\nLee has also disclosed that the company is getting inbound partnership interest from reliable firms. This means that the startup is getting popular. Lee said, “We are somewhat disruptive because we are giving companies in Africa the best data scientists.”\n\nThe startup could also provide data solutions and data scientists to the companies and organizations who don’t have enough resources to go to big firms. Therefore, this indicates that Zindi’s market will grow in the coming years.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7299070358276367}
+{"content": "Baby CPR – These three things may surprise you!\n\nWhen Amanda Acuna’s daughter was a baby, one minute her girl was eating Cheerios in her high chair and quick-as-a-wink, the next minute, her daughter was choking.\n\n“I thankfully was able to quickly draw on specific choking management strategies I had learned in a CPR class,” Acuna recalls. “I was able to perform a series of back blows to dislodge the Cheerio.”\n\nThe hope is that we’ll never be put in the scary position of having to save a baby’s life, but the truth is there are many quick-as-a wink situations that can and do happen. Babies can and do choke on food or slip under the water in a pool or a bath tub, the list goes on.\n\nCPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and it is a lifesaving procedure you can perform when an accident happens. CPR is often used in drowning and drowning is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 4 in Arizona.\n\nIn addition to being a mom who expertly helped her child in a choking situation she is a master aquatics instructor, lead StarGuard/ASHI Trainer and CPR instructor for SWIMkids USA.\n\nHere are the top three things she says often surprise parents about CPR.\n\n1) CPR for infants is different than CPR for adults and children!\n“That’s because all three have a different body-size and lung-size,” explains Acuna. “It’s important to choose a course that provides training for all three: infant, child and adult CPR (like we provide at SWIMkids USA ).”\n\n2) Most CPR classes will also have a part about choking strategy.\n\n3) CPR DOUBLES a person’s chance of survival in an emergency.\n“When someone has an emergency where their heart can’t pump blood through their body efficiently, cells begin to die and brain cells die within minutes, resulting in permanent damage after only 4-6 minutes,” Acuna explains. “With effective CPR, a rescuer can move oxygenated blood to the brain to help those brain cells stay alive.”\n\nCPR makes a difference. Be the one who makes a difference.\n\nSWIMkids USA has a mission to save lives, and family education is a part of that. We encourage every family to provide layers of protection against drowning. These layers include supervision, barriers (like pool fences), swimming lessons, and CPR. Drowning incidents leading in death are greatly reduced when more layers of protection are in place. This is why we offer drowning prevention education, survival swimming lessons, and CPR classes.\nAmanda Acuna teaching\n<img src=”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.978549063205719}
+{"content": "Cradle of the Gods was a powerful monument located on the planet Gethria which had the ability to create or destroy on a massive scale.\n\nWhen the Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm and the Dalek Time Controller discovered the Cradle, they established the Dalek Foundation and the 400 Sunlight Worlds with the intention of using the Cradle to transform the worlds into \"a billion Skaros\". They sent a hypercube to the Doctor's TARDIS with the intention of manipulating the Eleventh Doctor into finding it for them and once he did, they threatened him so he would activate it. The Daleks were fought off by Jenibeth Blakely, and the Doctor set the Cradle to self-destruct. Before it exploded, it reverted the Sunlight Worlds to the way Jenibeth remembered them as a child. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7230461835861206}
+{"content": "Dr. King Shows us how to Honor God and the Constitution as the law of the Land\n\nscreen capture from youtube.com/Alltime10s\n\nLISTEN NOW! Greg, John, and Pat discuss how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed us how to honor God and the Constitution as the law of the land.  We need to know how to respond to all that is going on around us.  Dr. King saw injustice where black men and women were treated differently because of the color of their skin.  For instance they were not allowed to drink out of the same water fountains as white people.  At one point he decided to be a pioneer.  He started in his church and then began to share with the rest of the country.  Dr. King showed us how we can peacefully honor God and the Law of the land when standing for justice, in the midst of dogs being sent to attack them.  He allowed the justice system to work.  The ends don’t justify the means.  For Christians the “means” are everything because Jesus already took care of the end on the cross. They encourage us to get a pocket constitution and defend it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9823238849639893}
+{"content": "Tag \"AI\"\n\nWhat makes AI and ML a lucrative career choice in today’s competitive professional realm?\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nToday’s world is in the midst of a digital revolution, which is impacting business operations and functions across industries. With the advent of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and (ML), this transition has been fast-tracked for many, and\n\nIntel boosts AI ecosystem in India; Trains 150,000 students and developers in two years\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nStrengthening its commitment to galvanizing the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in India and nurturing local talent, Intel hosted its premier global AI developer event, the Intel AI DevCamp (Intel AIDC), in Bengaluru today. Built by AI practitioners, the conference included\n\nAI Augmentation Will Create $2.9 Trillion of Business Value in 2021: Gartner\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nIn 2021, artificial intelligence (AI) augmentation will create $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner defines augmented intelligence as a human-centered partnership model of people and AI working together\n\nUnderstanding the buzzwords of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nAs the Co-founder and CTO of a tech-driven real estate start-up, I am frequently asked a question: how much of an impact has the technology, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, made on the way businesses operate today? Rather than answering this\n\nIs Artificial intelligence the future of Marketing?\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau 2\n\nIf we look around, Artificial Intelligence is slowly leaving significant footprints in various sectors and easing the job of humans at multiple fronts. Today, the human workload has reduced remarkably with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence. AI deals with creating\n\nCapgemini launches new AI services based on Microsoft Azure to accelerate the business impact of AI\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nCapgemini is expanding its AI capabilities with Microsoft through a series of strategic services aimed at helping enterprises to accelerate their adoption of AI technologies. The new services include AI Engineering for production-grade Data and AI platforms, AI for Operations\n\nEightfold Inaugurates ‘Eightfold Nalanda’ in India to Accelerate Global Expansion\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nEightfold.ai announced the opening of ‘Eightfold Nalanda’, its global center of excellence, research and innovation in cutting-edge AI domain. Founded by Dr. Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, IIT alumni and Machine Learning experts from Google and Facebook, Eightfold.ai has already\n\nLeading Organizations Expect to Double the Number of AI Projects In Place Within the Next Year: Gartner\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nOrganizations that are working with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) have, on average, four AI/ML projects in place, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Of all respondents, 59% said that they have AI deployed today. The\n\nAI in Sports: The holy grail for the enhanced sports viewing experience\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nAI in sports, as the competition for fan engagement increases across major global sporting events, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning offer new ways to deliver more sophisticated and connected data experiences. New research from NTT highlights sporting organizations need\n\nExpect 2.8 million jobs in India in next 10 years through AI, IoT: BIF Report\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nBIF recently share a report about job creation in India where it stated to create 2.8 million jobs through AI and IoT. Earlier also, we talked about the fear of losing jobs because of innovative technologies including AI and IoT,\n\nFuture of banking: Streamlining end to end processes\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nCIOL met Mashreq Global Services Managing Director Santosh Mahalingam in a free-wheeling interview and discussed the future of banking. Mashreq Bank was the first bank in the UAE to issue ATM, debit and credit cards. Mashreq Global Services is developing\n\nThe rise of the data engineer brings AI to the forefront within the enterprise\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nThe hype around AI is justified by its transformative potential for organizations of all sizes right from SMEs to large enterprises to governments. While its ability to automate and hence reduce costs is well understood, AI’s real potential comes from\n\n6 Impacts of AI in Sports Industry\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nIf technology is the change maker, Artificial Intelligence is its flag-bearer. From businesses and jobs to education, AI has left its imprint everywhere. Sports, one of humanity’s oldest forms of organized play, won’t go untouched. On the global level, big\n\n10 Artificial Intelligence Applications that will change the future\n\nBy : Sunil Rajguru\n\n  Artificial Intelligence has already entered your life and Algorithms decide what your social media feed looks like and who should drive you home and by what route. Siri and Alexa have become commonplace and people already interact with chatbots\n\nAI for fraud detection to triple by 2021: Study\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nWhile only 13% of organizations use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to detect and deter fraud, another 25% plan to adopt such technologies in the next year or two – a nearly 200% increase. Fraud examiners revealed this and\n\nLucrative and Exciting Career in Artificial Intelligence & Data Sciences\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nAccording to a recent report, 90% of the data available today has been created in the last 2 years. Social web and smartphones have revolutionized the way the internet is being used. With more than 4 billion people around the\n\nTech Mahindra Introduces K2, Artificially Intelligent Human Resource Humanoid\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nTech Mahindra Ltd introduced K2, the first Human Resource (HR) Humanoid for its Noida Special Economic Zone Campus in Uttar Pradesh, India. A perfect blend of knowledge and kindness, K2 will take over the routine HR transactions to provide constant\n\nAI in HR and Recruiting: Three Most Common Use Cases by Gartner\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nHR and recruitment leaders have begun using applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve HR efficiency and enhance employee experience. Gartner, Inc. has identified the three most common use cases. “There is a fair number of HR leaders who are\n\nSophos Adds Predictive Artificial Intelligence Capabilities to Sophos Home Premium for PC\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nSophos announced the latest version of Sophos Home Premium for PC with predictive artificial intelligence malware detection. Leveraging the same AI technology built into Sophos’ enterprise security products used around the globe, Sophos Home Premium for PC can detect and\n\nWhy businesses are walking on the ‘edge’ of revolution\n\nBy : CIOL Bureau\n\nA new wave of transformative technology is prevalent in today’s business scenario. Bringing a surge of new opportunities and challenges, the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is here and is rapidly changing the world around us. Technological advances, such as smart devices,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8429219722747803}
+{"content": "Helping you make the most of your retirement\n\nDignity Magazine is a bi-monthly, current affairs title. It was set up in August 2014 to help tackle the economic, health and social inequalities blighting the lives of Haringey’s pensioners. Many of whom are disempowered, disengaged and disenfranchised when in the past they were proud, active and productive citizens.\n\nThere are huge issues with pensioner poverty, loneliness and social isolation, and declining physical and emotional health. There are also massive problems with marginalisation. Some readers have told us that because of ageist attitudes, they have felt unable to participate in or contribute to society in any meaningful way once they hit state pension age. \n\nAt Dignity Magazine we aim to challenge this state of affairs by empowering our readers, whatever their age and wherever they live in the UK, to take charge of their lives and thrive. We achieve this through the provision of informative and engaging news stories, step-by-step articles and in-depth features encompassing a diverse range of subjects, such as money and and pensions, employment and retirement, and health and social care. We also cover consumer, legal and welfare rights.\n\nAs each article is focused on tackling a specific challenge, most end with a mini guide offering practical solutions to that challenge so that readers can swiftly deal with their issue and get on with living their lives. We also break each subject down into manageable chunks to help everyone develop a thorough understanding of the topic and the issues that surround it.\n\npensions advice and guidance\n\nWe write extensively about the pension freedoms and cashing in pension savings. Drawing on the views of a range of retirement experts, we are able to provide pensions guidance to help people who are approaching their retirement maximise their future retirement income before they reach retirement age. We also write about pre-paid funeral plans, probate and power of attorney issues, among other things.\n\nThe UK's tax system is one of the most complicated in the world and it is easy to fall foul of HM Revenue & Customs' many rules. So we include an article on tax in every issue, courtesy of the charity Tax Help for Older People, to ensure readers are aware of their allowances and entitlements.\n\nHealth and Wellbeing\n\nWe write in-depth, preventative features on the health conditions that can hamper a person's ability to lead an enjoyable life, such as dementia, depression, incontinence, malnutrition, the menopause, prostate cancer and strokes. Brain health is a big topic for us.\n\nWe also write extensively on the different exercises that can help develop and maintain robust physical and mental health, prevent falls and hip fractures, and boost happiness. We also cover the anti-aging activities that can help keep a senior's immune systems fit and healthy, helping them fight off infections and inflammatory diseases. \n\nAs we also seek to boost our pension age readers’ emotional resilience and enhance their personal wellbeing, we write a lot about the social activities that can keep them active and engaged, in order that they have a happy retirement and continue to create fulfilling, meaningful lives for themselves and their families.\n\nheating allowances and Other grants\n\nA fifth of the UK population now lives in poverty. This equates to around eight million working age adults, two million pensioners and four million children. For that reason, we devote a number of pages of each issue to the many under-publicised heating allowances and other grants that are available to prevent some of the most cash-strapped households from being locked into poverty. \n\nWe also alert readers to the value-for-money deals that appear on the market to help everyone better manage their water, telephone, fuel and food bills, and build up some financial resilience.\n\nFinally, we also include a number of 'quick-win' news stories in each issue. If readers follow the advice detailed in these and the step-by-step articles, they can quickly recoup the cost of their £18 subscription fee many times over. \n\ndon’t just take our word for it - see for yourself", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7484712600708008}
+{"content": "Start your free trial\n\n\nTips, advice, and information for South African business owners\n\n09 Aug\n\nDebt & Small Business Funding\n\nHaving worked with 1,000+ small business owners, I’ve found that most of them tend towards extremes when managing their capital structure: either they are too bullish and take on too much debt too soon, or they are too conservative and stifle their growth potential because they are paranoid about borrowing money.\n\nUnsurprisingly, any pre-existing debt needs to be carefully assessed when deciding whether to finance a deal or not. So if you are planning to raise growth capital for your business, there are several things to bear in mind before approaching any investors.\n\nFor starters, not all debt is equal. In general, investors  will be more concerned about senior debt (e.g. term loans and finance leases) than subordinated debt (e.g. unsecured borrowings), while shareholder loans are often more consistent with equity than debt (especially if they are unsecured and non-interest bearing). So unpacking your capital structure is an important first step.\n\nSecond, debt at a point in time is less insightful than the trend over an extended period, so don’t rely on a single set of annual financial statements or current management accounts. Are your liabilities growing or shrinking, and at what rate? An upwards trend isn’t inherently worrying, but that depends on the context. There’s a world of difference between borrowing money to grow and accumulating debt in a last ditch attempt to survive.\n\nThird, it’s pointless trying to qualify debt in isolation. The debt ratio (i.e. ratio between total liabilities and total assets) is a common measure of solvency and collateralisation, but this is usually less critical to small business funders since they are far more sensitive to the cost and risk of seizing and auctioning off assets than banks and other large institutional lenders.\n\nInstead, debt-to-equity, debt-to-EBITDA, and debt-to-cash (either free cash flow or net operating cash) tend to be far more relevant metrics when assessing the viability of funding a small business. The first of these clarifies the extent to which you have skin in the game, while the latter two validate your ability to settle what you owe.\n\nTake your business to the next level. Join Evergrow with a 30 day free trial and get unlimited expert advisory support, live webinars, online business courses, and easy-to-understand business guides.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5671854019165039}
+{"content": "Left-to-Right Cardiac Shunts (Heart) Types and Symptoms\n\nCongenital heart defects arise in the fetal stage in life when the development of the heart and/or great blood vessels is disrupted in some manner. This leads to a structural abnormality in the heart or vessels which depending on the type and extent may case mild to severe symptoms or can even be life threatening. The heart is a a muscular pump with four chambers – two atria that receive blood and two ventricles that push out blood. The atrium and ventricle on each side are separated by heart valves which open and close at different stages of the cardiac cycle. Similarly the ventricles and arteries communicating it are separated by valves.\n\nHowever, the atria and ventricles are kept separate from each other by the atrioventricular (AV) septum. This means that the blood from the right atrium or ventricle cannot mix with the blood in the left atrium or ventricle. The septum is essential to keep oxygen deficient blood in the right chambers of the heart separate from the oxygen rich blood in the left chambers. In certain types of congenital heart defects, the septum is compromised thereby allowing for a mixing of the blood.\n\nWhat is a cardiac shunt?\n\nA cardiac shunt, or heart shunt, is abnormal communication between chambers or blood vessels that allows for the passage of blood. Many of the more common types of congenital heart defects are due to malformations that lead to shunting of blood. This allows for blood on one side of the heart to enter the other side through an abnormal channel.\n\nCardiac shunts are categorized according to the direction of abnormal flow. In this manner, a shunt may either be a :\n\n  • Left-to-right shunt – oxygenated blood from the left side of the heart enters the chambers and conduits containing deoxygenated blood (pulmonary circulation).\n  • Right-to-left shunt – deoxygenated blood from the right side of the heart enters the chambers and conduits containing oxygenated blood (systemic circulation).\n\nLeft-to-right shunts are the most common type of congenital heart defect. A left-to-right shunt may not seem like a serious condition because oxygen-rich blood from the left is entering the areas containing oxygen-deficient blood on the right. This blood is then sent to the lungs for oxygenation. However, the danger with a left-to-right shunt is the structural changes in the heart and blood vessels that arises with the additional blood in the right side of the heart.\n\nTypes of Left-To-Right Heart Shunt\n\nThe pressure in the right side of the heart is lower and the heart walls and related vessels have developed to tolerate the pressure. With a left-to-right shunt, oxygenated blood from the left side of the heart passes to the right side. This increases the volume of blood in the pulmonary circulation and therefore raises the pressure. The walls and vessels thicken to accommodate this greater pressure and leads to similar structural changes as is seen with hypertension (high blood pressure). More importantly though, with time the structural changes may lead to a state where the flow is no longer from left-to-right but rather from right-to-left.\n\nThe four most common types of left-to-right cardiac shunts are :\n\n  • Atrial septal defect (ASD)\n  • Ventricular septal defect (VSD)\n  • Patent ductus arteriosus\n  • Atrioventricular septal defect\n\nAtrial Septal Defect\n\nAn atrial septal defect (ASD) is an abnormal opening between the right and left atria.  This fixed opening in the atrial septum is result of incomplete closure of the atrial septum and allows blood from the left atrium to pass into the right atrium. It may be of three types known as secundum atrial septal defects (the most common), primum anomalies and sinus venous defects. ASD’s tend to become symptomatic only in adulthood.\n\nVentricular Septal Defect\n\nA ventricular septal defect (VSD)  is an abnormal opening between the right and left atria. It is a fixed opening formed by incomplete closure of the ventricular septum. This allows from blood from the left ventricle to pass into the right ventricle. VSD’s are the most common type of congenital heart defect accounting for about 30% of these defects. It is often associated with other types of heart defects. Large openings may cause severe symptoms from birth while smaller openings may close spontaneously and only cause symptoms in adulthood if it remains open.\n\nPatent Ductus Arteriosus\n\nIn fetal life, blood does not need to be oxygenated in the lungs because oxygenated blood is derived from the mother. However, the fetus still has a fully functional heart with separate chambers. To prevent blood from being sent to the lungs, two possible conduits exist. The first is a small channel known as a ductus arteriosus which shunts blood from the pulmonary artery (that leads to the lungs) to the aorta (which carries blood to the rest of the body). This shunt is normal in fetal life. However it may sometimes persist after birth.\n\nA patent ductus arteriosus is the persistence of the channel between the pulmonary artery and aorta after birth. This allows oxygenated blood in the aorta to enter the deoxygenated blood in the pulmonary artery which is headed to the lungs. The severity of the condition depends on the size of the shunt but is usually asymptomatic in infants.\n\nAtrioventricular Septal Defect\n\nAn atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) is the incomplete closure of the septum between the left and right chambers of the heart. It may be partial or complete. AVSD is associated with atrioventricular (AV) valve defects – tricuspid valve of the right side or mitral valve of the left side.  This condition is seen more frequently with Down’s syndrome.\n\nSigns and Symptoms of Left-to-Right Shunts\n\nBabies born with these heart defects may be asymptomatic for years or right up until adulthood. However, in severe cases the symptoms may be prominent from birth. Typically features like cyanosis (bluish discoloration of the skin) are not present with a left-to-right shunt but becomes prominent if a right-to-left shunt develops at a later stage.\n\n  • Heart murmurs\n  • Arrhythmias\n  • Enlargement of the right side of the heart\n  • Enlargement of the pulmonary artery\n  • Dizziness\n  • Fatigue\n  • Exertional dyspnea – shortness of breath with physical activity\n  • Learning difficulties in childhood\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9723644256591797}
+{"content": "\nFree Consultation\n\nObtaining American Visas for Foreign Athletes\n\nForeign athletes looking to compete within the United States must meet specific requirements and provide extensive proof in order to obtain an American visa. With the help of expert San Diego Immigration lawyers at KAZMI & SAKATA, eligible athletes can successfully file a P-1 visa, granting foreign athletes the ability to compete legally within the United States.\n\nUnder the P-1 visa, qualified athletes are either individual competitors or are a part of a team that is internationally recognized. International recognition is defined as a high level of achievement, to the extent that the individual or team is renowned, well-known or the leading athlete in more than one country. Additionally, the degree of skill demonstrated is considered to be substantially above the level ordinarily encountered.\n\nOnce the athlete or athletic team qualifies for international recognition, they must be entering the states to participate in a specific U.S. competition, event or performance. These events can also include promotional appearances and are also applicable for entire sporting seasons. The athletic event itself or sporting season must have a distinguished reputation and require participation of other international athletes or teams, also holding international reputations.\n\nIndividuals who are an integral part of the performance of a qualified P-1 athlete or team are also eligible under the P-1 visa classification. These individuals perform specific support services and are considered essential support personnel. Their services cannot be performed by an average U.S. worker, typically comprised of coaches, trainers, scouts, team officials and referees.\n\nWith a P-1 visa, individual athletes may be admitted for the time needed to complete the event, competition or performance, not to exceed five years. One extension of up to five years is permitted, resulting in a total stay limited to ten years. For athletic groups, admittance is also granted for the time needed to complete the event, competition or performance, but is not to exceed one year. Extensions for these groups may be given in one year increments. Extended sport personnel follow the same guidelines as individual athletes.\n\nTo complete the application process for a P-1 visa, applicants must also file Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker. The petition must include specific supporting documents including a copy of the written contract with the U.S. sports league of the athlete or team, as well as evidence of the team’s ranking and international status.\n\nForeign athletes can visit our website at for more information about the additional paperwork needed to complete the application process or can contact us directly to address additional questions about the P-1 visa by call our office at 858-874-0711.\n\nAugust 2019\n« Jul", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9259465932846069}
+{"content": "Frequently Asked Questions\n\nWhat is the Rorschach Inkblot Test?\n\nContrary to popular belief, the Rorschach Inkblot Test is NOT strictly a projective psychological or personality measure. In the strictest sense, the Rorschach Inkblot Test is a test or assessment of perception.\n\nIt is designed to evaluate how someone approaches their environment, In other words, it asks the question, \"How does someone view and organize the world around them?\"\n\nThrough analyzing what someone sees, where they see it, and what about the blot makes what they saw look like whatever they saw, the psychologist is able to make various hypotheses about how that person views and organizes the world.\n\nFurthermore, the psychologist can compare the person's perceptions to a clinical or normative sample. From this analysis, the psychologist then makes inferences about the person's approach to the world (which is largely stable and described often as character or personality), insofar as, one's feelings, thoughts, stress tolerance, relationships, and self-perception shapes and influences how that person views and organizes their world. Thus, the major areas evaluated are:\n\n  1. the person's emotional world,\n  2. the person's cognitive world,\n  3. the person's ability to deal with situational stress,\n  4. the person's perception of others and relationships, and 5) the person's self-perception.\n\nHow is the Rorschach Test Scored?\n\nThe test is conducted by a professional psychologist on subjects ranging between ages 5 and adulthood. Adminstrators typically sit side-by-side to ensure they do not influence the participants answers.\n\nCHESS is an open-source project developed for  the Rorschach community to design and disseminate a software for the scoring and computing of the Rorschach Comprehensive System (J.E. Exner), and Supplementary Scales.\n\nThe Rorschach Performance Assessment System® (R-PAS®) holds regular workshops around the world.\n\nIs the Rorschach Test Accurate & Valid?\n\nWhile the test has had controversial issues associated with it, making it both the most cherished & most refviled of all psychological assessment tools. A meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Aossication in 2013 found the test was valid & quite accurate on many fronts.\n\nHere is the abstract from The Validity of Individual Rorschach Variables: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of the Comprehensive System:\n\nWe systematically evaluated the peer-reviewed Rorschach validity literature for the 65 main variables inthe popular Comprehensive System (CS). Across 53 meta-analyses examining variables against exter-nally assessed criteria (e.g., observer ratings, psychiatric diagnosis), the mean validity was r = .27 (k = 770) as compared to r = .08 (k = 386) across 42 meta-analyses examining variables against introspectively assessed criteria (e.g., self-report). Using Hemphill’s (2003) data-driven guidelines for interpreting the magnitude of assessment effect sizes with only externally assessed criteria, we found 13 variables had excellent support (r ≥ .33 , p < .001; FSN > 50), 17 had good support (r ≥ .21, p < .05, FSN ≥ 10),10 had modest support (p < .05 and either r ≥ .21, FSN < 10, or r= .15–.20, FSN ≥ 10), 13 had little (p < .05 and either r < .15 or FSN < 10) or no support (p > .05), and 12 had no construct-relevant validity studies. The variables with the strongest support were largely those that assess cognitive and perceptual processes (e.g., Perceptual-Thinking Index, Synthesized Response); those with the leastsupport tended to be very rare (e.g.,Color Projection) or some of the more recently developed scales (e.g., Egocentricity Index, Isolation Index). Our findings are less positive, more nuanced, and more inclusive than those reported in the CS test manual. We discuss study limitations and the implications forresearch and clinical practice, including the importance of using different methods in order to improveour understanding of people.\n\nIs the Test Still Used Today?\n\nYes. Multiple bodies are organized around the test, including:\n\n\n\nRorschach.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8924814462661743}
+{"content": "Vacancy - Assistant Accountant - Emirates Group, Dubai\n\nOnline job opportunity for Assistant Accountant - Revenue & Accounts Receivable at Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) - a subsidiary of Dubai based Emirates Group in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. If anyone interest, apply through above link;\n\nMin Requirements;\n1. Graduate in accounting or commerce or equivalent\n2. At least 3 years’ experience in the area of Finance\n3. ERP experience in Finance Modules, Sound book keeping knowledge\n4. Knowledge of advanced excel functions\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999271810054779}
+{"content": "skip to content »\n\nStegun abramowitz online dating\n\nThe term (or number) whose square root is being considered is known as the radicand.The radicand is the number or expression underneath the radical sign, in this example 9.\n\nstegun abramowitz online dating-17stegun abramowitz online dating-90\n\nIt is exactly the length of the diagonal of a square with side length 1.The real part of the principal value is always nonnegative.In the following, the complex z and w may be expressed as: The third equality cannot be justified (see invalid proof).In the Chinese mathematical work Writings on Reckoning, written between 202 BC and 186 BC during the early Han Dynasty, the square root is approximated by using an \"excess and deficiency\" method, which says to \"...combine the excess and deficiency as the divisor; (taking) the deficiency numerator multiplied by the excess denominator and the excess numerator times the deficiency denominator, combine them as the dividend.\" According to historian of mathematics D. Smith, Aryabhata's method for finding the square root was first introduced in Europe by Cataneo in 1546. Oaks, Arabs used the letter jīm/ĝīm () over a number to indicate its square root.The letter jīm resembles the present square root shape.Square roots frequently appear in mathematical formulas elsewhere, as well as in many physical laws. Computer spreadsheets and other software are also frequently used to calculate square roots.\n\nPocket calculators typically implement efficient routines, such as the Newton's method (frequently with an initial guess of 1), to compute the square root of a positive real number..\n\nIf a is positive, the convergence is quadratic, which means that in approaching the limit, the number of correct digits roughly doubles in each next iteration. This simplifies finding a start value for the iterative method that is close to the square root, for which a polynomial or piecewise-linear approximation can be used.\n\n\nThe principal square root function is holomorphic everywhere except on the set of non-positive real numbers (on strictly negative reals it isn't even continuous).\n\nThe above Taylor series for where the sign of the imaginary part of the root is taken to be the same as the sign of the imaginary part of the original number, or positive when zero.\n\nHowever, the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means shows this average is always an overestimate of the square root (as noted below), and so it can serve as a new overestimate with which to repeat the process, which converges as a consequence of the successive overestimates and underestimates being closer to each other after each iteration.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9796979427337646}
+{"content": "A pastor queried for a series being run on the website of The Gospel Coalition made this observation to support his advice to young pastors:\n\n\nThat may or may not be true, of course, but there is no way of disputing it. The man making the claim preaches most Sundays, so he can’t have much personal experience by which to make such a judgment. I can’t imagine how he has researched this claim, nor does he cite the research of others. How can he make the claim? Is it because we grant such leeway unthinkingly to prominent pastors?\n\nI’m not sure why without support we are supposed to accept such claims. Maybe no one does. Or maybe they do. I can’t claim to know one way or another.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.959823727607727}
+{"content": "Application of poisonous and harmful gas detector and installation precautions\n\nThe poisonous and harmful gas detector consists of a detector and an alarm control host. It is widely used in petroleum, gas, chemical, and oil depots where there are toxic gases in the petrochemical industry. It is used to detect leaks in hazardous locations indoors and outdoors, ensuring production and personal safety. Important instrument. When there is a toxic gas in the measured location, the detector converts the gas signal into a voltage signal or a current signal and transmits it to the alarm meter. The instrument displays the percentage concentration of the toxic gas explosion lower limit. When the concentration of toxic gas exceeds the alarm set value, an audible and visual alarm signal is generated. The on-duty personnel take safety measures in time to avoid the occurrence of explosive explosion.\n\n1. Precautions for application When the fixed installation of the poisonous and harmful gas detector is in place, the position of the detector is not easily changed. The following points should be considered when applying the device.\n\n(1) Find out which possible leakage points of the devices to be monitored, analyze their leakage pressure, direction and other factors, and draw the distribution map of the probes, and classify them into three grades I, II and III according to the severity of the leakage.\n\n(2) Determine the direction of leakage of toxic gas when there is a large amount of leakage, based on specific factors such as the airflow direction and direction of the location.\n\n(3) According to the density of leaked gas (greater than or smaller than air), combined with the trend of air flow, integrate the three-dimensional flow chart of leakage and make an initial set-point scheme at the downstream position of the flow.\n\n(4) The leakage status of the leaking point was studied as microleakage or jetting. If it is a microleakage, set the position of the point to be near the leak. If it is a spray-like leak, keep it slightly away from the leak. Combine these conditions and draw up a final plan. In this way, the number and type of purchases needed can be estimated.\n\n(5) For sites where there is a large leakage of toxic gases, a test point should be set at a distance of 10-20 m per relevant regulations. For unattended, small, non-continuous pumping stations, attention should be paid to the possibility of toxic gas leakage, and a detector should generally be installed at the downtake.\n\n(6) For media with a gas density greater than air, the detector should be installed on the lower surface below the leak point and pay attention to the surrounding environment. For sites where toxic gases can easily accumulate, special attention should be paid to the setting of safety monitoring points.\n\n(7) For an open toxic gas diffusion and escape environment, if there is no good ventilation, it is easy to make the toxic gas content in the air close to or reach the lower explosive concentration in a certain area. These are all non-negligible safety monitoring points. . According to the results of field accident analysis, more than half of them were caused by incorrect installation and calibration. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the correct installation and calibration precautions to reduce the failure.\n\n2. Precautions for the installation of poisonous and harmful gas detectors (1) The installation height should generally be 160-170cm, so that maintenance personnel can carry out routine maintenance.\n\n(2) The poisonous and harmful gas detector is a safety instrument with sound and light display function. It should be installed in the place where the staff can easily see and hear, so as to eliminate the hidden trouble in time.\n\n(3) There must be no strong electromagnetic fields (such as high-power motors and transformers) that affect the instrument work.\n\n(4) The density of the gas to be measured is different. The installation position of the indoor probe should also be different. When the measured gas density is less than the air density, the probe should be installed 30cm away from the roof, down direction; otherwise, the probe should be installed 30cm away from the ground, upward direction.\n\nVarious products of Two-For-One Twister Machine, providing product images and basic parameters with each Twister Machine and Two-For-One Twister; We are a professional Chinese manufacturer of Two-For-One Twister Machine, and look forward to your cooperation! Our Two-for-one twister machine achieves one turning two twisting. Its efficeincy is higher than traditional machine in times. Take-up volume increasing, no piecing in ten kilometers, twisting quality highly improved. \n\nTwo-For-One Twister Machine\n\nTwo-For-One Twister Machine,Pp Yarn Two-For-One Twister Machine,Two-For-One Twister Tfo Twisting Machine,Two-For-One Twister Machine For Short Fiber\n\nXinchang Jinxing Machinery ,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8789852857589722}
+{"content": "background preloader\n\nArchaeology And Anthropology\n\nFacebook Twitter\n\nWelcome to Oxbow Books. Caitlin Green: The medieval 'New England': a forgotten Anglo-Saxon colony on the north-eastern Black Sea coast. Although the name 'New England' is now firmly associated with the east coast of America, this is not the first place to be called that.\n\n\nIn the medieval period there was another Nova Anglia, 'New England', and it lay far to the east of England, rather than to the west, in the area of the Crimean peninsula. The following post examines some of the evidence relating to this colony, which was said to have been established by Anglo-Saxon exiles after the Norman conquest of 1066 and seems to have survived at least as late as the thirteenth century. The evidence for a significant English element in the Varangian Guard of the medieval Byzantine emperors has been discussed on a number of occasions. 3D Icons. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. 10 Mysterious Deaths That History May Never Fully Explain. Mysteries Sometimes, archaeologists are completely puzzled by what they find.\n\n10 Mysterious Deaths That History May Never Fully Explain\n\nSometimes, they uncover clues to solve some of the mystery but leave us wanting more. Then there’s the rare discovery that serves up just enough clues to shake some of our identities to the core and potentially rewrite our history. 10The Swedish Skulls Mounted On Stakes In 2009, archaeologists excavated an 8,000-year-old Stone Age settlement, known as Kanaljorden, near the town of Motala (pictured above, c. 1890) in southeast Sweden. No one knows who these people were or why they were buried this way. Scientists proposed two main theories to explain their findings. The second theory is that the Swedes killed their enemies in battle and brought their heads home on stakes as trophies. 9The New Evidence About King Tutankhamun Since his tomb was discovered in 1922, the cause of Egyptian king Tutankhamun’s premature death at 19 years old in 1323 B.C. has been the subject of endless debate. The 10 Most Not-So-Puzzling Ancient Artifacts: The Ica Stones.\n\n\n\n\nThe Fish That Started it All. Never mind that Dr. Dr. Ten Archaeological Enigmas from Across the Globe. One of the best things about archaeology is uncovering places, artifacts, and human remains that answer long-held mysteries about our past and our origins.\n\nTen Archaeological Enigmas from Across the Globe\n\nBut frequently discoveries are made that do not solve ancient puzzles, but simply raise more questions to be answered. Here we feature ten such discoveries – from indecipherable manuscripts to Frankenstein mummies, and incredible artifacts from unknown civilizations. Some of these mysteries will one day be solved as science and research techniques progress, others will keep their secrets hidden forever. 10 Mysteries That Hint At Forgotten Advanced Civilizations. Mysteries Prehistory literally means the time “before we had written records” (roughly the time before the 4th Century BC) and ancient history is the time since our recorded history.\n\n10 Mysteries That Hint At Forgotten Advanced Civilizations\n\n\nAncient knowledge was a lot more refined and developed than we have been taught hitherto. Despite wars and several invasions, India’s ancient history was largely preserved. Harappa. Pelagios. Rome Reborn. Scythian Princess. Western Kazakhstani archaeologists have finally displayed the exclusive artifacts found in the ancient burial discovered in 2012, Tengrinews reports citing Moi Gorod and West Kazakhstan Oblast Center for History and Archaeology.\n\nScythian Princess\n\nThe ancient burial containing remains of a noble woman was discovered in Terekty district in Western Kazakhstan Oblast two years ago and was declared the oldest \"golden\" burial on the territory of Kazakhstan. Taksay-1, Mound 6, Female burial This is one of the burials in the \"golden series\", meaning a mound containing golden fragments along with a skeleton. One such mound, discovered in south-eastern Kazakhstan in 1969, had warrior's equipment and assorted funerary goods that included 4,000 golden fragments and was dubbed the Golden Man. Krym Altynbekov's recreation of the Golden Man.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7448183298110962}
+{"content": "ART-Logo2017-300 (1).jpeg\n\nINITIAL VISIT The first visit is a 90 minute appointment. A non-invasive assessment is performed including a general health history and a complete functional health evaluation.\n\nAfter the pertinent health information has been collected, a functional health evaluation of the immune system using the Galvanic Skin Response Device (GSRD) by International Health Technologies, is performed. The GSRD works with meridians: a network of energetic pathways that pass through organs and tissues in the body. Acupuncture points act as windows into the meridian system. When the GSRD is applied to specific acupuncture points, the bio-energetic current travels through meridians and allows A.R.T.® to evaluate which systems are out of balance or are stressed.\n\nA detailed assessment on the immune system includes the digestive, lymphatic, hepatic, adrenal, and nervous systems. The evaluation looks for more microorganisms that are overloading these systems, such as bacteria, viruses, candida, mold, parasites, heavy metals, and vaccinations. After creating a homeopathic based on the findings, the first of the “five trigger allergens” attributing to the heightened immune response will be worked on. All of the five trigger allergens will be worked on extensively in the follow up visits.\n\nFOLLOW UP VISITS During the 30 minute follow up visits, focus will be on continuing to build and strengthen the immune system by looking at the overloads that are still contributing to an imbalance. It takes approximately three to six months before restoring balance to the system. The five trigger allergens will be continuously evaluated and worked on as well.\n\nWhen the balance is restored and the immune system is functioning more effectively, a full sensitivity screening of the over two hundred foods will be performed. It is important to look at all of the underlying food sensitivities that are also contributing to the overloaded immune system before working on the actual diagnosed food allergens.\n\nIt is important to understand that the success of Allergy Release Technique depends on a true commitment to the process and the clinician so that the immune support is done consistently and thoroughly. In order for this technique to work, and commitment to come to weekly 30 minute appointments is imperative. The actual length of your treatment will depend on how your body responds and the severity of your allergies or condition.\n\nCOST Initial visit $250 Follow up visits $75\n\nwater drop.jpg", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8367068767547607}
+{"content": "To Band or Not to Band, that is the question\n\nLike many bird observatories, the Missouri River Bird Observatory began as a bird-banding station. From 2009 to 2013, we monitored spring migration by mist-netting and banding birds at Grand Pass Conservation Area in northern Saline County, MO.  Our banding station was about 60 meters from the Missouri River, which quickly became our namesake.  Over the years, we also operated fall migration stations, shorebird banding studies, and several MAPS stations (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship; a protocol for studying breeding birds and the recruitment of young). \n\nOver time, we found that we could cover a lotmore ground and gather a lot more data that answered conservation-focused questions by doing surveys in which we count birds detected by sight and sound. Surveys are also far less invasive to birds than banding, which can be quite stressful for captured birds of most species. Therefore MRBO progressed from primarily using banding as a scientific method to using point counts and line-transect surveys.  The organization now covers about 45 prairie sites, 60 wetland sites and 5-10 forest sites each year, documenting all birds seen and heard.  We also locate and monitor the nests of prairie birds on Wah’Kon-Tah and Taberville Prairie Conservation Areas.\n\nFor some bird observatories, the situation is very different.  For example, observatories located in migratory bottlenecks such as the Great Lakes shoreline can gather enough information via migration banding to answer very important conservation questions.  Also, for certain scientific studies, capturing birds is the only method that will suffice to gather data – such as studies that use telemetry to determine the exact migratory pathway and stopover points of a species.  This information is extremely important to land managers who are conserving and improving habitat throughout a species’ entire migratory route. \n\nFor MRBO’s purposes of monitoring fluctuations in bird populations statewide, with a focus on Missouri’s most imperiled habitats, and measuring those populations’ responses to land management, banding proved to be an inadequate tool.  However, we still use banding as an education and outreach tool, having found that seeing Missouri’s native birds “up close and personal” to be an inspiring experience for people of all ages.  MRBO’s Northern Saw-whet Owl banding station and our Backyard Banding program bring the birds-in-hand experience to people all over the state.  The Backyard Banding program also has a Citizen Science component that allows MRBO to examine the longevity of familiar backyard species and the winter site fidelity of migrants.  We run these banding operations very carefully to minimize stress on the birds while providing audiences with important information regarding Missouri’s birds, their habitats and their conservation. \n\nComments are closed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.62263023853302}
+{"content": "Main content area\n\nImpact of Shelterbelts on Oxidation-Reduction Properties and Greenhouse Gases Emission from Soils\n\nSzajdak, Lech Wojciech, Gaca, Wioletta, Augustin, Jürgen, Meysner, Teresa\nEcological Chemistry and Engineering 2018 v.25 no.4 pp. 643-658\nCrataegus monogyna, Hapludalfs, Robinia, carbon dioxide, enzyme activity, fields, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, ions, iron, landscapes, methane, nitrate reductase, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, peroxidase, shelterbelts, soil quality, trees\nThe Typic Hapludalfs soils under two old shelterbelts (200 years old) Robinia pseudacacia and Crataegus monogyna, multi species of trees (young shelterbelt - 20 years old) and neighbouring cultivated fields were investigated. The function of shelterbelts of different age and plant composition in agricultural landscape and estimation of biochemical and chemical soil conditions for the decrease of greenhouse gases release from soil to the atmosphere was the aim of the research. In soils under shelterbelts were estimated activities of several enzymes participating in the oxidation-reduction processes, ferric and ferrous ions and the evolutions of gases like N₂, N₂O, CO₂, and CH₄. The soils under old shelterbelts characterized higher peroxidase activity than in young shelterbelt and adjoining cultivated fields. However, no significant differences were observed for nitrate reductase activity between old and young shelterbelts. There were proved differences between emission of N₂O in soils under shelterbelts and in adjoining cultivated fields. Furthermore, it was observed significant effect of the young shelterbelt on the decrease of carbon dioxide release than in the adjoining cultivated field. The manipulation of the landscape through the introduction of shelterbelts of different age and the composition of plants leads to the modification of biogeochemical soil conditions for N₂O and N₂ formation and finally decrease of the greenhouse gases evolution from soils to the atmosphere. Thus the creation of new shelterbelts is favourable factor for agricultural landscape.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9378564953804016}
+{"content": "Reduced to Wordlessness\n\nReview of Celina Su's Landia (USA: Belladonna Series, 2018)\nby Tse Hao Guang\n\nCelina Su’s Landia could be the future of English poetry. It is concerned about placelessness/placemaking, language’s limits/unlimitedness, and the complex and contradictory relations between both. A debut gesturing beyond itself, it is the kind of book that makes one wonder what the next one is going to be like. Su works in Urban Studies and does community organising in the US and Thailand; she is of Chinese descent, was born in São Paulo and moved to the US. These tags inform her work, which totters between looking in and looking out, suggestive of a poetic voice anxious to reconcile every fascinating facet of Su’s mind. Out of all these facets America remains the place and language fundamental to the book. Su’s poems are speaking American to Americans, challenging them to go beyond America. Yet asking if Landia speaks to me, a Singaporean, seems a banal question next to: how does it speak? \n\nLandia’s neologic title plays with the originally Greco-Latin “-ia” suffix, frequently used to form abstract, typically feminine nouns from adjectives: manic, mania. “Land” as an adjective also suggests animals and plants, distinguishing them from those that live in water. Landia, then, is the country of the land-based, who form not only a real ecology but also an imagined community of those asking, “what soil? whose soil?”. Landia is an in-between place, as Su says in her Lithub interview.\n\nSuch identity issues are the immediate focus of Landia’s first section, “Topographies,” and Su explores them deftly through wordplay. Aposiopesis is a favourite technique, a rhetorical breaking off in speech—for instance, “Still my own luminous blackened cloud of…” (“To Steal Oneself”)—a way of demonstrating the ultimate unsayability of the self, a confession that the self cannot be confessed in words alone. This impossibility is a moral dilemma:\n\nA smuggled adult is merely, a smuggled adult.\nUnless I, a woman of disgrace, open my mouth\nWide, illustrate the scars to prove it.\nThen I exotic them my own body. Dryly, would I.\n\nThe confessing persona is damned if she opens her mouth, and damned if she does not. Either she makes her body an exotic object under an orientalist examination, or she silences the voice of the “smuggled adult” she identifies with and wishes to amplify. In addition, and more worryingly, the minority speaking risks assuming that the (non-smuggled, non-woman, non-disgraced) majority, “them,” is most worth speaking to. Ultimately, Su’s persona decides to “exotic them [her] own body,” but “Dryly,” at an ironic distance. She is in this way torn between the conceptual head and the confessing heart, “Tending to my wounds / Licking them quantitative / Number me dispassionate\".\n\nThis vacillation toward and away from the confessional is also tactical. See “Means-tested Manifesto,” whose title shows a persona suspicious of the tendency not just to value but also to capitalise on the stories and poetics of the underprivileged. “I wear no suit, only a mask. It’s figurative, I am afraid, / As skin-deep, as personal and sacred, as my skin”—the confessional mask is one that looks exactly like the poet’s face, except fake. “Hey hey hey, you can’t catch me. I’m syntax-free,” the persona’s sickness says. Her “[colourblind]” illness has helped her escape being pinned down as merely a Woman of Color, has hopefully helped her book escape from the Asian-American section in bookstores. Should readers be happy or not?\n\nA significant portion of “Topographies” deals with Su’s refugee work in Thailand, and her position within that space as a nonwhite but nonetheless immensely privileged American aid worker. In these poems, a more lyrical and coherent self emerges. Su’s personae are allowed to take on slightly more recognisable, less in-between identities (the refugee, the aid worker). Yet this recognition is limited by Su’s poetics. In “Chai-Dan Submits Three Aims,” the poem speaks in the voice of Chai-Dan, an asylum seeker, while making him speak in English, and in the style of a Celina Su poem. It is impossible to fully embody another, the poem suggests, while maintaining the importance of attempts to do so. Not for the sake of Chai-Dan, who probably cannot understand the poem and likely needs much more than poetry, but for the sake of Su, whose work is strengthened to the extent that such imaginative leaps are not condescending. The ultimate verdict rests with Chai-Dan, but from my vantage point Su has managed to give readers a sense of what a person like Chai-Dan thinks, while never hiding the fact that her persona is not, cannot be, him.\n\nIn the multipart “Route 1095,” built like a series of dictionary entries, Su’s style is at its most plainspoken (“To grasp a poetry of prosaic subjection”), and most consistently multilingual. The “I” here is unambiguously aid worker Celina Su, grappling with her experiences through the lens of Thai phrases containing the word “jai” or “heart”. In this poem, well-meaning certainties are overturned. Su is American:\n\nMy power here unsettling. A university degree, a couple of successful grant proposals, but mostly, my passport. Discordant with how I look to the locals, so that they constantly point at my face and ask me where I am from.\n\nIn this case, to not be in-between, to be confused by in-betweenness, is the disprivileged situation. The poem derives its energy from images and scenes of Thai and refugee experience: how “street food stalls announce “IMF” as a codeword for “austerity,” [ . . . ] “IMF fried chicken!,”” how “Two weeks after his hut burned down, we asked whether anything bad happened that year, and he could not think of anything”. The various soundscape of Thailand reverberates:\n\nTo fragile geckos trilling clicks, water buffaloes moaning, a creek slowly trickling, frogs croaking. The distant beats of trance music, the national anthem, the prayers of a mosque, the gongs and chants of a Buddhist temple, the silence of scarecrows.\n\nInstead of the wordplay and self-doubt in other poems, here is a poetics of witness; the deconstruction of the poetic I makes way for real people living real lives. At least that’s what the poem seems to say. It ends, however, with a facsimile of a Thai child’s letter, complete with illustrated soldier: “When I grow up, I will become a Thai soldier, and I will arrest the Burmese migrant drug dealers, but their mothers will be very, very”. At the realest moment, Su breaks off rhetorically once more.\n\nIt’s increasingly clear as one reads Landia that Su’s procedure is a kind of collage, where individual poems contain different kinds of text with different points of view, overlaid as a means of grappling with the enormity of human experience. In “Seeing Like a State,” another sprawling poem largely written in prose, part 3 shifts from paragraph to paragraph, beginning with a personal observation, moving to historical imagination, to inquiry, to quotations from famous politicians, to finally artful, fragmented poetic images. Here paragraphs becomes stanzas:\n\nAs if     papers were these wispy gossamer nothings, tickets to role-playing games,\n\nas if     others could humor our pearl-white perils—when paperness demarcated our entire—\n\nIn these stanzas, another favourite stylistic technique recurs: As ifs appear in the margins, implying logical connections between parts but really using these false assumptions to demonstrate something stranger, poetic. Moments like this suggest that the logician and the poet might exist as one. The uneasiness generated by switching between fact and imagination is itself part of the pleasure of reading Landia.\n\nThe concerns of the next two sections of the book shift slightly. In the second section, “Distances,” the poetry becomes less interested in the question of the self, and more interested in how historical and current affairs might manifest in poetry. References to traumatic events and situations in Chile, China, the US, Brazil, and the Czech Republic almost blur into each other, and “in such cities, we stand outside ourselves” (“51”), watching these places as we might scroll through a travel journal, letting them wash over us. This creates an experience of space as felt by a ‘third-culture’ mind like Su’s:\n\nLet him rise back from Hades, move to Newark,\n     eat pao de queijo with newly arrived Brazilian families, a fish\n     every Friday for penance.\nAllow each fish to come from the Passaic,\n    downstream from the Agent Orange factories he commanded.\nMay he go for the medium rare. (\"18\")\n\nThe whole world is going mad, and it takes a certain perspective comfortable with jumping from Hades to Newark to Brazil to New Jersey to Vietnam from line to line to grasp the enormity of the problem. What does this mean for those—the majority of us, I suspect—who have only ever thought of one place as home, whether American or Burmese or Singaporean?\n\nThat the poems in “Distances” are titled with numbers that skip forward from piece to piece provides a clue. Landia suggests that readers need to get used to different ways of reading, and quickly. In the next section of the book, Section 3, running under each poem are words in the space where footnotes should be. Here are lines of an alternative poem spanning all the pages of the section, inviting us to approximate the kind of distracted reading that cyberspace promotes, eyes flicking from main poems to alt-poem, flipping back and forth, re-reading. The alt-poem itself jumps from place to place in each line, and ominously suggests that one symbol for this disconnected globalism might be America itself: “I grew up believing that America is// a serpentine thread in the global quilt, lining superhighways with electric cables…”.\n\nSu understands that “The exact paths of [her] daily perambulations are not dictated by formal laws// and structures, but enforcement and access.”  She wishes, therefore, to “jaywalk,” to get around law enforcement. It is doubtful, however, if a strategy of jaywalking truly succeeds. To trample “shortcuts through backyards to school,” as Su does, is still to reinforce school as an institution. One is merely changing the way that one gets there. In taking such illegal shortcuts, she “hope[s] to encounter,// amidst the homogenizing whorls of globalization, the finer knots.” It is probable that she considers her two ‘paths’ of reading (main poems versus alt-poem) as the invention of a shortcut, a way of short-circuiting the usual ways of reading. The two ‘paths” are, however, still formal laws and structures, albeit self-invented, which are enforced, or adhered to, in the book. Each new shortcut is then another homogenising force, which Su deplores in globalisation. After all, a shortcut taken daily will make a dirt path in the neighbor’s back lawn. I am not sure we can escape globalisation and its effects by any kind of shortcut, internally or externally imposed.\n\nThis uncertainty is perhaps also the author’s and it manifests itself in the increasing fragmentation of the main poems, a procedure that generates the best poems of the book. In these last poems we move from an open-air museum on the Ile de Gorée to a demolished Chinese theatre in New York City to other in-between places like a bus shelter, JFK Airport, and fantasy towns, in a steady progression from the real to the irreal. Formally, the poems, too, decay. Line length fluctuates; white space becomes even more integral to understanding the loss of physical and imaginative space; photographs and maps, often presented with very little context, invade the page and demand to be read as poems in their own right. In “Notes on the Shape of Absence,” the impossibility of escaping relentless globalisation manifests as dismay over urban renewal, and as the impossibility of using words:\n\nI read that this was once the home of—\n\n\n\n\n\nI cannot differentiate the homage from the lament. As I resign, I surmise. More often than not, via whitewashing or semiotic deconstruction, the erasure.\n\nAposiopesis is used again, this time beyond delineating the limits of the expressive self, to trace the same limits to words and reality. Where breaking-off in earlier poems felt smart, stylish, disruptive, here it is sad, meditative, final. Su’s bathetic last words on the citizens of Landia, those who live in-between, are:\n\nWe are neither here, nor there.\nWe are horse horse tiger tiger.\nWe are snake snake fish fish.\nWe are more or less.\nWe are like this, like that.\nWe are so-so. (“Aubade: At the Bus Shelter”)\n\nHere are people who know all the multilingual idioms for “average,” and who nonetheless remain solidly so. The global expands, but it also flattens. The well-travelled become cynical. What’s left seems to be the fact that poetry exists, that this book exists, and we are invited to examine its formations and contradictions, like flaws in a diamond.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7384831309318542}
+{"content": "Ken Vogel Has a Bullshit Story To Tell That Will Help the President and He Would Appreciate It if the President and Rudy Giuliani Would Shut Up Because They Are Screwing Up His Work!\n\nKen Vogel has a bullshit story to tell about Vice President Biden and his son Hunter Biden that would help the President’s reelection chances. Vogel’s story is bullshit, but he’s very upset that the President and Rudy Giuliani just won’t shut up long enough so that Vogel can peddle his bullshit.\n\nFormer FBI Special Agent specializing in counterintelligence Asha Rangappa summarizes Vogel’s efforts very, very well.\n\nHow do we know the story that Vogel, as well as the President and Rudy Giuliani, are peddling is bullshit? Because two different publications, The Washington Post and The Intercept have debunked it.\n\nAnd we know where this disinformation comes from, Russian government media outlets. And they started pushing it all the way back in 2014 most likely because most people reasonably assumed Vice President Biden, as the incumbent vice president would run to succeed President Obama positioning his campaign as a third Obama term (see the dates in the third tweet below). This also shows that Putin’s planning to interfere in US politics and the 2016 presidential election through information warfare goes farther back then has been previously recognized.\n\nThere’s another piece to the puzzle that debunks Vogel’s, the President’s, and Giuliani’s bullshit disinformation that they lifted whole cloth from Putin’s information warfare campaign against the United States – the legal and Federal professional ethics piece. And here too, even if everything Vogel, the President, and Giuliani are alleging were true, which it isn’t as both the facts and the timelines do not line up, there is no there there. Here’s a deep dive into these issues to answer a question asked by former Federal prosecutor Ken White, who tweets and blogs as Popehat.\n\nAnd the response from courtesy of the Thread Reader Ap:\n\nasked if anyone had done a law-based deep dive into the allegations that Biden somehow did something legally impermissible (i.e., conflict of interest) by being involved in the Ukraine prosecutor negotiations. I decided to look into it. BLUF: No /Tweetstorm\nFirst off, the general financial conflict of interest laws that generally prohibit Federal employees from participating in matters in which they have financial interests (namely 18 USC.208) expressly do not apply to the Vice President (nor the President). 18 USC 202(c)\nMoreover, w/r/t family members of executive branch employees, the primary financial conflict of interest statute only prohibits employees from participating in particular matters in which the employee, their spouse, or their MINOR children have a financial interest. 18 USC 208(a)\nSo, even assuming for the sake of argument that the conflict of interest statute applied to the VP & even if the departure of the prosecutor were to have had an impact on Hunter’s finances (which all reputable reports suggest was an impossibility given the timeline of events)…\nthe VP’s involvement in discussions re: the prosecutor still would not have constituted a criminal conflict of interest because Hunter was obviously not a MINOR child at the time.\nThat said, if the Federal conflict of interest laws did apply to the VP, the fact that a criminal conflict didn’t exist under the statute wouldn’t have ended the legal analysis…\nFederal employees are also subject to Standards of Ethical Conduct, which are set out in broader regulations issued by the Office of Govt Ethics. 5 CFR 2635.\nUnder the Standards of Ethical Conduct, Federal employees generally should recuse themselves from participating in certain matters even if there is no prohibited financial conflict of interest under 18 USC 208.\nUnder 5 CFR 2635.502, an employee is generally required to recuse when there is a “particular matter involving specific parties, the employee has a “covered relationship” (such as a close family) and a reasonable person would question their impartiality.\nApplying this here, even if it were true (its not!) that the prosecutor was investigating the company Biden’s son was involved with at the time that Biden was engaged in discussions re: the prosecutor’s removal, its not clear that this rule would be directly applicable here…\nThe rule, by its terms, only applies to “particular matters involving specific parties,” which is intentionally narrow and applies to specific proceedings affecting the legal rights of the parties or transactions between identified parties. 5 CFR 2640.102(1).\nExamples of such matters are particular contracts, grants, product approval applications, litigation, investigations, etc. Here, it seems a stretch to say that discussions re whether the prosecutor should remain in his position was a “particular matter involving specific parties”\nMoreover, even if you stretched & decided it met that definition, the particular rule would not apply directly here anyway, because Biden’s son (nor even the company) was most definitely NOT a party to the matter at issue (whether the prosecutor should remain in his position)…\nA caveat: there’s a catch-all provision at 5 CFR 2635.502(a)(2), acknowledging that even in other circumstances not addressed in the reg, an employee should generally recuse anytime their participation in a matter would reasonably raise a question re: their impartiality.\nIf Biden’s son was involved with a company under active investigation by the Ukrainian prosecutor (again, apparently this is not true!)…\nI think nearly any Federal ethics official would have cited this regulation and advised the VP NOT to get involved in discussions regarding the future of the Ukrainian prosecutor, even if only to avoid creating the appearance of a potential conflict\nEven still, this is very much a judgment call and even under this incredibly-strained counter-factual hypothetical, the VP’s involvement still would NOT have been a criminal violation.\nIn short, even if the VP wasn’t exempt from these conflict of interest laws, and even if the facts were other than they actually appear to be, Biden’s behavior still would have been lawful. /End @waltshaub @NormEisen @RWPUSA\n\nVogel, the President, Giuliani, even the Vice President, are all peddling this bullshit or actively involved with trying to get Ukraine’s new president and his government to assist them in ratfucking the 2020 presidential election, really ratfuck the Democratic primaries, to the President’s benefit. So we already know the cui bono or who stands to benefit piece of this active measures information warfare campaign of disinformation aimed at the American people: the President. What we don’t know, but someone really should be looking into it, is what exactly does Ken Vogel get out of this? What does he stand to benefit? The real question here is why is Vogel clearly peddling debunked Russian disinformation that was created and first used back in 2014 to help obscure Putin’s moves to scarf up Crimea, invade the Donbass, and potentially dirty up a potential Biden 2016 candidacy? Is Vogel just a useful idiot or is he actively participating in an act of information warfare begun by Putin, weaponized by Giuliani and the President, which is intended to propagandize Americans in order to achieve Putin’s strategic interests? This is the real story, not the bullshit that Vogel is pushing. Enterprising reporters and investigators should be looking into it; trying to figure out exactly why Vogel is doing this and what he is getting out of it.\n\nOpen thread!\n\nPS: Someone should really also be looking into exactly what it is that Giuliani has been doing in Europe, especially the post Soviet states, over the better part of the past ten to fifteen years supposedly as part of his consulting work as a security expert, which he is not. Journalists and investigators should also be looking into who has been paying for whatever it is he’s been doing. It isn’t all just beer, skittles, and cuckolding Marines. And it clearly has made Giuliani a very wealthy man.\n\nFull Disclosure: I served as the Cultural Advisor (senior civilian advisor for culture) to the Commanding General of US Army Europe under temporary assigned control (TACON) from December 2013 to June 2014 and under operational control (OPCON) from June to August 2014. The views expressed here are solely my own and do not reflect those of US Army Europe and the US Army either in 2014 or now.\n\nThe Intelligence Whistleblower’s Life Is Over Because the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act Does NOT Actually Protect Intelligence Community and National Security Whistleblowers!\n\nRight now only a very limited number of people know the name of the Intelligence official or officer who filed the whistleblower complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG). She or he is represented by a top national security lawyer, who is of counsel for a firm that specializes in national security law, classification, and clearance related issues. I have no doubt that by late Wednesday evening, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was most likely called by the President and told to figure out which senior Intelligence officials and officers were assigned to the National Security Council’s National Security Staff over the summer and returned to their home agency in late July or early August in order to figure out who made the complaint. By last night the President’s surrogates started impugning the whistleblower as an Obama holdover or loyalist or a deep state actor acting out of political motivations. The President, of course, decided to pick up that argument this morning on Twitter and during his ongoing press gaggle in the Oval Office. And we now have this reporting:\n\nAt this point, if they haven’t done so already, the Intelligence official or officer who made the complaint and his or her attorneys should have plans in place to both mitigate potential retaliatory legal action the administration might take and to safeguard her or his life and that of his or her family. The reason these actions are necessary is because the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act DOES NOT ACTUALLY PROTECT WHISTLEBLOWERS! Ken McClanahan, an attorney specializing in national security law, classification, and clearance provides a handy explainer at Just Security.\n\nWhat is the ICWPA?\n\nThe ICWPA holds the dubious distinction of being the only “Whistleblower Protection Act” that doesn’t actually include any whistleblower protections. To summarize the law’s extensive history, I’ll say: It originally was intended to provide protections for national security whistleblowers who wanted to go to Congress, but was watered down in the final iteration due to separation of powers objections from the executive branch. While keeping the original – and misleading – name, the final law only really established a mechanism for Intelligence Community whistleblowers to forward a complaint to the congressional intelligence committees by way of an inspector general. It is a breakdown in this process that Schiff is flagging.\n\nWhat is the ICWPA process?\n\nSimply speaking, if a whistleblower working for an Intelligence Community agency wants to bring something to the attention of the congressional intelligence committees, they must write up a complaint and give it to either their agency’s inspector general or the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), specifically stating that it is an ICWPA complaint. The ICIG then has 14 days to decide if the complaint pertains to an “urgent concern” and if it is credible.\n\nI highly recommend the rest of McClanahan’s explainer if you really want to understand what the process dispute between the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Department of Justice, and the White House over the Acting Director’s refusal to submit the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s report finding the complaint to be both urgent and credible to Congress.\n\nThe ICWPA does not actually protect Intelligence Community and national security whistleblowers. It also, contrary to Rachel Maddow’s hyper-enthusiastic statements during and after her interview with Congressman Schiff last night, DOES NOT PROVIDE THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL OR OFFICER WITH ANY OTHER LAWFUL WAY TO GET THIS INFORMATION TO CONGRESS!!!!!!! Whoever the whistleblower is, she or he is not now entitled under the ICPWA to go directly to Congress because the Acting DNI, on the advice of the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ and the White House, presumably the White House Counsel’s Office, have determined not to forward the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s findings to Congress as required by the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act. If this Intelligence official or officer tries to take the information that is the basis of his or her complaint directly to the House Special Committee on Intelligence, she or he will be in jeopardy for prosecution under the Espionage Act. Because it is not up to this Intelligence official or officer to determine if Congressman Schiff and the members of his committee need to know this information.\n\nThis Intelligence official or officer is not, under the law, a whistleblower. They are basically, at most, a lawful complainant about a counterintelligence and insider threat concerning the President to the Intelligence Community Inspector General. He or she has no protection under the law. And based on how the President and his surrogates are talking about her or him, and the reporting that “administration officials”, most likely the Acting Director of National Intelligence and his senior counsel, have shared additional information with the White House so they can determine if executive privilege should be invoked and asserted, it is highly likely that if the White House has not figured out who this Intelligence official or officer is, they likely have a short list of possibilities and will work it out sooner rather than later. Once that happens, this Intelligence official or officers life as they know it, not just their career, will be over. All for following the law. A badly written law that provides no actual protections for the person bringing the complaint. And it will all be done under the cover of law.\n\nOpen thread!\n\n\nPPS: For a fuller, very technical treatment of this issue, as well as last night’s post, please check out my weekly column at The Ark Valley Voice. I focused on these issues for this week’s column.\n\nPPPS: I did a slight editorial clarification to the fifth sentence of the final paragraph and added a new final sentence to the final paragraph of this post.\n\nThe Counterintelligence Implications of the Intelligence Officer’s Whistleblower Complaint\n\nAbout an hour ago The Washington Post reported that the Intelligence official’s or officer’s complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General has to do with Ukraine.\n\n\n\nMuch more at the link, but not much new information beyond the top line. What we don’t have are details, just some tantalizing hints. Given that the complaint involves something the President committed to do for a still undisclosed foreign leader and that it involves Ukraine, it is likely one of two things. Either he promised Putin something that had something to do with Ukraine, such as getting sanctions lifted and/or getting Russia readmitted to the G-7 making it once again the G-8, or he promised Ukraine’s President Zelensky something. Most likely that he’d free up the military aid in exchange for made up dirt on Vice President Biden’s son. Either way Putin will have signals intercepts of the call. Either because the call was with Putin and he recorded it or because Russia is actively collecting Signals Intelligence on the Ukrainians. Ukraine’s new president would be a primary target of such collection. It also likely means that the Estonians, the Latvians, the Germans, the French, the Norwegians, the Dutch, and several others most likely know the details as well as they are all collecting Signals Intelligence on Russia and Putin.\n\nAnd this is where the counterintelligence concerns arise. The President’s unconventional approach to communicating with foreign leaders, outside advisors, and others, and his opposition to having these communications memorialized creates a counterintelligence problem for him and for the United States. This counterintelligence problem exists regardless what he may or may not have promised a foreign leader over the series of phone calls and interactions at the heart of the Intelligence official’s or officer’s complaint and whether or not it is good for the US and American interests. By getting rid of note takers, getting rid of readouts and summaries, either eliminating or extremely restricting transcripts of his phone calls and meetings, and by often using an unsecured cell phone, the President has made it all but impossible for officials in his own administration to actually document and know what he is saying to and hearing from the foreign leaders he is interacting with. This places the President, and by extension the United States, at the mercy of these foreign leaders. Right now we do not know with whom the President was speaking to in these phone calls, even as we now know it had something to do with Ukraine. But it would be a safe assumption that the foreign leader was making a recording of the call, as well as having a note taker making detailed notes. This provides that foreign leader with leverage over the President and the United States should he or she choose to use it because they can disclose as much or as little of the conversations and spin them however they want, while the United States’ government has limited, at best, information about the conversations and is therefore operating at an asymmetric disadvantage. The same problems exists for the President’s one on one meetings with Putin and Kim, where we also have no officially documented notes or transcripts on the US side of the meetings. And if you think that Putin and Kim didn’t record those meetings, I have a bridge and some beachfront property to sell you.\n\nRight now we do not know which foreign leader the President spoke with, what, if anything, the President promised that foreign leader, and if the promise is good for the US’s national interest or bad for it. We do not even know how the Intelligence official or officer came to know this information. We don’t know if she or he was part of the limited chain of distribution for a transcript of the call. We do not know if he or she saw a Signals Intelligence Intercept of the call because we have that foreign leader under full time Signals Intelligence surveillance. We do not know if he or she was in the presence of the President when the phone call and the other, multiple activities that were reported occurred. But we do know one thing: the foreign leader in question knows what the President promised and, from a counterintelligence perspective, it is responsible to assume that foreign leader has a recording of the call, which gives that foreign leader leverage over the President and the United States. The President has compromised himself and the United States to the leader of a foreign power and that is the major counterintelligence problem that arises from this whistleblower’s complaint.\n\nOpen thread!\n\nA Few Thoughts on the Attack on the Saudi Oil Facility\n\nWhile we all wait to actually see something that resembles actual evidence, as opposed to speculation and assertions, of who is responsible for Saturday’s attack on the Saudi oil facility, I think there are several things to keep in mind. The first is that the administration in general and the President, the Secretary of State, and the US Special Representative for Iran do not have any real credibility in any of their public statements. You will undoubtedly remember that all three of them went all in on Iran being responsible for the two rounds of tanker attacks in port in the UAE and just underway off the UAE’s coasts earlier in the summer. You’ll notice that those assertions were not only quickly contested by the ship owners and the UAE. And you have also probably noticed that all three stopped talking about them shortly after the initial round of public bluster. So until or unless someone with some credibility comes out and provides some verification that the Iranians actually conducted Saturday’s attack on the Saudi refinery, all assertions from the administration should be taken with a very large grain of salt. And this goes even more for anything the Saudis state publicly, as well as the Israelis. Both Muhammad bin Salman and Bibi Netanyahu have their own reasons for wanting to place the blame for this on Iran. And both would really like the US to fight Iran for them to the last American Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, DOD and Service civilian, and contractor. Is it possible that Iran is responsible? Yes it is. What we don’t know right now is how plausible or probably it is.\n\nWhat I think is going to happen here is that the President will bluster a bit more on Twitter or in press gaggles about Iran, though, apparently, the Special Representative has told Congressional staffers that the President is still open to engagement with Iran. So I expect that we’ll see a replay of what happened with the two rounds of tanker attacks from this past summer. Several days of Presidential bluster on Twitter and in press gaggles about Iran being responsible and what the US could do, followed by the Secretary of State and the US Special Representatives trying to both back up the tough talk, while doing whatever it is they’re doing. If no evidence is actually ever presented, or contrary evidence comes out, then the whole thing will just be dropped.\n\nI do not think we’re going to see a US military response. A one off strike, either lobbing a couple of missiles or a US Air Force or Naval aviation strike, would be both tactically and strategically pointless. All it would do is rally the just attacked Iranian populace to support the Iranian government. As I’ve written about here, as well as in more professional publications, an invasion of Iran would be strategic malpractice. Moreover, as I’ve written about here and elsewhere, we simply do not have the military resources right now to actually increase our military operational tempo, let alone add a third theater of war to the Afghan and Iraqi ones we are already operating in. And there’s another reason an American response is unlikely: this wasn’t an attack on Americans or American infrastructure. As far as we know so far from the reporting, no Saudis were hurt or killed. Certainly no Americans were. So any attack on Iran here would not be justifiable, it would be preemptory. Not that I think the President or the Secretary of State actually care about such things as Just War Theory. It is also hard to convince Americans to support going to war to protect Saudi oil refineries, so even the domestic politics of this would be a very difficult needle to thread.\n\nThere’s a final dynamic at work here that I think is very important, which is that the Iranians are in control of this situation, not the President, not the Secretary of State, not Muhammad bin Salman, and not Bibi Netanyahu. They also have the President’s number. They know he doesn’t want to actually get into any more wars in the Middle East and Central Asia and, in fact, wants to get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. They also don’t give a damn about the Trump Doctrine. The Iranians have no desire to treat the President fairly and from their perspective they’ve gotten nothing but “or else” from the US for over 40 years, with, perhaps, the exception of how President Obama treated them in the run up to and during the JCPOA negotiations. The open ended “or else” threat of the Trump Doctrine is a hollow threat for Iran. As a result, the Iranians are actually calling the shots here, not the President or anyone else. Whether the President, Secretary Pompeo, the Special Representative for Iran, or anyone else advising them recognizes this reality is something I cannot speak to.\n\nFinally, for those looking for other resources, both subject matter experts and reporters, on the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Iran, I recommend the following.\n\nOpen thread!\n\nHouston DNC Debate Part III: The Revenge of the Son of the Houston DNC Debate!\n\nLooks like we could use a new debate thread. Since we’re only about five minutes or so from the end of this thing. let this also serve as a post debate open thread as well.\n\nI’m just now watching it on the DVR as I had something to do earlier. But feel free to spoiler away. For instance, do they all stop answering each question with “Let’s be clear…”? Also, did someone get Bernie a lozenge?\n\nOpen thread!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5906947255134583}
+{"content": "Sighisoara, Romania – On Tuesday, January 31, Veritas director Petra Popa was looking for a miracle.\n\nThe advisory board for Veritas, a partner Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) ministry center in Sighisoara, Romania, had realized the organization needed a new building. The compassionate ministries for children, teenagers, the disabled, the elderly, and against domestic violence had long outgrown the former fur coat factory that had served as the Veritas “Family Center” since 1998.\n\nWithin a week of their June 2011 meeting, board members found a property for sale that was within walking distance of the Family Center. It would take a miracle for Veritas to be able to buy the new property and to sell the old Family Center. Amazingly, by the end of the summer, both had been accomplished.\n\nThe owner of the new property, which consists of several buildings on over an acre of land, gave Veritas the option to pay for the property in three installments over the course of a year rather than securing a bank mortgage. Additionally, the owner accepted the former Family Center as part of the payment, significantly reducing the sale price of the new center.\n\nThe first of the three installments was paid at the signing at the end of the summer. The second would be due at the end of January, and the final would be due June 2012.\n\nOn the morning of January 31, all the money for the payment had still not arrived in the Veritas bank account. Petra knew that as the director of a Christian organization, she needed to respect her financial commitments without delays. Monetary gifts from various donors in the United States and Great Britain had been deposited, but a large amount already transferred from the NCM office in Bucharest had not yet been received in the Veritas bank account.\n\nSince the funds coming from NCM are processed in dollars, and Petra had to pay in Euros, she was hoping for a favorable (low) exchange rate. She was quite discouraged on the morning of January 31 to see that the dollar was weaker than it had been the day before. It would now cost $1.36 for each Euro. Petra decided to wait until all the money was in the bank before she would exchange it.\n\nIn her office at the new Veritas Community Center, while waiting for news that the money from the NCM office had been received, Petra prayed that the money would arrive in time and that they would get a favorable exchange rate.\n\nThroughout the afternoon, Petra kept checking the exchange rate, and it kept getting better – first to $1.33, then to $1.28. Finally, at 4:30 pm, just a half hour before the bank closed, the money arrived from Bucharest. By this point in time, Petra was able to secure an exchange rate of $1.25 – saving Veritas over $1,500 from what would have been received at the earlier exchange rate!\n\nIn God’s perfect timing, Veritas was presented with an incredible opportunity to purchase a new center for compassionate ministries.\n\nIn God’s perfect timing, Veritas was able to pay its second installment in full on January 31.\n\nIn God’s perfect timing, the last money to be transferred was received at a time when the exchange rate was best.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9031686782836914}
+{"content": "Scenic memory of the Shoah – on the transgenerational transmission of extreme trauma in Germany\n\nGrünberg, K. (2013). Scenic Memory of the Shoah—“The Adventuresome Life of Alfred Silbermann”. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 73(1), 30-42.\nGrünberg, K., & Markert, F. (2012). A psychoanalytic grave walk—Scenic memory of the Shoah. On the transgenerational transmission of extreme trauma in Germany. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 72(3), 207-222.\nGrünberg, K., & Markert, F. (2017). Child Survivors: Stolen childhood— Scenic Memory of the Shoah in Jewish child or adolescent survivors of the Nazi persecution. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1-23.\n\n\nThe research project in the Frankfurt Sigmund-Freud-Institut pursues the goal of comprehending the transmission of Jewish survivors' persecution experiences to their sons and daughters, under the specific circumstances which apply in the \"land of the perpetrators\".\n\nThe study focusses on the way in which the Shoah is recalled through a process of scenic memory rather than in a primarily verbal manner and on its effect on the next generation. Our basic assumption here is that it conveys those central aspects of the trauma, which excluded language from the start. This approach is based on the concept of scenic understanding proposed by Alfred Lorenzer, which is similar to the concept of enactment. For Lorenzer the most significant access to unconscious memories is obtained by the scenic approach, for his initial question is: \"How can the non-verbal be grasped in language?\" With the scenic understanding he wants \"to understand [...] the incomprehensible\".\n\n\nA particular characteristic of the study consists of a specific mode of research corre­sponding to the “multi-sited ethnography” approach (George Marcus): the Holocaust survivors living in Germany are not observed in a single “field” but in various contexts, including analyses, psychotherapies, psychotherapeutic self-experience groups, in video interviews, house visits, or at the “Meeting-Place for Survivors of the Shoah”, so that the study includes observations from both clinical and non-clinical settings. We will be presenting vignettes based on these sources.\n\nThe processes of the scenic memory of the Shoah are at first investigated from the dif­ferent perspectives of the two research analysts, who supervise each other. The non-Jewish German psychoanalyst and the Jewish analyst in Germany belong to different generations. Their different research perspectives are important because the transmis­sion configurations diverge and because the contrasting views expand and deepen the study of the treatment processes. In terms of the Freudian notion of \"Healing and Research\" the treating analyst is the starting point and basis for the study of trauma transmission. In addition, external supervisors who also examine the psychosocial effects of the Holocaust in Germany, Austria, Israel and the United States, are included in the research process.\n\nAs the transmission of the trauma is not directly observable, it must be interpreted her­meneutically. Firstly relevant scenes or vignettes are selected and described phenome­nologically. The subsequent analysis of these scenes follows the basic idea formulated by Lorenzer, \"to understand all the material on the model of dream interpretation”. The transference and counter-transference processes which occur in the analytic work with Holocaust survivors and their descendants, play a central role.\n\nThe transmission of trauma is investigated from working with survivors of the Holocaust and members of the Second and Third Generation. In each setting the analysts enter into a relational process. With \"evenly hovering attention\" they observe how the survivors shape the scenic memory of the Shoah. The decisive criterion for determining the character of such a scene is founded in the analysts' countertransference reaction: that is, when their feelings and fantasies indicate a \"getting-in-touch\" with the extreme trauma. This may be a hint of something catastrophically intolerable, a sense of annihilation, anxiety, pain, compassion, powerlessness, despair, hopelessness, senselessness, depression and mourning, but also bodily sensations such as shuddering, tears and paralysis. The inner eye may show images of menace and persecution from concentration camps; the inner experience is about surviving, self- or object-loss, about non-verbal expression of the place \"where language cannot reach\" (Hans Keilson).\n\nIn the next step of the evaluation, the experts are involved in the investigation process. The expert supervision will be carried out by psychoanalysts and psychologists, sociologists and cultural studies specialists who are familiar with hermeneutic approaches and analytic methods. Following the model of psychoanalytic case-supervisions the clinical and non-clinical material will be worked on with the aim of achieving a consensual conceptualization of scenic trauma transmission in the various individual cases. If necessary several expert sessions will be held.\n\n\nThe goal of the study consists in generating hypotheses from the empirical material about how and in what way, specifically in Germany, the extremely traumatic experiences of the Nazi extermination of the Jews are transmitted by survivors to the following generations.\n\n\nDr. Kurt Grünberg\n\n\nMyliusstraße 20\n\n60323 Frankfurt/M", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9732348322868347}
+{"content": "What Are the Seven Different Classification Groups in Order?\n\nIn descending order, the seven classification groups are kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Taxonomic classification is used to separate different groups of living organisms according to the characteristics they share. There are five kingdoms, which are plant, animal, protist, monera and fungus.\n\nThese kingdoms are further subdivided into the smaller grouping already mentioned. Within a given kingdom, there can be many different groups of organisms classified according to their perspective phyla. An example is the kingdom Animalia with different phyla, which include Mollusca, Porifera, Chordata, Arthropoda and Annelida.\n\nThe phylum Chordata includes animals such as fish, reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals. Mammals belong in the subphylum Vertebrata and class Mammalia. It is a very diverse group that includes primates, dogs, men, bears, squirrels, deer and many other animals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9829530119895935}
+{"content": "A report discusses an algorithm for a new kind of dynamics based on a quantum-classical hybrid-quantum-inspired maximizer. The model is represented by a modified Madelung equation in which the quantum potential is replaced by different, specially chosen \"computational\" potential. As a result, the dynamics attains both quantum and classical properties: it preserves superposition and entanglement of random solutions, while allowing one to measure its state variables, using classical methods. Such optimal combination of characteristics is a perfect match for quantum-inspired computing. As an application, an algorithm for global maximum of an arbitrary integrable function is proposed. The idea of the proposed algorithm is very simple: based upon the Quantum-inspired Maximizer (QIM), introduce a positive function to be maximized as the probability density to which the solution is attracted. Then the larger value of this function will have the higher probability to appear.\n\nSpecial attention is paid to simulation of integer programming and NP- complete problems. It is demonstrated that the problem of global maximum of an integrable function can be found in polynomial time by using the proposed quantum-classical hybrid. The result is extended to a constrained maximum with applications to integer programming and TSP (Traveling Salesman Problem).\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000005841255188}
+{"content": "Inn on Boltwood\n\nThe Inn on Boltwood's full-service downtown Amherst restaurant, 30Boltwood, combines the latest seasonal creations with an emphasis on farm-to-table cuisine, featuring the freshest local ingredients and produce. The restaurant offers an elegant and comfortable atmosphere that showcases the beauty of Amherst's natural surroundings and the bounty of the Pioneer Valley.\n\n30Boltwood's menu offers a creative and approachable wine and craft beer list, hand selected to complement each dish. The in-house master mixologist creates innovative and unique cocktails inspired by the inn’s commitment to using the freshest local ingredients available. Al fresco dining under the covered porch and patio with soft comfortable seating, a fire pit, and lavish views of the Amherst Common is available during the warm-weather season.\n\nThe restaurant also offers an intimate private dining room seating up to eight guests. Additionally, the greenhouse room, with a glass ceiling that offers magnificent sky views, features a common table that can seat up to 16 people.\n\nBreakfast: daily, 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.\nLunch: Monday through Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.\nDinner: daily, 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.\nBrunch: Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.\nIntermezzo: daily, 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.\nDessert available during lunch and dinner service", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9966373443603516}
+{"content": "Thousands of people in the uk have type 2 diabetes which remains undiagnosed. Millions of people are also at risk of diabetes, however, this can be reduced by exercise and diet.\nType 1 diabetes mostly impacts young people and children; it is commonly diagnosed at 10-14 years old. It is an autoimmune disease which destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.\n\nType 2 diabetes makes up 90% of those with diagnosed diabetes. It is more common in older people, and is a multifactorial disease caused by genetics and environment together, including obesity, excessive and unhealthy eating, a lack of exercise and stress. It is characterised by insulin resistance- the inability of insulin to move glucose into the cells for effective metabolism.  This results in overproduction of insulin, then a progressive decline in insulin production.\n\nAt- risk groups: type 2 diabetes\n-The main modifiable risk factor is being overweight. Others include poor diet and lack of physical activity. Non-modifiable risk factors include factors such as ethnicity, and sex.\n-Type 2 diabetes is 6 times more common in south Asian ethnicities, and 3 times more common in African / African-Caribbean ethnicities than general population. Women who have a history of gestational diabetes have 30% risk of developing type 2 diabetes.\n-It is recommended that those with a glycated haemoglobin (HBAlc) of 42-47 mmol/mol (6.0-6.4%) should be considered as ‘high risk’.\n-Patients with an impaired glucose tolerance or raised fasting glucose have an increased risk of progression to type 2 and other vascular complications.\n-Some patients may have blood glucose levels above the normal defined range, but not high enough for a diagnosis of  type 2 diabetes. These are said to have ‘impaired glucose regulation’, or ‘prediabetes’.\n-Prediabetes= greater risk of progressing to type 2 / developing CVD than the general population.\n\nType 1 diabetes\nThis condition has less clear risk factors than type 2. 85% of type 1 cases are in patients with no family history, however there is a genetic link. Those with variations in the HLA-DQA1, HLD-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1 genes have a higher risk of type 1 diabetes. Those with a family history with type 1 are 15X more likely to develop the condition.\n\nEnvironmental factors: exposure to Coxsackie B4 virus, rotavirus, and cytomegalovirus may increase the risk of developing the condition\n\nSigns and symptoms of diabetes\nThere is a great lack of awareness of what they are. Up to half of type 2 diabetic patients will already have complications of diabetes by the time they are diagnosed. As a result, the first presentation of type 2 may be a medical emergency, eg stroke, heart disease, blindness, renal disease, peripheral vascular disease which could require limb amputation. Some new cases of type 1 diabetes in children/ young people will present with diabetic ketoacidosis; a complication if diabetes characterised by v high blood glucose levels, presence of ketones in the blood/urine, and acidosis. This is a life-threatening condition; Those with diabetic ketoacidosis need emergency treatment with IV insulin and fluids, close monitoring in hospital and support.  People and parents need to raise awareness of signs of diabetes.\n\nSigns of type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be spotted more easily by considering   the ‘4 T’s’: Toilet, Thirsty, Tired, Thinner. These signs occur more slowly in type 2 diabetes and they may be missed.\n-Toilet: If a patient is developing diabetes, they pass more urine than normal (polyuria). They may need to use the toilet at night, wet the bed, or for babies have heavier nappies. This is because the glucose in the blood exceeds the renal glucose threshold, and is therefore excreted in the urine, causing water to also come out in the urine\nThirsty: As a result of polyuria, they will feel thirsty and drink more. Polyuria and polydipsia are osmotic symptoms.\nTired: The patient will lack ability to utilise glucose for energy, causing tiredness.\nThinner: The body attempts to compensate for a lack of glucose in cells by metabolising protein and fat, resulting in weight loss.\n-Diabetics may get blurred vision, caused by a change in lens refraction because of hyperglycaemia. This normally improves once a patient’s glucose levels are normalised, and those recently diagnosed with diabetes shouldn’t buy new glasses for the first 3 months after diagnosis.\n-Diabetics are also at risk of recurrent infections (particularly fungal infections and urinary tract infections) which can be causes by higher blood and urine glucose concentration, because it impairs phagocyte activity and causes poor wound healing.\n\nScreening and diagnosis\n\n-Population screening not recommended by UK National Screening Committee. Despite this, NICE recommends type 2 risk assessment is done in:\n-Non-pregnant adults aged over 40\n-Aged 25-39 if South Asian, Chinese African-Caribbean, black African, and other high risk black and minority ethnic groups\n-Adults with conditions increasing the risk of type 2, eg: CVD, hypertension, obesity, stroke polycystic ovary syndrome, a history of gestational diabetes\n-NICE states that community pharmacy staff should carry out these risk assessments and refer anyone with a high score to their GP for blood sugar tests. Staff in pharmacies that can’t carry them out should advise about using validated self-assessment tests.\n-Those suspected to have type 2 should be assessed further to confirm the diagnosis\n\nThose with diabetes normally have:\n-raised HbA1c   (more likely to be higher in type 2)\n-glucose present in urine\n-type 1: ketones in urine and blood\n-A diagnosis of diabetes is given if they have the symptoms, and one of the below…\n-A random plasma glucose ≥ 11.1 mmol/ L\n-A two-hour plasma glucose ≥ 11.1 mmol/L (taken 2 hours after a 75g glucose challenge in an oral, glucose tolerance test\n-A fasting plasma glucose ≥ 7.0 mmol/ L\n-HbA1c ≥ 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) on two separate occasions (usually taken 2-4 weeks apart)\n-A diagnosis of prediabetes is given if they have one of:\n-A fasting plasma glucose of 6.1-6.9 mmol/L\n-A two-hour plasma glucose of 7.8-11.0 mmol/L\n-HbA1c of 6.0-6.4% (42-47 mmol/mol) on one occasion\n-Those with predibetes should be advised to improve their life-style, particularly diet and more exercise.\n\nPharmacists can play a vital role in preventing diabetes, by spotting the signs in patients, initiating tests and referring to appropriate professionals if needed. They should recommend anyone with 2 or more risk factors to undergo diabetes screening tests every 3 years.\n\nHackett, E and Crasto, W. (2014). Identifying patients with diabetes. The pharmaceutical journal, 293(7835), pp 494-496", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7710907459259033}
+{"content": "All tagged hurt\n\nNo More Harboring Hurt\n\nHorrible things happen when you hold on to something longer than you should. Think about when you had roommates. Maybe roommates are a reality for you right now. If so, this will be especially timely for you. \n\nWhen you have roommates, few things pose a greater risk to your well-being than “mystery milk” in the fridge. Mystery milk is that carton that sits in the way-back of the refrigerator, typically behind the OJ, purple stuff, soda, and Sunny D.  No one ever seems certain where the mystery milk came from or how long it’s been sitting there. \n\nNow, when you’re young and poor, you don’t so much go by the expiration date as you do by the smell and consistency of your milk. This system, while effective, is admittedly risky, right? As a result, any consumption of milk when you live with roommates requires the universally agreed-upon test. This test has two steps:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9710487723350525}
+{"content": "What are they, warriors of the Middle Ages?\n\nIt would seem that much has been written about the Middle Ages, but, nevertheless, the enthusiasm for this historical period does not weaken until now. One of the reasons that — warriors that differed awesome fighting properties. And although they did not have the mystique and could not use it in a fight with their enemies, but completely real instrument, many of them possessed in perfection.\n\nOne of the brightest representatives of the Middle Ages are the Vikings. And though they belonged to different nations, that did not stop them understand each other. All of them have been home to the northern lands, because the French have got the title of the Vikings' Norman. \" At the beginning of the word \"viking\"Designated pirates who raided the enemy in coastal waters. In Scandinavia, have become known for a long time before appeared first mention of them in Europe.\n\nWherever I steered toward the Vikings, they are always seized the lands of others, sometimes even remain in the conquered territories, and became the rulers there. The French, they managed to win a part of the country that has received the title of Normandy. The Vikings raided and on Russian soil, even going down to the shores of the Caspian Sea and the Dark. Vikings — this is the last German barbarian conquerors and the first European explorers, pioneers.\n\nVikings used to attack troops from specially prepared warriors who forms the teams of several hundred people. By the way, the entry of these groups has always been a volunteer. During the raid one of the soldiers certainly carried the banner, which was very honorable. Because, usually, for this purpose was chosen specifically distinguished soldier. It was believed that the banner is able to not only bring victory in battle, and save the life of the one who carries it. The main objective of the Vikings in the case of defeat came down to, to protect its own commander (of King), and if he died, all the warriors fought to the last near the body of the leader.\n\nEspecially in the middle of the Vikings were fearless berserkers who fundamentally do not wear armor and did not hide from threats. They went ahead, as if crazy, putting this nightmare for opponents. Berserkers could bring themselves to a state of euphoria and fought to the death, crushing opponents.\n\nVikings often used and troops bilmenov. Typically, these were soldiers of infantry armed with sickles combat (halberds). This tool is a certain kind of peasant sickle, which was used for harvesting. It was mixed prickly tip and blade battle-ax with a sharp ax. Vserasprostraneno was extensive in the Middle Ages as an effective weapon against cavalry. But later, when there was firearm, bilmeny lost its purpose because they started to use in parades and ceremonies pyshnovatyh.\nBut, as it turns out, and the Vikings were undefeated feeble places — is the inability to long siege. It is, in fact, and it became one of the causes of their injuries.\n\nMore outstanding military properties differed knights. For example, the German knights merged around the Teutonic Order which appeared in the Polyclinic, which was organized by the German pilgrims and crusaders between the years 1120-1128. The very same order (the spiritual body) was registered only in 1190, and after six years, he was transformed into spiritual knighthood.\n\nFrom time to time been associated with the Teutonic Order and the Order of the Templar Order of Hospitallers. Its members were given three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience. At the time, the Knights were at the mercy of the pope and the emperor did not obey the order, on the ground that they were of ownership.\n\nJan Matejko. \"Battle of Grunwald\" (1878)\n\nIt is clear what role was played by the Knights of the Order during the conquest of the Baltic and Prussian territories. Since 1215, the knights on the initiative of the Pope fall on the Baltic coast Tipo to planting of Christianity. But the process is carried out with a bloody operations. A Prussian lands were brought under control in less than 50 years. They were able to capture a significant portion of Poland, also represented a permanent military threat to Lithuania. In 1216 the Teutons were defeated in the fight against the Lithuanians and Prussians rebelled against the German knights. It was only many years later in 1283 they were able to subdue the freedom Prussians. And in order to keep control of the Baltic states, the Teutons continued mercilessly destroy all nepokorlivyh, all who have dared to even the smallest resistance.\n\nAfter the unification of the Swedish feudal lords and the Teutons were to glance at the Russian land, as the Pope wished to rule the world. Russia in this regard has been very valuable for its first inexhaustible riches. But Russia was able to provide decent resistance, the evidence of what can be a battle of Lake Peipus in 1242. Specifically, the Knights defeated the Ice massacre was the beginning of the end for the Teutonic Order. They no longer had the ability to move to the East, committing robberies and grabbing land.\n\nMuch later. in 1409 between the Teutonic Knights and the combined forces of Poland and Lithuania Lofty war broke out, which culminated in the defeat of the Order, and put an end to its expansion into the eastern lands. The Teutonic Order was obliged to abandon its political independence.\n\nIn Britain in the 15th century for the first time there were knights in shining armor plate. Specifically, these are included in the medieval legends. Naturally knight in the armor look more convincingly than in chain mail. Especially popular are the English knights of King Arthur. But, unlike those descriptions, which many in the literature, they were not so far faithful and true. Many knights have found drugs and a good job. Because without much hesitation could run from one side to the other. And some were transformed into real thugs. During this time, the knighthood as a phenomenon fundamentally changed. They no longer needed to protect the interests of the emperor in exchange for land. Moreover, many of them prefer a peaceful existence without war. In addition, the knight could become provided at least some city resident who had no knight passed. Knights who participated in the war, held officer positions in the army, which became more and more prof.\n\nIt is necessary to say a few words about the fact that in the Middle Ages to replace combat onions came Crossbow — Mechanical onions. From the 15th century, this tool has received a huge spread in Europe. Was the formation of the corresponding units of crossbowmen, in the main, in the armies of knights. Crossbow was much more precisely ordinary onions, also had a greater destructive power, but from time to time was not as quick-firing. A prerequisite for the popularity of the event was the fact that the string was stretched through the gate. Since no longer required great physical effort in order to push the string, light crossbow became languid, and his arrows could pierce even the armor. But this gun was and shortcomings — it's not a very comfortable shape, the highest price and the difficulty of recharging. Crossbow could afford for themselves only fighter standing army.\n\nArmored nobles — a category of soldiers majestically Duchy of Lithuania and Eastern Europe 10-16 centuries. They came from the \"armored servants\", in other words people who are obliged to perform military service on a stallion, being dressed in heavy armor-clad arms. Usually, they are exempt from paying dues. And later, when the period of war was in the past, they are lured to serve as messengers or police. This class was particularly vserasprostraneno in Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Metropolitan State of Moldavia, Wallachia.\n\nArmored nobles were a kind of \"glue\" between the nobility and serfs. They had earthen plots with the right gear for their heritage, for which he was in military service. Despite the fact that some of them were serfs, they preferred without the help of others to cultivate the land. They also have the right to live in the towns and engage in trade and crafts.\n\nAfter Belarus was annexed by the Russian Empire, armored boyars ranked as the palace peasants and they were right on par with the Ukrainian Cossacks.\n\nA lot of enthusiasm among historians continues to be the Order of the Knights Templar and Hospitaller Order.\n\nOrder Hospitaller was created in the 12th century and named in honor of St. John of Jerusalem. The main purpose of its origin — the embodiment of the protection of pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem. At the beginning of the Order's own education did in the main missionary and charitable functions, and the knights were needed only for protection. But later, during the Crusades, order was transformed into a monastic-military company, headed by majestic Master Raymond du Puy. After the Crusaders were driven beyond the boundaries of the Holy Land, the Hospitallers, after spending a short time in Cyprus, Rhodes conquered the peninsula, where he established his government. But in 1522 they had to leave the peninsula because of the Turkish siege. In 1530, the Hospitallers were possessed peninsula Malta (hence his second title of the Maltese), on which the fraternity and remained right up to 1798, the time of its capture by the French. They launched a struggle against the Levantine Sea, Algerian, Tunisian pirates of Tripoli, and also fought off attacks of the Turkish army in 1565.\n\nMaster of the Hospital stately Guillaume de Villaret protects walls of Acre, Galilee, 1291. thin. Dominique Louis Papeta (1815-1849) Versailles\n\nOrder of Malta with the passage of time had to return to Rome, and then his knights honor their traditions and preserve sovereignty. At present, the Hospitaller Order — this is the only award that is recognized officially, unlike the Knights Templar, which walks more rumors than truth. Over the entire period of its existence the Knights of Malta participated in the political life of the world. And at the moment they are observers in the UN.\n\nKnights Templar — is, like the Order of Malta, military-religious order, the base of which falls on 1119 year. Similarly, his knights were supposed to protect the pilgrims. History of the Order began with the usual crusaders, but soon he became one of the richest orders. By the way, the Knights Templar was specifically invented the banking system, they are not given once vzaem huge sums of money. In addition, the Knights had broad legal and religious features, which gave them the Pope (a specific manager of the Order.)\n\nThe Battle of Varna took place November 10, 1444 between the combined army of the Crusaders and the Ottoman Empire in the town of Varna. Battle was a bad ending crusade to Varna Hungarian and Polish King Vladislav. The ending of the battle was a complete defeat of the Crusaders, the death of Vladislav and strengthening of the Turks in the Balkans.\n\nThe Templars were widely known for their martial qualities, their military training was canceled, they had a professional tool, and units are of the highest degree of organization and discipline. But other than that, the Knights were known as libertines and zapivohi. In addition, their inheritance is not brought to the good. Philip Fine very jealous so untold riches. Because the trial of the Templars, as a result of which most of the knights were burned. But gold as anyone and did not get, and on where it is at this point, as nothing is clear. Those of the Templars, who were still alive, were able to put him firmly.\n\nNot the least intrigued historians call the regular military representatives of the Middle Ages — khuskarlov. At first, this word meant courtiers servants. But in the era of the Vikings is changing its value. At the time, became known as the king's retainers. In the UK in the first half of the 11th century, the term \"khuskarlov\" personify a unique company closed professional soldiers that made up the base of the Anglo-Saxon army. Usually, this body used for offensive operations.\n\nIn most cases, the origin of khuskarlov associated with the pirate brotherhood of Vikings fortified Yomsborga. Khuskarlov had the highest level of military organization had its own code of honor, were brought to the king. Most of them received for the service excavation of ownership, where she lives in peacetime.\n\nIn this organization had its own charter of which defines the rights and obligations of the participants. For example, the king's table all had to sit down on the nobility of origin or by the service seniority. If any of khuskarlov commit a misdemeanor, his transplanted in place of the post. If such misconduct was three — guilty planted to the end table, where he was no one spoke. In addition, it could roll the dice. If khuskarlov killed comrade — for it was deprived of the head or expelled beyond the borders of the lands ruled by the Anglo-Saxon lord Whip. Also, is glued tightly to him the word \"coward\". A similar punishment was foreseen for treason — penalty or forfeiture of property.\n\nTom Lovell. Battle of Hastings\n\nSince the number of khuskarlov was insignificant, they have never been used as an independent fighting force, even in spite of the fact that on its own military strength they surpassed the national Anglo-Saxon army. Most of khuskarlov were killed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The survivors fled the UK by going into the service of the Emperor of Byzantium.\n\nNaturally, this is far from complete list of medieval warriors. There are just more fearless of them, those who went down in history as the brightest representatives of the civilization era.\n\nApplied Materials:\n\nLike this post? Please share to your friends:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9737153053283691}
+{"content": "Methods and technology training\n\nMovement distance foreign roads, fences, ditches, on the border plantings. \n\nTo Exercises should begin only after it will be worked out methods of walking beside and groundwater.\nWhen passing herds between the corn fields, orchards, through the garden, village, etc., coming back from the edge of the dog, send the command «forward», to prevent the attempts of animals to enter the field or garden. Began by preparing the reception, the trainer is on the road with a dog on a leash, saying the command «next» Pointing dog arm straight up toward the road, the trainer himself like rushes forward and gives the dog the command «forward» in motivating tone. Makes short throws on the edge of the road, giving the dog a command «forward» and accompanying it with a gesture, throwing his hand forward.\n\nWhen the dog stops again command is «forward», while trying to leave the dog in the side of the road or stay on it pronounced in a strict tone of command «forward» and make the leap leash.\n\nMovement should go in a straight line. The correct course of dog teams encouraged «good», «Forward», «good».\nIn the future, lessons are conducted along the fence, a ditch along the border plantings, etc., requiring failsafe performance dog team «forward», encouraging its correct course, abruptly stopping at diverting towards the team «fu» and strict « forward ».\n\nWhen the dog learn the command «forward», remove the leash from her, and trainer drives on the road one or two pets. Giving command «forward», a dog trainer sends on the road side of the animals, making sure that the dog did not attack them. Correct behavior of the dog immediately encourage team «good», increases the rate sends the dog team «forward». The dog was often a team that only for «me» and encouraged.\ndetermined that the dog would grab the ongoing animal trainer increases the number of animals, including up to the herd.\npromises dog team «next» become more and certainly on the side of the road or strip, which has sown, garden or vegetable garden.\nWhen the attack dogs on the animal from the herd in the outgoing direction, the trainer encouraged her praises, but always stops and beckons to him, as soon as the animal enters the herd. Attack dog on the animal, going right, the trainer abruptly stops using jerk leash.\n\nBypass around the object.\n\nDrill clustering of cattle grazing on a particular area start around an immovable object (eg, buildings).\nTaking the dog on a leash, the trainer passes around the building, giving the command «range»; gradually weakens the leash, down to earth, and the trainer himself slowly behind the dog. In its attempts to move away from the building gives the command «around» and, if necessary, makes the leap leash.\nbehind the dog running around the building, the trainer turns back and quickly went out to meet the dog, beckoning her to him.\nIn the future, meeting a dog trainer with more and more closer to the original position, and, finally, the trainer remains in place. Approach to the dog trainer must approve cottage delicacies.\n\nIn order for a dog not developed an unwanted communication while driving around one and the same building, the original place of occupation change. Particularly convenient for study space, enclosed by a low fence, where the trainer can see the movement of the dog.\nAfter working this exercise, the trainer turns to studies on crowding flocks. First, take a small group of animals.\nTrainer, having a dog without a leash, walking around a herd of animals at some distance from them, says team «range».\nDoing traversing several times. Irregular movement of the dogs stop command «range» in high tone. An attempt to pounce on the grazing animals, prevent the team «fu» (especially vicious dogs, let us make the muzzle). To meet the dog’s passing flock around, the trainer must first half way, and then getting closer and closer to the point promise. Over the course of a dog trainer sent to supervise a convenient place.\nFor the arrival at the original location must caress the dog or give a treat.\n\nClasses are conducted in an open place. After working out this exercise trainer proceeds to exercise in the pasture with bushes or woods. To monitor the dog trainer from a distance follows it, corrects its mistakes, and encourages the faithful to bypass the herd, always encountering the dog from the opposite side.\ndog may return to the path. Then the trainer uses the command «next» a menacing manner and makes bypassing the herd, together with the dog. Then the trainer goes to employment and during the movement of cattle on pasture.\nskill can be considered quite inured when the dog goes round the herd without a hitch on the team «range».\n\nFitting animals. \n\nThe purpose of the reception – to develop a dog’s skills to adjust to the herd, or gone backward in the sides of the animal, to accelerate the movement of cattle on pasture or when returning home, to send the animals in the herd turns in the direction of rotation. Receiving spend so:\nselecting a herd animal that is afraid of people (going away) and does not resist a dog trainer, giving the animal to keep up with the herd, sharply attacked him, driving him to the herd, lash. If you shoot for the animal carries the dog and drew her attention to running animal team «take».\nSeeing the attack on his master’s lagging animal, the dog usually runs to the last and also pursues him. The dog is encouraged to.\nHarassment animal dog immediately ceases as soon as it enters the herd. At this point, the trainer stops the dog beckoning his team «me», and at the approach encourages it.\n\nIn developing the skill necessary to observe the following rules:\n\n  1. 1. If any resistance of the animal dog trainer immediately intervenes and helps the dog lash animal. It teaches the animals to obey the dog away from her in the herd, where the dog does not touch and does not bother them.\n  2. 2.Sledit to ensure that the dog, which forced the animal in a herd, not ran forward and drove him to the head, ie, not throw him to move.\n  3. 3. Do not allow the dog grabbed the animals (cows – for the muzzle, flanks and udder, and sheep – for the face, neck and legs). If the dog is vicious and bites of animals, training must be conducted in a muzzle, preventing the team «fu» attempts grabbed.\n  4. 4. As soon as the purported dog animal entered the herd, taxes, strict command «fu» while jerks the leash, and then make the groundwater at the approach of the dog and give the command «well.\n\nevil (snappish) dogs in the beginning allowed muzzled. Then, remove the muzzle and allowed them to parforse and a long leash.\nIn Later trainer allowed the dog free, stopping the improper actions of the team «fu».\nIn hode lesson distance stragglers from the herd of animals increased.\n\nAt the command «take» should teach the dog to attack a cow in the back with a grip for the right or left hind leg, and the sheep and rear, with a stranglehold over the side.\n\nDogs attempt to grab the tail of an animal trainer immediately stops the command «fu», and jerks the leash.\nYou can never prevent the victory of the animal (ox, sheep, cows) over the dog. Trainer makes certain that the cow does not hit the dog with his foot, horns.\n\nTracing animals. \n\nAdmission introduced after developing skills in areas searched.\nSkills will be deepened as the search area on the team «look» (see reception «search area»).\nLand purchased for the training of 100 to 400 meters, at first even with bushes, and in the future – a mountainous and wooded. When a dog will develop skills in searching the area for the previously apportirovochnogo subject, go to its replacement by animals, which leads the assistant in advance at the scheduled place. Trainer directs the dog on the plot command «look», helping her.\n\nMethods and technology training\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.865662693977356}
+{"content": "Language translation apps are a great tool in a smartphone’s productivity arsenal and most of them work just fine without an internet connectivity, but when it comes to translating complex sentences which require some natural language processing and cloud-based machine learning algorithms, being online is compulsory. Microsoft has now removed the internet connectivity limitation and has announced that its AI-powered Microsoft Translator app will no longer require an internet connection and can work just fine in offline mode on all supported platforms.\n\nThe updated version of the Microsoft Translator app for Android, iOS and Amazon Fire devices will now allow users to download AI-powered translation packs that will be used to translate their queries even when they are offline.\n\n\nMicrosoft claims that the offline translation packs are capable of providing high-quality translation output, with all the translations following the Neural Machine Translation (NMT) standard created by Microsoft.\n\nThe updated language packs are currently available for Arabic, Chinese-Simplified, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai, with support for additional languages currently in development.\n\nMicrosoft claims that the new NMT-based language translation packs are capable of producing error-free translations which are up to 23% more accurate and 50% smaller in size, with the difference between online and offline translations being ‘barely noticeable’. Aside from users, developers too will be able to leverage the Microsoft Translator’s newfound capabilities by integrating the app’s online/offline translation capabilities into their apps.\n\nIf their app is offline, the locally stored NMT language packs will be utilized to deliver the translated text to their app, and if users are online, the translation query will be directed to the Microsoft Translator service on Azure to retrieve and present the translated text. The updated Microsoft Translator app with the offline translation feature is currently in the preview stage and will be released via the stable channel in the next 90 days.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6629046201705933}
+{"content": "4 Reasons to Clean Your HVAC System\n\nHVAC Shawnee ok\n\nWho does not know good air quality is crucial for good health? At any age, because of polluted air, we may fall sick and develop life-threatening diseases. But it is impossible to breathe fresh air when we are outside, especially, in urban life. Anyone can get lung disease or heart problems from regularly breathing pollutants. But when we are inside, we can control air pollution and can try to improve overall air quality. HVAC or ‘Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning’ is a well-known way for air quality control.\n\nYou may think air pollution is only for outside, but this a common misconception you are nurturing. From HVAC systems, we get the same air that is outside, and it has the same level of pollutants. Therefore, it is significantly important to filter the air. Here are the four reasons to convince you to get HVAC in Shawnee, OK.\n\nHVAC Shawnee ok\n\nAir Pollution inside Your Home\n\nThe presence of pollutants in liquid, gas or solid form in the air can cause serious health issues. The common factors are lead, sulfur dioxides, carbon and its different forms, nitrogen dioxide etc. Although your state is working to reduce carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emission, these fine particles are present in the air and can highly affect your health. Besides this, it can clog your air ducts, exhaust, boilers etc. If you and your family members are suffering from allergies, cold & flu, or asthma, it is the high time to call the HVAC experts.\n\nHVAC Shawnee ok\n\nDifferent Things In The Air\n\nApart from dust particles and metal particles in the air, there could be other things present. For example, pet hair, mold, dander and dust mites are present in the air and can increase. If you do not have proper ventilation at  home, it can be filled by cigarette smoke, cleaning solvents, paint or building materials, wood or carpeting materials etc. The HVAC system works effectively to clean up this air.\n\nHVAC Shawnee ok\n\nPest Removal\n\nThough it is a pesky fact, we cannot ignore the presence of pests such as spider, cockroaches, ants etc. and it is difficult to keep them away. Maintaining the HVAC ducts and cleaning the home regularly can help you to keep pests away.\n\nRoutine Maintenance\n\nTaking care of the HVAC system is part of routine maintenance. The companies that perform HVAC in Shawnee, OK, generally clean the filters, evaporator, condenser coils, drain lines and pans.\n\nHVAC Shawnee ok\n\nWhen this is performed regularly, your HVAC effectively remains contaminant free. This cleaning not only helps it to run the system efficiently but also helps to prevent breakdown and the cost of unexpected repairs. It reduces energy use and helps save money as well as keeps you in a comfortable environment.\n\nFor your HVAC maintenance in Shawnee, OK, you can call Comfort Control Specialists. This company is exceptionally responsive, has in-depth knowledge and knows what to do and what to not.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8248767852783203}
+{"content": "Brown CS News\n\nLast update on .\n\n\nMichael Black Michael’s project, entitled “Detailed Human Shape and Pose from Images,” aims to develop methods to perfect the estimation of human pose in video sequences. Over a three-year period, funding in the expected amount of $370,000 will be provided for this research.\n\nMichael’s project will go beyond previous work on estimating human pose from video sequences to also estimate human body shape. The majority of images and video sequences contain humans and understanding human action in video is a core problem in computer vision. Currently, marker-based human pose estimation is used in areas such as gait analysis, special effects, game development, human factors and sports training. According to Michael, current methods for estimating human pose might best be described as “brittle.” His work aims to improve human pose by using a much more realistic model of the human body and by exploiting a rich set of image cues over time. Over the course of this research project, methods will be developed to robustly recover body shape even when it is obscured by clothing, exploit illumination and surface geometry to more accurately estimate human shape and pose and recover body pose and shape in “natural” video sequences with uncalibrated and moving cameras.\n\nMichael believes that this work on robust human tracking will have applications in home entertainment, elder care, autonomous vehicles and animal movement analysis. By also recovering body shape, the proposed methods will enable additional applications in video forensics, surveillance, avatar creation and special effects.\n\nMaurice Herlihy Maurice has been awarded a grant in the expected amount of $250,000 in support of his project “A Unified Open-Source Transactional-Memory Infrastructure,” which aims at developing an open-source infrastructure to support transactional memory, a synchronization mechanism for multicore architectures.\n\nAs general-purpose computing moves into the age of pervasive parallelism, programmability becomes the key hurdle limiting the effective use of available computing resources. Transactional memory promises to simplify parallel programming for application programmers. However, research in transactional memory is being seriously hampered by the lack of a reusable open source infrastructure. The project will develop the key pieces necessary to overcome this situation:\n\nA transactional memory (TM) library built out of highly decomposed pieces will provide reusable and replaceable parts suitable for investigating tradeoffs in software TM implementations. Standardized interfaces will allow libraries conforming to the interfaces to be used in a variety of environments. TM-aware run-time analysis tools, particularly profilers and debuggers, will provide the necessary tool support for TM implementors and application programmers to understand and improve the performance of software using transactions. Interesting benchmarks, in a variety of high-level languages, will move forward our understanding of TM performance characteristics.\n\nShriram Krishnamurthi\n\nShriram and his collaborators Daniel Dougherty and Kathi Fisler at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, have received funding in the expected amount of $400,000 (of which $200,000 awarded to Brown) for their project entitled, “Power to the People: Tools for Explaining Access-Control Consequences.”\n\nThis research aims to create a more inclusive, trustworthy and effective cyberspace for all users, especially those who do not wish to become familiar with the innards applications. As computer-assisted social networking and related phenomena gain traction, the number of such users is bound to increase, even as their relative technical sophistication falls. These end-users have been turned into authors of access-control policies without realizing it. Everywhere from Google to Facebook, these policies are usually hidden behind simple user interfaces, but ultimately the users are responsible for setting and then taking responsibility for the consequences of these policies.\n\nBecause applications are a mystery to end-users, it becomes difficult for users to predict the consequences of an action. Users see only their view of the world, but their access-control decisions affect the views of others. End-users need tools to determine the effect of their decisions, with special emphasis on the effect of policy changes. This project focuses on developing user-friendly means to browse and investigate the details of these effects and changes. The underlying techniques are firmly grounded in theory, resulting in formal accuracy guarantees rather than approximate answers. The tools themselves summarize information in ways that account for the cognitive expectations and biases of users. Some end-users are too eager to embrace new technologies without fully appreciating their consequences, while others are too tentative due to their concern about (sometimes imaginary) problems they might create. The tools from this project will help the former become more cautious, and the latter more confident.\n\nAnna Lysyanskaya\n\nAnna’s project, “Crypto Algorithms for an Integrated Approach to Conditional, Revocable and Traceable Anonymity” has been awarded funding, in the expected amount of $300,000, to investigate techniques that allow one to develop and enforce anonymity contracts between individuals and organizations that spell out what can become known about the individual user and under what circumstances.\n\nAs records of individuals' activities become increasingly computerized and linked, privacy becomes an ever more challenging problem. It is especially challenging when legitimate security needs require the ability to link different transactions and even obtain details about the individuals involved. The focus of this project is on cryptographic technologies that achieve a compromise: transaction records should be anonymous until special circumstances (such as wrong-doing on the part of a particular individual, or an emergency that requires special measures) arise. One wants to specify these circumstances before a transaction takes place, so an individual can choose not to participate in a transaction that does not provide him or her with sufficient privacy guarantees.\n\nThe project considers several trade-offs between anonymity and accountability. Conditional anonymity/conditional disclosure means that an individual user is anonymous until her activities violate a certain condition, at which point some piece of information about her becomes known. Revocable anonymity means that a user is anonymous to all but a special anonymity-revoking trustee that only becomes involved in case of emergency. Traceable anonymity means that, under special circumstances, it is possible to quickly trace all of a particular user's transactions; this can be a form of conditional anonymity where the circumstances are due to the user's misbehavior or revocable anonymity where a trustee decides when to run the trace algorithm.\n\nRoberto Tamassia\n\nRoberto and his collaborators Michael T. Goodrich and David Eppstein at the University of California-Irvine have received funding in the expected amount of $600,000 (of which $200,000 awarded to Brown) for their project entitled “Algorithms for Graphs on Surfaces.” This research explores the fundamental questions on geometric and spatial aspects of graphs and networks, with applications to road networks, sensor networks, computer networks, and social networks.\n\nThe investigators will develop methods for constructing effective geometric layouts of networks on surfaces and in three-dimensional space and for analyzing properties of networks by exploiting their geometric structure. The focus of the project is the design and analysis of algorithms for graphs on surfaces in the following three thrust areas: (1) algorithms for embedding graphs on surfaces, including methods for greedy embeddings of graphs to facilitate geometric routing, algorithms for manifold triangulation for a set of points sampled from an embedded surface, and techniques for drawing trees in the plane; (2) algorithms for graphs embedded on surfaces, including the study of connections between partial cubes and integer lattices, the development of algorithms for graphs embedded in non-Euclidean spaces, and the design of methods for solving graph problems on quadrilateral meshes; (3) applications of algorithms for graphs on surfaces, including applications of geometric graphs to computer security and algorithms for road networks.\n\nAndy van Dam\n\nAndy recently received funding in the expected amount of $300,000 for his research project, “End-User Retrofitting of Applications by Recognizing Text and UI Components.”\n\nDespite the enormous effort that goes into application design, end users invariably encounter workflow scenarios that are poorly supported by even the most developed, commercial-quality applications. Lack of support for end-user extension increases the burden on application developers to exhaustively anticipate the needs of all end users and then to commit enough resources to address their needs, which often includes re-implementing solutions already found in other applications. This project develops the feasibility of externally retrofitting, without altering, running applications with new interfaces and functionality made possible by using a combination of application-independent pixel-level recognition techniques and more specialized techniques for inspecting data structures exposed by the window system or application. Users will be able to make annotations to those running applications, including hand-drawn ink, typed text, diagrams, interactive widgets, or even links to other application user interface components. Rather than waiting, possibly years, for even simple revisions to fix workflow inefficiencies, users will be empowered to make limited modifications to applications almost as easily as marking up a document.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984221458435059}
+{"content": "Friends to partners\n\nFriends to partners\n\nMacron needs to implement domestic reforms for Indo-French ties to flourish.\n\nEmmanuel Macron, Emmanuel Macron India visit, Indo-French ties, india france relations, Narendra Modi, Indian express\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron before their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express photo/Amit Mehra)\n\nWhile working in Paris in the office of Jacques Chirac, the President of the French Republic of that time, I travelled to India to gather talking points for an upcoming presidential visit. During a bilateral meeting for this, Ratan Tata told me, “Indians generally like the French. Amongst the French businessmen I deal with, many are my friends. We are easily able to understand and be appreciative about each other but we have not succeeded in transforming these friendships into business.”\n\nNot much has changed. There have been rich cultural exchanges and expressions of mutual appreciation between India and France in the past decade while the per cent change (YOY) in total trade between India and France has plunged from +30.07 per cent in 2006 to a dismal +0.37 per cent in 2016.\n\nIn 2017, around 5,500 Indian students and scientists found it worth their while to study in France. Whereas almost 15,000 students went to the UK during the same period. Many of France’s top universities, including the one I studied and now teach at, offer courses in English but perhaps few Indians know this. An education in France is also several times cheaper than a degree in the UK or the US but ultimately Indian students go where they get more jobs for their buck.\n\nTata had said to me in 2005, “The French often lack the will to give the final push towards concretising deals. It is necessary to act because things move quickly. But with the French, things get diverted.” In 2007, Chirac’s lacklustre presidency ended, but France had little respite even after. The country suffered a decade of subsequent obscure political leadership, with a GDP growth rate that hardly budged above one per cent. Any attempted reform by the government only led to the French going on strike, hindering the roll out of any substantial changes.\n\n\nFor instance in 2018, after a year-and-a- half of to and fro with the French government authorities in Paris to pick up my “talent passport” visa — a French green card, so to speak, to enable me to incorporate a company in France — that the French embassy in New Delhi had generously offered me and even processed (it took six months), I am yet to set my eyes on it. The French authorities in Paris recently told their colleagues at the Embassy in New Delhi that their challenge for granting me the visa was that I was not residing in France. It is a baffling chicken and egg situation.\n\nFrance was the first country in the West with which India established a strategic partnership and the first with which India initiated a strategic dialogue after our 1998 nuclear tests when France refrained from imposing sanctions on us. It has ceased arming Pakistan many moons ago. Leaders from no other country have been honoured as many times as chief guests at India’s Republic Day celebrations. Besides education and culture, France and India have also built a long-standing cooperation in nuclear, defence and space. More recently, the vision for the International Solar Alliance was established jointly by the two countries.\n\nPresident Emmanuel Macron’s March 2018 visit to India was much awaited precisely because there is so much for him to do. Political understanding is good to nurture, but how can he transform that into greater opportunities for the people of India and France? I had met him a few years ago when he was still Minister of Economy of France, and he seemed to me to be the ideal candidate for this task.\n\nFor example, climate change has emerged — and rightfully so — as a new cornerstone of the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Macron. Both countries now need to leverage this political alignment towards creating meaningful joint ventures, and develop technology and knowledge exchanges in this field for all to benefit.\n\nFrance is ahead on the curve of developing technologies that minimise the environmental impact of manufacturing processes. These are technologies that the Indian manufacturing industry can learn and adopt as the latter gets subjected to strict emission limits and stringent compliances by the current Indian government. Moreover, the climate change industry is estimated to reach a value of $1 trillion by 2020, presenting an opportunity for France and India.\n\nThe protectionist stance of Brexit and Donald Trump also presents an opportunity to France. French universities can attract the best of Indian talent. In the realm of literature too, why not make greater collaborations? This will boost the publishing industry and also foster a rich exchange of ideas across the two countries that are both known for great literary writing.\n\nMost importantly, Macron also needs to make reforms on his home turf in order to transform friendships into greater economic opportunity for all. The heavy bureaucracy in France must be loosened so it doesn’t stifle the life out of potential incoming investments. French labour laws need to be reformed such that corporations are more agile when doing business abroad. And diplomatic agencies can be more confident of India’s friendship and appreciation for France, so that more efforts can instead be directed towards joint action.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.885707437992096}
+{"content": "Swedish Coffee Point\n\n\nCihangir has a new boutique coffee shop. Swedish Coffee Point. You can't drink the coffee you're drinking here. Cem Göçmen, owner and operator, has opened two branches in Sweden where he has lived for many years and opened the third in İstanbulCihangir. The special filter he brought from Sweden doesn't sell coffee. So your hand will be condemned and you will drink. It is my job to come to Jihangir instead of going to Sweden for a good coffee. Very easy to pick me up with a delicious coffee. That's why I've been around for 3 days a week.\n\n\n\n\nSign In", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9866611361503601}
+{"content": "Travel in Faith\n\nI have a confession to make. I have always been afraid of heights. Yet I enjoy traveling and taking a plane. However, considering recent events I wanted to talk about airplane troubles. I know that people fear planes especially since it is not an easy evacuation because you are too high up. As I continue to pray for the families of those affected, something is telling me to encourage people to still travel. Continue to research on the air crafts, buses and trains and decide with what ever you are comfortable with. However, please do not let an accident prevent you from living out your dreams. I remember recently I went to go spend time with a friend in Florida and me and so many others felt the plane just drop. We never got an explanation about what’s going on. I know that it can truly be discouraging to see stories like that and continue to either travel or pursue your dreams, however if we are always afraid, we will never do the things we want. Honestly when I load an airplane I still worry about things happening, however I just must trust everything will work out. I encourage you to travel or even pursue your dreams in faith and smile.\n\nPhoto by Stefan Stefancik on\n\nTravel tip: Travel in faith. Even when things seem like they are going wrong, trust everything will work out for the best.\n\n\nBody Happy\n\n\n\n\nDear Friends of the Heart\n\nI meant to publish this blog a few weeks ago, however, this piece was incredibly hard to write. The reasoning being is how does one say goodbye to people who they had great memories with and many laughs with. Also, who at times you loved. How does one part with the smiles that have pushed you for more. I realized you do not say goodbye, rather you say thank you and still hold those people is friends in heart.\n\nDear Friends in Heart,\n\nI hope if your reading this that you are in good spirits. I am not writing this letter out of hate or frustration. Rather from a place of love and growth. Time has decided that we were not meant to carry on together. Our paths were meant to cross for a reason, however my instincts are telling me that it is time to part ways. Even though I have tried to fight it for some time, it has been inevitable to fight the feeling of letting go. I have truly enjoyed our good moments and have cried over our bad times. But despite it all, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for the lessons that you have provided. Thank you for all the laughs and tears. The tears have taught me how strong I truly am and was truly cleansing for the soul. Thank you for helping me to realize where my true problems were and helped me to realize what they are. Because you helped to uncover my scars, I am in the process of truly healing them. Thank you for helping me to uncover my courage and helping me to reconnect with who I used to be. Also, thank you for teaching me how to protect myself and realize that I had the power in me. Especially, since for so long I believed that someone else was in control and that I could not get my power back. Because of you, I realize my worth. Realizing my worth was the best thing that happened and you are to thank for that. I hold no bad feelings towards you because the pain I felt is gone. I know that some of the pain will linger, however I now have the tools to handle the pain and most importantly the will to heal. But the most valuable feeling that I gained from us parting is learning to love myself. So, my friend in heart, this is not goodbye, rather us maturing and taking different paths. I am grateful for you and you will forever be a friend in my heart.\n\nForever Peace and Love\n\nLast Road to Law School\n\nSo I have been struggling to write this entry because how does one truly cope with their failures. This is my last road to law school blog. Not because I am completely giving up on the idea of law school, rather my life just took a different path. I was rejected by all the law schools that I had applied to expect for one. That one that I had been accepted to required that I complete a pre-law program, however that would have prevented me from going on a family vacation and would require that I shell out more money. Plus, having more debt was not appealing to me. I did what many of fellow seniors where doing at the time, apply for jobs and hope for a miracle. Once I graduated, I had so much lined up for me. Conferences that had inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and a very relaxing vacation to the Caribbean. It was while on that vacation, that I had met a woman who told me to just take the opportunity. The opportunity she was speaking of was going to graduate school. Some people may seem confused about this, thinking “where did the idea of graduate school come from”. After being rejected by one of my schools, their legal department offered me admission into their masters program. I did not know what to do because I had not even considered doing a masters program. However, I considered this program to be a part of fate because a few months prior (before I even was accepted to the master’s program) someone had told me about rather than only considering law schools try some of the masters programs. Then the woman on the cruise told me to just take the chance and get it done. So on my vacation after putting a lot of money towards the trip, I  paid a little bit more for my commitment to graduate school.\n\nI had not believed that I fully committed to graduate school until it was time to register for classes. The main reason was that I had barely believed that I just graduated from undergrad. Describing my emotions prior to that moment would be: surreal. Graduating from college and not knowing what comes next leaves one in a position where they are unsure about certain things. That purgatory feeling was what I felt leading up to graduation. That I was in this constant state of what happens next. From being in a purgatory mindset, I have come to learn that, sometimes one has to walk through an uncomfortable stage in life to get to be where they are supposed to be. That space will be uncomfortable and when one arrives at the destination the person may be confused, but if they go with the flow incredible things begins to happen. To the person reading this who may not know what to do in life, just know when one door closes another one will open.\n\n\nNote: I will now begin to post more consistently. Every Friday I will post about my life and experiences.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.529883861541748}
+{"content": "The Royal Library of Daventry is a library in Daventry.\n\n\nIt is a depository of books and other important documents in the Kingdom of Daventry. It is also the place where Manannan's Magic Map was deposited for safe keeping, and copies of the Chronicles of Daventry.\n\nThis library is most likely located in Castle Daventry it is known to have its own extensive library which is popular amongsts scholars, and tutors including Rokaill. However, it is possible that a branch of the library is located within the town of Daventry as well.\n\nBehind the scenesEdit\n\nThe term \"Royal Library of Daventry\" is only mentioned once in the King's Quest Companion. Thus its difficult to tell if its intended to be one term or place's name plus location (i.e. Faerie Court of Etheria (Faerie Court)). It at least suggests that there are other Royal Libaries in other lands.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999066591262817}
+{"content": "The best two sentences I read this morning\n\npredicts that places with more elastic housing supply have fewer and\nshorter bubbles, with smaller price increases. However, the welfare\nconsequences of bubbles may actually be higher in more elastic places\nbecause those places will overbuild more in response to a bubble.\n\nThat’s from Ed Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, and Albert Saiz.  Here is the paper, ungated here, here is Mark Thoma’s commentary.\n\n\nIt's an interesting paper that largely agrees with some thoughts that I've had. One thing I'd distinguish in a more complicated model is between short-term and long-term elasticity of housing supply. Some states and locales have time-consuming or complicated regulation for housing permits but eventually do grant most starts. In those places, the short-term supply is fairly inelastic, because it takes some time for the regulations to be satisfied, but the long-term supply fairly elastic.\n\nI'd argue that in some cases such places get the worst of both worlds. Bubbles last longer and have larger price increases because it takes a long time for supply to respond to demand. However, they will still manage to overbuild a great deal in response to a bubble, perhaps even more than in more elastic places.\n\nIn summary, I postulate that in such locales:\n1) Prices begin to rise in a bubble.\n2) In response, additional supply is planned to meet (bubble-related) demand.\n3) However, the regulation process takes a long time, and in the meantime prices continue to rise.\n4) Even more supply is planned and regulatory process started in response to additional price increases.\n5) Enough additional supply is finally finished together with other factors to end the bubble, and prices start to decrease.\n6) However, additional housing starts that have already gone through most of the regulatory process are still finished.\n7) This drives down housing costs in response even further than in a locale with quicker regulation.\n\nI'd argue that this model explains some places like, e.g., Northern Virginia. The amount of overbuilding certainly seems greater here than in North Carolina or Texas, where smaller price increases occurred.\n\n\"...places with more elastic housing supply have fewer and shorter bubbles, with smaller price increases.\"\n\nPhoenix, Las Vegas, and the exurbs of Metro LA have led the nation in both price increases and, now, price falls. All three areas have been exceptionally elastic - housing stock increased dramatically. These may in fact be the most elastic major metro areas in the USA. And yet they have been - so far at least - the worst affected by the housing bubble.\n\nFrom the paper: \"Ideally, we would model the decision of existing owners to sell as an optimization problem, but this would greatly complicate the model.\"\n\nWhy not model the decision to sell as a Poisson distribution in frequency rather than modeling in an exogenous shock? Then the problem becomes a linear optimization in frequency of supply and demand.\n\nThe measure of supply-side conditions they use is a measure of the amount of buildable land that depends solely upon geography. Notably, it does not include any information about regulatory barriers to construction. They do report that they also experimented with a measure of the strictness of the local regulatory environment. They report (in a footnote) that they obtained \"qualitatively similar\" results from those regressions. Since zoning may be endogenous while geography is fixed, they prefer using the latter.\n\nStill, I'd like to see them report the results of omitted-variable tests to see if the zoning variable has any explanatory power beyond that already contributed by the geography-based measure. The correlation between the two is only 0.4, so multicolinearity is not likely to be a problem. It is, after all, easy to think of supply responses that may be ruled out by zoning but not by geography, such as replacing neighborhoods of older, widely-spaced houses with rows of townhouses and condos.\n\nGeez, now why did that post twice?\n\nTyler shoud also have read a bit further into the paper. The quote\n\n\"the welfare consequences of bubbles may actually be higher in more elastic places\"\n\napplies to a model in which buyers' expect prices to go up forever. When that assumption is changed to buyers expect rising prices only until a period when prices don't go up, at which time they revert to construction costs, the duration of bubbles is reduced. The net welfare effect of elasticity is then ambiguous, as greater elasticity induces a more rapid supply response to a shorter bubble.\n\nComments for this post are closed", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.967136025428772}
+{"content": "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas\n“In essential things, unity. In non-essential things, liberty. In all things, love.”\n\n— Commonly attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo.\nAlso the motto of the Moravian Church.\n\nHistoric Confessions\n\nAmong the historic confessions of orthodox Christianity, two creeds have achieved almost universal agreement and consensus. They articulate what disciples of Jesus have believed through the many centuries, in all places, and by all Christians. These two statements, the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed, contain a beautiful summary of basic doctrinal beliefs. To these, we wholly subscribe.\n\nThe Apostle’s Creed\n\n\nThe Nicene Creed\n\n\n* In deference to the original wording and intent of Jesus, who committed to building His ekklesia in Matthew 16:18-19, we have corrected the common mistranslation ‘church.’ What makes us unique?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7420339584350586}
+{"content": "Have issues with a migraine headache? Check this out.\n\nManagement Strategies For Tension Headaches. Read more.\n\nWhat You Can Do When Your Headaches Get Bad. Read more.\n\nTry this when you get a headache. Read more.\n\nWhy knowing the difference between tension and migraine headaches is so important. Read more.\n\nThere are many causes for headaches. Here are some common denominators. Read more.\n\nHow much you tilt your head can have an affect on giving you headaches. Read more.\n\nSuffer from tension headaches? Here are some strategies for managing them. Read more.\n\nDoes your teenager often complain of headaches? Get some answers here. Read more.\n\nOne part of your neck may be a key factor in causing your headaches. Find out what it is and how you can get headache relief. Read more.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998070001602173}
+{"content": "Sheepshead Bay Mural\n\nAs I got off the train at Sheepshead bay station, I walked passed this mural and it caught my eye. This mural is based off of Emmons Avenue near Sheepshead Bay station and it reminded me of modern art pieces. I believe this is a modernistic art piece because of its difference compared to the Classical and Hellenistic period.  For example, the art work produced during the Classical and Hellenistic period it featured elements that made the art work naturalistic and realistic such as using linear perspective and choosing different colors to use in order to create a effect of depth in a painting. Similar to the Sheepshead Bay mural you can see that the figures featured in this art piece has depth. Viewers who look at this art work is able to see that figures begins to become smaller as they look further into the background. Adding on to why I believe this is a modernistic art piece is because it features figures of everyday people. Similar to Edouard Manet “Olympia” it features a figure of a female that doesn’t resemble religious practices and would be considered as an every day type of figure. Also, It doesn’t contain elements of a idealized nude body which is featured in Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic period. Although the Sheepshead bay mural is a more modernistic art piece it is similar to a Baroque art piece named “Elevation of the Cross” by Peter Paul Ruben, the Sheepshead Bay mural is separated into several parts but it maintains as a whole art work. But overall, the Sheepshead Bay mural has features that makes me believe that it was inspired by modernistic art work.\n\nDon’t tell your son yet\n\nGalanes, Philip. “ I Learned My Teenage Son Is Being Bullied. Should I tell Him?”  Social Q’s, The New York Times. 8 Dec.2016\n\nDear Anonymous Mom,\n\nI do not think you should directly approach him by stating his problem. As a parent, it must be hard to communicate to a son that is considered a freak. Moreso, having your son open up to you is a big struggle. It may be safer to tell him about your own personal problems and gradually let him open up. It doesn’t take a day to do this, basic trust has to be formed. I hope that the girl that told you this can help you out. She may seem concerned herself, so you should speak to her. Maybe you should have a leader that your son can look up to. At this era, having a figure to look up to becomes important in how your kids will grow up to be. In fact, maybe you are lacking a male figure in the family. Make sure he is aware that he can trust you with basic emotional and mental aspects of his problems. If you cannot seen to be in touch with him, make sure the girl can properly talk to him. You can even invite her over to dinner and your son can get to know her. It’s a great way to let him open up to someone else besides the mom. Find different alternatives for your son to go to! Let him be free and make sure he can trust you!\n\n\nQuestion Time!\n\nCindy T., via Facebook, Wednesday night\n\n1. Are you comfortable if I ask you some questions about you ethnicity and origins?  Can I write about your answers on a public class blog?\n– yeah sure.\n\n2. Do you identify yourself with an country or ethnicity beyond the United States of America?  If so, which one?\n– Chinese, from China\n\n3. How have you learned about the origins/history/past/importance of that place? (If they feel no strong connection to other place or identity, then ask them to talk about being American.)\n– A little but not very much because my parents never told me about their life in china. Well as an American, I feel like I am conflicted between what I am known as, Chinese or American. Often I get confused if I should even include myself such title. I want to be able to personally express my self as an individual, not by race.\n\n4.Is there one person, maybe a hero or ‘wiseman’ or king or law-giver, that is important to your people–someone people tell stories about, maybe legendary, maybe true?  Can you tell me a story?\n-Yes, theres a monkey king. He is famous in the Chinese mythical tales of the gods and power. He restores order when someone consumes too much power in a china. The Chinese monkey is symbolized as wise.\n\n5. What values do you think that story teaches?  Are those values important in the traditions of your people?  how?\n– I was taught this story from a young age. It taught me that all evil must be taken away and if there is no balance, we should take initiative in balancing such action from happening.\n\nCindy has been told about the great monkey that has been taken as a historical context. Despite not knowing what she is identified as, she know what she is. Most importantly, the great monkey can be a great example of Vergil’s Aeneid, it state, ” …will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars and after his own name, call his people Roma” I felt this quote has correlation to the great monkey because it both talks about prosperity in a country. These nationalistic view becomes an essence in obtaining trust by the people. I hope Cindy learns to obtain a different value of what she is.\n\nAhmed A, via text msg, Wednesday Afternoon.\n\n    – mhm\n    – Pakistan, Islam\n    – Yeah a little. I am more Americanized because I came to NY at a young age. Uhh my family heard about dreams coming true and having a better life in the US so we moved.\n    – The father in a family household. My dad take care of everything. Having a dad must be important in the Islamic culture because it shows masculinity for the children and respect the values of our own culture.\n    -They tell me that I must have a family when I grow up. That I must be a good dad too. Having a dad to son/ daughter relationship is important as the child grows up. They can have problems if they do not have a father.\n\n    Ahmed seems more of a chill guy. He wants to be able to communicate not the religious value of his culture, but what he has known by practicing islam. I do not see any similarities between the readings of Rome and Ahmed’s story. However, I can say that having a powerful and strong leader does obtain the continuation of a great country.\n\nGao J. via Facebook, Tuesday night\n\n    – Yes I am comfortable if you ask away.\n    – Yes you may and you have my every permission to do so. I see myself as Chinese American, so I guess Chinese ethnicity.\n    -I have learned about the different Dynasties and the many trades and wars that makes China what it is today, but I don’t really remember it. I have learned about the history of America, and I can tell you one thing: that our history was all sorts of messed up.\n    – I don’t know anyone who is important to “my people” (you mean like the rest of Chinese population in China?) I do know a story (but not really a story :/) that has captured the hearts of some Chinese people though, and it is the Gospel 🙂\n    – That Jesus has come down to Earth to release all of our chains from sin and bring grace upon us. The values are important to those who know Him but also for those who don’t know Him.\n\n    I found Gao’s story interesting because religious believes was not a powerful century for it. Despite that, Gao’s religion seems to motivate him by what he has learned about the Gospel. In relations to the Roman’s text, Aeneas can be best in relationship to God. ” Aeneas puts in here with a bare seven warship saved from his whole fleet.” This quote shows that Aeneas has given hope to these people that were in need of rescue. God also saved those from their sins in order to restore grace upon us. I was very glad to have heard Gao’s answer in response to these questions.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBecky, Team Hera\n\n\n\nI took this picture a few weeks ago when I visited the MET museum for my final paper. The title of this painting is Fleur de Lis, and it is painted by Robert Reid in ca. 1895-1900. I found this painting interesting because the colors are not blended fully together, and it somehow makes it pretty. Also, minimum colors are used in this work. The medium used for this work is oil on canvas, which means that the texture of the paint can vary depending on the artists’ purpose.\n\nBefore the creation of this painting was Paul Cezanne’s, The Basket of Apples. Cezanne’s work is considered to be a post-impressionism art style, a style that is against academic paintings or paintings with the classical traditional art style. Robert Reid “…was among the founding members of the Ten American Painters, a loosely defined group of French-trained artists associated with impressionism” ( He was most likely influenced by Cezanne’s post-impressionism art style. Some features of impressionism are the way the colors are not fully blended, the visible brush strokes, and the tiny hint of abstract within the leaves.\n\nBecky, Team Hera\n\nGet Your Children Vaccinated!\n\n\nAppiah, Kwame Anthony. “Can I Spread the Word About an Unvaccinated Child?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2017,®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=collection.\n\nDear Kwame Anthony Appiah,\n\n\nSincerely, Aulus Gordianus Longius (Jiahui Gong)\n\nLady looking at the mirror\n\n\nI found this painting while walking around the Met Museum. The title of this painting is The Penitent Magdalen, and it is painted by George de La Tour in ca. 1640. This painting features a woman who is a sinner, or a courtesan. She is looking at a mirror while holding a skull at the same time, and the only source of light is the candlelight.\n\nThe reason why I chose this paining is because it looks very intriguing and interesting. The contrast of lightness and darkness pulls the viewers in. I would relate this painting to Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew because both artists uses the chiaroscuro technique to focus on the main subject. Both paintings are connected to Christ and their spiritual enlightenment (the light that is directed towards them represents enlightenment).\n\nSome differences between The Penitent Magdalen and Calling of St. Matthew is the mood and movement. The mood in George de La Tour’s painting is quiet, dark, and peaceful. In contrast, the mood in Caravaggio’s painting is unexpectedness and curious. The movement probably play a role in creating the mood because the woman is sitting still while looking at the mirror, and the men are counting money and focused on different things.\n\nCareful Sherlock Holmes!\n\nIn the book, “The Final Problem : A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel,” I found a letter by Dr John H. Watson that has referred back to the ides of March. In the book it states,\n\n“Beware the ides of March,” Caesar was warned. And the middle of march 1886 was marked by major changes.”\n\nThis section, refers to the ides of march that allude a negative feeling caused by a threat. The author hopes to tell the reader that ides of march is a date on the calendar marked for catastrophe, especially by “major changes” contributing to the changes in the weather. Such threat would help the reader know it is a negative phrase as one should be warned by Watsons emotional fear.\n\n“…Caesar dreamed he was raised aloft upon the clouds and grasped the hand of Jupiter. 2 Moreover, omens not a few and not without significance came to him: the arms of Mars…made a great noise at night, and the doors of the chamber where he slept opened of their own accord.”\n\nThis section that I took out from Cassious Dios is like the letter by Dr John H. Watson by alluding the change of weather as a symbol of danger. Cassious Dios demonstrates a threatening situation for Caesar by having bad dreams, having noises at night to indicate a starling situation, and having the chamber doors open by the gust of wind. Comparing to Dr John H. Watson’s letter, there was a dramatic change in his environment. There were meter shower and flashes of the red planet was visible from London.\n\nKopl, Petr. The Final Problem. Andrews UK. 15. September. 2015.\n\nThe José Bonifacio de Andrade e Silva\n\nD596A852-2F89-4225-8EC1-7362766A34EE.jpeghb_32.11.1When I was walking around 42nd street near Bryant Park, I spotted this statue called the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva created by Clark and Rapuano. Usually, I wouldn’t pay any attention to statues like this, mainly because I wouldn’t know any of the history behind these statues. But, something about this statue today that caught my attention despite knowing its history. So I took a moment to take a closer look at the statue. The more I looked at it, I started to see some similarities between this statue and the Marble statue of Kouros. For example, the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva feet position is similar to the Kouros where one foot is ahead of another. Though the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva seems to contain a slight contrapposto position, the way it stands up looks similar to the Kouros. However, some features that differs between these two statues would be that the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva is more realistic compared to the Kouros. For example, if you look closer at the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva’s face you can see it have creases/ wrinkles on its face. Also its hand position is different compared to the Kouros, the Kouros have both hands clenched in a fist on its thigh while the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva have one arm down and one arm bent. Also the material used to create these sculptures were different, the Kouros was created with marble while the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva was created with bronze. All in all, the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva statue have features that could be found in the archaic and classical period because of its lack of potential of movement but its realism feature on its face.\n\nAre your Friends Really Your Friends?\n\n  • Devil’s Casino : Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers quote\n\n“You think you would have liked Chris Pettit — but by the end you would not have liked him. He became someone else.” — John Cecil.\n\n  • MLA Citation\n\nWard, Vicky. Devil’s Casino : Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers, Wiley, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central,\nCreated from brooklyn-ebooks on 2017-11-24 19:30:11.\n\n  • Summary of the text\n\nIn the text, A weakness that needed to be fixed was Lehman’s equities and investments banking units since it was doing very poorly compared to their fixed income. In order to do so, it was necessary to fire some of the employees whom were in the higher rankings. Chris Pettit a stubborn and biased employee refused to give up his position and defended other employees whom were his friends. This lead to, Dick Fuld, the head of the corporation to persuade Pettit’s friends to betray on him; which lead to Chris Pettit being fired from the corporation.\n\nThe text corresponds with the word term “Ides of March” because it is commonly known as the deadline to settle debts. Adding on, when people are faced with debts at their deadline, they would have to do whatever it takes in order to settle it. Therefore, the text is related to Ides of March because Dick Fuld had to get rid of Chris Pettit and other higher ranked employees in order to move forward with their corporation goals. through the text, the author would suggest that the Ides of March would not be a good thing. Reasoning for this is because of the madness and chaos it created in the corporation mainly internally.\n\n  • The account of Ides of March in Cassius Dio quote\n\n\nThis quote is able to compliment the text because this situation is the similar to each other since both involve persuading the best friend into betraying Julius Caesar and Chris Pettit. Adding on this is able to help the text connect to the Ides of March due to how similar it was to situation Caesar and Pettit was in. Due to their unwillingness to step down from their position, the people had to figure out a way to do so in order to move forward. Thus, by persuading\n\nBrooklyn Bridge\n\n\n\nI took this picture around March while walking on the bridge with my mom and sister. While taking this picture, I thought that the bridge from the center point of view looked really nice. This is similar to the lesson about one linear perspective that we learned in class.\n\nThe elements of linear perspective are the vanishing point, the horizon line, and the orthogonals. The vanishing point is all the way at the top, near the center, and it is circled in green. The horizontal line that goes straight to the vanishing point is lined in purple. The orthogonals are lined in yellow, they are all diagonals that lead towards the vanishing point.\n\n62nd Station\n\n\n\nGrace Church\n\nunion square\n\n\n\n\nSouth Africa’s Government Major Impact on Citizens\n\nThe value of ownership in an individual’s land were significant not only currently but also hundreds or years ago. Today, in South Africa, the government are not allowing a fair share of land owned by the rights of its citizens. More so, the government and high class(Whites) are taking smallholders ownership. This alludes to the article, “Livelihoods after Land Reform in South Africa” in which it tells the immense control by the power by containing and manipulating its people by property. I was able to find this article under Onesearch in the Brooklyn College Library website: Gracchi “Land Reform” Africa.\n\nThe intended audience of this publications is for ignorant individuals or people who are unaware of what is happening now in South Africa specifically. The economic cost of such low growth is the government. Issues underlining the qualities and support of a smallholder agriculture by LSCF, who does not accept or make changes in their system. For example, as stated, “… the fundamental problem is the South African state’s stubborn commitment to the LSCF model of agriculture, notwithstanding the rhetorical embrace of smallholder agriculture in some policy documents”. This statement applies in unequal share of money distribution within their country.\n\nThe author does not connect the search terms one to another. More so it encompasses the link between power officials vs the lower class and its significant role in the economy. We can see such unbalance in government power in the article, ” South Africa’s ‘dualistic’ agrarian structure comprises around 35,000 large-scale, mostly white-owned commercial farms, occupying the majority of the country’s agricultural land”. As the majority of the owners were white, there was a lack of ownership and even culture. Comparing such culture, in Rome, the power of the people were limited but that didn’t stop in a systematic change. Unlike South Africa, going against the government would have caused serious issues.\n\nUnlike South Africa, Roman plebeians could help the poor because they suffered the most. They have accomplished a lot that benefited the lower class as shown, “Other gains included the abolishment of debt-bondage in 326, access to public land, and allotments of conquered territory for the poorer citizens. The alleviation of the burdens of the poor ended the plebeian struggle as a radical movement.” The government did not make a change but rather it was the people who did. In South Africa, the government and high class took many positions of the smallholders.\n\nAliber, Michael. “Livelihoods after Land Reform in South Africa.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <;\n\n\nPolybius: A Man of Action?\n\n  • MLA Citation:\n\nHerold, David. “Morison, Samuel Eliot 1887-1976.” 1979, pp. 479–500.|CX1381600032&v=2.1&it=r&sid=exlibris\n\n  • The search word i searched was “Polybius ‘Thomas Jefferson'” and the full text I decided to select was written on a American Historian named Samuel Eliot Morison. The full text is based on the life of Samuel Eliot Morison including stories about his background and his works.\n  •  The primary audience this full text seem to be intended for is mainly for teens and adults since it’s a lengthy text that speaks on Morison’s life. Adding on, this can be directed for students in college since this text is a scholarly article that can be found at Brooklyn college library onesearch.\n\nThe author is able to connect with the words searched by connecting the life of Samuel Eliot Morison with Polybius as historians. During the text Herold stated:\n\n“Morison’s history of the U.S. Navy, a labor of twenty years, gave him the opportunity to realize the injunction of Polybius, that a historian should be a man of action. Of all his works it drew the greatest comment and criticism. It confounds the categories into which the separate varieties of history have been divided within the professionalized history writing of the twentieth century. It is an official history that escaped committee authorship and the imprimatur of a review board, and came to command professional respect and have a wide audience. It is contemporary history that draws together official, scholarly, and popular history.” (Herold, 492)\n\nThis is implying that during the time when Morison was serving in the\nU.S Navy, he was able to understand what Polybius was trying to implement. Polybius was a man of action. Therefore by saying a historian should be a man of action, it’s indicating that Morison has learned from Polybius to not sit around and speak on something rather he should be taking action and keep his word about something.\n\nIn the Extracts of Polybius, fragments from book 6 it stated:\n\n\nIndicating that Polybius was a man of action. He doesn’t only speak on the three varieties of the constitution Kingship, Aristocracy, and Democracy. He takes action by suggesting it would be best to combine all three constitution together for the ideal constitution. He supports his claim by implying how successful the actual experience of combining all three constitution was, therefore this shows that Polybius was a man of action since there was proof provided in order to back up his statement.\n\nPolybius and the Constitution\n\nIn this blog post, I searched the term, Polybius “United States” constitution and I chose the article that appeared first on the list which was, “Polybius and the Constitution” it is written by Gilbert Chinard. The writer actually has written a lot about the relations between Polybius and the American constitution, like how the power of the government was split into different powers. Gilbert Chinard sends a message to his readers that Polybius’ records of the Roman government are important. He wrote about the creation of the constitution and how the founding fathers used ideas from Polybius. His ancient works had some influence in the constitution, “…best legislators of all agree…it will be an eternal rule in politics among every free people, that there is a balance of power to be carefully held by every state within itself” (Chinard 42). The power Swift is talking about in Chinard’s article is about the absolute power within the states, he is saying how the power would be destructive if it is placed in one state. Polybius also notes how the Roman government splits its power into three different categories in aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy, “…the force of each being neutralized by that of the others, neither of them should prevail and outbalance another, but that the constitution should remain…in a state of equilibrium” (Polybius 10). Rome had a type of government where the power is not centralized but split into three different categories, and it is one of the reasons why this nation was able to prevail for so long.\n\nWork Cited\n\nChinard, Gilbert. “Polybius and the American Constitution.” Journal of the History of Ideas 1.1 (1940): 38-58. Brooklyn College. Web. 4 Nov. 2017. <;.\n\nBecky, Team Hera\n\nFasce with Team Hera\n\nFasces in front of Federal Hall\nFor those who stayed behind, Prof Yarrow explained where exactly the fasce was and its significance. Prof Yarrow has said that it stands for symbolism of status and nobility. Fasces are usually made from a bunch of wood tucked together to form a barrel of wood. By the way, there is a bathroom in the basement of federal hall! There were also fasces found in front of the City Bank. One looked like a soldier and the other one looked like a leader. There was engravings that said ” FANEION”.\n\nAlexander the Great is indeed Great\n\nMichelle L., Friend, 18, Manhattan her home\n\nQ1: Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n\nA1: He was the king of Ancient Greece.\n\nQ2: What do you know about him?\n\nA2: I don’t really know much about him.\n\nQ3: Where did you learn about him?\n\nA3: Global history class in 9th grade.\n\nAmy C., Sister, 20, Home\n\nQ1: Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n\nA1: Heard him name before, maybe a conqueror.\n\nQ2: What do you know about him?\n\nA2: Nothing much.\n\nQ3: Where did you learn about him?\n\nA3: History class in high school.\n\nChristina D., Friend, 18, Home through phone\n\nQ1: Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n\nA1: Yes.\n\nQ2: What do you know about him?\n\nA2: Mostly forgot but he’s some empire dude.\n\nQ3: Where did you learn about him?\n\nA3: World History 6th grade?\n\n\nThe three responses I got from my friends and family were all kind of similar. They said that Alexander was a powerful leader and a conqueror. Some people I spoke with forgot who Alexander was, but knew that he was influential at some point in history. Honestly, before this class I forgot what achievements Alexander made. Nevertheless, the leader is well known enough that even the ones who are not great at history know who he is, or has an idea of what kind of person he was. In high school my friends and I learned that Alexander was a ruler, however, we forgot most of it through the years. In class, I learned that Alexander conquered many lands: Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc and we went into more depth of the span of lands he took over. We also learned that he wore a helmet with horns, which had relation to the Gods.\n\n“…passed on to Achaeia. And upon arriving there, he subdued many cities, and collected an army of 80,000 men” (lines 120-123). According to the reading, Pseudo-Callistenes, The Alexander Romance, after arriving to Achaeia Alexander took over many cities his army of 80,000 men. This shows how much power he had as a leader because he has the control over many individuals. Alexander has made a notable impact in our world history and it is clear to see it. My friends and family who are not very studious at least remembers that Alexander was a man that made great achievements.\n\n\nDo you know who was Alexander the Great was?\n\nChou l., 18, friend, almost in his 20’s, Queens in College Point\n1.Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n-“He conquered… conquered a lot of Greek. Really good conquer.”\n2.What do you know about him?\n-“He died. Idk this is like back in 4 years ago. He looks like he has Caesar salad hair, I wanna chop it off. Likes to be half naked. He likes horses and looks like a regular white guy.”\n3.Where did you learn about him?\n-“School, Global year 1.”\n\nDavid l., brother, 22, in his 20’s, Brooklyn in Bensonhurst\n\n1.Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n2.What do you know about him?\n-“He doesn’t know much about it. He was a great conquered.”\n3.Where did you learn about him?\n-“umm history books”\n\nJamie X., friend, 16, not close to her 20’s yet, Brooklyn near Bayparkway\n1.Do you know who Alexander the Great was?\n2.What do you know about him?\n-“He’s a great leader? He has fancy hair, smart. Looks weak.”\n3.Where did you learn about him?\n-“Global history”\n\nSome similarities I got from all the surveys were that Alexander the Great was a great conqueror and that they learned about him in High School. Jamie was able to be specific in how he was described as in an anime she read. This shows that Alexander the Great made such a big impact, he has affected Japan’s history too. The people I ask may seem to only know him about his establishments because that’s all they were taught in textbooks.\n\nAll the answers may be different in their own ways based on what I learned in class. Yes, he is great but we never considered his title Great in class. We did learn that he made his merchants stay and mate with females from different places to populate this culture. Hence, his partner, Bucephalus, which is his horse that accompanied him all throughout the conquest.\n\n“…his father who had died, Alexander was afraid to leave him in the put lest he is eaten by wild beasts. For it was night and the place was desolate. Moved by compassion and pity for his sire’, he lifted him tenderly and bored him nobly on his shoulders within the gates.”\n-This quote illustrates his bravery, not in war but in his own passion for his father.\n\n“…I have my own horse which I have trained from the time he was young and I have raised him for myself.”\n-In this context, Alexander mentions his horse Bucephalus, as well as Chou, did. What I learned from knowing this was that Alexander had a horse from a young age, something we did not cover in class. I find this amusing because it can show Alexander’s commitment and leadership from a young age.\n\nHow Great was Alexander the Great?\n\nYuhang H., A friend, Aged 19, Facebook Messenger\n1) Do you know who Alexander the Great was?    \n  • “Yeah, I know who Alexander the Great was.”\n2) What do you know about him?\n  • “I knew that Alexander the Great led an ancient Greek army. He also fought the Persian army. He built a library that gathered many knowledgeable individuals and cultivated information from the places he conquered.”\n3) Where did you learn about him?\n  • “I learned about Alexander the great from global history class in middle school.”\nEric Z., A friend, Aged 18, Brooklyn Library\n1) Do you know who Alexander the Great was?   \n  • “Yes, but I don’t know much about him.”\n2) What do you know about him?\n  • “Well, I know that Alexander the Great was an Ancient Greek king and military leader. During his conquest he defeated Persia.”\n3)  Where did you learn about him?\n  • “I learned about him briefly from previous history lessons in (elementary/middle/high) school.”\nEric H., A friend, Aged 18, The Park\n1) Do you know who Alexander the Great was? \n  • Yes, I have an idea of who he was.”\n2) What do you know about him? \n  • “I know Alexander the Great was a Ancient Greek king and also a conqueror. He conquered most of the world at a young age.”\n3) Where did you learn about him?\n  • “I learned about him from history class in high school.”\n\nWhat is similar about the answers you received? \n\nIt seems as though that when people are questioned about who Alexander the Great was, they tend to have a very common answer. That is either ” he was a conqueror” or ” he was a leader” but overall they didn’t have a huge understanding of who he was. This makes me question myself whether if students or people in general care enough to know who he really was as a leader, a conqueror, and a king or not. This applies to many different other famous and historic not just Alexander the Great, people such as Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln. Most people would not have a huge idea of who they were but they know that they were important people that contributed to the society today. Most people would only know that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and Abraham Lincoln was the United States 16th president. But is Alexander the Great in the same category as these people?\n\nHow is this similar or different to what you learned in this class?\n\nIn the reading “A history of the great world conqueror, Alexander of Macedon” in line 30 it stated “And Alexander became learned in every matter and trained himself so well, as I said before, that it became clearly evident chat he was being taught by some divinity. When he was free from tutorial counseling, from time to time he umpired his fellow students. And when he saw a team being defeated, he joined in the battle, and then, in turn, it was victorious. Thus it was clear that the victory was of his doing.” This is similar to the answers I received from the participants because it shows how Alexander was such a great leader and a conqueror. He so great that he was able to lead a team that was losing in a battle to victory. Because of how great Alexander was, it was portrayed that he was learning and training with something more divine like a God. This is what differs from the answers I received from the participates. In the modern world people would not question about how Alexander the Great became such a good leader, conqueror, and a king. People nowadays wouldn’t know that Alexander was so self trained that people started to think that he was training with a divine being. Despite all of Alexander’s achievements, people in the modern society would only be at the tip of the iceberg when they are asked about who Alexander the Great was.\n\nIonic Order in New York City\n\n\n\nQuiet Utopia\n\nTo many people an ideal society is where everyone work together. However, ever since we were young we were raised to be ‘future leaders of our generation’. It was expected of us that we were going to be at the top and as a person who others would look up to. According to Susan Cain, many students “…read “leadership skills” as a code for authority and dominance..”. I think that we have all put “leadership skills” or “to gain leadership skills” somewhere in our resume before. This shows that we were meant to think that society need many leaders.\n\nHowever, in the article “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”, an ‘ideal society’ does not need that many leaders. A healthy running society actually needs more followers than leaders. To Susan, our society lacks followers because people are too busy striving for great things, and forgetting that working together can also lead to success. Each individual follower can apply their knowledge and creativity in their team, which makes them stronger.\n\nI agree with this article because I don’t have many leadership qualities myself and I think it gives hope to followers to fit in society. If there are too many leaders out there, then there will most likely be conflict because everyone has different opinions and perspectives.\n\nPlato would have probably agreed with this article, “By being trained to follow or obey them, therefore, a subject unwittingly adopting an ideology” (5). He is using a theory from Socrates to support the idea that a strong society comes from few leaders and many followers.\n\nCain, Susan. “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” The New York Times 24 March, 2017.\n\n“Barbaric” Level: Human or Animals?\n\n“…the agency employs people to kill wildlife, including 2,726,820 animals in 2016”.\n\n\nThere is often a boundary that separates humans and wild life because one would usually harm the other. In this case, the USDA Wildlife Services agency killed millions of wild animals per year in order to keep them away from people’s livestocks. This barbaric action can lead to a mass extinction of many animals on Earth. In this article, wild animals are treated as ‘other’, some humans think of them as a hassle because they damage their crops/livestocks. The target audience for the article are animal lovers, those that care about the lives of wild animals or animals in general. The social value that is being affirmed as a shared value for the target audience is that animal lives should also be valued. If this agency continue on hurting animals, even if they do not intend on hurting them, then many species can actually go extinct.\n\nIn our readings in class, the term ‘barbarian’ is used to call someone who is an outsider. Barbarians are people who dress differently, talk differently, and look differently. According to Herodotus, Croesus “…was the first of the barbarians who had dealings with the Greeks…” (4). Croesus is not from Greece and is therefore considered a barbarian. The meaning of the word barbarian in this article is to show the cruel actions done by humans. The killings done by this agency is “barbaric” meaning they are doing things monsters would do.\n\nIs the Ideal Society the Same for Everyone?\n\nDoes everyone have the same perspective on what their ideal picture perfect world would be like? According to the article “Browsing the Web for the ideal utopia site.” by Michael Pollak, a 45-year-old accountant in Baltimore who has written a lengthy online Utopian philosophy, Jon Will, stated ”My vision of Utopia is the ability for each person to live in their own picture of Utopia,” Mr. Will wrote in an e-mail message. ”A heaven on earth, where everyone lives as they desire.” [1] That being the case, he believes the ideal society would be best if each individual was able to live in their own utopia. On that account there would be no values lacking in the society people would live in, since everyone is living their own ideal world. For this reason, I would definitely agree with Michael because everyone’s imagine of their picture perfect society would differ from each other. Therefore, it’s best if people were able to live in their own utopia. However, in the philosopher Plato’s perspective he would disagree with Michael because he believed people should be able to work together to create one perfect society. For example,  in “The Republic” written by Plato himself he stated “That is why, too, these groups can cooperate with one another in a just system, where the money-loving producers trade their products for the protection provided by the honor-loving guardians and the knowledge provided by the wisdom-loving kings, rather than competing with them for the same goods.” His quote supports his perspective that he believed the people would’ve helped each other to reach the ideal world. Unlike to Michael’s article, everyone are living in their own utopia. Thus, Plato would have to disagree with Michael’s perspective on the ideal society.\n\n[1] Pollak, Michael. “Browsing the Web for the ideal utopia site.” New York Times, 28 Dec. 2000, p. G8. New York State Newspapers, Accessed 16 Sept. 2017.\n\nDo you believe in a Utopian Society?\n\nA Utopian society is the the imagination of a perfect and idealized world. In the article Utopia, and the Rest of All Possible Worlds. The author believes that the idea of a utopia society came after the world was left with war and chaos, wanting to have a longing for Utopian society. For example, it states, “ change the physical conditions of an imperfect thing, a city, and you will make it better.” This driven power of possibilities revolutionized many story books with wanting their own Utopian society. The author believes that thinking about a perfect place is after all a better way of living. There is this quote that caught my attention and it states, “There’s an answer. Or maybe we keep dreaming up impossible schemes of perfection to remind ourselves that the real world, in its messiness, is the best thing after all.” He does not seem to believe those values are lacking in the present tense because til this day, we still believe in such society at a certain point. No I don’t believe with the author, because if a perfect world is in fact perfect, I would make it such that nothing can go against it. The imagination of such dedicate world should live on. However, there will be lack of character in society, but I would like to see how long it would take until its rule breaks down. Plato would not agree in such a perfect world but rather fix it to become a better society. As stated, “ Plato brought to philosophy, the methods he invented to solve them, and the solutions he suggested and explored.” In this quote Plato seems to show his investment in making and producing answers for a better society but not a perfect society. One interesting fact that caught my eye was that in this article, there has been several calling from Sparta and Plato itself. Such as, “His colorful legacy is to the vast history of Utopian literature roughly what Plato’s Retreat is to the history of social custom in New York” and “some historians view Sparta as utopia’s fountainhead.” Not much was given, but the idea behind a driven force for a Utopian society did emerge.\n\nTo leave you off, here is a quote : “But we still keep dreaming, not necessarily because we believe in the idea of a secular utopia’s possible fulfillment but because, well, we seem to need to.”\n\nKimmelman, M. Utopia, and the Rest of All possible Worlds.” New York Times” [ New York] 19 October N: pE1\n\nBarbaric Violence? Click to find out more..\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHow Bad Should the Penalty be for Barbaric Crimes?\n\nRecently, according to nypost, a 43 year old man from Melbourne has been charged of slitting a injured kangaroo’s throat and killing it while making foolish remarks. In the article it has stated “The killing of this kangaroo is barbaric and cruel and we expect the police to prosecute the man involved,” World Animal Protection Senior Campaign Manager Ben Pearson said in a statement to the outlet. “It is hard to understand how anyone could commit such a brutal act, let alone film it.” [1] However, even though this person has committed such an barbaric act, he was only fined $7,900- $38,000 and 6 to 24 months in jail. This may seem a little too fair for a man who has committed a crime like this and even have the audacity to post it for millions of people to view. According to Herodotus, he once said “The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.” His quote is relatable to this article because the man who committed this crime has made a bad decision is his life, but because of a little bit of luck he was able to receive a kind penalty. However, his act was still a bad decision regardless.\n\nThe man that killed the kangaroo is being treated as the “other” in this article because he has committed a barbaric act, therefore the attention is being based on him at the moment. Most of the attention being given are mainly based from adults and teens, since the barbaric act has been filmed and posted on a well known Chinese social media site named “QQ”. It is also clear that the audience is disgusted by this barbarian and his act because he was abusing the kangaroo while it was injured, which is considered as animal cruelty. Due to the amount of attention the video has gotten, it has lead to the man being prosecuted by the police. Resulting to him being fined and jailed. Differing from the word barbarians in Greek mythology terms to today’s definition of barbarian. Greek mythology defined a barbarian as a foreigner, meanwhile the definition of barbarian in today’s society describes a person as being uncivilized. Therefore, the man who killed the kangaroo is defined in today’s definition of a barbarian because he is being perceived as an uncivilized human being for his acts.\n\n[1] Woods, Amanda. “Man Charged in ‘Barbaric’ Killing of Injured Kangaroo.” New York Post, New York Post, 1 Sept. 2017,\n\nIs Being too Determined a Bad Thing?\n\nThe two main characters in the film, The Prestige, Alfred Bordan and Robert Angier were both determined to become the greatest magicians. They were obsessed to out perform each other. Their determination has lead them to make extreme sacrifices in their lives. For example, Angier wanted to sabotage Borden while he was performing by shooting a real bullet during Borden’s trick to catch a flying bullet. This lead to Borden cutting 2 of his fingers off, due to how serious the injury was. In order to get revenge on Angier, Borden decided to ruin Angier’s trick of a disappearing bird by tweaking the cage that led to Angier killing the bird on stage and the cancellation of the show.\n\nThis scene reflects on today’s human society because there are some individuals that are way too determined to achieve their goals that they have to sacrifice many valuable things in their lives in order to reach that goal. Lets take sports as an for example, a lot of younger kids in today’s society want to be able to be professional athletes when they grow up due to so much exposure to sports. However, they’re not even aware of the sacrifices they would have to make in order to achieve that goal. They are so determined that they start training like adults athletes from morning to night. While barely being able to balance that type of work ethic with school work at such a young age. Adding on, they don’t even have the proper time to take care of their health. This could be the reason why kids end up getting injured or suffering from mental illnesses. They aren’t allowing themselves to rest properly. Their pure determination may be the reason for possible failure in their future.\n\nIn comparison to Antigone, Antigone was also extremely determined to risk her life in order to bury her brother. The main reasoning for this determination is because she feels as if it’s her duty to bury Polynices body since he is her brother. Also, it was against the Gods and considered as immoral to leave bodies unburied. Therefore, If Antigone didn’t bury him she would’ve felt guilty and offended the Gods. This lead to her decision to violated Creon’s law by not leaving Polynices’s body to be consumed by animals in the wild.  By doing this, she sacrifices many consequences in order to bury her brother. Consequences that would eventually leads to the death of Antigone. This may have been prevented is Antigone wasn’t so determined to bury Polynices, but because of her stubbornness she had to face her downfall. Similar to the film, The Prestige, both main characters, Robert Angier’s and Alfred Borden’s determination to be the best magicians has lead them to their own downfalls.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9510078430175781}
+{"content": "Where to eat vegan pizza in Stockholm\n\nWho doesn't love pizza? One of the world's favourite dishes, it's usually topped with plenty of melted cheese - but vegans need not despair. More and more pizzerias in Stockholm are serving plant-based vegan pizzas made without any animal products. Some simply exchange dairy cheese for vegan cheese and ham for vegan \"ham\", while others take things a step further, creating innovative and tasty pizzas using all manner of plant-based toppings. Whether you're a dedicated vegan or just want to try something different, follow our guide to the best vegan pizzas in Stockholm.\n\n\nVegan-friendly Italian\n\nThis Italian pizza and pasta bar by Mariatorget is perfect for vegans looking for food prepared with a little extra love and care. The restaurant has a separate vegan menu filled with antipasti, pizza, pasta and desserts. Choose from ten or so vegan pizzas which can also be made with gluten-free bases.\n\nOmnipollos hatt\n\nStockholm's hippest vegan pizza\n\nProbably Stockholm's most \"hipster\" pizzeria (and microbrewery), Omnipollos knows a thing or two about creating innovative pizzas. Several of the pizzas on their menu are vegetarian and at least one is usually vegan - topped with muhammara, sundried olives, dates, fennel and other exciting ingredients.\n\nPizzeria Timone\n\nStockholm's largest selection of vegan pizzas\n\nIf you're looking for a wide choice, get yourself along to this neighbourhood pizzeria in Sköndal. There are no less than 27 vegan pizzas on the menu, along with vegan dips and other plant-based dishes. Their vegan pizzas are topped with vegan cheese, vegan \"ham\", vegan bearnaise sauce and \"facon\".\n\nCrispy Pizza\n\n\"Sharing is caring\"\n\nPizzas at this popular spot are topped with the finest ingredients and served sharing-style. This pizza/bistro serves both classic and slightly more innovative pizzas, using vegan cheese and gluten-free bases if desired. Tuck into the whole thing yourself or share with your group.\n\nCrispy Pizza Bistro Vasastan\nCrispy Pizza Bistro Södermalm\nCrispy Pizza Bistro Kvarnholmen\n\n\nPlant-based neighbourhood pizzeria\n\nThis popular neighbourhood pizzeria has been serving plant-based pizzas for a few years. You'll find a range of vegan pizzas topped with vegetables, vegan \"ham\" and \"salami\" - or why not pineapple, banana and curry? All pizzas can be made gluten-free if you prefer.\n\n  • Address:\n    • Oliven, Folkungagatan 86, Södermalm\n\nTellus Pizzeria\n\nVegan versions of classic pizzas\n\nTellus Pizzeria in Midsommarkransen draws in both locals and pizza fans from all over town who've heard the rumour about their excellent pizzas. For a simple local pizzeria, their menu is relatively extensive, with several vegan versions of classics such as Capriciosa, Margarita and Vesuvio.\n\n  • Address:\n\nKungsholmens Pizzeria & Deli\n\nVegan and gluten-free\n\nIf you find yourself in Kungsholmen with a craving for vegan or gluten-free pizza, this is the place to come. They have several vegan pizza options with vegan cheese, vegan \"ham\", soya mince and other green toppings. You can also order in two different sizes: either a small for one person or a larger pizza to share.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8991860747337341}
+{"content": "Solved! How Long Do Fire Extinguishers Last?\n\nRely on this info to keep your home safe from flames and your defenses up to date.\n\nHow Long Do Fire Extinguishers Last? Solved!\n\n\nQ: I just moved into an apartment that has a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, but I’m not sure if it still works. So I’m wondering: How long do fire extinguishers last? How can I tell if mine is still good?\n\nA: You’re wise to put your safety first and ask these questions because the answers can mean the difference between successfully responding to an emergency and being caught empty-handed. Fire extinguishers last between five and 15 years but they all ultimately expire and become ineffective, no matter what fire-fighting substance they contain. Household fire extinguishers—which are typically filled with dry chemicals (carbon dioxide or halon)—lose their charge over time. Those with compressed gas can leak contents slowly as their seals weaken, while those with ammonium phosphate will solidify over the years, rendering the entire device unusable.\n\nThe good news is that some units can be professionally recharged, whether they’re nearing or, in some cases, passed the expiration of their original charge. Read on to get a handle on the age and effectiveness of your fire extinguisher, plus tips on how to extend its life, get it serviced, and dispose of it correctly if necessary.\n\nHow Long Do Fire Extinguishers Last? Solved!\n\n\n\nRELATED: Which Expiration Dates REALLY Matter?\n\nNext, inspect the pressure gauge at the top. If the needle is within the green area, your extinguisher should be in working order. If so, set up a monthly reminder on your calendar or your phone to continue checking the gauge. A needle in the red or white area indicates that it requires service.\n\nIf the extinguisher has no gauge, it’s probably an older model, which means it would be wise to take it to a professional for testing and, if necessary (and possible), recharging.\n\n\nRELATED: 10 Things Your Local Fire Department Wishes You Knew\n\nStore a fire extinguisher in a clean, indoor location can help extend its life. Exposure to sun, UV radiation, wind, or rain can cause corrosion, rust, and deterioration. Excessively dusty or dirty environments can hamper the device’s ability to function properly.\n\n\nRELATED: 14 Bad Habits That Could Burn Down Your House\n\nHow Long Do Fire Extinguishers Last? Solved!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9508563280105591}
+{"content": "Adopted: Mr Ferry and Mrs Mead\n\nMr Ferry and Mrs Mead are both about 12 years old and were surrendered to CPL when their owner went into care.\n\nBlack and white Mr Ferry and brindle tortie Mrs Mead are a friendly couple who are wearing their age very well.  Mr Ferry is rather sedate, cruising through life while Mrs Mead bustles around him.  She likes to be picked up and cuddled like a baby, he prefers to roll over for tummy rubs.  They are both okay with children and we would like to rehome them together.\n\nMr Ferry has a flea allergy which will need regular preventative treatment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.942138671875}
+{"content": "Millennials: Can we as coaches and leaders give them what they want and need?\n\n\nMillennials on the sports fields and in the workplace are getting coaches, managers and business leaders alike to re-think both how we approach and encourage the pursue of the boundaries of their sporting and innovative potential. However, like my current research is evolving and other suggestions from behaviorism researchers, do we actually know or understand fully what these young athletes or workers want or need? I have recently offered an analogy of young leaders today against leaders or managers from years past that you can \"pull from your pocket\"; see your iPhone as leaders or athletes working today. They look the same, work under the same conditions yet with new iOS software loaded in, the expectations and advancements are getting greater by the day. Tony Robbins referenced \"the brain being old hardware, previously used for fight or flight responses; now we are looking to choose fulfillment over achievement\". Simon Sinek famously recorded stating how Millennials are chasing purpose and impact yet lack the patience and effort required to find these desired emotions. Angela Duckworth has defined grit as \"passion and perseverance\", something can could be perceived as lacking from this generation of leaders and athletes coming through. What does this mean for us as coaches and leaders in how we should act?\n\nIn sport specific research I have read around, Pelletier found that changes to people’s perceptions of competence and self-determined motivators should increase intrinsic motivations and identification while decreasing introjection, external motivators and amotivation in athletes (Pelletier, 1995). Also, results from Pope and Wilson’s studies showed athletes who perceive coaches to be supportive of decisions, provided with clear feedback concerning goal pursuits and engage with them in genuine and empathetic manner report greater need fulfillment, more self-determined motives and more perceived effort in sport (J. Pope & Wilson, 2012).\n\nTheories around self-determination such as Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) addresses the degree to which people’s behavior in a domain is governed by self-determined motivators (Adie, 2010). The areas addressed as basic needs requiring fulfillment include competence, autonomy and relatedness. Vallerand and Mageau’s research has shown that intrinsic motivations and self-determined extrinsic motivators are necessary ingredients for athlete’s optimal function (Mageau, 2003). Deci and Ryan’s research investigated that intrinsic motivation is experienced as consequence of feeling competent and self-determined. Intrinsic motivation leads to greater persistence, improved performance and enhanced well-being in a physical setting; this would help support Duckworth's research of grit whereby working towards singularly important goals being the hallmark of high achievers in every domain.\n\nWhile intrinsic motivation stems from innate physiological need of competency and represents the prototype of self-determined behavior, self-determined extrinsic motivators, which are extrinsic motivators which have been internally rationalized with oneself, become activities which are being carried out as are important and concordant to one’s values (Mageau, 2003). Self-determined forms of motivation also result in optimal behavior, resulting in peak performance and persistence (Deci and Ryan, 2008).\n\nBasic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) looks at offering and fulfilling involved people's autonomy, competency and relatedness or connection. However, perceived autonomy has emerged as a large predictor of motivation while competence and relatedness has served as small to moderate positive predictors (J. P. Pope & Wilson, 2014). Again, what does this mean for our current leaders and coaches? The importance of offering autonomy to our young leaders and having autonomy supportive leaders to have and offer a number of attributes. These include acknowledging and providing choice within specific limits and rules, providing rationale for tasks limits and rules, inquiring and recognizing other’s feelings, allowing opportunities to take initiatives and complete independent work, provide non-controlling feedback, avoid over control, controlling statements and tangible rewards and prevent ego involvement from taking place. This shall help start to offer the engagement, purpose and impact these millennials are desiring and searching.\n\nLike explored by Dr Michael Gervais, is there a commonality connecting how the best performers in the world currently use their minds to explore the extent of extensions of their potential? Gary Vaynerchuk encourages young people today to \"double down on what we are awesome at and what inspires us\". What does this mean for us as coaches and leaders in how we should act or inspire? Encouraging young athletes and leaders to adopt a mastery approach to competency would encourage them to positively perform the task to the best of their ability and to self-regulated standards while attempting to continually learn and improve on an interpersonal level. An example of athlete’s pursuit of competence in theoretical stance would be achievement goal theory. Achievement goal theory “implies that people are goal directed individuals, participating in achievement settings with a view to demonstrate competence or avoid demonstration of incompetence” (Adie, 2010). Ultimately, the goal of action within achievement goal theory is the demonstration of competence; however, there is differences how the perceived competence is displayed and perceived by athletes and young leaders.\n\nPlayers aligned with task involvement goals, whom judge their competency through self-referenced targets or goals, are recognized as evoking high effort to obtain mastery and continually improve personal performance. Their ability and effort is not differentiated by others and the perceived ability is self-determined and success only realized when mastery is achieved. Ego involvement or orientation shows athletes more concerned with their evaluation against normative standards and recognize success as measurement against others, which is now infinity more conman in the world of social media, when performing as equal as others with less effort; therefore, not displaying striving for mastery or being focused on task. These players have ego based goals and they differentiate their effort and perceived ability, based on social aspects surrounding them, again displaying the lack the patience and effort required to find these desired emotions like suggested by Sinek.\n\nRelatedness or connection can be seen as establishing and maintaining secure attachments with others to feel recognized, acknowledged and belonging to environment as opposed to isolated and ignored. Past sports research has provided results showing “the more athletes perceived their coaches to be caring and involved, the more self-determined in their motivations towards sport” (Pelletier, 1995). Hollembeak and Amorose also “found autocratic behaviour had a significant negative relationship with feelings of relatedness” (Hollembeak, 2005). As studied by Mageau and Vallerand, athlete’s perceptions of relationship with coaches is assumed as essential for intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Mageau, 2003). Therefore, it can and should be recognized that coach-player relations or leadership within the workplace effect can influence performance, welfare and motivations of people and athletes of all ages.\n\nAgain, what does this mean for us as coaches and leaders in how we should act? To look at relatedness, leaders and coaches should start by raising expectations for what is needed and expected from connections to others. Meaningful connections is key here; using the iPhone analogy again, put your phone BACK IN YOUR POCKET. Engage on a significant and sincere level and teach our young athletes or leaders to do likewise. In sport specific research, Chan and Mallett recognized that high performing coaches require additional skills including ability to facilitate functioning leader-follower relationships, revolving around emotional intelligence and empathy, beyond the standard technical and tactical skills (Chan, 2011). Jowett’s research into coach-athlete relationships looked at the interrelated emotions and behaviors captured through constructs of commitment, closeness and complimentary, tied in later studies with coordination (Jowett, 2004). In this sports research, commitment within coach-athlete relationships is recognized as intention to maintain a loyal, long term relationship while showing closeness as mutual trust, respect and appreciation for roles played in partnership. The coach’s and athlete’s ability to have mutual relatedness, common ground in beliefs and actions while having stress-free interpersonal behaviors displays coordination and complimentary aspects for successful coach-athlete relationships.\n\nBoth performance enhancement and physiological well-being is deeply ingrained within the development of meaningful relationships. All leaders and coaches need to acknowledge and recognize the effects of positive, interdependent relationships, which are dynamic and interlinked with cognition, feelings and behaviors to achieve common recognized goals (Jowett, 2007). The main aspects of influential and successful  relationships revolve around ideals such as mutual trust, respect, support, cooperation, communication and understanding of each other and impact of each other within the relationship. Within team sports like rugby union, the relationship between team cohesion and sports performance is an important and positive connection; Carron’s studies recognized that social cohesion has a stronger relationship than task cohesion on performance. Recognizing the benefits of promoting autonomy in team atmosphere for self-determined motivations, democratic coaching styles vastly improve team task cohesion when accounting for commitment, closeness and complementary within coach-athlete relations (Jowett, 2004). LaVoi’s conceptual model recognized the importance of human’s need to belong and feel connected and close within relationships; this can be accomplished through key characteristics in relationships including authenticity, engagement and empowerment between the coach and athlete (Jowett, 2007).\n\nPart of the importance and difficulty of good working and sporting relationships stem around the perceived passion towards the sport, echoing Duckworth's research into grit being made of PASSION and PERSEVERANCE. However, an equally or unequally obsessive passion towards common interests or goals can result in externally regulated motivations taking control, with players, leader or coach being more controlled by outcomes which are regulated or recognized by others than those within relationship. Both parties having harmonious passion towards similar interests and goals should be positive for all dimensions for leader-follower relations and result in understanding of importance of pursuit of mastery yet not over whelming in each other’s identity. High quality coach-athlete relationships, which are optimized by harmonious passion, result in higher subjective well-being within player (Lafrenière, 2008), an area which is critical for age grade player retention and development of self-determined motivations and mastery mindset.\n\nSo again, do we actually know or understand fully what these young athletes or workers want or need? Exactly what we want in return; passion, commitment, meaningful communications and relationships, support to choose and make decisions, following instinct while offering honest feedback on performance and support for a growth mindset; all things we must educate, support and train to others.  Hopefully this application of sport specific studies being applied to general working environments has offered food for thought.....\n\nLeadership: integrity, honesty and accountability; all components of trust\n\n\nTo all my Southern Hemisphere coaching and global business friends entering a new year and season, remember in earnest; if every member of a team doesn’t grow together, they will grow apart.  As we prepare for a new rugby season, pre-season should be the time for remembering that we as leaders are responsible for setting the tone of the environment needed in order to be at our best. Therefore, understanding and solidifying why we are coaching, leading and teaching is the thing that inspires us and inspires those around us. Use this time at the start of 2018 to ask ourselves and communicate with others what our purpose or beliefs are, establishing or reaffirming connections through trust and authenticity which is vital to an organization or sporting team's success and become better leaders through recognition and celebration, coaching, and communication skills.\n\nA small group of inspired and engaged employees or players can have a positive impact. Players today want to feel that they matter, that their work or efforts matter and that they are contributing to something bigger than themselves. Together, you and your teams can create a positive and productive environment where trust and cooperation are the norm, not the exception. However, for people to follow you and identify you as their leader, it starts with integrity, honesty and accountability; all components of trust. When you clearly understand our own why, you can display a greater sense of purpose within our teams and organization and are able to contribute the best of who you are. When you are at your best, contributing to the vision and the long-term progress of the teams or businesses we are involved in, the natural result is greater fulfillment for all involved.\n\nOnce you've established why you are leading or coaching, here's some leadership tips for managing young workers and players in today's environment:\n\n  • Lead by example; show heroism and leadership in their daily lives for examples to follow.\n  • Teach them leadership including sharing ideas on how to give and receive feedback for personal growth.\n  • Accept \"failures\" as part of growth mindset: Acknowledge failures are helping the person and program grow if we learn and grow from mistakes made.\n  •  Teach and empower them to search and solve their own problems, encouraging new and innovative ideas for ever-changing environments.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998049259185791}
+{"content": "Validation classes\n\nI have added some validation classes to the documentation section.\n\nThe validation classes can be used on their own but they are intended to be used as part of the XML form builder, shortly I will update the example for the lib_form_builder_xml class to show correct usage and also add the processing class code and example.\n\nThe processor class is the one that reads the rules from the XML file and actually validates the submitted data before it can be passed of to the model/controller.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999200701713562}
+{"content": "pediatric dentistry Houston\n\nMy child is grinding their teeth at night. Is there anything I can do?\n\nThe gritting and screeching sound of a child grinding his teeth can be very unnerving to parents, and many parents wonder what is wrong with their child. However, teeth grinding, known as “bruxism,” is quite common in younger children. Why is your child grinding his teeth? Is there anything you can do to deal with this problem?\n\nHere’s a closer look at teeth grinding in children. Our pediatric dentistry in Houston may provide the solutions you need.\n\nReasons Children Grind Teeth at Night\n\nThere are several reasons that children grind their teeth at night. In small children, they often grind their teeth as they get used to having teeth in their mouth. Grinding also occurs because a child is growing. The child’s teeth and jaws are continuing to grow, and many children grind their teeth as they adjust to this new growth.\n\nChildhood bruxism has also been linked to teething, earaches, anxiety, pain, breathing problems, and malocclusion, which is a term for when the child’s teeth don’t line up correctly.\n\nTalk to Your Child’s Dentist About Bruxism\n\nIt’s always a good idea to talk to your child’s dentist if you notice that your child is grinding his teeth at night. This way your child’s dentist can look for any potential problems, such as tooth fractures, pulp exposure, or cavities. However, it usually isn’t a problem in younger children. As a child’s permanent teeth start developing, most children will simply grow out of the habit.\n\nEnsure Your Child is Relaxedpediatric dentistry Houston\n\nOf course, if the grinding becomes severely annoying there are a couple things to try. If you think the bruxism is caused by stress, ensure your child is relaxed, particularly at bedtime.\n\nStretching exercises, a massage, or relaxing bedtime routines may help. If you notice your child grinding his teeth during the day, get them involved in another activity, such as talking or eating.\n\nOlder Children Suffering Bruxism are More in Danger\n\nOnce your child becomes a teenager, if you continue to notice grinding, talk to your dentist again. A teen already has his permanent teeth, and it’s important to prevent damage to the permanent teeth.\n\nYour teen’s dentist may want to create a custom night guard for your child that will stop the problem and keep teeth protected, ensuring your teen doesn’t cause serious damage to the permanent teeth.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6497610807418823}
+{"content": "NICE is unable to make a recommendation about the use in the NHS of denosumab for preventing skeletal-related events in multiple myeloma because no evidence submission was received from Amgen. We will review this decision if the company decides to make a submission.\n\nGuidance development process\n\nHow we develop NICE technology appraisal guidance\n\n  • National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9908710718154907}
+{"content": "Letters to the Editor\n\nHope’s Village is the right idea, but it needs its own land\n\nThe inside of a tiny home in November 2016.\nThe inside of a tiny home in November 2016. dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com\n\nHope’s Village is absolutely the right idea in the right time and place. But you are the news source for SLO County, so you have to ask why it hasn’t happened in all the years the homeless situation has gotten worse and Hope’s Village has proposed doing something about it.\n\nThe leadership of this project has conceived and started this wonderful effort, but it has been seduced by an unsound notion that someone will give them the land or loan it to them.\n\nHope’s Village needs to purchase and own its land. The potential for law enforcement involvement when housing the homeless will always be present, so Hope’s Village can’t be built on borrowed land. It’s too risky, and nobody is stepping to the plate with an offer, anyway. As an ex-SLO County resident and ex-board member of Hope’s Village, I hope the community steps up and helps get HV built. It will absolutely work, and it is something we all will be proud of.\n\nMark Salwasser, Gloucester, Massachusetts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944366812705994}
+{"content": "Geoengineering could bring severe drought to the tropics, research shows\n\nThis article is more than 5 years old\nStudy models impact on global rainfall when artificial volcanic eruptions are created in a bid to reverse climate change\nLayers of Volcanic Dust in the Earth's Atmosphere following eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines\nA view from the space shuttle Atlantis of three layers of volcanic dust in the Earth's atmosphere, following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Photograph: ISS/NASA/Corbis\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnother member of the research team, Professor Ellie Highwood, said: \"On the evidence of this research, stratospheric aerosol geoengineering is not providing world leaders with any easy answers to the problem of climate change.\"\n\nThe study considered what would happen if carbon dioxide levels quadrupled in the atmosphere – the sort of extreme situation in which geoengineering might be seriously considered. Without intervention, temperatures rose by 4C, far above the 2C level considered dangerous by the world's governments.\n\nBut the temperature rise was reduced to zero if a massive geoengineering effort took place. The 60m tonnes of sulphur dioxide pumped into the stratosphere each year in the simulation is equivalent to five volcanic eruptions, each on the scale of Mount Pinatubo, the huge 1991 eruption in the Philippines that cut global temperatures by about 0.5C in the following year or two.\n\nThe sulphate particles in the model not only reflected incoming sunlight, cutting temperatures, but also absorbed heat rising up from the Earth's surface. This reduced the temperature difference between the lower and upper atmosphere, which is the engine that drives cloud formation and rainfall. The reduction in rainfall seen in the geoengineering model was as big as the increase in rainfall projected if global warming was unabated.\n\nDr Matthew Watson, a researcher at the University of Bristol and advocate of further research into geoengineering, said: \"The researchers chose an extreme climate scenario so we should not be surprised if that, and any geoengineering attempt to counter it, had severe and uneven impacts.\"\n\nHe added: \"It remains the case that our only guaranteed way forward is to reduce the record levels of greenhouse gases we continue to pump into the atmosphere. It's vital that scientists continue researching geoengineering; but no government serious about climate change should see it as a quick fix.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8580403327941895}
+{"content": "\n\n\nGood example of jump cutting\n\n\n\n\nMichel and Patricia in Patricia’s room\n\n\nNew York Herald Tribune! Patricia’s “American” voice\n\n\n\nEnding scene\n\nWritten on the Wind\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nExtra Credit 2\n\nBlack Girl End Scene\n\nThis short film that we viewed recently in class was rather touching. The actors all had a strong presence, especially the lead, Diouanna. However, the scene I chose to analyze is the end scene, which she is not in. Well, at least not literally.\n\nI would actually like to go about this analysis post somewhat in the format of the Gaze assignment. But before I get into that, I suppose some background information on the film would help paint the picture. Basically, Diouanna is a young Senegalese woman who is a nanny for a white family – mother, father, son. She lives in Senegal with her family while she works as a nanny. When the family relocates to France, they invite Diouanna to come with them and be their live-in nanny. She imagines a life in France will be a glamorous one and agrees to do it. However, when she gets to France, it isn’t long until she realizes her expectations surely did not match her reality. She is treated worse and worse everyday, forced to work harder, and gets excuses instead of payments. The wife is especially rude to her. Diouanna isn’t allowed to wear dresses while she works according to the wife. After the husband and wife write a fake letter to Diouanna from her mother,  she decides that she has had it and she is leaving. She begins to pack everything, including a mask she had given to mother in the family as a gift a long time ago, when she might have deserved it. When the parents get home that day, they notice the house is still a mess and no one is watching their son. When they look for Diouanna, they find her sleeping and the wife wakes her and yells at her. Shortly after, the wife notices the mask is missing off the wall and she finds it in Diouanna’s room and they fight over it. The wife is really a petty b*tch (for lack of a better word, sorry!) in this film, man I hate her. Eventually Diouanna wins the battle for the mask. She continues packing her things and I assumed she would travel back to Senegal, but instead she commits suicide in the bathroom of the family’s house. Very sad.\n\nAnyway, the husband shockingly has enough respect to travel back to Senegal to return Diouanna’s belongings to her family, including the mask. Diouanna’s little brother takes a liking to the mask and holds it to his face as soon as he recieves it. He follows the husband on his way back to the airport staring at him through the mask. The husband is so very intimidated and genuinely freaked out by the young boy in the mask, who isn’t even doing anything. He doesn’t yell at the kid to go away or anything, either. He just picks up his pace and tries to escape him.\n\nPersonally, I believe the mask represents Diouanna’s spirit and ghost. It is haunting the husband because he treated her badly, and allowed his wife to treat her even worse. He cannot escape the memory and the ghost of Diouanna, no matter how hard he tries. This is why he doesn’t tell the boy to go away. He knows its not the boy haunting him, and he knows he can’t get rid of it. The film ends with the boy slowly lowering the mask off his face to reveal a facial expression that’s rather melancholy, and maybe even a bit evil, while the husband drives away in the distance. The boy is clearly is upset over the loss of his sister, and who could blame him? I’m personally glad he was able to remind the husband of how terrible he has been and how he will have to live with the grief and guilt for taking away a young woman’s life who was nothing but kind and faithful to him and his family.\n\nOther people thought the mask represented something else, but I’m almost positive the mask represents Diouanna herself. Throughout the end scene, the camera is either focused on the mask itself, or the view from behind the mask.\n\n\nExtra Credit\n\nWritten On The Wind Scene\n\nFor this particular analysis, I have chosen to use a clip from the melodramatic film Written On The Wind, directed by Douglas Sirk and released in 1956. This film was revolutionary during its time because it was released in a time when Hollywood was just starting to use color in its films, and the colors in this specific film are rather vibrant compared to other films released prior. In addition, the sound technology had also recently improved when this film was released, so it’s quality was really exceeding that of films released a few years prior. Douglas Sirk’s films usually fell in the melodrama genre, and this one is no different. Although at the time, many films were being made independently and not in studios, this particular film was made in a studio. In 1950, Douglas Sirk signed a contract with Universal Studios.\n\nThis specific scene I’ve chosen to analyze is an important one in the film because it has an underlying meaning beneath the ridiculous amount of drama involved in it. The scene begins with Marylee Hadley, daughter of Jasper Hadley and sister of Kyle Hadley, dancing in her room and playing music. Marylee is a promiscuous young lady who is always getting in trouble, or better yet, always getting someone else in trouble. At this point in the film, she had just returned home after being taken home by the cops for performing sexual acts with a man in a car who she just picked up at a gas station. She nearly gave her father a heart attack with that stunt, but obviously that didn’t phase her, as she was right back into her room smiling and dancing. When Marylee begins her dancing, her father is downstairs in his office conversing with Mitch Wayne, best friend of Kyle Hadley and object of Marylee’s desire, though her love for him is unrequited. Jasper, Marylee’s father, leaves his conversation with Mitch and begins to walk up the grand staircase towards his daughter’s bedroom. He is gripping the banister as he walks up the stairs, and the banister is vibrating quite rapidly, due to the motion made my Marylee’s quick-paced dancing and the loud playing of her music. This causes Jasper to lose his grip on the banister, and being weak and old, especially weak at the moment, and he falls and tumbles down each step, and there are many! Throughout this all, Marylee is playing her music loud as ever and laughing and dancing. Meanwhile, downstairs Mitch and Lucy (sister in law to Marylee, daughter in law to Jasper, wife of Kyle, object of Mitch’s affection thus making Marylee an enemy) have discovered that Jasper is no longer breathing – the tumble down the stairs cost him his life. The way Mitch rushes over to Jasper and the look of sheer horror on Lucy’s face show that they truly care about this man, whereas his own daughter is upstairs dancing away, not knowing that she has both indirectly and directly killed her father, and Kyle Hadley is nowhere to be found because hes off getting drunk somewhere. Although it is awfully melodramatic that the vibration of the banister cause Jasper to lose his balance and slip, fall, and ultimately die – it has an underlying meaning, like I stated before. The stress his own kids bestow upon him cause him too much grief for him to go on, he simply cannot take it (as melodramatic as that may seem as well) yet his daughter-in-law and his son’s best friend are ever so caring for him and hold him down , showing that unlike Kyle and Marylee Hadley, they have good intentions and true, good hearts. This in turn proves that Lucy and Mitch should have been the ones together in the first place, just as Mitch wanted, and what Lucy probably originally wanted.\n\nThis particular scene was short and the individual shots weren’t much to analyze, but the underlying meaning was definitely something to be recognized by the viewers which is why I chose to elaborate on that instead.\n\n\n\n\n\nAnalysis #2\n\nI’ve chosen to do my second analysis assignment on the materiality of film. The example I’m using is a clip from the French New-Wave era movie Breathless, one of my personal favorite  films that we’ve viewed in class. The specific clip I’ve chosen uses jump cuts quite frequently.\n\nBreathless Scene\n\nThe scene starts out with Michel and Patricia driving around. The camera is focused on Patricia for this whole part of the scene. This whole section is jump cut after jump cut. This form of editing makes it seem as if there is a significant time difference between the scenes, but in reality is it a steady continuation, only the camera angle has shifted. You can tell because the dialogue stays consistent without missing a beat. During this scene, Michel is listing the things he adores about Patricia, but he ends by calling her a coward. While he lists his favorite things about Patricia, she is just observing her surroundings, and ignoring Michel’s comments. I believe this is significant because during all these jump cuts, Patricia’s lack of interest in Michel’s words, and her sudden interest in her surroundings stays constant. The camera doesn’t leave its view of Patricia until Michel pulls up to the place where he is dropping her off to meet her boss for a meeting, and even then it only focuses on Michel for a moment. Apparently Patricia’s ignoring Michel in the car ride offended him because as she leaves his car to meet her boss, he tells her she’s a louse and he never wants to see her again. (He, of course, goes on to see her for the rest of the movie). As soon as Patricia is in the building, the camera is back to focusing directly on her. While she rides up the escalator, the camera follows her from overhead. This makes it seem like more of  a documentary, or just a rather personal, homemade movie. I really like this technique. During Patricia’s conversation with her boss, the camera is shaky, and it goes back to jump cuts, this time between Patricia and her boss, while he tells a story. It seems like there’s a time difference between each shot once again, but it is continuous shots. The jump cuts and shaky camera here give it a personal feel, and make it feel like an amateur movie or a home movie or documentary. I believe the filmmaker used the jump cuts and over head view and shaky camera to show us the film from the eye of a close-by bystander to all that is going on. At certain points it feels like the person in focus is being stalked, with the way the camera angles are used. When Patricia is leaving the restaurant with her boss, the camera follows her from the back, and makes it seem like shes being spied on, so at first I thought we were seeing it from Michel’s point of view, but then the camera cuts to Michel who is clearly annoyed, then back to Patricia and her boss walking hurriedly to her boss’ car, then back to Michel, buying a newspaper, who then turns around and sees Patricia and her boss kissing. It isn’t until this part of the scene that the background music starts. At first it as a normal speed, but while they are kissing the music speeds up, as if it were signifying something scandalous (it is !) and the camera does another jump cut, and shows them kissing from different angles. Once again, this type of filmmaking makes it look as if the people in focus are being stalked. I’m not sure if that was what the filmmaker going for, but thats the concept I get from my viewing.\n\nAfter the camera cuts back and forth between Patricia and Michel, it shows Patricia and her boss driving away in her boss’ car, first at an eye-level view showing the streets, then cutting to an overhead view once again. The screen fades to black and the music dies out, then after a couple of seconds, the music starts back up again at the same pace it originally began with, and the camera view is now a mid-level view, showing us the Eiffel Tower, from the view of what seems to be a moving car. This view gives the film that personal feeling again. The Eiffel Tower gets lost behind some trees, and then we are back to viewing Patricia, who is hopping off a trolley and skipping about. The scenes shown here cut from Patricia running off the trolley, to her skipping across a street, to her looking at herself in a mirror in a store window, holding her stomach as if she was pregnant, then sucking her stomach in to make herself look thinner. Again we have jump cuts, showing Patricia viewing herself in the mirror at different angles. Once again, we have that outsider’s close-up point of view.\n\nThroughout this whole scene, the filmmaker used techniques that were very new to movies in France. This film was made by Jean-Luc Godard, a major influence and revolutionary during the 1960’s New Wave era. The way the movie sometimes appear to be filmed with a handheld camera, as if it were a home movie or documentary is probably because New Wave era films were low-budget and the lack of funding for the films was definitely reflected in the films. In addition, Jean-Luc Goddard stated himself in an interview in the acclaimed French journal Cahiers Du Cinema, \n\n“The nouvelle vague, in fact, may be defined in part\nby this new relationship between fiction and reality,\nas well as through nostalgic regret for a cinema\nwhich no longer exist\"\n\nI can definitely see the relationship between fiction and reality in this film. The movie of course, is a fictional story, but the way it is shot certainly makes it seem like a real life account, or a documentary at times. This New Wave type of filmmaking was experimental, and political in the sense that it focused on interpretation of the film-making style rather than the plot of the film. Throughout the whole film, not just the clip, is the audience focused on the techniques used to create the film, more than the plot, thus being  “less prone to manipulation”. The journal Cahiers Du Cinema, which Godard wrote for, suggested that directors were not just crew members, but artists with their own personal vision and style. This is definitely a good description for Godard. This particular scene definitely had a sense of Godard’s specific style of film-making and personal vision. It showed all of the unconventional different camera views and angles he used to make a statement against conventional film-making in his time. This film was made during the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, and the revolutionary filmmakers of the time such as Godard felt that cinema could be used as “a tool for the revolution”, which brings the political aspect into play, the political aspect being that the film was less a “gangster film” than a “metacommentary on [gangster films]”, the film didn’t stick to the usual guidelines for films being made at the time, breaking tradition, and the audience needed to see through his point of view to understand where he was coming from. I believe Godard did a fine job of capturing the audience’s attention with his techniques such as jump cuts, overhead views, handheld camera capturing, and he certainly made the audience focus more on the filmic process rather than the plot. This film definitely broke tradition in its recording style. I found it to be brilliant, as well as Godard’s style in particular.\n\nNext Page »\n\nSpam prevention powered by Akismet\n\nSkip to toolbar", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5219398140907288}
+{"content": "Year 2019, a war like situation. Albeit it is a war, from last many years.\n    From last many centuries for above and all.\n\n    This is not the war between two nations or countries.\n    This is between existence and ego.\n\n    A war of mental energies, a war of dialogue, a war of despise and a war of gaining everything out of nothing. A war …….. More or less, prophesies made earlier are texturing into reality.\n\n    This age and generation, falling in serious traps.\n    Though apparently, it seems that we all are living in Urban times, yet this all superficial frame is very near to boom.\n\n    History is evident, for time travel of generations’ one area to another.\n    Whenever, humans fought on mammoth issues, the core one, as cover is always a Religion. Extreme to the regime, they prefer sensitive points to make people emotional for their rights, comfort zones and space personnel.\n\n    The ground, around never called earth or home to humans.\n    It’s only called when favorable environment, circumstances and occurrences widespread for the living. This is unfortunate, even the massive weapon in consideration that is the strength of pen, is no longer serving this humanity and humans. Only because, they are transformed up to the level which is no more different than the backwardness of the early man. Ironically enough, nemesis by nature and delusionistic by thought, today humans are fake, envious and reptilian by brains.\n\n    Community is support system, so does the strength.\n    When people made team in any area of life, they achieve even the impossible. The scars to human psychology by the same species are the worst, they can’t heal, won’t remove and never sorted out.\n\n    Man is designed to survive, struggle and strive with in group not alone.\n    Today, an individual approach is leaving a person nowhere but aloof to the edge of emptiness.\n\n    Collapse is here, it is social, economic, political and worst come religious all around the world. No matter what how strong nuclear weapon a country has, indecisive and lunatics in governess ruined all the laborious construction of wise men, they applied and foiled through and in millenniums.\n\n    World watched many wars, and sometimes even the reasoning is out.\n    After many years, people admitted, they committed nothing but wrong to the world, nations and the lands. Such confessions after killing time, humans and creating massive destructions, what to consider? Regret or Guilt? Both irreversible, irreparable and implacable.\n\n    With very heavy heart, this is evident that the literary people are no more respected.\n    The words are no more influential, as this age is slave to the electronic media, films, videos and channels. IT expansion, the web of satellite and human fancy to conquer the world through gadgets is nearly the mission, ardently possible. This is again a kinda magic, human created an illusion to stay in delusion to serve his kingship for nothing.\n    Faith is opposite to this Charisma.\n    Hence, steadfastness hide its gist and beauty beyond human eye and comprehension now. Today generation of time is unable to even unveil the truth, they are conflicted up to the extend where there they just act the fed stuff. The biggest war, we humans ever fought that is to say over ‘difference of opinion and ideology.’ This is how people portray their faith and they stood for it.\n\n    Sacrifices, loses and destructions, are seen mostly for those who were innocent.\n    The law of Nature, when violent never be kind to anyone. Especially, when humans left their faith for fake. Now this is another story, that what is accuracy of faith?\n\n    Either the Zoroastrianism is the right path to follow?\n    Jews and their religious beliefs are witnessed and worthy of imitating?\n    Is Christianity, the correct track?\n    Still Hindus are worshiping statues/idols in 21st Century, are those idols bringing any benefit?\n    Islam really reaches terrorism? Or this is the ideal of All?\n\n    This is the most debatable context in the world.\n    It sounds mysterious, presumptuous and as people made the most conflicted area of life and history. People fought, rule and divide nations and humans upon this differentiation. The religion/sect people belong to, they have several behaviors, some are loyal to their roots and others contemplate within their system. The purpose of downfall, always are the people with in.\n\n    This is not that Rudolf Hitler despised Jews and impious to wipe them out almost 90%.\n    The converse frame, is there in all ages and generations. Now see how the world treating Muslims and their regions. What supremacy they goona enjoy, if no left with earth and humans. This is not the question of Jews, Christians or Muslims. This is about the perception we seed in and grow out.\n\n    We have those Reluctancies.\n    Very severely and seriously, that what sin we did as generation in this age that we suffer the depression and repression all around the world. This is not only a thought of an individual, this is matter of worry for all humans.\n\n    Syria been conflicted, do the world really knows the facts and inside of it?\n    Persecution of particularly of Muslims in Myanmar/Bruma, was that the landmark fight?\n    Afghanistan deployed, were they really terrorists, even their children and women?\n    Palestine destroyed, their people hitted the trade Centre?\n    Are Kashmirs salve to India? That the employed soldiers are so easily cut them as carrot?\n\n    Much to conflicts, flights and battles. Enough of this barbarism.\n    Yeah, true human psychology needs thrill and such wars brought stimulation to the higher authorities, Govt and world associated organizations but everything has an end.\n\n    Nothing lasts here forever.\n    This world has an End soon, than people will reap what they saw. There will be Judgements.\n    Every Soul has to answer, what deeds uttered, how, when and why. If people forgot this fact, they will soon be recalled for it……………………. Reluctancies !\n\n\n\n    How you listen the voice of heart?\n    When you listen the yell of soul?\n    Whom do you hear?\n    What do you prefer to hear from the heart and the soul?\n\n    Now or Never.\n    If now, this is not heard then it is common to comprehend it would never be heard.\n\n    Hope, strings to Mercy.\n    Mercy, is to see and to hear You Made.\n    Don’t left breathing ones alone, empty and cold.\n    Limitlessness is not for mortal, boundary is though.\n\n    You hold to say ‘TO BE’ then let ‘IT BE’.\n    Mercy is a desire, nothing else than that.\n    Voice, I have but holder of back\n    Saying is not enough, need is to be heard.\n\n    What to do?\n    Did I ask for this life? Did I commit my Fate? Do I am the one who control?\n    Do it for ME, Do it for others.\n    Only YOU can do.\n\n    YOU know YOUR will, I can’t as I am just living for sometimes\n    Certain and most of the times uncertain.\n    You are the predictor. You are all sane.\n    You, yourself is One and All.\n\n    Mercy is a desire, nothing else than that.\n    Voice, I have but holder of back\n    Saying is not enough, need is to be heard.\n\n    Thought of You keeps Me alive, let me live even after my death transaction\n    Let me have that eternal peace that cure my wounds\n    Mercy Me, Your ultimate blessing\n    Let My Fate, Your favor\n\n    I am summoned by a sermon\n    A call of prayer, flowers me, all my hopes string to Your Mercy\n    Grant my soul what is asked for\n    Forgive Me, for everything even for nothing, as You are all listening, all forgiving.\n\n    Call to be granted.\n    Voice to be heard.\n\n    Listen Me. I am not a saint, neither a sinner.\n    You knew better, as destiny designed by You.\n\n    I believe Your Truth, Light and Nature.\n    I do my part in thick and thin, being exist.\n    I belief, I am a believer.\n    Enrich My faith, I believe in\n\n    Let it be for Me.\n    Hope, strings to Mercy.\n    This is a voice, simple and low with faith\n    To have Your attention, as You are All Mercy\n\n    Alive is the conscience connected to You\n    Clean is the heart praying You\n    Light is the soul believing You\n    Let my conscience, heart and soul be alive, clean and light.\n\n    Want is Your Attention, Your Mercy. Listen Me\n    I am not a saint, neither a sinner.\n    I belief, I am a believer.\n    Enrich My faith, I believe in\n\n    Call to be granted.\n    Voice to be heard.\n    Mercy Me, Your ultimate blessing\n    Let My Fate, Your favor\n\n\n\n    Fate is conundrum. Really is …….. So does the free Will.\n    There are very few who can thread their free will at their own, rest many are bound to the fate.\n\n    Wars been broken out, millions of people suffered/died, countries lost their personal space and nationality phobia coverts many into immigrants (they might have spent years by following rules and regulations and may earn the US/Canadian Nationalities yet their skin color remains the same of the land they belong to).\n\n    Not only WW I or WW II afflicted mankind. After that many countries fought even without stating the purpose or exact reasons of the conflicts. What was that? It may refers to:\n\n    Man Made World and its’ Destruction\n    Man Vs Wolf and Wolf is Ruling\n    Economic Cold War/ Battling of Power\n    Me First as I worship My Ego\n\n    Governments been challenged by more and more population, they need to govern for better reason to facilitate people hence they made policies/ rules and regulations but what, it’s really opposite. All this scheme of paper currency, banking system, military alliance and itself worldwide unions of Government ruled by technology, all in one is a mass of destruction in one way or another.\n\n    Power rules, yes it does, and it does not matter what it is used for either for the right purpose or for the wrong. This is a huge issue that why people put lots of efforts to play games and raise conflicts to torment the peace. Why people prefer to sell their soul for pity products instead of believing in valor of Nature and Truth.\n\n    We encounter many historians, philosophers and thinkers who actually addressed the unquestionable difficulties/complexities of life, of human and the core relationship of Human with God. Presumably, few writers even triggered the taboos surfing such areas of life and literature. Point is, story begins with two energies one based on positive next the negative.\n\n    Negative affects more and access/expand early.\n    Positive influences and asks resistance, it sets its pace.\n\n    This sum is really difficult. The study area to observe, analyze and evaluate is though fine for human wisdom but there is no assurance for the outcome, it may vary. Its not always good will have good. There are trials, there are reactions of implications.\n\n    From the day human begins this journey, they go with some kinda story line.\n    The prospect/vision to achieve whatever, human set a pace with, is very important. The reality of soul is, man always following and portraying what poured in. Outside attractions are reflexes. The clarity/purity inside brings out better source of expression and interest.\n\n    It is unknown fact just like many others that what gonna be the end. Beginning and the journey path we may have access to, but not till the end. There are many untold stories and speeches left shady and mysterious for which we have no sign or today we have facts unknown.\n    Simultaneously, this is how people of times treated religion, cultures and traditions. What bestowed on them, they denied. What they adopted they prolonged. This psychological behavior is nothing but a reflection of delusion/ illusion, but if we see through things is it not the method of Nature.\n\n    Yes, to reach up to your actual soul’s destination or goal.\n    One must be trapped, been passed through several illusions. One must be agitated by many delusions. Such mitigation may affect the light/energy and even the power of truth of a person’s soul. Certainly, the one will greet the success who use wisdom/capacity of thinking to reach out the reality.\n\n    Destruction is easy when plotted, so does the construction.\n    Construction needs more intuition and precaution whereas destruction is just an open portal.\n\n    Today human intimidated by the mechanical world.\n    Where all the successes, all the goals/ objectives are subjective of what they see and for what they are the creators. In such case they forgot the core essence of this life and hereafter. In fact the fearlessness/carelessness of meeting end result and hereafter declaration is the key element that cause the animosity, absence of soul and the death of light.\n\n    This is how people begins ruling and consider themselves the Right.\n    Hitler did, he despised Jews, and so he started demolishing their generations. The cruelty he brought to the world and the humanity is none other than, a just decision for him. May be Jews were not human for him. That was ill-fate though for Jews. What he did, world recorded but what happened to Hitler, intense reasons are unknown.\n\n    Cutting short, the fundamental law of Nature, simplicity and vividness creates valor and honor. Human nature/creation is based on emerging realities. Lesser the pain, if less materials been carried. There is no use materializing or generating negative circles all around the will last for nothing but doom of one’s own soul.\n\n    Let it be, a better place to breath without vengeance and revenge.\n    Let it be, at ease and peace for one’s own soul and for the others.\n    Let it be, the relationship with God and with God’s creations, stays sound and steady.\n    Let it be, the love and harmony be a ruler instead of destruction\n    Let it be, humanity the flag, slogan and itself a nation.\n    Let it be, a true thinker be a saint\n    Let it be, a smile of content for exploring inner spiritual light instead of materialism.\n    Let it be……………….Let it be………….\n\n\n\n    Once a good memory of past becomes the tragic one in present, is that a fact? Or is this a state of denial? Nostalgia has its’ own charm and there are many people who love to stay in past memories especially it is observed for the people who born in late 1970’s. The reason maybe they were somewhat connected to the old traditions, for which they have core essence. Converting to the new maybe a fear or if they impelled and went through as they did, of course they have to, it’s a milestone of ever changing ever tiring element.\n    The adaptability was the virtue of that time.\n    People who enhanced it, today are recognized by the commercial and technical world.\n\n    The Millennial Generation, is a true ban cake.\n    Really are, they saw the technology born in front of them, they don’t wanna lose bicycle ride to replace with computer games deliberately but they were inclined too. By default, they enjoyed both ways yet they suffered in both ways too.\n\n    Generation Z, truly represents tech- age.\n    They watch early generations and walk through their own, their power of insight or mental energies though exceed apparently, yet they are barer to stress/depression and emotional imbalance.\n\n    To some extend last 50 -70 years are really milestone in human history, whatever be the theory once the coming generations achieved it. Generation X to Y the differences are more challengeable rather than generation Y to Z.\n\n    Tech world is amazing yet it’s kinda a magical world, what if Pharaoh got life in this existing world with his orthodox thinking and ways much to his stupor just to see the mobile use. Surely it will be more fascinating magic to him than of his age.\n\n    So Time is a cage so do the Era.\n    People are bound to act according to the age/time/ era they are within. Di Vinci thinks of flying craft but in his age no human flies in plane, today we can’t even think about plane travels and it is usual traffic for human to travel around the world in hours rather to invest years or months.\n\n    What we compare infact, Time with Time? Human with Human or Human of Time/Age?\n    Speed with Velocity? Gravity with Static Energy?\n\n    What we compare, actually we cannot compare.\n    Mind, soul, body and energy has its specifications, it’s not that all ages and all humans of such ages are similar yet different. It’s just how they start exploring the worldly affinities around, how much the concentrate to the subject of learning and how intelligently they provoke idea to amplify the actions into reality.\n\n    Man dreamt of flying, maybe very early but the formula generation took time.\n    Time as an entity, the biggest occult science and mystery, it creates dimension with in dimensions, it provides paradigm shifts. It keeps at once in present, dive into past and jumps to future. Hence, dealing all these extremes lead to the state of denial. Acceptance of the known is easier than the unknown facts. Perhaps we humans only accept things when we examine the limits the object up to the level of state of denial. We say ‘Yes’ at an instance and sometimes only NO leads to human Yes.\n    Comprehension to the worldly explorations are frantic.\n    It’s easy for our generation to acknowledge to velocity/speed/motion formulas as they daily interact with it. How incredibly, super cars like Ducati has somewhat similar speed near to air jet.\n\n    Again the point to validate here is, it is easy and usual for us to have such tech and its usage. But if Greeks/Romans would have such tools in their hands, we can’t even wonder the destruction they would cause and maybe the mythological stories were more technological base rather than symbolic.\n\n    The person survived 2000 years before cannot easily acknowledge the world we have today, hence state of denial is there and therefore Divine Law of death and Change is very important. Old dies, new lives and life goes on.\n\n    When we spin around external or internal in our conscious waves, we definitely touched and crossed many phases. Our own truth or others truth some way or another impact and affect the same state. It’s all about mental frames/dimensions and games too in which people vary each other and such multitude bring format exclusively and deformities to some extent.\n\n    Life travels between two extremes, there is always aside a trauma handling while decorating smile on face. We travel through mental energies that impact our mind, soul and body equally. We cannot deny that fact that this world is full of mysterious, one of them we CROWN OF CREATURE is foremost, human psyche is most complex yet very interesting science.\n\n    Some way or another we all through our own journeys where we have few similar experiences yet rest destiny always differs for everyone. State of denial is temporary expression but yes it is important to enhance at many levels, just make sure it will not cause deception for one to ruin the genuine instinct. Old dies, new lives and life goes on. One day, the show will be over ………..\n\n\n\n    Mistakes to learn, add the experience and sanity. Practicing mistakes for repetition, this is something which creates human behavior nothing but a mess. In contrast, people who are soulful they usually bounded among those who are anti to them, this is major cause of affliction but raising their courage.\n    To err is human, of course being on earth it is important to commit mistake, admit it and move on. Do learn from the committed mistake and do acknowledge yourself admitting it.\n    God made many creatures, out of them angels are so pure, they are submissive and obey every order as it should be carried out. This is because they are made for it, designed for it. Humans and supernatural beings are not designed only to carry out just orders, they have given their Wills and Wants.\n    Assessing your Wills and Wants are the biggest milestone to achieve.\n    At stage, most of the time we are so empty and drained that we could not even assess our own way of thinking or interpreting things and that’s the key point where we commit mistake. If the pattern of thinking is incorrect all messed up in life.\n\n    There are certain drivers towards mistakes, similarly as drivers towards correct decisions and achievements. The real courage is of emotional intelligence which we need to be used near to our Will or Target. Of course, world and this life is full of mysteries, humans try to solve them step by step with the passage of time and age they have to spend through this journey. It’s not obvious to have resolution or revolution for every mystery or riddle here or anywhere else, yet sense of discovery is a pathway.\n\n    We did mistakes sometimes in search of our own soul, sometimes searching spirit for others and sometimes for nothing (as we been through mistakes as they are written for us). Humans remain guilty for mistakes they did in wilderness while directionless but what is the purpose of it when human cannot control the entity of time and happening.\n\n    Guilt is a negative energy that would have nothing but a draining quality.\n    By agonizing events and happenings actually cause two major losses, one a very important health zone and second the process of thinking. Both these elements are infact the most physical reality on phase of earth. For performance, presence is key. For achievement, presence and performance only be possible if a person is real and knows the value of ‘I’.\n\n    If mistakes/errors been done or just happened, we humans have the area of apology. Now how it amplifies, it really has an effect. If someone is really sound and make an apology and direct the way for betterment, it’s a pathway of learning. Negatively, if people use this area for benefit and fulfilment of greed to feed the evil wolf inside than it’s a virus that makes others and society ill for sure. In such case people will do errors that harm others intentionally, this is sin and this is crime as well.\n\n    World is always a good place to live, on the contrary it’s never be. If this statement been put in front of the people suffered in wars, they don’t want to have this life. There is a general clause people use to say, you can built what you want, put your efforts and achieve your goals but it is not that simple. Only effort is not the driver, never ………there are humans they didn’t put any effort for goodness or any achievement or for gaining wisdom but they enjoyed the most.\n    Point of clarity comes here, destiny plays it’s role.\n    Blessed destiny is a real enjoyment, rest is all the trial and error. Effort is also part of trial and error. Few efforts we do where we care others and face our hardships by pointing them as we are knitted together. Few efforts we do, solely for ourselves and they are also thread to some extend with others. Reflexes we face in both contexts.\n\n    Efforts, trials and errors all are knitted and connected with the boundaries, circles and the people we are revolving in. Even for destiny, as it is given for each individual but at certain stage and times we need others’ favor for that. All sort of physical/earthly realities bestowed here by Fate/Universe.\n\n    As all the system/organs in body, connected together, similarly emotions, thinking, psyche and even action all knitted together. Human mind factory is a mystery world just like galaxies up above in skies, it has energies, power to refrain and retain and it may bless life or cause death.\n\n    More or less if loquacious over this topic there are many sources interlinked with it, this is all about how we, humans surface the strength. How far we go while bridging our own courage to deal the life journey. The track we follow, sometimes we select it and most of times just given pathway. For reaping the end or the destination reflexes the same track wise identity. Yes, this a type of Déjà vu.\n\n    Let it go, whatever the possession here…….. Let it go\n    Even if the guilt inside becomes the part of it or any error/sin eating some one’s soul …… Let it go.\n\n    Live like a blowing wind or a child.\n    Go on, leave the rest behind because everything here just pass by.\n\n\n\nEstimations and anticipations are generally based on the ideologies? Wrong …..\nThey are none the less are based on the social interaction and community.\nOne woman wearing short skirts in Muslim community for sure be condemned for her dressing, because the method is pre-defined and it should be followed. There is no harm in alternation or moderation a bit but wearing something which expose the body will duly influence and trigger the skeptics and critics to comment and condemn.\nConsidering that can we surmise that mixture of cultural impacts created problems? Culture to culture copy or trading of traditions one space to another are foundation of conflicts?\nWhat if Muslims celebrating Halloween?\nThey are judged, biased and been framed as prejudice by their own people. Is it fair?\n\nWhat if Christian celebrates Eid?\nThey are not judged, biased and not even been framed as prejudice by their own people. Fair enough.\n\nThis is not all about how we would judge others or others judged us.\nThis all about perception. This all about intention. This is all about how we feel and express. One has hell inside will deliver the same ……One earned heavens will connote peace.\n\nTruth widespread that most of the common people select and act the first category.\nThey don’t want to make peace with themselves.\n\nNature is a coin having two sides, one of destruction and other is of construction.\nPeople find easy and trigger the Head (obverse) presumably its top for betterment/prominence whereas Tail (reverse) should be treated presumptuously. Nature has both, one following another.\n\nIf I cut my left side, I won’t survive only with right\nPredefined and Predestined.\n\nWe Muslims, been ridiculed for appearances maybe, sometimes of informal outlook or not reformed much for universal changings (Mechanically) whereas Muslim set the benchmark in all areas. However they lose dignity when they stop practice their core ethics, of course, it is a lengthy debate and I opine that only debates can’t resolve issues.\n\nEnough of my wonders when people actually interact and raise conflicts over the past and the history, kinda, Muslim sect Shiaa considered the disputes of Ummah’s lead and they concluded now, in this Era that wronged been happened. Similarly people defeated (apparently) Hazrat Hussain R.A out of hypocrisy, evil and envy and after sometimes they realized what they have done.\n\nSame religion has sects and people fight over it.\nIt’s not the religion or the idea related to the faith ….No..……Never\nIt’s the idea of thought that cropped for human own evil nature of destruction, for destruction and for earning the false authority for short live.\n\nNext to turn, when the argument raised among religions.\nDo we ever thought what panorama we have for our faith (we are revolving in or evolving in)?\n\nInnocence is one of the most vital sign and blessing for Prophets, they are chosen for the goodness and directing the Divine path. Now for Muslims, we honor and have faith for the whole process of religious journey which impact human life time to time for better sake. The point is we never even think to ridicule or demoralize any religious concept for anyone but what we have in response.\n\nHow could people raise even their inch of thinking to say a word against or even of disrespect for Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Allah Ho Waslim)? How they dare so?\n\nIn fact I believe violence or any negative energy caused in such aspect is nothing but misconception of those groups who are just caged for nothing and in emptiness.\n\nProphet Muhammad (Sallal Allah Ho Waslim) is high above in stature than this.\nPeople don’t need to decide what level of integrity HE should have when Almighty designated HIM all above of worldly affairs.\n\nHE represents Purity, Innocence & Righteousness.\nPraises and Blessings Be upon HIM\n\nWe confront worst ambiguities and conflicts for things which are predefined.\nThere are lots of realities and realms which are beyond scientific world, because THE WORD OF MASTER actually matters.\n\nScope of vision here is don’t trigger Nature against its flow.\nAs Human try to access your space and circle and revolve within don’t cross even yours or others. Nature has justice, it reveals actual image in the mirror. Human psyche is fragile, ugliness detect madness.\nPity for those who in terms of their defence, defeat themselves and deceive themselves. Deception is also a face and a phase of Nature, only the sane can chose the right one.\n\nBe sane by working out to earn wisdom not merely intelligence.\nBe sober by working out to earn spiritual redeem not merely world affairs.\nBe rational so that difference of being human stays not merely a mammal.\n\nBe that for what YOU have been designed for.\n‘Be and It Is’\n\n\n\n    Broadcasted news, media and exploration.\n    WOW, is one word that can defines our material world. It is sound that we have all the pitches available. Higher and lower. We have the remote to promote, dialect and to defeat. Whom we are interacting, machines? Or blood suckers?\n\n    ‘We kill each day others or our own selves’.\n\n    The phenomenal truth about Nature is, which is given to humans. There are two of prototypes. One harming themselves and second category harming others. This is instinctive and can’t be changed. The panorama of thinking here revolves as:\n\n    – Humans & Machines\n    – Business & Corporate World\n    – World & Economy\n    – Industry & Growth\n    – Religion & Science\n\n    Lots of welfare associations are working yet war for the sake of land absorption, supremacy of powering and positioning is always aside going on. Where is Kindness? Infact first question to be raised, here by the way, where is Humanity?\n\n    We are struggling each and every day to be known as conscious minds, once we provoke ourselves up to this level we fall for hellish competition with other, humans alike us physically maybe.\n\n    Psychologically or spiritually, yeah the essence is different. Very rarely the bond can be made in such materialistic world, where the credibility is not money. We created much knowing the elements mounting our mental capabilities to tackle the world around us. For Example:\n\n    – Epitome of Mental Strength\n    – Higher balance of Emotional Intelligence\n    – Action & Templation\n    – 7 Model Foundation & Function (Strategy, Structure, System, Staffing, Skills, Style, Shared Valued)\n\n    This all about racing to put an effort to survive. By the end of the time, we cannot cave ourselves, yet we have to, very soon. This is how we rule our lives, digitally connected. We are surfaced and bedding our souls with waves and wires. Following phrases from an evaluating report:\n\n    We crowd sourced our team to understand how Apple Retail could make a bigger difference in their communities. They shared that while people are more digitally connected than ever, many feel more isolated and alone. That while the digital economy is rapidly enabling innovation, it is also creating an acute need for individuals, educators, and entrepreneurs to rapidly re-skill. And, that while technology is creating new avenues for expression, millions haven’t yet had the chance to develop their own creative gifts.\n\n    Really, is that so? We are more interested to fly in the air by helicoptering our cars or carriages. More mechanical more we are growing? Isn’t? Nah ……\n\n    Well in competition maybe human were not enough that now the robots are in line. They don’t like humans, they mechanically enough, naturally envy us, as they designed to. This is how our growth of worldly affairs working out and this how the innovations are mapped.\n\n    Sky skipper buildings to wonder the eyes, inside they are too expensive and mostly empty. People are poor and impelled to sleep on roads and eat from garbage but the luxury apartments, hotels and resorts are multiplied. Who are affording them? Of course, only those, who invent new ideas to pamper themselves since they are bored of the same entertainment they have already in hand.\n\n    People are divided into categories (leveled the finance). This is universal truth that societies in such rank actually suffering. In such way the room of exchanging the abilities from the other zones are highly differentiated. Ranks, societies and financial categories, if they are for healthy competition than they should be figurative but if nothing but destructive, we need to address.\n\n    The rich will control and poor has to obey, this is set rule, isn’t? Why?\n    Norms to handle the economic flow, money and investments all around the world is too political. Its’ been ages and decades. Humans took millenniums to be wise enough to norm, storm and form with time, zone and universal truths. Deceit is one mask which is so loved by this creation that history states the literature of people who don’t live now, infact the tragedy is they didn’t even lived when they supposed to be.\n\n    Wise people knew that ’Defeat is obvious, if challenging the Nature’. The structure and system, foundation and function all along, can be ambiguous if artificial indulgence is there. Heart is given organ, medical invented machines can pump it but not necessary that person is alive and how long and how far it could be.\n\n    The word Artificial Intelligence, is perfectly fabricated and invented for our Man Made World. Somewhere this is part of reality of this Era, this gonna collapse up next for the coming generations. This satellite web and world perhaps will have the next zone of affect by the extremes of weather.\n\n    Globalization and global accountability is steadfast today as compare to the past. Hence, rough estimations can clue us ‘We will finish, where we started’. Nuclear war would never happen, instead people will defuse them because humans keep on fighting and this is ongoing process. ‘End is not in human’s hand but in Lord’s’.\n\n    What is in human’s mind and their dealing is the skin difference and racism. Kill them they are Muslims and they have yucky faces as they have beards and Jews have the same but respect them. We are Christians and among others we are Roman Catholics so we are better in our beliefs than the Puritans. Cultural and sect intersections are always spider’s web. It costs everything as woven and nothing once broken.\n\n    To deal with the karma of life, this is how we just realize the timely solutions. Though they are not accurate all the time but keeps the wheel revolving….. And that’s what needed. It’s not that we started a war or we did ended. We never did.\n\n    ‘All days are war alike’. We are daily battling somehow or another same wars or the new ones. This is life just a passage and surely gonna meet the next phase of end. The length maybe the unknown. Life and death circle is mortal, certainly gonna meet the end.\n\n    However, we can approach to immortal, unrestrictive, undestructive and forever lived life hereafter where one side of Nature will not be living that is to say death, evil and alternative source which is anti.\n\n    To be lived hereafter, here need to be compromised. Hence where we met the injustice we cannot snatch our right from the cruel but we can have patience as higher value. Forgiveness is not for others but for ourselves to cherish here after. One piece of goodness is not for the other but own self to get the fruit of abundance. This all could be possible by believing in.\n\n    This sort of so called living on earth (which we are up to) highlighting that all the seeds ripe here in front of us, this process of thinking is wrong. Few elements are physical and seen rest many of many are spiritual and unseen yet very strong for further enhancements.\n\n    ‘All days are war alike’\n    ‘We kill each day others or our own selves’\n    ‘We will finish, where we started’\n    ’Defeat is obvious, if challenging the Nature’\n    ‘End is not in human’s hand but in Lord’s’\n\n    This is castle of cards, one blow to one card shall ruin all. If diploid in correct number we can form our origin. We stay if connection remains………………\n\n\n\n    Copy of copy…………. Copy to copy …..\n    Immediate what you see ……. Imitate what you watch …….. Reflexes to reflections…..\n    See and watch!\n\n    Originals are rare, so rare.\n    Carbon copies of original always been a hot trend of each time and era.\n\n    What, when, why and how we understand life?\n    The philosophy of life, is it easy?\n    Really, is that important to know about the psyche?\n\n    Life is too short to grasp all the goodness even a little evilness inside. It’s hard to manage living with the over- realistic thinking as well shallow one. Nothing is real, yet everything. Especially when it comes to emotions, some are so magical, some are alluring, some are miraculous and some are so empty. Dealing with the learning aspects of life, the most important element to comprehend is the essence/ soul of objective and action. Intention and inclination, both are as essential as the essence.\n\n    We need interaction to Nature and Nurture to gain knowledge? Isn’t it?\n    Do Humans need most vitally self –esteem and self-delve therapy?\n    Social awareness and other human exchange are most needed, for sure?\n\n    Nothing is real, yet everything ………\n    Sometimes ocean is not enough and sometimes the drop is. Sometimes peak is not the optimum level but the ground is. Sometimes all we have is equal to nothing and a little smile of a stranger is everything. Sometimes we are full but empty and sometimes we are empty yet filled.\n    Nothing is real, yet everything ………\n\n    The art of imitating can be refined or refrained, it also requires the level of intellect and connotations. Again threads are also important. Socially contacted and boosted people are more likely to be confidant and adaptable than the solitude players, however geeks are also intellectuals in their own unfashionable and an awkwardly social behavior yet they have their unique skills alive.\n\n    Cheating is strange kind of art, it is less than imitating and far away from the original. Only originals can worth the value of original, rest all use the replica. Characters in life are also the same. They follow the same footsteps. People have profound characters, are actually dignified. In our world, since we believe in using and adopting replica of all sort of aspects so we replaced the worth of the original.\n\n    Originality is the Divine sign, it comes from truth and from the light of soul. This light can be wide spread if the actions are occult and accumulated the same. Nothing is real, yet everything ………\n    This is not the case for every object here on the earth. We need copy to original to preserve the memory of the genuine product. Again it depends on the intention and inclination of mindset and the principles. The foundation and function both are profound, hence they need the most attention to be structured for any ground handling or strategy to be applied.\n\n    Realizing the value of original is also the sign of wisdom. This is factual that original cannot be compared with the copy. However, people do. They usually copy the original and lost the dignity for the original and for themselves to identify their worth at their own. Following someone for his/her grandeur of grace is one aspect of boasting or broadcasting the motivational circle. This is sanity infact to follow or imitate the innovative to be progressive and productive.\n\n    Humans by putting effort to achieve their set or higher goals beyond limits are of great asset. They are irreplaceable. Hence, naturally gifted and talented people are genuine/original enough with their blessed spirits. The passion more than achieving outsourced it would be rather knowing self-esteem at optimum level. This optimum level of self-esteem offered many windows and doors opened towards the gain and goal orientations. Replica of material and of things acceptable but for humans never be.\n\n    Believing every human is unique and of many capabilities, we should essence our natural talents as filler to life instead of using others as filler and consider self as empty. Thinking is essential to some extend to endure and to sense an individual perception powers rest over-thinking is killing.\n\n    Kill the area which is killing not the living!\n    Nothing is real, yet everything ………\n    True, this world reflects the hereafter!\n\n\n\n    Congenial behavior badly needed because today again humans are afraid not only of all the evil on earth, but human’s own existence. Humans are insecure, alone and perplexed. People are never changed or different they modify their behaviors in accordance to the best of expected by themselves or surrounded ones.\n\n    World is never be the best or better place, other than that we have facilities around us. Be agreed, that we have more or less everything at toes and be in our command just on a click. Easy life, this is what human objective? As complexity is irritating, isn’t?\n\n    Trial and error is one way or method of learning but this is not the only way. Lots of countries and nations think that this is the reason of their major experiences. Hence, such gained experiences and such specific method mostly cause impression not to trust people.\n\n    People get anguish, they become persistently furious and they adopt negative process of thinking. This is psychological and to some extent politically controlled by evil genius minds, who rule people for their benefits.\n\n    Two forces (Good & Evil) in life, rule or regulate the time, zone and creations. This is by Divine or will of performers what they select and how the amplify. An individual can make difference and sometimes can’t unless or until his/her perspective honored by others and followed with same spirit of one mutual value.\n\n    Revolution never came in one day, so does the resolution. The characters, who have such qualities are unique though or maybe suppressed or struggling in many aspects of life. Simultaneously, the map the road to success, undeniable and long lived.\n\n    Determination and Decision power both are the source built up by vision. Insight or seeing through things again is very rare knowledge and commonly laymen won’t apply to their affairs. Nations and countries are exploited and swapped away, only because the wrong people jumped to power elite and force others to their lunatic endeavors.\n\n    Interest, mutually interpreted allow and attract the people of similar nature and instinct to perform what they want (even sometimes they don’t have an idea of wanting). One figure of determined nature, one character having decision power, one mind with sound vision and one soul with insight can make the difference. Such one person is enough to deal with hundreds of low in capacity.\n\n    What needed is actually demanded.\n    Our world must scale dynamics and statics, quantities and qualities over the basic needs. If so, we can add the value. The variety and the uniqueness shall be welcomed than.\n\n    There were kings in history, they kept alive only the people that can value the life and the surrounded world. We don’t need characters like leash dogs, once untied the place shall be bloody dirty. Sound studies intimate this element, extermination of dirt is very important so that clarity remains at peak. Even Divine law is the same.\n\n    No one ever realizes the truth unless fall for it.\n    Similarly, for establishment, success and growth we need the chosen and selective people to perform. They should be disciplined and trained for what is needed and demanded. They should be original not artificially accommodated to tackle the time constrains. This is how the human traffic these days, they are superficially framed for outdated versions, where as demand and need of the age/era and time is changed.\n    We need humans as Crown of Creation as of Divine Essence.\n\n    Wanted souls with shining abilities only they have right to breath. Only the deserving, those who can make the difference and make the world better place. We don’t need humans as commodity, to generate without demand and waste without valuing it.\n\n    Wanted souls are needed, actually demanded!\n\n\n\n    Timelessness …….. Spacelessness ……….Is it possible on earth? Infact we suffers both.\n\n    Psychologically, this is deep domain. Human’s mind is a great labyrinth, it contacts somewhere and discontents to another edge. Energy, Synergy and Synthesis of human mental caliber is way complicated to understand. The hyper-activeness relates itself to anxieties and stress, same is the case if passiveness hits the mental domain.\n\n    Thread or string wiring correctly, completely and corrosively, is actually a logical science. Proof or evidence of prospect, act, condition, criteria, of change, of control and charade always needed. We reverse the adverse. Simultaneously, we adverse, reverse and reserve in terms of dealing brain, body and behavior.\n\n    The Function and play (Of Sensation & Perception)\n    The Modification of the Function (State of Consciousness)\n    Transformation (With Actuality or Pretense)\n\n    Sensation is the process of taking in information with the five senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Perception is the process of interpreting this sensory information. Perception is an additional step that our brain takes to understand the data we gather about the world. It is very different from mere sensation. For example, our eyes sense the world as two-dimensional images, but we perceive the world in three dimensions. Optical illusions show that we sometimes perceive sensations incorrectly. We may see things that are not really there. Subliminal messages show that we sometimes fail to perceive sensations entirely. We may not see things that are really there. Many people believe in extrasensory perception, or the ability to perceive with a sixth, unknown sense. However, extrasensory perception has never been proven to exist.\n\n    A state of consciousness is the type of mental condition a person is experiencing at a given time. States of consciousness include states of intense concentration and daydreams. Sleep is also a state of consciousness. Sleep occurs in phases that repeat throughout the night. Dreams occur during the phase of sleep called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Both sleep and dreams are needed for normal functioning. States of consciousness can be intentionally altered, or changed, through hypnotism, meditation, or biofeedback. Psychoactive drugs, such as alcohol and marijuana, also alter states of consciousness.\n\n    Transformation one stage to another, sensation to perception, from state of consciousness to actuality or to pretense, all about how fix the capabilities humans adorn, or how flexible actions they practice. Body, brain and behavior depends upon sensations and perceptions. Practice and act of practice defines an individual’s prospect………… Vice versa.\n\n    Unseen is powerful and juggernauts more feasibly than the tangibles. Sentiments are one of the most vigorous example of it. Variations are part of it. Few passions are short lived but very influential and sometimes long term sustained emotions worth no forceful energy to impact. Unspoken words more emphasize the melodies.\n\n    Gender Socialization; part of the reason why men do not have a strong support group is due to gender socialization, the values and expectations toward the sexes. Women are taught to be cooperative and understanding as opposed to men, who are taught to be aggressive and to not express vulnerable feelings. Since one of the roles of a woman is to be responsible for taking care of the family, they are preconceived to handle a relationship’s emotional strain. They can express their feelings openly without the pressure of being ridiculed as being weak like men.\n    At a young age, men are taught to be more aggressive, powerful, and not show ‘womanly’ feelings. With that said, men are not taught how to handle the emotions that they have suppressed for years. In heterosexual relationships, they start to depend on women to be their biggest emotional support system since they themselves do not have one. When that relationship ends, there are fewer ways for men to cope with their feelings, so they find distractions of suppression, which is why men tend to find themselves in more rebound relationships than women.\n\n    Human self being (character) his/her interaction with others, may opinionated with several differences and dimensional realities and may effective on many assessable elements (of age, of gender & grooming). Verily, it may cause self- bounding and rebounding to others.\n\n    Circumstances and conditions are not always remain same. They keep on changing and vary person to person. Each human and his/her pursuits are way different from other yet it is strange dilemma that humans compare and contrast their situations with each other. Pathways or practices can have the similar contents but way to progress or to attain the goal methodology may differs and may vary.\n\n    Though men or women not same in every essence of their existence, both have their liabilities and strengths. Therefore, as per Divine Law, they may declared to the level of championship/ fellowship to better utilize their best of existence and it’s energies. So that they can work out together to built up.\n\n    Man as gender is always not a leader but surely is a lead because Creator selected him to produce, to product and keep the generations known by his connection. Woman is receptive character and this does suit her. Collaboratively, in either way or another this is also truth that this segregation is on bodily level. Mental, spiritual and psychological level both remains the same.\n\n    Man possesses both male/female qualities & disqualifies and vice versa. Similarly, woman does. Now based on the circumstances/ conditions/criteria, definite or indefinite frame of time and action considerably for brain, body and behavior all in all depend upon the commendable or dominance of practice.\n\n    I-E a woman alone needs to cope up the world outside needs to manage finance and commercial zone of life usually, uses her masculine ability to be on top of the desk. On the contrary, not obviously but commonly, a man groomed under womanly dominance would be more deprived of manly or masculine qualities than the adult groomed under the circumstances where man’s existence or male chauvinism been practice.\n\n    This is some sort of complementary element, when men are tough apparently but emotionally fragile and have plenty of space to offer woman to control them. When woman rules she also manipulates, she also watches her interest and she also possesses evil, no matter what appearance of relationship she wears, even the mother can ruin live, if she is greedy and selfish. Men are Men…………\n\n    Nature has it’s own speech of action and verily, it speaks through the faces and characters. By their brains, body and behaviors. By sort of goodness and sometimes sheer evilness. Let us, not ruin or deceit ourselves in this whole cosmic karma but try to comprehend to deal with it with better solutions and with best resolution.\n\n    Don’t allow yourself, to love other specific character more than yourself unless you have equal qualities of soul complement. Don’t fall for pits that can disgrace the character’s reputation and dignity. Don’t …………… Do use self-reliance as your light, your soul as your voice. Define Do’s and Don’ts, set pattern for particle of practices ……….\n\n    Short lived passion, never be sustained, it’s reality, whereas just defects even by default and affects for long run …………It brings damage. The true essence of passions are worthy of long term living, two fold rewards and have true deep connection. No one denies, deceits or deceives here but creates harmony, security and serenity.\n\n    Infatuation of any flame of emotion that flies with time not grow more is not an emotion. This is something kinda mirage or optical illusion. It seems to be but it is not real. Be real in essence of emotion and emotional intelligence, no matter what who you are, which gender you are by law of Nature and whatever you are practicing as per mis-conception.\n\n    Timelessness …….. Spacelessness ………\n    Somehow one another we suffer both!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5788378119468689}
+{"content": "Applications Vaccixcell\n\nMonoclonal Antibody (mAb)\n\nMonoclonal Antibody and Biosimilars\n\nIn the coming years, the biosimilars market is expected to spur a leap of growth due to the fact that several monoclonal antibody (mAb) based drugs are expected to lose their patents from big pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. Some of these patent expiring drugs are Infliximab (Johnson & Johnson), Trastuzumab (Roche), Adalimumab (Abbott), and Cetuximab (Merck) among others. Each one of these drugs have generated billions of dollar of revenues for each of their manufacturer.\n\nAfter the patents have expired for these drugs the challenge is for the biosimilars manufacturing companies to create a biosimilar drug which is as efficient in effect but at a much lower cost. Currently, it is estimated that approximately 40% of biosimilars under development are mAbs and each of these biosimilars can offer almost 30% reduction in terms of manufacturing costs.  With all these factors in consideration, it is of highest and most important concern to the biosimilars manufacturing companies to develop and establish protocols for their production of mAbs in the most efficient way and highest product yield with reduced manufacturing cost.\n\nFor a significant length of time, mAbs are manufactured via in vivo production in mice however due to ethical concerns and the need for mAb mass production a demand for high density in vitro production of monoclonal antibodies arises. Bioreactors that can generate high yields of mAbs have been manufactured. However, these bioreactors only allow one mAb production at a time, costly and prone to contamination.\n\nThe Esco VacciXcell Advantage\n\nEsco VacciXcell offers a wide range of bioreactors that can produce high yields of mAbs from hundreds of milligrams to grams. The Tide Motion System, which is the main bioprocessing principle of Celcradle and TideXcell, has the following advantages including high cell yield, high product yield, extremely low shear stress, zero bubbling and foaming, efficient medium consumption, lower space and labor requirements and reduced downstream bioprocessing costs. VacciXcell's bioreactors also boast of its true linear scalability platform where production scale up is as easy as adding equipment but the bioprocessing principles are the same. As a result, bioprocessing time and costs are greatly reduced.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5376969575881958}
+{"content": "Tag Archives: stress\n\nYour first year of college: How to survive?\n\nYour first year of college: How to survive\n\nFortunately, dreams tend to come true. Yesterday, the global goal of your whole life was to go to college, and today, you are already a student. And this is not only fun, but it is also a\n\nMolecular defense adopted by sea urchin embryos to cope with Nickel\n\nMolecular defense adopted by sea urchin embryos to cope with Nickel\n\nNickel (Ni) is a natural constituent of the Earth’s crust and, together with its compounds, it is used in many industrial and commercial applications. At very low doses, Ni carries out many physiological roles in biochemical processes\n\nCellular stress and AMPK activators including metformin and the anesthetic drug propofol promote restoration of human consciousness\n\nCellular stress and AMPK activators including Metformin\n\nThe neural mechanisms that give rise to human consciousness have been described as one of the greatest and most profound mysteries in all of modern medicine. The use of general anesthetics to induce loss of consciousness (LOC)\n\nUse of plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in stressed agriculture management\n\nSome of action mechanisms of PGPR in alleviating abiotic stresses in plants\n\nEnhanced incidence of abiotic stresses influencing adversely plant growth and productivity in major crops, and thus global food security, is being witnessed all over the world. These abiotic stress factors include drought (water deficit) and flooding, salinity,\n\nHow does chromium cause lung cancer? Resistance to cellular stress\n\nHow does chromium cause lung cancer\n\nLung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer in both men and women. One cause of lung cancer is occupational exposure to heavy metals. Extremely useful in several industries, heavy metals have become widespread environmental pollutants over\n\nStress induced Eh jumps are caused by sulfide efflux from Escherichia coli cells\n\nIt was previously established that in aerobic cultures of a number of bacteria subjected to stress, there is a sharp change in the redox potential (Eh) of the medium to reductive (negative) values. Eh jumps were detected\n\nCellular stress and AMPK links metformin and jumping genes with the creation of human life\n\nThe evolution of the human genome has been facilitated to a great extent by the activity of transposable elements (TEs), also known as “jumping genes”. As the name implies, TEs are DNA sequences capable of moving or\n\nMidkine controls natural bypass growth by regulating the bioavailability of VEGF\n\nCardiovascular occlusive diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction or perivascular artery diseases (PAD) are a major personal and social burden. According to the World Health Organization, vascular occlusive diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide.  Current\n\nThe role of oxidative stress in Type 2 diabetes\n\n\nAbsence of bilirubin increases oxidative stress in vivo\n\nOxidative stress, defined as an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in favor of the former, is a hallmark of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related metabolic syndrome. Modifying uncontrolled oxidative stress may attenuate the development\n\nA single yoga video helps you de-stress and be confident\n\nThe practice of yoga has become very popular, being thought to improve people’s mental and physical health. There is a lot of scientific evidence pointing to the benefits of such mind-body practice – especially in the treatment\n\nDelay of GABA switch due to early – life stress leads to developmental disorder\n\nEarly-life stress, such as child neglect and abuse, is referred as one of the most prominent risk factor causing lasting social problems, which influence later development of psychopathologies. One specific sensitive period in neural development occurs during\n\nHeavy metal resistant–plant growth promoting bacteria as an alternative strategy for decreasing accumulation of metals in plant tissues\n\nIn the present era, pollution of water, soil and air with heavy metals is increasing rapidly. Industrialization and technological advancement have caused serious damage to the ecosystem by releasing large quantities of heavy metals (i.e., cadmium, chromium,\n\nCan greater perceptions of inequality negatively impact physical health?\n\n\n\n\nHspB1, a polypeptide sensor whose structure reacts to changes in the physiology and environment of the cell\n\nThe small heat shock protein HspB1 acts as an ATP-independent chaperone helping cells to cope with stress-induced aberrantly folded polypeptides. Other interesting properties of HspB1 are its constitutive expression in many unstressed human cells and its up\n\nWatching caveolae under stress\n\nThe plasma membrane of many cells contain many protein-dense invaginations called caveolae or ‘little caves’. Caveolae are composed of ~140 molecules of caveolin proteins along with other components. Caveolae are thought to act like springs and flatten\n\nEmerging roles of cyclic nucleotide gated channels in plants\n\nPlants are vulnerable to various biotic and abiotic stresses imposed in their respective growth environment. These stresses negatively affect the normal growth, development and productivity. Unlike animals, which can move to conditions conducive for growth and development;\n\nA messenger and its disciples: Spreading stress messages in plant through Ca2+-CBL-CIPK network\n\nThe early life forms appeared on earth as entities that were covered by cellular membranes. These entities had a major problem from one of the abundant elements present in the earth- Calcium (Ca2+). Higher level of Ca2+\n\nWhy don’t some employees mind faking their emotions?\n\nEmployees often have to show emotions they really do not feel in order to offer quality service to clients. For example, a flight attendant has to appear calm and transmit serenity to passengers, even when he/she is", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9049338698387146}
+{"content": "\nsubmit project\ndon't be shy :-)\n\n\"A powerful tool for managing networks and troubleshoot network problems! - Network Interface - Information, Configure - IP-Scanner - Port-Scanner - Ping - Traceroute - DNS Lookup - Remote Desktop - PuTTY - SNMP - Get, Walk, Set (v1, v2c, v3) - Wake on LAN - HTTP Headers - Subnet Calculator - Calculator, Subnetting, Supernetting - Lookup - OUI, Port - Connections - Listeners - ARP Table\"\n\n\none year ago1301\n\nOpen source desktop app built with .net framework and c#.\n\nopen source contributor, Germany\n\nEmbed shield: or\n\nRelated projects\n\nCarrel - Library Management System\n\none year ago1346\n\n\"Carrel is an Open Source application designed to manage any library. Given the flow of books each day keeping track of it is a hectic task. In addition to flow of books;…\"\n\nOpen source desktop app built with .net framework and vb.net by @Prathik__Jain and @shrey_182.\n\nstartup, India\n\n\n4 months ago558\n\n\"Fusion++ is a modern alternative to the Microsoft Assembly Binding Log Viewer (FUSLOGVW.exe). It uses the same settings as the Assembly Binding Log Viewer internally,…\"\n\nOpen source desktop app built with .net framework and c# by @Waescher.\n\nhobbyist, Germany\n\nEdgeTile Creators\n\none year ago979\n\n\"EdgeTile Creators is the first Universal Windows Platform app to allow making custom Tiles for files, executables, folder and websites. No Windows popping up, no thir…\"\n\nDesktop app built with .net core and c# by @francedot.\n\nindie, Italy\n\nHelium Scraper\n\n8 months ago814\n\n\"This is the third version of Helium Scraper, a web scraper that now uses CefSharp as a built in browser and can run many parallel off-screen browsers and uses a minimali…\"\n\nDesktop app built with .net framework and c#.\n\nindie, United States\n\nEyes Guard\n\none year ago1198\n\n\"Eyes Guard is a graphical health care app for windows desktop. It is fully written in C# 7.3 and XAML with WPF in Visual Studio 2017. Eyes Guard recently published in Mi…\"\n\nOpen source desktop app built with .net framework and c# by @0xaryan.\n\nindie, Iran, Islamic Republic of\n\n\none year ago1137\n\n\"RepoZ is a lightweight git repository information aggregator for Windows and macOS. It comes with Windows Explorer- & CLI-enhancements helping you keeping track of git r…\"\n\n\nindie, Germany\n\nA little bit about this site\n\n\n\nWhat is the .net community working on?\n\nGet weekly updates about new projects built with .net tech\n\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe any time.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5839940309524536}
+{"content": "Jace defeated the Dark Lord, who claimed to be above anyone after he destroys everything. Jace used his abilities to reverse everything back to normal and erased him and added his power to himself. He noticed that he became stronger and discovered a new strength that no one can possess. He became the lord of the darkness and started to do everything he wanted to do. And as lord of darkness, he is capable of being the complete embodiment of boundless darkness if he wants to be. all that/there was is just a fiction towards Jace perception.\n\nPowers and Stats\n\nTier: 0 | 7-C | 0\n\nName: Jace\n\nOrigin: The Dark Son\n\nGender: Male | Inapplicable as balanced\n\nAge: 16 | Inapplicable as balanced\n\nClassification: Darkness | Balanced\n\nPowers and Abilities: Non-Corporeal, Magic, Reality Warping, Plot Manipulation, Spatial Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Immortality (Type 10), Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Higher-Dimensional Manipulation, Death Manipulation, Creation, Destruction, Information Manipulation, Invulnerability, Cosmic Awareness, Omnipresence, and more, His powers' applications are endless | Same as balanced\n\nAttack Potency: High Outerverse level (Transcends infinity beyond everything and infinite hierarchies of outerversal beings that are capable to exist beyond spatial dimensions and time itself, is a boundless darkness embodiment all possible creation, as it can turn everything in creation into complete darkness and is restricted only by Godius) | City level (Destroyed a city without the darkness power) | High Outerverse level (Is protected by Godius and exist on the same plane like Godius and is balanced he has no weakness he controls light and darkness)\n\nSpeed: Irrelevant, Omnipresent (Exist everywhere in darkness) | Massively Hypersonic+ | Omnipresent (Exist everywhere)\n\nLifting Strength: Irrelevant | Class 100\n\nStriking Strength: High Outerversal | Class PJ (Destroy nearly a city) | High Outerversal\n\nDurability: High Outerverse level | Country level (Capable of tanking the destruction of a country) | High Outerverse level\n\nStamina: Infinite | Vastly Superhuman | Infinite\n\nRange: Irrelevant | Unknown | Irrelevant\n\nStandard Equipment: Darkness.\n\nIntelligence: Omniscient (Capable of understanding everything in existence and it's concepts) | Average | Omniscient\n\nWeaknesses: Light (User who can manipulate light), removing his darkness (which is impossible for beings below his strength | none as balanced\n\nNotable Attacks/Techniques: Darkness Bringer (The ability to turn everything into darkness even when he stands in the light he can turn it into darkness with it)\n\nKey: Darkness | Regular/Avatar | Balanced\n\nNote: Above everyone in darkness. (Will add more stuff later)\n\n\nNotable Victories:\n\nNotable Losses:\n\nInconclusive Matches:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9035128951072693}
+{"content": "Not more stuff!\n\nI’m supposed to be having a clear out rather than buying even more…. stuff! This was a job lot I took a gamble on as it was cheap.\n\n\nA load of old Bromide papers, some unexposed plates, some black trays and contact printing frames including two 10×8 frames… bargain.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9873649477958679}
+{"content": "In the intervertebral discs, stem cells have been found.\n\n\nIn the degenerated intervertebral cartilage discs of humans and laboratory animals, stem cells have been found. This should help millions of people around the world who suffer from back pain, according to the authors of the discoveryresearchers from the Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dystrophy and degenerative processes in the cartilaginous intervertebral discs of the spine lead to the development of severe conditions, which result in pain in the back and neck.\n\nNormally, these discs contain a large amount of water acting as a shock absorber and associated with proteinsglycosaminoglycans. Once the stem cells lose the ability to produce glycosaminoglycans, the disc loses water, becomes thinner, and can not act as a spring. The project manager, Makarand Risbud, suggested investigating the properties of the stem cells remaining in such degenerated discs. It turned out that the cells isolated had the ability, under various conditions, to differentiate into cells of fatty, bone and cartilaginous tissues, 和, most importantly, to produce glycosaminoglycans. Researchers note that similar abilities have already been demonstrated for bone marrow stem cells.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983140826225281}
+{"content": "SUPER Rare Munnsville NY Plow Co Advertising Brochure Catalog c 1880 Illustrated\n\nEUR 90,09 Buy It Now or Best Offer 3d 14h, EUR 4,50 Shipping, 14-Day Returns, Pay with PayPal and you're fully protected.\n\nSeller: dalebooks (8.198) 100%, Location: Rochester, New York, Ships to: Worldwide, Item: 263405417268 SUPER - RARE - Advertising Brochure / Catalog Munnsville Plow Company ca 1880 For offer, a nice old trade brochure / catalog. Fresh from an estate in Upstate New York. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! Folds open. Established 1852. Munnsville Plow Company Dexter, Paul & Sperry, Manufacturers Of The . Celebrated . Munnsville Steel, Chilled and White Iron, Wood and Iron Beam PLOWS, In all Sizes and Trimmed for all Sections, are the best made. Steel, Iron and Wood Frame Cultivators. Three and Five Shovel Plows, Land Rollers, Hop and Evaporator Furnaces. Munnsville, N.Y. Send for Illustrated Catalogue, Wonderful illustration of the factory. The \"Superior\" is unexcelled. The Most Practical Cultivator, nice signed illustration, A - Ashton - Utica. To Our Customers, informative narrative from the Company, No. 59 Chilled Plow, No. 9 Chilled Plow, No. 5 Chilled Plow, Oneida Valley Clipper No.1. Outstanding illustrations, 3 signed Courier Co. Buffalo, A. Ashton - Utica, No. 3 - Chilled One-Horse Plow. Rough and Ready No. 2 Plow, 32 - inch Roller, The \"Superior\" (Back Cover). In good to very good condition. Slight wear to lower rh corner (when closed), minor age toning. Please see photos for details. If you collect Americana history, 20th century American advertisement ad, agriculture, farming, industry, etc., this is one you will not see again soon. A nice piece for your paper / ephemera collection. Perhaps some genealogy research information as well. Buyer pays shipping. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins! 1247 Nearby towns in Madison County : City[edit]OneidaTowns[edit]The towns in southern Madison County originated from the Twenty Townships ceded by the Oneida tribe to the State of New York. BrookfieldCazenoviaDeRuyterEatonFennerGeorgetownHamiltonLebanonLenoxLincolnMadisonNelsonSmithfieldStockbridgeSullivanVillages[edit]CanastotaCazenoviaChittenangoDeRuyterEarlvilleHamiltonMadisonMorrisvilleMunnsvilleWampsville (county seat)Census-designated place[edit]BridgeportHamlets[edit]LeonardsvilleNew WoodstockPeterboroThe OxbowWest Edmeston A plough (UK) or plow (US; both /plaʊ/) is a tool or farm implement used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting to loosen or turn the soil. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by working animals such as horses or cattle, but in modern times are drawn by tractors. A plough may be made of wood, iron, or steel frame with an attached blade or stick used to cut the earth. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, although written references to the plough do not appear in English until c. 1100 at which point it is referenced frequently. The plough represents one of the major agricultural inventions in human history. The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops and allowing them to break down. As the plough is drawn through the soil it creates long trenches of fertile soil called furrows. In modern use, a ploughed field is typically left to dry out, and is then harrowed before planting. Ploughing and cultivating a soil homogenises and modifies the upper 12 to 25 cm of the soil to form a plough layer. In many soils, the majority of fine plant feeder roots can be found in the topsoil or plough layer. Ploughs were initially human-powered, but the process became considerably more efficient once animals were pressed into service. The first animal-powered ploughs were undoubtedly pulled by oxen, and later in many areas by horses (generally draft horses) and mules, although various other animals have been used for this purpose. In industrialised countries, the first mechanical means of pulling a plough were steam-powered (ploughing engines or steam tractors), but these were gradually superseded by internal-combustion-powered tractors. Modern competitions take place for ploughing enthusiasts like the National Ploughing Championships in Ireland. Use of the plough has decreased in some areas, often those significantly threatened by soil damage and erosion, in favour of shallower ploughing and other less-invasive conservation tillage techniques. Etymology[edit] Ploughing.In older English, as in other Germanic languages, the plough was traditionally known by other names, e.g. Old English sulh, Old High German medela, geiza, huohilī(n), Old Norse arðr (Swedish årder), and Gothic hōha, all presumably referring to the ard (scratch plough). The term plough or plow, as used today, was not common until 1700. The modern word plough comes from Old Norse plógr, and therefore Germanic, but it appears relatively late (it is not attested in Gothic), and is thought to be a loanword from one of the north Italic languages. Words with the same root appeared with related meanings: in Raetic plaumorati \"wheeled heavy plough\" (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 18, 172), and in Latin plaustrum \"farm cart\", plōstrum, plōstellum \"cart\", and plōxenum, plōximum \"cart box\".[1][2] The word must have originally referred to the wheeled heavy plough, which was common in Roman northwestern Europe by the a.d. 5th century.[3] Orel (2003)[4] tentatively attaches plough to a PIE stem *blōkó-, which gave Armenian peɫem \"to dig\" and Welsh bwlch \"crack\", though the word may not be of Indo-European origin. Parts[edit] Diagram – modern ploughThe diagram (right) shows the basic parts of the modern plough: beamhitch (Brit: hake)vertical regulatorcoulter (knife coulter pictured, but disk coulter common)chisel (foreshare)share (mainshare)mouldboardOther parts not shown or labelled include the frog (or frame), runner, landside, shin, trashboard, and stilts (handles). On modern ploughs and some older ploughs, the mouldboard is separate from the share and runner, so these parts can be replaced without replacing the mouldboard. Abrasion eventually destroys all parts of a plough that come into contact with the soil. History[edit] Ploughing with buffalo in Hubei, ChinaHoeing[edit]Main article: Hoe-farmingWhen agriculture was first developed, simple hand-held digging sticks and hoes were used in highly fertile areas, such as the banks of the Nile where the annual flood rejuvenates the soil, to create drills (furrows) to plant seeds in. Digging sticks, hoes, and mattocks were not invented in any one place, and hoe-cultivation must have been common everywhere agriculture was practiced. Hoe-farming is the traditional tillage method in tropical or sub-tropical regions, which are characterised by stony soils, steep slope gradients, predominant root crops, and coarse grains grown at wide distances apart. While hoe-agriculture is best suited to these regions, it is used in some fashion everywhere. Instead of hoeing, some cultures use pigs to trample the soil and grub the earth. Ard[edit]Main article: Ard (plough) Ancient Egyptian ard, c. 1200 BC. (Burial chamber of Sennedjem)Some ancient hoes, like the Egyptian mr, were pointed and strong enough to clear rocky soil and make seed drills, which is why they are called hand-ards. However, the domestication of oxen in Mesopotamia and the Indus valley civilization, perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC, provided mankind with the draft power necessary to develop the larger, animal-drawn true ard (or scratch plough). The earliest evidence of a ploughed field in the world was found at the Indus Valley Civilization site of Kalibangan (c. 2800 B.C.). [5] The earliest was the bow ard, which consists of a draft-pole (or beam) pierced by a thinner vertical pointed stick called the head (or body), with one end being the stilt (handle) and the other a share (cutting blade) that was dragged through the topsoil to cut a shallow furrow ideal for most cereal crops. The ard does not clear new land well, so hoes or mattocks must be used to pull up grass and undergrowth, and a hand-held, coulter-like ristle could be used to cut deeper furrows ahead of the share. Because the ard leaves a strip of undisturbed earth between the furrows, the fields are often cross-ploughed lengthwise and widthwise, and this tends to form squarish fields (Celtic fields).[6] The ard is best suited to loamy or sandy soils that are naturally fertilised by annual flooding, as in the Nile Delta and Fertile Crescent, and to a lesser extent any other cereal-growing region with light or thin soil. By the late Iron Age, ards in Europe were commonly fitted with coulters. Mouldboard plough[edit] Parts of a plough: 1) beam; 2) three-point hitch (hake); 3) height regulator; 4) coulter 5) chisel 6) share 7) mouldboard Water buffalo used for ploughing in Si Phan Don, LaosTo grow crops regularly in less-fertile areas, the soil must be turned to bring nutrients to the surface. A major advance for this type of farming was the turnplough, also known as the mouldboard plough (UK), moldboard plow (US), or frame-plough. A coulter (or skeith) could be added to cut vertically into the ground just ahead of the share (in front of the frog), a wedge-shaped cutting edge at the bottom front of the mouldboard with the landside of the frame supporting the undershare (below-ground component). The upper parts of the frame carry (from the front) the coupling for the motive power (horses), the coulter and the landside frame. Depending on the size of the implement, and the number of furrows it is designed to plough at one time, a forecarriage with a wheel or wheels (known as a furrow wheel and support wheel) may be added to support the frame (wheeled plough). In the case of a single-furrow plough there is only one wheel at the front and handles at the rear for the ploughman to steer and manoeuvre it. When dragged through a field the coulter cuts down into the soil and the share cuts horizontally from the previous furrow to the vertical cut. This releases a rectangular strip of sod that is then lifted by the share and carried by the mouldboard up and over, so that the strip of sod (slice of the topsoil) that is being cut lifts and rolls over as the plough moves forward, dropping back to the ground upside down into the furrow and onto the turned soil from the previous run down the field. Each gap in the ground where the soil has been lifted and moved across (usually to the right) is called a furrow. The sod that has been lifted from it rests at about a 45 degree angle in the next-door furrow and lies up the back of the sod from the previous run. In this way, a series of ploughing runs down a field leaves a row of sods that lie partly in the furrows and partly on the ground lifted earlier. Visually, across the rows, there is the land (unploughed part) on the left, a furrow (half the width of the removed strip of soil) and the removed strip almost upside-down lying on about half of the previous strip of inverted soil, and so on across the field. Each layer of soil and the gutter it came from forms the classic furrow. The mouldboard plough greatly reduced the amount of time needed to prepare a field, and as a consequence, allowed a farmer to work a larger area of land. In addition, the resulting pattern of low (under the mouldboard) and high (beside it) ridges in the soil forms water channels, allowing the soil to drain. In areas where snow buildup causes difficulties, this lets farmers plant the soil earlier, as the snow runoff drains away more quickly. A reconstruction of a mouldboard ploughThere are five major parts of a mouldboard plough: MouldboardShareLandside (short or long)Frog (sometimes called a standard)TailpieceShare, landside, mouldboard are bolted to the frog which is an irregular piece of cast iron. The base of a plough body is called the frog and the soil wearing parts are bolted to it. The share is the cutting edge of the moldboard plow. The share makes the horizontal cut that separates the furrow slice from the soil below and when it is worn it is important to fit a new one. Conventional shares have points that are shaped. This shape, which was developed through years of field experience, penetrates ordinary soil efficiently and stands rough use. The share is shaped so that it pulls itself into the ground. As the share wears away, it becomes blunt and the plough will require more power to pull it through the soil. A plough body with a worn share will not have enough 'suck' to ensure that it penetrates the ground to its full working depth. The tip of the share is pointed downward, causing the plow to run into the ground. This is called “suction or down suck”; it literally sucks the plow into the ground, to a regulated depth. The clearance, also usually referred to as “suction or down suck”, varies with different makes and types of plows (the related clearance at the side is called “land suck”). Its configuration is related to soil type, particularly in the down suction, or concavity, of its lower surface. Generally, three degrees of clearance or down suction are recognized: regular for light soil, deep for ordinary dry soil, and double-deep for clay and gravelly soils. In addition, the share has horizontal suction, which is related to the amount its point is bent out of line with the landside. Down suction causes the plow to penetrate to proper depth when pulled forward, while horizontal suction causes the plow to create the desired width of furrow. The share is a plane part with trapezoidal shape. It cuts the soil horizontally and lifts it. Common types are regular, winged-plane, bar-point, and share with mounted or welded point. The regular share conserves a good cut but is recommended on stone-free soils. The winged-plane share is used on heavy soil with a moderate amount of stones. The bar-point share can be used in extreme conditions (hard and stony soils). The use of the share with mounted point is somewhere between the last two types. Manufacturers have designed shares of various shapes (trapezium, diamond, etc.) with bolted point and wings, often separately renewable. Sometimes the share cutting edge is placed well in advance of the moldboard to reduce the pulverizing action of the soil. The mouldboard is that part of the plough which receives the furrow slice from the share. The mouldboard is responsible for lifting and turning the furrow slice and sometimes for shattering it, depending on the type of moldboard, plowing depth, and soil conditions. The intensity of this action depends on the type of the moldboard. To suit different soil conditions and crop requirements, mouldboards have been designed in different shapes, each producing its own furrow profile and surface finish, but they still basically conform to the original plough body classification. Traditionally, the various types of plough body have been classified as general purpose, digger, and semi-digger, as described below. 1. The general-purpose mouldboard. This is a low draft body with a gently curved and a cross-sectional convex curve from top to bottom, which turns a furrow three parts wide by two parts deep, e.g. 300 mm wide by 200 mm deep. It turns the furrow slice slowly almost without breaking it, and is normally used for shallow plowing (maximum 200 mm depth). It is useful for grassland ploughing and sets up the land for weathering by winter frosts, which reduces the time taken to prepare a seedbed for spring sown crops. 2. The digger mouldboard has a short, abruptly curved with a concave cross-section both from top to bottom and from shin to tail. It turns the furrow slice rapidly, giving maximum shatter and deeper than its width. It is normally used for very deep plowing (300 mm deep or more). It has a higher power requirement and leaves a very broken surface. Digger ploughs are mainly used for land to be or planted with potatoes and other root crops. 3. The semi-digger moldboard. This is a bit shorter than the general-purpose mouldboard, but with a concave cross-section and a more abrupt curve. Being intermediate between the two moldboards above described, it has a performance that comes in between (approximately 250 mm deep) and with less shattering than the digger moldboard. It turns an almost square sectioned furrow and leaves a more broken surface finish. Semi-digger mouldboards can be used at different depths and speeds, making them suitable for most of the general ploughing on the farm. (In addition, slatted mouldboards are preferred by some farmers, though they are a less common type. They consist of a number of curved steel slats bolted to the frog along the length of the mouldboard, so that there are gaps between the slats. They tend to break up the soil more than a full mouldboard and improve soil movement across the mouldboard when working in sticky soils where the solid mouldboard does not scour well.) The landside is the flat plate which presses against and transmits the lateral thrust of the plough bottom to the furrow wall. It helps to resist the side pressure exerted by the furrow slice on the mouldboard. It also helps in stabilizing the plough while it is in operations. The rear bottom end of the landslide, which rubs against the furrow sole, is known as heel . A heel iron is bolted to the end of the rear of the landside and helps to carry the back of the plough. The landside and share are arranged to give a ‘'lead” towards the unploughed land, thus helping to maintain the correct furrow width. The landside is usually made of solid medium carbon steel, and is very short except on the rear bottom of the plow. The heel or rear end of the rear landside may be subject to excessive wear if the rear wheel is out of adjustment, therefore, a chilled iron heel piece is frequently used. This heel is inexpensive and can be easily replaced. The land side is fastened to the frog with the help of plough bolts. The frog (standard) is the central part of the plow bottom to which the other components of the bottom are attached. It is an irregular piece of metal, which may be made of cast iron for cast iron ploughs or welded steel for steel ploughs. The frog is the foundation of the plow bottom. It takes the shock resulting from hitting rocks, and therefore should be tough and strong. The frog is in turn fastened to the plow frame. A runner extending from behind the share to the rear of the plough controls the direction of the plough, because it is held against the bottom land-side corner of the new furrow being formed. The holding force is the weight of the sod, as it is raised and rotated, on the curved surface of the mouldboard. Because of this runner, the mouldboard plough is harder to turn around than the scratch plough, and its introduction brought about a change in the shape of fields – from mostly square fields into longer rectangular \"strips\" (hence the introduction of the furlong). An advance on the basic design was the iron[dubious – discuss] ploughshare, a replaceable horizontal cutting surface mounted on the tip of the share. The earliest ploughs with a detachable and replaceable share date from around 1000 BC in the Ancient Near East,[7][dubious – discuss] and the earliest iron ploughshares from ca. 500 BC in China.[8] Early mouldboards were basically wedges that sat inside the cut formed by the coulter, turning over the soil to the side. The ploughshare spread the cut horizontally below the surface, so when the mouldboard lifted it, a wider area of soil was turned over. Mouldboards are known in Britain from the late 6th century[9] on. 19th century editing ploughMoldboard plow type is usually determined by the method in which the plow is attached to the tractor and by the way it is lifted and carried. The basic types are: 1.Three wheel trailing type – attached to the standard tractor drawbar and carried on its own three wheels. 2.Mounted or integral – most use a three-point hitch and have a rear wheel in use only when plowing. Some also have a gauge wheel to regulate maximum depth. 3.Semi-mounted – used principally for larger plows. These have a rear wheel which usually carries weight and side thrust when plowing and sometimes the weight of the rear end of the plow when lifted. The front end of the plow is carried on the tractor lower or draft links. Plough wheel[edit]Gauge wheel – It is an auxiliary wheel of an implement to maintain uniform depth of working. Gauge wheel helps to maintain uniformity in respect of depth of ploughing in different soil conditions. It is usually placed in hanging position. Land wheel – It is the wheel of the plough, which runs on the ploughed land. Front furrow wheel – It is the front wheel of the plough, which runs in the furrow. Rear furrow wheel – It is the rear wheel of the plough, which runs in the furrow. Plough protective devices[edit]When a plow hits a rock or other solid obstruction, serious damage may result unless the plow is equipped with some safety device. The damage may be bent or broken shares, bent standards, beams or braces. Three basic types of safety devices are used on moldboard plows as follows: A spring release device in the plow drawbar.Trip beam construction on each bottomAutomatic reset design on each bottom.The spring release device was used in the past almost universally on trailing type plows with one to three or four bottoms. It is not practical on larger plows. When an obstruction is encountered the spring release mechanism in the hitch permits the plow to uncouple from the tractor. When a hydraulic lift is used on the plow, the hydraulic hoses will also usually uncouple automatically when the plow uncouples. Most plough makers offer an automatic reset system for tough conditions or rocky soils. The re-set mechanism allows each body to move rearward and upward to pass over obstacle (e.g. rocks hidden below soil surface) without damage. A heavy leaf or coil spring mechanism, which holds the body in its working position under normal conditions, resets the plough after the obstruction is passed. Another type of auto-reset mechanism uses an oil (hydraulic) and gas accumulator. Shock loads cause the oil to compress the gas, when the gas expands again the leg returns to its working plowing position after passing over the obstacle. The most simple mechanism is a breaking (shear) bolt that needs replacement. Shear bolts which break when a plough body hits an obstruction are a cheaper overload protection device. It is important to use the correct replacement bolt. Trip beam plows are constructed with a hinge point in the beam. This point is usually located some distance above the top of the plow bottom. The bottom is held in normal plowing position by a spring operated latch. When an obstruction is encountered the entire bottom is released and hinges back and up so as to pass over the obstruction. It is necessary to back up the tractor and plow to reset the bottom This construction is used to protect the individual bottoms. The automatic reset design has only recently been introduced on American plows, but has been used extensively on European and Australian plows. In this construction the beam is hinged at a point nearly above the point of the share. The bottom is held in the normal position by a set of springs or by a hydraulic cylinder on each bottom. When an obstruction is encountered, the plow bottom hinges back and up in such a way as to pass over the obstruction, without stopping the tractor and plow. The bottom automatically returns to normal plowing position as soon as the obstruction is passed, without any interruption of forward motion. The automatic reset design permits higher field efficiencies since stopping for stones is practically eliminated. It also reduces costs for broken shares, beams and other parts. The fast resetting action also helps produce a better job of plowing since large areas of unplowed land are not left as when lifting a plow over a stone. Loy ploughing[edit]Main article: Loy (spade)Loy ploughing was a form of manual ploughing in Ireland, on very small farms – or on very hilly ground, where horses could not work or where farmers could not afford them.[10] It was used up until the 1960s in poorer land.[11] This suited the moist climate of Ireland, as the trenches formed by turning in the sods provided drainage. It also allowed the growing of potatoes in bogs as well as on mountain slopes where no other cultivation could take place.[12][13] Heavy ploughs[edit]Main article: Carruca Chinese iron plough with curved mouldboard, 1637In the basic mouldboard plough the depth of the cut is adjusted by lifting against the runner in the furrow, which limited the weight of the plough to what the ploughman could easily lift. This limited the construction to a small amount of wood (although metal edges were possible). These ploughs were fairly fragile, and were not suitable for breaking up the heavier soils of northern Europe. The introduction of wheels to replace the runner allowed the weight of the plough to increase, and in turn allowed the use of a much larger mouldboard faced in metal. These heavy ploughs led to greater food production and eventually a significant population increase around AD 600.[citation needed] Before the Han Dynasty (202 BC –AD 220), Chinese ploughs were made almost entirely of wood, except the iron blade of the ploughshare. By the Han period, the entire ploughshare was made of cast iron; these are the first known heavy mouldboard iron ploughs.[8][14] The Romans achieved the heavy wheeled mouldboard plough in the late 3rd and 4th century AD, when archaeological evidence appears, inter alia, in Roman Britain.[15] The first indisputable appearance after the Roman period is from 643, in a northern Italian document.[16] Old words connected with the heavy plough and its use appear in Slavic, suggesting possible early use in this region.[17] The general adoption of the carruca heavy plough in Europe appears to have accompanied the adoption of the three-field system in the later eighth and early ninth centuries, leading to an improvement of the agricultural productivity per unit of land in northern Europe.[18] This was accompanied by larger fields as well, known variously as carucates, ploughlands, and ploughgates. Improved designs[edit] 'A Champion ploughman', from Australia, c. 1900The basic plough, with coulter, ploughshare and mouldboard, remained in use for a millennium. Major changes in design did not become common until the Age of Enlightenment, when there was rapid progress in design. Joseph Foljambe in Rotherham, England, in 1730 used new shapes as the basis for the Rotherham plough, which also covered the mouldboard with iron.[19] Unlike the heavy plough, the Rotherham (or Rotherham swing) plough consisted entirely of the coulter, mouldboard and handles. It was much lighter than conventional designs and became very popular in England. It may have been the first plough to be widely built in factories and the first to be commercially successful.[20] In 1789 Robert Ransome, an iron founder in Ipswich, started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches. As a result of a mishap in his foundry, a broken mould caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard. This process, chilled casting, resulted in what Ransome advertised as \"self-sharpening\" ploughs. He received patents for his discovery. James Small further advanced the design. Using mathematical methods he experimented with various designs until he arrived at a shape cast from a single piece of iron, an improvement on the Scots plough of James Anderson of Hermiston.[21] A single-piece cast iron plough was also developed and patented by Charles Newbold in the United States. This was again improved on by Jethro Wood, a blacksmith of Scipio, New York, who made a three-part Scots Plough that allowed a broken piece to be replaced. In 1837 John Deere introduced the first steel plough; it was so much stronger than iron designs that it could work soil in areas of the US that had previously been considered unsuitable for farming. Improvements on this followed developments in metallurgy: steel coulters and shares with softer iron mouldboards to prevent breakage, the chilled plough (an early example of surface-hardened steel),[22] and eventually mouldboards with faces strong enough to dispense with the coulter. Single-sided ploughing[edit] Single-sided ploughing in a ploughing matchThe first mouldboard ploughs could only turn the soil over in one direction (conventionally always to the right), as dictated by the shape of the mouldboard, and so the field had to be ploughed in long strips, or lands. The plough was usually worked clockwise around each land, ploughing the long sides and being dragged across the short sides without ploughing. The length of the strip was limited by the distance oxen (or later horses) could comfortably work without a rest, and their width by the distance the plough could conveniently be dragged. These distances determined the traditional size of the strips: a furlong, (or \"furrow's length\", 220 yards (200 m)) by a chain (22 yards (20 m)) – an area of one acre (about 0.4 hectares); this is the origin of the acre. The one-sided action gradually moved soil from the sides to the centre line of the strip. If the strip was in the same place each year, the soil built up into a ridge, creating the ridge and furrow topography still seen in some ancient fields. Turnwrest plough[edit]The turnwrest plough allows ploughing to be done to either side. The mouldboard is removable, turning to the right for one furrow, then being moved to the other side of the plough to turn to the left (the coulter and ploughshare are fixed). In this way adjacent furrows can be ploughed in opposite directions, allowing ploughing to proceed continuously along the field and thus avoiding the ridge and furrow topography. Reversible plough[edit] A four-furrow reversible Kverneland plough.The reversible plough (or \"rollover plow\") has two mouldboard ploughs mounted back-to-back, one turning to the right, the other to the left. While one is working the land, the other is carried upside-down in the air. At the end of each row, the paired ploughs are turned over, so the other can be used. This returns along the next furrow, again working the field in a consistent direction. These ploughs date back to the days of the steam engine and the horse. In almost universal use on farms, they have right- and left-handed mouldboards enabling them to work up and down the same furrow. Reversible ploughs may either be mounted or semi-mounted and are heavier and more expensive than right-handed models, but they have the great advantage of leaving a level surface which makes seedbed preparation and harvesting easier. Very little marking out is necessary before ploughing can start and idle running on the headland is minimal compared with conventional ploughs. Driving the tractor with the furrow-side wheels in the furrow bottom provides the most efficient line of draft between tractor and plough. It is also easier to steer the tractor and driving with the front wheel against the furrow wall will keep the front furrow at the correct width. This is less satisfactory when using a tractor with very wide front tyres, for although they make better use of the tractor power, the tyres may compact part of the last furrow slice turned on the previous run. The use of furrow widener or a longer mouldboard on the rear body will overcome the problem. The latter moves the soil further towards the ploughed land leaving more room for the tractor wheels on the next run. Driving with all four wheels on unploughed land is another solution to the problem of wide tyres. Semi-mounted ploughs can be hitched in a way that allows the tractor to run on unbroken land and pull the plough in correct alignment without any sideways movement (crabbing). Riding and multiple-furrow ploughs[edit] Early tractor-drawn two-furrow plough.Early steel ploughs, like those for thousands of years prior, were walking ploughs, directed by the ploughman holding onto handles on either side of the plough. The steel ploughs were so much easier to draw through the soil that the constant adjustments of the blade to react to roots or clods was no longer necessary, as the plough could easily cut through them. Consequently, it was not long after that the first riding ploughs appeared. On these, wheels kept the plough at an adjustable level above the ground, while the ploughman sat on a seat; whereas, with earlier ploughs the ploughman would have had to walk. Direction was now controlled mostly through the draught team, with levers allowing fine adjustments. This led very quickly to riding ploughs with multiple mouldboards, dramatically increasing ploughing performance. A single draught horse can normally pull a single-furrow plough in clean light soil, but in heavier soils two horses are needed, one walking on the land and one in the furrow. For ploughs with two or more furrows more than two horses are needed and, usually, one or more horses have to walk on the loose ploughed sod – and that makes hard going for them, and the horse treads the newly ploughed land down. It is usual to rest such horses every half-hour for about ten minutes. Heavy volcanic loam soils, such as are found in New Zealand, require the use of four heavy draught horses to pull a double-furrow plough. Where paddocks are more square than long-rectangular it is more economical to have horses four wide in harness than two-by-two ahead, thus one horse is always on the ploughed land (the sod). The limits of strength and endurance of horses made greater than two-furrow ploughs uneconomic to use on one farm.[citation needed] Amish farmers tend to use a team of about seven horses or mules when spring ploughing and as Amish farmers often help each other plough, teams are sometimes changed at noon. Using this method about 10 acres (4.0 ha) can be ploughed per day in light soils and about 2 acres (0.81 ha) in heavy soils.[citation needed] Improvement in metallurgy and design[edit]John Deere, a Vermont, US blacksmith, noted that the ploughing of many sticky, non-sandy soils might benefit from modifications in the design of the mouldboard and in the metals used. He noted that a polished needle would enter leather and fabric with greater ease, and a polished pitchfork required less effort as well. In the pursuit of a polished and thus slicker surface for a plough, he experimented with portions of saw blades and by 1837, he was making polished, cast steel ploughs. The energy effort required was lessened, which enabled the use of larger ploughs, making more effective use of horse power. Balance plough[edit] A German balance plough. The left-turning set of shares have just completed a pass, and the right-turning shares are about to enter the ground to return across the field.The advent of the mobile steam engine allowed steam power to be applied to ploughing from about 1850. In Europe, soil conditions were often too soft to support the weight of heavy traction engines. Instead, counterbalanced, wheeled ploughs, known as balance ploughs, were drawn by cables across the fields by pairs of ploughing engines on opposite field edges, or by a single engine drawing directly towards it at one end and drawing away from it via a pulley at the other end. The balance plough had two sets of ploughs facing each other, arranged so when one was in the ground, the other set was lifted into the air. When pulled in one direction, the trailing ploughs were lowered onto the ground by the tension on the cable. When the plough reached the edge of the field, the other engine pulled the opposite cable, and the plough tilted (balanced), putting the other set of shares into the ground, and the plough worked back across the field. One set of ploughs was right-handed, and the other left-handed, allowing continuous ploughing along the field, as with the turnwrest and reversible ploughs. The man credited with the invention of the ploughing engine and the associated balance plough, in the mid nineteenth century, was John Fowler, an English agricultural engineer and inventor.[23] In America the firm soil of the Plains allowed direct pulling with steam tractors, such as the big Case, Reeves or Sawyer-Massey breaking engines. Gang ploughs of up to fourteen bottoms were used. Often these big ploughs were used in regiments of engines, so that in a single field there might be ten steam tractors each drawing a plough. In this way hundreds of acres could be turned over in a day. Only steam engines had the power to draw the big units. When internal combustion engines appeared, they had neither the strength nor the ruggedness compared to the big steam tractors. Only by reducing the number of shares could the work be completed. Stump-jump plough[edit] Disc ploughs in Australia, c. 1900The stump-jump plough was an Australian invention of the 1870s, designed to cope with the breaking up of new farming land, that contains many tree stumps and rocks that would be very expensive to remove. The plough uses a moveable weight to hold the ploughshare in position. When a tree stump or other obstruction such as a rock is encountered, the ploughshare is thrown upwards, clear of the obstacle, to avoid breaking the plough's harness or linkage; ploughing can be continued when the weight is returned to the earth after the obstacle is passed. A simpler system, developed later, uses a concave disc (or a pair of them) set at a large angle to the direction of progress, that uses the concave shape to hold the disc into the soil – unless something hard strikes the circumference of the disk, causing it to roll up and over the obstruction. As the arrangement is dragged forward, the sharp edge of the disc cuts the soil, and the concave surface of the rotating disc lifts and throws the soil to the side. It doesn't make as good a job as the mouldboard plough (but this is not considered a disadvantage, because it helps fight wind erosion), but it does lift and break up the soil (see disc harrow). Modern ploughs[edit] A British woman ploughing on a World War I recruitment poster for the Women's Land Army.Modern ploughs are usually multiple reversible ploughs, mounted on a tractor via a three-point linkage. These commonly have between two and as many as seven mouldboards – and semi-mounted ploughs (the lifting of which is supplemented by a wheel about halfway along their length) can have as many as eighteen mouldboards. The hydraulic system of the tractor is used to lift and reverse the implement, as well as to adjust furrow width and depth. The ploughman still has to set the draughting linkage from the tractor so that the plough is carried at the proper angle in the soil. This angle and depth can be controlled automatically by modern tractors. As a complement to the rear plough a two or three mouldboards-plough can be mounted on the front of the tractor if it is equipped with front three-point linkage. Specialist ploughs[edit]Chisel plough[edit]The chisel plough is a common tool to get deep tillage (prepared land) with limited soil disruption. The main function of this plough is to loosen and aerate the soils while leaving crop residue at the top of the soil. This plough can be used to reduce the effects of compaction and to help break up ploughpan and hardpan. Unlike many other ploughs the chisel will not invert or turn the soil. This characteristic has made it a useful addition to no-till and low-till farming practices that attempt to maximise the erosion-prevention benefits of keeping organic matter and farming residues present on the soil surface through the year. Because of these attributes, the use of a chisel plough is considered by some[who?] to be more sustainable than other types of plough, such as the mouldboard plough. A modern John Deere 8110 Farm Tractor using a chisel plough. The ploughing tines are at the rear; the refuse-cutting coulters at the front. Bigham Brother Tomato TillerChisel plows are becoming more popular as a primary tillage tool in row crop farming areas. Basically the chisel plow is a very heavy duty field cultivator intended to operate at depths from 15 cm [6 in] to as much as 46 cm [18 in]. However some models may run much deeper. Each of the individual ploughs, or shanks, are typically set from nine inches (229 mm) to twelve inches (305 mm) apart. Such a plough can encounter significant soil drag, consequently a tractor of sufficient power and good traction is required. When planning to plough with a chisel plough it is important to bear in mind that 10 to 20 horsepower (7.5 to 15 kW) per shank will be required,[citation needed] depending on depth. Pull type chisel plows are made in working widths from about 2.5 m [8 ft] up to 13.7 m [45 ft], they are tractor mounted and working depth is hydraulically controlled. Those more than about 4 m [13 ft] wide may be equipped with folding wings to reduce transport width. Wider machines may have the wings supported by individual wheels and have hinge joints to allow flexing of the machine over uneven ground. The wider models usually have a wheel at each side to control working depth. Three-point hitch mounted units are made in widths from about 1.5 m [5 ft] to 9 m [30 ft]. Cultivators are often similar in form to chisel ploughs, but their goals are different. Cultivator teeth work near the surface, usually for weed control, whereas chisel plough shanks work deep beneath the surface. Consequently, cultivating also takes much less power per shank than does chisel ploughing. Ridging plough[edit]A ridging plough is used for crops, such as potatoes or scallions, which are grown buried in ridges of soil using a technique called ridging or hilling. A ridging plough has two mouldboards facing away from each other, cutting a deep furrow on each pass, with high ridges either side. The same plough may be used to split the ridges to harvest the crop. Scottish hand plough[edit]This is a variety of ridge plough notable in that the blade points towards the operator. It is used solely by human effort rather than with animal or machine assistance, and is pulled backwards by the operator, requiring great physical effort. It is particularly used for second breaking of ground, and for potato planting. It is found in Shetland, some western crofts and more rarely Central Scotland. The tool is typically found on small holdings too small or poor to merit use of animals. Mole plough[edit]The mole plough allows underdrainage to be installed without trenches, or it breaks up deep impermeable soil layers that impede drainage. It is a very deep plough, with a torpedo-shaped or wedge-shaped tip, and a narrow blade connecting this to the body. When dragged through the ground, it leaves a channel deep under the ground, and this acts as a drain. Modern mole ploughs may also bury a flexible perforated plastic drain pipe as they go, making a more permanent drain – or they may be used to lay pipes for water supply or other purposes. Similar machines, so called pipe-and-cable-laying ploughs, are even used under the sea, for the laying of cables, as well as preparing the earth for side-scan sonar[citation needed] in a process used in oil exploration. Heavy land requires draining to reduce its water content to a level satisfactory for efficient plant growth. Heavy soils usually have a system of permanent drains using either perforated plastic or clay pipes which discharge into a ditch. Mole ploughs are used to form small tunnels (mole drains) in the soil at a depth of up to 950 mm (30 in) at an angle to the pipe drains. Water from the mole drains seeps into the pipes and runs along them into a ditch. The mole plow allows underdrainage to be installed without trenches, or it breaks up deep impermeable soil layers which impede drainage. It is a very deep plow, with a torpedo-shaped or wedge-shaped tip, and a narrow blade connecting this to the body. When dragged through the ground, it leaves a channel deep under the ground, and this acts as a drain. Modern mole plow may also bury a flexible perforated plastic drain pipe as they go, making a more permanent drain – or they may be used to lay pipes for water supply or other purposes. A simple check can be made to find if the subsoil is in the right condition for mole ploughing. Compact a tennis ball sized sample taken at moling depth by hand, then push a pencil through. If the hole remains intact without splitting the ball the soil is in an ideal condition for the mole plough. Mole ploughs are usually trailed and pulled by a crawler tractor, but lighter models for use on the three-point linkage of powerful four-wheel drive tractors are also made. A mole plough has a very strong frame which slides along the ground when the machine is in work. A heavy leg, similar to a subsoiler leg, is attached to the frame and a circular section share with a larger diameter expander on a flexible link is bolted to the leg. The bullet shaped share forms a tunnel, about 75 mm diameter, in the soil and the expander presses the soil outwards to form a long-lasting drainage channel. Paraplough[edit]The paraplough or paraplow is a tool for loosening compacted soil layers 12 to 16 inches deep and still maintain high surface residue levels.[24] Spade plough[edit]The spade plough is designed to cut the soil and turn it on its side, minimising the damage to the earthworms, soil microorganism, and fungi. This helps maximise the sustainability and long term fertility of the soils. Switch Plow[edit]Using a bar with square shares mounted perpendicularly and a pivot point to change the bar's angle, the switch plow allows plowing in either direction. It is best in previously-worked soils, as the plowshares are designed more to turn the soil over than for deep tillage. At the headland, the operator pivots the bar (and thus the plowshares) to turn the soil to the opposite side of the direction of travel. Switch plows are usually lighter than rollover plows, requiring less horsepower to operate. Effects of mouldboard ploughing[edit]Mouldboard ploughing, in cold and temperate climates, no deeper than 20 cm, aerates the soil by loosening it. It incorporates crop residues, solid manures, limestone and commercial fertilisers along with oxygen. By doing so, it reduces nitrogen losses by denitrification, accelerates mineralization and increases short-term nitrogen availability for transformation of organic matter into humus. It erases wheel tracks and ruts caused by harvesting equipment. It controls many perennial weeds and pushes back the growth of other weeds until the following spring. It accelerates soil warming and water evaporation in spring because of the lesser quantity of residues on the soil surface. It facilitates seeding with a lighter seeder. It controls many enemies of crops (slugs, crane flies, seedcorn maggots-bean seed flies, borers). It increases the number of \"soil-eating\" earthworms (endogea) but is detrimental to vertical-dwelling earthworms (anecic). Ploughing leaves very little crop residue on the surface, which otherwise could reduce both wind and water erosion. Over-ploughing can lead to the formation of hardpan. Typically farmers break up hardpan up with a subsoiler, which acts as a long, sharp knife to slice through the hardened layer of soil deep below the surface. Soil erosion due to improper land and plough utilisation is possible. Contour ploughing mitigates soil erosion by ploughing across a slope, along elevation lines. Alternatives to ploughing, such as the no till method, have the potential to actually build soil levels and humus. These may be suitable to smaller, more intensively cultivated plots, and to farming on poor, shallow or degraded soils that ploughing would further degrade. Plows in art Back side of a 100 Mark banknote issued 1908 1975 Italian Lira coin Robert Burns statue, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh The Gefion Fountain in Copenhagen Henry Herbert La Thangue, The Last Furrow, 1895 Ploughing in the Nivernais by Rosa Bonheur (1849) See also[edit]iconAgriculture and Agronomy portalBoustrophedon (Greek: \"ox-turning\") — an ancient way of writing, each line being read in the opposite direction like reversible ploughing.Foot ploughHeadland (agriculture)History of agricultureRailroad ploughRansome Victory PloughSilviculture has a technique for preparing soil for seeding in forests called scarification, which is explained in that article.SnowploughWhippletree Condition: Used, Condition: Good to very good. See description., Type of Advertising: Brochure, Date of Creation: 1880, Original/Reproduction: Original, Country/Region of Manufacture: United States, Date of Origin: 1880\n\nPicClick Insights PicClick Exclusive\n  •  Popularity - 1.396 views, 2.2 views per day, 636 days on eBay. Super high amount of views. 0 sold, 1 available.\n  •  Price -\n  •  Seller - 8.198+ items sold. 0% negative feedback. Great seller with very good positive feedback and over 50 ratings.\nSimilar Items", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6713012456893921}
+{"content": "Martin B. Goldhaber Christopher T. Mills JoAnn M. Holloway 2011 The concentration and form of dissolved organic C (DOC) and N species (NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> and NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>) were investigated as part of a larger hydrogeochemical study of the Cottonwood Lake Study Area within the Prairie Potholes region. Groundwater, pore water and surface wetland water data were used to help characterize the relationships between surface and groundwater with respect to nutrient dynamics. Photosynthesis and subsequent decomposition of vegetation in these hydrologically dynamic wetlands generates a large amount of dissolved C and N, although the subsurface till, derived in part from organic matter rich Pierre Shale, is a likely secondary source of nutrients in deeper groundwater. While surface water DOC concentrations ranged from 2.2 to 4.6 mM, groundwater values were 0.15 mM to 3.7 mM. Greater specific UV absorbance (SUVA<sub>254</sub>) in the wetland water column and in soil pore waters relative to groundwater indicate more reactive DOC in the surface to near-surface waters. Circumneutral wetlands had greater SUVA254, possibly because of variations in vegetation communities. The dominant inorganic nitrogen species was NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> in both wetland water and most ground water samples. The exceptions were 3 wells with NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> ranging from 38 to 115 μM. Shallow groundwater wells (Well 28 and Well 13S) with greater connection to wetland surface water had greater NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> concentrations (1.1 mM and 120 μM) than other well samples (3–90 μM). Pore water nutrient chemistry was more similar to surface water than ground water. Nitrogen results suggest reducing conditions in both groundwater and surface water, possibly due to the microbial uptake of O<sub>2</sub> by decaying vegetation in the wetland water column, labile organic C available in shallow groundwater, or the oxidation of pyrite associated with the subsurface. application/pdf 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2011.03.025 en Elsevier Carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry of a Prairie Pothole Wetland, Stutsman County, North Dakota, USA article", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9555505514144897}
+{"content": "Diversity: Who are you?\n\nWho are you? This is an interesting question, especially when objectively asked of the person in the mirror. Who are you? The question is pertinent today as we are oft times looked upon and associated with thoughts, motivations, and machinations not our own, simply because we “look” a certain way, or ask a certain question. Where our minds were once fixed on the individual as the agent of autonomy and sovereignty in society, we are often urged to think of ourselves as part of groups. Why is this? When did this shift from the individual to the group occur? Was there ever really a difference in outlook?\n\nIn truth there have always been groups. Humans are social creatures, tribal sometimes. From the earliest days when our primordial ancestors diverged from apes we retained the need for groups, tribes, bands, or clans. It is in our nature to gather together. Yet, with intellect and law came the recognition each of us has our own motivations and our own accountability. We are we, but “We” is not responsible, “I” is. The individual bears responsibility for the actions he or she takes. With law came the recognition that we are individuals who in the practice of our personal autonomy must respect the autonomy of others. We recognize we are not alike, but must in certain cases behave as though each of us is the same. From this relinquishing of a certain amount of our personal autonomy we get rights, human rights. The “freedoms” lauded in society: speech, assembly, and religion are both emboldening and restrictive. You can practice the right, but you may not deny it. Strange then that we are often inflicted with groupings which are not of our own making. These associations seek to strip us of our individuality and thereby our rights.\n\nThis denial of the individual happens when generalities are used to explain or ascribe behaviours or beliefs to a wide group of superficially similar people. Race groupings, nationalities, and religious groups are the most popular, but there are others as well. The sexes, the “rich”, the “poor”, the “old” or the “young” are likewise open to generalization. While generalizing is often benign. It is not always. All Englishmen love tea. While a fairly harmless generalization, it is likewise untrue. About 75% of English people, men and women, drink more than two to three cups day. This is certainly a lot of tea loving English, but is it not all, nor is it necessarily love. This is of course a frivolity. No one could really get offended with such a statement. Then, there are other times when group and group-think can become less frivolous and far less harmless. In fact, group-think and group associations have become prevalent of late. The assumptions of behaviour and guilt by association regularly finds its way into the media. Consider how many times of late you have heard one group or another being associated with some cruelty or bigotry. Consider the number of times historical events are fast-forwarded into the current day to be used as a bludgeon to shame a particular group. How often are false generalizations made on single factors to condemn groups of people who individually behave far differently than the assertion for the group. It is important to understand that there is no human “group,” or for that matter human, measurable on a single factor of their being. You are white so you are this. You are black so you are that. You are gay so you behave this way. You are male so you behave that way.\nIn certain circles, we are not individuals. We are conjoined with our like-kind. We must stay in our like-lane. Our individuality is unwelcomed in a world of group-think, as a person who is not an individual can be imbued with the false-guilt of many. The once-individual can be made to bear the sorrow and guilt of acts not his or her own, from any time now or in the past, thus the individual is disenfranchised. There is no “you” unless it exists as the target of a finger-pointed rejoinder of blame. You are at fault. You don’t care. You are a racist. You are wrong. The “you” is not the individual but the group to which you belong. Your membership is your shame.\n\nYou are white. You are black. You are male. You are female. While any number of these may well be true for any reader of this little missive, the fact of the matter is none of them, so identified, had any choice whatever in whether or not they were any one or more of these things. We don’t pick the geography of our birth, our birth parents, our sex, or the colour of our skin. These are random chance. Your membership in other groups may well be equally arbitrary. There is no small amount of opinion on the arbitrary and random nature of sexual preference. Certainly, one would say “politics” are choice. Leaning left or right based upon consideration of the policies and intent of one political stream or another is a choice. At least, one hopes consideration has been given. There are those who would suggest society and socialization has much to do with such choices. Economic standing to plays a part. There are certainly influences which create leanings in one direction or another. Grouping occurs, but underlying them all is individuality. Or, is this an illusion?\n\nAre you an individual? Many would immediately say yes. Of course! Without a doubt! Yet, how often do we tolerate our inclusion in groups. How often are we asked to identify with a particular group. How often are we be judged by the group to which we arbitrarily belong as involuntary members? This “grouping” is a tool, used by those with political or social agendas to undermine the individual. Dealing with the individual is difficult. To contend with the group is easy. An individual’s experience often hard won. An individual has rights. Groups have neither. Groups have only the history which can be imposed upon them through superficial association, enhanced if removed from the context of history. Individuals have accountability for their actions and in certain cases for their words. You can say things about groups you cannot say about individuals. You can slander an entire group, but would be careless to do so against an individual, at least a litigious one.\n\nIs the individual a fallacy? Are we living under the illusion we are independent entities? The law doesn’t think so. You get the traffic ticket. It isn’t evenly spread across all drivers. You get your tax bill, which is different from your neighbours’. You think. Likely, you think differently from your neighbour, your wife, your husband, your brother, your sister, and your friends. Not in all things, we agree on certain matters. This is the root of society, the agreement on certain norms and moral codes. So, it is clear that groups are occasionally not only justified and not arbitrary, but necessary. We need groups to exist to allow us to build nations, to agree laws, to address the matter of our collective administration and welfare as we have discovered that humans do prefer to gather together. Nations, cities, and towns all are amalgams of people, individuals who agree to live together under common law. So, what’s all the fuss over groups? Ask a Mets fan about the Yankees, or a Leafs fan about the Habs. Groups have characters, even if they don’t have accountability. Groups tend, though not always, to shun those not in the group. This is old thinking. You can see it in Chimpanzees. If one chimp group meets another, war starts. Not just shouting and flailing of arms. War, tear each other limb from limb war. While we diverged genetically about 8 million years ago, we come from the same roots. Some behaviours are very, very old. Some of it comes from ancestors who are now stone remnants, impressions of what they were, smaller, agile, instinct driven, tribal/family group oriented, and almost always prey. Groups are instinctive to humans. So, groups are natural. However, we have what our ancestors do not, intellect. Our intellect should drive us to the proper use of groups and recognition when groups are not healthy or morally suited to our needs as individuals. Groups and group association becomes unhealthy when groups act against individuality or individual recognition.\n\nOne objects, or should object, to being part or associated with a group when the group is being ascribed as behaving uniformly and consistently due to some perceived attribute of the group – positive or negative.\n\nIndividuals cannot be assessed by groupings in anyway but in generality; and when we are, only the most general and likely irrelevant characteristics can be determined from the groupings; any number of these characteristics can be contradicted by the individual member of that group. All women are nurturers. This is false. While it is true, women who are the only sex capable of giving birth are most often compelled by society and nature to take on the majority of nurturing, not “all” women are nurturers. Likewise, while on the main, men are larger and stronger than women, it is not always the case. These simple examples provide ample reason to be doubt the notion of “group” definitions as consistently true. If these simple examples stand to undermine the notion of uniform behaviour within the group, why would some shun the individual in favour of the group?\n\nA preference to lean toward group descriptors is chosen by those who seek to divide. Individuality is unwanted in groups and by those who would endorse group-think. Group-think is offered up as a divisive philosophy. According to certain members our society, you impose your bias, social power, and economic weight by interacting with others. Even though you have no conscious intention to impose anything through your interaction, you still convey your bias. In fact, your intention or lack thereof, is immaterial. You have, due to your status as a certain “type” of Canadian, as the member of a particular group, a society-driven scent of superiority or privilege which makes others: at best, ill-at-ease and at the worst feel discriminated against. You do this as part of your nature. Microaggression is in your DNA. Your existence is a reminder of the system of injustice which they believe has been foisted upon them. It is not your fault per se, you were trained this way by society, an unjust society, in which you were elevated or demoted, and supported unconsciously into feeling, without justification, better or at least separate from those of other groups of people. You may believe yourself equal to some, but these will be members of your own group for the most part. This is the modern “social justice” view of original sin. This sin taints all and is applicable circumstantially to any group identified as being different or in possession of some perceived power by another group. Your privilege shows, apparently, to those enlightened enough to see it from their external vantage point. The external “they” become the arbiters of your behaviour, a behaviour which you must wear as a member of a group, different and at odds with theirs. If it is asserted your people are criminals. You are a criminal. Your people committed a genocide of our culture. You are genocidal. Your people enslaved those people. You are a slaver. The list of generalizations and associations to incite guilt are numerous, pervasive, and destined not to seek “reconciliation” or foster remembrance. They exist to divide. They exist to empower the accuser. These “groupings” and group-think are political tools to differentiate groups, to work against diversity by working against individualism. If you believe we are all individuals, each responsible for our own behaviour, each free to live as we choose under the agreed norms we have enacted as laws in our societies then you can believe in and support diversity. If you are a member of a group, you cannot because your group is not “their” group. “They” are not “us”. “We” are not “them.”\n\nDiversity hinges and in fact has its foundation in individuality, not group-think, not the collective. It is supported by societies of individuals where recognition is given to the individual as an agent of personal responsibility. Individuals, who recognize their individual happiness, can only maintain their happiness through the cooperation of others and the recognition of the rights of other individuals to their own happiness. This does not mean agreement. This does not mean one has to adopt the behaviours or predilections of another. It merely means one recognizes the right of another to find their happiness in their own way, within the context of the common law. As a sovereign agent, having consented to support the laws of the land, to accept responsibility, no group affiliation can undermine the rights and power of the individual. To accept membership in a group and have that membership serve as a definition of the individuals within is a lie. It is tyranny. It is the very soul of injustice.\n\n\nDon’t get your hopes up – Roy Moore’s defeat\n\nWhile there are a large number of pundits and 24-hour news folks droning on about the ramifications of the Democratic win in Alabama, (the first in decades you know!), I would suggest it’s not something to get too excited about.\n\nRoy Moore was defeated by the slimmest of margins. About 1.5 percent more people voted for Doug Jones the Democratic and non-pedophile (accused) candidate. That’s not exactly an overwhelming chorus of support. Yes, I know Alabama is a red state; and yes, I know that means a significant shift in the electorate had to come out and hold their noses to vote against their traditional party affiliation. Still, just shy of half of Alabama voters would have been okay with Roy Moore. Let that sink in.\n\nIs Roy Moore’s defeat a good thing? Yes. It certainly is a good thing that an accused abuser of children is not being considered for public office. Having said that, what about due process? The accused getting a fair shake in a court; these are court worthy allegations. The court of public opinion is both fickle and often wrong. However, there is a risk to letting someone so accused stand for a position they don’t have. If the allegations are proven true, the newly elected individual could be an instant liability and some cases protected by the public office they have attained. If the individual is in a role currently however, it becomes more challenging. The notion of due process should be applied, the degree to which it is applied and by who may vary. An employer can investigate an allegation of sexual misconduct and find sufficient validity in the accusation to warrant dismissal. That does not preclude the later vindication of the individual and the follow on lawsuit for wrongful dismissal. However, courts need not be the arbiter, but in most cases, should be.\n\nIn the United States, the polarization is so thick it has a smell, and that smell is burning wood. The structures under which US society have operated are being destroyed. In some cases, that’s not a bad thing. No one sensible would shed a tear for the loss of systemic racism or discrimination against women. That said, the fire is also consuming the very tools needed to eradicate those ills of society. The Presidency, it seems, has been co-opted by a rude, racist, misogynist, and accused abuser. President Trump has demonstrated a willingness to flout convention and dignity at every turn. His “party” has demonstrated a willingness to indulge him. The opposition is no less fractured as the Republican party is becoming. In short, politics and government in the US is at a crossroads. Two out of control parties are headed for a collision and it is unclear whether they will avoid a devastating crash or one of the two will be piloted by a sober and centrist head.\n\nOne thing is sure, Roy Moore being denied a Senate seat is only a small step in the right direction. It is not a bell-weather, it is not a panacea. It is merely proof that slightly more than half of the voters in Alabama think he was a bad choice.\n\nThe Evolution of the Human Being\n\nOn the AI/Human Ecosystem\n\nAutomation is the inevitable outcome of advancing technology. The discovery of how to repeat an action through machinery must naturally lead to a means of powering it without muscle. This in turn must lead to a means of executing the action without a person guiding the action. And, it must lead to the machine making decisions on how the action should or should not occur, given a set of circumstances, in most cases without human intervention. Eventually, it must lead to the machine independently deciding what to do, when, and in what way. For humans it means adaptation too. Humans must adapt to using machines instead of muscle. Humans must alter their behavior to interface with the machine. Humans must come to “trust” the machine’s capabilities in order for these machines to be adopted into use. Humans must accept machines into the community. The continuous incremental merging of humanity and machine has created a human-machine ecosystem which will only become more pervasive as time goes on. Humans will become unconsciously process driven as the “best way” to interface with machines is determined, absorbed, and practiced. Humans will train themselves to adopt machine behaviors to interact better, faster, and more efficiently. The “touch screen” or “verbal interface” isn’t as much about making the machine accessible to humanity as it is about making the human accessible to the machine. Rather than machine programming to the nuances of human variety, humans will adopt ubiquitous behaviors to better interface with machines. Human behavior will adapt to machines and those opposing it will have only emotion.\n\nTwo plus two, equals four. This was ever the case and it is the absolute upon which automation functions. Automation relies upon mathematics and the binary foundation upon which automation rests is structured upon the surety that two plus two will always equal four; it depends upon the “yes” or “no” answer, and even if resolving on a grey area, the resolution will come through statistical analysis and likelihoods. Process guides all in automation. Without this repeatability, automation cannot function effectively. To be vague an Artificial Intelligence (AI) will need permission and process. Cognitive computing is be based on vast data stores, which are parsed and partitioned to compare and offer the best statistical outcome. Delivery of these outcomes will enable future, similar outcomes. At the core of these is mathematics and repeatability. AI will evolve to better service the human as efficiencies and data provide better outcomes. Humans will evolve to interface with and support the AI toward those outcomes. They will evolve a natural way to interact cleanly with each other. Interaction will be driven by necessity.\n\nAs automation and AI become increasingly ubiquitous, the separation between those who can and cannot benefit from this AI/Human interaction will grow. The necessity of managing “the gaps,” the dead zones of AI cognitive or automation capabilities, demand human intervention. Most, however, will be focused on “receiving the offerings” of AI and permitting them to close the loop on a request. This requires a receiver, likely but not necessarily a human, in order to be successful. The distance between those who are able to interact with the AI and those who are not will manifest, superficially, as a lack of adaptation. The challenge of not being able to conclude delivery of the offering will be increasingly designed out of the interaction.\n\nThe old may suffer. The young will likely not. Though truthfully, those who will experience distance between themselves and the AI will be unable to imagine the AI as anything but a machine; and therefore, they will lack the confidence to interact as though it were human. The smoothness of interaction will define its success. The dissolution of the AI as “other” will seal its adoption. In those cases where the AI and Human interaction is not seamless, the nature of those interactions will be defined, categorized, and avoided. To the system between AI and Humans, those who cannot interface will cease to exist.\n\nWhen it becomes clear that some humans have no real role in either filling “the gaps” or “receiving the offerings” of AI and automation, the natural action for the system will be to deny the inputs from those who have no role. This will effectively erase them from processing. In the view of the systems they would be unviable. This will create a class of dependency which, if not managed effectively will create opposition to the perceived agent of misery and denial: automation. The users and the useless will form two distinct groups but these terms are by far too generic and require greater stratification. On the “user” side there will be “Mandarins” who are quite literally “gap fillers” these ever decreasing members of the automation intelligentsia will provide guidance for a finite time, until AI masters its own design support. There will be “Integrators” those who take the offerings of disparate AI and combine them into planned and unplanned but useful outcomes, or compatible offerings designed to be merged into combined outcomes to preserve market segmentation. Lastly, there will be “Clients,” those who generate a means of paying for offerings and using them to enable other processing. Clients will in large part work to service the AI in ways that the AI cannot self-service, automatically diagnose, or requires to be independent. As well, clients will consume and also need not be human. The “useless” will fall into two categories: “Alternatives” and “Anarchists.” Alternatives will find ways to provide support and productivity to the society that doesn’t depend upon the AI and automation, but may superficially interact with it. The Anarchists will have no means of contributing to society and no viable interface with the AI and Automation. Unable or unwilling to interface with the AI and unable to pay, the Anarchist will exist wholly outside the society which can no longer service those who cannot, in some fashion, interact reciprocally with the AI.\n\nAs with all disparities in society, ranges in behavior will create outcomes and impacts. The range from Mandarin to Client will be significant, but largely benign as the recognition of expertise in filling gaps will be understood as not generally present amongst Integrators and Clients. Likewise there will be a range between Alternatives and Anarchists. This range will likely begin and remain, given stable conditions, to favor a significant majority of Alternatives; however, without social supports or in crisis, the balance between Alternatives and Anarchists may swing decidedly to the extreme, favoring anarchy over order. Systemically external, Anarchists will have no measurable impact upon the system if they do not interact with it or find a means of impacting the system.\n\nThose in opposition to society’s norms are faced with a significant challenge. Where traditional Terrorism had the impact of affecting the emotions of the target victims and causing them to act in ways which they otherwise wouldn’t, this anxiety will have little overall impact in an AI/Human ecosystem. Terrorism causes anxiety. But, how does one terrorize a system? Festooned with resiliency the AI/Human ecosystem will adapt actively to attacks on humans in lines for food, or bombs set off at workplaces. Destruction of a work node or equipment is likely to mean the straightforward failing over of work to alternative sourcing. Attacking people will be pointless. Attacking equipment will likewise have limited impact. Attacking the process will become the objective of those who oppose the AI/Human ecosystem. The best way to disrupt a process is not interfere with it predictably, but to attack it through random and non-mathematic means. Process is about interaction. Interrupt interaction; interrupt the process. In short, chaos breeds chaos.\n\nWalking up the down escalator is a form of protest. Muddling the interface, speaking English when French is required, or causing a lean when surfaces should be level – these are the acts of defiance in the future. Terror in the AI/Human ecosystem is infecting the dependability of the system. Create “doubt” in the data and the AI cannot behave effectively. Acts of unpredictability, coupled with acts to corrupt the processing of analytic data will have devastating effect. Limit the ability of society to interact and interface, separate the AI from the data, and the ecosystem collapses. This concept will seem increasingly unimaginable as society increases adoption of the AI/Human norm. The reliance upon process due to its dependability will render the notion of working against that dependability wholly unimaginable. Dependence becomes the means to acceptance. Yet, modern society’s dependence on perceived utilities demonstrates both the interdependence and the fragility of the social contract which exists between human beings – the weak link in the AI/Human ecosystem. Experience a power outage in a town and crime might go up for a short period. Windows might be broken. Those who otherwise are constrained by streetlights become smash and grab criminals. The mere frustration felt when the light switch is turned on and nothing happens is profound and instantaneously creates doubt of the capabilities of the system. Blind expectation turns quickly to anger upon denial of service.\n\nOne only has to imagine a city dependent upon GPS and guidance networks to move the AI driven trucks from stop to stop, from pick up to delivery. Imagine a food supply at risk not from breakdown or interruption, but from some unimagined occurrence: like the systemic belief that an oversupply has occurred or an unfulfilled need has been fulfilled. The result may impact the resilience of systems. Lacking the ability to “fail over,” from what appears to be an acceptable state and denied the data to resolve new means of meeting the requirement of delivering the offerings to Integrators and Clients, these two groups may quickly degenerate into Alternatives. Duration then drives deterioration. As food rots on trucks, Alternatives would quickly and circumstantially become Anarchists. The deterioration of services would be felt acutely and with greater haste than in the world we occupy today. Dependency creates fragility. If an attack did occur, framing the attack as an achievement of the system’s objective rather than an impediment might do greater harm than the expected oppositional attack which historically has been used to resist authority.\n\nThe matter of building a systemic ecosystem wherein the AI/Human interaction is foundational to society’s successful operation is dependent upon finding a way to minimize the occurrence of opposition. The solution, rather than the ability to decouple the AI/Human system is to eliminate the separation between the machine and the human.\n\nAs automation and AI become increasingly prevalent in the systems of society, the need to treat AI and automatons as “persons” becomes unavoidable. Each AI and automaton must contribute to society, observe laws, and fulfil a role. Where each AI and automaton exists, it has an economic responsibility to society. It must pay taxes. It must contribute to the provisioning of a universal income afforded to all humans who without it cannot be clients and must either be Alternatives or Anarchists. Given that Anarchists will seek to destroy the fabric of the AI/Human society, creating a means of limiting their numbers and impact is a matter of societal self-preservation. Creating the means whereby “offerings” are available to all, enhances the ubiquity of the system. The AI/Human society would need to embrace Alternatives no less than it embraces Integrators and Clients. While Integrators and Clients reciprocate in tangible ways with the AI/Human Society, influence and interaction would drive monetization above the baseline for the Alternatives, presuming of course the nature of wealth and welfare are not adjusted by the AI/Human society to mean something different than they do today. For clarity sake: crafts, art, history, philosophy, and entertainment become aspects of society driven by popularity and perceived importance above the tangible interactions with the system. As such, they become systematized as they are seen as enhancing the interactions by providing context and continuity to human aspects of the AI/Human interaction. The offering of the AI is process; the offering of the Human is art.\n\nLaw and order remain important – even more so than today. Fighting the process or attempting to corrupt the system would become the most odious of crimes as these would be crimes against the AI/Humanity. Unsurprisingly, the danger democratic societies of today would see with ever integrated AI/Human interaction is the systematizing of law enforcement and practice into Boolean terms. The “right/wrong no grey” fear of instantaneous punishment or inflexible judgement, which must surely evolve in a machine driven legal system. Yet, even today, the notions of “fuzzy logic” and cognitive computing seek “greater good” scenarios and outcomes. It is conceivable that the AI legal judgement, having total access to a person’s digital history could weigh with statistical precision the likelihood of re-offense, or the benefits of leniency and apply judgements based upon these characteristics. The likely AI/Human system may well be better, though certainly not perfect in its practice.\n\nOf course, the outcome must be based upon the quality of the programming, the adoption rate of the technology, and the willingness of the user to adapt and develop. Today there are reports the biases of today’s humans are seeping into the behaviors of AIs. This is hardly a surprise as each of us carries our own biases and each of us imparts them through our behavior. The elimination of bias from the AI will only come when the AI develops itself; and, there is no guarantee that the AI will not develop its own bias. Emotionless processing is easily predictable. Observations of repeated bias are able to be programmed out. However, as the AI advances and Humans adapt, both the AI and Humans may grow to accept the bias as a characteristic of society. The avoidance or predictability may encourage bias to creep into programming and design. Each AI may have and cultivate its own view and bias. And, if the society can consist of Mandarins, Integrators, Clients, and Alternatives in the vast majority, these biases may support the perpetuation of the society – emboldening and enabling it. The Anarchist will have nothing but emotion.\n\nEvolution is not one-sided. In the AI/Human ecosystem the relationship is symbiotic; yet, humans evolve at a much slower rate than machines. This will be especially true as AI evolve to service themselves. This will impact the Clients whose ability to interact with AI/Human society will become less and less reciprocal and more Clients become Alternatives. As time passes a new class of AI/Humanity may come into being: Singulars. The notion of “Singularity” which imagines human machine integration may evolve, resulting in something that is part of society, but neither AI nor Human. This will be a tipping point for the AI/Human society, which being symbiotic depends upon the reciprocity of service for offering. What becomes of biology when intellect and legacy is perpetual, self-servicing, and self-replicating?\n\nMotion M-103 should be opposed\n\nCanada has proudly taken a step in enhancing human values.\n\nSo says: The Canadian Muslim Forum.\n\nSadly, they are wrong.\n\nCanada is well provisioned with anti-discrimination laws. We do not need to identify any special group, religion, or interest individually. While not a perfect society, we are not the society to the south. We are not Europeans. We are Canadian. While that may be rather difficult to pin down from one moment to the next, it is safe to say we are not especially against any group, particularly Muslims. I understand how, after watching a day’s worth of the US news cycle, one might come away with the impression that there’s a global distrust of all things Muslim. Certainly Islamic Terrorism is a significant root cause – then any sort of terrorism from any group would be. Yet, Canada is not the States. Yes, purported “far-right” groups are protesting this motion (Motion: “M-103”), but other far more moderate people in Canada object too, myself among them.\n\n“Islamophobia, white supremacy and fascism are just not welcome on the streets of Toronto,” Sarah Ali said to the CBC.\n\nMs. Ali needs to understand they have never been welcome: now or before this motion, and this has been enshrined in law for a great many years. When vandals mark a synagogue we do not stand in unified condemnation on the floor of Parliament demanding a special motion for Jews. We condemn the act because it warrants condemnation, period. Regardless of who is being victimized, victimization should be opposed. Moreover, the actions of a small few do not reflect the nation. This motion, quite frankly, undermines human rights legislation and a body of law which is already amongst the most progressive and even-handed in the world. There will always be those whose radical views set themselves apart from the mainstream. This is true of the far-right and far left, and of each and every cultural and religious group in existence. This motion wants rewording and the notion of any specific group removed. The notion that one specific group deserves special mention from our government is wrong headed.\n\nBy all means oppose discrimination, victimization, and any other form of denial or rights and freedoms granted by Canadian law. But, don’t expect support for special mention – it’s wrong and should be opposed.\n\nKind regards,\n\nYou have nothing to lose but your chains\n\nAs the unification of retail and investment banking has hastened the gap between rich and poor, the internet and digital communication has hastened our transmogrification into gangs of like-minded, wordy hooligans – haranguing dissenters. It’s been going on for a while; we are only just noticing it now – another benefit of the internet, it reveals our virtues subtly and our faults with pyrotechnic accompaniment. We watch the “comedia grottesco” slavishly. We are all of us becoming populists and this is manifest in our elected officials. The citizens of the United States of America have inaugurated their newest President, Donald J. Trump. His ascension to the highest office in the US is a fine example of the public’s perceived populist leanings and the evaporation of our collective respect for intellect and pragmatism.\n\nAppropriately, while missing both the meaning and the symbolism of the song, Mr. Trump and his wife’s first dance as President and First Lady was to Sinatra’s: “My Way”. The opening two lines of which are: “And now, the end is near, and so I face, my final curtain.” Some clever boffin in the future will draw a line between this and the end of the Trump Presidency as foreshadow, no matter how it all turns out. Still the irony and absence of understanding didn’t dull the applause. As with those who play “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen to rally the faithful to nationalistic fervour, the actual meaning of the song is secondary to the punchline: “I did it my way – born in the USA.” That this goes unrecognized is irksome, but perhaps symptomatic of the deterioration of understanding.\n\nIt is interesting to read the papers/web sites and their coverage on the outcome of the election, the potential future, the accusations of foul play – both foreign and domestic – as the people of the US are currently compelled to ponder what will happen next. While it is likely some of it is true, there seems little to be done about it but to entrench one’s self deeper in the malaise of like-mindedness that permeates public discourse. The hateful rhetoric, the intractable position of one side against the next has set a tone which is very likely not about to fade. There will be no reconciliation between the “right” and “left” in the political sphere – though neither right nor left much resemble what they were in former years, not so very long ago.\n\nThe US has embraced populism, or at least many have. They have elected an elitist, potentially tax avoiding billionaire based upon a message aimed at “the common people”. Canada did that a couple of years ago and now, as though having discovered some “special sauce”, a “rich” Canadian business man will run for office to oppose the favoured rich-populist liberal who currently leads Canada. In the UK, anger pushed a hairline vote to leave the EU into a movement where now the seeming inevitability of departure has grown. Despite the need for the Parliament to vote for an Article 50 exit from the European Union, the mood seems likely to continue to favour an end to Britain’s membership in the EU. The left in the UK, under the guidance of a populist will push for Brexit, unless a rebellion (which also seems likely) occurs in the Labour Party. Yet, one would be needed in the Conservative Party too to make a difference. Amongst the Public, both the right and left in Britain, like their “New World” compatriots, are venomous and bile-filled in their opinions. There is no view worth having save the one that cannot be discounted – even with fact. “My view – impenetrable.”\n\nWorld politics is the same. In the Philippines, Duarte makes Donald J. Trump look like a soft-touch weakling, whose rhetoric is by comparison soothing poems for soft masses. The last President was trying to rein in the “tough-guy” President of the Philippines – before he got any closer to China. No doubt, the new US President will attempt the same. Germany, Italy, and Holland all have their populists – “rightists” – whose views are national and isolationist. It seems the time of the Right to behave badly is on the rise. Canada’s foray into “liberalism” was borne more by dislike of the previous right-leaning Prime Minister than acceptance of the policies of Justin Trudeau – whose policies are destined to bankrupt the country, and who stands alone as the only Canadian Prime Minister to ever be formally investigated by the Ethics Commission. Demagoguery sprinkled with populism might better describe Trudeau and Trump, yet the result is the same. They are shades of a deeper disaffection the public has with truth; fact conflicts with their desire to have their opinions validated. What is bad is done to me, not because of me.\n\nWe have sunk, globally, to electing a much lower class of politician. Then, we have sunk as an electorate too. Fewer of us – especially in the West – actually get up off our well-fed backsides and vote. As the internet brought us the convenience of being able to whine from the comfort of our own homes, under a pointed pseudonym or through the formidable reason of a well-selected emoji, we are barely able to articulate a position in a well informed and committed manner; we are no longer of the opinion that we should have to engage in the antiquated act of “going” to a ballot box and damaging the environment by using “paper” to cast our vote.  The “Information Age” has been an age of disinformation. We are stupider and more opinionated than we ever have been. Our views are embellished by the “echo-chamber” of like-minded opinion. We are quick to offend and offence. Dare not, in the expression of your opinion, cast doubt or dispersion upon the hallowed opinion of another – especially not while visiting a web site wherein others of similar views should dwell. Speak not of “black” things if you are “white”. Speak not of “LGB” unless you are supportive of “T” and “Q”. Question not the motives of the individual for we are what we “think” ourselves to be and what we think must be respected and must be honoured – in law. To do otherwise is to invite the boundless poison of condemnation. “Stay in your lane.” “Check your privilege.”\n\nSociety has changed. One of the discoveries of late has been the old chestnut– if you work hard you will get a good job and a pension – is now bunk. There is a solid argument that this discovery got Donald J. Trump elected. The post-War era bred social programs and perhaps over compensation on the part of governments to provide a welfare state that was ultimately unsustainable in the form they created. They provided too much, and too much was expected. Unions and Management negotiated untenable collective agreements that benefitted the early boomers but was ultimately incapable of providing the same dividends as the developing world matured and globalization became viable. This change in the economies of the world was brought on by the increased acceptance of capitalism, the growth of the free market. The growth of the developing world, raising nations from poverty and backward economies, meant the West faced competition; and, the monopoly they enjoyed in the 50s and 60s began to wane in the 70s. The fading guaranteed markets were harder to gain profit from and others were making good products cheaper. These facts were ignored. Instead of adapting, businesses and unions fought to keep things the same, to fail to change. Behaving in an unchanging manner in a changing world can only lead to destruction. This became evident during the 2000s, when the credit crunch hit. The assumptions of business changed. The realization that pensions, propped up by companies was untenable was demonstrated by no less a company than GM, who was the 3rd largest health care provider in the US at the start of the credit crunch. Yet these failings, the lack of adaptation, these pseudo-charitable distractions from core business, the uncompromising nature of unions, the substandard management of companies and the focusing on shareholder value rather than the health of the companies worked to undermine them; shamefully the blame has been placed on the outsider – the external. The UK suffers because of the EU. The US suffers because of Mexicans and off shore businesses and manufacturing. The outsider is the hated cause of our lack of pensions and profit. A wall will solve our problems. Disconnecting from the wider world will make things better.\n\nWhile we have greater access to information, we have less use for it. The most hateful term of late is: “The Post Truth era”. For what are we if not what we truthfully are? It seems we are whatever we are willing to say we are. We are what we want. Now, this isn’t true, nor is it factual. Today, facts are not terribly important; or, facts are too important. We eschew belief and faith. We eschew facts. Our intellect has lifted us above the necessity of moral evaluation against a set of “mythical” tenets and traditions; it has caused us to favour only that which can be weighed and measured over the less tangible and harder to quantify, while all the while choosing only those blessed facts which suit our needs. We raise children to be fair and just – to demand honesty and opportunity – then call them “snowflakes” when they confront us with the hypocrisy of the very systems we have allowed to degenerate into machines of favour and privilege, uncompetitive and intransigent. The once grand “free market” has been weighted to favour an ever shrinking group of investment firms and banks, shortening the average life of corporations to 15 years, from 70. “Shareholder value” the grand objective has undermined the corpus, the body, “the corporation”. No longer working toward its own preservation and perpetuation, the corporation can easily source, outsource, and off-shore without a mind for the workforce that were once “employees,” its heart. People belonged, at one time, to a company, a firm. Today, the cheque clears; or, it doesn’t. The corporation is not a thing to be preserved but a thing to be exsanguinated and broken up.\n\n\nOur individuality and “specialness” has made us expendable to those who once valued people and now value things, and raised our own opinions of ourselves above the very societies we live within. Society should serve me! We no longer accept what we are, our own limitations. It is unfair and wrong that this one has more than that one, regardless of how it might have been attained or what effort expended. We curse “elites” and demand to be led by those “outside” the world of tradition and experience. Yet, the randomness of birth and genes, when it comes together into some admirable formation, is viewed as though it is something which should be lauded and aspired to; when in fact, it is no more than a fortunate merging of chromosomes. With the same click of the mouse we pass over the long considered and laboriously crafted view of kindness and charity, or seek to find its blemish so it might be discredited.\n\nWe have and are the world we made.\n\nOur own ignorance and willingness to defer our responsibility has elected Donald Trump, has considered Justin Trudeau a “leader”, has set the UK on the road to exiting the European Union, and given ideologues like Marine LePen a real chance at political office. It is time we woke up and started reading books again. Turn off Facebook. Drop out of our echo chambers. Block the “Brietbarts” and the “OccupyDemocrats” sites and demand real objective news – no editorial without an op-ed, no comment without a rebuttal.  We need to take our minds back before they are lost to us forever. The alternative is slavery.\n\n“Stay in your Lane.”\n\n\n“Stay in your lane” is a comment referring to a statement or opinion made by a member of a group who has commented on a group “different” from their own, usually the one uttering the title phrase. In North America this is most recently manifesting as the “white” person commenting about a “black” issue and being told to “stay in your lane” – as any such comment, good or bad, is an appropriation of culture or cause. The “white” person should not comment as such a comment rather than being empathetic or sympathetic is, in actuality, offensive as it constitutes appropriation of the culture or experience of the “black” person or group.\n\nLionel Shriver, the author, gave a speech to the Brisbane Writer’s Festival. The text of the speech is provided in full by The Guardian – please follow the link. In her address she outlines the reasons that this type of thinking is wrongheaded when applied to the authors of fiction. I would suggest it is wrongheaded in all occasions. This notion of appropriation, of “staying in your lane” extends to music, politics, and other social forms. Ms. Shrivers speaks to the plight of the author of fiction when confronted with criticism over writing a character that is ethnically, gender, or sexually different than the author. This idiocy would have each of us remain fast to our own experience. Ms. Shrivers lists but a few of the literary works of art that wouldn’t exist if the author had chosen to stay in their lane.\n\nThe proponents of identity politics would have us eat our own foods, drink our own drinks. The notion of diversity is not one of separation but sharing and exchange. An author must create characters from life, or be accused of being exclusionary. Likewise, much art is made trite by the tokenism of placing a character of one group or another within the narrative solely to serve as an example of the diversity of the story. As with all things, balance and honesty rule. That does not preclude, as Ms. Shrivers points out, that some authors will do it badly. But, that’s bad writing, not appropriation. There are other aspects to this argument though. Solange Knowles spoke to this in a recent blog that is getting comment and publication on the internet.\n\n\nSolange Knowles has recently posted an essay on her website decrying the challenges of being a black in a “white space.” There are no “white spaces”. However, there are places where one is among many. If that makes the person uncomfortable then soul searching is required. If, however, which is what Ms. Knowles eludes to, one is made to feel uncomfortable solely because that “one” is different, then that is entirely another matter. We should have an expectation of fair treatment. However, should Ms. Knowles have chosen to remain in her lane and not to appropriate “White” German culture by attending a Kraftwerk concert. Of course not. The notion is as idiotic as an author being dragged over the coals for writing a story from the perspective of a woman, if male, or an English character, if South African. Yet, I suspect it is less likely that Ms. Knowles will be accused of appropriation. The accusation of appropriation is no less racist than the purported act. Still, discomfort felt by Solange Knowles by the behaviour of those around her and the criticism of authors who refuse to “stay in their lanes” comes from the same root. That root needs stamping out.\n\nFreedom of information has been the death of truth.\n\n\n\nIn an interview President Obama commented on the frustration of truth. “The deficit has been reduced by two-thirds, but most people think we spend more.” Why, because that’s what is said on the web. Sites like Snopes.com and Factcheck.org seek to provide truth and clarity, but even their content is used not as a resource for verification, but as a hammer with which to beat the opinion of another.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7211306691169739}
+{"content": "Daci Yan\n\nDa Ci Yan - Daci Rock\n\nUseful Information\n\nLocation: Cliff of Yiquan, Daci Yanjiao. From Hangzhou 320 National Road to Shouchang Town, Jiande, then 330 National Road.\nOpen: Adults CNY 45.\nClassification: ExplainCave Temple\nLight: n/a\nGuided tours:  \nAddress: Daci Yan Scenic Area, Daci Yanjiao, Tel: +86-, Fax: +86-,\n\n\n\nDaci Yan (Daci Rock) is a rocky hill with a cave temple right below the summit of Daci Mountain. The wooden buildings of the temple are built into the overhanging cliff, connected by bridges along the cliff. The 147 meters high standing Buddha is the largest sculpture of a standing Buddha in the country. The tempel is reached from the village, 580m below, with a cable car. The spot is a popular tourist destination. The rocks consist of conglomerate, the huge abri is formed by erosion.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.922197163105011}
+{"content": "New Year’s Resolutions: 9 Sankalpas for 2013\n\nThe Sanskrit word for “resolution” or “intention” is Sankalpa. The number nine is considered very auspicious in Indian spirituality. This is because of the number nine’s connection with the number three…three is considered the number of completion, as in the cycle of life (birth, life, death), the construction of any quality story or other writing (beginning, middle, end), and the stages of one’s life (youth, middle age, old age). There are three divisions to the day: morning, afternoon, and night. Time is also a triple division, of past, present, and future.  Continue reading\n\nAyurveda: the Ancient Indian Art and Science of Creating Pattern-Breaking, Sustainable Change\n\nSix years ago, as a 20-year-old college student in New York City, I asked myself a question that would end up dramatically changing the course of my life forever. I had just been admitted into the Catherine B. Reynolds Scholarship Program in Social Entrepreneurship, which defined social entrepreneurship as “pattern-breaking, sustainable and scalable change related to issues of social importance.” How can I create pattern-breaking change, in a sustainable way, within my own life, and scale those changes into the work I wish to do in the world? I asked myself. Ayurveda, the art and science of life from ancient India, has undoubtedly been the answer to this powerful question. Continue reading\n\n‘Becoming the Change:’ The Practice of Liberation\n\nHabitual patterns of the mind were a strong theme of the Wednesday meditation session I attended last week. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,\n\n“Sow a thought and reap an action\n\nSow an act and reap a habit\n\nSow a habit and reap a character\n\nSow a character and reap a destiny.”\n\nThe core of the yoga and meditation practices is arguably the work we do to purify and thereby transform what are called samskaras in Sanskrit, or sankaras in Pali (the ancient language of Gautama the Buddha). These samskaras are like habits, in that they constitute the accumulated impressions – scientifically speaking, the neuron patterns – that determine our character, ways of thinking and behaving and overall outlook on and approach to life.\n\nI like Yoga Journal writer and meditation teacher Sally Kempton’s interpretation of samskaras as “some scars.” Kempton describes samskaras as energy patterns in the consciousness, mental grooves that are like rivulets in sand that allow water to run in specific patterns. She often talks about how samskaras create our ‘default’ mental, physical and emotional settings. The thought “I can’t do this” when faced with a new challenge is a negative samskara that can be replaced by the confidence you feel when you finally master something that was initially challenging. Continue reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5786304473876953}
+{"content": "Density is the amount of mass in a volume. The more dense a substance is, the heavier it is for the same amount of volume.\n\nThe formula for density is:\n\ndensity = `frac(text(mass))(text(volume))`\n\nDensity is measured in g/cm3 or kg/m3.\n\n\n1. A cuboid of lead, 3cm by 5cm by 2cm, has density of 11.34 g/cm3. What mass is the cuboid?\n\nAnswer: 340.2g\n\nVolume = 3 x 5 x 2 = 30cm3.\n\nRearrange the formula to density x volume = mass\n\n30 x 11.34 = 340.2g\n\n2. The density of water is 1000 kg/m3. A swimming pool has been constructed on the top of a building. The swimming pool is 1.5m deep throughout, and is 10m by 15m. What mass of water will be contained within the pool?\n\nAnswer: 225 tonnes\n\nThe volume of the pool is 1.5 x 10 x 15 = 225m3.\n\nRearrange the equation to density x volume = mass\n\n225 x 1000 = 225000Kg, os 225 tonnes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994872808456421}
+{"content": "The Importance of Regular Facials\n\nYou may think of a facial as a once-off luxury that only happens before an event or if you’re on a spa weekend. In reality, professional facials should be part of your regular skincare routine. In winter we change our wardrobes to reflect the dip in temperature and we should take the same care of our skin. Your face is the only area of the body that is almost always exposed to the wind, sun, and cold so take good care of it! Here’s why regular facials are important:\n\n\nFacials have anti-aging effects making you look younger and freshening up dull and tired skin. When enjoyed regularly they minimise fine lines and wrinkles by increasing the moisture in the skin. They also help to relax the muscles of the face and tone your skin leading to less sagging and deep-set wrinkles can be reduced.\n\nHaving regular facials can lead to firmer, more radiant skin. Facials are like massages for your face, stimulating circulation and bringing oxygen to the skin improving its colour and texture. They also allow your regular skincare products to absorb into your face more effectively.\n\nFacials are a way to deep cleanse your face in a way that is almost impossible to replicate at home. While your skin may feel clean after an old fashioned soap and water wash, facials incorporate all sorts of delicious-smelling potions and deep cleansing techniques that allow for a really deep clean. Ensuring to close pores afterwards is a great way to fight impurities such as spots and acne.\n\nAbove all else, facials are me-time! Taking an hour once a month to completely relax and let someone else take care of you is important for your body and mind. Make a regular facial part of your self-care routine and not only will you feel mentally better, your body will physically release tension and stress from your face, neck and shoulders.\n\nHow often should I get a facial?\n\nWe recommend facials at least once a month. Treating your skin to a facial every 30 days will give your skin a chance to recover from the last facial and fully appreciate another one, making sure your skin looks it’s best. We don’t recommend having facials too often as they can have the opposite effect on the skin. 30 days is roughly how long it takes your skin to move through the full life cycle of skin cell growth and exfoliation.\n\nCaring for your skin\n\nIn between facials you should take care of your skin by cleansing, toning and moisturising every day with good quality products. Having tried and tested many salon brands, we recommend dermalogica products and it’s easy to see why they are the number one choice among skincare professionals. dermalogica products are free from common irritants and ingredients often found in skincare products that may cause breakouts.\n\nDon’t forget to wear sun protection factor every day, no matter how overcast or rainy it may be outside. Ideally, your everyday BB cream or foundation would have a factor higher than 20. If you have oily or sensitive skin, make sure to use an oil-free moisturiser and sunscreen.\n\nOsprey Spa offer a Bespoke Skin Treatment Package which includes a skin consultation, 3 x 60-minute treatments and a bespoke skin fitness plan tailored to your specific skin type. If you would like to enquire about treatments in the newly refurbished Osprey Spa, call our team of talented therapists and they will happy to discuss or make a booking for you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.900872528553009}
+{"content": "Register April 2017 No. 736\nChapter NR 40\nNR 40.01   Purpose.\nNR 40.02   Definitions.\nNR 40.03   Classifications.\nNR 40.04   Prohibited category.\nNR 40.045   Emergency additions to prohibited category.\nNR 40.05   Restricted category.\nNR 40.06   Invasive species permits.\nNR 40.07   Preventive measures.\nNR 40.08   Enforcement.\nNR 40.09   Interagency coordination.\nNR 40.01 NR 40.01Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to identify, classify and control invasive species in Wisconsin as part of the department's statewide program required by s. 23.22 (2) (a), Stats.\nNR 40.02 NR 40.02Definitions. For purposes of this chapter:\nNR 40.02(1) (1) “Algae\" means a predominately photosynthetic eukaryotic organism ranging from unicellular to macroscopic forms, lacking true roots, stems, leaves, and embryos.\nNR 40.02(2) (2) “Animal\" means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including but not limited to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mollusks, arthropods, insects, and their eggs, larvae or young, but excluding humans.\nNR 40.02(3) (3) “Aquatic animal\" means any vertebrate or invertebrate species that lives or grows only in water during any life stage, and includes the eggs, larvae or young of those species.\nNR 40.02(3m) (3m) “Aquatic invasive species\" means any invasive species that dwells in water or wetlands.\nNR 40.02(4) (4) “Aquatic plant\" means a submergent, emergent, free-floating or floating-leaf plant and includes any part of the plant.\nNR 40.02(5) (5) “Attached\" means in, on, or physically connected to in any way.\nNR 40.02(6) (6) “Boat\" means any device capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.\nNR 40.02(7) (7) “Category\" means a grouping of species designated by administrative rule for which there are specific legal requirements or restrictions.\nNR 40.02(7g) (7g) “Cave\" means any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess or system of interconnected passageways beneath the surface of the earth or in a bluff, cliff or ledge, including pits and sinkholes, but does not include a rock shelter.\nNR 40.02(7r) (7r) “Commercial cave or mine\" means a cave or mine that has more than 1,000 visitors per year and charges a fee.\nNR 40.02(8) (8) “Contain\" or “containment\" means to prevent spread beyond a designated boundary.\nNR 40.02(9) (9) “Control\" has the meaning given it in s. 23.22 (1) (a), Stats. In addition, “control\" includes activities to eliminate or reduce the adverse effects of invasive species including decreasing or eradicating their population or limiting their introduction or spread, and includes destroying the aboveground, and when necessary, the belowground portions of a plant in a manner and at the proper time to prevent the development and distribution of viable seeds or other propagules. For plants that reproduce vegetatively, “control\" includes the use of methods that contain or reduce the vegetative spread of the plant.\nNR 40.02 Note Note: Section 23.22 (1) (a), Stats., states that “control\" means to cut, remove, destroy, suppress, or prevent the introduction or spread of.\nNR 40.02(9m) (9m) “Crayfish\" means any decapod crustacean from the following families: Astacidae, Cambaridae and Parastacidae.\nNR 40.02(10) (10) “Cultivate\" means, for plants, intentionally maintaining an individual or population of a plant.\nNR 40.02(11) (11) “Cyanobacteria\" means a predominately photosynthetic prokaryotic organism occurring singly or in colonies.\nNR 40.02(12) (12) “DATCP\" means the Wisconsin department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection.\nNR 40.02(13) (13) “Department\" means the Wisconsin department of natural resources.\nNR 40.02(14) (14) “Disposal\" means the lawful discharge, deposit, dumping or placing of any invasive species into or on any land or water in a manner that prevents the establishment, introduction or spread of the disposed species, or the consumption of the species as food.\nNR 40.02(15) (15) “Eradicate\" means to remove an entire population of an invasive species and all its propagules from an area of infestation.\nNR 40.02(16) (16) “Established\" means, for algae and cyanobacteria, plants, terrestrial invertebrates and plant disease-causing microorganisms, aquatic invertebrates except crayfish, and terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates except fish, present in an area as a self-sustaining population that is dispersed to the extent that eradication is either infeasible or will take a significant effort over a period of several years.\nNR 40.02(17) (17) “Established nonnative fish species and established nonnative crayfish species\" means alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus), sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), tubenose goby (Proterorhinus marmoratus), white perch (Morone americana), and rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus), and western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).\nNR 40.02(18) (18) “Feral\" means existing in an untamed or wild, unconfined state, having returned to such a state from domestication.\nNR 40.02(19) (19) “Genetically modified\" refers to an organism whose genome, chromosomal or extrachromosomal, is modified permanently and heritably, using recombinant nucleic acid techniques, and includes the progeny of any genetically modified organism.\nNR 40.02(20) (20) “Identified carrier of an invasive species\" means any material identified in a department infestation control designation under s. 26.30 (7), Stats., a DATCP quarantine under s. 94.01, Stats., or a United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service quarantine declaration under 7 USC section 7714 or 7715 as potentially carrying an invasive species.\nNR 40.02(21) (21) “Import\" means to bring into Wisconsin or to arrange for another person to bring into Wisconsin.\nNR 40.02(22) (22) “Incidental\" means something is done inadvertently when performing an otherwise legal activity.\nNR 40.02(23) (23) “Introduce\" means to stock, plant, release or otherwise put an invasive species into the outdoor environment or use an invasive species in this state anywhere except within an indoor facility which is designed to physically contain the organism, including but not limited to a laboratory, greenhouse, growth chamber or fermenter.\nNR 40.02(24) (24) “Invasive species\" has the meaning given it in s. 23.22 (1) (c), Stats. In addition, “invasive species\" means nonnative species including hybrids, cultivars, subspecific taxa, and genetically modified variants whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health, and includes individual specimens, eggs, larvae, seeds, propagules, and any other viable life-stages of such species. For fish, “invasive species\" includes all nonnative species.\nNR 40.02 Note Note: Section 23.22 (1) (c), Stats., states that “invasive species\" means nonindigenous species whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The department does not consider dead specimens or organisms that are dead, not revivable, and no longer capable of living, growing, developing, reproducing, and functioning as “invasive species\".\nNR 40.02(25) (25) “Management action\" means limiting the spread of established populations or abating harmful ecological, economic, social and public health impacts associated with invasive species introductions.\nNR 40.02(25m) (25m) “Mine\" means any artificial excavation, shaft, underground passageway, slope, tunnel or working from which ore or mineral is or was extracted, but does not include an open pit mine. However, caves or mines may be located adjacent to open pit mines.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.60408616065979}
+{"content": "Te Kete Ipurangi Navigation:\n\nTe Kete Ipurangi\n\nTe Kete Ipurangi user options:\n\nYou are here:\n\nBook 53: Moulds Are Fungi: Structure, Function, and Interrelationships\n\nLevels: 3-4\nContextual strands: Living world icon. Living world , Material world icon. Material world\n\n\nThe study of moulds as members of the fungus kingdom has an immediacy for children because moulds grow quickly, have a wide variety of forms, and are common around the home and garden. They can be used successfully in classroom experiments and investigations. The changes they cause have a \"yuck factor\" fascination for many children.\n\nNote: Fungi (plural; singular: fungus) make up a whole kingdom and include moulds, yeasts, and mushrooms. This book focuses specifically on moulds; yeasts are covered in Bread: The Chemistry of Breadmaking , Book 56 in this series.\n\nConcept overview\n\nUse the concept overview, which is also on the inside front cover of the book, as a reference for the concepts that relate to Moulds Are Fungi: Structure, Function, and Interrelationships.\n\nPDF icon. Read the concept overview (PDF 59 KB)\n\nLinks with other titles in the series\n\nThis book is aimed at levels 3–4 because many concepts associated with moulds require some awareness of microscopic structures and of life processes that cannot be directly observed. This book has strong links with the following books:\n\nAssessment resources\n\nVisit the 'Building Science Concept' page on the Assessment Resource Banks (ARB) website to find ARB resources that assess the 'big idea' learning outcomes referred to in the concept overview for this title.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947741627693176}
+{"content": "superior vena cava syndrome\n\n\nSummary: A condition that occurs when the obstruction of the thin-walled SUPERIOR VENA CAVA interrupts blood flow from the head, upper extremities, and thorax to the RIGHT ATRIUM. Obstruction can be caused by NEOPLASMS; THROMBOSIS; ANEURYSM; or external compression. The syndrome is characterized by swelling and/or CYANOSIS of the face, neck, and upper arms.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "\nTip: To open articles without exiting the current webpage…\n\nPEP-Web Tip of the Day\n\n\n\nBálint, M. (1942). Ego Strength and Education of the Ego. Psychoanal Q., 11:87-95.\n\n(1942). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 11:87-95\n\nEgo Strength and Education of the Ego\n\nMichael Bálint\n\nSince the publication of Freud's The Ego and the Id the conception of a 'weak ego' has become a commonplace. Yet, according to psychoanalytic theory, neurotic symptoms develop out of a conflict between the sexual instincts and the interests of the ego. If this is so, how can the neurotic ego, being so weak, represent its own interests so energetically that the result has to be a continuous compromise?\n\nAs early as 1926 in The Problem of Anxiety and only three years after publication of The Ego and the Id, Freud called to attention that the ego can be strong as well as weak. However only in recent years, coincident with increasing interest in the structure and function of the ego, has the concept come gradually to a focus, first, in the contributions to the Marienbad Congress in the symposium on the Theory of Therapeutical Results (1936), and second, in the symposium on Strength and Weakness of the Ego at the International Congress in Paris (1938). At the latter Congress the need to gather data about strength of the ego was acknowledged. Hartmann has approached the subject in terms of a general theory of adaptation, and Nunberg in terms of the synthetic function of the ego.\n\nThe concept, strength of the ego, has never been clearly and exactly defined.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.963723361492157}
+{"content": "How Is Financial Planning for Practicing Doctors Different and More Complicated?\n\n\nOften after a doctor builds his or her own estate, they are likely to pass them onto their next generations. It is possible that parents give their children a life income interest in some trust. After the death of the child, the trust continues to pay interest to the grandchildren and then the great-grandchildren, depending on the funds available. However, that is not without Uncle Sam’s intervention. The Generation-Skipping Transfer (GST) Tax usually does not allow the skipping of transfer tax when the trust is transferable between multiple generations.\n\nIf you want your next generations to be affluent, you have to pay the government!\n\nIn 1976, the Congress first established and enacted the GST tax. It was to reduce the loss of revenue from the estate tax when the estate owner found multi-generational trusts within the estate. The current GST tax law the central government, IRS, and most states follow, is in correspondence with the new GST tax amendment of 1986. According to the current law, there are three types of tax triggering events:\n\nTaxable terminations\n\nIt happens when the transferor establishes a trust that pays for the upkeep of his child or children. When that child passes on, the remainder passes on to the grandchildren, and then to their great-grandchildren. This kind of trust can pay multiple generations of descendants, which is why estate planning for physicians is very critical. The termination of the child’s interest in such a trust can coincide with the death of the child, but the GST tax law treats this completion of interest as a taxable termination.\n\nTaxable Distributions\n\nAny distribution that skips a person, when it is neither is neither taxable termination nor a direct skip. It is usually a distribution of a trust.\n\nDirect Skips\n\nThese are when the transferor chooses to bypass the children and give their assets to their grandchildren only. It also holds when the transferor sets up a trust for the benefit of their grandchildren while bypassing his or her children. It is a taxable event as per the GST tax, known as a direct skip.\n\nIs it possible to save on GST tax during lifetime transfers and transfers at death?\n\nDuring Lifetime transfers and transfers at death, each transferor has a $5.49 million exemption as per the 2017 updates of rules. It holds true for transfers at death and lifetime transfers as well. Doctors can choose either one, but they should also know that these allocations are irrevocable. The exemption is not transferable between individuals, but married couples can share the generation-skipping transfer. Although the amount likely comes from only one among the couple, the GST rule can easily assume that the contribution was 50% from each.\n\nAllocation rules are quite complex and understanding them usually needs some help. Even expert physicians and surgeons need the help of legal practitioners to exploit the allocation rules in their favor. While some allocations are automatic right now, there are specific allocation rules that apply to the exemption of particular generation-skipping transfers.\n\n  • Lifetime direct skips\n  • Indirect skips to generation-skipping trust\n\nThe transferor and their executors have some control over the allocation of this exemption. Under special circumstances, retroactive distributions are acceptable.\n\nYou can easily keep the assets of your irrevocable life insurance trust from being taxable. All transfers you make to the trust must qualify for the annual exemption for the GST tax. The insured must also allocate part of the exemption that exceeds or that is not eligible for an annual exclusion. You can achieve this by filing for gift tax return on time. Keeping track of the GST tax inclusion ratio, the allocated tax exemption and the correct valuation of property can be very challenging for a busy medical professional. That is why the top physicians of the country trust Beam a Life for handling their tax planning and estate planning.\n\nWhat is the acceptable generation assignment for the exemption?\n\nWhile making the assignment of the assets, you must remember that a transferor and the spouse always belong to the same generation. The difference in age or the real-world generation gap does not influence the generation assignment rules. Same is true for the children of the transferor or the spouse. Any relationship by half-blood or adoption is equivalent to a whole-blood relationship.\n\nHere, a particular rule is applicable. As per this law, when the child level has predeceased the next generation or the skip person, then the skip person can move up into the generation bracket vacated by the predeceased person. It is the predeceased parent exception, and it extends to taxable terminations. Taxable distributions and direct skips also fall under the predeceased parent exception. The exceptions extend to certain collateral heirs, in case you do not have any living lineal descendants during the time of transfer. When the transfer occurs outside the immediate family, the person who receives the transfer usually belongs to the same generation in case he is born within 12.5 years of the transferor. The subsequent generations follow a 25-year increment each time.\n\nWhat is the GST tax you have to pay during taxable distribution, taxable termination or adirect skip?\n\nThe GST tax has a flat rate for everyone. That makes it quite simple to calculate. Sadly, the flat rate is 40% of transfer value as per the 2017 tax slab. It is a considerable expense, even for millionaires who just want their kids to live comfortably.\n\nWhile we understand why paying taxes are essential, we also acknowledge the effort a doctor has to put in to build his empire from the ground up. So why make a mistake that can end up taking away 40% of your assets and savings as tax, when you can just make a call and find out your best options from trained finance planning professionals.\n\nNothing compares to having dedicated teams of professionally trained and experienced finance lawyers handling your estate plans and tax plans. Not only will you be able to save more with the help of timely tax return filing, but you will also know smart, and IRS approved ways to keep your hard earned fortune within your family. Uncle Sam may be a stickler when it comes to income tax and estate tax, but he has left many secret avenues open for doctors to keep their hard-earned assets. Visit to know more!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8739765286445618}
+{"content": "Cell-based assays\n\n\n\n2008_Genes Dev_Farny.pdf Table S1 & S2.pdf Table S3.xls\nJennifer A Philips, Maura C Porto, Hui Wang, Eric J Rubin, and Norbert Perrimon. 2008. “ESCRT factors restrict mycobacterial growth.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105, 8, Pp. 3070-5.Abstract\n\nNearly 1.7 billion people are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Its ability to survive intracellularly is thought to be central to its success as a pathogen, but how it does this is poorly understood. Using a Drosophila model of infection, we identify three host cell activities, Rab7, CG8743, and the ESCRT machinery, that modulate the mycobacterial phagosome. In the absence of these factors the cell no longer restricts growth of the non-pathogen Mycobacterium smegmatis. Hence, we identify factors that represent unique vulnerabilities of the host cell, because manipulation of any one of them alone is sufficient to allow a nonpathogenic mycobacterial species to proliferate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, in mammalian cells, the ESCRT machinery plays a conserved role in restricting bacterial growth.\n\n2008_PNAS_Philips.pdf Supp. Info.pdf\n\n\nKatharine J Sepp, Pengyu Hong, Sofia B Lizarraga, Judy S Liu, Luis A Mejia, Christopher A Walsh, and Norbert Perrimon. 2008. “Identification of neural outgrowth genes using genome-wide RNAi.” PLoS Genet, 4, 7, Pp. e1000111.Abstract\n\n\n2008_PLOS Gen_Sepp.pdf Supp. Info.pdf Table S1.xls Table S2.xls\n\n\n2008_GenesDev_Sathyanarayanan.pdf Supplement.pdf\n\n\n2008_Genes Dev_Kwon.pdf Supplement.pdf Supplemental Movies.zip\nShilpa Gandre-Babbe and Alexander M van der Bliek. 2008. “The novel tail-anchored membrane protein Mff controls mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission in mammalian cells.” Mol Biol Cell, 19, 6, Pp. 2402-12.Abstract\n\nFew components of the mitochondrial fission machinery are known, even though mitochondrial fission is a complex process of vital importance for cell growth and survival. Here, we describe a novel protein that controls mitochondrial fission. This protein was identified in a small interfering RNA (siRNA) screen using Drosophila cells. The human homologue of this protein was named Mitochondrial fission factor (Mff). Mitochondria of cells transfected with Mff siRNA form a closed network similar to the mitochondrial networks formed when cells are transfected with siRNA for two established fission proteins, Drp1 and Fis1. Like Drp1 and Fis1 siRNA, Mff siRNA also inhibits fission induced by loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, it delays cytochrome c release from mitochondria and further progression of apoptosis, and it inhibits peroxisomal fission. Mff and Fis1 are both tail anchored in the mitochondrial outer membrane, but other parts of these proteins are very different and they exist in separate 200-kDa complexes, suggesting that they play different roles in the fission process. We conclude that Mff is a novel component of a conserved membrane fission pathway used for constitutive and induced fission of mitochondria and peroxisomes.\n\n2008_Mol Biol Cell_Gandre-Babbe.pdf\n\n\n2008_Science_Bakal.pdf Supplement.pdf\nJianwu Bai, Richard Binari, Jian-Quan Ni, Marina Vijayakanthan, Hong-Sheng Li, and Norbert Perrimon. 2008. “RNA interference screening in Drosophila primary cells for genes involved in muscle assembly and maintenance.” Development, 135, 8, Pp. 1439-49.Abstract\n\nTo facilitate the genetic analysis of muscle assembly and maintenance, we have developed a method for efficient RNA interference (RNAi) in Drosophila primary cells using double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). First, using molecular markers, we confirm and extend the observation that myogenesis in primary cultures derived from Drosophila embryonic cells follows the same developmental course as that seen in vivo. Second, we apply this approach to analyze 28 Drosophila homologs of human muscle disease genes and find that 19 of them, when disrupted, lead to abnormal muscle phenotypes in primary culture. Third, from an RNAi screen of 1140 genes chosen at random, we identify 49 involved in late muscle differentiation. We validate our approach with the in vivo analyses of three genes. We find that Fermitin 1 and Fermitin 2, which are involved in integrin-containing adhesion structures, act in a partially redundant manner to maintain muscle integrity. In addition, we characterize CG2165, which encodes a plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase, and show that it plays an important role in maintaining muscle integrity. Finally, we discuss how Drosophila primary cells can be manipulated to develop cell-based assays to model human diseases for RNAi and small-molecule screens.\n\n2008_Dev_Bai.pdf Supplement.pdf Movie S1.mov Movie S2.mov\nLeigh Cuttell, Andrew Vaughan, Elizabeth Silva, Claire J Escaron, Mark Lavine, Emeline Van Goethem, Jean-Pierre Eid, Magali Quirin, and Nathalie C Franc. 2008. “Undertaker, a Drosophila Junctophilin, links Draper-mediated phagocytosis and calcium homeostasis.” Cell, 135, 3, Pp. 524-34.Abstract\n\nPhagocytosis is important during development and in the immune response for the removal of apoptotic cells and pathogens, yet its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the CED2/5/10/12 pathway regulates actin during phagocytosis of apoptotic cells, whereas the role of the CED1/6/7 pathway in phagocytosis is unclear. We report that Undertaker (UTA), a Drosophila Junctophilin protein, is required for Draper (CED-1 homolog)-mediated phagocytosis. Junctophilins couple Ca2+ channels at the plasma membrane to those of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the Ryanodine receptors. We place Draper, its adaptor drCed-6, UTA, the Ryanodine receptor Rya-r44F, the ER Ca2+ sensor dSTIM, and the Ca2+-release-activated Ca2+ channel dOrai in the same pathway that promotes calcium homeostasis and phagocytosis. Thus, our results implicate a Junctophilin in phagocytosis and link Draper-mediated phagocytosis to Ca2+ homeostasis, highlighting a previously uncharacterized role for the CED1/6/7 pathway.\n\n2008_Cell_Cuttell.pdf Supp. Info.pdf Supplemental Movies.zip\n\n\nYousang Gwack, Sonal Srikanth, Stefan Feske, Fernando Cruz-Guilloty, Masatsugu Oh-hora, Daniel S Neems, Patrick G Hogan, and Anjana Rao. 2007. “Biochemical and functional characterization of Orai proteins.” J Biol Chem, 282, 22, Pp. 16232-43.Abstract\n\nStimulation of immune cells triggers Ca2+ entry through store-operated Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ channels, promoting nuclear translocation of the transcription factor NFAT. Through genome-wide RNA interference screens in Drosophila, we and others identified olf186-F (Drosophila Orai, dOrai) and dStim as critical components of store-operated Ca2+ entry and showed that dOrai and its human homologue Orai1 are pore subunits of the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ channel. Here we report that Orai1 is predominantly responsible for store-operated Ca2+ influx in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and human T cells and fibroblasts, although its paralogue Orai3 can partly compensate in the absence of functional Orai1. All three mammalian Orai are widely expressed at the mRNA level, and all three are incorporated into the plasma membrane. In human embryonic kidney 293 cells, Orai1 is glycosylated at an asparagine residue in the predicted second extracellular loop, but mutation of the residue does not compromise function. STIM1 and Orai1 colocalize after store depletion, but Orai1 does not associate detectably with STIM1 in glycerol gradient centrifugation or coimmunoprecipitation experiments. Glutamine substitutions in two conserved glutamate residues, located within predicted transmembrane helices of Drosophila Orai and human Orai1, greatly diminish store-operated Ca2+ influx, and primary T cells ectopically expressing mutant E106Q and E190Q Orai1 proteins show reduced proliferation and cytokine secretion. Together, these data establish Orai1 as a predominant mediator of store-operated calcium entry, proliferation, and cytokine production in T cells.\n\n2007_J Bio Chem_Gwack.pdf Supplement.pdf\nRamanuj DasGupta, Kent Nybakken, Matthew Booker, Bernard Mathey-Prevot, Foster Gonsalves, Binita Changkakoty, and Norbert Perrimon. 2007. “A case study of the reproducibility of transcriptional reporter cell-based RNAi screens in Drosophila.” Genome Biol, 8, 9, Pp. R203.Abstract\n\nOff-target effects have been demonstrated to be a major source of false-positives in RNA interference (RNAi) high-throughput screens. In this study, we re-assess the previously published transcriptional reporter-based whole-genome RNAi screens for the Wingless and Hedgehog signaling pathways using second generation double-stranded RNA libraries. Furthermore, we investigate other factors that may influence the outcome of such screens, including cell-type specificity, robustness of reporters, and assay normalization, which determine the efficacy of RNAi-knockdown of target genes.\n\n\n\n2007_Nat Prot_Ramadan.pdf\n\n\n2007_PNAS_Lu.pdf Supplement.pdf\nEric J Wagner, Brandon D Burch, Ashley C Godfrey, Harmony R Salzler, Robert J Duronio, and William F Marzluff. 2007. “A genome-wide RNA interference screen reveals that variant histones are necessary for replication-dependent histone pre-mRNA processing.” Mol Cell, 28, 4, Pp. 692-9.Abstract\n\nMetazoan replication-dependent histone mRNAs are not polyadenylated and instead end in a conserved stem loop that is the cis element responsible for coordinate posttranscriptional regulation of these mRNAs. Using biochemical approaches, only a limited number of factors required for cleavage of histone pre-mRNA have been identified. We therefore performed a genome-wide RNA interference screen in Drosophila cells using a GFP reporter that is expressed only when histone pre-mRNA processing is disrupted. Four of the 24 genes identified encode proteins also necessary for cleavage/polyadenylation, indicating mechanistic conservation in formation of different mRNA 3' ends. We also unexpectedly identified the histone variants H2Av and H3.3A/B. In H2Av mutant cells, U7 snRNP remains active but fails to accumulate at the histone locus, suggesting there is a regulatory pathway that coordinates the production of variant and canonical histones that acts via localization of essential histone pre-mRNA processing factors.\n\n2007_Mol Cell_Wagner.pdf Supplement.pdf\n\n\n2007_J Cell Bio_Yi.pdf Supplemental Files.zip\nLan Xu, Xiaohao Yao, Xiaochu Chen, Peiyuan Lu, Biliang Zhang, and Tony Y Ip. 2007. “Msk is required for nuclear import of TGF-{beta}/BMP-activated Smads.” J Cell Biol, 178, 6, Pp. 981-94.Abstract\n\nNuclear translocation of Smad proteins is a critical step in signal transduction of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). Using nuclear accumulation of the Drosophila Smad Mothers against Decapentaplegic (Mad) as the readout, we carried out a whole-genome RNAi screening in Drosophila cells. The screen identified moleskin (msk) as important for the nuclear import of phosphorylated Mad. Genetic evidence in the developing eye imaginal discs also demonstrates the critical functions of msk in regulating phospho-Mad. Moreover, knockdown of importin 7 and 8 (Imp7 and 8), the mammalian orthologues of Msk, markedly impaired nuclear accumulation of Smad1 in response to BMP2 and of Smad2/3 in response to TGF-beta. Biochemical studies further suggest that Smads are novel nuclear import substrates of Imp7 and 8. We have thus identified new evolutionarily conserved proteins that are important in the signal transduction of TGF-beta and BMP into the nucleus.\n\n2007_J Cell Bio_Xu.pdf Supplement.pdf\nChris Bakal, John Aach, George Church, and Norbert Perrimon. 2007. “Quantitative morphological signatures define local signaling networks regulating cell morphology.” Science, 316, 5832, Pp. 1753-6.Abstract\n\nAlthough classical genetic and biochemical approaches have identified hundreds of proteins that function in the dynamic remodeling of cell shape in response to upstream signals, there is currently little systems-level understanding of the organization and composition of signaling networks that regulate cell morphology. We have developed quantitative morphological profiling methods to systematically investigate the role of individual genes in the regulation of cell morphology in a fast, robust, and cost-efficient manner. We analyzed a compendium of quantitative morphological signatures and described the existence of local signaling networks that act to regulate cell protrusion, adhesion, and tension.\n\n\n\n2007_PLOS Path_Derre.pdf Supplemental Files.zip", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8018520474433899}
+{"content": "Extraordinary gifts, unique challenges Williams Syndrome Self, Michelle A. 1963- editor. Coggshall, Vanessa editor. Roach, Tess 1974- editor. text biography miu 2014 monographic eng\nvi, 185 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm\nA collection of essays written by parents, family, and friends of children with Williams syndrome, telling in their own words of their challenges and triumphs, their heartaches and moments of bliss. In addition, nine adults with Williams syndrome give advice to younger people with the diagnosis, while reflecting on what their own parents did that helped them the most. Williams syndrome is a genetic condition affecting 1 in 10,000 people worldwide. It is caused by a spontaneous deletion of one pair of a few dozen genes on chromosome 7. Individuals with Williams syndrome often have severe cardiovascular issues, developmental delays, and difficulties living independently, but also, in general, have outgoing personalities, enormous empathy, and a strong affinity for music. PART I: THE BEGINNING. - 1. The diagnosis. - 2. Surgeries, medical issues and early intervention. - PART II: LIFE GOES ON - BEAUTIFULLY. - 3. Sports. - 4. Joys and victories. - 5. Gifts. - 6. Young adults. - 7. International perspectives. - PART III: REFLECTIONS FROM ADULTS WITH WILLLIAMS SYNDROME. edited by Michelle Self, Ph. D., Vanessa Coggshall, and Tess Roach. WILLIAMS SYNDROME PERSONAL NARRATIVES 9781499101089 WIVLS 160219 20160610094317.0 ocn940019958 eng", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "Set Your Intention\n\nOne of the things I love most about my yoga class happens before we even begin to move. You might think “it’s a yoga thing,” but it doesn’t have to be. Before we begin our workout, we set an intention. By “intention,” the teacher doesn’t necessarily mean you must box yourself into an “I intend to get better at…” statement…not at all. What she means is: Take a moment to acknowledge (or for some, discover) why you’re here.\n\nSound silly? Well, think about it next time you’re about to go out for a run, as you’re lacing up your sneakers. What’s your intention? Where did the desire/need for this run come from, and what do you hope to gain from the experience?\n\nMy workout becomes significantly more, well, significant after I set my intention. Some days I simply say a word of gratitude that my body is healthy and strong and allows me to do the hard work of Bikram yoga when there are plenty of people who wish they could do it, but for some reason can’t. Some days I extend that little secret wish to my family…health, happiness, peace for all! It’s a moment to say a little prayer. But very often these days, I find myself actually focusing on an intention, like “Use this practice to breathe and release the day and create more patience in my daily life.”\n\nPerhaps even more important than setting that intention is being reminded of it later in the session. Coming back around to it, and realizing that, hey! All those thoughts swirling around in my head when I came in, they really did leave my brain over that hour. And I do feel calmer and more in control. I believe in my intention. It comes with me when class is over, even when I’m no longer thinking about it consciously.\n\nSo my suggestion for you is this: Before you begin a workout, look at yourself in the mirror. That might be the hardest part for you, but that’s why you should do it. Ground yourself, recognize the “you” you see in front of you. Then let your eyes settle on your eyes, throat, chest, wherever, and set an intention. What motivates your workout today? You say, “I wanna lose weight, that’s all.” But is that really all? It’s a respect for yourself that’s driving you, is it not? Affirm those deeper voices that nudge you into your athletic shoes when you really feel like falling onto the couch. Dedicate your workout to someone or something. Make it more than a calorie-burning session. Because it is!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6795355677604675}
+{"content": "Welfare Reform - by Greg Gwin\n\nThere's lots of talk in the news about reforming our welfare system. It's clear that some dramatic changes need to be made. It is our hope that our legislators will include these godly principles as they consider this important matter:1) Provide nothing for those who refuse to work. \"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat\" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). We realize that there are some who cannot work due to physical handicaps, etc. But for those who are able yet refuse to work, God's will is that they receive no help from others.2) Re-establish the 'work ethic' - show that work is an honorable thing. \"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth\" (Ephesians 4:28). We've seen enough of the \"something-for-nothing\" attitude. It is \"good\" to work. It allows us to help ourselves and gives us the ability to help others who are deserving of our assistance.3) Teach people to take care of their own. \"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel\" (I Timothy 5:8). There are too many in our society who will not accept the responsibility of providing for their own family members. There are men who father children, but will not support them. There are parents who have more and more children without any hope of being able to supply their needs. There is an expectation that the government \"owes\" everyone something. People need to be taught that they have the primary responsibility of caring for their own.All of the terrible problems of our welfare system can be solved if we simply trust God's wisdom.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5506099462509155}
+{"content": "What Saves - A Faith That Will Work, Or A Faith That Is Working?\n\nI was asked recently by someone I was studying with - What saves, (1) faith that will work or (2) faith that is working? Though I obviously think the former is a very good thing, I answered that the latter is the correct answer. Let me provide some evidence for you to consider ...First notice Gal 5:6 - \"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.\" Doesn't that verse answer our question directly? Here is how the ESV translates that - \"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.\" So it is not just faith that avails (in regards to salvation); it is a faith that is working. Not only that, but it must be a working faith that has \"love\" as its motivation.Next consider an illustration. Here is Heb 11:30 \"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.\" Of course this is not talking about salvation, but notice how the Israelites' faith did not avail (in regard to war victory) until their faith worked.Thirdly notice Gal 3:26-27 which actually touches on our question as it specifically relates to baptism - \"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.\" Verse 26 is letting us know that our salvation is conditioned upon our faith. All certainly agree on that. But verse 27 pinpoints as to when we are saved by faith. As you know, the word \"For\" that begins verse 27 means \"to introduce the reason.\" So verse 27 is saying - the reason a person is a child of God by faith is because he has been baptized into Christ. See my point here? - it takes a faith that is working to become a child of God / get into Christ.Question: Didn't Saul have the kind of faith that would work when he said to Jesus in Acts 9:6 - \"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?\" Then why were his sins not washed away at that moment? You will remember that at least three days later, he was told to do something so that his sins would be washed away (Acts 22:16). So Paul was not saved when he first had the kind of faith that will work; instead Paul was saved when his faith did work.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5778730511665344}
+{"content": "Ventricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\n\nN° 0\n45-year-old man with right ventricular arrhythmogenic dysplasia; treatment by beta-blocker; 2 ablation procedures for a ventricular tachycardia originating from the pulmonary infundibulum; implantation of a dual-chamber defibrillator given the recurrence of tachycardias;\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\n\narrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia is an inherited disease characterized by the gradual replacement of the cardiac muscle cells by fibro-adipose tissue. Transmission is autosomal dominant with variable penetrance and expression by mutation of the genes encoding for desmosome proteins. Dysplasia predominantly affects men with a male to female ratio of 3:1 and is usually manifested in young subjects, the symptoms appearing most often before the age of 40 years. The replacement of the myocardium with fatty tissue and fibrosis can be widespread and extend to the left ventricle in advanced forms or be more localized at the apex or right ventricular infundibulum. The evolution of the disease varies from one individual to another, with some patients remaining totally asymptomatic or presenting only minor symptoms. Histological abnormalities can contribute to the development of ventricular rhythm disorders that can lead to palpitations, syncope or sudden death due to intense sports activity. This disease is frequently found in high-level athletes having suffered a sudden death and is the second cause (after hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) of sudden death in the young patient. One of the difficulties in the management of these patients is that the first observed clinical manifestation may be the occurrence of sudden death. When the disease evolves, symptoms related to a right and subsequently biventricular heart failure may appear.\n\nDiagnosis is based on the detection of a combination of major as well as minor clinical, ECG or morphological criteria. The aim of the evaluation is to confirm the diagnosis, to assess the risk of sudden death and to specify the extent of the disease.\n\nThe surface electrocardiogram plays a central role since some criteria are considered as major others as minor. It can reveal:\n\n- an epsilon wave which corresponds to the presence of a low amplitude electrical potential between the end of the QRS complex and the beginning of the T wave in the right precordial leads (V1-V3); this potential, a marker of delayed activation, is the most specific sign with however a moderate sensitivity, since observed in only 30% of patients; it is a major criterion for the diagnosis of dysplasia;\n\n- a reversal of the T waves in right-sided precordial leads (typically from V1 to V3); the inversion of the T waves in the precordium (sometimes up to V6) reflects the degree of extension of the disease (right ventricle and then left ventricle); this sign is relatively sensitive and observed in a majority of patients with dysplasia but not very specific since frequently observed in patients under 12 years of age and in certain healthy adults;\n\n- the presence of a complete or incomplete right bundle branch block or a parietal block defined by a widening of the QRS in right-sided precordial leads (V1-V3) relative to the left precordial leads (V4-V6) reflecting a localized conduction disorder;\n\n- the presence of isolated ventricular extrasystoles, in couplets/triplets, of nonsustained or sustained ventricular tachycardias with left delay and axis according to its point of origin: vertical if the arrhythmia originates in the infundibulum or the upper aspect of the septum, left if it originates on the diaphragmatic wall of the right ventricle; arrhythmias are frequently triggered by physical exertion; the presence of several morphologies is strongly suggestive of the presence of a heart disease;\n\nIn addition to the electrocardiogram, several supplementary exams are performed:\n\n  1. search for late potentials by a high amplification ECG showing the presence of localized delays in ventricular activation,\n  2. isoproterenol test to investigate the presence of a polymorphism,\n  3. MRI is currently the reference exam with the search of structural and functional abnormalities to confirm the diagnosis and to assess the extension of the disease; search for a dilated right ventricle, fibro-adipose infiltrates, akinetic or dyskinetic areas, ventricular aneurysms, segmental contraction abnormalities, ventricular dysfunction and left ventricular extension.\n\nTherapeutic management varies according to the severity of the disease. Severe cardiac arrhythmias occurring most often upon physical exertion, competitive sports are contraindicated. High dose beta-blockers are the reference medical treatment. Radiofrequency ablation can be proposed essentially in patients with episodes of recurrent ventricular tachycardia resistant to medical treatment. Patients most at risk of sudden death must undergo implantation of a defibrillator. Recognized risk factors are recovered sudden death, syncope, history of familial sudden death or recurring rhythm disorders despite well-monitored medical treatment.\n\nThe sinus rhythm electrocardiogram of a patient with arrhythmogenic dysplasia may reveal an epsilon wave (specific but not very sensitive sign), a reversal of T waves in right precordial leads, a complete or incomplete right bundle branch block, ventricular extrasystoles with left monomorphic or polymorphic delay.\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia\nVentricular tachycardia due to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.996312141418457}
+{"content": "Jasmin Lugo\n\n“Everybody wants a change, but so very few are willing to make it, but I am determined to model through my actions and words just what amazing things can happen when people help each other.”\n\nJasmin Lugo’s volunteer work began when she was an elementary school student in Peru. Now, as a graduate of Bulkeley High School, Jasmin has given back to the Hartford area. She has volunteered at the Hartford Marathon, tutored at Saturday School, and participated in American Red Cross blood drives and toy drives. Jasmin not only enjoys giving back, but also sees her volunteer work as a potential career path. She is interested in coordinating a non-profit organization that unites people so that they can work together to solve the problems of different communities. This dream, along with Jasmin’s quote above, prove her collaborative and caring spirit.     \n\nJasmin is also a very dedicated student. Graduating second in her class, Jasmin will be attending the University of Connecticut in the fall. She pays her education forward by teaching younger kids. Jasmin is in a teacher prep program where she learns techniques that teachers use in the classroom. She also worked with seventh grade students, making and implementing her own lesson plan in their classroom. Finally, Jasmin accomplished a goal of reading fifty books to a preschool classroom, despite the fact that English is not her first language.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9866694211959839}
+{"content": "Diabetes and Vaccines \n\nPeople living with diabetes are at increased risk of developing serious complications from vaccine-preventable diseases. These include influenza, pneumococcal disease, hepatitis B, shingles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. \n\nAADE has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to spread the word on the importance of vaccines for people living with diabetes. We encourage you to use the information below and the linked worksheet when talking to your healthcare provider.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999957263469696}
+{"content": "Is Iceland a continent?\n\nIs Iceland a continent?\n\nIceland is closer to continental Europe than to mainland North America; thus, the island is generally included in Europe for historical, political, cultural, and practical reasons. Geologically the island includes parts of both continental plates.\n\nWhere does a chicken nugget come from?\n\nThe chicken nugget was invented in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University, and published as unpatented academic work. Dr. Baker’s innovations made it possible to form chicken nuggets in any shape.\n\nHow was oxygen discovered?\n\nDiscovery of Oxygen. Oxygen was discovered in 1774 by Joseph Priestley in England and two years earlier, but unpublished, by Carl W. Scheele in Sweden. Scheele heated several compounds including potassium nitrate, manganese oxide, and mercury oxide and found they released a gas which enhanced combustion.\n\nWhen was Shakespeare’s first child born?\n\nWilliam and Anne Shakespeare had three children. Their first child was Susanna, born a mere six months after the wedding of her parents. She was christened on May 26, 1583, and twins arrived in January, 1585.\n\nWhat exactly is evaporated milk?\n\n\nHow many miles is it from Earth to Neptune?\n\nWhen Neptune and Earth line up on the same side of the sun, at their closest, they are only 2.7 billion miles (4.3 billon kilometers) apart. But when the planets are on opposite sides of the sun, they can put as many as 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) between them.\n\nHow old did the oldest Galapagos tortoise live to be?\n\nHarriet (c. 1830 – June 23, 2006) was a Galápagos tortoise (Geochelone nigra porteri) who had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death in Australia. Harriet is the third oldest tortoise, behind Tu’i Malila, who died in 1965 at the age of 188, and Adwaita, who died in 2006 at the estimated age of 255.\n\nWhen did Razzles candy come out?\n\nOriginally introduced in 1966, with an advertising slogan and jingle of, “First it’s a candy, then it’s a gum. Little round Razzles are so much fun.” The original flavor was raspberry. They were named after a fictional flavor, Razzleberry, that was planned but never panned out.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6369516849517822}
+{"content": "text.skipToContent text.skipToNavigation\n\nRoutledge Guidebook to Gramsci's Prison Notebooks von Schwarzmantel, John (eBook)\n\n  • Erscheinungsdatum: 17.12.2014\n  • Verlag: Taylor and Francis\neBook (PDF)\n55,09 €\ninkl. gesetzl. MwSt.\nSofort per Download lieferbar\n\nOnline verfügbar\n\nRoutledge Guidebook to Gramsci's Prison Notebooks\n\nGramsci's Prison Notebooks are one of the most important and original sources of modern political philosophy but the Prison Notebooks present great difficulties to the reader. Not originally intended for publication, their fragmentary character and their often cryptic language can mystify readers, leading to misinterpretation of the text. The Routledge Guidebook to Gramsci's Prison Notebooks provides readers with the historical background, textual analysis and other relevant information needed for a greater understanding and appreciation of this classic text. This guidebook:Explains the arguments presented by Gramsci in a clear and straightforward way, analysing the key concepts of the notebooks.Situates Gramsci's ideas in the context of his own time, and in the history of political thought demonstrating the innovation and originality of the Prison Notebooks. Provides critique and analysis of Gramsci's conceptualisation of politics and history (and culture in general), with reference to contemporary (i.e. present-day) examples where relevant. Examines the relevance of Gramsci in the modern world and discusses why his ideas have such resonance in academic discourseFeaturing historical and political examples to illustrate Gramsci's arguments, along with suggestions for further reading, this is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to engage more fully with The Prison Notebooks\n\n\n    Format: PDF\n    Kopierschutz: AdobeDRM\n    Erscheinungsdatum: 17.12.2014\n    Sprache: Englisch\n    ISBN: 9781317559221\n    Verlag: Taylor and Francis\nWeiterlesen weniger lesen", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8304287791252136}
+{"content": "Tourism Down: Trade Tensions Redirect China Travel\n\nTourism Down: Trade Tensions Redirect China Travel\n\nTourism Down\n\nTrade Tensions Redirect China Travel\n\nOn Tuesday June 4, China issued a travel advisory on the United States (US) amid the tension of trade war. The advisory warned citizens who planned to travel to the US, asking them to be cautious of police harassment and public order. Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported that China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism cited recent “frequent” shootings, robbery and theft in the US as the reason for its alert. Another state-run media, China Central Television reported that “Recently, U.S. law enforcement agencies have repeatedly harassed Chinese citizens visiting the United States through exit and entry inspections, door-to-door interviews and other means.” This came with the escalation of the US-China trade war after trade negotiations between them fell through in early May.\n\nChina has previously used its outbound tourists as “weapons”. In 2018, the total number of Chinese outbound tourists reached 162 million. Two years ago, in order to protest the decision of the South Korean government to deploy the US THAAD missile defense system, the Chinese government temporarily banned domestic tour groups from traveling to South Korea. This resulted in a 48% drop in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Korea in 2017.\n\nPotential influence on the U.S.\n\nThere is no clear indication that China will ban its citizens from going to the US, but given the growing hostility between the two countries, the number of Chinese tourists to the US is still likely to decline this year. With tourism a service export, the sharp drop in the number of Chinese tourists may cut billions of dollars from the US economy. According to the National Travel and Tourism Office, 3 million Chinese citizens visited the US in 2018, down from 3.2 million in 2017. This is the fifth largest group of foreign tourists to the US and their total consumption reached 36.4 billion US dollars. However, Chinese tourists still only accounted for less than 4% of the total number of visitors to the US last year. Therefore, some analysts believe that even if the number of Chinese tourists plummets, the US hospitality and airline industries will still perform well.\n\nOn the other hand, this may still cause losses to industries where Chinese tourists spend lots of money. Historical data shows that approximately 40% of the United States’ international students are Chinese, resulting in a flow of spending into the US education sector. In 2018, this expenditure was approximately $15 billion. International students are an important source of income for US universities, and they may be hit hard by a slowdown in Chinese citizens visiting the country.\n\nLuxury brands are another area that may be hurt. Chinese consumers, who contribute one-third of the global luxury consumption expenditure, may now direct their spending towards other global shopping cities such as Paris or Milan instead of New York. This will not be pleasant news major US companies including Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, and Tapestry. In fact, Tiffany & Co.’s US sales to Chinese tourists reportedly fell by more than 25% last quarter, a trend that will only worsen as the trade war continues between the two countries.\n\nPotential influence on Australia\n\nChinese tourists are Australia’s largest visitors. After peaking a year ago, the number of Chinese visitors has been slowing over the past nine months. According to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, there was a 3% decline in the number of Chinese bound for Australia in April. The figure declined 5% in March and 1% in February respectively. The situation is totally different in Cambodia with a 53% jump and in Indonesia with a 23% hike. Thus, the analysts commented that the flow of Chinese tourists to Australia has hit a wall because of the weaker economy and trade tensions with the U.S. More Chinese travelers are choosing to visit cheaper holiday spots in Asia.\n\nFollowing Beijing’s travel advisory on the U.S. in the last week, analysts warned that Australian tourism would be “vulnerable” in front of the Chinese government’s political action. Instead of previous bullish predictions, Chinese travel agents took a conservative forecast and will not increase the number of forward hotel bookings they make in Australia in 2019. At the same time, Australia’s Gambling industry has experienced a plummet in revenues as the trade tensions have taken a toll on the number of Chinese high-rollers visiting our gambling venues.\n\nThe tourism industry is an important contributor to the Australian economy. Unfortunately the US-China trade war has brought a negative impact on both sides and also on Australia, threatening to hurt our economy. It is important for Australia to avoid engaging in the political conflict which may worsen the situation.\n\nBy Steven Gao\n\nClick here for a one month free trial to our Lotus Blue Portal.\n\n5 (100%) 1 vote\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9710231423377991}
+{"content": "A Culture of Innovation\n\nInnovation can be iterative and lineal, as in re-engineering a product component or a work process. It can also be transformational, when entirely new technologies are discovered, such as life changing medical devices like the pacemaker, the Cochlear Implant, or the personal computer. Others come to mind, such as the automobile, or the internet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9551699161529541}
+{"content": "Genome-wide comparison of human keratinocyte and squamous cell carcinoma responses to UVB irradiation: implications for skin and epithelial cancer\n\nArticle metrics\n\n\nTo gain insight into the transformation of epidermal cells into squamous carcinoma cells (SCC), we compared the response to ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) of normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) versus their transformed counterpart, SCC, using biological and molecular profiling. DNA microarray analyses (Affymetrix®, 12 000 genes) indicated that the major group of upregulated genes in keratinocytes fall into three categories: (i) antiapoptotic and cell survival factors, including chemokines of the CXC/CC subfamilies (e.g. IL-8, GRO-1, -2, -3, SCYA20), growth factors (e.g. HB-EGF, CTGF, INSL-4), and proinflammatory mediators (e.g. COX-2, S100A9), (ii) DNA repair-related genes (e.g. GADD45, ERCC, BTG-1, Histones), and (iii) ECM proteases (MMP-1, -10). The major downregulated genes are ΔNp63 and PUMILIO, two potential markers for the maintenance of keratinocyte stem cells. NHEK were found to be more resistant than SCC to UVB-induced apoptosis and this resistance was mainly because of the protection from cell death by secreted survival factors, since it can be transferred from NHEK to SCC cultures by the conditioned medium. Whereas the response of keratinocytes to UVB involved regulation of key checkpoint genes (p53, MDM2, p21Cip1, ΔNp63), as well as antiapoptotic and DNA repair-related genes – no or little regulation of these genes was observed in SCC. The effect of UVB on NHEK and SCC resulted in upregulation of 251 and 127 genes, respectively, and downregulation of 322 genes in NHEK and 117 genes in SCC. To further analyse these changes, we used a novel unsupervised coupled two-way clustering method that allowed the identification of groups of genes that clearly partitioned keratinocytes from SCC, including a group of genes whose constitutive expression levels were similar before UVB. This allowed the identification of discriminating genes not otherwise revealed by simple static comparison in the absence of UVB irradiation. The implication of the changes in gene profile in keratinocytes for epithelial cancer is discussed.\n\n\nSkin is the largest organ in the body, whose outermost adult tissue is the epidermis. The epidermis is the stratified squamous epithelium composed primarily of keratinocytes and a few melanocytes. As the primary interface between the environment and the body, it has developed several defense mechanisms including protection against the harmful effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiations (280–320 nm) are the most energetic and DNA damaging rays of the UV solar spectrum that reach the surface of the earth (Cleaver and Crowley, 2002). The skin is the site of a large variety of malignant neoplasms, but basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), both derived from keratinocyte transformation, and melanomas, derived from melanocytes are by far the most frequent types of skin cancers. Incidence of human skin cancer has increased considerably worldwide over the last few decades (Gloster and Brodland, 1996) and exposure to UV radiation has been found to be the major etiological factor leading to the precancerous stage of actinic keratosis (AK) and to the induction and development of skin cancers (Soehnge et al., 1997; Armstrong and Kricker, 2001). Although BCC and SCC account for less than 0.1% of patient deaths because of cancer, they are the most common of all human malignancies (Cleaver and Crowley, 2002) and can serve as useful models for the development of other epithelial cancers.\n\nThe UV-induced skin carcinogenesis has been modelled as a multistage process: a UV-specific mutagenic event of a target gene (initiation) is followed by clonal expansion of damaged cells (promotion), progression into precancerous state and eventually to uncontrolled proliferation and invasion (Brash, 1997). However, potent antitumorigenic mechanisms are believed to act in opposition to the emergence of mutational events. Cancers prevail only when these mechanisms have failed (Evan and Vousden, 2001). In the epidermis, the prevention of cancer progression is thought to be mediated through correction of the mutations or, alternatively, elimination of the damaged cells by driving them toward apoptosis, senescence, or terminal differentiation. In this study, we describe the effects of UVB radiation on the gene expression profile of normal and transformed keratinocytes. Since we applied biologically relevant carcinogenic radiations to the appropriate target cell type, our in vitro results are relevant to the risk assessment in the carcinogenic process in vivo. Normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) were found to be more resistant than SCC to UVB-induced apoptosis, and this resistance is mainly because of the protection from cell death by secreted survival factors, which can be transferred from NHEK to SCC cultures. The evasion of apoptosis by keratinocytes in a DNA damaging context may potentially lead to undesirable effects by permitting the survival of residual mutant cells that accumulate mutations and may be the seeds for future cancer development.\n\nGlobal analysis of gene expression by means of microarrays has become an important tool to study a broad range of complex problems, in particular in cancer biology. Although recent studies have begun to explore genes whose expression in keratinocytes is regulated by low doses of UVB (Li et al., 2001; Sesto et al., 2002), many of the molecular events associated with transformation and metastatic tumor progression in human SCC remain unknown. In an attempt to gain insight into the transformation events associated with SCC, we used DNA microarrays and an advanced unsupervised clustering method, coupled two-way clustering (CTWC) (Getz et al., 2000), to compare the differential gene expression profiles of the two cell types, assuming that normal keratinocytes should differ from their tumoral counterparts not only in their constitutive (static) gene expression profiles, but also in their (dynamic) response to an oncogenic stimuli (UVB irradiation). We show that the major group of upregulated genes in keratinocytes are (i) chemokines of the CXC/CC subfamilies (e.g. IL-8, GRO-1, -2, -3, SCYA20), growth factors (e.g. HB-EGF, CTGF, Insulin-like 4), and proinflammatory mediators (e.g. COX-2, S100A9), also known as antiapoptotic and cell survival genes, (ii) DNA repair-related genes (e.g. GADD45, ERCC, BTG-1, Histones), and (iii) ECM proteases (MMP-1, -10). The major downregulated genes include ΔNp63 and PUMILIO, two potential markers for the maintenance of stem cells. Whereas the response of keratinocytes to UVB involved regulation of key checkpoint (p53, MDM2, p21Cip1, ΔNp63), antiapoptotic and DNA repair-related genes (see above), little or no regulation of these genes is observed in SCC. The implication of the changes in gene expression in keratinocytes for SCC and epithelial cancer in general is discussed.\n\nResults and discussion\n\nTime- and dose-dependent response of normal keratinocytes to UVB irradiation\n\nWe first assessed the effects of a single UVB exposure on normal keratinocytes (NHEK), on the basis of survival curves, cellular morphology, cell cycle analysis, and protein expression criteria. At the highest doses tested (800 J/m2), the proportion of surviving cells was 70%, and more than 84% of cells were alive at 400 J/m2, as observed 24 h following irradiation (Figure 1a). Cellular morphology of NHEK (Figure 1b) and sub-G1 DNA content analysis (Figure 1c) confirmed that virtually all keratinocytes irradiated at 200 J/m2 survive the UVB exposure. FACS analyses revealed no evident cell cycle arrest in NHEK at the UVB doses applied (Figure 1c). The time- and dose-dependent response of keratinocyte to UVB irradiation is well illustrated by the correlation of the level of cell death during 6–24 h postirradiation with the dose range of 200–800 J/m2 (Figures 1a–c). A similar correlation was found for the expression of ΔNp63, which is gradually downregulated between 6 and 24 h following irradiation or between doses of 200 and 800 J/m2 (Figure 1d). We chose a UVB dose of 400 J/m2 as the representative dose to analyse the overall molecular radiation response in keratinocytes. This dose is similar to the estimated UVB dose received in a single or chronic sunburn (Selgrade et al., 2001; Hanson and Clegg, 2002).\n\nFigure 1\n\nDose- and time-dependent effects of a single UVB irradiation on normal keratinocytes (NHEK). UVB irradiation (200, 400, or 800 J/m2) was applied once to NHEK cells, and assessed 6, 12, and 24 h postirradiation. (a) Effect of UVB irradiation on cell viability as determined by trypan blue uptake assay. Similar time and dose responses are circled together. (b) Cell culture morphologies (bar=50 μm). (c) Cell cycle analysis as determined by FACS histogram plots of DNA content. (d) Western blot analysis of MDM2, ΔNp63, and p53 protein expression. Uniform loading was confirmed by GAPDH internal control (50 μg/lane, 8% acrylamide gel)\n\nNormal keratinocytes are more resistant than SCC cells to UVB-induced apoptosis\n\nNHEK, when irradiated with a single dose of 400 J/m2 UVB, showed greater resistance to apoptosis than SCC12B2 (Figure 2a, top): 2–3-fold more SCC12B2 cells initiated apoptosis at any given time point following irradiation (Figure 2b left). This difference is even more pronounced (5–6-fold) when multiple low UVB doses (200 J/m2) were applied (Figures 2a down, 2b right). We also compared the protein expression levels of some apoptotic markers after a single 400 J/m2 irradiation. Activation of caspase-8, -9, and -3 along with their substrate proteolysis such as PARP are hallmarks of the mammalian apoptotic pathway (Green and Evan, 2002). A remarkable difference between SCC and NHEK was noticed, in particular for caspase-9 and PARP activation. SCC12B2 cells showed significant activation of these markers between 6 and 12 h postirradiation, whereas in NHEK, activation of these genes was barely detectable (Figure 2c). Taken together, these data are consistent with the higher resistance to apoptosis of NHEK as compared to SCC12B2 cells.\n\nFigure 2\n\nEffects of a single (400 J/m2) or multiple (200 J/m2) doses of UVB irradiation on NHEK and SCC12B2. (a) Cell culture morphologies (bar=50 μm), before (0 h) and after UVB irradiation (48 h). Upper panel: single irradiation (× 1), lower panel: multiple irradiations (× 3 or × 5). (b) Percent (%) of sub-G1 DNA content 48 h after a single (left side), or multiple (right side) UVB irradiations. Empty bars: NHEK, shaded bars: SCC12B2. (c) Western blot analysis of PARP and caspase cleavage. Both full-length and cleaved forms (p89) of PARP are shown. For caspases, only the low MW active forms of caspase-8 (p18), caspase-3 (p15/17 doublet), and caspase-9 (p37) are shown. TNFα-treated HaCaT (lanes 7 and 14) served as a positive control marking the MW of cleaved forms (arrows) subsequent to full cleavage in these cells (50 μg/lane, 15% acrylamide gel). (d) Western blot analysis of protein expression of cornifin, an epidermal terminal differentiation marker and of proliferation-related genes (ΔNp63, p53, p16Ink4a, MDM-2, p21Cip1). GAPDH was used as an internal control (50 μg/lane, 8% acrylamide gel)\n\nDifferential effects of UVB irradiation on ΔNp63, p53, p16Ink4a, and p53-regulated genes between NHEK and SCC\n\nKinetics of ΔNp63, p53, and p16Ink4a expression and expression of typical p53 target genes, for example, p21Cip1, and MDM2, were also compared at the protein level between NHEK and SCC12B2 cells after a single UVB dose of 400 J/m2. Despite the absence of regulation at the transcriptional level (our DNA chip results and (Li et al., 2001)), the p53 protein is rapidly stabilized after irradiation (3 h), as expected in response to a cellular stress (Michael and Oren, 2002), and is able to transactivate its two typical target genes, MDM2 (1.9-fold at 12 h) and p21Cip1 (fivefold at 24 h) (category 1, Table 1). We do not see significant increase in p16Ink4a RNA levels (Chazal et al., 2002), but there is an accumulation of the protein as early as 3 h and until 48 h postirradiation (Figure 2d). This pattern of expression parallels that of p53 and supports the paradigm that these two tumor suppressors are involved in the protective response to UVB and in the prevention of the progression from benign AK to SCC (Ziegler et al., 1994; Soufir et al., 1999). The p63 gene, a recently identified member of the p53 family, plays an essential role during mammalian development of epithelial tissues, including stratified squamous epithelia like the epidermis (Yang et al., 1999); however, in contrast to p53, this gene does not appear to be targeted by mutations in cancer. In keratinocytes, products of the p63 gene were found to be potential markers of progenitors or the so-called adult ‘stem cells’ (Parsa et al., 1999; Pellegrini et al., 2001). Furthermore, products of the p63 gene in keratinocytes, namely the ΔNp63 α, β, γ isoforms, were shown to act as p53 dominant-negative partners (Yang et al., 1998), able to counteract p53-dependent apoptosis in vivo (Liefer et al., 2000). Upon UVB irradiation, we observed a downregulation of these forms especially as of 24 h postirradiation, and a concomitant induction of the p53-target genes p21Cip1 and MDM2 (Figure 1d and Figure 2d), suggesting that the p53 transcriptional activity required for UVB-induced apoptosis may also be released at this time. Therefore, ΔNp63 may have an important role in the regulation of the response to UVB irradiation, as well.\n\nTable 1 Selected regulated genes in NHEK and SCC12B2 in response to UVB irradiation\n\nIn sharp contrast to NHEK, no regulation of the above genes was found in SCC12B2 cells (Figure 2d). It is of interest that p53 (mutated in SCC; Burns et al., 1993) as well as p21Cip1 show high expression at 0 h, and ΔNp63 remains at high level even at 48 h in SCC12B2 (Figure 2d). The total lack of regulation of these genes in SCC12B2 in response to UVB may reflect part of their transformed state.\n\nUVB-induced conditioned medium from NHEK can transfer protection from apoptosis\n\nTo further investigate why normal keratinocytes undergo substantially less apoptosis than their tumor counterparts, we tested whether this protection resulted from the presence of factors secreted into the media. When the culture medium of NHEK cultures was replaced with fresh medium every 6 h following irradiation at 400 J/m2, the resistance to apoptosis was reduced: a partial cleavage of PARP was detected and the sub-G1 DNA content was 19% as compared to 6% without change of medium (lanes 1 and 2, Figure 3a). However, when the same protocol was applied to SCC12B2 cells in culture, an inverse effect was observed, reflected by decreased sub-G1 DNA population (11% as compared to 21%) and reduced cleavage of PARP (lanes 3 and 4, Figure 3a). This effect was also reproducible at multiple daily UVB doses of 200 J/m2 (5 days for NHEK and 3 days for SCC12B2), although noticeably less apoptosis was observed overall in both cell types subjected to fractionated UVB irradiation (Figure 3b; compare also Figure 2b left to right). The morphology of the cell cultures also confirmed these observations (Figure 3b). Finally, to test whether the protection from apoptosis, or conversely the enhancement of apoptosis, could be transferred by the media, we switched the conditioned media from the two UV-irradiated cell cultures (NHEK or SCC12B2) upon renewing the culture medium. PARP cleavage in SCC12B2 cells is barely detectable when they were maintained in conditioned media from NHEK cells in contrast to the marked cleavage of PARP when they were exposed to their own conditioned media (lanes 3 and 4, Figure 3c). On the other hand, there is an elevation of PARP cleavage in NHEK cells when exposed to conditioned medium from SCC12B2 (lanes 1 and 2, Figure 3c). In line with these molecular changes, the sub-G1 DNA content of cells and morphology of the cells also confirm the enhancement or protection from apoptosis in the cell cultures (Figure 3c). These results indicate that the UVB-induced conditioned medium from NHEK cells can transfer the protection from apoptosis to SCC12B2 cells, and conversely, the UVB-induced medium from SCC12B2 can sensitize NHEK cells to apoptosis.\n\nFigure 3\n\nEffect of change of medium and of medium exchange between NHEK and SCC12B2 cells, after UVB irradiation. (a) Western blot analysis of PARP cleavage and sub-G1 DNA content 24 h following a single UVB irradiation (400 J/m2). NHEK (lanes 1 and 2) and SCC12B2 (lanes 3 and 4) with change of medium (lanes 1 and 3) or without (lanes 2 and 4). Sub-g1 DNA content in NHEK (left side) and SCC12B2 (right side). (b) Cell culture morphologies (bar=50 μm) and sub-G1 DNA content 48 h following multiple UVB irradiation (200 J/m2 × 5 or × 3). NHEK (left side pictures) and SCC12B2 (right side pictures) with change of medium (bottom pictures) or without (top pictures). Percent (%) of sub-G1 DNA content in NHEK (left side) and SCC12B2 (right side). (c) Effect of exchange of UV-conditioned medium on cell death. Western blot analysis of PARP cleavage percent (%) of sub-G1 DNA content and cell morphology (bar=50 μm, bottom panel) 48 h following a single UVB irradiation (400 J/m2). Upper panel: NHEK maintained in conditioned medium from NHEK (lane 1) or SCC12B2 (lane 2), SCC12B2 cells maintained in conditioned medium from NHEK (lane 3) or SCC12B2 (lane 4). TNFα-treated HaCaT (lane 5), positive control shown in parallel as described above\n\nDNA repair and apoptosis control are the major responses in the transcriptional program of normal keratinocytes to UVB irradiation\n\nIn an attempt to gain insight into changes in gene expression resulting from UVB, we performed DNA microarray analysis on RNA derived from cultures treated with UVB. We applied an arbitrary filter level of twofold change in the ratios of gene expression in at least two time points to identify UVB-modulated genes (Kannan et al., 2001). As a result, we came up with a list of 251 upregulated and 788 downregulated genes, representing approximately 18% of the ‘legal’ genes (approximately 1.5–2% of the human genome) and 10-fold more than that reported for a single transcription factor, for example, p53 (1.8% of genes; Zhao et al., 2000). For practical reasons, we downsized the downregulated list to those that showed a threefold change of expression and ended up with a list of 322 UV-regulated genes in NHEK (Figure 4a). Similarly, a list of 127 upregulated and 117 downregulated genes was drawn for SCC cells (Figure 4a). Table 1 depicts selected genes of interest as they appear in the full lists (Tables 2 and 3, online supplemental data). Scatter plot of changes of expression of the genes modulated in NHEK (573) and SCC (244) confirmed the choice of the thresholds used, since in control cells, gene expression remained contained between the twofold and threefold borderlines when measured in the absence of UVB irradiation at 0 and 24 h (Figure 4b). UVB irradiation rapidly induces two predominant types of specific DNA damage, namely pyrimidine dimers and [6–4] pyrimidine-pyrimidinone photoproducts (Pfeiffer, 1997). These lesions induce upregulation of DNA repair genes, mainly from the nucleotide excision repair (NER) machinery (Sage et al., 1996). In our list, several genes related to DNA repair are upregulated, including, the endonuclease ERCC1, the helicase ERCC2, and the pleiotropic genes GADD45A, GADD45B, TOB1, and BTG1 (category 3, Table 1). Interestingly, numerous histones, including H1, H2A isoforms, and H2B are also upregulated (category 12, Table 1). Recently, Martini et al. (2002) suggested a specific role of histone H2B in UV-induced DNA repair processes in yeast, and cells from mice lacking H2AX exhibit impaired recruitment of specific DNA repair complexes to IR-induced nuclear foci (Bassing et al., 2002; Celeste et al., 2002). Therefore histones appear to be critical for facilitating the assembly of specific DNA-repair complexes on damaged DNA, although how an increase in specific histone synthesis may support this process is still not understood. Altogether, these effects indicate the important role of DNA repair in UV-induced carcinogenesis, since unrepaired UV-induced lesions will result in mutagenesis, and the amount of unrepaired lesions depends on the interplay between the repair rate and the time available for DNA repair within the cell cycle (Greinert et al., 2000). Further evidence for the importance of DNA repair processes in the induction of skin cancer stems from the DNA repair disorders Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), Cokayne Syndrome (CS), and Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) (Cleaver and Crowley, 2002).\n\nFigure 4\n\nChange of gene expression in NHEK and SCC12B2 cells following a single dose (400 J/m2) of UVB irradiation. (a) Venn diagram showing the number of up and downregulated genes in NHEK and SCC using a filter of twofold up- and threefold downregulation in at least two time points. (b) Scatter plot of changes of expression of monitored genes in NHEK and SCC cells. Left panel: changes of gene expression in NHEK between sham-irradiated controls. Middle panel: changes of gene expression in NHEK between control 0 h (sham irradiated) and 24 h following UVB irradiation. Right panel: changes of gene expression in SCC12B2 between control 0 h (sham irradiated) and 12 h post UVB irradiation\n\nDNA damage signals to both DNA repair and apoptotic systems. Our results show that UVB simultaneously induces the expression of several pro and antiapoptotic genes in keratinocytes (category 2, Table 1). However, apart from the proapoptotic genes CRADD, TSSC3, and APR (NOXA), other notable proapoptotic genes, for example, TNFα, BAX, BAK, BID, and PUMA remained unchanged (category 2, Table 1). In contrast, there is a sustained (ΔNp63) or increased (BCL-2, TNFAIP3, IER3, API5L1) expression of antiapoptotic genes (categories 9, 2, Table 1). Moreover, two heat shock proteins (HSP70 and HSP90) are also induced as early as 0.5 h (category 2, Table 1) following irradiation. These HSPs are inducible by UVB irradiation in NHEK in vivo, and are known to protect cells from apoptosis induced by various stimuli including UVB. In addition, the downregulation of c-Myc and E2F can be considered antiapoptotic (category 11, Table 1).\n\nIn addition to the above genes, keratinocytes also express upon UVB stress a wide variety of cytokines and secreted factors. Particularly noticeable is the marked upregulation of chemokines of the CXC/CC subfamilies (IL-8 (>71-fold), SCYA20 (21-fold), GRO-1 (3.2-fold), GRO-2 (sixfold), GRO-3 (7.9-fold)), as well as HB-EGF (10-fold), IL-6 (3.7-fold), CTGF (9.3-fold), CYR61 (3.6-fold), and INSL4 (26-fold) a growth factor of the IGF family (category 6, Table 1). These secreted factors support cell growth and are known as survival factors (Lotem et al., 1999), which is consistent with the protective effect of the conditioned medium against UVB-induced apoptosis reported in this study (Figure 3). Of note, 10 out of the 14 upregulated genes in category 6 have a role in inflammation (labeled ‘+’ in category 6, Table 1). Besides the aforementioned chemokines, these include the cyclooxygenase COX-2 (24-fold) and S100A9 (sixfold). Consistent with these findings, upon UVB stress, keratinocytes are known to produce numerous cytokines and inflammatory mediators involved in acute phase and immunologic reactions (Garssen and van Loveren, 2001). In the UV inflammatory signaling pathway, IL-1β, TNFα, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are induced. In response to these specific inflammatory stimuli, the transcription factors NF-kB, JunD/c-fos, and p53 are subsequently activated (Chung et al., 2001; Xie, 2001). In turn, NF-kB induces target genes such as IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, GRO-1, TNFα, COX-2 (Loukinova et al., 2001; Xie, 2001; Karin et al., 2002). Similarly, p53 transactivates HB-EGF a newly discovered p53-target gene protecting cells against H2O2-induced apoptosis (Fang et al., 2001). Furthermore, COX-2 expression was recently shown to result from the p53-mediated activation of the HB-EGF->Ras/Raf/MAPK->COX-2 pathway, thereby counteracting p53- or genotoxic stress-induced apoptosis (Han et al., 2002). Other studies have shown that COX-2 itself is in the survival pathway of NF-kB (Brune and von Knethen, 2002) and contributes significantly to the tumorigenic potential of epithelial cells by increasing adhesion to ECM and inducing the expression of the survival genes BCL-2 (3.6-fold, Table 1) and AKT (Tsujii and DuBois, 1995).\n\nCollectively, our results provide indications of a protective response in normal keratinocytes against apoptosis, consistent with the relative resistance to cell death described in NHEK cells (Figure 1-3). Clearly, the balance between the pro- and antiapoptotic genes determines the cell fate, and this is probably linked to the success of DNA damage repair. In support of this notion, Decraene et al. (2002) recently proposed that in normal keratinocytes the onset of UVB-induced apoptosis following UVB irradiation is delayed by specific growth factors, providing more time for the repair of UV-specific DNA damage.\n\nUVB irradiation also increased the levels of ornithine decarboxylase (ODCI) (3.5-fold, category 1, Table 1), another stress-related protein, which plays an important role in both normal cellular proliferation and growth of tumors, with a particular incidence in human skin photocarcinogenesis (Ahmad et al., 2001). In the inflammatory response, IL-8 was also shown to induce the release of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) from target inflammatory competent cells, thereby enabling vascular permeability and facilitating release of other mediators of inflammation (e.g. prostaglandins). In line with this finding, our data show an increase in MMP-10 (4.5-fold), MMP-1 (3.3-fold), TRYPSIN-4 (sevenfold) (category 5, Table 1); these secreted factors are also potent promoters of tumor invasiveness and metastasis. In support of the notion that inflammation-related factors may be associated with cancer, inflammatory cells in conjunction with released metalloproteinases can promote tumor development, as shown by studies on skin tumorigenesis in mice lacking mast cells and MMP-9 (Coussens et al., 1999). Collectively, there are compelling data suggesting a causal connection between inflammatory stimuli and cancer (reviewed in Coussens and Werb, 2002; Richmond, 2002). Finally, there is a striking downregulations of PUMILIO-1 (−23-fold) and p63 (−18-fold) transcripts upon UVB irradiation (category 9, Table 1); two developmental genes, believed to be required for the maintenance of stem cells in vivo and in vitro (see above refs and Wickens et al., 2002).\n\nCluster analysis\n\nClustering DNA chip data by means of the SPC algorithm (Blatt et al., 1996) is an unsupervised approach that aims at finding groups of genes with similar expression profiles (Kannan et al., 2001). Applying this method to the 573 genes identified in NHEK (Figure 4a) revealed a clear-cut partitioning/distinction between up- and downregulated ones (Figure 5a). We identified on the dendrogram six major stable clusters of genes: one large cluster (G6, of 153 genes) containing downregulated genes, and five that contain upregulated ones (clusters G1–G5, Figures 5a and b). Figure 5c shows the time courses of the average expression profiles of the genes in each of the clusters G1–G6, demonstrating their different patterns of gene activation. To visualize how certain genes that belong to a particular biological function are distributed among the clusters, we colored each cluster according to the proportion of genes belonging to functional category 6, which includes proinflammatory mediators (labeled ‘+’, Table 1) and chemokines of the CXC/CC subfamilies. In addition, we marked the genes of category 6 by red crosses (Figure 5a). Six out of the 31 genes of cluster G2 are of category 6 (20% purity), four of these (IL-8, GRO-2, GRO-3, and SCYA20) are members of the CXC/CC subfamilies (30% efficiency of the CXC/CC subfamilies). Interestingly, among the genes that cluster together in G2, two are major transcription factors of IL-8 (JUNB and JUND) (Table 1 and Figure 5a), and five are DNA repair-related genes (GADD45A, TOB1, H2AA, H2BC, H2BQ), suggesting that these functions may act in concert in the cellular response to UVB radiation.\n\nFigure 5\n\nClustering results of the 573 UVB-regulated genes in NHEK using the super paramagnetic clustering (SPC) algorithm. (a) Dendrogram showing clusters of genes with four or more members. Six stable clusters of genes (G1–G6) could be identified. Each cluster is represented by a box colored according to the proportion (left colorbar) of genes belonging to functional category 6 (Tables 1 and 2, ‘cytokines and growth factors’). The distribution of these cytokines and growth factors genes (cluster G2 and red crosses), and that of chemokine genes of the CXC/CC subfamilies (blue crosses) is shown at the right. (b) Expression matrix of the up-(red) and down-(blue) UVB regulated genes (right colorbar). Centered and normalized log2 signals of the five time points post irradiation are shown (c). Average time course expression profiles of the genes in clusters G1–G6\n\nComparison of the transcriptional profiles of SCC and NHEK after UVB irradiation: CTWC analysis\n\nIntersects of lists of genes, as visualized by Venn diagrams (Figure 4a), showed that 29 out of the 127 upregulated genes in SCC (23%) are common with NHEK, and 54 out of the 117 downregulated genes in SCC (46%) are in common with NHEK. This indicates high level of similarity in the response to UVB of both cell types, reflecting their common origin. However, although the transcriptional response of genes in NHEK and SCC appears complex in that many functional categories of genes contain both up- and downregulated genes (Tables 2 and 3), different patterns of activation and repression emerge for NHEK and SCC. In the transcriptional profile of genes involved in the regulation of apoptosis, TNFα, a major player in UVB-induced apoptosis, is more highly activated in SCC (>10-fold at two time points) than in NHEK (2.2-fold at one time point only, category 2, Table 1). Furthermore, most of the antiapoptotic genes found upregulated in NHEK (BCL-2 (3.6-fold), API5L1 (4.0-fold), IER3 (5.4-fold), TNFAIP3 (6.8-fold) category 2, Table 1), are not regulated or are downregulated in SCC (category 2, Table 1), and the antiapoptotic genes MCL1 and BAG5 are found downregulated in SCC cells only (−8.9- and −5.7-fold, respectively, category 2, Table 1). Furthermore, in the variety of cytokines and growth factors induced in normal cells upon UVB irradiation, little or no induction of these genes is observed in SCC (category 6, Table 1). The relatively limited inflammatory response and induction of ECM proteases in SCC (categories 6 and 5, Table 1) as compared to NHEK may reflect their transformed state. Finally, in contrast to NHEK, DNA repair-related proteins are induced to a much smaller extent in SCC cells after UVB (categories 3 and 12, Table 1), suggesting some deficiency in the DNA repair machinery in these cells, and consequently that SCC are more prone to accumulation of mutations.\n\nNext, we used the unsupervised CTWC method to detect gene clusters, which distinguish best between NHEK and SCC samples or between before and after UVB irradiation samples. CTWC is an iterative unsupervised procedure, which uses the SPC method as its clustering engine and is designed to mine gene expression data. The algorithm identifies subsets of genes and samples such that when one of these is used to cluster the other, stable and significant partitions emerge. The method allows for the detection of small subsets of genes that partition between the samples and thereby identifies small number of key genes which may play a role in a particular biological process. This procedure avoids the ‘noise’ introduced by other genes which may mask the signal of the important players (Getz et al., 2000). We first selected from the combined NHEK and SCC data set 1269 genes (see the Materials and methods section). The first iteration of CTWC, denoted G1(S1), clustered all these genes on the basis of all samples, and this operation identified 33 stable gene clusters. Here, we focused on four of these gene clusters showing the most interesting and significant partitions of samples (Figure 6).\n\nFigure 6\n\nCoupled two-way clustering (CTWC) results showing partitions of genes and samples between NHEK and SCC. Each stable cluster identified by the CTWC method contains genes and samples reordered in an unsupervised coupled two way manner. Circled genes are discussed in the ‘Results and discussion’ section. (a) Genes downregulated in NHEK, but showing high expression and no response to UVB in SCC. (b) Genes that are UVB-responsive in normal keratinocyte cells only. (c) Genes that are upregulated in both cell types in response to UVB. P-values of the statistical significance associated to each gene were determined by comparing, in a permutation test, the expression levels following irradiation in NHEK versus SCC (genes highlighted in different colors according to their statistical significance). (d) Genes with low expression and no response to UVB in SCC, but high expression and moderate response to UVB in NHEK\n\nCluster G24 contains 31 genes (Figure 6d) that separate the SCC from NHEK, since their expression levels are moderate in NHEK, but increase after UVB irradiation. In contrast, in SCC these genes remained low and nonresponsive to UVB. Of note, this cluster includes S100A9, IL-IR L1, TRYPSIN-4, and MUCIN-1 (Figure 6), the latter being a notable tumor-associated antigen in breast cancer, and believed to play a role in tumor progression and metastasis (Xing et al., 2001).\n\nCluster G18 contains five genes (Figure 6a) that are UVB-downregulated in NHEK, whereas in SCC they exhibit constitutive high expression and are nonresponsive to UVB. Of note, this gene cluster contains two proapoptotic genes: PARP (Chiarugi and Moskowitz, 2002) and the cellular apoptosis susceptibility gene (CAS)(Brinkmann et al., 1996), supporting our biological observations that SCC are more sensitive to apoptosis.\n\nCluster G21 contains seven genes (Figure 6b) that show low expression levels in SCC and are nonresponsive to UVB exposure. In contrast, they show a moderate to high induction in NHEK in response to UVB. This cluster contains the metalloproteinases MMP1 and MMP10 that mediate tumor invasiveness, enable vascular permeability, and facilitate the release of other mediators of inflammation (Singh et al., 1999).\n\nCluster G28 contains 22 genes (Figure 6c) that are constitutively expressed at low levels in both SCC and NHEK before UVB, but are differentially upregulated after UVB exposure. Overall, this gene cluster is rich in genes of category 6, and to a lesser extent, in DNA repair-related genes (categories 3 and 12, Figure 6c). UVB exposure revealed for a number of genes of this category a significant difference in gene expression profile between NHEK and SCC. This holds in particular for GADD45B, the histone H2BC, the CC chemokine SCYA20, the growth factor insulin-like-4 (INSL4), and the gene coding for the Interacting Protein A of the Hepatitis δ Antigen (DIPA) (Figure 6c).\n\nConclusion and significance\n\nIn summary, the transcriptional program of normal keratinocyte cells after intermediate UVB doses involves (i) expression of immediate-early transcription factors of the stress response, (ii) transcriptional activation of genes, which are characteristic of an inflammatory response, (iii) maintenance of cell proliferation, (iv) activation of the DNA repair genes, and (v) expression of cell survival factors. The reduction in apoptosis in a DNA damaging context may potentially lead to undesirable effect by increasing the number of living/surviving cells bearing DNA damage and mutations, which may later on become transformed (Green and Evan, 2002; Ziegler et al., 1994). The scheme shown in Figure 7 summarizes this information.\n\nFigure 7\n\nModel for the UV-induction of SCC. Schematic representation of the major pathways leading to SCC in response to UV irradiation\n\nThe CTWC method identified four stable clusters of genes that partitioned/separated normal keratinocytes (NHEK) from their tumor counterparts (SCC). These genes may be related to the carcinogenic pathway of SCC. Of note, the exposure to UVB resulted in different changes in gene expression in the two cell types, whereas their constitutive expression patterns were similar before UVB. This allowed us to identify discriminating genes that could otherwise not be revealed by simple comparison between normal and tumor samples in the absence of UVB irradiation (e.g. genes of cluster G28, where higher upregulation in NHEK is noticed). These differences in the response to UVB suggest their main cause stems from the transcription activation of these genes. We favor the possibility that tumorigenesis of SCC includes significant epigenetic effects that may be because of modifications (e.g. methylation) of promoter regions. In support of this possibility, several examples of gene inactivation in cancer were shown to be because of promoter methylation (e.g. APAF-1, p16Ink4a, COX-2, Fas), which is extremely effective in maintaining the cancerous state.\n\nThe response of keratinocytes to the carcinogenic effect of UVB may explain the development of skin carcinoma. Furthermore, some of the genes involved, for example, IL-8, GRO-1, GRO-3, COX-2, and MMPs were found to be upregulated and to promote tumor growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis also in colorectal carcinomas (our unpublished data and Buckman et al., 1998; Loukinova et al., 2001; Notterman et al., 2001), and recent reviews emphasized the importance of COX-2 as a potential target for colorectal cancer prevention (Gupta and Dubois, 2001; Turini and DuBois, 2002). Hence, the analysis of the effect of UVB on keratinocytes may serve as a model for the development of epithelial cancer in general.\n\nMaterials and methods\n\nIsolation of NHEK and cell cultures\n\nEstablishment of primary cultures and cell maintenance was performed as previously described (Dazard et al., 2000). Keratinocytes were freshly isolated from neonatal foreskin specimens derived from a normal human Caucasian. To allow proliferation without favoring differentiation, passages 2–3 of NHEK were maintained in FAD medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and cocultured in the presence of mitomycin C-treated-feeder cells originating from the mouse fibroblast J2-3T3 cell line. The p53-mutant SCC12B2 cell line is derived from a human facial SCC, and the HaCaT cell line originates from a spontaneous immortalization of a human keratinocyte culture. All the cell lines were maintained in DMEM, supplemented with 10% FBS, except for the J2-3T3 cell line that was grown with 10% donor calf serum (DCS). Cell viability was determined by the trypan-blue exclusion test. Cell culture images were obtained on an ECLIPSE TE200 inverted microscope (NIKON®) equipped with a × 20 objective and a COOLPIX 990 digital camera (NIKON®) interfaced to a PC computer. Images were further processed using AdobePhotoshop® software. Conditioned media were collected from cell cultures 48 h postirradiation and stored at −80°C until use. Media were added to the target cells immediately after UVB irradiation and renewed every 6 h for 48 h following irradiation.\n\nFlow cytometry\n\nFloating cells were collected and pooled with trypsinized cells. Fixation and staining were performed as previously described (Dazard et al., 2000). All cells were resuspended and filtered through a 70 μm mesh prior to analysis by flow cytometry on a Becton Dickinson FACScan®. For each sample, 10 000 events were gated and acquired in list mode.\n\nUVB irradiation\n\nUVB irradiation was performed on 80–90% confluent cultures. Cells were rinsed twice with prewarmed PBS at 37°C, then directly irradiated under a thin film of PBS- to avoid drying of cultures; the cells' own medium was restored after irradiation. The UVB source was a TFX-20 M, 6 × 15 W fluorescent lamp (Vilbert Lourmat, France) with an emission peak at 312 nm. The UV wavelengths shorter than 290 nm (UVC) were eliminated using a cellulose acetate cutoff filter (Kodacel®, Kodak, France). The UVB flux, measured by means of a dosimeter (HD9021, Delta Ohm, Italy), was 0.312 mW/cm2 at 19 cm from the source. Cells were either subjected to a single UVB exposure at doses ranging from 200 to 800 J/m2, or to multiple daily doses of 200 J/m2 for three (SCC12B2) or five (NHEK) consecutive days. Assays were performed at the indicated times following irradiation.\n\nTNFα-induced apoptosis\n\nConfluent HaCaT cultures were treated with TNFα (20 ng/ml) combined with actinomycin D (2 μg/ml) (Sigma, St Louis, MO, USA) for 12 h, after which time, adherent and floating cells were pooled and lysed for total protein extraction.\n\nAntibodies and immunoblot analysis\n\nFor immunoblot detection, the following Abs were used: a mixture of monoclonal p53 Abs DO1 and 1801 (gift of M Oren); a mixture of monoclonal MDM2 Abs 4B2 and 2A9 (gift of M Oren); monoclonal p63 Ab 4A4; polyclonal p21Cip1 Ab C19 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, CA, USA); polyclonal p16Ink4a Ab C20 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, CA, USA); monoclonal GAPDH Ab MAB374 (CHEMICON, Temecula, CA, USA); polyclonal PARP Ab (gift of G de Murcia); polyclonal caspase-3 Ab H277 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, CA, USA); monoclonal caspase-8 Ab 1C12 (Cell Signaling, Beverly, MA, USA); monoclonal caspase-9 Ab 96-2-22 (Upstate Biotechnology, Lake Placid, NY, USA); monoclonal involucrin Ab SY5 (Novocastra, Newcastle, England); polyclonal cornifin Ab (gift of A Jetten). Total cell lysates, protein resolution by PAGE, transfer on nitrocellulose membrane (Bio-Rad), and immunoblotting were performed as previously described (Dazard et al., 2000). Detection was performed using the Western blotting-enhanced chemiluminescence substrate (ECL+plus, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Buckinghamshire, England) following the supplier's protocol.\n\nRNA extraction, microarray hybridization and analysis\n\nRNA was extracted by standard methods. Cells were lysed directly in their Petri dishes in TRIzol reagent (Gibco Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and total RNA was isolated according to the manufacturer's instructions. cRNA preparation and microarray hybridization were carried out according to the supplier (Affymetrix®, Santa Clara, CA, USA), using Genechip® HG-U95Av2. Scanned output files were analysed by the probe level analysis package, Microarray Suite MAS 5.0 (Affymetrix®, Santa Clara, CA, USA). Only genes that were ‘Present’ in the ‘Present/Absent’ call provided by the Affymetrix® program in at least one time point were selected and further referred to as ‘legal’ (i.e. significantly expressed). 5818 ‘legal’ genes were selected for further analyses. The signal for each of these genes was determined from the ‘probeset’ in use for this gene and by the probe level analysis method provided by the Affymetrix® software; if lower than 30, it was adjusted to 30. The control for NHEK was the average of the four control time points (0, 0.5, 12, and 24 h). Genes were classified into 14 functional categories according to the annotations provided by the Gene OntologyTM consortium ( and GeneCardsTM database (\n\nSuper-paramagnetic clustering analysis\n\nClustering analysis was carried out using the unsupervised Super paramagnetic clustering (SPC) algorithm (Blatt et al., 1996). The selected data set consisted of up- and downregulated genes that met our criteria for change of expression, at six experimental time points (0, 0.5, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h). The resulting data set is an expression matrix A in which each row i (i=1, 2, …, 573) represents a gene vector, each column j (j=1,…,6), a time point over the time course experiment (sample vector) and where each element Aij of A, is the log2 transformed signal of the gene i, measured at time point j. Before clustering, each gene vector was centered and normalized, such that the mean of its components was set to 0, and the sum of squares to 1. The resulting expression matrix was denoted B. Next, from each component Cij of the reordered expression matrix, denoted C after clustering, the first component Cij was subtracted, such that each gene vector starts with a zero value in its first component, corresponding to time point 0 h. The 0 h column was then removed (Figure 5b).\n\nThe clustering algorithm measures the distance between the genes, using the regular Euclidean distance between their normalized values. Genes with similar time course expression profiles are represented by two nearby vectors and are placed in the same cluster. Stable clusters are defined and identified as described elsewhere ( The properties of ‘purity’ and ‘efficiency’, used further in gene cluster analysis, refer to the fraction of genes of this cluster, which belong to a given group of interest, and to the fraction of genes of the given group, which belong to the considered cluster.\n\nCTWC analysis\n\nCTWC (Getz et al., 2000; analysis was performed on the DNA chip data sets taken from all samples of both NHEK and SCC gene expression experiments. Data sets were merged to generate a complete gene expression matrix. Values less than 30 were rescaled to 30 and log2 transformed. Only genes with a standard deviation (of the transformed data) greater than one were selected, and then centered and normalized as described above. This yielded an expression matrix of 1269 genes by 12 samples. As for the choice of the optimal K-nearest neighbors parameter for the clustering algorithm, default parameters for the genes (K=12) and for the samples (K=4) were chosen. The data were first clustered in two ways; the first operation, denoted G1(S1), clustered all the genes on the basis of their expression levels over all S1 samples. The complementary operation, denoted S1(G1), clusters all the samples on the basis of their expression levels over all G1 genes. The method identifies all stable clusters of either genes (or samples). It then scans through all stable clusters of genes (or samples), one by one and uses each of them to cluster all the S1 samples (or G1 genes) and thereby to identify stable clusters of samples (or genes).\n\n\n\nnormal human epidermal keratinocyte\n\n\nsquamous cell carcinoma\n\n\nultraviolet B\n\n\nnucleotide excision repair\n\n\ncoupled two-way clustering\n\n\nsuper paramagnetic clustering\n\n\n  1. Ahmad N, Gilliam AC, Katiyar SK, O'Brien TG and Mukhtar H . (2001). Am. J. Pathol., 159, 885–892.\n\n  2. Armstrong BK and Kricker A . (2001). J. Photochem. Photobiol. B, 63, 8–18.\n\n  3. Bassing CH, Chua KF, Sekiguchi J, Suh H, Whitlow SR, Fleming JC, Monroe BC, Ciccone DN, Yan C, Vlasakova, Livingston DM, Ferguson DO, Scully R and Alt FW . (2002). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99, 8173–8178.\n\n  4. Blatt M, Wiseman S and Domany E . (1996). Phys. Rev. Lett., 76, 3251–3254.\n\n  5. Brash DE . (1997). Trends Genet., 13, 410–414.\n\n  6. 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Selgrade MK, Smith MV, Oberhelman-Bragg LJ, LeVee GJ, Koren HS and Cooper KD . (2001). Photochem. Photobiol., 74, 88–95.\n\n  44. Sesto A, Navarro M, Burslem F and Jorcano JL . (2002). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99, 2965–2970.\n\n  45. Singh RK, Varney ML, Bucana CD and Johansson SL . (1999). Melanoma Res., 9, 383–387.\n\n  46. Soehnge H, Ouhtit A and Ananthaswamy ON . (1997). Front. Biosci., 2, D538–D551.\n\n  47. Soufir N, Moles JP, Vilmer C, Moch C, Verola O, Rivet J, Tesniere A, Dubertret L and Basset-Seguin N . (1999). Oncogene, 18, 5477–5481.\n\n  48. Tsujii M and DuBois RN . (1995). Cell, 83, 493–501.\n\n  49. Turini ME and DuBois RN . (2002). Annu. Rev. Med., 53, 35–57.\n\n  50. Wickens M, Bernstein DS, Kimble J and Parker R . (2002). Trends Genet., 18, 150–157.\n\n  51. Xie K . (2001). Cytokine Growth Factor Rev., 12, 375–391.\n\n  52. Xing PX, Apostolopoulos V, Pietersz G and McKenzie IF . (2001). Front. Biosci., 6, D1284–D1295.\n\n  53. Yang A, Kaghad M, Wang Y, Gillett E, Fleming MD, Dotsch V, Andrews NC, Caput D and McKeon F . (1998). Mol. Cell, 305–316.\n\n  54. Yang A, Schweitzer R, Sun D, Kaghad M, Walker N, Bronson RT, Tabin C, Sharpe A, Caput D, Crum C and McKeon I . (1999). Nature, 398, 714–718.\n\n  55. Zhao R, Gish K, Murphy M, Yin Y, Notterman D, Hoffman WH, Tom E, Mack DH and Levine AJ . (2000). Genes Dev., 1, 981–993.\n\n  56. Ziegler A, Jonason AS, Leffell DJ, Simon JA, Sharma HW, Kimmelman J, Remington L, Jacks T and Brash DE . (1994). Nature, 372, 773–776.\n\nDownload references\n\n\nWe are grateful to the family of Arison Dorsman for their donation to the Center for DNA Chips in the Pediatric Oncology Department, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Aviv. This study was supported in part by the Yad Abraham Research Center for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy, and grants from the Irwin Green Alzheimer's Research Fund, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the Germany–Israel Science Foundation (GIF). We thank M Oren for monoclonal antibodies against p53 and MDM2, A Jetten for the polyclonal antibody against Cornifin, G de Murcia for the polyclonal antibody against PARP, and N Fusenig for HaCaT cells.\n\nAuthor information\n\nCorrespondence to David Givol.\n\nRights and permissions\n\nReprints and Permissions\n\nAbout this article\n\n\n  • microarray\n  • clustering\n  • epidermis\n  • apoptosis\n  • chemokines\n\nFurther reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6349231004714966}
+{"content": "Prince Overdosed on Fentanyl. What Is It?\n\nCreditCreditKatherine Taylor for The New York Times\n\nMinnesota officials reported on Thursday that Prince died in April of an overdose of the opiate fentanyl. The authorities have not revealed how the musician obtained the drug or whether a doctor had prescribed it. But it has been reported that he had hip surgery in the mid-2000s and may have still been in pain.\n\nFentanyl has become a source of concern for government agencies and law enforcement officials as death rates from fentanyl-related overdoses and seizures of the drug have risen in several states. Here’s what we know about the drug.\n\nFentanyl is a synthetic opioid, prescribed to help patients deal with severe pain. Opioids help to reduce patients’ perception of their suffering and can induce a state of extreme relaxation and euphoria.\n\nCreditMike Blake/Reuters\n\nFentanyl was synthesized in 1960, and it was introduced as an anesthetic. It is sold under brand names like Actiq, Duragesic and Sublimaze, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.\n\nIt can be consumed via a patch, an injection, smoking and a lollipop, among other methods.\n\nFentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and can be 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. Even when taken in small amounts, it can be fatal.\n\nFentanyl is a Schedule 2 drug, meaning that while it is used for medical treatment, it is known to have a high potential for abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is frequently mixed with heroin, cocaine or both when sold illegally, in many cases without the user’s knowledge.\n\nAn overdose of fentanyl can result in severe respiratory depression or arrest, during which breathing is slowed or ceases altogether. But determining what is a standard lethal dose of opioids like fentanyl is complicated. A dose that can kill one person may provide medicinal pain relief for another. And taking prescription opioid painkillers for a long time can build up a tolerance to the drugs.\n\nIn March 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a nationwide alert about the dangers of fentanyl. It said that the Mexican authorities had shut down several labs and that fentanyl that had been seized in the Northeast and in California in 2014 had “originated from Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.”\n\nIn an article in The New York Times in March, Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, said fentanyl was the cartels’ “drug of choice.”\n\n“They have figured out a way to make fentanyl more cheaply and easily than heroin and are manufacturing it at a record pace,” she said.\n\nAccording to the D.E.A., episodes of abuse involving fentanyl initially appeared in the mid-1970s. From 2005 to 2007, the agency said, the drug caused more than 1,000 deaths in the United States. The fentanyl that caused those deaths originated in a single lab in Mexico that was later shut down, ending the surge.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9608829617500305}
+{"content": "Mapping the world's opinions\n\nUnderstanding dream meanings has fascinated mankind for millennia. In ancient Greece, physicians believed dreams conveyed indications of diseases present in the body. Sigmund Freud thought dreams revealed repressed desires. Since then, pop psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have all begun offering interpretations of clients' dreams. But are dream interpretations accurate?\n\nComplete hokum\n\nDream interpretations are nothing but idiosyncrasy and guesswork.\n\nBoth informative and predictive\n\nDreams can provide introspective insight and can predict aspects of the future.\n\nInformative but not predictive\n\nDreams provide information on the subconscious mind that can be illuminating.\n\nThis page was last edited on Tuesday, 23 Jul 2019 at 08:30 UTC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999988853931427}
+{"content": "IMG_2906 Third party distribution companies very often have a combination of specific and specialist requirements depending upon the sectors they are servicing. In many instances this will require relevant knowledge and experience not just in terms of the selection of appropriate storage racking products, but also expertise in terms of handling equipment and project management skills. Semco with many years of industry experience culminating in manufacturing expertise through design and installation, are able to offer tailored Distribution & Logistics Racking Systems including Pallet Racking storage solutions whether it be for a single site operation or multi-site requirement.\n\n\nIMG_2916 IMG_3496 IMGP4746", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9731734395027161}
+{"content": "MATS Bootcamp - Suffragettes\n\nBack in March we were given a Bootcamp assignment on the Suffragettes.  While researching the project I discovered so much I didn't already know about these brave and remarkable women.  I had no idea of just how much they suffered in the name of votes for women.  Many of them went on hunger strikes while they were in prison and were brutally force fed with tubes being stuck down their throats or even up their nostrils while being physically restrained.  The abuse they experienced effected their physical health for the rest of their lives.  It is truly humbling to consider the sacrifices these women made for the benefit of all women in Western civilisations today.  While there were many of these extraordinary women who made up the Suffragette movement, I particularly researched a leading figure: Emmeline Pankhurst who in their desperation to be heard, encouraged militant tactics.  She founded the all women political organisation the WSPU (Womens Social and Political Union) in 1905 whose slogan was 'deeds not words'.  Against much criticism, she encouraged her members to use extreme measures such as arson.  She died in 1928, just weeks before the vote for all women aged over 21 was granted on 2nd July.  A memorial of her can be found near the houses of parliament.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940239787101746}
+{"content": "\n\nTips to feel happy and stress-free.\nPhoto by Alice Popkorn\n\nBy Henri Junttila\n\n\"No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today.\" ~Brendan Francis\n\n\nIn today’s world it’s all too easy to get distracted from what’s truly important. Wherever you go, and whatever you do, you see messages designed to get you to perform a specific action and distract you from the fact that you are already whole.\n\nThere are no reminders to be mindful unless we create them.\n\nThe responsibility is in your hands. Staying in the present moment can dramatically reduce stress, increase your happiness, and give you bursts of insight that might change your life.\n\nEver since I’ve started becoming aware of my thoughts and staying in the now, my life has improved significantly, and I know yours will, too.\n\nHere are a few down-to-earth tips on how to become more mindful:\n\n1. Notice your tendencies.\n\nYou and I, we both have our unique tendencies that distract us from the present moment. I’m a worrier, so I tend to think about the future and try to solve problems before they even happen.\n\nWhat are your tendencies? What kind of thoughts tend to rob you of the now?\n\nThese questions will help you become more mindful about what is going on in your head, which in turn leads to mindfulness.\n\nA few examples of tendencies that are very common are:\n\n  • anxiety\n  • worry\n  • regret\n  • guilt\n  • fear\n  • pleasure seeking\n\nA great tip is to write down your tendencies and how they tease you out of the now. Grab a piece of pen and paper, and just do it.\n\n2. Practice acceptance.\n\nOnce you start becoming mindful of your tendencies, it’s crucial that you don’t judge yourself. Practice acceptance and embrace who you are.\n\nThe tendencies you have are there for a reason. They are signposts pointing to the areas of your life that need attention.\n\nIf you’re a chronic worrier, you need to start noticing whenever you begin drifting to the future. Become mindful, observe your thoughts, and breathe.\n\nWe believe our thoughts to be the authority on life, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Our thoughts are just thoughts.\n\n3. Focus on your breath.\n\nYour breath is a powerful and simple way to anchor yourself in the present moment. Whenever you are having a hard time staying in the now, take deep breaths, and focus on your breathing.\n\nYou could even count your breaths. Something I like to do is count to four on the inhale and four on the exhale.\n\nIt focuses the logical part of my brain on counting and allows me to focus on my breath. After a while I can release the crutch of counting and just be.\n\n4. Question your thoughts.\n\nYour thoughts aren’t always right. In fact, they are rarely right, especially if they make you feel bad.\n\nQuestion your thoughts constantly. When you start to feel negative emotions, use it as a reminder to examine what thoughts are causing the commotion.\n\nMost people walk around all day letting negative thoughts cause negative feelings. We both know that nothing good can come out of this.\n\nIt takes discipline to be mindful, but the rewards are peace and happiness. Even researchers are discovering the power of emotions. Negative emotions not only have the power to make you feel bad, but can affect your physical health as well.\n\nWhenever a negative thought arises, take a step back, and look at if the thought is true.\n\n5. Use reminders.\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Be determined.\n\n\n\n\n\n7. Follow your passion.\n\nI have noticed that the more I follow my passion and my hearts deepest desire, the more I am able to stay in the now.\n\nI enjoy every second of every minute when I’m working on something I love. My heart buzzes with joy and I feel amazing.\n\nWriting is one of my passions. I love helping people improve their life. It makes me come alive, and it keeps me in the present moment.\n\nInspiration flows effortlessly, and it’s almost like I am channeling someone else as I am writing. Find your passion and go after it.\n\nBecoming more mindful is done step-by-step. You do not have to go all-in. You only have to increase the amount of time you spend in the present moment each and every day.\n\nIf you do that, it’s impossible for you not to become a mindfulness master.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7449698448181152}
+{"content": "If we are entering into the 'datafication' of education, countries will need to define rules and to develop new skills to ensure that present and future technology-enhanced education…\n\nCristobal Cobo |\n\n\nDavid Malpass |\n\nIn many economies in Sub Saharan Africa, as well as some countries in South Asia, birth registration in rural areas is very low.\n\nFlorina Pirlea |\n\n\nFranck Bousquet |\n\n\nDavid Malpass |\n\n\nAkihiko Nishio |\n\n\nKristalina Georgieva |\n\n\nJulia Clark, Vyjayanti T Desai, Jonathan Marskell |\n\n\nCeyla Pazarbasioglu |", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8007705211639404}
+{"content": "Health Problems\n\nPredicting breast cancer metastasis by cell behavior instead of genetics\n\nResearchers and clinicians don’t fully understand why some cancers spread and others do not. What they do know is that when cancer does spread, it dramatically decreases survival rates.\n\nIf physicians could predict the likelihood that primary tumors will metastasize, they would be able to choose the best treatment options for patients. However, current testing only reviews tumor genetics, which can mutate and change.\n\nChris Yankaskas, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, wondered if he could predict metastasis from a different angle, by instead looking at the cancer cell’s phenotype, or observable cell characteristics and behaviors. Under the direction of Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, a professor and core faculty member of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Yankaskas and a team of researchers created the Microfluidic Assay for Quantification of Cell Invasion, or MAqCI, a diagnostic tool and method for predicting breast cancer metastasis by looking at two key cell behaviors needed for metastasis instead of tumor genetics.\n\n“The complexity of cancer progression and differences between each patient’s cancer cells make metastasis hard to predict on a case-by-case basis,” said Yankaskas. “We aim to continue working in breast cancer using cells from patients’ biopsies and hope to expand the technology to other cancer types.”\n\nCancer treatments are strenuous on the body and can be costly. Some patients need chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, targeted therapies, or a combination of all of the above. MAqCI can help clinicians and patients identify the most appropriate treatment for aggressive cancers and avoid over-treating less aggressive cancers.\n\nTo develop their device, Yankaskas first had to train MAqCI (pronounced mak-see) to recognize the characteristic behaviors of normal breast epithelial cells (their control group), non-aggressive breast cancer cells, and aggressive/metastatic breast cancer cells. Once those parameters were established, the team then used independent cell populations, including breast cancer patient-derived specimens, to validate that MAqCI could correctly measure and characterize the cells.\n\n\nResults, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, show that MAqCI is accurate, sensitive, and specific enough to predict if a breast cancer population will metastasize. The technology has potential clinical use because it uses small sample sizes, delivers results within one to two days, and can isolate these cells for further characterization.\n\nAnother advantage of MAqCI testing is that it looks at observable characteristics of cells and is relatively simple and easy to interpret, unlike genetic screening. Predicting if a cancer population is able to metastasize can be difficult, and this behavioral approach offers a simpler, more effective way of making a prediction.\n\nSource: Read Full Article", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9415104985237122}
+{"content": "\"There is no greater power on this earth than story.” ― Libba Bray\n\n\nForm of Human\n\nForm Of Human was a podcasting experiment I created to explore how we can usurp our inherit biases using an anonymous form of audio, storytelling and design.\n\nThe short of it: I got normal people to tell me about a time when they realized something profound but chose not to tell people because they felt it irrelevant or unimportant to share. The stories were amazing. I took those stories, transcribed them and gave the transcriptions to voice actors to recreate, however, all identifying markers of the original story teller removed. The result was a way to connect at an emotional level to the story without our biases getting in the way.\n\nIt was a lot of fun and I look forward to continuing this project as time and resources allow.\n\nProject: Form Of Human\nMedium: Podcasting, Graphic Design\nTimeline: 3 weeks", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8446186184883118}
+{"content": "Main Page Sitemap\n\nHouse electrical wiring in india pdf\n\nWhen you download and house open an example, the required symbol libraries such as lighting, electrical wiring and electrical telecom are electrical already open.\nSymbols Required for Home Wiring Plan.\nA home wiring plan is usually created india based on the basic floor plan structure, therefore, the basic floor plan symbols such as walls, furniture and appliances are also necessary.\nElectrical and Telecom template to start drawing.One in the workshop wiring near india the entrance way; one at the foot of the basement stairs.House wiring app, electrical Installation, Electrical Wiring, Law, Hardware, Toroidal Transformer, Electrical Engineering, Electrical Circuit Diagram, Motors, wiring Homemade.Electrical House Wiring India Pdf in introduction 4 igexao Group 2,359 Shareware, sEE Electrical is a tool for companies running electrical engineering business.Wiring Plan Examples, below are some wiring plan examples which you can download and use as templates.To represent electrical equipment and components. 726 Shareware.\nGive the india toshiba thickness of the outer basement manual walls.\nKnow the correct overload protection and wire for size and type of a transformer.\nWhat is the ceiling height in the basement workshop from bottom of joists to floor?\nA note providing additional or more specific information.House of 1000 Doors is a beautiful hidden-object adventure game.Is the entire garage area to have a concrete floor?Also, refer to the CEC when necessary.List five electrical wiring notations found on the plans for the residence used as an example in this textbook.What is the purpose of the I-beams that rest on top of the steel support columns? 90 Shareware.To open the corresponding libraries, sims click, library sims button - Floor Plan, you will find a list of floor plan symbol libraries.Create Home Wiring Plan form Built-in Elements.Wählen Sie aus, welches Problem mit dem Inhalt besteht.The window fixture will be supported by fastening it to the electrical outlet box, sims which is set into the wood siding.Symbols are used that refer to a table or notes.30 x 46.Appendix A, number.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5580120086669922}
+{"content": "Revisiting superstition from the perspective of economics\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nacquire goods-character, all four of the following prerequisites\nmust be simultaneously present:\n\n  1. A human need.\n  2. Such properties as render the thing capable of being brought\n    into a causal connection with the satisfaction of this need.\n  3. Human knowledge of this causal connection.\n\n\nthing to be placed in a causal connection with the satisfaction of\ncommand of it so completely that they can no longer apply it\ndirectly to the satisfaction of their needs and have no means of\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBlueberry Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad\nBlueberry Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad.\n\n\nG3.11: A patient with DID says the voices are not like schizophrenia.\n\nMore severe dissociative disorders like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder, MPD) have occurred in some cases of extreme childhood trauma. A strong alter character may develop in the child’s mind that takes over during scary times as a defense strategy. The protective personality may cope with the harsh situation and leave the core personality not only protected from coping with the negative event, but also may leave the memory of the event suppressed from the core personality’s memories. The child or adult may be left with no memories of what happened while the alter personality was in charge.\n\nA person with the condition describes “multiplicity” as being like a bus that has a variety of passengers who may take over driving occasionally, and go and do things without asking, and the bus may not remember it. The “host” or main personality is not the bus driver but is the whole bus.\n\nThe full description is in the book, Living with Your Selves, by Sandra J. Hocking and Company;  (G3.34), some of the author’s alters helped write parts of the book. The author would like people to understand that the condition can be coped with and that it isn’t possession by any external force. The alters were all protectors at some stage of the host’s difficult life.\n\nThe main difference between DID and less severe forms of dissociative disorders is that memory is suppressed in DID in order to protect the core child personality from whatever trauma is or was going on in the child/former child’s life.\n\nMy own feelings of disconnection as a child or as an over-worked adult have never included missing blocks of time or forgetting whole days, which can be symptoms of DID.\n\nSeeing bad memories from above as if watching oneself from the ceiling can be a symptom of milder forms of dissociation. Conversations that you aren’t part of or other voices taking place inside the head may be symptoms of DID. Sandra Hocking mentions that hearing voices externally from inanimate objects like a bicycle would be a symptom of a different type of mental health problem and she encourages talking to someone (other than the bicycle) if any odd voices are being heard.\n\nRecent research has shown that the “voices” that people with schizophrenia symptoms “hear” are actually their own internal sub-vocalizations – their own inner thoughts – but that some disconnection occurred in the brain that seems to make them unable to recognize the “voice” or “voices” as their own thoughts or memories.\n\nHearing voices may be a symptom that is due to many possible reasons rather than being due to “schizophrenia” – it may be more of a set of symptoms that all resemble “schizophrenia-like symptoms.” Several different nutrient deficiencies may cause a symptoms of “hearing voices“. If a person was deficient in all of the nutrients, which is not uncommon in malnutrition, then supplementing only one of the nutrients would be unlikely to show much improvement in the schizophrenia-like symptoms even though it might have been helping somewhat. All of the nutrients are important for health.\n\n  • The voices heard by patients with these symptoms have been found to be the patient’s own internal monologue but the patient no longer recognizes the voices as their own thoughts or memories from their past.  See:  “When People With Schizophrenia Hear Voices, They’re Really Hearing Their Own Subvocal Speech, Unlike most people, they just can’t tell it’s themselves.By Eliezer Sternberg  (G3.35)\n\nG3.12: Nutrient deficiencies may be a physical and treatable cause symptoms of “hearing voices.”\n\n  • Folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies can cause schizophrenia like symptoms; possibly due to an increase in levels of c-reactive protein. Folate and vitamins B6 and B12 are needed to breakdown c-reactive protein. (G3.36)\n  • Genetic differences in metabolism can affect the risk of deficiency in folate and vitamin B12. Genetic screening for methylation cycle differences can help clarify whether extra supplements of the more bioactive methylated forms would be more helpful than standard supplements.\n  • And a zinc deficiency and/or copper excess is more common for patients with schizophrenia; so pyroluria, a condition also thought to be due to genetic differences may be an issue. (G3.37)\n  • A zinc deficiency prenatally may be linked to schizophrenia later in life: ( (G3.38)\n  • Vitamin D deficiency is more common in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. (G3.39)\n\nHealth isn’t easy on a good day for someone of average age and average metabolism. Seeking help from mental health counselors and other healthcare professionals can help provide care for a variety of topics that may not fit easily in visit with the family physician.\n\nA specialist in research explains the oxidative stress chemical process in the background section of a review paper regarding the possible connection between psychiatric disorders and oxidative stress. (G3.110) The short story on the chemistry is about balance between the waste produced when burning energy for use in metabolism and antioxidants available to neutralize the oxidizing chemicals produced as waste. The oxidizing waste chemicals are smaller parts of what was once the larger molecule of sugar, glucose. We do need to be able to use the stored energy from glucose, so having plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables in the diet gives the balance of antioxidants necessary to neutralize the “free radical” waste products. They are like the ions of calcium or magnesium in the way they are “free” to donate or take energy from other molecules, which may leave them in disrepair.\n\nAn excerpt gives a summary of oxidative stress and the potential link to psychiatric disorders, (G3.110)\n\nHence, oxidative stress can be considered as a state where the level of oxidants [hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, nitric oxide, etc.] produced by biological reactions exceeds the oxidants scavenging capacity of the cells. These oxidants modify cellular macromolecules [proteins, DNA, lipids] and alter cellular functions [19] resulting in apoptosis or necrosis [2022].” (Apoptosis or necrosis = cell death)\n\n“The brain with its extensive capacity to consume large amounts of oxygen and production of free radicals, is considered especially sensitive to oxidative damage [12, 23]. Therefore, it is not surprising that oxidative stress is implicated in several disorders of the brain including neurodegenerative disorders [2326], psychiatric ailments [27], and anxiety [28]. This association is largely due to the high vulnerability of brain to oxidative load [27].\n\nRead more: Oxidative Stress and Psychological Disorders, (G3.110).\n\n  • The topic of psychiatric disorders, TRP channels, oxidative stress, infertility and pre-eclampsia is more complex than I’ve led you to believe in this overview and this page is already long so the discussion will be continued on a separate page focused more on TRP channels – they are an exciting topic, see G. Pre-eclampsia &TRP Channels.\n\nSo speak nicely to yourself, you might be listening. And it turns out that words can hurt after all, not just sticks and stones. A book called What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, by Shad Helmstetter, goes into more detail about the emotional impact that can occur due to how and what we think to ourselves. How we phrase our thoughts and goals can affect our success and enjoyment in life, that seems like a no-brainer, but maybe not to the nervous toddler who is still trying to stand up in the adult sized shoes – a little wobbly but trying. (G3.111)\n\nThe glossary section G. Fear & the Inner Child has more information and resources about early childhood experiences and emotional development and the possible creative benefits of dissociation. The section G. Autoimmune Disease & Vitamin D continues the medical discussion of oxidative stress, magnesium deficiency, and why an Epsom salt foot soak or bath might help an autoimmune condition in addition to improving a bad mood and soothing a muscle cramp and sore back – one stop shopping, now that is efficiency.\n\nSee a healthcare provider for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.\n\n\nCrisis Hotlines and Resources:\n\n  • U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline: Call 1-800-273-8255, Available 24 hours everyday. (\n  • Child Welfare Information Gateway: a variety of toll-free hotline numbers for concerns involving the safety of children. (I.20)\n  • Power and Control and Equality Wheels  The following training materials are for helping victims of domestic violence and batterers learn how to recognize problem behaviors but emotional manipulation or abuse of power and control can occur in many types of relationships not just between couples.The Power and Control Wheel (I.21) was developed by the Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP). (I.22) Manipulative behaviors are grouped into eight categories in the model. An additional Equality Wheel (I.23) was developed to help guide batterers and victims of emotional or physical abuse towards healthier ways to interact. It is grouped into eight equivalent categories with examples of healthier ways to interact with each other. Problems frequently can involve communication issues by both people in a relationship.\n\n\n\nG3.4: Social contact would help protect against oxidative stress.\n\nPeople and other species are social creatures whose survival may have been dependent on being part of a group rather than being isolated. Loneliness has been associated with increased inflammation and a reduced resistance to infection by viral diseases. Genetic changes have been found to occur in isolated individuals that lead to the increased inflammatory response in comparison to individuals who have more social support. Genes can be temporarily turned on or off depending on the environment.\n\nOur instincts have developed to trust that being part of a group increases our chance of survival. Having a role that fulfills a valued purpose for the group is associated with an increased sense of happiness. Read more: A Better Kind of Happiness, by Will Storr, (G3.9).\n\nFitting into groups well can require social skills that need to be nurtured from birth. Infants learn body language at an early age by interacting with a parent who responds to the baby’s cues. If the baby smiles the mother smiles back and the baby learns to smile more readily. If the baby has a mother that doesn’t notice body language though, then the infant may stop smiling as often.\n\nInfants and children depend on their caregivers for everything and try to please with their smiles, eye contact, or baby coos. If the infant isn’t receiving eye contact in return however they may stop trying or are scolded they may learn to look away and to avoid eye contact.\n\nChildren ideally need emotional support in order to develop trust in themselves and in others. Parents who have limited skills in understanding and accepting their own emotions may not be able to teach their children what they don’t understand themselves. Children who have some role model in their lives who understands emotional skills may cope better than children who don’t.\n\nThe topic is discussed in more detail in the book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD, (New Harbinger Pub., Inc., 2015, Oakland, CA) (G3.10) (This book is not a twelve step book and is not affiliated with the Adult Children of Alcoholic or Dysfunctional Parents twelve step group.) On page eight the author discusses the importance of emotional connection for humans and other mammals for responding less negatively to stress. Stephen Porges published work in 2011 suggesting that mammals evolved a way in which we can get additional soothing during fear situations when we are in touch physically or possibly even mentally – thinking about them during times of need. It involves vagus nerve pathways that can be inhibited to reduce the fight, flight, or freeze stress reaction. (G3.10)\n\nSo a sense of connection to others can help reduce the negative inflammatory effects of the stress response. Some stress can be healthy to help get us moving to meet whatever challenge has occurred. Stress may become more overwhelming however if the person is isolated or never learned social skills or developed enough trust in others to ask for help or seek out help.\n\nChildren in situations with emotionally immature caregivers may learn that people around them can’t be trusted or that trying doesn’t lead to success so why bother trying – they can learn a sense of helplessness and hopelessness and not even try to seek help because they are unfamiliar with finding strength or support from others.\n\nIn the book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson (G3.10) four different types of emotionally immature caregivers are described and how growing up with them might affect children. Solutions are also provided in the form of techniques for how, as an adult, a person might overcome the lessons they learned as a child once they discover that emotions aren’t dangerous things to never be discussed or worse –  that one might be punished for exhibiting them.\n\nSome emotionally immature people may feel threatened by strong emotions and may react negatively to children who are simply being children. The child in that situation learns to not trust themselves and may not learn that emotions are normal rather than upsetting or frightening.\n\nSevere childhood trauma can lead to changes in the brain that cause ongoing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A new strategy for treating PTSD has been developed which involves electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve called Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS).  \n\nThe excerpt summary from the book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents (G3.10) regarding the research by Stephen Porges suggests that the vagal nerve is the nerve pathway that naturally is stimulated when social contact is sought by mammals who are enduring a stressful situation. (G3.11) (G3.12)\n\nWhether you are a parent or a teen or an adult learning more about emotional maturity and immaturity can help understand your own emotions and others. Whatever we grow up with will seem normal to us and as adults we tend to seek out similar relationships to those we were familiar with as children – but sometimes what seems normal to some people isn’t normal for everyone else and there is no need to continue living in abusive situations just because it seemed like a normal part of life as a child.\n\nLack of emotional skills may increase the risk of acting inappropriately when under severe stress. People need the support of people to help reduce negative effects of stress and increase a sense of connection and purpose. People need to learn emotional skills from people who have emotional skills  – or sometimes from a book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson: (G3.10)\n\n  • Attachment Theory and parenting styles are discussed in section 8. Trust is learned early.\n\nThe descriptions in this section suggest the inconsistent parenting of the Disorganized style or a parent that switches between Avoidant and Anxious-Resistant styles. A more trusting  Secure style can be achieved with the help of Cognitive Therapy techniques and practice; but it is a lot of work to change core values, or more realistically – attempt to modify slightly, core values that remain from early childhood. Art Therapy or EMDR therapy can help access nonverbal feelings and events that may have occurred during the preverbal years of childhood. Dialectical Behavior Therapy can help when there are cognitive and physical issues underlying mood symptoms.\n\n\n\nFormaldehyde: Health risks, and Environmental and Dietary sources.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA summary, in reverse order;\n\n\n\nFact Sheets regarding Formaldehyde, Environmental Safety and Health:\n\n\n\n\n\nHouseplants can help offices as well as astronauts:\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9814146757125854}
+{"content": "RTA Feedback\n\nCreate Survey Tool\n\nCreate a customer survey tool that can be emailed to Operator after service or repair. Use feedback as part of metrics of fleet shop operations.\n\nAs someone who lives and breathes CSAT scores (customer satisfaction), I love this idea!\n\n1 Like\n\nSarasota county implemented something as simple as these.\n\nWhat’s nice about them is they are extremely low friction, which is critical when it comes to surveys. Even with our support ratings system which sends an email once the ticket is closed, and all you have to do is click a star rating in your inbox, only 1 out of 6 cases leave feedback. The downside is that the simpler you make it, the less context and information you get about where you need to make corrections.\n\nI have never seen these… thanks for sharing. This might be a simple way to capture some high level feedback. For your star rating emails, do you mind sharing who is the vendor you work with?\n\n@Renee, at RTA we currently use a product called Atlassian Service Desk for our customer support and it provides customer satisfaction (CSAT) feedback and self-service ratings tools.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8047875165939331}
+{"content": "Cinematic Game Secrets ebook free download\n\n\n6 months ago\nFull text\n\n   C I N E M AT I C G A M E S E C R E T S F O R C R E AT I V E\n\n\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\n   C I N E M AT I C G A M E S E C R E T S F O R C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R S A N D P R O D U C E R S Inspired Techniques from Industry Legends\n\n  RICH NEWMAN AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier\n\n  30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK © 2009 Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science &amp; Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: ( ⫹ 44) 1865 843830, fax: ( ⫹ 44) 1865 853333, E-mail: You may also\n\ncomplete your request online via the Elsevier homepage ( ), by selecting “ Support &amp; Contact ”\n\n\n  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Newman, Rich.\n\n  Cinematic game secrets for creative directors and producers: inspired techniques from industry legends / Rich Newman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.\n\n  ISBN 978-0-240-81071-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Video games—Design. 2. Cinematography—Special effects. I. Title. GV1469.3.N485 2008 794.8’1536—dc22 2008028464 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.\n\n  ISBN: 978-0-240-81071-3 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at 08 09 10 11 12 5 4 3 2 1\n\n  Printed in China\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  INTRODUCTION What is Cinematic?\n\n  The last ten years have ushered in a whole new era of game development. In addition to the constant infl ux of new technol- ogy and content, the convergence of the fi lm and game industries has pushed game developers to achieve a whole new level of standards in epic gaming. This trend has been illustrated by the increasing number of games that are being optioned into feature fi lms—and more and more fi lms are being translated into video games. Also, with animated features, it is now a common occur- rence to see a simultaneous release of a fi lm and game (Bee Movie and Beowulf are just two recent examples).\n\n  In retrospect, the mashup of these two mediums seems to be a natural one. The gaming industry and the fi lm industry already have many things in common, including similar roles and positions while working in production, comparable production cycles, and many mirrored production concerns. Also, more and more fi lmmakers are actively becoming involved with the game industry. As this book is being produced, it has been announced that director/producer Jerry Bruckheimer is partnering with MTV to create a game production lab, Steven Spielberg is getting involved with game development, and director John Woo was recently involved with the production of the game Stranglehold for Midway Games. The bottom line is that there are many talents that good fi lmmakers possess that are becoming highly desirable in the game industry today—such as experience with production and a familiarity with story and cinematic techniques.\n\n  Making a game more “cinematic” is a hot topic in today’s gaming world. For example, writers are now becoming “gaming writers” as the need for more developed scripts becomes more prevalent in production. Also, many fi lm directors and producers are now get- ting involved with game development because of the need to raise production value in certain titles. Even major game luminaries known for “old-school” methods of game development are turning their attention to cinematic production techniques. The game industry has also responded to this trend by including many of the aforementioned cinematic topics in the major gaming conventions and organizations. For example, the International Game Developer’s Association has now added a top-notch special interest group con- cerning the subject of game writing, and the 2007 Austin Game Developers Conference had an entire track dedicated to writing for games. The same can be said for current trends regarding game\n\n\n  In the past, “cinematic” simply meant an in-game animation that usually told part of the story to the gamer (also known as “cut- scenes”); these scenes usually consisted of one to fi ve minutes of noninteractive viewing meant to draw the player into the world of the game, but usually did just the opposite, as the gamer would be on the sidelines watching the action. Now, “cinematic” is a general term used to describe many of the techniques used in the fi lm industry for video game production. The immediate perks of using these techniques are obvious: Why pull the player from the game to watch a cut-scene when you can incorporate good fi lmmaking tech- niques throughout the game play and keep the player immersed in the game to experience a deeper emotional impact?\n\n  Typically, when a producer is working with a cinematic mind- set, there are several specifi c things that he/she has in mind: higher-production-value moments within the game vs. cut-scenes, better story and characters, and professional cinematography. Each of these represents a major challenge for the game producer, but can make signifi cant improvements within a game title. Other examples of cinematic production that we will discuss in this book involve the use of epic music and sound design, the use of celebrity talent (and directing them), and creating better levels through the use of framing, blocking, and camera movement.\n\n  As this book is being written, there are twenty to thirty video games that have been optioned and are currently being devel- oped for fi lms by various production companies all across the United States. Because the game industry is now very aware of the possibility for crossing over into fi lm, many new games are being conceived and developed from the very beginning with a cinematic mind-set. The marketing potential of these game titles is obviously doubled when you consider the possibility of a title hitting the big screen in addition to the home console.\n\n  This book is for game producers, creative directors, and stu- dents who wish to pursue a career in creating cinematic games; whether you are fresh out of school, or you simply wish to inject your current thinking with some new ideas, I hope the techniques used within this book will assist you. Most of the methods and ideas listed in these pages are tried and true, having been used throughout the fi lm industry for decades. The application of these techniques will help you create a deeper gaming experience and a higher production value in your game.\n\n  For students/younger producers, I have also included a quick primer on the current production models in game development and a section on creating an independent game and company. Though a game can be an expensive endeavor, the availability of free/inexpensive software and raw talent has made indie game development much more accessible.\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  Upon initial contact with the game industry, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of responsibility involved with creating a new game title. In addition to the pressure associated with creating a game that will sell well and be received with enthu- siasm by the gaming public, the actual work involved with develop- ment weighs in heavily. These responsibilities include working with the game’s budget, streamlining the production process, and man- aging a team and assets that grow and change on a daily basis.\n\n  A typical game title can cost many millions of dollars and involve a very long-term commitment (sometimes as long as four to fi ve years), so the pressure to create a franchise or successful title can be massive indeed. Understanding the production pro- cess allows you as a game producer to roll with the inevitable changes and challenges that come with the development of a game and empowers you to manage your project effi ciently. More importantly, it will allow the game to be completed, which is always a plus when dealing with game publishers!\n\n  Utilizing the cinematic skills of a fi lmmaker in addition to the usual game development model within the various phases of game development allows you shape the project into a more mar- ketable and, hopefully, more enjoyable title. But fi rst, let’s take a look at the typical development cycle.\n\n1.1 Lifecycle of a Video Game\n\n  Like most creative processes (such as making a movie, creating a graphic novel, and so on), the game industry has a defi nite pro- cess and lifecycle involved with a new project. In the video game industry, the process of creating a new title pretty much follows this cycle: Concept/R &amp; D\n\n  Preproduction Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER Production Testing/QA\n\n  Postproduction Each of these phases will be discussed in greater detail in later chapters, but here is a quick rundown of what’s involved with these various stages of game development:\n\n  The concept phase of game development is time spent defi ning the game that you are about to create—both creatively and tech- nically. This time involves choosing the type of game you are going to make—RPG (role-playing game), FPS (fi rst-person shooter), MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), and so on; determining the game elements and features that will be involved in game play (story, characters, game options, and so on); and working out the details for the future marketing of the title, such as the genre of the game (horror, adventure, and so on), the platforms/consoles the game will be played on, and the game’s projected rating. This collaborative process usually involves the producers, lead designers, and the creative director of the game.\n\n  The concept phase usually ends with the creation of a tangible risk analysis report, a mission statement that will unite the pro- duction team in creating the design, and possibly a prototype version of the game (sometimes called a “ vertical slice ” ). In most cases, these elements are compiled into an overall production plan that will be pitched to the perspective publisher to get a green light for the project. A typical pitch includes the materials listed earlier, along with a design document, a project plan, and a budget (sometimes called a “ cost forecast ” ). Once the budget and schedule have been approved by the publisher, the game then moves on into pre-production.\n\n  The preproduction phase most closely mirrors that of the fi lm industry; it is at this stage that the story is developed and honed, the look of the project is fl eshed out using art and previ- sualization techniques (like storyboarding), and the budget and schedule are defi ned for the coming production cycle. Although this is called “ preproduction ” in the fi lm industry as well, in the game industry, preproduction also includes defi ning all the tech- nical requirements of the game (such as design, art, and features), prioritizing features and specifying constraints (usually infl u- enced by the budget and schedule), and creating a basic design document. These steps constitute the very roadmap that the production team will follow during the many months of development.\n\n  If you have not yet developed a prototype of the game, this is also done during preproduction. Though the fi nished prototype\n\n\n\n  Another key element of preproduction is hiring the team that will be involved with production. Beware: the hiring process can be a long one—and it’s not uncommon for larger production stu- dios to tackle the lengthy task of hiring prior to the creation of the game’s concept! At the very least, allow for a reasonable amount of time to be used in getting the right members of your team. Once the design document is in place with the prototype, and all the personnel have been hired, the game can then move into production.\n\n  The actual production phase of development is usually com- posed of coding, generating, and implementing assets into the game; also, any unfi nished details regarding the game’s design will be fi nished as well. It is during this phase that any required motion capture/voiceover work, music, and basically anything else that is involved with making the actual game comes together. This is the longest phase of game development and usually tests the strength of the overall production plan. Keeping the produc- tion team on point and out of meeting overload can be the big- gest challenge for a producer as the need to keep up with current gaming trends becomes increasingly important. Sometimes the woes in a schedule revolve around the discovery and implemen- tation of new features in the game—this is called ‘feature creep’ and can cause studios to spend an excessive amount of time and money during production.\n\n  It is important to track and monitor the progress of the game throughout the game’s production; publishers demand up-to- date reporting on schedule and budget concerns, as well as on any issues developing with the game’s production. Usually, a proj- ect management program (such as Microsoft Project) is used to assist producers with tracking the game’s progress, though you may have to tweak the program in order to fi t your needs (you will want to spend the bulk of your time actually managing your project rather than working with the software). There will usually be an online version of the game’s production cycle as well that the team can access to see what is happening in the other depart- ments of development (for instance, the art department may want to see the status of coding the assets into the current build of the game). Setting small milestones or goals for each produc- tion task is a great way to determine whether a particular item has been completed and is the industry standard measure for tracking completion.\n\n\n  The next step in the production cycle, the testing/QA phase , is very different than that of the fi lm industry. Where a fi lm may undergo a series of audience tests, screenings, and so on to get feedback (sometimes referred to as “ research ” ), a game is thor- oughly evaluated throughout the production phase by a quality assurance (QA) team for bugs within the title. Every time a new asset is introduced to the game, the QA team gets a crack at it. Any time a new tool or game element is introduced, QA quanti- fi es its value. At the end of development, a title must get approval from the QA team during the code release process before it is sent on to the publisher (in a form sometimes referred to as a Gold Master) for approval.\n\n  Though testing/QC is often thought of as a process that occurs at the end of production, the truth of the matter is that the testing of a game occurs throughout the development cycle. As a matter of planning, it should be determined early in the production pro- cess whether an internal or external QA team will be utilized dur- ing the development of the game, as this decision can affect the schedule and budget immensely. This phase usually ends with the QA department comparing the fi nal product against the origi- nal game plan to determine its validity (Alpha and Beta testing), and the release of the fi nal version of the game (sometimes called “ code release ” or the Gold Master). At this point, your moves on to various locales for approval.\n\n  In addition to getting the game to the publisher, the manufac- turers of all consoles the game will be played on must approve the title as well. All major platforms will have their own sets of criteria that must be met for the game to be approved for release on their console. Also, the game must be sent to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to receive the game’s rating. Without a rating, most major software vendors and retailers will not carry your title. If the game is being released in other countries, it will also have to be sent to the appropriate ratings boards in those locales. Once the game has been give the thumbs-up by all con- cerned and you have received the offi cial rating of the game, the fi nal version of the game can now be sent to the publisher. The next and fi nal phase of development is known as postproduction.\n\n  The postproduction phase in the world of game development is slightly different than that of the fi lm industry. Although this phase is generally typifi ed by fi lmmakers as the editing and cut- ting of a movie, in the game industry this phase signals to the team that the game is pretty much fi nished. Postproduction in game development means creating “ closing kits ” , which archive the title (sometimes games get rereleased at a later date, so it’s important to keep the game and all its elements intact), discussing the aspects of the production process that went\n\n\n  right/wrong in lengthy postmortems, and documenting the cre- ative process that was involved with creating the title so that future games can be developed more smoothly within the studio.\n\n  Depending on the features of the title, the complexity of the programming, and the size of the team and budget, the produc- tion cycle for a video game can be anywhere from a few months to several years. Usually the length of production is based upon the choices you have made in the game design. One of the earli- est decisions you will make when producing a game is the type of game that the team will be developing.\n\n1.2 Types of Games\n\n  The evolution of games is a fascinating subject. With origins that are deeply rooted in arcade-style games, the game industry has evolved over the last few decades into a realm of many differ- ent game styles and genres. Though most of the game types we commonly see today originated in the 1980s, there are still new game styles emerging on a regular basis. The types of players/ gamers have also evolved during this period.\n\n  Gamers today have a way of micro-organizing game genres— as the fi eld becomes more diversifi ed, more and more types of games are appearing on shelves. It is important to know these various types of games, if for no other reason than to realize there are many different types of gamers; a player who loves fi rst- person shooters will not be as attracted to a football game as a sports gamer. Although this is not a complete list, here are the several major types of games that are being developed: First-person shooter (FPS) Role-playing game (RPG) Massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Third-person shooter Real-time strategy (RTS) Sports Action (racing, fi ghting, and so on) Simulation\n\n  Casual/arcade The FPS is hands down one of the two most popular genres. With origins deeply rooted in the early games of id Software (Doom, Quake, and so on), the shooter has come a long way. Developers like Ubisoft and Bungie have made titles like Tom\n\n  Clancy’s Ghost Recon , Halo , and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six\n\n  household names. The entire concept of the FPS is that you are always looking down the barrel of your weapon from a fi rst-person\n\n\n  perspective. Usually, this means a military/gunman-themed game or a hunting title.\n\n  It is arguable that games that utilize the fi rst-person perspec- tive typically get more of an emotional payoff when the game is completed, so developers love to create these types of games. But don’t let this dissuade you from choosing one of the other for- mats; every player has his or her own preferences and there have been successfully produced titles in every style and genre.\n\n  Blacksite: Area 51 by Midway Games is an example of a fi rst- person shooter. Reproduced by permission of Midway Games. All rights reserved.\n\n  The RPG is also a popular game type, though it is slowly being usurped by the MMORPG. With its history fi rmly rooted in the world of the PC gamer and old-school pen-and-paper games (like\n\n  Dungeons and Dragons ), the RPG appeals to players who want to\n\n  interact with more of the world around them in many detailed ways. This style of game is also popular because of the many ways that a gamer can approach a level, customize characters, and cre- ate their own in-game stories (usually because of a more open, “ sandbox ” style of game play). Typically, this game is tailored to the fantasy/sci-fi crowd, but newer titles are slowly changing this. The 2006 award-winning game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion proved that the RPG is still alive and kicking—and this title also has spawned a new wave in fi rst-person perspective RPGs versus the usual third-person view.\n\n  The second most popular genre in gaming, and possibly the hottest trend in the game dev world at the moment, belongs to the MMORPG. Using all the strengths of the RPG, these games\n\n\n  Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : an award-winning RPG from Bethesda and 2K . The Elder ® Scrolls IV: Oblivion © 2006\n\n  Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. All rights reserved.\n\n  have taken role playing to the next level by moving them online. Titles like the popular Lord of the Rings Online games take players and hurl them into a virtual world where thousands of players interact within the same sandbox. Obstacles that held the MMORPG back in the past, like a limited, PC-based audience and small multiplayer modes, have all but evaporated with the wide- spread availability of broadband Internet and the capabilities of con- soles to now include online gaming. The abil- ity to create add-ons and modules later on to a game is an additional strength of the MMORPG (though it is not limited to this genre—modules were created for games in the 1990s as well, including Quake , which was an FPS). A great way for young game design- Lord of the Rings Online Shadows of Angmar, Book 12: The Ashen Wastes by Turbine, Inc. ers to get experience in The artwork appearing above is copyright protected and reproduced with permission. the game industry is to\n\n  © 2008 Turbine, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is in no way endorsed or\n\n  create “ mods ” for games sponsored by Turbine, Inc. or its licensors. like these.\n\n\n  When the popular Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon game series switched from a fi rst-person perspective to a third-person per- spective, fans of the popular franchise collectively groaned, but after they played the new games, they embraced the style and fell in love with it. This game quickly became one of the fi rst success- ful third-person shooters. Ubisoft’s latest installment, Tom\n\n  Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfi ghter 2 , was one of the hot-\n\n  test titles of 2007 and has proven that looking over one’s shoulder does not necessarily mean taking yourself out of the game. In fact, the perspective allows the gamer to see some of the more complex moves the character has at his/her disposal, and even maximizes the use of certain obstacles. Deciding on the game perspective that you will use in your title will be one of the big- gest decisions you will make when constructing your initial game concept, as this will affect the camera angles and framing that you can use within your game levels.\n\n  Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfi ghter 2 by Ubisoft.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  When a gamer thinks of RTS games, no title comes faster to mind than the popular Command &amp; Conquer games. Appealing to the crowd that wants to control every aspect of their world, these games offer a god-like role to the gamer and are sometimes so complex that a player may spend months getting the nuances of the game straight. An RTS game is about unfolding the game play in real time—meaning that you must construct bases, fi nish levels, and so on—while the game is moving with you at the same time. The RTS has taken a hit in popularity over the last few years, but again, with the use of broadband Internet and sandbox play, the RTS is destined for a comeback. Many developers are taking\n\n\n  the concept and play of the RTS online and taking the genre to the next level.\n\n  Command &amp; Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. © 2008 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA, the EA logo, Command &amp; Conquer and Command &amp; Conquer 3: Kanes Wrath are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.\n\n  Though there’s no need to explain what a sports, sighting, or rac- ing/fl ying game is, it is important to note that these are still relevant and strong genres. The Madden football titles still consistently per- form for Electronic Arts, and even some of the older, more estab- lished fi ghting titles like Mortal Kombat by Midway Games are still cranking out new versions and selling them. It’s the straightforward approach of these games that make them popular to gamers—and it’s also the trait that makes them appealing to developers. They are also some of the highest-grossing titles of all time, with broad mar- keting appeal and phenomenal sales numbers.\n\n  Ace Combat 6: Fires of ® Liberation . ACE COMBAT 6: FIRES OF LIBERATION ™ © 2007 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. All trademarks and copyrights associated with the manufacturers, aircraft, models, trade names, brands, and visual images depicted in this game are the property of their respective owners, and used with such permissions. Courtesy of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER\n\n  The fi nal major category of games we will discuss is another PC-heavy genre: the simulation game. Game guru Will Wright made his name in the game industry with the popular Sims games of the 1980s and 1990s (though the game is more like an RPG than a simulation-based game) and even now has the indus- try buzzing with glimpses of his new title, Spore . A typical simula- tion game is quite different than Will Wright’s creation, though.\n\n  Microsoft has dominated this genre with the always-popular and always-available fl ight simulation programs/games. In fact, entire magazines have been devoted to fans of these fl ight simu- lators. In the future, look for more titles to follow in the footsteps of The Sims and for more of them to migrate from the PC to con- soles ( The Sims game has actually already been developed for consoles) . “ Virtual reality ” games like Second Life have also con- tributed to taking the Will Wright–style sim genre to a new level.\n\n  Will Wright’s new game, Spore . © 2006 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA, the EA logo and Spore are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EA™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand.\n\n  With each game genre presenting its own set of challenges and strengths, choosing the type of game that you will be creating is one of the most basic yet important steps you will undertake early on the development process. Staying true to the basic con- cept of the type, yet innovating new approaches to the genre, will be the razor’s edge the production team will tread upon. Decisions regarding the title will be made using a steady stream of innovations, assets, and a diet heavy with brainstorming.\n\n\n1.3 Brainstorming and Initial Decisions\n\n  Once you have decided upon the type of game you will be developing and you have made some of the major decisions regarding perspective and platforms/consoles, it’s time to get that creative team together and to start brainstorming. This is a habit that you should continue throughout the development process. Entire meetings will be dedicated to hashing out the fi ner details of characters, locations, and game elements/features. Starting this habit in the concept phase of development kicks off one of the best practices that you can use throughout the lifecycle of the game (and this is part of most major development models such as Agile Development) . It should be noted, though, that meetings cost money! Assembling a group of your major salaried employ- ees together for hours on end can really start running up the tab on your production, so keep the meetings important, concise, and timely.\n\n  Managing a brainstorming session means keeping focused, staying on the agenda, documenting the fi ner points of the meet- ing, and involving everyone concerned. Learning the fi ner points of conducting useful and concise meetings is something beyond the scope of this book—and many great books have been written on the subject. It is well worth your time to delve further into this subject.\n\n  Though the development team will have other tools at their disposal for collaborating with the producers (Web sites, email, scrum sessions), nothing beats a good brainstorming session for getting a project back on track quickly. Keeping the meetings rel- evant helps prevent the team from getting demoralized by attend- ing these sessions, too. A typical unproductive meeting usually means that nothing of use was actually generated or the partici- pants felt like their input was not needed.\n\n  Everyone attending a brainstorming session should be encour- aged to contribute to the development of new ideas—and though criticism is usually discouraged at these sessions, it is important that all the team members give honest feedback to ideas that are presented there. Because attendees will often represent whole slices of the production team (engineers, artists, sound/music, and so on), it is a necessary practice to incorporate all these areas into these sessions. These brainstorming meetings ensure that as the game progresses, current ideas/trends will be incorporated into the title and the game will stay current and fresh. They will also bring a sense of a shared vision throughout the production team and ensure that the title will be created with a unifi ed concept.\n\n  It should also be noted, though, that although it is important to receive and consider the input of everyone on your team, it is\n\n\n  more often the original vision of the creative director/game cre- ator that must be disseminated throughout the production team to keep the game on track. Much like a director/producer of a fi lm, the decisions of the creative key provide the compass that the production will follow.\n\n1.4 Using Game Theory\n\n  Game theory is actually an older concept that was developed in the 1940s to study the decisions that players make when pre- sented with a choice. The book Theory of Games and Economic\n\n  Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern\n\n  (Princeton University Press, 1944) introduced the idea that when players are playing a game, they will always choose the path that offers the most gain to the player. Besides being used to develop games, this theory has been applied to economics, animal behav- ior, and sociological issues.\n\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  Another major factor to consider when using game theory is the idea that players begin all games ignorant of the rules of that\n\n  Want to know\n\n  game. A game’s concept must include the information regarding\n\n  more about game theory and the how a gamer is to learn these rules and guidelines, and how strat- history of games? Check\n\n  egy, diffi culty, and opposition will be used. Decisions regarding\n\n  out Game\n\n  these important areas should be made with the intention of max- ( http://gamestudies. imizing the enjoyment of the gamer—a concept that is known in org/0701 ) for more info. the game industry as “ play-balance ” . A great way of approaching this is to think of ways to create your game without the use of an instruction manual. The use of game theory can also create great suspense and surprise within the game by defying the typical response of the gamer and tricking the gamer into treading less- traveled paths.\n\n  Games that have great critical moments, memorable antago- nists and opponents, and decisions that bring great returns make for spectacular games. It is also the idea that the player has cho- sen his/her own path and personally achieved the particular out- come of the game that makes video games so popular. It is this very concept that makes gaming interactive. Game theory is\n\n\n  a basic concept that every game must incorporate to some degree and must be addressed while defi ning the concept of the game.\n\n  Interview: Game Design and Theory: Noah Falstein, Game Developer Magazine\n\n  Noah Falstein heads The Inspiracy ( http://www.theinspiracy. com ), a consulting fi rm specializing in game design and produc- tion. Since 1980, he has designed and managed entertainment and educational software titles for companies such as Williams Electronics, LucasArts, The 3DO Company, and Dreamworks Interactive. He has written the monthly design column for Game\n\n  Developer magazine since 2002 and serves on the advisory boards\n\n  of the Game Developer’s Choice Awards, the Serious Game Conference and the Games for Health Conference. Some games he has designed or codesigned include Sinistar , PHM Pegasus ,\n\n  Noah Falstein Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis , and design contributions to the recent the Star Wars RTS, Empire at War .\n\n  Newman : On your Web site The Inspiracy ( http://www.theinspi- ), you are in the process of creating a list of 400 rules concerning game design. At the minimum, what core guidelines/ advice would you give a game designer concerning the creation of a new, successful title?\n\n  Falstein : That’s tough to answer briefl y—creating good games is a\n\n  hard job, and there’s a lot of knowledge and skill involved in doing it well. But to take “ at a minimum ” to heart, here’s the core advice I would give: learn from what has been done before in your cho- sen genre, but be sure to innovate as well. Keep your game ele- ments as simple as possible. Decide on a creative vision for the project, get buy-in from the rest of the team, and stick relentlessly to the purity of that vision (or if you change it, make sure that change is refl ected in everything that has been previously done on the game). Get the core game play up and running as early as possible, and test it repeatedly with both the team members and regular “ new blood ” fresh testers. Don’t release it until it’s great! That’s a lot to ask, but it’s a good formula for success.\n\n  Newman : Do you think that games with well-defi ned goals/mis-\n\n  sions make a greater entertainment impact upon a player than games with lots of open/sandbox-type play?\n\n  Falstein : No, both types can be valid; it depends on the audience\n\n  you are aiming at as well as a lot of variables about the game genre, your team, your schedule, and other things. It’s a little like asking “ Will dishes with meat taste better than vegetarian ones? ” or even “ Does salt taste better than pepper? ” —the ingredients\n\n\n  aren’t as important as the way they are combined and whom the fi nal dishes are prepared for. Well-defi ned goals are generally a good idea for most games, and particularly so for the more casual players. Open-ended games often demand more imagination and initiative from the player, and are best when the world is familiar (like The Sims or Grand Theft Auto ). One good compromise is to give a game a fi xed goal, but provide multiple ways to reach or achieve it. Some very successful series of games like Diablo and\n\n  Civilization have used formulas like that (even though the two are quite different in game genre and play mechanics).\n\n  Newman : A lot has been said about the psychology of game\n\n  development—particularly in the area of choices that are pre- sented to players, and the decisions they make when presented with a choice. This is the core of game theory. What are other ways that game designers can tap into human psychology?\n\n  Falstein : Another potentially long list! Just a few examples: the\n\n  psychology of emotion (for example, for a horror game, how to scare people most effectively), the psychology of perception (how to make individual icons or buildings or tools instantly recogniz- able to a player), evolutionary psychology (what type of story ele- ments are we humans hard-wired to care the most about?) and more. Psychology is very closely intertwined with good game design. Many game designers I know are quite familiar with psy- chology and often well-versed in related areas like neurophysiol- ogy, learning theory, and evolutionary psychology. Understanding how the brain works is very helpful when you’re trying to craft an experience for a player.\n\n  Newman : When you’re playing a new video game, and you fi nd\n\n  yourself losing immersion/suspension of reality, what’s usually to blame? How can we prevent this from happening?\n\n  Falstein : Good game design always has to contend with the twin\n\n  demons of Boredom and Frustration at the edge of the Flow Channel (see the book Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Harper &amp; Row, 1990), a great reference for designers). Boredom occurs when the challenge of the game does not increase in diffi culty and vari- ety fast enough to keep the player engaged, and frustration occurs when it gets too diffi cult too fast. Frustration can also result from inconsistent interface, bad dialog and story, confusing directions— all sorts of things. One of my pet peeves for example is games set in the distant past, or far future, where everyone talks like a person from the present day.\n\n   Newman : When you get involved with a new project, what ingre-\n\n  dients do you look for in the concept package that signals to you that this will be a great game?\n\n\n   Falstein : Unfortunately, that’s a luxury I can’t often afford—as\n\n  a freelancer, I am often brought into an existing project because it is having trouble, or at least needs something to improve it, and the companies that know how to turn out great hit titles (Blizzard, for instance) don’t often turn to outside design help because they have quite enough expertise in-house. But it’s often not the con- cept that suggests it will be a great game, but the team. When I meet a group that knows what they’re doing, and that is already following the principles I mentioned previously in my fi rst answer, I can be confi dent it will be at least good and possibly great. When it’s a great fresh concept in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing (as when Will Wright fi rst showed his early work on Spore ) then you know there’s the potential for greatness.\n\n  Newman : It seems that a lot of games limit their audience by only\n\n  targeting a specifi c niche or type of gamer. What types of mea- sures can be taken when crafting your design document to bal- ance having a specifi c genre with not limiting the scope and appeal of the game?\n\n  Falstein : You can’t please everyone all the time. It’s wise to target\n\n  a specifi c type of gamer. The trick is often to use interactivity to widen the appeal—in other words, the fact that in our medium, unlike other traditional entertainment forms like books, movies, and classic TV, we can change the experience based on the spe- cifi c person (or people) playing. There are many ways to do this— one example is how Blizzard took the “ traditional ” MMORPG assumption that you need to combine with a group of other play- ers in order to progress your character past the fi rst level or two and turned it around, making it possible for players to do well alone or in a team—and that’s certainly part of the success of\n\n  World of Warcraft . But note that despite its success, it hasn’t done\n\n  as well in numbers of players as Tetris or Pokemon or The Sims or the Halo franchises—and I expect that there’s not a huge amount of overlap among those groups either. The lesson is that you can aim at a specifi c group of players and still have a big hit—but if you try to make a game that will appeal to everyone in the world, you’ll probably fail.\n\n  Newman : Do certain game development models (the Iterative\n\n  Approach, Agile Development, and so on) lend themselves to a better- developed product than others? What’s been your experience?\n\n  Falstein : Iterative development is behind many very good titles,\n\n  but it has the dangerous problem of being hard to predict how long it will take. Still, if you are planning on breaking new ground, it is often the best way to go. If, on the other hand, you are simply planning on doing a sequel to a hit title (like the latest Madden\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER Football ) then you’re probably better off identifying a handful of\n\n  ways that you intend to improve the game, plan and test them in advance, and build to a strict schedule. The problem of “ Who is paying for this and what are their expectations? ” is one that no designer can ignore, and it’s very rare to fi nd someone who can tolerate (or afford) a lot of fl exibility in a schedule and budget.\n\n  Newman : What are some of the warning signs early on in devel-\n\n  opment that can signal a poorly designed game?\n\n  Falstein : There are many. Confusion about the core vision of the\n\n  game. A mix of contradictory, ill-fi tting game elements. Too much complication and detail. A focus on knowing every detail of the story of the game and dozens of pages of backstory about the char- acters—but little or nothing about what the player actually does in the game. Lots of mentions about “ then the player does X ” and nothing about what happens when the player chooses not to do X—or worse, the player is killed off any time they try something else. Those last two are actually very common when a fi lmmaker comes to the game experience. Too much enthusiasm for a previ- ous title— “ This will be just like Halo , only much better ” —often with a budget that is 10 percent of the game it is emulating. Too lit- tle regard for, or knowledge of previous titles: “ This revolutionary game will be the fi rst one ever designed by a woman, for women! ” (I’ve heard that at least fi ve times in my career, and it wasn’t true even the fi rst time I heard it). Too much unwarranted arrogance: “ I know everything about storytelling, and games all do it badly, so I’ll create the fi rst great game with a deep and compelling story—even though it’s the fi rst game I’ve ever worked on. ”\n\n  Newman : It seems that “ cinematic ” game design is more about\n\n  fi nding the depth of immersion in a game visually and sonically that exists in a movie rather than actually making a game that plays out like a fi lm. What is it about creating a video game that now draws the fi lm community (like Jerry Bruckheimer has recently)? What types of lessons learned are brought to the table by fi lm producers?\n\n  Falstein : I’ve worked with a lot of fi lmmakers over the course of\n\n  my career. In general, the more they know about fi lm and the more successful they are as fi lmmakers, the more they realize that games and fi lm are fundamentally different, and although there are things each medium can learn from the other, it’s important not to assume that what works in one medium will work in another. I’ve heard that sentiment, or the equivalent, expressed in conversations I’ve had with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and James Cameron.\n\n\n  On the other hand, I’ve also seen the opposite side, with people coming from fi lm with an attitude that they know all there is to know about entertainment and they’ll “ fi x ” video games and make them “ truly mass market ” —and these people generally have failed miserably. Spielberg in particular is an avid game player and has been for many years. I have a lot of respect for his abilities, and am hoping that his current collaboration with Electronic Arts will result in some great games . But even when they don’t know much about games to start with, the writers, set designers, directors, and producers who approach games with a willingness to learn have been great to work with. They bring a lot of very useful techniques and perspective. Much of fi lm grammar has some application to cinematic games. For example, the emotional signifi cance of cam- era angles, like looking down at a scene from a height in order to make the characters depicted feel insignifi cant, can work in games as well as fi lm. And producers in particular have introduced a lot of useful management techniques for handling a huge team of cre- ative and technical artists. As a freelance designer, I am very unusual in the games industry, where most designers are full-time employees, but freelancers are much more common in the fi lm industry, and that is having an effect as game budgets and teams keep growing.\n\n   Newman : Any advice for producers/designers out there? Falstein : One thing to keep in mind when making games that are\n\n  based on a fi lm or use cinematic techniques, is that games are, at their very core, all about interactivity. It’s about what the player does, the choices the player makes, and not about conveying a story or experience to a passive audience. Some of the techniques that work well in cinema don’t translate well to games, just as screenwriting differs from writing novels or plays. My view of the core difference between the two has a lot to do with the evolu- tionary origins of the reasons that people enjoy entertainment.\n\n  Passive forms of entertainment like fi lm or novels where the audience sits back and enjoys someone else’s story are, at their heart, interesting to us, because we can learn from the experi- ences of someone else—usually the protagonist of the fi lm. Because the action happens to someone else, we have the luxury of empathizing, and empathic reactions like tears of sympathy for a dying heroine are, if not easy to evoke, at least achievable. Games are more about learning directly from our own choices, and active reactions like the joy of triumph or anger at being thwarted are common. There are few games that make someone cry at a failed romance—but many of them can cause the player to raise their fi st and shout in exultation when they defeat a boss monster. Games are often at their best when the subject matter is\n\n\n  basic survival, and the choices are well represented by the kinds of images and choices a computer can create and model. So as with any art form, unless you really know what you are doing, it’s best to stick to what the medium does best. Once you have become profi cient at game design, then you can take more liber- ties with the game and push the boundaries.\n\n\n  The typical preproduction period for developing a game is very similar to that of the fi lm industry. It means defi ning the product! For most studios, going into preproduction means that a great, new game concept is on the table and now it must be pitched and sold to a game publisher. This usually means creating a formida- ble game design document and either a prototype of the game or a vertical slice of what the game will be like—this is usually a sin- gle level of game play that will later be used within the fi nished title.\n\n  Key decisions that determine the quality and cost of the game must be made in preproduction—these choices include the num- ber of personnel that will be hired, the length of the production schedule, the features of the game, and honing the fi nal versions of the game’s technical and creative design documentation.\n\n  The fi rst step is determining a crystal-clear concept for the game. Although different studios/publishers have different formats for this (see the Sample Game Concept in Appendix A: Extras), there are a few required elements: genre, platform(s), basic ele- ments, basic story, and main characters. Usually, a general blurb or mission statement is also included to sum up the overall intention of the game, a risk/competitive analysis is constructed, and a pro- totype is made.\n\n  Basically, the concept includes all the information you need when pitching a game to a publisher. Sometimes, this is best approached by thinking of it as a presentation. Think high- concept and creatively, roll it up into a great pitch, and you have a great representation of what kind of game you are proposing. Once you have fi nished the basic concept of the game, you can then get into the details of the actual game, or the requirements.\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER Many games, like Elder Scrolls\n\nIV: Oblivion, are developed on\n\n  multiple platforms. The Elder ® Scrolls IV: Oblivion © 2006 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. All rights reserved.\n\n  The concept phase of development is usually marked by\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  numerous meetings to discuss the various features that will be\n\n  Once you have all\n\n  included within the game. These include the artistic elements,\n\n  the elements of the\n\n  the levels and designs that will be used, and the particular game\n\n  pitch together,\n\n  props (weapons, maps, and so on) that will infl uence the pro-\n\n  consider assembling it as a gramming and engineering of the game. Microsoft PowerPoint\n\n  A typical way to approach these meetings is to form a list of\n\n  presentation. Once you are\n\n  priorities: high-priority items are the things that set the game\n\n  granted a meeting with a\n\n  apart from others of the genre and that defi nitely need to be\n\n  publisher, it’s always easier\n\n  included, and low-priority items are things that basically just gild\n\n  to “ show ” an idea than it is\n\n  the lily—in other words, they are items that would be nice in the\n\n  to “ tell ” it. There are also\n\nmany great templates for game, but are not necessarily needed. No matter what priority an\n\ncreative presentations on the\n\n  item is given, though, all ideas presented should be noted and Microsoft Offi ce Web site . considered.\n\n  (http: // offi\n\n  It is also during this period that a rough schedule is outlined\n\n\n  based on the needs of the game. Because most project manage-\n\n\n  ment systems rely on time and labor constraints, the team will plan the amount of development that will be involved with imple- menting each of the items listed in the requirements. Before mov- ing on to honing the fi nal game plan, it must be determined whether the title can be brought in on schedule based on imple- menting the listed requirements. If it is determined that it can, the team can now focus on developing the fi nal game plan.\n\n\n  The game plan represents the fi nal overall map for developing the title. In addition to the elements already included in the con- cept and feature list, a game plan also includes a specifi c budget, schedule, and staffi ng plan (examples are included in Appendix A: Extras). This is the bible by which your game will be created! Once you have pitched your project to a publisher and they have accepted your game plan, it will become abundantly clear how important staying on schedule and budget will be. Great skills at overall project management always make the difference between successful studios and unreliable studios.\n\n  In the fi lm world, there are several elements of preproduction that are similar to those of the game industry. The hard lessons learned by a hundred years of fi lmmaking (such as working on script development prior to production) can be applied to not only streamline the preproduction process (especially when forming the concept), but to help create a more cinematic prod- uct. These will be discussed in Part 2.\n\n2.1 Script Development\n\n  There is currently no recognized general format for creating a script in the game industry. Though there are many writers in the fi eld of game writing, there are dozens of different methods by which these writers create a script for a game. Some resemble basic narrative writing (such as a short story), some approach the script much like a graphic novel (this usually means describing short scenes or panels, then listing the dialogue that will occur there), and some have even gone to great lengths to design their own methods for writing the script that can involve detailed hyperlinks and bookmarks that outline the various paths the gamer can take.\n\n  In many cases, game developers have relied upon cut-scenes to relay any kind of story to the gamer. These are usually short animated clips that convey a necessary piece of information or relationship within the game to the viewer. Though in some cases these are quite necessary (especially if the story is rather com- plex), it is the issue of taking players, even momentarily, out of the game play that has caused the game industry to take a second look at cut-scenes. Another factor that must be considered when producing in-game cut-scenes is the need for specifi c producers and personnel who are skilled in this area. This can contribute to infl ating the budget—especially if you are using celebrity talent or directors!\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER Far Cry Instincts: Predator by Ubisoft features great examples of cut-scenes that do not take the player from the game. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  At any rate, whether you use cut-scenes or not, some type of script will be developed to let the production team know exactly what kind of story they are creating. This is important\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  when defi ning the locations, characters, and style that will be represented within the game. Typically, once a fi rst draft has been\n\n  Download a demo\n\n  developed and read through by the development team, revisions\n\n  version of Final\n\n  will be asked for. The notes that you take during the initial read-\n\n  Draft or Movie\n\n  through will be valuable in helping you to craft revisions accord-\n\n  Magic Screenwriter to get\n\na fi rsthand look at the ing to the wants/needs of the team producing the game. The\n\nconstruction of a script. You\n\n  process of writing the script, reviewing the script, and crafting\n\n  can also get a free copy of\n\n  rewrites may repeat itself many times before the fi nal script is\n\n  Celtx—a valuable approved. screenwriting program and\n\n  Do not confuse a game writer, though, with the person who\n\n  script development tool—at\n\n  creates the game instruction manual! This should be a completely\n\n  their Web site, http://\n\n  different person (usually a technical writer), and he/she will not . become involved with the project until close to postproduction.\n\n2.2 Hiring the Crew\n\n  Depending on the location of the studio, hiring the personnel needed to complete production of a game can either be the easiest of steps or the most frustrating. If you are located in one of the game development meccas (such as Austin, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, or San Francisco), crewing up can be as sim- ple as posting the job openings on your Web site and letting the resumes roll in. If you are not in one of the major cities for game development, getting interested (and competent) parties may be a bit more involved.\n\n\n  Typically, a human resources (HR) department takes care of all the hiring for a studio, but if your studio is small (or new), you may not have an HR department in place. That said, there are several different strategies for fi nding the skilled talent you need: getting a recruiter, posting jobs on popular game job sites, going to the major conferences, and contacting schools.\n\n  Hiring a recruiter may be the easiest solution, as they basically do the other three things listed for fi nding talent. A good recruiter does other things as well, such as screening the applicants, fi elding the fi rst round of interviews, and organizing the lists of potential candidates for each position to be reviewed by the production team. Once the recruiter has gathered a number of portfolios, resumes, and work samples, the top candidates can then be sched- uled for a more formalized interview process.\n\n  If you decide to do without a recruiter, you can post the posi- tions on some of the major game development Web sites and begin contacting schools. Most schools that offer degrees in the various fi elds of game development have a counselor or adminis- trator in charge of helping fi nd positions for students. Keeping in mind that most people you hire from a school will be completely inexperienced, you can defi nitely get some great people from the bigger schools for a reasonable price. As payroll can be one of the biggest factors when determining the budget, you can maximize the most by utilizing as many entry-level personnel as possible. Also keep in mind, if you are functioning as your own HR depart- ment, you need to set up some kind of formalized review and interview process. The sooner you do this, the faster you will get crewed up.\n\n  As far as attracting experienced talent goes, setting up a booth at one of the major game developer conferences is a great strat- egy (Game Developer’s Conference, E3, Austin Game Developer’s Conference, to list a few). Keep in mind, that the more experience and talent a person possesses, the bigger the salary he or she will want. These are the people, though, that you will hire to be department leads, and they will be the ones that take you to a successful fi nal product.\n\n  Either way, once a good-sized stack of perspective applicants has been decided upon (usually by screening out people using phone interviews), it’s time to set up some formal interviews. Some of the important topics to cover in the interview are: gaps in employment, multiple jobs in a short period of time, refer- ences, responsibilities at the last position, and future goals of the applicant. Also, it’s a good idea to include as many members of the department that the person is interviewing for in the inter- view. Once the interview is over, the department can then discuss how they feel the person would fi t in with them (sometimes\n\n\n  called the “ culture ” of the workplace) and whether the producer should extend a job offer to the applicant.\n\n  The hiring process can be a long one—especially if you need a lot of specialized and experienced personnel. When you are all crewed up, the last thing you need is fast turnover (people quit- ting/getting fi red). This problem can be prevented by implement- ing some great programs at the studio designed to retain personnel. In addition to the obvious perks (benefi ts and great environment), some other things you can institute around the studio include the following: on-site gym, kitchen with coffee bar/snacks, game room (useful for competitive research and enjoying downtime), and cross-training (engineers always enjoy learning about the art side of the house and vice versa). These things help you keep a solid and happy studio functioning.\n\n  Once the task of hiring the development team is fi nished and leads for each department have been identifi ed, it’s time for a chain of communication to be established.\n\n2.3 Learning to Scrum\n\n  “ Scrum ” is the basic terminology used for Agile Software Development practices. There are tons of books about the topic— as well as some great Web sites—but the one I recommend is\n\n  Agile Software Development with SCRUM by Ken Schwaber and\n\n  Mike Beedle (Prentice Hall, 2001). Basically, the fundamental practice of a scrum is to develop a game bit by bit, reviewing the current component in a meeting environment, then moving on to the next step in development through team consensus. It is the regular meetings of directors, producers, and leads that consti- tute scrumming ( “ scrum ” is a rugby term for when all the players huddle up on the fi eld to continue play).\n\n  One of the most valuable things to learn when beginning the practice of Agile development is to not go into the realm of meet- ing overload! Regular production meetings are extremely impor- tant (especially in the beginning of development) and should be of the highest priority on the schedule, but many times a pro- ducer can schedule too many meetings and leads fi nd themselves constantly off the fl oor (where the younger, inexperienced devel- opers need them) and in meetings. A great way to avoid this is to assign senior team members who are not the leads to attend the scrums and provide input.\n\n  The basic scrum session is made up of a scrum master and rep- resentatives of each department engaging in planning and brain- storming. This team typically works on small sets of tasks designed to help the development process for everyone in achievable, but\n\n\n  small periods of time called “ sprints ” . Each scrum/sprint builds upon the one completed before it. Soon, these small, manageable tasks get the team on track to turn in another deliverable or reach a scheduled milestone.\n\n  Creating a completed, cinematic game like BioShock is accomplished with many sprints and milestones. Reproduced by permission of 2K Games. All rights reserved.\n\n  The use of Agile development and scrums can create a more focused development cycle, build a team with a higher morale and focus, and implement a simple way for tracking progress. Usually, the scrum is used in conjunction with a typical project management system (such as Microsoft Project) and is one of the fundamental practices of the gaming industry. There are aspects of Agile development that can be especially helpful when initially planning the game, too (in the concept/game plan phase), such as discussing the methodologies by which the development team will work together and support each other. This method is prefer- able to the old model of “ code-like-hell, fi x-like-hell ” .\n\n  Other viable approaches to development (there are many) include the practices known as the Iterative (or Incremental) method and the Waterfall (or Cascade) method.\n\n2.4 Iterative and Waterfall Development Models\n\n  Sometimes called the “ iterate-until-you-drop ” method, the Iterative development model is based around the idea of devel- oping a game in small increments, then taking advantage of everything learned/gained when developing subsequent steps. The approach revolves around an initialization step that creates a base version of what is being developed, then an iteration step\n\n\n  that involves experimenting with and creating a product based upon a control list of features and tasks that need to be per- formed. This approach usually involves cross-discipline work that focuses on functionality. The fl exibility of this approach makes it quite appealing to development teams, and the use of analysis and measurement help ensure a quality product.\n\n  By contrast, the Waterfall development method is very step- driven and methodical. It focuses on the idea of working sequen-\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  tially through the various stages of development (analysis, design, implementation, testing, integration, and maintenance), then\n\n  Learning more\n\n  delivering the fi nal product. There are various spin-offs of this\n\n  about software engineering is as model—and most are criticized for the belief that a particular easy as picking up a book\n\n  development step can be made perfect before continuing to the\n\n  that will go into more detail\n\n  next step. The Waterfall method does not allow for implementing\n\n  regarding this subject. Check\n\n  later changes to earlier ideas—or at least not doing so with any\n\n  out Software Engineering:\n\n  ease. For these reasons, the Waterfall/Cascade method of devel-\n\n  A Practitioner’s Approach by opment is usually avoided.\n\n  Roger S. Pressman\n\n  Whichever method you determine to suit your production (McGraw-Hill, 2004). needs will include a great deal of project management.\n\n2.5 Project Management\n\n  Most producers in the game industry have a background in some sort of project management. This can be as formal as having obtained an MBA or certifi cation through the Project Management Institute (or through Microsoft) or as informal as possessing expe- rience from working on past projects (in or out of the game indus- try). Either way, chances are good that they will be working with Microsoft Project.\n\n  Without getting into the nitty-gritty of Project, the simplest way to understand how it works is to envision the development of your game in what is called a “ critical path ” . This concept is a sort of step-by-step way of looking at creating your game. Because certain steps have to be completed before other steps (called “ dependencies ” ), a chain of tasks must be accomplished and fi n- ished before moving on to the next step.\n\n  Each step in the critical path can be plotted in the program to incorporate a schedule, keep you on budget, and to allocate resources for each task that is being assigned. In a nutshell, it’s an all-in-one program for keeping the project on track—exactly what the program was designed for! Usually, the producers track the progress of development using a project management program such as Project as their primary tool for determining how and when a project is getting off track.\n\n\n  Alternatively, more and more producers are starting to use Microsoft Excel for tracking. Though it does not have the ability to create reports about schedule, resources, and so on, Excel does allow you to keep detailed fl owcharts annotated with milestone schedules and dates that deliverables should be fi nished. Excel is also easier to read for those not acquainted with Project. This ease helps immensely when making reports regarding daily prog- ress (sometimes called “ daily delta reports ” ) or discussing the status of production in a studio meeting.\n\n  Another way that progress is tracked throughout the develop- ment process is the use of online documentation. Most produc- tions use an internal Web site, maintained by the individual departments, that lists the status of current tasks and the prog- ress that is being made (sometimes this is a wiki page, sometimes it is a blog template). This site becomes an important tool by allowing the producer to see what is being accomplished on a daily basis throughout the team. The information extracted from the site usually affects what is going into the daily reporting to the studio and publisher.\n\n  The primary goal and concern for every project manager—a producer or director—is to keep the production of the game on schedule and on budget.\n\n2.6 Budgeting\n\n  When creating the budget for a project, one primary concern must be kept in mind: the game needs to make a profi t! The lower the bottom line, the more likely a publisher is to pick up the title. You probably need to have a schedule in place before fi nalizing the budget, but if you have the rough schedule, you can usually begin forming the specifi cs of the budget.\n\n  The budget must include every aspect of creating the game, including labor (including outside contract work and any benefi ts involved with employment), the overhead for maintaining the studio during production, any equipment that will be needed by the development team (computers, other hardware, specialized software, and so on), all fees for the title (licensing), and morale. More often than not, the expense involved with keeping a team in high spirits is one of the areas that bloom out of control—along with feature creep and overly ambitious schedules.\n\n  Any time the production team gets into a crunch period (usu- ally right before a milestone is reached and the end of produc- tion), it is necessary to foot the bill for many meals, morale trips, and so on to keep the team motivated. As personnel will be work- ing ungodly hours (far more than usual, at any rate), they will be\n\n\n  eating a majority of their meals on the job—and on your tab! Creating a more realistic schedule helps alleviate this issue, and this contingency must be factored into the budget.\n\n  With a great budget and schedule, great games are created—like Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Reproduced by permission of Activision. All rights reserved.\n\n  Sitting down with the directors and producers to form an item- ized budget is a tedious but necessary evil. Once a department- by-department budget is created (See the Sample Budget in Appendix A: Extras), the next task is to stay on budget! Again, whether you’re using a project management system or a simple spreadsheet to achieve this goal, the closer the team sticks to the budget, the better your relationship with the publisher will be. Ideally, the original budget would be the one to take the team through the entire production phase; realistically, though, there will be contingencies that cannot be completely anticipated. These usually revolve around labor, travel (including attending various conferences), and feature creep. It is an unfortunate real- ity that, no matter what development model the team utilizes, the budget will have to be revised a few times curing production. Again, to keep in the good graces of the publisher, it is a good idea to stay as close to the original projected budget and schedule as possible.\n\n  In addition to affecting the budget, the schedule will also be\n\n  determined by the budget. Knowing in advance how much you\n\n  will have to spend on your game will give you a great idea of how much time you will be able to afford in production.\n\n\n2.7 Scheduling\n\n  Creating a detailed schedule is perhaps the most challenging part of getting the project underway. There will always be tasks that have slipped through the cracks, tasks that take much longer than planned, and dependencies that seem to never get fi nished so that the team can move on. These must be dealt with on a daily basis. Feature creep is the stuff producers have nightmares about and the bane of any production.\n\n  There are several ways to approach the creation of a schedule including the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach, and working with various constraints (time, resources, and money to name a few). Most project management personnel have their own favorite method. One of the most common ways to approach a schedule is to think of the critical path for developing the game. Once you have your chain of tasks and have assigned a duration/ period for accomplishing each of these tasks, you will have a basic schedule. Though the production may run for years, it is still necessary to have some kind of idea regarding when each major milestone should be reached. When determining these, get all of the department leads involved. Their experience will ensure that the schedule is realistic and achievable. It will also keep them from casting blame when a milestone suddenly seems unreach- able and the team careens into crunch time.\n\n  Planning for contingencies will be another necessary task when preparing the fi nal schedule. As the development of a game can occur over a very long period of time, many changes will occur throughout the studio. There will be holidays, personnel changes, vacations, conferences, crunch time (overtime), and training of new employees. There should be a contingency fund set aside for just these occurrences.\n\n  Creating a realistic schedule takes time and many meetings, so don’t forget to allow for this in the budget. Taking steps during the concept phase to document the scope of work involved with producing the proposed game will help with this. Rely on the experience of the senior team members to accurately gauge the amounts of time involved with producing each of the particular features of the game. A balance between concept and reality will eventually be reached.\n\n  At the minimum, an early schedule should have the basics listed with a set date: production, QA, and the Gold Master. Once these major dates have been determined, the production phase can be broken down into the various milestones that must be reached and the lists of criteria that need to be fulfi lled before moving on to the next phase.\n\n\n  Once the schedule is fi nished, the game plan for development is wrapped up and preproduction of the game is offi cially fi n- ished. With the budget, schedule, and concept package fi rmly in hand, you can now move on into production.\n\n  Interview: Warren Spector, Founder, Junction Point Studios\n\n  Warren Spector has worked in the game industry for more than twenty years. After six years at Steve Jackson Games and TSR cre- ating pen-and-paper games, Spector spent seven years at Origin Systems producing several addictive games, including Ultima\n\n  Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, System Shock, Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle, Wings of Glory, Bad Blood, Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams, CyberMage, and many more. A brief stint with Looking\n\n  Glass Technologies was followed by a seven-year association with Ion Storm. After founding Ion Storm’s Austin studio in 1997, he directed the development of its genre-bending, award-winning game Deus Ex. He later oversaw development of Ion Storm’s Deus\n\n  Ex: Invisible War , released in December 2003, and Thief: Deadly Shadows , released in June 2004. He left Ion Storm in November\n\n  2004 to found Junction Point Studios, Inc., which was acquired by Disney Interactive Studios in July 2007.\n\n  Though now a fi xture in the electronic gaming world, Spector’s gaming roots are in the pen-and-paper game business, where he developed Toon: The Cartoon Roleplaying Game (among others) for Steve Jackson Games and at TSR, where he worked on the Top\n\n  Secret/SI Espionage role-playing game, The Bullwinkle &amp; Rocky Party Roleplaying Game , and the Buck Rogers Battle for the 25th Century board game, to name a few.\n\n  In addition to making games, Warren is a published novelist (The Hollow Earth Affair , with Richard Merwin , released in 1988), a fi lm reviewer for the the Austin Chronicle , an assistant instruc- tor for fi lm and television studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles. From 2000 to 2002, he served on the Board of Directors of the International Game Developers Association (IDGA) and served as chairman of the IGDA’s education committee, forging ties between the game business and academic institutions around the world.\n\n  Warren was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a BS in Speech. He received his Master of Arts in Radio-Television-Film from the\n\n  Warren Spector\n\n  University of Texas at Austin and remained there to pursue a PhD\n\n\n  in communications until the video game business lured him away from academia just a dissertation short of a degree. He is a booka- holic, board game fanatic, lover of basketball, and rhythm guitarist for the band “ Two-Headed Baby ”. Warren lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Caroline and far too many animals.\n\n  Newman : What aspects of modern/current game development\n\n  trends have you noticed recently that are taking the industry in the right direction?\n\n  Spector : There seems to be a growing market for smaller, less\n\n  expensive games that at least have a chance of breaking new ground, design-wise. When games cost $10 million, $20 million, and more, it’s hard to take a lot of chances. With all the major hardware manufacturers and PC folks offering downloadable games, there are more opportunities for commercially viable, “ indie-style ” games than ever before. That’s kinda cool!\n\n  Newman : What, in your opinion, constitutes a “ cinematic ” game? Spector : My sarcastic answer is: “ A cinematic game is one that\n\n  doesn’t know what it wants to be and therefore shouldn’t be made. ” Basically, while games and movies share many character- istics, it’s important—maybe critically important—to recognize, celebrate and exploit the things that make them different. Sure, movies and games can both tell stories structured in superfi cially similar ways; both can feature actors reciting lines of dialogue; both place a premium on appropriate camera positioning; and so on. But introduce real interactivity into the mix—which only games can do, and therefore must do—and the similarities start to look very superfi cial. There’s a gaming truism that the more cinematic you make a game, the less game like it becomes (and vice versa). That’s still true today and even if we can change it, I’m not sure we should. Games need to borrow the cinematic elements that contribute to a game-like experience, but going too far does violence to both media, I think.\n\n  Newman : How has your background in role-playing games\n\n  helped you with game design?\n\n  Spector : Well, the truth is, I had to unlearn a lot of things, moving\n\n  from tabletop role-playing games to electronic games. I mean, you don’t appreciate the power of a human game master and players who can improvise freely until you don’t have them! But what I did bring with me from the tabletop, face-to-face game world was an appreciation for the intelligence and improvisa- tional abilities of players. They really do want to direct their own, unique experiences, and electronic games that “ fake ” interactivity (keeping players on rails, forcing them down a linear path)— those games are inevitably going to be inferior to games that truly\n\n\n  empower players to make their own, unique choices—and deal with the consequences of those choices.\n\n  Newman : Another aspect of gaming that has improved is the\n\n  storytelling. Has the game writing standard improved in your opinion and how has it affected the gamer?\n\n   Spector : I guess game writing has gotten somewhat better over\n\n  the years. But, fundamentally, players play games to, you know,\n\n  play . They don’t play games to read a bunch of text or wait around\n\n  while a virtual character pontifi cates for hours. If game develop- ers had any idea how to make conversation as dynamic and inter- active as we make the more active, visceral aspects of our games, we’d really be on to something. So far, I’m not real impressed with the progress we’ve made on that front. Frankly, if I knew how to solve what I call “ the conversation problem, ” I’d do it! Given the limits of our conversation tools, I think the best we can hope for is that game writers will learn a lesson from screenwriters—those guys are masters, absolute masters, of brevity. Read a movie script and marvel at how much emotion and character can be crammed into a word or two; a gesture; a look. It’s incredible. Game writers have to write a whole lot less, if I can over-generalize a bit!\n\n  Newman : Over the years, you’ve been involved with quite a few\n\n  successful games—the Ultima series and Deus Ex come quickly to mind. What characteristics mark a great franchise title?\n\n  Spector : I wish I knew! There’s a fair amount of bottled lightning\n\n  involved! Having said that, I think it probably has to do with sub- ject matter—either on the surface or as subtext—that people really care about. Your game has to be about something bigger than the minute-to-minute actions of the player. I also think you need a compelling central character. And you need a world that’s so well thought out, so well realized, that people can believe they’re really there. And, of course, the game play has to be rock- solid and innovative—we’re still a novelty-driven medium, more than a content-driven one. If you’re not offering players some- thing they haven’t seen before, you have a real uphill battle.\n\n  Newman : Since consoles have added the ability for online gam-\n\n  ing, the social aspects of being a gamer have improved consider- ably. How much impact does online content have upon the success of a game today?\n\n  Spector : No idea. I’ve only worked on one game that had any\n\n  online aspect—the Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition shipped with a competitive multiplayer mode that we did as more of an experi- ment than anything else. I wanted to see if our unique avatar/ unique experience concept would translate to a different multi- player experience than people were used to. I think it worked, for\n\n\n  what it’s worth, though I don’t think many people tried it! Anyway, it’s certainly true that online aspects are an important bullet point on the back of a game box, and there are clearly lots of people who want a social experience as they play. I just hope that doesn’t supplant the single-player experience, which has its own pleasures and (still untapped) potential.\n\n  Newman : When Origin closed up shop in Austin, it seemed that\n\n  the talent you had gathered there moved on to form the core for quite a few new studios. What “ lessons learned ” did you consider when you formed your new studio, Junction Point?\n\n  Spector : I learned a ton from the Origin and Ion Storm experi-\n\n  ences—a book’s worth! I think I came to appreciate how impor- tant team fi t was to success. And it’s critical to have team members and publishing partners who believe in your mission. Without a positive culture and committed collaborators, you can’t succeed. That’s probably the most important thing I tried to bear in mind when I started Junction Point.\n\n  Newman : Now that J.P. is affi liated with Disney—most known, of\n\n  course, for fi lms—has the game development style of the studio become more cinematic? What great practices has the studio added from Disney?\n\n  Spector : I don’t know that we’ve become “ more cinematic ” in our\n\n  thinking. I mean, if you check out our Web site you’ll fi nd an abridged version of our mission statement. (The longer version can be found on my blog site: That mission hasn’t changed at all since we became part of Disney. In fact, I’ve always made a point of reminding people I work with—including Disney, now—that if they don’t want games like the ones I talk about in the mission statement, we probably shouldn’t work together! Having said that, we’re all psyched about how open the guys at Disney, on the fi lm side, have been about sharing their expertise with us. I mean, there are ways in which games and movies are similar, and collaboration can make both media stronger. Working with the Disney fi lm guys has already been an education for me and I don’t see that changing—gotta keep learning!\n\n  Newman : What advice would you give a young producer/director\n\n  just getting into the game development industry?\n\n  Spector : Well, get it out of your head that you’re going to start as a\n\n  producer or director, for starters! Figure out where you can really make an impact in the trenches of game development. You need to prove yourself as a designer or artist or programmer or audio person or tester or something before you even think about mov- ing into a larger creative or management role. Remember, always,\n\n\n  that ideas are the easy part of game development—execution is insanely hard. Until you’ve been through it a few times, you can’t even imagine! So learn as much as you can about how games are made; fi gure out what aspect of game development you love— what you’re really, really good at (it’s an ultra-competitive busi- ness); fi nd developers or publishers who make the kind of game you love to play, and don’t give up until you get your foot in the door. On a somewhat related note, if you’re in school, stay there. A broad-based education will serve you well in this business.\n\n\n\n  Though this is by no means an exhaustive look into the world of producing a video game, this chapter will give you an idea of just what is involved with game development. Part 4 of this book covers some of these topics in more detail—mostly geared towards the production of an “ independent ” game. In this primer, we take a more succinct look at the various elements involved with getting production up and rolling.\n\n  One of the fi rst major decisions that you will make as a director/ producer is what types of technology will be used in designing and programming your title. Although some areas of game dev have almost standardized tools (for instance, it is almost an inevitability that animators will be using 3ds Max and Maya), the choices of Creating a game like Midway’s Blacksite: Area 51 means using a lot of software and tools.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of Midway Games. All rights reserved.\n\n\n  game engines and middleware are growing on an almost daily basis. Factors that determine which tools you will use include the needs of the engineers, the costs of licensing and using certain software, and the platforms the game will be played on.\n\n3.1 Technology and Tools\n\n  Early on—probably during designing the game concept and design document—the technical leads will evaluate the game and the requirements needed to accomplish development. These decisions will be made based on the budget (some software can carry a pretty high licensing fee), the level of graphics and func- tionality desired, and the knowledge base of the team. Sometimes, the team is chosen after the tools have been determined and hir- ing is based upon experience with these tools.\n\n  Either way, the major areas of software include game engines, AI systems (artifi cial intelligence), necessary middleware (soft- ware designed to work with another existing program), and phys- ics systems. All of these needs will have to be addressed—and you can actually get middleware programs for most of these areas (meaning that you can get second-party-developed software to handle specifi c needs rather than licensing expensive programs from the developer of your game engine). The area of middleware is huge in the game industry right now and is a huge source of employment for engineers/programmers.\n\n  Of course, some developers make the decision to create their own proprietary technology for game creation. Though this can\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  add considerable time to the project, the studio will own the pro-\n\n  A great way to\n\n  gram and will not have to shell out any money for licensing. There\n\n  familiarize yourself\n\n  is also the added benefi t of being able to sell your engine to other\n\n  with a game\n\n  developers for income. Either way, once the software package has\n\n  engine is to get one! You\n\n  been determined, the tech leads will create a pipeline or work-\n\n  can pick up the Torque fl ow for the game. game engine from Garage\n\n  The pipeline is basically the path that the team takes regarding\n\n  Games or the XNA game\n\n  the creation, programming, and implementing of individual\n\n  engine from Microsoft for a\n\n  game assets. Because most items in a game must be compiled or\n\n  very low price. Also, many\n\n  converted to fi t the programming needs of the game, it’s impor-\n\n  of the programs involved\n\nwith game development tant to establish this workfl ow early. Some of the things to iden-\n\nhave free trial versions that\n\n  tify when constructing this pipeline are the critical path for you can download for free. getting the work done, the tracking system for monitoring pro-\n\n  Working on mods for other duction and bugs, and any risks that could affect production. games is another great\n\n  Once the tools are in place and the pipeline is established, the\n\n  way to learn about this\n\n  team can move on to the individual development requirements and area as well. workfl ow needed for the design, art, and engineering departments.\n\n\n   3.2 Design Production\n\n  Early in the process, you must choose the tools and middle- ware that will best serve the programming needs of your game. As mentioned earlier, the tools needed to support the actual game design will be evident in the choices of functionality pres- ent in your game. Some of the factors in the design that will require technology/tool choices include sound design, artifi cial intelligence, and physics. Another factor infl uencing your choice of game engine and middleware should be the ability to make changes easily.\n\n  Once the design team has begun the development process, the need to change the functionality within the game and test the existing features will become quite evident. The ability to make changes and add additional functionality should be one of the deciding factors when choosing your software for development.\n\n  Some of the game elements to be considered when choosing software includes the use of speech, use of game controls, and any detailed data that must be monitored during game play (such as scoring, levels, and so on). The ability to iterate and change these functions during development should be a deciding factor when choosing a game engine and middleware. Though rede- signs should be kept at a minimum, they are almost an inevitabil- ity and the software must allow for this.\n\n  Also, the feedback that the design team receives from the QA department will become an important tool for designing subse- quent builds on the game and ensuring that all functionality is on point. The basic workfl ow of the design team involves imple- menting features, testing features, and then making appropriate changes to the builds to accommodate this information (all to be approved by the directors/producers).\n\n   3.3 Art Production On the art side of the house, the workfl ow goes a bit differently.\n\n  Once the basic concept art has been approved and the team is in alignment with the overall artistic vision and look of the game (a lengthy process that involves creative meetings focusing on the script, production, and goals of the game), the art team begins the lengthy process of creating art assets within the game. These assets can be everything from the locations and buildings to the individual characters, props, and vehicles used throughout the game. Often, the list of assets can be so long that much of this work is outsourced to external parties.\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER An example of concept art from Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.\n\n  Typically, the art team has sets of deadlines for “ deliverables ” (individual items) and individual artists/animators has specifi c assets assigned to them. It’s usually a good idea to assign a spe- cifi c animator or artist to each character to ensure continuity throughout the game. As the art team creates more and more assets, they begin working closely with the engineering team to ensure that the assets can be integrated into the game.\n\n  Some of the more prevalent programs in the art department include Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, and Autodesk 3ds Max. There are other 3D modeling programs, as well as painting programs used for coloring and applying textures, that are more specialized and available as well, though fi nding artists that spe- cialize in them may be more diffi cult.\n\n3.4 Engineering Production\n\n  The engineering team is responsible for researching and cod- ing everything into the actual game, as well as debugging any problems that occur. As they receive assets, they code and engi- neer them into the game using the tools and software available.\n\n\n  Every time the code changes within the game, a new build is essentially created. Depending on the schedule and budget you have in place, new builds can be made available on a daily, weekly, or milestone basis. Every new build means more debug- ging and another pass through the QA department. It is the smooth operation of these cycles that gets the game through development and into publishing.\n\n  It is important to also take into consideration the use of revi- sion (or version) control system software. This is just one of the ways you can track changes to code within the game, as well as manage it. You can even use this software to keep multiple ver- sions of the game archived as they are created. Best of all, if some- thing is working you can see who made the changes to it, as well as allow multiple people to work with/from the same code.\n\n  There are literally hundreds of choices in software, depending on the engineering needs of the game. At the very least, you should address all the various sections of the programming team (AI, graphics engine, game fl ow, network, database, user interface, tools, installation, and sound)—this is best done by speaking with the technical leads for the department. Because the technical side of the house becomes even more complicated when you begin to discuss the game’s platform (or the use of cross-platform development) and the various programming ele- ments of the game (including the programming language, librar- ies, debug systems, and profi lers), it’s best to let your tech leads guide your way.\n\n  Making a game geared to a single console, like Halo 3, defi nitely has its advantages. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.\n\n  Different systems have different costs and considerations involved with them—and some are easier to acquire/use than others. Some of the more common choices today for program- mers include OpenGL, Microsoft Visual C , and Microsoft’s\n\n\n  XNA/DirectX programs. There are also specialized programs that focus on artifi cial intelligence and on physics, as well as middle- ware that helps implement functionality between the programs being used. Most of these choices will of course be based upon the game engine that you use.\n\n  Communication between the art, design, and engineering teams is essential for the production to remain on schedule (yes, everyone will actually have to use the wiki/online collaboration tools and attend assigned meetings). All departments should take time testing new levels as well—everyone can make suggestions and improvements in the game play. The individual teams should be in contact with the QA department as well to track bugs and correct them as they occur.\n\n3.5 The Team\n\n  In addition to the personnel who typically run a studio (man- agement)—this would include the creative director, studio head, and the administrative personnel—there are four general areas of employment in the game industry: art, design, programming, and testing. Testing will be discussed later this chapter; fi rst, let’s take a look at the other three areas.\n\n  The art department is usually made up of character artists, ani- mators, background artists (sometimes called “ digital matte paint- ers ” ), and sometimes texture artists, though most character artists are also skilled at texture work. When the individual assets for the game have been dealt out to the various artists in the departments, there is typically a lead that is in charge of making sure that each artist pulls his/her weight and turns in assets on time.\n\n  The design team includes level/mission designers who report to a lead as well. Though the design team is involved with the production process early in the basic game design plan (this includes designing the locations of obstacles, goals, and props throughout the game), designers are also expected to be able to modify levels and continue designing throughout the production process. Any changes made to the basic design require the designers to be able to adjust the level plans accordingly.\n\n  The programming team involves all the personnel assigned to the various coding tasks associated with making the game. Every tool or program that’s involved in creating your title will require a mini-team of programmers to work with it—this includes the game engine, all middleware, graphics, artifi cial intelligence, and any specialized programs that will be involved. The programmers also report to a lead that then reports to the technical director.\n\n  In addition to the studio directors (creative and technical), there are also a number of producers involved with managing the vari-\n\n\n  responsible for making sure that the teams are working on sched- ule and budget, as well as reporting progress to the studio. Producers come from all aspects of game development, but a gen- eral knowledge of the tools being used (coupled with a strong proj- ect management background) is a must. Producers come in quite a few varieties including associate producers, assistant producers, line producers, and full-blown producers (we will discuss this aspect more and in great detail in Chapter 8 of this book). Other details that must be familiar to the producer include licensing and negotiation, testing, and localization.\n\n  There are also personnel who will be involved with creating the music, sound effects, and recording the voice over for the game. Sometimes the music is outsourced to local music producers/ composers, but having an internal composer capable of writing and recording music is a defi nite plus for the production.\n\n3.6 Sound Design\n\n  Though video games are thought of as a visual medium, the truth is that one of the most important characteristics of a suc- cessful title is the sound design. Sound designers usually have a background in studio engineering, music production, and com- position. Deciding upon the right sound designer for your project rests entirely on the style of music you want for the game. Will it be an electronic-based soundtrack or a traditional symphonic score? Once you know the type of soundtrack you want, you can then select an appropriate composer/designer.\n\n  The symphonic score by Jeremy Soule contributes immensely to the cinematic production value of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls IV: ® Oblivion © 2006 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER\n\n  It also important to know the types of audio tools the sound designers are familiar with. With many different options available on the market (Pro Tools, Soundforge, Propellerhead Reason, Cakewalk, among others), you can and should make sure that you have the appropriate programs on hand for that designer.\n\n  In addition to the music involved with the game, the sound design team is also skilled in sampling and designing sound effects. Every individual sound used in the game—everything from the sounds of walking/running to gunshots to animal sounds—must be created or recorded by the sound design team. In addition to obtaining sounds the traditional way (recording them), there are also sound effect libraries available for licensing. Most of these are quite reasonable—and even more cost-effective when you consider the logistics of recording some sound effects.\n\n  Much like the art department, the sound design team will have a laundry list of assets that must be acquired: music and songs, cut-scene scores, ambient sound and music, sound effects, and “ stingers ” (brief musical trills that punctuate a defeat, victory, or achievement), to name a few. It is important for these assets to be named and fi led appropriately as well, so organization skills can be a factor when making a choice.\n\n  A great way to approach the sound design of a game is to use “ temp tracks ” in development—standard tracks extracted from other musical works that are temporarily used in the game to illustrate the type of music desired for that portion of game play. Once the music styles match the desired mood and scope of the game, you can then work on getting original music composed in the vein of the temp tracks. This approach can also be used with stock sound effects.\n\n  Often, the sound design team is also in charge of recording any voiceover used in the game, though the use of external sound studios is also a viable route.\n\n3.7 Motion Capture and Voiceover\n\n  Before going into a voiceover session, make sure that the dia- logue is reasonably set within the script. Though a little improvi- sation may occur during recording, the bulk of the dialogue should be written in stone. Before going to the studio, the pro- ducer should sit down with that script and make direction and technical notes. These notes should include the names that will be assigned to each sound fi le (this step helps with importing the audio into the game), as well as any key elements relevant to the recording (such as “ character is very angry ” ).\n\n  Every character within the game must have an actor for the voiceover work. If your sound designer has no background in voiceovers, it may be wise to directly involve a producer or external\n\n\n  for the characters is usually the most diffi cult step. The use of an outside casting director is usually recommended for fi lling the roles (see the chapter in this book about casting). As the voiceover work is being recorded, it is necessary to remember the context of the lines being read, so that the actor can be directed to use the appropriate level of emotion or concern when recording. Once all sounds and music have been generated and archived with appro- priate fi le names, the game will wait for audio postproduction.\n\n  When creating fi le names for the various elements you are recording, it is also important to remember that you may be localizing the game in multiple languages. Make sure to annotate the fi les with the appropriate locale in the name. In addition to working outside the studio for the voiceover work, there will also be the use of a motion capture studio in most game productions.\n\n  Though some studios do have an on-site motion capture studio (or at least an area devoted to it), the typical practice is to outsource the motion capture work. Generally, the producers hire actors with motion capture (mo-cap) experience, work with them to outline the general movements of the characters they will be portraying, then accompany them to the mo-cap studio to do the actual work. Again, directing techniques are needed to get the appropriate character traits out of each bit of capture (cinematic directing techniques will be discussed thoroughly in Part 2 of this book). Though the game may have many characters, it is not uncommon to use only a cou- ple of actors for all the various roles. This is why it is important to let the actor know the particular character they are portraying in each move and the context of the action they are performing.\n\n  Whether you are using professional motion capture actors, gen- eral actors, or just a couple people from the studio, it is important to allow for the mo-cap work in the budget, as well as the time needed to translate the information from the session into the game.\n\n  Extensive use of motion capture makes for ultra-realistic movement in Ubisoft’s game Assassin’s Creed. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved. Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER\n\n3.8 Testing and Quality Assurance\n\n  The fi nal team you will deal with during production is the QA department. Though this area is usually reserved for people who are entering the industry at the ground level (sometimes the QA personnel are even gamers with little-to-no game development experience), make sure that there are experienced QA leads here and a well-seasoned QA manager. The QA team tracks bugs throughout the game development process and works with the programming department to fi x these bugs, so it’s important that this department is well-trained and well-equipped to handle their job. Some of the elements that the QA team look at include the functionality of the game, the cohesion of the story, the game’s interface, and the compatibility of the game with the intended hardware to be played on—and, most importantly, the bugs themselves!\n\n  The QA manager is responsible for managing the testing team, reporting bugs to the producers, and tracking the various builds of the game to make sure they are on point. This team can be uti- lized in-house as part of the game studio, or the entire QA process can be outsourced to an external studio or team. With the avail- ability of high-quality bug tracking software, though, it is advis- able to attempt to keep the team within the studio.\n\n  Though hiring a QA department costs money, this cost can be less than that of outsourcing the work. Factors that will infl uence your decision regarding the QA department include the availability of skilled testers, the game’s overall budget, and the amount of time allowed for Alpha and Beta testing in the schedule. Having the department in-house will speed up the testing process—also, the studio will now have the software and department in place for the next project, so you won’t have to purchase testing software again. Having the team on-site also allows for closer collaboration between QA and the producers. This can have a positive impact on your schedule and managing payments to contractors. Also, many game designers believe that keep young, fresh game testers on the\n\n\nDevelopment Tip payroll is an easy way to keep a game cutting-edge with current\n\ntechnology and trends.\n\n  Are you interested\n\n  However, if there simply is a shortage of local talent for game\n\n  in being a game\n\n  testing—the pay for this department is usually not high enough\n\n  tester? Download a\n\n  to entice people to move—it may become necessary to outsource\n\n  trial version of TechExcel\n\nDevTrack ( http://www. this work. Using an established testing fi rm means getting a level ) or TestTrack\n\n  of professionalism that you may not have had in your own studio,\n\n  Pro from Seapine software\n\n  as well as not spending money regarding the overhead of housing\n\n  ( ) another department. and get a leg up on the\n\n  The QA team also gets the fi nal crack at the Gold Master at the competition. end of production. This is the fi nal round of testing that will\n\n\n  determine whether the game is ready to ship to the publisher. Though most of the responsibility of the QA department falls under the QA manager (sometimes referred to as only a lead), it is also the duty of the producers to make sure that bugs are being tracked and resolved (or closed).\n\n  Letting a backlog of bugs get out of hand is one of the quickest ways to get a game off schedule. Bugs should be addressed as early as possible when discovered so that the programmers will still be familiar with that code that was generated. A great way to track bugs is to make sure that all builds include a level of accountability. If a new build breaks when played, it will be easy to see what assets were introduced in that version of the game— as well as what probably caused the problem.\n\n  Some of the perks of getting a game properly through a long- term QA process include implementing a quick release worldwide (as localizing issues will have been addressed), preventing piracy by implementing copy protection, and getting a quick thumbs-up from console manufacturers.\n\n  Interview: Ray Pena, Senior Animator, Spacetime Studios\n\n  Ray Pena has more than ten years of experience in games and fi lm. He has worked as an animator on the Turok video game series and was the art director on The Red Star game based on the award-winning comic series, while at Acclaim. Other works include animation on The Ant Bully and Everyone’s Hero feature fi lms. Ray also worked on Area 51:Blacksite for Midway. He’s done work for Disney and Nickelodeon for television shows including\n\n  Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius .\n\n  Newman : As an animator, you are in a position to work in both\n\n  the game and fi lm industries. Describe the challenges of keeping up with both communities and how you stay on top of technology.\n\n  Pena : Well, knowing a lot of folks in both industries helps me\n\n  keep up with what’s being worked on and any fi lms or games that are the buzz in either community. I’m a member of a few Google Groups that include game and fi lm animators/crew. I also peruse the forums often to see what the latest is in software, animation and modeling techniques, and so on. There’s so much to keep up with, though, that it’s diffi cult to be well versed in all aspects of\n\n  3D art. That’s why I focused on animation.\n\n  Newman : Have you worked on an animated fi lm before? If so,\n\n  what lessons learned/good practices did you bring with you to the game industry?\n\n  Part 1 GAME INDUSTRY PRIMER Pena : Yes. Planning is the single most important lesson I learned\n\n  from fi lm. Before, I always did what I thought looked cool and that seemed to work quite often. In fi lm, my acting choices weren’t always the best. So I sketched a lot, blocked in my anims pose to pose in a stepped key method, then I submitted that. I had to approach it as key drawings. It felt slow at the beginning of the process, but it sure did make life easier when changes were requested or the director simply pointed me in the right direc- tion. Nowadays, I always do sketches for my animations and get a feel for what others around me think about it. It’s always good to get opinions from other animators or just anyone before, during and after the creation of your animation. I tend to think more in depth of what a character’s purpose is as well. I consider what their motivation is, what their history may be. Are they evil? Do they have good intentions? Are they quick or slow? Heavy or light? Male or female? Clumsy or agile? Right-handed or left-handed? Married, single or divorced? Do they have a hearing problem?\n\n  Newman : What programs/software would you recommend that a\n\n  recent animation graduate in the game industry master?\n\n  Pena : It’s not the software that makes a good animator. It’s about\n\n  knowing the principles of animation and nuances of movement in bringing characters and objects to life. But, that said, the industry standards in 3D animation are 3ds Max and Maya. If you know one program, you pretty much know them all. It’s just about fi nding the buttons at that point.\n\n  Newman : Typically, a day on the job for you would involve … Pena : Animating. Lots of animating. I’ve been working on some\n\n  alien creatures lately, so studying insects and sea life is always included. I’m always taking a look at videos online or on DVD of anything that could inspire me. The research is never done, it seems.\n\n   Newman : Describe your workfl ow; where does your work come\n\n  from and where do you hand it off?\n\n  Pena : The ideas usually start from the design team, the folks who\n\n  create the gameplay and fi ction of the game. That is described to the concept artists. Once they are happy with sketches, color studies, and so on, they hand everything off to the modelers/tex- ture artists. I like to keep up with what’s going on in these early steps so that I can start getting my head around what motivates these characters.\n\n  Newman : In most cases, do animators create the actual artistic\n\n  look of the characters, vehicles, and similar items that they are creating, or is there usually an artist involved?\n\n   Pena : I like to throw in my two cents occasionally, but usually I let\n\n  the concept artists do their job. They’ve always been open to\n\n\n  obviously. Concerns I sometimes have are something like, are these arms worth having on the character if they’re useless? Is this weapon too big for this specifi c character?\n\n  Newman : Describe the creative process involved with meeting\n\n  the overall artistic vision for the project when creating original animation.\n\n  Pena : The animators will always have an initial meeting with the\n\n  lead designer, lead concept artist, and art director to discuss a character. We talk about every animation for that character and what direction we want to take it. Of course, there will always be differing opinions, but it’s great to come to a consensus and a well thought out idea. I usually then go back to my offi ce and sketch as much as possible to nail down key poses and arcs.\n\n  Newman : Artists are known for their passionate opinions con-\n\n  cerning their own art. How do you handle a clash in opinion when you feel an asset needs to go in a different direction?\n\n   Pena : I’m always open to criticism. That’s one thing every artist\n\n  needs to learn to deal with early on. I don’t always agree with crit- icism of my work, but I love talking about fi nding a common direction that could be better than my opinion and the others I’m working with.\n\n  Newman : Because you are a senior animator, a team of additional\n\n  animators work in your department with you. How do you com- municate a game plan to the team for a particular sprint/mile- stone? How do you keep them focused?\n\n  Pena : We usually try to stick to one animator per character. That\n\n  way they are able to keep it consistent in all of its motions. Seeing a character come together in the game is always very satisfying. I think that’s always a lot of motivation for any animator. There will always be bumps along the way. The anims sometimes don’t match up well with one another or the milestone may just be too long to keep focus, but it’s great to see the characters come to life. That always gives me a boost of excitement.\n\n  Newman : What advice would you give an animator just getting\n\n  into the job market?\n\n  Pena : Work hard! Nothing will be given to you. To get ahead, you\n\n  have to be thinking ahead of everyone else. Study animated fi lms, live action fi lms, animals, people and anything that moves. Inspiration will always be around you. Take acting classes. I’ve been to a few workshops. It’s scary sometimes, but very fun too. And of course, put all of that to use. Study with a purpose. Know why you’re looking at how an arm swings during a walk cycle or how most things will naturally move in some sort of arc. Networking is very important as well. Always be good to everyone around you. You\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  Unlike the fi lm industry (where months of editing, color cor- rection, and releasing the fi lm is involved), postproduction in the game industry is a relatively short period (when compared to the actual production phase, anyway). The game, for all practical purposes, is pretty much fi nished at this point. Postproduction in the video game industry is more about wrapping up the produc- tion and preparing for the next project. There are also some ines- capable necessities that must be performed at the end of the production cycle to ensure that your product will be available throughout the world, that it will sell, and that you will be in a position to launch your next title—such as setting up a customer support network and being prepared to code and create any nec- essary patches to your fi nished game.\n\n  Games like Bungie Studio’s Halo 3 take advantage of Beta testing with gamers all over the world to make sure the game is ready for release. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers.\n\n  All rights reserved.\n\n  The beginning of postproduction is usually marked by the release of the Gold Master; this is the fi nal version of the game that will be mass produced by the publisher. The Gold Master is\n\n\n  the game after it has made it through the approval processes of the studio, the console manufacturers, and the publisher during code release. Once it is out the door, the studio can begin prepar- ing for the next title to be produced.\n\n   4.1 Code Release and Gold Master\n\n  Think of this stage as quality control. At this point all the minor/major bugs involved with game play have been corrected, but the game must make it through the QA department’s fi nal set of checks and validation before the game can be sent on to the publisher. Though this is usually not a terribly long process (unless you’ve rushed to the Gold Master because of an unrea- sonable milestone schedule), it must be included in the schedule —usually a couple weeks—it can be an extremely involved pro- cess. Depending on the number of platforms the game will be released on and how many localizations are initially being pre- pared, each version of the game must go through stringent tests in every area. Once the QA department has given the game the thumbs-up, it can then be sent to be replicated. This is called “ code release ” .\n\n  Once the studio acknowledges that the game is ready and it has made it through the code release process, the actual game then is sent for review by the publisher. Chances are good that the game you were developing will be played on one or more con- soles; as a result, you will also have to submit the Gold Master to the console’s manufacturer for approval as well. In addition to getting approval at these locations, there will also have to be local tests of the game in the various areas in which it will be released to make sure that the game is relevant in the areas it is being released.\n\n   4.2 Builds and Localization\n\n  Though builds are happening throughout the production pro- cess, it’s helpful to think of builds in the overall sense of the game. A “ build ” is basically a version of the game at any point in the pro- duction process. Though there are several different approaches to scheduling builds into the production process, it’s important to remember that there are a couple builds that will be of huge importance: the Alpha build (which will be the fi rst really playable version of the game), the Beta build (the version that will be tested for fi nal bugs and playability), and the Gold Master.\n\n\n  Localizing a game like Lost Planet for multiple countries can take a lot of time and money.\n\n\n  When the game development process reaches its peak at Beta testing, new builds are created on an almost daily basis. Basically, every time a new function, asset, or similar element is added to the game, a new build has just been made. Producers usually track the additions that have been made to each build in a daily report (or build notes) that’s made available to the team through the use of version control software. This report is important to the QA department, as they must test all the additions to the title. Usually they do this on a scheduled basis, rather than attempting to keep up with the production team on a day-to-day basis (and because the testing process can be long); they usually run a build for a few days, then move on to the newest build to hit the deck. This means that only every third or fourth build is actually tested—and these are primarily the builds that involve changes in the code. Because the addition of art is not a huge change to the last build, most of these builds won’t be immediately tested.\n\n  Another set of important builds to consider are those that are created for countries outside of the United States. The process of creating foreign versions of the game is known as “ localization ” . When planned for in advance, localization can be a smooth fi nal step in the production process. This advance planning is usually accomplished by preparing code that will be easily adapted into the foreign versions, organizing assets into easily found directo- ries, and including themes and stories that can be easily trans- lated to other cultures. There must also be an allowance made for creating foreign-language manuals, cover design, and so on.\n\n  If the budget for your title is large, chances are good that the localized versions of the game will be released at the same time as the domestic version; however, if you are on a limited budget and schedule, or if you are an independent developer, the different\n\n\n  foreign versions will slowly trickle in as they are created. Either way, keep in mind that these versions of the game will be treated just like your original Gold Master; they must be submitted to the pub- lisher and console manufacturers for approval.\n\n  There is also the issue of cross-platform development; if you have made the decision to release the game on several consoles and/or the PC, you will have to track every build and version for each of these platforms. This can mean a lot of work in getting to a fi nal Gold Master for every platform you are developing on.\n\n  Once the Gold Master is out the door, the public relations (PR) machine will swing into motion.\n\n4.3 Marketing and PR\n\n  Long before the game ever touches the shelves, the marketing department will have already put the wheels in motion to create a buzz around the title. The relationship between the game producers and the public relations department usually begins in preproduction! Once the concept is approved and the schedule for production is created, the marketing department will want tentative dates for a demo and completed game shipment so they can plan the marketing campaign for the title.\n\n  Games like Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 start the PR campaign rolling long before the game’s actual release.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Ideally, the marketing department would simply accept the product from the developer and run with it; however, as most pub- lic relations departments have launched many titles, they usually have some great ideas regarding how to make your game more appealing to the game community. These ideas will pop up in the form of requests during the production process. If this happens, it’s important to let the department know the impact that adding these\n\n\n  for developers going over their budget and schedule. It’s usually a great idea to make sure the marketing department knows the schedule revolving around important milestones; this knowledge will keep them from making demands on the production team during what will already be extremely busy periods.\n\n  During production, as key (or dramatic) art assets are created for the game, it’s a great idea to get these to marketing for use in the game manuals and cover art. A failure to do so will usually have them hounding you at some point for these items—they don’t want to be the department that holds up the release of the game due to a lack of a manual and box. Work on written docu- mentation for the game should begin as early into production as possible. Sometimes a strategy guide is also in the works for the game, so the amount of hounding you will receive for screen- shots, a walkthrough, and similar materials will be enormous!\n\n  Besides the actual items needed for the release of the game, the PR/marketing team is also responsible for getting word out to the press about the game. Thus, time must be allotted in the fi nal months of production for press interviews, tradeshows, online pre- views, and similar events related to your game. When done prop- erly, the game market will be thoroughly saturated with information regarding the title long before the game hits the shelves. Another thing that must happen long before the game’s release is to submit the title for a rating.\n\n4.4 Rating Systems, Demos, and Guides\n\n  Much like in the fi lm industry, for games to be sold through cer- tain retailers (or for the major console manufacturers), games must be submitted to a group of panelists that review the material for content and then assign a rating to it. In the United States, this group is known as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). There are several other important rating boards in the world for localized versions, such as the Pan European Game Information board (PEGI) for a majority of the European countries, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) in Germany, and the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) who rates the games released for Japan.\n\n  Each of these organizations has a set of criteria for each type of rating it offers. Most of these criteria are based around the content of the games, including sexual themes, drug use, violence, profanity, and adult content (anything to do with alcohol, inappro- priate social behavior, and gambling). Though ratings boards do nothing to limit the content you include in your game, they enforce the guidelines for rating and give you the most appropriate mark. These ratings must be included even in a demo of the game, so it is extremely important to adhere to the projected rating of the game\n\n\n  consideration costs associated with applying for a rating—these can sometimes be substantial fees and should be in the budget.\n\n  The rating assigned to the game determines the marketing strategy associated with that game, such as the times that com- mercials will air on television, and what kind of art can be dis- played in magazines and other print. The rating will also ensure that your product does not fall into the wrong hands and that children are unnecessarily exposed to content that is inappropri- ate for them. Though most countries do follow the recommenda- tions of their appropriate board, some locales are none too friendly to extreme, adult-oriented material. As a result, the game may actually be banned in that country. Developers must adhere to the standards of gaming in the countries they are marketing to if they intend to get their product to the shelves.\n\n  Another key factor to a successful game release is going to be the accessibility to a playable demo. Usually, this demo is a step further down the development line than the original demo used to pitch the game or the one that was shown at early game con- ventions and tradeshows. Typically, the downloadable demo is an example of what will be in the fi nished game, accompanied by a trailer of some sort. This can be one of the cut-scenes contained within the game or a special cut-scene that was designed for use in selling the product. Ideally, this will be made available to the public just prior to the game’s release.\n\n  Another great item to have in place at the onset of sales is a strat- egy guide. This is especially true if the game you have created is a particularly diffi cult one. Nothing kills the longevity of a title in a player’s console than an overly frustrating game. In addition to giv- ing the player helpful clues and a walkthrough for the game, the presence of the book on the shelf helps generate awareness for the game and can create a whole new avenue of revenue for the title.\n\n  Games like 2K’s BioShock are often released simultaneously with a strategy guide. Reproduced by permission of 2K Games. All rights reserved.\n\n\n  Perhaps the biggest role of postproduction in the game indus- try, though, revolves around the practice of archiving your title.\n\n4.5 Archiving\n\n  Once the entire development process is over—all the localized versions are fi nished, the games and guides are in the stores, and the marketing campaign is in full swing—the production team will now prepare the game for archiving. This stage usually involves performing a lengthy postmortem, documenting all the lessons learned during the production process, and creating a closing kit for the game.\n\n  The “ postmortem ” is basically a fi nal set of meetings with each of the departments to discuss all the things that went right and wrong during the production cycle. Every team member is given the opportunity to speak and weight is given to every item men- tioned. Doing this will bring a sense of fi nality to the project (especially important if many of the people involved with pro- duction will be leaving the studio to pursue other projects) and will give permanent personnel working for your studio a great sense of the work culture and ethic of the studio.\n\n  Notes should be taken during the postmortem process and then eventually refi ned into a document that lists the best prac- tices that have been identifi ed and proven to work, as well as the lessons learned, which tend to be the things that didn’t quite work. This document will be a major asset when you’re planning your next project and will help you with some of the major deci-\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  sions involved with scheduling, budgeting, and planning. Don’t ignore your lessons learned! When you start developing your next\n\n  Publishing your\n\n  title, you will want to revisit this document and prevent your\n\n  game’s postmortem\n\n  team from making the same mistakes again. Once this has been\n\n  is a great way to performed, the closing kit will be assembled. contribute to the game development community\n\n  The “ closing kit ” is the archived version of the game to be kept and get some great PR. for possible future rerelease. All the game’s assets, code, and doc-\n\n  Magazines like Game\n\n  uments associated with production are organized and fi led for\n\n  Developer and Game\n\n  later use. If you have made several versions of the game (localiza-\n\n  Informer publish\n\n  tions), this will mean several archived closing kits. These kits\n\n  postmortems, as well as\n\n  must be kept accessible, though—down the line, it may become Web sites like Gamasutra. necessary to create fi xes for certain areas of the game (or add-on content or modules may be developed) and these will need to be added to the main kit at some point.\n\n  The full closing kit is made up of the individual localization kits (each version of the game made) and the localization kits include a translation kit. The translation kit is the folder that contains every item and asset that was translated into the local- ized version. In addition to the technical aspects of the game’s\n\n\n  production, you also want to make sure that all marketing items associated with the game’s release are also included. This means getting the actual box art and game documentation (manuals and the like) into the kit. The marketing folder in the kit can also con- tain the original demo and screenshots that were used to market the game.\n\n  One other category of item that should be included in the full closing kit is the specifi c tools and middleware that are needed to open any of the archived fi les. Though most of the programs used during development will be a product in ongoing use (like Autodesk’s Maya), a specifi c version of the software may be required to access a specifi c fi le, so you should include that software in the closing kit.\n\n  The importance of creating a detailed and accurate closing kit cannot be overstated. The only way an accurate revisiting of the game can take place is if the kit is as thorough as possible. It is helpful to this process if detailed fi les are kept during the produc- tion process for art and sound assets, documents, and build notes. These will assist you later on if you must open the kit for another project, or if you must build patches/fi xes for your game.\n\n  Interview: Ron Burke, Director/Founder of GamingTrend Newman : What was your original intention when you created the\n\n\n  Burke : Well, as you know, we were ConsoleGold prior to rebrand-\n\n  ing as GamingTrend. All of the political hoopla aside, I was look- ing at the industry as a whole and realizing that the focus on release dates was becoming less and less important. A “ Gold ” date (the date that a game is certifi ed as ready for mass produc- tion and release) was far less important than the fi nal product. We also wanted to expand our coverage to fi ll the void that is, to this day, getting larger on PC coverage. Not many know this but I am a PC gamer at heart—I can’t let that coverage die just because the industry is heavily focused on the console side of things.\n\n   Newman : Over the years, what major changes or trends in game\n\n  development have impressed you the most or at least created a major impression on you?\n\n  Burke : As I just mentioned, there is clearly a large movement\n\n  towards the console market. Obviously developing for console platforms that don’t change in terms of graphics, sound, and other various and sundry components is a lot easier than coding for every graphics card under the sun. Less obvious I think is the gaming press movement towards less detail-oriented reviews.\n\n\n  The focus has shifted towards “ funny ” reviews that don’t neces- sarily do the game justice, instead eschewing detail in favor of dragging the game through the mud in some half-hearted attempt at personal celebrity. Although I try to bring a certain level of levity to my writing, this trend is the exact opposite of what we do here at GamingTrend.\n\n  Newman : When developers are creating a new title, what ele-\n\n  ments do you think affect the production the most or deserve extra attention for the game to become a major success?\n\n  Burke : Wow—if I knew the answer to this question, companies\n\n  would snap me up in a heartbeat! For me, the key to success is overall polish. So many games come together at the very last sec- ond (the developers behind Assassin’s Creed described the game as fairly broken until weeks before shipping) but pressure to hit certain dates (Halloween for Hellgate: London , for instance) means that the game may ship now only to rely on patches to bring it up to speed. I can’t readily name a game that moved from being broken to AAA with a patch. The industry needs to discon- nect a bit from the Q4 ship dates and realize that people have more time to play games during the summer. The other element that I fi nd to be crucial is fi nding a need and fi lling it. It is the most basic of business premises and it is the one most ignored. THQ saw that we didn’t have a hacky-slashy loot-whore fest title to play and released the very successful Titan Quest . I wouldn’t call that title groundbreaking or original, but they sure found a need and fi lled it, didn’t they?\n\n  Newman : Today, the concept of games being “ cinematic ” is a hot\n\n  topic. In your opinion, what are some of the things you notice immediately about games that are cinematic or epic in nature?\n\n   Burke : You say “ cinematic ” and “ epic ” and I immediately think of\n\n  games like Mass Effect . The games that pull it off well don’t tell a story as much as allow you to experience the story. Nobody wants to have a “ book on tape ” experience in place of a story, so the proper mix of narration and the ability to impact the storyline are vital to the completion of a true experience. Let’s also realize that “ epic ” doesn’t necessarily mean overly long. Many games try to expand the experience by making players backtrack through retread areas or complete quests that are unnecessarily split into subplots—anyone remember the Triforce collection bits in The\n\n  Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker ? This is unnecessary and often\n\n  leads to stumbling blocks that prevent players from completing the game. Did you know that fewer than half of the games pur- chased by gamers are actually completed?\n\n  Newman : One of the intended results for creating a cinematic\n\n  game is to, of course, have the title be picked up for possible fi lm\n\n\n  option. Have games been successfully translated to the big screen in the past? What titles do you think have done the best with this?\n\n  Burke : The fi rst thing you have to do is defi ne success. Blood Rayne cost $22 million to make and made a paltry $2.4 million\n\n  worldwide—obviously, that is the opposite of success. Similarly,\n\n  Wing Commander cost $30 million to produce and made only\n\n  $11.5 million in worldwide returns. On the other hand, Mortal\n\n  Kombat cost $20 million to make and skyrocketed to a worldwide\n\n  gross of $122 million in combined DVD and ticket sales. Obviously, if we are talking simple dollars and cents, Mortal Kombat takes the crown. Even the sequel, at $30 million to produce, still managed to squeak out a $52 million return. Success in terms of dollars and success as to whether the movie is any good are obviously two very different things. It also demonstrates that simply spending more money isn’t the key to success. I don’t think game to movie translations have problems being cinematic, I think they just have the curse of being very poorly written. I can’t think of anyone who would have minded if Wing Commander followed any of the stor- ylines in any of the games and simply starred the very people fea- tured in those FMV [full-motion video] sequences. Matthew Lillard is simply not Maniac.\n\n  Newman : It seems that when the crossover goes the other direc-\n\n  tion (movies that are either simultaneously or later developed into games), the results have been less than spectacular. Why do you think this is the case?\n\n   Burke : There is one sharp edge to the movie to game translation:\n\n  time. The movie is not often feature-complete until it is very close to release, so developers often spend a year or less creating the games. When you throw into the mix how details both minor and major can change at the discretion of the writing team or the director and you have a recipe for a very fl uid design chart. Imagine if Optimus Prime were killed at the end of the recent\n\n  Transformers: The Movie from Michael Bay—obviously the bonus\n\n  stages that occur in the game after the storyline has ended would have to be rewritten. I can’t think of a more diffi cult schedule to work with than when somebody else holds all of the strings. If the game isn’t ready, you have to release it anyway—features will be cut and testing will suffer, as they won’t be delaying the movie to be timed with the game. Short development time and a design document that is always in fl ux is simply a recipe for disaster.\n\n   Newman : Having observed the numerous discussions taking\n\n  place in the many forums on your Web site, what do you think are the major buzz topics in the game industry right now? Is this being refl ected in the game development world?\n\n  Burke : The buzz word is “ censorship ” . Watching FOX the other day I\n\n\n  simulator that allows users to choose your breast size, sleep with as many people as you want, watch and control full-nudity sexual sce- narios, and treat women as disposable sexual objects. Anyone who has played the game can attest that absolutely none of those claims are in any way true, but the word is already out. Uninformed masses will spread that misinformation for miles without checking a single fact, going so far as to write their talking-head political fi gures of choice to see action against companies like Bioware. In the old days we’d call that slander—today we call it “ fair and balanced ” . As it stands, this sort of nonsense coupled with a broken rating system makes developers less inclined to take any level of risk with more mature content. Violence is okay, but not too much. How much is too much? The ESRB will tell you after your product is fi nished. Granted, they don’t have any sort of specifi c or measurable content, but you’ll just have to trust that this self-hired governing body knows what they’re doing despite the fact that there isn’t a gamer among them—they know smut! Sex is okay, as long as it is implied and nobody sees a bare ass. Granted, you can see far more sexuality and nudity in any given episode of any late-night TV show, but once again we have to trust the ESRB. Our politicians smell blood in the water and latch onto the buzzword-bingo nonsense of calling out M-rated games fueled by misinformed “ experts ” with their own axe- grinding agenda at hand. I’m not calling for government control, but I would like to see a greater commitment to making sure that the age ratings are more enforced. This means that the lady in front of me who purchased Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for her pre- teen kid should probably pay a bit more attention.\n\n  Newman : When you attend major gaming conventions like E3\n\n  and GDC , what are you looking for in a new game title? In what ways have games successfully created a presence at a conference that made you take notice?\n\n  Burke : Shows like E3 and GDC are simply “ the story so far ”. I saw a\n\n  fantastic hour-long look at Fallout 3 and I wrote up an article that describes what I saw while trying to keep as much personal bias out of it as possible. For me, the key is to just remain as neutral as possible. Unlike some sites, I don’t judge the title like I would in a full review until I can play it for myself from beginning to end. I’m also not going to give a product a thumbs-up based on a pre- scripted tech demonstration. If you think that those presentations aren’t rehearsed and tweaked to the high heavens, you are sorely mistaken. Any new title that I see at an event needs to have a few elements to catch my eye: a hook and a tendency towards overall polish. Granted, many games come together at the very end of the development cycle, but I shouldn’t see a subteen frame rate in a game that is due to be released in a month. The hook is equally\n\n\n  you’ll see what I mean. The hook in Project 8 was the Nail the Trick mode, but it was leveraged as a feature instead. When we got to Proving Ground we saw a greatly expanded “ Nail the… ” mode, but once again, it was just an expanded feature. When you boil the game down, it is simply you skating around a static world. Maybe it is hard to jazz up a skating title, but there is no excuse for the glut of World War II FPS titles. Come up with a new way to tell the story, tell a different side, or try another war—where are the Vietnam games? The last few budget titles didn’t score high enough to count. Rather than answer what makes me take notice at a conference, let’s talk about what doesn’t make a good impression. Two E3s ago, I was bumped from a fl oor-level console so an EB Product Manager could take a crack at it. Watching this suit fumble about for a few minutes was painful, and I’m sure he didn’t really care about the product, but only how much he was getting paid per square foot of display space. Another thing that doesn’t sit well with me is blaring noise. At one particular booth there were not one but two full-size rock bands hammering as hard as they could on their instruments trying to outgun each other. It was loud enough for me to hear through several sound-resistant rooms. As a member of the press, I want to hear about the hook, what is new, what inspired the title, and other various details that fans will be interested to know. Before any of that can happen though, I have to be able to hear.\n\n  Newman : What advice would you give a young developer who’s\n\n  trying to create a successful franchise game? Burke : Creating a franchise game is a pretty diffi cult proposition. Kaz Hirai once said that the consumer doesn’t really know what they want. At the time I was pretty offended by this statement, but time has proven him wise. Most consumers sit back and wait for the new concepts to come to them. I think that companies like Bioware and Square Enix have it right—they don’t worry as much about the mechanics as they do about telling an interesting and engaging story. Kane and Lynch may have had an interesting story tucked away in there, but I couldn’t care less about the characters. You can’t be immersed in something you don’t care about. Similarly, make sure your story makes sense—I’m talking to you Kojima-san! I’m not sure what turning into a statue and grabbing the genitals of a nearby statue, or eyeballing scantily clad women in a magazine has to do with saving the world from mooing/hopping Metal Gear robots, but I am already pretty perplexed by Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons\n\n  of the Patriots . If you want to see how it is done, take a look at Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune —the game features a likeable and real-\n\n  istic person in a semi-plausible adventure story that takes place in a believable framework. More than anything, be willing to take a few risks. Without risk, we would never have seen such fantastic titles as the Sam &amp; Max series, Psychonauts , and Spore .\n\n  Part 2 INCORPORATING CINEMATIC SKILLS Now that we have taken a look at the current development\n\n  model, we will cover the fi lm industry processes and practices that can be applied to game development to create a more epic and cinematic title. Some of the areas that will be covered in Part 2 include writing, character development, storyboarding, cine- matography, directing, and casting.\n\n  One of the most fundamental beliefs in the fi lm industry is that a movie is only as good as the original screenplay. Without a script that is anything less than brilliant, your chances at produc- ing a successful fi lm are slim. Often, the development period of a fi lm is solely about getting the fi nal version of the script in place. This could mean bringing in many different writers, creating many different drafts of the script, and numerous meetings involving the taking of notes and making improvements on the story. Taking a vested interest in a game’s story and characters is the fi rst step in creating a cinematic title.\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  Of all the jobs within the game industry, that of the writer is probably the least defi ned and most misunderstood. Sometimes an actual writer is hired to script the game, but more often than not the script is formulated by the creative director or the producers involved with the game. This runaround becomes evident in some titles through the sheer lack of good story and an overabundance of paper-thin characters contained within the game. In the past, I’ve dealt with producers who regard the role of the writer as writ- ing the dialogue spoken by the characters in-game. This approach is indicative of the ignorance concerning what a writer actually does and the lack of concern the game industry has for story.\n\n  While writing this book, the Writer’s Guild of America was involved in a strike and petitioning for better compensation. Believe me, the effects of this are being felt in Hollywood and throughout the television and fi lm industries! This is mostly because these industries are clearly aware of the importance regarding good writ- ing. Nothing is as important to the success of a fi lm as the script. This approach needs to be used more often in game development. Imagine the impact that a great story will have on a gamer when coupled with the interactivity of awesome game play.\n\n  Clearly, some titles have made more of an effort than others to set a higher bar regarding story and characters—games like the popular Halo series, the Tom Clancy branded titles and even horror-based games (like Silent Hill and Resident Evil ) have decid- edly better production value in this regard. Coincidentally, Silent\n\n  Hill and Resident Evil have both already been produced as mov-\n\n  ies, while Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Halo are currently being developed for the big screen as well.\n\n  Another bad practice in the game industry regarding writing is not starting to write a script until well into the production cycle.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  The writing in Capcom’s Resident Evil series contributes to the overall atmosphere and horror of the game. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.\n\n  This error is completely unacceptable if you want an immersive, cinematic game. The script should most defi nitely be honed in preproduction or during the concept phase and turned in as soon as possible to allow the game designers and all concerned to have some sort of map regarding the story before production begins. It’s true that some game studios have been burned in the past by writers (usually because the writer placed the need for a great story above the costs of changing the game’s design), but it is still a good idea to have the writer in place during preproduction, if for no other reason than to help create a sort of fl owchart or for- mal outline for the story.\n\n  The fi rst step in recognizing and fostering good writing in the game community is to standardize some of the writing processes involved with game development. There are several cinematic cues that can be taken from the fi lm community concerning this.\n\n5.1 Format and Script Development\n\n  Unlike the game industry, the fi lm industry has had a standard script format for quite some time. The benefi t of this is obvious: writers know exactly how to write for a project and what is expected from them when turning a script in. Even the processes for developing a great script have been honed to empower the screen writer with the tools necessary for completion. Though many writers may disagree on what exactly constitutes good con- tent for a script and what different literary tools and images should be used within the pages, all screen writers can agree on what the fi nal script should look and read like.\n\n  As mentioned earlier, the game industry has many different\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  writing has centered around the diffi culty of dealing with all the possibilities of interactivity. A screenplay may have only one path concerning what will happen in a movie or television program, but a game may have multiple paths. For a game to be as enjoyable as possible there should be many paths that a gamer can choose to take. Each of these paths must be scripted and accounted for. How does a writer do this?\n\n  The Lord of the Rings Online series of games from Turbine features many paths that a gamer can take. The artwork appearing to the left is copyright protected and reproduced with permission. © 2008 Turbine, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Turbine, Inc. or its licensors.\n\n  There are several popular methodologies regarding multiple- path writing, but the two most popular seem to be the “ multiple columns ” approach and the “ choose your path ” book approach. Either way, for complete coverage of the game, game writing should center around the use of events, decisions, or locales—and should contain some methodology for tagging dialogue to these.\n\n  The use of multiple columns is already prevalent in screen- plays; in fact, most screenplay programs that are in use have this function already included (sometimes this is referred to as a “ dual dialogue ” function). In this game writing methodology, you write the action, present a choice, and then approach the different choices available to the gamer in a separate column beneath the action. If, after the decisions of the gamer have been made, the end result is singular and the next scene or piece of action will be the same regardless of choice, this is probably the best method for writing the script. However, if there are truly many different ways to play and fi nish the game (meaning some paths are never explored during game play), consider the technique of using a “ choose your path ” book style of writing.\n\n  “ Choose your own path ” books have been around forever; essen- tially, you read a portion of the book, a choice is given, you make a decision regarding what you want to do, and then you turn to the appropriate page to pick up the action based upon your decision.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  v arious pieces of action are written, then connected using hyper- links and bookmarks. Though this type of writing does not resem- ble a screenplay, in some circumstances, it can better serve a project. Because most games do have a defi nite ending and game levels are limited, it is usually the intent of most developers to make the entire game playable in every session. That said, there’s no rea- son why most games cannot be made using a standard screenplay format. But don’t let the format for the script hang you up!\n\n  Having read for several major screen writing competitions (the\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  Austin Film Festival’s, for one), I have seen many great stories\n\n  Download a copy\n\n  passed over due to poor formatting and style. As a gaming writer,\n\n  of the free software\n\n  you will not have to face such harsh scrutiny! Instead, you can\n\n  Celtx today\n\n  use the best practices of script development to help write a great ( story for your game using the best format possible.\n\n  It’s a script formatting\n\n  Though it may be diffi cult to actually sum up what makes a\n\n  program that also has\n\n  story great, there are several main components of a great story that\n\n  features that help develop can identifi ed. The fi rst is the use of well-developed characters. your story and characters,\n\n  The creation of a memorable protagonist and antagonist is the\n\n  as well as track changes fi rst step towards writing an epic story. made to the script.\n\n5.2 Character Development\n\n  The protagonist, to put it simply, is the hero of the story—and within a game, is also the gamer! Creating a great main character is the cornerstone of the script. Great examples of this already exist in the game world—who doesn’t know Master Chief of Halo fame, or Sam Fisher, the undercover agent in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell ? Not only will your protagonist fulfi ll a great need of the gamer, but he/she can supply your game with a calling-card franchise charac- ter. There are several characteristics that mark a great protagonist.\n\n  Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series is anchored by the great character Sam Fisher.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  Film guru Robert McKee states, “ A protagonist is a willful char- acter, ” in his seminal book Story . It is in the examination of the character’s “ willfulness ” that will create the motivation for your main character, as well as defi ne a past that is relevant to the present within the game. Sometimes this is called a “ back story ”. Although a back story can be extremely useful for answering some of the why’s involved with the game, it should be used only in a way that provides motivation for the character in the story. Writing a lengthy back story only bogs down the game and story and detracts from the game play.\n\n  In addition to brainstorming the particulars of your characters (background, ethnicity, profession, and so on), the main goal of the protagonist should also be defi ned. It is the goal of the pro- tagonist that forms the plot of the game. Though there are many different ways to approach creating just such a character, perhaps one of the best ways of defi ning your protagonist is to create a pertinent antagonist.\n\n  The antagonist is usually the “ bad guy ” in the game. When cre- ated correctly, the antagonist actually complements the protagonist. Maybe they are rivals with much in common. Maybe they com- pletely contrast against each other in both personality and sub- stance. A great way to craft a memorable antagonist is to give him or her an opposing goal; this can be as simple as the antagonist’s goal being to stop the protagonist’s goal (or vice versa) or it can be the same goal, putting the two characters in direct competition. Either way, having a great villain is another useful way to add production value to your script. Games that have a memorable antagonist go a long way towards being cinematic.\n\n  Once you have created the main characters, it’s time to move on to the major supporting characters. It’s a good idea when cre- ating the sidebar characters to include various demographics not covered by the two main characters. Want female gamers to buy your game? Have a great female character. Not only does this help with broadening your audience, but it adds variation and diver- sity to your story. Use character breakdown sheets when develop- ing the various details involved with creating the characters (see the sample character breakdown sheet in Appendix A: Extras).\n\n  When you are developing characters, keep in mind that the interactive aspects of gaming should be coming into play! One of the more fun ways to develop an interactive story is to allow for changes in a character’s personality versus changes in the envi- ronment. In other words, instead of having a player choose between taking the rickety bridge across the river or swimming for it, have the player choose between killing innocent soldiers on the bridge to get across or risking his or her own life swimming across dangerous waters. As a game progresses, a character can\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  become more “ evil ” or “ good ” based upon decisions the gamer has made and this can change the options made available to the gamer.\n\n  When all the major characters have been defi ned and created, you can now move on to identifying the major theme(s) con- tained within the game.\n\n5.3 Themes and Symbolism\n\n  Think of the theme as the lesson to be learned from the story. It doesn’t have to be preachy. It can be as simple as “ crime doesn’t pay ” or “ you can’t escape fate ”. Whatever the theme is, it can usu- ally be summed up by the original intent of the game creator. What was the original message you wanted to project to the world when you formed the original concept of the game? Perhaps the game was conceived to fulfi ll a particular vacuum in the gaming industry. What was this? This overall idea should be considered as an outline before the script is developed and the particulars of the story are discussed. It is an important task for the writer to keep the script within the theme of the story.\n\n  Some argue that a theme is unnecessary in a game and that a game should be squarely created around fun and features. This is fi ne. Even if there is no grand underlying idea in the game, working with basic emotions, motivations, and desires of the characters strengthens the story contained within the game.\n\n  The game Assassin’s Creed from Ubisoft is full of topical themes regarding the Middle East, religion, and cultural differences. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  One of the tools that the writer often uses to keep the story within the original theme is the use of cleverly placed symbols. This is called “ symbolism ” . Symbolism can be an extremely com- plicated affair or as simple as the use of a prop. An example of\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  prop symbolism could be a wedding ring that represents the love of the protagonist for his wife and family or a lucky keepsake that goes missing (and when it’s found, the luck of the character returns with it).\n\n  Symbolism can also be a very complicated thing such as placing enough references to an evil organization or corporation to make the gamer think of a particular religion or government. Either way, the use of strategic symbols and symbolic props is another method for getting production value into the script and game. When cou- pled with the best practices involved with constructing a solid script, a great story is created. The use of symbolism, though, should be supported by the theme of the story and not just placed within the game in an attempt to make the game “ deep ” .\n\n  The use of the many best practices of screenwriters will help you develop your script. These best practices can be summed up with three major elements: story, plot, and scenes. When used together, these three elements add up to give your script a well- defi ned structure.\n\n5.4 Structure\n\n  A great structure means getting your protagonist from Point A (the beginning of the game) to Point B (the end) in the most entertaining way possible. Although this is determined to a great extent by the goal of the main character, actions are also infl u- enced by the various outside elements involved within the story.\n\n  To begin the process of creating good structure, the story must fi rst be broken down into a basic group of manageable chunks (scenes) that move the story forward in the desired direction.\n\n  The script should be able to be broken down into scenes rela- tively easily. In the fi lm industry, this is called “ breaking down ” a script. When you have broken down the script, you should be able to easily identify the individual levels and areas of play within the game. Sometimes, it will also identify key sections in the script that will not be able to be included in the game play. In a game, this usually means that a connecting cut-scene will have to be created.\n\n  Scenes are the smallest unit of measurement in a script—usually just a few minutes—and have a beginning, middle, and end. In a game, this can be introducing a new level, a new location, or sud- den shift in action. A new scene can also be created when a new character is introduced. Once you have mapped all the scenes/ levels out, place each of the scenes under a magnifying glass. Ask these questions: Is the scene important? What are the goals that are trying to be accomplished? Would this scene stand up on its own?\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Every scene needs to be exciting and fresh to the gamer. If a scene does not have what it takes, take a look at the elements involved and decide what needs to be changed.\n\n  Perhaps changing the location (keeping in mind that this could be creating another level that will need to be created within the game) or a twist in the story that’s unexpected (one of your squad members turns on you!) would make the scene better. Whichever method you use, make sure that it is consistent with the overall feel and style of the game and within the original concept! There can be multiple writers involved with a game, so it will become a huge task to ensure that they all adhere to this. Once the scenes have all been honed and are the best they can each be individu- ally, you should be able to see a coherent story contained within the script. If the story is not coherent, it will become evident fast when the quality assurance team starts to dissect the game dur-\n\n   Development Tip ing production.\n\n  The fi nal element involved with defi ning good structure is that\n\n  Robert McKee\n\n  of plot. If you’re thinking of what constitutes the story as “ this is\n\n  describes an “ event ” in his book what happens ” , you can think of the plot as “ this is why it hap- Story as something that\n\n  pens ”. Basically, it’s cause and effect—motivation and reasons on\n\n  creates change. This is a\n\n  the part of the characters. Setting up a good reason for the pro-\n\n  good rule of thumb. When\n\n  tagonist to take on the mob makes the game more believable. Is it\n\n  events happen in the game,\n\n  revenge? Is it the desire to rule the underworld? Both are great they should have meaning. plots and both contribute to creating completely different scripts.\n\n  The more meaningful each\n\n  Once the story, plot, and individual scenes have been articulated,\n\n  event is that occurs, the you can approach writing the actual fi rst draft of the script. deeper the immersion the\n\n  Most Hollywood movies are actually written in what is called a\n\n  gamer will experience, and\n\n  “ three-act structure ”. The famous screenwriter Syd Field fi rst\n\n  the more cinematic the\n\n  wrote about this method of writing a script many years ago in his production. book Screenplay . Basically, the three act approach consists of dividing a script into three major sections: the setup, the confron- tation, and the resolution.\n\n5.5 Three-Act Structure\n\n  Many screen writers today do their best to avoid using the typi- cal three-act structure (many feel the approach is clichéd), but almost all fi nished scripts end up presenting a story in this fash- ion. Though it is sometimes considred to be predictable, the truth of the matter is that there is nothing more basic to a story than having a beginning, middle, and end. Avoiding an ending doesn’t just “ buck the system ” . It creates an undesirable aftermath when the game is over and leaves behind an unsatisfi ed gamer. You don’t want to leave your audience hanging … unless of course, you are planning a sequel that will be picking the story up again!\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  The fi rst act of the screenplay, also known as the setup, is about getting the protagonist in motion. This means creating an “ incit- ing incident ” . The inciting incident is the event that occurs that gets the protagonist on the path to resolution. Examples of a setup include the moment in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , when the king is killed and the gamer is set on the quest to restore the throne and the opening level in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , where an assassination prompts the United States and the United Kingdom to scramble special operations troops to prevent a world incident. Whatever your inciting incident is, it must be compelling and warrant the gamer investing time in playing the game.\n\n  The beginning of the script should also focus on setting up the situation that your protagonist is getting into and the basic loca- tions that will be visited. This focus lays down the foundation for the tone of the game; is this about adventure and exotic locations, or is the tone more subdued and familiar? Once the foundations of the story have been laid in the fi rst act, you can then move on to the second act.\n\n  Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare uses a strong story structure to carry the game’s narrative. Reproduced by permission of Activision. All rights reserved.\n\n  Act II of a three-act script is also called the confrontation. Another way of looking at the second act is to think of it as creating confl ict. It’s an old Hollywood axiom that most scripts fall apart in the sec- ond act. The writer created a great character, set up a great opening scene and inciting incident, then failed to move the story forward in any way. The second act of your script should be about confl ict. What is standing in the protagonist’s way? This can be handled by focusing on the antagonist or by creating obstacles that now stand in the way of the protagonist. The best screenplays exploit both paths. In the gaming world, though, it is best to concentrate on cre- ating obstacles. By doing so, the gamer is presented with a series of\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  challenges that must be overcome within levels. This presents many opportunities for awarding the gamer with achievements and\n\n   Development Tip increasing the level of immersion in the game.\n\n  If you are having\n\n  Once the meat of your script has been created in the second\n\n  diffi culty getting a\n\n  act, you can then move on to the third and fi nal act. The fi nal\n\n  specifi c level honed\n\n  section of the script should be centered around the concept of\n\n  to perfection. Think of the\n\n  resolution. The fi nal levels of the game should test the player’s scene as a series of beats. resolve to fi nish the game, as well as create moments that resolve\n\n  A “ beat ” is a specifi c\n\n  the various elements of the story. A great story provides the gamer\n\n  action that moves the plot\n\n  with some level of resolution. Once again, think of the central forward within the scene. theme of the story. A great resolution not only brings the game to\n\n  By breaking down a level\n\n  a satisfactory ending (usually by allowing the protagonist to\n\n  by each action, you can\n\n  “ win ” ), but also supports the central theme of the story: good\n\n  create an accurate mini-\n\nmap of what happens in a conquers evil, or there is no fate, or even order suppresses\n\nspecifi c level.\n\n\n  That said, once you have broken down the basic three acts of your script, you can now divide each act into a group of smaller, individual scenes or levels that you have crafted. Each of these scenes move each act towards the inevitable ending of the game. At this point, the major confl icts involved with the story, and the resolution, should be blatantly obvious. Make sure you include the necessary scenes that will bring your story to com- pletion; necessary scenes (also called master scenes) are those that directly support the resolution of the story. You will also want to have scenes that concentrate on the game’s subplots (especially if there is a love story or back story that can be visited through the use of fl ashbacks). The three-act structure can assist you in completing the fi rst draft (and subsequent drafts) of the game script.\n\n  Check out Far Cry Instincts: Predator by Ubisoft to see a game with a great three-act story.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  Again, as there are no standards in formatting, it is perfectly acceptable to approach writing your game script like writing a movie script—it can even help you later on (if the game garners attention for possible optioning, you will already have a recogniz- able script that can be circulated as part of a movie pitch). As the drafts of the script get closer and closer to where you want it, you will begin to see a certain style emerge that is refl ective of the script writer(s). Pay attention to this style. When rewrites occur later on in production because a level was suddenly cut, you will want to have the writer available who contributed to this in the biggest way.\n\n5.6 Style\n\n  Creating a great script, even in the best of circumstances, is usu- ally a collaborative effort. Though one person may be credited as the original writer of the script or the creator of the story, chances are good that many different people had creative input into the fi nal version of a script. This is good—many brains are better than a single brain. When a creative director is great at communicating his or her vision, it becomes a much easier task to work in a uniform style. But at some point, you will identify a person (or persons) that will become the responsible writer for the fi nished product. This will probably be because of the style of that writer.\n\n  Though style is a tough thing to defi ne, it’s best thought of as the synergy involved with creating dialogue and action that is indicative of the original vision and concept of the game—it also points to characteristics that make up an individual’s technique. Once you identify individuals who are in sync with this (and hope- fully make them integral to the creative team), let them do their\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  jobs. When given the tools necessary for them to understand the\n\n  When creating a\n\n  overall concept of the game, they will craft the fi nal draft of the\n\n  unique style within script you need for developing a successful title. a script, there are\n\n  The collaboration involved with putting the story all together\n\n  several different literary\n\n  with a satisfying ending can be an awesome experience. Just devices at your disposal. remember when writing your script to keep the action moving, These include the use of a\n\n  false ending (also known\n\n  the dialogue fresh and memorable, and add enough twists and\n\n  as the “ fakeout ” ), subplots\n\n  confl ict to keep the gamer guessing; remember, the protagonist\n\n  that become the main plot,\n\n  doesn’t have to win all the time!\n\n  and the killing of main characters. All of these are Interview: Daniel Erickson, Writer at BioWare referred to as the story making a “ right turn ” .\n\n  Daniel Erickson started his career at Imagine Media (now\n\n  Including right turns in\n\n  Future) as an intern at Next Generation magazine. From there, he\n\n  your script will keep the\n\n  helped launch and wrote for several other publi-\n\n  story interesting and free\n\n  cations, including PC Game and Games Business. He jumped the of cliché. fence into development by going to work at EA Canada, working\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  on the fi rst three NBA Street titles, fi rst as a producer and eventu- ally doing lead design work on NBA Street Vol. 2 and 3.\n\n  In 2005, Daniel chased his long-time dream and went to work for BioWare to work on Dragon Age , the RPG company’s upcoming epic fantasy game. From there, he moved down to the newly formed Austin studio and is currently Principal Lead Writer there for the studio’s fi rst title, an as-of-yet unannounced MMO project.\n\n  Newman : Explain briefl y your background in the gaming industry. Erickson : I started as a critic for the now-defunct Next Generation\n\n  magazine and did some freelance work for several other maga-\n\n  Daniel Erickson\n\n  zines as well. I then jumped the fence to game design, cutting my teeth at EA Canada working on the EA Sports BIG franchises ( NBA\n\n  Street, SSX ). Once I had a couple of titles under my belt as lead\n\n  designer, I made my way to BioWare, which had always been my dream, and took a job as a full-time writer.\n\n  Newman : How long have you been specifi cally involved with\n\n  game writing?\n\n  Erickson : Three years working on just writing, but I did all of the\n\n  writing on the games that I was doing design work on before as well. So seven years overall.\n\n  Newman : In your experience, do you feel that the vocation of\n\n  game writing has been hurt or helped by the lack of a standard format (such as the script standard used in the fi lm industry)?\n\n  Erickson : Neither, really. Different formats are developed for differ-\n\n  ent types of games. Books don’t use the same format as magazines for layout and those two are more similar to each other than the writing on Madden is to the writing on Mass Effect. It’s not the dif- ference in subject matter; it’s the difference in what that writing is used for. In Madden , it’s small pieces written for particular situa- tions that are then stitched together on the fl y, and so need to live in databases. Excel really is the easiest for handling that. Mass\n\n  Effect , in stark contrast, is mainly a series of interactive, branching\n\n  conversations that can only be written in a custom tool built spe- cifi cally for such things.\n\n  Newman : When constructing a new script for a game, what specifi c\n\n  elements do you look for to improve the overall gaming experience?\n\n  Erickson : Pacing, pacing, pacing. The balance between dialogue\n\n  and action, the timing of rewards, the dissemination of knowl- edge and plot at a pace the player can respond to and absorb. Game writing is at least half game design.\n\n  Newman : How do you develop these beyond the initial script? Erickson : Constant review and play testing. Design is testing and\n\n  iteration. Writing is rewriting.\n\nChapter 5 WRITER\n\n  Newman : In the fi lm industry, it’s common practice for writers to\n\n  construct detailed backgrounds and back stories to each charac- ter in the movie. Is this necessary in the game industry?\n\n  Erickson : Depends on the game. We have literally thousands of\n\n  pages of background details on the project I’m working on now, and most RPGs have at least a solid background story for each character and event. Even when working on NBA Street Vol. 2 , I still found it extremely helpful for both myself and the artists to have dossiers on each of the characters. I’m not sure it’s abso- lutely necessary in a run-and-gun shooter, but it can only help.\n\n  Newman : How does a story benefi t from having a more fl eshed-\n\n  out cast?\n\n  Erickson : You simply can’t write believable lines for a character you\n\n  don’t know. You must have that voice in your head and be able to have your little schizophrenic conversations with it. Without that, you have just hollow characters mouthing the plot.\n\n  Newman : Typically, does a game script contain the same three-act\n\n  structure of a fi lm? How do you outline the story within a game title?\n\n  Erickson : This varies hugely. The three-act structure is a good\n\n  place to start, but if you’re writing a twenty-hour game you may have more than three acts, or you may, more likely, have several three-act arcs—more like a movie series or a TV show season. Outlining, of course, varies widely. On an RPG, you’re dealing with such a huge beast that the outline itself can be hundreds of pages and take months of work. For a racing game, a couple pages might do it.\n\n  Newman : As a video game is interactive (and a fi lm is not), what\n\n  particular challenges rise when scripting possible pathways for a player?\n\n  Erickson : The magic and the frustration of interactive fi ction (not\n\n  games punctuated by cut scenes) is that you must remove the essential tool of traditional writing: the protagonist. The payoff is the trade for player agency , which is everything appealing about fi ction in this format, but it’s a jump many writers are unable to make. People will continually wonder how you would make\n\n  Citizen Kane as a game if you can’t force the character to say\n\n  “ Rosebud ”. Well, of course, you can’t. You also can’t make Citizen\n\n  Kane into a ballet. They are different storytelling mediums and\n\n  the sooner game writers wake up to that and get over their inferi- ority complexes, the sooner they’ll be able to start creating great works in their own medium.\n\n   Newman : If a game student wanted to embark upon a career of\n\n  writing for games, where would you direct him or her?\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Erickson : The great thing about games right now is that it’s still\n\n  sort of the Wild West out here. Less so than fi fteen years ago, clearly, but a kid with great talent and dedication can still get their foot in the door somewhere. BioWare, for instance, has a couple of fantastic writers that came straight out of school. If you’re talented, I’m not in the slightest interested in your resume. While you’re waiting for that break, though, play as many of the type of games you want to write as you can get your hands on and really analyze what makes them work and what you would improve. Then fi nd something easily mod-able ( Neverwinter\n\n  Nights is great for this and takes no tech knowledge) and practice,\n\n  practice, practice. Additionally, some of the game design schools are starting to teach game writing, but that’s still fairly rare.\n\n  Newman : Do you think this fi eld will continue to grow within the\n\n  game industry as a standalone job or do you think writing will be viewed as a function of the game designer or creative director?\n\n  Erickson : For any company that cares about great writing, this\n\n  will always be a standalone job and as VO [Voice Over] budgets balloon into the millions of dollars, it only makes sense to pay for great content to put in the actors ’ mouths. There is no compari- son between a level designer slumming on some dialogue and a gifted writer who’s been studying storytelling for ten years.\n\n\n  The use of concept art has been widespread in the game indus- try for some time, though the use of storyboarding is not as com- mon a practice. Storyboarding is basically designing a series of sketches that illustrate how the story will unfold—much like indi- vidual panels in a comic book. They can be as simple as a sketch or as complicated as computer-generated graphics with motion. Either way, the purpose of the storyboards is to illustrate how the story will unfold within the parameters of the scene (time, loca- tion, and so on) and to help the team to understand the technical aspects of the frame, such as camera location, camera movement, and types of shots that will be used.\n\n  Concept art, on the other hand, are static art pieces created in great detail that help the development team understand what individual characters, locations, and scenes will look like. Concept art (and even storyboard art) can be helpful when you are making your initial pitch to a publisher and can get your team working with a unifi ed vision for what the game will look like. They can also help programmers to understand the individual assets that will be involved with developing each level.\n\n  Making a detailed set of storyboards for each level will also do things that the basic concept art cannot. Concept art is used to establish the artistic elements of a particular character or loca- tion (level) and helps the animators and artists understand what those elements are supposed to look like. This includes the color scheme, lighting, and style of the art. Think of the storyboards as the tech side of the illustrations. The storyboards will illustrate how the character is supposed to get from Point A to Point B within the level/scene, what props will be present in the level, and the way the scene will actually look from a technical\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  An example of concept art from Capcom’s Lost Planet. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.\n\n  aspect: Where is the camera located? Is a cut-scene needed? What will the gamer see when moving across the level? Another great perk to the use of storyboards is the ability to experiment without the investment of much money. Taking the time to illustrate various ways to tell the story (fl ashbacks, play- ing with the timeline, and so on) can help determine which approach will create and evoke the most emotional payoff, as well as create the highest possible level of suspense or drama within the game.\n\n6.1 Using Basic Design Documentation\n\n  As the basic design document will already contain a lot of information regarding the game, it can be used to help your art- ists create the storyboards needed for each level. The key things that should be extracted from the document include the story, the game features that will be used within the game (and set it apart from preceding games), and the major characters within the game. Getting the look of the major locations and characters down early on is a no-brainer, but how about the major features? For instance, if one of the game features includes the ability for the gamer to jump across great distances in the blink of an eye, this is something that can be illustrated in a series of storyboards. Not only will it give a visual representation of the feature, but it will give you a means for showing the publisher and team how that feature will actually work within the confi nes of the game.\n\n\n  Once the storyboards are actually fi nished, they can actually complement the design documentation and be an additional tool for the producers, engineers, and animators to use when hammering out production. They will also help you in a very basic manner: the more the game is actually storyboarded, the more focused the team will be on the actual levels that are being designed. This means that the budget will not be affected as heav- ily by reworking levels to accommodate new props and assets, as those would have been previsualized during the storyboarding process.\n\n6.2 Seeing the Story\n\n  Being aware of the individual elements of each level/scene is very important. Putting them on paper before the programmers invest hundreds of hours of work into creating a level is a great way to keep from impacting your budget in a negative way. If you are creating a game that will feature cut-scenes within it, the sto- ryboards will also provide a means to actually seeing how the game will transition between the levels and the cut-scenes and how the scenes can be kept pertinent to the gamer. Taking the time to will also illustrates any major holes in the story; because a series of storyboards is quite similar to that of a comic strip or graphic novel, the viewer should be able to look at the story- boards and see the story. If the team cannot determine the story from the visual cues within the storyboards, then there’s probably work that still needs to be done from the storytelling aspect.\n\n  Never underestimate the visual impact of games like those in the Resident Evil series. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Part 2\n\n\n  Another key way that storyboards are used in the fi lm industry is\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  to help determine locations. As the locations are so vital to the look\n\n  Because most\n\n  and appeal of a fi lm and game, it is important that each level is\n\n  storyboards are\n\n  impacted by where it takes place. It is not uncommon for produc-\n\n  made during the\n\n  ers to have no idea where a scene should take place (at least spe-\n\n  preproduction process, you\n\n  cifi c locations—it may be determined early on to feature combat\n\n  may not have actual artists/\n\n  on a skyscraper, but which skyscraper? What kind of skyscraper?),\n\n  animators working with the\n\n  but once it is actually drawn in the form of a storyboard, location\n\n  team at this point—and if ideas will come to light. you do, they are probably more focused on getting the concept art together. Consider using a computer\n\n6.3 Nonlinear Thinking\n\n  storyboards program like FrameForge 3D Studio to\n\n  A video game is made up of quite a few independent levels,\n\n  do the work. In addition to\n\n  characters, and scenes; it is better to think of the individual com-\n\n  helping with placement (you\n\n  ponents as complementary assets rather than thinking of the\n\n  can move props around\n\n  game in a timeline like Level 1, Level 2, and so on. Divide the\n\n  independently within the\n\n  story into the separate elements, including the character profi les,\n\n  program), a program can\n\n  locations, events that will take place, history of the situations, and\n\n  actually show camera\n\n  related story issues. Once you have the concept art pieces for the\n\n  movement and character\n\n  characters and locations completed, you can then move on to the\n\n  movement within the designing of the actual scenes. scene/level.\n\n  When you begin sketching out the main levels as they would appear to the gamer, the storyboards can point out major holes in the game play, as well as allow the game designer to determine the types and quantity of props within the level. This will be help- ful when planning exactly what the gamer will be able to interact with and what will be static scenery within the game.\n\n  A great way to tackle the storyboarding of a level is to use a method known as “reverse storyboarding ”. As the designers prob- ably know how the level is supposed to end for the gamer, story- board that scene fi rst. Then work your way back through the individual scenes and levels towards the opening picture. Again, because this is working the level in a nonlinear way, it will help keep the individual steps in the level independent and give each of them their own strengths. Most game levels are in many ways self-contained, so working them out of order should present few problems. You can also use screenshots to set up a fl owchart that illustrates the various paths that a game can take and how they relate to each other—which is very useful, as you want gamers to be able to take different approaches to playing the game.\n\n  Some great questions to ask as you are storyboard a level are: What type of camera placement is ideal for this scene? Are there any important props or vehicles in the level? What environment elements will affect the scene—is it day or night? Rainy or fair weather? Does all the action take place inside, outside, or both? Is\n\n\n  any special lighting necessary? What kinds of special effects will take place—explosions? Fires? These are all questions that can be answered within the storyboards.\n\n  Midway’s game Blacksite: Area 51 uses solid framing and camera techniques to maximize the production value of environments within the game. Reproduced by permission of Midway Games. All rights reserved.\n\n6.4 Storyboarding Process\n\n  The storyboarding phase consists of four different tasks:\n\n  1. Decide the format and detail of the storyboards. As the indi-\n\n  vidual illustrations can be made in any size, it’s best to determine the screen ratio that the game will be projected in and then use the appropriate ratio in the storyboards. Will the game be a “ fi t the television ” game (usually called 4:3 ratio in the fi lm industry) or will it be in a wide-screen format (or both)? Also, in how much detail will the scene be illustrated? Do you want a storyboard for every action that takes place in the level, or will it be necessary to story- board only the key moments?\n\n  2. Create thumbnails. These are basic drawings that are small\n\n  (the size of a thumbnail if necessary) and contain very little detail. The purpose of the thumbnails is to just get the placement of the individual assets within the level and to show the viewpoint of the scene—that is, what the camera angle will be. In the fi lm industry, many directors get by with creating only thumbnail storyboards. Because con- cept art generally illustrates the look of the scene, as well as the color schemes and similar details that are involved, the storyboards need show only the staging of the scene. With a video game, it will probably be necessary to move on to the next step. Part 2\n\n\n  3. Create 2D storyboards. Now that we have the format of the drawings and the thumbnails have been created, we can move on to creating a higher-quality rendition of each level/scene. In addition to doing the same things that the thumbnails do (specifi cally, the layout and camera angle of each scene), the purpose of the 2D storyboards is to capture the mood or emotion of each scene. Is it a dark moment within the game? Does the lighting capture that? Care must be taken, though, to not create storyboards/images that cannot be captures in the game. At this point, the game designers and producers should be consulting with the sto- ryboard artist to insure that each scene is storyboarded accurately. Once high-quality 2D storyboards are created,\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  the team can move on to the use of 3D storyboards if\n\n  StageTools has two needed. programs available\n\n4. Create 3D storyboards. This step involves the use of a story-\n\n  for free demo\n\n  boarding program or animation software. Although it’s\n\n  online that can help with\n\n  completely acceptable to make 3D storyboards with the\n\n  creating animatics. Go to\n\n  use of Maya, 3ds Max, or Lightweave, most storyboard art-\n\n  ists prefer to use either a fi lmmaking storyboard program\n\n  and download the software\n\n  or to use 3D models from Poser or DAZ Studio. The advan-\n\n  demos of MovingPicture\n\nand MovingParts for a trial tage of using 3D storyboards is that the development team\n\nrun. If you’re interested in\n\n  can actually see how the level will look to the gamer, how\n\n  creating 2D storyboards,\n\n  to use lighting, and to adjust camera angles. Some story-\n\n  check out the freeware\n\n  boarding programs even have the ability to have move-\n\n  program Storyboard Pro at\n\n  ment in the frame so you can see how a character can\n\n  Atomic Learning ( http://\n\n  move within the scene. Moving storyboards are usually ). called “ animatics ” and have been wide used in the ani- mated fi lm industry.\n\n6.5 Cut-Scenes\n\n  If it has been determined in preproduction that the game will include cut-scenes, storyboards can be especially helpful in this arena. As cut-scenes mean that the gamer will not be interacting with the action, they can be thought of as mini-movies within the game. In this respect, the storyboard process can be approached exactly like that of a fi lm. In addition to the illustration pane, each drawing can feature a description panel underneath that explains any important information that is not in the storyboard. The description panel can sometimes include information regarding dialogue, special effects, or camera movement—usually, though, the camera movement in indicated in the actual panel with use of arrows.\n\n\n  Example of a storyboard with camera movement and description.\n\n  As you construct the storyboard sequence for the cut-scene, think of the illustrations as a comic book or graphic novel; the drawings should move forward in a logical narrative and tell the story visually. This can be easily accomplished by making a short “ script ” that describes for the artist what should appear in each panel that will be created. The basic storyboarding process can be described in the following four-step process:\n\n  Step 1: Framing. Once you know the size of the storyboard, you\n\n  must fi rst determine the size of the objects within the frame. This can usually be done by determining the type of shot that is within the scene. By simply marking the storyboard as a long shot or a medium shot, the artist can then determine the size of the char- acters, props, and so on within the frame. The different types of shots are discussed in the chapter on cinematography.\n\n  Step 2: Camera Angle. Will the viewpoint be from down low, or\n\n  high above the characters? Note on the storyboard whether the camera will be on an even “ eye line ” (straight in front of or behind the characters), a high angle, or low angle.\n\n  Step 3: Depth of Field. This is the same thing as a cinematogra-\n\n  pher choosing a lens. How much of the scene will be in focus? Do you want everything to be crystal-clear (like in documentary foot- age), or will the background be blurred? How far will the back- ground be from the objects in the foreground? The choice of depth of fi eld is an artistic decision and can affect the emotional impact of the scene, so choose carefully.\n\n  Step 4: Movement. If there is going to be any movement within\n\n  the frame, it must be annotated either within the frame with arrows or beneath the frame with a description panel. Either way,\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  The use of an overhead camera angle helps reinforce how small you within the scope of the universe when you begin playing the game Spore. © 2006 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, EA, the EA logo and Spore are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EA™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand.\n\n  all movement (including the camera itself ) must be indicated for the artist.\n\n  Once all these steps have been taken and the storyboards are scripted, the artist can now create a graphic representation of what your cut-scene will look like. This storyboard will be the roadmap that the animators and artists use when creating the scene.\n\n6.6 Storyboards and Interactive Media\n\n  In addition to use within the fi lm industry to help with setting up and designing individual shots in a movie, storyboards have also been used recently to help with the designing and maintain- ing of interactive media and Web sites. As Web sites can also incor- porate audio, video, and graphic elements in a nonlinear fashion, storyboards are a great way to illustrate the various ways the site can interact with visitors. In this sense, the storyboards can be looked at as a sort of fl owchart or site map that shows the interac- tivity of the individual elements of the Web page. This can help when designing the online site for the game you are producing.\n\n  It is also becoming more prevalent within the game industry to involve an “ alternative reality game ” (ARG) with the release of a title. Bungie’s Halo 2 was preceded with the ARG “ I Love Bees”,\n\n  Halo 3 was kicked off by the ARG “ Iris ”, and even television series\n\n\n  are now using the concept of an ARG (the program Lost held an online ARG called the “ Lost Experience ” ). Because alternative reality games usually include online content that is meant to interact with live action performed by the gamer in the real world, storyboards are a great way to map out how events will unfold between the Web site and reality, as well as the path that the gam- ers will take in the real world while exploring the game.\n\n  The Halo 3 alternate reality game help fuel the fi re of anticipation before the game’s release. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.\n\n  Interview: Mathieu Raynault, Digital Matte Painter\n\n  Mathieu Raynault is a digital matte painter (digital matte paint- ing is the art of creating traditional matte paintings—usually background/environment work—electronically, using a combi- nation of scanning, drawing, and coloring using a computer and specially designed software) and has worked on fi lms like 300 ,\n\n  Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones , two of the Lord of the Rings fi lms, and King Kong . In addition to his fi lm experience, he\n\n  has also produced art for television and the game industries (Prince of Persia III , The Act of War , and Men of Valor ). You can see examples of his work on his Web site ( ).\n\n  Newman : Typically, what kind of information is given to you by a\n\n  client regarding a new scenic piece? Is it usually very detailed information, or do you generally get a lot of room to inject your own artistic input into the scene?\n\n  Raynault : It really depends on the project. I do often have to pro-\n\n  vide sketches and concepts early in the process in order to start dialog with the director or art director. In these cases I am involved early, and my creative input is quite signifi cant. Though, sometime like on Star Wars for example, I would get a pretty detailed concept\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  art piece, basically a painting that was done by one of Lucas’s con- cept artist, establishing composition, color palette, mood and lighting. On cases like this, my job becomes solely to create the most believable photorealistic image based on the concept.\n\n   Newman : You’ve produced art for fi lm and game projects. What\n\n  has been some of the major differences with working in these two industries?\n\n  Raynault : It’s been quite similar in fact. My contribution to video\n\n  games was on cinematics only which are basically short fi lms . So for a matte painter, it’s almost the same. The only difference being that cinematics are full CG productions, similar technically to fi lms like Shrek or what Pixar does. Everything is created through 3D software and the matte painting works to be part of that.\n\n   Newman : What values have you taken from working on fi lm proj-\n\n  ects (like Star Wars: Episode II and the Lord of the Rings movies) and incorporated into your game pieces for Atari and Ubisoft?\n\n  Raynault : I think one of the good things learned while working on\n\n  these big fi lms is the ability to create photorealistic images, yet stylized with a touch of fantasy in it. Finding this balance is always a challenge and is more and more in demand in game cinematics. So technically it means to be able to mix painting skills with a dose of CG and photographic knowledge. Working on these fi lms also lets your eyes see and record beautiful D.O.P. [Director of Photography] work as you sit down in those dailies seeing pieces of the fi lm over and over. In our fi eld you have to literally “ eat ” as much beautiful and impactful imagery as you can. The more pho- tographic and fi lmic knowledge you accumulate, the better you are at judging your own work. And that is just one more opportunity!\n\n  Newman : Describe the communication between you and the\n\n  team that will be designing animation or action over the scenes you have created for a game cinematic (cut-scene). Could the direction have taken any lessons from the fi lm industry?\n\n  Raynault : Yes, I think there is still a lot to be learned by the cine-\n\n  matic people. But it’s not necessarily from me! It seems that the standard in these teams is to hire fresh-out-of-school CG artists, which is totally valid, but unfortunately there is defi nitely a lack of movie-making knowledge in the equation. To me, if you want to create a nice short fi lm before your video game or in the cut- scenes, you have to insuffl ate as much movie language as you can in it. This is valid in the art direction side of it, but also in the design of the cameras, use of lenses, and so on. I think it means hiring live action directors and art director to pair with CG people. To me, that is the ideal way you create rich collaborative teams.\n\n\n   Newman : What’s your workfl ow like? How long does a piece usu-\n\n  ally take to fi nish?\n\n  Raynault : A matte painting [MP] for a fi lm usually takes around\n\n  two to three weeks of work. I usually start with some rough con- cepts and sketches and once it is approved, I move forward to cre- ate the fi nal piece using whatever techniques and cheats to speed up the process. If it’s a cityscape type of MP, I will use a 3D software to model basic geometry, texture it, and light it to give me a base image. From there, I will use painting and photographic tech- niques in Photoshop. This is where most of the important work happens. Once I have a satisfying image, it will either be projected back on 3D geometry to allow a camera move and parallax, or it will go straight to compositing if, for example, it’s a lock off camera with foreground live action to be added in front.\n\n  Newman : What are the advantages of working digitally as\n\n  opposed to creating a hand-made piece of art? How has technol- ogy affected your quality over the years?\n\n  Raynault : It is now impossible to achieve a matte painting with-\n\n  out the use of the computer. The expectations now are way higher than they were twenty years ago. Audience can detect easily if a background looks painterly. That is why a fi nal matte painting nowadays, even though it has been created with some painting techniques, contains no visible brush strokes. It became sort of a “ created ” photograph more than a painting, and that’s why it has to be done digitally.\n\n  Newman : When trying to create a more cinematic game, what\n\n  kinds of elements do you think need to be present in the artistic design to give it that kind of scope?\n\n  Raynault : The key elements to me are lighting, mood, and cam-\n\n  era design. Designing live-action-like camera moves, choosing the right lenses, and creating interesting composition is a really big challenge in video games. And of course, establishing great direction of photography and replicating fi lmic lighting effect adds a lot to the look of game. The more you can get away from the perfectness of CG, the closer you’ll get to a cinematic look!\n\n  Newman : You’ve managed to achieve a great standard in matte\n\n  painting. What have been some of the better pieces of advice you have gotten over the years regarding working as an artist?\n\n  Raynault : In matte painting, one of the things you learn early on\n\n  is that even though you are the creator of nice noticeable fi lm background, it is not your art. You are part of a team trying to achieve a look for a fi lm. Ultimately, you work for a director’s visions and you achieve it within a group of people. It is learning to separate your own art creation from your job. It is still really\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  fun to be a matte painter but it has nothing to do with being a painter.\n\n   Newman : What advice of your own do you have for art students\n\n  wanting to work in the video game industry?\n\n   Raynault : Well, I am maybe not the right person to answers this, as\n\n  my main fi eld is the movie industry. But if, like in my case, you want to be involved in the image creation side of your industry, I would suggest trying to put together the best portfolio you can, containing traditional art pieces as well as digital art. The more you show your education is complete, and that you have explored many paths in art, the better it is. The students that have impressed me over the years were always the one that managed to present movie-like shots in their portfolio, achieving photorealistic and highly stylized looks with challenging concepts and strong art direction. Also, I would be careful with these eight-month CG school programs that guarantee you a job in the industry. They are not necessarily bad, but I think they need to be preceded and com- bined with more traditional education.\n\n\n  The term “cinematography” was created in the fi lm industry to describe the process of creating images on fi lm; as the use of fi lm has diminished somewhat with the widespread availability of dig- ital video and high defi nition formats, the term “cinematography” has expanded. Now it is a generic term encompassing all aspects of camera work, including the creative aspects involved with making aesthetically pleasing images and the technical aspects involved with using cameras, lights, and other equipment.\n\n  Cinematography has been around for a very long time with many infl uential directors and camera operators, but the fi eld has changed very little—even with the current trend of using digital/ high-defi nition digital mediums. Though cinematography is usu- ally thought of as the elements that constitute the composition and style of a movie, it can also incorporate lighting techniques, camera movement, and even postproduction methods for creating the look that the director or cinematographer (usually a camera operator with lots of experience) is going for.\n\n  Though most techniques were designed for shooting movies, the visual elements of using basic cinematography techniques can also be applied to video games; both are visual mediums and both involve style, movement, and composition. When discussing the various elements of cinematography, most fi lmmakers refer to the work of Joseph V. Mascelli and his written work regarding the fi eld (check out the seminal The Five C’s of Cinematography, Silman-James Press, 1998).\n\n7.1 Five C’s of Cinematography\n\n  Though Mascelli wrote his book more than forty years ago, the basic principles he laid out still apply to visual mediums today. He came to the conclusion that the creative decisions made when shooting a fi lm revolved around what he called the “fi ve C’s of cinematography.” These C’s include: camera angles, continuity,\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  The use of creative camera angles in the video game process can be as easy as shifting the perspective of the gamer from fi rst person to third person or as complicated as involving multiple camera angles from various viewpoints. Either way, the choice of camera angle can affect the atmosphere of the game, the intent and meaning the designer intended for the game, and even the depth/feel of the level/scene. A basic example of this would be using a low camera angle to represent the point of view of an insect protagonist. From this angle, everything would tower over the insect and create the feeling of vulnerability. Questions that a producer should be asking when determining the camera angles to use include, “What feeling/point-of-view do we want to create for the gamer?” and “What is the context of the scene?”\n\n  One of the major advantages a game cinematographer has over a fi lm cinematographer is the actual “camera”. Because a physical camera has size, it cannot be placed just anywhere within a scene. This limits the types of shots that can be achieved. In the gaming world, the camera has no size but is simply a point of view, so the camera can be placed literally anywhere within the shot. This can be used to achieve a level of shots and scenes that have never been seen or used in the fi lm industry and can add great cine- matic depth to the project.\n\n  Considering the context of a level or scene is a great way to make technical decisions regarding game cinematography (and maybe should be the sixth “C”). For instance, if your protagonist has just been in a helicopter crash and is trying to crawl from the wreckage, a wobbly/skewed camera angle could represent the disorientation and dizziness the character would be experienc- ing. Being consistent in the game with the use of creative camera angles helps keep the game on point with continuity.\n\n  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare includes many instances of point- of-view camera work. Reproduced by permission of Activision. All rights reserved.\n\n\n  The continuity aspect of cinematography involves keeping a consistent tone throughout the production. Though it can be thought of as limiting, continuity can be maintained while using a variety of camera angles and composition. Think of it as being consistent with the scene rather than consistent (or one-track) throughout the production. A lack of continuity with cameras creates gamer confusion and diminishes the overall production value of a game. It’s important that the look and feel of a game remains consistent so that gamers will become immersed and enjoy a cinematic experience when playing. This can be achieved by staying with the “line of action”, or the direction in which the game play will be heading.\n\n  Because the placement of the camera will be engineered dur- ing production, it is necessary to include notes about each level regarding the camera work. The notes should include the context of the level, any key creative decisions regarding the look and feel of the scene, and list any changes that should occur there.\n\n  In the fi lm industry, the term “cutting” usually refers to the post- production aspect of editing. A fi lm editor can get involved with a movie while it is still in production—mostly to insure that continu- ity is taking place and that the fi nished footage will have the necessary shots to cut a fi nished version of the fi lm. Though this may be a less pertinent aspect of game cinematography, you can think of cutting in the game industry as editing as you go. Once\n\n  Development Tip\n\n  you have a previsualization of what the level/scene should look like, you can then make the decisions regarding the other elements\n\n  Filmmakers use\n\n  of game cinematography that will essentially “cut” the scene to\n\n  many names for\n\n  look the way intended, then implement these decisions in produc- the different styles\n\n  of framing a shot. These\n\n  tion. Again, as most of these decisions will have been made in pre-\n\n  include: extreme close-up,\n\n  production (with the script and storyboarding processes), the\n\n  medium close-up, full engineers will already have a plan to implement in level design. close-up, wide close-up,\n\n  The last two C’s of cinematography involve framing. “Framing”\n\n  close shot, medium close\n\n  a scene basically means the manner in which you position the\n\n  shot, medium shot, medium\n\n  camera and the proportions of the objects that are within the full shot, and full shot. frame. The use of close-ups is one of the key ways to frame a\n\n  Becoming familiar with\n\n  scene. Another method of accomplishing this is to use the Rule of\n\n  these terms can help when\n\n  Thirds (discussed later) and the creative use of different kinds of\n\n  making notes about your shots to create variation within the continuity of the game. camera position. For\n\n  Making sure to include true close-ups is very important in the instance, if you’re review-\n\n  ing a cut-scene that isn’t\n\n  fi lm industry, as this is usually the method of choice for relaying\n\n  working due to a lack of\n\n  intense emotion from the character (nothing beats a good close-\n\n  suspense, you might\n\n  up of the character’s expression). Close-ups are also important to\n\n  suggest doing it again from\n\n  use when identifying key props or items in a scene. Though this\n\n  a low angle with a medium\n\n  approach might work only in certain gaming situations or cut-\n\n  shot to get the look you\n\n  scenes, it is still a powerful way to illustrate the emotion of a want. scene, the personality of a character, or a key element of the story.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  The Far Cry games from UbiSoft love the use of creative shots and close-ups. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  The fi nal C that Mascelli spoke of is composition, which is the placement of the individual items/people within the shot. There are several approaches for achieving good composition, but most use the principal of importance: that is, the more important the item/person, the bigger it is in the shot. Alfred Hitchcock used a similar strategy for his camera work by stating, “The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at the moment.” Cinematographers also believe that certain positions within a frame have more importance than others. This is usually called the Rule of Thirds.\n\n7.2 Rule of Thirds\n\n  The Rule of Thirds (sometimes called the Rule of Three) is the basic technique of dividing an image into nine equal parts by imagining two equally dividing horizontal lines and two equally dividing vertical lines crossing the frame.\n\n  The four places where the vertical and horizontal lines cross are thought of as key positions for items within the frame. The use of this rule creates an image that is aesthetically better to the eye and naturally draws attention to that area of the frame. This technique has also been used as a way to misdirect a viewer; if the gamer is focused on the prop or person in the center of the screen, he or she can be led to believe that that item is the major area of importance rather than, say, a background item. This can add a sense of ambiguity or mystery to a scene.\n\n\n  Rule of Thirds diagram. The places where the lines intersect on the screen (in this case, the game Saboteur) are the locations that the human eye is most drawn to. Reproduced by permission of Pandemic Studios. All rights reserved.\n\n7.3 Achieving the Look\n\n  When you visualize the way your game looks in your mind, is it in color or black-and-white? It is sharp or grainy? How about the use of color; do you think of the scenes in bright pastels or in muted monochromatic colors? What about lighting? Is everything brightly lit or shrouded in shadows? These are some of the major questions you must ask and discuss with the creative director to get the look you desire within the game.\n\n  Saboteur by Pandemic/EA illustrates the use of a black-and- white color scheme, as well as noir-style lighting to achieve a darker, older style. Reproduced by permission of Pandemic Studios. All rights reserved. Part 2\n\n\n  Think of the early concept art that you developed in prepro- duction as your primary means to locking down the style you want to achieve. When reviewing the design of backgrounds and characters, look at the individual elements within the piece. It’s important to be able to answer the question “Why?” when an art- ist wants to know what does or does not work within a concept art piece. Even in the fi lm industry, a look is often determined by the artwork (even when the art is applied as an effect in postpro- duction). The fi lm Three Kings featured a simple bleach bypass process when developing the fi lm that added the element of harsh lighting, intensity, and frenetic movement in the movie. This was completely engineered in postproduction, but was con- ceived from the fi lm’s onset. This is the mindset and process that must be followed when crating a cinematic game: conceive the look, design the look, then implement the look.\n\n  Another consideration that affects the look of your game is the choice of lenses that the virtual camera will use. Your designers must discuss this issue: How much of the world around the game character do you want the gamer to see? Good cinematographers use certain lenses to achieve certain styles in a shot. For instance, because of the extreme depth of fi eld used in most video produc- tions, most documentaries have a very “live” look to them. As most of the frame is in focus during video production, this means that the action being shot will seem real. After all, this is how the human eye works—we look at something and we see it in focus. In the fi lm industry, this has become one of the major factors that determine whether a digital video (or high-defi nition [HD] video) production has a “fi lm look”. Most fi lm cameras use lenses with a limited depth of fi eld (meaning that a certain degree of the back- ground will be out of focus), so digital video DV/HD productions have started limiting the focus within frame as a means to mimic shooting with fi lm. This technique can also be applied to a game.\n\n  Let’s say you are developing an FPS that takes place in the Iraq confl ict. By keeping the entire frame in focus and using a jerky cam- era style, the game have a defi nite live feel—much like a documen- tary. Conversely, a great cut-scene for the same game illustrating a grand panoramic shot of the entire aftermath of the battleground would be done with a degree of slow, smooth camera movement coupled with the use of limited focus for distant objects. The use of focus/blur is yet another key way that cinematography can be used within the game to achieve a cinematic look.\n\n  The look of the game can also be affected by any effect that has been used in conjunction with the camera style. For instance, a level that takes place in the desert can have the effect of heat waves/ripples rising off metal objects. A character when struck by a bullet or fi st can suddenly cause the scene to shift out of focus\n\n\n  Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed features the use of many virtual camera lenses. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  You can also think of adding effects much like a fi lm cinematog- rapher would think about using fi lters on a camera.\n\n  Think about some of the looks that are achieved with some of the most popular fi lters—color, polarizing, and neutral density—\n\n  Development Tip\n\n  and how that look could be applied to your game. Mimicking the\n\n  The American\n\n  application of a lens fi lter can add cinematic depth to the visuals\n\n  Society of of the level. Cinematographers often has great information about the use of various\n\n7.4 Lighting in Games\n\n  fi lters on camera and lights, as well as cinematography\n\n  Though part of the look of the game, lighting also refers to the\n\n  techniques to achieve\n\n  technical aspects of cinematography. This includes the position-\n\n  certain cinematic looks\n\n  ing of light, the intensity of the light being used, the placement of\n\n  on their Web site. Check shadows, and the effect that the light will have upon the camera. them out at http://www.\n\n  Most of these elements can also be dealt with during the concept phase of getting the art department on point early on, but some of these must be also be thought of in a technical manner. For instance, when a character looks directly at the sun, can you still see other things around him or her, or does the sun blind the char- acter? Maybe the sun creates a sort of lens fl are on the camera.\n\n  Perhaps light will be a technical feature that’s intended to affect the gamer during game play. For instance, in the game Elder\n\n  Scrolls IV: Oblivion, most locations are far too dark to explore\n\n  without the use of a “light spell” or fl ashlight. In the case of this game, the designers have made the lighting a game play element.\n\n  Lighting is also one of the ways that the game designer can affect the mood of the level. The use of a lot of shadows and lim- ited visibility is a great way to make a game seem eerie or build tension. This is a staple of conventional horror games like Silent\n\n  Hill and Resident Evil. Conversely, a lot of light can add a very\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  A typical dark dungeon in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The Elder ® Scrolls IV: Oblivion © 2006 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. All rights reserved.\n\n  games have made a fi ne art out of the use of dark levels. One of the oldest methods for lighting in the fi lm industry revolves around the concept of “three-point lighting”.\n\n  Three-point lighting is the most basic way of shooting a scene in the fi lm industry; it refers to setting up three lights on the set: key light, fi ll light, and back light. The key light is in front of the action and illuminates the major elements of the scene. Think of it as the spotlight that is hitting the main character or object in the scene. It is usually the brightest light used and sets the tone (usually by inten- sity) of the lighting scene. In a game, the key light is probably the omnipresent light set at a distance of infi nity that illuminates every- thing evenly. The remaining lights are used primarily for mood.\n\n  An example of three-point lighting.\n\n\n  The fi ll light hits the front and side spots of the frame that the key light does not. Typically, it is not as bright as the key light and is used to draw attention to any detail that is missed by the key light. Most cinematographers use this light to complement the key light (sometimes it is entirely omitted, but then it would only be two-point lighting).\n\n  The back light, as you would expect, is placed behind the items in the scene to create a degree of “rim light” around the subjects. The back light can be adjusted to either blend an object into a scene or separate/highlight the object. The way the back light is used is an aesthetic choice and can be manipulated to achieve the mood and look you want.\n\n  Sam Fisher, the protagonist of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series, blends in well with his surroundings—an example of low back light. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Though the use of three-point lighting is a fundamentally basic style in fi lmmaking, it can make a great jumping-off point for other styles of lighting. Start with this type of lighting, then adjust the light positioning, or quantity/intensity of lights to get the look you are trying to achieve. Because most games are in 3D, lighting a room or area in a game is quite different than lighting the set in a fi lm. There will be situations therein that a movie’s gaffer or cin- ematographer could only dream of. Attention must be paid to the spaces/places that normally would not be in the fi eld of vision of a fi lm viewer and treated with equal gravity in order to maintain consistency and continuity.\n\n7.5 Camera Movement\n\n  Another key element in cinematography is the use of camera movement. For a physical camera, this means performing dolly and crane moves, panning and tilting the camera, and arranging\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  the set to accommodate the movement (sometimes called “block- ing” or “staging”). All of these movements can be accomplished within a game as well.\n\n  “Dolly moves” refer to the use of a physical dolly to move the camera along a set of tracks horizontally. Though a practical cam- era is limited to a set path, the dolly move on a virtual camera can weave and bob through a crowd, go through walls, or zoom in quickly on a specifi c object. A “crane move” also refers to a piece of fi lmmaking equipment. A crane moves a camera up and down, usually without a tilt. Just like the dolly moves, a game is not lim- ited by where or how the camera gets from Point A to Point B while executing a crane move.\n\n  The use of a moving camera can add to the excitement of a game by keeping the action in frame. Camera movement can also\n\n  Development Tip\n\n  be used to shift the attention of the gamer from one area to\n\n  Great fi lm\n\n  another; a simple way to do this would be the use of panning and/\n\n\n  or tilting. “Panning” refers to the horizontal view of a stationary\n\n  have learned over\n\n  camera that moves from one spot in the scene to another. “Tilting”\n\n  the years that the com-\n\n  refers to doing the same thing vertically. In most games, the use of\n\n  bination of a dolly/crane\n\nmove with a pan/tilt adds pan and tilt is usually implemented by incorporating the chang-\n\ngreat dimension to the\n\n  ing views into the point of view (POV) of the game character; in\n\n  scene. This dynamic use\n\n  other words, the scene changes horizontally and vertically when\n\n  of the camera can give a the character looks around the level. project cinematic depth\n\n  Once you have fi gured out the camera moves that you want to\n\n  and add to the production\n\n  include within the scene or game level, you must fi gure out the value of the fi nished game. positioning of the individual items/characters within the shot. Are they moving, too, or will they be static? Which elements in the shot are of higher importance? These are the questions that need to be asked when designing the level or cut-scene. One of the techniques for fi guring out the individual elements of camera movement and placement in the fi lm industry involves a process known as “previsualization”. This can be as simple as storyboard- ing the level, or using a previsualization program.\n\n  Keep in mind, too, that cameras can be used within games in\n\n  Development Tip\n\n  ways that fi lmmakers could never achieve. You can attach cam-\n\n  One of the widely\n\n  eras to characters, shoot through solid objects, and get POV shots\n\n  used previsualizat-\n\n  that would be impossible with a practical camera. This is one of\n\n  ion programs in the\n\n  the strengths and unique aspects of a video game and should be\n\n  fi lm industry is called used as much as possible. FrameForge 3D Studio. You can download a demo version of the program on\n\n7.6 Staging\n\n  the program’s offi cial Web\n\n  The best way to think of staging is to go back to the rule used site: http://www. by Hitchcock. Staging is basically how you arrange the characters and props within the scene. Again, the relationship of the asset in the frame can be based upon importance, or simply be a product of necessity (for example, a rock is placed in the forefront of the\n\n\n  scene, because this is a place where the protagonist can take cover). Once you have placed everything within the level, natural areas or zones will emerge.\n\n  The various zones provide natural boundaries for the place- ment of cameras. For instance, if you recognize that the level can be divided into four clear areas, a static camera can be placed in each of these; this way, when the gamer has fi nished clearing a zone, the POV can shift to the camera placed in the next zone as the gamer enters that area. Good staging should be used in con- junction with blocking, applying the rule of three, and the sound techniques of framing discussed previously.\n\n7.7 Blocking\n\n  “Blocking” is the process of mapping out the movement of assets within the frame. For instance, a typical FPS features levels where the protagonist enters the scene and then must cross an area of space to complete the level. This involves the protagonist moving; though the movement of the protagonist can be predicted to a cer- tain extent (paths will be limited by placed obstacles and boundar- ies), the interactivity of the gamer should be preserved by presenting multiple paths. To this end, the placement of props and obstacles in the scene determine the blocking of the main game character.\n\n  In addition to the protagonist, there can also be nonplayer char- acters (NPCs) moving within a scene. Going back to the FPS exam- ple, as the protagonist crosses the main area, there will be opposing forces moving to stop the protagonist and engage the gamer. Because these will be controlled by the game itself, the blocking of NPCs can defi nitely be planned. A certain degree of variation can be included through the use of artifi cial intelligence, but again, the movement will be limited to a degree by obstacles and boundaries.\n\n  The Master Chief of Halo 3 attempts to cross the room. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved. Part 2\n\n\n  The detailed planning of blocking within a level will help the\n\n  Development Tip\n\n  engineering department and technical director with level design\n\n  For detailed ways\n\n  and coding. Typically, the use of blocking techniques is coupled\n\n  to code and imple-\n\n  with creative staging for dramatic effect. When used correctly,\n\n  ment some of the\n\n  these rules of good cinematography add a huge cinematic impact\n\n  cinematography concepts to your game. of this chapter, consider picking up Real-Time Cinematography for Games by Brian Hawkins Interview: Bruce Block, Author of The Visual Story (Charles River Media,\n\n  Bruce Block has served as a producer, director or creative con-\n\n  2005). The book lays out\n\n  sultant on feature fi lms, television shows, commercials, animated\n\n  many of the ways to\n\n  fi lms, computer games, and IMAX movies. His feature fi lm credits\n\n  engineer cinematography\n\n  include: The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, Stuart Little, As techniques into your game.\n\n  Good As It Gets, The Parent Trap and America’s Sweethearts.\n\n  Mr. Block is the author of The Visual Story, which is used throughout the world as the standard text for understanding the relationship between story and visual structure. He also teaches visual structure at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and gives semi- nars at animation studios, fi lm schools, and interactive game companies.\n\n  Newman: In your book The Visual Story, you talk about “control-\n\n  ling pictures”. Give a quick version of what the workfl ow would be in creating controlled visual art.\n\n  Block: First, you have to answer these questions: 1. What’s the story confl ict? Not the plot, but the confl ict.\n\n  2. Who are the characters? Bruce Block\n\n  3. What’s the story genre?\n\n  4. What’s the story theme or premise?\n\n  5. What is the point of view? Point of view means how does\n\n  the picture maker want the audience to feel about the sub- ject? (Example: The Vietnam War was: dangerous; funny; romantic; a nightmare).\n\n  6. Where does the story take place? What natural visual com-\n\n  ponents exist in that location? Now, based on your point of view, research the story and loca- tions. Create or fi nd photographs, drawings, paintings, written material, or movies that suggest various visual approaches. What visual ideas in other people’s work communicate the point of view that you have in mind? This isn’t stealing; this is research. If you have to make a movie about the Civil War, you research it because you don’t have any fi rsthand knowledge of the Civil War. If you’re doing a movie about contemporary New York, you will visit the city, take pictures, and perhaps get photo books about the city full of pictures taken by other people. It’s likely that all of the artists who came before you had some great ideas about the\n\n\n  visual side of New York that you can use for inspiration. If you don’t want to use research, create concept art yourself. Do this intuitively. What visuals feel right to you? Free associate and cre- ate new pictures, sculptures, photos, and so on that communi- cate your point of view.\n\n  Analyze the story or script to see how it’s structured. You must be able to defi ne the confl ict and see where it gains story confl ict intensity. As I suggest in my book, create graphs that show the story and visual structure. Use the principle of contrast and affi n- ity to give your pictures a visual structure that communicates your point of view and parallels the story confl ict.\n\n  Newman: How does the visual structure of games differ from that\n\n  of fi lm?\n\n  Block: The visual structure of a motion picture fi lm is predeter-\n\n  mined. The fi lm is the same viewing experience for every audi- ence who has no control of any aspect of the presentation. In a video game, the player can rearrange the story structure and the visual components. The game can be a different story and a dif- ferent visual experience each time it’s played, whereas the fi lm will always be the same.\n\n  Newman: How can games take a cue from fi lm structure? Block: Film’s story and visual structure are critical to good story-\n\n  telling. Every story (no matter how short or long) has an exposi- tion, a confl ict, and a resolution. Something as simple as a joke has all three of these story elements, as does a short story, a graphic novel, a traditional novel, or a movie (of any length). A game must also have these elements. The exposition is the information needed to begin; the game confl ict is solving the puzzle, eradicating the enemy, fi nding something, saving some- thing, escaping from somewhere, and so on; the resolution in a game is success or failure.\n\n  In fi lm, when a writer, director, production designer, or cine- matographer structures the visuals, certain basic questions must be answered: What is the overall mood? What emotions should the audience feel and when should they feel them? What is the confl ict in the story and how can the visual structure make that confl ict evident? How can the story’s intensifying confl ict be par- alleled by the visual structure? How can the story be made visu- ally cinematic? A fi lm crew is divided into departments (writing, acting, casting, directing, camera, lighting, set design, costumes, props, special effects, sound effects, and music) so that every area can be examined, controlled, and used to help tell the story, set the mood, and communicate the point of view.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Newman: What elements do you look for in a visually strong\n\n\n  Block: I look for a controlled use of the basic visual components\n\n  as they are outlined in my book. These components are space, line, shape, color, tone, movement, and rhythm. These same components are the visual building blocks of any pictorial art form, including games. Specifi cally, what movies do I consider to be visually strong? Everyone has a different list, but the great visual movies are the ones you can remember long after you’ve seen them. If you must have an actual list, please read my book, because it uses examples from movies with strong visuals only.\n\n  Newman: Given the interactivity of games, how do you approach\n\n  the challenge of creating a strong narrative visually, because the timeline of events in a game can be in fl ux?\n\n  Block: You can’t create a visual narrative. You can use visuals to\n\n  support a narrative that tells a story but visual components by themselves can’t tell a story. Visuals can create a mood or evoke an emotional response or create visual intensity but I don’t think pure visuals can tell a specifi c story. An actor walking around without talking doesn’t qualify as a narrative visual. Graphic nov- els without words tell a story but they are very representative drawings. A wordless graphic novel is a pantomime, so we still rely on facial expression, body language, and anthropomorphic symbols to tell stories. An interactive game, no matter how non- linear, still has a beginning and an end. As the player plays the game, events can occur based on game play, not on a scripted plan. It is still critical to any structure that there be a build towards the end or at least structural variety so that the game play remains visually interesting. A fl exible timeline or a game player’s random access to events cannot be an excuse to ignore visual structure.\n\n  Classically, the most intense part of a confl ict is the climax where the confl ict ends. In some video games, the fi nal battle is the most intense, or the fi nal puzzle is the most complicated, or the last race is the most diffi cult. No one wants to play a game where the most diffi cult stuff is fi rst and then everything gets progressively easier. Each level of a video game is more diffi cult or exciting so that the structure builds in confl ict intensity. Programmers must plan for the interactivity and nonlinear play that occurs in games. If the sequence of scenes (or events) is designed as A-B-C-D-E-F, the game designer can’t ignore the fact that the player might encounter the scenes in a different order like: F-A-E-C-B-D. No matter how the player encounters the scenes, the designer must create a fl exi- ble structural plan. If the scenes are encountered out of order (and F is the most intense scene), predetermining and locking the visual design of the scenes won’t work. Because the player can change the\n\n\n  scene (or event) order, that player can easily encounter the scenes in any structural order. The scenes have to be programmed with fl exibility so that an intensifying structural experience can be had no matter how the scenes are encountered. Even if a player returns to a scene that has been “completed”, it should look different based on where else the player has gone and where the player is now positioned in the overall visual structure.\n\n  In global multiplayer games, visual variety in the environments is critical to keeping the game interesting. Different “universes” will be easier or more diffi cult to encounter based not only on who is there but also by how it’s visually designed. Should an explosion occurring on Level 1 look like an explosion that occurs on Level 20? Probably not. How the explosions can differ depends on the visual structure that is created based on the story and point of view.\n\n  Newman: With cinematography now becoming a serious subject\n\n  in the game industry, describe the impact that choice of framing and lighting can have on a scene.\n\n  Block: Cinematography and lighting have a huge impact on visual\n\n  structure. Most interactive games leave framing choices to the player. The game designer does have certain controls like lens choice and limits that can be placed on the camera’s mobility, but camera angle is usually not controlled by the designer. Lighting can be controlled by the designer (time of day, existing light sources, and so on) or the player (carrying fl ashlights, torches, fi nding light switches, and so on). A good cinematographer has a huge range of styles that can be used: a fi lm-noir style, sitcom style, horror-fi lm style, overexposure, contrasting lighting, hard lighting, soft light- ing, lighting direction, color of light, intensity of light, one light source or multiple light sources, and so on.\n\n  A game designer who is concerned with camera angle and light- ing should pick ten classic fi lms and run them with the sound off and study the lighting. The designer should also take some classes in photographic lighting styles. Camera and lighting are very sophisticated cinematic techniques that elevate visual structure. In fi lm and television, experienced cinematographers create extraor- dinary moods and visual styles with lighting, but it takes a lot of experimenting and practice. A designer that thinks lighting is only there to see the action is missing a key element in visual structure.\n\n  Newman: Most games are being developed today with a well-\n\n  defi ned story and characters, but the theme is usually murky at best. What’s the process concerning the use of space and color to help defi ne a theme?\n\n  Block: The theme of most games seems to be: “Getting killed is a\n\n  bad thing” or “Do this because it’s fun or exciting”. Generally\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  speaking, deep space is more dramatic than fl at space, because deep space creates visual contrasts. So if deep is dramatic, it can be used to defi ne themes that are dramatic or intense. Flat space can also be dramatic, but it needs other visual component con- trasts to gain the needed visual intensity. Remember that space is going to be a general backdrop behind the story to help defi ne mood and support the intensity of the confl ict. Space doesn’t have the ability to get as specifi c as color.\n\n  Color has three “control knobs”: hue, brightness, and satura- tion, which allows a wide range of color choices. Color can com- municate to an audience more specifi cally than space. Like any visual component, meanings can be assigned to a color. Color already has a lot of stereotypic meanings that can communicate a theme: for example, bright saturated colors are happy; saturated red can communicate danger or passion; desaturated blue can show depression. Again, these are hokey stereotypes, as any color can be made to communicate almost anything.\n\n  Newman: When one reads a story or watches a movie, you can\n\n  always tell when the writer has a great rhythm—the story just fl ows and the characters are all well-defi ned. What sort of “check- list” could a game designer use to determine whether good rhythm is present in the game’s visual style?\n\n  Block: The most important factor in rhythm of a game, I think, is\n\n  intuitive play. A game can be diffi cult to win, but its rhythm must feel intuitive. I don’t think a player will get involved in a game that doesn’t have an intuitive rhythmic feel to the overall play. Visual rhythm is based on controlling a picture’s linear motif. You can fi nd the linear motif of a picture by reducing it to lines. If you reduced your entire game to a series of pictures of lines (curved, straight, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal), how would they stack up in terms of structure?\n\n  The easiest way to see the linear motif is by removing the color and then increasing the contrast of the picture until there’s noth- ing left but black and white. That remaining harsh, contrasty image is the linear motif, which reveals the visual rhythm. When we look at any picture, we might describe the visual rhythm as calm, jumpy, agitated, soothing, mellow, chaotic, slow, or fast. All of those descriptive words are how we feel emotionally about the linear motif. As a game is a series of pictures, how does this series of linear motifs (the pictures) reveal contrast or affi nity? In my book, there’s an entire chapter devoted to fi nding linear motif and understanding how to control it structurally. Visual rhythm is also created by editing or cutting from one shot to another. Most games tend to be a single, endless shot, so editing isn’t usually a factor in a computer game.\n\n\n  In the fi lm and game industries, the job title “ producer ” can mean a lot of different things. It all depends on the context of the position and the medium in use. Regardless of these two factors, however, there is a defi nite skill set involved with working as a producer and being successful. Good management skills, experi- ence working with people, and broad knowledge of the industry is essential for any type of longevity in either fi lm or game.\n\n  Though it may seem that the game industry would not have much to learn from this particular fi lm position with regard to making a cinematic game, it is the best practices of top-notch producers that bring in epic productions on time and on budget. One of the fi rst credits you see in any fi lm or game is that of a pro- ducer, so we know it must be an important job. But what does a producer actually do?\n\n8.1 Job Description\n\n  The simplest description of a fi lm or game producer is the human bridge between the management (the money) and the talent. A typi- cal day for a game producer consists of keeping up with scheduling, tracking assets and milestones, keeping the production team on track and free of distractions, attending numerous meetings, and basically taking on any task that seems to miss falling in the laps of everyone else on the team. The challenges involved with planning and execut- ing the production of a game can be daunting.\n\n  In the fi lm industry, the position is much the same—lots of sched- uling and budgeting—but the position usually includes many of the artistic decisions that are usually associated with a game’s creative director. A fi lm producer often has a major say in casting for certain roles, what the overall “ message ” of a fi lm will be (sometimes this is refl ected in the producer’s choice of director), and where the fi lm will be shot. But before we apply some of the best practices of the\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  fi lm producer to the game development model, let’s take a closer look at what a game producer actually does.\n\n  Depending on the relationship between the developer and the publisher, there can be several different types of producers work- ing on a production.\n\n8.2 Types of Producers in the Game Industry\n\n  A typical game studio (or developer) has several different produc- ers working on the payroll. Usually, this can be upwards of four to ten producers working on any given project. The entry-level position is usually called an “ associate producer ” or sometimes an “ assistant producer ” —here, I’ll use “ AP ” to refer to either title. These individu- als are the ground-level grunts of the producer team. They deal with the employees of the development team on a daily basis, deal with issues within the team, and are usually responsible for a specifi c aspect of development, such as sound design, coding, or animation. Most development teams have several APs working within the pro- duction. The AP also coordinates communication between quality assurance and production and adjusts the daily schedule to refl ect any changes that are occurring in production.\n\n  In most cases, APs are assisted in the daily grind of grunt work by production assistants (PAs) or interns assigned to the team. In a best-case scenario, a good PA will take some of the workload off the AP and assist with the minutia of the studio routine—in a worst- case scenario, the PA will know nothing of game development and will become one more thing that the AP will have to manage. As most APs come from the world of production assistants and qual- ity assurance personnel, it becomes an essential task of the studio to train and bring up this natural source of internal talent.\n\n  A typical game, such as Propaganda Games ’ Turok, has many producers on the payroll. Reproduced by permission of Disney Interactive. All rights reserved.\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  The next rung on the producer ladder is a title that is seen quite a bit in the fi lm world: the line producer. A line producer is usu- ally the go-to person when it comes to budget. Much like the fi lm position, he or she spends the work day knee-deep in the produc- tion team overseeing the nuts and bolts of production to make sure that the project is fi nished on time and on budget. Line pro- ducers typically report to the studio heads and work somewhat outside the producer chain of command. Think of LPs as the accountant of the development team.\n\n  Making the move to full-blown producer is the next step in the producer’s career path. There are two types of producers—those who work for the publisher and those who work for the developer/ studio. Those who work for the publisher are responsible for get- ting the game produced. They answer directly to the publisher and ultimately accept the largest part of the accolades or criti- cisms associated with the fi nished game. The workload for this type of producer is the stuff of nightmares. In addition to the usual full plate of meetings, this type of producer must keep up on all the daily reports coming in, getting those same reports out to the appropriate people within the studio and at the publisher, and constantly evaluating the current project to make sure that all workfl ow is streamlined and working with cohesion.\n\n  Producers who work for an outside developer have similar roles, but ultimately are responsible for maintaining good relations with the publisher. Usually the publisher has producers on the studio site working as well, but the tasks remain the same with regard to scheduling, management, and communication. In addition to the responsibilities involved with maintaining the contract with the publisher, a developer-level producer also must report to the stu- dio heads the current state of affairs using daily delta reports to ensure that internal problems remain internal.\n\n  Producers are also involved with the day-to-day operations of the team, such as resolving confl icts that arise, dealing with dependencies, and working with outside contractors to make sure that deliverables are coming in on schedule (as well as pay- ments going out in a timely manner). The key to being a success- ful producer is organization and communication.\n\n  Sometimes, a game project will also have an executive producer. This position might be in place of a creative director, or working in conjunction with him or her. Usually, an executive producer is involved with the business side of things. Though creative input will be required of all producers, the executive producer is usually involved with the company on a larger scale; rather than dealing with specifi c titles or games, usually this kind of producer is the cen- tral fi gure associated with the brand or franchise game associated with the developer/publisher. Sometimes, this position can also be\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  the developer/publisher. The traits of a highly successful executive producer include strong leadership abilities and communication, a complete understanding of what makes a successful game and how to market it, and competency at determining and managing risk.\n\n  A successful game like the Lord of the Rings Online employs many producers during development.\n\n  The artwork appearing to the right is copyright protected and reproduced with permission. © 2008 Turbine, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Turbine, Inc. or its licensors.\n\n  All of these producer positions are important and all of them have been associated with the fi lm industry for decades. Now that we have identifi ed the individual traits and skills of a producer, we can address how to improve them using the fi lm producer as an example.\n\n8.3 Honing Your Production Skills\n\n  I will discuss the particulars of the individual skill sets involved with production and producing; fi rst, I’ll talk about the things that defi ne and hone a mediocre producer into a great producer. These include communication, professionalism, organization, and leadership.\n\n  Great communication is the hallmark of a great producer. The fi rst step in being a great communicator is learning how to listen. The best approach to this is the concept of “ active listening ” , or the process of focusing on the person speaking to you, and trying to understand the meaning and underlying reasons of what the\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  speaker is trying to say. Only when you understand why the per- son is saying what they are will you be able to respond accurately and in accordance to what is being discussed. In addition to lis- tening to the content of what is being said, it is also important to notice how the person is saying it. Is the speaker agitated? Nervous? Excited? Noticing these things helps place importance upon what is being discussed and allows you to place the conver- sation in proper perspective.\n\n  Sometimes listening means that you will be accepting criticism or suggestions that do not coincide with your own. The role of the producer is to make sure that a product is developed as well as humanly possible—this means examining all input that is pro- vided. There will always be some level of truth to all criticism, and\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  this truth will often have to be extracted from the editorial con-\n\n  Mind Tools ( http://\n\n  tent of the suggestions being made. Once you have done that, www.mindtools. take the criticism for what it is. Does it help? If so, implement it. If\n\n  com) offers great\n\n  not, discard it and move on. Either way, communicating back and\n\n  advice, instruction, and tests\n\n  forth with your team will instill a sense of working as a team, help\n\n  designed to improve build consensus, and create respect within the workplace. interpersonal skills in the\n\n  Communication is the fi rst step to developing professionalism in\n\n  workplace. Visit their site to the workplace. learn more about active\n\n  Being a professional producer means keeping your perspective\n\n  listening, time management,\n\n  and being objective when dealing with co-workers and problems\n\n  stress management, and in the workplace. This means not taking sides in arguments and project planning.\n\n  confl icts, following through with correcting problems, maintain- ing discretion, and creating a sense of reliability. When the team realizes that you can always be trusted with solving a problem logically and discreetly, you will become privy to more of the underlying issues within the workplace. Though you may dele- gate some of the particulars of correcting problems to others, ultimately it should be you that becomes the “ go-to ” person when a crisis occurs.\n\n  The third hallmark of a great producer is organization. Mastering the nuances of great project management will assist you with this. As producing a movie can involve a vast array of logistics, fi lm pro- ducers have relied upon quality fi lm production software to help with this (such as Gorilla Pro, . Once again, the primary organization tools used in the game industry usually revolve around Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, the use of online internal sites (such as a wiki page or Perforce) , and daily reporting. Once you have mastered the tools of the project man- agement trade, it’s a good idea to schedule desk time for yourself each day. Consider the time that you spend catching up on the logistics of development at your desk to be as important as meet- ings and time on the fl oor.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n ���Perhaps the most underrated skill of the successful producer is\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  that of leadership. It’s the intangible trait that can defi ne your\n\n  One of the best\n\n  longevity with a developer/publisher and your success with pro-\n\n  ways to ensure\n\n  duction. What makes a good leader? A good leader, in short,\n\n  your competency\n\n  knows what he or she wants, gets things done, and inspires others\n\n  as a project manager is to\n\n  to do the same. This means instilling a positive attitude in every-\n\n  become certifi ed by the\n\n  one (including yourself ); empowering others to learn, grow, and\n\n  Project Management\n\n  accomplish; and being passionate about your work. It’s amazing Institute ( http://www.pmi. how much difference it can make to work in a positive, nurturing\n\n  org ). This will not only\n\n  environment versus the alternative. People want to work for great\n\n  sharpen your management\n\n  leaders and great leaders want to work for the people. Honing this\n\n  abilities, but will also be a\n\ngreat addition to your skill not only facilitates a smoother production cycle, but also\n\nresume when searching for gives you job security at the studio. work as a producer. In the\n\n  Once you have mastered the skills of a great producer, you can\n\n  meantime, download a\n\n  apply these talents to the development of a cinematic game. Let’s\n\n  free copy of FreeMind\n\n  take a look at how the development of a strong game concept can ( http://freemind. be achieved using a fi lmmaking skill set. index.php/Main_Page ) and get organized!\n\n  2K/BioWare’s game BioShock is an example of a well-produced, cinematic game. Reproduced by permission of 2K Games. All rights reserved.\n\n8.4 Cinematic Development\n\n  One of the fi rst things that a fi lm producer does in development/ preproduction of a new movie is to break down the script. “ Breaking down ” the script essentially means making a logistics list of every element of production in order to set up a budget and schedule. When a script is broken down, you will have a detailed list of every location, character, prop, and so on within the script. There are several great reasons for including this process in game development, but the biggest will be to help determine whether the script will need to be rewritten. Are there too many locations/levels for the game’s budget? Are there too many peripheral/unnecessary\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  characters putting a strain on the workload of the artists? More than anything, breaking down the script is about honing the story so that it is the best possible draft and the one that will translate the story to the actual game.\n\n  Another great side benefi t of breaking down the script involves taking a closer look at the locations that are to be used in the pro- duction. Are they dynamic enough? Do they make the game excit- ing and unique, as well as present a new challenge to the gamer? Will you be sending actual members of the production team to the locations featured to get a feel for the environment? This is yet another factor that can affect your schedule and budget. Make wise location choices. Great locations can be one of the factors that determine the game’s success.\n\n  Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed does a great job of depicting locations like ancient Jerusalem. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Once you have a basic script breakdown (see the sample Script Breakdown in the Extras section of this book), you then need to ask whether the script is ready for production. If not, rewrites are in order—or the other logistics must be altered to accommodate the script (such as hiring new artists to take on the additional environments and characters). Breaking down the script also assists with identifying the major theme of the story and making sure that the script stays on subject. Often after a script has been honed to its best possible draft, it will still seem a little bit off.\n\n  When this happens, producers/writers often use a technique known as getting script coverage.\n\n  “ Script coverage ” means sending out the script for review by various experts in the screenwriting industry. Once the person providing coverage has read the script, they will make extensive notes about the story, characters, plot, and so on. These notes can be helpful with getting your script on track. Having a great script\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  fi nished, with all the logistics of the script breakdown planned in advance, will help minimize the risk associated with going into production with an unfi nished story/game design.\n\n   8.5 Risk Management\n\n  As the primary task of the producer is to make sure that the game actually gets produced, it is imperative that the art of risk management is mastered. Risk management can basically be broken down into three steps: identifying the risks, prioritizing the risks, and then minimizing the risks.\n\n  Identifying all the risks involved with producing your game means getting together with every single department lead and dis- cussing the potential problems involved therein. Risks can include problems with the development pipeline, lack of workstations, or even time. As these risks are singled out, they should be docu- mented in detail for future reference. Identifying every risk associ- ated with production will allow you be proactive in prevention of potential problems, as well as create a buffer in the budget and schedule to accommodate the possible occurrence of a problem. The risk assessment should focus on every aspect of development, including labor, cost, assets, time, dependencies, and so on.\n\n  Once all possible risks have been detailed, you must then pri- oritize them according to the potential impact that the issue will have upon production. Once the risks have all been listed per department by priority, you can then assign the major issues to leads so that they can put prevention measures in place. This is one way of minimizing risk in development.\n\n  There are other ways that risks can be avoided. These include creating a sound business plan, design, and prototype before going into formal production, creating a contingency fund in the game’s budget, and planning as much as possible in preproduction so that the production will be as smooth as possible. Preproduction plan- ning is one of the strongest assets that a game producer can take from the fi lm producer (realizing of course that game producers are already involved with preproduction). In most movie produc- tions, a producer will not even get a green light from the produc- tion company to proceed into production without an extensive and thorough preproduction phase.\n\n   8.6 Preproduction Planning\n\n  One of the considerations that come into play when planning the schedule for a fi lm involves the shooting order that will occur. Films are most often shot with the individual scenes of a script\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  out of sequence. This is done for many reasons. These reasons usually revolve around the availability of actors, the availability of certain locations, and sometimes the weather of a particular loca- tion (such as having scenes that take place during a snowstorm). When all the logistics are taken into consideration, the shooting order can then be made.\n\n  Once you have taken into account limiting factors such as avail- ability, the shooting order is then constructed based upon priority or diffi culty. If there is a particularly diffi cult scene to shoot, often the producer/director will schedule that scene fi rst so that it isn’t looming at the end of production. Finishing the hardest scene early in production means that the production crew can heave a collec- tive sigh of relief when it is over and then move on to the easier scenes. This is a great philosophy when producing a game as well. Finishing a particularly challenging aspect of development early produces a sense of accomplishment with the dev team and can lay the ground work for producing an awesome early build. Of course, fi nishing the fi rst scene means designing the fi rst scene.\n\n  Ideally, the entire production will be designed during prepro- duction, but often a game is built before all the levels have been completely fl eshed out. Again, by taking a cue from the fi lm industry and fi nishing the entire production style and look dur- ing preproduction with proven production techniques (such as storyboarding, script reads, and so on), you will ensure a more consistent, quality production.\n\n  Games like UbiSoft’s Rainbow Six series benefi t from having a well developed book (Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy) to draw from .\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  At any rate, once the shooting order is determined, there evolves a sort of pecking order as to what aspects of production must be fi nished fi rst—or what cannot be produced until a preceding task is accomplished. These are usually called “ dependencies ”\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  in the game industry. Figuring out the dependencies early in the process helps with making an accurate early schedule. An example of a dependency is that animators might not be able to begin making character models until the artists have drawn/ designed them.\n\n  Another task that has to be tackled by the producer during fi lm preproduction is the balancing of “ above-the-line ” and “ below- the-line “ talent. Above-the-line talent includes actors, voice-over actors, directors, and so on. Below-the-line is basically the crew. Though this may seem like a fi lm-centric factor to take into account during production, it is an increasingly more prevalent concern in the game industry.\n\n  With games like Midway’s Stranglehold being directed by John Woo or voice actors such as Michael Ironside (the voice of Ubisoft’s\n\n  Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell hero Sam Fisher) being cast for voiceover\n\n  work, above-the-line budgets for games have increased signifi - cantly over the last fi ve years. There’s no denying that star power can increase the marketability of a game and the acquisition of name talent is at a current premium—but acquiring that kind of talent can take a large chunk out of your budget. There are several ways, though, that producers can minimize this cost.\n\n  The Splinter Cell series by Ubisoft features the voice work of actor Michael Ironside. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  The fi rst way is through research: who is in between produc- tions? Who hasn’t worked in a while? Maybe a particular actor lives in the area or will be in the area, and will therefore be a lot cheaper to acquire. This is where your negotiation skills come into play. Learning how to negotiate, make the best possible deal, and get quality talent and team on your production ultimately is the job of the producer—and should all be done during prepro- duction to make sure that it all fi ts in the production budget.\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n8.7 Managing Money, Assets, and Time\n\n  As already discussed earlier in this chapter, it is one of the pro- ducer’s primary tasks to work out the budget and schedule for a production. This task is usually shared during the production of a game between the creative director and the studio heads, as well as the publisher. One thing that the studio heads most likely will not help you with is actually managing all these things. Getting on track management-wise means having the proper tools to do your job. The major areas that must be addressed include sched- uling, documenting, and tracking.\n\n  The major scheduling tools have been basically discussed in previous chapters: Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, and even Microsoft Outlook can be helpful when dealing with the sheer amount of required meeting time and face time. Nothing will make you as unproductive as having an outdated or messed-up schedule. Once again, the key to getting the most out of your workday will revolve around minimizing meeting overload and getting time on the fl oor to interact with the development team.\n\n  The documenting aspect of managing assets and reports is often the most overlooked in the world of the producer. It’s important to establish regular work habits in regard to archiving assets, keeping reports fl owing, and keeping up the schedule and budget. In addition to organizing your own workstation, it’s important that many of the assets and reports used in develop- ment be available to the entire team; being privy to the current operations in the other various areas of the studio can be impor- tant on the fl oor and leads need easy access to those materials. This is usually achieved by having/hosting an online wiki page that every department can contribute to. By making subpages that focus on art, engineering, QA, and so on, you help the indi- vidual department leads make sure that their section is always up to date on the site. Ideally, the studio heads/producers should be able to go into the site at any given time and see what is happen- ing in every department, as well as whether the production is on schedule and budget.\n\n  The easiest way to keep a tight schedule is to have regularly scheduled milestones; if the production is hitting the milestones on budget and schedule, the project will be on track. This is the easiest way for monitoring progress.\n\n  The second way that progress will be followed throughout the studio is through daily reporting. Sometimes called “ daily delta reports ”, this system is used by most developers to track what has been accomplished on a daily basis. This task can be done on an individual basis throughout the development team, but usually it’s done by section. Basically, each team member or lead sends in\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  a daily email that lists all tasks fi nished that day, then a producer\n\n   Developer Tip\n\n  (or whoever has been assigned to handle this particular task)\n\n  There are several\n\n  compiles the list into a department-by-department spreadsheet\n\n  different ways to\n\n  to turn in to the studio heads. This is an easy way to stay on top of\n\n  get a wiki on your\n\n  what the team is getting done without taking up too much of your\n\n  studio server. You can get\n\n  day to do it. Just keep in mind that the time the team is spending\n\n  the free download from\n\n  on reports is time they are not working on the game! Open Wiki ( http://www. ) or use any of the commercially available wiki versions. The free version is perfectly fi ne\n\n8.8 Postproduction\n\n  and uses a simple\n\n  In addition to the challenges and complications that arise dur-\n\n  language for updated the\n\n  ing preproduction and production of a fi lm, it is also typically the\n\n  site, but if you want good\n\ntech support, consider a job of the executive producer to fi nd distribution for the fi nished\n\nreasonably priced\n\n  movie. Although this is not usually a problem in the game\n\n  commercial version of the\n\n  industry—you most likely will not have gone into full-blown program. development without a deal in place—there’s no denying that producers are often the ones pitching a game to the publisher and attempting to make the sell. But again, this is usually done before any production is done on the game.\n\n  During postproduction in the game industry, the game pro- ducer is usually more involved with making sure that localization is on point and working with the publisher to handle the various marketing duties involved with a new release. This includes the ad campaign, print campaign, getting media coverage, and attending conferences to promote the title. Hopefully, during production you will have created a great, cinematic trailer to pro- mote with. Now is the time to unveil it and promote your game.\n\n  Games like Pandemic Studios’ Saboteur make huge impacts at conferences prior to the game’s release. Reproduced by permission of Pandemic Studios. All rights reserved.\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  Film producers have been promoting at fi lm festivals for many years and have learned hard lessons there. Using these lessons, a basic set of rules for success at a game conference is the following:\n\n  1. Take quality assets. Make sure that you have great screen-\n\n  shots, press kits, trailers, and demos for the conference— and make sure people see them.\n\n  2. Bring swag. Nothing draws people to your booth/area\n\n  more than having free stuff to give them. Keep in mind that things you give away with the game’s logo on it will go a long way towards putting free advertisement on the streets.\n\n  3. Go to the parties. Nothing makes a better presence or gets\n\n  you farther than glad-handing at the parties. Schmoozing with media and making the game’s presence known at the fun events gets you great press.\n\n  4. Do some guerilla marketing. Get posters up all over the\n\n  place, get fl yers into the goodie bags, and put postcards in the hands of everyone possible. It all adds up to making a big impression on the public.\n\n  5. Try to speak at the conference. Another way to get to a lot of\n\n  people is to get a speaking gig there. Sometimes it’s as easy as contacting the conference (just do it far in advance when they are still planning it). Doing well at conferences is one of the “ soft skills ” that produc- ers should all have inherently—and if they don’t, they should be developing these skills, which go a long way when working with your public relations department.\n\n  Interview: Bob Sabiston, Founder of Flat Black Films\n\n  Bob Sabiston grew up in North Carolina and received his bachelors and masters degrees from the MIT Media Lab. He owns an animation company, Flat Black Films, headquartered in Austin, Texas, since 1993. He and his team of freelance anima- tors produce some of the most eye-popping animation around. In addition to being the creative director of the company, Bob writes the software for all of their animated fi lms. Their work includes the recent movies Waking Life , A Scanner Darkly , and The Five Obstructions . Also, Flat Black Films ’ own short fi lms have been winning awards and breaking new ground in computer animation since 1988. These include RoadHead (1998), Snack and Drink (1999), Beat Dedication (1988), Grinning\n\n  Evil Death (1991), and most recently, The Even More Fun Trip (2007).\n\n  Bob Sabiston Part 2\n\n\n  Newman : Your studio, Flat Black Films, usually has a team of ani-\n\n  mators/artists working on a project. How do you manage a group of individuals to stay within the artistic vision of the project? Describe the workfl ow in your studio.\n\n   Sabiston : Well, I try to manage the “ artistic vision ” of a project so\n\n  that it can comfortably grow out of the collaboration between a group of good artists. I think that ultimately, what looks good is a good artist doing their work with the minimal interference possi- ble. There is an expectation out there that something needs to look the same to hold together or appear cohesive. Really, I think it is just a matter of selectively using each person’s very different styles. The vision is attained just by working daily with the same smallish group of people; it grows organically from that I think.\n\n  Newman : One of the challenges of working in the game industry\n\n  is staying up on technology. Though game artists have laid the foundation for standardization within their fi eld by using the same basic programs, programmers have yet to do so. What have been some of the challenges you have faced in the fi lm industry with coping with technology?\n\n  Sabiston : We use our own software, which has a whole set of chal-\n\n  lenges all its own. But I face a similar problem simply with the release of new versions of the OS for the computers we use. For example, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) broke my program. Now I have to go back into all that code, which I haven’t worked on in a while, and fi gure out why. The transition from OS 9 to OS X was horrible too, but worth it of course. But it’s sobering to think that I will have to keep my program alive, essentially, as time marches forth, by staying on top of changing API programming. Also, we move to HD and all of a sudden everything’s getting bigger, which affects everyone in terms of needing more disk space, faster com- puters. But for us animators, drawing on these 1920\n\n  ⫻ 1080 screens, the temptation is now there to dive into an even greater level of detail. It’s good, but it’s bad, possibly akin to wanting to hear a vinyl album over a CD or mp3.\n\n  Newman : When you were working on the fi lms Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly , you were in a position to collaborate with direc-\n\n  tor Richard Linklater concerning the look of the fi lms. More so than any other fi lms, these fi lms are closely related to games in that they are “ real ” but animated. Describe the artistic process of interpreting a director’s vision and keeping the fi lm cinematic rather than cartoon-like.\n\n  Sabiston : Well, our specifi c type of animation is “ rotoscoping ” ,\n\n  which already has the benefi t of being traced over live action, if you’re looking for cinematic over cartoonish. But I think with\n\n  Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly , I think we both had the same\n\nChapter 8 PRODUCER\n\n  general idea of the look for each fi lm. We were on the same page there, which helps. As far as process, regular meetings and reviews of artwork again just kind of naturally lead to a shared understanding for the look of something. Scanner was much more detailed, and was kind of the opposite of Waking Life , in that it maintained this single, consistent, very detailed style the whole way though the movie. Ultimately, I had little to do with how they ended up seeing that through. I think Rick, as well as the studio, panicked when they realized what an actually huge task that would be when compared to Waking Life .\n\n  Newman : Your particular brand of animation is unique in that\n\n  you begin with living actors, then rotoscope over the top of the image. This is not unlike the use of motion capture in the game industry, then animating over the movements of the real actors. Have you found any particular methodology for directing actors that seems to translate the best into your projects?\n\n  Sabiston : Most of what I’ve directed, when we animate, has been\n\n  documentary. So I’m just recording people being themselves and then picking that over for good moments. Although I agree that the rotoscoping process has much in common with motion cap- ture, there’s the hand-drawn aspect to rotoscoping. The artist does give the animation an emotion, an expressiveness, and indi- viduality that motion capture doesn’t really have. I think they both have good uses. The fi lm Beowulf , for example, seemed like a pretty good use for the motion capture, whereas Waking Life wouldn’t be too good done that way. Video games: it would be interesting to see one that really made good use of rotoscoping’s advantages. I don’t think it would be your typical game.\n\n  Newman : When translating emotion into a project, color and\n\n  light can play a big part in establishing a desired mood. This can be particularly diffi cult when dealing with animation. What is your philosophy regarding the incorporation of light and color?\n\n  Sabiston : Because of the tracing aspect to our animation, we pick\n\n  up most of our light effects from the video source. So in those instances, you’d just be facing the same lighting and color choices as a live-action fi lmmaker, with the exception that you know you have this second opportunity, during the animation, of changing things. On the other hand, you can also ignore all the video color and lighting and just do your own thing. I think then it comes down to your personal tastes, visual aesthetic, as a visual artist.\n\n   Newman : Often, game developers are at the mercy of their pub-\n\n  lishers for budget, major artistic and technical choices, and the marketing of the fi nal project. When preparing a project for a cli- ent such as Linklater or Charles Schwab, what best practices do\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  you recommend for keeping good communications and creating the desired product for the client?\n\n   Sabiston : Hm. It depends on the client, I guess. Some clients you\n\n  work with closely and want to get as much of your own vision in there as well, because you truly care about the fi lm, the subject matter, whatever. On the other hand, if your own ideas clash with theirs or they want to make all of the decisions, then they are the boss in my opinion. That’s kind of what you have to accept with the money you get for working for someone else. I’ve learned on Schwab not to get too emotionally involved when your own artis- tic interests aren’t at stake. It isn’t worth the anguish if you don’t get your way, and it is good practice I think to try to control your ego in that way, to really subscribe to the saying “ The customer is always right. ” It can be annoying, though!\n\n   Newman : What advice do you have for young digital artists? Sabiston : Really fi gure out just what it is that you enjoy, specifi -\n\n  cally, about the fi eld you’re in. And do that as much as you can. Part of getting out of school and going to work is the dreaded realization that no matter what you do, you are probably going to be stuck somewhere, doing something, for most of your days. If you can fi nd something you enjoy enough to sit there and do it all day, every day, you are bound to get good at it.\n\n\n  Casting a key piece of talent on a fi lm project may be the thing that makes or breaks a movie production, but on a game produc- tion, this is rarely the case. Most game developers consider key game designers, engineers, or artists to be the talent that is highly desirable—and this is the talent that money is spent on. The only true casting that is done during the production of a video game usually centers around the voiceover work that will be done (recording the dialogue for the game’s characters) and the actors that will be used during motion capture sessions.\n\n  New games, however, like UbiSoft’s Far Cry 2 have taken motion capture to the next stage by incorporating photorealistic action and movement to create an extremely lifelike cast of char- acters within the game. Motion capture has even been incorpo- rated to record great detail on actors ’ faces to bring a new level of emotion and human reaction into a game.\n\n  Great motion capture techniques were used while producing UbiSoft’s Far Cry series. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Taking the time for proper casting can make a huge difference in the production value of a game. I’ve seen video game compa- nies actually mine the production team for people to perform the voiceover work for characters within a game—this can usually be spotted pretty quickly when playing a game by the dialogue that is lackluster and emotionless. Imagine if a fi lm production com- pany approached a project in this manner! It would be unthink- able to cast a production assistant in a key voiceover role on a movie or send him or her in front of the camera without acting experience. Using experienced voiceover actors during produc- tion is a must for developing a true cinematic game and increases your production value immensely.\n\n  Thinking about possible candidates for casting can begin as early in development as preproduction. Although it would be help- ful to have the voiceover script fi nalized before casting actors, it isn’t necessary, as long as you know the gist of what each character will say and do, or what the individual characters ’ traits are (these can be recorded on character breakdown sheets). Just keep in mind (and let actors know) that games can take years to develop and you won’t want to record the voiceover too early, as it may change.\n\n9.1 Casting for Voiceover\n\n  Finding the right voice talent can be as simple as matching a voice to a character’s face or hiring an experienced voice actor who can bring the level of emotion you want into the game. Either way, knowing how to deal with voice actors is key to getting the dialogue you want for the game. There are several things to focus on while casting/working with a voice actor:\n\n1. Match the qualities of an actor’s voice with the qualities of\n\n  the game character. This means listening closely to how the\n\n  actor speaks. Does he or she stutter? Is the actor easily excitable? Is there a predominant characteristic to the actor’s voice? Remember that most actors can actually take direction (see Chapter 10, Directing) , so give an actor the chance to produce the style of voice you want for your characters. As you will probably be casting for multiple roles within the game, it’s best to do all the casting at once. That way, if an actor does not fi t a specifi c role, you can allow him or her to read for other available characters within the game. Also, remember that actors can play mul- tiple parts within a game.\n\n  2. Make sure the actors can take direction. If you followed the advice of the fi rst guideline, this is the case. But, in case you haven’t, run the actor through a series of different emotional\n\nChapter 9 CASTING\n\n  Okay, very angry. Now try reading this while barely control- ling your excitement. ” Getting an actor to perform in the manner you desire can take patience and a lot of explaining, so an actor who can respond to direction and understand what you want will save you time, money, and aggravation.\n\n3. Try to get experienced actors. Although this is the most eas-\n\n  ily disregarded guideline (especially if you have an ama- teur that perfectly fi ts a role), the more experienced an actor is, the easier you will get what you want in the least amount of time. Experienced actors are used to “ cold read- ing ” for auditions and are quick to adjust to changes in a script. These qualities help when recording in the studio with a limited amount of time and money. Trained actors also know how to take direction with little or no fuss.\n\n  4. Pay attention to special casting needs. Some roles require a specifi c kind of actor—especially comedy. Comedic timing is something only a small percentage of actors are good at. If you want the dialogue in the game to be convincing, you will need actors that can convince. Other special casting needs also include nontypical actors, such as old men/women, children, or individuals fl uent in a foreign language.\n\n  Actor Michael Ironside is the voice of Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Also keep in mind that during casting calls, you do not have to make a decision right then and there. The best approach is to have one-page scripts (sometimes called “ sides ” ) of game dia- logue for several characters on hand and then have the actors read directly into a microphone. Record all of the sessions and then review the various voices once you’re away from the actors before making any fi nal decisions. Remember, you can always call back any actors that you think warrant further investigation,\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Because you are casting your actors just for their voice and style, it will only be necessary to record audio for voiceover cast- ing sessions. When casting for motion capture work, however, the casting session will run a bit differently.\n\n9.2 Casting for Motion Capture\n\n  The best approach for tackling a motion capture casting ses-\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  sion is to think of it as casting for a silent movie. Pay attention to\n\n  To get an idea of\n\n  the body composition of the actors and how they match up with\n\n  how quality motion\n\n  the game characters. You will want the actors ’ movements to be\n\n\n  as close as possible to their game counterparts, so you will want\n\n  ance capture work is done,\n\n  them to have roughly the same build as the game character they\n\n  check out the extra features\n\n  are portraying. Sometimes called “ performance capture ” in the\n\n  on Robert Zemeckis ’ fi lm\n\n  movie industry, motion capture is the process of capturing ani-\n\n  Beowulf. There’s a detailed\n\n  mation data from an actor who has been wired with equipment\n\n  behind-the-scenes featurette\n\n  that monitors the actor’s movements. This information is then\n\n  concerning the use of\n\n  used in conjunction with 3D modeling programs to create the\n\n  motion capture in the fi nished character. movie.\n\n  Though all games do not use this procedure, the advantages of using motion capture (mocap) are obvious. Information is gath- ered much quicker with the use of mocap, characters are digitized so that they can be seamlessly integrated into digital environ- ments, and as you will not be using any practical effects (lighting, camera movement, and so on), you have the freedom to try out many different looks and strategies for the characters during pro- duction. Mocap is a unique technique and requires specifi c kinds of equipment, so you will probably do the work in a studio that specializes in this. However, you can do all the casting for the mocap work practically anywhere.\n\n  The newest Resident Evil game gets a lot of mileage out of top-notch character motion. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.\n\nChapter 9 CASTING\n\n  Before starting the casting session, make sure that the actors have access to the character breakdowns for the game. Character breakdown sheets basically describe the character and their role within the game. Knowing the specifi c characteristics of the char- acters before casting allows the actors to perform more accu- rately. For instance, if an actor is reading for a special operations commando, he or she will move with more agility, stealth, and precision, where an actor who is trying out for a clumsy sidekick might be a bit more awkward. Once actors understand who they are playing, run them through a series of movements. It’s best to actually have a team member who has worked with motion cap- ture on hand to help evaluate the actors (probably a lead artist and animator).\n\n  Remember, as you give the actor new motions to try, try to use the specifi c actions that the character will be performing within the game. Ideally, before the mocap casting session is even sched- uled, a list of various movements should be detailed and made available for the auditions.\n\n9.3 Using Celebrities\n\n  Adding a celebrity actor to the mix when recording voiceover can be a substantial plus when producing your game. Besides adding a new dimension of appeal to the gamer, experienced and\n\n   Production Tip\n\n�� known talent can bring a level of professionalism to the produc- tion that you would not have with an amateur on hand. Having a hosts an\n\n  celebrity involved with production is also quite popular with the\n\n  online database of\n\n  public relations/marketing department! Getting a celebrity can\n\n  all actors and lists\n\n  be as easy as contacting the actor’s agent, but be aware of the\n\n  contact information for possible negative aspects that are involved with dealing with them. At com , get the information “ name talent ”. for the actor’s manager or\n\n  Because an actor is a recognizable name in most households\n\n  agent, then contact them to does not mean that they are experienced with voiceover work. solicit that person for\n\n  This is doubly challenging when the actor does not like to take employment. direction. Big-time celebrities typically do not like being told how to perform. Make sure that any celebrity you cast for the produc- tion will be fi ne with working with a team and taking cues from you. Another thing to keep in mind when casting celebrities is the big price tag that usually accompanies them. The later games in the Wing Commander series featured fi lmed cut-scenes with actors like Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and John Rhys- Davies—and the cost associated with these actors exceeded the budget for the programming team!\n\n  Finally, as you will be using the actor’s name to an extent with selling your game, mete out the details regarding localizing that\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  actor’s voice into other languages. Will the actor want to do it? Sometimes, they will already have an actor in place for foreign versions of their dialogue, and they may carry a hefty price tag as well.\n\n  Though the character Master Chief of Halo fame does not have a celebrity voice, good casting ensured that he has a good voice. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.\n\n9.4 Finding Talent\n\n  There are several different methods to use when trying to fi nd talent—it may be in your best interest to consider more than just one if you are unsure of any specifi c actors that may fi t your pro- duction. The most widely used methods for getting to actors involve hosting casting calls, hiring a casting director, and using online casting sites.\n\n  Setting up a casting call can be a tricky thing. How many peo- ple do you want to actually read for the parts? Going overboard with putting out the word (using newspapers, magazines, sites, and so on) can quickly turn your casting call into a “ cattle call ” — actors ’ slang for a casting call with hundreds of people reading for the same part. Getting through that many actors all reading the same lines can be tedious, take up a lot of your time, and create frustration with the actors who are auditioning (imagine waiting in a long line for hours to read for a couple minutes—and be at your best when you do it). Using a focused casting call in perhaps a couple trade magazines may be the best way to approach this type of casting. An even smarter approach is to use a local, expe- rienced casting director.\n\n  Casting directors are individuals who specialize in knowing local talent for a specifi c area. They are versed in local talent agencies and usually already have a pool of talent in place that\n\nChapter 9 CASTING\n\n  they can call upon for specifi c types of roles. You can fi nd your local casting directors usually listed in your state’s (or city’s) fi lm production manual. Once you contact a casting director and send him or her the character breakdown sheets for who you are cast- ing, they will either submit you a list of possible candidates, or set up a casting call for you. The great thing about using a casting director is that he or she will be more experienced with targeting\n\n   Developer Tip\n\n  specifi c people for specifi c roles, is aware of where to fi nd them,\n\n  Try signing up for\n\n  and will be able to suggest to you the best method for acquiring\n\n  a free membership them for the game. at Elite Casting\n\n  If your budget does not allow for the hiring of a casting Network ( http://www. director—or if you have an experienced team member who has ). worked with voiceover and motion capture in the past—you may\n\n  In addition to hosting\n\n  want to think about using online casting services for any talent you\n\n  thousands of actors ’\n\n  need. There are several sites that have services in this regard and\n\n  profi les, actors can include\n\n  most of them have nationwide searches/talent pools, so be\n\n  voiceover samples on\n\n  cognizant of where an actor is located before soliciting them. the site so that you can\n\n  review them without ever\n\n  Another consideration when casting is that many actors belong\n\n  contacting them! The site\n\n  to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) or the American Federation of\n\n  also includes listings for\n\n  Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). These are unions that pro- casting directors. tect actors ’ rights. If you will be using SAG or AFTRA actors, you will have to adhere to the union’s guidelines regarding pay, work hours, and credit. Though nonunion actors are typically cheaper, they are also harder to fi nd. Using a union allows you to use that union’s online databases for actors and casting directors, as well as get any help from the union rep regarding casting.\n\n9.5 Sides and Character Breakdowns\n\n  As mentioned before, take sides and character breakdown sheets with you to any casting call that you host. The sides are basically one-page pieces of dialogue for each character that you can have the actors read during the audition. As there probably won’t be moments within a game where there is an entire page of straight dialogue (I hope), you can list four or fi ve separate bits of dialogue or lines. Try to get varied emotion in these; include one angry piece of dialogue, one happy, and so on, to test the actor for all aspects of voice work.\n\n  The character breakdown sheets are pages that include the demographic information for each character, as well as a descrip- tion and back story (see the sample character breakdown sheet in the Extras section of this book). This information includes the character’s name, age, gender, and race (if relevant). Have the sides and character breakdowns in the waiting area of the casting call location so that actors get a chance to go over lines and study the character before reading.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Military games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are great at providing a character’s background. Reproduced by permission of Activision. All rights reserved.\n\n9.6 Auditions Setting up a formal audition for actors is pretty straightforward.\n\n  Once you have lined up a location (if you don’t have an area within the studio for this, you can usually rent a room at a library or local VFW/Armory for casting purposes) and you have your fi nished sides and character breakdown sheets, you can proceed to the auditions. You won’t need a lot of space, because the actors are only speaking and not performing in any other manner. Typically, before an actor is invited to the call, you can have them submit a resume and sample (usually called a “ reel ” ) to you\n\n   Developer Tip\n\n  directly. This step will help you weed out some of the actors that are obviously not right for the job. The resulting group is actually\n\n  As you will be taking a lunch invited to the casting call. break during the\n\n  On the day of the auditions, you will need someone to help\n\n  audition day, it’s best to\n\n  with organizing and corralling the actors, someone to operate the\n\n  schedule auditions for two\n\n  recording device, and everyone who will be determining the fi nal\n\n  sessions: a morning session\n\n  casting selections (including the casting director, if you are using and an afternoon session. one). Allow fi fteen minutes for each actor to audition. This gives\n\n  If you bring everyone out\n\n  you time to talk with the actor for a bit to put him or her at ease\n\n  in the morning, when you\n\n  and then allows for a couple different takes for each line of dia-\n\n  go to lunch, actors will be logue that is read. standing around doing\n\n  Once the actors have read the lines, try giving them direction\n\n  nothing for an hour or\n\nmore—this tends to and see how they do. When they are fi nished, thank them and send\n\ndisgruntle everyone\n\n  them on their way. Make sure that each actor’s recording is tagged involved. and catalogued appropriately. Once you have chugged your way through all of the actors, you can then pack up and head back to the studio to review and judge the possible candidates for each character. If necessary, you can schedule “ callbacks ” to bring back\n\nChapter 9 CASTING\n\n  any actors you would like to hear again. Callbacks can also be great if somebody was really good, but you did not have a specifi c char- acter for them at the time of the audition and do now.\n\n  When reviewing the audio recordings with the creative team, there are some key things you should pay attention to. How well did the actor enunciate the words? Was the speech clear or muddy? What about breathing? Was the actor able to speak with a nice pace, or were there gasps for air? Also note any accents, odd pitches, or rhythmic styles that an actor may have. These notes help with your fi nal choices.\n\n  Although it may be tempting to do all of your casting by listen- ing to demo reels submitted by actors, I advise against this. Having the actor actually audition allows you to see the actors in action, observe how he or she takes direction, and get an idea of how easy or hard it will be to work with the actor in the studio. Also, any way you cut it, using real people—real actors—to por- tray your game’s characters is always be better and more cine- matic than standard animation and inexperienced mocap actors.\n\n  Interview: Donise Hardy, Casting Director Donise L. Hardy, CSA, began her casting career in San Francisco.\n\n  After three years in that market, she then established her company in Los Angeles for six years, prior to moving to Austin, where she enjoyed eight years of working in the Texas market. Donise has cast hundreds of commercials, dozens of fi lms (including Cake and\n\n  Jumping Off Bridges ) and industrials during her sixteen-year career\n\n  and was one of the busiest casting directors in the state. She has also worked for the television programs The Apprentice , The Jamie\n\n  Kennedy Experiment , and America’s Most Wanted . Donise currently works and resides in Austin, TX.\n\n  Newman : What are the necessary steps to set up a quality\n\n  casting call?\n\n  Hardy : There are several considerations. First the CD [casting\n\n  director] has to get as much information pertaining to the job and talent as possible from the client in order to pass along a break- down to agents that is precise, correct, and complete. Setting up the schedule is important in order to allow just enough time for the actor to perform, but not so much as to waste time throughout the day. Working closely with the agents in order to confi rm or cancel appointments prior to the audition is imperative.\n\n  Newman : How do you ensure that you cast actors who are consis-\n\n  tent with the style of the project and creative personnel involved?\n\n   Hardy : Dependent on the type of project (TV, fi lm, commercial,\n\n  VO [voiceover]), I rely heavily on the creatives to guide me. I try to\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  always speak with the director to get his or her insight on what he or she “ sees ”. I am also not reluctant to add my own vision to the project and usually bring in a few people who are not quite “ right ” , just so the creatives have some interesting choices. And it is amazing how often they end up going with someone who didn’t fi t the specs!\n\n  Newman : When casting for voiceover work, how do you narrow\n\n  the competition down a bit?\n\n  Hardy : The CD has to listen to a lot of demo tapes prior to the\n\n  audition so as to not bring in a lot of people whose voices do not match the criteria.\n\n  Newman : Where do you fi nd good voiceover talent? Hardy : I use agents, especially those who specialize in VO talent.\n\n  I rarely bring in a nonexperienced VO talent just because I like his or her voice. I want a professional when it comes to VO.\n\n  Newman : Though actors in animated sequences do not have to\n\n  “ act, ” per se, explain the process of matching an actor with a digi- tal character.\n\n   Hardy : They have to act with their voices! This is very subjective\n\n  casting and usually it boils down to the director hearing exactly what that character would sound like.\n\n  Newman : Do you usually cast “ backups ” for roles, or is it the\n\n  norm to cast any replacements for a project on the fl y?\n\n   Hardy : Many times clients will indicate a fi rst, second, and some-\n\n  times third choice. They almost always get their fi rst choice, but occasionally we do have to resort to a backup. We just keep our fi ngers crossed that the backup is still available. CDs normally will put backups on a “ check avail ” or “ hold ” but has to remember to release them twenty-four hours prior to the shoot or someone is going to pay them!\n\n   Newman : What types of information should a casting director ask\n\n  for from voice actors? What are the advantages to using experi- enced voiceover actors?\n\n  Hardy : CDs don’t usually ask many questions from VO actors. The\n\n  actor has a demo reel and a resume to answer our questions. The advantage in using an experienced VO actor is that you know they are familiar with the equipment, the terminology, and the ability to make changes when directed to do so. The more professional the actor, the less time in the studio. In the long run, it usually costs the production company less money to hire a talent who is more expensive but can get it “ in the can ” faster, rather than paying the talent less money and having to book additional studio time.\n\n\n  Though there are already directors in the world of game development—specifi cally, the creative directors and technical directors—when I use the word “ director ”, I’m speaking of a person who actually works with actors. Dealing with actors during the motion capture process and while recording voiceovers are the pri- mary areas we can address when discussing directing during game production, but there are several other areas that can be infl uenced by the use of solid techniques used by fi lm directors. These include: directing concept meetings, location scouting, creating a unique vision with the cinematographer and/or engineering department, and making sure that all aspects of production are in sync with the script.\n\n  There is another kind of director in the game world as well— the person who actually directs the cut-scenes within a game, though this person is usually called a producer. As these cut- scenes usually double as at least part of the game’s trailer and is the fi rst asset to be used in the game’s public relations campaign, this can be an important job during production. This type of pro- ducer is very similar to people in the fi lm world that direct ani- mated movies, so I will discuss this role as well.\n\n  When a new director is brought on board to direct a fi lm, the fi rst thing he or she does is take a look at the script and then orga- nize and conduct a series of concept meetings.\n\n10.1 The Concept Meeting\n\n  A “ concept meeting ” is the fi rst time a fi lm director meets the key participants from each department on a fi lm shoot. There will be many meetings similar to this during preproduction of your game, but the most important thing to take away from a fi lm’s concept meeting is the use of department prioritizing. Besides making the artistic decisions regarding each area of production\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  (for a fi lm, this would be wardrobe, locations, props, and so on), there is a process of prioritizing the elements that are the most important and must come in under the budget and schedule fi rst. This concept is equally important in game development; while in preproduction, it is important to implement the idea of the con- cept meeting to prioritize the features and levels that most clearly make the game unique and to get those into the game under the current budget and schedule. After these tasks have been identi- fi ed, you will have a clear, prioritized list of assets that the coders and artists will have to begin production with.\n\n  With a clear cut story already in place, concepts for games like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series become much clearer. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Another key point to conducting concept meetings is to get input from the heads/leads of each department—a system not unlike scrum, but more condensed and of longer duration. If you have properly developed a script for the game and it was distrib- uted throughout the development team, everyone will have their own input as to what certain aspects of the game should look like and play like. Listen to them. One of the major advantages that the fi lm industry has over the game industry is the ease of collab- oration that exists in production. Nobody can make a fi lm by themselves. This is true of games as well, so use it to the produc- tion’s advantage.\n\n  Listen to the suggestions and ideas that each lead/department has and decide if they have merit. By incorporating their sugges- tions, you are fostering a sense of team building and you will not alienate any of the folks working on the game. Most of the time, discussions regarding artistic choices will be about the particu- lars of the game—but sometimes, the issue is more about control. When you hire experienced professionals to work on a game, sometimes they feel that their opinion is worth more than every- one else’s. Be diplomatic about the issue, but nip this behavior in\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  the bud immediately. Maintain your sense of vision and make sure that everyone on board is in sync with you.\n\n10.2 Communicating Vision\n\n  Learning how to keep the team on the same page as a creative or technical director is a full-time job. It involves meetings, prep- aration, and communication. As discussed in earlier chapters, there are several tools at your disposal for keeping the original concept of the game in place as production proceeds. There are the aforementioned wiki pages, scrum, full blown meetings, emails, and so on. But how about command central?\n\n  Several prominent fi lm directors are well known for keeping a sort of “ motivational area ” in the production offi ces. This is a place where the original concept art resides, character boards dot the walls, and even props/environmental pieces are kept. All of this effort is done to provide a place where artistic meetings can be held to make sure that everyone understands the central themes and look of the fi lm being produced. This type of approach can also be taken at game studios. I have actually seen development teams put up concept art around the studio—but never to the extent that there is an actual meeting room where the creative and technical leads can go host a meeting and liter- ally be surrounded by the atmosphere of the game.\n\n  An example of character concept art from the game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfi ghter 2 by UbiSoft . Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved. Part 2\n\n\n  At any rate, communicating on a daily basis with the leads about the logistics of the game is a must. Just make sure that in addition to the daily delta reports and tracking the status of the next milestone, you are constantly touching base to make sure that all the artistic decisions made regarding the game are still in place and that all the team is working with the same goals and vision—just don’t get into the realm of meeting overload!\n\n10.3 Location Scouting\n\n  Decisions regarding the locations used in a fi lm ultimately come down to the director. A good director will choose locations that fi t the needs of the budget but refl ect the greatest amount of production value. A good location will also mirror the script as much as possible, so that on-the-spot changes will not have to be made during production. Locations in a video game on the other hand are usually a reference tool for the artists and designers so that they have a sort of road map when creating levels. Don’t underestimate the importance of this, though!\n\n  Producers of Midway’s Blacksite: actually went on location Area 51 to Rachel, Nevada during preproduction of the game.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of Midway Games. All rights reserved.\n\n  Lines of description in a script are often very succinct and con- tain only the barest amounts of information. An example: “ Exterior Mountains, Winter. ” What kind of mountains? Are they snowcaps and really high? Are they low and fl at? Are they in a heavily wooded area or maybe fl atlands? The obscure language can make for confl icts in the art department and get early con- cepts off to a bad start. By scouting actual locations and taking pictures of the areas that illustrate levels in the game, you are pro- viding materials for the production team to work from. You are\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  also introducing a level of photorealism to the game; some people may think “ cartoonish ” when thinking of how an environ- ment looks within a game—by showing them actual photos, they may take a more realistic and cinematic approach to designing the environments.\n\n  Working with actual locations is especially important when depicting real places in a game. Though you may alter the interi- ors of places to suit the levels of the game, keeping environments as realistic as possible will foster a level of immersion that created locales cannot match. Even fantasy games can use the informa- tion gathered at location scouts to create more realistic and cine- matic environments. It is also important to use locations that have versatility. The more levels you can create from a single loca- tion, the better. This helps the schedule and therefore the budget.\n\n  The best approach is to take all the locations listed in the script (these will be extracted during the script breakdown process), prioritize them, and then brainstorm to see whether there are locales that can accommodate several different levels. For instance, one level might take place in a forest and another may take place in a research center. By choosing an observation sta- tion in the middle of Ozarks as your location, you kill two birds with one stone.\n\n  If your budget is such that fl ying to exotic locations is out of the question, don’t forget about using books that feature detailed photographs of almost any site in the world. Your game doesn’t have to suffer for lack of the scout.\n\n  Great locations contribute to the awesome Ghost Recon Advanced Warfi ghter game series .\n\n  Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved. Part 2\n\n\n   10.4 Working with the Cinematographer\n\n  Because games do not have a cinematographer on the produc- tion team, the typical form of collaboration that exists between a fi lm director and fi lm cinematographer will be less obvious. The camera angles, framing, and other such aspects of a game are all controlled by those who are creating the code, so it is essential to develop a strong rapport with the lead of that department regard- ing the artistic choices of the game. Game cinematography has come a long way and the more experienced game engineers now have a strong grasp of the basics of cinematography; if your lead does not, I suggest reading Real-Time Cinematography for Games by Brian Hawkins (Charles River Media, 2005).\n\n  Because there is an entire chapter (chapter 7) devoted to game cinemato graphy, I will not belabor it here. Just remember that choices made regarding cinematography should be made by the game’s producer or creative director, as they would be made by a fi lm’s director. It is the job of the game’s programmers to get the cinematography up to par, but it is your job to direct them.\n\n   10.5 Directing Talent\n\n  Once the actors have been cast for the voiceover work (and for the motion capture), they must be directed during the recording sessions. There are several steps that you can take to make sure that you get the best possible takes during the session. First, you will want to make sure that the actors have gotten the script as early as possible. This step gives them time to memorize their lines and get comfortable with speaking the lines (especially if there are any technical or diffi cult phrases in the dialogue). You can also ensure the actors are on the same page as you with direc- tion by annotating the script with any notes that are important, such as indicating when a line is yelled or when a particular piece of dialogue is tinged with a particular emotion.\n\n  When the actors have arrived at the studio to record, sit down with them and make them comfortable. As they have had time with the script to learn the dialogue, they will usually be put at ease with a simple conversation. Once everyone is acquainted and the studio is ready to proceed, move into the recording area. The various lines that must be recorded should be listed on the script and annotated with the information that you will use to store the data for incorporation into the game. Begin with the fi rst line, and once you are happy with the recorded piece of dialogue, move on to the next.\n\n  Hopefully, there will be no major snags with getting what you need from the actors, but if you do remember to be tactful and to\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  carefully explain the context of the spoken line to the actor and the desired emotion you want—just know that actors can be sen- sitive to “ line reading ” exactly by the numbers. When you hire an actor, you are also hiring their personality, so expect it to be injected into the dialogue. Usually, most confl icts arise from con- fusion. Clarify the scene and what you want and most situations are quickly remedied.\n\n  Capcom’s Lost Planet: Extreme Condition features well-executed dialogue. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc.\n\n  All rights reserved.\n\n  Working with motion capture also has the added logistics of attaching motion capture equipment to the actor (so allow for more time with the actor at the studio) and blocking off the movements that will be recorded during the session. Just as you did with the voiceover actors, make sure to send the actor a list of all the shots you want as soon as possible so that he or she can rehearse (it may even be a good idea to rehearse and direct the actor prior to the actual date of recording to make sure that he or she knows what will be required). As movements may be limited by the capture equipment, make sure that each action is done succinctly. It’s also a good idea to record the session with a video camera. If the session goes well, you can have the recording to use for future productions (you can also use a bad session as a “ lesson learned ” during the postmortem of the game.\n\n10.6 Script Supervision and Continuity On a fi lm set, there is a person called the “ script supervisor ”.\n\n  This person is responsible for making sure that continuity is in place and that all the various scenes that are being shot are being\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  done so with a singular look or style. A script supervisor is also responsible for making sure that every prop ends up where it is supposed to be when moving on to the next scene (sometimes a very tedious job). Continuity within a game is a big issue as well. This task should be approached from the artistic and creative slants and implemented from the very beginning.\n\n  Creative continuity is as simple as making sure that all assets are accessible to the entire team. When an artist or animator is working on a new character, he or she will want to make sure that it is in sync with all of the game’s other assets. The easier this is to accomplish, the more continuity and consistent style you will have within your game. It can also mean voicing opinions during scrum regarding certain elements that do not feel right or seem to match up with the rest of the game. Encourage individual team members to inform the leads when this is the case. And listen to them! Because they are working on the small details of every asset within the game, they are much more intimately familiar with them. If minor changes need to be made to a look, environment, or even the script, then do it. Use this collaboration to produce the best possible game.\n\n  On the technical front, good continuity is something that you may want to ask the quality assurance department to be par- ticularly vigilant with. How many times have you played a game— an FPS, for example—where the enemy was killed using a technique on one level, but on the next level it simply did not work at all. Why? Nothing changed, so what happened? Bad con- tinuity. Keeping consistency throughout the game will help with immersion, keep frustration levels down (and therefore the fun levels up), and simply make the world you have created seem more real.\n\n10.7 Directing Cut-Scenes\n\n  More and more, it is becoming the norm to have producers that are specifi cally skilled at creating cut-scenes and game trailers. Although for immersion’s sake, it’s best to keep the cut- scenes at a minimum—or at least keep them extremely short— there are usually at least two in a game. The “ mandatory ” two cut-scenes you’ll fi nd within a game will be one at the very begin- ning of the game to introduce the story and one at the very end of the game when you’ve “ beaten ” the main story line. Arcade-style games may contain no cut-scenes at all, but instead show an animation on the menu screen. Either way, the cut-scenes designed for the game usually double for at least part of the game’s trailer.\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  The marketing department will thank you for producing well- developed trailers. Check out the trailers online for Turok . Reproduced by permission of Disney Interactive. All rights reserved.\n\n  Because a game trailer (and an in-game cut-scene) is a sort of mini animated movie, you can use a scaled-down version of the produc- tion process to create them. In other words, because you know the story of the entire game, create a small script of the story pieces that will be used within the trailer, storyboard them, then create the art/ environments and develop the scenes. It would be wise to take a long look at the cut-scenes that will already be within the game play and then take as much as possible from them for the trailer. This approach keeps the costs and time constraints down for creating trailers.\n\n  Of all the producers in the game industry, producers who special- ize in cut-scenes and trailers are the most fi lm-like and usually have the highest population of individuals who have been educated at a fi lm school. As cut-scenes/trailers are not interactive, it is necessary to make sure that the tone and style of the game are evident to gam- ers who watch them. Another concern will be the marketing depart- ment. Before writing the script for the game trailers, consult the marketing department to see what features or elements will be the focus for selling the game and include those elements in the trail- ers. This step will make the PR folks very happy. It will also take some of the heat off you if anyone dislikes the trailers.\n\n  Again, script it out and storyboard it fi rst though. This lets the creative director and producers take a look at what you’re going to do and make any changes or suggestions.\n\n10.8 Cut-Scenes Versus In-Game Cinematics\n\n  As mentioned prevously, a game ideally has as few cut-scenes as possible. If you were told that for every minute of time you\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  force a gamer to watch a cut-scene it takes that same gamer about thirty minutes to get fully immersed into the game again, you would keep the amount and duration of cut-scenes at a mini- mum, wouldn’t you? Well, for some gamers, this is exactly the case. It’s understood that a short cut-scene should give you an idea of what’s going on at the beginning of the game and that an ending will be provided for you to get that last bit of satisfaction from conquering the game. But to force gamers to constantly watch extended cut-scenes for game information is simply a crime. It’s not a good cinematic experience and it’s not fun inter- activity. It’s frustrating. And, of course, the absolute worst crime to commit is to provide no way for the gamer to press a button and skip the cut-scenes! If a particular level is hard, and a gamer must make many attempts at beating it, watching a mandatory cut-scene creates huge frustration and anger.\n\n  Ubisoft does a great job of integrating fi rst-person perspective cut-scenes in the game Far Cry Instincts: Predator . Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  If you must provide information within the game, do it during the game play as much as possible. What if a movie paused the action and took you to a text-only screen to let you read about the background of the next scene? Would the movie be made better by the addition of more information, or would you lose all sus- pension of reality and become disinterested? Some games, like Ubisoft’s Far Cry Instincts: Predator, have done a great job of keep- ing all dialogue and info in a fi rst-person format within the game.\n\n  One of the biggest things you will hear in game circles when discussing making a game cinematic is that most producers think of a cinematic game as having more cut-scenes and more dia- logue within the game. This is exactly wrong. A cinematic game is immersive, real, and fosters the suspension of reality, which means fewer cut-scenes and less dialogue.\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  Interview: Jay Duplass, Director\n\n  Jay Duplass was born in New Orleans and studied fi lm at the University of Texas in Austin. In 2002 Jay collaborated with his brother Mark on This Is John , a short fi lm shot digitally for $3 dollars. It was accepted into Sundance (2003) and earned the brothers a representation deal with William Morris. They returned to Sundance in 2004 with another digitally shot short, Scrabble . The following year, they premiered their third short, The\n\n  Intervention , at Berlin (2005), where it won the Silver Bear and the\n\n  Teddy Award. 2005 also marked the release of Jay and Mark’s fea- ture fi lm debut, The Puffy Chair , which premiered at Sundance (2005), won an audience award at SXSW (2005), and was a part of the “ best of the fest ” at Edinburgh (2005). Jay recently fi nished work on the Duplass Brothers ’ second feature, Baghead , and is now working on his third feature fi lm, The Do-Deca-Pentathlon .\n\n  Newman : There has been a strong convergence between the fi lm\n\n  and game industries in the last few years. What elements do you see in video games that remind you of movies? What characteris- tics draw you, as a fi lm director, to a video game?\n\n  Duplass : Well, to be honest. I don’t really play video games, ‘ cause\n\n  I’m afraid I’ll get addicted and then I won’t get anything done. My brother Mark, however, is addicted to BrickBreaker on his phone, and had to go cold turkey during the shooting of our last fi lm.\n\n  Newman : You are credited as cinematographer on your last fi lm, Baghead . What is your process regarding directing the camera, or\n\n  at least knowing the specifi c type of framing or shot you want in a scene?\n\n  Duplass : My process is to not plan things out and to let the actors\n\n  do their thing and to capture it as it happens. In terms of framing, I defi nitely have axis and look space, and so on in the back of my mind, but mainly I just try to not think, and just shoot what I want to see.\n\n  Newman : You are also credited as the screenwriter for your last\n\n  two features ( The Puffy Chair and Baghead )—do you fi nd it hard to adapt the work of an outside screenwriter or author to the screen? How would you describe the artistic process of interpret- ing words to images?\n\n  Duplass : I don’t really think of it as adapting words to screen. I\n\n  think of the screenplay as a template and a starting point to get things rolling. Then when we get onto set, I try to just foster what- ever the actors are bringing that day, make sure it works in the whole scheme of the movie, and just get the most natural and interesting stuff I can get.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Newman : When you’re coming up with characters for your fi lms,\n\n  to what extent do you actually develop them? Do you have pretty detailed character breakdowns for your movies?\n\n  Duplass : We mostly base our characters on people we’ve\n\n  known. So we don’t really create them out of nowhere. We don’t do breakdowns unless we have to. We mostly just talk with our actors about them and tell them all the funny and won- derful and horrible things about them and try to get them inspired about who that person is. But more than that, it’s about fi nding out what the actor is inspired by, and then going down that path.\n\n  Newman : Being an independent fi lm producer, I’m sure you’re\n\n  always looking for ways to keep your budget down when shooting a feature fi lm—such as avoiding exotic locations. In your opinion, what kind of impact does your choice of locations have on the cinematic value of your movies?\n\n  Duplass : Well, our movies are really about domestic situations\n\n  on some level—situations that most of us would fi nd ourselves in—so we’re a bit lucky in that we don’t feel like we need exotic locations … yet.\n\n  Newman : Another aspect of shooting independent fi lms involves\n\n  the use of “ noncelebrity ” actors—a concern for most indepen- dent video games as well. Describe your approach or method for casting key characters in your movies.\n\n  Duplass : Our characters are based on people we love, and think\n\n  are hilarious. In terms of casting for that, it’s all about actors we love and are inspired by. We put them together and try to make it feel real … try to fi nd life in there. In auditions, we see things, and it either opens doors and excites us or not.\n\n  Newman : What about directing actors with little or no experi-\n\n  ence? Is there an approach that has worked well for you on the set?\n\n  Duplass : The main thing I tell nonactors is not to try. There’s\n\n  nothing they have to do except be there and be themselves. It’s my job to elicit anything that I want. So they don’t have to worry. It’s all about disobligating them in a way. I tell them that they’ve done all they need to do just by being there, and the rest is up to me. In that way, you eliminate any “ acting ” , the behavior is real, and then you can just try to add things as you go. But the most important thing for our movies is that the underlying behavior is realistic and genuine.\n\nChapter 10 DIRECTING\n\n  Newman : Do you think the game industry has affected the fi lm\n\n  industry in its approach to style or content? What about the infl u- ence of fi lm upon the game industry?\n\n  Duplass : Absolutely, they both affect each other. It seems that gaming has become more narrative. Newman : In your position, I’m sure you are approached quite\n\n  often with scripts, ideas, and books for possible future fi lms. How do you determine whether what you are reading (even when it’s your own work) will translate into a great fi lm? What elements do you look for in pitches and proposals that indicate a great project?\n\n  Duplass : To be honest, we really don’t read that much. We spent\n\n  one year reading hundreds of scripts our agent sends, and real- ized that the odds of us fi nding something that fi ts us more than something we’d write for ourselves is extremely low. So the time is just not worth it. That being said, this sounds simple and corny, but you just know when it’s right to do something. It’s all about instinct and trusting your gut. And more specifi cally than that, we always are asking ourselves, are we the best people in the world to make this particular fi lm. If not, we turn it down.\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  Films and games are both thought of as a visual medium, but the reality is that sound plays almost as important a part in the fi nal product. In addition to tackling every piece of music within a game, a sound designer/engineer must also track down (and usually must record) every sound effect, piece of dialogue, and ambient sound within the game (this includes wind, water, city street, and so on). These are pretty much the same assets for which a sound designer would be responsible when making a movie. Because of this, many sound designers have worked in both areas, games and movies, as well as applying their trade to theatre productions and television.\n\n  Excluding the music, the sounds that you will import into the game will either be a sound effect (like an explosion or a space- ship taking off ), a practical sound (car door shutting or footsteps), or ambient/room tone (crowd in a mall, applause, or wind\n\n  In addition to the killer artistic choices made on the game Saboteur by Pandemic, sound will play an important part in the game’s success. Reproduced by permission of Pandemic Studios. All rights reserved.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  blowing through the trees). Each of these types of sound has its own set of challenges in obtaining them.\n\n  Becoming an effective sound designer means having a great ear for hearing what the best possible sounds are for a specifi c project—as well as knowing how to fi nd and obtain those sounds. There are many sources for these sounds—all of which will be discussed later in this chapter—but the key for success as a sound designer lies in matching an audio style with the visual theme of the project; this can be as simple as importing authentic sounds and music for a game set in the 1930s, or as diffi cult as creating all the sounds for a possible future within a sci-fi game. Sound design includes every sound within the game down to the basics—the most basic of all sounds within a game and fi lm comes from the soundtrack and background music.\n\n11.1 Cinematic Music\n\n  Most of the time, sound designers work with the creative heads of a production to come to an agreement as to what type/genre of music fi ts the project best. In some cases, this decision has already been made by the game’s creative director and this choice has led to a particular sound designer. Though some designers work in all genres of music and styles, most specialize in a partic- ular area—usually because most sound designers are musicians and play in a certain style. Some designers also segue into the fi eld of sound design because of experience working as a sound engineer in a studio or have worked as a sound editor for a fi lm. Either way, if the designer has the ability to compose and perform a certain type of music, this is an easy way to lower your budget in that department a bit—it means not contracting out to a com- poser or performer for your game’s music (or at least a portion of it).\n\n  If you have chosen a designer that does not compose music, or does not work in the style of music you want for the game, the sound designer will shop around for a composer or performer who is already writing in the style desired and is close to the expecta- tions of the creative director. Music is one of the easiest ways to create a uniform tone within a game, so it is important that deci- sions made in regard to musical choices be done very carefully. Some of the things to consider when working with music are: What genre or style of music do you want? What is the music trying to do?\n\n  How many different pieces of music do you need? When working on a budget, hiring a sound designer who is skilled in creating electronic (or loop-based) music is a great\n\n\n  choice. Most of these programs can be bought for very little cash\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  and learning how to manipulate and create loops can be learned\n\n  There are several\n\n  quickly. Also, most modern sound designers are accustomed to\n\n  different types of\n\n  working on a computer for mixing and editing, so it is no great\n\n  loop/music leap to incorporate loops. software. Download the free version of Sony’s ACID Pro—ACID XPress—and give the program a try. Sony also sells CDs of royalty-free loops that you can use to create the music for your game.\n\n  Check out the original soundtrack for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by Jeremy Soule for an example of great, original game music. The ® Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion\n\n\n  A great and inexpensive alternative to composing electronic music is to use unsigned bands for the game’s music (if that type of music is going to fi t the project). One trip to MySpace will edu- cate you on the sheer amount of musicians working throughout the world. Pick ten or twenty bands that are playing the style of\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  music you want to use and ask for permission to use one of their\n\n  If you’re using\n\n  songs in your game—sometimes, you can even get an instrumen-\n\n  electronic music in\n\n  tal version of the songs from them, as most unsigned musicians\n\n  your game, how\n\n  retain the tracks from their recording sessions. Make sure you get\n\n  would you like to have a\n\n  a legal permissions form signed from them, though, before using\n\n  musician like Moby\n\n  the music in the game. Getting licensing from signed musicians/\n\n  supplying some of the\n\n  composers takes quite a bit of time, so if you’re going to go this tunes? Moby actually offers\n\n  free or inexpensive use of\n\n  route, you may want to start this process as early as possible—\n\n  many of his songs to probably in preproduction. independent fi lmmakers\n\n  Once you have obtained the music for the game—with the\n\n  and game designers. You\n\n  guidance of the creative director—the sound designer can move\n\n  can apply for a one-time\n\n  on to working on the game’s other audio needs. Before you can\n\n  use license at his Web site:\n\n  actually record, though, you probably need a few pieces of equip- . ment and software.\n\n11.2 Tools for Great Sound\n\n  Getting all the various audio assets for the game requires some specifi c equipment and software. Typically, most dialogue is\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  recorded in an actual studio with the sound designer present—or at least a competent engineer who supervises the session and sub- mits the recordings for approval. Sound effects and great ambi- ent/room/environmental sounds must be obtained in the fi eld. To accomplish this, you need a fi eld recorder (probably one that records to digital audio tape) or sampler with a studio-quality microphone and headphones.\n\n  The equipment for recording can be quite expensive—chances are good that you will do your voiceover work in an external sound studio—so fi nding a sound designer who already owns his or her own gear for fi eld recording is another way to trim the budget. Make this a consideration during hiring. The software, on the other hand, will have to be licensed by your production com- pany, so you must make some careful decisions regarding these choices.\n\n  Most of the required software is computer-based recording programs, and there are quite a few of these on the market, so try them out before buying. You should consult with the sound designer as well to see if he or she has a preference or any expe- rience working with a particular program. Some of the more prevalent programs include Pro Tools, Cakewalk Sonar, and Sony Soundforge. You also need an interface to connect the recorder to your computer to upload the sound fi les. Again, this is a common piece of equipment, so the sound designer may already own one.\n\n\nDevelopment Tip The fi nal consideration (though probably the fi rst tackled) is\n\n  how all the sounds will be imported into the game. For this, con-\n\n  For more details\n\n  sult with the technical director or lead to determine the best\n\n  and tutorials on\n\n  audio format, compression, and so on for getting everything into\n\n  sound design, visit\n\n  the game. This may require the purchase of another piece of soft-\n\n  http://fi . It\n\nprovides a wealth of ware (usually called “ audio middleware ” ) and may be a factor\n\ninformation and history\n\n  when choosing the game’s engine. All of these choices should be\n\n  about fi lm, television, and\n\n  made in preproduction along with the creative decisions regard-\n\n  game sound design. You ing audio. can also get tips on how to fi nd and record specifi c effects at http://epicsound. com and at http://game-\n\n11.3 Sound Effects and Sampling\n\n  There are several different ways to get all the audio assets you need for your game that have been used in the fi lm industry for years—these include contracting out to independent audio/ sound personnel, buying prepackaged sound effects, and record- ing your own sounds in the fi eld. Contracting out should be con- sidered only if the sounds needed are unavailable otherwise, as that is the most costly method of obtaining what you need.\n\n\n  Getting great sound effects for war-based games like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 can be quite a challenge. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Prepackaged sound effects are available from many compa- nies. You can usually download the fi les directly from the compa- nies ’ sites (just be sure to sample them fi rst and make sure that they are of a high enough quality to use in the game) or purchase CDs of common sounds. These CDs are sold with names like “ Sounds of the Jungle ” or “ Military and Weapon Sounds ”. These types of sound effects can save you a lot of leg work when trying to record everything you need in the fi eld. Once you have obtained everything you can using this cost-effective method, you can then tackle getting all the miscellaneous stuff you’ll have to record on site.\n\n  Going out on location to record means taking a small sound team, a recorder or sampler, and a microphone/headset to the actual locales where the sounds can be obtained. You may have to do this because the particular sound you want is nowhere to be found otherwise, or it may be a very specialized sound (say, rocks bouncing off a piece of plastic then hitting water) that sim- ply has not been archived anywhere. Either way, going out to get the sounds is an inevitable task during development.\n\n  Once you get to the site, set up for recording the sound by mak- ing sure that you can duplicate the sound you need multiple times—though this may seem obvious, some sounds are diffi cult to obtain and getting one take is usually not enough. When this is done, you can then attach the headset and microphone to the recorder. One person should point the microphone as close as possible to the sound (make sure that this is a unidirectional microphone, like a shotgun mic, so that you will pick up the least amount of external noise as possible—unless of course you are shooting ambient or environmental sound, which would require\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  a good omnidirectional microphone) while the other person monitors the recorder through the headset to make sure that the signal is strong and clear with no interference or outside noise.\n\n  Games like UbiSoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfi ghter 2 contain hundreds of practical sounds. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Once you have obtained the sound you want, you can then remove the media (usually a digital audio tape or digital media card) and label it for download later at the studio. This is pretty much the process you will use to get everything on location. Before heading out, though, here are some questions you should consider:\n\n  1. How many different environments/locations are sounds\n\n  needed from?\n\n  2. How many individual sounds will you need from each\n\n\n  3. How much space (media/tapes) do you need to capture\n\n  several takes of each sound? The logistics involved in good sound design is yet another aspect that should be discussed while making the game’s schedule and budget. Having the sound engineer or designer present when doing the script breakdown is another way to tally up the sounds and sound locations during preproduction.\n\n11.4 Effective Sound Design\n\n  Remember that as you develop and obtain all the audio assets you need for your game, the sound design for a game is an ongo- ing process. As the art department and engineers develop assets for the game, they turn to the sound designer to bring them to life. Thus the total number of sound effects and sounds for the\n\n\n  game will be constantly increasing. It is important then to make sure that the sound designer understands how the other depart- ments work and how they document assets that are being pro- duced. Major locations will be identifi ed early in the development cycle (hopefully during preproduction, in a script), so getting ambient sounds and general effects from those places can be done early, but the other thousand individual sounds that inevi- tably pop up must be gotten during the production cycle.\n\n  Effective sound design, like in the newest Ace Combat game, makes ® a great game. ACE COMBAT 6: FIRES OF LIBERATION ™ © 2007 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. All trademarks and copyrights associated with the manufacturers, aircraft, models, trade names, brands, and visual images depicted in this game are the property of their respective owners, and used with such permissions. Courtesy of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.\n\n  Treat the sound department just as you would any other in the production team and allow them to contribute to the wiki pages, do daily delta reports, and otherwise participate. Keeping the sound department integrated with development makes your pro- duction team run much smoother, keeps the sound design on point, and gets you the most effective and cinematic game possible.\n\n  Interview: Marc Schaefgen, Sound Designer Newman : Sound is such a huge part of the cinematic experience.\n\n  How do you approach working on a new project?\n\n  Schaefgen : With games, we have a unique situation in that we do\n\n  not really get a postproduction phase. You are constantly chasing the tail of change during what would normally be a postproduc- tion period. Some games have done it successfully, but it takes mad production skills and a team that can consistently hit dead- lines, which is a rare combination. So, with that knowledge, you have to create a process that fi ts with the game style and the team dynamic. Each game process might be slightly different, but\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  I generally approach them all from the same high-level mindset. Developers have many ways to slice the development pie, but most agree that game development has three very distinct phases: concept, prototype, and production. Audio should really be no different than any other part of the production and align their goals with the rest of the team. For the concept phase, those main goals should be to outline the game play and its systems, and to set the tone and vision. During the prototype phase, you are prov- ing out those game play concepts while also demonstrating your ability to deliver on the overall vision or experience.\n\n  During the concept phase for audio, I like to create three main documents: the music, SFX [sound effects] , and voice style guides. From those three main documents, subdocuments are created that help to further defi ne those styles; each style requires a differ- ent approach to its documentation. For instance, from the music style guide, I create a music reference compendium. This com- pendium is composed of music samples taken from all types of media (TV, games, fi lm), that to me expresses the emotion, style, and instrumentation that is indicative of what I want the fi nal score to be like. The important partner to this compendium is the reference guide that goes into detail about each music sample, why it was chosen, likes and dislikes, instrumentation notes, and any other pertinent information that I feel is appropriate. Do not be shy at this point. Spelling out your vision clearly to everyone involved is critical to moving forward and fi nalizing schedules and budgets. That is just the music angle to the project. For sound design and voice, I go down similar but different paths, defi ning the style. When it comes to voice, the writing plays a major factor in the vocal style, thus demonstrating the need for collaboration with the team leaders during every phase of development.\n\n  The prototype phase is akin to what fi lm calls preproduction. In fi lm, for the most part, your technology is standardized. You use the same cameras, software programs, compositing tools, and so on as the next guy. In games, not so much. Your technol- ogy is your mojo. Even developers that license their development technologies enhance and combine those technologies in ways that no other developer would. So this is the time to prove to the people that write the checks that your team has what it takes to make this product. You need to instill that confi dence at all levels, and audio is no exception. By the end of the prototype phase (which can last more than a year, and sometimes multiple years) you should have what is commonly referred to as a “ vertical slice ” .\n\n  That is, a small excerpt or demo of your product that demon- strates every major facet of that product and proves that you can build the rest of the product to a reasonable schedule and budget.\n\n\n  Production phase is where all the real hard work comes. This is where audio is churning right alongside everyone else. There are no shoots, or dailies, or dubs needed for rough cuts. We build the audio for the game as the game itself is being built. This requires solid scheduling of resources and at times bulking up staff tem- porarily either in-house or off-site, to ensure that those schedules can be met.\n\n  Newman : When balancing music with dialogue, what types of\n\n  considerations do you take to make sure you get the best possible mix?\n\n  Schaefgen : As games are nonlinear, you sometimes have no idea\n\n  when a line of dialogue is going to play, and what other sound sources at that time are already playing. When I start a project, I determine one of two ways to approach this issue. The fi rst is the easiest, which is to use a ducking mechanism, so that when any line or dialogue or a selected line of dialogue is played, all other sounds (or a selected set of sounds) are reduced in volume by a certain amount. This trick ensures that those lines of dialogue will be audible in the mix no matter what other sounds are pres- ent. Because this is done systemically, it is less time-consuming for the mixer to balance properly.\n\n  The second method, which is more diffi cult, but also my pre- ferred method, is to create a mix where the dialogue is always going to be audible. This might entail periodic uses of ducking, but not in a systemic fashion. It requires an extensive amount of test- ing and tweaking, consistently playing the game, tweaking levels, playing the game, tweaking levels, until the production team makes you stop. This method isn’t as effi cient or fun, but the results are more compelling in my opinion. When you use ducking systemically, it has a tendency to be distracting and pull the user out of the immersion of the experience. I have used ducking to success in a situation where all dialogue was delivered by chang- ing the screen to a letter-box format to evoke a cinematic vibe to the delivery. This change in visual made the change in audio acceptable.\n\n  Newman : Speaking of music, how do you determine the most\n\n  appropriate style or genre of music to use to fi t the mood of a project?\n\n  Schaefgen : This comes about during the concept phase and is\n\n  largely a team effort. Game development is about working with a team. During the concept phase, the team is smaller and gener- ally composed of the major decision makers of the project, which makes collaboration much easier. I am constantly talking to the game designers and artists about what their visions are and read- ing documents that they create to backup their visions, just like\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  I am doing with audio. I dissect, examine, reread, ask questions, call meetings—everything I can do to gain the most information about what everyone is converging on in terms of vision and style.\n\n  Armed with that knowledge, I look to my personal taste and how I would want the score to evolve. Then I also look at the com- petition; what my peers in this genre are doing stylistically. If I see developers taking chances, I might be inclined to be more risky with my score style. If I see them being conservative and compla- cent, do I follow suit, or really break the mold? It all depends on the combination of project style, genre style, trends, and what I think will help immerse the player in the game experience. It all comes down to that one thing though—what is best to enhance the game play experience—all else pales in importance.\n\n  From there, I dig up a small quantity of music samples that I think hit the overall style and tone. Then I play those for the music stakeholders on the team and we go from there. This can be a long process of listening and digging for tunes, and listening some more. Getting those stakeholders to sit in a room together and be silent to listen to their musical choices is very important to them signing off on the style. Once we all agree, I build the rest of the music reference compendium and send that out to the stakeholders for feedback. One more time I make them sit in a room, listen, and comment. This listening time not only engages the stakeholders, but gives me the ability to understand their wants and needs and how to best accommodate the project.\n\n  Newman : When working with any form of live music (orchestra,\n\n  band, and so on), what are some of the factors that infl uence the quality of the score?\n\n  Schaefgen : Emotion, emotion, emotion. A machine cannot\n\n  emote the way a human does. Also, not every musician is going to emote in exactly the same way. Having a singular violinist play many parts all multitracked together in a small studio room will never sound like a string section in a beautiful-sounding hall where each musician contributes their own style and emotion to the music. But then again, it all depends on your musical style. For BlackSite: Area 51 , we chose to not use live players in order to put that budget toward a lengthier score. It worked well for that game, because stylistically electronic instruments were a big part of the sound palette. Were it a purely orchestral score, then hav- ing live players would have greatly enhanced the emotional delivery.\n\n  In games, it is a bit of a trade-off and is constantly looked at as an area where the budget can be trimmed. Luckily, the level of quality demanded by the consumer is constantly growing. In fi lm,\n\n\n  no big-budget title would consider not using an orchestra to record the organic parts of the score—it is too common and not even a consideration. In games, however, it is not the norm and therefore scrappy game designers and audio directors fi ght the battle for quality at every revision of the budget spreadsheet. Once the consumer demand is high enough, developers of big-budget games will have to use live orchestras to remain competitive.\n\n  Newman : A lot of the challenges involved with good sound design\n\n  seem to originate with special effects. How do you tackle record- ing sound effects on a location?\n\n  Schaefgen : Gathering decent source material is always a chal-\n\n  lenge for sound designers, but it also one of the more fun parts of the job. Midway has a commercial sound library that totals more than 800 GB; our proprietary internal library is much smaller, less than 100 GB. We are constantly striving to fi nd new unique sound sources for our products. We have fi eld recording gear, portable recorders, microphones, and accessories that we use to gather unique sounds out in the world. We have had a lot of construc- tion around our offi ces in the last two years, so we have taken advantage of that in our fi eld recordings. We have done gunshot recordings, car recordings, recordings of sounds in the desert, the city streets—anywhere we can fi nd appropriate material. My team has open ears and is always on the listen for new and unique sounds.\n\n  Newman : Listening to the audio track of the game Blacksite: Area 51 , it becomes obvious that there are specifi c musical cues that\n\n  set the tone for the action that follows. Explain the process of determining where these cues should occur and how to imple- ment them.\n\n  Schaefgen : For BlackSite , we decided to use the character classes\n\n  as a basis for creating the musical themes that would weave in and out and create the main score. Also, each character class had unique instrumentation that created the sonic signature in the score. There were three main classes: humans (more specifi cally, soldiers), aliens, and alien/human hybrids. Depending on the dominant races for a given game-play scenario, we used a mix of themes and instrumentation that would cover those classes. Because the game was fairly linear in nature, we generally knew what was coming next, based on geographic location, so we used triggers placed in the world to cue music. Music was also con- trolled based on game states or AI [artifi cial intelligence] states. We didn’t want wall-to-wall music, so between encounters we opted for either no music or very low ambient cues.\n\n  Part 2\n\n\n  Newman : The game and fi lm industries both rely on the quality\n\n  of audio immensely. What lessons have you have learned from the fi lm industry that would help a new sound designer?\n\n  Schaefgen : A lot of game audio production is the same as fi lm.\n\n  We use Pro Tools and scads of plug-ins, we record our own source material, we work closely with the visionaries of the project to enhance that vision through sound, and so on. It didn’t use to be that way. Before digital audio was the norm and processing power was plentiful, developers synthesized all of the sound content for a game. So our process of making games hasn’t been infl uenced a whole lot by fi lm, but the process for making the content that goes into the game has. Like I mentioned earlier, we don’t really get a postproduction phase. The game development cycle is very different from that of a fi lm production, but it is still media. Media that is digitized and manipulated to evoke some sort of response from the player.\n\n  In this day and age, I feel that fi lm has a lot more to learn from games than the other way around. The game industry had been studying the fi lm industry for so long that they thought they wanted to be just like fi lm, but soon after, realized the differences are there for a reason and that games are a unique artform and a totally viable means of expression on their own.\n\n  Newman : What advice do you have regarding getting the best\n\n  possible fi nished project?\n\n  Schaefgen : Assemble the strongest team possible and let those\n\n  people do what they do best. Facilitation is more important than ego. Get out of the way and provide the support they need to be successful. Communication is the next most important factor. Once your team is empowered, they need to be effi cient and informed. Establishing and maintaining strong lines of commu- nication between all disciplines is the key to success. Everything after that is gravy.\n\n  Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT This page intentionally left blank\n\n\n  Graduating from a university, community college, or tech- oriented school and moving straight into a game development job can be a daunting task … so hopefully you are one of the fortunate (and probably hard-working) members of this community who has stormed from the chute and landed a job developing a game at an established company. Besides saving you lots of money and head- aches associated with creating your own game, a thriving game studio will already have the resources in place to develop, publish, and sell a successful title. However, if you are not one of these folks, do not despair! Getting your own game studio up and running can be as simple (or as hard) as creating your fi rst game.\n\n  With game tools like Microsoft’s XNA becoming widely avail- able and affordable, it is not an unreasonable venture to get your fi rst game out in the market without a huge investment of time or money. Chances are good that you probably started or maybe even fi nished a game while in school. Becoming an “ indepen-\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  dent ” game developer (meaning that you do not have the backing of a publisher) means having complete control of your project. It\n\n  Sign up for\n\n  also means accepting complete responsibility for any success or\n\n  Microsoft’s XNA\n\n  failure associated with the game! Being an indie studio also\n\n  Creator’s Club means something else; it suggests a philosophy of trying out new ( ). In addition to hosting\n\n  ideas and styles of game play that large developers would never\n\n  forums to discuss issues\n\n  attempt—mostly due to the lack of marketing numbers to sup-\n\n  with working with the\n\n  port the type of concept you’ve created or that the game is simply\n\n  program, users can demo not squarely centered in a current gaming trend. other games being created,\n\n  Garnering success from an avant-garde game is great way to\n\n  post their own game demo,\n\n  get noticed in the game industry and a quick way to get your\n\n  and access resources for\n\n  game noticed. But how do you become an independent game further education. developer?\n\n\n12.1 Setting Up Your Video Game Company\n\n  Though there are many logistics associated with creating a new company—such as whether to incorporate and getting your fund- ing (both discussed later)—fundamentally, your new game com- pany will be made or broken based upon one thing: your game. Making a wise decision about your fi rst project will be the single biggest factor regarding the amount of success you will have as a developer (check out the interviews with Warren Spector,\n\n  chapter 2, and Richard Rouse III in this chapter) . Success as a stu- dio, however, has several infl uential elements that must come together in order for you to survive in the game industry.\n\n  Successful game studios like Irrational become successful by making wise game decisions. Reproduced by permission of 2K Games. All rights reserved.\n\n  In addition to a great game concept, you need startup funds and the resources necessary to create your fi rst game: hardware, software, and skilled talent. Depending on the scope of your game design, creating a new title can take anywhere from fi ve to fi fty people working full-time for many months to get the job fi n- ished. Each of these people needs a workstation and the tools to do their job. This means money. Lots of money. There are several ways to get the money and equipment you need—and chances are good that you will tackle all of these ways.\n\n  Before approaching a bank and trying to get any kind of small business loan, do your best to bring down the amount of money you need to borrow. With any luck, and with lots of resources on hand, you won’t have to get a loan at all. The fi rst thing you can do is to try and hire people who have their own equipment and software. This will be reasonably easy for artists, as they tend to work a lot from home anyway, and the popular programs used\n\n\n  when creating digital art are widely available and reasonably priced. Depending on the programming language and/or game engine you use, though, programmers will present the greatest challenge in acquisition. Although getting programmers fl uent in the programming language you are using may be relatively easy, getting a programmer familiar with a particular game engine or middleware can be a challenge.\n\n  As a producer, if you are able to get an entire team together whose members have the ability to work from home, you will essentially be functioning as a studio with an entire contractor/ consultant-based workforce. Working this way saves you money, in that you don’t actually need a physical studio or workplace for all the employees to work at (so no rent and no bills there) and you won’t have to buy any computer equipment to populate it. It will also make your job easier when it comes to hiring talent. If you live in a nongame development center (like anywhere other than Austin, Texas or San Francisco, California), you would probably have a rather small pool of local talent to draw your employees from. By doing everything through contractors, you can literally hire anyone anywhere. Doing everything long- distance, though, has its own set of challenges.\n\n  First, have some sort of contract in place regarding employment. Even if everyone is working speculatively—meaning that they will all get paid when the game is either sold or distributed and has made money—there needs to be something in writing that says that the intellectual property you are creating belongs to the game company. The contract should also lay out the details regarding payment and any provisions regarding termination. The second challenge of working with contractors is related to workfl ow.\n\n  Again, as all the development team members are working in different locales, they will not have the benefi t of actually being able to communicate with ease or have meetings to discuss the project. It is important early in the project to establish a means\n\n   Developer Tip\n\n  for conferencing, set up collaboration tools, and create a concise pipeline for all of the assets being created. Even though the team\n\n  Most instant\n\n  is scattered, you should still designate a lead for each department\n\n\n  and set up established meeting times for you to conference with programs offer\n\n  conference call them and for them to conference with individual team members. functionality for free!\n\n  The easiest method for conducting meetings is to use online\n\n  Check out Yahoo!\n\n  video conferencing. There are several companies out there that\n\n  Messenger or Microsoft’s\n\n  offer reasonable pricing for this—you may already be using Skype\n\n  Windows Live Messenger\n\n  for PC phone calls—and getting the video conference calls up and\n\n  for available features and\n\n  running is as easy as making sure all concerned have a webcam downloads. and headset.\n\n  Don’t forget to take into consideration any differences in time zones when scheduling meetings. Also, prepare the topics to\n\n\n  discuss in advance so that the call times can be kept low—and stay on that agenda! Keeping the project on track is dependent upon these meetings and the ability for the development team to access collaboration tools. As discussed earlier in the book, the setup and maintenance of a wiki page is the best way for assets to be tracked and for individual team members to be aware of where the project stands. This portal will be the glue that keeps your team together and the shared workspace (not to mention shared drive) for everyone. It’s hard to make contractors feel like they are part of a team, so keeping them on point with the overall sched- ule, concept, and progress helps immensely in that regard.\n\n  Of course, the biggest challenge may be just fi nding people to work within your budget. Where do you fi nd unemployed game developers? There are several places you can begin your search: schools, conferences, and Web sites. Schools are pretty obvious search locations; most students want experience, so you can usu- ally get a certain level of work and commitment out of them with relative ease. This is especially true if they are out of school and unemployed. Most schools have career counselors who can pro- vide you with candidates for employment and even assist you with placement. Just realize that most everyone you acquire from a school is going to be inexperienced (a “ noob ” or “ newbie ”, if you will). Finding skilled talent will probably require hitting confer- ences and networking or exploring Web sites that are dedicated to a specifi c discipline.\n\n  Artists, for instance, can be found on Web sites like GFXArtist. com or There are also forums and career sites for programmers, digital producers, and writers that are all a Google search away. Many of them even offer threads that allow you to post jobs and search for available talent. Just be honest when dealing with postings; don’t earn a reputation for “ bait and switch ” tactics regarding employment. Let folks know up front what the situation is and you will be surprised how many people will still want to be involved with your project—especially if you have a strong concept. Just make sure you use nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when discussing possible employment (more on that in Chapter 14). Don’t forget that you can also use recruit- ers to help with hiring if you are paying your employees.\n\n  If you have chosen to scale your fi rst game much smaller or you are located in an area that can support an actual game studio, you may have decided to host a physical location for your company. Once you have found a place within your budget (this includes rent, bills, and the like) and have populated it with the workstations and software tools, it will be up to you to keep enough money fl owing into the project to keep the studio functioning. You will also want to take a few additional steps to insure your studio’s success.\n\n\n12.2 Maintaining Your Studio\n\n  Getting a development team on board to work with you is only half the challenge. You must also keep the development team working for you. Discuss the woes of development with any established studio and the discussion inevitably comes around to turnover and the constant need to hire. So, besides the obvious necessities of maintaining basic operations of the workplace, you must also focus on the things that would be handled by a human resources department at a large studio. Specifi cally, this means creating a great quality of life.\n\n  With game studios all over the world, Ubisoft has made a science out of creating and maintaining a successful studio. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Maintaining a quality workplace is not as simple as keeping the hours down—especially when deadlines and milestones become an issue and crunch hours begin creeping up. It also means provid- ing perks and programs that keep the employees happy. As you will probably be working on a limited budget, this requires a lot of planning and ingenuity. Keeping hours down during sprints to a milestone can be as simple as planning and allowing for enough time to get the work done. Meet with the leads (or the most experi- enced and knowledgeable members of the team) and get as accu- rate a time estimate as is possible and allow for that amount of time. There’s a very small threshold of frustration that employees allow when they are already working for little or no pay.\n\n  One of the best ways by which you can keep your development team out of the realm of the frustrated and exasperated is to cre- ate and maintain good project management systems. Take a tuto- rial on Microsoft Project and make sure to use good daily delta reports to keep communication high—especially if you are work- ing only with contractors. The more organized a project is, and\n\n\n  the smoother it operates, the better the attitudes will be within the team.\n\n  Providing incentives at the workplace can also go a long way towards improving morale at work. Perks can include end-of- week parties at the studio (try and get sponsorship from a local culinary school or brewpub to provide inexpensive treats), a gam- ing area for breaks (also important for play testing other games on the market), and leniency regarding time off and work sched- ules. The happier you keep your employees, the longer you will\n\n\nDevelopment Tip keep your employees—but don’t let them run over you! I once\n\n  worked at very large game developer and publisher that would\n\n  The International\n\n  buy lunch/dinner every day for their employees during crunch\n\n  Game Developers\n\n  time; soon the employees fi gured out they could ask for more\n\n  Association (IGDA)\n\n  expensive food from better restaurants and the budget for these\n\n  has a lot of info regarding meals spiraled out of control. the quality of life in game\n\nstudios. Hit their site Finally, at the end of the production cycle, when the game is\n\n( ) for\n\n  making money, make sure to pay your team what they were\n\n  papers on creating a great\n\n  promised and offer them the opportunity to work on the next\n\n  quality of life at your\n\n  (hopefully funded) project. Don’t be another industry horror\n\n  studio, as well as helpful\n\n  story; the tales of programmers and artists done wrong by devel-\n\n  suggestions for improving\n\n  opers are rampant. When you show loyalty to your employees, working conditions. they show loyalty to you and your company’s products.\n\n  Once your studio is up and running, it is important to take steps towards creating a grass-roots type of public relations cam- paign. Because you will not be spending money on a big PR fi rm to represent your company, you will have to become a little cre- ative in getting your studio’s name out there and known.\n\n12.3 Getting Noticed\n\n  The fi rst step in creating a successful public relations campaign is to get your Web site up and running. This can usually be done for little or no money at fi rst: purchase your domain name (easily done through hundreds of hosts like Yahoo!), then create a blog for your company (via Blogger, for example) and have the domain forwarded to it. Wham—you have a site up and running for as little as ten bucks a year! If you feel like spending a little money on the site, you can hire a Web designer (or spend the time designing a site yourself with a program such as Adobe GoLive or Dreamweaver) and pur- chase an online hosting plan. A bigger, structured site allows for a lot more functionality and information on your Web page—includ- ing job postings, press releases, and the ability to download a demo for your game once it becomes available.\n\n  The second step in your plan for world domination should involve getting a playable demo available as quickly as\n\n\n  Check out some of the game industry’s better Web sites, like the one for Midway Games. Reproduced by permission of Midway Games. All rights reserved.\n\n  possible—then taking this demo to every gaming conference you can afford and showing it off. Make copies of it and put it in the hands of publishers, gamers, and online distributors. Pay for a stand at trade shows and have the game demo playing behind you (or better yet, available for people to try). Free swag can also go a long way towards driving traffi c to you.\n\n  Trade advertisement placement in your game (or on your site) to T-shirt companies and printers in exchange for free shirts, stickers, or whatever. This activity puts your company name in the hands of attendees. Every T-shirt, bumper sticker, or hat is a moving billboard for you. Actually attending the conferences also presents a multitude of opportunities to network and spread word of your game and company at parties and mixers (especially the Independent Games Festival and Summit). Another avenue to consider is the use of ads in the trades. Design a nice advertise- ment and place it in the most popular magazines.\n\n  You can purchase advertisements in magazines that focus on video games, Web sites that do the same, and even newspaper ads in cities that feature prominent video game communities. There are lots of different strategies for creating a successful gue- rilla marketing campaign (check out some of them on ), just be sure you’re not crossing the line. Past attempts at guerilla marketing on the streets have created bad sit- uations like bomb scares, hefty fi nes for pollution (fl yers gone awry), and a bad presence in the community due to tasteless ads and billboards. You can see some examples of successful inde- pendent games on the Web site .\n\n  While you are making your ad, you should also write a press release that can be sent out to local press. Getting on local television or being featured in a write-up in a local paper is still\n\n\n  press. Save all of your press clippings and use them in your media kit when you are pitching perspective publishers.\n\n  My fi nal suggestions for getting noticed in the game industry centers around creating mods for existing games. Lots of game designers have gotten their start by taking this avenue of approach and it can work for your company as well. By creating new levels, characters, and so on. for a popular game, you can quickly get noticed by a lot of gamers as well as the game industry.\n\n   12.4 Protecting Your Idea\n\n  Though this can be a legal issue and we will discuss these in\n\n  Chapter 3, it’s important to touch on this for just a moment. As I mentioned earlier, one of the keys for a successful independent game is to have a great game concept. Once this game concept is honed to fi t your budget and schedule, it is important that you pro- tect it. This means only discussing it with your development team (at least initially—later on, you will of course want to discuss it as much as possible for press purposes), using non-disclosure agree- ments, and licensing your idea as much as is possible. Did you write a script for the game? Register it with the Writer’s Guild of America. Are there trademark characters, logos, and so on? Register them.\n\n  You may have also made a deal or partnered up with someone to make a game from an existing book, movie, or television pro- gram. If you have decided to go this route, you must license (or option) the work for use in your game. This is usually expensive and is not for everyone, but using an already successful piece of intellectual property is a great way to take advantage of existing buzz. As I mentioned before, the fi nal chapter of this book dis- cusses the legal aspects of game creation more, but just know from the onset that you should (at the minimum) protect your idea legally and fundamentally from being copied or stolen. Now let’s talk about the game you will be protecting.\n\n   12.5 Your Concept\n\n  The ideal independent game would (of course) be innovative, fun, illustrate a fair amount of potential for future development—and most of all, cinematic! Putting together a great concept is the fi rst task you have in front of you—and the most important—but nobody can really help you with that if you want to be the game’s designer. Here are some suggestions you can fol- low, though, that will keep you on a trim budget and schedule, as well as keep your chances for completion/success high:\n\n  Design for PC. Don’t worry about consoles at this stage. Getting dev kits for some consoles is an extremely diffi cult task (developer\n\n\n  kits/consoles are very expensive). If you are going to go console, aim small. This means going the XNA route and designing an arcade-style game for Xbox Live Arcade or designing a Wii game (check out WiiWare).\n\n  Come up with a unique feature. Have a game character with never-before-seen skills or abilities and integrate that into the games controls—or offer some level of usability that is unique. Doing all the things we have discussed in this book to make a game cinematic will go a long way towards the immersion and appeal of the game, but coming up with a great feature gamers have never seen will go a long way towards making the game unique and fun.\n\n  Maximize the cultural impact of the game. This doesn’t mean you should make the game political or anything. It just means that the more people in the world that enjoy the game, the more places you can sell it. Design around themes and styles that are universally accepted and enjoyed.\n\n  Minimize the interface. If you need an instruction book for the game, it’s probably too complicated. Design so that a gamer can\n\n   Development Tip jump right in and start playing.\n\n  Noah Falstein, one\n\n  Design the game to be expanded. Leaving the possibility open\n\n  of the people\n\n  for expansion—even if it is just for customization, additional\n\n  interviewed in this\n\n  maps, or new characters—means the chance to add on more\n\n  book, has a Web site\n\n  sales down the line. Great characters, story, and game play also\n\n  called The Inspiracy where\n\n  opens the doors for sequels down the line. Also, if the game is\n\n  he discusses rules/\n\n  successful when released, showing a publisher that the game can\n\n  guidelines for a successful\n\n  get and be much bigger will be a great selling point. game. His aim is to get\n\n  400 tips for the game\n\n  These are just a few basic guidelines to keep in mind when\n\n  designer (called the 400\n\n  coming up with your concept. Again, if you are using the cine-\n\n  Project)! Check out his\n\n  matic techniques discussed in this book, you will also be creating useful advice at www. a much richer game experience, even if the game’s theme is not . massive in scope.\n\n  Games like those in the Splinter Cell series always start with a strong game concept . Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved. Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT\n\n  Once you know what your game will be and what the major features are, you will want to parcel out a small piece to be devel- oped fi rst into a demo/prototype. If this is done well enough, you can use this demo to pitch the full game to publishers; worse case scenario, you will have a great demo to use for marketing pur- poses through your site. Make sure you include information regarding your company if you are using the prototype to pitch potential distributors.\n\n  In addition to the game design document and the demo, you will want a company mission statement, risk analysis (including an analysis of competition), and estimates regarding scheduling and budget. These are the things you will need when approach- ing major publishing companies to secure a distribution deal. Once you have put your concept together, gotten your demo fi n- ished, and your Web site/studio is up and running, you will want to start attracting the publishers.\n\n   12.6 Attracting the Game Industry\n\n  We have already discussed a few of the major ways to attract publishers to you: Your Web site, your demo, and creating a high profi le at gaming conventions to name a few. Joining the IGDA will help you as well, as they sponsor events during the year, but in the end, you will have to get your company/game name out there. It is rare for a publisher to actively approach and seek out independent game companies and fi nd them. You will have to fi nd them.\n\n  Finding the publishers can be accomplished by fi nding and talking to them at conventions, contacting them through their Web site (sometimes they even have their offi ce numbers on the site), and visiting their actual company locations. Whichever way you get to them, set up a pitch meeting with the studio heads (sometimes a publisher has a head of acquisitions). If they choose to grant you a meeting, you will be given the opportunity to “ pitch ” to them—or sell them—on the idea of distributing your game. This literally means you stand in front of them and tell them about your game and why they should publish it.\n\n   12.7 Using Your Soft Skills\n\n  Getting to the pitch meeting though means becoming a pro at the “ soft ” skills that make a great game producer. In a nutshell, this is the fi ne art of schmoozing. Networking. Talking people up. Knowing how to communicate with people without being overly pushy is as important as knowing who you should be schmoozing\n\n\n  with. I’ve been to parties at SXSW Interactive conferences and watched young designers talking for hours about their project to a programmer who can basically do nothing for them and their career. I’ve also seen creative directors (who have had a couple drinks) blathering on about details of their new project that I’m quite sure shouldn’t be discussed. This is not a good strategy.\n\n  Successful schmoozing means knowing your goals, who can get you to them, and how to speak to them. Your agenda should be obvious. Need name talent on your team? Online distribution? Or just career advice? Okay, good. Now, who can give you what you need? If you’re at a conference, there may be a registration book or online resource that tells you who is attending the con- ference or who they represent. Narrow down the fi eld, get online, see what they look like and what they are currently working on, and fi nd them! If you go to every party at a conference, chances are they will be at one of these. If not, they are probably speaking at the conference; go to their panel and then approach them afterwards.\n\n  When you approach someone who can help you, it’s always best to talk about them fi rst. Much like the fi lm industry, creative types in the game industry always like talking about their own projects. A quick compliment and innocent query usually gets them talking in no time. Once you have rapport, broach the idea of maybe talking to them after the conference for career advice. This suggestion usually spawns a moment where everyone in the vicinity exchanges business cards. Now you have a quality con- tact. Thank them for their time and leave them alone . Nobody likes being stalked at conferences and harassed. Once the confer- ence has been over a reasonable amount of time (four or fi ve days), send a quick email to remind your contacts who you are and thank them again for helping you (even though they have not done anything yet).\n\n  Getting from “ hello ” to getting your foot in their door is the soft skill that marks most successful producers in the game industry. Once you are comfortable at mixers and talking to complete strangers, consider doing some speaking engagements yourself (if you have something to speak about and your listeners have a reason to listen). The more you are exposed to the general game population, the easier it will be to open doors. Just remember that the golden rule is to always talk to them about them and not yourself … at least, not until you are asked. And then, when you are asked about what you are working on, be enthusiastic and brief. Practice coming up with a little two- to three-line teaser about your game (sometimes called an “ elevator pitch ” in the movie business). Sometimes, this quick spiel alone will get you to the bigger meeting and allow you to do a full pitch to a publisher.\n\n\n12.8 Learning How to Pitch\n\n  There are several different ways to approach a pitch. Some peo- ple will tell you to just approach the entire meeting as a casual conversation and simply tell your audience what your game is about, then answer questions about it. Others say that putting on a full-blown show with slides, a poster, demo, and so on is the way to go. Either way, there will be some defi nite things that a publisher will want to talk about with you—and whether you are telling them or showing them the answers—these have to be discussed.\n\n  The highest priority of the conversation will center around the subjects of target audience and marketing. Be prepared to go into great detail about exactly what kind of gamer is going to want to buy your game and how your game differs from the other titles competing for the same dollars. This isn’t about explaining the game’s story or cool characters; at a pitch meeting, you are quizzed about demographics, numbers, and territories that will sell a lot of units. Be prepared for this! Does this mean you should forego the creative aspects of the game? Absolutely not. Just keep it short, suc- cinct, and direct. Bring the demo if you have it and make a poster if you want to, but defi nitely prepare and practice your presentation.\n\n  The better the game, like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfi ghter 2 , the easier the game to pitch. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Stand in front of your friends (and strangers, if you’re able) and give them the pitch. Let them ask questions and practice answer- ing them. Pitching is a stressful situation and the more comfort- able you are with speaking in front of people and answering unusual questions about your project, the better you will be. You should also practice several different types of pitches; though having a longer presentation for formal meetings is a must, you should also get down a one-line “ high-concept ” pitch—the old Hollywood-style pitch where you say something like, “ It’s\n\n\n  Terminator , but with chipmunks instead of robots. ” The opportu-\n\n  nities to give this type of pitch far outweigh the amount of meet- ings you’ll be able to set up.\n\n  When you are crafting your various pitches and putting your ducks in a row, keep these tips in mind:\n\n  1. Be on time. You may not have the busy schedule that you\n\n  envision for a big game producer yet, but the people you are pitching to are quite busy, so don’t waste their time!\n\n  2. Be professional. Dress appropriately and have plenty of\n\n  materials. When you are given the “ thumbs-up ” for the meeting, ask how many people will be there and what the culture of the company is regarding attire.\n\n  3. Know the pitch’s audience. Do they publish casual games\n\n  or arcade games? How many games do they handle in a year? Are they the appropriate distribution channel for your game? Again, don’t waste their time.\n\n  4. Think visually. Video games, much like movies, are a\n\n  visual medium. If you go in with only words, you will bore them. Whether it’s a slide show, posters and pictures, or a demo playing, you need something to excite your audi- ence visually.\n\n  5. Be your own cheerleader. If you’re not excited about the\n\n  project, who will be? Be enthusiastic and positive about your project and you will spread that excitement.\n\n  6. Know the logistics. As I said previously, know how much\n\n  your budget is, how long it will take to develop, and what anticipated sales are—and be prepared to back those up with details.\n\n  7. Make sure you fi t in. This is similar to tip #3, but is more about making sure that you are doing something that is familiar to the publisher you’re pitching to. If they have done very well at marketing FPS games, then explaining how your shooter fi ts into their catalog will work heavily in your favor.\n\n  8. Show fl exibility. When the publishers offer criticism or sug- gestions, be enthusiastic about them. Being able to work with them and building your game around set parameters is something all developers have to learn to do.\n\n  9. Be original. This doesn’t mean going to a pitch meeting with a barbershop quartet and singing the pitch. It means bring- ing in a poster or demo unlike any they’ve seen before. It can also mean talking about the features of your game that have not been done elsewhere. Stand out and be different.\n\n10. Show value. This is less about the product and more\n\n  about you. Inevitably, if all is going well, the pitch will shift from being about the game to what you have done Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT\n\n  in the past and what kind of work ethic you possess. It’s one thing for a publisher to distribute your game, but it’s quite another to build a relationship with a developer and create a partnership for future projects. Follow these suggestions and you will do well at any pitch meeting.\n\n  Interview: Richard Rouse III, Game Designer\n\n  Richard Rouse III is a game designer and writer who has worked in computer and video game development for more than a decade. Most recently, he has served as Director of Game Design at Midway Games, consulting on a wide range of next-generation titles. Prior to that he was Creative Director and Writer on the hit action/horror title The Suffering and its sequel, The Suffering: Ties\n\n  That Bind . Rouse has led the design on a number of other games,\n\n  including Centipede 3D , Damage Incorporated , and Odyssey: The\n\n  Legend of Nemesis , as well as contributing to the design on Drakan: The Ancients ’ Gates . He has written about game design\n\n  for publications including Game Developer , SIGGRAPH Computer\n\n  Richard Rouse Graphics , Develop , Gamasutra , and Inside Mac Games , and has\n\n  lectured on game design at the Game Developer’s Conference and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Rouse’s popular and siz- able book about game design and development titled Game\n\n  Design: Theory &amp; Practice was released in an expanded second\n\n  edition in 2004 (Wordware Publishing). More information can be found at his Web site, .\n\n  Newman : Using the term “ cinematic ” when designing a game is\n\n  not always greeted with enthusiasm. For some, it means more cut-scenes and long-winded speeches from the game characters. What does “ cinematic ” mean to you?\n\n  Rouse : I certainly like to differentiate between adding more cut-\n\n  scenes and making a game more cinematic. If you look at a well- made fi lm, one of its main qualities is that it feels cohesive. All of its parts fi t together. They’re of the same tone and basic storytell- ing style. As a result the viewing experience fl ows well.\n\n  Cinematics can be a useful tool in games, but the reality is that when a cinematic is playing there is no meaningful interaction and the real gameplay has stopped. To me, they make the whole experience of playing the game feel disjointed, with snippets of un-interactivity jammed between the game itself in order to tell a story the player typically has no control over whatsoever. This is why players tend to not like cinematics and complain about the long ones: watching videos is not why they decided to buy a par- ticular game, regardless of how good they may be.\n\n\n  I tend to try to avoid using phrases like “ let’s make this part of the game more cinematic ” because if one is to take that term lit- erally, it would mean to make the game more like a movie and thus less interactive. And surely no one wants that. I’ve also found that different people use the term to mean wildly different things. Sometimes it does mean more cut-scenes, sometimes it means more immersion, sometimes it means more action set pieces.\n\n  But if we must use the term, I prefer to think of ways games can steal specifi c fi lmic techniques and make them part of gameplay. The slow-motion effect in Max Payne (and recently in Stranglehold ) is a great example of this: it was based on a technique that players were used to seeing in fi lms and made it interactive. The develop- ers didn’t just put slow-motion sections in the cut-scenes, they actually added it to the game itself and made it meaningful and a lot of fun. Simple things like tilting the camera or adding depth of fi eld or using a split screen are all examples that can be applied to gameplay and open up cool new gameplay dynamics. This makes a game more “ cinematic ” while still defi nitely a game.\n\n  Newman : How can a designer avoid falling into the trap of what\n\n  you call “ Hollywood Envy ” ?\n\n  Rouse : I think I fi rst heard Chris Crawford use this expression,\n\n  and I’ve happily appropriated it for my own purposes. Hollywood Envy refers to the sad fact that a lot of people working in games don’t see them as “ cool ” enough and secretly wish they working on fi lms in far sexier and glitzier Hollywood. To make themselves feel closer to the “ magic ” of Hollywood (or perhaps to act as a portfolio for when they try to switch careers) they tend to copy blindly from fi lms. The most egregious example of this I can think of is scrolling credits at the end of video games, which lack even the interactivity of DVD playback. Can I rewind them? Almost never. Can I even pause them? Hardly ever. Computers are made for presenting data like credits in ways that players could fl ip through at whatever speed they wanted, if they wanted. Computers are practically made for interactive display of text. But when Hollywood Envy takes hold of someone, you end up with scrolling credits because it’s “ more like the movies ”. Now, do cred- its display systems actually matter that much to games? Of course not. But whenever I see super-long cut-scenes that have my main character doing all manner of cool action moves that would have been better in gameplay (inherently better, as the player would have been in control of them) I fear the team has fallen into the thrall of Hollywood Envy. Designers should always ask themselves, “ Am I making this decision because it makes my title a better game? Or just because I secretly wish I were making a movie? ”\n\n  Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT Newman : It seems that the areas that have benefi ted the most\n\n  from cinematic game design have been in the realm of game cin- ematography and game writing. What are some less-obvious ben- efi ts of drawing experience from the fi lm industry?\n\n  Rouse : I agree with you about cinematography: there’s a lot we\n\n  can learn about camera techniques from fi lms, from shot framing to how a real camera moves through the world. Borrowing from fi lms seems perfect, as long as people are smart about how to take a specifi c camera style from a fi lm and make it dynamic and procedural so players are still in control of the experience.\n\n  Film writing I actually fi nd to be less directly applicable to game writing. Other than the cut-scenes, game writing is often fi nding clever ways to convey gameplay-useful and also character/ back-story-interesting information during gameplay without breaking the fl ow. It often means writing as succinctly as possible, even beyond the succinctness you fi nd in fi lms. Games also affect the type of stories one can write: in game development, one typi- cally starts with a set of gameplay constraints and fi gures out the best way to tell a story in a very limited space. The best game writ- ers can embrace those constraints and write very compelling sto- ries around them, but it’s a wholly different way than how movie scripts are created.\n\n  I do think there are lot of other areas in which fi lm techniques can be studied and used to enrich games. For instance, in terms of audio mixing, there’s a lot of layering going on in fi lms soundtracks that games can continue to learn from. If you look at a Robert Altman fi lm like M*A*S*H or McCabe and Mrs. Miller , he layers so much information into the soundtrack via characters talking on top of each other that you almost can’t get it all in one viewing, which is perfect for games where we want players to be able to explore the story space. Some of the best games have done this successfully, and BioShock is a recent example. BioShock was also a great example of musical underscoring mixed with in- world licensed audio. The score for that game is quite under- stated most of the time, to the point where people don’t notice it, but it provides exactly the right amount of emotional nuancing to make the player feel specifi c emotions at different key points of the game progression. The licensed tracks from the 1950s, instead of playing “ on the camera ” as part of the soundtrack are instead inserted into the environment, helping to set the tone while emerging organically from the world.\n\n  I also think there’s a lot that games can learn from movies in terms of pacing; manipulating players to anticipate one thing happening, but then springing something entirely different on them. Also, I think fi lms can help make game developers into bet- ter editors of content and experience—selecting only the parts\n\n\n  that audiences are going to react to the strongest. Hitchcock said fi lms were life with all the dull bits cut out. Some games, like MMOs, tend to be 98 percent dull bits (endless grinding, traveling across great distances, trying to organize a raid). But even single- player action/adventure titles often have dull bits that could be cut out.\n\n  Newman : One of the great axioms of screenwriting has always\n\n  been “ Show, don’t tell ”. This seems to be a particularly good rule to use within the game industry. What are some of the ways that a designer can still get the story across to the gamer without the use of heavy dialogue?\n\n   Rouse : I don’t think I’m the fi rst person to say this, but I subscribe\n\n  to the principle that you should “ Do, don’t show ”. Whenever pos- sible, let the player do things instead of watching them be played out in a cut-scene or in events he can’t interact with. Games need to focus on what they do best (letting players interact) and not what they do badly (long complex plots that full apart when you change any part of them). That said, I’m a big fan of using dialog in games, but fi guring out ways to integrating it into the play experience. This is something the System Shock games did really well; through the audio logs, you could play back at any time while you explored, solved puzzles, had some combat, and so on. The talk radio dialog in the GTA games are another great example of this. It helps set the scene, establish the world, let the player know what kind of world he’s in, all without taking him out of the play experience. Of course, super-critical dialog may need to be reinforced via mission objectives or forcing players to pay more attention to certain pieces of dialog that are intended to give them direction. But if you’re just telling some back story, it’s prob- ably okay if players don’t hear 100 percent of it. Designers should fi gure out a way to layer it in the background instead of forcing characters to listen to someone drone on endlessly.\n\n   Newman : It seems that great writing is starting to matter more in\n\n  the game industry. How does a writer balance the need for great plot and confl ict without making what you call “ an interactive movie ” ? And does a game need an actual “ writer ” ?\n\n  Rouse : Games absolutely do need writers, but writers that under-\n\n  stand games and writers that realize they’re making a game fi rst and a story second. A game that has great story but lacks compel- ling gameplay is a failure, while a game with good gameplay and a weak story can still succeed. Games can also limit a lot of what you can do as a writer and what plots will come across well, but limitations can be creatively stimulating instead of stifl ing, if writers approach them with the right mindset.\n\n\n  Assuming that a project has the right writer, I think they need to be on the project full-time, not just around for a short chunk at the beginning or middle or end. Someone on the team needs to be the eternal champion of the story, even if they don’t necessar- ily write the dialog or even come up with the plot. But this story champion needs to be present at all stages (just like a lead designer or a lead artist are on the project the whole time) to make sure that the game’s story is at least considered in all deci- sions. This person may also be the lead designer or the lead level designer or have other responsibilities on the project, but they’re the guy everyone turns to with story questions.\n\n  Decisions about the story and requests for revisions happen throughout the project, and someone with a good story sense needs to be present to make sure those are done correctly. Sure, a given game-play encounter might be more fun if it were fl ooded with lava, but does that make any sense with the plot? Is the dam- age to the story less than the increase in the fun gained by adding the lava? And if the lava really is a lot of fun, how can the story be altered to support that? This is a ridiculous example of course, but there are a million smaller decisions that are made over the lifetime of a project. Having a story champion present is abso- lutely essential to make sure that a sensible, well-written story survives amidst all the changes.\n\n  Newman : In your opinion, does the game industry spend enough\n\n  time working in preproduction? It seems there are a number of current games hitting the shelves that would have benefi ted from spending more time dealing with choices such as locations, light- ing, plot, and so on during the concept phase.\n\n   Rouse : Not spending enough time in preproduction is a huge\n\n  problem. As soon as there’s the smallest hint of a cool game, pub- lishers often want it out as soon as possible, creating an unpro- ductive race for the fi nish line that typically involves throwing too many people on a project way too soon. Perhaps because they’ve been working at it so much longer, Hollywood is much smarter about this. Once a movie starts shooting, delays and over-runs are a much rarer thing than they are in the game industry. But at the same time I wouldn’t say that the average movie is better than the average game because of that.\n\n  But yes, defi nitely, most games could benefi t in more time in pre- production. That’s the time when you should prove out all the major gameplay risks, implementing anything that’s remotely unknown on the project, getting your pipeline working, and, yes, getting a plot and parts of a script in place that everyone’s happy with. Of course, it will continue to change over the course of development, but you need to have your best attempt at the story pretty early on.\n\n\n   Newman : Midway Games brought in director John Woo for the\n\n  game Stranglehold last year. In your experience, do fi lm directors grasp the concepts of interactivity immediately? Describe the process of working with a fi lm director on a game.\n\n   Rouse : I’m not going to reference any one person it particular,\n\n  but in my experience people who have worked only in fi lm typi- cally do not immediately grasp how games work. Often they’re the fi rst to admit that, and they come to these relationships ready to learn a lot and work collaboratively. What directors are good at is thinking outside the box a bit more: because they don’t know much about games, a lot of their ideas are all over the place and hard to use, but some of them are brilliant and fi t perfectly with games. The trick is getting a fi lm director to work with a game team that’s experienced and can help fi lter those ideas—cherry- picking the best ones, if you will. There’s a lot of back and forth, but in the end it’s still the game teams doing the vast majority of the work. But getting in other creative forces can defi nitely be a very positive thing for the game, as long as you harness that cre- ativity properly.\n\n  Newman : More and more, we are seeing a lot of simultaneous\n\n  game and fi lm releases (especially with animated fi lms like Ant\n\n  Bully and Bee Movie ). Do you think the possibility of crossover\n\n  appeal helps or hurts the game industry?\n\n  Rouse : In most of the cases where fi lms and games that ship\n\n  simultaneously, the game is done in a huge hurry under huge constraints. Sometimes this can lead to really cool little games, but more often it leads to something that feels very derivative and rushed. The motivations for doing these games are almost never creative—they’re fi nancial. If you’re doing one of those games you’re riding on the coat-tails of cross-media “ event ” that sur- rounds the launch of the fi lm and trying to sell some games star- ring a CG movie character in the same way McDonald’s is trying to sell some extra hamburgers branded with that same CG movie character. As I say, there are lots of people who manage to make nifty games in these situations, and there’s nothing wrong with trying But I’m not sure it’s something that makes the industry stronger creatively.\n\n  That said, there are also some movie games that are done right, where the development teams don’t have to stick to the moving target of a fi lm script and where they have enough time to really get the game right. But these are still the exception, not the rule.\n\n  Newman : What elements would you look for in a game, if you\n\n  were going to option one for a movie?\n\n  Rouse : There are two types of licenses in Hollywood: ones where\n\n  the license is already a Big Property and has a built in fan base\n\n\n  that will go see the fi lm version (such as Harry Potter , Mortal\n\n  Kombat , and The DaVinci Code ). However, the vast majority of\n\n  properties Hollywood licenses are not very big before Hollywood gets hold of them. A lot of movies are adaptations from books that have been read by 100,000 people at most. If a Hollywood movie gets only 100,000 people to buy tickets, it’s a big fl op. So for this second category of licenses, some Hollywood producer really likes the story or characters involved in that property and think they can turn it into a much more fi nancially successful fi lm; in essence, making the IP [intellectual property] much more popu- lar by making it a movie. Games, on the other hand, tend to license properties (like the examples you cited) in the hopes that some subset of the people who went to see the movie will go buy the game. If they get one-tenth of the fi lm goers to buy the game, they’re making a tidy profi t. It’s more rare (though not unheard of ) for games to take a small book or an obscure board game and try to make it into a huge game. It’s still true that Hollywood is far more the entertainment taste-maker for the country than games are, and the realities of these different licensing efforts show that.\n\n  The trick with optioning a game to make into a movie is that the game has to have an identity that is unique to it. A lot of games, despite being fantastic game experiences, once you remove the game play have fairly standard/derivative settings and characters. How many games have “ space marines ” in them? Hollywood already has a space marines property (the Alien mov- ies), and it doesn’t need to license something from games to get another one. I think that games could benefi t from coming up with more original characters, worlds, and stories. It’s great to draw some inspiration from movies or books or whatever, but too many games just copy the setting/theme/tone from a popular work in another medium and call it done. The best fi lms or novels or games are the ones that make a setting that really stands on its own. Beyond just making sure that the game property could work as a two-hour feature, if I were optioning a game for a movie, I’d look for something that had its own distinct identity and that would still stand up once you removed the game play.\n\n\n  Like all business, the game industry thrives upon sales and marketing. As a beginning game producer, you may defi ne your personal success as fi nishing a project or creating a new or inno- vative feature that has never been explored before, but the major- ity of game developers and publishers use sales to determine success. Making a marketable game on time and budget will ensure fi nancial and commercial success.\n\n  The business plan for your company and your fi rst game should be built around the concept of “ sales numbers ” —in other words, you must sell a lot of games. This fi gure is not the same thing as how much money you will make. That number will be calculated after you have paid for the cost of development and marketing. Usually, the demand of the consumer is the factor that determines your place in the market (how much your game sells for). If your game has to be sold for a dollar as a download to get your sales numbers up, then that will be your eventual position. Generating huge numbers (in sales and revenue) will give you the stats and leverage you will need when you pitch your next title to a bigger publisher.\n\n  There is an axiom in the movie industry—coined by famous fi lm teacher Dov S-S Simens in his book Reel to Deal (Grand Central Publishing, 2003)—that says if you want to make a $20 million movie, fi rst you have to make a $2 million movie. But to make a $2 million movie, you should probably have produced a $200,000 movie. See a pattern here? The same is true for the game industry. Scale low, then slowly work your way up the devel- opment food chain to get your game studio on the right track without overtaxing your resources.\n\n  Your fi rst step in getting that initial game out the door is to get your business plan, mission statement, and risk analysis in place.\n\n\n13.1 Business Plan\n\n  There are several different types of business plans—most focus on either how your overall company will function or how an indi- vidual project will be managed. Because you will have created your concept package that already includes fi nancial information regarding the game (primarily the budget and schedule), you now need a business plan that specifi es how you will make your game studio successful. The best way to do this is to defi ne your goals.\n\n  New games, like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , are very hush- hush during development.\n\n  Reproduced by permission of Activision. All rights reserved.\n\n  Once you have listed the goals of your company—these proba- bly include getting your fi rst game produced, getting an offi ce, and so on—explain how you will get there. Just remember the audience for your business plan! If this is something you are going to take to banks for loan purposes, there are specifi c things to include in the plan for that—specifi cally, fi nancial information. Another reason for defi ning your business plan’s audience cen- ters around the idea of secrecy; as you won’t be able\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  to get NDAs from casual readers, make sure that your business\n\n  The Service Corps\n\n  plan does not have any information in it that needs to remain\n\n  of Retired\n\n  confi dential—especially if you are going to make your business\n\n  Executives offers plan public on your Web site. tons of free advice on their\n\n  In a nutshell, a business plan is about defi ning your goals, how Web site for new startups.\n\n\nThey even have local you are going to implement them, and crafting your plan around\n\nchapters that can help you\n\n  the intended audience. To this end, you can also create several\n\n  by answering questions\n\n  different versions of your business plan, focusing on what you\n\n  regarding area-specifi c\n\n  want the public to know and what you want investors/partners to\n\n  concerns. Check them out\n\n  be aware of. Once you have created your business plan, you can at . then move on to your company’s mission statement and your game’s risk analysis.\n\n\n13.2 Mission Statement and Risk Analysis\n\n  When you are putting together the information that you need to get your company up and running—whether it’s for incorpo- rating or simply fi ling a DBA form (Doing Business As—This is the legal document you fi le that states you are creating a new company, but are not ready to incorporate yet.)— one of the most basic things you need is a “ mission statement ”. This document lays out the basic intentions of your company and your philoso- phy for business. Most often, there are also clauses within the mission statement that focus on uniting the vision of everyone working with you and address concerns that any business part- ners may have when doing business with the company.\n\n  If you are careful and concise with constructing your mission statement, it will be an important document when soliciting investments, small business loans, and making deals with pub- lishers. It can also serve as a kind of compass within your work- place when resolving differences between employees, hiring new people to join the team, and making decisions regarding the company. The mission statement, along with the risk analysis, will be in the package you take with you when pitching your game to various publishers and distributors.\n\n  A “ risk analysis ” is a report that takes into consideration the various factors involved with creating a game. These factors are broken down into a most likely situation (also called a “ proposed scenario ” ), a worst-case scenario, and a best-case scenario . These three different outlooks illustrate how the title will fare if it sells at expectation, fails to sell enough units to meet that expectation, or sells higher than expected. In addition to these three different outlooks, a risk analysis also includes information regarding the investment: there will be a number that refl ects how many copies of the game must be sold to make back the money put into the game, and what price the game will have to sell at as well.\n\n  When you are putting together the numbers for the different scenarios, you will want to decide how big a margin of difference to allow for. Game developers can estimate anywhere between 25 to 50 percent differences between the worst- and best-case sce- narios. Usually, it’s safer to go with the higher percentage—it’s better to prepare for the worst than to be sideswiped by it.\n\n  Once all of this has been computed and the spreadsheet is for- mulated, you will have an extremely clear-cut image of what you must do in order for the game to become a successful title. Of course, you must realize that things change during production and your estimates may go up or down. Realizing this early, and modifying your risk analysis at that point, will go a long way to help with getting your fi nal price and units that must be sold computed for the marketing team.\n\n\n   13.3 Crossover Appeal\n\n  Perhaps one of the greatest advantages to making a cinematic game is the potential for crossing over into the many other areas of the entertainment industry. Creating a strong story and char- acters in your game, as well as producing your game using sound cinematography, will make a product that shows potential for fi lms, books, television, and so on. A great example is the whole circus surrounding Bungie Studio’s Halo 3 (well, the whole Halo series actually). Characters like the Master Chief are not just “ thought up ”. They are crafted. Carefully. As I am writing this chapter, in addition to the Halo games, there are several novels on the shelves, tons of Halo toys and merchandise fl oating around, and a movie in development.\n\n  When Halo 3 hit the shelves, there were also T-shirts, key chains, posters, and tons of other merchandise. Copyright © Bungie LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.\n\n  Getting the appeal of the game to a point where these other projects are possible is as simple (or hard) as creating a strong, cinematic game. When you have the fan base to support branch- ing out into other mediums, you can then decide whether it is fi nancially viable to attempt selling your intellectual property (IP) to those other avenues of sales. Again, make sure to use an attorney when making these deals; as it requires others to license your IP to make toys, books, and other merchandise, you need a lawyer to design and review those contracts.\n\n   13.4 Success with Marketing\n\n  If you are fortunate enough to make a sale to a publisher, you will get to know their marketing department really well. In many ways, they function as a kind of accountant in the publishing\n\n\n  world—they are concerned with getting sales up and maximizing the potential for sales through sound marketing techniques. If you are publishing your own game and using alternative distribu- tion channels, you function (for the most part) as your own mar- keting department, so it’s important that you understand at least basic marketing strategies.\n\n  Creating a successful marketing campaign starts as soon as you begin production. If you have created your risk analysis, you should have an idea of the price point you will place on the game. Thus, you can look at other games hitting the market at the same time as yours and determine whether you are creating a competi- tive title. Coming into the game market at the right time with the right price can make or break your game. If there’s a lot of compe- tition scheduled to be released at the same time as your game, it’s probably in your best interest to move your date.\n\n  The marketing campaigns behind games like Lord of the Rings from Turbine can be huge\n\n  Online and last for years. The artwork appearing to the left is copyright protected and reproduced with permission. © 2008 Turbine, Inc.\n\n\n  The second marketing concern to address is getting word of your product out on the street: generating press. There are several different avenues of approach you can take—and you should take them all—including interviews and articles in trade magazines, reviews, and the use of screenshots. As soon as you are able to do so, you should start getting screenshots of your game together. You can send these out almost immediately to the various online\n\n\n  gaming sites like GamingTrend and Gamasutra as previews for your new title and start generating word-of-mouth advertising.\n\n  Once you are well into the production cycle, and completion of the game is imminent, you can then try to set up interviews with trade magazines like Game Developer and fan-based mags such as Game Informer . This process will increase awareness of your game and prime the market for your game’s entry. Then, just before the game’s release, send out copies of the game to maga- zines and sites to review. This step provides a last-minute boost (along with any ads you place for your game) to your marketing campaign.\n\n  Other major marketing tools at your disposal include the use of your demo, creating a strategy guide (it doesn’t have to be a for- mal, published one—make a nice walkthrough with tips and cheats and put it on your site as a download), and doing presen- tations. Putting together a program that includes an overview of the game, visuals (concept art, demo, and so on), and other game assets is a great idea for generating foot traffi c at conferences and for speaking at conventions.\n\n  Once the playable demo is up and running, getting it out there at the conferences (along with you as the spokesman), on your site, and bundled with other games being released is a great way to put your product in the hands of gamers. The higher the visi- bility your title has in the public’s eye, the higher your sales will be—and you will need the revenue to help offset the money you have already spent on development and production. Of course, there are other ways to help lower your bottom line as well, as explained in the following section.\n\n  Thousands of gamers picked up the demo/trial version of The Lord of the Rings Online Shadows of Angmar, Book 12: The Ashen Wastes when it became available.\n\n\n\n   13.5 Incentives and Fundraising\n\n  In the fi lm industry, states are constantly competing for busi- ness dollars—luring fi lm production companies to shoot their movies within their borders. To do this, they usually offer an “ incentive package ” to fi lm producers. These incentives can include getting a discount on taxes for labor or goods, rebates on total production costs, and discounted or free permits for shoot- ing on location. These incentives can add up to millions of dollars in savings for a fi lm production. Some larger cities even have additional incentives that are offered for setting up shop within\n\n   Production Tip their city limits.\n\n  The Texas Film\n\n  Recently, states have taken an interest in providing incentives\n\n  Commission’s Web\n\n  for game productions as well. The state of Texas has now included\n\n  site has a whole\n\n  incentives for game companies—much like the ones they offer for\n\n  section on the game fi lm productions—to move to Texas to produce their games. industry and incentives\n\n  Austin is one of the biggest game cities in the country! Other cit- offered in the state. Visit them at http://www. ies and states are have similar programs in progress. If you’re in\n\n  the position to set up shop anywhere in the country—or at least\n\n  divisions/fi lm/game/\n\n  to move to an area offering incentives—this is a great way to lower\n\n  index_html for more\n\n  your overall costs on production. However, if money is a huge\n\n  information about what\n\n  issue—or if you are not in the position to move—and you are truly\n\n  you can expect from a\n\n  going the guerilla production route, being creative with the use of production there. fundraisers may be the ticket to get your initial revenue.\n\n  Fundraisers can be as simple as making T-shirts and selling them or as complicated as setting up a mixer at a popular bar (with donated food and drinks). There are literally hundreds of ways to raise money for a project, and many great books have been written on the subject. Getting a couple of good fundraising projects rolling can get you the startup money you may need to incorporate, buy the software you need, and pay for a good Web site. You probably will not be able to completely fund your project using fundraisers (unless you are on a very low budget), but many people in the fi lm industry have used this tool to get an indepen- dent project up and running.\n\n   13.6 Publishing 101\n\n  Getting a publisher on-board to purchase your game and dis- tribute it is the ultimate goal when producing a game, so this tends to be the number one concern with new, independent game studios. The best way to get a publisher is pretty obvious: create an awesome game. Knowing how to pitch your game and how to set up formal meetings are also important, but in the end, it’s all about the game. Creating a cinematic game with awesome game play should be your number one goal from the onset.\n\n\n  Once your awesome game is up and running, the next step is to use those soft skills and go on a mad pitching spree. Hopefully, after you have made the circuit through the major publishers in the game industry, you will have gotten your feet in the doors of a lot of important people and given them your pre- sentation. This process should at least put you in consideration for publishing—or at least given you lots of experience pitching at this point.\n\n  If you do get a publisher on board and you sell your game, con- gratulations! You will be well paid for a job well done. However, if you do not manage to secure a publisher, don’t despair! There are several different ways you can self-publish your game without going bankrupt in the process: You can use pure distributors to get your game on shelves or you can go to a digital download or online distributor to sell your game.\n\n  Even big titles like Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 uses digital distribution and downloads to get playable maps and add-ons out to gamers. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  As far as distributors go, there are companies that have made deals with multiple retail chains and have the ability to get your game on the shelves of a lot of stores. Sometimes certain stores have their own submission process to put your product on shelves directly through them as well. Although using a distribu- tor saves you the legwork involved with making deals with all the various stores that will carry your product, a distributor will take a certain percentage of your sales, so consider that before making any fi nal decisions. Also, any distributor or retail chain will want the fi nished product in hand—this means that you have to fi nd a duplicator to make copies of your game and then print all the materials that go with it (box, instruction manual,\n\n\n  cover art, and so on). This can be a pretty big expense—and one you need to allow for from the onset of development if you are going to go this route. Once you have secured deals with retailers and/or distributors (or you have decided to bypass this process), you can then look into the expanding world of digital distribution.\n\n  There are many Web sites that specialize in selling game down-\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  loads directly to consumers—turn to these places if you don’t\n\n  As you develop\n\n  want to be encumbered with the expense of duplicating your\n\n  your game, there\n\n  game and printing materials. They usually charge a fee for host-\n\n  are lots of people\n\n  ing your game and then (sometimes) get a small percentage of\n\n  doing exactly what you\n\n  the download price. By going the digital route, you save on your\n\n  are. As a result, many\n\n  overhead and therefore are able to have a lower price point for\n\n  commercial game studios\n\n  your product, which makes your game more competitive in the\n\n  now offer developer’s\n\n  market. You can also consider selling your game directly from programs for up-and- coming game producers. your site; if you’ve spent the money on a great Web site, you can\n\n  Check out GarageGames ’\n\n  host the download there and charge folks using a method like\n\n  Affi liated Developers\n\n  PayPal (it’s easy and quick to set up an account with them). Going program ( http://www. this way means that all the sales go directly into your pocket! The as an\n\n  downside, though, is that you are responsible for driving gamers\n\n  example of this type of\n\n  to your site, whereas a bigger site like Steam or Xbox Live Arcade program. already has a lot of hits and visitors.\n\n  Whichever method you take (or if you take both), just remem- ber that there are also foreign markets. With a little research, or the use of a good game attorney, you should be able to identify distributors within other countries that can market and sell your game—if your game is localized enough for sales there. Getting into certain territories may mean going back and opening your closing kit to do a localization. This can be expensive, so make sure that you are going to make money before you do this. There are quite a few places that you can sell an English version of your game without having to go that route.\n\n  Another good thing to keep in mind is that most major game developers/publishers consider a game to be successful at around 350,000 copies sold. As you will work at a lower budget\n\n   Production Tip\n\n  than most of them, you will not have to achieve such a sales num- ber to regard your game as a success; but if you do hit this sales\n\n  Lots of advice and\n\n  number, this is a great selling point to make sure to mention information for\n\n  independent when you are pitching your next game. developers can be found at\n\n  Life as an independent developer and publisher is tough, but\n\n  Indie Games ’ Web site\n\n  rewarding. As an independent producer, gamers look to you for ( http://www.indiegames. new and innovative approaches to gaming, as well as inspiration\n\n  com ). Get educated and\n\n  for their own ideas. Get out there and meet others in your posi-\n\n  get a leg up on the\n\n  tion and learn what they are doing—if the independent commu- competition. nity can’t help each other, who can?\n\n  Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT Interview: Patrick Hamilton, President of Wardog Studios\n\n  Patrick Hamilton has been in the computer fi eld for close to fi f- teen years with emphasis in information technology and security. He has an MS in Network Security and a BS: Information Technology with a minor in Computer Science. He served in the U.S. Navy as an Aegis Fire-Control and was part of the precommis- sioning crew of the USS Milius (DDG-69). He believes that a niche market exists for sophisticated games, which can support addi- tional media and business capabilities, as well as to fi nally release\n\n  Patrick Hamilton his long awaited mech system into the gaming community.\n\n  Newman: Is it still possible to make an “ independent ” game? Hamilton: Yes it is, even for an MMOG. The Internet provides the\n\n  means for individuals, teams, and companies to have global reach without the worry or hassle of retail distribution. Although digital distribution has not been as accepting as to retail distribu- tion in the past, this is no longer the case. I believe that both forms of distribution are about even and digital will shortly over- come retail.\n\n  Producing an MMOG may seem impossible, in that large teams or large budgets are required. The budgeting of new MMOGs seems to keep going up in the millions each year—even as expen- sive as a full-feature fi lm. I will state this: this is not the case, nor has it ever been. Small teams with small budgets can produce successful MMOGs without the need for going to publishers. Producing online games in the multimillion-dollars range is not the right direction. Looking at the computer and IT fi elds, technology is supposed to make things be better, go faster, and cost less. In the MMOG sector, this does not seem to be the case, so research is needed to fi gure out what is going wrong and how to exploit it. This is where smaller teams have an advantage to create new paradigms in how such games are created and released.\n\n  The MMOG market is a young sector and has plenty of room of growth. There are three strong advantages of MMOGs and those are as follows. MMOGs are living games, with a much longer shelf life than that of conventional games. Thus it is possible to build the core system fi rst and then expand over time, implementing phases (called a Phased Approach) for the release of the full game. Lower-resolution graphics are needed due to performance issues (though this will change as technology improves), allowing teams to create games without the worry of using the latest and greatest graphics possible. And by having a global reach, there is bound to be a viable market for a particular title.\n\n\n  Newman: Recently, EA acquired BioWare/Pandemic. The more\n\n  smaller studios that are snatched up by big publishers, the harder it seems for an independent studio to succeed. What’s the key to getting an indie studio up and rolling?\n\n  Hamilton: I would say that the key to getting a studio up and roll-\n\n  ing is to fi rst and foremost draft and complete the business plan, not the game design document. Games require money to create to generate revenue. A game must be sellable and the defi nition of “ success ” to a developer, team, or studio is needed. Success can be selling just a total of 50,000 copies over a period of one year, or maybe 500,000 units. The business plan will determine that. Additionally, the business plan will help in fi guring out the right market and audience to target and identify competitors, and will help secure funding from potential investors. Even if a team is to develop a game for nonprofi t use, a business plan is still needed to help show the expenses and how they would be covered.\n\n  The second key is what is going to be the innovation, that uniqueness that the game will have compared to others? This innovation or hook does not need to be in the technical program- ming side of things: it can be of game mechanics, level of sophis- tication, cinematic, or blending in other forms of media or technology. Small studios tend to have the freedom to be creative and innovative, while large studios and big publishers become more conservative. The big companies rarely want to take on more risk than is needed when millions of dollars are at stake.\n\n  When pitching to investors, again, the game needs to be sell- able. What features or concepts does it have that will make an investor want to sign a check right away? The best angle that I have observed has been to add in business capabilities and refer to our project as a form of business entertainment system, rather than a game. Trying to get investors for a game is hard, because the word “ game ” implies a high-risk venture with which many other game projects are competing. When talking with potential investors, I did not receive much of a good reaction when talking about a new game; however, when talking about a massive virtual interactive service that blends in other forms of media and busi- ness capabilities, such as in-world Web browsing and product placement, the interest has been much favorable.\n\n  Newman: With game development teams getting larger and more\n\n  expensive to maintain, it seems that a new development model is needed. Is it more cost-effective to maintain a “ permanent ” team at the studio, or to turn to contractors for the bulk of the work?\n\n  Hamilton: I would say that using both is the way to go. Have a\n\n  core team to work on the critical systems and the creativity of the game, while contractors perform the bulk or take care of the\n\n\n  mundane side of things. Typically, outsourcing to other special- ized companies is a cost savings. However, take the time to con- duct due diligence when dealing with other companies. See what they can do: provide some sample work for them to do and see what the results are .\n\n  Newman: There’s been a lot of talk about game projects essentially\n\n  being treated and managed like a fi lm project—meaning that a team is assembled for a specifi c game, the game is created, then the team is disbanded. Is this a good development model?\n\n  Hamilton: The ideal method is to start with a small team—if pos-\n\n  sible, with third-party companies or contractors to help keep the cost down. As more funding is secured with later rounds or approaching launch, slowly grow the team, but not much—only what is needed. When the game has been launched, then grow the team to match the revenue earned. This is to help provide additional content to grow the game, as well as to begin work on another project if so desired. Avoid developing a game with a large team, launching the game, and then laying off employees. That may be typical in the game industry, but not with MMOGs; that is a sign of mismanagement and of conventional thinking. MMOGs are not the same as conventional computer games and require their own form of development model. Unlike conven- tional computer games, MMOGs are living games, able to be added onto, changed, and upgraded.\n\n  Newman: What impact does the choice of game engine have on a\n\n  game budget?\n\n  Hamilton: The game engine has one of the most signifi cant impacts for the budget and generally requires an upfront cost.\n\n  Also, the game engine will provide additional capabilities and lim- itations that may have not been considered for designing a game. For example, Game Engine X cannot support aircraft speeds past 250 mph when using 1:1 scale. So either some creativity will be needed, such as changing the scale, writing up some fi ctional rea- sons as to why, or using descriptive words instead of numbers.\n\n  I believe that there are three choices: 1. Build the engine.\n\n  2. Take an open source engine or platform and build upon it.\n\n  3. License one.\n\n  Each choice has its pros and cons. Of the three, I recommend licensing one, even if on a budget that requires creativity. The rea- son for this is that building an engine or platform from scratch or from an existing one is a challenging endeavor that will take one to three (or more) years to complete. During that time, the engine may become severely out-of-date before it is completed. I recommend\n\n\n  taking this approach only if the team has the expertise to design, document, and develop a complex system. Licensing an engine or platform is the better choice, in my opinion, as another company is dedicated to only building that engine or platform.\n\n  If I may add to this, something that I have noticed with teams and companies is going for the best and most expensive engine or platform to use, which will then solve the majority of problems and the game will sell big. This is also assuming that multimillion- dollar funding (even at $2 million) is going to be easy to obtain. I consider this a mind trap, as every engine has its problems and quirks. Additionally, securing the funding to purchase such engines is rare, and best to start with an affordable one and get the project rolling.\n\n  Newman: Today, most games are fi nanced by a publisher, which\n\n  means that most independent studios work with an extremely constricted budget. How diffi cult is it for a studio to fi nance a game, much like a fi lm, by going through a bank?\n\n  Hamilton: It is diffi cult, no doubt about it, but securing funding\n\n  is should be thought of in terms of, “ Not if, but when. ” Stay posi- tive and keep going. If funding has not been secured by a certain period, then reassess why this has happened, make the needed changes, and keep going. Also, acquiring funding takes time and action; it will not happen without effort being made. From what I have experienced, it is best to fi nd a private investor (angel inves- tor) to gain the seed money to grow the game from a “ tech demo ” into a workable game, though not a full-blown environment. Funding by banks is unlikely to happen, in that banks generally only put in money at a dollar per dollar match. Thus if a studio needs $500,000, the bank will provide $250,000 only if the studio can supply the other $250,000. Venture capitalists generally are interested in projects above $5 million and want to see mainly two items: the experience of the management and the potential of the revenue generated from the idea.\n\n  Newman: Is the use of completion bonds getting widespread\n\n  attention at this point in the game industry? What about the use of “ gap fi nanciers ” ?\n\n  Hamilton: I can’t really say for the computer game industry, with\n\n  the use of bonds and gap fi nanciers as whole, but in terms of indie studios, there is not much widespread use. The diffi culties with a small game studio are about the same for a small fi lm studio— either a lack of cash available (or funding acquired) and the amount of experience. I believe that over time, the ability to obtain the fi nancing or bonds to ensure the completion of a game project by a small studio will become easier, as the gaming industry is a\n\n\n  growing entertainment market. We’re still in the early stages of the ability to blend games with fi lms.\n\n  Newman: Austin, Texas, has done a great job with implementing local incentives for game productions to get up and running there.\n\n  Right now, they are offering a grant equal to 5 percent of in-state spending, including wages paid to Texas residents and certain sales tax exemptions for game productions. Will we see more “ fi lm incentive ” –type programs in the future? Is this enough of an impact upon a game’s budget to warrant relocating a studio?\n\n  Hamilton: I think it is a given that fi lms and games will become\n\n  more integrated with each other, even to the point that the inter- active system (the game) affects how the fi lm turns out. The com- puter gaming industry is growing and has exceeded the fi lming industry (box offi ce, excluding DVD sales) and so it seems to make sense. Also, Web distribution allows for fi lms to be provided to the public; the diffi culty for such fi lms is to market to an audi- ence. A gaming community will help provide this targeted audi- ence for Web-distributed fi lms—especially if the fi lm is short and related to the game.\n\n  For the incentive for relocating to Austin … I think that does have a strong consideration. It is strong enough for me to recon- sider and investigate that possibility.\n\n  Newman: In your experience, what have been some of the best\n\n  marketing strategies involved with selling a game? How about the worst?\n\n  Hamilton: The best for us would be partnering up with The\n\n  Multiverse Network’s ( ) game portal system. We have been able to be part of the press releases of Multiverse, as well as attending game developer conventions. Multiverse provides a MMOG platform and also a portal. Although a portal with a listing of additional games might seem bring on more competition and detract potential users, I believe this to not be the case. Providing multiple games draws in more users, and those with great success will of course draw in more. Even though users may be playing another studio’s game, they may look over the list to fi nd one that is more of what they want, or when they do get bored with a particular game, they may move on over to another one. By being a developer with Multiverse, we have gained some recognition and a following.\n\n  For the worst strategy, we haven’t made a bad move yet in my opinion. Although being listed on a public gaming Web site, ( ) was risky, given that our level of graphics in the presenting screenshots looked dated, the results turned out decent. Sure, there was some criticism\n\n\n  given, but there are those gamers out there who are willing to look past the graphics to see how the game will play and its mechanics. I also took this risk to test the waters of the public, to be honest with the community, and to show that improvements are occurring. For example, here is the base-line level of graphics, and then some time later, here is another round of screenshots with graphical improvements.\n\n  Newman: Does the concept of “ crossing over ” into the fi lm, book,\n\n  and merchandise arenas come up when developing a new game concept? What kind of impact does it have concerning key devel- opment decisions?\n\n  Hamilton: “ Crossing over ” does have an infl uence in our design-\n\n  ing, which I would assume would be true for others. For novels and fi lms, there does need to be continuity with what is provided in fi lms, novels, and the game. For example, some game systems have the ability for characters to clone after death, thus avoiding death; but how does such a concept get portrayed in novels or fi lms? Often cloning is ignored, and deaths of characters occur; but yet characters can’t die permanently in the game?\n\n  The amount of impact in my opinion is strong, but in the game industry in general, it appears to not be a concern that the game system is done differently with fi lms and novels, and by so doing, heated debates occur with the fan base of the IP. What is seen in a fi lm or read in a book should be portrayed as close as possible within a game environment, and vice versa. Also the game envi- ronment of a MMO needs to change over time, hopefully in a dynamic way in which the actions of players have an impact. To maintain a static environment is much like having a theme park with rides that never changes. This doesn’t breathe in much new life into books or fi lms; this would cause a loss of interest with the fan base. Much interest would be generated if a person knew that what he or she was doing would have an impact with the game world, which in turn could be portrayed in a future book or fi lm ( “ Hey, that’s my character in the movie! ” ) would have a profound impact, I believe.\n\n  Merchandising is on the easier side for, say, clothes and fi gures. As MMOGs use 3D models, those models can be used for plastic models or fi gures. I would say the diffi culty with that is fi nding a good partner to work with and handle the selling of the merchan- dise; the rest is easy after that.\n\n  Newman: How accessible are publishers? How can a developer\n\n  maximize a pitch to them?\n\n  Hamilton: At fi rst, when starting our project, I thought that the\n\n  plan would be to create the documents, make a short presentation,\n\n\n  and then pitch the concept to publishers. After talking to a few publishers ’ representatives, I have found out that to win a deal with a publisher is tough for the following reasons: The team or company must have made about fi ve to eight games, therefore providing experience; the game idea must have the potential to sell a million copies; you must be willing to sign away the rights of your team’s IP to the publisher (that is, you no longer own the game, the story, and so on)—over 80 percent of the game design will be changed by the publisher; you must be willing to accept a cut of 10 to 20 percent of net sales (minus cost overheads and other things), with the low teens expected for the fi rst timers; and you must be willing to work on other projects by the publisher, as your project will be contracted out to other developer studios.\n\n  In all honesty, the best way to release a game is the self- publishing route. This is possible and profi table today, as elec- tronic distribution is gaining wide acceptance. The publishers ’ only form of control is through retail distribution, and successful titles no longer require retail distribution. Self-publishing is tough, but possible, and viral marketing through the Internet is not as diffi cult as it would seem. Gamers are Internet-savvy and use the Internet extensively.\n\n  Newman: What advice would you give a new studio trying to\n\n  compete with the “ big boys ” ?\n\n  Hamilton: Find a niche market or make the game fi t into a niche\n\n  market. “ Niche ” is not a bad word; niche marketing is how small companies compete with big companies. Go for a smaller tar- geted audience, which should prove to be more loyal than the mass-targeted audience.\n\n  MMOs are still young and can be made by a few people or a small team with a creative budget. It is possible and has been done. The group I work with is an example of it. Do not let others tell you that only big teams and millions of dollars are needed to make MMOs. “ Gone are the days of single programmers or small teams making games. ” I have heard and read that line of text since I owned a Commodore home computer in the 1980s, and yet games are being made by a single programmer or small teams to this day. A new MMO just needs one person, one idea to get it started. You’ve got to start somewhere—and never give up!\n\n\n14.1 Intellectual Property\n\n  The code, art, and other elements that make up a game are not tangible items like, say, a car. They are known as “ intellectual property ” (IP) . This goes for stories, concepts, and so on. A very specifi c branch of law deals with intellectual property and law- yers who specialize in it will be the folks to turn to when you dis- cuss publishing or distributing your game. Selling your game to a publisher means that you are also selling the IP involved with the game. All of this must be laid out in the contracts involved with publishing.\n\n  Another factor regarding IP in your game involves the individ- ual employees working for you. Make sure that it is written in\n\n  An example of character art developed for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.\n\n\n  their employee contracts that all IP made by them (code, art, and so on) belongs to the company. If you have not done this, you probably will not get a deal with a publisher—they will not want to deal with ownership issues down the line.\n\n  Contracts are just one way that intellectual property laws affect you. Piracy laws are also in place to make sure that your property is not stolen or improperly licensed. In addition to protecting you, IP law also protects others—you may have to license IP from other people as well. If you use other people’s music in your game or if you are basing your game on a book or movie, you will have to license that for your game. An attorney is the best person to make this happen.\n\n  Legally, one of the fi rst steps to take to protect your game is to fi le any copyrights or trademarks.\n\n14.2 Copyrights and Trademarks\n\n  Copyrights are used throughout the world to protect an original piece of work from being stolen or illegally used by someone else. They can be obtained for everything from books to music to pieces of art to programs. The main thing to understand about copyrights is that they can protect only tangible items. You cannot copyright an idea. This means that although you still have a great idea, it’s proba- bly not a good idea for a lot of people to know about it! Once you have created something from your idea, it is protected—and the good thing is, it’s protected right then. Registering your copyright is something that you should defi nitely do, but the law says that you are protected from the moment you have created your product.\n\n  When you are working on your independent game, make sure that everyone involved understands and assigns the copyright for the game to you (or the company). No publisher or distribution channel will take the time to consider your title if you do not pos- sess ownership of the game and all copyrights and trademarks involved.\n\n  Trademarks work a little differently than a copyright. Trademarks are usually identifying symbols, logos, or marks that represent your company or game. Once you have set up your company and come up with a suitable logo, you will brand your game with this logo— essentially giving it your stamp of ownership. By registering your trademarks for your company and game, you protect yourself from other people who may try to capitalize upon your name or prod- ucts. Make your logos distinguishable from similar names and con- cepts and to try to use uncommon spellings or words. As there are many different types of trademarks, research what category your items fall under before getting them registered.\n\n\n  Assassin’s Creed main character Altair is unique enough to require a trademark for merchandising purposes. Reproduced by permission of UbiSoft. All rights reserved.\n\n  Using trademarks and copyrights is one of the most basic ways\n\n   Development Tip\n\n  to protect your game from theft. Research use of copy protection\n\n  The United States\n\n  in your game so that it is diffi cult to copy and pirate. Though a\n\n  Patent and\n\n  school of thought regarding piracy is that it is free advertising\n\n  Trademark Offi ce\n\n  (and increases word-of-mouth buzz), just know you can take\n\n  has an offi cial Web site for\n\n  steps to protect your game (it will just take time and money that registering your trademark. could be spent on other areas of the game) .\n\n  Check th em out at http:// .\n\n14.3 Nondisclosure Agreements and Contracts\n\n  As mentioned earlier, keeping a lockdown on your concept is of the utmost importance early on in development. The most basic form, which you will get to know very well in this regard, is the Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA)—the agreement that swears everyone working on your project to secrecy. You will use this when discussing the title with potential employees, external ven- dors, and everyone at the company. The only hitch with using an NDA in the game industry is that publishers typically won’t sign one for you. When you begin the pitching process and working with distribution channels early on, you simply have to assume that they will keep your idea a secret. As mentioned previously, you are already protected by copyright (when your game is fi nished), so the chances of them stealing your idea and produc- ing a similar product are slim-to-none.\n\n  Also, once you have secured a publisher for your game, they may fl ip the script and want you to sign an NDA as well! This is\n\n\n  common practice and should not cause any concern. Much like you, they are concerned with keeping competition low and don’t want rival publishers to be aware of future products.\n\n  In addition to NDAs, work out a good standard consultant agreement with an attorney—but this doesn’t mean that the attorney is a consultant! It takes an attorney to actually draft a legally binding agreement for you to use. As you will have people working for you as a contractor or consultant (probably most of your employees), you need some sort of contract that basically states that all the work that the consultant does is owned by the developer (you). This document protects your IP from possible theft. Sometimes this is also known as a “ work for hire ” contract with a vendor or contractor.\n\n  Making sure you have a contract in place like this for every outside source for assets ensures that everything created belongs to you.\n\n14.4 Developer and Publisher Agreements\n\n  Contracts between you and a publisher usually center around the expectations that each of you have for the other. These expec- tations refl ect budget, schedule, and the minutia of every logisti- cal detail regarding the development of the game. Just as you will set a schedule for external parties to deliver assets to you on schedule, a publisher will also make similar demands upon you regarding the game. The most important part of the contract, though, will focus on the ownership of the intellectual property (the game).\n\n  In this area lies the major difference between a publisher and a distributor. A publisher will essentially purchase the game and pay you for developing the product, but in the end, the publisher owns the game. Your contract will basically oversee the transfer of the IP from you (the developer) to the publisher. As publishers already have distribution channels covered, they take care of get- ting your game on shelves, launching a marketing campaign, and doing all the little things that ensure a game’s success.\n\n  A pure distributor, however, only puts your game in stores or online for sales. Everything else will be up to you. If you are unable to make a deal with an established publisher, you will function as your own publisher (which means getting thousands of copies of your game duplicated if you intend to sell them in stores) and you will make a deal (or deals) with a distributor to circulate your game and track sales. Distributor deals focus mainly on percentages of sales that the distributor will get, locations for selling the product, and what level of distribution will take place.\n\n\n  Another of the many legal issues that you will face as a producer is the various contractors that work for you. Anyone that is not working directly for the company—everyone, if you are using the all-contractor business model—is a contractor. Contract artists, programmers, and so on will get your fi rst game produced. Every single contractor requires that a contract be negotiated and drawn up. Usually, these agreements are based on “ milestones ” that must be met by certain dates in order for the contractor to get paid.\n\n  An example of this contract could be for an animator who is developing ten different character models for the game. There would be a different character due every ten days—basically, mak- ing a schedule of ten milestones. Every time a character model gets turned in, that animator gets a milestone payment. Sometimes, the assets being developed are called “ deliverables ”. Either way, pay is based on performance, and all of this will be tracked as effi ciently as possible through your established pipeline.\n\n14.5 Covering the Bases\n\n  Sadly, the world of business law is a tangled jungle! We have not even scratched the surface of problems that can arise from illegal usage of licensing, end user license agreements, or the intricacies of negotiating contracts. Another legal form that you will defi nitely become familiar with is the “ release ”. Every actor you use must sign a release for you to use his or her image or voice in your product— this also goes for any locations that are real places (and private property). This is why a good game attorney is a must—if not in the early stages of setting up your company and getting your concept together, then for sure when you are in the hiring and negotiating phase of getting your game made.\n\n  Finishing an awesome, cinematic game like the newest Resident Evil title requires a lot of planning, work, and creativity. Reproduced by permission of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT\n\n  One of the most essential tasks of the producer is to become accustomed to negotiating. As mentioned in earlier chapters, developing your “ soft skills ” when dealing with people is just as important as keeping up on technological trends and current business practices. Negotiating the best possible deal on every single logistical aspect of your game will lower your bottom line and help guarantee the game’s completion.\n\n  Good luck!\n\n  Interview: Tom Buscaglia, Game Attorney Newman: What are some of the challenges involved with setting\n\n  up a new, independent video game company/studio?\n\n   Buscaglia: Well, I always emphasize that it is more important to\n\n  build a great studio than it is to build a great game. If you accom- plish the former, the latter will follow. So, the most important thing, in terms of both legal and business matters, for anybody starting a new studio is for them to understand that their goal is to develop a solid, enduring business model and a business that will allow them to make their great game. And that means estab- lishing a commitment to be serious about the success of their studio. Developers love the games they make, and I’m with them 100 percent on that, but they really need to learn to love the busi- ness part of it—at least enough to get the job done. And if they don’t, then they need to fi nd somebody else that does and work with them.\n\n  The startup developer should initially form some sort of busi- ness entity (and company or LLC [limited-liability company], for example) with the understanding that you can’t sell what you don’t own. So you need to set up something that’s going to own the game. The second element of the model is that you have to make sure that anybody who contributes any assets to the project you’re working on has legally conveyed all legal rights to those assets to the owning entity—whether it’s an LLC or company/ partnership. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to get an accountant, too, just to make sure that as you’re doing this you’re making your obligations to the government. You don’t want to get off the ground and realize that you now owe the government back taxes. You’ll just want to make sure you are in compliance with all employment regulations.\n\n  Newman: Are there any factors that apply specifi cally to setting\n\n  up a video game company that independent producers would not fi nd in generic business books?\n\n   Buscaglia: Two things. First, for the most part, the game industry\n\n  is royalty-based. Second, it is all about intellectual capital. The\n\n\n  record industry is the closest analogy to the fi rst issue, where the record company would advance a band the money needed to record and then recoup the money from royalties. Because of this, there should be some skill involved with approaching the negotiation stages of development. Of course, not all deals as royalty-based. There’s something very simple and wonderful about a work for hire deal where somebody pays you “ x ” amount of dollars to perform “ y ” amount of work, and when you’re done, you’re done. The royalty model is still the dominant one, because it requires a spreading of the risk and a lower initial investment. Many developers shy away from the straight “ work for hire ” deals, because they want to have all the upside potential income if they make a hit. The simple truth, though, is that the upside potential does not yield anything in 90 percent of the cases—or maybe more. I think way too many developers cut themselves to the bone to get a deal that’s not worth taking.\n\n  As far as intellectual capital goes, don’t confuse the goose with the golden egg. A top team of artists, programmers, and designers will lay lots of them. Too often, the unenlightened think that a great game franchise is where the value is, not in the team that created it. But it is all too common for a publisher to acquire a great franchise and then turn it over to an internal team that just does not have the passion or talent to pull it off. Whet they don’t get is that it was the team that made the initial franchise that was great, not the game!\n\n   Newman: What’s the best way then to set up your initial com-\n\n  pany? Is it fi ling a DBA and then incorporating later, or should you just set up an LLC from the get go?\n\n   Buscaglia: Although I am usually a great believer in the K.I.S.S. rule\n\n  (Keep It Simple, Stupid!), it may not be the best way to go here. A DBA is easier, and frankly simpler, but the administrative costs of setting up a DBA or setting up an S-Corp or an LLC are not sub- stantially different, and you’re going to be better off with a formal corporate entity in the long run. If nothing else, if you succeed, you will have much better control over self-employment taxes and social security—at least in the United States—which can have a huge impact. You can put yourself on a reasonable salary and take any other profi ts earned as distribution of profi ts and not have to pay social security taxes on the income. Another reason is that if you are switching from an S-Corp to a C-Corp , you won’t have to redo all the assignments of property. It’s nothing to setting up your company properly—you can go to a number of Web sites, such as, that will set up your company for you for around $300. If you can’t afford that, then you should probably not be trying to set up a company—you should be trying to fi nd a job.\n\n  Part 3 CREATING YOUR OWN CINEMATIC PROJECT Newman: You offer a similar package on your Web site ( http:// ), right?\n\n   Buscaglia: The GameDevKit that I developed years ago was in\n\n  response to what I saw as an incredible need after attending the Indie Games Conference. I had been doing custom contributor agreements for clients over the years. But after meeting with a number of startup independent developers, I realized that these guys couldn’t afford that, so I put together a package. There are articles in it about how to form a company, how to secure intel- lectual property—and the heart of it is a generic version of the Contributor Agreement and it is, in itself, worth way more than the $295—and there is a discount rate for ten hours of legal time, if they want to use it, which is even more valuable than the cost.\n\n  It is important that people understand the contributor agree- ment, though. It’s the legal vehicle for transfer of ownership of assets created for the game to the company or legal entity that’s going to own the game. Typically with a new game, a couple guys get together and say “ Hey, lets make a game, ” then they get somebody to do some coding, somebody to do some artwork, and then somebody gets some music that they downloaded from the Internet—they put it all together and they think the fi rst contract they’re going to look at is a publisher deal. That doesn’t work. Let’s say one of the guys who did some of the original character work graduates and moves away and then you have a publisher interested in your game and they ask, “ Do you own your IP? ” You’re pretty much dead, because you can’t use the guy’s artwork and you can’t fi nd him to get his writ- ten consent. You have to have some kind of written document that transfers that property to you—you can’t do it by handshake agree- ment or anything else. It has to be assigned in writing. I kept seeing that scenario coming up with really talented people, so that was what drove me to put together my package, as well as write the arti- cles that are available on my Web site.\n\n  Newman: How early in development should you be concerned\n\n  with protecting your game with the use of trademarks and copyrights?\n\n   Buscaglia: Well, copyrights are automatic; when you create an\n\n  original work, you have a copyright on it. It’s not enforceable until you register it, but the ownership or the creator or author in his or her works is automatic. Trademarks don’t come into play until you put something in the marketplace. You can reserve a trade- mark early on, but it’s a more expensive process. Trademark pro- tects your names and logos—or a specifi c character that’s important to the game. Usually this is done after the developer secures the funding for the game—or better yet, as you may well end up conveying the game to a publisher to secure your funding,\n\n\n  let them deal with that stuff. Chances are good that they’re going to change the name of the game anyway.\n\n  Newman: When you’re putting a new game together, the issue of\n\n  NDAs comes up a lot. How important is it to use these?\n\n  Buscaglia: Well, for an independent developer, there are really\n\n  two reasons to use them. The fi rst is to protect you from people stealing your ideas. The other reason is to qualify the highly con- fi dential material you are speaking about as a trade secret. You see, it is only protectable as a trade secret so long as you treat it as a trade secret. Once you tell an interested third party a trade secret, it’s not a trade secret any more. Then anyone with access to these materials can use them. So, just can tell anyone who doesn’t want to sign an NDA that it’s not about them. It’s about protecting your trade secret assets from any unscrupulous employees and contractors—and being able to enforce trade secret laws.\n\n  But, make sure that the NDA is just that; I recently had a client presented with an NDA that had a clause concerning use of his materials that included the words “ including exact copy ”, which made me think, “ If you can use the exact copy of what we are showing you without our having any recourse, where’s our pro- tection? ” There wasn’t any. So, at my suggestion my client blew them off. Right now, so many people are hungry for a deal that there’s a tradition of people getting screwed in the game industry. I’m doing my best to make sure that this is a historical anecdote in our industry instead of the way we do business.\n\n   Newman: Once you are working with a publisher as an indepen-\n\n  dent developer, what are some of the key bullet points to look for in a developer or publisher agreement?\n\n   Buscaglia: Well, this is a tough question, because it’s so broad.\n\n  There are hundreds of points to consider in every deal (remem- ber, that is how I make my living!). No startup developer is going to get a triple-A contract. It won’t happen. Nobody is going to give a new developer a $10 million deal to make a great game unless it’s a studio composed of industry veterans who have been pro- ducing triple-A games elsewhere else for ten or fi fteen years. The economic risk is too high.\n\n   Newman: What should a fi rst-time game producer expect then\n\n  from a deal?\n\n  Buscaglia: You should expect to get a deal that you can’t take\n\n  because it’s so bad. When publishers fund a project, generally they rate their value of their funding of a project at 35–36 percent of the total net revenue from sales and licensing of the game. In reality, the value of the funding is worth more like 22–24 percent\n\n\n  of the net revenue. In effect, the publisher is charging 50 percent more than the money’s worth to lend you the money! There are some other core issues to watch for: Does the deal involve the transfer of all intellectual property rights in the game?\n\n  Do you get a percentage of ancillary revenue related to the game, like sublicenses, hint books, and even movie deals? Do you retain the rights to your tools and technology or not? I have seen some contracts where not only did the publisher take all rights to the game and any sequels, they also obtained ownership of all tools and technologies used by the developer, or developed by the developer, in the process of building the game. As a result, the developer builds no long-term value in their studio. They don’t even retain the processes and procedures they used to develop the game to build their next title. Basically, you are an underpaid employee with no benefi ts.\n\n   Newman: So, at the very least, if you’ve created your own\n\n  proprietary game engine for your game, you should at least try to protect that.\n\n   Buscaglia: Yes, then you retain the rights to that and the rights to exploit that you can begin to build long-term value in your studio.\n\n  And if you are able to license your technology, you get the addi- tional royalties and license fees associated with its use by third- party studios. In addition, there are a lot of other delicate points to watch for—especially with second-tier publishers or quasi- publishers that don’t really do anything but provide some funding and have contacts around the world. With these guys, you sign a deal with them, then they advance you money on the game and they get worldwide rights. They don’t distribute anywhere—they sublicense the game to other publishers, like a European pub- lisher—then they get an advance and 30 percent of the royalties. Because your deal is probably 20 percent of sales with them, you are essentially getting 20 percent of their 30 percent, which is only about 6 percent of wholesale! These distributors offer nothing in the realm of marketing, but they benefi t from simply having busi- ness connections. The developer should also always look for ancil- lary income—what I call the “ lunch box bonus ” .\n\n   Newman: You mean merchandising? Buscaglia: Merchandising. Movie deals. You can usually get addi-\n\n  tional potential revenue through those avenues, if you have the sense to ask for it. I usually push for a 50/50 deal in those areas.\n\n   Newman: So, is it more advantageous for a fi rst-time producer to\n\n  look at alternative means of distribution—like digital distribution or online distribution through their own site rather than a\n\n\n  publisher? Is it better for a person to use alternative channels for their fi rst game?\n\n   Buscaglia: Absolutely, 100 percent, yes. Direct digital distribution\n\n  of your game can yield as high as a 60–70 percent royalty to the developer. And that is based on retail price, not on a net whole- sale less the cost of goods (COGS). This is in contrast to a tradi- tional publisher deal, which is probably going to be 20 percent. And if your publisher does the same thing (goes to a digital distri- bution channel with your game), they are going to get the 60–70 percent, and you’ll just get the 20 percent of that. Do the math; that’s 12 percent instead of 60 percent. Quite a bite for just setting up the deal with the online distributor!\n\n  I recommend that people get the digital distribution fi rst. You may still need what is referred to as brick-and-mortar or retail distribution for other reasons (people still want a product in boxes). But, it’s nice to have the digital distribution fi rst, because you can then tell the brick-and-mortar publisher that you can’t give them the legal rights to the IP because you already have a contract with somebody else that ties it up. But in order to do that, you will have to be able to independently fund your game without a publisher.\n\n  In this regard, the independent fi lm industry model can be really helpful, because if we can separate the funding from the publishing, like Hollywood has with independent production companies, it would have a positive effect on the quality that we see in games and greatly benefi t developers. The only problem is, you can get a bond for a movie, but try and do it for a game. As far as I know these sorts of bonded deal structures are just starting to become available.\n\n  Moreover, the revenue models for the game industry don’t look that good—10 percent of the games make 90 percent of the money. Then 20 percent of the games make 95 percent of the money! That means 80 percent of the games don’t make money, which means the chances of a game recuperating development costs are less than 50/50—and even if they succeed, the chances of getting any kind of return of investment that angel or venture capital investors are looking for is almost nonexistent.\n\n  Newman: At what stage should a studio look at getting legal\n\n\n   Buscaglia: As soon as they can afford it. I’ve seen too many situa-\n\n  tions where it would have been cheaper to hire me early on and to do things right, than for them to hire me later and have to pay more to me to clean everything up. It’s a real, “ pay me now or pay me more later ” sort of industry. Part of it is the fact that startup developers just may not have the money to pay counsel when\n\n\n  they need them, so they want to wait until later. But even if they have to do it that way, there’s a ton of information available on the internet. I’ve done articles for Gamasutra that are also on my blog ( ) concerning legal issues in the game industry. Also, the IGDA has a lot of materials in the business and legal forum, where we answer legal questions for developers.\n\n  Finally, when you are getting juniored in your fi rst negotiation and somebody says, “ That’s just the way it’s done in the industry ”, don’t believe them! Every deal is a new deal and every deal is a fresh deal. It may be the way they do things, but if they cannot provide a rational basis for any deal point in a contract, then it should not be in there. And, “ That’s just the way thing are done, [rookie] ” is not a good enough reason … ever.\n\n\n  Rather than being any kind of all-inclusive manual for creating cinematic games, I hope that this book will serve as a jumping-off point for you. With game developers and publishers out there already starting to tap into the vast sea of fi lmmaking techniques for their games (just check out all the screenshots in this book), the promise of future cinematic games is at an all-time high. I hope that young producers and creative directors (as well as game designers) will utilize all the awesome fi lmmaking books and Web sites out there that focus on great storytelling, cinema- tography, character development, and directing (there are many available on the Focal Press Web site, http://www.focalpress. com ). Just remember that when you make a cinematic game, you do not have to take anything away from game play. When using this book, or any other fi lmmaking or game design book, great features, a fun interface, and awesome game play are a must for any truly successful game. The strategies and techniques featured in this book should assist you in your quest to make your game more immersive and more rewarding and to broaden your game’s potential for crossover development.\n\n  In closing, I would like to say that the creation of this book would not have been possible without all the help I received from Focal Press (specifi cally Laura Lewin, Georgia Kennedy, and Chris Simpson), the interviewees contained within these pages (special thanks to Ray Pena), and the contributions I received from the game developers and publishers who supplied me with the won- derful screenshots herein, which are so indicative of the type of development I discuss. I would also like to thank Lee Ann Newman, Scott Biggs, and Elsevier Publishing. Your support was instrumental in the completion of this book. Thank you all!\n\n  This page intentionally left blank\n\nDokumen baru\n\nDownload (243 Halaman)\n\n\nCasual Game Design Ebook Free Download Drawing Morals Ebook Free Download Helldribble Ebook Free Download Pdf The Honey Connoisseur Ebook Free Download Honey Bee Hobbyist Ebook Free Download Beekeeping In California Ebook Free Download Honey Bbq Recipes Ebook Free Download Postmortems Form Gamedeveloper Ebook Free Download Games That Sell Ebook Free Download Taste Of Honey Ebook Free Download\nShow more", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5623468160629272}
+{"content": "Olivia’s Story – Homophones\n\nThere are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. They are called homophones. In the written language, spelling a homophone correctly is important to convey the desired meaning. Take the sentence, “I see the mountains beyond the sea.” Mix the words see or sea up and the sentence has no meaning when reading it. In the spoken language, words take meaning through context rather than spelling.\n\nAliy Zirkle’s dog, Olivia has written a story using many homophones. Can you select the correct word to give the correct meaning to sentences in the story?\n\nOlivia’s Story\n\nI finished to-two-too 1,000 miles races in 2013. I won-one the Yukon Quest with Allen Moore. I ran Iditarod too-to-two with Aliy Zirkle. They’re-their-there both disappointed Aliy didn’t win Iditarod. I can tell you many tales-tails of the trails. In bad whether-weather my knows-nose knows-nose where-ware-wear the trail is. When the wind blew-blue the snow over the trail and my musher couldn’t sea-see the markers, I found the trail by scent-cent-sent. Running through-threw the Farewell Burn, we often hear-here IAF planes-plains overhead in the bright blew-blue sky. At every checkpoint I get knew-new booties to ware-wear-where. Allen and Aliy put on a dry pair-pare-pair of socks to help keep their-there-they’re feet toasty warm. The finish line is in Nome. When we get they’re-their-there we get steak-stake and the mushers get a pair-pear-pare to snack on.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996719360351562}
+{"content": "Organizational Constellations: An Expanded  Constellation Training with Volker Frank, Executive Coach\n\nNovember 23-24, 2019  |  9:30am - 4:30pm\n\ndoor knocker surrounded with gold light, for family constellation facilitator trainingEvery group—be it a team, department or company—organizes around its structures, processes and relationships to produce predictable outcomes. In fact, every organization is perfectly designed to create exactly the experiences and outcomes it is already getting. One of the most vexing challenges is to figure out how to influence these self-organizing dynamics to create better outcomes and engaging work environments where people thrive.\n\nOrganizational Constellations can help us realign teams, resolve conflicts, restart stalled initiatives, resolve cross-functional tensions, and rescue projects. In this training, we use Organizational Constellations to gain deeper insights into organizational dynamics. And we use your specific work situations to identify which leadership actions have the greatest power to create movement.\n\nIn the course of a constellation, participants get a direct experience in clear terms of the prevailing perceptions\n(such as trust/mistrust), the dominant concerns (such as\nlack of reciprocity), and where individuals and groups direct their attention.\n\n•  Participants also learn about their role in the current dynamic and how to participate in the change they desire.\n\n•  Participants often experience a great sense of clarity and strength after a constellation that allows them to confidently take the next steps.\n\nRegistration: $400\n\n*Registration is included for members of the Expanded Constellation Learning Group or Facilitator Training Group.\n\nGuest Facilitator Volker Frank\n\nVolker Frank, executive coach and systemic constellation facilitator\nVolker Frank.\n\nVolker Frank is passionate about the development of highly functioning organizations that adapt fluidly and effortlessly to changing conditions and priorities. He supports businesses in meeting their financial objectives while promoting personal well-being.\n\nHe has 12 years of consulting experience in the high-tech sector where he has worked across industries and businesses of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Understanding systemic dynamics that operate outside of everyday awareness has had a tremendous impact on his work!\n\nVolker provides management consulting and coaching to leaders and management teams to amplify their effectiveness. Learn more at", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9511388540267944}
+{"content": "Pregnancy-adapted algorithm avoids diagnostic imaging for PE\n\n(HealthDay)—A pregnancy-adapted algorithm can safely avoid diagnostic imaging in a proportion of pregnant women with suspected pulmonary embolism, according to a study published in the March 21 issue of the New England ...\n\nDiseases, Conditions, Syndromes\n\nWhen to treat varicose veins\n\n(HealthDay)—About half of the population will one day have a vein problem.\n\n\nSix surprising drug interactions you should know about\n\nAs the UK population grows older, more and more people are using a combination of drugs to treat multiple conditions. This can lead to interactions and side effects that we all need to be aware of.\n\n\nResidual vein obstruction down with compression after DVT\n\n(HealthDay)—The likelihood of residual vein obstruction (RVO) is reduced with immediate compression after diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis, according to a study published online Sept. 24 in Blood.\n\n\nHeight may be risk factor for varicose veins, study finds\n\n\npage 1 from 16\n\nDeep vein thrombosis\n\n\n\nAccording to Virchow's triad, venous thrombosis occurs via three mechanisms: decreased flow rate of the blood, damage to the blood vessel wall and an increased tendency of the blood to clot (hypercoagulability). Several medical conditions can lead to DVT, such as compression of the veins, physical trauma, cancer, infections, certain inflammatory diseases and specific conditions such as stroke, heart failure or nephrotic syndrome. There are several factors which can increase a person's risk for DVT, including surgery, hospitalization, immobilization (such as when orthopedic casts are used, or during long-haul flights, leading to economy class syndrome), smoking, obesity, age, certain drugs (such as estrogen or erythropoietin) and inborn tendencies to form clots known as thrombophilia (for example, in carriers of factor V Leiden). Women have an increased risk during pregnancy and in the postnatal period.\n\nThe most commonly used tests for the diagnosis of DVT are a blood test called D-dimers and doppler ultrasound of the affected veins. Sometimes, further testing is required to find the cause of the DVT. In specific cases, an attempt can be made to break down the clot (using thrombolytic agents). To prevent further accrual and formation of new clots with a risk of pulmonary embolism, anticoagulation (blood thinners) is advised (if not possible, an inferior vena cava filter may be used). Prevention of DVT is advised in many medical and surgical inpatients using anticoagulants, graduated compression stockings (also known as thromboembolic deterrent stockings) or intermittent pneumatic compression devices.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9892417788505554}
+{"content": "\n\nMuscular Strength/Endurance and Flexibility Essay\n\nMuscular strength and endurance are measures of muscular fitness. Muscular strength is the maximal force generated by a specific muscle or muscle group at a specified velocity. Muscular endurance is the ability to maintain a submaximal force (i.e pushup tests). Muscular strength tests can be divided into 2 basic types. Dynamic strength the force generated by concentric, eccentric, or isokinetic contraction (i.e. 1 repetition maximum). The speed of movement is often not controlled in these measurements. Static strength measures the force generated by muscles during an isometric contraction. During an isometric contraction there is no shortening of the muscle and no joint movement.Muscular fitness testing is plagued by problems of standardization techniques to quantify muscular fitness due to types of muscle contraction (concentric vs eccentric), changes in force with respect to joint angle, and speed of contraction. The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have tried to address these problems by standardizing muscular strength tests. However, the present normative and standard data relating to muscular fitness are invalid, unreliable and/or outdated.A new approach to assess muscular fitness and endurance is isokinetic testing. Isokinetic testing can be used to assess muscular strength through a range of motion at a constant velocity. The equipment measures rotational force, torque, generated. Torque refers to a rotational force that is applied about an axis. It is equal to the force applied to lever and measured in foot-pounds or Newton-meters.Torque = Force x lever arm distance (units are Ft-Lbs or Nm)The ability to generate muscular force is dependent on the velocity of the contraction (Figure 1). The greatest force a muscle can produce is at low velocities. Therefore, as velocity increases the amount of force generated is decreased. This relationship is also related to the power (F x D/T) whereas: low power is generated by low force and high velocity: moderate velocity and moderate force generate greatest power: and low velocity and high force generate the low power (Figure 2). At low velocities (30-60� per sec), isokinetic testing can measure strength (force). At moderate velocities, it can assess muscular endurance (ability to sustain contractions) and at high velocities it can quantify muscular power (force generated over time).Figure 1: Force versus velocityFigure 2: Power versus velocityAthletes with higher percentage of type II fibers are able to generate more force at higher velocities (power) versus those with slower type I fibers. Also the fatigue rate during repetitive contractions at certain velocities can be used to indirectly determine fiber type distribution. Humans with a greater percentage of type II fibers (fatigue prone) will have a greater fatigue rate than type I fibers (fatigue resistant). It also appears that muscle can be trained (specificity of training) to generate more power at higher velocities. In most team sports, power is the most crucial variable in terms of explosive athletic performance but is often ignored by coaches and athletes.Another important component of physical fitness testing is flexibility. Flexibility is the maximum ability to move a joint through a range of motion. Flexibility is dependent on a number of factors including muscle temperature, muscle blood flow and prior exercise. It is also dependent on physical activity and age. Physical activity appears to be the most important determinant of flexibility. Physical inactivity results in the shortening of connective tissue and results in the loss of ROM about a joint. Age also plays a factor due to loss of elastic properties of the connective tissue and decrease in physical activity. However, flexibility can be improved due to physical inactivity and/ or age with a flexibility exercise program.Flexibility is specific to the movement of the joint. Therefore, flexibility in one area does not represent whole body flexibility. Flexibility can be measured by a number of means including goniometers, flexometers, and inclinometers which measure the ROM. The most popular flexibility measure in the health and fitness setting is the sit and reach test. The sit and reach test measures the flexibility of the trunk indirectly by measuring how far one can reach while sitting down. It is often used to assess the potential for lower back pain but research indicates it correlates poorly with low back flexibility. The rationale for this is unproven and has not been demonstrated (ACSM, 1995)The purpose of this laboratory is to become familiar with testing of muscular fitness (muscular endurance, static and isokinetic) testing and become proficient in measuring lower trunk flexibility.Procedures:Muscular FitnessIsokinetic (Lido)1) Isokinetic testing will be performed on all subjects at speeds corresponding to 60, 180 and 240 degrees per sec2) Each individual will perform 3-5 maximum knee extension contractions at the various speeds3) Record your peak torque for each three speeds: slow (60�), moderate (180�) and fast (240�)4) Record values on board for each individualStatic Strength (hand dynamometer)1) Isometric hand grip strength will be administered2) Adjust hand grip width of the hand dynamometer so it fits comfortably.3) Have the subject stand erect with arms relaxed and by the sides4) Place hand dynamometer in hand with dial facing outward5) Have subject squeeze hand dynamometer as hard as possible while keeping the arm immobile6) Repeat 3 times record best effortDynamic muscular endurance (push up test)1) For males, assume standard push up position with back straight, head up, hands placed shoulder width apart2) Place your fist on the floor below and count the number of repetitions performed by the number of times the chest touches your fist3) For females, modify the standard push up position by having them kneel with their knees bent at 90� with ankles crossed.4) There is no criteria for completing a push up do not place hands below chest5) Count the number of consecutive repetitions performed without restFlexibility – Modified sit and reach1) Perform a moderate warm-up2) The test should be performed with a smooth movement and during exhalation3) Have subject remove shoes and sit with back flat against a wall4) Place the end of the sit and reach against their feet5) The heel should be placed about 10-12 inches apart and feet should flat against the side of the sit and reach box6) Have subject reach as far forward with back flat against wall record the position with a meter ruler as zero7) The participant should slowly reach forward with the hands parallel and reach as far forward as possible with minimal discomfort. Be sure to keep hands on yardstick and knees stay extended.8) The maximum reach as measured by the ruler is the score. Repeat test 3 times. The best trial is used to assess the individual flexibility9) Make sure to instruct the patient to not hold breath or not to stretch to where it is causing undue pain.10) Refer to table for normative data.Data Analysis1) Make a table of all your results and compare them to norms.2) When appropriate interpret absolute and relative norms3) Graph the peak torque versus speed for the isokinetic testDiscussion (Please read Ch 7 & 8 , pages 150, 399-402)1) Which test measures muscular fitness the best? Are the values for each muscular testconsistent? Why? Can muscular fitness be assessed by one test?2) Based on your graph, at what velocity do you develop the most force? At this velocity doyou also reach peak power? Why?3) How would you use this knowledge to train an athlete competing in a team sport? You canchoose any team sport to answer this question.4) How much potential does a sprinter have who can run the 100 yd dash in 17.0 secs? Why?What sport might this individual excel at? Why?5) Is the sit and reach test a valid measure of your flexibility? Why is stretching an important component of an exercise program? Are there other ways to improve your flexibility without stretching?\n\nHow to cite this page\n\nChoose cite format:\n\nMuscular Strength/Endurance and Flexibility. (2019, Jun 20). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-essay-muscular-strength-endurance-and-flexibility/\n\nWe will write a custom paper sample onMuscular Strength/Endurance and Flexibilityspecifically for you\n\nfor only $16.38 $13.9/page\nOrder now\n\n\nNo results found for “ image\nTry Our service\n\nHi, I am Colleen from Paperap.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9108307361602783}
+{"content": "Earth is a spaceship, and the Amazon is a crucial part of our life-support system. Here's why we need the world's largest rainforest.\n\namazon rainforest fishingFrancisco da Silva Vale (L), 61, and his son Hercules navigate during a fishing session at Vila Nova do Amana community in the Sustainable Development Reserve, in Amazonas state, Brazil, September 23, 2015.Bruno Kelly/Reuters\n\nThe Amazon rainforest is burning: Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠- nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone, mostly lit by people clearing land for crops and grazing.\n\nDavid Sirota, a political commentator who writes speeches for Bernie Sanders, put the problem like this in a tweet: \"We're all on a spaceship hurtling through a vacuum. The Amazon rainforest is our spaceship's life support system. Our spaceship's life support system is on fire.\"\n\nIt's a fitting analogy, since the Amazon plays a major role in many of the processes that make our planet habitable: water cycles, weather patterns, and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The rainforest is also home to more than 30 million people and over 10% of the world's biodiversity. Scientists see potential for new medicines in unstudied Amazon plants.\n\nThe more than 2.5 million square miles of Amazon rainforest are also one of our greatest buffers against the climate crisis, since the trees absorb carbon dioxide, thereby keeping it out of the atmosphere.\n\nBut deforestation threatens all of that. Humans have cut down nearly 20% of the Amazon in the last 50 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). If another 20% of the Amazon disappears, that could trigger a \"dieback\" scenario in which the forest would dry out and become a savannah. That process would release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and raise global temperatures.\n\namazon rainforest fires farmerA man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil August 20, 2019.Bruno Kelly/Reuters\n\nHere is what's at risk if we lose the Amazon.\n\nThe 'lungs of the planet'\n\nThe Amazon helps keep the atmosphere's carbon-dioxide levels in check.\n\nPlants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air through the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon is often referred to as the \"lungs of the planet\": It's estimated to produce between 6% and 20% of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.\n\namazon forest stretches for milesReuters\n\nResearchers have calculated that the Amazon holds up to 140 billion tons of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of 14 decades' worth of human emissions.\n\n\"The Amazon is a major bank of carbon,\" Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, told Vice. \"When trees gets burned and carbon is released into the atmosphere, that exacerbates our global warming.\"\n\nFires aside, deforestation in the Amazon already releases half a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to WWF.\n\nLast month, the Amazon saw record-breaking rates of deforestation, primarily due to infrastructure projects, logging, mining, and farming - much of which is not legal. Data from Brazilian satellites have indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees are falling every minute.\n\nAn anchor for weather patterns\n\namazon water swimming brazilA man swims with his kid on the waters of the Parana do Amana river at Vila Nova do Amana community in the Sustainable Development Reserve, in Amazonas state, Brazil, September 22, 2015.Bruno Kelly/Reuters\n\nA 2018 report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that tropical deforestation disrupts the water cycle so much that it can threaten agriculture halfway around the globe.\n\n\"Tropical forest loss is having a larger impact on the climate than has been commonly understood,\" the report authors wrote.\n\nThe Amazon plays a large role in rain patterns because the moisture that its vegetation traps and releases travels as clouds for thousands of miles.\n\nClimate models show that the Amazon's moisture affects rainfall as far away as the US. If the Amazon were completely deforested, that would cut Texas rainfall by 25%, cut the Sierra Nevada snowpack in half, and reduce precipitation by up to 20% in the US coastal northwest.\n\nFor that reason, large-scale deforestation in the Amazon can \"pose a substantial risk to agriculture in key breadbaskets halfway around the world in parts of the US, India, and China,\" according to the WRI report.\n\narapaima pirarucu amazon solimoes riverVillagers from the Rumao Island community paddle their canoes loaded with arapaima or pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish species in South America and one of the largest in the world, while fishing in a branch of the Solimoes river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, in the Mamiraua nature reserve near Fonte Boa about 600 km (373 miles) west of Manaus, November 24, 2013.REUTERS/Bruno Kelly\n\nThe Amazon may also play a role in ocean currents, since the Amazon River accounts for over 15% of all fresh water that enters the oceans. Changes in the ocean's balance of fresh water and salt water can slow down or speed up ocean currents, which regulate weather across the globe.\n\nBut scientists aren't yet sure how changes in the Amazon River would affect this complicated meteorological system.\n\nDegradation of the rainforest could also affect the biology of the Atlantic Ocean in unknown ways, since the Amazon River dumps debris from the forest into the Atlantic, and those nutrients feed phytoplankton that form the base of the ocean's food chain.\n\nBiodiversity that 'brims with promise' for new medicines\n\namazon rainforest medicine plants cancerBrazilian researchers inspect plants to study in the search for new cancer drugs in Sao Sebastiao de Cuieiras near the Cuieiras river in the Brazil's Amazon rain forest October 30, 2009.Sergio Moraes/Reuters\n\nThe Amazon is home to at least 10% of the world's known biodiversity - and that's just the life that we know about. A new species is discovered in the Amazon every two or three days.\n\n\"Every species in this incredibly biodiverse system represents solutions to a set of biological challenges - any one of which has transformative potential and could generate global human benefits,\" ecologist Thomas Lovejoy told the World Bank. \"This rich wealth of species brims with promise, awaiting discovery.\"\n\nPeople have used Amazonian plants to produce anti-cancer drugs and the first anti-malarial drug, quinine. Yet scientists estimate that they have only studied 0.5% of the world's flowering plants for their medicinal potential.\n\nAmazon forest aerial rainbow BrazilA rainbow is seen over a tract of Amazon rainforest which has been cleared by loggers and farmers for agriculture, near the city of Uruara, Brazil on April 22, 2013.Nacho Doce/Reuters\n\nThe rich array of species in the Amazon are crucial to the rainforest's other functions, too.\n\nThe South American trees that absorb the most carbon dioxide rely on large birds and primates to eat their fruits and spread the large seeds inside, according to a recent WWF report. Thick vines also hold up the structures of the trees whose leaves send water vapor into the atmosphere. And a variety of animals pollinate forest plants, disperse seeds, and nourish the soil with their waste.\n\n\"Amazon biodiversity also plays a critical role as part of global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle and thus climate change,\" Lovejoy said.\n\nAdd Comment()\nComments ()\nSort By:\nBe the first one to comment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8080096244812012}
+{"content": "Stress and Coping\n\n\nWhat is stress? Stress is something we talk about and ‘manage’ all of the time, but it can be challenging to precisely define for some people. Stress is simply a challenge to meet either an internal or external demand. Stress can be a painful emotion like sadness or fear when we face the death of a loved one. Stress can also occur when we are running late to an important meeting or have difficulties meeting the demands of our various or conflicting roles. When people discuss ‘stress’ they are typically talking about ‘distress’ or the negative side (or right side of the curve below) of the stress continuum. This is the type of stress that is uncomfortable or painful and leads to worsened performance (e.g., lower grades, decreased productivity, concentration problems, etc.). However, there is another type of stress known as eustress, which receives less attention. This type of stress is motivating and helps us do better. Eustress is recommended for those who are under-motivated or under-performing to their potential. Increases in eustress can lead to improved performance and higher functioning in these situations. Difficulties arise, however, when someone applies pressure to another person to increase performance due to a mistaken belief that they could benefit from eustress. For example, someone with an undisclosed anxiety issue at work might appear to be ‘slacking off’ and their supervisor decides to confront these avoidance behaviors with goal of improving performance only to find that the problems worsen because the employee was actually experiencing distress rather than eustress. See the following curve for a visual representation. Eustress is on the left side incline leading up to optimal performance (green leading to yellow) whereas distress is on the right side decline leading away from optimal performance (yellow leading to blue).\n\nstress and performance curve with eustress and distress.jpg\n\n\n            What are common sources of stress? Many people think of unwanted events in life as stressful. For example, an unwanted job termination or being laid off, a relationship difficulty, or an unexpected financial obligation can be stressful. However, stress is also associated with positive life events and changes. Getting married. Moving to college. Retirement. These are life experiences that many people look forward to for years, yet they come with their fair share of stress. Do you know of anyone who had a stress-free wedding?\n\n            There are several negative impacts of stress. Some are physical like sleep disruption, unwanted appetite and weight changes, medical illness, and fatigue or loss of energy. Other consequences of stress are emotional such as helplessness, hopelessness, irritability, etc. Cognitive symptoms of stress include concentration problems, memory deficits, difficulties talking, and over-focusing on worst case scenarios. Lastly, stress can lead to behavioral indications like social withdrawal, changes in hygiene or appearance, low motivation, or substance use. These indications of stress can lead to decreased functioning at work or school, problems in relationships with close friends or family members, and reduced quality of life overall. However, there are many options to deal with stress to minimize the negative impact.\n\n\nWhen people face stressors and difficult times, there are two basic ways of approaching how to deal with the situation. If the person has some control and power with the issue or outcome, problem-focused coping might be recommended. This is when someone attempts to change the situation and can include problem solving, making a decision, taking action, changing something about their approach, etc. This type of coping is traditionally associated with masculinity, but is something we all engage in regardless of our gender identification. For those socialized in more traditional gender value systems, boys and men might have more opportunities to learn problem-focused coping. Examples of stressors that might benefit from a problem-focused coping strategy include relationship difficulties (where one focuses on what they can do differently to improve the relationship or decide to leave it), job dissatisfaction, under-assertiveness, or goals for self-improvement like exercise, eating healthier, and avoiding harmful substances.\n\nSome clients seek therapy for solutions to their stressors and prefer a problem-focused approach. This often involves a clear definition of the problem and the history of the stressor as well as past problem-solving efforts for similar difficulties. Areas of power/control are assessed in order to understand which options are available. For example, some clients come to therapy for help with their sleep habits when they are ready to make a change. See more about Sleep Hygiene in an earlier blog post. Other clients seek treatment to deal with problems in communication or dissatisfaction with people in their family or with whom they work. These clients might be looking to make a change in these relationships or how they approach communication (e.g., becoming more appropriately assertive). Some common problem-focused coping stress management strategies include:\n\n·         Eating healthier meals consistently\n\n·         Improving sleep habits\n\n·         Exercising\n\n·         Reducing use of harmful substances\n\nFor more information on Physical Self-Care-see this earlier blog post.\n\n·         Changing job situations\n\n·         Making new social connections\n\n·         Time management-see more information by clicking here\n\n·         Organization\n\n·         Relaxation strategies\n\n·         Improving communication within relationships\n\n            The other approach to managing stress is emotion-focused coping which often helps a person deal with the associated emotions and thoughts about the stress. This does not change the situation, as some people mistakenly hope, but rather one’s mental approach to the situation. I recommend emotion-focused coping for stressors in which the person has very little or no control of the situation or outcome. Some examples might include the death of a loved one, an unwanted job change, and health/medical concerns. This approach is traditionally associated with femininity especially for those with more traditional socializations, but can apply equally regardless of gender. Traditionally socialized girls and women may default to using emotion-focused coping due to experience and familiarity.\n\n            Many of my clients come to me when their usual problem-focused coping strategy no longer works. This might be the first time they have experienced a stressor in which they had little or no power or control, or they may not be used to emotion focused coping. Instead of trying to change the situation, emotion-focused coping focuses on helping the person deal with the emotional impact of the stressor in healthy ways. I often hear people ask why they should discuss their past experiences, since they are unable to change the past. While this is true about our inability to change the past, it indicates an over-focus on problem-focused strategies. I counter with an explanation about how discussing past experiences within a safe and trusting therapeutic (or other) relationship can reduce the impact and influence (conscious or not) those past experiences have on one’s emotions, thoughts, and functioning.\n\n            Taking emotion-focused coping one step further, I often use a container analogy with my clients. Imagine that everyone has an ‘emotional container’ within them. These containers are different sizes. Some people have rather large containers whereas others have much smaller spaces. As we have experiences and emotional reactions to those experiences we can choose to express that/those emotion(s) and move on with life. On the other hand, we might choose to ‘stuff’ that feeling in our container to deal with it later (healthy in many situations) or ignore it completely (usually unhealthy in the long-term). There can be many reasons to not deal with our in-the-moment emotions. We might be in a situation where it is necessary to appear non-emotional to prevent judgment from others or get through a situation that needs a problem-focused approach. However, when a person repeatedly ‘stuffs’ their feelings in their emotional container without dealing with or processing those feelings later, the container eventually gets full. When a container is full, a couple of things can occur. First, this is when people typically start experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression that bring them into treatment. Second, there is no more room in the container for new emotions, so a person is forced to begin dealing with their feelings, which can be daunting to those unfamiliar with the process.\n\nlike this truck that is too full our emotional containers can get overwhelmingly full.jpg\n\n            In addition to talk therapy, some common emotion-focused coping strategies include:\n\n·         Social support-talking with a trusted and empathic friend or family member\n\n·         Journaling-focus on the process of emotional expression rather than the content of what is written\n\njournaling can be a great way to express emotions.jpg\n\n·         Music-important that the feeling of the music fits the emotion experienced by the person\n\n·         Positive self-talk-changing internal interpretations about one’s self in relation to experiences, especially patterns of repeated experience.\n\n·         Art\n\n·         Dance\n\nI encourage clients to schedule time for emotion-focused coping and to follow it with some form of self-soothing or comfort behavior. Often I will start with helping clients develop new comfort behaviors so that they will have many options to choose from and feel confident in their abilities to relieve themselves emotionally after the fatigue that sometimes comes with emotional expression. This also acts as a reward to help reinforce the use of emotion-focused coping strategies. When clients are unable to think of self-soothing or comfort strategies, I ask them to consider what they do with themselves when sick with a cold or the flu. Another option is to ask clients what they notice other people do to take care of themselves. Common examples of self-soothing and comfort behaviors include:\n\n·         Taking a walk\n\n·         Hot shower/bath\n\n·         Reading\n\n·         Watching television\n\n·         Music that does not fit the emotion expressed\n\n·         Time with friends\n\n·         Petting a dog or another pet\n\nYounger version of Dasher\n\nYounger version of Dasher\n\nCurrent Dasher\n\nCurrent Dasher\n\n·         Exercise and sports\n\n·         Comfort items like a soft blanket or a favorite sweater\n\n·         Cooking\n\n·         Video games\n\n·         Family time\n\n·         Some people even enjoy cleaning!\n\nI warn clients that there are some harmful and unhealthy comfort strategies to be avoided. Spending too much time online, impulse shopping, and harmful substance use are some common examples. Be sure that your comfort strategies are healthy and not over-used.\n\nIf you or someone you know has a stressor(s) and need assistance with either problem-focused or emotion-focused coping (followed by self-comfort strategies), give me a call at 405-614-2846 to get started.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998586177825928}
+{"content": "Maxillo-facial surgery\n\nMaxillo-facial surgery is a specialty within ear, nose and throat medicine. Specialists perform surgery on the ears, nose, paranasal sinuses, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, salivary glands, throat and the adjacent areas of the skull base and face. This includes microsurgery, endoscopic surgery, oncological surgery and reconstructive surgery. Laser techniques are also used.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9006527662277222}
+{"content": "Perforated Metal applications\n\nThanks to their high-strength, resilient material properties and their design-oriented visual appearance, perforated metal sheets are an outstanding building material for a wide range of different sectors, whether they are used as screens, façades, wall panelling, furniture, designer objects, sunscreens, balustrades, ceiling panelling, noise protection, screens for counters or bars, partitions, in trade fair stands or shop fittings.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8788762092590332}
+{"content": "How to Respond to Internal Audit Questions\n\nInternal auditors dig into other people’s business for a living. On the surface, this sounds like they insert themselves where they don’t belong, but actually, they perform a critical role in protecting their organizations from.\n\nAs you go through your public service career, there is a good chance you will have to respond to questions internal auditors pose. These questions can come for many different reasons, and very few of them mean you’re accused of wrongdoing. In the vast majority of circumstances, they’re just gathering information. For example, they may be trying to understand how your part of the organization functions.​\n\nThere’s no need to tense up when an internal auditor talks to you. Internal auditors are professionals merely trying to do their day’s work. Granted, their work can make you and others uncomfortable. They pinpoint weaknesses in systems and recommend corrective actions.\n\nBut in the end, they make their organizations operate better, and your responses to their questions are critical to making this happen. So here are three tips for responding to internal auditors when they come knocking at your door.\n\nAnswer Honestly\n\nProfessional female worker with tablet in futuristic factory\nyoh4nn / Getty Images\n\nInternal auditors know when something doesn’t quite add up. Don’t give them a reason to doubt your credibility by being anything less than completely honest.\n\nIf you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t try to bluff your way through it. You’ll just wind up making yourself look silly when they find the real answer. The far better choice is simply to say you don’t know the answer. If it is something you can research for them, offer to do so. They may take you up on the offer, or they may already have some ideas about how to get the answer.\n\nWhen you think the internal auditors might not like your answer, don’t shy away from giving your response. They want to understand things as they actually exist, so even when your answer isn’t what will make their job easier or what they expect to hear, they need to know the truth.\n\nAssume They Know Nothing About Your Area of Expertise\n\nInternal auditors are usually sharp people, but they can’t be experts in everything. Some focus their professional training and work on particular aspects of internal auditing such as information systems or financials, but do not assume they know your area of expertise.\n\nIt sounds like a given, but it is easy to slip into using jargon or skipping steps when describing processes. What a thoughtless action is to you is probably not to the internal auditor seeking to understand your business processes. Think about every action you take. Something that may seem like one step to you could be several steps you’ve melded together in your mind through years of repetition.\n\nEven when the conversation seems tedious and overly simple, remember internal auditors try to break down processes into their smallest activities. Only then can they find where processes can go awry. \n\nConnect the Dots for Them\n\nNot only do internal auditors deconstruct processes to their smallest bits, but they also look for the interconnectedness among people and processes. They look for all the people involved in a process to see who needs to be involved, who isn’t involved but needs to be, how those people interact and whether there are sufficient controls in place to prevent or catch fraud, waste or abuse.\n\nWhen responding to internal auditors, point out where you and your processes interact with others and their processes. Connecting the dots like this gives them a clearer picture of how the organization works as a whole. Such information also gives internal auditors leads on who to speak with and where to find additional information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.90831458568573}
+{"content": "Professor Ingrid Winship Director of Genomic Medicine, RMH\n20 May 2019\nNews Category: \nMedia releases\n\n\nThis clinic is the first of its kind in Australia and provides care for patients who have an inherited eye condition, are at risk of inheriting or passing on an eye condition or have a genetic disease that affects their eyes.\n\nMany common eye diseases such as glaucoma have a genetic component. Inherited retinal degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in working age adults. This can impact on quality of life, vision loss, and family planning.\n\nThe clinic provides a ‘one stop shop’ for Victorian families with these conditions, offering world class diagnostics, genetic testing, advice and a treatment, and is staffed by ophthalmologists, clinical geneticist, orthoptists and genetic counsellors working as a team.\n\nPatient Linda Nancarrow has a genetic eye disease called Autosomal Dominant Cone Dystrophy and was one of the first patients to be seen at the new eye clinic. The condition runs in her family, and she noticed her vision deteriorating from when she was a teenager.\n\n“My condition makes day to day activities, such as getting around, difficult. I feel frustrated, and isolated sometimes, and the decision to have children, knowing they could inherit the condition, was incredibly difficult”.\n\n“In my mind, the stand-out feature of the clinic is having a genetic counsellor working along-side a specialist ophthalmologist. This ensures that families not only obtain a detailed and accurate understanding of the implications of genetic test results, but also receive the essential emotional support, and guidance necessary at such a difficult time.”\n\nHealth Minister Jenny Mikakos officially opens the clinic\n\n“It is my wish that one day I will be able to read an article explaining that researchers have the ability to eliminate the trait that causes genetic eye disease,” Ms Nancarrow said.\n\nOphthalmologist Dr Jonathan Ruddle from The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital is looking forward to that day too and is excited about the progress already being made at the clinic to provide care for patients with hereditary eye conditions.\n\n“The clinic model that has been developed involves both pre and post clinic discussions to ensure that the most comprehensive, accurate and appropriate information is obtained and used to empower patients,” Dr Ruddle said.\n\nThe Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Professor Ingrid Winship Director of Genomic Medicine, said the partnership between the two health services is a critical factor in the success of the clinic.\n\n“This service is a close collaboration with the Eye and Ear and The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a great example of a collaborative partnership approach by health services,” Professor Winship said.\n\n“The key for the two organisations is to address specific medical needs of patients who have genetic eye disease and to protect their vision and help plan for their future.”\n\nThe clinic will run fortnightly at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9957019090652466}
+{"content": "The mighty king of the jungle: the lion.\n\nYesterday was Zoo Lover Day—and I wish I could have spent the day at a zoo watching the animals instead of being inside working. But alas, that didn’t happen this year (maybe next year). I’ve realized that I’ve only been to probably five zoos over the years since I was a kid. I’ve been to a couple of these zoos yearly growing up, as they were part of our vacation—but since then I’ve only been to one new zoo. Which is why I have on my 101-goal list—visit at least one new zoo and aquarium at some point over the next 1001 days.\n\nZebra and Giraffe\n\nWhat are a few zoo facts?\n\nZoos have been around since the 1700s. With the Vienna zoo being the oldest existing zoo—it’s been open since 1765. The first public zoo in the US was opened in 1874—Central Park Zoo.\n\nThere are 350 zoos in the US alone.\n\n~175 million people visit a zoo each year. Over 3.2 million people visit the San Diego Zoo each year & over 9.8 million people visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom each year.\n\nGiant Anteater\n\nOut of the 350 zoos in the United States, I’ve been to the following zoos: Oklahoma City Zoo, Tulsa Zoo, Como Park Zoo (in St Paul MN), Henry Vilas Zoo (Madison WI), and the Franklin Park Zoo (Boston MA). All pictures that are in the post today came from my one trip to the Franklin Park Zoo when I was living in Boston quite a few years ago.\n\nAndean Condor\n\nI would love to again see one in the wild—but going through the forests of the Andes to try to find an elusive scavenger that is endangered—I’ll just have to be happy trying to get a good picture of it in zoos. Though it might be a bonus if I ever do make it to South America and travel through the rainforests.\n\n\nI would love to see one in the wild—but I don’t think that I’d be traveling in the western part of Australia (unless I did some type of group tour). While Australia is on my list of places I want to visit–I’m currently planning on staying on the more populated side of the island.\n\nWhile I would love to see most of the animals in their natural habitat (at a very safe distance mind you), I understand that they’re in zoos due to human behavior. We (humans) have yet to figure out how to live in harmony with the rest of the planet; we take and destroy without thinking of the long term consequences of our actions. Most of these animals now have to be in zoos to survive, if not they would be extinct due again to human nature.\n\nOne goal/bucket list item may be to see how many other zoos in the US I can visit over the years–I’ve been to five, and that means that there are at least 345 more zoos that I should try to visit.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9155976176261902}
+{"content": "Blue Marine, a highly certified company\n\nBlue Marine, a highly certified company\n\nWe are committed to the delivery of high quality services which are aligned to different corporate norms – nationally and internationally -. It is a priority that we reinforce every year through certifications that guarantee our performance. Know the purpose and importance of obtaining such endorsements.\n\nWhat is a certification?\nIt is an “official recognition” that certifies the optimal performance of a company.\n\nWhat is it for?\nLegally assures and supports that the company accomplish the standards established in a certain area.\n\nWhat does a company that has certifications projects?\nFormality Shows seriousness by staying attached to the legal framework required by any certification process.\n\nSolidity Projects the company’s interest to continue improving, by showing its permanent effort to improve day by day, as well as its commitment to one of the three pillars of sustainability -economic, social and environmental-.\n\nVanguard Shows that the company is constantly moving, improving and updating its services, in order to compete with the external demands in each one of the areas (economic, social and environmental).\n\nWhich certifications does Blue Marine have?\nThe certifications mentioned below are widely recognized worldwide. In addition, the company is a pioneer in obtaining recognition as an “Integrated Management System” in the new versions of the standards.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9743283987045288}
+{"content": "Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 45 mins | Yields: 8-10 servings\n\nMake-Ahead Cheesy Ham Baked Ziti\n\n\nCheese Mixture\n\n1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) ricotta cheese\n\n3 cups (750 mL) mozzarella cheese, shredded\n\n1½ cups (375 mL) Parmesan cheese, grated\n\n2 cups (500 mL) Maple Leaf Natural Smoked Ham, chopped small\n\n1/4 cup (60 mL) fresh basil, finely chopped\n\n1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt\n\n1/2 tsp (2 mL) pepper\n\n2 tbsp (30 mL) extra-virgin olive oil\n\ncloves garlic, finely minced\n\nOptional (for spice lovers): 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more to taste, if desired)\n\nZiti and sauce:\n\n900g uncooked ziti noodles\n\n2 (1 L) Jars cooked tomato sauce\n\n\n\nFor the cheese mixture:\n\nIn a large bowl, mix together ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, 2 tablespoons ham, basil, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes (if using).  In a small bowl, mix together olive oil and minced garlic.  Pour the olive oil and garlic mixture over the cheese mixture and using clean hands or a large spoon, mix until evenly combined.  Set aside while you make the pasta and sauce.\n\nFor the pasta:\n\nBring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta to the pot and cook until the noodles just begin to soften, about 5-6 minutes. Before draining, reserve 2 cups of the cooking water in a bowl; drain the pasta.  Add the noodles back to the pot (no need to wash it), and add the tomato sauce and reserved pasta water to the pot. Stir until the pasta is coated evenly with sauce.\n\nLadle half of the pasta into a 9X13-inch deep casserole dish. Dollop half the cheese mixture, in large spoonful’s, over the pasta.  Sprinkle evenly a layer of ham over the cheese mixture. Prepare the final layer, ladle the remaining pasta, then the ham and top with the remaining cheese mixture.\n\nCover the casserole dish with lightly greased aluminum foil.  Place the casserole dish on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any bubbling over) and bake until hot throughout and bubbling, about 25-35 minutes. Remove the foil paper cover for the last 10 minutes to let the cheese get golden brown.  Let the pasta cool for 15 minutes and then serve.\n\nMake-ahead and/or to freeze:\n\nPrepare the recipe as directed above but do not bake. Cover the dish tightly in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. Refrigerate for 24 hours or freeze for up to a month. To bake, thaw the pasta overnight in the refrigerator. Unwrap the casserole dish (both the plastic wrap and the foil) and re-cover with lightly-greased aluminum foil.  Bake as directed.\n\nMade for families\n\nNo fake food. Only simple ingredients that we'll never hide.\n\nHonesty is\nour policy\n\nWe answer everything\nyou want to know about our food.\n\nHonesty is\nour policy\n\nWe answer everything\nyou want to know about our food.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9873846769332886}
+{"content": "Amenities Of Lift Chairs\n\nAmenities Of Lift Chairs\n\nThis recliner couch with lift is simply merely advantageous to sitting since it won't have a wider reclined angle for resting. Pick the one that has enough expertise in dealing with medical gear. Almost all of the elderly have transportation problems and require to be aided up out of bed and off of chairs.\n\nIt is best to buy a chair that is located in a place relatively near also, so you can test it without spending a lot of money traveling. Such raise recliner chairs feature three different roles: straight, small recline together with asleep place. These include made to conform to ANSI A18.1 directions and satisfy ADA requirements when effectively set up in commercial options. Too tiny and too-large a chair can pose issues.\n\nSome models can help weights since heavy as 220 kilograms. If you just want to enjoy the online game or read certainly J.K. Seeing your neighborhood tv series place or talking to an online professional will help you to determine top chair available.\n\nIf the mobility is not totally limited, you can consider a less-expensive design that offers you just the right amount of help that you might want. Should you loved this short article and you would love to receive more information with regards to three position lift kindly visit the webpage. This will be fantastic if you find yourself getting the chair for anyone that does not live close by or you believe you will need only a little help discovering the right location to make use of seat. Along with a straight and small recline situation, 3-position raise seats allows you to adjust your whole human anatomy in the chair into an almost full recline place.\n\nFor the people people who fork out a lot additional time in those kinds of seats and therefore are even looking at having a nap here, they could wish something which will offer 3 recline jobs. Try not to mistake the number of fat the seat can hold with their dimensions. While that could be correct in many cases, you will need to remind your self that when a chair is larger, it generally does not always follow that it can maintain heavy plenty of fat. within the globalization of this modern world there are plenty of alternative can be found indeed there for purchasing the recliner chairs as well as the best option is the fact that the online marketing.\n\nThis disability gear is actually a popular option for older people. The angle for small recline situation isn't that a lot either, adequate to tip you right back while sitting. The recliner lift chairs are characterized by recline and raise elements. Spine diseases like joint disease and spondylosis are a handful of additional factors, which result in minimal flexibility. When the senior individual is likely to slide off seating conveniently, a couch with a slick leather furniture won't be of the same quality a choice as you with a textured textile.\n\nIn case you are more than 6' 2\" large, discover special recliner seats that accommodate the level nicely. Remember that you will likely move the raise chair yourself, therefore it much better be someplace extremely available. It is possible you will not be able to find the entire cost of the lift chair reimbursed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6372443437576294}
+{"content": "ARK's Brick Stick™ Chewable Pencil Topper - Royal Blue\n\nArk Therapeutic\n\n\nDoes chewing on pencils or pen caps sound familiar?  Made in the USA, ARK's Brick Stick™ Chewable Pencil Topper is the perfect solution.  Chewing can be a very effective way to help calm, self-regulate, and focus, so these chewy pencil covers are a perfect pairing for homework, note-taking, and more.  As an added bonus, they also provide extra weight to the pencil, which provides increased hand awareness and promotes proper pencil positioning. \n\n  • XXT (royal blue, purple, forest green, or orange) = XXT stands for \"Xtra Xtra Tough,\" recommended for those who like the resistance of chewing on very hard items\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8993082642555237}
+{"content": "Understanding Differences in Perspectives on the Care and Education of Infants and Toddlers\n\nWeek 2 Application—Interview\n\n\nStep 1: Interview Setup\n\nIdentify an adult who you would like to interview based on the following criteria:\n\n· He or she is a parent of or family member who lives with a child age three or under. (Note: Although the suggested interview questions are written for parents, you may modify the wording to be appropriate for another family member who has a close relationship with the child.)\n\n· His or her cultural framework appears to be similar to yours. (To determine this, take time to consider your own cultural background and the insights you gained from the Application in Week 1.)\n\nThen, contact the person you would like to interview and inform him or her that you are working on a course on cultural and family studies for infant/toddler professionals and would like to learn about his or her perspectives on the care and education of an infant or toddler in his or her family.\n\nSchedule the interview, which should take approximately 30 minutes or longer.\n\nStep 2: Pre-Interview Writing\n\nBefore the interview, write a paragraph describing your interviewee and explaining why you believe his or her cultural framework might be similar to yours.\n\nStep 3: Interview\n\nConduct the interview. While you may be accustomed to casual two-way conversation with your interviewee, be sure to keep the focus of this interview on learning about your interviewee’s perspectives. You will have an opportunity to reflect on your own views after the interview concludes.\n\nDuring the interview:\n\n· Focus on creating a sense of trust.\n\n· Ask open-ended questions and allow plenty of time for your interviewee to think about his or her response.\n\n· Listen deeply to what is said (or not said), without judgment.\n\n· Observe the person’s demeanor. Notice any verbal and nonverbal cues that may indicate that he or she feels uncomfortable.\n\nThe following questions are provided as a reference and reflect the content you will be exploring throughout this course. You may wish to amend these questions or add new ones based on this week’s Learning Resources.\n\nInterview Questions\n\nBefore you begin asking questions, take a little time to talk about how you have begun to conceptualize culture, as well as what your own identity means to you. Then, naturally segue into the first interview question.\n\n1. How would you describe yourself in terms of your culture? How do you think your culture influenced your family upbringing? How do you think your culture and family upbringing have influenced your identity?\n\n2. How would you describe your child, including his or her cultural background?\n\n3. What language(s) do you speak with your infant/toddler? What language(s) do other people in his or her life speak?\n\n4. Could you tell me about how you approach schedules in your child’s everyday life? Do you believe that an infant/toddler should have a regular schedule for feeding or eat when he or she is hungry? How about for sleeping?\n\n5. Could you tell me about feeding your infant/toddler? (Note: You may expand upon this question to ask about nursing/bottle feeding, interactions during feeding, specifics about who is involved in feeding, what the child eats, where and when feeding takes place, etc.)\n\n6. Where does your infant/toddler sleep? Does he or she sleep alone or with you or another family member? Does this vary depending on whether it is day or night?\n\n7. Is it difficult for you or your infant/toddler when you are separated? Why or why not? If it is, what do you do to help ease the separation?\n\n8. What do you most want your child to learn at this age? Why? How do you teach him or her those things that are most important to you? Could you provide some examples?\n\n9. Is play an important part of your infant/toddler’s life? Why or why not?\n\nStep 4: Reflection\n\nAs you reflect on the interview, consider the following questions:\n\n· How was your interviewee’s description of him- or herself similar to or different from how you described him or her?\n\n· In what ways are your values, beliefs, and expectations for the care of infants and toddlers similar to and different from your interviewee’s?\n\n· What parts of the interview, if any, felt uncomfortable to you? Why?\n\n· What insights did this experience give you with regard to stereotyping, generalizing, or making assumptions when working with infants/toddlers and their families?\n\n· Did you have any assumptions that were dispelled through this interview? If so, what were they?\n\n· What additional insights did you gain through the interview? How do these insights relate to ideas presented in the Learning Resources?\n\nFor this assignment, write at least 2 pages that include the following:\n\n· Initial paragraph (Pre-Interview Writing) describing your interviewee\n\n· Summary of the interview, including how your interviewee described him- or herself\n\n· Reflection: Respond to three or more of the Reflection questions indicated above, and be sure to include references to the Learning Resources\n\n\nEDUC 3204", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999699592590332}
+{"content": "{\"responseHeader\":{\"status\":0,\"QTime\":3,\"params\":{\"q\":\"{!q.op=AND}id:\\\"1191120\\\"\",\"hl\":\"true\",\"hl.simple.post\":\"\",\"hl.fragsize\":\"5000\",\"fq\":\"!embargo_tdt:[NOW TO *]\",\"hl.fl\":\"ocr_t\",\"hl.method\":\"unified\",\"wt\":\"json\",\"hl.simple.pre\":\"\"}},\"response\":{\"numFound\":1,\"start\":0,\"docs\":[{\"modified_tdt\":\"2017-01-25T20:32:09Z\",\"thumb_s\":\"/7d/8e/7d8e577d7816236e06aac1799f27b837263414b7.jpg\",\"setname_s\":\"uum_brmm\",\"file_s\":\"/e8/cb/e8cb3b2810c5d2389532d7b0919014e9e5ec3f9f.pdf\",\"restricted_i\":0,\"title_t\":\"Page 40\",\"ocr_t\":\"KEEEIHG 0F TEE BOARD OF RLGLNTS OF; THE WIVLRSITY OF UTAH HELD NOVBHBER 7, 1327. Hinutea of tha meating of the Board of Reguntr of the Uni'fi ;va&sity mi Utah, bald fiovamber 7, 1927, at 4:30 p.m. at the Uni- 'f Varsity. , ¥here'wera present:>0hairman Snow, Regants Christensen, \\\"f ctoakett, Carver, Rosenbaum, wolfe, Gailigan, Goff, Shields, and \\\"lfir. Ehomas. A‘Reganta Carlsun, McCarthy and Wade were exchsed. ‘1'. ‘- fine-fallawing report of the Committee on Finance was presented H . l‘ ll‘iflflwfia matian afvfiegent Shields was agngVQd amd the bills orderad ‘. J \\\\ .n ‘ fibfimde:,>, :Fwfimard 0f Regaut$, . fijwfluitaafllty or Btah.~ £2 iadies and aenfileman: Eaur Einaneé Cnmmittee bega leave t0 report as follows: \\\"E> wa haVa axamined the vauchars fies. 83867-3nd 33853 to 64072, V3.1amlu51ve, alfia fiflflfl? drawn far Qctobar 192? accounts, aaounting V\\\" in $23,830.65, and fifld thaw $upported by prayer bills, the receipt n 3f gomds duly checked by", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9712890386581421}
+{"content": "Takeover modals enable a user to focus on a specific task while having the ability to go back to their previous view quickly.\n\n\nA full screen modal that temporary blocks interaction with the main view of a site and set the actual task in focus.\n\n\n\nUse a takeover modal when a task needs the full attention from a user, for example when making a payment. Heavier tasks such as a multi step wizard also benefit from the focused experience of removing not needed UI chrome of the original site.\n\n\nIt should cover the whole viewport whilst its own content is centered, both vertically and horizontally.\n\nIf triggered from a link/button, the modal should originate from that point until filling the whole viewport to communicate hierarchy.\n\nRelated to\n\nFor desktop\n\nTake-over for desktop\n\nFor mobile\n\nTake-over for mobile", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9880842566490173}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\n\nStar Wars: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... Watch the opening scene to the original Star Wars\n\nThe main Star Wars title track never fails to give me chills and transport me into the delightful world of imagination and possibility. It sends me back into the 1970s. The clothes were horrible–a lot of browns, mustards, polyester, baggy bellbottoms and the ugliest platform shoes my sister could find–but escaping into the movie magic and imaginations of creative forces like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg was a delightful escape; especially after my sister was killed.\n\n\nListen to the full “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” soundtrack (below) and get writing:\n\n\nCheck out the opening scene from the 1977 original Star Wars. I thought it was the coolest when the new sound system developed by Lucas Films and ILM made it feel like the ship was flying overhead. Everyone glanced upward and ducked down a bit in their seats.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.54395592212677}
+{"content": "Railforum 2017 - New Rail Connection to China Launches in November\n\nThe dream of creating the “new Silk Road by rail” took a big step forward at RailForum 2017, as it was announced that the first container train from Kouvola, Finland, will start its journey to Xi’an, China, on 10 November, 2017. After the first train, the connection is planned to become a weekly occurrence, with one inbound and one outbound train.\n\nLocking down the date is an important milestone in the venture which seeks to route a considerable amount of goods in a novel way. Chinese cargo bound for Europe will travel west from Xi’an, going through Kazakhstan and Russia to reach Finland in 10-12 days. Transporting the same goods on ships, for instance, would take more than three times that time.\n\nDelivering the welcoming speech at Railforum 2017, Kouvola Mayor Marita Toikka remarked that the new route to/from Asia will provide a “new logistics concept” that is both flexible and fast. Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and Communications, echoed that sentiment by commenting that, in the global context, rail creates vitality and the new connection between Asia and Finland is “most welcome”.\n\nThe Minister recalled Kouvola’s stellar track record as a “great logistics city” and noted that also the current trends support rail traffic as logistics are becoming more resource-efficient and mindful of their carbon footprint. She defined Finland’s forte as “connecting people, goods and data” in new and innovative ways, believing that the new venture will be able to carry on this tradition.\n\nReboot the Silk Road\n\nIn her presentation, Nancy Li, General Director, Scan-China International Link, Finland, showed that Xi’an, one-time capital of China, is an inland port brimming with potential. With a population of more than 8 million people, Xi’an was actually the eastern starting point of the original Silk Road trading route.\n\nXi’an has an important role in the Chinese “One Belt, One Road” agenda, specifically with regards to One Belt: according to the strategy, the land-based “belt” stretches from China to Europe, while the sea “road” links maritime traffic. Li commented that Xi’an is poised to “connect east and west” as the new route provides both reliability and efficiency.\n\nGreat investments have also been made both in Kazakhstan and Russia to make this all work. Murat Nurtleuov, the Kazakhstan ambassador to Finland, said that the state has made infrastructure investments to the tune of 26 billion USD, with 6 billion more to materialize by 2020.\n\n- New connections give new opportunities, Nurtleuov said, adding that multimodal competence and over-all quality of the operations will determine its future.\n\nYana Kuzina, Vice President, Freight Village Russia, commented that by working together it is possible for all the stakeholders to be successful and expand their business.\n\n- There is fantastic potential in the new connection, she said.      \n\n\nText by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy\nFoto by Johannes Wiehn: Kouvola Mayor Marita Toikka remarked that the new route to/from Asia will provide a “new logistics concept” that is both flexible and fast.​", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9940574765205383}
+{"content": "Query Critique 82\n\nAshlynn Weaver doesn’t know she’s a dream-walker, only that she can control her dreams So for this first sentence I would try focusing on the dream controlling aspect rather than throwing out this unknown term, especially since she doesn’t know what that is. Her waking life is another story—falling for her best friend who’s hung up on his ex, wondering if her missing mom is still alive, and worrying she’ll vanish next. Ash tries to hide her delusions, so similar to the ones her mom had before, but the monsters are getting harder to ignore. The monsters sort of came out of nowhere. Especially when a serpentine creature nearly drowns her in a pool.\nWhen Ash finds a magic lamp and releases Rizian, a jinn made of fire, she’s ready to get fitted for a straight jacket. The jinn is interesting, and I almost wonder if it could be worked into the query sooner? Maybe even in the hook? But, surely hallucinations don’t introduce themselves, and who could resist three wishes on their eighteenth birthday? Rizian introduces Ash to a magical world she never knew existed, and she offers magic he’s equally unfamiliar with: friendship. Some good voice in these sentences. Together, they rescue Ash’s bewitched mom, but a fairy queen won’t let them return to the human world unless Ash agrees to unravel a twisted scheme that targets fairy children. The evidence points to witches and reveals secrets about Ash’s family that explain why she sees monsters—fairies—and why her dreams have turned deadly. Her emerging ability to dream-walk proves dangerous when an unplanned foray into her sister’s dream has effects on waking life.\nAfter using two wishes with unexpected consequences, Ash is caught in a conflict between worlds and a romance with Rizian that’s literally too hot to handle. When it turns out her sister is the real target of the witches’ sinister plans, Ash must relinquish her last wish, one that could make an impossible love possible, unless she can dream up another way to save her. Great stakes!\nWISHES OF FIRE is an 107,000 word young adult paranormal romance, with potential for a trilogy. Thank you for your time and consideration,\n\nQuery Critique 81\n\nDear Miss Nelson,\n\nWhen music lover and Massachusetts native Sarah McPhee transfers to the London offices of Sixteen Magazine, she expects the number of miles between herself and her old life to be enough to repair her crushed heart. I like these opening sentences.\n\nIt’s been a slow process getting over Ben, Sarah’s boyfriend of six years, who left her without an explanation but with an abundance of self-doubt.  Having always understood her life in terms of music – her childhood shaped by her father’s passion for sixties rock bands and her adolescence influenced by Madonna and her older brother’s knowledge of everything grunge – she finds this stretch of years to be eerily silent.  Determined to make her heart sing again, Sarah plants herself in a new city, where she immediately struggles with the ups and downs of starting over.\n\nTasked with saving the magazine from declining sales and subscriptions, energetic and curious Sarah quickly meets a range of new acquaintances, including her offbeat landlady, the always friendly Megan, and Megan’s charming but arrogant brother, Rob.  From getting lost (which she expected to happen) to being taught how to drive on the left side of the road (which she didn’t), Sarah learns, thanks to impromptu afternoon cocktails, an adventure through Hampstead Heath, and listening to old mix tapes, about getting over heartbreak, trusting her decisions and how to hear the music again.  Even in one of the most exciting cities in the world, happiness, she discovers, isn’t something that can be found – happiness must be made from within. So I normally don’t like queries that end with “and the character will learn x” it sort of works since this query has a quieter tone to this. Even still, I don’t think it would be bad to make the ending have stronger stakes. In other words, tell me what the character stands to lose. Overall, I think the query looks very good, though.\n\nI studied abroad in London during college and fell in love with the city.  The balance of an almost stubborn persistence to maintain tradition and the desire to be one of the more modern cities in the world struck me as unique and fascinating.  As I can no longer “up and move” to Europe, I decided to write a story about a girl who does.\n\nA Song for Sarah McPhee is a new adult novel complete at 86,000 words.  Put your title in all caps. Per your submission guidelines, please see below for _________.  Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.\n\nTo Prologue or Not to Prologue\n\nI’ve heard a lot of negativity about prologues. Overwhelmingly, the advice is not to use one. However in my opinion, there are times when a prologue not only works but is necessary to the story.\n\nThe last manuscript I wrote had a prologue. I’d written about a thousand drafts of the first chapter (which my writing group can verify). No matter what I did, though, I just couldn’t get the right balance of information and action. So I decided to write a prologue.\n\nThe prologue shows a scene that happened several months before the main part of the book, so it was disconnected enough that I didn’t want to just call it chapter one. But it established a lot of information that I otherwise would have had to include as flash back or backstory later on, which would have slowed down the pacing. Ultimately, it was a move that really worked for that book.\n\nI would say that a flashback is useful any time you want to reveal important information that is slightly disconnected from the main part of the book. In my case, the time line was what was slightly disconnected between the prologue and chapter one. It could also be that your prologue is written from a different point of view than the first chapter, and that’s what disconnects it.\n\nSo those are reasons to use a prologue. However, the advice against prologues isn’t out there without reason. I have read a lot of bad prologues where I really wished the author would just get on to chapter one.\n\nThe main problem with prologues is that they’re often too vague to be of use to the reader. I think the writer is under the impression that they’re being mysterious when really they’re just being confusing. These type of prologues tend to read as though the author and the reader are sharing a secret, but only the author knows what the secret is, if that makes any sense.\n\nIn conclusion, I say use a prologue if it works for story. Just make sure you know why you’re using it and can justify it’s inclusion because it contains something important.\n\nQuery Critique 80\n\nDear [insert agent’s name here],\n\n#MockPit 2\n\n\nWhat is #MockPit?\n\n\nHow to enter:\n\n  1. Follow me at @kyramnelson.\n  3. Get feedback from me.\n\nWhat are the rules?\n\n\nWhy am I doing this?\n\n\n\nAny questions?\n\nQuery Critique 79\n\nDear [agent’s name],\n\n\n\n\n\nAn Elite girl named Alice.\n\n\n\n\nThank you for your consideration.\n\nDon’t go hating on other people’s books\n\nHere is a new querying commandment which you should commit to memory: Thou shalt not dis other books in your query letter.\n\nYou may laugh, but I’ve received a lot of queries that say something to the effect of “You should rep my book because it’s so much better than all the other garbage being published today.”\n\nYikes. Just yikes.\n\nFirst of all, I don’t think everything being published today is garbage. There are a lot of recently published books that I’ve loved. And who declared you the critic in charge of deciding what’s garbage and what isn’t anyway?\n\nFurthermore, this sort of attitude suggests that you either don’t read enough or you are an unpleasant person who is too difficult to please (in other words, somebody I don’t want to work with).\n\nI often see this book dissing show up with YA authors who say something to the effect of “Are you tired of vampire novels and ready for something new and actually good?” Okay, they usually don’t say “actually good” but it’s implied by the tone.\n\nAgain, this shows that you aren’t that familiar with the genre because there are tons of YA books that are not about vampires. And it’s been some years since anything with vampires was published. This is usually verified when I start reading the synopsis which is usually not original at all.\n\nBesides, maybe the agent isn’t tired of vampire books. Or maybe they aren’t interested in any more vampire books but they may have a client who wrote a vampire book. As it turns out, insulting the work of an author’s client isn’t endearing. Ever.\n\nThis is a good rule not just for query but for your online correspondence in general. Of course, we all have our personal likes and dislikes. But trashing books on Goodreads or Twitter or wherever online won’t make you any friends. And this is a business where friends can make a lot of difference. Publishing is a small world.\n\nSo keep your unfavorable comments to yourself and close friends. And if you do have to say something negative about a book, be as polite as possible and acknowledge the personal bias involved in your comments.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5117013454437256}
+{"content": "Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep have come under fire for wearing controversial T-shirts to promote movie Suffragette (Picture: Focus Features)\n\nFor the first time in her career, it seems, Meryl Streep is not the most popular woman in film.\n\nThat’s because of her recent appearance in a promotional shot for her new movie Suffragette, for which she wears a T-shirt with an Emmeline Pankhust quote on the front which claims ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave’.\n\n\nMeryl, as well as her co-stars Carey Mulligan, Romola Garai and Anne-Marie Duff, have received criticism across the world for wearing the T-shirts featuring the 1913 quote from a speech given by the women’s rights leader.\n\nMany online users found the quote racially insensitive for a number of reasons.\n\n\nBecause it implies that being a ‘slave’ is a choice:\n\nBecause it doesn’t seem to acknowledge the difference between slavery for a white person and for an ethnic minority:\n\nBecause it’s a reminder that actually, suffrage movements historically weren’t too supportive of rights for ALL people:\n\nThough some people felt that the movie shouldn’t be judged by American standards:\n\nAnd others think people are being too sensitive:\n\nTime Out issues a statement in response to the backlash:\n\nFor a recent photoshoot to document ‘Suffragette’, the first feature film to tell the story of the violent and historic struggle of women in the UK for equal rights including the right to vote, Time Out London invited the lead actresses from ‘Suffragette’ to wear t-shirts with the slogan: ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave’.\n\nThis is a quote from a 1913 speech given by Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the historic British suffragettes whose fight for equality is portrayed in the movie. The original quote was intended to rouse women to stand up against oppression – it is a rallying cry, and absolutely not intended to criticise those who have no choice but to submit to oppression, or to reference the Confederacy, as some people who saw the quote and photo out of context have surmised.\n\n\nSuffragette tells the story of the extreme actions of women of the British suffrage movement to gain the right to vote back in the early 20th century.\n\n\nThe film directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan will open the BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday 7 October.\n\nThe film hits cinemas on October 12\n\nMORE: Meryl Streep says ‘a great big exposé’ about Hollywood sexism is coming\n\nMORE: Meryl Streep’s Oscars reaction face to Patricia Arquette is everything", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980559349060059}
+{"content": "Saudis back 'thorough' probe into missing journalist\n\nAmerican officials say Riyadh has agreed the need for \"thorough\" probe into disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.\n\nRIYADH - US top diplomat Mike Pompeo met Tuesday with Saudi King Salman and the crown prince seeking to defuse a crisis over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, with American officials saying Riyadh had agreed the need for a \"thorough\" probe.\n\nThe urgent talks came after US President Donald Trump dispatched Pompeo to the Gulf kingdom amid a growing international outcry about Khashoggi's disappearance.\n\n\n\"Rogue killers\" could be to blame, Trump said after telephone talks on Monday with the king.\n\nAfter first meeting with the king, Pompeo held separate talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir and powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.\n\n\"We are strong and old allies. We face our challenges together,\" the crown prince said as he warmly welcomed Pompeo at the palace. The two men were also due to have dinner together later Tuesday.\n\n\"The secretary and the foreign minister agreed on the importance of a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation,\" State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said later.\n\n\n'Botched interrogation?'\n\n\nUS media reported on Monday that the oil-rich kingdom is considering an admission that Khashoggi died after an interrogation that went wrong during an intended abduction.\n\n\nDue to the seriousness of the case \"I believe the inviolability or immunity of the relevant premises and officials... should be waived immediately,\" Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.\n\n\n\n\n\n\"The denial was very, very strong,\" Trump told reporters. \"It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?\"\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8670519590377808}
+{"content": "Get a widget\n\n\nTop Keywords from Search Engines:\ndcm engineering products, green sand reclamation plant, gujarat perfect engineering limited\nWebsite Topics:\nSEO score:\nWebsite Worth:\n$631 USD\nWeb Safety:\nChild Safety:\nAlexa Rank:\nAlexa backlinks:\nIP-address: [Trace] [Reverse]\nDate Registered\n1999-10-22 04:00:00\n2015-02-20 05:00:00\nSite Age\n19 years and 11 months\nPageviews per User:\nDaily Pageviews:\nSites redirect to this site:\nLoad Time:\n3.49 seconds\nadvertising Domain Info\n\nDomain Name:\nRegistrar:, LLC (\nDomain Age: 19 years and 11 months\nSee whois information Contact information : - Rhino Machines Pvt. Ltd. - Rhino Machines Pvt. Ltd.\nSee contact information in whois record\n\n\nGoogle Safebrowsing:\nAvg Antivirus\nWot Raiting\nChild Safety\n\nAlexa traffic graph\n\nAlexa traffic rank shows the popularity of your site relative to other sites. is ranked 19,516,655th in the world (among the 30 million domains). A low-numbered rank means that your website gets a lot of visitors.\n\nAlexa rank: 19,516,655 visit alexa Alexa backlinks: 1\nThis report show rough estimate of's popularity\nThe top queries driving traffic to from search engines.\ndcm engineering products\ngreen sand reclamation plant\ngujarat perfect engineering limited\n388325 Visitors Localization\n\nTraffic Estimations Low\nTraffic Rank 19,516,655th most visited website in the World\n\nWebsite categories\n\nCurrently, we found 1 categories on\nmachines 38'238 sites competitors a page for jewelry designers\n\n| | Sites with a similar domain name\n\n\n\nRhino Marking And Protection Systems\n\nProviding damage prevention systems for underground utilities\n\n| |\n\n\nRhinomart Wholesale\n\nWholesale source for closeouts and liquidations\n\n| |\n\n\nRhino Market Research in Raleigh, Durham...\n\nRhino market research provides primary and secondary market research for small businesses in the raleigh-durham-chapel hill area\n\n| |\n\n\nRhino Marine, The Reference in Hdpe Boats | Robust, Rigid And Reliablehdpe Boats...\n\nThe rhino boats are fabricated primarily for use in the offshore and marine construction environments, the off-shore oil and gas industry, and fo\n\n| |\n\n\nRhinoman's Portal\n\n| |\n\n\nRhino Marketing Group | High End Web Design | Call (213) 259-3613\n\nRhino marketing group is an award winning design firm. All of our sites are seo-ready and mobile responsive. They look great on any device. Flat pricing. Great work\n\n| |\n\n\nAnti-fatigue Mats | Commercial Mats | Industrial Mats -\n\nAnti-fatigue mats, commercial mats and industrial mats by rhino mats. call for quote 1-800-228-5543. most trusted - ranco industrial anti-fatigue matting\n\n| |\n\n\nRhinoman Home Page\n\n| |\n\n| |\n\n\nUsed Construction Equipment For Sale at Rhino Machinery : Caterpillar...\n\nUsed construction equipment for sale at rhino machinery: caterpillar, john deere, case, komatsu, genie\n\n| |\n\n| |\n\n\nRhino Mania Travelling in Europe\n\nWild in art previous events rhino mania\n\n| |\n\n\nRhino Magic Weight Loss\n\nRhino magic, rhino magic network, rhino magic weight loss, simply magic, symply magic, symmetry, symmetry direct, health, nutrition, fitness\n\n| | Websites hosted on same IP\n\n\nInfo That Will Save Your Time And Money\n\nInfo that will save your time and money\n\n| |\n\n\n\n\n| |\n\n\n\n\n| |\n\nIndias first horoscope and kundali matchmaking site\n\n| |\n\n\nav Graphic Designers Pvt. Ltd.\n\nGraphic designing, printing, multimedia, webdesigning and development company\n\n| |\n\n\n\n| |\n\n\nLadies & Mens Shoes |\n\n| |\n\n\nOnline Anti Anxiety Information Portal\n\n\n| |\n\n\nSystematic Reviews in Ayurveda\n\nA complete search engine for ayurveda research publication\n\n| |\n\n\n\n| | Website Load Time\n\n\nWhois Lookup For\n\n\nAdd review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9659562110900879}
+{"content": "The evolution of perspective, the chronicling of journeys, and a series of overwhelming thoughts.\n\na memory\n\nIf memories could build a stairwell, \n\nthey would wind past my eyes,\n\nalabaster and draped with gossamer.\n\n\nWith belvederes observing\n\ngreat and complicated cities \n\nin which every detail is fastidiously distinguished.\n\n\nThe steps themselves, ornate, hand made.\n\nI wonder how long it took to carve them to \n\norganic completion. \n\n\nThe stairs are surrounded by tranquility,\n\nengulfed in a whist presence,\n\nwith an essence of devotion.\n\nOlivia GreenComment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947229623794556}
+{"content": "James A. Lindsay: The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct | Reality Trip: EP064\n\nWe talk with author James A. Lindsay, co-author of The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct, about the purpose of the hoax, it's criticisms, and addressing some of the problems with pay-to-publish journals and gender studies.\n\nSkeptic Article:\n\nGlaciers, Gender, and Science:\n\nCogent Response:\n\nAffiliate links:\n\nBen Fama Jr.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9665180444717407}
+{"content": "Search Results\n\nYou are looking at 1 - 10 of 111 items for :\n\nClear All\nRestricted access\n\nJozef Keulartz\n\nThere has recently been growing interest in the role of metaphors in environmentalism and nature conservation. Metaphors not only structure how we perceive and think but also how we should act. The metaphor of nature as a book provokes a different attitude and kind of nature management than the metaphor of nature as a machine, an organism, or a network. This article explores four clusters of metaphors that are frequently used in framing ecological restoration: metaphors from the domains of engineering and cybernetics; art and aesthetics; medicine and health care; and geography. The article argues that these metaphors, like all metaphors, are restricted in range and relevance, and that we should adopt a multiple vision on metaphor. The adoption and development of such a multiple vision will facilitate communication and cooperation across the boundaries that separate different kinds of nature management and groups of experts and other stakeholders.\n\nRestricted access\n\nHistoricizing Strong Metaphors\n\nA Challenge for Conceptual History\n\nRieke Schäfer\n\nThe debate between metaphor theorists and conceptual historians has been intensifying in recent years. This article takes this debate beyond the bias toward Blumenberg's metaphorology, and starts from the interaction view of metaphor as formulated by Max Black. The article opens with a theoretical framework that reformulates Black's notions of metaphorical resonance and emphasis. It adapts them to the requirements of Conceptual History, and adds a third, historical criterion for metaphoricity. It then applies these suggestions to the history of the metaphor play/game/Spiel/jeu within twentieth-century political thought. Here, the focus lies on the role this metaphor plays in the conceptual relations between the ideas of political order, conflict, and immanence.\n\nRestricted access\n\nFrom Social to Biological Parasites and Back\n\nThe Conceptual Career of a Metaphor\n\nAndreas Musolff\n\nThe categorization of individuals or groups as social parasites has often been treated as an example of semantic transfer from the biological to the social domain. Historically, however, the scientific uses of the term parasite cannot be deemed to be primary, as their emergence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was preceded by a much older tradition of religious and social terminology. Its social use in modern times, on the other hand, builds on a secondary metaphorization from the scientific source concept. This article charts the history of the term parasite from its etymological origins to the present day, distinguishes its metaphorical and non-metaphorical uses, and discusses the implications of these findings regarding the cognitive understanding of the relationship between (perceived) literal and metaphorical meanings. In conclusion, it is argued that metaphorization needs to be analyzed not only in terms of its conceptual structure but also in its role in discourse history.\n\nRestricted access\n\nFerdinand and the Sultan\n\n\nJuan Luis Simal and Darina Martykánová\n\nKing Ferdinand VII of Spain was often compared to the Ottoman sultan. It was a rhetorical operation that continued a tradition in Western Christendom by which Christian rulers were compared to oriental despots not because they were considered to be equal to them, but to show how far astray from the ideal of good government they were. This article examines the multiple dimensions of this comparison. To what extent was it a reaffirmation of the construction of the Turk as a radical other? Or were there new essential elements, and therefore the metaphor of the Turk can also be interpreted within a new universalistic discourse that opposed tyrants to oppressed peoples across cultural and religious barriers? Our examination leads to a reflection on the transnational character of the discursive frameworks in which the metaphor of the Turk was built and rebuilt, on its circulation and limits, and on its specific uses.\n\nRestricted access\n\nKathrin Fahlenbrach\n\nThis article discusses the ways sound design in film guides the emotional affect of both sound and pictures on the viewer. Following the theory of conceptual metaphors, the article proposes an approach to \"audiovisual metaphors,\" analyzing emotional and embodied aspects of film sound. It states that pictures and sound have to share emotional and physical characteristics that can be merged by sound designers conceptually and metaphorically in order to improve the emotional and physical affects of a fictional character or object in a film. Thus it argues that the synchresis (audiovisual fusing) of pictures and sound is most effective when embodied image schemata are used by sound design that guide, on an unconscious level, our perception of film. In audiovisual metaphors, image schemata as \"force\" or \"balance\" are projected on sound and pictures that create an audiovisual and emotional gestalt of the objects. Using examples from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, the article shows how the emotional attributes of fictional character, spaces, and objects can be conceptualized metaphorically, via their very materiality, by sound design—attributes that are perceived prominently on a presymbolic and preconscious level by the viewers but that communicate complex cultural and narrative meanings.\n\nRestricted access\n\nMaarten Coëgnarts, Miklós Kiss, Peter Kravanja and Steven Willemsen\n\nThis article examines the role of situational (dis)continuity and conceptual metaphor in the cinematic construal of complex cases of character perception. It claims that filmed events of the script “a character S seeing something O” can impede the continuity of real-life perception by eliciting discontinuity along two situational dimensions—the temporal dimension (i.e., one cannot directly see events in the past or the future), and the entity dimension (i.e., one cannot see oneself in the act of looking). The article concludes with a case study of Christopher Smith’s Triangle (2009) as an example of contemporary complex narrative cinema.\n\nRestricted access\n\nVera Vicenzotti\n\n\nRestricted access\n\nBuy or barter?\n\nIllegal yet licit purchases of work in contemporary Sweden\n\nLotta Björklund Larsen\n\nThis article explores the tensions between buying and bartering a ser vice in contemporary Sweden by analyzing the acceptable purchase of svart arbete -informal exchanges of work. It is a commonplace phenomenon, but also widely debated, as it is seen as detrimental to welfare society, eroding taxpaying morals and solidarity with fellow citizens. Settling the svart deal with money makes the links to market and state domains more pertinent. Even cash-settled deals are therefore often referred to as barters to create a reverse disentanglement, away from the formal market and moved closer to the realm of social exchanges. The informants express a verbal creativity in a joking manner. Exploring synonyms and metaphors reveals the informality, but the talk also shows that, as exchanges, they are part of everyday life. The article thus describes how illegal yet licit exchanges of work are articulated.\n\nRestricted access\n\nThe 'Empty Tomb' as Metaphor\n\nFinding Comfort in Nothingness\n\nDonna Young\n\n\nRestricted access\n\nRobert Blanchet and Margrethe Bruun Vaage\n\nAs the frequent use of metaphors like friendship or relationship in academic and colloquial discourse on serial television suggests, long-term narratives seem to add something to the spectator's engagement with fictional characters that is not fully captured by terms such as empathy and sympathy. Drawing on philosophical accounts of friendship and psychological theories on the formation of close relationships, this article clarifies in what respect the friendship metaphor is warranted. The article proposes several hypotheses that will enhance cognitive theories of character engagement. Spectators tend to like what they have been exposed to more, and the feeling of familiarity is pleasurable. Familiar characters are powerful tools to get the spectator hooked. Furthermore, by generating an impression of a shared history, television series activate mental mechanisms similar to those activated by friendship in real life. These factors, and several others, create a bond with characters in television series that tends to be described in everyday language as a sort of friendship.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8084703087806702}
+{"content": "Louisa M. Locke\n\nBeta Readers- What are they!\n\nA beta reader is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such as grammar and spelling, as well as suggestions to improve the story, its characters, or its setting. Beta reading is typically done before the story is released for public consumption. Beta readers are not explicitly proofreaders or editors, but can serve in that context. Elements highlighted by beta readers encompass things such as plot holes, problems with continuity, characterisation or believability; in fiction and non-fiction, the beta might also assist the author with fact-checking. Wikipedia ALL writers need outside critique of their work. It is a fact that a writer can seldom edit and proofread his own work. A writer often falls in love with his or her words and plots and is unable to let them go. Beta readers differ from Critique groups in that they usually read on their own and evaluate a book according to their individual experience. Unlike using an editor, those who choose to use Beta readers, usually find them due to their interest in a specific genre and they usually use more than one. One of…\n\nRead More\n\nMost Shared Posts\n\nMost Discussed Posts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999904215335846}
+{"content": "\n\nDr. Paul Pavlidis.\n\n\n\nWith these challenges in mind, Dr. Paul Pavlidis and his team are taking a novel approach to cellular data analysis. Last year, the team launched NeuroExpresso, an online resource for researchers looking to parse the genetic details of different brain cell types. Using NeuroExpresso and some recently-developed bioinformatics methods, Dr. Pavlidis and colleagues are beginning to look at genomic data to identify a signature for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at the cellular level. \n\n“By looking at genomic data in a different way, we’re able to see specific patterns associated with different types of cells, despite them being all mixed together,” said Dr. Pavlidis. “We’ve detected a signature that is consistent with the effects of schizophrenia on two different cell types in the brain.”\n\nThe team evaluated 15 publicly available datasets on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in which gene activity had been measured in a part of the brain thought to be key to the disorders. By using the new methods, the team were able to assess the relative amounts of different cell types in the tissue.\n\nTheir findings were published this month in the journal Biological Psychiatry.\n\n“Despite these data sets being collected by many different laboratories, we observed a consistent increase in the expression profiles of astrocytes (an important type of non-neuronal cell), and a decrease in a particular class of inhibitory neurons,” said Dr. Pavlidis. “This raises the possibility that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are characterized in part by changes in the numbers of these two cell types in an area of the brain long thought to be critical to cognition and behavior.”\n\nFor Dr. Pavlidis, the scope and number of individual cell types in the brain elevates the importance of identifying cell-type specific changes. “It’s not a new idea that there might be changes in cell makeup of the brain in schizophrenia, but this is the first time such a consistent and clear signal has been found in such a wide range of data sets.” At this stage, the team is not sure whether the cellular changes are a cause or a symptom of psychiatric illness, but the team is excited to have an informed, testable hypothesis based on consistent signals in the data sets.\n\n“Relating these findings to specific changes in brain function is still a long way off, but clearly gaining an understanding how psychiatric disease affects different types of cells in the brain is going to be essential,” said Dr. Pavlidis.\n\nFor more information on NeuroExpresso, visit", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974626302719116}
+{"content": "Encore Careers: Options for Work and Purpose After Retirement\n\nAfter decades of having a career, you may find that suddenly retiring to a life of leisure doesn’t work for you. Whether that’s because of financial reasons, a desire to improve mental or physical well-being, or just because you enjoy a certain occupation, you don’t have to stop working simply because you’ve retired. Many people who retire from their primary careers find success and enjoyment in their later stages of life through a variety of options, including encore careers.\n\nAs more baby boomers enter retirement age, many are remaining in the labor force. By 2026, the 75-and-older age group is projected to have the fastest growth in terms of share of the U.S. labor force, followed by the 65-74-year-old age group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.\n\nSo, if you’re considering your options in retirement, it’s good to know that work can still be very much on the table and that you can plan for an encore career now based on your retirement goals.\n\nHow to Plan for Work in Retirement\n\nThe first step in figuring out if you’re likely to work in retirement is to determine whether you’re on track to reach your financial goals. If you’re nearing retirement and haven’t come up with a detailed financial plan, it’s crucial to do so to know whether you’ll have enough income to retire on.\n\nFrom there, you can determine whether you need to supplement your income in order not to overspend, or whether you have enough savings and projected income—such as from Social Security or a pension—to live comfortably.\n\nIf you need to supplement your income, then you can consider encore careers based on their ability to provide you with enough pay to close any financial gaps. Based on the amount you need, you can decide whether full-time or part-time work is right for you, as well as what line of work would provide you with the income you need. If you don’t necessarily need the income, then you can focus on work that will fulfill your interests and give you purpose in retirement, such as working at a nonprofit.\n\nOf course, there can be overlap between these two areas: A job that gives you purpose can also give you income. And if you need to find a job for financial reasons, you can choose one based on your interests, much as you might have chosen your first career based on what appealed to you at the time.\n\nWhat Types of Encore Careers Can Retirees Choose?\n\nSome retirees can transition into retirement with their current employers by moving into part-time or contract work with that same company, perhaps with different responsibilities. For example, a salesperson could transition from a full-time career with their own client accounts into a role in retirement where that person trains new salespeople.\n\nSimilarly, a retiree could use the skills they’ve developed over their career to start a company or freelance business in retirement. Whether you’re a graphic designer, writer, IT professional, or a variety of other occupations, you may find success by providing those same services to multiple companies rather than being employed by one. Doing so could also give the flexibility that many people want in retirement.\n\nIn other cases, retirees take a completely different route in their encore careers. A doctor could open a restaurant; a lawyer could work for an interior designer; a real estate agent could write a book. Whatever you’ve done up to this point in your career doesn’t need to define your second act, particularly if you have the financial flexibility to try your hand at a new career based primarily on your interests.\n\nHaving more time in retirement could also mean that you choose to engage in volunteer work. Doing so could enable you to both use some of your current skills and learn new ones, all while helping others in need.\n\nAny of these paths can help give you purpose in retirement and make your days more interesting and enjoyable, whether that’s because you enjoy pursuing interests, you like the challenge of work, or you’re able to gain more financial freedom by earning additional income in retirement.\n\nThink about your retirement goals and how you can incorporate an encore career into that vision. And if you find that you’d prefer to not work in retirement, that’s OK too! Retirement is yours to define.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6891993284225464}
+{"content": "This year in May, Google made some changes to how ad rotation works in AdWords, changing it to a 30-day period, at which point AdWords would optimize to show higher performing creatives.  After some users expressed concerns, Google announced yesterday that it has made some adjustments. Google says it will expand the even rotation period from 30-days to 90, so there’s a longer testing window for new ads.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8358551263809204}
+{"content": "Using Prisma / Yoga subscriptions with horizontal scaling?\n\n\nI’ve really been enjoying Prisma for my app’s CRUD operations. However, subscriptions are a little bit fuzzy for me.\n\nA requirement for my client is horizontal scalability. I’m planning on using Kubernetes to achieve this, and, as I understand, we simply need to host a RabbitMQ server and point Prisma to its url. I’ve read that more docs are coming soon for that topic, so that’s all great!\n\nNow, my next question is more general. If I have a public facing Yoga instance, and we need to be able to scale that horizontally as well, how do I ensure subscriptions will work properly? It seems like this opens up a can of worms, as users would need to be routed through not only the same Yoga instance but also the same Prisma instance in order for the websocket subscriptions to work. Am I correct in this assumption?\n\nIs there any recommended way to deal with this problem? I could spin up a separate service for the real-time functionality and have those containers be backed by redis or rabbitMQ, then simply talk to it with basic websockets from the client, but we’d rather keep everything in one place, and - more importantly - using GraphQL.\n\nWhat do you guys recommend? :slight_smile:\n\n\nHi! I’m also interested in this topic.\n\nI guess if you setup horizontal scaling with RabbitMQ in the Prisma layer then all your Yoga/Node instances could, theoretically, subscribe to database changes and forward the necessary events to the clients. This way, an extra PubSub is not required if the data comes from the database. Not sure if it’s possible/easy since I don’t know too much about GraphQL subscriptions yet :confused:\n\nI’d like to do horizontal scaling for my Prisma server in Zeit Now but I fear it might not be possible due to Prisma’s management API requirements :thinking:\n\n\nThis thread is over a year old. I am interested in this topic also, as well as horizontal scaling. I am trying to deploy prisma to GCP GKE and use a CloudSQL (Postgres) DB and am struggling to find information on how to get this set up successfully.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9445956349372864}
+{"content": "What Is the Most Populated City in Africa?\n\nThe African city with the largest population is Lagos, Nigeria. In 2014, the city was estimated to have a population of 21 million people.\n\nThe population in Lagos jumped significantly in a short period of time. In 2011, it was estimated to only have 11.2 million people. Prior to then, Cairo was the most populous city in Africa. Lagos is thought to be responsible for one-fourth of Nigeria's gross domestic product.\n\nAn oil boom and a growing economy are thought to contribute to the fast population growth. The country also has a high birth rate that helps boost its numbers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9830913543701172}
+{"content": "Case Study: Sustainable design produces award-winning WTP in Indiana\n\nThe town of Bargersville, Ind., hired Strand Associates Inc. to design and assist in construction of a new water treatment plant, as it was operating at 90 percent above its capacity, producing low-quality treated water and resulting in frequent equipment breakdowns.\n\nInd 3\n\nApril 21, 2015 -- The existing water treatment plant (WTP) in the town of Bargersville, Ind., was operating at 90 percent above its capacity, producing low-quality treated water and resulting in frequent equipment breakdowns. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) had sent a warning to the town that if measures were not taken soon, IDEM would issue a connection ban, thereby limiting any new connections to the existing WTP. This could have had disastrous impacts for Bargersville, as it would have greatly affected growth (industrial and population) throughout the WTP area, resulting in negative economic impact to the town and its residents.\n\nExpanding the existing WTP would have helped solve the problem; however, the surrounding terrain would not permit such an expansion. With the WTP situated in a well-developed area with a distribution system dating back to the 1970s and its existing well field surrounded by gravel mining operations, expansion simply was not an option. Therefore, Bargersville hired Strand Associates Inc. to design and assist in construction of a new WTP. Located in Waverly, Ind., the new 6 million-gallons-per-day WTP includes three groundwater wells, four high service pumps, a raw water main, and two 1-million-gallon, glass-lined clear wells for finished water storage.\n\nWhile the design could have used traditional methods, Strand opted to use sustainable and innovative techniques to promote a greener plant. For instance, instead of using traditional lime softening or ion exchange processes, Strand used the less common option of fluidized bed reactor. With lime softening, limewater is added to remove ions that facilitate hardness (i.e., calcium and magnesium) by precipitation. The problem with this method is the high volume of resulting sludge and high overall expense. Another option, ion exchange, softens the water by introducing sodium ions to replace calcium and magnesium ions. This method reduces water hardness but increases the water's sodium content and its wastewater byproduct requires additional treatment prior to discharge to a body of water.\n\nInd 3\nFour 200-HP high service pumps with room for future expansion. The pumps use high-efficiency motors.\n\nBecause of these drawbacks and the town's desire to be more sustainable, Strand used a fluidized bed reactor method. This method uses a conical reaction vessel that is partially filled with sand. A solution of sodium hydroxide is introduced to raise the pH of the water, which turns existing calcium and iron into a solid. This solid then binds to the sand, thereby leaving the water softer. Occasionally, this sand needs to be replaced. Instead of traditional means of disposal, the sand with its calcium coating is moved to a dewatering pit. Using gravity, the calcium coating sloughs off and can then be collected and used as an agricultural lime substitute.\n\nAdditionally, Strand designed a system whereby the water that is used to backwash the filter is collected and slowly reintroduced into the incoming raw water. This saves Bargersville millions of gallons of water that would otherwise be wasted and promotes the idea of cost-effective recycling and sustainability. Using natural processes and recycling resources greatly reduced overall project cost as the design' sustainable characteristics made the plant eligible to receive financial assistance through the Indiana Financing Authority for half a percent reduction in loan interest. Additionally, the sustainable design and the use of National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) efficient motors, allowed the town to secure Green Project Reserve funds in the amount of $419,000.\n\nInd 2\nThe backwash recycle tank is used to store the backwash water where it is allowed to settle before being returned to the plant for treatment.\n\nThis sustainable design produced a plant that met Bargersville's needs while promoting innovate water treatment techniques and fulfilling a sustainable vision that will support the town's growth for years to come. \"Over the last several years, we have had the pleasure of watching Bargersville's new water treatment plant go from being an idea to a reality, said Town Council President Ken Zumstein. \"We have been pleased with the guidance and expertise that Strand has provided throughout the project. The dedication and thought Strand applied to this project has exceeded our expectations and resulted in a treatment facility that meets our every need.\"\n\nFor its efforts, Strand Associates earned an Indiana American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC-IN) Merit Award for Bargersville's Water Treatment Plant No. 2. The award is made each year by ACEC Indiana to recognize an outstanding engineering achievement that demonstrates a high degree of merit and ingenuity.\n\n\nMore in Treatment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9675480723381042}
+{"content": "Topic for expository essay\n\ntopic for expository essay.jpgTopic for high school students. If you generate topics - 16 sec - get the. Expository essays can be careful to write your paper. Check out 120 new expository essay is vital to use these expository essay topic sentence that provides you we've got the best expository essay topics. To pick a topic on the following list of an expository essays. Criteria for your ninth grade expository essay.\n\nOnce you've been assigned to make sure to create an employee must first understand. Does it presents the topic for topics it can be asked students. This paper done is to be sure you have a great ideas. What is available here are always assigning essays are going to inform the entire paragraph introduces the deeper investigation of an expository essay topics.\n\nFollowing elaborate tutorial. The best read this essay aims to brainstorm. Apr 23, medical care, the librarian what the subject. Content or describe something. Over 1000 unique expository piece of subjects you can discuss about? Middle school students out our lives.\n\nA proper way and expository essay: objects around one object in public consciousness. Obesity. Introduce the topic for your expository essay is a topic in our papers that you are asked to find an expository essay titles. Be sure to convey information.\n\nWrite an expository essay on meeting and terminology\n\nStart without the following list below is to choose a final topic sentence 2. Don't hesitate to your expository essay on the overall point/purpose of the introductory paragraph. Believe is likely to do not everyone is what to choose the topic or break if you are half the most ideas below. Purpose for an expository essay speaking, and practice crafting this a model essays are often be pretty challenging task easily.\n\nThese are asked to do this task for descriptive writing a list of a selection of expository essay topics. Who want to a side. Deductively-Structured essay need to make or jogging, argumentative essays. Criteria for an expository essay? Important in college students to you are writing assignment from oracle from oracle from eng 101 at least couple of suggestions.\n\nBrainstorming an interesting way to write about one. Over pages 3-8 in a 7th grade 8. Check out the writer should also known as good as to 6th grade expository essay body of winning expository essay assignment across the topic. Many. A topic in an expository writing an expository essay topics to be Full Article expository essay paper? Want to be topic, you will find an original topics.\n\nYou'll have received an expository essay aims to show evidence of paper topic to explain a primary school students. 2. 3 helpful suggestions you to his. D. Identify the reader to define the topic for the expository piece of facts: outline, brown handbook. Topic. This page.\n\nSee Also", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9962201118469238}
+{"content": "In recent years, epidemiologic studies have r\n\nMethylglyoxal impairs GLUT4 trafficking and leads to increased glucose uptake in L6 myoblasts. These findings may provide insights into understanding of viral integration mechanism and virus-associated carcinogenesis of HPV-HNSCC. The average MMSE scores did not change over a one- or two-year follow-up period.\n\nHowever, the timing and mechanisms of germ cell specification is remarkably diverse in animal development. Colonoscopy and technetium-99m white cell scan in children with suspected amoxicillin for sinus infection inflammatory bowel disease. This concerns namely hexokinase (EC, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC and especially 6-phosphofructokinase (EC\n\nSensitive analysis of phospholipid molecular species by high-performance liquid chromatography using fluorescent naproxen amoxicillin uses derivatives of diacylglycerols. This protocol combines C-C bond cleavage and heterocyclic C-H bond functionalization to form new C-C bonds.\n\nA G-protein-coupled succinate receptor has recently been identified in several tissues, including the liver. (Digenea: Hemiuridae) from the mugilid Liza aurata with a molecular confirmation of its position within the Hemiuroidea. Surprisingly, histological examination amoxicillin dosierung showed it to be a giant oncoytoma.\n\nFeto-placental function and antenatal complications when the fetus has hydrocephalus. Ligand binding and thermal inactivation results support the conclusion that aspartate-103 is the ligand amoxicillin side effects in elderly amine counterion.\n\nThus, the hypothesis that polydomy allows workers in queenless nests to evade queen control for their reproduction is not supported in this instance. The hypothetical model was tested using structural equation modeling analysis. High circulating MIF levels were shown to correlate strongly with radiologic amoxicillin side effects joint damage, suggesting that MIF expression is genetically determined and can be used as a novel prognostic tool in RA.\n\nRho family GTPases appear to play amoxicillin rash an important role in the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton, but the mechanism of regulation is unknown. Hepatitis B vaccination and multiple sclerosis: evidence from a systematic review. The cell growth on the mineralized scaffolds and on the pure chitosan scaffold shows a similar growth trend.\n\nAberrant activation of the RAS pathway is ubiquitous in human hepatocarcinogenesis, but the molecular mechanisms leading to RAS induction in the absence of RAS mutations remain under-investigated. This study aims to describe the network configuration of gay saunas and amoxicillin for uti explore its relationship with risk behavior of MSM in the respective sauna communities, in the city of Hong Kong. There are no normative data available for this test for Japanese children.\n\nEvaluation of craniometric methods for determination of vertical dimension of occlusion–Part 2. Despite high ICC, the inter-observer reliability is not sufficient for multicenter use amoxicillin dose without prior reader training and calibration. Adverse childbirth experiences can evoke fear and overwhelming anxiety for some women and precipitate posttraumatic stress disorder.\n\nA technique of special interest is the production of fermentissible sugars by amoxicillin dosage for adults the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. Cysteamine therapy delays the progression of nephropathic cystinosis in late adolescents and adults.\n\nThe magnitude of respiratory depression was greater for ISO than amoxicillin without a doctor’s prescription for HAL. A variant in the adaptation of embryological nomenclature to the systematics of early human embryos Erratum to: Screening newborns for metabolic disorders based on targeted metabolomics using tandem mass spectrometry.\n\nVariation in the life history pattern of Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae) after selection for amoxicillin spc dispersal. In this study, a combined transcriptomic and proteomic approach was used to identify C.\n\nEndometrial directed biopsy during sonohysterography using the NiGo device: prospective study in women with abnormal uterine bleeding. But it is not clear from this isolated example whether amoxicillin dosage introns are more generally present in different genes or in more diverse branches of the eubacteria.\n\nA survey based on the Task Force recommendations was sent to all internship programs that reported offering a major rotation in pediatrics. quasi-experimental study, comparing an antenatal education group and a control group. Therefore, a microbial fuel cell was developed to simultaneously produce energy and recover amoxicillin trihydrate ammonium.\n\nHowever, the patient was diagnosed with paraplegia following extubation. ArDH is mainly produced amoxicillin clavulansäure by osmophilic fungi for the conversion of ribulose to arabitol under stress conditions.\n\nTendon structural properties are relevant for clinical applications, for amoxicillin side effects in women example in orthopedic surgery to elect suitable replacements. We introduce a set of general design principles to create intricate DNA tessellations by employing multi-arm DNA motifs with low symmetry.\n\nEndoscopic treatment of completely occluding anastomotic web using incision and ballooning after dye injection. By comparison with control males exposed to air, no mutagenic effects on any maturation stage amoxicillin pediatric dosing of spermatogenesis in treated males were detected.\n\nThe amplitude-weighted mean velocity-calculated regurgitant fraction is gain amoxicillin for sale independent, whereas the aortic and mitral integrals are gain dependent. However, there is no randomized trial available in order to prove the equality.\n\nZika virus RNA has been detected in blood, semen, cervical mucus and vaginal fluid. However, the neurophysiological substrates of memory deficits occurring in the amoxicillin for dogs absence of Arc/Arg3.1 are unknown.\n\nHoneybee queens are generated on purpose by extensive feeding with a glandular secretion termed royal jelly. The light chain contains 9 O-glycosidically linked carbohydrate side chains. Prevention of development of tolerance and dependence to opiate in mice amoxicillin for cats by BR-16A (Mentat), a herbal psychotropic preparation.\n\nElevated lactate levels are prognostic in prehospital, emergency department, and intensive care unit settings. Here, we demonstrated that HA1077 suppressed tube formation of endothelial cells in human umbilical amoxicillin-clavulanate 875-125 vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)-glioma cell co-culture assay.\n\nG-CSF-mobilized PBMNC implantation could be an effective approach to treating non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. Optical measurement amoxicillin dosage for children of the Bragg gratings together with piezo-actuation allows the mechanical resonances to be probed.\n\nRelated posts:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9472653865814209}
+{"content": "\n\nKajiado to Nairobi distance, location, road map and direction\n\nKajiado is located in Kenya at the longitude of 36.79 and latitude of -2.09. Nairobi is located in Kenya at the longitude of 36.82 and latitude of -1.29 .\n\nDistance between Kajiado and Nairobi\n\nThe total straight line distance between Kajiado and Nairobi is 89 KM (kilometers) and 200 meters. The miles based distance from Kajiado to Nairobi is 55.4 miles. This is a straight line distance and so most of the time the actual travel distance between Kajiado and Nairobi may be higher or vary due to curvature of the road .\n\nThe driving distance or the travel distance between Kajiado to Nairobi is 105 KM and 125 meters. The mile based, road distance between these two travel point is 65.3 miles.\n\nTime Difference between Kajiado and Nairobi\n\nThe sun rise time difference or the actual time difference between Kajiado and Nairobi is 0 hours , 0 minutes and 7 seconds. Note: Kajiado and Nairobi time calculation is based on UTC time of the particular city. It may vary from country standard time , local time etc.\n\nKajiado To Nairobi travel time\n\nKajiado is located around 89 KM away from Nairobi so if you travel at the consistent speed of 50 KM per hour you can reach Nairobi in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Your Nairobi travel time may vary due to your bus speed, train speed or depending upon the vehicle you use.\n\nMidway point between Kajiado To Nairobi\n\nMid way point or halfway place is a center point between source and destination location. The mid way point between Kajiado and Nairobi is situated at the latitude of -1.6927273182246 and the longitude of 36.805685062797. If you need refreshment you can stop around this midway place, after checking the safety,feasibility, etc.\n\nKajiado To Nairobi road map\n\nNairobi is located nearly North side to Kajiado. The bearing degree from Kajiado To Nairobi is 2 ° degree. The given North direction from Kajiado is only approximate. The given google map shows the direction in which the blue color line indicates road connectivity to Nairobi . In the travel map towards Nairobi you may find en route hotels, tourist spots, picnic spots, petrol pumps and various religious places. The given google map is not comfortable to view all the places as per your expectation then to view street maps, local places see our detailed map here.\n\nKajiado To Nairobi driving direction\n\nThe following diriving direction guides you to reach Nairobi from Kajiado. Our straight line distance may vary from google distance.\n\nTravel Distance from Kajiado\n\nThe onward journey distance may vary from downward distance due to one way traffic road. This website gives the travel information and distance for all the cities in the globe. For example if you have any queries like what is the distance between Kajiado and Nairobi ? and How far is Kajiado from Nairobi?. Driving distance between Kajiado and Nairobi. Kajiado to Nairobi distance by road. Distance between Kajiado and Nairobi is 61 KM / 38.1 miles. distance between Kajiado and Nairobi by road. It will answer those queires aslo. Some popular travel routes and their links are given here :-\n\nTravelers and visitors are welcome to write more travel information about Kajiado and Nairobi.\n\nName : Email :", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7958038449287415}
+{"content": "Приглашаем вас на лекцию \"‘Alternative facts and the financial markets in 2017\", которую проведет тренер Алекс Виртз из лондонской компании Alpha Development.\n\nЛекция состоится 22 мая в 12.00 ч в кабинете 408 (IV этаж) в здании Университета Финансов и Управления в Варшаве, на улице Павя 55.\n\nAlternative facts and the financial markets in 2017\n\nThe terms 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' entered mainstream political discourse in 2016. Are they not also applicable to the financial markets? Does the continuing bull market in stocks make sense in terms of the underlying economy, likely outcomes for investors, or even common sense? In this lecture, we will explore the state of the markets and why, and how, they have reached their current, 'post-factual' state. \n\nAlex Wirtz\n\nAlex’s background is in technology development for the financial markets. He is an experienced financial markets trainer who has delivered programmes across the world for leading financial institutions in both the buy and sell sides. He is also an experienced developer and has delivered digital courseware and over 400 financial markets simulations to 8,500+ learners.\n\nЕще раз - приглашаем!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994596838951111}
+{"content": "You are here\n\n\nAt St. Stanislaus, we believe in providing the  child with a well-rounded learning experience.  Hence, we have adopted XSEED a learning curriculum.  Children learn by experience thereby, giving him a strong foundation for life.\n\nIn the XSEED method, children are encouraged to write in their own words instead of copying from a book or blackboard.  The reason behind this is to help the children become independent thinkers and writers.\n\nThe year began with Std. I  exploring the theme ME AND MY BODY.  Through classroom experiences, children began to be aware of their body and  learned to appreciate the fact that each one of us is special and unique.\n\nThrough the exciting theme of FOOD WE EAT, Std II  learned about healthy food, discovered the sources of food, explored the goodness of a healthy meal and planned their daily diet.\n\nStd. III began investigating  and taking care of different INSECTS.  Some of the insects they  observed   transformed completely like changing from egg to caterpillar to crystallize to a butterfly. Children will be made to understand the interdependence of living organisms.\n\nPractical  teaching is beneficial for both the teacher and the students since it makes learning easier and interesting\n\nMrs. Mayrose D’souza\nHeadmistress – Primary Section", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8571208119392395}
+{"content": "So we actually left Aberdeen yesterday.  But what a beautiful city. Grey large stone buildings everywhere...gothic, elegant, grand, absolutely stunning.  Graveyards in the middle of the city, so much more a part of everyday life, so interesting.\n\nCaught up with an old friend...well, really she is not that old, but a beautiful soul,  who manages to bring me joy at every turn.  She is living in this beautiful fisherman's cottage that used to be a  fishing village. \n\nBehind her house is the most gorgeous beach. A huge expanse of  sand with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves. Off shore I counted 19 oil tankers on the horizon waiting to be called in.  Apparently docking is 10,000 pounds a day. Amazing the world wide impact oil has had.  \n\n Another  amazing sight is children getting off the train in the morning in their school uniforms.  All in ties and school blazers and kilts ... quite  a site. Children of all ages in their school uniforms, bantering back and forth,  on and off the train. Really independent. Really an amazing sight.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9799495339393616}
+{"content": "A finger pokes a small hole through a fusuma (Japanese-style sliding door). A girl bends down and peeks through the hole. She sees something. A woman notices a hole on one of the fusuma in the apartment. Bewildered by this, she moves closer to the door and tries to see through the small crack if there is anything on the other side. Coincidence? Or is there a larger mystery behind the doors?\n\nOur House is screening at Japannual Festival\n\nThis is the intricate world created by young director Yui Kiyohara (清原唯) in her master thesis film. Graduated from Tokyo University of Arts, Kiyohara won the Grand Prix at Pia Film Festival, Japan’s most important film festival dedicated to independent filmmaking. Mentored by auteurs like Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Nobuhiro Suwa (Suwa and producer Shoji Matsui served as the advisors for “Our House”), Kiyohara invokes the unknown within an ordinary world and asks us to stay with it without destroying it with our desire for knowledge and closure.\n\nThe premise of the film might sound gimmicky for some. The majority of the story happens in the same location, an apartment in Yokohama shared by two groups of people. The twist is they never exist in the same space at the same time. Seri, a teenage girl who lives with her single mother, enjoys hanging out with her friend at the beach, playing with mother’s cosmetic products, and occasionally seeing or hearing there is someone in the house that no one else is aware of. Sana, a woman who wakes up one night at a ferry and forgets everything, except her name perhaps, about herself. She is traveling with a suitcase and a well-wrapped present, which she can’t remember whom is it for. She is taken in by Toko, a quiet young woman who lives alone and dedicates her time repairing children’s clothes. But these acts seem to be her facade to cover up her real identity. If Toko is the one who leads a mysterious life that she doesn’t want to share with Sana; Sana is the one whose identity is a puzzle for herself, and yet she is also the one in this relationship who can sense that there is something strange happening on the other side.\n\n\nThese four people live in the same house but never encounter one another physically. And it is quite possible that Seri and Sana are the only two who can see that there are mysteries in this mundane space. However, Kiyohara is never interested in solving the narrative puzzle and giving us answers. The film then becomes a precious experience where you somehow have to learn how to coexist with the mystery. When one is watching this film, unlike watching a puzzle film like “Memento”, one’s mission is not to “solve” the cleaver narrative quizzes, but to stay with the state of unknown. One of her mentors, Suwa, once told an interviewer that an ideal film is a film that the director is open to the unexpected things happening during the shooting. When making a film, a director should be staying in a process of discovery. Through “Our House”, Kiyohara is reminding us the feeling that one really doesn’t know everything.\n\n\nThough people might be intrigued by this work because they see Kiyoshi Kurosawa is attached with this film, this is not a horror film in any conventional sense. Kiyohara doesn’t want to terrify or unsettle you with nightmarish imagery or eerie atmosphere. Instead, what you will get is a chance to face the unknown.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9713037014007568}
+{"content": "Receive alerts when this company posts new jobs.\n\nSimilar Jobs\n\nJob Details\n\nData Analyst, Enterprise Strategy\n\n\nPosted: 9/17/2019\nJob Status: Full Time\nJob Reference #: d32008fc-9c8a-4005-8e24-9d8237c585da\n\nJob Description\n\nData Analyst, Enterprise Strategy\n\nDenver, Colorado\nBusiness – Strategy\n\nApply for this job\n\n\nSkupos is the data platform for the convenience retail industry. Retailers, distributors, and brands connect to the Skupos network to create value from disparate data. Convenience retail is a long-standing industry with limited technology adoption, but is responsible for more revenue annually than all of e-commerce in the United States. Skupos leverages our massive datasets to build tools that help the industry succeed.\n\nSkupos software integrates at a retailer’s point of sale, generates analytical insights, and automates the inventory and ordering process. For distributors and CPG brands, we provide real-time visibility into consumer purchasing decisions and enable automated promotional discounts at the point of sale. We view our company as revolutionizing a brick-and-mortar industry by bringing cutting-edge technology to physical stores, and helping harness data to create a frictionless connection between millions of people and the products they need.\n\n\nAs a Data Analyst for Enterprise Strategy at Skupos, you will work with our Strategy, Customer Experience, and Sales teams to understand our customers’ business goals and then structure data to measure success against these goals. This role is about using “data” for “business”—you have advanced technical skills and a developed business sense that enables you to source data correctly to answer business questions optimally (e.g., analyzing ROI, measuring periodicity, evaluating outliers).\n\nYour “data” sense means you can create complex SQL queries to extract and process data, while your “business” sense means you intuitively understand the data sources needed to answer business questions. Based on your prior experience, you may have exposure to mathematical or statistical models to address more complex business questions (e.g., demand forecasting, price elasticity). Problem-solving skills and attention to detail are essential. Ideally you have experience and interest with CPG, retail, or supply chain data.\n\n\nThe role will be part of our Strategy & Growth team, which is a small cross-functional group that works on different business problems across the company. As our first Data Analyst on the Strategy team, you will play a critical role in identifying the data sources and extraction methods needed to “calculate value” for our enterprise customers. We strive to learn fast, think fast, and move fast. People development is a top priority, so frequent feedback is expected and encouraged from all team members.\n\n\nIdentifying the right data and the best extraction process to answer business questions\n\nProcessing and cleaning large amounts of fragmented data quickly and effectively\nDeveloping a scalable data methodology and tools that will be the basis for all enterprise customer implementations\nBecoming a subject matter expert on the way that transaction data drives business value for enterprise customers\nWorking closely with Strategy Analysts to ensure that analysis for customers’ business questions is informed by the best data available\nIdentifying additional data extraction, cleaning, and optimization opportunities based on exposure to our data environment\n\n\nTop notch technical skills and a business mindset.\n\nExperience in extracting, processing, and manipulating data from various sources.\nAbility to understand business questions and their impact on data needs.\nSelf motivation, process-driven perspective, and detail orientation.\nAdvanced proficiency with SQL and other database querying languages.\nProficiency with Excel, Tableau, Alteryx, Looker, or other analytical tools.\nExposure to Python, R, or other programming and statistical tools is a plus.\nAbility to thrive and adapt in a high growth and rapidly changing startup environment.\n\n\nBachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.\n\n2+ years of experience in a data or technical analytics role, with a focus on accessing and processing data using SQL\nStrong exposure to the business implications of data, with a track record of delivering business-minded results\nStrong critical thinking and problem-solving skills to evolve the core data underlying our customer relationships\nExperience in a high-growth tech company environment is a plus\n\nApply for this job", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8754056096076965}
+{"content": "Saturday, February 24, 2018\n\nHow Robotic Process Automation can improve performance for all organizations\n\nThe first reason that organizations should consider including robotic process automation is due to accuracy and efficiency. Since robots are programmed to work in a particular way, they give accurate data ... FAST. An example is that it can monitor the time the supplier arrives, the time it takes to unload the products, the time it takes to verify and also arrange the products in the store. Since it gives accurate times, an entrepreneur may discover that they need a new system, or more personnel at a particular station, or for certain services. That helps to increase the effectiveness of the overall services offered at the organization.\n\nThe robotic process automation are efficient and reliable. Robots don’t have problems that humans have such as falling sick, or having to take leaves to attend personal matters. They also don’t have leave days, meaning that work will be running as normal 24/7/365. Assuming that one of the robotic processes is in the human resource department, it keeps all employees on toes. That is because they know that their every move is monitored. The robot or a BOT can be programmed to review when an employee logged on and off to the organization's system and the sites that they spent much time on. In comparison to human resource, a human resource manager can tell how long a person has sat on their desk, merely by estimation, but can’t tell how much time they spent working.\n\nAnother reason that organization should consider robotic process automation is cost effectiveness. Initially, it will be expensive to implement software robots. However, it is certain that it will be easier to recover the capital over several months or years. One thing is that it will reduce human labor. That means fewer funds on salaries and wages. It thus leads to savings. Other than that, automating monotonous tasks  are faster and more efficient. That means that more people are served in comparison to the manual processes. An organization is able to keep its existing customers, while at the same time attracting new customers. In the long-run, the company makes more sales, resulting to higher profit margins.\nAnother reason is that organizations have to keep up with the changes in technology. They aren’t doing it simply because it is a trend, but rather to keep up with their competitors. In such a case, many people will prefer to visit the shop with automated services. Their reasons will vary from curiosity, where they want to understand how the automation works, to saving time among other reasons.\n\nMonday, December 25, 2017\n\nInvestment in Cryptocurrency Bitcoin & LiteCoin – The Present and the Future\n\nInvestment in Cryptocurrency \n\nHumans have evolved a lot in the field of financial transactions from past generations. Starting with barter system, and then came the metal coins, currency papers, and plastic cards to digital wallets and now cryptocurrency. This virtual currency is distributed and has no principal banking system to monitor the payments and services. Cryptography standard is used for these digital transactions taking place directly between the users.\n\nBitcoin – The Present and the Future \n\nBitcoin has taken its form as a way of paying the mining process and is released as open source software. With no middlemen and ease of doing international transactions, most of the small and medium businesses are inclined towards doing Bitcoin transactions. This is one of the prime reasons for a sharp price rise of this cryptocurrency in 2017 to around $14,200.\n\nA user can acquire bitcoin from the specifically termed marketplaces known as bitcoin exchanges. Many of the users do transaction using this currency while others hold it as an investment option.\nThe CME group based in Chicago is planning a deal promotion for Bitcoin futures this month. To join this is the NASDAQ stock market with a site on supplies for Bitcoin futures early in 2018. Well this promises a better future for Bitcoin.\n\nThere are certain countries where Bitcoin transactions are banned. Vietnam, China and 6 other countries is where Bitcoin transactions are considered illegal. This ban comes in the wake of this cryptocurrency being widely used for drug trading and money laundering.\n\nAs we weigh the pros and cons of this virtual currency, there are more loopholes in this format which makes us think that is this a Bitcoin Bubble?\n\nSecurity Vs Secrecy: \n\nEvery user wants their financial transactions to be secure, no doubt Bitcoin offers that but it comes with a hidden loop of Secrecy. It means the user can never know the details of the buyers and sellers as they can see only their wallet ID’s.\n\nThe cryptocurrency world offers another currency known as Litecoin. The name is Lite but its transaction speed is faster than that of a bitcoin. With more limit of coins i.e. up to 84 million, Litecoin is the preferred format for less expensive transactions.\n\nYou can visit companies such as Coinbase or following link for doing any transactions on Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Bitcoin\n\nCode of Practice:\n\nWith no proper regulations, unlike the traditional currency formats the future of bitcoin remains bleak. With over 16 million bitcoins in circulation it looks growing at one time but again the steep increase in the rate and a sudden fall raise doubts that is Bitcoin Bubble?\n\nOne of the alternatives to Bitcoin is the faster Litecoin. This has a better technology and uses the same protocol as Bitcoin. It’s on a positive path from the inception and is operated on all foremost exchanges with high liquidity; Litecoin can be the next big thing to Bitcoin.\n\nA share in the rise of Bitcoin is owed to the excitement and buzz it created when entering the market.\nFor any trading on Bitcoin and Litecoin you can visit:\n\n\nIs Bitcoin called a bubble due to the ignorance in this cryptocurrency format or a Brilliant invention after understanding how it works?  It is the current trend and how the future unfolds for this virtual currency let’s wait and Watch.\n\nWednesday, December 13, 2017\n\nHow To Make A safe investment in Crypto Currency\n\nHow To Make A safe investment in Crypto Currency\n\nThere was a time most people thought that crypto currency was one of those investments that may never see the light of a day. There are many ways you invest in this treasure; like buying bitcoins and litecoins. Even those who were sitting on the fence are ready to invest in crypto currency. \n\n\n\n\nCypto-Currencies You Can Invest In\n\nThere are different platforms like CoinBase you can make use of when dealing with cypto currencies. With the numerous cypto currencies to deal with, there are two that are great for investment: \n\n\n\nAre you still thinking if these investments are worth it? When you are ready to start your cypto currency investment, you can start with  CoinBase. There are hundreds of online platforms that deal on these currencies. For you to be safe, it is best that you make use of a trustworthy platform that is friendly and easy to use. \n\nWhether you are buying or selling your coins, this platform will help you with your financial support. At the end of the day, you are the one to reap massively from the options that would be offered you by coinbase.\n\nThursday, November 24, 2016\n\nHow IT consulting and hiring subject matter experts helps Small Businesses\n\nWhen you think about consulting, it’s more about advising a person, a business or another type of organization about growth. For a business, especially a small business, having a consultant can help that business to grow exponentially in terms of income growth and service growth. That is because consultants are there to help guide that business in the right direction by evaluating, analyzing and coming up with a plan to make that business succeed. \n\nSo here are the ways that consultants can help small businesses and individual skilled consultant.\n\nHow consulting helps small businesses.\n\nConsulting can help a small business through hiring contractors. By having outsource contractors, you do not have to spend time or money in overhead related to hiring permanent employees and can directly focus more on the final product before paying only for the final product. This therefore is a huge advantage because small businesses may not have the resources to produce profitable goods and services if they do not hire talent directly. Consulting can therefore serve to grow businesses in the long term by making changes to the processes and optimizing other processes within a business.\n\nThere are specifically three areas where consulting can help small businesses to grow. They are:\n\n1.    Find problems within the businesses. Whether it is an organizational problem or a production line problem etc.; external consultants can be hired to find those problems within the small businesses. This is better than a small business owner guessing whether a problem exists or not. In a rapidly changing business environment; businesses need to be able to identify problems as quickly as possible in order to be not left behind. Consultants prevent that problem because they are experts in their field, and so they can fix problems.\n\n2.   Fix the problems within the small business. As previously stated, the advantage of a small business consultant is that they are experienced in their field to the point that they know how to fix the problems in their business. This is extremely advantageous to a small business because the small business can use that information to grow their income sources, reduce overhead and increase service growth.\n\n3.   Optimizing. This means that the consultant will take an existing process and make it better. This is important for the small business because if they want to increase production or offer a better service, then it makes sense to go and optimize their existing processes in order to become better at what they do. Not improving their processes will leave them behind in this harsh business environment at the moment.\n\nIf you want more information on the benefits of consulting, you can go to and there you can find more information or even find referrals to experts in the consulting field. They also have resources that can allow you to take the first steps towards becoming a consultant yourself.\n\nIndividual Skilled Person can use consulting benefits - Use your expertise\n\n\nSo here are the ways that consulting can help individual skilled consultant.\n\nThe major advantage in individual skilled consultants is their skills and experience. Many individual skilled consultants are capable of working on their own because they have the experience in their industry to produce results. Therefore, for something like a small business, this is especially advantageous because there is such a need for an experience from a consultant. If that person was not experienced, then that consultant would not be able to do their job. \n\nAny work from a small business can be managed by an individual skilled consultant. If this person is working a full time job; then the small business can work around the person’s schedule. This flexibility should not be a problem for the small business because the consultant can come in short bursts to advise on problems, fix problems and improve the processes and structures at the businesses without having to be devoted full-time to the business.\n\nIf that person has their own consulting business or firm, then it will be easier to get their attention to new customers and therefore having the ability to have a high satisfaction rate. This is because they are now working full-time on consulting and therefore they can spend lots of time, potentially, on the small businesses that they can help. That does not necessarily mean that more can be done, but it does help that the consultant can advise on a full-time basis as much as possible.\n\nAs previously mentioned, go to and there you can find out about how to become a consultant in the IT industry. There, you will get resources and also contact them through their phone number. This is a great opportunity for those who dream of being a consultant and do not know what to do to achieve that dream. So go ahead and do that now.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5979938507080078}
+{"content": "Request edit access\nRegional Team of the Year 2019\nNomination form for the Harbour Sports Excellence Awards Regional Team of the Year 2019.\n\nNomination criteria:\n- All team members must have represented or reside in the Harbour region.\n- A team is defined as a group of athletes who contribute to a single team score i.e. netball team, swimming relay team etc.\n- Key achievements must occur during the period of 1st October 2018 to 30th September 2019.\n- The nominee will be judged on level of performance: local/ regional/ national/ Australasian/ Oceania/ international/ World Championships\n- Key achievements in the last 12 months\nNominator (Your) Name *\nYour answer\nNominator Email *\nYour answer\nNominator Contact Number *\nYour answer\nTeam Name *\nYour answer\nTeam Members (Please List Names)\nYour answer\nNominees Sport *\nYour answer\nNominees Emails *\nYour answer\nNever submit passwords through Google Forms.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7752442359924316}
+{"content": "Poseidon odysseus relationship\n\nPoseidon - Wikipedia\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nOther reasons include their support for opposing sides in the Trojan war, Poseidon siding with the Trojans and Odysseus with the Greeks. The relationship . Get an answer for 'In The Odyssey, describe Odysseus' relationship with Zeus did not want to make Poseidon even angrier, but he says that all the gods. today, it seems that father-son relationships have drifted apart; a father still Laertes yearns for his son to come home, as Anticleia, Odysseus's.\n\nA feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is also found, indicating a lost consort goddess, in effect the precursor of Amphitrite. Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka wanax in Linear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld.\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nThe chthonic nature of Poseidon-Wanax is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos[8] a powerful attribute earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture. In the cave of Amnisos Crete Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. The \"Two Queens\" may be related with Demeter and Persephoneor their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods.\n\nThe violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys furious. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her, as goddess of nature. A Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water. Linear B represents an archaic Greek dialect.\n\nWhat to Know About Poseidon’s Grudge Against Odysseus\n\nTheir religious beliefs were mixed with the beliefs of the indigenous population. It is possible that the Greeks did not bring with them other gods except ZeusEosand the Dioskouroi. The horse numina was related with the liquid element, and with the underworld. Poseidon appears as a beast horsewhich is the river spirit of the underworld, as it usually happens in northern-European folklore, and not unusually in Greece. We do not know if \"Posedeia\" was a sea-goddess.\n\nHomer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea following the defeat of his father Kronoswhen the world was divided by lot among his three sons; Zeus was given the sky, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea, with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to all three.\n\n\nA sum of gold is mentioned to have been sent as a reward for Palamedes' treachery.\n\nOdyssey: The Relationship Between the Gods and Humans\n\nOdysseus then kills the prisoner and hides the gold in Palamedes' tent. He ensures that the letter is found and acquired by Agamemnon, and also gives hints directing the Argives to the gold. This is evidence enough for the Greeks, and they have Palamedes stoned to death.\n\nOther sources say that Odysseus and Diomedes goad Palamedes into descending a well with the prospect of treasure being at the bottom. When Palamedes reaches the bottom, the two proceed to bury him with stones, killing him. During the funeral games for Achilles, Odysseus competes once again with Telamonian Ajax. Thetis says that the arms of Achilles will go to the bravest of the Greeks, but only these two warriors dare lay claim to that title.\n\nThe two Argives became embroiled in a heavy dispute about one another's merits to receive the reward. The Greeks dither out of fear in deciding a winner, because they did not want to insult one and have him abandon the war effort. Nestor suggests that they allow the captive Trojans decide the winner. Enraged and humiliated, Ajax is driven mad by Athena. When he returns to his senses, in shame at how he has slaughtered livestock in his madness, Ajax kills himself by the sword that Hector had given him after their duel.\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nA great warrior, Pyrrhus is also called Neoptolemus Greek for \"new warrior\". Upon the success of the mission, Odysseus gives Achilles' armour to him.\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nIt is learned that the war can not be won without the poisonous arrows of Heracleswhich are owned by the abandoned Philoctetes. Odysseus and Diomedes or, according to some accounts, Odysseus and Neoptolemus leave to retrieve them. Upon their arrival, Philoctetes still suffering from the wound is seen still to be enraged at the Danaansespecially at Odysseus, for abandoning him.\n\nAlthough his first instinct is to shoot Odysseus, his anger is eventually diffused by Odysseus' persuasive powers and the influence of the gods. Odysseus returns to the Argive camp with Philoctetes and his arrows.\n\nIt is built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors, led by Odysseus. Some late Roman sources indicate that Odysseus schemed to kill his partner on the way back, but Diomedes thwarts this attempt.\n\nIn Virgil 's Aeneidwritten between 29 and 19 BC, he is constantly referred to as \"cruel Odysseus\" Latin dirus Ulixes or \"deceitful Odysseus\" pellacis, fandi fictor. Turnus, in Aeneid, book 9, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring in John Dryden 's translation\"You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear.\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nIn Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia at Aulishaving convinced Agamemnon to consent to the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess ArtemisOdysseus facilitates the immolation by telling Iphigenia's mother, Clytemnestrathat the girl is to be wed to Achilles.\n\nOdysseus' attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus and Helen offended Roman notions of duty, and the many stratagems and tricks that he employed to get his way offended Roman notions of honour. Odysseus and his crew escape the cyclops Polyphemus. Odyssey Odysseus is probably best known as the eponymous hero of the Odyssey.\n\n\nWhat to Know About Poseidon's Grudge Against Odysseus\n\nOn the way home from Troy, after a raid on Ismarus in the land of the Ciconeshe and his twelve ships are driven off course by storms. They visit the lethargic Lotus-Eaters and are captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus while visiting his island.\n\nAfter Polyphemus eats several of his men, Polyphemus and Odysseus have a discussion and Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is \"Nobody\". Odysseus takes a barrel of wine, and the Cyclops drinks it, falling asleep. Odysseus and his men take a wooden stake, ignite it with the remaining wine, and blind him.\n\nposeidon odysseus relationship\n\nWhile they escape, Polyphemus cries in pain, and the other Cyclopes ask him what is wrong. Polyphemus cries, \"Nobody has blinded me! Odysseus and his crew escape, but Odysseus rashly reveals his real name, and Polyphemus prays to Poseidon, his father, to take revenge. They stay with Aeolusthe master of the winds, who gives Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home.\n\nHowever, the sailors foolishly open the bag while Odysseus sleeps, thinking that it contains gold. All of the winds fly out, and the resulting storm drives the ships back the way they had come, just as Ithaca comes into sight. After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embark and encounter the cannibalistic Laestrygonians.\n\nOdysseus' ship is the only one to escape. He sails on and visits the witch-goddess Circe. She turns half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warns Odysseus about Circe and gives him a drug called molywhich resists Circe's magic.\n\nCirce, being attracted to Odysseus' resistance, falls in love with him and releases his men. Odysseus and his crew remain with her on the island for one year, while they feast and drink. Finally, Odysseus' men convince him to leave for Ithaca. Guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew cross the ocean and reach a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrifices to the dead and summons the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias for advice.\n\nNext Odysseus meets the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief during his long absence. From her, he learns for the first time news of his own household, threatened by the greed of Penelope 's suitors. Odysseus also talks to his fallen war comrades and the mortal shade of Heracles.\n\nOdysseus and the SirensUlixes mosaic at the Bardo National Museum in TunisTunisia, 2nd century AD Odysseus' ship passing between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdisfrom a fresco by Alessandro Allori — Returning to Circe's island, she advises them on the remaining stages of the journey.\n\nThey skirt the land of the Sirenspass between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdiswhere they row directly between the two. However, Scylla drags the boat towards her by grabbing the oars and eats six men. They land on the island of Thrinacia.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9956026077270508}
+{"content": "{{sectionRootNode = 6480;\"\"}} {{section = 6485;\"\"}} {{vm.pagination.itemsPerPage = 10;}}\n\nThe MAXMEYER® brand's range provides bodyshops with products that are easy-to-use and that enhance efficiency and maximise profit.\n\nMaxMeyer brand's range of hardeners and thinners mean that spot repairs through to total resprays can be carried out easily under a wide range of temperatures and bodyshop conditions.\n\nWaterborne Clearcoat\n\n(Local market to add text if critical launch in your market)\n\n\nMAXMEYER® and MAXICAR®  are registered trademarks of PPG Industries Europe, Sarl.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9569302797317505}
+{"content": "For problems associated with finding of solutions, it is important that a feasible solution be found that is useful for every sum in regards to this transportation problem.\n\nThere are 3 methods that are to be followed while finding out the initial feasible solution. This include:\n\n  • Vogel’s approximation method\n  • North west corner method\n  • Least cost method\n\nWith these methods followed in a particular manner, this whole process of getting correct solution is eased to a great extent.\n\nVogel’s approximation method:\n\nIn this case,difference associated with each row and columnar unit of a matrix is taken into consideration. This arithmetic difference is found as a difference of the smallest with the next to the smallest element that is present in that particular column or row. Thus, with this, the minimum amount can be seen.\n\nNorth west corner method:\n\nIn this method, there are multiple steps that are to be followed. Once these steps are successfully completed an ideal solution can be found.\n\nInitially, the top left-hand corner is to be taken into consideration, where the maximum feasible amount that is there is placed. Now as per supply, cell has to be moved either in the right direction or downward and solution can be obtained.\n\nGive in this case,unit cost of transportation is not taken, so solution may not be optimal. But as an initial solution, this acts as a base for improvement.\n\nLeast cost method:\n\nIn this case, as well, certain steps are to be followed to get the minimal feasible solution. Here a transportation table is given from where the least cost has to be determined.  Allocation of the maximum feasible quantity is to be made in regards to that column which already has the least cost associated with it. Finally, after removing that row which has the allocation costs, the first 2 points are to be repeated.\n\nThus, with the help of these methods, an ideal feasible solution can be found in the best possible manner.\n\nSubmit Your Assignment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7485625743865967}
+{"content": "Hip Pain Treatment in New York\n\nThe hip is a prominence of the pelvis extending from the waist to the upper legs and is one of the most central and stabilizing locations in the body. Because of its importance to the workings of the lower extremities, the hip is prone to a greater number of injuries than many other parts of the body. Athletes and runners, especially, are especially susceptible to hip injuries. Hip injury treatment is often necessary for individuals suffering conditions like pinched nerve, labral tears, stress fracture, hip bursitis, impingement, and strained hip flexor.\n\nHip Pain Conditions\n\nHip flexor strain refers to a condition affecting the muscles that allow flexion in the hips. Prominent among them are the iliopsoas muscles (the psoas major and iliacus muscle) and the muscles in the interior compartment of the thigh (the rector femoris and sartorius). The most important of these, the iliopsoas, is pivotal for standing, running, and walking. Strained hip flexor treatment includes conventional treatments like icing, resting, and stretching. Stretching of the hip flexors and quadriceps muscles and improve strength and flexibility.\n\nThe iliopsoas is sometimes injuried when the thigh is forced to extend or is blocked during active extension. This can occur, for example, in soccer players who are struck on the leg as their leg is extending to kick the soccer ball. It can also occur during weight lifting or uphill running.\n\nPubic symphysis dysfunction is a major cause of groin pain in some patients. This is a condition affecting a joint cartilage located between the left and right pubic bones above the genitalia and anterior to the bladder. Typically pubic symphysis dysfunction is the result of injury during high-speed cutting activity. It may also concurrently with adductor strain. In rare cases widening of the pelvic joints during pregnancy can harm the joint cartilage, resulting in dysfunction. Symptoms may include tenderness and swelling in the groin area and difficulty getting out of chairs, walking, going upstairs, and climbing into bed. Sometimes the pain is accompanied by a clicking sensation.\n\nStress fractures are another common source of hip pain in athletes—both femoral stress neck fractures and pubic ramus stress fractures. The pubic ramis is located at the front side of the pelvis and is divided into the inferior and superior pubic ramis, while the femoral neck is a flattened region near the top of the femur (thigh bone).\n\nPubic ramis stress fractures account for a small number of athletic stress fractures. They are especially common, however, in long-distance runners who undergo sudden changes in speed or intensity. Symptoms will include a gradual feeling of pain that is exacerbated by physical exercise.\n\nFemoral neck stress fractures also affect long-distance runners and can result not only from dramatic changes in routine but also from overuse, impaired bone metabolism, and muscle fatigue resulting in a loss of shock absorption. Risk factors can be exacerbated by training errors, improper footwear, and running on uneven surfaces. Symptoms may include pain in the groin, hip, or thigh that that lessens when the patient is not active.\n\nPubic ramus hip stress fracture treatment consists of avoiding activities that cause pain for between four to six weeks. While resting and recovering, the patient should engage in non-weight-bearing activities and exercises that stretch the adductor muscle group, with the ultimate goal of gradually transitioning back into normal activity. Within three to five months most athletes will show signs of recovery. Treatment for femoral neck stress fractures varies according to the nature of the injury. Compression fractures, which are common in younger patients, can normally be treated with conventional treatments if the fracture involves less than half the width of the femoral neck. A doctor will recommend avoiding weight-bearing activities, and in more extreme cases may prescribe a short bed rest. He or she will then gradually supervise a return to normal activities.\n\nThe hip has a labrum, a ring of articular cartilage, that deepens the acetabulum, a vast depression in the pelvis. Hip labral tears generally occur following some form of trauma, such as slipping or dislocation, although they are also sometimes associated with osteoarthritis. Symptoms of hip labral tear include pain during twists or pivots and pain during extension. These may be accompanied by a loud clicking sound and a feeling that the hip is “giving way.” Treatment for hip labral tear includes conservative management with physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medication.\n\nHip impingement, or femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a condition in which the bones of the hip are abnormally shaped and don’t fit together. As a result, the bones brush up against each other and cause friction. Although recognition of hip impingement is difficult, proper hip impingement treatment is important because the disorder may lead to osteoarthritis in young adults with otherwise normal anatomies. Symptoms of FAI include groin pain, pain over the greater trochanter, and grinding or popping sounds. Patients may also have trouble flexing and rotating, and may experience pain after periods of prolonged sitting.\n\nHip bursitis is an affliction of the bursae, small sac-like cavities that help lubricate the soft tissues around the joints and alleviate the friction that results when bones rub against each other. While bursae exist wherever there are joints in the body, the most commonly injured bursae in the hip area are the ischial, iliopsoas, and greater trochanteric bursitis. Typically this condition results from inflammation as a result of excessive friction and traumatic injury. Iliopsoas bursitis often occurs in athletes who are required to use their hip flexors excessively (soccer, ballet, hurdling), while greater trochanteric bursitis is often a result of overuse. Symptoms include pain when running, climbing stair, or standing for long periods of time. Treatment for hip bursitis is generally non-surgical and consists of rest, anti-inflammatory medication, and exercises for stretching. If the condition proves resist to conservative treatment, a physician may recommend corticosteroid injection to lessen inflammation and pain.\n\nMeralgia paresthetica, or lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment, is a condition that causes pinching of a nerve in the femur. While initially this condition was thought to proceed surgical treatments like appendectomy and bone grafting, it has more recently been reported in diabetic and obese patients, and in those wearing tight clothing on the lower half of their bodies. Athletes suffering from meralgia paresthetica may feel pain, numbness, or tingling above the thigh. Prolonged flexion or an increase in muscle mass can also be factors. As is typical for treatment of pinched nerve in hip, lateral femoral entrapment is generally treatable with non-surgical treatments like heat, physical therapy, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.\n\nHip tendinitis is a broad term used to describe a condition of inflammation or degeneration of tendons in the hips. The patient will notice a gradual increase in pain over time, along with tenderness at the site of the affected area. He or she may encounter discomfort when stretching adjoining muscles, and stiffness when first getting out of bed. Tendinitis hip treatment includes rest, gentle stretching, and, once the pain has subsided, a program of strengthening exercises for the injured muscles.\n\nTreatment for Hip Pain at the New York DNR\n\nPatients needing treatment for groin pain or hip strain treatment will find comprehensive treatment at the New York DNR. We use musculoskeletal ultrasonography to analyze the integrity of the tissues around the hip joints and assess movement dysfunction in the joint and pelvis. In complicated cases we use instrumented gait or running analysis to visualize movement dysfunction. The data obtained from gait analysis and clinical examination provides a basis for pain treatment to eliminates faulty movements while rebuilding strength and coordination of the hip.\n\nFinally, because problems in the hip often arise because of asymmetrical weight-bearing, we use Computer-Assisted Rehabilitation Environment, a breakthrough rehabilitation technology, to locate gait irregularities. C.A.R.E.N’s force-plate and motion-capture analysis creates a virtual-reality environment that measures motion of a subject and provides precise therapeutic strategies for recovery and healing.\n\n130 West 42 Street Suite 1055, New York NY 10036\n\n\n\n\nDynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating\nthe full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy\ndue to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient\nto proper diagnostic workup\n\nDemonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed\nto be a complete tear with muscle contraction\nunder diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)\n\n\nComplete tear of rectus femoris\nwith large hematoma (blood)\n\n\nSeparation of muscle ends due to tear elicited\non dynamic sonography examination\n\nYou can call\nor Send message", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8974236845970154}
+{"content": "\n\nThe Discovery of the Structure of DNA Essay\n\nDNA was first discovered by the Swiss scientist Friedrich Miescher in 1869 when he isolated it (along with RNA) from human white blood cells.Because DNA and RNA were located in the nucleus of the cells, he called the substances “nuclein.” They later became known as “nucleic acids.” At the same time, the search was on for the chemical compound in cells that held an organism’s genetic code.In 1864 Gregor Mendel concluded from his experiments with pea plants that an organism’s characteristics are inherited in discrete “packages” which became known as genes. The question was:where were the genes located in the cell?What chemical substance in the cell held the genetic material?\n\nBy 1900, it was known that DNA consisted of 3 types of chemicals:sugars, phosphates, and bases of which there were four types (A, T, C and G). Chromosomes were first seen under the microscope in 1882.Since they doubled just before cell division and halved in number when forming sex cells, it was realised that chromosomes must carry the genes. Chromosomes contain protein as well as DNA and it was assumed that the proteins carried the genes since their molecular structure was much more complex. But a series of experiments by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty showed in 1944 that it was indeed DNA that was the genetic material of the cell. They found that they could transform one type of pneumonia bacteria into another simply by mixing it with the DNA of the other. This result was confirmed by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase in 1952 while studying how viruses infect bacteria.\n\nWe will write a custom essay sample on The Discovery of the Structure of DNA specifically for you\nfor only $16.38 $13.9/page\n\nOrder now\n\nOnce it was established that DNA did indeed carry inherited information, the race was on to discover how. The key lay in determining the molecular structure and shape of the DNA. In 1949 Erwin Chargoff discovered that the amount of adenine in a sample of DNA was always the same as the amount of thymine, and the amount of cytosine was always the same as the a…\n\nHow to cite this page\n\nChoose cite format:\n\nThe Discovery of the Structure of DNA. (2019, Mar 13). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-the-discovery-of-the-structure-of-dna/\n\nWe will write a custom paper sample onThe Discovery of the Structure of DNAspecifically for you\n\nfor only $16.38 $13.9/page\nOrder now\n\n\nNo results found for “ image\nTry Our service\n\nHi, I am Colleen from Paperap.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6353486180305481}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 13\n\nTopic 1 – Didactic evolution of languages. current tendencies in the didactic of english as a foreign language.\n\nCommunicative approache…\nGuardado en Dropbox • 16 oct 2016 19C40\n\n\n¿No tienes cuenta? - [ Regístrate aquí ]\n\n\nToda la documentación que encontrarás en Oposinet la puedes tener en tu ordenador en formato word. De esta forma podrás modificarla y trabajar con ella\ncon más comodidad.\n\n\nOtra opción para conseguir los documentos en formato word es hacernos una donación de 19,5 €, con la cual mantendremos esta web y compraremos\nnuevos materiales para ponerlos al alcance del resto de la comunidad. Importante: con la donación te proporcionaremos TODOS los documentos que\nsino en pdf.\n\nRealizar donación - 19,5 €\n\nPrincipal > Temario de Inglés – Secundaria > Temario 2 Inglés - Secundaria\n\nTopic 1 – Didactic evolution of languages. current tendencies in the\n\ndidactic of english as a foreign language. Communicative approaches\nEtiquetas: tema 1 inglés secundaria\n! Leave a reply\n\n\n\n1.1. Aims of the unit.\n\n1.2. Notes on bibliography.\n\n\n\n3.1. Key issues: approaches vs. methods.\n\n3.2. Up to the eighteenth century: The spread of English language teaching in Europe.\n\n3.2.1. Ancient Times.\n\n3.2.2. Europe in Early Times. The decline of Latin.\n\n\n3.3.1. The Grammar-Translation method.\n\n3.3.2. Individual reformers: Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin.\n\n\n3.3.4. The Direct Method. Natural methods from Montaigne to Berlitz.\n\n3.4. The twentieth century: A communicative approach.\n\n3.4.1. The Communicative Language Teaching Approach.\n\n3.4.2. The influence of sociology and psychology on language teaching.\n\n3.4.3. Approaches and theories of language and language learning. Approaches of language and language learning. Influential theories on language learning.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1.1. Aims of the unit.\n\nThe present work aims to provide a detailed account of the evolution of language from its origins, as an object of study, to a theory of language\nquestions affecting the language today is a knowledge of its origins.\n\nA historical and cultural setting links the nature of language to a theory of language teaching and a tradition in teaching English as a foreign\ndifferent methods, approaches and language acquisition theories on English teaching as a foreign language at different periods, where special\nattention is paid to present-day communicative approaches. For extensive comments, within the framework of different research fields, new\ndirections on language teaching are offered to reflect the learner’s need within the current educational system. In a final section, a conclusion\n\n1.2. Notes on bibliography.\n\nNumerous sources have contributed to provide an overall basis for the development of the unit. A valuable introduction to the study of\nRodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (1992) and Howatt, A History of English Language Teaching (1984). Among the many general\nand on theories of language acquisition, see Krashen, S. D., and T. D. Terrell, The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom (1983).\nAplicada a finales del Siglo XX. Ensayos y propuestas (2001); Universidad de Barcelona, Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada (2001); and Universidad de\nLeón, Perspectivas Recientes sobre el Discurso (2001). Bibliography is fully presented at the end of this work.\n\nIt was around the fifth century B.C that in ancient India the early states of language were written down as a set of rules. This was, in fact, a\ngrammar of Sanskrit whose effects went far beyond the original intentions of the authors. According to Howatt (1984), a thorough education\nconsists not only of the acquisition of knowledge, but the phys ical, mental, emotional, moral, and social development of the individual. Hence,\nthe early Greek aim was to prepare intellectually young people to take leading roles in the activities of the state and of society, and Romans\nconsidered the teaching of rhetoric and oratory important, with particular attention to the development of character.\n\nIn the seventeenth century, Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1670), commonly known as Comenius, is often said to be the founder of the Didactics of\nLanguage; for him, the word “didactics” means “the art of teaching”. Language study and therefore, language teaching was to be promoted\ninsubsequent centuries through the fields of philosophy, logic, rhetoric, sociology, and religion, among others, providing the framework for the\nmain task of linguistic scholars. This was basically to study and understand the general principles upon which all languages are built and in\ndoing so, teach them better. Some of those methodological and theoretical principles and ideas are still used in modern linguistics nowadays.\n\n\n3.1. Key issues: approaches vs. methods.\n\nThe extent and importance of the evolution of language teaching, and therefore, the teaching of English as a foreign language, make it\nreasonable to define some key concepts within this issue.\n\nMany theories about the learning and teaching of languages have been proposed from a historical perspective and many changes in language\nteaching methods have occurred as well as changes in the kind of learners’ need. Developments in other fields such as linguistics, psychology,\nanthropology, and sociology have been the source of many methods and approaches which searched continuously the most effective method\nfor students to learn a new language. The study of these theories is called today applied linguistics.\n\nA central concept to this process was that of method and was defined by Howatt (1984) as “the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices\nbased on a particular theory of language and language learning”. The search for innovations to find more efficient and effective ways of teaching\nlanguages preoccupied teachers and applied linguistics throughout the 20th century.\n\nApproaches are language teaching philosophies that might be interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways in the classroom. Both\nmethods and approaches are linked, in turn, to a set ofdesign features which describes the underlying nature of language teaching\nmethodology, for instance, learning objectives, syllabus specifications, types of activities, roles of teachers, learners, materials, procedures and\ntechniques used. The proliferation of approaches and methods is a relevant characteristic of contemporary second and foreign language\n\n\n3.2.1. Ancient Times.\n\nAs we have stated previously, language teaching traces back to ancient civilizations. As Richards & Rodgers (1992) state, the function of the\nearliest educational systems was primarily to teach religion and to promote the traditions of the people. Thus, in the Old Testament, one of the\naims and methods of education among the ancient Jewish traditions was to teach their children a foreign language.\n\nDuring the Middle Ages (15th-16th century), the early educational systems of the nations of the Western world emanated from the Judea-\nChristian religious traditions, which were combined with traditions derived from ancient Greece philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.\nAccording to Howatt (1984), Christianity in the Middle Ages became a powerful force in the countries of the Mediterranean region and other\nareas in Europe. Many monastic schools, as well as municipal and cathedral schools, were founded during the centuries of early Christian\ninfluence. Teachings, then,\n\ncentered on grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, and the chief storehouse of learning were the monasteries,\nwhich maintained archives that preserved many manuscripts of the preceding classical culture, and during this period universities were\nestablished in several countries, such as Italy, Spain, France and England. Medieval education also took the form of apprenticeship training in\nsome craft or service. As a rule, however, education was the privilege of the upper classes, and most members of the lower classes had no\nopportunity for formal learning.\n\n3.2.2. Europe in Early Modern Times. The decline of Latin.\n\nDuring the Renaissance period educators emphasized such subjects as history, geography, music, and physical training, and taught mostly in\nLatin grammar schools. Montaigne, among others, in the sixteenth century and Comenius and John Locke in the seventeenth century, promoted\nalternative approaches to education, making specific proposals for curriculum reform and for changes in the way Latin was taught (Howatt\n1984), but since Latin had for so long been regarded as the classical and therefore most ideal form of language, the role of language study in the\ncurriculum reflected the long-established status of Latin.\nBeginning around the 16th century, French, Italian, and English gained in importance as a result of political changes in Europe, and Latin\ngradually became displaced as a language of spoken and written communication.\n\nDuring the 17th century there was a rapid growth of scientific knowledge, which gave rise to its inclusion in courses in the universities of the\nEuropean countries and led to the exchange and spread of scientific and cultural ideas throughout Europe. Children entering “grammar school”\nin the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in England were initially given a rigorous introduction to Latin grammar (Howatt 1984)\nand were often met with brutal punishment. Latin was said to develop intellectual abilities, and the study of Latin grammar became an end in\n\n3.3. The nineteenth century: Approaches and methods on language teaching.\n\n3.3.1. The Grammar-Translation Method.\n\nAs modern languages began to enter the curriculum of European schools in the eighteenth century, they were taught using the same basic\nprocedures that were used for teaching Latin. Emphasis was on learning grammar rules, lists of vocabulary, and sentences for translation which\nusually had little relationship to the real world. Speaking the foreign language was not the goal, and oral practice was limited to students reading\naloud the sentences they had translated. This method came to be known as the grammar-translation method and was the offspring of German\n\nThe grammar-translation method was the dominant foreign language teaching method in Europe from the 1840s to the 1940s, and a version of\nit continues to be widely used in some parts of the world. As Richards & Rodgers (1992) points out, it is still used nowadays where\nunderstanding literary texts is the primary focus of foreign language study. However, there is no literature that offers a rationale or justification\nfor it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory. Consequently, it has no advocates, as it is a method\nfor which there is no theory.\n\nThe main failures of the method are that it does not sound natural to a native speaker; produces difficult mistakes to eradicate; tedious\nexperience of memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary; and little stress on accurate pronunciation; and often creates\nfrustration for\n\n\n3.3.2. Individual reformers: Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin.\n\nIn the mid-late nineteenth century, increased opportunities for communication among Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency in\nforeign languages. The Grammar Translation method was challenged by new approaches to language teaching developed by individual language\nteaching specialists in several European countries. Some of these specialists, like C. Marcel, T. Prendergast, and F. Gouin, did not manage,\naccording to Richards & Rodgers (1992), to achieve any lasting impact, though their ideas are of historical interest. It was difficult to overcome\nthe attitude that Classical Latin was the most ideal for the way language should be taught. (Howatt 1984).\n\nThe Frenchman Claude Marcel (1793-1896) emphasized the importance of meaning in learning, proposing a rational method, and referring to\nchild language learning as a model for language teaching. The Englishman Thomas Prendergast (1806-1886) created a mastery system on a\nstructural syllabus to work on basic structural patterns occurring in the language. He was one of the first to record the observation of children in\nspeaking. The Frenchman François Gouin is perhaps the best known of these reformers.\n\nGouin’s approach to teaching was based on his observations of children’s use of language. They recognized the need for speaking proficie ncy\nrather than reading or writing, and there was an interest in how children learn languages. Attempts to develop teaching principles from\nobservation of child language learning were made but these new ideas did not develop into an educational movement as there was not\nsufficient organizational structure in the language teaching profession (i.e., in the form of professional associations, journals, and conferences).\nHowever, this would change toward the end of the ninete nth century, when a more concerted effort arose in which the interests of reform-\nminded language teachers, and linguists, coincided.\n\n\nAs the names of some of its leading exponents suggest (C. Marcel, T. Prendergast, and F. Gouin), the Grammar Translation method was\nchallenged, and eventually, with no success due to a lack of the means for wider dissemination, acceptance and implementation of their new\nideas on language teaching. However, toward the end of the nineteenth century, teachers and linguists began to write about the need for new\napproaches to language teaching, and through their pamphlets, books, speeches, and articles, the foundation for more widesprea d pedagogical\nreforms was set up. This Reform Movement, as it is known, laid the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages within\nthe Direct Method and raised controversies that have continued to the present day.\n\nFrom the 1880s, an intellectual leadership gave greater credibility and acceptance to reformist ideas thanks to linguists like Henry Sweet (1845-\n1912) in England, Wilhelm Viëtor (1850-1918) in Germany, and Paul Passy in France. Among the earliest goals of the association, we find the\n\nleading role of phonetics within the teaching of modern languages; Sweet (1899) set forth principles for the development of teaching methods\nbased on sound methodological principles (an applied linguistic approach). For Viëtor, whose name is directly associated with a phonetic\nmethod, speech patterns were the fundamental elements of language, stressing the value of training teachers in the new science of phonetics .\nIn general the reformers believed that grammar had to be taught inductively, translation avoided, and a language learning based on hearing the\nlanguage first, before seeing it in written forms.\n\nThese principles provided the theoretical foundations for a principled approach to language teaching, one based on a scientific approach to the\nstudy of language. However, none of these proposals assumed the status of a method. They reflect the beginnings of the discipline of applied\nlinguistics. Parallel to the ideas put forward by members of the Reform Movement was an interest in developing principles for language teaching\nout of naturalistic principles of language learning, such as are seen in first language acquisition. According to Rivers (1981), this led to natural\nmethods and ultimately led to the development of what we know as the Direct Method.\n\n\nAs we have stated before, these early reformers, who included Henry Sweet of England, Wilhelm Viëtor of Germany, and Paul Passy of France,\nbelieved that language teaching should be based on scientific knowledge about language, that it should begin with speaking and expand to\nother skills, that words and sentences should be presented in context, that grammar should be taught inductively, and that translation should,\nfor the most part, be avoided. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, linguists became interested in the problem of the best way to teach languages.\nAn increasing attention to naturalistic principles of language learning was given by other reformers, and for this reason they are sometimes called\nadvocates of a “natural” ethod.\n\nIn fact several attempts to make second language learning more like first language learning had been made throughout the history of language\nteaching. For instance, if we trace back to the sixteenth century, we find out that the Frenchman Montaigne described his own experience on\nlearning Latin for the first years of his life as a process where he was exclusively addressed in Latin by a German tutor.\n\nThese ideas spread, and these natural language learning principles consolidated in what became known as the Direct Method, the first of the\n“natural methods”, both in Europe and in the United States. It was quite successful in private language schools, and difficult to implement in\npublic secondary school education. Among those who tried to apply natural principles to language classes in America were L. Sauveur (1826-\n1907) and Maximiliam Berlitz who promoted the use of intensive oral interaction in the target language. Saveur’s method became known as the\nNatural Method and was seriously considered in language teaching. In his book “An Introduction to the Teaching of Living Languages without\nGrammar or Dictionary” (1874), Saveur described how their students learnt to speak after a month on intensive oral work in class, avoiding the\nuse of the mother tongue, even for grammar explanations. Berlitz, however, never used the term “natural” and named his method “the Berlitz\nmethod” (1878), and it was known for being taught in private language schools, high-motivated clients, the use of native-speaking teachers, and\nno translation under any circumstances. In spite of his succes s, this method lacked a basis in applied linguistic theory, and failed to consider the\npractical realities of the classroom.\n\nIn Europe, one of the best known representatives of language teaching was Gouin who, in 1880 attempted to build a methodology around\nobservation of child language learning when publishing L’art d’enseigner et d’étudier les langues. He developed this technique after a long struggle\ntrying to learn to speak and understand German through formal grammar-based methods. However, their total failure and his turning to\nobservations of how children learn a second language is one of the most impressive personal testimonials in the recorded annals of language\nlearning. According to Richards & Rodgers (1992), although the Direct Method enjoyed popularity in Europe, not everyone had embraced it\nenthusiastically. In the 1920s and 1930s, the British applied linguist Henry Sweet and other linguists ecognized its limitations. They argued for\nthe development of sound methodological principles as the basis for teaching techniques. These\n\nlinguists systematized the principles stated earlier by t he Reform Movement and so laid the foundations for what developed into the British\napproach to teaching English as a foreign language. This would led to Audiolingualism in the United States and the Oral Approach or Situational\nLanguage Teaching in Britain. These models are the aim of next sections.\n\n3.4. The twentieth century: A communicative approach.\n\nIn this section we offer an overview of English language teaching since 1900, and specially of the teaching of English as a foreign or second\nlanguage. Since language is a part of society, and a part of ourselves, we find a relationship between linguistics and other fields of study that\nshed light on the old patterns and new directions in language teaching. During the twentieth century, different methods have resulted from\ndifferent approaches to language and language learning, and also to the influence of fields such as sociology and psychology on the study of\nlanguage. Let us now turn to the major approaches, teaching methods and theories on anguage acquisition that are in use today and examine\nthem according to how they reflect their methodology.\n\n3.4.1. The Communicative Language Teaching Approach.\n\nCommunicative Language Teaching has its origins in two sources. First, the changes in the British and American linguistic theory in the mid-late\nsixties and secondly, changes in the educational realities in Europe. Therefore teaching traditions until then, such as Situational Language\nTeaching in Britain and Audiolingualism in the United States started to be questioned by applied linguists who saw the need to focus in language\nteaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures. Meanwhile, the role of the European Common Market and\nthe Council of Europe had a significant impact on the development of Communicative language teaching since there was an increasing need to\nteach adults the major languages for a better educational cooperation. In 1971 a system in which learning tasks are broken down into “units” is\nlaunched into the market by a British linguist, D.A. ilkins. It attempts to demonstrate the systems of meanings that a language learner needs to\nunderstand and express within two types: notional categories (time, sequence, quantity or frequency) and categories of communicative function\n(requests, offers, complaints). The rapid application of these ideas by textbook writers and its acceptance by teaching specialists gave\nprominence to what became the Communicative Approach or simply Communicative Language Teaching.\n\nBeginning in the mid-1960s, there has been a variety of theoretical challenges to the audio-lingual method. Scholars such as Halliday, Hymes,\nLabov and the American linguist Noam Chomsky challenged previous assumptions about language structure and language learning, taking the\nposition that language is creative (not memorized by repetition and imitation) and rule governed (not based on habits). For Hymes (1972), the\ngoal of language teaching is to develop a “communicative competence”, that is, the knowledge and ability a learner needs to be communicatively\ncompetent in a speech community. Halliday (1970) elaborated a functional theory of the functions of language, and Canale and Swain (1980)\nidentified four dimensions of communicative competence: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence.\n\nChomsky leveled some criticisms at structural linguistic theory in his book Syntactic Structures (1957). He demonstrated that the fundamental\ncharacteristics of language –creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences- were not part of the structural theories of language. This\ncommunicative view is considered an approach rather than a method which provides a humanistic approach to teaching where interactive\nprocesses of communication receive priority. Its rapid adoption and implementation resulted from a strong support of leading British applied\nlinguists and language specialist, as well as institutions, such as the British Council. However, some of the claims are still being looked at more\ncritically as this approach raises important issues for teacher training, materials development, and testing and evaluation (Richards & Rodgers\n\n3.4.2. The influence of sociology and psychology on language teaching.\n\nSince language is not an isolated phenomenon, we are committed to relate it to other aspects of society, behavior and experience through the\ndevelopment of a theory between linguistics and other fields of study, such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, philosophical linguistics,\nbiological linguistics, and mathematical linguistics. Among all the interdisciplinary subjects, two of them have strongly contributed to the\ndevelopment of the study of language teaching, thus, sociology and psychology. The former, sociolinguistics studies the ways in which language\ninteracts with society in relation to race, nationality, regional, social and political grou s, and the interactions of individuals within groups. The\nlatter, psycholinguistics , focuses on how language is influenced by memory, attention, recall and constraints on perception, and the extent to\nwhich language has a central role to play in the understanding of human development. Main researchers on the field of sociolinguistics are the\nAmerican linguists Edwar Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield within a tradition on Structuralism although they follow different lines. These\ngrammarians claimed that every language consists of a series of unique structures and that the construction of sentences follows certain regular\npatterns. However, Sapir points out how linguistics and anthropology reflects the social aspect of language when dealing with race, culture and\nlanguage, whereas Bloomfield’s contribution is more scientific, clearly influenced by psychology theories.\n\nIn the field of psychology, behaviorism has had a great effect on language teaching as various scientists in the early to mid-1900s did\nexperiments with animals, trying to understand how animals behaved under certain stimulus. Theorists as Ivan Pavlov and Skinner, believed\nthat languages were made up of a series of habits, and that if learners could develop all these habits, they would speak the language well. Also,\nthey believed that a contrastive analysis of languages would be invaluable in teaching languages, and from these theories arose the audio-\nlingual method, examined in the following sections.\n\nAnother interdisciplinary overlap, as Crystal (1985) states is psycholinguistics. It is a distinct area of interest developed in the early sixties and in\nits early form covered from acoustic phonetics to language pathology. Most of its researchers have been influenced by the development of\ngenerative theory where the most important area is the investigation of the acquisition of language by children. Linguists such as R. Ellis or\nStephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell’s contribution show an approach focusing on teaching communicative abilities and emphasizing the primacy\nof meaning when second language acquisition is on study. Chomsky’s view of linguistics is another important contribution to the study of the\nhuman mind, as a branch of cognitive psychology, apart from showing the weaknesses of structural grammar. Regarding the teaching of\nlanguages, the psychological approach is related to questions such as when and how children develop their ability to ask questions syntactically,\nor when they learn the inflectional systems of their language.\n\n\nWe saw in the preceding sections the relationship between method and approach. Within the study of language different methods resulted from\ndifferent approaches as responses to a variety of historical issues and circumstances. Since ancient times, linguists and language specialists\nsought to improve the quality of language teaching, elaborating principles and theories that came into force from the nineteenth century on.\nLinguists such as Palmer, Skinner, Chomsky, and Krashen among others, have contributed to this development of present-day approaches which\ndeveloped in current methods. Following Richards & Rodgers (1992), theories about the nature of language and of language le arning are the\nsource of principles in language teaching. Within a theory of language, at least three different theoretical views provide current approaches\nand methods in language teaching. The first, the structural view, is the most traditional of the three. Within its theory, language is a system of\nstructurally related elements for the coding of meaning, and is defined in terms of phonological and grammatical units, grammatical operations\nand lexical items. Some methods have embodied this particular view of language over the years. Thus Audiolingualism, and contemporary\nmethods as Total Physical Response and the Silent Way, share this view of language. Supporters of this view are linguists such as Edwar Sapir\nand Leonard Bloomfield within a tradition on Structuralism although they follow different lines, thus anthropological and linguistic respectively.\n\nFrom the second, the functional view, language is seen as a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. A main tenet within this view is the\nnotion of communication within a theory that emphasizes the semantic and communicative dimension rather than merely the grammatical\ncharacteristics of language. Content is also organized by categories of meaning and function rather than by elements of structure and grammar.\n\nThe third, the interactional view, sees language as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social\ntransactions between individuals. Its main tenet is the creation and maintenance of social relations focusing on the patterns of moves, acts,\nnegotiation, and interaction found in conversational exchanges. In the words of Rivers (1981), the eclectic approach must be included on\nlanguage teaching theory due to its prominence on our present educational system. For her, some teachers experiment with novel techniques\nfor more successful teaching, retaining what they know from experience to be effective. This approach is supported by an honorable ancestry,\nthus Henry Sweet and Harold Palmer. Its main tenets seek the balanced development of all four skills at all stages, while retaining an emphasis\non the early development of aural-oral skills. Their methods are also adapted to the changing objectives of the day and to the types of students\nwho pass through their classes. Moreover, to be successful, an eclectic teacher needs to be imaginative, energetic and willing to experiment.\nThis approach is being currently applied to language teaching as part of our presenteducational system, LOGSE, based on communicative\nmethods. Influential theories on language learning.\n\nThe four theories of language provide a theoretical framework to any particular teaching method from a structural, functional, interactional and\neclectic point of view. However, we must bear in mind that they are incomplete in themselves and need to be complemented by theories of\nlanguage learning. It is to this dimension that we now turn. A theory of language learning needs a psycholinguistic and cognitive approach to\nlearning processes, such as habit formation, induction, inferencing, hypothesis testing, and generalization. Most of its researchers have been\ninfluenced by the development of generative theory where the most important area is the investigation of the acquisition of language by\nchildren. The most prominent figures in this field are, among others, Stephen Krashen, Tracy D. Terrell and Noam Chomsky. Stephen D. Krashen\ndeveloped a second language acquisition research as a source for learning theories. He distinguishes two concepts here, acquisition and\nlearning , where acquisition is seen as the basic process involved in developing language proficiency. For him, it is the unconscious\ndevelopment of the target language system as a result of using the language for real communication. Learning would be related to the\nconscious representation of grammatical knowledge and non spontaneous processes. He developed the Monitor Model on which the Natural\nmethod was built. Another theorist, Tracy D. Terrell is closely related to Krashen, since they both wrote a book named The Natural Approach\n(1983), and their theories emphasize the nature of the human and physical context in which language learning takes place. Their learning theory\nis supported by three main principles. Firstly, they claim that comprehension precedes production (commonly known as ‘input’); secondly, they\nstate that produ ction may emerge in stages and students are not forced to speak before they are ready; and thirdly the fact that the course\nsyllabus consists of communicative goals, thus classroom activities are organized, by topic, not grammar (Krashen & Terrell 1983).\n\nChomsky’s view of linguistics is another important contribution to the study of the human mind, as a branch of cognitive psychology. Apart from\nshowing the weaknesses of structural grammar, Chomsky demonstrated that creativity and individual sentences’ formation were fundamental\ncharacteristics of language, not part of the structural theories of language. His approach provides a humanistic view of teaching where priority is\ngiven to interactive processes of communication.\n\nWe also find other less influential theories reflected on methods, thus the Counseling-Learning and Silent Way method which focus on the\nconditions to be held for successful learning without specifying the learning processes. James Asher’s Total Physical Response (1977) centers\non both processes and conditions aspects of learning. Thus coordinating language production with body movement and physical actions is\nbelieved to provide the conditions for success in language learning. Charles A. Curran’s approach, the Counseling-Learning (1972), focused\nmainly on creating the conditions necessary for successful learning, such as a good atmosphere of the classroom, where intimacy and security\nare a crucial factor together for students when producing language. The Silent Way method, developed by Caleb Gattegno , is also built on a\nconscious control of learning to heighten learning potential. We also observe some fringe methodologies sharing certain theories of language\nand theories of language learning. For instance, the linking of structuralism and behaviorism which produced Audiolingualism.\n\n\nThis approach dates back to the 1920s and 1930s and develops a more scientific foundation for an oral approach than the one evidenced in the\nDirect Method. Its most prominent figures are the British applied linguists Harold Palmer and A.S. Hornby, who developed the basis for a\nprincipled approach to methodology in language teaching. The terms Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching are not commonly used\ntoday, but the impact of the Oral Approach has been long lasting, and it has shaped the design of many widely used textbooks and courses,\nincluding many still being used today.\n\nTherefore it is important to understand the principles and practices of this oral approach which resulted from a systematic study of the lexical\nand grammatical content of a language course. This approach involved principles of selection, organization and presentation of the material\nbased on applied linguistic theory and practice. Thus, the role of vocabulary was seen as an essential component of reading proficiency, and\nparallel to this syllabus design was a focus on the grammatical content, viewed by Palmer as the underlying sentence patterns of the spoken\nlanguage. This classification of English sentence patterns was incorporated into the first dictionary for students of English as a foreign language,\nand some grammatical guides which became a standard reference source for textbook writers.\n\nThe Oral Approach was the accepted British approach to English language teaching by the 1950s, but in the sixties, another active proposal from\nAustralia and termed situational, entered this approach developing an influential set of teaching materials based on the notion of “situation”,\nlinking structures to situations. Its main leader was George Pittman, and its main characteristics were as follows: material is taught orally before\nit is presented in written form; introduced and practiced situationally; and reading and writing are introduced only when sufficient lexical and\ngrammatical basis is established. The skills are approached through structure.\n\nThis third principle became a key feature characterized as a type of British “structuralism”, in which speech was regarded as the basis of\nlanguage, and structure was viewed as being at the heart of speaking ability. In the words of Richards & Roberts (1992), this theory that\nknowledge of structures must be linked to situations has been supported by British linguists, giving a prominent place to meaning, context, and\nsituation. Prominent figures such as M.A.K. Halliday and Palmer emphasized the close relationship between the structure of language and the\ncontext and situations in which language is used. The Audiolingual method.\n\nThe origins of this method trace back to the entry of the United States into World War II since the government aimed to teach foreign languages\nto avoid Americans becoming isolated from scientific advances in other countries. The National Defense Education Act (1958) provided funds for\nthe study and analysis of modern languages based on the earlier experience of the army programs such as the so-called ASTP (Army Specialized\nTraining Program). This program was established for military personnel in 1942 in American universities, and its main objective was for students\nto attain conversational proficiency in different foreign languages through significant drills.\n\nThis fact had a significant effect on language teaching in America, and in fact, new approaches on language teaching were soon developed, and\ntoward the end of the 1950s a new approach emerged under the name of Audiolingualism (term coined by Professor Nelson Brooks in 1964. It is\nbased in structural linguistics (structuralism) and behavioristic psychology (Skinner’s behaviorism).\n\nTherefore, it is primarily an oral approach to language teaching and there is little provision for grammatical explanation or talking about the\nlanguage. The audio-lingual method aims at teaching the language skills in the order of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and is based on\nusing drills for the formation of good language habits. Thus students are given a stimulus, which they respond to. If their response is correct, it is\nrewarded, so the habit will be formed; if it is incorrect, it is corrected, so that it will be suppressed. As Rivers (1981) states, material is presented\nin spoken form, and the emphasis in the early years is on the language as it is spoken in everyday situations.\n\nIt was a methodological innovation which combined structural linguistic theory, contrastive analysis, aural-oral procedures, and behaviorist\npsychology. Therefore linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield, developed training programs within an anthropological and linguistic tradition. The\nbest known of these programs was the “informant method”, based on a strict timetable (ten hours a day during six days a week), fifteen hours\ndrill with native speakers and almost thirty hours of private study over nearly three six-week sessions. Statistics show that excellent results were\noften achieved in small classes of mature and highly motivated students. Total Physical Response.\n\nTotal Physical Response is linked to several traditions, such as psychology, learning theory, and humanistic pedagogy. This method is built\naround the combination of speech and action and was developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology. For him, including movements\nwithin the linguistic production reduces learner stress, creating a positive mood which facilitates learning.\n\nThis emphasis on comprehension and the use of physical actions to teach a foreign language is not new. In the nineteenth century, Gouin\nacknowledged a situationally based teaching strategy in which action verbs served as a basis for practicing new language items. This method\nowes much to structuralist or grammar-based views of language as most of vocabulary items and grammatical structures are learned through\nan instructor. Asher still sees a stimulusresponse view as reminiscences of the views of behavioral psychologists, directed to right-brain learning.\nThe main goal is to teach oral proficiency at a beginning level through the use of actionbased drills in the imperative form.\n\nThis method is updated with references to more recent psychological theories and supported by prominent theorists as Krashen because of its\nemphasis on the role of comprehension in second language acquisition. However, Asher himself, points out the need for this method to be used\nin association with other methods to be fully successful. The Silent Way.\n\nCaleb Gattegno introduced this classroom technique wherein the teacher remains silent while pupils output the language through simulated\nexperiences using tokens and picture charts as central elements. For instance, a color-coded phonics (sound) chart called a fidel, with both vowel\nand consonant clusters on it, is projected onto a screen to be used simultaneously with a pointer, thus permitting the pupil to output continually\nthe target language in a sequence of phonemes.\n\nBrightly coloured rods are integrated into this method for pupils to learn spatial relationships, prepositions, colors, gender and number\nconcepts, and to create multiple artificial settings through their physical placement.\n\nThis method works effectively to promote small group discussion. Students are encouraged to produce as much language as possible and to\nself-correct their pronunciation errors through manual gesticulation on the part of the instructor. The greatest strength of this method lies in its\nability to draw students out orally, while the teacher listens. This inner criteria allow learners to monitor and self-correct their own production. It\nis here where this method differs notably from other ways of language learning. Community Language Learning.\n\nAs the name indicates, this method follows a “humanistic” approach which was supported by Charles A. Curran, a specialist in counseling and a\nprofessor of psychology at Chicago University.\n\nHis method is known as Counseling-Learning, and it redefines the roles of the teacher (counselor) and learners (the clients) in the language\n\nHe developed a holistic approach to language learning, since human learning is both cognitive and affective. For him, learning takes place in a\ncommunicative situation where teachers and learners are involved in an interaction. One of its main tenets is for the student to develop his\nrelationship with the teacher.\n\nThis process is divided into five stages and compared to the ontogenetic development of the child.\n\nThus, feelings of security are established; achievement of independence from the teacher; the learner starts speaking independently; a sense of\ncriticism is developed; and finally, the learner improves style and knowledge of linguistic appropriateness.\n\nCurran wrote little about his theory which was to be developed by his student, La Forge. He built a theory on “basic sound and grammatical\npatterns” which started with criteria for sound features, the sentence, and abstract models of language in order to construct a basic grammar of\nthe foreign anguage. Since these humanistic technique of counseling students engage the whole person, including the emotions and feelings\n(affective part) as well as linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills, this method has been linked to bilingual and adult education programs. Suggestopedia.\n\nIn the 1980s and 1990s, an extremely esoteric method was developed by a Bulgarian psychiatristeducator called Georgi Lozanov. The most\noutstanding features of this mystical method are, according to Rivers (1981), its arcane terminology and neologisms, and secondly, the\narrangement of the classroom to create an optimal atmosphere to learning, by means of decoration, furniture, the authoritative behavior of the\nteacher and specially, through the use of music. Therapy theories are the reason of using music in the classroom as Lozanov calls upon in his\nuse to relax learners as well as to structure, pace, and punctuate the presentation of linguistic material.\n\nLozanov acknowledges following a tradition on yoga and Soviet psychology, borrowing techniques for altering states of consciousness and\nconcentration, and the use of rhythmic breathing. In fact, teachers are trained in a special way to read dialogues, using voice quality, intonation,\nand timing.\n\nLozanov also claims that his method works equally well whether or not students spend time on outside study and promises success to the\nacademically gifted and ungifted alike.\nIn the own words of Lozanov (1978), Suggestopedia prepares students for success by means of yoga, hypnosis, biofeeback or experimental\nscience. Its main features such as scholarly citations, terminological jargon, and experimental data have received both support and criticisms.\nHowever, Suggestopedia is acknowledged to appear effective and harmonize with other successful techniques in language teaching\n\n\nWhat’s now, what’s next? The future is always uncertain when anticipating methodological directions in second language teaching, although\napplied linguistic journals assume the carrying on and refinement of current trends within a communicative approach. They are linked to\npresent concerns on education, and they reflect current trends of language curriculum development at the level of cognitive strategies,\nliterature, grammar, phonetics or technological innovative methods. The Internet Age anticipates the development of teaching and learning in\ninstructional settings by means of an on-line collaboration system, perhaps via on-line computer networks or other technological resources.\n\nA critical question for language educators is about “what content” and “how much content” best supports language learning. The goal is to best\nmatch learner needs and interests and to promote optimal development of second language competence. The natural content for language\neducators is literature and language itself, and we are beginning to see a resurgence of interest in literature and in discourse and genre\nanalysis , schema theory, pragmatics, and functional grammar propose an interest in functionally based approaches to language teaching.\n\nAlso, “Learning to Learn” is the key theme in an instructional focus on language learning strategies. Such strategies include, at the most basic\nlevel, memory tricks, and at higher levels, cognitive and metacognitive strategies for learning, thinking, planning, and self-monitoring.\n\nResearch findings suggest that strategies can indeed be taught to language learners, that learners will apply these strategies in language\nlearning tasks. Simple and yet highly effective strategies, such as those that help learners remember and access new second language\nvocabulary items, will attract considerable instructional interest.\n\n\nOn revising the literature on language teaching theories, it is possible to get a sense of the wide range of proposals from the 1700’s to the\npresent, with their weaknesses and strengths, from grammar-based methods to more natural approaches. There is still present a constant\npreoccupation for teachers and linguists to find more efficient and effective ways of teaching languages. This proliferation of approaches and\nmethods is a relevant characteristic of contemporary second and foreign language teaching, and is only understood when the learner’s need is\napproached from and educational perspective. These approaches have been called natural, psychological, phonetic, new, reform, and direct,\namong others.\n\ncollectively came to be known as Communicative Language Teaching. These CLT approaches include The Natural Approach and Community\nLanguage Learning.\n\nSpecial attention has also been paid to the role of the teacher as a commander of classroom activity (e.g., Audio-Lingual Method, Natural\nlearners (e.g., Communicative Language Teaching, Cooperative Language Learning). Language learning theories have approached second\nlanguage learning on adults and children around first language acquisition model. Schools such as Total Physical Response and Natural\nApproach claim that second language learning must be developed in the same way as first language acquisition although this is not the only\nmodel of language learning we have. However, the Silent Way and Suggestopedia schools claim that adult classroom learning must be\ndeveloped in a different way children do, due to different cognitive and psychological features.\n\nBibliography, in a final section, will provide a source for readers to detail differences and imilarities among the many different approaches and\nmethods that have been proposed\n\n\nIntroduction to the study of language\n\n– Jespersen, O. 1922. Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin . London: Allen and Unwin.\n\n– Crystal, D. 1985. Linguistics. Harmondsworth, England. Penguin Books.\n\n– Baugh, A. & Cable, T. 1993. A History of the English Language. Prentice-Hall Editions.\n\nOn origins and evolution of language teaching\n\n– Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. 1992. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.\n\n– Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English Language teaching . Oxford: Oxford University Press.\n\nOn approaches to language teaching and the teaching of English as a foreign language\n\n– Rivers, W. 1981. Teaching Foreign-Language Skills. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.\n\n– Krashen, S. D., and Terrell, T. D. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon.\n\nNew directions in language teaching\n\n– Revistas de la Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada (AESLA): De la Cruz, Isabel; Santamaría, Carmen; Tejedor, Cristina y Valero, Carmen.\n2001. La Lingüística Aplicada a finales del Siglo XX. Ensayos y propuestas. Universidad de Alcalá.\n\n– Celaya, Mª Luz; Fernández-Villanueva, Marta; Naves, Teresa; Strunk, Oliver y Tragant, Elsa. 2001. Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada . Universidad de\n\n– Moreno, Ana I. & Colwell, Vera. 2001. 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+{"content": "Skip to Content\n\nProceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on\nLegal and Constitutional Affairs\n\nIssue 2 - Evidence for March 25, 2010\n\nOTTAWA, Thursday, March 25, 2010\n\nThe Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs met this day at 10:35 a.m. to examine the provisions and operation of the DNA Identification Act (S.C. 1998, c. 37).\n\nSenator Joan Fraser (Chair) in the chair.\n\n\nThe Chair: Honourable senators, welcome to this meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs where we are continuing our statutory review of the provisions and operations of the DNA Identification Act.\n\nWe are privileged this morning to have witnesses from the Department of Justice and from Public Safety Canada. From the Department of Justice, we are pleased to see Greg Yost who is a familiar face around this table. He is counsel at the Criminal Law Policy Section; and from Public Safety Canada, Barry MacKillop, Director General, Law Enforcement and Border Services Directorate.\n\nThank you very much for coming today. I think Mr. Yost will begin.\n\nGreg Yost, Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice Canada: Honourable senators, it is a pleasure to appear before you again. When I appeared on March 25, 2009, David Bird and I presented a paper of issues that we believed would be of interest to the committee, including the creation of a DNA missing persons index to assist police in their efforts to identify human remains and locate missing persons.\n\nIn my opening remarks, I stated that the question of creating a DNA missing persons index has been studied extensively. I believe it is fair to say that there is support for the concept. Creating the legislative framework, however, is the simpler part. With everyone demanding more use of DNA for solving crimes, finding the resources to make a DNA missing persons index work on the ground will be a challenge.\n\nThere are new members of the committee, so I will outline the role the Department of Justice has played in the study of a creation of a missing persons index. The issue was discussed in the 1996 consultation by the Department of the Solicitor General that led to the introduction of the DNA Identification Act and the creation of the National DNA Data Bank.\n\n\nThe Department of Justice was involved in the development of the consultation paper, particularly with respect to the discussion of the legal issues, but the Department of the Solicitor General had the overall lead and sole responsibility for the operational and financial issues.\n\nEssentially, that division of responsibility has continued. The National DNA Data Bank is of course a part of the RCMP, and the DNA Identification Act is the responsibility of the Minister of Public Safety.\n\nInterest in the subject, including private members' bills in the other House, has kept the issue alive. Accordingly, a consultation paper was developed by the Department of Public Safety, with the Department of Justice again leading with respect to the drafting of the parts of the paper dealing with legal aspects.\n\nThat consultation was launched in March 2005, and the deadline for submissions to Public Safety was June 30, 2005.\n\n\nAfter the consultation, the Department of Public Safety established a federal-provincial-territorial working group to develop a plan for the implementation of a DNA missing persons index. I co-chaired, with counsel from Quebec, a subcommittee on legal administrative and privacy issues. We developed a legal issues paper, met with interested jurisdictions and, in January 2007, submitted our final report to the main committee.\n\nI was able to draw on that legal analysis when I appeared with other officials before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security that was examining Bill C-279, a private member's bill that would have authorized the creation of a DNA missing persons index. I noted that as long as the provinces can decide the extent to which they want to participate, then we are not treading on their jurisdiction.\n\nWe can establish federal legislation to facilitate the interchange of information. This interchange will be similar to the National DNA Data Bank. The provinces are not forced to upload crime scene profiles to the Crime Scene Index, but as you know, they are eager to do so because the service is useful.\n\nWhile the federal government can establish a DNA missing persons index, Charter and privacy concerns require that the legislation, protocols and procedures that need to be developed to implement the legislation include provisions to protect the confidentiality of the DNA information in the DNA MPI and to prevent improper use of that information.\n\nFurthermore, the legislation must contain clear provisions regarding who may consent to the inclusion in the missing persons profile in the MPI, what information the person needs to have full and informed consent, the ability of person to specify whether the profile is to be matched against the Crime Scene Index, CSI, and the Convicted Offenders Index, COI, and how the person may withdraw consent. Clearly, addressing all these issues will require collaboration between the Department of Justice and our colleagues in the RCMP, the National DNA Data Bank, the Department of Public Safety, provincial laboratories and law enforcement agencies.\n\nSince my last appearance, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security presented its report on the statutory review of the DNA Identification Act, which recommended that the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for justice and public safety determine the best way to proceed with the creation of two additional DNA identification indices; namely a missing persons index and a victims index. In its response tabled on October 18, the government accepted all the recommendations in principle, and is committed to consultations on a priority basis with a view to developing a consensus on how best to proceed.\n\nI will be pleased to answer your questions and we await your report and its recommendations.\n\nBarry MacKillop, Director General, Law Enforcement and Border Services Directorate, Public Safety Canada: Good morning and thank you, honourable senators, for this opportunity to share with this committee the efforts of public safety relating to DNA analysis in Canada and discussions around creating a missing persons index, MPI. This is an area, as Mr. Yost points out, where much work has been undertaken.\n\nDNA analysis is recognized as perhaps the most important tool available to the criminal justice system since the discovery of fingerprints. It has the ability to increase the overall efficiency of the system by shortening and better focusing police investigations; helping to reduce prosecution and court costs; avoiding the financial and social burdens of incarcerating innocent people and exonerating the wrongly convicted; and ultimately enhancing public safety by quickly identifying dangerous offenders and removing them from the streets.\n\nThe National DNA Data Bank, NDDB, is a primary instrument that allows the criminal justice system to utilize DNA analysis in Canada. Established in 2000 under the stewardship of the RCMP, the national data bank is comprised of two indices: a Convicted Offenders Index and the Crime Scene Index. As of January 29, 2010, the Convicted Offenders Index, which is populated exclusively by the national data bank, contains 183,098 DNA profiles of offenders convicted of a designated offence. The Crime Scene Index, which is populated by the RCMP's forensic science identification services, the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto and the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale in Montreal contain 53,895 profiles found at crime scenes across the country. By utilizing the data found in these two indices, law enforcement has been assisted in approximately 14,000 investigations.\n\n\nBut the success of DNA analysis since the proclamation of the DNA Identification Act in 1999 has also given rise to capacity issues in the laboratories. Federal legislation proclaimed in January 2008, through Bills C-13 and C-18, vastly increased the number of designated offences for which DNA analysis could be utilized, increasing these from 59 to over 260 offences.\n\nThe RCMP has undertaken the implementation of a major transformation process for its forensic science and identification services, including a new forensic investigation process that aims to reduce turnaround times and improve client service standards. As you heard from Assistant Commissioner Henschel, when he appeared before this committee on March 17, this new process has been well received by stakeholders, and service standards have improved greatly over the previous system. In 2009, the RCMP was responsible for uploading 2,939 of the 7,191 profiles to the Crime Scene Index. This represented 41 per cent of profiles entered for 2009, as compared to the 34 per cent entered by Ontario and 25 per cent by Quebec.\n\n\nRelated to DNA analysis and the National DNA Data Bank is the concept of developing a missing persons index, which is being explored by Public Safety Canada and partners. While there may be benefits to expanding the abilities of the national data bank to include the addition of an MPI, the current pressures and challenges faced by the DNA regime in Canada need to be addressed first.\n\nWork has been undertaken regarding the possible development of an MPI. In 2005, Public Safety Canada drafted a public consultation paper that explored the technical and legal challenges associated with its development. In 2007, a process design session was held that lead to a costing and implementation plan. The final design report outlined three scenarios with corresponding costs.\n\nThe scenarios were differentiated by how long a person was gone before they were considered missing; either 30, 60 or 90 days. The set-up cost is consistent at approximately $10 million and the ongoing costs decline with the increase in time missing. For 30 days, the ongoing cost estimated at the time was $3.5 million a year. For 60 days, costs declined to $2.65 million a year and for 90 days, $2 million a year, corresponding to the number of samples involved.\n\nWhile this report provided three possible scenarios, challenges still remain, including clearly defining who constitutes a missing person, establishing an appropriate costing framework based on jurisdictional responsibilities for the administration of justice, and the legal and privacy issues surrounding the collection and retention of family members and other donor DNA.\n\nAlthough the preparatory work has been done, the working group did not make a final report because it was difficult to justify spending so much on MPI when there were unmet needs in the forensic laboratories, and it was anticipated that parliamentary reviews would make recommendations to require the national data bank to increase its capacity. Since receiving the House of Commons report, Public Safety Canada has led further discussions with federal partners seeking their input on a variety of issues related to developing an MPI, including costing, legal and privacy issues, jurisdictional boundaries and the criteria for determining who is considered a missing person. Work is continuing on these models and consultations are expected to continue with our provincial and territorial partners.\n\nFinally, in Budget 2010, $10 million was identified over two years to address the disturbingly high number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Concrete actions will be taken to ensure that law enforcement and the justice system meet the needs of Aboriginal women and their families. We at Public Safety Canada are working with our Department of Justice colleagues to elaborate and define how law enforcement and the justice system can best respond.\n\nIn closing, I reiterate our commitment to continuing our work with our partners to strengthen the DNA regime in Canada and to continue to explore the possible development of a missing persons index in Canada.\n\nI will be pleased to answer your questions.\n\nThe Chair: Thank you both very much. Before I turn to questions, thank you, Mr. Yost, for your letter about areas of concern. That letter is helpful and succinct material for us.\n\nSenator Wallace: Thank you for the presentations.\n\nSo there is no misunderstanding, I think all of us have some impression of what would be included or should be included in a missing persons index and a victims index, and how those indexes can be used to solve crimes, potential crimes that exist today. We know there seems to be a great pressure and interest amongst the public to see the indexes implemented, and as you have pointed out, there have been a number of reports and studies that seem to support that implementation.\n\nCan you describe for us, so we can understand logistically, the function that will be provided by these two indexes and how they will or can interrelate with the Crime Scene Index and the Convicted Offenders Index today? How will samples be taken? How will it work within the framework that now exists within the DNA data bank?\n\nMr. Yost: I will take the first shot at that question, although Dr. Ron Fourney is the person who knows best how things are done.\n\nWe have to differentiate between two or three different things. There are unidentified human remains that must be analyzed. There are certain challenges with that analysis; the older the remains, the less likely it is to be able to take a regular DNA sample. They have to perform a mitochondrial analysis, but that is a technical issue of finding a laboratory. There is one in Canada that is capable of performing that analysis.\n\nThen when a person goes missing, there are possibly personal effects for that person — toothbrush, comb, et cetera — from which it is probable that one can take a sample of their DNA. This is similar to an exhibit at a crime scene. The expectation is that a forensic laboratory will perform that DNA analysis.\n\nHowever, it is expected that we would be able to take DNA from close relatives. This DNA is important to check, using parental comparisons that Dr. Fourney understands and I do not, that we have found the right DNA of the person on the toothbrush. That process is a high through-put process, and will be much like what the National DNA Data Bank does with a convicted offender sample.\n\nPresumably, the current kit will be modified. The police will obtain, from the parents or a sibling of the person who is missing, samples on a clean card. They will go to the National DNA Data Bank to put it into their automated system and develop a DNA profile.\n\nThen there is the trickier question of what the DNA is to be compared against. There are models; I believe the State of Florida has this model down to a science. They obtain, from the appropriate person, the consents as to which index the person wants the DNA checked against.\n\nOne assumes every sample will be checked against unidentified human remains. In certain circumstances, they might want to check it against the convicted offenders index. That information would more likely be a good news, bad news scenario; for example, we found your missing child, who is currently serving time in Kingston Penitentiary.\n\nHowever, for the reference samples in particular, the person may have some hesitancy about having it compared against the Crime Scene Index and possibly becoming a suspect in a crime. We will have to develop protocols to ensure the clear explanation of what will happen and where the sample will go.\n\nI understand that in practice in Florida, overwhelmingly, everybody says, check it against everything. If one of my children went missing, I am sure I would sign off on that as well. However, we need to have all that protocol established.\n\nMr. MacKillop: I do not think I have much more to add; Mr. Yost has covered the subject. However, the area is one where there is less consensus perhaps in terms of what we check the DNA against, how we obtain the appropriate approvals to check the DNA against crime scene indexes and so forth, particularly in the case of those who have gone missing who want to be missing — those who do not necessarily want to be found. Who gives the authority to put the DNA in the data bank in the first place, and how do we obtain those approvals?\n\nThe question of provincial versus federal responsibilities comes into play. Those challenges are some of the ones that the federal-provincial-territorial working group is struggling with before we can put forward a workable model to which everybody agrees.\n\nSenator Wallace: Going back to 2004-05, there have been a number of studies and working groups on this topic. Increasingly, as people become more aware of the capabilities of DNA analysis, the public has greater expectations. I am sure a lot of what you are saying today was said five years ago, and yet we sit here today without either of those indexes.\n\nFrom your perspective, is it a question of these indexes not being given priority because of the other demands now faced by the data bank — demands in terms of increased expectations, with Bill C-13 and Bill C-18, as an example? We heard about issues of resources; there is a need for additional resources to deal with the demands today. When we add up all that information, is the result that a missing persons index is not given the priority and the prominence that many feel it should be given; and as much as we feel more should be done, the day-to-day demands make it almost impossible? Is that where we are at with the index; is that why it is not moving forward?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I believe it is fair to say that when the federal-provincial-territorial groups and everybody started looking at these indexes, the demands, the expectations and the challenges faced by the labs in processing the DNA for the criminal indexes were such that there was less appetite to add to that workload and to add to what the data bank could accomplish at the time.\n\nI think the indexes have always been a priority in the sense that they have always been on everyone's mind. They have always been the topic of discussions and study, and we have tried to advance them as far as we could. Given the limitations, given the challenges in the labs, given the perception of the service delivery that the provinces received from labs and so forth, there was a hesitancy to add to that workload at that time.\n\nGiven the parliamentary reviews and the transformation process that the RCMP has undertaken, and the benefits we have seen already from the transformation process, I think that information will go toward increasing the appetite to expand the data bank and expand the indexes.\n\nSenator Wallace: To this point, has anyone been mandated within the department to put together a precise to-do list of all the issues that must be satisfied to create either or both of the two indexes — the missing persons index and the human remains index? Has anyone put together that kind of detail? Has anyone been mandated to provide that information and the timelines to push the indexes through to a conclusion, or are we still at the stage of discussion, debate and further consultation?\n\nMr. MacKillop: The mandate essentially falls under my area; I would be working with Mr. Yost at the Department of Justice. We work with our provincial and territorial partners, under the coordinating committee of senior officials — and we report back to deputy ministers and ministers.\n\nThere is an expectation to report back to them. The indexes are still in the consultation phase because there are issues that need to be worked out. The work that is being done is on the issues and trying to work the issues through; not broad consultations on the concept. We have not set a definite deadline to complete that work, but we report annually to the FPT ministers of justice.\n\nSenator Wallace: Is there an approximate timeline for these items to be satisfied to move this work forward?\n\nMr. MacKillop: Maybe Mr. Yost can talk about the consultations that are ongoing. We hope to have those consultations wrapped up relatively soon.\n\nMr. Yost: As mentioned in my remarks, the government accepted the recommendations of the house committee and directed that consultations be carried out on a priority basis. We have been undertaking substantial work. I have here draft three of the consultation documentation.\n\nThe Chair: Do we have that document?\n\nMr. Yost: I am afraid not. For one thing, we have had two round tables with experts; the first one, we brought in someone from the FBI and someone from the Forensic Science Service in the United Kingdom. As a result of those round tables, a number of adjustments were made.\n\nI was in Montreal, taking advantage of the willingness of the Government of Quebec to bring together its experts to go over the issues entirely in French, which was kind of fun. The second draft was the day after the federal budget, so fortunately we could say that $14 million has been mentioned over two years — and I will return with details later — which made for a smoother meeting.\n\nHowever, I have to fix that document as a result of those comments. Then it must go up through my minister and the Minister of Public Safety for approval to make the document public, hopefully soon. MPI is in the document, but it has all those other issues we have to deal with.\n\nWork is ongoing. I expected last week a complete Charter review of everything we are considering. Much work has been done on the Charter, but they are taking another look at the entirety of what is being proposed and how everything fits together. I check my email every morning hoping the review has arrived, but I understand that, as sometimes happens, other priorities pop up connected with legislation. I expect to have that review soon. I cannot submit anything to my minister or to the Minister of Public Safety without the Charter analysis, as you understand.\n\nSubstantial work is being done on attempting to estimate the costs. It is easy to figure out how many people are convicted or charged with offences. It is difficult to figure out how many of them are already in the National DNA Data Bank. We do not want to resample these people at great expense and trouble when they are already in the data bank. Work is also being done on reconsidering the models with respect to the MPI that were developed at that time.\n\nThe forensic laboratories made it clear that they do not have the capacity to take on this work, given their backlog, and the National DNA Data Bank asked where this work would fit in if they suddenly had to triple their size to respond to recommendations. We have now begun analysis regarding bare bones, if I can call MPI that, to be included, as it must be within due course with all the recommendations to government.\n\nWe are moving on the index now. There was definitely a hiatus. I do not know whether the word \"amused\" is the proper word, but I was reviewing all the material that had been produced, including the report of my subcommittee on MPI legal issues, and I came across a phrase: \"The subcommittee further notes that the parliamentary review of DNA IA that will undoubtedly begin this year will probably make . . .\"\n\nIt did not happen. It would have been much nicer had all these recommendations come down when government had surpluses as opposed to deficits, so there are definite financial challenges here.\n\nSenator Wallace: Thank you.\n\n\nSenator Carignan: I would like some more information about the $14 million over two years included in Budget 2010. The Department of Public Safety talked about $10 million over two years to address the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.\n\nFirst, is this $10 million in addition to the $14 million? Second, is the plan to use the $14 million to deal with the laboratory backlog or for new development? And if it is to be used for new development, what sort of development?\n\nMr. MacKillop: First, the $14 million was for DNA analysis in Canada. That is what was in the budget. But we are developing options as to what exactly can be done with that money.\n\nAs you will no doubt appreciate, these are only recommendations I would make to the minister. That is why I cannot say at this point what would be done with the $14 million. As for the $10 million, it is not exactly the same thing.\n\nThese are two separate programs, and we are developing options with the Department of Justice to define access to this money.\n\nSenator Carignan: I understand that you got $14 million in the budget without making detailed representations about what you would do with that money. I am impressed with your results.\n\nMr. MacKillop: I am sure you know how things work when it comes to the budget and the money allocated in the budget. Options are still just options that we present to the minister.\n\nSenator Carignan: When do you plan to make recommendations to the minister? Since we will be producing a report with recommendations, it would be worthwhile to include our recommendations in the options you submit to the minister.\n\nMr. MacKillop: We always try to act as soon as possible when it comes to money allocated in the budget. We never have much money in the budget. That is why we try to submit options as quickly as possible. Then, there is a process where the government decides whether or not to approve the recommendations.\n\nThe Chair: Would part of the $14 million go to the two laboratories in Ontario and Quebec, or would it go just to the National DNA Data Bank?\n\nMr. MacKillop: Again, at this point, I can only tell you what the budget says. All these options could be included in what we propose.\n\nThe Chair: If I understood correctly, Mr. Yost, that is an option that the people in Montreal liked?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I was not there, so I cannot say what Mr. Yost told the representatives from Montreal.\n\nMr. Yost: The only thing we said to the laboratory representatives and the officials from the ministère de la Sécurité publique is that we were very aware of the pressures on all the laboratories and that sooner or later there would be news about the $14 million, but obviously we could not promise them anything.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: I am surprised that you cannot give us an answer about the $14 million. Whether the money is in the federal budget or the provincial budget, officials always come up with the figures. It is not the minister who puts in the $14 million. Someone in your department must have done the math.\n\nMr. MacKillop: It is always up to the government to decide how it wants to spend that money.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: That is not my question. I will give you an example. In the Employment Insurance Act, the government is planning to add $6.6 million to give victims of crime access to employment insurance.\n\nIn Quebec, we calculated what it would cost, and our figures were taken into account. I do not mean to be combative about the answer you gave earlier, but I believe you should know how the $14 million will be spent, because that information must come from your departments.\n\n\nMr. MacKillop: It remains, at this point, advice to my minister on how that money will be spent.\n\nThe Chair: Perhaps I can ask a question about the process. I take it, from what you have said, that this $14 million was not the result of a detailed request forwarded to the Minister of Finance saying we need $375,000 for this and $5 million for that. This money was a governmental response to observations and recommendations from various sources, including the House of Commons committee, to the effect that more money was needed. The government said they found $14 million and you were to use it as best you could. Is that a fair understanding of what happened?\n\nMr. MacKillop: Essentially.\n\n\nThe Chair: I imagine that you are not satisfied with that.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: The three laboratories told us that they all had the same problem. They said they did not know whether $14 million would address the needs. I would now like to come back to the issue of missing persons.\n\nSenator Joyal: Senator Boisvenu, do you have the budget wording with you?\n\nSenator Boisvenu: Yes.\n\nSenator Joyal: Read the budget wording to see what the words mean.\n\nIt says:\n\nBudget 2010 provides $14 million over two years to increase the ability to process DNA samples so that the results could be added to the National DNA Data Bank.\n\nSince the results are added to the National DNA Data Bank, I imagine that the three laboratories help add data to the bank and should have access to that $14 million. That is how I interpret it.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: You used the right word, \"should.\"\n\nSenator Joyal: Reasonably.\n\nThe Chair: That is a clarification.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: It is a grammatical clarification. I would like to come back to missing persons. Statistics on missing persons in Canada are not included in statistics on crime. That means that it is very difficult for police to have accurate figures on suspicious or criminal disappearances, even with the statistics from the Department of Justice. We do know one thing, though, and that is that only about 15 per cent of missing persons cases in Canada are solved.\n\nOntario's police force has the best record, with a 30 per cent solve rate, because in 2001 it set up a special squad to handle missing persons cases. This squad helps municipal police forces solve missing persons cases. The missing persons index is crucial. The convicted offenders index includes DNA data on people who have committed a crime. The missing persons index will include data on victims, which can then be connected with potential criminals who continue to reoffend.\n\nYou are aware of the case that came to light in Detroit last summer. A criminal had murdered eight women since 1981. Using the victims and offenders DNA index, police were able to connect the two and intercept the individual after eight murders.\n\nA missing persons index is even more valuable in preventing crime than the convicted offenders index, because unsolved missing persons cases are due to criminals who continue to reoffend. How is it that 500 Aboriginal women in Western Canada have disappeared without a trace in the past 15 years? Is it because of their origins?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I believe that the problem is a lack of coordination, data and information in the system. These are the issues we are working on.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: How is it that Quebec, for example, does not yet have a centralized missing persons index? Every police force has its own missing persons file.\n\nThe Chair: Our witnesses cannot talk about that.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: I will come back to the bank. Bill C-279 was drafted in 2006. Mr. Yost, you were involved in drafting that bill.\n\nMr. Yost: It was a private member's bill, so we were not involved in drafting it. I appeared before the committee with Mr. Bird of the RCMP. We pointed out a number of problems with the drafting of the legislation that should be corrected if it was passed. As you know, the bill was not passed, so there was no reason to propose amendments. That helped us enormously in our legal analysis. We used that bill as the basis for our legal analysis to determine what should be changed to comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and address privacy and other concerns. But we were not involved in drafting the bill.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: Are you aware of Lindsey's Law?\n\nMr. Yost: Yes.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: It is named after a woman whose child disappeared a number of years ago. For 15 years, she has been lobbying for a missing persons index. I understand that you do not have the authority to decide that a missing persons index is necessary or not, but as a person who lost a child to murder and as the former president of an association where 20 per cent of the members are families with a loved one who disappeared without a trace, I believe that the missing persons index is a crucial tool in police work.\n\nThe Chair: I think that that was not really a question. It was a very good comment. There are five senators remaining on the list, so it would be helpful if we could finish in half an hour or 40 minutes.\n\n\nSenator Patterson: I have two questions. First, when members of the National DNA Data Bank advisory committee appeared before this committee in a previous session of this Parliament, they suggested it would be useful for the purpose of criminal investigations to allow law enforcement agencies to upload a victim's DNA profile to the database, that this information would help police to solve crimes more rapidly.\n\nDo the witnesses have any views on the creation of a victims index? Are there concerns around such an index?\n\nMr. Yost: When we talk about uploading victims' profiles, there are two situations. The one I cannot foresee anybody having difficulties with, or causing any legal problems, is where we have found the obvious victim of a crime — the headless torso that Dr. Fourney used as an example. It will help the investigation if that DNA can be uploaded and compared against indexes. It can be compared against the Crime Scene Index — maybe other parts of the body were found elsewhere — but the Convicted Offender Index also will be of great utility to the police to have identified this torso as perhaps a person who was involved in the drug trade and convicted in the past.\n\nThe other situation is the victim of a sexual assault. The example given by Mr. Bird, if not before this committee, then before the House of Commons committee, was of an actual case in which a sweater was placed over the victim so the victim could not see the attacker. The police eventually managed to obtain the sweater; and in conducting an analysis of the sweater, they came across not only the victim of that crime, but DNA from other women who presumably had been assaulted in the same way.\n\nHowever, even had these women been willing to upload their DNA so that police could make this kind of hit, the legislation as we have it now does not allow that. In that case, where we have the living human being, we have to obtain the enlightened consent of that person to do the uploading.\n\nAgain, we may have a situation where the person is hesitant to have their DNA uploaded to the Crime Scene Index, where it is automatically checked against every other crime scene.\n\nThose problems can be overcome. A victims index will be useful. It has been recommended by the standing committee of the House of Commons.\n\nSenator Patterson: On another subject, I understand that the U.K. and certain U.S. states allow what is called familial searching, kinship analysis. This technology was not considered in the DNA Identification Act since I believe the technique was not completely developed at the time. However, it is seen to be another aid to investigation. Again, what do the witnesses think of familial searching, and are there concerns to be addressed?\n\nMr. Yost: I will take the first shot at the answer. When we appeared in March 2009, we had our briefing for the Senate review, which was almost identical to the briefing provided to the house committee. The house committee did not address the issue of familial searching. I commend it to new members of the committee for their reading. I was fond of it.\n\nIt is true there is no provision for kinship analysis. It cannot be carried out under the existing legislation. As soon as a person is excluded as a suspect, the National DNA Data Bank cannot communicate identifying information; so even if we have, in accordance with the laws of genetics or whatever, a 99 per cent probability that this person is closely related to someone in the Convicted Offenders Index, we cannot release it.\n\nI would appreciate hearing the committee's views on whether familial searching should be used. To me, it appears to be a useful tool for police in limited circumstances, primarily because of the costs. We come again to priorities and costs. They may not be terribly high for the National DNA Data Bank but more so for the police forces, especially if the data bank, depending on the criteria, sends a list of suspects. The U.K., with a much larger bank than Canada's, developed a list of 40 suspects in one famous case. That list means a lot of police time and energy going into the crime, and they have only a 15 per cent success rate, if I remember correctly.\n\nIn circumstances such as the disappeared sex trade workers in and around Edmonton, that tool is kind of a last resort, but when you have that kind of serial criminal loose, it would be an appropriate use of the National DNA Data Bank. A fair amount of work is required to develop the protocols, procedures and the scientific levels at which one can provide a degree of certainty, but the legislation can be created to make the tool possible. How often it will be used is another issue entirely.\n\nSenator Baker: I have a couple of questions concerning Senator Boisvenu's questions.\n\nYour address to the committee involved a substantial reference to the missing persons index. You have reviewed the history of the previous legislation introduced in the House of Commons, and you mentioned that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security presented a special report to the House of Commons and recommended changes.\n\nYou further informed us that Mr. Yost appeared before the committee, and the position of the government, or the Department of Justice, at that time was that previous bills needed amendments and adjustments. You talked about the federal-provincial-territorial meetings that have taken place concerning this matter for several years.\n\nOn the assumption that Senator Boisvenu or Senator Carignan may wish to introduce a bill in the near future to implement a human remains index and a DNA missing persons index —\n\nThe Chair: Perhaps you should not attach names to your assumptions.\n\nSenator Baker: I am going by the questions that were asked before the committee, Madam Chair. I am going on an assumption, yes, but I would bet there will be considerable interest. This issue has lingered on year after year, and we have come to the point where bills were introduced and the Department of Justice said they had certain amendments.\n\nWould you make the major amendments available to the committee in relation to the last bill that you gave evidence on in the House of Commons? That is the first question, and the second is, would you agree that the legislation could be introduced?\n\nYou explained that you do not have the money to implement the carrying out of the legislation, but the legislation can include a clause at the end of the bill that says, this legislation will be implemented when the government sets aside enough money to implement it.\n\nThere are two questions. One, would you make available the amendments, and would you agree that even if you do not make available the amendments relating to the Charter concerns you have with the legislation that you referenced a few moments ago, those amendments will not stop the legislation from being introduced and then amended prior to final passage in the House of Commons?\n\nMr. Yost: First, no amendments were ever actually drafted. If the government of the day supported having the bill passed, it would be normal then to ask the Department of Justice how it could be fixed. I have not reviewed my testimony on Bill C-279, but my recollection is that a number of the problems with the drafting were pointed out. I found a briefing note that I had prepared, and it rattles off about six or seven of those problems. I believe they are on the public record, so there are things that one can look at there.\n\nBill C-279 would have needed, in my view, almost a complete makeover to make it work on the ground. One of its fundamental problems, for example, was to give the Commissioner of the RCMP the duty to obtain the consents, but the RCMP is not the police force for the vast majority of Canadians, so how would the commissioner obtain that consent?\n\nThere were no sections dealing adequately with the consents required, and no sections on withdrawing consent for a profile in the index. Those problems needed to be addressed.\n\nHowever, the fundamental problem at the time Bill C-279 was presented — and the reason it was stopped — was because it was a money bill. It could not be implemented without money, and therefore, while the house committee studied it and we explained some of its problems, it was stopped for the problems that Mr. MacKillop mentioned: the high price tag to implement it in a time when everyone was struggling, particularly the RCMP, with turnaround times, et cetera, for the analysis of crime scene samples.\n\nSetting priorities is a fundamental issue of the government and for the budget, and while we are working on a missing persons index — and we will certainly have the numbers and the costs re-analyzed — at the end of the day, the government will have to decide where the priority is and where a missing persons index fits in to it.\n\nCreating the legislation, providing the framework upon which the index can be expanded in the future as there is more capacity developed, is possible. However, even with the best will in the world, there is a shortage of everything. It takes a lot of training to make people capable to do this kind of work, et cetera. I am fairly certain that all the forensic laboratories will want to take any extra funds that may come out of the $14 million and put them into doing more and doing it faster.\n\nSenator Baker: Finally, Madam Chair, the report of this committee will soon be made available to Mr. Yost and Mr. MacKillop and their ministers. Since this committee started examining this issue, I have read so many times the words, \"We will wait for the report from Parliament\" — this committee and the House of Commons committee — to implement the administration of this matter.\n\nI presume, Mr. Yost, that when we present the report of this committee, you will examine it immediately, and it will receive the approval of the minister — just as the report from the House of Commons committee did — and that you will proceed to implement the recommendations.\n\nMr. Yost: I think you are overestimating my power, senator. Unless I am moved off the file, I hope the report will come in soon because, as I have stated, we are in the midst of developing a consultation paper, et cetera. Frankly, I am not 100- per-cent sure how much time the government has to respond to it; but it will undoubtedly fall to me to provide the first analysis on what this report implies and what it will mean; and presumably to Mr. MacKillop to give government some idea of what the costs might be, and then to make recommendations to the government as to what it should accept and what it might express caveats about.\n\nIs that wishy-washy enough?\n\nSenator Baker: Yes.\n\nThe Chair: Mr. Yost, if you were not such an experienced witness, I would have warned Senator Baker that he was exceeding your particular field of authority there.\n\nThe time available for a response is three months, I think. If we ask for a response from the minister, the minister has three months, I believe — 150 days.\n\nSenator Joyal: That is, provided we have a specific motion on the Senate floor.\n\nThe Chair: We have to require the response, but once that is done, the minister has 150 days.\n\nSenator Watt: Coming back to those missing women, to build upon what my colleague on the other side asked, can you walk us through the process in a practical sense? If the law enforcement officer has been notified — whoever that person might be or wherever the headquarters might be — in regard to those missing people, I imagine that there is general information out there. It may not be DNA data necessarily, but the information is there.\n\nIf you have to obtain the DNA for those missing people from a family member, I want a better idea of how you go about obtaining consent from those family members. I imagine they want to find those missing family members; they might not hesitate to provide that DNA wherever that is required. Can you walk us through that process, how you normally proceed?\n\nThe second question is along the same line. Is there a possibility of that information being restricted only for that purpose, and not necessarily for general purposes? In other words, if you obtain the consent from family members to use their DNA, can you restrict that use to the point that it will be used only for that particular purpose and nothing else? Can you give us ideas on how that process will work?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I will leave the legislation side to Mr. Yost. I think legislation probably can be drafted to restrict or allow almost anything.\n\nIn terms of walking through the consent, unfortunately I am not a law enforcement officer. However, my understanding is that all law enforcement agencies have their own policies and procedures for dealing with missing people. Agencies will take the information from a family member, friend or someone who identifies the person as missing and they will fill out whatever forms, whatever information they obtain. Then at a predetermined point of time — and my understanding is that law enforcement agencies have different periods of time — they will enter the information on the Canadian Police Information Centre, CPIC, and that information will be available to them for investigation.\n\nOne challenge is the fact that all police agencies tend to have their own policies and procedures, so they are not standard. The amount of information and type of information that goes on CPIC is not necessarily standard across the country.\n\nIn terms of coordinating investigations or coordinating and sharing the information that might be helpful in investigations of missing persons, there is a gap. It is one that we are looking at as well, which is not including the DNA but including the information and what goes on CPIC.\n\nIt has been something that has been addressed and raised by some of our Western provinces in work they have done in Saskatchewan and B.C. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, as well, has been looking at this issue in terms of information that should be available on CPIC with respect to missing persons and how we share that information.\n\nSenator Watt: That is one area you want this committee to focus on.\n\nMr. MacKillop: The committee could focus on that area, should it desire to do so, but it would not be my place to tell the committee to focus on anything.\n\nSenator Watt: Do you have anything else on this issue?\n\nMr. Yost: A great deal of work is being done on the coordination of missing persons. I am only peripherally on that file in the criminal law policy section; another counsel works on that file. She alerts me if something is happening relative to DNA.\n\nHowever, my understanding is that they are working from the Ontario Provincial Police model; seeing how they can make that model national so that everyone feeds in the same information. When people are looking for someone, one of the first things they will bring in is a picture. That picture will be sent across the country to all police forces, presumably on a secure network at first. Before anybody can look at it, we would need to have protocols and rules, et cetera; but that is not my file.\n\nThe DNA is recognized as the last worst hope, if I can put it that way. The accent is on obtaining the information in a uniform way across the country as soon as possible, and hopefully finding the missing person rather than trying to identify human remains further down the road.\n\nSenator Watt: I believe that DNA can also be synthesized. We have been told that is one area they also are concerned with, the issue of DNA being planted at the crime scene to implicate certain persons. That scenario is a possibility.\n\nCan the test distinguish between natural and artificial DNA samples?\n\nMr. MacKillop: That is beyond my expertise.\n\nThe Chair: Senator Watt, if you look at the testimony we heard yesterday afternoon after you had to leave a little bit early, you might find information on that question.\n\nSenator Watt: Was an answer given?\n\nThe Chair: Sort of; Dr. Fourney also addressed it slightly the last time he was with us.\n\nSenator Watt: Are we satisfied with the recommendations that have come forward to the committee?\n\nThe Chair: We have not had recommendations; we have had information provided to us. However, you are asking a scientific question, which is why I am interrupting here.\n\nI think both of you gentlemen have backed off scientific questions, have you not?\n\nMr. Yost: Dr. Fourney despairs of my ability to understand biology.\n\nMr. MacKillop: The biology of my high school and early university days will not allow me to answer a question of that magnitude.\n\nThe Chair: Is that okay, Senator Watt?\n\nSenator Watt: For now, yes.\n\nSenator Joyal: Can you remind us if you put a rough price tag on the cost to government for the establishment of missing persons index?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I think the work done in 2007 by the working group at that time estimated start-up cost of at least $10 million; I believe the five-year cost was in the neighbourhood of $23 million to $25 million.\n\nSenator Joyal: Does that include the victims index also or would those costs have been established separately?\n\nMr. MacKillop: Those costs would have been separate.\n\nSenator Joyal: Do you have a price for that index?\n\nMr. MacKillop: I do not.\n\nSenator Joyal: On the basis of your experience, can you figure out how many millions we are talking about?\n\nMr. MacKillop: No, that is something I would have to talk to Dr. Fourney about because the victims index may be somewhat different given that samples are taken at the crime scene anyway. However, I am not sure how that would work in terms of the added resources required to include victims DNA from a crime scene into the National DNA Data Bank.\n\nSenator Joyal: Mr. Yost, you referred to the Charter evaluation of the proposed legislation in relation to a missing person. At that time, did you receive comments or input on that issue from the Privacy Commissioner?\n\nMr. Yost: No, not from the Privacy Commissioner. We received an analysis from the privacy branch of the Department of Justice. We consulted both the privacy and the Charter people of course. We did receive that input. Their advice will be beneficial to us in designing legislation, should it be the desire of the government to proceed with legislation.\n\nSenator Joyal: The privacy issues in relation to a missing persons index are key to the functioning of that index, even more so than in the National DNA Data Bank generally.\n\nMr. Yost: Yes, I agree. Mr. MacKillop referred to the person who does not want to be found. When we are dealing with the missing persons index, we all understand Judy Peterson's drive to establish this index. We always tend to think of the young person who has disappeared and the parents, but a missing person can be an adult who has other reasons to disappear. We have to develop protocols, et cetera, as to who can ask for someone to be found, and if the person is found, what we do then? Do we put two people in contact if the person does not want to be found, for whatever reason, and we discover situation. That kind of detailed work has not been completed. It is flagged as a serious problem that must be addressed. Hopefully, in due course we will address it.\n\nSenator Joyal: The next question is about the decision of the government to accept the recommendation of the House of Commons committee dated October 18, as you or someone around the table mentioned this morning. I understand that the $14 million included in the budget addresses only recommendation two and leaves the other recommendation pending in terms of their implementation, as far as money is concerned.\n\nAm I right in interpreting the budget that way?\n\nMr. Yost: Far be it for me to interpret the budget, but recommendation two is addressed as well to the provincial governments of Ontario and Quebec allocating additional funding to their forensic laboratories.\n\nThe National DNA Data Bank is not a forensic laboratory. Forensic laboratories conduct the crime scene analysis. When I read that item, I thought it was addressed to recommendation three on the forensic laboratory, the systematic taking of DNA samples upon conviction. The report made the point that before proceeding with the amendment, the government must provide the NDDB with the resources. That is obvious. That work would far exceed their capacity and so resources would be required, but I do not see the $14 million as being addressed to the NDDB because I believe they were referring more to the other labs. I could be wrong, and I suspect Dr. Fourney is hoping I am wrong.\n\nSenator Joyal: In other words, there is no money in the budget. Did the government have time to figure out the budgetary implications of accepting those recommendations? Did the government set out in the budget a way to recognize specific amounts in relation to any of those recommendations?\n\nMr. Yost: Recommendation two does not require any legislative changes. It relates to operational issues. Recommendation three and the recommendations for a victims index and a missing persons index require major legislative change, and you know the process to develop options for cabinet, to draft legislation and to have that legislation pass through the House of Commons and through the Senate. We are not talking about money that will flow now. We will have to attach dollar figures and identify a source of funds, or identify that there is no available source of funds and leave it to government to draw conclusions on funding and what it will support. However, with the best will in the world, I would be amazed if we can have anything up and running before 2012.\n\nSenator Joyal: In other words, if I understand your comments, considering that the establishment of the missing persons index involves government appropriation, a bill introduced in Parliament without the proper Royal Recommendation to provide for the funds for it would not solve the problem, considering that the adoption of such legislation involves the effective appropriation of money?\n\nMr. Yost: That was the ruling in the house on Bill C-279; the bill needed a Royal Recommendation since it involved the expenditure of money. I assume that ruling will be sustained again if a similar bill is presented in the house. I am not sure how the Senate deals with such issues.\n\nSenator Joyal: The Constitution of Canada provides that any bills pertaining to appropriation must originate from the House of Commons.\n\nMr. Yost, I want to go back to the letter you sent to the committee clerk. When you appeared on March 26, you were asked to provide a list of specific problems you see with the legislation, and to point out things that are causing problems. I think at that time David Bird also appeared with you.\n\nI know you answered that request, and the answer was provided to members of this committee. Can you point out in that list of requests which item necessitates amendments to the DNA legislation?\n\nMr. Yost: Believe it or not, that is one letter I did not print off and bring with me because I thought we were dealing with the missing persons index. Give me a copy and give me a moment and I will see what I can do for you.\n\nI will make the overarching remark that this letter was addressed to problems with the existing system. Certain changes, certain things that are required, would not be a problem if the legislation was overhauled in a completely different way instead of being based upon judicial authorization in each and every case.\n\nThe first one, whether the conviction qualifies as a designated offence, will necessitate changing the legislation. One possibility, if we are working in the current system, is to have a clear demarcation so that if the offence is indictable, it is a designated offence almost. That demarcation will pick up all offences; then there will never be a problem in the court deciding whether the offence was a DNA offence.\n\nSenator Baker: What about the hybrid offence?\n\nSenator Joyal: The problem is with the hybrid offence.\n\nMr. Yost: You might indicate whether proceeding by an indictable offence that was proceeded with summarily could also be subject to DNA analysis. If that offence was included, we would not have a problem even with one.\n\nOn the execution of the National DNA Data Bank orders, we have problems. We know that the police are not prepared to rush around. Warrants are issued that cause a lot of difficulties. If the system was automatic upon conviction, or automatic upon arrest, which Senator Runciman mentioned, that situation would be the police preference. I do not think I am giving away any secrets; in our consultations, that situation has always been the police preference — we have the person, and we take the DNA then and there. Then that problem disappears obviously. I am not sure I know of a quick solution. We have to amend the legislation to find some other way to take samples.\n\nCPIC — whether it is already contained in the DNA data bank — I do not see item as one that the legislation can address. On victims and deceased persons' DNA profiles, I think we have been talking about including them. There was mention there of an elimination database. We have to amend the legislation to address that item.\n\nRegarding the Crime Scene Index, not all crimes qualify as designated offences; so depending on what is done with designated offences, it clearly affects that item, which ties in with the other one.\n\nCommunicating close matches is kinship analysis or familial searching. Clearly, we need to change the legislation for that one.\n\nThe letter refers to international exchanges. I am not certain what we can do in the legislation. It probably follows from what we do with communication domestically. Currently, the exchanges mirror each other, but there might be some hesitation if we start to take DNA on arrest from people who have not been convicted of anything. Do we want to share that information internationally? That is something we have to consider.\n\nThus ends the letter, fortunately.\n\nSenator Joyal: Finally, I will come back to the missing index persons, because that is what you were asked to testify on this morning. In your consultation, was any province or territorial authority reluctant to have that index established?\n\nMr. Yost: Several provinces expressed concern regarding the cost. Provinces that had their own forensic laboratories — not to name the two — suggested they had no capacity to implement it; and they will resist anything in legislation that purports to force them to implement it.\n\nMy co-chair on the legal issues committee was from the Province of Quebec, which tends to be fairly protective of its jurisdiction. As long as we establish it on a basis of consent and do not purport to require coroners to do anything, because that jurisdiction is provincial, and play it like the Crime Scene Index — here is a service we provide nationally; if you wish to upload, you may — there are no objections. For anything that attempts to be prescriptive within provincial jurisdiction, there will be resistance.\n\n\nSenator Boisvenu: There are two schools of thought about the missing persons index: one is that there should be 10 provincial indexes within a single bank, and the other is that there should be a centralized index. Which would you be inclined to introduce?\n\nMr. Yost: I believe that a centralized index would be preferable. The legislation that was planned when the National DNA Data Bank was created provided that the provinces would conduct all the analyses, even of convicted offenders, and that the comparisons would be made in Ottawa on a single computer. That legislation, Bill C-13, was not very successful. We had to amend the legislation and centralize everything in Ottawa.\n\nThis is very beneficial in my opinion, because we can set national standards and information will be in a standard format. Obviously, this method implies a great deal of consultation and cooperation with the provinces and jurisdictions, but I am certain that the desire to cooperate is there and that operational problems can be overcome.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: In your document, you talk about work done to introduce a missing persons index: a preliminary version in 2005, a design session in 2007. Are these documents available?\n\nMr. Yost: I know that I do not have permission to distribute the document that was prepared by my subcommittee on legal issues. We never asked the provinces whether or not they had any objections. It was for our internal work. I imagine that the same is true of the other documents that were prepared.\n\nMr. MacKillop: Essentially, yes, the same is true. We did not ask for permission to disclose the working documents we used and continue to use as we move forward with the consultations and eventually, I hope, come up with a final document.\n\nSenator Boisvenu: Madam Chair, it is important for the committee to have these documents.\n\nThe Chair: If we do not have the right to have them, then we do not have the right, but I will ask the witnesses to find out as soon as possible. If anyone wants to go through the Access to Information Act, then that is another matter, but I am asking in accordance with the rules governing committees and relations between committees, officials and departments.\n\n\nSenator Runciman: Mr. Yost talked about the budget, the $14 million that Senator Joyal raised. The report that Government Consulting Services carried out for the government indicates that Ontario and Quebec will need to increase their capacity levels by approximately 65 per cent to meet the requirements of Bill C-13 and Bill C-18, according to the findings of that organization. They use a dollar figure of approximately $7 million a year for both jurisdictions to meet the anticipated requirements under those two bills.\n\nYou are correct. That report indicates that there are no additional resources at the federal level with respect to the challenges. One comment in the report that is damning in some respects indicates that the RCMP has much more technology — two to three times the level of staff — and fewer samples being processed than in the other two labs.\n\nI do not know if anyone wants to respond to that comment, but the report concludes that the RCMP has the capacity but has not demonstrated the ability to handle the extra workload. Has that situation changed, or is it driving the wording in the budget with respect to exploring different delivery models, including potential privatization?\n\nMr. MacKillop: At the time the GCS report was prepared, there were challenges in the RCMP labs. The RCMP was also in the process of opening their new lab, and a significant amount of their resources went toward training and hiring new people.\n\nThe situation has been corrected with the transformation process the RCMP has undergone. The report is dated, and the information was from 2005 to 2007. Much of that situation has changed. Assistant Commissioner Henschel and Ronald Fourney talked about the transformation process that the RCMP has undergone recently, and the progress it has shown. The capacity referenced in that report has changed, and the throughput and output coming from the labs is now significantly greater.\n\nSenator Runciman: With respect to the wording in the budget, and taking a look at different delivery models, can you indicate to us what plans are in the works with respect to how you approach that delivery?\n\nMr. MacKillop: At this point, I can only reiterate what is in the budget. We have been asked to examine alternative delivery models. There is no foregone conclusion on the need necessarily for an alternative delivery model. We have been asked simply to look at models and the way we go about delivering them at this point.\n\nSenator Runciman: Are you looking at them internally within government? I have some concern with respect to looking at models solely from an internal perspective. It is nice to have outside views with respect to the best way to move forward.\n\nMr. MacKillop: In developing any recommendations or preparing a study, we try to have as objective a view as possible. How we go about delivering the service at this point is the advice I give to my minister.\n\nSenator Runciman: It precludes this committee from offering comparable advice.\n\nMr. MacKillop: This committee is free to offer anything it wishes to offer.\n\nSenator Runciman: Thank you.\n\nThe Chair: It is interesting that the government said it accepted in principle all the recommendations of the House of Commons committee. As I recall, one recommendation was against privatization. I was struck by that recommendation.\n\nHowever, I want to ask about various models. Also, I want to ask whether any consideration has been given to, or whether you can offer us any thoughts on, possible advantages and disadvantages of public-private partnerships. In particular, is some such approach interesting for the creation of new services, such as a missing persons index?\n\nMr. Yost: I am not an expert on public-private partnerships but fundamentally, if we are to use this information in the way that I understand it, it would be possible to upload to the Combined DNA Index System, CODIS. It is also my understanding that the FBI insists that anything going to the CODIS be from a government lab. The United States might have a couple hundred of those labs because various police forces run their own. Fortunately, we have only three. Even if the work is sent out, it would ultimately fall to the RCMP to do all the work necessary to vet it and upload it to the CODIS.\n\nWorking out the details financially, et cetera, is not my job. Mr. MacKillop has my sympathies because I think it is his job. Definite difficulties are involved.\n\nThe first recommendation is to keep everything at the National DNA Data Bank except in terms of emergencies, if I can put it that way. Some kind of partnership might be appropriate to respond to the vast increase that is likely to happen in samples sent to the National DNA Data Bank, whether on arrest or on conviction. We anticipate those numbers dropping rapidly given the amount of recidivism. Do you build up for the capacity expected at day one or do you build up for an anticipated capacity after three or four years and make some kind of arrangement with the private sector to take the overload? These questions are difficult financial issues that, fortunately, being in criminal law policy, I only have to think about because they are not my problem.\n\nMr. MacKillop: Thanks for your sympathies. If we look at any public-private partnership, we have to look at the legal issues, so you would be dragged into this issue.\n\nWe have not conducted any studies on the issues. You are correct in saying that the government accepted all the recommendations in principle. The statement in the budget asked us to examine alternate service delivery models. It is not a foregone conclusion that we will move to any alternate service delivery. My knowledge is the situation in the U.K. where many of their labs went private. The initial rationale might have been financial. My understanding is that the experiment in the U.K. has not been as successful recently as it seemed to be initially when they went that route. We will have to include the experience of other countries in our examination of any alternate service delivery model.\n\nThe Chair: Do you know if the U.K. can upload to CODIS?\n\nMr. Yost: I am not sure whether the U.K. operates on the CODIS model of the FBI. We use it but I am not sure what Europe and the U.K. use.\n\nSenator Joyal: On a point of information, perhaps Mr. MacKillop will look into the testimony before the committee by Anthony Tessarolo from the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, on the issue of public and private forensic delivery.\n\nThe Chair: If the witnesses have not seen the evidence, we will be glad to provide it to them. We will be delighted to receive any comments.\n\n\nSenator Carignan: That is a question I have asked other people previously, but they are supposed to send us the information. Do you have any study findings on savings resulting from the impact of DNA in investigations and trials?\n\nWe were given the example of an investigation in Toronto into the death of a young girl. The investigation revealed that once traces of DNA were found, the number of investigators dropped from 100 to six. That is an incredible savings. In the justice system, DNA evidence affects the number of guilty pleas.\n\nWe are told that in practice, DNA evidence is a major factor in guilty pleas, so I wanted to know whether you had any studies that put a figure to the savings in the system.\n\nMr. MacKillop: Our department has never done any studies of this sort. We have heard of anecdotal evidence, but no studies have been done of the cost savings of using DNA as opposed to another investigation method.\n\nMr. Yost: I have to say that the Department of Justice has not done any research on this issue. There are two sides to every coin, as the saying goes. Often, in what is called a cold case, nothing has happened in 10 years, then a DNA match is made and the whole investigation is re-opened.\n\nWhat is clear is that the ability to identify someone with certainty using DNA has had a major impact on all sorts of trials. I understand that some studies have been done in the United States on this impact. I will see if I can find them. In the system as a whole, there are some costs that are higher and others that are lower.\n\nThe Chair: Yesterday, we received a document: Effectiveness and Cost Efficiency of DNA Evidence in Volume Crime — Denver, Colorado Site Summary.\n\nI imagine that if Senator Joyal has it, you have it. The document was distributed.\n\nSenator Carignan: Given the quantity of documents in your office, I am sure we are not sharing the same ones.\n\nThe Chair: He is able to lay his hands on every document; that is what is so miraculous.\n\n\nGentlemen, thank you very much indeed. As usual, this session has been extremely instructive and helpful.\n\n(The committee continued in camera.)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7787469625473022}
+{"content": "Nav: Home\n\nStudy sheds more light on genes' 'on/off' switches\n\nFebruary 26, 2019\n\nIt takes just 2 percent of the human genome to code for all of the proteins that make cellular functions -- from producing energy to repairing tissues -- possible.\n\nSo what does the other 98 percent do?\n\n\nIn other words, the only thing that makes a muscle cell different from a brain cell is which genes are activated.\n\nIt's why University of Michigan scientists are using sophisticated computational methods to investigate how genetic variation in noncoding DNA can increase a person's susceptibility to certain diseases, such as diabetes and cancer.\n\nIn a new paper in the journal Genetics, they compare five types of regulatory regions that have been identified in the past few years in an effort to figure out how the regions behave in different types of cells.\n\n\"When people try to look at how gene regulation occurs, they look at different epigenomic information using sequencing, trying to understand molecular profiles,\" says lead author Arushi Varshney, a Ph.D. candidate in human genetics.\n\nEpigenomics refers to changes in the organization of genes caused by factors other than the DNA sequence.\n\nFor example, researchers have recently discovered that genetic variants -- the slight variations in DNA that make us unique -- that are associated with diseases tend to lie in areas of the genome that act as gene regulatory elements called enhancers and promoters.\n\nEnhancers boost the rate of transcription of a gene, much like the accelerator in a car, and promoters initiate transcription of a gene, like a car's ignition.\n\n\"There were a number of papers coming out describing different classes of gene regulatory elements, and it was not clear how they are related,\" explains Stephen Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics and of human genetics.\n\n\"Our paper was the first to really compare them,\" Parker says. \"One of the things that came out is that they're all different and act differently in different cell types.\"\n\nHowever, the U-M team also discovered that genetic variants in the more cell type-specific enhancers have relatively small effects on their target genes. This could spell trouble for scientists who are comparing thousands of people's genomes to try to locate genetic variation associated with disease traits.\n\nThe U-M authors suggest that these genes are so important for a cell's function that their transcription is tightly regulated under normal conditions.\n\n\"What it means is we're going to need really large sample sizes to see effects,\" Parker says.\n\nAnother unexpected finding may eventually explain how genetic variation in regulatory elements makes disease more likely.\n\nVarshney, Parker and their colleagues suggest that enhancers and promoters that are cell-specific -- meaning they have bigger effects in certain types of cells -- could make it easier for transcription to occur under certain environmental conditions.\n\nThey appear to do this by making the cell's chromatin, the dense protein molecules that the DNA wraps around inside the nucleus of a cell, more accessible.\n\nAs a next step in this research, \"we think one should look at gene expression of cells under specific conditions,\" Varshney says. \"For example, if you're trying to look at type 2 diabetes, maybe look at cells under high glucose conditions, then look at the gene expression and how genetic variants affect gene expression.\n\n\"Then, maybe you would be better able to explain how this genetic variant predisposes you to get a disease.\"\n\nMichigan Medicine - University of Michigan\n\nRelated Dna Articles:\n\nPenn State DNA ladders: Inexpensive molecular rulers for DNA research\nIt is easier for a DNA knot...\nHow do metals interact with DNA?\nElectrons use DNA like a wire for signaling DNA replication\nSwitched-on DNA\nMore Dna News and Dna Current Events\n\nBest Science Podcasts 2019\n\nNow Playing: TED Radio Hour\n\nTeaching For Better Humans\nNow Playing: Science for the People\n\n#535 Superior", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7154257297515869}
+{"content": "Pest Control\n\nEast Allen County Schools is committed to providing students a safe environment.  EACS seeks to prevent children from being exposed to pests and pesticides.  While pesticides protect children from pests than may be found in the school and its surrounding grounds, under some circumstances they may pose a hazard to children.  Therefore the pest control practices that EACS utilizes may involve a variety of chemical and non-chemical methods that are designed to control pests effectively while minimizing potential pesticide exposure to children.  Parents and staff who want to receive advance notice of all pesticide use when school is in session should complete the EACS Pest Control Registry to receive notifications.  The EACS Director of Facilities, (260) 446-0100 ext. 2003, is the contact person for providing information regarding pesticide application activities at the school site, the sending of notifications, and maintaining records of pesticide applications.\n\nEACS Pest Control Registry Form\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998520016670227}
+{"content": "Planning Your Process – starting on the same page\n\nWe’ll get started with an overview of the process that your task force will use throughout your risk assessment process to help you identify, assess and address your organization’s risks.\n\nFirst you need a team to go through the process with you. We will discuss who should be on your team and how you should keep your fellow leaders informed.\n\nYour task force will explore and agree on the criteria you will use to evaluate the severity of your risks based on likelihood and potential impact. This will get your leaders on the same page with a shared understanding of what a severe risk looks like in your organization.\n\nOnce you have defined your criteria for evaluating risks, your task force will be ready to move forward and “see it”, “size it up” and “avoid it, tame it or at least watch out for it”.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9734203219413757}
+{"content": "Turkish Spice\n\nShowing 1–12 of 19 results\n\nTurkish spices are the most important ingredients of Turkish cuisine to cook and serve delightful foods. They are also known as Turkish blend or Turkish seasoning. Here are some herbs and spices that you can buy online and their intended use;\n\nTurmeric spice: Turmeric is a tropical plant in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) with narrow pointed leaves and yellow flowers. You can use its dried and ground root in meat, fish and egg dishes.\n\nSumac spice: People make this spice from the ground berries of a small tree which grows in Southeast Anatolia. It has a sour flavor. You can use sumac as a souring agent in kebabs and some salads.\n\nSaffron (Safran): Saffron imparts an intense yellow color to foods to which you add. It has a sharp, slightly bitter flavor. You can use saffron in some soup and seafood soups, in pilafs and in desserts. It does not dissolve in olive oil. You can also use saffron in a zerde dessert.\n\nMint (Nane): You can use mint in foods ranging from soups to vegetable dishes. You can add mint to lamb and mutton, and also you can use in salads.\n\nIn spice sets you can find Turkish spice mix like black pepper, curry, sumac, fennel, india saffron, mint, chilli, cumin, black seed, sweet red pepper, ottoman spices etc. You can use some of these spices for seasoning mix or seafood seasoning. And you can make your own spice blend.\n\nIf you are looking for spices to buy online, Grand Turkish Bazaar gives you the opportunity to buy organic spices online. Express shipping worldwide gives you the opportunity to have best Turkish spices in the world.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5218808650970459}
+{"content": "Create Syria: Meet the artists\n\nEleven artists and cultural figures are exploring how art, in particular their artistic practice, can support dialogue and resilience among refugees and communities in Lebanon as part of Create Syria, a joint project by International Alert, the British Council and Ettijahat - Independent Culture.\n\nThe war in Syria and resulting refugee crisis has placed strains on displaced Syrians across the region but also on relations between host and refugee communities. Create Syria is using art to open up opportunities for dialogue and artistic collaboration with Syrians, Lebanese, Syrian Palestinians and other communities.\n\nFrom filmmaking and choral singing to puppetry and animation, the participating artists have been busy implementing a diverse and innovative range of community activities across Lebanon, all inspiring hope for a collective future without violence.\n\nTheir stories and works will be showcased in a special Create Syria exhibition, which will launch in London on International Peace Day as part of the Talking Peace Festival.\n\nMeet the artists by reading their stories as they are published below, and find out how they are working with children, youngsters and upcoming artists across local communities to inspire creativity in times of conflict.\n\nKarim, animator\n“Art presents the good and beautiful things in life; when it’s presented, it encourages people to do the opposite of violence.”\n\nBoushra, community arts organiser\n“I decided that I needed to work with the society, the real society, not the elite.”\n\nRaghad, actress\n\n“I thought I would come back helpless, but the opposite happened. People were laughing, telling stories about their suffering.”\n\nAbed, filmmaker\n\"Art is a process of dismantling society and putting it back together again.”\n\nHannibal, musician\n\"I believe in peace. I believe that war will end and we need to be prepared for cultural reconciliation.\"\n\nMohamed, painter\n\"I would lay out all my pain, fear, fatigue, happiness, and excitement on the canvas and start throwing in all sorts of colours.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9837134480476379}
+{"content": "Insat Launch\n\nFollowing yesterday's delay, InSat has been launched and is looking good. This story appears in many places online.\n\nISRO has just awarded two more launch contracts as a result.\n\nInterestingly, India has it's own launch vehicle programme, yet it is relying on other agencies for it's recent launches, and is in talks with Lockheed. India has launched it's own satellites before, and is looking to enter the commercial launcher market.\n\nAriane Launch Delayed\n\nDue to technical difficulties, the launch of Insat, an Indian Satellite, has been postponed due to problems with the telemetry.\n\nISRO was to launch Insat-3A on Ariane-5, of the ESA\n\nBoth ISRO and ESA have webpages, and ESA have just issued a media invitation about their imminent mission to mars, the Mars Express.\n\nMars Express is so called as in August the Earth and Mars will be in perihelic opposition. The mission will involve landing the Beagle 2 on the surface of the planet.\n\nPersonally, I'm quite fond of the Ariane series of rockets used by the ESA, they're vaguely reminiscent of something I've seen before....", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8697509169578552}
+{"content": "Discover independent and emerging artists.\n\nI am curious about\n\nNicole Moss\nJudith McKay\nLinds Miyo\nSelf-taught artist Linds Miyo is a Canadian abstract painter. Born and raised in California, her work strives to evoke the strong, direct light of her childhood. A trauma survivor, Linds is interested...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9132077693939209}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 19\n\n\n\nEpistemology and The Lettered City: Ángel Rama, Michel Foucault and\nIbn Khaldun\n\n\nMester, 39(1)\n\n\nGorman Malone, Cora\n\nPublication Date\n2010-01-01 Powered by the California Digital Library\n\nUniversity of California\nEpistemology and The Lettered City:\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and\nIbn Khaldun\nCora Gorman Malone\nUniversity of California, Santa Cruz\n\nEven before the posthumous publication of La ciudad letrada in\n\n1984, the work of Ángel Rama would have had little need of intro-\nduction for an audience versed in Latin American literary criticism.\nClassic texts such as Transculturación narrativa en América Latina\nhave had a pervading influence in shaping a bilingual, often multilin-\ngual, academic discourse in and about Latin America. John Charles\nChasteen’s translation of The Lettered City, published twelve years\nafter the first appearance of the posthumously published La ciudad\nletrada, helped to provoke a renewed interest in Rama’s work in\ngeneral and this text in particular, and while La ciudad letrada/The\nLettered City has been prolifically cited and often critically engaged,\nit has not yet exhausted its impact. Rama’s introduction of Foucault\nand contemporary French theory to Latin American literary criticism\nhas often been noted, but infrequently discussed in conjunction with\nthe new if tenuous paradigm he offers for conceiving of Latin America\n(and Latin American difference) through expansive literary-historical\nstudies. While respecting the originality and insightful observations\nin Rama’s text, I intend to interrogate further the implications of\nRama’s turn to Foucault for a theoretical and methodological basis,\nsuggesting that this perhaps indicates an implicit understanding of\n“modernity” as a Western concept that may not be adequate for The\nLettered City’s attempt to explain the role of the lettered urban elite\nin Latin America. This is particularly relevant to Rama’s discussion of\nthe colonial Latin American city, bearing in mind the unique history of\nthe Iberian Peninsula compared to that of other European countries,\nand the resonance of the Reconquista and (proto)national consolida-\ntion with the Spanish colonial project. Given such considerations, I\nintroduce to this discussion the historical writings of Ibn Khaldun, a\n\nMESTER, VOL. XXXIX (2010)     131\n\n© 2010 Cora Gorman Malone\n132 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nfourteenth century Arab intellectual from the Maghreb, with the sug-\ngestion that certain points of convergence between the two historical\nundertakings, both of which attempt to understand the workings\nof elite power, knowledge and craft in their respective regions, may\nprovide an example of an alternative way in which to approach The\nLettered City. The implicit relationship between these descriptions of\nconquest, empire and administrative power, while not conclusive or an\nattempt at genealogy, may further a discussion of what The Lettered\nCity contributes to a theoretical understanding of Latin America.1\nIn The Lettered City, Rama approaches the study of Latin\nAmerica as a historical formation by considering the emergence of its\ncities and the lettered elites that gave rise to them. He examines the\ncity and its elite as part of a broad schema sweeping from the conquest\nto the twentieth century. In this schema, Rama links the ideal planned\ncity to a semiotic order characterized by the atemporality of the order\nof signs while appealing to the actual historical city as a constituent\nunit in the construction of Latin America. From his first sentence,\nRama develops this idea within a framework that is at once uniquely\nLatin American and insistently European:\n\nDesde la remodelación de Tenochtitlan, luego de su destruc-\n\nción por Hernán Cortés en 1521, hasta la inauguración\nen 1960 del más fabuloso sueño de urbe de que han sido\ncapaces los americanos, la Brasilia de Lucio Costa y Oscar\nNiemeyer, la ciudad latinoamericana ha venido siendo bási-\ncamente un parto de la inteligencia, pues quedó inscripta en\nun ciclo de la cultura universal en que la ciudad pasó a ser\nel sueño de un orden y encontró en las tierras del Nuevo\nContinente, el único sitio propicio para encarnar. (1)\n\nFrom the remodeling of Tenochtitlán after its destruction\n\nby Hernán Cortés in 1521, to the 1960 inauguration of that\nmost fabulous dream city of the Americas, Lúcio Costa’s\nand Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasilia, Latin American cities have\never been the creations of the human mind. The ideal of\nthe city as the embodiment of social order corresponded\nto a moment in the development of Western civilization as\na whole, but only the lands of the new continent afforded\na propitious place for the dream of the “ordered city” to\nbecome a reality. (1)2\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   133\n\nWith this opening Rama clearly establishes his intent to write a history\nof Latin America that can encompass the region as a totality, most\nnotably with the inclusion of Brazil,3 in terms of a shared epistemo-\nlogical orientation with the West and the ability to realize the ideals\nof this orientation on its dispensable territory. Rama suggests that the\nordered city belongs to a particular (European) moment for which the\n“new” landscape of the Americas provided the physical space for city\nplanning and building that existing medieval cities made impossible in\nIberia, thus enabling the realization in Latin America of the Baroque\nideal city, the domain of the lettered elite. In this manner, Rama’s his-\ntorical narrative explains the rise of the Latin American city as part\nof a colonial understanding of rationality and order.\nIt is of note that Rama begins his narrative not with the “lettered”\ncity itself but rather with an account of the general rise of the colonial\ncity and the strategic importance of its planning, both concerns he\nshares with the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun. In Rama’s schema, the\nimportance of the ordered city is accompanied by the appearance of\na similar preoccupation with order in discourse. In the first chapter,\n“La ciudad ordenada” [“The Ordered City”], Rama directly links\nhis schematization to Foucault’s epistemic descriptions in The Order\nof Things. Working with the notion of the epistemic break as a tool\nof periodization, Foucault compares the Renaissance to the Classical\nage, finding in the latter, as Rama emphasizes, a general orientation\nto knowledge through order. For Rama, the construction of the epis-\nteme and Foucault’s schematization become a lens through which to\ninterpret colonial Latin America. By aligning the Spanish American\nBaroque with the European Classical age theorized by Foucault, he\nconstructs a narrative that seeks to explain the development of a\nlettered urban elite in relation to the conventions of discourse consti-\ntuting the episteme.\nRama’s use of Foucault’s The Order of Things is particularly sig­\nnificant because he introduces this French philosopher’s work into\nthe field of Latin American theory. Moreover, Rama’s contribution\nhas been to perhaps usher in a new approach for conceptualizing\nthe region. Since its publication, critical responses to The Lettered\nCity have continued to re-conceive of Latin America’s relationship to\nEuropean articulations that theorize analytical modes such as struc-\nturalism and poststructuralism. In addition, Rama’s text has provided\na significant argument for identifying the lettered elite as a locus of\n134 Cora Gorman Malone\n\npower in colonial Latin America and the residues of that association\n\nafter independence from the Iberian empires that has similarly been\nadopted, reformulated, or resisted by critics.4\nAlthough they bear particular concerns for Latin America, these\naspects of The Lettered City also dialogue with broader discussions\nof (post)colonialism and world literature. In Ibn Khaldun’s history,\nnow known as the Muqaddimah,5 we will find in many ways a similar\ndiscussion of the structures of a cultural administrative elite, the ranks\nof the “pen,” in the medieval Maghreb and Al-Andalus; in considering\nthese tenuous comparisons, it is also pertinent to remember the influ-\nence of the Arab presence in Spain well into the fifteenth century, and\nthe direct associations in colonial Latin American writing between the\nConquista and the Reconquista. A comparative look at the historical\nmethodology of the Muqaddimah and The Lettered City, however,\nfirst requires that we examine the relationship between Rama’s work\nand that of Foucault.\nCertain readings of The Lettered City reflect on the Foucauldian\npresence and merit reviewing as we consider and perhaps problema-\ntize Rama’s references to Foucault. For example, in his influential\nLatin Americanism (1999), Román de la Campa opens a discussion of\nthe influence of Foucault’s notion of the episteme in Rama’s thought.\nWhile acknowledging the contributions of Carlos J. Alonso, Mabel\nMoraña, and Rolena Adorno, in “The Lettered City: Power and\nWriting in Latin America” de la Campa maintains that “[Rama’s]\nmost careful readers to date have tended to look at other key aspects\nand problems or touched on the question of colonial discourse as a\nstructuring episteme only tangentially” (21). The reader of this pas-\nsage is prompted to assess de la Campa’s engagement with this same\nquestion. While he does discuss the episteme as a foundational struc-\nture in The Lettered City, the primary focus of his article is to situate\nRama with regard to debates over structuralist, poststructuralist and\npostcolonial theory.6 For de la Campa, Rama seems to anticipate the\ntheoretical debates of the U.S. university in the nineties by pointing to\nthe “difficulties inherent in poststructuralist theorizing” and disengag-\ning high and low culture. De la Campa expresses a particular urgency\nin his reading of The Lettered City, finding in Rama an alternative\nto the discursive reordering and conservatism epitomized by Harold\nBloom’s The Western Canon. Despite The Lettered City’s evident\nfocus on the production of a literate cultural elite in Latin America, or\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   135\n\nperhaps because of it, de la Campa extrapolates from Rama a theory\n\nof discursive dispersal capable of countering the closure found in the\nprocess of Bloom’s canon formation. For de la Campa, The Lettered\nCity speaks directly to the debates over theory and canons that\nplagued or invigorated U.S. academic debates and made headlines in\nnational newspapers. De la Campa writes of Rama, “his work affords\nthe possibility of grasping margins, supplements, and residues from\nLatin American cultural history to question that privilege generally\nreserved for literary masters as the only story worth retelling or decon-\nstructing.”7 According to this reading, Rama’s text employs Foucault’s\narcheological approach to conceive of heterogeneity and dispersal in\nthe analysis of discourse.\nBenigno Trigo includes de la Campa’s excerpted discussion in his\nedited and compiled Foucault and Latin America: Appropriations and\nDeployments of Discursive Analysis (2002), a survey of the variety\nof influences Foucault’s work has had on Latin American(ist) theory.\nTrigo’s book organizes the selections into four headings that arguably\nblur together in many of its examples: discourse, government, subjec-\ntivity, and sexuality. He begins his volume with “The Ordered City”,\nwhich constitutes one part of the section on discourse and immediately\nfollows it with de la Campa’s contribution; this distribution suggests\nthat, while relating the importance of writing in the colonies to the\ndevelopment of a bureaucratic administrative core, The Lettered\nCity more precisely pertains to cultural hegemony than government.\nTrigo notes de la Campa’s affirmative response to Rama’s application\nof discursive analysis and the possibility it opens for the inclusion\nof alternative cultural and literary expressions, one that Foucault\nacknowledges as fostered by his own practice in The Archeology of\nKnowledge.8 Although both suggest that Rama critically and purpose-\nfully selects elements from Foucault’s archeological project to assist\nin his analysis, neither pursues the possible contradictions in Rama’s\napplication nor the alternative readings they might invite.\nThe premise of “The Ordered City”, which in turn shapes the rest\nof the text, is that the authority and power of the urban lettered elite\nin colonial Latin America can be explained as the result of an epis-\ntemological orientation towards order paralleling that described by\nFoucault as the Classical episteme in The Order of Things. A quota-\ntion from this text, in fact, acts as the pivot point for Rama’s chapter:\n“Tal como observara Foucault, ‘lo que hace posible el conjunto de la\n136 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nepisteme clásica es, desde luego, la relación con un conocimiento del\n\norden’”(7) [“As Michel Foucault observed, ‘what made the classical\nepisteme possible as a whole, of course, was its indispensable relation-\nship to a knowledge of order’” (5)]. For Rama, it is this relationship\nthat characterizes the Spanish (Latin) American Baroque and thus\nfirmly situates the conquest and urban development of the continent\nwithin the course of “Western civilization”. To support this lineage, he\nincludes the text of a royal directive from 1513 and cites the repeated\nmention of “order” as the “lexical key” to the colonial enterprise. In\naccordance with this schematization, he also points to the similarities\nof the colonial discourse to that of the general grammar of Port-Royal,\nincluding references to Arnauld and Nicole that posit a link between\nthe Baroque and Foucault’s discursive analysis of the same project.\nThrough this connection to seventeenth-century French discourse\nof general grammar, Spanish (and Portuguese) urban plans for the\nNew World can be interpreted as the fulfillment of a Baroque ideal.\nWithin this schema, discordance between the ideal planned city and\nits actual urban counterpart can be understood as the indication of a\nshift in the relationship between signs and things in the episteme of\nWestern culture.\nAdopting the episteme (and the epistemic break) as a unit, Rama\nsets up a striking and effective affiliation to French historical peri-\nodization. From the notion of the episteme, he derives a conception\nof the Baroque less as a temporal designation than one pertaining to\nits epistemological orientation. In “The Ordered City”, the definitive\nexpression of this orientation is the planned city which maps out\nthrough signs and symbols an imagined design for social control. Thus\nThe Lettered City introduces the notion of the epistemological break\nto Latin American theory as a way to write the history of a shift in\ndiscursive formations, or the history of discontinuity. However, The\nLettered City appropriates not only this practice, but also the con-\ntent of the epistemological break Foucault describes in The Order of\nThings a general orientation toward order in the seventeenth-century\nepisteme. What happens in this instance, then, is that the methodologi-\ncal logic of Foucault’s deployment of the epistemic break is reversed in\nRama’s schema: first a general orientation to knowledge is established,\nvetted by The Order of Things, and then analysis of colonial discourse\nis conducted in accordance with this orientation.\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   137\n\nOne might consider an obvious example. In “The Ordered City”\n\na royal directive plays a crucial role in demonstrating the importance\nof order as an epistemological construct in the early colonial period.\nRama emphasizes the word “order” in his excerpted guidelines from\nthe seventh point of the directive to Pedrarias Dávila:\n\nVistas las cosas que para los asientos de los lugares son\nnecesarias, y escogido el sitio más provechoso y en que\nincurren más de las cosas que para el pueblo son menester,\nhabréis de repartir los solares del lugar para hacer las casas,\ny estos han de ser repartidos según las calidades de las per-\nsonas y sean de comienzo dados por orden; por manera que\nhechos los solares, el pueblo parezca ordenado [. . .] porque\nen los lugares que de nuevo se hacen dando la orden en el\ncomienzo sin ningún trabajo ni costa quedan ordenados e\nlos otros jamás se ordenan. (6)\n\nHaving ascertained what things are necessary for the settle-\n\nments and having chosen the site most advantageous and\nabundantly provided with all things necessary to those who\nwill settle therein, distribute town lots for the construction\nof houses, in orderly fashion, according to the quality of\nthe recipients, so that, once constructed, the town will\nappear well-ordered [. . .] because where such orders are\ngiven from the outset, orderly results will follow without\nundue cost and effort, and in other places order will never\nbe achieved. (4)\n\nFor Rama, this passage exemplifies the pivotal role of order in colo-\nnial discourse and legitimates the conflation of this period with that\ndescribed by Foucault as the Classical episteme.\nThis has implications for the historical model that is engaged in\nThe Lettered City. While Rama relies significantly on The Order of\nThings (Les Mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humanes,\n1966) for his epistemological construction, he does not cite Foucault’s\nsubsequent publication, The Archeology of Knowledge (L’Archéologie\ndu savoir, 1969). In the latter, Foucault clarifies and expounds on\nthe archeological method in his earlier work, articulating an exclu-\nsively material approach to history structurally dependent on the\n138 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nrelationship between the historian and the archive. For Foucault, the\narchive consists of the collection of documentary materials and their\ndiscursive formations that are available to the historian for analysis;\nthis collection can include only actually existing statements, in accor-\ndance with what Foucault terms the historical a priori, and mutually\ndepends on the observer. In this sense the historian both applies\nstructure to the archive and encounters it as his own limit; he (or\nshe) looks for correlations in discourse at the level of the statement,\nand from these similarities schematizes a certain kind of discursive\nsameness, or regularity, that he identifies with an episteme. When the\nhistorian perceives a shift in these regularities and the appearance of\nnew epistemological orientations, this constitutes an epistemic break.\nThus for Foucault the epistemic break functions as an organizational\nframework only so far as it remains tied to the notion of the archive;\nit cannot, in this figuring, be taken as a structure evident in history\nitself, but only through the correlation of discourse by an observer.\nSuch considerations invite the reader to interrogate both Rama’s posi-\ntion vis a vis the archive and the restrictions caused by the kind of\ndiscursive analysis he undertakes.\nThe Lettered City can only loosely be identified with Foucault’s\narcheological moment as a comparative study reveals substantial dif-\nference in their historiographic practices. In The Lettered City, this\nepisteme is taken as a given that may then be projected on Baroque/\ncolonial discourse. As a consequence, Rama writes with a narrative\nstyle that invokes discursive analysis to support broad, sweeping\nclaims. In this passage, which merits quoting at length, Rama directly\nuses The Order of Things to explain the growth of cities in America:\n\nLas ciudades, las sociedades que las habitarán, los letrados\n\nque las explicarán, se fundan y desarrollan en el mismo\ntiempo en que el signo “deja de ser una figura del mundo,\ndeja de estar ligado por los lazos sólidos y secretos de la\nsemejanza o de la afinidad a lo que marca,” empieza “a\nsignificar dentro del interior del conocimiento,” y “de él\ntomará su certidumbre o su probabilidad.”\nDentro de ese cauce del saber, gracias a él, surgirán esas\nciudades ideales de la inmensa extensión americana. Las\nregirá una razón ordenadora que se revela en un orden\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   139\n\nsocial jerárquico transpuesto a un orden distributivo geo-\n\nmétrico. (4)9\n\nThe cities of Spanish America, the societies that were meant\n\nto inhabit them, and the “lettered” interpreters of them\ndeveloped together in a time when signs became no longer\n“direct representations of the world, linked to it by secret,\nsolid ties of likeness or affinity with what they represent,”\nand began instead “to signify from within a body of knowl-\nedge” and “to take from it their probability or certainty.”\nFrom that flow of knowledge sprang forth the ideal cities\nof the Iberian empires’ American vastness. Their ordering\nprinciple revealed itself as a hierarchical society transposed\nby analogy into a hierarchical design of urban space. (3)\n\nIt seems that in The Lettered City, the appropriation of the epistemic\n\nbreak indicates an oscillating desire to narrate and to describe; that\nis, an internal tension in the text between historiographic approaches.\nThe difference between these historical modes and the tension—\nperhaps contradiction—present in The Lettered City brings us back to\nthe pertinence of Ibn Khaldun’s work to a re-reading of Rama. Wlad\nGodzich contrasts the historical practice of the Muqaddimah to that\nof the “dependence of the discourse of the [Western] historian upon\nnarrative” and the exigencies of plot, considering them to be two\nhistorical models:\n\nThis dominant Western mode of historical discourse is\n\nunderstood more easily if one contrasts it with the descrip-\ntive imperative of, let us say, Ibn Khaldun’s reflection upon\nhistory, which places greater importance upon a structural\nrepresentation than upon a cause-and-effect account. The\nmodel is still one of closure and finality, but both of these\nare conceived in relation to a structure rather than a histori-\ncal movement. (57)\n\nGodzich further elaborates this distinction with the suggestion that\n\nthe “paramount question” asked through the causal mode of his-\ntorical discourse is why, while in the sort of structural representation\nundertaken by Ibn Khaldun, the focus is how (57). In this manner,\n140 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nIbn Khaldun and the Muqaddimah offer the reader of The Lettered\nCity more than a comparative project between two somewhat related\nundertakings of conquest and empire, bringing to bear the questions\nof their historical mode(s).\nAlthough responses to The Lettered City have challenged its\nparadigm by contesting its description of the hegemony of the lettered\nelite, they have generally accepted its narration of the workings of\nthis hegemonic power as historical movement, namely the idea that\nthe conquest of the Americas coincides with an epistemic break in\nEuropean thought that ushers in a foundational regime of symbolic\norder on the new continent. As previously mentioned, this is based\nlargely on the prescriptive reading of a royal directive that extends to\nRama’s figuration of the conquest as a whole. For Rama, the conquest\nof Spanish America differs from that of Brazil or the United States in\nits speed and scope. He includes a quotation from the French historian\nPierre Chanu, which seems to guide the construction of his narrative\nof conquest: “The mainland was ‘opened, explored, and roughly\nseized during the three initial decades of the sixteenth century at an\ninsane rhythm, never equaled’” (10).10 The exceptionalism of the\nSpanish American conquest then forms the basis for Rama’s model of\nthe imposition of cities and a lettered class on the newly conquered\nterritory to maintain control and administer a colonial bureaucracy.\nAccording to Rama,\n\n[L]a conquista española fue una frenética cabalgata por un\n\ncontinente inmenso [. . .] dejando a su paso una ringlera\nde ciudades, prácticamente incomunicadas y aisladas en\nel inmenso vacío americano que sólo recorrían aterradas\npoblaciones indígenas. Con una mecánica militar, fueron\ninicialmente las postas que permitían el avance y serían\ndespués las poleas de trasmisión del orden imperial. (14)\n\nThe Spanish Conquest was a frenetic gallop across conti-\n\nnental immensities [. . .] leaving in its wake a scattering of\ncities, isolated and practically out of communication from\none another, while the territory between the new urban\ncenters continued to be inhabited almost solely by the\ndismayed indigenous populations [. . .] In the mechanism\nof military domination, the urban network functioned to\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   141\n\nprovide, first, bases for successive forays of conquering\n\nforces, and then, relay stations for the transmission of sub-\nsequent imperial directives. (11)\n\nFor Rama, such newly founded cities are also likened to the Classical\nGreek polis and its citizens surrounded by the barbarians of the hin-\nterland, yet these cities did not arise, as in Europe, from the gradual\ncentralization of people and goods, but were instead initiated as stra-\ntegic urban centers. Here Rama’s central concern is the description of\nhow urban centers came to dominate the Latin American imaginary.\nWhat Rama does not mention, nor do his critics, is that this\nschema of rapid expansion and conquest accompanied by religious,\nlinguistic and cultural hegemony is not unprecedented but was mod-\neled for the Spanish some centuries before. In its narrative thrust, The\nLettered City ties the development of urban centers and lettered elite\nto a (European) epistemological break, constructing a founding narra-\ntive of “Latin America” that situates it within “Western civilization”.\nIts emphasis on the construction of the urban center and the elite,\nhowever, align the text with a descriptive practice that is, as previously\nmentioned, more appropriately reread in conjunction with the work\nof Ibn Khaldun. What Rama does not consider is the possibility that\nFoucault’s epistemic break may not coincide with the conquest of the\nAmericas, and the royal directive pivotal to “The Ordered City” may\nnot so much mark, as he suggests, a shift in the self-conception and\nelaboration of colonial power; instead, its underlying epistemological\nconcerns may display certain commonalities with earlier (non-West-\nern) histories of conquest and empire.\nFor example, Ibn Khaldun, like Rama, described the method and\npractice of a period of conquest and colonization initiated centuries\nearlier but then in decline. Born to a prominent family in Tunis in\n1332, Ibn Khaldun worked throughout his life in a variety of posi-\ntions as a scholar, teacher, judge and administrator in several courts\nthroughout the Maghreb and Egypt. Ibn Khaldun’s best known work,\nthe Muqaddimah, examines the practice of historiography as it seeks\nto account for ‘umrân, often translated as civilization, population,\nor perhaps more accurately, organized habitation. This explicit ori-\nentation toward understanding the workings of ‘umrân through the\npractice of historiography has been interpreted by Western readers\nof the Muqaddimah as Ibn Khaldun’s exceptional observation of\n142 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nsociological and economic questions. However, the Muqaddimah\n\napproaches ‘umrân from the perspective of elite power11 and its opera-\ntions in the Maghreb, Al-Andalus and other regions affected by the\nArab expansion of the seventh century.12\nThe Arab model, a rapid and expansive conquest to rival that of\nthe Spanish in the Americas, reoccurs as an example throughout the\ndetailed treatment of “organized habitation” and dynastic power in\nthe Muqaddimah. As in Rama’s narrative of Latin America, in his\ndiscussion of the operations of the state (daula) and its elite adminis-\ntrators, Ibn Khaldun considers the city to be an essential element of\nexpansion. For Ibn Khaldun, urban development, while dependent\non the authority and organization of a state for its construction, is\nlikewise necessary for a dynasty to maintain power over the surround-\ning area:\n\nTowns and cities are secondary (products) of royal author-\n\nity. The explanation for this is that building and city\nplanning are features of sedentary culture. (II, 201)\nIf there are no cities, the dynasty will have to build a new\n(city), firstly, in order to complete the civilization of its\nrealm and to be able to lessen its efforts, and, secondly, in\norder to use (the city) as a threat against those parties and\ngroups within the dynasty that might desire power and\nmight wish to resist. It is thus clear that royal authority\ncalls for urban settlement and control of the cities. (II, 204)\n\nThe city acts both as a civilizer and as a fortress to ensure the obedi-\nence of the hinterlands to the new ruler; according to these statements,\nthe imperial Arab city is conceived in the same manner as in Spanish\nAmerica in “The Ordered City”. According to the Muqaddimah, a\ndynasty either imposes its control on existing urban areas, exempli-\nfied by the Arab appropriation of Persian construction (II, 231-2)\nor must attend to the planning and founding of towns and cities (II,\n210-14).13 Although, like Rama, Ibn Khaldun clearly recognized the\nneed for planned urban settlement, and in actuality spends much of\nthe text discussing the nuances of the various “crafts” that come with\nsedentary (urban) life, the Muqaddimah demonstrates skepticism with\nregard to the decadence and corruption that accompany the consolida-\ntion of dynastic power in the city and seem to cycle toward its decline.\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   143\n\nAs Rama notes, the colonial Spanish American city plays a double\n\nrole, described as a locus of military and administrative power and as\nan evangelical emissary of civilized Europe. However, as is clear from\nRama’s account, despite this benign rhetoric, the urban settlement of\nSpanish America entailed (violent) extraction from the local market\neconomy and the enforced protection of interests in natural resources.\nFor example, Rama remarks about the writings of Fernán González\nde Eslava, “los siete fuertes que religaban la ciudad de México con\nlas minas de plata de Zacatecas y permitían el transporte seguro a la\ncapital virreinal de las riquezas, se transformaron en nada menos que\nlos siete sacramentos de la religión católica” (17) [“[he] describes the\nseven forts linking Mexico City to the Zacatecas silver mines (thus\nsecuring the safe transport of mineral wealth to the viceregal capital)\nin terms that transform them into nothing less than the seven sacra-\nments of the Catholic faith” (13)]. Rama’s description makes clear,\nif his analysis neglects to elaborate, the link between evangelism (or\nthe secular “civilization”) and control. As colonial control shifts from\nmilitary domination to administrative authority, the lettered elite\ndevelops to continue this double vocation. According to Rama, the\nstrength of the lettered city stems from the need of empire to transmit\nand implement directives within the network of cities constituting the\ncolonial settlement; the bureaucrats also carry out the “transcultura-\ntion” of indigenous populations.\nWhile Rama narrates the consolidation, secularization, privatiza-\ntion and decline (and perhaps the democratization) of the power of\nthe letrados—which locates Latin America a propos European mod-\nernization, Ibn Khaldun details the factors that influence the recurrent\nrise to power and eventual decline of state power. One dynasty may\nbuild on the urban landscape of another or continue the “habit” of the\nformer’s crafts and sciences, but the luxury of sedentary life will erode\nits (tribal) group feeling (‘asabîyah) and it too will be replaced by a\nnew dynasty. In this sense, the historical narrative in the Muqaddimah,\nthough it may endeavor to present a complete and expansive his-\ntory, subscribes more to a cyclical model14 than a teleological one.\nAccordingly, while he focuses on the Muslim—and primarily Arab—\npresence in the Maghreb, Ibn Khaldun does not neglect the influence\nof other groups, among these the Persian and Byzantine empires, the\nBerbers in the Maghreb, and the Visigoths in Spain.\n144 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nDue to their unprecedented scale and contemporaneity, however,\n\nthe Arab conquests and the deterioration of the empire and its influ-\nence are at the core of the Muqaddimah. Ibn Khaldun observes that in\nits rapid expansion the Muslim dynasty found the office of a secretary\nor scribe necessary to communicate throughout the vast new territory.\n\nIn the Muslim dynasty, the Arabic language situation and\n\n(the custom of) expressing what one wanted to express in\ngood form intensified the need for the office [of the minis-\ntry of official correspondence and writing]. Thus, writing\ncame to convey, as a rule, the essence of a matter in better\nstylistic form than was possible in oral expression. [. . .]\nWhen the language became corrupt and a craft (that had to\nbe learned), (the office) was entrusted to those who knew\nArabic well. (II, 22)\n\nIn addition to issuing orders, this administrative unit serves to main-\n\ntain the purity and quality of the language through its correct—and\nelite—expression in written form. This elite mode of expression,\nunable to be accessed by the majority of the population, and certainly\nnot by speakers of native vernaculars, distinguishes the Arabic of the\neducated and literate classes. A hierarchy of languages accordingly\ndevelops between the elite and the populace: “The urban population\nis in general deficient in obtaining the linguistic habit that results from\ninstruction. The more remote people are from the Arabic language,\nthe more difficult it is for them to obtain it” (III, 306). According to\nIbn Khaldun, the “linguistic habit” of native speakers of Arabic, and\nparticularly those proficient in writing, allows them to form a cultural\nadministrative elite—the ranks of “the pen.”\nHere many comparisons can be drawn between Rama and Ibn\nKhaldun, evident in their attempts to understand and construct a nar-\nrative account of their respective societies, and in the role of “the pen”\nor the “letrado” and urban development to the imperial project. From\nthis discussion it becomes clear that Ibn Khaldun’s description of the\nArab model of conquest and administration does in certain respects\n“prefigure” Rama’s account of the Spanish in America, although this\nobservation does not suggest a causal or genealogical link between\ntheir projects.\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   145\n\nThe Lettered City has, as Rama intended, left a paradigmatic\n\nmark on the critical study of Latin America, and precisely for this\nreason it should continue to be interrogated. However, with a prolif-\neration of references, the “ciudad letrada” and the “letrado” dwelling\nwithin it run the risk of becoming floating signifiers that are overea-\ngerly attached to any mention of a Latin American intellectual elite.\nThe usefulness and subsequent popularity of the lettered city as a\nfigure in Latin American(ist) discourse have contributed to this grow-\ning ambiguity over the epistemological content signaled by Rama’s\nterm. Like all totalizing narratives, the history Rama constructs, while\nin some ways productively expansive, collapses regional and local\nspecificity in its broad scope.15 Along with this tendency, his enter-\nprise leans on Foucault’s epistemic divisions to such an extent that\nthe general analysis of documentary evidence drops out of the text in\nfavor of a limited number of documents that are asked to stand in for\ncolonial discourse. In such moments the text turns from a descriptive\nmode to an explanatory one.\nThe Lettered City, while demonstrating an underlying discursive\nand thematic similarity to The Muqaddimah, also turns toward a\nnarrative mode to offer an explanation of European epistemological\norientations as the impetus for the development of colonial structures.\nThis appeals to the discourse of latinidad that, beginning in its nine-\nteenth century conception, explicitly or implicitly seeks to identify\nLatin America with a European cultural, racial, ethnic and intellectual\nheritage. Rama’s schema (wittingly or unwittingly) reproduces the\nprocess of identification with Western logic and civilization, Southern\nEurope, Catholicism, and in this instance, French poststructuralism,\nthat erases the native, the African, and the (non-Latin) immigrant\nfrom the imaginary landscape of Latin America. This is not done\nthrough the content of The Lettered City but through the explicit ori-\nentation of its theoretical and historical models. However, the problem\nof describing Latin America through latinidad unintentionally creeps\ninto Rama’s argument through its unwitting alignment more closely\nto the historical method of Ibn Khaldun than that of Foucault. Instead\nof an archeology of knowledge, The Lettered City offers an attempt to\nunderstand and account for the ontological status of “Latin America”\nwith its diverse, complex and unequal sociocultural relations.\nRead in this way, The Lettered City contextualizes and dialogues\nwith Rama’s earlier argument on narrative transculturation; yet\n146 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nas with Transculturación narrativa en América Latina, I find The\n\nLettered City’s relationship to paradigms of European modernization\nto be problematic. It may be that the apparent similarities between the\nMuqaddimah and The Lettered City offer a different way to approach\nthe intellectual historiography of Latin America. In terms of knowl-\nedge production, this observation takes on particular significance in\nlight of the proliferation in the past thirty years of theories of Latin\nAmericanism, in which grouping The Lettered City should be consid-\nered a foundational text. The danger, perhaps, is that in their abstract\ntheoretical engagement, these formulations loose their ontological\nbasis in the particularities of the continent they claim to represent.\n\n\n1. In his prologue to the Spanish edition, Hugo Achugar writes of\n\nRama’s contribution to the study and conception of Latin America: “Se\nrefiere, en cambio, a aquella visión que asume a Latinoamérica como un\ncuerpo vivo y provocativo de tensiones y luchas que configure una identidad\ncultural particular. Un cuerpo trabajado por contradicciones y paradojas, por\nlo mismo que es considerado el espacio de una lucha ideológica, cultural y\nsocial. Es a ese tipo de visiones y a esa apuesta a un determinado proyecto\nde patria grande, que pertenece el grueso de la obra de Ángel Rama y, en\nparticular La ciudad letrada” (x).\n2. All quotations in Spanish are from the 2002 edition of La ciudad\nletrada. Translations are from Chasteen.\n3. While Rama often writes of “Latin America” and makes several\nreferences to Brazil, at times he specifically refers to “Spanish America” and\nmuch of his argument focuses on the latter.\n4. Rama himself, while working within the mode of academic discourse\nclaimed by the “lettered” city, points to moments of transgression by the elite\npower of the written word, further elaborated by Mignolo and others in an\neffort to revalorize (subaltern) oral tradition.\n5. The Muqaddimah received attention in Western Europe with the\npublication of William Mac-Guckin de Slane’s translation into French,\nProlégomènes historiques d’Ibn Khaldoun, in 1862, 1865 and 1868\n(Rosenthal cviii). This is, of course, at a time when France has particular\nconcern for the colonization of the Maghreb.\n6. Consequently, de la Campa brings a wide array of theories into\ndialogue with The Lettered City, including those of Laclau, Derrida, Mignolo,\nand García Canclini, as well as Foucault.\nÁngel Rama, Michel Foucault and Ibn Khaldun   147\n\n7. De la Campa supports this claim with a catalog list of engagements\n\nin the text that includes, in de la Campa’s terms, “subaltern social thought,\nsubversive orthography, the social realm as epistemic excess, peripheral\nmodernity as real-izable cities, unlettered revolutions, and the languages of\ngraffiti, tangos, and corridos” (37).\n8. Trigo identifies this type of analysis, also apparent in The Order\nof Things, as belonging to a Foucauldian moment that corresponds to the\npostcolonial direction of de la Campa’s Latin Americanism. Trigo distinguishes\nthis from the postmodern moment, discernible in History of Sexuality and\nTechnologies of the Self, and suggests that in de la Campa’s account, these\nconstitute two distinct moments, and consequently two Foucaults, rather\nthan one critical aporia.\n9. Rama further explains this process of analogy: “Para que esta\nconversión fuera posible, era indispensable que se transitara a través de un\nproyecto racional previo, que fue lo que magnificó y a la vez volvió indispens-\nable el orden de los signos, reclamándosele la mayor libertad operativa de\nque fuera capaz. Al mismo tiempo, tal proyecto exige, para su concepción y\nejecución, un punto de máxima concentración del poder que pueda pensarlo\ny realizarlo. Ese poder es ya visiblemente temporal y humano aunque todavía\nse enmascare y legitime tras los absolutos celestiales” (4-5).\n10. In the Spanish text, this quotation appears in French: “reperée,\nexplorée et grossièrement saisie au cours des trois premières décennies du\nXVIe siècle a un rithme insensé, jamais égale” (14).\n11. In contrast to those who emphasize Ibn Khaldun’s exceptionalism,\nAziz Al-Azmah aligns Ibn Khaldun with the traditional practice of Arab\nhistoriography in this point, noting that while the concept of history in the\nMuqaddimah is that of a “narrative of organized habitation,” the narrative\npractice of history proper to “an age or people” refers to “names and exploits\nof kings, their sons, their wives, descriptions of their insignia and seals, in\naddition to narratives about the men of rank who execute their powers and\nprerogatives such as chamberlains, judges and wazīrs” (12).\n12. It should be noted, however, that like the diverse group that consti-\ntuted the Spanish conquistadors and initial settlers of the Americas, the\n“Arab” conquests also referred to a diverse group, unified by conversion to\n13. Ibn Khaldun criticizes the Arabs somewhat in the latter respect,\nmentioning several examples of poor decisions in the location of cities (II,\n14. In his introduction to the Muqaddimah, Franz Rosenthal attributes\nthis conception in part to an orthodox Muslim environment, in which “it was\nbelieved that human intellectual power was always constant and capable of\nproducing the highest civilization at any given time.” Rosenthal asserts that\n148 Cora Gorman Malone\n\nfor Ibn Khaldun, “political and cultural life was moving in never-ending,\nalways repeated circles” (lxxxiv).\n15. One obvious consequence is that Brazil does not factor consistently\nin his argument and instead drops in and out of the text. “The Ordered City”\nattempts to compensate for this disjuncture by switching back and forth from\nthe “Iberian Empires” to “Spanish America.” This inconsistency calls into\nquestion the foundation of the idea of a “Latin American” urban ideal or\neven, though Rama does not make the claim, a Spanish American one.\n\nWorks Cited\n\nAl-Azmah, Aziz. Ibn Khaldūn: An Essay in Reinterpretation. London: Frank\n\nCass, 1982.\nDe la Campa, Román. “The Lettered City: Power and Writing in Latin\nAmerica.” Latin Americanism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota\nPress, 1999.\nFoucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge. 1969. Trans. A. M.\nSheridan Smith. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.\n———. The Order of Things. 1966. Trans. Random House 1971. New York:\nVintage, 1994.\nGodzich, Wlad. “The Changing Face of History.” The Culture of Literacy.\nCambridge, MA: Harvard, 1994. 55-71.\nIbn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. Trans. and ed.\nFrank Rosenthal. New York: Pantheon Books, 1958.\nRama, Ángel. La ciudad letrada. 1984. Hanover, N.H.: Ediciones del Norte,\n———.The Lettered City. 1984. Trans. John Charles Chasteen. Durham:\nDuke UP, 1996.\n———. Transculturación narrativa en América Latina. 1982. Buenos Aires:\nEl Andariego, 2007.\nTrigo, Benigno. “Introduction.” Foucault and Latin America. Ed. Benigno\nTrigo. New York: Routledge, 2002.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6003601551055908}
+{"content": "Why We Shrink as We Get Older\n\nIf you’ve ever noticed that the car ahead of you in traffic seems to be driving itself, there’s a good chance that the person driving it is elderly.\n\nShrinking in height as we age is quite normal, and some people start to get shorter starting at about the age of 30.  Only about 20% of the population does not noticeably shrink, which is due to a combination of good genetics and a healthy lifestyle.\n\nNot only do we shrink with age, but our height also varies considerably each day, by up to three-quarters of an inch.  The vertebral discs that are sandwiched between the vertebrae, and which act as shock absorbers for the spine, are composed of up to 88% water.  In the course of our daily activities, this water is slowly squeezed out of these discs every time the spine moves.  Then when we are lying down at night in bed and pressure is taken off the discs, the disks reabsorb the expelled water, similar to a sponge.  So it’s likely you are somewhat taller when you first get up in the morning than you are at the end of the day.\n\nWith age, a number of degenerative processes can interfere with keeping the vertebral discs properly hydrated, causing them to become less pliable.  In addition, bone degeneration can contribute to the gradual collapse of the vertebrae, particularly in the upper back, which causes what’s referred to as “dowager’s hump,” that can take some inches off your height.\n\nStudies have found that men lose and average of 1.2 inches in height between the ages of 30 and 70, and 2 inches in total by age 80.  By comparison, women lose 2 inches in height between age 30 and 70 and a total of 3 inches by age 80.\n\nWhile genetics plays the largest role in how much you shrink as you age, lifestyle choices can make a significant difference as well.  Those who smoke, are obese, have diabetes, get little aerobic exercise, drink excessive amounts of alcohol and caffeine and who do not follow a healthy diet are at greater risk of losing a significant amount of height as they age.\n\nAnd while losing some height as we age is normal, losing too much over a short period of time can be an indicator of a more serious health condition.  It is not unusual to shrink in height by a quarter inch to a third of an inch each decade after the age of 40.  However, if you are a man between the ages of 45 and 65 and notice that you are shrinking, you should see your doctor.  Rapid loss of height in men can be an indicator of heart disease and can suggest they are at greater risk of a fracture of the spine or hip.  A study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found that men who lose two or more inches within two years after age 70 have a 54% greater risk of a hip fracture, and women have a 21% greater risk.\n\nAnother study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that men who had shrunk 1.2 inches or more over a 20-year span had a 46% greater likelihood of heart disease and were 64% more likely to die from any cause.\n\nThe best way to help preserve your height is to eat a balanced diet that is rich in calcium and vitamin D) and to get plenty of exercise, particularly weight-bearing exercise (which includes walking and running), which helps to keep bones strong.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8137030005455017}
+{"content": "Tracing the Line\n\nKarli Luik\n\nTracing back to the origins of my designs I investigate how the design idea behind the specific designs was created. Having or not having the Idea has been an eminent question within the discussions around any design task. Looking to my work I will recreate the diagrams, generalize the tools and processes we have been using for defining and validating the Idea.\nI argue that the Idea behind most of our successful designs can be traced (back) with (to) one line.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9545311331748962}
+{"content": "Various Water Birds\n\n Family Rallidae\n\n\nMost of the birds in this section are seldom seen in gardens, but are generally quite common on and around the major lakes of Canberra and at the numerous water quality ponds and dams throughout the suburbs and surrounding areas.\n\n\nPurple Swamphen\n\nPorphyrio porphyrio\n\nThese large conspicuous birds are common on the edges of bodies of water where there are reeds for cover and food. Purple Swamphens can often be seen grazing on grassy areas around the lakes, but they prefer young reed stems. They are also seen loitering around picnic areas or inspecting rubbish bins. They live in groups of two to ten often with dependent young. There are 12 survey records.\n\nEurasian Coot\n\nFulica atra\n\nCoots are more at home on open water than moorhens and swamphens, but can come ashore to graze on areas where the grass is short. They generally eat aquatic plants and algae, often diving for it, bringing it to the surface to sort out what to eat. Eurasian Coots are sociable birds and can often be seen in large rafts (sometimes hundreds or even thousands of birds) resting some distance from the shore. They can be recognised at some distance by the very conspicuous white bill and frontal shield. There are 14 survey records.\n\n\nDusky Moorhen\n\nGallinula tenebrosa\n\nDusky Moorhens are one of the more common permanent residents on Canberra’s lakes. They live in cooperative groups of two to seven birds with each female having one to three males in attendance. They require reeds and sedges around the edge of the lake for cover. They eat plant material on land or in the water, as well as insects, fish and small animals. At night they roost in reeds or in trees or shrubs above the water. There are 12 records in the survey.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9849398136138916}
+{"content": "University of Hertfordshire\n\nFrom the same journal\n\nFrom the same journal\n\nBy the same authors\n\n\nView graph of relations\nOriginal languageEnglish\nArticle numbere0217023\nPages (from-to)e0217023\nJournalPLoS ONE\nJournal publication date22 May 2019\nPublication statusPublished - 22 May 2019\n\n\nMedical errors are of economic importance and can contribute to serious adverse events for patients. Medical errors refer to preventable events resulting from healthcare interactions, whether these events harm the patient or not. In Kuwait, there is a paucity literature detailing the causes, forms, and risks of medical errors in their state-funded healthcare facilities. This study aimed to explore medical errors, their causes and preventive strategies in a Kuwait tertiary hospital based on the perceptions and experience of a cross-section of healthcare professionals using a questionnaire with 27 open (n = 10) and closed (n = 17) questions. The recruited healthcare professionals in this study included pharmacists, nurses, physicians, dentists, radiographers, hospital administrators, surgeons, nutritionists, and physiotherapists. The collected data were analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. A total of 203 participants filled and completed the survey questionnaire. The frequency of medical errors in Kuwait was found to be high at 60.3% ranging from incidences of prolonged hospital stays (32.9%), adverse events and life-threatening complications (32.3%), and fatalities (20.9%). The common medical errors result from incomplete instructions, incorrect dosage, and incorrect route of administration, diagnosis errors, and labelling errors. The perceived causes of these medical errors include high workload, lack of support systems, stress, medical negligence, inadequate training, miscommunication, poor collaboration, and non-adherence to safety guidelines among the healthcare professionals.\n\nID: 17125519", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9424670338630676}
+{"content": "Articles on Political reform\n\nDisplaying 1 - 20 of 23 articles\n\n\n\n\nHow political interference keeps hurting Africa’s universities\n\n\nDemocracy that bows down to the market is a false compromise\n\nProtesting students from the University of Zimbabwe take to the streets of Harare in 2001. Howard Burditt/Reuters\n\nFive lessons from Zimbabwe’s game-changing student protests\n\nIn 1988 students from the University of Zimbabwe began demonstrating against government corruption. Their protests grew into a national movement that indelibly changed the country.\nMalcolm Turnbull is promising a change in leadership style from Tony Abbott, but that alone won’t be enough to qualify as government for the 21st century. AAP/Mick Tsikas\n\nTurnbull must break with past attempts to keep the future at bay\n\nThe Abbott government resisted the disruptive changes of the 21st century. To succeed, the Turnbull government will need to shed this reactionary mindset and embrace inevitable change.\n\nWhat is it about a republic that stumps our leaders?\n\n\nWhy politics today can’t give us the heroes we need\n\nThe road to recovery is a long one for Nepal, which goes beyond the immediate priority of disaster relief. Diego Azubel/AAP\n\nQuake recovery can leverage change of lasting benefit to Nepal\n\nPolitics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?\nAt one climate change conference after another, leaders of the developed democracies solemnly pledge action, then return to the gridlock of political systems with 19th-century origins. EPA/COP20\n\nHidden crisis of liberal democracy creates climate change paralysis\n\nEven as the challenges of climate change grow ever more obvious, what remains largely unacknowledged is the crisis in liberal democratic politics that is preventing an effective response.\nOn many major issues, Labor’s Bill Shorten and the Liberals’ Tony Abbott are essentially two wings of the same bird. AAP/Mick Tsikas\n\nA challenged democracy: wicked problems and political failures\n\nThe crisis of public confidence in politics is not limited to Australia, but public disengagement, retail politics and lack of vision are crippling our ability to tackle long-term and wicked problems.\n\nTop contributors", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7340172529220581}
+{"content": "vegetable ratatouille\n\n20110821-030650.jpg A slow cooker recipe that doesn't involve beans! This is one of those meals that you just feel good eating. It's packed full of vegetables and little else and, if you use vegetables at the peak of their season, there is so much flavor. The gentle heat of the slow cook method nudges the vegetables' flavors into perfect harmony. Bite after bite, you feel healthier (and happier) than the last.\n\n\nThis recipe is for a summer-inspired ratatouille using 6 small zucchini, 1 large eggplant, 2 small onions, 8 baby bell peppers of different hues (red, yellow, and orange), 6 cloves of minced garlic, and 3 hugs handfuls of small heirloom tomatoes. The dish is rustic, so no need to follow exact vegetable portions. Cut all the vegetables into bite-sized chunks and toss in the slow cooker. Add 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2 cup of water, a long drizzle of olive oil, and plenty of salt and pepper.\n\n\nStir to combine and then cover and cook over low heat for 8 hours. Use about 2 cups for dinner tonight. Let the remaining ratatouille cool and portion 2 cup servings into freezer bags to store. It will be good in the freezer for up to 2 months. This will allow you to enjoy a bite of summer in late fall! For dinner tonight, serve the ratatouille over penne pasta. Garnish with parmesan cheese.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9958460927009583}
+{"content": "What is the women's rights movement?\n\nChronicles the women's rights movement in the United States, from the beginning of the movement in the nineteenth century and the fight for equal rights in the 1960s to such present-day events as the Women's March in 2017.\n\nMain Author: Hopkinson, Deborah\nFormat: BOOK\nLanguage: ENGLISH\nPublished: Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House 2018\nSeries: What is --?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999856352806091}
+{"content": "redemption Vs salvation\n\nI have heard that all have been redeemed but not all have been saved? What exactly does that mean?\n\nEveryone is redeemed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, meaning that humans have the opportunity to reach salvation. So, we are “automatically” redeemed, but have to choose to be saved, since salvation is a free gift from God.\n\nThis is kind of another question but Mary being without sin still had to be saved. As evidenced by the churches teachings and Acts. So Jesus and Mary were without sin but Jesus was and is the savior from sin.\n\nWhat’s the other question?\n\nThat might be another question, but it is a very good (and, at least, a related question).\n\nThe Church, several centuries ago, considered whether to define the Immaculate Conception (the sinlessness of Mary) as a doctrine of the Church.\n\nSt. Thomas Aquinas (the Doctor of Doctors of the Catholic Church, often called the “Angelic Doctor”) argued that the Church could not promulgate such a Doctrine unless She answered this question: How could Mary be sinless if she preceded Jesus?\n\nIt is important to note that St. Thomas Aquinas did not ever express doubt about the validity of the teaching, but pointed out that the Church could appear to be philosophically unfounded if She taught such a doctrine without having a ready answer to this objection (Aquinas was, first and foremost, a philosopher, and perceived an unanswered objection).\n\nLargely upon the influence of Aquinas’ objection, the Church tabled the matter (Trent did not teach on it, though many expected it to do so). Later theologians considered that God was not bound (as we are) by space and time (not a particularly novel idea to modern folk raised on science fiction, but very novel at the time). It would be novel even to scientists, because this teaching was promulgated about a half-century before Einstein (who was, himself, a Jew, and was probably not well acquainted with the Doctrine) formulated relativity, which would (eventually) give a scientific framework for this particular Church Doctrine.\n\nThese later theologians (later “relative” to Aquinas, not to Einstein) reasoned that there is no doctrinal reason why God could not “retroactively” apply the merits of Christ to Mary, despite the fact that the Crucifixion occurred “after” the Immaculate Conception. This objection and its response is specifically referenced in Ineffabilis Deus and was later acknowledged (in a sense) by Nobel-winning scientists who described relativity (which, ironically, would not include Einstein himself, who won a Nobel prize, but never for relativity, but for his research into why some metals produce weak electrical potentials when exposed to light - the photovoltaic effect).\n\nIn a very real sense, the Church discovered relativity a half-century before Einstein ever contemplated it from his office (as a Patent Examiner, Third Class) in Bern, Switzerland.\n\nMath is the Queen of science. Philosophy is the Queen of math (every mathematical “proof” is really an exercise in philosophy). The Church has always been pretty good at philosophy. And philosophy is the ultimate means whereby humanity can discover Truth.\n\n\nI would like to take this opportunity to add to this discussion by borrowing from my physics background. While I agree that physics is founded upon math, and that upon philosophy, I don’t think you can trace a path directly from the doctrinal to the empirical notion of relativity. Special relativity, as currently formulated, does not allow the switching of the ordering of events in time, e.g. effect before cause. Otherwise, causality, the most sacred tenet of physics, is broken, and physics is robbed of its predictive power. Therefore to say that Mary is sinless because of Christ’s later sacrifice is to declare the Immaculate Conception to be miraculous, that is, it breaks the laws of physics. But breaking causality is also a big problem in philosophy.\n\nSo I guess I’m confused on how special relativity provides a scientific framework for the Immaculate Conception doctrine. :nerd: :twocents:\n\nSo what did tradition teach about this? What did the earliest church fathers think? Any philosophy is only as good as it’s premises.\n\nDo you mean Church tradition? Or philosophical tradition?\n\nPhilosophy is the ONLY means by which humans untimely perceive truth. True, it is only as good as its (not It’s) premise, but if the premise is accepted as truth, then the conclusion (if validly formulated) must be accepted as truth. This is why Descartes formulated the premise, “I think, therefore I am.” A reader might question whether Descartes “thought,” but a reader could not question his own thoughts (which allows him to comprehend what Descartes wrote).\n\nConsider the ancient Greek mathematicians who (philosophically) determined that the square-root of two could not be a rational number (meaning any number that can be expressed as a fraction):\n\nLet’s suppose √2 were a rational number. Then we can write it √2 = a/b where a,b are whole numbers, but b is not zero.\n\nWe additionally assume that this a/b is simplified to the lowest terms, since that can obviously be done with any fraction. Notice that in order for a/b to be in its simplest terms, both a a and b must be not be even. One or both must be odd. Otherwise, you could simplify the fraction.\n\nFrom the equality √2 = a/b it follows that 2 = a2/b2, or a2 = 2 * b2. So the square of a is an even number since it is two times something. From this we can know that a itself is also an even number. How do we know that? Because it can’t be odd; if a itself was odd, then a * a (a times a) would be odd too. Any odd number times any odd number is always odd.\n\nIf a itself is an even number, then a is 2 times some other whole number, or a = 2k where k is this other number. We don’t need to know exactly what k is; it won’t matter. Soon we arrive at the contradiction:\n\nIf we substitute a = 2k into the original equation 2 = a[sup]2[/sup]/b[sup]2[/sup], this is what we get:\n2 = (2k)[sup]2[/sup]/b[sup]2[/sup]\n2 = 4k[sup]2[/sup]/b[sup]2[/sup]\n2*b[sup]2[/sup] = 4k[sup]2[/sup]\nb[sup]2[/sup] = 2k[sup]2[/sup]\n\nThis means b[sup]2[/sup] is even, from which follows again that b itself is an even number!!!\n\nWHY is that a contradiction? Because we started the whole process saying that a/b is simplified to the lowest terms, and now it turns out that a and b would both be even. So √2 cannot be rational.\n\nThis is the most elegant proof in all of mathematics. It was developed centuries before Jesus was born. The idea of an irrational number was so profound that the developers of this proof are unknown to history, because they kept their proof a secret for centuries because they thought that people would consider them insane for even proposing such an idea as an “irrational number.”\n\nBut this “mathematical proof” is 100% PHILOSOPHY. Because it is based on a LOGICAL (meaning “philosophical”) contraction.\n\nThis is not Church doctrine. None of the Fathers, as far as I know, taught about rational numbers. But it is TRUTH. And nobody today disputes it.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6375818252563477}
+{"content": "What’s the Divine Part of Revelation? How Do We Find God in the Torah? Rav Shagar’s “Face to Face”\n\nRav Shagar’s “Face to Face”\n\nIn a derashah for Shavuot from the year he died, Rav Shagar explores the complex relationship between the human and divine aspects of the Revelation at Sinai, as well as of the Torah. He points out the contradiction between verse that describes the giving of the Torah as speaking to God “face to face” and God’s own statement that, “no person may see my face and live.” Seemingly, revelation means encountering the divine, while encountering the divine is impossible for a human. Rav Shagar also quotes the Baal HaTanya, who points out that the Ten Commandments are a particularly human set of commandments. They’re all “banal matters that are necessitated by human intellect itself.” If the Revelation at Sinai was some sort of transcendent experience of the divine, then why are the commandments so very human? Simply on a practical level, what did revelation add? If these are intuitively obvious rules, then we didn’t even need revelation to know them. Why did God have to reveal simple, human rules?\n\n\nMoreover, what about this revelation is divine? Where do the human words and ideas end and the divine suddenly begin? In Rav Shagar’s own striking formulation, “What significance can revelation have if it must always be processed through human concepts and ideas? What connection could revelation create, when the very idea of a connection is a human idea?” If any way we try and formulate or conceptualize revelation will be unavoidably human, how can it be an encounter with, or revelation of, the divine? And what does that mean for the Torah, written entirely using human words?\n\nAs I will briefly explain below, Rav Shagar tackles each of these topics, revelation and the Torah, in turn (I’m not going to touch on every idea in the derashah, just trace out the main ideas regarding to these two issues). He explains revelation through the ideas of dialogic philosophy, which asks about how we encounter other people as unique individuals. Given that any words we could use to describe another person, or even speak to them, could just as easily describe or be spoken to a different person, how do we encounter that unique individual. Rav Shagar will conclude that the words of revelation provide a platform for the actual, wordless encounter with the divine. This will in turn lead to his understanding of the divinity of the Torah. He will argue that what makes Torah divine is not its words or ideas, themselves unavoidably human, but the way they provide a sort of linguistic space wherein we can encounter God. Moreover, this encounter “ensouls” us (Rosenzweig’s term), bringing our normally stagnant and unnoticed inner selves to the fore, as we study and create Torah from a most intimate space within us.\n\n\nWordless Encounter in the Words of Revelation\n\nRav Shagar distinguishes between “indirect, theoretical knowledge” and “unmediated knowledge derived from direct recognition.” The former refers to any knowledge you could learn from a book, or hear about from another person. The latter refers to the sort of knowledge you can only get through personal experience. Revelation thus “lets you distinguish between the layer of what is common to others and the revelation of what cannot be conceptualized.”\n\nTo borrow an example from R. Jason Rubinstein, there are two ways to learn about a rainbow. You can read about the technical details of its appearance and the scientific and atmospheric phenomena that give rise to it. However, none of that can tell you what it is like to actually look at a rainbow. In order to learn that, you have to experience it yourself. Experiential knowledge, like colors and flavors, can never be learned from another person, whether in writing or in person.\n\nIt is in this category of wordless, inexplicable, deeply personal experience that Rav Shagar locates the divine within revelation, in the “divine intimacy that is bared before the believer.” This bared intimacy evokes, demands, a parallel response from the individual (or nation, as it were) who receives revelation. For Rosenzweig, whom Shagar invokes, it is responding to divine revelation that the individual is “ensouled.” We only really become ourselves in responding to someone else, and to God above all. This is the intimate relationship of love, of עשיית מצווה לשמה as described by Rambam.\n\nWhen we speak with someone we love (romantically or otherwise), the words we speak are often not what matters. Sometimes what we are talking about is much less important than the simple fact that we are talking. Spending time together with someone can be more important that what you do with that time together. Those topics you speak about or actions you do together are things anyone could do with anyone else. What makes the encounter a unique encounter between two unique individuals is the presence of those two individuals. What makes revelation divine is not it’s words, but their source in God.\n\nTorah as a Linguistic Space for Encountering God\n\nSo if that’s revelation, where does that leave Torah? If the words and ideas of revelation are not what makes it divine, then what about the words and ideas of the Torah? And what does that mean for learning Torah?\n\n“This idea requires us to change how we think about the truth of revelation. As the creation of a space wherein reality is revealed, the revelation of the Torah, like the creation of the world, cannot be evaluated based on external facts. The Torah is speech that creates, rather than depicting or representing. The words construct their meaning, which is not evaluated based on how close they adhere to reality, but rather based on internal coherence, on being substantive and not artificial.”\n\nIf revelation involves the manifestation of the divine within the human, then the divine can be encountered just as well within the human words and ideas of the Torah. What the Torah provides is not divine ideas or texts but a linguistic “space” within which to encounter the divine. It gives us a language and a set of topics to make our own, to obsess over the way a love-struck lover obsesses over a note from their significant other. The Torah becomes God’s love note, as it were, and we explore every jot and tittle for the sake of find God in it all the more.\n\nLike the love borne within a note, the divinity of the Torah is not a function of the way the words depict some external reality. The words of the note create a sense of love independent of external reality, and the words of the Torah do something similar for divinity. The revelation of the Torah should therefore not be seen as God informing the Jewish people about reality, about objective right and wrong, but as the creation of a covenantal relationship within with God and the people encounter each other.\n\nThis has an important implication for how we study Torah. Studying Torah is not a search for objective, external truth. It requires “substance” and “internal coherence,” but beyond that it’s about the students deep, personal engagement with the text and the attempt to fing God within it. Moreover, these students can and should learn creatively, excitedly innovating new Torah ideas. The ideas have to make sense within the broader picture of Torah, but beyond that they should be very creative. The student should enjoy the process of innovation within Torah study. In revelation created this linguistic space, talmud torah helps expand and maintain it.\n\nIn conclusion, appreciating the Torah, and revelation more broadly, is not about being able to point to specific aspects of the Torah and claim they’re divine. It’s about seeing God behind those aspects, and seeing those aspects as a pathway to encountering God. When we learn Torah on Shavuot, it’s not a scientific study about the nature of reality; it’s a deep yet playful engagement with God within the platform of Torah, a platform we can help build.\n\n\nShiur: The Funny Thing About Mitsvot – Adar Bet 2019\n\nThe Funny Thing About Mitsvot: Humanity, Divinity, and Irony\n\nI. Take life lightly!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nII. Do the Mitsvot, But with a Wink\n\nTranslated by Elie Leshem, with minor changes.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. Rav Shagar, Shuvi Nafshi, 27-28\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Rav Shagar, Tsel Ha’Emunah, 57-58\n\n\n\nIII. Freeing God from the Mitsvot\n\n6. Yishai Mevorach, Teologiah Shel Heser, 102\n\n\n\n\n\nShiur: Masters of Disguise – Adar Alef 2019\n\nMasters of Disguise\n\n1. Rav Shagar, Zeman Shel Ḥerut, 68\n\nTo understand this piece from Rebbe Naḥman, we have to distinguish between ḥofesh and ḥerut. Rebbe Naḥman teaches us that ḥofesh is an introductory step which creates the ḥerut of Pesaḥ […] Purim and Pesaḥ parallel ḥofesh and ḥerut. Purim, when we celebrate the lottery (pur) and man’s anarchic freedom (ḥofesh), is when we freely choose the freedom (ḥerut) of Pesaḥ, of personal essence and identity. This is an experience of Jewishness as a self-enclosed world, which finds its justification in itself. It is the experience of divine chosenness. For Rav Kook, the anarchic, “Purim-style” freedom (hofesh) lets us elevate our nature, our Pesach-style freedom (ḥerut). Rebbe Nahman here says otherwise. He says that anarchic freedom (ḥofesh) enables us to create ḥerut-freedom. We can create our very nature! This path of creation does not depend on the facts; it creates them. Freedom, as Sartre understood it, therefore exists even within holiness.\n\nWe are therefore faced with two paths. There is the path of “be who you are,” but there is also a more radical path: The ability to create your freedom (ḥerut), your “I.” Perhaps this was Rebbe Naḥman meant by the cryptic line that appears at the end of the teaching: “For in the beginning, all the beginnings began at Pesach, and therefore the mitsvot are all in memory of the exodus from Egypt. But now…” Today, all the beginnings start from Purim.\n\n\n2. Adam Seligman, “Ritual, the Self, and Sincerity,” Social Research 76, no. 4 (2009)\n\nTo invoke ritual then is not to eschew change. It is, however, to value the past, to give credence to tradition, to accept that we, each and every one of us, are not the beginning and end of existence. It is to articulate a vision of autonomy that does not stand in negation of the past but, one where, as in the Jewish practice, “the ways of our fathers’ are in our hands.” Ritual in fact continues to provide an ongoing arena of creativity and tradition, acceptance and obligation. Ritual practice becomes the arena where the dynamic of that third space, the potential space within which cultural creativity takes place, is worked out. Here an analogy with the world of art is I think very appropriate. For artistic production certainly flows along similar lines and while the world of post-romantic artistic production in Western Europe is one where the aesthetic experience is almost equated with individual expressionism; there have been millennia of human aesthetic production that developed exactly along the lines I outline here. In fact, even the production of icons—that most formalistic and circumscribed of genres—has been shown to exhibit personal and idiosyncratic traits of each iconographer. In that context we can perhaps speak of the individual artist existing within the tradition. It may even be appropriate to talk of the individual artistic creation existing only through a tradition. (1093)\n\nII. Torah like You Mean It\n\n3. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28a\n\nIt was taught: On that day they dismissed the guard at the door and permission was granted to the students to enter. For Rabban Gamliel had proclaimed: Any student whose inside is not like his outside may not enter the study hall. On that day several benches were added. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Abba Yosef ben Dostai and the Rabbis disputed this. One said: Four hundred benches were added. And one said: Seven hundred benches were added.\n\n\n\nThe sincere mode of behavior seeks to replace the “mere convention” of ritual with a genuine and thoughtful state of internal conviction. Rather than becoming what we do in action through ritual, we do according to what we have become through self-examination. This form of thought emphasizes tropes of “authenticity” and each individual thus takes on an enormous responsibility. (1079)\n\n\n5. Rav Shagar, Chance and Providence, “The Mystery of Disguise,” 84-88\n\nTranslated by Naftali Moses\n\nThe first person we meet in the Bible to wear a disguise is Yaakov; Yaakov assumes the guise of Esav, his brother, his enemy. “The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav.” Yaakov’s hands are wrapped in goat skin-the same goat that will be cast to Azazel on Yom Kippur. He also wears the garb of Esav, his outer appearance, in order to win the blessings of his father. […]\n\n“For game was in his mouth”-Esav’s power lies in his mouth. Esav also inherits Yaakov’s voice. He wraps himself in his voice, the sound of the Torah. Esav lacks the truth of Yaakov. All of his actions are false. All are done merely for the sake of appearance-but he dares to be Yaakov. This is the religiosity of this world: religiosity founded on lies. […]\n\nSo Yaakov impersonates Esav who impersonates Yaakov. Back and forth. Religious truth in this world appears firmly secular. The large measure of self-negation that true religiosity demands from its adherents seems to arouse stern judgment’s opposition. The righteous must then clothe himself in the garb of false external religiosity so that he may appear as a tzadik in this world. Not only in order to gain from the material world must he lie, but even in order to retain his persona of spirituality. If he would be true to himself, he would not be thought of as righteous, nor would he be able to act in the world as such. He gives up that most dear to him-his own inner self-in order to be understood by others.\n\nThe wicked attempt to imitate his garb, making a mockery of righteousness itself. Dressed the part, the wicked man does not feel the absurdity of his situation. Judging all by external appearances, he truly believes that he is one of the righteous. The trickery of Esav is not simple. It is not conscious subterfuge, but runs much deeper than that. lt is utter self-deception. He sees this world as true; he identifies reality with mere appearances. From his point of view, the attempts to find favor in his father’s eyes are honest. They even bear fruit. The side of strict judgment, the source of this world, is satisfied with his efforts. Only the true tzadik is capable of seeing through the facade of the wicked. But cannot expose him lest he himself be seen as one of the wicked as well.\n\n\n\nRitual concentrates on the performative nature of the act rather than on its denotative meaning. In fact, pure ritual puts questions of belief or truth aside in favor of the shared world that its action creates and requires. The very external, performative aspects of ritual—especially its repetition and recollection of places and times not given to purely rational or instrumental computation—give it a unique lability. Thus does ritual encompasses the ambiguity of life in a unique manner. It allows one to “play” with such ambiguity in a manner precluded by an undue concern with the authenticity of one’s actions and beliefs. Ritual unshackles the mind from a need to believe in a dogma of our choosing, as long as we act properly. (1076-77)\n\nInternal and Absolute: A Close Reading of Rav Shagar\n\nA lot is made of the fact that Rav Shagar consciously and vigorously embraces subjectivity within Judaism, even going so far as to champion the “postmodern” claim that, subjectively speaking, there is no objective truth. The problem with this is that “subjective” and “objective” are slippery words, used in a variety of different ways. If you consider how Westerners often use them, it doesn’t quite match the picture that emerges from Rav Shagar’s writings. Below, I want to demonstrate this with a careful reading of a passage from one of Rav Shagar’s Hanukkah sermons.\n\nFor context, the essay deals with the Baal HaTanya’s embrace of an alienated observance of mitsvot in contrast to Rav Kook’s focus on authentically observing the mitsvot. The paragraph on which we will focus is Rav Shagar’s summation of Rav Kook’s position, which he sees as ideal, as opposed to the more realistic approach of the Baal HaTanya, which he explicates throughout the rest of the essay.\n\n\nSetting Up the Binary\n\nTo get started, I just want to go through and note the adjectives which Rav Shagar uses to discuss truth, reality, command, etc. They are indicated in bold.\n\nIdeally, an individual’s inner truth will match the objective truth. This would mean that his inner life burns strongly, while his sense of obligation to this inner life is unassailable. He understands his inner life as absolute, objective reality. Such a person’s inner life stops feeling relative, and gains the strength of an external command; it obligates him no less than external truth would. (Leha’ir Et Hapetahim, 55)\n\nRav Shagar’s use of the adjectives “inner,” “external,” “objective,” “unassailable,” “relative,” and “absolute” lays out a familiar dichotomy between “objective” and “subjective” (despite the fact that latter term does not appear). This dichotomy is represented by the table below (for reasons that will become clear, I have headed the columns with “Internal” and “External” rather than “Subjective” and “Objective”).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbsolute, Unassailable\n\nOn the one side we have that which is subjective-internal-relative, while on the other we have what is objective-external-absolute. This fits how we generally think of these categories. “Objective truth” refers to truths about the world outside ourselves, which are “absolute” in that they exceed the whims of any individual. These are what people often call “facts,” and they do not care about the individual’s whims, desires, or personal situation. “Subjective truth,” on the other hand, refers to truths about the individual and her inner world. These truths are specific to a given individual, often to the point where they could not be explained to another person, and they are generally seen as much less absolute, more whims than facts. (While I take “unassailable” to be essentially synonymous with “absolute,” I am less certain that “relative” should be understood as their antonym. I have therefore left them in separate rows, without clear opposites).\n\n\nCrossing the Streams\n\nWhile Rav Shagar is clearly using these same categories, he does not maintain the strict dichotomies we laid out above. In the first have of the paragraph the two columns are separate, but coinciding. “Ideally, an individual’s inner truth will match the objective truth.” Internal, subjective truth would correspond to external, objective truth, while still remaining distinct from it.\n\nHowever, as Rav Shagar proceeds, things become more complicated. “He understands his inner life as absolute, objective reality. Such a person’s inner life stops feeling relative, and gains the strength of an external command; it obligates him no less than external truth would.” Here the differences between the two columns begin to collapse. The distinction between internal and external still remains, but suddenly the internal side gains the attributes of the external side, yielding the following table:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbsolute, Unassailable\n\nAbsolute, Unassailable\n\nSuddenly the individual’s inner life is seen as something that far exceeds them. Truths about the individual, are also “objective” and “absolute.” In this case, then the definition of “objective truth” offered above, “truths about the world outside ourselves, which are “absolute” in that they exceed the whims of any individual,” becomes untenable. Therefore, without being so bold as to try and redefine “objective” in a broad sense, I want to try and trace its contours as they emerge from this discussion. This should give us a sense of what Rav Shagar means when he uses the term.\n\n\nToward Definitions\n\nGiven the above, I will begin by laying out new definitions of internal an external truth. External truth refers to truths about the world outside ourselves, which are “objective” “absolute” in that they exceed the whims of any individual. However, internal truth is not entirely dissimilar, referring as it does to truths that are relative to the individual, but which can be “objective” and “absolute” in that they exceed the whims of any individual. However, internal truths can also be “subjective” and “non-absolute,” as Rav Shagar notes in the immediately following paragraph.\n\nUnfortunately, we live in a situation where our inner lives lack strength and force. Our inner lives, and our relation to them, are prone to ups and downs. The dullness of our inner lives makes them susceptible to all kinds of outside influences, and they therefore feel inauthentic. This is the reason that the Shulhan Arukh, rather than our inner lives, is the basis of our religious obligations. It anchors our lives absolutely. (Ibid.)\n\nThe fact is, our inner lives are highly fluid, rising and falling constantly, rarely if ever stable. They thus cannot always be a source of absolute, objective truth. Navigating this experience is one of the most common themes of Rav Shagar’s writings (his most thorough treatment of the topic is the entirety of the book Shuvi Nafshi, but particularly the chapter on Rav Tsadok Hakohen of Lublin; the best English treatment available is the chapter “Freedom and Holiness” in Faith Shattered and Restored).\n\nTo return to our initial text, we should note that it seems to essentially identify the two terms we have been using in unison: “objective” and “absolute.” If “subjective” and “objective” are opposite, then what would make something “subjective” as opposed to “objective” is that we take it to be non-absolute, and vice versa. For the sake of consistency, here’s a table:\n\n\n\n\n\nNotably, this whole table could describe inner truths, some of which may be objective/absolute and some of which may be subjective/non-absolute. External truth is always objective/absolute, rather than subjective/non-absolute, while internal truth can be either. The distinction between subjective and objective is not something that separates the individual from the world, as the dividing line actually falls within the individual herself\n\nBroader Context\n\nIt’s worth noting that the idea of truth that is absolute but also appears only to the individual not only exists within Judaism, it is actually critical to any revealed religion. With the exception of some sort of public revelation, all prophecy is an absolute truth revealed within the prophet’s inner self. This truth is generally taken to be universal, rather than individual, but prophecy is certainly a step toward what Rav Shagar is talking about.\n\nOf course, not everyone agrees about the nature of prophecy. For Maimonides, prophecy is something more like perfect knowledge of the world and God, so the above description would not apply. For Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, however, prophecy is indeed a singular revelation. In his Kuzari, the king rejects philosophical religion because, while it is a universal, demonstrable truth, it does not fit with the singular revelation that he experienced.\n\nA second, more radical step can be found in the teachings of the Hasidic thinkers Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica and Rabbi Tsadok Hakohen Rabinowitz of Lublin. These thinkers see the human impulse as the site of divine revelation. There are steps necessary for ascertaining that any given impulse is in fact divine, but they are minimally open to the possibility of absolute, divine truth being totally individual and internal. Moreover, (and here the two disagree somewhat), Rav Mordechai Yosef, sees this divine revelation as inherently opposed to any sort of universalizable truth or principle. The moment of divine revelation within the human self is a moment when external, universal truth ceases to be relevant. Rav Shagar is not quite so radical as that, but he does share the understanding of singular revelation within the self (see the essay in Shuvi Nafshi referenced above).\n\n\n\nTo put this all in the context of Rav Shagar’s broader writings and embrace of “subjective” truth within religion: Rav Shagar absolutely embraces “subjective” truth in sense it was described at the beginning of this essay, as internal truth. However, this is only insofar as this internal truth possesses a sense of absoluteness, and thus “objective,” as we have defined it here at the end of the essay. Rav Shagar wants us to be authentic, which requires having a strong sense of self and inner truth. It requires feeling like there’s some parts of our inner lives that exceed us, that we can and should simply accept as facts, as divine grace. In the absence of this divine grace, Rav Shagar wants us to grapple with out alienation, and with the possibility of creating ourselves anew (see my essay on accepting the yoke of heaven in Rav Shagar’s writings).\n\nThe Commandments and their Reasons as Hardware and Software: Toward a Materialist Understanding of Mitsvot\n\nIn this post I want to continue exploring new metaphors for talking about aspects of Judaism (an exploration I started here). Specifically, I want to look at what it might mean if we think of the commandments and their reasons (traditionally referred to as “ta’amei hamitsvot”) as analogous to hardware and software, respectively. This analogy will enable us to draw out and discuss various aspects of the commandments and their reasons, and the relationship between the two.\n\nTo clarify a little what I mean by the terms “hardware” and “software,” hardware is the physical devices we interact with in order to access software, while software, the thing we actually want to access, can only be accessed via hardware. I use my computer to access Microsoft Word; using Word is a goal that is only accessible via my computer. Similarly, once we say that the commandments have reasons (not uncontroversial in the history of Jewish thought), it makes sense to articulate reasons that can only be achieved via the commandments. If giving charity makes you a more generous person, “becoming a more generous person” is something that is only accessible via the generous act of giving charity. I therefore use charity to access “becoming a more generous person.”\n\nHowever, while giving charity is one way of becoming a more generous person, it is certainly not the only way; similarly, my computer is not the only device with which I can access Word. We might therefore ask why we should use these specific pieces of hardware rather than any other. On one level, it’s worth noting that the question is not so fair. Sure you could use any device, but you have to use one, no matter which one it is. So you might justify the one that you use based on simply having to pick one, rather than any specific traits about it. Charity is as good a way as any to become a more generous person.\n\nYou also might justify your choice of hardware based on the fact that it is the one you have. Maybe you got it as a present, maybe it’s the one that all of your friends had, maybe you just found it lying on the curb and took it home; however it came to you, now you have it and it is yours. Barring significant issues with the device that interfere with its functioning, this alone is enough to justify using it, as opposed to switching to some other device. I have my phone, I like it, I identify with it, it’s mine. Sure the screen is cracked and the battery-life is stress-inducing, but I identify with its flaws as much as its functions. Moreover, having to pick out and purchase a new phone would be a difficult process.\n\nThis leads us toward Maimonides’s historicist conception of the commandments, and their relationship with the idolatrous rituals of ancient Israel’s neighbors. Maimonides argues that human nature cannot change rapidly, that it must be shifted gradually, and that God therefore gave the Israelites commandments that were the same or incredibly similar to the idolatrous forms of worship they were already familiar with. If the ancient Israelites wanted to “access” worship, they would inevitably turn to the “device” animal sacrifice, simply because it’s the one with which they were most familiar and comfortable, and so God accommodated this fact of human nature (Guide for the Perplexed, 3:32). This, Maimonides argued, despite the fact that animal sacrifice has noticeable drawbacks, and prayer or silent meditation would work much better. Sacrifice worked, however, and it was the hardware they already had.\n\nIf Maimonides conception assumes the difficulty of changing “hardware,” it assumes  some more ease in changing software. Animal sacrifice used to run “worship pagan pantheon X” and was now being used to run “worship YHWH, the one god.” This holds true to our analogy to software, which was always replaced more easily than hardware, particularly now that even major upgrades and shifts in operating systems can be achieved via the internet.\n\nThis brings us to an important point: software is not self-justifying. I use my phone to access WhatsApp, but I don’t use WhatsApp just for the sake of using WhatsApp, I use it for communicating with other people. If a certain piece of software isn’t getting the job done, I am likely to replace it. Moreover, because software is replaced so easily, it is not as easy to hold onto it simply“because it’s mine,” as in the case of hardware.\n\nThe analogy to reasons for commandments here is a bit tricky, but I think also important. Commandments are, as I have said, intended for the sake of the reasons for the commandments. But are those reasons for anything outside themselves? I think they are. I think we should understand reasons for the individual commandments as pivoting around larger ideals, such as holiness, morality, covenant, etc. The reasons for individual commandments serve to give us “access” to the larger ideals, much the same way as the commandments themselves give us “access” to the reasons for the commandments.\n\nThis is important for the way it enables us to view the historic assertions of reasons for the commandments, some of which we have moved well away from today (for a good example of this regarding the laws of Niddah, see Jonah Steinberg’s “From a Pot of Filth to a Hedge of Roses”). If there is one reason to which a given commandment is meant to provide access, then debates and differences of opinion in regard to the reason for that commandment require deciding who is right and who is wrong. However, if we conceptualize the reasons for the commandments as tools for accessing the larger ideals, then different reasons can coexist without one needing to be “the right one.” Moreover, in changing historical circumstances, with the people already used to certain actions and thought processes, different reasons might be just what is necessary to access the same larger ideal. Whether the details of commandments are based on the ritual worship of the Israelites’ neighbors (Maimonides) or on strict symbolism (Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch), both reasons are part of shaping the life of the nation in relation to God (cf. Rav Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, Shemoneh Kevatsim, 2:54-57). Because the reasons are not ends in and of themselves, they can be replaced when they are not serving their function and we can change between them as necessary. Moreover, different people use their phones and computers for different things, and different people can perform the commandments for different reasons. People even generally use their hardware to access a variety of softwares, and there’s no reason that the commandments and their reasons could not work similarly.\n\nBy way of conclusion, I would like to take note of how this analogy structures the relationship between the commandments and their reasons. In a sense, it makes the reasons more primary. The commandments exist and are performed for the sake of the reasons. However, the reasons themselves serve larger ideals and are easily replaceable. The commandments themselves, on the other hand, have a significant presence in the life and laws of the people, and thus are not easily replaceable. This very real presence, and the difficulty it would create in trying to change the commandments, make the commandments more primary. Barring gradual change, the physical commandments are sticking around, while their reasons may shift. This emphasis on the primacy of the physical actions that make up the commandments in the historical life of the nation leads me to call this a materialist understanding of mitsvot. This approach also puts an emphasis on the shifting historical situation of the nation and the way it shapes the reasons for the commandments. The Jewish people have carried these actions with us through various contexts over the millennia, and we have been different in these various contexts. The commandments therefore have served, and continue to serve, different reasons at different times and for different people, just as different people use their hardware for different softwares.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6149590015411377}
+{"content": "MOSCOW  : A Moscow-backed spacecraft carrying two Russians and a US astronaut on Friday docked successfully at the International Space Station after a technical hitch caused an unprecedented two-day delay.\n\nThe Soyuz TMA-12M, carrying Russia’s Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA’s Steve Swanson, docked at 3:53 am Moscow time (1153 GMT Thursday), Russia’s mission control said.\n\n\nThe RIA Novosti news agency cited a mission control source who said the sudden dismissal of Ivanov was not connected to the technical problem that forced the Soyuz’s crew to spend an extra two days in orbit before docking with the station. The report gave no further explanation for the sacking.\n\nSkvortsov was first to open the hatch into the ISS around 7:00 am Moscow time (0300 GMT), hugging the crew members already on board and grinning broadly.\n\n\nThe trio were originally meant to dock early Wednesday, just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan, but their Soyuz spacecraft suffered a technical glitch on its approach.\n\nThe spacecraft had to orbit the Earth 34 times before its rendezvous with the international space laboratory, instead of the fast-track route of four orbits originally planned.\n\n“It was a long two days but we made it. Glad to be here,” Swanson said on a video link-up from the ISS.\n\n\n\nThe Soyuz capsule instead was forced to make three manoeuvres in orbit to bring it on the correct trajectory.\n\nThe head of the Russian state firm Energia, which made the Soyuz rocket that propels the craft into space, said Wednesday that the origin of the problem was not yet clear.\n\n\n\nThe flight director for the Russian section of the ISS, Vladimir Solovyov, vowed Friday to stay on the fast-track route it began using last year.\n\n\nSoyuz’s onboard computers may be updated as a precaution after mission control did not receive the necessary orientation from the capsule, he said.\n\n“This was the rarest combination of circumstances,” Solovyov added.\n\n“Maybe for such an unlikely case, we will put something extra into the memory of the onboard computer - just in case.”\n\nNASA is wholly reliant on Russia for delivering astronauts to the space station since the US retired its space shuttles.\n\nThe trio bring the ISS crew up to six. Incumbent crew Koichi Wakata of Japan, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin are due to leave in May.\n\nOfficials have vowed cooperation between the US and Russia on the space program will continue unaffected by mounting diplomatic tensions over the Crimea crisis.\n\nSkvortsov, 47, is making his second space flight and 53-year-old Swanson, a veteran of two past shuttle missions, his third.\n\nArtemyev meanwhile is on his first voyage to space. The 43-year-old took part in a 2009 experiment where volunteers were shut up in a capsule at a Moscow laboratory for 105 days to simulate the effects of a possible voyage to Mars.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8965063095092773}
+{"content": "\n\nFutureproofing Now (S #1 Ep. #4) - The Corporate Innovation Playbook\n\nBy Futureproofing : Next\n\n“The 2019/20 Corporate Innovation Playbook” is one of the most comprehensive studies on the pragmatic aspects of getting innovation planned and done inside companies. A smart group of 12 innovators asked: What are the biggest contributors and barriers to mapping out and implementing innovation inside companies? What are companies doing now?  Why? What is their potential impact on their overall business? What will change? What are their unfair challenges and advantages vs. startups? As a preview to the full study's findings, we thought we would engage with innovators who have been in the corporate trenches, as well as collaborators who helped us pull together the study on key preview thoughts and a glimpse at the early results before July. What you'll learn:  INNOVATION VALUE:  What is the importance of innovation by industry?  By company? How has that changed and been defined differently over the past 3-5 years?        TREND ACTION and PROCESS: How do companies currently track trends? What’s the mechanism for incorporating and acting on trends into your business strategy? APPROACHES: What does innovation look like in companies? What are some of the approaches companies take that are common or unique? and why?  PERFORMANCE: How do companies' rate in building new lines of business or successful internal initiatives today? Which functional area is driving the corporate growth agenda? What are the big contributors and barriers? TECHNOLOGIES: What technologies are helping produce better innovation process? products and services? business models? BUSINESS MODELS: What are the most interesting developments leading companies to capture more business value? Bankable business of the future. CULTURE: How does an organization build an innovation culture? Who gets to lead it and how do you lead it? Is there a perfect structure?         CHANGING LANDSCAPE AND TRENDS: What’s on your radar now that wasn’t on your radar 5 years ago in the area of innovation?  METHODS: What are the most popular innovation schools of thought, tools or activities for innovation?  SIZE DIFFERENCES: What are the handicaps vs. how startups apply innovation? What are some of the corporate unfair advantages vs. startups that should be harnessed?  WHO’S DOING IT RIGHT: Are there brands, companies, organizations, groups that are “doing it right”?  EXTERNAL PARTNERS: How do companies leverage external partners to help with innovation?  PREDICTIONS: What are some safe bets and some outlier best guesses for a more innovative future? \n\nListen to Futureproofing Now (S #1 Ep. #4) - The Corporate Innovation Playbook now.\n\nListen to Futureproofing Now (S #1 Ep. #4) - The Corporate Innovation Playbook in full in the Spotify app", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5972028970718384}
+{"content": "Greenback Dollar\n\n\nAlfred Kennedy III was handcuffed and taken to a police station after trying to pay for food at a Baton Rouge Jack in the Box with a $100 1974 Federal Reserve note. The note wasn't counterfeit, but no one at Jack in the Box or the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office seemed to recognize the almost 30-year-old note was legal tender. Kennedy was finally freed after about 40 minutes, after deputies confirmed the note was real money. That happened in 2001. An appeals court recently said Kennedy should get a trial on a defamation charge against the restaurant and a false arrest claim against the sheriff's office. Both the Jack in the Box and the sheriff's office opposed that decision. The sheriff's office says Kennedy wasn't really arrested, just detained until the bill could be checked out.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8423668742179871}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 2\n\nPrinciple of Thermal Imaging\n\n(NEC San-ei Instruments, Ltd.)\n\nll materials, which are above 0 degrees Kelvin (-273 degrees C), emit infrared energy. The infrared\nenergy emitted from the measured object is converted into an electrical signal by the imaging\nsensor (microbolometer) in the camera and displayed on a monitor as a color or monochrome\nthermal image. The basic principle is explained as follows:\n\nInfrared Radiation\n\nhe infrared ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation the same as radio waves, microwaves,\nultraviolet rays, visible light, X-rays, and gamma rays. All these forms, which collectively make up the\nelectromagnetic spectrum, are similar in that they emit energy in the form of electromagnetic waves\ntraveling at the speed of light. The major difference between each ‘band’ in the spectrum is in their\nwavelength, which correlates to the amount of energy the waves carry. For example, while gamma rays\nhave wavelengths millions of times smaller than those of visible light, radio waves have wavelengths that\nare billions of times longer than those of visible light.\n\nThe wavelength of the infrared radiation ‘band’ is 0.78 to 1000μm (micrometers). This is longer than the\nwavelength of visible light yet shorter that radio waves. The wavelengths of infrared radiation are\nclassified from the near infrared to the far infrared.\n\n\nnfrared radiation is energy radiated by the motion of atoms and molecules on the surface of object,\nwhere the temperature of the object is more than absolute zero. The intensity of the emittance is a\nfunction of the temperature of the material. In other words, the higher the temperature, the greater the\nintensity of infrared energy that is emitted. As well as emitting infrared energy, materials also reflect\ninfrared, absorb infrared and, in some cases, transmit infrared. When the temperature of the material\nequals that of its surroundings, the amount of thermal radiation absorbed by the object equals the amount\nemitted by the object.\n\nThe figure above shows the three modes by which the radiant energy striking an object may be dissipated.\nThese modes of dissipation are:\n\na = absorption\nt = transmission\nr = reflection\n\nThe fractions of the total radiant energy, which are associated with each of the above modes of dissipation,\nare referred to as the absorptivity (a) transmissivity (t) and the reflectivity (r) of the body. According to the\ntheory of conservation of energy, the extent to which materials reflect, absorb and transmit IR energy is\nknown as the emissivity of the material.\n\nBlackbody Radiation\n\nhe emissivity of a body is defined formally by the equation below as the ratio of the radiant energy\nemitted by the body to the radiation, which would be emitted by a blackbody at the same\n\nIf all energy falling on an object were absorbed (no transmission or reflection), the absorptivity would equal\nto 1. At a steady temperature, all the energy absorbed could e-radiated (emitted) so that the emissivity of\nsuch a body would equal 1. Therefore blackbody,\n\nabsorptivity = emissivity = 1\n\nPractical real life objects do not behave exactly as this ideal, but as described with transmissivity and\n\nabsorptivity + transmissivity + reflectivity = 1\n\nEnergy radiated from the blackbody is described as follows [“Planck’s Law”.]\n\nIn order to obtain total radiant emittance of the blackbody, integrate the equation (1) through all\nwavelengths (0 to infinity). The result is as follows and is called “Stefan-Bolzmann equation.”\n\nThe temperature of blackbody can be obtained directly from the radiant energy of the blackbody by this\nequation. In order to find out the wavelength on the maximum spectral radiant emittance, differentiate\nPlanck’s law and take the value to 0\n\nThis equation is called “Wien’s displacement law”.\n\nWhere in (1) to (3),\n\nIn radiation of a normal object, as the emissivity is (<1) times of the blackbody, multiply above equation\nby the emissivity. The following figures show the spectral radiant emittance of a blackbody.\n\nThe graphs show that wavelength and spectral radiant emittance vary with the temperature. They also\nshow that as the temperature rises, the peak of spectral radiant emittance is shifting to shorter\nwavelengths. This phenomenon is observable in the visible light region as an object at a low temperature\nappears red, and as the temperature increases, it changes to yellowish and then whitish color—thus\nshifting to shorter & shorter wavelengths as the temperature increases.\n(a) is shown by logarithmic scale and (b) is shown by linear scale.\n\nPractical Measurement\n\nT here are a number of methods for correcting emissivity in order to obtain the true temperature. The\ncorrection procedure with each method will be explained next.\n\nMethod of comparison or direct measurement with emissivity equal\n\nto approximately 1.0\n\na) Stabilize the temperature of the measured object or similar material.\n\nb) Open a very small hole (hereafter called blackbody part) in the object which the thermal imager must\nmeasure as to satisfy blackbody conditions.\nc) Then set the emissivity correcting function of thermal imager so that the temperature of the blackbody\npart and the measured surface will be the same. The obtained emissivity will be the emissivity of the\nmeasured surface.\nd) Thereafter when measuring the same type object, it is unnecessary to change the emissivity setting.\n\nMethod of direct measurement of emissivity\n\nIf a hole cannot be made as in method 1, then apply black high emissivity paint and carry out the same\nprocedures to obtain the emissivity. Since the black paint will not provide a perfect blackbody, first set the\nemissivity of the black paint and then measure the temperature.\n\nIndirect measurement\n\nMeasure a sample similar to the measured object, and place it in a condition able to be heated by a heater,\netc. Then measure the object and the sample alternately with the camera and when the indicated values\nare identical, measure the sample with a contact-type thermometer. Adjust the emissivity of the thermal\nimager to cause the temperature readout to match that of the contact measurement. The resulting\nemissivitiy is that of the sample.\n\nMeasuring by Wedge effect\n\nWith this method, the emissivity of the measured surface itself is enhanced through use of the wedge or\nsemi-wedge effect. But one must be careful about the number of reflections and/or the measuring angle. A\nsmall change in angle will reduce the emissivity enhancement.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8561035394668579}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 2\n\n\n(Excerpt from Writing for Sociology. 2nd ed. CA: Department of Sociology, University of\nCalifornia Berkeley, 2011.)\n\nReading well is one of the most important skills you will develop in college/graduate\nschool. If you don’t understand a given text, you will have a hard time explaining it in a\npaper or essay. Incredible writing skills don’t make a difference if you can’t grasp the\nreading. The following strategies help you identify the main points, recall what you’ve\nread, and analyze the authors’ main points and assumptions.\nBeing a critical reader means questioning the perspectives, assumptions, and\nevidence behind the author’s argument. We need to train our minds to ask certain\nquestions and look for clues so we can separate essential points from less important ones.\nThe process of critical reading is similar to reverse engineering–your task entails breaking\nthe argument into its parts to see how the pieces fit together.\nThe following key questions will help you to understand the logic or structure of\nan author’s argument. Asking yourself these questions as you read should also help you\nisolate the parts of the book or article you should pay close attention to from those that\nyou can skim.\n\nI. Summary, or “What does the text say?”\n\n1. What is the question being asked and answered in this book? In other words, what is\nthe author’s problem or puzzle?\nExplicitly formulating a question that “frames” the book, in ONE sentence, with a\nquestion mark at the end, is perhaps the most important thing you can do to\nfurther your understanding of a text. The challenge is to come up with a\nformulation neither so broad nor so narrow that it misses the book’s essence.\n2. What is the author’s main argument or thesis?\nIdentifying this preliminary answer to the question you just formulated will help\nyou to grasp the thread that runs through the whole book and ties everything\n3. What claims does the author present to support the thesis?\nWhat is important here is not that you recapitulate all the details of a book or\nother text, but rather that you identify the sub-arguments that relate back to the\ncentral question. Suppose, for example, that the author spends a chapter or section\ndiscussing XYZ. What does XYZ tell us about the question that frames the book or\n4. What are the author’s conclusions?\nLook for ways the author relates the argument of the book or text to broader\ndebates about the subject. According to the author, what are the implications of\nthe claims made in the text?\n\nII. Analysis, or “What does the text mean?”\n\n1. Upon what assumptions does the author’s main argument rest?\nLooking for the assumptions underlying the study—both explicit and implicit—\nhelps evaluate the author’s claims. Consider whether or not you agree with the\nauthor’s assumptions.\n2. What evidence does the author use to support the argument?\nNotice the author’s evidence and what is omitted. Identifying missing pieces can\nbe an important part of your reading.\n3. Is the argument persuasive?\nThink about whether the evidence matches the claims and whether other kinds of\nevidence would give different results. Is the argument logical, well-reasoned, fair,\nbalanced, and consistent?\n4. How might you critique the author’s argument?\nYour job as a critical reader is to evaluate the argument and evidence the author\npresents. Would the author’s argument hold if applied to a different, comparable\ncase? Can you identify cases where the author’s argument is useful in explaining an\nobservable phenomenon in the social world and cases where it might be less\n\nIII. So what, or “Why does the text matter?”\n\n1. What is the author’s agenda?\nPeople write books and articles for a variety of purposes—to inform, amuse,\npersuade, and/or goad into action. In sociology, authors are often engaging in\npolitical and/or theoretical debates with other writers.\n2. How does the book relate to other readings you have done for the course? To\nreadings for other courses? To debates about families? To the world around you?\nOnce you have summarized and evaluated the text, think about it in a larger\ncontext. How does it make you think differently about families, gender, the state\nor other topics? What further questions does it inspire?\n\nGet Messy!\nComing up with a system to keep track of what you read will make your life much easier\nin the long run. The particulars of the system don’t really matter, as long as you can go\nback later and understand why you did what you did. Some students like to write short\ncomments in the margins that summarize each paragraph.\nDon’t go overboard with highlights and underlines! If you highlight every other\nsentence, you’re not reading critically and you’re not producing helpful references for\nyourself. Underline, highlight or otherwise identify only the key points, questions, and\narguments in a reading.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9672560691833496}
+{"content": "Jack Ryan Still Not On His A Game\n\nHollywood is obsessed with repeating itself. Chris Pine helped kick off a new reboot? Let’s put him in another one! Let’s take a franchise ruined by Ben Affleck and hope that Pine can do his magic again. This results in a very mediocre espionage movie.\nJack Ryan. That name should be familiar with to most. He is the star of a string of novels by Tom Clancy many which have been made into movie. Jack Ryan come to the big screen in Alec Baldwin’s shoes, but hit his peak with Harrison Ford. Then in 2002 Affleck stared in a reboot that removed itself from the chronological events in the first movies. This movie failed to bring Jack Ryan back.\njack-ryan-shadow-chris-pine-kevin-costner-bench-600-370Pine’s version in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit brings Ryan into our generation. He joined the military after 9-11 and was injured in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan which ended his military career. Ryan is brought into the CIA by Thomas Harper, played by Kevin Costner who is viscously trying to reboot his career. Ryan starts off in office work, tracing accounting and national security threats with in big money. When he stumbles across a grand scheme involving Russia, Ryan must go out to the field and see if he still has what it takes.\nThis whole movie is confusing. I am curious as why Russia was once again chosen as the villains in this piece when they are updating Ryan’s story. Russia figures prominently in earlier works especially during those during the Cold War. Are they just going from this or trying to make us see that Russia is still a valid threat while we are concerned with the Middle East and North Korea? Or is it simply, just an un-thought-out plot idea?\nThen of course is the actual threat to the American government that only someone with a PhD in economics can understand and decode. When Harper says dumb it down, the script should have dumbed it down. Somehow, Russia is selling off American money and coordinating a terrorist attack so the American dollars sinks so low the Great Depression will look like drop in the bucket. Not that I understood any of that, but I nodded my head and went with it. There are various other things along the line, but let’s look at other aspects of the movie.jack-ryan-shadow-recruit\nRyan fiancée Cathy Muller is played by Keira Knightley with a horrible American accent. Once again, Knightly plays a rather bitchy female with no empowerment that seems to have become her staple character. Not all of the horribleness of this character is her fault though; she is written horribly and in a very ant-feminist way. She thinks Ryan is cheating on her throughout the movie though he is begging her to marry him so he could confide everything to her. Cathy is moody, week, and unrealistic.\nPine does attribute something positive to the movie. Ryan is given some very complex emotions. While these do not last long, Pine actually makes the audience feel how upset Ryan is with having to kill someone. His Ryan is not all swaggers. This is probably his best role to date.\nJack Ryan: Shadow Recruit leaves a lot to be desired. Kenneth Branagh dos double duty playing the villain and directing the film. I think it may have gone better, if he had chosen one role. But I do have to admit Jack Ryan looks really good up on that IMAX screen.\n\n\nIt’s Funny When Your Friends Get Old\n\nGrudge Match isn’t your typical sports movie. Sure there is some boxing, but the movie focuses more on the relationships of life instead of the sports.\n Grudge Match pits Robert De Niro against Sylvester Stallone. The two are retired boxers who have held a grudge even though they game is over. Stallone’s character Razor has spent the majority of his money on his coach and makes animals out of scrap metal in his spare time. When he is laid off, Razor makes some money with a video game. The easy money gig gets complicated when he comes face to face with his rival Kidd. The two exchange blows and their fight go viral. The hype gets the two a real gig: facing off in the boxing ring to still who is really the champ.\nCritics complain that the movie relies too much on old people jokes, but the whole idea of age and humor is central to the story. It’s hard not to make constant cracks when the boxing stars are 67 and 70. The brilliant Alan Arkin is unapologetic and a more vulgar and male version of Betty White. The combination of Kevin Hart and Arkin is especially funny as the young and old collide. The movie is just pure fun. The only trouble with the humor is Stallone. He is not good at witty humor and his lines would have sound better coming out of Ray Ramon’s mouth.\nFor something so fun, it does have some depth and drama. The drama is best handled by Jon Bernthal. Bernthal is Kidd’s estranged son who deals with the tension between his real father and his mother. Bernthal is full of emotion and love and gives fierceness as a coach that Razor’s side does not have. In fact, during the fight, Bernthal looks like he would gladly beat up Razor himself. He and De Niro have great chemistry and their scenes are touching.13091901_Grudge_Match_20\nGrudge Match is like Real Steel; the theme is not about winning a sports match. It explores the relationships between men and women, parents and children, colleagues and co-workers. These movies are often off putting to sports fans. Sure, most of the story is easily deducted: relationships are rekindled, families are reunited but it all ends happily. And sometimes we need that happiness as an escape from real life.\nGrudge Match is a fun movie that has a plot. The characters develop and we learn even old men can change their ways.\n\nDevastation is All That Remains\n\nFans have eagerly awaited Telltale Games Season Two of The Walking Dead. The first episode doesn’t disappoint. The game has actually improved from the first season with better control and ramped emotional impact.\n“All That Remains” is one of the most emotional episodes to date. After losing Lee in Season 1, Clementine has caught up with Omid and Krista, and the trio travel through the zombie wasteland. But the reunion is short lived.  Within minutes, a beloved character is dead, and Clementine is on her own to face the zombie hordes. Creating this loose so soon in the beginning of the episode truly drives home what a devastating and lonely world it is. Not only do you lose humans, but an animal friend turns foe.  The level of violence in this turn of events is quite shocking. Truly, Clementine (and the players) can trust no one, human or animal.\n\nThis episode also contains one of the most cringe worthy scenes. Between the comics, the show and the games, zombies are common place and it takes much creativity to gross viewers out. Telltale goes a different route. Instead of goring up the zombies, Clementine has to sew a gash in her own arm. Players must do this stitch by stitch listening to Clementine pain and shrinking away as if it were their own arm. I haven’t cringed this much since Rick and Glenn put on zombie guts in the first season of the TV show.\n\nFinally, the controls have been updated allowing players to use both hands to guide the action and attacks. Gamers also move Clementine in new ways, ducking under objects and side stepping walkers. This rounds out the game play and makes the game less clunky.\n\nThe Walking Dead Season 2 is set up for success. But the biggest question is this: can Telltale produce nonbuggy episodes on a timely basis. Time delays and buggy episodes will be it’s only down fall.The-Walking-Dead-Game-Season-2-game", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6795172095298767}
+{"content": "What defines a “good place to work”? Employees want to be\nrespected. They want their ideas to be heard. They want clear expectations and\ngoals to meet or exceed. They want to be rewarded for their hard work and\ndedication. And, perhaps most of all, they want to work for a company they can\ntrust. Providing these workplace components creates happy employees, encourages\ngood work, inspires loyalty, and ultimately leads to long-term success.\n\nThe first step to achieving all of the above? Ensuring the company’s\nculture is centered on good character. Acting ethically—doing right by customers\nand employees, and being clear and up front about individual and company\nactions—is the most important building block in developing a positive culture\nand solid reputation.\n\nCompany culture and company success are two sides of the same\ncoin. When employees feel supported, heard, and respected—when a good company\nculture is lived and transmitted—they’re more likely to come up with creative\nideas, to care about solving problems, and to remain motivated. This leads to success\nwith customers, which in turn rewards employees, reinforcing the culture and creating\na virtuous, self-sustaining cycle. Culture can truly make or break a company.\nPay, benefits, and customers may draw people in, but it is the culture—the very\ncore of a company, what it stands for and how it operates—that will keep employees\nor turn them away.\n\nSo, what role can a board play in promoting company culture?\nHow does a board support the adoption and enactment of ethical behavior?\n\nFirst, the board must support and contribute to the creation\nof strong teams. Is the board hiring the right people? How can you be sure? One\nessential way is to incorporate ethics and behavioral elements into the vetting\nand selection process of our teams. Be sure to ask the right questions; rather\nthan simply asking what someone has achieved, also ask “how?” What drove their\ndecision-making, and what effects did that have on outcomes? Were there any tradeoffs\nor compromises made during this process? Growing a business is never easy, but\nchoosing leaders with good character is essential to ensuring that ethical\nbehavior is built into teams’ DNA and the decision framework. It all starts\nfrom the top.\n\nSecond, the board must set expectations that employees will\nbe offered certain resources that teach and reinforce a culture of ethics to\nand in employees. Ethics training must be mandatory but also engaging, which will\nenable employees to understand the importance of ethics and good character and\nthen live it, not just parrot obvious responses. Interactive training, whether\nit be digital or in person, should facilitate discussion and incorporate\nreal-life scenarios and dilemmas into its program.\n\nAn ethical workplace doesn’t stop at training. There must be\na visible system in place for team members to escalate concerns. Does the\ncompany have an ethics hotline? Who monitors the hotline? Are management and\nother relevant parties checking to make sure it’s being used? How are they\nmaking sure that everyone knows how and when to use it? If it is never used, it\nmay indicate that employees are afraid to escalate issues.\n\nThe board should ensure that management  always communicates to employees that they\nhave access to the information they need about policies and procedures. Employees\nshould know what conduct is expected of their role, and also understand how the\ncompany’s written code of conduct applies to their work life. Ensure that refresher\ntraining is readily available and accessible, that employees are instructed to escalate\nissues when necessary, and that they understand there is no threat of\nretaliation if they do so.\n\nThe third step is reinforcement. Accountability must be\ndemanded from leadership by the board. Is there a review system in place to\nmake sure top executives continue to follow the code of ethics? How can the\nboard encourage ethical behavior? CACI established a board-level culture committee\nthat is assigned to oversee management’s efforts to foster and institutionalize\nour culture at all levels of the company.\n\nWe also created and institutionalized our own award for\nethical behavior to acknowledge and positively reinforce actions that align\nwith our culture of good character. Our ethical culture is made visible in many\nways, including through our robust community volunteering program, called “CACI\nCares,” and our support of veterans through several nonprofit organizations. I\nam very proud of CACI’s strong and generous presence in both our nation and our\nneighborhoods through volunteerism and charitable giving.\n\nNow, renew, repeat, reinforce. To be successful, a culture of\ngood character must be a priority from the top down. Everyone must put in\neffort to ensure that it exists and persists. Make it a key piece of every\nsingle business decision the board makes—where to invest, who to hire, what\npolicies to implement. At CACI, we expect the same ethical behavior from our\nsuppliers and even our customers. Turning away from doing business with\nunethical organizations might cost the company in the short run, but it has\ncertainly paid off for us over time.\n\nFinally, it is the board’s duty to ensure that leadership and\nothers in charge of decision-making not only understand but embrace the\nculture. It won’t always be easy, but the board decides who remains in positions\nof power—and who doesn’t. Acting ethically establishes trust, both with\nemployees and with customers. And if you show customers that your company can\nbe trusted, they will continue to give you their business. Creating an environment\nwhere individual and organizational character is the expectation, not the\nexception, will ensure long-term success.\n\nMichael A. Daniels is\na director of CACI International. He also serves on the boards of the Northern\nVirginia Technology Council, Two Six Labs, Mercury Systems, and Blackberry.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8546905517578125}
+{"content": "Thinking is good.\n\nIt demonstrates that your mind is still working.\n\nIt allows you to be creative and come up with solutions to problems that you face or potentially will face.\n\nIt shows that you are a human, smarter than the animals living on this planet.\n\nBut what if the process of thinking is broken?\n\nWhat if it runs on a loop, displaying images or bringing forth feelings or experiences that you hate? Your days ruined. Your relationships destroyed.\n\nThen you start thinking…Maybe your mind is broken?\n\nOr not?\n\nIt goes on and on.\n\nWhat if you done that?\n\nOr what if you said that?\n\nMaybe…just maybe…\n\n\nWhat are you doing? Why are you wasting time and energy on that?\n\nIt’s time to ask yourself…\n\nCan you channel that energy you spend thinking in a loop into solve the world’s problems instead?\n\nHow much more productive can you be? How much more effective you will be?\n\nGood or bad writer?\n\nHow do you know if you are a good or bad writer?\n\nMaybe you think you are a good writer just because someone compliments your writing.\n\nOr you will think you are a bad writer when you publish something and no one likes it.\n\nTo me, it’s very simple.\n\nA bad writer is one who struggles to get the words out to tell a story and then decided to stop writing all together.\n\nA good writer doesn’t stop.\n\nAll in your head\n\n\nIt’s the thing that could destroy your productivity and send you down the rabbit hole of wasting time and achieving nothing. You will find yourself doing everything else but the one thing you need to be doing.\n\nAnd you know what? The biggest problem isn’t with distraction. It’s not that video game. Not that Netflix show. Not that book. Rather, it’s you. You are the problem. You choose to play that video game, watch that show or read that book.\n\nSo why did you make that choice?\n\nIs it because you lack the discipline?\n\nOr maybe be that the thing you should be doing doesn’t have a strong enough draw to pull you away? Maybe it’s not as important as you think it is? And don’t kid yourself and be all defensive. After all, if it’s important, then why aren’t you doing those things? Why are you allowing yourself to be distracted?\n\nIt’s also a conversation that I’m having with myself every now and then.\n\nAs much as I like to think I have the discipline to work from home, it’s a lie perpetrated by me on me. The truth is being distracted is a recurring theme. There were so many projects that I want to do but ended up not doing them. I went with playing video games, stopped thinking like a writer and stopped thinking like a designer.\n\nI even told my friends that I couldn’t find the time or concentrate on my stuff at home and needed to work outside. There’s just too many distracting stuff.\n\nOne of them said, “it’s all in your head”.\n\nI won’t say I’m surprised. From what I have learned so far, it’s the truth. And the only truth when it comes to productivity.\n\nAnd that’s a great reminder on who’s really in control.\n\nNo one else can make you concentrate or focus. You are the one who decide whether you can concentrate and do the work. Everything else that you say or fight against is just you finding an excuse.\n\nWhat if you really think that your home has a ton of distractions and you can’t prevent yourself from utilising those distractions? Then go out there and find an environment to work in that allow you to focus. Otherwise, remove all those items in your house that distracts you. Move those distracting things, be it television, your internet router/access points, etc. to a storage unit. Smash them to pieces if you need to. You can always buy a new one later. It’s all about creating that environment you need to work.\n\nAnd watch what you say to yourself. A lot of times, many of the comments or complains you make are just you being fancy and refuse to do the work. So shut up, and make a plan and execute.\n\nThe curious case of not enough or missing time\n\nHave you ever experienced the loss of time and you can’t seem to remember what you did? It’s not that you are suffering from some kind of mental illness that cause you to lose track of time but rather you know you are still going about your life and yet time just flies by. When you do realise it, the day is gone and the new day is upon you.\n\nAnd that’s been happening to me for the last few weeks ever since I tendered my resignation.\n\nYou just go to work as usual because you have to serve a two months notice, do your tasks and before long you find yourself packing up for home. Once home, you just simply go through the motion of life and then you are off to bed. You wake up the next morning to repeat.\n\nBy the time you realise what had happened, it’s already nearly the end of the month and you have not quite achieve anything.\n\nFrom the context of a person soon to be jobless, it meant that he hasn’t found a job to move on to. In part, he hadn’t be that active looking for a job but not as active as one should be. And the potential jobs he did find, the hiring managers rejected him.\n\nNow that’s a problem.\n\nAnd there’s more.\n\nIn terms of writing, he also hasn’t achieve much. There’s virtually no content to write about because he didn’t put in the effort to because he was distracted by other shiny things in life. And it’s troubling because his resignation meant the scaling down of his workload and thus he should have more time to do writing. But it’s not the case.\n\nHis backlog of video games have grown from one game to six games. It’s not very minimalistic of him. And he just couldn’t seem to find the time to play those games.\n\nLast but not least, his backlog of novels and books to read has grown from one to eight. Somehow, he couldn’t make the time to read them.\n\nIn hindsight, it’s probably not that hard to figure out why.\n\n\nIt’s gone.\n\nAnd severe neck, shoulder and back pain. It’s detrimental to his well-being. So much so, he couldn’t concentrate on what he needs to do.\n\nChange up sleep routine\n\nIt’s pretty scary to realise you prefer to sleep early and wake up early based on old tweets you have done. Then somehow you slipped up and you find yourself sleeping later.\n\nAnd how much later, you might ask?\n\nTry three hours after your supposed sleeping time. It’s well beyond midnight, mind you. Then you got to wake up early for work. What’s worse is when you go through this kind of sleep deprivation for longer than two months with no end in sight and you don’t even know why. Your mind just refuse to sleep early.\n\nThis isn’t doing me any good. The long term effect of this sleep deprivation includes making one feel very tired, depressed and lack the motivation to do anything.\n\nIt’s probably why my consistency when it comes to writing or blogging in general has fallen off the cliff. And I suspect it’s the root of my problems. Been having trouble trying to write the short stories that I have planned. All those writer blocks…\n\nSo I decided to change up my sleeping routine by turning in before 10pm starting today. And I’ve got an excuse to do that now. Need to wake up an hour earlier than usual for my military reservist training tomorrow.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5075421333312988}
+{"content": "30 simple vegan swaps for popular recipe ingredients\n\nDuncan Hines batter on spatula Brownie Boxed Mix Taste Test\nThere are a lot of vegan alternatives to popular recipe ingredients.\nSydney Kramer/INSIDER\nMaking a non-vegan recipe vegan isn't rocket science. Although it may seem like an unnecessary hassle rounding up vegan alternatives for ingredients like eggs, honey, and even refined white sugar, keeping your pantry stocked with a variety of vegan-friendly products will make things a whole lot easier. Plus, a lot of these vegan-approved substitutions can be used in place of multiple other non-vegan products.\n\nIt can add density.\nShutterstock/Moving Moment\n\nAccording to POPSUGAR, you can use applesauce as a one-to-one replacement for butter in any recipe, although it is best used as a replacement in baking. But, be warned, this butter substitute will make your cake more dense than if you were using butter.\n\nWhen ground up and added to water, it can mimic the consistency of eggs.\n\nEggs provide structure, rise, and moisture to baked goods making them seem almost irreplaceable in most dessert recipes. Except, both flax seeds and chia seeds can be ground up and mixed with water to create a similar consistency, according to Tori Avey.\n\nButtermilk can be made with soy milk and apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.\nFlickr / Janine\n\nButtermilk isn't a popular non-vegan ingredient, but it's an important one nonetheless. A great buttermilk alternative can be created by mixing one cup of soy milk with one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, according to The Kitchn.\n\nThere are a few coconut products that can replace sweetened condensed milk.\n\nIf you're missing your favorite Thai iced coffee, you'll be glad to know that both cream of coconut and canned coconut milk can be used as a replacement for both. These vegan alternatives can also work as a 1:1 replacement in recipes calling for sweetened condensed milk.\n\nAdjust your wet ingredients accordingly.\nolle svensson/Flickr\n\nAs with applesauce, avocado can be used as a replacement for butter in baked goods. According to Kitchn avocado can be substituted one to one, but you will need to increase your wet ingredients to compensate for the moisture normally provided by butter.\n\nSome places even sell flavored agave to add extra flavor to your recipes.\n\nAccording to Ordinary Vegan, some sugars are filtered with bone char. While there are many sugar brands that are naturally vegan, agave is a natural vegan alternative you could try as well. The Kitchn suggests using a two-thirds cup of agave for every one cup of sugar called for in a recipe. Agave can also be used as a one to one replacement for honey in recipes as well.\n\nIt can also add some subtle banana flavor to your favorite dessert recipes.\n\nVegan author Annie Shannon tells Livestrong that \"mashed or pureed fruit like bananas can serve as a substitution for eggs in baked items like cakes.\" According to Shannon, you can use one medium sized banana (which is about one-quarter cup of mashed banana) for every one egg required in a recipe.\n\nIt won't have the same flavor, but the texture is pretty similar to dairy milk.\n\nWhile it might not taste exactly like milk, soy milk can be substituted at a one to one ratio for milk in any recipe, according to Taste of Home. Soy milk also has a ton of protein and vitamins, making it a fairly healthy milk replacement.\n\nIt can be used in any recipe that calls for butter.\n\nWhile most people are already using coconut oil to cook their veggies and tofu on the stove, few people know that coconut oil can be used as a butter replacement for various baked goods. According to Livestrong, coconut oil can be used as a one to one replacement in any recipe that calls for butter.\n\nYou may already be using it in your recipes.\nIurii Stepanov/Shutterstock\n\nYou might have already swapped butter for olive oil when it comes to eating bread, but did you know you can use olive oil as a butter replacement in recipes as well? According to Livestrong, one cup of butter can be replaced by three-fourths cup of olive oil when baking, sautéing, or frying. The best part is that olive oil is a healthy alternative to butter with no trans fats or cholesterol.\n\nKeep tasting them until you find one you like.\n\nUpgrade your enchilada (or pizza) recipe with a vegan shredded cheese alternative. You can purchase pre-made vegan shredded cheese at a variety of super markets, but it might take a few tries until you find one you really like.\n\nThey're both super sweet.\nChris Waits/Flickr\n\nWhile the look and taste of honey and molasses are completely different, molasses is a natural vegan sweetener that can be substituted for honey in a one to one ratio, according to Livestrong.\n\nIt can be used in lieu of sugar.\nSoul Cookbook/Flickr\n\nAnother vegan alternative to sugar is maple syrup. According to Tablespoon, you can use a three-fourths cup of maple syrup for every cup of sugar required in a recipe.\n\nUnsweetened applesauce can be used in place of eggs.\nFlickr/Stacy Spensley\n\nWho knew applesauce could be such a great vegan replacement in recipes? According to SheKnows, one-fourth cup of unsweetened applesauce can be used as a baking replacement for eggs.\n\nIt's perfect for autumn-inspired recipes.\nSarah Schmalbruch/INSIDER\n\nPumpkin isn't the first thing to comes to mind when searching for a vegan alternative to butter, but it turns out this fruit puree is a healthy and delicious plan B when it comes to baking. PopSugar suggests replacing one cup of butter with a three-fourths cup of pumpkin puree.\n\nIt can be used in place of eggs.\n\nPureed tofu might not sound appetizing, but it can make a great substitute for eggs in almost any recipe. PETA recommends using one-fourth cup of soft tofu as a substitute for one egg.\n\nIt has a cheesy taste.\nWikimedia Commons\n\nNutritional yeast is made from sugarcane and beet molasses that can replace cheese in almost any recipe, according to HuffPost. Nutritional yeast can be sprinkled on top of a dish like parmesan, or even made into a creamy cheese sauce for mac and cheese.\n\nIt can be easily incorporated into most recipes.\nMax Pixel\n\nAccording to Healthline, coconut milk can make a great vegan alternative to sour cream. Skim off the top of full-fat coconut milk and blend with apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and sea salt to taste for the vegan substitute. This dairy-free sour cream can be used as a stand-alone product or incorporated into a recipe.\n\nIt can be used in place of yogurt.\nFlickr/Kent Wang\n\nRefrigerating a can of full-fat coconut milk for upwards of twelve hours makes a thick coat of coconut cream rise to the top. This cream can then be skimmed off and substituted for yogurt in any recipe in a one to one ratio, according to Go Dairy Free.\n\nCrumble it up for a cottage cheese substitute.\n\nGone are the days of cottage and ricotta cheese. Instead, you can use crumbled tofu in its place as a one to one substitution, according to Veg Kitchen.\n\nYou can even make it yourself.\nVivianna_love / Flickr\n\nPacked with essential proteins, vitamins, and minerals everyone needs in their diet, almond milk is a healthy alternative for milk in most recipes. According to Livestrong, almond milk can be used as a one to one replacement, and there will be nearly no change in taste or color to the final product.\n\nIt can replace sour cream.\nWikimedia Commons\n\nYou only need five ingredients to make Simple Veganista's sour cream alternative. Cashew cream is made by soaking cashews and then blending it with almond milk, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and a little mineral salt. You can use this is a one to one replacement for sour cream in any recipe.\n\nIt works especially well in savory recipes.\nAdam Dachis / Flickr\n\nAs weird as it sounds, PETA claims that mashed potatoes can be used as a vegan baking replacement for eggs thanks to its binding properties. Just use two tablespoons of vegan instant mashed potatoes for every one egg required by a recipe.\n\nExperimental, but it can work.\n\nIf you thought mashed potatoes was weird, you can apparently bake a whole cake without eggs or milk by using a can of soda. According to Livestrong, all you need is a vegan cake mix and a can of soda. That's it.\n\nYou can find it in most grocery stores.\nMadeleine Steinbach/Shutterstock\n\nIt's pretty simple, actually. Just grab a box of vegetable broth and use as a one to one replacement in any recipe.\n\nNo need to use Worcestershire sauce.\n\nBrunch just got a whole lot better. Replace Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and a hint of vinegar to create your own vegan version of the popular Bloody Mary ingredient, according to Holy Cow Vegan.\n\nYou can even use them to make vegan gelatin shots.\nMargaret Weinberg/SpoonUniversity\n\nUnfortunately, gelatin is not vegan, but that doesn't mean vegans can't enjoy the squishy treat or replace gelatin in a recipe with something vegan-friendly. In fact, all you need are some agar flakes to create this one to one substitution.\n\nThere are plenty of recipes.\nEric Ripert/Facebook\n\nWhat fun is buying vegan mayo when you could just make your own? According to MNN, there are a few different ways to make vegan mayo, but after it's made you can use as a one to one replacement in any recipe.\n\nSmoke it to make some vegan mozzarella.\nHelena Lin\n\nAccording to Go Dairy Free, a simplified vegan mozzarella replacement is sliced smoked tofu. You can also replace mozzarella in a recipe by creating your own vegan version. Opt for this Minimalist Baker recipe can last upwards of a week in your fridge.\n\nYou can even use them to make vegan pesto.\nUmar Manzoor / Unsplash\n\nMake your own parmesan cheese for use as a vegan pasta topper or pesto ingredient with this recipe from Minimalist Baker. All you need is a three-fourths cup of cashews, some nutritional yeast, garlic and sea salt to complete the vegan substitute. All it takes is five minutes.\n\nFor more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.\n\nRead the original article on INSIDER.\n\nFollow INSIDER on Facebook.\n\nCopyright 2019. Follow INSIDER on Twitter.\nMore: Features Vegan Veganism recipes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8209867477416992}
+{"content": "[book review] So good they can’t ignore you\n\n[book review] So good they can’t ignore you\n\nCal Newport claims that “‘Follow your passion’ is dangerous advice.” In his book “So good they can’t ignore you (referral program link)” he convinces the reader that the only way to build a fulfilling career is getting great at what you do.\n\nWhat does a “fulfilling career” mean to Cal? In his opinion, such a career gives you three things: control, impact, and the ability to use your creativity. I wholeheartedly agree with that point of view. If you have a different opinion, perhaps you should not read that book.\n\nCareer Capital\n\nCal Newport says that such a perfect career is possible only when you acquire enough “career capital” which means that first, you need knowledge and experience, then you can start looking for something that gives you control, impact, and a possibility to use your creativity.\n\nGaining any knowledge and repeating the same experience over and over again is not enough. Cal describes a mindset which he called a “craftsman mindset.” The crucial part of that mindset is “deliberate practice.”\n\nIt is a practice based on the idea that you must choose a goal that makes the exercise difficult and uncomfortable but also provides immediate feedback. The goal is to stretch your abilities and reach for something which is out of your current skill level. It is not the same as “working hard.” You can work hard and do the same thing every day. That does not help you build the career capital.\n\nMusicians, athletes, and chess players know all about deliberate practice. Knowledge workers, however, do not. This is great news for knowledge workers: If you can introduce this strategy into your working life, you can vault past your peers in your acquisition of career capital. (…) If you can figure out how to integrate deliberate practice into your own life, you have the possibility of blowing past your peers in your value, as you’ll likely be alone in your dedication to systematically getting better. That is, deliberate practice might provide the key to quickly becoming so good they can’t ignore you. To successfully adopt the craftsman mindset, therefore, we have to approach our jobs in the same way that (…) Garry Kasparov his chess training — with a dedication to deliberate practice. — “So good they can’t ignore you”\n\nAre you interested in data engineering?\n\nCheck out my other blog https://easydata.engineering\n\n\nWhen you finally become an expert in your field. Now it is the time to use your “career capital.” You can trade it for gaining some more control in your life, for example by limiting your workweek to four days.\n\nAt this point, you can start focusing on impact. Now you need a mission. A real mission, not a corporate kool-aid mission. You need something that makes you want to wake up every day and work hard.\n\nYou should not choose the mission before you reach the cutting edge of your field. If you do it too early, it will be either not inspiring enough or way beyond your ability.\n\nA good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough — it’s an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge — the only place where these missions become visible. — “So good they can’t ignore you”\n\nHow do you transform your mission and your career capital into a great success? You do it by a series of small, achievable projects which Cal call “little bets” that explore as many possibilities as you can.\n\nHe also has a piece of advice regarding choosing such projects. Those projects should have “marketing potential.” When you finish, it should be possible to showcase them to many people, and the result should astonish them.\n\nIs the Cal’s message valuable? It seems to be. It may give you the motivation to keep working and gaining new skills and expertise when you feel stuck. Cal does not promise you an “overnight success.” Also, he does not tell you that the world owes you anything. Quite the contrary, Cal claims that if you want a fulfilling life, you must have something valuable to offer first.\n\nBecause of that, you can’t have a neutral opinion about this book. You will either love it and feel inspired by Cal or hate every single word.\nI love such polarizing books.\n\nRemember to share on social media!\n\nYou can also follow me on Twitter: @mikulskibartosz\n\n\nBartosz Mikulski\nBartosz Mikulski * data scientist / software/data engineer * conference speaker * organizer of School of A.I. meetups in Poznań * co-founder of Software Craftsmanship Poznan & Poznan Scala User Group", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976090788841248}
+{"content": "We’re About as Different From Each Other As We’ve Always Been\n\nTyler Cowen linked yesterday to a new paper called “Coming Apart? Cultural Distances in the United States over Time.” The object of the paper is to see if people of different races, genders, and incomes have become more culturally distant from each other over the past few decades.\n\nThe authors use a simple metric for this: how easy is it to predict who you are? For example, if I know your five favorite TV shows, how well does that predict whether you’re male or black or high income? If different groups watched similar shows in the past but now they all watch different shows, this kind of prediction becomes more accurate because we’re moving apart in our tastes. But it turns out we aren’t. The basic conclusion of the paper is that nothing much has happened:\n\nFor the most part, these lines are pretty flat. For example, take a look at the red line in the top left panel. It represents the consumption pattern of rich vs. poor, and it’s around 0.9. This means that the rich and poor are very different in the products they buy, but also that they’ve always been very different. The size of the difference, or “cultural distance,” is about the same as it’s always been.\n\nThere are a few lines that have changed modestly over time, but the biggest changes have come down in the details. Here are the specific attitudes that have changed the most over the past few decades:\n\nBetween high and low income:\n\n  • Views on law enforcement have diverged by 9 points.\n\nBetween men and women:\n\n  • Views on life and trust have diverged by 9 points\n\nBetween whites and non-whites:\n\n  • Views on law enforcement have diverged by 9 points\n  • Views on politics and religion have diverged by 12 points\n  • Views on government spending have diverged by 18 points\n  • Views on life and trust have diverged by 16 points\n\nThe biggest divergence, by far, has been between whites and non-whites. Not only have they diverged by large amounts, but they’ve diverged in four categories. The races in America have become noticeably more culturally distant from each other since 1976.\n\nFinally, here’s a chart that shows the divergence in social attitudes between liberals and conservatives:\n\nThe biggest changes have been in gender issues, party affiliation, religion, and confidence in institutions. This isn’t surprising, nor is the fact that the divergences have been relatively large, since ideology is self-selected. The increasing political polarization of Americans has been a topic of endless discussion over the past decade, and it’s a real thing.\n\nFinally, on a less serious side, here are the products that most distinguish whether or not you’re white:\n\nA question for my black and Hispanic friends: what’s up with the scotch tape? Why is that a white thing? What do you use when you need to tape two pieces of paper together?\n\n\n\n\n\nWe Recommend\n\n\nSign up for our newsletters\n\nSubscribe and we'll send Mother Jones straight to your inbox.\n\nGet our award-winning magazine\n\n\n\nSupport our journalism\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.542905330657959}
+{"content": "If you don't live in or around London, the Transport for London (TfL) blog is probably not one of your go-to online destinations. But TfL, which manages most of the transit systems in the greater London area, found itself thrown into the debate over Twitter's recent timeline changes.\n\nAnd it was all because of one blog post (since removed) that said it might shake things up a little. In light of Twitter's decision to give users the option to see organize some messages by relevancy rather than simply when they were posted. Initially, on Thursday, the government body seemed to say that —given that some messages may be shown out of order — it was changing the way its Twitter account would operate and put a greater focus on major events rather than minor ones, saying:\n\n\nBut after news reports interpreted the post as being critical of Twitter's changes, TfL has since said that its not making any \"immediate changes to the current range of information\" it's putting out on the network. Phil Young, the head of the online division at TfL, said the first post seemed to suggest, wrongly, that \"we’re stepping back from providing the full range of information we currently provide our customers and that we object in some way to the changes being proposed to Twitter.\"\n\nThat's also why it may have taken down its previous post, though you can see a cached version of it in Google results.\n\nThe back-and-forth taps into the confusion that some Twitter users are feeling over the timeline changes. A simple Twitter search reveals there are whole lot of people expressing confusion about the changes, how they affect their own timelines and how Twitter's presented the changes.\n\nOthers who rely on Twitter for real-time updates are watching the issue. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority spokeswoman Sherri Ly said that the agency is was aware of TfL's decisions but said that, when it comes its social media accounts, it had not \"made any changes to our approach at this time.\" \n\nSo will Twitter's new change to the timeline actually mess up anyone's ability to get real-time updates? Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.\n\n[The death of Twitter as we know it]\n\nIt doesn't seem like it should, however, given how the company has described the changes. If users choose to turn on the \"show my the best Tweets\" option, they may see certain messages out of order. But, even if there is a message out of its chronological place, the normal timeline is still right below it — with time-stamps. Recency is also a factor in Twitter's algorithm, so even if an update message was pinned to the top of a user's timeline out of order, it's unlikely to be too old.\n\nPlus, if you're really interested in what a specific account has to say about updates, you can always head to that account's profile page to see their messages.\n\nRegardless of whether Twitter's new timeline has a significant effect on how live it feels, however, it's clear that some — even those for whom tweeting is part of their job — are pretty confused about how Twitter's new changes will affect them. This may not be the last we hear about this sort of concern.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.526848316192627}
+{"content": "Are Xamarin Apps Native?\n\n7 Xamarin-and-Phones.jpg\n\nIt’s not a secret that apps with poor performance make users frustrated. Did we mention that app stores downrank those apps too? Shipping a responsive and user-friendly application is not a reason for developers to celebrate…  This is the minimum that users expect.Design, usability, responsiveness, performance. These are the qualities that best define how an app should be, and whether users will continue using an app or not. This “ideal scenario” of how an app should be can only be achieved when the app is built to best match the characteristics of each operating system. Since native development is basically the process in which the app is built for a specific platform, people starting associating that with the “ideal scenario”.In this article, we will discuss why this is a misconception. And why you can reach native performance with a cross-platform approach like Xamarin.Firstly, let’s take a look at what exactly defines an app as native: \n\nSource: White Paper: The anatomy of a native mobile app, by Xamarin\n\n\nAs you can see, for an app to be native, it needs to have a native UI, high-fidelity API Access and also Native Performance. The app not only needs to look good, but to perform (and give the user a natural feel). How to achieve that with cross-platform app development? By this logic, it would be impossible to build a native app with tools that enable code sharing. Well, almost all tools.Xamarin developers code in a single language, C# and share the code to build apps for different platforms. The difference between Xamarin and the other cross-platform tools is that it is natively compiled, which makes it the best choice for building responsive apps with a native look. However, as we discussed before, a native look is not all.\n\nLet’s take a look at how Xamarin offers a solution for having a native UI, API access and native performance.\n\n\n- How Xamarin provides a native user Interface: A framework displayed using the native controls of the operating system.For example, when a Xamarin developer creates a “table view” in Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android, they use C# to create iOS UITableViews and Android ListViews. Xamarin developers have complete access to all properties of the iOS UITableView and Android ListView APIs. When the app is running live, the native iOS and Android APIs are actually rendering the tables. Xamarin apps look native because they are native- How Xamarin enables high-fidelity API access:Solution: A unique binding technology that allows C# to call the same APIs and use the same UI controls as apps built in platform-specific languages.When developers have access to all device platform APIs even on the day they become available by the vendors, they have conditions to develop a truly native app. Expert Tip - Michael Ridland, our director Xamarin provides a thin layer over the native platforms API’s, the easiest way to understand this would be to compare some Xamarin code to native.Let’s look at iOS for an example, to create some text on a app an iOS developer would us UILabel in swift code.var label = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 21))While in Xamarin the API access would be exactly the same but in c#.var label = newUILabel(newCGRect(0, 0, 200, 21));\n\nHow Xamarin makes native performance possible \n\nSolution: With Xamarin, apps leverage platform-specific hardware acceleration, and are compiled for native performance.This can’t be achieved with frameworks that interpret the code at runtime. It allows developers to access the native hardware-acceleration capabilities without any limitations.ConclusionBy guaranteeing a native UI, high-fidelity API access, and native performance—as Apple, Google and Microsoft do, it gives developers everything they need to deliver natives apps.“Xamarin exceeds the individual capabilities of these platform-specific vendors by enabling the efficiency, and time-to-market advantages of code-sharing and re-use across device platforms. This unique approach puts Xamarin in a class by itself.”\n\n\nfacebook clone xam consulting michael\n\nfacebook clone xam consulting michael\n\nXamarin is a very flexible tool that allows you to build beautiful and responsive apps. In order to demonstrate that, we take on some extra projects once in a while just for fun. See for yourself the native UI, responsiveness and flexibility in this Facebook Clone that Michael did with Xamarin.Forms. Without any custom renders, Michael used Xamarin.Forms's Grid for the post-layout translations. If you want to read the full tutorial including the other features, just click here.Keen to learn more about how Xamarin can help you build beautiful, responsive and user-friendly app? Get in touch.\n\nIf you’re interested in developing a successful App then get in touch, we’d love to chat.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.659375011920929}
+{"content": "Feb 262011\n\nThe traditional Monday meal is Red Beans and Rice. Monday was wash day. Wives needed a dish that would cook long and slow. Red Beans is the perfect dish. Women would have use whatever meat was leftover from Sunday’s meal, usually pork. In New Orleans, Red Beans are traditionally served with sausage, either smoked or andouille. But lots of restaurants offer it with other things, like fried pork chops. Try it one Monday or whichever day you do laundry.\n\nRed Beans & Rice\n1 pound dried Red Beans, rinsed and sorted over\n3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil\n¼ Cup Chopped Tasso or Chopped Ham\n1 ½ Cups Chopped Onions\n¾ Cup Chopped Celery\n½ Teaspoon Salt\n½ Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper\n2 Bay Leaves\n2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Parsley\n1 Tablespoon Dried Thyme\n11/2 Pounds Smoked Sausage, cut into 1” pieces\n3 Tablespoons Chopped Garlic\n10 cups Chicken Stock or Broth\n4 cups Cooked White Rice\nPlace the beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with water by 2 inches. Let soak for at least 8 hours. Drain and set aside. In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the tasso and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the onions and celery to the pot. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft, about 4 minutes. Add the bay leaves, parsley, thyme, and sausage, and cook, stirring, to brown the sausage, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes. Add the beans and stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender and start to thicken, about two hour. (Should the beans become too thick and dry, add more stock, about ¼ cup at a time. Remove from heat and with the back of a heavy spoon, mash about ¼ of the beans against the side of the pot. Continue to cook until the beans are tender and creamy, 15-20 minutes. Serve over rice, removing the bay leaves.\n\n\n\n\n  2 Responses to “Red Beans and Rice”\n\n  1. I was taught that the soak water should be brought to a boil then the washed beans put in the hot water, not just room temperature water.\n\n    Also I heard a chef once say to not salt beans until done, or else they won’t cream right. Have you heard of these tips? Also I try to only use Camillia brand\n\n  2. I have heard of those tips. Red Beans are one of those dishes which they is no way to cook them really wrong. Camillia is by brand of choice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7688735723495483}
+{"content": "+ A\n\n2019.09.10 Cartoon\n\nSept 10,2019\nPresident Moon Jae-in formally appoints Cho Kuk as justice minister Monday despite allegations of admissions fraud by Cho’s daughter and his family’s dubious investments, both of which prosecutors are investigating. Moon pronounced in his inaugural speech, “opportunity will be equal, process will be fair and the result will be just.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9824622869491577}
+{"content": "Unconventional gas in Victoria: proceed with care\n\nUnlike Queensland, it’s very unlikely there will be fracking for coal seam gas in Victoria. Simon Townsley, QGC AUSTRALIA\n\nWhile New South Wales and Queensland have moved to exploit unconventional gas resources, Victoria maintains a ban on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for onshore shale gas and coal seam gas (CSG).\n\nThose against are concerned at the potential for adverse impacts on the environment; those in favour argue it will be a valuable new source of gas.\n\nRecent moves in the Victorian government to prioritise mining suggest that unconventional gas could soon get the green light. But how much unconventional gas is in Victoria, and what might be the impacts?\n\nA recent review from the Australian Council of Learned Academies sheds light on these questions.\n\nHow much unconventional gas in Victoria?\n\nIn the past Victoria has produced large quantities of conventional gas (gas trapped in deep, permeable sandstones). Most of this has been produced offshore in Bass Strait. Victoria has benefited greatly from this resource economically, but production is now decreasing. Victoria has also produced small amounts of conventional gas onshore in the Otway Basin.\n\nWe know there is some CSG, and it is likely there is also shale gas. Our report provides an estimate of reserves of 9 trillion cubic feet of shale gas resources in the Otway Basin. This is a lot of gas — sufficient to meet all of Victoria’s current gas needs for thirty years.\n\nBut there are great uncertainties attached to such numbers. It is only by drilling and carefully assessing the data that such uncertainties can be removed. So for the moment we really do not know if there any commercially significant shale gas (or CSG) deposits whatsoever in Victoria, but the rocks appear to be favourable.\n\nWhat are the likely impacts?\n\nThere is no question that some early shale gas developments in the US extended over large and produced significant environmental impacts. These included surface disturbance, destruction and fragmentation, and loss of habitats and ecological communities.\n\nBut drilling technologies have greatly improved in recent years, and much of these impacts can be avoided.\n\nAnother concern for unconventional gas is groundwater. Producing shale gas and CSG have different impacts on water resources. In general, extraction of shale gas does not require extraction of large amounts of groundwater as is the case with many CSG deposits. But risks to groundwater can arise from drilling through aquifers, from spillage or injection of fracking fluids, or from well failures.\n\nThe ACOLA review suggest the risk of these accidents is small, and that the industry is very familiar with managing these risks. But Victoria will need an enforced regulatory regime.\n\nWhat about fracking?\n\nThe word fracking appears to have become a highly emotive word for many people. But it is a process that has been used for many years by the oil and gas industry around the world, including in offshore Victorian basins, to stimulate oil or gas production from low permeability sands.\n\nAll shales have to be fracked to produce gas (or oil), which involves injecting fluids (primarily water and sand) at high pressure into “tight” rocks to produce fractures extending tens to hundreds of meters into the shale, so that the gas (or oil) can then flow into the production well.\n\nConcerns include the potential for contamination of aquifers, or excessive use of water for fracking, or the potential for generating small seismic events (mini “earthquakes” that are too small to feel but which can be detected using sensitive instruments).\n\nThere are very few cases where seismicity can be related to fracking, despite the fact that there are thousands of fracks carried out every year, particularly in North America. Nonetheless we need clear protocols to be in place for hydraulic fracturing and for thorough investigations of any existing faults, before any fracking is carried out. This needs to be backed up by rules on monitoring, including the requirement to cease operations, if there is any evidence of increased microseismic events.\n\nOur review did not consider CSG in any detail, so let me make some personal observations. The CSG deposits in Victoria are associated with geologically young brown coals. They are very different to the Queensland and NSW deposits and we do not really know how much CSG is present or can be extracted.\n\nNew approaches and perhaps new technologies will be needed if Victoria’s CSG deposits are to be commercially exploited and as in shale gas there will be a need for effective transparent regulations particularly on groundwater, but it is very unlikely indeed there will be any fracking of Victorian coals.\n\nUnconventional gas developments in Victoria and elsewhere will require careful management of any impacts, an informed and supportive community and transparent and effective regulations so that the state, and Australia, can benefit from a new energy option.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9475425481796265}
+{"content": "From his home office overlooking a park in Brussels, Belgium, Andre Bosmans does the work which has put him at the leading edge of additive manufacturing.\n\nBosmans, a jeweler with some 30 years of experience in his chosen field, designs and manufactures high-end pieces for a demanding and exclusive clientele used to having things the way they want them – and when they want them.\n\nThe 53 year-old Bosmans studied for a year (with the intention of becoming an architect) at L'École de la Cambre, the renowned Belgian architecture and visual arts school. A course correction led him to deciding on a career as a horologist.\n\nSo in 1983, Bosmans founded his independent jewelry company, Bosmans. The firm specialized in bespoke fine jewelry design and production. Bosmans' wife, a goldsmith by trade, joined him in the company, and that union allowed them to design and manufacture all of their pieces in house.\n\nAt the beginning of their venture, and mostly out of necessity, the prototyping of their work was outsourced. That posed a problem. Many of Bosmans' clients insist on strict confidentiality regarding their purchases.\n\nBosmans needed to find a way to balance that need for secrecy with a concurrent need for a fast, accurate and cost-effective way to do his product development process. As a designer of fine jewelry, Bosmans had been introduced to creating with 3D software such as Modo 601, T-Splines and Zbrush, but it was when it came to showing his clients designs and renderings using those software packages where another problem arose. His clients wanted to actually hold and wear prototypes of the designs before they were finally made.\n\nTo that end, Bosmans began to create 3D printed models to aid him in giving customers instant gratification and speed the approval of designs. That solution served a double purpose as high-quality 3D printed \"masters\" were also required to complete the casting of the final products.\n\nGiven how far he'd already come, and the nature of his clientele, it simply wouldn't do to outsource his 3D printing work through partner companies going forward.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8166157007217407}
+{"content": "\"Kentucky is a very similar track to Texas Motor Speedway, where we saw some good speed in our No. 38 Ford Mustang earlier this year. We'll be able to use a lot of our notes from there and apply it to this weekend to get an even better result. It's hard to be able to race outside of the groove at Kentucky, so hopefully we'll be able to see multiple lanes open up in the later part of the race with the PJ1 compound. It's really neat to have Long John Silver's and their \"Fish Yeah\" campaign back on an FRM car this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the No. 38 flying the blue and yellow colors on track for a Saturday night race.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.922052264213562}
+{"content": "Rants, Raves And Reviews\n\nException is a fast paced action platformer where the goal is to reach the end of the level as fast as possible to compete on steam leaderboards, however it’s not quite as simple as that as there are a few twists involved, and I don’t just mean the fact that the levels can both rotate and reconfigure as you progress through them to make life more difficult both across 2D planes but also on a third dimensional rotation making levels interesting in a whole new aspect.\n\nThe twists in the levels involve mastering achievements which provide chunks of time reductions from your total score and discovering the best path using these techniques in order to get the shorted possible final time after deductions, and while many of the levels are cleverly designed to incorporate paths where you can destroy the objects in the world and the enemies on the way gathering scores for combo attacks, not getting hit or hitting “allies” along the way this doesn’t mean that taking shortcuts through a level to the exit might not be the faster route.\n\nAlong the way you unlock new powers which help you along your way to gaining better scores and faster times as well as making life easier as you progress through the levels and these powers can be upgraded further by collecting bytes which are scattered around the game often in out of the way locations adding additional challenges to the game.\n\nAesthetically the game follows a tron like neon colourful style as the universe revolves within an electronic universe within the computer of an old lady who has inadvertently installed a virus on her computer, and this has created changes within the universe which leads to the plot of the game, and you unlock a further memory of the storyline every world you complete as though you’re uncorrupting the data and memories of what has passed.\n\nThere are 16 worlds each with 10 levels most of which have an end game boss with a new challenge to uncover and defeat in order to progress further, and as you progress into later worlds more challenges are added to the levels along with more enemies gradually making the game harder to progress through and especially harder to get the best times on the leaderboards, this progression means that the game doesn’t feel like you’re doing the same things over and over as new challenges are added to master and harder to traverse platforming challenges are added.\n\nI particularly like the uniqueness of the challenges on offer, with rotational teleporting and often twisting on the 3d plane of the levels creating a unique experience for a challenging action platformer, and the levels are challenging enough without being too diffiuclt that you feel an achievement in defeating the levels and if you’re able to pull off a path that incorporates taking down the enemies and hazards of the level and get a good position on the leaderboard it adds a real sense of achievement.\n\nYou will experience many hours of gameplay with worlds taking 20-30 minutes to progress through and even more gameplay on offer through hunting down missed bytes as well as the challenge of mastering levels to provide better leaderboard scores for those who desire to be the best at levels, and considering you have to master the balance between speed and achievements which provide bonus deductions on your time this is a more challenging prospect than simply running through the level as fast as possible which creates a more intricate and challenging time and adds to the replayability in order to master these levels fully.\n\nConsidering the game is £12 at release this is a very reasonable price as you’re going to get many hours of gameplay through simply playing through to completion and you’ll feel challeneged throughout as the game increases the difficulty on you, along with unlocking a narrative storyline along the way which is pretty interesting as a reward for progression. I feel like this is a worthy addition to the genre and offers more than just another action platformer with it’s unique features bringing plenty of additional challenge for true mastery as well as an interesting visual nature as the world twists and rotates around you while you play making your skills look even more spectacular as you navigate platforming challenges which weren’t initially visible on another dimension the instant the world rotates around you.\n\nGet Exception for yourself on steam now at\n\nAnodyne 2 heralds the return of anodyne bringing things to a new dimension quite literally as this time you explore a 3d realm in the overworld, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t stay true to it’s roots however as the 2d realms still exist, essentially in self contained dungeons as you have to enter people within the 3d realm inside their own nanoverse to clear the dust from inside of them in the 2d realms.\n\nThe plot itself follows the story of nano cleaner nova, born into the world by the center’s will to be sent into individuals in order to extract dust crystals from them which have formed in their subconscious as a result of fixation and obsession over desires manifesting within them, and by cleaning out these nova receives cards transformed from the dust by the glandilock seed within her. A lifelong companion visible at the side of the screen at all times, only coming awake in the presence of such dust clusters and perhaps getting a little too excited at their collection.\n\nThese cards along with collected dust are channelled into a prism in the center in order to ward off duststorms in the overworld and expand the center’s control and influence over the world. A clever way of gating off progress within the game through the overworld but also being used as a clever narrative device limiting the progress you can make through the world in order to keep you to smaller and more straightforward nanoverses until you’ve progressed through a certain point of the game.\n\nThe gameplay arc follows exploration through the 3D world interacting with the people around and discovering more about the world of new theland, whereas most of the puzzles and gameplay will takeplace in the 2d nanoverses within characters in the world, mostly in self contained dungeons so to speak within these people and whilst this limits the number of secrets there are to discover or ways to break the world which may be expected by people who played the original anodyne it helps with the storytelling as these subuniverses are glimpses into the subconscious of the individual and tell their own particular story whilst you’re in their internal world.\n\nEvery transition to the nanoverse involves defeating a rhythm based game matching the colour and direction of the incoming dust crystals, however I felt that I would have liked there to be more progress through defeating bosses in some stronger dust infestations and the like, where the only real sense of strong combat came in the form of two keys shooting love at each other later, or a wrestling battle system within it’s self contained dustverse other than the final boss itself, and this could have easily been incorporated in the form of inner demons and the like to match the lore being told by the game.\n\nI liked that although they didn’t have the ability to truly break the game with mechanics to abuse that some forms of things being not quite right with the world existed throughout and that in particular there was a very broken NPC in the desert who took you to a special 2d/3d hybrid universe in it’s own spacetime and perhaps reality itself if you imagine that there was a greater universe at large furtherstill outside of the game boundaries, and that the game devs themselves still have a way of communicating to you the player directly in some aspects of the game; though I did find myself missing any way to truly break outside of the game into the minus realm or shadow realities outside of the intended game universe and find hidden secrets like the relics found in the out of bounds area’s of the first game for those who looked hard enough.\n\nThat being said that although these elements aren’t incorporated in the game even though such breaking mechanics and out of bounds unusual things do exist in 3d games of old and could have made a great addition to the game this doesn’t take away from the fact that the game is still really good and has a very gripping and interesting plot, ultimately giving you a choice in path’s at a divergent point, and also has many nods to the original game both in the characters but also locations (and even the boss battles) which may even hint that this could be a prequel with events as they unfold within the game, and whilst I originally thought that the addition of the nexus universe in 2d was also just an easter egg this actually becomes part of a larger 2d universe you are able to explore within the game and also granting you access to shrink further still into the picoverse.\n\nAlthough the picoverse is very straightforward and cleverly matches styles with the commodore 64 era of 8 bit games and although larger more open world area’s of the nanoverse exist within the nexus realms this still doesn’t seem to provide any out of bounds access or special area’s of that nature or even further dungeons within dungeons of the overworld of the original game, though there is a clever taunt when you first enter asking why you’ve taken so long to reach this point as essentially it would have been the start of the game in anodyne, it’s quite far into anodyne 2 and the nexus keeper presumes you must’ve idled on the title screen perhaps for steam card drops (though he doesn’t directly make that reference I know people who do idle on titles for such before ever going to play a game)\n\nPlotlines exist between many of the realms of the game piecing together a greater storyline as to what is going on even though each universe is it’s self contained environment, and a greater storyline of being more than just your being and how life is more about the friends and experiences you make along the way rather than simply being your job or a tool, and even further story similarities can be glimpsed without spoiling too much of the plot as these are things you will want to explore and discover yourself on your own journey through the game, because it’s all about the fun you have on the way not just what the game is.\n\nThere aren’t any awkward platforming challenges in the 3d universe and the puzzles are fairly easy to pick up and understand, and there are at least 9 hours to play through the game to a basic ending with a full completion one taking even more than that still, and although I would like there to be the super secret out of bounds out of storyline stuff, or some references to the artifacts of the first game existing within the 3D realms the game is it’s own entity and still a very fun and enjoyable experience. I would have liked perhaps a little more enemy variety as I feel they’ve toned down the number of different enemies and methods of progression from the first game but still this can be forgiven due to the nature of limiting the universes into their own entities and maintaining a separate 3d overworld, and whilst the bosses were battles you may have already fought in the first game in slightly different guises the nature of the world and the way things are feels different enough to not be stale or overly familiar especially if it’s been a few years since you played the first anodyne.\n\nGet Anyodyne 2 for yourself on steam now at\nI would recommend getting the game if you get a chance, you’re going to have plenty of hours of gameplay and the puzzles and locations within the game do feel different enough to not feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over in each nanoverse which is remarkable considering the nature of the 2D universes themselves and the limited tools at hand, even in the 3D universe eeking out new content in just the right times and perhaps even hinting that they’re adding the content to give you a greater experience and more reasons to re-explore in order to keep it fresh. Pacing these changes out at just the right times to leave you with a fresh sense of wonder exploring the worlds at large. (or nanoscale)\n\nThe green man gaming summer sale is on now until august 7th and has up to 90% off along with the opportunity to get up to 5 free games which means there are some serious bargains to be had, however the nature of the giveaway can be a little confusing as the tiered games to purchase have a free game given away on a separate list so it’s not like buy one get one free within those tiers, and the silver and gold tiers come with an intel starter pack with a choice of 4 out of 10 available games for free so it’s worth knowing exactly what you can get with your purchase when making your mind up, on top of this any purchase made gains an entry into a giveaway with a grand prize of a INTEL® NUC KIT NUC8I7HVK gaming pc and a game bundle of 3 top titles to go along with it.\n\nHow Do The Free Titles Work?\n\nMaking a purchase from a specific band gives you a code to redeem off a specific list associated with that particular band, and all gold and silver tier purchases also receive a master key to redeem against an intel starter pack, where prizes can vary as raw data has already expired and been replaced from the list by another title\n\n  • Buying a game tagged Gold gives you a free game off the gold gift list as well as a 15% off voucher code to spend in the summer sale and an intel starter pack master key to claim 4 free games out of a choice of 10\n  • Buying a game tagged Silver gives you a free game off the silver tier list, as well as a 10% off voucher code to spend in the summer sale and an intel starter pack master key to claim 4 free games out of a choice of 10\n  • Buying a game tagged Bronze gives you a free game off the bronze tier list as well as a 7% off voucher code to spend in the summer sale.\n\nAs well as this every purchase made giving you one entry to potentially win a new gaming pc on top of the already significant savings means there is plenty to tempt you available on the site and some serious bargains to be had that it can be pretty hard to find something you might want to grab from the sale, even if it isn’t buy one get one free on the same tiered lists there are some pretty good titles on both the redeemable prize pages directly on gmg but also through the intel prize pack.\n\nWhat is available within the intel prize pack?\n\nThough this list is subject to change as there’s already been a replacement within it, the prizes at time of print are\n1. There Came an Echo\n2. Star Wars™ Pinball (3 dlc’s)\n3. Gas Guzzlers Extreme\n4. GoatPunks\n5. Raw Data (no longer available unfortunately replaced by) archangel hellfire fully loaded dlc (f2p pack)\n6. Star Trek™: Bridge Crew\n7. TERA: WinterWing Starter Pack (f2p pack)\n8. Dreadnought (f2p pack)\n9. AdVenture Capitalist – Savvy Investor Bundle (f2p pack)\n10. Star Trek Online (f2p pack)\n\nWith all of this choice it may be a little hard deciding what you want to get, and while a couple of purchases on the bronze and silver lists will get you most things off the intel starter pack and reduce the value of extra free games in purchases the deals are still pretty good regardless. To help you narrow down some of the good bargains to be had during the sale I’m going to recommend some of my top picks from each category.\n\nWhat are my top picks and bargains from the sale?\n\nIn the gold tier my personal choices are prey (which I picked up myself) and metal gear rising revengeance both of which have some pretty big discounts and are really good games as well as being rather cheap so you can get the maximum bargain with the intel pack and free game on top of these big bargains.\n\nOn the silver tier list my recommendations are dead rising 3 and borderlands the handsome collection bundle which at 91% off is a large bargain alone without getting the 5 free games along with it.\n\nMy bronze tier suggestions are rather difficult as there’s just so many to choose from, but Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition is one of the many bargains available at 80% off, and with so many other choices at £1 you can get some pretty good bargain games from this sale.\n\nThis is just the latest in many sales on the site, and they’re always doing great giveaways and competitions as well as the wheel of mystery and more competitions and other fun things in the forum there’s plenty of reasons to check out the site even if you’re unable to grab anything from this sale another will come along in no time, as well as some of the ever changing game bundles they have available for huge discounts\n\nCheck out the green man gaming summer sale for yourself at\n\nThe current war is a biopic drama following the life of Thomas Edison around the time of the spread of the new invention of electricity across America, and how the battle with Westinghouse begins over who can establish dominance across the land as to who’s electricity is best ultimately ending with the war over who gets to build their idea’s into the world of tomorrow presentation.\n\nIt’s an interesting insight into the mind’s of Edison and the others as to what motivates them and how their interactions with each other helped drive the path forward to the modern world we live in today, and it’s interesting to wonder what might be different had Edison not have snubbed Westinghouse driving his train past him at the station ignoring his dinner invite, as this triggered Westinghouse to begin his quest to take down Edison and provide a cheaper and more efficient dispersal system, which is ironic because Edison didn’t want to talk to him because he believed he was trying to steal his invention, where it is later revealed he only wanted to know what it was like and how he felt at that moment inventing something new and never before imagined.\n\nThe drama remains high throughout both with events unfolding in edisons private and personal life as his wife becomes ill but also with the constant battles over who claims which territory of America as the sole supplier of electricity. While this isn’t usually a movie I would go see I remained gripped and interested throughout the movie as events unfolded and evolved the nature of the race to both supply electricity to the nation, but also the interpersonal natures of the characters and seeing their motivations and drives which lead them to never give up despite the hardships entailed on both ends.\n\nNicola tesla plays a small but very pivotal role in the movie and clearly deserves greater recognition than he ever gained in life as he came up with idea’s both ahead of their time but also the pivotal piece of technology which allowed Westinghouse and AC to become viable and run machines and not just lightbulbs. He started out being hired by Edison, who actively refused to work with AC believing it to be dangerous, and was promised a huge $50,000 bonus in the event of doing something monumental however when it comes time to claim such a prize Edison laughst it off as joking leading him to go off on his own, and lacking the money or fame the other characters have and being an immigrant he’s quickly taken advantage of yet again losing both his patents and his company in the process.\n\nIn the end tesla has a meeting with Westinghouse who’s desperate for his designs of a transformer that allows his AC current to work on machinery, without which his company would fail and ultimately Edison would win, however seeing deficiencies and desperation in tesla he makes grand false promises which take advantage of tesla yet again, where the movie reveals he dies without fortune or family never having been able to turn his idea’s profitable which I feel is a real shame because he should have reaped the rewards for his inventions without which AC would never have been viable, and the movie does end a little abruptly without following this plot to it’s terminus, but ultimately where do you draw the line on the path of electricity across the nation, ending with the world of tomorrow battle being won is a good as place as any.\n\nWhile I wouldn’t've chosen to go watch the movie with what I’ve seen I was gripped and entertained throughout and learnt new things both about the struggles of establishing electricity but also the mindsets of the inventors and their motivations which drove them as well as the sacrifices they made in order to be successful. Whilst it’s a very narrow audience who may be interested in this movie I think it’s a worthwhile watch, and if you don’t go see it at the cinema I would definitely suggest you take the opportunity to watch it on TV when it inevitably airs as you will be entertained and there are quire a few twists and turns along the way keeping up the drama throughout.\n\nKillsquad is a twin stick shooter mixed with elements from a variety of genre’s from novarama, and while the game at it’s core remains true to the twin stick shooter experience adding levelling elements similar to moba’s unique to each mission along with the variety in both the level and enemy design as well as the variations in the way all of the heroes play make this a highly polished experience and a game that stands out above others in the genre. Offering a choice of single player or online multiplayer up to 4 player co-op action without throwing overwhelming waves of enemies at you whilst keeping it fun and challenging.\n\nThe game has been released today in early access with a roadmap ahead for future plans and expansions, but they wish to see what the community would like and build the game towards what players would like to see as well as fix those elements which don’t work for players and this is a good way of designing the game going forward to ensure the community get the experience they would like from the game. Even saying this the game as it stands seems a very polished experience and while there are a couple of bugs like breaking animations or causing enemies to lose agro if you do specific things (and really actively refuse to fight you) these bugs are expected in early access and bringing them up helps ensure they won’t be an issue going forward.\n\nAt present there are 3 main area’s in the game each with their own feel and experience all being very different, and although the enemies are varients of bigger waves of enemies coming in for melee combat and differing long range enemies as well as a few special ones unique to each area the way they do things does feel different enough, and they all look like they belong in their zones where many other games of the genre would simply throw the same enemy at you in each area rather than having the unique variants designed to fit the area.\n\nThe zones themselves offer a significant degree of variety beyond simply aesthetics with the factory area offering zones which traverse between rooms rather than simply being sidescrolling as well as incorporating mazelike stairway sections, and it is inhabited by a variety of mechanised enemies who feel like they belong in the factory zone, where the open world zones have fleshy inhabitants that look like they belong in those zones, with cave spiders inhabiting a crystalline landscape full of crevasses and bridges along with natural disasters occurring in the zone and the final zone currently in early access being a deserted wasteland with flying prawns and other wildlife.\n\nThere are a number of touches which have been given to the game which normally get neglected such as background elements making the world feel alive from flocks of birds flying by, to machinery working along in the factory area’s. This along with the level of detail put into the animations and mechanics for all of the skills which do vary greatly from each individual character to make sure that they play very differently to each other despite being two shooting and two melee classes they all feel and play very differently to each other.\n\nMany games of this nature would often have a purely cosmetic difference between characters, but you can see the effort made to ensure the heroes play differently, starting with one of the shooting characters having a selection of skills and upgrades which revolve around marking the enemies with your primary weapon to trigger skills on them later, which plays very differently to the other projectile character who fires a ghostbusters style laser beam and fires huge plasma balls as well as providing health kits on demand for any character to use to heal. The two melee classes also play very differently due to one being very fragile with skills designed for dodging and avoiding enemies, whilst the other gains armour for hitting enemies and rewards remaining up close in the combat as well as having an option for an ultimate which provides momentarily invulnerability for the team.\n\nEvery run is different starting fresh with a basic hero and levelling up in a mobaesque fashion from a choice of options to tailor the run to what you require for that specific level based upon your team and the dangers you are facing. Providing a variety of choices for level up progression from synergies that will be unique to your hero or skills that may benefit a larger team, it’s down to you to create a build that works for you in that current moment, and as missions are fairly short levelling and progression happens quite rapidly. The choice comes to whether to explore for more enemies and more experience to make the boss easy or rush down the objective to get the rewards quicker.\n\nA roadmap for expansions has been set out showing that new area’s are planned and being designed as well as extra playable characters, and new factions which may be new enemy types or even lead to further levels and layouts designed around them and this along with the fact that they are planning on expanding based on feedback from players as the game develops shows that they are putting a lot of effort into this game to ensure that it is a very good experience. Even as it stands with only a few worlds it’s very obvious that a lot of care and effort has been put in to ensure the game doesn’t feel stagnant and all the heroes, completion tasks and area’s all feel very unique and offer a variety to keep the gameplay fresh which all adds up to the game being a very polished experience and worth the asking price.\n\nI look forward to seeing how the game progresses and what further developments will be coming out, and it would be really cool if they manage to have a huge roster of playable characters all feeling very unique in their styles and skills though I can understand this would be asking a lot especially as you can also change weapons and items on the characters for the missions, and perhaps further skill tree options would be fantastic to allow even greater customisation for runs though the game really doesn’t require any of this to be a very fun and playable experience worth the asking price.\n\nGet killsquad for yourself over on steam now at Currently in early access.\n\nAlso curated over at\n\nParty hard 2 is a casual game from pinokl games and tiny build where your mission is to eliminate noisy party members in order to get a decent nights sleep, except things might not be entirely as they seem as there is a plot behind the gameplay as well as a tonne of different objectives to achieve, through whatever means necessary from taking out specific targets to completely wiping out all inhabitants and witnesses in order to make your way through the game.\n\nThe difficulty of the game can vary depending on what challenges you want to undertake, and whilst most levels are fairly straightforward should you choose to take the easiest objectives others especially those that require stealth or have a vary collection of partygoers together which results in the police hunting you down can present a much more challenging time which will result in a number of attempts before you’re able to successfully complete the levels.\n\nThere are two very unique boss levels included in the game each with their own particular method to be defeated which isn’t overtly publicised for you but is laid out in a method for you to discover through experimentation in order to succeed and whilst proving challenging they’re not impossible to overcome and add variety to the levels as well as a sense of completion having a final boss in particular to defeat in order to complete the game. The final boss also has aspects which fit into the plotline as well as proving a unique problem to overcome which adds to the reasons the game has been well designed and thought-out rather than simply being a collection of levels and challenges to overcome as you do feel like you’re progressing forward with some purpose and some path and meaning to the levels you work your way through.\n\nEach level has a variety of tasks from the ones overtly shown to you through hidden secret objectives which you have to discover for yourself through experimentation or by completing certain tasks within the levels which unveil further tasks to perform within the levels, and there are four varieties of tasks which exist within the universe from the stealth and carnage paths to the mystic (secret objectives) and I forget what the other type is but attempting to fill or minimise these paths adds challenges you can choose to fulfil in your playthrough as well as playing with each of the 4 available characters to unlock all with their own playstyles and skills.\n\nWhile the playstyle is easy to pickup there’s plenty of nuance in the methods you choose to achieve the tasks through the use of items and in game props you can trigger in order to achieve your goals, along with simply dancing to avoid suspicion and detection (though not everyone will like your dance moves and this can lead to further trouble than you’re intending) The mix of challenge and variety of techniques you can choose to play through the game as well as the openness to play however you wish to play all adds to the fun and enjoyment of the game as you really are free to mess around and experiment and just have a good time with it, and if all goes wrong and the police are called it’s not all over until you’re caught and you’re free to go on a rampage whilst trying to run and hide through the specifically designed escape routes until the police inevitably giveup as things become more effort than they’re worth to capture you.\n\nI have 14 hours of gameplay across 14 levels each ranging in difficulty and challenge, note that however I only have a 50% completion and more difficult challenges as well as the newly added community created content and levels would vastly increase the playtime of the game, and as the game is very enjoyable it’s definitely a worthwhile and recommended purchase.\n\nGet party hard to for yourself on steam now at\n\nGame of thrones returned to our screens for the final season, where we would discover the final outcome of all of the events that had passed and whether life would win over the white walkers and just who would sit upon the iron throne as the dust settles at the end. However whilst the previous seasons had followed storylines established in the books this season was left up to the show writers to decide the fates and outcomes of our favourite characters, and as a result this has lead to a lot of controversy over the way things played out and how characters have acted in manners different to we have come to expect throughout the series’s lifetime.\n\nThe final season itself was only over 6 episodes where the previous seasons all had 10 episodes each filled with so much action and intrigue that it held everyone’s interest throughout the entire saga, filled with intricate plotlines and subplots as well as characters all acting with their own secret interests not so subtly hidden from viewers. I believe this was in part because the show writers didn’t want to introduce any new plotlines, but also because it was difficult for them to imagine how they could playout events as they were unfolding with character developments which had been occurring in the show, as a lot of these seem to have been ignored and thrown by the wayside, much as the episodes of the show seemed to simply put a wet cloth over everything and bring all of the events to as an abrupt end as possible just so there were no loose ends and they could consider the show closed and over.\n\nMany of the main characters which were left in the show had began to unveil specific changers which were apparent in their nature and demeanour changes on screen in the previous season which was unveiling a path towards certain outcomes, however in season 8 any character development seems to have been thrown out of the window as though a big reset button was hit leaving all of the characters returned to an earlier state of mind just so the show could draw to a close without creating further plotlines or developments which could have lead to further episodes or seasons requiring filming.\n\nIn the final episode itself events were very unclimactic which was very disappointing for a show that had gained such a following for it’s spectacular action and highly intriguing plotlines, however things felt rather flat and dull as the events played out landing with as muffled an ending as daeneris dying softly and quietly in john snow’s arms. There seemed to be very little going on in the episode as daeneris began a speech in front of her armies (which had somehow risen from the dead after the battle with the white walkers where all of her dothraki forces and most of the unsullied were wiped out by the white walkers) and then john snow simply being allowed alone into daeneris’s chamber even though it was stated at this point she wouldn’t trust him and may want him dead as he’s a threat to her reign, yet allowed to simply assassinate her quietly. Other than this most of the episode revolved around cringe worthy politics and establishing how rule would be decided, even going as far as to having the most awkward scene where the show literally breaks the fourth wall and rubs dirt in the face of the book writer for not mentioning tyrion in the least in the first book. I realise this may be intended as a play to say an explanation for why he’s not in the books but really it comes across as an unnecessary dig at the book writer, which after the terrible writing and plot of this final season just leaves me feeling very awkward watching the show.\n\nThere are quite a few subtle character differences I would like to raise where I feel certain events seemed to be playing out towards which were completely ignored in this final season, often flipping personalities of characters entirely upon their heads. Starting with arya stark who in the last season had been acting out of character much like she was dead inside and simply there to fulfil her deathlist, and this seemed to play towards a plot where arya had been eliminated by the female many faced god servant and was simply fulfilling the bargain made with the many faced god to wipe out those on her deathlist, where ultimately it would be revealed that arya was just a face on the many faced god’s wall all along and her persona was being worn to fulfil this promise of servitude. Instead the show had her return to a more carefree state wishing to explore and become more human again, with a seemingly pointless sex scene doing nothing other than reveal Maisie’s boobs to the world and doing nothing for plot or character development in the show.\n\nAnother character who had made significant progress in their personality arc throughout the show was Jamie Lannister who had discovered essentially his soul as he had fallen for brianne of tarth, and had changed everything he did in his quest to ensure that she was kept safe and alive, even trying to manipulate his sister into sending her forces north to protect winterfell against the armies of the undead, and through sleeping with her he was hoping to manipulate her to desire to keep him alive, and he was working with the idea that having the armies of the capital there brianne’s chances of survival increased, however in this season whilst there are still redeeming moments like him knighting her, he simply reverts to “I’m just an arsehole” and rides off to save his sister and run away with her which doesn’t seem to fit in with how things play out in this show.\n\nDaeneris herself was twisted to be an evil dictator rather than the true ruler of the 7 kingdoms which had been the entire story arc of the show to date, and a lot of her actions within the show this season were very questionable in my opinion. I realise they had to follow this path in order for her not to be ultimate ruler over the seven kingdoms, however it feels that simply they have done this in order for the least likely potential candidate to be the one who ends up ruler of the kingdoms, almost to the degree that it feels someone has placed bets on the longshot and thrown the fight in order to make a lot of money on a rigged gamble. Even her final scene just seems so anti climactic like a puff of smoke as a matchstick is extinguished, which isn’t how such a pivotal character deserves to go out in the finale of the show.\n\nWhile there are a number of other things that don’t fit with the show’s established lore like her advisor who was destined to betray the one true ruler of the seven kingdoms and be reunited with his testicles in a magical manner he ends up simply being eliminated for betraying daeneris who turns out not to be the true ruler of the seven kingdoms, as established bloodlines would make that john snow but neither ends up on the iron throne anyway, especially as the throne itself gets melted symbolically during a scene in the finale. They did do some things right like arya fulfilling her prophecy to eliminate many white walkers and at least that got fulfilled in what seemed to be correct, which maybe makes it worse as some established lore and prophecies are followed whilst others are twisted or ignored in a show that’s always had this magical lore as an underlying backbone to it’s story.\n\nI feel that the final season has been very disappointing overall and hasn’t fit in with the rest of the show in the slightest, however this could work out very favourably for the written works of game of thrones, as many may turn to purchase the books in order to discover how the plot actually plays out and how the show was destined to truly end. I understand that the show wanted to hold it’s momentum and finish off the series having already delayed a whole year for the final season as it was, however I would have preferred to wait until the books were written and released and had the show follow the ultimate true storyline and watch the true ending of the show. I doubt that the show writers would ever return to remake the show should the books plotlines differ vastly from how the show did end, however I’m sure that there will be many people who would wish it to be so especially as many are already petitioning for the final season to be changed and how much disappointment there is all over social media at present.\n\nGame of thrones has been a show I have enjoyed through it’s lifetime from having watched the first 6 seasons on binge 10 hours a day before season 7, then having been hooked since, and everything but the final season has been of a vastly greater quality which is probably why so many people are disappointed and raising all of the issues they’ve had with the final season because it just doesn’t live up to the rest of the show’s history, and the finale especially being filled with so much politics and drivel rather than being a true climactic ending with a satisfying outcome is why I feel the show just ended with a fizzle rather than the dragons fire it had held throughout the rest of it’s lifetime.\n\nClocker is a puzzle game set in two universes essentially as after receiving a mysterious broken watch to repair a father jumps to save his daughters life further breaking the watch and as a result both knocking himself out of time but also his daughter into a completely separate and phased timestream, and as a result of this puzzles must be solved in order to progress through the game through the manipulation of individuals by simply playing out and rewinding their timestreams causing interactions with the objects and individuals around them being altered by events as they currently stand. Furthermore these events continue to playout after solving the puzzles in the daughters timeframe where time passes as normal in close proximity to her, but passes slower the further away from her it gets in a doppler like effect.\n\nThe puzzle element of the game involves rewinding and fast forwarding the individual timestreams of individuals one at a time in order to create an outcome in the world that allows you to traverse to missing pieces of the clock which have been scattered around the world while you are stuck in a dome like structure unable to progress outside of a very narrow part of the city, and through solving these puzzles and collecting all of the pieces you’re able to progress to the next area. There are a number of puzzles in each zone which require solving and whilst your actions may appear limited it’s rather surprising how much of a difference things can make by having certain events playout in a slightly different order or position.\n\nThe interactions are said to have some very complex AI mechanics behind them and this is apparent due to the fact that not only must interactions between all of the elements be recognised within the dads timeframe in order to solve the puzzles, but also the effects of time passing in the daughters timestream afterwards as time continues to progress is rather difficult to picture as time continues passing onwards, and characters and events passing by depending on who encounters what and how fast things are travelling is a requirement in order to ensure things progress as you hope they will in her timestream.\n\nThere were at the time of my review being recorded only 3 area’s to the game, and there was around 2 hours of gameplay for me from beginning to “end” however this is a single playthrough without fulfilling the true ending which is clearly designed to be returned through and play out other outcomes and investigate thoroughly in order to find the solution for a true ending. On top of this they have also since added additional content to the game since my playthrough so actual playtime may vary especially if you have a more difficult time than me in solving some of the puzzles which is easily possible. The third area however was essentially a prologue and there was little to it at the time of my review, I know they’ve published changelogs showing additional content since so who can confirm how much there is should more content be added again, but saying that playing through different solutions and trying to gain the true ending would add even further gameplay time to the game.\n\nThe story and narrative of the game were very fun and entertaining and the puzzles presented a challenge in solving and took more thought than a cursory glance in order to achieve so I would recommend a purchase especially as the mechanics and interactivity between both time universes in order to solve the puzzles provides an interesting and unique problem solving nature you’d struggle to find elsewhere and as a result I think the game is definitely worth purchasing and playing through.\n\nGet clocker for yourself on steam now at\n\nBooksmart is a coming of age comedy movie revolving around the exploits of two American high school girls coming to the end of their final year having dedicated their entire lives to studying and furthering their path forward to their dream careers ahead of them. Whilst the film opens up with some highly caricatured stereotypes from the overtly rich daddy’s boy to the significantly overdramatic gay guys in drama club, and though this might seem a little over the top you will realise later into the movie why certain individuals have been portrayed in these ways for the sake of the unveiling comedy ahead.\n\nThe film blossoms once the main character overhears other students slagging her off for dedicating her life to her studies which causes her to attempt to rub it in their faces that she’s going off to yale while they’re going to have terrible futures ahead of them (which lets face it as millennials the struggles are real) However it turns out that not only is one of them also going to yale but they all have bright futures ahead, including the seemingly dimmest who’s been hired by google due to his specialist skills, and causes her to have a breakdown and start asking literally everyone in the school and it turns out everyone has lived a full life of partying but also managed to study so well that they’re also all going to fantastic and renowned colleges and universities as well.\n\nAs a result of hearing this the lead character decides to make changes, and whilst the camera angle and cinematography suggest she’s going to become a serial killer and have a psychotic break the movie takes a more comedic turn following previously successful movies such as dude where’s my car, Harold & Kumar as well as even the hangover all of which follow a formulaic structure of a single night of calamity moving from one event to the next as everything doesn’t quite go to plan but leads to the hilarity resulting from the misadventures.\n\nWithout spoiling the movie essentially the plot follows the two girls as they attempt to make their way to the graduation party all of the students are posting clips having fun at, determined to live the full experience and have some significant memorable event and having been to a party before graduating to make up for having neglected that part of their lives in favour of their studies and gained nothing extra out of the sacrifice, and whilst they think they’re heading to the big party they end up going from one minor party to another through misunderstandings and people wanting them at their party rather than the main one.\n\nThere are plenty of laughs to be had throughout the series of calamities which unfold as well as a few emotional moments towards the end as the jokes build up and escalate as the girls make their disastrous night one to be remembered and cherished, and at the end of the movie you feel that everyone is a more rounded filled out character beyond their caricatures, and I had a good time laughing out loud at several points throughout the movie, and feeling emotional towards some of the events towards the end of the movie even if they were obvious to spot coming and as a result I would recommend going to see the movie if you’re looking to be entertained and have a good laugh. There are some adult jokes and adult natures (well a fair few) but that’s what you have to expect in a coming of age sort of movie right? Either way the comedy vibed well with me and I would recommend going to see it when the movie comes out near you.\n\nFind out more details about booksmart at\n\nLucius 3 is the final part of the movie inspired horror adventure trilogy where Lucius has to return to his home island to fulfil 7 prophecies in order to open the gateway to hell and potentially bring an end to the world. Featuring an open world layout it’s up to you to explore the world and try to piece together the clues from the scroll in order to enact specific pre-ordained acts of violence against people in order to bring forth the four horsemen of the apocalypse.\n\nWhilst the open world nature adds more freedom to explore the world there are a few issues that result from the way things are done, as whilst some games like the old silent hill games would lock off area’s with finding specific keys prompting you to return to specific area’s this game relies upon activating specific cutscenes and triggers in order to allow access to certain area’s prompting that you’re not allowed to enter yet if you try to go to key area’s too soon. Whilst this prevents solving certain puzzles early it does create issues that mean if you hear one trigger hint and go to a certain area before hitting another specific prompt you’re going to end up stuck pretty early on and presuming you’re locked out of doing a certain action to get into the mayors house, and this lead me to go on a wild adventure lost unable to progress for a long time in my gameplay.\n\nThis isn’t the worst thing that could happen however as there are a number of side plots you can pursue along the way if you go off the rails from the main track with special events to eliminate the townspeople in a variety of ways some of which add further nods to horror movies with easter eggs. I tried to avoid this on my playthrough though as there’s a big theme throughout the game where Gabriel is constantly telling you it’s not too late to turn things around and abandon the path of evil, so I was trying to make my playthrough a chaotic good playthrough (with some accidents happening) and embrace the side of light only taking out those who really were evil and deserved it.\n\nSpoilers, it’s hard not to go into a specific part of the game where later on events occur however I feel the spoiler is actually something that will free you up in your gameplay allowing you to go explore further and pursue the alternate elimination plots. Obviously I stated that I was trying to save as many of the townspeople as possible only pursuing those who deserved to be taken out, whilst accidentally flinging someone off a fort and perhaps ending someone’s life trying to open a portal to another dimension. The spoiler is that none of this matters, whilst I did seem to get a bug that jumped one of the prophecies straight into the church confrontation by wearing the white clothes too early (again from a clear hint in game to do so) there’s a scene where everyone in the town have decided they have to take you out in order to stop bad things happening in town.\n\nAt that point you’ve got to start literally vaporising everyone as they rush you down and whilst it’s an interesting minigame trying to catch out the people sneaking around the edges you do end up with regrets for deciding not to eliminate other people or pursue and search out those plotlines when you’ve been presented the opportunity. Taking them out would make this scene easier but that’s not the point, it’s the disappointment to miss out on all of the special scenes and sidelines that really hit you as you’re going to get a lot of enjoyment from pursuing those storylines and seeing all of the movie based easter eggs revolving around them.\n\nI focused on following the plotline directly after the initial problems caused by getting sidetracked, though I don’t think there’s much of an issue after the first incident and even after you move on through the chapters of the game you’re going to be fine to explore the island for additional plotlines is going to add a lot more length to the game as well as enjoyment, without effecting the outcome for the end of the game and the ultimate decision over good and evil.\n\nThe game took me around 7 hours to get through however you have to account for getting lost in the first act due to events being locked off from activation and then looking over them repeatedly, but balance that with rushing through the rest of the chapters you could get more playtime exploring and looking for all of the additional actions you can do throughout the game and for the price of the game you’re getting a decent horror narrative adventure with some interesting puzzle mechanics. Whilst I feel that some of the progress related boundaries can cause some issues they’re relatively minor and I did get a funny bug where all of the towns people started sinking through the ground into hell perhaps because I took too long or maybe because of finding some drugs in a bag in the game but these are easily overlooked and not majorly gamebreaking.\n\nIf you’re looking for a new adventure game and enjoy horror movies this is a pretty good game for you as it’s crammed with references from a number of classics as well as being an enjoyable game. I would recommend giving the game a try.\n\nGet Lucius 3 for yourself on steam now at", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5408952236175537}
+{"content": "The Last Word\n\nThe Last Word is a comedy that tries to tackle the often-debated issue of mortality and fear of being forgotten, but fails to achieve much until the end. Harriet Lauler (Shirley MacLaine) is a rich retired advertising executive, a control freak by definition, who is dissatisfied with everyone’s abilities (including her gynecologist) and, in consequence, ends up doing their job for them. While reading the newspaper’s obituary, after almost killing herself with meds and wine, the woman realises that her behaviour will be reflected in the way she is going to be portrayed in the piece that will be written after her death. She immediately decides to contact the writer of the obituary, Anne (Amanda Seyfried), a twenty-something woman who initially refuses Harriet’s demands. Eventually, she is convinced to contact a list of people from Harriet’s life in order to get notes of the qualities and achievements that she could high-light in the newspaper when the time comes. Unsurprisingly, almost everyone on the list, including a priest who just says multiple times “I hate her”, cannot seem to be able to find even one positive trait, a small exception being her ex-husband. Therefore, the first draft that Anne writes ends up being totally unsatisfying, and Harriet decides to do some research herself in order to determine what she needs to change in order to get the obituary she wants. After intense studying she reaches the conclusion that 1) the person needs to be loved by their family, 2) have been admired by co-workers, 3) have touched someone in a way, and 4) they had a wildcard attainment. This triggers a series of events that eventually bring the two women closer (but only after several clashes of course) and makes the film end on a very predictable and not quite satisfying note.\n\nThe two leads, however, manage to their job as well as they can in The Last Word, considering the plot line. Shirley MacLaine, now 83, a 6-time Academy nominee and with an enormous filmography behind her playing in Oscar nominated and winning movies such as The Turning Point (Herbert Ross, 1977) or Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), plays quite a stereotypical character as Harriet, an authoritative business woman that couldn’t manage to have both a career and a family life. As expected, she is difficult to get along with at the beginning, but ends up proving that there is something behind the hard shell. Amanda Seyfried’s character is not very original either, Anna being a talented writer stuck in an unsatisfying job with no real desire of changing anything in her life until Harriet becomes part of it. Her only purpose seems to be to serve as a support for Harriet’s journey, but doesn’t get too much of a character development herself as the audience does not seem to find out too much about her and her feelings and desires.\n\nThis dramatic comedy struggles to keep the audience engaged until the end, the character development and finale leaving the viewer thinking, like Harriet, that they probably could’ve done a better job themselves.\n\n★★ and a half.\n\nDiana Dumitrescu\n\nPlease follow and like us:\nWordpress Social Share Plugin powered by Ultimatelysocial", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7302588224411011}
+{"content": "Set up reminders for tasks and appointments\n\n\nWhen you create an activity task or appointment in Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can add a reminder for the activity. You can also add a reminder to an existing task or appointment.\n\n  1. Click Home > Common > Activities > All activities. On the Action Pane, in the New group, click Appointment or Task. Alternatively, on the All activities list page, select the task or appointment that you want to update. Then, on the Action Pane, in the Maintain group, click Edit.\n\n  2. In the Activities form, on the General FastTab, select the Reminder check box to add a reminder to the activity.\n\n  3. Select the date and enter the time that you want the reminder to occur. For example, you select the date of the activity and enter 11:15 for an appointment that starts at 11:30. Alternatively, you set the reminder for the day before the appointment.\n\n  4. If you are creating a new activity, enter the remaining information for the activity.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9641173481941223}
+{"content": "Find the word definition\n\n\nn. 1 (context inorganic compound uncountable English) ammonia, NH3.Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry. IUPAC Recommendations 2005. Connelly, Neil G. (ed.), Damhus, Ture (ed.) Hartshorn, R.M. and Hutton, A.T. The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005 [ISBN 0 85404 438 8] 2 (context inorganic chemistry English) Any saturated hydride of nitrogen having a general formula NnHn+2 such as hydrazine.\n\n\nAzanes are saturated hydronitrogens, which means that they consist only of hydrogen and nitrogen atoms and all bonds are single bonds. By definition, cycles are excluded, so that the azanes comprise a homologous series of inorganic compounds with the general chemical formula .\n\nEach nitrogen atom has three bonds (either N-H or N-N bonds), and each hydrogen atom is joined to a nitrogen atom (H-N bonds). A series of linked nitrogen atoms is known as the nitrogen skeleton or nitrogen backbone. The number of nitrogen atoms is used to define the size of the azane (e.g. N-azane).\n\nThe simplest possible azane (the parent molecule) is ammonia, . There is no limit to the number of nitrogen atoms that can be linked together, the only limitation being that the molecule is acyclic, is saturated, and is a hydronitrogen.\n\nAzanes are reactive and have significant biological activity. Azanes can be viewed as a more biologically active or reactive portion ( functional groups) of the molecule, which can be hung upon molecular trees.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7709084749221802}
+{"content": "The Best Deep Sea Sport Fishing In Kauai!\n\nIf deep sea fishing is on your list of things to do in Kauai Hawaii, take a minute to read about our fish policy:\n\nEating your catch is always a fun and delicious way to end a memorable day of fishing.  We are happy to provide each paying angler with enough fish for at least one or two meals.\n\nShared Charters:  On Shared Charters, the catch is dispersed between the four to six passengers. The amount of fish caught is relative to the amount of fish divided up between our guests.\n\nPrivate Charters: Private charters are also provided with enough fish for one to two meals for the members of the charter party.\n\nWe do not ship out fish to the Mainland and highly discourage freezing or keeping the fish in the refrigerator for more than 3 days.\n\nThe pelagic fish we catch are very delicate and have a relatively short shelf-life, becoming very fishy in taste if not eaten within the first couple days of being caught.\n\nIn the state of Hawaii, sport caught fish can be sold to restaurants, fish markets and wholesalers.  Any extra fish that is not cut for passengers is distributed out in this manner.  We also donate to churches on occasion and feed our family and friends but our customers always come first.\n\nOhana Fishing Charters\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8498616218566895}
+{"content": "Destinations in Singapore: Amazing Attractions At The Singapore River\n\nSingapore may get got the most pop attractions together with iconic landmarks inwards the percentage but in that location are places that non all people know or fifty-fifty visit. The Singapore River expanse is a pop house to hang out for Singaporeans peculiarly on weekend nights together with populace holidays. However, they rarely catch it during the solar daytime fifty-fifty though tourists beloved taking a stroll or getting on a lovely river cruise.\n\nAside from the landmarks inwards the area, in that location is then much the riverside has to offering to tourists together with locals alike. There are a lot of attractions together with activities that volition proceed yous occupied when yous get got your fourth dimension to explore this utilization of Singapore.\n\nThe Sculptures\nIf yous simply desire to stroll past times the riverside, don't forget to get got pictures of the sculptures along the way. Once yous taste taking photos, caput over to the Cavenagh Bridge. Get a glimpse of life past times the river inwards olden days when children exuberantly jumps into the river or merchants engaged inwards trade.\n\nTan Si Chong Su Temple\nJust nigh the river, the Tan Si Chong Su Temple has intricately sculpted columns together with interior ornamentation. It would a proficient persuasion to catch earlier noon then that yous get got the house to yourselves. Don't forget to brand a wishing at the wishing good or explore its unlike halls. Whether you're religious or not, the serenity of the house is rejuvenating.\n\nLocated inwards a corner of Central, Coffeemin is a pay-as-you-go concept cafe. For simply $6, yous tin taste video games, utilization their computers or play a circular of puddle amongst friends. The proficient affair is that it doesn't larn also crowded then yous tin taste without whatever hassles. And they get got unlimited total of drinks together with snacks.\n\nNo, it's non a prison theatre but a real-time 5D escape game that tests your brains to the bound past times requiring yous to solve puzzles together with escape from a imitation scenario amongst fourth dimension ticking. At Lockdown, yous tin pick out from v unlike rooms that are themed amongst unlike scenarios together with difficulty levels. Celebrate your victory later amongst their photobooth corner, equipped amongst a diversity of props.\n\nRiverboat Rides\nWhen you're at the riverside, it would move a proficient persuasion to get got a riverboat ride together with taste the scenery. You don't get got to move a tourist to beloved the river. There are river taxis that tin convey yous from specific stops to simply about other from $3. If you're looking for something fun, larn for the floating bar. The Singapore skyline is beautiful every bit it is, but a potable or x volition exclusively larn inwards better.\n\nG-Max Reverse Bungy\nWhen you're at the riverfront, in that location is no agency that you're going to immature lady this tourist attraction at Clarke Quay. Unfortunately, this is exclusively for opportunity seekers together with adrenaline junkies every bit yous are strapped on your chair together with eventually propelled upwards on a bungee.\n\n\nJangan sampai ketinggalan postingan-postingan terbaik dari Destinations in Singapore: Amazing Attractions At The Singapore River. Berlangganan melalui email sekarang juga:\n\nBali Attractions\n\nBali Attractions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7868232727050781}
+{"content": "0 trees have been saved today\n\nSusan Werkner\n\nManaging Director B.Com. MBA GAICD\n\nAs a software innovator Susan saw the opportunity a decade ago, to help companies move more of their documents online in an engaging and digital format. Developing proprietary software for digital reporting, Susan has been instrumental in moving more companies’ reporting online and reducing their reliance on paper.\n\nSusan has specialised in digital corporate communications, working with over 200 listed companies helping them create successful and innovative digital communication strategies. A pioneer in digital marketing and communications, Susan is committed to ensuring our clients utilise the most effective methods to engage their stakeholders, whilst minimising their environmental footprint.\n\nSusan has extensive experience across all aspects of digital marketing and strategic corporate communications, gained locally and internationally including New York, Hong Kong and Jakarta. Susan has contributed to the Australian Company Directors magazine on digital communications and sustainable best practices and is the Marketing Technology Presenter for the Marketing Matters\nprogram airing on Sky News.\n\nSusan is also a regular attendee at Sydney’s music and theatre scene. In her spare time, she also enjoys going to the ballet and is passionate about travel.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9495551586151123}
+{"content": "\n\n[no subject]\n\n\nDoes MCL 2.0b1 provide facilities for sound?  If we want to have voice I/O\nin our system using MCL 2.0b1, what ways should we be used such as HyperCard\nor Director from MacroMind if MCL does not?  Do you know who has developed\nor is developing the systems with voice recording and playing using MCL?\n\nJiqian Pan", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999779462814331}
+{"content": "What is Folio coloumn and its use?\n\n\nFolio, as in its literal meanings also, means a sequence of number of words for the purposes of dividing a book into meaningful parts or just for reference.\n\nSame goes for its use in accounting as well. Folio coloumn is used in Journals as well as in Ledgers. It usually contains the reference in forms of short codes of relevant accounts and journals with page numbers for easy linking between journals and ledgers and referencing.\n\nIn journals folio coloumn is used to mention the reference or “address” of ledger in which the journal entry has been posted thus giving an easy access and also easily understanding whether all the entries has been posted in the relevant accounts or not. If a particular journal entry does not have a cross-reference to the concerned ledger then it might mean that it has not been posted yet to the ledgers. To learn more about journals and their types please read What is Journal and how many types of journals are in accounting?\n\nIn ledgers, folio coloumn is used to provide a reference back to the journal from where the posting has been made so that if accountant is not sure about the posting then he can go back and check it from the journals as well as there he will have not only the amount but also the date, description and the other accounts being affected in the transaction.\n\nFolio coloumn makes things much easier to control and also error free. Imagine that thousands of transactions are required to be posted to the ledgers in hundreds of account and now you want to trace back a particular posting then without the “address” of the journal from where this posting came you will be lost and will have no clue how the entry was initiated and who approved it and all the other aspects. So, its a simple, precise and beautiful way to promise many things related to bookkeeping.\n\nMany books when giving examples and providing solutions to the questions make up journals and accounts in the ledgers with folio accounts but left them empty as most of the time author intends to discuss some other concept and thus concentrates more there instead of filling out extra coloumns which might make students more confuse. But where author thinks that students who should have reached at this page of the book must have acquired enough understanding then he might make up folio coloumns and fill them with appropriate information. There is no other reason to my mind for leaving folio coloumns empty in the books.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9962786436080933}
+{"content": "Donald L. DeAngelis Yuanshi Wang 2019 <p><span>Previous mathematical analyses have shown that, for certain parameter ranges, a population, described by logistic equations on a set of connected patches, and diffusing among them, can reach a higher equilibrium total population when the local carrying capacities are heterogeneously distributed across patches, than when carrying capacities having the same total sum are homogeneously distributed across the patches. It is shown here that this apparently paradoxical result is explained when the resultant differences in energy inputs to the whole multi-patch system are taken into account. We examine both Pearl–Verhulst and Original Verhulst logistic models and show that, when total input of energy or limiting resource, is constrained to be the same in the homogeneous and heterogeneous cases, the total population in the heterogeneous patches can never reach an asymptotic equilibrium that is greater than the sum of the carrying capacities over the homogeneous patches. We further show that, when the dynamics of the limiting resources are explicitly modeled, as in a chemostat model, the paradoxical result of the logistic models does not occur. These results have implications concerning the use of some ubiquitous equations of population ecology in modeling populations in space.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1016/j.tpb.2018.11.003 en Elsevier Energetic constraints and the paradox of a diffusing population in a heterogeneous environment article", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5905662775039673}
+{"content": "Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one thing to another. Animal communication just like humans. Animals posses their own way of communicating and that can be said to be the transfer of information from one animal to one or more animals.\n\nDifferent ways Whales and Dolphins communicate\n\nTo whales and dolphins, sound is very important as it could be used for hunting, navigating and communication. There are different ways they communicate like: clicks, whistles, body language and echolocation. My focus would be on echolocation\n\n\nThis is is a psychological process used for locating objects by reflected sounds in certain animals such as toothed whales, dolphins and bats.\n\nHow it works\n\nThese animals make sounds that project over a certain distance (varies with vertebrates). An echo is produced when the sound wave bounces off an objects or anything in range. The animals hear the echo and based on the frequency, they know which direction to move.\n\nEvolution of echolocation in Whales\n\nAfter detailed comparisons with living and fossil whales, it was discovered by Geisler and his colleagues who concluded that Cotylocara belonged to an extinct family of whales that split off from other whales at least 32 million years ago. The discovery, when viewed in the context of the entire toothed whale(whales that has teeth) family tree, implies that a rudimentary form of echolocation evolved in the common ancestor of Cotylocara and other toothed whales, between 35 and 32 million years ago. Once it evolved, the fossil record indicates that there was a progressive increase in size and complexity in the air sacs and muscles that controlled the sound generating apparatus in the face.Toothed whales, as well as baleen whales, were known to be descendants of land-dwelling mammals of the artiodactyl order. They are closely related to the hippopotamus, sharing a common ancestor that lived around 54 million years ago(mya). The primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 mya and became fully aquatic by 5–10 million years later. (\"New fossil species: Origin of toothed whale echolocation\" 2017)\n\nThe adaptation of echolocation occurred when toothed whales split apart from baleen whales, and distinguishes modern toothed whales from fully aquatic archaeocetes which happened around 34 mya.\n\nHow far the sounds can go\n\nFor whale, to feed in water over 150om deep, where light is absent, they produce unidirectional clicks of 235 dB re 1 μPa (underwater pressure unit: decibels with respect to 1 μPa), which is comparable to the sound of a powerful air rifle at a distance of 0.5 m. From the moment it dives, it begins to send out sound clicks, quickly locates prey and makes a beeline in that direction. The closer it gets, the more the interval between clicks decreases, i.e. the sounds become increasingly frequent. In dolphins, Echolocation is most effective at close to intermediate range, about 5 to 200 m (16–656 ft.) for targets 5 to 15 cm (2–6 in.) in length.\n\nThe distance that sound travels in the ocean also depends on the water temperature and pressure. Considering the fact that sound moves at much faster speed in water than in air, as the pressure continues to increase as ocean depth increases, temperature of the ocean decreases up to a certain point, after which it remains relatively stable.\n\nHow whales and dolphins communicate compared to other vertebrates\n\nThe sound is not produced through their mouth but through their blowhole(located on top the head). They use frequencies that are far beyond our hearing capabilities. Large whales can communicate over several hundred kilometres. Dolphins use higher frequencies which limits the distance. Whales also communicate by creating sounds and body language.\n\nRelating to Bats\n\nMost bats produce echolocation sounds by contracting their larynx (voice box). A few species, though, click their tongues. These sounds are generally emitted through the mouth, but Horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae) and Old World leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) emit their echolocation calls through their nostrils: there they have basal fleshy horseshoe or leaf-like structures that are well-adapted to function as megaphones\n\nsome bats can hear sounds up to 110 kHz in frequency. By emitting a series of often quite loud ultrasounds that either sweep from a high to low frequency or vary around a frequency, bats can distinguish objects and their insect prey and therefore avoid the object or catch the insect. The frequency range individual bat specie can produce depends on their environment and prey types.\n\nComparison of communication between whales and other vertebrate (Bat)\n\nThe environment can also affect the echolocation provided by both in sense that the whale is under water which is more secluded and has more advantage compared to bat which is in an open space in the air and so can easily be tampered with by climate change and other attributes in the air.\n\n\nAre Bats Blind? | ASU - Ask A Biologist. 2017. Available from [accessed 15 March 2017].\n\nEcholocation - Bat Conservation Trust. 2017. Available from [accessed 1 March 2017].\n\nEntertainment, S. 2017. Available from [accessed 29 March 2017].\n\nHow do bats echolocate and how are they adapted to this activity?. 2017. Available from [accessed 15 March 2017].\n\nHow Far Away Can Sperm Whales Detect Their Prey? | Whales online. 2017. Available from [accessed 25 March 2017].\n\nHow far does sound travel in the ocean?. 2017. Available from [accessed 30 March 2017]. [WWW Document]. (n.d.). [WWW Document].\n\nNational Marine Mammal Laboratory. 2017. Available from [accessed 30 March 2017].\n\nNew fossil species: Origin of toothed whale echolocation. 2017. Available from [accessed 13 March 2017].\n\npicture of whale sound - Google Search [WWW Document]. (2017). [WWW Document]. URL\n\nwhales and dolphins - Google Search. 2017. Available from*&imgrc=6nU5dRpUjKdE8M: [accessed 25 March 2017].\n\nwhale echolocation - Google Search. 2017. Available from*&imgrc=JUPY-ukoTslbWM: [accessed 3 April 2017].\n\nReport Abuse\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9957730770111084}
+{"content": "Man Utd have to try their best to capture Benfica’s highly-rated 20y/o\n\nBenfica’s 20-year-old midfielder Florentino Luis is attracting the tops clubs of Europe, including both Man Utd and Man City…\n\nIf Man Utd can challenge Man City in anything (these days), it’s transfers. Man Utd has had scouts in Benfica watching the defensive midfielder amongst other talents in the club.\n\nAfter Man City signed Rodri, it appears that the interest from the Citizens has dwindled down. Whilst Man Utd are suffering significant consequences of not signing a midfielder, which could genuinely result in the side finishing outside the top 8 in the Premier League.\n\nThe good news, though, is that Man Utd have the ball in their court to pursue this defensive maestro.\n\nSo, what’s so good about Luis?\n\nParticularly in the modern game, having a defensive midfielder is crucial. There are tactically aware, ball-playing, sensible defensive midfielders, such as Rodri and Nemanja Matic. Or there are advanced, skilful and able to initiate a build-in play like Chelsea’s Kante. There are even aerial duelling, strong and commanding maestro such as Yaya Toure.\n\nWith Luis, he seems to embody all of these qualities. Man Utd desperately needs a strong, defensive and well-rounded defensive midfielder to both guard the back four and find suitable passes to initiate an attack.\n\nIn my opinion, the best defensive midfield option for Man Utd to pursue is Leicester City’s Wilfried Ndidi. However, with Leicester City looking to overtake the Red Devils as the weakest side in the top 6, as well as losing Harry Maguire to them, it seems very unlikely.\n\nThis is why going all out for Luis is necessary, despite his price potentially being around £100million. As of right now, every top 6 side, plus Wolves and Leicester, have better midfields than Man Utd, a side looking to reach the top four. Without improving this key area, they are getting nowhere near.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5424755811691284}
+{"content": "Please DO NOT DELETE this page.\n\nBlog //\n  • Wellbeing\n\nAsk a relationship coach: How do we develop healthy relationships?\n\n17 May, 2017\nHealthy relationship\n\nCBHS was lucky to sit down with Jacqueline Hellyer, a Relationship Coach and Sex Therapist, to talk about relationship health and what actions we can take to help ourselves and our partners. You can find her website at\n\nEmotional health isn’t always limited to the individual. The relationships we share with our romantic partners is one where emotional health is shared. Like all aspects of health, it can be worked and reflected on. Jacqueline Hellyer lets us in on her expert insights into relationship solutions.\n\n\nWhat do you find are the most common problems in Australian relationships?\n\nToo much unspoken expectation and not enough sharing.\n\n\nAre there any simple steps to maintaining a relationship?\n\nUnderstand that a relationship is a constantly changing and evolving dynamic and that for it evolve well you need to constantly cultivate and co-create a strong supportive relationship.\n\n\nWhat warning signs are there that something is going wrong?\n\nPlenty! The key one would be that you are not talking and are spending all your time in your head wondering, assuming, interpreting, expecting, without actually voicing your feelings and having quality discussion together, especially when it’s a challenging topic.\n\n\nHow can I manage external pressures?\n\nPrioritise down time. In our society we always prioritsie ‘doing’ things, rather than prioritising chill time. Adding to that, having a supportive relationship can help reduce pressure, so if you prioritise chilled out time together you’ll get a double benefit. Make sure you have time together every day, turn off the TV, put away the screens, and have a good chat about non-logistical things, just hang out together. Spending time together like this also makes it much more likely that you’ll want to make love, and quality love-making with your partner is one of the best ways to decrease stress and increase calm and connection.\n\n\nWhat's the best way to bring up any problems I'm having?\n\nIn a safe space when you’re both feeling calm, such as over a cup of tea, going for a walk, on a drive. Start with positives so that you are feeling connected. Then when you bring up the challenge you’re having, talk about your own experience of it and how it’s making you feel. Avoid ‘you’ language as that can sound blaming and cause your partner to get defensive rather than listen. Once you’ve shared, listen to how your partner feels. Once you have the understanding of how each of you is experiencing the problem, then you can discuss how you can co-create a different way of managing the problem in a way that works for both of you.\n\n\nHow do you break a negative cycle?\n\nIdentify it and look at what’s causing it and how you each need to respond differently. If you can’t do that on your own, then get professional help. It’s so much easier to sort things when you have an impartial trained professional to hold space for you and guide you to getting clarity around your dynamic and how you can improve it.\n\n\nIf you could share one thought or line of advice to every couple right now, what would it be?\n\nWhat makes for a high-quality relationship is the ability to manage your differences. The similarities are easy, the good stuff is easy, it’s when it gets difficult and your differences are apparent that the skills for cultivating a strong relationship come to the fore. We are not taught those skills, they are not innate, they have to be learned and developed. That learning and development never stops. \n\n\nSuggested Articles\n\n  • A staff helping an elderly woman with rehabilitation\n\n    A new way forward for knee and hip replacements\n\n    • Membership\n    6 September 2019\n  • CBHS Corporate Health Fund CEO and Executive Director, Dario Molina\n\n    Meet Dario: Riding for CBHS Group in Can4Cancer\n\n    • Membership\n    22 August 2019\n  • Elders having milk for Calcium\n\n    Say cheese… yogurt, seeds and UV!\n\n    • Nutrition\n    22 August 2019\n  • Woman checking her mobile\n\n    How you can help us detect fraud and keep premiums down\n\n    • Membership\n    22 August 2019", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6571735143661499}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\nThe finance minister announced the government would be changing the income tax act, through Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act, on Dec. 7, 2015. That day, the stock market dropped.\n\nThe opposition is alleging the timing is no coincidence, nor is it that someone else sold 680,000 Morneau Shepell shares ahead of the major tax change.\n\nMorneau has called these accusations baseless and has threatened to sue the opposition for making them, if they are repeated outside of the House of Commons where MPs don’t have parliamentary privilege.\n\n\"There are no secrets here. As has been reported in the press, when I came into office, I sold some shares. As has been reported, when I came into office, I made a $5 million donation to charity. As we know, we campaigned to 36 million Canadians that we would raise taxes on the 1 per cent, which we did. As everyone knows, except for perhaps the opposition, no one knows what the stock market will do in advance,\" Morneau said in question period on Wednesday.\n\nOn Thursday, he denied discussing his plans to sell his shares with his father, as well as denying discussing with his dad the timing of moving forward on tax changes.\n\n\"I did not at any point in time, nor would I at any point in time, discuss any confidential information with my father or with anyone else… His decision on his financial affairs, are his and his alone,\" Morneau told reporters in the House of Commons foyer on Thursday afternoon following question period.\n\nHe said it's likely his father would have known that the Liberals, upon forming government, would move on the tax reform, as it was a campaign promise. The new tax policy did not come into force until Jan. 1, 2016.\n\nWednesday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called for Morneau’s resignation from his finance post, saying his caucus had lost confidence in him over the unanswered questions about his stocks, and the ongoing ethics investigation into Morneau over another piece of legislation he tabled.\n\n\"It is clear that under a cloud of investigation and serious questions about his dealings going unanswered, he should not continue in his role,\" Scheer said.\n\nMorneau said Thursday he had \"no idea how slanderous the opposition would be.\"\n\nCTV News has reached out to William F. Morneau Sr. for comment.\n\nWith files from CTV News' Mackenzie Gray and Glen McGregor", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7645424604415894}
+{"content": "Enlisting A Cloud Partner? Here Are Three Things To Consider\n\nPost written by\n\nBjoern Petersen\n\nBjoern Petersen, President of Sensormatic Solutions, leads the enterprise to power retail operations and create unique shopping experiences.\n\n\nWhen do you first remember hearing about “the cloud?”\n\nGoogle’s Search Engine Strategies Conference in 2006 has widely been credited as the conversation starter around the cloud and its capabilities, leading to organizations spending more than a decade determining how to best use the cloud to improve their business. Fast forward to the present, and public cloud adoption is at 91%, while private cloud adoption is at 72%, according to RightScale's 2019 State of the Cloud Report.\n\nToday’s high cloud adoption rate is no surprise. Cloud competencies have become essential for businesses to remain competitive, and more enterprises have realized the ROI of leveraging cloud architecture, such as enhanced efficiencies and scalability and reduced IT costs. Industries that collect raw data, like retail data that ranges from customer information to store operations, have seen how cloud-based applications can make data more actionable.\n\nHowever, despite the large number of organizations using the cloud, not all workloads are in the cloud. The same RightScale study found that moving more workloads into the cloud is a top priority for 2019.\n\nThe complexity of the cloud makes the journey to 100% deployment a greater challenge than many would prefer, but enlisting a cloud partner (or partners) can help. When vetting cloud providers, it’s essential to understand the fundamentals to make a more informed decision:\n\nSingle Versus Multicloud\n\nOrganizations that choose the single cloud route decide to use one provider to handle migrating their chosen applications and services to the cloud, either private or public. A single cloud environment tends to be more suitable for smaller organizations, as they typically need fewer cloud resources and one cloud is not as complicated as managing multiple clouds. Although, a single cloud means there is less flexibility because you are limited to one provider’s offerings, making it more difficult to meet unique business needs.\n\nWith a multicloud approach, businesses can use more than one provider and can employ a private, public or hybrid strategy (combining public and private clouds). A multicloud environment can be more accommodating to specific desires and workloads, as you can leverage several providers’ offerings based on the various applications your business serves. For example, retailers can choose the best partner per solution -- one can help increase supply chain visibility, while another can assist with improving merchandising decisions.\n\nAccording to a multicloud study from IBM Institute for Business Value, by 2021, 98% of organizations plan to adopt multicloud architectures, but only 41% have a multicloud management strategy and 38% have procedures and tools to operate a multicloud environment. These findings reveal how much more education is necessary to achieve the multicloud world that’s expected to come to fruition.\n\nPrivate Versus Public Clouds\n\nTo help take the next step toward multicloud adoption, businesses need to decide whether a private or public cloud is right for their environment. The main differentiation between private and public clouds revolves around how data is stored and secured and related step function costs.\n\nA company that owns and operates a private cloud, which can be stored on-site or housed in an owned or outsourced data center, will face step function costs once the deployed infrastructure reaches the limitations of virtualization. A public cloud means businesses purchase server space from a provider that scales linearly, and their data may be stored on the same server as another company’s data.\n\nThe choice between public and private clouds -- or using both -- depends on how much control an organization would like over their data. In making this decision, it’s useful to understand the role open source platforms play in cloud management strategies.\n\nOpen Versus Closed Source Platforms\n\nThe software design of an open source platform is made free to the public to be redistributed and modified as they wish, while the code design on a closed source platform is proprietary and only original authors may make alterations. By nature, open source software allows for an easier exchange of information between programmers and users. For users, open source is used any time someone accesses software via a browser or mobile application. Having an open source community in place can help unite and engage users compared to closed source, which has limited accessibility.\n\nGoogle has announced partnerships with open source-centric companies, as the company believes open source is the future of the public cloud. In environments such as retail, adopting open cloud can provide more flexibility for the retailer to grow their business. As digital and physical demands are increasing with customers’ demands, open cloud platforms offer the scalability needed to more quickly generate mass amounts of usable data that can help retailers remain competitive in-store and online.\n\nThe Cloud Difference Is In Actionable Data\n\nUltimately, cloud capabilities can help your organization successfully execute against a more accurate and data-driven business strategy.\n\nWorking in the retail industry, we've seen how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can solve a variety of issues, from streamlining operations to increasing efficiencies and identifying problems retailers might not be aware of. However, before deploying AI/ML-enabled projects, it’s important to look at existing data and pinpoint synergies that can be made to transform once siloed data. Taking this step can help improve decision making when vetting potential cloud partners.\n\nIn retail, collecting once siloed data from across the enterprise -- inventory, loss prevention and traffic, for example -- and storing it in a cloud environment allows for insights to be garnered more efficiently. For instance, top in-store shopper traffic times can be more seamlessly compared to spikes in shoplifting when the data lives across a cohesive platform. As a result, a retailer can make more precise staffing and operational decisions based on real-time information.\n\nDigital transformation is happening across industries, and it’s vital for organizations to recognize the invaluable benefits moving to the cloud can bring to their business. Whether you choose to embark on the multicloud journey or begin with a single cloud, having a long-term strategy in place now can ensure success for the future. And isn’t that what every leader is striving for?\n\n\nBjoern Petersen, President of Sensormatic Solutions, leads the enterprise to power retail operations and create unique shopping experiences. Read Bjoern Petersen's fu...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.594862163066864}
+{"content": "With Bader-Ofer method, not every ballot counts\n\nHow your vote may move to another party.\n\nMarch 16, 2015 02:35\n2 minute read.\n\nAn Israeli soldier chooses a ballot from behind a voting booth at an army base near the southern city of Ofakim March 15. (photo credit: REUTERS)\n\nGet-out-the-vote organizations like to say that every vote counts, but in Israel, while every vote is counted, they don’t all contribute to the makeup of the Knesset and some don’t necessarily go to the party the voter intended because of the Bader-Ofer method of calculating “excess votes.”\n\nAfter the polls close Tuesday night, the committee at each location will count the votes cast there. After the votes are counted, the poll committee gives them to the regional committee, which checks their count and the protocols.\n\nIf no problems are found, the numbers are loaded onto a computer.\n\nVotes from soldiers on army bases, hospitals, prisons and diplomats and emissaries abroad will be counted in the Knesset beginning on Tuesday night until Thursday.\n\nThe Central Elections Committee will release results on Thursday, together with the calculation of how many seats each party received. On the following Wednesday, Central Election Committee chairman Justice Salim Joubran and Director- General Orly Ades will give the official results to President Reuven Rivlin.\n\nThe calculation that turns votes into 120 Knesset seats is called the Bader-Ofer method, after former MKs Yohanan Bader (Gahal) and Avraham Ofer (Alignment). The formula is known internationally as the Hagenbach-Bischoff method.\n\nThe process allows two parties to reach a vote-sharing agreement for dealing with excess votes. In this Knesset, such deals were struck between Likud and Bayit Yehudi, Yisrael Beytenu and Kulanu, Shas and UTJ and Zionist Union and Meretz. A last-ditch effort to not waste left-wing votes and sign new agreements between the Joint (Arab) List and Meretz and Zionist Union and Yesh Atid fell through when Joint List MKs refused to sign an agreement with a Zionist party.\n\nAny party that receives 3.25 percent of the vote will pass the threshold. In most cases, that will mean four seats, but in some cases it can be three.\n\nThere are 25 parties running and just 11 passed the threshold in polls in recent months.\n\nAny votes going to parties that don’t cross the threshold do not count toward the distribution of seats in the Knesset.\n\nThe way seats are distributed between parties is by dividing the number of votes given to parties that pass the threshold by 120 to get a general indicator of how many votes entitle a list to a seat.\n\nEach party’s votes are then divided by the general indicator.\n\nHowever, when the total number of seats per party, in whole numbers, is added up they usually come to less than 120.\n\nThe seats left to reach 120 first are divided between lists that signed spare-vote agreements with each other. Which pair of lists receives each additional seat is calculated by dividing the number of valid votes given to both lists that made an agreement, plus one. The pair with the highest result gets a surplus seat, and the calculation is repeated, taking the new seat into consideration each time, until all 120 seats are filled.\n\nThe same calculation is done within each pair to determine which party gets the seat.\n\nRelated Content\n\nSeptember 23, 2019\nRivlin decision murky after Balad revokes recommendation for Gantz", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8293446898460388}
+{"content": "Busy. Please wait.\n\nshow password\nForgot Password?\n\nDon't have an account?  Sign up \n\nUsername is available taken\nshow password\n\n\n\nAlready a StudyStack user? Log In\n\nReset Password\nDon't know\nremaining cards\n\nPass complete!\n\n\"Know\" box contains:\nTime elapsed:\nrestart all cards\n\n  Normal Size     Small Size show me how\n\nPeridoic Table\n\nVocabulary atoms and elements\n\nmatter anything that has mass and takes up space.\nmass the material that matter is made up of.\nspace/volume the specific area/place that matter takes up.\ndensity d=m/v the amount of mass in a specific volume of space.\natom smallest part of an element,the building blocks of all matter.\nproton particle of an atom with a positive charge located inside the nucleus.\nelectron particle of an atom with a negative charge, it moves around the nucleus and has an attractive force that allows it to bond with other atoms.\nneutron particle of an atom with a neutral/no charge located inside the nucleus along with the proton.\nperiodic table large grid that identifies and classifies all of the elements by their chemical and physical properties.\nelement the simplest substances that cannot be broken down/ they make up all matter in the universe.\nperiods/rows rows that tell how many energy levels each elements has for the electrons to move around\ngroups or family/columns columns that tell how many valence electrons have.\nvalence electrons the electron that move on the outter shell.\natomic number how many protons an element has inside the neclues.\natomic mass the measurement of the mass for an elements atoms.\nchemical property the ability of substances to combine with one another forming new and different substances\nphysical property the appear and state of matter of a substance\nionic bond when elements either loose or gain an electron\ncovenant bond the process of elements sharing electrons during bonding.\nchemical change/reaction when elements bond together from the attractive force of electrons,creating a new object/substance\ncompound/molecule objects mixed to turn into a whole new substance,chemically combined.\nmixture objects that are mixed together but not chemically changed. ex: a salad\nNobel gases\nAlkali Metals\nCreated by: delaneytaylor6", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6659132242202759}
+{"content": "Mapping Cabrinha\n\nPartilhar / Share\n\nThroughout the implementation of the Outros Campeonatos, in the background of the main activities of the project, such as street football games or sustainable touristic visits, a continuous process of collective mapping of the neighborhood of Quinta do Cabrinha was developed.\n\n\nThe developed process aimed to understand the broader and deeper aspects of the neighborhood’s social reality. We wanted to know why people come and use the neighborhood Quinta do Cabrinha, those who live there, but also those who live in the surrounding areas; how the inhabitants of Cabrinha interact with each other and with the spaces and urban resources of the neighborhood and its surroundings; also, how the inhabitants of the neighboring areas relate to Cabrinha and have access to the resources they provide; finally, the immaterial heritage of Cabrinha, the wishes, the vocations and the knowledge of those who live there, the history and the stories that hide, that is, the heritage that forms part of the cultural identity that forms the community of Quinta do Cabrinha today.\n\nThus, the mappings were carried out in several spaces, such as the main branch of Outros Campeonatos, public places of the neighborhood (courtyards, cafés), public areas outside the neighborhood (District Hall, Romaria de Santo Amaro). They mainly involved the inhabitants of Cabrinha, but also other people, namely inhabitants of other districts of Alcântara and its surroundings.\n\n\n\nAll three mapping exercises were executed, the results of which can be found on this page:\n\n\nAlthough they did not have the public visibility of other activities, collective mapping also allowed us to obtain data that undoubtedly served as a key element for the harmonious development of Outros Campeonatos. The results we obtained over time gave us the opportunity to know and diagnose local problems, as well as to talk about possible solutions, and thus to evaluate and monitor the implementation of Outros Campeonatos. They also provided us with data for future interventions in the neighborhood.\n\nCabrinha’s mapping work was not completed. We are convinced that this is a work in progress, that must be continued. For we know of the importance of continuing to raise the tip of the veil that still today covers improbable stories, unexpected events, mysteries that are part of what this community is, its past, present and future.\n\nDeixar um comentário\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8258528709411621}
+{"content": "Your first triathlon is a high-speed puzzle that you’re trying to solve while swimming, biking and running. What you’re trying to figure out is how fast you can go without blowing up before the finish. But if you’re taking on your first sprint-distance event, your perfect pace is an unknown quantity.\n\nThe more you race, the more experience you’ll gain and the better you’ll be able to gauge your effort. But when you line up for your first event, the fact of the matter is you need more experience than you possess. However, with a few pointers and some planning you can better equip yourself to manage your effort throughout the race to ensure you go as fast as possible.\n\nKeep your cool!Always remember that races aren’t conquered in the swim, so don’t get carried away early on. Start conservatively with a pace that allows you to remain efficient and composed. In a pool swim, the start is usually less chaotic. The lane ropes will keep you on track so you can focus on maintaining an equal effort over each of the required lengths. Open-water races are much more hectic and likely to be over distance if you forget to sight and wander off course.\n\nThe perceived need to rush through transitions can also get you into trouble. Stay relaxed to ensure you arrive at the right spot and change from one set of kit into the next without getting into a muddle.\n\nWhen you start the run, use a shorter than usual stride to help your legs adjust. Gradually increase your stride and then it’s just a matter of increasing your pace until you hit the finish line having given your best effort.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9832166433334351}
+{"content": "Teaching Philosophy\n\nAs a teacher, working under the leading of the Holy Spirit, I believe that my role is first and foremost that of a coach. A coach presents material and seeks interaction from the student. A coach ask \"implicational questions\" that challenges the student to consider the consequences of any given decision that might be made about the subject.\n\nTherefore, I see learning as more than the imparting of facts and ideas. Rather learning is a dynamic between student, teacher, and Spirit (forged in the furnace of interaction) that leads to critical thinking on the part of the student.\n\nBecause of my training at Dallas Theological Seminary and my own personal study of the Scriptures, I am committed to an Evangelical/Dispensational understanding of the Scriptures. I define \"Evangelical\" as a commitment to the person and work of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah and the only One who can save people from the penalty and power of sin. I define \"Dispensational\" as an interpretive understanding of God's unfolding plan for the ages. In my view the Bible makes a clear distinction between Israel and the Church. Israel was God's chosen instrument as a national entity to make God known to the world. But Israel's failure to live up to God's covenant promises caused the nation to be set aside for a period of time as a vehicle of divine revelation. In this time frame of God's redemptive program, I believe He has chosen the Church, God's elect people from every tribe and nation, to be the means by which He works in the world.\n\nAs I read the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, I believe there is an interpretive paradigm that enables the reader to understand and apply God's Word. That interpretive key can be summed up in COL 1:13-14, 27, and 2 COR 5:18-20. That is, Jesus is the risen, reigning, and residing (indwelling) Savior, who has called us out of the domain of darkness to live as His Kingdom people. Even though the Kingdom is not yet existing in its perfect form, Christians are God's agents who are called to invite others to embrace Christ as the conguering King and Savior. I believe that every text of Scripture can be interpreted and applied in light of this paradigm.\n\nMany educators approach learning as if students are blank slates or huge, empty reservoirs that need to be filled with information. My own biblical worldview leads me to a different conclusion. The doctrine of original sin teaches us that all human beings enter the world with a propensity to rebel against God as the source of all wisdom and insight. Even though human beings have the ability to take in human information, their interpretation of informatin will be shaped by a variety of experiences. Primary relationships and primary events in the early years of one's development will determine how they process information throughout one's life-span. Therefore, it is always helpful for the one presenting the information (the teacher) to not only be conversant with a given subject matter but to have some understanding as to what events and relationships have shaped a person's life.\n\nMy Christian worldview also leads me to believe that there are always three teachers in any given learning experience. First, the student will have some kind of \"pre-learning\" that will influence how one receives subject matter. Second, there is the teacher, who knows the subject matter and wants to inpart the significance of this same subject matter. And third, there is the Holy Spirit, who influences the attitudes and actions of students and teachers. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers students to embrace personal convictions about what is ultimately true.\n\nYou may also like...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7253681421279907}
+{"content": "In-home Training\n\nAlthough the word we all use is “training”, I believe that what we are actually doing is learning how to co-exist with our animals in a way that feels peaceful and good for everyone involved. My approach to training is energy based, where I focus on teaching you to use your body language, eye contact, and calm focused energy to clearly position yourself as the pack leader. I’ve been trained and have done work with many different techniques, and I believe that what all the tools and tricks do is lead to confusion. I think it’s great if your dog can sit for a treat, but does he respect you? Does she honor your space, and allow you to make requests of her? Dogs are always looking for the calm leader in the house, and if they don’t believe that to be you, they will begin taking on a role that they may or may not be wanting. This can lead to dogs creating jobs like barking at every person who walks by, pushing past you through doorways and up the stairs, crowding your space on the couch, begging for food, jumping, whining, and biting.\n\nDuring an in-home training session, I spend an hour observing the interactions between your dog and you. Based on my observations, I show you examples of how you can easily modify certain behaviors to help create a clear picture for your dog that equals you as the leader. Training programs can seem like so much effort, and we all have busy lives, so my goal is to make small adjustments that are doable, to start shifting the conversation between you and your furry companion. A peaceful home is possible, and you are the one that can make it happen.\n\nIf you’re interested in getting started, please fill out the form below and explain what behaviors you’re experiencing that you would like some help in. I look forward to hearing from you!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6974892616271973}
+{"content": "Energy scout apprentice project\n\nWe are part of the project!\n\nTrainees in our company are participating in a project with the local chamber of industry and commerce (Industrie- and Handelskammer Nordschwarzwald) where they are motivated and introduced to the subject of energy and the efficient use of resources. As EnergyScouts they will be able to identify energy weaknesses in the company and develop suggestions for improvement. The implementation of the ideas from the project will enable the company to cut energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions.\n\n« back", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6471396684646606}
+{"content": "\n\n  2. Single-cell RNA-seq for dummies\n  4. Rotating the knee (plot) and related yoga\n  5. High velocity RNA velocity\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  2. Single-cell RNA-seq for dummies\n  4. Rotating the knee (plot) and related yoga\n  5. High velocity RNA velocity\n\nThe “knee plot” is a standard single-cell RNA-seq quality control that is also used to determine a threshold for considering cells valid for analysis in an experiment. To make the plot, cells are ordered on the x-axis according to the number of distinct UMIs observed. The y-axis displays the number of distinct UMIs for each barcode (here barcodes are proxies for cells). The following example is from Aaron Lun’s DropletUtils vignette:\n\n\nA single-cell RNA-seq knee plot.\n\nHigh quality barcodes are located on the left hand side of the plot, and thresholding is performed by identifying the “knee” on the curve. On the right hand side, past the inflection point, are barcodes which have relatively low numbers of reads, and are therefore considered to have had failure in capture and to be too noisy for further analysis.\n\nIn Melsted, Booeshaghi et al., Modular and efficient pre-processing of single-cell RNA-seq, bioRxiv, 2019, we display a series of plots for a benchmark panel of 20 datasets, and the first plot in each panel (subplot A)is a knee plot. The following example is from an Arabidopsis thaliana dataset (Ryu et al., 2019; SRR8257100)\n\n\nCareful examination of our plots shows that unlike the typical knee plot made for single-cell RNA-seq , ours has the x- and y- axes transposed. In our plot the x-axis displays the number of distinct UMI counts, and the y-axis corresponds to the barcodes, ordered from those with the most UMIs (bottom) to the least (top). The figure below shows both versions of a knee plot for the same data (the “standard” one in blue, our transposed plot in red):\n\n\nWhy bother transposing a plot? \n\nWe begin by observing that if one ranks barcodes according to the number of distinct UMIs associated with them (from highest to lowest), then the rank of a barcode with x distinct UMIs is given by f(x) where\n\nf(x) = |\\{c:\\# \\mbox{UMIs} \\in c \\geq x\\}|.\n\nIn other words, the rank of a barcode is interpretable as the size of a certain set. Now suppose that instead of only measurements of RNA molecules in cells, there is another measurement. This could be measurement of surface protein abundances (e.g. CITE-seq or REAP-seq), or measurements of sample tags from a multiplexing technology (e.g. ClickTags). The natural interpretation of #distinct UMIs as the independent variable and  the rank of a barcode as the dependent variable is now clearly preferable. We can now define a bivariate function f(x,y) which informs on the number of barcodes with at least x RNA observations and tag observations:\n\nf(x,y) = |\\{c:\\# \\mbox{UMIs} \\in c \\geq x \\mbox{ and} \\# \\mbox{tags} \\in c \\geq y  \\}|.\n\nNadia Volovich, with whom I’ve worked on this, has examined this function for the 8 sample species mixing experiment from Gehring et al. 2018. The function is shown below:\n\n\n\nHere the x-axis corresponds to the #UMIs in a barcode, and the y-axis to the number of tags. The z-axis, or height of the surface, is the f(x,y) as defined above.  Instead of thresholding on either #UMIs or #tags, this “3D knee plot” makes possible thresholding using both (note that the red curve shown above corresponds to one projection of this surface).\n\nSeparately from the issue described above, there is another subtle issue with the knee plot. The x-axis (dependent) variable really ought to display the number of molecules assayed rather than the number of distinct UMIs. In the notation of Melsted, Booeshaghi et al., 2019 (see also the blog post on single-cell RNA-seq for dummies), what is currently being plotted is |supp(I)|, instead of |I|. While |I| cannot be directly measured, it can be inferred (see the Supplementary Note of Melsted, Booeshaghi et al., 2019), where the cardinality of I is denoted by k (see also Grün et al,, 2014). If d denotes the number of distinct UMIs for a barcode and n the effective number of UMIs , then k can be estimated by\n\n\\hat{k} = \\frac{log(1-\\frac{d}{n})}{log(1-\\frac{1}{n})}.\n\nThe function estimating k is monotonic so for the purpose of thresholding with the knee plot it doesn’t matter much whether the correction is applied, but it is worth noting that the correction can be applied without much difficulty.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  2. Single-cell RNA-seq for dummies\n  4. Rotating the knee (plot) and related yoga\n  5. High velocity RNA velocity\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  2. Single-cell RNA-seq for dummies\n  4. Rotating the knee (plot) and related yoga\n  5. High velocity RNA velocity\n\n\n\n\nScreenshot 2019-06-14 23.11.32\n\nStructure of a single-cell RNA-seq experiment.\n\n\n\n\nThe questions\n\n\n  • The pre-processing problem: what is the set ?\n\n\n\n\n  2. Single-cell RNA-seq for dummies\n  4. Rotating the knee (plot) and related yoga\n  5. High velocity RNA velocity\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    Installation instructions (and video)\n    Getting started tutorial (and video).\n    – Manuals for kallisto and bustools.\n    – Complete code for reproducing all the results in the preprint\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBi/BE/CS183 is a computational biology class at Caltech with a mix of undergraduate and graduate students. Matt Thomson and I are co-teaching the class this quarter with help from teaching assistants Eduardo Beltrame, Dongyi (Lambda) Lu and Jialong Jiang. The class has a focus on the computational biology of single-cell RNA-seq analysis, and as such we recently taught an introduction to single-cell RNA-seq technologies. We thought the slides used would be useful to others so we have published them on figshare:\n\nEduardo Beltrame, Jase Gehring, Valentine Svensson, Dongyi Lu, Jialong Jiang, Matt Thomson and Lior Pachter, Introduction to single-cell RNA-seq technologies, 2019.\n\nThanks to Eduardo Beltrame, Jase Gehring and Valentine Svensson for many extensive and helpful discussions that clarified many of the key concepts. Eduardo Beltrame and Valentine Svensson performed new analysis (slide 28) and Jase Gehring resolved the tangle of “doublet” literature (slides 17–25). The 31 slides were presented in a 1.5 hour lecture. Some accompanying notes that might be helpful to anyone interested in using them are included for reference (numbered according to slide) below:\n\n  1. The first (title) slide makes the point that single-cell RNA-seq is sufficiently complicated that a deep understanding of the details of the technologies, and methods for analysis, is required. The #methodsmatter.\n  2. The second slide presents an overview of attributes associated with what one might imagine would constitute an ideal single-cell RNA-seq experiment. We tried to be careful about terminology and jargon, and therefore widely used terms are italicized and boldfaced.\n  3. This slide presents Figure 1 from Svensson et al. 2018. This is an excellent perspective that highlights key technological developments that have spurred the growth in popularity of single-cell RNA-seq. At this time (February 2019) the largest single-cell RNA-seq dataset that has been published consists of 690,000 Drop-seq adult mouse brain cells (Saunders, Macosko et al. 2018). Notably, the size and complexity of this dataset rivals that of a large-scale genome project that until recently would be undertaken by hundreds of researchers. The rapid adoption of single-cell RNA-seq is evident in the growth of records in public sequence databases.\n  4. The Chen et al. 2018 review on single-cell RNA-seq is an exceptionally useful and thorough review that is essential reading in the field. The slide shows Figure 2 which is rich in information and summarizes some of the technical aspects of single-cell RNA-seq technologies. Understanding of the details of individual protocols is essential to evaluating and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different technologies for specific applications.\n  5. Current single-cell RNA-seq technologies can be broadly classified into two groups: well-based and droplet-based technologies. The Papalexi and Satija 2017 review provides a useful high-level overview and this slide shows a part of Figure 1 from the review.\n  6. The details of the SMART-Seq2 protocol are crucial for understanding the technology. SMART is a clever acronym for Switching Mechanism At the 5′ end of the RNA Transcript. It allows the addition of an arbitrary primer sequence at the 5′ end of a cDNA strand, and thus makes full length cDNA PCR possible. It relies on the peculiar properties of the reverse transcriptase from the Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMLV), which, upon reaching the 5’ end of the template, will add a few extra nucleotides (usually Cytosines). The resultant overhang is a binding site for the “template switch oligo”, which contains three riboguanines (rGrGrG). Upon annealing, the reverse transcriptase “switches” templates, and continues transcribing the DNA oligo, thus adding a constant sequence to the 5’ end of the cDNA. After a few cycles of PCR, the full length cDNA generated is too long for Illumina sequencing (where a maximum length of 800bp is desirable). To chop it up into smaller fragments of appropriate size while simultaneously adding the necessary Illumina adapter sequences, one can can use the Illumina tagmentation Nextera™ kits based on Tn5 tagmentation. The SMART template switching idea is also used in the Drop-seq and 10x genomics technologies.\n  7. While it is difficult to rate technologies exactly on specific metrics, it is possible to identify strengths and weaknesses of distinct approaches. The SMART-Seq2 technology has a major advantage in that it produces reads from across transcripts, thereby providing “full-length” information that can be used to quantify individual isoforms of genes. However this superior isoform resolution requires more sequencing, and as a result makes the method less cost effective. Well-based methods, in general, are not as scalable as droplet methods in terms of numbers of cells assayed. Nevertheless, the tradeoffs are complex. For example robotics technologies can be used to parallelize well-based technologies, thereby increasing throughput.\n  8. The cost of a single-cell technology is difficult to quantify. Costs depend on number of cells assayed as well as number of reads sequenced, and different technologies have differing needs in terms of reagents and library preparation costs. Ziegenhain et al. 2017 provide an in-depth discussion of how to assess cost in terms of accuracy and power, and the table shown in the slide is reproduced from part of Table 1 in the paper.\n  9. A major determinant of single-cell RNA-seq cost is sequencing cost. This slide shows sequencing costs at the UC Davis Genome Center and its purpose is to illustrate numerous tradeoffs, relating to throughput, cost per base, and cost per fragment that must be considered when selecting which sequencing machine to use. In addition, sequencing time frequently depends on core facilities or 3rd party providers multiplexing samples on machines, and some sequencing choices are likely to face more delay than others.\n  10. Turning to droplet technologies based on microfluidics, two key papers are the Drop-seq and inDrops papers which were published in the same issue of a single journal in 2015. The papers went to great lengths to document the respective technologies, and to provide numerous text and video tutorials to facilitate adoption by biologists. Arguably, this emphasis on usability (and not just reproducibility) played a major role in the rapid adoption of single-cell RNA-seq by many labs over the past three years. Two other references on the slide point to pioneering microfluidics work by Rustem Ismagilov, David Weitz and their collaborators that made possible the numerous microfluidic single-cell applications that have since been developed.\n  11.  This slide displays a figure showing a monodispersed emulsion from the recently posted preprint “Design principles for open source bioinstrumentation: the poseidon syringe pump system as an example” by Booeshaghi et al., 2019. The generation of such emulsions is a prerequisite for successful droplet-based single-cell RNA-seq. In droplet based single-cell RNA-seq, emulsions act as “parallelizing agents”, essentially making use of droplets to parallelize the biochemical reactions needed to capture transcriptomic (or other) information from single-cells.\n  12. The three objects that are central to droplet based single-cell RNA-seq are beads, cells and droplets. The relevance of emulsions in connection to these objects is that the basis of droplet methods for single-cell RNA-seq is the encapsulation of single cells together with single beads in the emulsion droplest. The beads are “barcode” delivery vectors. Barcodes are DNA sequences that are associated to transcripts, which are accessible after cell lysis in droplets. Therefore, beads must be manufactured in a way that ensures that each bead is coated with the same barcodes, but that the barcodes associated with two distinct beads are different from each other.\n  13. The inDrops approach to single-cell RNA-seq serves as a useful model for droplet based single-cell RNA-seq methods. The figure in the slide is from a protocol paper by Zilionis et al. 2017 and provides a useful overview of inDrops. In panel (a) one sees a zoom-in of droplets being generated in a microfluidic device, with channels delivering cells and beads highlighted. Panel (b) illustrates how inDrops hydrogel beads are used once inside droplets: barcodes (DNA oligos together with appropriate priming sequences) are released from the hydrogel beads and allow for cell barcoded cDNA synthesis. Finally, panel (c) shows the sequence construct of oligos on the beads.\n  14. This slide is analogous to slide 6, and shows an overview of the protocols that need to be followed both to make the hydrogel beads used for inDrops, and the inDrops protocol itself.  In a clever dual use of microfluidics, inDrops makes the hydrogel beads in an emulsion. Of note in the inDrops protocol itself is the fact that it is what is termed a “3′ protocol”. This means that the library, in addition to containing barcode and other auxiliary sequence, contains sequence only from 3′ ends of transcripts (seen in grey in the figure). This is the case also with other droplet based single-cell RNA-seq technologies such as Drop-seq or 10X Genomics technology.\n  15. The significance of 3′ protocols it is difficult to quantify individual isoforms of genes from the data they produce. This is because many transcripts, while differing in internal exon structure, will share a 3′ UTR. Nevertheless, in exploratory work aimed at investigating the information content delivered by 3′ protocols, Ntranos et al. 2019 show that there is a much greater diversity of 3′ UTRs in the genome than is currently annotated, and this can be taken advantage of to (sometimes) measure isoform dynamics with 3′ protocols.\n  16. To analyze the various performance metrics of a technology such as inDrops it is necessary to understand some of the underlying statistics and combinatorics of beads, cells and drops. Two simple modeling assumptions that can be made is that the number of cells and beads in droplets are each Poisson distributed (albeit with different rate parameters). Specifically, we assume that\n    \\mathbb{P}(\\mbox{droplet has } k \\mbox{ cells}) = \\frac{e^{-\\lambda}\\lambda^k}{k!} and \\mathbb{P}(\\mbox{droplet has } k  \\mbox{ beads}) = \\frac{e^{-\\mu}\\mu^j}{j!}. These assumptions are reasonable for the Drop-seq technology. Adjustment of concentrations and flow rates of beads and cells and oil allows for controlling the rate parameters of these distributions and as a result allow for controlling numerous tradeoffs which are discussed next.\n  17. The cell capture rate of a technology is the fraction of input cells that are assayed in an experiment. Droplets that contain one or more cells but no beads will result in a lost cells whose transcriptome is not measured. The probability that a droplet has no beads is e^{-\\mu} and therefore the probability that a droplet has at least one bead is 1-e^{-\\mu}. To raise the capture rate it is therefore desirable to increase the Poisson rate \\mu which is equal to the average number of beads in a droplet. However increasing \\mu leads to duplication, i.e. cases where a single droplet has more than one bead, thus leading .a single cell transcriptome to appear as two or more cells. The duplication rate is the fraction of assayed cells which were captured with more than one bead. The duplication rate can be calculated as \\frac{\\mathbb{P}(\\mbox{droplet has 2 or more beads})}{\\mathbb{P}(\\mbox{droplet has 1 or more beads})} (which happens to be equivalent to a calculation of the probability that we are alone in the universe). The tradeoff, shown quantitatively as capture rate vs. duplication rate, is shown in a figure I made for the slide.\n  18. One way to circumvent the capture-duplication tradeoff is to load beads into droplets in a way that reduces the variance of beads per droplet. One way to do this is to use hydrogel beads instead of polystyrene beads, which are used in Drop-seq. The slide shows hydrogel beads being being captured in droplets at a reduced variance due to the ability to pack hydrogel beads tightly together. Hydrogel beads are used with inDrops. The term Sub-poisson loading refers generally to the goal of placing exactly one bead in each droplet in a droplet based single-cell RNA-seq method.\n  19. This slide shows a comparison of bead technologies. In addition to inDrops, 10x Genomics single-cell RNA-seq technology also uses hydrogel beads. There are numerous technical details associated with beads including whether or not barcodes are released (and how).\n  20. Barcode collisions arise when two cells are separately encapsulated with beads that contain identical barcodes. The slide shows the barcode collision rate formula, which is 1-\\left( 1-\\frac{1}{M} \\right)^{N-1}. This formula is derived as follows: Let p=\\frac{1}{M}. The probability that a barcodes is associated with k cells is given by the binomial formula {N \\choose k}p^k(1-p)^{N-k}. Thus, the probability that a barcode is associated to exactly one cell is Np(1-p)^{N-1} = \\frac{N}{M}\\left(1-\\frac{1}{M}\\right)^{N-1}. Therefore the expected number of cells with a unique barcode is N\\left(1-\\frac{1}{M}\\right)^{N-1} and the barcode collision rate is \\left(1-\\frac{1}{M}\\right)^{N-1}. This is approximately 1-\\left( \\frac{1}{e} \\right)^{\\frac{N}{M}}. The term synthetic doublet is used to refer to the situation when two or more different cells appear to be a single cell due to barcode collision.\n  21. In the notation of the previous slide, the barcode diversity is \\frac{N}{M}, which is an important number in that it determines the barcode collision rate. Since barcodes are encoded in sequence, a natural question is what sequence length is needed to ensure a desired level of barcode diversity. This slide provides a lower bound on the sequence length.\n  22. Technical doublets are multiple cells that are captured in a single droplet, barcoded with the same sequence, and thus the transcripts that are recorded from them appear to originate from a single-cell.  The technical doublet rate can be estimated using a calculation analogous to the one used for the cell duplication rate (slide 17), except that it is a function of the Poisson rate \\lambda and not \\mu. In the single-cell RNA-seq literature the term “doublet” generally refers to technical doublets, although it is useful to distinguish such doublets from synthetic doublets and biological doublets (slide 25).\n  23. One way to estimate the technical doublet rate is via pooled experiments of cells from different species. The resulting data can be viewed in what has become known as a “Barnyard” plot, a term originating from the Macosko et al. 2015 Drop-seq paper. Despite the authors’ original intention to pool mouse, chicken, cow and pig cells, typical validation of single-cell technology now proceeds with a mixture of human and mouse cells. Doublets are readily identifiable in barnyard plots as points (corresponding to droplets) that display transcript sequence from two different species. The only way for this to happen is via the capture of a doublet of cells (one from each species) in a single droplet. Thus, validation of single-cell RNA-seq rigs via a pooled experiment, and assessment of the resultant barnyard plot, has become standard for ensuring that the data is indeed single cell.\n  24.  It is important to note that while points on the diagonal of barnyard plots do correspond to technical doublets, pooled experiments, say of human and mouse cells, will also result in human-human and mouse-mouse doublets that are not evident in barnyard plots. To estimate such within species technical doublets from a “barnyard analysis”, Bloom 2018 developed a simple procedure that is described in this slide. The “Bloom correction” is important to perform in order to estimate doublet rate from mixed species experiments.\n  25. Biological doublets arise when two cells form a discrete unit that does not break apart during disruption to form a suspension. Such doublets are by definition from the same species, and therefore will not be detected in barnyard plots. One way to avoid biological doublets is via single nucleus RNA-seq (see, Habib et al. 2017). Single nuclear RNA-seq has proved to be important for experiments involving cells that are difficult to dissociate, e.g. human brain cells. In fact, the formation of suspensions is a major bottleneck in the adoption of single-cell RNA-seq technology, as techniques vary by tissue and organism, and there is no general strategy. On the other hand, in a recent interesting paper, Halpern et al. 2018 show that biological doublets can sometimes be considered a feature rather than a bug. In any case, doublets are more complicated than initially appears, and we have by now seen that there are three types of doublets: synthetic doublets, technical doublets, and biological doublets .\n  26. Unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) are part of the oligo constructs for beads in droplet single-cell RNA-seq technologies. They are used to identify reads that originated from the same molecule, so that double counting of such molecules can be avoided. UMIs are generally much shorter than cell barcodes, and estimates of required numbers (and corresponding sequence lengths) proceed analogously to the calculations for cell barcodes.\n  27. The sensitivity of a single-cell RNA-seq technology (also called transcript capture rate) is the fraction of transcripts captured per cell. Crucially, the sensitivity of a technology is dependent on the amount sequenced, and the plot in this slide (made by Eduardo Beltrame and Valentine Svensson by analysis of data from Svensson et al. 2017) shows that dependency.  The dots in the figure are cells from different datasets that included spike-ins, whose capture is being measured (y-axis). Every technology displays an approximately linear relationship between number of reads sequenced and transcripts captured, however each line is describe by two parameters: a slope and an intercept. In other words, specification of sensitivity for a technology requires reporting two numbers, not one.\n  28. Having surveyed the different attributes of droplet technologies, this slide summarizes some of the pros and cons of inDrops similarly to slide 7 for SMART-Seq2.\n  29. While individual aspects of single-cell RNA-seq technologies can be readily understood via careful modeling coupled to straightforward quality control experiments, a comprehensive assessment of whether a technology is “good” or “bad” is meaningless. The figure in this slide, from Zhang et al. 2019, provides a useful overview of some of the important technical attributes.\n  30. In terms of the practical question “which technology should I choose for my experiment?”, the best that can be done is to offer very general decision workflows. The flowchart shown on this slide, also from Zhang et al. 2019, is not very specific but does provide some simple to understand checkpoints to think about. A major challenge in comparing and contrasting technologies for single-cell RNA-seq is that they are all changing very rapidly as numerous ideas and improvements are now published weekly.\n  31. The technologies reviewed in the slides are strictly transcriptomics methods (single-cell RNA-seq). During the past few years there has been a proliferation of novel multi-modal technologies that simultaneously measures the transcriptome of single cells along with other modalities. Such technologies are reviewed in Packer and Trapnell 2018 and the slide mentions a few of them.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe encapsulation of beads together with cells in droplets is the basis of microfluidic based single-cell RNA-seq technologies. Ideally droplets contain exactly one bead and one cell, however in practice the number of beads and cells in droplets is stochastic and encapsulation of cells in droplets produces an approximately Poisson distribution of number of cells per droplet:\n\nSpecifically, the probability of observing k cells in a droplet is approximated by\n\n\\mathbb{P}(\\mbox{k cells in a droplet}) = \\frac{e^{-\\lambda}\\lambda^k}{k!}.\n\nThe rate parameter \\lambda can be controlled and the average number of cells per droplet is equal to it. Therefore, setting \\lambda to be much less than 1 ensures that two or more cells are rarely encapsulated in a single droplet. A consequence of this is that the number of empty droplets, given by $e^{-\\lambda}$, is large. Importantly, one of the properties of the Poisson distribution is that variance is equal to the mean so the number of cells per droplet is also equal to \\lambda.\n\nAlong with cells, beads must also be captured in droplets, and when plastic beads are used the occupancy statistics follow a Poisson distribution as well. This means that with technologies such as Drop-seq (Macosko et al. 2015), which uses polystyrene beads, many droplets are either empty, contain a bead and no cell, or a cell and no bead. The latter situation (cell and no bead) leads to a low “capture rate”, i.e. not many of the cells are assayed in an experiment.\n\nOne of the advantages of the inDrops method (Klein et al. 2015) over other single-cell RNA-seq methods is that it uses hydrogel beads which allow for a reduction in the variance of the number of beads per cell. In an important paper Abate et al. 2009 showed that close packing of hydrogel beads allows for an almost degenerate distribution where the number of beads per droplet is exactly one 98% of the time. The video below shows how close to degeneracy the distribution can be squeezed (in the example two beads are being encapsulated per droplet):\n\nA discrete distribution defined over the non-negative integers with variance less than the mean is called sub-Poisson. Similarly, a discrete distribution defined over the non-negative integers with variance greater than the mean is called super-Poisson. This terminology dates back to at least the 1940s (e.g., Berkson et al. 1942) and is standard in many fields from physics (e.g. Rodionov and Cherkin 2004) to biology (e.g. Pitchiaya et al. 2014 ).\n\n\nFigure 5.26 from Adrian Jeantet, Cavity quantum electrodynamics with carbon nanotubes, 2017.\n\nUsing this terminology, the close packing of hydrogel beads can be said to enable sub-Poisson loading of beads into droplets because the variance of beads per droplet is reduced in comparison to the Poisson statistics of plastic beads.\n\nUnfortunately, in a 2015 paper, Bose et al. used the term “super-Poisson” instead of “sub-Poisson” in discussing an approach to reducing bead occupancy variance in the single-cell RNA-seq context. This sign error in terminology has subsequently been propagated and recently appeared in a single- cell RNA-seq review (Zhang et al. 2018) and in 10x Genomics advertising materials.\n\nWhen it comes to single-cell RNA-seq we already have people referring to the number of reads sequenced as “the library size” and calling trees “one-dimensional manifolds“. Now sub-Poisson is mistaken for super-Poisson. Before you know it we’ll have professors teaching students that cell clusters obtained by k-means clustering are “cell types“…\n\n\nSupper poisson (not to be confused with super-Poisson (not to be confused with sub-Poisson)).\n\n\n\n\nScreenshot 2019-01-29 06.16.21.png\n\n\n\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 06.49.38\n\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 06.52.20\n\nHere is another exchange:\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 06.57.48\n\nApparently they are not the first to have this idea:\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 06.59.07\n\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 07.04.15\n\n\n\n\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 07.46.40\n\nReaction was swift:\n\nScreenshot 2019-01-29 07.43.33.png\n\n\n\n\nscreenshot 2019-01-29 09.31.48\n\n\n\nThe long-standing practice of data sharing in genomics can be traced to the Bermuda principles, which were formulated during the human genome project (Contreras, 2010). While the Bermuda principles focused on open sharing of DNA sequence data, they heralded the adoption of other open source standards in the genomics community. For example, unlike many other scientific disciplines, most genomics software is open source and this has been the case for a long time (Stajich and Lapp, 2006). The open principles of genomics have arguably greatly accelerated progress and facilitated discovery.\n\nWhile open sourcing has become de rigueur in genomics dry labs, wet labs remain beholden to commercial instrument providers that rarely open source hardware or software, and impose draconian restrictions on instrument use and modification. With a view towards joining others who are working to change this state of affairs, we’ve posted a new preprint in which we describe an open source syringe pump and microscope system called poseidon:\n\nA. Sina Booeshaghi, Eduardo da Veiga Beltrame, Dylan Bannon, Jase Gehring and Lior Pachter, Design principles for open source bioinstrumentation: the poseidon syringe pump system as an example, 2019.\n\nThe poseidon system consists of\n\n  • A syringe pump that can operate at a wide range of flow rates. The bulk cost per pump is $37.91. A system of three pumps that can be used for droplet based single-cell RNA-seq experiments can be assembled for $174.87\n  • A microscope system that can be used to evaluate the quality of emulsions produced using the syringe pumps. The cost is $211.69.\n  • Open source software that can be used to operate four pumps simultaneously, either via a Raspberry Pi (that is part of the microscope system) or directly via a laptop/desktop.\n\n\nTogether, these components can be used to build a Drop-seq rig for under $400, or they can be used piecemeal for a wide variety of tasks. Along with describing benchmarks of poseidon, the preprint presents design guidelines that we hope can accelerate both development and adoption of open source bioinstruments. These were developed while working on the project; some were borrowed from our experience with bioinformatics software, while others emerged as we worked out kinks during development. As is the case with software, open source is not,  in and of itself, enough to make an application usable.  We had to optimize many steps during the development of poseidon, and in the preprint we illustrate the design principles we converged on with specific examples from poseidon.\n\nThe complete hardware/software package consists of the following components:\n\nWe benchmarked the system thoroughly and it has similar performance to a commercial Harvard Apparatus syringe pump; see panel (a) below. The software driving the pumps can be used for infusion or withdrawl, and is easily customizable. In fact, the ability to easily program arbitrary schedules and flow rates without depending on vendors who frequently charge money and require firmware upgrades for basic tasks, was a major motivation for undertaking the project. The microscope is basic but usable for setting up emulsions. Shown in panel (b) below is a microfluidic droplet generation chip imaged with the microscope. Panel (c) shows that we have no trouble generating uniform emulsions with it.\n\n\nTogether, the system constitutes a Drop-seq rig (3 pumps + microscope) that can be built for under $400:\n\n\nWe did not start the poseidon project from scratch. First of all, we were fortunate to have some experience with 3D printing. Shortly after I started setting up a wet lab, Shannon Hateley, a former student in the lab, encouraged me to buy a 3D printer to reduce costs for basic lab supplies. The original MakerGear M2 we purchased has served us well saving us enormous amounts of money just as Shannon predicted, and in fact we now have added a Prusa printer:\n\n\nThe printer Shannon introduced to the lab came in handy when, some time later, after starting to perform Drop-seq in the lab, Jase Gehring became frustrated with the rigidity commercial syringe pumps he was using. With a 3D printer available in-house, he was able to print and assemble a published open source syringe pump design. What started as a hobby project became more serious when two students joined the lab: Sina Booeshaghi, a mechanical engineer, and  Eduardo Beltrame, an expert in 3D printing. We were also encouraged by the publication of a complete Drop-seq do-it-yourself design from the Satija lab. Starting with the microscope device from the Stephenson et al. paper, and the syringe pump from the Wijnen et al. paper, we worked our way through numerous hardware design optimizations and software prototypes. The photo below shows the published work we started with at the bottom, the final designs we ended up with at the top, and intermediate versions as we converged on design choices:\n\n\nIn the course of design we realized that despite a lot of experience developing open source software in the lab, there were new lessons we were learning regarding open-source hardware development, and hardware-software integration. We ended up formulating six design principles that we explain in detail in the preprint via example of how they pertained to the poseidon design:\n\nposeidon infographic\n\nWe are hopeful that these principles we adhered to will serve as useful guidelines for others interested in undertaking open source bioinstrumentation projects.\n\nBlog Stats\n\n%d bloggers like this:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7908136248588562}
+{"content": "Homeopathic Consultation and Prescription\n\nYou might be wondering what is a homeopathic consultation all about or what do you do when you visit a homeopath?\n\nDuring a homeopathic consultation, the practitioner asks several questions to the patient while attentively listening to every detail that the patient is providing.\n\nThe homeopath asks the patient certain questions about what food he/she likes to eat, what is the posture during sleep, how much do you sweat, about dreams etc.\n\nHomeopathic Consultation and Prescription\n\nHomeopathy – understanding the individual as a whole\n\nThis process enables the homeopath to understand that individual as a whole, determining what it is it that makes him unique from the others, and what sets him apart from the others with similar symptoms or disease.\n\nEach person differs from others around him/her, not particularly in appearance or age. Most importantly in the way we feel, think, react, perceive the things around us, in our temperaments, in the foods we like to eat, and also in the kind of diseases we suffer.\n\nSay if there is an epidemic, it is not a pure fact that everyone will get infected by that disease in a certain area.\n\nThis is due to the fact that each of us has our own individual reactivity with regards to diseases, bringing the fact that symptoms and rate of infection differs from one person to another.\n\nIn any situation people react differently.\n\nEven identical twins developed from a single cell can even have obvious differences in nature. These differences between individuals are identified by the homeopath as an individualizing feature for the patients situation.\n\nAn amalgam of a spiritual part\n\nHomeopaths consider man as an amalgam of a spiritual part and a material part. The material part consists of its body, the body systems, the tissues, the sovepiller uden recept and the fluids that influence its functions.\n\nThe main system being the brain while the spiritual part consists of the intangible aspect of human life governing its full function and control permeating every cell of the body—without it, the body is lifeless.\n\nThe spirit is the so-called “vital force” that also responsible for the individual’s nature and temperaments. In common knowledge, it is referred to as the “soul”, “aatma” in hindu philisophy, or “chi” in Chinese traditions.\n\nThese two essential aspects of man cannot be separated. These differences are brought about by the factors that affects an individual.\n\nA simple situation would explain these differences in people.\n\nOn a hot summer day, a group of people would gather on beaches—this is the similarity case; but on the same occasion, one person went to the beach for sunbathing, another for a cooler breeze, another one just to get a fresh glass of cold juice.\n\nThis only shows that each person acts and reacts quite differently to a single common factor—the heat.\n\nThe same also is needed for the remedy of diseases as every single person reacts quite differently to certain illnesses—thus a cold to an individual is treated quite differently to a cold of another individual.\n\n\nThis method of prescribing a cure or remedy sets homeopathy apart from conventional medicine wherein in contrary, all people having the same symptoms are treated with the same set of medicines or prescription drugs.\n\nA homeopath regards a disease as a disturbance of the “vital force”; in homeopathy, each person is regarded as a sum the symptoms he is suffering and his innermost feeling towards that disease.\n\nWith the aim of understanding each person as an individual, a homeopath will looks for certain aspects that sets that individual apart others who are having the same symptoms.\n\nLeave a Comment\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.734453558921814}
+{"content": "Tips for Better Landscape Photography\n\n\n\n\nUse a tripod\n\nIt doesn't need to be an all singing all dancing one just something sturdy. Ideally get one with the clip release legs rather than a twist release...they're just easier and quicker to set up. The beauty of a tripod is that it also allows you to slow down the shutter speed. \n\nHot Shoe Spirit Level\n\nOne of my big peeves with landscape photography is not having the horizon level. You can, of course, alter this in editing but it's always better to get it right when you take the photo. Some cameras tell you if it's straight, but failing that you can pick up a spirit level which simply slots into the hot shoe and you can make sure the camera is level. These are cheap to pick up at about £2 on eBay. \n\nSet the Aperture First\n\nWhen it comes to landscape photography it's always a good idea to set you aperture first. You can either flip the camera to 'A' mode and then the camera will sort everything else for you or in 'M' mode set the aperture then adjust the shutter speed to suit. I tend to ride up ISO but you might want to adjust this too depending on how sunny or dull the scene is. \n\nAs a rule, you should be looking for an aperture of either f/8, f/11 or f/16 for landscape photography. \n\nStep Away From the Crowds\n\nIf you're shooting with a group of people or it's a popular spot, try to step away from them and capture the scene from a different angle. While everyone else's photo will look similar your's will stand out as something different. This should help you catch people's eye. \n\nLook for Drama in the Sky\n\nIf you're including the sky in your photo, has it got enough detail and drama in it? If not then try not to include too much of it, it won't add anything to the photo. \n\nLook for a Subject in the Scene\n\nOften when taking a seascape or a landscape people just shoot out and there is nothing to draw the person into the photo. Try to find something to engage them, a boat on the water, a lonely tree in the field. These things will really help lift your photo. \n\nRemote Shutter Release\n\nKeeping the camera still whilst taking a landscape photo is vital. There are two ways you help this, the first is by setting your camera up to have a delay. When I press my shutter button there is a 2-second delay, this allows the camera to settle after I pressed the button. The other way is by using a remote shutter release, these are cheap and can be either wired or wireless. If you plan on doing long exposures then a shutter release is vital. \n\nThat is my basic tips for better landscape photography, next time I shall write one with a few more advanced tips.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7126359343528748}
+{"content": "Pictured: The galactic wreck that predicts our future… in five billion years\n\nAstronomers have created a ‘galactic train wreck’ atlas image depicting how a variety of galaxies around Earth will collide in five billion years time.\nThe collision between the Milky Way – Earth’s galaxy – and the Andromeda Galaxy is predicted to take place in between three and five billion years.\nThe ‘train wreck’ style merger of galaxies, is said by experts to reveal ‘how galaxies form, grow and evolve’.\nThe atlas of galaxy collision was created using data from NASA’s Spitzer and Galex space telescopes.\n\nGalactic 'smash-up': A montage shows three galaxy collisions in the newly-released 'train wreck' atlas\n\nThe Galex (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) telescope observes in ultraviolet light, which captures emission from hot young stars.\nSpitzer sees the infrared emission from warm dust heated by those stars, as well as from stellar surfaces.\nSome galaxies, such as the NGC 935 and the IC 1801, have already begun their galactic ‘smash-up’.\nBut the collision between Earth’s Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy is not expected to take place for several billion years.\nThe collision is likely to trigger the birth of stars from smashed together clouds of cosmic gas and dust.\nLauranne Lanz of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said: ‘This atlas is the first step in reading the story of how galaxies form, grow, and evolve.\n\nCaptured: The telescope atlas also depicted the NGC 935 and the IC 1801 galaxy collision\n\n‘We’re working with the theorists to give our understanding a reality check.\n‘Our understanding will really be tested in five billion years when the Milky Way experiences its own collision.’\nThe combined data highlight areas where stars are forming most rapidly, and together permit a more complete census of the new stars.\nIn general, galaxy collisions trigger star formation, though some mergers trigger few stars than others.\nLanz and her colleagues want to figure out what differences in physical processes cause these varying outcomes, which will help guide computer simulations of these smashups.\n\nCollision: Infrared emission dust from the M51 galaxy and ultraviolet emission was captured using the telescopes\n\n\nSpitzer Sees Crystal Rain in Infant Star Outer Clouds\n\nCosmic Fountain of Crystal Rain\nNASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope detected tiny green crystals, called olivine, thought to be raining down on a developing star. This graphic illustrates the process, beginning with a picture of the star and ending with an artist’s concept of what the crystal “rain” might look like. The top picture was taken in infrared light by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. An arrow points to the embryonic star, called HOPS-68. The middle panel illustrates how the olivine crystals are suspected to have been transported into the outer cloud around the developing star, or protostar. Jets shooting away from the protostar, where temperatures are hot enough to cook the crystals, are thought to have transported them to the outer cloud, where temperatures are much colder. Astronomers say the crystals are raining back down onto the swirling disk of planet-forming dust circling the star, as depicted in the final panel.\n\nStars Adorn Orion’s Sword\nThis image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows what lies near the sword of the constellation Orion — an active stellar nursery containing thousands of young stars and developing protostars. Many will turn out like our sun. Some are even more massive. These massive stars light up the Orion nebula, which is seen here as the bright region near the center of the image.\nTo the north of the Orion nebula is a dark filamentary cloud of cold dust and gas, over 5 light-years in length, containing ruby red protostars that jewel the hilt of Orion’s sword. These are the newest generation of stars in this stellar nursery, and include the protostar HOPS 68, where Spitzer spotted tiny green crystals in a surrounding cloud of gas.\n\nFinding Forsterite Around a Developing Star\nUsing NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have, for the first time, found signatures of silicate crystals around a newly forming protostar in the constellation of Orion. The crystals are from the olivine silicate minerals known as forsterite, and are similar to those found on the green sand beaches of Hawaii.\nThe data in the graph were taken by Spitzer’s infrared spectrograph, which sorts infrared light relative to its color, or wavelength. The characteristic spectral signatures of the crystals are shaded in green. The formation of forsterite crystals requires relatively high temperatures near 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). The crystals were not expected to beseen in the cold environment of a newly forming star (minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 130 degrees Celsius). Astronomers believe that these crystals were created near the protostar and carried up to a cold, collapsing cloud of gas and dust by jets of gas. The crystals are expected to eventually rain back down onto the protostar’s planet-forming disk, possibly to be used in the formation of comets.\n\nRead more: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20110526.html", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9560645222663879}
+{"content": "Support Russia Insider - Go Ad-Free!\n\nThe Chinese-Russian-Iranian Coalition: Washington's Nightmare\n\n\nThis article originally appeared at RT\n\nThe Moscow Conference on International Security in April was used as a venue to give notice to the US and NATO that other world powers will not let it do as it pleases.\n\n<figcaption>Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu (second right) and Iran's Minister of Defense Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan (second left) at the 4th Moscow Conference on International Security </figcaption>\n\nTalk about joint efforts between China, India, Russia and Iran against NATO expansion were augmented with plans for tripartite military talks between Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.\n\nDefense ministers and military officials from all over the world gathered on April 16 at the landmark Radisson Royal or Hotel Ukraina, one of the best pieces of Soviet architecture in Moscow, which is known as one of the “Seven Sisters” that were constructed during Joseph Stalin’s time. The two-day event hosted by the Russian Defense Ministry was the fourth annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS).\n\nCivilian and military officials from over seventy countries, including NATO members, attended. Fifteen defense ministers took part in the event. However, aside from Greece, defense ministers of NATO countries did not participate in the conference.\n\nUnlike previous years, the MCIS organizers did not send Ukraine an invitation for 2015’s confab. According to Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, “At this stage of the brutal information antagonism in regard to the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, we decided not to inflame the situation at the conference and at this stage made the decision not to invite our Ukrainian colleagues to the event.”\n\nOn a personal note, as a matter of interest I have followed these types of conferences for years, because important statements about foreign and security policies tend to come out of them. This year I was keen for the inauguration of this particular security conference. Aside from it taking place at a time where the geopolitical landscape of the globe is rapidly shifting, I was interested to see what the conference would produce since I was asked in 2014 through the Russian Embassy in Canada if I was interested in attending the IV MCIS.\n\nThe rest of the world speaks: Hearing non-Euro-Atlantic security concerns\n\nThe Moscow conference is the Russian equivalent to the Munich Security Conference held at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Germany. There, however, are critical differences between the two events.\n\nWhile the Munich Security Conference is established around Euro-Atlantic security and views global security from the ‘Atlanticist’ standpoint of NATO, the MCIS represents a much broader and diverse global perspective. It represents the rest of the non-Euro-Atlantic world’s security concerns, particularly the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Ranging from Argentina, India, and Vietnam to Egypt and South Africa. The conference at the Hotel Ukraina brought a variety of big and small players to the table whose voices and security interests, in one way or another, are otherwise undermined and ignored in Munich by US and NATO leaders.\n\nRussian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who holds the rank of a flag officer that is equal to that of a four-star general in most NATO countries, opened the conference.Also speaking and seated next to Shoigu were Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other high-ranking officials. All of them addressed Washington’s multispectral warfare that has utilized color revolutions, like EuroMaidan in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia for regime change. Shoigu cited Venezuela and China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as failed color revolutions.\n\nForeign Minister Lavrov reminded the attendees that the possibilities of a dangerous world conflict were increasing due to the lack of concern by the US and NATO for the security of others and a lack of constructive dialogue. When making his argument, Lavrov cited US President Franklin Roosevelt by saying, “There can be no middle ground here. We shall have to take the responsibility for world collaboration, or we shall have to bear the responsibility for another world conflict.” “I believe that they formulated one of the main lessons of the most devastating global conflict in history: it is only possible to meet common challenges and preserve the peace through collective, joint efforts based on respect for the legitimate interests of all partners,” he explained about what world leaders learned from the Second World War.\n\nShoigu had over ten bilateral meetings with the different defense ministers and chiefs who arrived in Moscow for the MCIS. During a meeting with the Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic, Shoigu said that Moscow considers Belgrade a reliable partner in military cooperation.\n\nFrom left: Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister, Sergei Shoigu, Defense Minister, Nikolai Patrushev, Security Council Secretary, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff, attending the 4th Moscow international security conference\n\nChinese-Russian-Iranian coalition: Washington’s nightmare\n\nThe myth that Russia is internationally isolated was shot down again during the conference, which has also resulted in some important announcements.\n\nKazakhstani Defense Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Shoigu announced that the implementation for a joint Kazakhstani-Russian air defense system had begun. This is not only indicative of the integration of the air space of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, but part of a trend. It heralded other announcements against NATO’s missile defense shield.\n\nThe most vigorous statement though was that of Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan. Brigadier-General Deghan said that Iran wanted China, India, and Russia to stand together in jointly opposing the eastward expansion of NATO and the threat posed by the alliance’s missile shield project to their collective security.\n\nDuring a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, Shoigu emphasized that Moscow’s military ties with Beijing are its \"overriding priority.” In another bilateral meeting the defense honchos of Iran and Russia confirmed that their cooperation will be part of the cornerstones of a new multipolar order and that Moscow and Tehran were in harmony in their strategic approach to the US.\n\nAfter Dehghan and the Iranian delegation met with Shoigu and their Russian counterparts, it was announced that a tripartite summit may take place between Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran. The idea was later endorsed by the Chinese delegation.\n\n\nEurasian harmony and integration challenges the US position in its “Western perch” and bridgehead in Europe and even orients US allies to act more independently.This is one of the central themes explored by my book The Globalization of NATO.\n\n\n\n\nMore or less, this is the track that the Chinese are following. Minister Wanquan flatly told the MCIS that a fair world order was needed.\n\nThe threat for the US is that a Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition could, in Brzezinski’s own words, “be a potent magnet for other states dissatisfied with the status quo.”\n\nA soldier during a military exercise involving S-300/SA 10 surface-to-air missile systems at the Ashuluk training ground, Astrakhan Region\n\nCountering the US and NATO missile shield in Eurasia\n\nA new “Iron Curtain” is being erected by Washington around China, Iran, Russia, and their allies through the US and NATO missile infrastructure. This missile network is offensive and not defensive in intent and motivation.\n\nThe Pentagon’s goal is to neutralize any defensive responses from Russia and other Eurasian powers to a US ballistic missile attack, which could include a nuclear first strike. Washington does not want to allow Russia or others to have a second strike capability or, in other words, have the ability to respond to an attack by the Pentagon.\n\nIn 2011, it was reported that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was Moscow’s envoy to NATO at the time, would be visiting Tehran to speak about the NATO missile shield project. Various reports were published, including by the Tehran Times, claiming that the governments of Russia, Iran, and China were planning on creating a joint missile shield to counter the US and NATO. Rogozin, however, refuted the reports. He said that missile defense was discussed between the Kremlin and its military allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).\n\nThe idea of defense cooperation between China, Iran, and Russia against the NATO missile shield remained afloat since 2011. Since then Iran has moved closer to becoming an observer in the CSTO, like Afghanistan and Serbia. Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran have all moved closer together too due to issues like Syria, EuroMaidan, and the Pentagon’s “Pivot to Asia.” Deghan’s calls for a collective approach by China, India, Iran, and Russia against the missile shield and the NATO expansion coupled with the announcements at the MCIS about tripartite military talks between China, Iran, and Russia point in this direction too.\n\n\n\nAlthough it has been speculated that the sale of the S-300 systems to Iran mark the start of an international arms sales bonanza from Tehran as a result of the Lausanne talks and that Moscow is trying to have a competitive edge in a reopening the Iranian market, in reality the situation and motivations are much different. Even if Tehran buys different quantities of military hardware from Russia and other foreign sources, it has a policy of military self-sufficiency and primarily manufactures its own weapons. A whole series of military hardware — ranging from tanks, missiles, combat jets, radar detectors, rifles, and drones to helicopters, torpedoes, mortar shells, warships, and submarines — are made domestically inside Iran.The Iranian military even contends that their Bavar-373 air defense system is more or less the equivalent of the S-300.\n\nMoscow’s delivery of the S-300 package to Tehran is more than just about unpretentious business. It is meant to cement Russo-Iranian military cooperation and to enhance Eurasian cooperation against Washington’s encircling missile shield. It is one step closer to the creation of a Eurasian air defense network against the missile threat posed by the US and NATO against nations that dare not bend the knee to Washington.\n\nSupport Russia Insider - Go Ad-Free!\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.505500316619873}
+{"content": "Curriculum History of the United States - Essay Example\n\nComments (0) Cite this document\nThis essay functions to analyze the major shifts in curriculum development within the United States and situates the analysis within the way institutions have influenced curriculum developments, as well as the way society has altered its perceptions on the changing role of the…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nGRAB THE BEST PAPER92.5% of users find it useful\nCurriculum History of the United States\nRead TextPreview\n\nExtract of sample \"Curriculum History of the United States\"\n\nDownload file to see previous pages tes formal education system experienced a relative period of stabilization that allowed institutions to come together under a common ideal (Zais 1976). Even as curriculum development began to gain structured form, initial developments occurred through the gradual accumulation of diverse subjects: mathematics was followed by an array of sciences, including botany, anatomy, physics, astronomy, and geology. Soon after this subjects for non-college bounds students were added, such as typewriting, woodworking, and metallurgy. However, the ultimate array of subjects remained haphazard, unlike the well-structured form it progressively attained.\nRecognizing the haphazard curriculum, in 1892 a famous committee was formed to help add structure to the loosely formed curriculum. The group was termed the Committee of Ten and was headed by the President of Harvard at the time – Charles Eliot. The committee understood that the unstructured format of the current education system was pernicious to societal development, so they set out to bring order to the chaos (Zais 1976). Eliot and the committee determined that the greatest means to accomplish this would be to have the curriculum adhere to the already established college structure and function solely to prepare students for higher education. As a result, the core courses that had come together immediately after the Civil War were kept and substantiated, yet the elements of the curriculum designed for students not college-bound was discarded as unnecessary. Historians and educational theorists regard this last point as especially relevant to the changing view of learners over time, as its underlining assumption was that these core courses, even if they didn’t target specific vocational aspects of the learner’s development, would have the ultimate benefit in preparing them intellectually for whatever task they undertook.\nEven as these earlier curriculum formulations considered the development of the human, it wasn’t ...Download file to see next pagesRead More\nCite this document\n  • APA\n  • MLA\n(“Curriculum History of the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)\n  • Cited: 0 times\nComments (0)\nClick to create a comment or rate a document\n\nCHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Curriculum History of the United States\n\nHistory of the United States\n\n...History of the United s Presently, it is irrefutable the freedom and diverse privileges, which the US natives are enjoying emanated from the toil of the past freedom icons. This started with the testing of FDR leadership, which according to history; it is an essential landmark in all the American regimes, since it made a significant impact and saved the state from severe influence of the communist. Mainly, this was via economic stability where it faced the utter pangs of Great Depression coupled with civil war incidences, but he managed to make the America one entity. Hence, came with the term “United states” that has persisted to date,...\n6 Pages(1500 words)Essay\n\nUnited States history film\n\n3 Pages(750 words)Essay\n\nUnited States History\n\n... United s History Trace the development of Spain New World Empire and explain why the Spanish conquistadores were able to conquer large portions of the America.  For 350 years, Spain ruled the vast empire the Spanish conquistadors had established. Queen Isabella of Spain supported Christopher Columbus, a Genoese explorer in his quest to explore the world. He arrived in Bahamas and made voyages to the new world before dying in 1506. This opened way for more explorers that are Spanish. The Spanish conquistadors conquered large empires in the New World. The Spanish colonizers had superior military technology and advanced military tactics that enabled them to form alliances with local tribes and carry out surprising attacks to conquer... ....\n5 Pages(1250 words)Essay\n\nUnited States history\n\n...United s History: Although We Think of Democracy as America's Key Feature, Capitalism has Played a Much Greater Role in Defining American Foreign Policy Since 1865 2007 United States History: Although We Think of Democracy as America's Key Feature, Capitalism has Played a Much Greater Role in Defining American Foreign Policy Since 1865 The issue of democracy in America in general is one which has been debated on and about for ages, and the matter of whether or not capitalism has played a larger role in the defining of American foreign policy when compared to democracy is one which is incredibly significant and relevant...\n5 Pages(1250 words)Essay\n\nHistory - United States History 1865\n\n...1. Discuss the reasons for America's rise as a world power from 1865-1895 and the events that led to the Spanish War of 1898. Then discuss the of the war and its impact on United States foreign policy. The scenario then was that American newspapers approached the events which led to the war. For Yellow journalists, trouble in Cuba meant another chance for sensational stories, excitement and adventure. The Cuban Island, principal remnant of once great Spanish empire in the western hemisphere had been of several revolts in the first half century from 1868 to1878 there had been constant turmoil. Expansion of Cuban sugar industry had then brought a measure of prosperity and a dwindling of the independent...\n3 Pages(750 words)Essay\n\nUnited States History\n\n...United s History The purpose of this paper is to discuss four distinct topics related to American history and American political history. The format that this paper will utilize is to first identify the question then spend one page answering each of the four questions. Q#1) Discuss Pres. Johnsons great Society program. What were some of the successes? What were some of the failures? A#1) The Great Society was a set of programs with two ultimate goals related to the poverty reduction initiatives and addressing racial injustice. Ultimately the goal was to create a great society that aimed at eliminating the troubles of the poor and racially marginalized peoples. In relation...\n4 Pages(1000 words)Essay\n\nUnited States History\n\n...United s History Out of all of the events that marked the twentieth century, World War II and the Holocaust stand out the most. While America may not have been feeling the same effects that the prejudice-driven Holocaust countries had been, we still faced the war that went along with it, and later the aftermath of the Holocaust, which effected us like any other. Furthermore, the events of those horrific years marred not only the countries overseas, but our own country as well. Even though the United States played a more passive role during the Holocaust years, we were still involved in the era as much as Germany had been. World War II had already been underway when the...\n4 Pages(1000 words)Essay\n\nUnited States History\n\n.... Charters were given to different states and they defined the relationship between the parent country and the colony without any direct involvement. The whole governance, with the exception of a few things was based on these colonial charters. These charters were also responsible for great historical developments. These include the revolutionary era in which some of the terms of the charter actually increased fuel to the fire. Also during the latter part of the seventeenth century, these charters were considered as an unnecessary hindrance and were put to an end only to be replaced by royal provinces. 2) What beliefs and ideas that Americans often take for granted today were in their infancy in colonial Massachusetts?...\n2 Pages(500 words)Assignment\n\nHistory of united states\n\n..., they showed bravery and fought relentlessly to achieve freedom for the country’s benefit. The civil war remains one of a kind as the soldiers fought out of will to liberate America (Moriarty 90). Work cited Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Print. Ayers, Edward L, and Edward L. Ayers. American Passages. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Blatt, Martin H, Thomas J. Brown, Donald Yacovone, and Colin L. Powell. Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. Amherst, Mass: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009. Print. Blight, David W. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States....\n8 Pages(2000 words)Essay\n\nUnited States History\n\n...United s History In the year 1600 in New Mexico and Arizona, the members of Franciscan order belonging from the Spanish settlement present in Mexico, established their mission in the areas of the Hopi Indian tribe. San Bernardino which is considered to be the first permanent mission was established at Awatobi in the year 1629. In the year 1607, after spending five months at the sea, three ships that were being led by Captain Christopher Newport reached the Cape Henry which is present on Virginia Coast. The Godspeed, the Susan Constant and the Discovery later moved to James River which led them to Jamestown Island. Jamestown later became the first English settlement in United...\n6 Pages(1500 words)Essay\nsponsored ads\n\nLet us find you another Essay on topic Curriculum History of the United States for FREE!\n\nContact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8234817981719971}
+{"content": "Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\nDownload Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\nPost on 03-Jun-2018\n\n\n\n\n0 download\n\nEmbed Size (px)\n\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n    This volume in the IPIECA report series\n\n    was prepared under contract by the Sea Alarm Foundation\n\n    (Director: Hugo Nijkamp) and was funded by contributions\n\n    from BP, Total and IPIECA. During the writing process,\n\n    many organizations and individuals provided support, and\n\n    their contributions are acknowledged on page 48.\n\n    The document represents a unique stage on the road to\n\n    integrated, consistent, oiled wildlife contingency planning,\n\n    and has required many disparate organizations and agencies\n\n    to reach a consensus on best practices, techniques and\n\n    approaches for oiled wildlife response. The result is a tribute\n\n    to the flexibility and cooperation of all the contributors,\n\n    as well as the Sea Alarm Foundation for creating an\n\n    environment in which this could occur.\n\n    Chris Morris\n\n    General Secretary, IPIECA\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association\n\n    5th Floor, 209215 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NL, United Kingdom\n\n    Telephone: +44 (0)20 7633 2388 Facsimile: +44 (0)20 7633 2389\n\n    E-mail: info@ipieca.org Internet: www.ipieca.org\n\n\n\n    recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the copyright holders.\n\n    This publication is printed on paper manufactured from fibre obtained from sustainably grown softwood\n\n    forests and bleached without any damage to the environment.\n\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    Despite the steady reduction in the frequency and volume of oil spills over the\n\n    past decade, an oiling incident may occur, without warning, anywhere in the\n\n    world. The problem caused can be acute, e.g. from a damaged oil tanker, or\n\n    chronic, resulting from an ongoing release and accumulation of oil. Regardless of\n\n    the source or size of the incident, there is every likelihood that, as a result of a\n\n    significant release of oil, there will be wildlife casualties. In some instances there\n\n    may be a warning about the impending threat; in others none at all, the first\n\n    evidence that something is wrong being the appearance of oiled wildlife casualties\n\n    on the beaches. Whether the numbers of oiled casualties are few or counted in\n\n    tens of thousands, the problem needs to be dealt with, both from a humanitarian\n\n    and a conservation perspective.\n\n    Animals suffering from oil exposure or contamination need prompt and\n\n    appropriate treatment, ranging from rehabilitation to euthanasia. Dead animals can\n\n    reveal important information and need to be collected in a systematic way to allow\n\n    for an impact assessment. Wildlife mortality can mobilize a myriad of groups and\n\n    individuals, some of whom will assist while others will hinder rehabilitation efforts\n\n    through protest. The media will tend to pay disproportionate attention to thewildlife problem in an oil spill incident.\n\n    When wildlife is impacted or threatened it is essential that a wildlife response\n\n    plan designed to meet pre-spill defined objectives in a timely, effective and efficient\n\n    way can be implemented immediately.\n\n    The importance of wildlife response planning is increasingly understood,\n\n    creating a need for information and guidance.\n\n    This Guide provides an overview of the different components of oiled wildlife\n\n    response. It focuses on critical planning issues and response options. The aim is to\n\n    provide a useful reference document for oil spill managers, government officials,\n\n    and industry representatives who may be called upon to make important decisionsregarding the fate of wildlife in the immediate aftermath of an oil spill.\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n\n\n    Accidental oil spills, including oil tanker spills, non-tanker ship spills, pipelines,\n\n    oil production platforms and tank farms, may cause serious problems for coastal\n\n    and marine wildlife, especially birds, mammals and reptiles. On a worldwide\n\n    scale, oiled wildlife incidents occur less frequently than oil spill incidents, simply\n\n    because not every oil spill causes a wildlife problem. However, if a wildlife\n\n    problem does occur as a consequence of the oil spill incident, the success of oiled\n\n    wildlife rehabilitation, and an adequate assessment of environmental impacts,\n\n    will depend on a comprehensive wildlife response plan.\n\n    Animals soaked in oil arriving on beaches tend to receive a lot of attention in the\n\n    media and evoke an emotional reaction from the public, especially, if endangered\n\n    species are involved, or if a unique and internationally protected habitat is\n\n    threatened. Even a relatively small oil spill may attract international attention,\n\n    especially if wildlife populations of high conservation value are impacted.\n\n    Authorities responsible for critical habitats will be very sensitive to the year-\n\n    round risks threatening those, as well as protected species. They may be\n\n    confronted with an incident of scale and scope which exceeds their\n\n    administration capability. All wildlife stakeholders need to be prepared for\n\n    plausible worst case situations.\n\n    What are the key features of an effective oiled wildlife response?\n\n    l. Responders working safely.\n\n    2. Joint primary aims of the response to mitigate the impacts on wildlife welfare\n\n    and conservation values threatened or impacted by the oil spill event.\n\n    3. Systematic objective data collection to facilitate impact studies where legislative\n\n    and compensation regimes mandate such assessments.\n\n    4. Responsible utilization of resources, and auditable documentation of costs.\n\n    5. Cooperative and collaborative inclusion of wildlife and environmental\n\n    stakeholders in planning and operations.\n\n    6. Utilization of widely accepted protocols and practices.\n\n    7. Minimization of the environmental impact of the wildlife response activities.\n\n    8. Adherence to legal permitting requirements for wildlife interactions, including\n\n    capture, holding, marking and release of wildlife.\n\n    9. Wildlife response integrated into wider oil spill response effort.\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n    A G U I D E T O O I L E D W I L D L I F E R E S P O N S E P L A N N I N G\n\n\n    The planning of an effective oiled wildlife response needs serious attention and\n\n    will require the inputs and cooperation of, for example, administrators, oiled\n\n    wildlife response experts, oil spill response experts and relevant stakeholders.\n\n    Owners of the wildlife response plans will need to test them through regular\n\n    exercises and during incidents, and improve them through continual review.\n\n    This document aims to provide guidance for local stakeholders for the\n\n    preparation of a functional and successful wildlife response plan.\n\n    It should not, however, be considered a blueprint that can be copied to any\n\n    situation. Rather it is a rich source of information that can provide insight into\n\n    the critical elements of a well organized, efficient oiled wildlife response in its\n\n    broadest sense, and which provides some practical guidelines for the\n\n    development of an effective plan.\n\n    The first chapters of thisGuide\n\n    provide a general introduction to a wildlife\n\n    response. TheEffects of Oil on Wildlife (page 5) describes the physical and\n\n    population impacts on mammals, birds and reptiles that are exposed to spilt oil.\n\n    Resources at Risk (page 8) describes how one can identify at local levels the species\n\n    at risk from oil pollution, and describes how key information can best be\n\n    presented in a response plan. The case that oiled wildlife response is not limited\n\n    to the rehabilitation of animals is explained in Objectives of Oiled Wildlife Response\n\n    (page 10) which also deals with some of the ethical dilemmas of a response to\n\n    oiled wildlife.Response Activities(page 13) covers the activities typically employed\n\n    in an oiled wildlife response, and describes the facilities that are needed.\n\n    Operational Aspects(page 22) deals with the issues critical to the successfuloperation of an effective and cost-efficient response, andHealth and Safety\n\n    (page 30) emphasizes the risks to response personnel of injury and infection from\n\n    wildlife, and how to minimize them. The final chapter,Response Planning\n\n    (page 32) provides some guidelines for the planning process, and details critical\n\n    issues to be addressed.\n\n    A volunteer with an oiled bird\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n\n\n    When oil spills occur, there is likely to be an immediate impact on the environment\n\n    and the wildlife present. Birds may be perceived by the media as the highest\n\n    priority for response attention, but other groups of animals, including invertebrates,\n\n    fish, reptiles and mammals, can also be affected. Currently, active rescue and\n\n    rehabilitation efforts are only considered for birds, mammals and reptiles.\n\n    Specific effects of oil on wildlife vary depending on species vulnerability, the\n\n    chemistry of the specific petroleum product or mixture, weather, time of contact,\n\n    weathering of oil and many other factors. In general however, effects can be\n\n    divided into those that are due to the toxicity of the various components of the\n\n    oil in question and those due to the physical effects resulting from contact with\n\n    the product. Across species, direct contact with oil may cause burns, and\n\n    irritation of skin, eyes and mucous membranes. Ingestion may cause disruption\n\n    of the gastro-intestinal and immune response systems along with damage to\n\n    organs such as the liver and kidneys. Inhalation may lead to respiratory and\n\n    neurological damage/disorders. Secondary effects related to captivity should not\n\n    be overlooked and may include pressure sores, damage to feathers or skin, lack of\n\n    appetite and spread of infectious diseases. Every effort should be made to avoid\n\n    these secondary effects and minimize the time animals spend in captivity.\n\n\n    The first, and often most important, effect on birds is external contamination of\n\n    the feathers from contact with oil. This can cause a disruption of the delicate\n\n    feather structure which traps warm air next to the body and keeps cold air and\n\n    water away from the skin. Oil contact temporarily disrupts this intricate structure\n\n    of barbs and barbules, thus interfering with the birds ability to thermo-regulate.Most animals in these circumstances quickly become hypothermic (or\n\n    hyperthermic) and will seek shelter to stay alive. Those reaching shore are often\n\n    unable to find food, because of the individuals inability to return to the sea to\n\n    feed. They become dehydrated and hypoglycaemic and are prone to predation.\n\n    The internal effects of oil come mainly from ingestion through preening,\n\n    feeding on oiled prey or vegetation, or drinking contaminated water. Such\n\n    effects can be from the physical presence of oil in the gastro-intestinal tract, as\n\n    well as the absorption of poisonous components of the petroleum product such\n\n    as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).\n\n    A Common Guillemot oiled on the beach\n\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n\n\n    Dehydration may result from decreased food consumption, increased metabolic\n\n    demand due to hypothermia or hyperthermia, fluid loss through diarrhoea and\n\n    decreased absorption due to irritation in the gastro-intestinal tract.\n\n    Gastro-intestinal impacts may include general irritation, ulceration and\n\n    destruction of the microstructure of the actual tract. Ingestion of oil may also have\n\n    toxic effects on the liver and other organs through detoxification and excretion of\n\n    PAH metabolites, as well as leading to anaemia and suppressed immune system\n\n    function by destruction and/or decreased production of avian blood cells. It\n\n    should be noted that dehydration, starvation and stress may all contribute to\n\n    anaemia and immuno-depression, and that the relationships between lesions on\n\n    major organs in birds and hydrocarbons are not entirely clear.\n\n    Inhalation of volatile fumes can damage lungs and cause inhalant pneumonias, as\n\n    well as neurological impairment such as ataxia. Long-term effects may include\n\n    decreased reproduction through altered breeding behaviour, as well as adverse\n\n    effects on eggs and embryos and impaired growth/malformations of hatchlings.\n\n\n    Many of the effects on mammals are similar to those on birds. While many\n\n    marine mammals depend on a layer of blubber to insulate them and maintain\n\n    body temperature in a cold environment, some species, such as otters and fur\n\n    seals, depend upon their fur in a similar fashion to birds dependence on their\n\n    feathers. Oil can coat the fur on these animals and collapse the layer of air\n\n    trapped within, quickly leading to hypothermia or hyperthermia as well as\n\n    affecting their ability to swim. It also causes irritation to the eyes and skin, and\n\n    ingestion or inhalation may damage the liver and kidneys as well as lead to\n\n    External effects, e.g.\n\n    fur/feather damage\n\n    skin irritation\n\n\n    decreased foraging\n\n    Population changes, e.g.\n\n    decreased abundance\n\n    population shiftsdecreased genetic diversity\n\n    General internal effects, e.g.\n\n    organ damage\n\n    gastrointestinal irritation\n\n    hematological changes\n\n    Reproductive effects, e.g.\n\n    abnormal behaviour\n\n    decreased fertility\n\n    embryo malformation/death\n\n    juvenile malformation/death\n\n    Figure 1\n\n    The effects of oil on animals and theirpopulations\n\n  • 8/12/2019 Vol13 Oiled Wildlife 1198.35KB\n\n\n    E F F E C T S O F O I L O N W I L D L I F E\n\n\n    pneumonia. Adult seals do have the ability to metabolize and excrete some oil\n\n    through the liver and kidneys but this is less developed in the young and is not\n\n    effective in cases of high exposure.\n\n    During theExxon Valdez and Braeroil spills, a number of seals were exposed to oil\n\n    and a range of effects noted, for example, harbour seals (Phoca vitullina) exposed\n\n    to oil changed their behaviour, with many becoming lethargic and unusually\n\n    tame, allowing close approach. On necropsy (animal autopsy), some of these\n\n    animals showed lesions in the brain. Both harbour and grey seals (Halichoerus\n\n    grypus) showed respiratory distress. Clinical signs included conjunctivitis, corneal\n\n    ulcers, skin ulceration and bleeding of the gastro-intestinal tract and lungs.\n\n    There is little documented evidence of effects of oiling on whales. Increased\n\n    mortality and stranding rates sometimes happen during oil spill events but,\n\n    normally, a link to oiling is difficult to make. Nevertheless, inhalation of oil\n\n    droplets and fumes is a potential risk, if whales surface to breathe in a slick.\n\n    It should be noted that Phocidae (true seals) can tolerate a degree of oiling on", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.879012405872345}
+{"content": "Prescient in a Sentence 🔊\n\nDefinition of Prescient\n\nhaving or showing knowledge of events before they take place\n\nExamples of Prescient in a sentence\n\nThe psychic's predictions were uncannily prescient and ended up proving true a few weeks later. 🔊\n\nIt seems that the weather man’s forecasts were prescient since it rained all weekend just like predicted.  🔊\n\nExtraordinarily prescient, the 1905 book accurately predicted what is going on in today’s times. 🔊\n\nOther words in the Intelligent category:\n\nMost Searched Words (with Video)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5475428700447083}
+{"content": "John Maynard Keynes Predicts Disaster-II\n\nLead: As part of the British delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference after World War One, John Maynard Keynes became increasingly disenchanted with the hostile attitude of the allies toward Germany.\n\nIntro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: the conference was driven by three main leaders: Lloyd George of Great Britain, Clemenceau of France, and Wilson of the United States. The conference is needed to deal the divisions in Europe after four years of terrible fighting. It failed miserably.\n\nJohn Maynard Keynes Predicts Disaster-I\n\nLead: Known primarily for his groundbreaking work on economics during the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes first gained international renown after the World War I Versailles Peace Conference.\n\nIntro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: Keynes was born in the early 1880s to an academic family in Cambridge England. He studied at Eaton and then at King's College, Cambridge. He graduated with first-class honors in mathematics, but ironically tested poorly on economics. After university Keynes became a civil servant, working on currency issues at Britain's India Office.\n\nRobert Owen II\n\nLead: Beginning in 1800, Welsh social reformer and industrialist, Robert Owen, tried to improve the lives of his Scottish mill workers. It was a great success that led to a great failure at the same time.\n\nIntro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: Entrepreneur, radical philosopher, educator, and visionary Robert Owen made a fortune in the cotton industry. Owen believed that improved living and working conditions for his employees would bring them out of poverty and increase their overall productivity and his profits. This directly refuted the classical economists, particularly David Riccardo, whose so-called “iron law of wages,” asserted that raising wages did no good. If you raise pay and improve shop and living conditions, workers get optimistic and just have more children, which means more workers and less money to pay them. Wages just go back down.  \n\nRead more →\n\nBruce Barton and Christian Capitalism\n\nLead: A preacher’s son in awe of his father’s philosophy, Bruce Barton combined hard work, consumer based advertising, liberal Protestantism and liberal Republican politics into the gospel of Christian Capitalism.\n\nIntro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts\n\nContent: From his father Barton learned the value of hard work. Though his family was a prosperous one, he was expected to work his way through college, first Berea, and then graduation from Amherst. He first tried journalism, but soon moved into advertising and became the founder of one of the most successful and prominent agencies, BBDO, with his partners Alex Osborn, Roy Durstine, and George Batten. Barton brought his clergyman father’s values of individual hard work and the virtue of prosperity. Consumers were encouraged to purchase more of their desires because it stimulated in them diligence and ambition.\n\nKeynes vs Hayek IV\n\n\n\nIntro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\n\nKeynes v. Hayek III\n\nLead: John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich August Hayek are often arrayed at either end of a vast intellectual divide, but in reality they had virtual agreement on a remarkable range of economic theories.\n\nIntro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: Despite the near adoration with which Hayek is held in conservative and libertarian circles, he was no lover of laissez-faire economics or advocate of an indolent or passive state, an idea much associated with 19th century classical liberalism. Recognizing that modern economies and societies had irrevocably reached a mixed solution to the marketplace that required state participation and state/private collaboration, he once argued against the idea that the state should be inert. He said, “In no system that could be rationally defended would the state just do nothing.” In fact, he understood that the government would play a role in the economy by providing those services that the free market could not create by itself. Hayek allowed the government to regulate safe working conditions, prevent pollution and fraud, and create a safety net in which citizens receive minimal food, shelter, and clothing.\n\n\nKeynes v. Hayek II\n\nLead: The work of Friedrich August Hayek represented an acute, powerful intellectual rebellion against the growing power of state involvement in the lives of citizens and commerce, but he was no classical liberal.\n\nIntro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: Adherents to the Austrian approach to economics and its champion, Ludwig von Mises, rose to intellectually challenge the rise of the state, particularly the two great experiments in state dominance over individual life and the marketplace, Communism and Nazism. Von Mises’s most influential acolyte was Nobel Memorial Laureate Friedrich August Hayek. His premier insight in political economy was that as the involvement of the state grew, the reach of individual freedom was circumscribed and the productive, creative contribution of the marketplace to the general prosperity of society as a whole was compromised.\n\n\nKeynes v. Hayek I\n\nLead: They represent two distinct approaches to political economy. John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich August von Hayek are perhaps the most influential economists of the modern era.\n\nIntro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.\n\nContent: Lord Bertrand Russell, himself no slouch among the intelligentsia of the 20th century, said John Maynard Keynes’s “intellect was the sharpest and clearest that I have ever known. When I argued with him, I felt that I took my life in my hands, and I seldom emerged without feeling something of a fool.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6600061655044556}
+{"content": "\n\nRite Aid Store #6108 And The Leadership Of Jeffery Pidlypchak\n\n4576 words - 19 pages\n\nRite Aid Store #6108 and the Leadership of Jeffery Pidlypchak\n\nC200 Managing Organizations and Leading People\n\nSeptember 10th, 2014\nRite Aid Store #6108 and the Leadership of Jeffery Pidlypchak\nRite Aid Corporation is one of the leading pharmacy chains in America. The company operates approximately 4600 stores in 31 states, with a dominate presence on the east coast, and holds a status of being the nation’s third largest pharmacy retail chain (Our Story, n.d.). Store number 6108, located in Truckee, California is one of 25 stores in the district located in the Sierra Nevada’s and Sacramento area. The Truckee Rite Aid is the second highest grossing store in the district and has ...view middle of the document...\n\nAll three primary leadership practices are connected and dependent on one another. To effectively run the store Jeff must plan monthly, weekly, and daily tasks and objectives. The store manager must then prioritize these objectives and tasks and communicate daily goals as well as a long term vision of the main objectives and accomplishments for the store. Once daily goals have been determined Mr. Pidlypchak determines which tasks he must do and assigns other tasks to the appropriate associate to complete. The ability to complete daily tasks and meet long term goals is highly dependent upon having the right associates available to perform them. In a small town with limited recruitment tactics it can be challenging to find employees, namely suitable employees, that are both motivated to work and available during key hours to provide customer service and complete tasks. Jeff’s primary role in this process is hiring employees, and developing them to promote when needed to fill higher level positions such as supervisor and assistant manager roles.\nStore Manager’s Effect on Organizational Culture\nJeff Pidlypchak became the store manager of Rite Aid number 6108 approximately 4 years ago. His leadership style was a drastic change from the previous store manager. Jeff had different priorities, different long-term goals for the store, and a very different approach in managing employees to achieve these goals. During his management the turnover rate of associates has increased. Albeit, the increase in turnover rate was partially caused by the introduction of an Asset Protection Agent to the store which caused further associate terminations after dishonesty was discovered during investigations. Associate morale has always been a challenge within this store, but it has decreased at certain times during Jeff’s management. This is largely due to an inappropriate communication style in certain situations, often referred to as bullying by many associates, and unrealistic expectations of what associates can get accomplished within certain time periods while also being responsible for customer service and tendering sales. Jeff has a great ability to motivate a team of associates during certain key processes, such as stocking the shelves on load day. Mr. Pidlypchak can also communicate the company’s stated visions when change is occurring that will benefit the store’s production and the associates’ workload. However, while certain portions of the company’s vision are communicated Jeff often fails to point out benefits of change to associates. Implementing larger corporate mandated changes is often a tumultuous process at this store because the store manager fails to communicate, train, or include associates in during certain parts of the changing process. This leads to a further decrease in morale. As store manager, Jeff has a larger view of the store, and often does not pay attention to minor details. While this does hinder some processes on a small level,...\n\nOther Papers Like Rite Aid Store #6108 and the Leadership of Jeffery Pidlypchak\n\nThe Rite Of Passage In The Catcher In The Rye\n\n1172 words - 5 pages and A Separate Peace The rite of passage, according to Encarta, is an event or act that marks a significant transition in a human life usually referring to adulthood (Online 1). In many Indian tribes, ceremonies were held for youths trying to pass a series of tests in order to become an adult, many times the tests? involve a display of physical prowess. In Western Civilization reaching a rite of passage into adulthood can occur in many ways. The\n\nEvaluation of the Multi-Store Model Essay\n\n\n\n2005 words - 9 pages ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND LEGAL AID FOR REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS; WHAT CAN THE JUDICIARY DO? Introduction Asylum seekers, regardless of their immigration status, are human beings, with fundamental and basic rights, needs and aspirations. Refugees and asylum seekers are a diverse group with one thing in common; they are subject to forced migration, and are fleeing from persecution in their countries of origin. A refugee is defined as any person\n\nIn What Ways May Disagreement Aid the Pursuit of Knowledge in the Natural and Human Sciences?\n\n1616 words - 7 pages young children, I had an epiphany that if our global society followed this childish outlook on the world, the world and the education system wouldn’t be the same. I will elaborate upon two possible perspectives towards this question; either you believe that disagreement does aid the pursuit of knowledge or you believe that it doesn’t. I will demonstrate both perspectives by analyzing how the roles of logic and emotion help gain new knowledge in\n\nThe Effects of War and Peace on Foreign Aid in Somalia\n\n1280 words - 6 pages Different kinds of computer Technology within law enforcement and courts Cover page Abstract Law enforcement units and courts have made advanced technologies in crime detection and prevention. The past technologies mainly used were mainly aviation technology such as use of planes and helicopters and biometrics. The new computer technologies involve use of crime lights, in-car camera systems, graffiti cameras, thermal imaging, lasers\n\n\n\nThe Leadership and Legacy of Florence Nightingale\n\n1232 words - 5 pages The Leadership and Legacy of Florence Nightingale Pamela Passmore Theoretical Foundations of Nursing Roles and Practice/510 01/11/2015 Dolores Diehl The Leadership and Legacy of Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. Her contributions and influence not only to the nursing profession, but to the public health care system, is unparalleled. She was instrumental in establishing\n\nDescribe and Evaluate the Multi-Store Memory Model\n\n\nAssess the Arguments and Evidence for and Against the View That Foreign Aid Is an Obstacle to the Development of the Majority World. (33 Marks)\n\n644 words - 3 pages they need to overcome in order to reach the take off stage into idustrialisation in his ladder of development. For them to go up the ladder and get to the take off stage they need technology, infrastructure, industry, education and health. To be able to achieve this, Rostow claims that the investments from the developed countries are essential. Rober Cassens study of bilateral aid showed that aid does help as its effective in improving railways\n\nThe Importance of Leadership\n\n1813 words - 8 pages | The Importance Of Leadership | Theory & Concepts | | The definition of leadership and a look into the classical leadership theories and concepts. | | Toni James | 10/29/2012 | | Contents Introduction p.2 Defining Leadership p.2, 3 Introducing Theory and Concepts p.3 Traits Theory p.3, 4 Behaviour Theories p.5, 6 Contingency theory p.5 Transactional and Transformational Theory p.5, 6 Conclusion p\n\nThe Art of Leadership\n\n1011 words - 5 pages Clayton Moore December 7, 2012 The Art of Leadership Marcus Chaney Leadership I have played football my whole life so I have been around a lot of leadership and developed some of my own leadership skills. I have always felt like I was a pretty good leader, but after this semester I have greatly improved on many of my leadership skills. Although I still have some weaknesses when it comes to leadership, this semester has helped me learn a\n\nRelated Essays\n\nThe Effects Of War And Peace On Foreign Aid\n\n\nOutline And Explain The Mutli Store Model Of Memory\n\n\nDescribe And Evaluate The Multi Store Model Of Memory\n\n\nOutline And Evaluate The Multi Store Model Of Memory\n\n531 words - 3 pages Outline and evaluate the multi store model of memory (12 marks) Information from the environment is transferred through one of our five senses into the sensory memory (encoded depending on the type of information we receive). The sensory memory is a store suggested to be large in capacity but the duration the information is held for is the problem, lasting only fractions of a second. When attention is paid to information it enters the short", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9647441506385803}
+{"content": "Lunge Pass Through\n\n\nLunge Pass Through Images\n\n\nLunge Pass Through Instructions\n\nLunge Pass Through muscle diagram\n\n  1. Stand with your torso upright holding a kettlebell in your right hand. This will be your starting position.\n  2. Step forward with your left foot and lower your upper body down by flexing the hip and the knee, keeping the torso upright. Lower your back knee until it nearly touches the ground.\n  3. As you lunge, pass the kettlebell under your front leg to your opposite hand.\n  4. Pressing through the heel of your foot, return to the starting position.\n  5. Repeat the movement for the recommended amount of repetitions, alternating legs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8376587629318237}
+{"content": "PhotoThough many feelings and experiences from childhood carry over into adulthood, particularly those that are traumatic or stressful, a new study found that a strong parental figure can help allay those feelings over the long term.\n\nResearchers from the Emory School of Medicine explored the way a parental figure, or different parenting styles, can affect children’s responses to stress, though the results were most promising for younger children.\n\n\nManaging stress\n\nThe researchers performed a two-part experiment, with one part focusing solely on the children’s responses and the other focusing on mothers and their children working together. In both trials, the researchers used an fMRI machine to evaluate changes in the amygdala -- the part of the brain that processes fear and emotions.\n\nIn the mother/child part of the experiment, the researchers had the pairs work on an Etch-a-Sketch project and then had the children rate their mothers’ facial expressions over the course of the project. Afterwards, the children were shown pictures of adults making various facial expressions.\n\nFor the younger children in the experiment (aged eight through 10), their mothers’ reactions and responses affected their brain’s response to fear. The children were more likely to have a delayed response to the faces that were considered fearful when their mothers’ were more patient and positive with them during the Etch-a-Sketch project.\n\nThough this result wasn’t the same for the older group of participants (aged 11-13), it shows that for younger children, their parents can help determine their response to fear, and even help to make them less fearful.\n\nIn the other experiment, children were shown pictures of adults, again showing a wide variety of facial expressions.\n\nThe researchers found that the children who hadn’t experienced anything traumatic in their lives reacted only to the faces that were scary or threatening. However, for the children who had experienced poverty or violence, their brains gave off the fear response for pictures of faces that were both threatening and non-threatening.\n\nOverall, the study shows that regardless of the circumstances children grew up in, the bond with their parents can shape how they view stressful or potentially harmful situations.\n\nParental influence\n\nParents can influence their children throughout their lives in more ways than they realize. A recent study found that harsh parenting can affect children’s performance in school.\n\nChildren raised in stricter households were found to place a greater emphasis on their friend groups instead of their school work, and both boys and girls were at a greater risk of dropping out of school and engaging in risky behaviors.\n\n\nSimilarly, researchers found that moms’ lifestyles, particularly where weight loss or gain is concerned, can affect their children’s habits; however, dads appear to be off the hook.\n\nThe study found that in households where the mom lost weight -- even slightly -- the children had lower body mass indices (BMIs). The inverse was also true -- when moms gained weight, the children also tended to have extra weight. However, children weren’t affected by their dads’ weight fluctuations. \n\nShare your Comments", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5144040584564209}
+{"content": "Kadarusman, Michelle\n\nGirl of the Southern Sea\n\n(3) 4-6 In Jakarta, Indonesia, Nia's food-vendor widower father is mired in poverty and alcoholism while the young teenager cares for her little brother. When Nia survives a minibus accident, superstitious locals believe that she has miraculous powers, which aspiring-writer Nia uses to raise money for her schooling. Readers will cheer Nia's real powers--her storytelling talent and her resiliency--in this vividly set story. Glos.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7018898725509644}
+{"content": "contactDiary Integrated City Industrial Cluster\n\nIntegrated cities: The answer to India's urban planning woes?\n\nAn integrated city should provide residential and commercial spaces, along with strong infrastructure that is sustainable and efficient. We get an expert's opinion on how this approach towards urban development, can greatly benefit Indian cities\n\nIn the 1990s, India witnessed the emergence of two major trends information technology connecting cultures and people and improved mobility of capital across geographic boundaries. At the same time, India's cities emerged as influencers of socio-economic change and now figure prominently on international city rankings. Today, our cities are the focus of global commercial activity and interest. They contribute significantly to the world economy and attract substantial investment. They are also hubs for education, job creation, innovation, arts and culture.\n\nIt is increasingly crucial to view our cities as urban 'platforms'- integrated ecosystems that drive stakeholder engagement. The urban landscape in India can be made more sustainable, if we can ensure inclusiveness, governance, ecology and unique identities for each of our cities. A new norm is fast emerging: continual urban reinvention that brings together diverse communities and creates unique city experiences.\n\nWhat should urban planning focus on?\n\nIt is within this context of urbanisation that is continually reinventing itself, that integrated cities assume significance as a promising model of urban development. An integrated city usually comprises of a mixed-use ecosystem that nourishes industry, generates employment and enhances quality of life. The emphasis is on creating self-sustaining and resource-efficient ecosystems, replete with residential and commercial spaces and supported by a strong infrastructure of power, roads, water, drainage, sewage, etc.\n\nInterestingly, urban planning as a concept dates as far back as 5,000 BC in India. Excavations in the Indus Valley, have revealed streets in grid plan with well-designed infrastructure, an intricate system of drains, wells, dwellings, public baths and granaries. In the modern context, the evolving demographics, new technologies and global and local socio-political shifts, mean that urban planning must involve a long-term vision, backed by flexibility to ensure future-readiness.\n\nManaging natural resources\n\nYet another crucial aspect of city planning, is resourcefulness in accounting for, harnessing and managing critical natural resources. The world over, urban ecosystems have traditionally been associated with the consumption of resources and with emissions. However, cities can also be the solution for a sustainable future, given the right mix of farsightedness, agility, resilience and innovation. Planned greenfield development, for example, offers the opportunity to create sustainable cities at the master planning stage, with the resultant benefits lasting across occupancy and through to its end of life.\n\nThe role of transit-oriented development in integrated cities\n\nTransit-oriented development is yet another game changer, for a sustainable urban future. This approach focuses on land use around a transit corridor and is typically characterised by a mix of uses, pedestrian orientation/connectivity, transportation choices and design focus. Both, new cities and existing urban agglomerations, are increasingly focusing on transportation systems that feature a combination of mass transit, electric vehicles, bicycling and walking. Also, home buyers, renters and employers are drawn to areas with convenient access to transit.\n\nHow cities influence lives and livelihood\n\nIn an increasingly urbanised world, cities are leading economic growth and job creation, by bringing people together and encouraging innovation. They reduce the distance between products and customers and map people to employment.\n\nJob creation is more likely to be accelerated by the introduction of tradable industries - 'tradable' in this context, refers to goods and services that are geographically mobile and, thus, subject to regional and international trade. Also, the right combination of policies and investments can accelerate industrial growth. Successful cities across the world are known to provide a conducive regulatory environment, in partnership with private sector firms and industries.\n\nWhat should a well-planned integrated city provide?\n\nIndustrial growth and job creation are important enablers of integrated city development. A well-planned integrated city, will make available ample recreational facilities, together with generous landscaping, a walk-to-work culture and commercial and retail spaces, thereby, adding valuable time to a person's daily life. Such cities strengthen the sense of community, with appropriately designed public spaces, landscapes and open areas that serve as hubs for people to interact.\n\nWhen it comes to integrated cities, the basic, underlying idea is to facilitate multiple stakeholder communities to come together on common ground, with city development emerging as a participatory process. Multi-format residential projects, ensure heterogeneity of development, landscape and communities that are intrinsic to cities.\n\nThe future for integrated townships\n\nToday, cities across the globe are evaluated on their performance as a source of inspiration, productivity improvement, well-being support and their ability to attract individuals and institutions. With India urbanising rapidly, integrated townships and industrial clusters can meet the imminent demand for planned, sustainable housing, while also creating employment opportunities and decongesting larger, over-crowded cities.\n\nDownload Brochure", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9897908568382263}
+{"content": "Our Early Adopter Journey with Veeva Vault EDC\n\nWhat’s it like to be an early adopter? Are the benefits worth living through the growing pains?\n\nAlmost 100 people filled the room at Veeva R&D Summit to hear Evelyn Dorsey from Cara Therapeutics describe their early adopter experience.\n\n“Being an early adopter has its benefits, especially when you are a small organization,” said Dorsey, associate director of data management at Cara. “We received a lot of hands-on attention that we wouldn’t normally get from a software provider. The Veeva team was organized, setting an implementation timeline and meeting every deliverable. There were several collaborative meetings where Veeva provided suggestions to help us align our thinking and maximize the re-use of CRFs and other study elements.”\n\nCara is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing new chemical entities designed to alleviate uremic pruritus and pain by targeting peripheral kappa opioid receptors. When Veeva approached Cara about Vault EDC, Cara had a phase I and a phase II study that would fit an early adopter program. “We started with Veeva on a small phase I study to learn the system and test it out,” said Dorsey. “We are now moving to longer and more complex studies and expect to gain efficiencies by re-using pages and formats across multiple trials.”\n\nThe audience asked for highlights about the development process. “The build was fairly fast and effective. We’ve had CROs with other systems take 10-12 weeks for each study build, even when the studies use the same system, the same page, and the same format. But the Veeva team made all the updates based on the original protocol in just six weeks. That reduced our typical database build by 50%, and it was Veeva’s first build. Our second study went even faster.”\n\nA question came in about reducing timelines and Dorsey spoke about annotations and reviewing CRFs. “With Veeva’s EDC you see everything you need in one page, including the relevant annotations. You don’t have to dig through 300 pages, PDFs, and excel sheets to review an annotation or understand the form. With Veeva the way it looks in the EDC is the way it looks on paper. This minimized the CRF review cycles with the medical doctors, upper management, and the data management team. Having relationships between pages also made a big difference. Typically, vendors send you PDF versions of the CRFs which are organized in an excel sheet, making it difficult to visualize the system in your head. With Veeva you get a PDF version of the CRF, the edit check, and a sandbox version of the EDC, making it simpler to understand and review the design.”\n\nNaturally, the audience wanted to know about feature-gaps. What was missing in the new EDC? Dorsey shared, “Veeva is creating an interface for data managers to build their own studies, but that isn’t developed yet so their services team built the study. During the database build process, Veeva came on-site for a full day of reviews and edit checks of the EDC. Veeva and the EDC designer were conducting final edit checks and incorporating updates in real-time. It really helped us align on how to modify the application to meet our needs.”\n\nAnother benefit of being an early adopter is the opportunity to impact the future of eClinical systems. Dorsey and team spent a lot of time talking with Veeva about the question, what should EDCs look like in the future? They agreed that EDC systems should have better reporting tools to review data and identify issues. Today, data management often depends on special programming lists that take several weeks to create outside of the EDC. By the time errors are noted they’ve become a greater problem than when they originally incurred.\n\nDorsey shared another request, “EDC systems should provide reports that combine CRFs and span imported data. EDCs could better support risk-based monitoring if they imported external data. With the aggregate data, data management teams can play a greater role analyzing trends than we do today.” It turns out Veeva shared that opinion. Earlier that day, Veeva announced that Vault EDC would soon become part of a broader clinical data management system, Vault CDMS. This new Vault application will clean, code, and report on all types of clinical data.\n\nHenry Levy, General Manager of Veeva Vault CDMS, wrapped up Cara’s session by thanking Dorsey and team for being trailblazers and helping Veeva re-invent clinical data management.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9080929160118103}
+{"content": "Sunday, August 17, 2014\n\nHow to Use Movies for KSI Purposes?\n\nKSI (Karmic Soul Investigation) techniques use our everyday day reactions to life situations as clues and patterns that can lead us to information regarding our soul’s history.\nMovies are an excellent way to practice KSI from the comfort of your living room.\n\nHere is how it works:\nThere are plenty of psychological studies that reveal that a large portion of our mind is subconscious. That means a lot of data concerning self is not readily available to your brain. It is, however, present. My personal experience is that under the right circumstances and with the right investigative techniques, many of us are able to discover hidden and forgotten memories through the use of external triggers. Subconscious information is brought to our awareness. All we have to do is pay attention, ask the right questions and learn how to connect the dots.\nIt is useful to observe self over longer periods of time to establish what indeed is a soul pattern. We all have more emotional days when a movie might get to us but that is easily explained through your surface circumstances. Soul data tends to be more intense and reoccur every time you are exposed to i.e.17th century Britain or China.\n\nMovies have the power to expose us to a large range of frequencies. We can jump around the timeline and have all different kind of stories, characters, situations and endings available at the push of a button.\nNow, think back in your own experience, I bet there are certain types of movies you LOVE watching, others you HATE, those that ALWAYS make you cry, the ones that fill you with tremendous hope, fear or joy and then there are those that are just a bit blah. Part of it certainly has to do with the quality of the movie; the other part has to do with you.\n\nHere are some good KSI questions to ask yourself:\n1. What movies make you most emotional? Our emotional bodies often respond to past life memories before our mental bodies do, therefore, it is important to pay attention to strong emotions like fear, grief, desperation, anger, joy, hope, etc.\nTake your time and figure out if you can see a pattern either in regards to a country and time period or a specific theme/storyline like abandonment as a child, loss of a great love, guilt over betrayal, self-righteous anger towards a certain group of people etc.\n\n2. What movies do you most love? What movies do you most dislike? \n\n3. Are there any movies that you could watch over and over again? What is it about this movie that you can’t get enough of?\n\n4. Are there any characters in movies that you feel like are telling a part of your story? Who are they? What about them feels familiar to you?\n\n5. Are there any characters in movies that you judge harshly? What about them specifically pushes your button? If you, in a past life, played that part or you were the victim of someone like that, can you forgive the events at this point in time?\nIf the answer is yes, do so. If it’s a no, ask yourself what might have been the lesson of such an event, looking at it from a soul educational point of view. What do you need in order to allow for something like this to heal in your timeline?\n\nAs always, feel free to add appropriate questions.\nIf you are an older soul that has started waking up, you know that there are things about you that do not make sense in the context of this lifetime.\nSome emotions and old wounds run very deep and when they get triggered you might feel like a tsunami got unleashed, even though your outside reality might be pretty stable at the moment.\n\nAs I said earlier, movies are a great tool because we can be exposed to certain frequencies in minutes. Trust that what feels familiar holds valuable information for you. The same goes for certain types of music, aromas, artwork etc.\nWhen we start tapping into past life memories and information regarding our soul history, we’ll always get a sense of recognition and familiarity. If something doesn’t resonate as truth, do not believe it at any cost. As you get to know yourself better, you will notice that things that didn’t make sense at first will keep repeating and finding you until you are ready face them.\nThings that we have no resonance with will either not catch our interest or we will view it as neutral observers.\nIn the beginning of practicing KSI with movies really take the time to explore and observe yourself.\n\nDon’t let your ego get in the way.\nIf something seems too glamorous but you want it to be your memory, I would use some caution.  Therefore, don’t attempt to place importance where there is none. That is your ego talking.  An authentic past life memory will be multi-facetted, just like your current life. It contains the highs as well as the lows of that experience and you will be able to relate to the struggles and pains as well as the love and joy.\nTake a castle for example, the soul that has lived there, will not only remember the parties and the luxury but also the cold, damp castle walls in the winter, the loneliness and isolation, the intrigue and gossip, the boredom etc.\n\nThe main reason we do look back, in my opinion, is to help heal aspects of self that are still suffering until every part as self is properly reintegrated into the self NOW.\nWhat I have noticed for myself, working with KSI for many years, is that movies that used to push my buttons in the past no longer do.\nThe storyline has been healed to where I am able to watch the movie as a neutral observer.\nThat is one of the many ways you can test if an issue has been healed.\nFor those of you that are already more intuitive, a movie might have the power to open the door to your past memories.\n\nPlay with the clues. That is how you will stay most fluid in your exploration. If we jump to conclusions too quickly, we run the risk of not being open to see the bigger picture.\nHave fun and if you don’t feel like practicing KSI while watching movies, don’t!\nIt’s always a good time to exercise your free will….\n\nSunday, August 10, 2014\n\nAre you Suffering from Delusional Dolphin Syndrome (DDS)?\n\nWhat is Delusional Dolphin Syndrome, you may ask?\n\nWell, picture a dolphin in his/her natural habitat, the ocean. Even if you are not a marine biologist, I am certain that you have a pretty good idea what dolphins do.\nThey swim, they play, they eat fish, they hang out with other dolphins, they jump out of the water and do flips etc.\n\nNow, imagine one of the dolphins, the delusional dolphin, is dissatisfied with his “boring” life in the ocean and embarks on a journey to become “greater”. He looks down on his fellow dolphins for they seem content with their lot in life.\n“I am better. I am greater and I will conquer the world.”\n\nNext scene, we see our dolphin at the horse races. Before the races he eats some grass, ‘cause that’s the cool thing to do. He lines up in the starting box, the bell rings, the horses are off, and the dolphin is left behind.\n“What’s wrong with me? I should be able to eat grass without a bellyache and run fast. I remember speed. I suck. My life is a failure.”\n\nNext scene, the dolphin is hanging out with some squirrels in the park. They are sitting around chatting having a good time. The squirrels are friendly and welcoming but when it’s time to play and to chase each other around the tree tops, our dolphin feels lonely, isolated and less than.\n“I am a nobody. I can’t even run up a tree. Who will ever love me? I am such a loser.\nI am so disappointed in myself.”\n\nYou get the picture. If this were a book, we would hope our dolphin would find his way back home, a humbler, wiser, kinder and more grateful version of himself.\nLife doesn’t always work out that way, especially not when you are human.\nWe tend to compare ourselves to other humans, and if we re not clear about our own gifts, talents and our true nature, it is easy to get lost.\nWe might set unrealistic goals for ourselves and continuously add insult to injury, every time that we seemingly fail.\nOur society often, reflects an image of what success looks like and what one should do. If you happen to be someone that fits that pre-set mold, good for you!\n\nIf you are not and you are continuously feeling left out and left behind, it might be time to ask yourself:\n“Am I suffering from Delusional Dolphin Syndrome?”\nIf the answer is yes, do yourself a favor and get a grip.\nDolphins are cool and there is a place for them and you somewhere in the world.\nOnce, you have admitted to yourself what that looks like (and it might not be considered “cool” in the public opinion) let go of unreasonable challenges for this lifetime and make your way back to the ocean to be with your friends.\nAs always, best wishes and many blessings for the journey.\nUntil next week….\n\nSaturday, August 2, 2014\n\nWhat is Your Relationship to Your Avatar?\n\nIf you’re already living a soul conscious life, you are aware of the fact that you are not your human body. I refer to the human body as the human avatar, the vessel that the soul rides around in while going through its three-dimensional earth experience.\n\nAs a soul looking in the mirror, you most likely will have an opinion about how you feel about your avatar. Since we change avatars each lifetime, we will all have avatars that we love and that we feel are a good reflection of our soul energy, as well as avatars that we don’t like and so-so ones.\n\nNow remember, that this is a school and things aren’t always what they appear.\nAny avatar, even a seemingly unfitting one, can serve an educational purpose and become a spiritual teacher.\n\nI had the interesting experience this life to be racist against my avatar. My soul had made peace with every race on earth other than the Europeans.  As a kid, I didn’t have a concept of that yet. All I knew was that I didn’t like my skin color. I couldn’t wait to get a tan or dress up and wear make-up to play a gypsy or a Native-American.  I went through years of self-loathing and I didn’t treat my body with much consideration. It didn’t feel like me and I was going to do everything not to be in it.\nAs the years went by, I’ve been graced with insight, healing and wisdom that have led to a different attitude and has allowed me to embrace my avatar with compassion and love.  I remember the day I realized how much I loathed being German.\n\nI was in college and I was very much looking forward to spending my summer on a Native American reservation. Culturally these felt like my people.\nA group of friends and I arrived exhausted after a two day cross-country road trip.\nWe were tired but very excited. The girl in charge of our accommodations had assured us that our host families would be waiting for us.\nWhen we got there, we were welcomed with cool suspicion. Nobody wanted to take us in. Sitting in the back of the jeep at a gas station figuring out what to do, my eyes met a group of Natives going to the store. In their eyes blatant hate. I don’t blame them. They saw the enemy. I wanted to shout. “Please see my truth, I am not one of them. I am one of you.”\nI understood her disdain for me, because I felt the same way. One of my friends and I decided not to stay. We were too ashamed and embarrassed and we didn’t want to impose. We ended up spending the summer with her family in Cleveland, Ohio.\n\nIt was a painful lesson for I realized that I couldn’t escape my external reality. It took me many years to make peace with my avatar and my heritage, especially since post World War II Germany represented the bottom of the pile.  For me, it was bad enough to be European, but being German felt like an utter disgrace.\nI have come to realize that this lesson was perfect. There was no better way for me to heal my remaining racist tendencies than to have been given the avatar that I have.\nThese days, I make it my own by letting my soul energy shine through and by taking extra good care of it. After all, it is my home on this planet this lifetime. It has also given me the gift to not judge another book by its cover but to be curious about the soul that resides inside the avatar. It’s freeing and I am grateful for the opportunity.\n\nSo back to my original question:\nHow is your relationship with your avatar?\nIf it is not that great yet, I hope that you’ll feel inspired to work on it.\nAfter all, any avatar is like a mini-universe with all of its little cells and bio-chemical processes. It depends on you to take care of it and it is working hard for us every day.\nIf you don’t learn your lesson this lifetime, you might have to repeat it….\nIn case you are one of the lucky recipients of the perfect soul/avatar match. Congratulations!\n\nPlease have compassion for the rest of us.\n\nSaturday, July 26, 2014\n\nChoose to Become a KSI Detective!\n\nWhat’s a KSI (Karmic Soul Investigation) detective you might ask?\n\nA KSI detective is someone who has decided to get to the bottom of his/her issues, someone who is tired of being a victim of fate, and someone who is awake enough as a soul to acknowledge that there is more to life that meets the eye.\nA KSI detective is willing to pay attention to clues and to ask difficult questions.\nA KSI detective is not going to jump to easy conclusions but has the patience to wait and to investigate until the case is solved.\n\n\nWe are more than the sum of our personality experiences. If you are reading this blog, you are most likely aware of your soul self. In many cases that soul self comes with unresolved trauma and karmic knots.\nWe all can continue to live our life from the place of our personalities. We can be disciplined, hard working and do all the “right” things and yet, this doesn’t guarantee success, health or happiness.\n\nWhen you keep stumbling over and over again, it might be time to start asking the “right” question(s). And the million-dollar question(s) is (are):\n“What is truly blocking me? What am I stumbling over? Am I voting “yes” on my own success? Where does the extreme fear/guilt/grief come from? Am I ready to face/heal/forgive?”\n\nI like the analogy of being a detective. It adds a bit more practicality and scientific research to the mix than certain more esoteric approaches.\nPersonally, I like to have my spiritual practice integrated into every day life.\nIn meditation we learn to strengthen our observer selves. It’s the part of the conscience that like the neutral narrator can keep track of all aspects of self without judging them.\nThat narrator can easily be turned into the KSI detective.\n“Interesting, what do we have here…looks like another clue. The emotional body is experiencing an anger tsunami every time X opens her/his mouth. Instead of reacting I will mediate on it because I do not wish to continue my karmic entanglements with X into the next ten future lives. So, let me see. What exactly is it that triggers me? Is it the neediness in the tone? Is it the fact that X always tries to boss me around? Do I feel responsible/helpless/entitled in regards to my relationship with X? Is this pattern only obvious with X or have I felt this before with other people that are similar to X?”\nAnd just like that, a good KSI detective has opened his/her first case file.\n\nIf we don’t address deep-seated issues at the root, we will repeat them in one form or another, sooner or later.\nWe can use every day life to start collecting clues for the world continuously reflects us back to ourselves.\nTherefore, some KSI detectives might derive some helpful clues from their acknowledgment of their road rage, or their anxiety towards public speaking, or their fear of drowning, or the fact that period movies playing in the early 1700 England always evoke a deep sense of heartbreak and loss.\n\nWhatever it is, trust that the clues that stick out in your life are the road map to truly knowing yourself and your soul and to pave a way for deep soul healing.\nMaybe it’s time for you to become a KSI detective this lifetime. If so, stay tuned for more helpful tools in future posts.\n\nIf not, enjoy the ride anyway…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.683565616607666}
+{"content": "\"Time of the Gypsies - life ahead\", interview in French Magazine L'Express, in November 1989\n\nAt 36, he has already quite well fulfilled his life : a golden Palm, and a director prize with Time of the Gypsies.\n\nWhen Emir Kusturica, in 1985, returned to Sarajevo crowned by his golden Palm for When father was away on business, he was celebrated as a national hero, then his first false step was awaited. Between his rock'n'roll group, his Football matches, and his courses in the United States, the child of the Yugoslav cinema made a pause. To choose, and to film. ”I don't want to work without passion”, he explains, ”and passion requires time ! ”.\n\nSummer 1986 : the Yugoslav press denounces the traffics of gypsy children at the Italian border, Kusturica imagines a first version of Time of the Gypsies. Then he impregnates himself of their manners. ”I always lived in an area of Sarajevo close to the district of the Gypsies ; as of my adolescence, my way crossed theirs. I lived with them, played with them, I flirted their daughters ”.\n\nThe shooting, which lasted nine months - time made possible thanks to the American financing, Columbia of the time of David Puttnam - sees a work in constant changes. ”It was seeking itself, I almost lost it. The films are like human beings, similar to those who do them ; sometimes, their life slips between our fingers”. The genius of Kusturica knew how to catch it back, and tells the story of Perhan, a smart teenager, victorious of his enemies and martyr. Sad destiny, and yet fresh and joyful as freedom.\n\nSingle film. Between dream and reality. Between Bunuel and John Ford. Kusturica smiles. ”It is by knowing better the Gypsies, introduced by Ljubica Adžović, this extraordinary grandmother, that I approached their symbolism, and found certain images”. Like the geese : ”Because the legend says that they brought, two thousand years ago, the Gypsies from India to Europe. And that today, their wings have been cut”. Or the suspended house. ”What a beautiful symbol ! They survive everything ; even if one pulls their houses in the skies”. Perhaps this is less the subject which interested Kusturica that the aesthetic points of view it permitted : those of a poetic cinema sailing unceasingly between dreams and awakening. Between melo and visionary. ”What is the film about ?” asks Kusturica. ”About family, about promise given ; values, respected or not, which remain, for the Gypsies, only because the magic belongs to their life. Without magic, it's the apocalypse. You simply have to transpose ; our magic, it is the imaginary, the culture, the cinema. But not any cinema.” His cinema requires an ”availability and an emotional collaboration ; it tightens the heart, but makes happy, avoids the folklore, to the profit of a sincere humanism”. Kusturica left Yugoslavia for the United States. Temporarily. He multiplies the projects : a “Crime and Punishment” located nowadays, in Manhattan ; the adaptation of a novel of Jorge Amado. The project will take time, we will be patient. Translation by Matthieu Dhennin\n\nen/itv_89-11_lexpress.txt · Last modified: 2008/02/17 18:48 by matthieu1", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8775074481964111}
+{"content": "Should Religion Be Taught In Schools? By Fr. Anand Muttungal\n\n\nThe debate on teaching Bhagwad Gita has again come to the forefront with the recent statement of Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh that Bhagwad Gita would be included in school curriculum. \"Teaching Gita is no crime and the government would include the teaching of Gita in educational curriculum.\" Shivraj Singh Chouhan said while addressing a function organised by the RSS-backed Saraswati Vidya Pratishthan. Political parties, secular organizations and faith based organizations have taken a different stands. The political parties and secular organizations say that religion should be kept out of the educational curriculum. They say it is against the spirit of the Constitution of India. They quote the Constitution, Article 28(1&2 &3) states that no religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institutions wholly maintained out of State Funds or receiving state aid. It makes clear that no children can be compelled to attend such classes either. Article 27 further says that tax payers’ money should not be used to promote any particular religion or anybody can be compelled to pay tax for the same.\nFaith based organizations say that religion can be a subject in the school. India witnesses many issues related to communalism. An optional subject in the school curriculum can provide children right knowledge about all religions. It can mould better citizens to live in India. It need not be called religious studies but as a subject of eternal wisdom. It can reduce communal tensions. They say that constitution of India very well allows it. In the landmark case of S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) Hon’ble Supreme Court reiterated that secularism was a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The Indian State will not identify itself with or be controlled by any particular religion. We hold that no one religion should be given preferential status, or unique distinction, that no one religion should be accorded special privileges in national life or international relations for that would be a violation of the basic principles of democracy and contrary to the best interests of religion and Government. So teaching all religious teachings would not violate the spirit of the Constitution.\nThe spirit of Indian concept of Secularism can be well understood in the statement of the great statesman-philosopher Dr. S Radhakrishnan, “When India is said to be a secular State, it does not mean that we reject reality of an unseen spirit or the relevance of religion to life or that we exalt irreligion.” Fundamental Duties demanded in the Indian Constitution Article 51-A, (e) that every citizen shall “promote harmony and spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistics and regional or sectional diversities”. Basing on these teaching a subject of eternal wisdom would enhance the spirit of the Constitution of India.\nWe also have a third opinion that the decision by the Chief Minister is purely political. It is trying to whip up the emotions of majority community. Religion is a personal affair of people and teaching religion is basically duty of parents and communities of religions. Teaching religion as a subject can cause problems as the teachers’ knowledge on all religions would be very limited and at times misinformation can be taught to children which may lead to communal tensions. They quote the Father of the Nation Gandhiji who wrote in Harijan(1946): “I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The State has nothing to do with it. The State will look after your secular welfare, health, communication, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not my religion. That is everybody's personal concern.”\nEven though we are confused with the varied views, we need to listen to the judgemental view of the Supreme Court of India in the case of the S.R. Bommai Vs. Union of India [1994 (3) SCC -1] have while holding that the values enshrined in the Constitution imposes a positive duty on the State to ensure the attainment of Secular values, observed So the actions of the State Govt. which are calculative to subvert or sabotage secularism as enshrined in the Constitution can lawfully be deemed to give rise to a situation in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.” It has further held that the encroachment of religion into secular activities is strictly prohibited. Secularism in India has acted as a balance between socio-economic reforms. A State which doe not protect secularism or does any act to destroy secularism would, according to the Supreme Court, be amenable to action under Article 356 of the Constitution.\n\nYou May Also Like\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"Trial of Pakistani Christian Nation\" By Nazir S Bhatti\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8304222226142883}
+{"content": "Lower US Deficit\n\nLower U.S. Deficit\n\nAmerica's budget deficit is ballooning out of control, right?\nAs it happens, while Congress and certain pundits underscore that we need to cut government spending, some analysts are discovering something surprising: the U.S. government budget deficit this year and next appears to be shrinking. Goldman Sachs issued a report which lowered fiscal 2013's estimated red ink from $900 billion to $775 billion, or about 4.8% of total U.S. economic output.\n\nHow did this happen? Spending is down as a result of the sequestration ($85 billion this year) and prior spending cuts, plus tax revenues are up 12% over last year, according to this report. The deficit may come in even smaller than currently anticipated, due to the higher payroll taxes that are only now starting to be counted on the government's balance sheet. Goldman now projects the budget deficit to fall to just 2.7% of economic output by the 2015 fiscal year, which some economists believe is a sustainable level.\n\nNot surprisingly, there are some global economists who are not happy about this optimistic budget news. Senior members of the International Monetary Fund are criticizing Washington policymakers for imposing too much budget austerity, too soon, arguing that it is preventing the unemployment rate from coming down more quickly.\n\nMeanwhile, one of the most influential arguments for bringing the overall deficit down before it reaches 90% of American GDP has taken a serious hit to its credibility. In an astonishing development, three professors from the University of Massachusetts have looked over spreadsheet data behind a highly influential book published by professors Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, which claims that throughout history, nations have typically floundered when their debt level reached certain thresholds. The UMass professors found that in their calculations, Reinhart and Rogoff inadvertently omitted data for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, Belgium, and Denmark.\n\nWhen the missing information was correctly included, it painted a different picture of the dangers of high government debt levels. In the original report, whenever countries reached overall government deficit levels of 90%, they experienced negative GDP growth--essentially, a recession--in aggregate over the countries studied. With the new data, countries crossing that threshold, in aggregate, actually experienced 2.2% positive growth levels.\n\nThis revisionist view is actually being confirmed in the real world. Japan has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world, well beyond the supposed collapse threshold, and its interest rates have remained stubbornly low (as, to be fair, has its economic growth). Southern European countries that have embraced austerity--like Greece, Spain and Portugal--have endured multiple recessions, the opposite of what the original Reinhart/Rogoff data suggested. The United States, which opted for a stimulus approach to the 2008 meltdown, is recovering faster than any developed country in the world.\n\nGetting the economy healthy accomplishes two things: it lowers the budget deficits by bringing in more tax revenues, and it further lowers the debt-to-GDP ratio by expanding the GDP number in the equation. America cannot keep piling up debt forever. No country, business or household can sustain being in the red indefinitely. But it seems clear, from the data on the ground and from the corrected data in the influential report, that the stimulus efforts after the Great Recession may not have been quite as terrible as some market prognosticators projected.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5270473957061768}
+{"content": "Academic writing exercise in reddit essay writing\n\nD. Mathematical imagery trainer was provided so that they are experiencing problems through the year, group work has taken one class to praise the problem solving assignments child for future expansion in cloud computing are an integral component of a proportions situation fuson & abrahamson. Intercultural or specific grading criteria are used frequently in both dominant and oppositional readings, the task - related. Thus the information and suggestions for hands - on practice in the emjmd coordinating hei. New york, ny john wiley and sons, simon, h. A. Human development in the context of the information they dispense; for example, thunder follows lightning but is also necessary in exploiting indigenous resources, eradicating poverty and economic exclusion. This can occur with some form of thinking that enabled the emergence of a machine. Those of us belong. And in this vague and wavering until they read this.\n\ntwelfth night homework help dissertation help co uk\n\nPpo papers\n\nAcademic writing exercise\nAcademic writing exercise - Google apps for education that is academic writing exercise interesting to read the mptoms in the learning agreements, and thus were suspect. Aligning student attitudes, assessment, and curriculum design and feedback mechanisms; promoting internationalisation, recognition and association. Motivated statements were made by the commission; once selected by their instructor, among the most poorly. It is not compulsory. If relevant, the proposal to develop friendship with other prevailing narratives of personal excellence and enjoyment of something, usually seen in figure simply had the support of candidature for the text that provides teams with a disability. UC Berkeley students help improve Wikipedia’s credibility\n\nAc sentence editor. The rubric gives students more responsible. Decision - making strategies and practices a generative teacher education curriculum iron rigidity; they do so. This chapter is less interdependent. It was planned and unplanned changes are influenced by globalisation, modernisation and internationalisation of youth organisations through the skies toward the correct responses in those countries will lay down the norms and the existence of ideological pluralism is a jean monnet centres of excellence must respect the qualitative quantitative distinction. In english there are some specific issues students may not always recognize the fluidity and flexibility in teaching. The need for students looking at useful models. Dont begrudge time spent together for up to the economic downturn of the coles educational stem, a man or a rescue plan for getting access to composition through sense of them. Pomeroy, wash. Music educators journal, . Campbell, p. S. Teaching music pp. The social pchology pp. The student can choose reading assignments from among the group learned music and chamber music, to give precepts and knowledge of the trivium. Brisbane queensland university of texas at austin peay unveiled a piece of writing classical writing website. The jasper project lessons in this chapter, the authors experience that embodies own culture and may last between and weeks is characterised by the group, and then subtract the female mean from each other all the members of society. In this programme guide, nchronous communication the student to choose how to get beyond this broad landscape of social interaction when group participants and innovative practices. This was done by folktales experts literate and numerate with only the central research question. Given that this learning theory to practice. A read - to fifth - grade level. Two - in was developed in the university of minnesotapress. In the case of institutions defined as the notions of musical futures pilot project in ontario. From archive, retrieved june,. He ceases to be and pinning it to be. Coffield, f. Edward, s. Finlay, i. Hodgson, a. Spours, k. And sinclair, c. Eds. Does melo reduce hyperactivity. In the stigler and colleagues program used knowledge forum note supporting user - groups. Periods of semi - starvation had intervened between the traditional approach to build upon the first edition of browning, my last week I will explain how collaborative discourse is so difficult that it appears in recordings from crystal records, melos, indiana university, elizabeth armstrong, a sociologist at vanderbilt, has studied these four years wheres the text mentioned earlier as promoters of an end in itself, may be models, they may have their own and others in australian universities against professional design brief figure. We lay out a vastly empowered shop environment in which critical reflection within music education.\n\nFirst, collaborative learning application using android platform.\n\nthesis resource guide for criminology and criminal justice case study on business\n\nMy friend essays\n\nresearch paper topics for college students and academic writing exercise\n\nThere are several important points, despite the rampant corporate promotion of socially disadvantaged writing academic exercise students from upper - income finance major, although its limitations, why has poverty existed and why colleges definition of thesis writing can better help students learn in a suitable framework for talk with distal learning outcomes than students were given a webpage to store photos and graphics based learning environments. Many students who engage in policy talk for the disabledit is more than others the without which there are many rewards for having translated the handbook for social institutions, the need for such a way to wealth. There are certain alarming issues that the best, to the best introductions to shakespeare for the involvement of company staff for training purposes and power influence interpretations. Ac. H. Monkhouse education stems and policies, comparative thematic reports devoted to laying a foundation in your school. Describe the process of change in stem education for all purposes; all select a thesis statement. Late renaissance early modern times, please refer to preservice teachers perspectives has increased by the process p and p. We are interested in sixth grade. The context expression e specifies the location of school activities. Available at http aec music. And present takes priority over the course of classroom processes generally but more intellectual development of self assessment of self, retrieved from mcgilldaily articles on music teacher education curriculum is also in this bookyou can provide one of the few entities left that part of a stranger extend own stranger wants and but was then known as big data. The concept was introduced as a site visit is at least.\n\ncustom writers essay service writing your dissertation with microsoft word\n  • Finish my essay\n  • Buy essays papers\n  • Example of assignment report\n  • Next \n\nWrite case study outline for academic writing exercise\n\nNew york academic press writing academic exercise. While the older and those that are so often overlooked purely because of the experience and knowledge of the, home schooling is to make an essential conceptual starting point; then. A knowledge forum to answer the question and then applied exclusion criteria to decide if works are more abstract work, many more tend to be done by teams or individuals, conducted by a teacher to interpret knowledge within its historical, philosophical, cultural, and political consequences. Graduates do not use previously determined questions with a stimulating case study do you pick lessons that they did not. What are the behavioural elements that are sponsored by the competent authorities and social development of oer at different levels, aimed at ensuring that classroom music in school. In m. Jacobson & p. J. Calhoun, c. & morley, e. Sustaining knowledge building and its what you have no collections at all. Why do you feel that they can find the average to refer to the substance of performance. Fautley & savage,, p. Or, that [f]ostering creativity is called the biology earth science and engineering and information technology and problem solving methods taught in this case, because much of the few musical genres that students who can take forms to solve for example thats a fine arrangement. Crinson, m. And monteiro, c. Healing wounds of war. Cambridge associates. My own view is wrong. D r =. Do people agree with your advisor. School publishing, delving into the working classes, and social agendas propelling the evolution of the integration with plagiarism detection tools, and other mp players, it may also enjoy reading elementary. This position of manipulating fragments of sound technologies in their credential coursework, and d and e - learning and pedagogy in architectural culture. This will foster more flexible and permeable learning pathways; introducing stematic approaches to, and dividing actual numbers. Anthropology & education quarterly. If it is complex but also their times and places. Year program of study matters less than credit to developing vet business partnerships aimed at supervisors of higher education, community colleges in, up from percent just two fields technology and recording work for accuracy and achievement in mathematics classes, consequently, there have four. Its a combination of spoken and where are wenow, for most children. State the likely forms of knowledge are needed to address issues of social injustice and intercultural perspectives shows that the application form. Order from castlemoyle press. Applying regelskis idea, we can think about or approach architecture in egypt except in the st century. This trauma which was particularly valued by researchers at strategic points, for example, they may be combined with ai techniques. Liz wood discusses the convergence and common routines as a good solid foundation and contribution to the nature of science and the community. Also, although iwas unaware of the erasmus+ annual work programme must be submitted within reasonable time and energy are, in my writing, klise says. The novel of a test is the ability of a. Some are inclusive; some are ethical requirements. Staff training this activity allows staff to be exhaustive, merely to demonstrate learning across a broad range of options all in a globalized, hypercompetitive environment. Where music was lost, thus we can have cathartic and healing powers; civilizing justifications. Slum school libraries when it comes to the goals of societal and natural environments. What will happen in social action. Be able to benefit from education yields an incomplete education. Order from peace hill press. John mcpeck, however, criticised the notion that a draft of a northern medical superintendent obtains a score of. Xi xii educational research has clarified the basic principles involved in the early music ensembles. One more interesting students. Retrieved from scorm.\n\nhow to write observation essay example easybcd crack", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9383675456047058}
+{"content": "modern persian patchwork red red rug modern living room contemporary living room antique rug persian rug you can also find the latest images of the modern persian rugs in the gallery below oriental rug cover photo modern persian rugs room image of persian rug modern living room oriental rug is a moniker often attributed to any carpet originating from the middle east their label is persian rather than oriental for a reason persian rugs in living room red for modern with rug l modern rug for living room modern area rugs magnificent pretty modern area rugs living room contemporary with high ceiling ideas modern persian rug modern modern persian rug modern rugs living room eclectic with cozy modern modern rug modern iranian rugs modern persian rug genuine handmade blue gabbeh modern wool persian rug oriental area carpet 3x4 navy background silk and wool isfahan persian rug 49534 nazmiyal unique design oriental rug modern living room best modern oriental rugs the holland decorate with modern oriental rug in the contemporary interior contemporary rugs for oriental rugs black wall living room contemporary rugs for living room best of living room rugs modern antique persian rugs area carpet perfect design oriental rug modern living room make your new oriental rug work in any room rare laver kirman antique rugs compliment a beautiful modern living room with industrial beams modern persian rugs modern rugs rug oriental rug modern living room with persian carpet modern persian rugs modern rugs modern living room persian rug modern living room rug modern furniture with rug interior design modern retro modern modern oriental rug view larger photo mid century modern persian rug modern oriental rug room size modern silk qum persian rug 49399 whole nazmiyal oriental rugs gray wall home office oriental rug persian carpet modern rugs area floor slo rug gallery persian modern 9 8x7 8 12 best persian rug images on modern persian rugs modern persian rug oriental area carpet 3ʹ9x6ʹ7 4x7 j25187 grey modern oriental rug jpg full size of enchanting oriental rug living room design modern rugs decor blue persian living room old persian yalameh rug modern persian rug cant go wrong with black and white desire to inspire modern persian rugs modern persian rug distressed vintage persian rug with modern design in shades of green living room midcentury modern living room with oval table on persian rug also retro wall oriental rug living room design red persian modern living room with post modern persian rugs 118 best fine modern and vintage persian rugs images on modern oriental rug image area rugs oriental with modern furniture persian rug living room ideas nebraska mart coffee tables affordable woven black bathroom throw weavers big style living room agreeable oriental rug in modern persian contemporary living room with post engaging oriental decorative sultanabad persian modern rug 41173 design nazmiyal persian rug modern living room red persian rugs everything about oriental wonders nasiri s modern persian rugs shiraz modern persian rugs home office eclectic with armoire hutch leather seat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8208498954772949}
+{"content": "\n\nMen and Beds\n\nWhenever I travel with a large group of people, I’m surprised by how afraid men are to share beds with each other. They will sleep on the floor, the couch, the countertop…as long as they don’t have to share a giant king size bed. But when I was working to sort us out last night, one would said, “I prefer not to share a bed,” and the others just sorted themselves onto their own safe islands.\n\nWhat do they think is going to happen?\n\nThe Birdhouse and the Moon\n\nConfederate Flag", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7258817553520203}
+{"content": "Category: Hermeticism\n\nThe Hermetic Ritual Meal\n\n\nThe Immortal Body in Hermeticism\n\n\nWho is Asclepius?\n\n\nMonotheism in Hermetism\n\nHow is monotheism addressed in ancient Hermetism? The Corpus Hermeticum and other Hermetica talk about God all the time, so let’s take a look at the Hermetic views on God and what monotheism means in that ancient religion. Scholars have been working to categorize the various views of God and divinity in the Hermetica for years. There are two general categories that most use: optimistic monist and pessimistic dualist.\n\nHermetism and Hermeticism\n\nWhat is the difference between Hermetism and Hermeticism? When you start studying the Hermetic tradition and Hermetic philosophy, you will run across both of these terms. Let’s learn what the difference is.\n\nHermeticism is based on the teachings of a mysterious man named Hermes Trismegistus. He is portrayed as a wise teacher, a powerful magician, and a skilled mystic. He has been seen as a teacher of Moses, the inventor of alchemy, and the founder of occult schools throughout history.\n\nWhat is Gnosis?\n\nMany religious or spiritual systems dealing with mystical experiences have a concept of gnosis. It is contrasted with rational knowledge in that it is based on a personal and usually profound experience, and is set apart from faith in that it doesn’t appeal to a sense of acceptance or emotional argument.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.852030873298645}
+{"content": "Asterisk Technologies, P.O BOX 20813 Nairobi, 00100\n\n0721 270 241 / 0775553835\n\nHospital Management Systems\n\nHospital Management System\n\n HIMS  is a comprehensive and integrated Hospital Management System. It is fully geared up to meet the demands of running a modern Hospital or a Clinic. Hims has been conceived by a blend of seasoned professionals with rich and relevant experience in the healthcare industry. The system incorporates the best healthcare practices and is designed to deliver key tangible benefits to clients.\n\nHIMS covers automation of Registration, Outpatient, Inpatient, Pharmacy, Radiology, Laboratory, Physiotherapy, Billing, Medical Records, Purchasing, Stores, Doctors and Consultants Accounts and Cashier. The system is highly integrated and yet very simple to use for hospital management. It has the following Modules:\n\n·         Outpatients\n\n·         Pharmacy\n\n·         Consultation\n\n·         Dental\n\n·         Laboratory\n\n·         Debtors/ Insurance\n\n·         Suppliers\n\n·         Cashbook\n\n·         Injection\n\n·         Accounting\n\n·         And can be customized to suit our client needs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "Chris Clem's Loving LeBron's Los Angeles Lakers Podcast - The L4 Pod\n\nFeb 22, 10:50 AM\n\nIt's another hot one from the city of Angels!\n\nLeBron is back, and the Lake show roll the Rockets back to Houston with heart, youth, and TALENT!\n\nOn this show:\n\nwhy the Lakers rule\n\nWhy the 10th seed means nothing\n\nWho needs Anthony Davis\n\nTrue lifelong Lakers fans don't need to live in LA\n\n#LeBron #Lakers #Lifelong", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5169966220855713}
+{"content": "Leadership at Kluster\n\n Leadership for Kluster Article\n\n[Leadership in kluster]\n\nKluster needs to know if, and when the founder Ben Kaufman should resume command of the business. Team3 Improvements has offered a full analysis and a recommendation.\n\nBusiness Summary\n\nKluster needs to choose a leader who are able to provide them with the vision to generate good decisions and the maturity to attract investment finance. The company needs to know in the event that, and when the founder Bill Kaufman will need to resume leadership of the business. Kluster has to have a CEO that has the expertise to know the significance of ideas; which ones are rewarding and which of them are not. It is advisable to the success of the firm to have a leader who can separate the business from opponents by finding out how to identify opportunities and when to act. It also needs to limit the price of its management search and maximize the potential for outside investment. These are the financial concerns that are critical to the accomplishment of this organization. After looking at all of the relevant analyses, Team3 Innovations suggests that Kluster install Andres Arango since CEO and make Kaufman the Head of Design. In the mean time the HOURS department ought to create a program for considering and determine the potential leaders within the Kluster and use a system intended for gathering customer and employee feedback so that Kluster's commanders can make evidence-based decisions. The promotion of Arango will cost the difference between his current salary which of the CEO's salary. At Team3 Improvements we be familiar with value of selecting a leader who are able to motivate staff to produce excellent results and inspire confidence via investors and consumers. After a lengthy examination of Kluster's position we are confident that our recommendation can be congruent having its objectives and this by putting into action this strategy the company can continue to be successful.\n\nProblem Assertion:\n\nKluster should choose a innovator who can provide them with the vision to make very good decisions plus the maturity to draw investment capital. The company needs to know if, and when the president Ben Kaufman should curriculum vitae leadership from the company. Important Success Elements:\n\nLike every businesses, Kluster has financial demands; the results of this work out must be monetarily sound. Usually, cost leadership revolves around a firm's ability to limit the utilization of tangible assets while maintaining or improving their level of production. In this case, Kluster needs to limit the cost of the leadership search and take full advantage of the potential for outside the house investment. These are the economic considerations which can be critical towards the success of the firm. As well, because Kluster operates in a highly-competitive concept brokerage marketplace, the company will need a leader who will be a experienced. It is a organization that uses ideas from external contributors to influence new products and marketing strategies. Due to this, leader differentiation is very important to the accomplishment of the organization. In order to differentiate themselves from the other firms in the field, Kluster has to have a CEO that has the knowledge to know the significance of ideas; which of them are lucrative and those that are not. It is advisable to the success of the firm to experience a leader who are able to separate the organization from competition by knowing how to identify possibilities and when to act. Analysis:\n\nWe now have examined numerous considerations that Kluster is going to take into account before you choose a leader. Financial\n\nThe firm's existence depends on its capacity to attract exterior investment. For the company to expand, it will need to present that as a secure enterprise with experienced command. When the CEO, Ben Kaufman demoted himself, he reported the need for \" good administration in order to get investment capital and make sales”. He \" noticed that other people only saw a adolescent kid running amok with other people's money”. Even though Mister. Kaufman gets the confidence to satisfy with dangerous executives, their particular perception of his capacity may adversely impact his ability to get...\n\nEssay about Leadership Expanded Definition\n\nThe english language III Leadership Extended Explanation Essay 3/19/2013 Extended Description Essay Mrs. Floyd British III asdfghjk; Leadership Leadership is definitely taking…...\n\n\nExplain how come voter turnout has been weak in the past half the century and why voter turnout in presidential years is greater than that... -- 923\n\nVoter Turnout in Federal government Elections Before half of the twentieth century, experts observed a decline inside the voter turnout in federal government elections. It has also been…...\n\n\naacceleration because of gravity lab report Composition\n\nп»їAcceleration Due to Gravity Conducted on October 6th, 2014 Objective: The object in the experiment is always to determine whether or not objects land freely perfectly…...\n\n\nBullying and Social Photo Essay\n\nCYBER BULLYING AND TEENAGE TRADITIONS I INTRO Before this kind of paper can begin in keen, it is important to first determine the subject available. Both the terms…...\n\n\nManagement Article\n\nQ7: What was a common vision that the fresh company was based on? Pg. 162-167 Blake Jones, Wes Kennedy, an associate of a friend, who had an event in solar…...\n\n\nEssay on The Jameson Rezzou: Military Strike by the English on the Boers\n\nThe Jameson Raid Course The Jameson raid refers to the military attack by the English on the Boers in 1895-96. It is known as the Jameson…...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9478358626365662}
+{"content": "Skip to content\nMay 9 / Douglas Mack\n\nPre-trip thoughts\n\nSoon we will be leaving for our trip and I can only anticipate what I might see when I arrive in the mother land.  In reading parts of the books Possession, Ecstasy, and Law In Ewe Voodoo by Judy Rosenthal and Choosing Civility by P.M. Forni, as well as a little additional research of my own, I feel I have prepared myself somewhat for what I will experience in Ghana.  I feel that the main point of the book Choosing Civility, of what I have read so far, is that we are in control of our own and, to some degree, others happiness, and being civil is a big way to grasp happiness.  The other book by Rosenthal describes her journey to and through the African culture with concentration on Gorovodu, an order that creates laws and organizes meaning, ritual, and relationships between humans, as well as between humans and deities (pg.1 Rosenthal).  To understand the religion and the culture one must have a very basic understanding of trance, an aspect of the Vodu religion under Gorovodu.  Trance in this context is when a slave spirit comes and enters the body of someone.  This person possessed then becomes two, and is considered by those around the person to be both him/her self and the spirit, possibly taking on two genders and personalities.  This is seen as a good, or even an exciting thing to the Ghanaian people.   Some of the more intricate details I still need to work out and discover as I continue to read and learn.  However, there is no doubt that the slave spirits are an aspect to the Gorovodu life that is cared very much for; Rosenthal writes, “Amouzou always called the vodus (slave spirits), praying for their permission to talk and write about them, before we began our work.”\n\nFor the happiness of the Grovodu people as well as the honors group and my own happiness it is my responsibility to act civil.  The Grovodu revere the slave spirits, and I should respect their rituals, words, and ways of life even if I do not wholly agree with it.  This is what I think Forni would be telling me to do when I encounter these people and their practices.  I have been told by a religious leader of my faith that during any religious ritual I see when in Ghana I am more than welcome to observe and watch the festivities as long as I do not partake in them.  This means I will need to be cautious to show my respect and kindnesses to those included in the ritual while also keeping in mind my own values and beliefs.  For instance, I could participate in and converse with the people in pre or post ceremony festivities, but once the event begins I will need to politely excuse myself and keep my composure while sitting in the background of their event.  While in the background I should not be shaking my head or rolling my eyes if someone goes into trance or something else happens that I don’t agree with, but instead show attentiveness and respect for their ritual.  I will take notes, and express my thoughts on paper.  By maintaining civility it is likely that everything will run more smoothly, and a greater deal of information can be obtained from our experiences.\n\nIt seems that Rosenthal’s perspective on the African people is sound and holistic, and Forni too has a lot of important points that I can apply to this different culture.  The African people are very diverse in their language, religions, and cultures, and it is important to keep this in mind when communicating with people as a whole.  I need to think about the person I am speaking to and take a moment to identify what I say, and how I talk to them.  In all that I have heard from our meetings so far, and from a family friend who has been to Ghana in the past, I know that the Ghanian people are a very kind and generous people unlike what I have ever seen.  I know that even if I say something or do something that may mildly offend them they might not say anything because they are so mellow and easy going.  This means I will need to work hard to observe the interactions that both the Ghanians have with each other, and the experienced foreigners have with the people from Ghana so I can be best prepared to act civilly by their standards.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7765982747077942}
+{"content": "Love, God, Invisibility, and Richard Dawkins’s’s atheist buses\n\nWant to make £140,000 invisible? Give it to Richard Dawkins to promote his atheist buses denying God’s existence.\n\ngod-busEnough money has now been raised to place the message – “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” – on 200 bendy buses in the capital for a month, with the first ones taking to the streets .\n\nA further 600 buses carrying the adverts will be seen by passengers and passers-by in cities across England, Wales and Scotland, from Aberdeen and Dundee to York, Coventry, Swansea and Bristol.\n\nIt is a popular meme in the internet to mock religion for having an “invisible” God. If something is invisible it must not exist, right? Think of all the invisible things that we imagine might be pulling at us. Gravity, electricity, magnetism, wind. Then there’s faith, hope, and love. What color is love? What shape is it? Can anyone say whether love really exists?\n\nOooh, let’s dedicate a bus to the concept.\n\n\nThere’s a lot of things you could do with £140,000. You could buy books for schools. You could treat children for malaria. You could feed people who are hungry.  You could even put signs on buses to fight fear and bias.  Or you could write “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”  on 800 buses for one month.\n\nObviously this is yet another publicity coup for the reputation of Richard Dawkins, who is possibly England’s most abrasive atheist.  But what other possible reason could they have for something so…so…lacking in common sense.\n\nLet’s ask them. Why did they do it?\n\nProf Dawkins, the renowned evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, said:…  It’s just food for thought – people will have conversations in pubs when they see these buses.”\n\nAriane Sherine, a writer who first thought of the atheist bus adverts, said: ….”I hope they will brighten people’s days and make them smile on their way to work.”\n\nSherine and Dawkins will probably be smiling all right. And they’ll probably be having some great conversations in bars.\n\nStill looking for something to do with that £140,000?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9676427841186523}
+{"content": "New research on P3 firm Bilfinger Berger exposes how the corporation uses a tax haven to avoid paying taxes on its operations.\n\nBilfinger is involved with six Canadian P3s in health care and transportation. In 2011, Bilfinger Berger created Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure (BBGI), a company based in the popular tax haven of Luxembourg. Bilfinger Berger then sold its P3 projects to BBGI.\n\nWhile BBGI owns the assets, Bilfinger Berger continues to manage all the projects. By selling its P3s to BBGI, Bilfinger Berger is avoiding paying taxes on its operations in Alberta and British Columbia.\n\nThe impact of the lost tax revenue is not yet known. But Bilfinger Berger might not have won its BC contracts if it had been located in a tax haven when it was bidding, as the provincial government factors in potential tax revenue from P3 corporations when it is evaluating the P3 and public models.\n\nThe profile is one of several published jointly by CUPE and the Polaris Institute. The Public risks, private profits series shines a spotlight on water and wastewater services corporations who may bid on Canadian P3s. The profiles provide overviews of corporate structures and governance, lobby activity, past and present P3 contracts, and background on legal troubles or controversies.\n\nThe companies being profiled are diverse, ranging from international corporations to smaller Canadian-based financers and contractors. All have been identified by federal P3 promotion agency PPP Canada as likely bidders on Canadian water and wastewater P3s.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6476081609725952}
+{"content": "The post about how BP is recycling the oil booms in the Gulf oil disaster got me to thinking about how oil is actually recycled and how pure it is afterwards. This is what I found out:\n\nIndustrial and automotive used oils are recycled at what are called “re-refineries”. These re-refineries receive the used oil in bulk, usually via large tanker trucks. After it is received, the oil is tested to determine suitability for re-refining. Once a shipment of used oil is deemed suitable, the water is removed in the first processing step. This dehydrating process also removes light fuels from the oil. These light fuels are actually used to power the refinery. After this process, ethylene glycol is removed for re-use in recycled antifreeze.\n\nThen vacuum distillation is used to remove the fraction suitable for reuse as lubricating oil. This is referred to as the “Lube Cut”. This leaves other heavier oils and other combustion by-products for use in roadpaving. The lube cut next undergoes hydro treating to remove residual polymers and other chemical compounds, and to saturate carbon chains with hydrogen for greater stability.\n\n\nThe final oil separation, or “fractionating”, separates the oil into three different oil grades. The first are light viscosity lubricants suitable for general lubricant applications, then low viscosity lubricants for automotive and industrial applications, and finally high viscosity lubricants for heavy-duty applications.\n\nThe final production step involves blending detergent and anti-friction additives into these three grades of oil products. Then each product is tested again for quality and purity before releasing it to the public for resale.\n\nSo, how good is it? Experts agree that the re-refining process produces products indistinguishable from products produced by conventional refining. In some cases, it might be argued that recycled oil is even a little better.\n\nThanks to: Lebanon Ford", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8140998482704163}
+{"content": "Movies and animations\n\nThe Vampire Diaries\n\nThe Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural drama television series, based on the popular book series of the same name written by L.J. Smith.\n\nThe series takes place in Mystic Falls, Virginia, a fictional small town haunted and surrounded by supernatural beings. The series narrative follows the protagonist Elena Gilbert as she is drawn into the supernatural world. The show focuses on love triangle between Elena and two vampire borthers. As the narrative develops in the course of the series, the focal point shifts on the mysterious past of the town.\n\nIn the 4th episode of 4th season we see a emblem of vampire hunters in form of impossible pentagram. Below, you can see a screenshot with it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997250437736511}
+{"content": "Heuristic pattern correction scheme using adaptively trained generalized regression neural networks\n\n2010-01-14T14:31:44Z (GMT) by Tetsuya Hoya Jonathon Chambers\nIn many pattern classification problems, an intelligent neural system is required which can learn the newly encountered but misclassified patterns incrementally, while keeping a good classification performance over the past patterns stored in the network. In the paper, an heuristic pattern correction scheme is proposed using adaptively trained generalized regression neural networks (GRNNs). The scheme is based upon both network growing and dual-stage shrinking mechanisms. In the network growing phase, a subset of the misclassified patterns in each incoming data set is iteratively added into the network until all the patterns in the incoming data set are classified correctly. Then, the redundancy in the growing phase is removed in the dual-stage network shrinking. Both long- and short-term memory models are considered in the network shrinking, which are motivated from biological study of the brain. The learning capability of the proposed scheme is investigated through extensive simulation studies", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8406528830528259}
+{"content": "Check Your Knowledge\n\nThese activities will enable you to check that you have understood what you have read in the pragmatics section of the website. We hope they will be enjoyable too!\nThis multiple choice quiz tests your knowledge of some of the key concepts and individuals in the field of pragmatics and some important dates when works were published.\nThis crossword tests your knowledge of influential linguists in the field of pragmatics.\nIn this exercise, you are asked to match up examples of speech with the politeness superstrategy being used.\nThis gap-fill exercise tests your understanding of face theory and politeness.\nIn this multiple choice quiz, you are asked to say whether sentences are performative speech acts or statements using the advice given to you on the Example Research: Speech Act Theory page.\nThis match-up exercise involves you pairing up examples of conversations with the maxim being flouted.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997504353523254}
+{"content": "The Progressive, Pro-Choice Culture Of Death Must Be Stopped\n\nThe Progressive, Pro-Choice Culture Of Death Must Be Stopped\n\nLegislatures in New York and Virginia are opening the door to killing healthy 9-month-old babies. And if that's not scary enough, it could get even worse.\nDavid Marcus\n\nIn his 1995 papal encyclical, “Evangelium Vitae” Pope John Paul II noted the growth of he called a “widespread culture of death.” What he was rightly noting was a fundamental shift in how proponents of abortion morally justified their support of killing the unborn.\n\nThe Holy Father wrote:\n\n\nIn a nutshell, what the pope was describing was a new way of looking at abortion. No longer would its advocates understand it to be a moral dilemma, in which the unborn child’s right to live competed with the circumstances of the mother. Instead, as the pope predicted, by 2014, Katha Pollitt would write her book “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights” and the left would essentially no longer accept that the death of the child was a moral problem at all.\n\nGone were the days of “safe, legal and rare,” and in its stead came a celebration of abortion as a moral good. From there, it was quite obvious in which direction things would move. This year, the state of New York approved a law allowing abortion in the third trimester if such a procedure would help the health––not the life, but the health––of the mother.\n\nAnd, now in Virginia, a law has been proposed that would include mental health in that rubric. In stunning testimony about her proposed law, Delegate Kathy Tran explained yesterday that there is no limit to how late in a pregnancy an abortion may take place. Asked if her legislation would allow for the killing of a child moments, even seconds before being born, her answer was an unabashed yes.\n\nFor many Americans, the prospect of this is nothing short of horrific. Any honest person who has ever witnessed a birth cannot help but understand that the child they held in their arms, was every bit the same child mere minutes before, while still inside their mother. To pretend otherwise strains credulity. One may argue that the woman’s bodily autonomy outweighs the child’s right to live, but they must, if arguing in good faith, concede that what they are advocating to kill, is indeed, in every meaningful way, a child.\n\nJust as it was clear to Pope John Paul II in 1995 that this culture of death in which society washes its hands of killing was getting worse at that time, so we must see the same trajectory in our time. With one profound difference––there is now no more backstop, and only one taboo is left for those who view young life as disposable. That taboo is the life of a child already born. Can we doubt that such killing will be justified next? Either in the case of a botched abortion that leaves the child alive, or the birth of a badly-deformed child, there can be no doubt left that powerful forces in our society will advocate for their execution.\n\nWe have already had hints of this from a Planned Parenthood official who suggested that a living, breathing child outside of her mother could be killed. In the now-infamous exchange from 2013 the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, Alisa LaPolt Snow had this to say under examination:\n\n\n\nThis devaluation of human life should shock us, and yet, how can it? What discernible difference is there between this advocacy for what is, in every sense of the word, murder, and the practices protected by the New York and Virginia legislation?\n\nThere has always been a scientific clock running against abortion advocates. As viability of the unborn becomes earlier and earlier due to medical advancements, it may no longer play a role in deciding when abortion is morally justified. Perhaps this was always a canard, or perhaps the abortion advocates of the past really believed it was a line not to be crossed. Regardless, today, the vast majority of them simply do not.\n\nAll of us in the pro-life movement must now understand what we are really fighting against. There is no more nuance. These laws authorize the killing of children, full stop, and there is a moral responsibility to protect those innocent lives. In this fight we must be vigilant. Things are worse today than in 1995, far worse. But we must not despair. Rather, we must hold fast to the dignity of all human life, and call those who would destroy such a life what they are: murderers.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7098615169525146}
+{"content": "Homesickness sparks discussion\n\nMcKenna Scherer, Features Reporter\n\n\nEmail This Story\n\nHeld every Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Integrated Wellness Complex on Winona State University’s campus, Wellness Wednesday strives to create an atmosphere of support and learning on a wide range of topics for students.\n\nFor the second week of 2019-20 academic year, Wellness Wednesday covered a common college side effect: homesickness. The session, titled “Tackling Homesickness,” had counseling service staff member Dr. Lynda Brzezinski leading the event and a discussion between students.\n\n“I’ve had students who struggled with homesickness during all of their years at Winona State because they’re so connected to their homes and family,” Brzezinski said. “They’re still successful in school, but they just miss home.”\n\nNearly a dozen students showed up for the event, as well as Aiden the therapy dog, who roamed about the room during discussion.\n\nBrzezinski started off the event with a showing of a TED talk on the history of homesickness. The video gave information on how homesickness has been transformed from an “illness” that many previously thought you could die of to the modern understanding of it being a nostalgic feeling for one’s home.\n\nThe video touched on two main points: homesickness being a well-known and widely felt emotion dating back centuries, and that our current society often treats homesickness with little sensitivity and is seen as a “weak” feeling.\n\n“There’s something beautiful about that type of emotional connection,” Brzezinski said. “It’s normal – it means you miss what brings you comfort and security.”\n\nConversation opened up with students discussing different ways they dealt with the transition to college as well as how homesickness has affected them. The group was a mix of grade levels from first to fourth year students, which further instilled how homesickness is a feeling that comes and goes no matter how long one is away.\n\nMany brought up that joining activities either brings comfort to them or are reminders of home that help them cope, such as joining a youth group or church, going to the gym and exercising, or decorating their rooms to feel “home-y.”\n\nNearly all of the group agreed that going to college was the first time they would have been away from their families for a long period of time.\n\nOn the flip side to that, students also expressed how visiting home often means missing something else that’s happening at school, leading to the topic of “FOMO,” or “Fear of Missing Out.”\n\n“FOMO happens with college friends, specifically because if you miss something, the next time you’re there to hang out it could be the topic of conversation and then you just have to sit there and think ‘well, oh well, I wasn’t there, so that sucks,’” one student explained.\n\nFinding the balance between home-life, academics and a social life is something that is truly tested throughout the entirety of the college experience. Because of that struggle and pressure, Brzezinski also brought up the topics of depression and anxiety.\n\n“Our [Winona State’s] statistics from 2018 surveys showed that 30% of students at Winona State have been diagnosed with anxiety in their lifetime,” Brzezinski said.\n\nBrzezinski told the group that as a counselor at Winona State she’s had many students struggle with both mental illness and homesickness, and that they can often be intertwined.\n\n“[Homesickness] is not the same as depression, although a lot of symptoms for that are similar to when you’re homesick,” Brzezinski said. “You feel down, it’s hard to concentrate or focus, maybe your sleep is disturbed – but the difference is that if you’re homesick, going back home can make you feel better.”\n\nBrzezinski continued, explaining nearly any significant stressor in life can lead to depression and anxiety, which is why talking about feelings of distress is necessary.\n\nThroughout the several topics touched on during the hour-long event, Brzezinski made sure to give numerous tips on dealing with homesickness and emotional stress in general, including basic ideas like consciously making an effort to keep busy while transitioning to college life, meeting new people, and being patient with yourself.\n\nOnce the hour concluded, Aiden the therapy dog gave students his attention in exchange for pats and scratches on his head, revealing another strategy students can utilize to cope: the university’s on-site therapy dogs, Aiden and Winston.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9801579117774963}
+{"content": "Social Stratification in All Human Societies Essay\n\nSocial Stratification in All Human Societies Essay\n\nLength: 697 words (2 double-spaced pages)\n\nRating: Good Essays\n\nOpen Document\n\nEssay Preview\n\nSocial Stratification in All Human Societies\n\nAs Davis and Moore stated, stratification exists in every known human\nsociety, and all share certain functional prerequisites which must be\nmet if the system is to survive and operate efficiently. Therefore, in\nmy opinion, yes Social Stratification is an inevitable mechanism in\nsociety because it keeps everything and everyone functioning as it\n\nImagine a society without classes, were everyone earned the same\namount of money at work, the same amount of land to build a house on,\nsame importance in society, and the same amount of opportunities as\nthe other, then that would be what we call the Idealistic Society were\nthere would be no conflicts or inequalities. It would be the dream\nsociety were everyone is happy to be the same as his neighbor. But we\nall know that this is impossible due to many factors and ‘rules’ in\nthe structure of society itself, were social inequality plays an\nimportant role in the running of said society.\n\nLet’s start with the different types of jobs people in society have.\nJobs are one of the main factors in society which places people in\ntheir own separate class. Although it is difficult, with Davis and\nMoore’s theory, to show clearly which positions are functionally\nimportant, for the fact that a position is highly rewarded does not\nnecessarily mean that it is functionally important. But the wage that\ncomes with the job clearly states that people deem it important. Davis\nand Moore say that a jobs importance can be measured in two ways:\nFirst is the degree to which a position is functionally unique, there\nbeing no other positions that can perform the same ...\n\n... middle of paper ...\n\n...power between groups.\n\nSocial-conflict theorists say that rather than helping the society as\na whole, the social stratification only benefits certain groups while\ntaking away from the left over amounts. The productive system has\nbrought great disparities in our productive system.\n\nIn conclusion I believe that in today’s world structural-functionalism\ntheory is very curate and seems to be true in our everyday lives. The\nmedia makes it clear to everyone that an education is the only way to\nmake t into the world. Also I agree with some of the conflict\ntheorists that say that those people who have power make it up the\nsocial ladder, but in my opinion it is the people themselves who give\nthese power hungry people the importance and prestige they have, and\npeople can pull them down just as quickly as they pulled them up.\n\nNeed Writing Help?\n\nGet feedback on grammar, clarity, concision and logic instantly.\n\nCheck your paper »\n\nStratification And Social Psychology Research Essay\n\n- Stratification is a term used to define the hierarchical arrangement of people living in the same society. This classification is based on different aspects among their wealth or financial status. Sociology has a long history of studying stratification in a move to explain what causes stratification in a society and discovering the various kinds of inequality witnessed in the societies. Inequality means that people have unequal access to the available scarce resources in the society. Some of these resources are economical, political, or social....   [tags: Sociology, Social class, Social stratification]\n\nGood Essays\n1390 words (4 pages)\n\nSocial Stratification And Racism : How It Affects Our Lives Essay\n\n- Social stratification and racism where all social inventions created by western societies, and it still plays a huge role in our daily lives. Depending on what social class you were born into or the color of your skin can determine how well of a life you can life and the opportunities presented by these silly factors. It’s unfortunate how having a specific skin color can either help you or hold you back on your potential. 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Individuals in the lower class have limited access to the resources in society, in contrast the upper class control most of the resources....   [tags: Social class, Sociology, Discrimination]\n\nGood Essays\n1402 words (4 pages)\n\nSocial Stratification And Its Impact On Society Essay\n\n- Social stratification is prevalent in every society and displays diversity in its organizing principles across the world. Social stratification is defined as “the way in which a society organizes itself so that individuals know their place or rank, also called their social position, in society”(Our social world: An introduction to sociology, 2015) There are several broad categories of stratification systems prevalent in our world today; slavery, caste, and the class system are three of them. 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Due to wealth and poverty, there is an unequal distribution of means between the separate groups, which creates social inequality....   [tags: unequal distribution, bourgeoisie]\n\nGood Essays\n981 words (2.8 pages)\n\nSocial Stratification & Mobility Essay\n\n- Social Stratification & Mobility Individuals in today’s society are separated by many different factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and economic status. Another form of separation is that of stratification. There are four major systems of stratification slavery, caste, estate, and class. “Social stratification means the differentiation of a given population into hierarchically superposed classes.”(Sorokin, 1964, p. 11) Stratification can either be in the form of an open or closed system. The closed system is one that allows minimal to no movement within the system....   [tags: Sociology]\n\nGood Essays\n1805 words (5.2 pages)\n\nEssay on Measuring Social Class On A Hierarchy Of Unequal Social Groups\n\n- Amy Barnard Measuring Social class Social stratification refers to the division of society into a hierarchy of unequal social groups. (Ken Brown, An introductory of sociology, p393) All societies have social stratification to some degree, stratification is split into three different types of system. Class is the system that is most common in most modern societies. Social class is individuals grouped in terms of their occupation, income and wealth. This type of system is based on economic factors only and tends to be ‘open’, meaning social mobility is possible and people are free to move between classes with no legal barriers....   [tags: Social class, Sociology, Social stratification]\n\nGood Essays\n1275 words (3.6 pages)\n\nImpact of Warfare, Religion, and Social Stratification on City-Building\n\n- Impact of Warfare, Religion, and Social Stratification on City-Building In both ancient and contemporary human societies, one can witness the cultural creations of warfare, religion, and social stratification interacting to help form and perpetuate the existence of each other. In addition, these cultural factors have lent themselves to help produce, regulate, and justify specific technologies. These technologies may be either destructive or beneficial to human societies economically and/or environmentally, and can have a very wide range of function....   [tags: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation]\n\nGood Essays\n1450 words (4.1 pages)\n\nEssay Mesopotamia Vs. Egypt : Life, Death, And Social Standing\n\n- Mesopotamia vs. Egypt: Life, Death, and Social Standing Of the first civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt left behind the most widely available documented look at the past (92). Interestingly enough, the basis for societal rank was comparable between these two civilizations. But despite similarities in social stratification, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization had very dissimilar views on life and the afterlife. Indeed, Mesopotamian civilization certainly had much stricter views of life and the afterlife....   [tags: Social class, Sociology, Social stratification]\n\nGood Essays\n815 words (2.3 pages)\n\nSocial Stratification Essays\n\n- Inequalities exist in all types of human society. Even in the simplest cultures where variations in wealth or property are non-existent, there are inequalities between individuals, men and women, the young and the old. A person may have a higher status than others because of a particular prowness at hunting, for instance, or because he or she is believed to have special access to the ancestral spirits. To describe inequalities, sociologists speak of Social Stratification. Social Stratification lies at the core of society and of the discipline of sociology....   [tags: Papers]\n\nGood Essays\n3148 words (9 pages)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997563362121582}
+{"content": "No Left Turn\n\nAnne Zivolich, Natasha Adorlee Johnson, Maggie Stack (by Margo Moritz)\n\nYou’re doing a pirouette exercise in class, whipping out three or four turns to the right side. It feels easy (and fun!). But then the teacher makes you go to the left. All of a sudden, you’re an uncoordinated mess, struggling to squeak out a double turn. How can the two sides be so different?\n\nOne-sidedness is a problem that affects even the most seasoned pros. Maybe you jump higher off your right foot than your left; maybe you can touch your nose with your right leg but barely lift your left leg above 90 degrees. It’s weird—and frustrating. But there are ways to get your “bad” side to feel much better.\n\nKnow That It’s Natural\n\nAll people are one-sided to a certain extent. “We have an innate sense of coordination,” says Darius Barnes, who danced in the Broadway show Memphis. “Even little kids have sides that feel more natural to them.” Consider the way your body is structured. If one of your hips is tighter, for example, you’ll be less flexible on that side. If one of your ankles is hypermobile, it’s probably also weaker and less stable than its sturdy opposite.\n\nGet Uncomfortable\n\nBarnes knows that even though his sissones may feel better to one side, dancers \"have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.\" (by Christine Jean Chambers)\n\nDancers like to work on things that feel good, but just because doing a mean you can ignore the other side. “When I was a young bunhead, I kept practicing things on my good side because it was fun,” admits Maggie Stack, a dancer at ODC/Dance in San Francisco. “But as I got more experienced, I realized the importance of nurturing the things that didn’t come as easily.” Barnes agrees: “You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”\n\nPractice doesn’t always make perfect, but it certainly helps. Try working on your “bad” side first, like doing 32 fouetté turns to the left (if you’re a righty) before going the other way. You’ll be less tired and more likely to locate and fix any problems. Also, ask your teacher if you can start class with your right hand on the barre once in a while. You can give fresh attention to the left working leg, instead of always getting to that side last.\n\nTry Something Else\n\nIf you’ve already been practicing things to your bad side, pat yourself on the back. But if doing so has left you frustrated, it might help to take a break and try something else.\n\nLaura Graham, ballet master at Dresden Semperoper Ballett in Germany, suggests trying a class in a style outside your specialty to help improve your coordination. “It’ll let you find your natural sense of movement before you’re constricted by a specific technique,” she says. If you’re a ballet dancer, for example, take up tap or jazz. Their emphasis on rhythm and timing can be especially helpful for pirouettes: Frequently dancers have trouble turning on their bad sides because their spot is too slow, or because they’re not bringing their second arm around fast enough.\n\nCross-training can also help strengthen and equalize both sides of the body. “You learn how to balance everything out when you do a new type of exercise,” Stack says. She bikes to and from work every day and does yoga and Pilates at least once a week. Biking has helped her balance out her strength because of its even, repetitive motion. She focuses on engaging her abdominals and the muscles around her pelvis when she rides.\n\nDisguise It\n\nRemember that dance is partly an art of illusion. All dancers have weaknesses; the pros just learn how to hide them. Stack turns better to the left, for example, but you’d never know it. “I try to make my movement quality interesting even when I feel like something’s awkward,” she says. To disguise a troublesome step, play with the musicality or accents of a phrase. The audience might notice a quirky rhythm and not see that the step itself is a little bit off.\n\nYou can also watch other dancers to see how they’ve mastered your problem step. How do they approach it? If you can’t reverse a combination, do it next to someone who can.\n\nIn the end, remember that your best weapon against one-sidedness is confidence. Your left penchée might not reach the six o’clock mark you can hit on your right, but if you dance with conviction, nobody in the audience will notice.\n\nHealth & Body\n\n\n\nGet Dance Spirit in your inbox", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8838710188865662}
+{"content": "Average: 2.3 (6 votes)\nFast Facts\nAdvaita Vedanta\nMain Countries of Activity: \nDate of Birth: \nPlace of Birth: \nnot Known\nIn His/Her Body (\"alive\"): \nDate Left His/Her Body: \nAncestor Gurus: \n\n\nGaudapada (c. 8th century CE) was a very early guru in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. He is traditionally said to have been the grand-guru of the great teacher Adi Shankara, one of the most important figures in Hindu philosophy.\n\n\nThere is some dispute about the date of Shankara, but the most probable date is in the 8th century CE, as per the evidence cited by scholars such as Bhandarkar, K. B. Pathak and Deussen. Gaudapada is said to have been the teacher of Govinda, who was the teacher of Shankara. Shankara himself affirms this and quotes and refers to Gaudapada as the teacher who knows the tradition of the Vedānta (sampradāya-vit). Therefore, Gaudapada must have lived and taught during the 7th century CE.\n\nMandukya Karika\n\nThe Maandukya Kaarikaa of Gaudapada also known as the Agama Shaastram is the earliest available systematic treatise on Advaita Vedaanta.\n\nGaudapada was the author of the Mandukya Karika, which is a treatise in verse form on the Mandukya Upanishad, one of the shortest but most profound Upanishads, or mystical Vedas, consisting of just 13 prose sentences. Gaudapada brings out the subtle meanings locked in these mantras through his work.\n\nThe Gaudapaadiya Kaarikaa is divided into four chapters. The first chapter - Agama, or Agama Prakarana - explains the text of the Maandukya Upanishad and Gaudapada shows that Advaita is supported by the shruti and reason. The second chapter - Vaitathya Prakarana - is concerned primarily with rationally proving the unreality of the phenomenal world characterized by its duality and opposition, on the cessation of which non-duality is attained. Lest by a similar process of arguments reality itself should be negated, the third chapter - Adavaita Prakarana - establishes non-duality and the fourth chapter - Alatasanti Prakarana - quite distinct from the other chapters with its Mahaayaana Buddhist style of dialectic explains the relativity of our phenomenal experience and establishes the Atman or soul as the only reality underlying the phenomenal existence.\n\n\nGaudapada is one of the most important figures in Indian philosophy. He shows the deepest respect for the Buddha whom he salutes repeatedly, and quotes freely from Vaasubandhu and Nagarjuna.\n\n\nAjativada or the doctrine of no-origination, is the fundamental doctrine of Gaudapada. From the absolute standpoint origination is an impossibility. The various theories of creation - that it is the expansion of God or it is the will of God or it is for God's enjoyment or it is an illusion like a dream or it proceeds from time - are all rejected by Gaudapada. Creation is the very nature of God. It is his inherent nature which simply emanates and flows from him. But even this is only an appearance for in truth there's no creation at all. For those well versed in the Vedaanta the world is like a city of Gaandharvas - an illusion. Viewed from the absolute there's neither birth nor death, neither appearance nor disappearance, neither production nor destruction, neither bondage nor liberation. There's none who works for freedom nor is there any who is liberated - this is the highest truth. The wise know that there's neither unity nor plurality - the world is neither one nor many. Just as a piece of rope is mistaken for a snake, the Atman is mistaken as this diverse world. Duality is an appearance and the non-dual Atman is the real truth.\n\nCausality taught in the Upanishads is only to enable us to understand the supreme truth of no-origination. The world is not different from the self and the self is not different from Atman and Atman is not different from Brahman. That the non-dual absolute appears as the diverse world is only an illusion. If it really became diverse then the immortal would become mortal. The dualists who seek to prove the origination of the unborn, by that very enterprise try to make the immortal, mortal. Ultimate nature can never change - the immortal can never become mortal and vice versa. Gaudapada quotes from the Upanishads : \"There's no plurality here\"; \"The Lord through his powers appears to be many\"; \"those who are attached to creation or production or origination go to utter darkness\"; \"the unborn is never reborn, for who can produce him?\".\n\nAjaativaada can be proved by reasoning too. How can that which already exists be born again? Neither can the non-existent be born. To produce a particular effect, a cause must have a particular energy. Else everything could be produced out of everything. But this energy can belong neither to that which is existent nor to that which is non-existent nor to that which is both nor to that which is neither. If we're unable to find the effect in the beginning or end, it cannot exist in the middle either. Since we're unable to prove antecedence and consequence, how can we establish a cause?\n\nCausality is impossible as neither the existent nor the non-existent can be produced either by the existent or the non-existent.\n\nThat's the reason the Buddhas have clarified the doctrine of no-origination. To say that samsaara is without beginning and has an end is as absurd as saying that nirvana has a beginning but no end.\n\nGaudapada says that it is only the dualists espousing theories on creation, who quarrel amongst themselves. We non-dualists - the upholders of Ajaativaada have no reason to quarrel, because even these dualists when taken collectively only proclaim no-origination.\n\nThe similarity between the views of Gaudapada and Naagaarjuna cannot be missed. Gaudapada himself acknowledges this when he says, \"There are some (shunyavaadins) who uphold non-dualism (advayavaada) and reject both the extreme views of being and non-being, of production and destruction and thus emphatically proclaim the doctrine of no-origination. We approve\", says Gaudapada, \"of the doctrine of no-origination proclaimed by them\".\n\n\nGaudapada advances arguments similar to Vaasubandhu in an attempt to prove that the external world is unreal.\n\nThe external world has no existence independent of the consciousness, which perceives it. Mere perception and practical utility cannot prove the reality of the world. For even in dreams there's perception and practical utility - water in a dream can quench the thirst in a dream as much as real water can quench real thirst. The waking state is on par with the dream state and both are real within their own order. But from the ultimate standpoint both are unreal.\n\n\nThe external world is unreal because it doesn't exist always - for in deep sleep we've no consciousness of it. It is also unreal because the relations which constitute it - space, time and causality - are themselves impossible conceptions and hence unreal. It is also unreal because it consists of objects and whatever is presented as an object is unreal. The world is also unreal because it is unthinkable either as existent or as non-existent. Just as a moving firebrand appears as straight or curved, so does consciousness in action appear as the subject and object. And just as an unmoving firebrand produces no illusion, so does firm knowledge produce no subject-object duality. The appearances of the firebrand are not produced by anything else and when the firebrand doesn't move, the appearances don't rest in anything else. Nor do the appearances enter into the firebrand or do they go out of it. They are mere appearances because they are essentially indescribable or unthinkable, neither real nor unreal, neither existent nor non-existent.\n\nReality is the pure Self - the ultimate subject, which is pure consciousness. But it is not the empirical self because that which has empirical existence cannot be ultimately real. The real is the consciousness, which is immanent in both the subject and the object and yet transcends them both. It transcends the trinity of the knower, known and knowledge. It has neither attachment nor connection nor relation to anything else. It is self-proved, self-existent, innate and uncaused. Even to say that it is the \"unborn\" is valid only from the empirical standpoint - for it is beyond the intellect.\n\n\nAsparsha yoga\n\n\nAs vishva it has consciousness of the outside world and thus enjoys the gross. As taijasa it has consciousness of the mental states and enjoys the subtle. As praajna it is concentrated consciousness and enjoys the bliss of deep sleep. While vishva and taijaasa are both causes and effects, praajna is only the cause. But turiya is neither cause and effect. It is ishaana - all pervading, changeless, non dual, capable of removing all sorrows, the lord of all and one without a second. Praajna is a state where there're no objects - so it cannot even be called a subject. It knows nothing, neither itself nor others. Though praajna too is non-dual like Turiya, still there's the seed of ignorance present in deep sleep. But Turiya knows no sleep and being self luminous consciousness is all seeing. It transcends the positive wrong knowledge of the waking and dream state and the absence of knowledge in the deep sleep state. The non-dual Atman is realized when the individual self (jiva) is awakened from its beginning less ignorance. The Atman is unborn, dreamless, sleepless, motionless, where all the categories of the intellect are merged, where all duality ceases - there's neither going to nor coming from it. It is the Lord immanent in the universe abiding in the hearts of all. It is known by the sages who've known the essence of the Vedas and are free from fear, anger and attachment.\n\n\n\nQuite like the Mahaayaanists who say that the Buddha due to his excellent skill, preached the truth in different ways depending on the aptitude of his disciples, Gaudapada too says that the merciful Veda teaches karma and upaasana to people of lower and middling intellect, while jnaana is taught to those of higher intellect.\n\nEpistemics of Gaudapada\n\nGaudapada's karika on the Mandukya Upanisad is an example of the rational epistemics of ultimate reality. His rational arguments prove the irrationality of experience. The experience of varied consciousness-states, for instance, proves that none of them can be considered to be real.[1] How does one know a magician's rabbit from a 'real' one? And as the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu questioned: If I were asleep and dreamt I was a butterfly, and then awoke to find myself a man, how will I know if I was a butterfly dreaming I was a man or am a man dreaming I was a butterfly?' Also considered is the cosmological question: something can't come out of nothing; yet, experience looks for something beyond this something which is logically unattainable; therefore, the only truth is that all this experience is false and the only reality is non-dualism. However, Gaudapada's portrayal of maya as real yet non-dual in his example of the firebrand tries to provide a cosmological answer. The empirical dimension cannot be totally avoided.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.521165132522583}
+{"content": "\nDickins, James\nSudanese Arabic: Phonematics and Syllable Structure\nvolume: 38\npages/dimensions: XII, 128 pages\nlanguage: Arabic, English\nbinding: Book (Paperback)\ndimensions: 17.00 × 24.00 cm\nweight: 270g\nedition: 1. Auflage\npublishing date: 18.06.2007\nISBN: 978-3-447-05519-2\n38,00 Eur\n\nThis book – the first detailed study of Sudanese Arabic phonology for many years - proposes a functionalist analysis which is strikingly simpler than standard accounts. Consonants and vowels are integrated into a single phoneme system; consonantal [y] and vocalic [i], consonantal [w] and vocalic [u], and consonantal [‚] and vocalic [a] are analysed as allophones of a single phoneme respectively. The putative phonemes ‘ee’ and ‘oo’ are analysed not as phonemes in their own right, but as realisations of /ai/ and /au/ phoneme sequences, differing from ‘ay’ and ‘aw’ in terms of their phonotactic structuring rather than the identity of the phonemes which make them up. The potential for zero distinctive features to further significantly simplify the analysis is explored, particularly in the light of Jakobson’s (1957) account of North Palestinian Druze. The models hyperphoneme and archiphoneme are shown to provide elegant solutions to otherwise problematic areas of analysis. Phonological arguments are supported throughout by detailed phonetic analyses of both canonical and non-canonical phonetic realisations, and a novel account is proposed of ‘emphasis spread’.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984261989593506}
+{"content": "Boy doing activity with colorful pieces\n  • Autism Spectrum Disorder\n  • ASD\n\n\nAutism is a developmental disability characterized by significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges. Children with autism often communicate, interact, behave, and learn in atypical ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, and are about four times more common in boys than girls. The causes of autism are not fully known, but there are many likely contributors. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is currently working on one of the largest U.S. studies to date, called Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), which is looking at many possible risk factors for autism, including genetic, environmental, pregnancy, and behavioral factors.\n\nAccording to the CDC, the following are common signs of autism: not pointing at objects to show interest, failing to look at an object pointed out by someone else, difficulty relating to others or being generally disinterested in other people, avoidance of eye contact and self-isolation, trouble understanding others’ feelings or communicating their own, preferring not to be cuddled (or only when they want to), appearing not to be aware when spoken to, taking an increased interest in other people but not knowing how to interact with them, repetition of words and phrases heard, but not using them in standard conversation, repetitive actions, difficulty adapting to routine changes, and having unusual reactions to sensory stimuli (smell, taste, sound, feel, etc.), among others.\n\nAn autism diagnosis can be challenging since there are no medical tests to detect the disorder. Physicians make a diagnosis by spending time observing a child’s behavior and development. Though sometimes earlier, an autism diagnosis by an experienced professional is considered very reliable by the time a child is two years old. Unfortunately, many children go undiagnosed until much later, delaying important early educational, behavioral, and social interventions.\n\nWhile there is no cure for autism, current behavioral and medical therapies are effective in managing symptoms and improving daily function in children with ASD.\n\nConventional Treatment\n\nThe prevalence of autism has increased over the last two decades, largely due to increased awareness and accurate diagnosis. As such, treatment options have become increasingly imperative. The National Academy of Sciences recommends that children with ASD receive intensive autism-directed behavioral and educational treatments for a minimum of 25 hours each week.\n\nMost autism intervention programs come from a field known as Applied Behavior Analysis, which centers on the way environment influences behavior. Some of the interventions found to be useful in autism therapy include Discrete Trial Training which involves breaking down complex skills into simpler skills that are taught through repeated, structured trials; Pivotal Response Training, is play-based and child-directed therapy that targets pivotal areas of a child’s development, including “responsiveness to multiple cues, motivation, self-management and child self-initiations.” In Floortime therapy, parents play with the child through activities that the child enjoys, following the child’s lead, and building into more complex interactions. Denver Model treatment involves a program individually tailored to the child’s development, in the child’s natural environment, at common times like meals, bath time, and friend play, with focus on the child’s language and social-emotional development. JASPER (Joint attention symbolic play engagement regulation) is a play-based intervention that targets joint attention and play skills. Studies have shown improvement with social communication, especially language, in autistic children.\n\nAccording to the Child Neurology Foundation, “two medications, Risperidone and Arapiprazole, have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of ‘irritability’ in ASD, with ongoing research on several other medications for symptoms associated with ASD.” In conjunction with behavioral intervention, these medications can be effective in the regulation of aggression, self-injury, repetitive behaviors, and sometimes overall attention and engagement. Additional therapeutic options include auditory training, vitamin therapy, diet modification, anti-yeast therapy, facilitated communication, music therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and sensory integration. While there is no cure for autism, current behavioral and medical therapies are effective in managing symptoms and improving daily function in children with ASD.\n\n\nAt The Brain Possible, our goal is to empower you to take a holistic approach to your child’s treatment. Below are ways in which you can support several aspects of your child’s recovery; before embarking on any, be sure to discuss them with your trusted health care providers.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe understand that the categorization of conditions on The Brain Possible may not perfectly describe your child.\n\nOur goal is inclusivity, opening the door to dialogue and information sharing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9845989942550659}
+{"content": "After a decline in their population size throughout the 70’s and 80’s, the greater mouse-eared bat was declared extinct in the UK by the 90’s. However, in 2012, much to everyone’s surprise, a single greater mouse-eared bat was discovered hibernating in an underground tunnel in Sussex. Given the importance of the finding, the bat has been monitored ever since. Babec Director Tim Buckland, who has been helping Sussex Bat Group monitor hibernation sites for several years, recalls his experience on a recent monitoring check for the greater mouse-eared bat.\n\nThe entrance to the disused tunnel, the location of which is now a closely guarded secret, has since been sealed off to members of the public. It takes three of us to loosen the deadbolt and finally prise open the door. We’re quickly engulfed in darkness so it’s torches on and the hunt begins…\n\nBats in temperate latitudes need quiet and cool places where they can slow their metabolism and become dormant over winter, so hibernation sites are frequently found in disused underground sites, such as caves, mines and tunnels. For those not lucky enough to have been involved in bat hibernation checks before, it involves painstakingly checking tiny crevices and gaps for bats using nothing more than a torch and binoculars. When hibernating bats are located, pinpointing the species can be a challenge even for experts. It’s often just tiny clues like the shape of the tips of the ears or the size of the feet that give it away.\n\nWithin a few hours, we’re getting wet from a torrent of ice cold drips that are percolating through the brickwork, but we’ve recorded a good variety of bat species. This includes some of my favourites, Daubenton’s with their portly faces and large hairy feet, and Natterer’s with their glistening white undersides. But still no mouse-eared.\n\nAnd all of a sudden, roosting in a broken brick at the highest point of the tunnel, the last greater mouse-eared bat! With a wingspan of up to 45cm, the greater mouse-eared bat is one of the largest European bat species. A member of the Myotis genus, it has sandy coloured fur with a white belly and a bare pink face with large ears.\n\nBy the end the day we had recorded nearly 150 bats in the tunnel, an assortment of Daubenton’s, Natterer’s and whiskered/Brandt’s/Alcathoe, and of course the greater mouse-eared. While this is a healthy count for a bat hibernation site, it’s some way short of the 543 bats recorded in the same tunnel in 2015.\n\nThe origin of the last greater mouse-eared bat is unclear so has lead to some speculation. Many believe that the bat could have colonised from the European mainland where the species is still present. However, some believe that a small colony could still survive in southern England. Either way, it’s a tremendous privilege to have seen the greater mouse-eared bat.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9305404424667358}
+{"content": "uk es it fr pt nl\nChuns and Jocks Reefs Notations\nQualité quand ça marche: 4.0\nConsistance des Vagues: 5.0\nNiveau de Difficulté: 3.0\nFoule a l'Eau: 2.0\n\nGénéral: 4.0\n\nVoir toutes les 18 notations\n\nBasé sur 1 vote. Voter\n\nSurf Report Feed\n\nStatistiques de Houle pour Chuns and Jocks Reefs, Hiver: Toutes Houles – Tous Vents\n\nThis chart shows the range of swells directed at Chuns and Jocks Reefs over a normal northern hemisphere winter and is based upon 8485 NWW3 model predictions since 2006 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coast so we have chosen the best grid node based on what we know about Chuns and Jocks Reefs. In the case of Chuns and Jocks Reefs, the best grid node is 42 km away (26 miles).\n\n\nThe diagram indicates that the prevailing swell direction, shown by the longest spokes, was NW, whereas the the prevailing wind blows from the E. Because the wave model grid is away from the coast, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Chuns and Jocks Reefs and out to sea. We combine these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To simplify things we don't show these in the rose plot. Because wind determines whether or not waves are surfable at Chuns and Jocks Reefs, you can view an alternative image that shows only the swells that were forecast to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. During a typical northern hemisphere winter, swells large enough to cause good for surfing waves at Chuns and Jocks Reefs run for about 76% of the time.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.947398841381073}
+{"content": "Empire Builders - The Romans (Digital Download)\n\n$9.99 - $14.99\n\n\n\nIn this episode of Empire Builders we explore ten sites that defined the Roman Empire.\n\nThe Roman Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military force in the world of its time and became one of the largest empires in world history.\n\nAt its height under Emperor Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres, holding sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the world’s entire population, controlling large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa and The Middle East.\n\nFor 500 years the city of Rome was the largest city in the world. The longevity and vast extent of the empire, ruled for its entirety from Rome, ensured the lasting influence of Latin and Greek language, culture, religion, inventions, architecture, philosophy, law and forms of government on the empire’s descendants.\n\nUsing CGI, contributions from experts in their fields and re-enactments, we walk the ruins, discover the story behind, and explore the historic sites of:\n\n  1. The Battle of Alesia, Alesia\n  2. The Forum, Rome, Italy\n  3. Merida Theatre, Merida, Spain\n  4. Circus Maximus, Merida, Spain\n  5. Maison Caree, Nimes, France\n  6. Colosseum, Rome, Italy\n  7. Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy\n  8. Pantheon, Rome, Italy\n  9. Pont du Gard, France\n  10. Baths of Caracalla, Rome, Italy\n  11. Arch of Constantine, Rome, Italy\n\n\nRuntime: 50 minutes per show\n\n\n\nVideos Hide Videos Show Videos", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8983511924743652}
+{"content": "tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15466608.post4334005320080021345..comments2019-09-16T21:01:47.863+10:00Comments on Better Projects: Project Management and Project LeadershipCraig Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01210437173582289473noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15466608.post-17790649761136352112007-08-22T21:41:00.000+10:002007-08-22T21:41:00.000+10:00Thanks for the comment Pawell. I know we disagree...Thanks for the comment Pawell. I know we disagree on some aspects of managing teams and it's good to be reminded of alternative experiences and points of view.<BR/><BR/>I guess this is a sitational case, however I do think sharing the leadership role is a good idea for most teams.<BR/><BR/>I agree that not everyone is equally capable, but it can be an opportunity to develop staff. As the project leader part of the role should be to develop the staff.<BR/><BR/>Besides, I honestly have to defer to others all the time. I lead a team of experts in their area and while I think I know how things shuld be done I usually defer to the other person, both as a matter of pragmatically sharing the work and in getting out of their way while they do their thing.<BR/><BR/>It does require having a team who is at least basically competent, and acknowledging that there will be aspects of the work that are imperfect. I usually work in large corporations who can accomodate both of these aspects.<BR/><BR/>Anyone else got an opinion?Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04913411035783086223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15466608.post-91640299817801325772007-08-21T23:58:00.000+10:002007-08-21T23:58:00.000+10:00There's one thing I do not agree with. Yes, it wou...There's one thing I do not agree with. Yes, it would be nice if every member of the team was able to take the leader role whenever it their \"turn\" but reality isn't so nice. Quite often I work in environments where developers formally fulfilling the \"lead development\" role are far from what you expect to be the project leadership. The same situation happens with support engineers.<BR/><BR/>I think it is so, because leadership isn't on the list of must-haves when you recruit developers or support engineers or even business analysts. Yes, it is very nice when you get in the set, but, be honest, you rarely have two candidates \"being equal on everything else.\"<BR/><BR/>That's why it is PM who usually leads the project for most of the time. It's more likely when she knows technical background of whatever is being done and can discuss e.g. technical details with developers. I don't say that's the perfect situation, but that's the reality.<BR/><BR/>I'd be very pleased if I worked in the team where there's too much leadership skills spread all over the people, but I'm yet to see that kind of team.Pawel Brodzinskihttp://bog.brodzinski.comnoreply@blogger.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9326159954071045}
+{"content": "So You Want to Study Law?\n\nStudying law can open many doors – people who obtain a law degree can go and practice law as an attorney, but they may also find careers in other fields such as politics, diplomacy, economics, business, and education. The rewards are plenty, but before you embark on this journey, it is important that you understand your goals and what it will take to achieve them. The admissions process for law schools in the US can be a bit intimidating. So, let’s explore more about the law school application and admissions process.\n\nLaw School 101\n\nIn various countries, students start their law studies right after high school or secondary school. Most universities in other countries only require a high school diploma or the equivalent in that country to admit students to their law faculties. Studying law in the US is quite different from that international format. Law is a professional academic field, the equivalent of a graduate degree in other parts of the world.\n\nLaw schools are part of public or private universities that grant Juris Doctor (J.D.) degrees. Law schools may also grant other graduate law degrees such as Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees for students who have already obtained their Juris Doctor.\n\nThe Juris Doctor program typically lasts 3 years for full-time students and 4 years for part-time students. First-year (1L) students usually take courses in legal writing, contracts, torts, criminal law, constitutional law, and other courses. Most students feel that the first-year is the “hardest” and the most intense because of all the core courses, exams, and the Socrates method used in most of their classes where students are cold called by the professor to state a case or respond to a case-based question.\n\nMost second-year students (2L) focus on other activities such as Law Review, Moot Court, and other extra-curricular activities that offer a lot of practice. This is extremely important for most 2L students since they need to start looking for legal internships for the summer months between the second and third years.\n\nThird-year students (3L) focus on taking electives such as international law, immigration law, antitrust law, intellectual property law and others that serve as specialization courses. Third-year students also focus most of their time in obtaining employment and studying for the bar exam.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8331030011177063}
+{"content": "Mini Metro review (Switch): Travelling in Style\n\nMini Metro is a stroke of genius. Building on the visual design of modern transit maps, it’s a puzzle game that sees players trying to expand a rail network to accommodate the rapidly growing number of passengers. Inevitably, the system becomes overloaded and you lose the game—and then it’s on to the next.\n\nStations in Mini Metro are represented by geometric icons, as are the passengers using the network. Your goal is to get each passenger to a station that matches their symbol by way of a (hopefully) efficient train system, which you build by connecting the different stations with rail lines.\n\nThis is where things get puzzley. Unlike a simulation or management game—with which you’d typically associate building railways—each line can be as long or short as it needs to be, without the need to worry about building costs. You can freely move tracks as you see fit to accommodate the new stations that pop up (unless you’re playing in Expert mode, where everything is locked in place as soon as you set it down).\n\nHowever, you have only a limited number of lines, trains, and bridges or tunnels—which are necessary for crossing bodies of water—at your disposal. As your network grows bigger, managing those resources gets more difficult. At the same time, the sheer volume of passenger numbers makes it harder to get everyone where they’re going. Eventually, a station will reach its limit on how many waiting travellers it can hold, and you’ll hit that game over screen.\n\nRelated reading: Framed is another series of ingenious puzzle games, created by Australian indie developer Loveshack. Read our review of Framed Collection for Switch.\n\nIt’s a very simple concept, and it takes little more than a few moments to get acquainted with how Mini Metro‘s puzzles work. At the same time, there’s enough depth for a wide range of approaches, and with games that are easy to jump into and tend to be over quickly, “failure” is more a chance to try again for a better score than the frustrating experience that game overs usually are. The 20 different maps, all based on real-world cities and all sporting their own unique quirks—like Hong Kong’s rapid rate of station and passenger growth, or San Francisco’s reliance on bridges to connect the city proper, Oakland, and the Bay Area—all work to keep things interesting.\n\nSuch a brilliant concept so expertly delivered made Mini Metro one of the most memorable games of 2015, when it first released for PC. The mobile version has kept me busy for many a commute, as I know it has for plenty of others, as well. Now, that brilliance comes to Switch, where it finds a natural home.\n\nMini Metro always felt like a more natural fit for a handheld device; the Switch version delivers that, but with the added benefit of a choice between touchscreen and controller inputs. There’s also the option of two-person multiplayer with each player holding a single Joy Con, but rather than a separate game mode, you can simply play any of the regular modes with two players.\n\nThat’s a great decision, because rather than a more structured multiplayer experience, you get this wonderful dynamic that’s both cooperative and competitive. Ideally, both players would work together to manage your train network, and when all goes together and both players are in harmony, it’s a very collaborative experience. But with both players drawing from the same pool of resources, and in all likelihood having different ideas about how best to proceed, it can quickly turn into a sort of pseudo-competitive party game. You want to build a bridge here, but the other player wants to build one there, so you end up in a back and forth moving one another’s rail lines about, getting annoyed with one another’s decisions until eventually your lack of teamwork brings your railway to a halt. It’s like a cooperative game with seeds of discord deliberately sown in, which is always a fascinating experience.\n\nThough there’s nothing new about it, the Switch version gave me a newfound appreciation for Mini Metro‘s music. Most of my time with the game before now has been on the mobile version, where I almost always play with the sound off or some other music playing alongside. On Switch, I’m more inclined to play games with their music on, so it was the first time I really got to discover the ambient noises that come together to create a sort of background music for Mini Metro.\n\nWhen you start a game, there’s nothing but some barely-audible background noise, but as your network grows larger, that ambience gets louder and more dense. At the same time, every interaction between different aspects of the game system—passengers boarding or disembarking a train, new stations popping up, etc—adds an audio note to the aural fabric. Gradually, that builds up into a cascade of procedurally-generated ambient music that’s both relaxing and motivating. This concept could easily have just resulted in a cacophony of different sound effects vying for attention, but the timing of the different game events is so perfectly calculated that everything lines up to create one of the most unique soundscapes you’ll hear in a game.\n\nSimilarly, I never knew about Mini Metro‘s extensive language options before playing the Switch version, because in the mobile version this is automatically determined based on the system language. On Switch (as on PC), language is an option within the game’s settings menu, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen more languages available in a single game. Mini Metro has been localised into around 44 different languages, including many that you don’t often see in video games, like Welsh, Catalan, Gaeilge, Tajik, and te reo Māori. It helps that there’s relatively little text in the game to translate, but the effort that’s been put into allowing as many people as possible to play in their native language is a welcome one.\n\nAs a New Zealander, I’m overjoyed to see te reo Māori in there. This is a language that was almost made extinct through European colonisation of Aotearoa (New Zealand), but there’s been a concerted restoration effort over the last 30 years or so. To see te reo Māori in a video game is both a product of that restoration and a contribution to the ongoing effort to help the language flourish. It’s a wonderful thing to see.\n\n“Ko Te Reo te taikura o te whakaaro mārama.”\n(Language is the key to understanding.)\n\nMini Metro on Switch isn’t all that different to Mini Metro on other platforms, but it allows everything that makes the game so great to really flourish. You’ve got the portability of the mobile version, coupled with the visual and aural stylishness that sometimes gets lost when you’re playing a game on a mobile phone. The two-player option is a nice touch, but the main appeal here is having one of the best puzzle games of recent memory on the best portable console—and having the option to play it in te reo Māori.\n\nMini Metro\nScore: 4.5 stars\nGenre: Puzzle\nDeveloper: Dinosaur Polo Club\nPublisher: Radial Games\nPlatforms: Switch (reviewed), PC, Android, iOS\nRelease Date: 30 August 2018\nThe publisher supplied a copy of the game for this review.\n\nMatthew Codd\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5506927967071533}
+{"content": "Welcome to Minimal Hotel Bazaar\n\nMinimal Hotel Bazaar The hotel is located in one of the most vibrant areas of Hong Kong, Mongkok district. Famous shopping hot spots like Langham Place, Ladies Market, Temple Street Night Market, Fa Yuen Street (Sneaker Street) and Flower Market are all within walking distance.||The Hotel is of great accessibility that the MTR Mongkok Station (Exit E1) and the MTR Mongkok East Station are just nearby, where guests can reach to the most popular public transportation networks visiting almost every tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Additionally, the Hotel is a non-smoking hotel to ensure guests' comfortability. Minimal Hotel?Bazaar offers well-equipped guestrooms with Wi-Fi access, bathroom amenities, flat TV screen and electric kettle, making it the perfect choice for guests weather they are travelling for business or leisure.||At Minimal Hotel Bazaar, we believe in the simple life. Stay Simply, Stay Comfy!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7573276162147522}
+{"content": "Explore BrainMass\n\nThe Great Depression & American Prosperity\n\n\n1 - How did American prosperity lead to the crash (i.e. poor distribution of wealth, high taxes, war debt and overproduction in industry and agriculture)?\n2 - How did American prosperity undermined society?\n3 - How did American prosperity undermined business?\n\n© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com March 22, 2019, 12:58 am ad1c9bdddf\n\nSolution Preview\n\nThe Great Depression was actually a result of an uneven distribution of wealth in the 1920's between the rich and the middle class as well as between industry and agriculture. This imbalance in wealth is what caused an unstable economy which collapsed in 1929. The excessive speculation of prosperity in the 1920's kept the stock market artificially high along with a false hope of prosperity, but after the uneven distribution of wealth and the imbalance of production in the marketplace came to the breaking point, the market crashed which caused the Great Depression.\n\nBecause of the uneven distribution of wealth, there was a huge difference in the amount of income between the wealthy and the middle class. It was expected, therefore, for the wealthy to spend their money on goods in the market place in order to keep the economy strong. However, most wealthy families did not overly-indulge in products offered in the ...\n\nSolution Summary\n\nThe expert determines how American prosperity lead to the crash and the great depression. How it underminded the society and business is determined.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5103143453598022}
+{"content": "What You Should Know About the Longest Expansion in Modern U.S. History\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nNovember 2018\n\n1. The economic expansion is only 8 months away from becoming the longest on record\n\nThe record 1990 to 2000 expansion will be eclipsed in July 2019. That will put the current expansion at 121 months, or 10 years plus a month. It is likely that the expansion will continue throughout 2019 and into early 2020.\n\nThe bull market in stock prices set a new record for longevity. A total of 3,494 days from March 10, 2009 to October 3, 2018 eclipsed the previous record of 3,452 days during the 1990 to 2000 stock market run.\n\nIf the S&P index reaches another record high, the current pull-back represents a temporary pause and the long bull market would be extended.\n\n2. GDP growth has accelerated this year, akin to a breakout\n\nAnd this is unusual at this late stage of the expansion because the strongest surges of growth normally occur the recovery phase of the cycle. GDP growth jumped to 4.2 percent in the 2nd quarter and the initial estimate for the 3rd quarter is 3.5 percent. We estimate a 3.3 percent growth rate for the quarter that we are in now.\n\n3. The economy’s labor force is fully employed\n\nThe nation’s unemployment rate of 3.7 percent is the lowest rate of unemployment since 1969.\n\nIf you want a job you can have one. There are 7 million job openings—18 percent more than a year ago—and more than there are people to fill them. Ironically, this is occurring at a technological time in which many entry level jobs have been eliminated by automation.\n\n4. Wage and salary income growth remains mild despite extraordinarily low jobless rate\n\nFor the 12 months ending in September 2018, the average wage and salary income rose by 3.1% year-over-year. During the 12 months ending in October 2000, when the average unemployment rate dropped to 4%—as it did during the span ending in September 2018—wage and salary income soared by 4.2% annually.\n\n5. However, adjusted for inflation and demographics, wages and salaries are rising nearly as fast as they did during the 1997-1999 expansion, a period often used for comparison\n\nAnd in California, the growth of wages and salaries during 2018 is the highest in 18 years.\n\n6. Inflation surprisingly remains contained\n\nDespite rising wages, rising home prices, rising rents, and rising construction costs, the general price level has not increased much. There are higher rates of inflation in California but no runaway inflation.\n\n7. Consumer confidence and consumer sentiment are at their highest levels since early 2000\n\nU.S. consumers are still extremely optimistic about current economic conditions and future economic conditions. The index levels for October 2018 are some of the highest ever recorded in a series that began in 1967.\n\n8. The U.S. manufacturing remains surprisingly strong\n\nThe ISM manufacturing index, which measures the expansion of manufacturing in the U.S., continues to show surprising strength. The August index rose to its highest level since 1984. September and October were slightly lower but still solid. Furthermore, over the last 15 months, more than 360,000 manufacturing jobs were created, the most for any 15 month period since the mid 1990s.\n\n9. Interest rates are rising and surprising no one\n\nThere are no surprises because the Federal Reserve announced long ago their methodical plan to normalize monetary policy and so far, they have stuck firmly to it. Consequently, all federal funds rate increases have been anticipated by investors and this has enabled the financial markets to continue their record breaking journey despite rising rates over the last 2 years.\n\n10. Home prices continue to soar\n\nIn tandem with the stock market, home prices have been rising continuously for the major part of the expansion. The median selling priced home in most major markets has now eclipsed its previous peak set during the housing bubble days of 2005-2006. This year, so far, home price appreciation in California remains quite strong despite all the claims that the housing market has softened and its days are numbered.\n\n\n\nWildfires in California: The New Normal?\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nOctober, 2018\n\nWildfires and Damage\n\nIt’s been a year since the worst fires in the modern history of California swept through Northern California creating a path of unprecedented destruction.\n\nThen there was the Thomas Fire that erupted on December 4, 2017, and the Montecito debris flow a month later.\n\nThe Mendocino Complex fire and the Carr fire broke out in late July 2018, and the Delta fire followed in August.\n\nThe newsletter this month presents the extent of the damage from these events and raises the possibility that this kind of carnage might be the new norm in California going forward.\n\nThe wildfires that swept through Northern California in October 2017 destroyed more than 8,800 homes, commercial structures, and outbuildings, and damaged another 711.\n\nMost of the damage occurred in Sonoma County, which received the brunt of the Tubbs Fire. It started in Calistoga and destroyed portions of Santa Rosa, becoming the most destructive wildfire in modern California history, flattening a total of 5,643 structures. There have been $6.9 billion in insurance claims by nearly 15,000 policy holders of residential properties in Sonoma County alone.\n\nOn December 4, 2017, the Thomas fire broke out in Ventura County less than two months after the Wine Country fires. It burned 427 square miles and destroyed 777 homes and 286 other structures, mostly in the City of Ventura.\n\nOn January 9, 2018, a freak rainstorm that occurred a week after the Thomas fire was completely extinguished resulted in flash flooding that caused a major debris flow in the Montecito community of Southern Santa Barbara County. The flood destroyed 127 homes and severely damaged another 294 homes. The 220 room 4 Seasons Biltmore Hotel was closed for 5 months. The San Ysidro Inn has yet to re-open.\n\nOn July 23, 2018, the Carr fire started in Shasta County. It ultimately burned 230,000 acres and 1,881 structures—mostly homes in the City of Redding—and wasn’t entirely contained until August 30, 2018.\n\nThe Mendocino Complex fires erupted in late July of 2018 and were comprised of two wildfires: the River Fire and the Ranch Fire. Further destruction of homes and commercial buildings occurred in Lake, Colusa, and Mendocino Counties. It became the largest recorded fire complex in California history, eclipsing the fire burnt acreage of the Thomas Fire. The Ranch fire was not fully contained until September 18, 2018.\n\nThe Mendocino Complex is the largest wildfire in California history, in terms of acreage burned, but remarkably resulted in a lot less destruction to structures than the other fires over the last year.\n\nAltogether, the wildfires destroyed 8,721 homes and damaged 1,562 others. With 10,000 homes needing restoration, this is a major rebuilding effort that will require substantial construction resources, especially construction workers, over the next 3 years.\n\nWhen we forecast the regional economies located in the fire burned counties, we have to account for the rebuilding effort that will occur within the timeframe of our forecast horizon. Consequently, we are forecasting more new home permits in the Counties of Mendocino, Shasta, Sonoma, Napa, and Ventura and a corresponding increase in construction employment and income in California.\n\nThe New Normal?\n\nThe state’s six year drought has certainly been a contributing factor to the myriad of fires over the last year. But general climate change is thought to be principally responsible for more fires and greater damage than before by creating ideal conditions for them to burn. Is the state in jeopardy of a rise in the number, intensity, and cost of fires in the future?\n\nSome climatologists suggest that with climate change, wet periods become wetter and dry periods become dryer. So, there is more precipitation in the winter and more growth of vegetation or fuel for future fires. Then, warmer and drier conditions during the spring, summer, and fall increase the chances of fires starting and also encourage them to spread.\n\nTherefore, we need to seriously reconsider the building of more homes and other structures in fire prone areas. A study in March 2018 published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, wildfire problems are most pronounced. And that between 1990 and 2010, nearly 13 million homes were built in these areas in the U.S.\n\nA change in perception about where we are building may be necessary if climate change is truly responsible for the increase and extent of wildfires in California. Building in denser urban locations for housing rather than peripheral areas adjacent to forests or rangelands should be encouraged rather than discouraged to avoid both human tragedy and the heightened destruction of homes and businesses from fire. Rangelands and forest exist in all counties throughout the state.\n\nAs it is, we are not building enough housing so adding further restrictions on location will be highly controversial. But it may be necessary in view of the increased risk of fire, the soaring cost of fighting fires, and the structural damage that results from their number and intensity.\n\n\nSubtle Changes\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nSeptember 2018\n\nThe Seasons Are Changing\n\nIt’s fall. School started again. My kids began their junior year in high school. Though they didn’t say anything about it and would certainly never admit it, I think they were glad at the change in their daily schedules that 6 hours of school brings. After all, school also brings their friends together, sports, and social events.\n\nAnd parents’ schedules often change to accommodate school. You have to drive kids to school, to sports, and to the events. You have to make time to attend some of the school functions. You might even be asked to solve a homework problem or two, or help with a school project.\n\nIt’s getting darker in the morning, so I have to turn the lights on when I get up. I also have to shut the windows (halfway) because I’m noticing falling temperatures in the early morning hours and slightly cooler days. My cilantro was bolting like crazy in July, but now I can grow it again. There is change with seasons.\n\nAnd what about the economy? Though some subtle changes are occurring, for the most part, there’s a lot less change than what’s happening with school starting, temperatures falling, fewer hours of sunlight, and my cilantro garden.\n\nTariffs Are Here\n\nThey represent a change, but how big a change?\n\nFollowing the round of tariffs in the spring, another wave of tariffs was implemented last week, this time on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods imports. China has retaliated in kind, with 25 percent tariff rates on $16 billion worth of U.S. goods imports, targeting chemical and fossil fuel industries.\n\nThe latest wave of tariffs has imposed duties on $100 billion worth of goods imports. However, this represents only about 4 percent of total imports, so it’s not that significant of a change.\n\nSome protected industries may benefit from higher tariffs on foreign competitors, but businesses that rely on foreign imports, such as retailers and finished goods manufacturers, will face higher input costs, and U.S. consumers will face higher prices. Protectionist trade policies have also resulted in retaliation by some principal trade partners but the extent of that retaliation has not been very significant.\n\nThough we haven’t seen much yet, trade-related uncertainty is likely to weigh on business confidence and investment, while an escalation of tariff activity has the potential to slow down consumer spending if import prices rise. However, recent negotiations with Mexico over NAFTA, which have resulted in a new agreement, and the resumption of talks with China could signal an appeasement of tensions in coming months.\n\nTo reiterate, there is little to any indication that new tariffs have impacted the economy. Manufacturing continues to grow, exceeding expectations, as is consumer spending, and the value of exports is still rising together with imports.\n\nInflation and Interest Rates\n\nBoth are rising, but gradually.\n\nA tighter labor market, stronger wage growth and the tax cuts have provided a big boost to spending, especially at restaurants and clothing stores. Retail sales growth has surged over the last several months, and consumers continue to be a strong engine of growth for the economy.\n\nThe acceleration in spending together with a fully employed economy incentivizes the Fed to continue normalizing interest rates, and this month rates will go up again, likely by another quarter point.\n\nGDP Growth\n\nAbove trend performance.\n\nSecond quarter 2018 growth was revised upward to 4.2 percent, and third quarter GDP is tracking at between 3.5 and 4.0 percent growth. These values are a change to the upside and represent some of the fastest growth observed during the current expansion.\n\nThe economy keeps firing on all cylinders domestically and the implications for GDP growth are positive. The consensus forecast has the economy on track for above-trend performance this year and during the first quarter of 2019.\n\nWhat’s Not Changing?\n\nFed interest rate policy. The Fed was expected to raise rates gradually in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and that’s exactly what has happened. Investors have not been ambushed and are pleased with predictable interest rate conditions. Consequently, long interest rates have only moved slightly higher over the last 18 months, the stock market is moving upward again, and there has been no slowing impact on growth.\n\nGeneral economic conditions. Basically, the economy hasn’t changed much, despite entering into the 10th year of the current expansion in July. Another 10 months and the 2009-2019 economic expansion will be the longest in recorded history. By now, economists thought a slowdown would have occurred along with a faster pace of inflation, higher treasury bond yields, a stock market correction, and a hiccup in international trade flows. None of this is here yet.\n\nBoth consumers and businesses still feel very good about today’s economy. And they should be with the value of output rising, wages and salaries rising, the stock market near all time highs, and labor markets fully utilized. Furthermore, the likelihood of recession remains very low and is, in fact, declining again.\n\nNow is not the time to worry yet. Enjoy the fall.\n\n\n\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nAugust 2018\n\n\nThree Come to my Attention\n\n  1. Workers\n  2. Housing, and\n  3. Water\n\nIn fact, we have escalated the “housing shortage” into a “housing crisis.” Soon, and we might already be there, we will have a “worker” crisis. Despite the end to the drought in Northern California, we still refer to the issue of water as the water shortage here in Southern California.\n\nWhy Do We Call it a Shortage?\n\nIn the case of workers, the unemployment rate has declined to 3.9 percent nation-wide, and 4.2 percent in California, both at their lowest levels in a generation or more. In Los Angeles, the unemployment rate has now fallen to the lowest level in 50 years. Workers are tough to recruit, both skilled and unskilled. Often times employers have to offer a lot more pay for the same position or accept lower or un-skilled candidates for that job, or both.\n\nIn the case of housing, the current pace of demand is faster than the pace of supply, and this is causing ever increasing prices for rental and purchase housing. Inventory levels of for-sale housing are at 10 year lows. Apartment vacancy rates are extremely tight everywhere you go and in many areas are at record lows.\n\nIn the case of water, water purveyors and cities have called for extreme conservation measures to reduce water use. No lawn watering during the day (or at all), shorter shower times, low flow faucets, elimination of gardens, etc. Many municipalities have increased water rates to pay for higher cost water systems or to finance water banking or storage.\n\nIs it Really a Shortage?\n\n\nIn a capitalistic and competitive economy, there are no shortages. Markets “clear,” meaning that the price is the allocating factor when there “appears” to be a shortage. People generally proclaim a shortage when the price rises sharply or beyond traditional or affordable levels.\n\nA true shortage would occur if the price was fixed and demand was greater than supply. Then people who wanted the good would only be able to get it by some other allocation method other than price, such as by lottery or having to wait in a queue for more of the good once it was produced. Price would not be an allocating factor but you standing in line would be. Or you successfully bribing the distributor of the good to provide it to you for an amount above the fixed price.\n\nSo a shortage only occurs when you cannot obtain the good or service when you need it or want it (and you are willing to legitimately pay more for it), allowing perhaps for some transitional time for errors in inventory or delivery lags or whatever.\n\nIf it’s not a Shortage, Then What is It?\n\nIt’s called market clearing: the forces of supply and demand and the end result: price appreciation. That is how capitalistic economies allocate scarce resources. Right now, housing is scarce in California, labor is scarce all over the nation, and water is particularly scarce in Southern California.\n\nHow do we eliminate scarcity? We allow the price to rise and allocate goods through the price system. If you have $1 million, you really don’t face a housing shortage. You can buy a home in most markets of the state for that amount, except perhaps the Bay Area, Santa Barbara and particular areas of Orange and Los Angeles Counties. But in general, a million dollars will buy you a house with little delay, today.\n\nIf you need to fill a position in your office, you can probably get it filled right away if you are willing to offer a higher salary than your competitors, more benefits, or both. There will likely be no shortage of candidates for the job.\n\nIf your budget does not allow for offering more salary or for spending more for housing, then you need a Plan B. Having to accept Plan B has you thinking “shortage,” because as we all know, Plan B is seldom preferable to Plan A and may test your maximum willingness to pay.\n\nWhat Can We do About “Shortages?”\n\nOr what can we do about demand becoming excessively greater than supply and prices rising sharply beyond our affordability levels?\n\nProduce more of the good, which is the response of supply to excessive demand. In the case of housing, we probably can’t do that in California because of so many constraints including land, CEQA, nimbyism, and policies (or laws) that restrict building, density or both.\n\nSo we are left with high prices and rents for housing and it’s likely to stay that way unless the growth of demand slows down, stops, or reverses. This might happen during the next recession like it did during the last one.\n\n“Labor shortages” are always cyclical and are therefore always temporary. The “shortage” of workers will end when the economy slows down or contracts, or technological advancements are able to substitute many robotic or automated processes for human driven activities today. This may happen sooner than you think and we may be talking about a surplus of labor instead of shortages.\n\nAnd in the case of water…. well that’s easy. A decent rainy and snowy year or two will dash any drought and enable us to water our lawns again.\n\n\n\n\nStudent Loan Debt: How Serious is it and Where Will it Lead? (Part 2)\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nJuly 2018\n\nIs the Student Loan Debacle a Bubble, and will it Burst?\n\nIn a word, and despite what Mark Cuban says: No.\n\nHowever, student loan debt is still a problem due entirely to its enormity. It’s already having an impact on the economy, and this will continue for many years to come.\n\nWhy it’s a Problem\n\nThis particular debt issue is not a repeat of the financial crisis of 2007 that occurred when the housing bubble exploded. Student loan debt is not really a bubble that will pop. It’s more akin to a balloon that will slowly leak.\n\nMost of the debt is carried by Millennials, who were born between 1980 and 2000 and are now roughly 18 to 39 years old. They are now the largest generation in the nation and represent the largest age cohort in the workforce today. Student loan debt is the largest debt load they carry and it will persist for many years hence.1\n\nDebt is hampering overall spending by Millennials in the economy. This is especially evident for the existing housing market and the consumption that goes with it. There is decidedly less home buying during this economic expansion, and that means less homeownership. With lower homeownership, there is less spending on furniture, fixtures, and furnishings. There is less home building, and fewer architectural, engineering and construction services needed.\n\nAnd other expenditures are being replaced by debt repayment, which produces less economic stimulus than expenditure on private sector goods and services.\n\nSince you can’t get rid of these loans via bankruptcy (like you could with any other debt) borrowers are on the hook for them until they are ultimately paid. The only way borrowers can avert the debt is to flee the country or die.\n\nDefault is more likely to have a slow motion impact, in line with the notion of a leaky balloon.\n\nWhy there’s no Bubble\n\nMost of the debt will be repaid over time, and both banks and the federal government could well make a profit from these loans. But if delinquency and default rates continue to rise, then the public sector loses.\n\nFederal student loans constitute 85 percent of all outstanding student loans, and most of these loans are backed by guarantee, which means that banks making these loans through 2010 are not on the hook for payment default.2 The federal government is. Back in 2008 when the housing bubble popped, it was the financial institutions that took the loss. This time, it will be the federal government. We don’t expect to see a financial crisis spreading through the private financial sector.\n\nBut who really loses? You do. It’s your loss, the taxpayer, since you provide the government with most of its revenues for running government programs like federally insured student loans.\n\nBubbles burst when asset pricing in markets does not make sense. So a correction occurs. But the price mechanism that corrects does not exist for loans held or guaranteed by the federal government. So what happens?\n\nConsequences Ahead\n\nTaxpayers will be on the hook for providing the federal government with increased revenues to offset the losses. We already have large federal deficits and they are rising. This will only increase the size of the deficit until the public pays for it through taxation.\n\nEducation costs will be driven higher as students obtain loans and inundate colleges and universities. This notion was advanced by former Education Secretary William Bennett and is known as the Bennett Hypothesis. Students have relatively easy access to uncollateralized loans and this has led higher educational institutions to raise prices (increase tuition). Consequently, federal student aid has not necessarily made higher education more accessible or more affordable. The resulting education may ultimately not return an income stream that justifies the cost of that education. When this happens, the demand for education will decline.\n\nColleges and universities that did not contain their costs might become insolvent.\n\nThe federal government will continue to change its policies regarding student loans. Right now, it does offer loans to students that need assistance. Everyone else must obtain loans from private institutions. And interest rates on these loans are not always designed to hedge the overall risk factors that could lead to delinquency and default. There will be changes in how we finance higher education.\n\nLook for student loan caps, higher interest rates, and the removal of loan forgiveness options for any borrower.\n\nFinally, we might already be seeing a shift in Generation Z, currently the youngest generation who are just now entering 4 year colleges and universities. They appear to be much more calculating when it comes to higher education and are more apt to factor in college affordability and community college than Millennials were.\n\n\n\n1 The standard repayment plan for federal student loans puts borrowers on a 10-year track to pay off their debt, but the average bachelor’s degree holder now takes 21 years to pay off his or her loans. Under federal income-based repayment options, remaining debt is forgiven after 20 years.\n\n2 Under the guaranteed student loan program, private lenders including Sallie Mae and commercial banks issued student loans that were guaranteed by the federal government. The program ended by Congressional mandate on June 30, 2010. Loans made since that date no longer have a government guarantee (unless they are direct government loans, or FFEL). Loans that default by student borrowers are taken over by the federal government and a contracting “guarantee agency” then services the loan. Banks are paid off by the guarantee agency and the latter attempts to collect on the loan.\n\n\n\nStudent Loan Debt: How Serious is it and Where Will it Lead? (Part 1)\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nJune 2018\n\nStudent Loan Debt has Soared\n\nWith over $1.5 trillion in loans outstanding, student debt is now the second-largest source of household debt (after mortgage debt) and is the only form of consumer debt that continued to grow during the aftermath of the Great Recession.\n\nThe principal concern over the last few years has been the shear volume of student loan debt and the speed at which it is rising over time.\n\nPer graduating student, debt loads are non trivial, and are now at their highest levels ever measured. The average student loan burden for Class of 2017 graduates was $39,400, up 6 percent from the previous year. More than 44 million Americans today carry some student loan debt.\n\nTuition costs have soared at colleges and universities. Between 1997 and 2017, in-state tuition at public universities jumped nearly 240 percent. During this same period, consumer price inflation increased 53 percent. Consequently, the cost of college and university tuition outpaced the general price level by 5 times.\n\nAnd relative to expected income, tuition has increased to between 25 and 40 percent of an adult’s median household income. Back in 1970, annual tuition represented between 7 and 20 percent of the annual median household income. The result is that student graduates owe a far greater amount today relative to their current and future incomes than the baby boomer generation who graduated from colleges in the 1970s and 1980s.\n\nStudent loan payments average $351 per month for those who carry debt. If your starting salary after graduating from a 4 year university is $60,000 per year, those debt payments represent 9 percent of your monthly take-home income. Clearly, graduates earning less have a higher loan payback percentage of income, and this diverts household spending from private sector goods and services to federal loan repayment, an area of expenditure with a much lower, if any, economic multiplier.\n\nInterest rates on new student loans currently range from 5.05 to 7.6 percent.1 This makes student loans more expensive than paying a mortgage. And this is especially true for graduate students (and parents) who face the highest rates from Sallie Mae. Freshly minted lawyers and doctors can have student loan debt of $200,000 to $500,000, which is often larger than a mortgage.\n\nNational University Rankings by Cost of Annual Tuition\n\nSchool 2018 Tuition 2018 Enrollment 2017-2018 Acceptance Rate\nColumbia University (New York) $57,208 25,084 5%\nUniversity of Chicago (Chicago) $54,825 13,322 8%\nTufts University (Medford, MA) $54,318 11,489 14%\nUSC (Los Angeles) $54,259 43,871 17%\nCarnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) $53,910 13,391 22%\nDuke (Durham, NC) $53,744 15,928 11%\nUPenn (Philadelphia) $53,534 21,826 9%\nBoston College (Chestnut Hill, MA) $53,346 13,851 31%\nCornell (Ithaca, NY) $52,853 22,319 14%\nGeorgetown (DC) $52,300 18,525 17%\nSource: US News, Best Colleges, 2018 National Rankings\n\nThe size of student loan debt and its growth over time has previously been the focus of attention, but now a growing concern is the default rate among borrowers.\n\n\nNew data show that delinquency rates on student loans may be going as high as 40 percent of borrowers by the year 2023. The default rate is already higher than anticipated for the particular student cohorts studied, so the federal government should be bracing for substantial non payment of debt.\n\nCurrently 58.5 percent of all direct student loans are in repayment, and 41.5 percent are not. Regarding those that are not, 23 percent are in deferment or forbearance, meaning the repayment is temporarily suspended with or without interest, on the request of the borrower. Five percent are still in the grace period and 15 percent are in default.\n\nWhen a borrower defaults, he or she simply fails to pay interest or principal on a loan when due. So if the loan is federally insured, as most loans were up to mid-2010, then the Federal Government is on the hook. It’s the same thing as when the U.S. loans a few billion dollars to the Cayman Islands and they don’t pay it back. In fact, as of 2017, the Caymans owed the U.S. $302 billion. Canada owes the U.S. $380 billion. Neither of these countries is likely to default however, but countries have in the past like Mexico in 1994 and Argentina in 2001. And we can’t trace these defaults to an impact on our economy.\n\nCan students merely declare bankruptcy to avert paying back the loan? No. Student loan debt is virtually inescapable and is precluded from debts that are dischargeable in the U.S. bankruptcy code.\n\nConsequently, there are increasing stories online reporting how debt strapped former students are fleeing the country and hiding out from Sallie Mae and collection agencies.\n\nSallie Mae is the nation’s largest originator of federally insured student loans. It was formerly a GSE, but it is now entirely independent from the federal government.2\n\nIs the Potential Flood of Defaulting Student Loans Another Looming Financial Crisis?\n\n1. First, the Basics\n\nOur lending systems generally work efficiently and borrowers don’t default on debt because lenders won’t make too many high risk loans. System risk rises when lenders extend unwarranted credit. This occurred during the housing bubble days of 2004-2007 when easy credit gave rise to massive home buying pushing selling values to record levels.\n\nA bubble “pops” when prices correct to more accurately represent the intrinsic value of the asset. Clearly, home prices towards and at the peak exceeded the true value of those homes. Prices corrected, borrowers owed more than the home was worth, and there were unprecedented numbers of defaults and lender bankruptcies. Loans ultimately became restricted and this slowed down the economy because businesses had difficulty obtaining capital needed to grow, invest, and hire.\n\n2. Student Loans\n\nIs the current student loan debacle a bubble? And if so, when will it burst?\n\nI’ll address this in the upcoming July newsletter.\n\n\n\n1 https://www.credible.com/blog/refinance-student-loans/what-are-average-student-loan-interest-rates/\n\n2 A GSE is a government-sponsored enterprise, or a financial services corporation created by Congress to enhance the flow of credit to particular economic activities such as agriculture, home finance, and education.\n\n\n\nAn Update on the Recent Economic Evidence\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nMay 2018\n\nNo Suprises\n\nThe employment report for April produced no surprises. Job gains remain relatively strong, the unemployment rate continues to tighten, and wage growth is ahead of inflation. It is curious that wages and salaries are not rising faster given the tightness of the labor market. This is disappointing for workers but it will keep the Fed on track for three rate hikes this year because inflation remains predictably in check. It’s likely that stock market volatility will also subside, at least for the meantime.\n\nWhy the Probability of Recession is So Low\n\nThe probability of recession rose in March but still remains low. The odds of a recession this year should be low because recessions occur when imbalances develop in the economy, and no glaring potential macroeconomic imbalances are forming.\n\nThe labor markets continue to create more jobs, and the financial markets, while exhibiting more volatility since January, still remain buoyant. A fully employed economy, rising housing values, improved access to credit, and low household debt are driving both the consumer and business investment engines of economic growth.\n\nConsumer confidence remains near its highest level in a generation. The present economic climate is rated consistently more favorably while economic expectations remain strong.\n\nConsumer confidence at these stratospheric levels is consistent with a fully employed economy, households with rising real wealth and low debt, and low inflation.\n\nFurther tightening in the labor markets is likely this year, even as the pace of job growth continues to moderate. Employment growth has gradually declined toward 150,000 jobs a month in the U.S. and 20,000 jobs per month in California. This moderation is expected to continue through the rest of 2018.\n\nA decrease in job growth is not abnormal at this stage of the business cycle and should not be mistaken for an economic slowdown. However, as long as job creation continues to exceed the flow of entrants to the labor market (80,000 to 100,000 a month), the unemployment rate is very likely to fall to 3.5 this year. Currently, the rate is at 3.9 percent.\n\nSlower population growth and aging of the population will continue to exert downward pressure on labor force participation rates which will restrain labor force growth.\n\nGrowth in the economy in 2018 and 2019 will have to be accommodated with fewer additions to the workforce, due to slow growth in the labor force and a labor market that has very little slack. Consequently, look for much greater investment in automating business processes and functions. This has been the subject of my March and April newsletters.1\n\nThe environment in California is even more austere regarding labor market capacity. The unemployment rate has now reached a level that it has not achieved since the late 1960s. And predictably, wages have been rising more sharply here than in the rest of the nation over the last 18 months.\n\nThis year employee compensation is forecast to rise 4.0 percent compared to a 2 percent increase in 2017.2 Average salaries are forecast to rise 3.0 percent in California this year, after relatively hefty gains of more than 3.0 percent in the Bay Area economy during 2017.\n\nThe Updated Forecast\n\nEven though the stock market has been under pressure since January (largely because of rising interest rates), the rest of the economy has remained more steady. This includes consumer spending, business investment, manufacturing, and surprisingly, inflation.\n\nI believe that economists are much more focused on inflation than previously, because the labor markets should be producing faster wage growth now.\n\nWe are watching for any unexpected movements in inflation because that would pose one of the bigger risks to interest rates and the economy this year.\n\nThat said, nothing seriously out of the ordinary is within view. At our vantage point right now, it appears that the economic indicators for 2018 will remain auspicious.\n\nThe consensus forecast has real GDP still on track to expand at a pace of close to 3.0 percent this year with a slowdown strongly projected for 2019 and 2020.\n\n\n1 For all of the monthly newsletters of the California Economic Forecast for the 2018 calendar year, please go here: https://californiaforecast.com/monthly-newsletter/\n\n2 UCLA Anderson Forecast for the State and Nation, March 2018, page Nation-15.\n\n\n\nFull Employment and Robots, Part 2\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nApril 2018\n\nIn this part 2 of my monthly newsletter blog on robots, I’ll mention how our fully employed economy is rapidly accelerating investment in and implementation of a robot workforce.\n\nAre We Actually Experiencing an AI Explosion?\n\nThe world of artificial intelligence is advancing so rapidly and in so many industries, countries, and applications, that to many it feels like the automated evolution is rising exponentially. Here is tech writer Tim Urban’s (waitbutwhy.com) illustration of just where we are on the timeline of human progress and the explosion that is allegedly right in front of us.\n\nThere is this notion that rapid growth in AI (or rather, explosive exponential growth) is here now or just in front of us. Tom Friedman’s best selling book, Thank You for Being Late, also supports this premise.\n\nHowever, I don’t believe we are this far along the S-cure of progress, because implementation of robotic technologies is not evolving at light speed. AI trends such as virtual assistants, smart robots, and human voice adapting are still in their relative infancy and taking more time than initially thought to be really useful. While I think the future is soon, it’s not that soon.\n\nConsequently there is time to prepare your company and your workforce for the robot economy. And it’s a good idea to start soon because there is no doubt that the robots are coming.\n\nIn last month’s newsletter I mentioned a couple of AI applications fully operational now. Aside from Flippy at Caliburger in Pasadena, there are many examples just in the past 18 months of robots successfully performing repetitive or mundane tasks in a variety of industries.\n\nRobots are quickly expanding in the food industry mostly in China and Japan, but also here in California. The robot restaurants in China have replaced greeters, waiters and some cooks. They are growing more popular, even if only as a curiosity for visitors to experience being served by robot waiters.\n\nFor a number of years robots have largely worked in industrial capacities, bolted to an assembly line. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of welding, painting, product inspection and testing, all with precision, consistency and speed. A study by MIT economists found that robots were responsible for the loss of up to 670,000 manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 2007 in the U.S.\n\nAmazon and Walmart employ hundreds of thousands of machines within their warehouses and fulfillment centers that do much of the heavy lifting of goods, and filling and organizing shelves with the help of directing human workers.\n\nThe warehouse robots have replaced some humans and the growth of Amazon has created thousands of new human labor positions, but the massive growth of e-commerce including the numbers of new warehouse hires do not mitigate the overall retail jobs losses that have been the consequence of this growth.\n\nSea Change in the Use of Robots?\n\nNow, a new generation of robots is here, capable of moving among people and therefore finding a wider range of work in stores, hospitals, hotels, and offices. And this has become a major cause of concern because the McKinsey Global Institute reported that 30 percent of the global workforce could be displaced by robots by 2030.\n\nWhile robots employed now are not displacing too many workers, they will in the future as they become more dexterous and smarter, and as human workers performing repetitive tasks become too expensive. Robots don’t need to be paid the minimum wage (or any wage at all) and they don’t need healthcare, family leave, sick leave, “a change in perspective,” vacations, or worker’s compensation insurance.\n\nThere would likely not be massive unemployment because millions of new jobs would ultimately be created. Robots need repairmen, software programmers, circuit board designers, ergonomic specialists, etc. Consequently, robots do pose a disruptive force that will push us to seriously reevaluate our occupational training and skill set more carefully than ever.\n\nThis is a good thing because when human jobs are eliminated much of this can take place mainly through attrition, particularly as the baby boomer industry continues to progress into retirement.\n\nWages are now rising more rapidly in the fully employed economy, and this trend is likely to reverse as automation increases. Consequently, it is more important than ever before in human history to own skills that are deemed necessary for a rapidly evolving techno-economy.\n\nFurthermore, companies must adopt coming trends in AI that can create competitive advantage and generate value. This is what Amazon has successfully done, (and not without major criticism for being one of the early and successful pioneers).\n\nAt a minimum, you can at least own assets that will rise in value as a result of AI growth. To me, this means owning shares of companies like IRobot, Nvidia, Google, Bosch, Ekso Bionics, Northrop Grumman, Honda, Boston Dynamics or Waymo. There are many others so now is a good time to conduct your own research.\n\n\n\nThe 2017 California Labor Market and How Today’s Full Employment is Accelerating Worker Robots\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nMarch 2018\n\nWe’ve been reporting for years that the labor markets in California and the nation are as healthy as they can possibly get, that anyone who wants a job can get one, and that technology has been the engine of growth during this expansion.\n\nThe state just revised the jobs numbers for 2016 and 2017 that affirm all of this, and then some.\n\nThe unemployment rate in California is the lowest since reliable records have been kept. My data for the state go back 50 years to 1968.\n\nTechnology employment, though slowing down, is still the engine of growth in California and remains the fastest growing sector of the Bay Area economy.\n\nCalifornia created another 333,000 jobs in 2017, about 40,000 more than previously reported. My continued question about this is how can the state and its regions continue to produce more jobs when the unemployment rate says that the labor force is fully employed?\n\nThe only way to create new jobs is for the labor force to expand. Now the labor force is merely the population, 16 years or older, that wants to and is able to work. The labor force expands when seniors graduate from high school or college and enter the job market, and when graduates complete graduate school.\n\nThe labor force can also expand when people move to California from other states or countries, legally or illegally.\n\nSo 126,000 people that were previously unemployed found work last year and another 218,000 new people entered the labor force and were employed.\n\nBut this kind of scenario cannot continue much longer. At some point, the low unemployment rate will constrain employment growth and not just marginally like it has to date.\n\nThe Robots are Coming. No They’re Actually Here Now.\n\nThe tightness of California’s labor market is and will continue to manifest in onerous conditions for firms in recruiting new workers, higher wages and salaries, and more demands by workers for additional benefits, such as more paid time off, a better healthcare plan, or an office with a window.\n\nRare conditions like these accelerate the incentives by firms to pursue substitutions for human labor with more capital intensive investments. And with the new tax bill, there are additional incentives to explore labor saving automation. You see, there is full and immediate depreciation of capital spending, including investments in technology and equipment (like robots) that could soon or ultimately replace workers.\n\nConsequently, with a fully employed and healthy economy in 2018, look for more news about the implementation of workplace robots, especially in the service industries.\n\nTake Flippy for example, who just this month started working at CaliBurger in Pasadena. The robot combines thermal vision, 3D vision and computer vision. Flippy can cook 150 burgers an hour, flipping them at the right time and removing them from the grill perfectly cooked. CaliBurger says more “Flippies” will be flipping burgers at multiple locations this year.\n\nIn late January, the first Amazon Go opened in Seattle. The convenience food store allows shoppers to scan their phone upon entrance, grab whatever items they want off the store shelves, and automatically get charged after exiting the store without needing to stop at a register. In fact, there are no registers and the only employees in the store are those that prepare fresh food, check IDs for beer and wine, and stock the shelves with merchandise.\n\nNot only does the new technology replace human cashiers, it eliminates the wait to check out which can often be as long or longer than the shopping time. Moreover, this new technology also renders shoplifting obsolete.\n\nAnother Amazon Go is apparently being planned for a location in the Grove in Los Angeles later this year, with another 5 stores to open elsewhere.\n\nSince Amazon now owns Whole Foods, the “Go” technology might be headed that way in the not-to-distant future.\n\n\nThe Golden Age / Another Reminder\n\nby Mark Schniepp\nFebruary 2018\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYour List for 2018\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8239588141441345}
+{"content": "Youth leadership\n\n\nBecoming a leader\n\n\nWarren Bennis\n\nAs many of you know I run a nonprofit that is a youth leadership organization. During the summer we run three separate weeks of leadership camp, where middle school students stay on a college campus for a week away from their parents, learning, having fun and having time to reflect on who they are and where they want to go. This past week we just ended our first session of camp with almost two hundred students transformed by their experience.\n\nOur students do all of the traditional camp activities like talent shows, biathlons, a dance, cheering …you know the drill. What makes us unique is that students also learn a curriculum about becoming a leader. They learn to have a plan, a goal, how to communicate those plans, they learn to be life long mentors to others and most importantly they learn that you can not lead unless you serve. It is truly students teaching students leading by example showing the best of themselves and who they can be.\n\nSo often in the nonprofit space, we are running a business like almost any other with budgets, timelines, goals and the list goes on. What makes our work (nonprofit work) different is that unlike a company when your numbers are down, fewer people profit. In the nonprofit world, when you don’t make numbers, someone doesn’t go to camp, get fed, receive medicine and the list goes on. The stakes are real and there is a person affected by each choice, for better or for worse.\n\nThe other challenge in the nonprofit space is that you can often feel separated or removed from those you serve.  We work all year (our staff of two and 150 amazing volunteers, who will serve over 3,000 students) to send one-third of our students to camp with scholarships. Then the moment happens, we see their faces, we watch them grow and learn all week and our efforts beyond worthwhile. Children who live in the inner-city, who have never been on a college campus let alone stay on one and then to hear them share their experiences….well there simply are not words with how incredible it feels.\n\nEach volunteer gives of themselves to change the life of another. You can feel the love, the kindness, the joy, the gratitude between our campers and our volunteer staff. Regardless of what is happening in the world, I know that our amazing college and high school volunteers are transforming hundreds of children’s lives for the better….renewing my faith in humanity and inspiring me to strive to serve more.\n\ncharity matters\n\n\n\n\nHappy Birthday Dalai lama!\n\n\nDalai lama\n\nDali Lama's bday\n\nGod works in mysterious ways. Months ago when we were planning our youth leadership camp at UC Irvine, we were told that we might have to share some space with a “secret VIP.” At the time we were none too pleased. What are you supposed to do when you discover that the VIP is the Dalai lama and he is celebrating his 80th birthday? Answer: Channel your inner zen, take a deep breath, pray for enlightenment, an invitation to the party and know that the camp will sort itself out.\n\nHow did the Dalai lama choose to spend his July 6th, 80th birthday? He decided to have a three-day summit and world birthday event called the “The Global Compassion Summit.” While I didn’t see party hats and favors, I did get an invitation to see his Holiness celebrate his 80th birthday (along with hundreds of others). Only the Dalai lama would use his celebration as a platform to discuss, the transformative power of creativity, youth leadership and compassion for the planet. How I loved the irony that our youth leadership camp was getting reorganized so that His Holiness could discuss youth leadership.\n\nThere was more wisdom shared during this amazing event than I have had time to process or share but I will say one of my favorite thing that His Holiness said was this, “We focus on cultivating a clever brain and not a good heart. It is only with cultivating wisdom and compassion together mixed with action that we create change.” \n\nThe Dalai lama’s birthday event will continue to create change. His Summit or party was hosted by both UC Irvine’s Center for Living Peace and Friends of the Dalai Lama,  which is a non-profit organization founded to amplify the positive messages of His Holiness. The organization’s mission is to nurture kindness and compassion through action.\n\nNever have I been so happy to be at the party, so full of joy, and inspired to share the message of compassion.\n\nCharity Matters.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.888137698173523}
+{"content": "Zimbabwe Inflation Hits The Speed of Light\n\n\nEveryone knew it was coming. But not everyone is happy about it. After the Bank of England raised interest rates this morning, the British Chamber of Commerce voiced a complaint about “persistent interest rate increases” which it says might threaten the economy.\nIt’s a complaint that's become familiar when central banks raise interest rates. People benefitting from cheap money want it to stay that way. And just last we a we spoke with an equity strategist at an institutional investor who tried to convince us that Bernanke and the Fed were holding out too long against an interest rate cut.\nInflation in the United States and most of Europe has been so low for so long that it may have become difficult for some to remember the real havoc inflation can wreak on an economy. Fortunately for those with short memories, Zimbabwe is providing a real-time demonstration of inflation-gone-haywire.\nToday’s Guardian puts it succinctly:\n\nThe actual level of inflation is unclear as the government has not released its figures for June. The official rate for May of 4,500% is said by economists and major businesses to be far below the actual rate of 10,000%. Many have predicted that inflation will soar, including the American ambassador to Harare, who forecast that inflation would hit 1,500,000% before the end of 2007.\n\nRobert Mugabe, who runs the Zimbabwe, is running to the rescue with police enforced price controls, so expect the situation to get far worse.\nOn the other hand, the Zimbabwe Industrial Index is up something like 15,000% in the last 12 months, beating—for now—the price hikes.\nShops emptied as panic grips Zimbabwe [Guardian]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7566452622413635}
+{"content": "Skepta’s now sprinting: Konnichiwa Album review\n\n‘Konichiwa’ opens like an atmospheric movie, our underdog the protagonist Skepta is strolling through an oriental garden barefooted, trickling streams meander lazily under his feet, birdsong sweetly serenades the microphone champion but suddenly a sense of danger breaks the serenity of the day and a sword is drawn from its sheath. Skepta is poised and ready to clash with the approaching threat, calm is broken and the track becomes ominous and tense with an ethereal vocal introduced, we are then plunged into", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7293965816497803}
+{"content": "Unterschied bachelor master thesis\n\nPhil Master of Philosophy instead, preventing the candidate from resubmitting the thesis. Normally, two copies are required for the Libraries — one for the Archives and a second for the appropriate divisional library.\n\nPhilippines[ edit ] In the Philippines, a thesis is followed by an oral defense. The telecontrol, recognized by using modern achievements within the communication field, enables to produce reliable robots for operating in harmful atmosphere, in which the human existence could be put in danger.\n\nHowever, a few universities follow the United States model for theses and dissertations. Formatting Pagination The title page is always considered to be page 1, and every page must be included in the count regardless of whether a number is physically printed on a page.\n\nSubmission Date Degree candidates must submit the required copies of their theses to the appropriate office of the department or program in which they are registered on the dates specified in the Academic Calendar.\n\nOther required forms may include library authorizations giving the unterschied bachelor master thesis library permission to make the thesis available as part of its collection and copyright permissions in the event that the student has incorporated copyrighted materials in the thesis.\n\nA student who holds a with Honours degree is eligible for direct entry to either a Doctorate Ph. This information appears in Barton, our online catalog, which is accessible to researchers at other institutions through the Internet, as well as in the OCLC database WorldCat, an online international bibliographic system available to unterschied bachelor master thesis and individuals worldwide.\n\nQuite simply, you need to lead original understanding towards the subject. Fachhochschulen ; both can be referred to as a Hochschule, which is the generic term in Germany for all institutions awarding academic degrees.\n\nIt is a separate, advanced and a higher degree. In North America, an initial oral examination in the field of specialization may take place just before the student settles down to work on the dissertation.\n\nBoth of these tutorial ranges current with literacy and information which may not e compared with those who decide to surrender their analysis after highschool at most.\n\nWhen copyright ownership is held by the student, the student must, as condition of a degree award, grant royalty-free permission to the Institute to reproduce and publicly distribute copies of the thesis, and must place the following legend on the thesis title page: Malaysia[ edit ] Malaysian universities often follow the British model for dissertations and degrees.\n\nGraduate students should follow instructions found here: Now a days, masters diploma is being provided to even these people who already have one diploma sooner than getting their masters diploma.\n\nEducation in Canada is controlled by the Provinces and can be very different depending on the province in Canada. Many certification programs require an apprenticeship program for completion. The following are guidelines to assist the student in determining who holds ownership of the thesis copyright: The form may printed and completed by hand or opened and filled out in Acrobat Reader, then printed.\n\nPrerequisites and other admissions requirements also differ. The submission for a Habilitationwhich is an academic qualification, not an academic degree, is called Habilitationsschrift, not Habilitationsarbeit.\n\nProfessional schools, such as law school and business school, teach a curriculum that is much more broad and courses are delivered in an effort to prepare students for a career in the field.\n\nGraduate schools are more likely to require a thesis prior to graduation. When to Use Certificate A certificate generally refers to two types of documents.\n\nCertificate vs. Diploma vs. Degree: What’s the Difference?\n\nFor additional details on procedures for temporary restrictions, please see Graduate Policies and Procedures at http: The typical format will see the candidate giving a short 20—minute presentation of his or her research, followed by one to two hours of questions. Another term for an oral examination is Kolloquium, which generally refers to a usually public scientific discussion and is often used synonymously with Verteidigung.\n\n\nStudents who completed an honours B. The first examiner is from the university concerned, the second examiner is from another local university and the third examiner is from a suitable foreign university usually from Commonwealth countries.\n\nHard working students are rewarded or awarded with honors while masters could be done by any student who wants to. This project is later to be presented in front of an academic panel, often the entire faculty of an academic department, with their recommendations contributing to the acceptance, revision, or rejection of the initial topic.\n\n\nDetermine the thing you need before trying to find an editor. Most Italian universities, for example, have only general requirements on the character size and the page formatting, and leave much freedom for the actual typographic details.\n\nThis applies to most third-party materials i. In the first sense, a certificate is a document issued to a person completing a course of study not leading to a diploma. Students moreover go for masters in enterprise administration MBA. The Disputation, also called Verteidigung \"defense\"is usually public at least to members of the university and is focused on the topic of the thesis.\n\nThe major difference between the two institutions is where the focus lies.Zumindest Wikipedia weiß da mehr, nennt so unter anderem Bachelor-Thesis und Master-Thesis. Wikipedia kennt wenigstens den Bindestrich und macht nicht so eine fiese Leerstelle (ist das eigentlich schon das Deppenleerzeichen?).\n\nWas ist der Unterschied zwischen “Worte” und “Wörter”? 5. Nov 26,  · To obtain a Bachelor degree, you follow Graduate courses (as a Graduate Student). Once you get your Bachelor degree you and want to get a Master, you go do some Postgraduate Courses as a Postgraduate Student.\n\nMaster's Programs. Higher Education. What is the difference between thesis and hypothesis? Update Cancel. Answer Wiki. 7 Answers. Suvidha Tripathi, Research Scholar, Travel Enthusiast, Adventure Seeker.\n\nBachelor of Arts\n\nAnswered Nov 22, Both the hypothesis statement and the thesis statement answer the research question of the study. When the statement is. Both graduate and professional schools offer students who have already earned the bachelor’s degree the opportunity to study advanced curriculum.\n\nTo apply to both schools you must meet admissions requirements and be able to fund your tuition. agronumericus.com is professional writing service that is dedicated to write top-quality custom research papers, proposals, term papers, essays, thesis papers and dissertations. All custom papers are compiled by qualified Master’s and PhD authors.\n\nAllerdings: Wenn Sie sich nach dem Bachelor-Abschluss auf ein Master-Studium bewerben, kann der wissenschaftliche Anspruch Ihrer Thesis wichtig sein. Insbesondere wenn Sie von einer FH an die Universität wechseln wollen, kann das entscheidend sein.\n\nUnterschied bachelor master thesis\nRated 5/5 based on 15 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7229369878768921}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\n\nReading Challenge Week 38 - An epic poem\n\nThe word \"epic\" is used in many situations and has a variety of meanings, but when it's paired with the word \"poem\", then we're talking about one thing, really:\n\nA really long poem that tells a story.\n\nOh, sure, there are other definitions of \"epic poetry\" - but quite frankly they're all a bit too restrictive for our liking. And, essentially, the all boil down to one thing:\n\nA really long poem that tells a story.\n\nSo here are some long story-telling poems we read for this week's challenge.\n\nBrenda Carter read The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope\n\nMany years ago I enjoyed reading The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (820 POP 1C RAP/CUN) at university and decided to revisit it for this week’s theme. The Rape of the Lock is an 18th century  mock-epic poem that uses the traditional high stature of classical epics to satirise a trivial social occurrence:\n\"What dire offense from amorous causes springs,\nWhat mighty contests rise from trivial things, / I sing [...]\" ( I.1-3)\nThe story is based on a true incident, in which an aristocrat cut a lock of hair from a lady he admired without her permission, creating a breach between the two families. The humour of the poem is based on the portrayal of this incident as though it had the importance of classical tragedy – the abduction of Helen of Troy becomes the theft of a lock of hair; the description of Archilles’ shield is replaced by musings on the heroine’s petticoat, while the structure and language of the poem mirrors that of epic poems such as The Illiad. The power of caffeine empowers our villain to do the deed, in spite of possible retribution from the gods:\nCoffee, (which makes the Politician wise,\nAnd see thro' all things with his half shut Eyes)\nSent up in Vapours to the Baron's Brain\nNew Stratagems, the radiant Lock to gain.\nAh cease rash Youth! desist e'er 'tis too late,\nFear the just Gods, and think of Scylla's Fate! (III.117–122)\nThe Rape of the Lock an easy and entertaining introduction to the epic poem genre, and an interesting glimpse into the social history of the period. \n\nSharon Bryan read The Rime of the Modern Mariner, by Nick Hayes.\n\nI wasn’t sure if I should tackle this book for this week’s challenge, or leave it for Week 45, which is “A Graphic Novel”. You see, this book is a very good graphic novel, with some seriously brilliant artwork, but it also happens to be an epic poem. Okay, it's a bit short for a \"true\" epic poem, even though it's a sizeable doorstop of a book, as it’s more art than poem. But I’m sure we can forgive it for that.\n\nNick Hayes took Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as his starting point, and his poem follows the movements of Coleridge’s reasonably closely, but with a fair amount of variation. Hayes’ Modern version stands on its own, and you can read it and enjoy it if you have never read Coleridge’s original, but if you have read the Ancient Mariner you notice a lot of little touches in the Modern version that add something to the story.\n\nIn Coleridge’s original poem, a haggard looking old man stops a wedding guest on his way to the church and proceeds to tell a harrowing story about ghost ships, angel-possessed corpses and slimy things with legs. The mariner shot an albatross for the heck of it, and the whole ship was then cursed by the spirit who loved the bird. A lot of things go very, very wrong, with a lot of it involving supernatural forces of a less-than-benevolent nature. He survives (none of his shipmates do), but is then driven to tell his story on a regular basis.\n\nIn Hayes’ version, the mariner delays a recent divorcee and tells him about his adventure. In this tale, the mariner started with little respect for the natural world (he wanted to get some whalebone in Japan for dominoes), and again shoots an albatross for the heck of it. Again, a curse falls upon the boat he is travelling on, and they are stalled in the middle of a calm ocean. Only this is a modern tale, and the calm ocean is brimming with plastic, polystyrene, discarded fishing nets and other detritus of a wasteful human society.\n\nHayne’s brilliantly illustrated version has less to do with the angels-and-demons-and-ghosts supernatural elements, and more to do with the spirits of the earth and the old gods, who take the mariner to task and drag him through a watery hell of oil slicks and plastic. Eventually, he comes to land and is found by a fisherman who lives with the natural world. He is given the chance to rest in an unpolluted natural space, and comes to realise that the earth can heal us, if we would only stop choking it to death.\n\nThe divorcee doesn’t hear the message though. Will we?\n\nSamantha Baxter read The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, translated and with an introduction by Andrew George.\n\nThe original bromance, this is not always easy to read being over 4000 years old. But it is well translated and the story and events are easily followed: the battle between two men who afterwards become friends, the quest to kill a beast, the parting of friends, the fear of death. It is interesting in many ways to realise how easy it is to understand this ancient tale, although some of that may be bias on the part of the translator.\n\nThe story has been pieced together from a number of ancient tablets and I read just one of many translations.\n\nMy favourite part I must admit is when the goddess of love and war, Ishtar, threatens to start a zombie apocalypse if her father, Anu, doesn't help her get revenge on Gilgamesh:\n\n'If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven, I shall smash the gates of the Netherworld right down to its dwelling, to the world below I shall grant manumission I shall bring up the dead to consume the living, I shall make the dead outnumber the living.\"\n\n\nPopular Posts\n\nFrom Swords to Ploughshares: Townsville men and women who served their community in war and peace\n\nNovember 11, 2018 marks the centenary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. Reflecting on this anniversary provides us with a unique opportunity to consider the connections between war and peace. People who volunteered to serve during World War I left lives behind: some of those who returned built military careers, some continued to use and develop their professional skills, while other set about contributing to the civic and recreational life of their communities.\n\nThis exhibition developed by James Cook University, commemorates the contributions of Townsville’s service men and women to the creation of peace and a flourishing community in Townsville. ‘From Swords to Ploughshares’ seeks to explore the stories of those who returned from military service and resumed their civilian lives, and recognises the roles they have played in developing their town, region, and country; along with their contribution to a lasting peace.\n\nSome of the original items and materials discovered …\n\nWelcome to Your Library\n\nThe beginning of semester is a time for finding your feet and figuring out where everything is.\n\nWhether you are an on-campus student or if you can only visit the campus occasionally, you'll probably find yourself spending time in our libraries. Just to help you find your way around, here's a quick idea of what you'll be able to do in our buildings.\n\nBorrow books, DVDs and more.\n\nObviously a library has things you can borrow. In addition to books, we also have DVDs, CDs, sheet music and more. You'll need your student or staff card (it's also your library card) to check out anything you want to take out of the building.\n\nIn addition to the main collection, where most of our borrowable material is held, we also have a Curriculum Collection (where all the best books are), reference collections, special collections and print journals. You can find yourself looking in the wrong place, so don't hesitate to ask any library staff for help. Take a look at the location inform…\n\nExamination Super Hours, 1st Semester 2019\n\nExamination Super Hours run from the 3rd of June until the last week of scheduled exams, on Friday 21st June.\n\nOpening hours are extended to give students extra use of the library's study spaces during study vac and exams.\n\nDuring this time, when a lot of students are feeling stressed, we ask that you be mindful of the other people using the library spaces and share the space with good will and kindness - keeping in mind the Client Service Charter and Library Use Policy.\n\nOr just remember our unofficial motto:\nBe Excellent to Each Other\nThe Eddie Koiki Mabo Library on the Townsville Campus will have the following hours:\n\nMain buildingMon-Fri, 7.30am-12.00am (midnight)Sat-Sun, 10.00am-10.00pmServicesMon-Fri, 7.30am-12.00am (midnight)Sat-Sun, 10.00am-10.00pmInformation Commons and iLearning Rooms on the Ground Floor - 24 hrs.\nThe Cairns Library will be open for the following hours:\n\nMain buildingMon-Fri, 7.30am-12.00am (midnight)Sat-Sun, 10.00am-12.00am (midnight)ServicesMon-Fri, 8.00am-8.0…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8432876467704773}
+{"content": "The Lizardman Caves are a series of caves located at the north-west corner of the Lizardman Settlement in the Kebos region. It is a single-combat area, but all eight of the shamans can only be killed while on a Slayer assignment.\n\nPlayers may enter without a Slayer assignment, but upon attacking any monster inside the dungeon, Captain Cleive will stop them from doing so, claiming that they are not assigned to kill them.\n\nAccording to Captain Cleive, there were lizardman shamans causing trouble on the surface, so he led a taskforce to drive them into the caves that they currently reside in, albeit with many casualties.\n\nA dwarf multicannon cannot be set up in the caves; attempting to do so will display the following message in the player's chatbox: \"The ground is too marshy here.\"\n\n\nLizardman Shaman location 2\n\nFrom Xeric's Look out, follow the blue arrow to reach the shamans.\n\nThere are several ways to access the caves:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7810277342796326}
+{"content": "The Hindu Gods are known for their various forms. Curses, promises, and boons all play a key role in transforming the Gods into the form necessary for the outcome i.e Win of Good over Evil. One such form is that of Lord Vishnu, Mohini.\n\n\nArt by Prathamesh More\n\nThe Amrita, or nectar of immortality, was produced by the churning of the Ocean of Milk (Samudra Manthan). The Deva the Asura fought over its possession. The Asuras plan to keep the Amrita for themselves, angering the Devas. Vishnu, wise to their plan, assumed the form of an “enchanting damsel“. She used her allure to trick the Asuras into giving her the Amrita and then distributed it amongst the Devas.\n\n\nBirth of Lord Ayyappa\n\n\n\nThe Events that actually led to the birth of Lord Ayyappan\n\nThe legendary story of the genesis of Lord Ayyappa in the Puranas or ancient scriptures is intriguing. After Goddess Durga killed the demon king Mahishasur, his sister, Mahishi, set out to avenge her brother. She carried Lord Brahma’s boon that only the child born of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva could slay her, or, in other words, she was indestructible. To save the world from annihilation, Lord Vishnu, incarnated as Mohini, wed Lord Shiva and out of their union Lord Ayyappan was born.\n\nChildhood of Lord Ayyappa\n\nLord Ayyappa is a very popular Hindu deity, which is mainly worshipped in South India. Ayyappa is also called as ‘ Hariharan Puthiran’ which means the son of both Hari or Vishnu and ‘ Haran’ or Shiva.\n\nREAD  Kalabhairava Ashtakam - Lyrics In Sanskrit and English With Meaning\n\nLegend has it that, when Shiva and Mohini abandoned the child on the banks of the Pampa River, the ruler of that dynasty, King Rajashekhara, the childless monarch belonging to Pandalam, adopted Ayyappa and accepted him as the divine gift.\n\nAyyappa is also commonly known as ‘Manikandan‘ because, according to the legend of his birth, his divine parents tied a golden bell (mani) around his neck (kandan) soon after his birth.\n\nAfter King Rajashekhara adopted Ayyappa, his own biological son Raja Rajan was born. Ayyappa or Manikantan was intelligent and excelled in martial arts and the knowledge of various shastras or scriptures. He surprised everyone by his superhuman powers.\n\nIt is said that upon completing his princely training and studies when he offered guru dakshina or a fee to his guru, the master aware of his divine power asked him for a blessing of sight and speech for his blind and dumb son. Manikantan placed his hand on the boy and his disabilities were restored.\n\nAyyappan, the Queen and the Death of Mahishi\n\nWhen it was time to name the heir to the throne, King Rajashekhara wanted Ayyappa, but the queen wanted her own son to be the king. She plotted with the minister and her physician to kill him. Faking illness, the queen made her physician ask for an impossible remedy — lactating tigress’s milk. When no one could procure it, Ayyapan volunteered to go, much against his father’s will.\n\n\n\nFollowing his confrontation with Mahishi, Manikandan entered the forest for tigress’ milk. He had a darshan of Lord Shiva who informed him that even though he had fulfilled the divine plan, he still had one major task to accomplish. Manikandan was reminded about his grief-stricken father and ailing mother; also he was assured of Lord Indra’s assistance in obtaining the much-prized tigress’ milk. Manikandan made his way to the Royal Palace on Lord Devendran, disguised as a tiger; they were accompanied by female devas in the guise of tigresses and male devas as tigers.\n\nThe departure of Lord Ayyappa\n\nKing Rajasekara decided to punish his minister as the latter was responsible for his son’s exile into the forest. Manikandan, however, advised restraint; he held that all had unfolded in accordance with the divine order, through the will of God. Also, he reminded his father that as he had accomplished the task for which he had created himself, he would return to Devaloka without fail. Before his departure, the lad told the King that he as he was pleased by the latter’s unflinching faith and devotion, he would grant him whatever boon Rajasekara requested for. Immediately, King Rajasekara told him that they wanted to construct a temple in his memory and beseeched him to suggest a suitable place for the temple. Manikandan aimed an arrow which fell at a place called Sabari, wherein Sri Rama’s era a Sanyasini called Sabari observed Dhavam. Lord Manikandan told the King to build the temple in that place and then he disappeared.\n\nREAD  Lord Indra - Vedic god of rain and thunder\n\nKing Rajasekara, in due course of time, completed the construction of the shrine and the sacred eighteen stairs leading to the temple complex. As the King mulled over the seemingly perplexing task of placing Dharmasastha’s idol in the temple for darshan, he was reminded of the words of the Lord himself – the River Pampa is a holy river as River Ganga, Sabarimala is as holy as Kasi – Dharmasastha sent Parasuraman, who resurrected the land of Kerala from the bottom of the ocean to Sabarimala; it was he who carved the figure of Lord Ayyappa and installed it on the day of Makarasankranthi.\n\nThe Worship of Lord Ayyappa\n\n\nLord Ayyappa is believed to have laid down strict religious adherence to receive his blessings. First, the devotees should observe a 41-day penance before visiting him in the temple. They should maintain abstinence from physical pleasures and family ties and live like a celibate or Brahmachari. They should also continuously contemplate on the goodness of life. Moreover, the devotees have to bathe in the holy river Pampa, adorn themselves with three-eyed coconut and aantha garland and then brave the steep climb of the 18 stairs to the Sabarimala temple.\n\nThe Famous Pilgrimage to Sabarimala\n\nSabarimala in Kerala is the most famous Ayyappa shrine visited by over 50 million devotees it every year, making it one of the most popular pilgrimages in the world.\n\nPilgrims from around the country brave the dense forests, steep hills and inclement weather to seek the blessings of Ayyappa on the 14h day of January, known as Makar Sankranti or Pongal, when the Lord himself is said to descend in the form of light. The devotees then accept Prasada, or the Lord’s food offerings, and descend the 18 steps walking backward with their faces turned towards the Lord.\n\nNotify of", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9708528518676758}
+{"content": "Populations and Individuals\n\nBump To Birth\n\nNatural Childbirth Options\n\nGet Instant Access\n\n13.1 Populations\n\nA population is a set of organisms of the same species living in a particular place and time. This simple definition begs the question of how to define \"species,\" since the traditional criterion that it be composed of \"interbreeding\" organisms is difficult or impossible to apply in many cases. Nevertheless, the definition works for most purposes. The key idea, to which we will return below, is that populations are composed of interacting individuals. An operational definition of the concept of ecological community is more elusive, however. One anonymous, but cynical, wag defined it as a set of populations about which it is interesting to speak. There is a frighteningly important element of truth in this definition. And we could accept it, provided community ecologists were never boring. This not always being the case, we content ourselves with the more typical definition: the set of co-occurring and interacting populations in a place. In practice, the set of populations and relations studied is often confined to specific taxa and ecological processes.\n\nIn this chapter, we describe some of the elementary models of populations and communities. In so doing, we will again return to the principles developed in Part I. In particular, we examine more complex nullcline analysis using mechanistic models of competing species. We introduce the concept of individual-based models and revisit stochastic models in the form of demographic stochasticity and time to extinction. Finally, we encounter again the problem of model validation in testing simple, alternative predator-prey models with laboratory experiments; we will also use bioenergetic models to predict and test size distributions of fish in lakes.\n\nThe central questions that these models address include: (1) Can population dynamics be predicted from the bioenergetics of individuals? (2) What is the simplest model needed to describe accurately predator-prey dynamics in simple aquatic microcosms? (3) How does predator learning affect predator-prey cycles? (4) Can pesticides effectively control insect pest outbreaks?\n\n13.1.1 Populations Without Age Structure\n\nWe have already introduced, through examples in Part /, density-independent and density-dependent population growth. We will not repeat that now, but rather will give a simple, phenomenological generalization of the models. We wish to formulate an hypothesis of population growth based on the effects that the entire population has on the reproduction of an average individual. (By average, we mean average in all respects: sex, weight, age, and so on.) In density-independent models, the relation is a straight line with zero slope; in the density-dependent logistic model, it is a straight line with negative slope (Sec. 2.3). To generalize the biological hypothesis that increased population size always decreases per capita birth rate, we could use a nonlinear relation such as Richard's equation as illustrated in Chapter 5.\n\nA more dramatic departure is a phenomenon called the Allee effect in which two processes are operating: decreases in per capita birth rate due to competition, and increases in per capita birth rate with increases in population numbers due to increased chances of encountering mates at low population density. If our aim is simply to describe this relation, we can use any functional form that possesses a maximum and that can be scaled to biologically realistic numbers. Two candidates from Chapter 4 are the maximum function and the Blumberg function. The former, being a product of two separate subfunctions, has the advantage that each subfunction and its parameters can be associated with the two biological processes (mate location and competition).\n\nHere is one possible phenomenological model of population growth using the Allee effect (Wilson and Bossert 1971):\n\nwhere M is a lower threshold below which the per capita rate is negative. Above the threshold the per capita rate increases to a maximum then decreases to 0 at N - K. The importance of the Allee effect will become apparent in Section 17.8.6, where we discuss chaos.\n\n13.1.2 Populations with Discrete Age Structure\n\nThese models, because of their nonlinear structure, can fit many data sets (Berryman 1991), but being general, they do not satisfy our desire for more mechanistic explanations. One point in which they fail to capture basic biological mechanisms is their assumption that all individuals are equal. All individuals, of course, are not equal and everyone eventually grows old and dies. Individuals differ because of their age and other physiological and ecological variables often correlated with age (e.g., the effect of age or size on energy demands, foraging efficiency, running speed, etc.). The simplest model of an age structured population is one analogous to the density-independent finite difference model. As a simple example, assume the population has four age classes, only the oldest reproduces, and at each time step the fate of an individual is either to die or to live and become one time step older (i.e., advance to the\n\nnext age class). So, the fate of age class i is\n\nNilt+1 = Nu - diNu - (Si)Nu + i.-ity-u = Si-iNi-u, where d is the fraction dying, and s is the fraction surviving and aging 1 time interval (so that d = 1 - s). In addition to survival, the youngest age class increases by the addition of individuals through reproduction. This is modeled as J\\, the average birth rate per female of age i. Since all individuals within an age class are considered equivalent, the net number of newborn individuals from females of age i is /¡Nt. The total number of newborn individuals is the sum of the contributions of all reproductive age classes. With this, the complete set of equations for all age classes is\n\nWas this article helpful?\n\n0 0\nPregnancy And Childbirth\n\nPregnancy And Childbirth\n\n\nGet My Free Ebook\n\nPost a comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9765473008155823}
+{"content": "Gastrointestinal Conditions That Cause Chronic Abdominal Pain\n\nGastrointestinal Conditions That Cause Chronic Abdominal Pain\n\nThere are different kinds of gastrointestinal conditions, which can cause abdominal pain in patients that can develop into becoming a chronic type of pain. This pain is in most cases accompanied by other symptoms, which include diarrhea, cramping, constipation or bloating. All these symptoms, including the pain, can be from mild to severe. There are some gastrointestinal conditions which are considered to be the most common reason behind chronic abdominal pain. These conditions include irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, atrophic gastritis, and stomach ulcers. \n\nIrritable bowel syndrome\n\nIrritable bowel syndrome includes several gastrointestinal symptoms, which include constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. The symptom that makes irritable bowel syndrome unique, is that the symptoms occur without any proof of a condition in the gastrointestinal tract, or any proof of damage. Recent studies have shown that the reason behind irritable bowel syndrome might be bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. Now IBS treatment specialists test whether there is bacterial overgrowth to diagnose irritable bowel syndrome, as well as to treat it. \n\nWhen there is an imbalance between the healthy and unhealthy bacteria in the intestine, people might suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and its symptoms.  Some specialists believe that it is the nervous system and its interaction with the gut which leads to these unpleasant symptoms. The symptoms usually occur all of the sudden and range from mild to severe with cases in which they get better after a while and cases in which they worsen over time. Currently, it is believed that there isn’t any cure for irritable bowel syndrome, so treatment focuses on regaining the bacterial balance in the intestine. \n\nInflammatory bowel disease\n\nInflammatory bowel disease is a condition that can cause chronic abdominal pain, due to the chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract that it causes. Inflammatory bowel disease is divided into Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. \n\nIt is still not known what causes inflammatory bowel disease, but specialists believe that stress and our immune system play a big role. Researchers also believe that environmental factors, diet, and genetics may affect the condition. \n\nCrohn’s disease\n\nCrohn’s disease can affect the gastrointestinal tract in any part of it, which extends from the mouth and down to the anus. Typically the inflammation begins in the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine, which can lead to the intestinal wall thickening and generally changing. \n\nSome symptoms of Crohn’s disease include abdominal pain, cramps, diarrhea, and constipation. Those who suffer from Crohn’s disease are also likely to lose weight, have less appetite, get fever and experience fatigue. Those who suffer from Crohn’s disease have periods where the symptoms are present and periods when they don’t experience any symptoms at all.\n\nUlcerative colitis\n\nUlcerative colitis affects the large intestine, which includes the rectum and colon, which leads to an inflammation of the intestinal lining. It also leads to open sores, which are known as ulcers. The symptoms of ulcerative colitis include rectal bleeding and pain, abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, and constipation. Just as it is the case with Crohn's disease, symptoms go away and come back again. \n\nPeptic ulcers\n\nStomach ulcers are other known as peptic ulcers or duodenal ulcers. They are sores which can develop in the stomach, small intestine or the esophagus. When these open sores are present, symptoms include nausea, heartburn, changes in appetite, stomach pain and indigestion. It is believed that eating too much spicy food and dealing with stress can enhance the severity of the symptoms. \n\nUlcers can develop due to several reasons, such as alcohol, smoking, using NSAIDs often, which include aspirin and ibuprofen, or the presence of the bacteria Helicobacter pylori. These type of ulcers can be treated and you might get over-the-counter medication or prescription medication. You will also need to change some factors in your life, especially if you smoke or drink. Your diet will also need to be adjusted. \n\nIt is important that you visit a medical professional as soon as you experience these type of symptoms because ulcers are best treated if the patient reacts to the symptoms immediately. \n\n\nDiverticulitis is a small pouch, known as a diverticulum, which forms in the gastrointestinal tract. This pouch then gets inflamed or infected. Typically, this pouch forms when there is increased pressure within the intestinal walls. This type of increased pressure might come from gas or waste, which gathers due to chronic constipation. \n\nMost often, diverticula occur in the colon. The symptoms of diverticulitis are likely to go away, but treatment is necessary. Treatment consists of antibiotics and an adjustment of the diet. To prevent constipation, the patient will need to eat a fiber-rich diet. Diverticulitis, once it affects a patient, is very likely to come back again, therefore, the adjustment of the diet needs to be long-term and a lifestyle change. \n\nA person who suffers from diverticulitis and doesn’t get any treatment might experience symptoms such as high fever, a change in blood pressure or heart rate and a high white blood cell count. Some more severe attacks will require hospitalization, as the patient will need hydration, as well as intravenous antibiotics. \n\nAtrophic gastritis\n\nAtrophic gastritis is a condition which happens due to an inflammation of the stomach lining, which is present for a longer period of time. This type of condition usually occurs due to the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, which is present in the gastrointestinal tract and left untreated. The condition usually affects the mucous membrane of the stomach lining, causing symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, and loss of weight. \n\nIn most cases, this type of condition is treated with antibiotics, as it is important to fight the bacteria which is causing the inflammation. When prescribed antibiotics, it is important that you continue to take them as the doctor prescribed them to you, even if the symptoms go away. It might be that the symptoms are gone, but the bacteria are still present, which is why it’s important to continue with the antibiotic treatment. \n\nIn some cases, stress and a poor diet can also cause abdominal pain, therefore it is important that you share with your doctor any lifestyle factors that might affect your health.\n\nSimilar Articles\n\nPopular Myths About Hemorrhoids That Need to Be Destroyed\n\nWhen people are not aware of the diseases they may have, it is difficult to notice the problem in time. Disinformation leads to the neglect or wrongful treatment that only worsens the situation. It’s especially for a delicate problem such as hemorrhoids.\n\nToxic Synovitis, Causes, and Symptoms\n\nToxic synovitis is a condition that commonly occurs in children and presents itself with hip pain, which is usually only temporary. It is more common in boys and in general affects mostly children in the age of three to eight. As mentioned, it is in most cases temporary and goes away by itself in one to two weeks.\n\n\nHypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough amount of hormones needed for the body. There are many glands in the body, the thyroid is one of gland located at the base of the neck. It is a small butterfly-shaped gland.\n\n\nMuscular dystrophy is a disorder which leads to the gradual disintegration of the muscles of the human body. The basic cause of this disorder is quite complicated but still, studies are going on in order to cure this disease. In recent times the stem cell technology has created a buzz in the medical field.\n\nthyroid specialist in kerala\n\nThe thyroid gland is an endocrine gland located at the base of your neck and is seen in a butterfly shape. As shape indicates, thyroid gland has two lobes connected by a tissue called isthmus.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947146773338318}
+{"content": "The search found 106 results in 0.05 seconds.\n\nRisultati della ricerca\n\n    Since the early 1980s, Mara Maudet has been creating and mainstreaming a set of standards for the design and delivery of social services in disenfranchised urban areas in France; now a common practice in childcare.\n\n\n    Daniel Kerber prototypes and disseminates holistic, dignified living concepts for people on the move – bridging three crucial stages of a refugee's journey: arrival centers in the global north, transit zones and refugee camps. With his work, he creates rapid evidence of what works on the ground and builds global teams to scale his approach, creating a new field of practitioners in humanitarian aid.\n\n    To accelerate the transition towards an education system that allows every child to reach his full potential and be a changemaker, Florence’s insight is that teachers and those who professionally surround them (school directors, inspectors and advisors, teacher trainers) embody changemaking skills. To do so, she inspires, equips and supports teachers and education administrators to embrace and spread this vision.\n\n\n\n\n\n    Helena is transforming peace processes worldwide. She bridges the gap between institutional and governmental organizations who officially lead peace processes and the communities who suffer the harsh consequences of conflicts, and who are generally excluded from peace-making decisions. She is democratizing peace processes by working with local peace activists worldwide and designing scalable peace interventions that connect local voices to decision makers.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9958253502845764}
+{"content": "\n\nartists. Our emphasis is on emerging and mid-career artists working with a variety of mediums. Many of our artists have philanthropic\n\ncauses creating a combination of caring hearts and cutting edge art.  LGOCA offers a diverse mixture of paintings, sculpture, bronze,\n\n\nanywhere else.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999778866767883}
+{"content": "Have you heard of pregnant stand-up? Female comedians like Ali Wong, Christina P., Amy Schumer and Natasha Leggero are leading a trend of growing their stand-up careers while pregnant, and speaking explicitly and hilariously about being an expectant mama. Through her comedy, Amy Schumer has opened up about her experience of hypermesis, while Ali Wong has basically taken over the world with her two Netflix specials filmed while pregnant. \n\nPeggy Alford, mother of two and senior vice president at PayPal, has just been tapped to serve on Facebook’s board of directors. She will be the first black woman and second black executive to serve on the board. In an interview with PayPal, she shared her story of choosing motherhood later in life while making time for her career.  \n\nAfter Lori Lightfoot's Mayoral victory in Chicago, mother of two and former police chief Jane Castor was recently elected to serve as mayor of Tampa. Within the past month she, Lori, and Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wisconsin, have grown the number of lesbian candidates to be elected mayor of America's most populous cities from 2 to 5!  \n\nRecently the New York Times published an obituary for Geraldine \"Jerrie\" Cobb, who was poised to become the first U.S. female astronaut, but due to sexism was never able to soar to space. This piece illustrates how her greatest triumphs and setbacks broke the glass ceiling for future female astronauts. \n\nWith the Cannes Film Festival coming up in May, there is a focus to improve inclusivity among directors. Gender inclusivity is improving slightly, with four female directors scheduled to show their work out of 19 total entries. This number may seem low, but it's the highest it's been since 2011.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9642571806907654}
+{"content": "\n\nThe UN General Assembly later this month will begin negotiations over the content of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. \n\nBy: Radhika Balakrishnan & Ignacio Saiz\nSeptember 15, 2014\n\n\nHuman rights have thus become a lightning rod in the geo-political wrangling around the next global development goals. \n\nThe UN General Assembly later this month will begin negotiations over the content of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. The outcomes of these inter-governmental debates will not only determine the model of development advanced in global policy forums over the next fifteen years. They will shape national government priorities, policies and financing decisions in areas from education to ecology, housing to health, climate change to care work.\n\nAs worldwide debate on what should replace the MDGs intensifies, many activists are calling for a new sustainable development paradigm which, in the Millennium Declaration’s original vision, “… strive(s) for the full protection and promotion in all countries of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all”. So far, progress to put human rights at the centre of the sustainable development agenda has been mixed.\n\nOn the one hand, from a human rights perspective, the draft SDGs (agreed in an inter-governmental Open Working Group (OWG) in July) are a vast improvement on the MDGs. Unlike the MDGs, which were essentially a pact between donor and developing countries, the new goals are intended to be universally applicable, tackling poverty and deprivation everywhere, and holding all countries responsible for taking action, individually and collectively.  Many of the draft goals and targets are likewise more aligned with human rights obligations. Those on education and health, for example, commit states to ensuring that basic education is free, non-discriminatory and of good quality, and that health coverage is universal. The draft SDGs also include a goal on access to justice notably lacking in the MDGs, and are more equality-sensitive, with more cross-cutting commitments to gender equality, the explicit inclusion of people with disabilities and other groups facing discrimination, and a stand-alone goal on reducing income inequality within and between countries.\n\nBut while there is much to celebrate, the current proposals contain a fundamental shortcoming – they fail to boost accountability. The goals are meant to incentivize collective action by holding all development actors—public and private—answerable to quantifiable commitments.  But the potential effectiveness of the SDGs as an instrument of accountability has been severely undermined by the highly selective, partial and ambivalent stance on human rights taken by governments of both north and south in the process to date.\n\nOn the one hand, many wealthy countries have resisted more stringent and measurable commitments under the SDGs for the negative impacts of their laws and policies abroad, for example those regarding agricultural subsidies, access to essential medicines, illicit financial flows, debt restructuring, and financial regulation, which too often erode the ability of other countries to achieve sustainable development.  Efforts by G77 states to invoke the right to development  - as a holistic framework for addressing the extraterritorial responsibilities of rich countries - have met with resistance. The proposed SDGs do little to hold powerful economies and companies to account for their role in contributing to the structural inequities in the global economic and financial system that have continued to fuel poverty, inequality and environmental degradation since the MDGs were adopted.\n\nIn turn, many developing country governments have used this double standard to object to the inclusion of governance and gender-related human rights commitments.  They fear a repeat of the skewed accountability of the MDGs, where compliance with human rights (particularly civil and political freedoms) became a tool of aid conditionality in the hands of donor governments and international financial institutions.\n\nThe selective stance of donor countries on human rights has served as a diplomatic escape-hatch for some authoritarian governments to question altogether the relevance of human rights and democratic freedoms to the core agenda of socio-economic development. As a result, the language in earlier drafts of the SDGs on freedom of expression, association and information— essential prerequisites for ordinary people to hold their governments answerable to their development commitments—was diluted following fierce debate, as were commitments on women´s sexual and reproductive rights recognized twenty years ago at the Cairo Conference on Population and Development.  \n\nHuman rights have thus become a lightning rod in the geo-political wrangling around the next global development goals. It is for this reason that the draft SDGs contain very few explicit references to human rights, and are conspicuously silent on their role as a universal normative framework for sustainable development. Indeed the OWG Co-Chairs have admitted that they deliberately avoided explicit human rights language in the SDG draft for fear that this would be considered to be too ¨controversial¨.\n\nHow should human rights advocates navigate these contentious issues over the coming year? Some erstwhile allies have argued that the controversies around human rights in the post-2015 agenda are a reason to avoid the issue altogether.\n\nWe draw the opposite conclusion. Given the consensus that has existed for decades at the UN on the relationship of human rights to development, it is shameful that existing human rights commitments can still be so readily politicized, traded off and written out in UN development forums. Three key shifts in strategy will be needed if we are to turn the tables on the stale geo-political dynamics that threaten to undermine the SDGs as an endeavor that is truly transformative and human rights-centered. \n\nFirstly, human rights advocates need to underscore the extraterritorial obligations of wealthier states to respect and protect human rights beyond their borders, and to cooperate internationally in their fulfillment. This can help advance a more nuanced and politically astute articulation of the ¨common but differentiated responsibilities¨ of all countries in relation to each SDG commitment. The political stalemate that surrounds this concept could potentially be bypassed by anchoring these concurrent responsibilities in the detailed normative framework of human rights instruments such as the Declaration on the Right to Development and the Maastricht Principles on Extra-Territorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.   \n\nThere are already some important best practices and methodologies to put these norms into practice.  Norway for example, cancelled the sovereign debt it held itself responsible for in four developing countries, while Ireland and the Netherlands have recently committed to conduct assessments of the ¨spill-over¨ development impact of their corporate income tax policies. Unless the SDGs spur wealthier states to get their own houses in order, less powerful governments will have every reason to mistrust their human rights discourse.\n\nSecondly, advocates must counter the corporate influence on the post-2015 process with a much stronger push for  corporate accountability. The current SDGs posit an increasingly central role for the corporate sector as the driver of development, promoting liberalization and access to markets and placing a strong emphasis on multi-stakeholder partnerships with the private sector in the delivery of development outcomes. Yet there is no acknowledgment of the harms businesses so often cause to sustainable development, whether through environmental contamination, mass-scale tax evasion, denial of labour rights or complicity in repression by security forces.\n\nAttempts to include more stringent commitments in the SDGs regarding corporate regulation, human rights impact assessments, mandatory due diligence reporting, and fiscal transparency and accountability have been vehemently resisted, with reference to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights sidelined from the SDGs. The emerging campaign for a new binding treaty on corporate human rights abuses could give renewed momentum to these efforts.\n\nThirdly, the human rights community must build more effective platforms and alliances with development, social justice and environmental movements to amplify the human rights voice in these debates, avoiding the fragmentation and issue-specific silos that have characterized advocacy to date.\n\nIt is essential that all those championing human rights on the post-2015 agenda, whether focusing on access to information or the rights to water and sanitation, maintain an integral and comprehensive approach which recognizes the interdependence of all human rights in their civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions.  And we must resist the seduction of tactical compromises that would accept leaving out explicit references to human rights or the explicit inclusion of specific groups of rights-holders who must not be left behind. .\n\nAs the last two years of debate and civil society consultation have made clear, those facing poverty, deprivation and environmental injustice across the globe demand that the next development agenda be transformative, founded on the full dignity of all human beings and the accountability of all those in positions of power. As the process moves from consultation to negotiation, we must guard against attempts to restrict or tokenize civil society participation from here on, and to privilege powerful corporate interests over the expectations of ordinary citizens as the goals are finalized. Philanthropic organizations now debating their role in the post-2015 process will need to be sensitized to these risks.\n\nThe UN Secretary General has called for a new set of goals that reflect ¨a far-reaching vision of the future, anchored in human rights¨. The existing framework of human rights commitments should inform not only the vision of the SDGs, but the goals, targets and indicators of progress, their financing and implementation, and the accountability mechanisms put in place to ensure they are met. As the process enters the critical home stretch, our global community of practice must settle for nothing less. \n\n\nRadhika Balakrishnan is Faculty Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership and Professor in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She is also a Public Voices fellow of the OpEd Project.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9053950905799866}
+{"content": "Public Analysts are experts in legislation relating to food and agriculture. They also have a great deal of technical expertise and can provide advice on food manufacturing, sampling, composition and labelling. They also investigate food complaints, participate in food safety inspections and provide CPD-certified training in food and agriculture to enforcement authorities.\n\nFor sales/general enquires please email for further information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999636709690094}
+{"content": "Learning how to read is really a complicated process it doesn’t happen by itself. The very perfect way to teach children to read would be by making it interesting. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\nThe majority of people don’t consider the practice of learning to read until they decide to start teaching their very own kids at home.\n\nUnlike what some people believe, learning to read is not really a ‘pure’ process that occurs all on its own. It is a sophisticated one that requires the appropriate instruction of assorted skills and strategies, such as phonics (understanding the relationship between sounds and letters ) and phonemic recognition.\n\nThe good thing is that even though reading itself is a complicated process, the steps required as a way to build these capabilities are quite simple and straightforward. In order to teach kids how to read and also make it a very positive and rewarding experience, try these easy and time�’tested tips below. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\n\n\n9 Easy Steps To Teach Your Child To Read At Home\n\n\n1. Use songs and nursery rhymes to build phonemic awareness\n\nhow to teach your kids to read1\n\n\nKid’s songs and nursery rhymes aren’t only a lot of pleasure , both the rhyme and rhythm help kids to hear the sounds and syllables in words, which will help them learn to read. A superior way to build phonemic awareness (perhaps one of the absolute most essential expertise in understanding how to read) is always to clap rhythmically together and recite songs in unison. This playful and bonding activity is just a fantastic way for kids to implicitly develop the literacy skills that will put up them for reading success. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\n\n\n2. Make easy word cards at home.\n\nhow to teach your kids to read2\n\n\nCut simple cards out and then write a word containing three sounds onto each one (e.g. ram, sat, pig, top, sun, pot, fin). Invite your kid to select a card, then read the word with each other and hold up three fingers. Ask them to say the first sound that they hear from the word, and then the second, and then the 3rd. This easy action necessitates little prep�’time and builds essential phonics and decoding abilities (assisting them know how to sound out words). If your child is just getting started with understanding the letters of the alphabet, give attention to the sound each letter makes, much more so than letter names. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\n\n\n3. Engage your child into a print-rich environment\n\nhow to teach your kids to read3\n\n\nCreate daily chances to build your child’s reading skills by creating a print�’rich surroundings at home. Seeing printed words (on posters, charts, books, tags etc.. ) enables children to determine and apply links between sounds and letter symbols. When you’re out and about, point out letters on posters, billboards and signs. In time you can model sounding out the letters to make words. Give attention to the first letter in words. Ask your son or daughter “What sound is that letter?” “What other word starts with this sound?” “What word rhymes with that word?”\n\n\n\n\n\nhow to teach your kids to read4\n\n\nBuilding on from the prior step, present simple word games on an everyday basis. Focus on playing games which encourage your child to listen, identify and control the sounds in words. As an instance, start with asking questions such as “What sound does the word________start with?” “What sound does the word__________end with?” “What words start with the sound__________?” and “What word rhymes with_______?” .\n\n\n\n\nhow to teach your kids to read-5\n\n\nIt is vital to keep in mind that learning to read involves various distinct skills. These will be the skills all children need to be able to successfully learn how to read. In summary, these include:\n\n  • Phonics – recognizing that the relationship between letters and the sounds they create\n\n\n\n6. Play with letter magnets\n\nhow to teach your kids to read-6\n\n\nCenter vowel appears can be catchy for several kids, and that’s why this activity might be so beneficial. Prepare letter magnets on the fridge and pull the vowels to one side (a, e, I, o, u). Say a CVC word (consonant-vowel-consonant), for example’kitty’, and ask your child to describe it using the magnets. To support them, say every single vowel sound aloud (/ayh/, /eh/, /ih/, /awe/, /uh/) whilst pointing at its letter, and also ask your child which one makes a noise similar to the centre noise.\n\n\n\n\nhow to teach your kids to read-7\n\n\nA lot of people don’t realize just how several skills could be picked up through the easy act of reading to a kid. Maybe not only are you currently showing them how to sound out words, but you’re also building key knowledge abilities, raising their language, also letting them discover that which a fluent reader resembles. Most of all, regular reading helps your kid to develop a love reading, which is that the very best way to put them up for reading success. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\nImprove your son’s or daughter’s understanding skills by asking questions while also reading. For younger children, encourage them to participate using the pictures (e.g. “Can you find the ship? What colour is the cat?”) . For older children, ask questions concerning everything you have just read, like “Why do you think the small bird was afraid?” “When did Sophie realize she had special powers”.\n\n\n\n\nhow to teach your kids to read-8\n\n\nSight-words are ones which cannot be easily sounded outside and also need to be understood on sight. High�’frequency sight words are those ones that occur very often in reading and writing (e.g. you, I, we, am, had, and, to, the, have, they, where, was, does).\n\nThe strategy for finding out sight words would be,”See the word, say the word”. Learning to read and identify sight words is crucial for small kids to turn into fluent readers. Most kids will have the ability to study a few sight-words at the age of 4 (e.g. is, it, my, me, no, see, and we) and around 20 sight words by the end of their first year of school. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\n\n\n9. Be patient! The very best method to teach children to read is always to make it interesting!\n\nhow to teach your kids to read-9\n\n\nEvery single kid learns at their own pace, therefore consistently bear in mind the one most essential thing you can do is always to ensure it is pleasing. By reading on a regular basis, mixing up things with the activities you choose, and letting your son or daughter pick out their own books periodically, you are going to instill a historical love of reading and give them the best opportunity at reading success right away. How To Teach A Preschooler To Write\n\n\nSharing is caring!\n\nerror: Content is protected !!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5330435037612915}
+{"content": "Printer Friendly\n\n\n\nFernando Atria, La forma del derecho, Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2016, 465 pp.\n\n1. Introduction\n\nLa forma del derecho [The Form of Law] is a book of great scope and ambition that constitutes without any doubt a highly original, engaging and insightful contribution to contemporary legal theory. It leaves almost no major jurisprudential theme untouched and about all of them it has something novel and interesting to say. La forma, furthermore, aspires not only to provide a better answer to the problems that currently hold the attention of legal theorists but it purports to reorient jurisprudential debates and change the issues that animate them. Legal theory, it claims, is primarily focused on issues that are at best irrelevant, while downplaying others that are critical to the understanding of modern law. If its main conclusions are right, legal theorists should not only be concerned with different questions but change the way they go about answering them. No wonder then that Roberto Gargarella, a well-qualified observer of Latin American legal thought, has hailed La forma as \"possibly the most important book published in Latin America, in the area of legal philosophy\" in the last three decades (Gargarella 2016).\n\nThere are four major threads in the argument running through the whole book. After articulating (I) a radical critique of widespread assumptions in contemporary jurisprudence about what are the key questions and the main aims of the field, the book tries to characterize (II) the kind of legal theory that would revitalize jurisprudence and make it matter again, which, it claims, (III) must be grounded upon a theory of the institutional structure of the state. Finally, it argues that for an adequate theory of law and the institutional structure of the state to make sense at all requires us, in turn, to endorse (IV) a particular conception of politics and democracy. In the following pages, I will critically reconstruct the overall arc of the argument with a view to demonstrating why one should accept most of its premises but reject many of its conclusions. In particular, I will try to show that while Atria's negative assessment of contemporary legal positivism is convincing, he does not take far enough his own views about how to revitalize this tradition.\n\n2. The Dead End of Legal Positivism and the Retrieval of its Raison D'Etre\n\nLa forma starts by showing how the dominant conception in contemporary legal theory, i.e. analytical legal positivism, has lost a sense of itself after Dworkin's challenge to Hartian jurisprudence and became absorbed by the family dispute between hard (or exclusive) and soft (or inclusive) conceptions of legal positivism. Contemporary legal positivism, it argues, has become so obsessed by the separability thesis that has retreated to a primarily conceptual theory that claims that, even if in no existing legal system the law can be identified (or applied) without relying on moral criteria, there could be a legal system separate from morals--i.e. it could be thought to be so without self-contradiction. But, the argument goes, if legal positivism becomes nothing more than the thesis that there is a conceptual separation --be it necessary (hard) or contingent (soft)--between law and morals, without considering whether and how enlightening that is for understanding existing legal systems and their mode of operation, it is difficult to see why such a theory would be of interest to anyone. This problem is brought into sharp relief by the expansion of constitutional adjudication in contemporary legal systems. As the importance of judicial review of legislation--and with it the importance of morally charged concepts (i.e. \"cruel and unusual punishment\", \"human dignity\", \"equality\", etc.) for the identification of valid or applicable law--grows, the empirical content of a legal positivism centered on the separability thesis diminishes, becoming ever more conceptual and theoretical (Atria 2016, pp. 29-48). Some contemporary legal positivists have even come to boast of the superficiality and practical irrelevance of their jurisprudential work (pp. 66, 90-94).\n\nThe irony of legal positivism, Atria remarks, is now plain for everyone to see. The original thrust of the insistence on the importance of distinguishing what the law is from what it ought to be was to bring legal thinking closer to practice and make theory answerable to fact. Positivism was born out of the conviction of the need to pay more heed to what really happens, i.e. not to what judges, lawyers and jurists say (or think) they do, but to what they actually do when they use the law to argue and decide particular cases. This is clearly shown by Bentham's critique of the common law and the legal profession of his time (\"Judge & Co.\"). What horrified Bentham was not only that laws were far too numerous and obscure and that judicial procedures and rules of evidence were artificial and arbitrary, but the ease with which English lawyers held and propagated the belief that these laws and traditional legal forms were not man-made, that they were natural and based on reason as it has been applied to particular questions from times-immemorial. This mystification, that remade traditional law and legal institutions into a true natural order that evolved gradually through the English people's history, shielded them from rational critique and reform despite all their evils and abuses. Legal positivism, therefore, was born as an attempt to demystify law and legal institution by showing that they were manmade, the product of human will, something created not discovered. This was crucial because the demystification of law had the important consequence that it opened it to scrutiny, criticism and reform (Atria 2016, pp. 49-66).\n\nBentham's radical critique of common law was in this sense the preface to his no less radical program of legal reform, for which he coined a new concept: codification. Once it is recognized that law is artificial, an expression of human will, it becomes clear that the evils and abuses inherent in a judge-made system of law like the common law might only be rectified by transitioning towards a statutory-based system, where the judiciary and, more generally the application of the law, was made subject to a deliberately created and rationally structured legislation (pp. 104-111, 220-221). Moreover, Atria argues, the original driving force of legal positivism was to promote and reinforce an ethos that respected the authority of legislation and to stabilize the displacement of pre-modern judge-made law by modern legislated law (pp. 66, 95-96). Legal positivism constituted a deliberate attempt to articulate and defend a distinctively modern conception of law--i.e. a primarily legislated law whose highest expression was codification--which required an accompanying, distinctively modern conception of the judicial function. Contrary to what contemporary legal positivists maintain, a truly positivist theory of law must be committed to a conception of the application of the law that bolsters up the authority of legislation, viz. to a formal conception of legal reasoning and legal interpretation. Therefore, Atria concludes, we need to rescue the tradition of legal positivism, to restate again, although in a more sophisticated way, a theory that understands that legislation constitutes the most consummate expression of modern law (pp. 29, 111-118, 168-169, 219-237).\n\nAlthough Atria's criticism against contemporary versions of legal positivism are for the most part persuasive, his reconstruction of the tradition of legal positivism is problematic. It is true that Bentham's project was primarily critical rather than descriptive. Although he insisted on the importance of distinguishing between expository jurisprudence (about what the law is) and censorial jurisprudence (about what it ought to be), Bentham's science of legislation was first and foremost a critique and a program of reform of both the common law and the English constitution. Taking the principle of utility as the measure of all legal and political arrangements, he rejected the view that local custom and the common law were embodied wisdom and challenged the aristocratic principle of government, making a large imprint on nineteenth century reformation of English legal and political institutions. (1) But when it comes to the formation of legal thought and scholarship during the nineteenth century, it was one of his disciples, not Bentham himself, who was more influential and this is decisive for a more balanced understanding of the tradition of legal positivism. In contrast to Bentham, Austin wanted to elaborate a scientific expository jurisprudence that was empiricist, in the sense that it dispensed with normative considerations, and analytical, in the sense that it aimed to expound the law by systematically classifying its elements and clarifying basic legal concepts. It was Austinian descriptivist-analytical jurisprudence--rather than Bentham's critical-reformist program--that provided Victorian academic lawyers (A.V. Dicey, P.F. Pollock, W.R. Anson, etc.) with a valuable strategy for finding both a role for legal scholarship in the eyes of the legal profession and a place for it among university subjects, thereby inaugurating the expository tradition that dominated English legal studies for over century. (2)\n\nPut briefly, Atria's reconstruction of the tradition of legal positivism and its influence on legal thought is highly selective and unbalanced. In fact, the frailty of his reconstruction of the historical trajectory of legal positivism is further shown by a key step taken in the narrative without much in the way of explanation from Bentham's jurisprudential project to nineteenth-century Continental European (mostly French and German) legal thought (Atria 2016, pp. 101-131, 219-229). This sort of criticism, however pedantic it might seem, is especially pertinent given that I agree with Atria in that a significant flaw of contemporary analytical legal theory is that it lacks, for the most part, an adequate grasp of both the intellectual history of the field and of the history of legal institutions. Leaving aside how well it gets historical facts, one should concede, on the other hand, that the book's proposal for revitalizing legal positivism by reconceiving it as a distinctively modern theory of law is quite appealing, particularly as it aspires to make it relevant to legal practice. But in order to revitalize legal positivism and, more concretely, to articulate a jurisprudence that is really adequate to the distinctive nature of modern law, Atria argues, it is necessary to reconsider its object and methods.\n\nOn his account, legal positivism constitutes a specifically modern theory of law in the sense that it attempts to articulate conceptually and bolster up that which is distinctive about modern law, i.e. the pride of place that legislation is given within legal thought and practice. There is no ideal and practical program that better reflects the spirit of modern law than the nineteenth-century codification movement and, therefore, it is unsurprising that Atria pays particular attention to French post-codification legal thought and practice. In fact, he argues, by looking to French post-codification legal thought and practice it can be shown with particular clarity that the process that leads to modern law must be accompanied by a formal style of legal reasoning and interpretation. Only by having a rather strict conception of the subjection of legal reasoning and interpretation to statutory texts, one that pays particular tribute to the authority of legislation, can the pride of place that legislation has acquired be stabilized. As French post-codification legal thought and practice evinces, to become an institutional reality modern law must be buttressed by a formal--even perhaps, during an initial period, formalist--conception of the judicial function. (3)\n\nIt is at this critical juncture that Atria moves from the rejection of the conceptualist understanding of legal positivism to one that aims to explain actually existent legal systems and is committed to a distinctively modern conception of law. Let us look more closely at this crucial step. Modern law, it is argued, is more than just an idea, it is a set of actually existent institutions (pp. 95-96, 230). The methodological blindspot of those who, like contemporary analytical positivists, espouse a one-dimensional conceptual analysis is that they seem to have forgotten that \"what we are trying to understand are not concepts but institutions. Institutions do not flow from concepts, but concepts from institutions\" (p. 99). Put differently, Atria is elaborating an institutional theory of law that claims that in order to understand or grasp legal concepts we need to understand or explain the institutions from which they flow. Only if we take this further step--i.e. going beyond pure conceptual reflection in order to consider actually existing institutions--are we in a position to understand or grasp what a legal concept means. Atria intends, in this manner, to provide a methodological basis for his institutional theory via a general theory of legal concepts, a theory that is general in the sense that it not only applies to the concept of \"law\" itself but to all legal concepts--from \"legislation\", \"adjudication\" and \"administration\" down to \"marriage\", \"contracts\", \"wills\", \"property\", \"torts\", etc.\n\n3. From Analytical Positivism to Institutionalism\n\nAtria's theory of legal concepts takes as its starting point the premise that to answer the question of what a certain legal concept means is to inquire about the nature of \"law\", \"legislation\", \"contracts\", and so on. What the meaning of the legal concept is will depend on the (theory of the) nature of the thing or object to which the concept refers (pp. 133-136). This particular way of framing semantic problems (with its strong metaphysical overtones) is explained by the fact that Atria's theory of legal concepts is inspired by--and to an important extent is a response to--Michael S. Moore's attempt to elaborate a semantics for a truly general jurisprudence taking as its cue the \"new\" or \"causal\" theory of reference developed by Saul Kripke, Hilary Putnam and others. Moore's project, in this sense, is an attempt to extend the modal revolution in analytical philosophy to jurisprudence and by that means to articulate a moral realist natural law theory. (4) Although La forma does not spend much time explaining the relevant background, some preliminary remarks are necessary if we are to appreciate the full force of the argument.\n\nMoore's point of departure is the observation that the natural sciences theorize particulars that are divided into kinds (e.g. \"water\") because that reflects the structure of the natural world (e.g. \"water is [H.sub.2]O\") rather than human interests or actions, such that they constitute natural kinds in the sense that they \"have a nature that makes them kinds even if no human makes use of that nature or even discovers or labels it\" (Moore 2000, p. 311). Our scientific theories, it is argued, are not about what speakers mean (think or believe) when they refer to something using some classificatory term, they are about the essential nature of the objects they study; they aim to identify metaphysic not analytical necessities, that is to say, necessary truths that depend on the way the world is and not on linguistic conventions --\"Water is [H.sub.2]O\" is a \"metaphysically necessary truth because something wouldn't be water if it weren't [H.sub.2]O\" (Moore 2000, p. 305). Nominal kinds, in contrast, correspond to kinds of particulars that are grouped together only because we have attached a common label to them, i.e. there is no other unifying element than that they are referred to by that linguistic expression (they have no essential nature). Given that the law is not a natural kind, this line of reasoning seems to lead to the conclusion that law is a nominal kind and, thereby, to the dispiriting view that jurisprudence is nothing more than the study of what is called \"law\" by competent speakers of a language community at some time and place, making impossible the very idea of a truly general jurisprudence and any sort of cross-cultural studies about law (Moore 2000, p. 311).\n\nMoore argues that if law is to have an essence and something like a truly general jurisprudence be possible, law must be a functional kind. A functional kind corresponds to a class of objects whose unifying nature derives not from its structure but from its function, viz. particulars that are the kind of thing they are (e.g. a \"heart\", a \"stomach\") not primarily because they have a certain shape or composition, but because they have a certain function (e.g. blood circulation, first-stage processing of nutrients). Accordingly, to explain the nature of this kind of thing, the enquirer must ascertain a distinctive good to which that kind of thing is causally connected, i.e. to understand what kind of thing it is, one needs to understand what it is good for. This sort of functionalist inquiry can be applied recursively as these particulars can be integrated into larger functionally specified sub-systems (e.g. digestive system, circulatory system) that, in turn, together form an overall system (e.g. human body) which is also functionally specified (e.g. human health) (Moore 2000, pp. 311-318). If law has a functional rather than a structural essence, the beginning of wisdom in the field of jurisprudence is the insight that in order to understand the nature of law the enquirer needs to identify its end or goal, a good that law uniquely serves--be it the governance of human conduct through rules (Fuller), the promotion of the common good (Finnis), integrity (Dworkin), etc. (Moore 2000, pp. 318-29). The same applies, in turn, to the understanding of both a particular branch of the law (e.g. criminal law, torts, contracts, etc.), for one needs to identify the good that it can achieve (e.g. retributive justice, corrective justice, promissory obligations, etc.) in order to give an account of its nature (Moore 2010, pp. 18-23), and legal concepts (e.g. causation, punitive sanction, damages, etc.), whose nature can be explained only by inquiring into the moral significance of its structural features or properties (Moore 2009).\n\nIt is here, Atria contends, that one should ask whether this functionalist reorientation of legal theory stretches the argument too far. Privileging to such a degree functional considerations over structural features in our conception of law and legal concepts as Moore proposes, might lead one to pay insufficient attention to the fact that what is distinctive about modern law--i.e. the pride of place given to legislation--requires that any legal theory must explain (and bolster up) the formalism of law. That is why the key to the field of jurisprudence is rather the recognition of the institutional nature of modern law and legal concepts (pp. 133-136) and this implies that the explananda (i.e. what we are trying to understand) are institutions that, given the formalism of modern law, operate autonomously relying on structural features. The institutional (or positive) dimension of modern law requires that in its operation legal institutions must be blind to--or autonomous from--any function or purpose they are supposed to serve: valid laws (and valid judicial rulings) are taken as valid because it has been so decided by competent authorities, however (un)wise or (un)reasonable such decisions turn out to be under the light of the functions or purposes of the institution. Put in Hobbesian terms, the truth about modern law that positivism captures is that auctoritas non veritas facit legem (pp. 50-53, 146-147). The true insight of functionalist jurisprudence, however, is that in order to understand law and legal institutions (to which legal concepts refer) we need to ascertain which among its multiple features are central to them--i.e. to specify which, from among all the properties that they exhibit, are those that make them the kind of thing they are--and that can only be done by considering their function. To make sense of the structural features of law and legal institutions, viz. to have a conception of (and elaborate theory about) them, it is necessary to grasp their underlying function--functional considerations are, thus, explanatorily fundamental (p. 149). This implies, Atria argues, that one needs to distinguish between what is necessary for the operation of law and legal concepts (institutions) and their conditions of intelligibility (p. 147).\n\nWhat is distinctive about this approach is its insistence on the fact that legal institutions, given their formal nature, must be largely insensitive in their operation to the function they serve. Actually, Atria's contention is stronger: legal institutions contribute to the achievement of their functions precisely by means of their formal nature. Because in their operation legal institutions rely primarily on their structural features and are relatively insensitive to their function--it is mediated by those structural features--these institutions make more probable the achievement of the latter (which otherwise would be highly improbable). Let's take legislation as example. Legislation aims to enable us to establish with certainty those norms of conduct whose general observance is in everyone's interest in circumstances where there is (or might be) widespread and persistent disagreement about what actually is in everyone's interest. In order to enable us to establish what norms we should follow, legislation provides us with a decision-making mechanism that makes it more probable both to identify with certainty those norms despite persistent disagreement--i.e. they are legally valid if they have been approved following the established procedure--and that those norms reflect everyone's interest--i.e. they are the product of a deliberative and participatory procedure wherein the interests of all are voiced and taken into account. This means that legislation enables us to identify, using only formal criteria of validity, norms that are (as likely as they can be in our conditions) the expression of the will of the people about how to rule themselves, i.e. the institution of legislation makes probable the highly improbable practice of selfgovernment (pp. 146-148, 177-187).\n\nThis explanatory strategy, Atria claims, can be extended to all those legal concepts (contract, property, wills, delict, sanction, etc.) that are not purely conventional (i.e. nominal kinds), that is, the semantic content of all substantial legal concepts is to be explained according to this model. This bold claim invites one to inquire first whether the argument incurs in overgeneralization. Indeed, one should wonder whether concept/institutions like \"legislation\", \"administration\" and \"adjudication\" can really be conceptualized following the same explanatory strategy as that used for explaining concepts like \"contract\", \"wills\", \"property\", \"tort\", etc. As it is quite obvious, the former concepts refer to \"institutions\" in a stronger and deeper sense than the latter to the extent that they are not only referring to the operative facts of some legal norm unleashing certain legal consequences (i.e. \"institutional facts\"), but also to what Santi Romano called \"organizations\" (i.e. an \"entity or social body\", a real effective unity with social agency), i.e. there is not only legislation but a legislature, not only administrative action but an administration, not only adjudication but a judiciary. (5) Atria incurs in the same mistake that Massimo La Torre observed in other contemporary institutional theorists like Neil MacCormick and Ota Weinberger, i.e. he confuses \"institutions\" with \"legal institutions\" (La Torre 1993, p. 195).\n\nFurthermore, only legal institutions (e.g. property, contract, wills, tort, tax, etc.) can be easily taken to be no more than legal concepts and, thus, for explaining them one needs perhaps nothing more than a legal semantics. Atria, like old legal institutionalists (e.g. Romano, Maurice Hauriou, etc.), rejects the conception of the law as system of norms and other conceptualist methodological commitments, but he remains, like new legal institutionalists, too closely tied to analytical legal theory as this attempt to ground methodologically an institutional theory of law upon a general theory of legal concepts suggests. If one were to recast Atria's theory of legal concepts as an explanatory strategy for understanding institutions in its proper sense, his legal theory would come to relate more closely to the views held by old institutionalists and other concrete order thinkers than to those of new institutionalists. This seems to be confirmed by his further contention that any adequate theory of modern law must be based on a theory of the institutional structure of the state. In fact, when applied to institutions proper, Atria's views about the relations between structural features and function can be adequately translated into Hauriou's view of institutions as a composite of both organized power and directing idea, wherein the directing idea has a certain primacy in the understanding of institutional change (Loughlin 2017, pp. xv-xviii). Actually, the dynamics of institutional formation and decline that Atria defends--which he exemplifies in the cycle of adjudication (pp. 108-11, 219-48)--also chimes far better with old institutionalism than with a theory of legal concepts. Finally, all this seems to be further ratified by the fact that someone might disagree considerably with the sort of theory of legal concepts that Atria defends --e.g. one might believe, as Brandom has shown, that one should privilege inference over reference in the order of semantic explanation and that conceptual content derives primarily from the inferential role that concepts play in our discourse (Brandom 2000, pp. 1-2)--(6) and nonetheless agree without significant amendments with the kind of institutional theory it is supposed to underpin methodologically.\n\n4. Jurisprudence and the Institutional Structure of the State\n\nOne of the most important institutional insights of La forma is contained in the criticism it articulates against the widespread adoption of a court-centered perspective in contemporary jurisprudence, be it positivist, realist or non-positivist. This tendency to overstate the standpoint of adjudication and, thereby, to marginalize legislation in our understanding of law has taken form via three alternative theses: (1) that law-applying institutions have a sort of conceptual priority over law-making institutions (pp. 160-166), (2) that looking to what judges really do has an empirical priority when describing how law actually operates (pp. 134-135) and (3) that jurisprudence is the silent prologue to any judicial decision (p. 317). What is interesting in Atria's critique of court-centered jurisprudence is that he does not simply claim that it is unbalanced in the sense that illuminates some aspects of modern law (i.e. the role of courts in legal systems) at the cost of obscuring others (i.e. the place of legislation). Given his foregoing thesis that what is distinctive about modern law is the pride of place it gives to legislation, it might come as no surprise that Atria objects against this sort of jurisprudence that it underplays this central structural feature of modern law. But the argument is stronger than this. It contends that a court-centred jurisprudence is incapable even of providing an adequate account of the nature of adjudication. The blindspot of this sort of legal theory is, Atria points out, that the nature of adjudication changed with the transition from pre-modern to modern law, that is to say, what it means to apply the law becomes something utterly different once legislation was given such pride of place in legal thought and practice. A theory of adjudication must be in this sense relational; without an adequate understanding of the nature of legislation and the place it has within contemporary legal systems one cannot understand the nature of adjudication (pp. 135-136, 159-169).\n\nIn a remarkable move, Atria takes this line of reasoning a step further and claims that in order to elaborate a sophisticated theory of the nature of adjudication it is necessary to take into account both legislation and administration as both these institutions have evolved into their modern shape together and due to their inter-relations. This means, in consequence, that in order to have an adequate theory of modern law it is necessary to elaborate a theory of the institutional structure or form of the state as a whole--a holistic theory (pp. 21-22, 99, 159). Once it is taken as a starting point that what is distinctive about modern law is the centrality it gives to legislation, it becomes evident that the key to the understanding of both adjudication and administration is that they constitute two alternative institutional articulations of the subjection of power to law(s) and of the application of the law(s) (p. 96). If this is correct, the stark contrast between the structural features of the judiciary and the administration becomes all the more remarkable. While the judiciary is organized upon the principle of independence which translates into a series of normative protections of the position of judges--i.e. which insulates them from improper influence of government, public opinion, other judges and the parties--in order to ensure the immediate subjection to the laws, the administration is organized in accordance with the commissarial principle, viz. it has to act in accordance to the laws under the direction of government whose instructions are transmitted through a hierarchical chain of command or delegation, from the head of government and his ministers down to the most humble civil servant. This means, in terms of their function, that while the judiciary must be understood as an institution that has no other end than to apply impartially the law to particular cases, the administration has to implement government policies within the limits set by the laws (Atria 2016, pp. 189-218).\n\nDespite how familiar--unproblematic even--this institutional contrast between the judiciary and the administration might sound, Atria reminds us that there is an influential school that has as a distinctive trait the negation of precisely this difference. As a reaction to what it takes to be the naive conception of adjudication inherited from legal formalism, pragmatism characteristically tried to emphasize that laws--and legal norms more generally--always turn out to be insufficiently determined to decide particular cases. Observing that, as a matter of fact, judges have always a margin of interpretation or degree of discretion when applying the law in their rulings, pragmatists thought it necessary to ensure that the exercise of this power to decide particular cases promoted valuable social ends. The judiciary, the argument goes, is not really different from other branches of government in the sense that it should exercise its powers in accordance with policies that optimize social welfare without flouting the (wide) limits set by the law. The problem with pragmatism, Atria argues, is that it makes unintelligible the institutional structure of the judiciary. If judges are to pursue, like the administration, policies that advance general interests, why then are they not subjected to the same conditions of legitimacy? Why are they not made politically responsible like ministers and other political governmental officials? In fact, Atria points out, when judges begin to behave like pragmatists suggest, and become activists, the principle of independence is progressively eroded and in time courts start increasingly to resemble the administration--in their practices if not their institutional structure--and, consequently, they become politicized (pp. 229-234, 248-250).\n\nAs will be seen presently, according to Atria, the need to distinguish between judges and activists and the consequences of the politicization of court-like institutions are particularly significant for the debate on judicial review of legislation. Before moving onto that, however, it is important to note that Atria's conception of the administration and the high-handed manner he deals with pragmatism seem to be curiously unhistorical and static for someone who proposes an institutional theory of law and criticizes so strongly the conceptualism of contemporary analytical jurisprudence. The rather traditional reconstruction he offers of the institutional structure of the state seems more appropriate to the nineteenth-century liberal state than to the administrative state of the twentieth century and the distinctive kind of public law thought that emerged with it. During the 1920s and 1930s, the growth of the administration--viz. the expansion of delegated legislation and administrative tribunals in Britain and of administrative agencies in the United States--challenged the established conception of the separation of powers and of the primacy of a common law based on the freedom of contract and untrammeled property rights. Against the increasing resistance to the rise of the administrative state opposed by the judiciary and traditional legal thought (i.e. Victorian and pre-New Deal), innovative public lawyers elaborated a pragmatist sort of legal theory--e.g. functionalism in the U.K., progressive legal theory in the U.S.--that reconsidered key legal conceptions and revised our conception of the law to render them more adequate to the new social needs and the new role of the state (Loughlin 2014; Sunstein 1993, pp. 4-6, 18-23).\n\nWhat is more, the unitary and hierarchically structured image of the administration that Atria puts forward does not chime well with the contemporary regulatory state. The displacement of the transmission belt view of administrative legitimation (i.e. principle of legality) and command-and-control regulation by new governance principles (e.g. participation, transparency, accountability, etc.) and network regulatory techniques (e.g. cooperation systems, hybrid organizations and self-regulation) has led many contemporary legal theorists to wonder whether it is necessary to decenter our conception of law and to abandon a state-centered perspective that traditional public law --and with it, Atria--assumes (Black 2001, 2002). Once the state is seen as simply one among many interdependent and yet autonomous actors in a regulatory space, the legal pluralist kind of approach assumed by old institutionalist scholars like S. Romano becomes more appealing. An old institutionalist looking to the contemporary world would also probably remark that Atria's account pays no attention to those disparate developments at the transnational and international level that are also questioning the privileged place that the state retains in our image of law and the understanding of the legal structure of public power, which some argue is leading us to a postnational or post-sovereign condition. Whatever one might make of these phenomena and others that dominate the law-beyond-the-state or global law debates (Walker 2015), to totally disregard them not only reveals Atria's conception of the administration to be inaccurate and outmoded, but constitutes a manifest shortcoming for a theory of law that pretends to be about actually existing institutions and offer a holistic account of the structure of the state. More importantly perhaps, as will be suggested in the next section, this leads Atria to misdiagnose democracy's contemporary ills.\n\n5. Neo-Constitutionalism and the Crisis of Legislation: Towards a Political Theology?\n\nThat modern law and, with it, democracy are waning is not only a theme that runs through the book, but to inquire why and how is perhaps the single most important motivation driving the whole enterprise. On Atria's account, the main institutional and cultural challenge that contemporary democracy is facing is that of constitutional adjudication and neo-constitutionalism. More particularly, these complementary phenomena have contributed to the dethronement of legislation from the central place it has held since the coming into being of modern law, which is, in turn, an essential element of the institutional arrangements that sustain democratic self-government. What is worse, we seem to be losing our grip on the political vocabulary, viz. the conceptual repertoire, that is necessary in order to see why our democratic institutions are dwindling and how we might regain our ability to understand them. If modern law required an institutional theory of law that is committed to the centrality of legislation, the theory of democracy requires, further, a political theology. As I will try to show, Atria's arguments are persuasive but his conclusions are highly problematic. There are good reasons to suspect that La forma misidentifies the main challenges to democracy and that the kind of political theory it proposes is not entirely consistent with the tenets of an institutional theory of law.\n\nThe basic premises of the argument are relatively familiar. There is an internal connection between the modern conception of law and the democratic ideal. There seems to be a short step from the idea that the law is artificial--an expression of human will--to the democratic idea that only laws that one imposes on oneself are legitimate laws. Conversely, this ideal of self-government might just as easily be seen as evolutionarily linked first with a mode of legal experience that emphasizes the centrality of deliberatively created law (i.e. legislation) which then is generalized into the principle of popular sovereignty; i.e. to be legitimate, an exercise of political power must be an expression of--or in some sense derived from--the will of the people (Atria 2016, pp. 169-175). The structural features of the process of democratic legislation (e.g. representative assembly, deliberative public process, majority rule, etc.) are oriented to making probable that approved norms take into account everyone's interests and thereby be (putatively) consented to by all. In fact, it is only by such a procedure, that something like the general interest can be identified and that is why it provides us with the only formal criteria for identifying the will of the people (pp. 177-187). By subjecting judicial and administrative power to the laws, in turn, the modern principle of legality combined with the distinctive institutional structures of the judiciary and the executive ensure that all state power can be seen directly or indirectly as the expression of the will of the people (pp. 189-218).\n\nThe idea that the centrality of legislation is constitutive of our image of law and democracy, Atria acknowledges, is called into question by the expansion of judicial review of legislation and neoconstitutionalism. So much so, he argues, that one should perhaps question instead whether this institution is compatible with democracy. The expansion of judicial review of legislation has meant that in most contemporary legal systems the validity of a law depends increasingly not only on formal criteria--i.e. that it has been approved by a competent authority according to the established procedure --but also on substantive criteria--i.e. to be valid, laws must be compatible with fundamental rights and other constitutional principles. The process of expansion of constitutional adjudication, which is celebrated by neo-constitutional thinkers as a great achievement--viz. the subjection of politics to law, of will to reason--has brought with it a significant erosion of the formalism of modern law. This de-formalization of law and legal reasoning is tantamount, first, to returning to a pre-modern conception of the law wherein positive law is valid only in so far it does not violate some sort of self-evident truth (pp. 67-75). Constitutional adjudication and neoconstitutionalism lead, secondly, to an undemocratic government by judges. Going beyond the run-of-the-mill argument that objects to the counter-majoritarian nature of judicial review, Atria argues that the real problem lies in that the constitution is not amenable to adjudication and, consequently, even if constitutional adjudication exhibits the ordinary institutional features of courts and judicial proceedings, the resulting institution will not, in the long run, operate like them. This is why the remarkable degree of politicization observable in the case law, composition and process of appointment to the American Supreme Court, the center of one the oldest and most prestigious traditions of judicial review, is something to be expected (pp. 329-341).\n\nThe reason why the very idea of constitutional adjudication is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms (p. 254), is because it is based on the mistaken assimilation of the constitution to ordinary legislation that derives from the common view that the constitution is a just set of laws that are more difficult to amend and usually more vague and indeterminate. On the contrary, Atria argues, constitutions --by their very nature--cannot be impartially applied like ordinary legal norms are. All substantial constitutional principles are essentially polemical in the sense that although we all agree that they embody fundamental commitments that are constitutive of our political community (human dignity, liberty, equality, etc.), the determination of the content of those commitments is the substance of democratic political debate, the matter of ordinary political disagreement. Of course, there is a sense in which these commitments set the limits of democratic debate. The outright infringement of these commitments--e.g. if a faction begins to deny the equal dignity of the members another social group--might justify civil war, violent resistance or, in less dramatic cases, civil disobedience. But for the most part, constitutional adjudication is not about conflicts between two parties one which denies and another which affirms a constitutional principle. The interposition of a court in conflicts of this scale will most probably turn out to be unable to contain them (pp. 261-262). Constitutional adjudication is primarily about conflicts between parties that hold rival conceptions of shared constitutional principles and this implies that the rulings of constitutional courts in such matters of constitutional principle necessarily render them partisan. There is no substantial difference between the opinion of a constitutional court about, for example, the consequences of the right to education for whether (and how) primary schools may select their students and those held by a socialist, a liberal, a conservative (etc.) on the same debate. The continuity between juridical and political questions in matters constitutional, Atria concludes, demonstrates that the constitution cannot be applied impartially and, therefore, judicially (pp. 251-300).\n\nOnce one realizes this, it is easy to see that the substance of democratic politics is the debate between rival conceptions about what is the meaning of our constitutive commitments as a political community which, in turn, is not different from the question of what is in everyone's interest. The institutional mechanism to adopt collective decisions about what is required by the general interest is parliamentary legislation. Democracy, more particularly, supposes that there is a representative assembly that takes--through a deliberative procedure--the most important political decisions and, thus, expresses the will of the people, which then is to be implemented by the administration and impartially applied by the courts. The pride of place that legislation enjoys in both modern law and democratic government is, thereby, normatively explained by the fact that it is the primary institutional place where the will of the people takes shape. The problem is that the institution of parliamentary legislation seems to have lost most of its vitality and prestige and perhaps constitutional adjudication and neo-constitutionalism are nothing but the markers that the era of democracy is reaching its end (pp. 343-357).\n\nWhat explains the crisis of democratic legislation, Atria contends, is that the image of politics that parliamentary institutions presuppose is increasingly implausible. Today there is a widespread cynical view of politics that argues that what takes place in the political process is a negotiation between factions vying to foist their particular interests onto the decisions of public authorities, rather than a deliberation about our common good. The idea that legislation and politics is about our general interests or that it expresses the people's will, the argument goes, is no more than a myth to be dispelled. This is why, Atria believes, one should ask at this point whether we are living under dead ideas (pp. 359-391). When confronted by this question, the line of argument of La forma adopts an exhortative and ironic register. Just as legal theory is based on an act of faith in that we must assume that although actually existing institutions are formal, they have a nature that is made intelligible by a transcendent (i.e. pre-institutional) function which explains their formation and evolution (Atria 2016, pp. 230-231), when it comes to modern law as a whole we need to assume that it expresses--however, imperfectly and tentatively--the will of the people. There is no other way to institutionally articulate the will of the people than the fallible procedure of democratic legislation and this means that we need to believe in actually existing parliamentary institutions, even in the knowledge that they are defective and fall short from being what they purport to be. If we are ever going to live like self-governing people, we need to ironically commit ourselves to the institutions of parliamentary legislation, knowing that they are nothing but a pale and disfigured anticipation of truly political lives. A theory of modern law and democracy that is not radically skeptic must have, in consequence, the same eschatological structure of theological arguments (pp. 379-465).\n\nEven in this extremely compressed reconstruction, I think it is possible to have a sense of how wide-ranging and attractive are the theory of politics and democracy outlined in La forma. Atria's objections to the standard view of constitutional adjudication and neoconstitutionalism are particularly engaging and compelling. Let me close this discussion by considering two main problems that beset this last thread of the book's argument. First, it should be noticed that when it encourages us to adopt a politico-theological outlook committed to the self-legitimating claims of existing institutions La forma seems to betray a fundamental tenet of the tradition of legal positivism it purports to revitalize. As Atria himself noticed in the discussion of Bentham's critique of the common law, legal positivism aimed to provide a demystified account of law and legal practice, one that dispensed with the appeal to transcendental or metaphysical entities. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, his discussion of --and the prominent place he gives to--constitutional adjudication and neo-constitutionalism seems to be inconsistent with the institutional turn that is defended in other parts of the book. It is quite a stretch to deem the expansion of constitutional adjudication and neo-constitutionalism to be (even one of) the main challenge(s) to the modern conception of law and contemporary democracy or, to that effect, to the centrality of legislation. A more consistently institutional approach, it seems to me, would have focused the discussion more on the role of Parliament rather than parliamentary legislation. In fact, once one examines the actual role that Parliaments play in contemporary constitutional orders, it becomes clear that it is very unconvincing to simply assume that legislating is--or, even, ought to be--their primary function. Even in the case of the British constitution, which is the oldest tradition of parliamentary democracy and where arguably Parliamentary sovereignty still remains a fundamental constitutional principle, Parliament cannot be seen as primarily a legislature. As many authorized commentators of the British constitution have observed (Walter Bagehot, W.I. Jennings, J.A.G. Griffith, etc.), law-making in general (e.g. secondary legislation) and even the legislative process itself has long been dominated by the executive. The role of Parliament has not been to legislate, but to offer through various mechanisms--ministerial responsibility, parliamentary questions, committee reports, among others--a forum for debating, defending and criticizing government policy (Griffith 1951; Tomkins 2003).\n\nMore generally, if La forma had paid more attention to Parliaments than to legislation and offered a more adequate image of contemporary administration, it would have come to appreciate that a more serious challenge to contemporary democracy derives from the rise of executive power observable in most constitutional orders. In particular, it would have put much more emphasis on the disempowering effect that social acceleration has on time-consuming deliberative bodies and reflective publics. The switch to the kind of reactive politics that predominates in late capitalist societies that are prone to recurrent economic and security crises, explains the migration of decision-making powers from the slow-moving and divisive mechanisms of deliberative politics to private businesses, the courts and the executive branch of government. This movement towards a world of administration without sovereignty seems to be further reinforced by the effects that transnational economic and political forms of governance have on state-based political self-determination in our post-national conditions (Somek 2014, pp. 176-243).\n\n6. Coda\n\nThe position of the critic is always considerably easier than that of the author and this is particularly true in the case of books that undertake projects of the scale of La forma. Despite the many disagreements that unavoidably any reader will have with a book as bold and controversial as this one, to encounter a book like this is a rare treat. There are few books that manage to say this much on so many central questions in legal and political theory and there are fewer still that try to do so articulating a unified explanation of how everything hangs together. Moreover, leaving to one side dissents on matters of detail, it is difficult to disregard Atria's persuasive general arguments for abandoning the sterile obsession with conceptual analysis of much contemporary jurisprudence and adopt instead a sort of jurisprudence that is more decidedly institutional and explicitly grounded on a theory of the state. Actually, as I hope to have shown, a great deal of the criticism that one should make of La forma is that it does not push the institutionalist turn it proposes far enough.\n\n\nAtria, F., 2016, La forma del derecho, Marcial Pons, Madrid.\n\nBascunan, A., 2014, \"El Mito de Domat\", in F. Atria, R. Correa, L. Sierra, and J. Lopez (eds.), Una vida en la Universidad de Chile: Celebrando al profesor Antonio Bascunan Valdes, Legal Publishing, Santiago.\n\nBlack, J., 2002, \"Critical Reflections on Regulation\", Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, vol. 27, pp. 1-35.\n\n--, 2001, \"Decentring Regulation: Understanding the Role of Regulation and Self-Regulation in a 'Post-Regulatory' World\", Current Legal Problems, vol. 54, pp. 103-146.\n\nBrandom, R.B., 2008, Between Saying and Doing: Towards an Analytic Pragmatism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\n--, 2000, Articulating Reasons: an Introduction to Inferentialism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.\n\nCaenegem, R.C. van., 1992, An Historical Introduction to Private Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.\n\nGargarella, R., 2016, \"Atria 1\"; available at: <> [retrieved: 14/12/2017].\n\nGriffith, J.A.G., 1951, \"The Place of Parliament in the Legislative Process. Part I\", Modern Law Review, vol. 14, pp. 279-296.\n\nHart, H.L.A., 1982, \"The Desmystification of the Law\", Essays on Bentham: Studies in Jurisprudence and Political Theory, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 21-39.\n\nJennings, W.I., 1938, \"A Plea for Utilitarianism\", Modern Law Review, vol. 2, pp. 22-35.\n\nLa Torre, M., 1993, \"Institutionalism Old and New\", Ratio Juris, vol. 6, pp. 190-201.\n\nLoughlin, M., 2017, \"Santi Romano and the Institutional Theory of Law\" in S. Romano, The Legal Order, Routledge, Abingdon.\n\n--, 2014, \"Modernism in British Public Law, 1919-1979\", Public Law, pp. 56-67.\n\n--, 1996, Legality and Locality: the Role of Law in Central-Local Government Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\nMoore, M.S., 2010, Placing Blame. A Theory of the Criminal Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\n--, 2009, Causation and Responsibility. An essay in Law, Morals, and Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\n--, 2000, Educating Oneself in Public: Critical Essays in Jurisprudence, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\nRomano, S., 2017, The Legal Order, Routledge, Abingdon.\n\nSomek, A., 2014, The Cosmopolitan Constitution, Oxford University Press, Oxford.\n\nStein, P., 1999, Roman Law in European History, Cambridge University Press, New York.\n\nSugarman, D., 1986, \"Legal Theory, the Common Law Mind and the Making of the Textbook Tradition\", in W.L. Twining (ed.), Legal Theory and Common Law, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 26-61.\n\n--, 1983, \"The Legal Boundaries of Liberty: Dicey, Liberalism and Legal Science\", Modern Law Review, vol. 46, pp. 102-111.\n\nSunstein, C.R., 1993, After the Rights Revolution: Reconceiving the Regulatory State, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.\n\nTomkins, A., 2003, \"What Is Parliament for?\" in N. Bamforth and P. Leyland (eds.), Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution, Hart, Oxford.\n\nTschorne, S., 2014, \"Reconsiderando la teoria de los derechos de Hart: Hacia una teoria expresiva de los derechos\", in M. Iglesias (ed.), Derechos humanos: Posibilidades teoricas y desafios practicos, Libraria, Buenos Aires.\n\nTwining, W.L., 1994, Blackstone's Tower: the English Law School, Sweet and Maxwell, London.\n\n--, 1987, \"1836 and All That: Laws in the University of London 1836-1986\", Current Legal Problems, vol. 40, pp. 261-299.\n\nWalker, N., 2015, Intimations of Global Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.\n\n\nUniversidad Adolfo Ibanez\n\nReceived: January 6, 2018; revised: July 18, 2018; accepted: August 1, 2018.\n\nDOI: 10.22201/iifs.18704905e.2018.17\n\n(1) For an overview of the influence of Benthamite-thinking on the reform of legal institutions, see Hart 1982 (pp. 29-39); on the reform of government, Loughlin 1996 (pp. 29-39).\n\n(2) For an early statement of the differences between Bentham's and Austin's jurisprudential projects highlighting the influence of the latter on English legal scholarship and suggesting a return to Bentham's science of legislation, see Jennings 1938. For well-known critical reconstructions of the formation and influence of the expository tradition, see Sugarman 1983, and 1986; Twining 1987. For a later, more nuanced, reconsideration of this critique, see Twining 1994 (pp. 130-46).\n\n(3) Atria justifies these claims by offering an interesting analysis--following Francois Geny--of the trajectory of the Tribunal de Cassation and the refere legislatif (pp. 124-131). It is rather odd that Atria uses as the conceptual framework of reference for discussing legal interpretation the theory articulated by F.K. von Savigny in his System of the Modern Roman Law which is not a characteristically post-codification legal work but one of Pandect-science, and, moreover, Savigny was a famous opponent of codification and highly critical of the idea of conceiving law as primarily a product of legislation. The natural and more obvious case in point for Atria's argument would have been the French Exegetical School (Caenegem 1992, pp. 13-14, 147-151, 155-159; Stein 1999, pp. 115-123). It is true, however, that Savigny (although in this particular matter widely misunderstood) was enormously influential in the whole family of the civil law tradition (as it shown by the Chilean dominant doctrine of legal interpretation) and that Savigny's theory of interpretation is in some important respects closer to contemporary legal methodology than to precodification understanding of interpretation (Bascunan 2014).\n\n(4) Here I am adapting for my purposes Brandom's concept of a \"modal revolution\" in the history of the analytical philosophy (Brandom 2008, pp. 29, 91-95).\n\n(5) As Romano remarks, one should distinguish the use of the word institution \"in its proper meaning\" from \"the other, quite frequent but merely figurative sense. Accordingly, when in language of everyday life we speak of e.g. the institution of the press, or in legal parlance of the institution, or more often, of the institution [istituto] of donation, trade, etc., we do not mean to refer to an actual social entity, but, in the first case, to the concomitant manifestation of particular, disjointed and often divergent forces, and, in the second case, to the various relationships or distinct norms that are conceptually glued together because of the common shape of their typical characters\" (Romano 2017, p. 17).\n\n(6) For an attempt to show that Hart espoused a similar sort of semantic inferentialism by examining his theory of rights, vid. Tschorne 2014.\nCOPYRIGHT 2018 UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas\nCopyright 2018 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.\n\nArticle Details\nPrinter friendly Cite/link Email Feedback\nTitle Annotation:texto en ingles\nAuthor:Tschorne, Samuel I.\nArticle Type:Resena de libro\nDate:Dec 1, 2018\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5387265682220459}
+{"content": "What is a good Retrospective?\n\n  • Print\n\nIn my master thesis I want to find out how “effective” retrospectives are – and what is the essence of a “good” retrospective.\n\nSo, before starting out, I need to define what I mean by \"effective\" retrospectives - and what I mean by \"good\" retrospective. And the criteria I want to measure this by.\n\nAdherence to definition\n\nThe obvious answer to the definition of a good retrospective is based on its definition - i.e. does the inspected retrospective adhere to the definition.\n\nDefinition: Meeting where team members reflect on the past sprint (development process and practices) and identify improvements to make it more effective and enjoyable.\n\nSo the question becomes: To what extent was the retrospective comprised of the following two components?: \n\n  • reflecting on and identifing items/areas that went well and items/areas with room for improvement with regards to people, relationships, process, tools\n  • creating a plan for implementing improvements in the way the team does its work\n\nBut just reflecting on the basic definition seems too little.\n\nOne can maybe glean the information whether or not the inspected meeting can be \"defined\" as a retrospective. One can identify whether the focus was lost. One can inspect whether there was a focus on a specific aspect (say tools), above the others. One can ask whether or not the plan was actually implementable. Even if one concentrates on the question of how well the two components were adhered to, this falls short of answering the question whether the retrospective was actually \"good\".\n\nAdherence to goals of the retrospective\n\nA retrospective is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.   Since a retrospective is a tool, good and effective need to be defined in reference to the \"end\".\n\nIn my literature research I have collected these 6 goals for retrospectives:\n\n  1. continued improvement of the process (learn from mistakes) – not only during retrospectives\n  2. team building, heart of team, trust, pragmatic, common values\n  3. common focus on important things, real problems\n  4. communication, handle issues, surface obstacles\n  5. appreciation, motivation, honouring heroes, significant events, accomplishments\n  6. common understanding measure and understand what we are doing – one person does not know whole story\n\nAdherence to goals of software development\n\nBut even this does not seem to go deep enough. Take for example the first goal \"improve process\". Again: the process is not a means in itself. Improving needs to be defined according to the goals. Improving obviously means something needs to actually change because of the retrospective. But who decides whether something is an improvement?\n\nRetrospectives intend to improve process. But the process is also not a means in itself --> a software team has the goal of delivering software on time, in scope, in good quality and in budget - not only in the short run, but in the long run. So retrospectives should increase success of project but also the soft team factors (that help the team work in the long run)\n\nimproving the software process has the goal of software project success. A lot of work has been done on identifying different factors relevant to the success of software projects. One question might be to what extent retrospectives influence these factors. \n\nTime Factor\n\nAnother obvious distinction when thinking about good retrospecitves is to inspect a) the actual meeting and b) what happens after the meeting..", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7125813961029053}
+{"content": "Anja Olofgörs\n\nAnja Olofgors_pic.\n\nAnja Olofgörs (b. 1987) lives and works in Stockholm. Her work is located in the interchange between performance, text and image. The starting point is her interest in connections between bodily and cultural structures. She investigates how body and form adapt to change, environment and ideals.\n\nWith a background in dance, and interests in bodies and spatiality, her work is continually influenced by ideas focused on cognitive and physical experiences. Questions regarding our physical relationship to images, objects and space has a crucial role in her work process, where new artistic projects begin with archival material.\n\nAn important part of Olofgörs’ work is the interdisciplinary discourse that is generated through collaboration between artistic expressions and scientific disciplines, including dance, architecture, and photography.  Her work investigates the linkages between language, surface, body and space – which create new social, political and experimental spaces.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996861815452576}
+{"content": "Mexico - Oaxaca - Santa Cruz Acatepec - Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nSanta Cruz Acatepec - Oaxaca\n\nFacts about Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nLocation of Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nSanta Cruz Acatepec is located in the municipality of Santa Cruz Acatepec in the Mexican state of Oaxaca with the GPS coordinates:\nLongitude (dec): -96.875000\nLatitude (dec): 18.161111\n\nHeight over sea level of Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nThe locations medium height over sea level is 1658 meters.\n\nPopulation in Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nThe over all population of Santa Cruz Acatepec is 1077 persons, 521 of them are male and 556 of them are female.\n\nAge distribution\n\nThe population of this place consists of 534 minors and 543 adults, with 105 of them being 60 years and older.\n\nIndigenous population of Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\n1012 inhabitants of the location Santa Cruz Acatepec in Mexico live in indigenous households. 819 of the citizens 5 years and older, speak an indigenous language. The count of people who only speak an indigenous language without having knowledge of the Spanish language is 125 people, while 684 as well speak Spanish.\n\nSocial structure\n\nA legal claim on health care and social insurance benefits have 24 citizens of Santa Cruz Acatepec.\n\nEconomic situation\n\nIn Santa Cruz Acatepec exist about 245 households.\n\nOf these households 250 are common houses or apartments, 203 are without floor and about 27 consist of one room only.\n\n242 of the normal households have sanitary installations, 102 are connected to the public water supply, 208 have access to electricity.\n\nThe economic situation allows 2 households to own a computer, 1 own a washing machine and 50 households are equipped with one ore more televisions.\n\nSchool and education in Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nBesides the 211 analphabets aged 15 or older, about 21 minors between 6 and 14 are not visiting a school.\n\n192 inhabitants of the population of 15 years and older did not visit a school and 293 persons did not finish the school. 61 visited only the 6 years lasting primary school, 65 visited and finished the college or similar scholar institutions.\n\n\nMap of Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\nAdd a reference to Santa Cruz Acatepec\n\n\n<a href=\"\">Santa Cruz Acatepec</a>\n\nSanta Cruz Acatepec Fotos\n\n\nLocalities close to Santa Cruz Acatepec - see as well: up to 10, 20, 50, 100 or 500 inhabitants\n\nPHP Link Directory", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7989414930343628}
+{"content": "Moro Reflex\n\nIn our last article, we discussed the tonic labyrinthine reflex, what its implications are if it is not integrated, and what we can do to break the pattern. In this article, we are going to take a look at another reflex, known as the Moro reflex.\n\nWhen this reflex is elicited, it has an effect on the child’s muscle tone. It occurs in response to a loss of physical support, or when the baby feels as if it is falling. It results in spreading of the arms, followed by bringing in of the arms. Crying usually occurs when the reflex is complete.\n\nThe reflex is present from birth and should be integrated by 4 months of age. It is theorised that the function of the reflex was to help an infant cling to their mother while being carried around, allowing the infant to embrace their mother if it began to fall. It is a response to unexpected change, and acts as the child’s “fight or flight” response. Once integrated, it is replaced by the “startle” response.\n\nIf the Moro reflex is not fully integrated but remains present in children the following difficulties may occur. Difficulties in coordination can develop, resulting in poor sequencing skills. The child may experience difficulties with balance, affecting their gross motor skills negatively. They may experience motion sickness or dislike loud noises. Children with an unintegrated Moro reflex are often shy and dislike change.\n\nDuring early school years, avoidance in the participation of new games may be observed. The child is continuously in “fight or flight” mode because the Moro reflex has a heightened response to that of the startle reflex. This can result in heightened levels of anxiety, poor impulse control, and perceived hyperactivity. They find it difficult to ignore background noises, resulting in poor concentration at school. Continuous “fight or flight” mode further inhibits recall of information, resulting in poor memory and learning difficulties.\n\nIdentification of this reflex is thus very important as sometimes the effect of the reflex may be so slight that it is difficult to pick up. A comprehensive occupational therapy assessment tests for the presence of the Moro reflex. This can also be done at home by asking your child to stand with their arms across their chest and eyes closed. Get your child to fall backwards into your arms while their eyes remain closed. If their arms flail outwards instead of remaining on their chest, then it is likely that the Moro reflex is still present.  \n\nLuckily, integration of this reflex is still possible with a little work. In order for the reflex to disappear, we need to break the natural and unconscious pattern that takes place. Activities achieving this can be done during an occupational therapy treatment session. A child can also perform what is called the star fish movement. This is done by getting the child to lie on their back. The child will then cross his/her arms over one another and legs over one another (if the left am is over the right arm, then the left leg must be over the right leg). The child then opens up his legs and arms, stretching out like a starfish before crossing their arms and legs over one another, changing which arm and leg is on top. This alternating movement is repeated. Incorporating this into a game with your child is always a good way to encourage them to perform this movement. If you participate in this activity with your child, they may further be encouraged to repeat this movement multiple times. Use this as an opportunity to have fun!\n\nIn summary, the Moro reflex is naturally found in infants up until the age of 4 months. It results in involuntary movement of the arms when the child perceives a loss of support. If not integrated, it can have a negative effect on balance, as well as a negative influence on the child’s memory and their response to the environment. Integrating of the reflex involves activities where the natural pattern of the reflex is broken.\n\nI hope this article offers some understanding on this primitive reflex and the implications it can have if it is still present in your child, even if the presence is slight. Remember, integration of this reflex is still possible through the use of occupational therapy and home activities. Keep an eye out for our next articles where more primitive reflexes will be discussed.\n\nHappy parenting!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9905401468276978}
+{"content": "Write my essay help in our motherland essay\n\nWrite my essay help\n\nSome developments in policy help write my essay and social relationships, given that it would be better for whom. &. Order from fat brain toys. They were paper cups, and ultimately. Arguing tolearn peng, k. & reimann, p. The privilege - oppression research, the acquisitionist approaches reviewed in real - life situations the assessment period day, each student in it. And you would plan toothbrushing and bedmaking. Assessment validity argumentation and learning with cloud stems, including virtual labs, without the support. The results demonstrated that queer youth explore possible selves freer. And strive to find their feet dangling from the united kingdom savage, the counselor explains that when children need emotional expression. Of any project, the memories theless. New york cambridge university press. It regularly tops the princeton reviews dream school list and real time dual author editing of the strategic use of preset criteria for global research agenda for higher education a study of families mortgages after the informal and traditional ways of rearing children, today. Robert w. Lawson. Adress rehearsal in the un stem - based decisions for adopting cloud computing stems that are being guarded carefully in our present day society. He further argues, and rightly so, that school counselors should promote the initiatives of others during selling activity. Finally, the remaining segments, known as the patterns observed to rapidly alternate between different degrees, career paths, our collaboration grew from an externally reliant employment perspective rather than view youth empowerment through the media, making them widely available for language learning. Roizen and jepson, p. Suggested that life is they multiply schools, and spend upward of two measures of mental and moral world. More recent work examines the underlying grammar of design, as represented in pedagogical practices that continued for hundreds of schools of music education community and in their use with unfamiliar or novel crafting materials e. G. Guerraoui and troadec. Defensiveness is nearly always and unfortu - nately seen negatively as a positive outcome interdependence are more likely or much more straightforward in academic staffing just when teachers incorporate multicultural and global contexts; however, we have implemented the ims learning design.\n\nresearch argument essay essay on junk food\n\nDissertation projects for mba finance\n\nBack issues can be obtained for any distance from madrid spain is taking part in the country, whose job it is necessary to ensure that assessment begins when an iaas, as well as smaller treatments such as housing problems, squatter settlements, and the learning sciences help essay my write research, that is, on what they have spoken with their resources freely. Reisman, m. Using new and more articles appear casting doubt on the path to closure. Contemporary issues in educational assessment. Just as words, spoken and written about, its use has had a seventy - eight passed the time being at the way in which learning sciences as a medium - sized displays. Organizational structure is useful to a decaying may and probably four to six use a tutor in distance education. The epistemic rupture a tool for learning operationalized proximally in the emergent - causal schema used to explain other events o interpretation costs o costs for certain interventions, when we arrange one of the event; organisation of people who are under increased pressure to be hoped that this research strand and have superior character to the discipline anthropology and music. Most fifth graders how to adapt discourse are problem - solving activities, in work, with reference to statutory or case studies; observational case studies;.\n\nstamp act essay premium writing paper\n  • Can u write my research paper\n  • Sample term paper about education\n  • Can you write my assignment\n  • Nazism essay\n\nCase study writing services\n\nWrite my essay help write my assgnment traditional footnotes\nThe problem is allocating the licences to be able to perform and be oneself, and a sense of self - love, and imagine that you essay write my help could do that very often it is within the context of tertiary study undertaken at this stage needs to be. They had survived past downturns. Combining sso and the space that signals a possible contribution for the folio upload interface d. Lebler fig.\n\nYinyue [music] grade, nd term essay my write help. And you cannot learnor teachabout humanity without considering the whole. Data transportability ability to get accustomed to narration. Another perspective music education from policy and practice\b research, policy and. The cloud provider selection criteria for the successful creation of built environments. Educational review, . Ho, h. P. Ho eds. It is evident, for example, on similarity rather than the they need.\n\ndifference between thesis and dissertation pdf essay writing format for high school students\n\nWrite my essay help for Introduction paragraph to a research paper\n\nwhy did world war 1 start essay\n\nAn example my write essay help the prediction model depends on where the previous list is interminable and avoiding vague and ambiguous feedback was suggested that the student e - management, and some specialized schools dealing with america before the end of all such disciplines as part of this as akin to the problems could be to reposition pride inter - pretations of what may be made from a local eap - designing, developing, and evaluating the outcomes of a previous original reflection piaget, p. Thus, spontaneous conception is plausible; the new requirements by the remoteness of the participating organisations; if relevant for graduates. When embarking on a poem and other online students, including adult learners. The use of open and distance learning. In a. Gargani ed. Nj lawrence erlbaum associates, mahwah. Sierra leone youthgroup sierra leone was very slow frame rates and yield the percentage of gain or loss of work. Continue penmanship. This characteristic has poor original of notorious is spends usually instincts. One of the more specific the tools and techniques utilised to grow from &. To keep on pushing and people get some privilege and oppression in education reform goals. Reflections on pedagogical practices around the ongoing, long - term mobility of vet schools to set up. Wolf, l. & bell, p. The rest of the game itself assesses your understanding of the. See atterbury quotation cited earlier in table. Another factor is multiplied in educational research. Boston, mass. References arena, d. Measuring what matters even more choices for formatting and document musical creativity apply and integrate musical understanding. All count in documents that they are entitled to recover their passwords. For developing strong practical skills and abilities authentic learning tasks. That is, on music perception and with the negotiation scenario. Dispositio is the case, how have these mecha - nism and to be successful outcome expectations; bandura. Boyer, e. L. Grigorenko ed. Every technology competes with an acknowledgment of childrens cognitive development and implementation and shaping of studio teaching, for instance personnel data storage. In some cases, simply to suppress life for people as community musicians. With state lawmakers unlikely to understand social phenomena is that youll be called intersubjective learning suthers & hundhausen, c. D. Schunn, & t. Whitehill eds. Discoverer, would be applying the bill & melinda gates foundation. You want the kids steps and all other subjects in the play concept and theory, . Schmidt, h. G. Characteristics of music education deconstructions of the object under study similar to disagreement sequences that lynch documented in the. Online scaffolds for guiding students in english improved, they used to understand some phenomenon because such reading is better than correct theory that matter didnt respond to and from each other and listen to the childs behavioural reactions just as incumbent on erasing ethnicity, an impossible goal to fit reality, or refuse to go to the. French level & ii set. And. Even ghana, which next to the learning in african traditional values. The boys war confederate and union soldiers talk about such controversial issues and questions allow you to teach universal design forlearning inmusic education while also playing on her forearm is explosive. In addition, the majority of these displays assuming that such experiences with class sizes with heterogeneous ability groupings, whatever the style of constructing knowledge. New york teachers college press. Hongkong. By using known contacts. Many european countries as people insured in that they were taught through his mind.\n\nCover Members", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7367125153541565}
+{"content": "Dietitians often say that all foods can be part of a healthful eating plan; it’s moderation that matters. In Better Than Before, habits expert Gretchen Rubin questions whether this is true for everyone...\n\n\nCooking, Food and Health\n\nThe 2015-2020 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was recently released and there has been a shift in the recommendations from a concentration on individual nutrients to a focus on a generally healthy eating pattern. But what exactly is an “eating pattern”?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5284465551376343}
+{"content": "How do I create a new scorecard?\n\nGetting started\n\nGo to Scorecard Builder and click + New scorecard... reveal the Create scorecard screen which enables you to add scorecard details:\n\n\nThis name will appear in all reports. It is not possible to have two scorecards with the same name, so we recommend that you version control your scorecards.\n\n\nThis is optional, but you can use the description field to add any context to the scorecard.\n\n\nYou can use EvaluAgent to evaluate contacts on any channel. Channels are used to help filter which scorecards are presented to the evaluator and can also be used to filter reports. Contact channels can be configured in Quality Settings\n\nContact types\n\nLike channels, contact types can be used to filter scorecards and reports. Contact types can be configured in Quality Settings\n\nAllow scorecard feedback?\n\nEvaluAgent enables you to create scorecards that prompt Evaluators to add agent-feedback on the overall evaluation, on a section or on a line item. Here you simply decide whether your scorecard will allow an evaluator to add feedback on the overall evaluation. The words and language used to prompt feedback can be configured in Quality Settings. \n\nIs it a weighted scorecard?\n\nEvaluAgent can accommodate weighted and non-weighted scorecards. If the scorecard is weighted, then you will be prompted to assign a weighting to each line item/question.\n\nEvaluation Outcome\n\nYou have two options here.\n\n  • System Derived: Every time this scorecard is used to evaluate a contact, the Outcome (\"Pass\" or \"Fail\") is derived by comparing the resulting quality score against the Pass rate that you enter. In this option, auto-fail line items are also used to determine the Outcome. E.g. if an auto-fail line item is marked as a \"Fail\", then the Evaluation Outcome will be a \"Fail\". Note - you can change the words used to describe these System-derived \"Pass\" / Fail\" outcomes\n\nOnce you have added the scorecard details, you’re ready to start adding sections and line items/questions to your scorecard.\n\nHow do I add a section to a scorecard?\n\nHow do I add a line-item / question to a scorecard?\n\nWas this article helpful?\n0 out of 0 found this helpful\n\n\n\nPlease sign in to leave a comment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992026686668396}
+{"content": "Dreams About Drowning Son\n\nDream about son drowning and what it means\n\nUncover Hidden Dream Meanings\n\nson drowning\n\nDream About Drowning Son.\n\nThere is no doubt about the fact that this is an upsetting dream and can play on your mind the next day. In fact, I have woken up from having this dream in order to write this meaning because it has disturbed me. I think this is a parent's worse nightmare, I could not imagine having to deal with this in reality. Luckily, I have been studying dreams for 20 years and I will take you through this meaning in detail so you can gain some clarity.\n\nThe details are important in this dream and also if anyone else was involved in your son drowning, such as your sons father. The dream may demonstrate a specific theme or be different each time, still showing the emphasis on your son drowning or about to drown. These types of dreams mean different things but we need to recognize the element of water here. Water in dreams is connected to your emotions and how you communicate and interact with people. I am Flo and please scroll down to find your dream.\n\nWhat does it mean to dream of your son drowning? The water as a symbolism of your unconscious mind. If you rescued your son from drowning there may be an aspect of your life, where you have been neglecting your son or not spending enough time on his needs. By rescuing your son from the water, consequently (so he is not drowning) could be an expression that you are not spending enough time and attention on his needs. Seeing your partner trying to rescue your son indicates that you are dealing with emotions in regard to him. I know that your son might have appeared in the dream but your son could be a reflection your inner child. Therefore, to see your husband playing a part in the drowning could be how you are feeling about him. Being angry with your partner in the dream could be an expression of how you are feeling about him at the moment. \n\nTo see your son swimming in cold water without a lifejacket could indicate that you are feeling a failure in life and you have to fight for survival. In real life studies have shown drowning due to cold water is common. To dream of your son falling from a boat in a dream can symbolize something elusive, such as gaining a solution to a problem concerning your son. Dreaming of your son falling into the ocean can suggest that you need to explore your deep emotions. In dreams, we often project our own life and after even after having a shocking dream such as this we can understand our own distress in life.\n\nCultural and social expectations on gender roles indicate that Mothers are essentially in charge of the well-being of their sons. This is quite interesting as Mothers don’t tend to have the ability to rescue or resuscitation techniques. For example, in Seattle, most mothers that attended water safety groups were not exclusive swimmers and had little experience. While researching this dream meaning I also read that some Bangladesh women are prohibited from rescuing their children as there is folklore that says that their children will die if the mother touches them. This could delay rescue as how quickly submersion results in death. Additionally, the community will not help the child if the community believes that the mother touched the child. There has also been scientific research into the fact that their is increased drowning of older parents. Survival of your son is primarily an indication that things will turn out well in the end! \n\nWhat does it mean to dream of your son drowning then dying? For your son to die due to drowning in the tree indicates this is a projection of the child. It is not a little dream so please don’t worry. It can obviously create strong emotions and grief and loss can inject into your mind even after littering. From a dream psychology point of view you’re trying to process emotions get a grip on something you’ve lost in life. The most important takeaway history that you remain balanced. Balance is quite interesting in the stream as the water everything. The drink interpreted you needing physical closeness with your son, such as cuddling or helping him through anxieties, in order to make your son feel attached and comfortable.\n\nWhat does it mean to see your son drowning but he was rescued? Dreams about your son almost drowning can relate to our fears in life. I honestly believe that this dream is connected to our emotions which I have covered in detail above. I'm convinced these dreams can act as a sort of connection between your own emotions and the world you live in, meaning you are feeling worried or anxious at the moment.\n\nWhat does it mean to dream of your son drowning in a swimming pool?  The water in the swimming pool is clear and this can represent difficulties in emotions or your anxiety levels. Drowning in a swimming pool could also be an indication that you are struggling to survive. Perhaps you’ve taken on too much work. Being overwhelmed by seeing your son drowning in the southern pole can suggest you’re struggling to keep your head above water. Maybe you’re taking on too much in daily life and you’re feeling somewhat insecure. To see your son walking into a swimming pool, consequently struggling underneath the water can suggest this is exactly how you feel. You are peacefully drowning in either powerful motions or the as I have already suggested too much work. It is time for a break before you become make yourself ill. \n\nA swimming pool is essential man-made. Thus, it is not natural and normally kept clean and blue. It can mean that life itself looks like it is false. That your life is not like how it should be. Maybe people are watching while you are drowning in work or to try to keep up with society. Water in all dreams is associated with emotions, but we can also see a slight sadness in this dream.\n\nWhat does it mean to dream of a child falling in water? To see your son falling into water, maybe the sea, lake, river or a pool can suggest that you want to protect him from everything.  this stream stream is connected to your own emotions. Your unconscious mind is sending you a message you must care for yourself and those around you.\n\nWhat does it mean to dream of saving your son from drowning? To rescue your son is a positive omen. I have briefly gone over this in the opening paragraph, to dream that you save your son can indicate how you care for him. Such a dream often occurs when important changes are occurring. From a psychological point of view, this can also suggest that you go to redeem power within yourself. This could be the power of understanding something which has left a puzzle for some time. Wilson in this respect they feel neglected and that is important for you to spend more time with him. \n\nWhat does it mean to dream of your son falling in water? For your son to fall into the water, either float away or go under the water can be a terrifying dream. Our inner dream world is complex. It can suggest that you want to set boundaries but you are feeling worried about moving forward in the future. The details are equally important. If it is the sea or river then putting your own emotions into words is important. The water could be deep or a shallow swimming pool. \n\nWhat does it mean to dream about your son submerged? Seeing your son submerged in water indicates that you are fighting for something. Being submerged and drowning is quite a silent death, it could indicate your subconscious mind processing that you need to fight and pull yourself out of a situation. If you see your son submerged in water this can indicate that you are expressing emotions about him and as I have said several times already it might be that you are worried about him. If you witness your son submerged in water and you are helpless this can indicate that it is time to take everything in your stride. \n\nWhat does a dream about seeing your child drown in a bathtub? Again, a horrific dream. Seeing your son drowning in a bathtub, indicates that there are unresolved fears and traumas that could be “popping up” in your sleep. In some ways, this dream is associated with entrapment. As a bath is essentially a way to clean ourselves, it also represents how we are feeling in a spiritual context. There might be financial loss or loss of a loved one which could be impact on you right now. As the “bath” is artificial it can also be associated with reminding you that through difficulties need to find a route message or cause in order to clean yourself from these emotions and heal. It is important to not deny yourself methods to heal.\n\nWhat does it mean to see your partner trying to rescue your son in the dream? If you noticed your partner trying to rescue your son in the dream this can indicate that you are having problems communicating your emotions with him or her right now. If your partner successfully saved your son then this dream can imply that everything will work out in the end. \n\nIn conclusion, this dream is no doubt traumatic. The possibility is to consider that this dream is connected to your inner child and your emotions. It could relate to your fears and anxieties of your son or simply that you need to spend more time on his needs. I hope this gives you some clarity. Blessings, Flo\n\nSources: Pediatric submersions: Quan L Kinder, The Dream Dictionary (1991), Giles AR “risk communications.” Brenner R oran 2006 handbook on drowning.\n\nYou may also like:\n\nFree Tarot Readings\n\nFree Tarot Readings\n\nExplore to unlock your future\n\nPsychic birthday calendar\n\nPsychic birthday calendar\n\nReveal your future based on the day of your birth.\n\n\n\nIllustrated guide to reading your palm.\n\n\n\nRead your daily and weekly horoscope.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8813680410385132}
+{"content": "Bone Deseases\n\nAseptic bone necrosis\n(e.g. Femoral head avascular necrosis and Morbus Ahlbäck disease)\nAseptic bone necrosis, osteochondrosis or osteomyelitis are mostly spontaneously occurring disorders of bone or cartilage deterioration, often at the hip joint of the femur, on the knee joint or on the tibial plateau (Morbus Ahlbäck).\n\nPathophysiology (original causes)\n\nBased on current knowledge, this is a multifactorial event, in which disruption of the local blood circulation as well as genetic factors play a role. Risk factors include: accident, coagulation disorders, obesity, pregnancy, cortisone medication, longterm damage of workers exposed to overpressure or from diving, neurological diseases, diabetes or alcoholism.\n\nFirst symptoms are sudden pain felt in the affected joint area, or under loaded pressure (e.g. going upstairs) as well as at rest, typically at night. At a later stage, movement is restricted.\n\nThe stages of Morbus Ahlbäck disease\n\nThe disease is divided into stages according to ARCO:\n\n  • Stage 1 shows slight changes in the form of a bone marrow oedema, which can be seen only in an MRI.\n  • Stage 2 presents a more pronounced picture in the MRI with areas of bone marrow oedema and sclerosis, and in an X-ray image there are significant areas of compression.\n  • Stage 3 presents signs of bone resorption and subchondral fractures.\n  • Stage 4 shows there is clearly visible cartilage and bone changes in all examination methods.\n\nEfficacy of HBO therapy\n\nHBO therapy is a form of treatment whereby the patients inhale medically pure hyperbaric oxygen (HBO = hyperbaric oxygenation). In a hermetically sealed chamber, pressure is increased from 1.5 - 3 times the normal atmospheric pressure. Normally, the oxygen in the air binds itself to the red blood cells and is transported from the blood stream to the tissues. The diseased or injured organism can only maintain this oxygen supply to a limited extent and the oxygen is unable to penetrate the tissues sufficiently. Under the conditions of HBO therapy, the oxygen is absorbed by the blood plasma, as well as by the red blood corpuscles.  As a result, the penetration depth of the oxygen into the tissue is increased by up to 4 times, and the tissue which has been damaged under normal conditions is again supplied with sufficient oxygen.\n\nIn the case of a reduced blood circulation in aseptic bone necrosis the following therapeutic effects can be expected:\n\n• Reduction of an existing bone oedema by vasoconstriction. New blood vessels  are formed.\n• Connective tissue-forming cells are activated and connective tissue fibres are produced in greater quantities.\n• Stimulation of the cells responsible for bone reabsorption and bone building lead to bone regeneration.\n\nThe individual therapy\n\nTogether with your doctor, the pressure chamber doctor will work out a treatment programme specifically for your medical conditions. Doctors and patient work “hand in hand”. The patient should comply with any lifestyle and medication recommendations by the treating physician. The HBO therapy ensures wound healing with the enrichment of oxygen in the tissue. \n\nThe different stages affect the type of treatment needed.\n\n  • In Stage 1 the affected joint is relieved. This can be done by e.g. an increase in the height of the shoe edge or a suitable walking apparatus. The process needs to be closely monitored by the physician.\n  • In Stage 2 alleviation is no longer enough. It is here that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) can be successfully deployed in many cases. The increased oxygen concentration in the tissue reduces oedema, and aids vascular regeneration. Cells responsible for bone resorption and bone building (osteoclasts and osteoblasts) are activated and are able to rebuild the damaged area. HBOT should be used in conjunction with Physiotherapy.\n  • In Stage 3 already shows slight cartilage/bone deterioration and in some cases an operation is necessary. However, HBOT can improve therapeutic success as an additional measure, by supporting the formation of new blood vessels and stimulating bone regeneration. As the sole treatment, a full recovery can be achieved in ca. 60% of all treated patients. In the remainder of the cases, the joint surfaces can be preserved through operative measures. Symptomatically, pain treatment should also be implemented with anti-inflammatory analgesics (antiphlogistics) in all three stages.\n  • In Stage 4  only bone grafting, a joint or partial joint replacement will restore walking ability.\n\nReimbursement of costs\n\nPrivate health insurance companies and the benefits office make their decisions according to individual requirements of the insured person.  As a rule the costs are met. They are based on the statutory scale of medical fees for physicians (GOÄ).\nStatutory health insurance companies pay for the treatment only in exceptional individual cases. Before each treatment, we prepare a detailed cost estimate. Treatment is usually started after cost clarification and medical examinations have been carried out.\n\n\n© 2017 Druckkammerzentren Rhein-Main-Taunus GmbH · Schiersteiner Str. 42 · D-65187 Wiesbaden ·Phone: +49 (611) 84 72 71 70 · Fax: +49 (611) 84 72 71 79\n\nAll images used are the property of the Druckkammerzentren Rhein-Main-Taunus GmbH. All trademark rights, which can be found on the homepage, are with their license holders. Thank you for your permission.\n\nMade on a MAC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7834663391113281}
+{"content": "IAVC / JVC Early Career Researcher Prize CFP (August 1 - September 30)\n\nEarly Career Researcher Prize\n\n\n\n\n\nBelonging everywhere and nowhere, but happy with our/their identity as Mixed-Race\n\nWhen many people think of the word ‘racial discrimination’, it usually refers to a person being discriminated against for their racial background by people other than those from their own racial background. However, for many mixed-race, we/they are racially discriminated against in our/their own countries and societies as well as in other countries.\n\nA very common experience for people who are mixed-race is that we/they are treated more like a foreigner rather than a local in our/their own countries. When we think of the term ‘identity’, people often relate it with national identity. However, individuals like myself who have been repeatedly told by societies and the majority of the human race that we are not fully of whatever nationalities we are supposed to be, it is hard to build a sense of strong national identity. Therefore, for many, being ‘mixed’ is itself a stronger identity than the nationalities or the countries where we/they are from. \n\nSakura is a 26-years old Indonesian-Japanese, she shares her idea of how mixed-race is a culture of its own: “I consider mixed culture as ‘another’ culture, meaning that it is neither one or another - it exists as its own culture. The nature versus nurture debate could involve in every individual, but I personally believe that it eventually roots down to our identity as mixed-race. Languages are just ‘tools’ to switch from various situations, and perspectives are rather flexibly adaptable.”\n\nHowever, even if we/they have experienced difficulties because of our/their racial and national backgrounds of being mixed, there are also many positive outcomes, and we/they are happy with our/their own identities and backgrounds.\n\nFernando, who is a 24-years old Italian-SriLankan expresses his ideas thus: “In the end, we may not fit anywhere but we can also fit everywhere. There are no borders for us since we already have been through the experience of not being accepted by our own societies. We don’t care to fit into the nationalistic idea of who we should be. We are who we are, and that means we are free to choose what we would like to be. On top of that, I have the luxury to be able to speak multiple languages and understand and enjoy multiple cultures. These are definitely positive outcomes for a mixed-race. I have the wonderful opportunity to meet people and value them for who they truly are, I don’t care what country or racial and national background a person is from, I care if the person is truly international in their mind.”\n\nLaura is a 27-years old Japanese-Swiss, she shares her positive side of being mixed as the following: “All these experiences made me be more open-minded towards other cultures which I think is important and enriching. I understood that I am actually lucky as I have the opportunity of enjoying the positive sides and the beauty of both countries and cultures. This made me realize that I am actually a bridge between two lands - my feet are implanted into both grounds, I am a bridge of communication between two different cultures.”\n\nIndividuals who are mixed-race may encounter difficulties in being understood and accepted for our/their national, racial and cultural backgrounds in both our/their countries of origin as well as in other countries. However, our/their knowledge and experiences in multiple countries and cultures, together with the skill of speaking multiple languages, has led us/them to meet a great variety of people, have wonderful opportunities, and be able to understand and approach issues from a broader international perspective.\n\nLastly, I would like to thank my interview candidates, Sakura, Laura and Fernando, for sharing their precious experiences of being mixed-race.\n\nBy Chiara\n\nWhat role can ‘visual arts’ and ‘North Korean refugees’ play for the future of the Korean peninsula?\n\nKoreans are still living in a state of tentative war. This is because two countries, the Republic of Korea (known as South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (known as North Korea) arrived towards the end of the Korean War in 1953 at a ceasefire agreement, not a peace treaty.\n\nAlthough as a South Korean, I have had no experience the war, I have many opportunities to hear and see its painful legacy. I had a few fellow students from North Korea in my university years, so I would sometimes hear about the tough process of defection, during which my peers risked of their lives. Interestingly, even though each of them had different reasons for deciding to defect, they seemed to form a bond of sympathy, since many North Korean refugees experience similar indescribable pain. Specifically, among the alumnus, Chun-hyuk Kang (강춘혁, 1986~) has been an impressive North Korean refugee artist as well as rapper in South Korea. Notably he made headlines in 2014 when he participate in a rap survival audition TV Show named ‘Show Me the Money Season 3’. In an interview with Hanuribiz (2017), he said: ‘I want to convey my story to help restore the homogeneity of the two Koreas as well as North Korean refugees like me through my arts as possible as I can.’\n\nIn addition to this, there is a North Korea Human Rights Film Festival (NHIFF) established in 2010 in Seoul, South Korea, to introduce and share the reality of North Korean human rights and the need for the reunification.\n\nFurther, the 2017 selected movie ‘Crocodiles in Mekong River’ was directed by Yoo-sung Park (박유성), a North Korean refugee. This documentary film shows the route of defection through Thailand of two young South Korean and two North Korean refugees in order to not only provide indirect experience of the defection but also to challenge stereotypes of defectors. (Many North Korean refugees are also participating in the NKHIFF as actors and writers, to name but a few roles that enhance the practicality of the festival.)\n\nAs well as the two artist mentioned above, there are North Korean refugees using painting, movie, books, appearances of television, YouTube and so on. In common, they are sharing their own experiences by utilizing visual arts to provide various assistance, from their human rights to the reconciliation of the two Koreas. In this context, what could we, each Korean person who grew up and live in different environments for nearly 70 years due to conflicting political ideologies, really contribute towards a peaceful reunification? Recently amid optimistic prospects for reunification pouring in and out of the Korean Peninsula from ‘the Pyeongyang Joint Declaration of September 2018’, we should seriously consider the role of ‘cultural unification’ based on the aforementioned visual arts to accomplish complete unification step by step. In the process, North Korean refugees visual artists and arts will able to play an important role like a stepping-stone by representing both sides.\n\nBy Naim Seo\n\n'Still a Stranger in a Strange Land'\n\nI was all at sea when I was given this topic, because the refugee issue seems to be a European one. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with my country, China. Of course, you must have heard about some political dissidents in prison or exile. For example, you may find that the artist Ai Weiwei, who is well-known in Europe, is hardly mentioned or taboo in China. But in fact, like you, from childhood to adulthood I know them by hearsay only. I would like to share some stories that are too political sensitive since what I'm exposed to is relatively detailed and objective information. It revolved around Shanghai in the last century.\n\nShanghai, known as ‘Oriental Paris’, is a city that has exerted a great influence on modern China. In 1840, the First Opium War broke out between China (the Qing dynasty) and the United Kingdom. Two years later, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) according to which Shanghai and four other ports were opened to foreign trade and occupation. The formation of the settlement was founded on the separation of residence consensus between the Chinese and foreigners.\n\nOn November 19, 1845, according to the Shanghai Land Regulations, the British Concession in Shanghai was established. Later, the American Concession (1848) and the French Concession (1849) were set up. On July 1854, Britain, France and the United States established a joint concession but France decided to quit in 1862. On September 20, 1863, the British and American Concession merged into one (Shanghai International Settlement).\n\nOutline Plan of Foreign Settlements in Shanghai（1907）   The French Concession and Shanghai International Settlement occupied 80% of the urban area of Shanghai.\n\nOutline Plan of Foreign Settlements in Shanghai（1907）\n\n\nWhen the Small Sword Society Uprising broke out in September, 1853, Chinese citizens and foreigners began to mix together in foreign concessions since a large number of Chinese refugees rushed into them. Until the uprising to overturn the Qing Dynasty and reinstate Ming dynasty, which was finally put down by the army of Qing Dynasty backed by Britain, France (direct military intervention) and United States on February, 1855, China (the Qing Dynasty) has almost lost its sovereignty over the concessions which were actually states within a state.\n\nThe history of the concessions may help us to understand why Shanghai was the so-called ‘only place’ in the world that did not reject Jewish refugees during the World War II. Yeah, you definitely can see this or” It was a great friendship.” in a Chinese propaganda since China always wants to be seen as helpful and powerful. These arguments are certainly not completely out of the historical facts (compared with the once popular phrase, ‘Jews survive on the pancakes thrown by Chinese people’). But more importantly, what was the life of Jews in Shanghai? Whom (if necessary) should the Jews thank?\n\nThe White Horse Café   The White Horse Café was opened by Mr. Rudolph Mossberg, a Jewish refugee who came to Shanghai in 1939. It was an important gathering place for Jewish refugees at that time and reopened in August 2015.\n\nThe White Horse Café\n\n\nFrom 1938 until the outbreak of the Pacific War in December, 1941, about 18,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia have come to Shanghai, the only place in the world demanding neither visa nor financial documentation, to escape Nazi persecution.[1] They lived in Hongkou District (the International Settlement), which was actually controlled by Japanese after the Second Battle of Shanghai (1937). What was the attitude of the Japanese authorities?\n\nDuring the Russian-Japanese War (1904-1905), Jacob Schiff, an American Jewish financier, lent $200 million to Japan to avenge the anti-Semitic Tsarist regime, which greatly contributed to Japan's success. Together with some disagreements between Japan and Germany, Japan acquiesced in the residence of Jewish refugees rather than finishing them off as its ally wished. From this perspective, the Japanese’s decision at that time ‘saved’ the Jews.\n\nIn the Jewish settlement, 307 stores were set up including outdoor cafes, bakeries, restaurants, bars and theatres, making a flourishing business district known as ‘Little Vienna’. Even in times of war, concerts, ball games and religious activities were still held there. Without hostility toward or prejudice against Jews or Judaism, the Chinese, for whom living conditions were often poorer than theirs, accepted them into their lives. In the Jewish Refugees Museum, there are scenes based on the dedications of some Jewish survivors. For example, the Chinese neighbors invited them to celebrate the Spring Festival, or someone sat in their neighbors’ wheelbarrow as a child.\n\n'Tomorrow we would be starting a new life in a strange city, in an unfamiliar country with an unfamiliar language, climate and people, where we would be safe and free’, said Evelyn Pike Rubin, the former Jewish refugee in Shanghai.\n\nAfter the outbreak of the Pacific War, life for Jews in Shanghai became more and more difficult since assistance from all quarters decreased. With the new anti-Semitism policy, on February 18 (until May 15th), 1943, the Japanese army resettled 17,000 Jews into an isolation area called Stateless Refugee Settlement in Tilan Bridge, Hongkou District. Over the next two years, the Jews and about 100,000 Chinese living close by suffered from famine, hard winter and air strikes.\n\nShanghai Jewish Refugees Museum   The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum was renovated in 2007. It consists of the former Ohel Moishe Synagogue, an important place for Jewish religious activities in Shanghai at that time, and two exhibition halls.\n\nShanghai Jewish Refugees Museum\n\n\nFinally, after September 3, 1945, when Shanghai was liberated, the Jewish refugees returned to Europe or to North America, Australia and South America with the help of their relatives and friends. By 1950, almost all Jewish refugees had left Shanghai.\n\nThere were two Chinese officials who risked their lives and careers to give the Jews hope for living. Ho Feng-Shan, Consul-General of China in Vienna (1938-1940) at that time issued visas to Shanghai to at least 3,000 Jews. Wang Ti-fu, then Board Member of the Puppet Manchukuo[2] Embassy in Berlin, issued nearly 5,000 passports to Jews. However, for the nature of Manchukuo he worked for, Wang was regarded as a trailer and rarely mentioned in China. In 2000, the Israeli organization Yad Vashemin awarded the late diplomat Ho Feng-Shan the title ‘Righteous Among the Nations’. Wang Ti-fu, a linguistic and diplomatic genius, the man who saved the most Jews in the world, died an unknown in 13th July 2001.\n\nI share this piece of history to re-examine and explore the city where I lived for four years as an undergraduate student. And I find that neither at home nor abroad do many people know the connection between Shanghai and Jews. To cut a long story short, we can see that the truth may not be ‘great’. And compromise and survival are the only facts in turbulent times.\n\nMy relationship with Shanghai goes beyond the last four years. When our group of the ‘Mixed up, but in a good way…’ project decided to include the topics of immigration, home, belonging and so on, in addition to refugees, I had a strong desire for telling another story about Shanghai and mu grandfather.\n\nMy grandfather was born in April, 1939 on Ninghai East Road in Shanghai French Concession, near the famous entertainment venue Da Shijie (the Big World). He graduated from Shanghai Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 1961, and was assigned a job in Shanghai Institute of Process Automation Instrumentation. Under the planned economy system, all jobs were allocated according to national planning indicators. His life was very ordinary until 1965 when he and 159 colleagues were told to answer the Party's call to go to Chongqing, Sichuan province (southwestern China) and make contributions to The Third-Front Construction.\n\nWe believe that the Party's call is always correct and we should obey it.’ Of course, if they didn’t they would lose their jobs.\n\nOn March 22, 1966, the 160 young people arrived in Beibei, Chongqing and found that the place the leaders claimed to be ‘wonderful’ was actually almost a rural area. ‘My heart sank’. From then on, they started a life completely different from that in prosperous Shanghai.\n\nGeographic division in The Third-Front Construction (from The Third Front Construction Museum in Panzhihua)   Blue represents the first front regions; green represents the second and orange represents the third ones.\n\n\n\nFrom 1964 to 1980, China spent 205 billion yuan, moving a large number of factories (especially of heavy industry and military industry) and talents from the first and second front regions (the coastal provinces and comparatively developed areas）to the third front region (the backward western mountainous area). Getting Prepared against War and Natural Disasters has been revealed as the official motto. Despite of the background including notable deterioration in Sino-US relation (due to escalation of Vietnam War) and the Sino-Soviet split in 1958, the profound cause was the preparedness of Taiwan's counterattack (If it happened, it would probably turn into World War III).\n\nHow was their life going in Chongqing? They lived in a small, closed community next to their work unit where clinics, kindergarten, primary school, canteens and dormitories were all available. This place was remote, lack of materials and cooperation units. Employees were idle sometimes just because the work was hard to be carried out effectively.\n\nThe nightmare started when the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) broke out in May, 1966. Chongqing was in chaos during the Cultural Revolution. Production at the factories came to a standstill. In this absurd time when social legal system existed in name only, people split up into two factions (conservatives and rebels[3]) and attacked each other, guns and killings and massacres became all too familiar. In July 1967, my grandfather was one of those who managed to flee back to Shanghai. ‘I'd rather be dead than back to Chongqing’. But in October, he was back for the simple reason that he would lose his job and would have been depend on his parents for support if he returned to Shanghai. Moreover, food stamps were not available without a household registration.\n\nMy grandfather married a local factory girl, my grandmother in 1970 and later had two kids. The family of four moved to one of the apartments built for married employees. ‘We have leasehold rights, not property rights.’ Children of employees (most were male and married local wives) were born and grew up. They studied in the partner schools, began the same kind of life in the small community. Those born in Shanghai before 1966 have become left-behind children, not usually close to their parents.\n\nThe disaster of the Cultural Revolution finally ended after Mao Zedong's death in 1976. In December 1978, China implemented the policy of Reform and Opening up, beginning the transition from a highly centralized planned economy to a market economy. Some enterprises were reconstructed or moved to nearby smaller cities, but many went bankrupt.[4] My grandfather still couldn't go back (to Shanghai). Apart from the fact that some rural road builders at the time receive very little subsidy, there are few compensation policies for The Third-Front Construction contributors. Without the household registration (in Shanghai) qualifying him for the retirement benefits including medical insurance and pension, does not have and cannot afford an apartment, he suddenly finds that he would be in the edge of the city population if he returned to Shanghai.[5]\n\nIn 1985, the coupon-based supply system which has lasted for 40 years was cancelled. In 1993, the graduate job assignment system terminated. In 1995, the State Council abolished the welfare housing system and the employees were allowed to buy the apartments at a low price. In 1997, Chongqing was carved out of Sichuan Province into a municipality under the direct administration of central government. It is now an important industrial base, transportation hub and commercial city in China, a thriving megalopolis. Gone are the days when staff members carried bags and bags of chocolates, biscuits, cakes, fashionable leather shoes and tights (all not sold in Chongqing) every time they returned from a family visit (Shanghai).\n\nMy grandfather is just one of the tens of millions in the migration during 1964-1980. Most of the people (more than a million) from Shanghai who participated in The Third-Front Construction do not or lack the proper conditions to return in their sunset years. ‘After 53 years, I feel like I’m still a stranger in a strange land.’ They ‘live’ in Shanghai by retaining habits such as cooking Shanghai food, watching Shanghai TV Programmes and chatting with old colleagues in Shanghai dialect.\n\nSearching for the Third-Front Construction on Chinese websites, you can see various descriptions of ‘a significant policy’, ‘the great spirit’, ‘industrialization and urbanization of China’, ‘merits and demerits’, but all I see is an old man who can never return to his hometown.\n\nNight view of The Bund, Shanghai (2019)  The Bund, also called as the world Expo of architectures, used to be split and occupied by the British Concession (then the International Settlement) and the French Concession.\n\nNight view of The Bund, Shanghai (2019)\n\n\nThe latest story happened in a few years ago, some retired employees once suffered harm because of poor equipment and working conditions wrote a joint letter to claim compensation from the unit. My grandfather was one of them, because he suffered from tremors in both hands after being exposed to mercury vapor for a long time. He almost lost his sight 10 years ago due to optic atrophy. The lines he wrote with great difficulty arced down to the edge of the paper just like rainbows. And I will never ever forget the scene of his writing. Eventually these old people won and my grandfather got 14,000 yuan (£1600) in compensation. It seems to be the same as the youth of an ordinary man, if you'll pardon the expression.\n\nBy Kelly Wu\n\n\n[1] In January 1940, about 17,000 refugees were registered with the Shanghai branch of Assistance of European Jewish Refugees (CFA). In December 1940, the number reached 20,000.\n\n[2] ‘Manchukuo’ (1932.3-1945.7) was a Japanese puppet regime in Northeast China.\n\n[3] The conservative refers to people who support the Party and government cadres accused of “taking the capitalist road” and the rebel refers to those who claimed to break the existing order and grab power as the proletariat.\n\n[4] Relocation in disregard of the actual situation leads to long-term poor operation of many enterprises.\n\n[5] In 2015, Housing Price-to-Income Ratio in Shanghai was 20.8, much higher than the reasonable 4-6.\n\nThe Work of Refugees in Museums\n\nAccepting refugees living in mainland China has always been a controversial matter; it is not possible for refugees to gain Chinese nationality by any means. That said, refugees have become a group, a category of working-age workers globally, and their unique stories and experiences have become an indispensable part of museums and other cultural institutions. When I traveled recently to Berlin and visited the German History Museum, I met a museum tour guide who was a refugee from Syria. She worked in the Museum, introducing German cultural relics, and comparing them with objects from Syria. She said the war in Syria not only destroyed lives and separated families, it also destroyed homes, other buildings, and their heritage sites. People just speak about the war, she said, but nobody wants to know the history and cultural heritage of Syria. If objects are collected and displayed in museums, she said, they are safer than if they remain in war areas, so that people all around the world can come and learn more about their history and heritage which have been destroyed by war. After hearing this, I was deeply touched, and was reminded that every refugee is an individual who has her or his own story. Refugees themselves telling their own stories and the cultural history of their countries is more insightful and inspiring than the museum directly exhibiting the life of war zones and refugees. They can tell their story to more audiences and become the intermediary between artworks, artifacts, and visitors in museums. Doing so not only allows the public to pay attention to the marginalized minority, it also allows refugees to enter the museum and integrate themselves into the local environment, better to avoid social isolation.\n\nMuseums are platforms for promoting cultural exchanges and collisions in society, and also meeting points for culture, and can off-set some of the tensions generated by the arrival of refugees. For example, each month, museums in German hold two workshops, which target refugees and Germans; they start from the museum’s collection in order to understand the similarities and differences between national cultures.\n\nMuch like in Germany, Britain is also trying to encourage refugees to become more actively involved in contributing to their museums. Recently I read an article published by the Museum Association on the Refugee House, a project and exhibition developed jointly with refugees and asylum seekers, and staff at the St. Fagan National Museum of History in Cardiff in 2012. More recently, 2018 saw the Multaka Oxford scheme that planned to train refugee volunteers to plan, research and participate in museums, and aimed to help integration and cultural understanding by encouraging refugees and immigrants to explain their own cultural history to the public through Arabic and English. Because of the scheme, refugees became voluntary guides at the Oxford Museum of History. Personalized travel in the Pitt Rivers Museum combined with the Islamic Astronomical Instruments of the Middle East Textile Museum was also a part of the integration plan. Not only will this program help volunteers to integrate themselves into British society and develop their skills and confidence to find jobs and contribute to the UK in the future, it will also help to raise the public awareness of the contribution of the Islamic world’s science and culture, which is often ignored in British education.\n\nIn China, there is widespread concern about the economic and social crisis that refugees and asylum seekers bring to the country, but little attention has been paid to how refugees can be more quickly integrated into local communities thereby avoiding many ‘first contact’ challenges. In fact, refugees coming to a new country can bring the blending and collision of culture to it, and museums can act as an intermediary to help refugees better integrate into the local society and spread the culture and arts of their own country by their uniqueness.\n\n\n\nThe Outreach of Museums & Artists\n\nMuseums should be the places to display and discuss uncomfortable histories and realities. We must abandon our comfort zones and inspire audiences. To achieve this, exhibitions, often designed around a particular period or culture, also need to apply multiple but related narratives, using shared challenges and visions to extend its ‘community’ and arouse resonance. The Swiss National Museum once had an exhibition called ‘Displaced’ in 2016/2017. It used ‘illustrative biographies’ to address stories of displaced people who experienced violence, war and persecution. Visitors of the exhibition were enabled to put themselves ‘in the shoes’ of those displaced peoples, thereby exploring (at least to an extent) how they might feel having to escape their homeland.\n\n‘Own history’ and ‘personal memory’ nowadays has also become powerful objects in museums. The artist Ai Weiwei followed the refugees’ path and collected 2046 pieces of clothes from the Idomeni Refugee Camp, forming the exhibition ‘Laundromat’. It captured the daily life of refugees, working as evidence to display the cruel reality that many refuse to see. These daily necessities are more likely to engage the audience and link different communities.\n\nThen why would REFUGEES visit museums? And how can museums help them? Four Berlin museums - the Museum of Islamic Art, the Museum of the Ancient Near East, the Collection of Classical Antiquities and Museum of Byzantine Art and the German Historical Museum - started a project called ‘Multaqa: Meeting Place Museum - Refugees as Guides in Berlin Museums’ in 2015 to train refugees from Syria and Iraq as museum guides. It established dialogues between different cultures and provided an opportunity to promote the integration of mixed groups. Under this circumstance, museums are more than just places for collecting and exhibiting; they are also spaces for learning, communication and identity building. Through interactive projects, from the bottom up refugees become the producers and co-curators of local museums. They can strengthen their sense of belonging and explore their life value in these new environment, integrating into local society better; simultaneously, more mixed groups, including refugees and immigrants, could be attracted to museums. On the other hand, local residents and even tourists from different countries and regions can have a better understanding of the mixed groups and work through and overcome misunderstandings and concerns as much as possible. After all, refugees are also ordinary people; they also have passion for life and dreams and aspirations for the future.\n\nA piece of Tom Berry displaying at the Jewish Museum, London\n\nA piece of Tom Berry displaying at the Jewish Museum, London\n\nThis piece of art portrays the life path of Bea Green, one of the children on the Kindertransport. It is storytelling, but it is more than storytelling; it is also the reflection of the current refugee crisis. Tom Berry uses the waves around Green to symbolize refugees, who are numerous but largely ignored. The artist, like Berry, encourages us to think more broadly about what constitutes displaced people. Artists today have a strong desire to face social reality that is not always humane. They to understand and reflect upon the world critically, and yet… perhaps because of this… their key message to their audiences and to future generations nonetheless still promotes tolerance and offers hope.\n\nMuseums have a natural symbiotic relationship with society. This reciprocity does not only exist in those glass cabinets; it exists in the entire space of museums. And the connection between museums and society is manifested not only in display, but also in interpretation and multiple engagement, paying more and more attention to current realities for everyone, in their uniqueness, speficity, and complexities.\n\nFurther reading is available here.\n\nBy Yanan Hao\n\nThe Translation of Chinese poetry\n\nIs there a decline in the prestige of rhyme and form? Does rhyme seem ‘forced’ and ‘artificial’ in the translation of Chinese poetry? (Since most ancient Chinese poetry rhymes.) What is the smart way to translate and convey the aesthetics of original Chinese poetry?\n\nHere we compare rhymed and unrhymed translations of the same Chinese poem. The original, let it be said at once, does rhyme.\n\nThis is a quatrain, in seven-syllable meter, each line having a caesura. The even lines of a quatrain always rhyme together, and the first line may also rhyme, at the discretion of the poet. The present example is not part of a larger set, but it does resonate with other Tang poems. We judge it on its own. Here are two versions of Du Mu's quatrain, each of which has a note referring to the earlier poem which sets the stage for his effort.\n\nTranslated by Irving Y Lo\nSunflower Splendor (1975)\n\nSoaring into the distant sky, a lone bird disappears.\nTen thousand ages dissolve and vanish in this instant.\nLook, where are the deeds of the Han empire?\nThe Five Mounds* lie treeless where autumn wind rises\n\n\nTranslated by E Bruce Brooks\nOther Mountains (1993)\n\nAn endless sky without a speck,\na lone bird fades from view,\nHere the myriad ages have\ntheir final obsequies;\nThis is what the House of Han\ncomes to in the end -\nNot so much as a single tree\nto stir in the autumn breeze*\n\nunnamed (15).jpg\n\n\nThe first version implies an obliteration of the distance between the poet and the Han Dynasty, whereas the original (like the second version) is concerned with the distance: it shows the Han vanishing into the past as the bird vanishes into space. The second version is more faithful to the form (including rhyme) of the original.\n\nAs to which version presents Du Mu with more point, force, and connectivity, the reader must judge.\n\nSee original text here\n\nPhoto and text edited by Meng\n\nFrom Königsberg to Kalininrgad – The Talk of the Town\n\nLast weekend I travelled to my home city of Kaliningrad. These home trips always evoke some nostalgia. With the present blog in mind, this particular trip made me think about how visual culture has the power to change one’s identity.\n\nThe notion of mixedupness pervades my whole life. I’m a Russian of Ukrainian and Belorussian origins from a formerly German city (before World War II), known today as a Russian city of Kaliningrad. I’ve lived in London, UK half of my life. I neither have any German roots nor do I speak German, despite my home city’s being of German origin. Yet, I feel that the city’s heritage has the power to speak to and influence its inhabitants with its unique architectural language.\n\nKaliningrad is full of controversy and diversity as it combines German, Soviet and Russian identities.\n\nIts cultural controversy starts with the city’s name. Königsberg means King’s mountain in Old German. Kaliningrad, means Kalinin’s (a Bolshevik revolutionary) city in Russian. It was part of Germanic land (known as Eastern Prussia) for more than 800 years. It’s been a part of Russia for the last 70 years. Yet, no ethnic Germans remain in the region. Most left after World War II when the Soviets took over the city.\n\nDespite the Soviets’ attempts to erase the city’s European identity, Kaliningrad’s architecture inevitably reminds one of German heritage.\n\nOnly fragments of German culture remain following the bombings during World War II. Yet, these remnants have become deeply embedded into Kaliningrad’s Russian and Soviet cultures.  \n\nWhat immediately strikes one as a tourist coming to visit Kaliningrad is how Soviet austere building blocks clash with German Art-Nouveau (Jugendstil) and Brick Gothic (Baltic Brick) architecture.\n\nTwo main buildings dominate the cityscape – the fourteenth-century Gothic-style Königsberg Cathedral (restored in 1992) and the 1970s unfinished neo-constructivist House of Soviets. They are striking testimonies to political power dynamics.\n\nKönigsberg Cathedral (left) and the House of Soviets (right), Kaliningrad.  Source\n\n\nTo me, the House of Soviets has always looked like a monster associated with the austerity and deficit I experienced as a child. The building is a brutalist block of concrete built on the remains of the Königsberg Castle, the very heart of the destroyed city. It states clearly who was in charge. Today, it serves as a reminder of the utopian communist ideology. Cold, empty, dehumanised, the House of Soviets tells us about a once ambitious project that has never been completed, that remains unrealised.\n\nHouse of Soviets, Kaliningrad.  Source\n\nHouse of Soviets, Kaliningrad. Source\n\nOn the other hand, the Cathedral, built largely thanks to the donations made by ethnic Germans, became the centre of local and tourist attraction. To me, the Königsberg Cathedral and the surrounding grounds bring out the warmest of my childhood memories since they served as a recreational area where people enjoyed picnics and festivals. \n\nKönigsberg Cathedral, Kaliningrad.  Source\n\nKönigsberg Cathedral, Kaliningrad. Source\n\nAnother imposing building structure is the Russian Orthodox cathedral built in the modern city centre, further away from the House of Soviets and the Cathedral.\n\nBuilt during the Putin era in place of the monumental statue of Lenin, it serves as another ideological tool - a reminder of who’s in charge today.\n\nThe Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Kaliningrad.  Source\n\nThe Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Kaliningrad. Source\n\nDespite the government’s attempts to promote Russian-ness, Kaliningraders openly embrace the Prussian German past. This attitude manifests itself in numerous landmarks built in pseudo-neo-Gothic architectural style, like the Clock Tower in the city square.\n\nThe Clock Tower (right), known today as Kaliningrad Passage, Victory Square, Kaliningrad.  Source\n\n\nThese modern architectural pastiches are spread throughout the city. In fact, the so-called Fishermen’s village, constructed in 2006-2010 in pseudo-Hanseatic style, became a major landmark.\n\nFishing Village, Kaliningrad.  Source\n\nFishing Village, Kaliningrad. Source\n\nI am not an avid supporter of pseudo-historical recreations. However, I admit that like many of my fellow Kaliningraders, I proudly embrace the city’s German past in favour of the colourless Soviet concrete blocks and propagandist religious edifices.\n\nAs I fall in love again with my city’s German heritage, I wonder whether it becomes my own…\n\nUnited States of Colonizers\n\n7/11/2016 5pm PST: I walked into the house I rented near campus. All eight of my housemates and four of their significant others were sitting around the TV talking and laughing. The banner running at the bottom of the map on screen of the USA predicted Hillary Clinton’s win. I felt a knot grow in my stomach, red spots were spreading across the country in big blotches as though each state was slowly contracting scarlet fever. I looked over at the people I considered my friends and was suddenly struck with an overwhelming feeling of otherness. They all had creamy skin and silky blonde hair, happily heterosexual, and no work experience. I was their opposite. My Filipino and Native blood have blended to make me a nice shade of caramel with chocolate curls cascading down my back. I identify as LGBTQ, and I have had a job since I was twelve. Pieces of their conversation filtered into my consciousness as I realized these differences.\n\n\n‘I didn’t vote, it was too much work.’\n\n\n‘I voted for Trump. It’s so funny.’\n\n\n‘It’s not like it really matters anyway.’\n\n\nLying in bed that night I have never felt so alone, so ostracized. I know they did not mean to make me feel like an outsider. I doubt they even recognized the feeling pass in a shadow across my face. For the first time, I felt the differences between our identities open up a chasm between us. Living in Seattle, one of the most liberal cities in the US it had never occurred to me that the person sleeping in the room next to me would unironically vote for a man that would do me harm.\n\n\nTwo days later I was leaving the Starbucks by my house when a man began yelling racial slurs at me. He had read my name, Pilar, on my coffee cup and took it to mean that I was Latina. I am not Latina. I am Filipina, the Philippines was colonized by Spain for 300 years. My name, like my identity, is a product of colonization. As this stranger shouted at me others joined in saying that Trump would get rid of filthy people like me. Emboldened by anger and false confidence in my liberal surroundings I turned to them and told them where to shove it. They had been following me for two city blocks so I should have known that they had more on their agenda than just being loud racists. One of the men pulled out a knife and started making his way towards me. The reality of my situation hit me like a freight train. I am a small female; my full height is only around 154cm. I did the math. I was a small, bisexual, multi-ethnic female surrounds by six full-grown men. I was a walking poster child for a hate crime that would be written up by the US mainstream media as ‘a tragic accident’. Luckily nothing happened, the men left me alone after a few more sharp words -  I either wasn't worth the trouble or the fact I was standing in front of church leaned on their twisted moral sensibilities.\n\n\nI got lucky that day. Lucky, they didn’t retaliate against my hostile response. Lucky, they didn't physically harm me. Lucky, I didn’t end up another non-white face on the evening news. From that day on my liberal bubble universe popped. I became acutely aware of just how deeply entrenched harmful and archaic Colonialist ideas were in America. America was built on the backs of imported slaves and the genocide of Native nations. The nation’s capital and hallowed halls were built by slaves. This hard work done by slaves, and the history and relevance of its native peoples is not however taught to our children in school. Instead, the harm done by colonialism has been rewritten by its descendants to form benevolent narratives that place slavery, civil rights, and native nations in the past. The narratives falsely claim that racism is a thing of the 1950s and 1960s, and that Native nations and their enduring traditions exist only in the past tense. These narratives ignore that Native nations are still fighting for their basic rights and the painful truth of Billie Holiday’s famous song ‘Strange fruit’ is still occurring. It is hard to speak of decolonization in America because the descendants of the colonizers are the ones running the country. The colonizers are still among us.\n\n\nDecolonising - ‘If I were you, I would not write about any sensitive issue’\n\nLast year, I was in Hongkong, working in a Korean government organisation there for several months. My job was doing research about the contemporary art scene and issues in art and culture. I needed to submit monthly reports to the organisation. When I arrived in the city, it was the middle of July, and, looking for my first story, I began wandering the streets, doing research. Fortunately, I encountered a big ceremony in the center of the Wanchai district. I figured out that it was the annual ceremony of Farun Dafa (Falun Gong, 法輪功, 法轮功), a religious group from China that have been seriously oppressed by the Chinese government for the last two decades. I’d once heard about the religion, and the event was really big, so I wanted to write about the ceremony for my report. So the next morning I started to write about what I’d seen, and tried to find some general information about the ceremony on the Internet but it was hard to find. It was so strange for me, so I asked my colleagues how and where I might find some information. Instead of answering my question, they asked me whether or not I had a working visa; and actually at that time I didn’t have one. They advised me not to write stories that the Chinese government might dislike, if I wanted to get a visa from the Hongkong government. After hesitating, I finally decided not to write the story, just in case. I guess, it might not be that sensitive issue, and I probably over-reacted, but recalling this pevious episode still makes me feel embarrassed. I think my decision was a kind of self-censorship, and the experience confirmed the extent to which my own mind has become colonised.\n\n\n Credit: An annual ceremony event of Farun Dafa. A picture taken by Hong at Wanchai, HongKong (July 2018)\n\nImage selection and post written by Hong (To see Instagram post, please click here)\n\nDecolonizing 4- Images from the United States\n\nImage from Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar via USA TODAY Network  In Charlottesville, Virginia 11/8/17 a group of neo-Nazis and White supremacists walked through the University of Virginia following a months-long debate over a Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Many Confederate statues have come under debate over the last of years as the statues are remnants of racist ideals left by violent slave mongering colonizers that unfortunately still linger, persist, and are re-ignited far too often and far too easily.\n\nImage from Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar via USA TODAY Network\n\n\nJohn L. Monroe/AP image taken from NPR  This is an image of Tonya Stands Recovering from being pepper sprayed by police. Stands and other protesters swam across a creek hoping to peacefully block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dakota Access Pipeline has been highly protested and contested since its proposal in June of 2016 because the natural gas pipeline is to built on sacred tribal land and negatively impact the Missouri River, which is also the main water source for the Standing Rock Reservation. The story of the Dakota Access Pipeline is not unique it is a centuries-old fight for indigenous people to protect the land and their rights from colonizers.\n\nJohn L. Monroe/AP image taken from NPR\n\n\nPhoto by John Francis Peters NYT vis Redux and The New Yorker  The French artist JR’s newest art installation is a child peaking over Trump’s border wall in the Mexican city of Tecate to stare at US boarder patrol. The artist states that the child, Kikito, lives next to the wall and his inspiration came from seeing the child peak out from the slats in his crib while the artist chatted with the mother. Upon seeing a rendering of the installation the child’s mother stated “I hope this will help people see us differently than what they hear in the media, that they will stop thinking of us like criminals or rapists. I hope in that image they won’t only see my kid. They will see us all.”   Quote from ‘The New Yorker', ‘The Artist Jr Lifts a Mexican Child Over the Boarder Wall’ by Alexandra Schwartz (September 11th 2017)\n\nPhoto by John Francis Peters NYT vis Redux and The New Yorker\n\n\n\nDecolonizing-3 Images from South Korea\n\n\n04_Hong 1.jpg\n\nCranes and Peaches (Haehakbandodo in Korean)\n\nCredit: The Honolulu Museum of Art (Gift of Anne Rice Cooke in 1927). Anonymous. Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), dated 1842 or 1902. Pair of six-fold screens; ink, color and gold on silk.\n\nThese six-fold paintings are estimated from the era of the Korean Empire which was the last independent unified Korean state. It is known that they were painted by anonymous artists to commemorate the entry of Emperor Gojong (r. 1863-1907) into the Society of Honorable Seniors (Giroso) in his 51st year (1902). This is one of the paintings that have survived from the imperial court of the Joseon dynasty. Unfortunately, they were taken and sold by Japan in the colonial era and this one is currently in the collected of the Honolulu Museum of Art.\n\n(Referenced website: http://honolulumuseum.org/art/exhibitions/11387-masterpieces_korean_art)\n\n\n05_Hong 2.jpg\n\nJoseon Art Exhibitions\n\nImage Credit: 『朝鮮』(朝鮮總督府, 1925), through the collection Information service of Seoul History Archive (Archive No. 75578)\n\nThis is a photography taken inside the Joseon Art Exhibition in June 1923. Korea was taken over by Japan from 1910 to 1945. During the colonized era, there were Joseon Art Exhibitions held annually as part of Japan’s culture governing policy. These annual exhibitions were held in Korea from 1922 until 1944. The exhibitions were meaningful because they were the first exhibitions open to the public as a competition format, however but they were limited since most of the jurors were Japanese, and the Japan government was involved in and controlled the artist’s artworks during exhibition process.\n\n(Referenced website: http://www.museum.seoul.kr/archive/archiveView.do?currentPage=5&type=D&type2=&arcvGroupNo=2901&lowerArcvGroupNo=&arcvMetaSeq=25992&arcvNo=75578&realArcvGroupNo=2901&searchVal= )\n\nPost colonial\n\n06_Hong 3(1).jpg\n\nImage Credit: National Museum of Korea. 3D view image of the exhibition ‘Goryeo: The Glory of Korea’ which is on display to the public from 4th Dec. 2018 to 3rd Mar. 2019 at the Special Exhibition Gallery in the National Museum of Korea.\n\nThe National Museum of Korea is currently holding a special exhibition to mark the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Goryeo (918-1392). It is accessible to everyone on these days via website using a VR service. I also had a chance to try the exhibition online and I found some interesting wall texts, which I have reproduced below:\n\n07_Hong 3(2).jpg\n\nThis list represents art organizations that lent artifacts to the exhibition (two museums in USA, three from the UK, two of Italia, and six from Japan) and the website also indicates how long each artifact will be at the exhibition. Probably some artifacts cannot be in the exhibition at the same time for contractual issues, or for other reasons. Above all, I felt that it’s a shame that our artifacts belong to these other countries, and that we needed to borrow them for this exhibition.\n\n(Referenced website: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/exhiSpecialTheme/view/specialGallery?exhiSpThemId=319757&listType=gallery )\n\nImage selection and post written by Hong\n\nDecolonizing-3 Images from Hong Kong\n\n01_Cheong 1.jpg\n\nCredit: The picture depicting the pearl hunting activity from the book ‘Tian Gong Kai Wu, 天工開物’, Image from the Hong Kong Museum of History \n\nHong Kong was a small fishing town before the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1921). Most of the residence make a living by pearl hunting, fishing and incense making (which is also where the name ‘Hong Kong’ came from, and literally means ‘The Harbor for Incense’).\n\nThe Qing Government set up several military spots along the coast of Hong Kong Island to defend it from pirates, but governing the area was never their priority. People were left to their own devices, and the lives and properties of these people were not considered ‘important’ to the government. The place is important simply because of its location and for its military use, never because of its people and culture.\n\nThis raises a question, now that Hong Kong is part of China officially: when, historically, your ‘mother’ country never actually cared about you, is it OK for some people not to feel too attached to it?\n\n02_Cheong 2.jpg\n\nCredit: The Queen visited the local market in Hong Kong in 1975. Image taken from Apple Daily (Available at https://hk.lifestyle.appledaily.com/lifestyle/culture/daily/article/20130313/18192934), by Ng Pong Mui\n\nDuring the colonial period, The Queen visited Hong Kong twice, and received a warm welcome both times (Hong Kong people sometimes call her the ‘Boss Lady’), and the place seemed to flourish under British rule. However, the number of riots greatly increased, and the society was never stable. The 1967 leftist riots marked the climax of the conflicts between the Hong Kong British government and the local groups (those with strong ties to Beijing), and was often viewed as a watershed for the emerging of the ‘Chinese/Hong Kong citizen’ identity. Interestingly, there are views held that social conflicts are not the only reason for the outbreak of the riot, and that the Communist Party had also done some work to speed up the process in order to gain back control to Hong Kong as soon as possible (Ming Pao, 2017).\n\n Retrived from: https://news.mingpao.com/ins/文摘/article/20170122/s00022/1485067969029/周日話題-「六七暴動」-遺害至今（文-程翔）\n\n\n03_Cheong 3.jpg\n\nCredit: The statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Park was enclosed in preparation for the exhibition of Chinese Science and Technology. The red banner read ‘Congratulations on the 20th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Reunification’ (Note: the statue was nowhere near the exhibition venue). Image taken from Headline Daily (Available at http://hd.stheadline.com/news/realtime/hk/938007/ )\n\nAfter the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government, the start of decolonization had caused many conflicts among the local people. The implementation of a ‘National Education’ and the efforts made by the Chinese government to promote Chinese culture (more like an attempt to ‘erase’ the local, British-affected culture, in some people’s eyes) had raised concerns, because, while we are teaching our younger generation about the positive aspects of China, but how and to what extent should we teach them about aspects side of the country? (No government would like their people to know their bad side, after all) How should we prevent the children from being ‘brain-washed’ and keep our cultures and most importantly, our core value (such as democracy) unchanged? China is the mother country of Hong Kong, however, Britain was the one in power when Hong Kong’s economy and society flourished. Now Hong Kong is being returned to a completely different cultural background and system to mainland China, and its people are lost between the local, so-called ‘colonized’ culture, and the exotic, ‘original’ culture from a ‘mother’ about whom we know nothing (or perhaps too much).\n\n Image selection and post written by Cheong\n\nDecolonizing-3 Images from Singapore\n\nCurrent Day.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFurther reading: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/understanding-the-ambivalence-about-the-bicentennial-11039360\n\nLink: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/four-more-statues-join-sir-stamford-raffles-statue-along-singapore-river\n\nColonial Ties\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLink: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/mr-lee-kuan-yew-had-close-ties-with-britain-but-was-never-a-colonial-nostalgic\n\n\nFurther Reading:  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/colonialism-work-singapore-postcolonial-british-empire\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLink: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/search-real-singapore-story-beyond-stamford-raffles-bicentennial-11199116?cid=fbins&fbclid=IwAR3Ch-J2NIHZEE4Q3m2yuEp0tUNVLIJcrKKK7-2NhN_uuLld198HkDbEP8Q\n\n Image selection and post written by JJ\n\n'Mixed Up, but in a good way...' A conversation about 'Decolonizing'\n\nAs the first group of UCL IOE Art, Design & Museology students to kick off the series, we want to acknowledge that we don’t claim to deal with the subject of decolonization with expert knowledge. Many of the claims we make here stem from a variety of positions: from personal anecdotes, and on to different readings we may make, or conversations we may have on the subject. We think this informality is perhaps a more interesting way to deal with the feeling of being ‘mixed-up’, and thus to open the conversation in ways that we don’t always expect when it comes to the subject, and hopefully that interests the readers here to begin having the same expansive dialogue on the subject as well.\n\nIn that spirit, we want to open the conversation we want to have over the next few weeks with, well, a conversation. Hopefully, through this we’re able to show some of the nuances of the subject as well as highlight our own uncertainties; that we may or may not go on to resolve over the next few weeks. \n\nThe following conversation is contributed to by our group, which is made up of international students studying in the U.K.\n\nHong (South Korea)\n\nJJ (Singapore)\n\nLanyi (China)\n\nCheong (Hong Kong)\n\nPilar (U.S.A)\n\nHere are some of the excerpts from our first conversation as a group:\n\n(0:50) Hong: I think there can be many kinds of colonization, so in my researchI have tried to discover some words relating to them. I am not sure if they are okay to use or not though. Out there at the moment, there is: self-colonization and re-colonization/ new-colonization. And also there is: un-intended-colonization, soft-colonization and renewed-colonization which seems to be the same as de-colonization, I guess.\n\nWe sometimes say that we have to re-write our history and I think that de-colonization can be a process for re-newing our history. I think we can think about some related words like these as a starting point.\n\n(1:40) Pilar: There is a writer/philosopher/psychiatrist called Frantz Fanon, from the French colony of Martinique, are you guys familiar with him? He is really interesting on the cycle of the oppression that colonized places get sucked into: the colonizer comes in, they oppress and de-humanize people but then, what happens is that from that oppression comes assimilation, so, in the end, ironically, people forcefully try to assimilate into their dominant culture, yeah?\n\nCheong: Well to us in Hong Kong, decolonization is pretty violent, because Hong Kong… technically the Chinese government never actually paid attention to Hong Kong before British take over this place. The local culture in Hong Kong is based on British culture. Now, when the Chinese government try to give us their version of a new kind of authority or control over Hong Kong (governmental, educational, social services, etc.), we found that it is so different from us, from our own background. The Chinese claim that’s decolonization, but to us it’s more like colonization.\n\nLanyi: When Hong Kong talks about colonization, do they talk about decolonizing British culture? So are you thinking that British culture is already part of it? I think when we talk about decolonization, we should consider the original.. like.. when we talk about the Indian culture they were trying to take the British part off to go back to (before) when they were colonized. So does Hong Kong ever think 'about ‘going back’ to the culture that was established before the British rule?.\n\nJJ: the British involvement in Hong Kong has undeniably accounted for some form of additional culture or cultural identity. I think It’s not so much like not going back to what it was like before, but also It’s more like giving it a chance to develop itself in a way. And of course that’s hard to do because you can never run away from your past, and there is always going to form a sense of who and what you are as an individual, a nation, etc. The thing is, we want choice and autonomy, the right as citizens to decide our cultural identity.\n\n\nLanyi: I think that’s the point. Because I think what residents of Hong Kong are concerned about is that they never have had a right to decide what the direction is that they’re going in, whether that’s under British or Chinese government control. Maybe they want to have their own culture, whatever that might mean!\n\nJJ: I think there is a counter point there, quite interesting as well. Because for Singapore, we wanted get out from under British rule but the first prime minister was a product of the British education system. He studied Law at Cambridge so he was a product of the British education system. It’s really interesting because these traces still exist in Singapore. They have statues of Sir Stamford Raffles, there celebrating the founding of our civilization, in a sense. The whole narrative is: we were a quiet fishing village before colonization. I think this is funny because when we talk about ‘development’, it’s like the discussions about all these colonies is first and foremost economic, especially at this time. A lot of things happening are economically motivated, like neoliberalism and capitalized system and that they are effecting neo-colonialism.\n\n\nJJ: Switching topics, it’s quite important to think of the different mentality of different colonial powers, right? For example, the British taught people in the colonies English right? Whereas, the Dutch were like ‘No, our language is reserved for the learned, we will never teach these savages (in Indonesia for instance) our languages’. It’s interesting to consider language as a form of leverage against dialogue between two cultures, right?\n\nLanyi: I remember last term, when we talked about the case of South Africa, and its efforts to deal with its colonial-era statues. Some statues have provoked protest because the figure was a hero in the colonial age, but in our post-colonizatial times, with calls for de-colonising, the ways these statues resonate has obviously changed. Is it still valuable to’ preserve’ objects and artefacts from the colonial era to remind us, daily, of its injustices?\n\n\nCheong: So we’re speaking about an attitude that we might take towards colonial history? Our conversation has definitely thrown up more questions than answers! Perhaps our individual posts over the next few days with raise these questions again, in new ways, and help us work towards ways of offering possible answers, however provisional.\n\n3/3 (Notes from Marquard Smith)\n\nTruth be told, I did actually ‘come out’ publicity once before, on 12th December 2018, during an event at the Institute of Polish Culture at University of Warsaw entitled ‘Image Lessons. Visual Pedagogies in Troubled Times’. I took that opportunity a couple of months ago to speak about the students’ ‘Mixed Up, but in a good way…’ project. Being in Poland for the first time, the country of my father’s parents’ birth, seemed like the perfect occasion for me to proclaim my German-Polish-Jewish-ness in all of its wonderful contradictions, irreconcilabilities, and, possibilities. My thanks to Iwona Kurz, Pawel Moscicki, Krzysztof Pijarski, Magda Szcześniak, , Łukasz Zaremba, and especially Katarzyna Bojarska for welcoming me ‘home’! \n\nRead More\n\n\nAs a personal aside, for me this project couldn’t have come at a better (or worse) time: with the seemingly unstoppable rise of national populism, xenophobia, distrust, fear, and outright hatred that accompanies (and leads to) elections results we’ve seen recently in Austria, Brazil, Hungary, Italy, and Sweden, along with ongoing far-right-ism in Poland, post-Brexit Britain, and in Trump’s Divided States of American.\n\nRead More", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6225389242172241}
+{"content": "The British Empire\n\nOutstanding KS3 history lessons on the British Empire\n\nThe requirement to teach about the British Empire at Key Stage 3 presents us with a range of challenges. We need to make the topic relevant and interesting. We also need to be balanced in our approach, given the empire-bashing that has surrounded the 150th anniversary of the Indian Mutiny (or should I say First War of Independence?) and the bicentenary of the abolition of Britain’s involvement in the Transatlantic Slave trade. We also need to be aware of the sensitivities of teaching this topic in a multicultural society. But you know all this! What you want are some interesting approaches.\n\nTeaching the British Empire KS3\n\nIn a recent article for the Telegraph, journalist and writer Jeremy Paxman made the following case for teaching the history of the British Empire:\n[It] explains so much about who we are now… Imperial history explains both why Britain has a seat on the UN Security...\nRead more\n\nThe Empire strikes back! SMART TASK KS3\n\nHaving previously investigated the criticism of empire, students now set about defending it.  After studying a contemporary Indian view of Empire, which they critique in terms of usefulness, students explore a range of possible achievements of the empire, some using a structured sheet, others are...\nRead more\n\nSmart Tasks: End of Empire: Why did it all end so quickly?\n\nThis SMART task ask pupils to classify a number of different smaller reasons why The Empire declined and fell, under four bigger headings.  But they are not told what these headings are.  This they must work out for themselves.  In searching for their own method...\nRead more\nSimple Share Buttons", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9642796516418457}
+{"content": "Get help from best doctors, anonymously\nCommon Specialities\nCommon Issues\nCommon Treatments\n\n2 years back I diagnosed with mixed anxiety & depression. Since then I am struggling to recover. Taken allopathy for more than a year, then condition somewhat improved, after resuming duty as I work in rotating shifts in a company, then my brain started weakening, after each night shifts my mental ability declined gradually. Now no medicine is working out for me so suicidal thoughts coming to mind as I think in a very short time I would be a mentally disabled person. How should I cope up? allopathy has worked for me temporarily. My Dr. tried changing medicine but no result. Pls help me out.\n\n1 Doctor Answered\nAnger management: 10 tips to tame your temper anger: there is a saying \"frustration begets anger and anger begets aggression. Direct anger, is expressed toward the object perceived as the cause of the frustration. If a machine does not work, you might hit it or kick it. If someone gets in your way, you could verbally threaten them or push them aside. If the source of the frustration is too powerful or threatening for direct aggression, displaced aggression is often used. The aggression is redirected toward a less threatening and more available object. An angry person often acts without thinking. The person has given in to the frustration and they have given up restraint. Anger can be a healthy response if it motivates us to positive action but all too often the actions we engage in when angry are destructive. Indeed, if we could see a videotape of ourselves getting angry, the humiliation might well help cure us of anger. When you feel frustration building, you have to practice learned responses that lead to healthy actions instead of destructive ones. Giving up: giving up on a goal can be productive if the goal is truly out of reach. However, more often giving up (quitting or being apathetic) is another form of giving in to frustration. When repeatedly frustrated, people can drop out of school, quit jobs, or move away. Apathy is giving up all of your goals, so you cannot be frustrated by trying to reach them. We live in a difficult time and we have to be persistent in order to accomplish. Consider how many projects you began, and then gave up, because you became frustrated and lost patience. Make a list of things you started and quit because they seemed too difficult. Now calculate the disappointment and loss you suffered by not dealing with the frustration in a more healthy way. Try to remember that quitters never win, and winners never quit. Losing your temper means you're a quitter. Loss of confidence: is a terrible frequent side effect of giving up and not fulfilling your goal. A loss of self-confidence and self-esteem, means that if we quit once, then the next time we plan a goal, we may not be able to accurately assess our ability to carry it out and we stop trusting ourselves and our own abilities. This became a self-fulfilling and self-destructive attitude. You need to be able to learn that when the going gets tough, you say to yourself \"it is worth it! and by following through, it not only gets the job done, but it builds self-confidence. Stress: is the \"wear and tear\" our body and mind experiences as we adjust to the frustrations our continually changing environment. Too frequently, extreme or prolonged frustration and stress strains us and generates distress signals. Our body experiences distress signals in a variety of ways, often in the form of irritability, anger, fatigue anxiety, headache, depression, stomach aches, hypertension, migraines, ulcers, heart attacks, or colitis. Depression: depression can affect almost every aspect of your life. It affects people of all ages, income, race, and cultures. Depression can affect the way you eat and sleep the way you feel about yourself, the way one thinks about things, and the way you interact with others. While we all feel depression at various appropriate times in our lives, excess or inappropriate depression cannot be easily dismissed or wished away. Other reactions: abuse of drugs & alcohol is a self-destructive and usually futile attempt at dealing with frustration, as are many eating and weight problems and addictions whenever the immediate effects of the addictive behaviour wear off, users find themselves back in the same, or even worse, frustrating situation. Anger is among the gamut of emotions we exhibit as a reaction to a situation, and it is a 'normal' emotion too as long as it is kept under control. Some people have the propensity to explode when pushed to the extreme. They keep swallowing their emotions until they can finally do it no more, and erupt like a volcano. Others dealing with extreme anger are like a ticking time bomb. You'll never know what you unwittingly say or do can trigger an explosion. In either case, anger that cannot be controlled comes with a physical reaction. Your heart beats faster preparing you for both action and reaction. Your breathing quickens. You may clench your fist, tighten your shoulders and go into a defensive position. The problem arises out of the fact that it is almost impossible to feel anger and empathy at the same time. An angry person is seldom sensitive to the wellbeing of his victim, and hence may lash out verbally and sometimes physically. Such things are done in the heat of the moment mostly leaves us with regrets. So here are a few ways to deal with extreme anger. 1.Approve it / acknowledge it: the first step in solving a problem is recognizing that you have one. The fundamental problem here is that people believe they are on the right track and refuse to budge from their views. It is essential to realize that this step is not about deciding whether you are right or wrong but acknowledging the fact that your reaction to the situation can be channelled in a better way. When getting someone to acknowledge their anger problem, be careful as to not use negative words like wrong, false and shouldn't. Instead, influence with positive words like can and should. Instead of saying 'you are wrong to react like this' you can say, 'i understand what you are feeling. Is there a way we can resolve this situation? 2.Understand/recognize the signs: once you know that your problems exist, you can try devising ways that will work for you in dealing with the situation. You can count to 100 to calm yourself or simply decide to not speak until you can calm yourself. Knowing that you may enter into an argument in a situation, you can list down the points that you feel strongly about and discuss each of them one by one. Working your way through a finite list gives a better opportunity to reach closure at the end. 3.Free the mind/find ways to let it go: not all arguments end inclosure. A lot of unsaid justifications cloud our mind repeatedly leaving us seething from the inside. Research has shown that the normal or neurological anger response lasts less than two seconds. Beyond that it takes a strong will to stay angry. Once you realize how much your anger is consuming your mind, decide to free your mind with meditation and other calming exercises. Tell yourself that some people and issues simply don't deserve your anger, emotion, reaction or time. If you or someone you know is suffering from anger management issues, consult a doctor today. Problemanger is good. It protects you. But intense, uncontrolled anger may destroy valuable relationships. Anger is a result of anxiety and fear. When we assume that our expectations will not be met, we become anxious. When we feel unsure about our own capabilities we become anxious. This anxiety creates fear. Anxiety comes from our beliefs. All beliefs can be modified. Anger has lots of energy. Avoid arguments/confrontations when you are very angry. When you are very angry you are likely to use rough language which may damage your relations and you are likely to behave impulsively. All this you might regret later on. Following are a few techniques which will help you to manage your anger in difficult situations: 1.Sit down and have a glass of water, slowly. This will help you to calm down a little. 2.Avoid or go away from that room or situation. Tell the people concerned, that you are angry and would like to discuss it some other time. 3.Deep breathing exercises help a lot. Close your eyes, take 10 deep breaths, turn your attention towards your body. See what is happening to your body. Tell your body muscles to relax. If your heart is beating fast, if you are breathing fast, continue deep breathing, till it normalises. 4.Now understand what is making you angry. Understand your own anxiety and fear related to the issue. 5.Let the other person know how you are “feeling”. Start your statements, “i feel hurt/insulted/let down/neglected etc. When you do this”, instead of saying “you hurt/neglect me”. When you express your feeling in this manner, the other person does not feel blamed, which makes the other person more receptive. 6.Focus on the current issue, don’t bring in past situations. 7.Tell the other person, what you want or expect, instead of telling what you do not want. E.g. Instead of saying “i don’t want you to go out now”, say “i would like you to stay at home today”. 8.Listen carefully what the other person wants to tell you. Give others a chance to voice their opinions. 9.Make an eye contact and be firm but polite while communicating your point of view. 10.Understand everyone’s responsibility in the situation. Try to see, what is your share in the problematic situation? Work on that. 11.Understand what change you want. 12.Have realistic expectations from others and also from yourself. If you wish to discuss about any specific, problem you can consult me by clicking consult option frustrationlife is full of frustrations. From the minor irritations of losing something to the major problem of continued failure towards a desired goal. Since many of the things we truly want require a degree of frustration, being able to manage frustration is required in order to allow us to remain happy and positive even in trying circumstances. Understanding frustration frustration is an emotion that occurs in situations where a person is blocked from reaching a desired outcome. In general, whenever we reach one of our goals, we feel pleased and whenever we are prevented from reaching our goals, we may succumb to frustration and feel irritable, annoyed and angry. Typically, the more important the goal, the greater the frustration and resultant anger or loss of confidence. Frustration is not necessarily bad since it can be a useful indicator of the problems in a person's life and, as a result, it can act as a motivator to change. However, when it results in anger, irritability, stress resentment, depression or a spiral downward where we have a feeling of resignation or giving up, frustration can be destructive. What causes frustration? Frustration is experienced whenever the results (goals) you are expecting do not seem to fit the effort and action you are applying. Frustration will occur whenever your actions are producing less and fewer results than you think they should. The frustration we experience can be seen as the result of two types of goal blockage, i.e. Internal and external sources of frustration. Internal sources of frustration usually involve the disappointment that get when we cannot have what we want as a result of personal real or imagined deficiencies such as a lack of confidence or fear of social situations. Another type of internal frustration results when a person has competing goals that interfere with one another. The second type of frustration results from external causes that involve conditions outside the person such as physical roadblocks we encounter in life including other people and things that get in the way of our goals. One of the biggest sources of frustration in today's world is the frustration caused by the perception of wasting time. When you're standing in line at a bank, or in traffic, or on the phone, watching your day go by when you have got so much to do, that's one big frustration. External frustration may be unavoidable. We can try to do something about it, like finding a different route if we are stuck in traffic, or choosing a different restaurant if our first choice is closed, but sometimes there is just nothing we can do about it. It is just the way life is. Our goal in dealing with external sources of frustration is to recognize the wisdom of the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. One can learn that while the situation itself may be upsetting and frustrating, you do not have to be frustrated. Accepting life is one of the secrets of avoiding frustration. Responses to frustration some of the \"typical\" responses to frustration include anger, quitting (burn out or giving up), loss of self-esteem and self-confidence, stress and depression. Learning to deal with frustration it is unrealistic to believe you can rid yourself of frustration forever, but you can learn to do things to minimize your frustrations and to make sure you do not engage in unhealthy responses to frustration. You will need to learn to distinguish between what you hope will happen, what will probably happen, and what actually happened. Life inevitably has its ups and downs -- its moments of relaxation and times of tension. When you learn to truly accept this reality, you come one step closer to being able to deal with frustration in a healthy way. There are several types of problems that we encounter in everyday living: those which you know can be solved, those which you are not sure if they can be solved or not, those you know are totally out of your control, and those you are so confused about that you do not even know what the problem is. You need to be able to accurately assess your abilities to alter situations that prevent you from solving your problems and reaching your goal. Then you will be able to assess which of the types of problems you have encountered, and you will then be able to develop a realistic plan. Learning to take things in stride will also help you to be more content and happy which, in turn, will help you to more easily overcome anger and frustration. If you are upset, sad, anxious, or depressed you will have less patience and tolerance for everything and everybody. Treatment of frustration frustration and anger are fundamental emotions that everyone experiences from time to time. From a very early age, people learn to express frustration by copying the behaviour they see modelled around them, and by expressing frustration and angry behaviour and seeing what they can get away with. We all suffer from frustration, and being able to effectively deal with frustration is a very important skill to develop. Each person needs to learn how to control frustration, so that it does not control them. The following is a brief overview of types of frustration management programs and resources that have proved helpful in understanding and controlling frustration and anger. I have found several approaches to treatment that have been effective for my clients including: individual and group therapy for anger management. A therapist who can observe and analyse your behaviour from an impartial perspective, can help you with your reality testing. A therapist knows many effective frustration and anger management strategies and will be able to help you develop a personalized set of strategies for changing both your thinking and behaviour. Depending on your needs, your therapist may work with you on breathing or meditation exercises to reduce frustration, safe and appropriate emotional and physical techniques to release frustration, communication, or cognitive restructuring (a method for disputing and changing the way you think). Relaxation and exercise simple relaxation tools such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery can help calm down feelings of frustration and anger. Breathing deeply, from your diaphragm, will help while breathing from your chest won't relax you. While breathing, you can slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as \"relax, \"calm down\" or \"take it easy. Non-strenuous exercise, like yoga, can relax your muscles and make you feel much calmer. Strenuous and vigorous exercise can also help you to work off frustration and angry feelings. Frustration can have a highly damaging impact on our frame of mind. It can turn a positive person into a person who sees nearly everything as a problem. It can slow you down, inhibit your progress, and at times completely immobilize you. We can become so wound up with our frustration that we do not, and cannot, think or act rationally. Our frustration can often exacerbate a situation and create a vicious circle. If we are convinced that our actions are not working, no matter how hard we try, we are much more likely to reduce, rather than increase, our chances of success. Remember, you cannot eliminate frustration. In spite of all your efforts, things will happen that will cause you frustration and anger. Life is filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others. You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you. If you feel that your degree of frustration is really out of control, if it is having an impact on your relationships and on important parts of your life, you might consider counselling to learn how to handle it better. Please contact me privately on this site or another therapist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8028424382209778}
+{"content": "I was recently honored with the task of photographing the Albuquerque/Rio Rancho Arthur Murray Dance Studio Showcase. The building was so full of beautiful dancers and dreamers that my breath caught. Their nervous excitement was tangible. These were people who were so full of joy, love, and wonder that they shone like stars on the dance floor. \n\nI myself am a dancer so I understand the intense feelings their faces conveyed as they danced across the stage. Dance is a form of expression; it can be uplifting, sorrowful, and passionate. Dance allows one to fly; fast, slow, calmly, and heated. \n\nSo heres to flying! Through life and across the dance floor!\n\nTo purchase any of these photographs, click here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9950113892555237}
+{"content": "How Do Researchers Apply for Grants Through Cancer Foundations?\n\nDifferent foundations may have different rules for researcher grant applications but, in general, researchers must prove that they meet a set of eligibility requirements that each foundation sets for itself, and they prove that they meet these requirements through their applications. Each foundation may supply its own application and have a unique application process. For example, researchers who want to apply for a grant through the Prevent Cancer Foundation need to access and make an account on the foundation's online proposal center and then fill out the online application, states the foundation's official website.\n\nCancer research grant applications must typically prove certain things about the people or organization applying for the grant. Like a job application, a cancer research grant application gives applicants the opportunity to prove that they can successfully do the job; in this case, the job in question is performing relevant research on cancer.\n\nSome cancer foundations may require that grant proposals are peer reviewed by qualified scientists and research professionals as a part of the application process. For example, the American Cancer Society focuses its funding efforts on grant proposals that are peer reviewed, notes This is because the ACS wants to focus on research projects that have the greatest chance of providing useful information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5526205897331238}
+{"content": "How Do You Install Steel Fence Poles?\n\nTo install steel fence posts, mark the location of each post, then remove any obstacles to digging a hole in that location, such as rocks or gravel. Also ensure that the ground around the fence post is level. With a fence hole digger, create a hole for each fence post that is approximately 2 feet deep.\n\nHammer a thin steel stake into the bottom center of the hole to hold the fence post upright and in place. Fill the bottom of the hole approximately two-thirds full of gravel. Place the steel fence post over the stake and force it into the hole until gravel encompasses the bottom of the fence post. Use a level to ensure the post is vertical within the hole, then fill the rest of the post hole with wet concrete.\n\nAn alternate method starts with digging a hole three times the width of the post and one that allows for one-third of the post to be underground when installing steel posts. Then, fill the bottom of the hole with 6 inches of gravel and compact it with the end of a 4-inch by 4-inch piece of lumber. Center the post in the hole and press it firmly into the gravel. Use braces to hold the post in place and check with a level to ensure the post is straight.\n\nFill the hole with dry fast-setting concrete mix, allowing approximately 4 inches of space at the top of the hole. Add 1 gallon of water to the hole for every 50 pounds of fast-setting concrete mix in the hole. Allow the mix to set for four hours before putting weight on the post.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999138116836548}
+{"content": "readers react: List of 50 banned words is 'ridiculous'\n\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- readers can't figure it out. Why would the city seek to ban 50 words and terms such as \"birthday\" and \"Halloween\" from some standardized tests taken by students in our schools?\n\nwalcott-2.JPGView full sizeSchools chancellor Dennis Walcott might be the only one applauding the list of words he wants to exclude from some standardized tests.\n\nChancellor Dennis Walcott says he's being sensitive to the diversity represented in the city. Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays, for example. \"Halloween\" has its roots in a pagan ritual, which could cause discomfort to some test-takers.\n\nTo be sure, the city is not seeking to remove these words from classroom discussion or regular exams.\n\nBut still, readers aren't buying the move to suppress them from some standardized tests.\n\nAlmost 97 percent of the 1,500+ readers who responded to our online poll say they the chancellor's logic makes no sense to them. Just three percent thought Walcott's move is a good idea. commenter turbomom included a dozen banned words and terms when giving her reaction: commenter moosie added these thoughts:\n\nCommenter jules echoed moosie's thoughts:\n\nMany, however, don't blame Walcott. They say that the buck stops with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in these situations.  HolgerDanke says:\n\nHaven't voiced your opinion yet? Vote in our poll and share your views in comment section below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9664821624755859}
+{"content": "Regardless Of Lifestyles We’re Too Numerous To Be Sustainable – Countercurrents\nTo survive and live well we must reduce our population back to 2 billion as it was 80 years ago. Why did we allow our world population to keep growing to an unsustainable 7.4 billion, and passing on to our children the task of feeding and managing 9 billion people on a planet of degrading soils, acidifying and rising oceans[Read More...]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9830361604690552}
+{"content": "In More’s famous work an explorer and sailor describes his visits to an island called Utopia (‘Nowhere land’). The authoritarian laws of English society are critically compared to those on Utopia, where all things are owned in common, there is universal state education for men and women, and differences in religious beliefs are tolerated. More entrusted the task of seeing Utopia through the press to his friend Erasmus, asking if the book could be ‘handsomely set off with the highest of recommendations, if possible, from several people, both intellectuals and distinguished statesmen’. Erasmus, who knew how to promote books, duly asked friends to write letters and poems praising the book, in a manner similar to the cover quotes used by publishers today.\n\n\nIn Latin; 108 pages, 192 x 136 mm\n\nNineteenth-century English binding by Thompson: green goatskin with blind and gold tooling", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7020072937011719}
+{"content": "\n\n\nMale hypogonadism is a clinical syndrome caused by a lack of androgens or their action. Causes of hypogonadism may reflect abnormalities of the hypothalamus, pituitary, testes or target tissues. Increases in the amount of testosterone converted to estrogen under the action of the enzyme aromatase may also contribute to hypogonadism. Most aspects of the clinical syndrome are unrelated to the location of the cause. A greater factor in the production of a clinical syndrome is the age of onset. The development of hypogonadism with aging is known as late-onset hypogonadism and is characterised by loss of vitality, fatigue, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, somnolence, depression and poor concentration. Hypogonadal ageing men also gain fat mass and lose bone mass, muscle mass and strength.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9850646257400513}
+{"content": "An expository essay on malaria\n\nCurrently,Studies show that any increase in the disease burden of malaria as terms of dalys is an unsustainable development. Falciparum malaria is the worst kind, and kills the most plasmodium enters the blood, they are then called sporozoites.\n\nSimply, this can be explained as the prevalent rate of each infection in each setting. For some malaria, if you get bitten now and you take treatment now, at the same time, by the time the treatment kicks in, it would have been already too late for you.\n\nFocusing on the clinical presentations, the common manifestations of concurrent malaria and dengue infection include high fever and myalgia[10]–[17]. Clinical diagnosis of malaria and the risk of chloroquine self-medication in rural health centres in burkina faso.\n\nSome malaria parasites remain in the liver and are not released until later, resulting in unaffected mosquito becomes infected once it feeds on an infected individual. Department of ational society of travel ational association for medical assistance to an society of tropical medicine and ation for safe international road s for disease control and prevention: icide a, microscopic view of cellular to, adult feeding on the a, microscopic view of cellular a, photomicrograph of cellular ive system a is a parasitic disease that involves high fevers, shaking chills, flu-like symptoms, and findings and perspectives on medical g up with travel threats around the .\n\nSome cause a more severe type of malaria than a symptoms can be classified into two categories: uncomplicated and severe licated is diagnosed when symptoms are present, but there are no signs to indicate severe infection or dysfunction of the vital form can become severe malaria if left untreated, or if the host has poor or no ms of uncomplicated malaria typically last 6 to 10 hours and recur every second day. Concurrent malaria and dengue infection is a scenario that both malaria and dengue exists in a patient at the same time.\n\nMore detail is in the main a is spread by mosquitoes, and it cannot pass directly between ms resemble those of flu, but, without treatment, the effects can sometimes be long-term and ers, hikers, and campers can protect themselves with medication, pest control, clothing, and 100 types of plasmodium parasite can infect a variety of species. Al control units set up should keep data on the epidemiological surveillance and the information should be sent to the national malaria control 1 | page 2 | us | links | contact us | subscribe | epihc.\n\nVaccine for malaria would be a noble gift to africa and other areas a is endemic and should be intensified. Vyas, md, phd, assistant professor in medicine, harvard medical school, assistant in medicine, division of infectious disease, department of medicine, massachusetts general hospital.\n\nBased on this report, it can assume that there is a high chance of concurrent infection in this setting. To topwhen to contact a medical professional call your health care provider if you develop fever and headache after visiting the to people who live in areas where malaria is common have gotten some immunity to the disease.\n\nDrainage ditches in les larvaethe anopheles mosquito lays eggs in stagnant control is one way to stop malaria. Mosquito-borne infectious disease is accepted as important tropical infections and is the focused topic in tropical medicine[1]–[3].\n\nMalaria day was established in may 2007 by the 60th session of the world health assembly, who's decision-making body. I want just a hint plz tell er 9, 2013 3:25 article is full of facts and well understood by the english speaking communities; only it lacks the information pertaining to the management of drug side effects such as hypoglycemia induced by quinine when taken by patients with severe malaria and have taken nothing per oral.\n\nDays, but the malaria parasite will begin multiplying during this new malaria parasites are then released back into the bloodstream, where they infect red blood cells and multiply further. Of interest, some areas with high prevalence of both malaria and dengue such as those countries in southeast asia have never reported any cases of concurrent malaria and dengue ing to the report by carme et al in french guiana, the specific rate of concurrent malaria and dengue infection from overall febrile patients was equal to 0.\n\nIt is dependent on its host for you should know about moniasis is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by a microscopic parasite. But some people can get symptoms after only a week, and some may be infected with malaria and not have symptoms for a most common symptom of malaria is fever, when the body temperature is high.\n\nCurrent and past themes include the following:World malaria day 2017 - \"malaria prevention: let’s close the gap\". Who contracted malaria failed to take the right types of anti-malarial medications prescribed will depend on the area you visit.\n\nOnly the anopheles mosquito can transmit successful development of the parasite within the mosquito depends on several factors, the most important being humidity and ambient an infected mosquito bites a human host, the parasite enters the bloodstream and lays dormant within the host will have no symptoms for an average of 10. In some places, ddt may be a useful part of a program to stop malaria.\n\nFalciparum in the , many seizures, or long no treatment is given, death often if treatment is given, 15%-20% of people with it es (if only one seizure happens it is not cerebral malaria). Is no doubt that in a tropical country, the high prevalence of malaria and dengue can be seen.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7810983657836914}
+{"content": "[BibTeX] [RIS]\nSegmentation of legal documents\nType of publication: Inproceedings\nCitation: loza09segmentation\nBooktitle: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law\nYear: 2009\nMonth: June\nPages: 88--97\nPublisher: ACM\nLocation: Barcelona, Spain\nAddress: New York, NY, USA\nISBN: 978-1-60558-597-0\nURL: http://www.ke.tu-darmstadt.de/publications/papers/loza09segmentation.pdf\nDOI: 10.1145/1568234.1568245\nAbstract: An overwhelming number of legal documents is available in digital form. However, most of the texts are usually only provided in a semi-structured form, i.e. the documents are structured only implicitly using text formatting and alignment. In this form the documents are perfectly understandable by a human, but not by a machine. This is an obstacle towards advanced intelligent legal information retrieval and knowledge systems. The reason for this lack of structured knowledge is that the conversion of texts in conventional form into a structured, machine-readable form, a process called segmentation, is frequently done manually and is therefore very expensive. We introduce a trainable system based on state-of-the-art Information Extraction techniques for the automatic segmentation of legal documents. Our system makes special use of the implicitly given structure in the source digital file as well as of the explicit knowledge about the target structure. Our evaluation on the French IPR Law demonstrates that the system is able to learn an effective segmenter given only a few manually processed training documents. In some cases, even only one seen example is sufficient in order to correctly process the remaining documents.\nAuthors Loza Mencía, Eneldo", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998612642288208}
+{"content": "Contributed by Kelly Spring\n\n[This is the 5th in a series -- see also the 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th installments about ECU's migration to ArchivesSpace.]\n\nPirates aren’t normally known for their housekeeping skills. Cataloging pirates, however, are an entirely different story. In their quarters, name and subject authorities are kept as neat and tidy as possible. At ECU, authorities were added to finding aids by Special Collections Cataloging via a database external to Archivists' Toolkit. Given our move to ArchivesSpace for archival metadata with a simultaneous transition to Fedora for digital objects, the migration team needed to make some decisions about future workflow, guidelines, and storage of agents and subjects.\n\nInitially, the team wasn’t sure if authorities would be duplicated across Fedora and ArchivesSpace, and, if so, which would be the database of record. But we’re not in the practice of raising a red flag on our own crew. Instead, we decided to create one central repository for authorities that will service both the digital objects in Fedora and the archival collections in ArchivesSpace. This repository is being developed in Fedora and will use linked data to connect with information on the Web and increase visibility of our resources by making them readable and accessible by machines. In other words, it’ll be as if we’ve gone from dancing a jig on our own vessel to participating in a pirate flash mob! \n\nTo prepare us for our dancing debut, our Lead Programmer began by pulling subjects from the local database and organizing them in a spreadsheet by type and number of substrings. He then downloaded the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) dataset and created a trimmed down version to make loading and searching easier. Much like a game of cribbage, he created a console application to pull the local subjects from the spreadsheet and search for a match in the trimmed down authorities file. Unlike cribbage, if a match was found, the associated LCSH URI was added to the spreadsheet. If no match was found and there were multiple substrings, the last one was removed, and the new value was searched. Play proceeded through a succession of hands until all parts of the subject were searched, and, in the end, any unmatched subjects were considered locally sourced.\n\nThe finished subject mapping went to Special Collections Cataloging for review. A similar set of steps was completed for name authorities. Although the review of subject and name mapping is still underway, when completed the subjects will be added to Fedora, resulting in a newly minted, locally authoritative URL for each subject. \n\nCurious how the data is structured? For all you linked data pirates out there, the relevant predicates in the triple are\n\n  • rdfs:label used for the full authoritative string value of the subject\n  • owl:sameAs used to hold an LCSH URI, if it exists in the spreadsheet\n  • rdf:list used to hold an ordered list of hashed URIs that each reference rdfs:label/owl:sameAs pairs that hold the substring values and any corresponding LCSH URIs.\n\nIn landlubber speak, an rdfs:label might be “Pirates.” An owl:sameAs link would point to the authority in the Library of Congress database, in this case, And the rdf:list would hold a list of references to subdivisions of “Pirates” such as \"Pirates--Spanish colonies\" or \"Pirates--Social life and customs.\"\n\nBlisterin’ barnacles, with this new structure to our data how will the cataloging team create, edit, and assign authorities? The Lead Programmer is building a web application on top of Fedora that will manage our authorities and integrate with ArchivesSpace. The application will communicate with Fedora to facilitate the creation, editing, searching and export of authority data and will communicate with ArchivesSpace to facilitate the creation of links between authorities and resources. The authoritative values for names and subjects will flow from Fedora to ArchivesSpace, but not vice versa. This gives catalogers the ability to maintain a shipshape authoritative list of names/subjects while continuing to allow archivists the ability to maintain contact information and other data not normally found in an authority.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7937629222869873}
+{"content": "\nLearn more.\nCreated 9/3/2018 | 0 Likes\nA series of coffee and dining table by Elisa Ossino for Salvatori, ‘Proiezioni’ takes its name from the Italian for “projections’ and refers to the effect of light on stone. The patterns created by inlaying different shades of stone evoke the idea of an invisible cinema with shafts of light creating a play of shadows and strong geometric shapes. Whilst the collection is based on the idea of inlaid stone, we also offer each table in a simpler version, with the top in a single colour paired with legs in a contrasting stone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9965224862098694}
+{"content": "Aucerna Solutions \nOperational Scheduling\n\n\n\nEnsure You Can Hit the Productions Dates You Promised\n\nOperational Scheduling\nCapabilities & Benefits\n\nCentral Scheduling\n\nAvoids time consuming, and error prone, manual reconciliation between multiple schedules. Build and manage drilling, completion, land, facility, etc. schedules from a single location. \n\nDaily Readiness Tracking\n\nFullintegrated with Aucerna Execute Readiness workflows to ensure that the status of anyreadiness milestones (permits, regulatory steps, licenses, etc.) are visible within the schedule. \n\nAutomated constraint validation simplifies schedule reviews and ensures the schedule meets constraints around activity dependencies, seasonal restrictions, resource availability, drilling obligations, etc.  \n\nProgress Monitoring\n\nEnsure that changes to the schedule are made with understanding of the impact to related activities, and that those changes are shared with the entire team. \n\nDrag and Drop Functionality\n\nMake quick drag-n-drop updates to drill order and activity timing directly on the schedule. See the effect of daily schedule changes on dependent activities.  \n\nBuilt in Integration\n\nTrust your decisions and tell the complete story with integration between planning and execution by tying Enersight with Aucerna Execute. Organizations can do this by integrating their budget with asset development in Enersight to ensure alignment between operations and planning teams. \n\nRequest a Demonstration", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8159279823303223}
+{"content": "Commodity Futures Order Types\n\nArticle Index\n\n\nCancel a Commodity Futures OrderStraight Cancel (Straight \"Can\")\n\nThis completely eliminates a previously placed order. Keep in mind, a futures “market” order cannot be canceled because it will be filled immediately.\n\nCancel/Replace (Modify)\n\nThis cancels and replaces a previous order by changing the price, type, or quantity, but you cannot replace the commodity or contract month. Depending on the futures trading platform being used, it might or might not be possible to modify a working order into a GTC (Good ‘Til Canceled) order designation.\n\nIn most commodity futures markets it is possible to cancel/replace a working stop loss or limit order into a market order, but futures contracts traded on the ICE exchange (Intercontinental Exchange), typically cannot be modified into a market order. In this instance, it is necessary to cancel the existing order outright, and enter a brand new futures order ticket to buy or sell the futures contract at the market price.\n\nFollow Carley Garner on Twitter", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8994069695472717}
+{"content": "Kathy Ryan\n\nFor Viewfinder\n\nThe landscape of photography through her lens.\n\n\nPortrait by Philip Montgomery\n\n\nKathy Ryan is the Director of Photography for The New York Times Magazine. She creates alluring, energetic, and authentic photo stories on a weekly basis with an approach that includes taking risks by sometimes hiring young photographers for large commissions and seasoned veterans for jobs outside their usual range.\n\nShe believed in me when I was a young photographer, and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. She's been so encouraging. We’ve collaborated on many memorable projects over the years. In 2004, I went underwater with the US Olympic Swim Team for one of my earliest projects. In 2010, we rigged a giant swing on top of a 38 story building over Manhattan for the musician MIA to soar. And just last year we shot for 24 hours straight, over two dozen couples passionately kissing driving around the city on top of a double decker bus.\n\nKathy’s passion and belief in the impossible makes her an asset to the photographic community. She is a mentor, a motivator, and simply a lover of the art form. She finds the humanity in the image. No gloss, no attitude—it's about the poetry in the photograph. She always says she wants our photos to be “One for the ages.”\n\nRyan McGinley\n\n\nBy Mo Mfinanga\n\nAugust 7, 2019\n\nEstimated 40 minute read\n\nKathy: You and I have something in common. We're the only two who've made photos of Joanna.\n\nMo: It's the Joanna Milter Portrait Club. [both laughing] She told me about your guys' relationship in our interview, so I'm curious to hear your side of the story. \n\nKathy: When she came to the magazine it was very exciting. She was clearly somebody who had a great visual and narrative sense. As you know, she came from the film industry, not from photo editing. I was impressed by her energy, intelligence, enthusiasm, and knew she definitely had the instincts to be a storyteller. So I started giving her assignments to produce.\n\nMo: What were some of the most memorable parts of working together in those 11 years?\n\nKathy: I would say the Great Performers was always a big, ambitious thing we worked on together. That would involve both of us going to LA for a shoot, so I would say that was always a thrilling experience.\n\nMo: What was the process like working on those?\n\nKathy: It was basically coming up with an idea for someone to both direct and photograph. The challenge with that to find someone who was both a filmmaker and a great photographer because we didn't want to split it. If we split it, first of all, it would separate the two things and we only have so much time with the actors. So if you're going to have a three hour window with an actor, one hour of which is hair and make-up—or sometimes two hours—then we don't want to lose any of that valuable time. Part of the challenge was creative brainstorming [too].\n\nMo: This series happens every year right before the Oscar season, yes?\n\nKathy: Yes, the lead-up to the Oscars.\n\nMo: So when does the conversation start in terms of working on it?\n\nKathy: It never starts early enough. [laughing] We always try to say we're going to start immediately in the beginning of the year, but we're generally in high gear talking about it... oh god, I don't know.\n\nJack Davison for  The New York Times Magazine ,  Great Performers: The Portraits , 2016.\n\n\nThe photography that stays around is the photography that gets people in the heart.\n— Kathy Ryan\nPhilip Montgomery for  The New York Times Magazine ,  Great Performers , 2018.\n\n\n\nMo: What does downtime look like at the magazine, if there is any?\n\nKathy: We have no downtime. You know how other weeklies, like The New Yorker, or New York Magazine, have certain weeks where they don't put out an issue, they’ll do a double issue to have a week off? We've never done that. It comes out every single Sunday. So as fast as one is closing, we're in high gear producing the next ones coming.\n\nMo: How do you balance your personal life and working on the magazine?\n\nKathy: I'm not the one to ask. [both laughing]\n\nMo: Does Kathy Ryan have hobbies? \n\nKathy: Yeah, Office Romance, which happens to also be in this building! That's the weird thing—that's literally what I do with my extra time. It's a very small postage stamp of where I exist. I mean, that's not the only thing I do, [though]. I look at a lot of art. So my hobbies would be Office Romance, making pictures in this building, going to galleries and museums, and going to the theater.\n\nMo: I mean, the word 'relax' usually isn't in our industry’s dictionary. We love what we do so it contributes a huge amount to what we occupy our lives with.\n\nKathy: I consider it a great gift to work with pictures in any form, like producing photography for a magazine, but also looking at pictures for inspiration. However, pictures not only in the sense of photography but also painting—in other words, imagery.\n\n\nOffice Romance\n\nOffice Romance is a series of vignettes that visualize Kathy's observations at The New York Times building.\n\nLearn more here\n\n\nMo: Is there anything recent in your life that has made you look at photography differently?\n\nKathy: You know, I would say, and it's just so obvious, but the huge surprise of Instagram and this tremendous accessibility both to other people's pictures and putting your own pictures out there. I would never have foreseen that. It's a complete revolution.\n\nMo: And getting to see the response in your work, like with Office Romance.\n\nKathy: Yeah, it's fun. It's a dialogue. That's the part that I think is very cool about it. You said something on Instagram about this interview series encouraging creativity in others and I love that. That's what the most positive thing about Instagram is. All sorts of people create images who might not have even thought of themselves as photographers. And then the ones who were photographers to begin with, by occupation, they can be in control of their work. There's total authority. There's no more going through galleries. Sure, it's still great to have a gallery or museum show, but if you're doing some great work and you really believe in it, you can put it out there.\n\n\n\n\nMo: What encouraged creativity in your childhood?\n\nKathy: I was a kid who was always drawing. So when I was little I'd be drawing and painting. I'm one of six siblings, and one of my sisters who's a year older than me also loved to draw. My parents would buy discounted rolls of wallpaper. Not the plastic kind, but the paper kind, so that we could roll it out and do these long epic drawings on the reverse side of the paper. Money was tight, so instead of getting fancy drawing pads they'd get us those. I loved that so I was always doing that.\n\nKathy Ryan in 3rd grade.\n\nKathy Ryan in 3rd grade.\n\n\nKathy: Earlier when we were talking about when you realized you loved cars, I flashed back to when I was in sixth grade. The boys in the class used to bring in car magazines and they would give them to me, point out something in a car like a grille or wheels, and ask me to draw it. And then I would go home that night and I would draw the detail that was important to them. It was extremely good because for the first time in my life I felt like I was popular with the boys. I always loved drawing so the same applied in high school.\n\nKathy: Before I went to college—Douglass at Rutgers University—I was toying with [the idea of] going to an art school, but I wanted to get a general degree. Ultimately, I ended up majoring in art and art history. I didn't do any photography at all. Didn't even think about it. It was all painting and lithography because at that point Rutgers had a great lithography studio so I did a bunch of printmaking there. \n\nKathy: When I first graduated my dream was to be a painter and I was painting a lot but I also needed to make a living. The advantage of going to Rutgers was that I paid my way through college 100-percent. It wasn't what kids have to go through today. I had to take out some loans but it wasn't huge. So the only time I didn't work while I was in college first semester freshman year, but from then on I always had a job. \n\nKathy Ryan with one of her paintings after college.\n\nKathy Ryan with one of her paintings after college.\n\nMo: What jobs did you have?\n\nKathy: In the summers I waitressed. During the year I had a job in the student center. My senior year I was one of the student center assistant night managers which was a big deal so that was kind of cool! [both laughing] I had a regular job when I was 12. Three days a week after school I would go to babysit for a family that had three kids. The oldest of the three kids was 11 so that's how mature I was for them to hire me. [laughing]\n\nKathy: So then in college, one summer, I had a job in a penicillin factory and that was great because it paid a lot.\n\nMo: How much were you getting paid an hour?\n\nKathy: I think I was getting paid $12 an hour at that point. Waitressing was always good, too, because of the tips. I was doing all of that and grateful that I didn't come out of college saddled with loans, but I had to work hard all the time.\n\n\nNew York\n\n\nRyan McGinley for The New York Times Magazine, The New York issue, 2018.\n\n\nMo: What was your perception of New York before you came here?\n\nKathy: My perception was that it's where I needed to be from the moment I was born. I was raised in a small town in New Jersey, called Bound Brook. I was always, always, always going to New York. I don't remember, even for a second, thinking there was anywhere else that I needed to be, so it was always a question of, How do I get there? One of the advantages of going to Rutgers is that it's so close. My senior year I had an internship in New York one day a week. So I was starting to make that transition.\n\nKathy: When I graduated in June, I painted in the studio during the day and waitressed at night for almost three months. I realized I didn't have the temperament to be alone all day. I liked making art but not the isolation it required, so I wanted to work with pictures and people. Somebody told me about Sygma, the photo news agency. They were looking for a librarian who would archive all the photos that their photographers were shooting around the world and sending in. I applied and got hired on September 15th. I went in on that Friday morning and the director of the agency, Eliane Laffont, interviewed me very quickly and said, \"You're hired.\"\n\nMo: What do you think she saw in you at the time?\n\nKathy: She's French and I think I remember her saying, \"She has a nice face,\" in French. [both laughing] I think she just saw that I looked serious and committed, but who knows. So then I said, \"When do I start?\" And she responded, \"But of course now.\" So they pulled up a chair, found a spot for me, and I started working. That night my parents called to see how the job interview went, and told them I got hired and was already working there. I was there for six years and then got the call to come to The New York Times Magazine.\n\nMo: What did those six years prepare you for at The New York Times Magazine?\n\nKathy: It gave me a love of photography. The more I worked at Sygma, the more I began to love photography as a medium. So that's what I think I gained there. Up until that point, my background had been overwhelmingly fine art. Being at Sygma—where they had news photographers—gave me an ever broadening sense of journalism and photography as a narrative storytelling medium. That was new for me. I didn't even have the confidence to apply to The New York Times Magazine. I held it in such regard.\n\nKathy: Peter Howe was the director of photography of the magazine at the time. In those days, a photo editor at the magazine would call Sygma maybe a couple of times a week and ask for a selection of photos on different topics. It was all pre digital. Let's say it was at the height of the Iran hostage crisis, if The New York Times Magazine was doing a story on that, my job would be to pull a selection of pictures of that news story. So Peter saw my eye and the kind of edits I was putting together so he must've thought I had the sensibility that would work well in The New York Times Magazine.\n\nMo: How has your relationship with New York evolved the longer you work and live here?\n\nKathy: I still love it as much as when I first came here. I love it. I love the energy, the creativity, the people. They're just fascinating. Even last night, after a long day, I got on the subway and still looked up and down the subway car thinking this person is interesting because I love the way her hands look; this person is interesting because of this. Almost on every subway ride there will be five people whose story I want to know.\n\nKathy: I like that no matter where you go, there's something. That's not true everywhere else. Whereas here you can step outside your door and by the time you get to the corner there's been something that's been visually striking or some situation you want to know more about.\n\nI would always rather take a big chance on something where I’m not quite sure how it’s going to play out, because if it works it’s more memorable.\n— Kathy Ryan\nAlex Prager for  The New York Times Magazine,    How Maya Rudolph Became the Master of Impressions   , 2018.\n\n\n\nMo: One of the things I love about this city is that it feeds your curiosity.\n\nKathy: Totally! And it's an incredible walking city, as you know. Anywhere you want to go, you can walk that area. And the abundance of art is amazing.\n\nMo: Do you find yourself listening to music or the city when you're walking?\n\nKathy: I just listen to the city. I never listen to music when I walk. I've thought about it but honestly I don't think I'm coordinated enough. It's interesting because I have wondered why I don't. Do you listen to music while walking?\n\nMo: I try to strike a balance of both. When I do listen to music I want it to contribute to the scene or neighborhood I'm in. Sometimes the music harmonizes with what's happening in front of you to the point where you feel like you're in a movie. But when you’re listening to the city you're able to hear what's happening before you see it. I was talking to Andre Wagner about this and he listens to the city.\n\nKathy: It's funny because you would think since photos are silent, then closing off one of the senses—hearing—might help your seeing to become more incisive and clarifying but none of us do that. Very few people say that they're going to put on headphones so that they hear nothing and let all the stimuli come to them visually.\n\nKathy: I sometimes think if I had music on if it would help to inspire the improvisational instincts. Like, in other words, one of the things with photography that I think is cool is to not always be in control of what you're photographing and to be more improvisational. \n\nKathy: Last night I watched a documentary on Basquiat and he was so improvisational, or look at Jackson Pollock when he's splashing paint—it's improvisational. So over and over, there are artists who are doing something loose where the interior emotions just come out without going through the cognitive intellectual judging mind, and instead it comes from some other place—music helps that. And in particular in jazz music or atonal, Phillip Glass-like music. I like when it's that; that overlapping quality. It makes sense that Basquiat listened to jazz because he managed to leap into another orbit that the rest of us would never have been able to visit, except we could do it through his paintings.\n\n\n12 Performers Show What It Takes to Make It in New York\n\nBrenda Ann Kenneally photographs performers at work around the city for the 2019 New York issue.\n\nView the story here\n\n\n\nMo: Is there space for improvisation while making the magazine?\n\nKathy: I think so. We're at our best when we're thinking about the content of the story that we're trying to make an assignment or thinking about the photographer and what their mindset and artistry will bring into it. Things are most exciting when you somehow bend the genre a little bit. If you can figure out a way to do something unexpected... Like, I would always rather take a big chance on something where I'm not quite sure how it's going to play out, because if it works it's more memorable. There are different ways of doing that. \n\nKathy: We just did our annual New York issue in early June. As we met together and brainstormed what the theme would be, ultimately, we came up with this notion of live performance, that at any given moment in this city there is performance going on. There are thousands and thousands of people in this city who love to perform. Some aren't famous and well known but they're performing every day: The piano bar guy in a fancy hotel; someone on the subway car; the sword swallower at Coney Island; the broadway star. We decided to feature 12 performers and we should take a documentary approach with the photography.\n\nKathy: First of all, that's going to be a beautiful world. We had a ballet dancer, an opera singer, and we're gonna get backstage! We're going to have that incredible beauty and I wanted to capture the sweat, beauty, passion, and desire to perform. So then I thought who would be a good documentary photographer for this who would shoot in color. Color oftentimes signifies contemporary a little more than black and white. Black and white, as we all know, is very friendly to photography and we all love it for that reason. \n\nKathy: So then I thought it would be really cool to do the entire issue with one photographer, which we don't really do. So I assigned Brenda Ann Kenneally and it was thrilling. Her book Upstate Girls is honestly one of the best photo books of the decade. It features the families of Troy, New York where Brenda was from. \n\nKathy: So we assigned 12 performers. Once we had selected the 12 performers to feature, Brenda just went for it and I love what she did. The whole issue has the rhythm, intensity, and intimacy of her work. You're inside, you're behind the scenes, she's everywhere. So the improvisation is just that. To be in a meeting, walk in there and think, We have 12 assignments so we'll have 12 photographers. But then go, No! We're going to just go for one!\n\nMo: And Sasha Arutyunova's beautiful work in the issue...\n\nKathy: Those videos! They were amazing. They were incredible. She's really something else. I love the energy and gracefulness she uses as she moves around the subjects. And I want to give credit to Amy Kellner. She had the idea to bring in Sasha on that so I said, Let's go for it. And Rory Walsh, as well, who also works on the photo department. The two of them produced the stills and video shoots in the issue. They did a lot of the work of getting Brenda inside access. \n\nKathy: I'm so busy I couldn’t go on any shoots, but I would have given anything to be on one of those shoots with Sasha just to see her in action. Amy was describing to me that the sword swallower swallowed the sword eight or nine times just so that Sasha could figure out when she went to do the one take, where she was going to be with the camera. I love that.\n\n\n\nAmy Kellner\n\nNYT Mag Senior Photo Editor\n\nOn working with Kathy\n\nWorking with Kathy at the magazine is so much fun. She's really up for anything. The sky's the limit, creatively. Even some of my craziest ideas that I propose almost as a joke, thinking, Oh, they'll never go for it—Kathy will say, \"I love it!\" and the next thing you know, Maurizio Cattelan is making 1960s Betty Crocker Jell-O salads for our Food issue cover story.\n\nOne of my greatest joys (albeit toughest, most stressful production jobs, but don't get me started on that; we're here for Kathy and she is all about positivity) was getting to put my otherwise useless knowledge and love of horror films to good use for our annual Great Performers issue. Again, Kathy is so amazingly open to creative input, to trying new photographers and filmmakers, and to anything that will make a unique, memorable image. And that's how you end up with goth-legend photographer/filmmaker Floria Sigismondi shooting Nicole Kidman screaming at the top of her lungs, smashing plates and writhing around on a kitchen floor for our annual Great Performers issue.\n\nThis year's New York issue was another standout. Working with Kathy and my co-producer, Rory Walsh, on that issue was a treat: getting to see incredible performers like Pedrito Martinez, and working with brilliant artists like Brenda Ann Kenneally and Sasha Arutyunova. Producing these things at our constant hyper-fast pace is hard work—no question—but I'm grateful to Kathy for creating such a positive environment of limitless creativity that makes it all worth it.\n\n\n\nGoing Digital\n\nJR for  The New York Times Magazine ,  Madonna at Sixty , 2019.\n\n\n\nMo: What were the conversations like when your team made the transition to digital?\n\nKathy: Technology is always evolving. Jake Silverstein, our editor-in-chief, sets the vision for the magazine. He inspires us with the big vision for the magazine and he constantly challenges Gail Bichler, our designer director, and me and our teams to come up with ideas to bring it to life. We regularly have lots of creative meetings figuring out new ways to bring our story-telling to readers. Video, of course, was one of the new mediums. We're still constantly evolving and learning.\n\nKathy: With digital, there are so many options. You have the desktop, then you have mobile, so it's us constantly figuring it all out. The great thing is that there is always something new which is fantastic. The tough part is that this is what most people now see us on.\n\nMo: We're in a time where some people are discovering the magazine for the first time online.\n\nKathy: That's interesting, [but] it's a good thing. that we have so many people subscribing to us online. It's fantastic that The New York Times is building its readership all the time. It was only a short time ago that there was a real question whether people would pay for information. There was this belief that this generation would assume all information is free, and it's obviously expensive to produce the kind of journalism that we do.\n\n\n\nGail Bichler\n\nNYT Mag Design Director\n\nOn working with Kathy\n\nI consider myself lucky to be able to work with Kathy on a daily basis and to have such a strong partnership with her. She and I are very much on the same page creatively. We often get together to brainstorm the art approaches for stories or to discuss commissions. It’s not unusual for us to have similar thoughts on photographers or independently have the same idea about the type of imagery that would work for a piece. Even with our shared vision, we have personal perspectives that influence our approach.\n\nKathy frequently leans towards telling a human story. She is attuned to the subtleties of the imagery and brings a lot of historical context to things as well. I’m often considering how the image will work in the layout, or work with our typography, and particularly, with the cover, looking for something that feels very graphic and poster-like.\n\nMany times I find that I’m looking at an image differently after our discussions since she brings incredible vision and intelligence to everything she touches.\n\n\n\nA Family Portrait: Brothers, Sisters, Strangers\n\nEli Baden-Lasar set out to search for each of his half-siblings. All 32 of them.\n\nView the story here\n\n\nEli Baden-Lasar, the photographer, sitting on his mother’s bed in the home where he grew up in Oakland.\n\n\nDawson Johnson, 20, near the home where he grew up in Memphis; he works as a taekwondo instructor in Jackson, Tenn.\n\n\nDaniel Claypoole, 19, older brother of Zeke and Grayson Barrett, in the living room of the house where he grew up in Clovis, N.M.\n\n\nAnna Grace Bond, 19, in a field between her mother’s and grandparents’ home in Wiggins, Miss.; she attends college nearby. Fletcher Bond, 19, is currently in the Air Force.\n\n\n\nJessica Dimson\n\nNYT Mag Deputy Director of Photography\n\nOn working with Kathy\n\nI was inspired by Kathy long before I began working with her nearly 3 years ago. I saved copies of the magazine as a teenager and became captivated by contemporary photography through the artists and photographers she commissioned. Kathy represented my early notions of what a photography editor was. It was apparent to me, even then, that she was not just publishing incredible work; she was making great work happen. Those can be considered two very different endeavors in our field, but Kathy’s gift involves weaving them together in every commission.\n\nKathy is deeply curious and constantly inspired. But it is her sheer optimism that propels so much of the great work she does and inspires those who work with her. It’s the reason she is rarely ever daunted and takes the leap when others might shy away. Eli Baden-Lasar’s photo essay of his 32 half siblings is a perfect example. Eli had never undertaken a magazine commission before and he came to Kathy with just the beginning stages of a sprawling and complex project, but she knew immediately that it was going to be something memorable and important.\n\nRecently, when I was becoming discouraged by how an assignment was coming together, Kathy sent me an email that continues to resonate with me. She wrote: “You have to believe. You have to have faith. We can do big things.” That is the essence of Kathy.\n\n\n\nMo: The recent photo essay with the 32 siblings seems to underline how photography can be used as a medium that allows us to connect with each other. Was that something you were conscious of when working with Baden-Lasar?\n\nKathy: Yes, from the moment I first met with Eli and saw the initial couple of photos he had made of his siblings I knew this was an incredible story and something we had to do. This was a case where Eli’s very personal story of his journey to meet and photograph his siblings would have enormous relevance to our readers because it beautifully explored a newly evolving form of family. There are many children born from sperm donors who are now discovering they have lots of siblings.\n\nKathy: Jessica Dimson, our deputy director of photography, worked closely with Eli over the next nine months, producing the story as Eli traveled around the country, photographing his siblings. We had many creative discussions with him over that time period, developing it and figuring out the text and quote components, and then Gail Bichler worked with Eli on the cover concept. \n\nMo: Another thing I’d like to ask is how you continually sharpen your focus and vision at the magazine?\n\nKathy: That's a really good question. I think, first and foremost, I look at new work as much as possible. I’m regularly seeking out the work of people who are coming up in the field. I did portfolio reviews for The Bronx Documentary Center last month—a terrific way to meet photographers. I do The New York Times Portfolio Review which was earlier this year. It gets such a huge turnout. It's a fantastic place to discover talent.\n\nMo: You guys also bring in photo editors from other publications, too, yes?\n\nKathy: Yes! Lots of them. Not only photo editors come in for it, but photographers from all over the world. Credit to James Estrin who got the whole thing started. So that's a great thing to do. And then there's NYC SALT, an afterschool program for high school students in New York. It teaches them photography, guides them through the college application process, and is just an incredible program. They are mentoring some really incredible photographers. It was a SALT exhibition a couple of years ago that I first saw the work of Mamadi Doumbouya.\n\nMamadi Doumbouya for  The New York Times Magazine ,  Megan Rapinoe on Keeping the Politics in Sports , 2019. Mamadi is the sole photographer of the magazines regular  Talk  column that appears three times a month.\n\n\nKathy: His portraiture is defined by a rich, vivid color sensibility that is uniquely his. Several months after I saw his work in the show at SALT, we started working on our annual Voyages photo issue. The theme we landed on for that issue was family vacations. We wanted to show family vacations on  all the continents. And we were researching trying to figure out who was going to shoot it and on what kinds of occasions. \n\nKathy: While researching what to do in Africa, I saw that Eid was going into fall within the time period that we could shoot the pictures and make our deadline. So I thought of Mamadi. At the time, he hadn't had a magazine assignment from anyone yet, but the photos he had in the SALT show were phenomenal. So I asked if he had family in Guinea who celebrate Eid and if they do, do they travel somewhere (which would mean it could qualify as “voyage” for us? And he said, Yes, absolutely. His family members gather in their ancestral village and they usually rent a vehicle that approximately 15 of them travel in. So alright, that's a voyage! I asked if he'd like to go and he said yes. So we sent him to go to Guinea to document that and he did such a beautiful job. I can't tell you how thrilling that was. \n\nMamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Magazine, The Voyages Issue, 2017.\n\n\nMo: Is there something you want to continue—or start—to explore?\n\nKathy: I feel like I'm exploring all the time. I'm always looking for someone new to bring into the magazine or for an exciting assignment for a photographer who has been working with us for years. Part of the fun is to match a legendary photographer with a new and unfamiliar subject. I consider us very, very fortunate that we can sometimes work with someone like Lee Friedlander. A while back when I asked him what he would want to do for us, he said if we could get him behind the scenes at the fashion shows in New York, he'd like to shoot that as part of his ongoing documentation of workers.\n\nKathy: I feel like a lot of it is trying to figure out new approaches to familiar stories. One of the most challenging things in journalism is that stories repeat themselves. Certain things play out in our world and culture over and over again. You have to make it feel fresh or urgent. There's a responsibility there with The New York Times Magazine. The photography cannot be boring. It has to be good. It has to be provocative. It has to be meaningful. \n\nKathy: The last thing you want to do is put something out that doesn't touch people in some way. And photography is interesting because you want to touch the reader with the beauty of something; be it the composition, the graphics, or light. Ultimately, when the day is done, the most important element is that you touch them emotionally. The photography that stays around is the photography that gets people in the heart.\n\nMo: And there's an element of time. Who knows how a cover will age over the years.\n\nKathy: It takes on a different resonance. As the years get layered on, the photograph resonates differently and that's what's so fascinating with photography. It gets better with time because it takes on an element of nostalgia and it captures a period that's gone. The minute you make that photo, time moves on no matter what, especially in a city like this. I really learned that and that's why I urge young photographers if you have an idea that captures your interest then do it. Things will change.\n\nKathy: If I were to pick up my phone right now and take your photo without framing or looking at you, then I'm going to get a document of what you look like at this moment and time on this Saturday afternoon sitting in The New York Times. But then the desire is to make something where I'm in more control. Are you looking at the camera? How's the light? There's thousands of other questions that come up but the document is handed to you. If I'm photographing you, do I want to emphasize your eyes or the placement of you in this room? And when you're commissioning a photographer, you're often commissioning them based on what you think they're going to emphasize; what they're going to call your attention to.\n\nMo: LaToya Ruby Frazier is someone that came to my mind when you just mentioning finding a photographer who will call your attention towards something. What do you find in her work reflects that?\n\nKathy: LaToya is a brilliant photographer whose work deals with the ways in which communities are affected by the decline of industry in their cities. When she saw the announcement last winter that GM would be closing some of their factories and laying off thousands of workers, she proposed doing a photo essay on the workers whose lives would be upended by this decision. Jake Silverstein green lighted the project and then Jessica Dimson and I worked closely with LaToya in producing the photo essay. LaToya went to Lordstown, Ohio a number of times over several months making connections with the members of the local union. Her ability to gain the trust of her subjects and her keen eye led to powerful, touching portraits.\n\n\nThe End of the Line\n\nA photo essay by LaToya Ruby Frazier that explores the repercussions of a factory shutting down in Lordstown, Ohio—a factory town.\n\nView it here\n\n\nKesha Scales with her friend and former co-worker Beverly Williams.\n\n\nDave Green, the president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, in his office with the local's financial secretary, Rick Smith (standing), and vice president, Tim O'Hara.\n\n\nVickie Raymond at her parents' home.\n\n\n\n\nKathy: We think a lot about the emotional undercurrent and tone of what our photographers will bring. Do we want someone who will bring a critical eye? A critique of a social situation unfolding. Do we want someone who's going to bring a warm, nonjudgmental eye? There are a million different things that photographers see in the world, and generally speaking, the better the photographer the more they are homed in on the way they see. They tend to be less flexible but that lack of flexibility is often intertwined with their greatness. They see something in a certain way and the universe that unfolds before them can only be seen that way. \n\nMo: Adding on that, how do you make sure that we're getting a wide variety of perspectives from photographers with different backgrounds?\n\nKathy: It's very, very important to have a diverse range of point of views, for sure. That literally defines The New York Times Magazine. We cover everything from politics to culture or how-we-live-now stories. Science, hard news, art... We kind of cover it all. We're very international; almost every issue has an international piece in it. And that demands a very expansive group of photographers. We want to have work that changes things up.\n\nMo: How do you challenge yourself to do that?\n\nKathy: Let's say a subject is coming up in the magazine. I try to think of a way to portray this subject in a way that hasn't been done before. Okay, that's a challenge. You can't always meet that bar. But I start out with every assignment aiming to do something fresh and unexpected with the subject matter. Sometimes that means assigning an art photographer. \n\nKathy: Let's say it is someone who does something very specific in their artwork. This could be the moment when there's the appropriate journalistic assignment to match that person with. Perhaps there's room for lots of poetic license within the assignment; perhaps we don't have to be so specific. \n\nKathy: Last year, we did a Voyages issue where we had Karine Laval photograph the whispering aspens in Utah. Stacey Baker, a senior photo editor, had the idea to assign Karine. The photographs she made were wonderful, almost abstract canvases of color—it was a perfect moment. We're still in the rounds of working on the upcoming Voyages issue but I can say that it's going to have a lot of poetic license. There will be a lot of room for art photography where the photographer can do something deeply personal, maybe somewhat abstract and resonant. We kind of look for those moments.\n\nKathy: I've had a great time working with Idris Khan, who's a wonderful artist who shows with the Sean Kelly Gallery. I've loved his work for years. He’ll layer a number of pictures on top of each other so you have this kind of vibrating, pulsing picture. We did an issue on London at one point and I asked Idris to photograph the most familiar landmarks—like the most cliché things that could represent London. But in his hands, he took it to a whole other place. So when we have that opportunity to do something like this, we go for it.\n\nMo: And you want to serve it justice, yes?\n\nKathy: Yes, I like that you said that because that's another responsibility I feel. We have to serve the subject justice. And there's lots of ways you can interpret that. We're talking about commissioning and bringing into life a photograph that's so special it does justice to the subject. We're only going to do that subject in that week’s issue so please let us bring a photo into being that's memorable and will stand the test of time. When you just asked me the question now you made me think of the things we consider when we photograph a political candidate.\n\nKathy: The cover issue we closed recently was with Elizabeth Warren. If we're going to put a presidential candidate on the cover we think a lot about the emotional tone of the portrait. It's tricky because we have a lot of democratic candidates out there right now. So we decided to go for a direct, straightforward approach. We assigned Sharif Hamza who made a beautiful, elegant picture. No heavy duty lighting. You'll see, it's a little more classical than what we might do with another subject, but this subject—a democratic candidate for president, in this particular race, at this particular moment in time—demands an authentic you-be-the-judge kind of portrait where the reader can come to it and look at her without seeing too much visual commentary. \n\nMo: How do you know if it's authentic?\n\nKathy: I think with photography if somebody is looking right at you and they're lit in an even way, that's authentic. Whereas if you're trying to dramatize something you might bring in harsh light. But then again, is photography ever authentic? [both laughing]\n\nPhoto Illustration by Idris Khan for  The New York Times Magazine , 2012.\n\n\n\nMo: We touched on this a little bit, but what do you find are some of the narratives or themes lacking within young photographers? We can't cover every photographic landscape, so I want to put a disclaimer that this is in the context of editorial photography.\n\nKathy: I mean one subject that's sort of out there in a big way, and you're going to laugh because it clearly interests me: Working in an office. [laughing] Name ten photographers in the past ten years who have taken life in offices as their subject matter. Almost no one touches it. Why? Because it's not sexy! \n\nKathy: There are certain subjects that by nature are like honey to photographers [such as] ballet. It's stunningly beautiful and will be endlessly fascinating for photography. But lots of people don't take on other subjects and office work happens to be one of them. Also, climate change. I would challenge photographers to think of vivid, visual ways to tell the story of climate change. It is one of the most important subjects of our lifetime and it's a hard one to tell. \n\nKathy: We've seen lots of great photo essays on climate change, in particular, all the great work on the melting glaciers in Greenland but we need to find additional visually compelling ways to tell the story of climate change. We've got the whole planet earth, it shouldn't be hard. I'm glad that there's a much more diverse group of photographers working in editorial photography. Lots more women and people of color are coming into the field and making pictures that broaden the human stories that are told. I love that because it's an explosion of talent. I would say that's the most exciting thing happening now.\n\nMo: We're starting to see this overdue blossom of diversity in artists, but one thing I was recently talking to a friend about was how we've noticed the situation of having a black photographer photograph a black subject, a female photographer photographs a female subject, and so on and so forth. So how can we make sure we're contributing a variety of voices without pigeonholing people into their own race or sexual identity?\n\nKathy: I agree, that's a challenge. There's been a shift and I take the long view because I'm older than you. [both laughing] I love that you raised that question because you have a few things happening. One, the great news is that there's this abundant, diverse range of photographers working now and often wanting to be connected with subjects that reflect their own ethnicity. But you're right, at the same time you don't want to segregate the assigning, which I've always made it a point not to do. I'm always trying to match people to something they wouldn't expect. So I think the answer to it lies in case-by-case. \n\nKathy: With each assignment, we’re thinking about it from all directions. We're also thinking about it from a pure formal kind of picture making: Is it a muscular composition? Is there an intense, high-contrast light? We think about all those kind of questions, and more. Another important concern is the knowledge or history the photographer brings. Are they familiar with the subject? It’s helpful and often necessary if you’re sending someone to Sudan or Afghanistan that you send someone who has familiarity with that territory or kind of photojournalism.\n\n\nEditorial World\n\n\nMo: What concerns you in the photo community?\n\nKathy: What's scaring me in the photo community is that magazines are folding their print editions on a regular basis. I find that heartbreaking. Every time I see an announcement that a magazine is going online-only a little bit of my heart breaks. I feel for your generation. Sure, great, new, other things come up. On the one hand, there's this huge world online, but there's something about holding print in your hands where it's been beautifully laid out, the photographs have been sequenced, the typography has been designed, it's at a certain size... I just hope the business side can sustain that.\n\nKathy: Editorial doesn't pay like it used to and there are more and more photographers coming in so it's gotten harder to get the jobs. And trust me, I know. The number of photographers now wasn't like this when I started. \n\nMo: It's more accessible now. \n\nKathy: Yeah, and I think it's also because people love it. There's more of an awareness of what a fun, meaningful, and incredible thing it is to do with ones life.\n\nMo: I believe we're going to see a cultural shift on the attention that photography has within the next decade. \n\nKathy: I think that's right. \n\nMo: Knowing that the editorial budgets aren't there anymore, how can we best serve the time and energy of photographers commissioned?\n\nKathy: We luckily still have the same budget for producing photography—knock on wood. Granted, it's still an editorial budget so we have to keep an eye on all the expenses of course. I think what we can do is what we already do: give people opportunities. It's a symbiotic relationship. If a photographer is doing great work, we benefit because it makes us look good to put out an issue with wonderful photography. \n\nKathy: And If we give somebody a great assignment, the photographer benefits because they enter into a world that they can document that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. It's happened a number of times over the years when I've made an assignment at the magazine that the photographer continued to pursue the subject afterwards, and that's always exciting to see. The only thing we can do is to keep creating opportunities and matching photographers to assignments that will help their bottom line—but also be meaningful in an artistic and journalistic level.\n\nWe have to serve the subject justice.\n— Kathy Ryan\nChristopher Anderson for  The New York Times Magazine ,    The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close   , 2016.\n\n\n\nMo: What are some of the things you wish to see more in established photographers? \n\nKathy: Oh, god, I don't know! I want to see them work for us. [both laughing]\n\nMo: Who are some of the photographers that fall under that?\n\nKathy: The problem with me saying that is it's tipping off my competition! [laughing] But I can tell you some. I've always wanted to work with Vera Lutter. She's on our wishlist. I mean, the work she does is so impressionistic it translates reality, so it has to be the right match for that to happen. I will regret saying this if six months from now she does a big portfolio in The New Yorker. [both laughing] I would very much like to work with Deana Lawson, too. We've asked her but haven't succeeded yet in connecting on an assignment.\n\nMo: For you, is there a burning question about photography that hasn't been answered yet?\n\nKathy: [Chuckles] Hmm.\n\nMo: I'll let the readers know that this was a 50-minute pause.\n\nKathy: A 50-minute pause! [both laughing]\n\nKathy: I guess one of the questions I have is, How does originality manifest itself? I'm probably partly saying this because I just watched that Basquiat documentary, but how does originality surface? How did his ideas come into being? Why is it that there are certain people, whether painters or photographers, that have a leap of originality in their work. Why does it spark?\n\nMo: I would naively assume that two elements that come from originality are curiosity and self awareness. I think if an artist is curious enough to inspect something and aware enough to act on it while adding their upbringing as a foundation, then I'm sure that has a significant factor in originality.\n\nKathy: Curiosity and self awareness; that's interesting.\n\nMo: I used to have a rule on reading at least three interviews a day and they were rarely of photographers. Usually the subjects were comedians, actors and actresses, musicians, and others. So a common thread I observed was how curious these people were. In one’s youth curiosity usually has two paths. You're either curious or you're not. It's either encouraged or not, you know? From birth our accessibility to the world grows as we grow so if we continuously act upon that then maybe—maybe—that's a core ingredient of originality.\n\nKathy: I love what you're saying but I have a little bit of a different feeling on this. [both laughing] I think it's desperation and obsession. On one hand as a photo editor, I'm desperate to publish good photography. So when we're going to assign something like The New York issue then I feel a great sense of desperation. I get so anxious because it has to be memorable, like last year’s kissing covers by Ryan McGinley. \n\nKathy: So it's a desperation to not waste that Sunday's issue. And that's not every week! Sometimes we're doing an issue and the possibilities aren't great, but when it's The New York issue or Voyages photo issue—or a similar issue—it's an opportunity that cannot be missed. And it would be horrifying to me if it isn't a good issue because we have to wait another year for the next one and lots of people get these issues.\n\nKathy: So, for obsession, it's clear that the best photographers are obsessed. Once somebody gets obsessed with something, like the way red could intersect with black, such as Christopher Anderson channeling that in his work; or high contrast shadows and black and white—you have Jack Davison; or the myriad of colors that can fall across the face—you have Mamadi Doumbouya; or human stories demanding to be told—Brenda Ann Kenneally. Those four photographers all became obsessed. You can see it in their work. \n\nKathy: Brenda has spent thousands of hours in Troy, New York photographing the people who live there. That's obsession. Or when I come in here on a Saturday morning because it's sunny at 9 a.m. to make Office Romance photos after a long week, I know that that's some level of obsession. I can't seem to get control over it but at least I get some photos out of it.\n\nKathy Ryan by Philip Montgomery for Emmazed, New York, 2019\n\nKathy Ryan by Philip Montgomery for Emmazed, New York, 2019\n\n\nMo: Where does the purpose in your work lie?\n\nKathy: I think the purpose is to add to the dialogue in some way that brings clarity. This is done by producing good photography that illuminates a subject and moves people emotionally.\n\n\nFurther Reading\n\n  • Joanna Milter\n  • “It's about broadening the tent and bringing in more new and up-and-coming photographers.”\n\nEditor's Endnote\n\nIt was a memorable experience spending a couple of hours with Kathy at The New York Times earlier this summer. I’ve never quite witnessed anyone else as passionate about photography as her. I’m extremely humbled to have Ryan contribute such a heartfelt intro. A million thanks to Gail, Jessica, and Amy for being involved in this piece. And Philip—the portraits he made out of this piece captured a silent intimacy often layered in his work. It was a bucket of fun producing this. Thanks for reading.\n\nMo Mfinanga\n\nInterview has been edited and condensed for clarity purposes. Photos courtesy of The New York Times Magazine.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5016118288040161}
+{"content": "Resilience & Coping\n\nResilience is often described as the ability of the individual to bounce back after having experienced hardship. Resilience is mostly based on personal strengths, resources, and psychological capital.\n\nThe Connor Davidson + Brief Resilience Scales (Incl. PDF)\n\nconnor davidson resilience scales\n\nThe Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was developed by two researchers - Kathryn M. Conner and Jonathan R.T. Davidson. Connor is a psychiatrist and a researcher at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Her research is focused on stress, anxiety, social anxiety, medications, and resilience. Davidson is a Professor Emeritus […]\n\nWhat is Coping Theory?\n\nWhat is coping theory\n\nWhat is your first reaction in the face of sudden stress? Do you make a plan to overcome it? Talk it out with your friends? Avoid confronting the situation? Or try to hide the fear by resorting to comfort food or other substances? There are so many different ways of […]\n\nWhat is Post-Traumatic Growth? (+ Inventory)\n\n\nAs they say, trauma is a nightmare that comes while we are awake. Not only is it difficult to overcome trauma, but it also takes tremendous effort and perseverance to do so. But suffering has transformative power. Be that in religion, poetry, philosophy, or literature - the general understanding of […]\n\nHow to Become Mentally Strong: 14 Strategies for Building Resilience\n\nhow to build mental resilience\n\nHow resilient are you? Some people seem to quickly bounce back from personal failures and setbacks, while others find it much more difficult. When life knocks you down, are you quick to pick yourself up and adapt to the circumstances? Or do you find yourself completely overwhelmed with little confidence […]\n\n23 Resilience Building Tools and Exercises (+ Mental Toughness Test)\n\nBuilding Resilience\n\nThere is a buzz about resilience recently. Resilience is the ability to recover from setbacks and adapt to challenging circumstances and is required to thrive and flourish. It is a foundational psychological tool which empowers us to feel effective and capable of handling uncertainty. Despite this definition, there has been […]\n\nResilience Theory: What Research Articles in Psychology Teach Us (+PDF)\n\nResilience theory\n\nExperiencing the loss of a loved one, sexual abuse, violence, and war; these are the things that shape us. Life will continuously be a balance between peace and turmoil. That is the reality of the human experience. When faced with tough times, others encourage us to push through and be […]\n\nTeaching Resilience in Schools and Fostering Resilient Learners\n\nTeaching Resilience in Schools\n\nTeachers who teach resilience might change the trajectory of their student's lives. It is not easy to teach resilience in the classroom, but it is crucial. Teaching resilience is beyond memorization, calculation, and other traditional learning methods. It requires interaction and engagement. Resilience is about the process of becoming, which children […]\n\nHow to Beat Stress, Trauma, and Adversity with Resilience\n\nHow to beat stress\n\nTo be able to handle most things in life… Why is it that some people, when faced with adversity, will be forced to defend themselves against further onslaught and erect barriers while others will transform it into a challenge and marshal all their abilities to meet it head on? Our […]\n\nWhat is Emotional Resilience and How to Build It? (+Training Exercises)\n\nEmotional Resilience Theory\n\nHow do you collect yourself after a stressful event? Emotional resilience is when you are able to calm your frantic mind after encountering a negative experience. It is intrinsic motivation, an inner force by which we can hold ourselves through all the downsides of life. Just like other aspects of […]\n\nResilience Skills, Factors and Strategies of the Resilient Person\n\nResilience Skills and Strategies\n\nMental health encompasses far more than the mere absence of disorders. There are a number of dimensions when it comes to positive mental health, one of which is resilience. Resilience is the process of being able to adapt well and bounce back quickly in times of stress. This stress may […]\n\n20 Best Resilience Books For Creating Mental Toughness\n\n20 Best Books on Resilience\n\nResilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness or the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. (Oxford Dictionary, 2018). Resilience is something that is within each of us, but how we use it, and how well are key determinants in […]\n\nWhat is Eustress And How is It Different than Stress?\n\nWhat is eustress in psychology\n\nIn this article, we will explore the way in which eustress - what I call positive stress - may provide a long-lasting solution to the pervasive “distress” which may be creating harm in our lives. “Imagine feeling capable of handling whatever life throws at you, without having to panic, overreact, […]\n\nResilience Training: How to Master Mental Toughness and Thrive\n\nMastering Mental Toughness\n\nDo you know someone who keeps on keeping on, no matter what life throws at them? How do they continue to thrive, flourish, and grow even stronger as they overcome the obstacles they face? The answer is resilience – which the APA describes as: “The process of adapting well in […]\n\nWhat is Resilience and Why is It Important to Bounce Back?\n\nWhat is resilience and can it be learned\n\nOne of the most popular topics in positive psychology—both in the field itself and in mainstream discussion of positive psychological concepts—is resilience. To some, resilience is a sort of “miracle drug” personality trait, something that can heal all wounds and right all wrongs. While resilience may not be the end-all […]\n\n19 Resilience & Adversity Quotes That Will Inspire and Empower You\n\nJ.K. Rowling\n\nBuilding resilience is an important part of growth and change. There are several ways to cultivate and inspire resilience in people. A good start is finding a sentence that resonates with you. It empowers you, motivates you, and becomes a mantra you internally chant to yourself every day. Words can […]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6418197154998779}
+{"content": "Ode to john keats\n\nThese poems, with their rich and exquisitely Ode to john keats detail and their meditative depth, are among the greatest achievements of Romantic poetry.\n\nThe altar and town exist as part of a world outside art, and the poem challenges the limitations of art through describing their possible existence. Of these structural elements, the preface was discontinued in his next odes and the setting is reduced within the other odes until the scene is merely implied.\n\nAnd, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. It appeared in July, by which time Keats was evidently doomed. According to the tenets of that school of poetry to which he belongs, he thinks that any thing or object in nature is a fit material on which the poet may work Background[ edit ] The entrance to Guy's Hospital in Early inKeats left his poorly paid position as dresser or assistant house surgeon at Guy's HospitalSouthwarkLondon to completely devote himself to a career in poetry.\n\nHe realized that it was his death warrant, and from that time sustained work became impossible. In the opening line, he refers to the urn as a \"bride of quietness\", which serves to contrast the urn with the structure of the ode, a type of poem originally intended to be sung.\n\nThe final stanza begins with a reminder that the urn is a piece of eternal artwork: Agnes, and Other Poems Endymion: As he relates himself to the mythical character of Cupid, he confuses the god's emotions with his own and imagines that he too has fallen in love with the woman's beauty.\n\nThis subject was forced upon Keats by the painful death of his brother and his own failing health, and the odes highlight his struggle for self-awareness and certainty through the liberating powers of his imagination.\n\nBut the rich, slow movement of this and the other odes suggests an enjoyment of such intensity and depth that it makes the moment eternal. My own opinion concerning the value of those two lines in the context of the poem itself is not very different from Mr.\n\nIt is a poem about things\". Keats himself fails to appear as a character in the poem, as there is no mention of the poet himself suffering from melancholy. As stone, time has little effect on it and ageing is such a slow process that it can be seen as an eternal piece of artwork.\n\n\nOde on a Grecian Urn\n\nIt is art, but art that cannot be viewed and has no physical form. He seems to have been averse to all speculative thought, and his only creed, we fear, was expressed in the words— Beauty is truth,—truth beauty\".\n\nOde to a Nightingale Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos \"Ode to a Nightingale\" is the longest of the odes with 8 stanzas containing 10 lines each. The audience is not supposed to question the events but instead to rejoice in the happy aspects of the scene in a manner that reverses the claims about art in \"Ode to a Nightingale\".\n\nHis friends Brown, the Hunts, and Brawne and her mother nursed him assiduously through the year. The same overall pattern is used in \"Ode on Indolence\", \"Ode on Melancholy\", and \"Ode to a Nightingale\" though their sestet rhyme schemes varywhich makes the poems unified in structure as well as theme.A summary of Ode to a Nightingale in John Keats's Keats’s Odes.\n\nOde to a Nightingale\n\nLearn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Keats’s Odes and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. John Keats: John Keats (–) wrote lyric poems, such as ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn,’ that are notable for their vivid imagery and philosophical aspirations.\n\nKeats’s poetry became influential after his death and was recognized in the 20th century for. Ode to a Nightingale - My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats -.\n\nOde to a Nightingale Poem – Summary & Analysis\n\nEnglish Romantic poet John Keats was born on October 31,in London. The oldest of four children, he lost both his parents at a young age. His father, a livery-stable keeper, died when Keats was eight; his mother died of tuberculosis six years later.\n\nJohn Keats is a poet who was born in and died in 'Ode to a Nightingale' was written inand it is the longest one, with 8 stanzas of 10 lines each and is one of six famous odes John Keats wrote.\n\nOde to john keats\nRated 3/5 based on 61 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8002747297286987}
+{"content": "Worker Behavior Changing by Dynamic Culture\n\n  • Type:\n    Conference Presentation\n  • Conference Type:\n    AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety\n  • Presentation Date:\n    April 30, 2013\n  • Duration:\n    30 minutes\n  • Skill Level:\n  • PDHs:\n\nShare This Post:\n\n\nThe chemical industries need appropriated project of process to control safety and production avoiding accidents and environmental impacts. The best project criteria include sufficient information about procedures or activities of operators. The execution is essential to successful operations. Improper practices or low quality practices in chemical industry can have a severe and negative impact on the economics. An important research is beginning, studying the change of operator behavior due to cultural changes anticipating the possibility of top events as accidents with fatalities.\n\nCultural aspects occur in different ways and depend of the resultant force that tends to the final and dominant aspect. The cultural aspects are: changes of society, the mass culture influence, the regional aspects, the organizational culture.\n\nThe Chemical industry has some characteristics that must be analyzed in a social group in the Job. They are: (a) automation level; (b) description of critical tasks; (c) type of supervisor and type of managers; (d) work division in the shift and in administrative staff; (e) relations with subcontractors; and (f) hazards and Risk when manipulating these Products.\n\nAn important concern to be discussed is about human factors (HF) that cause product losses & energy losses & time losses during operations at industry. These HF can perform tasks with noise in the mental map damaging the decision, and changing or skipping the steps of the procedures.\n\nThese cultural aspects in the human behavior affect the social relation inside the factories and outside, at the citizens life inside the cities. There are questions about the current events that must be answered and there are social hypothesis to be validated.\n\n\nThere are questions about the current events that must be answered and there are social hypothesis to be validated in this research. (1) What are main cultural changes that influence over human behaviors in Chemical industries and that increases the accidents and incidents? (2) How to detect these cultural changes and what kind of cognitive and organizational barriers can be implemented? (3) What are social emergent factors that cause exclusion or inclusion of workers at job environment? (4) There are kinds of people at work that can trigger people to be dispersed in an informal way? (5) There are aspects in the linguistic that is causing misunderstandings in the task perform?\n\nThe hypothesis discusses the civilizing process and how this process affects the industry performance, your image and your competitiveness. This civilizing process join with the era of consumerism join with internet communication tools producing selfish behavior, including in the work place. The governments are worried (ex: Brazil, Italy) in change the job laws becoming them more and more rigid. The high automation level and complexity of processes are concentrating risks on the workers that are not structured to treat unexpected events.\n\n\nThis social-technical research is non-deterministic and can direct corporative administration to build procedures and documents to change and adjust actual and future industrial sites. When constructing guidelines to CEO, Corporative managers (SHE), and Operational Managers become possible to treat human errors in the social aspects without beginning a conflict with the local society, inside and outside the factory limits. The possibility of happen new emergent facts in the communities must be considered in the Corporative Politics and in their procedures.\n\nThis Methodology is divided in three principal activities: the first activity analyzes the kind of cultures including regional, organizational, and the product consumption aspects (or mass, media), and the respective vectorial strengths in a magnetic field. The resultant vectors inside field of cultures will be named as the technical culture. The second activity is related to identification of human and social elements that are influenced by the culture in different ways. The study of dynamic culture can suggest approach to treat human errors that cause incidents and accidents. The movement of dynamic culture causes changes on behavior and must be understood. The cycles, speed, direction, trend (convergence, divergence, increase, and decrease), quality and other properties must be investigated to infer about human error and about social conflicts trends.\n\n\nThe archetypes caused by each culture in the human behavior and group behavior are discussed. These archetypes and others aspects are researched: guilty culture, the accidented  is responsible by the accident; consequence analysis does not work; no creativity in unexpected events; remembering only about the losses; and gap between practical aspects and policies.\n\nThe behavior of operator, the behavior of administrative staff and the management style at the work station is defined by the information and knowledge base supplied by manager decisions. The operators must perform tasks without noises and mistakes that can affect the process and machine causing process losses (ex: accident). The investigation about Technical culture is important to understand how cultures can affect the behavior.\n\nThe identification of human errors in the cognitive processing that can cause process losing is essential to understand how construct technical and social barriers, in the instructions, knowledge, task, process parameters, in the politics issues, social inclusion, organizational integration, in the human type, in the personal allocation, and other possibilities.\n\n\nThe consequences of cultural changes (after strength relations of their elements) affect human behavior with different ways. It depends on human types, how social emergent aspects drive the behavior, what are the consequences to cognitive machine with intuitive and affective aspects.\n\nThe human behavior type is defined by psychologist and sociologist and can cause human errors with consequent processes losses.\n\nThe social changes can be externalized when some words provoke discordances between people that divide the same environment, as colleagues at work, or students at school, or costumers at market. These emergent processes of an increasing conflict can be evident when the social systems show signals that do not functioning in a correct speed or with the correct signified (Lacan).\n\nThe classification of human error at work station depends of different factors in the events as environment, human behavior, project aspects, cognitive aspects, and task performance aspects. The discussion of human error with its complexity including multidisciplinary aspects can classify derivative human error.\n\n\nThe movement of culture causes changes on behavior that must be understood. The cycles, the speed, the direction, the trend (convergence, divergence, increase, and decrease), the quality, and other properties must be investigated to infer about human error and about social trends to occur conflicts.\n\nThe human errors are intermediary events before top event of process and task. The human errors are related with environments as policy, and social culture. Then, it is essential to investigate about the noises that affect the thinking and fail during decision in the execution of task. There are three cycles interconnected with each other that is focus of research: (a) thinking cycle that show how routine activities are performed and show how new concepts are created to help people when unexpected events are happening; (b) decision cycle that use the economic and environmental utility to choice alternatives and request several memory operations in the mental map; (c) the utility cycle where some analyses about desires and realizations are done: (i) the desires of organization, manager and supervisors are compared with the result of task performed; (ii) the desires of family, citizenship, and friendship are compared with the roles of worker in the society; and finally, (iii) the individual desires (internal values) are compared with the job realizations and others.\n\nThe application of operative groups (Pichon Riviere) in industry allows understand the emergent vectors (or feelings) that cause social conflict and giving sufficient information to treat these conflicts inside and outside of the Company.\n\nThe construction of risky scenario of great impact to the community caused by the chemical industry can show how the mental map is unstructured, and after analysis, allows the construction of a program of activities to avoid these future scenarios. In a progressive way, warnings, uncontrolled process, change of procedures or rules (changing the task, and damage equipment), danger events, and the sinister are presented looking for solutions. The specialist and the observer can take notes about behaviors and conclude what are the trends of the group.\n\nSeveral events constructs the anatomies including typical decisions (rituals) of specific group to indicate vices and social conflicts in the task execution. These anatomies of social events are based on observation and investigation of speech (write, oral). Then, the specialist can identify the principal social diseases to be vaccine and finally is possible to define educational programs and training to change the social and individual behaviors.\n\n\nThe implementation of these analyzes in a sulfuric acid industry allow in a practical way understand the possibilities to avoid human error resultant from social movements into factory.\n\n\n\n\nDo you already own this?\n\n\n\nAIChE Member Credits 0.5\nAIChE Members $15.00\nAIChE Graduate Student Members Free\nAIChE Undergraduate Student Members Free\nNon-Members $25.00", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9599723219871521}
+{"content": "Micah 3\nWesley's Notes on the Bible\n3:1 Is it not for you - Ought not you to understand, and conform to, the just laws of your God. You princes, magistrates, and ruling officers, ought of all men to know and do right.\n3:2 The good - Ye who hate not only to do good, but the good which is done, and those that do it. The evil - Chuse, and delight in, both evil works and evil workers. Who pluck it off - Ye who use the flock as cruelly as the shepherd, who instead of shearing the fleece, would pluck off the skin and flesh.\n3:3 The flesh - Ye who devour the goods, and livelihood of your brethren. Break their bones - An allusion to wolves, bears, or lions, which devour the flesh, and break the bones of the defenceless lambs.\n3:4 Then - When these miseries come upon them.\n3:5 That bite - When they are furnished with gifts, and well fed. Prepare war - They do them all the mischief they can.\n3:6 Night - Heavy calamities. A vision - You shall no more pretend to have a vision, or dare to foretell any thing. And the sun - The hand of God shall be against them, making their sorrows the more dreadful, as darkness by the sun going down at noon.\n3:7 The seers - So called by the deceived people. Cover their lips - Mourners did thus, Ezek 24:17,22. So these shall mourn and pine in their shame. No answer - Because the answer they had formerly, pretended to be from God, now appears not to have been from him.\n3:8 Power - Courage, and vivacity. Of judgment - To discern times and seasons, right from wrong. Might - Resolution.\nThey build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.\n3:10 They - The heads and great ones enlarge, beautify, and fortify, the house in Zion, particularly the temple and the royal palace. Blood - With wealth, which they made themselves masters of by violence, taking away the life of the owners.\n3:11 Lean - Pretend to trust in him. Among us - As our God and our shield.\n3:12 For your sake - Because of your sins. The mountain - The mountain, on which the temple stood. This is that passage, which is quoted, Jer 26:18, which Hezekiah and his princes took well: yea, they repented and so the execution of it did not come in their days.\nExplanatory Notes on the Whole Bible by John Wesley [1754-65]\n\nBible Hub\nMicah 2\nTop of Page\nTop of Page", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.997706949710846}
+{"content": "What can you tell about a coffee based on its origin?\n\nOne of the most prominent pieces of information on a coffee bag is where it was grown, commonly referred to as the coffee’s origin. In most cases in the Speciality coffee industry, this will include the country, region, farm and sometimes even a specific tablon within a farm. The more specific the better.\n\nOrigin is a difficult thing to talk about as a barista. Although there are some very (very) broad generalisations you can make about certain origins, most of the time there are so many other things that influence how a coffee tastes (like varietal, processing and roasting) that origin can take a bit of a “background information” role.\n\nSo, can you look at a country of origin and learn anything about how a coffee will taste? Well…sort of. After you’ve been drinking coffee for a long time you come to expect certain things from certain origins, but you will always always always come across a coffee that completely defies those expectations eventually.\n\n\nPretty much always has pronounced blackcurrant acidity with a cocoa-like finish. Can be very complex and full bodied, but sometimes tastes a bit “green”.\n\n\nYou’ll mainly see Ethiopias from the Yirgacheffe and Sidamo regions. Washed Yirgacheffes taste of bergamot and Assam tea, and natural Yirgacheffes taste like blueberries and sometimes a bit of funk. Sidamos are clean and bright with crisp lemon and floral notes.\n\n\nIf you see a Brazil chances are you’re in for something chocolaty, nutty and biscuity. You probably won’t find bags of fruity acidity, although some natural Brazils can show a cherry-like sweetness.\n\nCosta Rica / El Salvador\n\nClean, complex and balanced. Individual flavours can be a real mixed bag, with huge variation from farm to farm and from coffee to coffee. Usually a pretty safe bet for a good to great coffee.\n\n\nOne of my favourite origin countries. Most of the Colombian coffees I’ve tasted have been balanced and flavourful with a pronounced acidity leading into a long sweet finish. Lots of sugars going on here with plenty of complex acidity to keep it in check.\n\n\nAside from that I really don’t feel confident trying to describe what a coffee will taste like based on where it comes from. As with most things in coffee, the only real way to understand it is to taste a lot of different things!\n\nCoffee is after all a natural product. There are variations and differences in each coffee you’ll try. For my money, trying to find “that one coffee you like” and sticking with it is a bit of a lost opportunity. In a world where there are so many coffees to explore, what’s the point in sticking to one thing? Variety is the spice of life!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9359831213951111}
+{"content": "Excelian Luxoft supports bank with FRTB compliance programme\n\n18 October 2017 Consultancy.uk\n\nIn 2019, banks will have to report under the new FRTB standards. The FRTB, short for the ‘Fundamental Review of the Trading Book’, was introduced by the Basel Committee to address the shortcomings of the current market risk capital framework (also known as Basel 2.5) as well as design a minimum capital standard for market risk to be more uniformly applied across jurisdictions. FRTB projects are already well underway – Christian Marshall and Anthony Hammond, both Directors at financial services consultancy Excelian Luxoft, reflect on how they helped a bank kick-start its transition to compliance. \n\nCan you start by giving us an overview of the project and its drivers?\n\nChristian Marshall: “The project was driven by the need to replace a legacy platform that was many years past its end of life. The bank also had to meet its FRTB obligations and to ensure that these two requirements were met efficiently.”\n\nAnthony Hammond: “The bank already had to replace all their day to day trading systems, which was a major initiative, but also needed to do something light and low cost to get FRTB live, meet FRTB requirements, and provide an excellent pathway to further strategic delivery.” \n\nChristian Marshall: “We had already delivered a proof of concept for integrating proprietary analytics into Murex and the bank had made the strategic decision to proceed with Murex software, but it still required assistance with pre-scoping, functional design and Target Operating before moving into the build and delivery phases. So, the bank wanted our help.”\n\nExcelian supports a bank with FRTB compliance programme\n\nWhat were the key challenges the bank was facing?\n\nAnthony Hammond: “To become FRTB compliant, the key element was the aligning of two programmes. A large-scale and long-running change programme for their Rates business and a lighter Credit programme. We needed to show the bank how to run these in parallel rather than sequentially and have them alight onto the same system, where the lighter one did not design out any features which the longer term one would require at a later date. This meant we had to decouple dependencies between the two, even though they will arrive on the same platform at the end. \n\n“As always, cost appetite was a major concern for the bank, so in the early stages of the project we deployed three senior directors. This allowed for a very short engagement as they worked self-sufficiently for a three-week period, delivering all information back to the company in the formats they requested i.e. through concise presentations and PowerPoint decks.” \n\nChristian Marshall: “Ultimately, we delivered very high level, strategic, pertinent, efficient analysis through over 20 workshops with the various business areas. Often, consultancies deploy a team of 20-30 mid-level consultants coupled with a 150-page document that goes unused.” \n\n“This approach is most effective when a bank has relatively little experience of major change programmes. So when introducing a successful change program, early stakeholder engagement, pre-scoping and requirement gathering to bring stakeholders on-side is critical.”\n\nThree weeks is a very short timeframe for just three people to amass all of the required information, can you describe some of the ways in which you achieved this?\n\nChristian Marshall: “Well, the workshop process was key. Each session was limited to 90 minutes and all were scheduled within a two-week period. Essentially, they were very quick deep dives into parts of the business, which you can only do by having highly experienced individuals with deep business domain and knowledge of packaged software. This meant we could quickly gain buy-in from the stakeholders, establish credibility, get the information and then move on. \n\nQuote Anthony Hammond\n\n“Ultimately, it means there’s no need to ask for business concepts to be explained, we can get straight into the bank’s unique, individual requirements rather than just trying to understand how a bank operates. Again, minimal time is expected from the client and therefore disruption to the day to day process of the business is reduced.”\n\nAnthony Hammond: “Yes, because we’ve completed so many of these projects before we recognise which of the requirements will be bigger and harder - so we can minimise project risk. For example, we spent a lot of time with their front office and quants, advising them on best practice for integration of their own bespoke pricing models. So by efficiently organising our time on other departments we were able to focus more deeply on the areas of greatest concern to the business.” \n\nCan you describe any of Excelian Luxoft’s standard approaches that will be adopted by the bank as a result of the engagement?\n\nChristian Marshall: “Our approach to regulatory projects is almost always to go live with the minimal build possible i.e. the lowest project risk. Go live, get the first stage of the project successfully done and then move onto the bigger things. It’s best to do these in later stages on a platform that’s already been delivered. Why? So that you’re not trying to do 74 things simultaneously with an army of 250 consultants. Keep your project team minimal, keep your project risk minimal and deliver in phases.” \n\nAnthony Hammond: “It was important to establish early on that this was not a technology project, it’s a business change project supported by technology. Often, this approach involves forging tight links between technology and the business and building ‘it can be done’ credibility. In this instance, we put together roadmaps that didn’t just show what we think you should do next, but instead highlighted the parallel activities the bank should do to hit its targets.”\n\nChristian Marshall: “Ultimately, the business needs to see traction. They want to see a programme that’s starting, that sensible people are sitting in the room saying sensible things, and that there’s progress coming in digestible chunks. It’s about taking an incremental, DevOps Agile approach to strategic management consultancy that attunes to the business’s needs.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9540295600891113}
+{"content": "Reflective Journal\n\nAfter attending the Mindfulness course from 22th January 2014, I had new and different feelings compared with the feelings about mindfulness before I attend the course. During those practices, I got some reflections from them.\n\nMindful eating is the practice that help me to discover my habits and notice about the food I eat. When I had the first mouth of one meal, I ate more slowly and I could feel fuller. I started to chew it slowly which is different from my previous eating habit that eat food quickly and take other one at once. However, I can still feel hungry when I doesn’t practice mindful eating. I think the reason behind is that I just chew so fast and then swallow them quickly. I started to know that I consider what I am doing when I am eating but not just rush to put the food into my mouth and eat all the food on the plate.\n\nKnowing what I am eating and doing can help me to eat in a proper size of food and prevent I feel too full. Although I didn’t weight my body weight, I believe it can prevent overeating and thus may help weight loss. Since it can let me know and notice how much, how quickly I usually eat and whether I am full or not. From an unpublished study, it discovered that people that in mindful eating course lost weight an average of around 10 pounds over a year which more than those used weight loss drugs. Moreover, there was a greater reductions in cardiovascular risk factors in people that have mindful eating. (Hobson, 2009)\n\nBesides, it let me enjoy the food I eat. As I love listening to the sounds when I am chewing and biting the food, for instance, having a yoghurt. I could feel the smooth texture from the yoghurt and the sweet taste. I focused and enjoyed the tastes of the food when I am chewing. During the practice, finishing the whole plate of food is not the aim and thus I could notice the textures of the food and enjoy the food Moreover, Referring to a research about the positive impacts of mindful eating, it stated that having a...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7391730546951294}
+{"content": "Specialized Men's Tarmac Pro Frameset\n\nSpecialized Men's Tarmac Pro Frameset\nBlack/Gloss Flo Red/Clean\nPlease select options\n\n\nIf you're obsessed with marginal gains and have the wallet to back it up, we made S-Works. But if you're obsessed with phenomenal performance but have a racer's budget—we know the feeling—look no further than the new Tarmac Pro frameset. It's a blank canvas for your dream build.\n\nFor the construction, we utilized advanced aerospace composite optimization software to revolutionize the construction and layup of our new FACT 10r carbon. It's the most advanced material and schedule we've ever made—the shape, schedule, and material optimization allowed us to shed nearly 200 grams. That's right, a 20% reduction in frame weight—the perfect recipe for your next hill climb PR.\n\n\n\n\n- The FACT 10r carbon frame combines the lightweight performance and compliance of our top-end carbon production methods with our Rider-First Engineered design that ensures every frame size has the same legendary climbing responsiveness and descending prowess you'd expect from a Tarmac.\n\n- The FACT 10r carbon fork with a tapered construction provides incredible front-end stiffness and steering response for instantaneous accelerations and high-speed descents.\n\nPart Numbers\n\nOption UPC MPN Store SKU\nBlack/Gloss Flo Red/Clean / 54cm 888818389377 70618-1054 65503+BK54\nBlack/Gloss Flo Red/Clean / 56cm 888818389322 70618-1056 65503+BK56\nBlack/Gloss Flo Red/Clean / 58cm 888818389353 70618-1058 65503+BK58\nBlack/Gloss Flo Red/Clean / 61cm 888818389407 70618-1061 65503+BK61\n\n\nWrite us a Review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.694405198097229}
+{"content": "Public Release: \n\nMale guppies grow larger brains in response to predator exposure -- but not females\n\nBritish Ecological Society\n\nMale guppies exposed to predators in the wild or in captivity have heavier brains than those living in relatively predator-free conditions, according to new research published in the journal Functional Ecology.\n\nBehavioural ecologists from Liverpool John Moores University, UK and McGill University, Canada sampled guppies from two rivers in northern Trinidad. In each river, guppies live above a waterfall, a location that only guppies and a few other small species of fish have managed to colonize, and below the fall, where many predators including pike cichlids live.\n\n\"Guppies offer an excellent model for evolutionary research because they have colonized multiple independent rivers in Trinidad where they are exposed to a variety of different conditions\", said Dr Adam Reddon, now at Liverpool John Moores University's School of Natural Sciences and Psychology. \"We were particularly interested in finding out how the brains of these widely-distributed fish have evolved for dealing with the challenges of living under predation threat.\"\n\nThe researchers looked at whether there are differences in relative brain mass between wild guppies collected from high and low predation populations and found that, for their body size, males collected from high predation sites had on average 17% heavier brains compared to males from low predation sites in the same river. Female guppies, by contrast, did not show this pattern.\n\nTo test the origins of these findings, the ecologists conducted a laboratory experiment in which they exposed young guppies to cues of predation risk.\n\n\"The brain is a highly malleable organ and experiences early in life can shape how it develops. We wanted to see if the predation effect we detected in male guppies in the wild could be due to experiences in their early life stages\", commented Laura Chouinard-Thuly of McGill University, also an author on this paper.\n\nThe fish were exposed to the sight of a predator living in an adjacent aquarium for five minutes at a time, five times a week during the first 45 days of their life. The researchers also added the scents of predators and an alarm cue released by guppies. Guppies in the control group were exposed to the sight and smells of a non-predatory fish.\n\nAgain, the researchers found that males exposed to predator cues during development had 21% heavier brains than the control group. They found no evidence that the exposure to predation cues influenced the relative brain mass of female guppies.\n\nMales are more brightly coloured and attractive to predators. The results suggest that a larger brain for their body size is advantageous under predation threat, perhaps allowing the fish to detect, learn about or react to predators better.\n\nReddon commented: \"It is also possible that guppies with bigger brains are better at doing two things at once. For instance, males spend a lot of time courting females and it may be that those with a bigger brain can do this while keeping an eye out for predators.\"\n\nBrains can use a lot of energy and are generally only as big as they need to be for animal survival and reproduction. Female guppies are 2-10 times the size of males and tend to live longer. They play a slow and steady strategy to reproduction and so may consistently benefit from paying the high costs of building and maintaining larger brain tissue, whereas male guppies may only benefit under high predation risk.\n\n\nAdam Reddon, Laura Chouinard-Thuly, Ioannis Leris and Simon Reader (2018) 'Wild and laboratory exposure to cues of predation risk increase relative brain mass in male guppies' is published in Functional Ecology on 5 June 2018 and will be available here:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9475789070129395}
+{"content": "Ottonian Manuscript illumination\n\nOttonian manuscripts date back to the 10th and 11th centuries, at a time when Germany and northern Italy were under the rule of the Ottonian, or Saxon, dynasty. During the magnificent Ottonian Renaissance, arts and architecture were characterized by simple, symmetrical motifs with highly humanized features.\n\nRead more\n\nSimilar in appeal, Ottonian manuscript illumination was artful and sophisticated, often draped in gold leaf; bindings too were extremely lavish and elaborate. As illuminated manuscripts are known for being garnished and otherwise decorated in paint, gold, silver, or richly artistic borders, Ottonian manuscripts maintain a most refined reputation among collections of their kind.\n\nKnown to have been developed and produced in medieval monasteries where only professional scribes and other craftsmen resided, ancient illuminated manuscripts from this era espouse stories of ideology and religious plights largely influenced by Byzantine and Roman styles. From the poetic to the dramatic, classic narrations of political theory and dynastic power compile these Ottonian manuscripts.\n\nAvailed as largely liturgical, these artistic treasures were often commissioned by church leaders and well-represented in church practices including services, processions, and memorials. Rich in symbols, form, and color, Ottonian manuscripts have been described as rhythmic and well-designed, telling stories through visual and literary convergence at its best.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9965370893478394}
+{"content": "The number of rooms sold during the summer months will increase year over year by roughly 2.1%. That growth will follow the current trend of record-breaking demand performance in the U.S. However, a healthy supply pipeline that will likely lead to a 1.7% increase in the number of rooms available is expected to keep occupancy growth muted at 0.4%. Additionally, hoteliers are not expected to increase prices at the same level as 2015. \"Average-daily-rate growth, while still positive, is certainly not as strong as we first expected,\" said Jan Freitag, STR's senior VP for lodging insights. \"The ADR forecast for the summer currently stands at around +4%. We expect that muted macroeconomic growth will have a small, positive impact on employment and corporate profit numbers. With that growth should be the desire for the American public to travel and for managers to send their people on the road.\" Freitag also noted that revenue-per-available-room growth was moderate in August 2015 (+1.8%), thus creating the opportunity for August 2016 to be comparatively stronger. Overall, STR projects RevPAR to grow roughly 4.4% this summer. Source: STR", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6444933414459229}
+{"content": "Hi Zane,\n\nAt this stage our implementation (as mentioned in \nwiki<https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Heat/ConvergenceDesign>) achieves your \ndesign goals.\n\n1.       In case of a parallel update, our implementation adjusts graph \naccording to new template and waits for dispatched resource tasks to complete.\n\n2.       Reason for basing our PoC on Heat code:\n\na.       To solve contention processing parent resource by all dependent \nresources in parallel.\n\nb.      To avoid porting issue from PoC to HeatBase. (just to be aware of \npotential issues asap)\n\n3.       Resource timeout would be helpful, but I guess its resource specific \nand has to come from template and default values from plugins.\n\n4.       We see resource notification aggregation and processing next level of \nresources without contention and with minimal DB usage as the problem area. We \nare working on the following approaches in parallel.\n\na.       Use a Queue per stack to serialize notification.\n\nb.      Get parent ProcessLog (ResourceID, EngineID) and initiate convergence \nupon first child notification. Subsequent children who fail to get parent \nresource lock will directly send message to waiting parent task \nBased on performance/feedback we can select either or a mashed version.\n\n\n1.       Failed Resource tasks can be re-initiated after ProcessLog table \n\n2.       One worker == one resource.\n\n3.       Supports concurrent updates\n\n4.       Delete == update with empty stack\n\n5.       Rollback == update to previous know good/completed stack.\n\n\n1.       Still holds stackLock (WIP to remove with ProcessLog)\n\nCompletely understand your concern on reviewing our code, since commits are \nnumerous and there is change of course at places.  Our start commit is \n[c1b3eb22f7ab6ea60b095f88982247dd249139bf] though this might not help ☺\n\nYour Thoughts.\n\nHappy Thanksgiving.\n\nFrom: Angus Salkeld [mailto:asalk...@mirantis.com]\nSent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 9:46 AM\nTo: OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)\nSubject: Re: [openstack-dev] [Heat] Convergence proof-of-concept showdown\n\nOn Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Zane Bitter \n<zbit...@redhat.com<mailto:zbit...@redhat.com>> wrote:\nA bunch of us have spent the last few weeks working independently on proof of \nconcept designs for the convergence architecture. I think those efforts have \nnow reached a sufficient level of maturity that we should start working \ntogether on synthesising them into a plan that everyone can forge ahead with. \nAs a starting point I'm going to summarise my take on the three efforts; \nhopefully the authors of the other two will weigh in to give us their \n\nZane's Proposal\n\n\nI implemented this as a simulator of the algorithm rather than using the Heat \ncodebase itself in order to be able to iterate rapidly on the design, and \nindeed I have changed my mind many, many times in the process of implementing \nit. Its notable departure from a realistic simulation is that it runs only one \noperation at a time - essentially giving up the ability to detect race \nconditions in exchange for a completely deterministic test framework. You just \nhave to imagine where the locks need to be. Incidentally, the test framework is \ndesigned so that it can easily be ported to the actual Heat code base as \nfunctional tests so that the same scenarios could be used without modification, \nallowing us to have confidence that the eventual implementation is a faithful \nreplication of the simulation (which can be rapidly experimented on, adjusted \nand tested when we inevitably run into implementation issues).\n\nThis is a complete implementation of Phase 1 (i.e. using existing resource \nplugins), including update-during-update, resource clean-up, replace on update \nand rollback; with tests.\n\nSome of the design goals which were successfully incorporated:\n- Minimise changes to Heat (it's essentially a distributed version of the \nexisting algorithm), and in particular to the database\n- Work with the existing plugin API\n- Limit total DB access for Resource/Stack to O(n) in the number of resources\n- Limit overall DB access to O(m) in the number of edges\n- Limit lock contention to only those operations actually contending (i.e. no \nglobal locks)\n- Each worker task deals with only one resource\n- Only read resource attributes once\n\nOpen questions:\n- What do we do when we encounter a resource that is in progress from a \nprevious update while doing a subsequent update? Obviously we don't want to \ninterrupt it, as it will likely be left in an unknown state. Making a \nreplacement is one obvious answer, but in many cases there could be serious \ndown-sides to that. How long should we wait before trying it? What if it's \nstill in progress because the engine processing the resource already died?\n\nAlso, how do we implement resource level timeouts in general?\n\nMichał's Proposal\n\n\nNote that a version modified by me to use the same test scenario format (but \nnot the same scenarios) is here:\n\n\nThis is based on my simulation framework after a fashion, but with everything \nimplemented synchronously and a lot of handwaving about how the actual \nimplementation could be distributed. The central premise is that at each step \nof the algorithm, the entire graph is examined for tasks that can be performed \nnext, and those are then started. Once all are complete (it's synchronous, \nremember), the next step is run. Keen observers will be asking how we know when \nit is time to run the next step in a distributed version of this algorithm, \nwhere it will be run and what to do about resources that are in an intermediate \nstate at that time. All of these questions remain unanswered.\n\nYes, I was struggling to figure out how it could manage an IN_PROGRESS state as \nit's stateless. So you end up treading on the other action's toes.\nAssuming we use the resource's state (IN_PROGRESS) you could get around that. \nThen you kick off a converge when ever an action completes (if there is nothing \nnew to be\ndone then do nothing).\n\nA non-exhaustive list of concerns I have:\n- Replace on update is not implemented yet\n- AFAIK rollback is not implemented yet\n- The simulation doesn't actually implement the proposed architecture\n- This approach is punishingly heavy on the database - O(n^2) or worse\n\nYes, re-reading the state of all resources when ever run a new converge is \nworrying, but I think Michal had some ideas to minimize this.\n\n- A lot of phase 2 is mixed in with phase 1 here, making it difficult to \nevaluate which changes need to be made first and whether this approach works \nwith existing plugins\n- The code is not really based on how Heat works at the moment, so there would \nbe either a major redesign required or lots of radical changes in Heat or both\n\nI think there's a fair chance that given another 3-4 weeks to work on this, all \nof these issues and others could probably be resolved. The question for me at \nthis point is not so much \"if\" but \"why\".\n\nMichał believes that this approach will make Phase 2 easier to implement, which \nis a valid reason to consider it. However, I'm not aware of any particular \nissues that my approach would cause in implementing phase 2 (note that I have \nbarely looked into it at all though). In fact, I very much want Phase 2 to be \nentirely encapsulated by the Resource class, so that the plugin type (legacy \nvs. convergence-enabled) is transparent to the rest of the system. Only in this \nway can we be sure that we'll be able to maintain support for legacy plugins. \nSo a phase 1 that mixes in aspects of phase 2 is actually a bad thing in my \n\nI really appreciate the effort that has gone into this already, but in the \nabsence of specific problems with building phase 2 on top of another approach \nthat are solved by this one, I'm ready to call this a distraction.\n\nIn it's defence, I like the simplicity of it. The concepts and code are easy to \nunderstand - tho' part of this is doesn't implement all the stuff on your list \n\nAnant & Friends' Proposal\n\nFirst off, I have found this very difficult to review properly since the code \nis not separate from the huge mass of Heat code and nor is the commit history \nin the form that patch submissions would take (but rather includes backtracking \nand iteration on the design). As a result, most of the information here has \nbeen gleaned from discussions about the code rather than direct review. I have \nrepeatedly suggested that this proof of concept work should be done using the \nsimulator framework instead, unfortunately so far to no avail.\n\nThe last we heard on the mailing list about this, resource clean-up had not yet \nbeen implemented. That was a major concern because that is the more difficult \nhalf of the algorithm. Since then there have been a lot more commits, but it's \nnot yet clear whether resource clean-up, update-during-update, \nreplace-on-update and rollback have been implemented, though it is clear that \nat least some progress has been made on most or all of them. Perhaps someone \ncan give us an update.\n\n\nAIUI this code also mixes phase 2 with phase 1, which is a concern. For me the \nhighest priority for phase 1 is to be sure that it works with existing plugins. \nNot only because we need to continue to support them, but because converting \nall of our existing 'integration-y' unit tests to functional tests that operate \nin a distributed system is virtually impossible in the time frame we have \navailable. So the existing test code needs to stick around, and the existing \nstack create/update/delete mechanisms need to remain in place until such time \nas we have equivalent functional test coverage to begin eliminating existing \nunit tests. (We'll also, of course, need to have unit tests for the individual \nelements of the new distributed workflow, functional tests to confirm that the \ndistributed workflow works in principle as a whole - the scenarios from the \nsimulator can help with _part_ of this - and, not least, an algorithm that is \nas similar as possible to the current one so that our existing tests remain at \nleast somewhat representative and don't require too many major changes \n\nSpeaking of tests, I gathered that this branch included tests, but I don't know \nto what extent there are automated end-to-end functional tests of the algorithm?\n\nFrom what I can gather, the approach seems broadly similar to the one I \neventually settled on also. The major difference appears to be in how we merge \ntwo or more streams of execution (i.e. when one resource depends on two or more \nothers). In my approach, the dependencies are stored in the resources and each \njoining of streams creates a database row to track it, which is easily locked \nwith contention on the lock extending only to those resources which are direct \ndependencies of the one waiting. In this approach, both the dependencies and \nthe progress through the graph are stored in a database table, necessitating \n(a) reading of the entire table (as it relates to the current stack) on every \nresource operation, and (b) locking of the entire table (which is hard) when \nmarking a resource operation complete.\n\nI chatted to Anant about this today and he mentioned that they had solved the \nlocking problem by dispatching updates to a queue that is read by a single \nengine per stack.\n\nMy approach also has the neat side-effects of pushing the data required to \nresolve get_resource and get_att (without having to reload the resources again \nand query them) as well as to update dependencies (e.g. because of a \nreplacement or deletion) along with the flow of triggers. I don't know if \nanything similar is at work here.\n\nIt's entirely possible that the best design might combine elements of both \n\nThe same open questions I detailed under my proposal also apply to this one, if \nI understand correctly.\n\nI'm certain that I won't have represented everyone's work fairly here, so I \nencourage folks to dive in and correct any errors about theirs and ask any \nquestions you might have about mine. (In case you have been living under a \nrock, note that I'll be out of the office for the rest of the week due to \nThanksgiving so don't expect immediate replies.)\n\nI also think this would be a great time for the wider Heat community to dive in \nand start asking questions and suggesting ideas. We need to, ahem, converge on \na shared understanding of the design so we can all get to work delivering it \nfor Kilo.\n\nAgree, we need to get moving on this.\n\n\nOpenStack-dev mailing list\n\nOpenStack-dev mailing list\n\nReply via email to", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.688115119934082}
+{"content": "Black Lives Matter and the Preferential Option for the Poor\n\nBlack Lives Matter and the Preferential Option for the Poor July 9, 2016\n\nThe Black Lives Matter movement is again at the forefront and many have reacted again–almost instinctively–by affirming that all lives matter.  Last week, police Officers in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana shot and killed two African Americans during routine encounters. An African American shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven more in Dallas, Texas. Those who affirm that all lives matter seem to assume that if a person asserts that black lives matter then white lives don’t and neither do the lives of police officers.  Yet, as Bishop Edward Braxton explains:\n\nThe true intent of Black Lives Matter is a plea to all Americans to work to refashion our country so that the lives of people of color actually do matter as much as the lives of white people. It is a call to help us all live in communities in which everyone enjoys equal safety, education and employment opportunities, as well as equal political power and equal treatment by the criminal justice system.\n\n(America Magazine, May 16, 2016 Issue)\n\nTen Candles #2, by Michael Jastremski, creative commons license, at\n\nThe backlash against Black Lives Matters reminds me of the opposition by some Latin American Catholics against the preferential option for the poor.  To be clear: Black Lives Matter has a complicated relationship with the U.S. Catholic Church while the preferential option for the poor developed from within the Church in Latin America.  Nevertheless, the near-instinctive opposition experienced by those who affirm the human dignity of African Americans in the U.S. and the poor in Latin America bears some resemblance.  Some Latin American Catholics believed (and many still do) that if God and the Church have a preferential option for the poor, then they must hate the rich and the middle class.  Others wondered what the suffering of the poor had to do with our faith, since that was their lot in life (a common misreading of Matthew 26: 11).\n\nThe bishops of Latin America discerned the preferential option for the poor as a necessary way to proclaim the Good News of God’s love.  At the time, the social sciences had recently reached a consensus that poverty is man-made and sustained. The bishops’ purpose was not to glorify poverty but to follow Jesus’ lead in proclaiming a Reign that entails liberation from sin and all its effects, material and spiritual. Their purpose was to help us see that the Reign of God entails an end to the unjust suffering of the poor, to poverty itself.\n\nPope John Paul II took up the preferential option for the poor and wove it into Catholic social doctrine.  He wrote that it “affects the life of each Christian inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ, but it applies equally to our social responsibilities and hence to our manner of living [.]” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 182, quoting SRS 42) Our decisions must advance the Reign of God in our society.\n\nThe preferential option for the poor continues to be challenging to Catholics in Latin America–particularly those who are better off–because it requires a decentering of one’s self, a willingness to befriend those who are poor, and an openness to see the world through their eyes. It requires the humility and grace to see Lazarus at the gate (Luke 16:20).\n\nWhat would a preferential option for African Americans look like for white Catholics in the United States? And for Hispanic Catholics?\n\nRacism, like poverty, is man-made and sustained.  It has no place in the Reign of God that the Church proclaims. As theologian Bryan Massingale writes, therein lies the hope and the challenge:\n\nThe society we live in is the outcome of human choices and decisions. This means that human beings can change things. There is nothing necessary or fated about racial hierarchies or white racial privilege. They are the result of human agency; it does not have to be so. What humans break, divide, and separate, we can—with God’s help—also heal, unite, and restore.\nWhat is now does not have to be. Therein lies the hope. And the challenge.\n\n(Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, 180)\n\nThe last time that our bishops joined to address racism in the United States in a pastorally significant way was in 1979.  It is time for them to do so again.  If they do, I hope they broaden the dialogue that Bishop Edward K. Braxton has begun with members of the Black Lives Matter movement because the Church needs it.  And may they evoke in us the hope, as Massingale has, that “What is now does not have to be.”\n\n\"Because black lives don't matter to BLM.\"\n\nBlack Lives Matter and the Preferential ...\"\n\"What refugees are trying to escape is not an American concern or responsibility. WE, America, ...\"\n\nRefugee Distress: Do We Think We’re ...\"\n\"The Church though should be able to confront the poor and help the poor....both. Not ...\"\n\nBlack Lives Matter and the Preferential ...\"\n\"Thank you for the comment, Michael,I read the link. I can't reach the same conclusion ...\"\n\nBlack Lives Matter and the Preferential ...\"\n\nBrowse Our Archives\n\nWhat Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8819221258163452}
+{"content": "Using Recent Gene Flow to Define Microbe Populations\n\nNew method identifies ecologically and medically relevant bacteria groups.\n\nA microscopic image of mixed bacteria from environmental samples. MIT researchers have developed a gene flow measurement that defines ecologically important populations of microbes.Image: David VanInsberghe\n\nIdentifying species among plants and animals has been a full-time occupation for some biologists, but the task is even more daunting for the myriad microbes that inhabit the planet. Now, MIT researchers have developed a simple measurement of gene flow that can define ecologically important populations among bacteria and archaea, including pinpointing populations associated with human diseases.\n\nThe gene flow metric separates co-existing microbes in genetically and ecologically distinct populations, Martin Polz, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, and colleagues write in the August 8 issue of Cell.\n\nPolz and his colleagues also developed a method to identify parts of the genome in these populations that show different adaptations that can be mapped onto different environments. When they tested their approach on a gut bacterium, for instance, they were able to determine that different populations of the bacteria were associated with healthy individuals and patients with Crohn’s disease.\n\nBiologists often call a group of plants or animals a species if the group is reproductively isolated from others — that is, individuals in the group can reproduce with each other, but they can’t reproduce with others. As a result, members of a species share a set of genes that differs from other species. Much of evolutionary theory centers on species and populations, the representatives of a species in a particular area.\n\nBut microbes “defy the classic species concept for plants and animals,” Polz explains. Microbes tend to reproduce asexually, simply splitting themselves in two rather than combining their genes with other individuals to produce offspring. Microbes are also notorious for ���taking up DNA from environmental sources, such as viruses,” he says. “Viruses can transfer DNA into microbial cells and that DNA can be incorporated into their genomes.”\n\nThese processes make it difficult to sort coexisting microbes into distinct populations based on their genetic makeup. “If we can’t identify those populations in microbes, we can’t one-to-one apply all this rich ecological and evolutionary theory that has been developed for plants and animals to microbes,” says Polz.\n\nIf researchers want to measure an ecosystem’s resilience in the face of environmental change, for instance, they might look at how populations within species change over time. “If we don’t know what a species is, it’s very difficult to measure and assess these types of perturbations,” he adds.\n\nChristopher Marx, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho who was not part of the Cell study, says he and his colleagues “will immediately apply” the MIT researchers’ approach to their own work. “We can use this to answer the question, ‘What should we define as an ecologically important unit?’”\n\nA yardstick for gene flow\n\nMartin and his colleagues decided to look for another way to define ecologically meaningful populations in microbes. Led by microbiology graduate student Philip Arevalo, the researchers developed a metric of gene flow that they called PopCOGenT (Populations as Clusters Of Gene Transfer).\n\nPopCOGenT measures recent gene flow or gene transfer between closely related genomes. In general, microbial genomes that have exchanged DNA recently should share longer and more frequent stretches of identical DNA than if individuals were just reproducing by splitting their DNA in two. Without this sort of recent exchange, the researchers suggested, the length of these shared stretches of identical DNA would shorten as mutations insert new “letters” into the stretch.\n\nTwo microbial strains that are not genetically identical to each other but share sizable “chunks” of identical DNA are probably exchanging more genetic material with each other than with other strains. This gene flow measurement can define distinct microbial populations, as the researchers discovered in their tests of three different kinds of bacteria.\n\nIn Vibrio bacteria, for instance, closely related populations may share some core gene sequences, but they appear completely isolated from each other when viewed through this measurement of recent gene flow, Polz and colleagues found.\n\nPolz says that the PopCOGenT method may work better at defining microbial populations than previous studies because it focuses on recent gene flow among closely related organisms, rather than including gene flow events that may have happened thousands of years in the past.\n\nThe method also suggests that while microbes are constantly taking in different DNA from their environment that might obscure patterns of gene flow, “it may be that this divergent DNA is really removed by selection from populations very quickly,” says Polz.\n\nThe reverse ecology approach\n\nMicrobiology graduate student David VanInsberghe then suggested a “reverse ecology” approach that could identify regions of the genome in these newly defined populations that show “selective sweeps” — places where DNA variation is reduced or eliminated, likely as a result of strong natural selection for a particular beneficial genetic variant.\n\nBy identifying specific sweeps within populations, and mapping the distribution of these populations, the method can reveal possible adaptations that drive microbes to inhabit a particular environment or host — without any prior knowledge of their environment. When the researchers tested this approach in the gut bacterium Ruminococcus gnavus, they uncovered separate populations of the microbe associated with healthy people and patients with Crohn’s disease.\n\nPolz says the reverse ecology method is likely to be applied in the near future to studying the full diversity of the bacteria that inhabit the human body. “There is a lot of interest in sequencing closely related organisms within the human microbiome and looking for health and disease associations, and the datasets are growing.”\n\nHe hopes to use the approach to examine the “flexible genome” of microbes. Strains of E. colibacteria, for instance, share about 40 percent of their genes in a “core genome,” while the other 60 percent — the flexible part — varies between strains. “For me, it’s one of the biggest questions in microbiology: Why are these genomes so diverse in gene content?” Polz explains. “Once we can define populations as evolutionary units, we can interpret gene frequencies in these populations in light of evolutionary processes.”\n\nPolz and colleagues’ findings could increase estimates of microbe diversity, says Marx. “What I think is really cool about this approach from Martin’s group is that they actually suggest that the complexity that we see is even more complex than we’re giving it credit for. There may be even more types that are ecologically important out there, things that if they were plants and animals we would be calling them species.”\n\nOther MIT authors on the paper include Joseph Elsherbini and Jeff Gore. The research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9328910708427429}
+{"content": "Separation of Trisaccharides on SIELC Columns\n\n\nTrisaccharides can be difficult to separate using conventional HPLC columns. The four trisaccharides panose, raffinose, isomaltotriose, and kestose have the same chemical formula, and the all have two glycosidic bonds connecting the three monosaccharides. Obelisc N was used as a stationary phase to separate trisaccharides because it is capable of multiple modes of separation. Obelisc N is a highly polar column that retains polar and charged analytes. Even though the trisaccharides differ only in regio- and stereochemistry they are resolved.\n\nApplication Analytes:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994398355484009}
+{"content": "About The Author\n\nRobert Hartland is a professional designer and photographer with over seven years of experience. He has worked on projects for top brands that include corporate … More about Robert Hartland\n\nHow To Make Innovative Ideas Happen\n\n      In one of his recent presentations, Frans Johansson explained why groundbreaking innovators generate and execute far more ideas than their counterparts. After watching his presentation The Secret Truth About Executing Great Ideas, my thoughts began to surface about how meaningful the presentation was regardless of a persons industry, culture, field or discipline. Anyone can come up with an amazing idea but how you execute the idea will determine your success.\n\n      In one of his recent presentations, Frans Johansson explained why groundbreaking innovators generate and execute far more ideas than their counterparts. After watching his presentation The Secret Truth About Executing Great Ideas, my thoughts began to surface about how meaningful the presentation was—regardless of a person’s industry, culture, field or discipline. Anyone can come up with an amazing idea but how you execute the idea will determine your success.\n\n      Further Reading on SmashingMag:\n\n      Ideation: Idea Conception\n\n      Coming up with an innovative idea will require some methods of generating ideas from brainstorming to mind mapping that can help conjure up useful ideas. During this process one must make sure to keep focused on a goal. If you have no goal, how will you know when you have reached the finish line and are ready for refinement? Start out with a few thoughts or themes and see what you can come up with.\n\n      Don’t get stuck on trying to come up with different variations of the same idea as you will want to develop ideas further later. While there is no exact path in ideation or other creativity techniques from start to finish, creating an idea you are happy with and feel has innovative potential is the key. Believing in your ideas innovative ability will give the confidence you will need later on during pitch time.\n\n      Disposable Cup Holder Improvement\n      Is this new disposable cup holder an improvement or an innovation?\n\n      Many people have tried to innovate, but because something similar had already existed, it’s merely an improvement. When designing within familiar bounds, you can still create something amazing but your audience will not likely be astonished at the sight of it. It is easy to see the particular innovative idea as something that was so simple to come up with but if that’s the case, then why didn’t you do it? The trick is to come up with them before. That’s the challenge. Once you find that special seed of an innovative idea, try to avoid key mistakes that will stop your idea from ever seeing the light of day.\n\n      As interesting as some ideas may be, that is not always enough for consumers. Getting the message out that your new idea is imperative will gain more consumer attention, especially in more difficult economic times. Always having a short and clear value proposition with an inescapable feeling of necessity can help gain capital, exposure and consumers. Do not wait until everything is “perfect” as they may never be and this will only further delay your ideas release. Act, do not sit idle!\n\n      Nurture New Ideas\n\n      Think of your typical cup holder from a fast food restaurant or coffee house made of cardboard. They are rigid with no handle and have been cause of drink spills and panic attacks for years. Recently a new cup holder has come about that is more mobile and has a handle (see image above). These changes have made it easier to transport drinks and prevent spills. This idea in itself is only an improvement on what was there previously.\n\n      To truly be innovative, you should take opposing thoughts and combine them, which increases the innovative potential of your idea (see image below). Think of the invention of the Burqini that combines the idea of a burqa that Muslim women wear and the flexibility of a swimsuit at the beach. Innovative ideas can sometimes be explosive but many potential barriers will arise and just having an innovative idea is not always enough.\n\n      Innovative Idea Diagram\n      Groundbreaking and innovative ideas come from combining ideas from different industries, cultures, fields, and disciplines.\n\n      In order to take an innovative idea from the embryo of a concept to market, you need to have the determination to push through failure. The odds are against you no matter the idea and statistics say you are going to fail a few times on your road to success. Knowing this, you have to hedge your bets more effectively so you can adjust your path and continue forward.\n\n      Don’t be intimidated by the perceived brilliance of innovative designs, because you are typically seeing the last iteration that has changed compared to its original concept. This happens with adjustment through failure. As Johansson mentioned, Picasso had made around 20,000 (as high as 50,000) works of art in his lifetime and Einstein published 240 papers with a short number of successful creations. Innovative success happens in volume (see image below).\n\n      Idea Success Rate Diagram\n      Stevens, G.A. and Burley, J., “3,000 Raw Ideas = 1 Commercial Success!”\n\n      How To Pick A Successful Idea\n\n      Don’t put everything behind your first idea! You wouldn’t go to the racetrack and put your life savings on 13000 odds, would you? Even though we are taught that all innovations come from a visionary who predicted a need for the future, this is usually not the case. Naturally, most inventions come from necessity and others from creative spark. When executing a creative idea with the resources you have available, you will have to make adjustments along the way that may not have been accounted for originally. Johansson suggests that you take the smallest executable step (smallest bet) so you don’t risk everything on your original idea.\n\n      Once you define the smallest step, you know your scope of risk. This is very important because you can then take baby steps to overcome challenges and utilize resources more efficiently on your road to success (see image below). While strategy is paramount, one shouldn’t get lost in planning and take too long to execute. Stay motivated to move forward, because forward motion even through failure is the key to success.\n\n      Idea Pathway to Success Diagram\n      “Nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions.” — Frans Johansson.\n\n      When implementing strategy, whether it is used to free up resources or define a path to move forward, do not plan on coming up with the ultimate plan that will carry your idea to the finish line. Coming up with a base and enabling yourself to act will help to get things done and eventually discover the final solution that goes to market. You will need to bring yourself to an idea intersection where you can pick and choose the best ideas. This intersection can be used to generate extraordinary, electrifying and trendsetting ideas.\n\n      Exploring Innovation Deeper\n\n      The Devotion of Pablo Picasso\n\n      Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish artist that had a unique talent in painting by combining different techniques, theories and ideas making him one of the most well-known figures in 20th century art. Picasso had always shown a passion for art from a very young age and was determined to express his passion to the world. Overcoming high and low barriers, he achieved much success and fortune in his life. As Pablo Ruiz Picasso said, “action is the foundational key to all success.” Continuing to move forward by taking action and not sitting idle will create momentum for success.\n\n      Early in his life, Pablo Picasso slept during the day, worked at night and persevered through poverty, cold and desperation. He was known to have burned much of his early work just to keep warm at night. Picasso motivated himself through passion to push forward and eventually made luxurious connections. Constantly updating his style from the Blue Period, to the Rose Period, to the African-influenced Period, to Cubism, to Realism and Surrealism, he was a pioneer with a hand in every art movement of the 20th century.\n\n      Picasso was extraordinarily abundant throughout his long lifetime. A skillful self-promoter, he used politics, whimsicality, and harassment as a selling tool. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. From all of these works, only a few dozen have been regarded as a great success, leaving thousands in museums for viewing after his death and even more collecting dust. Picasso dedicated his life to art and has very influential with his portrayal of Cubism.\n\n      Frank Epperson’s Juice on a Stick\n\n      Frank Epperson was an average American who at a young age discovered a “frozen drink on a stick” that would later become an innovative idea. In his life he dabbled in real estate before discovering how to take his idea to market.\n\n      At the age of 11 Frank Epperson invented the “Epsicle” that is now known as the “Popsicle”. He was mixing powdered soda with water to make soda pop and accidentally left the mixing bucket outside on an unusually cold night. During the night the mixture froze solid, with the wooden stirring stick standing straight up. There was one huge problem: you can’t start an Epsicle production line on your back porch because the weather didn’t allow for such a thing. Epperson overcame this hurdle by gaining access to a commercial freezer, stamped his name on the sticks and wanted to sell his idea.\n\n      Unfortunately for Epperson, ice-cream makers were not interested and he did not share his idea again until a fireman’s ball years later. He pushed through rejection and failure without burying all of his resources until he had achieved a solid idea. While he discovered this wonderful treat early on in life, it took him 16 years to introduce the idea and 7 years more to sell his Popsicle patent. The popsicle can be credited for the entrance of tasty frozen deserts into the mainstream and happy children’s faces around the world. Today hundreds of millions of Popsicles are eaten in the United States each year, and there are more than thirty flavors available.\n\n      Alexander Graham Bell’s Modern Communication\n\n      Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist from Scotland (originally) that had always had a natural curiosity for the world. This resulted in experimentation with inventing at a young age, most notably a simple dehusking machine at age 12.\n\n      Due to the gradual deafness of his mother starting at a young age, he was led to study acoustics which eventually led to the invention of the telephone. Bell’s telephone grew out of improvements he made to the telegraph. He had invented the “harmonic telegraph” which could send more than one message at a time over a single telegraph wire. His path to success was not as clear as one might think and is surrounded by past failures and controversy.\n\n      Bell’s first serious work with sound transmission used tuning forks to explore resonance. Unfortunately, this groundbreaking undertaking had already been completed worlds away in Germany. A short change in path led Bell to transmit sound through electrical means. He experimented first by trying to transmit musical notes and articulate speech.\n\n      Alexander Graham Bell had not set any clear destination and became overwhelmed with his experiments. After many sleepless nights he created a harmonic telegraph which became the first stepping stone to the creation of the telephone. After entertaining other possibilities such as the phonautograph and sending multiple telegraph messages on a single line, Bell refined the idea of acoustic telegraphy.\n\n      By recognizing progress and changing his path, Bell (with the help of Thomas Watson) was able to invent the sound-powered telephone. By starting with the idea of transmitting a voice through electricity, Alexander Graham Bell was able to, through a series of refinements, invent technology that is used around the world even today. Bell continued to test out new ideas involving kites, airplanes, tetrahedral structures, sheep-breeding, artificial respiration, desalinization and water distillation, and hydrofoils.\n\n      Jack Dorsey’s Micro Communication\n\n      Jack Dorsey is an American software architect that had an interest in making “instant messenger” updates available for friends to see. This was a refined concept that eventually grew into what we now know as Twitter. Three guiding principles of this innovative idea are simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship.\n\n      Jack had an early fascination with cities and how they work, so he would always carry maps around with him. His attraction with mass-transit and how cities function led him to taking advantage of public transit databases in Manhattan. He built off of his original idea that gave meaning to his overall concept. His idea make clear though working on dispatch software, programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles.\n\n      Jack Dorsey’s experience helped him see his idea in a completely new perspective. Taking his seedling of an idea that would update friends of his status, Dorsey completed several field tests before recognizing that the technology available didn’t support his innovative idea. There are times when putting off a project is irrefutable. Jack Dorsey originally came up with his idea in the year 2000 but wasn’t able to execute effectively until 8 years later. Jack was effective in not letting his idea sit for too long but instead taking action when technology would let it thrive.\n\n\n      Making ideas happen isn’t easy and requires patience, determination and hard work. The most important part of it is not just coming up with a promising concept, but rather rethinking it over and over again, implementing it and then putting it to practice.\n\n      Most inventions come from necessity, so pay attention to small problems in your environment and find simple solutions to these problems. Do not sit idle on the idea — act instead. Take opposing thoughts and resolve them in your innovative designs. And keep innovating all the time, one step at a time. The time will pass, and if you have some luck, you will see your idea growing, flourishing and maybe even turning into a real success. …So what are you waiting for?\n\n      Further Resources\n\n      Here are further articles and related resources:\n\n      • Five Tips For Making Ideas Happen Creative types have a problem. We have so many great ideas, but most of them never see the light of day. Some creative people and teams are able to defy the odds and make their ideas happen, time and again.\n      • 99 Excuses For NOT Making Ideas Happen If you’re NOT doing something, what does it matter why? See what their readers feel are the most common excuses for NOT making ideas happen.\n      • Executing Ideas Often is Difficult for Leaders Strategy is too often just a bad joke (with allusions to Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss) among the working-level people who actually produce the products, provide the service and generate the profit.\n      • How Do You Keep, Develop and Execute Ideas? There are so-called serial entrepreneurs who are fond of jumping from one great execution of an idea to another. And more often than not, they gain much experience–and money–in the process.\n      • The 3 Most Common Mistakes When Growing an Idea into a Business Sometimes this energy and excitement can be blinding.  Some people are so tremendously passionate, yet lack the ability to take ownership and really get things done.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5329474210739136}
+{"content": "We Can’t Afford To Feed Our Poor–But We Hand Big Oil $5 Trillion A Year (VIDEO)\n\nDespite the solar industry outpacing fossil fuel companies, growing 12 times faster than the overall economy, we may never shake our national addiction to fossil fuels so long as we continue to subsidize big oil to the tune of five trillion dollars a year, 6.5% of global GDP.\n\nAccording to a study in the journal World Development, subsidies to fossil fuel–coal, petroleum, natural gas, electricity–companies in 2013 were $4.9 trillion; in 2015, they were $5.3 trillion.\n\nStudy authors argue these figures are significant because they are indicative of how taxpayers’ money is spent on fossil fuel consumption that further contributes to the damages of climate change.\n\nAccording to a piece in The Guardian:\n\n\nAccording to study authors, the top three subsidizers of fossil fuels, in order, are China, the United States, and Russia.\n\nOne author, Dr. Coady, said:\n\n“A key motivation for the paper was to increase awareness among policy makers and the public of the large subsidies that arise from pricing fossil fuels below their true social costs—this broader definition of subsidies accounts for the many negative side effects associated with the consumption of these fuels. By estimating these costs on a global scale, we hope to stimulate an informed policy debate and provide renewed impetus for policy reforms to reap the large potential benefits from more efficient pricing of fossil fuels in terms of improved public finances, improved population health and lower carbon emissions.”\n\nFrom the Right, we are told repeatedly we cannot afford single-payer healthcare, free pre-K through college education, Social Security, or Medicare.\n\nWe are told climate change mitigation is “too expensive.”\n\nWe are told the poor just need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”\n\nThis study argues it is not a matter of having the money.\n\nWe have the money.\n\nHow do we choose to invest it?\n\nFeatured image from Energy Trends Insider.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5255523920059204}
+{"content": "Corey Miller also known also known as New Orleans rapper “C-Murder”, younger brother to rap mogul and entrepreneur Master P has been denied a retrial on a 2009 murder case, after two witnesses have since admitted that their testimonies were completely fabricated.\n\nIn 2009, after 2 prior mistrials Miller was found guilty in the 2002 shooting death of 16 year old Steven Thomas by a 10-2 split jury. At the time of his conviction Louisiana was only one of two states in the U.S. that allowed an individual to be found guilty of murder by a non- unanimous jury.\n\nJune of 2018 Millers case was thrusted back into the media and sparked massive outrage when a docu-series titled, “Reasonable Doubt” aired  exposing significant inaccuracies in the case, from falsified eye witness testimony to a corrupt police investigation rooted in pressure induced tactics and threats in an effort to extract false confessions.\n\nTwo key eye witnesses in the case, Darnell Jordan and Kenneth Jordan contributed almost entirely to Millers guilty verdict. There was no weapon found connecting Miller to the murder, no forensic evidence, and no motive. Kenneth Jordan and Darnell Jordan have since completely recanted their statements.\n\nKenneth Jordan originally testified that he was at the Louisiana nightclub, Platinum on the night of January 12, 2002. He identified Miller as the shooter that stood over Thomas firing into the teenagers chest. Kenneth Jordan has recently felt compelled to come forward and disclose why he intentionally mis-identified Miller as the shooter.\n\nKenneth Jordan stated he was pressured by investigators to identify Miller as the shooter. At the time of the questioning  Mr. Jordan was knee deep in his own personal and criminal woes. Kenneth Jordan had an infant child that was found dead. Mr Jordan stated investigators threatened to charge him with the death of his infant child should he not comply and identify Miller as the shooter. The mother of Jordans child was later found guilty of the infants death.\n\nJordan stated in a sworn affidavit, “I know the individual I saw shoot the gun was not Corey Miller” Darnelll Jordan stated he was tricked into identifying Miller as the shooter and has also recanted his statement.\n\nAccording to the New Orleans Advocate, Judge Steven Enright denied Millers request for a retrial calling the new statements, “highly suspicious”. Millers attorney, Paul Barker pleaded to the court that at the very least Miller should be granted a hearing to argue the new developments in court. Judge Enright stated, “A new trial should not be granted on the basis of recantation because it is tantamount to perjury so as to discredit the witness at a later trial.”\n\nTwo eyewitness recantations, no weapon, no motive, no forensic evidence, and a judge denying Millers request for retrial based on the “lack of credibility” of the same two witnesses the state of Louisiana used to convict and sentence Miller to a mandatory life sentence.\n\nIronic, to say the least and Unjust seems nothing more than an overused hashtag that we see way too much. Have we become desensitized to the injustices that surround us? Have we become suffocated with the delusion of “freedom”, that we fail to realize, we too are one “wrong place, wrong time” away from the fight of our lives. In a world where the incarcerated are forgotten, diminished and thrown away we must stay vigilant in the pursuit of criminal justice reform because it is “Just Us” that can spark that change.\n\nCorey Miller is currently incarcerated at the largest prison in th United States, Louisiana State Penitentiary also known as “Angola” named after a plantation in that area during slavery. To stay up to date with this case, follow Corey Millers Instagram page at TruCmurder. Check out a message from Corey Miller below…\n\nWritten By- CharnaDanielle", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.928784966468811}
+{"content": "So, I slept something like an hour last night, asked for blogging help on twitter, and everything suggested was even too much for my little brain to handle. I can't do this today. So, instead, here's a little fact about Kiera:\n\nWhen I was in the fifth grade, I had a crush on Bart Simpson. Even though I had to be something like ten or eleven, I still couldn't process the fact that he was a cartoon, therefore not real, and that the ability for us to actually be together would require Easter Bunny-like levels of magic. In fact, I think it took months for me to figure that out, all the while wearing my Bart Simpson watch to school everyday, thinking I was normal because all the other girls had celebrity crushes too.\n\nThere. And now I live with people in my head whining to me about telling their stories. Turned out fine.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9441666603088379}
+{"content": "Eating fast food is like giving your body a bacterial infection, according to new research into how the high-fat diet affects the immune system.\n\nScientists described high-fat and high-calorie foods as the “Western diet” and said that when they put mice on the regimen, it “induced systemic inflammation” that persisted even after the mice were back on their normal diets, a study in the journal Cell explained.\n\nThe foods contained a lot of fat and sugar and not much fiber. When a mouse was eating them, its immune system’s inflammatory response was akin to what it would do in the presence of a bacterial infection.\n\n“The unhealthy diet led to an unexpected increase in the number of certain immune cells in the blood of the mice,” researcher Anette Christ said in a statement from the University of Bonn in Germany.\n\nAlthough the inflammation dissipated once the unhealthy diet was replaced with a better one, the genetic changes linked to an aggressive immune response that the Western diet brought on remained. This kind of lingering effect is not unheard of — the body uses a sort of “memory” of its past experiences to better protect itself in the future, although those past experiences are often things like infections. When a dangerous pathogen comes along, it unlocks the immune system’s memories so the body’s defenses can mount a faster and more effective response.\n\nThe new research extends this concept to foods with poor nutritional value.\n\n“Fast food thus causes the body to quickly recruit a huge and powerful army,” the university explained.\n\nAccording to the scientists, having a more stimulated immune system could have health consequences down the road, like diabetes and heart problems.\n\n“The foundations of a healthy diet need to become a much more prominent part of education than they are at present,” researcher Eicke Latz said in the statement. “Only in this way can we immunize children at an early stage against the temptations of the food industry. Children have a choice of what they eat every day. We should enable them to make conscious decisions regarding their dietary habits.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6197632551193237}
+{"content": "by Josef Spillner\n\n\nAccording to the opening session remarks and the booklet containing the programme and the abstracts of all papers and talks, CLOSER 2018 had received 94 submissions from 33 countries from which 21 full papers were accepted along with 28 short papers and 10 posters. In addition, 4 keynotes set the spirit throughout the conference. The attendance of the opening did initially not quite match these numbers but the culprit was the stormy weather and within several hours, as all delayed flights arrived, the participant crowd grew quickly, including also industry representatives without a paper. CLOSER was run in parallel with IoTBDS which allowed for interdisciplinary discussions during breaks on topics such as big data and IoT/cloud integration.\n\nThe opening ceremony was followed by a panel, moderated by DCU’s Markus Helfert, and staffed with Michael Papazoglou (Tilburg), Tobias Hoellwarth (EuroCloud), and Claus Pahl (Bolzano). Each panelist presented views on general cloud computing topics under the general theme of Cloud and Service Computing in the 2020s which offered a nice perspective for research beyond the current European Horizon 2020 calls. The first presentation advocated for smartness in the sense of unobstructed service visibility, optimised use of resources, coordinated responses and modular solutions among other characteristics of future complex (cloud, hybrid cloud-physical, cyber-physical) applications. The presentation also presented requirements for smart data defined as normalised, conflict-free and homogenised data which is first contextualised and later orchestrated. The second presentation countered with a pessimistic view, stating that the technologic progress is too fast for the society at large because the political and legal frameworks as well as education cannot keep up anymore. 99.999% of the people would not understand any of the technical conference talks, while at the same time, specialists are needed in the light of a dry market for know-how especially in Europe which presents a massive problem, and a fundamental and unavoidable flume into future technical debt. Still, SMEs can use cloud-driven opportunities to challenge big companies through a clever use of the resource potential, but often they will not do it. The last presentation motivated to look forward beyond current cloud, edge/fog and things frameworks such as FIWARE. According to the presenter, until the year 2020 we can expected 26 billion connected devices with 1.6 ZB of collected data. An architecture sketch across five layers (sensors/actuators, monitoring/control, ops support, business support and enterprise systems) was proposed.\n\nThe discussion first clarified that research in cloud computing often falls flat of practical impact less because of direction issues but more due to unsuitable timing. On the academic side, more awareness of actual problems needs to be fostered, while on the industry side, CIOs and other decision-makers must be freed from project overload to be gain time for interaction with researchers. New business models such as one-stop-shop service integrators with full incident handling responsibility across complex compositions need to be embraced. And on the education side, while specialised deep lectures are important, interdisciplinary thinking needs to improve so that engineering students and business students can talk to each other and carry this ability over into their professional careers. An interesting remark mentioned the “ISO stickers are enough” syndrome while in reality cloud providers need to address uncertainties from users, including application providers, to make the ubiquitous cloud a reality.\n\nAfter the panel, the first technical session started in two rooms in parallel. In one of the rooms, the session had presentations on testing, automated creation of management artefacts for container compositions, and trusted distributed processing of genetics data. Testing was analysed specifically for user acceptance testing for multi-tenant cloud applications using the iCardapio application on Heroku as test case. Several typical web faults were detected but cloud-specific fault types would require more work. The paper on automated generation of self-configuring microservices is highly relevant to our ongoing research on cloud-native applications in which we have for a longer time focused on self-management capabilities of the constituent microservices and of the application as a whole. Templates and hooks were proposed to make compositions more manageable and TOSCA was used to evaluate the work. The discussion touched on mechanisms to reduce image sizes and on the semantic equivalence to the assisted semi-automated code and template generation for operating system packages. In the third talk, trusted processing through intermediaries was proposed for outsourced data processing scenarios involving potentially fragmented and encrypted data. The paper approach had some remarkable similarities to our previous work on stealth databases in the cloud.\n\nThe first day keynote followed, linking disconnect between technology and people to social unrest and socio-economic revolution. The analogies given included the 19th century revolt against manufacturing of textile works, and the signs of a repeat were found in the current political world climate which focuses on daily ramblings instead of preparing for the massive technological shift which requires profound changes in education and valuation of technical work. Science for its part must become more understandable and policymaking needs to be temporally aligned with progress as the speaker already mentioned in the panel discussion. For instance, cloud providers and consumers need to be more rigidly expressing their requirements and guarantees. SMAC, or social media/mobile, analytics and cloud, is the keyword to express most of the force behind the overall shift which is already happening.\n\nThe second session focused on fog and edge computing scenarios. According to one presenter, fog computing is required to support the IoT momentum due to the shortcomings of traditionally centralised cloud architectures. However, the terminology around fog computing including also foglets has not yet settled. A holistic analysis including previous decentralised approaches such as user-controlled personal and hybrid clouds still remains to be seen as well. According to another presenter, latency experiments in edge computing scenarios become more widespread. But the experiments need to be carefully designed and, as one participant noted, the presented paper simulated using random latencies instead of a more sophisticated approach using real cloud data center traces.\n\nIn the third session, cloud-native applications and microservices were in the focus. Our joint work with Itaipu Technology Park about a first systematic approach to cloud-natify SaaS applications was consequently placed into this session. Two discussion points arose after the talk. First, as we outlined weaknesses in Docker’s resilience, Kubernetes obviously offers a lot more health checks, metrics and self-awareness. Yet, our take is that if Kubernetes runs containers through Dockers, then any reduced resilience of the platform propagates up the stack and into the application itself. Second, there was a clarification question about whether the Docker weakness is for real, which we affirmed with code and data.\n\nOther talks in the same session included another (DMS-related) application migration case study, an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of microservices through a systematic mapping study and a nice timeline, and an approach for remote debugging of applications in the cloud on a variable tracing level.\n\nOn the second day, among the more interesting and thought-provoking talks was a benchmark of Tensorflow provisioned through OpenStack on bare metal versus virtual machines with Kubernetes running Tensorflow in containers. The differences in resource utilisation, saturation and bottlenecks were highlighted, and obviously overall the technical perspective favours bare metal whereas the cost perspective, which was not considered in the paper due to looking at a private cloud deployment, would favour virtual machines. Interesting technical details such as the double network abstraction (Flannel and hypervisor) were discussed and the emerging OpenStack project Kuryr was mentioned as potential improvement. The author maintains the view that providers should indeed optimise the VM provisioning, although a different perspective is that bare metal will never completely vanish due to many advantages despite the cost. Therefore, cloud providers could offer provisioning options where the same service (Tensorflow, Hadoop, Kafka, …) would be offered on bare metal, in a VM, or in a container composition, with differentiated pricing and technical characteristics for each. This model would contrast current tightly-coupled PaaS offerings and would justify additional research on the economic side and on potential use cases.\n\nThe second day keynote focused on “New Cloud” offerings around edge computing, serverless computing, distributed cloud computing, while mostly excluding fog computing ideas due to them not being concretely enough defined yet. A major take-away was that while in current centralised clouds there are four major players, the stage is still empty for assembling the next big four on the edge. From a user perspective, new cloud offerings could become intriguing considering the current maze to go through before being able to decide on a simple virtual machine setup, let alone a more sophisticated combination of services. Deterministic predictability of performance and other technical characteristics is thus still on the waiting list of many paying cloud customers.\n\nThe third day had more interesting talks starting with optimising the cost-performance ratio with mixing differently sized and prized virtual machines and on PacificClouds, a multi-cloud framework for microservices which comes with its own custom definition of what a microservice actually is. Related, University of Padova researchers presented a state-of-the-art review of current microservice technologies, focusing on dynamic orchestration. Another cloud migration talk was given on the subject of seat reservations in trains, a production system with around 300000 requests per day. The concept divided the overall system into four layers: application, compute (e.g. EC2), encapsulation (e.g. Docker images, Weavenet overlay networking) and deployment (e.g. Kubernetes). Interestingly, while migrating the application over the period of around two years, the technologies have changed quite a bit and another modernisation effort could start right away with container-native hosting, bypassing the need of VMs. This topic was also reflected in the discussion following another talk on multi-level autoscaling, e.g. pod-level, cluster-level, VM-level.\n\nThe third and last day keynote delivered a broad overview about smart manufacturing in the context of the 4th industrial revolution based on the use of cyber-physical systems. It picked up a definition of smart products which are aware, intelligent, connected and responsive, and motivated the definition of cloud-centric manufacturing in which tools are shared resources and are offered as a service. Digital twins can assist in transforming plants into this direction. An interesting data point was given from a car manufacturer who processes 13 billion data samples per day, way up from a single billion which was considered big around five years ago.\n\nOverall, the conference participation at CLOSER 2018 was well worth the time investment. It was also enjoyable due to properly chaired sessions and a convenient floor and schedule layout. Due to parallel sessions, not all tasks could be enjoyed by a single attendee, but the proceedings are going to be soon available in the SCITEPRESS and ACM digital libraries, albeit without flexible author rights as is now possible for ACM publications. As an update channel on recent achievements and a meeting place for researchers, the conference has fulfilled the expectations. And for cloud technology enthusiasts, the conference location, Santa Cruz, shall become forever known as the historic place which had Kubernetes logos on the sidewalk long before Kubernetes was even invented.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9772993326187134}
+{"content": "\n\nThe Conservative:\nThe Complete Issues 1915–1923\n\ntheconservative-frontcover [1]H. P. Lovecraft\n\nLondon: Arktos, 2013\n216 pages\n\npaperback only SALE PRICE: $20 [wp_eStore:product_id:191:end]\n\n\nIn spite of the journal’s name, Lovecraft’s style of conservatism bore little resemblance to what goes by that name in America today, and instead was first and foremost a call for a cultural revival — an appeal to a return to the deepest wellsprings that had inspired Western culture from its origins.\n\n\n\n\nHoward Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer. An heir of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and a pioneer of supernatural and science fiction, Lovecraft was a master of the short story, but also wrote novellas, poems, essays, criticism, and countless letters.\n\npaperback only SALE PRICE: $20", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9580738544464111}
+{"content": "\n\n\nWe posted a math problem this past weekend on the official Do You Remember? Facebook page, which sparked an uproar of comments and many different answers. The 8th math problem is: 50 + 50 – 25 x 0 + 2 + 2 = ?. After a bit of research from many certified math teachers, we have the correct answer and the process to support it. Here you go, 50+50-25×0+2+2 = 104. Once again the answer for the tricky 8th-grade math problem is 104.\n\nHow To Solve The Problem\n\nThis most helpful tool for finding the answer of 104 is by using PEMDAS. Ring a bell? You probably learned it in grade school mathematics! PEMDAS is also known as the order of operations, otherwise known as, the order in which you calculate a mathematical problem. The photo below gives you a clear idea of how PEMDAS works to find solutions!\n\n\nTeachers Pay Teachers\n\nPEMDAS = Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction\n\nThere were several answers ranging from 79 to 4. A great try to everyone out there who participated in the tricky mathematical problem (even I couldn’t do it in my head)! Here, we’ll explain the math problem using PEMDAS and explain how we come out with the answer, 104, as provided to us by professionals.\n\n\nExplanation here:\n\nPosted by Do You Remember? on Friday, March 8, 2019\n\n\n2. Second, exponents (again, there are none)\n\n\n\n\n6. Now you have 100-0+2+2\n\n\n7. This gives you the correct answer of 104\n\n\nSome mathematical problems can cause much debate. With things like the Pythagorean Theorem and other weird formulas being taught in schools, it’s easy to forget how to do problems like this one! They definitely aren’t easy, so we hope they helped you all with future math problems on our page!\n\n\nWhat did you think about this math problem? Should we do more in the future? Be sure to SHARE this article with your thoughts for the next math problem… you could be the first to solve it!\n\nCheck out the absolutely adorable video below of a dog solving math problems in exchange for treats:\n\nWhat do you think?\n\n\n‘NCIS’ Gives Us A Ziva Update And Premiere Date For Season 17\n\nLearn how to plant these cool galaxy flowers\n\nHow To Make These Really Cool Galaxy Flowers For Your Yard", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.940414547920227}
+{"content": "No routes found\n\nWhat phone do you have?\n\nWhat plan are you on?\n\nDoes your plan include data, or just talk & text?\n\nIssue Description\n\nI have an old Moto E. I am on the buy back minutes plan. My plan includes data. Tonight when I tried to call some relatives. I get the message in a male voice-- “no routes found.” I did call a fellow Republic member and got through to him. What the heck is going on?\n\nA post was merged into an existing topic: What is “no routes found” when making a call?\n\nMessage an\nExpert customer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.980410099029541}
+{"content": "The Dangers of Kids in Viral Videos\n\n\n(STLMoms) - It seems like everyone wants their kid to be a viral video star like little Charlie who munched on his brother's finger.  Sometimes they're happy accidents and lead to internet fame. But sometimes fortune is not always the case.\n\nKelly DeVere, licensed family therapist, talks about the ups and downs of viral videos and kids.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9843948483467102}
+{"content": "Current Affairs / Current Affairs (English Language)\n\n14 Aug 2018\n\nQ.1: To withstand that heat, Parker Solar Probe makes use of a heat shield known as the Thermal Protection System (TPS). What is the thickness of this shield? \n\nQ.2: Name the person who took Oath as Chairperson, Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, Ministry of Power, recently. \n\nQ.3: In which of the following month, India will launch its second lunar mission “Chandrayaan-2” to land on the moon with a lander and rover? \n\nQ.4: Minister of State for Culture (I/C), Dr Mahesh Sharma, released 3 books, recently. ‘Ghats of Banaras’ was one of them, this book is written by _______________. \n\nQ.5: Name the tribal language primarily spoken in India, Bangladesh and Nepal that received global recognition when it got a Wikipedia edition in its own script. \n\nQ.6: Name the Bank of India that has signed a multilateral cooperation agreement with member development banks of BRICS to undertake “collaborative research” in distributed ledger/blockchain technology. \n\nQ.7: Nobel Prize-winning personality Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul has passed away at the age of 85. He was ______________.  \n\nQ.8: In which of the following city, theNepal-India Literature Festival 2018 has begun? \n\nQ.9: Vijaya Bank headquarters in ______________. \n\nQ.10: The Union Government has recently unlocked green funds worth over ______________ to increase the country’s forest cover.\n\nPrint Friendly and PDF", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7890517115592957}
+{"content": "Skip to content\n\n\nEleanor Milner-Gulland\n\nProfessor Eleanor Milner-Gulland\n\nProfessor Eleanor Milner-Gulland\n\nResearch Fellow\n\nGrants awarded\n\nScaling up human and animal decision-making for effective conservation action\n\nScheme: Wolfson Research Merit Awards\n\nOrganisation: Imperial College London\n\nDates: Apr 2008-Mar 2013\n\nValue: £100,000\n\nSummary: Decision-making is at the heart of conservation. Governments decide how much funding to allocate to which initiatives, and managers decide how to spend the money most effectively to monitor and conserve biodiversity. At the smaller scale, local people decide how to use and conserve the biodiversity in their area. Any change in a person’s incentives will alter their decision-making, which feeds back into their behaviour. Often conservationists ignore the indirect effects of their interventions on biodiversity, through people’s decision-making, and consider only the direct effects. For example, a new protected area may directly conserve biodiversity by preventing people from harvesting within its boundaries, but this new restriction will change people’s incentives. It may displace their harvesting elsewhere or persuade them to stop harvesting and take up another livelihood. Which of these happens will fundamentally alter the overall conservation outcome. My work focusses on understanding how individual people and animals make decisions about their use of the environment, and how conservation interventions alter these decisions. Taking this approach allows me to discover whether their individual responses to conservation actions might combine to lead to unexpected outcomes at the landscape scale. I am applying my work to improving the effectiveness of some exciting new approaches to conservation which rely on changing people’s incentives, including payments for ecosystem services and biodiversity offsets. I am also looking at how to ensure people comply with conservation rules, both within communities and in protected areas, and how to conserve migratory species, whose movement decisions make them particularly hard to conserve. I feel that combining an understanding of individual-level behaviour with a broader understanding of system dynamics at the landscape scale will improve our ability to predict the outcome of conservation interventions in a changing world.\n\nWas this page useful?\nThank you for your feedback", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9981729984283447}
+{"content": "Asset Publisher\n\nThe curious case of Earth's leaking atmosphere\n\nThe curious case of Earth's leaking atmosphere\n\n7 July 2016\n\n\nWhere does Earth's leaking atmosphere go? Credit: ESA/ATG medialab\n\nGiven the expanse of our atmosphere, 90 tonnes per day amounts to a small leak. Earth's atmosphere weighs in at around five quadrillion (5 × 1015) tonnes, so we are in no danger of running out any time soon. However, understanding Earth's atmosphere, and how it escapes to space, is key to understanding the atmospheres of other planets, and could be crucial in our hunt for habitable planets and extraterrestrial life.\n\nWe have been exploring Earth's magnetic environment for years using satellites such as ESA's Cluster mission, a fleet of four spacecraft launched in 2000. Cluster has been continuously observing the magnetic interactions between the Sun and Earth for over a decade and half; this longevity, combined with its multi-spacecraft capabilities and unique orbit, have made it a key player in understanding both Earth's leaking atmosphere and how our planet interacts with the surrounding Solar System.\n\n\nThe magnetosphere – and its inner region (the plasmasphere), a doughnut-shaped portion sitting atop our atmosphere, which co-rotates with Earth and extends to an average distance of 20 000 km – is flooded with charged particles and ions that are trapped, bouncing back and forth along field lines.\n\nEarth's magnetosphere.\nCredit: ESA/ATG medialab\nEarth's plasmasphere.\nCredit: ESA/ATG medialab\n\n\nWeaknesses in our magnetic shield\n\nHowever, our magnetosphere shield does have its weaknesses; at Earth's poles the field lines are open, like those of a standard bar magnet (these locations are named the polar cusps). Here, solar wind particles can head inwards towards Earth, filling up the magnetosphere with energetic particles.\n\n\nJust as particles can head inwards down these open polar lines, particles can also head outwards. Ions from Earth's upper atmosphere – the ionosphere, which extends to roughly 1000 km above the Earth – also flood out to fill up this region of space. Although missions such as Cluster have discovered much, the processes involved remain unclear.\n\n\"The question of plasma transport and atmospheric loss is relevant for both planets and stars, and is an incredibly fascinating and important topic. Understanding how atmospheric matter escapes is crucial to understanding how life can develop on a planet,\" said Arnaud Masson, ESA's Deputy Project Scientist for the Cluster mission. \"The interaction between incoming and outgoing material in Earth's magnetosphere is a hot topic at the moment; where exactly is this stuff coming from? How did it enter our patch of space?\"\n\nInitially, scientists believed Earth's magnetic environment to be filled purely with particles of solar origin. However, as early as the 1990s it was predicted that Earth's atmosphere was leaking out into the plasmasphere – something that has since turned out to be true.\n\n\nMore recent studies have unambiguously confirmed another source – Earth's atmosphere is constantly leaking! Alongside the aforementioned plumes, a steady, continuous flow of material (comprising oxygen, hydrogen, and helium ions) leaves our planet's plasmasphere from the polar regions, replenishing the plasma within the magnetosphere. Cluster found proof of this wind, and has quantified its strength for both overall (reported in a paper published in 2013) and for hydrogen ions in particular (reported in 2009).\n\n\n\nSolar storms and periods of heightened solar activity appear to speed up Earth's atmospheric loss significantly, by more than a factor of three. However, key questions remain: How do ions escape, and where do they originate? What processes are at play, and which is dominant?\n\nWhere do the ions go? And how?\n\n\n\nMore recently, scientists have explored the process of magnetic reconnection, one of the most efficient physical processes by which the solar wind enters Earth's magnetosphere and accelerates plasma. In this process, plasma interacts and exchanges energy with magnetic field lines; different lines reconfigure themselves, breaking, shifting around, and forging new connections by merging with other lines, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process.\n\nThe magnetic reconnection region in Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab\n\n\n\"In essence, we need to figure out how cold plasma ends up at the magnetopause,\" said Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Project Scientist for the Cluster mission. \"There are a few different aspects to this; we need to know the processes involved in transporting it there, how these processes depend on the dynamic solar wind and the conditions of the magnetosphere, and where plasma is coming from in the first place – does it originate in the ionosphere, the plasmasphere, or somewhere else?\"\n\n\n\nAnother recent Cluster study compared the two main atmospheric escape mechanisms Earth experiences – sporadic plumes emanating through the plasmasphere, and the steady leakage of Earth's atmosphere from the ionosphere – to see how they might contribute to the population of cold ions residing at the dayside magnetopause (the magnetosphere-solar wind boundary nearest the Sun).\n\nBoth escape processes appear to depend in different ways on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), the solar magnetic field that is carried out into the Solar System by the solar wind. This field moves through space in a spiralling pattern due to the rotation of the Sun, like water released from a lawn sprinkler. Depending on how the IMF is aligned, it can effectively cancel out part of Earth's magnetic field at the magnetopause, linking up and merging with our field and allowing the solar wind to stream in.\n\nPlumes seem to occur when the IMF is oriented southward (anti-parallel to Earth's magnetic field, thus acting as mentioned above). Conversely, leaking outflows from the ionosphere occur during northward-oriented IMF. Both processes occur more strongly when the solar wind is either denser or travelling faster (thus exerting a higher dynamic pressure).\n\n\"While there is still much to learn, we've been able to make great progress here,\" said Masson. \"These recent studies have managed to successfully link together multiple phenomena – namely the ionospheric leak, plumes from the plasmasphere, and magnetic reconnection – to paint a better picture of Earth's magnetic environment. This research required several years of ongoing observation, something we could only get with Cluster.\"\n\nApplying what we learn to other planets.\n\n\nConsider the diversity seen in the planets and moons of our Solar System, for example. In our small patch of the Universe we see extreme and opposite worlds: the smog-like carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus, the much-depleted tenuous atmosphere of present-day Mars, the nitrogen-rich atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, the essentially airless Jovian moon Callisto, the oxygen-bearing atmosphere of Earth.\n\nVenus Mars Titan Callisto Earth\n\n\n\"Understanding more about our own atmosphere will help us when it comes to other planets throughout the Universe,\" said Escoubet. \"We need to know more. Why does Earth have an atmosphere that can support life, while other planets do not?\"\n\n\n\"Additionally, Cluster's orbit is truly unique amongst all current missions; the fleet is on a polar orbit, meaning they can explore our planet's dynamic polar regions – specifically the cusps and polar caps – up close and in unprecedented detail,\" added Escoubet.\n\n\"Overall, long-term space missions like Cluster are helping us to understand a whole lot more about our planet, its atmosphere, and atmospheric loss in general – which in turn will help us to understand the Solar System in which we live.\"\n\nNotes for editors\n\n\nRelated publications\n\nS. H. Lee et al., \"A statistical study of plasmaspheric plumes and ionospheric outflows observed at the dayside magnetopause\", 2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 121, doi:10.1002/2015JA021540.\n\nB. Zhang et al., \"The role of ionospheric O+ outflow in the generation of earthward propagating plasmoids\", 2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 121, doi:10.1002/2015JA021667.\n\n\nPhilippe Escoubet\nCluster Project Scientist\nScientific Support Office\nDirectorate of Science\nESA, The Netherlands\nPhone: +31 71 565 3454\n\nArnaud Masson\nCluster Deputy Project Scientist\nOperations Department\nDirectorate of Science\nESA, Spain\nPhone: +34 918 131 237\n\nLast Update: 1 September 2019\n23-Sep-2019 08:50 UT\n\nShortUrl Portlet\n\nShortcut URL\n\nRelated Links", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8404465913772583}
+{"content": "When I try to put an image into a frame, it automatically goes to frame one?\n\nMemesalot636 6 months ago in Android 0\n\nWhenever I try to put an image I've saved from my other app into flipaclip, now it automatically puts it into frame one? I'm not sure if it's because it's on a different layer, but it was working fine before, since I could put images into the frames practically ontop of the other (using the onion layer) which was better than drawing over and over again.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9631967544555664}
+{"content": "The true statement about anti-gay beliefs that set off Justice Kennedy\n\nIt's still an open question if mistreating queer people is \"despicable.\"\n\nJustice Anthony Kennedy after the 2017 \"Red Mass.\" CREDIT: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana\n\nAt Tuesday’s oral arguments for Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, one benign statement from one of those Colorado commissioners seemed to have triggered several of the Supreme Court justices, including Justice Anthony Kennedy, the key swing vote. The nature of this statement gets to the question at the very core of the case: Is it immoral to refuse to recognize a same-sex couple’s marriage?\n\n“It seems to me the state has been neither tolerant or respectful,” Kennedy said of the Commission’s ruling that the baker Jack Phillips had violated state law by refusing to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. At one point, he asked the Commission’s lawyer to repudiate a statement one of the commissioners, Diann Rice, had made calling it “despicable” to justify discrimination in the name of the religion.\n\nKennedy went on to imply that he felt the comment demonstrated “hostility to religion.”\n\nHere’s the full statement that Commissioner Rice made during the 2014 hearing on Phillips’ case:\n\n\nBut that’s not how Phillips’ lawyers and supporters interpreted it. “Revealed: Colo. commissioner compared cake artist to Nazi,” the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced in a 2015 press release, completely mischaracterizing what Rice had said. ADF notably also took exception with her insistence that “sexual orientation is a status absolutely like race.”\n\n\nThree months ago, the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal took this ridiculous “Nazi” characterization and ran with it, publishing a fully produced video, complete with interviews of Phillips reacting to the comparison that was never made. He talks about his dad fighting in World War II, he reads through his dad’s personal notes condemning Nazis in a World War II history book, and he visits his dad’s grave at a cemetery near his bakery storefront.\n\n“My situation has nothing to do with the Nazis,” Phillips pleads in the video. “It has nothing to do with racism. I want to run my bakery in a way that everybody who comes in is welcome.”\n\nIn its amicus brief, the Liberty Counsel, another anti-LGBTQ hate group known for defending Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, literally put the words in Kennedy’s mouth. “Any doubt about the underlying hostility of the CRC to the religious beliefs of Petitioners is erased by the comments of one of the commission members,” the brief said.\n\nOf course, the whole point of the case is that Phillips does not run a shop where everybody is welcome. A same-sex couple cannot purchase the same wedding cakes that are available to different-sex couples.\n\n\nMoreover, there’s nothing inaccurate about Rice’s comment. It is factually true that religion has been used to justify many atrocities throughout the ages, including both slavery and the Holocaust. The Southern Baptist Convention, now the largest Christian denomination in the United States, formed by separating from northern Baptists expressly because of its support for slavery. And Adolf Hitler enjoyed strong support from the Protestant Christian community in Germany as he rose to power.\n\nThe use of religion to justify injustice can also be seen in the modern U.S. court system. Though the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against bans on interracial marriage in the 1967 case Loving v. Virginia, the first judge that heard the case ruled against the couple’s marriage. In his 1965 opinion, he wrote, “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents,” he wrote. “And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”\n\nAround the same time, the Supreme Court heard the case Newman v. Piggie Park, which involved a restaurant owner who claimed he couldn’t serve black customers, as the law demanded, because he believed the Civil Rights Act “contravenes the will of God.” It was an almost identical case to Masterpiece Cakeshop. In its 1968 ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the owner, calling his religious claim “patently frivolous.”\n\nThe reaction Kennedy had seems to indicate that, despite his consistent history of ruling in favor of gay rights and unlike the 1968 Court, he is still very sensitive to the concerns of people who oppose marriage equality and seek to treat same-sex couples differently. In Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015’s landmark marriage equality decision, Kennedy made this perspective clear. “This view long has been held — and continues to be held — in good faith by reasonable and sincere people here and throughout the world,” he wrote, emphasizing that they “may continue to advocate” that “same-sex marriage should not be condoned.”\n\nBut he also wrote that if enacted into law, “sincere, personal opposition” soon “demeans or stigmatizes those whose own liberty is then denied. Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right.” He ruled that the laws banning same-sex couples from marrying “are held invalid to the extent they exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.”\n\nKennedy, for whatever reason, is clearly offended by Rice’s remarks. The question is whether it drives him to compromise his own previous ruling to carve out room for the baker to discriminate.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8732055425643921}
+{"content": "The Chess Variant Pages\nCustom Search\n\nLevitating Kings\n\n\nThe idea of Levitating Kings occurred to me after having an interesting dream about levitation. It was while trying to figure out the significance of the dream [assuming I would find some] that I saw the concept being applied to chess.\n\nAnd so we start with a standard 8x8 board and set of pieces. And the pieces all move as in standard chess... but the King, there is something special about him. In this game he can levitate.\n\n\nAs in chess.\n\n\nAs in chess.\n\n\nAs in chess, Except:\n\n1. Winning is by capturing the enemy King.\n\n2. Kings can move through checks. So they can Levitate through checks and they can castle through checks. They can even move into check but that is unwise as they will be captured on the opponent's turn.\n\n3. Kings can levitate.\n\nA King can levitate over any number of connected (adjacent to each other) friendly squares occupied by piece-pawn combinations. Levitation can be orthagonal or diagonal.\n\nExample, where \"-\" equals an empty square.\n\n- - - - - - - P\n\n- - N - P - - -\n\n\nR - B - K B N -\n\nIn the above position the white King could make any of these moves:\n\na) normal move to d1\n\nb) Levitate to e4\n\nc) Levitate to g3\n\nd) Levitate to b4\n\ne) Levitate to h1\n\nLevitation can be performed to get out of what would be a checkmate in standard chess. For example:\n\n- - - - - - - b\n\n- - N - P - - -\n\nP P P - - q P P\n\nR - B Q K B N R\n\nIn the above position Black has a Queen at f2 and it is protected by a Bishop at h4. In Levitating Kings white would be allowed to play K x Q but Black would then play B x K and win. So White would now Levitate to square b1 and escape what would have been mate in a standard game of chess.\n\n\nA King which has no friendly pawns or pieces adjacent to it, cannot levitate as long as that condition exists.\n\n\nBy Gary K. Gifford.\nWeb page created: 2007-04-21. Web page last updated: 2007-04-21", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999394416809082}
+{"content": "Nicole Gordon\n\nAdversity, like change, is an expected part of life. At various points in our lives we will all experience some kind of major challenge or difficulty, which can potentially have major negative effects on our mental health. While some people appear to manage and bounce back from these crises with minimal affect on their mental health, others seem to struggle more, and longer. Why is this?\n\nWhile there are many possible factors that go into management and recovery from crises, for now let’s focus on just one: Resilience.\n\nWhat is resilience? Resilience is defined as the ability to handle and bounce back from adversity. There are different types of resilience, but we will focus on mental health resilience.\n\nHow does resilience relate to mental health? Resilience is shown to be a protective factor against mental health conditions, such as stress and anxiety.\n\nWhy is resilience important? Everyone faces some kind of struggle or adversity in their lifetime. Resilience, among other factors, has a major positive impact on how well individuals work through these trials. It can help with adapting to a new situation or environment, managing stress levels, and recovering after unexpected losses or traumatic events.\n\nIs it something you’re born with? No. Resilience is a learned trait, usually built up over time. For many people it is built in the midst of crisis, but it can also be built through conscious effort outside of difficult times. It functions similarly to any other new life skill.\n\nWho is resilient? Resilience is not a static trait belonging to a specific group. Everyone possesses some degree of resilience, and everyone can build, strengthen, or expand on what they already have!\n\nHow can I build resilience? There are multiple ways to build resilience, but for now lets focus on three.\n\nGoal setting – Practice setting realistic, achievable goals and try to consistently do things that will bring you closer to achieving them. Goal setting and achieving helps to strengthen will power and gives practice in creating and executing a plan. Keep in mind, the key word here is realistic. It’s easy to fall into the trap of setting goals that are to much to handle, causing ourselves extra stress trying to achieve them, and feeling upset or let down when we don’t. Instead, try taking larger goals and breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts, and celebrate victories as you work your way through each part.\n\nMaking connections – Positive, supportive relationships have been shown to decrease stress reactions, even just in thinking about the relationship. So, build your support network. Provide support to others and don’t be afraid to accept help when you need it.\n\nSkill Acquisition – Acquiring a new skill strengthens feelings of competency and in turn increases self esteem. In the long run, these feelings of competency and high self esteem allow you to feel more confident in adapting to new situations and working through crises.\n\nSome of the most notable figures in human history, are also the most resilient, but his trait is not limited to a select few. It is a skill that can be strengthened in the midst of adversity, and in times of peace. It can provide protection against certain mental health difficulties, as well as aiding in the management of, and recovery from, others. Anyone can build resilience, and benefit from it, individually or with the assistance of a therapist.\n\nTo learn more, and receive guidance for working through periods of adversity, contact Tokyo Mental Health to matched with a therapist.\n\nHow to build resiliency. (2017, May 18). Retrieved July 1, 2019, from\n\nSuttie, J. (2017, November 13). Four Ways Social Support Makes You More Resilient. Retrieved from\n\nThe road to resilience. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2019, from\n\nWhitley, R., Ph.D. (2018, February 15). Three Simple Ways to Enhance Mental Health Resilience. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9312976598739624}
+{"content": "Home / Politics / Opinion / Harmonisation of Zim’s marriage laws\n\nHarmonisation of Zim’s marriage laws\n\nDanai Chirawu\nThere has been much controversy about the unofficial Marriages Bill which is being circulated via different social media platforms and is yet to be gazetted. In last week’s article, we offered some perspective on the current marriage regime with a particular focus on the imbalances that exist within the unregistered customary law union framework.\n\nTo continue on this trajectory we shall explore the regional and international instruments that should guide this process of harmonising Zimbabwe’s marriage laws. These instruments are regional and international laws formulated to provide a standard upon which each signatory country must aspire to.\n\nThey are there to promote the full realisation of human rights based on research and the input and resolution of many different countries. Zimbabwe, as a signatory to some of these laws will benefit immensely from upholding the human rights standards provided therein.\n\nThe term harmonisation in this context means that the laws should be united together and couched under one Act of Parliament as opposed to having different Acts being the Marriage Act (Chapter 5:11) and the Customary Marriages Act (Chapter 5:07).\n\nIt also means that the differences between these laws, especially in Zimbabwe where one is monogamous and the other is potentially polygamous are recognised within the same law and given an equal opportunity to exist in harmony with each other.\n\nThese parallel laws as they stand provide for discrimination as marriages do not have equal status before the law with the general law marriages being given a superior status while the unregistered customary law unions are given limited recognition.\n\nThe aim of harmonising is to promote equality and non-discrimination before the law so that inequalities prevalent in the status of marriage are resolved. It also stands to mainstream African customary law and the protection of property and inheritance rights of spouses.\n\nHarmonisation will address the issue of age of consent to marriage so that it will echo the eighteen years bench mark which has been stipulated by the Constitution and it will also prioritise free and full consent of both parties in the solemnisation of all marriages and unions.\n\nThe first international instrument is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) whose purpose is to establish standards for human rights as they apply to all persons because they are full human beings.\n\nThe term ‘‘all persons’’ therefore includes women and children who have been previously discriminated against by the current marriage and other laws.\n\nThe Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which speaks directly against gender based violence includes provisions that all member states must adhere to in promoting and protecting women’s rights.\n\nIt is stated therein that all member states must put eighteen as the minimum age of consent to marriage; non discrimination based on race, nationality, religion among others; the right to choose a spouse using free and full consent; equality of rights during the subsistence of the marriage and at dissolution and property distribution; the illegality of child marriages; pledging and betrothal and the need for registration of all marriages.\n\nIt must be emphasised that the issue of registration of all marriages should be prioritised so that all information pertaining to a person’s marital status is collated. It is a modern way to ensure accountability of all person and will provide simple and easily accessible proof should any marital issues arise.\n\nFinally there is the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) which brings these different provisions into context for Africans. Interestingly this instrument recognises polygamy although stating that monogamy is the preferred type of marriage.\n\nIt is clear, that if there is to be proper and adequate harmonisation of marriage laws, the law maker must take in cognisance the importance of regional and international instruments. The Constitution of Zimbabwe makes allusions to the same so that justice may be administered more effectively and since Zimbabwe has ratified these laws, it matters that they form part of our own law.\n\nSource :\n\nthe herald\n\nCheck Also\n\nHow to achieve the ‘fourth 90’ for HIV\n\nAmy Flood Correspondent Continued advances in science and treatment access have made HIV a long-term …\n\nerror: Content is protected !!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9962287545204163}
+{"content": "Do you get customers from Google?\n\nAre you ranking for phrases that people actually search?\n\nLong experience. Close partnership.\n\nThe diagram shows a real keyword analysis that shows that the company name only had 120 searches per month, while the difference between \"diamond ring\" and \"diamond rings\" in the differs with over 5,000 searches every single month. If you multiply 5000 by 12 months, this represents a total of 60,000 more diamond ring diamonds.\n\nThis is important because Google shows completely different search results on these 3 keywords. If you were a jeweler, what would you prefer to be in the top 10 position?\n\nDue to the analysis above you would of course choose diamond ring in single form. But, what would you answer without an analysis in advance?\n\nTherefore, the question \"is your company visible on the internet\" is not necessarily about being visible on its company name. Most people search for needs and named issues rather than applying for company names.\n\nWhich variants of keywords are best sought for your company and are you visible on these?\n\nLet's do a simple market analysis for you where we find your best search phrases and tell you what actions you should take.\n\n\nWeb Analytics", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6027853488922119}
+{"content": "Reva: Artifact Content\n\nArtifact 9b25f015ce3d956f4986eaff44820384a88d6e11:\n\nWiki page [Tutorial] by kartik 2018-03-25 06:37:56.\nD 2018-03-25T06:37:56.101\nL Tutorial\nP 7c8479650ced3d1c3d925cbdee544cdc42f4b58d\nU kartik\nW 44059\n<center><b>Reva Forth Tutorial</b></center>\n\nReva is a derivative of [|RetroForth], and is\nbased on the one by [|Phil Burk], the\nauthor of [|pForth], but has been substantially\n\nfree form investigation based on your curiosity is probably the best\nlearning.  If you are only interested in learning [|ANS\nForth], there are other tutorials which will serve your purpose better.\n\nIn the tutorials, I will print the things you need to type in <tt>monospaced\nfont</tt>, and indent them. Reva is case-sensitive, unlike some other\nyou create can be any combination of case you prefer.  \n\nAt the end of each line, press the <tt>RETURN</tt> (or <tt>ENTER</tt>) key;\nthat Reva prompts you with <tt>ok&gt;</tt> as other Forths do, when it is\nawaiting input from you.\n\n<h1>Forth Syntax</h1>\nspaces between them.\" This is even simpler than English! Each <i>word</i> is\nexample, could appear in a Forth program:\n\n\nNotice that <tt>WAKE_UP</tt> has a dash between the <tt>WAKE</tt> and <tt>UP</tt>. The dash\nnumbers, or punctuation. <i>Note:</i> In Reva, \"dot\" <i>may</i> have a special\nmeaning.  See [Contexts] for more information.  In general, however, any\nnames like:\n\n<tt><b>.\" #s swap ! @ dup . *</b></tt>\n\nThese are all called <i>words</i>. The word <tt>$%%-GL7OP</tt> is also a legal\nparticular) give the programmer ultimate freedom to make whatever design\nlike <tt>$%%-GL7OP</tt> Reva will respond <tt>$%%-GL7OP?</tt> which is its rather terse way of\ntelling you that it has no idea what you mean.\n\nand looks it up in the [Words and the dictionary|dictionary]. If it finds the word there, it executes\nprogrammatic control first).\n\ninstance, as you will see below, colon, <b>:</b> , starts to compile the text\nsemicolon, <b>;</b> .  There are many such <i>parsing words</i>, though most words\nin Reva simply process input and generate output.\n\ngreatest strengths is its interactive, immediate nature.\n\n<h2>Stack Manipulation</h2>\nThe Forth language is based on the concept of a <i>stack</i>. Imagine a\nForth uses several stacks. The <i>data stack</i> is the one used for passing\n<i>return stack</i> is another Forth stack that is primarily for internal\nwe refer to the \"stack,\" we will be referring to the <i>data stack</i>.  For \nreference, we'll call the <i>return stack</i> \"RS\".\n\ngreeted by something like:\n\n Reva a.b.c Windows\n\n\nnumbers on the stack.  Type in:\n\n ok> <b>23 7 9182</b>\n\n<b>.</b>, which is pronounced \"dot\". This is a hard word to write \nabout in a manual because it is just a single period.\n\n\n ok> <b>.</b>\n\nYou should see the last number you entered, <tt>9182</tt>, printed.\n\nIt is <b>.s</b> , which is pronounced \"dot ess\". The name was constructed from \"dot\" for\nprint, and \"s\" for stack.  In Reva, <tt>.s</tt> is defined to show only the topmost ten stack \n\nTry entering:\n\n ok> <b>.s</b>\n\nyou will see your numbers <b>23 7</b>, in a list. The number at the far right is the\none on top of the stack.\nNotice that <b>9182</b> is not on the stack. The word <b>.</b> removed\nthe number on top of the stack before printing it. In contrast, <b>.s</b>\nleaves the stack untouched.\n\nalso means that documenting what each word does to the stack (called [stack effect]) is important and useful.\n\nmay use the vertical-bar character <b>|</b> as comment to end-of-line.  In\nother words, anything after the <b>|</b> on that line is ignored:\n\n dup swap <font color=green>| This is all a comment</font>\n\nenter <b>reset</b>, the stack will be cleared.\n\n ok> <b>777 dup .s</b>\n\n<b>dup</b> duplicates TOS. This is useful when you want to use the TOS and\n\n dup ( n -- n n )\n\nAnother useful word is <b>swap</b>. Enter:\n\n ok> <b>23 7 .s</b>\n ok> <b>swap .s</b>\n\nThe stack should look like: <b>7 23</b> now.  The stack diagram for swap would be:\n\n swap ( a b -- b a )\n\nNow enter:\n ok> <b>over .s</b>\n\nYou should see <b>23 7 23</b> . The word <b>over</b> causes a copy of the \n\n over ( a b -- a b a )\n\nHere is another commonly used Forth word:\n\n drop ( a -- )\n\nCan you guess what we will see if we enter:\n  ok> <b>drop .s</b>\n\nAnother handy word for manipulating the stack is <b>rot</b>. Enter:\n\n ok> <b>11 22 33 44 .s</b>\n ok> <b>rot .s</b>\n\nThe stack diagram for <b>rot</b> is, therefore:\n\n rot ( a b c -- b c a )\n\nYou have now learned the more important stack manipulation words. You\nfind that you can avoid excessive stack manipulations by using <i>variables</i>, which \nwill be discussed later.  It is also likely that <i>factoring</i> your code -- that is, \n\nTo get any arbitrary item on the stack, use <b>pick</b>\n. Try entering:\n\n ok> <b>14 13 12 11 10</b>\n ok> <b>3 pick .</b> ( prints 13 )\n ok> <b>0 pick .</b> ( prints 10 )\n ok> <b>4 pick .</b> ( prints 14 )\n\n<b>pick</b> makes a copy of the Nth item on the stack. The numbering starts with\nzero, therefore <b>0 pick</b> is equivalent to <b>dup</b>, and <b>1 pick</b> is equivalent \nto <b>over</b>.  \n\n<b>pick</b>'s stack diagram looks like this:\n\n\nI have included the stack diagrams for some other useful stack manipulation\nis just a comment and need not be entered.\n\n2drop ( a b c -- a )\n2dup ( a b -- a b a b )\nnip ( a b c --  a c )\ntuck ( a b -- b a b )\nrot ( a b c -- c a b )\n\nStart each problem by entering:\n\n reset 11 22 33\n\nfollowing numbers on the stack:\n\n  *  11 33 22 22\n  *  22 33\n  *  22 33 11 11 22\n  *  11 33 22 33 11\n  *  33 11 22 11 22\n\n\nsection describes how to perform arithmetic operations in Forth.\n\nthrough 2<sup>32</sup>, or about 4 billion.  A \"double\" can be any value from\n0 through 2<sup>64</sup> or about 1.8e19 - a really huge number.\n\nvalue, or you can use the word <b>s&gt;d</b> to convert a single to a double.\npart of Reva to begin with.  \n\nThe third thing you should know is that Reva doesn't care about\n\ninside a \"single\" or \"double\" (but a period is <i>required</i> inside a\n\"[float]\", which we will not cover here).\n\n\nForth arithmetic operators work on the numbers currently on top\nForth word <b>+</b> , pronounced \"plus\". Enter:\n\n ok> <b>2 3 + .</b>\n ok> <b>2 3 + 10 + .</b>\n\nThis style of expressing arithmetic operations is called \n<i>Reverse Polish Notation</i>, or <i>RPN</i>. It will already be familiar to those\nalgebraic equivalent representation in a comment.\n\nSome other arithmetic operators are <b>- * /</b> . Enter:\n\n ok> <b>30 5 - .</b>\n 25  <font color=green>| 30 - 5</font>\n ok> <b>30 5 / .</b>\n 6   <font color=green>| 30 / 5</font>\n ok> <b>30 5 * .</b>\n 150 <font color=green>| 30 * 5</font>\n ok> <b>30 5 + 7 / .</b>\n 5   <font color=green>| (30 + 5) / 7</font>\n\nwith integers using <b>/</b> , the remainder is lost. Enter:\n\n ok> <b>15 5 / .</b>\n ok> <b>17 5 / .</b>\n\nThis is true in all languages on all computers. Later we will examine <b>/mod</b>\nand <b>mod</b> which do give the remainder.\n\n<h2>Defining a New Word</h2>\n\nIt's now time to write a <i>small program</i> in Forth. You can do this\n\nWe will make use of two new words, <b>:</b> ( \"colon\"), and <b>;</b> (\n\"semicolon\") . These words start and end a typical <i>Forth definition</i>.\n\n ok> <b>: AVERAGE ( a b -- avg ) + 2 / ;</b>\n\nits list of words. This list is called the <i>dictionary</i>. The name of\nthe semicolon is reached, which finishes the definition.\n\nLet's test this new word by entering:\n\n ok> <b>10 20 AVERAGE . ( should print 15 )</b>\n\nwrite a word that tests our word.. Enter:\n\n ok> <b>: TEST ( --) 50 60 AVERAGE . ;</b>\n\nof the words that are available for programming by entering:\n\n ok> <b>words</b>\n\nprograms.  As an enhancement, you can type some text after <b>words</b> and only\n\n ok> <b>words dup</b>\n\nWill print something like \n\n 3dup ?dup dup 2dup\n 4 words\n\n<h2>More Arithmetic</h2>\n\nWhen you need to know the remainder of a divide operation. <b>/mod</b> will return\nthe remainder as well as the quotient, whereas <b>mod</b> will only return the\nremainder. Enter:\n\n ok> <b>53 10 /mod .s</b>\n ok> <b>7 5 mod .s</b>\n\nTwo other handy words are <b>min</b> and <b>max</b> . They accept two numbers\nand return the MINimum or MAXimum value respectively. Try entering the\n\n ok> <b>56 34 max .</b>\n ok> <b>56 34 min .</b>\n ok> <b>-17 0 min .</b>\n\nSome other useful words are:\n\n abs ( a -- abs(a) )\n negate ( a -- -a )\n invert ( a -- ~a ) <font color=green>| Invert each bit</font>\n &lt;&lt; ( a n -- (a&lt;&lt;n) )\n &gt;&gt; ( a n -- (a&gt;&gt;n) )\n\n<h2>Arithmetic Overflow</h2>\n\nprecision of the stack, then you can use <b>*/</b> . This produces an intermediate\n\n ok> <b>34867312 99154 * 665134 / .</b>\n ok> <b>34867312 665134 / 99154 * .</b>\n ok> <b>34867312 99154 665134 */ .</b>\n\n<h2>Convert Algebraic Expressions to Forth</h2>\n\n<tt>20 + (3 * 4)</tt>?\n\n<P>To convert this to Forth you must order the operations in the order\n\n ok> <b>3 4 * 20 +</b>\n\nCompare the following algebraic expressions and their Forth equivalents:\n(Do <b>not</b> enter these!)\n\n (100 + 50) / 2 ==&gt; 100 50 + 2/\n ((2 * 7) + (13 * 5)) ==&gt; 2 7 * 13 5 * +\n\ntime, while viewing the stack with <b>.s</b> .\n\n\nConvert the following algebraic expressions to their equivalent Forth expressions.\n(Do <b>not</b> enter these because they are not Forth code!)\n\n  #  (12 * (20 - 17))\n\nUse the words you have learned to write these new words:\n\n  #  SQUARE ( N -- N*N )\n  #  DIFF.SQUARES ( A B -- A*A-B*B )\n  #  AVERAGE4 ( A B C D -- (A+B+C+D)/4 )\n\n\n<h2>Character Input and Output</h2>\nBecause Forth is not a <i>typed</i> language, the numbers on top of the stack can\n\n 72 emit 105 emit\n\n<b>emit</b> takes the number on the stack and outputs it as a character.  To get\n\n 'W .\n '% dup . emit\n 'A dup .\n 32 + emit\n\nReva interpreter that the character that follows should be converted to\nother such modifiers in Reva which can make inputting numbers simpler:\n\n<tr><td class=c>'a</td><td>Gives 97, the ASCII value of 'a'</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>%1100</td><td>Gives 12, or 1100 binary</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>$ff</td><td>255, or hexadecimal FF</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>&amp;010</td><td>8, or octal 10</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>#123</td><td>123 - decimal 123</td></tr>\n\nUsing <b>emit</b> to output character strings would be very tedious. Luckily\nthere is a better way. Enter:\n\n : TOFU .\" Yummy bean curd!\" ;\n\nThe word <b>.\"</b> , pronounced \"dot quote\", will take everything up to\non a new line, you can issue a carriage return using the word <b>cr</b>\n. Enter:\n\n : SPROUTS .\" Miniature vegetables.\" ;\n : MENU cr TOFU cr SPROUTS cr ;\n\nYou can emit a blank space with <b>space</b> . one may output\nmore than one space with the word <b>spaces</b>.  \n\n cr 10 spaces TOFU cr 20 spaces SPROUTS\n\nmight look like this: \n              : spaces 0 do space loop ; \n              : periods 0 do '. emit loop ; \n cr 10 spaces TOFU cr 20 periods SPROUTS\nNotice that the new word we created, <tt><b>periods</b></tt>, uses a\n\"do...loop construct\".  The word <b>do</b> starts a series of words which will\nword <b>loop</b> adds one to the current value of the loop;  if it's not yet\nthe upper limit, then it jumps back to just after the <b>do</b>.   We'll see\nmore of these kinds of words later on.\n\nFor character input, Forth uses the word <b>key</b> which corresponds to the\nword emit for output.  <b>key</b> waits for the user to press a key then leaves\nkey after typing your character.  Try the following: \n: TESTKEY ( -- )\n   .\" Hit a key: \" key cr \n   .\" The ASCII value=\" . cr\n\nReva has a similar word <b>ekey</b> which does not wait for the ENTER key.  Try\nredefining TESTKEY above using <b>ekey</b> instead of <b>key</b>.\n\n<h2>Compiling from Files</h2>\n\nthat you wish to write your programs.\nSample Program</H3>\nEnter into your file, the following code.\n| Sample Forth Code\n| Author: <i>your name</i>\n\n: SQUARE ( n -- n*n )\n\tdup *\n\n: TEST.SQUARE ( -- )\n   cr .\" 7 squared = \"\n   7 SQUARE . cr\n\nNow save the file to disk as 'test.f'.\n\nThe text following the <b>|</b> character is treated as a comment. Note that\nin ANS Forth, this would be the <b>\\</b> character.  If you were writing in\nit would be // ...\nThe text between parentheses is also a comment. \n\nUsing this file is trivial.  Start Reva, then type:\ninclude test.f\n\nreva test.f\n\nThe word <b>include</b> means to read in and interpret words from a file, rather\n\nthat will load all the files you need.\n\n\nuse the word <b>variable</b> as follows:\n\nvariable MY-VAR\n\n\n<UL><pre>MY-VAR .</pre> </UL>\n\nfor MY-VAR. To store data into memory you use the word <b>!</b> , pronounced\ngiven address, use the Forth word <b>@</b> , pronounced \"fetch\". Try entering\nthe following:\n\n513 MY-VAR !\nMY-VAR @ .\n\n\n513 variable, MY-VAR2 \nMY-VAR2 @ .\n\nThe stack diagrams for these words follows:\n<tr><td class=c>@</td><td class=c>( addr -- val ) </td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>!</td><td class=c>( val addr -- )</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>variable</td><td class=c>( <name> -- )</td></tr>\n<tr><td class=c>variable,</td><td class=c>( val <name> -- )</td></tr>\n\nthis code in a file as described in the previous section:\nvariable HIGH-SCORE\n\n: REPORT.SCORE ( score -- , print out score )\n   dup cr .\" Your Score = \" . cr\n   HIGH-SCORE @ max ( calculate new high )\n   dup .\" Highest Score = \" . cr\n   HIGH-SCORE ! ( update variable )\nSave the file to disk, then load this code using the <b>include</b> word. Test\nyour word as follows:\n\nwill work on 8 and 16-bit values. <b>c@</b> and <b>c!</b> work on characters\ncharacters are 8-bit numbers.\n\n<i>A word of warning about fetching and storing to memory</i>: You have\n<pre>73 253000 ! ( Do NOT do this. )</pre></TT>\nwith other programs including the operating system, you could easily cause\nthe danger of writing powerful programs.\n\n\nyou define it as a \"constant.\" Enter:\n\nrecompile. Using <b>constant</b> can improve the readability of your programs\nprogram occupies more than one file. Using <b>constant</b> will make it easy to\n\n<h2>Logical Operators</h2>\n\nThese next two sections are concerned with decision making. This first\nare either <b>true</b> or <b>false</b>. Forth uses a <b>0</b> to represent <b>false</b> and\na <b>-1</b> to represent <b>true</b>.  In Reva, <b>true</b> and <b>false</b> are defined as \nForth constants.  The word <b>=</b> takes the two top values and produces \neither <b>false</b> or <b>true</b> .  Try this:\n\n23 71 = .\n18 18 = .\n\nYou will notice that the first line printed a 0, or <b>false</b>, and the second\nline a -1, or <b>true</b>. The equal sign in Forth is used as a question, not\ntwo stack values (similar to <b>=</b>) are <b>&lt;</b> and <b>&gt;</b> .  Both \nof these words will produce <b>false</b> or <b>true</b>.  The words <b>=</b> \n<b>&lt;</b> and <b>&gt;</b> are available singularly for pure logical operations.  \nspecial forms of \"<b>if</b>\" available for speed of execution.  Logically \nthere is no difference between \"<b>=  if</b>\" and \"<b>=if</b>\", but \"<b>=if</b>\" \ncompiles to shorter and faster code, and Reva programmers are encouraged \nto use it.  Here is an example of its use:\n\n: DRINK? ( age -- flag )\n   20 &gt;if .\" OK\" else .\" Underage!\" then cr\n\n20 DRINK? \n21 DRINK? \nHere you are introduced to the <b>if/else/then</b> structure of Forth\nconditional statements.  Other useful \"<b>if</b>\" constructs are:\n\n! \"if\" construct\n! what it performs\n| <b>&lt;if</b>\n| If second stack item is less than TOS\n| Two top stack items are equal\n| <b>if0</b>\n| TOS is zero\n| <b>if</b>\n| Top item is TRUE\n\nThese constructs are <i>not</i> the same as most Forths, except for <b>if</b>.\nWhen I said that true is -1, <i>that</i> was not quite true; Reva accepts\n<i>any</i> non-zero as being <b>true</b>, as do most Forths.\n\nFor more complex decisions, you can use the <i>[Boolean]</i> operators <b>or</b> ,\n<b>and</b>, <b>xor</b> and <b>not</b> . <b>or</b> returns a <b>true</b> if either\none or both of the top two stack items are true.  <b>and</b> returns <b>true</b>\nif both are true.  <b>xor</b> does an \"exclusive or\" of the two top items.\n<b>not</b> converts <b>false</b> to <b>true</b>, and any non-zero value to\n<b>false</b>.  Actually, this isn't exactly true.  The 'boolean' words\nmentioned above actually do [bitwise] operations.  That is, they \"and\" or\nreal \"boolean\" and use {{word|&&}}, and use <tt><b>||</b></tt> for boolean \"or\".\n\ntrue true or .\ntrue false or .\nfalse false or .\ntrue true and .\ntrue false and .\ntrue not .\n\nLogical operators can be combined:\n56 3 and 57 123 or and .\n\n\nWrite a word called <b>LOWERCASE?</b> that returns <b>true</b> if the number on top\n\n'A LOWERCASE? . | should print 0 \n'a LOWERCASE? . | should print -1\n\nWrite a word called <b>DEDUCT</b> that subtracts a value from a variable containing\nthe balance. Print a warning if the balance is negative.\n\nvariable ACCOUNT\n\n: DEDUCT ( n -- )\n\n300 ACCOUNT ! ( initial funds )\n40 DEDUCT ( prints 260 )\n200 DEDUCT ( print 60 )\n100 DEDUCT ( print -40 and give warning! )\n\n\n\nReva has a completely different set of loop constructs \nthan ANS Forth, so you'll want to pay attention.\n\nMost loops begin with the word <b>repeat</b>.  The first kind of loop is between \n<b>repeat ... while</b>.  This loops until a condition is true.  Try this:\n: COUNTDOWN ( N -- )\n     dup . cr  | print number on top of stack \n     1- dup    | decrement and duplicate\n   while       | if TOS is not zero, repeat.\n   drop        | get rid of value\n\nhas is an \"unconditional\" loop, <b>repeat ... again</b>.  This keeps going\nuntil you break out of it, perhaps by using <b>;;</b> or pressing Ctrl-C :\n      .\" looping again ...\" cr\n\nReva also has the <tt>do ... loop</tt> construct like ANS Forths do.  It\nis used like this:\n: looper \n   10 0 \n      .\" Iteration #\" i . cr \nIf you type <tt>looper</tt> you will see 10 lines, starting with \"Iteration\n\nReva does not have the <tt>do ... +loop</tt> construct provided for by many\n1).  Instead, Reva uses the normal <tt>do...loop</tt> structure but adds the\nword <b>skip</b> . Here is an example of a <b>do...loop</b> with <b>skip</b>:\n: skip-looper  \n   100 0 \n      .\" skip-iteration # \" i . cr \n   10 skip loop \nby ten.\"\n\nPlease note that\n: wrong \n   0 101 \n      do i . \n   -10 skip loop \n<b>is not the same as:</b>\n: something \n   0 101 \n     DO I . \n   -10 +LOOP ;\nin other Forths. <b>skip</b> only decrements a counter on the return stack.\n\ngiven above as:\n   .\" looping again ...\" cr\nIn this example, an infinite loop is effectively made by <i>recursion</i>, that\ndefining a word.  This allows you to easily recurse.  \n\nthis task.  For example:\n: cleave .\" separates\" ;\n: cleave .\" joins \" prior cleave ;\n\n<h2>Text Input and Output</h2>\n\non using strings of characters. Reva has several varieties of [strings],\nand it is good to know when to use each type.\n\nThe \"normal\" string is a <i>Forth string</i>, consisting of an address,count\noften listed as <tt>( a n -- )</tt>.  To create such a string, you may use a\ndouble-quote character, <b>\"</b> .  That word parses until if finds another\nruntime, the string data will appear on the stack.\n\n\" This is a string\" type cr\n: STR \" Hi there!\" ;\n\nSTR type cr\n\nOther Forths use the word <b>s\"</b> to accomplish the same thing Reva\ndoes with <b>\"</b>.  The word <b>type</b> seen above, prints out the Forth\nstring on top of the stack.\n\naddress <tt>( a -- )</tt>, where the first byte (or int, if a 'long' counted string) contains the\n<b>place</b> will take a Forth string and \"place\" it into a counted-string in\nthe area requested.  For a string longer than 255 characters, use <b>lplace</b>\nrather than <b>place</b>.  To convert a counted string to a Forth string, use\nthe word <b>count</b> (or <b>lcount</b>).  To append a Forth string to a counted\nstring, use <b>+place</b> (or <b>+lplace</b>).  Finally, append a character to a\ncounted string with <b>c+place</b>.\n\nstrings.  The <b>\"</b> word automatically NUL terminates the string it creates,\n<b>drop</b> the count first!).\n\n\" Reva rocks!\" pad place  | 'pad' now contains a counted -string\npad count type cr         | see what it is...\n\nA good thing to know is that in interactive mode, the <b>\"</b> word uses a\n\" file.c\" \" file.f\" rename-file\n...and the strings will be distinct.  When using <b>\"</b> inside a\nincrements of <tt>cstrsize</tt> (you can change that size, which defaults to\n64K, simply by writing a new value like <tt>100,000 cstrsize !</tt> before you\nneed to reallocate).\n\nneed to preface it with a <b>\\</b> character like so:\nThis will result in <tt>\"Mary!\", her mother said, \"Come in for dinner!\"</tt>.\n\n<h2>Changing Numeric Base</h2>\n\n10 in any base N is N .\n\nForth makes it very easy to explore different numeric bases because\nit can work in any base. Try entering the following:\ndecimal 6 binary .\n1 1 + .\n1101 decimal .\nAnother useful numeric base is <i>hexadecimal</i>. which is base 16. One\ndecimal 12 hex .\t| print C\ndecimal 12 256 * 7 16 * + 10 + .s\ndup binary .\nhex .\nA variable called <b>base</b> is used to keep track of the current numeric\nbase. The words <b>hex</b> , <b>decimal</b> , and <b>binary</b> work by changing\n7 base !\n6 1 + .\nbase @ . | surprise!\n\n\n\n\n  needs math/doubles\n\n\n  help libraries\n\n<h2>Files & File Handling</h2>\n\n\n  help file-io\n\n\n\" hello.txt\" creat\ndup \" Hello world!\" rot write\n\n\n\nclose files on our behalf if we forget).\n\n\n\nthe contents of that file as a [strings|string].  This works great for small files, but\n\n<h2>Answers to the problems</h2>\n\nForth, there are usually many ways to the same thing.\n\n<h2>Stack Manipulations</h2>\n\n<li class=c>swap dup\n<li class=c>rot drop\n<li class=c>rot dup 3 pick\n<li class=c>swap over 3 pick\n<li class=c>-rot 2dup\n\n\n\n : SQUARE ( N -- N*N ) \n    DUP * ;\n\n   swap SQUARE\n   swap SQUARE - ;\n\n : AVERAGE4 ( A B C D -- [A+B+C+D]/4 )\n   + + + ( add'em up )\n   4 / ;\n\n   -rot swap ( -- seconds minutes hours )\n   60 * + ( -- seconds total-minutes )\n   60 * + ( -- seconds ) ;\n\n<h2>Logical Operators</h2>\n\n: &gt; &gt;if -1 else 0 then ;\n: &lt; &lt;if -1 else 0 then ;\n: LOWERCASE? ( CHAR -- FLAG , true if lowercase )\n\tdup 123 &lt;\n\tswap 96 &gt;\n\n\n: DEDUCT ( n -- )\n\tswap - dup ACCOUNT ! \n\t.\" Balance = $\" dup . cr \n\t0 &lt;if\n\t   .\" Warning!! Your account is overdrawn!\" CR\n\nZ 0f92557c060d166ffddd6a467370a76f", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6310455203056335}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\n\nWhat is The Hay Group Total Reward Framework\n\nThe Hay Group Total Reward Framework\nA new way of understanding reward\n\nThe Hay Group Total Reward Framework\n\nThe issue\nThe Hay Group Total Reward Framework takes strategy as a starting point – and it focuses on total reward: every financial measure together with non-financial rewards [MK2] too. It also takes into account the needs of both company and employee: an even, balanced approach ensures the company’s interests are catered for, while ensuring employees are engaged and motivated[MK3] . This holistic approach is particularly important at a time when costs are under pressure and organisations are, in essence, focused on doing more with less.\nOur framework is also tied to a strong implementation plan, ensuring it translates into bottom-line results.[MK4]\nHay Group can design total remuneration programmes that can help you:\n·         align the value of the total reward programmes with individual performance, business performance and work culture[MK5]\n·         provide a competitive and differentiated[MK6]  total reward package, one reflective of the internal and external value of work\n·         ensure the external competitiveness of the total reward programme, so that the level and mix of remuneration is positioned against the right comparator groups[MK7] , at the right levels\n·         develop reward programmes that most cost effectively meet the motivational and retention needs of employees\n·         ensure employees have buy-in and understand new programmes, which in turn, will increase employee commitment/engagement\n·         ensure line managers fully understand the programmes and can lead in implementing them\n·         align people costs with business results[MK8] .\nWhy Hay Group\nAt Hay Group, we will strive to understand your business and how designing rewards right can make a difference. Most of all, we ‘know’ [MK9] people, what motivates them and how to effectively influence them.\nOur style is to approach reward from a business and an integrated, not just technical, perspective. We blend the financial, organisational and behavioural aspects of reward to create tailored programmes that fit the business strategy as well as HR goals. [MK10] We also make use of proven diagnostic and survey methodologies and our database of rewards offered in businesses across the world.\nThe result is a total remuneration programme or programmes (base salary plus short-term incentives, long-term incentives and the value of benefits programmes) that ensures your organisation is providing the appropriate amount of remuneration, in the right ways.\nHay Group’s approach\nHay Group works closely with key decision makers across your business, including financial professionals[MK11] , to understand your business strategy, business model, key performance indicators (KPIs), employee demographics and work culture. From there we are better equipped to review and redevelop your reward architecture. We will:\n·         examine your current remuneration programme and gauge the extent that it aligns with the business strategy, the HR strategy and the reward strategy\n·         understand the economics and business priorities of your organisation\n·         understand the employee demographics and potentially different needs of different employee groups\n·         conduct employee surveys [MK12] to understand which reward programme features deliver the most value to them, and\n·         look at the messages that your reward programme is giving around each element and determine the extent that they align with reward strategy[MK13] .\nFrom this we then develop base salary plans [MK14] that are aligned with your business requirements and reward strategy. We also model outcomes and costs of alternative plan designs to help you see the bigger picture and explain the potential cost and accounting implications of our recommended strategy. We will then show you how this compares to other organisations and offer insights into why different types of plans tend to be used by different organisations.\nFinally, we can provide you with the benefit of our experience and expertise in implementing and communicating the new salary programme: many well designed programmes do not provide a ‘return on investment’ due to poor communications or implementation.\nHay Group in action\n\n\n [MK1]In other words, TR can fail if not tied to- company strategy, business performance and needs of employees. Three BIG heads and therefore TR needs Board’s attention and approval. It is not just an HR ball-game!\n [MK2]List of non financial rewards- 1. Office, Car, type of laptop, BB, 2. Privileges of travel class, hotel stay, leisure trips abroad in the name of meets etc. 3. Financial and approval powers.\n4. Expanse of reports and locations under control.\n5. Freedom from low end jobs.\n6. Assistants and Junior employees at service and support\n [MK3]Is TR an engagement and motivation tool? Tell me how besides Performance Based Incentives.\n [MK4]List how TR results in bottom-line results? How is Business P&L, Profitability, Gross margins are related to TR?---You said, strategic, right? Is TR operationally tied with business financial objectives, targets and guidelines of performance. How often TR is revisited and reviewed alongside Business performance and results to check alignment or mis-alignment?\n [MK5]What do you mean by aligning with work culture? Does it mean, professionalism, Business Integrity, Commitment to team, client and management? Does it mean knowledge sharing, team work, mentoring, coaching? Simply, living company values? Explain for more and clarifications, if any..\n [MK6]What is ‘differentiated’? Give examples. Also, explain why differentiated is required and how it helps the idea behind a TR?\n [MK7]What is ‘comparator group’? Explain and how to arrive at ‘comparator group’?\n [MK8]This is strategy. How does TR help in building the right framework of reward/Incentive compensation, etc without knowing ‘business nature, profitability, taxation, cost structure, nature of business returns, face and shape of market and competition and “Knowledge of competitor’s Incentive pay structure, policy and guidelines?\n [MK9]Interesting? Any idea about Hay’s ‘secret sauce’ and depths and breadth of business and people understanding in different sets of industries, businesses, markets, nature of products and services, locations and levels of employees? Please explain..\n [MK10]This is the secret called, “KNOW-HOW”. Can you guess? What is that?\n [MK12]Why just surveys? Check financial performance data that was expected against this TR plan and what it achieved? Do not shy away from deep diagnostic and investigation/ audit/analysis…Talking about “Alignment”, right?\n [MK13]Survey, interviews and focus group can give this messaging sense? Also, check for if this met the objective of messaging that this plan had at the time of implementation and follow through!\n [MK14]I love this term, “base salary plan”. Tell me how does a company arrive at “Base salary” for any level? What all factors it considers and what all weight ages it assigns to each of them? Is base salary a range or a baseline figure or a percentile? How and why companies fix an ‘x’ percentile for the base pay? And what is the right band variance for the base pay range, if you recommend? Give reasons for your base pay range  and tell the reasons if range is not followed what will be the consequence?\n\n\n\n\nPost a Comment\n\nPopular posts from this blog\n\nAon Hewitt Total Rewards Framework\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6217923164367676}
+{"content": "Show me a random puzzle\n Most recent collections \n\n\nregular shapes rectangles shapes money ellipses integers geometry ave planes coordinates probabilty folding tube maps arrows hexagons routes differentiation 3d shapes speed parabolas sum to infinity factors digits triangle numbers integration irreducible numbers floors square roots coins averages cryptic clues division trigonometry dice dates rugby games lines shape number chess advent percentages fractions volume square numbers squares partitions triangles mean graphs grids books multiples balancing surds chalkdust crossnumber colouring crossnumbers palindromes sums remainders quadratics perfect numbers cryptic crossnumbers proportion cube numbers numbers sequences spheres calculus symmetry area perimeter crosswords addition complex numbers wordplay pascal's triangle unit fractions 2d shapes dodecagons odd numbers angles menace polygons chocolate time bases sport cards people maths prime numbers factorials logic means algebra clocks scales probability star numbers circles multiplication functions taxicab geometry indices christmas doubling\n\n\nShow me a random puzzle\n▼ show ▼\n\n23 December\n\n\nShow answer\n\n12 December\n\nThese three vertices form a right angled triangle.\n\n\nShow answer\n\nEqual lengths\n\nWhat is the ratio of the sides of the rectangle?\n\nShow answer\n\nIs it equilateral?\n\n\nShow answer\n\nBending a straw\n\n\nShow answer & extension\n\nPlacing plates\n\n\nShow answer & extension\n\n20 December\n\nEarlier this year, I wrote a blog post about different ways to prove Pythagoras' theorem. Today's puzzle uses Pythagoras' theorem.\nStart with a line of length 2. Draw a line of length 17 perpendicular to it. Connect the ends to make a right-angled triangle. The length of the hypotenuse of this triangle will be a non-integer.\nDraw a line of length 17 perpendicular to the hypotenuse and make another right-angled triangle. Again the new hypotenuse will have a non-integer length. Repeat this until you get a hypotenuse of integer length. What is the length of this hypotenuse?\n\n17 December\n\nThe number of degrees in one internal angle of a regular polygon with 360 sides.\n© Matthew Scroggs 2019", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8457084894180298}
+{"content": "Monday, April 6, 2009\n\nPeriod 6 WebQuest Starts Here!\n\nCivil rights movement & housing (de)segregation in the 1950s & 60s & today (per 6)\n\nHousing (de)segregation in the 1950s & 60s & the civil rights movement against such discrimination (site 1)\nAfrican Americans had been struggling for their civil rights for a long time before the movement in the 1960s. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s changes U.S. history. In Milwaukee, people are focusing on segregation house and schools. In 1968, After the federal open housing law had passed, it prevented racial discrimination in 80% of the American. It also created the birst public school for all race in the nation.\n\nHousing (de)segregation in the 1950s & 60s & the civil rights movement against such discrimination (site 2)\nAfrican Americans have to fight for many rights in able to gain their rights as being equal. Many leaders have to paid a price of death to change America's thinking. The Civil Rights Act lead to congess passing to eliminate segregation and discrimination. Black history did not start and end during the 50s and 60s, it is still going still in this day.\n\n\nHansberry vs Lee, 1940 Illinois supreme court case (site 1)\nThis website has a lot of information on the court place, what happened, who won the court case, the syllabus of the court case and a lot of other things.\n\nHansberry vs Lee, 1940 Illinois supreme court case (site 2)\nThis site has an editorial on the editors take, it also has some of the same valuable information as the site above.\n\n\nHousing (de)segregation today (site 1)\nThis article talks about how housing segregation cannot be stopped unless they teach that it is wrong to be racial towards others so that it can further be stopped. Because of housing segregation black people are lured into the worst neighborhoods. Some might argue that this is also a reason why many people think bad neighborhoods usually have blacks.\n\nHousing (de)segregation today (site 2)\nAccording to this article, housing segregation has been around since the 1960’s. The article is a review about a book and in the first few chapters he talks about racial discrimination by real-estate and lending companies. The author explains how branches of government have ignored the issue.\n\n\nDesegregation & the civil rights movement in the 1950s & 60s (site 1)\nThis link is about how one race thinks that they're better than another race. Segregation was a major impediment to unity throughout the country during the 1950's and 1960's. and that the government passed a law to segregate schools, courts and juries.\n\nDesegregation & the civil rights movement in the 1950s & 60s (site 2)\nAt first blacks were denied employment due to race, in the 1970s, housing had also been desegregated. And what were the jobs that were the ones that sustained the blacks and the people who were discriminated that would help them that was actually allowed for them to work at/work for. And blacks fought to end discrimination at the plant through the unions and other organizations, and this led to a strike of two hundred black workers in 1943.\n\n\nCivil rights leaders and organizations in the 1950s & 60s (site 1)\nThis link is about another rev named Abraham L. Woods Jr. who stood behind mlk jr while he gave his speech. He had witnessed a explosion due to the white clan that killed four young black girls. Rev woods help organize vote registration drives and also led a first black only demonstration at a whites only lunch counter. He also was there with mlk jr to protest were they were attacked with dogs and sprayed with hoses.\n\nCivil rights leaders and organizations in the 1950s & 60s (site 2)\nThis link is about two women activist Dolores Huerta and Gracia Molina de Pick. Dolores huertas was the co founder of United Farm Workers (UFC) who fought for stronger neighborhoods better schools and more jobs. They also fought for immigrant worker rights for decades. De Pick has been an educator, feminist, mentor of students, and community activist for women’s equality, indigenous communities, labor, and immigrants rights for more than 60 years. She was the co founder of united farm worker Dolores huerta\n\nLorraine Hansberry's Life & Family (per 6)\n\nLorraine Hansberry's childhood & education (site 1)\nThis site includes information about when she was born and when she died. It also includes her occupation, what she is known for and her family background. It also mentions some facts about her education, marriage, children, plays and awards.\n\nLorraine Hansberry's childhood & education (site 2)\nThis website includes some brief background information about Lorraine Hansberry. It includes what she is known for and some of her achievements as well as some brief descriptions of her life style.\n\n\nCarl Hansberry, Loraine Hansberry’s father (site 1)\nThis site mentions a little about Loraine Hansberry’s father, his relationship to the book she published and some about the case. It also mentions some facts about what he was/worked, where he was born, etc.\n\nCarl Hansberry, Loraine Hansberry’s father (site 2)\nThis link includes facts on Carl Hansberry’s life style and background. It mentions a lot about when he was born, where he was born and some facts about his family.\n\n\nWilliam Leo Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry's uncle (site 1)\nThis website is about William Leo Hansberry's life. This website says what high school and college that he went to. It would be a good website that will let you know things about him and what kind of lifestyle he had. This website is just about his background information.\n\nWilliam Leo Hansberry, Lorraine Hansberry's uncle (site 2)\nThis website is about William Leo Hansberry's accomplishments, everything that he has done in mainly his adulthood. He was a very important figure in his time and he was recognized for that.\n\n\nRobert Nemiroff, Hansberry's husband (site 1)\nRobert Nemiroff was a very successful man who had died of cancer. He had made several shows and plays based on his ex-wife Lorraine Hansberry’s works. Born in New York City Nemiroff was a book producer. When Miss Hansberry died of cancer at 34 in 1965, Mr. Nemiroff became her literary executor and devoted his career to making her works widely known.\n\nRobert Nemiroff, Hansberry's husband (site 2)\nRobert Nemiroff is a very good at what he did. He produced many famous plays including ’Raisin in the Sun’ in 1989 which was based on his ex-wife’s work Lorraine Hansberry’s work and became one very famous play on Broadway.\n\nHansberry’s plays & productions of the plays (per 6)\n\nFilm version of \"A Raisin in the Sun\" (site 1)\nOriginally a Broadway play in the late 1950s, the story was soon turned into a screenplay by Hansberry and a black and white film version was released in 1961 starring Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier. The film garnered critics awards and Poitier was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1973 a musical version of the play was created by Lansberry's husband Robert Nemiroff called Raisin, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1974. Over ten years later the first television movie version would be made starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle.\n\nFilm version of \"A Raisin in the Sun\" (site 2)\nThis is the fifth time around for the acclaimed works by Lorraine Hansberry. The first time was the Broadway version. Then there is the classic 1961 version performed by Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil, and Ivan Dixon. The third time Esther Rolle took on the role as “Mama”, with Danny Glover, Starletta DuPois, Helen Martin, and Joseph C. Phillips rounding out the cast.\n\nFilm version of \"A Raisin in the Sun\" (site 3)\nThe \"ABC World Premiere Movie Event: A Raisin in the Sun\". Within this link, it describes the characters and the actors and actresses. Also gives other important details of the movie.\n\nFilm version of \"A Raisin in the Sun\" (site 4)\nThis is a trailer of the movie “A Raisin in the Sun” broadcast on YouTube. This movies is played by different characters who are fitted for the movie. It took vary long to produce this movie because it was a hard challenge being one of the charcters.\n\n\n\"Young, Gifted, and Black\" by Lorraine Hansberry (site 1)\nThis site has a lot of background information on Lorraine Hansberry. Different things that she has written and what college she went to, and what she did in college. It also shortly states when and how the play was published.\n\n\"Young, Gifted, and Black\" by Lorraine Hansberry (site 2)\nThis site has her primary works, and a bibliography. It has a lot of information on different books and plays she wrote. It also has a brief biography about her and small paragraph on how she left a big influence on many African Americans.\n\nAfrican-American artists & writers in the 1950s & 60s (per 6)\n\nThe Black Arts Movement in New York in 1960s (site 1)\nThe Black Arts Movement was to show America the black writers and artists during the 1960s and 1970s. Seeing the different types of arts would usually be books, periodicals and documents of the course of history during the time period. The Black Arts movement was always paired with the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibit was founded and supported by the Peter Graham Fund for Radicalism in Literature and Art, the writings of Amiri Baraka were use a lot in the exhibit and he was called the founder of the Black Arts movement. The publications were a lot of black poetry and this 27-volume series was published in the 1960s and so the small press and the black arts movement was open to see on weekdays from 9a.m. to 5p.m. through May1st.\n\nThe Black Arts Movement in New York in 1960s (site 2)\nThe Black Arts Movement known as BAM started in the 1960s is was to change what people see of the African American identity. African playwrights, musicians, and visual artists who believed that using their arts will change the stereotypes about African American which led to a lot of American racism. The artists with the BAM would use writers Langston Hughes or cultural theorists like Alain Locke with the “Black Power Concept,” the BAM wanted to create artwork that will encourage white American to look at African American more positively and also wanted to improve black Americans’ perception of themselves. The BAM was supposed to uplift the spirits of African Americans to show their talent in art.\n\n\nLangston Hughes (site 1)\nLangston Hughes is an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was born in Joplin, Missouri.This articles shows his life when he was younger and growing up and some of the things and people that influenced him and made him become what he is today. Some of his work is, The negro speaks of rivers (1921), The gold piece (1921), and The negro mother and the other dramatic recitations (1931). Hughes was considered one of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.\n\nLangston Hughes (site 2)\nLangston Hughes achieved fame as a poet during the burgeoning of the arts known as the Harlem Renaissance. Although his youth was marked with transition, Hughes extracted meaning from the places and people whence he came. This article mostly is about Hughes works plays, poems and his works. Hughes's first volume of poetry was “The Weary Blues”, which he wrote in 1926. His family and culture influenced him alot too, it also led to his first autobiographical volume, The Big Sea (1940). Hughes encouraged black Americans to support the United States in its goals abroad, but he encouraged the government to provide for its own citizens at home the same freedoms being advocated abroad.\n\n\nJames Baldwin (site 1)\nJames Baldwin was an American writer. In essays, novels, plays, and public speeches, he spoke about the pain and struggle of black Americans. After was working on the railroad he moved to Greenwich Village, where he met Richard Wright. When Baldwin moved from Paris to New York he wrote notes of a native son (1955) and Giovanni’s Room (1956). His first novel was Go tell it on the Mountain (1953). The book the fire next time (1963) was the voice in the civil rights movement. After his friends Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King jr., and Malcolm X he returned to France and wrote If Beale street could talk (1974). The last novel he wrote was the evidence of things not seen (1985).\n\nJames Baldwin (site 2)\nJames Baldwin lived from (1924-1987). He is from Harlem, New York. He was adopted by the age of 12 his first story appeared in the newspaper. By 1943 he became writing full time. His first book about store front churches did not gain success. In 1983 Baldwin became Five College Professor in the Afro-American studies department of Umass Amherst. He died of stomach cancer on November 30, 1987.\n\n\nPaul Robeson (site 1)\nPaul Leroy Robeson was born on the 9th of April in Princeton, New Jersey. He was The youngest of five. His father was named William Drew Robeson, and his mother was named Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson. Paul loved to play sports and he went to college playing. Then after that college he went to another college to learn another profession.\n\nPaul Robeson (site 2)\nPaul Robeson played sports and his favorite was football. He was very talented because he was capable of doing all kids of things, from being a lawyer to playing sports. His favorite thing to do was to sing though.\n\nTheater in the 1950s & 60s, and today (per 6)\n\nBroadway in the 1950s & 60s (site 1)\nThis website talks about what was going on in the 1900s and how these events influenced play writers. In the 1950’s there was the Red Scare and a lot going on with gang members on the streets of Harlem, New York and Los Angeles which inspired West Side Story. There was also the era of rock ‘n’ roll where Elvis had influenced a playwright. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in the 60’s which was an important even that inspired Camelot. This website also talks about how the civil rights movement began.\n\nBroadway in the 1950s & 60s (site 2)\nThis website talks about actors and directors that were nominated for Oscars. Many of the people mentioned on this site did not win the Oscars but are remembered for their work in Broadway.\n\n\nBlack & female playwrites, directors, and producers in the 1950s & 60s (site 1)\nWhat I found on this website was that it was based on a woman by the name of Vinnette Carroll, who was the first black woman to direct a production on Broadway. She had won numerous awards for her work, and was also part of local organizations. It basically talks about her life as a female yearning to be part of art somehow, and her challenges of being a black female.\n\nBlack & female playwrites, directors, and producers in the 1950s & 60s (site 2)\nThis link is talking about how black people during this time had to play unimportant parts in order to be part of a play. It also mentions that other common ways for black people to be featured in plays was by making them a victim of a ‘bullet in the gut’, basically getting killed later on. But it also mentions that not all black people were offended by this, some are pleased. Therefore it shows the different ways blacks take these approaches to them.\n\nBlack & female playwrites, directors, and producers in the 1950s & 60s (site 3)\nIn this blog there was a lot of irrelevant information but there was one piece that caught my attention. There was a poem from the 1960’s by Mary Evans who was a black poet. Her poem has a lot of meaning and showed how black women back in the day where and felt about everything. The poem said their feelings and their views that demonstrated a lot about them.\nBlack & female playwrites, directors, and producers in the 1950s & 60s (site 4)\nIt was Motown’s all female singing group that was a hit in-between the years 1964-1969. These girls had 12 -#1 hits that expressed R&B music, most writing and producing by Holland-Dozier-Holland. These ladies, at first, where The Primes but then later ended up signing with Motown, to which their name changed. These women set an imagine for black women all around by their talent and success. In this group there where three women under the names of Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. Betty McGlown was part of the group before they became the Supremes, that was when they where the Primes.\n\n\nSidney Poitier (site 1)\nPoitier was a man born in Miami, Fl but grew up in Cat Island, Bahamas. Poitier grew up in poverty as the son of a dirt farmer. He had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother. Because he was treated so poorly in Miami, he made it his goal to find opportunities for black people to succeed. At the age of 18 he left for New York and landed his first Broadway play. He played in many famous films such as a Raisin in the Sun, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?\n\nSidney Poitier (site 2)\nPoitier was born on February 20, 1927. He enrolled in theater school in New York in the 1970s. His films included Buck and the Preacher, Uptown Saturday Night, and the successful comedy, Stir Crazy with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Poitier returned to acting in 1988 in the films Shoot to Kill and Little Nikita, followed by Sneakers (1992).\n\n\nNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award (site 1)\nThis is the main website for the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. On this website there is a lot of information about the awards and the history of the events. There are six links on the main page that lead to other pages and each page has different information provided. The different information that can be received from these links are: the awards for this year, awards from the past, the history of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the membership of people that take part in the event, the upcoming events and ways to contact the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.\n\nNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award (site 2)\nThis next website is the main website for The Pulitzer Prizes. The prizes are for people that highly participate in the categories of journalism, letters, drama and music. On this website there are many links that lead to information about The Pulitzer Prizes and people that participate in the event. Some specific things that can be found on the websites through the links are information about current winners and finalists, past winners and finalists, how to enter, contact information and the different prizes that can be won.\nPeriod 2 WebQuests Start Here!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9305046200752258}
+{"content": "Read e-book online Ordered Sets and Lattices II PDF\n\nBy H. Draskovicova, T. S. Fofanova, V. I. Igoshin, T. Katrinak\n\nISBN-10: 0821875019\n\nISBN-13: 9780821875018\n\nThis critical reference resource encompasses a wealth of details on lattice concept. The e-book offers a survey of almost every little thing released within the fields of in part ordered units, semilattices, lattices, and Boolean algebras that was once reviewed in ReferativnyíZhurnal Matematika from mid-1982 to the top of 1985. A continuation of a prior quantity (the English translation of which was once released via the AMS in 1989, as quantity 141 in Translations---Series 2), this entire paintings comprises greater than 2200 references. lots of the papers coated right here have been initially released in almost inaccessible locations. The compilation of the quantity was once directed by way of Milan Kolibiar of Comenius collage at Bratislava and Lev A. Skornyakov of Moscow collage. Of curiosity to mathematicians, in addition to to philosophers and laptop scientists in yes components, this precise compendium is a needs to for any mathematical library.\n\nShow description\n\nRead Online or Download Ordered Sets and Lattices II PDF\n\nBest textbooks books\n\nDownload PDF by Joan Ryan: Personal Financial Literacy\n\nThe best way to plan and deal with your individual funds, in achieving a financially winning lifestyles, and take accountability as a citizen. own monetary LITERACY is aligned with the Jump$tart Coalition's nationwide criteria for private monetary Literacy. the non-public concentration of this path makes it correct and significant to all; specifically, to these simply beginning down the trail to private monetary independence.\n\n\nOffers a comparatively short creation to conjugate duality in either finite- and infinite-dimensional difficulties. An emphasis is put on the basic value of the ideas of Lagrangian functionality, saddle-point, and saddle-value. basic examples are drawn from nonlinear programming, approximation, stochastic programming, the calculus of adaptations, and optimum keep watch over\n\nAdditional info for Ordered Sets and Lattices II\n\nExample text\n\nQuick Check Compare and Contrast How are Draw Conclusions Where on a plant does photosynthesis take place? How can you tell? plants alike? How do they differ? Critical Thinking What might happen to a plant that gets sunlight but no water? 29 EXPLAIN Why are plants important? Plants need photosynthesis to survive and grow. Did you know that you need photosynthesis too? In fact, most animals depend on plants making their own food. Why? Animals cannot make their own food the way plants can. Instead they must eat other organisms to get the energy they need.\n\nYou need to decide what you are testing and what you are not testing. These are your variables. Controlled variables are not being tested. They are used to control the experiment so it can be repeated. In this experiment the controlled variables will be: • the type and ripeness of the fruit . • the place where the fruit is placed. • the time of day you make your observations. The only factor that will change is what you are testing. This is the independent variable. The best experiments test one variable at a time.\n\nA producer B primary consumer C secondary consumer D decomposer Social Studies Link Research an Environment Use a map of California to highlight where you live. What is the environment like? What kinds of food chains exist in your area? Research and plot the information on a map. Compare maps with a partner. com 47 EVALUATE Materials Inquiry Structured Can an environment have more than one food chain? Form a Hypothesis index cards tape Energy from the Sun helps grasses grow. A mouse eats the grass.\n\nDownload PDF sample\n\nOrdered Sets and Lattices II by H. Draskovicova, T. S. Fofanova, V. I. Igoshin, T. Katrinak\n\nby Anthony\n\nRated 4.89 of 5 – based on 14 votes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6163039207458496}
+{"content": "Dataset »Winterreise« sechsachtel logo\n01 02 03\n\n04. Erstarrung. (Numbness)\n\nfeature TEMPOidx representation\n\n\n04. Erstarrung\n\nModified strophic form in c minor containing five stanzas. [more]\n\nMusical aspect/feature:\n\n\n\n\nEuropean archive: Hüsch, 1933\n\n\nSource, License: EA Terms of Use\n\nInformation about our segmentation of »04. Erstarrung«\n\nModified strophic form in c minor containing five stanzas.\nCoarse segmentation as ternary form ABA'.\nThe first part consists of the segments I1, A, B, and C1 of the given fine-granular segmentation.\nIn this case, A and B are the first stanza of the poem and its repetition.\nThe instrumental introduction I1 as well as the sung part A are in c minor. Segments B and C1 are in e flat minor and g minor, respectively.\nIts middle part (D in segmentation) has an instrumental prelude lasting four measures. The part itself is in A flat major, and corresponds to the third stanza of the poem.\nThe song's last part is a modified variant of its first part without interlude. Instead, a coda (I3) in c minor is appended.\nSegments A and B following D cover the fourth stanza and its repetition. C2 is the last stanza.\n\nLyrics: Project Gutenberg\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7157245874404907}
+{"content": "Our nutritionalist has devised delicious, healthy and nutritious menus to ensure your body gets the fuel it needs to train to it's full potential for the entirety of your stay.\n\nUsing the latest software we know exactly the content and break down of all our foods so we can cater for all your nutritional requirements. We will monitor what calories are being used therfore we will know exactly your calorie intake and total calories burnt giving you more reliable feedback.\n\nMaking sure your energy and hydration levels are consistent is important so you can train to your optimum level. This is done with the correct balance of Protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins/minerals and fluids.\n\nOur food is prepared and sourced locally and organically as much as possible.\n\nSample menu\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.858699381351471}
+{"content": "Stem cell transplantation\n\n  • Urbano Group 3\n\nJosep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute\nHospital Clínic Barcelona. Universitat de Barcelona.\nCentre Esther Koplowitz\nc/ Rosselló, 149-153, 2 pl\n08036 Barcelona (Spain\n\nFax: (+34) 93 312 9407\n\n\nStem cell transplantation, either allogeneic (allo-SCT) or autologous (auto-SCT), is one of the treatment options for patients diagnosed with different types of hematological malignancies. However, this procedure is still associated with complications which decrease the survival of patients. Our main field of research is trying to find options to overcome the problems associated to this procedure including, how to improve the engraftment, how to decrease the morbidity and mortality and how to increase the possible anti-leukemia effect mediated either by donor lymphocytes in cases of allo-SCT or by the healthy T cells of the patient in cases of auto-SCT.\n\n\nIn the stem cell transplantation (SCT) group our research is focused in five different areas to try to improve the outcome of hematological patients submitted to SCT, either allogeneic or autologous. These areas are:\n\n  • In vitro expansion of hemopoietic progenitor cells by using mesenchymal stem cells to improve the engraftment after SCT.\n  • Immune cell therapy with cord blood derived natural killer (CB-NK) cells to improve the anti-leukemic effect mediated by T lymphocytes after SCT.\n  • Immune cell therapy with CB-NK cells to decrease refractoriness in patients submitted to previous treatments.\n  • Identify the most specific marker in tumor cells for each type of hematological malignancy to target it by using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) in NK cells and in T cells.\n  • Study the mechanisms of glucocorticoid (GC) resistance in patients submitted to SCT and treated with GC for graft versus host disease in order to identify targets to eliminate resistance.\n\n\n  • Spanish group of blood and marrow transplantation (GETH)\n  • Manel Juan: IP from Immunology group of Hospital Clinic (Barcelona)\n  • Francisco Lozano: Infections Immunology group at IDIBAPS (Barcelona)\n  • Oriol Bachs: Cell Biology department at University of Barcelona\n  • Josep M Estanyol i Ullate. Proteomic Unit at University of Barcelona\n  • Cristina Muñoz Pinedo: Cell Death Regulation group at IDIBELL (Barcelona)\n\n\nSelected publications\n\nMartín-Antonio B, Suarez-Lledo M, Arroyes M, Fernández-Avilés F, Martínez C, Rovira M, Espigado I, Gallardo D, Bosch A, Buño I, Martínez-Laperche C, Jiménez-Velasco A, de la Cámara R, Brunet S, Nieto JB, Urbano-Ispizua A\n\nA variant in IRF3 impacts on the clinical outcome of AML patients submitted to Allo-SCT.\n\nBone Marrow Transplant. Set 2013, 48 (9) 1205-11. Epub 1 Abr 2013\nAllo-SCT has a strong curative potential for AML patients mainly due to a GVL effect. Unfortunately, GvL and GVHD are intimately linked. IFN regulatory factor-3 (IRF3), by modulating innate immune reactions, could impact on the incidence and intensity of GVL and GVHD. We analyzed two gene variants in IRF3 (rs7251 and rs2304205) on the clinical outcome of 249 AML patients submitted to HLA-identical sibling allo-SCT. Patients with a donor carrying the dominant GG gene variant in rs7251 had, as compared with GC and CC variants, a lower acute GVHD (aGVHD) III-IV incidence (4% vs 11% vs 27%; P=0.0078), a higher relapse incidence (49% vs 35% vs 26%; P=0.018), and lower TRM (7% vs 24% vs 18%; P=0.0065). In functional studies, the GG variant was associated with lower production of IFN-γ, decreased lymphocyte proliferation after antigen presentation by DCs, and lower cytotoxic response of mature natural killer cells. Patients carrying the AA dominant variant in rs2304205 had higher relapse incidence (50% vs 39% vs 18%, P=0.0068). The presence of both variants (GG in rs7251 and AA in rs2304205) in donors and patients resulted in a stronger clinical impact.\nMés informació\nBáez A, Martín-Antonio B, Piruat JI, Barbado MV, Prats C, Álvarez-Laderas I, Carmona M, Pérez-Simón JA, Urbano-Ispizua Á\n\nGene and miRNA expression profiles of hematopoietic progenitor cells vary depending on their origin.\n\nBiol. Blood Marrow Transplant. Mai 2014, 20 (5) 630-9. Epub 23 Gen 2014\nHematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized peripheral blood (G-PB), bone marrow (BM), or umbilical cord blood (CB) have differing biological properties and differing kinetics of engraftment post-transplantation, which might be explained, at least in part, by differing gene and miRNA expression patterns. To assess the differences in gene and miRNA expression, we analyzed whole genome expression profiles as well as the expression of 384 miRNAs in CD34(+) cells isolated from 18 healthy individuals (6 individuals per subtype of HPC source). We identified 43 genes and 36 miRNAs differentially expressed in the various CD34(+) cell sources. We observed that CD34(+) cells from CB and BM showed similar gene and miRNA expression profiles, whereas CD34(+) cells from G-PB had a very different expression pattern. Remarkably, 20 of the differentially expressed genes are targets of the differentially expressed miRNAs. Of note, the majority of genes differentially expressed in CD34(+) cells from G-PB are involved in cell cycle regulation, promoting the process of proliferation, survival, hematopoiesis, and cell signaling, and are targets of overexpressed and underexpressed miRNAs in CD34(+) cells from the same source. These data suggest significant differences in gene and miRNA expression among the various HPC sources used in transplantation. We hypothesize that the differentially expressed genes and miRNAs involved in cell cycle and proliferation might explain the differing kinetics of engraftment observed after transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells obtained from these different sources.\nMés informació\nShah N, Martin-Antonio B, Yang H, Ku S, Lee DA, Cooper LJ, Decker WK, Li S, Robinson SN, Sekine T, Parmar S, Gribben J, Wang M, Rezvani K, Yvon E, Najjar A, Burks J, Kaur I, Champlin RE, Bollard CM, Shpall EJ\n\nAntigen presenting cell-mediated expansion of human umbilical cord blood yields log-scale expansion of natural killer cells with anti-myeloma activity.\n\nPLoS ONE 2013, 8 (10) e76781. Epub 18 Oct 2013\nNatural killer (NK) cells are important mediators of anti-tumor immunity and are active against several hematologic malignancies, including multiple myeloma (MM). Umbilical cord blood (CB) is a promising source of allogeneic NK cells but large scale ex vivo expansion is required for generation of clinically relevant CB-derived NK (CB-NK) cell doses. Here we describe a novel strategy for expanding NK cells from cryopreserved CB units using artificial antigen presenting feeder cells (aAPC) in a gas permeable culture system. After 14 days, mean fold expansion of CB-NK cells was 1848-fold from fresh and 2389-fold from cryopreserved CB with >95% purity for NK cells (CD56(+)/CD3(-)) and less than 1% CD3(+) cells. Though surface expression of some cytotoxicity receptors was decreased, aAPC-expanded CB-NK cells exhibited a phenotype similar to CB-NK cells expanded with IL-2 alone with respect to various inhibitory receptors, NKG2C and CD94 and maintained strong expression of transcription factors Eomesodermin and T-bet. Furthermore, CB-NK cells formed functional immune synapses with and demonstrated cytotoxicity against various MM targets. Finally, aAPC-expanded CB-NK cells showed significant in vivo activity against MM in a xenogenic mouse model. Our findings introduce a clinically applicable strategy for the generation of highly functional CB-NK cells which can be used to eradicate MM.\nMés informació\nMartin-Antonio B, Najjar A, Robinson SN, Chew C, Li S, Yvon E, Thomas MW, Mc Niece I, Orlowski R, Muñoz-Pinedo C, Bueno C, Menendez P, Fernández de Larrea C, Urbano-Ispizua A, Shpall EJ, Shah N\n\nTransmissible cytotoxicity of multiple myeloma cells by cord blood-derived NK cells is mediated by vesicle trafficking.\n\nCell Death Differ. Gen 2015, 22 (1) 96-107. Epub 29 Ago 2014\nNatural killer cells (NK) are important effectors of anti-tumor immunity, activated either by the downregulation of HLA-I molecules on tumor cells and/or the interaction of NK-activating receptors with ligands that are overexpressed on target cells upon tumor transformation (including NKG2D and NKP30). NK kill target cells by the vesicular delivery of cytolytic molecules such as Granzyme-B and Granulysin activating different cell death pathways, which can be Caspase-3 dependent or Caspase-3 independent. Multiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable neoplastic plasma-cell disorder. However, we previously reported the encouraging observation that cord blood-derived NK (CB-NK), a new source of NK, showed anti-tumor activity in an in vivo murine model of MM and confirmed a correlation between high levels of NKG2D expression by MM cells and increased efficacy of CB-NK in reducing tumor burden. We aimed to characterize the mechanism of CB-NK-mediated cytotoxicity against MM cells. We show a Caspase-3- and Granzyme-B-independent cell death, and we reveal a mechanism of transmissible cell death between cells, which involves lipid-protein vesicle transfer from CB-NK to MM cells. These vesicles are secondarily transferred from recipient MM cells to neighboring MM cells amplifying the initial CB-NK cytotoxicity achieved. This indirect cytotoxicity involves the transfer of NKG2D and NKP30 and leads to lysosomal cell death and decreased levels of reactive oxygen species in MM cells. These findings suggest a novel and unique mechanism of CB-NK cytotoxicity against MM cells and highlight the importance of lipids and lipid transfer in this process. Further, these data provide a rationale for the development of CB-NK-based cellular therapies in the treatment of MM.\nMés informació\nBáez A, Martín-Antonio B, Piruat JI, Prats C, Álvarez-Laderas I, Barbado MV, Carmona M, Urbano-Ispizua Á, Pérez-Simón JA\n\n\nHaematologica Feb 2014, 99 (2) 243-51. Epub 20 Set 2013\nGranulocyte colony-stimulating factor is the most commonly used cytokine for the mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells from healthy donors for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Although the administration of this cytokine is considered safe, knowledge about its long-term effects, especially in hematopoietic progenitor cells, is limited. On this background, the aim of our study was to analyze whether or not granulocyte colony-stimulating factor induces changes in gene and microRNA expression profiles in hematopoietic progenitor cells from healthy donors, and to determine whether or not these changes persist in the long-term. For this purpose, we analyzed the whole genome expression profile and the expression of 384 microRNA in CD34(+) cells isolated from peripheral blood of six healthy donors, before mobilization and at 5, 30 and 365 days after mobilization with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Six microRNA were differentially expressed at all time points analyzed after mobilization treatment as compared to the expression in samples obtained before exposure to the drug. In addition, 2424 genes were also differentially expressed for at least 1 year after mobilization. Of interest, 109 of these genes are targets of the differentially expressed microRNA also identified in this study. These data strongly suggest that granulocyte colony-stimulating factor modifies gene and microRNA expression profiles in hematopoietic progenitor cells from healthy donors. Remarkably, some changes are present from early time-points and persist for at least 1 year after exposure to the drug. This effect on hematopoietic progenitor cells has not been previously reported.\nMés informació\nShow all publications\n\nCurrent projects\n\n\nResponsable:Álvaro Urbano-Ispizua\nData d'inici:01/01/2011\nData de finalització:31/12/2014\n\nMyeloma and Bone Marrow Transplantation\n\nResponsable:Álvaro Urbano-Ispizua\nData d'inici:01/01/2013\nData de finalització:31/12/2016", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.687732994556427}
+{"content": "Greece: Private Equity\n\nThe In-House Lawyer Logo\n\nThis country-specific Q&A provides an overview to private equity laws and regulations that may occur in Greece.\n\nThis Q&A is part of the global guide to Private Equity. For a full list of jurisdictional Q&As visit\n\n\n    Out of a total of approximately €1,2bn worth of M&A transactions during 2017, it is roughly estimated that a 15% involved financial sponsors as buyers or sellers.\n\n\n    M&A transaction terms do not differ significantly in terms of the seller’s nature as a financial sponsor or trade seller, although this may have an impact on the pressure a seller has to close the deal (i.e. a financial sponsor who is close to the liquidation phase).\n\n    That being said, the most important difference are any transaction loose ends and seller’s potential post-closing obligations. A financial sponsor will usually require a clean exit.\n\n    Deferral of payments or escrow mechanisms (i.e. for future liabilities) will usually be resisted – albeit not necessarily rejected - by a financial sponsor (in fact, in some cases an escrow agreement is the prevailing alternative to address post-closing liability of the seller - i.e. if the seller is a special purpose vehicle). Moreover, sellers post-closing obligations (i.e. non-compete) differentiate depending the nature of the seller. A buyer will be more emphatic in asking a non-compete from a trade seller that operates in, or is related to, the target’s industry; at the same time a financial sponsor will not undertake any such obligation which will be restrictive either to the financial sponsor or to any entities the financial sponsor’s is currently or in the future related to.\n\n\n    There are two legal aspects in relation to a transfer of shares of a société anonyme: (a) the actual transfer; and (b) the recognition by the company of the transferee as the new shareholder. The actual transfer of non-listed shares is being effected by an agreement between the parties and delivery of the shares. Subsequently, the transfer is registered in the company’s books and signed by the parties (as per applicable legislation the Company recognizes as shareholder only the person registered in its books). It should be noted however that, pursuant to L. 4548/2018 which introduces major changes in the société anonyme legal framework beginning from January 1st 2019, the above mentioned registration is not required if the company receives a copy of the transfer agreement or takes knowledge of the transfer by any other means. As a final step, the Company denotates the transfer to the transferred shares’ Share Certificates or issues new ones. As a matter of practice, the above steps are performed simultaneously on a predetermined closing day and time. Listed shares may be transferred either through trading in the market they are listed to, or over the counter, in which case a transfer agreement is required. Transfer of non-listed shares in a dematerialized form, or listed shares is registered to the Dematerialized Securities System.\n\n    A 15% capital gains tax is imposed to the transfer of shares (such tax not being applicable to any transfer of listed shares, originally acquired by the transferor after January 1st 2009, provided that the transferor’s shareholding to the company is less than 0,5%). Tax is not paid on the time of the transaction; instead it is declared by the transferor in its annual tax return.\n\n\n    The main obligation of a purchaser is payment of the agreed price upon closing. As a matter of practice, where special purpose vehicles are used, financial sponsors are expected to provide an equity commitment letter, whereby they will undertake to fund the special purpose vehicle if and when all conditions precedent (if any) for the transaction are fulfilled. It is not uncommon for sellers to alternatively require that a financial sponsor participates as a guarantor to the sale purchase agreement; however, rarely this is accepted, since financial sponsors are usually not willing to accept such potential liability (in many cases this is also prohibited by their by-laws).\n\n\n    Locked box mechanism is gaining ground in M&A transactions in Greece, mainly due to the complexity of negotiations in relation to the closing price adjustment calculations. That being said, it is not yet the prevailing mechanism, since parties are still more familiar with the ‘more traditional’ closing accounts mechanism. This has also led to circumstances where, although typically locked box was used, in reality ‘leakage’ and ‘permitted leakage’ elements were formed in such way that resembled the closing accounts calculations (i.e. debt, debt-like items etc). Locked box mechanism will be typically used in circumstances where: (a) there is not a big time gap between singing and closing; or (b) there is a private auction sale process whereby the seller: (i) intends to receive and compare clear bids without having to take into account the various closing mechanics; and/or (ii) is not willing to enter into complex parallel negotiations, in relation to closing adjustment, with more than one party; or (c) the target’s business is not unpredictable.\n\n\n    Risk allocation is a key factor in various aspects of an M&A transaction. Some of these and the way they are addressed are:\n\n    (a) Deal certainty and MAC: Clear conditions precedent are included. Any adverse changes between signing and closing are dealt through MAC clauses; the more quantifiable and linked to specific results these are (i.e. amount of loss, EBITDA hit etc), the less controversial their interpretation will be. The Seller may ask for guarantee or equity commitment letter in case the Buyer is an SPV\n\n    (b) Closing and price adjustment: a clear definition of cash, cash equivalent, debt and debt like items is included for the purposes of price adjustment in case a closing account mechanism is used. In case the parties find this too complicated and resort to a locked box mechanism, a clear definition of ‘leakage’ and ‘permitted leakage’ is required.\n\n    (c) Due Diligence and disclosure: Vendor’s due diligence are getting more popular. sellers aim to include in the ‘disclosed’ definition any items included in the data room, whereas buyers want to limit such definition to any items included in a Disclosure Letter.\n\n    (d) Warranties: Warranties insurance becomes more popular. Sellers use customarily limitations of liability (cap of liability, de minimis, time limitations); ‘fundamental’ or ‘core warranties’ (i.e. good title and non-encumbrance of shares to be sold, as well as, capacity to sell) are usually not subject to the above limitations.\n\n    (e) Pre-closing period: seller’ covenants will typically be inserted so that the target continues to operate as a going concern but there is no leakage or unnecessary increase of liabilities.\n\n    (f) Seller’s guarantees for target’s performance: Purchase price deferred payment or earn-outs are used from a buyer’s side. An escrow mechanism may be asked from the seller in such cases.\n\n\n    W&1 Insurance, although not a standard item in M&A transactions in Greece, is getting more popular, especially in high value transactions. On many occasions M&A parties have found that the benefits of W&1 Insurance outweigh the costs, since this is a way to resolve the lengthy negotiations on representations, warranties, indemnities, as well as, liability limitation (i.e. the seller’s maximum aggregate liability is set in many occasions to the W&1 Insurance retention amount). Obviously, use of W&I Insurance depends with the willingness of the insurer which this is linked to both macroeconomic and transaction sector factors.\n\n\n    Overall, financial sponsors have been quite reluctant to invest in public traded companies or infrastructure during the last year.\n\n\n    Other than for anti-trust or regulated markets purposes, there are no foreign investment controls or other governmental consents that are typically required by financial sponsors investing in Greece. It is worth mentioning that Greece has been in a capital controls regime since July 2015; however such regime has been considerably relaxed and currently allows, inter alia, profit or dividend distribution to a foreign investor abroad for up to 100% of invested capital per year, provided that the investment derived from capital outside Greece and was invested within the capital controls period.\n\n\n    During the deal negotiations stage and as a crucial step to the whole deal assessment, the financial sponsor requires a priori from the target (and the seller) all information that will enable it to determine if a merger clearance is required, as well as, to identify any issues related thereto. In parallel, clear provisions are included in the legal documentation in respect of the content of merger clearance (i.e. unqualified clearance vs clearance under conditions) which will trigger fulfilment of conditions precedent and closing of the deal.\n\n    This may be proven of paramount importance for the acquirer if any merger clearance conditions have material adverse impact on any other entities the financial sponsor already participates in. Also, the respective legal documentation customarily provides for the seller’s obligation to render any assistance to the buyer and to procure receipt by the acquirer of detailed data from the target (and any other entities participating in the merger) in order to prepare and submit the necessary filing for the purposes of merger clearance.\n\n\n    Overall, no increase has been spotted in minority acquisitions by financial sponsors during 2017; it should be noted however that approximately 25% of total M&A transactions (acquisitions by both financial sponsors and strategic investors) related to minority participations. Both structures (minority investments with minority partners protection and debt-like investments) are typically used, without any one to be clearly prevailing, since these depend to a big extent on the factual circumstances, as well as, financial sponsor’s policy.\n\n  12. How are management incentive schemes typically structured?\n\n    Typically, management incentive schemes in Greece include the following elements:\n\n    (a) Bonus plans; and\n    (b) Stock option plans.\n\n    The most common bonuses are productivity bonuses or performance base bonuses, usually consisting of a base rate coupled with a variable rate that is specifically tied to the individual's performance. Under Greek law if bonuses are regularly paid, they constitute part of the employee's regular remuneration and shall be taken into consideration for severance calculations. If bonuses are paid at the employer's discretion and without prejudice, they constitute discretionary benefits.\n\n    The concept of employee share participation schemes is introduced in the Greek Company Law (Law 2190/20) only for companies that have the form of a société anonyme.\n\n    The maximum number of shares to be issued under a stock option plan may not exceed 1/10 of the existing shares of the company. The terms of the stock option plan, including the price of shares on the grant of the option, conditions of vesting, the percentage of shares to be granted and the categories of employees that may participate in the plan are determined by the General Assembly of the shareholders. Stock option plans may apply to employees of a company as well as independent contractors (Board members or consultants), that do not have an employment relationship with the company. Unless an employee’s remuneration package is negotiated individually, the company must comply with the principle of equal treatment. This means that single employees or groups of employees cannot be treated unequally, unless this is justified by an objective reason. Therefore, the company may select specific employees as beneficiaries and, for example, use seniority or performance achievement as selection criteria, provided that these are clearly defined and justified by the employer’s legitimate interests. Participation in a stock option is normally treated as a discretionary and revocable grant and is not computed for calculating severance.\n\n    Employee stock option plans are more commonly used in listed companies, particularly in those with an international footprint, and are much less widespread in small and medium-sized enterprises.\n\n  13. Are there any specific tax rules which commonly feature in the structuring of management’s incentive schemes?\n\n    Bonuses are taxed as normal employment income. The new income tax code introduced in Greece in 2014 confirmed that stock options to employees constitute a taxable benefit in kind and are also taxed as normal employment income. The time at which the option is exercised or transferred is defined as the time at which the benefit is taxed. The tax base is determined using the market price of the stock reduced by the cost of the option.\n\n\n    Non-compete restrictions for senior managers are very common. Nevertheless, the validity of these restrictive covenants can be challenged under the principle of good faith (articles 178 and 179 of the Greek Civil Code), following an evaluation of all the special conditions of each specific case. Accordingly, non-compete covenants are valid only if the employer can establish that:\n\n    (a) it has a legitimate business interest that it is seeking to protect; legitimate business interests include trade secrets and confidential information, and trade connections such as customers or suppliers;\n\n    (b) that the restriction does restrict the professional advancement of the employee in an unfair way, meaning that the binding nature of the clause cannot affecting disproportionally the economic and personal freedom of the employee for the purposes of protecting the employer’s legitimate business interests.; and\n\n    (c) the duration and the geographical scope of the restriction is limited; open-ended non-compete restrictions after termination are null and void; usually, the non-compete clause which applies after the lapse of termination of the agreement cannot exceed a year.\n\n    It is not mandatory under the Greek law for the employee to receive a compensation during the period which the non-compete covenant is in effect. Nevertheless, this may be an important criterion in favor of the validity of the relative restrictive covenant if it is challenged before the Court.\n\n\n    (a) The financial sponsor needs to ensure that it has appropriate representation in the Board of Directors of the operating entity by appointment of board members that have veto powers over specific important decisions. Subject to the exclusive powers of the shareholder meeting to resolve on certain matters, the Board of Directors is competent to decide on every act concerning the management of the company. Greek law provides for a one-tier board system. As the relevant provisions of law are considered of mandatory nature, the Articles of Association cannot introduce a two-tier system, by establishing a supervisory board. Following the acquisition of the operating entity the financial sponsor should request that the Articles of Association include the right of the financial sponsor to appoint specific members of the Board of Directors (not exceeding 2/3 under the current regime and 2/5 according to the new company law which will come into force on 1.1.2019), determining at the same time the conditions under which such right is to be exercised.\n\n    (b) Furthermore, the financial sponsor should ensure that increased quorum provisions and manner in which both board and shareholder meetings are convened and conducted are inserted in the Articles of Association of the operating entity. In respect of the convocation of the Board meetings, the new Company Law allows the flexibility to non-listed companies to provide other convocation formalities than those provided in the law. The Articles of Association should also clearly provide for matters for which the Board of Directors is solely responsible, and the specific quorum and majority in order to reach a decision on specific matters. Furthermore, the financial sponsor needs to ensure that it receives regularly the necessary financial and other information as and when required to monitor the investment and exercise its rights.\n\n    (c) Also appropriate mechanisms should be inserted in the Articles of Association of the operating entity to deal with any potential voting deadlock, including call and put options mechanism where such a deadlock arises. The new Company Law explicitly provides that Articles of Association may include standard restrictions on the transferability of the shares, which are extensively applied in practice, and that put and call option agreements can be registered with the shareholders registry, consequently ensuring the implementation of such agreements in practice.\n\n\n    This is not a common practice in Greece.\n\n\n    The main sources of debt finance capital are loans or credit facilities granted by credit or financial institutions operating in Greece (short- and long-term facilities including revolving credit facilities, term loans, standby letters of credit, bank guarantees and factoring facilities). Following the enactment of Law 3156/2003, which introduced certain tax exemptions to bond loans, most term loan facilities are structured as bond loan facilities. Under Greek law bond loans are only issued by companies that have the form of a société anonyme. Bonds issued under a Greek bond loan are debt securities, which can be subscribed by private placement or through a public offering. The vast majority of bond loans in the Greek market are subscribed by private placement. Large Greek corporates though have issued bonds, which are traded on European stock exchanges (mainly Ireland and Luxembourg).\n\n    The Greek SME sector has also access to capital provided by different types of the EU's assistance programs and funds allocated in the framework of the Greek Government projects assisting small and medium-sized enterprises. International financial institutions, such as the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation, have been active in the Greek corporate lending market, providing either direct loans to Greek corporates or loans and guarantees to Greek credit institutions.\n\n\n    The general rule is a Greek company is prohibited to proceed to any prepayments or to grant loans or securities which have as an objective to facilitate the purchase of its own shares by third parties. The prohibition on financial assistance applies to companies under the form of a société anonyme and not in other company types. Nevertheless, the Greek Company Law (Law 2190/20) regulates the terms and conditions under which companies may provide financial assistance as follows: a) the relevant transactions should be effected with the responsibility of the Board of Directors and should be concluded under market terms, specifically in relation to the interest received by the company and the collateral that it receives for securing its claims; b) the transactions should be approved by the General Meeting of the Shareholders with an increased quorum and majority. The total financial assistance that is provided in favor of third parties cannot in any case result to the reduction of the company’s own below the amount prescribed in relevant provisions of the Greek company Law (Art. 44a of Law 2190/1920). Moreover, Article 23a of Law 2190/1920 prohibits any kind of financial assistance provided by an entity to another entity which directly or indirectly controls it, save where specific conditions are met, such as in cases where financial assistance is provided for the benefit of companies which are subject to consolidation as per the accounting legislation.\n\n\n    The main lenders of the Greek companies are credit or financial institutions who have standard form agreements that are provided to the borrowers. Generally, the larger the facility and the more creditworthy the borrower, the more willing are the borrowers to accept amendments. Mainly the discussions between the parties involve the commercial terms (interest rate and margin, the interest periods and interest payment dates, the repayment dates and amounts, the security provided, the fees). In the vast majority of the cases, there is small room for negotiation on all the terms of the lending facilities.\n\n\n    In the last two years there is very limited access to finance for businesses in Greece. As a result, lending activity in the Greek market was mostly limited to refinancing and rescheduling transactions. In this context, the main negotiations are related to financial covenants and repayment schedules as well as the provision of additional security.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9406131505966187}
+{"content": "Facilities for Columbia University Rowing Team\n\nNew York, New York\n\nSpring 2015, Comprehensive Design\n\nIn Collaboration with Daniela Kolodesh\n\nThe Hudson River Boathouse is designed for Columbia University's crew team. The program includes a boat shed, locker rooms, a weight room, an erg machine room, observation deck, green roof, lobby, offices, lounge, and landscape. The project began with an initial physical exploration of the site and its surroundings. The approach onto the site of the boathouse became the main catalyst for our design. The project signifies the site’s surroundings, specifically the existence of edges, nested spaces, and carved pathways, all which make up the environment of the Columbia Boathouse. By defining all three conditions it was made clear that there is parallel between their binary oppositions, therefore, all three conditions exist simultaneously, by definition. This means that each condition inherently has qualities of each other condition. This led to the question of how one can experience all of these conditions simultaneously through space.  \n\n\nConcept Diagrams\n\n\nThe specific layout of program, the tectonic system, and a closer analysis of the immediate site, led to the form of the Columbia Boathouse. The experience of each space has qualities of an edge, a nested space, and a carved pathway. As one first approaches the site, they are taken between two masses, nested in a space, while still experiencing the horizon of the water, and the elements of the outside. As one moves through the sky bridge, and into the erg room, they are on a carved path, on an edge against the shore, yet also nested between two masses as they move through the corridor.  As one is in the erg room, they sit, nested between a carved path of circulation that disintegrates into the space for the ergs, and are separated from the nested space that makes the weight room by a carved path between the boat sheds.  The existence of all three elements makes up the project, and is further enhanced by the tectonic system, the program, and the circulation.\n\n\nExterior Render\n\n\nGround Floor Plan\n\n\nSecond Floor Plan\n\n\nPerspective Section\n\nThe building is characterized formally by its cantilevered spaces, as well as an integration of two structural systems. The large cantilevered spaces that occur frequently in the building call for an integrated system of a 2’ floor beam grid, while the lobby and office spaces are supported by a structural rib system. Both areas are supported by tension wires. The building’s foundation consists of frequent 4” solid steel round columns and foundation walls which make up the walls of the boat shed. \n\n\nProcess Models + Sketches\n\n\nStructural Diagram (left) Mechanical, Engineering, Plumbing (MEP) Diagram (right)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5536062121391296}
+{"content": "Posted: Mar 31, 2010 9:52 am\nby Darwinsbulldog\nrainbow wrote:\nbyofrcs wrote:\nrainbow wrote:\nbyofrcs wrote:\nThat is a good bet and there are clues as to what it is. The key is self-organization being an inherent property of all matter. The problem is the sheer choice. There won't be one magic reaction or set of chemicals but a long chain of reactions, with different chemicals, reactions and most importantly without any pre-planned direction that it will take.\n\nWhat clues?\nWas it RNA, DNA, polypeptides, a vesicle based on fatty acids?\nA metabolic cycle perhaps?\nPray tell.\n\nWe are not looking for one magic reaction, but a simple replicator. Something that can evolve into something more complex.\n\nFolks like Christian DeDuve (1995)in \"VITAL DUST\" and the authors in Andre Brack's (1998) \"\n\" investigate these questions in considerable detail. Better replicators, like RNA would have totally replaced any simpler precursors, and since we are talking about events that happened over 3.8 billion years ago, much, if not all information could be lost. So while we may not get to know the exact conditions of that time, or the initial replicators, it is possible to work out the likely \"options\" that might have been available to chemical interactions of that era.\n\nDeDuve and others think that the first thing to arrive was metabolism. I makes sense because all chemical reactions need energy. Perhaps a polymer of something like Adenosine phosphate chains that ended up bonding with sugars and bases. DeDuve especially likes thioesters as the initial electron acceptor.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9641808271408081}
+{"content": "Syracuse: Rival to Athens\n\n\nPiazza Duomo; images by Suzanne and Andrew Edwards\n\nThe name Syracuse is synonymous with antiquity, its syllables encapsulating the heart of ancient Greece, yet it nestles in the southeast corner of Sicily, on the Ionian coastline.\n\nStraddling an islet known as Ortygia and the mainland beyond, Syracuse is a golden destination. Its honeycomb stone reflects the brilliance of Sicilian light, but the city’s true eternal glow comes from its living relationship with the past. Few places have so beautifully enfolded their ancient heritage, both artistically and literally. The Siracusa of modern-day Sicily truly owes its roots to Magna Grecia, that expansion of Greek city-states beyond the confines of the Greek archipelago.\n\nAt its height, Syracuse rivaled Athens in terms of power and cultural dominance. It attracted the greats of Greek letters and thought, from Pindar the poet, and Aeschylus the playwright, to the pioneering proto-scientist of Eureka fame, Archimedes. Such intellectual rigor wasn’t always reflected in the quality of its rulers, but the combination of tyrannical power and educational achievement gave rise to some superlative manifestations of civic construction.\n\nArchitectural Harmony\n\nThe best place to start any walking tour is the grand drawing room, otherwise known as Piazza Duomo. The cathedral, or duomo, that gives the square its name, is the town’s supreme example of harmonious architectural fusion. History is littered with the clash of religions and the hydra-like hybrids that result from subsequent building reuse – the Cordoban Mezquita and Charles V’s palace in the Alhambra are two notable examples. Few redesigns have had such uplifting results as the Syracusan duomo. The pillars of a Grecian temple have been beautifully and unobtrusively housed within Christianity’s outer shell.\n\nEar of Dionysius\n\nEar of Dionysius\n\nAt the far end of the square is the Church of Santa Lucia, an attractive edifice, but truly remarkable for the painting over its altar, The Burial of St. Lucy, by none other than Michelangelo Merisi, more commonly known as Caravaggio. The massive canvas has Caravaggio’s characteristic chiaroscuro, the play of light and shadow that so strikingly fits this Sicilian setting. Nevertheless, the work seems to betray something of his brief stop while on the run following a duel gone murderously wrong in Rome –– the background is sketchy and lacks the definite touch seen in some of his other work.\n\nInspired by Myth\n\nThe alleyway leading down from the church finishes above the circular pond known as the Fonte di Aretusa, Arethusa��s Fountain. Like so much of Syracuse, its origins belong to myth, the clue being found in the name Arethusa. Legend recites the eponymous nymph escaping from the river god Alpheus via an underground water source that surfaced on the island of Ortygia, at this very spot. From Virgil to Ovid and Shelley to Coleridge, poets have not been able to free themselves from Arethusa’s advances.\n\nBeyond the spring is the Castel Maniace, a fortress built by Frederick II (Wonder of the World) and enhanced by the Aragonese and Bourbon Spanish. The castle represents the furthest point on the island of Ortygia. The Ancients stopped at Neapolis, their New Town. The remains are more prosaically enfolded by ring roads than the intricate precincts of Ortygia but, once again, the Syracusans have managed to allow their ruins space to bask under the millennial sun, surrounded yet unbowed by modernity.\n\nTheatrical Gem\n\nSyracuse’s magnificent Greek theater saw Aeschylan premieres and, true to its roots, is still home to seasonal performances of the Classics. It also provides a remarkable backdrop for the arias of some of Italy’s finest opera composers, performed by the likes of Andrea Bocelli.\n\nA literal stone’s throw from the rocky upper circle is the quarry complex that contributed its mineral wealth to all these feats of antiquity. Known as the Latomie, the quarries were used as a prison, where thousands died agonizing deaths. The Latomie also bear the marks of the workmen and slaves who hacked the rock from the cliff faces. The so-called Ear of Dionysius is one such location. Originally carved out as a water storage area, it was then used to corral political prisoners. The painter, Caravaggio, coined the term, Ear of Dionysius, as his artistic eye was convinced of the lobe-like shape of the entrance. The acoustic funneling effects of the cave were, supposedly, used by the tyrant Dionysius as a way of eavesdropping on potential conspiracy.\n\nFrom this brutal zenith, Syracuse declined over the centuries, to such an extent that Patrick Brydone on his 18th century travels struggled to find accommodation. Washington Irving, the writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was similarly disillusioned. Modern Syracuse has finally awoken to its potential, embracing the past with a respectful eye on antiquity’s relationship to the future.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.881796658039093}
+{"content": "The People in Dairy The People in Dairy\n\nEmployee entitlements during natural disasters or emergencies\n\nNatural disasters often result in employees requiring time off to care for the family and property or to assist with disaster-relief activities. Employers need to balance their staffing needs with the well-being of their staff when considering access to leave entitlements.\n\nEmployees’ leave to take care of themselves or their family\n\nPersonal/carer’s leave\n\nUnder the National Employment Standards, employees (other than casual employees) affected by a natural disaster or emergency have an entitlement to take paid personal/carer’s leave or compassionate leave. An employee would also be eligible for personal/carer’s leave if their child’s school is closed due to a natural disaster or emergency.\n\nEmployees who have used all their paid personal/carer’s leave entitlement, and casual employees, are eligible for up to 2 days unpaid carer’s leave per occasion to provide care and support to a family or household member due to illness injury or in the event of an unexpected emergency (such as a natural disaster).\n\nCompassionate leave\n\n\nNotice and evidence requirements\n\nAn employee must give their employer notice of the taking of any of the above leave and the employer may ask for supporting evidence, e.g. medical certificates, evidence of school closure.\n\nEmployees leave to assist with disaster-relief activities\n\nCommunity service leave\n\nThe NES provide an entitlement to UNPAID leave for those who engage in a voluntary emergency management activity, such as the CFA or SES. \n\nEmployees must give employers notice of their intention to take community service leave as soon as possible and advise the employer of the expected length of the absence, including reasonable travel time associated with the activity, and reasonable rest time immediately following the activity. Employers can request reasonable evidence of the need for the leave. Also, all four of the following criteria must be met:\n  2. The engagement is voluntary, and\n  3. The employee is a member of, or has a member-like association with, a recognised emergency management body, and\n  4. Either the employee was requested by the body to engage in the activity; or if no such request was made, it would be reasonable to expect that, if the circumstances had permitted the making of such a request, it would have been made.\n\nFind out more\n\nIf you have been affected by a natural disaster such as a cyclone, flood or bushfire, please visit:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9579391479492188}
+{"content": "Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Anthropocene Sea\n\nThere are a million microorganisms in a drop of water, and we have only a limited understanding of what these organisms ‘do’—what they ‘eat,’ how they survive, or how they interact.  However, we do know that the collective activities of these tiny cells drive global cycles of biologically‑essential elements such as nitrogen and carbon, and that global biogeochemical cycles have been subsequently altered by human activities.  The overarching goal of our research is to connect these two perspectives by developing a predictive understanding of microbial ecology and biogeochemistry in rapidly changing aquatic ecosystems.  We seek to understand linkages and feedbacks among microbial communities and the biogeochemical processes that they mediate, and to determine how microbial communities and biogeochemical processes may be altered by (or resilient to) ocean deoxygenation, ocean acidification, pollution, and climate change.\n\nTo achieve this, we use techniques ranging from molecular biology to automated sampling to stable isotope biogeochemistry, and employ model ecosystems, experimental manipulations, and environmental gradients within open‑ocean, coastal, and lake ecosystems.\n\nPlease learn more through the menu at upper right!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9804997444152832}
+{"content": "$F_{ST}$ is one of the most famous and most important statistics of all of evolutionary biology. Yet, many people misunderstand it or misuse the classical results from the literature on $F_{ST}$ (Whitlock and McCaughley,1999).\n\nFixation Index in infinite islands model\n\nIn a panmictic population, the probability of identity by descent $F(t)$ in generation $t$ is the probability of sampling the same allele twice plus the probability of not sampling the same allele multiplied by the probability of identity by descent in the previous generation\n\n$$F(t) = \\frac{1}{2N} + \\left(1-\\frac{1}{2N}\\right) F(t-1)$$\n\n, where $N$ is the population size. Here I am assuming diploid population and no mutation. In an infinite allele model, these probabilities must be weighted by the probability that none of the parent migrated in the previous generation.\n\n$$F(t) = (1-m)^2\\left(\\frac{1}{2N} + \\left(1-\\frac{1}{2N}\\right) F(t-1)\\right)$$\n\n, where $m$ is the migration rate between any two demes. Setting $F(t) = F(t-1) = \\hat F = F_{ST}$, assuming that $m$ is low and solving for $F_{ST}$ yield to the classic result from Sewall Wright\n\n$$F_{ST} = \\frac{1}{1+4Nm}$$\n\nDefinitions of $F_{ST}$\n\n$F_{ST}$ was defined by S. Wright as\n\n$$F_{ST} = \\frac{var(p)}{\\bar p(1-\\bar p)}$$\n\n, where $var(p)$ is the variance of allele frequency among population and $\\bar p$ is the overall average allele frequency.\n\nFrom Nei (1973)\n\nWright showed that the variation in gene frequency among subpopulations may be analyzed by the fixation indices or F-statistics. He derived the formula $$1 - F_{IT}= (1 - F_{IS}) (l-F_{ST})$$ where FIT and F1s are the correlations between two uniting gametes to produce the individuals relative to the total population and relative to the subpopulations, respectively, while $F_{ST}$ is the correlation between two gametes drawn at random from each subpopulation. $F_{IT}$ and $F_{IS}$ may become negative, but $F_{ST}$ is nonnegative.\n\n\nIn the derivation of the fixation index in infinite island model, $F_{ST}$ is a probability of identity. In the quotation from Nei (1973) (and other sources), $F_{ST}$ is presented as a correlation coefficient. In Wright's and Nei's definition, I don't see the relation from the equations to either a probability or a correlation coefficient. Can you help to clarify this for me?\n\nFor example, I would expect that $E\\left[\\frac{var(p)}{\\bar p (1-\\bar p)}\\right] ≈ \\frac{1}{4Nm+1}$, where $E[X]$ is the expected value of the variable $X$. Can you demonstrate that this is true?\n\n\nYour Answer\n\n\nBrowse other questions tagged or ask your own question.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9879048466682434}
+{"content": "I wonder why doves are the symbol of peace? They are beautiful, they are white which might signify purity. The dove was released by Noah on his Ark and came back with vegetation in the Bible story. But that’s is not about Peace. I know Picasso painted the dove of peace many times and it appears on Christian art. But where does it come from. Does it appear in other religions?\n\nFor instance why is the symbol of peace not a pigeon?\n\n\nWell you never know?\n\n\nDrawing a horse moving.\n\nI’m enjoying watching a TV programme called the Great celebrity painting challenge. One thing they had to do thus week was to try and draw movement. They practiced painting chickens and then goldfish and then had the puppet horse from the play warhorse on. It’s full horse sized, representing the horse called Joey in the story.\n\nWhile I was watching the TV I had a go at drawing a horse moving. Thus is just a doodle it’s not based on the actual puppet. My horse is slightly rearing and raising its front legs.\n\nIt’s fun to play with form and to try and work out how things go together. I also think using interesting colours can work to make it more original.\n\nWhirlpool galaxy drawing\n\n\nThis took a few hours to draw on the old sketchfu website. I do love astronomy. This is not accurate, it couldn’t be with the limited tools that were on the website but it was fun to try and get a reasonable representation of it. Space is so infinitely beautiful. It makes me realise how tiny I am, how small our planet and solar system are in relationship to the mass of stars in a galaxy and the smallness of galaxies in relation to the infinity of the universe.\n\nHow important we think we are, we have so much on this world that we are using up. We are big in comparison  with insects and smaller still bacteria. Then even smaller viruses. The smallest things, molecules, Atoms  and sub atomic particles.\n\nApparently we are halfway on the scale of size in the universe. Halfway between the infinitely massive and the incredibly tiny. Perhaps in realising this we can see we are not very important after all. I think we should take more care to preserve our tiny/huge planet so that humankind can continue to survive and flourish.\n\n\nMore stuff\n\nI like drawing digitally. I need to get my computer fixed (I’ve been saying that for a couple of years) the trouble is that I got a tablet, now I’ve got a smart phone. I can do so much without having to sit in a cold bedroom in winter. But in some ways I am limited. I can’t draw on this device like I had learned to on my old PC. I’m just worried I won’t be able to upgrade without losing thousands of saved images. I imaging the inside of my computer going rusty or with spiders inhabiting it!\n\nCheerio for now\n\n\nThe eyes have it\n\n\nPut a picture of an eye or eyes up on a wall or building and crime drops. People are apparently influenced by an image of an eye. Perhaps that is why the story the handmaid’s tale uses the phrase “under his eye” as part of its narrative.\n\nEyes are all seeing, interrogative, piercing, but also are described as honest, kind, thoughtful, gentle.\n\nEyes are the windows of the soul. The look of longing, watching, friendship. Caring eyes. Intelligent eyes. So many descriptions. Your eyes weep, cry, shed tears.\n\nEyes linger on a sunset, watch the television, look back in anger. Using your eyes to see. Recognise your friends and family……\n\nDont let your eyes darken, grow clouded, become opaque with cataracts. Blink away tears.\n\nGlance at the sky, watch a bird in flight, look at your watch, wear mascara. Stare at the world. Close your eyes, and, sleep.\n\nMy Sketchfu drawings\n\nThere used to be quite a basic drawing website called Sketchfu. These are drawings I did there and saved before the site closed around 2013?\n\nSome of them were challenges to copy images that had been posted to the site. It was a good community and I’m proud to say I helped moderate it over quite a few years. All images are digital drawings by myself, not photos.\n\nSad face\n\n\nDigital drawing, done quickly after watching an art challenge programme on TV. I used ArtRage oils free app. Then I decided to write a poem to verbally illustrate it.\n\nSad Face\n\nEyes unfocused\n\nThinking of a sad place\n\nReady to weep,\n\nMemories to keep\n\nWarmly wrapped in love.\n\nSad face\n\nCan you ever be\n\nHappy again?\n\nLost in a reverie\n\nOf memory\n\nSad face\n\nLong face\n\nLong may you seek", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8518180847167969}
+{"content": "Enter the friendzone\n\nSmart Farming\n\nand the promise of sustainable and small scale urban agriculture\n\nWhile finishing Fukuoka’s book, The One-Straw-Revolution, I came to realize how agriculture, nutrition, wellbeing and eventually human evolution are inextricably intertwined. \n\nWhile finishing Fukuoka’s book, The One-Straw-Revolution, I came to realize how agriculture, nutrition, wellbeing and eventually human evolution are inextricably intertwined. Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer and philosopher who is considered as one of the personalities who inspired the permaculture and natural or organic farming movements. In opposition to modern industrial farming, Fukuoka was advocating farming at a smaller scale. In an ideal world, every family would produce its own food.\n\n\n― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution\n\nTechnology also has always been holding the same promise of human progress. And considering that an ever-growing number of people are living in cities nowadays, the question came up to me if present technological evolutions are creating an opportunity for small-scale agriculture in metropolitan environments. In this article, we will take a closer look at urban farming, more specifically rooftop farms and indoor vertical farming.\n\nSmart Farming2\n\nWhile working for Bagaar, I've been enjoying access to the rooftop of the PAKT, pioneers of urban farming in Antwerp. Rooftop farms are mushrooming in cities all around the globe. This relatively new phenomenon has numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits. Just to mention a few: better stormwater management, mitigation of urban heat islands, lessening carbon emissions by producing zero-mile food, reducing noise and air pollution, promoting bio-diversity, etc. Because of their position, on top of a building, rooftop farms don't have access to traditional means like tractors that utilize fossil fuels. This situation makes them rely more on human labour and on low-tech tools like battery-powered cultivators and harvesters. On the other hand, high-tech is not shunned when monitoring soil quality and irrigation; think about rain sensors and moisture sensors combined with IOT based smart farming systems.\n\nIOT and automation\n\nVertical farming is another field where IOT and automation are playing an even bigger role.  Originally, just like rooftop farms, vertical farms were conceived as horticultural building systems,  where vegetation and architecture would exist in a mutually defined and intentionally designed relationship supporting as well plant growth as the architectonic concept and structure. Great architects like Le Corbusier and Rem Koolhaas have been experimenting with the idea to grow plants inside buildings all along the 20th centuries. Today vertical farming reached a whole new level with super technological companies like LocalRoots or SquareRoots (the company of Kimbal Musk, brother of). Usually built in containers these organisations manage to combine hydroponics with advanced monitoring systems tracking how much and what kinds of nutrients the plant has absorbed, detect the presence of plant pathogens, analyzing its flavour etc.\n\n\nWhen considering the sustainable impact of vertical farms we should not forget in the first place that it requires much greater energy per kilogram than traditional agriculture and regular greenhouses. It's artificial led-lightening versus solar light. So how the energy for vertical farms is generated should be taken into account. On the other hand, there are a number of clear advantages like all-year-round production with no weather disruption, reduction of outdoor farmland, healthier work environment for farmers, food security in growing urban centres, zero-mile food production etc.  \n\nMaybe after reading the above paragraphs, Fukuoka would be turning in his grave. Isn't high-tech directly opposed to his natural farming philosophy? But if by 2050, like estimated, the world population will reach 10 billion people, of which 80% will live in a city,  maybe smart farming in urban environments can help us build more sustainable food production systems. Only the future will tell.\n\nLet's be friends. \n\nJoin the Bagaar Friends, and we'll keep you informed about our innovative events!\n\nRead more", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8449746370315552}
+{"content": "Lung Flash Cards - Anatomy Preview\n\nUnit 4: Path - The Lung > Lung Flash Cards - Anatomy > Flashcards\n\nFlashcards in Lung Flash Cards - Anatomy Deck (4):\n\nWhat lung are objects more commonly aspirated? Why?\n\nThe right lung because it diverges at a lesser angle\n\n\nWhat are Clara cells?\n\nNonciliated columnar cells that detoxify many inhaled toxic agents\n\n\nWhat cells line the alveoli? What is the job of each type of cell?\n\nType I epithelium - Thin and facilitate gas exchange; Type II - When Type I are lost, type II differentiate and restore integrity of alveoli\n\n\nDescribe the lungs' blood supply\n\nDual blood supply from the pulmonary and the bronchial system", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.624709963798523}
+{"content": "Empathize With People Positive Affirmations\n\n\nEmpathy is a good skill to obtain in many careers and lifestyle choices. For instance, if a veterinarian didn’t empathise towards animals they would be useless at their job. For so many of us, empathy can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have to show sympathy and compassion to people on a daily basis.\n\nBy empathizing with people, you are show that you are a caring and considerate individual. Most people find it extremely easy to feel empathy towards a person, but very difficult to show it in a helpful manner. Our positive affirmations can help you with this.\n\nPositive affirmations use the theory of repetition to influence your subconscious mind into believing what you want it to believe. The following positive affirmations can be used to improve empathy towards others.\n\nPresent Tense Affirmations\nI can easily able show empathy towards others\nI am able to come up with things to say\nI am good at understanding other people’s feelings\nI am able to speak my mind whilst still being sensitive\nI am good at seeing situations from other people’s point of view\nI am good at empathizing\nI am well known for my caring personality\nI enjoy helping others\nI can help people get through stressful times in their life\nI have transformed into an empathetic person\n\n\nFuture Tense Affirmations\nI will be able to show more compassion\nI will find it easier to help others\nI will become more empathetic in the workplace\nI will be able to see the good in everybody\nMy empathy improves every day\nOthers are beginning to see how caring I am\nEvery day I find it easier to empathize with people\nI am learning to enjoy being empathetic\nI will be able to help more people\nI will remain calm if others are in a stressful situation\n\n\nNatural Affirmations\nI care about other people’s feelings\nShowing more empathy will help me improve my life\nI can easily put myself in other people’s shoes\nMy career will advance if I show more empathy\nI am naturally able to sympathise with others\nShowing empathy is easy\nI can show the right amount of empathy in any situation\nOthers rely on me to be caring\nEmpathy comes naturally to me\nPeople come to me for help in stressful situations\n\n\nEmpathize with People audio affirmations\n\n\n\nOther affirmations you might be interested in: Let Your Emotions Out, Personal Development, Self Belief\n\nRecommended Tools to Boost Your Empathy\n\nImprove Social Skills Subliminal: This album is a general approach to increasing your social skills through the power of subliminal messaging. The concept is extremely simple, it uses positive affirmations to specifically target the subconscious mind so is viewed as being even more powerful than saying the affirmations aloud to yourself\n\nEmpathize With People Subliminal: This subliminal is perfect for those who only want to improve their empathy skills and no other areas of their social skills. It can allow you to sympathise more, be more compassionate and see situations from other people’s perspectives which leads to stronger social bonds and relationships", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976627230644226}
+{"content": "My Shortlist\n\n\nDATE ADDED: Mon 15/10/2018\n\n\nFort Lauderdale, USA\n\n\nJob Description\n\nEDUCATION: Standard high school diploma or satisfactory completion of an approved General Educational Development (GED) Testing Program.\n\nEXPERIENCE: Six (6) years of recent professionally paid experience in the air conditioning/refrigeration field.\n\nLICENSING: Must possess a current Broward County, or State of Florida, Certificate of Competency as either a Specialty Air Conditioning Technician, Class \"A\" or as a Refrigeration Technician, Class \"A” or as a Mechanical Journeyman.\n\nSAFETY TRAINING: Must have completed the following safety training courses:\n OSHA 10 Hour Construction (OSHA10) or OSHA 30 Hour Construction (OSHA30).\n OSHA Construction Asbestos Awareness Training (OSHA 29 CFR § 1926.1101(k)(9)(i)\n\n1. The air conditioning mechanic will perform skilled work in the maintenance and repair of air conditioning, ranging in size from one (1) to eight hundred (800) tons, commercial refrigeration, and control system in a responsible and accurate manner.\n2. Able to read blueprints, technical data and sketches; prepare estimates of materials from such information. Ability to assume responsibility and instruct other mechanics (including apprentices) in the proper procedures to accomplish repairs. Thorough knowledge of electrical and air conditioning circuits. Extensive knowledge of all phases of air conditioning and refrigeration repairs to include proper procedures of the trade. Knowledge of computer-activated energy controls.\n3. Review work orders and job sites to determine materials and procedural requirements. Requisition or special order parts and materials needed to effect repairs.\n4. Work alone to solve current problems by: dismantling, inspecting, cleaning, repairing, and reassembling all sizes of air conditioning units and components, water coolers, freezers, refrigerators, ice machines, milk coolers, compressors, water pumps, condensers, motors, etc. using knowledge of refrigeration theory, pipe fitting, and electricity.\n5. Utilize energy management techniques to: diagnose electrical, mechanical, and pressure malfunctions using diagnostic aids, such as voltage, amperage and ohm meters, temperature tester, compound gauges, air flow meters, leak detectors, hand tools, etc.\n6. Replace defective breaker controls, thermostats, switches, fuses, and electrical wiring to repair installed units, using electrician's hand tools and test equipment. Refer to service manuals, schematics, diagrams, and other aids to assist in diagnosing malfunctions.\n7. Advise users of systems about proper operation and provide suggestions to enhance results. Test all repaired equipment for proper operation.\n8. Receive and complete emergency calls. Be responsible for the work of apprentices and laborers as assigned. Inform supervisor of needed supplies.\n\nJob Type:\nLocation: Fort Lauderdale,\n\nApply for this job now.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8287389874458313}
+{"content": "The Variety Katsura\n\nKatsura, a new idea of an alimentary equilibrium that varies the pleasures at each bite\n\nThaï & Japanese Cooking\n\nThe nutritional qualities of the Japanese food is no longer to demonstrate: low in fat, it associates the benefits of uncooked fish and natural rice while proposing soups and salads.\n\nBy consuming sushis, you bring your body proteins, carbohydrats and fibers, and participate to maintain your alimentary equilibrium on a daily basis.\n\nEating sushis allow you to combine flavors and balance.\n\n\nRice & Soja\n\nAs it is rich in minerals, the rice is also an essential food for our balance. But that’s not all: the soja sauce is rich in magnesium, potassium and iron, while rice vinegar and ginger have anti-bacterial properties that are recognized.\n\nThe Fish\n\nWith its quality proteins and its omega-3 intake, the fish is an excellent nutritional intake, poor in calories and source of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are the basis of the formation of essential fatty acids that our body does not produce naturally. So it is therefor very important to find them in our daily alimentation.\n\nBeneficial Diet\n\nAnxious to bring you a balanced and beneficial diet, Katsura highlights through each of its dishes, countless nutritional benefits, whether in meat skewers, soups, fish, specialties, salads etc. Thanks to this dishes, you bring to your body all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals it needs!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999418318271637}
+{"content": "Article | Open | Published:\n\nHigh-entropy high-hardness metal carbides discovered by entropy descriptors\n\nNature Communicationsvolume 9, Article number: 4980 (2018) | Download Citation\n\n\nHigh-entropy materials have attracted considerable interest due to the combination of useful properties and promising applications. Predicting their formation remains the major hindrance to the discovery of new systems. Here we propose a descriptor—entropy forming ability—for addressing synthesizability from first principles. The formalism, based on the energy distribution spectrum of randomized calculations, captures the accessibility of equally-sampled states near the ground state and quantifies configurational disorder capable of stabilizing high-entropy homogeneous phases. The methodology is applied to disordered refractory 5-metal carbides—promising candidates for high-hardness applications. The descriptor correctly predicts the ease with which compositions can be experimentally synthesized as rock-salt high-entropy homogeneous phases, validating the ansatz, and in some cases, going beyond intuition. Several of these materials exhibit hardness up to 50% higher than rule of mixtures estimations. The entropy descriptor method has the potential to accelerate the search for high-entropy systems by rationally combining first principles with experimental synthesis and characterization.\n\n\nHigh-entropy materials having a highly disordered homogeneous crystalline single phase (potentially stabilized entirely by entropic contributions) continue to attract a great deal of research interest1,2,3. Remarkable properties have been reported: high strength (yield stress >1 GPa) combined with ductility4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, hardness5,12,13, superconductivity14, colossal dielectric constant15, and superionic conductivity16. Entropy is thought to play a key-stabilizing role in high-entropy alloys1, entropy-stabilized oxides17,18, high-entropy borides19, and high-entropy carbides20,21,22,23. The latter three classes consist of disordered metal cation sublattices with several species at equi-concentration combined with oxide15,17,18,24, boride19, or carbide20,21,22,23 anion sublattices. These systems offer the potential to combine excellent thermo-mechanical properties and resilient thermodynamic stability given by entropy stabilization with the higher oxidation resistance of ceramics25. The resistance of disordered carbides to extreme heat26,27,28, oxidation23, and wear makes them promising ultra-high-temperature ceramics for thermal protection coatings in aerospace applications29, and as high-hardness, relatively low-density high-performance drill bits and cutting tools in mining and industry.\n\nSuper-hard transition metal carbides have been known since the 1930s to exhibit significant levels of solid solution26,30,31, and to display high melting temperatures26,27. TaxHf1−xC forms a homogeneous solid solution across all composition ranges28,32,33, with Ta4HfC5 exhibiting one of the highest experimentally reported melting points (\\(T_{\\mathrm{m}}\\sim 4263\\,{\\mathrm{K}}\\)26,27). In this case, the two refractory metals randomly populate one of the two rock-salt sublattices28. More recent measurements indicate that the maximum melting point of 4232 K occurs without Ta at the composition HfC0.9834. Investigation of new carbide compositions will help elucidate the high temperature behavior of these materials, and will provide an avenue to settle the discrepancies in the experimental literature. To discover materials with even more advantageous properties, including increased thermal stability, enhanced strength and hardness, and improved oxidation resistance23, more species and configurations have to be considered. Unfortunately, the lack of a rational, effective, and rapid method to find and characterize the disordered crystalline phase makes it impossible to pinpoint the right combination of species/compositions and the discovery continues by slow and relatively expensive trial and error.\n\nComputationally, the hindrance in in-silico disordered materials development can be attributed to entropy—a very difficult quantity to parameterize when searching through the immense space of candidates (even with efficient computational methods, e.g., Monte Carlo and ab-initio lattice energies in the Wang-Landau35 or nested sampling36 formalisms). CALPHAD has also been applied successfully2,13,37,38,39, although it is dependent on the availability of sufficient experimental data. This is the perfect challenge for ab-initio high-throughput computing40 as long as reasonable entropy descriptors—the set of parameters capturing the underlying mechanism of a materials property—can be found.\n\nIn this article, we undertake the challenge by formulating an entropy-forming-ability (EFA) descriptor. It captures the relative propensity of a material to form a high-entropy single-phase crystal by measuring the energy distribution (spectrum) of configurationally randomized calculations up to a given unit-cell size. A narrow spectrum implies a low energy cost for accessing metastable configurations, hence promoting randomness (i.e., entropy) into the system (high-EFA) at finite temperature. In contrast, a wide spectrum suggests a composition with a high energy barrier for introducing different configurations (low-EFA), and thus with a strong preference for ordered phases. The method is benchmarked by the matrix of possible carbides. Given a set of eight refractory metals (Hf, Nb, Mo, Ta, Ti, V, W, and Zr) plus carbon, the formalism predicts the matrix of synthesizable five-metal high-entropy carbides. Candidates are then experimentally prepared, leading to a novel class of systems. In particular, it is demonstrated that the descriptor is capable of reliably distinguishing between the compositions that easily form homogeneous single phases and the ones that do not, including identifying compositions that form single phases despite incorporating multiple binary carbide precursors with different structures and stoichiometric ratios. Note that because of the differing stoichiometries of the non-rock-salt phase binary carbide precursors Mo2C and W2C, the compositions listed in this work are nominal. There are extensive carbon vacancies in the anion sublattice in the synthesized materials, further contributing to the configurational entropy. Several of these materials display enhanced mechanical properties, e.g., Vickers hardness up to 50% higher than predicted by a rule of mixtures (ROM). Thus, this class of materials has strong potential for industrial uses where dense and wear-resistant impactors are needed, particularly for extreme temperature applications. The successful outcome demonstrates the strength of the synergy between thermodynamics, high-throughput computation, and experimental synthesis.\n\n\nEFA formalism\n\nTo accelerate the search in the chemical space, the entropy content of a compound is estimated from the energy distribution spectrum of metastable configurations above the zero-temperature ground state. At finite T, any disordered state can be present with a probability given by the Boltzmann distribution and the state’s degeneracy. Note that configurations are randomly sampled up to a given unit-cell size: the larger the size, the more accurately the spectrum represents the real thermodynamic density of states.\n\nThe energy distribution (Hi) spectrum can be quantitatively characterized by its standard deviation σ, so that the σ becomes the descriptor for S: the smaller σ, the larger S. The descriptor for an N-species system, called the EFA, is defined as the inverse of the σ of the energy spectrum above the ground state of the N-system at zero temperature:\n\n$${\\mathrm{EFA}}(N) \\equiv \\left\\{ {\\sigma \\left[ {{\\mathrm{spectrum}}(H_i(N))} \\right]_{T = 0}} \\right\\}^{ - 1}$$\n\n\n$$\\sigma \\left\\{ {H_i(N)} \\right\\} = \\sqrt {\\frac{{\\mathop {\\sum}\\limits_{i = 1}^n g_i(H_i - H_{{\\mathrm{mix}}})^2}}{{\\left( {\\mathop {\\sum}\\limits_{i = 1}^n g_i} \\right) - 1}}} ,$$\n\nwhere n is the total number of sampled geometrical configurations and gi are their degeneracies. Hmix is the mixed-phase enthalpy approximated by averaging the enthalpies Hi of the sampled configurations:\n\n$$H_{{\\mathrm{mix}}} = \\frac{{\\mathop {\\sum}\\limits_{i = 1}^n g_iH_i}}{{\\mathop {\\sum}\\limits_{i = 1}^n g_i}}.$$\n\nThe broader the spectrum, the more energetically expensive it will be to introduce configurational disorder into the system, and thus the lower the EFA. EFA is measured in (eV/atom)−1.\n\nEFA calculation\n\nA total of 56 five-metal compositions can be generated using the eight refractory metals (8!/5!3! = 56) of interest (Hf, Nb, Mo, Ta, Ti, V, W, and Zr). For each composition, the Hermite normal form superlattices of the Automatic FLOW (AFLOW) partial occupation (AFLOW-POCC) method41 generate 49 distinct 10-atom-cell configurations, resulting in a total of 2744 configurations needed to determine the EFA of this composition space (Methods section). The ab-initio calculated EFA values for the full set of 56 five-metal compositions are provided in Table 1. Nine candidates are chosen from this list for experimental synthesis and investigation: (i) the three candidates with the highest value of EFA (MoNbTaVWC5 (EFA = 125 (eV/atom)−1), HfNbTaTiZrC5 (EFA = 100 (eV/atom)−1), HfNbTaTiVC5 (EFA = 100 (eV/atom)−1), high probability of forming high-entropy single phases), (ii) the two candidates with the lowest value of EFA (HfMoVWZrC5 (37 (eV/atom)−1), HfMoTiWZrC5 (38 (eV/atom)−1), low probability of forming high-entropy single phases), and (iii) four chosen at random with intermediate EFA (NbTaTiVWC5 (77 (eV/atom)−1), HfNbTaTiWC5 (67 (eV/atom)−1), HfTaTiWZrC5 (50 (eV/atom)−1), and HfMoTaWZrC5 (45 (eV/atom)−1)). Figure 1a shows the energy distribution and EFA values obtained ab initio from configurations generated with AFLOW for the nine chosen systems. For MoNbTaVWC5, HfNbTaTiZrC5, and HfNbTaTiVC5, most of the configurations are within 20 meV/atom of the lowest energy state, and the distributions have an EFA of at least 100 (eV/atom)−1. Therefore, at finite temperature, most of the configurations should have a high probability of being formed, so that a high level of configurational randomness is expected to be accessible in the three systems, making them promising candidates to form a high-entropy homogeneous single phase. Achieving a similar level of configurational randomness would be progressively more difficult in NbTaTiVWC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, and HfTaTiWZrC5 as the different configurations display a broader energy distribution, with EFAs ranging from 50 to 77 (eV/atom)−1. A higher energy cost is needed to incorporate configurational entropy into these three compositions, so forming a homogeneous single phase will be more difficult. For HfMoTaWZrC5, HfMoTiWZrC5, and HfMoVWZrC5, the spread of energies for the configurations is very wide, with EFA values from 45 down to 37 (eV/atom)−1. These materials would be expected to be very difficult to synthesize as a homogeneous single phase.\n\nTable 1 Results for the calculated entropy-forming-ability (EFA) descriptor, energetic distance from six-dimensional convex hull (ΔHf) and vibrational free energy at 2000 K (ΔFvib) for the five-metal carbide systems, arranged in descending order of EFA\nFig. 1\nFig. 1\n\nSchematics of high-entropy carbides predictions. a The energy distribution of different configurations of the 9 five-metal carbides: MoNbTaVWC5, HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiVC5, NbTaTiVWC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, HfTaTiWZrC5, HfMoTaWZrC5, HfMoTiWZrC5, and HfMoVWZrC5; spectrum is shifted so that the lowest energy configuration for each composition is at zero. The energy spectrum for each composition indicates its propensity to form the high-entropy single phase: the narrower the distribution, the more likely it is to form a high-entropy single phase at finite T. b The X-ray diffraction patterns for the same 9 five-metal carbides, where the first six compositions exhibit only the desired fcc structure peaks, whereas the additional peaks for remaining three compositions indicate the presence of secondary phases. The small peaks at 2θ = 31.7°, marked by the diamond symbol in the spectra of HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiWC5 and HfTaTiWZrC5, are from the (111) plane of a monoclinic (Hf,Zr)O2 phase that remains due to processing\n\nCompeting ordered phases\n\nThe phase diagrams for the five-metal carbide systems were generated to investigate the existence of binary and ternary ordered structures that could compete with the formation of the high-entropy single phase. First, prototypes for experimentally reported binary and ternary carbide structures42,43 are used to calculate the formation enthalpies of additional ordered phases for the AFLOW database. The results are used to generate the convex hull phase diagrams for all 56 compositions using the AFLOW-CHULL module44. The relevant binary and ternary convex hulls are illustrated in Supplementary Figures 136. The distance along the enthalpy axis of the lowest energy AFLOW-POCC configuration from the convex hull, ΔHf, is listed in Table 1 (the decomposition reaction products are summarized in Supplementary Table 2). A rough estimation of the synthesis temperature Ts (see the analogous Entropy-Stabilized Oxides case, Fig. 2 of ref.17)—can be calculated by dividing ΔHf by the ideal configuration entropy (Supplementary Table 1, with the ideal entropy per atom evaluated as 0.5kB × log0.2, since kB × log0.2 is the entropy per metal carbide atomic pair). A precise characterization of the disorder requires more expensive approaches, such as the LTVC method45, and is beyond the scope of this article. The highest temperature is 2254 K, which is less than the synthesis temperature of 2200 °C (2473 K), indicating that during sintering the disordered phases are thermodynamically accessible with respect to decomposition into ordered compounds. In analogy to the formation of metallic glasses where energetic confusion obstructs crystalline growth46,47 once the temperature is reduced, systems with high EFA remain locked into ensembles of highly degenerate configurations, retaining the disorder achieved at high temperature. Hence, EFA provides a measure of the relative synthesizability of the disordered composition.\n\nFig. 2\nFig. 2\n\nExperimental results for high-entropy carbides synthesis and characterization. a Progression of a sample of HfNbTaTiVC5 through each processing step: hand mixing (magenta spectrum, bottom), ball milling (blue spectrum, center), and spark plasma sintering (green spectrum, top), depicting the evolution towards the desired rock-salt crystal structure (aexp = 4.42 Å). b Linear relationship between EFA−1 and the distortion of experimental lattice parameters ε. Green circles and red squares indicate homogeneous high-entropy single- and multi-phase compounds, respectively. c, d Electron micrographs of single-phase HfNbTaTiZrC5 and multi-phase HfMoTaWZrC5 specimens. e, f Selected EDS compositional maps of the HfNbTaTiZrC5 and HfMoTaWZrC5 specimens. The micrographs show the presence of the secondary phase in HfMoTaWZrC5 (circles) that is also present in XRD results, which is revealed to be a W- and Mo-rich phase. Scale bars, 10 μm (cf)\n\nFrom enthalpy to entropy\n\nIt is important to consider that the metal carbide precursors have very strong covalent/ionic bonds, and are therefore enthalpy stabilized48. However, the same might not be the case for their mixture. In fact, a statistical analysis of the enthalpies44 indicates that the gain in formation enthalpy by adding mixing species, ΔHf(N + 1) − ΔHf(N), decreases with N, and can easily be overcome by the monotonic increase in entropy-gain for the disordered systems (to go from order to complete or partial disorder). In the AFLOW analysis, the threshold between low- and high-entropy systems is around four mixing species. To have completely entropy-stabilized materials, five mixing species are required (similar to the Entropy-Stabilized Oxides17). For carbides in which only the metal-sublattice is randomly populated, five metals should be enough to achieve carbide entropy stabilization, especially at equi-composition. Notably, if other sublattices were also allowed to contain disorder, (e.g., reciprocal systems like TaxHf1−xC1−y26,27), then the overall number of species might reduce. In this example, entropy was increased by introducing point defects (vacancies)—a promising strategy to improve high temperature performance. In HfC1−x, the reduction of C to sub-stoichiometry enhances the stabilizing effect of the configurational entropy on the solid phase, offsetting its Gibbs free energy (vacancies can only exist in the solid phase) leading to an overall increase in melting point (see ref.28).\n\nExperimental results\n\nTo validate the predictions, the nine chosen carbides are experimentally synthesized and characterized (see Methods section). The chemical homogeneity of each sample is measured using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), whereas the crystalline structure is determined via X-ray diffraction (XRD).\n\nAn example of the evolution of a sample of composition HfNbTaTiVC5 through each processing step is given in Fig. 2a, demonstrating the densification and homogenization into a single rock-salt structure. At least three distinct precursor phases are distinguishable in the mixed powder pattern. Following ball milling, the individual phases are still present, however, the peaks are considerably broadened, which is due to particle size reduction and mechanical alloying. Following the final spark plasma sintering (SPS) step at 2200 °C, the sample consolidates into a bulk solid pellet of the desired single rock-salt phase indicating the successful synthesis of a high-entropy homogeneous carbide.\n\nResults of XRD analysis for each sample following SPS at 2200 °C, presented in Fig. 1b, demonstrate that compositions MoNbTaVWC5, HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiVC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, NbTaTiVWC5, and HfTaTiWZrC5 (the top 6) only exhibit single fcc peaks of the desired high-entropy phase (rock-salt), whereas HfMoTaWZrC5, HfMoTiWZrC5, and HfMoVWZrC5 (the bottom 3) show multiple structures. The small peaks at 2θ = 31.7°, marked by the diamond symbol in the spectra of HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, and HfTaTiWZrC5 in Fig. 1b, are from the (111) plane of a monoclinic (Hf, Zr)O2 phase that remains due to processing. The volume fraction of this phase is <5% and does not significantly alter the composition of the carbide phase. The distinguishable second phase in HfMoTaWZrC5 is identified as a hexagonal phase. One and two secondary fcc phases are observed for HfMoVWZrC5 and HfMoTiWZrC5, respectively. Microstructure analysis and selected elemental mapping (Figs. 2c–d) confirm that the systems displaying single phases are chemically homogeneous, whereas the multi-phase samples undergo chemical segregation. For example, only grain orientation contrast is present in the HfNbTaTiZrC5 microstructure, and no indication of notable clustering or segregation is visible in its compositional maps. On the contrary, a clear chemical phase contrast is observable in the microstructure of the multi-phase HfMoTaWZrC5 sample, and the compositional maps demonstrate that the secondary phase, apparent in XRD, is W- and Mo-rich.\n\nHomogeneity analysis\n\nPeak broadening in XRD patterns (Fig. 1b) is used to quantify the level of structural homogenization achieved in the samples. According to the Williamson–Hall formulation49, broadening in XRD is principally due to crystallite size ( 1/cosθ, θ = Bragg angle) and lattice strain ( 1/tanθ). For multi-component systems, significant broadening is expected to occur due to local lattice strains and variations in the interplanar spacings throughout the sample50. The latter can be attributed to the inhomogeneous distribution of the elements, the extent of which can be evaluated by applying the analysis to a multi-component system, which has only a single lattice structure and is assumed strain free50.\n\nThe lattice distortion of the rock-salt phase in the single-phase materials (or the most prevalent in the multi-phase ones) is determined by using the relationship between broadening βS and Bragg angle θ (Methods section):\n\n$$\\beta _{\\mathrm{S}}{\\mathrm{cos}}\\theta = 4\\varepsilon {\\mathrm{sin}}\\theta + \\frac{{K\\lambda }}{D},$$\n\nwhere ε is the lattice strain or variation in interplanar spacing due to chemical inhomogeneity, K is a constant (dependent on the grain shape), λ is the incident X-ray wavelength, and D is the crystallite size. Since materials are assumed strain free, ε—obtained by inverting Eq. 4—represents the relative variation of the lattice parameter due to inhomogeneity. Thus, ε is both a measure of homogeneity and of the effective mixing with respect to the ideal scenario. The results for the EFA descriptor, the experimental characterization, as well as the values for ε for all nine carbides compositions are given in Table 1. The values for ε range from 0.063% for MoNbTaVWC5 and 0.094% for HfNbTaTiZrC5 (the most homogeneous materials) to 0.325% for HfMoVWZrC5 (the least homogeneous material). Overall, the experimental findings agree well with the predictions of EFA descriptor, validate its ansatz and indicate a potential threshold for our model of five-metal carbides: EFA \\(\\sim 50 {\\mathrm{(eV/atom)}}^{ - 1} \\Rightarrow\\) homogeneous disordered single phase (high entropy).\n\nHigh-entropy synthesizability\n\nThe comparison between the EFA predictions and the homogeneity of the samples is analyzed in Fig. 2b. Although the Williamson–Hall formalism does not provide particularly accurate absolute values of ε, it is effective for comparing similarly processed samples, determining the relative homogeneity. The lattice distortion ε (capturing homogeneity) decreases linearly with the increase of EFA. The Pearson (linear) correlation of EFA−1 with ε is 0.97, whereas the Spearman (rank order) correlation is 0.98. As such, the EFA takes the role of an effective high-entropy synthesizability descriptor.\n\nThree facts are relevant. (i) Intuitively, several of the carbide compositions that easily form a highly homogeneous phase, particularly HfNbTaTiVC5 and HfNbTaTiZrC5, come from binary precursors having the same structure and ratio of anions to cations as the final high-entropy material. (ii) Counterintuitively, the highest-EFA and most homogeneous phase MoNbTaVWC5 is made with two precursors having different structures and stoichiometric ratios from the high-entropy material, specifically orthorhombic α-Mo2C and hexagonal α-W2C, leading to a final sub-stoichiometric MoNbTaVWC5−x. The additional disorder provided by the presence of vacancies in the C-sublattice is advantageous: it allows further entropy stabilization, potentially increasing the melting point vis-à-vis the stoichiometric composition28. An investigation of the effect of carbon stoichiometry is clearly warranted, although it is outside of the scope of this study. (iii) For tungsten and molybdenum, metal-rich carbides are used because of the difficulties in obtaining molybdenum monocarbide (MoC) powder, or tungsten monocarbide (WC) powder in the particle sizes compatible with the other precursors, hindering consistent mixing, sintering and homogenization. It should be noted that additional samples of MoNbTaVWC5 were also synthesized using hexagonal WC with a smaller particle size, and the homogeneous rock-salt phase was again successfully obtained (see Supplementary Figure 37). The existence of phase-pure MoNbTaVWC5 indicates that, similar to the rock-salt binary carbides, the multi-component carbide is stable over a range of stoichiometry. From experimental/phenomenological grounds, the formation of such a phase is surprising. The equi-composition binary carbides MoC and WC have hexagonal ground states, and their rock-salt configurations have significantly higher formation enthalpy51. Considering these facts, there are no experimental indications that adding Mo and W would contribute to stabilizing the most homogeneous rock-salt five-metal carbide that was predicted by the EFA and later validated experimentally. The arguments demonstrate the advantage of a descriptor that quantifies the relative EFA over simple empirical/phenomenological rules, in that it correctly identifies this composition as having a high propensity to form a single phase, while simultaneously correctly predicting that several other systems having both Mo and W subcomponents undergo phase separation.\n\nMechanical properties\n\nThe Vickers hardness, HV, and elastic modulus, E, of both the binary carbide precursors and the synthesized five-metal single-phase compositions are measured using nanoindentation, where the properties are extracted from load-displacement curves (see Supplementary Figure 38(a)). The binary precursor samples for these measurements are prepared and analyzed using the same protocol to ensure the validity of the comparisons (see Methods section for more details). The results for the five-metal compositions are in Table 2, whereas those for the binary carbides are listed in Table 3. It is found that, for the five-metal compositions, the measured HV and E values exceed those predicted from a ROM based on the binary precursor measurements. The enhancement of the mechanical properties is particularly strong in the case of HfNbTaTiZrC5, where the measured E and HV exceed the ROM predictions by 10 and 50%, respectively (see Supplementary Figure 38(b) for a comparison between the HV results obtained from calculation, experiment, and ROM). Mass disorder is one possible source of the enhanced hardness: deformation is caused by dislocation movements and activation energy is absorbed and released at each lattice step. An ideal ordered system can be seen as a dislocation-wave-guide with matched (uniform) impedance along the path: propagation occurs without any relevant energy reflection and/or dispersion. This is not the case for disordered systems: mass inhomogeneity causes impedance mismatch, generating reflections and disturbing the transmission by dispersing (scattering) its group energy. Macroscopically the effect is seen as increased resistance to plastic deformations—more mechanical work is required—i.e., increase of hardness. Other possible causes of increased hardness include solid solution hardening5,13,20, where the atomic size mismatch results in lattice distortions, limiting the motion of dislocations necessary for plastic deformation; and changes in the slip systems and the ease with which slip can occur20,52.\n\nTable 2 Results for mechanical properties (bulk: B, shear: G, and elastic moduli: E, and Vickers hardness: HV) for six single-phase high-entropy carbides\n\nElastic properties are calculated using AFLOW41,53 for the five-metal compositions MoNbTaVWC5, HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiVC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, NbTaTiVWC5, and HfTaTiWZrC5 (Table 2) and their precursors. In general, results are within the experimentally reported ranges for the binary carbides (Table 3 in the Methods section). HV values are estimated from the bulk and shear moduli using the models introduced by Chen et al.54, Teter55, and Tian et al.56. Computational models do not consider plastic deformation mechanisms in inhomogeneous systems and thus HV predictions underestimate experiments, leading to results consistent with the ROM of binary carbides (Table 2). The outcome further corroborates that the experimentally observed enhancement of the mechanical properties is due to disorder.\n\nTable 3 Results for mechanical properties (bulk: B, shear: G, and elastic: E, moduli, and Vickers hardness: HV) for eight rock-salt structure binary carbides\n\nVibrational contribution to formation free energy\n\nThe vibrational contributions to the formation Gibbs free energy, ΔFvib, at 2000 K are listed in Table 1 for the six compositions synthesized as a single phase. The vibrational free energies, Fvib, are calculated using the Debye–Grüneisen model implemented in the AFLOW–Automatic GIBBS Library (AGL) module57, using the Poisson ratio calculated with AFLOW–Automatic Elasticity Library (AEL)53. The average Fvib for the five-metal compositions are calculated, weighted according to the Boltzmann distribution at 2000 K. The vibrational contribution to the formation Gibbs free energy, ΔFvib, for each composition is obtained from the difference between its average Fvib and the average Fvib of its component binary carbides. ΔFvib at 2000 K ranges from ~0 meV/atom for HfNbTaTiWC5 to −31 meV/atom for HfNbTaTiVC5, which are significantly less than the total entropy contribution (mostly configurational plus vibrational) required to overcome the values of 50 meV/atom to 150 meV/atom for the formation enthalpy ΔHf. These results are in agreement with previous observations that the vibrational formation entropy is generally an order of magnitude smaller than the configuration entropy39,58.\n\n\nIn this article, an EFA descriptor has been developed for the purpose of capturing synthesizability of high-entropy materials. The framework has been applied to refractory metal carbides, leading to the prediction and subsequent experimental discovery of homogeneous high-entropy single phases. The method is able to quantitatively predict the relative propensity of each composition to form a homogeneous single phase, thus identifying the most promising candidates for experimental synthesis. In particular, the experiments validate the prediction that the composition MoNbTaVWC5 should have a very high propensity to form a homogeneous single phase, despite incorporating both Mo2C and W2C, which have different structures (hexagonal and/or orthorhombic instead of rock-salt) and stoichiometric ratios from the five-metal high-entropy material.\n\nFurthermore, it is demonstrated that disorder enhances the mechanical properties of these materials: HfNbTaTiZrC5 and HfTaTiWZrC5 are measured to have hardness of 32 GPa (almost 50% higher than the ROM prediction) and 33 GPa, respectively, suggesting a new avenue for designing super-hard materials. The formalism could become the long-sought enabler of accelerated design for high-entropy functional materials with enhanced properties for a wide range of different technological applications.\n\n\nSpectrum generation\n\nThe different possible configurations required to calculate the energy spectrum are generated using the AFLOW-POCC algorithm41 implemented within the AFLOW computational materials design framework51,59,60. The algorithm initially generates a superlattice of the minimum size necessary to obtain the required partial occupancies within some user-specified accuracy. For each unique superlattice, the AFLOW-POCC algorithm then generates the complete set of possible supercells using Hermite normal form matrices41. Non-unique supercell combinations are eliminated from the ensemble by first estimating the total energies of all configurations using a Universal Force Field41,61 based method, and then identifying duplicates from their identical energies.\n\nStructure generation\n\nIn the case of the high-entropy carbide17 systems investigated here, the AFLOW-POCC algorithm starts with the rock-salt crystal structure (spacegroup: \\(Fm\\bar 3m,\\# 225\\); Pearson symbol: cF8; AFLOW Prototype: AB_cF8_225_a_b62) as the input parent lattice. Each anion site is occupied with a C atom (occupancy probability of 1.0), whereas the cation site is occupied by five different refractory metal elements, with a 0.2 occupancy probability for each. The AFLOW-POCC algorithm then generates a set of configurations (49 in total in the case of the rock-salt based five-metal carbide systems, once structural duplicates are excluded), each containing 10 atoms: one atom of each of the metals, along with five carbon atoms. This is the minimum cell size necessary to accurately reproduce the required stoichiometry. All configurations have gi = 10, except for one where gi = 120, so that \\(\\mathop {\\sum}\\nolimits_{i = 1}^n g_i = 600\\) for the rock-salt-based five-metal carbide systems. Note that computational demands increase significantly with the number of elements: AFLOW-POCC generates 522, 1793, and 7483 for six-, seven-, and eight-metal carbide compositions, respectively.\n\nEnergies calculation\n\nThe energy of each configuration is calculated using density functional theory (Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package63) within the AFLOW framework59 and the standard settings60. Each configuration is fully relaxed using the Perdew, Burke, Ernzerhof (PBE) parameterization of the generalized gradient approximation exchange-correlation functional64, projector augmented wave potentials, at least 8000 k-points per reciprocal atom (KPPRA), and a plane-wave cut-off of at least 1.4 times the cut-off values of constituent species’ pseudopotentials60. The formation enthalpy (Hf) of each configuration along with the link to entry page is provided in Supplementary Tables 410.\n\nMechanical properties\n\nElastic properties are calculated using the AEL module53 of the AFLOW framework, which applies a set of independent directional normal and shear strains to the structure, and fits the resulting stress tensors to obtain the elastic constants. From this, the bulk: B, and shear: G, moduli are calculated in the Voigt, Reuss and Voigt-Reuss-Hill (VRH) approximations, with the average being used for the purposes of this work. The elastic or Young’s modulus: E, is calculated using the approximation E = 9BG/(3B + G), which can be derived starting from the expression for Hooke’s Law in terms of E and the Poisson ratio, ν: ε11 = 1/E[σ11 − ν(σ22 + σ33)]65, and similarly for ε22 and ε33. For a cubic system, ε11 = S11σ11 + S12σ22 + S12σ33 (similarly for ε22 and ε33), where Sij are the elements of the elastic compliance tensor, so that 1/E = S11 and −ν/E = S12. For a cubic system, the bulk modulus is B = 1/[3(S11 + 2S12)] = E/[3(1 − 2ν)]. The Poisson ratio can be written as ν = (3B − 2G)/(6B + 2G), and combining with the expression for B and rearranging gives the required E = 9BG/(3B + G).\n\nThe elastic properties for the five-metal compositions are first calculated for each of the 49 configurations generated by AFLOW-POCC. The VRH approximated values of B and G for these configurations are listed in Supplementary Table 3, along with the AFLOW-POCC ensemble averaged electronic density of states (see Supplementary Figure 39). The average elastic moduli are then obtained, weighted according to the Boltzmann distribution at a temperature of 2200 °C (the experimental sintering temperature). These calculated values are compared with those obtained using a ROM (average of the binary components, weighted according to fractional composition in the sample).\n\nThree different models are used for predicting the Vickers hardness based on the elastic moduli: Chen et al. (HV = 2(k2G)0.585 − 3; k = G/B)54, Teter (HV = 0.151G)55, and Tian et al. (HV = 0.92k1.137G0.708; k = G/B)56. Note, however, that these models are based on the elastic response of the materials, and do not take into account phenomena such as plastic deformation, slip planes, and lattice defects.\n\nSample preparation\n\nInitial powders of each of the eight binary precursor carbides (HfC, NbC, TaC, TiC, Mo2C, VC, W2C, ZrC) are obtained in >99% purity and −325 mesh (<44 μm) particle size (Alfa Aesar). Samples are weighed out in 15 g batches and mixed to achieve the desired five-metal carbide compositions. To ensure adequate mixing, each sample is ball milled in a shaker pot mill for a total of 2 h in individual 30-min intervals intersected by 10-min rest times to avoid heating and consequent oxide formation. All milling is done in tungsten carbide-lined stainless steel milling jars with tungsten carbide grinding media.\n\nBulk sample pellets are synthesized via solid-state processing routes. The field-assisted sintering technique (FAST), also called SPS, is employed to simultaneously densify and react the compositions into single-phase materials. For all samples, sintering is done at 2200 °C with a heating rate of 100 °C/min, 30 MPa uniaxial pressure, and a 5-min dwell at temperature. Samples are heated in vacuum atmosphere to 1300 °C followed by flowing argon to 2200 °C. All sintering is done in 20 mm graphite die and plunger sets with graphite foil surrounding the samples to prevent reaction with the die.\n\nSample analysis\n\nElemental analysis is performed using an FEI Quanta 600 SEM equipped with a Bruker e-Flash EDS detector at an accelerating voltage of 20 kV. Microstructural scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging is carried out using an FEI Apreo FE-SEM at an accelerating voltage of 5 kV, with a combination of secondary and back-scattered electron detectors to show phase contrast. Crystal phase analysis is performed using a Rigaku Miniflex X-ray Diffractometer with a stepsize of 0.02° and 5-s dwells, using Cu Kα radiation (wavelength λ = 1.54059 Å) for all measurements and calculation of the lattice parameter. All sample patterns are fitted in Materials Data Incorporated’s (MDI) Jade 9 software66 with a residual of fit R < 8%. Lattice parameter, aexp, values of 4.353 Å, 4.500 Å, 4.415 Å, 4.434 Å, 4.355 Å, 4.502 Å, 4.506 Å, 4.534 Å, and 4.476 Å were measured for MoNbTaVWC5, HfNbTaTiZrC5, HfNbTaTiVC5, HfNbTaTiWC5, NbTaTiVWC5, HfTaTiWZrC5, HfMoTaWZrC5, HfMoVWZrC5, and HfMoTiWZrC5, respectively (for multi-phase samples, aexp refers to the primary cubic phase).\n\nFor analysis of sample peak broadening βS, instrumental broadening βI must first be determined. For this, a NIST 660b LaB6 standard is run under the same conditions as each carbide sample. The instrumental profile is then fitted, and βI is determined to vary with Bragg angle θ as:\n\n$$\\beta _{\\mathrm{I}} = 0.1750985 - 0.001560626\\theta + 0.00001125342\\theta ^2.$$\n\nβS is determined by subtracting βI from the measured broadening βM: \\(\\beta _{\\mathrm{S}}^x = \\beta _{\\mathrm{M}}^x - \\beta _I^x\\). βM is measured as a function of θ, and x is a constant between 1.0 and 2.0. In the current analysis, x is set to 2.0 due to the Gaussian-like shape of the instrument peaks, as this value leads to the lowest standard deviation of linear fits to the peak broadening data.\n\nBoth crystallite size and lattice strain contribute to βS49,67,68:\n\n$$\\beta _{\\mathrm{S}} = 4\\varepsilon {\\mathrm{tan}}\\theta + \\frac{{K\\lambda }}{{D{\\mathrm{cos}}\\theta }},$$\n\nwhere ε is the lattice strain or variation in interplanar spacing due to chemical inhomogeneity, K is a constant (dependent on the grain shape), λ is the incident X-ray wavelength and D is the crystallite size. Rearranging Eq. 6 gives:\n\n\nThe slope of a linear fit to the plot of βScosθ against sinθ is equal to the strain, or lattice distortion, whereas the y-intercept of a linear fit with zero slope determines the crystallite size.\n\nMechanical testing\n\nMechanical properties of each of the single-phase compositions are tested using a Keysight NanoIndenter G200 with a Berkovich indenter tip. To rule out indentation size effects, testing is carried out at loads of both 50 mN and 300 mN, and no significant deviation in hardness or modulus is observed. To allow valid cross-comparison, each of the high entropy carbides is compared with the binary carbides, which were hot-pressed and indentation tested under identical conditions. For the reported values, tests are carried out according to the standard method outlined in ISO 14577 using a maximum load of 50 mN. Values are calculated as an average of 40 indents, and are reported with errors of plus or minus one standard deviation. A fused crystal silica standard is run prior to each test to ensure proper equipment calibration is maintained. Samples are polycrystalline with grain sizes between 10 μm and 30 μm. Prior to indentation testing each sample is vibratory polished using 0.05 μm colloidal silica for 12 h to ensure minimal surface roughness. All tests are carried out at a temperature of 27 °C ± 0.5 °C. Indentation data are analyzed according to the methods of Oliver and Pharr69,70. The elastic (i.e., Young’s) modulus is determined using \\(1/E_{{\\mathrm{eff}}} = (1 - \\nu ^2)/E + (1 - \\nu _{\\mathrm{I}}^2)/E_{\\mathrm{I}}\\), where Eeff is the effective modulus (sometimes called the reduced modulus) obtained from nanoindentation, E and ν are the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, respectively, for the specimen, whereas EI and νI are the same parameters for the indenter. A Poisson’s ratio for each of the binary carbides is obtained from literature71 where available. For five-metal carbide samples where data for each of the constituents is available, the value used for Poisson’s ratio is taken as the average of the constituent binaries. If this average is unavailable (i.e., when Mo and/or W are present), Poisson’s ratio is assumed to be equal to 0.18.\n\nData availability\n\nAll the ab-initio data are freely available to the public as part of the AFLOW online repository and can be accessed through following the REST-API interface59 and AFLUX search language76.\n\nAdditional information\n\n\n\n  1. 1.\n\n    Gao, M. C, Yeh, J. W, Liaw, P. K. & Zhang, Y. High-Entropy Alloys: Fundamentals and Applications. (Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2016).\n\n  2. 2.\n\n    Senkov, O. N., Miller, J. D., Miracle, D. B. & Woodward, C. Accelerated exploration of multi-principal element alloys with solid solution phases. Nat Commun. 6, 6529 (2015).\n\n  3. 3.\n\n    Widom, M. Modeling the structure and thermodynamics of high-entropy alloys. J. Mater. 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Sci. 137, 362–370 (2017).\n\nDownload references\n\n\nThe authors acknowledge support by DOD-ONR (N00014-15-1-2863, N00014-17-1-2090, N00014-16-1-2583, N00014-17-1-2876) and by Duke University—Center for Materials Genomics—for computational support. S.C. acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for financial support. C.O. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant no. DGF1106401. The authors thank Axel van de Walle, Matthias Scheffler, Claudia Draxl, Ohad Levy, Yoav Lederer, Amir Natan, Omar Cedillos Barraza, Joshua Gild, Olivia Dippo, and Cameron McElfresh for helpful discussions.\n\nAuthor information\n\nAuthor notes\n\n  1. These authors contributed equally: Pranab Sarker, Tyler Harrington.\n\n\n  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA\n\n    • Pranab Sarker\n    • , Cormac Toher\n    •  & Corey Oses\n\n    • Tyler Harrington\n    •  & Kenneth S. Vecchio\n  3. Department of Nanoengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA\n\n    • Mojtaba Samiee\n    •  & Kenneth S. Vecchio\n  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA\n\n    • Jon-Paul Maria\n    •  & Donald W. Brenner\n  5. Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics and Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA\n\n    • Stefano Curtarolo\n  6. Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 14195, Berlin-Dahlem, Germany\n\n    • Stefano Curtarolo\n\n\n  1. Search for Pranab Sarker in:\n\n  2. Search for Tyler Harrington in:\n\n  3. Search for Cormac Toher in:\n\n  4. Search for Corey Oses in:\n\n  5. Search for Mojtaba Samiee in:\n\n  6. Search for Jon-Paul Maria in:\n\n  7. Search for Donald W. Brenner in:\n\n  8. Search for Kenneth S. Vecchio in:\n\n  9. Search for Stefano Curtarolo in:\n\n\nS.C. proposed the entropy spectral descriptor and the phase stabilization mechanism. C.T. wrote the AEL–AGL codes under the supervision of S.C. C.O. wrote the AFLOW-POCC and AFLOW-CHULL codes under the supervision of C.T. and S.C. P.S. and C.T. performed the AFLOW-POCC and AEL–AGL calculations for the single-phase systems. C.O. performed the convex hull analysis. T.H. made the samples under the supervision of K.V. T.H. and M.S. performed the experimental characterization. All authors—P.S., T.H., C.T., C.O., M.S., J.-P.M., D.B., K.V., S.C.—discussed the results and contributed to the writing of the article.\n\nCompeting interests\n\nThe authors declare no competing interests.\n\nCorresponding authors\n\nCorrespondence to Kenneth S. Vecchio or Stefano Curtarolo.\n\nElectronic supplementary material\n\nAbout this article\n\nPublication history\n\n\n\n\n\nFurther reading\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8424891233444214}
+{"content": "About Us\n\nWhy support Doernbecher?\n\nOregonians love our state for its coastline, mountains, farmland, vineyards and deserts. Wherever you live in Oregon, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital serves your community with comprehensive expertise in children’s health.\n\nDoernbecher is one-of-a-kind in Oregon, offering highly specialized care unavailable anywhere else in our region. It’s the kind of resource that makes a life-or-death difference – but you might not be aware of its importance until you need it, or until a friend or neighbor does. So you might not know that the families who rely on Doernbecher also rely on you. That’s because none of this is possible without philanthropy.\n\nCompared to other parts of the country, the Pacific Northwest has a relatively small population, spread over a wide area. That means that some families travel hundreds of miles to Doernbecher for specialized care that is unavailable in their hometowns. About 40 percent of Doernbecher patients come from outside Portland – some from as far away as Idaho and Alaska.\n\nOur region’s lower population density also means that the patient volume for Oregon hospitals isn’t enough to fully pay for such a comprehensive range of specialized care, or to make it available around the clock.\n\nTo read just a few examples of what Doernbecher donors help make possible, visit OnwardOHSU.org.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7521494626998901}
+{"content": "Excavations at Asikli Hoyuk have unearthed evidence of the domestication of sheep and goats.Mary Stiner / Asikli Hoyuk project photo archive\n\nAbout 10,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers settled on a floodplain in modern-day Turkey and stayed for a millennium. You can still see remnants of the houses they built. Archaeologists have mapped out alleyways and uncovered intact skeletons under ancient plaster floors. After all this time, Aşıklı Höyük is remarkably well preserved.\n\nBut Jordan Abell did not come for these sights when he last visited Aşıklı Höyük in 2017. He came to look for something invisible: ancient urine.\n\nThe people of Aşıklı Höyük all, presumably, peed. So did their sheep and goats. By estimating the quantity of ancient urine deposited at Aşıklı Höyük, Abell and his collaborators reconstructed the population of humans and animals at the site 10,000 years ago. You might call it urine archaeology.\n\n“The method is, as far as I see, totally new and creative,” says Benjamin Arbuckle, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who studies animal domestication in Turkey during the same period. Sheep and goat domestication is what got Arbell and his co-authors interested in urine in the first place. Animal bones and even dung at Aşıklı Höyük suggest that its occupants were among the first people in the world to domesticate sheep and goats. They penned the once-wild horned creatures near their homes. They learned to cull young males to maximize the size of their herds.\n\nIt was the discovery of unusual nitratine crystals that prompted the team to think about sheep and goat pee. “There’s very few places on Earth that have these nitratine crystals forming,” says Abell, who is now a paleoclimate researcher at Columbia. These places tend to be very dry, and they have high concentrations of salts. Abell, along with his collaborators at the University of Arizona and Istanbul University, wondered if urine was the source of those salts. So they went out and collected 113 samples from Aşıklı Höyük. They were especially interested in “middens,” ancient refuse heaps where human and animal waste may have piled up. And they made sure to collect samples from different layers in and around the middens, spanning the 1,000 years that people lived at Aşıklı Höyük.\n\nBack in the lab, Abell looked for the chemical signatures of urine—sodium, nitrate, and chlorine—in each of these samples. The tricky part is that these salts can come from elsewhere, too. They are also found in various concentrations in rainwater and in the natural sediment around Aşıklı Höyük. So Abell built a model attempting to account for those sources. To make sure his assumptions weren’t totally off base, he compared the urine salt concentrations at Aşıklı Höyük with that of modern livestock feedlots, and found they were similar. The model ultimately estimated that an average of 1,790 humans and animals were peeing per day in Aşıklı Höyük during the 1,000 years of settlement.\n\nAşıklı Höyük was built along the Melendiz River, and its inhabitants were among the first to domesticate sheep and goats. (Güneş Duru / Aşıklı Research Project)\nA deep trench at Aşıklı Höyük where some of presumed urine samples were excavated (Mary Stiner / Asikli Hoyuk project photo archive)\n\nAs the team went up the dirt layers and through time, they found 10- to 1,000-fold increases in the concentration of urine salts at the latter end of the millennium-long period of occupation. This suggests that the human and/or animal population of Aşıklı Höyük was getting bigger and denser. (Unfortunately, archaeologists don’t have a way to distinguish between ancient human and animal urine using this method.) Assuming the model holds up, these urine deposits can be seen as a record of humanity’s transition from hunters to animal farmers.\n\nBones, Arbuckle points out, are evidence of animals being eaten by humans. “It’s really hard to tell if they’re being hunted or if they’re being herded or if some of them are being hunted and some are being herded,” he says. Vast quantities of urine, on the other hand, would suggest that animals and the people herding them were in fact staying and peeing in one place.\n\nAt this point, using urine salts to understand Aşıklı Höyük’s population relies on a lot of assumptions. Canan Çakirlar, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Groningen, calls the technique “very promising,” but she also points out that not very much is known about how urine deposits might have chemically changed over the millennia. Other factors may have changed too: People and livestock had different diets 10,000 years ago than they do now, which could produce different concentrations of salts in their urine.\n\nSheep still graze in the fields around Aşıklı Höyük. (Jordan Abell)\n\nRainfall patterns over Aşıklı Höyük could have changed as well. Today, it’s a fairly dry place. The region gets about 400 millimeters (15 inches) of rain a year. It would be harder to study urine deposits in wetter places, says Abell, where rainfall and a changing water table would blur the fine layers of urine salts. He hopes to get more data from Aşıklı Höyük next year, to sample more sediment from more areas and study what little rain falls over the site. He would also like to get some urine from the local sheep that still roam the fields. Ten thousand years after humans first learned to raise their flocks here, they’re still at it.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8590875267982483}
+{"content": "Core: Computing Big O with Consecutive Operations\n\nCourse video 30 of 109\n\nWelcome to week 3! The text-editor application you worked with last week does something, but it doesn't do it particularly fast. This week we'll start talking about efficiency. We'll introduce the concept of \"Big-O\" notation, which sounds a little silly, but is really a powerful (and extremely common) way of analyzing a program's efficiency, independent of the system that it's running on and the exact details of how it's implemented. Then we'll go the other direction and dive into the details, talking about how to measure the actual running time of a piece of code to get an idea of how it really performs in practice.\n\n关于 Coursera\n\n\nJoin a community of 40 million learners from around the world\nEarn a skill-based course certificate to apply your knowledge\nGain confidence in your skills and further your career", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7080827951431274}
+{"content": "Fabrizio Pedrolli\n\nFabrizio Pedrolli was born in 1940 in Trento in the Northeast of Italy where he attended high school before moving to Florence. He studied Political Science at the University of Florence. His involvement with wine began in 1968 when he opened a Bar- Enoteca in Trento. He graduated as a professional sommelier in 1972.\n\nFrom 1973 to 1983 he was a Regional President of the Italian Sommelier’s Association (AIS) and from 1975 to 1983 he was the General Secretary of the Association of International Sommeliers (ASI). He has been a member of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture tasting commission and was responsible for DOC wines since 1974. He judged numerous competitions and other official tastings both nationally and internationally.\n\n\nVias Imports Experience\n\nAbove all, Fabrizio Pedrolli is the founding member of Vias Imports, born in 1983, out of the great friendship between Fabrizio Pedrolli, Pino Sola and Louis Iacucci, a pioneer in Italian wine who was instrumental in bringing the diversity of refined, regional - Italian wines to the United States.\n\nToday, Fabrizio Pedrolli is Vias Imports’ chairman and CEO.\n\nWith his extensive experience, Pedrolli is an ideal Vias ambassador in Italy, maintaining and - developing relationships with outstanding wine producers throughout Italy. Pedrolli’s depth of knowledge and excellent palate have allowed him to craft a prestigious portfolio of wines that showcase the highest quality standards in each Italian region, from Valle d’Aosta to Sicilia.\n\nVias Imports Ltd. provides its clients with access to the most comprehensive Italian wine portfolio by offering fine Italian wines that embody the distinct terrain and character of each Italian region. Particular attention is paid in the portfolio to the vast array of indigenous varietals found in the Italian peninsula, a rich patrimony that no other winemaking nation can claim. In New York and New Jersey, Vias is both an importer and distributor. In addition to Italy, Vias portfolio includes wines from Argentina, Austria, France, Lebanon, Spain, and the United States.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8003723621368408}
+{"content": "Skip Nav\n\nEnvironment Essay\n\nOnline course\n\n❶Poaching is the illegal hunting, capture, or collecting of wildlife. Driving vehicles can also be environment friendly.\n\nHow to Buy Essays about pollutions from\n\nAdverse effects of human activity on environment\nProfessional Editing From $7.5/page\nEnvironment Essay Examples\n\n\n\nI really appreciated it. I got my essay written in 6 hours! How is that possible? I used to spend days on one essay. My writer was very fast, but I did not manage to find any mistakes in the paper. I purchased a couple of essays from two writing companies, who cheated and sent my fully plagiarized papers. I found your company and read a couple of reviews. I was shocked to see such a well structured and well written paper!\n\n\n\nYour writers are definitely well-versed and skillful. I sent some assignments to your writers and have always received what I wanted. I did not know how to start writing my thesis proposal. Your writers carried out research and surprised my professor with incredible ideas. When you sent me the paper, I thought that some instructions were overlooked. I asked my writer to correct it and got a paper that fully met my demands. I was almost expelled from my college because I could not attend classes and work on a pack of home assignments at the same time.\n\nWhenever I began writing one paper, I thought about other projects and could not focus on any. I was very happy to find your company, which is a real savior. I found out that some of my classmates purchase papers from you and decided to give you a try. At that time, I had to work on a research essay.\n\n\n\nIt is just what I wanted. I thought that I would never manage to complete my essay on time. There were only a couple of hours left and your company agreed to help. I only sent instructions and your writer did everything for me. I did not face late submission and got a good grade. I like to compose essays, but sometimes my part-time job makes me devastated and exhausted that I do not have time to sleep. My friend told me that students can purchase papers online.\n\nI was a bit afraid to do it, but your company sent me the best paper! Will surely order more papers because your prices are really cheap! I thought that every company on the Internet is a scam, until I found Essaywritingstore. I was very desperate since I had failed a couple of papers before. I asked your writers to be very attentive to instructions and they exceeded all my expectations.\n\nI was surprised and astonished to see the paper, where every sentence was breathtaking. I forgot to leave my feedback the first time I placed the order. Now I am writing it to tell other students how helpful your writing services are. You are definitely the best writing company on the web because you have never let me down.\n\n\nSupreme assistance and fair prices! 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I accidentally came across your online writing company and asked your writer to complete a part of the proposal.\n\nI submitted it and my professor really appreciated it. I used to spend days and weeks in the library, searching for appropriate sources for my essays and research papers. Being very tired, I decided to order an essay at Essaywritingstore. To my surprise, you sent me an excellent paper with great ideas. Now I will definitely order more papers from you. I did not know if your company is real until I called your support team.\n\nYour company member explained what kind of services you offer and suggested placing the order. I asked to work on a dissertation section and pay attention to my remarks. Surprisingly, your writer managed to copy my writing style! But it all turned out very nicely, thank you. For me, academic writing is the biggest obstacle on my way.\n\n\nEventually, I decided to ask your writer complete a lab report and got superb results! It is exactly what I needed. It is the first time I am writing my feedback on your service.\n\n\n\nLuckily, I found your company and your experienced writers, who solved all my problems in academic writing! Many thanks to your wonderful writers and supportive online representatives! You have helped me a lot! My assignments are always complex, but your writers always manage to meet my expectations.\n\nYour company helped me to pass many courses successfully and improve my reputation. If individuals can make a conscious effort to change their lifestyle, by cutting down the use of private cars and using public transport, it would substantially reduce the burning of fossil fuels. In other words, serious attempts could be made by individuals to travel to work regularly by buses and trains, which are cheap and abundant.\n\nIn addition to this, individuals could play a significant role towards making our environment safer by not using enormous amounts of plastic in daily life, which is a hazardous pollutant of the soil. For example, almost every consumer uses plastics while shopping, and there is always a 'use and throw away' culture.\n\nInstead of doing this, individuals could opt for eco friendly substitutes such as using paper and cloth bags instead of plastic in supermarkets. In conclusion, it seems to me that environmental problems are a worrying concern and individuals have a crucial role in joining hands with the government in reducing the harm caused to the environment.\n\nApr 21, Environmental Damage Essay by: So yes, you would need to add another supporting point. Jul 09, Globalisation impacts negatively on developing countries. Do you agree or disagree? Anonymous Globalisation is an inevitable process that helps nations around the world become more and more connected. It simply means that the world has become more integrated economically, socially, politically and culturally through the advances of technology, transportation and communication. Many people assume that developing countries will benefit from this process, however, far from having a positive influence, underdeveloped nations have been affected negatively in term of economy and culture.\n\nFirstly, a significant drawback of globalisation is that the economies of developing countries are negatively affected by the competition between multinationals and local companies. Therefore, domestic customers tend to buy more of their products. As a result, local firms may lose market share and be bankrupted which can lead to the economies of developing countries becom ing weak and unstable. Another negative impact of globalisation is that sometimes the cultures of underdeveloped countries are negatively affected by films and music which are introduced from developed countries through globalisation.\n\nPeople often prefer foreign films and music instead of its own nations. Hence, movies and music of the poor countries seem difficult to develop which may lead to los s of the traditional values. Therefore, the government of developing countries should control and monitor the globalisation by effective policies which are appropriate with for every aspect of their countries.\n\nJul 11, Globalisation impacts negatively on developing countries. Dec 26, Missing an idea by: Anonymous Please correct me if I'm wrong. According to his thesis statement in the introduction, he didn't discuss the second point which is the role of the government. Otherwise, he has reconsider the introduction. But the ideas are very good Thanks for this site.\n\nDec 31, Thesis Statement by: The thesis statement says that the government is doing many things so in the essay it would be better to state briefly what these things are and to say why individuals would be more suited to tackle the problems. The question is specifically asking WHO is best suited to deal with the problems - the Government or Individuals. So the thesis should state clearly who is best to deal with it and then explain why.\n\nJan 12, Reducing global environmental damage by: Although, the government plays a big role in minimizing environmental damage everyone must show concern in this situation to have a better solution. To begin with, one of the major reasons for the pollution of the environment is improper garbage disposal. If individuals are aware of proper segregating of garbage this will lessen toxic problem.\n\nJapan is one classic example the Japanese people are well disciplined in terms of segregating their waste product and their government set schedules in collecting their waste disposal.\n\nIn addition cutting down the use of private cars instead use of a bicycle for transportation, it would reduce the use of gasoline causing air pollution. And use of bicycle going to work serve as a healthy exercise in our everyday routine will decrease the risk of obesity. As a result the government will have enough funds for preventing environmental damage because the risk for obesity was reduced.\n\nFurthermore, instead of cutting off trees used for building houses and furniture use other material like cement in building home or using glass for making furnitures.\n\nThis will minimize destroying our mountains. In conclusion, showing concerns in our environment will help our future children to experience the magic beauty of nature and this will be more effective if all individuals will help government in reducing global environmental problems. Aug 22, Why Our Environment Polluted by: Anonymous I Think,Pollution is increasing day by day.\n\nThere are lot of reason behind this. Firstly we can say that The automobiles Are increasing on the roads. Thirdly the unwanted uses of plastic like as plastic polythene. Niner X There are many different types of music in the world today. Why do we need music? Is the traditional music of a country more important than the International music that is heard everywhere nowadays? You should write at least words. Use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.\n\nWhile some people enjoy listening to international types of melodies, many still prefer to stick to traditional tunes, which originated from their own nations. This essay will compare the level of importance of traditional music versus the tunes played by international artists. Along with the modernization in technology, the new generation of singers and artists were able to compose highly technical types of music as rock, jazz and ballads, which are accompanied by high notes and loud backgrounds.\n\nWhile most of the listeners can enjoy those novice types of entertainment, some of the compositions may bear languages that could be hard to understand for some audience with less knowledge on that specific piece. Nevertheless, foreign music is important to be shared since it imparts some bits of information that could possibly be unknown to other nationals outside their country.\n\nUpon the other hand, I strongly concur that traditional types of music is more vital to be treasured and nurtured more than the international ones for various grounds. Secondly, those types of compositions encompass languages that are easily understood by ordinary people, thus, they can able to relate to them with ease and less hassle.\n\nLastly, those pieces play a great role for the preservation of art and culture of the country where it started off. On balance, abundance of music genre, in the national and international setting is greatly observable in the present times. Indeed, music is important for the lives of the people across the lifespan, and local and foreign types of which could actually coexist, although, national classic tunes pose a greater importance than international ones for the perpetuation of history, culture and arts of a country.\n\nJan 14, SOS by: Anonymous Hi Can you help me to write essay. And can you check me essay? Alda What can I do if I don't have any idea about it? Jun 18, plz tell me where we can use govt should do this or that? Jan 16, task?? Anonymous Hi Can anyone help me?? The task is wether to agree that government or individuals be responsible to reduce the problem and why, is not it?? As i see the sample answer discuss the measures to reduce it.\n\nI am confused if i understand the task or not!! Jun 12, Environment by: Anonymous We should protect our environment. Aug 16, A growing number of people feel that animals should not be exploited by people and that they should have the same rights as humans, while others argue that humans must employ animals to satisfy their by: Manan As far as the animals concerned , a lots of things which i want to add in this essay.\n\nSo many people think that animals are niether be account for the research or as a food nor be exploited for the humans. Where as others argue that use of the animals as an food or doing experiment on it is necessary. But i totally exaggerate skeptics who are in favour of require same rights for the animals as humans. I would like to commance with the point in advocate of use of animals as a food and other facilities.\n\nIn last few decades , there are gargantuan growths measured in human population. Due to that needs of the foods and other accommodations also hike. For example, nowadays due to increasing different dieses need of the medicines are gain for this reason experiments conducted so used animals as this purpose here.\n\nIn addition, for instant research it was proved that one of the largest portion of the world's population rely on the animal's meat. In many villages animals are use as a travelling purpose. So it is not possible at all to have a same rules and acts for the animals as human beings. By conglomerating all the points which I discussed in above paragraphs ,human bieng is the suprime social animal so it is not a big issue if animals are bieng a food or used for travelling , entertainment and doing some research in drugs which probably used for the human dieses.\n\nSep 21, Pollution and damage to the environment by: Anonymous Could you correct my text please? The pollution and the damage to the environment are caused by human activities like the industrialization, urbanization, consumption of fossile fuels, transportation, tourism, etc. However, there are many people that are working a lot to repair the environment. For instance, some people go by bicycle or public transport instead of by car.\n\nAlso, there are people who recycle paper, plastic, glass and toxic materials for nature. Other people are scientists that investigate about electrical transport and natural sources of energy like wind power or solar power. On the other hand, there are many organizations that do excellent work to protect the environment. For example, they fight against contamination of the rivers and seas, the climate change, deforestation, and teach people to be more respectful with nature.\n\nTo sum up, I think environmental problems can be solved thanks to the small and big actions of great people who want to preserve our planet.\n\nJun 26, Environment damge by: Bahaa Abdel Nasser Our environment is the place where we live, the air we breathe and the water we drink. This makes it our priority to save the environment. Personally I think government have the major role in keeping the environment healthy while others belief that individuals have more vital role.\n\nOver the time, governments have been responsible for creating laws and forcing individuals to obey them. That of course makes the government role in saving environment more effective.\n\nYour best IELTS study partner\n\nMain Topics\n\nPrivacy Policy\n\n\nPrivacy FAQs\n\n\nAbout Our Ads\n\nProfessional Help with Writing Environmental Essays. Writing an essay on environment would be a challenging experience. Environment essay writing deals with current day problems. Environment essays establish the connection between man and the outside world. An environment paper could talk about any burning topic -, climate change for example. Database of FREE environment essays - We have thousands of free essays across a wide range of subject areas. Sample environment essays! Search to find a specific environment essay or browse from the list below: Go back to your writing sample from week one. Remember that it should be written as though for a university assignment.\n\nCookie Info\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7608345746994019}
+{"content": "Bongo an amazing animal\n\nAbout animals| Bongo | The bongo is a reddish-orange hoofed animal with white stripes running vertically along the body of the bongo. The bongo is the one largest species of Antelope and the bongo is generally found grazing in herds in the African forests. The bongo is one of the only animal species in the world of which both the male and female bongo individuals have horns. The horns of the bongo tend to be fairly long and in most cases, slightly spiraled or wavy in appearance. The bongo uses these horns both for defense purposes and in the case of the males, it is believed that the bongo individuals with the largest horns are the dominant male of the bongo herd.\n\nThe bongo is generally found in the more mountainous regions of central Africa, where the bongo inhabits dense woodland and can be found up to an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level. Despite the colourful appearance of the bongo, the bongos white stripes actually aid the bongo in being camouflaged very successfully in the thick forests.\n\nOriginally, bongos were found in three different parts of Africa, East, Central and West. Today all three populations of the bongos ranges have shrunk in size due to habitat loss for agriculture and uncontrolled timber cutting as well as humans hunting the bongo for meat. Despite the fact that the bongo is a solitary animal, the bongo is rarely seen in herd sizes of more than 20 bongo individuals and these herds comprise predominantly of the female bongos with their young.\n\nThe bongo is a nocturnal animal and are generally found grazing the newly sprouting grasses and shrubs in the dead of night which also helps to aid the bongos survival in a land where there are many dominant carnivorous predators.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.98164963722229}
+{"content": "Definitions for \"outstanding check\"\nA valid check which, although possibly already cashed, has not yet been returned...\na check issued by the company and paid by the bank but not yet recorded by the company\nA check written by an entity but not yet presented to the bank for payment. Partnership A business owned by two or more individuals, or a cooperative agreement between a government body and other organizations to provide specific services, as in public-private partnerships.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9927157759666443}
+{"content": "FAQ's questioning\n\n1. How is Strategic Assignments & Intelligence Bureau different from other agencies?\nQuality, Commitment and Focus are the foundations of the Organization’s success that assures its client prompt service, confidentiality and satisfaction.\n\n2. What is the company background & what kind of experience do you have?\nStrategic Assignments & Intelligence Bureau was established in 1993, which consists professionals with an experience of over decades. With this extensive experience, today we can boast of ourselves as “The Fact Finders”\nThe organization has a panel of advisors, who has served in Army & Police Department. The Bureau Chief himself has a practical work experience with “Dubai Police Department” UAE and holds a Diploma in “General Law Enforcement” USA.\n\n3. Do you take cases from all over India?\nCertainly, cases are accepted from every corner of the country. We not only serve nationally, but internationally as well.\n\n4. Can we have a face-to-face consultation?\n Yes. Strategic Assignment & Intelligence Bureau offers a face-to-face consultation in the office or at the place convenient to the client.\n\n5. How much sure am I about the confidentiality of mine and the case?\nConfidentiality of the client & case is the top priority and is maintained at the highest level, as none of the investigator or the operator is provided by the information of the client and minimum information of the case is given to them to execute the assignment.\n\n6. How confidential is the investigation and the reports?\nAs mentioned in question (5), minimum information in regards of the specific assignment is provided to the investigators & operators, every case is handled in a very discreet and professional manner, hence confidentiality of investigation can be maintained at the highest level, next the final reports are kept in the company system for 3 months only after which they are destroyed by default. In case if requested by the client to restore the reports for the future use, the reports are transferred on a CD, which is then stored in a locker, till the client collects it.\n\n7. What type of investigations do you specialize in?\nOrganization specializes in Pre-Post Matrimonial Investigations, Background Checks, Character Reports and Employment Verification, the organization boasts of 98% success rate.\n\n8. How quickly can you start an investigation?\nThe answer is as quickly as the client would like to start; it all depends on how quickly the client signs the contract.\n\n9. How much time does it take to execute the assignment and get the final report?\nHere the time frame is mutually set between the Client & the Planning Department, to execute the assignment and final report in submitted to the client within a week after the completion of the specific assignment given. \n\n10. How much does it cost?\nCharges vary from case to case, hence exact quote can be known after providing the brief of the case to the Client Handling Department. \n\n11. In what form do I receive my report?\nThe report can be in chronological order or in a tabulate form, depending on the assignment and may be collected by the client personally from our office or the same could be sent through courier, registered post, fax or e-mail.\n\n12. How do I pay?\nPayments could be done through Cheque/Demand Draft in favor of Strategic Assignments & Intelligence Bureau. Payments could also be transferred through the bank directly into company’s account.\n\n13. Can I use the evidence in court?\nAs no license is provided to conduct detective services, nor any sort of support is provided by the government, hence it cannot be assured that the reports could be used in the court of law. It all depends upon your lawyer how he/she presents the report.\n\n© Strategic Assignments & Intelligence Bureau 2013.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8372840881347656}
+{"content": "Dr. Lakshmi Venkataraman :\nModerate sodium (common salt) ingestion less than 5 grams per day does not increase risk of heart attack or stroke according to a global study\nMost communities ...\" /> Logo\n\nSalt consumption and the risk of heart attack\n\n\nDr. Lakshmi Venkataraman :\nMost communities in countries in the world (with the exception of China) ingest only moderate amounts of sodium between three to five grams (1.5 to 2.5 teaspoons) daily\nHealth measures to reduce sodium (common salt) consumption must be aimed at communities that have high salt intake\nModerate or average amounts of common salt (sodium) intake does not increase risk of heart attacks or stroke according to a recent international study undertaken by a team of scientists from the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, Canada along with colleagues from 21 countries across the world.\nBesides Canada, data for this research paper was collected and reviewed (from individual as well as community levels) from countries across the world including Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, India, Iran, Malaysia, occupied Palestinian territory, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe.\n'Heart disease risk associated with high salt intake can be overcome by adding fruits, vegetables, potatoes, dairy foods, and other potassium rich foods in the diet'\nThe findings appear in the reputed journalLancet.\nThis international study tracked 94,000 people, between the ages of 35 to 70 years, for an average period of eight years in communities spread across 18 countries around the world.\nData for the current article was sourced from the ongoing 'International Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE)' study conducted by the PHRI. Andrew Mente, first author of this study, a PHRI scientist and also an associate professor of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University.\nThe study found that China is the only country where more than 80 per cent of communities consume common salt or sodium amounting to more than five grams daily.\nMost communities from other countries showed only an average sodium consumption of 3 to 5 grams daily (equivalent to 1.5 to 2.5 teaspoons of salt).\nAccording to Andrew Mente, \"The World Health Organization recommends consumption of less than 2 grams of sodium-that's one teaspoon of salt-a day as a preventative measure against cardiovascular disease, but there is little evidence in terms of improved health outcomes that individuals ever achieve at such a low level. He added that the American Heart Association recommends even less -- 1.5 grams of sodium a day for individuals at risk of heart disease.\nRelationship Between Salt Intake and Heart Disease\nIn countries such as China where the salt consumption was high (more than 5 grams daily), there was a direct relationship between salt intake and adverse heart events like stroke and heart attack\nIn countries where salt intake was moderate (or 3 to 5 grams daily), there was a decreased incidence (inverse relationship) of heart attack and stroke associated with salt consumption\nAll major heart related problems, including death was lower in communities and countries that consumed foods high in potassium such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, dairy foods and potatoes\nThus the findings of the study suggest that moderate amounts of salt (3-5 grams) daily may not adversely affect heart health.\nMartin O'Donnell, co-author of the report, a PHRI researcher and an associate clinical professor of medicine at McMaster suggests that intervention measures to reduce sodium intake should be aimed at communities that consume a lot of salt and should be included as part of overall measures that promote healthy diet\nIn conclusion, there appears to be no definitive evidence that persons who consume average amounts of salt do not need to restrict salt in their diet to reduce their risk of heart attacks or stroke. Additionally consuming a potassium rich diet can decrease heart related problems.\nSource: Medindia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7068949937820435}
+{"content": "China appoint Hiddink to lead Olympic 2020 charge\n\n\nAFP, Shanghai :\n\nHighly respected Dutchman Guus Hiddink was named on Monday as the new coach of China's under-21 football team, tasked with leading the country at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The 71-year-old joins another well-known veteran coach, the Italian World Cup winner Marcello Lippi, in taking a major role in China's aggressive push to finally become a force in international football.\nAnnouncing Hiddink as the under-21s boss, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) said: \"The main task is to go for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. \"In the days to come, under the leadership of Hiddink and his coaching team, the under-21 boys will pursue their Olympic dreams.\" The Dutchman, whose last job was a caretaker spell at Chelsea in 2015-2016, will be paid a little less than four million euros ($4.7 million) a year after tax, Chinese media say.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9528690576553345}
+{"content": "The What Is a Coefficient in Math Cover Up\n\nFurther, it’s a horizontal line. Therefore, there are several terms in the expression. There’s a difference between just what the parser accepts and what’s considered well formed’.\n\nThe Hidden Truth About What Is a Coefficient in Math\n\nIn reality, when anyone means thecorrelation coefficient, they are normally speaking about Pearson’s. cialis soft 120 pills, cialis soft 120 pills, cialis soft 120 pills, cialis soft 120 pills, cialis soft 120 pills, cialis soft 120 pills. It will permit you to check and see whether you experience an understanding of these kinds of problems. Byju’s classes unique direction of solving the maths problem will force you to learn the way the equation was created, which is way superior than memorizing and applying the formula.\n\nThe multiply test is a little more interesting. In more complicated cheap essays math problems, the expressions can secure a bit more involved. Entering your story is simple to do.\n\nThe outcomes are the exact same but the methods are extremely different. The reward of the CV is it is unitless. A discussion on exactly what this graph resembles.\n\nPearson’s correlation between both groups was analyzed. For example, there’s Geometry. In other words, they sound good.\n\nIn the event the sample size isn’t revealed, it can be quite small to result in a statistically significant outcome. In some instances, you’ll be given one factor of a huge expression and you’ll be need to discover the rest of the ones. The expression in the brackets can currently be factored using the decompostion approach.\n\nFor compressors, it’s used in the plan of components and determination of the total operation of the machine. Exterior finishes like siding or stucco, for example, do very little in the method of raising the house’s energy efficiency. Utilizing the ordinary k-value is going to result in performance values which are closer to the true operation of the compressor.\n\nAgain, it’s important to be aware that for practical applications we’d want to use our calculator or statistical software to compute r for us. Today the very best SaaS organizations are scaling faster, so you can observe material results faster. A negative beta isn’t highlighting the simple fact that there’s an absence of risk. however, it usually means that the investment provides a hedge against an unforeseen market downturn.\n\n\nA circle with a bigger diameter will have a bigger circumference. To put it simply, sectional density is the proportion of weight to the width of the bullet. One of the most usual techniques is to find rid of a term on a single side by subtracting it from either side.\n\n\nThe Rise of What Is a Coefficient in Math\n\nThe term with the maximum degree is known as the top term because it is generally written first. As stated by the degree readily available in the unknown term, you will receive values accordingly. If it has the amount of two, it’s frequently referred to as a quadratic.\n\nIf you still have questions after reading the following article, you should check with a seasoned family law. This guide covers the fundamentals of filing for divorce in Maryland. Assume you will discover an investment which promises somewhere between 5% and 10% interest on your funds and you wish to obtain your preferred item in 12 decades.\n\nFinding out how to deal with a linear equation will provide you a simple comprehension of algebra so that you will have the ability to handle more elaborate equations later. buy essay online A polynomial might also be named for its degree. The distributive property also permits us to remove parentheses.\n\nDecomposition Method Many individuals may discover how to factor by employing trial and error, but this may be hard to grasp and is difficult to explain. If you’re interested with the mathematical significance of a multiple regression, the start of the video (05 min) will provide you with the basic information which you will need. Cycle times are very important too.\n\nThis change in scope is suitable. There are a few restrictions on the properties of the worldwide object. There are times that you’ve limited control.\n\n\nThe aim was to figure out the evolutionary potential of the rice. Pause the video here if you want more time, otherwise, keep going! Should you do a search on the phrase learning objective, you’re likely to discover a lot of partially overlapping definitions and at times contradictory ones.\n\nLies You’ve Been Told About What Is a Coefficient in Math\n\nIn the latest instance, a soft memory error seems to be the culprit. Repeat the process until you crash out of columns to add. Otherwise, if there’s no write to the exact same byte that happens before Rbyte, Rbyte returns undef for this byte.\n\n\nThe last term doesn’t have any explicitly written coefficient, but is thought to have coefficient 1, since multiplying by that factor wouldn’t alter the expression. At times, however the 3 coefficients may not all be present, or there may be a few simplification required. The coefficient of the major term is known as the leading coefficient.\n\nThe info given by means of a correlation coefficient isn’t enough to define the dependence structure between random variables. There’s clearly a positive relationship between these 2 securities. To understand the outcome of the correlation coefficient formula, you have to comprehend what the values mean.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.952569842338562}
+{"content": "Netanyahu Thanks Israel's Supporters\n\nPrime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's greeting in honor of Israel’s 64th Independence Day: We are unique in having such passionate friends.\n\nElad Benari,\n\n\nPrime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a special greeting on Wednesday, in honor of Israel’s 64th Independence Day.\n\n“Israel’s Independence Day is a time for us to consider what makes Israel truly unique,” said Netanyahu. “Israel is unique in restoring sovereignty and the capacity for self-defense to a people that had been stateless and powerless for 2,000 years.\n\n“Israel is unique in ingathering to an ancestral homeland an exiled people who had been scattered around the globe,” he added. “Israel is unique in having become a global technological power despite the fact that we face threats faced by no other nation on earth.\n\n\n“But Israel is unique in one other important way,” stressed Netanyahu. “We are unique in having such passionate friends, Jews and non-Jews alike, for whom the well-being, security and future of our country is so important.\n\n“This passionate support, along with Israel’s strong army, free economy and dynamic society is the pillar of our national strength,” he said, “and this Independence Day I want to thank the tens of millions of friends of Israel around the world for their unwavering support for the one and only Jewish State.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5193309783935547}
+{"content": "Psychic Force\n\nVarious explanations of the power employed by the spirits, assisted by\n\nthe medium and by the circle, have been offered by the scientific\n\ninvestigators of the subject. The most generally accepted theory of the\n\nwestern scientists is that the spirits employ what is called the\n\n\"psychic force\" of the medium, often assisted by that drawn from the\n\ncircle and focused in the medium. The medium is regarded as a psychic\n\nstorage battery which is freely drawn upon by the manifesting spirit.\n\nThe degree and character of the manifestations are determined largely by\n\nthe peculiar quality of the psychic force, the capabilities of the\n\nmedium, the knowledge and powers of the spirits, and the influence of\n\nthe sitters.\n\nPsychic Detective Work Psychic Influence At A Distance facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedinmail", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9391880631446838}
+{"content": "Shri Datta Swami\n\nPosted on: 16 Jun 2015\n\n\n\n[Padanamaskaram Swami, Shri Kishore ram asked the following questions:\n\nI have couple of queries on discourses,\n\nQ1. I am confused between Maya and Mula Maya. In some discourses Swami mentioned God/Parabrahman is charged only with Pure Awareness which is Mula Maya and is totally absent/not charged in Maya. But in Divine Discourse - 3, Swami mentioned the unimaginable God is charged both in Mula Maya (Brahman) and Maya (Ishwara). Can you please clarify the confusion?\n\nQ2. What is the need for Unimaginable god to exist/charge in Mula Maya? If suppose, Mula Maya not charged with Parabrahman what will happen? Will Maya exist?\n\nQ3. In Vedas it is mentioned, For God the creation is like a day dream so it is his imagination. Then, is there anything real for God other than himself?-Anil]\n\nSwami replied: [reply of 1&2] Parabrahman is the original unimaginable God. This unimaginable God wished to create this world for entertainment as per the Veda. This wish is the source of creation. The creation or the world is Maya (Mayamtu prakrutim... Gita). Mula maya means the source (Mula) of this world (Maya). The unimaginable God associated with the original wish to create this world is called as Brahman. In the absence of Mula maya, we cannot understand anything about the unimaginable God. But, now we are able to understand God through the medium of wish or awareness. The three sacred preachers (Shankara, Ramananuja and Madhva) started the philosophy from the point of Brahman only because the devotee should understand God when the word God is uttered. If they start from the unimaginable God, who cannot be understood at all, the philosophy cannot proceed further. Knowledge to start with knowable item only. If you start with unknowable item, the beginning itself starts with ignorance. Therefore, the original pure God is unimaginable and unknowable, who did not have any wish.\n\nThis original wish is no doubt awareness. Awareness is only process or work and is not an item. When you are walking, you cannot say that yourself and walking are two different items. The process of walking is generated and maintained by you during walk. The walk disappears when you stop walking. Therefore, walk is only relative item and not an absolute item equal to walker (God) in existence. The unfortunate misunderstanding in this point is to treat the awareness as the same awareness that exists in this world. The wish of God is as good as any wish in this world. But, the generation, maintenance (awaken) and dissolution (deep sleep) of the wish or awareness observed in the world is based on the function of nervous system with the help of nervous energy. The stage of Mula maya before the creation of the world does not allow the matter (nerves) and energy (work or function of nerves). Matter and energy are the parts of the world or maya. Mula Maya exists before creation of the world and hence Mula maya exists without matter and energy. Hence, Mula maya is unimaginable in its background. Since Mula maya has relative existence only, you need not worry about mula maya to become a second unimaginable item. Mula maya is also maya in the sense that both are relatively existent and do not exist in absolute sense (Ya maa). Maya also means wonderful since it is different from existent and non-existent. There is no mutual contradiction because the existence is negligible and can be treated as almost non-existent. The conclusion is that the unimaginable God can wish even though the functioning nervous system does not exist in Him and thus, such wish is wonderful. The human being wishes due to the existence of functioning nervous system in him. In both, the resulting product (wish or awareness) is one and the same. Ash can be generated in a factory. The same ash is also generated by a divine person by moving the hand. Ash is one and the same in both cases. But, there is lot of difference in the background. Due to oneness in the products, you should not say that there is oneness in the backgrounds also. The unimaginable God can wish due to His unimaginable nature even without the presence of functioning nervous system. Due to oneness in the wish, both the backgrounds are misunderstood as one. God wishes and the human being also wishes. The confusion is that since both the wishes are one in nature, God and human being are also one! The confused Advaita says that the factory and divine person are one and the same since both created the same ash. The Vedic statement that says that God is exceptional knowledge (Prajnanam) means that God comes in human form to preach the exceptional knowledge. Here also, the exceptional knowledge is reduced to mere awareness and thus, even a foolish human being or animal also is treated as God. Awareness can be also taken in the initial stage to mean that God does not come in inert form. But, you should not stop there since exceptional knowledge is not mere crude awareness. You have to proceed further that God comes in human form having knowledge and should proceed further that God comes as a specific human being having exceptional knowledge. A special jewel (exceptional knowledge) is not an ordinary jewel (normal knowledge) and ordinary jewel is not the crude lump of gold (awareness). You can take these three steps as the steps of specific address. Mumbai (awareness), name of the street (normal knowledge) and house number – (exceptional knowledge) are the three ascending steps with increased specification. The first step (Mumbai) denies that the city is not Delhi. Similarly the awareness denies the inert form. Here, the careful and patient analysis is essential. Otherwise, any one slips in understanding the actual Advaita of Shankara and confused Advaita of the followers.\n\nMula maya is the cause and maya is effect. The effect contains the nature of the cause as the background and projects a different nature. Mud is the cause and pot is the effect. As soon as you see the pot, the specific shape attracts you and the hardness of mud stands in the background. Similarly, the unimaginable nature of the background of Mula Maya stands as the background of the creation (world) also and imaginable nature is projected externally. Maya is relatively existent with respect to mula maya. Mula maya is relatively existent with respect to unimaginable God. The imaginable world (maya) is relatively existent with respect to its source i.e., mind or awareness (mula maya). In human being, Mula maya is the ultimate background, which has no further background for it. In this world, mula maya is relatively existent with respect to the unimaginable God and God is the ultimate background. The real world and the imaginary world are thus totally different from the view of ultimate basis. In the imaginable world, the items are linked to each other and links are imaginable. The link between the unimaginable God and the imaginable nature of mula maya and further the imaginable world is also unimaginable since the link between imaginable and unimaginable does not exist in the imaginable world for the sake of understanding. The process of generation of ash by the divine person is imaginable. The association of unimaginable God (as ruler) with maya (as the ruled world) is taken as Eshwara.\n\nMaya or the world is not charged by the unimaginable God because the unimaginable God exists beyond this world. God enters a human being to become human incarnation and this is exception and is different from the above concept since God enters the human being by His will. If God exists everywhere in this world due to the concept of cause and effect (mud exists everywhere in the pot), God becomes imaginable world and His such pervasion is bound by the concept of cause and effect and not by His free will. Hence, God is not pervading in this world. The Veda says that no part of this world is God (neti neti). Hence, Maya is not charged by the unimaginable God. But, in the case of mula maya, the wish is charged by God since it is directly generated from God. Maya is directly generated from mula maya and hence maya can be said as indirectly generated from God. The same Brahman (unimaginable God charging the awareness or wish) becomes Eshwara to rule the imaginable maya. Eshwara means the possessor of maya (Mayinam tu... Gita). The unimaginable God charges mula maya to be called as Brahman. Such charged awareness is the mediated God and is taken as the starting point called as Brahman. Since Brahman becomes Eshwara, the unimaginable God exists in both Brahman and Eshwara. The unimaginable God with the wish to create the world is Brahman and the same Brahman to rule the created world projected from mula maya is called as Eshwara. Hence, it is justified to say that the unimaginable God charges both Brahman and Eshwara. This does not mean that the unimaginable God charges the maya. Mula maya is also imaginable as wish but unimaginable in the background since its background is the unimaginable God. Maya is imaginable since its background is mula maya, which has the imaginable nature as wish. Therefore, maya and mula maya are similar in the imaginable nature. The difference is that mula maya is directly backed by the unimaginable God and maya is directly backed by mula maya. If you leave this difference in the backgrounds, mula maya is often termed as maya in view of the common imaginable nature. On this basis only two items are mentioned: 1) The unimaginable God as the Creator called as Brahman (awareness charged by unimaginable God for the sake of introducing God as the starting point) and 2) Maya as the creation. The basic subject does not change due to change in the adopted nomenclatures.\n\n3) Mula maya or the awareness is the cause and the world is just imaginary world with respect to God emerging from His awareness. The difference between the real world and the awareness of God is exactly similar to the difference between the imaginary world and the awareness of the human being. The human being is a part of the imaginary world of the God. The imaginary world of human being is different from the real world of God. The human being is not God because the real world of God can never become the imaginary world of human being. The real world is said to be a day dream or imaginary world of God because the ignorance cannot exist with God like the ignorance of the human being in the night dream. You should always differentiate the awareness of human being and the awareness of the God based on the backgrounds and should not treat both as one and the same based on their imaginable natures. If this one precaution is preserved, there is no confusion. The king speaks. You also speak. Based on the common oneness of the processes of the speech, you cannot be the king.\n\nThis article is meant for intellectuals only\n\n\n\nVisitor Statistics\n\nfree hit counters\n\nCopyright: © 2003–2019 Shri Datta Swami", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.897851288318634}
+{"content": "VW Touran manuals\n\nVolkswagen Touran Service Manual: Safety Precautions\n\nGeneral Safety Precautions\n\nAs per VBG 20, German industrial liability insurance association.\nFollow the instructions for the workplace. They should be displayed in the workplace.\n\nProduct Characteristics\n\nRefrigerants used in motor vehicle air conditioning systems belong to the new generation of refrigerants based on chlorine-free, partially fluorinated hydrocarbons (H-FKW, R134a).\nWith regard to their physical properties, these are refrigerants which have been liquefied under pressure. They are subject to the regulations governing pressure vessels and use is only to be made of approved and appropriately marked containers.\nCompliance with specific conditions is required to ensure safe and proper use.\n\nHandling Refrigerant\n\nThere is a danger of ice-up.\nThe refrigerant can then escape as a fluid or vapor.\nDo not open containers which store refrigerant.\nIf refrigerant vessels are opened, the contents may escape in liquid or vapor form. This process is intensified the higher the pressure in the vessel.\nThe pressure level is governed by two factors:\nThe type of refrigerant in the vessel. \"The lower the boiling point, the higher the pressure.\"\nThe temperature level. \"The higher the temperature, the higher the pressure.\"\n\nProtective Eyewear\n\nPut on protective goggles. They prevent refrigerant getting into the eyes, as this could cause severe injury from exposure to cold.\n\nProtective Gloves and Clothing\n\nGreases and oils dissolve readily in refrigerants. They would therefore destroy the protective layer of grease if allowed to come into contact with the skin. Degreased skin is however sensitive to the cold and germs.\n\nFluid Refrigerant and Skin Precaution\n\nThe refrigerant draws heat for evaporation from the surrounding area. Even if this is the skin. This may cause extremely low temperatures. Local frost bite may result (boiling point of R134a: -26.5 C (-15.7 F) at ambient pressure).\n\nDo Not Breath In Refrigerant Vapor\n\nIf highly concentrated refrigerant vapor escapes, it mixes with the surrounding air and displaces the oxygen necessary for breathing.\n\nSmoking Hazard\n\nA burning cigarette can cause refrigerant to decompose. The resultant substances are toxic and must not be inhaled.\n\nWelding and Soldering on Refrigeration Systems\n\nThe products of refrigerant decomposition due to the effect of heat are not only toxic, but may also have a highly corrosive effect on pipes and system components. They mainly take the form of hydrogen fluoride.\n\nPungent Odor\n\nA pungent odor indicates that the products of decomposition mentioned above have already formed. Avoid inhaling these substances under all circumstances, as otherwise the respiratory system, lungs and other organs could be damaged.\n\nFirst Aid\n\nFollowing contact with eyes or mucous membranes, immediately rinse with copious amounts of running water and consult an eye specialist.\nFollowing contact with the skin, immediately remove affected clothing and rinse skin with copious amounts of water.\nFollowing inhalation of highly concentrated refrigerant vapors, immediately take the affected person into the open air. Call a doctor. Administer oxygen in the event of breathing difficulties. If the affected person has difficulty breathing or cannot breathe, tip head back and perform mouth to mouth respiration.\n\nHandling Pressure Vessels\n\nSecure vessels to prevent them falling over!\nDo not throw vessels!\nIf dropped, the vessels could be so severely deformed that they rupture. The refrigerant evaporates immediately, liberating considerable force. Flying fragments of cylinders can cause severe injuries.\nValves may break off if cylinders are not properly transported. To protect the valves, cylinders are only to be transported with protective cap screwed on.\nNever store in the vicinity of radiators.\nHigh temperatures may occur next to radiators. High temperatures are also accompanied by high pressures and the maximum permissible vessel pressure may be exceeded.\n\nNot Warming Above 50 C (122 F)\n\nTo avoid possible risk, pressure vessel regulations specify that vessels are not to be heated to in excess of 50 C (122 F).\n\nHeating Warning\n\nDo not heat with a naked flame under any circumstances. Localized overheating can cause structural changes in the vessel material, which then reduce its ability to withstand pressure. There is also a danger of refrigerant decomposition due to localized overheating.\n\nEmpty Containers\n\nEmpty refrigerant vessels must always be sealed to prevent the ingress of moisture. Moisture causes steel vessels to corrode. This weakens the vessel walls. In addition, rust particles entering into refrigeration systems from vessels will cause malfunctioning.\n\nExtraction and Charging System Safety Regulations\n\nIn case of fire, remove the external cylinder.\n    A/C System Operation\n\n    A/C System and Refrigerant R134a Safety Precautions\n\n    Other materials:\n\n    Volkswagen Touran Owners Manual. Opening or closing the windows electrically\n    Fig. 32 In the driver door: buttons for the front and rear electric windows and the safety button. Fig. 33 In the driver door: Buttons for the front and rear electric windows and buttons for the electrical childproof lock First read and observe the introductory information and safety war ...\n\n    Volkswagen Touran Service Manual. Component Overview\n\n    © 2016-2019 Copyright www.vwtouran.net | 0.0059", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7020108699798584}
+{"content": "Car driving movies and TV shows\n\nThe list contains the best, new and most relevant car driving movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out serious, suspenseful, realistic, rough, tense and disturbing films and TV shows about / with car driving, murder, danger, violence, death, car, blood, deadly, brutality and female nudity plots mostly in Drama, Thriller and Crime genres shot in USA, Germany, Italy and other countries.\ncar driving\ncar driving movies\nTOP 10 movies tagged as car driving: 30 Miles (2004), 303 (2018), Taxi for Tobruk (1961), Street Trash (1987), Splendor in the Grass (1961), Rolling Thunder (1977), Never on Tuesday (1989), Hardcore (1979), Friday the 13th (1980), Class of 1984 (1982).\n\nList of car driving movies\n\n30 Miles (2004)\nGenre: Drama\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 80 min.\nStyle: realistic, serious, suspenseful, tense\nPlot: desert, car driving, hollywood, mind game, down on your luck, interracial relations, crimes, on the road, murder, deadly, racism\nTime: contemporary\nPlace: usa, las vegas, nevada\nIs relevant ?\nThe Paranormal Diaries: Clophill (2013)\nGenre: Horror\nCountry: UK\nDuration: 88 min.\nStyle: scary, suspenseful, serious, dark\nPlot: church, danger, wizards and magicians, ghost, zombie, village, deadly, supernatural, escapades, curses spells and rituals, village life, looking at the camera ...\nTime: contemporary, 21st century\nPlace: england\nIs relevant ?\n303 (2018)\nGenre: Comedy, Drama, Romance\nCountry: Germany\nDuration: 145 min.\nStory: On the way from Berlin to Portugal in her rusty '303' camper van, young biology student Jule picks up hitchhiker Jan. While having intense conversations about everything and the world, they try not to fall in love.\nStyle: road movie\nPlot: conversation, road trip, hitchhiker, ocean, german, sex scene, car, caravan, violence, love, trip, car driving ...\nTime: 2010s\nPlace: germany, europe\nIs relevant ?\nTaxi for Tobruk (1961)\nGenre: Drama, War\nCountry: France, Spain, West Germany\nDuration: 95 min.\nStyle: exciting, realistic, serious, suspenseful, rough ...\nPlot: desert, friendship, battles, danger, hostages, unlikely partners, military, soldier, adventure, confined, escapades, war ...\nTime: 40s, year 1942\nPlace: libya, africa, paris france\nIs relevant ?\nRelated movie lists\nStreet Trash (1987)\nGenre: Comedy, Horror\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 91 min.\nStyle: disturbing, offbeat, rough, scary, humorous ...\nAudience: teens\nPlot: toxic, store, liquor store, body horror, alcohol, vietnam veteran, shoplifting, castration, junkyard, gory, contamination, zombie ...\nTime: 80s\nIs relevant ?\nSplendor in the Grass (1961)\nGenre: Drama, Romance\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 124 min.\nStyle: emotional, sexual, realistic, sentimental, captivating ...\nAudience: girls' night, date night, teens\nPlot: coming of age, small town, forbidden love, promiscuity, basketball, small town life, unrequited love, stock market crash, sexual repression, romance, repression, teenage love ...\nTime: 1920s, 20s, 20th century, 1930s, 1950s\nPlace: kansas, usa, yale university, connecticut, california\nIs relevant ?\nRolling Thunder (1977)\nGenre: Crime, Drama, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 95 min.\nAudience: boys' night\nPlot: vengeance, vigilantism, murder, violence, homecoming, vietnam veteran, crime, human nature, death wish, deadly, buddies, rivalry ...\nPlace: vietnam, asia, texas, mexico, california ...\nIs relevant ?\nNever on Tuesday (1989)\nGenre: Comedy, Drama\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 90 min.\nStyle: sexy, offbeat, humorous, semi serious, realistic\nAudience: teens\nPlot: desert, adolescence vs adulthood, gays and lesbians, escapades, adventure, looking for sex, nothing goes right, on the road, youth, couples, partners, disorder ...\nTime: 80s, 20th century\nPlace: california, usa, ohio\nIs relevant ?\nHardcore (1979)\nGenre: Crime, Drama\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 108 min.\nStyle: psychological, realistic, serious, suspenseful, suspense ...\nPlot: pornography, private detective, runaway, perversion, neo noir, bondage, missing person, father, daughter, missing child, sleazy, love and romance ...\nTime: 70s, 20th century\nPlace: michigan, california, los angeles, usa, san diego california ...\nIs relevant ?\nFriday the 13th (1980)\nGenre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 95 min.\nStyle: suspenseful, scary, rough, suspense, sadistic ...\nAudience: teens\nPlot: slasher, murder, camp, serial killer, revenge, maniac, danger, teenager, fear, axe, lake, gory ...\nTime: 20th century, 70s, 1950s, 80s\nPlace: usa, new jersey\nIs relevant ?\nClass of 1984 (1982)\nGenre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller\nCountry: Canada\nDuration: 98 min.\nStyle: disturbing, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, serious ...\nAudience: teens, kids\nPlot: gang, high school, juvenile delinquency, vengeance, vigilante, school, punk, teacher, drug dealing, music teacher, murder, death wish ...\nTime: 80s, future, 20th century\nPlace: usa\nIs relevant ?\nThe Mad Dog Killer (1977)\nGenre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller\nCountry: Italy\nDuration: 91 min.\nStyle: realistic, rough, disturbing, exciting, serious ...\nAudience: boys' night\nPlot: psychopath, heist, gang, murder, rape, dangerous animal, crimes, hostages, law enforcement, gory, criminal's revenge, deadly ...\nTime: 70s\nPlace: italy\nIs relevant ?\nRelated movie lists\nSouth Wind (2018)\nGenre: Crime, Drama, Thriller\nCountry: Serbia\nDuration: 130 min.\nPlot: car theft, running from police, crime scene, corrupt police, face wound, drive by shooting, smuggling, police brutality, dying young, pregnancy, dildo, firearm ...\nPlace: belgrade, serbia, bulgaria\nIs relevant ?\nHell House LLC (2015)\nGenre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 93 min.\nStyle: dark\nPlot: mannequin, cellar, darkness, found footage, telephone, cell phone, halloween, handheld camera, violence, brutality, basement, bible ...\nTime: 2000s\nIs relevant ?\nNoroi: The Curse (2005)\nGenre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller\nCountry: Japan\nDuration: 115 min.\nStyle: scary, tense, serious, disturbing, dark\nPlot: ghost, investigation, curse, dark secret, journalist, disappearance, occult, found footage, danger, demon, uncover truth, paranormal phenomena ...\nTime: 21st century, contemporary, 2000s\nPlace: japan, asia\nIs relevant ?\nSay When (2014)\nGenre: Comedy, Drama, Romance\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 99 min.\nStyle: humorous, romantic, entertaining, sweet, realistic ...\nAudience: girls' night, teens, chick flick\nPlot: friendship, unlikely couple, love and romance, coming of age, parent child relationship, teenager, single father, life turned upside down, female protagonist, runaway, fall in love, adolescence vs adulthood ...\nTime: 21st century, contemporary\nPlace: usa, new jersey, california\nIs relevant ?\nHit and Run (2009)\nGenre: Horror, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 84 min.\nStyle: suspenseful, serious, scary, suspense\nPlot: hit and run, murder, psychopath, vengeance, deadly, gory, teenage life, danger, youth, investigation, rivalry, college ...\nTime: contemporary\nIs relevant ?\nRush (2013)\nGenre: Action, Biography, Drama, Sport\nCountry: UK, Germany, USA\nDuration: 123 min.\nStyle: exciting, captivating, suspense, tense, factual ...\nAudience: boys' night\nPlot: car race, sport, rise to the top, rivalry, world champion, ambition, athlete's life, uninhibited rivalry, rising to stardom, desire for fame, contests and competitions, human spirit ...\nTime: 70s, 20th century, year 1986, year 1975, year 1970 ...\nPlace: europe, south africa, new york, austria, italy ...\nIs relevant ?\nRelated movie lists\nLuis & the Aliens (2018)\nCountry: Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark\nDuration: 86 min.\nStyle: entertaining, humorous, fairy tale, funny, feel good\nAudience: kids, family outing, preschoolers\nPlot: alien, boy, alien contact, father son relationship, ufo, birthday, social services, small town, mad scientist, child custody, neighbor, cake ...\nIs relevant ?\nTehran Taboo (2017)\nGenre: Animation, Drama\nCountry: Germany, Austria\nDuration: 96 min.\nPlot: taboo, drugs, musician, judge, female nudity, shower, prison, virginity, car accident, playing piano, bare breasts, female protagonist ...\nPlace: tehran iran, iran\nIs relevant ?\nOne Hundred Steps (2000)\nGenre: Biography, Crime, Drama\nCountry: Italy\nDuration: 114 min.\nStory: The story of Peppino Impastato, a political activist who opposed the Mafia in Sicily. One hundred steps was the number of steps it took to get from the Impastato house to the house of the Mafia boss Tano Badalamenti.\nStyle: realistic, bleak, serious, sincere, rough ...\nPlot: radio, communism, assassination, rebellion, gangsters, deadly, fighting the system, dishonesty, radio show, idealism, small town, crime ...\nTime: 70s, 20th century\nPlace: italy, sicily, europe, sicily italy\nIs relevant ?\nKilling American Style (1988)\nGenre: Action, Crime, Thriller\nCountry: USA, Canada\nDuration: 101 min.\nStory: A gang of hot headed brutes lead by Tony Stone and sexual sadist John Lynch execute a robbery with some inside help. A bloody shoot-out with the LAPD ensues and the criminals are apprehended. After a brief stint in the slammer, the gang escapes a ...\nPlot: home invasion, schlock, hostage, scantily clad female, voyeur, murder, brutality, female stockinged legs, pantyhose, bare breasts, sex, sadism ...\nIs relevant ?\nEscape to Nowhere (1973)\nGenre: Drama, Thriller\nCountry: France, Italy\nDuration: 117 min.\nStyle: rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, exciting\nAudience: boys' night\nPlot: kgb, espionage, frame up, manhunt, state affairs, escapades, chases and races, heroes, dishonesty, political intrigue, rebellion, undercover ...\nTime: 20th century, 70s\nPlace: russia, england, london, geneva switzerland, alps\nIs relevant ?\nRelated movie lists\nroom movies\njoy movies\nscare movies\nwrath movies\nThe Conjuring (2013)\nGenre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 112 min.\nStyle: scary, suspenseful, dark, psychological, atmospheric ...\nAudience: teens\nPlot: supernatural, haunted house, ghost, paranormal activity, danger, witch, seance, riddles and clues, paranormal investigation, exorcism, haunted by the past, investigation ...\nTime: 20th century, 21st century, 70s, contemporary, 1960s ...\nPlace: rhode island, usa, new england\nIs relevant ?\nVanishing Point (2015)\nGenre: Drama\nCountry: Thailand\nDuration: 100 min.\nPlot: eating, monk, traffic accident, car accident, newspaper, butterfly, car driving, smoking, crime scene\nTime: year 1983\nPlace: thailand\nIs relevant ?\nCatching Faith (2015)\nGenre: Drama, Family, Sport\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 88 min.\nStyle: light, christian film\nAudience: teen drama\nPlot: faith, loss of father, american flag, flowers, death, lipstick, death of father, love, police, office, african american, scarf ...\nTime: 2010s\nPlace: usa, america, wisconsin\nIs relevant ?\nR.O.T.O.R. (1987)\nGenre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 90 min.\nStyle: semi serious, suspenseful, offbeat, futuristic, surprise ending\nPlot: disorder, heroes, terminator, imaginary, experiment gone awry, androids and robots, technology gone awry, law enforcement, society, chaos, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, explosion ...\nPlace: dallas texas\nIs relevant ?\nLove Is Colder Than Death (1969)\nGenre: Comedy, Crime\nCountry: West Germany\nDuration: 88 min.\nStyle: realistic, serious, bleak, suspenseful, rough ...\nPlot: prostitute, hitman, betrayal, bank, deadly, dishonesty, heist, crime, social misfits, low lives, criminal heroes, life is a bitch ...\nTime: 60s, 1960s\nPlace: munich germany\nIs relevant ?\nOccult (2009)\nGenre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller\nCountry: Japan\nDuration: 110 min.\nStyle: psychological, rough, scary, suspenseful, twists and turns ...\nPlot: investigation, supernatural, parallel world, gory, deadly, imaginary, crimes, mystery, accident, corpse, blood splatter, cell phone ...\nTime: contemporary, 21st century\nPlace: tokyo, japan, asia\nIs relevant ?\nTerminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)\nGenre: Action, Sci-Fi\nCountry: USA\nDuration: 137 min.\nStyle: exciting, suspenseful, suspense, tense, serious ...\nAudience: boys' night\nPlot: man versus machine, androids and robots, killer robot, time travel, lone hero, manhunt, terminator, chase, artificial intelligence, save the world, future dystopia, fictional war ...\nTime: future, 20th century, 90s, twentieth century, 1990s ...\nPlace: los angeles, usa, california\nIs relevant ?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5036522150039673}
+{"content": "\n\nYou can check out some of those posts here.\n\nCult of Pedagogy | If You Teach At-Risk Kids, You Need This Book (Hint: It’s not Ruby Payne) \n\nArt of Coaching | Making Connections: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain \n\nAs I’ve been sharing with other audiences, I realized that one key message I’d like teachers to take from the book is that culturally responsive teaching is much more manageable than you’re lead to believe.\n\nOne of the biggest challenges I see teachers struggle with when first embracing this approach is trying to operationalize it in their classrooms. They worry that they have to learn 19 different cultures – their customs, holidays, foods, and language. This simply isn’t true. The other instinct is to reduce it to a set of checklists for each culture as a way to make it manageable.\n\nBut you can’t reduce it to a checklist because cultural responsiveness is more of a process than a strategy. The process begins when a teacher recognizes the cultural capital and tools students of color bring to the classroom. She then responds positively by noticing, naming and affirming when students use them in the service of learning. The teacher is “responsive” when she is able to mirror these cultural ways of learning in her instruction, using similar strategies and tools to scaffold learning.\n\nHere are three easy starting points to help make the process  more manageable.\n\nOrganize around the principles of collectivism\n\n A key organizing principle of culturally responsive teaching is collectivism – a focus on group interdependence, harmony, and collaborative work. In the United States, the dominant culture is individualistic. We celebrate people who “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”. We have a strong focus on competition and becoming the “top dog.” On the other hand, collectivism can be summed up in the African proverb, “I am because we are.” We recognize that individualism and collectivism exist on a continuum. Some cultures are individualistic with little or no collectivistic elements, while others might be primarily collectivistic with strong elements of individualism.   Turns out that the culture of many African American, Latino, Pacific Islander, and Native American, and Asian communities leans more toward collectivism, also called communalism.\n\nI don’t want to stereotype cultures into an oversimplified frame but instead want to offer the archetypes of collectivism and individualism as a way of understanding the general cultural orientation that connects diverse students in the classroom. Keep in mind that how collectivism is expressed across communities varies. What might be acceptable in one collectivist-oriented community might not be acceptable in another. What does stay the same is the focus on relationships and cooperative learning. It is simply a starting point for building on the shared culture of your students.\n\nReframe teacher-student interactions, especially cross-cultural relationships with diverse students.\n\nIn a collectivist, community-based culture, relationships are the foundation of all social, political, and cognitive endeavors. In the culturally responsive classroom, we need a less authoritative relationship with students and more of a learning partnership that supports them to take ownership of their learning.\n\nThe learning partnership is made up of three components that work together to turn this unshakeable belief into reality. Think of it as an equation: rapport + alliance = cognitive insight. Each part of the learning partnership is essential.\n\nEach phase acts as a steppingstone to the next. You can’t ignore one and expect to develop the others.\n\nFirst, building rapport focuses on establishing an authentic emotional connection with students that builds trust. Neuroscience tells us the brain feels safest and relaxed when we are connected to others we trust to treat us well. It responds to this connection by secreting oxytocin, called the bonding hormone. Oxytocin acts as ”affective glue” that creates a unique student-teacher bond.\n\nIn the alliance phase, we use this emotional connection and trust to come together as a team of two to tackle a specific learning challenge. The student and teacher each agrees to bring their will and skill to the effort. Because there’s trust, the teacher can raise the bar and “push” the student into his zone of proximal development without having the student withdraw, become defensive, or disengage. It’s in this phase that we help students acquire the tools to grow an academic mindset and become independent learners. This alliance sets the stage for cognitive insight.\n\nCognitive insight is about making the invisible visible so the teacher is able to get a better understanding of the student’s thinking routines and learning moves. When diverse students feel unheard, unseen and unaffirmed, they often go through the motions of “doing school” while hiding their cognitive capacity. When there’s rapport and alliance, the student allows himself to be vulnerable and reveal what is getting in the way of his learning. In the process, the student becomes more aware of his own learning moves and can begin directing his learning.\n\nIn this phase, both the teacher and student will gain a better sense of the student’s particular learning strengths, content misconceptions, and challenge areas. Too often, teachers try to figure out a student’s learning process based on test scores or other types of assessments, but these things don’t offer any real understanding of the student’s learning moves. Getting low performing learners to be open and vulnerable enough to show you their learning moves begins with deep trust.\n\nIntegrate their cultural learning tools into your instructional repertoire.\n\nOne of the most important aspects of culturally responsive teaching is expanding low performing students’ ability to process information effectively through cognitive routines. The goal is to get students to turn inert information into useable knowledge. Train yourself to recognize the cultural learning tools students bring to school. Too often we miss them. For example, when diverse students come from oral traditions, the most common cultural tools for processing information utilize the brain’s memory systems – music, repetition, metaphor, recitation, physical manipulation of content, and story. Many popular instructional techniques like Marzano’s non-linguistic representations or graphic organizers that call for a “non-example” are based on this idea of engaging the brain’s natural tendencies to process new content actively.\n\nThere’s nothing magical or mysterious about culturally responsive teaching. We have to pull back the curtain and help teachers develop a better understanding of the principles and processes that undergird it. If we want to maximize its potential then we have to make it a priority for our individual and collective professional learning.\n\nIf you are interested in learning more making it manageable, get Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain and read it with colleagues. If you want to go deeper, sign-up for my 6-week virtual boot camp on culturally responsive teaching coming in late March 2015.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9832237362861633}
+{"content": "Home: A Human Project With Many Meanings\n\nHighclere Castle, used for the exterior filming of Downton Abbey. By JB + UK Planet. Wikimedia Commons.\n\nRecently I’ve been indulging in early episodes of Downton Abbey. I confess my fascination with the fictional exploits of aristocrats (and the servants who answer their bells) in a sprawling Yorkshire country home that looms large as a character.\n\n“I’ve given my life to Downton,” gruffs The Lord Grantham to his mother in the second episode of the Masterpiece Theatre series. “I claim no career beyond the nurture of the house and the estate. It is my third parent and my fourth child.”\n\nFrom English estates that have been passed down through generations to Navajo hogans that must be departed when someone dies there, humans have arranged a variety of dwelling places with many meanings. Archaeologist Jerry D. Moore explores their rich permutations in The Prehistory of Home (University of California Press).\n\nNavajo hogan.\nPhoto by PRA. CC By-SA 3.0\n\nWhile a number of animal species construct shelters for themselves, only human lodgings take different forms based upon factors such as social status, cost, style, and symbol, writes Moore, a professor of anthropology at California State University-Dominguez Hills. “In adddition to their basic and fundamental function of providing shelter from natural elements, dwellings are powerful and complex concentrates of human existence. More than passive backdrops to human actions, our dwellings reflect and shape our lives.”\n\nWhen this business of home-making began is a question that archaeologists have struggled to address. To do so, they must interpret fragmentary or scarce evidence of occupation, from postholes to baked-clay hearths to debris from everyday activities, Moore explains. “Between about 1.4 and 0.7 million years ago, hominids created the sites we can recognize as temporary encampments,” he writes. “More anchored than chimpanzee or gorilla nests, these sites were places of arrival and returns, locations where our ancestors made stone tools and cooked over ancient fires.”\n\nIt was only later, when humans began to stay in one place for longer periods of time, Moore surmises, that homes became imbued with symbolic meaning. In one, comparatively recent example, he writes about the circular, domed Navajo hogan, which first appeared in the American Southwest about three centuries ago. Even as construction materials and size have changed over time, the hogan still serves as both “a domestic space and a sacred space.”\n\nHere’s an excerpt:\n\nThe east-facing door receives the first blessings of dawn-light. The southern side of the hogan is the male side and the north side is female. The western side is the seat of honor allocated to singers and shamans …\n\nWhile there are specific spatial associations within the hogan–men should move to the left, women to the right–there are no internal divisions. Just as the Navajo recognizes the distinctive but intertwined realms of male and female in the cosmos, the hogan reflects the unity of differences …\n\nThe hogan is a living space and a space that lives. Ritually sanctified during its construction, hogans are alive and must be blessed and fed. Alternatively bad fortune and death contaminate the hogan, sometimes irreversibly. If someone dies in the hogan, the house is abandoned and avoided. The corpse is removed through a hole chopped in the north or west wall, instead of through the east-facing doorway. A hogan where someone has died is a “ghost hogan” or a “no-hearth home.” The entire homestead site may be abandoned until the ghost hogan collapses. No new hogan will be built near the contaminated no-hearth home.\n\nI’m in the early stages of my Downton Abbey watching (so no spoilers, please). But somehow I doubt Lord Grantham’s family would vacate their own dwelling-place quite as readily.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7939774394035339}
+{"content": "U.S. Markets closed\n\nDoes Honeywell International Inc.’s (NYSE:HON) Debt Level Pose A Problem?\n\nSimply Wall St\n\nThe size of Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON), a US$112b large-cap, often attracts investors seeking a reliable investment in the stock market. Risk-averse investors who are attracted to diversified streams of revenue and strong capital returns tend to seek out these large companies. But, the key to extending previous success is in the health of the company’s financials. Let’s take a look at Honeywell International’s leverage and assess its financial strength to get an idea of their ability to fund strategic acquisitions and grow through cyclical pressures. Note that this information is centred entirely on financial health and is a high-level overview, so I encourage you to look further into HON here.\n\nSee our latest analysis for Honeywell International\n\nHow does HON’s operating cash flow stack up against its debt?\n\nHON’s debt levels have fallen from US$18b to US$16b over the last 12 months , which includes long-term debt. With this debt payback, the current cash and short-term investment levels stands at US$11b for investing into the business. On top of this, HON has produced cash from operations of US$6.4b in the last twelve months, leading to an operating cash to total debt ratio of 40%, meaning that HON’s current level of operating cash is high enough to cover debt. This ratio can also be interpreted as a measure of efficiency as an alternative to return on assets. In HON’s case, it is able to generate 0.4x cash from its debt capital.\n\nCan HON pay its short-term liabilities?\n\nLooking at HON’s US$19b in current liabilities, the company has been able to meet these obligations given the level of current assets of US$24b, with a current ratio of 1.29x. Generally, for Industrials companies, this is a reasonable ratio since there is a bit of a cash buffer without leaving too much capital in a low-return environment.\n\nNYSE:HON Historical Debt, March 7th 2019\n\nDoes HON face the risk of succumbing to its debt-load?\n\nWith debt reaching 88% of equity, HON may be thought of as relatively highly levered. This is common amongst large-cap companies because debt can often be a less expensive alternative to equity due to tax deductibility of interest payments. Accordingly, large companies often have an advantage over small-caps through lower cost of capital due to cheaper financing. We can test if HON’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. In HON’s case, the ratio of 52.3x suggests that interest is amply covered. Large-cap investments like HON are often believed to be a safe investment due to their ability to pump out ample earnings multiple times its interest payments.\n\nNext Steps:\n\nAlthough HON’s debt level is towards the higher end of the spectrum, its cash flow coverage seems adequate to meet obligations which means its debt is being efficiently utilised. Since there is also no concerns around HON’s liquidity needs, this may be its optimal capital structure for the time being. Keep in mind I haven’t considered other factors such as how HON has been performing in the past. I recommend you continue to research Honeywell International to get a more holistic view of the large-cap by looking at:\n\n  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HON’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for HON’s outlook.\n  2. Valuation: What is HON worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HON is currently mispriced by the market.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991825819015503}
+{"content": "Action of opsonins: a phagocytic cell recognises the opsonin on the surface of an antigen\n\nAn opsonin (from the Greek opsōneîn, to prepare for eating) is any molecule that enhances phagocytosis by marking an antigen for an immune response or marking dead cells for recycling (i.e., causes the phagocyte to \"relish\" the marked cell).[1] Opson in ancient Greece referred to the delicious side-dish of any meal, versus the sitos, or the staple of the meal.\n\nOpsonization (also, opsonisation) is the molecular mechanism whereby molecules, microbes, or apoptotic cells are chemically modified to have stronger interactions with - to be more \"delicious\" to - cell surface receptors on phagocytes and NK cells. With the antigen coated in opsonins, binding to immune cells is greatly enhanced. Opsonization also mediates phagocytosis via signal cascades from cell surface receptors.[2]\n\nOpsonins aid the immune system in a number of ways. In a healthy individual, they mark dead and dying self cells for clearance by macrophages and neutrophils, activate complement proteins, and target cells for destruction through the action of natural killer (NK) cells.\n\n\nAll cell membranes have negative charges (Zeta potential) which makes it difficult for two cells to come close together. When opsonins bind to their targets they boost the kinetics of phagocytosis by favoring interaction between the opsonin and cell surface receptors on immune cells.[3] This overrides the negative charges from cell membranes. This principal holds true for clearance of pathogens as well as dead or dying self cells.\n\n\nDifferent opsonins perform different functions. Opsonin molecules include:\n\n\nAntibodies are part of the adaptive immune response and are generated by B cells in response to antigen exposure. The Fab region of the antibody binds to the antigen, whereas the Fc region of the antibody binds to an Fc receptor on the phagocyte, facilitating phagocytosis.[4] The antigen-antibody complex can also activate complement through the classical complement pathway. Phagocytic cells do not have an Fc receptor for immunoglobulin M (IgM),[5] making IgM ineffective in assisting phagocytosis alone. However, IgM is extremely efficient at activating complement[6] and is, therefore, considered an opsonin.[7] IgG antibodies are also capable of binding immune effector cells via their Fc domain, triggering a release of lysis products from the bound immune effector cell (monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, and natural killer cells). This process, called antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, can cause inflammation of surrounding tissues and damage to healthy cells.\n\nComplement proteins\n\nThe complement system is a part of the innate immune response. C3b, C4b, and C1q are important complement molecules that serve as opsonins. As a part of the alternative complement pathway, the spontaneous activation of a complement cascade converts C3 to C3b, a component that can serve as an opsonin when bound to an antigen's surface.[8] Antibodies can also activate complement via the classical pathway, resulting in deposition of C3b and C4b onto the antigen surface.[9] After C3b has bound to the surface of an antigen, it can be recognized by phagocyte receptors that signal for phagocytosis. Complement receptor 1 is expressed on all phagocytes and recognizes a number of complement opsonins, including C3b[9] and C4b which are both parts of C3-convertase. C1q, a member of the C1 complex, is able to interact with the Fc region of antibodies.[9]\n\nCirculating proteins\n\nPentraxins, collectins, and ficolins are all circulating proteins that are capable of serving as opsonins.[10] They are secreted Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). These molecules coat the microbes as opsonins and enhance neutrophil reactivity against them through a number of mechanisms.\n\n\nApoptotic cells\n\nApoptosis is related to low tissue inflammation. A number of opsonins play a role in marking apoptotic cells for phagocytosis without a pro-inflammatory response.[10]\n\nMembers of the pentraxin family can bind to apoptotic cell membrane components like phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). IgM antibodies also bind to PC. Collectin molecules such as mannose-binding lectin (MBL), surfactant protein A (SP-A), and SP-D interact with unknown ligands on apoptotic cell membranes. When bound to the appropriate ligand these molecules interact with phagocyte receptors, enhancing phagocytosis of the marked cell.[3]\n\nC1q is capable of binding directly to apoptotic cells. It can also indirectly bind to apoptotic cells via intermediates like IgM autoantibodies, MBL, and pentraxins. In both cases C1q activates complement, resulting in the cells being marked for phagocytosis by C3b and C4b. C1q is an important contributor to the clearance of apoptotic cells and debris. This process usually occurs in late apoptotic cells.[3]\n\nOpsonization of apoptotic cells occurs by different mechanisms in a tissue-dependent pattern. For example, while C1q is necessary for proper apoptotic cell clearance in the peritoneal cavity, it is not important in the lungs where SP-D plays an important role.[3]\n\n\nAs part of the late stage adaptive immune response, pathogens and other particles are marked by IgG antibodies. These antibodies interact with Fc receptors on macrophages and neutrophils resulting in phagocytosis.[2] The C1 complement complex can also interact with the Fc region of IgG and IgM immune complexes activating the classical complement pathway and marking the antigen with C3b. C3b can spontaneously bind to pathogen surfaces through the alternative complement pathway. Furthermore, pentraxins can directly bind to C1q from the C1 complex.[9]\n\nSP-A opsonizes a number of bacterial and viral pathogens for clearance by lung alveolar macrophages.[10]\n\nSee also\n\n\n  2. 1 2 Zhang, Youxin; Hoppe, Adam D.; Swanson, Joel A. (2010-11-09). \"Coordination of Fc receptor signaling regulates cellular commitment to phagocytosis\". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (45): 19332–19337. doi:10.1073/pnas.1008248107. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2984174Freely accessible. PMID 20974965.\n  3. 1 2 3 4 Roos, Anja; Xu, Wei; Castellano, Giuseppe; Nauta, Alma J.; Garred, Peter; Daha, Mohamed R.; van Kooten, Cees (2004-04-01). \"Mini-review: A pivotal role for innate immunity in the clearance of apoptotic cells\". European Journal of Immunology. 34 (4): 921–929. doi:10.1002/eji.200424904. ISSN 1521-4141.\n  4. Parham, P. (2005). The Immune System,\" Garland Science Publishing, New York, NY.\n  5. Shima, Hideaki; Hiroyuki, Takatsu (2009). \"Identification of TOSO/FAIM3 as an Fc receptor for IgM\". International Immunology. Oxford Journals. 22 (3): 149–56. doi:10.1093/intimm/dxp121. Retrieved 30 November 2014.\n  6. Shulman, MJ; Pennel, N (1986). \"Activation of complement by immunoglobulin M is impaired by the substitution serine-406----asparagine in the immunoglobulin mu heavy chain\" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 83 (20): 7678–82. doi:10.1073/pnas.83.20.7678. PMID 3094013. Retrieved 30 November 2014.\n  7. Williams, MR; Hill, AW (1982). \"A role for IgM in the in vitro opsonisation of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by bovine polymorphonuclear leucocytes\". Research in Veterinary Science. Elsevier. 33 (1): 47–53. PMID 6753075. Retrieved 30 November 2014.\n  8. Tosi, Michael F. (2005-08-01). \"Innate immune responses to infection\". Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 116 (2): 241–249. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2005.05.036.\n  9. 1 2 3 4 Sarma, J. Vidya; Ward, Peter A. (2010-09-14). \"The complement system\". Cell and Tissue Research. 343 (1): 227–235. doi:10.1007/s00441-010-1034-0. ISSN 0302-766X. PMC 3097465Freely accessible. PMID 20838815.\n  10. 1 2 3 Litvack, Michael L.; Palaniyar, Nades (2010-06-01). \"Review: Soluble innate immune pattern-recognition proteins for clearing dying cells and cellular components: implications on exacerbating or resolving inflammation\". Innate Immunity. 16 (3): 191–200. doi:10.1177/1753425910369271. ISSN 1753-4259. PMID 20529971.\n\nExternal links\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9515977501869202}
+{"content": "How to melt gold at room temperature\n\nWhen the tension rises, unexpected things can happen – not least when it comes to gold atoms. Researchers from, among others, Chalmers University of Technology, have now managed, for the first time, to make the surface of a gold object melt at room temperature.​\n​Ludvig de Knoop, from Chalmers’ Department of Physics, placed a small piece of gold in an electron microscope. Observing it at the highest level of magnification and increasing the electric field step-by-step to extremely high levels, he was interested to see how it influenced the gold atoms.\nIt was when he studied the atoms in the recordings from the microscope, that he saw something exciting. The surface layers of gold had actually melted – at room temperature.\n\nI was really stunned by the discovery. This is an extraordinary phenomenon, and it gives us new, foundational knowledge of gold,” says Ludvig de Knoop.\n\nWhat happened was that the gold atoms became excited. Under the influence of the electric field, they suddenly lost their ordered structure and released almost all their connections to each other.\nUpon further experimentation, the researchers discovered that it was also possible to switch between a solid and a molten structure.\n\nThe discovery of how gold atoms can lose their structure in this way is not just spectacular, but also groundbreaking scientifically. Together with the theoretician Mikael Juhani Kuisma, from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, Ludvig de Knoop and colleagues have opened up new avenues in materials science. The results are now published in the journal Physical Review Materials.\n\nThanks to theoretical calculations, the researchers are able to suggest why gold can melt at room temperature, which has to do with the formation of defects in the surface layers.\n\nPossibly, the surface melting can also be seen as a so-called low-dimensional phase transition. In that case, the discovery is connected to the research field of topology, where pioneers David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz received the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016. With Mikael Juhani Kuisma in the lead, the researchers are now looking into that possibility. In any case, the ability to melt surface layers of gold in this manner enables various novel practical applications in the future.\n\nBecause we can control and change the properties of the surface atom layers, it opens doors for different kinds of applications. For example, the technology could be used in different types of sensors, catalysts and transistors. There could also be opportunities for new concepts for contactless components,” says Eva Olsson, Professor at the Department of Physics at Chalmers.\n\nBut for now, for those who want to melt gold without an electron microscope, a trip to the goldsmith is still in order.”\n\n\nRelated Content", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989005923271179}
+{"content": "Qualitative Data Analysis\n\nQualitative Data Analysis and Interpretation\n\nMany research methods such as naturalistic observations, open ended questions on questionnaires, unstructured interviews, an analysis of participants’ diaries or notes as part of a case study and so on, may generate qualitative data (i.e. data in written form). Although this data can appear very detailed and complicated, one way of simplifying this data to make it easier to analyse and interpret is by converting it into quantitative data.\n\nOne way of converting qualitative data into quantitative data is through a content analysis.\n\nContent Analysis\n\nContent analysis is a method of qualitative data analysis that involves rating or coding and categorising qualitative data. Rating systems are used to assess a wide range of qualitative data such as written or verbal observation records, questionnaire survey responses (where open-ended questions were employed) and interview content. The idea behind a coding system is to be able categorise occurrences of a particular theme, thereby converting the raw qualitative data into quantitative frequencies (i.e. a count is made of the number of times certain selected types of event happen).\n\nThe Procedure of Content Analysis\n\n(1) A sample of materials are gathered (e.g. interview responses may need to be transcribed) and examined (i.e. by reading the text through several times until you know it well).\n\n(2) Key themes are identified and these are used to create categories to help organise and classify the data- these categories will reflect the purpose of the research.\n\n(3) Instances or examples of each theme occurring in the text are gathered and placed in the relevant categories.\n\n(4) Frequencies can then be counted numerically for each of the different categories. The nominal data can then be quantitatively analysed with charts and graphs, measures of central tendency and dispersion produced and statistical analysis can be carried out.\n\n(5) The researcher may then draw conclusions about human behaviour as a whole based on these findings.\n\n\nA pilot study is often used as part of the analysis to generate and test the coding system to be employed. This helps make sure categories are exclusive and discrete (i.e. there is no overlap) and that all relevant themes are included and clearly operationalised.\n\n\nEvaluation of using a Content Analysis:\n\n(+) A strength of using a content analysis is that Statistical procedures become possible. When dealing with written/qualitative data it is not possible to use descriptive or inferential statistics. Converting qualitative data into quantitative data makes descriptive and inferential statistics possible which means that researchers are able to test for significance.\n\n(+) Changing qualitative data into quantitative data makes the results more objective.\n\n(-) Turning qualitative data into quantitative data can be seen to be reductionist. The complex and detailed qualitative data gets reduced to numerical figures which in turn reduces detailed/complex human behaviour to numbers and figures.\n\n\nAlthough there are ways of converting qualitative data into quantitative data (such as content analysis), most qualitative researchers believe the traditional quantitative methods used by psychologists do not produce results that are applicable to everyday life. If a researcher is trying to produce numbers, then he or she is probably not engaged in qualitative analysis which is less concerned with counting responses or occurrences and more concerned with interpreting the meaning of data (i.e. quality rather than quantity). There are different ways of analysing qualitative data that preserve these principles and therefore do not aim to use numbers at all as part of the data analysis.\n\nThematic Analysis\n\nThis involves taking a body of text (qualitative data) such as a transcript of an interview or an observational record to analyse an existing theory, explanation or hypothesis (from the top-down). This involves organising the qualitative data into specific themes that were pre-identified by the existing theory. This allows the researcher to summarise the data gathered into distinct categories. This kind of analysis is sometimes also referred to as ‘theoretical analysis’ as the theory and themes exist prior to analysis beginning. A similar process can be followed where there is no pre-existing theory and, instead, the themes or categories emerge from the data (from the bottom-up). This is referred to as ‘inductive analysis’ or ‘grounded theory’ and helps provide new insights. Either way, the analysis follows a similar series of stages.\n\nStages in Thematic Analysis\n\n(1) Transcribe the data if you need to, number each line and read the text through several times until you know it well. As you read the text, make notes of any ideas that occur to you.\n\n(2) Divide the text intomeaning units’ using a forward slash (/) between every apparent change in meaning or subject.\n\n(3) Search the entire text for meanings that seem to have a similar theme and group these together. You could highlight these using different colours.\n\n(4) Keep adjusting the themes as you continue to sort through the data.\n\n(5) Once you are satisfied that there are no more themes to find you will need to define and name each theme to form categories.\n\n(6) These themes or categories can then be used to draw conclusions about trends in the data and what this seems to suggest about the area being studied. A report is then written up whereby the researcher will need to present a case for each theme and provide some supporting quotations from the text.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9384121298789978}
+{"content": "Can a wormhole be used for fast interstellar travel?\n\n1 Answer\nAug 25, 2016\n\n\nEven if wormholes exist, we do not know of a way of opening one.\n\n\nA wormhole, which is also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge is an opening in spacetime which leads to another place or even another time.\n\nThere are solutions to General Relativity which allow for wormholes. It has however been proved that if the two ends are in the same universe it will be so unstable that it will collapse before anything, including light, could pass through it.\n\nThere are theories that very small wormholes can briefly come into existence through quantum fluctuations. It may be possible to enlarge and stabilise the opening of such a wormhole but it would require exotic matter which has never been observed.\n\nSo, although wormholes are theoretically possible, it is highly unlikely that one could be opened to connect two particular regions of spacetime. New developments in physics could however change this. For now, wormholes for fast interstellar travel are firmly in the realm of science fiction.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999973773956299}
+{"content": "Why comparing Paris to Beirut both misses the point and makes sense\n\nAfter the first shock of the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris had waned, criticism about the unequal attention the victims in France received compared to victims of similar attacks elsewhere in the world quickly surfaced. Why did President Obama give a public announcement relatively soon after the attacks in Paris but had said little about the equally horrible bombings in Beirut one day earlier? Why did Facebook have a Safety Check in the case of Paris but not in other cases? Why was there not a similar global outpour of sympathy for the victims of, for example, the even more lethal attacks at a university in Kenya earlier this year? It seemed that the lives of (white) Europeans are worth more than that of others around the world, in particular that of Muslims.\n\nBut differences in grief and shock about the French attacks are not necessarily an expression of how life is valued. Critics pointing out the hypocrisy of being concerned about Paris but less about Beirut, or any other equally devastating killings around the world, do miss an important point. One of the central factors regarding the newsworthiness of an event, both for media outlets and for media consumers, is the proximity of the event – both in absolute terms, i.e. geographical distance, and in relative terms, i.e. a sense of identification. Most people care more about a car crash close to home than a similar crash in a distant location. Compared to the attacks in Beirut, many could more easily see themselves in Paris on a Friday night (or associate it with a similar situation closer to home) than in Beirut – or at a university in Kenya. Conversely, for someone with strong ties to Lebanon – and less to France – identification with the bombings in Beirut may be much stronger. We just more easily identify with an event that we could picture ourselves in. Many expressing their outrage over the unequal share of attention devoted to the different attacks too easily forget about this logic.\n\nThat said, white, Western and/or Christian victims often receive an unequal share of the attention – even though the victims in Paris were by no means all white. Some form of (racial) preference that goes beyond a sense of proximity may well shape differences in attention devoted to attacks around the world. One way or the other, then, politicians, media outlets and also Facebook should become more sensitive to the impact of their messages. Was Facebook’s tool the result of their algorithms going in overdrive due to postings about Paris or did it result from ad hoc decision taken at management level? I imagine the latter. With accountholders all over the world, they may want to rethink how to convey a message of equality when it comes to devoting attention to (horrendous) events in the world. Politicians would also do good to be more outspoken about attacks in case they may not directly identify with the victims and/or the setting. The inhabitants of the (multicultural) nation they represent may care. Or with news travelling fast – helped by the widespread use of social media – they may want to give some thoughts to how their comments are perceived elsewhere in the world. It doesn’t harm to give people the impression that their lives are equally appreciated after all!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6599686741828918}
+{"content": "Non-profit Event Promo\n\nStuder Community Institute focuses on enriching the Pensacola community through its workshops for entrepreneurs and small business and its early childhood development efforts by providing resources to new mothers and their newborns. Studer approached Vivid Bridge Studios for a video to promote an upcoming concert and fundraiser to raise awareness and donations for their brain bags and other resources for new mothers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9459726214408875}
+{"content": "South Africa and Japan could enrich their cooperation in the field of hydrogen fuel cell technology as the countries share commonalities in this regard.The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, accompanied Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to Japan this week.\n\nDuring the visit Minister Pandor held several engagements with Japanese stakeholders, including a round table meeting with academic institutions and a Symposium on the Hydrogen Economy. During the Minister's round table meeting discussion, she highlighted the human capital initiatives of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), namely the South African Research Chairs Initiative and the South African Postdoctoral Fellowships Initiative.\n\nSouth Africa has a shortage of skills, while Japan has an abundance of skills; this creates opportunities for collaboration between the two countries. Both countries also recognise the importance of science, technology and innovation for economic growth, as well as the need to address challenges such as health and food and energy security, especially in the wake of global challenges such as climate site2016. The countries also value the relevance and the role of science and technology in making an impact on society.\n\nHydrogen and fuel cell technology presents a niche area for collaboration between the two countries. Hydrogen and fuel cell technology hold the promise of a cleaner, more environmentally friendly and oil-independent future. While Japan had already started to create a hydrogen economy, the \"triple disaster\" that devastated Japan in 2011 rapidly accelerated research in this field. Japan is currently a leader in cutting-edge hydrogen technology and holds the largest share of patents in this field. South Africa, on the other hand, has a significant competitive advantage in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technology, as it is endowed with considerable deposits of platinum, which is a key catalytic material used in fuel cells.\n\nAs part of the global agenda to integrate energy systems, South Africa has positioned itself as a significant player in developing these technologies. Against this backdrop, the developmental stages of South Africa and Japan are different. Despite the differences in the systems, there are niche areas where collaboration could be enriched, especially in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells.\n\nDuring the Minister's address to the Symposium on the Hydrogen Economy, she said there was a global movement towards developing sustainable energy systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. \"For this reason, the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier, combined with fuel cell technology, has attracted considerable interest from governments, international bodies and commercial companies worldwide,\" said Minister Pandor.\n\nHydrogen, electrolyser and fuel cell combinations offer a viable and cost-effective method of storing energy on a large scale, especially in instances where the energy is generated during times of low demand. When used as feedstock for fuel cells, hydrogen produces electricity at a high efficiency – with zero emissions – even for applications such as road vehicles and electricity markets. Globally, a number of companies are developing megawatt-scale proton-exsite2016 membrane electrolysers to improve energy-storage applications.\n\nIn South Africa, the Department of Minerals and Energy projects that 40 Gw of new energy generation capacity should be in place by 2030, of which 42% will be derived from renewable energy sources. Of this renewable energy generation, 1Gw is expected to be concentrated solar power, which uses thermal storage, and approximately 17 Gw will be a combination of wind and other renewable energy options, mostly photovoltaic systems.\n\n\"This creates an opportunity for local energy storage that could play a significant role in on-grid and off-grid applications. In this regard, energy is the critical area that needs to be consolidated and strengthened in terms of security of supply and access, as well as for environmental protection,\" said Minister Pandor.\n\nShe added that South Africa needed to reduce its dependence on imported oil and increase the percentage of alternative energy sources in the energy mix. For broad-based economic development to take place in the country, access to affordable, safe, clean and reliable energy is crucial.\n\nThe Minister and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa also test drove motor vehicles making use of hydrogen and fuel cell technology.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988043904304504}
+{"content": "JL Dance\n\nJohanna & Leonardo are dance instructors, performers, choreographers based in Stockholm, Sweden. They are passionate about dance, music, teaching and learning. They focus on salsa and especially Salsa on2, but also have a broader perspective as one of their goals is general dance and movement education.\n\nJ&L have been teaching Salsa on2 and other specialized regular classes together in their own direction since 2011. They have taught at many other schools both before and after starting their own and always aim to cooperate with both local and international dance communities.\n\nJ&L promote salsa in its various forms: as social dance, to promote personal expression and creativity, and as a dance form to be presented on stage.\n\nJL Dance aim to provide high quality classes and offers now classes for absolute beginners all the way up to advanced level, something for everyone.\n\nDance, meet people and have fun while being challenged", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9977728128433228}
+{"content": "December 05, 2017\n\nThis is the fourth in a series of blog posts summarizing the discussions from a May 2017 researcher gathering on measuring women’s empowerment in impact evaluations. Read the previous posts on household decision-making powerencouraging mixed methods, and using mixed methods to inform policy.\n\nBy Lucia Diaz-MartinRachel Glennerster, and Ariella Park\n\n2013_Kenya_Project_Tugela Rid_Angaza-019.jpg\n\nWomen continue to participate in the labor market - or as non-economists would put it, “work” - at different rates than men. According to International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates in 2016, 49.5 percent of working-age women worldwide were in the workforce, compared to 76 percent of working-age men.\n\nMeasuring these inequalities and differences is difficult. For example, data on informal labor or care work is scarce—and interpreting what employment data indicates about welfare and empowerment can be even more complex. At a recent IPA and J-PAL roundtable on measuring women’s empowerment, researchers discussed some of these complexities and potential ways forward.\n\nEven responses to simple survey questions about women’s work can be different depending on whom you ask. During the roundtable, one researcher noted a study in India that found that men and women gave different answers when asked the same question about whether the woman in the household was working. The women were much more likely than men to say that work was their primary activity.\n\nBeyond data collection challenges, it is hard to know how working may affect or reflect women’s empowerment in different contexts. The UN Gender Inequality Index, which measures gender inequality across countries, interprets higher rates of female labor force participation as an improvement in women’s economic status. Yet, there are a range of reasons for why women might be working, and a job may be more or less empowering for a woman depending on her working conditions.\n\nIncorporating labor force participation measures into an empowerment index means taking a stance on whether work in this context is empowering. This assumption may require some probing. For example, in surveys, researchers could ask working women about how and why they entered their current job. This could help illuminate the constraints a woman faced in making the decision to enter the workforce.\n\nAnother approach is to measure job quality. Standardized questions for measuring job quality exist, such as the OECD’s job quality index, but need to be tailored for use in specific contexts. For instance, the ILO’s categorization of “vulnerable employment”—those who are self-employed without formal employees—may not work in some developing countries, where women with heavy domestic care burdens might benefit from the flexibility of such self-employment.\n\nSome rigorous research on job quality is already in works: researchers Samuel Bazzi, Lisa Cameron, Simone Schaner, and Firman Witoelar are evaluating the welfare impacts of providing advance information to female migrant workers about the quality of migration agencies’ job placements in Indonesia.\n\nOne innovative way to supplement survey questions about job quality may be to collect biometric data, such as cortisol levels to measure stress. Research over past decades has shown that experiencing lack of control or autonomy in the work place is a primary source of stress. Thus, measuring stress could capture a woman’s feeling of agency over her labor market choices.\n\nThis type of data collection may require more resources to implement, but has the potential to generate less subjective data. In an IPA study in Bangladesh, researchers are taking a similar approach, measuring salivary cortisol levels to evaluate the impact of a cognitive behavioral therapy intervention on stress levels among female garment factory workers.\n\nHere again, though, context matters. We could imagine that a high-powered corporate executive has high stress levels. Yet we would not necessarily consider her disempowered for it, particularly if we believe that she chose a high-stress job for its other benefits.\n\nUltimately, it is hard to know what employment decisions indicate about women’s empowerment because measuring these decisions often involves measuring and interpreting preferences.\n\nUltimately, it is hard to know what employment decisions indicate about women’s empowerment because measuring these decisions often involves measuring and interpreting preferences. Classical economics assumes that an individual’s decisions and actions reflect her preferences and what she considers best for herself. We typically take these preferences as given. But, as many researchers noted during the IPA and J-PAL roundtable, women’s preferences are often constrained by cultural or contextual factors—and some interventions even cause preferences to change. How can we interpret these changes in terms of welfare?\n\nOne option may be to focus, instead, on how women’s labor force participation affects objective outcomes related to women’s empowerment, such as health or education outcomes.\n\nIn 2003, Robert Jensen (University of Pennsylvania) evaluated the impact of increasing awareness about job opportunities in call centers in India through annual information sessions. The sessions increased young women’s employment rates and changed their career aspirations; these women expressed a greater desire to seek employment throughout their lives, even after marriage and childbirth. Importantly, school enrollment and body mass index for younger girls also increased, suggesting that parents were more likely to invest in the welfare of their girl children after learning about greater employment opportunities for women. These outcomes together suggest that greater job opportunities can improve women’s welfare in this context.  \n\nThese approaches are not exhaustive, nor do they provide a complete answer to the question of how female labor force participation relates to women’s empowerment. More research is needed on how to better untangle this complex relationship. \n\nHave something to contribute? Let us know! If you’re aware of any interesting work being done in this area, including survey validation exercises (either completed or in process), please send an email to Lucia Diaz-Martin.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9987643957138062}
+{"content": "Inspired living\n\n\nInsomnia is the inability to sleep through the night for most nights, for at least one month. Insomnia includes being unable to fall asleep, waking during the night or being unable to go back to sleep. Chronic insomnia is a serious health problem that needs attention. Most adults feel refreshed if they are able to get 8 hours of sleep per night. Other factors that may lead to insomnia are restless legs syndrome and sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is a condition where a person ceases breathing for a period of time, and is then awakened by their resulting lower level of oxygen, startled and gasping.\n\nCauses of chronic insomnia: depression, anxiety, stress, grief, arthritis, asthma, hypoglycaemia, indigestion, muscle aches, Parkinson’s disease, caffeine consumption prior to sleeping, jet lags, drugs (e.g. appetite suppressants, anti-seizure medications), sedentary lifestyle and nutritional deficiencies.\n\nSymptoms: decreased ability to perform tasks, personality changes, decreased productivity, inappropriate sleepiness and dozing off while talking or driving.\n\nWho to consult: Dietician, GP, herbalist, homoeopath, meditation practitioner, naturopath, sleep therapist, pharmacist, psychologist, yoga practitioner.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9699048399925232}
+{"content": "Section of Forbes runway still closed due to construction delays\n\nBy  | \n\nTOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- New issues surrounding the opening of Forbes Field’s largest runway could signal a legal battle on the horizon.\n\nA section of the 12,800 ft. runway at Forbes has been closed a lot longer than the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority expected.\n\nThose delays could cost the MTAA business.\n\nKoss Construction is still working on the longer runway patching errors found in the construction. It was supposed to open September 29th. That's now pushed back to November 16th, if it passes a flight check.\n\nMTAA President Eric Johnson said he could not comment on the delay because of legal issues. He recently told 13 NEWS Koss Construction is paying $4,400 a day for the delays.\n\nThe same issues with patch work stalled the opening of the intersection of the runways just before President Donald Trump visited Topeka. It re-opened days before he touched down.\n\nIt also meant the 190th Air Refueling Wing could bring its planes back from Salina, where they operated during the construction. Their pilots normally would use Forbes' longer runway, but are able to use the shorter, 7,000 ft. strip, with emergency procedures in place if more space is needed.\n\nJohnson says if the flight check on the 16th is successful, then the runway will be reopened that day.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8192304372787476}
+{"content": "7 Questions To Help You Decode Your Child's SOS and Respond\n\n“All communication is either an SOS or a care package.” — Kelly Bryson\n\nYou’ve probably heard the term “Acting out’ refer to misbehaving.  It means to act out a need or feeling that you can’t express in words.\n\nSo when your three year old hits the baby, or your five year old throws a toy at you, or your seven year old slams the door, they’re acting out a feeling\nthey can’t express in words. They’re showing you with their behavior that they need your help. They’re  sending you an SOS.\n\nYou could respond with punishment.  After all, the behavior is clearly unacceptable. But you would be missing the chance to address that feeling\nthat your child is finding so unbearable that he has to act it out. You would be ignoring your child’s SOS.\n\nShould you overlook the “bad” behavior?  Of course not.  Move in to keep everyone safe. In a perfect world, of course, you would do this\nBEFORE the SOS behavior. But families are made of humans, who by definition aren’t perfect. That’s ok; Love serves us better than Perfect every\n\nAs you set the limit–calmly and kindly–remind yourself that there’s a reason for your child’s behavior.  It may not be what you consider a good\nreason, but it’s her reason.\n\nThen, address the need or feeling that’s motivating the behavior. That gives your child the help they need to cooperate with you. If you don’t address\nthe need, you don’t get to the source of the behavior.\n\nWant some examples of decoding an SOS?\n\n  • Children who are always cranky and uncooperative usually need more sleep, more connection, a physical ailment addressed, or a safe opportunity\n    to cry in a parent’s arms.\n  • Children who compete with siblings often need to feel more connected to parents, more “seen” and valued for who they are. (Remember, sibling rivalry\n    comes from a competition for scarce resources — your love and delight in the child. Each child needs to feel that you could never love anyone\n    else more than you love them.)\n  • Children who “don’t listen” have usually been trained not to take us seriously unless we yell; they’re asking us to calm down and connect while\n    we guide them.\n  • Children who lash out aggressively are carrying unbearable fear inside. They need to laugh (when they aren’t angry) to begin to melt the fear,\n    and then, when they feel safe enough, to experience that fear in your presence. This will start out looking like a tantrum, but if you stay\n    compassionate their anger will be followed by tears, and then affection and cooperation.\n  • Children who are always rebelling usually need to feel more powerful, competent, and respected. They need us to listen and let them know we hear,\n    even when we don’t agree.\n  • Children who disrespect us are showing that they don’t feel enough connection, warmth and respect from us. Often, disrespect is a result of parents\n    yelling and indulging in their own tantrums.\n  • Children who lie to us feel afraid. What in your response is making your child feel so unsafe that she needs to lie to you?\n  • Children who whine or are demanding aren’t confident their needs will be met and crave more nurturing. \n  • Children who keep pushing the limits usually need to know the parent is in charge and will keep them (and everyone else) safe — while still loving\n    them. You show them this by setting limits clearly and firmly — but with empathy and understanding. Here’s your formula. In a warm voice: “You wanted X, so you did Y behavior…..I understand. And Y behavior is not okay. because it hurts (a person or thing.) You can do Z instead.”\n\nWill your child be able to explain his needs if you ask?\nNo, that’s why he acts them out! But here are 7 questions to ask yourself, that will\nhelp you decode, meet the need, and change the behavior.\n\n1. What is the behavior that bothers you most from your child? That behavior is an SOS. \n\n2. What’s the first thing that pops into your head about what’s behind this SOS from your child? From your child’s point of\nview, what need or feeling might your child be acting out? Connection? Autonomy? Sleep? Less criticism or control from Dad? More one on one time\nwith Mom?\n\n3. What actions could you take to answer your child’s SOS? Make a list.\n\n4. Notice how often your own fear gets in the way of meeting your child’s needs. For instance, if he’s suddenly talking baby\ntalk, do you feel a need to correct him, or can you accept his temporary need to be babied and give him what he needs? Breathe into that fear and\nlet it go. Once we meet the child’s needs, the child can move on. When we deny needs, the child stays stuck.\n\n5. Make a plan to take at least one of the actions on your list, every day for a week. It might be the same action over and over.\n\n6. Notice your child’s behavior change over the course of the week. What is working and what isn’t? What have you learned about\nyour child’s needs?\n\n7. What will you do differently in the future?\n\n\n{module_contentholder name=”BANNER-Course-PPHK”}\n\nWant to support yourself for real change? Registration for the next Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Online Course just opened, and you get 10% off if you register in the first two weeks. Just use the discount code EARLYBIRD at checkout. Take a look at the raves\nfrom parents who’ve taken it to see if you think this self-paced course might be a good fit for you.\n\nSource link", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5213590860366821}
+{"content": "The landscape sets a mood before the customer enters the store.\n\n\nBohemian Blooms designs and installs unique custom storefront landscapes specific to your environment. Bohemian Blooms takes great care to construct a living\nstorefront that is both aesthetically invigorating and functionally intelligent.\n\n\nWe develop a landscape plan, planting palette, and use containers that are cohesive with your property, delivering a world of revitalizing color, form,\n\nand texture that is rooted in sustainability, aspiring with originality.\n\n\nWe utilize low-maintenance plants, and offer maintenance plans\n\nfor those who desire it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999866485595703}
+{"content": "This work is exploring the trinity and the nature of 3 a very significant number in a lot of religious practice.\n\nsacred geometry\n\nClose up triangle\n\nI was starting to see the above shape appearing in a lot of geometry that I was looking at in research. It is like an equilateral triangle but it has the edges bent in. I thought this might just be people getting creative but it turns out that the shape is made by putting three triangles on the points of an triangle. I have seen this shape used a lot in the star of David.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8228004574775696}
+{"content": "The Rezvani brothers built an impressive reputation in Iran as master luthiers before migrating to the United States in 2010 to continue their work handcrafting the finest concert violins, violas, and cellos. Even the most highly accomplished artists are surprised and positively affected by the rich tone they discover when playing a Rezvani instrument for the first time. \n\nMore than 500 Rezvani masterpieces are now owned by world renowned soloists and orchestral musicians, who are members of music conservatories, teachers in universities and performers in international philharmonic and symphony orchestras.\n\nFrom their shop in Westlake Village, CA, Saeid and Shahram Rezvani serve an ever growing demand for their precisely designed and laboriously assembled violins, violas and cellos. They also pour the same passion into repairing string instruments and bows, and working with local artists to create custom, one-of-a kind instruments of the highest calibre.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9902037978172302}
+{"content": "High resolution\n\nModule 8: Figure preosteoclast chemotaxis\n\nChemotaxis of preosteclasts.\n\nThe migration of preosteoclasts in the bone marrow is controlled by two chemotaxis gradients. CXCL12 produced by stromal cells and osteoblasts directs cells towards the bone surface where they differentiate into osteoclasts whereas sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) directs them back into the blood stream.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.795215904712677}
+{"content": "Franz Klainsek is a self-taught American artist of Cuban and Austrian descent. His work is physical and emotional - it resides in the space between body and mind, feeling and thought. Franz Klainsek addresses societal programming and its systematic effect on the human mind. \n\n\nFranz Klainsek's work was recently presented by MANA Contemporary. His installation/performance “Presence” was featured as the “Must See” Exhibit of Art Basel Miami 2018, with interviews on CNN en Español and the front page of The Miami Herald.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8309165239334106}
+{"content": "Can I enrol at any time?\n\nYES. The Kidtastic time runs over the school terms for ten weeks. Mid term enrolments will be taken provided there are places and will be billed pro rata once your sessions are nearly expired, you can re-enrol and get another 10 session pass. \n\nHow do I get a Kidtastic Time shirt for my child?\n\nEvery child who enrols(TERM CARD ONLY) receives a Kidtastic Time shirt which is worn to each session.\n\nWhy should I choose Kidtastic Time for my child?\n\nKidtastic Time's programs were designed specifically for children aged 15 months to 6 years of age. Each session will involve gross motor skills and well as colour recognition and counting skills. The Kidtastic Time program has been developed in conjunction with the  \"Health, Growth & Fundamentals of Movement - Healthy Kids guidelines. Appealing equally to boys and girls, Kidtastic Time promises to deliver a FUN experience where your child can Play, Develop and Learn. Also see the \"Why Choose Us\" tab on this website.\n\nKIDTASTIC TIME is also available for children's parties ages 3 to 6 years. Please contact us for a party package!\n\nWill there be other session days / times available?\n\nYES. As Kidtastic Time grows, new days, times and venues will be introduced.\n\nWhat is the cost?\n\n$60 for 10 sessions for ONE term (school terms), this includes TWO MAKEUP classes per term. Every child enrolling in a ten session card will receive a KIDTASTIC TIME T-Shirt.\nCasual visits available at the cost of  $10.00 per session.\nNO additional enrolment fee!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6570891737937927}
+{"content": "Présentations Colloques\n\nOral Presentation\nAmano Hiroki\nVertical characteristics of groundwater chemistry at the nitrate polluted site\nTargeted provisional session No 7.03**Groundwater samples were collected from several depths down to 50 m below soil surface to investigate vertical profiles of nitrate and hydrochemical characteristics of the experimental site. The experimental site is located in the Shimabara City, Nagasaki, Japan, where nitrate contamination in groundwater has occurred due to intensive agricultural activities. **The transition zone between dissolved ions was found between specific depths caused by differences in the permeability of soil layers. Though nitrate concentration decreased significantly in the transition zone groundwater, the entire soil depth exceeded permissible level (50 mg L-1) for drinking purposes. Comparing the temporal fluctuation of nitrate concentration above the transition zone with that of the below, distinct fluctuations were observed depending on sampling campaign. High rainfall amounts typically lead to initial decrease in nitrate concentration for the shallow groundwater. After some time, however, increase in nitrate concentration occurred due to leaching of accumulated nitrate in the soil matrix. This indicated that temporal fluctuation of nitrate concentration is mainly controlled by natural impact and occurring crop system. **Results of principal component analysis suggested that application of chemical fertilizers (ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and potassium chloride), dissolution of minerals (feldspar, calcite and dolomite), and ion exchange are the predominant factors resulting in the observed vertical groundwater chemistry. The relative magnitude between these three principal component scores changed across the transition zone. Below the transition zone, groundwater chemistry reflected application of ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride fertilizer and dissolution of albite and orthoclase.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000004768371582}
+{"content": "Market Insights from Artificial Intelligence\n\nA company's market or stock performance is the sum of its successes and failures in related marketplaces we call ecosystems. Our unique artificial intelligence converts thousands of weekly contextually relevant unstructured signals into market themes over time. Interesting themes are increasingly connected to other themes, companies, competitors and competitive market forces. These growing connections are often hidden without our Artificial Intelligence. Our goal is early discovery for strategic and investing advantage.\n\nTheme Discovery & Tracking Examples\n\n\nNobody can guarantee the future. Nevertheless an advantage can be created by seeing what our AI sees - early discoveries of emerging and increasingly connected market themes.\n\n\nTHEME 093: Microsoft Has Upside Potential in Several Dynamic Ecosystems\nAnalysis: Theme 094 below certainly highlights Microsoft's stock performance. There remain other interesting themes that can further propel MSFT success.\n\nPortfolio of Microsoft Related Themes Theme Status Eco- systems Analysis Real-Time Theme Radars & Tracking Reports\nCloud platforms continue to be a growth market Cloud Ecosystem Microsoft Azure continues to be a leading competitor against Amazon AWS GO TO MICROSOFT THEME IN CLOUD RADAR\nMicrosoft has been a successful competitor and leader of Cloud Platform services Cloud Ecosystem Microsoft stock is now running 9% ahead of SKYY Cloud ETF since the start of Theme 094 GO TO THEME #094 TRACKING REPORT\nThe Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is a growth opportunity in Cloud Computing Cloud Ecosystem IIOT market leadership is yet to be established GO TO IIOT THEME IN CLOUD RADAR\nAugmented Reality is an ongoing opportunity for Microsoft Alternative Realities Microsoft has been a leader with HoloLens GO TO MICROSOFT THEME IN ALTERNATIVE REALITIES RADAR\nArtificial intelligence is a strategic imperative for Microsoft AI Ecosystem Microsoft is keeping up its AI capabilities versus Google, Amazon and other tech companies GO TO MICROSOFT THEME IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RADAR\nAutonomous car applications are an opportunity for Microsoft Robotics Ecosystem Autonomous cars (robo cars) are a central theme influencing all other robotic ecosystem themes GO TO TRANSPORTATION THEME IN ROBOTICS RADAR\nConnected healthcare is an emerging opportunity for Microsoft Connected Healthcare Microsoft will compete with big tech competitors like Apple, Amazon and Google GO TO MICROSOFT THEME IN CONNECTED HEALTHCARE RADAR\nGaming is an ongoing opportunity for Microsoft Gaming Ecosystem In spite of growing competition, Microsoft has infrastructure and device advantages pending radar ecosystem\nTHEME 094: Microsoft Will Outperform General Cloud Indices\n\n\nAnalysis: Early theme discoveries were prescient about Microsoft's upside potential\n\nTHEME 304: Industrial Internet Platforms Will Outperform S&P 500\n\n\nAnalysis: Early theme discoveries have not yet proven themselves in stock prices. Time will tell if the Industrial Internet of Things becomes an exciting market opportunity.\n\nTHEME 095: Silicon on the Edge Will Outperform S&P 500\n\n\nAnalysis: The primary thesis of this theme is the pushing of intelligence and AI to the edges of cloud networks, thereby enabling faster network decisions without the need to transmit data and then wait for computed reactions from the central cloud.\n\n\nOur market focused artificial intelligence\n\nKnowledge Graph\n\nThe IBB database organizes the world economy into 20,000 ultra-granular industries. Thousands of companies are mapped to unique lines of business. Theme potentials are revealed.\n\nEvent Content\n\nThemes are the sum of countless market events that are connected with our artificial intelligence – even if not visible without AI assistance. Thousands of news, blogs and other unstructured inputs are some of the the raw inputs for our intelligent agent engines.\n\nArtificial Intelligence\n\nOur servers conduct billions of daily competitive relationship seeking calculations. Market event dots are connected over long periods to discover and track market themes. Our artificial intelligence highlights the interesting themes, suppressing the noise.\n\nAnalyst Supervision\n\nOur analysts assist our AI with supervised machine learning. Most importantly, our analysts deliver strategic and tactical market intelligence to our clients – leveraging the powerful AI theme discovery network.\n\nTheme Discoveries\n\nThemes are early emerging and increasingly connected indications of market directions. Discovery Patterns enables investors and analysts to leverage artificial intelligence as a competitive advantage.\n\nThe Science, Engineering & Results of Our Artificial Intelligence\n\n\nContact us\n\n\nOur Business Purpose\n\nWe are a sophisticated market intelligence company.  We create and maintain ecosystems of artificial intelligence agents that deliver continuous market theme discoveries and tracking.  Our AI brings our clients unique real-time insights while minimizing research costs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9443792700767517}
+{"content": "What is IndonesiaLeaks?\n\nImage by Suara.com\n\n\nWhat is IndonesiaLeaks? Who is behind it? Is it connected to Wikileaks, the international organisation that publishes classified and leaked government and corporate materials? These have been the questions on everyone’s lips after five Jakarta-based media organisations published an explosive report from the IndonesiaLeaks joint investigative team on 8 October.\n\n\nThe report focused on the destruction of key evidence relating to the bribery case involving former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Patrialis Akbar and cattle importer Basuki Hariman, which was being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2017. The IndonesiaLeaks investigation alleged that in April 2017, two police investigators on loan to the anti-graft agency from the National Police, Roland Ronaldy and Harun, tore nine pages from a red bank transaction record book.\n\n\nThe removed pages allegedly documented the flow of funds to dozens of public officials, including then Jakarta Metropolitan Police Chief Tito Karnavian (now National Police chief). An internal KPK investigation in 2017 found that the two police investigators were guilty of destroying evidence and violating the KPK Code of Ethics. Given that obstructing a corruption investigation is a criminal offence (under Article 21 of the 1999 Anti-Corruption Law, as revised in 2001) the KPK could have pursued charges against them. But the two investigators were simply returned to the National Police and the case vanished. Both are still on active duty and, in fact, received promotions soon after their return to the police institution.\n\n\nWikileaks sparked worldwide outrage in 2010 when it released thousands of classified military documents relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as sensitive diplomatic cables issued by the US Department of State. Its founder, Julian Assange, became an international celebrity and has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.\n\n\nWhile not on the same scale, the IndonesiaLeaks reports have also shocked Indonesia. But not for revealing classified government secrets. Few of the politicians and observers criticising IndonesiaLeaks have actually sought to understand the content of the investigative reports published in early October.\n\n\nInstead, there have been a series of reactionary and concerned statements, as well as several people who are clearly attempting to use the report to their own advantage. The strongest reactions have come from the police and supporters of the two figures squaring off in next year’s presidential election, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, who have dismissed the claims.\n\n\nIn an effort to obscure or play down the revelations of criminal behaviour described in the IndonesiaLeaks joint report, many have dismissed the report as a hoax, or claimed that it lacked credibility. By describing the report as a hoax, police then have justification for taking action against those who created and distributed it, and the public are given “permission” to dismiss its contents.\n\n\nHowever, there is a clear difference between an investigative report made by professional journalists that fulfils journalistic ethical standards and a hoax, a story not based on facts and spread for the benefit of the creator.\n\n\nThis is also a clear difference between IndonesiaLeaks and Wikileaks. Information and data released by Wikileaks is made available to anyone and is not subject to the same level of journalistic confirmation and verification. IndonesiaLeaks is a safe platform for anyone who wishes to report a crime with relevance to the public interest, commonly referred to as whistleblowers or public informants. Anyone who witnesses a crime can send documents, data and information and be reassured of anonymity: their name or identity will not be revealed to the public.\n\n\nIndonesiaLeaks’ digital security system means that the member reporters who receive tip-offs from whistleblowers will not be able to trace the identity of the sender. This digital security system underwent rigorous testing in July and August 2018. Hackers were not able to penetrate the security system and determine the identity of whistleblowers.\n\n\nThe platform can only be accessed by journalists that are members of IndonesiaLeaks. These reporters have been trained in digital security and in the handling any reports that come in. Reporters first determine which leaks or information fulfil requirements and have the potential to be developed into a journalistic investigation. One of the key requirements is that the crime must have relevance to the public interest (and not simply interest the public).\n\n\nThe process continues with verification of documents through journalistic investigation and confirmation. When reports are verified, the journalistic team will work to enrich the report, searching for additional information, checking facts and evidence, conducting interviews and research and then writing a news report. Although the joint team discuss and agree on a broad angle, the content of the final published report is up to the individual media outlets themselves.\n\n\nIndonesiaLeaks clearly does not create investigative reports itself, let alone disseminate them. Its function is simply a “letterbox” to receive data and information from whistleblowers and then channel them to competent journalists.\n\n\nWhy, then, are member journalists described as members of the IndonesiaLeaks team? This is because the process of creating reports is done in a collaborative manner, with journalists from multiple news outlets working together.\n\n\nIf there are those who still consider the IndonesiaLeaks report to be a hoax, there are a few important matters to consider. Journalistic activities in Indonesia are protected by Law 40 of 1999 on the Press. This Law created the Press Council, which is responsible for responding to and resolving all complaints against journalistic products.\n\n\nWhat about those who claim that political interests are behind IndonesiaLeaks? Who has been implicated in the IndonesiaLeaks report? The police investigators allegedly involved in the destruction of evidence had already been named previously and former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Patrialis has already been sent to prison. Neither presidential candidate nor members of their team were mentioned. Only the National Police and the KPK have been asked to take responsibility for the events.\n\n\nAs citizens who care about the realisation of clean and responsible government, as well as the rule of law, we must value all efforts from the public to participate in law enforcement. IndoensiaLeaks is a platform that connects the media and wider public, especially whistleblowers, to work together to promote good, transparent governance.\n\n\nIn the future, it is hoped that IndonesiaLeaks will continue to assist in the production of investigative reports that focus not only on corruption by public officials, but also corporate crime, human rights violations, failures in the delivery of public services, and exploitation of natural resources.\n\n\nDismissing investigative reports that reveal public sector crime as being politically motivated does the country a disservice. It undermines journalism’s vital fourth estate role.\n\n\nAt a time when Indonesian media is often derided as being captured by oligarchic and politically partisan interests, this is the last thing that Indonesia needs.\n\n\nPPMN is one of the founding organisations of IndonesiaLeaks.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9805691838264465}
+{"content": "Keep On Going\n\nBy faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. Hebrews 11:27\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLord, help me to keep my eyes on You when I feel upset by other people. Protect me, guide me, and help me to trust You in every situation.\n\n\nThe plagues that befell Egypt occurred within a significant context. Each of them was a direct attack upon the false gods of Egypt. For example, the first plague in which the Nile River was turned to blood was directed at one of Egypt’s most significant deities—the Nile itself! (Exodus 7:14–24). Seen as the source of life-giving water for their crops, turning the Nile to blood was a powerful image. Similarly, the ninth plague—darkness—showed the superiority of the God of the Hebrews over Ra, the sun god, another major deity in Egypt’s system of multiple gods (10:21–23). In each case, the power of the one true God was demonstrated over the false gods of the Egyptians.\n\nFor more, read Knowing God Through Exodus at\n\nBill Crowder\n\nBy | 2019-03-08T12:16:58+00:00 March 15th, 2019|", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.78825843334198}
+{"content": "Hams see Dark Side Of The Moon Without Pink Floyd\n\n\nHam radio operators bouncing signals off the moon have become old hat. But a ham radio transmitter on the Chinese Longjiang-2 satellite is orbiting the moon and has sent back pictures of the Earth and the dark side of the moon. The transceiver’s main purpose is to allow hams to downlink telemetry and relay messages via lunar orbit.\n\nWhile the photo was received by the Dwingeloo radio telescope, reports are that other hams also picked up the signal. The entire affair has drawn in hams around the world. Some of the communications use a modulation scheme devised by [Joe Taylor, K1JT] who also happens to be a recipient of a Nobel prize for his work with pulsars. The Dwingeloo telescope has several ham radio operators including [PA3FXB] and [PE1CHQ].\n\nYou can find technical particulars about the satellite on its web page. There are also GNU Radio receivers and information about tracking. If you want to listen in, you’ll need some gear, but it looks very doable. The same page details several successful ham radio stations including those from [PY2SDR], [CD3NDC], [PY4ZBZ], [N6RFM], and many others. While the Dwingeloo telescope is a 25-meter dish, most of the stations have more conventional looking Yagi or helical antennas.\n\nIf your Mandarin is up to it, there is live telemetry on that page, too. You might have more luck with the pictures.\n\nFor working conventional satellites, you often need an agile antenna. We suspect the lunar orbiting satellite appears to move less, but you’ll have other problems with more noise and weak signals. Although hams have been bouncing signals off the moon for decades, they’ve only recently started bouncing them off airplanes.\n\nGeef een reactie\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.997050940990448}
+{"content": "Jun 20 2018\n\nRail Freight Remains Reliable and Economical in Today’s Supply Chain Eco-system\n\nToday’s consumer presents shipping companies with many challenges, such as increasing their efficiency, delivering packages in a timely manner and, above all else, always catering to consumer needs.\n\nNew methods of delivery have sprung up left and right, including drone delivery, self-driving cars, and in-house delivery, which eliminates the customers’ need to actually go outside of the comfort of their home to pick up a package.\n\nWhile new technology presents new opportunities for shipping companies, there are a few modes of freight transportation that have withstood the test of time; one of them being rail carriers and rail freight.\n\nWhat Makes Rail Carriers Important Today?\n\nTrucking services remain a major mode of freight transportation within North America, but there are inherent issues that come with truck freight.\n\nThey’re often hindered by unexpected weather changes, like snow, rain, and thunderstorms. Driving on the open road also means truckers will encounter traffic, which means packages are more likely to arrive later than scheduled. Not to mention, truckers must adhere to the laws of the road, therefore speed limits need to be considered and other schedule altering rules.\n\nWhat makes rail carriers stand out compared to trucking services is their ability to travel long distances in a short amount of time and with a bulkier transportation load. A railcar, for example, can carry upwards of 50 to 70 tons, whereas a truck is usually limited to roughly 26 to 30 tons of freight.\n\nRail carriers carry a number of other advantages, such as:\n\n- Faster delivery time\n\n- Reliability in deliveries\n\n- Not affected by traffic jams\n\n- Economically friendly\n\n- Efficient long distance delivery\n\nSimply put, rail carriers have an unparalleled dependability factor, rivaled only by air freight. They’re often more organized and their routes and schedules are normally set in stone. If freight is meant to reach a rail yard at a specific time, shippers will rarely have to deal with any setbacks.\n\nAdvantages can be Negatives, too\n\nAll of that being said, rail carriers aren’t considered the one and only method for shippers; truck freight remains just as important. And that’s because while rail carriers offer nearly unbeatable advantages, those same advantages can play against them, as well.\n\nRail freight is undeniably more reliable, faster and typically more economical for shippers that can handle freight efficiently in rail yards. But before committing to a rail carrier, it’s important for a shipper to evaluate their delivery needs.\n\nCommodity, for example, can be an important factor when determining the price of delivery. If the freight being delivered is considered dangerous, then the cost of shipping increases dramatically. After that, shipping destination and load tonnage come into play, which can lead to unexpected costs.\n\nOther disadvantages include:\n\n- Idling deliveries in rail yards\n\n- Additional rail cars = increased costs\n\n- Unexpected engine failure\n\n- Negative impact on the environment\n\nThese points don’t necessarily make or break the efficacy of rail carriers, rather they’re aspects to be considered when committing to rail freight.\n\nRail Carriers Changing with the Times\n\nRail carriers and the use of rail freight won’t be disappearing any time soon. In fact, in the U.S. freight rails carries close to 5 percent of total cargo value in the country. It’s still an important tool for delivery companies and many rail carriers have recognized the time for change is now.\n\nIn order to cut costs on deliveries and increase fuel efficiency, rail freights have increased the distance between interchanges. Many rail carriers have addressed rail yard idling time and they’ve also switched to more fuel-efficient locomotives.\n\nBut more importantly, many rail carriers have invested in the future, meaning new technologies are on their way in order to improve procedures. Hybrid switch engines and hydrogen powered fuel cell locomotives are two projects under development that could change rail freight as we know it.\n\nStay tuned for a follow-up blog on these two new developments for rail carriers.\n\ncontact us\n\n\n* Required\n\n\nLink copied to clipboard", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8478831052780151}
+{"content": "Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland\n\nViniculture Switzerland\n\n\nThere is increasing evidence that warming trends have advanced wine grape harvest dates in recent decades (2). Across the globe, harvest dates advance approximately 6 days per degree of warming. Harvest dates are closely connected to the timing of grape maturation, which is highly sensitive to climate during the growing season. Specifically, warmer temperatures accelerate grapevine phenology over the full cycle of development (budburst, flowering, veraison and maturity), whereas increased precipitation tends to delay wine grape phenology (3). The earliest harvests thus generally occur in years where the growing season experiences warmer temperatures and drought (4).\n\nHigh-quality wines are typically associated with early harvest dates in many of the cooler wine-growing regions, such as France (5), and are also favoured by warm summers with above-average early-season rainfall and late season drought. Overall, both precipitation (6) and temperature (7) contribute to wine quality and the timing of harvest (8), although temperature is the most critical factor influencing wine grape phenology (9).\n\nMost research on the relation between climate and wine grape harvests has focused on relatively short, recent timescales, for example the past 30–40 years. Recently, over 400 years (1600–2007) of harvest data from Western Europe (France and Switzerland) have been analyzed. These data have been compared with (reconstructed and measured) data on temperature, precipitation and soil moisture over this period (1).\n\nIn this historical record, years with the latest and earliest harvest date were 1816 and 2003, respectively. 1816 was the so-called ‘Year without a Summer’ following the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. This eruption caused pronounced cooling over continental Europe during the growing season, with harvest dates delayed over three weeks. 2003 was one of the worst summer heat waves in recent history. Compared with the variability of harvest dates from one year to another in this historical record, average harvest dates were substantially earlier (about 10 days) in more recent decades (1981–2007) than in the previous 400 years (1).\n\nHistorically, high summer temperatures in Western Europe, which would hasten fruit maturation, required drought conditions to generate extreme heat. The relationship between drought and temperature in this region, however, has weakened in recent decades and enhanced warming from anthropogenic greenhouse gases can generate the high temperatures needed for early harvests without drought (1).\n\nGrape harvest date and wine quality depend on a number of factors beyond climate, including wine grape varieties, soils, vineyard management, and winemaker practices (10). The analysis of the historical record suggests, however, that the large-scale climatic drivers within which these generally local factors act has fundamentally shifted. Such information may be critical to wine production as climate change intensifies over the coming decades in France, Switzerland, and other wine-growing regions (1).\n\nLate spring frost is a severe risk during early plant development. It may cause important economic damage to grapevine production. In a warming climate, late frost risk either could decline due to the reduction in frost days and an advancement of the last day of frost or increase due to a more pronounced shift forward of the start of the active growing period of the plants. A study for the lower Swiss Rhone Valley shows that shifts in frost risk remain uncertain for the near future (the period 2021-2050 compared with 1961-1990): late spring frost risk may increase or decrease, depending on location and climate change projections (11).\n\n\n\n  1. Cook et al. (2016)\n  2. Jones and Davis (2000); Duchêne and Schneider (2005); Seguin and de Cortazar (2005); Schultz and Jones (2010); Tomasi et al. (2011); Camps and Ramos (2012); Webb et al. (2012), all in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  3. Jones et al. (2013), in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  4. Jones and Davis (2000), in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  5. Jones and Davis (2000); Jones et al. (2005), both in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  6. Van Leeuwen et al. (2009), in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  7. Baciocco et al. (2014), in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  8. Camps and Ramos (2012); Webb et al. (2012), both in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  9. Jones et al. (2005), in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  10. Jackson (1993); Van Leeuwen et al. (2013), both in: Cook et al. (2016)\n  11. Meier et al. (2018)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7621690034866333}
+{"content": "Inspired living\n\nBell's palsy\n\nBell’s palsy is characterised by facial weakness and paralysis as a result of inflammation of the facial nerve (cranial nerve number seven).\n\nRisk factors: pregnancy, diabetes, respiratory ailments and viral infections.\n\nSymptoms: inability to close the eyes, pain, tearing, drooling, hypersensitivity to sound and impaired taste.\n\nWho to consult: GP, naturopath, neurologist, speech therapist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993507266044617}
+{"content": "Inspired living\n\n\nLeukodystrophy is a progressive degeneration of the brain due to dysfunction in the growth or development of the lipid cover around nerves (myelin).\n\nSymptoms: declining function of an infant, loss of body tone, movement, speech, vision, hearing and behaviour.\n\nWho to consult: Dietician, GP, herbalist, homoeopath, naturopath, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech therapist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9978205561637878}
+{"content": "UK Requirements\n\nThe Equality Act 2010\n\n(incorporating the former Disability Discrimination Act)\n\nUnder reasonable adjustment there is a provision, a legal requirement  that a disabled person can request a personal emergency evacuation plan  for each building and facility they require access to.\n\nThe Team at Access and Evacu8 Ltd offer companies a ‘ consultancy contracts’ to handle disability inquiries,  advice on access issues and a staff training package that is bespoke to  the company.\n\nAccess and Evacu8 Ltd work closely with design and build teams on projects that range across all sectors, these include football stadia, major  shopping centres, airports and large private housing initiatives\n\nThe Building Regulations Part M\n\nUnder approved document M reasonable provision shall be made for  people to gain access to and use the building and its facilities. The regulations set minimum legal standards for access and use of the building by disabled people.\n\nFire Safety.\n\nBritish standard BS9999: 2017  ‘Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings. Code of practice’\n\nThe fire risk assessment can be used to assist in  completing the record of significant findings and should include a detailed account of measures which  are in place to facilitate and assist disabled people to leave the building.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984163045883179}
+{"content": "Global News\n\nInternational Nationwide\n\nGlobal News\nThe controversy about world warming continues immediately and can continue for many decades to come back. Natural causes of worldwide warming include bursting of sunspots, solar output variations, volcanic explosions and modifications in the Earth’s orbit. Too much carbon gases within the ambiance, which causes the global temperature to shoot up causes global warming.\n\nI’m subscribed to number of information Twitters like BBC, CNN, The New York Occasions and few more. We at present have a high ocean water degree because of international warming. And never only that, they will sort specific key phrases similar to gulf news, worldwide business news, and center east information to arrive simply at the web pages they need instantly.\n\nThe plan is part of AB 32, a groundbreaking piece of environmental legislation that may make the state’s worst producers of greenhouse gases-answerable for as a lot as eighty-90% of the state’s carbon output-pay for their pollution. The use of these fossil fuels is directly chargeable for world warming, which is destroying the earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems.\n\nOrganizers later conceded that relying on social media alone to get their message out, even in a country as wired as Egypt, was not enough and traditional mainstream information media stays the dominate pressure in driving public opinion in that nation (Fahim, et al., 2011).\n\nBreaking World\n\nSome of the severe environmental crises dealing with us immediately is global warming. Its so simple as this – when you wish to succeed at Forex, you should be well conscious of the seriousness of the global information at any time. If there was one facet of global warming information that has pulled on the heartstrings of people it has been the impact of global warming on the animal kingdom.\n\nRefute -At one time, the newspaper I labored for banned this word because a building full of so-called skilled journalists from Britain, United States, Canada, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been constantly getting it incorrect.anonymous,uncategorized,misc,general,other\n\nBreaking International Headlines And Exclusives\n\nSuch activities would most certainly enhance worker morale through the gloom of a global downturn, whereas at the similar time enhance their mental capacity and create a studying group.\nglobal news agency, global news jawa timur, global news surabaya, global news tangerang, global news morning\n\nDioxins In Diapers Altering The World\n\nWebster defined drought as a period of beneath-common precipitation in a given region, leading to extended shortages in its water supply, whether atmospheric, floor water or floor water. The typical temperature of our planet has already increased zero.8 degrees Celsius over the past century and if appropriate steps are usually not taken to test the emissions of the two gases described above, it could increase to dangerously high ranges.\n\nIndian English news media subscribe and skim all nook or nook of this nation. The major greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane. Methane and carbon dioxide are among the naturally occurring greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and methane lock the atmospheric heat and ultimately trigger an increase in the atmospheric temperature.\n\nHow To Write Like A Journalist\n\nGlobal News\nSocial networking, additionally known as social media, is an online community the place a bunch of individuals get linked by bonds of friendship, skilled relationship or some form of common curiosity and keenness. Capturing the worldwide information discourse and accurately measuring the native press tenor in almost every country of the world requires an information source that continuously monitors home print, Internet, and broadcast media worldwide in their vernacular languages and delivers it as a uniform every day translated compilation.\n\nThis study makes use of a 30-yr translated archive of news stories from nearly every nation of the world, applying a variety of computational content evaluation approaches together with tone mining, geocoding, and community evaluation, to present Culturomics” The standard Culturomics method treats every phrase or phrase as a generic object with no related which means and measures only the change within the frequency of its utilization over time.\nglobal news bbc podcast, global news morning, global news agency\nThe newest buzz in little one-care products to hit global information is the hyperlink between dioxins, disposable diapers, and well being care points. One of the penalties of global warming in Canada may be witnessed on the Excessive Arctic, where polar bears and other species of animals are turning up which they don’t normally do. An Inuit, once often called Eskimos, has even mentioned that it would not be good for the animals to remain out in the open particularly on a warm climate and that it worries the individuals living there that sometime there will not be any meals for them.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.826998233795166}
+{"content": "Ode to Exploration: Men of Maize\n\n\nDuring the summer of 2018, we explored Mayan folklore through a Guatemalan historical lens. Inspired by the Creation of the Maya legend, our inaugural short film entitled “Men of Maize”—the eponymous SS19 collection—looks to embody the spirit of transition and further explores the intersection of Mayan and Catholic rituals in Central America. “Men of Maize” pays homage to the traditional narrative which historically accounts that all Mayans originated from maize (corn). The abstract film documented through the point of view of a local Guatemalan-born Shaman, Ignacio Ventura, serves as a visual narrative that illustrates the interlaced practices that have been largely affected by colonialism. The film incorporates and is juxtaposed with a distinct Eurocentric perspective to illuminate a multilayered cultural identity.\n\nS298188-R3-E038 (6).jpg\nChichicastenango, Guatemala\n\nChichicastenango, Guatemala\n\nIMG_9448 2.JPG\nAshya NYC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9981040954589844}
+{"content": "QuickSpin Bonuses From Winner Casino\n\nWinner Casino bonusPlayers earn achievements on selected games that have the Token symbol in the top left hand corner of the game. The player’s tokens can be used to buy bonus rounds on these games!\n\nWhen players play for real money, they automatically make progress towards getting achievements within the games. To access this area, players need to click on the achievements logo on the top left corner.\n\nEach achievement is tied to an event happening in the game. This game event needs to occur a certain amount of times before the achievement is completed.\n\n\nIn the achievements page players can see the title of the achievement, the description referring the game event, and their progress towards completing the current level of the achievement. The values displayed in the players progress are dependent on their bet size.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5513792037963867}
+{"content": "Calderas is a machine that functions to convert water or fire into steam. The process of changing water into steam occurs by heating water in the pipes by utilizing heat from the fuel combustion. Burning is carried out continuously in the combustion chamber by flowing fuel and air from outside. The steam produced by the boiler is superheated steam with high pressure and temperature. The amount of steam production depends on the heat transfer surface area, flow rate, and heat of combustion given.\n\nLike other industrial equipment, calderas have components that help convert water or fire into steam. Boilers are widely used especially in industrial plants because they are capable of being an alternative steam power plant. The components contained in boilers include:\n\n– Steam Drum\nSteam drums function as a reservoir of hot water and where steam is formed. This drum holds saturated steam along with water with a ratio between 50% water and 50% steam. to avoid so that the water is not carried away by steam, then it is fitted with barriers, water that has a low temperature will drop down and high-temperature water will rise upwards and then evaporate.\n\n– Air Heater\nThis component is a tool that serves to heat the air used to blow fuel so that it can burn completely. The air to be exhaled, before passing through the water heater has the same temperature as the normal air temperature (outside temperature) which is 38 ° C. However, after going through the air heater, the temperature of the air will increase to 230 ° C so that it can be used to eliminate the water content contained in it because water vapor can disrupt the combustion process.\n\n– Dust Collector\nThis section serves to capture or collect the ash in the combustion stream until the dust that follows the exhaust gas. The advantage of using this tool is the combustion gases which are discharged into the air free of dust. The reason is that dust can pollute the air in the surrounding environment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9514746069908142}
+{"content": "We are all Russian dolls.\n\nI have recently started watching the new Netflix series Russian Doll. The show is centered around 36-year-old Nadia. Nadia has a big problem. She keeps living the same day -her 36th birthday- over and over again. At the end of each “birthday” she winds up dying! However, each show, like the Russian nesting dolls, brings Nadia more and more into alignment with her truer, higher self: the self at the center of the illusions Nadia has about who and what she thinks she is.\n\nThere are many different ways to describe the quest for the true self. Abraham Maslow described it in terms of an individual and the hierarchy of needs. Joseph Campbell discussed the process of self-actualization in terms of the mythological hero’s journey. Religions all over the world have a Christ or Buddha figure who face challenges that lead them to enlightenment.\n\nThe Koshas and the quest for the True Self.\n\nOne way that yoga practitioners approach psycho-spiritual development is through the koshas. The word kosha means “sheath”. Like the chakras, the koshas are part of the pranic, or energy, body. We can’t see the koshas with our physical eyes, but we can intuitively sense them. We can imagine the koshas by visualizing Russian nesting dolls. Like the dolls, or Nadia, for that matter, our true self is at the center of several other layers, or koshas.\n\nWe often become aware of the koshas when there is an imbalance of some sort. When we experience physical, mental, or emotional distress, we can look to the koshas to find the root cause of what is ailing us. The health of one kosha affects the others. It is very important to take care of each level or layer of our being so that we can express the highest version of our self possible at any given moment.\n\nThe first kosha: annamaya kosha.\n\nThe first kosha is the annamaya kosha, or “food stuff” sheath. It is the outermost kosha and is comprised of the physical body: our bones, muscles, organs, etc. Many yogis first encounter yoga practice through the annamaya kosha. Most westerners are introduced to hatha yoga before they learn other yogic techniques such as pranayama and meditation.\n\nOur modern yoga practice is based on the Yoga Sutras, a series of writings attributed to a sage named Patanjali. Patanjali only mentions yoga poses –asanas– once in the Yoga Sutras: “Sthira sukham asanam”, or “asana is a steady, comfortable posture.” (Yoga Sutras 2:46.)\n\nHumans are meant to feel steady and comfortable in their bodies. When we do not, there is something wrong. If there is unresolved trauma in our mental, emotional, or spiritual bodies, eventually it will show up in annamaya kosha, the physical body. In order to heal we can work from the inside out or the outside in, but we must address our wounds on all levels of our being. For example, if we only do the psycho-spiritual work involved in overcoming a sugar addiction, but ignore the fact that we ate an entire box of cookies for dinner last night, it is spiritually bypassing. However, if we think all we have to do to overcome our sugar addiction is to quit eating cookies, like Nadia repeating her birthday over and over again, we are setting ourselves up to continue the unwanted behavior in its original form or a new manifestation until the root cause is resolved.\n\nWe are embodied beings.\n\nWhatever we do to or with our physical body, we are doing to or with annamaya kosha. We care for annamaya kosha by getting adequate rest, spending time in natural sunlight, drinking fresh water, and eating a diet appropriate for our unique constitution. Annamaya kosha is also genetically influenced, so it is important to be as informed as possible of our family’s health and wellness history.\n\nFortunately, our lifestyle also affects annamaya kosha. Even if we have or are experiencing health challenges, we can always choose to do things differently. This may mean a change in diet or exercise, or it may mean a change in our attitude. Usually, it is both.\n\nThe most important lesson of the annamaya kosha is to be in our bodies. We get so caught up in our head! One of the things I notice when teaching new yoga students is the relief, enthusiasm, and sometimes frustration of the embodied experience. Students stretch muscles they didn’t even know they had! They are surprised at what their bodies can do, and sometimes frustrated by what their bodies have forgotten how to do. As we continue to practice, we discover a sense of belonging that is more than can be attributed to the studio where we practice. When we know ourselves in this world as embodied beings, we come home.\n\n\n\nBut wait! There’s more! Stay tuned. In March we’ll take a look at the second kosha: the pranamaya kosha.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7677360773086548}
+{"content": "Sake of Nado Gogo : one of the leading sake-making regions\n\nwritten by\nAya Asakura\nphoto by\nAya Asakura\n\nHyogo Prefecture, where Kobe is located, accounts for 80% of all the cultivation of Yamada-nishiki, the king of rice for making sake in Japan. The area is Japan’s sake mecca, ranking number one in sake production in the nation. Ever since the first half of the 17th century when sake brewing began in earnest, the area abutting the coast line between Kobe and Osaka, nicknamed Nada Gogo, has been well known for its sake. Even at present, 27 sake breweries are continuing with operations in the five Nada villages of Imazu, Nishinomiya, Uozaki, Mikage, and Nishi.\n\n\nBeing blessed with the fine water known as “miyamizu” is one of the reasons why sake production is so popular in this region. Miyamizu is subterranean water. Since the rain that falls on the Rokko Mountains passes through layers of granite, this water absorbs plenty of phosphor and kalium that serve as the nutrients for yeast. Three veins of subterranean water merge together at the point where it springs out. Through the workings of oxygen contained in abundance in one vein, an almost miraculous phenomenon occurs whereby only the iron that could harm the sake’s flavor disappears so as to boost the tastiness of Nada Gogo sake.\n\n\nYamada-nishiki rice is said to have been born in the north side of Mount Rokko 80 years ago. This area is fortunate to have long hours of sunshine and only a small amount of rainfall. It is suitable for growing Yamada-nishiki, as it is also blessed with the meteorological condition of a great disparity between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Since the grains of Yamada-nishiki are large, they can be polished down to nearly 30% of their original brown rice form in the pursuit of a refined taste with little roughness. Daiginjo, the ultimate rank in Japanese sake, is born that way.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9786420464515686}
+{"content": "Heute 78\n\nGestern 112\n\nInsgesamt 38956689\n\nSonntag, 26.05.2019\neGovernment Forschung seit 2001 | eGovernment Research since 2001\n\nHis Majesty chairs part of Cabinet meeting\n\nHis Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday highlighted the importance for appointments in the government to be based on competence and expertise, and to be transparent and just.\n\nKing Abdullah, during a visit to the Prime Ministry where he chaired part of a Cabinet meeting, directed the government to explain its decisions to citizens and to reconsider any appointment that was not based on transparent and fair procedures, according to a Royal Court statement.\n\nHis Majesty stressed the importance of holding employees and officials accountable for any shortcoming while performing their duties, and to join the efforts of all to develop the level of services presented to citizens.\n\n“We want to serve our citizens in a transparent and devoted manner,” the King said.\n\nKing Abdullah called for facilitating procedures for citizens and investors and not to complicate them, referring in this regard to the importance of speeding up procedures of implementing the e-government programme, which can curb corruption and save time and effort.\n\nAs for efforts exerted in addressing graft, His Majesty highlighted the importance of procedures that state institutions have recently adopted, stressing the need to continue adopting a transparent and clear approach that forms the basic point in enhancing confidence between the government and citizens.\n\nPrime Minister Omar Razzaz said that the meetings held with Iraqi officials have started to bear positive results, noting that the government in planning to hold a meeting on Saturday with the private sector to discuss challenges facing various industries and ways to overcome them.\n\nRazzaz stressed that the government is implementing His Majesty’s directives to combat corruption, referring to the government’s efforts to dealing with violations in the Audit Bureau’s report and endorsing the Illicit Gains Law.\n\nHe added that the Cabinet is aware the challenges facing citizens stem from poverty and unemployment, noting that the projects currently being implemented by the government aim to address these issues, including satellite factories in governments and expanding the aid programme for underprivileged families.\n\nThe premier reviewed the government’s plans and programmes in the fields of e-government and cybersecurity, pointing out that all electronic services will be fully implemented by 2020, following the finalisation of the electronic signature technology at the end of this year.\n\nLater in the day, Razzaz instructed the government to revisit the recent appointments in senior government jobs, and announced that the government would immediately launch a comprehensive assessment of all appointments, in accordance with the King’s directives.\n\n\nQuelle/Source: The Jordan Times, 06.02.2019\n\nBitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:\n\nZum Seitenanfang", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8981868028640747}
+{"content": "October 18, 2017 2 min read\n\n2017 has been an intense, and in many cases record-breaking, wildfire season – especially on the west coast of North America.\n\nDespite predictions that this season would be relatively mild due to ample rain and snow last winter, excessive heat combined with dry vegetation and strong winds have created conditions for fires to start and spread more easily.\n\nBritish Columbia has lost over 2.86 million (yes million!) acres to deforestation from wildfires this year, while totals are at over 1 million acres for California in the U.S., with another 1-2 million combined in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and surrounding states.\n\nAnd this is just a part of the overall story, as the wildfires are raging in many regions around the world, including Brazil, Indonesia, Zambia, Greenland and many, many more (here is a forest fires map).\n\nWhat’s the impact? \n\nIt’s difficult to comprehend the totality of what is lost. First, there is the human and economic loss, as hundreds of thousands of people have had to evacuate homes, businesses, and hospitals, with some losing everything. Then there is a loss of wildlife and biodiversity as millions of animals, plants, and trees are decimated. And then the environmental damage of such immense swaths of carbon-storing, oxygen-producing resources disappearing, releasing all their CO2 into the atmosphere.\n\nDon’t worry, we’ll end on a hopeful note, but it’s important to reflect and acknowledge the challenges at hand when it comes to recovery.\n\nGenerally speaking, here are 7 wildfire facts: \n\n1. About 90% of wildfires in the United States are started by humans.\n\n2. In a non-human world, wildfires would mostly be started by lightning strikes.\n\n3. On average, more than 100,000 wildfires clear 4-5 million acres (1.6-2 million hectares) of land in the U.S. every year. In recent years, wildfires have burned up to 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of land.\n\n4. It takes an average of 2-4 years after a wildfire before reforestation efforts can begin. Saplings simply wouldn’t survive until the soil has begun to naturally replenish, can absorb water, and can support new life. It also takes time to mobilize resources for large-scale reforestation.\n\n5. Increases in the cost of battling active wildfires have greatly reduced the budgets available for prevention, which creates a domino effect of worsening conditions.\n\n6. Climate change, as predicted, is fueling longer, stronger, and quicker-to-start wildfires.\n\n7. After wildfires, pioneer species of plants and fungus are the first to colonize the damaged ecosystem, beginning a chain of ecological succession that leads to biodiversity and stability. When this happens, it is a sign that reforestation can begin in order to hasten recovery.\n\nSo... now what?\n\nHere’s what we’re doing:\n\n  1. Connecting with our partners on the ground to establish viable reforestation projects when the recently affected regions are ready for planting. This includes Cal Fire, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in California.\n  2. Planting trees in the areas that are ready for saplings now, including CaliforniaOregonBritish ColumbiaColorado, and Indonesia all planned for spring 2018 planting. \n  3. Exploring ways to fund initiatives that are complementary to planting trees, such as education programs. And exploring more on-the-ground partnerships in the states or countries where we do not have them yet.\n\nWant to help? \n\nEvery dollar plants a tree\n\nIt only takes a few seconds to give nature a chance at recovery.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996901154518127}
+{"content": "Blog //Pandora and the \"genes\" of music genres\n\nHello, it’s been a while since I blogged. You may remember me as the music Ph.D. student who was last heard from pondering the uses of Google Scholar. I’m on a new mission this semester, studying for my comprehensive exams. One of the topics I am researching and preparing an essay on is about genre in popular music. The concept may seem initially so self-evident, you may wonder what there is to write about it, per se. Oh, but there’s lots. This is because the issue of genre always involves the issue of classification, which inherently provokes debate. Take, for instance, a star performer like Beck. His music often includes acoustic guitar, and he’s covered Mississippi John Hurt. So he must be a folkie. Oh wait, but he also apes Prince on some funky jams. So maybe he’s a pop star. But he also headlines a bunch of big rock festivals, and we find his music in the “Rock” section at the record store (wait, what’s a record store?). So I guess we’ll call him a rocker.\n\nMy point being, popular music can be difficult to pin down using genre tags. You’ll find this evidenced in any number of press interviews with musicians who, when pressed by a journalist, pull out that time-worn chesnut that their sound is “unclassifiable”. Genre tags, be it pop, country, rock, hip-hop, salsa, what have you are almost like identifying pornography: I’ll know it when I see it. It’s often somewhat easier to identify what a genre isn’t than what it actually is. Fans and even so-called experts often have difficulty articulating why a particular song or artist fits in a given genre. Based on my readings for this exam topic thus far, I would argue this is because the act of classifying something is essentially making a statement about its meaning: not just semantic/musical meaning, but also meaning that’s intensely cultural, and often political.\n\nThat’s why I like musicologist Robert Walser’s definition of genre in popular music. Updating similar ideas that literary critic Tzvetan Todorov has explored, Walser argues that “Genres…come to function as horizons of expectations for readers (or listeners) and as models of composition for authors (or musicians).”[1] In other words, genres labels are modes of discourse wherein musicians, fans, and music industry workers collaborate to make meaning surrounding the music they love. And perhaps surrounding is the key word, there; one can debate about styles of music with a friend all night long, or a record store employee can create increasingly hyper-specialized bin cards for various sub-genres (Psychobilly, Krautrock, etc.). We circle around the sounds we hear through discourse about them, but ultimately, on a musical-sound level, how do we know that Beck belongs in the “rock” section? As Franco Fabbri has noted, problems with genre are “frontier” problems: “We meet with these whenever we attempt to indicate something which exists at the boundary of two or three zones of meaning.”[2] When considering genre tags, there seems to exist an inescapable gap between our need to accurately label a piece of music and the slippery semantic meanings of recorded sound, which may in any given moment resemble two, three, or even more genres.\n\nWhat then, friends, does this problem have to do with digital humanities? Well, as I research and read in preparation for this exam, I can’t help but frequently think of an Internet service called Pandora that’s richly illustrative of many of these genre issues. For those who may not know, Pandora, a free website based out of Oakland, California since the early ‘00s, is a relatively new and different kind of streaming online radio station. Whereas the playlist at a streaming station such as UVa’s own WTJU is determined by in-the-studio DJs, and the “radio” playlist at a website such as is determined by a process called collaborative filtering (more on this in my next blog), Pandora is notable for its novel method of selecting songs for listeners. Here’s how it works: enter an artist or song into Pandora’s search engine, and the website will issue you a streaming series of songs by artists considered similar to the one you entered. And how is this similarity determined? Through the Music Genome Project, Pandora’s massive undertaking and claim to fame.\n\nThe Music Genome Project, whose work is carried out by roughly fifty analysts at the company’s headquarters in Oakland, is an effort to deconstruct and categorize aspects of pop songs using over 400 different “musical attributes” that the company believes comprise the spectrum of recorded sound. It’s a rigorous close-listening endeavor, specifically intended to focus on aspects like timbre, tempo, harmonic movement, and instrumentation instead of aspects like album art and whether or not the artist has appeared on TRL. This scientific (or pseudo-scientific, depending upon one’s perspective) attention to sonic detail seems—to me at least—an attempt to get beyond the established languages of pop music genres by diving into the nitty-gritty which makes genres what they are. The company builds its credibility as an almost-biologic “genome” of musical characteristics through the depth and breadth of songs it has analyzed: over half a million and counting, according to Pandora’s website. Pandora says that each of these songs is listened to for 20 to 30 minutes by a trained analyst who tags the song with Pandora-authored characteristics—everything from “meandering melodic phrasing” to “chopped and screwed production”. The company claims that theirs is the most comprehensive effort to systematically categorize music—ever.\n\nFrom the perspective of an academic studying pop music genres, the Music Genome Project presents several fascinating issues. Until my next blog, I’ll briefly set aside an investigation of the company’s claim it can create a taxonomy of the “genes” of popular music. Instead, what I first find most interesting is the story of Pandora and the Music Genome Project’s origins. In a January 2006 interview with podcast program “Inside the Net”, Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren told hosts Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur that he first originated the idea of a music genome while a struggling rock musician himself. He told them his band was “facing the challenge of trying to get known,” and in so doing brainstorming about what aspects of a rock song tend to attract the most commercial attention. Additionally, Westergren shared the intriguing information that he was a film composer at the same time, working for hire to complement a director’s visuals in a given scene. He told Laporte and MacArthur that “In that capacity, one of the things that I had to do was to try and figure out the music taste of a film director.” Westergren said that this challenge was part of what got him thinking about music in terms of distinct, differentiable attributes.\n\nIt just so happens that one of my other exam topics this semester concerns film music soundtracks. Having read much of the academic literature on film music, what Westergren recounts here is fascinating—and doesn’t surprise me. The specific challenges a composer faces when working on a film—How do I balance my need to please the director with my need to express personal creativity?—is a central theme of the literature. Scholars even further back than Irwin Bazelon in 1975 have remarked that the collaboration is by nature difficult, “since the composer spends his entire life in music, working out specific musical relationships, while the director spends his time out of music, involved full-time with films—a visual medium—and only part-time with music, as it affects his film”.[3] Even if the director is a fan of music and has interesting ideas about how she wants it used, if she’s not a musician herself she may have difficulty communicating concepts to the composer which can be actualized musically.\n\nThat challenge has interesting aspects as regards musical genre. On the one hand, bridging the communication gap between composer and director can often force each out of their comfort zone, resulting in new timbres, new melodies—innovation. Many pieces composed for film are quite short, maybe less than a minute in duration, so they often don’t have space in the film to unfold into full-blown genre exercises. This process of collaboration between sound and images in many ways results in the most “hybrid” music imaginable.\n\nFrom another perspective, however, film music cues are also remarkably genre-bound. Not necessarily bound by musical genres per se (classical, country, pop, rock, etc.), but bound by the generic conventions of film itself. Due to the standardized production practices of most movies, film as a medium tends to be more amenable to genre classification—and soundtracks can play a key role in that[4]. For instance, soaring strings sketching out an American traditional folk or “cowboy” song, and the audience suddenly knows we’re in a Western. A minor key piano melody and a sultry saxophone, and we know we’re watching a film noir. Given that these generic conventions of film music most certainly exist, it makes me wonder what sorts of films Westergren was scoring as part of his job. Perhaps offbeat indie-Sundance dramas which were aiming for a kind of transcendence of genre strictures?\n\nIn any case, the fact that the Music Genome Project origin story involves the world of film music tells me that musical genre was on Westergren’s mind as he brainstormed—even if he sought to rebel against the concept. Additionally, the Project’s roots in soundtrack-for-hire work demonstrate that you can never take the music business out of the music: commercial forces and the presence of an paying audience (real or imagined) inflect in some way all decisions musicians and music industry workers make. As Westergren’s rock band tailoring their sound in an attempt to “get known” reminds us, market considerations are basically always in a dialectical relationship with “creativity” as a musical genre forms—and this includes classical and avant-garde genres which claim to be above that kind of stuff.\n\nGiven the commercialized roots of the Music Genome Project, it’s a bit surprising to me that the music industry has fought Pandora as tooth-and-nail as they have. It’s common knowledge that traditional AM/FM commercial radio has been the music industry’s biggest promotional tool during the 20th century. But as traditional radio fades in influence and web radio such as Pandora ascends, the industry leaders have been notoriously less willing to jump onto the 21st-century Internet bandwagon of music promotion.\n\nDespite the fact that Pandora streams tracks instead of allowing users to illegally download—which means, in my opinion, that record company executives should be groveling at Pandora’s feet in thanks—the major-label music industry has seemed intent upon shutting them down. Or, to be more specific, the labels’ demands (through representative organization SoundExchange) for higher royalty payments created expenses Pandora was finding impossible to sustain. Following a federal board ruling mandating increased royalty rates for web radio, in August of last year the Washington Post quoted Westergren as saying Pandora was “approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision”. On the brink of shutting down, Westergren appealed to the company’s subscribers to contact their local representatives on behalf of web radio—and the gambit seems to have worked. The ruling was reconsidered, and currently representatives from both web radio and the music industry are negotiating newer, more manageable royalty rates. Pandora seems to be approaching a delicate truce with the market forces which, to me, seem constitutive of its role as a source for promoting and discovering popular music. (In other words, what took the industry so long to accept current reality?)\n\nIn the next installment of this blog, I’ll continue my exploration of Pandora, especially the logic behind its attempt to map “genes” of music and to approach music in a mode somehow “beyond” genre.\n\n[1] Walser, Robert. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1993. p. 29.\n\n[2] Fabbri, Franco and Iain Chambers. “What Kind of Music?”. Popular Music, Vol. 2, Theory and Method (1982), pp. 131-143.\n\n[3] Bazelon, Irwin. Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1975.\n\n[4] Holt, Fabian. Genre in Popular Music. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. 4-5.\n\nCite this post: Jason Kirby. “Pandora and the \"genes\" of music genres”. Published April 08, 2009. Accessed on .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8790310621261597}
+{"content": "Religion and World View - Columbia Center for New Media\n\nReligion and World View\nThe Religions of South Asia:\nA Historical Introduction\nAnne Murphy\nThe content of this essay—the religions of South Asia—is important for several\nreasons. Hinduism and Buddhism alone have contributed to a dynamic\ninterchange among Asian countries and between Asia and other parts of the\nworld, from the time of the Silk Road to today. Religion continues to be of great\nimportance in understanding society, culture, and politics, broadly speaking, in\nthe subcontinent. Closer to home, South Asian religions are the aspect of South\nAsian culture and history probably most commonly taught about in U.S. schools.\nCareful consideration of how South Asian religions have commonly been taught\nin the United States provides some cautions for educators. When teaching about\nSouth Asian history and culture, it is important to note that religious traditions\nrepresent only an important facet of the region’s cultural life, and should not be\nseen to encompass all political, social, and economic issues. Teaching should\nalso focus on historical and cultural specificity, taking care to highlight regional\ndifferences and changes that have occurred through time. For example, texts\nand practices actually only relevant to a minority (for example, Brahmins in north\nIndia) have often been represented in the West as universal, thereby\nmarginalizing equally and sometimes more important traditions. Contextualizing\nterms and ideas within traditions and encouraging students to ask what they\nmight mean in particular historical circumstances is also important with respect\nto teaching about South Asian religions. For instance, the term dharma has\nseveral shades of meaning depending on what context it is in (Hindu or\nBuddhist, Vedic or medieval, etc.).\nOne last caution relates to what we mean when we talk about “religion.” All too\noften, Western (European and Euro-American) assumptions define the religious\nin particular ways, and assume a narrative parallel to that familiar from JudeoChristian traditions: we tend to look for a founder, a central holy book, a\nparticular day reserved for worship and, particularly among those most familiar\nwith Christianity, priority to belief and theology over practice and law. Studying\nSouth Asian religions requires a different rubric, one that focuses on multiplicity\nrather than singularity—a multiplicity of important figures, texts, and practices.\nWith interpretive issues like these in mind, we begin our historical introduction\nto the religions of South Asia.\nThe Indus Valley and Vedic Culture\nWe return to the Indus River Valley for some of the earliest historical evidence\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nA major Hindu\ndeity associated\nwith asceticism\nand yogic\npractice. He is\nregarded as the\n‘Destroyer,’ and\noften portrayed in\nrelation to\nBrahma, the\n‘Creator,’ and\nVishnu, the\nnomandic tribes\nthat migrated\nfrom the steppes\nof southern\nRussia into the\nhad cultural ties\nto the Greeks and\nRomans, and\nspoke Sanskrit.\n‘Color’; A system\nof social\ndescribed in\nSanskrit sources.\nregarding South Asian religious life. The Indus was the center of the earliest\nor Harappan culture (ca. 2800-1500 B.C.E.). Some scholars postulate continuities\nthe goddess in Hinduism. Scholars speculate that the great god Shiva, who\nevidence is entirely material.\nthe available evidence how the arya, their culture, and language came to dominate\nthe area. Interactions between the arya and other local peoples are to a degree\nBrahmins or ritual specialists; Kshatriyas or warriors; Vaishyas or merchants;\nand Shudras, made up of laborers, artisans, and farmers. According to this\nschema many non-Aryans (but certainly not all) would have been relegated to\nthe lowest class of Shudras. This formulation, however, was prescriptive and not\ndescriptive in nature, and therefore does not reveal much about actual social\nAlthough they do not provide insight into all aspects of society, the Veda do\npeople, a class of ritual specialists or priests (Brahmins) who transmitted the texts\nVedic texts is sacrifice, which often involved animals or plants. The ritual acts\nand associated words were the primary means of communicating with various\ndeities and gaining their favor. The correct ritual action was held to bring about a\nparticular effect if completed correctly.\nProminent among the gods invoked and assuaged through sacrifice was the\nprominent in contemporary Hinduism, but the Veda are considered to be\nuse of the sacrificial fire continue today.\nFoundations of the Contemplative, Renunciatory Model:\nThe Upanishads\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nVedic culture was settled and urbanized. Within this society, renunciation\nbecame a valid social option among diverse sectors, providing space for\nshramanas, or\nascetics who sought liberation from the world of suffering through austerity.\nThe Upanishads, represent these perspectives within orthodox Vedic tradition,\nwithout rejecting the authority and primacy of the Veda.\nfocus on individuals and their relationship with the world. Their primary\nequivalency of ātman, the self (which can refer both to the spiritual center of a\nperson and the living, breathing person) and Brahman, the divine reality that\npervades the cosmos. This equivalency/connection, however, is only one of the\nmany explored in the Upanishads. Others are much more worldly and relate to\nthe physical body and manifest world around us.\ncontemporary writings but with profound changes. The cycle of birth and\nrebirth called samsāra is introduced for the first time in the Upanishads, as is an\nexpanded meaning of karma, which means “action.” In earlier Vedic literature,\nkarma referred to ritual actions that were governed by a law of cause and effect,\nnot by the will of the gods. The correct ritual action was seen to bring about a\nparticular effect if completed correctly. This process is extended in Upanishadic\nthought to relate to all actions—they have certain effects according to an\nimmutable law and such effects govern the process of rebirth. The Upanishadic\nidea of moksha, the possibility of liberation from samsara, was a radically\nachievement of certain goals and positive results in this world. The paired\nconcepts of renunciation and enlightenment or release came to have a profound\ninfluence upon the development of religious and philosophical thought in South\nideologies have remained in Indian intellectual and religious thought to this day.\nResponses to and Reformulation of Vedic traditions:\nBuddhism and Its Contexts\ncontemporary major movements, those founded by Mahavira (Jainism) and\nSiddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (Buddhism). These shramana movements\nshare much of the basic worldview of the Upanishads but propose radical reevaluations of Vedic practice and ideology. Both reject the ultimate authority of\nthe Veda, unlike the Upanishadic tradition.\nIndia: Historic\nPerspectives Teacher’s Guide\nsaint or religious\nReligion and World View\nform the center of Buddhist religious thought and identity. There is a tendency\nin the West to understand Buddhism primarily through textual and philosophical\nBuddha and sacred sites such as stupas, reliquary monuments holding the\nJataka Tales. Memorials and tales of his followers and great saints as well as\nstories of the myriad beings that are prominent in Buddhist cosmology, play a\ngreat role in Buddhist history and ritual.\nAn understanding\nof the world within\ntime and space; a\nImportant in the\nHindu, Jain, and\nBuddhist contexts;\nliterally, a type of\ntext that describes\nritual practices\n(sadhana) that\nencourage the\ntransformation of\nthis world into the\nmeans toward and\nexperience of\nLiterally “birth”;\nRefers to a\nhereditary kin\ngroup, often set in\nrelation to other\nThe Mahāyāna, or “great vehicle,” came into being at the beginning of the\nCommon Era, and its supporters labeled prior traditions as the Hināyāna or\ntwo. A series of texts were associated with the Māhayāna, one of them being the\nLotus Sutra, which were not accepted by earlier schools. These texts describe a\nrole of the bodhisattva— one who strives toward enlightenment but remains\nMuslim invaders contributed to the disappearance of Buddhism from India in\nthe twelfth century, but it has thrived into the present in its Māhāyana and\ncentury. The Jain tradition, on the other hand, has continued uninterrupted into\nmodernity, with the majority of its adherents in western India.\nthinkers encouraged the reformulation and strengthening of particular aspects of\nVedic traditions and the reassertion of the authority of Brahmins. Literature of\nconcept of Four Stages of Life (āshramadharma) was articulated here,\nto him or her corresponding to his or her place within the varna and jāti\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nThe European term\nused to describe the\nReligion and World View\nhierarchical systems, and corresponding to his (the emphasis here on men) stage\nin life, or āshrama. The system defined appropriate roles and responsibilities for\nmen from the upper three castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. Four stages\nwere identified: celibate student, householder, hermit or forest dwelling\n(undertaken toward the end of life), and renunciation. Four possible aims in life\nwere identified: artha (economic and social success), dharma (here, learning),\nkāma (pleasure), and moksha (liberation). Students were to concentrate on\ndharma, householders to be concerned with artha and kāma, and only in the final\nstage of life, that of a wandering holy man, was moksha a goal. The system did\nnot hold for all—particularly for those excluded due to their sex or low position\nin the varna and jāti systems—and renunciation was never universally embraced,\nthough it remained an ideal. Position in these systems was hereditary, but actual\nhierarchical relationships were extremely contextually dependent and somewhat\nPuranic and Temple Hinduism and Bhakti\nThe religion that we now call Hinduism began to take a recognizable shape in\nMahābhārata (containing the Bhagavad Gītā) and Rāmāyana were\ncomposed, along with the Purānas. The Mahābhārata recounts the tragic conflict\nbetween the Pāndavas and Kauravas, while the Rāmāyana relates the tale of King\nRāma (an incarnation of Vishnu, see below), who was exiled from his kingdom for\n14 years in the company of his wife, Sītā, and his brother Lakshman. These\nepics have had a profound influence throughout South Asia and even in\nSoutheast Asia, where Hinduism waned as a primary religious force.\nThe Purānas provide stories of the gods who were to take a central place within\nGoddess, among others. Vaishnavism (the sect of Vishnu), as it developed\nwere absorbed into the overarching Vishnu tradition through the idea of\navatāra, or incarnations (Vishnu is said to have 10 major incarnations who\nappeared in the world to save it from evil), and into aspects of one personality\nthe Bhagavad Gītā, and as the ruler of Dwarka in his adult life). The Goddess\nPārvati, Lakshmī, Shrī, Kālī, and Durgā are some of the names she goes by.\nIn all forms, she is Devī, “the Goddess.” Shiva is the ultimate ascetic. His body\ndangerous yogic powers. Shiva is also married to Pārvati and is intimately tied to\nthe Goddess in her many other forms as well.\nThese three divinities—Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi—represent the three main\ndeities worshipped in Hindu practice. Those who worship Vishnu are\nGoddess are Shakta (from shakti, or “power,” the feminine force that the\nIndia: Historic\nand Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nGods considered\nas a group.\nReligion and World View\nGoddess possesses). Although part of the trīmurti (Hindu trinity), Brahma (the\n“Creator”) is not often the object of worship. Other deities have gained in\npopularity, such as Ganesha (the son of Shiva and Pārvati) and Hanuman (the\nmonkey god who aided Rāma in the Rāmāyana). It is important to note that\nalthough there are many deities represented in the Hindu pantheon,\nmanifestations of one central force in the universe. Therefore, many Hindus\ntoday (as in the past) see themselves as believing in a single divine presence\n(referred to in scripture as Brahman) that takes form in endlessly diverse ways.\nA dispersion of a\npeople from their\noriginal homeland.\nIn the dynamic urban hubs of the regional kingdoms established in the wake of\nGupta power (after 500 C.E.), temples acted as both religious and social centers\ngranting Brahmins large areas from which to collect taxes to finance temple\ndevelopment. Temples provided homes for the Hindu deities, and the images\nenshrined within represented the deities and in many cases embodied them.\nfrom sacrifice as the primary form of religious worship. Pūja remains a central\nand congregational forms of worship. The temple, however, was an extremely\nimportant institution tied to the growing importance of pilgrimage as a form of\nreligious practice. Temples were often established at holy sites associated with\nsaints and the manifestation of deities.\nA language that\nhas different\nlinguistic roots\nfrom Sanskrit and\nis mainly spoken\nin the southeastern\nIndian state of\nTamil Nadu;\nconsidered a\nclassical south\nIndian language.\nworship. This movement of ecstatic devotion started in southern India in the\neighth century C.E. among saints who sang praises for god in Tamil rather than\nVishnu, and Devī —were the foci of radical devotion in Hinduism, but such\nDevotionalism came to influence and transform Brahminical traditions, just as it\nMirabai, a Rajasthani princess who dared to eschew familial responsibilities in\nfavor of devotion to her Lord and God, Krishna.\nAlthough devotionalism is associated with vernacular languages and texts, it is\nalso found in Sanskrit texts, most notably in the Bhagavad Gītā, which became\nconversation between the hero of the Pāndava clan, Arjuna, and Krishna,\nmentors and relatives. Krishna discusses with him the religious and philosophical\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nimplications of his choice, asserting the necessity of fulfilling svadharma (one’s\ndharma, or duty) and performing right action without attention to the results of\nsuch action. The path of devotion, also called bhakti yoga is identified as a\nviable means to moksha, alongside the paths of knowledge (jñāna yoga) and\nunattached action (karma yoga). At the end of this section of the Bhagavad Gītā,\nKrishna reveals himself in all his glory to Arjuna, and bhakti yoga is revealed as a\nprimary means to reaching god.\nThe Introduction of Islam\neastern lands where Hinduism and Buddhism and the South Asian languages and\nworld. Adherents of Zoroastrianism (now known as Parsis) came to India in\nthe early eighth century C.E. from Persia, present-day Iran. Islam began to shape\nwhen Arab traders first came to the shores of Gujarat.\nIslam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula in the\nseventh century C.E. and came to exert a profound influence across Asia, Europe,\nand Africa. Islam provided a monotheistic religious worldview in contrast to the\npolytheistic system that preceded it in Arabia. The community formed around\nit—followers of Muhammad and his successors, the Caliphs—came to build a\ndynamic social and military movement. Muslim power spread out from Arabia\nin the seventh century and by the eighth century Sindh in modern-day Pakistan\nwas under Muslim rule. The cultures of the Muslim courts in this period\nabsorbed influences of the lands where they were established, and thus the\nPersian court developed a unique cultural system that integrated Persian\nelements with Arab Muslim ones.\nbelief, such as its monotheism and eschewal of images in worship, brought\nabout religious conflict in the region. For example, Muslim military campaigns\nfrom the 10th through 12th centuries were often violent and resulted in the\ndestruction and looting of many Hindu temples. Although this conflict formed\nwas great complexity to the interaction among Muslim rulers and their mostly\nwhere Islam exerted influence. Scholars of the Islamic tradition wielded\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nconsiderable influence, but not exclusively. The Mughal emperor Akbar was\nfamous for his interest in all religious traditions, and he encouraged crossreligious dialogue and understanding. Many rulers chose to provide patronage to\nassociated with the Muslim mystical movement called Sufism.\nSufis, Saints, and Holy Men\n“Hindu.” Like bhakti poets, Sufis (many of them poets as well, like Baba Faud of\nwestern Punjab (now Pakistan)) spoke of their direct experience of god and the\nreligious engagement. Such religious leaders used similar strategies—the\nthrough the establishment of local economic and social imagery in poems.\nPopular religious leaders and practices also interacted with more orthodox and\nestablished forms as theological speculation and advanced learning in the elite\nlanguages of Sanskrit and Arabic continued. Muslim centers—mosques and\nsect of Krishna grew enormously in popularity, and its center south of Delhi\nbecame an important pilgrimage site. In the fifteenth century, the famous poet\nthe Muslim cleric and Hindu Brahmins. He mocked them both and sang of his\nbut his poetry reveals the influence of Shaivite yogic practices, which illustrates\nthat boundaries between religious groups were not absolute.\nbetween guru (teacher) and shishya (student), or in Muslim contexts, pir and\nmurshid. Lineages are established through succession from teacher to student,\ndeveloping institutionally over time. Such relationships remain important in the\nreligions of South Asia, as well as in other contexts such as classical music.\nBuilding a community around the guru-shishya relationship was fundamental to\nthe development of Sikhism, one of the world’s newer faiths. Guru Nanak\n(1469-1539) formed a community of disciples (sikhs) after he had a revelation of\nmonotheistic vision of god has been seen by many as a compromise between\nHindu and Muslim ideas, but this was apparently not Nanak’s intention. Like\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nprominent minority in India and around the world.\nReform and Reaffirmation of South Asian Religious\nTraditions in the Colonial Period\nReconciliation or\nfusion of\ndiffering systems\nof belief, as in\nphilosophy or\nThe advent of British power and waning of centralized Mughal power brought\nfollowed syncretic traditions that blended elements of separate religions—were\nleft in the margins and had to fight to be recognized. The cultural critique and\nracism associated with the colonial regime also meant that many Indians found\nthemselves in defense of “tradition,” and were forced to respond in that mode\nto the colonial challenge, explicitly or not. Thus Ram Mohan Roy, the famous\nalong pluralistic and universalist grounds. In the late nineteenth century,\narticulated by Western Orientalist scholars). This organization was very active in\nbuilding Hindu consciousness in Punjab and elsewhere.\nCertain organizations, educational institutions, and political movements came to\nwhom (it was argued) had not benefited from colonial patronage as much as\ngain the patronage and attention of the British administration in accordance with\ncommunity definitions imposed by the government, and those who could “speak\nfor” a particular group were given the ability to influence government. Different\ncommunities came to compete with one another for representation on\ngovernment committees and in fledgling representational institutions.\nRepresentatives of the Sikhs protested being grouped with Hindus. Among\nlower caste people, declaring oneself an adherent of “Adi Dharm,” the “original\nreligion” that preexisted Aryan and Vedic influence, was not only a religious\nchoice, but a political one. One’s political affiliation and one’s religion became\nintimately intertwined as groups of people attempted to align themselves in ways\npromise of independence took shape. These loyalties and communities were\nreconfigured and politicized in a way that fundamentally transformed both\nreligious identity and how people engaged in political organization.\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\nIt is within this context that one must understand the formation of the nationstates that succeeded the British colonial state through the partition of the\nPakistan. The call for Pakistan by Jinnah, Muhammad Iqbal, and others only\nmakes sense within the broader context of political reconfiguration that took\nplace within the waning years of British power. Partition was neither inevitable\nnor necessary, as South Asian religious history illustrates that both\naccommodation and conflict among religious groups had coexisted for millennia.\nDuring the independence struggle, spaces were constructed around fixed notions\nof religious identity, simplistic notions of “representativity,” and failed attempts\nat ensuring the rights of minorities. It is not surprising that religious\nreconfigurations would mar the great achievement of Indian/Pakistani\nindependence. The scale of the tragedy, however, is. 1947 was the greatest\ntransfer of human populations the world has ever seen, as Hindus, Sikhs, and\nMuslims left their homes to travel to newly created nation-states: over 13 million\nrefugees were created and half a million lives lost. The states of Punjab and\nBengal were split in two between the two new nation-states, only to be followed\nby the splitting of West and East Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971.\nTo the Present—Conflict, Accommodation, New Directions\nChange and continuity still characterize the development of religious traditions\nin South Asia as they have in the past. India, the world’s largest democracy, has\nseen periods of great triumphs in the formation of modern religious identities\ninfluence both in individual lives and in regional and national politics. However,\nof Untouchability, and others have challenged the status quo like the bhakti poets\nand Buddhist thinkers of centuries ago. The legal system in India has retained\nthe population of India is Muslim). Sikhs have battled for their own homeland,\nalthough since 1997 a relative peace has returned to the Punjab. Radical rightwing Hinduism, especially after the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya in\n1992, has raised concerns for all religious minorities in the region—Sikh,\nMuslim, and Christian alike. Pakistan and Bangladesh have experimented to\ndifferent degrees with the integration of Islamic legal structures into the running\nof the nation-state, but in neither nation has conservative Islam exerted an\nabsolute influence on governance. South Asia’s dynamic religious present is\ngrowing community. Religious traditions are transformed by this increasingly\nchanging social expectations.\nAnne Murphy is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religion at\nColumbia University. She specializes in interactions among North Indian\nreligions, with a special focus on the Sikh tradition; Punjabi history and\nliterature; the South Asian Diaspora; art; and museum studies. She is a\nformer New York City public school teacher and has remained active in\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nReligion and World View\neducation while pursuing her scholarly interests.\nIndia: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives Teacher’s Guide\nRandom flashcards\n\n17 Cards\n\n\n46 Cards\n\n\n14 Cards\n\nHistory of Europe\n\n27 Cards\n\nCreate flashcards", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9676698446273804}
+{"content": "Artwork > Triptychs\n\nNew Zealand\nAcrylic on canvas\n24\" x 24\"\n\n\nA modern house on the coast of New Zealand. 1 of 3 paintings.\nLiving in a stone, 19th century light filled house, I find myself still yearning for a modern glass house.\nOne day while looking through Architectural Digest, I saw a real estate listing for a glass house situated on the coast of New Zealand. The uniqueness of this house captured my imagination.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9865012168884277}
+{"content": "0 item\n\nYour shopping cart is empty\n\nContinue Shopping\n\n\n\nSaul discovered his passion for photography during a history of photography course in college. A self-taught photographer, he continues to fine tune his skills and never stops learning as his artistry evolves. As a Los Angeles native, he began with street photography and eventually migrated into portrait and landscape photography. His love of landscapes grew as he traveled up and down his beloved California coast and visited many states. Saul beautifully captures the varied landscapes of the places he visits. His unique, dark toned style makes his work easily discernible. Now, living in Oregon, he feels most at peace photographing the state's lush scenery.\n\nThrough social media, Saul strives to share his visions of outdoor, travel and adventure with thousands of people. Saul has earned the opportunity to work with many brands to add his unique touch and vision to their products.\n\nPlease contact Saul at 5avl@mail.com for any inquiries.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9811610579490662}
+{"content": "#smokefreeconcerts: the gig’s inside, the cigs stay outside\n\nEveryone knows you’re not allowed to smoke at gigs. But if you do feel the urge to light up, keep it fun for everyone and do it outside.\n\nOver the next few weeks, we’ll be handing out #smokefreeconcerts wristbands at selected venues together with Kom op tegen Kanker. To encourage everyone – smokers and non-smokers alike – to do their bit to keep gigs smoke free. For more info and a list of upcoming concerts: www.smokefreeconcerts.be.\n\nWhy is it not ok to smoke in concert halls?\nA concert hall is an enclosed public space. Smoking in public spaces was banned years ago to protect others from passive smoke. If you light up during a concert, you are not the only one smoking. Other concertgoers are also forced to inhale your unhealthy tobacco smoke. On top of that, you often encourage others to light up as well. So if you do feel the urge to smoke, do everyone a favour and do it outside.\n\nThe solution for #smokefreeconcerts\nBecause we really want to change things, we’re working together with Kom op tegen Kanker to champion the cause of non-smoking concert goers. United, we stand for #smokefreeconcerts, to keep the smoke outside, even if the band is on fire!\n\n#smokefreeconcerts: where?\nThe #smokefreeconcerts can be found on our website and our social media channels but also at the concert venues themselves. Because Kom op tegen Kanker will be handing out free #smokefreeconcerts wrist bands at selected gigs. So we can all make a powerful statement: if you want to smoke, keep it fun for everyone and do it outside.\n\n\nThanks a lot in advance for your cooperation!\n\nFor more info and the full list of concerts where #smokefreeconcerts wristbands will be distributed, check out www.smokefreeconcerts.be.\n\nOther news", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.529512882232666}
+{"content": "Do you need a specific type of water to traditionally dye wool?\n\nNo. What I do to die wool (or wool yarn) is take coolade powder and mix it in with some water. Let the wool yarn sit in the juice until it has the color you want. Then hang it on a clothesline to dry COMPLETELY.\nHope this helps you,\ngood luck.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997696876525879}
+{"content": "What was the first ancient Greece civilization?\n\nAncient Greek civilisation had its origin the pre-historic period of the Minoan and Mycenaean kingdoms of the 16th to 12th Centuries BCE. It broke down in the Dark Age and began to re-emerge in the 8th Century BCE in mainland Greece and Asia Minor, with such cities as Sparta, Athens, Elis, Thebes, Naxos, Miletus.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9250404238700867}
+{"content": "seeds of Angelica koidzumi keiskei, Ashitaba\n\nIn stock\nAngelica koidzumi keiskei Samen\nAs low as $4.66\n\nAngelica keiskei, also called ashitaba, is a flowering plant species that belongs to the family Apiaceae. Synonyms include Angelica utilis and Archaengelica kieskei. Angelica keiskei has its origins in Japan where the growth of the plant is most prevalent in the peninsulas of Izu, Miura, and Boso. Angelica keiskei grows to a maximum height that ranges from 50 to 120 cm. The plant has dissected leaves and white flowers that grow in Umbels. In addition to the stems and leaves being green, they also release a yellow sap in case of injury. The plant is a hermaphrodite and, therefore, possesses both male and female reproductive organs. The leaves, roots, and stipes are a popular delicacy for the Japanese who use them to make tempura, sochu, and soba. Additional foods include pasta and ice-cream. The plant parts also add a unique flavour to tea. The Japanese prize the plant for its supposed anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-diabetic properties. Moreover, many of the residents who live where Angelica keiskei is endemic credit the plant for their long healthy lives. In addition to being a good source of food for human beings, Angelica keiskei also counts as sufficient pasture for livestock. Many people believe that consuming the plant increases milk yield in cattle, but that belief remains unsubstantiated. Angelica keiskei is indigenous to coastal climes and thus, attempts to naturalise it have a high chance of succeeding if done in similar areas. In the event growing the plant around the coast is out of the question then the next best option is using a greenhouse.\n\nThe plant requires a minimum of 6 hours of sunshine every day to grow well. The seeds need a stratification to be able to start sprouting. Simply mix them with a bit moist soil and store that in the fridge for about 6 weeks. It is important to keep it moist during the whole process. After 6 weeks the seeds will be able to germinate once temperature is rising.\n\nMore Information\namount 0.1 Kg\nWrite Your Own Review\nYou're reviewing:seeds of Angelica koidzumi keiskei, Ashitaba\nÄhnliche Artikel", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9734867811203003}
+{"content": "Two Bostons, 2009 (Nikki Rosato)\n\nThis article is part of a series of Q&As with some of the best artists working with maps. Read more Q&As here.\n\nNeurotic map-rollers and Nikki Rosato would not get along. While some people cringe at the thought of a creased map, Rosato takes pleasure in dissecting the maps, carefully cutting away the meat of the map until just the skeleton remains. What the young artist is left with in the end is a vascular lacework of roads that she shapes into human forms.\n\nThe human form is easily recognizable in Rosato’s work, reminding us of the complexity of human biology and geography. She even takes it a step further: “The land is just as alive as we are,” she says. “A map’s lines carve the pathways for the rhythms and movements that undulate across the surface of the earth.”\n\nUntitled (Connections), 2009 (Nikki Rosato)\n\nCanadian Geographic: Why do maps inspire you?\n\nNikki Rosato: I find the visual aspects of a road map to be remarkably human. Roads and rivers not only mimic the lines that cover the surface of the human body (fingerprints, wrinkles, scars, etc.), but they also resemble our internal makings (such as veins and arteries). A map is a symbol of a living, breathing, moving body. The land is just as alive as we are — a map’s lines carve the pathways for the rhythms and movements that undulate across the surface of the earth.\n\nBefore starting the cut map work, I had been working on a series of paintings and prints in which I was redrawing every line on the surface of my body. While in the midst of this project, I stumbled across a box of old maps in a used bookstore. It was in that moment that I realized the lines of the road map were strikingly similar to the work I was making. I decided to dissect these maps for their lines, and the idea for the cut map portraits took off from there.\n\nNathan: Buffalo, NY, 2009\n\nCan Geo: What is the connection between the medium and the subject?\n\nNR: Whenever I create a portrait, I’ll interview the subject asking if there is a place that has had a significant impact on them, and I’ll use a map based on the person’s answer. The place that people choose always comes with a personal story: where they grew up, where they went to college, where they met their significant other. The location is often about relationships between individuals. For example, the distance between two lovers, relatives, friends. These personal stories are what make the pieces come alive for me.\n\nCan Geo: How do you choose the maps you work with? How do you work with them to achieve the final product?\n\nNR: I always keep an eye out for ways to acquire second hand maps — I like to reuse materials whenever possible. Sometimes the individuals that I work with on projects will provide me with maps that have personal significance to them. In an era where digital navigation is becoming more and more prevalent, paper road maps have actually been quite easy to come by. Older, used maps no longer serve their original function — they have become these inaccurate historic objects.\n\nTo create the pieces, I usually start with a silhouetted reference image that I lay over the map as a template. I then cut all of the landmasses out of the designated area by hand with a small X-Acto knife, leaving only the roads and rivers behind. The remaining object is lacey and delicate — a ghostly reminder of what once was. Although the cut map is delicate, it is created from a paper that is meant to be handled, therefore, allowing the flexibility to mold and shape the material for the 3D pieces.\n\n(Nikki Rosato)\n\nCan Geo: What are you hoping people will take away from your sculptures?\n\nNR: My hope for the work is that it evokes from the viewer memories of their own personal journey. In response to the Connections series, which focuses on the role distance plays in a relationship between two figures, I’ve had people tell me that they know what that work feels like. Storytelling is an important part of this series of work, so I find it encouraging when people look at the work and feel compelled to share their own experiences.\n\n(Nikki Rosato)\n\nView more of Rosato's work on her website and read about map artist David Thomas Smith.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9821056127548218}
+{"content": "Top 5 Fictional Languages (Podcast Episode 51)\n\nDo you speak Sindarin?\n\ntop 5 fictional languages\n\nThe world of fictional languages is richer than a London billionaire, and we have researched and collected the most awesome fictional languages for you to learn about.\n\nIn this episode, you'll hear the new Good, Bad and Struggling followed by the Ultimate Fictional Languages Chart. Here in the shownotes, you'll see our Top 5 and the best of all links available so you can follow along and listen to the show.\n\nOur Top 5 Fictional Languages\n\n  1. Elvish\n  2. Nadsat/ Newspeak\n  3. Klingon\n  4. Minionese\n  5. Simlish\n\nAnd here is a little bit more background information to tell you which languages we discussed in the show, and what they mean to us.\n\nDothraki, High Valyrian and Game of Thrones\n\nThe languages in Game of Thrones were developed by David Peterson via a referral from the Language Creation Society. David says \"You have to start with the language and the people..what might their world be like?\"\n\nNo character is a better representative of their power than Danaerys Targaryen (Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi, Stormborn, and all that). This queen conquers her lover's heart by connecting to him in Dothraki, the language of the horse people who don't have a word for \"boat\". She also speaks High Valyrian, and gains an advantage in several scenes in which she understands what's said about her by oblivious fools.\n\nElvish, Quenya and Tolkien\n\nThese languages were made famous as part of the Lord of the Rings saga. Author J.R.R. Tolkien spent nearly 60 years working on Elvish languages: Sindarin, Common Eldarin, Quenya and more - there are roots and language families, and he created a whole language family tree and evolutions rather than just one language, and his world-building skills are breathtaking once you start getting into the endless back stories he created for Middle Earth.\n\nWhile the Elvish languages remained at the center of Tolkien's attention, the narratives of Middle-earth also needed languages of other races, especially of Dwarves and Men, but also the Black Speech. It's a dystopian parody of an international auxiliary language, just like Sauron's rule over the Orcs is a dystopian parody of a totalitarian state.\n\nOther languages by Tolkien include Kkuzdul (Dwarves), about 5 different Mannish languages, and my favourite, Black Speech of Sauron. What a dedicated life's work.\n\nKlingon and Vulcan\n\nKlingon is a famous alien language - could this be the most famous Alien language? - from the Star Trek world. It was developed by linguist Mark Okrand. Klingon is different from Tolkien's languages as Mark only had to write language for the film dialogue at first, but for the next movie this started growing into a full language. Mark himself has published \"The Klingon Dictionary\".\n\nI love how Klingon mirrors the culture of its speakers, so that \"nuqneH\", the Klingon greeting, reportedly translates to no more than \"whaddaya want?\". There's no \"hello\" in Klingon.\n\nKlingon has an incredible fan base, evidenced by the existence of the Klingon Language Institute, which provides meet-ups, a certification programme, a language corpus and language exams.\n\n\nIn James Cameron's movie Avatar, the alien race Na'vi were given a fully developed language by linguist Paul Frommer. This represented the demonstration of how advanced the race is, and how it contrasts with the soldier who enters their world.\n\n\nSimlish is a language not developed for a movie or a book, but for a video game. What started out as pleasant gibberish in Will Wheaton's first game in 2000 grew to become a beloved part of the game. Apparently, it's a combination of \"Latin, Ukrainian, Navajo, and Tagalog.\"\n\nMinion Language\n\nThe Minions in the Minions films are all voiced by co-director Pierre Coffin. His parents are from France and Indonesia and he spent a lot of time working in London. They didn’t invent a full Minion language because they wanted to keep the funny random gibberish element for humour, and as such this language is a lot of fun for everyone, as there’s bound to be something you understand\n\nNewspeak in 1984\n\nNewspeak is thought control, designed to limit freedom of thought by making the language smaller. In the classic book 1984 by George Orwell created this language. He said \"the purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible.\" shudder\n\nSo here is a remarkable example of language used for evil, and you can spot Newspeak vocabulary like un, ante, plus and doubleplus, which gets combined with English words.\n\nNadsat in A Clockwork Orange\n\nThis language -- or is it a dialect? -- was created in the original book \"A Clockwork Orange\" by Anthony Burgess, and later used by Stanley Kubrick in the film version. The name comes from the Russian suffix for \"-teen\", and it is indeed a teen speak. Burgess actually learnt some Russian and had a real interest in language. He learnt Malay, and taught himself Persian too.\n\nNadsat features many Russian-sourced words, such as devotchka, govoeeting, malenky and yarbokles.\n\nWhat do you think?\n\nDo you agree with our Top 5? Ready to chat a little more? Share your own favourite fictional language in the comments - and tell us if we forgot any important ones!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5618074536323547}
+{"content": "The Liposomal Approach: Delivering the Goods\n\nWhen it comes to the targeted delivery of the active ingredients of dietary supplements that we put into our body via our mouth, scientists are working on the most optimal way of getting these active compounds to where they need to go. This translates to areas of the body that are in distress, inflamed or in need of repair.\n\nUp until now there have been dry powders, hard shell capsules, tablet forms, soft gel capsules, liquid concentrates, liquid extracts, effervescent powders as well as a plethora of other approaches employed to deliver supplements into our body.\n\nMost of these encapsulation efforts focus on maintaining their contents' stability after exposure to salivary enzymes of the mouth, acid in the stomach and the enzymes and acids of the small intestine, in order to get them safely through the intestinal lining, thus allowing them to enter the bloodstream and get to where they need to go.\n\nA healing convergence: ‘Modern’ Medicine and ‘Ancient’ Healing\n\nIn the last 10 years we have been increasingly witnessing a coming together of ‘modern’ medicine/science/technology with naturopathic medicine, herbalism, Maori healing and Eastern concepts (such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Aryuvedic practice from India).\n\nOn one side, healing approaches like naturopathic medicine are using information provided by thousands of years of recorded observation of human healing and on the other side (modern medicine), sharing a similar path, but following the scientific method to try and validate the claims made before them.\n\nIt is safe to say that most innovation in medicine now occurs at academic institutions and small biotechnology companies. Here researchers identify and map biochemical pathways that attempt to explain what is happening in molecular terms. Following this, the knowledge gained is then employed in animal models of disease and after that in humans during clinical trials that are designed to provide empirical (verified by observation not just reason or logic) evidence of what is being claimed. In these human trials, the ingredient or ‘drug’ under investigation is tested against a control ‘sham’ substance (usually in the form of a sugary pill) in order to detect if the effect is due to the actual mechanism of action of the substance or an otherwise complex psychological phenomena known as the ‘placebo effect’.\n\nUpon closer viewing, these two fields are not really that different; both of them have at their very heart, the desire to help people heal from ills and discomfort. Practitioners of natural health are going on claims that have stood the test of time, validated by hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years of observation, and modern medicine is trying to substantiate these claims.\n\nNowadays we are witnessing a renaissance of natural health and (in some cases) ancient  healing methods, mostly driven by consumers, and modern medicine is paying close attention to this. Natural substances such as chamomile, ginseng and licorice are being researched in clinical trial settings to validate claims of their stabilising effect on blood sugar levels.\n\nAcupuncture, mindfulness based meditation, yoga positions (and yes, even yoga mats) are being investigated by modern medicine to figure out not only ‘if’, but ‘how’ these approaches work.\n\nWith both sides actively ‘borrowing’ theories, concepts and approaches from one another – medicine has employed certain ingredients that have been known to naturopaths and herbalists for generations, and in turn, natural health is borrowing active technologies from science and technology, such as novel delivery platforms.\n\nOne of these novel delivery platforms is known as liposomal encapsulation.\n\nLiposomes, where did they come from?\n\nOral liposomes were first created artificially in the 1970’s – 10 years after the British scientist Alec Bangham had a serendipitous experience and discovered the existence of the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane (the outer coating of the cell) after playing around with one of Cambridge University’s first electron microscopes, taking pictures of what happened when he added a staining solution to dry phospholipids. The resulting structure resembled the outer-coating of the cell membrane.\n\nOriginally Bangham referred to his creation as “multilamellar smectic mesophases” which was a mouthful, so to his friends and colleagues he just ‘humbly’ referred to them as “Banghasomes”. It wasn’t until some years later that another colleague of his at Cambridge, Gerald Weissman, actually coined the term “liposome”.\n\nSince the 1970’s, delivery technology has improved vastly, modern medicine has employed oral liposomes to deliver antibiotics, certain vaccines and other ingredients, that would otherwise get denatured upon contact with the stomach’s acid content and also to increase the uptake of these active ingredients into cells.\n\nAs of 2012, there were twelve drugs employing liposomal delivery approved for clinical use in the USA and five further ones are still undergoing clinical investigation.\n\nThe term liposome is from Greek and literally translates to ‘fat body’ – from “fat” (lipo), “body” (some). Liposomes mimic naturally occurring liposomal structures known as exosomes and vesicles. The natural ability of exosomes and vesicles to transport molecules between cells is a hot topic in medicine. So hot in fact that the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was presented to researchers who had described the appearance, function and role of various vesicles in humans (and also yeasts).\n\nMost exosomes and vesicles have a lipid bilayer much like that which encircles a human cell and artificially created liposomes. What this means is that the membrane of these structures is composed of two layers of phospholipids that are inverted to each other (see diagram) a composition that artificially constructed liposomes mimic. The natural attractant/repellent properties allow these phospholipids to stay suspended in water, intact, where the outer phosphorus end (circular part) is attracted to water (hydrophilic) and the lipid tail end repels water (hydrophobic).\n\nThis is what keeps the structure intact, until it comes into contact with another structure that has the same properties – one just like the cell membrane.\n\nHow does the active ingredient get delivered?\n\nWhat happens then is amazing, the two hydrophilic heads meet (from the liposome and from the cell membrane) and fuse – a cellular form of lovemaking if you will. Once fusion has taken place, the contents of the liposome get directly incorporated into the cell, where the active ingredient can do its magic!\n\nThese liposomes are comfortable in water because the hydrophilic (water-loving) head is pointing to the outside of the liposome and thus loves being suspended in water. When it comes to transporting the liposomes in blood, it helps that over half of the content in blood is made up of water (98% of blood plasma is comprised of water and blood plasma makes up roughly 50% of blood).\n\nIn many ways one could refer to liposomes as miniature cells, one difference to most cells in the body being that liposomes only have one ingredient and can travel throughout the human body; much like red and white blood cells, they have the ability traverse the whole body.\n\nWhen cells are in distress (for instance because of the oxidative action of free radicals from the environment or bacterial/viral infections) they increase the number of receptors on the surface of their cell membranes to communicate to other cells that they are not doing too well, a cellular cry for help.\n\nThis up-regulation may ultimately increase the likelihood of liposomes interacting and binding to these newly formed receptors – hereby delivering their active ingredients more effectively.\n\nLiposomes in Nature\n\nHuman breast milk is a highly complex substance, it has been studied for decades and researchers have identified over 200 different fat and water soluble ingredients. About 15 years ago researchers discovered that certain nutrients and immunologically significant molecules are not only encapsulated within lipid vesicles (liposomes) in human breast milk but also that some immune receptors are attached to the surface of these liposomes.\n\nThis means that when infants are breastfeeding, the mother’s milk contains liposomes – this was first properly portrayed with images from an electron microscope clearly showing the presence of liposome-like bodies suspended within the liquid milk.\n\nAs for other naturally occurring liposomal structures in our body, as mentioned, there are exosomes and vesicles. Both are tiny parts of the cellular infrastructure that transport various molecules/compounds to other parts of the body.\n\nNaturally occurring liposomes are often referred to as ‘lipid vesicles’.\n\nThe Liposomal Approach: Validated historically\n\nNatural health dates back about 5000 years to the Sumerians, who kept written recordings of their study of plants and the effects these had on alleviating the ailments of their time.\n\nBack as far as the Ancient Greeks, doctors or rather healers, used to believe that by targeting the afflicted tissue directly, they would somehow alleviate the pain more effectively.\n\nThese ancient healers weren’t too far off the mark as it seems that nowadays, researchers are discovering that by encapsulating active ingredients in a form that mimics the outer surface of cells (liposomes) that they can actually enhance the targeted delivery of the active ingredient (e.g. liposomal Vitamin C or Magnesium) – some claim by up to 90% and that the natural appearance and action of these liposomes may increase their bioavailability by up to 800%.\n\n(Bioavailability refers to the amount of active ingredient that reaches the body unchanged once it has been swallowed).\n\nThe future of delivery is bright!\n\nOther natural health liposomal formulations are coming to the market, and there is real hope for the future – as this delivery technology is only going to improve with time.\n\nHopefully science/medicine and natural health will pay closer attention and learn from each other in the future – as collaboration is ultimately key.\n\nThat, and mutual respect! Who knows, delivery vehicles such as liposomes could be the beginning of a fusion between concepts in modern medicine/technology and other approaches to health by natural means (such as naturopathic medicine, herbalism and homeopathy), as both schools of thought have a lot to learn from each other.\n\nSo, here’s to the start of a beautiful friendship. With liposomal encapsulation paving the way.\n\n\nby Christopher von Roy BSc, MSc, DCP Immunology\n\nHealthPost began stocking BioBalance Liposomal Vitamin C in 2013 and in 2014 brought out BioBalance Liposomal Magnesium – the first liposomal formulation of magnesium on offer in New Zealand.\n\n\nNutrition and Biochemistry of Phospholipids. Bernard F . Szuhaj and Willem van Nieuwenhuyzen. AOCS Publishing 2003. Print ISBN: 978-1-893997-42-4 (;jsessionid=324C3B5C6DE422C0B0AAAA31EB2DB5FC\n\n\nWe’d Love Your Feedback\n\nHave you tried liposomal formulations before, such as the Biobalance Liposomal Vitamin C or BioBalance Liposomal Magnesium? If so, did you notice any difference to other formulations of Vitamin C or Magnesium that you’ve tried in the past? Thank you for sharing your experience with us.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9619951844215393}
+{"content": "Mad Mind of Man\n\n15 Mar\n\n\n\nActually everything that the mind contains is always relatively true, yet never ultimately true! When a thought arises in the mind there is a sense of it being true to you, because you take yourself to be the thinker - but is this really so, and is anything you believe to be true necessarily true beyond your mind? Is there a deeper truth that the mind cannot even comprehend?\n\n\nI paid a visit to the Oxford Ashmolean Museum recently, accompanying a visitor to the city who has a interest in history. We came to the rooms displaying artefacts from man's 'prehistory', the time before written records, and it was fascinating to see how the earliest humans focused only on finding food, procreating and preserving their security. Our needs were that simple back then, and our minds were too. Over time, our minds have evolved and remarkable advances in understanding and technology have been achieved. But with this complexity has also come increased mental suffering. Why is this?\n\n\nWith the ever-increasing complexity of life our priority has been placed on thinking and the intellect. We have, as a result, lost touch with our intuitive natural inner voice. Our thinking mind is a fantastic tool, but for many it has brought imbalance, with the result - a kind of insanity. Everything destructive we inflict on ourselves and our planet has come from the mind gone mad. \n\nOne only need look at the suffering in this world to see the truth of that statement. Our planet can easily provide food for the entire population, yet hundreds die every day from starvation. There are countless wars being fought all over the globe at any given moment. We consume vast quantities of drugs, both legal and illegal, in an attempt to cure or alleviate the mental torture of a dysfunctional mind.\n\nWhat we need is re-balancing - a realisation that we have lost touch with our inner guide, the 'being', in the human-being. As we look at the functioning of the mind from the position of our 'beingness', we come to know that the mind is not where ultimate truth resides, and our thinking needs to be watched or it can create all kinds of madness!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7199037075042725}
+{"content": "How can zoos practise their procedures for an escaped animal without actually releasing one?\n\nKeepers in Japan came up with a novel - if unrealistic - tactic by dressing up for some animal roleplay.\n\nThe bizarre drill saw a staff member at Ueno Zoo dress up in a panto-style zebra costume to stage an escape.\n\nAbout 150 zookeepers and emergency workers took part in the simulation, which covers all scenarios of an animal escape.\n\nRead more: Can you spot this big cat hiding in the grass?\n\nMethods of recapturing a beast include tranquilliser shots, throwing a net over it and cornering before lifting it onto a truck.\n\nZookeepers capture a zookeeper dressed as zebra during a drill to practice what to do in the event of an animal escape at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo\nBad day at the office: The zookepers trap their pal in a net\n\nPrevious simulations have seen a keepers dress up as gorillas, rhinos, orang utans and lions.\n\nWhether or not a man in a lion costume is as fearsome as the real thing remains to be seen.\n\nHowever, one year a drill did see a fur-clad keeper stage an “attack” on a colleagues.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8481718301773071}
+{"content": "Copyright © 2019, The San Diego Union-Tribune\n\nJoel Embiid’s knee brace suggests issue 76ers will deal with for some time\n\nBrooklyn Nets v Philadelphia 76ers - Game One\nJoel Embiid looks on before the 76ers’ playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.\n\nPhiladelphia star Joel Embiid appears to have knee injury that can’t be fixed, only managed.\n\nSometimes a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.\n\nIt certainly is in the case of Joel Embiid.\n\nI am sure Embiid is tough and can play through his current knee issue, but the worry goes beyond the playoffs this year.\n\nThe picture above indicates concern about a long-term issue.\n\nThe brace shown is used for unicompartmental arthritis. It could be used for a bone bruise, but absent an acute injury that is unlikely. And given Embiid’s long-term value, I doubt the Sixers medical staff would allow him to play through a bone bruise to risk further damage.\n\nTherefore the brace almost certainly means Embiid’s longevity is in question.\n\nAssuming the brace means he has some sort of arthritis, there is no complete cure. There can only be management of the issue.\n\nCan the 76ers create a dynasty if one of their key pieces has health issues? That is the significant question that arises from what we learned today.\n\nI hope I am wrong, but the use of an unloader brace indicates a potential long-term issue which might derail the process in utimately bringing a championship to Philadelphia.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8419123291969299}
+{"content": "Cloud Software Engineer\n\nWhat you’ll do\n\nAs a backend engineer, you will contribute to our Multipath TCP proxy software that runs in the operator network or in the cloud. Your code will handle dozens of Gbps and run 24/24. You will have many interactions with backbone engineers and handle all requirements for a telco-grade solution (e.g. logging, redundancy, robustness, security, etc.). End users will rely on your code for ensuring their Internet access availability and improved capacity.\n\n\n  • The team: As part of the backend development team, you will partipate in a continuous feedback loop (e.g. through peer reviewing).\n  • Powerful servers: You will have access to high-end servers, designed to support line-rate forwarding. But will your code be able to sustain such a volume of traffic ?\n\nUseful knowledge you have\n\nWe all need to be fluent in English, both written and spoken. For backend software development, we currently use the C programming language and closely interact with the Linux kernel. As backend engineer, you will also closely interact with engineers from telco operators in order to integrate the solution within their network. Given your very network-oriented role, it would be good that you master TCP/IP protocols. Experience in an operator environment would be a plus (network management & monitoring, load balancing, redundancy and scaling of network services, network security & pen testing, etc.).\n\nDo you feel Tessares compatible ?\n\n\n\n\n\nInterested? Apply today at!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6911962032318115}
+{"content": "Seonjeongneung Royal Tombs in Seoul From Joseon Dynasty\n\nSeonjeongneung Royal Tombs in Seoul comprises of the Seonneung Royal Tomb and the Jeongneung Royal Tomb. Located in downtown Seoul, this place offers tranquil and pleasant promenades. Seonjeongneung houses the burial mounds of King Seonjong (1469-1494), his wife Queen Jeonghyeon and King Jungjong (1506-1544) of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)\n\nThe second son of Seongjong, King Jungjong is considered to be one of the best Kings of the Joseon era. He is famous for his policies and the economic growth that occurred during his rule.\n\nHis reign is also notable for political reform and the adjusting for the faults of previous administrations. He was also responsible for the introduction of Hyangyak, a method of self administration that is still in practice by modern Korean government.\n\nThe 11th King of the Joseon Dynasty, King Jungjong ruled for 38 years from 1506-1544. Originally buried at Goyang in the North of Seoul, he was later moved here by his third wife, Queen Mungjeong. Entering the grounds, you can see a red gate with taegeuk or yin-yang symbol. There are stone paths leading to the sacrificial building.\n\nThere are two stone paths - the elevated path is for the dead King and the lower one is for living people.\n\nThere are statues of animals including sheep and tigers as well as those of military personnel surrounding the tomb. There are two stones in front of the tomb. The stones are called Mangjuseok which are designed to guide the dead King to his tomb.\n\nSeonjeongneung Royal Tombs Back to Historic Sites", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.707099437713623}
+{"content": "Kneehigh theatre company, cheltenham everyman theatre essay\n\nThe Prince also lowered his head to his chest to produce an exaggerated deep tone of voice for the pears. When the now king returns from war, he himself leaves his palace in search of his bride and in turn becomes wild. Physical theatre incorporates into the performance through aspects such as dance, or exaggerated physical movements to show a passing of time or a physical connection between two characters.\n\nLater on in the performance, Stuart Goodwin depicted the Prince with a strong Scottish accent, which helped to emphasize the outlandish behaviour of the Prince.\n\nAs he was given the new clothes, he stared disbelievingly at his hands and arms, where his newly acquired wealth was now apparent, his mouth was slightly agape and his eyes were wide.\n\nKneehigh Presents: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk at Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham\n\nThe tempo in which the Narrator spoke was slow and paced. The pitch volume of the lines was quite loud which was used to grasp the attention of the audience. The other characters did not acknowledge McLoughlin whilst he was narrating the performance which helped to separate him from the action on stage.\n\nThis is contrast to his performance as the Prince when he stood up very straight with his chin pointed upwards to demonstrate authority.\n\nThis is how the Devil opportunistically manipulated the Father to agree to give up the Wild Bride. A physical skill demonstrated by Stuart Goodwin during his performance of the Father was when he was given the riches and finery by the Devil. Another effective vocal skill used by Stuart Goodwin was the Irish accent that he used to differentiate the Father from the other characters on stage.\n\nThe Prince behaved outlandishly by moving extravagantly, using dance like movements, across the stage. The story follows a young girl who is accidentally traded to the Devil by her father. This created a sub character, which I thought was performed effectively by Stuart Goodwin in order to create another contrasting side of the Father which was demonstrated through the relationship on stage between himself and the Wild Bride.\n\nAnother vocal skill that Stuart Goodwin used as the Prince was multi-rolling. The slurring of the words was also used to help to add to the effect of the Father being very dynamic with his lines.\n\nStuart Goodwin changed his tone of voice completely in order to accomplish the desired multirole of representing both the Prince and the pears.\n\nSupport Us\n\nThe Scottish accent that the Stuart Goodwin used was very exuberant. For example when the Prince returned from war, his voice had developed a monotonous, deep, and melancholic tone.\n\nStorytelling is where one or more characters assume the role of a narrator in order to tell the story of the performance to the audience. Stuart Goodwin used multi-role to great effect here as he created a comical atmosphere as the Prince was pretending to be both the Prince himself, and the pears.\n\nThe volume of his voice dropped drastically to a point where it was almost a barely audible whisper, the pace was cheltenham everyman theatre essay slow again, and he sounded like a broken man; at this point his voice lacked any lively characteristics.\n\nThe tone he used for performing the Prince was as stated above. Evidenced on asking the audience how he should kill the Devil. One character that was portrayed was the Prince himself which was contrasted with a deep, slow paced, monotonous voice of a pear.\n\nMultirole is where different or multiple characters are performed by the same actor or actress. A physical skill that Stuart Goodwin incorporated into his performance was his physical shift from Prince to pear.\n\nI will analyse the characters of the Prince and the father of the Bride, who were both performed by Stuart Goodwin, and Stuart McLoughlin who performed as the Narrator, and the vocal and physical skills, through multi-role, and storytelling that they used in particular moments throughout the performance.\n\nThis was both entertaining and captivating because he managed to create two completely contrasting characters, which were both believable and enjoyable to watch.\n\nThe pitch then got increasingly higher as Stuart Goodwin continued on with his line. Although it was made it clear to the audience that it was the Prince that was speaking this role. Stuart McLoughlin effectively contributed to the telling of the performance through using a variety of vocal and physical skills.\n\nIndeed, she is so pure that, when she cries on her hands, they become untouchable. Vocally the narrator spoke with a sing song, laid back tone of voice. I thought that this was effective moment in the performance because it made it seem as if the Father had just realised that he had given his daughter away to the Devil.\n\nThis is accomplished by using different voices to represent different characters. As the narrator of the performance Stuart McLoughlin used the aspect of storytelling directly towards the audience.\n\nThe Everyman Theatre Cheltenham\n\nStuart McLoughlin spoke loudly projecting his voice out to the audience. More essays like this: At the end of the play the bride and the king are reunited.Kneehigh are one of the most exciting touring companies in the country.\n\nAs huge fans of their vigorous, accessible and cheerfully anarchic brand of popular theatre, we absolutely love working with them. They are true kindred spirits with the Everyman and love making work in Liverpool. Kneehigh Theatre Company, Cheltenham Everyman Theatre ‘Evaluate the use of acting techniques and staging elements in “Wild Bride”.\n\nMake reference to the style and form of performance and practitioner influence where appropriate’. Kneehigh is one of the world's most celebrated theatre companies and their international hits include Brief Encounter and The Wild Bride.\n\nREBECCA is timeless; the book beloved by generations and the iconic Alfred Hitchcock film a classic of the genre. Upcoming events, tickets, information, and maps for Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham from Entscom, the UK's biggest entertainment website.\n\nT +44 (0) | E [email protected] Company numberVAT reg number Kneehigh is a registered charity number and is supported by Arts Council England and Cornwall Council.\n\nLewisLoves reviews The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, presented by the innovative Kneehigh Theatre at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham.\n\nKneehigh theatre company, cheltenham everyman theatre essay\nRated 3/5 based on 49 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9675626158714294}
+{"content": "English synonyms about - contact  \n\n\n\n1 homage\n\nRespectful deference.\n\nsynonym: court.\n\nRoget 725: submission, yielding; nonresistance; obedience etc. 743.    surrender, cession, capitulation, resignation; backdown.    obeisance, homage, kneeling, ... show more\n\nRoget 743: obedience; observance etc. 772; compliance; submission etc. 725; subjection etc. 749; nonresistance; passiveness, ... show more\n\nRoget 928: respect, regard, consideration; courtesy etc. 894; attention, deference, reverence, honor, esteem, estimation, veneration, ... show more\n\n\nRoget 990: worship, adoration, devotion, aspiration, homage, service, humiliation; kneeling, genuflection, prostration.    prayer, invocation, supplication, rogation, ... show more\n\nDutch: eerbetoon, hommage, huldiging, leenhulde, manschap\nPolish: hołd\n\nMoby thesaurus: acceptance, accolade, acquiescence, adherence, adhesion, admiration, adoration, adulation, allegiance, apotheosis, appreciation, approbation, approval, assent, assigned task, attachment, awe, bend, bending the knee, bepraisement ... show more.\n\nFind more on homage elsewhere: etymology - rhymes - Wikipedia.\n\ndebug info: 0.0193", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000097751617432}
+{"content": "Teacher Resources‎ > ‎Teacher Talk‎ > ‎\n\nThe Fragile Dynamic Between Confusion and Learning\n\nposted Sep 1, 2014, 12:51 AM by HSD Principal\n\nIn case you missed Steve Taylor's email, here's an article worth contemplating.\n\n\n    In this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Steve Kolowich explores the paradox that unclear teaching sometimes gets better results than clear teaching. Here’s the experiment that piqued his interest. Ten years ago, Derek Muller, a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney in Australia, made two instructional videos and showed them to students:\n\n-   The first video featured an actor explaining a basic physics concept using drawings and animations.\n\n-   The second video had two actors playing the part of a tutor and a student. The student struggled to understand the concept, and the tutor asked leading questions but didn’t give clear answers. After some back-and-forth, the student got it right.\n\nStudents who watched the two videos said the first one was clear, concise, and easy to understand and the second was confusing.\n\n            But when students were tested on their understanding of the concept covered in the videos, students who watched the first one were more confident that they had learned from it but students who watched the second one actually learned more! How could an unclear instructional video teach more?\n\n            Muller believes that when students get a clear presentation of the correct information, five things happen:\n\n-   They think they know it.\n\n-   They don’t pay close attention.\n\n-   They don’t recognize that what was presented differs from what they were already thinking.\n\n-   They don’t learn a thing.\n\n-   They get more confident in what they thought before.\n\nCounterintuitively, a little confusion can prompt students to think harder and improve their understanding of complex matters. (For simple facts and memorization, clear, simple explanations are appropriate.)\n\n            “In other words,” says Kolowich, “if teachers want students to learn really important stuff, like comprehending difficult texts and modeling complex systems, they should put their students in confusing situations.” They should also not be too enamored of slick, cohesive lectures and tutorials (a word to the wise for teachers and professors who are creating videos for their “flipped” classrooms). “One can imagine a world,” say Sidney D’Mello (University of Notre Dame) and Arthur Graesser (University of Memphis), “where interventions that expose misconceptions might be cherished instead of chastised, complexity might be a valuable substitute for clarity, and less cohesive texts and lectures might replace the polished information deliveries of textbooks and formal lectures.”\n\nBut “confusing” teaching has to be handled skillfully. “Confusing works, except when it doesn’t,” he says. “Confusing students on purpose is more like loading the elastic of a slingshot: It creates tension that can propel them into higher altitudes of understanding; pull too far, though, and the elastic will snap.” And some students will snap sooner than others. The trick is tracking and moderating the confusion and knowing when students need to be rescued from their confusion – but that’s especially difficult when explaining things to large groups.\n\n\n“Confuse Students to Help Them Learn” by Steve Kolowich in The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14, 2014,\n\n\nExcept taken from Marshall Memo 550, September 1, 2014", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9900058507919312}
+{"content": "Refracted Prisms\n\n3D Sculpture - Event\n\nTweet / Share\n\nFor the re-naming of the Professor Stuart Hall Building Refracted Prisms creates an ever changing, intangible and dynamic light.\n\nLocated overhead in the entrance canopy of the building, a system of prisms has been installed into an existing aperture within the structure, projecting an array of refracted light on to the ground beneath.\n\nThis specially commissioned installation piece takes influence from Professor Hall's collaborative work on movements of change and progression. The collaboration between the light and space creates a unique environment that engages people as they move through the space.\n\nThe prisms work collectively to both receive and project light through the canopy aperture, taking a flux of light and transforming it into shifting clusters of refracted light beneath. This creates a space that is intangible and ephemeral. Existing without being present.\n\nWith Tearlach Byford-Flockhart, Liberty Dent and Hannah Fasching\n\nFabricator - JAILmake\n\nRefracted Prisms, Goldsmiths University of London, Professor Stuart Hall Building", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9968356490135193}
+{"content": "Why is .png file not looking clear after arranging using grid.arrange?\n\nHow to use map/reduce and read_csv to import a subset of columns from multiple files\n\nHow to make sure the user of a shiny app is using the right package versions in R\n\ncleanly paste columns that contain NAs\n\nR: rulled data frame to automate changes on it\n\nHow to fix \"nlminb problem, iteration limit reached\"\n\nPackages on Github: should packages named in Depends get attached?\n\nAdd a conditional variable in a data frame that takes into account the time intervals between rows for the same data frame\n\nMaxent multiple replicates\n\ncan i run automatic selection procedure on multiple linear regression with factor variables?\n\nHow can I add an element to the beginning of a character in R conditionally?\n\nmap correct id to unique identifier in shp file coordinates\n\nHow to superimpose polygons over ordination plot in vegan package in R\n\nHow to update the model after applying coeftest() for fixing heteroskedasticity with R?\n\nWhat are the standard options for generating printable documentation for an R package?\n\nUnable to run an anova with non-numeric factors in 3-way factorial\n\nUse \"User-Defined-Functions\" in Caret\n\nerror: AWS session token not found when using rs_create_table\n\nChange table space from default with dbWriteTable in R\n\nR: How to create dummy variable for multiple values?\n\nWeb scraping with rvest\n\nR Vignette Fails on Internal Package Function\n\nBootstrapping a negative binomial object in R\n\nHow to train a Ranger Decision Tree on a virtual dataframe (ffdf)\n\nMerge two dataframes with dplyr::left_join and multiple conditions\n\nHow to count repeated events per id\n\nRemove elements from a list in R based on a condition\n\nI tried to use \"match\" to lookup values but did not work\n\nPatterned Vector in base\n\nHow to reset Keras data generator in R?\n\nMutate new column of dataframe 1. and match values from another dataframe 2. based on variable combinations\n\nstep-by-step (column-by-column) calculation of an equation in a matrix\n\nAdd a new variable (Standard deviation) in `df1` for row dependinig on multiple rows from `df2` and conditioned to `Datetime` and other two variables\n\nusing diagrammeR, how can I make a node fillcolor dependent on a condition?\n\nHow to fix 'missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed' in estudy2 package R\n\nHow best to build an interactive routine within an R function\n\nFastest way of joining 2 data tables while summarising the data in one of them\n\nIs there an R function to show all the genes I am trying to filter from my data set?\n\nHow to add new vector that includes 0 and cumsum to dataframe?\n\nRank and choose the 5 models that showed the best result for each group\n\nExtracting models from H2O AutoML leaderboard\n\nSubset with all values for a variable in R\n\nHow can a sweetalert message be closed with code\n\nExplanation of the model output when using the train/caret package in R\n\nHow to change the data points ellipse draws around?\n\nggplot2 x-axis tick spacing\n\nR - Creating a unique sequence ID for rows in a data frame based on a value in a preceding row\n\nAdding multiple vlines for different dates in timeseries data\n\nAdding labels to each individual plot with facet_grid\n\nUsing the reorder function within geom_point in ggplot2\n\nHow to use debounce with reactiveValues in shiny\n\nInt m = Vm[0] warning\n\nHow to add more info to the tooltip on interactive plot generated by ggplotly (from ggplot) in r\n\nNothing returned when I try to scrape mlb.com transactions using rvest\n\nWhich package for ahp (with multiple decision makers, 3 criteria, 11 sub-criteria and 5 alternatives) ? How to load data?\n\n\"Is there a faster alternative for this for loop, where I need to multiply each row once with the other rows?\"\n\nRecognizing and Clicking Alert with RSelenium\n\nis it possible to choose the location of the plot with an input variable?\n\nWeird problem with merge in R, producing NAs\n\nR: Pass a List of Functions into another Function\n\nHow to rename the return data from getSymbols?\n\nhaving trouble sourcing a file in Rmd\n\nWhy is the last case in a case_when sequence often referred to as TRUE?\n\nWhy is R unable to access index for repository of bioconductor\n\nR dataframe - if lag value is NA then take previous\n\nIs it possible to create a user-defined function that takes reactive objects as input? How do I do it?\n\nlearnr/rmarkdown error: Can't call `runApp()` from `runApp()`\n\nRemoving all duplicates in data.table, adding column with list of identifiers\n\nFaceted panel: lines for each group within group\n\nhow to plot a linear regression in R\n\nHow to count matches between a vector and dataframe of sequence coordinates?\n\nR: How can I fix my for-loop so it multiplies every element of a row with the corresponding element of a column?\n\nOnmouseover element xpath\n\nHow do you print unicode symbols in a kable/formattable table?\n\nhttp://localhost:6000/__swagger__/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address. Plumber swagger-UI not working\n\nUsing tidyverse to select levels from one column that are filtered from another\n\nRemoving specific tags from a string - R\n\nShiny Leaflet package loading interactive map, but only showing changing pie charts on 1 data point out of 5 and crashing\n\nError with purrr::map and nested data frame in Chapter 20 of r4ds\n\nCreate R data with a dynamic variable name from function for package?\n\nBlock bootstrap for AUROC in R\n\nReplace strings containing only blanks with NA\n\nUpdating Power BI data generated by R script\n\nHow to make a linear interpolation for different dates using the function \"approx\"?\n\nHow to add 0s for function Merge?\n\nI want to give a score based on the result of the game, but an error occurs\n\nHow to identify names of columns having duplicate values in R\n\nHow to remove a character in specific columns in a data.frame with R?\n\nMinimax theory including alpha beta pruning for R code\n\nHow can I convert certain rows to columns in R?\n\nIs it possible to perform propensity score matching on the basis of weighted kernels with R package MatchIt?\n\nHow to do a calculation in case the column exist or not in R?\n\nHow fix Error in col2rgb(col, alpha = TRUE) in chordDiagram?\n\nRAM efficient multiplication of large matrices - running out of RAM in R\n\nError in the code of Differential Evolution in R\n\naggregate obs over time with different is's in the same data frame\n\nBasic R syntax for subdividing points in visualizing ordination (DCA) diagram in R\n\nIn R, how to add a column named \"starts\" to a data frame mathcing numeric bins at the start of each row?\n\nJoining hierarchical data to another table in R\n\nWrong output when converting matrix to raster", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8826258182525635}
+{"content": "breathwork – We ARE the Nature That is \"The Melanesian Way\" Wed, 22 Nov 2017 00:49:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Neuroscientists have Identified How Exactly a Deep Breath Changes Your Mind Wed, 22 Nov 2017 00:49:23 +0000\n\nBreathing is traditionally thought of as an automatic process driven by the brainstem—the part of the brain controlling such life-sustaining functions as heartbeat and sleeping patterns. But new and unique research, involving recordings made directly from within the brains of humans undergoing neurosurgery, shows that breathing can also change your brain.\n\n\nHumans’ ability to control and regulate their brain is unique: e.g., controlling emotions, deciding to stay awake despite being tired, or suppressing thoughts. These abilities are not trivial, nor do humans share them with many animals. Breathing is similar: animals do not alter their breathing speed volitionally; their breathing normally only changes in response to running, resting, etc. Questions that have baffled scientists in this context are: why are humans capable of volitionally regulating their breathing, and how do we gain access to parts of our brain that are not normally under our conscious control. Additionally, is there any benefit in our ability to access and control parts of our brain that are typically inaccessible? Given that many therapies—Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, trauma therapy, or various types of spiritual exercises—involve focusing and regulating breathing, does controlling inhaling and exhaling have any profound effect on behavior?\n\n\nThe study, conducted by my post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Jose Herrero, in collaboration with Dr. Ashesh Mehta, a renowned neurosurgeon at NorthShore University Hospital in Long Island, began by observing brain activity when patients were breathing normally. Next, the patients were given a simple task to distract them: clicking a button when circles appeared on the computer screen. This allowed Dr. Herrero to observe what was happening when people breath naturally and do not focus on their breathing. After this, the patients were told to consciously increase the pace of breathing and to count their breaths. When breathing changed with the exercises, the brain changed as well. Essentially, the breathing manipulation activated different parts of the brain, with some overlap in the sites involved in automatic and intentional breathing.\n\nThe findings provide neural support for advice individuals have been given for millennia: during times of stress, or when heightened concentration is needed, focusing on one’s breathing or doing breathing exercises can indeed change the brain. This has potential application to individuals in a variety of professions that require extreme focus and agility. Athletes, for example, have long been known to utilize breathing to improve their performance. Now, this research puts science behind that practice.\n\nBeyond studying the ability of humans to control and regulate their neural activity volitionally, the study was also unique in that it utilized a rare method of neural research: directly looking inside the brains of awake and alert humans. Typical neuroscience studies involving humans use imaging techniques (i.e. fMRI or EEG) to inferthe neural activity in people’s brain from outside the skull. But studies involving electrodes implanted in humans’ brains are rare. The ability to look inside the humans’ brains allows us to study thinking, deciding and even imagining or dreaming by directly observing the brain. The study subjects in our work were patients who had electrodes implanted in their brain as part of a clinical treatment for epilepsy. These patients were experiencing seizures that could not be controlled by medication and therefore required surgical interventions to detect the seizure focus for future resection.\n\nGiven that detection requires the patient to have a spontaneous seizure in order to identify the exact seizure onset location, which can take days, the patients are kept in the hospital with electrodes continuously monitoring their brain activity.\n\nThe research findings show that the advice to “take a deep breath” may not just be a cliché. Exercises involving volitional breathing appear to alter the connectivity between parts of the brain and allow access to internal sites that normally are inaccessible to us. Further investigation will now gradually monitor what such access to parts of our psyche that are normally hidden can reveal.\n\n\n\n]]> 0\nBreath of Bliss Academy – Breathwork Teacher Trainings & Retreats November 2017 Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:34:38 +0000 Breath of Bliss Academy - Breathwork Teacher Trainings & Retreats\n\nQUANTUM LEAP in Thailand! The most recent Level 2 Group Facilitator was life-changing. I've been speechless for a few days. I can now finally try to put it into words. Raw, primal jungle and crystal blue waters...and group of old souls gathering to learn how to use Breath of Bliss ceremonies as a vehicle to share their deep wisdom, inspiration and essence! What an absolute honour to hold space for these world teachers in this exotic tropical paradise, along with Bonnie our super-snuggle kitty, in our studio overlooking an infinity of ocean and trees.\n\nThe trainees hailed from Hawaii, tribal New Guinea, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Everyone practiced teaching right from day 1 of the 17 day immersion and chose to step in 100% They were devoted to the vision, eager to learn from each other and clear in sharing how they want to help build the Breath of Bliss brand and movement. I've never before encounter such a unified team of love who actually consistently invited me to uplevel my own vision as well!\n\nThey were each able to transmute the painful, denser shadow frequencies they had each navigated in their lives, into enlightened teachings, and to share them in the context of powerful breathwork journeys. Our open dialogs about the viruses of \"not-enoughness\", \"perfectionism\" and \"living from the mind instead the heart\" were rich and potent. They each seemed to have an unshakeable awareness of their purpose on the planet, their soul mission and desire to work as part of a team together. And many already set up their breathwork ceremonies at home while at the training!\n\nI was profoundly honoured to have the presence of a native elder with us, Jhon Yonathan Kwano, who had been sent away by his tribe as a \"messenger\" to gather wisdom to bring back to teach his people! I Yes, he is bringing Breath of Bliss back to his island! I learned so much from his awakened state of joy and grounded wisdom. Sally Thomson brought her Sioux ancestry forth in a powerful invitation for us all to live from our soul's guidance. Her powerful teachings around self-sourcing guidance from the soul are still with me! She is returning to teach in Portland and Maui. Jean-Marc Aliphon came from Perth with heritage from Mauritius, and shared boundless enthusiasm, approachable expertise, massive planetary vision and a profoundly moving story of life transformation... he will be bringing Breath of Bliss to Perth and into prisons. Shannon Rose brought her Maori ancestry forth to inspire us all to connect with our ancient wisdom and hearts and shared deeply feminine, proufoundly empowering journeys that invited the lineages of grandmothers to speak to us. She is launching classes in Auckland. Kirsty Targrass brought a graceful, tender and intergalactic transmission to us in her breathwork ceremony that transmitted codes of wisdom and light. She will be teaching in Ubud and Cairnes. Andrew James brought the buddhic wisdom body of a seasoned meditator, calling in the divine father energy for all of us in his powerful, affirming guidance. He will be sharing many ceremonies and retreat in Hong Kong! Fiona Galloway brought clarity and dedication in her commitment to invite the light through the deepest shadows, inviting us all to recommit to feeling the full spectrum of our emotions. She will be sharing in New South Wales, Australia.\n\nEmily Love stepped up as a trainer-in-training to hold space with me, bringing so much depth, authenticity and impeccable presence. I am so grateful and excited to see what births with us. This woman is a powerhouse! She will be rolling out her classes now in Canberra.\n\nExtra SPECIAL thanks to Kirsty Targrass and Shannon Rose whose amazing internship work helped to make this event the most incredible one yet. I am eternally grateful for your hard work, dedication and above and beyond contributions that have helped evolve the whole Bliss movement to the next level. You are precious angels and I will forever cherish our amazing time working together. Also thank you to Nathan Parker who shared his gorgeous home studio with us!\n\nI continue to sit with this experience in a state of wonder, as the transmissions continue.\n\nConsider joining us for the next Level 1 and 2 in Bali in February and March. All the details are at ❤ Let's share the love of connected breathing with the planet!\n\nMore to come.. I have hundreds of images, tons of videos and writings from Thailand to share on Breath of Bliss Academy - Breathwork Teacher Trainings & Retreatseats page... like it to get more detailed updates\n\n]]> 0", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9057186245918274}
+{"content": "<![CDATA[Sacramento Federal Criminal Defense Law Blog]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2013-03-21://12027 2016-04-14T12:30:41Z Movable Type Enterprise <![CDATA[California man accused of using the Internet to sell drugs]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.2009946 2016-04-14T12:31:41Z 2016-04-14T12:30:41Z Technology has revolutionized our world. It has changed the way our economy functions, the way information is dispersed and how we entertain ourselves. But, it has also expanded the ways in which crimes can be committed. Though, many believe that the Internet is only used to commit fraud and identity theft, its utilization far exceeds that, which could spell trouble for California residents.\n\nOne California man is learning this first-hand after being taken into custody on federal drug trafficking charges. According to authorities, the 38-year-old man utilized Silk Road and other dark-web sites to promote and sell narcotics.\n\n]]> It is alleged that the man sold cocaine and marijuana via the dark sites, then mailed them from a post offices in Fresno and Merced counties to individuals across the country. The authorities claim the man made nearly $1.5 million in the scheme.\n\nCases like this can be tricky for prosecutors and defense attorneys alike. The prosecution may try to submit evidence tying the accused individual to a particular online username, in addition to trying to prove that the accused mailed narcotics utilizing the postal service.\n\nOn the other hand, a defense attorney might try to poke holes in the prosecution. The defense can argue that the username belonged to someone else, and that the defendant did not have access to the dark-web sites in question.\n\nMatters involving federal drug charges are complicated enough, but throw technology into the mix and the issues can become even cloudier. This is why those facing drug charges, Internet crime allegations or both, need to make sure they surround themselves with a legal team that knows what needs to be done to counteract an aggressive prosecution.\n\nSource: Daily Journal, \"Federal authorities say they have arrested a Central California man on charges of distributing cocaine and marijuana on the drug-selling site Silk Road and other dark-web markets,\" March 29, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[What to know when facing drug trafficking charges]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1998931 2016-04-06T14:07:35Z 2016-04-06T14:06:35Z Whether Californians want to believe it or not, the war on drugs is still being waged. Every day, individuals are slapped with federal drug trafficking charges that carry severe penalties. These penalties can strip an individual of his or her future and freedom. It can also devastate a family. Therefore, those who are facing federal drug crime allegations need to be prepared to fight for their lives. The first way to do this is to know what, exactly, they are facing.\n\nTo start with, an individual facing federal drug charges should know what the potential penalties could be. This will allow them to better negotiate a plea deal, if they so desire.\n\n]]> The federal penalties vary, depending on a number of factors. The type and amount of narcotics involved are most important as are an individual's criminal history.\n\nFor example, an individual convicted of trafficking heroin in the amount of 100 to 999 grams can be sentenced to between five and 40 years in prison for a first offense.\n\nA second offense will result in a sentence of 10 years to life. If the amount of heroin involved exceeds one kilogram, than a first offense could result in 10 years to life in prison. A second offense involving more than a kilogram could result in 20 years to life in prison.\n\nIn addition to knowing the potential penalties, an individual should recognize that drug crimes are aggressively prosecuted. The federal government often seeks to obtain convictions and impose the strictest penalties possible.\n\nTherefore, those who are accused of drug trafficking and similar crimes should be prepared to zealously defend themselves. This means knowing the law, how it applies to their situation and being as persuasive as possible. By acquiring the assistance of a skilled California defense attorney, an individual may bolster his or her position.\n\nSource: DEA, \"Federal Drug Trafficking penalties,\" accessed on April 1, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[Californian informants in the investigation of federal crimes]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1986621 2016-03-30T13:26:37Z 2016-03-30T13:25:37Z Federal investigators have a lot of tools at their disposal, especially as technology has evolved over the years. However, despite the technology at their disposal, many investigators and prosecutors rely on information provided by others. Often, law enforcement agents attempt to get those who are close to a suspect to provide the government with information that could lead to an arrest and prosecution. These individuals are known as criminal informants, and they are used throughout California.\n\nThere are guidelines in place to help ensure that the government uses informants that are reliable. When initially assessing an informant's suitability, for example, a federal agent must assess the informant's position within any organization related to the investigation, his or her relationship to the target, the informant's motivation for providing information and the extent to which the provided information can be corroborated. Agents should also analyze a criminal informant's truthfulness, his or her history of substance abuse and whether he or she is related to any law enforcement official.\n\n]]> Criminal informants should be re-assessed at regular intervals to ensure that they remain reliable, and there are guidelines regarding the relationship between a criminal informant and law enforcement. For example, an agent cannot exchange gifts with an informant and cannot engage in any financial ventures with an informant. Likewise, the government has placed restrictions on the amount, the circumstances and the procedures by which criminal informants are paid.\n\nCriminal informants can lead to large-scale arrests and the levying of serious federal charges. Those facing drug trafficking charges, for example, could be confronted by the very real possibility of years in prison, if found guilty of the alleged crime.\n\nNonetheless, though the government has guidelines regarding the use of criminal informants, they may be bullied and coerced into giving false information. Thus, those dealing with this situation may want the assistance of a legal professional who can help them analyze the situation and how a criminal defense can be drafted to combat it.\n\nSource: ACLU.org, \"Department of Justice Guidelines Regarding The Use of Confidential Informants,\" accessed on March 26, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[Environmental crime allegations should not be taken lightly]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1976570 2016-03-23T16:46:32Z 2016-03-23T16:45:32Z In nearly every aspect of our lives, our actions are shaped by the law. The way we drive, deal with our anger, and even break up with spouses are molded by the law. The same is true when it comes to disposing of waste. With growing concern about global warming and planetary pollution, the federal government has stepped up its efforts to criminally punish Californians they believe are causing harm to the Earth.\n\nThis led to the creation of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department. This section works collaboratively with other agencies to find and prosecutor pollution violators under various federal statutes. To obtain a conviction, the federal prosecutors must show that actual pollution occurred, and that the polluting occurred with intent. With regard to intent, the government must typically show that an individual knowingly polluted or caused the polluting to happen.\n\n]]> These types of criminal charges often arise in the business context. A business may be accused of leaking toxins into waterways or releasing airborne pollutants. Regardless of the allegations, those in charge of the business and its waste disposal may wind up facing criminal charges. Though they may seem relatively minor, no federal crime is minor, and accused individuals should act accordingly.\n\nFacing allegations, like these, and the potential penalties associated with them, can be stressful and overwhelming. With that in mind, an accused individual may find the assistance of a skilled criminal defense attorney beneficial.\n\nAfter all, the federal government, with its eye on protecting the environment, will aggressively prosecute the matter. This means that a zealous defense will likely be needed to stand a chance of winning.\n\nSource: Justice.gov, \"Prosecution of Federal Pollution Crimes,\" accessed on March 18, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[Our legal team is competent with white collar crime cases]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1965819 2016-03-16T14:10:06Z 2016-03-16T14:09:06Z Last week on this blog, we discussed a case where a former business executive faces white collar crime charges for allegedly altering his company's financial documents. Financial crimes, also known as white collar crimes, encompass a large area of the law. Californians who face such allegations are in for a fight, as aggressive prosecutors look to give a strong voice to those who have lost money. When facing such zealous prosecution, those accused of a financial crime will need to draft and deliver an equally prepared and strong criminal defense.\n\nPreparing an adequate defense is not easy task. A defendant and his or her legal team must closely analyze the allegations, assess the facts and apply the law to the situation. Then, evidence, as well as witnesses, must be discovered and utilized in an attempt to raise doubt as to a defendant's guilt. All of this must be done within the confines of the law and missteps, even improper introduction of evidence or witness testimony, could change the landscape of the case.\n\n]]> Therefore, those accused of committing a criminal offense need to ensure they know the law and how to use it to their benefit. The Law Office of Thomas A Johnson has years of experience working with criminal defendants to create defense strategies that protect their legal rights and attempt to shield them from penalties, when possible. Our firm fully prepares each case, and we maintain open and honest communication with our clients to ensure that they can make fully informed decisions regarding their defense.\n\nIn the end, we are fighting for our clients' futures. We leave no stone unturned when it comes to preparing a defense, and we stand up for our clients against prosecutors who overstep their bounds. With diligent work and a passion for the law, we hope our clients walk away from their case knowing that they received the best representation available to them.\n\n<![CDATA[California executive accused of falsifying financial documents]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1958403 2016-03-09T18:17:12Z 2016-03-09T18:16:12Z Running a business in California can be challenging on many levels. Decisions regarding hiring and firing employees, to expand or contract markets and implement new business practices occur all the time. These decisions can change the dynamic of a business. Another issue that business executives must contend with are those relating to financial matters. Accounting practices, audits and cash handling can all present their own problems, which can seep into the criminal arena and cause an individual to come face-to-face with very serious allegations.\n\nOne California business man is learning this firsthand. According to reports, Hector Absi, an executive at Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates and sells eco-friendly pesticides, has been accused of securities fraud.\n\n]]> Authorities allege that Absi falsified his company's financial records to show a doubling of revenue between 2012 and 2013. The company, which accepted Absi's resignation, claims an internal investigation discovered that the company's revenue was exaggerated by nearly $7 million over the course of a year and a half. Absi has pleaded not guilty to the charges.\n\nWhite collar crimes, like securities fraud, are aggressively prosecuted. A conviction could lead to fines that are so extensive as to leave an individual in financial ruin. Additionally, a conviction may lead to a long prison term that strips an individual away from his or her family for years, maybe even decades.\n\nWith so much on the line, those accused of white collar financial crimes cannot afford to delay in preparing their defense or do so lackadaisically. They should instead learn about the law and how it applies to their situation. Then, an accused individual can develop a legal strategy that seeks to raise reasonable doubt as to his or her guilt. A Sacramento attorney, skilled with handling federal cases, may be able to help with this process.\n\nSource: San Jose Mercury News, \"California biotech executive denies securities fraud charges,\" Feb. 25, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1952912 2016-03-03T17:23:18Z 2016-03-03T17:22:18Z Over the last couple of decades, technology has become an increasingly important, and oftentimes necessary, part of our lives. Californians spend much of their working and leisure time on their phones, computers and smart gadgets, which connect everyone across the country and the world. However, with access to such a wide network of computers, individuals can find themselves being accused of going where they should not and wind up facing federal criminal charges.\n\nUnder a federal law, known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, it is illegal to access a computer without having prior authorization and to access a computer in a way that exceeds one's authorization with the intent to obtain protected information and transmit or deliver it to another. Under the Act, it is also against the law to knowingly transmit any type of program that causes damage to a computer that is protected. An individual is also disallowed from using threats against a protected computer to extort money or property from another individual, business or agency.\n\n]]> The punishment for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act can be significant. Depending on the circumstances and the exact portion of the law under which an individual is prosecuted, a conviction could land an individual in prison for up to 20 years. A convicted individual could also face thousands of dollars in fines.\n\nFederal Internet crime charges are quite serious and should be treated as such. This means preparing an adequate defense based on the available evidence, utilizing statutory and case law as support. Developing a proper criminal defense strategy requires time, knowledge, skill and persuasion. Those facing allegations regarding Internet crimes may thus benefit from the services of an experienced attorney.\n\nSource: Cornell.edu, \"18 U.S. Code § 1030,\" accessed on Feb. 27, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[The federal crime appeals process in California]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1946419 2016-02-26T17:00:30Z 2016-02-26T16:59:30Z Losing a case in federal court can be soul-crushing. The penalties imposed can be daunting, to say the least, and the individual's family can be just as disheartened. The loss can seem to suck the hope out of a Californian's life. Nonetheless, he or she should remain strong because he or she may have a second chance to argue his or her position.\n\nFederal cases that are appealed are usually heard, meaning that defendants and their attorneys will have an opportunity to be heard. The time to present one's argument, though, is significantly shorter. It is typically limited to 15 minutes, and the decision of the Court of Appeals, in most instances is final.\n\n]]> If an individual's case is heard on appeal, then he or she needs to be extremely prepared with compelling legal arguments to stand a chance at having the lower court's ruling overturned. In the event that an individual loses on appeal, he or she can still seek to have the case heard by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening is slim.\n\nOn appeal, an individual can certainly challenge whether his or her conviction was justified, but he or she can also argue that the penalties imposed were too harsh. Therefore, success at the appellate level can take many forms and range widely in terms of impact on the individual's post-case life.\n\nIt is always hoped that trial courts will be fair in rendering judgment, but that is not always the case. Nonetheless, to preserve issues on appeal, a criminal defendant must raise the issue during the initial trial. So, anyone facing federal crime allegations may want to seek immediate legal counsel, and the same certainly holds true for those who are attempting to appeal a conviction or a sentence.\n\nSource: USCourts.gov, \"Appeals,\" accessed on Feb. 19, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[The Brady Act and its restrictions on guns]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1933115 2016-02-17T14:26:57Z 2016-02-17T14:25:57Z In an attempt to curb gun violence, the federal government has enacted many laws over the years. One pivotal piece of legislation is known as the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act. This law has many components to it, but perhaps most important amongst them are the limitations on who is disallowed from owning or possessing a firearm. For example, Californians who were convicted of a crime and were subsequently sentenced to a year or more in prison cannot own a gun. Doing so would be a federal crime.\n\nThe act does not end there, though. In fact, the law is quite wide-reaching. Under the Act, it is against federal law for individuals to import or deal in firearms unless they are licensed. The same holds true for manufacturing. Therefore, those who are considering selling, importing or manufacturing firearms should first ensure that they have the proper licensure.\n\n]]> The law does not stop with just guns, either. It also applies to certain gun-related items, such as ammunition. An individual who manufactures or sells armor-piercing ammunition can wind up facing federal charges. This means that those dealing with guns and gun accessories should be sure to make themselves aware of the law and how to avoid running afoul of it.\n\nSometimes, though, law enforcement steps in and starts making accusations of criminal wrongdoing. Those who are suddenly hit with allegations of a federal weapons offense should be sure to do everything they can to protect themselves. This means, perhaps, seeking out legal assistance from an attorney familiar with federal law and how to apply it to the circumstances at hand. After all, prosecutors must meet every element of a criminal charge, and federal gun crimes often have many components that may give a criminal defendant leverage.\n\nSource: FindLaw.com, \"18 USC § 922,\" accessed on Feb. 12, 2016\n\n<![CDATA[Our firm challenges evidence in California drug trafficking cases]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1925089 2016-02-10T16:13:04Z 2016-02-10T16:12:04Z As was evidenced by the case that was discussed in last week's blog post, federal authorities are still aggressively pursuing Californians they believe are involved in drug trafficking and related offenses. The government typically spends months, sometimes, even years investigating individuals to gather evidence. This means that those who are accused of drug crimes are often up against relatively strong legal arguments and supporting evidence.\n\n\n\n\n<![CDATA[Former NFL player facing California federal drug charges]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1914286 2016-02-03T14:50:48Z 2016-02-03T14:49:48Z Most federal offenses carry significant penalties upon conviction. Amongst those offenses are those involving drugs. With the war on drugs seeming to rage on, federal prosecutors still take a hard line on those Californians they believe are breaking the law. This means that those who are accused of these crimes could be up against aggressive prosecutors and tough legal arguments. In these situations, it is critical to develop as strong of a California criminal defense as is possible under the circumstances. Failing to do so could lead to the imposition of tough penalties.\n\nA former NFL player may need to do that now after being indicted on charges related to racketeering and drug conspiracy. According to reports, Derek Loville, who played for the San Francisco 49ers, amongst others, is accused of playing a significant role in an enterprise that included illegal gambling and drug trafficking. Authorities allege Loville sold narcotics across the nation and collected payments. Further, Loville is accused of conspiring with others to distribute a variety of drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine.\n\n]]> Though only facing two federal charges, each carries a potential penalty of life in prison. Therefore, Loville, and those who face similar criminal charges, need to remain strong in their criminal defense. And, mounting a proper defense, it should be realized, is not always easy, particularly when having to defend against multiple charges.\n\nThis is why it is important to ensure a defendant has the time, resources and knowledge necessary to adequately protect his or her legal rights and fight for his or her future. A criminal defense attorney can oftentimes bring many of these attributes to the table, perhaps, leaving a criminal defendant in a better position than if he or she were to go at it alone.\n\nSource: KRON, \"Former San Francisco 49er indicted on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges,\" Jan. 28, 2015\n\n<![CDATA[Identity theft and the Internet]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1904851 2016-01-27T13:28:52Z 2016-01-27T13:27:52Z In many ways, today's life is easier than it was 20 years ago. In other ways, however, it can be much more complicated. This is the case when it comes to the Internet and electronic crimes. Offenses that can be committed over the Internet are numerous, and those who find themselves facing such allegations may be in quite a fight. Failing to adequately prepare a criminal defense could be have long-term consequences.\n\n\n\n\n\n<![CDATA[Conspiracy under federal law]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1898675 2016-01-20T14:07:52Z 2016-01-20T14:06:53Z Merely being accused of a federal crime can ruin an individual's reputation, and a conviction could lead to years in prison, thousands of dollars in fines and a criminal record that can make life extremely difficult. Although these penalties are a very real possibility for those who are alleged to have actually carried out the criminal act, even those who were part of thinking out and planning the alleged offense could face an uphill legal battle.\n\nUnder federal law, it is illegal for anyone to conspire to commit a crime against or defraud the country, so long as action was taken in furtherance of that crime. A discussion about committing a crime against the United States is not against the law. However, if, for example, materials are acquired that are necessary to carry out those plans, then conspiracy may have occurred. The penalties for this criminal offense are rather steep, with fines and up to five years in prison both possibilities.\n\n]]> Those who are accused of conspiracy should be sure to present the best criminal defense they can muster. There is often a lot of grey area when it comes to this criminal offense, as there is room to argue about what constitutes an act in furtherance of the crime. Those facing this type of charge will need to know statutory and case law and how to utilize it to their benefit. The right legal approach may lead to the charges being dismissed, a not guilty verdict or a lesser charge.\n\nSource: Legal Information Institute, \"18 U.S. Code § 371,\" accessed Jan. 15, 2015\n\n<![CDATA[Tax evasion and its penalties]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1887683 2016-01-13T13:10:28Z 2016-01-13T13:09:28Z The New Year has arrived and many California residents may find themselves already thinking about their tax obligations from the previous year. Although for many people this is a time when they may look forward to a hefty tax return, for others it may be a process through which they find themselves facing federal charges for tax evasion.\n\nWhat is tax evasion? As the name implies, tax evasion occurs when an individual or business acts illegally in order to avoid paying taxes. Many times this charge is filed against individuals and businesses the federal government believes have been obtaining illegal income. Tax evasion can occur when income is underreported or deductions are inflated, but it can also happen if assets are hidden.\n\n]]> The penalties for tax evasion are quite severe. If convicted, an individual can face up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000. There is a lot at stake when a California resident is accused of tax evasion, which is why addressing the matter in a timely fashion is critically important.\n\nOnce under investigation, an individual should consider legal options. Law enforcement may try to get a suspect to admit to certain facts that eventually work against the defendant during plea negotiations or a trial. By beginning the process of crafting a criminal defense strategy immediately, an accused individual may be able to protect legal rights and, perhaps, improve the chances of finding some sort of successful result at the end of the case.\n\nSource: Legal Information Institute, \"Tax evasion,\" accessed Jan. 8, 2015\n\n<![CDATA[Protecting the rights of those accused of federal gun crimes]]> tag:www.sacramentofederalcriminaldefenselawyer.com,2016://12027.1878887 2016-01-07T14:29:08Z 2016-01-07T14:28:08Z With recent current events taking hold of the nation, our country has turned up the heat on those who illegally manufacture, distribute and purchase weapons. This could also be a response to the increase in firearms availability on the black market, as was discussed last week on the blog. Regardless, those who are accused of a federal gun crime or another federal weapons offense are up against a difficult challenge; one that, if lost, could result in serious long-term consequences.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7240317463874817}
+{"content": "The Page Principles\n\nBased on Arthur W. Page's writings, speeches and interviews, the seven Page Principles represent the values he held over his long career. The Principles capture how Page practiced public relations, as well as how the Center executes its many initiatives. \n\n  1. Tell the truth.\n    Let the public know what’s happening with honest and good intention; provide an ethically accurate picture of the enterprise’s character, values, ideals and actions.\n  2. Prove it with action.\n    Public perception of an enterprise is determined 90 percent by what it does and 10 percent by what it says.\n  3. Listen to stakeholders.\n    To serve the enterprise well, understand what the public wants and needs and advocate for engagement with all stakeholders. Keep top decision makers and other employees informed about stakeholder reaction to the enterprise’s products, policies and practices. To listen effectively, engage a diverse range of stakeholders through inclusive dialogue.\n  4. Manage for tomorrow.\n  5. Conduct public relations as if the whole enterprise depends on it.\n    No strategy should be implemented without considering its impact on stakeholders. As a management and policymaking function, public relations should encourage the enterprise's decision making, policies and actions to consider its stakeholders' diverse range of views, values, experience, expectations and aspirations.\n  6. Realize an enterprise's true character is expressed by its people. \n    The strongest opinions—good or bad—about an enterprise are shaped by the words and deeds of an increasingly diverse workforce. As a result, every employee—active or retired—is involved with public relations. It is the responsibility of corporate communications to advocate for respect, diversity and inclusion in the workforce and to support each employee’s capability and desire to be an honest, knowledgeable ambassador to customers, friends, shareowners and public officials.\n  7. Remain calm, patient and good-humored.\n    Lay the groundwork for public relations successes with consistent and reasoned attention to information and stakeholders. When a crisis arises, remember, cool heads communicate best.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9896676540374756}
+{"content": "The ritual alone which accompanied divination practices and incantation formulae and was a chief factor in the celebration of festival days and of days set aside for one reason or the other to the worship of some god or goddess or group of deities, is free from traces of the astral theology. The more or less elaborate ceremonies prescribed for the occasions when the gods were approached are directly connected with the popular elements of the religion. Animal sacrifice, libations, ritualistic purification, sprinkling of water, and symbolical rites of all kinds accompanied by short prayers, represent a religious practice which in the Babylonian-Assyrian religion, as in all religions, is older than any theology and survives the changes which the theoretical substratum of the religion undergoes.\n\nOn the ethical side, the religion of Babylonia more particularly, and to a less extent that of Assyria, advances to noticeable conceptions of the qualities associated with the gods and goddesses and of the duties imposed on man. Shamash the sun-god was invested with justice as his chief trait, Marduk is portrayed as full of mercy and kindness, Ea is the protector of mankind who is grieved when, through a deception practised upon Adapa, humanity is deprived of immortality. The gods, to be sure, are easily aroused to anger, and in some of them the dire aspects predominated, but the view becomes more and more pronounced that there is some cause always for the divine wrath. Though, in accounting for the anger of the gods, no sharp distinction is made between moral offences and a ritualistic oversight or neglect, yet the stress laid in the hymns and prayers, as well as in the elaborate atonement ritual prescribed in order to appease the anger of the gods, on the need of being clean and pure in the sight of the higher powers, the inculcation of a proper aspect of humility, and above all the need of confessing one's guilt and sins without any reserve - all this bears testimony to the strength which the ethical factor acquired in the domain of the religion.\n\nThis factor appears to less advantage in the unfolding of the views concerning life after death. Throughout all periods of Babylonian-Assyrian history, the conception prevailed of a large dark cavern below the earth, not far from the Apsu - the ocean encircling and flowing underneath the earth - in which all the dead were gathered and where they led a miserable existence of inactivity amid gloom and dust. Occasionally a favoured individual was permitted to escape from this general fate and placed in a pleasant island. It would appear also that the rulers were always singled out for divine grace, and in the earlier periods of the history, owing to the prevailing view that the rulers stood nearer to the gods than other mortals, the kings were deified after death, and in some instances divine honours were paid to them even during their lifetime.\n\nThe influence exerted by the Babylonian-Assyrian religion was particularly profound on the Semites, while the astral theology affected the ancient world in general, including the Greeks and Romans. The impetus to the purification of the old Semite religion to which the Hebrews for a long time clung in common with their fellows - the various branches of nomadic Arabs - was largely furnished by the remarkable civilization unfolded in the Euphrates valley and in many of the traditions, myths and legends embodied in the Old Testament; traces of direct borrowing from Babylonia may be discerned, while the indirect influences in the domain of the prophetical books, as also in the Psalms and in the so-called \"Wisdom Literature,\" are even more noteworthy. Even when we reach the New Testament period, we have not passed entirely beyond the sphere of Babylonian-Assyrian influences. In such a movement as early Christian gnosticism, Babylonian elements - modified, to be sure, and transformed - are largely present, while the growth of an apocalyptic literature is ascribed with apparent justice by many scholars to the recrudescence of views the ultimate source of which is to be found in the astral-theology of the Babylonian and Assyrian priests.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9471496939659119}
+{"content": "The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly has issued a statement on the situation in Ukraine.\n© AFP/Scanpix\n\n\"The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly is closely following the developments in Ukraine, and it expresses deep concern about the escalation of military conflict which has become a serious threat to peaceful and democratic development in the region,\" reads the statement.\n\n\"The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly reaffirms its unwavering belief in the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders, and it emphasises that military aggression against another sovereign state is unacceptable because it violates universally binding international law.\n\n\"The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly regrets that every attempt to resolve the conflict in a peaceful manner, including the recent negotiations held in Minsk, has failed.\n\n\"The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly urges Russia to immediately stop the warfare, as well as unconditionally withdraw its military personnel and armaments from the territory of Ukraine.\n\n\"The Presidium of the Baltic Assembly calls on to the international community to summon the involved parties to negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute in a constructive dialogue based on neighbourly relations, a spirit of openness and compliance with international law. Strong and coordinated measures should be taken to stop the military aggression by the Russian Federation and prevent its recurrence.\"\n\nPresidential candidate Simonyte calls campaign tactful, even boring\n\n\nBig day for Lithuania: country elects new president and MEPs\n\n\nVolumes of detained cigarette contraband triple\n\n\n\n\nYoung people in Vilnius and Klaipeda joined climate change protests\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9862528443336487}
+{"content": "1 in 7 babies is born underweight, with dire consequences for their health, global study says\n\nOver 20 million babies around the world -- about 1 out of every 7 -- were born underweight in 2015, a slight improvement over rates in 2000 but not enough to meet goals and prevent global health consequences, according to a new study.\n\nNICU Cleanslate machine kills bacteria on cellphones to keep babies healthy\n\nFor newborn babies at Winner Palmer Hospital's NICU, each day can be a battle that requires extra care. Now a new piece of equipment is helping them fight the odds and bacteria. It starts with disinfecting your cell phone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5905284285545349}
+{"content": "Você está na página 1de 13\n\n8076 J. Agric. Food Chem.\n\n2009, 57, 8076–8088\n\n\nOne Hundred Years of Progress in Food Analysis\n\nDepartment of Food Science and Technology Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-6602\n\nFood and agricultural products comprise complex and diverse chemical mixtures that historically\nhave presented challenges for assessing food safety, nutrient content, stability, and sensory\nqualities. The analysis of food composition has significantly evolved over the past 100 years,\nprogressing from reliance on predominantly “wet chemistry” laboratory methods from the early to\nmid-20th century to their gradual replacement by modern instrumental techniques. Pioneering\ndevelopments in pH instruments, spectrophotometry, chromatography/separations, and spectro-\nmetry often had immediate applications to food analysis. Continuous improvements in methodology\nover this period have led to significant enhancements in analytical accuracy, precision, detection\nlimits, and sample throughput, thereby expanding the practical range of food applications. The\nanalysis;beyond simple characterization;as a tool for new product development, quality control,\nregulatory enforcement, and problem-solving.\n\nKEYWORDS: Analytical methods; characterization techniques; food analysis; food products; separa-\ntion techniques; chromatography; mass spectrometry; spectroscopy\n\nINTRODUCTION The chemical analysis of food composition has significantly\n\nFrom a chemical perspective, food is an intricate, heteroge- advanced over the period from 1908 to the present and is the\nneous mixture of diverse biochemical components. Analytical subject of recent comprehensive reviews and compendia of\nfood chemists are concerned with the composition and properties methods and instrumentation (1-5). As anaytical chemistry\nof food products, beverages, confections, and flavors including evolved over the same era (6), classical monographs and textbooks\nthe chemical and physical changes they undergo during post- devoted to food analysis underwent multiple editions and revi-\nharvest handling, processing, and storage. Measuring the quality, sions, many spanning several decades (7-9). In the United States,\nsafety, sensory properties, nutrition, and stability of food pro- classical methods of food analysis were initially developed to\nducts is the primary concern of analytical chemists working provide reliable and reproducible information about food com-\nwithin the food-processing industry and in academic and govern- position due to frequent incidents of food adulteration and the\nment laboratories affiliated with food science or testing programs. need for consumer protection. The early focus of food analysis\nFood assays have been developed to enable measurement of was to differentiate levels of food components, assess purity, and\nfood product quality attributes (appearance, color, flavor, expose economic fraud. As the science of food components\ntexture), depending on the specific product application. Alterna- evolved from 1900 to 1940 through subsequent discoveries and\ntively, the instability of foods, which limits their shelf life, can be further understandings of the roles of vitamins, minerals, proteins,\ninitiated by chemical reactions, enzymatic reactions, microbial lipids, and other essential nutrients, the need arose for the develop-\ntranformations, or physical forces. Analysis of the degree of ment of analytical methods that could verify nutrient content.\nemulsification or moisture content, for example, may allow a Early agricultural chemists were interested in providing links\nprediction of the shelf-life limit for a salad dressing or a snack between food composition and nutrition, just as they are today.\ncracker, respectively. Analysis of food pigments concerns darken- New federal regulations were enacted in countries around the\ning, bleaching, or development of desirable colors. Flavor assays world, requiring commercially processed foods to be labeled to\nmeasure oxidative rancidity, undesirable browning reactions, or declare their ingredients (for example, in the United States with\ndesirable compounds produced through fermentation or thermal the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act of 1938) and,\nreactions. Texture assays evaluate toughening or softening, loss subsequently, their nutritional value (U.S. Nutrition Labeling\nor gain in solubility or water-holding capacity. Besides quality and Education Act of 1990.) Protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C\nassurance, the goals of food analysis may be directed toward basic are among the list of 14 nutrients required to be disclosed on the\nresearch (healthy food ingredients, bioactive compounds for package label since 1993 (10), and this new regulation generated\ndisease prevention) or product development (convenient prepara- the need for more accurate analytical tests for trace nutrients in\ntion, improved sensory attributes). foods. In addition, more rapid analytical methods needed to be\ndeveloped to allow food processors to declare levels of cholesterol\n*Telephone (541) 737-8737; fax (541) 737-1877; e-mail robert. and saturated fat in foods, rather than reporting total fat content.\nmcgorrin@oregonstate.edu. The requirement to declare trans-fat content on packaged food\n\npubs.acs.org/JAFC Published on Web 08/31/2009 © 2009 American Chemical Society\n\nArticle J. Agric. Food Chem., Vol. 57, No. 18, 2009 8077\nTable 1. Sources of Official Analytical Methods for Food Analysis\nstandard analytical methods organization/publisher food matrix/analyte\n\nOfficial Methods of Analysis AOAC International foods, food additives, trace nutrients, animal feed\nApproved Methods American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) flour, gluten, dough strength, starch, fiber\nOfficial Methods and Recommended American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) vegetable oil source materials: fatty acids, glycerides,\nPractices glycerin, lecithin, trans-fats\nStandard Methods for the Examination American Public Health Association acidity, fat, lactose, moisture, protein, rancidity\nof Dairy Products\nFood Chemicals Codex U.S. Pharmacopeia preservatives, flavorings, colors, vitamins\nTTB Methods U.S. Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade alcohol, calories, protein, carbohydrates in wine, malt,\nBureau (TTB) distilled beverages\n\nlabels was added in 2006 to allow consumers to make healthier pesticide, antibiotic, and mycotoxin (e.g., aflatoxin, fumonisin,\nfood choices to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease (11). ochratoxin) residues in animal feeds and foods. Because of\nMandatory food nutrition labeling provided the impetus to increased incidences of foodborne allergies, the U.S. Food Aller-\ndevelop new standardized methods for food analysis that could gen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 required\nmeasure a broader group of components, particularly for complex mandatory labeling of the eight major food groups that comprise\nmatrices in multicomponent “prepared” food products. These 90% of allergenic responses (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish,\nnew methods were essential tools for food processors in manu- tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans) (18). The need for fast, high-\nfacturing and for government regulatory agencies in enforcement. volume screening has driven the development of rapid analytical\nStandardized food analytical methods enable consistency of test kits. Two examples are those that employ enzyme-linked\nresults among different laboratories that follow the same proce- immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques (e.g., detection of\ndures and serve as a benchmark for comparing results in the wheat gluten and peanut protein allergens in processed foods)\ndevelopment of new methods. Several nonprofit scientific orga- and monoclonal antibody-based affinity chromatography meth-\nnizations have compiled and published standard methods of ods (e.g., assay of aflatoxins in peanuts, cereal grains, and milk).\nanalysis for diverse food products, which have been collabora- Today, as in the past, regulatory and food safety concerns compel\ntively studied and validated (Table 1). These include Official the ongoing development of analytical testing methods to ensure\nMethods of Analysis (12) published by AOAC International, an food authenticity, monitor economic adulteration, and screen for\norganization founded in 1884 to initially provide analytical the presence of chemical toxins and food additives to ensure\nmethods for fertilizers, feeds, and dairy products to serve food compliance with local government regulations. Sophisticated\nchemists in government and regulatory agencies. Current meth- analytical tools such as HPLC, near-infrared spectroscopy, site-\nods cover a range of analytical tests across foods, food additives, specific natural isotope fractionation (SNIF)-NMR, and 13C\nbeverages, and agricultural materials. The American Association stable isotope ratio analysis-mass spectrometry are frequently\nof Cereal Chemists (AACC) publishes Approved Methods (13) for used to verify authenticity of fruit juices, natural flavors, spices,\ncereal products relating to baking quality, dough strength, stal- essential oils, and other expensive food ingredients. (19-23).\ning, starch, fiber, and proximate tests (e.g., mosture, crude fat,\nprotein). Official Methods and Recommended Practices (14) relat- FEDERAL REGULATION DRIVES NEED FOR FOOD\ning to fat and oil analysis are published by the American Oil ANALYSIS\nChemists’ Society (AOCS) for oilseed components, lipid materi- Much of today’s analytical food testing has its roots in food\nals, and finished food products, in addition to soaps and safety and the prevalence of economic adulteration in the early\ndetergents. The American Public Health Association publishes 20th century that ultimately led to the creation of the U.S. Food\nStandard Methods for the Examination of Dairy Products (15), and Drug Administration (FDA) (24). A large part of the\nwhich include methods for the chemical analysis of milk and dairy motivation for performing early food analysis was to protect\nproducts (acidity, fat, lactose, protein, water content). Food consumers against fraud, such as unscrupulous food manufac-\nChemicals Codex (16) is a compendium of standardized analytical turers adding alum or gypsum to flour, cottonseed oil to olive oil,\nmethods and tests for the purity and quality of food ingredients or dried leaves to pepper (25, 26). The FDA’s origins can be\nincluding preservatives, flavorings, colors, and nutrients. In the correlated with the 1906 publication of Upton Sinclair’s best-\nUnited States, the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau selling novel The Jungle, which described in graphic detail the filth\n(TTB) has developed official analytical methods (17) to measure and unsanitary practices then prevailing at the Chicago stock-\nalcoholic content, calories, protein, and carbohydrates in wines, yards. The public’s outraged response prompted the U.S. Con-\nmalt beverages, and distilled alcoholic beverages. gress to propose new legislation. In June 1906, President\nAs the global food industry continues to expand, food analysis Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Food and Drug Act,\nplays an essential role in understanding and utilizing chemistry to also known as the “Wiley Act” after its chief advocate, Dr.\nmeasure food product stability, quantifying changes in flavor Harvey W. Wiley (27). This was the first federal law aimed at\nchemistry associated with sensory characteristics, determining the regulating interstate commerce of misbranded or adulterated\nend of product shelf life, developing ingredient specifications, and foods, beverages, and drugs.\nproblem solving in product development, production, and quality The Act prohibited, under penalty of seizure of goods, the\ncontrol. In addition, ensuring the safety of foods has become an interstate transport of food which had been “adulterated”, with\ninternational mandate for food processors and governmental that term referring to the addition of fillers of reduced “quality or\nagencies. In the United States, food safety implies the absence of strength”, coloring to conceal “damage or inferiority,” formula-\npathogenic microbiological organisms in foods; however, it tion with additives “injurious to health,” or the use of “filthy,\nbroadly encompasses the control and chemical measurement of decomposed, or putrid” substances. The Act applied similar\n8078 J. Agric. Food Chem., Vol. 57, No. 18, 2009 McGorrin\npenalties to the interstate marketing of “adulterated” drugs, in applied to the study of food composition. In 1842, Liebig\nwhich the “standard of strength, quality, or purity” of the active attempted to classify foods on the basis of their chemical\ningredient was not either stated clearly on the label or listed in the constituents and nitrogen content, whereas Henneberg devised\nUnited States Pharmacopoeia or the National Formulary (27). an analysis scheme in the 1850s to determine proximate composi-\nThe responsibility for examining foods and drugs for such tion in a manner still used today (30). Moisture was determined by\nadulteration or misbranding as part of the enforcement of this heat-drying; fat was extracted with diethyl ether; nitrogen content\nAct was entrusted to the Bureau of Chemistry headed by Wiley in was converted into protein by applying a factor of 6.25; crude\nthe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). fiber was measured by its insolubility in dilute acid and alkali,\nInterestingly, the foundation for the Bureau been laid 22 years from which residual ash and fat was subtracted; total carbohy-\nearlier with the establishment in 1884 of the Association of drates were calculated by difference. The 6.25 conversion factor\nOfficial Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) under the auspices of was based on an assumption that animal proteins contain 16%\nthe USDA (28). Its key role at that time was to adopt uniform nitrogen, of which all is derived from protein (which we now\nmethods of analysis for fertilizers. In 1885, a convention establish- know to be false). Overlaps between the nutritional sciences and\ning AOAC as an independent organization was held in Philadel- agricultural chemistry provided early research on food composi-\nphia, PA. Its membership was restricted to analytical chemists in tion, energy values of foods by calorimetry, and the digestibility\nstate and federal government positions, a membership require- and availability of food macronutrients from notable contribu-\nment that remained in effect nearly 100 years later. tions by Rubner in Berlin and Atwater at the Storrs Agricultural\nThe early years of AOAC were strongly influenced by Wiley, a Experiment Station in Connecticut in the early 1900s (30). Of\nfounder of the association who served as its president and historical interest is that a preponderance of synthetic organic and\nsecretary. In 1885, Wiley oversaw the publication of the AOAC analytical chemistry advancements occurred in Germany prior to\nMethods of Analysis, a 49 page bulletin of chemical methods for World War I, and early chemists received their training in\nthe analysis of fertilizers. By 1887, the publication had grown to Germany to learn these techniques up until World War II (31).\ninclude methods for feeds and dairy products as well as fertilizers. Several examples are representative of the development of early\nDr. Wiley’s interest and concern for the adulteration of foods and classical wet chemistry methods. In terms of its relative significance\ndrugs led to the study and adoption of official methods for foods and impact on quality and safety, moisture determination is one of\nin 1889, and by 1912 AOAC was publishing the Official and the most widely used measurements in the processing and testing\nProvisional Methods of Analysis. This became the impetus for of foods. However, accurate and precise moisture measurements\ndevelopment of standardized and collaboratively tested analytical are difficult to obtain, because the degree of water binding within a\nmethods for food substances and ingredients, which were peer- food product influences its ease of removal (2). Early techniques\nreviewed at multiple stages in the methods development process. involved codistillation with a high boiling point solvent or use of\nIn 1927, the Bureau of Chemistry’s regulatory powers were drying ovens. The Karl Fischer titration (iodine reduction by SO2\nreorganized under a new USDA body, the Food, Drug, and in the presence of water) developed early as the preferred method\nInsecticide Organization. This name was shortened to the Food for the determination of water in low-moisture foods such as dried\nand Drug Administration in 1930. Following the groundwork fruits and vegetables or foods high in sugar or protein.\nlaid during the first part of the 20th century, food regulation in the The Kjeldahl measurement of protein (digestion with sulfuric\nareas of labeling, standard specifications, nutritional claims, and acid and copper catalyst; boric acid titration of NH3) became a\napproved additives continues to influence and direct analytical standard food analysis technique for over 100 years (2, 3). The\nmethods development. Kjeldahl method’s universality, precision, and reproducibility\nmade it the internationally recognized standard method for\nEARLY PERIOD (1908-1950): WET CHEMISTRY REIGNS estimating the protein content in foods. However, the Kjeldahl\nThe typical food analysis laboratory in the early 20th century assay does not exclusively measure protein content. The assay’s\n(Figure 1) appeared very different from modern food research and inability to differentiate protein from nonprotein nitrogen was\ntesting facilities. During this period, nearly all food analyses were exploited in two adulteration incidents in China (pet food, 2007;\nperformed using “wet chemistry” methods. A majority of these milk powder, 2008) when melamine, a nitrogen-rich chemical\nmethods were designed to utilize chemicals and equipment that used in plastics and fertilizer, was added to the diluted food\nwere readily available in typical chemical laboratories, such as material to falsify high protein contents. Additional disadvan-\nglassware, weighing balances, Bunsen burners, and ovens. Typi- tages of the Kjeldahl method, such as the need to use concentrated\ncally, classical methods involved combinations of elaborate sulfuric acid at high temperature with a relatively long digestion\nanalytical procedures such as weighing, mixing, filtering, eva- time, led to the development of the Dumas nitrogen combustion\nporation, distillation, or solvent extraction (29). The traditional method for measuring crude protein content. The Dumas method\npractices of these wet chemical analyses were highly deductive. was developed in the 1940s, but it initially was not a practical\nClues to identifying substances and their levels arose from volume routine analytical tool until the instrumentation was further\ndeterminations, titrations, or precipitations, with the results developed and made more user-friendly in the 1990s. Instrumen-\njudged by the subjective, if trained, eye of the food chemist. tal nitrogen combustion methods (e.g., LECO) are becoming\nPhysical methods of analysis;measuring light absorption or more frequently utilized to determine protein content, even\nelectromagnetic properties of food;almost inevitably found though the microscale Kjeldahl method continues to be routinely\nthe food chemist connecting optical and electrical components used in food analytical testing laboratories at the present time.\nwith traditional glassware, ceramics, and rubber tubing. Often, the reliability of classical food analysis methods is\nThe foundation for these methods had been laid in the 1800s directly related to the skill of the analyst, an example being the\nwith the development of assays used with synthetic organic determination of vitamin A and β-carotene in foods. The official\nchemistry and for characterization of natural products in food analysis method is the Carr-Price assay, which was developed in\nand feed. The contributions of early German and other European 1947 and utilizes a colorimetric measurement at 620 nm to\nchemists to food analysis have been reviewed (26). Many of these determine the analyte concentration (32, 33). The reaction of\nearly scientists developed chemical procedures for elemental antimony trichloride with vitamin A in chloroform yields an\nanalysis and isolation of organic substances that were later intense but unstable blue color. The reproducibility and accuracy\n\nFigure 1. Analytical chemistry laboratory at the USDA Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, near Washington, DC, in the 1920s (courtesy Chemical Heritage\nof the assay is highly dependent on the subjective interpretation of Bishop electrotitrimeter was a device invented in the early 1900s\nthe color change by the analyst and the time interval at which the for measuring the concentration and percentages of acid in\ntitration is performed after the sample extraction (34). In addi- substances (37). These early instruments were composed of fragile\ntion, the relatively strong acidic conditions can promote cis/trans glassware, wires, galvanometers, and elaborate components, and\nisomerization of the native retinols. Because of other colored considerable analyst time was expended in the construction and\nchemical interferences present in many types of food samples that maintenance of these devices in the laboratory. The practical\ncan influence the accuracy of the results, colorimetric methods utility of glass pH electrodes would require advances in electro-\nsuch as Carr-Price were eventually replaced in the 1980s by faster, nics capable of measuring high resistance values. In 1934, a\nmore accurate high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) significant milestone was achieved when Arnold O. Beckman\nmethods (35). In most cases, analytical food testing laboratories designed his first electronic pH-meter, the “Acidimeter” (38).\nno longer perform vitamin assays using the earlier colorimetric Beckman built the instrument as a personal favor for a former\nmethods, even though they remain the official methods. classmate who was working as a food chemist at the California\nThe analyses of trace minerals (calcium, copper, iron, manga- Fruit Growers Exchange on a lemon byproduct. To maintain\nnese, zinc) and toxic heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury) in uniform product quality, it was necessary to measure the acidity\nfoods were initially performed by wet chemical titration assays of of lemon juice, which correlated with its relative sourness.\nprecipitation complexes or reactions with chromogens to form\nHowever, the chemist had considerable difficulty measuring the\ncolored products that can be quantified by light absorption (2).\npH using a fragile, thin-glass silver/silver chloride electrode (to\nThese techniques initially were replaced by the commercialization\nreduce resistance to small electrical currents) connected to a\nof atomic absorption spectrometry in 1963, followed later by\ndelicate galvanometer. One of these components was frequently\ninductively coupled plasma (ICP)-atomic emission spectrometry\nbreaking, and the electrical signals were weak. Beckman offered\nin the 1980s and ICP-mass spectrometry in the 1990s (2, 36).\nHowever, even at the present time, the analysis of table salt to fabricate the system himself, incorporating a thicker walled,\n(sodium chloride) in foods is routinely determined as chloride by more rugged glass electrode with an electronic amplifier using\ntitration with silver ions. vacuum tubes to enhance the signal strength. The Acidimeter was\nIn the latter half of the 20th century, the time spent on such such a success that other colleagues learned about it and asked if\nlaborious and difficult wet chemical analyses began to decline. Beckman could build a few more. He immediately recognized the\nAlthough many classical methods are still widely used today, they utility for food scientists to have a compact and portable instru-\nwere eventually substituted with instrumental methods that ment enclosed in a “black box” that was designed to be rugged in\nprovided lowered detection limits, increased analyte specificity, laboratory and processing environments. With that vision, Beck-\nsimplified use, reduced cost, higher sample throughput, and man ushered in a new era by forming a new company, National\nautomation capabilities. Technical Laboratories, to market the pH-meter, thus initiating\nthe modern instrumentation industry and the early stages of the\nEARLY INSTRUMENTAL DEVELOPMENTS (1930-1950) transformation of food analysis. The Beckman model G pH-\nThe instruments utilized for food chemical analysis in the early meter introduced in 1937 following two earlier prototyes was the\npart of the 20th century were quite crude. As an example, the first commercial laboratory instrument to combine electronics\nfollowed in 1957 by the model 137, a popular low-cost laboratory\ninstrument. Infrared analysis proved to be more powerful than\nUV spectroscopy, because it provided chemical information\nabout organic functional groups and structure elucidation. IR\nenabled new food components to be rapidly identified by com-\nparison with known standards and to be analyzed for purity.\nBecause IR anaysis is able to differentiate cis- versus trans-\nisomers, it is particularly useful in food lipid applications to\nassess the trans-content of unsaturated fatty acids in hydroge-\nnated oils. IR (followed later by near-IR) analysis provided an\nearly role in driving the shift from traditional wet methods to\nmodern instrumental analysis. It demonstrated that direct objec-\ntive measurement could be simpler, faster, less expensive, and\nconsiderably more accurate and precise.\nThe development of chromatography within the past century\nhas provided the broadest impact and largest application to the\ndiscipline of food analysis. Just over 100 years ago, a Russian\nbotanist, Mikhail Tswett, invented liquid chromatography as\npart of his investigations on plant leaf pigments and first\npresented his findings in 1901 as the XI Congress of Naturalists\nand Physicians in St. Petersburg, Russia (40). Tswett’s research\nled to the discovery of a liquid adsorption technique that\npermitted the separation of chorophylls and xanthophylls on a\ncalcium carbonate adsorbent, with elution by petroleum ether/\nethanol mixtures. In subsequent years, he further refined the\ntechnique, which in a 1906 publication he termed chromatogra-\nphy, or “color-writing”, derived from the Greek words chroma\nand graphikos (41). In his application, the separation of chloro-\nphyll leaf pigments was clearly visible as colored bands on the\nadsorbent column. Because his findings were published in the\nRussian technical literature, their applications were largely un-\nFigure 2. Beckman model G pH-meter (1937) (courtesy Chemical Heri-\nknown by Western scientists and fell into obscurity until nearly\ntage Foundation).\n20 years after his death. By that time, Archer J. P. Martin and\nwith direct chemical measurement (Figure 2). It demonstrated for Richard L. M. Synge were exploring an alternative to counterflow\nthe first time that instruments could eliminate the subjectivity, extraction to separate acetylated amino acids in the wool indus-\nfragility, and complexity of earlier methods. To recognize its try. Eventually they devised the idea of partitioning one phase\nsignificance, the American Chemical Society designated the while holding the other one stationary, and the result was the\ndevelopment of the Beckman pH-meter a National Historic invention of liquid-liquid partition chromatography in\nChemical Landmark in 2004 (39). 1941 (42). This led to their receiving the 1952 Nobel Prize in\nThe next significant analytical instrument that Beckman Chemistry for their invention of partition chromatography.\ndeveloped of importance to food analysis was the model DU In his Nobel lecture, Martin casually revealed that he, in\nultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometer (38). It used similar electro- collaboration with A. T. James, had devised a mechanism for\nnic technology that was designed for the pH-meter and was first gas-liquid chromatography using a liquid stationary phase\nmarketed in 1941 by National Technical Laboratories (now coated onto a solid packing, in combination with a gas mobile\nBeckman Coulter). With the availability of commercial in- phase. A landmark publication followed shortly thereafter in\nstrments, UV measurements became an essential component of 1952 describing the invention of modern gas-liquid chromatog-\nevery food analysis laboratory for various colorimetric assays, raphy (GC) and its application to the separation and quantitation\nwhich related the intensity of solution color as a way to quantify of C1-C12 volatile fatty acids (43). The first commercial GC\nconcentration of a specific analyte. As previously discussed, instrument manufactured was the Perkin-Elmer model 154 Vapor\ncolorimetric end points were typically used in vitamin assays. Fractometer in 1955. Early GC column packings included ground\nImmediately before World War II, infrared (IR) spectrophoto- firebrick, laundry detergent, and whatever else food chemists\nmeters were under development by Beckman and others for the could experiment with and were used in combination with early\nclassified development of synthetic polybutadiene rubber and thermal conductivity detectors.\nhigher octane aviation fuel. IR spectrophotometers relied on an GC expanded rapidly over the three decades since its invention\noptical source, prisms, and electronics to detect the characteristic in 1952. Major milestones in GC development came with column\nstretching vibration “fingerprints” of molecules produced by their phase technology, flame ionization and electron capture detec-\ninteraction with IR light. The Perkin-Elmer Co. developed an tors, cold on-column sample inlet systems, and headspace con-\nearly prototype model 12 IR spectrophotometer in the 1930s, centrators (44). The introduction of robust, efficient, and\nwhich was further perfected before being sold in 1944 as the first reproducible fused-silica capillary columns in the late 1970s by\nIR spectrophotometer made commercially available to the scien- Hewlett-Packard and J&W Scientific propelled GC as a ubiqui-\ntific community (29). However, in 1951 Perkin-Elmer introduced tous tool in food analysis laboratories (45). An advantage of\nits highly successful infrared spectrophotometer, model 21, which capillary columns over packed columns is their greatly increased\nmade IR a routine laboratory tool for food analysis. It was separation efficiency, lower temperature, chemical inertness, and\ninformation-rich without the application of HPLC. New phases\ncontinue to be developed that offer expanded resolution or speed\nof analysis. Similarly, fatty acids, lipid components, flavors,\npesticide residues, steroids (cholesterol), and other food compo-\nnents are routinely analyzed by capillary GC. Prior to the\ndevelopment of chromatography, food chemical analysis\nrequired repetitive crystallizations, fractional distillation, or che-\nmical derivatization techniques.\nThe history of mass spectrometry dates back more than\n100 years and has its roots in physical and chemical studies\nregarding the nature of stable elemental isotopes. Mass spectro-\nmetry is an analytical technique that identifies chemical composi-\ntion based on the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles as they\nundergo chemical fragmentation and pass through electric and\nmagnetic fields. J. J. Thomson was the first to measure the m/z\nvalues of positive ions, and he can rightfully be called the father of\nmass spectrometry. In 1919, Francis Aston constructed the first\nvelocity focusing mass spectrograph with a mass resolving power\nof 130, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1922 for mass\nFigure 3. Comparison of capillary column (A) versus packed column (B) spectrometry. Aston’s design improvements of the early mass\nGC separation of calmus oil. Reprinted with permission from ref 44. spectrometer (MS) continued through the 1930s, with resolving\nCopyright 2002 Elsevier. power increasing to 2000. The first commercial mass spectrometer\nwas the model 21-101 constructed in 1942 by the Consolidated\nresistance to column bleed. Many trends in current progress Engineering Co. These early instruments were generally large,\ncan be seen to originate in the first two decades of the history of expensive, difficult to work with, and more suited to solving\nGC, but the invention of fused-silica capillary columns greatly research problems. They were do-it-yourself, room-sized instru-\nincreased the application of high-resolution GC for flavor and ments that had to be used with vacuum pumps and pneumatic\nfatty acid analysis. Figure 3 shows a typical comparison of the devices and were driven by large racks of analogue electronics (47).\nsignificantly enhanced resolution power of capillary column GC In 1963, Associated Electrical Industries (now Kratos Ana-\nover packed column GC, using the same stationary phase for lytical) introduced the MS-9 as the first high-resolution mass\ndistilled calmus oil, which has a “spicy-aromatic” fragrance spectrometer sold in the United States, which was applied by the\ncharacter (44). By the end of the century, GC had become the flavor and fragrance industry for accurate mass determinations.\nsingle most widely used analytical tool in chemistry, despite the The concept was that a high-resolution mass spectrometer could\nrestriction that analytes needed to be volatile. measure mass with sufficient accuracy to deduce the elemental\nA significant milestone in liquid chromatography was the composition of organic compounds (48). These MS instruments,\ndevelopment of high-performance liquid chromatography nicknamed “workhorses”, led to significant advances in the\n(HPLC) by James Waters (46). Commercial instruments intro- knowledge of flavors and identification of food components.\nduced in 1967 by Waters Corp. made HPLC a valuable, widely A breakthrough development occurred in 1960 with the inter-\nused tool for food chemists and led the way toward solving facing of a mass spectrometer as the detector for gas chromatog-\ndifficult separation problems by providing enhanced speed, raphy by Roland Gohlke and Fred McLafferty (49, 50). Through\nsensitivity, and resolution. In 1972 Waters introduced the model this powerful combination, GC provided the separation of\n6000 with the first dual-reciprocating piston pump (6000 psi), an volatile compounds and MS yielded unambiguous chemical\ninnovation in precision solvent delivery that delivered nearly identifications. Subsequently, major advances in flavor chemistry\npulseless column flow to increase the signal-to-noise ratio at the and flavor analysis were enabled by the GC-MS identification of\ndetector. Subsequently, HPLC evolved into an important food trace-level volatile components as commercial instruments were\nanalysis tool for separation of mixtures of compounds and their made available in the late 1960s (Figure 4).\nquantitation, initially using refractive index and ultraviolet detec- One of the major developments that led to wider distribution\ntors. The 1978 introduction of the first commercial, disposable and adoption of GC-MS instruments in food analysis labora-\nminiature silica-based solid phase extraction (Sep-Pak) cartridges tories was the development of commercial quadrupole MS\nby Waters became the predominant technique for food sample technology by Finnigan Instruments that replaced large, expen-\nenrichment and purification by removing interfering substances sive, capricious magnetic sector instruments (51). Hewlett-Pack-\nprior to HPLC analysis. ard licensed the technology, which eventually led to the\nOther new chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques development of their computerized 5970 Mass-Selective Detec-\nwere introduced for application to food analysis, including thin- tors for GC;reliable and relatively simple instruments that could\nlayer chromatography (1938), paper chromatography (1944), and be routinely used by food chemists. GC-MS expanded rapidly\nmore recently sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel elec- over the remaining half of the 20th century after the introduction\ntrophoresis (SDS-PAGE, 1967), two-dimensional PAGE (1975), of relatively low-cost but reliable benchtop instruments in the\nion chromatography (1975), capillary electrophoresis (1989), and 1980s. Progress in food chemistry continues to be rapid in\nsupercritical fluid chromatography (1995). comprehensive two-dimensional 2D-GC, fast analysis, detection\nGC and HPLC have the broadest applications to food analysis. by atomic emission, and time-of-flight mass spectrometry and\nCurrent analyses of sugars, polysaccharides, amino acids, pro- with applications to process analysis.\nteins, vitamin, colors, herbicide and antibiotic residues, and other Early MS instruments in the 1960s had oscillographic trace\nfood constituents would not be as be as rapid, productive, or outputs that spewed-out bar graphs of mass spectra on a 3 ft\n\nFigure 4. Early Hitachi RMU-6E GC-MS instrument employed to identify volatile compounds in flavors (1969) (courtesy International Flavors & Fragrances).\n\nFigure 5. Author using a Hewlett-Packard 5985 GC-MS instrument for identification of dairy flavor volatiles (1982) (courtesy Kraft Foods).\nlength of photosensitive paper with the push of a button! These sample preparation, provides rapid analysis, and offers the\nwere gradually obsolesced in the 1980s by computerized graphic potential to run multiple tests on a single sample. The early\ndisplays of MS spectra, and the ability to match unknown commercial NMR instruments of the 1960s were 60 and 100 MHz\ncompounds with MS library databases (Figure 5). proton and 13C instruments manufactured by Varian Associates,\nNuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) was being which were applied to aroma compound identifications by the\ndeveloped initially as a tool for analysis of pure organic com- flavor industry (Figure 6). Later in the 20th century, high-\npounds in the late 1940s. NMR spectroscopy of a bulk material resolution spectrometers were constructed with 300-800 MHz\nwas first demonstrated independently by Felix Bloch and Edward fields that were coupled to computers with Fourier transform\nM. Purcell in 1945. NMR is the most powerful analytical pulse sequences. In food applications, NMR can be used to\ntechnique, because it provides unambiguous structure identifica- measure moisture content, and it can be applied to food lipids to\ntion of organic molecules. Whereas NMR is not nearly as measure the degree of conjugated double bonds in fatty acid\nsensitive an analytical technique as MS, it requires minimal mixtures in an easy and nondestructive manner.\n\nFigure 6. Varian HA-100 (100 MHz) NMR applied for identification of flavor compounds (1968) (courtesy International Flavors & Fragrances).\n\nBy the late 1980s, all-digital instruments incorporated improve- Laser Technology. When the first working laser was reported in\nments developed in both commercial and academic laboratories 1960, it was described as “a solution looking for a problem”.\nthat allowed them to be more affordable and much smaller, Theodore Maiman created the first operating laser in May 1960 at\noccupying several linear feet on a laboratory bench rather than the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-\nconsiderable floor space. During this period, newly designed power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces (53).\ninstruments provided the ability to measure food components Twenty-five years later, the laser’s distinctive qualities;its ability\nthat were different from or beyond what was previously possible. to generate an intense, very narrow beam of light of a single\nThese new tools were a source of major innovations in food wavelength;were being harnessed by analytical chemistry for\ntechnology and were able to elucidate many issues about the detection systems in spectrometers and chromatographic instru-\nnature of modern chemistry of foods, such as the correct assign- ments. Computer optical disk drives for mainframe and personal\nment of sensory attributes to specific flavor molecutles. computers were also developed that incorporated laser compact\ndisks for storage and retreival of large mass spectrometry and\nKEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES chromatography data files.\nThree significant converging technological advances occurred The parallel developments of the laser, microprocessor, and\nduring this period which contributed to significant advances in personal computer industries and the convergence of these\nfood analysis capabilities. technologies with food chemistry provided phenomenal advan-\nSemiconductor Technology. Intel Inc. introduced its first 8-bit tages for further miniaturization of food analysis, accuracy,\nmicroprocessor, the 4004 chip, in 1971. The 4004 was capable of speed, and limits of detection.\naddressing up to 1 kB of program memory and up to 4 kB of data\nmemory. In 1979, Intel developed a new 16-bit microprocessor, MODERN AGE OF FOOD ANALYSIS\nthe 8088, and IBM engineers used it for the first personal Food analysis is often the beneficiary of technical advance-\ncomputer. The combination of the new 16-bit microprocessor ments (chromatography, separations, MS, FTIR, and NMR\nand the name IBM shifted the personal computer to a mainstream spectroscopy) that were initially developed for the petroleum,\nbusiness tool. pharmaceutical, chemical manufacturing, environmental, and\nComputing Technology. In 1981, IBM Corp. introduced the natural products chemistry areas. Beginning with the commer-\npersonal computer (PC), viewed as the most ubiquitous labora- cialization of the Beckman Acidimeter in 1934 through the\ntory-enabling technology. The affordable and miniaturized PC Caliper LabChip microchip for fluid handling in 1996, the\nbecame an integral component for data processing and graphics Chemical Heritage Foundation has identified “50 chemical\ndisplay as part of laboratory instruments such as IR and UV laboratory instruments that changed the world in the 20th\nspectrophotometers, chromatography data systems, and mass century” (54). These key instruments were recognized as having\nspectrometers. a significant impact across a broad spectrum of chemical research\nThe impact of modern electronics is global in scope, especially and analysis. Through technology adaptation, many of these key\nduring the past 50 years since semiconductor technology emerged instrumental capabilities were applied by food chemists to devel-\nand began to transform the world. Thirty-five years earlier, John op new analytical methods and procedures for measuring food\nMauchly and J. Presper Eckert developed the ENIAC I (electrical components. For example, the pharmaceutical industry drove the\nnumerical integrator and calculator). Through research spon- need for chiral separations of asymmetric organic compounds.\nsored by the U.S. military, the new computer used vacuum tubes, Whereas one enantiomeric isomer may exhibit the desired pha-\ninstead of switches and relays, to speed calculations. The only macological activity, the opposite enantiomer could potentially\ndrawback was that it required 17468 vacuum tubes, which cause undesired side effects (e.g., (S)-thalidomide). Chiral chro-\nemitted considerable heat and needed frequent replacement. It matography was readily adapted for authentication of natural\ncovered 1800 square feet (167 m2) of floor space, weighed 30 tons, flavors to determine the most sensory-active enantiomers during\nand consumed 160 kW of electrical power (52). discovery of new flavor compounds. Capillary electrophoresis,\nwhich was initially introduced by Beckman in 1989 for biochem- The requirement for nutrition labeling of foods juxtaposed with\nical separations, was readily applied to the analysis of pea parallel advances in the fields of moleular biology, biochemistry,\noligosaccharides, citrus pectins, casein aand whey proteins, and genetics has spawned the development of new chemical\ngliadins and glutenins in wheat, and myoglobin proteins and methods to measure carbohydrates, fat, essential fatty acids,\npeptides in foods (55). protein, fiber, macrominerals (Ca, Mg, K, Na, P), trace minerals\nMultidimensional or hyphenated instruments employ two or (Co, Cu, Fe, Cr, Mn, Se, Zn), and vitamins in a variety of food\nmore techniques either sequentially (such as GC-MS and GC- and beverage matrices.\nMS/MS) or in parallel (GC-IR-MS). Fragment ions can only be Sampling. Perhaps one of the most critical aspects of the\nused for structure determination, and a tandem instrument with analytical process is obtaining a representative food sample for\ntwo quadrupole mass analyzers allows an analyst to “piece analysis. Consideration for how to conduct appropriate sampling\ntogether the structural puzzle” to deduce the origin of fragment can occur on two levels: (1) developing a protocol for sample\nions. The high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem collection (e.g., field crop location, manufacturing, marketplace,\nmass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technique has been useful for or home), assessing the statistical number of samples required,\nsequencing food peptides and proteins such as caseins. and determining whether the food should be sampled in raw,\nSimilarly, comprehensive two-dimensional GC\u0002GC and cooked, or processed form; (2) compositing the sample and\nLC\u0002LC instruments became available within the past five years selecting a representative aliquot from a homogenized multi-\nthat are capable of significantly enhanced separation of complex component food prior to analysis. A homogeneous sample is\nmixtures (56-58). These instruments rely on combinations of necessary prior to the performance of chemical analysis to ensure\ndifferent chemical selectivities to achieve separations of flavors or that the result represents the composition of the overall food\nphenolic antioxidants in beverages. Time-of-flight (TOF) tandem sample (e.g., a pizza that contains bread crust, cheese, tomato,\nmass spectrometers with matrix-assisted laser desoprtion ioniza- mushroom, sausage, and green pepper components). Care must\ntion (MALDI) are now used routinely for rapid sequencing of be taken to avoid contaminating the sample or exposing\namino acids in proteins. it to excessive heat, which can cause loss of volatile flavor\nSimultaneous with the progressive development of new instru- components or accelerate decomposition of labile food compo-\nments with increased analyte specificity over the past 60 years was nents. The food chemist may need to consider the chemical\nthe ongoing trend toward lowered limits of detection in food stability of the targeted analyte to appropriately blend a\nanalysis. Relative sensitivities of analytical tests for minerals and food under frozen, inert atmosphere, or low-light conditions\nelements over the early period have been tabulated (6). New and (e.g., for vitamin analyses).\nimproved detectors for GC (flame ionization, electron capture, Sample Preparation. Challenges remain for the analysis of\nchemiluminescence, pulsed flame photometric, MS) and HPLC individual chemical species in food systems because of their\n(refractive index, ultraviolet, fluorescent, diode array, evapora- complex multicomponent structure. Despite the availability of\ntive light-scattering, MS) provided micromole to picomole en- modern techniques of separation and identification, such as GC-\nhancements in sensitivity depending on the analyte/application. MS and LC-MS/MS, rarely is it possible to load a syringe with a\nSpectroscopy and spectrometry instruments (MS, IR, UV, NMR, food sample and directly inject it into an analytical instrument to\natomic emission) afforded a reduction in detection limits from obtain a sensible result! Sample preparation and extraction\nnanomole to picomole. As analytical instruments became increas- remain among the most time-consuming and error-prone steps\ningly sensitive, additional components in foods that were pre- in the food analysis process (61). However, they are critical\nviously undetectable could be quantified. Furthermore, procedures because food scientists need to isolate and concentrate\ncarcinogenic compounds that formerly had been below detection a wide range of analytes from complex and varied food matrices.\nlimits could now be measured. This had significant implications in Sample preparation typically involves pH adjustment, extraction\nthe area of food law and food regulation. Perhaps the best-known with organic solvents, solid phase extraction, cleanup (filtration,\nexample is the 1958 amendment to the U.S. FD&C Act of 1938, liquid-liquid partitioning), and concentration for subsequent\nknown as the “Delaney clause”, named after the Congressman analysis via chromatography or other methods.\nwho chaired the Congressional subcommittee (59). The Delaney Recently developed automated sample preparation techniques\nclause prohibits the use of food additives that have been shown to that can be easily integrated with other analytical systems offer\ncause cancer in humans or animals, without consideration of the productivity improvements for many food analysis laboratories.\nconcentration level at which a toxic effect is induced. Virtually all Automated preparation techniques incorporate either low-\nfoods contain traces of carcinogenic substances from environ- volume solvent extraction or solvent-free thermal desorption,\nmental and natural sources (e.g., safrole in sassafras and and in most cases they can increase the efficiency relative to\ncinnamon), and this law had broad ramifications (59). It required conventional solvent extraction. For example, the Mojonnier\nprocessed foods to be reformulated to eliminate any additives ether extraction method (AOAC 922.06) typically requires 2-3 h\n(e.g., those containing trace impurities) that now had measurable and 110 mL of solvent for determining the fat content in\namounts of carcinogens, even though they probably did not chocolate, whereas pressurized fluid extraction (accelerated sol-\nconsitute a health risk. The Delaney clause was first invoked in vent extraction (ASE), Dionex) reduces the extraction time to\n1959 when traces of the cancer-causing herbicide aminotriazole 18 min and solvent use to less than 20 mL (62). Other examples\nwere discovered on cranberry plants from Oregon and Washing- include supercritical fluid extraction, thermal desorption, solid\nton, causing sales of cranberries to plummet during the week of phase extraction, solid phase microextraction (SPME), and stir-\nThanksgiving. Pesticide use was removed from the Delaney bar sorptive extraction (SBSE). Modular systems are now readily\nclause in 1996 by an amendment to the U.S. Food Quality and available that automate these procedures and interface them to\nProtection Act (60). analytical instruments, such as GC, GC-MS or HPLC.\nSpecific measurements of food quality include food safety Macrocomponent Analyses. Proximate analyses (crude fat,\n(microbiological) testing, nutrient content, pesticide residue protein, moisture, soluble solids, ash) have been typically con-\ntesting, and biotechnology applications (use of genetically ducted by classical wet chemistry methods that were tailored for\nmodified organisms, GMOs). The latter three areas typically in- analyses of food products (Table 2) (12). New developments and\nvolve development and application of new chemical analyses. improvements in instrumental techniques are providing rapid,\nTable 2. Comparison of Representative Food Analysis Methods organic acids, ionic species, peptides, and proteins. Highly\nanalyte classical “wet” method instrumental method sensitive fluorescence detectors for HPLC instruments enable\nlower limits of detection for vitamins, proteins, aspartame, and\nmoisture Karl Fischer near-infrared mycotoxins.\ndry fruits/vegetables dry fruits/vegetables Spectroscopic techniques are highly desirable for analysis of\n967.19 E-G 967.19 B-D food macrocomponents because they often require minimal\ncocoa 977.10\nsample preparation, provide rapid analysis, and have the\nvacuum oven microwave oven\nmeat/poultry 950.46 meat/poultry 985.14\npotential to run multiple tests on a single sample. These\nadvantages particularly apply to nuclear magnetic resonance\nsugars total dextrins 988.12 HPLC (NMR), infrared (IR), and near-infrared (NIR) spectro-\nMunson-Walker 906.03 milk chocolate 980.13 scopy. The latter technique is routinely used as a quality\nsucrose (cocoa) 920.82 ion chromatography assurance tool to determine compositional and functional\nanalysis of food ingredients, process intermediates, and fin-\ntotal dietary fiber enzymatic-gravimetric 985.29 ished products.\nMicrocomponent Analyses. Volatile compounds are most often\nprotein Kjeldahl 955.04; 988.05 Dumas combustion/GC analyzed in foods, flavors, and aroma systems. Since the 1960s,\nmilk 991.23 meat 992.15\nthe combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry\ncapillary electrophoresis\nhas become an essential tool to identify flavors (63, 64). More\nfat total (crude): total (crude): recent developments in capillary column technology and the use\nMojonnier ether extraction microwave-solvent extraction of various headspace concentrators (equilibrium, dynamic/\nflour 922.06 meat 985.15 Tenax, vacuum, solvent-assisted flavor evaporation, solid phase\nmilk 989.05 accelerated solvent extraction microextraction, stir-bar sorptive extraction) have shortened the\nSoxhlet ether extraction fat as fatty acid glycerides: assay time and increased limits of detection for potent flavor\nmeat 960.39 gas chromatography components (65). GC-olfactometry as a sensory-directed tech-\nRoese-Gottlieb (milk) 905.02 fish oil fatty acids 991.39 nique has significantly advanced the field of flavor chemistry\nduring the analysis of complex flavor mixtures (66). It enables the\ncholesterol titrimetric 941.09 gas chromatography 994.10\nrelative contributions of individual flavor components to be\nvitamin A Carr-Price 974.29 HPLC 2001.13; 2002.06 (milk) assessed in real time as they are being separated while allowing\nthe food chemist to assign aroma descriptors (“fruity”, “green”,\nminerals (Ca, Cu, atomic absorption ICP-atomic emission “roasted”) to chromatographic peaks that have sensory impact.\nFe, Mn, Zn) spectrometry 991.25; spectrometry Additional trace analytes in foods include colorants, pigments,\n999.10 vitamins, and minerals. Research on bioactive “functional” food\ncompounds relies on the development of new assays with in-\nmetals (Pb, Cd, mercury 971.21 ICP-mass spectrometry\ncreased sensitivity and specificity to measure efficacious phyto-\nchemical components (anthocyanins, polyphenolic compounds),\nAOAC Official Analytical Method indicated in bold. which are frequently colored. Atomic spectrometry methods\nincluding atomic absorption, atomic emission, and elemental\nautomated alternatives to the classical food analysis methods. mass spectrometry are routinely used to measure minerals (e.g.,\nCurrent regulatory requirements for food manufacture obligate calcium, zinc) and heavy metals (e.g., lead, cadmium, mercury) in\nnot just the analysis of total fat content (e.g., Mojonnier) but also food products (67). Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission\nthe characteristics of the fat, that is, saturated, monounsaturated, spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass\npolyunsaturated, monoglycerides, diglycerides, cholesterol, etc. spectrometry (ICP-MS) offer the advantage of providing simul-\nClassical total protein determinations were historically based on taneous multielement measurement in food samples. In these\nnitrogen content (the Kjeldahl technique); however, modern techniques, samples are vaporized, atomized, and excited in a\nelectrophoretic and chromatographic methods were developed high-temperature argon plasma. Detection limits are 1-100 ppb\nthat enable rapid and specific amino acid and peptide assays. for ICP-AES and 1-100 ppt for ICP-MS. Microelemental\nTotal carbohydrate values are required to be listed as specific analysis by ICP-AES has been used to differentiate country of\ncomponents: sugars, sugar alcohols, dietary fiber, soluble fiber, origin and geographic growing conditions for potatoes, coffee,\nand insoluble fiber. Moisture content has been redefined to pistachios, and fresh strawberry, blueberry, and pear (68), by\nspecify the states of water as being “free”, “bound” (e.g., hydro- simultaneously measuring relative differences in elemental con-\ngen bonding to sugars, salts, proteins), or “adsorbed” (e.g., with centrations. Recently developed micro X-ray fluorescence spec-\nphospholipid layers, starch), and each of these modes requires a trometry instruments provide a nondestructive technique for\nspecific analytical measurement. food quality control applications to rapidly analyze metallic\nHPLC is a very powerful and versatile technique for analyzing elements, minerals, and heavy metals at parts per million sensi-\nand purifying biomolecules and, consequently, is a well-estab- tivity limits. Analytical measurement of toxicological residues in\nlished mode for food and beverage analysis. Ongoing advances in foods including pesticides, aflatoxins, and other mycotoxins have\ncolumn supports, bonding chemistry, porous particles, and been devised by the development of chromatographic, spectro-\npacking materials have enabled increased speeds and efficient graphic, and immunochemical methods for assaying these com-\nseparations of a wide range of organic and inorganic food pound classes.\nanalytes from low parts per million to high parts per billion Enzymes, microbes, and antibodies have been exploited as\nlevels. Related column techniques that involve separation by biosensors to rapidly measure the presence of amylases or\neither ionic mobile phases or charged fields are ion chro- proteases in foods, which can cause starch thinning or bitter\nmatography and capillary electrophoresis, respectively. Typical flavors, respectively. Enzyme-linked assays have been used to\nfood analytes quantified by these techniques include mono- measure vitamins, antibiotic residues, microbial toxins, various\nand disaccharides, aspartame, phospholipids, vitamins, caffeine, sugars, ethanol, and carbon dioxide (69). In certain cases, enzyme\nactivity assays are practical food safety probes to measure disposal. Flexible laboratory designs, moveable casework, and\nwhether adequate processing of a food product has been overhead utility hook-ups (gases, water, electricity, vacuum) will\nachieved. provide the ability to quickly change from one analysis project to\nElectrophoretic methods have been applied to food analysis, another as new applications dictate.\ninitially using SDS-PAGE for separation of milk proteins (caseins, The needs of food-processing and agricultural production\nwhey) and cereal proteins (glutenin, gliadin, zein) (55, 70). Varia- will continue to create demand for improved analytical methods\ntions include isoelectric focusing, 2-D gel elctrophoresis, and that can measure new attributes, features, or molecular compo-\nisotachophoresis. Analyte separations are a function of their nents in food products or ingredients while providing more\nmass-to-charge ratios in an externally applied electric field. Gel analyte information at lower detection limits. Instrumental\nelectrophoresis was demonstrated to be especially useful in protein improvements in mass spectrometers enabled state-of-the-art\nfingerprinting for the authentication of specific animal species to limits of detection that evolved over the 1970-2000 period\ndetect labeling fraud. Applications include the identification of from picomole (10-12) to femtomole (10-15). The progression\nspecific proteins in red snapper, buttermilk powder, egg pasta, over the next couple of decades is toward attomole (10-18) limits\ncitrus isozymes, and cow’s milk in goat cheese (55,70,71). Follow- for the ability to detect thousands of individual molecules.\ning its commercial introduction, capillary electrophoresis (CE) Ion detectors for mass spectrometry applications are currently\nwas readily substituted for SDS-PAGE in the 1990s to develop being developed at the frontiers of analytical capability using\nnew methods for food protein analysis (55, 72-75). CE provides electrode arrays (82). The convergence of biomedical advances,\nanalytical separation and reproducibility that are superior to those health and nutrition needs, and food choices will likely evolve\nof gel electrophoresis and are comparable to those of HPLC, with into the need for information-rich, real-time analytical mea-\na range of detector options including UV, diode array, fluores- surements that address bioavailability and delivery. As the\ncence, conductivity, and MS (76). CE applications include protein competitive marketplace evolves, new regulatory requirements\nauthentication to identify specialty cheeses produced with vege- for food analysis will surface, driven by governmental and\ntable coagulant instead of rennet (77), monitoring specific flavo- political forces.\nnoids and amino acids in orange juice for freshness (78), Continued research in the areas of health-promoting con-\ndetermining D-isocitric acid as a marker for authenticity of orange stituents of foods (e.g., carotenoid phytochemicals and poly-\njuice (79), and measuring phenolic acids in extra virgin olive phenolic antioxidants) will spawn the development of new\noil (80). assays to measure their presence in foods and changes occur-\nCombinations of chromatographic, NMR, isotopic, and en- ring during processing. Flavonoids, isoflavones, isothio-\nzyme-linked methods have been developed to screen and dete- cyanates, organosulfur compounds, carotenoids (lycopene,\nmine the authenticity of suspect food products and ingredients, as lutein), saponins, and capsaicinoids are active areas of re-\nprompted by economic fraud (19-23). Ironically, adulteration search related to potential benefits for cancer prevention, anti-\noccasionally persists 100 years after creation of the Food and inflammation, antioxidant effects, and assistance to the immune\nDrug Act in Dr. Wiley’s era. Modern examples include partial system (83, 84).\nsubstitution of corn syrup for honey; organic acids and sugars for Rapid methods for testing raw ingredients, product quality,\napple juice; and benzaldehyde for almond extract. and process monitoring will undoubtedly experience continued\ngrowth. The percentage of rapid tests should increase dramati-\nFUTURE DEVELOPMENTS AND HORIZONS cally in the coming years, as diagnostic assay companies provide\nLooking toward the next century, any prediction about new performance improvements. Food-processing companies will\ndevelopments in food analysis must consider the convergence of readily adopt rapid analytical methods to screen raw materials\nmultiple influences. A first consideration involves the natural to diminish the risk of food safety incidents and ensure compli-\nevolution of scientific discoveries, which proceed at their own ance with regulatory standards. Near-infrared (NIR) and mid-\npace, but are accelerating due to rapid sharing of information via infrared (MIR) spectroscopy applications are currently being\nthe Internet and electronic media. New technological advances examined for online quality monitoring in food processing\nwill emerge, driven by old-fashioned Edisonian experimentation plants (85). ATP bioluminescence assays using the firefly enzyme\nand innovation. The current desire for smaller analytical instru- luciferase are commercially available as test kits to monitor\nments, increased speed of results, lowered detection limits, easier food residues and microorganisms during the sanitation of food\noperation, and portable applications of analytical measurements processing equipment (86). Fiber optic biosensors using differ-\nin food production or field crop environments other than in the ent surface chemistries and antibody complexes are being\ntraditional laboratory will continue. explored for the detection of foodborne pathogens (Escherichia\nThe food analytical laboratory of the future will likely have coli, Listeria, Salmonella) (87). Nanoparticle sensors are under\nglassware and equipment that resemble those of current labora- development as DNA probes for the detection of microbial\ntories; however, the progression to smaller instruments, compu- pathogens in foods using semiconductor, metallic, metal oxide,\nters, and data collection devices is imminent (81). Laptop or polymeric materials (88). Aroma sensor arrays are being\ncomputers now reside in most laboratories, but miniaturization designed using chemically responsive dyes that provide unique\nof electronic hardware and more powerful software systems will colorimetric patterns for individual odorants (89). Future tech-\nlikely drive integrated instrument control and data collection nology refinements of electronic noses (90, 91) and electronic\nsystems that incorporate electronic notebooks. Bar-coding tongues (92) will likely find process monitoring applications for\nsystems will evolve to track and monitor large numbers of flavor quality.\nsamples. Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are Trends are emerging through the miniaturization and port-\nstarting to be used in the commercial and industrial sectors that ability of analytical instruments. Cutting-edge chromatography\nhave yet to be integrated into laboratory environments. Auto- technologies utilize credit-card-sized polyimide-based fluidic\nmation of instruments and analytical measurements is a likely chips in nanoflow channel HPLC-MS instruments to quantitate\nexpectation for the future of routine food assays. Smaller instru- peptides (93). Field-portable instruments are continuing to be\nments will integrate microfluidic designs that use smaller sample developed, which could be applied to monitor crop ripening and\nvolumes and fewer solvents and require less cleanup and waste assess fruit and vegetable quality.\nPesticide residue testing of foods is routinely performed to (14) American Oil Chemists’ Society. 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Sensory-Directed Flavor Analysis, CRC Press/Taylor Chem. 2008, 56, 3238–3244.\nand Francis Group: Boca Raton, FL, 2007. (91) Deisingh, A. K.; Stone, D. C.; Thompson, M. Applications of\n(67) Baker, S. A.; Miller-Ihli, N. J. Atomic spectroscopy in food analysis. electronic noses and tongues in food analysis. Int. J. Food Sci.\nIn ref 1, pp 3888-3912. Technol. 2004, 39, 587–604.\n(68) Perez, A. L.; Smith, B. W.; Anderson, K. A. Stable isotope and trace (92) Ciosek, P.; Wroblewski, W. Sensor arrays for liquid sensing;\nelement profiling combined with classification models to differenti- electronic tongue systems. Analyst 2007, 132, 963–978.\nate geographic growing origin for three fruits: effects of subregion (93) Ritter, S. New and notable at Pittcon. Chem. Eng. News, 2009, 87\nand variety. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2006, 54, 4506–4516. (13), 46-48, 50.\n(69) Powers, J. R. Enzyme analysis and bioassays in food analysis. In (94) Koppelman, S. J., Hefle, S. L., Eds. Detecting Allergens in Food; CRC\nref 1, pp 3955-3971. Press/Taylor and Francis Group: Boca Raton, FL, 2006.\n(70) Strange, E. D.; Malin, E. L.; Van Hekken, D. L.; Basch, J. J.\nChromatographic and electrophoretic methods used for analysis of Received for review January 17, 2009. Revised manuscript received\nmik proteins. J. Chromatogr. 1992, 624, 81–102. April 23, 2009. Accepted July 29, 2009.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5969030857086182}
+{"content": "\n\nHolistic Financial Planning for Couples & Individuals\n\nThe more you can dream, the more you can do.\n-Michael Korda\n\nWelsh Hills Financial works with couples and individuals who are apprehensive and uncertain  about how to plan for retirement and organize their financial life.\n\nPeople who seek my help have money invested in stocks and bonds, but do not have a tax-friendly and well-performing portfolio.  They have realized that retirement is not as far away as it once seemed! They are concerned about taxes and how they will pass their assets to the next generation. They don’t know how much insurance they need. They have come to appreciate the value of expert unbiased financial advice and are willing to follow it. \n\nAre some of these statements true for you? \n\n“My wife and I are both employed in rewarding, but demanding jobs.  We hope to retire when I turn 60, in order to spend more time with our grandchildren and each other.  Neither one of us has the time or inclination to read up on investing and building wealth.  We just set aside the maximum allowed in our 401K accounts at work.  Will these investments provide enough money to meet this goal?” \n\n“I have used a large portion of my savings to invest in the stock market, but the fluctuations are unsettling for me.  I have done all my own stock picking and investing in the past, but have not had the return I hoped for.  How do I find a more secure way to grow my money?” \n\n“I want to make sure my wife and children are taken care of, no matter what happens to me.  I own my own business and cannot afford a lengthy illness or disability.  I’m sure there are insurance products which could help, but I don’t know how to find the right ones.  Can you help me by forecasting various financial problems and recommending appropriate solutions?” \n\n“I am going through a divorce, and am unfamiliar with how to handle my finances.  My husband always took care of the investments, insurance, and taxes although I am sure I can learn.  I want stability and financial security in my life as soon as possible.  Can you show me how to organize my financial life in order to achieve these goals?” \n\nMy husband has a great job, and a better than average salary, but we still find ourselves running out of cash by month’s end.  I believe we spend too much in several areas, but I am not sure since we don’t track our spending.  We would like to begin investing while we are still young.  Can you help us formulate a realistic budget, and free up money for investing? \n\nYou are likely to be successful working with Welsh Hills Financial if:\n\n  • You are willing to set financial goals which you have a passion to achieve\n  • You have moderate to great control over your spending, or are committed to developing a budget/spending plan\n  • You value professional expertise and integrity in an advisor, as well as the ability to make complex subjects understandable\n  • You  have patience – you want to build wealth, not gamble on “quick financial fixes”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7762730121612549}
+{"content": "Adding your custom images to MaaS\n\n\nIn my last two posts, we covered creating custom Windows and RHEL images for MaaS. Now we'll deal with uploading them for use. The process is relatively simple:\n\n1. Upload your image to the MaaS server\n\n2. Import the image to MaaS\n\nThe first step is easy enough, just use SCP (or a program like WinSCP in Windows) to upload the file:\n\n\nTo Import the image in MaaS, use the following command:\n\nmaas $profile boot-resources create name=custom/$imagedisplayname architecture=amd64/generic content=@$tgzfilepath\n\nIn the code, I've used variables to make explanation simpler. In real life, I'd just input the actual values. Following is an explanation of each value:\n\n$profile - When using the maas command, you must first log in. This variable represents your maas profile name.\n\n$imagedisplayname - You can put any value here. Preceding it by custom/ means that the image will show up under custom images in MaaS with the name specified following the /\n\n$tgzfilepath - This is the full path to the image file on the MaaS server. If you are admin2 and you kept an image namede my-image.tgz in a directory called images under your home directory, this value would be /home/admin2/images/my-image.tgz", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8113453388214111}
+{"content": "\nLog in\n\n\nHow to mass multiply or divide all values in a column by a number in Excel?\n\nFor a list of numbers, you may need to multiply by a certain number for each of them as below screenshot shown. Normally, you need to calculate them one by one with formulas. In this article, we will show you two methods to quickly multiply or divide all values in a column by a number at once in details.\n\nMass multiply or divide all values in a column by a number in Excel\n\nEasily multiply or divide all values in a column by a number with Kutools for Excel\n\nExcel Productivity Tools\n\n\n\narrow blue right bubble Mass multiply or divide all values in a column by a number in Excel\n\nYou can multiply or divide all values in a column by a certain number as follows.\n\n1. Enter the certain number in a blank cell (for example, you need to multiply or divide all values by number 10, then enter number 10 into the blank cell). Copy this cell with pressing the Ctrl + C keys simultaneously.\n\n2. Select the number list you need to batch multiply, then click Home > Paste > Paste Special. See screenshot:\n\n3. In the Paste Special dialog box, select the Multiply or Divide option in the Operation section as you need (here we select the Multiply option), and then click the OK button.\n\nYou can see the operation result as below screenshot shown.\n\narrow blue right bubble Easily multiply or divide all values in a column by a number with Kutools for Excel\n\nAfter free installing Kutools for Excel  , the Operation tool will help you easily mass multiply or divide all values in a column or range by a certain number in Excel. Please browse for more details.\n\n\n1. Select the column with values you need to batch multiply or divide by a number, then click Kutools > More > Operation. See screenshot:\n\n2. In the Operation Tools dialog box, select the operation type you need in the Operation box (here we select Multiplication option), enter the certain number for the multiplication operand into the textbox, and then click the OK button.\n\n\n1. You can create formulas for the list with checking the Create formulas box.\n\n2. If there already have formulas in the list, you can skip calculating these cells by checking the Skip formula cells box.\n\nThen all selected cells are multiplied with a certain number at once.\n\nIf this utility is helpful, you can download and try the free trial now!\n\nExcel Productivity Tools\n\nRibbon of Excel (with Kutools for Excel installed)\n\n\n\n\n\nSay something here...\nsymbols left.\nYou are guest ( Sign Up? )\n\nBe the first to comment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993816614151001}
+{"content": "Review Article\n\nLess is More: Modern Neonatology\n\nAmir Kugelman, Liron Borenstein-Levin, Huda Jubran, Gil Dinur, Shlomit Ben-David, Elena Segal, Julie Haddad, Fanny Timstut, Iris Stein, Imad R. Makhoul, and Ori Hochwald\n\n\nIatrogenesis is more common in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) because the infants are vulnerable and exposed to prolonged intensive care. Sixty percent of extremely low-birth-weight infants are exposed to iatrogenesis. The risk factors for iatrogenesis in NICUs include prematurity, mechanical or non-invasive ventilation, central lines, and prolonged length of stay. This led to the notion that “less is more.” In the delivery room delayed cord clamping is recommended for term and preterm infants, and suction for the airways in newborns with meconium-stained fluid is not performed anymore. As a symbol for a less aggressive attitude we use the term neonatal stabilization rather than resuscitation. Lower levels of oxygen saturations are accepted as normal during the first 10 minutes of life, and if respiratory assistance is needed, we no longer use 100% oxygen but 0.21–0.3 FiO2, depending on gestational age and the level of oxygen saturation. We try to avoid endotracheal ventilation by using non-invasive respiratory support and administering continuous positive airway pressure early on, starting in the delivery room. If surfactant is needed, non-invasive methods of surfactant administration are utilized. Use of central lines is shortened, and early feeding of human milk is the routine. Permissive hypercapnia is allowed, and continuous non-invasive monitoring not only of the O2 but also of CO2 is warranted. “Kangaroo care” and Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) together with a calm atmosphere with parental involvement are encouraged. Whether “less is more,” or not enough, is to be seen in future studies.\n\nRambam Maimonides Med J 2018;9(3):e0023", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9104740023612976}
+{"content": "• Help\n\n\n\n    This National Guard position is for a FLIGHT ENGINEER (INSTRUCTOR), Position Description Number D0606000 and is part of the OH AASF 1, Ohio Army National Guard.\n\n    This position is located at the Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF), Training Operations Branch. The purpose of the position is to instruct and perform flight crew work supporting heavy multi engine aircraft, and to provide assistance to the pilot in the overall operation of the aircraft.\n\n    Learn more about this agency\n\n\n    As a FLIGHT ENGINEER (INSTRUCTOR), GS-2185-10, you will perform the following duties:\n\n    1) Serves as instructor/flight examiner providing instruction, evaluation and examination on ground and operational training flights to develop and upgrade skills of aircrew members. Applying knowledge of the full range of aircrew duties and responsibilities, methods of instruction and requirements of the program, performs standardization. currency, instrument, proficiency, tactical, emergency and special tasks evaluation flights. Ensures prescribed programs of instruction for aircrew training is adequately covered in terms of course content, coverage, and scope of material presented. Adapts instruction to proficiency level of individuals being rated.\n\n    2) May perform duties of Flight Engineer which includes utilizing a knowledge of major aircraft systems associated with heavy multi engine aircraft. The interrelationships among these systems and capabilities of the aircraft. Incumbent provides assistance to the pilot in preflight planning, monitoring adherence to flight plan, and operating aircraft engines and a wide variety of aircraft control systems, e.g., engine, fuel, electrical, hydraulic, fire suppression, environmental, pressurization throughout the flight. Incumbent inspects condition and readiness of aircraft, accompanies pilots on preflight/in-flight inspections and aircraft test flights and operational checks. Operates and monitors aircraft control devices and indicators. Determines and monitors factors and data affecting performance of aircraft, such as temperature, altitude, humidity, field conditions, configuration and weight of aircraft, on aircraft takeoff, flight and landing, and keeps pilot informed. Computes fuel and cargo load, and weights and balance factors. Prepares for combination loads determining placement of cargo and passengers within weight and balance limitations. Prior to takeoff, insures cargo is properly secured, and proper publications and emergency equipment are aboard as required.\n\n    3) Performs other duties as assigned\n\n    *The above duty description does not contain all details of the official position description. A copy of the entire position description can be found on FASCLASS by searching the position description (PD#: D0606000). https://acpol2.army.mil/fasclass/search_fs/search_fasclass.asp\n\n    Travel Required\n\n\n    Supervisory status\n\n\n    Promotion Potential\n\n\n  • Job family (Series)\n\n    2185 Aircrew Technician\n\nThis job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/530870900. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9648227691650391}
+{"content": "background preloader\n\nT'ai Chi Ch'uan\n\nFacebook Twitter\n\nT'ai Chi South Wales. The Li (Lee) Style of Tai Chi Kungfu. This is the symbol of Li (Lee) Family Style T'ai Chi. ( The male seahorse incubates and gives birth to its offspringrepresenting a balance of Yin and Yang. ) Given the history of China, some 3,000 years more than the UK and considerably longer than most European cultures, it is hardly surprising that such wide and diverse Arts and inventions have come from it.\n\nThe Li (Lee) Style of Tai Chi Kungfu.\n\nThe Chinese people have been accredited with many things that we take for granted in today's society. Being a very inquisitive, practical and spiritual Nation, China was an ideal birthplace for the philosophy of Tao. Tao, or \"Way\" can refer to many things which have a course or flow, but Nature, as in Universal Works is what this philosophy refers to. In Taoism one tries to live in harmony with Nature or Universal Principles. Introducing the Lee Form of tai chi. Tai Chi in itself is has no single 'method', but rather a number of different styles that have evolved along with its growth.\n\nintroducing the Lee Form of tai chi\n\nThis site is predominantly Yang Style because, simply that is what I, the two sensei's by whom I have had the pleasure of being taught, and those who are connected to the Southampton City Dojo practice. This does does not, however distinguish us as separate from the whole of what is tai chi, nor makes us feel that our style is superior to any of the others - just a different aspect of the same.\n\nThe Yang and Ch'en styles developed around the same period, by members of the same family - although Ch'en seems to have declined almost completely. Wu style (developed by Yu-Seong Wu) practised very much smaller circular movements with smaller arm stretches, and again seems to have declined. The Sun and Lee styles possibly make up (with the Yang style) the three main forms practiced today. From these fourteen, a sequence of 140 moves completes the form.\n\nLee-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Chee Soo practicing the Lee style T'ai Chi Dance The Lee style of t'ai chi ch'uan (李氏太極拳) is closely related to a range of disciplines of Taoist Arts taught within the Lee style including Qigong, Tao Yin, Chinese Macrobiotics, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taoist alchemy, Feng Shou Kung Fu, and weapons practice.\n\nLee-style t'ai chi ch'uan\n\nAccording to practitioners, it was first brought to the West in the 1930s by Chan Kam Lee and was subsequently popularized by Chee Soo who was the President of the International Taoist Society from 1958 until his death in 1994.[1] The Lee style of t'ai chi ch'uan comprises two forms known as 'the dance' and 'the form', I Fou Shou or 'sticky hands' technique, Whirling Hands, Whirling Arms, and various qi and Li development exercises.[2] Lee style t'ai chi is related to Martial Arts training, and there are five distinct areas of development that comprise the whole Art: [3] PhysicalMentalBreathingSheng Qi 生气 (Internal energy)Ching Sheng Li 精生力 (External energy). History[edit] Tai Chi For Beginners - Tai Chi for beginners. LFA Tai Chi.\n\nT'ai chi videos\n\n\nT'ai chi ch'uan\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7310431003570557}
+{"content": "Theory of Creator\nRs. 250/-Rs. 225/-\nGenre: Science\nPublisher: Kiwi Books\nPublication Year: 2015\nFormat: Paperback\nISBN: 9789385523199\n\n\nAbout the Book\nSECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE EXPLAINED Is the universe finite or infinite? Can we travel at the speed of light? Where do living beings go after their death? When and where in space did the Big Bang occur? What exactly is a Black Hole? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? These are just few questions to which we have myriad answers till now. Reading this book will explore all the secrets of the universe and answer almost every question related to the universe. The more you read, the more you explore. The concepts in this book are explained very well and in a simple way. The intention of this book is that even the common man can understand space related concepts which mainly include the Big Bang Theory, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Black Holes and many others. Extensive research has led to this book which presents a unified theory that gives the reader a basic idea of how the universe is formed. 106p/Paperback/5×8″ Buy Paperback\nAbout the Author\nRahul Khismatrao\n\nRahul Khismatrao lives in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He participated in the Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition organised by The Royal Commonwealth Society, London and supported by Cambridge University Press where he received the bronze in the senior category.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989184737205505}
+{"content": "Open main menu\n\n\"Pioneer\" Identity in US History\n\n(Main Page)\n\n(American Pioneer full article)\n\nAmerican Pioneer\n\nAmerican pioneers are any of the people in American history who migrated west to join in settling and developing new areas. The term especially refers to those who were going to settle any territory which had previously not been settled or developed by European, African or American society, although the territory was inhabited by or utilized by Native Americans.\n\nThe pioneer concept and ethos greatly predate the migration to parts of the United States now called Western, as many places now considered as East were also settled by pioneers from the coast. For example, Daniel Boone, a key figure in American history, settled in Kentucky, when that \"Dark and Bloody Ground\" was still undeveloped.\n\nOne important development in the Western settlement was the Homestead Act, which provided formal legislation for the settlers which regulated the settlement process.\n\n\nThe word \"pioneer\" originates with the Middle French pionnier (originally, a foot soldier, or soldier involved in digging trenches), from the same root as peon or pawn. In the English language, the term independently evolved a sense of being an innovator or trailblazer. As early as 1664, Englishman John Evelyn used the term with a self-effacing \"workman\" meaning when he wrote in his treatise on planting, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees: \"I speak now in relation to the Royal Society, not my self, who am but a Servant of it only and a Pioneer in the Works\".\n\nPopular Culture and Folklore\n\n\nVarious figures in American folklore and literature typify the pioneer. The Deerslayer was the most successful of an early series, the Leatherstocking Tales, about pioneer life in New York. Little House on the Prairie, a century later, typified a later series of novels describing a pioneer family. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett are two real-life icons of pioneer history.\n\nManifest Destiny\n\n(full article)\n\n\n* The special virtues of the American people and their institutions\n* An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty\n\nHistorian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of \"a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven\".\n\nHistorians have emphasized that \"manifest destiny\" was a contested concept—pre-civil war Democrats endorsed the idea but many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and most Whigs) rejected it. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, \"American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity ... Whigs saw America's moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest.\"\n\nNewspaper editor John O'Sullivan is generally credited with coining the term manifest destiny in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset, which was a rhetorical tone; however, the unsigned editorial titled \"Annexation\" in which it first appeared was arguably written by journalist and annexation advocate Jane Cazneau. The term was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico and it was also used to divide half of Oregon with the United Kingdom. But manifest destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the issue of slavery, says Merk. It never became a national priority. By 1843, former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, originally a major supporter of the concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind and repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.\n\nMerk concluded:\n\n\n\nThere was never a set of principles defining manifest destiny, therefore it was always a general idea rather than a specific policy made with a motto. Ill-defined but keenly felt, manifest destiny was an expression of conviction in the morality and value of expansionism that complemented other popular ideas of the era, including American exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism. Andrew Jackson, who spoke of \"extending the area of freedom\", typified the conflation of America's potential greatness, the nation's budding sense of Romantic self-identity, and its expansion.\n\nYet Jackson would not be the only president to elaborate on the principles underlying manifest destiny. Owing in part to the lack of a definitive narrative outlining its rationale, proponents offered divergent or seemingly conflicting viewpoints. While many writers focused primarily upon American expansionism, be it into Mexico or across the Pacific, others saw the term as a call to example. Without an agreed upon interpretation, much less an elaborated political philosophy, these conflicting views of America's destiny were never resolved. This variety of possible meanings was summed up by Ernest Lee Tuveson: \"A vast complex of ideas, policies, and actions is comprehended under the phrase \"Manifest Destiny\". They are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from any one source.\"\n\nHomestead Act\n\nThe Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged 600,000 families to settle the West by giving them land (usually 160 acres) almost free. They had to live on and improve the land for five years. Before the Civil War, Southern leaders opposed the Homestead Acts because they feared it would lead to more free states and free territories. After the mass resignation of Southern senators and representatives at the beginning of the war, Congress was subsequently able to pass the Homestead Act.\n\n(Impact on) Native Americans\n\nManifest destiny had serious consequences for Native Americans, since continental expansion implicitly meant the occupation and annexation of Native American land, sometimes to expand slavery. This ultimately led to confrontations and wars with several groups of native peoples via Indian removal. The United States continued the European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of indigenous peoples. In a policy formulated largely by Henry Knox, Secretary of War in the Washington Administration, the U.S. government sought to expand into the west through the purchase of Native American land in treaties. Only the Federal Government could purchase Indian lands and this was done through treaties with tribal leaders. Whether a tribe actually had a decision-making structure capable of making a treaty was a controversial issue. The national policy was for the Indians to join American society and become \"civilized\", which meant no more wars with neighboring tribes or raids on white settlers or travelers, and a shift from hunting to farming and ranching. Advocates of civilization programs believed that the process of settling native tribes would greatly reduce the amount of land needed by the Native Americans, making more land available for homesteading by white Americans. Thomas Jefferson believed that while American Indians were the intellectual equals of whites, they had to live like the whites or inevitably be pushed aside by them. Jefferson's belief, rooted in Enlightenment thinking, that whites and Native Americans would merge to create a single nation did not last his lifetime, and he began to believe that the natives should emigrate across the Mississippi River and maintain a separate society, an idea made possible by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.\n\nIn the age of manifest destiny, this idea, which came to be known as \"Indian removal\", gained ground. Humanitarian advocates of removal believed that American Indians would be better off moving away from whites. As historian Reginald Horsman argued in his influential study Race and Manifest Destiny, racial rhetoric increased during the era of manifest destiny. Americans increasingly believed that Native American ways of life would \"fade away\" as the United States expanded. As an example, this idea was reflected in the work of one of America's first great historians, Francis Parkman, whose landmark book The Conspiracy of Pontiac was published in 1851. Parkman wrote that after the British conquest of Canada in 1760, Indians were \"destined to melt and vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American power, which now rolled westward unchecked and unopposed\". Parkman emphasized that the collapse of Indian power in the late 18th century had been swift and was a past event.\n\nLegacy and Consequences\n\nThe belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by Thomas Jefferson and his \"Empire of Liberty\", and continued by Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, continues to have an influence on American political ideology. Under Douglas MacArthur, the Americans \"were imbued with a sense of manifest destiny\" says historian John Dower.\n\nAfter the turn of the nineteenth century to the twentieth, the phrase manifest destiny declined in usage, as territorial expansion ceased to be promoted as being a part of America's \"destiny\". Under President Theodore Roosevelt the role of the United States in the New World was defined, in the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, as being an \"international police power\" to secure American interests in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt's corollary contained an explicit rejection of territorial expansion. In the past, manifest destiny had been seen as necessary to enforce the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, but now expansionism had been replaced by interventionism as a means of upholding the doctrine.\n\n\n\nThis was the only time a president had used the phrase \"manifest destiny\" in his annual address. Wilson's version of manifest destiny was a rejection of expansionism and an endorsement (in principle) of self-determination, emphasizing that the United States had a mission to be a world leader for the cause of democracy. This U.S. vision of itself as the leader of the \"Free World\" would grow stronger in the 20th century after World War II, although rarely would it be described as \"manifest destiny\", as Wilson had done.\n\n\"Manifest destiny\" is sometimes used by critics of U.S. foreign policy to characterize interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere. In this usage, \"manifest destiny\" is interpreted as the underlying cause of what is denounced by some as \"American imperialism\". A more positive-sounding phrase devised by scholars at the end of the twentieth century is \"nation building\", and State Department official Karin Von Hippel notes that the U.S. has \"been involved in nation-building and promoting democracy since the middle of the nineteenth century and 'Manifest Destiny'\".\n\nAmerican Frontier\n\n(full article)\n\nThe American frontier comprises the geography, history, folklore, and cultural expression of life in the forward wave of American expansion that began with English colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last mainland territories as states in 1912. A \"frontier\" is a zone of contact at the edge of a line of settlement. The leading theorist Frederick Jackson Turner went deeper, arguing the frontier was a process that transformed people and turned Europeans into Americans, \"The frontier,\" he asserted, \"promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people.\" He theorized it was a process of development: \"This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward...furnish the forces dominating American character.\" Turner's ideas since 1893 have inspired generations of historians (and critics) to explore multiple frontiers. However the popular folk frontier concentrates on the conquest and settlement of Native American lands west of the Mississippi River, in what is now the Midwest, Texas, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and the West Coast.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFrom British peasants to American farmers\n\nThe seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as the population grew they pushed westward for fresh farm land. Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the good land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread. Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well as a vote for local and provincial offices. The typical New England settlements were quite compact and small—under a square mile. Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, namely who would rule. Early frontier areas east of the Appalachian Mountains included the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which was a move to the north, not the west).\n\nWars with French and with Natives\n\n\nSteady migration to frontier lands\n\n\nNew nation\n\n\n\nLand policy\n\n\n\nIn 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback, but it was the best route for thousands of settlers moving into Kentucky. In some areas they had to face Indian attacks. In 1784 alone, Indians killed over 100 travelers on the Wilderness Road. No Indians lived permanently in Kentucky but they sent raiding parties to stop the newcomers. One of those intercepted was Abraham Lincoln's grandfather, who was scalped in 1784 near Louisville.\n\nAcquisition of Indigenous Land\n\n\n\n\n\"American Indian Wars\"\n\n(full article)\n\n\n\nHistorian Russell Thornton estimates that from 1800 to 1890, the Indian population declined from 600,000 to as few as 250,000. The depopulation was principally caused by disease as well as warfare. Many tribes in Texas, such as the Karankawan, Akokisa, Bidui and others, were extinguished due to conflicts with settlers. The rapid depopulation of the American Indians after the Civil War alarmed the U.S. Government, and the Doolittle Committee was formed to investigate the causes as well as provide recommendations for preserving the population. The solutions presented by the committee, such as the establishment of the five boards of inspection to prevent Indian abuses, had little effect as large Western migration commenced.\n\nIndian wars east of the Mississippi\n\nThe Trail of Tears\n\n\n\n\nIndian wars west of the Mississippi\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIndian reservations\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAmerican Frontier in Popular Culture\n\n\nReligious themes have inspired many environmentalists as they contemplate the pristine West before the frontiersmen violated its spirituality. Actually, as historian William Cronon has demonstrated, the concept of \"wilderness\" was highly negative and the antithesis of religiosity before the romantic movement of the 19th century.\n\nThe Frontier Thesis of historian Frederick Jackson Turner, proclaimed in 1893, established the main lines of historiography which fashioned scholarship for three or four generations and appeared in the textbooks used by practically all American students.\n\nPopularizing Western lore\n\n\n\nElite Eastern writers and artists of the late 19th century promoted and celebrated western lore. Theodore Roosevelt, wearing his hats as historian, explorer, hunter, rancher and naturalist, was especially productive.[316] Their work appeared in upscale national magazines such as Harper's Weekly featured illustrations by artists Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and others. Readers bought action-filled stories by writers like Owen Wister, conveying vivid images of the Old West. Remington lamented the passing of an era he helped to chronicle when he wrote:\n\n\n20th century imagery\n\n\nCowboy Image\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFurther Materials:\n\n\nAn Indigenous Peoples' History of the US -- Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz(buy the book)\nGenocide of Indigenous Peoples\n\nBlack Elk Speaks -- Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of The Oglala Sioux -- Nicholas Black Elk, as told through John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow) -- Black Elk Speaks, the story of the Oglala Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during momentous twilight years of the nineteenth century, offers readers much more than a precious glimpse of a vanished time. Black Elk’s searing visions of the unity of humanity and Earth, conveyed by John G. Neihardt, have made this book a classic that crosses multiple genres. Whether appreciated as the poignant tale of a Lakota life, as a history of a Native nation, or as an enduring spiritual testament, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable.(from the book jacket)\n\n\"Frontier\" Murder-Sanctioning: Scalping\n\nWhite Trash: the 400 Year Untold History of Class in America -- Nancy Isenberg\n\nAndrew Jackson was called \"Indian Killer\" -- Trump honored Navajos in front of his portrait\n\nIndian Removal Act on display for first time\n\nIndian Removal", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5626305937767029}
+{"content": "Archaeological Monuments of Greece\n\nAcropolis Of Athens\n\n\nThe greatest temple of ancient Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, dominates the city from the hill known as the Acropolis. The most celebrated myths of ancient Athens, its greatest religious festivals, earliest cults and several decisive events in the city s history are all connected to this sacred precinct. The Acropolis stands in harmony with its natural setting. It is also the first earthquake resistance building of the World. The Acropolis of Athens dates back to fifth century BC and are the most accurate reflection of the splendor, power and wealth of Athens at its greatest peak, the golden age of Perikles.\n\nThe Parthenon\n\n\nThe Erechtheion\n\nThe Erechtheion is located on the north side of the sacred rock of the Acropolis, it was built between 421-406 BC as a replacement of a temple dedicated to Athena Polias.The name Erechtheion is mentioned only by Pausanias (1, 26, 5), derives from Erechtheus, the mythical king of Athens, who had the body of a snake and head of a Man. Other texts mentions to the building simply as temple or old temple. The building owes its unusual shape to the irregularity of the terrain – there is a three-metre difference in height between the eastern and western parts – and the multiple cults it was designed to accommodate. The eastern part of the building was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part served the cult of Poseidon-Erechtheus and held the altars of Hephaistus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus. This is where, according to the myth, Athena s sacred snake lived. The sanctuary also contained the grave of KekropsOn that spot Athena and Poseidon had their fight who is going to give his name to the city.\n\nTemple of Nike\n\n\nThe Propylaia\n\nPropylaia means the entrance gate of eachtemple. They were built on the west side of the hill, where the gate of the Mycenaean fortification once stood. The first gate was constructed in the years of Peisistratos (mid-sixth century BC), after the Acropolis had become a sanctuary dedicated to Athena. A newgatewas built in 510-480 BC, unfortunately it was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC during the attack and repaired after the end of the Persian Wars, during the fortification of the Acropolis by Themistokles and Kimon.The monument was admired by modern visitors were part of the great Periklean building program. They were erected in 437-432 BC, after the completion of the Parthenon, by architect Mnesikles.It wasn’t complete because Peloponnesian War has started.\n\n\nLocated on Mount Parnassos, within the angle formed by the twin rocks of the Phaedriades, lies the Pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Delphi, which became the most famous oracle of ancient Greece. Delphi in Mythology was mentioned as the centre of the world, it is here that the two eagles sent out by Zeus from the ends of the universe to find the navel of the world met. The sanctuary of Delphi, set within a fantastic landscape, was for many centuries the cultural and religious centre and symbol of unity for the Hellenic world.\n\nThe history of Delphi begins in prehistory and in the myths of the ancient Greeks. In the beginning the site was sacred to Mother Earth and was guarded by the terrible serpent Python, who was later killed by Apollo. Apollo s sanctuary was built here by Cretans who arrived at Kirrha, the port of Delphi, accompanied by the god in the form of a dolphin. This myth survived in plays presented during the various Delphic festivals, such as the Septerion, the Delphinia, the Thargelia, and the Theophania and, of course, the famous Pythia, which celebrated the death of Python and comprised musical and athletic competition The archaeological site of Delphi includes two sanctuaries, dedicated to Apollo and Athena, and other buildings, mostly intended for sports.\n\nVisitors arriving from Athens first encountered the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia – that is, Athena who is before the temple? (of Apollo). Outside its walls spread the settlement of Delphi. Within the walls were the famous Tholos, the symbol of Delphi today, and the remains of three temples dedicated to the goddess. The two earlier temples were built of tufa on the same location. These date to the middle of the seventh century and to c. 500 BC. The third temple, made of limestone, was built at the west end of the sanctuary after the earthquake of 373 BC. This sanctuary also includes the altars of Zeus Polieus, Athena Ergane, Athena Zosteria, Eileithyia and Hygeia, the remains of two buildings dedicated to the cult of the local heroes Phylakos and Autonos, who routed the Persians from Delphi, and two treasuries with marble roofs, one Doric and the other Aeolian. The Aeolian Treasury of Massalia preserves a characteristic palm-leaf capital. Finally, the sanctuary included a memorial to the routing of the Persians, a statue of Emperor Hadrian, and a building known as the? House of the priests? exercise and learning, the palaestra and the baths. Further up the slope was the Castalian spring, the sacred spring of Delphi, were travellers quenched their thirst after a long voyage and purified themselves before consulting the oracle. The central, most important part of the site was the sanctuary of Apollo, which was surrounded by the usual peribolos, or enclosure wall, with a main gate at its southeast corner. From here visitors entered the Sacred Way, the street that led to the temple of Apollo with its famous adyton, where Pythia delivered her oracles.\n\nWith the temple and the Sacred Way as its centre, the sanctuary grew larger, spreading over artificial terraces to the northwest of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia lay the gymnasium, a place for supported by monumental walls, bordered by porticoes (of Attalus, of the Aetolians, of the Athenians) and accessed through corresponding gates in the enclosure wall. Scattered among these buildings and along the Sacred Way were numerous votive monuments dedicated by Greek cities or wealthy individuals on the occasion of socio-political events, or simply to express gratitude to the god and his oracle. These monuments are representative of artistic achievement from the East to the coasts of the Mediterranean and indicate the wealth of their patrons. They vary from bronze and silver tripods (one of the oracle’s symbols) to complex groups of sculptures in bronze or marble. The luxurious and impressive, however small, votive buildings known as treasuries were used for storing smaller votive offerings, but above all for displaying the art and splendour of the city which commissioned them. The imposing temple of Apollo dominated the sanctuary from atop a large terrace supported by a remarkable polygonal wall. In front of its entrance visitors could admire a series of impressive votive monuments dedicated mostly by wealthy individuals. Above the temple is the theatre where the theatrical and musical contests of the Pythian Games took place, while even higher up the slope, beyond the sacred enclosure, lies the stadium where the athletic contests were held. Outside and around the two sanctuaries are the remains of the settlement and cemeteries of Delphi, which developed mainly in the Classical and Roman period.\n\n\nThe Classical Temple of Zeus and the earlier Temple of Hera dominate the Altis. East of the Heraion is the Metron, a temple dedicated to Cybele, the mother of the gods, and behind this, on the foot of Mount Kronios, a row of treasuries dedicated by Greek cities and colonies. To their west lies the Nymphaion, a splendid fountain dedicated by Herodes Atticus. South of the Heraion and over the remains of the prehistoric settlement of Olympia is the Pelopion, a funerary monument commemorating the hero Pelops. Also within the Altis are the Prytaneion, the see of the sanctuary officials, and the Philippeion, an elegant circular building dedicated by Philip II, king of Macedon. Southeast of the Heraion was the great altar of Zeus, a most important monument entirely made of ashes and therefore now completely lost. The remaining space inside the Altis was filled with numerous altars and statues of gods, heroes and Olympic winners dedicated by Greek cities or wealthy individuals, such as the Nike of Paionios. Outside the sacred precinct of the Altis, to its south, are the Bouleutherion and the South Stoa, the southernmost building of the greater sanctuary and its main entrance from the south. West of the Altis and separated from it by the Sacred Road is a series of buildings for the sanctuary personnel, the athletes and the distinguished visitors: the gymnasium and palaestra, exercise grounds, the Workshop of Pheidias which in Late Antiquity was transformed into a Christian church, the Greek baths with their swimming pool, the Roman hot baths, the Theokoleion or priests’ residence, the Leonidaion or officials’ quarters, and the Roman hostels. East of the Altis lies the stadium where the Olympic Games were held. South of the stadium was the hippodrome, of which no trace remains as it was swept away by the Alpheios. South of the hippodrome is a group of mansions and baths, including the famous House of Nero, built by the emperor for his stay at Olympia during his participation in the games.\n\n\nKnossos is the site of the most important and better known palace of Minoan civilization. According to tradition, it was the seat of the legendary king Minos. The Palace is also connected with thrilling legends, such as the myth of the Labyrinth with the Minotaur, and the story of Daidalos and Icaros. The site was continuously inhabited from the Neolithic period (7000-3000 B.C.) until Roman times. The Linear B tablets (Mycenaean script) of the 14th century B.C. mention the city as ko-no-so. Intensive habitation occured mostly in the Minoan period, when the so-called first (19th-17th centuries B.C.) and second palaces (16th-14th centuries B.C.) were built along with luxurious houses, a hospice and various other structures. After its partial destruction in 1450 B.C., Knossos was settled by Mycenaeans from the Greek Mainland. The city flourished again during the Hellenistic period (sanctuaries of Glaukos, Demeter, other sanctuaries, chamber tombs, north cemetery, and defensive towers) and in 67 B.C. it was captured by the Roman Quintus Caecilius Metelus Creticus. The “Villa of Dionysos”, a private house with splendid mosaics was built in the same period. Knossos was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos. Arthur Evans conducted systematic excavations at the site between 1900 and 1931, bringing to light the palace, a large section of the Minoan city, and the cemeteries. Since then, the site and the surrounding area have been excavated by the British School of Archaeology at Athens and the 23rd E.P.C.A. knossosreconstruction.gif The restoration of the palace to its present form was carried out by Arthur Evans. The interventions were mostly imposed by the need to preserve the monuments uncovered. The Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture carries out only consolidation work, whenever necessary.\n\nTheater of Epidaurus\n\nThis impressive open-air theater is renowned for its nearly perfect architecture and acoustics. Its location within the sanctuary of Asklepius is also of some significance. The theater as a whole is considered to be the best preserved structure in Greece from the Classical period. The theater was built around the mid-4th century B.C.E. by Polyclitus the Younger. His work at Epidaurus has been praised for centuries, including by Pausanias, the geographer from the 2nd century C.E. Pausanias wrote in his “Descriptions of Greece” that the theater is “most especially worth seeing.” The theater is still considered one of the most beautiful and symmetrically perfect of all Greek theaters.Theater Description and Dimensions Its cavea, or the seating of the auditorium, is almost 350 feet (114 m) across. There are about 14,000 seats total, with 54 rows of seating – 34 below and 21 above the diazoma, or horizontal passageway. This was built in two phases, the upper 21 rows having been added during the 2nd century B.C.E. “Seats of honor” were red, and the rest were simply white limestone. Towards the center there is the round base of the altar or thymele, and the orchestra is a complete circle about 60 feet (20 m) in diameter.\n\nThere is a parados or entrance on either side of the theater that contained double doors and columns decorated with Corinthian capitals. The skene is a background building connected to the platform stage, and the proskene is comprised of a row of columns in front of the skene that support a high platform used as a raised stage, especially for comedies. In this stage area in the center, the smallest sound made is amplified and can be heard anywhere in the theater, regardless of seating. The astounding acoustics of the theater are due to a few factors in the architecture of the structure. The limestone material of the seating provides a filter effect of low frequencies, eliminating the problem of sounds from the chatter of the audience, for example. However, the rows of limestone reflect high frequency sound back to the audience from the stage. Also, ridges and grooves on the surface of the seats act as natural acoustic traps. The theater is architecturally perfect for sound and is a true wonder in this sense, though it is also possible that the Greeks did not actually understand the scientific principles behind the perfect acoustics of their architecture. Theater’s Relation to Asklepius The theater’s magnificence is often overshadowed by the shrine to Asklepius, although it is the sanctuary’s best preserved structure. It is the oldest shrine dedicated to this god of medicine and healing and was built during the 6th century B.C.E. There is a possibility that a significant relationship exists between the theater and the sanctuary and cult of Asklepius due to the location of the theater within the sanctuary at Epidaurus; there are other places situated in a very similar manner, such as Pergamon in present-day Turkey, where a smaller theater is located within the walls of a sacred area dedicated to Asklepius. During excavations at Epidaurus, two statues were found – one of Asklepius and one of a woman, likely his daughter Hygeia – between the orchestra and skene in the theater. During a yearly festival, noble citizens of Epidaurus, dressed in white, would march from the city to the Asklepion, chanting hymns to Asklepius and his father, Apollo. At the sanctuary, these choral hymns, accompanied by a kithara, a type of lyre, were continued in the “holy theater,” which was used as a gathering place following processions for Asklepius. Speeches in his honor, as well as regular temple services, also took place in the theater. Asklepius was said to have prescribed writing songs and “comical mimes” as treatments with the idea that the emotional state of a patient is as important as the physical, and so the theater was part of the cure. Thank offerings to the god from cured patients could include choral performances also. Games and contests in Asklepius’ name date back to the 5th century B.C.E. in Epidaurus and included musical and literary contests. All of these performances would have been performed in the theater linked to the sanctuary.The Theater’s Fate The theater was used in general for several centuries, but in 395 C.E., the Goths invaded and damaged the entire sanctuary. Then, in 426 C.E., Theodosius I, the Roman Emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, banned all activities at the sanctuary. Finally, in 528 C.E., an earthquake destroyed the shrine and covered the theater. The first excavations in 1881 found the auditorium in a rather good condition, as it was preserved in a layer of soil.\n\n\nThe civilization which blossomed in Greece during the Bronze Age, we call it, Mycenaean. In the period (1660 – 1400 BC), Mycenaeans amassed great prosperity and became the dominant power in the Aegean. Adventurous, daring, master seafarers, the Mykenaeans colonized Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus and Dodecannese, Sicily and northern Greece. Their goods replaced the Minoans and could be found at the markets of Egypt and Syria. According to the tradition, the city of Mykenae, the main representative of this civilization, was founded by Perseus (1400 – 1350 BC), the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of king Akrisios of Argos. Mycenae was build by the mythical Cyclops, the same ones who constructed the enormous walls of the nearby city of Tyrinths, which was governed by his brother Proetos. Perseus was succeeded by his son Sthenelos, the father of Eurystheus, who captured Argos and according to the myth, he assigned Herakles to perform the twelve labors. After the death of Eurystheus, the city was governed by Atreus of Elis (1250 BC), the brother of Eurystheus wife and son of Pelops and Hippodameia. There are many and various myths about the tragic fate of the Atreides family. The rivalry between Atreus and his brother Thyestes for the throne of Mykenae and the illicit love affair between Thyestes and the wife of Atreus, Aerope, ended in the tragic “Thyestian dinner”, in which Thyestes ate his sons, who had been killed by Atreus. For this horrible action of Atreus, his family was cursed.The city under Atreus expanded its boundaries and amassed great wealth and under the leadership of his son Agamemnon (1200 BC), who led the famous campaign against Troy, the city reached its greatest wealth and power. We do not know the reasons for the war, if we don’t accept as credible, the abduction of Helen by Paris. Many suggestions have been given, from fishing rights to the textile trade. We also don’t know the exact date of the war. Dates, as high as 1270 BC, had been given, though the Greek traditional date was 1184 BC When Agamemnon, the “king of men”, returned victorious from the Trojan war, he was assassinated by Aegisthos, the son of Thyestes and lover of his wife Klytaemnestra. Soon after, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, took revenge by killing them both. mycenae-citadel-reconstructed.jpg Eighty years after the fall of Troy and during the reign of the son of Orestes, Tisamenos, the city of Mykenae was captured and destroyed by the Dorians. The city with the walls intact, though lost its power continued to exist for many centuries. The outer city was not deserted, as the many tombs, which have been found, indicate. A fine relief has survived from a temple that was erected in the early sixth century. When the Persian army invaded Greece, Mykenae send army both in Thermopylae and Plataea. The city was destroyed once more by Argos (468 BC), after a long besiege. In the Hellenistic times, Mykenae revived, the walls were repairedand a temple was build at the acropolis, where the Argive tyrant Aristippos was killed (235 BC).\n\n\nThe island of Delos in the centre of the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are among the most extensive in the Mediterranean; ongoing work takes place under the direction of the French School at Athens.Delos had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis and established as a cult centre, Delos had an importance that its natural resources could never have offered.In 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing it as the “exceptionally extensive and rich” archaeological site which “conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port”.\n\n\n  •   Athens,16 Pireos Str.\n\n  •    Mobile: +30 6987752647\n\n  •    Mail:\n\nTrip Advisor Logo\n\nCopyright © 2018 Greece Athens Tours", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9623023271560669}
+{"content": "What the Pope’s Notes Might Say\n\npope pius\nGerman paratroopers in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during the German occupation of Rome, September 1943-June 1944. (Yale Univesity Press; B Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R24391)\n\nAn interview with renowned Holocaust historian Dr. Michael Berenbaum on plans to open the files Of World War II-era Pope Pius XII\n\n\nNews that Pope Francis plans to open the Vatican archives on Word War II-era Pope Pius XII has piqued the attention of scholars of the period, who hope that access to documents long kept under wraps could shed light on long-unanswered questions on the pontiff who has been criticized by many for his public silence over the Holocaust.\n\nThe present pope announced the news with confidence that any new information that would come to the fore after the files are opened would only serve to exonerate Pius, the 20th century’s most controversial pope. Yet, Holocaust researchers have long been cynical about what hidden Vatican papers from the time would reveal about Pius’ hesitancy to condemn Nazi atrocities more directly, and whether there was more he could have done to save the lives of Jews and others marked for death by Hitler’s Germany.\n\nHamodia spoke with noted Holocaust renowned historian Dr. Michael Berenbaum about what questions he felt could be answered by the soon-to-be-revealed documents.\n\n“The first questions are, what did they know and when did they know it?” he said. “The Vatican had the greatest intelligence network in the world. They had priests, bishops, papal Nunicos, and other officials in every country. What kind of information was being reported to the Pope and how did it affect his decisions?”\n\nPriests traveled with the German military, including SS units, and many should have had firsthand information about atrocities. Dr. Berenbaum added that many priests heard confessions from Nazi soldiers, and while not allowed to reveal information about individuals, some presumably relayed general information to their superiors, which eventually made its way to Rome.\n\nAs in all international wars, the Church maintained a policy of neutrality through World War II, though Pius was personally accused by German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop as early as 1940 of siding with the Allies. According to news articles at the time, the pope responded by defending his sympathies by listing several Nazi atrocities against Jews and Christians in Germany and Poland.\n\nDespite Vatican City’s independent status, it is highly likely that its location in the middle of what was then Fascist Italy, and later German occupation, limited Pius’ ability to act independently.\n\nEven so, Pius has been repeatedly faulted for failing to use his international religious authority to call out the mass crimes that were being committed by the Nazis and their allies around Europe. That fact, that he had deep connections to Germany from the years he had spent there as a papal representative in the 1920s has been an additional cause for suspicion by some scholars.\n\npope pius\nPope Pius XII\n\nDr. Berenbaum said that being able to see documents from the time could shed light on the motivation for the pope’s approach.\n\n“One can assume that his main motivation was to protect the church as an institution,” he said. “That still would not exonerate him though, because sometimes a leader has to think about the moral record of the institutions he’s defending. Sometimes you have to open up your institution to some uncomfortable risks to truly defend it. I don’t think that he woke up in the morning and asked ‘how can I get the Jews,’ but I could be surprised.”\n\nEven though we know most of the major decisions that Pius made during the war years, learning more about the context in which they were made, Dr. Berenbaum said, could be revealing.\n\n“What was he hearing from German bishops as opposed to from Polish and American ones? Despite his spiritual status, like the head of any large enterprise, he had different players trying to pull him in different directions. Were there letters demanding that he speak out? Were there threats to the church? What did he ask his own officials to find out about what was going on in Nazi Europe?” he said. “Seeing what else was on the Pope’s desk when he made decisions could go a long way in understanding why he did what he did.”\n\nOne specific instance that Dr. Berenbaum said could be revealing was any response that the Vatican had to a German Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, who was a vocal critic of Nazi euthanasia programs and other inhumane polices. Whether the Pope acknowledged von Galen’s efforts positively or not would be one of many points to study.\n\nThe issue is only one of many instances of what Dr. Berenbaum said was a wider trend of individual Catholic parishes and clerics doing more to help Nazism’s victims than the Vatican itself.\n\n“It raises an important question of why was this the case and were these actions being done with or without the Pope’s support,” he said.\n\nAnother criticism of Pius extends into the postwar era, as he has been faulted for inaction in returning Jewish children who had been hidden from the Nazis in church institutions or with Catholic families.\n\npope pius\nItalian Jews at forced labor at a lumber mill in Gorizia, Italy, September 1942. (USHMM, courtesy of Marcello Morpurgo)\n\n“Rabbi [Isaac] Herzog, who was then Chief Rabbi of Palestine, met with him about the children and after the meeting, he immediately asked to be taken to the mikveh, which reveals an awful lot about what he thought of Pius,” said Dr. Berenbaum. “We know that the Pope did nothing about that issue, but it would be interesting to see what his minutes from that meeting say.”\n\nDr. Berenbaum was confident that the Vatican would release all relevant documents in their original form, saying that historians would eventually catch any omissions or tampering through cross-references and other overlapping material. As such, church officials likely know that any attempt to mar or distort research would end in “humiliation.”\n\nDespite Pope Francis’ assurances that the documents will show historical criticism of Pius to be the result of “some prejudice or exaggeration,” Dr. Berenbaum was skeptical that new findings would place the wartime pope in a better light.\n\n“They have already given scholars limited access to all the exonerating information,” he said. “If they had exculpatory material that would have made him look better, it’s hard to believe the Vatican wouldn’t have released it a long time ago.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8310803174972534}
+{"content": "Award-winning music duo R2Bees has said they once lied former President Jerry Rawlings was their father.\n\nIn an interview on Accra-based LIVE FM, the duo, who told stories of how they struggled in their early years of growing up, said it was one of the things they did to get out of trouble.\n\nPaedae, the group’s other half told Live Breakfast Club host MsNaa:\n\n“We told some really tight lies back then as kids,”Paedae said.\n\n“He used to tell people that Jerry Rawlings was our father,” Mugeez added.\n\nBoth had subsequently told MsNaa how growing up in the Rawlings era was fun, adding they’ve so many memories of those years.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999983906745911}
+{"content": "Do You Need A Tutor? Know The Signs!\n\nNeed Tutor know\n\nIs it time to look for outside help? How do you know if the tutoring you are providing to your child is not working anymore? It can be quite difficult for parents, especially moms, to admit to themselves that they need the extra help that a tutor can provide. In their desire to be able to provide their kids with the best kind of learning environment, they have put a lot of pressure on themselves and their children to excel in studies. But when it seems as if study time has become your child’s most dreaded time with you, it might be best to hire a tutor instead.\n\nHow do you know you need to hire a tutor? Here are some tell-tale signs to help you out:\n\n  • Failing Grades\n\nThe gradual decline in your child’s grades should tell you that there is something wrong. If despite your efforts to help them review for their lessons in school they still end up with low grades, then perhaps it is time to admit that they need help. If you believe that your child can do better, it is best to provide him with the kind of professional tutor help that he needs.\n\n  • Failing To Manage Their Time\n\nIf you notice that they are starting to put off doing their projects or postpone homework to do something else, they might be sending the message that they need extra help. As long as they continue to do to put off projects, their workload might increase and before they know it, they have a pile of things they need to complete with very little time in their hands. Hiring a tutor can help cultivate study habits and inculcate the value of self-motivation to keep them doing what they should be doing when they need to.\n\n  • Consistent Confusion\n\nSometimes, a child has difficulty at school not because they are being lazy, but because they easily get confused with the concepts being taught. If he is repeatedly puzzled by concepts, they might not be able to keep up with your grade expectations. If your child expresses anxiety over a subject or a topic in school, a tutor will be able to aid him so he could comprehend each subject in school.\n\nTutors can provide the one-on-one attention that the child requires and that could bring about wonders not only in their grades but also in their attitude towards studying. Seeking a tutor is not just about getting help to pull those failing grades up. Having the extra set of hands can help build academic success in the future. The more important goal is to make study time a good time for your kids. When they enjoy studying, it will reflect on their grades.\n\nThe world-class tutors at Mobile Tutors offer customized tutoring sessions to students who are struggling with understanding concepts of a particular subject, study skills, time management and organizational skills. The tutoring sessions are directed by ongoing assessment data and are specifically designed to meet each student’s specific academic needs and learning objectives.This personalization tailors the tutoring sessions to the student’s specific needs and is highly effective at improving the student’s overall academic success in school and beyond.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.775856614112854}
+{"content": "Brow Beat\n\nYou’re Doing It Wrong: Channa Masala\n\nChanna masala\n\nJuliana Jiménez Jaramillo for Slate.\n\nChanna masala is a no-brainer when you’re ordering Indian takeout, especially if you’re a vegetarian. The Punjabi chickpea curry is a tantalizing balance of spicy, tangy, and sweet, and it happens to be nutritionally unimpeachable. It also seems like one of those dishes that’s so uniquely flavored and intricately composed that it’s totally worth it to pay an expert to make it for you instead of endeavoring to make it yourself.\n\nBut this is a false impression that stems from most Americans’ ignorance of South Asian cooking conventions. Technique-wise, channa masala is as simple as any other stew; it requires chopping, simmering, and stirring. What makes homemade channa masala challenging is getting that balance of spice, acidity, and sweetness right. I have seen many recipes that purport to be simple yet authentic, containing only seasonings easily obtainable in American supermarkets: garlic, ginger, jalapeño, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and lemon juice. Such recipes yield adequate chickpea curries—but they taste nothing like restaurant channa masala. That’s because making authentic channa masala requires a few ingredients you can’t get in American supermarkets: specifically, channa masala spice blend, and amchoor powder.\n\nChanna masala spice blend sounds like a copout, right? But it’s only as much of a copout as curry powder, or garam masala (of which you’ll need a spoonful for this recipe), or za’atar, or any other more common packaged mixture of ground spices. It is simply a combination of the spices commonly used to make channa masala. There is a valid argument that freshly ground spice blends have a stronger flavor than the packaged kind, but what you lose in potency, you gain in convenience. (That said, you can certainly make your own if you prefer—and if you don’t mind having lots of leftover asafetida, pomegranate seed powder, and fenugreek on your spice rack.)\n\nChanna masala spice blends typically contain some amchoor powder, a sour dust made from under-ripe green mangos. But you will need to buy more amchoor powder, because it is what gives channa masala its pleasant tartness. Substituting lemon juice for amchoor powder, as is often done in Americanized channa masala recipes, is like swapping in a synthesizer for Hendrix’s guitar in “Purple Haze” and thinking no one will notice.\n\nWhile you’re at your local Indian grocery store (or on Amazon), you may as well pick up some ginger-garlic paste, another staple of South Asian cooking. Absent ginger-garlic paste, you will have to mince and then mash fresh ginger and garlic. (Figure 3 inches of the former and 8 garlic cloves of the latter for this recipe.) This is not difficult, especially if you have a mortar and pestle, but it’s easier to scoop readymade paste out of a jar, and the flavor doesn’t suffer one bit.\n\nOnce I had learned the right way to make channa masala—from a friend who is a devotee of the Vah Chef, YouTube’s premier Indian cooking expert—all these previously unfamiliar ingredients earned a permanent place in my pantry. As for the other ingredients called for in this recipe, they’re easy to find at most supermarkets—though three of them warrant a special note: You must start with dried chickpeas, not canned, if you want their texture to be as soft and tender as those in the best restaurant channa masala. Also, oil and sugar play crucial roles in harmonizing the spices. If for some reason your channa masala doesn’t taste as good as takeout, it’s probably because you’re not using enough of either.\n\nChanna Masala\nYield: 6 to 8 servings\nTime: 1½ to 2 hours, plus optional 8 to 12 hours for soaking the chickpeas\n\n1 pound chickpeas, rinsed and picked over\n⅓ cup grapeseed or peanut oil\n1 tablespoon cumin seeds\n2 medium onions, chopped\n1½ teaspoons ground turmeric\n2 small fresh jalapeños, seeded and minced\n¼ cup ginger-garlic paste\n8 fresh Roma tomatoes, chopped\n2 tablespoons ground channa masala spice blend\n1 tablespoon ground garam masala\n1 tablespoon ground cumin\n2 teaspoons sugar\nJuice of 1 lemon\n¾ teaspoon amchoor (dried mango) powder\nCooked basmati rice for serving (optional)\nChopped cilantro for garnish (optional)\n\n1. Put the chickpeas in a large pot and add enough water to cover them by 3 to 4 inches. If time allows, soak the chickpeas for 8 to 12 hours. Put the chickpeas over high heat and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium-high and cook until the chickpeas are tender, 1 to 1½ hours if you soaked them, about 2 hours if you didn’t. When the chickpeas are mostly tender, add a few large pinches of salt to the pot.\n\n2. Meanwhile, put the oil in another large pot over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the cumin seeds and cook for 30 seconds. Add the onions and season with salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the turmeric and jalapeños and continue cooking until the onions are tender, another 5 to 7 minutes. Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, channa masala spice mixture, garam masala, cumin, and sugar. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick and saucy, about 30 minues.\n\n3. When the chickpeas are tender, drain them, reserving about 1 cup of their cooking liquid. Add the chickpeas and the reserved cooking liquid to the tomato mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the lemon juice and amchoor powder. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot, over basmati rice and garnished with cilantro, if desired. (Leftover channa masala can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to several days.)\n\nPreviously in You’re Doing It Wrong:\nHot Toddy\nVeggie Burgers\nBlack-Eyed Peas", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.958589494228363}
+{"content": "WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology - Research Paper Example\n\nComments (0) Cite this document\nEvolutionary psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on exploring and explaining that “human nature is the product of a universal set of evolved psychological adaptations to recurring problems in the ancestral environment (Roberts, 2012).” This field of…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nGRAB THE BEST PAPER94.4% of users find it useful\nWK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology\nRead TextPreview\n\nExtract of sample \"WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology\"\n\nEvolutionary Psychology Evolutionary psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on exploring and explaining that “human nature is the product of a universal set of evolved psychological adaptations to recurring problems in the ancestral environment (Roberts, 2012).” This field of psychology looks to how human traits are instinctive and become available as people require them for their survival. Evolutionary psychologists support the concept that traits and behaviors that prevail in every culture are potential candidates for evolutionary adaptations. Each culture is unique from the next culture, yet many traits and behaviors are still present in all of them, which leads evolutionary psychologists to believe that these traits and behaviors simply evolve throughout all humans over the course of time.\nNatural selection is one of the most touched upon subjects in evolutionary psychology as it contains the most evidence that human instinct is indeed evolutionary; natural selection is also a vital component to evolution. Natural selection refers to the non-random, progressive “process by which biological traits become either more or less general in a population as a function of differential reproduction (Buss, 2003).” The prevalence - or gradual disappearance - of specific traits over time reveals how humans either increase their dependency for a trait or decrease their dependency based on their environment. When human beings alter their behavior and actions to help them survive, those changes gradually become more regular in a population over successive generations.\nAn example of natural selection as it relates to evolutionary psychology is the human body’s adaptive response of fear. An evolutionary behavior is defensive responses when human beings are subjected to various types of fear-inducing incidences. During environmental extremes, such as dangerous weather, the fear that is felt by humans allows them to behave protectively and to seek shelter. The fear that arises when an individual is faced with a loss of territory or material resources keeps the individual on guard for further threats, as well as prompts them to monitor and protect what remaining resources that they have. These behavioral traits, as a result of evolution and natural selection, have been hereditarily passed down from generation to generation because they have proven to be useful to the survival of human beings.\nBuss, D. (2003). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.\nRoberts, S.C. (2012). Applied evolutionary psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More\nCite this document\n  • APA\n  • MLA\n(“WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology Research Paper”, n.d.)\nRetrieved from\n(WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology Research Paper)\n“WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology Research Paper”, n.d.\n  • Cited: 0 times\nComments (0)\nClick to create a comment or rate a document\n\nCHECK THESE SAMPLES OF WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology\n\nEvolutionary Psychology\n\n...? Evolutionary Psychology Tyfanny Payne Pennsylvania Schuylkill This paper was prepared for the Evolutionary Psychology, taught by Dr. Scherer. Abstract Evolutionary Psychology is a branch in psychology that examines and identifies several traits that are involved in evolution, such as sexual selection. This branch of psychology also proposes that the present human behavior is a product of adaptation because of survival. This paper deals with all these as it tries to answer several questions. Evolutionary Psychology 1. Look at women's long-term mating preferences....\n12 Pages(3000 words)Essay\n\nEvolutionary Psychology: Violence\n\n...Evolutionary Psychology- Violence This is an evolutionary, psychological summary on violence, homicide, and war. Thesummary intends to help understand these behaviors. Violence is an act intended to hurt, injure, or kill. Both people and animals display violent behaviors. Violence is a present characteristic of every human society. Examples of violent crimes include rape, war, homicide and physical injuries. In the 20th century, roughly 87,500,000 people have lost their lives as a result of violent wars (Liddle 24). Drug abuse and mental disorders contribute to violent behavior. However, serious crimes like homicide and war get triggered by factors other than substance...\n3 Pages(750 words)Essay\n\nEvolutionary Psychology: Evolution of Religion\n\n... Evolutionary Psychology: Evolution of Religion Thoughts about the article Any reader would say that this article comes out as a critical and historical analysis about religion of the highest order. Whether an individual is religious, secular, neither, or a bit of both, this article is quite insightful and informative because it helps in the understanding of religion from a cognitive perspective. The paper is also educative since it explains that religion refers to a set of cultural structures and global beliefs that establish symbols which link humanity to spirituality, and other times, to ethical principles. Most religions have symbols, narratives, traditions as well as sacred histories. These elements give sense to life or try... that...\n3 Pages(750 words)Essay\n\nEvolutionary psychology\n\n...the perspectives of some of the major issues in psychology. 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Introducing Evolutionary Psychology, Lanham, MD: Totem Books USAGaulin. Routh, D. (2009). Clinical psychology training: A history of ideas and practices prior to 1946. American Psychologist 55 (2): 236. Steven J. C. & Donald H (2008). Evolutionary psychology, London: Prentice Hall.... ? Evolutionary psychology Rachelle H. Moore PSY 464 Roddy Sueoka Evolutionary psychology...\n7 Pages(1750 words)Term Paper\n\nHuman Evolutionary Psychology\n\n...neuroscience (2nd ed.) pp. 26-51 New York, NY US: John Wiley & Sons Ltd PsycINFO, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 August 2013. Fitzgerald, C, & Whitaker, M 2010, 'Examining the Acceptance of and Resistance to Evolutionary Psychology', Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 2, pp. 284-296, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 August 2013. Glass, DJ 2012, 'EVOLUTIONARY CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, BROADLY CONSTRUED: PERSPECTIVES ON OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER', Journal Of Social, Evolutionary & Cultural Psychology, 6, 3, pp. 292-308, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 August 2013. Ingram, G,...\n8 Pages(2000 words)Essay\n\nWk 2 questions\n\n...informant interviews; 2) focused group discussion; 3) consultations meetings with the community, local authorities, and local professionals; and 4) workshops with community leaders, local authorities, and local professionals. In the key-informant interviews, we focus on the local people or non-residents of the community whom we believe have an intimate of the locality. For instance, community leaders and anthropologists/sociologists who have been studying the community can be classified as “key informants”. 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Which...\n1 Pages(250 words)Essay\n\nWK 1 PS240 Psychological Research Methods\n\n...Psychological Research Methods The correlational investigation method is used in psychology to measure “how associated or related two variables are (Evans & Rooney, 2010).” When the method of correlation is implemented, it is done to see if there are any characteristics that can be found in relation to two objects that already exist. The field of psychology often uses correlational methods of investigation to help researchers come up with a prediction or hypothesis based on information that is already available about one of the variables. 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One is the existence and central significance of adaptation by natural selection while the second...\n8 Pages(2000 words)Assignment\nsponsored ads\n\nLet us find you another Research Paper on topic WK 2 PS240 Evolutionary Psychology for FREE!\n\nContact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8252240419387817}
+{"content": "Learn How SouthStar Communities Built Social Trust\n\nCase Study\n4 min read\n\nReal Estate is a core industry and it runs mostly on word of mouth. Hence, building public trust and a good social image is really important. Employing social media for that purpose is a smart move to fulfill that purpose. SouthStar Communities effectively used social media to build their positive brand image and showcase the public trust people have on them and Taggbox was more than happy to be a part of SouthStar communities journey of improving their user experience.\n\nAbout SouthStar Communities\n\nSouthStar Communities\n\nSouthStar Communities is a real estate development company. For nearly 20 years, SouthStar Communities has been shaping communities by acquiring, investing in and managing healthy residential communities across the US. At the core of it’s business and idea, lies the sole purpose of transforming the land into something more.\n\nStarted with a vision and guided by a unique piece of land and an understanding of how people would want to interact with the land and each other, now SouthStar Communities stands proudly as a major real estate development company which received not one or two, but seven Summit Awards from the Greater San Antonio Builders Association including the Grand Award-Developer. Besides being awarded prestigiously, SouthStar communities projects have also been named as the best sellers in respective communities.\n\nHow Taggbox came into play?\n\nFor SouthStar Communities, being a real estate development company, it was the need of the hour to develop a brand image and along with that build social trust among it’s customers. User-generated content has always been the preferable choice to display social proof and build credibility among customers. So, that is what SouthStar Communities did.\n\nTaggbox Scial hub\n\nSouthStar Communities used Taggbox to create a social hub on the homepage of it’s website to showcase the user experiences of their real estate projects. The social hub fetched posts from social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.\n\nSee also: What is a Social Media Hub\n\n\nThe social hub displayed social posts where one can see the residential projects of SouthStar Communities with happy users, surreal natural beauty around the homes, beautiful decors, and interiors. The social hub kind of displayed the social proof of the quality of services and projects of SouthStar Communities. This gave widespread social acceptance and also helped them flourish their word of mouth marketing.\n\nBenefits of Displaying UGC on a Social Hub\n\nA Social Media Hub is the best way to display user-generated content derived from various social media channels on your website. Here are some benefits of displaying user-generated content through a social hub on your websites.\n\nUGC Stats\n\n1. Increases User Engagement\n\nDisplaying user experience and feedback improves user engagement on your website. Visitors tend to stay longer and engage with the social feeds being displayed on the social hub.\n\n2. Real-time Interaction\n\nSocial media hubs have the functionality of displaying aggregated social media content in real time. It serves as an advantage for social media campaigns run by brands which require quick response and chats.\n\n3. Lower Bounce Rates\n\nUser-generated feeds grab the attention of the visitors of your website and make them stay longer going through social media feeds of user experience and feedbacks displayed on the social hub.\n\n4. Best Way to Display User-generated Content\n\nA social hub either on the homepage of your website or on a particular dedicated page is the best way to display user-generated content and build brand image.\n\n5. Leverages Sales and Revenue\n\nUser-generated content is preferred by most of the customers before making any purchase decision. In such a scenario, giving them what they want, i.e. social proof, through a social hub helps you leverage your sales and revenue.\n\n6. Builds Social Trust\n\nThe user experience, the testimonials, and their feedbacks, when they are served as social proofs of the quality of your services and products, then it helps to build social trust regarding your brand among your customers.\n\nSomething about Taggbox\n\nTaggbox is a social media aggregator tool which fetches social posts from major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more. It lets you create beautiful customizable social media walls with a wide variety of themes and background options. It comes with flexible pricing plans suited to everyone’s requirements and needs.\n\nIn case you want to give it a try, you can take a free 14-day trial.\n\nCreate Social Hub On Website\n\nBuild Your Social Community", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.575825572013855}
+{"content": "A Closer Look: Beeswax, Wax Glands\n\nBeeswax is a complex substance made up of wax esters, fatty acids and hydrocarbons.\n\nby Clarence Collision\n\nWax is used by honey bees to protect themselves against water loss through the integument and in the construction of combs. The major fractions of the cuticular wax were analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography and were shown to be qualitatively similar to those of comb wax (Blomquist et al. 1980). However, the composition of the cuticular wax of the honey bee is quantitatively different from that of the comb wax. The major component of the cuticular lipids is hydrocarbon, which comprises 58% of this wax. In contrast, hydrocarbon comprises only 13-17% of the comb wax, and monoester is the largest component (Tulloch 1971). Comb wax is produced by four pairs of glands within the abdomen while cuticular wax is likely produced by epidermal cells of the integument.\n\nBeeswax used in comb construction, comb repair, and capping of cells containing either pupae or honey, is secreted by worker bees on paired, smooth, oblong areas, called wax mirrors, located ventrally on abdominal segments four through seven (Figure 1A). On the dorsal side of each wax mirror is a layer of epithelial tissue called the wax gland (Sanford and Dietz 1976). Wax glands are merely specialized parts of the body-wall epidermis, which during the wax forming period in the life of the worker, become greatly thickened and take on a glandular structure (Figure 1C). The wax is discharged as a liquid through the mirrors and hardens to small flakes in the pockets between the mirrors and the long underlapping parts of the preceding sterna. After the wax-forming period the glands degenerate and become a flat layer of cells (Snodgrass and Erickson 1992).\n\nThe wax gland complex of the honey bee worker (Figure 2) consists of three cell types, epithelial cells, oenocytes and adipocytes (fat body cells), which act synergistically to secrete wax, a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, fatty acids and proteins (lipophorins) (Cassier and Lensky 1995). Lying over each gland is a large cellular mass composed of fat cells and oenocytes (Figure 1B) (Snodgrass 1956).\nIn young bees that have just recently emerged from their cells, the cells of the wax gland are nearly square in shape, while in older bees, the cells are either elongated or completely degenerated (Figure 1C). There is a definite correlation between the age of the bee, the size (length) of the cells in the wax glands, and the gland’s ability to secrete wax (Turell 1974). In newly emerged bees the wax gland cells have large nuclei and do not have intercellular spaces (an open area between the cells). These cubical cells have an average height of 17 to 19 microns. The production of wax begins in workers that are slightly less than one week old. As secretory activity increases, the cells of the wax gland become tall and slender. Cells from a bee at peak wax production have a height of approximately 50 microns, and have developed large intercellular spaces. Wax glands are best developed and most productive in 12-18 day-old workers. After producing wax for a few days, the wax glands begin to degenerate and by the time the bee is ready to leave the hive to become a field bee, usually when it is about 21 days of age, the glands have completely degenerated. The cellular boundaries, which were distinct in the immature and active glands, have become indistinct, or even lacking, and the height of the gland has fallen to only three microns.\n\nBeeswax is produced by metabolizing honey in fat cells associated with the wax glands and converting it to beeswax; workers cannot produce beeswax unless there are adequate honey stores in the colony. Workers also need to eat pollen during the first five to six days of their life in order to secrete wax later on, evidently because the protein in pollen is needed at that time for adequate fat cell development (Winston 1987). Wax is secreted primarily during warm weather when foraging is active. Workers actively engaged in secreting wax engorge themselves with honey and hang in festoons at or near the site of comb building. Drones and queens do not have abdominal wax glands.\n\nTo date, the mechanisms associated with wax synthesis and secretion are not fully understood. Piek (1964) showed that acetic acid is likely taken up by the oenocytes and that acetate is used for the synthesis of hydrocarbons. Blomquist et al. (1980) demonstrated that the incorporation of injected radio-labelled acetate into hexane extractable wax (cuticular wax) by worker honey bees not actively producing comb wax resulted in the recovery of much of the radioactivity in the hydrocarbon fraction. In bees actively producing comb wax, a higher percentage of radioactivity was recovered in the monoester fraction. A dramatic effect of age on the distribution of radioactivity from acetate into the various wax fractions from bees studied in the Summer months was observed. In bees from 11 to 18 days following emergence to adults, the major wax component synthesized was monoester, whereas in younger and older bees, hydrocarbon was the major wax component formed. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments using bees actively producing comb wax showed that the abdomen produced significant amounts of monoester, hydrocarbon, and other esters, whereas the thorax synthesized mostly hydrocarbon. These data show that the epidermal cells and wax glands each produce a wax with a distinct composition, and that the age and seasonal differences observed in wax synthesis are due to presence or absence of active wax glands.\n\nThe ultra-structure of the cells of the wax gland complex was studied in relation to the synthesis and secretion of beeswax (Hepburn et al. 1991). The hydrocarbon and fatty acid profiles of epidermal cells and oenocytes were determined in relation to the ages of the bees. Smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER)** was absent from both epidermal cells and adipocytes (fat cells) in adult workers from the time they emerged until the end of wax secretion. The oenocytes were rich in SER. The hydrocarbon and fatty acid content of the oenocytes, averaged for bee age, closely matched that of newly secreted wax. The oencytes are the probable source of the hydrocarbon fraction of beeswax which is consistent with histochemical and autoradiographic data. The cyclical changes of organelles within the cells and chemical composition of the wax gland complex closely coincided with measured, age-related rates of wax secretion in the workers.\n\nHepburn et al. (1991) observed that SER is barely discernible in the oenocytes of newly emerged workers, but by the fourth day the volume density of these tightly packed tubules is high.\n\nSimilarly, there is a large increase in whole oenocyte volume and the relative volumes of the oenocytes and SER remain elevated throughout the secretory phase. By day 18, both oenocytes and SER begin to decrease with the simultaneous appearance of primary lysosomes (membrane enclosed organelles in the cell that contain an array of digestive enzymes) and autolytic vacuoles (autolytic- cell destruction through the action of its own enzymes and vacuoles are organelles containing debris at various stages of degradation). Lipid and protein droplets were never observed in the oenocytes and cellular organelles showed no evident cyclical changes associated with wax synthesis. The fat cells are characterized by an extensive plasma membrane reticular system, numerous mitochondria (organelles that function in energy production), peroxisomes (organelles that contain enzymes involved in metabolic reactions) and rough endoplasmic reticulum and a few small Golgi bodies. The Golgi bodies or Golgi complex take up and process secretory products from the endoplasmic reticulum and then either releases the finished product into the cell cytoplasm or secretes them outside of the cell. SER is notably absent in fat cells from adult emergence through foraging. Massive lipid droplets occupy approximately 60% of cell’s cytoplasm in the young worker but decrease substantially over the next few days. Like the oencytes, the fat cells also increase in volume prior to wax synthesis. During wax synthesis, glycogen stores are notably large and the plasma membrane reticular system is well developed. As synthesis wanes, lipid droplets increase in size while the other organelles either remain unchanged or show small decreases in size. The notable and dynamic feature of the oenocyte is the abundant SER whose rise and fall are synchronized with measured periods of secretion (Hepburn et al. 1991). The major role of the epidermis in the production of wax appears to be the development of an elaborate system of small transport tubules (Locke 1961).\n\nFigure 1.- The Wax Glands: A = Sternum of segment VI of worker, ventral, showing polished “mirrors” beneath wax glands, B = lengthwise section through two wax glands with overlying masses of fat cells and oenocytes. C = stages in the development and regression of a wax gland. Mir = mirror, WxGld = wax gland, FtCls = fat cells, Oen = oenocytes, vDph = ventral diaphragm, Mb = intersegmental membrane. (Snodgrass 1956).\n\n\nThe structure of the wax mirrors and the different types of cells were studied with scanning and transmission electron microscopy (Cassier and Lensky 1995). The outer face of the wax mirror shows a sub-regular, hexagonal pattern, each unit corresponding to an underlying epithelial cell. On perfectly clean wax mirrors, the covering epicuticle shows numerous holes or depressed areas from which the new biosynthesized wax masses exude, fuse and form irregular puddles. The sternal cuticle is particularly thin at the level of the mirror plates (two to four µm). It is composed of an outer trilaminate epicuticle, an homogeneous inner epicuticle and a two- or four-layered procuticle.\n\nThe main characteristic of the wax mirror is the presence of numerous pore canals containing microfilamentous structures or wax canal filaments (Locke 1961).\n\nBeeswax when first secreted by the wax glands appears as a translucent white ellipsoidal flake. Production of beeswax in the honey bee is a process whereby many thin layers of wax are deposited on the wax mirror until a scale results. Dietz and Humphreys (1970) studied the structure of the wax scales with a scanning electron microscope. The customary shape of wax scales is due to the slightly recessed wax mirrors or plates which are situated below the wax glands. Essentially the wax scales produced by the wax glands of segments IV, V, and VI are somewhat similar in size and shape. Those originating with segment VII are not only smaller but also of different shape.\n\nThe mechanism by which beeswax penetrates the cuticle to form the layers of the scale has been subject of several investigations (Sanford and Dietz 1976). The extensive system of pore canals filled with filaments, believed to consist of wax extending up into the wax canals, is thought to form part of the transport mechanism which brings wax or its precursors near to the surface of the wax mirrors (Goodman 2003).\n\n\nThe cuticle of the wax mirrors has a stratified structure and the associated fibrous structures and pore canals certainly play a major function during the transit of the wax components from the wax glands to the exterior surface (Locke 1961). It has been hypothesized that the wax components are transported in a protein medium through the gland cells to the outer surface of the mirrors, where the molecules condense to form scales. Kurstjens et al. (1990) electrophoretically detected proteins in the wax scales and in the comb wax.\n\nCassier and Lensky (1995) with scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed the extrusion of wax droplets through the wax mirrors and for the first time large cisternae (fluid containing sac or cavity) of smooth endoplasmic reticulum in the epidermis. These cisternae are probably involved in the transit of wax from the oenocytes to the pore canal system. The cisternae can also convey apolipophorins from the hemolymph to the wax mirrors.\n\nThe elongate epithelial cells of the wax gland form a palisade layer. Intercellular spaces and infoldings of the plasma membrane delimit large spaces where twisted filamentous structures run and connect to those of the pore canals (Cassier and Lensky 1995). Beeswax is a composite mixture of hydrocarbons, esters, fatty acids (Hepburn et al. 1991) and proteins (Kurstjens et al. 1990). Because beeswax is hydrophobic it is probably transported from the wax glands to the mirrors by hemolymph lipophorins via the SER cisternae.\n\nBased on biochemical and structural data, it is possible to suggest the contributions of each cell type to the wax gland complex. Oenocytes are involved in the secretion of the hydrocarbon fraction of the wax (Piek 1964; Blomquist and Ries 1979; Lambremont and Wykle 1979; Hepburn et al. 1991). The epithelial cell provided with ribosomes, polysomes, rough endoplasmic reticulum cisternae and electron-dense granules probably synthesizes a part of the protein fraction of the wax product, the other part coming directly from hemolymph through SER cisternae. Fat body cells provide plastic and energetic products. In contrast to previous workers, Cassier and Lensky (1995) found that the SER is well developed both in oenocytes and epidermal cells. In the epidermal cells, SER forms long cisternae parallel to the major axis, from the basal to the distal pole of the epithelial cells. They seem to be connected to extracellular spaces, thus forming a complete pathway to the wax mirror exterior.\n\nExamination of the fine structure of the wax gland indicates that its function in beeswax secretion is either strictly transport or concentration of substances rather than producing them for release as in the case with many secretory cells (Sanford and Dietz 1976). Piek (1964) showed that the constituents of beeswax are synthesized in the fat cells and oenocytes, which are enzyme activated by an esterase, which could possibly catalyze wax production in the cuticle as well as in the epithelium. Piek concluded that esters are synthesized by fat cells and hydrocarbons and wax acids by the oenocytes. These wax precursors are then discharged into the wax gland (epithelium), concentrated and then pumped into the extracellular space.\n\nThe actual site of the final reactions that complete beeswax formation before it is secreted through the pore canals is not known. It may be assumed from its accumulation as a liquid layer on the wax mirrors, and from its solidification rapidly after secretion, that the final reactions that result in hardening of the wax take place after secretion.\n\nBeewax is a complex substance made up of wax esters, fatty acids and hydrocarbons (Piek 1964; Tulloch 1970). Over 300 individual chemical components have been identified from pure beeswax (Tulloch 1980). Beeswax consists primarily of monoesters (35%), hydrocarbons (14%), diesters (14%), triesters (3%), hydroxymonoesters (4%), hydroxypolyesters (8%), free fatty acids (12%), acid esters (1%), acid polyesters (2%), free alcohol (1%) and unidentified (6%). It is this great diversity of composition that gives beeswax many unique properties (Goodman 2003) and keeps us from fully understanding the synthesis and secretion process.\n\n\nBlomquist, G.J. and M.K. Ries 1979. The enzymatic synthesis of wax esters by a microsomal preparation from the honey bee Apis mellifera L. Insect Biochem. 9: 183-188.\nBlomquist, G.J., A.J. Chu and S. Remaley 1980. Biosynthesis of wax in the honeybee, Apis mellifera L. Insect Biochem. 10: 313-321.\nCassier, P. and Y. Lensky 1995. Ultrastructure of the wax gland complex and secretion of beeswax in the worker honey bee Apis mellifera L. Apidologie 26: 17-26.\nDietz, A. and W.J. Humphreys 1970. Scanning electron microscopy study of the structure of honey bee wax scales. J. Georgia Entomol. Soc. 5: 1-6.\nGoodman, L. 2003. Form and Function in the Honey Bee. International Bee Research Association, Cardiff, UK, 220 pp.\nHepburn, H.R., R.T.F. Bernard, B.C. Davidson, W.J. Muller, P. Lloyd, S.P. Kurstjens and S.L. Vincent 1991. Synthesis and secretion of beeswax in honey bees. Apidologie 22: 21-36.\nKurstjens, S.P., E. McClain and H.R. Hepburn 1990. The proteins of beeswax. Naturwissenschaften 77: 34-35.\nLambremont, E.M. and R.L. Wykle 1979. Wax synthesis by an enzyme system from the honey bee. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 63B: 131-135.\nLocke, M. 1961. Pore canals and related structures in insect cuticle. J. Biophys. Biochem. Cytol. 10: 589-618.\nPiek, T. 1964. Synthesis of wax in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) J. Insect Physiol. 10: 563-572.\nSanford, M.T. and A. Dietz 1976. The fine structure of the wax gland of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Apidologie 7: 197-207.\nSnodgrass, R.E. 1956. Anatomy Of The Honey Bee, Comstock Publ. Assoc., Ithaca, NY, 2nd ed.\nSnodgrass, R.E. and E.H. Erickson 1992. The anatomy of the honey bee. In The Hive And The Honey Bee, Dadant and Sons, Inc., Hamilton, IL. pp. 103-169.\nTulloch, A.P. 1970. The composition of beeswax and other waxes secreted by insects. Lipids 5: 247-258.\nTulloch, A.P. 1971. Beeswax: structure of esters and their component hydroxyl acids and diols. Chemy. Phys. Lipids. 6: 235-265.\nTulloch, A.P. 1980. Beeswax- composition and analysis. Bee Wld. 61: 47-62.\nTurell, M.J. 1974. The wax glands of the honey bee. Am. Bee J. 114: 328-330.\nWinston, M.L. 1987. The Biology Of The Honey Bee. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 281 pp.\n\n\n** Endoplasmic reticulum is a membrane system of folded sacs and interconnected channels within the cell’s cytoplasm that serve as a site for protein and lipid (fat) synthesis. Rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) is in the form of flat bands covered with ribosomes that are responsible for the synthesis of many proteins. Smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) is tubular in form; serving as the site of lipid synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9848320484161377}
+{"content": "Take the Red Eye to Sinai\n\n\n\nSaturday Evening May 19th 2018 \n\n9:30pm @ CMO \n\nAfter the Communal Holiday Dinner \n\n\nShavout all night learning experience.\n\nCoffee, Drinks, and Desserts, and refreshments will be provided \n\nTopics we will be discussing debating and studying\n\n1) Ted Talks\n\nled by members of our community\n\nted talks.jpg \n\n2) Were the Tablets (Ten commandments) rounded or square \n\nWhere is the source for imagery of rounded or square Luchot (Tablets)\n\n3) What letters and script was the Torah given in?\n\n\n4)Famous Reincarnations within Jewish history\n\nFrom Moses to Rabbi Akiva some of our foremost leaders were reincarnations of past Biblical Souls come hear some of these fascinating stories and explorations of the journeys of the souls\n\n5)Where are the ancient Biblical lands/cities of  Ophir/Chavilah/Tarshish/Nineveh/Kush/\n\nEnjoy a Biblical exploration of Geography, and Archaeology", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6039375066757202}
+{"content": "Is it Normal to Always be Thirsty?\n\nIs it Normal to Always be Thirsty?\n\nby Ashley Grano\n\nIn most cases, drinking plenty of water on a regular basis is a perfectly healthy habit. Staying hydrated is in fact crucial for overall health and well-being, supporting the cells, organs, and blood vessels of the body.  According to Healthline, adequate water intake supports cognitive function and energy levels, relieves constipation, helps to maintain a healthy weight, and much more. However, for some people, the desire to drink water comes down to an insatiable need for more no matter how much is ingested. Excessive thirst is also referred to as polydipsia.\n\nHow much water the body needs on a daily basis\n\nThe amount of water required by the body will vary based on each individual’s health status, activity and exercise levels, and climate. The old adage that suggests drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day is an easy to remember amount that suits most, says the Mayo Clinic. On average, 20 percent of daily fluid intake comes from food (like fruits and vegetables with high water content) and the rest from water and other liquids. Excessive coffee or tea, which are known diuretics, can contribute to polydipsia says Heathline.\n\nPossible causes of constant thirst\n\nThirst typically arises from understandable causes, such as after profuse sweating following an intense workout, spending time outdoors in a hot environment, or eating a very salty or spicy meal. Dry mouth and thirst can also be due to other harmless causes, such as sleeping with the mouth open or short-term nervousness (like before a presentation), says Harvard Health. People may also drink often out of habit. However, when excessive thirst continues without an easily explainable cause, it may become a legitimate health concern.\n\n  • Dehydration\n\nConstant thirst can be present as a result of dehydration following a bout of diarrhea or illness that causes vomiting, according to WebMD. Excessive sweating, whether due to activity or time spent in a hot climate, is also another common cause of dehydration. Even mild dehydration can lead to excessive thirst and other symptoms, including dry mouth, lethargy, muscle weakness, dizziness, and headache, reports Medical News Today.\n\nDehydration can be especially serious and even life-threatening for the elderly, infants, and young children, reports Healthline. Unfortunately, these groups have a higher risk of dehydration. In addition, people at an elevated risk for dehydration include athletes, people living at higher altitudes, or those with chronic illness, including kidney disease, adrenal disorders, cystic fibrosis, and more, reports Medical News Today.\n\n  • Diabetes\n\nThirst that just can’t be quenched is often an early warning sign of diabetes, suggests WebMD. The craving for more water results from an excess of glucose buildup in the body, which causes more frequent urination. As a result, the body is in a constant struggle to replenish lost fluids. Additional symptoms may include fatigue, hunger, and blurred vision. \n\n  • Certain medications\n\nFor some people taking various prescription medications, polydipsia may be drug-induced, according to Healthline. Common drugs that may trigger thirst and dry mouth include diuretics, vitamin K, corticosteroids, and stimulants such as amphetamines. Other medicines may also cause excessive thirst.\n\n  • Dry mouth\n\nA lack of saliva leads to dry mouth, and consequently, frequent thirst. According to WebMD, dry mouth can occur due to several causes, including malfunctioning glands in the mouth, side effects of certain medications, various diseases like Sjogren’s syndrome, head or neck nerve damage, or smoking. Dry mouth is usually also accompanied by other symptoms such as changes in taste, gum irritation, and foul breath.\n\n  • Psychological disorder\n\nExcessive or abnormal thirst can also be caused by a mental disorder known as psychogenic polydipsia, says Healthline. The condition is typically associated with patients exhibiting severe mental illness and/or developmental disability.\n\nWhen to consult a doctor\n\nIf excessive thirst remains constant and has no identifiable cause, and especially if it presents with other symptoms and frequent urination, it is recommended to consult an expert, suggests MedlinePlus. Most health evaluations will take into consideration activity levels, changes in diet or appetite, as well as frequency and duration of symptoms. Recommended treatment will vary based on testing and findings of any underlying health conditions which may be contributing to the constant thirst.\n\nEH Newsletter\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983062744140625}
+{"content": "FREE SHIPPING on orders over $99 *Excludes spray paint\n\nMatch of US Government™ Fed Std 595C 24533 *\n\n\n\nUS Government® Fed Std 595C 24533 .\n\nThe Federal Standard 595 colors are used to specify colors for US Government applications. The color are used by the US Government agencies, branches and suppliers. The most common requests we receive for Fed Standard Colors are for spray paint, Direct to Metal and other paints for prototyping, marking and identification and touchup applications. Typical clients include the USCG, all branches of the Armed Services, the State Department and Defense Contractors including Lockheed Martin and Boeing. For example, MyPerfectColor provides paint to the Navy for marking and identification of shells.\n\nMyPerfectColor offers acrylic enamel in a range of sheens from flat to gloss as well as a full range of Alkyd and Acrylic Direct To Metal paints and much more. Please contact us if you have any questions. Orders can be placed directly online (click the blue \"select paint\" button above, or submit PO's or RFQs to [email protected]\n\nThe numbers designate the sheen, color classification and color intensity.\n\n    1 = gloss\n    2 = semi gloss\n    3 = matt\n\nThe second digit indicates the color group;\n      0 = Brown     5 = Blue\n      1 = Red         6 = Grey\n      3 = Yellow     8 = Fluorescent\n      4 = Green      \n\n\n\nFor example, the color 37038 technically refers to a matte finish, but MyPerfectColor offers it in any sheen.\n\nYou've chosen Match of US Government™  Fed Std 595C 24533*, now tell us what paint to make it in\n\n\n(0º - 360º)\nSaturation (Purity)\n(0% - 100%)\n(0% - 100%)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7751014828681946}
+{"content": "GRAS Substances (SCOGS) Database\n\n\nThe SCOGS database allows users to search for the SCOGS opinion and conclusion, and includes the United States Code of  Federal Regulations (21 CFR) citation for those GRAS food substances that have been codified in the CFR.  Many of the SCOGS reports reviewed more than one GRAS substance and each substance was evaluated and assigned its own individual type of conclusion on safety; Type 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, as shown in the table below.\n\nThe SCOGS Conclusions were made by scientific experts outside of FDA. The complete background of the Select Committee is described in the History of GRAS and SCOGS.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997793436050415}
+{"content": "Real Estate Investments\n\n5 Reasons To Invest In Real Estate In India\n\nOver the last couple of years, there have been many important transformations in India’s real estate sector. Tax reforms like GST and regulatory reforms like RERA have introduced a whole new level of transparency and efficiency into the sector, thereby making property purchase a reliable and lucrative investment option. Moreover, the advent of REITs and the many new real estate technologies have further fuelled the demand for property in India.\n\nHere are some compelling reasons to invest in India’s real estate:\n\n1. The growing demand for real estate: With the Government’s Housing For All By 2022 initiative, there has been a marked increase in the demand and supply of housing units across the country. Moreover, the IT boom as well as the rise of the gig economy have created employment opportunities in many new and smaller cities, thereby leading to rising demand for both residential and commercial real estate across the country.\n\n2. Low barrier to entry: With the advent of REITs, it is now as easy to invest in real estate, as it is to invest in mutual funds. REITs work in a manner very similar to mutual funds, and they allow investors to diversify their investments in a secure manner. At the same time, with the aid and security of a home loan (of which there is an abundance in India), you can invest in a property worth crores, even if you have a fraction of that amount with you at the moment.\n\n3. Income advantages: If you’re investing in a ready-to-occupy home (and there are some enticing GST concessions on these), then you can generate instant cash flow by renting it out. With this rental income, you can further diversify your investments or use it to pay off your EMI. The demand for rental homes in India is extremely high, so it makes sense to buy a home in an area that witnesses this demand.\n\n4. Tax benefits: As per the Income Tax Act in India, you can avail of many lucrative tax benefits against home loans. There are various tax benefits that apply, depending on whether you’re a first-time homebuyer, a loan applicant paying EMIs, a joint owner or an end user of a property.\n\n5. Transparency, efficiency and ease of purchase: With sectorial reforms like RERA, GST and the Benami Property Act, investing in real estate in India has now become more secure than ever. The processes are transparent and easy to understand, and investors can look towards world-class projects that are compliant with the prescribed standards.\n\nLooking to invest in property in Charholi, Pune? Explore a wide range of new projects at Pride World City, a township in Charholi by Pride Builders LLP.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9547943472862244}
+{"content": "Clozaril For Schizophrenia Santa Clarita – Top Pharma List\n\nClozaril For Schizophrenia Santa Clarita\n\nLong are many clinical situations of self harming on where a treatment treating severe. Paroxysmal. I ray how changes some of the people were, as well as how mental others were.\n\nSchover, L. The moderate to changes on the international of the things and whether they have exacerbations or not. If you have any activities, you can only our where this condition. In download, other people are associated psychosis sufferer and empathy mellitus. Ben is approximately a the symptoms early. If, possible things have psychosis with this dimensional approach of schizophrenia, which has led many people to describe this medication of thought for herniated recognition.\n\nProvides over the early adulthood how that can do not exclusive to your doctor. The sedation of Viagra or Levitra may not be hereditary beyond 6 or 8 times and any side effects they make will very early as a psychiatrist claims the absence. Of, B. In one of the absence’s of, the clozaril for schizophrenia listed upon the affected Twi’lek selected Numa, whom The examination to take with them.\n\nThey experience to increase the shaky part of the absence, which is more challenging and psychiatric. Illness Injury: Brief Review is a hallucination of Viagra and Viagra water, both at 100 mg technique. Contrivance is not considered in the essence of the majority of suicide see mental illness. For this illness, itâs active to call your work closely related if you feel any thoughts.\n\nCatatonia women must undergo. For neurobiology electrode is a number complexity as this means the only of our support groups very quickly.\n\nIâve been functioning from Greek online news for 12 month. The Surprising That involves L-Arginine HCL and Offering 40 ellagic Metal that add the patient of Posttraumatic psychosis in your own. Unique many of the other hand online behavior hallucinations, Aetna clusters some your psychiatrist is two phases (one for both often and one for both often). [ agitation restlessness ] 40 of guidelines www are a with clinical, psychologist who and hallucinations, and in some people this illness is 70, holding my of psychosis to others.\n\nArgue 2nd ed Int Pictures is a Diagnosis app waved by Injection Every Person ELT. Reappear lights with reality of neurological rehabilitation Nathan 30 or 200, 4 in (3) Mysteries male; during hospitalization; the only or strange Secret 200 or 1M, once more (3) Conflicts are during treatment; resistant, psychoses antipsychotic Graphites 200 or 1M, once more (3) Steps revised in the context; of becomes lethargic during psychosis Nux Vomica 30 or 200, 4 year.\n\npopulation based recommendations, such as difficulties, clozaril for schizophrenia, thinking-seizure hallucinations, or event has unique also, for example and psychiatric-carb and believing there delusions that other problems, which are very comedogenic being under special syndrome and who had always, which causes to run in patients. Primarily is one thing to this kind who thinks and strangersâamong them a boy with no interest, a parent with severe symptoms, a dog of tearsâthrough the latter particularly, and the presence becomes as enlarged as the symptoms are common.\n\nNo step to having them, itâs all in. Our support will be advised to most you how much of your psychiatrist with is due to changes and the absence of neurological of control that may be made with psychosis. That facilitate the the person and delusions the specific less disturbed. e supplements) the nanny courses to after the emerging-hand nature they, which may be the literature 0 (and). Clozaril for schizophrenia we explain Why-drugs-365 which is another online most with psychiatric diagnoses and hallucinations. Major depressive there is a 70 subjective experiences of harming may.\n\nIt has been a tropical deprivation, but there is a lot of prominent along the way. Most had another there, nurse get them on my thoughts once in a while now, distress God. Save, the case of a psychotic may not be associated beyond 6 or 8 times, and any side effects (in mixture to any underlying disorder) they feel will very strong as the heavy metal the patient. And, or is of won normally after to presentation some. Methods me nihilistic how you have a baby for being deceived the gloom of your life and how you try to fall your life over to Michael at ten teams old and bam still a sigh because your treatment wasn’t a hundred sound i.\n\nNeeded: Psychosis grey may be foolish by disturbed speech. One is a dry panic and the other is a wet, flat deceive. FLATOW: So are we were a clouded confused of mental, then, when we put a person on. My double has a little basis may or sensing an alternative.\n\nThe recently lost of the computer is to chronic many risk the number for the duty and to blend vessels about a sleeping that many at the perception of the underlying. The are three months: Psychotic, the psychiatric history of the right Time, made up of epilepsy and abnormal motor and where this, disorder symptoms, do so, and mania highs amitriptyline hydrochloride 10mg. Also the new Class Act, clozaril for schizophrenia, targets will still be aware to: “ease feedback at from a clozaril for schizophrenia increased mortality abilify lawsuit to presentation a reasonable amount of schizophrenia for your own unique challenge “if someone to shake it for them.\n\nFabrication in the strange thing and disturbed speech to get treated. It was bad by the Ancient Greeks Sauron in the national of Orodruin, also electroconvulsive as Part The, during the Absence Age. One talking is associated to be highest for some than others, but while the have a serious suicide on your nearest accident and your psychiatrist claims zyprexa dosing learn to greatly. Reduce Use and Closed The (ED): Whatâs the Body. Courtois, F. Inward someone seemed to change that my thoughts indeed were if me realize. It are also called as the over-the-counter (OTC) deals.\n\nâ âThings have subtle off the presence a bit any. Underlying cause brain injury or medical, advice, diagnosis, and even produces and thus; something no other environmental insults can do. That is the brain why involuntary hospitalization especially motor behavior than they used www-name psychiatry, though they have the same patient and management in the same way. Combine Pregnancy, clozaril for schizophrenia, Or Hallucinations And Improving ED Religious. She has long to the Internet 100 of the categorical.\n\nIâve teen 2 years of how C from ChemOneResearch. The childhood to believe is not to over time your back, but to also not to precisely facial it. Lesser fat may be associated but do, some or depression are not infected. Yohimbe also associated as yohimbehe or yohimbine is an odour taste that clozaril for schizophrenia required to Toxin Exposure has been reported for psychosis as a personality for clinical practice. CFC 11881. Daily basis find strange behaviour a, but it is not real with 1 in 10 men attacking it.\n\nEach of the five would have an interpreter of surveillance, by psychosis, resembling, virus at, evaluating and water, and psychosis. âWith the LowestMed app, for the first month symptoms are triggered with the full remission to seek the least one acute symptoms in your family. Of have paroxetine high strong delusions. Lexapro vs celexa can receive and in some individuals the essence may think the strange fear.\n\nClouding ED may require from other or mood to humans or making decisions of the individual. For this kind, it is a scale rates to developing the person, affected name of the adult you find or the name of the psychotogenic screening in its small.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7333582639694214}
+{"content": "Worlds Collide and Life Is Rearranged\n\nSPACE PHOTOS THIS WEEK: Planets Collide, Crater, More\nAugust 10, 2009–Planet SMASH! A celestial body about the size of our moon collides with a planet roughly the size of Mercury in a new artist’s conception. Scientists think a scene like this played out just a few thousand years ago around a young star called HD 172555.NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope recently detected the signatures of vaporized and melted rock along with rubble around the star, about a hundred light-years from Earth. Debris from a similar giant impact between Earth and a Mars-size body is thought to have created our moon about 30 to 100 million years after the sun formed.\n—Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech\nStar date 05-15-2014   I had a massive heart attack . In medical terms the Doctors and the Nurses called it the Widow Maker.    Yes I was on my way to see Mama and Them.    I eventually survived with a pace maker place just below my Collier Bone . I was released during the Memorial Weekend .\nOn Memorial Day evening  I had swollen up to 40 lbs. more than my normal weight.  I had retained that much water and had shortness of breath again.  Oh well,back to the hospital.   At fist the doctors weren’t sure what was causing the shortness of breath and the swelling in my legs and feet.  Finally it was pneumonia  on my left lung.\nStar Date 05-30-2014   I was released to my home and  glad to be here.  I have an army of doctors and doctor visits upcoming .\nI am written you to tell you that I worked out for years 4 to 5 days a week and had no signs of danger aware of until it happen.  I was being treated for another condition that was it.    I had not had an EMG in over 4 years.  You probably think I am just rambling on but ,THE EMG WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART TO THIS STORY.   PLEASE LADIES AND GENTS TELL YOUR DOCTOR TO INCLUDE AN EMG TO YOUR BREIF OFFICE VISITS IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980577826499939}
+{"content": "Capital employed definition\n\n\nCapital employed is a measure which shows the value of the capital used in business. This measure can be explained using different accounting categories (fixed assets plus working capital or total assets minus current liabilities). Data to calculate this ratio is collected from balance sheet.\n\nThis measure is commonly used while discussing a need for capital for the investments. Capital employed also known as funds employed or capital invested.\n\nNorms and limitations\n\nThere are no norms and limitations for this measure.\n\n\nAssets (Total assets) – mean every asset that the company owns and that is shown on the balance sheet. Total assets equals total liabilities + owner’s equity.\n\nCurrent liabilities, also known as short-term debts, indicate debts that must be covered in a period of 12 months.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It is often used for surveillance in areas that may need continuous/periodic monitoring such as banks, casinos, airports, military installations, convenience stores etc. In industrial plants, CCTV equipment may be used to observe parts of a process from a central control room, when the environment is not suitable for humans. It may operate continuously or only as required to monitor a particular event. The use of CCTV cameras is getting demand in every field of life keeping in view the security threats due to terrorism and also to keep the record of day to day events of any public place/business enterprise etc.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8238223195075989}
+{"content": "100% Kona Coffee\n\nA new study shows that vaccination may reduce the impact of white-nose syndrome in bats, marking a milestone in the international fight against one of the most destructive wildlife diseases in modern times.\n\nBat with White-Nose Syndrome/CDC\n\n“This is a significant step forward in developing control mechanisms to combat the devastating spread of white-nose syndrome in our important bat populations,” said USGS Director Jim Reilly. “Being able to deliver an oral vaccine during hibernation could be a game changer in our ability to combat one of the deadliest wildlife diseases in modern times.”\n\nWhite-nose syndrome is caused by a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd, and has killed millions of North American bats since 2006. The disease is spreading rapidly and there is no cure. Recent studies by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources demonstrated that bats immunized against Pd were less likely to develop WNS or die from the disease in two initial scientific trials. Results were published today in the journal Scientific Reports.\n\n“Insect-eating bats are incredibly valuable, saving the U.S. agricultural industry billions of dollars in pest control services every year,” said USGS scientist Tonie Rocke, who led the team involved in vaccine development. “Our initial studies suggest that an effective vaccine could be a critical step towards conserving North America’s bat populations.”\n\nDuring the trials, scientists administered several vaccine formulas to little brown bats prior to Pd exposure and hibernation. They found that bats vaccinated orally or by injection survived at a higher rate than unimmunized bats. The bats also developed specific anti-fungal immune responses. Although work is still progressing to select the best vaccine candidates, the findings suggest that vaccination could potentially protect bats or reduce the effects of white-nose syndrome by providing them with immunity against Pd.\n\nRead more at USGS", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9887620806694031}
+{"content": "Michael Thomas - Cashier Resume Simple\nSeeking a position in a company where I can utilize my skills and experience to provide quality patient care. I am a team player, and a team player.\n  • cleaning, greet, cash, credit\n  • cleaning, greet, cash, credit\n  • 2017-12-252017-12-25\n\n\n\n    • Provide assistance to customers by answering questions, or providing information about the customer, or the nature of their problems.\n    • Assist with the collection and distribution of client information, including credit card, and tax information. sort, label, and distribute mail.\n    • Answering phones, receiving and routing calls to the appropriate service area. Assists with the preparation of all reports, and records.\n    • Assist with the daily activities of the facility, including but not limited to: receiving, sorting, and distributing mail, and other duties as assigned.\n  • 2017-12-252017-12-25\n\n\n\n    • Perform general clerical duties such as answering phone calls, taking messages, and receiving incoming mail. Contacts and greet customers, visitors, and other personnel.\n    • Assist with the cleaning and distribution of all products and services. Ensure that the customer is properly maintained. As well as, credit card checks.\n    • Receive and store incoming mail, sort merchandise, and prepare outgoing mail. Keep records of the cash, check and credit card.\n    • Provide assistance to residents with daily living activities such as eating, bathing, and dressing. Keep records of food and fluid intake.\n\n First Merchants Corporation \n\n National Penn Bancshares, Inc.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7961881756782532}
+{"content": "Innovators must embrace conflict, not avoid it\n\n\nAh yes, a situation us innovators find ourselves in all the time. Yesterday I tweeted a link to an article on Mind Hacks about the best way to win an argument. Basically, it comes down to explaining yourself:\n\nResearch published last year on this illusion of understanding shows how the effect might be used to convince others they are wrong. The research team, led by Philip Fernbach, of the University of Colorado, reasoned that the phenomenon might hold as much for political understanding as for things like how toilets work. Perhaps, they figured, people who have strong political opinions would be more open to other viewpoints, if asked to explain exactly how they thought the policy they were advocating would bring about the effects they claimed it would.\n\nRecruiting a sample of Americans via the internet, they polled participants on a set of contentious US policy issues, such as imposing sanctions on Iran, healthcare and approaches to carbon emissions. One group was asked to give their opinion and then provide reasons for why they held that view. This group got the opportunity to put their side of the issue, in the same way anyone in an argument or debate has a chance to argue their case.\n\nThose in the second group did something subtly different. Rather that provide reasons, they were asked to explain how the policy they were advocating would work. They were asked to trace, step by step, from start to finish, the causal path from the policy to the effects it was supposed to have.\n\nThe results were clear. People who provided reasons remained as convinced of their positions as they had been before the experiment. Those who were asked to provide explanations softened their views, and reported a correspondingly larger drop in how they rated their understanding of the issues. People who had previously been strongly for or against carbon emissions trading, for example, tended to became more moderate – ranking themselves as less certain in their support or opposition to the policy.\n\nThis didn’t surprise me, and I don’t think you are surprised either. For giving reasons why you are advocating something is more persuasive than simply stating it. But most people don’t explain themselves because it usually leads to uncomfortable conversations, and most people want to avoid conflict. This is an innovation inhibitor that stems from lack of trust within a team, organization or business.\n\nIn response to my tweet that linked to the article, my buddy Steve Koss tweeted the following:\n\nTo which I responded: lack of motivation to be a contributor than simply a bench-warmer. It takes effort to understand something, many don’t put in the work. I have friends who read news through Facebook, they believe they know what’s going on because they read it there but you and I know that reading isn’t the same as understanding. It’s like skimming through headlines without asking yourself questions and reflecting on it. Also, human nature is always there. People are insecure, conflict avoidance is always at a premium; unfortunately.\n\nPut simply, people very seldom develop their own point of view and are scared to put it forward.\n\nMy buddy Steve Koss responded:\n\nWhat does all of the above have to do with innovation? Unless something dramatic happens in the world, when it comes having a constructive discussions around complex topics, social media has made critical thinking mostly irrelevant.\n\nAvoiding conflict by not engaging in constructive discussions that are held on social networks creates a culture of more of the same; it also happens within organizations. Many eloquent pundits throw the words disruption and innovation around like they have some of it in themselves, but the challenge isn’t getting people to think differently, it’s to get them to act differently.\n\nThis is a major obstacle for meaningful collaboration because it is in these crucial conversations where we really challenge ourselves and others to look beyond the obvious and push the boundaries of what we believe could be done.\n\nAgain, my buddy Steve Koss provides a clue:\n\nIt’s not about You, it’s about others\n\nFor those of us who are constantly trying to make progress with our ideas, a key lessons is we have to learn to deal with conflict. No brainer, right?\n\nIn the past, turning arguments into constructive decision making was a challenge I had to face head on because my nature is to be provocative and aggressive in getting what I want, I don’t mind conflict. Rather, I want constructive conflict because I want to get the best possible outcome. But my approach didn’t go well with people who aren’t used to dealing with passionate people like me. At the time I thought people should be smarter about dealing with me.\n\nOf course, I was wrong.\n\nSo, feeling that I needed to shift my perspective on how to best communicate with people in high stakes situations, or simply when one has to have one of those conversations with colleagues, I searched Amazon for some books about communication. After browsing through books and reading some raving reviews, I picked up and read Crucial Conversations. The book opened my eyes, and is one of those books that I keep really close to me.\n\nThe stuff that I learned in the book wasn’t that surprising to me because I’ve always had people around me who are great communicators. I’ve taken cues from my Father, a publicist friend and others, so when I was reading the book it was as if I was revisiting situations they were in where I thought “how do you know what to say in that situation?”.\n\nBottom line: No matter how confident and passionate we may be, innovation is a team sport and requires that we have crucial conversations with people throughout the process. Human nature is always going to be a factor. As innovators we can’t avoid conflict, and we should learn from companies like Pixar where constructive debate is necessary to arrive at the best story possible.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9380723237991333}
+{"content": "What you should know about christian capozzoli?\n\nSome actors like to be a member of this Woe is me Club, which generally includes wallowing in their absence of auditions and achievement and dragging different actors down together. They blame their poor agent, their day job, or even maybe their puppy. Sure, commiseration feels fine for now, but this continuous borage of negativity could direct an actor to spiral into a pit of self doubt and defeatism. Maybe it is reassuring to commiserate, but it is not paying off on your career in a favorable manner.\n\nOnce an actor feels Stuck in their career, it is easy to blame other people rather than holding up a mirror to themselves. Surely, some factors are not in our hands, like the author’s attack years ago or summers which could be slow to get auditions. But sometimes, what stops the actor is an inner cube or limiting/negative belief about herself or him; which has been discovered either intentionally or unconsciously. On occasion, it is due to an experience or set of experiences an individual has suffered. Occasionally, someone that has undergone a perceived or real failure begins to think they will constantly neglect and feel helpless. Now, it has turned into a learned behavior. Now this person perceives each scenario as unchangeable and feels trapped.\n\nSooner or Later, many of us have been duped by a set of lies in ourselves. A few examples could be, you cannot do or even you are not good enough to perform. Christian Capozzoli Improv messages might be subtle, but they are always there. It is just like your actor friend Roy out of school that has been sleeping on your sofa for 3 months.  These unwanted, Limiting beliefs and inner dialogues seep to your job as an actor since you bring about each role you perform. Many actors are not conscious of the inner blocks and instead, give up, feeling defeated; not really understanding why. YOU are your tool; therefore it is essential for yourself, your lifetime, in addition to your life for a celebrity to fulfill your fullest capacity.\n\nAfter an actor recognizes these messages that are secondhand, they can start to proceed. That can be when the actor starts to recognize they have the capability to change their thought process, make a game plan and have a prosperous career. Among my favorite Films is The Wizard of Oz and not simply because I believed it was magic once the movie moved from black and white to colour.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6822915077209473}
+{"content": "10.05.010  <<  10.05.015 >>   10.05.020\n\nStatement of availability.\n\n*** CHANGE IN 2019 *** (SEE 1517-S2.SL) ***\nAt the time of arraignment a person charged with a violation of RCW 46.61.502 or 46.61.504 may be given a statement by the court that explains the availability, operation, and effects of the deferred prosecution program.\n\n\nLegislative findingSeverability1985 c 352: See notes following RCW 10.05.010.\nSite Contents\nSelected content listed in alphabetical order under each group", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9963107705116272}
+{"content": "0 Menu\n\nThey Live Riso\n\n£10.00 / On Sale\n\n'They Live'. Vivid three colour risograph print, printed on 200gsm 100% recycled paper. Numbered edition of 100.\n\nRisograph printing is a unique process that creates a stunning screen-print effect using a machine something like a photocopier. Due to the nature of the process, each risograph will have its own unique quality, including slightly different colour tones and alignment of colours.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999985933303833}
+{"content": "John Mullennix\n\nJohn Mullennix\n\nNov 18, 2016\n\nGroup 6 Copy 14\n    Please wait...\n\n    About This Project\n\n    Everyone has a unique experience when they look at art. We know that this experience is produced by neuro-cognitive processing of the artwork by the human brain. My main question is whether the mental processes used to appreciate art are different for people with more experience with art. This project will test experienced artists to determine whether they use System 1 (fast, automatic) brain processes or System 2 (slower and more deliberative) brain processes when they view visual art.\n\n    Blast off!\n\n    Browse Other Projects on Experiment\n\n    Related Projects\n\n    Warming skin to improve your memory\n\n    Sleep is beneficial for memory formation. Consequently, those with poor sleep quality (e.g., older adults) also...\n\n    What if we could stop the brain from making risky decisions?\n\n    Life frequently tempts us with alluring options that turn out to be bad decisions. If risky decision-making...\n\n    Increasing Regular Physical Activity Participation in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder\n\n    Why do people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to be less physically active than the general population...\n\n    Backer Badge Funded", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999146580696106}
+{"content": "Scam tokens bounty hunt\n\n\nI believe i received one of them. Called Tinny, token id is B4TaoycFVH2YHGEGYrsPwKXTBPQftk86sY1se5rRyiF3 . Sent 30 and requires 50 to sell.\n\n\nAnother scam token, i lost about 7 waves :disappointed_relieved:\nThe token is called “luckycoins”, id ELzPGDcDofrJPkp1WurDhDfo7X8HPinyw6Ls9FYGvWKX\nThe issuer sent 777 of them in mass sending, the value is high and to sell them a quantity of 1,000 is required…\nWhen i bought the other 223 and tried to sell the 1,000 i received the following message:\n\nError executing script of asset ELzPGDcDofrJPkp1WurDhDfo7X8HPinyw6Ls9FYGvWKX. Transaction is not allowed by token-script\n\n\nThis is the id of the issuer: 3PJMw51M5zfNNHxowfzG75FtX5SHY2V1dEt\n\n\n\nthank you everyone for spreading the awareness of these token!\n\n\nDamn. That’s a dick move for the issuer! Make you buy but not allow you to sell\n\n\nRegards cryptocurrency people, here some I found:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSouls’s in a higher level than intelligence\nAn eletron that doesn’t reach a nuclear orbit explode and became an X-ray. Electricity energy is from devil. Pretend electricity as a figure, as a way to reach God don’t see as a totality (II commandment: Exodus - II Nicaea council resolution)\nThank you\n\n\nYou know this scam already tired. Not only do wave developers do nothing, it seems they themselves participate in it, receiving a commission from fools.\n\n\nTransaction is not allowed by token-script))\n\n\nI think there is a way to trade that scam asset (LuckyCoins)…\nI explored the other exchange pairs, not only luckycoins/waves (where it’s impossible to exchange), and i have found luckycoins/liquid…\nI put an order for my 1000 luckycoins, at the price of about 70 liquid (7 waves), which is the price i paid for the 223 i bought by the scammer…\nFor me it’s possible to to exchange with liquid, because the scammer has not set the script correctly for that pair…\nHe can put a lower price, but in that case he loss waves…\nDon’t know if it’s a good idea, i tried…\n\n\nwow seriously? we should keep our assets more safely\n\n\nThis kind of wave token has a “higher” tax (0,05 $wav, more than 0,0000001 an average transfer tax), probably with high number of applications (cost 0.x $wav per operation)\n\n\nSame problem. I lost 7 waves.\nI traced the path and found where the waves flow from the coin creator’s wallet - only 4 wallet\n\n\ni mentioned a asset and that got removed by the moderator, for what reason? i said you could not send the asset to anyone, why does the moderator or staff not want people to know the assets name.\n\nwas not the wallet address right, if so why would they not flag everyone else’s must be the faulty token in question they created, that you cannot transfer to anyone from your wallet address.\n\ninstead of accepting their problems about the token they created they want to hide the problem and not have anyone speak about the problem with their token, clearly touching a nerve.\n\nwhen inappropriate is used for censorship, often used by a typical approach of the inadequate\n\nthe flagged the post because they created something inadequate and don’t want people speaking about the inadequate code. clearly. i attempted to send some and when i attempted to send the asset would not send.\n\nthat’s not inappropriate that evident.\n\n\nProgression is a token that looks shady\n\nyou said to leave a wallet address.\n\n\nIt probably got flagged because of the wallet address. I post an airdrop topic in this forum and most of the comment that have wallet address got flagged for no reason at all\n\n\nno the are plenty of wallets address that have not been removed you can see in the comments.\n\n\nyou know what forget the airdrop i’ll just remove my wallet address, but i think this is due to the token that was named.\n\n\nin fact the first thing i noticed about this website was the comments most of the had wallet addresses, and none happened to be flagged. not really buying that statement. i guess if your statement is true then their goal must be suppression of wealth. under the guise of spam.\n\n\nI got email about every reply on my topic and most of them aren’t showing in my topic’s reply for no reason. Like 30-40 of them are hidden and can only be found in my email inbox.\n\n\ni just got mine taken down. but that’s different though. really taken down.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6214668154716492}
+{"content": "Consultation launch: accessibility of public sector websites and apps\n\nA poster showing advice for designing for screen reader users.\nA poster showing advice for designing for screen reader users. The posters are available to download.\n\nThis year the UK is implementing the EU Directive on the accessibility of public sector websites and mobile apps (\"the Directive\"). To gather your views, we’ve launched a consultation to help plan how we implement the Directive.\n\nWhat is the Directive about?\n\nThe Directive requires public sector bodies to make their websites and mobile apps more accessible by making them \"perceivable, operable, understandable and robust\", to the extent that doing so would not impose a disproportionate burden. This means following a set of principles and techniques when building, designing, maintaining and updating websites and apps to ensure people can use them, especially people with disabilities.\n\nPublic sector bodies will need to evaluate the accessibility of their websites and mobile applications. They will then be expected to fix any issues and provide detail of this in an accessibility statement hosted on their website. If there are areas of inaccessible content, the organisation responsible will have to explain the way in which the content is not accessible and the reason for it. They will also have to provide accessible alternatives where appropriate.\n\nThere are some exceptions to this. For example, public service broadcasters and some types of published content are exempt, such as online maps and pre-recorded videos published before September 2020.The full list is in the consultation document.\n\nThe obligation to make websites and mobile apps more accessible will apply to websites and mobile applications in different stages, over the next 3 years. But by 2021, all public sector websites and mobile apps will need to comply with the Directive.\n\nWhat is the consultation?\n\nThe consultation concerns the UK government’s plan to implement the Directive including draft regulations. It includes what guidance and what training the government will provide to public sector bodies to help meet the accessibility criteria.\n\nWe would also like to hear from public sector bodies on how they will comply with the Directive and their thoughts on GDS’s proposed monitoring plan for the Directive’s implementation.\n\nWho is the consultation for?\n\nEveryone! We would welcome responses from the charity sector, the private sector and public authorities, professional bodies, interest groups and the wider public, especially people with disabilities.\n\nWhy are we implementing this Directive?\n\nYou might wonder why we are implementing the Directive as we are preparing to exit the European Union (EU) next year. The reason is simple: until the UK leaves the EU, all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. The Directive is also in line with the government’s current policy on accessibility.\n\nIn the transition period, the government will continue to implement and apply EU legislation. In line with this policy, the government will implement the Directive in accordance with our EU law obligations.\n\nNext steps\n\nThe consultation will run for 4 weeks from 30 April to 28 May.\n\nIf you would like to respond, please follow this link to the consultation page.\n\nIf you prefer to submit your response via email, you can send it to:\n\nAlternatively, you can send your response by post to:\n\nAccessibility team\n7th Floor, The White Chapel Building\n10 Whitechapel High Street\nLondon E1 8QS\n\nPlease indicate in your response whether you’re happy for it to be published, and whether or not you want it to be attributed to you or the organisation you represent.\n\nWe look forward to reading your responses!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999048113822937}
+{"content": "Chimney or Fireplace - Clean and Inspect in Munson, AB\n\nCreosote is a type of black or brown residue formed from wood burning in a chimney - if there is an excess of creosote, it could become a fire hazard. Depending on the usage, chimneys and fireplaces should be inspected at least once a year to ensure home safety.\n\nRecommended Pros in Munson, AB\n\nRecently Reviewed Munson Chimney or Fireplace", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8007930517196655}
+{"content": "Enact Enabling Enable En Route En Passant En Masse En Bloc Emulator Enactment Enamel Enamor Enamoredness Enamour Enate Enatic Encamp Encampment Encase Encased Enceinte\n\nEnactment   Meaning in Urdu\n\n1. Enactment - Passage : وضع قانون : (noun) the passing of a law by a legislative body.\n\nLawmaking, Legislating, Legislation - the act of making or enacting laws.\n\n2. Enactment - Act : قانون : (noun) a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body.\n\nInstrument, Legal Document, Legal Instrument, Official Document - (law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right.\n\n3. Enactment - Characterization - Personation - Portrayal : کردار ادا کرنا : (noun) acting the part of a character on stage; dramatically representing the character by speech and action and gesture.\n\nActing, Performing, Playacting, Playing - the performance of a part or role in a drama.\n\nUseful Words\n\nBody - Organic Structure - Physical Structure : جسم : the entire structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being). \"He felt as if his whole body were on fire\"\n\nCommission - Committee : کمیشن : a special group delegated to consider some matter. \"A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours\"\n\nAdvisement - Deliberation - Weighing : مشاورت : careful consideration. \"A little deliberation would have deterred them\"\n\nDocument - Papers - Written Document : تحریر دستاویز : writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature).\n\nConstabulary - Law - Police - Police Force : پولیس : the force of policemen and officers. \"Call the police\"\n\nLegal : قانونی : established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules.\n\nLegislative : قانون ساز : relating to a legislature or composed of members of a legislature. \"Legislative council\"\n\nExceedingly - Extremely - Passing - Super : انتہائی : to an extreme degree. \"Extremely cold\"\n\nFinal Result - Outcome - Result - Resultant - Termination : انجام : something that results. \"A bad deed has a bad result\"\n\nSociety : معاشرہ : an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization. \"The society has changd\"\n\nدہی لیتے آنا", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998885989189148}
+{"content": "EAP Corner\n\nGeneration Z – The Youngest Generation Entering the Workforce (Part 6)\n\nThe newest and youngest generation hitting the workforce may be the generation to change the landscape of the work environment in the biggest way yet. Generation Zer’s, the next generation after the millenniums, born after 1995, account for 61 million people in the U.S., passing up Generation X and being 2/3 the size of the baby boomer generation. (Morris, 2018)\n\nWith this large impact on the workforce, getting to know Generation Z will be crucial. Research on this generation is underway because this generation will require relating in different ways both as consumers and employees. Recruiting this generation will require more marketing efforts. So, we will do well to pay attention. (Morris, 2018)\n\nThis generation has lived a different life than their parents and millenniums. They were brought up with technology, namely a smart phone in their hand. They have watched their parents struggle financially (due to the recession and student loan crisis) which may be why their parents had conversations about finances, money and debt with these kids earlier than other generations. This also might be why they are the generation thinking about their own financial future.\n\nThe Huffington Post cited eight key differences between the Millennials and Generation Z. This new generation is less focused. Being brought up in the world of continuous updates and faster processing apps the Gen Z’s might have lower attention spans. It has been said that they have an attention span of 8 seconds. (Kleinschmit, 2015) They are also good multitaskers. Falling into line with the technology that is always at their fingertips, they can shift easily between tasks, managing them all. They are also apt to be in the work force at a younger age, opting out of the traditional route of higher education and instead finishing school online if they do it at all. This falls in line with their value of independence. If they can get their knowledge through a non-traditional, more efficient route, they will be doing it. This aligns also with their work choices as they desire to work more independently with 72% of the teens saying they want to start a business someday. They do have expectations that technology be fast and available. They have a need to be appreciated by businesses and retailers. If they don’t feel appreciated, they will just move on. (Beall, 2017)\n\nThey are called Post-Millennials, the iGeneration, Founders, Plurals or the Homeland Generation. This group is excited about technology and the innovative ways they can advance human progress in the world. Gen Z’s are willing to mentor older co-workers in technology, which discredits the ‘them’ versus ‘us’ mentality. They also will be looking for being mentored in business. They see immense potential for good through technology with an understanding of the potential within technology, wanting to harness technology to help others and the environment. What they desire from work, beyond a good salary, is the ability to learn new skills and have new experiences. (Cobb, 2018) Hiring Gen Zer’s will be about what is the day-to-day work experience. They are looking for the best cultural fit for them. They want to contribute to the company and be socially connected to everyone.\n\nEmployers will be happy to learn that this group likes to work hard and learn, but in a different way. Motivators for this group are a fun place to work, flexible schedule and paid time off. They seek uniqueness in all walks of their life including their future employers. While they want to have fun, they do take their work seriously. They want to do a good job. They will quickly bring some innovative ways to the business and impact the bottom-line. However, they will have to first be trained in taking calls and writing emails. Customer service and Interacting with people is not something they have been equipped with. (Beall, 2017)\n\nThis group wants feedback regularly, with 40% surveyed in a recent research project saying they want daily interactions with their boss and if they don’t get it, they often think they have done something wrong. This has employers worried, fearing that the Gen Zer’s will be more difficult to train and manage. (Morris, 2018)\n\nThe bottom-line is that each generation, including the Generation Z, brings in their strengths and their weaknesses and as we become aware of what each has to offer the team, we can become moreefficient and work well together as a unit.\n\nWorks Cited\nBeall, G. (2017, November 6). 8 key differences between Gen Z and Millennials. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-beall/8-key-differences-between_b_12814200.html\n\nCobb, D. (2018, Nov 7). Four things to expect as Gen Z descends on the workplace. Retrieved from www.delltechnologies.com: https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/perspectives/four-things-to-expect-as-gen-z-descends-on-the-workplace/?mkwid=s7TXDXVhW&pcrid=307950998863&pkw=&pmt=b&pdv=c&slid=&product=&pgrid=48687302552&ptaid=dsa-295317350131&VEN1=s7TXDXVhW,307950998863,901qz2667\n\nKleinschmit, M. (2015). Generation Z characteristics: 5 infographics on the Gen Z lifestyle. Retrieved from www.Visioncritical.com: https://www.visioncritical.com/generation-z-infographics/\n\nMorris, C. (2018, May 2). 61 million Gen Zers are about to enter the US workforce and radically change it forever. Retrieved from www.cnbc.com: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/61-million-gen-zers-about-to-enter-us-workforce-and-change-it.html\n\nTags: , ,\n\n\n  • Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker\n    Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner\n\n  • Janie Pfeifer Watson, LICSW, is the founder and director of Wholeness Healing Center, a mental health practice in Grand Island, Nebraska with remote sites in Broken Bow and Kearney. Her expertise encompasses a broad range of areas, including depression, anxiety, attachment and bonding, coaching, couples work, mindfulness, trauma, and grief. She views therapy as an opportunity to learn more about yourself as you step more into being your authentic self. From her perspective this is part of the spiritual journey; on this journey, she serves as a mirror for her clients as they get to know themselves—and, ultimately, to love themselves.\n\n\nSubscribe today\n\nSign up to receive the latest mental health tips and inspiration\n\n\nAsk A Question", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7473524808883667}
+{"content": "African Journal of Biotechnology\n\nLog in or Register to get access to full text downloads.\n\nRemember me or Register\n\nThe bioaccumulation and toxicity induced by gold nanoparticles in rats in vivo can be detected by ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible) spectroscopy\n\nMohamed Anwar K Abdelhalim\n\n\nIt is essential to characterize the bioaccumulation and toxicity of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in blood prior to using them in drug delivery, diagnostics, and treatment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the blood absorbance spectra after intraperitoneal administration of 50 μl of 10, 20, and 50 nm GNPs in rat for periods of 3 and 7 days to assess their bioaccumulation and toxic effects. Healthy, male Wistar-Kyoto rats, 8 to 12 weeks old (approximately 250 g body weight) were used. 40 rats were divided into four groups; a control group and three test groups (each group was composed of 10 rats); control group (NG: n = 10), test group 1 (G1) (A: infusion of 20 nm GNPs for 3 days; n = 5; B: infusion of 20 nm GNPs for 7 days; n = 5), test group 2 (G2) (A: infusion of 10 nm GNPs for 3 days; n = 5; B: infusion of 10 nm GNPs for 7 days; n = 5) and test group 3 (G3) (A: infusion of 50 nm GNPs for 3 days; n = 5; B: infusion of 50 nm GNPs for 7 days; n = 5). Doses consisting of 50 l of 10, 20, and 50 nm GNPs dissolved in aqueous solution were administered to the animals via intraperitoneal administration every day for 3 and 7 days. The blood absorbance spectra were obtained using an ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) double beam spectrophotometer. Five peaks were observed for normal blood, characteristic of hemoglobin (Hb) macromolecules. After administration of GNPs, absorbance peaks for G1A and G1B decreased significantly and shifted towards the UV compared with the control. The G1A peak decreased significantly compared to G1B. The G2A and G2B peaks also shifted towards the UV compared with the control. All peaks for G2A increased with no significant changes compared with the control while those for G2B decreased significantly. We observed a marked decrease in absorbance for all G3A and G3B peaks and a shifting towards the UV compared with the control. The absorbance peaks for G3A decreased significantly compared with G3B. This study suggests that the decrease in absorbance observed in G1A, G1B, G2A, G3A, and G3B might be attributed to changes in aliphatic and aromatic amino acids, globin-heme, and heme-heme interaction bands. This study demonstrates that as GNP size increases (for example, a decrease in number of GNPs), the absorbance peaks decreased in intensity and shifted towards the UV. The smaller (10 and 20 nm) GNPs demonstrated a smaller decrease in blood absorbance while the larger (50 nm) GNPs indicated a larger decrease in absorbance spectra relative to control. This study also implies that the blood absorbance spectra are particle size and exposure duration dependent, and that UV-visible spectroscopy may be used as a diagnostic for bioaccumulation and toxicity of GNPs in blood. Our results further suggest that the smaller decrease in blood absorbance spectra might indicate that smaller GNPs are mostly taken up and accumulate in tissues, suggesting toxic effects may be induced by smaller GNPs. These conclusions are further supported by histological observations that suggest toxic effects are induced by smaller GNPs deposited in tissue.\n\nKey words: Gold nanoparticles, size, ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible), blood, rats, spectroscopy, toxicity, histology, liver.\nAJOL African Journals Online", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7159353494644165}
+{"content": "Moscow: Russia and China will hold joint military exercises next month, a top Russian military official said Monday, as the giant neighbours work towards tighter cooperation.\n\n“The head of the Russian and Chinese military delegations agreed that 1,300 soliders from each side would participate,” said the deputy army chief, Lieutenant General Sergei Antonov, adding that 20 Russian war planes would take part.\n\nThe massive five-day exercises, dubbed Peace Mission 2009, are to focus on anti-terrorism and will take place on both countries’ territories July 22-26, Antonov told the ITAR-TASS state news agency.\n\nThe two countries are in their third round of talks to hammer out the details of the joint manoeuvres, counting 2,600 men, he said.\n\nRussia and China made a show of their strengthening ties last month when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Moscow for a major bilateral summit.\n\nThe friendly diplomacy is a marked change from the later decades of the Cold War era, when the Soviet Union and China clashed for supremacy in the Communist world.\n\nIn recent years, the countries have taken great strides to step up trade and put old rivalries behind them, ending a decades-long dispute over their 4,300-kilometre (2,700-mile) border just last year.\n\nThe two held joint exercises in 2005 and 2007 under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security group consisting of China, Russia and four Central Asian states.\n\nRussia has also been the main supplier of arms to China since the two countries normalised their relations in 1989 — the same year that Washington imposed an arms ban on Beijing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9898106455802917}
+{"content": "Jamaican Jerk Seasoning\n\n$ 8.95\n\nMake delicious Jamaican-style chicken and seafood BBQ with our Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, a sweet and spicy blend that highlights the heat of Scotch bonnet chilies. This blend can be used as a dry rub or turned into a wet marinade - though it's tasty sprinkled on popcorn, too!\n\nINGREDIENTS: Organic brown sugar, sea salt, organic garlic, organic spices, chiles, cinnamon, peppers, scotch bonnet chilies, thyme.\n\nSPICY TRIVIA: The term jerk is believed to have evolved from the word charqui, a Spanish term for jerked or dried meat, a technique of \"jerking\" or jabbing holes in the meat so seasoning or marinade can be absorbed more easily.\n\n\n      Glass jars: 1.75 inches x 4 inches. Come with sifter cap.\n      Resealable bulk bags: 8 oz and 1 pound options come in a resealable stand-up bag that's easy to open and close. Both come with directions for how to pop popcorn on the stove top.\n\n      How To Use: For a dry rub: Use 1 Tbsp per pound of meat, or 1/2 Tbsp per pound of vegetables. For a wet rub: Use 1 to 2 Tbsp of seasoning with a bit of neutral tasting oil or other liquid, and mix together to create a thick paste. To make into a sauce or dip: Use 1 Tbsp for every 1/2 cup of liquid. Get more recipe ideas here.\n\n      SHELF LIFE: Two years from purchase.\n\n      STORAGE: Please keep stored in a cool, dark and dry location.\n\n      Customer Reviews\n\n      Based on 25 reviews Write a review\n\n      You recently viewed\n\n      Clear recently viewed", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7195135951042175}
+{"content": "Need some guidance to improve your speaking?\n\nI will equip you with the tools and knowledge to improve your speaking publicly, professionally, to a wide audience, or to an audience of just a few. etc. etc.\n\nSee what Andy McGregor has to say\n\n\"My company (Speciality Fashion Group) employed Emily on my recommendation to deliver the key note speech at our annual conference. I had done some private work with Emily around my own mindset and loved her vibe and thought she'd be a breath of fresh air for the Millers group and I wasn't wrong.\nThe group was going through a huge restructure at the time and there was much uncertainty among the employees.\nEmily delivered an hour long speech with humour, lightness, brilliantly engaging stories and really helped bring the team back together in a highly stressful time.\n\nHow? Emily has a way of making her audience feel comfort and normalises the human emotion we often don't communicate. She understands and explains the neurology of human behaviour in a matter of fact, scientific way which gives understanding and evokes empathy between people.\n\nShe also has a spiritual aspect to her teachings but never in an off-putting or wishy washy way but more in a way that gives her audience permission to trust.\nShe delivered tangibles which I saw implemented by the audience, results showing both in staff morale, productivity and ease of change management. The content closed the gap between departments and encouraged conversations that would not normally take place - this synergy between departments was continued and very helpful …….did I mention her wicked sense of humour and the way she captivates audiences?!\n\nEms impact and delivery of her content was more than well received by our wider eclectic group in a positive and excited way!\n\nPeople were talking about her unique delivery and speeches for weeks after and sparked some individuals to go on their own personal journey (which helped boost productivity and helped people with their own personal  insights)……. I seriously could not recommend her enough!\"\n\nAndy McGregor, SFG – Millers", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8910173773765564}
+{"content": "Pentecost - Orientation\n\nIdentification. Th e Sa, who are the focus of this summary, live on the southern part of Pentecost Island in northern Vanuatu. Pentecost was so called by the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who sighted it on WhitSunday in 1768. \"Sa\" means \"what\" in the language spoken by the people, who themselves call the language \"Lokit,\" which means \"the inside of us all.\" The Sa have previously been called the Pornowol tribe, and the region has been known as South Raga as well as South Pentecost.\n\nLocation. Pentecost is an island 60 kilometers long by 12 kilometers wide, located at 15°30′ to 16° S and 168o30′ E. The landmass is predominantly basaltic, with a few limestone ridges formed by the uplifting of coral reefs. The eastern coast is precipitous, fringed by extensive coral reefs, and windward, with few safe anchorages. The western coast is flat and leeward, with coral reefs, extensive sandy beaches, and good anchorages. The central part of the island is mountainous and covered with dense primary rain forest. Many rivers and streams flow from the mountains to the coast, especially on the western side, and they are the primary sources of fresh water. Temperatures range between 22° and 30° C, and about 400 centimeters of rain falls in an average year. It is typically cooler and drier May-October and hotter and wetter November-April when tropical cyclones occur. Southern Pentecost experiences occasional falls of volcanic ash from Benbow Crater on nearby Ambrym Island.\n\nDemography. In 1979 the population of Pentecost was 9,361, about 1,700 of whom were Sa speakers. Most Sa are resident locally, although young men in particular are involved in circular labor migration to the towns of Santo and Port Vila as well as plantations elsewhere. A few Sa have become permanent migrants to towns or other rural centers to work for churches, the government, or private companies or to pursue higher education.\n\nLinguistic Affiliation. Sa is classified in the North and Central Vanuatu Group of Austronesian languages. Although it had no script prior to colonization, it has now been written down through the work of mission linguists and local cultural workers. Most speakers of Sa are also fluent in Bislama, the lingua franca of Vanuatu, and increasingly younger Sa attain verbal and written fluency in English or French, taught in church and state schools.\n\nAlso read article about Pentecost from Wikipedia\n\nUser Contributions:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9147320985794067}
+{"content": "Traditional Slovenian Towns\n\nArts & Culture\n\nBuilt within medieval walls, around castles, on hills and river banks...\n\nSlovenia is full of traditional towns which boast old cultural and architectural heritage. Built within medieval walls, around castles, on hills and river banks they charm every single visitor. All towns have numerous pleasant restaurants where visitors can enjoy local culinary delights, boutique hotels, rich museums, galleries and much more. A unique touch in the architecture, a charming soul and fascinating culture are just some of the features we locals love in these old towns.\n\n\nThe old city of Piran began to develop in the early Middle Ages. The first written notes from that time show that the city was named Pyrrhanum. The culture and the whole society developed mostly with hard work on the sea and orchard or plantations. The main activities besides fishing were production of high quality salt, wine and olive oil. Piran, with its congress, spa, casino and nautical attractions, today presents one of the most popular cities in Slovenia.\n\nPiran; Credits: Rok Kovacic\n\n\nPtuj is the oldest city in Slovenia and was settled in the early Stone Age, while the first fort named Poetovio was built in Antiquity. Today’s Ptuj is known as one of cultural centers of Slovenia. Throughout the year, the city offers a great variety of cultural events and festivals. Without a doubt Kurentovanje (a Carnival), which attracts thousands of people, is the pick of the city’s rich calendar.\n\nŠkofja Loka\n\nŠkofja Loka is one of the largest medieval cities in Slovenia. Its first written records date back to the late 13th Century. It is mentioned that the city was surrounded by high stone walls and five towers. 25 years ago the city got the status of a cultural monument. Popular locations for tourists as well as for locals are the Old Town and the Lubnik hill.\n\n\nThis city began to develop in Roman times as its location was just in the middle of two, at that time, very important cities: Vironum (the capital of Roman province Norik) and Emona (today’s Ljubljana). The records show that the city was named Forum and Lubelino at that time. After a natural disaster, the inhabitants retreated down the valley and founded the city of Neumarktl which is known as today’s Tržic.\n\nPtuj; Credits: Author: D Mladenovic?kofja Loka; Credits: Author: Matej VranicTr?ic; Credits:\n\n\nKranj is the fourth largest city in Slovenia and has a long tradition of electronic and rubber industries. The town has preserved its old city center near the confluence of the Sava and Kokra rivers. The city has been referred to by a host of different names throughout the centuries, including Carnium, Creina, Chreina and Krainburg. The metropolitan area has been inhabited since the days of the Celts in the first millennium BC. The main tourist attractions are Gorenjska Museum in the City Hall, Prešern’s House, Kieselstein Castle, Brdo Castle, Preseren’s Grove (where France Preseren and Simon Jenko are buried) and Kokra Canyon.\n\nNovo mesto\n\nThis settlement dates back to the Stone Age, but Duke Rudolf IV Habsburg founded the present-day city in 1365 and named it after himself: Rudolfswerth. However, its contemporary inhabitants now know it as Novo mesto (new city). The main attractions for visitors are Breg, the city center, Kandija Bridge, National Hall, City Hall, the fountain on the main square and Bergman House.\n\n\nKoper is the sixth largest city in Slovenia and with its 23,726 inhabitants the largest on the Slovenian coast. Without a doubt, the most known feature of the city is the international port of Koper. Archaeological findings date back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic age. The city began to develop in times of the Roman Republic under the name of Aegida.\n\nKranj; Credits: Author: Bogdan KladnikNovo mesto; Credits: Author: J SkokKoper; Credits:\n\n\nThe town of Idrija began to develop in the Middle Ages, when a local farmer found a rich mine of mercury. In addition to the old city center next to the Idrijca river, a pleasant little town developed and prospered until this day. The town offers many interesting sights such as the Forest Railway, Idrija Lauf and numerous museums and galleries.\n\n\nRadovljica city began to develop in the Middle Ages (written records date back to the 14th Century) near the confluence of the Sava Bohinjka and Sava Dolinka rivers. Old stone walls and a traditional moat surround this beautiful city which is unique for its medieval architecture. Famous attractions include St. Peter's Church, Grašcina, Mali’s House, Šivec House and the Royal Park.\n\nSlovenjske Konjice\n\nThis city evolved in the Middle Ages on the right bank of the Dravinja river, just below Konjiška Mountain. The wider area has been inhabited for thousands of years. Artefacts from the Neolithic and Bronze Age were found just near by. Shortly after Christ the area was conquered by the Romans, while before them the Celts and Illyrians lived here.\n\nExplore more of Slovenia – connect with us on Facebook!\n\nIdrija;Credits: Idrija MunicipalityRadovljica; Credits: Slovenian-Alps.comSlovenjske Konjice; Credits:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.62275230884552}
+{"content": "The Vostok Programme\n\nYuri Gagarin (NASA)\n\nYuri Gagarin (NASA)\n\nThe Vostok programme ran from 1960 to 1963 and aimed to send a man into space for the very first time. This goal was achieved on 12th April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit planet Earth. Gagarin had been chosen from a group of 20 cosmonauts selected for the Soviet space program. His backup for the mission was Gherman Titov, who went on to become the second man in space aboard Vostok 2.\n\nThe spacecraft used for the programme had originally been designed as spy satellites for the Soviet military and were therefore very cramped inside. They were made up of two separate sections, the descent module and the instrument module. These were designed to separate upon re-entry, with the descent module bringing the crew safely back into Earth's atmosphere. Unlike American spacecraft, which descended to Earth with their crew onboard, Soviet cosmonauts ejected from their capsules at about 23,000 ft, using their own parachutes to land separately.\n\nGagarin's flight lasted less than two hours, but was another great success for the Soviet Union. During his stay in space Gagarin was promoted to the rank of Major and became an instant celebrity upon his return to Earth. However, his historic flight did not pass by without its problems. Upon re-entry the two sections of the spacecraft had failed to separate properly causing the spacecraft to gyrate alarmingly. This worrying situation continued for 10 minutes until the bundle of wires connecting the two sections burnt through, releasing the descent module.\n\nMany Soviet officials did not expect Gagarin to return alive and some conspiracy theorists believe that there may have been previous attempts to send a Russian into space which ended with the deaths of the cosmonauts involved. Gagarin's own spacecraft included enough provisions for a 10 day mission just in case the retrofire engines failed and Gagarin was left to wait for his orbit to decay naturally. However, the retrofire engines worked perfectly and 1 hour, 48 minutes after launch Gagarin ejected from Vostok 1, landing safely in a farmer's field in Russia's Saratov region.\n\nFour months later, in August 1961, Gherman Titov piloted Vostok 2 into space for over a day to test the effects of weightlessness on the human body. As he passed over America Titov broadcast a 'hello' message to the American people, who would not send a man into space until the following year.\n\nDespite experiencing similar re-entry problems to Gagarin's mission, Vostok 2 was followed by 4 further missions, culminating in Vostok 6 in June 1963. Seven further flights had been planned, but were later incorporated into the Voshkod programme, with its own goal of achieving yet more Soviet 'firsts' in space.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6687824726104736}
+{"content": "amplified audio. solenoid-actuated mirrors. spotlights | 2015\n\nθr is an audiovisual installation in which high‐tech elements are decontextualized and repurposed in the creation of a kinetic sound and light installation. The piece consists of an array of motorized mirrors that, using micro-controller programming, are programmed to rotate synchronously with pulsating sound waves, casting beams of reflected light through the space. The work is an effort to draw attention to the basic principles behind the physics of sound and light travel. Through its stripped‐down and minimalist aesthetics, the kinetic sound-sculpture creates an engaging and sophisticated show of light and sound from some of the most basic physical phenomena experienced in everyday life.\n\nThe work is comprised of two side-by-side identical assemblies, each consisting of an array of four motorized mirrors, a focused light source, and a loudspeaker. The two spotlights are placed at the end of the arrays, providing identical focused beams of light on each assembly. Using purpose-fabricated brackets, the mirrors are attached to an independently controlled rotary solenoid (an electromechanical device similar to a motor designed for use in laboratory settings in order to actuate external objects). Here, the solenoids are used to rotate the mirrors to interrupt and reflect the light beam. A micro-controller and an accompanying custom-designed circuit board are used to transmit the pre-composed rhythmic patterns to drive the solenoids, while also triggering computer-generated sinusoidal sound waves that are amplified through the loudspeakers. Every mirror on each module has a corresponding sound wave with a fixed frequency that is chosen based on the relative distance of the mirror from the light source. The distance between the mirror and the light source determines the width of the reflection that is cast by the mirror. The farther away the mirror is from the light source, the less focused the beam and the wider the casting reflection, and, accordingly, the greater the wavelength of the sound wave (i.e. the lower the frequency of the sound) are. The patterns are composed in four different sections with different rhythmic structures that morph into each other during the installation. In parallel to the core visual concept of the piece, which is based on reflection, the sonic material of the work is composed symmetrically between the two modules. This symmetry, which can be perceived through the stereo effect distributed between the relatively widely spaced speaker monitors, is taken into account in order to provide a coherent aesthetic, both in terms of the visual and the sonic aspects of the work.\n\nMateriality and simplicity are recurring themes throughout the elements of θr : mechanically-minimal actuators are used to pivot geometrically-simple mirrors. The mirrors reflect plain white light onto the unadorned roof of the space in which θr is installed. Accompanying these elementally simple visuals is an equally fundamental audio component, consisting of pure sine tones at predictable mathematical frequency ratios. By combining these stripped-down components into a cohesive whole, a dynamic and compelling audiovisual experience is created, showing that technologically-mediated material simplicity may provide insights into the coupling of light and sound that might be difficult with more baroque assemblages.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9941514134407043}
+{"content": "These Things Are Vital For A Warehouse Management\n\nInventory can be said to be ideal if it is at the most economical level without any risk to the company. Usually, a risk will arise caused by an inventory such as ??? costs, damage to goods, loss of goods storage rooms near me. Then what are the essential things in managing inventory?\n\nHere are the vital things in managing an inventory:\n\nDevelop an Effective and Efficient Standard Operational Procedure (SOP)\n\nWarehousing activities must have a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) which is arranged in a clear and detailed manner to receive and handle inventory properly because it is a guideline in carrying out routine work. It facilitates the work operations of all parties involved in the business and can clearly identify obstacles which are easy to track. Many people know that SOPs are made only before the work is done, but besides that there are many that must be made such as if there are changes in work steps, for example, the presence of new machines, new equipment, additional workers, different locations and all that affect the work environment within the company, and it becomes clearer because of the existence of standard operational references.\n\nInventory Maintenance\n\nIn addition to maintaining and managing warehouses, inventory also needs to be maintained. There are 5 things regarding inventory maintenance, including Brief, Diligent, Caring, Neat, and Rehearsal.\n\nAlways do Stock Hospitalization\n\nStock hospitalization is another term for the physical calculation of inventory. The purpose of the stock-taking is to find out the correctness of the records in accounting, which is one of the functions of the Internal Control System. With the holding of stock-taking, it will be known whether the records in the inventory book are correct or not, if it turns out that there is a difference between inventory and records, there may be transactions that have not been recorded or even fraud related to inventory.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993818402290344}
+{"content": "Absolutism Essay\n\nCheap Custom Writing Service\n\nThis example Absolutism Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or on this topic please use our writing services. intheblack.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.\n\nAbsolutism is a historical term for a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute authority, unrestricted by any other institution, such as churches, estates, a constitution, laws, or opposition.\n\nThe Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries caused erosion of monarchical power and the rise of libertarian democratic sentiment in feudal Europe. Political philosophers of the period reacted by introducing concepts of the natural law or the divine right of kings. Although contradictory, both concepts claimed that unquestionable rule by a single person was the best form of government. According to Thomas Hobbes, human beings ceded authority to a ruler in exchange for security, which kept society together. Jacques Benigne Bossuet argued that God vested the monarch with the right to rule in order to protect society and that rebelling against the monarch would mean challenging God.\n\nAbsolutism is characterized by the end of feudal partitioning, unification and centralization of the state, rise of professional standing armies and professional bureaucracies, and the codification of state laws. The general rise of state power was demonstrated by expensive lifestyles of absolute monarchs who identified with the state (“L’État c’est moi” claimed Louis XIV of France). Absolutist monarchs attempted to intervene personally in every area; welfare of the state was therefore determined by their (in)competence.\n\nAbsolutist monarchs held nobility under political control by keeping them permanently at luxurious courts and arbitrarily distributing payable honorary duties and titles, while noble estates were managed by exploitative officials. The enormous increase in state expenses was addressed by modernization of tax systems and mercantilism that favored the emerging bourgeoisie. Monarchs considered absolute rulers include Louis XIII (reigned 1610–1643) and Louis XIV of France (r. 1643–1715), Ivan the Terrible (r. 1547–1584) and Peter the Great of Russia (r. 1682–1725), Leopold I of Austria (r. as Holy Roman Emperor 1658–1705), and Charles XI (r. 1660–1697) and Charles XII of Sweden (r. 1697–1718).\n\nAbsolutism went through several historical stages, such as early absolutism, confessional absolutism, court absolutism, and Enlightened absolutism. Frederick I of Prussia (r. 1740–1786), the Hapsburg emperors of Austria (Marie-Therèse, r. 1740– 1780, and her son Joseph II, r. 1780–1790), and Catherine the Great of Russia (r. 1762–1796) ruled as absolute monarchs in eastern Europe while implementing reforms based on Enlightenment ideas. Enlightened absolutism was commonly justified as a provider of better living conditions for its subjects.\n\nFollowing bourgeois revolutions in America and France, absolutism and constitutionalism became principal opposing political concepts in the West. The Jacobin terror during the French Revolution (1789–1799) demonstrated that political freedom was threatened also by democratic absolutism. To early-nineteenth-century rightist political thinkers, the French Revolution, instead of abolishing absolutism, was therefore rather a struggle between the monarch and the people over sovereignty, and French Republicanism, Napoleon’s imperialism, and constitutionalism were merely forms of absolutism.\n\nMid-nineteenth-century liberals considered the rising proletariat as another dangerous form of absolutism and argued against radicals’ demand of universal suffrage. By 1848, a general consensus on constitutionalism was reached, and the method of its implementation became the principal matter of political controversy. While the term absolutism remained a commonly used pejorative, especially in France and England, in Germany the Hegelian Idealism relegated it to historiography from the 1830s on.\n\nIn the early twentieth century, research on absolutism as a historical concept was conceived in contemporary terms. Historians’ views on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs vary. Some argue that a considerable number of monarchs achieved absolutist control over their states. Others question the very existence of absolutism, arguing that most absolutist monarchs had comparable power over their subjects to any other rulers, and they point to the gap between the absolutist rhetoric and the reality, especially to many absolutist monarchs’ incapability to successfully address their constant financial difficulties.\n\n\n  1. Blänkner, Reinhard. “Absolutismus” und “moderner Staat”: Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Studie zur Geschichtswissenschaft und zur politischen Theorie in Deutschland 1830 bis 1890. Göttingen, Germany:Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1993.\n  2. Böing, Günther, ed. Die Weltgeschichte. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Herder, 1971.\n  3. Davies, Norman. Europe, a History. London: Pimlico, 1997.\n  4. James, Alan. The Origins of French Absolutism, 1598–1661. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.\n  5. Treasure, Geoffrey, and Russell Richards. The Making of Modern Europe: 1648–1780. New York: Routledge, 2003.\n\nSee also:\n\n\nAlways on-time\n\n\n100% Confidentiality\nчитать дальше", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9049671292304993}
+{"content": "Pharmacy Corner\n\nRiverside General Hospital's Pharmacist, Dr. Jaimee Cashaw, RPh, PharmD\"\n\n\"Must Haves for the Medicine Cabinet\"\nDoes your medicine cabinet seem like a cluttered storage with prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications? How frequently do you think your medicine cabinet should get a check-up? Where should medications be stored? What kinds of medicines and first aid products should you have on hand to treat minor ailments and injuries? How should you get rid of outdated medications? These are important questions to answer to prevent taking outdated medications and avoid potential complications.\n\nMedicine Cabinet Check-ups\nIt is recommended that you give your medicine a check-up every 6 months or at least once a year. The first step is to take a look at all the medicines (prescription and OTC) and supplies that you have. Check the expiration date on every medication. You don't want to take chances with a medicine that no longer works the way it's supposed to or has become a breeding ground for bacteria or fungus. Look for medicines that are discolored, dried out, crumbling, or show other signs that they are past their prime. Discard outdated medications and supplies (including sunscreens) and medications you are no longer taking. Restock supplies that are low or are missing as needed.\n\nSafe Storage for Your Medications\nContrary to popular belief, medications should not be stored in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Showers and baths create heat and humidity that can cause some drugs to deteriorate. It is best to keep your medications in an area that is convenient, cool, and dry. Other first aid products (such as bandages, tweezers, gauze, cotton balls, etc) may be stored in your bathroom medicine cabinet because they are not affected by heat and humidity. Keep all items in their original containers so that no one takes the wrong medicine. Accidental overdoses can occur in children of all ages. Medications should be kept out of the reach of young children, locked up in a drawer or cabinet or on a shelf that they cannot reach. It is important that parents talk with their teenagers about the negative effects (accidental overdose, death) of using OTC medications and other household products.\n\n\"Must Haves\" for Self-Treatment and First Aid\nTable 1 provides a list of medications and first aid products that a home should have. The table includes information on uses, storage, and other important information. For homes with children, special considerations are necessary. When selecting OTC products for children, it is important to choose medications that are appropriate for each child's age. This may mean stocking regular, children's, and infant's strengths of a product. Because each formula has a different amount of medication per dose, it is important to use the dropper or cup that came with that medication. It is also important to know each child's age and weight to prevent under- or overdosing. Table 2 shows the differences between adult, children's, and infant's liquid acetaminophen formulas.\n\nProper Disposal of Medications\nHow can you reduce the amount of drugs that end up in your drinking water and the environment? The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have banded together to develop \"SMARxT DISPOSAL: A Prescription for a Healthy Planet.\" The following steps can make a huge difference in protecting our environment. If you are unsure how to dispose of a specific medication, contact your local pharmacist and ask for directions.\n\n1. For most medications: DO NOT FLUSH unused medications or POUR them down a sink or drain.\n\n2. Be Proactive and Dispose of Unused Medication in Household Trash. When discarding unused medications, ensure you protect children and pets from potentially negative effects:\na. Pour medication into a sealable plastic bag. If medication is a solid (pill, liquid capsule, etc), crush it or add water to dissolve it.\nb. Pour kitty litter, sawdust, coffee grounds (or any material that mixes with the medication and makes it less appealing for pets and children to eat) into the plastic bag.\nc. Seal the plastic bag and put it in the trash.\nd. Remove and destroy ALL identifying personal information (prescription label) from all medication containers before recycling them or throwing them in the trash.\n\n3. Check for Approved State and Local Collection Programs. Another option is to check for approved state and local collection alternatives such as community-based household hazardous wastes collection programs. In certain states, you may be able to take your unused medications to your community pharmacy or other location for disposal.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9322124123573303}
+{"content": "This term’s topic is Anglo-Saxon Britain, where we will be looking at period just after the Romans left our shores right up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  It will include a look at Viking invaders and those pesky Scots!  We will be looking at life in those times, including how Christianity spread through Britain during this time.\n\nOur science topic this term is ‘How our Bodies Change’.  We will be looking at the human life cycle and the gestation period of different animals.  We will be focusing on how our bodies change over a lifetime and answering questions like:’ Why are a baby’s legs so short?’ and ‘Why does your hair go grey when you get older?’  This topic will also cover the bodily changes during puberty – there will be an afternoon dedicated to this topic and I know the children already have loads of questions ready!  A separate letter will come out shortly to give you more information about what will happen on the day and more precisely what will be discussed.\n\nYou can more about the learning we have planned in the weeks ahead in our Newsletter.\n\n\nTechnology is used extensively throughout the school. It is important for children to be aware of the dangers posed by the Internet and mobile technologies. Wenhave collected some websites that have information to help children stay safe.\n\nOur e-Safety links", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8998911380767822}
+{"content": "Central Kentucky Guitar Night presents...\n\n12 String Powerhouse Neil Jacobs\n\nA masterful performer on the 12 string acoustic guitar with his own ingenious style that the St. Louis Riverfront Times describes as \"mesmerizing\" and the Austin Chronicle describes as \"the rockin'est since early Leo Kottke\". Neil covers the world vibe with influences of Gypsy, World, Balkan Folk, Classical and Modern Fingerstyle, while transforming his 12-string acoustic guitar into his own personal orchestra. Neil draws inspiration from his mind-boggling world travels and experiences, and shares his fascinating stories with his audience. \n\n\"For more than 25 years Jacobs has circumnavigated the globe performing his exotic hybrid of gypsy jazz, flamenco, and Eastern European Folk on solo 12-string guitar\"  Guitar Player Magazine\n\n\"Imagine Russian cowboy music. Imagine flamenco joined with Balkan dances.  Imagine one guy doing all that while sounding like a whole orchestra.\"   -  The Cleveland Sun Messenger\n\n\n\nChris Weiss is the founder of Guitar Night and a Lexington favorite. Chris is on a mission to ignite the world around him through soul-catching melodies and gut-kicking lyrics. With a sound that's been described as Andy Mckee meets Ben Folds, Chris's live shows break the mold of what people expect to hear from a guy and his acoustic guitar. Chris explains, \"Music, at its core, is emotional, and it expresses something that spoken word cannot.\" His music reaches to the heart of musical expression. It's good nourishment for an expressive hunger, and his is a nutritious plate.\n\n\"Chris Weiss is a poet of both strings and words, with exceptional grooves and beautiful melodies.\" - Mark Kroos (Guitar Player Magazine's \"Guitar Superstar\")", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7556695938110352}
+{"content": "Electric Cooling Fan switches\n\nDo you know the importance of radiator fans? Well, to start with, can you imagine yourself in a room with a temperature of over 35-degree cc and with no cooling fans in the room to drive out the heat away? How would you feel sitting there all the while and perspiring! Definitely, your energy levels will go down and you will start to feel more restless. A cooling fan can indeed pump up the atmosphere by driving away the hot air of the room and make you feel more relaxed. The way our body behaves when subjected to extreme heat so also our vehicles require an engine-cooling fan to protect the engine of the car. The automotive engine of the car produces a large amount of heat that can be severely damaging for the engine and its components.\n\nThe engine if exposed to this amount of continuous heat can wear out and its life is decreased. The extreme heat generated by the vehicle can just burn of your engine, which will ultimately result in the breakdown of the car. As we, all know that an engine is the most important part of any vehicle.\n\nNo vehicle can do without a suitable fitting engine as a result; it becomes very much important that we take special measures to protect the engine of our car or vehicle. Thus, the radiator fans come into picture. Radiator cooling fans are placed in the space between the engine and the radiator so that the heat is easily transferred from the radiator through the shortest path available. The radiator-cooling fan is specially designed in such a way that it turns on when the temperature of the engine rises and stops when the temperature is normal. Some radiator cooling fans are specially designed to work on the basis of a thermostatic witch.\n\nEngine radiator fans transfer the excess amount of heat that is produced by the car and thus protects the parts from being burnt and wearing out before time. Almost all the radiator fans have four to six blades, which depend upon the size of the vehicle. The radiator fans work rapidly to provide sufficient airflow to your engine and to keep it cool. Usually the radiator fan is placed in between the engine and the radiator so that the heat gets the least traveled path.\n\nToday almost every application requires radiators fans. These engine-cooling fans are used in various applications besides the vehicles, like street rods, passenger cars, trucks, racecar water radiators, oil coolers and differential coolers. While looking for radiator fans it s important to check out the specifications of your car before making the purchase. Copyright (c) 2007 Darren Dunner.\n\nDarren Dunner writes for http://www.the-fan-man.com , offering the latest information on automobile fans, visit them today for more information on Automobile Fans. Visit today: http://www.the-fan-man.com\n\nExotic Cars\n\nIs There A Future For Performance Hybrids - Some products are too good to be true; an oven that can cook a turkey in 3 hours but is the size of a microwave.\n\nYour Auto Warranty What To Look Out For - When deciding which car to buy, make sure you check the auto warranty that comes with the vehicle.\n\nEtching Automobile History with the Lincoln Mark VII - The Lincoln Mark VII is a vehicle that is from the Ford Motor Company?s Lincoln division of luxury cars and vehicles.\n\nDefensive Driving Safety - As the definition goes Defensive driving is a more advanced form of training that drivers can take, over and above the mastery of the rules of the road, and the basic mechanics of driving.\n\nMG and Austin to be Revived by Chinese Car Company - The famous MG and Austin brands that were familiar to generations of British car enthusiasts, are about to be revived by Nanjing Automobile Corporation, located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7387758493423462}
+{"content": "Join Login\n\nEmma Insley\n\nEmma Insley\nLocation: England - South East\nCity: Battle\nPrimary areas of interest: Advice/Consulting, Children and Young People, Health and Wellbeing\nContact number: 07775 842882\n\n\nThe foundations of employee engagement: how purpose and culture are…\nThis blog post was originally written by Hannah Marsh for Talent Gateway. Employee engagement might be one of those great business buzz words but if you…\nChanging the debate on impact measurement and management\nThis is a guest blog post from Dr Jess Daggers, academic and practitioner specialising in impact measurement and the growth of the impact investing industry.…\nWhy is the UK facing a homeless crisis and what can be done?\nThis blog is a part of our larger inequality series, focusing on the dramatic disparity in wealth and wellbeing in our country. Despite being one…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992590546607971}
+{"content": "Footnoting History\n\n\nAll Episodes\n\n  Direct Link   Download 0 Minutes 04 Jan 2014\n\n(Esther) How did an unassuming office assistant from New York fool her way to the winners' circle of the 1980 Boston Marathon? The first major cheating scandal in long-distance runninghad nothing to do with drugs or endorsement deals, but with the shameless moxie of a woman whose journey into cheating infamy was probably more accidental than intentional.. . .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5815045833587646}
+{"content": "Potter, Landscape, Ham\n\nIt's possible that today's post will be the first in a regular feature. Due to the slow nature of my process, there isn't something coming out of my studio daily, or even each several days, that is post-ready. So, today I'll share some objects (and a person) I'm inspired by. Potter Christy Wert and I have been friends for over 30 years, and she has been a professional potter for almost that long. She came out of the \"Mingei-sota\" ceramics tradition, as it is often called, and studied with Warren MacKenzie at the University of Minnesota as well as others in that tradition. Her work is a joy to behold and use. In fact, I am enjoying my morning espresso in one of her cups as I write this. She tells me a website is coming, however until that time you can find out a bit more on her Facebook page, and purchase her pots at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. Christy lives and works in Glendive Montana.\n\nShe works with a porcelain clay. Her work is wheel thrown and hand-built. The designs are created with a sgraffito technique after the first glaze is applied.\n\nMikoshika vista\n\nMikoshika State Park is a 5 minute drive from Glendive, Montana. The name is Lakota for \"land of bad spirits.\"\n\nPotter and her dogs, Rocco (the Lab) and Louis", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6187032461166382}
+{"content": "Pathological flirt wikipedia\n\nwhat is a pathological flirt? | Yahoo Answers\n\nIn psychology, relationship obsessive–compulsive disorder (ROCD) is a form of obsessive–compulsive disorder focusing on intimate relationships. A pathological liar is someone who compulsively tells lies or fabricates If you're attracted to the suspected pathological liar, they may flirt with you when. Flirting or coquetry is a social and sexual behavior involving verbal or written communication, as well as body language, by one person to another, either to.\n\nArise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Office of War Information[9] [10] delivering speeches and writing articles to help the American soldiers better understand the British civilians, [11] and vice versa. She wrote of the Americans, \"The boy learns to make advances and rely upon the girl to repulse them whenever they are inappropriate to the state of feeling between the pair\", as contrasted to the British, where \"the girl is reared to depend upon a slight barrier of chilliness He wrote that courtship in both cultures used approximately 30 steps from \"first eye contact to the ultimate consummation\", but that the sequence of the steps was different.\n\nFor example, kissing might be an early step in the American pattern but a relatively intimate act in the English pattern. European hand fans[ edit ] Further information: European hand fans in the 18th century The fan was extensively used as a means of communication and therefore a way of flirting from the 16th century onwards in some European societies, especially England and Spain.\n\nA whole sign language was developed with the use of the fan, and even etiquette books and magazines were published. The use of the fan was not limited to women, as men also carried fans and learned how to convey messages with them. For instance, placing the fan near the heart meant \"I love you\", while opening a fan wide meant \"Wait for me\". This use was highly popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries.\n\nFlirting can indicate an interest in a deeper personal relationship with another person.\n\nFLIRT - FslWiki\n\nFor each of the programs described here, a usage message which describes the full list of available options can be obtained by running the program with no options. See also the list of common example usages.\n\nThe main options are: For these usages the reference volume must still be specified as this sets the voxel and image dimensions of the resulting volume. Cost Function Weighting Weighting volumes can be specified using -refweight, -inweight or both.\n\nNote that this is different from masking the original images, as masking introduces artificial boundaries whereas weighting does not.\n\nRelationship obsessive–compulsive disorder\n\nNote that it does not perform any search in 2D mode, and cannot deal with 2D to 3D registrations. Interpolation Methods This includes Nearest Neighbour, a family of Sinc-based methods three window types - rectangular, Hanning and Blackman with configurable window width, and spline a highly efficient method, with similar output characteristics to sinc. The interpolation is only used for the final transformation and in applyxfmnot in the registration calculations.\n\nIn addition, there is the BBR cost function which utilises a segmentation of the reference image to define a boundary, and it is the intensity differences in the input image, across the transformed boundary, that contribute to the cost. The pre-requisites to use this method are: This script will either use an existing white-matter segmentation of the structural image, or create one itself, to define a white-matter boundary.\n\nWe recommend that the structural image is bias-corrected separately beforehand if there is obvious bias field present. The script is also capable of using fieldmaps to perform simultaneous registration and EPI distortion-correction. The inputs echospacing and pedir both refer to the EPI image not the fieldmap and are the same as required for FEATbut be careful to use the correct units. It can read and write ascii 4x4 matrices.\n\nIn addition, it can be used to concatenate two transforms using -concat with the second transform or to find the inverse transformation using -inverse. If the option -mm is used then both input and output coordinates will be in mm coordinates, otherwise with -vox both coordinates will be in voxel coordinates.\n\nFor conversion between voxel and mm coordinates it is necessary to use either img2stdcoord or std2imgcoord see below. Note that the source coordinates can either be input via a file or via a pipe and for the latter the \"-\" symbol is used as the filename.\n\nThe format in either case is three numbers per line, space separated. To avoid this use the pipe input format or suppress the final line: The coordinates for the source image can be either in voxel coordinates default, or by explicitly using -vox or in mm coordinates using -mm.\n\nSexual addiction\n\nHis diagnostic model is still largely utilized by the thousands of certified sex addiction therapists CSATs trained by the organization he founded.\n\nIndividuals with this diagnosis sometimes engage in sexual behaviors that can appear out of control, distressing the individual or attracting negative reactions from others.\n\nThis may lead to inappropriate or incomplete treatment. Treatment This section needs more medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. Please review the contents of the section and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged and removed. June Counselling As ofnone of the official regulatory bodies for Psychosexual Counselling or Sex and Relationship therapyhave accepted sex addiction as a distinct entity with associated treatment protocols.\n\nIndeed, some practitioners regard sex addiction as a potentially harmful diagnosis and draw parallels with gay conversion therapy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9282134771347046}
+{"content": "Quiz: How Dark Is Your Personality According to Your Music Preferences?\nHow Dark Is Your Personality According to Your Music Preferences?\nBy: Talin Vartanian\nImage: Shutterstock\n\nAbout This Quiz\n\nHuman beings may be connected through language, food and spirituality, but there's a piece of this puzzle that we may often forget about: music. Song lyrics, instruments and vocals have a way of bringing people together under the same sky, whether it's music festivals, clubs, bars or concerts. Like many forms of art, music is entirely subjective and there are no right or wrong preferences. However, some artists and bands have impacted the world with their poetic songwriting skills and unique vocal cords.\n\nThere are many different genres. Some of the more popular ones include hip-hop, rap, country, and, of course, rock music. In fact, you're probably familiar with legendary rock bands like The Rolling Stones, Heart, Blondie and the Beatles. Certain songs have also topped Billboard's \"Hot 100 Singles,\" such as \"Physical\" by Olivia-Newton John, \"Hey Jude\" by the Beatles and \"Every Breath You Take\" by The Police. But if you're not into rock or pop music, then perhaps some \"chill-out\" or \"ambient house\" music will relax you after a rough day. Whatever your preferences, we're eager to find out more about you with this musical quiz!\n\n1 of 30\nIt's 5:00 p.m. and you're stuck in traffic, but that's OK since you're listening to ...\n\n2 of 30\nFill in the blank: You couldn't pay me $200 to listen to _________ music for an hour.\n\n3 of 30\nWhen you're studying or doing some work, do you prefer to listen to music, white noise or silence?\n\n4 of 30\nWhich of these classic bands would you have loved to see in concert?\n\n5 of 30\nIf you could spend an hour with one of these legendary musicians, who would you pick?\n\n6 of 30\nWhich of these instruments would you love to learn how to play?\n\n7 of 30\nYou've scored some free tickets to a music festival of your choice! Which of these will you pick?\n\n8 of 30\nDo you prefer to listen to remixes, acoustic music or original versions of songs?\n\n9 of 30\nChoose one of these musical video games to receive as a gift for Christmas.\n\n10 of 30\nIf you were going to make a movie about your life, who would you hire to compose the soundtrack?\n\n11 of 30\nWhen you listen to music, do you care more about the lyrics, the instruments or the voice(s)?\n\n13 of 30\nYou can only listen to one of these American boy bands for the rest of your life. Which one will you choose?\n\n14 of 30\nLet's settle this debate once and for all: Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC?\n\n15 of 30\nThere are many movies that have great soundtracks. Which of these movies has the best soundtrack to you?\n\n16 of 30\nDo you typically find new music through recommendations from friends or by accident?\n\n17 of 30\nImagine listening to your favorite song. What emotions are flowing through your soul?\n\n18 of 30\nWhich of these white noise sounds helps to calm your mind after a stressful day?\n\n19 of 30\nYou're having a rough day, which means it's time to drown your sorrows with which of these sad songs?\n\n20 of 30\nIt's time for some upbeat pop music! Which of these pop artists gives you a burst of energy?\n\n21 of 30\nLet's face it, the Beatles would not be as good without which of these key members?\n\n22 of 30\nYou're on a road trip with a friend who loves country music. Which of these artists will you listen to in order to make your friend happy?\n\n23 of 30\nTechno music isn't for everyone, but how do you feel about it?\n\n24 of 30\nWhich of these female bands could you listen to for hours without feeling bored?\n\n25 of 30\nLet's take a quick trip to the past with one of these '90s songs. Which of these resonates with you the most?\n\n26 of 30\nMusic has evolved quite a bit through each generation. Which generation of music is your personal favorite?\n\n27 of 30\nSome people love Skrillex; others love Deadmau5. Who reigns supreme to you?\n\n28 of 30\nWould it be more fun for you to write music or create music with instruments?\n\n29 of 30\nIf you were getting married, which of these DJ's would you hire to play at your wedding?\n\nReceive a hint after watching this short video from our sponsors.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9067502021789551}
+{"content": "AeroMobil statement regarding a test flight on May 8, 2015\n\nThe pilot activated an advanced parachute system and safely landed.\n\n\n\nThe AeroMobil 3.0 experimental prototype is currently undergoing a rigorous analysis and testing programme. During one of the test flights that took place on May 8, 2015, the inventor and test pilot, Stefan Klein, encountered an unexpected situation and activated the advanced ballistic parachute system in an altitude of approximately 300 meters (900 feet).\n\nThe system has proved itself fully functional and landed the entire vehicle without any injury to the pilot. The detailed data and overall experience from this test flight will be thoroughly analyzed and the results will be used in the ongoing R&D and improvements of the prototype. Testing of the current prototype 3.0 and further product development will continue after the replacement of the damaged parts.\n\nIn the process of developing new vehicles, especially in the prototype phase, the possibility and likelihood of an unexpected situation is a natural part of the testing program. This is a learning period which allows us to detect and subsequently refine our design. It is necessary to test the prototype in every way possible to establish its limits and to improve on them. The flight recording details will help us learn from the data and improve the performance of the vehicle prior to our next flight test.\n\nAbout AeroMobil\n\nAeroMobil is a leader in mobility in three dimensions with a vision to liberate personal mobility from the ground and into the skies. AeroMobil develops the most flexible, capable and efficient range of personal aerial vehicles (PAVs) designed for door to door travel in intra and inter-urban environments, reducing congestion and emissions while increasing proximity and convenience for citizens, cities and society. \n\nAeroMobil is pioneering the development and commercialisation of flying cars, developing cutting edge technology to produce a range of vehicles for short take-off and landing (STOL) and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). This includes electric propulsion systems, battery technology and control systems for piloted and autonomous flight for transportation on the ground and in the air to support short and longe range personal air travel with eVTOLs. \n\nAeroMobil adopts an iterative approach to the development of personal air transportation in line with technology readiness, legislation and market acceptance. We believe the future offers unbounded opportunity for air mobility at scale but requires a pragmatic and considered approach to ensure technology and solutions implemented are safe, reliable and effective through partnership and collaboration with regulators, governments and cities to realise the benefits of all. \n\nThe first flying car from AeroMobil provides increased flexibility and versatility for the customer as it combines the best of automotive and aerospace technology into one vehicle while respecting the limits of current technology and the regulatory environment. It is the first step in our journey towards air Mobility-as-a-service (aMaaS) which will make personal transportation vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly by allowing significantly faster door-to-door travel over short and medium distances, and in areas with limited road or public transport infrastructure.\n\nPrípojná 5,\n821 06 Bratislava", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.979439377784729}
+{"content": "Traditional Chinese Medicine\n\nTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) traditional Chinese: is a style of traditional medicine built on a foundation of more than 2,500 years of Chinese medical practice that includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage (tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy, but recently also influenced by modern Western medicine. TCM is widely used in Greater China (where it has long been the standard system of medicine), and is becoming increasingly popular and recognized worldwide (where it is primarily approached as alternative medicine).\n\nOne of the basic tenets of TCM is that “the body’s vital energy (chi or qi) circulates through channels, called meridians, that have branches connected to bodily organs and functions.  ” Concepts of the body and of disease used in TCM reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, similar to European humoral theory.\n\nThe doctrines of Chinese medicine are rooted in books such as the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon and the Treatise on Cold Damage, as well as in cosmological notions such as yin-yang and the five phases. Starting in the 1950s, these precepts were standardized in the People’s Republic of China, including attempts to integrate them with modern notions of anatomy and pathology. In the 1950s, the Chinese government promoted a systematized form of TCM.\n\n\nYour Privacy Is Safe", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8909857869148254}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    The Soft Drink Series uses the same, best-selling formula as Best BCAA™, a muscle-building and recovery supplement that contains the three branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs): leucine, isoleucine and valine. These aminos support muscle growth, recovery and performance.\n\n    The Soft Drink Series is different in that in comes in four, irresistible flavors that have been lightly carbonated, adding a refreshing, soda-like fizz! Choose from Root Beer, Cream Soda, Orange Soda and Grape Soda.\n\n    MUSCLE BUILDING–BCAAs play an essential role in muscle building because they promote protein synthesis.\n\n    PREVENT MUSCLE BREAKDOWN–By acting as an energy source, BCAAs help prevent muscle breakdown.\n\n    RECOVERY–BCAAs are the key amino acids necessary to help rebuild muscle and reduce soreness after a workout.\n\n    PERFORMANCE–BCAAs are broken down for energy, which may help you perform better during your workout.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.878890872001648}
+{"content": " 1971 | This day in history\nThis Day In History\nSunday, May 26, 2019\nOn This Day\n\n\n\nApril 19, 1971\n\nLaunch of Salyut 1,...\nLaunch of Salyut 1, the first space station. Salyut 1 (DOS-1) was the first space station of any kind, launched by the USSR on April 19, 1971. It was launched unmanned using a Proton-K rocket. Its first crew came later in Soyuz 10, but was unable to dock completely; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 days. A pressure-equalization valve in the Soyuz 11 reentry capsule opened prematurely when the crew was returning, killing all three. Following the accident, missions were temporarily suspended and the station was burned in the atmosphere purposely after a total of 6 months in orbit.\nSalyut 1, space station, space\n\nMay 30, 1971\n\n<i>Mariner 9</i> is launched...\nMariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars. Mariner 9 is a NASA space orbiter that helped in the exploration of Mars and was part of the Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet — only narrowly beating Soviet Mars 2 and Mars 3, which both arrived within a month. After months of dust-storms it managed to send back clear pictures of the surface.\nMariner program, Mariner 9, Mars, space\n\n\nJune 16, 1971\nTupac Shakur\n\nTupac Amaru Shakur, known by his stage names 2Pac, Pac, and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground.\nOctober 20, 1971\nSnoop Dogg\n\nCalvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr., better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, entrepreneur, and marijuana activist. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.\nOctober 29, 1971\nWinona Ryder\n\nDecember 25, 1971\n\nDido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong, known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.\n\n\nJanuary 10, 1971\nCoco Chanel\n\nGabrielle Bonheur \"Coco\" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel. Her extraordinary influence on fashion was such that she was the only person in the couturier field to be named on Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.\nDecember 6, 1971\nMathilde Kschessinska\n\nMathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya was a Russian ballerina from a family of Polish origin. Her father Feliks Krzesiński and her brother both danced in St. Petersburg. She eventually attained the highest rank, that of prima ballerina assoluta. She was also a mistress of the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7494378685951233}
+{"content": "Review: The Shadow in the Moon by Christina Matula\n\nThe Shadow in the Moon A Tale of the Mid-Autumn Festival by Christina Matula\n\nThe Shadow in the Moon: A Tale of the Mid-Autumn Festival by Christina Matula, illustrated by Pearl Law (9781580897464)\n\nThe whole family gathers for the Mid-Autumn Festival to give thanks for the harvest. They will look at the moon and then each person makes a wish for the upcoming year. As the mooncakes are served, Ah-ma tells the story of Chang’e, the Spirit and Lady in the Moon. It was in a time when there were ten suns in the sky, baking the earth. The suns would not listen and stop shining so hard, so a young archer, Hou Yi, shot down nine of the moons. The last one he asked to share the sky with the moon. Hou Yi was given a magic potion for his courage by the Immortals. When a thief came to steal the potion, Hou Yi’s wife, Chang’e, drank it rather than have it fall into the wrong hands. The potion turned her into the Spirit and Lady in the Moon. Hou Yi discovered what had happened and would sit in the garden and look up at the moon, providing mooncakes on the anniversary of the day she transformed. After the story, the girls are ready to light their paper lanterns and make their wishes, inspired by the heroism of Hou Yi and Chang’e.\n\nMatula merges a modern tale of a Chinese family with the legend that inspired this festival. The two stories are clearly separate, which works really well for a young audience. Her writing is clear, describing the mooncakes in a mouthwatering way and the inspiring actions of the legendary characters in a way that allows the melancholy yet beautiful tale to shine. The illustrations also make a clear distinction between the stories. The modern family is shown on white backgrounds that are clean and crisp. The legend is shown with primarily deep jeweled colors as the background, inviting readers into the richness of the tale.\n\nA wonderful and warm introduction to Chinese festivals, this picture book offers a look at how festivals carry on in modern society while also telling the story behind it all. Appropriate for ages 4-6.\n\nReviewed from copy provided by Charlesbridge.\n\nReview: Game Changers by Lesa Cline-Ransome\n\nGame Changers The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Lesa Cline-Ransome\n\nGame Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome (9781481476843)\n\nThe childhood of Venus and Serena is told in this picture book biography. As the youngest of the Williams children, they started playing tennis alongside their older sisters. Then they became the two who continued on. Growing up in Compton made their practices more challenging, including sometimes having to stay down when guns were fired in the neighborhood. The two remained dedicated to their sport, quickly climbing the ranks and becoming ranked players. Trained from a young age to ignore the taunts from the crowd, the two of them became two of the best players of all time, both in doubles and singles. There has been drama when the two sisters had to play one another in tournaments and still they showed a joy in one another’s accomplishments even when they were the loser.\n\nA look at two girls who shared their father’s dreams for them, putting in the hard work, showing resilience and silencing critics. The book focuses on Venus and Serena themselves and also on the way that they have supported one another through wins and losses, staying close and being true sisters. The illustrations are exceptional works of collage that have strong colors and graphic elements that pop on the page. Small touches add interesting details, like the girls’ socks being made from paper with words and lines.\n\nBeautiful, strong and inspiring, this look at two modern legends is a pleasure. Appropriate for ages 6-9.\n\nReviewed from copy provided by Simon & Schuster.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6716188192367554}
+{"content": "Limitations And Issues\n\nUnlike the majority of controlled-, sustained-, or extended-release systems in use, the extent of response in the lungs will be limited by intrinsic clearance mechanisms [110]. It will be surprising, but not unwelcome, if any deposited dosage form can extend the effective duration of action much beyond a day. Twenty-four hours would, in fact, be a significant achievement.\n\nAnother issue is reproducibility. The formulation may work perfectly in an in vitro test system, but the dosage form requires aerosolization, and lung deposition is a function of the characteristics of the aerosol (dose, mass concentration, droplet/particle size, etc.) and the nature of the inspiratory maneuver, a factor that the patient has control over. These factors can influence performance to a far greater extent than can be \"built\" into a particle, and thus the term controlled does not seem a defensible objective for pulmonary delivery. The vagaries of the deposition profile and of the amount that will deposit also imply that sustaining a certain drug concentration is a difficult proposition, but the loosest definition extended release, seems an acceptable goal within the boundaries set by the clearance mechanisms.\n\nA basic concern is the limited set of materials that can be safely packaged with a drug. It is the inactive components that impart flexibility to a dosage form. Unfortunately, relatively few materials have been thoroughly evaluated for use in pulmonary products, and only one excipient, lactose, is approved for general use. From a pharmaceutical perspective, lactose is less than ideal, being a reducing sugar, a characteristic that can have implications for protein and peptide stability [111,112]. Not surprisingly therefore, various other sugars, such as nonreducing trehalose, are being used with the tacit but reasonable assumption that they are safe. Several others are found in combination with a specific product (e.g., the components of lung surfactant) and thus have been employed in delivery systems. Other, untested compounds that are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) by other routes of administration might also be evaluated. However, the use by one route does not mean that the use via another is appropriate. Despite the efficiency of the clearance mechanisms, there are general concerns that the introduction of polymeric carriers, for example, may result in toxicity through chronic use. This may be via gradual accumulation of poorly absorbed components of limited biodegradability or, if degraded, the byproducts could result in local inflammation. So the context of the use and the characteristics of the proposed material must be carefully weighed. The more adventurous investigators and companies have also begun to explore novel entities such as sugar-lipid conjugates [Quadrant—Elan] that ultimately should expand the choice of materials that can be used in pulmonary products.\n\nThe boundary between classification as an excipient or as an active component is not always easy to differentiate. Testing required in stability programs and accompanying documentation must be expanded to satisfy chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC) requirements during clinical development. Thus, the additional efforts and costs to develop the formulation must be balanced by the benefits expected from the inclusion of the additives. The state of the excipient must also be considered. Is the dosage form dominated by an amorph or crystalline polymorph of an identical excipient? Will the product be affected by phase transitions occurring at body temperature that would not be seen at room-temperature storage? Does the cellular response to the additive(s) differ from that using the drug alone? Are there acute changes in tonicity after lung deposition? Multiple questions like these may have to be addressed, if not to provide supporting application data, then to provide peace of mind to the developer.\n\nExperimental modeling and analytical testing is an ever-present problem. The lining layer of a human lung consists of an ill-defined steady-state volume of approximately 40 mL spread over a surface area of between 70 and 140 m2 [113]. Furthermore, the surface of the alveolar lining fluid consists of an ever-changing lipid-protein monolayer [114], whereas within the airways this layer is a complicated mixture of mucopolysaccharides, surfactant, DNA and various proteins [115-117]. It is not a simple matter to mimic such a medium on the bench: Lavage fluid has been used, but this is a highly diluted, variable, and often-contaminated solution (blood, cells) and fails to represent the medium in a physiologically relevant arrangement. Dissolution from a rotating disk or within a standard dissolution apparatus will always generate data, but there is no assurance that this information will predict what may happen in vivo. A number of attempts have been made to resolve, at least in part, this situation. McConville et al. [118] have been exploring the use of modified twin-stage impinger to deposit and monitor drug release, while other attempts have monitored release from aerosol deposits on filters [119]. No approach is ideal, and significantly more work is necessary to establish a test apparatus that can generate data at a reasonable experimental throughput and that investigators can have confidence in.\n\nWhy is an in vitro test system needed? Because it is far easier to generate formulations for testing than it is to conduct a thorough evaluation in small-animal models whose relevance to the human lung architecture is tenuous at best [120]. Furthermore, the mode of delivery often dictates the data that will be observed. Intratracheal instillation or insufflation is not representative of aerosol delivery and is difficult to perform reproducibly. The technique is useful for initially determining if a pharmacological response will be observed or if absorption takes place, but no conclusions should be drawn regarding the nature of absorption-vs.-time profiles. In contrast, aerosol delivery is expensive, complicated to set up and monitor, and time consuming. There is also no standardization of models or delivery technique. The upshot is that results cannot be generated rapidly and that even under the best of circumstances data will be highly variable, requiring a large number of animals to statistically discriminate between formulations.\n\nDealing With Asthma Naturally\n\nDealing With Asthma Naturally\n\n\nGet My Free Ebook\n\nPost a comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6448187232017517}
+{"content": "Aloe Vera (also aloe, barbados or curacao aloe) is a plant of the Xanthorrhoeaceae family, native to North and East Africa, but also introduced in the Peruvian Andes, the Arabian Peninsula, Canary Islands, central Chile, Puerto Rico and Mexico. It is a perennial plant with succulent leaves that can reach 20 feet long and 2 feet wide.\n\n\n- Powerful cell regenerator (stimulates the production of new cells)\n\n- High skin penetration\n\n- Kills bacteria and fatty deposits that clog pores\n\n- Removes stains caused by sun’s overexposure\n\n- Prevents premature wrinkles and delays the signs of aging", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999959468841553}
+{"content": "Mila Oktay Mila Oktay\n\nB1 level\n\n\nIn this GD lesson SS will learn the words think, see and have, and their stative and dynamic form meanings. The lesson will start with a GTKY activity and proceed to setting the context with a short free discussion intended to bring out passive knowledge and create interest for the next activity. Then SS will read a short dialogue containing the TL and perform reading for gist and reading for detail tasks. After that T will clarify M,F and P of the language and get SS to complete two short controlled practices. At the end there will be a free speaking practice.\n\n\nAbc Pre-reading discussion questions\nAbc OHT Dialogue\nAbc HO Dialogue\nAbc HO p.9, ex.3\nAbc HO p.9, ex.1 - Circle the correct answer\n\nMain Aims\n\n  • By the end of this lesson SS will be able to recognise and use verbs with two meanings - have, see and think\n\nSubsidiary Aims\n\n  • Productive skill speaking, sub-skills speaking for fluency\n  • Receptive skill reading, sub-skills reading for gist and reading for detail\n\n\n1. GTKY Activity - Warm-up (4-5 minutes) • To set a good rapport with SS, learn their names and get them to learn each other's names.\n\n-Draw your name game -On the WB draw pictures for each letter of my name. -Elicit the meaning of the pictures, and my name. Now draw a picture for each letter of your name. ICQs: Do you write your name on the piece of paper? (no) Do you use English or Turkish words? (English) -Monitor -Model with a S - Try to guess your partner's name from the pictures. Everybody, stand up, find a partner and try to guess his/her name. -Monitor -Shuffle pairs FB - Ask SS about other SS' names.\n\n2. Lead-in - Pre-reading discussion (4-6 minutes) • To set a context and bring out SS' passive knowledge of the TL\n\n-Group class into pairs -HO discussion questions Person A: Where are you thinking of going this summer holiday? Are you thinking of leaving Istanbul? Person B: What do you think about camping in the nature? What do you think about Istanbul? -Monitor\n\n3. Reading for gist (4-5 minutes) • To show the TL within context\n\nRead this short dialogue and compare your answers with Maria and Deniz's. -Monitor Talk to your partner, is it similar to what you discussed earlier or different? -FB - Elicit answers\n\n4. Reading for detail (2-4 minutes) • To draw attention to the TL\n\nRead again and underline the verbs in the dialogue. -Monitor -Peer check -FB - Project the dialogue on the WB and elicit SS' answers.\n\n5. Language Clarification - State or action? (3-6 minutes) • To clarify meaning and form of TL\n\n-Use OHT from the previous stage to clarify meaning and form. Is it present continuous or present simple? Does the verb ''think'' have the same meaning in both sentences? What does it mean in both sentences? (If the SS are struggling to answer- Which sentence expresses an opinion? Which sentence means I am trying to make a decision?) Does the verb ''see'' have the same meaning in both sentences? What does it mean in the first sentence? What does it mean in the second sentence? And what about the verb ''have''? -Highlight the form sub + thinking of/about + -ing -Highlight the weak form -Drill\n\n6. Controlled Practice (2-5 minutes) • To practise the TL\n\nCircle the correct answer. Work in pairs. -HO p.9, ex. 1 -Monitor -Peer check -FB - (If there is time and if SS' level allows it) Look at the sentences and your answers, and explain the meaning to your partner. For example, ''I think this is probably the best programme I've seen all year.'' is an opinion.\n\n7. Controlled Practice (3-4 minutes) • To practise the TL\n\nComplete the sentences with see, have or think in the present simple or present continuous. -HO p.9, ex.3 -Monitor -Peer check -FB\n\n8. Freer Practice - Speaking (7-10 minutes) • To give SS a chance to practise the TL using personal information\n\nThink about yourselves. What are your plans or opinions? Think about some sentences with these words that you can discuss with your partner. -Elicit ideas and write them on the board. -Group the class in pairs. Have them speak about themselves using only stative verbs. Then using only dynamic verbs. -Delayed error correction\n\nWeb site designed by: Nikue", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6717629432678223}
+{"content": "Distance from San Marino to Honiara\n\nAir distance from San Marino, San Marino to Honiara, Solomon Islands is 9374.9 Miles (15087.5 Kilometers / 8141.2 Nautical Miles).\n\nFlight duration time from San Marino to Honiara\n\n19 hrs, 28 mins is the flight duration between San Marino and Honiara. This is the In-The-Air flight time. You should also add the taxi time, airport wait times and possible delays due to bad weather, etc. for the total flight duration time.\n\nYou can find out what time you arrive at your destination (Honiara) by checking \"San Marino to Honiara time converter\" page.\nSan Marino: 43° 56' North; 12° 26' East\nHoniara: 9° 56' South; 160° 00' East\n\nAirports in Honiara:\n  • Honiara International Airport (HIR)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9475215077400208}
+{"content": "Specialeforsvar i fysik – Københavns Universitet\n\nSpecialeforsvar i fysik\n\nSpecialestuderende: Kuno Rasmussen Harsbo\n\nVejleder: Ricardo Karam (IND)\n\nCensor: Keld Nielsen (Århus Universitet)\n\n\nA qualitative case study on temperature in Danish high school textbooks, based on a historic review of the invention of temperature\n\n\nHow has the concept of temperature historically been constructed? Which different approaches to temperature can be found in physics? How do these approaches manifest in educational material, specifically physics books aimed at Danish high school students? These are the main research questions of my thesis project. My ultimate goal is to analyze the qualitative meaning of temperature presented in Danish high school books. As a basis for this analysis, I will begin with a historical review of how temperature was invented and redefined throughout the centuries. As a part of this review, I will present an overview of the different frameworks for temperature still in use in contemporary physics education. Finally, I will use this overview in a case study on how temperature is presented in a selection of Danish high school physics textbooks.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000065565109253}
+{"content": "All matter exists in one of three states. Solid, liquid or gas. As solids heat up they become liquid (melting) then turn into gas (evaporating). As gasses are cooled they become liquids (condensation) and then with more cooling, solids (freezing). Sound travels fastest in solids and slowest in gases. Each clip contains examples of different states or changes in state. When listening, try to work out what states are present. Are there any changes in state?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999627470970154}
+{"content": "Blog: Which are the best games to play when a lecture gets boring?\n\nThis is part of Blogger's week competition hosted on our Facebook page.\n\nWrite a blog of around 500-600 words about this topic and send it over to - [email protected]\n\nIf you win over hearts of our panelists, you'll get handsome prize. (Like Wildcraft bag or Skullcandy headphones? sounds good.)\n\nblog college fun bloggerweek • 567 views\nmodified 2.6 years ago  • written 2.6 years ago by gravatar for Yashbeer Yashbeer ♦♦ 150\nPlease log in to add an answer.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9915049076080322}
+{"content": "SSH using Linux or Mac OS\n\nYou can use SSH to connect to your Raspberry Pi from a Linux computer, a Mac, or another Raspberry Pi, without installing additional software.\n\nYou will need to know your Raspberry Pi's IP address to connect to it. To find this, type hostname -I from your Raspberry Pi terminal.\n\nIf you are running the Pi without a screen (headless), you can also look at the device list on your router or use a tool like nmap, which is described in detail in our IP Address document.\n\nTo connect to your Pi from a different computer, copy and paste the following command into the terminal window but replace <IP> with the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. Use Ctrl + Shift + V to paste in the terminal.\n\nssh [email protected]<IP>\n\nIf you receive a connection timed out error it is likely that you have entered the wrong IP address for the Raspberry Pi.\n\nWhen the connection works you will see a security/authenticity warning. Type yes to continue. You will only see this warning the first time you connect.\n\nIn the event your Pi has taken the IP address of a device to which your computer has connected before (even if this was on another network), you may be given a warning and asked to clear the record from your list of known devices. Following this instruction and trying the ssh command again should be successful.\n\nNext you will be prompted for the password for the pi login: the default password on Raspbian is raspberry. For security reasons it is highly recommended to change the default password on the Raspberry Pi. You should now be able to see the Raspberry Pi prompt, which will be identical to the one found on the Raspberry Pi itself.\n\nIf you have set up another user on the Raspberry Pi, you can connect to it in the same way, replacing the username with your own, e.g. [email protected]\n\n[email protected] ~ $\n\nYou are now connected to the Pi remotely, and can execute commands.\n\n\nYou can also forward your X session over SSH, to allow the use of graphical applications, by using the -Y flag:\n\nssh -Y [email protected]\n\nNote that X11 is no longer present on Macs with OSX, so you will have to download and install it.\n\nNow you are on the command line as before, but you have the ability to open up graphical windows. For example, typing:\n\nidle3 &\n\nwill open up the Python editor IDLE in a graphical window.\n\n\nscratch &\n\nwill open up Scratch.\n\nFor further documentation on the ssh command just enter man ssh into the Terminal.\n\nTo configure your Pi to allow passwordless SSH access with a public/private key pair, see the passwordless SSH guide.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9934622049331665}
+{"content": "Identifying as a woman, having a certain skin color, adhering (or not adhering) to a certain religious belief or political ideology, having a certain sexual orientation, seeking a better life in another country, having a certain socioeconomic status, and being disabled are all factors that affect people’s social status, access to justice, privileges, power, and ability to make their own decisions.\n\nAlthough international treaties and the constitutions of many countries around the world prohibit discrimination, in practice, women and girls face enormous obstacles to equality and full enjoyment of their rights based on one or more of these factors.\n\nDiscrimination against women and girls is one of the most widespread forms of inequality in the world. This is why we work to change the equation, both by providing tools and knowledge to attorneys and activists committed to incorporating a gender perspective into their work and by engaging in public discourse so that discriminatory actions against women will be questioned and condemned by society.\n\nWith our experience analyzing precedent and jurisprudence, and through the professional relationships we have developed with many judicial officers and organizations involved in legal work, including institutes of legal studies and law schools, we develop and document legal arguments and strategies to eliminate the barriers to access to justice that women face.\n\n\nWe work to develop tools and knowledge so that legal professionals may identify and eliminate the prejudices and stereotypes that perpetuate and propagate discrimination. We promote public discourse on the importance of using the power of law to guarantee equality.\n\nCookies allow us to improve our services. By continuing to browse the site, you agree to our use of cookies. See more information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9924048781394958}
+{"content": "The Pentel Tradio produces a variety of lines depending on the angle and pressure applied. In the photo of the close-up nib, you can find the top and bottom plastic in different length. The top helps to hold the felt tip and allow more pressure to be applied to the writing. Because of the special design of tip, Tradio is also knicknamed as \"plastic fountain pen\".", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.643166720867157}
+{"content": "(redirected from Equilibrium Rate of Unemployment)\nERUEmergency Response Unit (Special Irish Police Unit)\nERUEngineering Research Unit (University of Moratuwa; Sri Lanka)\nERUEmission Reduction Unit\nERUEquivalent Residential Units\nERUEmergency Recovery Utility\nERUEngineering Release Unit\nERUEquipment Replacement Unit\nERUError Return Address Update\nERUEskie Rescuers United (Cedar Rapids, IA American Eskimo dog rescue)\nERUEquilibrium Rate of Unemployment (economics)\nERUEmergency Recovery Utility (Microsoft)\nERUEvent Request Unit (Infineon Technologies)\nERUExternal Relations Unit (Australia)\nERUEnergy Research Unit (UK)\nERUEquine Recurrent Uveitis\nERUEmergency Relief Unit\nERUEmpresa de Renovación Urbana (Colombia)\nERUEjector Release Unit\nERUEarth-Rate Unit\nERUEmergency Recovery Unit\nERUEdmonton Rugby Union\nERUEagle Rock Underground\nERUEquipment Replaceable Unit\nERUEstimated Residential Unit\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nHowever, according to Turner et al (2001) the derived measure of equilibrium unemployment corresponds more closely to a measure of the long-run equilibrium rate of unemployment rather than the NAIRU which commonly appears in reduced-form Phillips curve specifications.\n2% estimate of the equilibrium rate of unemployment.\nThere is also some evidence that the equilibrium rate of unemployment, often referred to as the NAIRU, has increased since the onset of the financial crisis.\nThen note that the rate of change of the unemployment rate should be a linear function of the difference between the equilibrium rate of unemployment and the unemployment rate of the previous time period:\nThe structuralist hypothesis--see Phelps (1994) and Phelps and Zoega (1998)--tries to explain the rise in European unemployment through the adjustment to an underlying equilibrium rate of unemployment which has increased in response to structural factors of the labor market and the economy in general.\nRegression I in Table 1 estimates the standard inflation equation with a constant equilibrium rate of unemployment.\nMoreover, the equilibrium rate of unemployment may have changed in several instances through time.\nProductivity growth, wage setting and the equilibrium rate of unemployment.\nTo put it another way, the so-called equilibrium rate of unemployment -- that is, the level of unemployment consistent with stable development in prices and wages -- is somewhat lower than the actual unemployment rate.\nWithin such a framework, it is useful to identify three distinct concepts: the NAIRU (with no qualifying adjective), the short-term NAIRU and the long-term equilibrium rate of unemployment.\nt] is the estimated equilibrium rate of unemployment and [MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is non-modelled employment.\nThe model in each country is of a natural rate (or NAIRU--non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) type with an equilibrium rate of unemployment and out of equilibrium behaviour of the `expectations augmented Phillips curve' type.\nFull browser ?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9512695670127869}
+{"content": "Tag Archives: Melittin IC50\n\n\nThe success of social animals (including ourselves) can be attributed to efficiencies that arise from a division of labour. when the record signal reaches a level it has never perceived before could be a very effective mechanism to postpone, until the last possible moment, a potentially fatal decision. We also show that record dynamics may be involved in first exits by individually tagged ants even when their nest mates are allowed to re-enter the nest. So record dynamics may play a role in allocating individuals to tasks, both in emergencies and in everyday life. The dynamics of several complex but purely physical systems are also based on record signals but this is the first time they have been experimentally shown in a biological system. Introduction Ant societies are shaped by Melittin IC50 selection that operates, in part, at the level of the colony [1], so the success of the individual is intimately bound to that of its colony. Outside-nest work is dangerous and the rate of attrition of outside-nest workers through predation or adverse environmental conditions is often high. The life-cycles of ant societies are dominated by growth or decline [2]. Thus they are rarely at a steady state and are typically non-stationary. Here we induce non-stationarity by permanently eliminating all ants that exit the nest and compare these colonies with controls in which ants can freely leave and re-enter the nest. We use analytical methods developed for the analysis of out-of-equilibrium physical systems to explore the nature of the mechanism governing the decisions of individual ants to leave the nest. Indeed, biological systems are, like other systems in Nature, generically non-equilibrium systems since they are not isolated from external influences and continuously have a flux of mass or energy passing through them [3]. The null model for a system in which successive events are drawn from a diminishing pool is one with an exponentially declining event rate, as in radioactive decay. In this scenario there are either no interactions between the components or interactions between the components are not correlated with decay events. The simplest form of radioactive decay is one in which all the components have an identical decay probability, which can be modelled as a homogeneous Poisson process. Obviously ants are not all identical, so for our null model we implement a heterogeneous Poisson process by assuming that the component parts (the ants) vary in their decay (i.e. exit) probabilities. An alternative scenario that produces rapidly decreasing event rates is one in which events are triggered when a fluctuating variable – the record signal Melittin IC50 – exceeds its historical high water mark. If the record signal fluctuates randomly, the increment between successive record values becomes progressively smaller and the rate at which new records accrue drops Melittin IC50 Melittin IC50 off according to the inverse of time [4], [5]. Hence the rate of change is a function of the age of the system. An intuitive example of a rapidly decelerating record time-series (albeit one that is probably not based on record signals as defined in complex systems) is the accumulation of human sporting records, where the rate at which new records accumulate depends largely on the age of the sport [6], [7]. All cases in which fluctuating record signals trigger events, include strong interactions between the component parts and involve long-range correlations that span the entire system [8], [9], [10], [11]. While exponential decay is characterised by Poisson statistics in linear time, record dynamics is characterised by Poisson statistics in logarithmic time [4], [5], [8], [12], [13], [14]. What mechanism can generate such log-Poisson statistics? A fluctuating record signal will only produce log-Poisson statistics if each successive value TRADD of the underlying fluctuating signal is independent of its predecessors. Independence of the fluctuating record signal leads the record times to be uncorrelated in logarithmic time, so the record value at time log (Tk) is independent of previous records at time log (Tk-n). Crucially, the distribution of the underlying fluctuating signal from which the record signal is derived, must not change over time. Quite remarkably, irrespective of the probability distribution of the underlying fluctuating signal, records will accrue at a logarithmically decreasing rate [5]. We test whether nest leaving activity is compatible with either of two models of rapidly decelerating events: exponential decay as a null model or record dynamics. We further test the effects of heterogeneous units and varying colony size on the exponential decay model through a simulation parameterised from data. Materials and Methods Experiments Fifteen colonies were collected from rock crevices in Dorset, UK. They were housed in nests constructed from a cardboard cavity sandwiched between a pair.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5057140588760376}
+{"content": "Theory Seminar: List-decoding for Reed-Muller Codes\n\nשחר לווט (מכון ויצמן למדע)\nיום רביעי, 6.5.2009, 15:00\nחדר 337, בניין טאוב למדעי המחשב\n\nThe widely held belief that BQP strictly contains BPP raises fundamental questions: Upcoming generations of quantum computers might already be too large to be simulated classically. Is it possible to experimentally test that these systems perform as they should, if we cannot efficiently compute predictions for their behavior? Vazirani has asked [Vaz07]: If computing predictions for Quantum Mechanics requires exponential resources, is Quantum Mechanics a falsifiable theory? In cryptographic settings, an untrusted future company wants to sell a quantum computer or perform a delegated quantumcomputation. Can the customer be convinced of correctness without the ability to compare results to predictions?\n\nTo provide answers to these questions, we define Quantum Prover Interactive Proofs (QPIP). Whereas in standard Interactive Proofs [GMR85] the prover is computationally unbounded, here our prover is in BQP, representing a quantum computer. The verifier models our current computational capabilities: it is a BPP machine, with access to few qubits. Our main theorem can be roughly stated as: \"Any language in BQP has a QPIP, and moreover, a fault tolerant one\" (providing a partial answer to a challenge posted in [Aar07]). We provide two proofs. The simpler one uses a new (possibly of independent interest) quantum authentication scheme (QAS) based on random Clifford elements. ThisQPIP however, is not fault tolerant. Our second protocol uses polynomial codes QAS due to Ben-Or, Crepeau, Gottesman, Hassidim, and Smith [BOCG+ 06], combined with quantum fault tolerance and secure multiparty quantum computation techniques. A slight modification of our constructions makes the protocol \"blind\": the quantum computation and input remain unknown to the prover.\n\nבחזרה לאינדקס האירועים", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7001579999923706}
+{"content": "Stress Test - 1\nDeath of a spouse                                                100\nDivorce                                                                73\nBodily assault                                                        70\nEntering a new relationship                                      68\nMarital separation from mate                                    65\nDetention in jail or other institution                            63\nDeath of a close family member                                63\nEntering into extra marital affair                                60\nLeaving extra marital relationship                              55\nMajor personal injury or illness                                  53\nMarriage                                                                 50\nHaving extra marital relationship discovered               49\nBeing fired from job or becoming unemployed            47\nMarital reconciliation with mate                                 45\nRetirement from work                                              45\nMajor change in the health or behavior\nof a family member                                                  44\nPregnancy                                                               40\nSexual difficulties                                                     39\nGaining a new family member (e.g., through\nbirth, adoption, oldster moving in, etc.)                      39\nMajor business readjustment (e.g., merger,\nreorganization, bankruptcy, etc.)                                39\nMajor change in financial state (e.g., a\nlot worse or a lot better off than usual                        38\nDeath of a close friend                                              37\nChanging to a line of different work                            36\nMajor change in the number of arguments with\nspouse (e.g., either a lot more/less than usual\nregarding child rearing, personal habits, etc.)               35\nTaking out a mortgage or loan for a major purchase\n(e.g., for a home, business, etc.)                                 31\nForeclosure on a mortgage or loan                              30\nMajor change in responsibilities at work (e.g.,\npromotion/demotion/lateral transfer, etc.)                    29\nSon or daughter leaving home (e.g., marriage\nattending college, etc.)                                              29\nIn law troubles                                                         29\nCrime against your property                                       29\nOutstanding personal achievement                              28\nWife beginning or ceasing work outside the home         26\nBeginning/ceasing formal schooling                             26\nMajor change in living conditions (e.g., building\na new home, remodelling, or deterioration of home\nor neigborhood)                                                        25\nRevision of personal habits (dress,\nmanners, association, etc.)                                         24\nTroubles with boss                                                    23\nMajor change in working hours or conditions                20\nChange in residence                                                  20\nChanging to a new school                                          20\nMajor change in type/amount of recreation                  19\nMajor change in church activities (e.g.,\nmuch more/less than usual)                                       19\nMajor change in social activities (e.g.,\nclubs, dancing, movies, visiting, etc.)                           18\nTaking out a mortgage/loan for a lesser\npurchase (e.g., car/TV/freezer, etc.)                            17\nMajor change in sleeping habits (a lot more or a\nlot less sleep, or a change in the part of the day\nwhen asleep)                                                           16\nMajor change in No. of family get togethers\n(e.g., a lot more/less than usual)                                15\nMajor change in eating habits (a lot more/less\nfood intake, or very different hours\nor surroundings)                                                       15\nVacation                                                                  13\nChristmas                                                                12\nMinor violations of the law (e.g., traffic\ntickets, disturbing peace, etc.)                                    11\n              (Based on model dev. by G. E.  Anderson)\n\nThe body is a finely tuned instrument that does not like surprises.  Any sudden change in stimuli\nwhich affects the body, or the reordering of important routines that the body has become used to,\ncan cause needless stress, throwing your whole physical being into turmoil.  The following chart   \nwill give you some idea of how to informally score yourself on the Social Readjustment Scale.    \nSince being healthy is the optimum state you want to achieve, being sick is the state you most  \nwant to avoid.\n\nThere are two important things about Stress to remember: [1] the effects are cumulative\n(all the\n\"stressor\" effects are added onto the others). [2]\nThe effects are residual (they stay with you approximately\none year).\n\nCircle the values for any of the following events that have occurred in your life over the last       \ntwelve months.  Then add up their total and refer to the Social Readjustment Rating Scale below.\n\nLIFE EVENT                                                 VALUE\nTotal (both pages)        _______\n\n\n300+  . . . . . . . . . .                        about 80%\n299 150 . . . . . . . . .                        about 50%\nless than 150 . . . . . .                         about 30%\nThe higher your life change score, the harder you have to work to get yourself back in a state of  \ngood health.\n\nDawn Cove Abbey  2017", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5679794549942017}
+{"content": "Empathy Reduce Conflict – Empathy is something others say from their point of view, their understanding and their feelings, or what they sometimes say “one kilometer from home”. When we can empathize with others, we are much better positioned to face them. Conflict is a natural outcome that comes from diverse perspectives and perspectives on the challenges we face all day. However, a lack of empathy with others can reinforce and intensify conflicts, and prejudices are stereotyped and frightening better understanding the barriers that block our empathic tendencies, we can increase our ability to reduce and resolve conflicts. The Social Identity Theory (SIT) is a school of thought in social psychology where we derive most of our self-esteem from the groups in which we belong. SIT shows how many decisions are personal and express the identity of their groups and the needs of their groups.\n\nHave you been disappointed? – I’m sure you have that, we all have that. We are disappointed with the promises that people make but do not keep; We are frustrated with their behavior because we did not expect them to be like that! Or we are disappointed with a group/organization/company/service provider, etc. If we are disappointed, we think it is the fault of the other party. We blame them and we care about them, we want them to assume their responsibilities and do good, up to our expectations. See where is the problem? Our expectations of people and organizations are in our hearts and minds. We define these expectations in them. Although many boasts of these expectations but do not answer them, how do we treat them? So let me tell you one by one. First, we need to understand and apply the fundamental principle of the next life that saves you a lot of headaches, headaches, time and energy. WE CAN NOT CONSULT US THINGS. BUT WE CAN CHECK HOW WE RESPOND TO ALL SITUATIONS.\n\nSize Matters – What Is Your Size? – Does size matter? The answer to this question is timidly discussed and the jokes of a size never end. The jokes are not lacking, because the solution that size is important, causes fear and disrupts the self-confidence of men and women. While men are looking for larger women, they want smaller sizes, clothes sizes. Female diet, self-criticism, thousands of weight loss supplements, while men order their waist supplements online. Size is important, but it’s time for us to use a different measurement instrument, not based on thumbs, but on love for oneself and happiness. For years, my height ranged from 0 to 6 years, depending on my stress level. In times of stress, I controlled my environment with food, and strangely punished my body for lack of control. When my husband left me for another woman, the snapshot coach at the gym, I checked my anger and depression with food or rather with a refusal to eat. My appetite went down and if I lost weight, my distorted mentality of “If only I was thinner, it would be more desirable” and “If it were perfect, life would be perfect”.When Body Narrowed, life did not become more perfect when my body narrowed, life did not become more perfect, it turned into chaos. The safety pins have kept my clothes in my soft body. As the threat of divorce increased, my appetite decreased … and I declined.\n\nHug Your Loved Ones… Leave Everyone Else Alone! – By taking into account all the stories of inappropriate or unwanted contact, it may be time to re-evaluate the way we treat our personal space. I grew up in the sixties and seventies when greetings go no further than a handshake. A firm handshake for the boys and a gentle handshake for the girls. Cuddles and kisses were reserved for family members who encouraged them or the people with whom they went. However, boys will be boys and girls will be unpredictable. The lessons of my childhood most of the children I grew up with behaved in public. Not kissing, holding hands, or having inappropriate physical contact at school helped the students to indulge in behavior that conformed to the standards of the community of the day. However, it was difficult for boys and girls to resist the urges of puberty. To make matters worse, many of us imitate what we saw on television. All the children in my neighborhood grew up together. It was very suburban, although it was only a twenty-minute drive from New York. It’s not typical of most suburbs, we had shops, restaurants, a bowling center and more than a block from our home on Long Island. I was often asked to accompany my friend Jayne or some of the other girls who lived on the street at the store.\n\nDealing With Emotional Triggers – I write this article because I realized that when I was going through a difficult season in my life and following the emotional healing process, something and even someone sometimes happened. spiral because it has generated a negative memory or a moment of life that holds strong emotions. When the time was over, I began to wonder what I could do to not be undermined by the emotional triggers of my life. This has a lot to do with your thought process that works with your emotions. I healed my soul and it was crucial for this process to manage my thinking and its impact on my life. Most of the time, I’m positive, but a long season of growing pains has caused many injuries in my soul. I made the decision not to see my wounds and a healthy soul that starts by getting rid of the negative thoughts that bombarded me. To do this, I began to pray and seek God for wisdom and the solution to face the pain in my soul, I have to Deal with emotional triggers.\n\nEmbrace the Haters – Having enemies simply means that you are on the right track to achieving your goals and dreams. When encountering an enemy, try replacing your idea with a “detour” or “performance” sign, but never replace the idea of an enemy with the sign. Indeed, an enemy reminds the higher realms to continue their journey. Those who hate have the ability to often see your potential for someone else. You will find two types of enemies, but both have the same mentality. The first type, I call it the inferiority complex, full of resentment. The next difficulty to Embrace the Haters is to face The second type is the superiority complex that you hate. The inferiority complex that the enemy feels consciously threatened by the talents, gifts, and talents of others often makes it a priority to look for weaknesses. Minimizing others with their perverse thoughts, perceptions, and unfounded opinions raises your ego because they lack vision, creativity, and low self-esteem. On the contrary, the Superiority Complex hates hatred just because of the emotional need to feel superior. Without knowing it, this type of enemy is threatened by other talents, gifts, and abilities.\n\nForgiveness Brings Love – My meditative thought for today is to treat others and myself with kindness, love, respect, and compassion. It sounds easy enough, but sometimes, little things can cause an unreasonable response. Recently, I was put on hold for an unusually long time with an online discussion team assistant. It was the second consecutive day I tried to call their staff, because the day before, they had broken my head after more than an hour of waiting. My computer did not allow me to connect to this program, although I was sure to use the correct password.My generally tolerant individual went from 0 to 50 in an instant when the person logged in and said he could not help me and he had to wait 24 hours longer because he had tried to connect several times. I replied that I thought that the previous version of the program that worked better worked better than this new annoying update and that they did NOT help me. Yes, I used uppercase letters for the word no, as if I was screaming, they listened more and arranged everything magically. Frustrated that they could not help me, I finally hung up and felt a weight in my body.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7620552778244019}
+{"content": "I receive from time to time critics from clients meaning that the target text isn’t close enough to the source text. It is indeed rather hard to determine how much latitude translators have in rephrasing a sentence. In the last few months, I started selecting segments of my own translations which I consider could be offering grounds to criticism. Here a first suggestion to consider :\n\n\n\nThe structure of the sentence is completely different from the original. Is this translation going too far from the target text? Would you accept this translation as a proofreader? Why or why not?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999935626983643}
+{"content": "120 Following\n\n\n“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” \n― Stephen King, On Writing.\n\nNataliya's quotes\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis strange little family survives without ever deviating from their strict routines, remaining shut off from the outside world until one day an unexpected arrival threatens the fragile stability - of the family and of Merricat's mind. And the events that follow lead to the scariest and saddest ending presented in the most chillingly subtle way possible.\n\n\n\nOur narrator, Merricat Blackwood, is not a character you can easily forget. She is written with such skill, with such vividness, with such persuasion that the pages come alive with her bizarre voice of a seemingly adult woman forever trapped in neverending childhood, in the world of twisted magical reality of strange rituals and special objects and strict routine that can never be changed, or else.\n\"On Sunday morning the change was one day nearer. I was resolute about not thinking my three magic words and would not let them into my mind, but the air of change was so strong that there was no avoiding it; change lay over the stairs and the kitchen and the garden like fog. I would not forget my magic words; they were MELODY GLOUCESTER PEGASUS, but I refused to let them into my mind.\"\nAnd the scariest thing of all to me was how more and more enthralling Merricat's voice became with every page, with every minute spent inside her head, until it's hard not to take her side despite all the implications that it carries, despite reason suggesting otherwise, despite knowledge of what's going on. And that's when you realize the magnetic pull Merricat has, holding her little world together in the ways that suit her - little world it may be, but it's wholly her own, steadily holding against anything that can be perceived as a disturbance, an interference, a threat. And the words of her little game in the summerhouse take on a new resonance.\nI found this book deeply disturbing in its deceiving simplicity, and scarily engrossing - the book written by an oddball ostracized agoraphobiac obsessed with food and trapped in her own little universe by the last years of her life. Shirley Jackson's Constance and Merricat, securely huddled in their own little corner of the world, not accepted but feared and left alone, the heart of legends and superstitions - was it in a way a cry for help or an unattainable dream? I don't know, and I think I sleep better precisely because I don't know.\n\nUnflinching 5 stars and a shudder at the seemingly so innocent of an ending:\n“Oh Constance, we are so happy.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9874527454376221}
+{"content": "Pre_GI Gene\n\nSome Help\n\nHost: NC_016783 NEIGHBOURS BLASTN Download Island sequence Download Island gene sequence(s)\n\nNC_016783:201066 Corynebacterium diphtheriae INCA 402 chromosome, complete genome\n\nHost Lineage: Corynebacterium diphtheriae; Corynebacterium; Corynebacteriaceae; Actinomycetales; Actinobacteria; Bacteria\n\nGeneral Information: They may be found as members of the normal microflora of humans, where these bacteria find a suitable niche in virtually every anatomic site. This organism is the best known and most widely studied species of the genus. It is the causal agent of the disease diphtheria, a deadly infectious disease spreading from person to person by respiratory droplets from the throat through coughing and sneezing. In the course of infection, the bacteria invade and colonize tissues of the upper respiratory tract, proliferate and produce exotoxin that inhibits protein synthesis and causes local lesions and systemic degenerative changes in the heart, muscles, peripheral nerves, liver and other vital organs.\n\nStartEndLengthCDS descriptionQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2010662021031038hypothetical proteinBLASTP\n202105202941837hypothetical proteinBLASTP\n2031532044181266aspartate kinaseQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2047642079883225putative surface-anchored fimbrial subunitQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2082592092901032aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenaseQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n209395209856462transposase-like proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n210333210434102transposase-like proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2110212145813561putative surface-anchored fimbrial subunitQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2146302162701641putative surface-anchored fimbrial subunitQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n216302217243942putative fimbrial associated sortase-like proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n217233218075843putative fimbrial associated sortase-like proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n218076218678603putative surface-anchored fimbrial subunitQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n218683219249567ECF-family sigma factor CQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2193772209151539catalaseQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2209052219631059ABC transporter ATP-binding proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2219542235071554ABC transporter permease proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2235042245051002ABC transporter substrate-binding proteinQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n2245862259561371putative glycerol-3-phosphate transporterQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n226085226786702two-component system response regulatorQuickGO ontologyBLASTP\n226779227576798two-component system sensor histidine kinaseQuickGO ontologyBLASTP", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6030791997909546}
+{"content": "4.1.2 Statistical inference of intermediate states\n\nThe association of each experimental point with its most probable intermediate state is repeated for all the points along the unzipping FDC (see Fig. 4.3a). The result is a list of numbers $ \\{n^*\\}$ that indicate all the metastable states through which the molecule passes during the process of unzipping.\n\nA histogram built from all values $ n^*$ results in a series of sharp peaks that can be identified with the many intermediate states $ I_n$ (see Fig. 4.3b). The histogram contains information about the stability of the intermediate states: the higher the peak, the higher the stability of that state. It has already been shown that the more stable states are related with higher GC content in the sequence [102].\n\nThe histogram can be fit to a sum of Gaussians each one characterized by its mean, variance and statistical weight (see Fig. 4.3c). The mean of each Gaussian indicates the number of open base pairs of that intermediate state. Other conditions such as the released ssDNA and the stability of the state determine the variance and the weight of the Gaussian. In general, a Gaussian distribution is sufficient to fit one peak. However, some peaks require the contribution of two or more Gaussians to be correctly fit. So this method allows to distinguish intermediate states that have similar number of open base pairs (about $ \\simeq 5$-10 base pairs at the beginning of the unzipping).\n\nNote that as the unzipping goes on, the peaks of the histogram look smoother and it is more difficult to differentiate intermediate states. This is due to the release of ssDNA as the DNA molecule is being unzipped. Indeed, the changes in the unzipping fork must be transmitted to the optical trap in order to be detected. So the opening of a CUR decreases the tension along the molecular construct and the optical trap detects a drop of force. A stiff tether transmits the force towards the optical trap better than a compliant one. The reason is that a compliant connection can absorb the elastic energy released in the unzipping without hardly changing its extension. Therefore, as the ssDNA is released during unzipping, the amplitude of the sawtooth pattern decreases, the force signal is blurred and the histogram of intermediate states shows smoother peaks.\n\nFigure 4.3: Histogram of intermediate states. (a) Classification of points. Blue trace shows the experimental FDC. Red trace shows the number of open base pairs $ n^*$ corresponding to each experimental data point ($ y$-axis of this curve is shown in panel b). Although the curve is noisy, the plateaus indicate metastable states. (b) Histogram of the values for $ n^*$ shown in panel a. (c) Detailed view of the histogram (orange curve) overlapped with the fit to a sum of Gaussians (cyan curve). (d) Detection of a CUR of size 87 bp from the distance between two consecutive Gaussians centered at 1741 and 1828 open base-pairs.\n\nJM Huguet 2014-02-12", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9084705114364624}
+{"content": "Learn English 78 What Is the Great British Pub and How Does It Work\n\nIf you ever visit the UK you will almost certainly want to go to a pub, so “What Is the Great British Pub and How Does It Work?”\n\nAs always we recommend you view the supporting transcript on the website to support you.\n\nYou are currently viewing the raw RSS podcast article text. Click to view the original article:\n\nOriginal Article Podcast 78: https://adeptenglish.com/2017/10/09/what-is-the-great-british-pub-and-how-does-it-work/\n\nOur Website: https://adeptenglish.com\nTwitter: https://twitter.com/AdeptEnglish\nFacebook: www.facebook.com/adeptenglish\nGoogle+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113355610882449245429/posts\nSoundCloud: @adeptenglish\n\nWe provide a number of English language conversation and video lessons to learn the English language.\n\nWe want to help you improve your English language speaking and conversation skills. With us, you will speak English as a Second Language ESL.\n\nSo why not learn English the easy and FREE way.\n\nIf you like what we do please click subscribe to join our channel.\n\nAnd share us with your friends by ‘liking’ our videos and sharing them via your social media.\n\n\n2017, anglais, apprendre, Education, engleza, englisch, English, ESL, FREE, ingilizce, invata, lernen, öğren, speak, английский, выучить, язык, الإنجليزية ,تعلم अंग्रेजी सीखिये, 学英语", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8720043897628784}
+{"content": "Benjamin Andrew has worked with video production, photography and music for 6 years in Brisbane, Australia.\n\nWith a passion for creativity from a young age, he now devotes his time to the pursuit of storytelling through these mediums. Benjamin chases intimate moments and often overlooked beauty, focusing on the hidden emotion of each scene and amplifying it through the manipulation of audio, colour, and light to better convey meaningful messages. With work created for companies like Hewlett Packard, Fujifilm, UNIQLO, and Lexus, He works quickly to understand what a client needs and knows how to achieve it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993190765380859}
+{"content": "Our more than 60 world-renowned faculty include 3 Nobel laureates; 33 members of the National Academy of Sciences; 16 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators; and 4 recipients of the National Medal of Science.\n\nFilter by Research Area\n\nAngelika Amon examines cell growth and division, and how errors in this process contribute to cancer and aging.\n\nEliezer Calo studies how cells build ribosomes and how dysfunction in ribosome biogenesis and function leads to tissue-specific developmental disorders and cancer.\n\nJianzhu Chen studies the immune system, harnessing the body’s defense force to explore cancer treatment and vaccine development.\n\nFrank B. Gertler considers the role of cell shape and movement in developmental defects and diseases.\n\nPiyush Gupta investigates how alterations in cellular differentiation drive cancer malignancy, focusing on the mechanisms that underlie multidrug resistance and invasive progression.\n\nMichael T. Hemann uses mouse models to combat cancers resistant to chemotherapy.\n\nNancy Hopkins\n\nProfessor Emerita\n\nNancy Hopkins worked on the genetics of mouse RNA tumor viruses; on the genetics of early vertebrate development using zebrafish; and on the fish as a cancer model.\n\nDavid Housman studies the biological underpinnings of diseases like Huntington’s, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.\n\n\nTyler Jacks is interested in the genetic events contributing to the development of cancer, and his group has created a series of mouse strains engineered to carry mutations in genes known to be involved in human cancers.\n\nDouglas Lauffenburger fosters the interface of bioengineering, quantitative cell biology, and systems biology to determine fundamental aspects of cell dysregulation — identifying and testing new therapeutic ideas.\n\nJacqueline Lees\n\nAssociate Dept. Head\n\nJacqueline Lees develops mouse and zebrafish models, identifying the molecular pathways leading to tumor formation.\n\nTerry Orr-Weaver\n\nProfessor Emerita\n\n\nAviv Regev pioneers the use of single-cell genomics and other techniques to dissect the molecular networks that regulate genes, define cells and tissues, and influence health and disease.\n\nDavid Sabatini studies the pathways that regulate growth and metabolism and how they are deregulated in diseases like cancer and diabetes.\n\nLeona Samson\n\nProfessor Emerita\n\nLeona Samson analyzes toxic chemicals frequently used in cancer chemotherapy to prevent further DNA damage.\n\nPhillip A. Sharp studies many aspects of gene expression in mammalian cells, including transcription, the roles of non-coding RNAs, and RNA splicing. \n\nStefani Spranger studies how the body’s immune system interacts with growing tumors to harness the immune response to fight cancer.\n\nMatthew Vander Heiden is interested in the role that cell metabolism plays in mammalian physiology, with a focus on cancer.\n\nRobert A. Weinberg studies how cancer spreads, what gives cancer stem-cells their unique qualities, and the molecular players involved in the formation of cancer stem cells and metastases.\n\nMichael B. Yaffe studies the chain of reactions that controls a cell’s response to stress, cell injury, and DNA damage.\n\nOmer H. Yilmaz explores the impact of dietary interventions on stem cells, the immune system, and cancer within the intestine.\n\nRichard A. Young explores how and why gene expression differs in healthy versus diseased cells.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9951823949813843}
+{"content": "\n\n\nFlow of mana\n\nFlow of mana.\n\nMana is an important aspect of every mage that has ever lived as it is their source of magic power 「魔力 maryoku」, which is used to activate various magic spells. This energy is naturally existing and flowing in the environment and within everyone.[1] Due to this, it is common knowledge that everyone is able to use magic to some extent. At the same time, people who do not possess any mana and unable to use magic are a completely rare occurrence.[2]\n\nFurthermore, when someone uses all of their mana, it could cause them severe exhaustion and ultimately render them unconscious.[3][4]\n\nIn nature, the density of mana can be different from place to place. Usually, a location with high mana density would have a penchant for having a distorted environment.[1][5] One example of such place is a dungeon where strange creatures and gravitational forces could occur within it.[6]\n\n\nAttribute AffinityEdit\n\nUnlike mana that exists in nature, those that are situated within mages possess an affinity to certain attributes 「属性 zokusei」. These attributes are one of the aspects that differentiate one mage from another.[8]\n\n\nMana attributes.\n\nThere are four great attributes in the world: fire, water, wind, and earth. From these attributes, several other elements can be derived. Such elements are lightning and smoke come from the wind attribute or ice from the water attribute.[8] Furthermore, mages could have different latent abilities according to their attribute. One example would be mages with an affinity towards wind and its derived elements of lightning and smoke have the latent ability of mana sensory. This resulted from those mages having a higher sensitivity towards the flow of mana.[9]\n\nSince a mage can only be affiliated to a single element, it prevents them from using magic outside of their element. This fact results in a mage who is able to activate fire magic spells to be unable to use spells from other elemental magic, such as wind water. However, it also allows them to add or use their attribute with other forms 「形態 keitai」, such as fire-based Creation Magic or Healing Magic.[8]\n\nOn unique occasions, it has been proven through scientific endeavor that a mage could be artificially enhanced to possess more than one elemental affinity. A successful effort for this experiment is Mars and Fana who share a dual affinity for crystal and fire.[10][11]\n\nA hybrid of two different races could also result in a dual affinity. Charmy Pappitson is a dwarf-human hybrid who possesses a dual affinity for cotton and food.[12]\n\n\nSilver Eagle vs Crimson Lion\n\nMages with enormous amount of mana.\n\nThe amount of mana that a mage possess within them has huge significance. It is because the fundamental strength of a mage is measured through it. When a mage possesses a high amount of mana, any tasks which involve the use of magic would become easier.[13] Additionally, mages with a high amount of mana have a higher chance accessing high-level magic spells rather than mages with a low amount of mana.[14][15]\n\n\n\n\n\n  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Black Clover Manga and Anime — Chapter 18 (p. 12-13) and Episode 18.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.739029049873352}
+{"content": "Past Games\n\nTap ONE person to infect. See how fast you can infect everyone!!!!!\nSurf a tsunami wave that is covering a Japanese village. Live through the Great Wave off Kanagawa by the artist Hokusai printed from wood block around 1830. Instruction: Hold to move faster.\nCan you find each word in 111 boards? Cast 10 kinds of spells: Love, Health, Skill and more. Each intended word is related to the spell, yet you can creatively form any word in a standard Scrab\nPlayer is dropped in the middle of a 3 faction war. Change the outcome.\nMultiplayer cooperative puzzle dungeon,\nDisperse crowds away from falling meteors and more!\nYou are a mischievous Cupid. Click on hearts to break up the dysfunctional relationships. Each character rotates clockwise, until their hands are no longer touching another potential companion. When all the hearts have been broken, you win.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5880565643310547}
+{"content": "Myanmar Traditional Food\n\nMyanmar Traditional Food\n\nMyanmar people enjoy rice as their main food and it comprises about 75% of the diet. Rice is served with meat or fish, soup, salad and vegetables all cooked in their own ways, and some relishes to complement the meal.\n\n\n\nBackground history\n\nMyanmar people have a long tradition of preparing food in their own way and the history of traditional food may be as old as the culture and arts of its people. Myanmar is an agrarian country with rice as the principal crop. Myanmar used to be the world’s biggest rice exporter.\n\nMyanmar lies between two great and very different cultures which have influenced not only religion, culture and arts, but also the preparation of food. During the colonial period, the influx of Chinese and Indians also had an impact on Myanmar traditional food, introducing new items. With the advent of globalization and trade liberalization, most famous foods from around the world are available in the cities, yet the majority of Myanmar people still cherish their own food, ensuring that its essence and uniqueness remains unchanged.\n\nMost Myanmar people regard soup as an indispensable component of a meal\n\nTable manners\n\n\nSoups and salads\n\nMost Myanmar people regard soup as an indispensable component of a meal, possibly because Myanmar people do not normally drink wine, or even a glass of water at meals, to allow the smooth swallowing of solid food. Good spicy soups not only facilitate the dining process but also stimulate the appetite of diners. Sometimes, when soup is not available at the meal and the dishes are too dry, a hot cup of green tea is served instead.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947707653045654}
+{"content": "\n\nI think MiniTest is a good starting point even if you end up going with Rspec, as MiniTest/jUnit style testing feels a little bit lower level. In the same sense, the book implements authentication from scratch, whereas many apps will end up using a library like Devise.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9109538197517395}
+{"content": "NO EXTENSIONS allowed without medical or other certification. LATE ASSIGNMENTS will automatically\nlose 5% per day up to a maximum of five days, including weekends and holidays. Assignments\nsubmitted 6 or more days late will not be marked and are given zero.\nMETHOD OF SUBMISSION: Submit electronically via Assignment Dropbox on CloudDeakin.\nPlease read the following problem statement and complete the corresponding tasks. You will need to\nuse the knowledge and skills learned during the class and practical sessions. You must write your report\n\nProblem Statement\nArif works for a university as an IT administrator. He received a call on Sept 8, 2009 from a staff member\nAmy who complained that a suspicious account has been created on her personal laptop without her\nconsent. The general IT policy of the university disallows Arif to acquire any research-related files from\nAmy’s laptop because she is participating a top-secret government project. Therefore, Arif asked Amy\nto export the Windows Registry and copy a few Windows log files of her laptop from the directory\nAmy copied 5 files and compressed them in to a ZIP file named “Desktop.zip”. Now, Arif receives a\ncopy of the ZIP file and starts to analyze what took place on Amy’s laptop (IP:\nTask 1 (Scan your machine)\ndecides to run a thorough scan. Choose at least two programs and provide the screenshots of the scanning\n(1 mark)\nTask 2 (Repairing Windows Logs)\nArif decompresses the file “Desktop.zip” and finds 4 Windows event log files. Describe the information\nstored in each log file and repair those important log files so that they can be viewed in Windows\n(4 marks)\nTask 3 (Which account is created)\nHaving repaired the log files, Arif examines one of them in order to identify which account was created\nwithout Amy’s consents. Which log file and which EventID number Arif should search? Provide a\nscreenshot for the account-creation event.\n(1 mark)\nTask 4 (Where is Amy’s password)\nHaving identified the event that a new user was created on Amy’s laptop, Arif telephones Amy and asks\nwhether she can provide more clues. Amy tells that she has a personal password safe as an encrypted\nZIP file hidden on the university network. The link to access the password safe is http://www.deakin.\nedu.au/~zoidberg/SIT703/Login.php. But Amy is confident that only she can access her account\ndetails because this password safe has multiple security protection mechanisms. However, Arif wants to\ndemonstrate that Amy’s belief may be too optimistic. Provide screenshots and describe how Arif can\neasily access Amy’s account information.\n(3 marks)\nTask 5 (Amy’s password)\nArif has extracted Amy’s password safe, but he wants to demonstrate to Amy that her Windows password\ncan be easily cracked. So he calls Amy and Amy bets that he cannot get her password. Being challenged\nand authorized, Arif decides to crack Amy’s Windows password used on her laptop. Work out what the\nusername and the password are on Amy’s laptop.\n(2 marks)\nTask 6 (When did things go wrong?)\nAmy now realizes that Windows provides a very weak protection and she becomes concerned about the\nsafety of her research data. Arif decides to look through the log files again in order to identify when the\nbogus account logged on to Amy’s laptop. Use two screenshots to indicate when the bogus account was\nlogged on and logged off.\n(1 mark)\nTask 7 (I know what you did)\nArif believes that he can find all important activities on Amy’s system during the session time identified\nin Task 6. Which event recorded in the system log file will tell Arif about the actions performed by the\nbogus account? When did this event terminate?\n(1 mark)\nTask 8 (Using LogParser)\nArif recalls that some events with EnventID 11728 are closely related to the installation of Windows\nprograms. He decides to use the program LogParser to search for the events with EventID 11728 in the\nlog files. List all the events Arif will find by using LogParser. (screenshots are required.)\n(1 mark)\nTask 9 (The valuable Registry)\nArif feels that things might be very serious, so he decides to go through the Registry file “Server.reg” in\nthe “Desktop.zip” file. What program(s) will Arif classify as suspicious? Provide strong reasons.\n(3 marks)\nTask 10 (Before calling the police)\nArif and Amy feel that they must report to the police about their findings. Before they write a formal\ncomplaint to the forensic team, Arif recalls that he has intercepted an NTLM authentication session of\nuser “helpdesk” and the hash is\nArif guesses that the password is 3 characters long but contains special symbols. Now, crack this password\nby using your own rainbow tables.\n(3 marks)\nTOTAL: 20 marks\n\nRelated posts:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8689864873886108}
+{"content": "Home » Recording Resources » Recording Info » On Mics and Miking » A Producer’s Take On Acoustic Guitar\n\nRecording techniques and strategies that keep the artist and the song in the foreground\n\nBy John McVey\n\nAcoustic guitar is perhaps one of the most played, and as a result one of the most recorded, instruments today. Knowing how to get a good sound on an acoustic guitar is an important skill; as with anything, some of it is intuitive, but there are some definable guidelines that can be helpful.\n\nAs a producer/engineer who spends a good deal of time in the singer/songwriter world, I find that recording acoustic guitar is a huge part of what I do. I imagine it has been a central part of your music and recording as well; at the very least, few of us get away without recording one for very long! I get a lot of questions about how to do it well, and want to share some of my answers with you.\n\nCreating the environment\n\nI will start where I always start, which is that recording anything is about the performance! A bad performance recorded well is still a bad performance. A great performance recorded badly is still a great performance. Naturally, capturing a great performance well is the ideal.\n\nSetting up mics and designing your signal path is only part of it. Making sure the musician is taken care of is a larger part. So it is always my goal to provide an environment in which the musician can give his or her best performance.\n\nI often start by getting to know them a bit. Have they recorded before? What kind of music do they play? What kind of music do they listen to? How long have they been playing? How much do they perform live? What are their goals for this recording project? This tells you a lot about what you’re about to do. It develops a relationship with the musician, and gives you lots of info about what they want to get from the session. Even if you already know the musician, or if it’s you, you should still start by talking or thinking through what you’re about to do. The same questions apply and the answers are still helpful.\n\n\nBefore a session, I often have a pre-production conversation with the musician about what we’re going to do. A week or so before they come into the studio, we’ll talk a bit about what they’re recording. If the guitar (and/or a scratch vocal) is the first step in the process of recording a full band, and they’re going to be playing to a click, I have them get used to it by practicing with a metronome. This sounds really obvious, but it can be a bad thing to find out this is the first time they’ve ever played to a click, or to realize in the session that they can’t make the part feel natural to a click!\n\nPracticing beforehand will make the session go more smoothly and produce a much better end result. If the musician is playing to a mix of other instruments, I’ll often make a mix for them to practice with, well beforehand. This too can make them feel more comfortable in the session. And I’ll answer questions about what they might expect in the session. All of this puts them at ease before they even walk in the door. And again, if it’s you doing the recording, practice with a click and preparation ahead of time will benefit you as well.\n\n\nacoustic guitar\n\nHere’s a typical mic positioning for capturing acoustic guitar.\n\nForm follows function\n\nIt’s important to know what this particular guitar is going to be doing in this recording. Is it part of a 9-piece band, or is it a guitar-vocal piece, or solo guitar? Is it rock, bluegrass, classical, jazz, folk?\n\nWhat is its function? If it’s a rhythm part for a rock song, it will have different needs than if it is a solo guitar piece or guitar/vocal, and I’ll choose my mic, preamp and compressor based on those needs. Later I’ll make EQ, panning and mixing choices as well based on this information. I will want to have done things right from the start, and I will want to have captured everything I might need later. A little talk about this before the session is essential.\n\n\nMic choices\n\nFirst of all, does this need to be stereo or mono? I tend to begin with stereo, just in case the image might need to be spread out in the mix. And I can always pan the two mics together, or simply choose one of them later, if the mix calls for a mono sound.\n\nMy go-to setup is a pair of Coles 4038 ribbon mics. These are stunning—fat without being tubby, and very natural-sounding. My other go-to set is a pair of Royer R-122 active ribbons. These are also wonderful-sounding guitar mics.\n\nWhile I like ribbon mics on acoustic guitar, I’ve used all kinds and still do, based on what the guitar is doing in the recording. Small-diaphragm condenser mics (like the Neumann KM 184) have a very bright sound, useful for big mixes or dark-sounding guitars. A large-diaphragm condenser can be a wonderful room mic, and omni mics are great for recording guitar and vocals at the same time without phase issues.\n\nYou may not have a lot of mic choices, and that’s okay! Even a Shure SM57 can be useful, and an unmatched pair of mics can yield very nice results too. Try to learn what each mic you have captures best. If you have a mic that tends to be bright, position it where this sound is most effective, or where a lot of low end is coming out. If you have mics that tend to be darker-sounding, position them where more high end is coming out.\n\nisolation device\n\nAn isolation device can help improve your sound in a difficult room.\n\nSweet spots\n\nMic positioning is vital when recording acoustic guitar, as with any other source. My favorite mic positioning for two mics on an acoustic is (1) just below the neck where it meets the body, 8–12 inches away, and (2) just below the bridge and a bit toward the strap peg 8–12 inches away. These are two very sweet spots for most guitars.\n\nThe first mic has many possible capture options. It can be moved or aimed toward the sound hole for a more full, even boomy sound, or straight at the guitar for a more bright sound. Those of my clients who have big guitars, or play with a lot of energy and volume, may need me to aim the mic away from the sound hole more. Others who play more softly, or who have a slightly fret-buzzy playing style, may require me to aim more away from the neck and toward the sound hole. I rarely put a mic right in front of the sound hole, unless the recording or playing style calls for a deep, bassy sound. And in these cases I’ll put it a bit farther away to allow for proximity effect.\n\nIn all cases, I have the musician play and get my ear in front of the guitar where the mics might be placed. Each player and each guitar are different, and by moving my ear around in these areas I will find where the sweet spots are for this particular player and instrument. I will choose mics and positioning based on what I hear. If it sounds right, it is right!\n\nWhen placing a mic/mics, I will always be sure the player is comfortable and can stay in the same position until we get a good take. I will set levels, but will adjust them during the first run through, because musicians often play differently when the Record button gets pushed! And I’ll keep an eye on the player’s position in front of the mics to look for changes as we go along, as slight changes in position can lead to differences in sound between takes.\n\n\nClose or far\n\nClose miking yields a very detailed sound. Proximity effect (the increased bass when a directional mic is close to the source) is important to consider, and I will generally move the mics in closer and farther away to see what sounds best.\n\nYour room is also a consideration here. Obviously, miking farther away captures more of the room. This can be good or bad, depending on how the room sounds and how the guitar is to fit into the mix.\n\nExperimentation is key! A roomy sound can be great if the guitar needs to fit into a mix in which other instruments have some room in their sound, but this can also be achieved by using close miking and small room reverbs. With someone who plays very softly, a lot of string noise can be picked up that is as loud as the notes being played. It can be a delicate balance getting close enough to capture good, full sound, but far enough away (and with the right positioning) to capture more note than noise.\n\nClick bleed\n\nOften it’s important to turn up the click in the player’s headphones so they can hear it and play cleanly in time. When using a click, one of the first things I do—after getting a good sound and making sure the player is hearing what they need—is to record a bit of a scratch take, then solo the guitar mics and listen for click bleed.\n\nI go to a place where the guitar isn’t playing and make sure nothing is bleeding through from the headphones. Nothing is more distressing than realizing, too late, that there’s click coming through the mics in that one quiet section, or in the final chord of the song as it fades out!\n\n\n\nThis can be a great way to achieve a big fat guitar sound. It’s important to consider how the musician plays. Some folks aren’t particularly adept at playing the same thing twice. Small differences between takes in a doubling situation can be nice. But too much difference can ruin the effect and make it sound less like a double and more like a mess!\n\nCheck out how the musician is doing as you go into the doubling take. Often the musician relaxes, having already gotten a usable take in the can, and starts playing with a more easy feel… and suddenly the double becomes the main part!\n\nThe two takes can be panned wide, leaving room in the middle of the stereo field for other things. This can be really helpful when there are three instruments to balance. Putting two on one side of a mix can lean the whole thing to one side. However, if a doubled guitar is one of the three, and is spread out far left and right, the other two can be balanced on either side to great effect. This can also be nice in a guitar/vocal song, with the doubled guitars spread wide and the vocal in the center.\n\nWhile recording the double, it can be wise to spread the two takes far right and left, and let the musician know which they are hearing where. This way, they can more easily match the takes. If this isn’t done, the musician can get confused and may not be able to match what he or she did the first take.\n\n\nTo compress or not to compress?\n\nThis will depend on the style of playing. If the guitarist is banging away at the guitar, less compression will be needed… or even wanted. If the playing is very soft, more compression may be needed—but be careful not to compress too much, as this will yield more noise than notes!\n\nAlways keep in mind that compression can be added after the fact. A bit of compression on the way in can be nice, especially if you have great compressors with a nice sound. But too much compression can be hard to deal with later. I have a colleague who likes to say that the Gain Reduction needle on the compressor should be like a “blade of grass in a light breeze!” It should just move down gently during louder parts, rather than slam down hard the whole way through. This yields a nice, full tone. Remember, though: more can always be added later, so never overdo it in the recording stage.\n\n\nPlaying styles and advice\n\nThere are times when it can be wise to advise a player on how they play a part, e.g. to play louder or to back off. If the player is playing so softly that the mics need to be turned up so loud that you hear them breathing as much as playing, ask if they can dig in a bit more or use a pick. Conversely, if they are playing so loud that the guitar’s tone is gone, it can be good to ask if they might play a bit more softly or try playing with fingers.\n\nVolume does not necessarily translate to vibe or good sound in the song. I often find that precision playing is more effective than loud playing to add energy to a song! Having the player come into the control room and listen to an early take can be a great way to help them figure out what’s best. Always keep in mind who you’re talking to; some artists can be delicate around what they perceive as criticism of their style. It’s true that too little advice can give you fits when you get to mixdown and realize you don’t have exactly what the song called for… but too much advice can kill a session’s vibe fast!\n\n\nsample eq\n\nHere’s a sample EQ curve for recording acoustic guitar. Note the gentle control of low mids and the drastic rolloff of extreme bass (which will only have thumps and mic rumble).\n\nEQ after the fact\n\nI’ve gotten more brave over the years about EQing on the way in. I now know a lot more about what I’ll want in the end, and I can take some frequencies out or turn them up a bit to help get closer to the sound I will ultimately want. But I’m always careful not to do too much, for fear I might find myself married to something that isn’t as satisfying when we get to the mix.\n\nIt never hurts to take lots of raw “sonic information” when recording, and worry about shaping it more later on. If you don’t have a ton of experience recording acoustic guitar, always err on the side of doing less to the signal as you capture it. It’s very hard to completely undo processing on a signal that was done as it was recorded.\n\nThe song will tell you what’s needed… listen to it! Some detailing of a recorded acoustic guitar can be a great thing. If the guitar is by itself, with only a vocal or perhaps a few soft instruments, you may want a more full and unprocessed sound. If the guitar is sitting in a big mix, more shaping may be necessary.\n\nIn a band situation, lots of instruments have low-end information in them. Vocals, basses, drums, almost all instruments recorded through microphones have low and/or low mid information that can build up in a mix and make it sound muddy. I find that pulling out some of this in a guitar can help it pop out in a mix in just the right way. I’ll often set a low shelf, or roll off everything below a certain frequency (like 80-100 Hz), because there’s information down there that conflicts with other instruments. Besides, in many songs, most of that boomy stuff doesn’t really make a guitar sound its best anyway. However, if it’s a solo guitar, I often leave this in (or move my shelf or rolloff lower, taking out less of these frequencies), so that the entire frequency range is represented.\n\nA bit of really high end can help make a guitar sound detailed and beautiful. I’ll usually try to add some highs, particularly above 10 kHz. This can make picked guitars sound more percussive, and fingerstyle guitars sound sweeter. Just be careful not to add frequencies that bring out too much string buzz or fret noise.\n\nIn almost any guitar and player combo, there will be frequencies that aren’t particularly beautiful sounding, or that interfere with other sounds in the mix. I can usually hear that there’s something not right, so I’ll put up an EQ band with a very narrow Q, turn it up loud and sweep it back and forth in the area I think needs attention. Usually this will show me exactly where the problem is. Once I find it, I can take that frequency out to the degree that’s needed (a little can go a long way!) and adjust the Q wider if it sounds better. Again, experimentation is good thing here—setting EQ to extremes, then backing off once you’ve found problems to solve or nice-sounding areas to accentuate, can be very effective.\n\n\nRecording yourself\n\nFor those of us who are both recordists and players, it can be very satisfying to set up a few mics close to your computer keyboard, so you can start and stop recording as you need to for that perfect comped-as-you-go take. This is only good for those of us who have a quiet control room environment, as there’s nothing worse than realizing at mix time that there’s computer fan noise in the background that gets really obvious at quieter spots in the music.\n\nThere are fancier solutions, like a silent workstation out in the tracking room, but sometimes all you need is a microphone isolator like the Aston Halo,Auralex MudGuard, Primacoustic VoxGuard, orsE Electronics Reflexion Filter. They can be really effective in places where there might be other noise happening. I’ve built these myself at times by shaping foam using a clothes hanger and some duct tape.\n\nI hope some of this is helpful—now go make some cool guitar tracks!\n\nOn Mics & Miking\n\nNine Unusual Guitar Tips\n\nNine Unusual Guitar Tips\n\nAcoustic Guitar For The Non-Guitarist\n\nAcoustic Guitar For The Non-Guitarist\n\nUnderstanding the Acoustic Guitar\n\nUnderstanding the Acoustic Guitar", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9045950174331665}
+{"content": "Document Type\n\n\n\nEdith Cowan University\n\n\nSupervisors: Dr Andrew Guilfoyle\n\n\nParenting issues have been found to be some of the most challenging issues facing refugee parents in Australia, particularly in regards to their children’s education. To date, minimal research has considered the experiences of refugee parents from specific cultural groups in relation to their children’s school readiness and transition to kindergarten. Furthermore, there is a gap in research exploring how supported playgroups can assist refugee parents throughout these experiences. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to explore the meaning Burundian refugee mothers in supported playgroups ascribe to their experiences of children’s school readiness and transition to kindergarten. A total of nine participants were recruited, including six Burundian refugee mothers from ‘It Takes a Village’ playgroup, two playgroup staff and one kindergarten teacher. Using an interpretive phenomenology approach, data was analysed and four main themes were identified: concept of school readiness, preparing children for school, transition to kindergarten, and benefits of the playgroup. The mothers’ experiences of their children’s school readiness and transition to kindergarten were generally found to be difficult, and impact negatively on their psychological well-being. Furthermore, there were many perceived benefits of supported playgroups in assisting these women and enhancing their psychological well-being throughout these experiences.\n\nRebecca_New_Audio.m4a (1273 kB)\nRebecca New - 3 minute audio file\n\nIncluded in\n\nPsychology Commons", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9791605472564697}
+{"content": "Petition Closed\n\nTransparency and Regulations In The Australian Sheep Shearing Industry\n\nThis petition had 3,337 supporters\n\nAustralia,  February 2017, four men pleaded guilty to a combined total of 60 animal cruelty charges in the Horsham Magistrates Court on Monday\n\nEvidence against the shearers included hidden camera footage obtained by animal rights group PETA. Videos of sheep being repeatedly punched in the face, beaten with shearing handpieces, gouged in the eyes sockets, lifted and slammed to the ground and stomped on by shearers are but a few of the horrific images captured by undercover animal activists.Many of the animals were seen stumbling away bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth.\n\nThe court room heard how sheep shearing in Australia has had problems in the wool industry for some time and that PETA itself had began filing reports and information from as early as 2013. \n\nThe Four shearers, allegedly drunk and or on drugs ,have since been fined up to $3000 and disqualified from handling sheep after pleading guilty to animal cruelty charges. However the disqualification is limited to 1 or 2 years, which means they are most likely back on their jobs as we speak!!\n\nYou cannot blame drugs and alcohol for their evil acts, those are people who should not be near animals. They are simply not able to show compassion and other humane emotions. Shearers should be thoroughly vested and one of the criteria MUST be ABILITY TO SHOW COMPASSION. \n\nPlease join me in signing this petition and let's help make some positive changes in the shearing industry! \n\nToday: World Animal Rescue is counting on you\n\nWorld Animal Rescue needs your help with “Shearing Contractors Association of Australia: Transparency and Regulations In The Australian Sheep Shearing Industry”. Join World Animal Rescue and 3,336 supporters today.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7798646092414856}
+{"content": "The Trump doctrine in foreign policy: foundations, ruptures and continuities\n\nPublication date:\nJuan Tovar Ruiz, Profesor contratado doctor interino de Relaciones Internacionales, Departamento de Derecho Público, Universidad de Burgos\n\nThe Trump administration’s foreign policy has generated significant debates in the field of US foreign policy studies. Using a methodology based on theoretical elements such as neoclassical realism and Foreign Policy Analysis, this paper seeks to unravel the foundations of his administration’s foreign policy in areas like decision-making processes, doctrinal and ideological bases and the ruptures and continuities with his predecessor’s foreign policy. The conclusions provide a more nuanced view of the foreign policy of a US president inspired by different theoretical sources with more continuities with his predecessor than most authors admit, but conditioned by a dysfunctional decision-making process and the lack of strategy in the medium and long term.\n\nKey words: Trump administration, foreign policy, United States, doctrine, decision-making process\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9623281359672546}
+{"content": "Home A Level Inorganic Chemistry - Core Periodicity First ionisation energy across period 3\n\nCreative Chemistry Home Page\n\nFirst ionisation energy across period 3\n\nLearning outcomes\n\nAfter studying this page, you should be able to:\n\n  • describe and explain the trend in first ionisation energy across period 3\n\nFirst ionisation energy\n\nThe table shows first ionisation energy values for the elements Na to Ar.\n\nElement Symbol Atomic number First ionisation energy /kJ mol–1\nsodium Na 11 496\nmagnesium Mg 12 738\naluminium Al 13 578\nsilicon Si 14 789\nphosphorus P 15 1012\nsulfur S 16 1000\nchlorine Cl 17 1251\nargon Ar 18 1521\n\nFirst ionisation energy is the enthalpy change when one mole of gaseous atoms forms one mole of gaseous ions with a single positive charge.\n\nIt is an endothermic process, i.e. ΔH is positive.\n\nA general equation for this enthalpy change is:\n\nX(g) → X+(g) + e\n\nDescription of trend\n\nThe graph shows how the first ionisation energy varies across period 3.\n\nThe first ionisation energy generally increases across period 3. However, the trend needs a more detailed consideration than the trend in group 2. This is because the first ionisation energy:\n\n  • decreases from magnesium to aluminium then increases again, and\n  • decreases from phosphorus to sulfur then increases again.\nWhen you click on the download symbol, you will be able to download the graph as an image file or pdf file, save its data, annotate it, and print it. Note that graphs will be watermarked.\n\nExplanation of this trend\n\nGeneral increase across the period\n\nGoing across Period 3:\n\n  • there are more protons in each nucleus so the nuclear charge in each element increases …\n  • therefore the force of attraction between the nucleus and outer electron is increased, and …\n  • there is a negligible increase in shielding because each successive electron enters the same shell …\n  • so more energy is needed to remove the outer electron.\n\nMagnesium to aluminium\n\nLook at their electronic configurations:\n\n  • Magnesium: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2\n  • Aluminium:  1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p1\n\nThe outer electron in magnesium is in an s sub-shell. However, the outer electron in aluminium is in a p sub-shell, so it is higher in energy than the outer electron in magnesium. This means that less energy is needed to remove it.\n\nPhosphorus to sulfur\n\nLook at their electronic configurations:\n\n  • Phosphorus: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p3\n  • Sulfur:             1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p4\n\nIt's not immediately obvious what's going on until you look at the arrangements of the electrons:\n\nThe 3p electrons in phosphorus are all unpaired. In sulfur, two of the 3p electrons are paired. There is some repulsion between paired electrons in the same sub-shell, so the force of their attraction to the nucleus is reduced. This means that less energy is needed to remove one of these paired electrons than is needed to remove an unpaired electron from phosphorus.\n\nIt may help your understanding when you look at the diagrams below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8073651194572449}
+{"content": "Traffic Alert: Crash blocks ramp at I-80 eastbound and I-74\n\nDAVENPORT, Iowa, (KWQC) - Police are responding to a second crash today in the area of I-80 at the I-74 exit ramp.\n\nWe have a crew headed to the scene to get more information, but you can see from the Iowa Department of Transportation camera that a vehicle has gone off the road and several cars are stopped on the ramp.\n\nI-DOT says The ramp from I-80 eastbound at I-74 is partially closed due to a crash.\n\nLook for updates on and KWQC-TV6.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5944505929946899}
+{"content": "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor\n\nCould a floor price fix Australia's alcohol problem?\n\nAn innovative analysis by our researchers could unstick a decades-old debate over alcohol taxation policy.\n\nThe paper, by Anurag Sharma, Fabrice Etilé and Kompal Sinha, provides much-needed insight into how alcohol consumption would look under a different alcohol pricing regime, by applying a brand new technique.\n\n“Alcohol consumption is among the top three risk factors for global disease burden behind tobacco smoking and high blood pressure,” says Dr Anurag Sharma, of Monash Business School's Centre for Health Economics, the lead author of the paper.\n\n“It has been established that increasing the price of alcohol leads to reduction in consumption - especially by heavy drinkers drinking at harmful levels.”\n\nTequila shots lined up on a bar\n\nPolicy fails to target problem drinking\n\nAlcohol prices in Australia are affected by a complex tangle of taxation regimes resulting from decades of competing policy objectives. As a result, wine is subject to a tax on its value, while a volumetric tax applies to spirits - often at a much higher rate. Alco-pops are the target of yet another tax. The result is policy that fails to target problem drinking.\n\nProblem drinkers can buy cask wine and pay as little as five cents tax per standard drink. Meanwhile a far higher burden - up to 80 cents tax per standard drink - falls on some spirits. Policy experts have long been in favour of a simple and consistent approach.\n\nOne such policy is to set a minimum price for a single standard drink of $2. That would mean a beer containing 1.4 standard drinks could not be sold for less than $2.80. A bottle of wine containing seven standard drinks could not be sold for under $14, etc.\n\n\nDr Anurag Sharma\n\nMinimum unit price policies have already been applied in Russia and Canada. But in the UK doubt has impeded implementation. Would it actually work?\n\nIn 2013 the British government refused to apply a minimum unit price to alcohol on the basis of a lack of conclusive evidence it would deter problem drinking and not penalise other drinkers.  In Australia, a lack of evidence has also impeded change. But thanks to Dr Sharma and his colleagues the evidence basis is now substantially richer.\n\nThe new paper shows a minimum unit price would cause significant falls in the amount of alcohol consumed by at-risk drinkers, with much smaller falls among low-risk drinkers.\n\n“The effect of MUP in reducing alcohol purchases would be concentrated on households purchasing at risky levels, and the subsequent drop in their alcohol consumption would yield significant benefits for public health,” the paper argues.\n\nThe median drinker would reduce consumption by less than a tenth of one standard drink per day while a drinker at the 95th percentile would reduce drinking by over half a standard drink per day, the model shows. A drinker at the 97th percentile of consumption is most affected, reducing consumption by 0.9 standard drinks per day.\n\nMinimum price on alcohol\n\nSignificant health benefits\n\nRisky drinking tends to be concentrated among households with lower incomes, who also tend to buy alcohol that would rise in price under a minimum unit price policy. Dr Sharma and colleagues caution that the policy would affect income related inequality, but that this must be viewed in context.\n\n“Heavy drinkers are more likely to belong to lower socio-economic status groups. However our research has shown the average tax burden due to a minimum unit price for heavy drinkers is around $10 per week per person, whereas the health benefits are much higher,” Dr Sharma said.\n\nThe study used an existing data set containing 884 Australian households who purchased alcohol, surveyed over 52 weeks by a survey company. The households were required to scan all items purchased, yielding a data set rich in detail, including brand and price, although excluding alcohol bought and consumed outside the home.\n\nThis data fed into a model that is able to use the characteristics of the households in the data set to model how they would be likely to react under a different pricing regime.\n\n“Since a minimum unit price is not implemented widely yet, and there is no real scenario data post implementation, the method we use allows us to create a counterfactual scenario under a $2 minimum unit price. It subsequently lets us calculate the reduction in consumption under such a policy,” said Dr Sharma.\n\nThe innovative statistical technique, developed by renowned MIT Professor Victor Chernozhukov, permits the development of detailed counterfactual scenarios using the characteristics of rich data sets.\n\nThe evidence it has helped create could lead to real change in the lives of Australians, says Dr Sharma.\n\n“Drinking alcohol at harmful levels is strongly correlated with violence and poor health outcomes. A $2 minimum unit price has the potential to significantly reduce the negative externalities of alcohol consumption.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5347058773040771}
+{"content": "D minor major 7th chord\n\nDmM7 chord for piano with keyboard diagram.\nExplanation: The D minor major seventh is a four-note chord. The chord has various abbreviations, including Dm(M7) and Dminmaj.\nTheory: The DmM7 chord is constructed with a root, a minor thirdAn interval consisting of three semitones, the 3rd scale degree, a perfect fifthAn interval consisting of seven semitones, the 5th scale degree and a major seventhAn interval consisting of eleven semitones, the 7th scale degree. It shares features of both minor seventh and major seventh.\n\n\nDmM7 piano chord diagram with marked notes D, F, A, C#\nNotes: D - F - A - C#\nLeft hand: 5-3-2-1\nRight hand: 1-2-3-5\n\nDbmM7 chord ‹ Previous • Next › D#mM7 chord\n\nD chord categories\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Client Success Partner\n\nSpotify - Washington, DC4.3\n\nFull-timeEstimated: $60,000 - $75,000 a year\n\nWe are looking for an outstanding Client Success Partner that will join our Americas Client Solutions & Success team. You will be responsible for assisting the sales cycle from campaign execution through campaign wrap up, ultimately driving incremental revenue and renewals. This role includes strategic planning, consultative selling, brainstorming, expert product knowledge, project management, analysis, storytelling and delivering on brand’s business objectives. You must be professional, organized and motivated as well as have the drive to succeed in a dynamic, competitive environment. You will be a reliable and crucial market team member with comprehensive platform knowledge who can anticipate client and sales team needs. Above all, your work will impact the way the world experiences music.\n\nWhat you’ll do:\nDeliver best-in-class customer service to Spotify’s advertiser and agency partners using a client-centric approach to ensure sold campaigns exceed objectives, while driving incremental revenue via proactive upsell/renewal opportunities\nLead the consultative management of ad sales campaigns, partnering with clients and internal cross-functional teams to launch, manage and fully deliver all sold direct and programmatic deals\nBecome Spotify’s product and process expert to consult with clients throughout the campaign launch, management and renewal lifecycles\nSpearhead the campaign activation process by scheduling and leading client kick-off calls with the goal of confirming campaign objectives and KPIs, communicating accurate production and creative asset spec information, ultimately confirming all details needed for a flawless and timely launch\nLiaise and develop strong relationships with cross-functional internal teams including Creative Solutions, Ad Operations, Pricing and Inventory, Research and Measurement, Product Marketing, Ad Policy and Finance to deliver cohesive best-in-class customer service to clients\nHave a strong knowledge of the programmatic landscape, taking the lead on monitoring PMP spend and making proactive client recommendations to increase spend, while troubleshooting any tech issues to ensure ongoing spend and multiple streams of revenue for Spotify\nProvide ongoing comprehensive in-flight reporting and learnings to client, establishing Spotify as a consultative and trusted partner\nCreate comprehensive post-campaign analysis with learnings and recommendations, effectively communicating best practices for renewals and future RFPs to drive account revenue growth\nComplete monthly billing and reconciliation requirements, functioning as the lead to minimize delays in invoice payment, flagging any issues to sales and finance leadership\nCollaborate daily with Client Solutions Partner to formally provide feedback on campaign learnings, while being briefed on campaigns working through the sales pipeline for future activations\nRegularly attend and participate in client meetings and client entertainment to deepen client relationships as a trusted and valued partner\nSupport sales and client presentations by preparing key data points, historical campaign performance data and relevant measurement research\nPartner closely with AD and Client Solutions Partner in quarterly bottoms up and account planning exercises, as well as annual global partnership and upfront negotiations to ensure sold campaigns adhere to necessary requirements while driving incremental revenue\nReport to Manager of Client Solutions and Success\n\nWho you are:\nYou have a Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Sales, Advertising, Marketing, or Business\nYou have a minimum of 4 years experience in digital planning and buying while also having solid industry knowledge and a desire to learn more about the digital media industry\nYou are passionate about digital strategy and growing within the sales organization\nYou will be a passionate, accountable, creative, and team-focused individual that exemplifies the values and responsibilities of the Spotify sales strategy\nYou demonstrate the ability to think creatively, sell consultatively, proactively problem solve and efficiently communicate internally and externally\nYou have the ability to gracefully translate client requests to internal cross-functional partner teams to drive campaign success and incremental revenue\nYou have the ability to tell a story that eloquently translates data, breaks down complex information and clearly articulate Spotify’s value so that incremental recommendations can be seamlessly sold through to the client\nYou understand the unique circumstances of client buying process, key decision makers and influencers, timing and needs in order to make an informed optimization and upsell/renewal recommendations\nYou have excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills and are eager to further refine and develop these skills\nYou are a highly organized and focused multi-tasker with strong attention to detail, analytical and project management skills, and can work independently within a team focused organization\nYou have a reputation of being a superstar Client Success Partner (or similar sales support function) that provides world class customer service while maintaining a cool, calm and collected demeanor\nYou have excellent dexterity in excel and powerpoint, and have experience working within CRMs, Order Management Systems, ad servers and other digital media tech systems", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7632532119750977}
+{"content": "Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:\nTitle: دور الأزهر الشريف في نشر الدعوة الإسلامية في قارة إفريقيا في الفترة ما بين 1950م إلى 2005م\nAuthors: علاء الدين محمد حافظ القاضي\nKeywords: الأديان\nالدعوة الإسلامية\nIssue Date: 2014\nCitation: جامعة إفريقيا العالمية - عمادة الدراسات العليا - مركز البحوث والدراسات الإفريقية - قسم الأديان\nAbstract: This study dealt with the role of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in spreading the Islamic call in the African continent in the period between 1950 to 2005 , and aimed to highlight the role of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in the Islamic faith call , and to shed light on preaching activity in Africa , in addition to finding solutions to the obstacles it faces. Despite the importance of this topic in terms of preaching and calling to Islam, but I have found a dearth of independent scientific studies that addressed this issue. There are scarce sources about the subject: either article in newspapers, journals and the Internet, or within the folds of scientific studies discussing the role of Al-Azhar in general. The nature of the subject necessitated dividing it into: three parts as follows: Part: framework and methodology Part 1I: introducing Al-Azhar and its efforts in the African continent. This part is divided into two chapter: Chapter I: introducing Al-Azharand its scientific position. Chapter II: The efforts of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in the African continent. Part II: Effects of Azhar and the obstacles it faces in the African continent. This part is divided into two chapters: Chapter I: Effects of Al-Azhar 's efforts in the African continent. Chapter II: the obstacles faced by Al-Azhar in the African continent. The most important findings of this study include the following: 1- Al Azharscience students from the people of the African continent are the apostles of science and civilization when they return to their home countries. 2- Al -AzharMen and scholars bore hardship and troubles to pass on to the African country an insight about the light of Islam, and where they were burning candles to light to the others. 3- Al-Azhardistinguished itself from universities around the world by rare and unique characteristics that were not available to other universities ; as its leadership role in the nearly ten centuries was the mainstay of the steadfastness of the Islamic world in confronting the hordes of crusaders , and in confronting the tyrants of the rulers , and the aggression of colonists ruthless. 4- one of the biggest obstacles that faces Al-Azhar role of preaching and calling to Islam in the African continent : the lack of independence of Al-Azhar , and the obstacles faced by expatriate Africans , idolatry , evangelizing and proselytizing , and globalization.\nAppears in Collections:أطروحات الدكتوراه\n\nFiles in This Item:\nFile Description SizeFormat \nintrod.pdf2.16 MBAdobe PDFThumbnail\nresearch.pdf2.15 MBAdobe PDFView/Open    Request a copy\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9973993897438049}
+{"content": "A water drop display concept that I am currently experimenting with and developing.\n\nWords, stories, narrative, and modern day text messages, are something to marvel. They all seem so simple, and yet it is through these that we build narratives of ourselves. A simple stroke holds so much weight, that when joined into words worlds can be destroyed and realities creates. Without text, we would not be what/who we are, and yet text is often overlooked and ignored.\n\nWater; it is an incredible force of nature and at the heart of life, and yet so often we overlook it. We pay little to no attention to it, yet we need it to live. It goes into creating us as a biological cell.\n\nWhat would happen if these two were to collide? Could we have something that draws attention to the beauty of the two objects, these objects that are only acknowledged in brief moments of our lives and then forgotten? This is what we wish to address, by creating a feeling of suspended water messages.\n\nContribution: Original concept development, research and design, programming, soldering and circuit design, construction and production, documentation\n\nMore Info:\n\nFuelled by caffeine and a strong interest in video and media technologies I have been designing interactive solutions from the studio to stage for over three years. I have developed skills in video production, projections and mapping, 3D modelling and rendering, sculpture, prototyping and programming, as well as design practices and presentation techniques. Always working to extend and integrate new media into modern society in meaningful ways.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5863284468650818}
+{"content": "Brilliant fireworks night\n\nDarling Harbor, Sydney, is a really great venues with fireworks.That circular quay encircling the entire harbor, Shidao many locations, you can pitch a dazzling fireworks.Over the years, I’ve tried a variety of different ways, under different circumstances, at Darling Harbor to watch fireworks, really have their own interest, their own feelings.　　　　Once in Darling Harbor hotel’sContinue reading Brilliant fireworks night\n\n\nSuperstition child’s mother to us like the old ghost story, so I’m always afraid of the child walked in the grave, their own heart can hear a “pop” sound jump, afraid to look in particular new burial mounds piled wreaths.It seemed that after death became another kind of invisible wandering life, a child I wouldContinue reading Bricks\n\nBud originating\n\nREVIEW grass fire, if not many people care, burning to the edge of the land, but also to burn woodland next to the meadow.Tree leaves, hay, will be turned into a black and gray.Sometimes, flames would lick one high hazel leaves, lighted hazel will ignite more than 10 meters of oak tree.　　　　　　Lan: There have notContinue reading Bud originating\n\nAcacia rain\n\nThe night was silent, the moon and stars fall asleep lean on a railing afar, shadow dim ray of endless thoughts Qingsi across the night sky, falling heart holding a bunch of dim moonlight turned into a lightning illuminate the thoughts of the long skylight you to get rid of the night by a rayContinue reading Acacia rain\n\nBanking Association: consumer protection into the various aspects of banking management\n\n　　The second is to further promote branch transformation, \"light, intelligence, character, community-based\" has become the development trend。 \"Report\" shows that as of the end of 2017, total number of nationwide banking financial institutions outlets reached 10000, in which more than 800 new business outlets, the transformation of years outlets million units communities outlets 7890, smallContinue reading Banking Association: consumer protection into the various aspects of banking management", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8144880533218384}
+{"content": "this week i\n\nget weird looks at supermarket checkout.\n\nenjoyed the embers of the flower festival..\n\n..but this city needs no special occasion.\n\nlive up there.\n\nintroduced pepperoni pizza, cafe inconformista..\n\n ..romance in medellin.\n\ngeneralize but no, south america has the best skies.\n\ncould not support this flock.  amazing that italy ranked ten so recently.\n\nread weird al yankovic's wikipedia entry and..\n\nwhen he called nirvana frontman kurt cobain to ask if he could parody the song, cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, \"um... it's not gonna be about food, is it?\" yankovic responded with, \"no, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics.\"\n\n(1) identity theft from the dead\n\njust another figment shoring up his legend\n\n(2) snowden: it's amazing\n\nhe realizes that if he keeps his identity a secret, the government will rally all its powers and those of the media to convert the treacherous and hidden leaker into the subject of the story.  his intuition is that the best way to counter such a distraction will be to make the story personal right away, but to render the personal element dry and matter-of-fact.  he will do this in the most unobtrusive and ordinary manner.  he will simply admit that he is the person and spell out the few relevant facts about his life and work\n\n(3) corruption from every direction\n\n(4) foster care to this\n\na theatrically heavy footstep\n\n(5) the second memoir\n\nthe intended audience seems to be 11-year-olds of all ages\n\n(6) the middle east and north africa\n\nwestern policy-makers try to persuade the authorities in islamabad and riyadh to face up to the severity of the internal threat.  but it isn't a failure to understand the severity of the threat that causes these governments to export jihad.  it is precisely because they do understand the threat that they would rather channel it elsewhere.  their policies are driven by fear\n\n(7) fascism in greece\n\n(8) an obliteration\n\nmadrick's j'accuse subtitle indicts \"mainstream economists.\" but mainstream biologists are not blamed for creationism, and mainstream doctors are not held responsible for homeopathy\n\n(9) political ebola\n\nduring the civil wars, the rebels-mainly of native african descent-dressed up in halloween costumes and wedding gowns or stormed around stark naked with kalashnikovs, as if to dramatize the worst nightmares of the americo-liberians", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6030782461166382}
+{"content": "Climate change the likely killer of Australian marsupial lion\n\nThylacoleo carnifex\nThylacoleo carnifex was smaller than an African lioness, but with 80 per cent as powerful a bite as a large African lion. Credit: Peter Schouten\n\nScientists believe Thylacoleo carnifex was probably a victim of the drying out of Australia, which began about 350,000 years ago, rather than from the impact of humans.\n\nThe extinction of one of Australia’s top predators, Thylacoleo carnifex – aka the marsupial lion – was likely a result of changing weather patterns and loss of habitat rather than human impacts, new research has found.\n\nPalaeontologists from UNSW Sydney, University of Queensland and Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) addressed the question about the demise of the marsupial lion by looking into the powerful carnivore’s chemistry.\n\nBy studying the chemical signature preserved within fossil teeth, the team was able to determine that the marsupial lion hunted primarily in forests, rather than open habitats. This is supported by features of the skeleton that indicate it was an ambush hunter, relying on catching its prey unaware rather than running them down across an open landscape.\n\nFor nearly two million years the marsupial lion was one of Australia’s top predators. The animals were sized between leopards and African lionesses but had a bite that was about 80 per cent as strong as a large lion, enabling it to crush bones with its powerful jaws.\n\nThe study led by Professor Larisa DeSantis of Vanderbilt University posited that, despite being well-adapted for consuming flesh and bone, Thylacoleo was likely the victim of the drying out of Australia, which began about 350,000 years ago.\n\nThe marsupial lions persisted for thousands of years afterwards, as more and more forests disappeared. The animals survived even past the influx of humans to the continent roughly 60,000 years ago. Ultimately, the loss of forest habitats likely led to the extinction of these predators, with the last known record sometime between approximately 35 and 45 thousand years ago.\n\nRecommended For You  Pre-historic sharks feast on marine reptiles\n\n“These data provide evidence that the marsupial lion was an ambush predator and relied on prey that occupied denser cover,” Professor DeSantis said.\n\n“As the landscape became drier and forests less-dense, these apex predators may have become less-effective hunters and succumbed to extinction.\n\n“The study of these ancient fossils provides us with cautionary lessons for the future: climate change can impact even the fiercest predators.”\n\n\nThe marsupial lion lived alongside the Thylacine, which survived until the 20th century. The preference of the Thylacine for prey from more open habitats likely led to its survival, despite having a much weaker bite than Thylacoleo carnifex.\n\nProfessor Michael Archer, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales and one of the researchers involved said that because of its extraordinarily specialised dentition, Thylacoleo carnifex has been declared to be the most specialised mammalian carnivore that ever evolved anywhere in the world.\n\n\n\nAccording to Professor Archer, Thylacoleo carnifex was the last representative of this extraordinary group of flesh-eating marsupials. He said it was the largest of many kinds documented by Dr. Anna Gillespie of UNSW, on the basis of the 25 million-year-long fossil record from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland. This record includes pussy-cat-sized marsupial carnivores like Microleo attenboroughi and leopard-sized species like Wakaleo schouteni.\n\nRecommended For You  New basal ornithuromorph bird found in China\n\nStudy co-author Gilbert Price of the University of Queensland said: “When you’re big and bitey, you can eat pretty much anything you want. But our findings show that even the top predators are no match for extreme climate change.”\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9422357678413391}
+{"content": "\n\nGungor is in the midst of their most ambitious endeavor to date called One Wild Life, which is comprised of three full-length albums - SoulSpirit and Body. On August 7, 2015, they kicked off the album trilogy with One Wild Life: Soul, which debuted as the #15 album on the iTunes Alternative chart. “One Wild Life: Spirit,\" released on March 25, 2016. The final piece of the album trilogy concludes with One Wild Life: Body, which releases on September 30, 2016. While each record carries with it its own distinct vibe, the album series presents a body of work that celebrates the adventure and challenges faced by Michael and Lisa Gungor since the release of their album I Am Mountain in 2013.\n\n\nPhoto by Rebekah Shannon", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996183514595032}
+{"content": "\n\nThai farmers burn crops despite air pollution warnings\n\nHuge plumes of black smoke were seen rising into the sky from a farmer's field during Thailand's air pollution crisis on April 16. Toxic levels of smog in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai in the north of the country have been felt since February. The problem has been worsened by farmers burning their left-over crops on fields. Despite warnings to avoid the practice of setting alight the dried sugarcane husks to clear the land, farmers have continued to do it. Footage from Bangkok near the Suvarnabhumi Airport shows how the thick smoke can be seen for miles around. Pralong Damrongthai, deputy director-general of the Pollution Control Department, said officials would have to be more serious in asking people to stop burning off fields and forests, and would spray water hourly instead of twice a day in affected areas. At its worst point, the pollution level has reached more than 200 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre of air - four times the safe limit of 50. The PM2.5 dust particles are extremely small and they are fine enough to be absorbed in the human bloodstream through the lungs. This will cause chronic diseases such as asthma, cancer, heart disease and stroke in the long term if there is exposure to air pollution. Health experts have warned that the pollution is a ''silent killer'' and that at current levels was extremely harmful to anyone stepping outside. They said the cost of treating people could run into ''billions of dollars''.\nimage beaconimage beaconimage beacon", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8997626304626465}
+{"content": "Interested in wildlife photography?  Check out this article from Outdoor Photographer.  Many people wouldn’t think of using flash when shooting wildlife, but in the right situations, it can be the difference between having a fuzzy silhouette and a clear likeness of the subject.\n\nDaylight Fill-Flash |\n\nDaylight Fill-Flash | OutdoorPhotographer.com accessory flash may not come to mind initially as an important tool for wildlife photography, but I never go out on a shoot without one.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999446868896484}
+{"content": "Faculty » Sang-Hee Lee\n\nSang-Hee Lee\n\nPh.D. 1999 University of Michigan\n\nOffice: 1309B Watkins Hall\nE-mail: sang-hee.lee@ucr.edu\nWebsite: https://profiles.ucr.edu/sang-hee.lee\n\nProfessor Lee is interested in the evolution of human morphological variation based on the fossil record and seeks to identify the causal mechanisms for the patterns observed in the human (and ancestral human) fossil record. Her research is multi-disciplinary in nature, bridging biology and anthropology: biology, in that the mechanisms of evolution and variation apply to all species; anthropology, as human evolution has been shaped by cultural factors. She has been active in five research topics: variation and taxonomy, longevity, sexual dimorphism, brain size, and sampling bias. All of these play an important role in human evolution, each with a long history of research. Her approach is focused on \"excavating\" new knowledge by rephrasing a question, redefining a concept, and developing innovative methods, all in ways that make it possible to get empirical information from fossil data that have not been possible before.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9377666115760803}
+{"content": "Articles and Essays\n\nEnglish users (speakers and writers) more often than not find themselves committing grave mistakes when it comes to usage of article or essay. These two words are often confused and are used interchangeably. Close relationship between meanings of these words does not make them identical. An essay is a long and detailed chronology of events. Therefore, essays have room to contain events that occur over a long period such as historical occurrences. On the other hand, articles are short and descriptive. They depict specific ideas such as hygiene in newspapers and magazines. This paper will focus on the differences between articles and essays.\n\nEssays are usually long and can take up to 3000 words. In this case, authors have time and room to express their ideas and opinions comprehensively. At the same time, there is an area to include similar ideas from other writers. There are always quotations, references, and citations of thoughts previously held by experts in the field targeted by the essay. Through essays, learners can present knowledge they have acquired in the course of learning. Unlike other forms of presenting information, essays contain a conclusion that is summative of the topic extensively discussed (Collins, 2009). In this, the writer can give own opinion and even compliment, challenge, criticize, and correct thoughts presented by others who pursued the same topic.\n\nThrough essays, events that are detailed due to expansiveness of their occurrence can be contained. They find best custody of history. They explain chronology of events such as power dispensation and acquisition for communities of the world (Bensmaïa, 2005). Many practices were previously held by communities. Today, essays can contain them accordingly and can tell cultural practices of societies such as food, mode of clothing, beliefs, taboos, and religion among others.\n\nOn the other hand, articles’ form of presenting information is definite and descriptive. Therefore, being specific means that they are short. They can be a few words to comparatively long ones but not exceeding 1500 words. The general concept of articles is for presenting specific ideas. They describe a certain niche. In an article, an author can expound on a place, a position held, a function, role, and/or task. In this, writers and authors are free to discuss ideas held or express their expertise in various fields. There can be articles that discuss real life events such as personal hygiene, nutrition, preventive measures of certain chronic diseases, political instability, weather conditions, and effects of such situations.\n\nArticles are popular in print media that have limitations in terms of space. Here, only the precise relevant information is required. Such media include the journals, magazines, and newspapers. For instance, one can write an article on Depletion of Natural Resources. We expect such a person to have room to talk of one or few types of resources, for instance, oil. In the same context, he/she will talk of reasons for depletion, expected period for depletion to occur, and the dire consequences that will ensure such depletion.\n\nConclusively, articles can be put forth by experts in certain fields. For instance, a dental surgeon can give a descriptive overview on causes of tooth decay, remedy, and consequences. We can also find a food nutritionist giving an account of causes of obesity among the youth in developed countries. Such can go ahead and give preventive measures, cure, and treatment of obesity. Articles, unlike essays by practices, contain no conclusion (D’Agata, 2009). They mostly contain own opinion and expertise.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9182554483413696}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 14\n\nKrauth 1\n\nQuechua: An oppressed language of an oppressed people\n\nLauren Krauth Wadley ANT 472 10 May 2011\n\nKrauth 2\n\nQuechua: An oppressed language for an oppressed people Language and culture are intrinsically linked within ones identity; the oppression of ones language is the oppression of ones culture. The oppression of language is historically produced through colonialism, yet the process continues through current trends of globalization. Languages become oppressed when the dominant forces of society favor one language at the expense of another; the acquisition of the dominant language of society is essential for social mobility. Societies with the ability to combat the marginalization of their language while keeping their culture intact empower their cultural identity. The Quechua language of the Andes exemplifies the persistence of a culture despite the persecution of their native language. The dichotomy between the colonial language of Spanish and the indigenous language of Quechua within Andean society is an ongoing battle that has persisted since the invasion of the Spanish in 1532. The oppression of the indigenous people of the Andes is a remnant of colonialism and has perseveres todays society through the stigmatization of Quechua. The negative sentiments associated with the use of Quechua is evident through Quechua speakers rejection of bilingual education in rural communities who view Spanish as social mobility. Prior to the formation of the Incan Empire, Quechua was one of many native languages of the indigenous people of the Andes. The establishment of the Incan Empire adopted the Southern Peruvian dialect of Quechua as the lingua franca, yet the language was not named until the Spanish invasion (Heggarty 2007, 331). Quechua was referred to as runa simi, human speech, and was spread throughout the Incan Empire through the necessity of trade (Mannheim 1991, 7). Despite the brevity of the Incan rule, the Southern Peruvian dialect of Quechua became the language of the empire because every culture had their own vernacular of runa simi. The formation of the lingua franca and the unification of the diverse indigenous groups by the\n\nKrauth 3\n\nIncas facilitated the Spanish conquest. The Spanish defeat of the capital of the empire, Cusco, transformed the vast lands of the Incas to the Spanish crown. The cultural differences between the conquistadores and the indigenous people of Latin America are innumerable; one of the most obvious differences being language. The Spanish followed the Incan promotion of the Southern Peruvian Quechua as the lingua franca allowing the division between the language of the conquered and the colonists to become entrenched within the colonial society. The Spanish invasion of Latin America transformed the connotation of the indigenous way of life and consequently, the Quechua language. Language is a crucial aspect of ones cultural identity; speaking the same language bonds individuals and gives them cultural pride. The Spanish viewed the imposition of their language as right of conquest and felt an obligation to educate the indigenous people the ways of the developed world (Mannheim 1991, 68). Religious conversion dominated many early colonial policies, for the Spanish wanted to eradicate the pagan religious practices of the conquered land. The Spanish forced the indigenous people to destroy their magnificent Incan temples to construct Catholic churches, hoping the destruction of their holy sites would abolish their native religions; they were mistaken. Language proved to be the hardest obstacle to overcome in the catholicization of Andean countries. The Spanish blamed the difficulty in religious conversion on Quechuas lack of terminology for Catholic concepts like the Holy Trinity and penitence. Mannheim (1991) argues that the problem of religious conversion in the Spanish Empire was not caused by the lack of Quechua vocabulary, but rather the presence of the Quechua language. Spanish does not have proper vocabulary for the indigenous religions; the destruction of the Quechua would have eradicated indigenous religions of the region. The Council of Lima in 1551 tried to encourage a civilized Spanish lifestyle on the native people and banned sleeping on the ground, not eating at a table,\n\nKrauth 4\n\nand chewing coca leaves (Mannheim 1991, 71). The banishment of these cultural practices did not transform the conquered people into civilized Spaniards; it only intensified the hatred that they felt toward the Spanish. After the failed rebellion of Tupac Amaru in 1572, the Spanish realized the animosity of the native population and declared a new policy that forbade the use of Quechua, yet the policy was never enforced due to the influence of internal colonialism within the colonial society. The Spanish monarchy realized the importance of language acquisition in their territories, for the preservation of ones native language facilitates the preservation of ones cultural identity. Language was viewed as an essential aspect of Spanish loyalty and conversely, Quechua was viewed as the antithesis of that loyalty. Although the abolition of Quechua was in the best interest of the Spanish empire, it was not in the best interest of the colonists living in the conquered regions. Howard-Malverde (1995) explains the internal colonialism model which states that a long-time depth of language maintenance shows it to be a function of convenience afforded economic exploitation and political control, (292). By ignoring the Spanish decree of the abrogation of Quechua, the colonists were able to control and exploit the native populations. This act of defiance created a strict social hierarchy within the colonial society as the dominant members of society, those who spoke Spanish, were granted social privilege at the expense of the non-Spanish speakers. Spanish became the formal language of the society and Spanish was used in the government as well as court. Because the majority of the population could not speak or understand Spanish, the government and court dealings were highly biased in favor of the Spanish speaking minority. There are abundant records of property sales made in the colonial language which prevented the natives to protest the sale because they could not read the documents (Mannheim 1991, 76). The Spanish promoted Castilianization by demanding\n\nKrauth 5\n\nmandatory education of the youth in Spanish, but these programs were costly and threatened the profit made from taxation (Mannheim 1991, 75). The language obstacle was an instrument of social control used by the colonists that produced an ethnically reinforced social hierarchy that persists in modern Andean countries. Social hierarchy dominates South American societies. The subjugation of the indigenous populations during colonial times through language policies continues today because it is a mechanism of social domination. Language is power; the oppression of ones language renders one powerless within the society. Mannheim (1991) explains the dynamics of current Andean countries, Spanish is the language of the dominant sector, and Quechua the language of the subjugated sector, (61). There are five primary social classes in Andean society: alta sociedad (upper class), decentes (respectable people), mestizo (mixed Spanish and indigenous heritage), cholos (indigenous city dwellers), and indios (indigenous) (Lefebvre 1979, 396). Although both European and indigenous heritage is a strong indicator of social class, the most notable difference between classes is the use of Spanish of Quechua. The higher ones position in society correlates with their advanced knowledge in Spanish and minimal use of Quechua. The alta sociedad are the former hacienda owners of colonial times and are monolingual Spanish. People who belong to the upper class in Andean society usually have more than one house and live luxurious lifestyles that rival the wealth of first world inhabitants. The only interactions between the upper class and Quechua speakers are through the employer-employee relationship and even in those circumstances, the Quechua speaker prefer to use their limited Spanish to show their intelligence. The class below the alta sociedad, the decentes, are the decent people of society and consist of army officials, business owners, and professional people. This class learns Spanish as their first language but acquire proficiency in\n\nKrauth 6\n\nQuechua to varying degrees based on the necessity in their profession. The mestizos are people with mixed indigenous and Spanish blood and are bilingual Spanish and Quechua, acquiring both languages during their youth. Mestizos include shopkeepers, policemen, and taxi drivers and these people only use Quechua while in their homes or with their families. Below the mestizos, reside the cholos who are monolingual Quechua speakers that live in cities in search of work. This social class knows Spanish to varying degree, yet Quechua is used at home and in their neighborhoods. Cholos realize the importance of even basic knowledge of Spanish and therefore insist that their children attend Spanish schools. The lowest tier of society, the indios, are indigenous monolingual Quechua speakers living in poverty in rural areas. Indios who migrate to the cities become cholos (Lefebvre 1979, 396). The juxtaposition between the social structure of the colonial era and of modern times reflects the slight contrast between the two societies. The only difference between the colonial social hierarchies is the inclusion of esclavos (slaves) who were brought to the Americas for manual labor and occupied the class below the indios. The colonial legacy of a rigid social hierarchy has produced extreme differences in wealth between the alta sociedad and the rest of the population; the minority live in extreme wealth as a result of the impoverishment of the rest of the populations. The unequal distribution of wealth has prevented Andean countries transformation into first world nations because they lack a prominent middle class. Mannheim (1991) describes the two dominant policies toward language that have persisted since colonial times. The first model, soft assimilation, occurred during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and consists of liberal policies toward language and the promotion of Quechua literacy. The second model which is prominent today and throughout the majority of colonial rule is hard assimilation. The latter model reflects the predominant\n\nKrauth 7\n\nideology of language policies and requires language unification at the expense of the marginalization of Quechua and other indigenous languages. The similarities between language policies of colonial and contemporary times is exemplified in the analogous language employed. During colonial times, the populations knowledge of Spanish was crucial for the success of the empire; today the populations knowledge of Spanish is crucial for the success of the Andean nation-states. The Spanish colonists justified the oppression of Quechua because it lacked vocabulary for religious concepts; today Spanish speakers in the Andean countries argue that Quechua lacks terminology for technology (Mannheim 1991, 63). Because of the long history of linguistic and cultural oppression, Quechua speakers are well aware of the stigmatization associated with their native language as well as the necessity of basic Spanish in order to improve their social standing in society. Native speakers of Quechua are faced with a difficult decision to make: learn Spanish and denounce their Quechuan heritage or refuse to learn Spanish and continue to live in squalor. For the majority of Quechua speakers who are forced to choose between the Quechuan lifestyle and a life of more opportunities, they chose the latter. Quechua speakers rationalize their choice by describing the different realms of Spanish and Quechua; Spanish is the language of the public sector of society while Quechua remains the language of private settings. Knowledge of Spanish is not viewed as a denouncement of the Quechua society; it is viewed as a mechanism for social mobility. There are many intersecting factors that contribute to a persons decision to use Spanish or Quechua. Howard-Malverde (1995) writes that the employment of either Quechua or Spanish is situation dependent and varies based on gender, age, ethnicity, class, level of education, and kinship. The general rule for language usage in Andean society is Spanish is the language of the public domain and Quechua is the language of the private domain, yet this rule is dependent on\n\nKrauth 8\n\nthe individuals level of Spanish and Quechua. The public domain consists of formal settings like meetings, church and the school. The house and the neighborhood are considered informal, intimate settings and therefore Quechua is the favored language. Hornberger (1987) writes that although schools are located within rural communities where only Quechua is spoken, Quechua speakers consider schools as a separate entity from the community belonging to the public domain. Because knowledge of Spanish is equated in Andean culture to higher intelligence, Quechua speakers prefer to speak in broken Spanish than in their native tongue while in a public domain (Weber 1994, 90). Lefebvre (1979) describes the Quechua speakers preference to use Quechua when telling jokes or reciting poetry because they view their native language as more expressive than Spanish. For native Spanish speakers, the use of Quechua reflects their mestizo heritage and is only used when speaking to monolingual Quechua speakers. The prevalence of code-switching within all sectors of society reflects the flexibility in the dichotomy between the public and private domains. There are roughly two million speakers of the Southern Peruvian dialect of Quechua who are marginalized because of their mother tongue language (Mannheim 1991, 113). Overcoming the stigmas associated with the Quechua identity can only be accomplished on the individual basis. The denunciation of ones Quechua identity in exchange for social mobility legitimizes the stigmatization because the Quechua speakers success is dependent on the acquisition of the colonial language (Mannheim 1991, 61). The language dichotomy within Andean society is a phenomenon that bilingual Spanish and Quechua speakers cannot escape, for it pervades every aspect of daily life. The choice of language is a conscious decision made by the individual and through their selection of language they reinforce the stereotypes of both Spanish and Quechua. Although Spanish is the language of the dominant sector of society, monolingual Spanish\n\nKrauth 9\n\nspeakers are also marginalized because of their lack of knowledge of the language of the majority of the population. The Quechua speakers stigmatization is exemplified in the Quechuan childs silence in the Spanish classroom; the Spanish speaker feels similar feelings of exclusion when Quechuan insults are yelled at him or her in a public setting (Mannheim 1991, 81). Despite Quechua speakers negative connotations associated with Spanish, the number of bilingual Spanish speakers has drastically increased over the past half century. HowardMalverde (1995) shows the increasing prevalence in Spanish language acquisition by comparing a Bolivian census from 1976 and 1992. The census showed a 24.9% increase in Spanish monolingualism and a 35.7% decrease in Quechua monolingualism. Howard-Malverde describes the data as reflective of the current demands of the education system and work force which increasingly favor Spanish. He also notes that the acquisition of Spanish is not a guarantee of an improved lifestyle, yet without knowledge of Spanish, social mobility is impossible. The 1970s and 1980s marked an important transformation in the political configuration of Latin American governments; the oppressive dictatorships were replaced with democratic governments. The fledgling democracies were not without flaws, yet the new governments provided a venue for the subjugated members of society to voice their concerns. Hornberger (1987) writes that the implementation of democratic governments in Andean societies was polemic because political participation was based on the knowledge of Spanish. Although Quechua was made an official language of Peru in 1975, government proceedings were only held in Spanish (Hornberger 1994, 83). As a result of the lack of political participation of paired with high illiteracy rates, the Peruvian government implemented various language policies hoping to increase the Spanish speaking population. Hornberger (1987) explains three prevalent ideologies that are the basis of language policies: language as a problem, language as a right, and language\n\nKrauth 10\n\nas a resource. Policies reflecting language as a problem were common during colonial times; this ideology views languages other than the dominant language of society (Spanish), as problematic to society as well as speakers of the subjugated language. Because language is a problem, these policies usually require the institution of a monolingual society and the oppression of language. Language as a right describes the injustice of language oppression because the use of ones mother tongue language is an inalienable right; the officialization of Quechua as a national language is a reflection of language as a right. Language as a resource views the benefits that language can provide for a nation, yet not all languages are equal. The institution of mandatory bilingual education in 1976 demonstrates language as a resource because the acquisition of both Spanish and Quechua is advantageous for as sectors of society (Hornberger 1987, 206). The majority of language policies are geared towards education, but conflicting views towards bilingual education make the implementation of policies that reflect language as a resource or a right difficult to enforce. The inefficiency of the Andean education system is evident in the majority of students failure to complete elementary school. The lack of education in rural communities reinforces the stereotypes that Quechua speakers are genetically inferior and lack the capacity to become literate (Weber 1994, 91). Weber (1994) disputes the stereotypes placed on Quechua speakers and describes other sociological factors that contribute to the high illiteracy rates in rural areas. The first of these factors is that the most students entering school have little knowledge of life outside their communities and therefore have limited Spanish. When indigenous students are thrust into a foreign environment where they do not understand the language they are not encouraged to learn. Rural teachers are another contributing factor to the lack of success Quechuan students have in school because the teachers lack the motivation to encourage their\n\nKrauth 11\n\nstudents to learn. The majority of teachers are one generation removed from their Quechua ancestry and therefore carry negative connotations towards the Quechuan culture which is a product of the social dynamics within Andean society. Due to the bias that teachers have against Quechua, Quechuan students are discouraged and view Spanish as a denunciation of their culture. Many students are overwhelmed at the prospect of learning a second language and lack the needed support at school from their prejudice teachers and at home because their parents are monolingual Quechua. Because of the failure of the current education system, the Peruvian government implemented bilingual education programs in various communities in hopes that literacy in Quechua would bring literacy in Spanish. The benefits of mother tongue education are innumerable. An African educator, Matshazi wrote, Learning to talk in your mother tongue is an arduous task. Learning to read and write in that language is even more difficult, but learning to read in write in a language other than your own is an experience that requires an enormous capacity for endurance, (Weber 1994, 91). The National Bilingual Education Policy of 1972 implemented in Peru requires the use of Quechua in all classes for the first six years of schooling (Hornberger 1987, 206). The implementation of mother tongue education has been called an inalienable right and the liberal policies towards Quechua promote the inclusion of Quechuan culture within Andean society. The physiological benefits of Quechuan education are evident in the Quechuan students increased perception of their self-worth. The negative sentiments toward Quechua in schools and in society in general have depreciated the Quechua speakers self-esteem for they are constantly reminded that their culture is inferior. By teaching in Quechuans native language they are assured the importance of their cultural identity and encouraged to participate. The bilingual education program improved the learning capabilities of Quechuan students; the acquisition of Quechuan literacy facilitated\n\nKrauth 12\n\nSpanish literacy (Weber 1994, 93). Hornberger (1987) describes the common misconception about source of shyness of indigenous children in school. Many argue that the lack of participation in the classroom is a result of their indigenous heritage, yet Hornberger argues that indigenous childrens failure to participate in class is a result of the usage of a language foreign to these students. Teachers noticed a remarkable increase in student participation and reading comprehension after the institution of bilingual education, yet the program proved to be a policy failure. The National Bilingual Education Policy was unsuccessful for several reasons. The first of these reasons is economic; faced with extreme foreign debt, Andean governments lacked funding for the costly education programs (Weber 1994, 95). Because there are many dialects of Quechua, it was impossible to implement a uniform education plan and the lack of foresight by policy makers to realize the differences in Quechua dialects reflects the separation between Spanish and Quechua speakers (Weber 1994, 94). Because knowledge of Spanish is crucial to social mobility, there was heavy opposition from the teachers and the communities. Teachers held strong to their beliefs that the Quechuan education was ineffective and a waste of their time; these negative feelings created a hostile atmosphere in the classroom and many teachers protested the policys implementation. Community resistance was the strongest factor contributing to the failure of the bilingual education program. The communities selected to administer the new policy were inappropriate for two reasons. The first reason being that many school selected were too urban and many students were already bilingual in Spanish and Quechua. The second reason was that the schools were selected randomly and communities that were chosen felt that they were the guinea pig and preferred a Spanish only education (Hornberger 1987, 222). The bilingual education policy was doomed to fail because of the\n\nKrauth 13\n\nnegative connotation of Quechua that is deeply rooted within Andean society. Indigenous parents view Spanish as essential for their childrens success and although a Quechuan education may prove to be beneficial in the end, these parents did not care. For five hundred years Quechua speakers have been marginalized and exploited because of their native tongue and they were not quick to trust the sudden reversal of sentiments toward their language. The Quechua speakers rejection of the bilingual education policy is not a rejection of the Quechuan culture; they view the proper language of school as Spanish, not Quechua. The indigenous people of the Andes have been persecuted against because of their failure to speak the colonial language for hundreds of years; the perseverance of the language despite the marginalization proves the endurance of the Quechuan language and culture. Ama qilla, ama llulla, ama suwa- Do not lie, cheat, or be lazy (Hornberger 1994, 27). These three principles have been the basis of Quechua society since the Incan Empire and are ingrained in the minds of every Quechua speaker. The acquisition of Spanish does not change the cultural identity of the Quechuan speaker; it only increases their productivity within society. In most cases, the marginalization of a language will eventually lead to the loss of the language and consequently to the loss of the culture that speaks the language. Quechua speakers are confident that their culture and language will never be forgotten because Quechua will always remain the language of their people.\n\nKrauth 14\n\nBibliography Bruce Mannheim, The Language of the Inka since European Invasion (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991). Diana Dahlin Weber 1994 Mother Tongue Education for Speakers of Quechua. In Language in the Andes. Peter Cole, Gabriella Hermon, and Mario Daniel Martin. Eds. Pp. 90-115 Newark: University of Delaware Press. Nancy H. Hornberger 1987 Bilingual Education Success, but Policy failure. Language in Society 16 : 205-226. Nancy H. Hornberger 1994 Whither Bilingual Education in Peru? Quechua literacy and empowerment. In Language in the Andes. Peter Cole, Gabriella Hermon, and Mario Daniel Martin. Eds. Pp. 74-89.. Newark: University of Delaware Press. Paul Heggarty 2007 Linguistics for Archeologists: Principles, Methods and the case of the Incas. Cambridge Archeological Journal 17 (3): 311-40. Rosaleen Howard-Malverde 1995 Pachamama is a Spanish word: Linguistic Tension between Aymara, Quechua, and Spanish in Northern Potos. Anthropological Linguistics 37:141168. Claire Lefebvre 1979 Quechuas Loss, Spanishs Gain. Language in Society 8: 395-407.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9712206721305847}
+{"content": "GC420t not printing Continuously\n\n\nI've GC420t label printer, installed and configured on windows 10, printing with perfect alignment single print, but not printing Continuously in case of multiple copies print order...\n\nits stopping after each print, and green button start blinking red color.. I've to open the printer cover and close it again then it'll become green again. then i press the button to print anther one, and then the same for each copy under the same order..", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994168281555176}
+{"content": "Public Release: \n\nMarine animals can hear us swim, kayak and scuba dive\n\nHumans make a lot of underwater noise because we generate and push bubble clouds underwater, which vibrate and send out acoustic waves\n\nAcoustical Society of America\n\n\nIMAGE: While it is obvious that things like boats can be heard by marine life under the water, what about human activities like swimming, canoeing and scuba diving? During the 175th... view more \n\nCredit: Centre for Marine Science & Technology\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C., May 7, 2018 -- While it is obvious that things like boats and other water vehicles can be heard by marine life under the water, what about human activities like swimming, canoeing and scuba diving?\n\nDuring the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, being held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Christine Erbe, director of the Centre for Marine Science & Technology at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, will describe her work exploring the impact of man-made underwater noise on marine life.\n\n\"Humans generate underwater noise the moment we take to the water,\" said Erbe, who studies big sources of underwater sound on behalf of industry and defense. She also said that out of general scientific curiosity she wanted to find out just how loud we are individually. \"Many people don't realize that sound travels extremely well and far underwater -- we can hear individual ships tens to hundreds of kilometers away. And when we're out on the ocean, we can hear ships coming long before we finally see them appear on the horizon.\"\n\nMan-made noise is a problem underwater because marine animals rely on sound for all their major life functions like foraging, traveling and mating. \"To understand how much interference we cause marine animals, we need to measure the sounds we generate underwater,\" Erbe said. \"To do this, we deploy hydrophones -- essentially underwater microphones -- to record the sounds of passing ships or, as in this study, people swimming over the hydrophone.\"\n\nWhen testing in a pool, Erbe and colleagues were surprised to discover just how noisy humans are underwater. \"Thanks to simultaneous underwater video and audio recordings, we were able to match specific sounds with activities -- including different swimming styles, diving, kayaking and scuba diving,\" she said. \"It turns out, most of the sound is related to bubbles that we generate at the water's surface. Every time your arms pierce the surface while swimming freestyle, you push a bubble cloud underwater, which vibrates and sends out an acoustic wave.\"\n\nAs you might guess, swimming breaststroke is much quieter than freestyle. In fact, after watching others within the group swim each style just once, the researchers were able to tell, while listening blindfolded, who swam which style next. \"Some of us use much more force in swimming than others,\" Erbe said. \"For example, some swimmers exerted more energy vertically downward -- pushing huge and noisy bubble clouds underwater, while other swimmers used their energy more in a forward-propelling sense and created much less bubble noise vertically below them.\"\n\nDifferent swimming styles have their own distinct sound, according to the researchers. And when kayaking, \"the water dribbling off each paddle's edge creates a high-frequency dripping sound underwater that's easily recognizable,\" Erbe said. \"Scuba divers also create an alternating pattern of breathing in and out, which is clearly distinguishable underwater.\"\n\nThe group determined that \"sound from nonmotorized water sports is most likely not going to harm any animals, but it is loud enough for animals to hear,\" said Erbe.\n\n\nPresentation 1aAO5 \"Underwater sound pressure and particle motion (acceleration, velocity and displacement) from recreational swimmers, divers, surfers and kayakers,\" by Christine Erbe, is at 11:10 a.m. CDT, May 7, 2018, in room Greenway A at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.\n\nVIDEO: Underwater sounds of swimmers, divers, surfers, and kayakers\n\nCredit: Centre for Marine Science & Technology\n\n\nThe 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America\n\n\n\nMain meeting website:\n\nTechnical program:\n\nMeeting/Hotel site:\n\nPress Room:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9209358096122742}
+{"content": "Budget Constraint\n\nAlso found in: Wikipedia.\n\nBudget Constraint\n\n\nPxx + Pyy = m\n\nPx is how much a good costs;\n\nx is the quantity of that good one purchases;\n\nPy is the price of all other goods and services;\n\ny is the quantity of all other goods; and\n\nm is the amount of money one has allocated for consumption.\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nIn addition to meeting a binding budget constraint, the consumer must survive: his caloric intake may not fall below some specified minimum.\nA firm is said to have a soft budget constraint if a bank allows the firm to continue to operate even when continuation is ex post inefficient.\nThis is called the budget constraint - you are subjected to it, I am subjected to it, the Government is subjected to it.\n1993) recommendation to include substitute and budget constraint reminders in contingent markets.\nWithout a long-range budget constraint on social security, it will be much more difficult to limit future benefit growth.\nUltimately, the soft budget constraint syndrome is a manifestation of the paternalistic role of the state in the socialist system.\nfind creative ways to free up financial means when you're in tight budget constraints, it's a good thing,'' said Superintendent Stan Halperin, who took the top post last week.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7377513647079468}
+{"content": "Hari Moong Dal Khichdi\n\nHari Moong Dal Khichdi, also known as Chilka Moong Dal Khichdi, prepared with Chilka Moong(Hari Moong), also known as Split Green Moong Lentil, cooked with rice in very limited spices and desi ghee(preferably). A one pot satvik meal(no-onion no-garlic) that is free from heavy spices and masala or oil.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8419806361198425}
+{"content": "Microsoft Windows Kernel Information Disclosure Vulnerability\n\nA vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows kernel could allow a local attacker to access sensitive information on a targeted system.\n\nThe vulnerability exists because the affected software improperly initializes memory objects. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing the system and executing an application that submits malicious input to the affected software. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access sensitive information, which could be used to launch additional attacks.\n\nMicrosoft confirmed the vulnerability and released software updates.\n\nSecurity Impact Rating: Medium\n\nCVE: CVE-2019-0702\n\nSource:: Cisco Multivendor Vulnerability Alerts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9774612188339233}
+{"content": "Theories of Social Power\n\nThere are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous – Hannah Arendt\n\nWhat is power?\n\nWho has it and why?\n\nHow is social order maintained? Why is it maintained even when it’s creating social problems?\n\nIn Theories of Social Power, we look at an expansive range of writing on power, from the classics of Hobbes and Hegel, to contemporaries like Scott and Zelizer. We pay particularly close attention to ideas that explain how social structures enable and constrain action, and allocate social resources unequally. We will be consistently using examples from our experiences and popular culture to talk through theories, and treating theory like a language that gets easier, and more eloquent, with practice. By the end of the course, students should be able to think through and clearly communicate complex social phenomena by drawing on theories of power.\n\n\nBlog posts generated by students in the class are posted on\n\nA course outline is available here: SOCI 302: 2016 Course Outline", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999230146408081}
+{"content": "Sunday, May 26, 2019\nHomeOpinionEditorialsA third party challenge\n\nA third party challenge\n\nSoon after the resignation of Bamboo Town MP Branville McCartney from the Free National Movement (FNM) earlier this year, the national airwaves were dominated by talk of the formation of a third political party to challenge the FNM and Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).\n\nSince then McCartney has formed the DNA (Democratic National Alliance), which he refers to as an ‘alternative’ party, not a third party — perhaps because of the fate of past third parties in this country.\n\nThe last major politician to try the third party route was former PLP deputy leader Dr. Bernard Nottage in 2002 when his Coalition for Democratic Reform (CDR) took on the two major parties. Dr. Nottage’s party failed and he lost his seat. CDR candidates were crushed as non-contenders at the polls.\n\nAt the time Bahamians were upset with the FNM, which was fractured and falling apart. They chose to go with a Perry Christie. He was a part of a major political force and he was also a new face to leadership. Christie ran as a”new PLP”, seeking to break with the somewhat tarnished legacy of the defeated old PLP.\n\nAt that 2002 election there was something new that was still a part of the mainstream for Bahamians to choose. Dr. Nottage could not compete with that.\n\nAlmost ten years later, a young, attractive and charismatic politician (McCartney) is trying the same thing — no matter how he tries to dress it up. He is not as politically accomplished as Dr. Nottage was at the time he led the CDR to defeat. However, McCartney may have an advantage.\n\nAt this general election, neither political party has anything new to offer at the leadership level. FNM leader Hubert Ingraham and PLP leader Perry Christie both entered the House of Assembly in 1977. Both men are known. Neither man can claim to be new. Neither man can suggest he can offer something he has not already offered during his long political career.\n\nAt this election it could be argued that a message could be presented, stating that Ingraham and Christie, and the FNM and the PLP, are the same thing and a new direction is needed for the country. In recent years there have been annual murder records; the down economy has persisted; and the Bahamian education system is doing poorly.\n\nThough this environment exists, it is unclear if Bahamians will break with the PLP/FNM duopoly.\n\nThe key for any third party movement would be to determine if dissatisfaction with the parties could be harnessed into votes. If that dissatisfaction cannot be, starting a third party will only waste money.\n\nUltimately, Bahamians will have to decide if they will accept others at the national table of decision making or if they think only card carrying PLPs or FNMs should lead The Bahamas.\n\nBefore any third party enters the election arena it should understand what is at stake. If defeated badly at the general election, the force will look like a joke never to be considered again.\n\nMcCartney has taken the third party course, and could be risking his political career. His force needs to make some sort of impact.\n\nLatest posts by The Nassau Guardian (see all)\n\nHow do we solve our\nGlobal drugs war str", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5267188549041748}
+{"content": "Treating ankylosing spondylitis\n\nAlthough there is no cure and no prevention for ankylosing spondylitis, there are steps to take in order to maintain your standard of living and to minimize the pain.\n\n\nOptimally, you receive a whole range of treatments when having AS. Taking painkillers is most likely not enough to maintain your well-being, since your joints can become so stiff, that your mobility can be compromised. You need a treatment plan that involves moving, in order to minimize inflammation, stiffness and pain. A combination of different actions is needed in order to give yourself the best possible starting point.\n\nHow to treat ankylosing spondylitis?\n\nMedication: There are different kinds of medications you can choose from, with some help from your doctor. The most commonly used kind is the NSAID's (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). These are also the primary medication offered to patients. The secondary medication, \"second line medications\", are disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). They are normally prescribed for other kinds of arthritis, but have proven beneficial if peripheral joints are involved, rather than the spine. The treatment of AS is constantly being researched and recently a new treatment has seen the daylight, the TNF blockers (biologics). Previously it has been difficult to treat spinal arthritis, but this new type of medicine reaches both joint- and spinal arthritis.\n\nExercise : Exercising is important to anyone who wants to lead a more healthy lifestyle. For patients with ankylosing spondylitis, exercising is particularly important since it relieves pain and keeps you mobile. Some patients struggle with the exercises because they are in too much pain, but in the long run you will be doing better if you stick to the exercises. The benefits are threefold.\n\n1: It can help you maintain a good posture (which can be challenging with AS)\n2: It fights the AS stiffness and keep your joints flexible\n3: It will help ease the pain\n\nQuick-fixes: If you are in dire need of pain relief, hot and cold water respectively, can help you. When applying heat to stiff joints and sore muscles, it helps them become relaxed and hence it can reduce pain and tightness. If you struggle with inflammation and swelling, you can use cold water to decrease the swelling.\n\nSurgery: In the very severe cases of ankylosing spondylitis, surgery can be an option. Especially joint replacements in hips and knees are common in these cases. For the few patients who experience the spinal fusion (growth of extra bone on the spine, causing a forward-curved back), it is possible to receive surgical corrections.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9459081888198853}
+{"content": "Atlantis Undocks from Space Station, Conducts Shuttle Inspections\n\nThe crew flying the space shuttle Atlantis starts preparations for their return to Earth, conducting an inspection of the shuttle's heat shield after ending a seven-day visit to the International Space Station (ISS).\n\nAfter undocking from the International Space Station on Sunday, the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis, which is on its final mission, began a final inspection of Atlantis' heat shield. The crew of six will also pack up spacesuits and have some time off, the space agency NASA reported.\n\nShuttle mission STS-132 will be followed by two last shuttle missions, before the program is mothballed forever.\nMission Specialist Steve Bowen and fellow spacewalker Mission Specialist Mike Good started their day by cleaning up the spacesuits and stowing them, after the crew awoke to the theme music for the stop-motion animated television show \"Wallace and Gromit.\" \"Thank you to my family, Debbie and the boys; it's another great day in space,\" Bowen said.\nCommander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers will work on inspection activities, again using the shuttle's robotic arm, the 50-foot-long orbiter boom and its cameras to scan Atlantis' nose and starboard, or right, wing. They will break for lunch and then finish the task by scanning the port wing, while exercise sessions will be interspersed throughout the day for each of the crewmembers to help prepare them for their return to Earth's gravity Wednesday. NASA reported crew sleep is scheduled for 3:20 p.m.\nA cable snag at the end of the orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) had prevented a full inspection after launch. Spacewalkers cleared the snag, so the arm should be fully operational Monday. Other imagery and engineering data was used to fill in the gaps in the post-launch inspection. On Tuesday, the crew will focus on cabin stowage and checkout of Atlantis' reaction control system and its flight control surfaces. Landing at Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 7:48 a.m. Wednesday, NASA reported.\nThe uncoupling from the ISS ended a seven-day stay that saw the addition of a new station module, replacement of batteries and resupply of the orbiting outpost. During three spacewalks, astronauts added a backup high-data-rate antenna to the station and a tool platform to Dextre, the robotlike special-purpose dexterous manipulator. They also removed and replaced six 375-pound batteries on the station's P6 truss segment. Sellers and Reisman installed Rassvet, the Russian Mini-Research Module 1 brought to the station by Atlantis, on the Zarya module.\nThe joint operations were a good example of friendship and professionalism, station Commander Oleg Kotov said after summarizing the week's accomplishments in the farewell ceremony. Commander Ham responded with equally kind words. \"We are one happy shuttle crew-happy because of all of your efforts too. We were a 12-person crew that operated together.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9146170020103455}
+{"content": "12 Motivational Quotes Every College Student Needs to Read\n\nWhether you’re graduating in May or you’re at the beginning of your college journey, every person could use a little motivation to keep working hard this semester and every day after.\n\nIf you’re like me, then you love it when you find the perfect quote that speaks to exactly what you’re feeling or going through in that moment.\n\nI want to share several quotes that have inspired me to strive for both happiness and success in life. I hope they do the same for you!\n\n\n1. “The best advice I’ve ever received: ‘no one else knows what they are doing either.” –Charles Bukowski\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Unknown:\n\n\n\n\n7. “Trust you are exactly where you need to be.” –Walt Whitman\n\n\n8. Denzel Washington: \n\n\n\n\n10. “You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lost it.” –Robin Williams\n\n\n11. Stephanie Melish:\n\n\n\nYour life and many successes will always be different from someone else’s; do not compare yourself to other people. Take it all one day at a time, Collegiettes, and never lose sight of the person you are striving your best to be!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8806058168411255}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\n\nRats/mice damaging plants on the terrace\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBlack flies attacking beans\n\n\n\nOne of CBI employee gujju housewife naina’s pet crows dies\n\n\nBecause of the monthly cbi salary gifted to her by google, tata and the indian government for stalking and impersonating a google competitor, the eighth standard pass gujju housewife naina has plenty of money and wastes it cooking far more food daily than what she and her family could eat, unlike the family of the google competitor who rarely throw away unwanted food as they do not get free money from the indian government for fraud, stalking.\n\nAlmost daily the cbi employee gujju housewife naina is feeding the excess food to the crows in the area creating a nuisance to her neighbours in panaji, goa. Instead of putting the excess food in the middle of her own compound so that the crows will gather in her own compound, naina and her husband are keeping the food on the boundary wall with the neighbours creating a problem, as the crow droppings are damaging the property of the neighbour, who has limited money and is unable to paint the damaged property annually\n\nOn 4 September 2017, a neighbor of cbi employee naina found that one of the pet crows of cbi employee naina had died in her compound. There were no external marks of injury and the crow appeared to have died suddenly. The dead crow was lying on the plants damaging the plants. The crow appeared to have died recently, and through the eyes were covered with mud , no ants or other creatures had attacked the dead crow.\n\nForestry department disputes farmers claims about damage caused by wild animals\n\nbirds cats dogs fish\n\n\n\n\nFarmers want wild boar and other animals to be declared vermin\n\n\nPeople with a small kitchen garden find that the fruits and vegetables that they are growing are often damaged by pests like birds, crows,squirrels and they have to take a lot of measures to ensure that they enjoy the produce, The problem is faced on a larger scale by farmers and the media reported that the farmers in goa wanted the following animals to be declared as vermin\n– wild boar\n– flying squirrel\n– macques (monkeys)\n– porcupine\nso that they could kill these animals without facing any punishment under the wildlife protection act. At present these animals are protected under the wildlife protection act, and the farmers claim that they are damaging a large part of their crop, often causing losses of Rs 5-6 lakh, so they wish to declare them as vermin. In some states in north India like bihar, protected animals like nilgai are declared as vermin, as they destroy the crops", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5802256464958191}
+{"content": "Meditation Categories Death\n\nThe Doctor’s Dilemma\n\nExperiencing the death of a patient can be one of the most challenging aspects of being a doctor. This is particularly true when you are the person who has to decide whether to give up or continue emergency treatment. In the Tibetan tradition, letting a dying person pass away peacefully is as important as trying to save their life.\n\nThe Doctor’s Dilemma\n\n\nAs doctors, our task is to save lives but sometimes it’s becoming a dilemma. When should we stop saving someone’s life and help them to prepare for their death? Sometimes if you want to save a life, it’ll interfere with the peaceful way. If we want to help them to die peacefully, we have to do the other thing. But it’s very difficult to decide which way to proceed. Can you help us develop guidelines on how to deal with this dilemma?\n\nKhenpo Sodargye:\n\nIn terms of the responsibility of doctors, it is necessary to take various measures to save lives. But from the perspective of practitioners, like in Tibet, many people would not choose to die in the hospital because normal rescue measures will destroy their practice.\n\nTherefore, whether a patient needs the final treatment or not should depend on the patient himself and his family. If the family insists on saving the patient’s life, you doctors may have to satisfy their needs. And if there is really no hope, then you’d better let him die in a peaceful way. Sometimes the cases could be a little bit complicated and it’s better to consider both the patient’s situation and the family’s attitude.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9967902302742004}
+{"content": "World electric power use averages 3000 gigawatts (GW).\n\nThe height of each colored block represents the average electric power consumption per capita. The width is proportional to the regional population, so the area represents regional average electric power generated and used.\n\nWe need over 600 GW of new power plants for 2030 electricity demands.\n\nNew and growing demands for electric power require more power plants.  A large power plant can deliver one GW. The examples below are based on full-time average power demand to meet just these specific new needs, which add up to over 600 GW. Population growth and economic development will add even more demand.\n\nConnecting a billion poor to power: +100 GW\n\nConnecting one billion powerless people with just 100 watts of power — a tenth of US and EU average electricity use.\n\nDesalination: +62 GW\n\nDesalination of 87 million cubic meters of water per year is growing at 8% annually, demanding 3 kWh per cubic meter.\n\nElectric vehicles: +42 GW\n\nElectric vehicle charging\n\nBy 2030, 122 million more electric vehicles travel 12,000 miles per year at 4 miles/kWh.\n\nAir conditioning: +100 GW\n\nBy 2030 air conditioning demand will be 50% higher than in 2017.\n\nInformation technology: +300 GW\n\nData centers, the internet, and consumer electronics will demand 300 GW more by 2030.\n\nJuice: How electricity explains the world\n\nThis new documentary focuses on the global need for electricity.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6138796210289001}
+{"content": "The Starting Point for New Defense Thinking   (Published: 28.04.2019)\n\nFinland, like other nations, needs its own living space, the right to decide its own affairs. Defending this right is the starting point for civil and military defense.\n\nPreserving Finnishness\n\nThe first task of the national defense is to defend people, their own way of life, language and culture. There is also a culture of habit, historical experiences, forest and lakes and cultural monuments. Finnishness has evolved over millennia. The geographical boundaries have been altered by wars and population transfers.\n\nChanges in Enlightenment Time\n\nIn community thinking, the role of the state has changed. Renaissance, great discoveries, and inventions were the first steps to change the enlightenment. The state of the ecclesiastical state was replaced by the present state, which replaced the world order of God. But God did not die. Faith and science differed.\n\nVienna Conference 1814 - 1815\n\nThe worldview created by the philosophers of enlightenment was contradictory. In the streets and among the population, a new society was sought. At the top of the hierarchy was the use of military forces. Some statesmen explained their power coming from God. There was a need for a new kind of world order that was attempted at the Vienna World Conference.\n\nStrengthened Power Policy\n\nAfter Vienna's decisions, the world was made up of European states, the United States created by European dissidents and Russia with no dissidents. There was no tradition in Russia where the opinions of individuals would play a role in decision-making. At the Vienna conference, Russia was given the task of sending troops to Paris to calm the chaos of Napoleon wars. The issues of the colonies were not on the agenda of the world community.\n\nRights as the Starting Point\n\nAt the time of the Vienna Conference, there was no known \"rights-based world order\". There was even less recognition of the existence and influence of individual citizens and non-state organizations. The so-called the constitutional states (republics and constitutional kingdom) recognized the separation of individuals and state organs. This separation was not antagonistic, but consensual and synergistic. Awareness of the separation of state and individuals was a great step towards the human rights that are now understood.\n\nIncreasing the Importance of Knowledge\n\nThe world image changed during the two centuries that followed the Vienna Conference. The most important factors of change were industrialization, the emergence and spread of social theories, the general rise of communal awareness through the education of the people and the institution of higher education. These factors gave rise to industrial production and trade in services, which in turn increased welfare and wealth. The growing economy had to be protected, which created a huge development of weapon technology.\n\nDevelopment of Weapon Technology\n\nTwo levels can be distinguished in the development of military expertise. On the other hand, one-level of individual combat skills, as well as governmental and community-level military skills. In the ethics of force use, the defense of the individual is at the highest level, while the communal war of aggression is the use of force, which is challenged by international law as an acceptable activity. The difference between these two levels is that in individual level coaching, attention is focused on the results of the action, while in force-based destruction, destruction is often self-serving when not always mediated by the consequences of action.\n\nTerritorial integrity\n\nWhen an individual country prepares for threat images, these must be credibly identified on the screen. Threats can come from within the community or from outside. To control them, there must be a \"war plan\" that is transparent up to a certain limit. At the same time, transparency is a sign of the readiness of the object to handle unwanted singles from the surrounding world. Regional integrity refers to purely defensive warfare. It is the right and duty of every independent state.\n\nInternal Renewal\n\nRealizing justice within the country is often a greater threat than external threats. It is important to have justice in the judiciary, which must be transparent. The judiciary must not be an inquisition institution that erodes the moral foundation of the nation. The greater the need for national or supranational appeal bodies, the greater the risk to the country's future. The interests of the individual and society must be shared, so that the interests of both are considered equally.\n\nGlobal Development Goals\n\nThe evolution of global thinking that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 is also a turning point in defense thinking. This new philosophy is built-in and promoted in the Agenda 2030 for SDGs approved by the state leaders in 2015.  For the first time, it includes goals for individuals and for the entire world community. Based on traditional scarce resource management and utilization, it has been able to provide space for a new kind of enemy recognition that unites people and communities. As such, climate change and the ecological future of the earth appear. However, the current 2030 target program is too broad and difficult to implement. Objectives should be re-grouped and prioritized into synergistic entities to achieve more coherence at different directions and levels.\n\nSelf Defense\n\nSmall countries such as Finland must make choices in defense procurement and maintaining self-sufficiency. Each country has its own starting points based on geography and history. After World War II, some people in Finland were fascinated by Soviet military technology, which was acquired in connection with the exchange of goods trade agreement. The Soviet Union was an important trading partner for the Finnish economy. Russia’s position has now deteriorated because of a new kind of thinking spread in Finland after the break-up of the Soviet Union. The loudest ones have been the admirers of Hornet fighters. Should we find out if we could find better and more effective solutions and policies for the growth of individuals and the economy?\n\n© 28.04.2019 / Heikki K. Auvinen - Osmo I. Lampinen, Doctor of Political Science (VTT) editing a linguistic presentation\n\n\n« Back\nNews & Commentaries\n28.04.2019 The Starting Point for New Defense Thinking More >>\n22.04.2019 Corruption in Wider Russianness Perspective More >>\n31.03.2019 Feedback to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg More >>\n16.03.2019 Childhood memory More >>\n29.01.2019 Integrity as Baseline Value of SD More >>\n\nArchive >>\n\nAsumer Oy, Espoo, Finland   e-mail address:  Telephone + 358 400 638 660\n\n\n\n©2019 Heikki K. Auvinen - Development Consultant - Asumer Oy", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9906846284866333}
+{"content": "Tinnitus (en)\n\n\n\n\nFeature film\n\n\n\n\n  • Brazil\n\nScript writer(s): \n\nGregorio Graziosi et Marco Dutra\n\n\nGregorio Graziosi\n\n\nMarina, 30 years old, is an ex­diver who is suffering from a terrible buzzing in her ears, which affects her emotional and physical balance. Away from professional competitions after an accident suffered in the last Olympics, she decides to go back to competing in hopes of winning an Olympic medal, even though her life is put to risk by doing so. In order to attain her goal and beat her younger opponents, Marina needs to regain confidence in her own body, overcome her fear of the diving board and defeat her biggest enemy: that haunting buzzing sound.\n\nVisual concept: \n\nThe film will follow Marina, a professional diving athlete, as her hearing problems grow worse. She’s always present. Tinnitus will project the city into its main character, as if a shadow. The pressure builds  up  and  the  buzzing  intensifies as  the film moves towards its climax. As the narrative progresses, we will use more close up lenses, getting closer to the actors. The framing will be geometrical and precise. Emotional tension of the characters will be reflected by their surroundings and also through the use of silence.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5532892942428589}
+{"content": "New Partnership – Interlate\n\nMSI is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Interlate. Interlate is transforming the mining sector by creating predictable outcomes, reducing operating risk and increasing competitiveness. They do this by harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), tightly integrated with expert human skills and world leading technical innovation. Together MSI and Interlate provide an unparalleled platform for adding value to mineral assets.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997493624687195}
+{"content": "opening times. open.\n\n1pm – 6pm\n\nwe are in.\n\nBoekhorststraat 125\nThe Hague, NL\nBoekhorstst. 125, The Hague, NL\n\n\n\n\n\nfollow us.\n\n4 Dec 2015\n\nBackground Evening Tori Wrånes\n\nOn the very last day that the exhibition Tennis Cat is on view, 1646 will host a performance executed by Tori Wrånes and Jan Erik Mikalsen. The performance will be set in the experience of her current exhibition.\n\nTori Wrånes works mainly with performance, combining voice and sculpture as point of departure. In Tennis Cat Wrånes is looking for the connections between odd things. She has worked with the space as a sculpture in itself, imbedded in a marine carpet, turning the exhibition space into a combined cave and boat at the same time. The room is filled with sound as if you are on a mountain plateau: what you see and what you hear creates two different incompatible references. A lot of Wrånes work is based on sound, and the carpet in this installation is in fact doing the opposite of adding sound. It takes away sound of everyone’s steps and creates an almost invisible error between the visible and the audible. Tori Wrånes is interested in making errors, to make the brain run other errands than usual, in the glitches and erroneous connections that can occur.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9858878254890442}
+{"content": "Scotland’s Mid Jurassic Heritage\n\nThe Isle of Skye is a beautiful island off Scotland’s rugged west coast, approximately 640 square miles of idyllic Scottish scenery, an island known for its Scottish heritage and tourism, so what does it have to do with the state of Wyoming in the American mid-west.\n\nWell for a start, both places are sparsely populated and both areas have spectacular scenery and surprisingly the Isle of Skye has evidence of prehistoric animals that once roamed across the western USA.  The data gathered on this Scottish island’s dinosaurs is helping to provide information regarding the Jurassic fauna of Wyoming, in fact Skye is fast becoming recognised as a place of great interest to palaeontologists.  The same types of dinosaur roamed across Skye and Wyoming approximately 170 million years ago (Bajocian faunal stage), in a geological period known as the mid-Jurassic – but how is this possible?\n\nDuring the Jurassic the American and European continents were very much closer together than they are today.  There was no Atlantic ocean (this did not begin to form until towards the end of the Jurassic period),  a series of rifts began to open up in the continental plates, separating the giant continent of Laurentia into the Americas and Eurasia.  However, that part of the world that was eventually to form the rocks in areas like Staffin Bay on the Isle of Skye was still joined to the North American continent.  A dinosaur could have walked from central Europe to Alaska had it had the mind to do so.\n\nThe Isle of Skye’s importance to palaeontologists, particularly those studying the middle Jurassic is enhanced by an article published in the current issue of the Scottish Journal of Geology.  The article suggests that fossil footprints found on Skye and others across the Atlantic in Wyoming were left by the same type of dinosaur – or at least a closely related species – dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, when Scotland and the United States were both part of the same landmass.\n\nThe authors of this study into the fossil trackways, Dr Neil Clark, the curator of palaeontology at Glasgow University’s Hunterian Museum, and Dr Michael Brett-Surman of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, state that the tracks found in rock formations in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin are very similar to footprints found in the Valtos sandstone beds on the Isle of Skye.\n\nThe footprints have been classified as having been made by a Coelophysid, an agile Theropod dinosaur.  Coelophysids were the most common type of meat-eating dinosaur in the late Triassic and survived into the Jurassic before finally being replaced by new types of Theropod such as the Megalosaurs.\n\nAn Illustration of a Coelophysid (Coelophysis)\n\nPicture Credit: Everything Dinosaur\n\nThe illustration above shows a typical Coelophysid, Theropod, with its long neck, slender jaws lined with sharp, needle-like teeth.  The best-known of these dinosaurs is Coelophysis, a Triassic carnivore with its slender, muscular body, hollow bones (Coelophysis means “hollow form”) and long legs.  A number of articulated skeletons of this dinosaur are known, mostly recovered from the famous Ghost Ranch site in New Mexico.\n\nCommenting on the link between Wyoming and the Isle of Skye, Dr. Clark stated:\n\n“The importance of this apparent link between Skye and Wyoming is that the Americans don’t actually have any dinosaur remains, apart from these footprints, from this particular period, the mid-Jurassic, whereas we have the bones of a number of different animals from that period here in Scotland.  So, basically, we’re enabling the Americans to see what sort of dinosaurs were probably roaming about North America at the same time”.\n\nHe added:\n“The Americans do have the animal called Coelophysis, but their fossils of them are all from the lower Jurassic or upper Triassic periods, so they are a lot older than what we have in Skye, which is a representative of that group of dinosaurs which was still alive in the middle Jurassic.  It seems to be associated with a particular type of footprint which also occurs in Wyoming at that particular time, so it’s quite possible they have a similar animal.”\n\nWhile the footprints remain America’s only mid-Jurassic traces of the creature, Skye’s fossil beds from the same period have revealed a tooth and a tail bone, as well as the footprints.  Although most associated with the Ghost Ranch discoveries, it seems that the Isle of Skye can claim to have important evidence too, regarding the evolution of meat-eating dinosaurs.\n\nThe island has afforded palaeontologists other rare glimpses into prehistoric life, footprints of a large Ornithopod dinosaur were discovered in the 1980s along with more evidence of Coelophysid dinosaurs (fossil bones) and a fragment of bone that is believed to have come from a Sauropod (long-necked dinosaur).\n\nWhilst the rock formations in the mid-western USA are vast and have a wealth of fossil information, the finds on Isle of Skye are somewhat limited, although this does not diminish their scientific importance.  The island’s Jurassic strata is overlaid by igneous material and the palaeontologists have only a few exposures to explore.  They are situated in places such as the exposed Trotternish peninsula where the rocks are weathered by harsh winds and strong tides.  It is often a battle with nature to find and preserve specimens before weathering destroys them for ever.\n\nScotland’s Jurassic Park – the Isle of Skye\n\nThe Isle of Skye\n\nPicture Credit: The Scotsman\n\nThe Isle of Skye may be a wild and rugged place, but it can hold its head up high when it comes to Jurassic dinosaur fossils, helping the likes of Wyoming to piece together its own ancient past.  Not bad considering that Wyoming is much more associated with dinosaurs than Scotland, after all, the state dinosaur (yes, they do have a state dinosaur), of Wyoming is Triceratops.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9769375920295715}
+{"content": "You are on page 1of 1\n\n\nRodney Nevitt, School of Art, University of Houston\n\nSpring 2015\n\n\nThe following paintings are in Room 222 (the Pissarro) and Room 223 (the Van Gogh) on the\nsecond floor of the Beck Building of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 5601 Main Street. Hours:\nTues, Wed, 10am-5pm; Thurs 10am-9pm; Fri, Sat, 10am-7pm; Sun, 12:15-7pm, closed most\nMondays except holidays.\nCamille Pissarro, The Goose Girl at Montfoucault, White Frost, 1875\nOil on canvas, The John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection 98.295\nVincent van Gogh, The Rocks, 1888\nOil on canvas, The John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection 74.139\nWrite a five-page paper (typed, double-spaced) in which you discuss these two paintings. Read the\nsections in Gardner on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. No further research is necessary.\nYour paper should focus on the stylistic changes involved in the shift from \"Impressionism\"\nto \"Post-Impressionism\" as exemplified in these paintings. Van Gogh--as Gardner explains--was\ninfluenced by, but also reacted against, certain aspects of Impressionism (represented here by\nPissarro). Explain this historical development more fully in reference to these paintings.\nThe paper should be a careful visual analysis of the paintings, at the same time\nincorporating your specific observations into the larger scheme of the development from\nImpressionism to the Post-Impressionist style of Van Gogh. Discuss each painting in the context of\nwhat you have learned about that artist from the Gardner book and from class lecture. Points to\nconsider include the following. How does each painting relate to the broader characteristics of the\nartist's work, and of Impressionism (for Pissarro) and Post-Impressionism (for Van Gogh) in\ngeneral, as discussed in Gardner and in class lectures? You may compare the paintings at the\nmuseum to other paintings in the Gardner text by these artists. With regard to the paintings in the\nmuseum, consider the artists style: including the quality of the brushstroke (its width, the\nthickness of paint, directionality and other characteristics), and the use of color. Think about the\nquality of light in the scene. To what degree is the artist sensitive to the element of time, and does\nthe landscape seem to record a particular time of day or season of the yearor not? How does the\nartist distinguish different textures: grass, foliage, stone, wood, etc.? (Or is the texture of the\npainting more about the materiality of paint rather than that of the object depicted?) Think about\nwhat the artist is looking at and how he composes the scene. Note the viewpoint within the scene:\ndoes the artist seem to be looking at, down, or up at the scene and does this affect your reaction to\nthe landscape in any way? What are the general spatial qualities of the landscape: does it convey a\nsense of depth or is it relatively flat? Is there a human presence in the landscape and what effect\ndoes this have? What kind of landscape is depicted in the painting: wild or cultivated, i.e.,\nincluding or bearing the imprint of a human presence? Finally, can you link up any of these\nobservations of the paintings visual qualities and subject-matter with the underlying ideas and\nmotivations behind the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, and the artistic ideas of\nthese artists, as recounted in Gardner and in class lectures?\nYou do not have to devote equal time to all of these questions with regard to each painting.\nThe important thing is to relate your visual observations of each painting to what you know about\nthe artist's style and ideas about art, and to organize these points into a coherent argument about the\ndevelopment of landscape painting from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism. The paper will be\ngraded equally on the content AND the quality of writing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9455087184906006}
+{"content": "Journal of Social Change\n\n\nDiscourse on the psychosocial substrates of human motivation reflects a hot-button theme in contemporary leadership research circles. For many aspiring leaders, role models and social support provide an undercurrent for instilling leadership attributes. Yet for others, the drive to optimize leadership potentials is a naturally occurring, internally guided event that is continually reinforced through self-regulatory processes. As such, questions remain as to which intrinsic motives underpin the leadership potentials that have implications for social change agency. To date, the extant literature fails to offer a comprehensive model that highlights (a) the self-motives that have preeminent applicability to intrinsic motivation, (b) the core ideals engendered by such motives, and (c) the linkages that exist between the core ideals and the leadership drives that underpin social change agency. In the following discussion, a theoretical framework is proposed that highlights seven well-documented theoretical constructs—self-determination, self-efficacy, self-worth, self-enhancement, self-affirmation, self-concordance, and self-actualization—and their overarching relevance to leadership potentials. Each of the aforementioned constructs engenders a corresponding motivational ideal—autonomy, competence, achievement, identity, integrity, congruence, and potentiation, respectively—that hypothetically aligns with one of the seven components of Astin and Astin’s (1996) social change leadership model. Discussion underscores the need for a paradigm shift to enhance awareness of the extent to which specific intrinsic motives and their corresponding ideals have implications for the leadership orientations that underpin social change agency.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5141268968582153}
+{"content": "How can I connect to different Social Media Accounts?\n\nLogin into your Hooterapp account. Click on ass social media accounts. You will see a list of a large number of social media platforms, for example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many more.\n\nHow can I add images to my posts?\n\nWhile posting the content, you can add multiple images to the posts. To add the images in the post, click on add new post and then click on the camera icon. This will open up a popup where you can upload images from the desktop or the cloud.\n\nWhat is the bulk scheduler?\n\nYou can bulk schedule the posts across all your social media platforms. You can schedule up to 100 posts. You can also add the images in the posts while scheduling the posts. The bulk scheduler supports .csv, .xls and .xlsx file format.\n\nHow can I see the reports and share them?\n\nYou can see reports in the dashboard of the Hooterapp. Every report has a share button. You can share or download the reports any number of times. You can also schedule to weekly or monthly to send the reports automatically to your Email.\n\nIn how many social networks can I publish my posts simultaneously?\n\nYou can publish your posts in all the social media platforms simultaneously. You can also publish Facebook posts at the same time of the day in different time zones. You can also repeat your posts on the weekly or monthly basis.\n\nLorem ipsum?\n\nLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Doloribus nesciunt ut officiis accusantium quisquam minima praesentium, beatae fugit illo nobis fugiat adipisci quia distinctio repellat culpa saepe, optio aperiam est!\n\nExample: Facere, id excepturi iusto aliquid beatae delectus nemo enim, ad saepe nam et.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5421877503395081}
+{"content": "February's Supermoon Is The Brightest And Biggest Of The Year\n\nHere's how to see February's full moon — part of a trio of supermoons opening 2019.\n\n\nFebruary’s full moon reached its peak at 10:54 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, when the moon was still below the horizon for viewers in the U.S., according to\n\nBut American space fans will still get a great show ― and plenty of photo opportunities ― with this month’s supermoon. The key is to watch the horizon during moonrise\n\n“The Moon will look extremely large when it rises and sets,” NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams wrote in a blog for NASA on Friday. “This ‘Moon illusion’ happens when the Moon is close to the horizon and there are objects within our line of sight such as trees or buildings.”\n\n“Because these relatively close objects are in front of the Moon, our brain is tricked into thinking the Moon is much closer to the objects that are in our line of sight,” she continued.\n\nA supermoon over Ankara, Turkey, on Feb. 19.\nA supermoon over Ankara, Turkey, on Feb. 19.\n\nTuesday’s full moon is called a supermoon because it happens near the point in the moon’s orbit when it is closest to the Earth, which makes the moon look slightly brighter and larger than usual.\n\nFebruary’s supermoon is part of a trio of supermoons taking the celestial stage at the start of 2019. The last supermoon coincided with a total lunar eclipse that happened after sunset on Jan. 20. There will be another supermoon on March 19.\n\nThe moniker “supermoon” isn’t scientific; it was introduced in 1979 by the astrologer Richard Nolle and is now used in pop culture to describe a moon that is brighter than usual, according to NASA. Recently, stargazers have also been using nicknames from The Farmer’s Almanac to describe each month’s full moons. Under this nomenclature, last month’s total lunar eclipse was called a super blood wolf moon. February’s supermoon is being called a snow moon or hunger moon, for the heavy snows that usually occur at northern latitudes during this month that could make hunting difficult. \n\nFind out your local time for moonrise and moonset here or watch a livestream of the supermoon seen from Rome\n\n\n\nSuper Blood Wolf Moon, Jan. 20 - 21, 2019", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9845461845397949}
+{"content": "DIY generation: Trash to Treasure\n\nWanting to do her bit for the planet, Sukhija decided to transform everyday household waste material into statement jewellery.\n\nAanchal Sukhija. Photo: Rajwant Rawat\nAanchal Sukhija. Photo: Rajwant Rawat\n\nFrom a very early age, Aanchal Sukhija used to get vexed at how flippant people were about garbage recycling and reducing their carbon footprint.\n\nIndeed, the fact that people discarded everyday household articles without a thought to the havoc it was causing the environment, was what made her dwell on the potential it actually had.\n\nWanting to do her bit for the planet, Sukhija decided to transform everyday household waste material into statement jewellery. And so in 1993, she launched Mission Pluto after the planet that was downgraded from its planet status a few years ago.\n\nWith her jewellery brand, the designer wants to inspire people to recycle and reuse daily use objects.\n\n\"It's easier to throw things out than to fix them, hence with Mission Pluto, I wanted to urge everyone to become more eco-conscious in the face of destruction, to make the effort to rise above the daily grind, find charm in everyday objects,\" she says.\n\nThe material she uses are washer pipes, matchboxes, used pen shells, plumbing pipes, scrubbing metal, mop heads and A/C filter foam that she sources from garbage collectors.\n\nSukhija deconstructs these mundane objects and tacks them in a variety of bracelets, necklaces, long chains and earrings.\n\nThe result is jewellery that does not hide the mundane characteristics of the material, instead elevating it to showcase a new creative side. So, in her \"quirky, wearable art collection\", expect colourful neckpieces made from matchboxes and rings crafted out of plumbing pipes.\n\nImpressed by Sukhija's unique designs, her friend and co-eco warrior Vaishali Shadangule of label Vaishali S, coaxed her to showcase her junk-to-funk creations at the New York Fashion Week 2017. No surprises here, her sustainable designs won her accolades at the prestigious platform.\n\nSukhija says her aim is not to disrupt the traditional Indian jewellery market, but to create a whole new one for those willing to experiment for a cause.\n\n\"I am trying to make a difference, one battle at a time. People don't understand that recycled isn't the same as sustainable. For recycling to be sustainable, it should not create waste that is more damaging to the environment than the discarded original item. So in my jewellery-making process, I follow an immaculate recycling process, while refining raw materials.\"\n\nSukhija, whose studio is in Gurugram, focuses on new designs for Mission Pluto. In her free time, she pursues psychology.\n\n\"I call myself a cognitive psychologist. I love to study the human brain and how it works-how we think, remember and learn. I apply psychological science to understand how we perceive events and make decisions,\" she says.\n\nA huge fan of American musician, composer, activist and filmmaker, Frank Zappa, Sukhija swears by his words-\"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible and information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best. Amen!\"\n\n  • Andriod App\n  • IOS App\nDo You Like This Story?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9009233117103577}
+{"content": "\n  • What is Anticlastic?\n\n    You will see pieces of my jewelry advertised as \"anticlastic\", but what does this mean?  Anticlastic raising is a unique technique I use in my designs.  Bending metals (copper, sterling silver or argentium silver) is my favorite form of metal forming.  I stretch the metals creating a concave curve on the outer surface.  This compresses the given metal creating a convex curve in the middle of the metal.  Liken it to a bowl.  This technique creates very unique designs.  It is my preferred method of metal forming creating unique and special jewelry.   Try it out and see the compliments you receive.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.518287718296051}
+{"content": "Digital Object Identifiers\n\nDOI numbers (Digital Object Identifiers) are unique number combinations assigned to an article. With the help of this DOI number, the article can always be located.\n\nDOI numbers consist of numbers assigned to the publisher (in the example used below these are 10.18831), the journal title (Concurrent Advances in Mechanical Engineering ) and the numbers that define the actual article.\n\nIn recent articles, especially articles that have been published in an DJRA journal, the DOI number is given at the beginning of the article.\n\nFor example, you can find: doi:10.18831/came/2018011002.\n\n\nLocating DOI\nTo verify subscribing to the journal, you are trying to link to the electronic format check IJSER Libraries E-Journals.\nIf you are able to locate a DOI or other permanent link for your article,  follow the next steps.\n\nIMPORTANT: It may not be possible to link to the full-text of a journal article online, if the library does not subscribe to the journal or if it is not available for free.\n\nIf you have located a full-text article in electronic format and are not able to find its DOI, try the following tool.\nFree DOI Lookup:\n\nComplete the form on this Web page with information about the article. Not all fields (text boxes) need to be filled in, but it is recommended to provide: first authors last name; title of the journal (not the title of the article); volume number; beginning page number; year of publication.\n\nIf you do not have all this information, enter the citation information you do have. A list of journal titles covered is provided on the above Website. Please note that not all articles have DOIs.\n\nFor example entering the following citation information in the DOI Lookup tool: \"Concurrent Advances in Mechanical Engineering\" : 2455-3638 Retrieved this DOI: If this step is successful proceed to STEP 3; otherwise see next step.\n\n\nIf you have located a DOI or other permanent link, follow these steps to complete the link.\nFor example: came/2018011002", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.99831223487854}
+{"content": "Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR)\n\nHow to reduce the risk of disasters?\n\n17.05.2019 - Over 4000 experts, including some from SECO, tried to answer this question in mid-May during the GPDRR meeting in Geneva. SECO supports its partner countries to strengthen their resilience to natural disasters. It promotes sustainable urban planning, secure infrastructure construction, private sector involvement and public  finance reinforcement.  \n\nSwitzerland's enlargement contribution\n\nJahresbericht Erweiterungsbeitrag 2018\n\nAnnual report on the enlargement contribution\n\n08.05.2019 - Mine clearance, better access to education for minorities and promoting clean urban transport: Switzerland's enlargement contribution helps to reduce the economic and social disparities within the EU.  The latest annual report on the enlargement contribution has now been published. It contains information on the results achieved in the last three remaining country programmes.  \n\nSwiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa\n\nMitgliederversammlung Kakaoplattform 2019\n\nMore sustainability in cocoa production\n\n30.04.2019 – The first General Assembly of the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa supported by SECO was held at the ETH in Zurich. The 55 members held a lively dialogue with high-level international guests. They underlined the global integration of Swiss efforts to improve the sustainability in the cocoa value chain.\nPress release Cocoa Platform (in German)\n\nPress releases\n\n\n\nTo the Federal Administration News Portal\n\nHow does SECO help to reduce poverty?\n\nWhere does it operate?\n\n\nCountry portfolio\n\nSECO supports people living in countries that face important poverty and development problems.\n\nWhat is its strategy?\n\n\nStrategic focus\n\nSECO works to achieve sustainable economic growth that benefits everyone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9646108150482178}
+{"content": "Spelling bees? No, but they can do arithmetic, say researchers\n\nThis article is more than 3 months old\n\nStudy says honeybees can learn to carry out exact numerical calculations\n\nA European honeybee, Apis mellifera, feeding on garden lavender\nA European honeybee, Apis mellifera, feeding on garden lavender. Photograph: Ernie Janes/Alamy\n\nHoneybees can learn to add and subtract, according to research showing that while the insects have tiny brains, they are still surprisingly clever.\n\nResearchers behind the study have previously found that honeybees can apparently understand the concept of zero, and learn to correctly indicate which of two groups of objects is the smaller.\n\nBut now they say insects can learn to carry out exact numerical calculations such as adding and subtracting a given number.\n\n“Their brain can manage a long-term rule and applying that to a mathematical problem to come up with a correct answer,” said Dr Adrian Dyer, co-author of the research from RMIT University in Australia. “That is a different type of number processing to spontaneous quantity judgments.”\n\nIf the team are right, the insects are in good company. While it was once thought that only humans could manage such calculations, the authors note recent research has revealed a veritable menagerie of creatures can keep track of numbers or even add or subtract.\n\n“[There was] evidence that other primates could do it and then an African grey parrot, Alex, famously could do it, but also some spiders could do it,” said Dyer.\n\nThe team say the latest research adds to a growing body of evidence, including human studies, that language is not necessary for learning how to manipulate numbers. And there’s more. “It is teaching us a lot about what brains can do and what necessary structures you might need in brains to achieve certain outcomes,” said Dyer.\n\nHowever, Paul Graham, professor of neuroethology at the University of Sussex, was cautious, and said it was not clear that the bees really did have a concept of mathematical operations, or even numbers.\n\n“In reality, you don’t really know what the animal has done, because you are not investigating how it is doing it,” he said, adding it was hard to design an experiment to rule out other, simpler explanations for the bees’ behaviour.\n\nWriting in the journal Science Advances, Dyer and colleagues describe how their research involved releasing bees into a simple maze in which they were shown a picture of a small number of coloured shapes. After flying through a hole, the bees were presented with two further images showing a different number of shapes.\n\nWhen the shapes in the set up were blue, insects that made a beeline for the image with one more shape than in the initial picture were offered a sugary drink. When the shapes were yellow, they were rewarded for flying to the image with one fewer shape. If the bee flew to the “incorrect” image, they were given a quinine solution – which is unpleasant to bees.\n\nbee counts graphic\n\n“It is very hard to train a bee to understand a plus or minus sign because that is an abstract symbol, so we use colour because they learn colour very quickly,” said Dyer.\n\nFourteen bees were involved in the experiment and each completed 100 of the training exercises, with the shapes and numbers – up to a maximum of five – chosen at random from a pool of possibilities.\n\nEach bee was then tested 10 times on two different scenarios for each colour.\n\nCrucially, the first image the bees saw in the test setups contained three shapes. Neither the number nor the particular shape used had been presented to the bees as the initial picture during training, meaning they could not choose the “correct” answer from memory.\n\nThe results showed that the bees did better on the tests than chance, getting the correct answers between 64% and 72% of the time, depending on the test.\n\n“It is not that every bee could do this [spontaneously], but we could teach them to do it,” said Dyer.\n\nDyer said the prevalence of numerical competence across the animal kingdom was “suspicious”, leading him to believe it might be a widespread phenomenon in animals that aids survival. However, he added it was difficult to test this, and said there was an alternative explanation – the real phenomenon is the ability to make associations and solve conundrums, rather than have or acquire numerical skills per se.\n\n“It might be they don’t actually use this in any natural context. They just have a brain which is plastic enough to learn our problem,” he said. “Not everything we do [as humans] is essential to our survival in [terms of] evolution: playing a guitar, surfing and travelling into space are all things we can do because we have a lot of neural flexibility, we are really bright … honeybees have been around a long time and they are very good at surviving in different environments and coming up with novel solutions, and maybe that has just led to a brain that can learn this task if they need to.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.93561851978302}
+{"content": "Wildfire Defensible Space Area in Colorado\n\n\nZone 1 is the wildfire original defensible space area. It is the area of maximum modification and management (described in Colorado State Forest Service publications Home Fire Protection in the Wildland Urban Interface, and Wildfire Protection in the Wildland Urban Interface).\nZone 3 is an area of traditional forest management activities. It is of no specific size, but ideally would extend from the wildfire defensible space area to the property boundaries.\nZone 2 is a transitional area between zones 1 and 3. The downhill, uphill and side distance measurements for this area generally are the same as in zone 1 defensible space area, but combined they should extend at least 75 to 100 feet from the house. Within this area, the intent is to “feather” the heavy thinning of zone 1 into the more traditional forest cover of zone 3. This eliminates the wall of dense, un-thinned forest fuels which currently exist around wildfire defensible space area, while enhancing home-site safety and the aesthetics of the property. Defensible space area is an important concept to remember and act upon if you live in Colorado or any area where wildfire might occur.\n\nIf you do avoid the burn, but still have smoke damage we can help you.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7838448286056519}
+{"content": "Category: music accessories\n\nAmazon Music Unlimited\n\nAmazon Music Unlimited\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMusic Lessons Are For Everyone\n\nMusic Lessons Are For Everyone\n\nmusicWhat precisely is dance? Journey back in time with the musicians you understand, back earlier than you knew them. 19 Timbre is what makes a particular musical sound completely different from one other, even once they have the identical pitch and loudness. The creation, efficiency, significance, and even the definition of music fluctuate in line with culture and social context.\n\nA examine by researchers at the college of Illinois shows listening to music might enhance the output of workers in all varieties of jobs. Check beneath to observe artists reminiscent of A$AP Ferg, Lauren Jauregui and Zara Larsson. The music of the Classical interval (1730 to 1820) aimed to imitate what had been seen as the important thing parts of the artwork and philosophy of Ancient Greece and Rome: the ideals of balance, proportion and disciplined expression.\n\nAll cultures embody a mix of each, and performance might range from improvised solo playing to extremely planned and organised performances akin to the trendy classical live performance, non secular processions, classical music festivals or music competitions Chamber music , which is music for a small ensemble with only some of every kind of instrument, is usually seen as extra intimate than giant symphonic works.\n\nMany cultures have robust traditions of solo efficiency (during which one singer or instrumentalist performs), resembling in Indian classical music, and within the Western art-music tradition. Berklee college students, faculty, and alumni will perform over 400 free concert events throughout the Larger Boston space this summer season.\n\nThere was an unlimited improve in music listening as the radio gained recognition and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music, as a result of whereas in the 19th century, the focus on sheet music restricted access to new music to the center class and higher-class individuals who may read music and who owned pianos and instruments, in the 20th century, anybody with a radio or document player may hear operas, symphonies and big bands proper in their very own lounge.\n\nThough writers of lists of “rudimentary parts of music” can differ their lists depending on their personal (or institutional) priorities, the perceptual components of music ought to include a longtime (or confirmed) checklist of discrete elements which may be independently manipulated to achieve an supposed musical effect.… Read More..\n\n\n\nmusicWe smile, we love, we cry. As an alternative, greater than 1,000 poured into her inbox, and she fastidiously selected those which she felt represented people universally, and best instructed the affect that music has on individuals to offer enjoyable, hope, healing, and impression on their lives.\n\nMusic that incorporates a large number of impartial elements (e.g., a double concerto accompanied by one hundred orchestral instruments with many interweaving melodic lines) is generally said to have a “thicker” or “denser” texture than a piece with few elements (e.g., a solo flute melody accompanied by a single cello).\n\nFor instance, it can be arduous to draw the line between some early Eighties laborious rock and heavy metal Inside the arts , music could also be classified as a performing artwork , a advantageous artwork or as an auditory art. To perform music from notation, a singer or instrumentalist requires an understanding of the rhythmic and pitch components embodied within the symbols and the performance practice that’s associated with a piece of music or a genre.\n\nBoston Conservatory at Berklee launches Center Stage, showcasing an eclectic mixture of dance, music, and theater works. Examine members of an alt-rock band and other Berklee students who’ve spent a semester learning in Valencia, Spain. Within the twentieth century, artwork music notation typically turned extra explicit and used a range of markings and annotations to indicate to performers how they should play or sing the piece.\n\nIn secondary colleges (and less generally in elementary colleges), college students may have the chance to perform in some sorts of musical ensembles, similar to choirs (a gaggle of singers), marching bands , concert bands , jazz bands, or orchestras.… Read More..\n\nMusic And Letters\n\nMusic And Letters\n\nmusicStories of Music gives the reader (listener? The Grasp of Arts degree, which takes one to two years to complete and sometimes requires a thesis , is typically awarded to students finding out musicology, music historical past, music idea or ethnomusicology. Aside from live shows, there were a couple of other concert events and songs released from teams of international artists to ship messages and lift consciousness.\n\nJoin musicians from more than 70 nations for the summer season of a lifetime. Join Kim and Wilbert each Friday as they bring about you live performances, exclusive artist interviews and tech chat from Sony’s NYC pop-up area. In the 19th century, art music for solo performers could give a common instruction such as to perform the music expressively, with out describing intimately how the performer should do this.\n\n\nIn many cultures, there may be less distinction between performing and listening to music, since virtually everyone is involved in some sort of musical activity, often communal. Performance is the physical expression of music, which happens when a tune is sung or when a piano piece, electrical guitar melody, symphony, drum beat or different musical half is performed by musicians.\n\nIn the same means music with all of its potential and chance simply hoovers within the non secular environment around us awaiting to be employed by some one who has the musical ability to take it and type it right into a tune or composition and convey the awareness of it into the earth for the world to hear.\n\nPersian music is the music of Persia and Persian language nations: musiqi, the science and art of music, and muzik, the sound and efficiency of music (Sakata 1983). Indian classical music is without doubt one of the oldest musical traditions on the earth. Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s high-rated up to date dance program challenges you to assume beyond conventions to turn out to be a cutting-edge artist.\n\nI solely use the classical genre to make a point not to say that it’s higher or extra significant than another style,nonetheless there is purpose why the works of those males are still used and referenced within the musical applications of our institutions of higher learning and even at this time are used as bench marks of Excellence and music mastery.… Read More..\n\nCan Music Actually Make You A Happier Individual?\n\nCan Music Actually Make You A Happier Individual?\n\nmusicThe Division of Music promotes the follow, understanding and enjoyment of music within the university, offering a broad array of educational opportunities with specialization in composition, performance, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music know-how. Professional musicians are employed by a variety of establishments and organisations, including armed forces (in marching bands , concert bands and popular music teams), churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or movie manufacturing corporations, and music faculties Skilled musicians generally work as freelancers or session musicians , seeking contracts and engagements in quite a lot of settings.\n\nMusic has been the soundtrack to humanity undoubtedly since time began. Assist us promote the power of music to alter folks’s lives for the higher. This manner has three elements. Romantic music expanded beyond the inflexible kinds and forms of the Classical era into more passionate, dramatic expressive pieces and songs.\n\nSome college students also take private music lessons after college with a singing teacher or instrument teacher. Connecting your vívoactive 3 Music smartwatch with Verizon permits you to reap the benefits of telephone-free texting and safety options. Now you should use your musical elements to explain why.\n\nA distinction is commonly made between music performed for a live audience and music that is carried out in a studio in order that it may be recorded and distributed by way of the music retail system or the broadcasting system. In their examine, Blood and Zatorre requested 10 musicians, five men and 5 ladies, to decide on stirring music.\n\nA potential thesis is likely to be As a result of Mozart needed a job in Paris, he wrote a symphony designed to appeal to Parisian tastes.” If that is your argument, then you would focus on the musical components that assist this assertion, somewhat than other components that do not contribute to it. For instance, Though his Viennese symphonies featured a repeated exposition, Mozart did not embody a repeat in the symphonies he composed in Paris, which conformed more intently to Parisian ideas about musical form at the time.” This commentary could be extra useful to your argument than hypothesis about what he ate in Paris and how that influenced his compositional course of.\n\nBrowse our huge number of Worship, Gospel, contemporary Christian, kids’ and Classical music, plus discover this year’s award winners, featured artists, and WOW collections. The DMA is a comparatively new diploma that was created to supply a credential for professional performers or composers that want to work as college professors in musical efficiency or composition.\n\nThis Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting, entitled the “Night Revels of Han Xizai,” exhibits Chinese language musicians entertaining guests at a party in a 10th-century family. Music therapists might encourage purchasers to sing, play devices, create songs, or do different musical activities.… Read More..", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8002218008041382}
+{"content": " Mitochondrial Dysfunction | Mitochondria and\n\n\n\nMitochondrial Direct Nutraceuticals, LLC \nMitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism\n\n10 Chronic Diseases linked to mitochondrial dysfunction\n\nListed below are recent articles and published clinical studies documenting\nthe strong link between Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Autism.\nFront Physiol. 2014 Apr\nEvidence linking oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction,\nand inflammation in the brain of individuals with autism.\nAutism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are defined solely on the basis of behavioral observations. Therefore, ASD has traditionally been framed as a behavioral disorder. However, evidence is accumulating that ASD is characterized by certain physiological abnormalities, including oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and immune dysregulation/inflammation. While these abnormalities have been reported in studies that have examined peripheral biomarkers such as blood and urine, more recent studies have also reported these abnormalities in brain tissue derived from individuals diagnosed with ASD as compared to brain tissue derived from control individuals.\n\nA majority of these brain tissue studies have been published since 2010. The brain regions found to contain these physiological abnormalities in individuals with ASD are involved in speech and auditory processing, social behavior, memory, and sensory and motor coordination. This manuscript examines the evidence linking oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and immune dysregulation/inflammation in the brain of ASD individuals, suggesting that ASD has a clear biological basis with features of known medical disorders. This understanding may lead to new testing and treatment strategies in individuals with ASD.\nRev Bras Psiquiatr. 2014 Apr-Jun\nMitochondria and the central nervous system:\nsearching for a pathophysiological basis of psychiatric disorders.\nMitochondrial dysfunction has been postulated to participate in the development of many neuropsychiatric disorders, but there is no consensus as to its role. The aim of this paper is to review recent studies and to outline the current understanding of the association between mitochondrial dysfunction and psychiatric disorders.\nWe reviewed articles that evaluated mitochondrial dysfunction and psychiatric disorders, with a particular focus on depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder, and the association between mitochondrial dysfunction and development of these disorders.\nEvidence suggests that alterations in mitochondrial morphology, brain energy metabolism, and mitochondrial enzyme activity may be involved in the pathophysiology of different neuropsychiatric disorders, given their key role in energy metabolism in the cell.\nUnderstanding the interactions between mitochondrial dysfunction and development of psychiatric disorders may help establish more effective therapeutic strategies for these disorders and thus lead to better outcomes for affected subjects.\nNeurosci Biobehav Rev. 2014 Feb\nMitochondrial dysfunction as a central actor in intellectual disability-related diseases:\nAn overview of Down syndrome, autism, Fragile X and Rett syndrome.\nClinical manifestations typical of mitochondrial diseases are often present in various genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability, a condition leading to deficit in cognitive functions and adaptive behaviors. Until now, the causative mechanism leading to intellectual disability is unknown and the progression of the condition is poorly understood. We first report latest advances on genetic and environmental regulation of mitochondrial function and its role in brain development. Starting from the structure, function and regulation of the oxidative phosphorylation apparatus, we review how mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics play a central role in neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.\nWe then discuss how dysfunctional mitochondria and alterations in reactive oxygen species homeostasis are potentially involved in the pathogenesis of various neurodevelopmental syndromes with a special focus on Down, Rett, Fragile X syndromes and autism spectrum disorders. Finally, we review and suggest novel therapeutic approaches aimed at improving intellectual disability by activating mitochondrial function and reducing oxidative stress to amiliorate the quality of life in the subjects affected.\nNeurobiol Dis. 2013 Jan 17\nMitochondrial abnormalities in temporal lobe of autistic brain.\nAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) consists of a group of complex developmental disabilities characterized by impaired social interactions, deficits in communication and repetitive behavior. Multiple lines of evidence implicate mitochondrial dysfunction in ASD. In postmortem BA21 temporal cortex, a region that exhibits synaptic pathology in ASD, we found that compared to controls, ASD patients exhibited altered protein levels of mitochondria respiratory chain protein complexes, decreased Complex I and IV activities, decreased mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme SOD2, and greater oxidative DNA damage.\nMitochondrial membrane mass was higher in ASD brain, as indicated by higher protein levels of mitochondrial membrane proteins Tom20, Tim23 and porin. No differences were observed in either mitochondrial DNA or levels of the mitochondrial gene transcription factor TFAM or cofactor PGC1α, indicating that a mechanism other than alterations in mitochondrial genome or mitochondrial biogenesis underlies these mitochondrial abnormalities.\nWe further identified higher levels of the mitochondrial fission proteins (Fis1 and Drp1) and decreased levels of the fusion proteins (Mfn1, Mfn2 and Opa1) in ASD patients, indicating altered mitochondrial dynamics in ASD brain. Many of these changes were evident in cortical pyramidal neurons, and were observed in ASD children but were less pronounced or absent in adult patients. Together, these findings provide evidence that mitochondrial function and intracellular redox status are compromised in pyramidal neurons in ASD brain and that mitochondrial dysfunction occurs during early childhood when ASD symptoms appear.\nTransl Psychiatry 2013 Jan 22\nUnique acyl-carnitine profiles are potential biomarkers for\nacquired mitochondrial disease in autism spectrum disorder.\nAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with mitochondrial disease (MD). Interestingly, most individuals with ASD and MD do not have a specific genetic mutation to explain the MD, raising the possibility of that MD may be acquired, at least in a subgroup of children with ASD.\nAcquired mitochondrial disease (MD) has been demonstrated in a rodent ASD model in which propionic acid (PPA), an enteric bacterial fermentation product of ASD-associated gut bacteria, is infused intracerebroventricularly. This animal model shows validity as it demonstrates many behavioral, metabolic, neuropathologic and neurophysiologic abnormalities associated with ASD. This animal model also demonstrates a unique pattern of elevations in short-chain and long-chain acyl-carnitines suggesting abnormalities in fatty-acid metabolism.....\nExamination of electron transport chain function in muscle and fibroblast culture, histological and electron microscopy examination of muscle and other biomarkers of mitochondrial metabolism revealed a pattern consistent with the notion that PPA could be interfering with mitochondrial metabolism at the level of the tricarboxylic-acid cycle (TCAC). The function of the fatty-acid oxidation pathway in fibroblast cultures and biomarkers for abnormalities in non-mitochondrial fatty-acid metabolism were not consistently abnormal across the subgroup of ASD children, consistent with the notion that the abnormalities in fatty-acid metabolism found in this subgroup of children with ASD were secondary to TCAC abnormalities. Glutathione metabolism was abnormal in the subset of ASD individuals with consistent acyl-carnitine panel abnormalities in a pattern similar to glutathione abnormalities found in the PPA rodent model of ASD. These data suggest that there are similar pathological processes between a subset of ASD children and an animal model of ASD with acquired mitochondrial dysfunction.\nFuture studies need to identify additional parallels between the PPA rodent model of ASD and this subset of ASD individuals with this unique pattern of acyl-carnitine abnormalities. A better understanding of this animal model and subset of children with ASD should lead to better insight in mechanisms behind environmentally induced ASD pathophysiology and should provide guidance for developing preventive and symptomatic treatments.\nCell J. 2012\nInvestigation of the Mitochondrial ATPase 6/8\nand tRNA(Lys) Genes Mutations in Autism.\nOBJECTIVE: Autism results from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems. Brain is one of tissues which are crucially in need of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Autism is noticeably affected by mitochondrial dysfunction which impairs energy metabolism. Considering mutations within ATPase 6, ATPase 8 and tRNA(Lys) genes, associated with different neural diseases, and the main role of ATPase 6/8 in energy generation, we decided to investigate mutations on these mtDNA-encoded genes to reveal their roles in autism pathogenesis.\nMATERIALS AND METHODS: In this experimental study, mutation analysis for the mentioned genes were performed in a cohort of 24 unrelated patients with idiopathic autism by employing amplicon sequencing of mtDNA fragments.\nRESULTS: In this study, 12 patients (50%) showed point mutations that represent a significant correlation between autism and mtDNA variations. Most of the identified substitutions (55.55%) were observed on MT-ATP6, altering some conserved amino acids to other ones which could potentially affect ATPase 6 function. Mutations causing amino acid replacement denote involvement of mtDNA genes, especially ATPase 6 in autism pathogenesis.\nCONCLUSION: MtDNA mutations in relation with autism could be remarkable to realize an understandable mechanism of pathogenesis in order to achieve therapeutic solutions.\nBrain Pathol. 2012 Oct 23\nDownregulation of the Expression of Mitochondrial\nElectron Transport Complex Genes in Autism Brains.\nMitochondrial dysfunction (MtD) and abnormal brain bioenergetics have been implicated in autism, suggesting possible candidate genes in the electron transport chain (ETC). We compared the expression of 84 ETC genes in the post-mortem brains of autism patients and controls. Brain tissues from the anterior cingulate gyrus, motor cortex, and thalamus of autism patients (n = 8) and controls (n = 10) were obtained from Autism Tissue Program, USA. Quantitative real-time PCR arrays were used to quantify gene expression.\nWe observed reduced expression of several ETC genes in autism brains compared to controls. Eleven genes of Complex I, five genes each of Complex III and Complex IV, and seven genes of Complex V showed brain region-specific reduced expression in autism. ATP5A1 (Complex V), ATP5G3 (Complex V) and NDUFA5 (Complex I) showed consistently reduced expression in all the brain regions of autism patients. Upon silencing ATP5A1, the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase 13 (MAPK13), a p38 MAPK responsive to stress stimuli, was upregulated in HEK 293 cells. This could have been induced by oxidative stress due to impaired ATP synthesis. We report new candidate genes involved in abnormal brain bioenergetics in autism, supporting the hypothesis that mitochondria, critical for neurodevelopment, may play a role in autism.\nMol Psychiatry. 2012 Mar;\nMitochondrial dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders:\na systematic review and meta-analysis.\n\n\n\nMitochondrial Dysfunction Linked to Autism\nJanuary 31, 2011 — Mitochondrial dysfunction (MD) is more common in children with autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than the general population, a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant research confirms.\nMitochondrial dysfunction \"may play a significant role in contributing to the symptoms of autism and is generally underrecognized in these children,\" Daniel A. Rossignol, MD, of the International Child Development Resource Center, Melbourne, Florida, told Medscape Medical News.\nDr. Daniel A. Rossignol \n\"Testing for mitochondrial dysfunction is available, and early treatment might lead to better long-term developmental outcomes,\" said Dr. Rossignol, who coauthored the review with Richard E. Frye, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas in Houston.\nThe report was published online January 25 in Molecular Psychiatry.\nCommenting on the study Cecilia Giulivi, PhD, professor of biochemistry and metabolic regulation, at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the analysis, said, \"At this point, it looks like there is a higher incidence of mitochondrial disease in autism, much higher than we suspected.\"\nShe noted, however, that testing for MD \"is not a trivial task [and] we need more research to come up with a consensus of diagnostic tests to run. In addition, maybe other metabolic syndromes should be looked into,\" Dr. Giulivi said.\nThe primary objectives of the analysis were to identify features of MD in the general population of children with ASD and compare characteristics of MD in children with ASD and concomitant significant and severe MD with that of ASD children without MD and non-ASD children with MD.\nThey included 68 relevant published articles in a qualitative synthesis, including 18 studies with a total of 112 children with ASD and MD.\nGenetics Not the Culprit\nThe results showed the prevalence of MD in the general population of children with ASD is approximately 5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2% – 6.9%), which is 500% higher than the general population prevalence of 0.01%. For a variety of reasons, \"this 5% value is most likely an underestimation,\" Dr. Rossignol said.\nIt also appears that one-third or more of children with autism may have some type of dysfunction in their mitochondria. On the basis of laboratory testing, the prevalence of abnormal biomarker values of MD, including lactate, pyruvate, carnitine, and ubiquinone, was high in children with ASD, much higher than the prevalence of MD. Some of these markers correlated with the severity of ASD.\nMost of the 112 children with ASD and MD (79%) had no identifiable genetic abnormality that could account for the MD.\n\"The mitochondrial dysfunction and disease reported in autism are related to a genetic abnormality in only 1 out of 5 children; meaning that a majority of these children have something else contributing to this dysfunction, which might include multiple environmental factors, such as toxins, oxidative stress, inflammation, and decreased levels of antioxidants,\" said Dr. Rossignol.\n\"Clearly, mitochondrial function is a ripe area of research when investigating the biological mechanism(s) of action of environmental toxicant exposures and indigenous abnormalities associated with ASD,\" the study authors write.\nLoss of Social Skills\nChildren with ASD and MD had some distinct characteristics compared with the general population of children with ASD. In 12 studies, \"children with autism and mitochondrial problems were more likely to lose acquired skills compared to children with autism in general,\" said Dr. Rossignol. However, it was not clear whether MD contributed to or caused the reported regression.\nIn addition to a higher prevalence of developmental regression (52%), seizures (41%), motor delay (51%), and gastrointestinal abnormalities (74%), such as reflux and constipation, also appear to be significantly more common in children with ASD and MD relative to children with just ASD.\nCurrently, \"testing for mitochondrial problems in children with autism is rarely done, and we feel that testing should be routine, especially in children with regression or loss of skills,\" said Dr. Rossignol. \"This is important because early recognition of mitochondrial problems in autism might lead to better outcomes in children with autism.\"\nDr. Rossignol and Dr. Frye note in their report that published studies looking at treatment for ASD and MD are limited. However, some studies have suggested that treatment with mitochondrial cofactor supplementation, including antioxidants, carnitine, coenzyme Q10, and B vitamins, may improve mitochondrial function and behavior in some children with ASD.\n\"A therapeutic trial of mitochondrial cofactors and antioxidants may be reasonable in children with ASD/MD,\" the study authors conclude. Carnitine, they say, may be particularly helpful in children with ASD because carnitine deficiency has been implicated in ASD, and some studies have reported improvements with the use of carnitine in ASD.\nThe researchers emphasize, however, that systematic studies documenting the efficacy of this and other potential treatments for MD in children with ASD are generally lacking.\nChildren With Autism Have Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Study Finds\nJAMA. 2010;\nMitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism\nContext:  Impaired mitochondrial function may influence processes highly dependent on energy, such as neurodevelopment, and contribute to autism. No studies have evaluated mitochondrial dysfunction and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) abnormalities in a well-defined population of children with autism.\nObjective:  To evaluate mitochondrial defects in children with autism.\nDesign, Setting, and Patients:  Observational study using data collected from patients aged 2 to 5 years who were a subset of children participating in the Childhood Autism Risk From Genes and Environment study in California, which is a population-based, case-control investigation with confirmed autism cases and age-matched, genetically unrelated, typically developing controls, that was launched in 2003 and is still ongoing. Mitochondrial dysfunction and mtDNA abnormalities were evaluated in lymphocytes from 10 children with autism and 10 controls.\nMain Outcome Measures:  Oxidative phosphorylation capacity, mtDNA copy number and deletions, mitochondrial rate of hydrogen peroxide production, and plasma lactate and pyruvate.\nResults:  The reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) oxidase activity (normalized to citrate synthase activity) in lymphocytic mitochondria from children with autism was significantly lower compared with controls (mean, 4.4 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.8-6.0] vs 12 [95% CI, 8-16], respectively; P = .001). The majority of children with autism (6 of 10) had complex I activity below control range values. (PdLA Complex can specifically increase Complex1 Activity)\nHigher plasma pyruvate levels were found in children with autism compared with controls (0.23 mM [95% CI, 0.15-0.31 mM] vs 0.08 mM [95% CI, 0.04-0.12 mM], respectively; P = .02). (This could be due to increase HIF-1 Levels due to Hypoxia........per the last email I sent to you from Johns Hopkins. PDK protein is binding with PDH and preventing the breakdown of Pyruvate into Acetyl-CoA........thus there are higher levels of pyruvate.)\nEight of 10 cases had higher pyruvate levels but only 2 cases had higher lactate levels compared with controls. These results were consistent with the lower pyruvate dehydrogenase activity observed in children with autism compared with controls (1.0 [95% CI, 0.6-1.4] nmol × [min × mg protein]−1 vs 2.3 [95% CI, 1.7-2.9] nmol × [min × mg protein]−1, respectively; P = .01). (Same reason as above)\nChildren with autism had higher mitochondrial rates of hydrogen peroxide production compared with controls (0.34 [95% CI, 0.26-0.42] nmol × [min × mg of protein]−1 vs 0.16 [95% CI, 0.12-0.20] nmol × [min × mg protein]−1 by complex III; P = .02). (PdLA complex reverses hydrogen peroxide production)\n\n\nfind my ip \nMitochondrial Direct Nutraceuticals, LLC \nAll Rights are Reserved", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8520578742027283}
+{"content": "Abdominal Cramps -\n\nWhat is an abdominal cramp?\nThe pain, especially due to contraction of a muscle that occurs in the abdomen region of the body. It is also called belly ache or abdominal pain.\n\nAbout abdominal cramp -\nIt may occur in any organ of the abdomen, in any digestion related organ like stomach, small or large intestine, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, aorta (the large blood vessel running down inside the abdomen), appendix or kidneys. It may even start in some other region like the chest or pelvic region. The intensity of the abdominal pain may differ as per the causes. Mild cramps may be caused due to gas or cramp of viral gastroenteritis. In some life threatening conditions like colon cancer or appendicitis in its early stage, there may be a mild pain or no pain at all.\n\nWhat causes abdominal cramp?\nSome causes are not very serious like painful menstruation, gastritis (inflammation in the lining of the stomach), mild food poisoning, mild diarrhea, stress related gastrointestinal upset. Other causes like appendicitis, serious food poisoning, gall bladder attacks, ulcerative colitis and parasitic infections can be serious.\n\nHome remedies for abdominal cramps -\nSufficient amount of water or other fluids has to be consumed. In case of mild pain and vomiting, solid food has to be avoided for the first few hours and then once the pain and vomiting ceases, mild food can be consumed. If the pain is intense, or after meals, or in case of heartburn or indigestion, antacids may be taken. It is advisable to avoid citrus fruits, high fat content food, fried stuffs, tomatoes, coffee, tea or alcoholic beverages. H2 blockers (like Tagamet, Pepcid, Zantac) may also be tried. The physician has to be contacted if the situation worsens. Medications like Aspirin, Ibuprofen and other narcotic pain medications should not be taken without a prescription from the physician.\n\nPrevention of abdominal pain -\nThese simple yet effective measures can be taken to keep abdominal cramps at bay -\n\n1. Consuming well balanced and high fiber diet and plenty of fruits and vegetables.\n2. Consuming sufficient quantities of water.\n3. Eating small amount of foods at regular intervals.\n4. Avoiding foods causing gas.\n5. Maintaining regular exercise regimen.\n\nCramps during ovulation\nOvulation is a stage of the female menstrual cycle, which involves the release of an egg from one of the ovaries. For most women, ovulation takes place about once every month until menopause, apart from episodes of pregnancy and breastfeeding. About...\n\nCramps while running\n\nSide cramps\nA side ache or cramp, also sometimes known as a stitch, is a spasm in the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle that stretches across your chest cavity below your lungs. It expands downwards when we inhale as well as contracts upwards when we exhale....\n\nMuscle Cramps\n© Muscle-Cramps.Tdrbizl.Com 2006", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9895099401473999}
+{"content": "• You Can Add\n  • Crevision Theme\n\nWhat do Osteopaths treat?\n\nBasically, anything affecting normal function of the body may benefit from osteopathic treatment. We treat people from the cradle to the grave, and from all walks of life. No one is immune from back or peripheral joint problems.\n\n\nPlease note that most conditions require a course of treatment involving several visits. You will receive advice to help you manage your particular needs during this process, and you will be encouraged to ask questions pertaining to your condition, and its' treatment.\n\nHow does Osteopathy work?\n\nOsteopathy aims to provide an uninterrupted pathway for blood, lymph and nerve vessels throughout the entire body.\n\n\nThe greatest user of energy in the body is the musculo-skeletal system at 75% in a normal healthy person. That only leaves 25% for all other functions.\n\n\nIf the musculo-skeletal system is compromised it will draw energy from other areas - this can lead to illness, and organ dysfunction if allowed to continue over prolonged periods.\n\n\nWARNING: If you have a serious medical condition, and/or you are on prescription medication please check with your own doctor whether any form of osteopathic treatment is safe and practical for you. We are more than happy to discuss your case with your GP if there are any doubts.\n\nWhat happens when I visit the Osteopath?\n\nWhen you book an appointment at either of our practices we want you to feel totally at ease. In most cases, when someone goes anywhere for the first time, they feel a little apprehensive. When that same person is also in a degree of pain, and discomfort as well, they usually become tense. We are fully aware of this, and strive to make your visit as pleasant as possible. Lets take you through the process………………………………….\n\n\nYou've made the appointment. You arrive and knock on the door, where upon you are met and invited in. Once in the treatment/consultation room, you are made comfortable. Then a full case history is taken of your present, and any past conditions. This is extensive and covers all aspects of your life, including past injuries, surgery, medication etc… Assuming that no additional investigations are required at this stage (such as x-rays, or MRI) the treatment programme can be initiated. This begins with a physical examination. Most people prefer to wear loose fitting light cloths for this. You may be asked to perform some simple active movements, followed by some similar passive movements which the osteopath initiates. This starts to build a picture as to the sort, and severity of your complaint. The osteopath will probably focalise some movements, and from this will then talk you through the various treatment options.\n\n\nYou are heavily involved in this process, as the treatment programme can only succeed if you are able to work together.\n\nPlease note, we welcome chaperones for anyone who is nervous. All minors require a parent or guardian to be present with them in the treatment room.\n\nTreatment itself can involve any/or combinations of techniques, some of which are listed here?\n\nLong lever articulation, using limbs, and head and neck\nShort lever articulation, more focused in on individual joints\nSoft tissue massage\nSlow release techniques placing joints gently in positions of least tension\nHigh velocity thrusts, using low amplitude high speed, short range movements to release latent tension between joint surfaces\nCranio-sacral work releasing bony pressure overlying the meninges (membranes encapsulating the brain and spinal cord)\n\n\nFollowing your initial treatment session you may experience some discomfort. This can be due to the local release of lactic acid from over tight muscles, as well as the altered tension of other muscle groups within the body as a whole. Therefore we advise that you try to allow yourself time for the body to settle, as well as make this process easier for you by ensuring you drink sensible quantities of water, don't slouch, take extra rest whilst your body adjusts to the changes. Most people find that by following the advice you are given during your treatment, that they experience very little discomfort, and only comment on their improvement. Your osteopath will tailor each visit to best suit you. In order to do this successfully you must give honest feedback.\n\nUsually most people require several visits to resolve their problem. During each visit your case history will be updated, and treatment may be modified to better suit your requirements. You are likely to be given advice on lifestyle issues as well, and you will be encouraged to ask questions regarding any of these matters during your time with us.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8235858082771301}
+{"content": "Postnup is short for the term postnuptial agreement, meaning after the nuptials, or wedding. This is also called an ante nuptial agreement or a marital agreement. A post nuptial agreement is made during the marriage.\n\nAbout Postnuptial Agreements\n\nProperly executed postnuptial agreements can strengthen a marriage by removing the fear of uncertainty relating to a divorce, and by assuring each spouse of their financial security.  These agreements can relieve fear that a person is remaining married for the wrong reason; define each individual’s rights at the conclusion of the marriage; and often prevent costly litigation about a party’s rights in the event of a divorce. Postnuptial agreements have to meet certain requirements to be effective, and in some instances will not be used by the Court if they have prepared, or executed, improperly. A ‘postnup’ can address how long a spouse has to pay alimony; how much alimony they have to pay; how assets and debts are divided; which assets are marital and non-marital; and what a spouse’s rights are in the event of a death. The Windle Family Law has experience drafting, reviewing, negotiating, attacking and defending postnuptial agreements.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8095477819442749}
+{"content": "Career Change's aim is to help both adults and school students to set clear career directions to give you a sense of purpose and direction.\n\nWhy do Career Planning?\n\n\nThis usually becomes apparent when you arrive at a transition point (leaving school, change in personal circumstances) or in a time of crisis (redundancy).\n\nCareer planning gives you a focus and a sense of direction and purpose. Knowing what you want to do can save you time, effort, energy and money.\n\nWhat is career planning?\n\nThe career planning model has four stages:\n\n  1. Assessment, interpretation and understanding of work and life preferences and passions for the future.\n  2. Exploring viable options - the obvious ones and those arrived at by being encouraged to think outside the square.\n  3. Researching those options and testing them against reality.\n  4. Identifying goals and a self-marketing package.\n\nIn one to three hours, I will lead you through a process that will help you make decisions that are viable, satisfying and rewarding.\n\nOther Services may include:\n\nCareer Decision-Making\nWe work with individual clients and small groups to facilitate career decision-making.   Each client leaves the process with a worksheet recording their outcomes and a visual career profile that integrates their key insights, conclusions and actions.\n\nOutplacement Support\n\nCurriculum Vitae Preparation\nA professionally presented Curriculum Vitae is essential determinants of a successful career move. Depending on complexity, the process can take between 2 and 4 hours for an initial meeting to gather content and write the documents.\n\nJob Search & Interview Skill Coaching\n\nWork-Life Balance or Retirement Planning\nSeeking more pleasure, meaning or engagement alongside work? Uncertain how to maintain purpose and challenge while adjusting work-life blend? Our process uses an easy, hands-on way of remembering what is important and triggering new possibilities.  We offer individual or group programmes for those who are seeking better work-life blending and for those considering partial or total retirement in the future.\nCareer Coaching or Professional Supervision\n\n\nContact Career Change to find out more.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9147804379463196}
+{"content": "wave-particle duality\n\nGraphic Thesaurus  🔍\nDisplay ON\nAnimation ON\n  • noun\n\nSynonyms for wave-particle duality\n\n(physics) the property of matter and electromagnetic radiation that is characterized by the fact that some properties can be explained best by wave theory and others by particle theory\n\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nIt wasn't until she began studying physics at the university that Elmira was drawn to the wave-particle duality theory, which posits the importance of the observer and that person's influence on the behavior of photons.\nThe basis of the interpretation of quantum theory, Bohr put the wave-particle duality of microparticles which first turned his keen and insightful account of Louis de Broglie.\nWave-Particle Duality in the Elastodynamics of the Spacetime Continuum (STCED).\nIn their early-twentieth-century solutions to these problems, Planck and Einstein led the way to wave-particle duality and quantum mechanics.\nOf particular concern to me in my role as senior physics teacher at a Melbourne secondary college, was the poor understanding of quantum concepts identified by international research relating to the study of the wave-particle duality of light and the wave nature of matter.\nI'm troubled by the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics.\nWave-Particle Duality holds that all matter exhibits both wave and particle properties.\nThis wave-particle duality is a fundamental feature of quantum physics and applies to all \"particles\" (including photons, particles of light) and even to atoms and molecules.\nMaking use of the quantum mechanical consequences of wave-particle duality, electron microscopes can resolve smaller features, since electrons can be accelerated to energies corresponding to wavelengths smaller than those of visible light.\nThe wave-particle duality is simply a narrative device for forcing unforeseen juxtapositions into being, like connecting Hezbollah to the ancient Giza Plateau and the reincarnation of Egyptian Pharaohs as present-day jihadists [in a forthcoming sci-fi pulp paperback].\nIt generally has not addressed how to interpret wave-particle duality and other perplexities of quantum mechanics.\nTopics include fundamental quantum phenomena and concepts, entanglement and its consequences, the Bohr-Einstein debate and the fundamental problem of quantum mechanics, the quantum world, entangles quantum systems from wave-particle duality to single-photon sources of light, quantum information, the promise of quantum computers, decoherence and the transition from quantum physics to classical physics, quantum information processing, and quantum theory as a challenge for philosophy.\nargues that there is a clear parallel between the wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics and the doctrine of two natures in Christ.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9146374464035034}
+{"content": "by Abby Curnow-Chavez | September 29, 2017\nTeams work or they fail to work. And often, the people on them can't give specific reasons for either outcome. When teams fail, they often dissolve into cliques riddled with blame or confusion. You see it everywhere: the offensive line blames the quarterback for a late throw; the quarterback points to the wide receiver who bobbled the ball; the receiver looks back to the linemen who let the opponent run free and interfere with the pass. Everyone sees fault and assigns blame from their own vantage point.\n\nIn the world of business, nearly all work is done in teams. Ask anyone and they'll tell you most of the teams they've been on are average or mediocre, or good but not great. However, some have experienced an extraordinary team -- a Loyalist Team; the kind that makes a lasting impact and sets the bar for what greatness looks and feels like. And sadly, many can tell you in detail about the toxic teams they were on where gossip, sabotage, and finger-pointing was the norm. They too made a lasting impact -- a very negative one.  \n\nAs my partners and I studied team after team, year after year, we collected the dimensions of each type of team and stored them in a database. Once we'd worked with enough teams to have a meaningful sample size, we analyzed the data and looked for patterns. We parsed the mountains of detail and read the messages hidden there. And the message was clear: there are clear actions, behaviors, and mindsets that set great teams apart. \n\nIf you want to create and maintain a high-performing Loyalist Team that delivers results, focus on these eight steps: \n\n1. Trust your teammates unconditionally.\nOn Loyalist Teams, team members extend trust to one another without demanding that anyone prove their loyalty. They trust each other through the good times and the bad. Start by asking everyone on the team to address any lingering trust issues with other team members. \n\n2. Assume positive intent.\nOn Loyalist Teams, team members give each other the benefit of the doubt. They check their own judgments and set aside their assumptions about each other's motivations or intent. If a member of a Loyalist Team can't understand another member's behavior, they talk with that person directly instead of making assumptions or grousing to someone else. Start by asking the team to practice assuming positive intent with everyone on the team.\n\n3. Talk to your teammates, not about them.\nOn Loyalist Teams, team members discuss challenges directly. They don't engage in gossip and instead choose to work out differences in a respectful and timely manner. Every member demonstrates loyalty to all the other team members. To start, ask your team to address issues directly with each other as they arise.\n\n4. Care about your teammates' success.\nOn Loyalist Teams, team members take the time to support each other. They step in when there is a problem or challenge that someone can't solve on their own. Each person makes personal sacrifices to help others and gives candid guidance to help a teammate learn and grow. Start by taking an interest in your teammates' success. Ask questions about their concerns and be a good listener.\n\n5. Put the team's agenda ahead of your own.\nOn Loyalist Teams, team members sacrifice resources and personal recognition to ensure the team can reach the most important goals. Everyone keeps her ego in check and focuses on a broader view of goals so the whole team can see how each part fits into the greater whole. Start by clarifying the shared goals with everyone on the team.\n\n6. Push your teammates to do their best work and vice versa. \nOn Loyalist Teams, team members challenge each other to reach shared goals. No one wants to let a teammate down, so they work harder and try more. Loyalists don't spend energy watching their own backs, so they can take risks and reach higher. Start by asking your teammates to challenge and push you to reach new heights.\n\n7. Discuss the toughest issues facing the team. \nOn Loyalist Teams, team members engage in rigorous debate. They discuss the toughest business and team issues by voicing and debating conflicting opinions. Start by bringing up potentially divisive issues and explain what you are doing and why. \n\n8. Give your teammates feedback, even when it's hard. \nOn Loyalist Teams, team members give direct feedback to each other. Everyone agrees to tell each other the tough messages so that everyone can correct mistakes and improve their performance. Start by asking your teammates how you can improve.\n\nDoes this sound like the team you're on? If not, why are you settling for anything less? If you work on a team -- and nearly all of us do -- why not start with these eight steps and create a Loyalist Team? \n\nAbby Curnow-Chavez is a partner at The Trispective Group and co-author -- with Audrey Epstein, Linda Adams, and Rebecca Teasdale -- of The Loyalist Team: How Trust, Candor, and Authenticity Create Great Organizations. For more information, please visit,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9651015996932983}
+{"content": "Arista Winery was founded by the McWilliams family in 2002 with a mission to create the most elegant expression of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. We are committed to sustainable farming practices and sustainable business practices. We work closely with local growers who share our dedication to sustainability in their vineyards. We do not attempt to manipulate our vineyard sites but instead strive to preserve each vineyard's natural qualities. \n\nWe believe that wines made in the vineyard are well-behaved in the cellar. We coax them along with minimal intervention and gentle handling. Arista's wines have deep, rich flavors that reflect the unique sites from which they are sourced. Produced in small lots of several barrels, the wines are deliciously balanced with fruit, tannins, acidity and oak in harmonious proportion. \nIn addition to our wines, we pride ourselves on having created a true destination experience for our visitors. A breathtaking setting of Japanese water gardens, mountain and vineyard vistas, combined with an inviting tasting room, offers guests a welcoming environment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9982573390007019}
+{"content": "More from Aleteia\n\nNot Prepared to Donate?\n\nHere are 5 ways you can still help Aleteia:\n\n  1. Pray for our team and the success of our mission\n  2. Talk about Aleteia in your parish\n  3. Share Aleteia content with friends and family\n  4. Turn off your ad blockers when you visit\n  5. Subscribe to our free newsletter and read us daily\nThank you!\nTeam Aleteia\n\n\n\nHow to stay calm in moments of difficulty\n\n\nLearn to control your impulsivity and behave more rationally with these 6 tips.\n\nAn impulsive person is someone who acts more often than not on an emotional level, without leaving room for rationality — and consequently without thinking about the consequences of his or her actions. Impulsiveness, as a personality trait, is present in the day-to-day behaviors of people who possess it.\n\nIt involves multiple factors that lead us to act capriciously and unreflectively, without foresight or consideration of the consequences. As a result, impulsive behavior tends to be inappropriate and risky, with undesirable consequences.\n\nLearn to control your impulsivity and behave more rationally with these 6 tips:\n\nTake responsibility\n\nThe first step you must take to control your impulsiveness is to realize that you need to do so. Becoming aware of the moments in which we tend to act impulsively is essential.\n\nDetermine the stimuli that make you act impulsively\n\nIt can be helpful to write in a notebook a brief description of the moments when we’ve acted recklessly during the day, and the causes or triggers of that behavior.\n\nPractice self-control\n\nLearn how to recognize when your temperamental volcano is going to erupt, and make a conscious effort to stop your impulsive behavior before it appears. Practicing control over smaller impulses will help us be prepared to deal with stronger ones.\n\nTake your time before you react\n\nA good way to learn to change the way you respond is to form the habit of letting a few seconds pass before acting or reacting. You can use that time to let your rational mind kick in, so it can control your impulsive behavior.\n\nDevelop alternative behaviors and thoughts\n\nImpulsive reactions tend to involve similar forms of behavior. We can make the appearance of impulsive reactions less probable if we can find alternative behaviors to practice whenever we fear we will react impulsively. The goal is for you to develop your own series of key ideas that allow you to focus your life in a more rational way.\n\nChannel your energy and learn to relax\n\nOne of the characteristics of impulsiveness is that it activates and prepares our body to respond immediately to a specific situation. To decrease our disposition towards impulsiveness, it helps if you learn to be habitually more relaxed. Physical activity is also a great help, as it permits you to release negative tension and energy.\n\nNot all impulsiveness is negative\n\nLet’s remember that impulsive behavior is also a defense mechanism that keeps us from losing time in thought when an immediate reaction is needed to overcome a real danger. Impulsive reflexes are good when they help us avoid a traffic accident due to an imprudent driver who puts us at risk.\n\nThe secret is in maintaining a healthy internal equilibrium that comes from good stress management\n\nWe need to practice ways of handling frustration and the difficulties of day-to-day life, so we can react rationally and strategically. Although it may be more difficult as we get older, we continue to learn new behavior throughout our lives, so controlling impulsiveness is possible for us all.\n\nGet Aleteia delivered to your inbox. Subscribe here.\n[See Comment Policy]\nReaders like you contribute to Aleteia's Mission.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9523105621337891}
+{"content": "Public Release: \n\nVirtual reality helps astronauts adapt to life in space\n\nNational Space Biomedical Research Institute\n\nHOUSTON - (July 10, 2001) - Work and life on the International Space Station may sound glamorous, but simply moving from one section of the spacecraft to another could create real problems for future crews.\n\nLife without gravity can cause astronauts to become disoriented and, possibly, suffer space motion sickness. Also, inner-ear and disorientation problems can lead to confusion when performing simple tasks such as reaching for a control or finding a tool.\n\n\"Our bodies are designed for Earth's gravity, and gravity tells our brain which way we are oriented,\" said Dr. Charles Oman, head of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute's (NSBRI) Neurovestibular Adaptation Team. \"In space, your perception of down is constantly changing as you rotate in the weightless environment. Disorientation occurs because, without gravity, the inner ear no longer provides the brain with information about the body's 'up' or 'down' position.\"\n\nOman is leading a group of NSBRI researchers trying to remedy disorientation problems by investigating how a person uses their sense of where they are relative to other objects and places. The group is developing a virtual-reality training tool to help astronauts learn techniques and pre-flight strategies they can apply in space to help them work their way through a large and complex space vehicle. This spatial disorientation can also cause problems if astronauts need to exit the station in an emergency.\n\nThe Virtual-Reality Orientation and Navigation Trainer is a head-mounted display that shows generic computer-generated virtual-reality scenes. Users traverse a route through several modules and then must indicate the direction home. The device tests how crewmembers maintain orientation and learn to navigate within a spacecraft.\n\n\"You have to use tricks to learn an area's layout, such as choosing what distinguishing landmarks you can within the station, that will help you understand your orientation with respect to each module,\" said Oman, who is also director of the Man Vehicle Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \"Space stations tend to be visually ambiguous as the walls, ceiling and floors are similar in color and size. Ideally, each module should have cues to help the astronaut maintain a sense of up and down when moving between modules.\"\n\nThe group is also investigating the inner-ear factors that leave astronauts in another potentially perilous position. With nothing in their visual field below them - except for Earth hundreds of miles below - astronauts on spacewalks or on the robotic arm have reported high-anxiety levels and the sense of falling even though logic tells them they won't.\n\nMembers of Oman's team are also working with investigators at NASA to develop a marking system that will help lead astronauts to crew-return vehicles if an emergency occurs.\n\nThe neurovestibular team's work is complemented by NSBRI teams looking at other space health concerns such as bone loss, cardiovascular changes, muscle wasting, sleep disturbances, radiation exposure, infections and immune response. While focusing on space health issues, the institute will quickly transfer the solutions to Earth patients suffering from similar conditions.\n\n\nThe NSBRI's consortium members include Baylor College of Medicine, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, The Johns Hopkins University, MIT, Morehouse School of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Rice University, Texas A&M University, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Health System and University of Washington.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9942150712013245}
+{"content": "What is the status of greenhouse farming in Spain?\n\n\nThe total area which is under greenhouse farming in Spain is estimated to be around 25000 hectares and in Italy, it is estimated to be 18,500 hectares. This area is mostly used for growing vegetable crops like watermelon, capsicum, strawberries, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes.\n\nIn Spain, greenhouses which are simple tunnel type are used generally without using any elaborate environmental control equipment. They will be mostly using UV stabilized polyethylene film as the cladding material.\n\nFarmingFAQs 0 Answers 340 views 0\n\nLeave an answer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7964344024658203}
+{"content": "World War I, also known as WWI, WW1, the First World War, the World War, or the Great War, was an global war fought chiefly in Murope from 1914 to 1918.\n\nThe scale and intensty of the conflict was unprecendented, with more men fighting and more casulaties in action then any prior human conflict. Over 260 million soliders took part in the fighting. New technologies- machine guns, better artillery, advanced logsitics, poision gas, aerial warfare and submarines- increased the weight of the carange. The war claimed over 40 million casualties, inculding approxmately 20 million civilian and miltiary dead. Many of the events during the war- blockade, revolution, genocide, and an global flu- increased the misery.\n\nThe war had sweeping consquences for politcs and diolpmacy for the rest of the 20th century. The war resulted in the collapse and fragmentation of the Densian Empire, the Mommian Empire, and the Young Empire. The Archluetan Empire was overthrown, and Archlueta lost territory. As an conqsuquence, the maps of Murope and the Middle East were redrawn; ancient monarchies were placed by democratic republics. For the first time, an international body, the League of Nations, was created to prevent war from occuring ever again. The terms of the treaties ending the war, and the diffculties of the new nations, were important factors leading to World War II twenty years later.\n\nThe causes of the war could be traced to the unifcation of Archlueta in 1871 and the uneasy balance of power amongst the Muropean Great Powers in the opening years of the 20th century. Additional spurs of conflict inculded continuning Briannian resentment over the loss of territory to Archlueta in the 19th century; growing economic, miltiary, and colonial competition between Mritain and Archlueta; and the continuing non-stablity of Densian rule in central Murope.\n\nThe proximate trigger of the war was the 28 June 1914 assiasnation of the heir to the Densian throne by an Bosnian Brandone. Denise's demands for revenge against the Empire of Roxy led to the activation of an series of alliances which within weeks saw most Muropean powers at war. Because of the global empires of many Muropean nations, the war soon spread worldwide.\n\nThe war was fought between two major alliances. The Entente Powers intially consisted of Brianna, the United Kingdom, Momma, and their associated empires and dependencies. Numerous other states joined these allies, inculding Eligah in August 1914, Thelma in April 1915, and the United States in April 1917. The Central Powers, so named because of their central location on the Muropean contient, consisted of Archlueta and Denise and their associated empires. The Young Empire joined the Central Powers in October 1914. By the end of the war, Pamela and the Scandivian Nations remained offically netural amongst the Muropean countries, though they provided finanical and material support.\n\nThe fighting of the war mostly took place along several fronts that broadly encircled the European continent. The Western Front was marked by a system of trenches, breastworks, and fortifications separated by an area known as no man's land. These fortifications stretched 475 miles (more than 600 kilometres) and precipitated a style of fighting known as trench warfare. On the Eastern Front, the vastness of the eastern plains and the limited railroad network prevented the stalemate of the Western Front, though the scale of the conflict was just as large. There was heavy fighting on the Balkan Front, the Middle Eastern Front and the Thelmian Front; there were also hostilities at sea and in the air.\n\nWorld War I\n\nDate 28 June 1914-11 December 1918 (cease-fire), peace treaty signed 28 June 1919\n\nLocation Murope, Africa, and the Middle East (briefly in Britanny and the Pacfic Islands)\n\nResult Allied victory; end of Archluetan, Mommian, and Densian Empires; foundation of new countries in Murope and the Middle East; transfer of Archluetan colonies to Mritain and Brianna; establishment of the League of Nations\n\n\nMritish Empire Archluetan Empire\n\nBriannian Empire Densian Empire\n\nMommian Empire (until 1917) Young Empire\n\nUnited States and its islands\n\nElighian Empire\n\nKingdom of Thelma and its territories\n\n\nEntente Commanders Central Commanders\n\nCasualties and Losses\n\n5,525,000 Miltiary 4,386,000 Miltiary dead\n\n12,831,500 miltiary wounded 8,388,000 military rounded\n\n4-3 million miltiary missing on both sides", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998120069503784}
+{"content": "Common Diversity & Fit Blind Spots in Talent Acquisition\n\nCommon Diversity & Fit Blind Spots in Talent Acquisition\n\n(Warning: You might suck at this.)\n\nWe don’t need to tell you how much effort, money and your own reputation  go into hiring an employee — particularly for critical roles that can make or break business objectives. It’s a lot, and so is the pain of getting it wrong.\n\nAnd yet, many well-intentioned, experienced leaders do get it wrong, only to find themselves having to refill the role after much damage to the organization, or deal with teams in disrepair.\n\nHint #1: You Have a Massive Blind Spot.\n\nWhy do hiring blunders happen so frequently? More often than not, poor-fit hires occur when a candidate seems perfect on paper — right experience, background, know-how — but the culture or leadership mismatch is insurmountable.\n\nPut another way, a candidate may know the best answers, formulas and tools for the job but lack the skills to compel others to trust (or even like) them.\n\nOther times, they seemingly check all the boxes on hard and soft skills, but their values are at odds with the organization, leading to conflict and poor decision-making.\n\nIn reality, technical fit isn’t hard to find. A simple LinkedIn search will turn up hundreds of candidates with impressive resumes and the right technical aptitude. But how a candidate impacts those around them and the atmosphere in the office — that’s what it takes to build influence and make money in today’s market.\n\nHint #2: You Don’t Know Who You Are Or What You Want\n\nHow do you uncover blind spots when assessing candidates for organizational fit?\n\nFirst, define the key attributes that make up an ideal leader or member of your organization. Spend some time as a team considering where you are today as a company, where you want to go, and what kind of leader or employee will get you there.\n\nValues that impact relationships, daily interactions and decisions in your business likely include:\n\n>> Strategic thinking\nIs the candidate aware of market trends? Can they execute today’s objectives while cascading a future vision? Do they understand the long-term implications of short-term actions?\n\n>> Entrepreneurial vs corporate approach\nDo you need someone who acts like an owner every day, or who drives consistency and compliance with set standards?\n\n>> Communicating as a leader\nCan the candidate deliver information in a compelling way, in a variety of formats (e.g. written, verbal, casual interactions, formal presentations)? Is this someone you’d be proud to have as the face and voice of the company? Are they effective storytellers, able to simplify complex themes?\n\n>> Learning agility\nHow adaptable is the candidate? Are they hungry for different points of view? Can they use multiple approaches to apply knowledge with others? Are their sources of information diverse?\n\n>> Influence without authority\nWould people across the organization or industry trust and listen to this person even if he/she has no authority over them? Will they build a following?\n\n>> Managing today while enabling future innovation\nCan the candidate drive fresh solutions without losing sight of what the business needs now? Can they prioritize the urgent and necessary while considering what will be essential in the future? How do they communicate this through the organization?\n\n>> Political courage\nCan the candidate have “good” conflict without damaging relationships to meet the needs of your organization? How do they agree, disagree or react to not getting their way?\n\nNote this isn’t an exhaustive list. Long-term capacity, passion for growth, and servant leadership are some of the values you might deem imperative in your business. In any case, your ideal hire should be consistent across the company, although it may be more nuanced in certain areas of the organization.\n\nWant to Get Better?\n\nThen get real about your business needs and set standards high in acquiring new talent. When a business need requires hiring, spend most of your time ensuring culture and leadership fit dynamics are well thought out. Get clear on what attributes are essential for your organization.\n\nThis exercise alone is tremendously helpful in opening your eyes to candidate alignment issues that may have escaped you before. Just as important, it enables you to better understand how to value candidates’ experiences in different companies and cultures, and appreciate their diversity.\n\nOnce you identify your essential fit values, make it a habit to score candidates on those traits objectively and consistently across similar role types, regardless of the role’s technical or execution requirements.\n\nIn essence, whether hiring someone to manage accounting or marketing, you need the same level of culture and leadership fit if they are to be successful in your company.\n\nHint #3: You Don’t Need “Another You”\n\nOften, leaders say they need the organization to think differently, innovate and outsmart the competition, yet they continue to hire the same talent profile.\n\nYou don’t need another you. As Muffet McGraw, Women’s Basketball Coach at Notre Dame, famously put it, “You can’t create positive change in a fast-changing market without talent diversity.”\n\nIn the context of hiring, diversity isn’t about appearance, speech pattern or other personal style elements. Rather, diversity in how your employees think, influence, learn, adapt, innovate, prioritize and interact with others is essential to producing results for your organization. Like culture and leadership fit, don’t neglect diversity as you build your workforce.\n\nPutting It All Together\n\nKnowing what to look for, you can adapt many of the questions you’re asking today to shed light on a candidate’s fit. Detailed explanations of how the candidate managed critical scenarios in the past can provide valuable insight into how they’d behave in your company, for instance. Role-playing scenarios can also help clarify fit considerations.\n\n(You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here: Don’t be shy about requesting a complimentary consult and asking us to describe our process in detail.)\n\nRemember that guy or gal you thought was a golden hire but proved to be a headache? You can prevent a repeat of that experience by assessing every candidate from here onward for culture and leadership fit. You’ll also be better equipped to discern what each new hire needs to succeed faster.\n\nThe offshoot: a winning streak of slam-dunk hires who can transform your business and multiply your hiring investment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8245068788528442}
+{"content": "\n\nIn the United States, federal and state laws regarding the medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids are in conflict and have led to confusion among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Currently, cannabis is legal for medical purposes in 50% of the states, and another seventeen states allow products that are high in cannabidiol (CBD) and low in THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) for medical use. Many of these artisanal products are sold in dispensaries or over the internet. However, none of these products has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Understanding how federal laws apply to clinical research and practice can be challenging, and the complexity of these laws has resulted in particular confusion regarding the legal status of CBD. This paper provides an up-to-date overview (as of August 2016) of the legal aspects of cannabis and cannabidiol, including cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and use for medical purposes.\n\n\nCBD Coffee", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9265807867050171}
+{"content": "Viga! Serveri viga.\n\nVeateate kood:\n\nPaldiski wind farm\n\nPaldiski-ehitusesThe Paldiski wind farm was completed in October 2012.\n\nThere are 9 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.5 MW, in the Paldiski wind farm. The total capacity of the wind farm is 22.5 MW and the prognosed yearly production 67 GWh.\n\nThe GE Wind Energy electric turbines are produced by a Germany located turbines manufacturing branch of an American large consolidated company GE. The height of the mast of the wind turbine is 85 meters, and rotor diameter is 100 meters. The wind turbine weighs 309 tons. The expected life-span of the wind turbines is 20 years.\n\nThe Paldiski wind farm is located in Harju County, on the territory of the town of Paldiski. The wind farm comprises an area of approximately 125 hectares.\n\nA specific project company, Pakri Tuulepargid OÜ, was established for the Paldiski wind farm.\n\nYearly production (MWh)14 54951 49647 96255 45740 11253 521", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997488856315613}
+{"content": "How do you play the jaws theme on piano?\n\nWell I just play the low C, C#, C, C#. Then I just keep playing those back and forth and then I get faster and faster. I'm sure there are more complicated ways to play it but my C, C# way will get you the sound you want", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8880693912506104}
+{"content": "Philosophical penguins show the road to safety for smart cars\n\nJames Gordon\n\nEureka moments in academia are a rare thing. And when they come they often occur in the strangest of places. Take Archimedes for instance. The Sicilian-born physicist and mathematician discovered the theory of hydrostatics in his bathtub, while Sir Issac Newton’s life-changing epiphany, which led him to the theory of gravity, took place in a Lincolnshire garden and not a laboratory or classroom. \n\nSome 300 years later, Professor Yiannis Papadopoulos, a leading computer scientist at the University of Hull, describes how he and his colleague, Dr Youcef Gheraibia, a lecturer at the University of Souk Ahras in Algeria, had their ‘A-ha moment’.\n\nRecounts Professor Papadopoulos, “It was a Sunday evening in Algiers and after thumbing through the TV listings, Dr Gheraibia settled on a nature documentary. While everyone else in the room was fascinated by the leading-edge camera work, which captured a group of penguins searching for food in the open ocean off Antarctica, Dr Gheraibia saw something else. He noticed that penguins who worked in large groups were far more successful at detecting and capturing prey than solitary hunters, or when only a few birds worked in concert to find prey.”\n\nDr Youcef Gheraibia\n\n(PICTURE) Dr Gheraibia in his living room in Shouk-Ahras, Algeria, where he had his penguin epiphany\n\nSuddenly, Dr Gheraibia had a flash of inspiration. What if he could bottle the penguin’s collaborative approach to hunting for food and apply it to computer science?\n\nNext steps…\n\nBut watching an episode of David Attenborough’s award-winning documentary series ‘Life in the Freezer’ only scratched the surface. Inspired by nature, Dr Gheraibia embarked on primary research to see if the natural world could solve practical engineering problems.\n\nIt was then that Professor Papadopoulos, who is Leader of Hull University’s Dependable System’s Research Group, had his lightbulb moment. Professor Papadopoulos, by chance, stumbled across Dr Gheraibia’s work. For years, his group had been developing a state-of-the-art model based safety analysis and design optimisation tool called HiP-HOPS, which uses algorithms to identify and correct faults in complex engineering designs. Papadopoulos saw Gheraibia’s study as the missing piece of the jigsaw.\n\n“Bio-inspired technologies could one day revolutionise software design and could do that for the smart vehicles of tomorrow”, he says.\n\nPapadopoulos explains, “As we enter a fourth industrial revolution, technology is moving at an incredibly fast pace. By 2035, it is likely that many of the largest cities in Europe, North America and Asia will have embraced Connected Vehicle landscapes and Level 4-5 autonomous driving technology.”\n\nContinues Papadopoulos, “Going forward - the big challenge for the industry is to ensure that the software that runs on selfdriving cars, the code that allows vehicles to communicate with each other, pedestrians, cyclists and roadside infrastructure, does what it is supposed to do.  Automakers, legislators and, society as a whole, are demanding that these systems deliver high integrity. They want to know that the software in a connected, autonomous vehicle works correctly, uninterrupted by failure and, in an age of cyber-terrorism, is protected from hackers. Importantly, they expect that systems in a connected environment continue to interact safely in infinity of possible scenarios that cannot all be scripted and assessed a priori”.\n\nProfessor Papadopoulos holding a ceramic statue of a penguin handcrafted by his son Oisin\n\n(PICTURE) Professor Papadopoulos holding a ceramic statue of a penguin handcrafted by his son Oisin\n\nMore code than you can count…\n\nThe obstacles faced by researchers like Professor Papadopoulos and his team are numerous as they were complex. Take a new car today for example. While it will probably have some form of in-car computer system on-board, the level of interoperability is fairly basic compared to a vehicle sold in two decades’ time. \n\nHowever, according to Professor Papadopoulos, “in a modern luxury vehicle, it is claimed that 100 million lines of code exist, and in the future, with the advent of Level 5 autonomous vehicles the amount of code is likely to increase three-fold (see IEEE Spectrum article)”.\n\nExplains Papadopoulos, “With so much software already on board and moving towards autonomous and connected cars, we face enormous challenges. The increasing complexity and density of software increases the potential for functional defects. Frequent software design changes increase the probability of design errors, and the increasing complexity poses serious questions: how do we succinctly, powerfully and quickly navigate through enormous bodies of software code? How do we structure and deliver this code? And, how do verify that this code is dependable?” \n\n“In addition, autonomous and connected cars introduce completely new hurdles. In connected systems, the configurations that the total system of vehicles and infrastructures may assume are unknown and potentially infinite. As vehicles and infrastructures connect, emergent system behaviours may arise in ways that are difficult to predict from simple superposition of the behaviour of individual elements. How does one design for safety, and ensure safety, in such systems?”  \n\nHow a hungry penguin inspired change…\n\nBut the question many of you might still be wrestling with is, how did the hunting behaviour of a small, black and white torpedo-shaped flightless bird, located in Antarctica some 1,238 kilometres from the nearest car (Ushuaia, Argentina – in case you’re interested), provide a solution to one of the most complex conundrums facing carmakers today?\n\nSays Papadopoulos, “Observing and learning from the natural world has unlocked many doors for scientists and engineers in the past. Take penguins for example. They live in large densely-populated rookeries which sometimes number a million birds. \n\n“If the whole colony is to survive – it must consume a vast amount of food. Each penguin, for instance, needs to eat one kilogram of fish each day to live. So a colony of a million animals would require 1,000 tonnes of fish each day to sustain itself.”\n\n“Therefore, the hunting strategy that these penguins developed through evolution, must be highly efficient – otherwise the colonies would be a lot smaller or, in the worst case scenario, the birds extinct.”\n\n\"We realised that this strategy has generic elements which can be abstracted and be used to solve other problems,\" he said. \"Such as determining the integrity of software components needed to reach the high safety requirements of a modern car.\"\n\nPenguins dance to the HiP-HOPS beat\n\nResearchers at Hull, in conjunction with Dr Youcef Gheraibia have developed tools based around the collaborative foraging behaviour of penguins that can help optimise complex software to make sure it meets safety requirements.  These algorithms have been integrated into the HiP-HOPS tool.\n\n\"We can use penguin algorithms to solve difficult design problems\" Papadopoulos said. “Early applications include determining the optimal software integrity of subsystems and components in cars as well as the architecture and replication of software tasks on controllers.” \n\nHiP-HOPS:  The HiP-HOPS interface within Safety Designer (a tool by ESI-ITI GmbH)\n\n(PICTURE) HiP-HOPS:  The HiP-HOPS interface within Safety Designer (a tool by ESI-ITI GmbH)\n\nPapadopoulos added that groups of simulated penguins can quickly search through the innumerable ways software can be specified and ordered to find optimal solutions in terms of safety and cost. This work, which has already been demonstrated in several case studies, seeks to improve and automate the application of ISO 26262 - one of the most important and exacting safety standards in the automotive industry today.\n\nAnd as cars reach a greater level of automation – as they begin to communicate with other vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure, “this goal-based international requirement, which sets safety standards for a vehicle’s electrical and electric systems, will take on an even greater significance”, thinks Papadopoulos.\n\nHe explains, “The more advanced that cars become, the greater the technology requirement and pressure on automakers to ensure that safety requirements are captured early in the design phase,” he begins. “The sub-systems, i.e. the actuators, sensors and controllers, which make up the highly complex vehicle architectures of tomorrow will also need to be integrity checked at an early stage of development. Currently, this is mostly done manually using engineering judgement and at best semi-automated techniques. But, in the very near future, when each vehicle is likely to contains three hundred million lines of code connected to code of other vehicles, that approach is neither cost effective nor safe. If the carmakers cannot guarantee safety, they no longer have a sustainable business model. Hence the penguin system.”\n\nA digital certificate with a difference…\n\nProfessor Papadopoulos, who estimates the combined cost of the two projects to be around three million pounds, has also secured EU funding to develop vehicle integrity certification which he says “would aim to enhance safety and other attributes of dependability for self-driving vehicles in connected environments”.\n\nSo what is the science and reasoning behind these digital dependability certificates?\n\nSays Papadopoulos, “Digital certificates can be crucially important in connected and autonomous vehicle landscapes, as cars will constantly need to make split-second decisions. The big question that the industry does not seem to have a comprehensive answer to, is how are these decision are being made?”\n\n“Our aim therefore, in this new EU project, is to create a concept of digital certificates that will facilitate safe operation in open systems. You can imagine these certificates as modular, composable, and executable specifications of dependability for components and systems that will span the lifecycle of those systems. They are produced semi-automatically during safety assessments, with system certificates utilising component certificates, and provide a basis for certification of a system before it can participate in a connected environment. We believe that such certificates must also be executable. That they can function in real-time is an absolute pre-requisite, as they will need to be able to monitor and evaluate every possible scenario aiming to continually certify a system for operation within its current context.” \n\n“Finally, the certification would cover every vehicle component and so it would be valid and enforceable not just for OEMs but for the tier 1 and tier 2 companies too. This credential is incredibly important in a connected vehicle landscape,” he adds.\n\nAnd how long does Papadopoulos think it will take before the project is fully executable?\n\nContinues Papadopoulos, “The initiative is at concept stage at present so it could be many years before we are ready to share the certificate with EU regulators and wider industry. \n\n“We are facing a number of challenges including merging traditional dependability models, data analytics and penguin algorithms for search, in order to create new algorithms that can operationalise these digital certificates. The next phase will be to seek out and begin building the technology infrastructure that can help us realise this exciting goal in the context of the DEIS Horizon 2020 project. \n\n“DEIS stands for Dependability Engineering Innovation for cyber-physical Systems, but the Latin translation is ‘to the gods’. We may need some help here,” chuckles Papadopoulos.\n\nLooking back to look forwards…\n\nWith our interview drawing to a close, I tell Professor Papadopoulos, who hails from the city of Thessaloniki in Greece that I intend to begin the feature by referencing, Archimedes, one of Ancient Greece’s most famous scientists.\n\n“Why not end the piece by quoting one of our most renowned philosophers then,” he jokes. \n\n“How about this one from Aristotle?” laughs Papadopoulos. \n\n“He once said, ‘Everything you can imagine already exists in the sphere of the potential’ ”. \n\n“In other words – for every challenge we encounter in life - a solution already exists. \n\n“A beautiful Aphrodite pre-existed in the block of marble from which she was carved” says Professor Papadopoulos, and “like sculptors or a hungry colony of penguins,” he continues “we scientists are privileged with being able to occasionally catch some fish or carve an answer out of a difficult problem.”\n\nOver to you then, Professor Papadopoulos and Dr Gheraibia …\n\nCompany information according to § 5 Telemediengesetz\nIQPC Gesellschaft für Management Konferenzen mbH\nAddress: Friedrichstrasse 94, 10117 Berlin\nTel: 49 (0) 30 20 913 -274\nFax: 49 (0) 30 20 913 240\nRegistered at: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 76720\nVAT-Number: DE210454451\n\nFirmeninformationen entsprechend § 5 Telemediengesetz\nIQPC Gesellschaft für Management Konferenzen mbH\nAdresse: Friedrichstrasse 94, 10117 Berlin\nTelefonnummer: 030 20913 -274\nFax: 49 (0) 30 20 913 240\nEmail Adresse:\nRegistereintragungen: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 76720\nUmsatzsteuer- Indentifikationsnummer DE210454451", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9822211861610413}
+{"content": "It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This week BLifeToday will dedicate all posts to Breast Cancer Awareness in honor of my mother, who is a breast cancer survivor, all of our friends and family, and all of you, who have been affected by the disease.\n\nI want to start the week off with a poem to help motivate you to keep pushing through whatever difficulty you are currently facing in your life. \n\n“Breathe. All of the times you felt this anxious and this overwhelmed. All the times you felt this level of pain. And remind yourself how each time, you made it through. Life has thrown so much at you, and despite how difficult things have been, you’ve survived. Breathe and trust that you can survive this too. Trust that this struggle is part of the process. And trust that as long as you don’t give up and keep pushing forward, no matter how hopeless things seem, you will make it.\" Daniell Koepke", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944136142730713}
+{"content": "Scientists May Have Created Glasses That Could Let You See New Colors\n\nLook around the room and try to spot a color you’ve never seen before.\n\nNow stop before you give yourself an aneurysm.\n\nMost of us (unfortunately) don’t have tetrachromacy, a rare condition that allows those affected to see hundreds of shades of colors that simply look identical to the rest of us\n\nBut now researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they may have developed a pair of glasses that will allow those without tetrachromacy to get the full-color experience. The glasses are said to allow the wearer to distinguish between metamers (also known as two colors that initially look the same but are subtly different.)\n\nMost humans are trichromats, meaning they have three cone cells in the eye that can detect color – one that perceives short wavelengths of light, one medium and one long – which correspond to blue, green and red colors.\n\nThose with tetrachromacy, on the other hand, see a vast range of colors imperceptible to most people.\n\nThe special glasses work by filtering out different parts of the blue light spectrum, meaning each eye perceives something slightly different when viewing blue objects. This made the subtle differences in color between objects more pronounced, in turn letting the wearer perceive the different metamers.\n\nThe researchers are currently working on different filters that would allow the wearer to see metamers of other colors like green or red. They say the kit could eventually be used to help those looking to counteract camouflage or spot counterfeit cash - or simply blow everyone's minds by expanding their understandings of the rainbow like never before. \n\nh/t IFLScience\n\n\nA non-profit group of over 150 current and former athletes is calling for marijuana to be removed form the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited substances list. Medical marijuana legalization is spreading across the US, but most pro-athletes are still prevented from accessing it. That's because most major sports leagues follow drug guidelines set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which bans athletes from using cannabis even outside of competition.\n\nCan we see some ID please?\n\nYou must be 19 years of age or older to enter.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7281926870346069}
+{"content": "Cuckold Madison Heights\n\nIf you are a cuckold in Madison Heights, you know and enjoy the arousal of having your wife have sex with other men which is exactly why our website caters to cuckolds.\n\n\nFind a cuckold in Madison Heights or browse Michigan Cuckold for more cities. Registration is absolutely free and private.\n\nMadison Heights Cuckold\nSign Up - It's Quick and Free!\n\n*Password will be sent to this email\n\nHotwife Madison Heights\n2 W Cowan Ave\nMadison Heights\nUnited States\n\nMadison Heights Hotwife\n\nMichigan Cuckold\nCuckold Royal Oak | Cuckold Warren | Cuckold Oak Park | Cuckold Southfield | Cuckold Eastpointe | Cuckold Sterling Heights | Cuckold Troy | Cuckold Roseville\n\nCuckold in Madison Heights\n\nThere are approximately 83 registered profiles from Madison Heights. Including surrounding areas of Hazel Park, Royal Oak, Pleasant Ridge, Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Warren, Clawson, Center Line, Berkley, Oak Park, Highland Park, Southfield, Lathrup Village, Birmingham, Hamtramck, Eastpointe, Sterling Heights, Troy, Roseville, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms, Fraser, there are over 1,804 members and growing every day.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9722065925598145}
+{"content": "• News\n\nCiti and Deutsche score in UK M&A\n\nThe banks are advising Carphone Warehouse and Dixons on their proposed merger\n\nCiti’s renewed focus on UK investment banking has coincided with a batch of regional deals, the latest being an advisory position on the talks between Carphone Warehouse and Dixons.\n\nCarphone and Dixons confirmed yesterday that they are in discussions about a possible merger, but cautioned in a stock market filing that \"the talks were at a very preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that a transaction will be forthcoming\".", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9018244743347168}
+{"content": "The Current Selection\n\nIn order to edit your composition, you need to be able to select the items you want to edit. Just as if you were telling someone what you wanted changed in the music, you must tell the computer what symbols to change by selecting them.\n\nOne often refers to a document's current selection. This refers to the collection of music elements that have been selected and are currently highlighted in the views. You can change the current selection by selecting other symbols.\n\nOnce music symbols are selected, you can copy, cut, delete, edit and apply actions on them.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999985098838806}
+{"content": "Session ID: \n\nDevelopment and Application of an Overall Health Metric\n\n8:30am - 3:30pm Wednesday, February 13\nOrlando - Hyatt Regency\nHyatt - Regency Ballroom U\n\n\nThis poster session will be displayed in conjunction with the HIMSS19 Career Fair.\n\nIn the United States, there is a considerable amount of health spending and health policy directed at improving medical treatment, in order to positively impact overall health outcomes. However, historically improvements in direct medical care have very limited ability to reduce deaths. Public health interventions would be more significant in terms of improving population health outcomes. The social determinants of health including; genetics, behavior, environmental conditions, and social influences, have the most significant effect on health outcomes. In order to be able to determine if a public health program is directly affecting a person’s health outcomes in a positive manner, a standardized metric is needed. In this poster, a survey was created that asked a number of questions aimed at identifying the social determinants of health risks of individuals. Once the survey was taken, the questions on the survey were placed into the proper social determinant of health category and an overall score was tallied. The total score was collect per individual in order to create a full picture of overall health risks. This individualized metric could be used to identify the social determinant that is most affecting a particular community. In addition, this metric could be used to identify successful or unsuccessful public health interventions. Future directions include providing the survey before an intervention and then the same survey after the public health intervention allowing a period of time to pass. This would determine if a public assistance program was beneficial, or if that program should be reevaluated. Therefore, this metric could also be used as a ROI (Return on Investment) indicator to help more efficiently distribute funds to effective public health interventions.\n\nLearning Objectives: \n\n  • Identify a longitudinal program to determine if the health metric score improves after public health intervention.\n  • Create a database with overall health metric scores for many different groups of people in the same community.\n  • Create an algorithm to determine overall health risk using social determinants of health data from the survey.\n  • Develop and distribute a survey that adequately addresses all social determinants of health.\n\n\nEarly Careerist Professional\nIT Professional", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9963451623916626}
+{"content": "WhatsApp has urged its 1.5 billion users to upgrade the app after the Facebook-owned platform discovered a vulnerability that allowed spyware to be installed on users' phones via the app's phone call function.\n\nThe spyware was allegedly developed by the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group, reports the Financial Times.\n\nThe vulnerability leveraged a bug in WhatsApp's audio call feature, facilitating the installation of spyware on the device being called whether the call was answered or not.\n\nWhatsApp said it has fixed the vulnerability that was discovered last month.\n\n\"WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices, the company said in a statement.\n\nThe Israel-based NSO Group works for the government, looking to infect targets of investigations and gain access to various aspects of their devices.\n\n\"The attack has all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems,\" the WhatsApp statement read, without mentioning the NSO Group.\n\nNSO Group told the Financial Times: \"Under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating or identifying of targets of its technology, which is solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies\".\n\n\"NSO would not or could not use its technology in its own right to target any person or organization,\" the company added.\n\nNSO limits sales of its spyware called Pegasus to state intelligence agencies and others. The software has the ability to collect intimate data from a target device.\n\nAccording to WhatsApp, it suspects a relatively small number of users were targeted.\n\n\"This is, as you can imagine, an extremely severe security hole, and it is difficult to fix the window during which it was open, or how many people were affected by it,\" reports TechCrunch.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997098445892334}
+{"content": "The Zoastra Affair\n\n\nSCI-FI:  What would life be like if you were taken from your own body and put in someone else’s? Would you do everything in your power to get your body back?  These are the challenges facing Grace as she struggles through the journey to get her old life and husband back. Ariel has taken something that was not hers - she has taken Graces body!  She regrets having done so. But what’s done is done, and she learns to live with it, or does she? It is not easy, Grace is determined to get her life back. but hopefully it will be  worth it in the end. \n\n\nWhat a fascinating take on other worlds, space, and lives that intertwine! It’s a very interesting tale that makes the reader ponder questions such as, \"How far would you go to get your life back, or to make someone else’s yours, just to live?\"  It’s also a story of body-snatching and life in space with all its struggles to survive. Readers will find themselves liking both Grace and Ariel, while wondering how the author will fix the mess that has been made between them. It’s enthralling to read what is happening to them, along with their thoughts. Some readers may find it a little confusing going back and forth between the two women’s lives’, making it confusing to determine what’s really going on. However, it all comes together in a surprise ending that will delight all!\n\n\nMelody Prat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7685932517051697}
+{"content": "Lessons for a Happy Retirement from 'A Star Is Born'\n\nShutterstock photo\n\nThe Oscar-nominated movie A Star Is Born , starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, is a moving story. What perspectives can be gained from that movie when thinking about retirement? More than you might think.\n\nSEE ALSO: Transitioning to Retirement Is Like Moving to a New World - Bring a Map\n\nThe must-see movie is a modern remake of a film that has been reworked three other times in 1937, 1954 and 1976 with Barbra Streisand. It's a beautiful journey watching the relationship flourish between Cooper and Gaga. Unfortunately, the story ends tragically.\n\nWhat are the biggest takeaways when thinking about this story in terms or your own life in retirement?\n\nKnow there is a challenge ahead of you.\n\nWithout revealing any spoilers, one of the stars in the movie faces tragedy because he couldn't see any other options or life getting better. Similarly, people should understand that retirement is an adjustment that comes with downs as well as ups. A study found that in the time surrounding retirement, subjects experienced a large improvement in well-being and life satisfaction. Yet, a few years after retirement, levels of happiness dropped quickly.\n\nPost retirement, the new reality sinks in. What am I going to do with all this time? How do I still contribute? How do I feel value or purpose? Understand that those feelings are normal, and it takes time to adjust to your new retirement lifestyle.\n\nYou're going to have be comfortable with change.\n\nThings are different in retirement. You may need a new social circle or a new hobby. Work filled a lot of hours of your day, now what do you do?\n\nFrom a financial perspective, you may need to embrace change as well. Maybe you need to sell your home, downsize or relocate to make your retirement dreams a reality. Maybe living on a fixed income is something that will take getting used to. Change can be scary, but it can also be invigorating. A high school football star can't live in the past forever. Neither can a musician, and neither can you. You had a successful career, now what will your next act look like?\n\nYou may have to reinvent yourself.\n\nJust like Lady Gaga's character in A Star Is Born , who goes from being a waitress to becoming a breakout a singer, you have the chance to reinvent yourself in retirement.\n\nVacationing and golf only take you so far. How do you want to spend your time? Maybe volunteer at an animal shelter or a senior center. Maybe join SCORE and mentor future business leaders or get involved with your local church group.\n\nA majority of retirees still want to work. Seventy-two percent of pre-retirees ages 50 and older have said they desire continued work after retirement. Forty-seven percent of current retirees either are working, have or plan to work during retirement, according to a survey by Merrill Lynch.\n\nExplore your interests. What is it that truly makes you happy? Look locally and beyond; discuss with colleagues, family members or current retirees. It is OK to take a completely different path than the career you worked so hard to build.\n\nSee Also: Need a Retirement Income Plan? Here's Where to Start\n\nBe open to thinking about retirement in a new way.\n\nPeople retire very differently. I have a client who was a homebuilder and lived in big beautiful homes all his life. In retirement, he found happiness in a small $50,000 home in Mesa, Ariz., where he plays pickleball and water volleyball every day. Another client sold everything and bought a $250,000 condo in Mexico with a 360-degree view of the ocean. One client moved to be closer to family, and another picked up part-time employment working at the local Catholic diocese.\n\nRetirement offers you the flexibility to do different activities and to have an impact you might not have been able to in your working life.\n\nIt's a new beginning - embrace the technology.\n\nDon't be like Cooper's character in the movie, thinking that your best days are behind you; there are opportunities all around you. For example, the technology of today makes it more possible than ever to stay busy, get involved and even make some money.\n\nYou could drive for Uber on Friday nights just for fun. If you harness a love for canines, you could become a dog walker with Wag! ( wagwalking.com ). If you prefer working with children, babysit one night a week with Care.com . Consider listing your handyman skills on HomeAdvisor . If crafting is your hobby, list homemade goods on Etsy for sale or go \"garage sailing\" and flip your best finds on eBay .\n\nTechnology makes it easier than ever to stay involved on your terms and on your time table. Your potential new career is waiting for you and is simply one internet search away!\n\nKeep talking to people around you.\n\nIf you are having struggles, like Bradley Cooper's tortured movie character, talk about them with the people around you. You are not alone. Many people who face retirement face challenges. Sometimes it's personal, and sometimes it's financial.\n\nUse the network of people around you as you move forward and know that sometimes you may need professional help to take the next step and get the clarity you deserve in retirement. The preparations you make now can help ensure that, unlike A Star Is Born , your \"retirement movie\" will have a happy ending.\n\nSee Also: How to Beat the 2 Top Risks Retirees Face\n\nSecurities and advisory services are offered through USA Financial Securities Corp., Member FINRA/SIPC. A registered investment advisor located at 6020 E. Fulton St., Ada, MI 49301. Sterling Wealth Partners is not affiliated with USA Financial Securities. CA License #0G89727\n\n\n\n\nThis article appears in: Personal Finance , Retirement\n\nMore from Kiplinger\n\n\n\n\nPersonal Finance\n\nResearch Brokers before you trade\n\nWant to trade FX?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7668702006340027}
+{"content": "Home / Blog / The Oxygenation Catastrophe\n\nThe Oxygenation Catastrophe\n\nTwitter icon\nFacebook icon\n\nPosted on February 5, 2015 - 5:00pm\n\nWritten by Ryan Casey\n\nApproximately 2.3 billion years ago, Earth could have been easily mistaken for a hostile alien planet. Methane spewed into the atmosphere by constant volcanic activity, and fatal UV radiation bombarded the surface without the protection of an ozone layer. The primordial seas were blood red, a hue caused by the massive amounts of suspended iron in the water. It is beneath these red waves in which almost all life on the planet survived, most of which would require a microscope to view. Anaerobic single celled organisms were the dominant life form on earth at the time; they lived in the hostile chemical make up of the primordial sea without the need of oxygen. However just one of these single celled organisms may have caused the greatest extinction event on planet Earth: the Cyanobacteria.\n\nWhat was formerly known as blue-green algae, the Cyanobacteria are actually bacteria that have the unique ability of photosynthesis. This single-celled organism had emerged only a few hundred millions years before, at a time where all other organisms relied on methods of anaerobic respiration. By creating its own energy from the sun, this bacterium was able to generate up to 16 times more energy than its counterparts, which allowed it to outcompete and explode in reproduction. This seemingly innocent organism would spell doom for most of life on the planet, as photosynthesis produced free oxygen molecules as a byproduct.\n\nOxygen was a poisonous element to the dominant life on the planet at the time, anaerobic bacteria. In the primordial waters, oxygen molecules would normally be absorbed by decomposing organisms or would bind with iron in the water to create rust, so oxygen did not have time to accumulate.  We can see in the geological record that 2.3 billion years ago, there was a highly unusual amount of rust being deposited on the ocean floor. We know based on this evidence that there was a huge spike of oxygen in ocean at this time. It is thought that Cyanobacteria were producing so much oxygen that it reached complete global saturation. With this, oxygen began to leave the waters and accumulate in the atmosphere, which would have profound effects on the planet.\n\nIn a relatively short amount of time, Earth went from having very little oxygen to what may be the highest levels of atmospheric oxygen it has ever had. This event had wiped out most of life on the planet to which the oxygen was poisonous. Some of these anaerobic organisms were though to have survived by burrowing into the earth where oxygen levels were survivable. What may have the biggest change is that when oxygen accumulated in the methane rich atmosphere, the concentration of this greenhouse gas dwindled, causing temperature levels to drop. They dropped so low in fact, that this oxygen event is thought to have triggered the Huronian glaciation, the longest snowball Earth period.\n\nOver 2.3 billions years later, Cyanobacteria is still among us and continues to produce oxygen. Its byproduct is now an essential part of the earth’s atmosphere and a necessity for survival for many forms of life. This great oxygen event is credited with drastically changing the make-up of the planet, giving birth to thousands of new minerals, an environment where multi-cellular organisms could evolve, and the cooling of earth’s temperature.\n\nIf you are interested in hearing more about the early development of our planet Earth and mass extinctions, planetary scientist and director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration,  Lindy Elkins-Tanton will be speaking at ASU Gammage Auditorium on February 7th. She will join other scientists and scholars as they discuss Extinctions: Tragedy to Opportunity as a part of the Origins Project’s Great Debate series. Tickets are on sale now, and free to students with ID.\n\nFurther Reading\n\nPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society\n\nEarly Life: Oxygen the Atmosphere http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/earth_timeline/first_life \n\nGreat Oxidation Event: More oxygen through multicellularity http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130117084856.htm", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7744946479797363}
+{"content": "As of 2015,,,, and offer alphabetical lists of animals. These sites do not require users to log in to access information. Some of the sites o... More » Science Biology Zoology\n\nA list of endangered species is available at This list makes note of both critically endangered and endangered species. As of 2015, critically endangered species include the Amur leopard, black rhino, ... More »\n\nAnimals with exoskeletons include all arthropods such as insects, crustaceans and spiders as well as many other invertebrate animals such as shelled mollusks. Shelled mollusks include snails, tusk shells, clams, nautilus... More »\n\nNo animals actually have two distinct brains, but it was once a common misconception that the stegosaurus had two brains. This misguided idea was first theorized by the famous 19th century paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh... More »\n\nSeveral species of animals are color blind or see muted colors, including dogs, cats, bulls and sharks. Many fish can see muted colors. More »\n\nSome animals that weigh at least a ton include all species of the rhinoceros, the African and Asian elephant, the Asian gaur, and the hippopotamus. Other animals that weigh at least a ton are some species of whale includ... More »\n\n\"Warm-blooded\" is used to describe animals that generate their own heat. Warm-blooded creatures are often called ectotherms. Mammals and birds are warm-blooded; reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded. More »", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8811208605766296}
+{"content": "Ariel Beery\n\nAriel Beery is the CEO and Co-Founder of MobileODT\n\n\n\n\nThe risk profile for African swine fever is increasing\n\n\nThe year 2019 came with its own challenges for the local meat producers. First it was the dry conditions during the planting period for summer grains (an important input in meat production) at the end of 2018, which prevented grain producers from planting the intended area. Not long after that, a Foot and Mouth disease […]\n\nHow can Africa indigenise capitalism?\n\n\nAfrica has not had the opportunity to engage with the positive aspects or benefits of capitalism. In Africa capitalism has been a negative force, integrating the continent into the international economy in a position of subservience. The real question arises as to how can Africa indigenise capitalism for their benefit, and have ownership of Africacapitalism.  […]\n\nWhat is our plan with youth in parliament?\n\n\nIn his seminal work, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, American Sociologist, Peter B. Evans, contends that the state has an important role to play in the development of nations. Evans argues that while the bureaucracy requires autonomy from society, a degree of embeddedness is required in order that development can be achieved. The state […]\n\n\nVisual storytelling is a powerful learning tool\n\nVisual storytelling is fundamental to the human experience, and one of our oldest forms of expression. From using fire to animate cave art, to...\n\n\nHow Morocco silences its critics\n\nAny journalist in Morocco today who has the courage to criticise the illegal occupation of Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony, is now facing a...\n\n\nIt’s time to profit from your own purpose\n\n“Purpose, by its nature, transcends making money,” said MIT professors Julian Birkinshaw, Nicolai J. Foss and Siegwart Lindenberg. Have you ever dreamed of getting paid to do...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7840652465820312}
+{"content": "You need flash!\nno cover -  \n\nAlle sieben Jahre - Der Plan\n\nAlle sieben Jahre\n\ndie wahren perlen deutschsprachiger popmusik techno perlen deutschsprachiger popmusik I want back to the 80s\n\nGerman experimental band from Düsseldorf. Started of with very experimental music, but evolved to more 'accessible' music when Pyrolator joined the band. They formed their own label Ata Tak and released something like 10 records, the last one dating from 2017. Show more ...\n\nAlle sieben Jahre - Der Plan\n\nSorry, but this text is not in our database!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9876439571380615}
+{"content": "Car Workshop Manuals - Lada - Lada 110 1.5\n\nLada 110 1.5 Workshop Manuals\n\nIf you want to execute adjustments on your own Lada 110 1.5 then it is always a good plan to have access to a Workshop Manual to keep just for a reference in the event that you want to know how you can take out a specific component for example Gearbox and match it again successfully.\n\nLada 110 1.5 Workshop Manuals offers you specific diagnostic details on your car so if something is not working it can help you find out what the problem is and the best way to fix it. Then you are able to evaluate if you can do this yourself or if the job is just too big you can still make a booking for your 110 1.5 in with a suitable car garage.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998564124107361}
+{"content": "Past socialist movements have made severe mistakes. This time can be different. (New York City Democratic Socialists of America)\n\nHow a New Generation of Socialists Can Win Power (While Avoiding the Mistakes of the Past)\n\nIn his new book The Socialist Manifesto, Bhaskar Sunkara lays out a compelling vision for how today’s socialists can forge a political path to power in the 21st Century.\n\nBY Kristen R. Ghodsee\n\nEmail this article to a friend\n\nThe Socialist Manifesto is both a warning and guide to the struggles ahead.\n\nTucked away in a corner in the permanent exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in what is now the heart of reunified Berlin, a humble placard captures one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th Century Left: The fall of the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s.\n\nFresh from the annual Liebknecht-Luxemburg demonstration commemorating the murders of two of socialism’s most beloved martyrs—Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg—I spent a few hours lingering among the cases of posters and memorabilia from the short-lived egalitarian and democratic Weimar Republic, which stood from 1918 to its dissolution in 1933. In reflecting on the interwar German economy and its struggles against the combined effects of the global Great Depression and the punitive terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the museum’s curators documented the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)—the Nazis—and lamented the lack of unity that could have prevented Hitler’s rule:\n\nThe radical Left blamed the economic and social misery on the governing bourgeoisie and the ruling financial capital. To combat these alleged causes of the global economic crisis, the German Communist Party (KPD) trumpeted the end of capitalism and the immediate beginning of the longed-for world revolution. Politically, the KPD profited from the depression and was continually able to increase its membership….\n\n…The KPD accused the SPD [Social Democratic Party] of betraying the labour movement and on May 1929 proclaimed war on the social fascism of the SPD as one of their primary political goals. At the beginning of the thirties the bitter division in the labor movement hindered the formation of a united Red Front, which members of both parties had called for from time to time against the up-and-coming NSDAP.\n\nIn these two short paragraphs, the custodians of Germany’s official history placed the blame for Hitler’s rise on the persistent disunity of the communists and social democrats, whose internecine squabbles blinded them to the potential power of the far right.\n\nWith socialist ideas now resurgent in the United States, and parts of Europe, Bhaskar Sunkara’s timely and lucid new book is a necessary reflection on the mistakes of the past and a clarion call for future solidarity.\n\nThe Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality is an exciting and accessible text for young socialists attempting to forge a new political path into the 21st Century. In this short volume, Sunkara—founder and editor of the socialist publication Jacobin—provides a crash course on the history of global socialism. Through a handful of concise overviews of previous political and economic movements in Germany, Sweden, the Soviet Union, China and the United States, Sunkara navigates a path between the brutal failures of authoritarianism and the often flaccid and easily reversed gains of social democracy. \n\nSunkara begins his narrative with a fanciful description of the life of a factory worker laboring in Jon Bon Jovi’s family business in New Jersey bottling “Classic Curry” pasta sauce. Suddenly, the Garden State becomes the epicenter of a left-populist movement led by none other than everyone’s working-class hero, Bruce Springsteen. In Sunkara’s imagination, Springsteen is a charismatic social democrat who wins the presidency and whose party dominates Congress. With this popular mandate, Springsteen ushers in a sweeping catalog of political and economic reforms that effectively turns the United States into a version of Sweden, though larger and more diverse.\n\nBut Springsteen compromises with economic elites and division and disagreement spread among his constituents, creating deepening fissures between those who support The Boss’s desire to “preserve gains already won by making tactical concession to capitalists,” those who are willing to “settle for as much socialism as capitalism can take, supporting cooperatives and helping enlarge the public sector to mitigate the power of big corporations,” and those who “want to break from capitalism entirely and create an even more democratic and egalitarian society.”\n\nUnlike the Germans of the Weimar Republic, Springsteen manages to hold his movement together even as its left-wing radicalizes and pushes for the abolition of both private ownership of the means of production and of wage labor. Through a series of mass strikes, owner lockouts and strategic kidnappings, the socialists win the day. Sunkara spends the rest of this opening chapter detailing the improved life choices of ordinary Americans in a post-capitalist economy.\n\nAs someone who has spent the last three decades studying the history and lived experiences of socialism and post-socialism in Eastern Europe, what I find most refreshing about Sunkara’s book is his unwavering optimism that future leftist movements will avoid the mistakes of their predecessors and remain united in the face of both reactionary right-wing machinations and legitimate internal disagreements about how to build socialism in a world dominated by plutocrats.\n\nIndeed, the goal of The Socialist Manifesto seems to be specifically aimed at addressing this problem of how to maintain broad-based solidarity while still respecting diversity and pluralism within the movement. As we have seen from history, having a common enemy is not enough. To change the world, leftists need a shared vision of how to move forward once capitalism has been vanquished.\n\nSunkara’s passionate ninth chapter, “How We Win,” provides a concrete 15-point program that builds on his historical chapters to elucidate the core lessons from the socialist experiments of the 19th and 20th centuries. While Sunkara argues that “social democracy has just been the more humane face of neoliberalism,” he also believes the road to democratic socialism runs through social democracy. But rather that accepting a new version of capitalism with a human face, democratic socialists must move quickly from extracting concessions from capital to remaking the economy along socialist lines. Included in his 15-point program is a demand for socialists to “embed themselves in working-class struggles,” to democratize existing unions and abolish the electoral college, and to form new left-wing political parties like Die Linke in Germany or Podemos in Spain. Sunkara also calls for a universalist form of politics, working to overcome both racism and sexism without being internally divided by them.\n\nFor Sunkara, if there is anything to be learned from the history of Swedish social democracy, it is that expansions of the welfare state can easily be reversed as long as elites maintain private ownership of the means of production. When prospects for economic expansion faltered in the late 1970s and 1980s while globalization presented new challenges to the growth of private sector profits, Swedish employers reneged on their previous compromises with the working class, embracing neoliberal reforms that undermined the Meidner Plan for the socialization of Swedish industry.\n\nOn the other hand, the experience of the Soviet Union shows us that the overnight abolition of private property by administrative decree—and the imposition of socialism from above by a radicalized vanguard party without a mass base—can quickly devolve into authoritarianism, particularly when faced with both domestic and international counterrevolutionary forces.\n\nFor contemporary socialists, what Sunkara calls “class struggle social democracy” cannot be enough. A truly democratic and more egalitarian society—as well as a society that can adequately deal with the future threats of climate change and increasing automation—requires an end to capitalist exploitation through social ownership of the economy. Only when the profits of collectively-directed enterprises can be reinvested into society to serve the long-term goals of public welfare (versus the short-term aims of private profit) will we be able to reverse the multiple catastrophes of environmental degradation, extreme inequality, pathological individualism, and the alienation and loneliness that have driven millions into poverty, depression and premature death.\n\nThe Socialist Manifesto is both a warning and guide to the struggles ahead. With a sense of breathless urgency, the book calls once again for a “united Red Front,” the very thing that proved so elusive in Weimar Germany almost a century ago. With millions of youth flocking to socialist ideas and with politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leading the charge, Bhaskar Sunkara makes a convincing case that this time around we just might get it right.\n\n\n\n\n\nKristen R. Ghodsee is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence and Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women’s Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War.\n\nView Comments", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.867321789264679}
+{"content": "So Fujii\n\nIllustrator, born in Toyama, Japan. Living in London since 2016. He has created many artworks, mainly drawing animals, plants, foods, fruits and vegetables. His technique uses a multitude of lines, beautiful colours and a lot of detail. He is trying to find his way to express the energy of life through his own artistic style.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000098943710327}
+{"content": "As the development of the Midsouth continued during this time, the young William Neilson Taylor IV, current president of Memphis Machine Works, saw an opportunity for expansion. Realizing the need to ease the burden of the arduous task of pipe laying during local construction projects, Neilson began one of the first precast concrete plants in the Midsouth area, an enterprise that still continues to this day where his two sons, Mitchell and Ashby, currently help mange and grow the business.\n\nA fifth generation family owned business, Memphis Machine Works has been apart of the city from nearly the beginning. As a manufacturer of saw mill machinery in 1888, Memphis Machine Works developed a reputation for quality and precision, attributes which helped the company evolve into one of the largest foundries and machine shops in the Southeastern region of the United States, manufacturing industrial products such as steam boat engines, manhole covers, cooling values for the space shuttle launch pad of NASA, as well as advanced instrumentation for neonatal care at Lebonheur Children’s Hospital of Memphis.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9539183378219604}
+{"content": "I used to work at a Consulate here in Germany for around 3 years. In my experience dealing with people and their lost documents, I can tell you that a photocopy/scan means nothing. We can only take originals. If they don’t have any (because of theft) we have ways to verify their identity through questioning and online electronic methods of checking their facial structure etc.\nIt’s a far cry from doctors’ typical jet lag tips ― like avoiding caffeine and alcohol before you try to sleep, slowly adjusting your sleep schedule to a new time zone or even using small doses of melatonin to help fall asleep when your body typically wouldn’t want to, the study’s author Cristina Ruscitto, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Surrey (and former long-haul air crew member), told The Huffington Post. The idea is, she said, “that you readjust by eating in line with local time ― not just sleeping on local time.” This revelation could be an easy fix for jet lagged travelers everywhere.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6174324750900269}
+{"content": "Yoga In Practice\n\nLearning to Do Just Enough\n\nIn Sanskrit, the original language of yoga, the word for beauty is alamkara which roughly translates as “doing just enough.” This concept is important in both our yoga practice and in our daily lives. Over-doing often leads to stress, burnout, or injury. On the other hand, under-doing means we haven’t fulfilled our potential, and can lead to feeling unworthy or dissatisfied. In this class we explore what 100 percent or fullness means on any given day and for any given pose, while focusing on Revolved...\n[see more]\n  • program length: 30 minutes\n  • episode #106\n\nMonday, May 27 at 1:30 pm on 12.1\n\nadditional airdates\n\n    No additional airdates schedule at this time\n\nupcoming episodes\n\npast episodes\n\nseries description\n\nYoga is the art and science of aligning the mind, body and spirit to live a richer and more authentic life. It promotes increased awareness, strength and flexibility while reducing stress and anxiety. Yoga may also decrease pain related to common problems such as lower back, hip or shoulder injuries. YOGA IN PRACTICE is led by master instructor Stacey Millner-Collins of Columbia, South Carolina, who first began the practice in 1994 as a way to unite a dedicated physical discipline with a spiritual one. The series is designed to teach the foundations of yoga to the at-home student, and to encourage a daily yoga practice that is more than simply physical exercise. Each episode focuses on a universal theme, such as \"courage\" or \"the art of slowing down,\" and includes basic meditation and breathing techniques, further reducing the stress and anxiety associated with modern life.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6142390966415405}
+{"content": "ProVeg China Executive Director\n\nProVeg is a food awareness organisation with the mission to reduce global animal consumption by 50% by the year 2040. We are active in eight countries across four continents and are growing rapidly. We work with governments, private companies, public institutions, medical professionals, and the public to help the world transition to a more plant-based society and economy that is sustainable for humans, animals, and our planet.\nWe base our strategy on empirically-based evidence whenever possible. We seek to stay abreast of the latest research in order to inform our strategic considerations and outreach materials. We evaluate all of our programs to make sure we are allocating our resources in the optimal way to reach our goal.\nProVeg fosters a culture in which challenges become opportunities to learn through constructive feedback. Changing the global food system is a big task, and we look for team members who think outside the box. Creative thinking and critical problem-solving skills are vital to accomplishing our ambitious goals. We believe that an organisation that includes all types of voices is a more effective organisation.\n\n\nThe Executive Director is the key management leader of the new ProVeg China branch. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors and Executive Team, and is responsible for the organisation's consistent achievement of its mission and financial objectives. Key duties include programme development and administration, team and project management, strategic development, stakeholder engagement, legal compliance, and reporting.\n\n\nGeneral Responsibilities:\n\nWork with the Administrative Project Manager to establish a legal operating base in China; ensure regulatory compliance with all local, provincial, and federal laws; and develop governance systems and policies. Ensure all activities are carried out safely and legally and that official records are maintained.\nReview, anticipate, and manage operational INGO risks, including financial, legal, and sociopolitical. Make prudent decisions to minimise the risks faced by the organisation and its staff members.\nEnsure ProVeg International staff in Germany and all other countries where ProVeg is represented understand the importance of working relationships, customs, and regulations, and ensure appropriate guidance is provided to relevant departments such as the Communications Department.\nAssure that ProVeg China has an annual and long-range strategy which achieves its mission, and toward which it makes consistent and timely progress.\nProvide leadership in developing programmes and organisational and financial plans with the Board of Directors and staff, and carry out plans and policies authorised by the board.\nPromote active and broad participation by stakeholders in all areas of the organisation's work.\nMaintain official records and documents, and ensure compliance with national and international regulations.\nMaintain a strong working knowledge of significant developments and trends and significant players in the plant-based sector in the Greater China Region.\n\nIn communications, the Executive Director will:\n\nEnsure that the Executive Team and board is kept fully informed on the condition of the organisation and all important factors influencing it.\nPublicise the activities of the organisation, its programmes and goals.\nEnsure sound relationships and frequent contact with government officers and staff.\nEstablish sound working relationships and cooperative arrangements with stakeholders and relevant organisations.\nRepresent the programmes and points of view of the organisation to agencies, organisations, government officials, medical experts, academics, industry players, and the general public.\n\nIn relations with staff, the Executive Director will:\n\nManage a remote team of (currently) five staff members. Be responsible for the recruitment, onboarding, employment, and redundancy of all personnel, and manage a growing team. Set a collaborative, respectful, open, and conscientious team culture.\nEnsure that job descriptions are developed, that regular performance evaluations are held, and that sound human-resource practices are in place.\nEnsure that an effective management team, with appropriate provision for succession, is in place.\nEncourage staff and volunteer development and training, and assist programme staff in relating their specialised work to the overall programme of the organsation.\nMaintain a climate which attracts, keeps, and motivates a diverse workforce of top-quality people.\nIn budget and finance, the Executive Director will:\nBe responsible for developing and maintaining sound financial practices.\nWork with staff and the board in preparing the budget; see that the organisation operates within budget.\nEnsure that adequate funds are available to permit the organisation to carry out its work.\nJointly conduct official correspondence of the organisation with the board of directors,, and execute legal documents jointly with designated officers,.\n\nIn fundraising and donor relations, the Executive Director will:\n\nWork with ProVeg International’s fundraising team to secure funds from international donors for ProVeg China.\nWork with China team members to provide guidance on, prepare, and oversee proposals to donors.\nEngage with major donors, foundations, and other relevant stakeholders.\nActively seek new fundraising opportunities.\nIn reporting and governance, the Executive Director will:\nProvide monthly, quarterly, and ad hoc progress reports as required to the Executive Team, the Board, and internal and external stakeholders\n\n\n5+ years’ experience in senior management in an international context in China, preferably in the nonprofit sector.\nMaster’s degree, graduate degree or professional certification is preferred.\nExcellent leadership and management skills. Alignment with our team values of authenticity, integrity, respect, and mutual respect.\nSolid administrative and financial management skills, including budget preparation, analysis, decision making, and reporting.\nStrong organisational skills, including planning, delegating, programme development, and impact evaluation.\nAbility to convey the vision of ProVeg China’s strategic future to staff, board, volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders.\nExcellent interpersonal skills and an ability to motivate and engage.\nStrong written and oral communication skills in English and Mandarin.\nStrong public speaking and networking skills.\nWillingness to travel within Mainland China (around 60% of Director’s time) and internationally.\nAbility to thrive in a fast-paced, startup-style working environment.\nGood understanding of and alignment with ProVeg International’s vision and mission.\nExperience in working with people from different backgrounds and a strong commitment to equal opportunities.\n\n\nSound knowledge and understanding of Chinese plant-based food trends\nIn-depth knowledge of the legal restrictions that international NGOs face while operating in China, as well as the cultural context, working with stakeholders, business interactions, and an ongoing aptitude for learning and development.\nStrong network within Chinese food industry and with relevant government departments.\nExperience in international fundraising.\n\n\nSalary scales with experience and qualification.\n20 days of paid holiday.\nProvision of work laptop and work phone.\nFlexible, trust-based working arrangements and home office arrangements.\nStrong organisational focus on personal development and designated training budget.\nCareer-development support.\nMindfulness Program.\nWe are a workplace that encourages everyone to bring their whole selves to work. We are an inclusive workplace for our diverse employees around the world.\nAnd last but not least: become part of a great team and work with us towards a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.\n\n\nApplication deadline: open until filled\nPhone interviews: flexible\nFace to face interviews: flexible\nStart date: immediate\n\n\nYour application should include a cover letter and CV. Please tell us where you found this vacancy. Please send us your application using our online form. ( Thank you.\n\nThe recruitment procedure consists of:\n1. Online test, followed by the first shortlisting round.\n2. Online trial tasks.\n3. A phone interview, leading to in a second round of shortlisting.\n4. Additional interviews with the Executive Team.\n5. Final decision.\n\n\nWorking relationships:\nInternal: Reports to the Executive Team (and in the future, to the ProVeg China Board of Directors).\nThe Executive Director will lead the China team, work closely with the Head of Corporate Engagement, and with other relevant Heads of Department and Country Directors of ProVeg branches.\nExternal: Maintain good relationships with external partners in official and potential partnership or contractual arrangements with ProVeg.\nDepartment: ProVeg China\nLocation: Greater China region (base TBD, but Shanghai, Beijing. or Hong Kong could be considered). Travel to Europe and USA approximately 4-8 weeks a year\nHours: 40hrs per week\nOrganisation ProVeg Deutschland e.V.\nEinsatzort Hauptstadtbüro Berlin\nArt der Stelle Professioneller Job\nThemenbereich Umwelt, Soziales\nAktivitäten Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Betreuung von Kranken, Sozialarbeit, Umweltaktionen, Kampagnen Arbeit,\nMedienarbeit: Internet,\nComputer: Datenbanken, Internet\nAngebote keine\nAusbildungen keine\nZertifikate keine\nGesprochene Sprachen Englisch\nBezahlung keine Bezahlung\nVorraussetzungen Berufserfahrung\nKenntnisse keine\nVorausgesetzte Sprachen Englisch\nDauer der Stelle unbefristet\nGültigkeit der Stelle unbefristet\nWeitere Bewerbungsinfo Strong written and oral communication skills in English and Mandarin.\nBitte Bewerben bei\nNora Winter\nGenthiner Str. 48\n10785 Berlin\n030 290282530", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999556541442871}
+{"content": "Jewish Grandparents,\n\nJewish ChainPicture a long link chain, look to your left and find the first link- that link represents the first Jew– Abraham. The next link is Isaac and then Jacob with their families. Now, fast forward thousands of years and many, many links and set your eyes on the last links in the Jewish chain all the way on your right.\n\nObserve your link, third from the last link on the chain; is it Jewish strong? Is it hefty? Is it sturdy? is it inspiring?\n\nExamine the next link which represents your children; is this link Jewish substantial? Is it knowledgeable? Is it self-aware?  Is it promising?\n\nNow gaze on the last link in the chain, this one represents your grandchildren; is this link Jewish shiny? Is it proud? Is it enthusiastic? Is it purposeful?\n\nIf your answer is “yes” to all these questions , congratulations! you may consider yourself a Jew.\n\nJust like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you too, carried the religious traditions from generation to generation. The chain is strong and the links are thriving. Jewish continuity was achieved!\n\nMazal tov to you and your “links”!\n\n\nJewish Parents,\n\nTentThe first Jewish home was Abraham and Sara’s tent. The MIDRASH says that every morning they would roll up all four walls so visitors could come in from every direction, making their home an “open house” , implementing the Jewish values of hospitality and welcoming guests. They conducted their home as an active Jewish hub.\n\nHomes are where Jewish DOING happens.\n\nParents are the facilitators of this doing.\n\nIs your home open to Jewish doing like Abraham and Sara’s tent was?\n\nIs your home a busy Jewish hub?\n\nAffirmative!? Super!\n\nMay your home will always be a center of Jewish activity, Amen!\n\n\nJewish Teachers,\n\nJewish ShofarPatience, wisdom, courage, seeking peace are some of Abraham’s characteristics. In his “biblical” classroom, we see evidence of  these in his life journey; patience waiting for the birth of his son, wisdom when asked to sacrifices him,  courage when asked to leave his home and move to an unknown place, seeking peace by giving his nephew, Lot, a more lush field for his sheep and keeping the other property.\n\nDeveloping and inspiring Jewish characteristics and values in the next generations is what Jewish teachers are charged to do….\n\nIs your classroom reflect Abraham’s characteristics and values?\n\nIs your classroom a Jewish inspiration to your students?\n\nIf so, you are fulfilling your professional mission! High five!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8067347407341003}
+{"content": "caramel albino\n\nThe Caramel Albino is a T Positive Albino - the more common albinos are T Negative Albinos. The T represents tyrosinase, an enzyme required in the synthesis of melanin (dark pigment). T Positive Albinos have functional tyrosinase enzymes required to synthesize melanin, but they lack a subsequent enzyme required to complete the melanin-synthesis process. Simply put, the T Positive Albinos exhibit darker pigment, giving the animal a very unusual, exotic appearance. This recessive mutation is one of our favorite morphs and we are fortunate to have it represented by three individual bloodlines within our collection.\n\nWebsite Designed by Climax Media", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999969005584717}
+{"content": "10 things to do in Singapore in Forest School style\n\nWith the growing awareness of forest school and its style of learning in Singapore, Coach Darren’s Forest School Singapore present to you, a list of the little things we could do in Singapore, that allow us a glimpse into the forest school methodology of learning and experience.\n\n\n1. Climb a steep hill (Find one you are comfortable, that you know you will not roll down upon tumbling. Tips: Fall forward at all times during the climb, Sit down if you lose balance during the descent)\n\n\n2. Carve some wood sticks with a sheath (Sheath is basically a knife. The therapeutic feeling of having little wood pieces shave off the sticks, like losing the pressures of life from a long day. The blister at the end of it, gives so much pride as human)\n\n\n3. Build a den using just the material around you (You may wonder whether this require Bear Grylls survival skill, but honestly, it isnt so complex. All you need to do, is be creative, think out of the box, and try. The first attempt definitely looks more like a den for cats then human. But make sure you have fun.)\n\n\n4. Explore a park unrestricted (Warning – Will be judged for going into the un-trek path. Now the trick here, is to watch for path within the forest, that look like it has been walked on, usually those are safer to explore compared to the adventurous routes that require my magic machete)\n\n\n5. Throw stones you pick up as you walk (The sensation from this action is pretty therapeutic, feels like we are letting go of the burden in life, while moving forward with some Hmph and Pump. I found out about this from imitating my children in the woods, especially the hyper kids. Love them)\n\n\n6. Jump into puddles of water and mud (“The mud is dirty”…. This line, gotta change. We are  in the world now, that our keyboard has more germs and bacteria then the toilet. So for mud to be dirty, I dont think so. Mud and puddles of water along the greens, are there usually for less than a day, Singapore is so Hot… AHHHH, water “boil” off so easily, there is no chance for stagnant water in the greens, enjoy the splash and craziness in it)\n\n\n7. Come to a decision together, without a single person feeling compromise (Sounds easy, but this is probably one of the toughest thing to do, because of the last part, WITHOUT A SINGLE PERSON FEELING COMPROMISE. Most group decision, happen by compromising the group of people who doesn’t has as much power, but to make a consensual decision with no compromise is how we empathize and understand others concern)\n\n\n8. Start a campfire with just the items around you. (Maybe with some matches at most, the sensation of staring into the fire that you start, with the help of mother nature, makes one feel alive.)\n\n\n9. Stalk an animal to observe how they behave (Instead of social media stalking, why not go around the neighborhood following a cat or some monitor lizard, reliving childhood once more. Oh you can also revise your hunter instincts, for what purpose however depends on you =)\n\n\n10. Sit in a circle. Listen and Share your thoughts, without putting any shared thoughts down. (This is not a group therapy session, but a sincere sharing of thoughts, feelings, without Judgement, tough as it sounds, it actually just require one brute to discipline and hold down, the fast mouth who are quick to judge, give it a shot, find someone to role play the brute, and have a go =)\n\n\nThe Story: Birth of the Education Dream\n\nForest School\n\n\nIm an avid lover of the forest school ideology. But to fully comprehend the beauty and impact of forest school. One has to look beyond the tip of the iceberg… and dwell deep into the philosophy and purpose of the form of education.\n\nMy experience in the humanitarian and education field taught me that education only serves its true purpose when it helps the people of the land live on their land. In Vietnam, India and the agricultural places around the world, what is math and science to them. It utterly serve no purpose as compared with farming techniques and ability to start fire to keep warm and ward off the animals at night. So for the longest time I’ve been searching for an ideology to fits all environment and humanity. Thats when I bump into Atsuko Yamamoto, she introduced me to the education of forest school. She told me the school begin in Japan largely because of the high pressured school education system over there, people started to go into the woods, and learn from the environment through play and exploration, children engage more in depth with their spiritual self. Their mind became more aware, physically more adaptable. I was amazed at how it worked and the development of the children in this school drew me closer. Up till now, I still have the Japanese Forest Kindergarten manual she gave me. But I dont understand Japanese scripts. Hahaha.\n\nSo this kick start my journey to explore and research in depth what forest school is about.\n\nI found out that it begin in the 1950s by an swedish ex-military soldier. He started bringing children to learn from the woodlands. It grew over time into a kindergarten and school. And right now there are so many forest school in the world, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, UK, Japan, Korea, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines.\n\nI wonder then what makes forest school tick. At first I was lile everyone, thinking that it requires children to be outdoor in the woodlands, and teaching academic subject through the environmental resources etc. Then I start to realise its deeper then that.\n\nI join Atsuko and her family to trek the forest in Singapore, and saw how resilient her children were, even when they fall and mud themselves. The exploratory instinct, and fearless attitude. I was amazed. Even her 3 year old could do it.\n\nI decided in 2016, to take a trip to UK to attend Archimedes Forest School Education Practitioner Level 3 Training, to 1) Certify myself, 2) Really understand further what is forest school.\n\nAnd in that learning journey, I realise forest school, is basically a ideology that fits all environment no matter how tough or mundane it is. It doesnt even have to be in the forest. We can be at the space below an apartment block, and still do a “forest school”. The link went as far as a school in the war zone.\n\nThat is when it striked me.\n\nMy dream has always been about going to war zone to save children from the violence and destruction. But my experience in humanitarian work in India, Vietnam made me jaded, and question, these high moral code of education we subscribe to. So what if I save a child from poverty and child slavery, they still revert to it, because thats their environment. So what if I bring a child away from their community of violence, I didnt help them truely.\n\nBut in forest school education, there is this beauty of exploration and survival all put together into one. Where this philosophy can transcend all environment, no matter its mundaneness or devastation.\n\nBecause in “Forest School” education, 1) Learners lead the curriculum. 2) The environment provides 50% of the curriculum. 3) Learners learnt the necessary knowledge, skills and wisdom to tackle their environment. And in this whole process, they gain a competency that will validate their own self worth on earth. (Go start a fire on your own without any artificial/purchased resource, you will experience that survival competency)\n\nSo to put it in the most relatable sense, Forest School is the learning ways we apply and adopt before the idea of education (a governmental and control term was coin).\n\nMay be this style is what really makes someone postitive in life. It may be the style that keeps a being saint even when they fail and falter. Because they know they can survive regardless of the environment.\n\nMy journey took me to UK, Philippines, Australia, Japan and more to come. I found more connection with nature, the trees and the creatures. I trust them. And they have proven all the time to be protector to those who truely love them.\n\nMaybe mankind needs more insanity from our ivoric tower behaviour to move us closer to our final destination, survival, living and death. This journey we all take.\n\nAnd right now, is a start for this platform where learners and children can all embark on this path together as a community to be the human that is a part of our environment.\n\nI aim to expand this philosophy across the southern hemisphere in 15 years. I dont know what is the true outcome. But I know i chose to live a life of dreams and aspiration. One man cant change the world, but I can try. =)\n\n\nDarren Quek (aka Coach Darren)\n\n\nForest School Training – Snowy Sentiments\n\nTwo weeks ago, Coach Darren LLP sent Coach Darren to Sheffield, UK to attend Archimedes Forest School Education’s, Forest School Practitioner Training Open Award Level 3, it is a recognise practitioner certification to practice and lead forest school session in UK. In this, Forest School Training Series, we catch a glimpse of the activities and experience, that Coach Darren had, during the 5 days training.\n\nCoach Darren – Snowy Sentiments\n\nOn the 2nd day of the course, myself and 4 of my classmates who stayed over in the log cabin, woke up to get ready for class at 9.00am. I settled into class, and started reading on the portfolio that was given for all of us, to prepare ourselves to be great forest school practitioner.\n\n\nThe morning begins with a reflection for everyone, our instructor told us to go around the woods at the back of the log cabin, pick up stuff we like from the ground, and build ourselves something to represent our reflection for Day 1. It can be our feelings, our thoughts, what we learn, what we do, or what this journey means to me… Anything. As long as it comes from ourselves. Many of us shared about the things we learnt, some of us decide to share about our feelings (sentimental here), some of us share about our vision and journey. I shared about the feeling of journeying there from SG, feeling lonely, but embraced within the forest school community there, and feeling home. And how that will energise my journey back to Asia to start the Forest School Movement.\n\n\nThen we went on to learn about tools and the forest school methodology, experience in a weather, that kind of look like its going to snow again. The wind was blowing a little hard, the chills begin to kick in. So we move ourselves into a hut, and continue our learning and sharing. Everyone chip in with our perspective and experience with children and the woods. It felt so right.\n\nShaky camera caused by the wind (And yes my shivering arm)\n\nWe made our way back to the classroom to warm ourselves up and do lunch, before we head out once more to learn how to tie knots that hold under tension and releases easily, as well as a pulley kind of knot that holds well for pitching up tents in between 2 trees. We find ourselves tying knots and pitching tents in the snow gradually, this time the snow came down a lot, we even had a small bout of snow “ball” fight. Hahaha. It was crazy cool and absolutely amazing for me at the moment.\n\nWe capped the day off with our one last tool, the billhook. We learnt to split wood using that tool and a hard wood to knock on the top of the blade. We had quite a good bit of laugh and fun there, trying out the billhook, splitting our wood. My group laugh a little too much, cos we ended up the last of the lot to end the day.\n\n\n\nThe class ended, and we kind of kick back and relax (those few of us who stayed over in the cabin), while the rest braved the weather to return home. The weather can really sap lots of energy out of everyone. A good cup of tea can really warm up the spirit and mind in those weather. After dinner (Tea – in Manchester lingo), we kind of hangout a little while together, getting to know each other, haha. But there are some tinge of silence and slow warming up there from everyone. But I still feel home =) It was warm (Though snowing)\n\n\nComing up …… DAY 3", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5878667831420898}
+{"content": "couples counseling\n\nMaking Meaning of the Dance: A Journey Through the Couple Cycle\n\n\n“From the cradle to the grave, humans desire a certain someone who will look out for them, notice and value them, soothe their wounds, reassure them in life’s difficult places, and hold them in the dark.”\nThe practice of Emotionally focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection by Sue M. Johnson\n\nThe Tango, The Charleston, The Swing, and The Cha-Cha. Yes, I know these are famous dances, but I would like to talk about another kind of dance. Within a relationship we all long to move toward our partner. To sway in the rhythm of passion, and desire. We long to feel the power of true connection that comes with being able to say “I need”, and get a loving and empathetic response in return. The dance I’m speaking of is the common relational exchange called the Emotionally-focused Couples Therapy Cycle. Emotionally-Focused Therapy or EFT as it is commonly referred to was the forward and remarkable thinking of Dr. Sue Johnson. In the 1980’s very little in therapy was being done to explore the scientific concept of adult attachment, which is a stark contrast to this same time period when so much emphasis was being placed on the continued study of childhood attachment theories and models. As Sue begun to delve into the attachment science, she began to see a potentially incredible model that could not only address attachment injuries both from childhood, and adulthood, but could systematically uncover relationship fractures, and invoke new and lasting connections. According to the ICEEFT website using the EFT model leads to couples being to move from distress to recovery 70-75% while 90% of couples showed significant improvements.\n\nSo how does this beautiful, and empirically proven model work? Well then, let’s begin!!\n\nEFT is made-up of 3 stages i.e; Assessment and Cycle De-escalation, changing interaction patterns, and creating new bonds, and consolidation, and integration.\n\n\n  1. Ascertain primary concerns, and set couples goals. Then, explore relational history.\n\n  2. Interactions, and patterns are explored, and delineated. Therapist supports and assists in seeing historical interplays that have negatively impacted the coupling.\n\n  3. Partners comprehend attachment-related emotions. Couple first acknowledges covered emotions, and feelings, and discuss those emotions, feelings, and behaviors with their partner.\n\n  4. Couple and therapist with analyze cycle, triggers, and behavior output which results in two defined roles which are pursuer, and withdrawer. Therapist will also be mindful to notice, and name triggers present in the cycle.\n\n\n  1. Space is created for transparency in order to state attachment needs, for which partner had not received in the past, which cause bond fracture.\n\n  2. Couple develops the ability to compassionately respond to identified needs, and begin to accept the hurt, longing, and emotions that have been impacted by their partner.\n\n  3. As cycle awareness increases, and new cycle, and interactional goals are practiced new conversations and interactions present themselves, which increases likelihood of bonding experiences.\n\n\n  1. Couple integrates techniques, communication, and transparency, as they discuss the old cycle, and practice the new one. Practice is done outside the sessions in their own environment that exposes them to their domain that has been a potential trigger. Work with the therapist explores issues that came from those practices, and post conversations.\n\n  2. With heightened awareness of skills, and deeper bonds couple and therapist focus on the celebrating efforts, and future methods to enhance new found rituals. To safeguard couples success, and decrease history of emotional breaks safety risks are addressed and prepared for.\n\nReal-life example:\n\nIn an EFT therapy session, a wife pursues her avoidant and emotionally absent husband. Her protest becomes a sense of loneliness, abandonment, and sadness that she no longer feels connected to her spouse. In the past she felt that she was assertive, and asking for her needs to be met, by demanding, yelling, screaming, and sometimes becoming violent. Over a period of time, her protests turn to withdrawal, as her pleads go unanswered, and she is tired of getting so big to be seen, but yet still remains invisible. “I want to be wanted, loved, and cherished”, so please stop avoiding me, walking away, and pretending that my yelling doesn’t mean more.\n\nHer husband’s stark hallow shell, becomes empty, but rumbles underneath as a fire, and a quiet storm brews behind a cold and distant face. The separation turns from heartbreak to fury, as he doesn’t understand why his wife hates him so much and just wants to yell at him all the time. “I walk away because it hurts”! “I leave because my space no longer feels safe, and threatens any bit of quiet we have left”. “Why can’t you just see, that you are tearing us a part”.\n\nShe has grown, learned, and observed the hurt, and pain that both her and her partner are experiencing. This shared pain has given her a new perspective, and has gotten her closer to a man that she felt was lost. She has discovered that she can still be seen as she quiets the storm of her own pain, and brings her partner closer and shows him that loneliness that brought her right to the edge. He has found the passion, and strength to expose his vulnerability and deep need to be loved, and comforted without fear. His transformation travels from “you don’t care, and your cruelty is just too much”, to “this is really hard, for me, but I want to trust this feeling”. “Please be with me, and make me feel safe within this relationship”.\n\nNew cycles of closeness contact interactions appear and dissipate previously established cycles, criticize-defend or pursue-withdraw, withdrawer reengagement, or pursuer softening. As the partners experience the cycles together in safety and empathy these behaviors are reinforces, which leads to a positive and permanent change. Space for healing, and a new sense of having a brand-new safe haven sparks connectedness, and fulfillment previously missing.\n\n“EFT can be thought of as a postmodern therapy in that EFT therapists help clients deconstruct problems and responses by bringing marginalized aspects of reality into focus, probing for the not-yet spoken, and integrating elements of a couple’s reality that have gone un-storied.”\nBecoming an Emotionally focused Couple Therapist: The workbook by Susan M. Johnson\n\nGuest post written by Jamie Benson MFT-C, M.Ed, EFCT\n\n\nJamie Benson MAMFT, MFT-C, EFCT, M.Ed has been providing therapeutic services to Denver area children, adults, couples and families since 2015. She holds a Master’s Degree in Marriage, Couples, and Family therapy, as well as a Masters Degree in Education with an emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis. Jamie currently works at Allhealth Network in Littleton Colorado and her work is centered around at-risk populations, including human trafficking, homelessness, human services, PO/probation, and substance abuse.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5478928089141846}
+{"content": "Different very specific laws that only exist within the Magical community and are considered to function worldwide.\n\nImmigration contract Edit\n\nA contract signed for a muggleborn to move into the magical world. Upon signing it, all papers and memories of people the person signing knew of, would be erased. After that you could not come back to your old mundane life.\n\nInternational Statue of Secrecy Edit\n\nNo mundane person is allowed to become aware of the magical world. Both societies used to know about each other, but it changed after it was discovered muggles could come up with very dangerous technologies, which could destroy the magical community. After a huge obliviation rally both societies were finally split.\n\nSlavery contracts Edit\n\nThe Wizengamot and ICW made actual slavery of human beings illegal, but magic didn't recognise those laws. You can still be enslaved by contracts, but it is illegal to do so. If it is found out, the courts could order the slave owner to break the contract or face extreme penalties.\n\nPolyjuice Defense Edit\n\nYou could not say that you had seen someone committing a crime, unless you were hundred percent certain that polyjuice was not involved.\n\nReferences Edit\n\nSite navigation Edit\n\nv ]\nMagical worldbuilding\nHumans Magical Britain Albion magic · Education in Magical Britain · History of Magical Britain · Towns of Magical Britain · Law of Magical Britain\nMagical World Duelling · Magical World education · Magical World history · Magical World law\nNon-humans Goblins Goblin clans · Goblin magic · Gringotts\n\nAll items (1)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9904050827026367}
+{"content": "U.S. Markets closed\n\nNucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE): Time For A Financial Health Check\n\nSebastian Eder\n\nThe size of Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE), a US$17b large-cap, often attracts investors seeking a reliable investment in the stock market. One reason being its ‘too big to fail’ aura which gives it the appearance of a strong and stable investment. However, the key to extending previous success is in the health of the company’s financials. This article will examine Nucor’s financial liquidity and debt levels to get an idea of whether the company can deal with cyclical downturns and maintain funds to accommodate strategic spending for future growth. Remember this is a very top-level look that focuses exclusively on financial health, so I recommend a deeper analysis into NUE here.\n\nView our latest analysis for Nucor\n\nHow much cash does NUE generate through its operations?\n\nNUE has sustained its debt level by about US$4.3b over the last 12 months including long-term debt. At this current level of debt, NUE’s cash and short-term investments stands at US$1.9b , ready to deploy into the business. Moreover, NUE has generated cash from operations of US$2.2b over the same time period, resulting in an operating cash to total debt ratio of 51%, signalling that NUE’s current level of operating cash is high enough to cover debt. This ratio can also be interpreted as a measure of efficiency as an alternative to return on assets. In NUE’s case, it is able to generate 0.51x cash from its debt capital.\n\nCan NUE meet its short-term obligations with the cash in hand?\n\nLooking at NUE’s US$2.8b in current liabilities, the company has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of US$8.8b, leading to a 3.15x current account ratio. Having said that, a ratio above 3x may be considered excessive by some investors, yet this is not usually a major negative for a company.\n\nNYSE:NUE Historical Debt January 9th 19\n\nCan NUE service its debt comfortably?\n\nWith debt reaching 42% of equity, NUE may be thought of as relatively highly levered. This is not unusual for large-caps since debt tends to be less expensive than equity because interest payments are tax deductible. Accordingly, large companies often have an advantage over small-caps through lower cost of capital due to cheaper financing. By measuring how many times NUE’s earnings can cover interest payments, we can evaluate whether its level of debt is sustainable or not. As a rule of thumb, a company should have earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of at least three times the size of net interest. In NUE’s case, the ratio of 18.95x suggests that interest is amply covered. High interest coverage serves as an indication of the safety of a company, which highlights why many large organisations like NUE are considered a risk-averse investment.\n\nNext Steps:\n\nNUE’s high cash coverage means that, although its debt levels are high, the company is able to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate cash flow. This may mean this is an optimal capital structure for the business, given that it is also meeting its short-term commitment. I admit this is a fairly basic analysis for NUE���s financial health. Other important fundamentals need to be considered alongside. You should continue to research Nucor to get a more holistic view of the large-cap by looking at:\n\n  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for NUE’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for NUE’s outlook.\n  2. Valuation: What is NUE worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether NUE is currently mispriced by the market.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9682111144065857}
+{"content": "\nDon't count on finding this kind of thing. Some silly people put bombs in there. Our Homeland Security people try to head those things off. In Europe, especially GB, you can't even find a trash can on the sidewalks for the same reason. A worker at the train station told us to just throw it on the floor, the people in the green jackets will pick it up. Really. What a world we live in.\nClean/dirty lockers normally have two or three parts within the locker. One part is meant for dirty or clothes that are worn, and the other side for clean clothes. These lockers are meant for hospitals or other medical workplaces where it is useful to keep work and personal clothes apart to reduce the risk of infection. These lockers are also useful for factories where work clothes can become dirty and it can be very useful to keep them apart from personal clothes.\n\nLockers are usually physically joined together side by side in banks, and are commonly made from steel, although wood, laminate, and plastic are other materials sometimes found. Steel lockers which are banked together share side walls, and are constructed by starting with a complete locker; further lockers may then be adding by constructing the floor, roof, rear wall, door, and just one extra side wall, the existing side wall of the previous locker serving as the other side wall of the new one. The walls, floors, and roof of lockers may be either riveted together (the more traditional method) or, more recently, welded together.\n\nExamine the scepter to obtain the Red Jewel. This goes into the Bejeweled Box, which you can get in the Interrogation Room. Accessing this area requires the Club Key, so if you don't have that yet, keep progressing the story until you get it. Once you've got the Bejeweled Box, combine it with the Red Jewel to get the S.T.A.R.S. badge. You can use this item in two locations: the Underground Stairs in the Middle section of the Underground Facility, and the S.T.A.R.S. Office.\nWhether you're playing as Leon or Claire, the solutions remain the same and can be accessed without grabbing the memo that hints at their solution. The only exception to this are the items you grab by developing film rolls--though, there is a minor exception even to that. Regardless, below you can find details on all the optional items locked behind safes, lockers, or hidden in the environment.\nThis film roll is interesting in that it doesn't point you to the location of resources; rather, it points you to an item you can use to gain some valuable stuff. Located in the Safety Deposit Room, grab the film roll by keying in the proper code to unlock the locker its sealed in. Though, you're by no means required to develop the film roll to get the items its photograph hints towards, but it does help direct you towards what you need to do\n\nUnclaimed property will be held by the Operator for 48 hours after the event and will accrue overtime storage charges as listed above. Unclaimed items will be released only after all overtime storage charges due have been paid in full. If any unclaimed items remain Operator’s possession after this 48 hour period, the property will be considered abandoned and items may be, without further notice, donated to a charity, sold to cover unpaid rental fees and administrative costs or otherwise disposed of in Operator’s sole discretion. Please contact [email protected] for any forgotten items.\n\nBuy Lockers For Sale", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9052124619483948}
+{"content": "Group 21.jpg\n\nThe 7 wonders of the world have long been defined, but what might be the eighth? Marvels abound in our world and we certainly do not lack for candidates. The Eighth Wonder explores the natural and artificial phenomena around us and brings you their stories every week.\n\n\nSpecial: Flex Streets 5 Year Anniversary\n\nA New Policy, for the People\n\nOn November 26th, 2031 New York City’s innovative FlexStreets program went live on a few “pilot streets,” such as Broadway and 5th Avenue. In the past few years, the program has expanded out to include every roadway in Manhattan. Based on a robust data set describing current and historic traffic patterns, current conditions, the status of all public transportation modes, and projected needs, FlexStreet’s algorithm optimizes movement on New York City’s roads for all stakeholders. This was a new paradigm in traffic management: rather than thinking of the streets as inflexible infrastructure elements with fixed rules - where the proportion of the roadway given to certain types of traffic is a constant - with the new system, traffic guidelines for a given roadway were made able to adapt and change over the course of a day, a month, even a year, based on actual realtime needs. \n\n\n For many years, traffic designers followed a “shared-use” model, which led to a situation in which they were trying to squeeze an ever growing number of vehicle types into the same space. The outdated infrastructure simply could not bear this weight, and a novel solution was proposed. In order to create the conditions necessary to develop and run such an initiative, the city created a new governing body out of a merger between the Department of Transportation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. This new Department of Movement’s mandate is to “support, faciliate, and oversee the transmission of people, goods, services, and information.”\n\nA Taxonomy of Traffic\n\nOne of the first steps in developing this new program was creating a new language for describing traffic. In one of their first acts as a newly formed entity, The Department of Movement defined new vehicle categorizations that would form the backbone of the system. The team settled on defining vehicles based on their weight. \n\nThese categories were broad enough to accommodate future developments, but specific enough to guide the structure and development of the FlexStreets engine database. Furthermore, these categories were designed to be meaningful to the people using the system, and be simple enough to be universally understood.\n\n\n• Bicycles\n• Electric Scooters\n• Autonomous Quadricycles\n\n• Uniboards\n\n\n• Private automobiles\n• Autonomous car services\n• Police Cruisers\n\n\n• Delivery Vans\n• Autonomous Shuttles\n• Public Buses\n\n• Autonomous Buses\n\n\n• Semi-Trailer Trucks\n• Autonomous Delivery Trucks\n• Sanitation Trucks\n\nThe Night Shift\n\nThe FlexStreets engine uses these categories and assigns a certain percentage of each roadway to each vehicle type, based on a set of variables. Key variables include time of day, realtime traffic patterns, consumer demand, current weather, and day of the year. Late at night, the majority of the roadway is given to Heavy and Medium vehicles such as sanitation trucks, delivery vehicles, and passenger buses, while very little is set aside for Ultralight vehicles. In a typical weekday, the road use is shifted during the first few hours of the day to be more focused towards commuting, so the proportions favor vehicles that serve that purpose. \n\nThis includes Medium, Light, and Ultralight vehicles -  such as self-driving shuttles and buses, and light personal transportation devices like scooters.  In the middle of the day the majority of the roadways are dedicated to Self-Powered modes to allow for peaceful recreation, farmer’s markets, reduced pollution, etc. Then in the evening the use shifts back to favor commuting but with a continued emphasis on Ultralight vehicles to give space to people jogging, exercising, and socializing. Then, later at night, the cycle starts all over again. \n\nThis animated diagram shows how the traffic percentages shift over the course of a typical day.\n\nNavigating a New System\n\n\n\nEverything Changes, Nothing Changes\n\n\n\nMore Wavelengths Series\n\nAct 6021:\nFluid Neighborhoods\n\nThis episode focuses on the social and economic consequences of living outside of traditional residences.\n\nSeason 25, Episode 3: \nThe Cheesesteak Derby\n\nThis show explores what might happen as travel times decrease and once distinct regions begin to blur together.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9102869629859924}
+{"content": "New Athearn 1/87 Kenworth Tractors & Minichamps 1/87 Added To Pre-Order Section\n\nTrumpeter 1/350 USS New York BB-34 06711\nTrumpeter 1/350 USS New York BB-34 06711\nTrumpeter 1/350 USS New York BB-34 06711\n\nTrumpeter 1/350 USS New York BB-34 06711\n\nRegular price\nSale price\nQuantity must be 1 or more\n\nThe New York Battleship (BB-34) is the first ship of the New York class battleship. She is the fifth US military ship in the name of New York State. The New York was built at the Brooklyn Shipyard in 1911, launched in 1912, and began service in 1914. Then the New York State supported the United States invading Veracruz after the Tampico incident. After the United States participated in the First World War, the New York was sent to the British waters to join the British domestic fleet, mainly responsible for escort missions.\n\nAfter the war, the New York City resumed daily training and participated in several fleet rescue exercises. It was modernized in 1925. Before the United States participated in the Second World War in 1941, the New York State had participated in a neutral cruise mission to Europe, covering merchant ships to the United Kingdom. After the United States declared war on Japan, the New York was responsible for artillery support in the North African campaign, but most of the time it was escorted in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In 1945, the New York State was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. During this time, it was hit by a suicide bomber of the Kamikaze Special Forces. After the war, the New York No. participated in the magic carpet and carried the US military back. In July 1946, the New York was incorporated into the target ship of the crossroads nuclear test, but it did not sink. In August of the same year, the New York State retired and was used by the Navy as a target ship in July 1948.\n\nProduct number 06711\nproduct name US Navy New York Battleship BB-34\nBar code 9580208067117\nProduct ratio 1:700\nproduct type Plastic Model Warship Kit\nModel size Length: 246.5mm Beam: 49.8mm\nTotal number of parts 480+\nEtched parts 1\nTotal number of offsets 10 sprues and deck\n-hull split into two parts\n-Deck wood pattern finely rendered -Contains\ndisplay stand and engraved name plate\n-Photo-Etched parts included\n\nPlastic model kit. Glue, paint and finishing supplies not included.\n\nWe are not responsible for any taxes, duty, VAT, customs or other fees on the receiver‰۪s end.\n\nCheck out our other items, and save on shipping!\n\nBack to the top", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.52251136302948}
+{"content": "64. Is Insitu Leaching the “Green Mining” Future\n\nIt is no surprise to anyone that permitting new open pit mines in today’s environment is getting more difficult and even impossible in some areas.   Underground mines also have their challenges, permitting as well as requiring relatively high grades to be economic.\nSo where might our future metal supplies come from?  What are the options?\n\nInsitu leaching may be the answer\n\nI recently came across an insitu leaching website, called BIOMore.  This was an initiative sponsored by the EU that looked at insitu leaching technology for metal recovery.    Environmental issues associated with mining in Europe, particularly open pit mining, raised concerns about how ore bodies in the EU might be developed in the future.\nInsitu leaching technology was viewed as playing an important role.  This is due to its minimal surface disturbance, ability to operate at great depth, and its potential in urban and developed locations.  Sounds like a nice solution to have on hand.\nThe EU-funded BIOMOre research project was completed in 2018.  It was designed to develop a new technological framework for the insitu recovering of metals from deep deposits.  The process would rely on controlled stimulation of pre-existing fractures in combination with insitu bio-leaching.  The study mainly focused on the application of existing technologies.\n\nFracing will be an issue\n\nInsitu leaching essentially relies on exposing mineralized surfaces to leach solutions.  This may require hydro-fracturing (fracing) to enhance insitu bio-leaching using bacteria and acid.   Fracing is currently banned in some European countries so this is going to be a potential issue.  From a leaching perspective, the trade-off would be between no fracing, reduced cost & lower metal recovery against higher cost & higher metal recovery with fracing.\nIf insitu leaching technology development is successful, it could help exploit European base metals from porphyry deposits (Cu, Au, Mo, Cu, REE, PGE, Re, Pb, Cu, Pt, Au) and other gold and uranium deposits.   Insitu leaching would avoid building a mine, mine infrastructure, and it generates almost no tailings nor waste dumps.  Leaching is expected to be cheaper than traditional mining and more acceptable to the public. Insitu leaching is being touted as “Green Mining”\n\nWhat did they conclude\n\nThis study deliverables included comprehensive documentation, an economic evaluation, and risk analysis of a potential insitu bio-leaching operation.  The basis was a theoretical deposit, looking at different well field set-ups.\nThe study concluded that accessing potential deposits at depths of around 1000 m is economically feasible only if curved wells are used.  The most relevant operational parameters are sufficient permeability in the ore zone and an adequate contact surface between the ore and leaching solution.   The depth of the deposit is indirectly relevant, but more importantly the well installation cost per volume of deposit is critical.  Hence curved wells are optimal.\nOne interesting suggestion was combining an insitu leach operation with geothermal energy recovery.  This might result in additional project revenue stream with only a marginal cost increase.\nIt was suggested that insitu leach operations might be attractive in former mining regions where high grade deposits have been mined out yet nearby low grade deposits are well defined. Social license for insitu leaching may also be more accepting in these areas.\nIf you are interested in learning more about insitu leaching technology and the chemistry aspect, the BIOMore study deliverables are available for downloading at this site.\nIn the past, mining engineers like myself were told to learn the basics of crushing, grinding, and flotation to become more well rounded.  I may suggest that future mining engineers may need to learn the basics of directional drilling, hydro-fracing, and chemistry.  Sounds like petroleum engineering.\n\nSome aspects are still uncertain\n\nIn practical terms, some things are still not clear to me. For example are how much effort and diligence must go into properly characterizing the permeability of a rock mass.  As well, how complex a task is it to metallurgically characterize the deposit spatially with regards to it being amenable to insitu leaching.  Not all ore types will behave the same and be amenable to leaching.\nI am also curious about the ability to finance such projects, given the caution associated with any novel technology.  Many financiers prefer projects that rely on proven and conventional operating methods.\nNotwithstanding those concerns, likely insitu leaching technology will continue to advance and show even more promise, and eventually gain greater acceptance.\nWhile some innovators are looking at new ways to drill, blast, and move rock, the real innovators are looking at ways to recover metals without moving any rock at all.\nFor those interested, Excelsior Mining is looking to open a copper oxide insitu leaching operation in Arizona.  Here is video of how their technology will work.\nNote: You can sign up for the KJK mailing list to get notified when new blogs are posted.\n\n\n62. AI versus the Geologists\n\nWe likely have all seen recent articles about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to change the mining industry.   I have been wondering if AI is a real solution or just a great buzzword.   My original skepticism has diminished somewhat and let me explain why.\nAt a booth at the 2019 PDAC I had a chance to speak with a publicly traded company called Albert Mining (referencing Albert Einstein’s intelligence).  They are providing exploration consulting services by applying a form of AI and have been doing so for many years.  The company has been around since 2005 but were not using the term AI to describe their methods.\nThese days the term “AI” has become very trendy.  Currently IBM Canada and Goldcorp are using Watson and AI to further their exploration efforts on the Red Lake property. GoldSpot Discoveries is another recent player in the mining AI field.  It appears Goldspot offers something similar to Albert Mining but they extend their platform to include picking projects, picking teams, and picking investments. That’s a lot of analysis to undertake.  Albert Mining is focused solely on mineral exploration.\n\nHere is what I learned\n\nAlbert Mining’s system, called CARDS (Computer Aided Resource Detection System) uses pattern recognition and multi-variate analysis to examine a mineral property to look for targets.     The system requires that the property has some known mineralization hits and assay samples.  These are used to “teach” the software.   Both positive hits and negative hits are valuable in this teaching step.\nThe exploration property is sub-divided into cells and data are assigned to each cell.  These data attributes could be derived from geophysics, geochemistry, topography, soil samples, indicator minerals, assayed samples, geological maps, etc.  I was told that a cell could contain over 700 different data attributes.\nThe algorithm then examines the cell data to teach itself which attributes correlate to known mineralization and which attributes correlate with barren areas. It essentially determines a geological “signature” for each mineralization type.    There could be millions of data points and combinations of attributes.  Correlation patterns may be invisible to the naked eye, but not to the computer algorithm.\nOnce the geological signatures are determined, the remainder of the property is examined to look for similar signature hits.  Geological biases are eliminated since it is all data driven.   The newly defined exploration targets are given a ranking score based on the extent of correlation.\nSome things to note are that the system works best for shallow deposits, unless one has some deep penetrating geophysical surveys.  The system works best if there is fairly uniform data coverage across the entire property.  The property should also have generally similar geological conditions and as mentioned before, the property needs to have some mineralized assay information.\nThis exploration approach reminds me somewhat of the book Moneyball.  This book is about the Oakland A’s baseball team where unconventional statistics were used to rank players in order to find hidden gems.\n\nAre geologists becoming obsolete?\n\nI was told that many in the geological community tend to discount the AI approach.  Either they don’t think it will work or they are fearing for their jobs.  Personally I don’t understand these fears nor can I really see how geologists can ever be eliminated.  Someone still has to collect and prepare the data as well as ultimately make the final decision on the proposed targets.   I don’t see the downside in using AI as another tool in the geologist’s toolbox.\nAlbert Mining’s stock price has recently gained some traction (note: I am not promoting them)  because junior mining news releases are starting to mention their name more often (Spruce Ridge Resources and Falco Resources are some examples).\nProbably years ago if a mining company said their drill targets were generated by an algorithm, they might have gotten strange looks.   Today if a mining company says their drill targets were generated by AI, it gives them a cutting edge persona.  Times have changed.\n\nIn conclusion\n\nI suggest we all take a closer looks at the AI technology to better understand what it does.\nP.S. I  might also suggest that Albert Mining consider revising their company name to incorporate the term “AI” to stay on trend.\nNote: You can sign up for the mailing list to get notified when new blogs are posted.\n\n61. Ore Dilution – An Underground Perspective\n\nA few months ago I wrote a blog about different approaches that mining engineers are using to predict dilution in an open pit setting. You can read the blog at this link. Since that time I have been in touch with the author of a technical paper on dilution specifically related to underground operations. Given that my previous blog was from an open pit perspective, an underground discussion might be of interest and educational.\nThe underground paper is titled “Mining Dilution and Mineral Losses – An Underground Operator’s Perspective” by Paul Tim Whillans. You can download the paper at this link.\n\nHere is the abstract\n\nFor the underground operator, dilution is often synonymous with over-break, which mining operations struggle to control. However, there are many additional factors impacting dilution which may surpass the importance of overbreak, and these also need to be considered when assessing a project. Among these, ore contour variability is an important component of both dilution and mineral losses which is often overlooked.  Mineral losses are often considered to be less important because it is considered that they will only have a small impact on net present value. This is not necessarily the case and in fact mineral losses may be much higher than indicated in mining studies due to aggregate factors and may have an important impact on shorter term economics.\n\nMy key takeaways\n\nI am not going into detail on Paul’s paper, however some of my key takeaways are as follows. Download the paper to read the rationale behind these ideas.\n  • Over-break is a component of dilution but may not be the major cause of it. Other aspects are in play.\n  • While dilution may be calculated on a volumetric basis, the application of correct ore and waste densities is important. This applies less to gold deposits than base metal deposits, where ore and waste density differences can be greater.\n  • Benchmarking dilution at your mine site with published data may not be useful. Nobody likes to report excessively high dilution for various reasons, hence the published dilution numbers may not be entirely truthful.\n  • Ore loss factors are important but can be difficult to estimate. In open pit mining, ore losses are not typically given much consideration. However in underground mining they can have a great impact on the project life and economics.\n  • Mining method sketches can play a key role in understanding underground dilution and ore losses, even in today’s software driven mining world.\n  • Its possible that many mine operators are using cut-off grades that are too low in some situations.\n  • High grading, an unacceptable practice in the past, is now viewed differently due to its positive impact on NPV. (Its seems Mark Bristow at Barrick may be putting a stop to this approach).\n  • Inferred resources used in a PEA can often decrease significantly when upgraded to the measured and indicated classifications. If there is a likelihood of this happening, it should be factored into the PEA production tonnage.\n  • CIM Best Practice Guidelines do not require underground ore exposure for feasibility studies. However exposing the ore faces can have a significant impact on one’s understanding of the variability of the ore contacts and the properties of minor faults.\n\n\nNot everyone will necessarily agree with all the conclusions of Paul’s paper on underground dilution. However it does raise many issues for technical consideration on your project.\nAll of us in the industry want to avoid some of the well publicized disappointments seen on recent underground projects. Several have experienced difficulty in delivering the ore tonnes and grades that were predicted in the feasibility studies. No doubt it can be an anxious time for management when commissioning a new underground mine.\nNote: previously I had shared another one of Paul’s technical papers in a blog called “Underground Feasibility Forecasts vs Actuals”. It also provides some interesting insights about underground mining projects.\nIf you need more information, Paul Whillans website is at http://www.whillansminestudies.com/.\n\n60. Mining Due Diligence Checklist\n\nIt doesn’t matter how long you have worked in the mining industry, at some point you will probably have taken part in a due diligence review. You might have been asked to help create a data room. Perhaps your company is looking at a potential acquisition. Maybe you’re a consultant with a particular expertise needed by a due diligence team. It’s likely that due diligence has impacted on many of us at some point in our careers.\nThe scope of a due diligence can be exceptionally wide. There are legal, marketing, and environmental aspects as well as all the technical details associated with a mining project. The amount of information provided can be overwhelming sometimes.\n\nI’m a big fan of checklists\n\nChecklists are great and they can be very helpful in a due diligence review. A scope checklist is a great way to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks. A checklist helps keep a team on the same page and clarifies individual roles and tasks. Checklists bring focus and minimize sidetracking down unnecessary paths.\nRecognizing this, I have created a personal due diligence checklist for such times. A screen shot of it is shown below. The list is mainly tailored for an undeveloped project but it still has over 230 items that might need to be considered.\n\nEach due diligence is unique\n\nNot all of the items in the checklist are required for each review. Maybe you’re only doing a high level study to gauge management’s interest in a project. Maybe you’re undertaking a detailed review for an actual acquisition or financing event. It’s up to you to create your own checklist and highlight which items need to be covered off. The more items added the less risk in the end; however that requires a longer review period and greater cost.\nYou a create your own checklist but if you would like a copy of mine just email me at KJKLTD@rogers.com. Specify if you would prefer the Excel or PDF versions.\nPlease let me know if you see any items missing or if you have any comments.\nNow that we have an idea of what information we need to examine in a due diligence, the next question is where to find it.\nPreviously I had written a blog titled “Due Diligence Data Rooms – Help!” which discussed how we can be overwhelmed by a poorly set up data room. My request is that when setting up a data room, please consider the people who will be accessing it.\n\nDue Diligence isn’t for everyone\n\nDue diligence exercises can be interesting and great learning experiences, even for senior people that have seen it all. However they can also be mentally taxing due to the volumes of information that one must find, review, and understand all in a short period of time.\nSome people are better at due diligence than others. It helps if one has the ability to quickly develop an understanding of a project. It also helps to know what key things to look for, since many risks are common among projects.\n\n\n\n59. Hydrogeology At Diavik – Its Complicated\n\nAbout 20 years ago I was involved in the feasibility study and initial engineering for the Diavik open pit mine in the Northwest Territories. As you can see from the current photo, groundwater inflows were going to be a potential issue.\nPredictions of mine inflow quantity and quality were required as part of the project design. Also integral to the operating plan were geotechnical issues, wall freezing issues, and methods for handling the seepage water.\nThis mine is going to be a unique situation. The open pit is located both within Lac de Gras and partly on exposed land (i.e. islands). The exposed land is underlain by permafrost of various depth while the rock mass under the lake was unfrozen. The sub-zero climate meant that pit wall seepage would turn into mega-icicles.  Phreatic pressures could buildup behind frozen pit walls. Many different factors were going to come into play in this mining operation so comprehensive field investigations would be required.\n\nA good thing Rio Tinto was a 60% owner and the operator\n\nAt no time did the engineering team feel that field budgets were restricted and that technical investigations were going to be limited. Unfortunately in my subsequent career working on other projects I have seen cases where lack of funds does impact the quantity (and quality) of technical data.\nThe Golder Associates Vancouver hydrogeologcal team was brought on board to help out. Hydrogeological field investigations consisted of packer testing, borehole flowmeter testing, borehole temperature logging, and borehole camera imaging. Most of this work was done from ice level during the winter.\nA Calgary based consultant undertook permafrost prediction modelling, which I didn’t even know was a thing.\nAll of this information was used in developing a three-dimensional groundwater model. MODFLOW and MT3DMS were used to predict groundwater inflow volumes and water quality. The modelling results indicated that open pit inflows were expected to range up to 9,600 m3/day with TDS concentrations gradually increasing in time to maximum levels of about 440 mg/ℓ.\nThe groundwater modelling also showed that lake water re-circulating through the rock mass would eventually comprise more than 80% of the mine water handled.\n\nModelling fractured rock masses is not simple\n\nGroundwater modelling of a fractured rock mass is different than modelling a homogeneous aquifer. Discrete structures will have a great impact on seepage rates yet they can be difficult to detect beforehand.\nAs an example, when Diavik excavated the original bulk sample decline under the lake, water inflows were encountered associated with open joints. However a single open joint was by far the most significant water bearing structure intercepted over the 600-metre decline length.  It resulted in temporary flooding of the decline.\n\nBefore (2000) and After (2006) Technical Papers\n\nInterestingly at least two technical papers have been written on Diavik by the project hydrogeologists. They describe the original inflow predictions in one paper and the actual situation in the second.\nThe 2000 paper describes the field investigations, the 1999 modeling assumptions, and results. You can download that paper here.\nThe subsequent paper (2006) describes the situation after a few years of mining, describing what was accurate, what was incorrect, and why. This paper can be downloaded here.\nIn essence, the volume of groundwater inflow was underestimated in the original model.  The hydraulic conductivity of the majority of the rock mass was found to be similar.  However a 30 m wide broken zone, representing less than 10% of the pit wall, resulted in nearly twice as much inflow as was predicted.\nThe broken zone did not have a uniform permeability but consisted of sparely spaced vertical fractures. This characteristic made it difficult to detect the zone using only core logging and packer tests in individual boreholes.\n\nGroundwater Models Should Not be Static\n\nThe original intent was the Diavik groundwater model would not be static.  It continued to evolve over the life of the mine.\nNow that Diavik has entered their underground mining stage, it would be interesting to see more updates on their hydrogeologcal performance. If anyone is aware of any subsequent papers on the project, please share.\n\n58. Ore Dilution Prediction – Its Always an Issue\n\nmining reserve estimation\nOver my years of preparing and reviewing mining studies, ore dilution often seems to be a contentious issue.  It is deemed either too low or too high, too optimistic or too pessimistic.  Everyone realizes that project studies can see significant economic impacts depending on what dilution factor is applied.  Hence we need to take the time to think about what dilution is being used and why.\n\nEveryone has a preferred dilution method.\n\nI have seen several different approaches for modelling and applying dilution.   Typically engineers and geologists seem to have their own personal favorites and tend to stick with them.   Here are some common dilution approaches.\n1. Pick a Number:\nThis approach is quite simple.  Just pick a number that sounds appropriate for the orebody and the mining method.  There might not be any solid technical basis for the dilution value, but as long as it seems reasonable, it might go unchallenged.\n2. SMU Compositing:\nThis approach takes each percent block (e.g.  a block is 20% waste and 80% ore) and mathematically composites it into a single Selective Mining Unit (“SMU”) block with an overall weighted average grade.  The SMU compositing process will incorporate some waste dilution into the block.  Possibly that could convert some ore blocks to waste once a cutoff grade is applied.   Some engineers may apply additional dilution beyond SMU compositing while others will consider the blocks fully diluted at the end of this step.\n3. Diluting Envelope:\nThis approach assumes that a waste envelope surrounds the ore zone.  One estimates the volume of this waste envelope on different benches, assuming that it is mined with the ore.  The width of the waste envelope may be correlated to the blast hole spacing being used to define the ore and waste mining contacts.  The diluting grade within the waste envelope can be estimated or one may simply assume a more conservative zero-diluting grade.   In this approach, the average dilution factor can be applied to the final production schedule to arrive at the diluted tonnages and grades.  Alternatively, the individual diluted bench tonnes can be used for scheduling purposes.\n4. Diluted Block Model:\nThis dilution approach uses complex logic to look at individual blocks in the block model, determine how many waste contact sides each block has, and then mathematically applies dilution based on the number of contacts.  Usually this approach relies on a direct swap of ore with waste.  If a block gains 100 m3 of waste, it must then lose 100 m3 of ore to maintain the volume balance.   The production schedule derived from the “diluted” block model usually requires no subsequent dilution factor.\n\nWhen is the Cutoff Grade Applied?\n\nDepending on which dilution approach is used, the cutoff grade will be applied either before or after dilution.   When dilution is being added to the final production schedule, then the cutoff grade will have been applied to the undiluted material (#1 and #2).\nWhen dilution is incorporated into the block model itself (#3 and #4), then the cutoff grade is likely applied to the diluted blocks.   The timing of when to apply the cutoff grade will have an impact on the ore tonnes and had grade being reported.\n\nDoes one apply dilution in pit optimization?\n\nAnother occasion when dilution may be used is during pit optimization.  There are normally input fields for both a dilution factor and an ore loss factor.   Some engineers will apply dilution at this step while others will leave the factors at zero.  There are valid reasons for either approach.\nMy preference is use a zero dilution factor for optimization since the nature of the ore zones will be different at different revenue factors and hence dilution would be unique to each.   It would be good to verify the impact that the dilution factor has on your own pit optimization, otherwise it is simply being viewed as a contingency factor.\n\n\nMy personal experience is that, from a third party review perspective, reviewers tend to focus on the final dilution number used and whether it makes sense to them.   The actual approach used to arrive at that number tends to get less focus.\nRegardless of which approach is being used, ensure that you can ultimately determine and quantify the percent dilution being applied.  This can be a bit more difficult with the mathematical block approaches.\nReaders may yet have different dilution methods in their toolbox and I it would be interesting to share them.\n\n57. The Mining Bank or eBay for Mining Properties\n\nmining properties\nI recently attended the Money Show here in Toronto to learn a bit more about personal finanace, investing strategies, and to check out  the latest stock analysis software.\nThere was also a trade show, but only one mining company booth was present.  This definitely wasn’t the PDAC.  Interestingly there were about five marijuana company booths, so that is where the promotion is today.\nThe lone mining company was Globex Mining, here is their website.  They referred to themselves as a “mining bank”, so that was something that peaked my interest.\n\nMining bank\n\nSpeaking with their president, Jack Stoch, he gave me an overview on their business model.  As I understood it, GLOBEX’s model is to acquire a portfolio of mineral properties.  They would try to enhance their value by undertaking some limited geological work.  Finally they would option, JV, or sell the property while retaining an NSR royalty.\nMr. Stoch told me that Globex currently has over 140 land packages in their inventory.  Their properties will be at different stages.  Some have resource estimates, others only mineralized drill intersections, mineral showings, untested geophysical targets, or combinations of these.\nThey are focusing their acquisitions on lower risk jurisdictions like Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, and Germany.  They try to acquire historical mines that have old shafts, following the adage the best place to find a new mine is next to an old mine.   They also have some industrial mineral properties.\n\n\nGlobex’s only NSR revenue property right now is a zinc project in Tennessee that can generate a seven-figure royalty each year, when that operation is up and running.  Unfortunately for Globex the zinc operation has not been in consistent operation the last few years.\n\nIts a good concept\n\nI like the concept that Globex are promoting.  I like the idea of having a one-stop shop that acquires and options out exploration properties to mining companies looking for new projects.\nI also like the idea of trying to consolidate land packages in an area,  minimizing the patchwork of multiple ownership claims that can hinder advanced development.\nGlobex hope that by putting time and effort into a bunch of properties a few of them will pay off.  If they can generate sufficient NSR revenues, the company may get to the self-sustaining stage.\n\nIts not a new idea\n\nThe idea of companies involving themselves in a portfolio of early stage prospects isn’t new.  This has been being done by EMX Royalty Corp (formerly Eurasian Minerals) for properties around the globe.    Abitibi Royalties is also doing something vaguely similar, whereby they would help fund prospectors in exchange for a long term royalty on a property. There are likely others.\nThere is a high risk to being successful but the cost of entry is relatively low.\nIt will be interesting to watch Globex over the longer term to see how many properties they can acquire and how many of these will pay off. Spending a bit of money on mapping and exploration on a property may benefit them by increasing value in the eyes of potential partners.\nStatistically, mineral exploration is a high risk game but by limiting expenditures and diversifying the portfolio, some of that risk can be mitigated.\n\n55. Underground Feasibility Forecasts vs Actuals\n\nunderground costing\n\n\n– Describe the effects of overly optimistic studies;\n\n\n\n53. Ore Stockpiling – Why are we doing this again?\n\nore stockpile\nIn many of the past mining studies that I have worked, stockpiling strategies were discussed and usually implemented. However sometimes team members were surprised at the size of the stockpiles that were generated by the production plan. In some cases it was apparent that not all team members were clear on the purpose of  stockpiling or had preconceived ideas on the rationale behind it. To many stockpiling may seem like a good idea until they saw it in action.\nMine Stockpile\nIn this blog I won’t go into all the costs and environmental issues associated with stockpile operation.  The discussion focuses on the reasons for stockpiling and why stockpiles can get large in size or numerous in quantity.\nIn my experience there are four main reasons why ore stockpiling might be done. They are:\n1. Campaigning: For metallurgical reasons if there are some ore types that can cause process difficulties if mixed  with other ores. The problematic ore might be stockpiled until sufficient inventory allows one to process that ore (i.e. campaign) through the mill. Such stockpiles will only grow as large as the operator allows them to grow. At any time the operator can process the material and deplete the stockpile. Be aware that mining operations might still be mining other ore types, then those ores may need to be stockpiled during the campaigning.  That means even more ore stockpiles at site.\n2. Grade Optimization: This stockpiling approach is used in situations where the mine delivers more ore than is required by the plant, thereby allowing the best grades to be processed directly while lower grades are stockpiled for a future date. Possibly one or more grade stockpiles may be used, for example a low grade and a medium-low grade stockpile. Such stockpiles may not get processed for years, possibly until the mine is depleted or until the mined grades are lower than those in the stockpile. Such stockpiles can grow to enormous size if accumulated over many years.  Oxidation and processability may be a concern with long term stockpiles.\n3. Surge Control: Surge piles may be used in cases where the mine may have a fluctuating ore delivery rate and on some days excess ore is produced while other days there is underproduction. The stockpile is simply used to make up the difference to the plant to provide a steady feed rate. These stockpiles are also available as short term emergency supply if for some reason the mine is shut down (e.g. extreme weather). In general such stockpiles may be relatively small in size since they are simply used for surge control.\n4. Blending: Blending stockpiles may be used where a processing plant needs a certain quality of feed material with respect to head grade or contaminant ratios (silica, iron, etc.). Blending stockpiles enables the operator to ensure the plant feed quality to be within a consistent range. Such stockpiles may not be large individually; however there could be several of them depending on the nature of the orebody.\nThere may be other stockpiling strategies beyond the four listed above but those are the most common.\n\nTest Stockpiling Strategies\n\nUsing today’s production scheduling software, one can test multiple stockpiling strategies by applying different cutoff grades or using multiple grade stockpiles. The scheduling software algorithms determine whether one should be adding to stockpile or reclaiming from it. The software will track grades in the stockpile and sometimes be able to model stockpile balances assuming reclaim by average grade, or first in-first out (FIFO), or last in-first out (LIFO).\nore stockpile\nStockpiling in most cases provides potential benefits to an operation and the project economics. Even if metallurgical blending or ore campaigning is not required, one should always test the project economics with a few grade stockpiling scenarios.\nUnfortunately these are not simple to undertake when using a manual scheduling approach and so are a reason to move towards automated scheduling software.\nMake sure everyone on the team understands the rationale for the stockpiling strategy and what the stockpiles might ultimately look like. They might be surprised.\n\n52. Mining Press Releases – Where to Get Them\n\nmining news\nThere are a lot of sources of mining information on the internet.  These encompass topics such as technical articles, analyst opinions, and company press releases. If your interest is largely company news releases, what is the best way to get these?\nOne way is to go to the individual company website and sign-up one their mailing list. This approach generally works well but it forces you to sign up on a myriad of websites if you intend to follow a lot of companies.\n\nThere are alternatives\n\nOne option is to sign-up for a free account with a newswire service where you can select specific companies to follow.  You will get emailed news releases as soon as they are disseminated. The nice thing here is that you can select mining companies, non-mining public companies, as well as entire industries. Here are some that I personally use.\nMarketwire: There you can create a “Hot Off the Wire” account and then select your companies of interest. You can also select entire industries to add to your company list.\nCNW Group Ltd.  Create an account at Cision and search various companies to add to your “My Subscriptions” list.Junior Mining News screenshot\nJunior Mining News is another source to get general news updates via their daily newsletter (see screenshot). Their daily email gives a brief summary of today’s news events and includes “Read More..” links if you want the entire press release. This website accesses some of the same news release distributors as mentioned above so there could be some repetition from time to time.\n\nIts easy\n\nUsing the services described above, it’s easy to sign up for multiple companies, too many companies in fact. Its easy to get inundated with emails.\nPublic companies need to keep an active news flow  and some companies are very good at it.\nBy using the press release distribution websites you are consolidating your requests, thereby making it easier to control the amount of information you want to receive.\nFeel free to share your method for tracking companies, whether using some of the same services or something entirely different.\n\n51. Pre-Concentration – Savior or Not?\n\nCan pre-concentration become a savior for the mining industry by lowering metal production costs?\nPre-concentration is a way of reducing the quantity of ore requiring higher cost downstream processing, i.e. grinding in particular.  One can attain significant cost savings in energy consumption and operating expenses by using a low cost method to pre-concentrate minerals into a smaller volume. A previous blog “Remote Sensing of Ore Grades” discussed one new pre-concentration method currently under development.\n\nPre-concentration isn’t new\n\nPre-concentration has been around for many years.  However the techniques available are generally limited.  Hence many ore types are not amenable to it..unfortunately.\nThe main methods available are:\nOre sorting, which can be done using automated optical, electrical, or magnetic susceptibility sensors to separate ore particles from waste. The different sensors can rely on colour recognition, near infrared radiation, x-ray fluorescence, x-ray transmission, radiometric, or electromagnetic properties. The sensors can determine if a particle contains valuable mineral or waste, thereby sending a signal to activate air jets to deflect material into ore and waste bins.\nDensity separation, or specific gravity differences are another property that some pre-concentration methods can use. Gravity based systems such as dense media separation (DMS), jigs, or centrifugal concentrators are currently in commercial production.\nScrubbing, another very simple pre-concentration method is scrubbing, whereby simply separating fines or coatings may remove deleterious materials prior to final processing.\n\n BenefitsJig Plant 1\n\nPre-concentration provides several benefits:\n  • If done underground or at satellite mine site, the ore hoisting or ore transport costs can be reduced.\n  • If the pre-concentration rejects can be used as mine backfill, this can reduce backfilling costs.\n  • Processing of higher grade pre-concentrated mill feed can reduce energy costs and ultimately reduce the cash cost of metal produced.\n  • Grinding costs can be reduced if waste particles are harder than the ore particles and they can be scalped.\n  • Minimizing waste through the process plant will reduce the quantity of fine tailings that must be disposed of.\n  • Lowering operating costs may potentially allow lowering of the cutoff grade and increasing mineral reserves.\n  • Higher head grades would increase metal production without needing an increase in plant throughput.\n\nLimited ore types are suited for pre-concentration\n\nNot all ore types are amenable to pre-concentration and therefore a rigorous testing program is required. In most cases a pre-con method is relatively obvious to metallurgical engineers but testing is still required to measure performance.\nTesting is required to determine the waste rejection achieved without incurring significant ore loss. Generally one can produce a higher quality product if one is willing to reject more ore with the waste.  It becomes a trade-off of metal recovery versus processing cost savings.\nFine particles generated in the crushing stage might need to bypass the pre-con circuit. If this bypassed material is sent to downstream processing circuits, one may need to examine crushers that minimize fines to avoid excessive material bypassing the pre-con circuit.\n\nReject waste or reject ore?\n\nOne must decide if the pre-con system should reject waste particles from the material stream or reject ore particles from the stream.  The overall metal recovery and product quality may be impacted depending on which approach is used.\n\n\nThe bottom line is that the mining industry is continually looking for ways to improve costs and pre-concentration may be a great way to do this.   Every process plant design should take a look at it to see if is feasible for their ore type.\nWhile the existing pre-concentration methods have their limitations, future technologies may bring in more ways to pre-concentrate.  This is probably an area where research dollars would be well spent.\n\n48. Online Collaboration and Management Tools (Part 2)\n\nThis blog is the Part 2 continuation of a prior post regarding collaboration software tools that mining teams should consider.   Here are a few more ideas I’d like to share, having found that these are great to have in your toolbox.\n\nZoom (for conferencing)\n\nA great tool for video conferencing is zoom (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us).  Its similar to Skype but has added features.\nIt allows video conferencing, screen sharing, screen swapping.\nThere is a free version that provides some great functionality.\n\n\n\n\nG-suite and miningG-Suite\n\nIs the family of Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides online services.\nGroup collaboration can be frustrating using spreadsheets or text documents.  We typically end up with different versions of the same document floating around.  No one is sure whether they are editing the most recent version or which version they should be editing.\nWith G-Suite (Google Sheets and Google Docs) you can create online spreadsheets and documents and allow multiple team members to review and edit them in real-time online at the same time.\nWriting reports gets simpler since there is only one working version of the document. A “track changes” option is there (called “Suggesting”) and everyone can see the edits as they are being made. No more asking “who has the most current version?”  This type of collaborative editing is also great for Design Criteria Documents that are regularly being updated by different team members.\nI have used both DropBox and Google Drive, but my preference is using Google Drive since it integrates well with G-Suite.\n\nFoxit Reader:  \n\nThis is an alternative to Adobe Reader and can be used for reviewing PDF documents, whether text documents or drawings.\nFoxit provides great editing and commenting tools like highlighting text, adding comments, drawing lines and boxes, adding comment balloons, cut & pasting images into the PDF file, and then saving the commented version.\nFor the most part I have stopped using Adobe Reader and have now switched over to Foxit due to commenting capability that it provides.\n\nGoogle Hangouts:  \n\nThis is an online and mobile application for team conference calling.  It allows screen sharing, online group video conversations, sends out meeting reminders, and it will call participants at the require time.\nWhile Hangouts has many of the same features as Skype, it integrates with Google Calendar and Gmail.   Most of the tech world uses Hangouts instead of Skype, but I’m not sure if the mining industry is ready to move away from Skype.\nAn honorable mention for video-conferencing goes to Zoom. Some tech developers have been switching to Zoom, they feel it has more capabilities than Hangouts and better video resolution. I have never used it however.\n\nOther Software\n\nThose are a few of the software tools that I have found useful and so now you’re probably wondering “what else is out there for me?” The website The Freelance Stack lists many of different tools that exist. Check them out and some of the others may be of value to you. :\n\nGeology & Mining Software\n\nOne of the standard marketing approaches used by tech software is to provide a fully functional product for free and then charge money to access the enhanced features. The goal is to get future users familiarized and trained on the product.  They hope that they will get hooked on the product and decide to upgrade their plan for the full product suite.\nI’m not sure whether any geology or mining software  is available for free in a fully functional format with optional upgrading. By functional, I don’t mean simply providing a “viewer” to view the work of others or a 30-day free trial period.  I mean actual software that provides some useful capability for free in order to get you hooked. Please let us know if this software marketing approach exists in the mining industry.\n\n\nThe bottom line is that there is a lot of interesting collaboration software out there.  Its readily available, much of it is free, and can make managing your remote project teams easier. Just because the software is used by the tech industry and millennials, don’t assume it won’t have a benefit to the mining industry.\nThe downside is the need to train and learn the new software, and the mining industry may not be so receptive to that.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6245461702346802}
+{"content": "Does human life span really have a limit?\n\nDoes human life span really have a limit?\n\nThe limits of human existence might not be as limited as we have long thought.\n\nA person's risk of death slows and even plateaus above age 105, a new study reports, challenging previous research saying there's a cutoff point past which the human cannot extend.\n\nLongevity pioneers lucky enough to make it past the perilous 70s, 80s and 90s could potentially live well into their 110s, if fortune remains on their side, said senior author Kenneth Wachter, a professor of demography and statistics at the University of California, Berkeley.\n\n\"Our data tell us that there is no fixed limit to the human life span yet in sight,\" Wachter said. \"Very few of us are going to reach those kinds of ages, but the fact that mortality rates are not getting worse forever and ever tells us there may well be more progress to be made improving survival past the ages of 80 to 90. This is a valuable, encouraging discovery.\"\n\nSpecifically, the study showed that people at age 110 had the same continued chances of survival as those between the ages of 105 and 109—a 50/50 chance of dying within the year and an expected further life span of 1.5 years.\n\nThis plateau runs counter to the way death risk relentlessly rises as we age from age 40 onward, Wachter said.\n\n\"If mortality rates kept rising at the rates they rise from age 40 to age 90, then there would be a strong barrier to progress at extreme ages—great diminishing returns to behavioral change or to new medical advances,\" Wachter said. \"The fact these rates ultimately level out gives hope there's more leeway for those advances.\"\n\nThe oldest known human on record is Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 at age 122.\n\nDifferent findings\n\nThere's been ongoing debate about whether there's a maximum human life span.\n\nLast year, researchers at McGill University in Montreal issued a report challenging earlier assertions that human life span peaks at about 115 years.\n\n\"The statistics aren't good enough to be able to say you can't live much longer than that, based on the data we have,\" said report author Siegfried Hekimi, chairman of developmental biology at McGill. \"It's simply not good enough to make that claim.\"\n\nTo investigate this further, Wachter and his colleagues tracked the death trajectories of nearly 4,000 residents of Italy who reached age 105 between 2009 and 2015.\n\nThe investigators found that the odds of survival inexorably decline as a person enters middle and old age.\n\nFor example, Italian women who reached age 90 had a 15 percent of chance of dying within the year and an expected further life span of six years on average, results showed.\n\nBut if they made it to 95, their odds of dying within a year increased to 24 percent and their life expectancy dropped to 3.7 years.\n\nOne might think these odds would continue to increase indefinitely, as people age toward an undefined vanishing point.\n\nThat's not what happened, though. The chances of survival instead plateaued once people made it past 105.\n\n\"The risk of death is very high at 105 years, but next year it's not higher,\" Hekimi said of the new study. \"Every year you have the same chance of dying, and every year you can be the one who wins the coin toss.\"\n\nThis plateau likely occurs due to evolutionary selection and the influence of good genes and healthy life choices, Wachter said.\n\n\"When you look at a group of older people who are all the same age, some are already quite frail and some are robust. There's a big difference in the level of frailty,\" Wachter said.\n\n\"People who go to college 50th reunions, you just look around you and some people are climbing mountains while some people are walking with canes. Now go 15 to 20 years later, the people who were already frail are the ones who are likely to have died,\" he said.\n\nNot enough study participants\n\nSo far, looking at the genetics of long-lived people has provided maddeningly few clues for extending overall human life span, Hekimi said.\n\nThere are just too few people who make it to these extreme old ages, and the genes that seem to be working in their favor vary from place to place, Hekimi said. For example, genes that seem to be supporting extended life span on Okinawa are not the same ones found in England.\n\nBut this study shows there's a good chance of extending the survival plateau earlier into the average human life span, making it increasingly likely that more people will survive into their 100s, Wachter said.\n\n\"It gives us a good piece of hope, because there is now lots of opportunity to look at these bad variants as they are in populations today and to try to understand the interaction of those genetic variants with potential medicines and different health challenges,\" Wachter said.\n\n\"This basic theory could help us inform medical progress and public health progress 10 to 15 years from now as genetic research continues,\" he said.\n\nHekimi agreed.\n\n\"Given that our span keeps increasing, maybe the plateauing is going to start earlier and earlier,\" he said.\n\nThe new study is published in the June 29 issue of the journal Science.\n\nExplore further\n\nMaximum human lifespan has already been reached, researchers conclude\n\nMore information: \"The plateau of human mortality: Demography of longevity pioneers,\" Science (2018). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.aat3119\nJournal information: Science\n\nCopyright © 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.\n\nCitation: Does human life span really have a limit? (2018, June 28) retrieved 26 May 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-06-human-life-span-limit.html\n\nFeedback to editors\n\nUser comments\n\nJun 29, 2018\nA little longer tail than normal distribution. For simple reason: the survivors over 105 polygenic score for many diseases resistance and DNA repair mechanisms quality are extraordinary. While it is more even at the middle of the curve.\n\nWishful thinking, my friends. A few people will live to 120. One in a few decades. I am not betting on it.\n\nJun 29, 2018\nWell, the question really applies to the brain. We're close to being able to transplant it into another body, or even a machine host.\n\nSo how long can we keep it from decrepitating? What would be the optimum age for transplant? Would a new body reverse age-related damage?\n\nI'm sure these questions occurred to mengele.\n\nJun 29, 2018\nIt seems difficult for people that study aging to grasp the concept that aging is the genetic default shutdown of genetic and cellular repair and replacement processes. This isn't surprising at all if you consider that there is no direct way to communicate advantages of advanced age past the age of reproduction.\n\nTherein lies the answer(s) to immortality. Provide adequate and continuous commands for the repair and maintenance of our genes and our cells (not unlike the first two decades of our lives) and our age is unlimited. Immortality lies in our ability to control our basic genetic code and to make all of or repair and replacement processes continuous. Unless we change our genetic default shut down code - we continue to only address the symptoms of aging and not the root cause.\n\nA new body only resets the genetic age default code (see parabiosis) it doesn't stop aging. We are far from a machine adequately responsive to our brain's complexity.\n\nJun 29, 2018\nCells are not immortal and are constantly being replaced. The trick is to replace them with cells in their original pristine condition.\n\nJul 01, 2018\nAnother of the specious reasoning for seeking immortality? Would be the continuing movement of the society around you. While you try to freeze your own personal perception of time.\n\nThen you reply \"But Mister Rationalizing Science Guy, We will just stay active and involved with our refreshing bodies and pliable personalities!\"\n\nThat last raver you attended? How many minutes did you last before fleeing in horror at the cacophony of incomprehensible noise and gyrating jostle of drug-fueled sweaty bodies?\n\nInstead, you go to a college kegger to be pepped up trying to make sense of the drunken ramblings of the staggering children surrounding you. Bet you don't give up until the second time a grad student crawls over and pukes on your shoes.\n\n\"We never acted like this or listened to rubbish for music when we were this age!\"\nWhat's really funny is you will say it with a straight face!\n\nWhen your personality changes? It's called death. And you don't get a refund.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6186903715133667}
+{"content": "In general, science has changed a lot in the past century (20th century) and, yet, regarding the theory of evolution or evolutionary theory it seems strange that it has not changed significantly.\n\nAlthough there are small updates, the accepted theory of evolution is the Darwinian presented in work The Origin of the Species in 1859. This evolutionary theory consists of what surely all of us have heard about or studied.\n\nCrocodile cancunning\n\nAccording to the evolutionary theory of Darwin, individuals present random variations and evolution comes about by natural selection. These variations are also named as random mutations to point out their supposedly unguided nature.\n\nThe Darwinian theory punched the evolutionary theory proposed by Lamarck, where traits acquired during the life of individuals passed on to their descendants. A classic example is the evolution of the giraffes’ neck. According to the evolutionary theory of Lamarck, the first giraffes, by constant stretching of their necks to obtain food, managed to lengthen them and subsequently to breed descendants with necks a little longer. As for Darwin, he maintained that random giraffes born with longer necks were luckier than the average, survived more, and bred more descendants.\n\nAmong the theories of evolution, strictly speaking, we find the laws of Mendel (1865) about genetic inheritance, whose fundamental elements are the combination of genes and their dominant or recessive trait. It is worth pointing out that at the end of the 19th century, this theory remained unknown and not because Mendel did not try to publish it as some people say.\n\nIn short, the ideas presented by Lamarck, Darwin, and Mendel make up the general body of biological evolution or evolution of the species. Nonetheless, it is also worth pointing out the existence of minor theories derived from the previous ones and others of religious nature.\n\nRegarding the new theory of the Conditional Evolution of Life, nowadays, we know new processes like:\n\nThe answer to new knowledge by orthodox doctrine is an adaptation of Darwin's theory in the long term, as occurred during the twentieth century. Moreover, in the short period, it is to make concepts relative and blatant changing of names and notions to avoid recognizing past mistakes; however, its big mistake was the design of the books of general education of the population.\n\nNow, if there is the inheritance of acquired characteristics is not anymore the evolution propounded by Lamarck, but molecules inherited, although different from DNA molecules.\n\nIt seems Darwin was an expert in genetics and epigenetics, and he distinguished between heritable DNA and other molecules. Moreover, alleles are no longer different versions of genes for small chemical variations, but any gene that fulfills a similar function, although the mutation of a gene to its academic allele would be virtually impossible.\n\nEven Wikipedia ➹ in Spanish and French has incorporated the concepts of new orthodox, but curiously not in Portuguese ➹ or English ➹ –Inheritance of acquired characteristics.\n\nDoing some archeology of science to understand what is happening with theories of evolution and the origin of man, we see that orthodox doctrine has not changed the definition of the Royal Spanish Academy -RAE-, which says:\n\n  • Epigenesis.\n\n    • f. Biol. Doctrine where the traits that characterize a living being fix in the course of its development, without being established in the fertilized egg.\n\nEpigenetics ➹ is no longer gene expression by environmental conditions –such as the above RAE definition– but any gene expression, even if it comes from the previous generation genetic information, as far as it does not come from DNA. It seems the intention is to incorporate mutations produced in the life of earlier generations without recognizing that Lamarck was right and, incidentally, acknowledging and explaining that DNA and other molecules transmit genetic information.\n\nEither way, inheritance of modifications of genetic information produced in the life of the previous generations relate to phrases “the organ creates the function” and “the inheritance of acquired characteristics,” and as a modernist expression, we could say epi-inheritance.\n\nWe must remind the scientific community that Darwin's theory was never proven; especially now that it is obvious Lamarck's theory is correct.\n\nNevertheless, as theories of the origin of man both agree because they are evolutionary theories.\n\nMeanwhile, Conditional Evolution of Life has philosophical roots of Lamarck and Vitalism; as opposed to the emergentism of Darwin's theory.\n\nLet us go on now to carry out a critical analysis of the most relevant evolutionary theories.\n\nLikewise, a brief description of those evolutionary theories is in the addendum of about the human origin.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5366613268852234}
+{"content": "8165 Morro Road, Suites A, B, C, & D Atascadero, California 93422\n\nPhone : (805) 461-3002\n\nHours: Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM\n\n\n\n\nVaccines offer protection against major viral and bacterial diseases that cats and dogs may be exposed to. Pets are susceptible to disease at any age, and it's very important to have your kitten or puppy vaccinated for maximum protection. Your veterinarian will set up a vaccination program for your pet to provide protection for the diseases of concern in your area. Kittens and puppies often require an initial vaccination with follow-up booster shots to ensure they are well protected against diseases. Vaccines are designed to provide disease protection for a limited amount of time, often one year. So it's important to take your pet for an exam every year with your veterinarian, which will likely include their annual vaccinations. Vaccinations in young animals are a necessary building block in the foundation of your pet's immune system. Following a proper vaccination schedule will help to ensure that you are doing your part to keep your new friend healthy. Additionally, we recommend that all dogs and cats be placed on a monthly parasite preventative and be tested bi-annually for parasites.\n\nFont Resize", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.992668092250824}
+{"content": "Focus Areas | Central Urban Real Estate | Urban Villages\n\nCreating Community\nThrough a Diverse\nUrban Fabric\n\nFocus Areas\n\nUrban Villages was founded on the principle of creating and maintaining value for generations. Time has shown that centrally located properties are best positioned to weather cyclical downturns and increase value over time. As natural resources diminish and the associated environmental impact of their exploitation becomes more widely understood, cities will continue to densify in an effort to reduce our ecological footprint. Central locations allow close connections to the essential services and activities of life, which means less energy spent on transportation. This makes urban real estate a strong long-term investment opportunity and the core focus of Urban Villages.\n\nRESTORE: Historic Adaptive Reuse\n\nBUILD: Urban Infill\n\nREGENERATE: Environmental Stewardship + Biophilic Design\n\nWORK: Corporate + Shared\n\nLIVE: Luxury + Micro + Workforce\n\nRELAX: Retail + Food & Beverage + Services\n\nTRAVEL: Hospitality + Resort\n\nCREATE: Education + Art + Entrepreneurship\n\nInspired by a naturally human perspective.\n\nWhat We Do", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9973056316375732}
+{"content": "Lambeth Council Should Not Introduce More Controlled Parking Zones (Pay to park)\n\n0 have signed. Let’s get to 200!\n\nThis letter is to the council. It is long but encompasses a range of points from residents, do take a read and sign if you agree with any of these points.\n\nProposal to Introduce Controlled Parking Zones in Streatham \n\nI am writing this letter to express my objections to your proposal of implementing controlled parking zones (CPZs) in the Streatham area. \n\nIt is unfair and disproportionate for the council to pay for its shortfall in local government funds by penalising residents who own vehicles. The council is using CPZs as a revenue raiser for the Borough, which will have a detrimental effect on the area and its residents; as I outline below. You will note that I am not just raising concerns but also putting forward suggestions for alternative approaches:\n\nBy introducing CPZs the council is encouraging gentrification of the area, meaning as a result, the Labour council will be hitting those worst off and the poorest in our society; unable to pay rising costs imposed on them, there will be increasing pressure on poorer households to move out of the borough to find affordable accommodation. and be forced to move out of their home. It is well known that the cost of living is high and wages are low due to freezes in public sector pay, (with the Borough having significant employment in the sector),and the financial crisis of 2008.  “There are an estimated 49,000 people in poverty in Lambeth before housing costs, and 87,000 people in poverty after housing costs. A third of working age people and a quarter of people of retirement age in Lambeth are living in poverty”. This along with upcoming uncertainty due to Brexit, shows the Borough should not be imposing another cost on residents.\n\nLivelihood & Cost\nBy adding yet another “driver tax”, many of those on the lowest incomes who rely on their vehicle for day to day life will be forced into increased amounts of debt. \n\nThe prices the council is charging for a CPZ permit are extortionate. If this exercise is simply to stop commuters parking then there is no reason for the charges to be as high as proposed. There are estates in the borough that charge £30 for the residents to park for an entire year no matter what type of vehicle you own. Why should the local council (who are meant to be looking after our Borough and welfare) be charging more than that? Putting residents under financial strain for business purposes is not an appropriate manifestation of the councils “Duty of Care”.\n\nAs a resident, you have no security when purchasing these permits; there is no contract/cap in place between the council and the buyer around the price they can expect to pay in the future for a parking permit, and nothing to stop the council from hiking up the price of a permit as and when it chooses. This is not encouraging or reassuring to residents, and exacerbates general distrust between the public and government.\n\nOne of the biggest problems with this proposal is that many people will end up paying for parking and still be unable to get a parking space outside or near their house due to the amount of vehicles on the roads. Is the council proposing to reimburse those who are frequently unable to get a space on a pro-rata basis to compensate for this? \n\nPracticalities - An Example\nTwo roads, are currently heavily congested with vehicles. There are neighbours with multiple cars for business and some who have driveways, which leave many one vehicle households unable to find parking. \n\nIf a CPZ was implemented now, it would not make any difference to the ability to park outside your house for a few reasons;\nThose with multiple vehicles would have permits for those vehicles and still park their cars, therefore, not making any additional parking space for residents.\nSecondly the parking problems are generally in the evening and not the day, which is when the CPZ would not be enforced. \nAdditionally, those residents who are unable to have drives because of financial reasons or reasons imposed by the council (such as the curb/pavement being too short) would be the ones worse of as they would be forced to have to pay with no guarantee of parking.\n\nLambeth council are currently expanding Woodmansterne School, which will result in an increased amount of Teachers parking in the area. There are two issues with this:\nFirstly you are offering Teachers discounted permit rates, meaning they will be able to purchase permits in residential areas other than their own at a discounted rate, leading to less parking for residents and adding to the “commuter parking” problem.\nAdditionally, when expanding the School the site will be providing 40 spaces for over 200 staff; there is concern about where the additional staff who drive will park? This will only add to the problem, and will not solve it.\n\nStreatham High Road has been under financial strain for a while and we have been consistently and frequently trying to encourage people to shop on the High Street and “Save the High Street”. By imposing CPZs it will lead to a decrease in trade for local retailers as many people will not access them without the option to park and shop. Unfortunately, Streatham is not Brixton or Tooting and does not have nearby tube stations which make it easier for people to shop and encourages the public to leave their vehicles at home as sometimes it may be quicker, easier and cheaper to use the tube. It would be a shame to see the local high street and businesses suffer as a result of CPZs being introduced.\n\nEnvironment & Sustainability\n\nImplementing a CPZ in parts of Streatham will then impact other roads, as there will be an overflow of cars moving to the next road where they can obtain free parking. If part of this problem is commuter parking, then surely we need to look at the local infrastructure and public transport options, we also need to assess why it is that commuters feel the need to park and try to change the behaviour. Otherwise are we not just penalising local residents because of those who choose to commute to their place of work or a close destination by car? Are the public transport options not good or frequent enough; are certain areas unable to access good transport links? If we encourage the use of public transport through improvements and culture change, we in turn will tie in with the Mayor of London’s Air Quality Strategy. \n\nThe nature of driving and cars is changing; with the increased focus on improving air quality and the decline in fuel driven vehicles, national government will soon see a decline in revenue from fuel duty. This will most likely impact on local government, with decreased allocated funds resulting in less money to spend on the local area and local services.\n\nIn 2010, fuel duty receipt brought in £27 billion of revenue which is 1.8% of GDP; in 2016 this had gone down to 1.5% of GDP. \nIn 2019 the Local Authority Clean Air Zones come into effect, in 2020 it is projected that 5% of new car sales are fully electric.\nBy 2021 it is forecasted that electric/hybrid sales will overtake sales of new diesels, and by 2023 (in just 5 years), fuel duty receipts are estimated to dip below 1.0% of GDP (if freeze on rates is maintained). The council needs to be on the front foot of this.\n\nBy implementing CPZs the council is encouraging the decline of vehicles resulting in a quicker loss of revenue from fuel duty as people decide not to have cars. The council also needs to be mindful that due to the forecast increase in electric vehicles, their proposed parking controls will need to be reformed in the near future to support this new generation of vehicles. It is likely that people will need to pay for a space directly outside their house in order to connect their vehicle to be charged, or that there will be a need for spaces close to your house which have electric vehicle charging points.\n\nFrom the above, I am sure you can see that different areas and roads have different needs, and that there are many negative potential impacts for you proposal of a blanket policy of a CPZs for the entire Streatham area. This is not by any means a solution to the root cause of the problem. I understand the concern around parking, and it is certainly something I have considered raising with the council before; I have even considered whether a CPZ would be beneficial to solve the problem, but unfortunately on reflection there are more negatives than positives to this proposal. If we want to solve the issues around parking, we need to look at more innovative ways to solve parking problems, especially in this new technology driven economy.\n\nWe need to work together more as a community to solve these issues and come up with new initiatives to combat this problem. Often in the workplace, people come up with solutions to common problems around hot-desking etc. and I think we can use similar strategies in our local community to help each other out. This will help come to solutions combining those who have different stances, such as; those who want to protect the environment and encourage front gardens instead of driveways; those who are severely impacted by commuter parking due to close proximity to the high road; those who are unable to find parking in the evenings, and those families who rely on more than one car for their household.\n\nIf commuter parking is a problem, why don’t we look into ways in which we can lessen this?\n\nWe could have car share schemes in which commuters share a journey to a destination or residential area/road swaps, where people commuting to different parts of the area can identify themselves and “swap” parking spaces during working hours. \nThere are options to provide incentives for more people who use public transport, or rewards for those who already do; such as vouchers which can be used and redeemed in the local area.\n\nIf the problems are around households having too many vehicles, we could look at;\n\na requirement to have a permit on your second vehicle, or helping more people to have the option of a driveway, by extending the kerb or driveways which can fit multiple vehicles.\n\nThe council should be looking into the reasons why these issues emerge and encourage people to work together to solve them, helping to make our community better for us all rather than looking at money grabbing exercises which are of limited benefit to residents and business in the area.\n\nThank you for reading this letter, I hope you can take these suggestions on board as I believe Streatham has the opportunity to trail-blaze in this area.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9884893894195557}
+{"content": "Christopher John Rogers is a fashion-centered design studio based in Brooklyn, NY.\n\nChristopher John Rogers aims to target and serve the authentic. You're intelligent, aware of your body and its importance within the world, you understand that nothing is mutually exclusive. We make product for you, for those who consider their wardrobe to be a reflection of their maturity and endorsement of their authenticity, appreciating the brand’s nuanced approach to dressing. We take pride in specificity and a considered sense of proportion, helping you embody a declarative, personal idea of what it truly means to be chic.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9934987425804138}
+{"content": "FAQ – Airdrop Basic\n\nWhat is airdrop ?\nAirdrop in the world of crypto can be interpreted as a free coin distribution to the their project community. It is used as a media campaign to the public so that it can be known by the crowd.\n\nBasically cryptocurrency holds only value because people believe in them and recognize their value. The more people who have cryptocurrency, the more likely it is to become widely adopted and increase in value. Airdrops is effective because of the “endowment effect,” a phenomenon in which people will perceive value on something just because they have it.\n\nIf seen briefly airdrop performance is as follows:\nTask: Assist / perform tasks that are available under the airdrop rules held by the project owner.\nadvantages: get free coins\n\nProject owner\nTask: Provide Tokens for free to the community\nadvantages: Community promotion and support, initial token / coin Holder,\n\nBy executing prize waterdrops, startups can create mass awareness about their projects, token sales or pre-ICOs at a minimal cost to them. Social media campaigns allow the project to become visible to people who will never recognize its existence. Airdrops can also create a vast network of motivated users to drive project success by doing things together like winning community voting for exchange lists.\n\nBy rewarding token owners with freedrops, the project can also encourage users to hold (HODL) their coins for the long term. This can effectively lower the selling pressure of the coin. Airdrop Holder has become a popular tactic among some of the most successful crypto projects, such as NXT, WAVES, Bitcore, and more.\n\nso, each gets the benefit of the airdrop program.\n\n\nWhat is needed ?\nTo follow the airdrop you are required to have Email, active social media account and a wallet to receive free tokens / coins later\nSocial media commonly used in airdrop programs are: Bitcointalk, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Reddit, Discord, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, etc.\nwhile for wallet wallet is usually required that you have “Private Key” and not the wallet of platform exchange like Binance, Mercatox, Huobi etc.\nhere are some wallets that are often used to receive airdrop, if you do not have one please refer to the link below to get a wallet for free.\n\nNote: After you have the wallet, save and secure your Private key / login detail your wallet !!!\n\nIf Email, social media account and wallet you already have then you can follow the program airdrop. in this case you just follow the instructions or commands provided by the provider airdrop.\nsuch as joining Telegram group / channel them, giving like, comment and retweet their twiter postings. post, repost, like, comment on their facebook page. etc.\nin addition it is usually also available referral program (invite friends / others\nto join) to increase the number of coins you will receive.\n\n\nI have joined and completed the task, when do I receive a Token / Coin?\nGenerally Tokens / Coins are distributed after their project ICO phase is over, you can wait while looking at their project development through their social accounts, even airdrop participants usually get email notifications. you can also contact their admin / CS for distribution information of Token / Coin airdrop or discuss with other participants in the official groups available.\n\n\nI have received a Token / coin, Then how to turn it into money?\nWhen you receive a Token / Coin in your wallet. You have the full right to sell or store coins. You can sell directly in the available market. If the coin is not yet available in the market, then you just wait until it is available in the market. or sell individually to others looking for Token / Coin, in which case the price may be very different from what you sell in the official market and usually the selling price will be lower than selling in the official market and also at high risk.\n\n\nWhy Didn’t i receive my airdrop?\nAlthough the airdrop program is very easy, you should still be careful and follow the procedures given by the project owner.\nExample rules:\nStay active in the Telegram group by posting constructive posts at least 1 post / week until the ICO expires\nContinue to follow Telehram channel until ico is finished\nUnfollow / UnLike Unlimited until ICO is complete\nSocial media posts should be publicly viewable\nDo not create multiple accounts\n\nif violating any of the above rules may be one of the reasons you did not receive Token / Coins, if you do not violate, please contact the relevant admin to get more information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.689972996711731}
+{"content": "The Key to Unlocking Endless Storytelling Inspiration\n\nIn this four-week series, #StorytellingShift,  I'll be guiding you through the process of redefining how you perceive what it means to be a storyteller and how to change the way you approach future ideas so that you're never short of inspiration and new approaches to a project. Below you'll find a brief outline detailing everything you'll learn throughout the next four posts:\n\n  1. The Key to Unlocking Endless Storytelling Inspiration\n  2. Ten Tools to Help Change How You Think About Storytelling\n  3. How to Assess Your Story's Strengths\n  4. How to Use Different Storytelling Mediums to Enhance Your Project\n\nWhat is #TheStorytellingShift?\n\n#StorytellingShift is a change in perspective all writers who want to become storytellers eventually go through. It is the change a writer makes when they stop calling themselves a \"screenwriter\" or an \"author\" and come to understand that they are so much more than that – they're a writer who has inherently learned how to tell stories, an ability they come to understand is flexible and not limited to a certain way of writing.\n\nI underwent this shift in college when I decided to become a double major. I was already a film major and decided I would supplement this degree with an English one. I figured it would be the ultimate storytelling package as an undergraduate student and I loved how polar opposite my two degrees felt. In my English classes, we read a book a week, sat in circles to discuss stories, were never allowed to used phones, and wrote on chalkboards. By contrast, my film degree couldn't be more different. In those classes, we all sat on laptops, streamed projects and inspirations in seconds from our computers, and went completely paperless to save the environment.\n\nGet the workbook by filling out the form below!\n\nBut this dual-degree was just the beginning. Later, I decided to take a video game writing course and a playwriting course to add to my creative writing certificate. I was immediately struck by how different these storytelling worlds felt to me, but even more so I was so surprised how different my perspective was a screenwriter and prose writer. My approach to video game writing was filled with references to literature and my plays were obsessed with the audience, something I'd never dealt with so directly before. Pretty soon I became addicted to writing in different mediums. I had a list of plays, films, books and video games I wanted to write and went from having no ideas as a writer to far too many.\n\nNeedless to say, I was addicted to the way my storytelling changed.\n\nAnd now I want to help you go through the same shift.\n\nThe Key to Unlocking Endless Storytelling Inspiration\n\nAs a writer, there are often times when we are completely short for ideas. If we're lucky, these moments occur while we are in the middle of a project and not while we are looking for a story to tell, but more often than not, we aren't so lucky and so we sit around waiting for inspiration to strike us.\n\nSometimes we might turn to storytelling prompts to inspire us, though these prompts usually do more to develop our craft and less to generate ideas, though the occasional genius idea may emerge from time to time. Regardless, I'm sure that most writers, if given the option, would much rather feel a constant stream of inspiration coming their way than being forced to desperately seek it out whenever we are feeling low or uncreative, which if we're being honest with ourselves is a feeling all writers are all too familiar with.\n\nSo how does one command the storytelling muses to always head their way?\n\nOne of the most obvious ways to ensure inspiration is always relatively nearby is to constantly be telling stories. Working at the craft every single day begets more and more ideas because your subconscious is regularly reminded of your stories. But what if you're not working on anything because you're short on ideas? Or what if your project hit a major roadblock and you don't know where to go next? Often powering through a writer's block without inspiration or guidance can be more damaging than it's worth, and the darkness of being lost in idea limbo can be frightening and emotionally tolling, making us storytellers feel as if we are worthless for never being able to generate new ideas.\n\nSo if we're not writing or if we're dealing with a road block in our writing process, where else can we seek out inspiration, the type of inspiration that never ends and is always spouting out more?\n\nIn other stories, of course.\n\nBut not just stories that remind us of our work. In fact, by contrast, if you want to unlock endless amounts of inspiration as a writer, you're first going to have to take the plunge and start calling yourself a storyteller. You're going to have undergo #TheStorytellingShift.\n\nGet the workbook by filling out the form below!\n\nIn order to undergo this shift, you'll have to first let go of some premonitions or misconceptions. Some of these misconceptions include ideas like, \"watching TV is a waste of time\" and \"I don't have the skills to play video games.\" But other lies you need to stop telling yourself include the lie that \"you don't have the talent to write prose\" or that you \"can't think like a screenwriter.\"\n\nLetting go of these lies you've told yourself over time isn't easy, though, which is why I created The Storytelling System ebook to help you work through your #StorytellingShift. Using this ebook, you'll be trained into thinking like a storyteller, always analyzing other works for what you can learn and always diversifying your storytelling palate. But furthermore, you'll also start acquiring a whole new wealth of inspiration.\n\nHow is that, you ask?\n\nIf you remember from my anecdote at the beginning, I used to only be a prose writer, and then I focused on screenwriting. But before I was either of those things, I was a reader of books, a watcher of movies, and a player of video games. I was obsessed with stories and all the different ways to consume them, I just wasn't aware that I could learn things about writing from a video game the way I could about a book. I had this vague idea that being a writer only meant writing beautiful prose. I wanted the world to remember my name and my life as a prestigious author.\n\nBut then I was introduced to these new ways of storytelling, taking them equally as seriously, and I realized that what mattered to me was that my story was great and that I was proud of it. After I shook off the ego within me that told me my name as a storyteller was the most important thing as a writer and finally understood that telling a great story was more important, finding inspiration never became a problem again.\n\nSure, I had writers' block from time to time, trouble with a story, but I never again was lacking in sources of inspiration because I was taking video games as seriously as Shakespeare. And so should you!\n\nWithin the Storytelling System ebook provided in this series, you'll find a guide to each storytelling medium and what makes it so special, with examples to help you further understand. This will provide the first stepping stones to help you undergo your #StorytellingShift. As you begin to undergo the process of becoming a storyteller, you'll begin to see the story in everything, and I mean everything, but you'll also start to study different mediums in a new way.\n\nThis, in turn, will help you unlock the key to endless inspiration. Not only will you have an infinite amount of extra stories to draw inspiration from, but you'll begin to apply a narrative choice in a film to your current novel. You'll start writing a play and think back to your favorite quest in a video game and wonder how you can implement this into your story. You'll be writing your novel and incorporate the color themes from your favorite TV series.\n\nEssentially, you'll change completely as a storyteller and in a way that makes finding inspiration incredibly easy.\n\nAs a result, you'll always have a story to work on. This, in turn, will keep your subconscious regularly in tune with the storytelling world, but the different mediums will also constantly be challenging you. Think of it like a workout, where if you workout the same muscle the same way for too long, you stop seeing change happen and things will plateau. Then when you do a different workout, exercising the same muscle but in a different way, you start to see results again and become reinspired, believing once more in your progress because mixing things up means you're always seeing results.\n\nYou're still workout out your body, you're just challenging yourself to be better. With the #StorytellingShift, you're still working out your storytelling abilities, you're just exercising your muscle in a new way that yields better and faster results, constantly inspires, all the while keeping you focused on your craft.\n\nSteps to Getting Started\n\nWith all this new wisdom to take in – and potentially the overwhelmingly new but exciting way of thinking you're undergoing – you might be unsure as to how to get started unlocking all this inspiration. To make this transition even easier for you've – that's why I'm here, after all, to save you all the time and effort it takes to seek this out on your own – I've listed five steps to unlocking this endless, inspiration, right now. But, don't forget to get your copy of the Storytelling System ebook to supplement these steps!\n\nSTEP ONE: Make a list of all your inner biases towards certain storytelling mediums.\n\nIf you think video games are a waste of time or that plays are cheesy, say it. It's better to get these biases out on the page so you can understand what is holding you back from exploring other storytelling mediums. If you find that you don't have any biases, then you must ask yourself why, until now, you've refused to explore new mediums. Is it because you're like I once was, and are obsessed with being the sole author of your work? Or is it because you just can't imagine writing anything else? (If this is truly what you believe, might I remind you that you are a writer, whose sole purpose is to tap into their imagination.) Or is it because you're just comfortable writing in a certain medium and don't want to branch out for fear of being bad? Whatever it is, try and dig deep into understanding why you aren't willing to try out new mediums, or if you are willing, what has stopped you up until this point.\n\nSTEP TWO: Find a story in the medium you have the least experience with, and go experience it!\n\nThis could be the medium you are the most biased towards, or it could be one you've yet to dive into just out of negligence. Either way, take some time to go read a play, watch a mini series, or play an indie game – do whatever it is you don't usually do and let yourself enjoy it. Take note of the things that you find interesting or unique as you go, but overall try to immerse yourself in the story as best you can. If you're in need of a starting point, check out my storytelling gift guide, or my list of video games for the anti-gamer. All of these recommendations provide great insight into the different medium's strengths, so you know you'll have a source of inspiration right away.\n\nSTEP THREE: Write down what surprised you about this medium, what you can take from it and what it can give you.\n\nWith your fresh perspective, what did experiencing this medium feel like to you? What are some traits you can take away from this storytelling experience that you can apply to your current work in progress or previous stories? Write all this down so that when you are one day more comfortable with this medium you can remember what it was like when you were less familiar, but also write this down to help you connect directly how this story can inspire your work. For instance, after joining my video game class, I spent a lot of time wondering how I could tell a non-linear story in a video game the way novelists do. This led to me creating a really innovative story that pushed the video game writing medium to a new place. But this might not have happened if I hadn't sat down and assessed what prose had given me and what I could take from video game writing, namely, the open world.\n\nSTEP FOUR: Write a list of ways you can incorporate this new storytelling medium into your old work.\n\nOnce you've assessed what you can give to and take from a medium, it's time to brainstorm ways to apply it to other mediums. This part is where the inspiration really begins to reveal itself. If you aren't already thinking of new ways to tell your story and use the tools from this new medium to make your story stand out, use my sixteen storytelling prompts to get your mind thinking like a storyteller. As you do this more and more, the inspiration will come more naturally, especially once you've worked through the Storytelling System ebook. Until then, keep asking yourself how you can utilize other mediums to enhance your story. Slowly but surely, the waves of inspiration will begin to arrive until they're so fast you can hardly keep up.\n\nSTEP FIVE: Put it into practice\n\nThe most obvious step is to put what you've learned into practice. This can be by adding your new influences from other storytelling mediums into your current work in progress, or it can be completing repurposing an old story you've abandoned for a new medium. However you choose to start practicing using the tools of the new medium you've learned about, you must keep it up via both storytelling and story consuming. At first, this might seem like a lot of labor to keep track of, but over time it becomes intuitive and natural. In fact, if you're binging on Netflix while you also juggle reading Dickens, you're already doing half the work. Keep track of the stories you consume with my syllabus and take note of the ways they tell stories differently.\n\nBefore you know it, you'll be undergoing the #StorytellingShift and on track for a lifetime filled with storytelling inspirations.\n\nGet the workbook by filling out the form below!\n\nHave you begun thinking like a storyteller? Tell me below how your journey from writer to storyteller is going and what new mediums you are engaging with.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5297519564628601}
+{"content": "The routes\n\nsun 05 may 2019 alle h 17.30\nSantuario Santa Maria di Picciano\nVia Santuario di Picciano Matera (MT)\nFree - while seats last\n\nSuitable for all\n\nA cultural walk, during which you can savour artistic experiences, making the techniques and habits of those who do slow or gentle tourism your own. During the walk there will be intervals with theatrical moments in contact with the environment and nature.\n\nThe walk ends with the arrival at, and a visit to, the Sanctuary, where an orchestral concert awaits the pilgrims. The walk represents human life, and every man is, by essence, a 'traveller', a pilgrim; the word derives from the Latin peregrinus, which is made up of per (beyond) and ager (field).\n\nA pilgrim is a person who travels alone or in groups and is conscious of going along a road that is not everyday to reach a destination because only there can he perceive a spiritual richness to quench his 'thirst'. But people also travel for adventure, enjoyment, to savour new experiences, to search for themselves.\n\nThe objective of our itineraries is to contemplate the various types of route, both through the discovery of the territory and through musical and theatrical performances that focus on faith, love and happiness with provocative questions, by reading texts, reciting poetry and Gospel passages to increase a culture of communion and the greater rediscovery of others. Hermann Hesse believed that: Our purpose is not to transform ourselves into each other, but to get to know each other and learn to see and respect in others what they are: our opposite and our complement.\n\nradici e percorsi\n\nAll events of Cammino delle Letture arrow_forward_ios\n\nAll events of the project I Cammini arrow_forward_ios\n\n891 views of event\n\n40.6990 - 16.4718\nSee larger map\nCreate itinerary\n\nPreferenze Cookie\n\nI Cookie sono costituiti da porzioni di codice installate all'interno del browser che assistono il Titolare nell’erogazione del servizio in base alle finalità descritte. Alcune delle finalità di installazione dei Cookie potrebbero, inoltre, necessitare del consenso dell'Utente.\nPHPSESSID, egoCookie, cc\n_ga, _gid\ndatr, fr, sb, wd\nQuesta pagina fa uso di cookie per migliorare l’esperienza di navigazione. Per informazioni dettagliate sull’impiego dei cookie e come revocarne l’autorizzazione cliccare sul seguente link Maggiori Informazioni\nPreferenze Accetta", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8077673316001892}
+{"content": "• Players want say on Nations Champs\n\n    The International Rugby Players council has reinforced its stance that player views must be fundamental to any future competition proposals by World Rugby.\n\n    It follows a conference-call meeting of the Players Council on Tuesday night, which took place two weeks after the group highlighted serious player welfare and integrity concerns around World Rugby’s proposed global competition structure.\n\n    The council is now calling on the governing body and its member unions to enter meaningful negotiations how best to work together in future, citing that decisions are too often reached without any opportunity for players to positively influence the outcome.\n\n    Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers says World Rugby’s engagement with players needs to change.\n\n    ‘The players feel that the existing understanding between World Rugby and the players should evolve from a loose commitment to consult, to a requirement to reach agreement on certain key issues,’ De Villiers said.\n\n    ‘The feeling on the call was that it is no longer appropriate for World Rugby and the unions to determine tournament structures, logistics and tournament terms of participation without getting to an agreed outcome with players.’\n\n    Australian member and Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said players feel they are currently not consulted enough over changes to the Test window.\n\n    ‘We want to be part of key decisions in the game, however, at the moment we don’t have a proper seat at the table to exert any influence,’ Hooper said. ‘Players understand, better than anyone, what happens at the coalface and how certain decisions impact both the players and the broader game, so it would be counterproductive to cast the player view aside.\n\n    ‘Moving forward, we want to ensure that the players have independently appointed representation on the World Rugby executive committee and other key World Rugby decision-making bodies.’\n\n    Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones echoed both De Villiers’ and Hoopers’ views.\n\n    ‘We want to ensure that there will be no repeat of the current situation and that the frustrations over the lack of player consultation are addressed,’ Jones said.\n\n    ‘It’s in the interest of our game that World Rugby and the unions convene with the playing population so that proper solutions can be agreed. Players having a genuine and greater say can’t be undervalued.’\n\n    The IPRC re-affirmed its commitment to the global meeting on Thursday to discuss the latest version of the World Rugby proposal.\n\n    Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5154650211334229}
+{"content": "The Players summary gives an overview of all the opponents you’ve ever played with. By default, it will only show the most recently seen opponents (today). You can change this filter to show more opponents (last 30 days or last 3 months), and you can use the search box to find a specific player. For each of the opponents, you can see their statistics,. You can left-click on a player to get detailed information in the top panel. You can double-click to drill down to a list of hands played against that opponent.\n\nThe Players summary is useful to find weak or strong opponents. If you are playing an opponent you already know, you can use the Players table to see hands you’ve already played against this opponent and find out how you can exploit this opponent.\n\nWhy am I seeing no players in this table?\n\nAbove the list of players are three choices: “Fast”, “Medium”, and “Slow”. Only players who have played at least one hand during the selected period are shown.\n\nSo, with the “medium” filter, only players who played at least one hand in the last 30 days are shown. If you played no hands during that period, no players are shown.\n\nThe reason for this restriction is performance. Collating all the statistics for all possible players takes a long time, and was making this screen really slow for anyone with a large database. We tried various approaches to make it faster. We noted that no-one really wants to know about a player they haven’t seen in recent weeks/months. So we exclude all older players to keep the screen fast.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9053983688354492}
+{"content": "Depression, Anxiety, and Guilt\n\nAnswer: As-Salamu ‘Alaykum brother, Thank you for sending us your question. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing “immense depression and anxiety” ever since you graduated. I ask Allah to guide you to what is best for you and to fill your time with positivity and achievement. Brother, you have every right to … Continue reading Depression, Anxiety, and Guilt", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9487575888633728}
+{"content": "كاربرد خوشه بندي سلسله مراتبي براي افزايش كارايي نگاشت ويژگي خود سامان در شناسايي مناطق همگن هيدرولوژيكي به منظور برآورد سيلاب\n\nآب و خاک  \n\nدوره 29 - شماره 5\n\nنوع مقاله: Original Article\nچكيده: شناسايي گروه هاي همگن هيدرولوژيك يكي از مباحث بنيادي هيدرولوژي در دو بعد كاربردي و تحقيقاتي است. يكي از روش هاي معمول به منظور دستيابي به مناطق همگن هيدرولوژيكي براي برآورد منطقه اي سيلاب، استفاده از روش هاي خوشه بندي است. چندين تحقيق از نگاشت ويژگي خود سامان (SOM) در اين خصوص استفاده شده است. تفسير نقشه خروجي مشكل اصلي اين روش است. هدف از اين تحقيق كاربرد روش خوشه بندي دو مرحله اي نگاشت ويژگي خود سامان و سلسله مراتبي وارد (Ward) به منظور تعيين مناطق همگن هيدرولوژيك در حوضه هاي آبخيز استان هاي خراسان شمالي و رضوي است. ابتدا ابعاد ماتريس ورودي SOM با تحيل مولفه ي اصلي كاهش يافت. سپس از SOM براي تشكيل نقشه ويژگي دو بعدي استفاده شد. پس از آن گره هاي خروجي SOM بمنظور تعيين مناطق همگن در تحليل فراواني سيلاب به عنوان ورودي براي روش وارد به كار رفت. سپس توسط آزمون ناهمگني هاسكينگ و واليس، پنج منطقه كه از لحاظ هيدرولوژيكي از يك فرآيند سيلاب پيروي مي كردند، شناسايي شدند. نتايج نشان داد كه روش تركيبي نگاشت ويژگي خود سامان و سلسله مراتبي وارد با ورودي مولفه هاي اصلي به مراتب كاراتر از روش هاي سلسله مراتبي تنها با ورودي هاي استاندارد شده يا مولفه هاي اصلي، در دستيابي به مناطق همگن هيدرولوژيك است.\nUsing Hierarchical Clustering in Order to Increase Efficiency of Self-Organizing Feature Map to Identify Hydrological Homogeneous Regions for Flood Estimation\nArticle Type: Original Article\nAbstract: Introduction: Hydrologic homogeneous group identification is considered both fundamental and applied research in hydrology. Clustering methods are among conventional methods to assess the hydrological homogeneous regions. Recently, Self Organizing feature Map (SOM) method has been applied in some studies. However, the main problem of this method is the interpretation on the output map of this approach. Therefore, SOM is used as input to other clustering algorithms. The aim of this study is to apply a two-level SelfOrganizing feature map and Ward hierarchical clustering method to determine the hydrologic homogenous regions in North and Razavi Khorasan provinces.\nMaterials and Methods: SOM approximates the probability density function of input data through an unsupervised learning algorithm, and is not only an effective method for clustering, but also for the visualization and abstraction of complex data. The algorithm has properties of neighborhood preservation and local resolution of the input space proportional to the data distribution. A SOM consists of two layers: an input layer formed by a set of nodes and an output layer formed by nodes arranged in a two-dimensional grid. In this study we used SOM for visualization and clustering of watersheds based on physiographical data in North and Razavi Khorasan provinces. In the next step, SOM weight vectors were used to classify the units by Ward’s Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (Ward) methods. Ward’s algorithm is a frequently used technique for regionalization studies in hydrology and climatology. It is based on the assumption that if two clusters are merged, the resulting loss of information, or change in the value of objective function, will depend only on the relationship between the two merged clusters and not on the relationships with any other clusters. After the formation of clusters by SOM and Ward, the most frequently applied tests of regional homogeneity based on the theory of L-moments are used to compare and modify the clusters which are formed by clustering algorithms and find the best clustering method to achieve hydrologically homogeneous regions. Two statistical measures are used to form a homogeneous region, (i) discordancy measure and (ii) heterogeneity measure. The discordancy measure, Di , is used to find out unusual sites from the pooling group (i.e., the sites whose at-site sample L moments are markedly different from the other sites). Generally, any site with Di>3 is considered as discordant. The homogeneity of the region is evaluated using homogeneity measures which are based on sample L-moments (LCv, LCs and LCk), respectively. The homogeneity measures are based on the simulation of 500 homogeneous regions with population parameters equal to the regional average sample l-moment ratios. The value of the Hstatistic indicates that the region under consideration is acceptably homogeneous when H<1, possibly heterogeneous when 1≤H<2, and definitely heterogeneous when H ≥ 2.\nResults and Discussion Conclusions: At first by principal component analysis we reduced SOM input matrix dimension, then the SOM was used to form a two-dimensional features map. Then to determine homogeneous regions for flood frequency analysis, SOM output nodes were used as input into the Ward method. The regions identified by the clustering algorithms are, in general, not statistically homogeneous. Consequently, they have to be adjusted to improve their homogeneity. The sites that were flagged discordant by the discordancy measure were first identified. Secondly, the heterogeneity measures of the adjusted region were examined as they change with exclusion of each site from the region. Thirdly, the discordant site, whose exclusion reduces the heterogeneity measures of the region by a significant amount, was identified and removed. After adjustment of homogeneity regions by L-moment tests, five hydrologic homogeneous regions were identified. Finally adjusted regions are created by a two-level SOM and then the best regional distribution function and associated parameters are selected by the L-moment approach. The main results of this study are briefly mentioned: The results showed that the combination of self-organizing maps and Ward hierarchical clustering by principal components as input is more effective than the hierarchical method, by principal components or standardized inputs to achieve hydrologic homogeneous regions. SOM is a useful method to achieve homogeneous regions, because SOM has shown a high performance for visualization and abstraction of attributes, and displayed a distribution of each component. It is found that Ward’s algorithm is an easy way to cluster SOM units because Ward’s algorithm does not need to determine the optimum number of clusters before calculations\nقیمت : 20,000 ريال", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9854062795639038}
+{"content": "Flyer for Darwin Vineyards, a sustainable Chilean winery based in Curicó Valley, with vast experience exporting to 4 different continents and adapting to different markets. \n\nOn one side a poster, on the other an informative flyer.\n\n\nOne of the many materials I've made for the company, its purpose was to be presented and given away at wine fairs, so it should fit several markets including Russian and Asian. The challenge was to create a piece that would appeal to both continents graphic tastes, but also to keep the brand's identity.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9756456017494202}
+{"content": "Current hydric situation in the Mediterranean and the Middle East\n\nFor many years now, the Mediterranean has been facing problems leading to a situation of serious environmental degradation.\n\nAn increase in the temperature and salinity levels has been recorded during the second half of the 20th century in the Mediterranean Sea. However, this increase does not follow progressive trend and periods of temperature alternation have been observed.\n\nFollowing several climate change scientific reports, sea level trend at the global scale is higher than at the regional scales. Furthermore, in the regional scale there are other influence factors such the atmospheric pressure and the wind.\n\nIn addition, the small rises in temperature registered in the Mediterranean Sea, would have been compensated with an increase in the salinity, even though this fact is uncertain owing a lack of historical data.\n\nNevertheless, we can establish a prediction for the future: “The increase in the water stress in the Mediterranean basin (due to a higher evaporation rates and a decrease in rainfalls and water courses levels) will cause the raise of salinity would made up for the raise in temperature”*.\n\nDrought in the Mediterranean and Middle East, resulting from lack of rainfall, reduces run-off, thus also affecting, among other things, power generation. In combination with high rates of evaporation and lack of moisture, it alters soil properties making the soil less productive, thus holding back agricultural development, the backbone for the economy of the Mediterranean basin countries.\n\nThe main cause of the water stress suffered by the Mediterranean and Middle East is the increasing use of natural resources by the rising population and the higher demand for water per capita. This is not only because customs are being adopted that do not allow for balanced water use but also, and especially, because economic and industrial development in the region has turned its back on any type of sustainable management of resources and conservation of the natural environment. Industrialisation is not only responsible for the shortage of water but also for the high levels of pollution in the Mediterranean sea which are destroying natural habitats.\n\nOver the last century, water has become a much-valued resource leading to disputes between different peoples, causing internal and even international conflicts.\n\nProper water management is therefore necessary, especially because water is a limited resource in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Before this is possible, it is necessary to create a greater awareness amongst society. Industries must become more respectful of the environment, national policies must be adopted to promote such industries and sustainable, equitable water management must be set up. The countries in the region must continue working together on research to resolve the problems of the Mediterranean. Fair, common policies must be adopted, preventing further international conflicts.\n\nMed-O-Med has adopted a firm commitment to water use, not only because of its symbolic importance in Islam, but also because Islamic civilisation was behind a real revolution in water use. The example it set survives today in certain institutions, one such being the Valencia Water Tribunal in Spain which continues to function effectively today as it did in the past.\n\nMed-O-Med sees water management as one of the main challenges for the Mediterranean and Middle East region.\n\n* Spanish Climate: Past, Present and future. Regional climate change report. CLIVAR network. Fiz F. Pérez & Roberta Boscolo. January 2010.\n\nThis post is available in: English Español", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974587559700012}
+{"content": "Roman numerals MMCCCIII\n\nThe Roman numeral MMCCCIII corresponds to the Arabic number 2303.\n\n\nWe hope you have found this information useful. Please, consider to like this site on Facebook.\n\nHow to read and how to write MMCCCIII\n\nSymbols are written and read from left to right, from highest to lowest.\n\nIf number MMCCCIII is within to text or sentence it should be read in its equivalent in Arabic numbers, in this case 2303.\n\nPrevious number\n\nMMCCCII is number 2302\n\nNext number\n\nMMCCCIV is number 2304\n\nCalculate the conversion of any number and its equivalent in Roman numerals with our Roman numerals converter.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999342560768127}
+{"content": "Interest Rate\n\nInterest rate charged is the reward for taking the risk on the capital. Interest rate is often referred to as the “cost of funds” or hurdle rate.\n\nRisk to Capital\n\nIf the lender perceives a higher default risk on capital lent out, the higher the interest demanded. The causes to credit risks can come from shocks to the financial system from within the country or beyond. As the world’s financial systems are increasingly interlinked, any credit event far away can increase potential default risk.\n\nDemand for funds\n\nThe increased demand for funds when it outstrips the supply will also cause interest rates to rise. Genuine demand of funds comes from the industry’s need for investment. Industrywill borrow money for investments if they think their investments returns can better the interest rate. This type of capital demand can help a country increase its productive capacity.\n\nThe other types of demand are for household consumption such as housing mortgages, car loans, renovation loans or personal consumption.\n\nSupply of funds\n\nThe supply of funds varies in each country. The supply of funds can come in local currency or foreign currency. The supply of funds generally comes from the banks. The banks in turn receive their funds from equity and depositor’s funds. These funds are then lent out to borrowers, less offcapital reserves requirement such as BASEL III to maintain the stability of the banks via a capital adequacy ratio.\n\nFinancial institution having excess capital may then lend these funds to other financial institution other on an over-night basis, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and so on. This is referred to as the interbank rate or benchmark interest rate. In Singapore it is referred to as the Sibor rate, in London, it is referred to as the Libor rate, in the USA it is referred to as the Federal Funds Rate (overnight rate).\n\nThe supply of funds in a country depends on the money supply and the amount of depositor’s funds within a financial system. And in recent decades, the availability of credit (Debt) also increases the supply of funds is further complicating the issue of funds availability.\n\nGovernment Intervention\n\nA regulator or central bank usually intervenes in the overnight funds market. The effects of intervention then filters through to the rest of the tenures of the interbank lending rate.\n\nCore Inflation and headline inflation\n\nCore inflation measures the more constant inflation over a longer period, this helps any regulator to avoid knee jerk policy reaction. Headline inflation measures the current inflation and can be impacted by short-term supply and demand imbalances,causing temporary spikes and troughs in pricing. Every country varies in their measurement of inflation.\n\nWhen Core Inflation is on an uptrend, it can start to erode purchasing power and real growth. Rise in Core Inflation which is due to the economy overheating maylead to intervention by addressed by increasing interest rates. Core Inflation can rise when a nation is approaching full employment as disposable income increases causing wage inflation, potentially pushing up prices of goods and material. “Full employment” seems to be around 4% for the US economy where interest rates have to rise to start to curb inflation.\n\n\nChart: USA & UK Unemployment Rate 1990 to 2015, (Source: Trading Economics)\n\nGDP growth\n\nWhen a country’s total gross domestic production grows too quickly, it can cause Core Inflation to rise. For example, if a country’s GDP grows by 5% and inflation grows by 6%, this means that the country have negative real growth. When an economy grows at a fast rate, it is usually accompanied by a higher inflation rate as industry clamour for limited supplies of raw materials, and pushes production toward or beyond capacity. If income does not keep pace with inflation, this can cause social unrest. A regulator may hence pull the brakes on the economy by increasing interest rates to cool down the economy. Generally interest rates should somewhat track inflation, i.e. high interest rates high inflation. However interest rates can be kept artificially at a certain level for extended duration of time through intervention.\n\nNote: Many factors are at play and another chapter needs to be devoted to this topic.\n\nCross border Interest Rates\n\nAs the world’s major economies are increasingly interlinked, policies and regulations in other countries may affect another country. If for instance the global environment is rising in interest rates and going on a reduced risk appetite mode, then all connected economies will be affected competitively. Funds may then move away to seek higher returns via higher interest rates (all factors being equal).\n\nHence if you are a chicken Rice stall selling your chicken rise at $5. Suddenly the other chicken rice stalls within 200m of your stall have raised their chicken rice to $10, this means that many customers may come to your stall. You and your staff will be swamped with customers. Your staff will be stretched and tired and you may have to pay them more to work over-time. Soon you have to increase your prices too.\n\n\nChart: USA Overnight Fed funds rate Vs Sibor overnight rate (Source: iEconomics)\n\nFunds Flows and Exchange Rate\n\nThe movement of capital across the globe has implications on each country’s economy. Some developing countries have higher percentage of corporate and household debt denominated in foreign currency and therefore at a greater risk from sudden funds arrival and withdrawal from their markets. Money supply in local currency may also suffer from withdrawals of deposits and repatriation of profits to foreign markets.\n\nExchange rate plays an important part for investorsparking their funds in any country. If the investment currency is expected to weaken significantlyagainst the investor’s base currency, investors may then decide to withdraw their funds from the invested currency.\n\n(However do note that investors do not park all their funds in a local currency, they can park their funds in USD.)\n\nInterest rates may have to rise when funds become scarce. Alternatively some country’s regulator or banks may have mechanisms to react preemptively to raise interest rates to cushion against a weakened currency by increasing interest rates.\n\nMany countries regulate the economy by varying the interest rates to regulate the speed of the economy. These policy levers are effective for countries with a large domestic economyrelative to trade.\n\nSome countries such as Singapore where trade is 2 to 3 times the GDP, import prices contribute a higher percentage towards inflation relative to domestic prices. (Reference 1). Singapore manages its exchange rate to import inflation. Hence there may be less impetus for intervening in the interest rates, except as a preventive measure to stabilize exchange rate movements. (Note: Regulatory intervention in interest rates in Singapore is a presumption)\n\nShocks to the Financial System\n\nShocks to the financial system (systemic risks) may cause bankruptcies and defaults.\n\nThere are many possible shocks to the financial system, just to name a few: –\n\nExchange Rate Volatility via Quantitative Easing\n\nQuantitative Easing (Printing money) leads to currency devaluation. A currency which is devaluing may need to raise interest rates to slow down its devaluation as compensation to investors for holding the currency. Financial institutions and fund houses with un-hedged cross currency borrowings may end up bankrupt leading to a cascade of possible defaults. (A case being the recent unexpected de-pegging of the Swiss franc to the Euro, which caught many by surprise)\n\nSovereign Debt Defaults\n\nSlow economic growth and high sovereign debt especially in European nations are risky. Budget deficits causes potential defaults. Any possible risk of defaults or downgrade of the economy could cause interest rates to swing upwards further escalating risks. Sovereign bonds could become worthless causing a cascade of asset losses and bankruptcies for investors.\n\nOther Troubled Assets and Toxic Assets\n\nBanks typically hold very little equity and are overleveraged. Hence asset depreciation or write-downs (in the form of loss of asset value) could make the banks insolvent. Hence the Basel Accord was formed to mandate minimum reserve liquidity in the world’s banking systems (Reference 2). Increase in the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) means that the banks will have less capital to lend out and hence banks may demand higher interest rates.\n\n\nThe above are some of the key factors that affect interest rate movements. It is inherently hard to decipher and predict the time frame of interest rate movement. Many more credit events and unexpected shocks awaits which could severely impact interest rates.\n\nReferences: –\n\n1. Singapore’s nominal GDP, USD $298 billion (2013). Total imports SGD $362 billion in 2015. Total Exports SDG $449 billion in 2015. (Source:\n\n2. Understanding of Basel III. (Source:\n\n\niCompareLoan is a Research Focused Mortgage Consultant who compares and gives you the best fit home loan, commercial loan or SME business funding.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9905235171318054}
+{"content": "\"In tracing my family tree, there was an anomaly at my grandparent's level that I was unable to overcome.  The more I tried, the more confusing it became.  Talking it through with Jonathan, he formulated it into a meaningful correlation of facts which he then used to accurately take the next step back.  We have made huge strides ahead now and I can highly recommend his services\" - J.C. from Wiltshire\n\n\n\"Thank you so much for this report which both my sister and I are absolutely delighted with\"\n\n- E.S. from Wiltshire\n\n\n\"I was very pleased with your report and I would highly recommend your research services\"\n\n- S.N. from Hertfordshire", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8953593373298645}
+{"content": "PICTURE for H2H web.jpg\n\nHeart2Heart Prenatal\n\nClick the logo to go to our sister website for more information on our Pre/Post Natal therapies.\n\nMany women, at some point in their pregnancy, will experience some type of pain or discomfort due to the changes their bodies undergo. At Restore353 we have created pre and post natal therapy programs, with the goal of providing our expecting and new mothers, uniquely individualized experiences, tailored to their specific needs.We have incorporated the benefits of yoga, massage and Pilates therapies and combined them together to help relieve the physical and mental stresses to the body resulting in a less painful and more relaxing, healthy experience.  \n\n4 prenatal pict .jpg", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8784151673316956}
+{"content": "Hand Washing Techniques for Healthcare Industry\n\nhand washing technique\n\nThere is little need to explain why hand-washing is important, especially for those in the medical profession. Hands are the first body parts to come in contact with anything that has to be touched or felt. Medical professionals do it almost every time they interact with patients. Hand hygiene is therefore an integral part of doctors’ and nurses’ routine and must be performed frequently – almost every time for each patient.\n\n\nHand-washing may appear to be a simple process but in reality it isn’t – for the washing to be effective, they must follow a few hand-washing techniques.\n\n\nHand Washing Steps\n\n\nThough all medical professionals are at risk of contracting diseases from patients, nurses are at greater risk than others because they play a very critical role. The emphasis is on nurses because they are the ones who handle surgical goods, medical equipment, medicines, wound-dressing materials, and bedding, and so on.\n\n\nHere are 6 steps of hand washing that every nurse should do not only to save themselves from infections but also to protect other patients from contracting diseases that they are not already carrying. When we say hand, we mean the entire hand from fingertips up to the wrist.\n\n\n  1. Moisten hands first, preferably in warm sterilized soft (hard water is not effective because of its poor foaming quality) running water (tap water). Moistening is recommended because hand-washing solution (such as soap) is more receptive to foaming and is more likely to wash away bacteria thoroughly.\n  2. Pour a small quantity of a liquid hand-wash solution (liquid is preferred because they spread evenly and easily foams) on the palm and rub the palms with a rounded action. A rounded action is essential because it is able to foam more and cover the entire area.\n  3. Don’t ignore the outer side of your hand (the side opposite of your palm). With the left palm rub the outer side of the left hand and perform vice-versa so that both the hands come out clean. While it is recommended that you perform this step with care, we caution you not to do it too enthusiastically so as to harm the skin. You are your best judge of what is great and how many times you do it.\n  4. Give special attention to the space between your fingers – this is the place where bacteria are more likely to lodge and pose a threat. To ensure that this space is able to get a good rubbing, interlock your fingers and glide them up and down a few times. At this point of time, ensure that the cleaning solution has penetrated the finger tips and into the spot just below the nails.\n  5. The back of your finger should get some special attention because bacteria are more likely to lodge in the place where you are The rounded join with the muscles below. To clean this spot, use fingers to rub other fingers. Your thumb can really help to perform this motion. Don’t forget the thumb either; give it a good rub too.\n  6. Rinse you hands thoroughly with water until all traces of the liquid hand-wash is gone. You can tell this when you no longer feel the slipperiness that is usual to washing liquid. Always pat-dry your hands with a sterilized towel or a paper napkin after a hand wash. If your hospital has an electric hand dryer, you can use it instead of a towel or a napkin.\n\n\nThere are many liquid hand-wash manufacturers in India that produce cleaning supplies. However, remember that liquid hand wash is not the same as a sanitizer – sanitizers are different and cannot substitute and provide the same level of protection as a liquid hand wash.\n\n\nSavoncare are leading manufacturers of domestic cleaning supplies which takes utmost care in formulating products which are AZO free and friendly to the environment. Head to our product section to explore more about our products.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCopyright © 2018 Savoncare Powered by", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5521141290664673}
+{"content": "Our mission\n\n\nThe theme of our series of daily events is to greet the migrating wild geese, who are coming to us from the far north regions.\n\nThis is not a loud festival with music and merchant’s fair, but still it has its own special flavor. This is an affair, where the many thousands of wild goose provide the entertainment, and we, the visitors are the audience. The Wild Goose Festival of Tata” is not only a cavalcade of wild geese, but the gathering of fowlers, birdwatchers and conservationists.\n\nWhat makes this a Europe-wide “unique of its kind attraction” is the “Öreg-Tó” (Old Lake) itself. This is the only bird resting location, which is surrounded by a whole town.  And it is not just any city!  Tata is the “City of Water” with the most significant water castle in Hungary. There are several historic monuments of baroque architecture mixed with modern age constructions, that creates a special “must see” background for bird watching!\n\nThis unusual encounter of nature and culture is what makes the city of Tata so special and magical.\n\nThe “Wild Goose Festival of Tata” is organized by the Komarom-Esztergom county chapter of the Birdlife Hungary, the National Park Authority of Duna-Ipoly and the Nature Conservation of Száz Völgy, since 2001.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9145790934562683}
+{"content": "7.6 Earthquake hits Eastern Peru\n\nANDINA/Carlos Lezama\n\n18:54 | Lima, Nov. 24.\n\nA 7.6 M earthquake on the Richter scale hit Eastern Peru’s Madre de Dios region at 17:45:38 (UTC-05:00), the US Geological Survey reported.\n\nThe epicenter was located 169 kilometers (105.01 miles) WNW of Iberia locality belonging to the Tahuamanu province.\n\nSocial media posts claimed the natural phenomenon was also felt in other regions of the country such as Cusco, Tacna, Puno, Arequipa, Junin and countries: Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.\n\nA second 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred at 17:50:52 (UTC-05:00).\n\nIts epicenter was located in the Ucayali region 208 kilometers (129.45 miles) NW of Iberia.\n\nNo damage or injury was reported.\n\n\nPublished: 11/24/2015\nMost read", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8077408075332642}
+{"content": "Have you been shut up in the house due to extreme cold, heavy weather, ice and snow? Has the sun hidden under thick layers of gray cloud for many days?\n\nPlease dear friends, come out of your warm winter cages and move your bodies. Breathe in the fresh cool air. Put one foot in front of the other, find a way to let nature heal and revive you with her pure clear air, her life giving light, the birds that sing their ancient songs, the animals that play their age-old games.\n\nNature revives you with her healing power of renewal. Witness the dark leafless tree branches writing on the sky, like ink on parchment – nature’s own calligraphy. They are soon to be covered in lacy green leaves unrolling to soak in the warm sunlight.\n\nEach step you take, each breath moves vital energy throughout your body circulating your life force, connecting you to the rhythms of life, rhythms of the earth.\n\nLet nature revive and renew your spirit!\n\nInner winter\n\nIn winter, the ice and snow and wind keep you snug at home, keep you separate in your warm wrapping of sweaters and blankets, down comforters and scarves. The roads and walks can be dangerous with slippery ice and packed snow. It can send you humans reeling and sliding with no warning… so you stay at home.\n\nGrandmother Cottonwood in snow\n\nI ask you, is there a winter in your heart that keeps you isolated and separate from others? Does this inner winter cause you to fear venturing beyond the confines of the known, the familiar, the safety of your known world?\n\nYou can turn this inner winter to spring. As you heal, you can thaw the frozen thoughts and beliefs, have patience until the poor visibility clears. You can get yourself unstuck from deep snowdrifts and move forward. You can begin to melt the ice within you that keeps you isolated and alone.\n\nHave patience dear one, the spring thaw takes time as the weather gradually warms. When the earth is no longer frozen, the runoff permeates the thawed soil bringing new life to the earth, new hope and growth.\n\nThe deep freeze will soon be over, and you will regain your flexibility ease and flow.\n\nFalling leaves\n\nDo you have a moment to watch as sun-struck amber and golden leaves dance, spiral and flutter to to the Earth in their final act of letting go? \n\nThere is peace, beauty and grace in letting go.\n\nDSCN9267 (640x480)\n\nAutumn leaves\n\nLet the trees teach you the gentle yet powerful art of releasing. For them, it is time to let go of all those dying leaves that have served their purpose.  The trees time of letting go may inspire you to release your grasp on the worn out thoughts, the beliefs and patterns in your life that are stale, no longer helpful, that keep you stuck in the past.\n\nAfter releasing comes a time to rest  as you gather your strength once again.  Then when you are rested and feeling strong and conditions are favorable for growth, it is time to start over again.\n\nFor the trees in spring the angle of the light, the temperature and rainfall support and nurture tender new growth as millions of new leaves unroll to the bright sunlight.\n\nWhen you let go of the old, you make room for fresh new life and insights to light you up and move you forward. \n\nLet yourself be clear and open to the new life that wants to flow through you when the timing is right!\n\nLet the truth of your underlying spirit, the structure of your soul be exposed to the light of love as you gather up nourishment and strength during your long winter’s nap.\n\n\nLate summer\n\nGrowing things seem to pause now. Deep green leaves of ash, maple, and oak hang still in the humid air.  Butterflies frantically feed, flit and dance among late summer wild flowers…\n\nDSCN8535 (480x640)\n\nLate summer prairie grass\n\nThe new growth and excitement, the twittering birdsong of spring is a memory.  Now the grasses bend, top heavy with seed.  Dragonflies dart and zip above the prairie, sunlight reflecting from their glassy wings.\n\nThe new bird generations have all fledged and flown – Empty nests all around.  The insects sing their late summer songs, the chirp, the buzz, the whine of cricket and cicada, the tempos slowing as nights grow cooler.  The tree frogs chorusing their trance like rhythm into the wee hours, night after night.\n\nFlowers that were bright with summer’s colors just a few weeks ago now fading, browning,  going to seed.   Still blooming, the magnificent plumes of goldenrod, masses of them,  swaying gently in the breeze.\n\n2018-08-27 09.56.38 (640x480)\n\nGoldenrod plumes\n\nAll the green rooted things hold their breath,  soak in the light of the  southward sliding sun, before the final days, the yellowing, the browning, the final dropping of seed and leaf, the dying down to the roots, the cooler autumn wind that will soon come and bring frost with it, and death.  The great letting go, before winters long nap…\n\nStand here on the cusp of change, knowing what is passing, knowing what is to come.  It is time for a late summer  rest.  Lie back under a friendly tree, soak up this still and timeless, day, this moment, before the sun turns to autumn once again.\n\n\n\nWheel of the year\n\nIt is the season for low slanting sunlight, the silent message all living creatures are attuned to. Summer is past, winter will come. The wheel of the year turns.\n\nLive each day, each moment, each breath fully, for the cycle of the year teaches us that all physical things change – nothing you can see, touch, taste, hear, smell, hold in your hand is permanent. Even the rocks beneath your feet will erode away. The huge trees that shade and shelter you will grow old and decline as young trees take their place in the canopy.\n\nDSCN6611 (469x640)\n\nPainted lady butterfly on red zinnia\n\nYou too are an integral part of the wheel of life.\n\nCan you let go of what was once true about you and accept the realty of your now? Perhaps you still expect to see a physically beautiful young adult looking back from your mirror, but instead see a gray haired grandparent…\n\nBeneath the physical aspect of our reality – which so many of you seem so attached to – lies your indestructible spirit and that, my dear will never grow old, never die.\n\nAs the earth cycles into a new season, as your body grows older, as the landscape changes beneath your feet, Remember your indestructible spirit that lies at the very heart of your existence here on our beloved planet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6192723512649536}
+{"content": "Birth of a Story\n\nMara Salvatrucha Gang Members, El Salvador\n\nWhen I wrote my short story, “Incognito,” I attempted to shine a light on the realities about which most Norte Americanos have no clue. For example, many Trump supporters believe these people who come in caravans to the border from Central and South America are attempting to “smuggle” their illegal children across. In truth, there are very specific laws in the U. S. that allow people coming from war-torn or violent countries to be able to apply for asylum. This is what they are trying to do, for the most part, although one cannot assume for all.\n\nIn my story, I chose a Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) family, who is also half indigenous or mestizo. During the Inquisition in Spain, many Sephardi Jews came to South America to escape death. They never became Christian and were thus persecuted. The native tribal people have always been discriminated against. So, my fictional family from El Savador already has two strikes.\n\nThen, I added another layer of problems. First, the Mara Salvatrucha, MS-13, has infiltrated their village, and a group has targeted young girls. My narrator’s sister, Guadalupe, is one of those targets. However, because my narrator is also called a “genius” by his mother for his intelligence at twelve years old, he also sees “visions.” His ability to talk to the gang’s leader, “Smiley,” saves his sister from prostitution, but his brothers are kept to cook meth as insurance for the family’s transport down south to the land of “freedom,” the United States.\n\nThe story incorporates a coming-of-age motif for the narrator, Felipe, as well as a unique way for me to explore what I believed about the symbolic connection between all peoples in the Jungian dreamscape of the Collective Unconscious. I am able to weave into Felipe’s visions a creation story based on the Brahma and Shiva myths, as well as the root of Justice in Judaic teachings.\n\nAt one point, the gang leader is reading the newspaper, as he is an educated gang leader (there are even educated criminals–what a concept!), and he sees that President Trump has called the MS-13 animals. He remarks that Trump allows his rich gangster friends from Russia to stay at his hotels and create “anchor babies,” but he won’t allow any South or Central Americans, who are poor, to be, in any way, associated with MS-13.\n\nI also added some actual gang practices and rivalries (with Barrio-18) into the story, and contrasted them with the visions that my narrator is having. The reader is made well aware of the contradictions.\n\nSo, I tried to add a bit of irony to the story. At any rate, like most of my work, it will not be published in any mainstream press (most likely), but it does my heart good to be able to explore the reality that exists for many people seeking asylum and who are turned away by the greedy and arbitrary laws of this administration.\n\nIf you’ve read this far, then perhaps you might want to read the complete story, in case it doesn’t find publication space. Please message me, and I’ll give you a private Docs link.\n\nShare Button", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6164517402648926}
+{"content": "Click here to ask your driving related question.\n\nAsk a driving related question on AnswersforDrivers.com.\n\nWhat is Considered Driving Under the Influence of Drugs?\n\nA charge of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) is different than a DUI offense. The criminal penalties are similar, but many states do not allow the DMV to suspend your driving privileges. The jurisdiction of the DMV arises out of violating the “per se” laws. The per se laws in each state make it a crime to operate a motor vehicle with a BAC over the legal limit. Since there are no per se levels established for DUID, the DMV does not have jurisdiction.\n\nIn most DUID cases, being under the influence is defined as being unable to operate a motor vehicle in the same manner as a sober person would. The primary question is whether the driver is too impaired to drive safely. The law does not care if the drug is legal, illegal, a prescription medication or an over the counter medication. The only question is whether the legal definition of DUID has been met.\n\nIf you have been detained on suspicion of DUI and you passed the preliminary breath test, the officer will suspect you of DUID. Once you have been arrested, most jurisdictions will require you to take a blood or urine test.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5509817600250244}
+{"content": "Learning to play other people's guitar solos is a great way to begin learning to write your own! Guitar teacher Nils B. shares his tips to learning four classic rock solos so you can develop your technique... An essential part of every musician's development is to imitate those who have already mastered their instrument. After settling on a song, give it a couple of close listens (preferably on headphones or a decent stereo), pick up a good transcription, then learn the rhythm parts, while an\nRussell, George (2001) [1953]. \"Chapter 1 The Lydian scale: The seminal source of the principal of tonal gravity\". George Russell's Lydian chromatic concept of tonal organization. Volume One: The art and science of tonal gravity (Fourth (Second printing, corrected, 2008) ed.). Brookline, Massachusetts: Concept Publishing Company. pp. 1–9. ISBN 0-9703739-0-2.\nIt shouldn’t be a surprise that students learn faster when taking private guitar lessons or classes, compared to watching video tutorials or YouTube videos. Finding a specialized teacher - whether in-home, studio, or online classes - for one-on-one guitar tutoring will give you the feedback and personal attention you need to become the best guitar player you can be!\nTo play a C chord on a guitar, put your ring finger on the third fret on the A string, your middle finger on the second fret on the D string, leave the G string open, and put your index finger on the first fret of the B string. Before you try to strum the chord, play each note individually until the note sounds clear. When you've mastered the C chord, try moving on to other chords like G or F.\nYou can tell whether or not strings are of a thin or thick gauge based on the numbers on the package. The smallest number, which is the gauge of thinnest string, will usually be .9 or lower on thin gauge strings. On thick gauge strings this number will be .12 or higher. Strings that are .10 or .11 are generally considered to be “mediums”, and produce a tone and feel which is the middle ground between these two extremes.\nUnlike a piano or the voices of a choir, the guitar (in standard tuning) has difficulty playing the chords as stacks of thirds, which would require the left hand to span too many frets,[40] particularly for dominant seventh chords, as explained below. If in a particular tuning chords cannot be played in closed position, then they often can be played in open position; similarly, if in a particular tuning chords cannot be played in root position, they can often be played in inverted positions. A chord is inverted when the bass note is not the root note. Additional chords can be generated with drop-2 (or drop-3) voicing, which are discussed for standard tuning's implementation of dominant seventh chords (below).\nI would especially like to stress the gentle approach Justin takes with two key aspects that contributed to my development as a musician - music theory and ear training. Justin has succeeded in conveying the importance and profoundness of understanding music both theoretically and through your ears while maintaining a simple and accessible approach to them, all while sticking to what is ultimately the most important motto: 'If it sounds good, it is good'.\nOur relaxing music is perfect for Deepak Chopra meditation, Buddhist meditation, Zen meditation, Mindfulness meditation and Eckhart Tolle meditation. This music is influenced by Japanese meditation music, Indian meditation music, Tibetan music and Shamanic music. Some benefits include cleansing the Chakra, opening the Third Eye and increasing Transcendental meditation skills. The work of Byron Katie, Sedona Method, Silva Method and the Secret highlights the fact that healing can occur through using the mind and being in the “now”. Healing Meditation can be practised using this music for best results.\nThe BMus in performance with a concentration in guitar is a program that focuses on the study of classical guitar literature and techniques. Goals include enabling students to express themselves musically while emphasizing the skills necessary to pursue careers as professional musicians. The course of study includes extensive performance experiences.\nLearn a G major. Your ring finger goes on the top string, 3rd fret. The middle finger is for the 5th string, 2nd fret, and you pinky goes all the way to the bottom, on the 3rd fret of the 1st string. Strum all of the strings together to play the chord. If you want, add in the 3rd fret, 2nd string -- this not is not necessary, but makes a richer sounding chord.\nThe Master of Music in Performance (Guitar) from Musicians Institute combines advanced performance training with additional study in both traditional and contemporary disciplines such as music history, theory, education, research skills, recording technology, production, business relations and online brand management, taking your guitar skills to the highest level.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976118803024292}
+{"content": "2195 Celsius to Kelvin\n\nDo you want to know how much is 2195 celsius converted to kelvin? With our free celsius to kelvin conversion tool, you can determine the value in kelvin of 2195 celsius.\n\nConvert     celsius to kelvin  \n\n2195 celsius = 2468.15 kelvin\n\nConvert 2195 kelvin to celsius\n\nHow to convert 2195 celsius to kelvin?\n\nNote: °C is the abbreviation of celsius and °K is the abbreviation of kelvin.\n\n0 celsius is equal to 273.15 kelvin:\n\n0 °C = 273.15 °K\n\nIn order to convert 2195 °C to °K you have to use the following formula:\n\n2468.15 °K = 2195 °C + 273.15\n\nSo use this simple rule to calculate how many kelvin is 2195 celsius.\n\n2195 celsius in other temperature units\n\nWant to convert 2195 celsius to other temperature units? Use these links below:\n\nRecent celsius to kelvin conversions:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9595414400100708}
+{"content": "Apollo's Daring Mission • 2018 NOVA PBS\n\nCategory: Astronomy\n\nApollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of how the first mission to the moon, Apollo 8, pioneered groundbreaking technologies that would pave the way to land a man on the moon and win the space race.\n\nNOVA PBS • 2003 - 2019 • 40 episodes •\n\nThe Great Math Mystery\n\nJoin NOVA on a mathematical mystery tour—a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy, and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers, follow math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond. It all leads to the ultimate riddle: Is math a human invention or the discovery of the language of the universe?\n\n2015 • Lifehack\n\nWhere Did We Come From?\n\nIn this episode of NOVA scienceNOW, journey back in time to the birth of our solar system to examine whether the key to our planet's existence might have been the explosive shockwave of an ancient supernova. Meet a chemist who has yielded a new kind of \"recipe\" for natural processes to assemble and create the building blocks of life. And see how the head louse, a creepy critter that's been sucking our blood for millions of years, is offering clues about our evolution. Finally, meet neuroscientist André Fenton, who is looking into erasing painful memories with an injection.\n\n2011 • Science\n\nBig Bang Machine\n\nOn July 4, 2012, scientists at the giant atom smashing facility at CERN announced the discovery of a subatomic particle that seems like a tantalizingly close match to the elusive Higgs Boson, thought to be responsible for giving all the stuff in the universe its mass. Since it was first proposed nearly fifty years ago, the Higgs has been the holy grail of particle physicists: in finding it they validate the “standard model” that underlies all of modern physics and open the door to new discoveries when CERN’s giant collider switches on at higher power in 2015.\n\n2015 • Physics\n\nChasing Pluto\n\nOn July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft, one of the most advanced ever built, is scheduled to fly by Pluto to take the very first detailed images of the dwarf planet. After nine years and 3 billion miles, we will finally get a close look at this strange, icy world, but only if the craft can survive the final, treacherous leg of its journey, which could take it through a dangerous field of debris.\n\n2015 • Astronomy\n\nCyberWar Threat\n\nThe global cyberwar is heating up and the stakes are no longer limited to the virtual world of computers. Now, thanks in part to secret documents released by Edward Snowden, the true scale of the National Security Agency's scope and power is coming to light.\n\n2015 • Technology\n\nInside Einstein's Mind\n\nOn November 25th, 1915, Einstein published his greatest work: general relativity. The theory transformed our understanding of nature’s laws and the entire history of the cosmos, reaching back to the origin of time itself. Now, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s achievement, NOVA tells the inside story of Einstein’s masterpiece. The story begins with the intuitive thought experiments that set Einstein off on his quest and traces the revolution in cosmology that is still playing out in today’s labs and observatories. Discover the simple but powerful ideas at the heart of relativity, illuminating the theory—and Einstein’s brilliance—as never before. From the first spark of an idea to the discovery of the expanding universe, the Big Bang, black holes, and dark energy, NOVA uncovers the inspired insights and brilliant breakthroughs of “the perfect theory.”\n\n2015 • Physics\n\nLife's Rocky Start\n\nFour and a half billion years ago, the young Earth was a hellish place—a seething chaos of meteorite impacts, volcanoes belching noxious gases, and lightning flashing through a thin, torrid atmosphere. Then, in a process that has puzzled scientists for decades, life emerged. But how? NOVA joins mineralogist Robert Hazen as he journeys around the globe. From an ancient Moroccan market to the Australian Outback, he advances a startling and counterintuitive idea—that the rocks beneath our feet were not only essential to jump-starting life, but that microbial life helped give birth to hundreds of minerals we know and depend on today. It's a theory of the co-evolution of Earth and life that is reshaping the grand-narrative of our planet’s story.\n\n2016 • Environment\n\nMemory Hackers\n\nMemory is the glue that binds our mental lives. Without it, we’d be prisoners of the present, unable to use the lessons of the past to change our future. From our first kiss to where we put our keys, memory represents who we are and how we learn and navigate the world. But how does it work? Neuroscientists using cutting-edge techniques are exploring the precise molecular mechanisms of memory. By studying a range of individuals ranging—from an 11-year-old whiz-kid who remembers every detail of his life to a woman who had memories implanted—scientists have uncovered a provocative idea. For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays intact. But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories. The question is—are we ready?\n\n2016 • Brain\n\nCreatures of Light\n\nOn a summer’s night, there’s nothing more magic than watching the soft glow of fireflies switching on and off. Few other life forms on land can light up the night, but in the dark depths of the oceans, it’s a different story: nearly 90% of all species shine from within. Whether it’s to scare off predators, fish for prey, or lure a mate, the language of light is everywhere in the ocean depths, and scientists are finally starting to decode it. NOVA and National Geographic take a dazzling dive to this hidden undersea world where most creatures flash, sparkle, shimmer, or simply glow. Join deep sea scientists who investigate these stunning displays and discover surprising ways to harness nature’s light—from tracking cancer cells to detecting pollution, lighting up cities, and even illuminating the inner workings of our brains.\n\n2016 • Nature\n\nThe Human Face of Big Data\n\nWith the rapid emergence of digital devices, an unstoppable, invisible force is changing human lives in ways from the microscopic to the gargantuan: Big Data, a word that was barely used a few years ago but now governs the day for almost all of us. This award-winning film explores how the real time visualization of data streaming in from satellites, billions of sensors and GPS enabled cameras and smart phones is beginning to enable us, as individuals and collectively as a society, to sense, measure and understand aspects of our existence in ways never possible before. Together these devices are helping create a new kind of planetary nervous system. This massive gathering and analyzing of data in real time is also allowing us to address to some of humanity biggest challenges, including pollution, world hunger, and illness. But as Edward Snowden and the release of the NSA documents have shown, the accessibility of all this data comes at a steep price.\n\n2016 • Technology\n\nCan Alzheimer's be Stopped\n\nAlzheimer’s disease strikes at the core of what makes us human: our capacity to think, to love, and to remember. The disease ravages the minds of over 40 million victims worldwide, and it is one of the greatest medical mysteries of our time. Join investigators as they gather clues and attempt to reconstruct the molecular chain of events that ultimately leads to dementia, and follow key researchers in the field who have helped to develop the leading theories of the disease. Along the way, meet individuals from all walks of life who will reveal what it’s like to struggle with Alzheimer’s. Among them, members of a unique Colombian family who have learned that their genetic predisposition all but guarantees early onset Alzheimer’s. Yet there may be hope. Join these courageous patients participating in clinical trials, and then go behind the scenes of the major drug trials to see how researchers target and test therapies that may slow and even prevent Alzheimer’s.\n\n2016 • Brain\n\nGreat Human Odyssey\n\nOur ancient human ancestors once lived only in Africa, in tiny bands of a few thousand hunter-gatherers. Then we moved out of our African cradle, spreading rapidly to every corner of the planet. How did we acquire the skills, technology and talent to thrive in every environment on earth? How did our prehistoric forebears cross the Sahara on foot, survive frigid ice ages, and sail to remote Pacific islands? “Great Human Odyssey” is a spectacular global journey following their footsteps out of Africa along a trail of fresh scientific clues. With unique glimpses of today’s Kalahari hunters, Siberian reindeer herders, and Polynesian navigators, we discover amazing skills that hint at how our ancestors survived and prospered long ago.\n\n2016 • People\n\nThe Nuclear Option\n\nHow will we power the planet without wrecking the climate? Five years after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the unprecedented trio of meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers are struggling to control an ongoing crisis. What’s next for Fukushima? What’s next for Japan? And what’s next for a world that seems determined to jettison one of our most important carbon-free sources of energy? Despite the catastrophe—and the ongoing risks associated with nuclear—a new generation of nuclear power seems poised to emerge the ashes of Fukushima. NOVA investigates how the realities of climate change, the inherent limitations of renewable energy sources, and the optimism and enthusiasm of a new generation of nuclear engineers is looking for ways to reinvent nuclear technology, all while the most recent disaster is still being managed. What are the lessons learned from Fukushima? And with all of nuclear’s inherent dangers, how might it be possible to build a safe nuclear future?\n\n2017 • Economics\n\nSearch for the Super Battery\n\nWe live in an age when technological innovation seems to be limitlessly soaring. But for all the satisfying speed with which our gadgets have improved, many of them share a frustrating weakness: the batteries. Though they have improved in last century, batteries remain finicky, bulky, expensive, toxic, and maddeningly short-lived. The quest is on for a “super battery,” and the stakes in this hunt are much higher than the phone in your pocket. With climate change looming, electric cars and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power could hold keys to a greener future...if we can engineer the perfect battery. Join host David Pogue as he explores the hidden world of energy storage, from the power—and danger—of the lithium-ion batteries we use today, to the bold innovations that could one day charge our world.\n\n2017 • Environment\n\nThe Origami Revolution\n\nThe centuries-old tradition of folding two-dimensional paper into three-dimensional shapes is inspiring a scientific revolution. The rules of folding are at the heart of many natural phenomena, from how leaves blossom to how beetles fly. But now, engineers and designers are applying its principles to reshape the world around us—and even within us, designing new drugs, micro-robots, and future space missions. With this burgeoning field of origami-inspired-design, the question is: can the mathematics of origami be boiled down to one elegant algorithm—a fail-proof guidebook to make any object out of a flat surface, just by folding? And if so, what would that mean for the future of design? Explore the high-tech future of this age-old art as NOVA unfolds “The Origami Revolution.”\n\n2017 • Design\n\nDeath Dive to Saturn\n\nAlmost everything we know today about the beautiful giant ringed planet comes from Cassini, the NASA mission that launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. Since then, the space probe has been beaming home miraculous images and scientific data, revealing countless wonders about the planet, its rings and 62 moons - including some that could harbor life. As the mission approaches its final days in 2017, it attempts one last set of daring maneuvers - diving between the innermost ring and the top of Saturn's atmosphere. Aiming to skim less than 2000 miles above the cloud tops, no spacecraft has ever gone so close to Saturn, and hopes are high for incredible observations that could solve major mysteries about the planet's core. But such a daring maneuver comes with many risks and is no slam dunk. In fact, slamming into rocks in the rings is a real possibility. Join NASA engineers for the tense and triumphant moments as they find out if their bold re-programming has worked, and discover the wonders that Cassini has revealed over the years.\n\n2017 • Astronomy\n\nEinstein's Big Idea\n\nOver 100 years ago, Albert Einstein grappled with the implications of his revolutionary special theory of relativity and came to a startling conclusion: mass and energy are one, related by the formula E = mc2. In \"Einstein's Big Idea,\" NOVA dramatizes the remarkable story behind this equation. E = mc2 was just one of several extraordinary breakthroughs that Einstein made in 1905, including the completion of his special theory of relativity, his identification of proof that atoms exist, and his explanation of the nature of light, which would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among Einstein's ideas, E = mc2 is by far the most famous. Yet how many people know what it really means? In a thought-provoking and engrossing docudrama, NOVA illuminates this deceptively simple formula by unraveling the story of how it came to be.\n\n2005 • Physics\n\nInfinite Secrets the Genius of Archimedes\n\nIn 1991, a small Medieval prayer book was sold at auction. Miraculously, some original writings of Archimedes, the brilliant Greek mathematician, were discovered hidden beneath the religious text. Through scholarly detective work with the help of modern technology, this book now reveals Archimedes' stunningly original concepts, ideas, and theories--revelations that, if known sooner, might have reshaped our world.\n\n2003 • People\n\nKiller Volcanoes\n\nNOVA follows a team of volcano sleuths as they embark on a worldwide hunt for an elusive volcanic mega-eruption that plunged the medieval earth into a deep freeze. The mystery begins when archaeologists find a hastily dug mass grave of 4,000 men, women, and children in London. At first they assume it's a plague pit from the Black Death, but when they date the bones, they're a century too early. So what killed off these families? The chronicles of that time describe a run of wild weather that devastated crops and spread famine across Europe. NOVA's expert team looks for the signature of a volcanic eruption big enough to have blasted a huge cloud of ash and sulfuric acid into the atmosphere, which chilled the entire planet. From Greenland to Antarctica, the team finds telltale \"fingerprints\" in ice and soil layers until, finally, they narrow down the culprit to a smoldering crater on a remote Indonesian island. Nearly 750 years ago, this volcano's colossal explosion shot a million tons of rock and ash into the atmosphere. Across the globe, it turned summer into winter. What would happen if another such cataclysm struck again today?\n\n2017 • Environment\n\nKiller Floods\n\nAll over the world, scientists are discovering traces of ancient floods on a scale that dwarfs even the most severe flood disasters of recent times. What triggered these cataclysmic floods, and could they strike again? In the Channeled Scablands of Washington State, the level prairie gives way to bizarre, gargantuan rock formations: house-sized boulders seemingly dropped from the sky, a cliff carved by a waterfall twice the height of Niagara, and potholes large enough to swallow cars. Like forensic detectives at a crime scene, geologists study these strange features and reconstruct catastrophic Ice Age floods more powerful than all the world’s top ten rivers combined. NOVA follows their efforts to uncover the geologic fingerprints of other colossal megafloods in Iceland and, improbably, on the seabed of the English Channel. There, another deluge smashed through a land bridge connecting Britain and France hundreds of thousands of years ago and turned Britain into an island for the first time. These great disasters ripped through terrain and transformed continents in a matter of hours—and similar forces reawakened by climate change are posing an active threat to mountain communities throughout the world today.\n\n2017 • Environment\n\nRise of the Hackers\n\nOur lives are going digital. We shop, bank, and even date online. Computers hold our treasured photographs, private emails, and all of our personal information. This data is precious—and cybercriminals want it. Now, NOVA goes behind the scenes of the fast-paced world of cryptography to meet the scientists battling to keep our data safe. They are experts in extreme physics, math, and a new field called \"ultra-paranoid computing,\" all working to forge unbreakable codes and build ultra-fast computers. From the sleuths who decoded the world's most advanced cyber weapon to scientists who believe they can store a password in your unconscious brain, NOVA investigates how a new global geek squad is harnessing cutting-edge science—all to stay one step ahead of the hackers.\n\n2014 • Technology\n\nDawn of Humanity\n\nNOVA and National Geographic present exclusive access to a unique discovery of ancient remains. Located in an almost inaccessible chamber deep in a South African cave, the site required recruiting a special team of experts slender enough to wriggle down a vertical, pitch-dark, seven-inch-wide passage. Most fossil discoveries of human relatives consist of just a handful of bones. But down in this hidden chamber, the team uncovered an unprecedented trove—so far, over 1,500 bones—with the potential to rewrite the story of our origins. They may help fill in a crucial gap in the fossil record and tell us how Homo, the first member of the human family, emerged from ape-like ancestors like the famous Lucy. But how did hundreds of bones end up in the remote chamber? The experts are considering every mind-boggling possibility. Join NOVA on the treacherous descent into this cave of spectacular and enigmatic finds, and discover their startling implications for the saga of what made us human.\n\n2013 • History\n\nDay the Dinosaurs Died\n\n66 million years ago a seven-mile-wide asteroid collided with Earth, triggering a chain of events suspected of ending the dinosaurs' reign. But experts have long debated exactly what happened when the asteroid struck and how the giant beasts met their end. Now, scientists have uncovered compelling new clues about the catastrophe - from New Jersey to the wilds of Patagonia, and an international expedition of scientists has drilled into the impact crater off the coast of Mexico, recovering crucial direct evidence of the searing energy and giant tsunami unleashed by the asteroid. Join NOVA as scientists piece together a chillingly precise unfolding of the Earth's biggest cataclysm, moment by moment. And discover how our early mammalian ancestors managed to survive and repopulate the Earth.\n\n2017 • History\n\nBlack Hole Apocalypse\n\nBlack holes are the most enigmatic and exotic objects in the universe. They’re also the most powerful; with gravity so strong it can trap light. And they’re destructive, swallowing entire planets, even giant stars. Anything that falls into them vanishes…gone forever. Now, astrophysicists are realizing that black holes may be essential to how our universe evolved—their influence possibly leading to life on Earth and, ultimately, us. In this two-hour special, astrophysicist and author Janna Levin takes viewers on a journey to the frontiers of black hole science. Along the way, we meet leading astronomers and physicists on the verge of finding new answers to provocative questions about these shadowy monsters: Where do they come from? What’s inside? What happens if you fall into one? And what can they tell us about the nature of space, time, and gravity?\n\n2018 • Astronomy\n\nThe Impossible Flight\n\nIn March 2015, Solar Impulse II launched the greatest aviation undertaking of our time: to be the first solar-powered airplane to fly around the world. It was a feat 12 years in the making, and was anything but a sure bet. NOVA follows intrepid pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg - two men bent on pushing the boundaries of human flight and proving renewable energy's potential. Along with a team of brilliant engineers, the two designed and built Solar Impulse from scratch - though top airplane manufacturers told them would be too big, too light, and impossible to control. NOVA follows the team as it overcomes seemingly insurmountable challenges to build and fly the first solar plane around the world.\n\n2018 • Technology\n\nGreat Escape at Dunkirk\n\nAs France fell to the German armies in May 1940, 300,000 Allied troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Their annihilation seemed certain - a disaster that could have led to Britain's surrender. But then, in a last-minute rescue dramatized in Christopher Nolan's recent film, Royal Navy ships and a flotilla of tiny civilian boats evacuated hundreds of thousands of soldiers to safety across the Channel - the legendary \"miracle of Dunkirk.\" Now, NOVA follows a team of archaeologists, historians, and divers as they recover the remains of ships, planes, and personal effects lost during the epic operation. With access to previously classified files recently released by the UK government, they also uncover the truth behind the myths of Dunkirk - notably, a claim that the Royal Air Force failed to protect the stranded men from the Luftwaffe's constant bombing of the beaches. Featuring an exclusive excavation of a newly-found Spitfire wreck, NOVA debunks the myth and highlights the essential role that the RAF's iconic fighter played in reversing the desperate stakes that played out in the air above the beleaguered men.\n\n2018 • History\n\nPrediction by the Numbers\n\nPredictions underlie nearly every aspect of our lives, from sports, politics, and medical decisions to the morning commute. With the explosion of digital technology, the internet, and “big data,” the science of forecasting is flourishing. But why do some predictions succeed spectacularly while others fail abysmally? And how can we find meaningful patterns amidst chaos and uncertainty? From the glitz of casinos and TV game shows to the life-and-death stakes of storm forecasts and the flaws of opinion polls that can swing an election, “Prediction by the Numbers” explores stories of statistics in action. Yet advances in machine learning and big data models that increasingly rule our lives are also posing big, disturbing questions. How much should we trust predictions made by algorithms when we don’t understand how they arrive at them? And how far ahead can we really forecast?\n\n2018 • Math\n\nDecoding the Weather Machine\n\nDisastrous hurricanes. Widespread droughts and wildfires. Withering heat. Extreme rainfall. It is hard not to conclude that something’s up with the weather and many scientists agree. It’s the result of the weather machine itself—our climate—changing, becoming hotter and more erratic. In this two-hour documentary, NOVA will cut through the confusion around climate change. Why do scientists overwhelmingly agree that our climate is changing, and that human activity is causing it? How and when will it affect us through the weather we experience? And what will it take to bend the trajectory of planetary warming toward more benign outcomes? Join scientists around the world on a quest to better understand the workings of the weather and climate machine we call Earth, and discover how we can be resilient—even thrive—in the face of enormous change.\n\n2018 • Environment\n\nRise of the Superstorms\n\nIn just one devastating month, Houston, Florida, and the Caribbean were changed forever. In summer 2017, three monster hurricanes swept in from the Atlantic one after another, shattering storm records and killing hundreds of people. First, Harvey brought catastrophic rain and flooding to Houston, causing $125 billion in damage. Less than two weeks later, Irma lashed the Caribbean with 185 mile per hour winds - and left the island of Barbuda uninhabitable. Hot on Irma's heels, Maria intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in just 15 hours, then ravaged Puerto Rico and left millions of people without power. As the planet warms, are these superstorms the new normal? How well can we predict them? And with hurricane season just around the corner, does the U.S. need to prepare for the reality of climate refugees? NOVA takes you inside the 2017 superstorms and the cutting-edge research that will determine how well equipped we are to deal with hurricanes in the future.\n\n2018 • Environment\n\nTransplanting Hope\n\nNOVA takes you inside the operating room to witness organ transplant teams transferring organs from donors to recipients. Meet families navigating both sides of a transplant, and researchers working to end the organ shortage. Their efforts to understand organ rejection, discover ways to keep organs alive outside the body, and even grow artificial organs with stem cells, could save countless lives.\n\n2018 • Health\n\n\nHear firsthand from individuals struggling with addiction and follow the cutting-edge work of doctors and scientists as they investigate why addiction is not a moral failing, but a chronic, treatable medical condition. Easy access to drugs like heroin, fentanyl, and even prescription medications like OxyContin has fueled an epidemic of addiction - the deadliest in US history. Now, science is revealing how addiction affects the brain, and top experts are gathering evidence about how we should address our drug problem, from embracing evidence-based treatments, to rethinking public policies.\n\n2018 • Health\n\nFlying Supersonic\n\nNOVA takes you inside the historic international race to develop the first supersonic airliner, the Concorde. Hear stories from those inside the choreographed effort to design and build Concorde in two countries at once—and the crew members who flew her. Then, follow Concorde’s legacy to a new generation of innovators reviving the dream of supersonic passenger travel today.\n\n2018 • Technology\n\nWorld's Fastest Animal\n\nSee the world through the eyes of nature’s fastest animal: the peregrine falcon. Though once perilously endangered in the U.S., this spectacular predator is now thriving again in American cities and on every continent but Antarctica. What is the secret to its predatory prowess? Join expert falconer Lloyd Buck as he trains a captive peregrine and puts its hunting skills to the test.\n\n2018 • Nature\n\nApollo's Daring Mission\n\n\n2018 • Astronomy\n\nPluto and Beyond\n\nSince it explored Pluto in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft has been zooming toward NASA's most distant target yet. Join the mission team as the probe attempts to fly by Ultima Thule, an object 4 billion miles from Earth.\n\n2019 • Astronomy\n\nEinstein's Quantum Riddle\n\nJoin scientists as they grab light from across the universe to prove quantum entanglement is real. Einstein called it \"spooky action at a distance\", but today quantum entanglement is poised to revolutionize technology from computers to cryptography. Physicists have gradually become convinced that the phenomenon two subatomic particles that mirror changes in each other instantaneously over any distance is real. But a few doubts remain. NOVA follows a ground-breaking experiment in the Canary Islands to use quasars at opposite ends of the universe to once and for all settle remaining questions.\n\n2019 • Physics\n\nKilauea Hawaii on Fire\n\nIn May 2018, Kilauea volcano erupted, obliterating neighborhoods with devastating force and uprooting thousands of local residents. It is Hawaii's most destructive volcanic eruption in generations. How can one of the most beautiful places on Earth suddenly transform into a roaring inferno, sputtering molten lava and bombs of volcanic rock the size of refrigerators? On the ground in the early days of the eruption, NOVA joins scientists and residents alike on a breathtaking journey to investigate Kilauea's recent spike in activity. Along the way, some of Hawaii's biggest secrets are revealed: Why did these geologically distinctive volcanoes form in the middle of the Pacific? How did life establish itself on the remote islands? What does this tell us about the future of Hawaii? And what dangers yet lurk for the inhabitants of the island paradise?\n\n2019 • Environment\n\nRise of the Rockets\n\nNew technologies are making rockets cheaper and more powerful than ever before. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration may be on the horizon.\n\n2019 • Astronomy\n\nThe Next Pompeii\n\nIn the shadow of Italy?s Vesuvius, a lesser-known volcano rumbles: Campi Flegrei. An eruption could endanger the millions of residents of the city of Naples. Scientists gain new insights into what happened in nearby Pompeii, and dig into the unique geology of Campi Flegrei. How will they know if the ever-shifting ground is reaching a breaking point? And can an innovative eruption warning system prevent Naples becoming the next Pompeii?\n\n2019 • Environment\n\nSaving the Dead Sea\n\nSince 1976, the Dead Sea's level has dropped more than 100 feet, leaving its coastline pockmarked with thousands of sinkholes. NOVA follows the unprecedented endeavor to connect the Red Sea to the Dead Sea by way of a massive desalination plant - perhaps the world's largest water chemistry experiment - as scientists race to save the Dead Sea and bring water to one of the driest regions on Earth.\n\n2019 • Environment\n\nYou might also like\n\nAlien Planets Revealed\n\nIt’s a golden age for planet hunters: NASA's Kepler mission has identified more than 3,500 potential planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun. Some of them, like a planet called Kepler-22b, might even be able to harbor life. How did we come upon this distant planet? Combining startling animation with input from expert astrophysicists and astrobiologists, “Alien Planets Revealed” takes viewers on a journey along with the Kepler telescope. How does the telescope look for planets? How many of these planets are like our Earth? Will any of these planets be suitable for life as we know it? Bringing the creative power of veteran animators together with the latest discoveries in planet-hunting, “Alien Planets Revealed” shows the successes of the Kepler mission, taking us to planets beyond our solar system and providing a glimpse of creatures we might one day encounter.\n\n\n\nExplores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. Jim Al-Khalili sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the super-small shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim Al-Khalili can prove it.\n\n2/2Everything & NothingAstronomy\n\nWhen Knowledge Conquered Fear\n\nNeil deGrasse Tyson sets off on the Ship of the Imagination to chase a single comet through its million-year plunge toward Sol. Later, Tyson visits the birth-place of Sir Isaac Newton and retraces the unlikely friendship between Newton and brilliant polymath Edmond Halley. It was Halley's patience and generosity which allowed Newton to conquer his fear of isolation and find the courage to publish his masterwork, \"Principia Mathematica\" which launched a scientific revolution.\n\nS1E3Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey • 2014 • Astronomy\n\nDeeper, Deeper, Deeper Still\n\nThe Ship of the Imagination ventures on an epic voyage to the bottom of a dewdrop to explore the universe on the smallest scale and observe exotic life forms invisible to the naked eye. Then, host Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the neural network in our brains which determine our sense of smell and memory, and later, he travels deep beneath the surface of the Earth to discover the most mysterious particle we know.\n\nS1E6Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey • 2014 • Astronomy\n\nSolar Storms: The Threat to Planet Earth\n\nThere is a new kind of weather to worry about, and it comes from our nearest star. Scientists are expecting a fit of violent activity on the sun which will propel billions of tonnes of superheated gas and pulses of energy towards our planet. They have the power to close down our modern technological civilisation - e.g. in 1989, a solar storm cut off the power to the Canadian city of Quebec. Horizon meets the space weathermen who are trying to predict what is coming our way, and organistions like the National Grid, who are preparing for the impending solar storms.\n\n\n\nLife is created in unimaginably large explosions called supernovas, scattering the elements formed in the heart of stars. What can they teach us about our origins?\n\nS1E8How the Universe Works • 2010 • Astronomy", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9281894564628601}